– Gulf States Launch Naval Blockade Of Qatar:
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* * *
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OPEC
OPEC Agrees To Cut Oil Production By 1.2 Million Barrels A Day – Here Are The Details From The Deal
– Here Are The Details From The OPEC Production Cut Deal:
Update 5: as the meeting concludes, here are the details as they emerge one headline at a time:
What Oil Production Freeze: Russia Just Revealed The Laughable Loophole In The OPEC “Agreement”
– What Oil Production Freeze: Russia Just Revealed The Laughable Loophole In The OPEC “Agreement”:
The main catalyst that pushed the price of oil from a 13 year low in early February, when crude briefly traded in the mid-$20 to well over 50% higher less than one month later in one of the world’s most furious short squeezes, was the recurring infatuation with the fabricated narrative that OPEC would if not cut production then, then at least freeze it.
We mocked this, as recently as one month ago, when we wrote “About That “Oil Freeze”: Russian Crude Production Sets New Post-Soviet Record In February” an article which was self-explanatory:
… according to calculations by Bloomberg’s Julian Lee, Russian crude and condensate production just set new post-Soviet daily record of 10.92m bbl yesterday.
Global News Update: Dec 02, 2014
Politicians at work:
Source: Grant Williams @TTMYGH (Click on image to enlarge.)
– With Its Gold “Vaporized”, A Furious Ukraine Turns On Its Central Bankers (ZeroHedge):
As reported two weeks ago, following to a stunning announcement by the head of Ukraine’s central bank, Valeriya Gontareva, we learned that (virtually) all of Ukraine’s gold was gone, or – in the parlance of Jon Corzine – had “vaporized.” And as we also predicted two weeks ago, it was only a matter of time before Ukraine’s people – the vast majority of whom are innocent pawns in a vast game of realpolitik between the west and east – finally got angry and demanded some answers. That time came earlier today when as Interfax.ua reported “a Kyiv-based court has instructed Kyiv prosecutors to bring an action against National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Governor Valeriya Gontareva on charges of abuse of power or misuse of office to obtain illegal profit, the Vesti newspaper reported on Tuesday.”
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– Tensions Between the U.S. and Russia Are Worse Than You Realize – Remarks by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (Liberty Blitzkrieg):
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“Many reasonable analysts understand that there is a widening gap between the global ambitions of the US Administration and the country’s real potential. The world is changing and, as has always happened in history, at some point somebody’s influence and power reach their peak and then somebody begins to develop still faster and more effectively. One should study history and proceed from realities. The seven developing economies headed by BRICS already have a bigger GDP than the Western G7. One should proceed from the facts of life, and not from a misconceived sense of one’s own grandeur.“
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The WIPP Trail, narrated by Robert Redford, 1989 (at 17:00 in):
- Robert Redford: We now know that 40% of the [WIPP] hazardous waste is combustible, thus posing a more serious and immediate threat.
- Bruce Throne, New Mexico State Attorney: I think the combustible waste is perhaps the most significant because even a layman can understand that when combustible waste is exposed to high levels of heat, there may be some effect inside the TRUPAC [containers].
- Redford: Wind is a critical factor that must be considered. The worst case scenario would be if a fire occurs within a breach of a container. The wind could then carry plutonium particles through the atmosphere, traveling considerable distances.
- Oxford Dictionary’s definition of fire: “Combustion or burning, in which substances combine chemically with oxygen from the air and typically give out bright light, heat, and smoke”
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– French parliament votes to recognize Palestinian state (RT):
France’s Socialist-led parliament has passed a symbolic vote to recognize Palestinian statehood, despite staunch objections from Israel. MPs in Britain and Spain have already passed similar motions.
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– The Abenomics Devastation: Japanese Real Wages Decline For Record 16 Consecutive Months (ZeroHedge):
Those seeking proof that Abenomics is working are advised to look elsewhere.
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– The Retail Apocalypse Accelerates: Collapsing Holiday Sales Are A Signal That A Recession Is Coming (Economic Collapse):
Retail sales during the four day Thanksgiving weekend were down a whopping 11 percent from last year. This is a “make or break” time of the year for many retailers, and if things don’t turn around during the coming weeks we could see a tsunami of store closings in January and February. As you read this article, there is already more than a billion square feet of retail space sitting empty in the United States. Many have described the ongoing collapse of the retail industry as an “apocalypse”, and this apocalypse appears to be accelerating. Yes, the shift to online retailers is a significant factor, but as you will see below even online retailers struggled over the holiday weekend. The sad truth of the matter is that U.S. consumers are tapped out and are drowning in debt at this point, so they simply do not have as much money to spend as they once did.
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– The coming nuclear crisis: All but one of Britain’s ageing reactors ‘will need to close in 15 years’ (Independent):
– And The Biggest Winner From The OPEC Price War Is… (ZeroHedge):
“This is a golden time window to acquire more strategic oil at lower costs,” notes one Hong-Kong based analyst, as Bloomberg confirms what we have noted here and here, that China is emerging as the winner from OPEC’s battle with rival oil producers as the world’s biggest energy consumer stockpiles crude.
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– ISIS claims to have developed dirty bomb – reports (RT):
So-called Islamic State militants claim to have developed a crude nuclear weapon using materials seized from Mosul University, Iraq. A British extremist boasted of the damage the dirty bomb would do if detonated in Iraq, UK media reports.
One of the militants bragging about the device online was Hamayun Tariq, fighting under the nom de guerre of Muslim-al-Britani, the Daily Mirror reports. Britani, a Briton who claims to be a bomb expert, tweeted:
“O by the way, Islamic State does have a dirty bomb. We found some radioactive material from Mosul University.”
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– Lebanese Army detains wife, son of ISIS leader (RT):
A wife and a son of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi have been arrested by the Lebanese Army, Beirut security officials said. They were detained in coordination with “foreign intelligence apparatus,” reported the local press.
The woman was described by officials as one of al-Baghdadi’s wives, Safir daily newspaper reported. However, they didn’t provide any details on her nationality or name.
The woman, who was accompanied by her son, was arrested while crossing the border from Syria. According to the officials, she was using a fake ID.
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SURE!!!
