Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, has offered a preview of next week's trip by Pope Benedict XVI to the US, in a pair of interviews with American news outlets.
Just about everyone knows that the papacy gave Rome St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, and the ever-present keys and tiara affixed to the city's numerous churches, fountains and shrines bear further witness to the papal generosity that made these structures possible. Few, however, are aware that the very roads that guide our steps, leading us from one monument to another, were also part of papal design.
A small bank based in Bremerhaven has had its services suspended by federal financial authorities in Germany. As insolvency proceedings are ordered, Weserbank's leaders are blaming the global financial crisis.
[Europress] [Russopress]
Italian opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi has claimed that right-wing female politicians are better looking than their left-wing counterparts. The centre-right's candidate in elections this weekend was quoted as telling local media that the left had "no taste" in women.
Germany's energy baron Wulf Bernotat has a few words of friendly warning for Britain: face up to the harsh realities of the global power crunch, or face strategic disaster.
Dr Bernotat, who heads Germany's power giant e.on, is no shrinking violet. Last year he lashed out at Brussels, calling the EU competition police a bigger threat to energy security than the Kremlin.
Brussels had forced e.on to cede its stake in the German grid as part of its anti-trust drive. He called it "expropriation", and blamed British officials - free-market vigilantes controlling the key levers of power in the EU's economic apparatus, as indeed they often do. Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper calls the commission a branch office of Whitehall.
Europe has belatedly discovered Central Asia as an energy supplier. But with its focus on human rights, the EU is likely to have a tougher time wooing the region's nations than Russia and China.
(And: EU threatens games boycott)
(Analysis: EU divided over Olympic boycott)
In Bucharest last week, NATO weathered one of the most contentious summits in its history. By standing in the way of US efforts to put Ukraine and Georgia on the path to membership, Germany, France, Italy and a host of other members delivered Washington an embarrassing rebuff.
A new day has certainly opened for NATO when its leading states part company on vital questions of membership - and when the US does not get its way. The rifts evident in Bucharest were reflective of an alliance that is growing increasingly divided by the diverging priorities of the US and its European allies and by the rising power of Russia.
Russia's Foreign Minister said that Moscow will do all it can to prevent the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia from joining NATO. "We will do all we can to prevent Ukraine's and Georgia's accession into NATO and to avoid an inevitable serious exacerbation of our relations with both the alliance and our neighbors."
President Ahmadinejad calls for world action, suggesting that the 'true measure of democracy' becomes clear in times of crisis. He said Israel and its allies continue to commit atrocities but will never have the control they want.
"The Zionist regime and its allies resort to any possible tactic in the hope of finding salvation but all to no avail," he said, suggesting that Israel cannot continue its occupation of Palestine forever.
"The only solution to the Palestinian crisis is to allow Palestinians decide their fate for themselves. The Palestinian issue is the ultimate test which measures the resolve of nations and governments in promoting democracy, freedom and human rights."
The US, which has been mediating negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority here, has proposed a plan to divide Jerusalem, WND has learned. The plan, divided into separate phases, among other things calls for Israel eventually to forfeit parts of the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site.
US coalition building and the Arab League
Here is an important look back at 3 summits of the Arab League held in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria in 2003, 2007, and 2008. The importance of these Arab League summits are in their roles in paving the political grounds for US war plans in the Middle East.
Syria, watchful of Israel's nationwide emergency drill, announced Wednesday it would be holding a home front emergency drill of its own in the coming days. Syria's Prime Minister briefed his cabinet on the coming drill, which is expected to include all of Syria's provinces.
China has burned its fingers on the Olympic flame as the international spotlight is shone on its human rights record in Tibet. Still, German politicians should refrain from overwrought gestures such as an Olympic boycott and instead continue to engage both Beijing and the Dalai Lama in dialogue.
Chinese police claim to have cracked a terror ring they say was plotting to kidnap foreign journalists, tourists and athletes during the Beijing Olympics. Authorities say they detained 45 men from the country's predominantly Muslim northwest region. The allege the group was also planning suicide bomb attacks.
Militants have been agitating to establish an independent East Turkestan, which borders Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Germany says Iran's plan to expand its uranium enrichment program hampers a solution to the country's nuclear standoff with the West. "Tehran is clearly acting against the will of the United Nations security Council. Such a move will only make a solution to the problem more difficult."
