Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Vatican #1 in world...
A 1-year investigation and analysis of 235 countries by Jane's Information Services of the premier league of nations has put the Vatican as 1st, Germany at 15th, the UK 7th, and the US 24th.
[WAR: So, "The Holy Roman" "Empire of the German Nation" is more stable and prosperous than "Israel"?!]
The Colombian daily "El Tiempo" revealed on Saturday that a crisis that could have ended in an open conflict between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela was averted by Colombian President Uribe confiding the situation to the intercession of Mary under the 3 different titles by which she is the country's patroness.
As Colin Powell's chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson helped the former US Secretary of State make the case for the invasion of Iraq. But much of that case was based on false information. Spiegel spoke with Wilkerson about Germany's share of the guilt and the failures of the CIA.
"We were never told that the information originated in Germany. The CIA simply failed to tell us that. I can't exclude the Germans completely here from their share of guilt. They share in the responsibility.
"They did not just send their information about 'Curveball' as a chance operation. It was carefully considered what they sent to us, each and every word was weighed very carefully.
[Europress] [Russopress]
Serbia's Prime Minister said NATO bombed his country to create its own state out of Kosovo, as he marked the 9th anniversary of the start of the alliance's air war. "Now it is more than clear that the cruel destruction of Serbia in the NATO bombing had only one real goal, and this is to turn the province of Kosovo into the first NATO state in the world."
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev charged Monday a proposed missile defense system Washington wants to place in eastern Europe is aimed against Russia and China, but not Iran, as the US has been claiming.
"Do you believe that that the whole thing is meant against Iran? That's complete nonsense. Iran poses no threat. It is possible to deal with Iran with different means, if necessary. The entire system is directed against Russia and China, that's how we understand it."
Incoming Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has warned that expansion of NATO to include Ukraine and Georgia would affect Europe's security. Medvedev - set to be sworn in as a successor to Vladimir Putin in May - told the Financial Times that Moscow is "not happy about the situation around Georgia and Ukraine. We consider that it is extremely troublesome for the existing structure of European security."
(And: What should NATO do?)
Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of the ultra-orthodox Shas party, which represents Jews from the Middle East, has urged Jews around the world to pray for Israeli soldiers. According to Ha'aretz, Yosef told his followers that Israeli soldiers need to be blessed by the Almighty for killing and maiming hundreds of Palestinians, mostly innocent civilians.
Yosef, who on several occasions called Palestinians "rats," is considered by many in Israel as one of the greatest living sages of the Torah. However, his enthusiastic support for ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Palestinians caricatures a sinister man who quotes ancient texts to justify every conceivable crime against humanity and every abomination against God and man.
In President Bush's view, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was many things -- a developer of weapons of mass destruction, an ally of al Qaeda and "a guy that tried to kill my dad."
Recent intelligence reports have already shot down those first 2 notions. Now skepticism is newly enveloping allegations of an Iraqi plot to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush during a trip to Kuwait in 1993.
Pakistan's former prime minister and partner in the new coalition government today told 2 senior US government officials that the country may reconsider its approach to fighting terrorism.
"We told them that since 9/11 until now the decisions were made by an individual and therefore these did not reflect the aspiration of the people. The situation has been changed now because an independent parliament has come into being and all the decisions will be made by it."
The funding and overall control of the unrest has also been linked to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, and by inference to the CIA because of his close cooperation with US intelligence for over 50 years.
Could there be a factual basis to the suggestion that the main beneficiaries to the death and destruction sweeping Tibet are in Washington? History would suggest that this is a distinct possibility.
China is viewed by Washington as a major threat, both economic and military, not just in Asia, but in Africa and Latin America as well. The CIA also views China as being "unhelpful" in the "war on terror". To many in Washington, this may seem the ideal opportunity to knock the Beijing government off balance as Tibet is still seen as China's potential weak spot.
Tibet's unique history and strategic significance, sharing borders with India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar, make security and stability higher priorities in the remote Himalayan region than in other parts of China.
China's biggest copper deposit is at Tibet's Yulong copper mine. Tibet also has large iron, lead, zinc, and cadmium deposits, minerals China needs to feed its booming economy.
Geologists say Tibet has significant crude oil and natural gas reserves. But its harsh, high-altitude terrain makes extraction costly and challenging, and there is no significant commercial production at present.