– 2014 Is Now The Worst Year For US Macro Data Performance Since 2008 (ZeroHedge):
Once again the cyclical patterns in US macro data are re-emerging as extrapolated hopes fade into mean-reverting credit-impulse-hangover-driven realities. Despite all the hopes and dreams of escape velocity, cleanest-dirty-shirt-wearing economic enthusiasts, year-to-date performance of Citi’s US Macro Surprise index is at its lowest level since 2008. Whether this is absolute weakness or relative weakness (versus yet more over-enthusiastic expectations) is unclear though, the Midterm election results and NFR Black Friday spending data may be a hint.
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– Putin Kills “South Stream” Pipeline, Will Build New Massive Pipeline To Turkey Instead (ZeroHedge):
Earlier today, in a stunning announcement, Putin revealed that the South Stream project is now finished. As the WSJ reports, “Putin said Moscow will stop pursuing Gazprom’s South Stream pipeline project that would supply natural gas to Europe with an underwater link to Bulgaria, blaming the European Union for scuttling the project.” Putin is right: Europe – Austria excluded – had seen rising resistance to the South Stream in recent months. The EU is concerned that the project would cement Russia’s position as Europe’s dominant supplier of natural gas. Russia already meets around 30% of Europe’s annual needs. So what does Putin do? He signs a strategic alliance with NATO member Turkey, the only country in Europe that is anything but European and which lately has been increasingly anti-Western, to build a new mega-pipeline to Turkey instead. And the exclamation point:
TURKEY, RUSSIA AGREE TO USE LOCAL CURRENCIES IN TRADE: TRT
Or, as Obama would put it, Russia just got even more “isolated.”
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– Haunting Drone Footage of Chernobyl Town (Smithonian):
“Postcards from Pripyat, Chernobyl” shows a drone’s-eye view of the city nearly three decades after nuclear disaster
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– The World’s Largest Stock Market Index Is Flashing Red (ZeroHedge):
With a market capitalization of around $16 trillion, the NYSE Composite Index is a massively broad equity indicator less affected by the day to day gyrations of AAPL, TSLA, BABA, or NFLX. As NewEdge’s Brad Wishak remarks, the world’s largest market cap equity index is painting a very different picture than that of the Dow or S&P 500…
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WTF: Canada family keeps father’s corpse for 6 months, praying for resurrection (RT):
A small community of Christians in Canada left the body of a deceased member for six months trusting God to resurrect him from the dead. The Crown found no criminal intent and the grieving widow was ordered to seek public health counseling.
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– Images From A Dark Detroit: “Major Cable Failure” Sparks Widespread Power Outage (ZeroHedge):
Just 15 months after Detroit’s Black Out 2013 debacle, spokespeople for the city and DTE Energy confirmed at around 11:00 a.m. local time on Tuesday that most of Detroit’s municipal grid is offline:
*DETROIT CITES ‘MAJOR CABLE FAILURE’ FOR POWER OUTAGE
*DETROIT: OUTAGE IS AFFECTING ALL CUSTOMERS ON THE PLD GRIDThe outage is preventing power from being delivered to police stations, schools, traffic lights and other city-run facilities and services.
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– It’s Muppet-Slaughtering Time – Goldman Unveils 2015 Global Equity Themes (ZeroHedge):
Goldman Sachs’ 2015 global equity views and themes note is out and its title “The Long Grind Higher Continues” says it all… it’s muppet slaughtering time…
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– Mexicans march against president as fresh graves discovered (PHOTO, VIDEO) (RT)
– Ex EU President Van Rompuy “Hit The Jackpot”, Paid Almost $1Million “For Doing Nothing” (ZeroHedge):
It’s good to be king (or Europe). Former European Council President Herman van Rompuy, derided for “damp rag” ineptness by UKIP’s Nigel Farage, will receive around $900,000 over the next 3 years as a “transition allowance” for doing absolutely nothing in retirement. What is even more egregious, as The Telegraph reports, Van Rompuy will pay a reduced “EU Community” tax rate, considerably lower than the Belgian income tax rate on his ill-gotten gains. As Farage exclaims, having driven millions of Europeans into poverty and unemployment during his reign, Van Rompuy “hit the jackpot.”
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– ?9yo Australian girl forced into MidEast wedding – report (RT)
– Almost 9000 Daily record cold temps in November alone (Ice Age Now):
8977 Record Cold temps in November vs 2022 Record Warm Temps
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– Intense cold continues across central U.S. (Ice Age Now):
Temperatures as much as 25 degrees or more below normal will be common across much of the central U.S. on Monday, from Texas to the Canadian border.
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– Michigan ski area opens with record snow (Ice Age Now):
WAKEFIELD — Indianhead Mountain opened to skiing on Friday after record snowfall has fallen this year.
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– Significant winter storm unfolding in eastern Europe (Ice Age Now):
Romania to be hardest hit
Parts of southern and eastern Romania will face severe disruptions to travel and daily routines, while bordering areas of Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine will have some impacts from a significant winter storm, says meteorologist Eric Leister.
The cities of Craiova, Bucharest and Bacau are in the area that will be hardest hit.
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– Eastern Turkey – Heavy snowfall reduces visibility to 16 feet (5 m) (Ice Age Now):
1 Dec 2014 – Due to heavy snowfall, the city of Bitlis soon took on white blanket.
In particular, blizzard conditions in the locality Rahvan between Bitlis and Tatvan reduced visibility to 5 meters, catching many unprepared many vehicles on the road.
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– The Fed’s Biggest Nightmare: Consumers Are “Losing Faith” Their Cost Of Living Won’t Keep Rising (ZeroHedge):
Filed under “insane paragraph of the year,” Reuters pens one of the most-telling sentences of the year/decade/century, suggesting – as per the existential threat to the Fed’s meme – that consumers are worried that their cost of living won’t go up more?
Translation: Please dont lose faith that your cost of living will stop soaring: the Fed’s very existence depends on it.
– Obama appoints Ashton Carter as Pentagon chief (RT):
President Barack Obama is expected to announce Ashton B. Carter as his nominee to be the next secretary of defense, the Associated Press reports. Carter served as the Pentagon’s second-in-command from October 2011 to December 2013.