Iran's judiciary chief told leaders of Qatar on Wednesday that his country was willing to put its controversial nuclear expertise at the service of all Muslim states. "Iran is determined to make the best use of this technology not only for Iran but also for all Muslim states."
Iran's president on Wednesday warned the West to expect a "bloody nose" over mounting pressure on Iran to halt its sensitive uranium enrichment activities. He insisted Iran would never abandon its atomic work. "The Iranian nation will bloody the enemy's (the West's) nose if they want to violate an iota of our rights (to nuclear technology)."
Iran slammed the US for accusing it of playing a "destructive" role in Iraq, saying Washington was merely covering up its own failure since the invasion of 2003. "The United States cannot pass to others the blame for their own problems-which are caused by their own performance-with diversions and playing with words."
"Iran will be the first nuclear state in history against which deterrence won't work, even if the deterrent is nuclear," Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu said. "Nothing will stop the Iranians - not the use of force and not a fear of being hit in retaliation."
For their part, House Democrats advanced no serious challenge to the positions put forward by Bush's handpicked general and ambassador. With relatively few exceptions, they made it clear that they are not calling for an immediate or complete withdrawal of American forces from Iraq.
Rather, what they advocate is a "transition" to a different "mission" that would leave tens of thousands of troops behind to carry out "counterinsurgency" operations, train Iraqi security forces and protect US interests in the oil-rich country.
(Cartoon: Baghdad: 5 years on)
Afraid of the neocons?
Some of John McCain's best friends are Neocons. So much so that he signed a letter in 1998 to President Clinton, that among other things stated that "the only acceptable strategy is one that eliminates the possibility that Iraq is able to use or threaten to use weapons of mass destruction."
So when John McCain tells you that 9/11 changed his way of thinking, unless he's referring to 9/11/98, chalk it up to more of that famous "straight-talk." So when, on March 13, 2007, he didn't show up to vote on the "Keeping America Secure Act," one had to wonder what kind of agenda he's really committed to.
McCain had 16 votes that day. He made 15 of them. The only one he missed was the one to codify the 9/11 Commission recommendations. And coincidentally, of course, Neocons hated those recommendations, because they talked about meeting with the Iranians and Syrians, for example, instead of just blowing them up.
Martial law is perhaps the ultimate stomping of freedom. And yet, on September 30, 2006, Congress passed a provision in a 591-page bill that will make it easy for President Bush to impose martial law in response to a terrorist "incident."
It also empowers him to effectively declare martial law in response to what he or other federal officials label a shortfall of "public order" – whatever that means. There is nothing to prevent a president from declaring martial law on false pretexts – any more than there is to prevent him from launching a foreign war on false pretenses.
Closer Fianancial And Regulatory Ties Sealing The 2 Countries As 1
Unlike the 17th Century battles fought on American soil to give us our independence from Great Britain, the final battle of brilliant maneuvers and institutions began in 1903 to delicately orchestrate the gradual reintegration of the United States with Great Britain.
With regard to disorderly markets and a global financial crisis, if one will just look at the number of banks closely involved, they are all inter-related, many of them British owned and if they had continued to buy each others mortgage paper, we would not have had a problem.
As I see it, there is no problem at all; there is a situation to create chaos so the problem can be solved according to the pre-determined plan to reemerge our countries. The British have overturned the outcome of the War of 1812.
Less than 2 weeks after grounding hundreds of its planes for unannounced inspections, top US air carrier American Airlines cancelled at least 1,500 flights Tuesday and Wednesday for reinspection of wiring in its aging fleet of MD-80s.
The cancellations have interrupted travel for hundreds of thousands of people and seriously compounded the crisis in the commercial airlines industry.
German press
The IMF has announced it wants to sell a big chunk of its gold reserves to free up funds to diversify, as its traditional activity -- loans to troubled economies -- has dried up in recent years. German commentators say a reformed IMF could play a part in identifying future financial crises.
The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday cut its growth forecast for the EU countries using the euro and called on the European Central Bank to cut its interest rates to help fend off the economic slowdown.
