Tuesday

The Daily WAR (10-26)

Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
 
 
 
    In the abstract, if one were to choose some aspect of Roman life least likely to scorch the "buzz meter," meaning least likely to set tongues wagging and cause eyebrows to shoot up because of some bold new direction, a terrific candidate would have been the "gray lady" of the Italian journalistic scene, L'Osservatore Romano, "the pope's newspaper."
    The paper's Pravda-esque reputation for boring predictability has long seemed as much a constant of the Roman scene as wildcat strikes and good table wine. That profile makes the recent sweeping changes at L'Osservatore Romano all the more remarkable – so much so that some observers speak of nothing less than a "revolution."
    Today's graphic overhaul, including the use of color on L'Osservatore's legendarily gray first and last pages, marks another stage in this transformation. In just 100 days, L'Osservatore has metamorphasized into a paper widely seen as creative, provocative, and a virtually indispensable resource on church affairs.
 
 
 
German press review
    Germany's allies are increasingly impatient with its refusal to take a more active combat role in war-torn Afghanistan. A diplomatic push in the lead-up to a NATO conference next week has the Bundeswehr on the defensive.
    On Monday, a new wrinkle put even more pressure on Berlin to act -- the French government announced it was willing to up its troop levels in Afghanistan, perhaps as part of an effort by Sarkozy's government to patch up French-American relations.
    The French offer makes the Germans look even worse. Unable to please their NATO allies without angering voters, German politicians are truly in a bind. German papers read between the lines.
 
 
 
    Italy is heading for early elections, following a failed attempt to form a transition government on Monday. The Italian parliament could be dissolved this week, with elections following on 6 or 13 April, according to press reports.
 
    French MPs have voted in favour of amending their country's constitution to allow adoption of the EU Lisbon Treaty. The opposition Socialists, while in favour of the treaty, largely abstained in protest at the decision to "take the parliamentary road" to pass the treaty rather than hold a referendum.
 
    The secession of Kosovo from Serbia is already de facto. It is part of  a US-NATO military agenda. It responds to US-NATO strategic objectives.
    Since the early 1990s, Bonn and Washington have joined hands in establishing their respective spheres of influence in the Balkans. Their intelligence agencies have also collaborated. According to intelligence analyst John Whitley, covert support to the Kosovo rebel army was established as a joint endeavour between the CIA and Germany's Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (BND).
    The task to create and finance the KLA was initially given to Germany: "They used German uniforms, East German weapons and were financed, in part, with drug money". The covert activities of Germany's BND were consistent with Bonn's intent to expand its "Lebensraum" into the Balkans.
    Prior to the onset of the civil war in Bosnia, Germany and its Foreign Minister had actively supported secession; it had "forced the pace of international diplomacy" and pressured its Western allies to recognize Slovenia and Croatia.
    According to the Geopolitical Drug Watch, both Germany and the US favoured the formation of a "Greater Albania" encompassing Albania, Kosovo and parts of Macedonia. According to Sean Gervasi, Germany was seeking a free hand among its allies "to pursue economic dominance in the whole of Mitteleuropa."
 
    The greater danger comes from the Serbian enclave around the city of Mitrovica. Some politicians there, backed by Belgrade, promise to break away from Kosovo. This is a red line for the Kosovo government and NATO. If it's crossed, then we could see the much-feared Kosovo domino effect in the region and beyond.
    The most fragile Balkan construct is Bosnia, followed by Macedonia. Encouraged by Belgrade and allegedly by Russian money, Bosnian Serb politicians last year threatened to follow Kosovo with their own independence declaration for Republika Srpska.
 
 
 
    In addition to 2 bombers involved in today's suicide attack in Israel, 1 more suicide bomber has infiltrated the Jewish state with explosives and is poised to carry out an imminent attack, according to senior terrorist sources speaking to WND. "There are 3 bombers who made it inside Israel. The 3rd is inside. We won't say where, but he has explosives, and we lost contact with him."
 
    "Make no mistake, NATO is not winning in Afghanistan. Unless this reality is understood and action is taken promptly, the future of Afghanistan is bleak, with regional and global impact."
 
 
 
    In a sharp departure from US policy, a leading French diplomat has called on the international coalition sponsoring UN sanctions against Iran to support a larger Iranian role in the Middle East. The ambassador's call for support for Iran's regional role, which was not reported in media coverage of the speech, suggests that France is now seeking a significant adjustment in the negotiating position of the coalition of states that have backed sanctions against Iran in the UN Security Council.
 
    So, how important is it that oil continue to be denominated in dollars? Would the United States wage war to defend the dollar's status as the world's "reserve currency"? The answer to this question could come as early as this week, since the long-awaited Iranian Oil Bourse is scheduled to open between February 1-11.
    As to whether the Bush administration would start a war to defend dollar hegemony; that's a question that should be asked of Saddam Hussein. Iraq was invaded just 6 months after Saddam converted to the euro. The message is clear; the Empire will defend its currency.
    A preemptive US-led attack on Iran still appears likely. And, although the western media now minimizes the prospects of another war in the region, Israel is taking the precautions that suggest that the idea is not so far-fetched.
    Russia also sees a growing probability of hostilities breaking out in the Gulf and has responded by sending a naval task force into the Mediterranean Sea and the North Atlantic. France is also planning military maneuvers in the Straits of Hormuz.
    Additionally, within the last week, 3 of the main underwater cables which carry Internet traffic have been cut off in the Persian Gulf and three-quarters of the international communications between Europe and the Middle East have been lost. Is this merely a coincidence or is something else going on just below the surface? "Communication has always been an important factor in military action, and cutting these cables might affect Iran´s ability to defend itself."
    Despite the lack of media coverage, tensions are mounting in the Gulf and the probability of a US-led attack on Iran is still quite high. Bush is convinced that if he doesn't confront Iran, then no one will. He also believes that if he doesn't militarily defend the dollar, then America's days as "the world's only superpower" will soon be over.
    So, the real question is whether Bush will realize that America is already hopelessly bogged-down in 2 "unwinnable" conflicts or if he will "go with his gut" once again and lead us into a ruinous region-wide conflagration.
 