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Global News Update: Nov 27, 2014
– NATO To Deploy Tanks In Eastern Europe Shortly After VP Of Europarliament Says Ukraine-Russia War Imminent (ZeroHedge):
Just when global financial markets had shrugged off Ukraine as yet another ‘storm in a teacup’, it appears events are escalating rapidly once again. This morning saw European Parliament’s Vice President Saryusz-Wolski warn “Russia’s pressure on Ukraine is mounting high, further war imminent,” to which Ukraine’s President Poroshenko rapidly responded (via Twitter) rather ominously that a “third world war does not scare us,” having noted earlier than Ukraine needs to achieve NATO membership. This then prompted NATO’s top military commander to warn, he is “very concerned” that Russia’s military build-up in the annexed Crimean region could be used as a launchpad for attacks across the whole Black Sea region; leaving the alliance confirming that NATO plans to deploy tanks in Eastern Europe.
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– “Panicking” Ukrainians Face Soaring Prices, Warn “Inflation Is War” (ZeroHedge):
With Ukraine, according to President Poroshenko, on the verge of World War III, it appears the people of the divided nation face another all too familiar war… on their living standards. As Hyrvnia continues to collapse to record-er lows, Ukraine’s Central Bank warns of further stress and FX (think USDollar or EUR) demand because the “population is in panic.” With a 19.8% inflation rate last month and a 48% devaluation in the currency this year, Bloomberg reports the costs of imported goods from gasoline to fruit and from medicine to meat is soaring. One store-owner reflected that she “feels the hryvnia devaluation everywhere,” and another noted “I can’t imagine how people survive on a single pension. We can’t even go to the drug store. We try to use herbs instead.” The Central bank expects inflation to keep rising (having previously peaked at 10,256% in 1993 as the Soviet economy was dismantled). “Inflation is the same as the war,” warns one analyst, “it may lead to protests if people blame the authorities for failing to conduct proper policies.”
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– Plans for UCLA visit give rare glimpse into Hillary Clinton’s paid speaking career (Washington Post):
When officials at the University of California at Los Angeles began negotiating a $300,000 speech appearance by Hillary Rodham Clinton, the school had one request: Could we get a reduced rate for public universities?The answer from Clinton’s representatives: $300,000 is the “special university rate.”…
– “There Will Be Blood”: Petrodollar Death Means A Liquidity And Oil-Exporting Crisis On Deck (ZeroHedge):
Recently we posted the following article commenting on the impact of USD appreciation and dollar circulation among oil exporters, as well as how the collapsing price of oil is set to reverberate across the entire oil-exporting world, where sticky high oil prices were a key reason for social stability. Following today’s shocking OPEC announcement and the epic collapse in crude prices, it is time to repost it now that everyone is desperate to become a bear market oil expert, if only on Twitter…
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– “Gold Is A 6,000 Year Old Bubble” – Citi’s Dutch Strategist Throws Up All Over Gold, Days After Dutch Gold Repatriation (ZeroHedge):
“Gold is the world’s most persistent bubble: 6,000 years old and going strong” – Citigroup’s Willem Buiter.
Dear Willem, thank you for that valiant effort. After reading a few thousands words of shallow propaganda we understand your “confusion”: our advice, if you want to understand what gold really is, read the following from Kyle Bass: “Buying gold is just buying a put against the idiocy of the political cycle. It’s That Simple.” Because if there is a bubble that is even bigger and longer than the “6000-year-old gold bubble” it is that of human corruption, greed, and idiocy. And that doesn’t even include the stupidity of those who don’t grasp this simple truth.
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– Thankful For Inflation? Turkey Day Dinner Is Up 6,000% Since 1909 (ZeroHedge):
While not hyperinflating, the slow and insidious diminishment of the fiat US Dollar’s purchasing power (and thus the living standards of lower- and middle-class Americans – who are not balls deep invested in the US stock ‘market’) is nowhere more evident than in the soaring costs of Thanksgiving Day dinner during the Fed’s 100 year reign…
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– INFLATION MAKES TURKEYS OUT OF US ALL (The Burning Platform):
Central bankers always seem worried about deflation. The cost of Thanksgiving dinner is about the same as last year. Is it a bad thing that your costs didn’t go up? If we hadn’t experienced Federal Reserve created inflation over the last 18 years the cost of your Thanksgiving dinner would be about $21. But thank Greenspan, Bernanke and Yellen for the increase to $50. Everyone give thanks to central bankers for costs more than doubling in the last 18 years.
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– Vaccines Don’t Work: Malignant Mumps In MMR Vaccinated Children (Activist Post):
A new study finds highly malignant mumps infections in those successfully vaccinated against the virus…
A provocative new study titled, “Epidemic of complicated mumps in previously vaccinated young adults in the South-West of France,” reveals that the MMR vaccine, despite generating high rates of presumably protective IgG antibodies against mumps, does not always translate into real-world immunity against infection as we have repeatedly been told. To the contrary, the study details cases where, despite finding the presence of high levels of antibodies against the mumps virus, patients contracted a malignant form of mumps that only rarely follows from natural, community acquired infection.
Vaccine Failure Is Well Established In the Scientific Literature…
– Russia Ruble Plunges To New Record Low After OPEC Decision (ZeroHedge)– OPEC Decision Is “Major Strike Against The American Market”, Russian Tycoon Says (ZeroHedge):
As we warned yesterday, the last time that U.S. oil drillers got caught up in a price war orchestrated by Saudi Arabia, it ended badly for the Americans. OPEC’s decision not to cut production, and Nigeria’s comments on the need for burden-sharing among non-OPEC members, ensures a crash in the US shale industry according to Leonid Fedun (Russia’s Lukoil board member). The Russian finance minister’s comments that oil at $80 in coming years is moderately optimistic and as Fedun ominously warns, this is a “major strike against the American market.” Isolated, much?
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– Nonviolent Action: Minimizing the Risk of Violent Repression (RINF):
In a recent article, full of insight, Professor Bill Quigley identified ten different illegal actions police often take ‘to prevent people from exercising their constitutional rights’ to take nonviolent action to address a grievance. He noted that these police tactics are commonly used by law enforcement agencies in big protests across the US. See ’10 Illegal Police Actions to Watch for in Ferguson’.
