"The WAR on error"
The Holy See maintains full diplomatic relations with 175 states, reports the Vatican. The Vatican press office reported this today on the occasion of the Pope's address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See.
Benedict XVI is calling for reflection on the values underpinning the European Union's constitutional treaty. "One cannot ignore the undeniable Christian heritage of the continent, which has greatly contributed to the formation of European nations and European peoples."
Here is the Vatican translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See.
The abrupt resignation of Warsaw's newly appointed archbishop, Stanislaw Wielgus, who admitted that he had worked with the Communist- era secret police, has quickly reverberated back to the Vatican. Questions have arisen on why the Vatican supported Wielgus's nomination so strongly, and on the special place that Poland holds for the Roman Catholic Church in an ever-more-secular Europe.
The resignation of Mgr Stanislaw Wielgus from his new post as archbishop of Warsaw Poland Polish Church
As senior Belarusian officials arrived in Moscow today for crisis talks with Russia regarding disrupted oil transit through Belarus, Chancellor Merkel stressed the need for diversifying energy resources.
COG "prophet's" wet-dream...
The vow being made by Angela Merkel to unite the European Continent under one flag cannot be ignored, especially when viewed in the light of still secret, but ‘obtainable’, Soviet KGB archive files which present a terrifying portrait of the present German Chancellor as being the daughter of Adolf Hitler. Upon the birth of Angela Merkel in 1954 it was ‘agreed upon’ by the Soviets, Americans and the Vatican, that she would be ‘placed’ under the ‘control’ of the Catholic Church through its ‘connections’ with the GDR Lutheran Church, and whom she was in fact placed with.
COG "prophet's" nightmare...
The resurgent strength of the euro in the international currency market could, ironically, be the agent of its demise in 2007. France, one of the EU's biggest guns has warned of possible withdrawal - a move which would signal the end for European monetary union. French Premier Dominique de Villepin even called for limits on the power of the ECB, espousing the need to reassert national control over the economy. "We must clarify matters in exchange rate policy, which means taking back our sovereignty." A clause in the EU's Maastricht Treaty (111-4) could allow them to do exactly that. The "get-out" clause allows EU states to set their own interest rates, effectively stripping the ECB of independent control.
"The ECB faces an impossible task because there is no such thing as euroland: there are groups of countries going different ways. In the end, the ECB may have to respond to the needs of the weakest economies, or monetary union will fall apart." In Germany, home of the ECB, there are loud rumblings suggesting euro confidence has evaporated.
Whatever 2007 holds in store for the euro, it seems that euroland economic ministers already sense the 'iceberg' just over the horizon, however buoyant the 'titanic' euro currency may appear to outsiders [and "prophets"]. With major member states now seriously considering abandoning ship, and with no early recovery of the French and southern European economies looking imminent, the prospects for European monetary union - and for the EU project itself - look bleak. And if the euro-zone ship were to go down sometime in the new year, the resultant financial tsunami may well reach shores far beyond euro-currency states. If the euro were to collapse it could well precipitate a global financial crisis in an already precariously balanced system of international currencies.
Yet another COG "prophet's" nightmare...
Without Britain, Europe’s hopes of a new constitution were doomed, Angela Merkel said last night. “I cannot imagine deciding such important questions without Britain and other EU member states.”
Far-right members of the European Parliament are preparing to join forces and form their own political group. The far-right is likely to push for a freeze on further EU enlargement - especially the prospect of membership for Turkey - and to resist any attempts to revive the shipwrecked EU constitution.
In an apparent escalation of a gas and oil dispute with Belarus, Russia on Monday temporarily halted oil deliveries to Germany. By shutting off the Druzhba pipeline, Moscow cut off the source of 20% of Germany's oil imports.
Europe’s oil supplies from Russia were being held to ransom last night as the Kremlin fell into bitter dispute with a former Soviet satellite state.
The dispute between Russia and Belarus over oil is the latest reminder that Europeans must start diversifying to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and natural gas if they want secure sources of energy, analysts said.
Such rivalries over key Eurasian energy deposits and transit routes will find even sharper expression as the imperialist adventures of the United States—with the European powers in its wake—further destabilise the Middle East and Central Asia. The largely American-organised coups in Ukraine and Georgia, and the current sponsorship of dissidents in Belarus by Washington and the EU are aimed at gaining advantage in the struggle over the resource-rich region, a struggle that will inevitably assume more violent and destabilising forms.
Vice Premier Shimon Peres recently stepped up efforts in his campaign to be elected as the next president of the State of Israel by the Knesset. Knesset sources said that Peres announced behind closed doors his intention to run for president "in any case, even if the law isn't changed and the ballot is closed."
The shaky images of the execution of Saddam Hussein have only deepened Iraq's tragedy. While Shiites celebrate the death of the man they hold responsible for their persecution, Sunni politicians are leaving the country. Contrary to all expectations, President Bush now wants to increase US troop presence in Iraq.
