Wednesday

THE DAILY WAR!
 
Non-pagan/papal date: 11-16
 
THE HOLY ROMAN
 
One of the top “Vaticanistas”, an expert on Church affairs and the intricate world of the Vatican, gave yesterday an interview in Washington to Catholic leaders.
 
B16 announced his intention to promote more effective collaboration with the World Council of Churches in order to proclaim the love of God.
 
Here is a translation of the address B16 gave to the members of the tribunal of the Roman Rota.
 
Vatican officials remained quiet today about the issues discussed at a meeting between B16 and the leaders of the Roman Curia. 
 
The Archbishop of Munich has revealed new details about the visit B16 is planning to make to his homeland in September.
[WAR: As I've stated before, this is going to be a very historic/prophetic trip back to Bavaria!]
 
 
EMPIRE OF THE GERMAN NATION
 
A few days ago, Bavarian President Edmund Stoiber urged stringent tests for would-be foreign applicants for German citizenship over and above the required renouncement of all connections with their country of birth.
(So close, but yet so far: Bavaria cracks down on Muslims)
 
A rolling programme of strike action by public sector workers across Germany, which started on Monday of this week threatens to destabilise the neo-liberal agenda of the country’s recently elected “grand coalition” government.
 
Protestors attacked the German embassy in Tehran yesterday with stones and fire bombs. The latest act in a wave of demonstrations could seriously harm German-Iranian relations in the long-term
 
 
EUROPE/RUSSIA
 
"We don't see any benefits in adopting the euro. Euro adoption would lead to lower exports, lower national income and higher unemployment."
 
In the decade since they voted to join the EU the islanders of the Aland archipelago in the Baltic Sea have been outvoted and overruled by Brussels, time and again. Now Aland, a unique, autonomous region of Finland, is about to teach Brussels a lesson in democracy it may never forget.
(Op/ed: Love a duck)
 
When Danish embassies began going up in flames last week, some in the EU wanted a firm response. But nothing happened. The most the EU could agree on were a few wishy-washy statements.
 
Danish papers remain defiant as Denmark once again becomes the target of Muslim anger over press cartoons. Russia's newspapers seize on France's backing for Moscow's controversial invitation to Hamas leaders. And the rusting, toxic hulk of a once-proud aircraft carrier is causing red faces in France.
 
Montenegro's parliament is to hold a special session later this month to pave the way for a referendum that could bring independence. The BBC examines the shaky union of Serbia and Montenegro and the gulf that has opened up between them.
 
The Russian FSB foresees possible conflicts between Sunni, Shiite Muslims in Urals.
 
 
MIDEAST/AFRICA/ASIA
 
If all goes well this week, Afghanistan may soon be on its way to having a gas pipeline going through its territory. With the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, and the support of foreign forces to keep relative peace, Afghanistan has suddenly turned into a "safe" investment choice, at least from the perspective of the oil industry.
 
Kofi Annan yesterday warned President Bush not to "escalate" tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions because the world wants to "find a way out of this crisis."
 
EIR Strategic Alert (PDF document)
The “Clash of Civilisation” Orchestration; Iran Crisis: Diplomatic Solution Is Possible.
 
On the evening of Jan. 31, the British Foreign Secretary held a ministerial dinner in London, where he played the instrumental role of mediating an agreement among his American, French, Russian, and Chinese counterparts that would open the way to bringing the Iranian nuclear issue to the UNSC. This would be a decisive step in the drive for a near-term US military attack on Iran. Within a few hours, on the morning of Feb. 1, leading dailies in Europe published a series of highly inflammatory cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Their publication sparked an explosion of seemingly spontaneous demonstrations, riots, and violence throughout the Islamic world. Make no mistake: This whole controversy is being carefully orchestrated on both sides.
 
Russian Military Analysts are reporting today that the accelerated schedule of International Military Exercises by the US, NATO and Non-Aligned American Allies this year portend a planned massive invasion by these Military Forces of Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the securing of the Strategic Caspian Region.  If successful, according to these reports, the Western Nations will accomplish the securing of over one half of the World’s proven oil reserves.
 
 
HOUSE OF ISRAEL
 
America's enemies are circling their wagons, readying for what they perceive to be inevitable: a showdown with the US.
 
Britain's Conservative party is sending a high-level delegation to Washington to repair its badly bruised relations with the Bush administration.
 
As we begin to understand the nature of Plame's work, her exposure takes on new significance: the War Party was intent on blindfolding US policymakers by ensuring that no one with any expertise or interest in debunking their lies would remain standing.
 
Dick Cheney, visibly and increasingly in the target zone in the criminal investigation of the Valerie Plame obstruction-of-justice case, is desperately trying to orchestrate the coverup around the NSA domestic spying scandal. Informed sources indicate that it was Cheney, not President Bush, who was behind the illegal surveillance of Americans, and thus it is Cheney who is also most vulnerable in this case, if and when the true scope of the spying operation becomes known.
(Synopsis: Will Cheney be next? [PDF document])
 
Of course the jokes are flying all over Texas—what’s the fine for shooting a lawyer?—and so forth. Dick-Cheney-shooting-Harry-Whittington is fraught, as they say, with irony.
 
The US government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, an estimated $7 billion over 5 years. Under projections buried in the Interior Department's budget plan, the government would let companies pump about $65 billion of oil and natural gas from federal territory over the next 5 years without paying any royalties to the government.
 
 
ECONOMY
 
Now that the US trade deficit for 2005 has come in at $726 billion, the fourth straight all-time record, a question arises. What constitutes failure for a free-trade policy? Or is there no such thing? Is free trade simply right no matter the results? The affluent free-traders, whose wealth resides in stocks in global companies, are enriching themselves at the expense of their fellow citizens and sacrificing the American worker on the altar of the Global Economy. None dare call it economic treason.
 
 
 
#11-16
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