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– List of countries overthrown by the CIA. Is America next? (InvestmentWatch)
H/t reader M.G.:
“An incredibly intelligent, measured and wise response to the Ferguson grand jury decision by the Florida ACLU. This is one of the best responses I have read, and I thought it would interest you.Happy gobble day……”
– ACLU of Florida Comment on Ferguson Grand Jury Decision (Common Dreams):
MIAMI, FL – The grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., has declined to indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson on charges in the Aug. 9 shooting death of Michael Brown. The following reaction is from Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida:
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– What the Fake Syria Sniper Boy Video Tells Us About Media Experts (Activist Post):
Many mainstream media websites helped a fake video go viral this month. The video showing a young Syrian boy running through sniper fire to save a little girl was exposed as a fake when the Norwegian producer, Lars Klevberg, made the fact public.
One of the stated aims of the Norwegian film makers was to “see how the media would respond to a fake video.” This article examines how that experiment went.
The Western press very quickly accepted the video as real and used it to support the US administration’s narrative on Syria. Many top US news sources began to spread the story. Even though the producer said he explicitly added big hints that the video was fake, like the children surviving multiple gun shots.
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– A Major International Monetary Crisis is Looming: The Suppression of Gold and Silver? Is COMEX being Cornered? (Global Research):
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So we had two outside reversal Fridays in a row, this was followed by the action this past Wednesday. 80 tons of gold was sold over a 15 minute timespan which knocked gold down $20 in the blink of an eye.
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80 tons! Let me put this in perspective. 80 tons is equal to two weeks worth of global gold production …sold in just 15 minutes! This is nearly 2.8 million ounces. The interesting thing is, COMEX only claims to have 865,000 ounces of gold available for delivery so more than 3 times the amount of ounces were sold in 15 minutes than is even claimed as available for delivery! What followed however was the real stunner, very shortly afterward gold dug in its heels and started to recover …recover to unchanged in price! Do you see the importance here? Though this was not another outside reversal day, it may have been even more important. The “paper” market absorbed two weeks worth of production in just 15 minutes without breaking! I’ll get back to this shortly and tie it in to the rest.
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– Blood money: 7 UK firms finance globally banned cluster bombs (RT):
Since 2011, 151 financial institutions worldwide have invested £17 billion in firms that produce deadly cluster bombs, which are banned under international law. Seven of these financial institutions are British.
A report entitled ‘Worldwide Investments in Cluster Munitions’ conducted by Dutch peace and security NGO PAX reveals the sheer scale of British and global investment in companies producing these outlawed weapons.
The deadly arsenal have been deployed in Syria and Ukraine in recent times, and continue to cause casualties in Laos half a century after they were dropped on civilians.
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– Are You Better Off This Thanksgiving Than You Were Last Thanksgiving? (Economic Collapse)
– India ashram clashes leave hundreds injured (RT)
– Epic snow storm: Western NY digs out after record flurry (RT)
– The Federal Reserve Is At The Heart Of The Debt Enslavement System That Dominates Our Lives (Economic Collapse)
The Eight Families’ Rigged Oil Game
– The Eight Families’ Rigged Oil Game (Veterans Today, May 13, 2014):
After World War II – during which Royal Dutch Shell Chairman Sir Henry Deterding loudly supported the Nazis, while Exxon and Texaco collaborated with the Nazi I.G. Farben combine – the Four Horsemen turned their full attention to the Middle East. There the cartel operated under names like Iranian Consortium, Iraqi Petroleum Company and ARAMCO.With the rise of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as a producer cartel, the companies devised increasingly sophisticated ways to diminish OPEC’s collective bargaining ability.
Nationalistic governments were destabilized, discredited and overthrown by the CIA at the behest of Big Oil. Henry Kissinger set up his International Energy Agency (IEA), which the French called a machine de guerre.
Why Libya? – There’s NO AL-QAEDA – Warning – U.S TO BOMB Syria – WW3 (Video)
YouTube Added: 01.10.2013
Description:
This video documents how the U.S created Al”qaeda to foment ww3. And to be an extension of the U.S army, to overthrow the opposition forces, and keep the World bankers in power. World bankers need ww3 to acquire the existing powers they have not yet brought into control. After ww3 they will control us as slaves since there will be no more opposition. We need to stop ww3 and to do this we have to end the federal bank. We can do this by refusing to elect their president puppets into office again. Don’t be fooled again.
Flashback:
The Shit is About to Hit the Fan, Here’s the Proof (Video)
YouTube Added: 25.09.2012
India Joins Asian Dollar Exclusion Zone, Will Transact With Iran In Rupees
– India Joins Asian Dollar Exclusion Zone, Will Transact With Iran In Rupees (ZeroHedge, Jan. 21, 2012):
Two weeks ago we wrote a post that should have made it all too clear that while the US and Europe continue to pretend that all is well, and they are, somehow, solvent, Asia has been smelling the coffee. To wit: “For anyone wondering how the abandonment of the dollar reserve status would look like we have a Hollow Men reference: not with a bang, but a whimper… Or in this case a whole series of bilateral agreements that quietly seeks to remove the US currency as an intermediate. Such as these: “World’s Second (China) And Third Largest (Japan) Economies To Bypass Dollar, Engage In Direct Currency Trade“, “China, Russia Drop Dollar In Bilateral Trade“, “China And Iran To Bypass Dollar, Plan Oil Barter System“, “India and Japan sign new $15bn currency swap agreement“, and now this: “Iran, Russia Replace Dollar With Rial, Ruble in Trade, Fars Says.”” Today we add the latest country to join the Asian dollar exclusion zone: “India and Iran have agreed to settle some of their $12 billion annual oil trade in rupees, a government source said on Friday, resorting to the restricted currency after more than a year of payment problems in the face of fresh, tougher U.S. sanctions.” To summarize: Japan, China, Russia, India and Iran: the countries which together account for the bulk of the world’s productivity and combined are among the biggest explorers and producers of energy. And now they all have partial bilateral arrangements, and all of which will very likely expand their bilateral arrangements to multilateral, courtesy of Obama’s foreign relations stance which by pushing the countries into a corner has forced them to find alternative, USD-exclusive, arrangements. But yes, aside from all of the above, the dollar still is the reserve currency… if only in which to make calculations of how many imaginary money one pays in exchange for imaginary ‘developed world’ collateral.