    Cheney lives, and he wants more war. According to former CIA officer Phil Giraldi, Cheney remains hard at work fomenting some kind of attack or even war with Iran – and beyond that, he and George W. Bush don't believe their own CIA's latest intelligence assessment on Iran.
    It may not matter what Bush believes, or thinks. He defers to Dick on national security matters. But Cheney is apparently determined to make his mark before the election of the next American president. War by accident, to quote a phrase used by Giraldi, seems to be Cheney's preferred pathway towards destruction in Iran.
    Cheney apparently hopes for an accidental war, an engineered provocation that would rise above the level of Borat on a radio, and so avoid public complaint about lame duck crazies and murder most foul.
 
 
 
    This shift in funding towards Obama indicates a growing conviction within substantial sections of the corporate-financial elite that his candidacy would provide the best vehicle for refurbishing the domestic and foreign policy of US imperialism and upholding their interests.
 
    Country music legend Willie Nelson fears the 2008 presidential election could be cancelled due to a national state of emergency and that George W. Bush could occupy the White House for another decade. "It's a long time until election day and some sort of national crisis could put off the elections and we could have George in there 10 years longer."
    [WAR: The 42nd is the last one ... President and Super Bowl.]
 
Blast from the past...
    In this hour, we are joined by Andreas von Bulow and he was the federal Minister of Defense, or the equivalent of our Secretary of Defense, been in the German government since the 70s.  And up until just a few years ago he was also the Minister of Technology and he has written a book that according to Reuters is the best seller in Germany that translates into "9/11 and the CIA."  And he's not the only German minister who has said we are looking at world fascism here and a powerful military industrial complex institution engineering terror attacks to scare us into submission.
 
 
 
    There are several iconic US companies that may well not exist at the end of 2008. Some may not even make it halfway through the year. Not all will go out of business. Some may simply be auctioned off in pieces. Others may be bought. These companies will not exist in their current forms as they are known to their shareholders and consumers now.
    When a company ceases to exist as an independent entity, it is not necessarily bad for shareholders. Some may be worth more in parts. Often a bust-up or merger is what brings owners the most money. Here are the big ones that probably won't make it: Motorola, Sears Holdings, Citigroup, Ford, Yahoo!, AMD, Sprint, Qwest.
 
    The day after the emergency interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve Board 2 weeks ago, Jean-Claude Trichet went before the European Parliament to deliver perhaps the most eagerly anticipated speech of his 4 years as president of the European Central Bank.
    It was a dense, technical presentation, packed with meaty thoughts on how Europe's financial system could navigate the credit crisis that had begun in the US. But his audience only cared about one thing: Would the ECB follow the Fed's landmark cut?
 
    Banks in the US tightened their lending standards and terms for businesses and consumers alike amid a deteriorating economic outlook, a Federal Reserve survey showed on Monday.
 
    Consumers should expect a deep recession, triggered by the "stealth methodology" of the Federal Reserve to "depress" the market even while lowering interest rates in an ostensible effort to stimulate economic growth, an economic analyst is charging.
    "The Federal Reserve is directly involved in manipulating the stock market. The Fed wants the Dow Jones Industrial Average and other financial indicators to descend in a managed way. The Fed wants to drive the DJIA toward the 8,000 level, or below, in order to help create a deep recession which will have the effect of slowing consumption across the board, and dampening the otherwise harmful effects of inflation."
 
    One of the positions of Ron Paul that mainstream pundits find "wacky" is his call to abolish the Federal Reserve System. Never mind that 2 Nobel Prize-winning economists called for the same thing. And never mind that the Fed is the entity directly responsible for the debasement of the dollar over the many decades since the Fed was established.
    Most Americans probably still believe that the Great Depression was caused by "the failure of the free-enterprise system." It is a false belief. The truth is that the worst economic disaster in American history was caused by the Federal Reserve.
    What the Fed has done to our money over the decades should not surprise anyone. After all, the Federal Reserve is nothing more than a central-planning agency in the classic socialist mold.
    Just like the central-planning boards in the Soviet Union and communist China, the Fed is composed of a central board of bureaucratic appointees planning, in a top-down fashion, complex monetary matters affecting millions of economic participants under constantly changing conditions.
 
    In the economic sphere, it is clear that the expansion over the past 15 years has produced a highly unstable situation—accelerated economic growth in some regions, albeit on unstable foundations.
    For the past 15 years, 20 if we go back to the stock market collapse of 1987, the American economy has been sustained through the creation of a series of asset bubbles. This has now reached the stage where there are serious threats to the stability of the financial system.
    American imperialism now seeks to counter its loss of economic dominance and maintain its global position through military means. This is the historic significance of the eruption of US militarism, of which Iraq is merely the most bloody front in a global conflict.
    From the Arctic to the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, there are a series of potential flashpoints where the interests of 2 or more capitalist powers collide. Now the decline of American capitalism as it faces challenges from old powers and rising new ones is the most explosive factor in international relations.
 
 
 
 
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