India plans to go ahead with fresh military manoeuvres with China despite global condemnation of Beijing for a crackdown this month on protestors in Tibet, officials said today.
Iraq has sealed its border crossing with Iran to block entry and exit of Iranian pilgrims through territory. Iran is trying to facilitate the exit of its pilgrims from Iraq through other border crossings.
In an ominous development, General Petraeus Monday charged that a major mortar and rocket attack carried out the day before against the Green Zone was the work of elements armed and trained by Iran.
"The rockets that were launched at the Green Zone yesterday...were Iranian-provided, Iranian-made rockets." The group that fired them, he added, were financed and trained by the Iranian Quds Force. "All of this in complete violation of promises made by President Ahmadinejad and the other most senior Iranian leaders to their Iraqi counterparts," said Petraeus.
These charges, completely unsubstantiated, are part of a steady drumbeat by the Bush administration against Iran, which, coupled with Fallon's recent resignation, suggest that even as the death toll in Iraq rises, Washington is preparing a new and even bloodier war.
March 20, 2008, destined to be another day of infamy. On this date the US officially declared war on Iran. But it's not going to be the kind of war many have been expecting.
Bush spent some time communicating directly with Iranians, telling them via Radio Farda (the US-financed broadcaster that transmits to Iran in Farsi, Iran's native language) that their government has "declared they want to have a nuclear weapon to destroy people."
But not to worry, he told his listeners in Farsi-translated Bushspeak: Tehran would not get the bomb because the US would be "firm." But make no mistake. As of Thursday, March 20 the US is at war with Iran.
So who made it official? A unit within the US Treasury Department, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which issued a March 20 advisory to the world's financial institutions under the title: "Guidance to Financial Institutions on the Continuing Money Laundering Threat Involving Illicit Iranian Activity."
What it really means is that the US, again through FinCEN, has declared 2 acts of war: one against Iran's banks and one against any financial institution anywhere in the world that tries to do business with an Iranian bank.
Dick Cheney has accused Iran of developing a uranium enrichment program that aims at producing nuclear weapons. "Obviously, they're ... heavily involved in trying to develop nuclear weapons enrichment, the enrichment of uranium to weapons grade levels," he said in an interview with ABC television on Monday.
The chairman of the US National Intelligence Council, says his office never wanted its report on Iran's nuclear program to become public. "If we thought for a minute they would be released, which we didn't, we would have framed them somewhat differently."
There is a big hustle and bustle everywhere, as if we lived in a mad house. Our very well-known characters continue on their hectic tour.
(And: The "isms" that bedevil Bush)
The US news media failed to draw the obvious connection between the bizarre federal law enforcement investigation and leak campaign about the private life of New York Governor Spitzer and Spitzer's all out attack on the Bush administration for its collusion with predatory lenders.
Well, the death count of U.S. soldiers has now reached 4,000, and the completion of the mission is nowhere in sight. The terrible cost of Bush's mission is the lives of 4,000 American soldiers. None of these soldiers had to die.
They didn't die for their country. They didn't die for our freedoms. They didn't die for a noble cause. Every one of them died for Bush's bogus mission. They all died in vain. Their lives were wasted.
The fate of the United States pivots on H.J. Res. 53, a resolution sponsored by Rep. Walter Jones, North Carolina Republican. The legislation would check the president's current uncircumscribed power to initiate war by requiring explicit congressional authorization both to commence and to continue military hostilities; and, by making criminal any expenditure of funds in support of congressionally unauthorized wars.
Even if H.J. Res. 53 is enacted a large question mark will remain. Will Congress exert an independent judgment in matters of war and peace; or, will it follow the president like a flock of sheep?
At present, members are too ignorant of history and too eager to shun responsibility to challenge the president with courage and resolve. Would Congress oppose a request by President Bush to attack Iran because he believes with "slam dunk" certainty that the mullahs possess nuclear weapons?
The Constitution's distribution of war powers has been abandoned both in letter and in spirit since the US became a global power. The president typically decides, and Congress customarily either follows or quibbles.
If H.J. Res. 53 is not enacted, the US will follow the trajectory of every empire into executive despotism, perpetual war and a bankrupt treasury.
So is 2008 the year when a 3rd-party candidate would find some traction among those disaffected by the abortion, marriage and national security stances found in the records of the three front-runners left in the race?
(WND poll: "None of the above"?)