On India’s induction into the dollar unluck club, from Reuters.
Read moreIndia Joins Asian Dollar Exclusion Zone, Will Transact With Iran In Rupees
Hugo Chavez: US Wants To Destroy OPEC
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Photo: EPA
– US wants to destroy OPEC – Chavez (Voice of Russia, Dec. 14, 2011):
The United States wants to destroy the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday.
He pointed out that such was the case as proven by Washington carrying out aggression against Iraq and Libya, and speaking of threats against Venezuela, Ecuador and other countries of the Organization.
Chavez demanded that Washington cease all threats against Iran and other countries.
The leader of the Bolivarian revolution advised U.S. President Barack Obama and Americans to “devote themselves to managing their own country and leaving the rest of the world alone.”
TASS
Flashback:
– U.S. General Wesley Clark (Ret.) (Video), explains that the Bush Administration planned to take out 7 countries in 5 years:
Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Iran.
Libya: Oil Companies Plan Evacuations
Flashback:
– BLAIR’S FOND FAREWELL TO GADDAFI (Mirror):
TONY Blair bids a fond farewell to former foe Colonel Gaddafi yesterday. He flew in on the Libyan leader’s private jet for the meeting in the middle of the Sahara desert.
The pair, now firm friends after Mr Blair helped Libya return to the
international fold, shook hands warmly and smiled.He added: “It is now a very productive relationship for us. It’s an example of a situation where 10 years ago it would have been impossible for me to speak to Col Gaddafi, to a situation where the relationship is a close one. I find him very easy to get on with.“
Blair, Gaddafi and the masonic handshake
Gaddafi, Berlusconi and the masonic handshake
Sarkozy, Gaddafi and the masonic handshake
Gaddafi, Obama and the masonic handshake
(New York Times) LONDON — Global oil companies said Monday that they were making plans to evacuate employees in Libya after some operations there were disrupted by political unrest. Libya holds the largest crude oil reserves in Africa, and the moves drove some stock prices down and a crucial oil benchmark to a three-year high.
The largest and most established foreign energy producer in Libya, Eni of Italy, said in a statement that it had begun repatriating “nonessential personnel” and the families of its employees.
The Norwegian energy company Statoil, which operates in Libya in partnership with Repsol of Spain and Total of France, said that it would close its office in Tripoli and that a handful of foreign workers were leaving. “The safety of our personnel is our main priority,” said a spokesman, Bard Glad Pedersen.
OMV of Austria, which produces about 34,000 barrels of oil a day in Libya, said it planned to evacuate 11 workers and their families, leaving only essential staff.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries ranks Libya No.7 among its members, with 4.4 percent of OPEC’s proven crude oil reserves. Libya exports most of its oil to Europe, with Italy its biggest customer, according to the United States Energy Information Administration.
Shares in Eni and OMV dropped Monday, while the price of Brent crude, an important benchmark for oil traded in London, jumped $3.22 a barrel, or 3.2 percent, to settle at $105.74, before spiking above $108 in after-hours dealing. It was the highest level since 2008.
“We’re concerned, and of course we’d like to see a solution sooner rather than later,” said Jason Kenney, an analyst with ING Financial Markets. “It’s very difficult to see how this is going to go. The oil price will be volatile.”
The British oil company BP, which has only exploration operations in Libya, said it was planning to evacuate some of its 40 foreign workers, mostly from Tripoli, where the unrest spread Sunday. It also said it had suspended preparations for a drilling project because employees of a contractor had been evacuated.
Chavez: Venezuela’s Oil Reserves Surpass Those of Saudi Arabia
Hmmh.
Venezuela says its oil reserves surpass Saudi Arabia’s.
Venezuela has overtaken Saudi Arabia as the world leader in oil reserves with certified deposits leaping to 297 billion barrels at the end of 2010, President Hugo Chavez’s government said Saturday.
Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez told Reuters that the new reserves, which pushed the total 41 percent higher than the previous year, were booked in the South American OPEC member’s vast Orinoco extra heavy crude belt.
A jubilant Chavez told parliament that Venezuela’s reserves now surpassed those of Saudi Arabia.
“We have enough for 200 years,” the former soldier said in a speech in which he denied he was a dictator, complained that he was being unfairly “demonized” and offered to give up much-criticized decree powers a year ahead of schedule.
There are suggestions that countries, including Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, have exaggerated their oil reserves in the past, though the producers deny doing so.
Read moreChavez: Venezuela’s Oil Reserves Surpass Those of Saudi Arabia
Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 1 – Revisiting American History – Financial Empire
– Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 2 – Revisiting Economics 101 – Debt
– Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 3 – Revisiting Civics 101 – Ownership
– Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 4 – The Culture of Empire
– Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 5 – The Emerging Global Empire – The New World Order
Added: 21. March 2010
Lesson 1 – Revisiting American History, documents the conversion of the US into a monolithic financial empire as the Federal Reserve Act created a monopolized cartel of private interests, “Wall Street,” that controls all money in the system.
This killed Jeffersonian ideals and allowed vertical Hamiltonian forces to have free reign to consolidate power and wealth. It explains how this is an empire system where the top Wall Street banks are analogous to feudal lords and multi-national corporations are their feudal knights out conquering territories.
It rewrites American History books.
“A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible.”
– Woodrow Wilson
“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”
– Woodrow Wilson
“When the President signs this act [Federal Reserve Act of 1913], the invisible government by the money power — proven to exist by the Monetary Trust Investigation — will be legalized. The new law will create inflation whenever the trusts want inflation. From now on, depressions will be scientifically created.”
– Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr.“The financial system has been turned over to the Federal Reserve Board. That Board administers the finance system by authority of a purely profiteering group. The system is Private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people’s money.
– Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr.
“We have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks, hereinafter called the FED. They are not government institutions. They are private monopolies which prey upon the people of these United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers.”
– Louis McFadden
“It was not accidental [the 1929 stock-market “crash”]. It was a carefully contrived occurrence. … The international bankers sought to bring about a condition of despair here so that they might emerge as rulers of us all.”
– Louis McFadden
“Some people think the Federal Reserve Banks are United States Government Institutions. They are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers.”