The United States' decision to bomb Islamists holed up in a corner of Somalia near the border with Kenya is a high-risk tactic which could ignite an Iraqi-style insurgency across a swathe of East Africa, analysts and regional experts say.
Japan's conservative government upgraded the Defense Agency to a full ministry today for the first time since WW2 as part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to raise the military's profile.
German papers
The British Sunday Times has reported that Israel is preparing for a nuclear strike on Iran's atomic weapons facilities. Planted or not, the story should serve as a wake-up call for the West.
The firm denial by Israel of a report in the London Sunday Times that its Air Force was training for a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities was as predictable as it is hollow. There is no doubt that Israel's fighter-bombers have been training for a long-distance mission; NATO sources say they have for weeks been watching Israeli warplanes running flights the length of the Mediterranean to Gibraltar - and nobody expects an Israeli strike on Gibraltar. The drumbeats of war are beginning to sound from several directions.
Rather than a direct American nuclear strike against Iran's nuclear targets, Israel has been given the assignment of launching the nuclear strike aimed at the Iranian cities: Natanz, Isfahan and Arak. What remains to be seen is whether the American media - now ranked 53rd on the International Press Freedom Index - will cover the story - and whether the American people will be informed of the intimate collaboration between the Bush-Cheney White House, the Olmert government in Israel and other governments now known to be involved in the military planning.
Are there no bounds to hypocrisy? The London Times is reporting that Israel is seriously considering using nuclear weapons against Iran so that Iran does not threaten the world with nuclear weapons. That would break all irony records. If Iran is at best two years away from developing a nuclear weapon and they say they have no intention of even building one, let alone using it against anybody and Israel says they are planning to use one against Iran, shouldn't we be considering preemptive military action against Israel instead?
As Americans await Bush's address announcing a "surge" of troops to Iraq, we may be missing the larger picture. The War Party is turning its attention from Iraq – to Iran. Israel's war, says Bibi, must be sold as America's war. We are thus forewarned. A propaganda campaign, using Israeli agents and their neocon auxiliaries and sympathizers, who stampeded us into war in Iraq, is being prepared to stampede us into war on Iran.
Huh?!!...
U.S. Special Forces teams sent overseas on secret spying missions have clashed with the CIA and carried out operations in countries that are staunch U.S. allies.
Congress from hell...
Roman Catholics form by far the largest group (155): nearly double the size of the 2nd-largest religious contingent, the Baptists (67).
With the new Democratically-controlled Congress taking power last week, now is the time to start thinking about congressional hearings that would lead to impeachment trials. But where should Congress begin?
The Bush administration’s destructive "war on terrorism," begun with 9/11, has failed to accomplish its central purpose, which was to occupy Central Asia and the Middle East, control the energy flows and strategic corridors across both regions, while blocking competitive cooperative agreements and energy-related ventures by Russia and China.
House of Israel's NWO...
Senior politicians discussed a plan to surrender British sovereignty to a federal government of western democracies to combat the Nazis at the outbreak of WW2. Newly declassified documents held in Scottish archives reveal that a group of prominent statesmen considered the establishment of a putative global state with its own federal government, currency, armed forces, trade bloc and even a common postal service.
Paranoia about the march of Nazism across Europe prompted the plan, which would have seen Britain, America, France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Ireland, Switzerland, the low countries and the Scandinavian states join together as a “nucleus world government”.
“I propose simply that the men and women living in the 15 democracies around the North Atlantic Ocean organise themselves in one federal union government. These 15 together own almost half the Earth, they rule its oceans, they govern half the human species, they have the power, the trade and the money to run the world — if only they would organise it. I mean that we democrats of the North Atlantic organise our Union as a nucleus world government.”
The real financial issue for Britain "is a collapse of Sterling," not of real estate, said a leading City of London analysts in a discussion with EIR.
Nigeria is the 5th largest supplier of oil to the US, and security experts fear new attacks, in combination with parallel attacks in the Mideast, could lead to oil at $120 a barrel and U.S. gasoline prices of $5-$6 a gallon.
Marc Faber, who predicted the U.S. stock market crash in 1987, said global assets are poised for a "severe correction" and says it's time to sell. "In the next few months, we could get a severe correction in all asset markets."
A little over a decade ago, the American model of capitalism was triumphant. For the many developing and transition economies in search of a model, there was only one prescription: Liberalize, privatize and copy the Anglo- American institutions of legal, financial and corporate governance. Today there is less certainty.
An adequate analysis of markets, whether it be from a supportive or critical perspective, must include a consideration of the moral underpinnings. The most obvious starting point for this is to look at the concept of self-interest. Contemporary capitalism is a successful system for the creation of wealth, but it is not some sort of automatic process inherent in human nature. Economic institutions are fragile and contingent and need to be shaped and guided. In addition, understanding how an economy works does not mean we should subsume our moral judgment to the logic of the market.
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