It's not an easy time to be a central banker. The markets are seesawing, big commercial banks are teetering on the brink of ruin, and investors are crying out for help. In the meantime, globalization has made it harder for the world's top central bankers to ride to the rescue. Is it time for a new approach?
The central banks are facing new challenges. First and foremost, the markets have grown and become more integrated, both in the financial links between them and the speed with which they communicate with each other.
When a bank nears collapse in the US, rumors of doom shoot across the Internet to the far corners of the world, affecting stock prices everywhere. Central bankers have to worry not just about expectations and sentiment in their own countries, but also in countries on the other side of the globe.
The Financial Times leads its Saturday edition with a story that the Fed and the Bank of England have put pressure on the ECB to take part in a scheme to accept junk mortgage based paper as collateral in repo operations. The article said the idea came from the Bank of England, and the ECB "appeared least enthusiastic" among the various central banks.
The arguments for complacency towards the euro are as dubious as those on the structural inability of the German economy to grow were 5 years ago. It is very hard to imagine a situation where the export sector is immune to a strong appreciation.
No matter what the optimists are saying now, at some point, the strong euro will come back to haunt the German manufacturing industry.
Global stock markets appear to be developing a case of whiplash. In the latest of a string of sharp moves, stocks surged in Asia and Europe on Tuesday, following US markets higher.
But the rally extended a period of harsh volatility in the markets that underscores the lingering uncertainty about the US economy and its troubled housing market - and the resulting fallout across the globe.
The violent swings indicate that traders are seizing on daily events to jump in - or out - of the market, grasping at clues about where the economy is heading. A result is a jittery, bewildered pack of investors whose mood can quickly swivel between fear and optimism.
Non-Japanese investors sold $9.22 billion more in Japanese shares than they purchased in the 5 days ended March 14, based on Tokyo Stock Exchange data released Friday -- the biggest sell-off since the week of October 1987's Black Monday.
The big backlash has come and the era of proudly free markets, privatization and deregulation is over. From all sides, even from Alan Greenspan, that disciple of Ayn Rand, comes the cry that more regulation is needed of Wall Street finance.
In short, capitalism is far too important to be left to the capitalists, and the US establishment is being converted to the view that free markets can get far too expensive for their freedom to be unrestrained.
This is the new world the financial crash has made, and it stands in stark contrast to the ruling ideology of the last 25 years that said free markets and free trade, privatization and deregulation were the efficient principles of the modern, post-industrial economy. But protectionism is back with a vengeance.
For the foreseeable future, the apostles of free markets and free trade are giving way to the new high priests of regulation, protection and state intervention.
(Op-ed: Taming the beast)
Small retailers the nation over are being pushed out of business by government subsidies to chain competitors such as Wal-Mart and Target through a variety of "corporate socialism" schemes.
If you're seeing your grocery bill go up, you're not alone. From subsistence farmers eating rice in Ecuador to gourmets feasting on escargot in France, consumers worldwide face rising food prices in what analysts call a perfect storm of conditions.
Freak weather is a factor. But so are dramatic changes in the global economy, including higher oil prices, lower food reserves and growing consumer demand in China and India.
"We need a response on a large scale, either the regional or international level," said Brian Halweil of the Worldwatch Institute. "All countries are tied enough to the world food markets that this is a global crisis."
Faced with the dramatically spiralling costs of wheat, rice and corn, the World Food Programme has made an unprecedented appeal for at least $500mn to help it continue supplying food aid to 73 million needy people this year.
The organisation's executive director told journalists yesterday that this was the first time in its history that the WFP had appealed for funds, not because of a crisis caused by famine or war but because of market conditions. And she warned that if extra resources were not received before the beginning of May, food rations would have to be cut.
"This is the new face of hunger. People are simply being priced out of food markets. It's the first time we have been hit by a dramatic market surprise. We have never before had a situation where aggressive rises in food prices keep pricing our operations out of our reach."
According to the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, the winter wheat crop has been affected by drought and it will likely impact spring planting as well. Northern China's crops have been hit hard by the drought. The Ministry predicts 11% of the 2.23 million hectares of crops will suffer heavy losses in production output. Also a concern for wheat output is the presence of several wheat diseases.
I'd like to suggest a very simple strategy for American liberals: Get mean. Stop policing the language and start using it to hurt our enemies. American liberals are so busy purging their speech of any words that might offend anyone that they have no notion of using language to cause some salutary pain.
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