– Louis McFadden“Before passage of this [Federal Reserve] Act, the New York Bankers could only dominate the reserves of New York. Now, we are able to dominate the bank reserves of the entire country. “
– Nelson Aldrich
“The dollar represents a one dollar debt to the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve Banks create money out of thin air to buy Government Bonds from the U.S. Treasury…and has created out of nothing a … debt which the American people are obliged to pay with interest.”
– Wright Patman
“In the United States today we have in effect two governments. We have the duly constituted government….. Then we have an independent, uncontrolled and uncoordinated government in the Federal Reserve System, operating the money powers which are reserved to Congress by the Constitution.”
– Wright Patman
“The Federal Reserve System is nothing more than legalized counterfeit.”
– Ron Paul
“The one aim of these financiers is world control by the creation of inextinguishable debts.”
– Henry Ford
“The division of the United States into federations of equal force was decided long before the Civil War by the high financial powers of Europe. These bankers were afraid that the United States, if they remained as one block, and as one nation, would attain economic and financial independence, which would upset their financial domination over the world.”
– Otto von Bismarck“The high office of the president has been used to foment a plot to destroy America’s freedom, and before I leave office I must inform the citizens of this plight.”
– John F. Kennedy November 12, 1963.
Date of Kennedy Assassination : NOV. 22, 1963
Iran Replaces The US Dollar With The Euro
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the replacement of the US dollar by the euro in the country’s foreign exchange accounts.
The September 12 edict was issued following a decision by the trustees of the country’s foreign reserves, Mehr News Agency reported.
Earlier, the Islamic Republic of Iran had announced that the euro would replace the greenback in the country’s oil transactions. Iran has called on other OPEC members to ditch the sinking dollar in favor of the more credible euro.
Oil producers running out of storage space
Glut caused by world slowdown leaves the world awash in crude
Many oil tankers are little more than floating storage facilities now. Pat Sullivan / AP
NEW YORK – Supertankers that once raced around the world to satisfy an unquenchable thirst for oil are now parked offshore, fully loaded, anchors down, their crews killing time. In the United States, vast storage farms for oil are almost out of room.
As demand for crude has plummeted, the world suddenly finds itself awash in oil that has nowhere to go.
It’s been less than a year since oil prices hit record highs. But now producers and traders are struggling with the new reality: The world wants less oil, not more. And turning off the spigot is about as easy as turning around one of those tankers.
So oil companies and investors are stashing crude, waiting for demand to rise and the bear market to end so they can turn a profit later.
Meanwhile, oil-producing countries such as Iran have pumped millions of barrels of their own crude into idle tankers, effectively taking crude off the market to halt declining prices that are devastating their economies.
Traders have always played a game of store and sell, bringing oil to market when it can fetch the best price. They say this time is different because of how fast the bottom fell out of the oil market.
“Nobody expected this,” said Antoine Halff, an analyst with Newedge. “The majority of people out there thought the market would keep rising to $200, even $250, a barrel. They were tripping over each other to pick a higher forecast.”
Nobody … except Lindsay Williams, who predicted this when the price of crude oil was at its peak!
The rest of his prediction is well on the way to manifest itself.
Here are two interviews with him:
– Lindsey Williams: America will see a financial collapse (1-22-09)
– Lindsey Williams: The Dollar And The US Will Collapse; Saudi Arabia And Dubai Will Fall; US Will Be Third World Country; The Greatest Depression Is Coming
(You may say what you want about him, but his predictions are here.)
Don’t miss: Jim Rogers: We are going to have another Depression in the U.S.
Now the strategy is storage. Anyone who can buy cheap oil and store it might be able to sell it at a premium later, when the global economy ramps up again.
Interview: Peter Schiff still grim on future
“Tens of millions of people unemployed, inflation spiraling out of control, the government instituting price controls that result in shortages and blackouts and long lines for things. I think things are going to get very bad.”
“From an investment point of view, investors need to stay clear, because they need to realize that it’s not just U.S. stocks and real estate that are going to lose value, but U.S. bonds. This is the last bubble yet to burst. I think we’re going to see a collapse of the bond market sometime during Obama’s first term, and interest rates are going to spiral out of control, and the dollar is going to just be destroyed.”
____________________________________________________________________________
People aren’t laughing any more at the way-out-there predictions of Peter Schiff, whose long-standing pessimism about the economy and stock market has been largely borne out.
Schiff heads Euro Pacific Capital, a brokerage in Darien, Conn. with more than $1 billion in assets under management. He has silenced critics because he predicted the collapse of the housing market, the subprime crisis and the soaring of oil prices in his market commentaries before they came to pass.
A YouTube video called “Peter Schiff Was Right” shows him being repeatedly mocked when he went on TV stock shows to make those ultimately correct calls in 2006 and 2007, including forecasting a recession 2 1/2 years ago.
Now, in the midst of what’s already the biggest financial crisis in decades, the prominent purveyor of gloom and doom still sees far tougher times ahead – including a depression and a bear market he thinks will last another five years or more.
US seeks $ 300 billion from Gulf states: report
One hundred riyal notes at a bank in Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital. The US has asked four oil-rich Gulf states for close to US$300 billion to help it curb the global financial meltdown, Kuwait’s daily Al-Seyassah has reported.
(AFP/File/Hassan Ammar)
KUWAIT CITY (AFP) – The United States has asked four oil-rich Gulf states for close to 300 billion dollars to help it curb the global financial meltdown, Kuwait’s daily Al-Seyassah reported Thursday.
Quoting “highly informed” sources, the daily said Washington has asked Saudi Arabia for 120 billion dollars, the United Arab Emirates for 70 billion dollars, Qatar for 60 billion dollars and was seeking 40 billion dollars from Kuwait.
Al-Seyassah said Washington sought the amount as “financial aid” to face the fallout of the financial crisis and help prevent its economy from sliding into a painful recession.
The daily said the United States plans to use the funds to help the ailing automobile industry , banks and other companies suffering from the global financial turmoil.
Dow’s Worst Week Comes to an End
Stocks closed a volatile week with the widest intraday swing on record, in a fitting end to one of the most turbulent five-day periods in financial history.
For the first time in its 112-year existence, the Dow Jones Industrial Average swung in a range of more than one thousand points on an intraday basis. The blue-chip gauge had dropped sharply in early trading, falling more than 600 points and dropping through the 8000 level for the first time in five years. But stocks quickly came off their lows, and by the afternoon the industrials jumped more than 300 points.
In the end, the Dow industrials declined 128.00 points, or 1.5%, to 8451.19. It was helped by jumps of 9.1% for Citigroup and 13.5% for J.P. Morgan Chase. Other major market indexes were mixed. The S&P 500 sank by 10.70 points to 899.22 and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 4.39 points to 1649.51.
Despite the late turnaround, the Dow tumbled 18% this week, worst in its 112-year history. The industrials also shed more points in a week — 1874.19 — than they ever had previously. The Nasdaq dropped 15% and the S&P 500 declined 18% on the week.
Nigeria militants threaten broader delta “oil war”
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) – Nigerian militants threatened on Wednesday to broaden their “oil war” to offshore oilfields and announced attacks on a crude oil pipeline in the Niger Delta and another Shell-operated facility.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), responsible for attacks that have cut a fifth of OPEC member Nigeria’s oil output, said it would launch attacks outside Rivers state for the first time since clashes began on Saturday.
The Big Sting Two
By Bob Chapman
The plan for an economic takedown, the results of rampant market speculations, insiders picking up assets for pennies on the dollar, the coming hyperinflation, the credit crunch, collapse of the dollar carry trade, suppression of metals prices, American meddling in Georgia
IRAN READY TO HIT UK? The Bullshit Campaign Again!
Iran has no interest whatsoever to attack anyone, BUT Iran will defend itself.
– Iran does not intend to wipe out Israel, says Ahmadinejad
– Ron Paul: Iranians Tested Missiles AFTER Israel had WAR GAMES
Iran has done nothing wrong. Iran is strictly obeying international law.
An attack on Iran would be illegal, since under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes and that is “perfectly legal”!
– Ron Paul on Iran and Energy June 26, 2008
It is Israel and the U.S. – not Iran – that are the aggressors and preparing for an attack:
– Ex-weapons inspector says Iran not pursuing nukes, but U.S. will attack before ‘09
– President George W Bush backs Israeli plan for strike on Iran
– Ron Paul: I hear members of Congress saying “if we could only nuke Iran”
– Ron Paul: Nancy Pelosi pulled Iran bill on orders of Israel
– Israel hints at readiness to strike Iran
– US backs Jundullah to destabilize Iran
– How Israel Is creating the war on Iran
– U.S. escalating covert operations against Iran: report
– Senate report exposes key role of the Israel lobby in fomenting war with Iran
– Top US commander briefed on IDF’s four-front strategy in potential Iran war context
– US: Oil blockade constitutes an act of war
– Israel Prodding U.S. To Attack Iran
– Israel launches ‘Iran Command’ for war
– Israel to attack Iran unless enrichment stops: minister
– Oil hits new high as Israel calls strike on Iran ‘unavoidable’
– Joschka Fischer: US, Israel will attack Iran
– And the winner is … the Israel lobby
– Bush ‘plans Iran air strike by August’
– U.S. Will Attack Iran
– Israel will not tolerate nuclear Iran: Olmert
– Israel preparing to bomb Iran N-sites
– Joint Chiefs of Staff: US prepping military options against Iran
Are “they” preparing the public, in the article below “IRAN READY TO HIT UK”, for another false flag attack like 9/11?
– Loose Change Final Cut
– 9/11 False Flag
Former Governor Jesse Ventura warns that they might use such a false flag attack as an excuse to attack Iran:
– Former Governor: “Absolutely” danger of false flag as pretext to attack Iran
And this time it is Iran who is “with the terrorists” and has the weapons of mass destruction and all of that.
Will it be easy to win this war?
– America Is the Rogue Nation
And why are they doing this? Just because of oil?
– Iran dumps U.S. dollars in oil transactions
– Ahmadinejad to OPEC: Dump weak dollar
– How Iran Has Bush Over a Barrel
No, it is not only about oil, it’s about something far worse.
Ask yourself what will happen, if Israel and/or the U.S. attack Iran?
What will such an attack cause?
If your answer would be something like:
“That can’t be!” or “They would not do that intentionally, would they?”
Then you are right on.
And then you have the reason, why they are really doing it.
If I would have told you this straightaway, you would probably have called this a conspiracy theory and you would have dismissed it. More on what is going on under World Situation (2.Politics).
July 16, 2008
By: The Infinite Unknown
IRAN READY TO HIT UK
Sunday July 13,2008
By Jason Groves
Source: Daily Express
IRAN is poised to launch terror attacks in Britain if the West presses ahead with military strikes against its nuclear facilities, intelligence experts warned last night.
As tensions in the Middle East continued to grow, they warned that the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah had already established sleeper cells in Britain and mainland Europe tasked with carrying out bloody reprisals.
Likely UK targets include nuclear power stations, military bases, Government buildings and high-profile politicians and members of the Jewish community.
Richard Kemp, former adviser on terrorism to Tony Blair, said the difficulty of attacking Western and Israeli military targets directly meant Iran was likely to use its terror network to retaliate. Hezbollah, formed in Lebanon in the 1980s, has grown to become a major force in the Middle East.
He said: “In my view Iran’s only realistic method of retaliation is through Hezbollah.
“Hezbollah undoubtedly have the capability to carry out attacks against Western targets outside the region. They have people here in the UK and they would aim to carry out attacks if they saw us as being in any way supportive of an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.”
Israel May Attack Iran, Pentagon Official Tells ABC
July 1 (Bloomberg) — Israel is increasingly likely to attack Iranian nuclear facilities this year, a U.S. Defense Department official told ABC News.
Iran’s government dismissed as propaganda the ABC report on the unidentified Pentagon official’s comments. Israeli government officials declined to comment on the report.
In the U.S., Pentagon spokesmen Bryan Whitman declined to address the report. “I don’t comment for Israel,” he said. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said he had “no information that would substantiate” the ABC report and criticized the official for not speaking publicly.
An Israeli strike might be triggered by the production of enough enriched uranium at Iran’s Natanz nuclear plant to make a bomb, ABC cited the official as saying. A second possible trigger would be the delivery of a Russian SA-20 air-defense system, the installation of which would make an Israeli attack more difficult, the U.S. official told ABC.
Oil rose on concern any conflict would cut supplies from OPEC’s second-largest producer. Crude oil for August delivery increased as much as $2.95, or 2.1 percent, to $142.95 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Former Israeli Air Force General Isaac Ben-Israel, now a lawmaker in Israel’s ruling Kadima party, told Germany’s Spiegel that his nation is “prepared” for an attack if diplomacy and United Nations sanctions fail to stop Iran from making a nuclear weapon. Ben-Israel helped plan Israel’s 1981 strike on an Iraqi nuclear reactor, the magazine said.
Before Bush Leaves
A strike on Natanz would only temporarily damage Iran’s nuclear program and could spark a wave of attacks on U.S. interests, ABC said in yesterday’s report, citing unidentified Pentagon officials. The U.S. and many of its allies have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran insists its production of enriched uranium is intended to produce electricity and is legal under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Ron Paul also says what Iran does is “perfectly legal”!
This is a very important Video!
Ron Paul on Iran and Energy June 26, 2008
Source: You Tube
The Israeli government may want an attack to take place before President George W. Bush leaves office, Ephraim Kam, deputy director of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said today in a telephone interview.
“There is no doubt that such an operation is being considered, but it’s not going to happen tomorrow,” Kam said. “We still have some time. The Bush administration may be more sympathetic to an Israeli operation against Iran than whoever the next president may be, so it could happen before the end of the year.”
Israeli Maneuvers
More than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighter planes took part in maneuvers over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece during the first week of June, the New York Times reported on June 20. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in Israel last weekend for meetings with Israeli military leaders, ABC said.
Read moreIsrael May Attack Iran, Pentagon Official Tells ABC
A Declaration of U.S. Independence from Israel
This is a talk given at the Nassau Club in Princeton by Chris Hedges, former New York Times Middle East bureau chief:
Israel, without the United States, would probably not exist. The country came perilously close to extinction during the October 1973 war when Egypt, trained and backed by the Soviet Union, crossed the Suez Canal and the Syrians poured in over the Golan Heights. Huge American military transport planes came to the rescue.
They began landing every half-hour to refit the battered Israeli army, which had lost most of its heavy armor. By the time the war as over, the United States had given Israel $2.2 billion in emergency military aid. The intervention, which enraged the Arab world, triggered the OPEC oil embargo that for a time wreaked havoc on Western economies. This was perhaps the most dramatic example of the sustained life-support system the United States has provided to the Jewish state.
Israel was born at midnight May 14, 1948. The U.S. Recognized the new state 11 minutes later. The two countries have been locked in a deadly embrace ever since.Washington, at the beginning of the relationship, was able to be a moderating influence. An incensed President Eisenhower demanded and got Israel’s withdrawal after the Israelis occupied Gaza in 1956.
During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israeli warplanes bombed the USS Liberty. The ship, flying the U.S. Flag and stationed 15 miles off the Israeli coast, was intercepting tactical and strategic communications from both sides. The Israeli strikes killed 34 U.S. Sailors and wounded 171.
The deliberate attack froze, for a while, Washington’s enthusiasm for Israel. But ruptures like this one proved to be only bumps, soon smoothed out by an increasingly sophisticated and well-financed Israel lobby that set out to merge Israel and American foreign policy in the Middle East.
Israel has reaped tremendous rewards from this alliance. It has been given more than $140 billion in U.S. Direct economic and military assistance. It receives about $3 billion in direct assistance annually, roughly one-fifth of the U.S. Foreign aid budget. Although most American foreign aid packages stipulate that related military purchases have to be made in the United States, Israel is allowed to use about 25 percent of the money to subsidize its own growing and profitable defense industry. It is exempt, unlike other nations, from accounting for how it spends the aid money.
OPEC Leader Khelil Says Dollar Will Drive Oil to $170
June 28 (Bloomberg) — OPEC President Chakib Khelil predicted that the price of oil will climb to $170 a barrel before the end of the year, citing the dollar’s decline and political conflicts.
“Oil prices are expected to reach $170 as demand for fuel is growing in the U.S. during the summer period and the dollar continues to weaken against the euro,” Khelil said today in a telephone interview. The leader of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries also serves as Algeria’s oil minister.
Political pressure on Iran and the depreciation of the U.S. currency have caused a surge in oil prices, Khelil said. New York- traded crude has more than doubled in a year and touched a record $142.99 a barrel yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
OPEC ministers generally say that oil output is sufficient, even as Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer, pledged to pump an extra 200,000 barrels a day next month to calm the market. “The market is completely supplied,” Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said yesterday. Libya announced possible production cuts, calling the market oversupplied.
The rising cost of crude is not linked to supply, Khelil said today. “There is more than enough oil in the market to meet the international demand,” added the OPEC president, who will take part June 30 in an international energy forum in Madrid.
Prices, which are up 38 percent this quarter, are heading for the biggest quarterly gain since the first three months of 1999, when oil traded between $11 and $17.
Declining Dollar
“The decisions made by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank helped the devaluation of the dollar, which pushed up oil prices,” Khelil said.
Read moreOPEC Leader Khelil Says Dollar Will Drive Oil to $170
Oil Surges Above $140 to Record as Libya Warns of Output Cut
June 26 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil jumped above $140 a barrel to a record as Libya threatened to cut output, OPEC’s president said prices may reach $170 by the summer and the dollar weakened.
Libya may curb output because of a U.S. law that allows terror victims to seize assets of foreign governments as compensation. OPEC President Chakib Khelil said oil may surge on a European interest rate rise, France 24 reported. Oil, gold and copper climbed today as the dollar dropped because the Federal Reserve gave no signal of higher interest rates yesterday.
“The Libyan comments are helping send us higher,” said Brad Samples, commodity analyst for Summit Energy Inc. in Louisville, Kentucky. “The Libyans are responsible for only about 2 percent of production, but with supplies tight every missing barrel will have an impact.”
Crude oil for August delivery rose $5.09, or 3.8 percent, to $139.64 a barrel at 2:59 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a record settlement price. Futures touched $140.39 today, surpassing the previous intraday record of $139.89 reached on June 16.
Read moreOil Surges Above $140 to Record as Libya Warns of Output Cut