"Activity in western Europe is … projected to slow to well below potential, owing to trade spillovers, financial strains and negative housing cycles in some countries. The financial market crisis that erupted in August 2007 has developed into the largest financial shock since the Great Depression, inflicting heavy damage on markets and institutions at the core of the financial system."
(Chart: Taking the global temperature)
The different economic priorities of central banks in Europe were evident today after the European Central Bank left interest rates steady to fight inflation, while the Bank of England lowered borrowing costs to stoke faltering activity.
The ECB kept its benchmark refinancing rate at 4%, a 6-year high, to quell inflation, even as the euro's rise and a credit squeeze threaten to choke economic growth. The BOE lowered its benchmark rate for a 3rd time since December to 5%.
When central bankers blast central banks for being reckless, you know the problem is serious. Despite all the complications, the fundamental cause is the Fed itself, which purports to be the great savior of the money system but in fact is its destroyer.
The problems the Fed faces today are eerily similar to those of 1930 and following. The boom was caused by a loose money policy by the Fed, and the inevitable bust has come. But now everyone looks to the Fed to provide the answer.
If Bernanke loses, we all lose. But if Bernanke wins, we lose even more. More inflationary finance can only make the present situation worse.
(And: Volker chides Bernanke)
(And: Has the market failed?)
The Federal Reserve is considering contingency plans for expanding its lending power in the event its recent steps to unfreeze credit markets fail.
Among the options: Having the Treasury borrow more money than it needs to fund the government and leave the proceeds on deposit at the Fed; issuing debt under the Fed's name rather than the Treasury's; and asking Congress for immediate authority for the Fed to pay interest on commercial-bank reserves instead of waiting until a previously enacted law permits it in 2011.
British and Swiss central banks also are contemplating contingency plans. For now, the European Central Bank is reluctant to consider options that require substantial modifications of its standard tools.
China's currency, the yuan, rose today against the dollar, reaching a milestone that is just the latest sign of the growing economic power of this country. For the first time in more a decade, a dollar bought less than 7 yuan, a situation that experts said would likely make Chinese-made goods more expensive for overseas consumers and possibly contribute to inflation in other countries.
Amid the onset of a recession sparked by the ongoing collapse of the mortgage bubble, and calls for massive wage and benefits concessions from workers, US corporate management is continuing to award itself immense salaries and golden parachutes.
To masses of people who work for or depend on the decisions of major corporations, the looting carried out by top executives is not the inevitable reflection of human nature, but a direct threat to their jobs and living standards.
For them, the behavior of CEOs and boards at joint stock companies will reveal above all the destructiveness of placing private profit above the needs of society.
Love money, but hate competition for it?...
This paper attempts to understand why the Jews, who have benefited so much from capitalism, nevertheless, in the main, reject it in favor of its polar opposite, socialism and government intervention into the economy; why it is that this group of people, whose socio economic status might be expected to incline them in the direction of the Republican political party in the US, instead vote in overwhelming numbers for the Democrats.
(And: Fascist capitalism)
The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation said global commodity prices were far from easing in the short term owing to tight supply-demand situation and warned of flare ups over food shortage.
"The rise in prices of food commodities all over the world is not going to ease in the short term in view of supply-demand situation," the FAO Director General told reporters. He said the world has 4-5 million tonnes of cereals stocks that can feed the global population for only 8-12 weeks.
[CFR Opinion Roundup][Newseum][Global Incident Map][Earthweek][Day-Night Map][Tonight's Sky][Moon phase]
Survivalism, it seems, is not just for survivalists anymore
Faced with a confluence of diverse threats — a tanking economy, a housing crisis, looming environmental disasters, and a sharp spike in oil prices — people who do not consider themselves extremists are starting to discuss doomsday measures once associated with the social fringes.
Barton M. Biggs, the former chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley, says in his new book, "Wealth, War and Wisdom," that people should "assume the possibility of a breakdown of the civilized infrastructure."
"Your safe haven must be self-sufficient and capable of growing some kind of food. It should be well-stocked with seed, fertilizer, canned food, wine, medicine, clothes, etc. Think Swiss Family Robinson. Even in America and Europe there could be moments of riot and rebellion when law and order temporarily completely breaks down."
(And: Survival Blog)
Skulls. Black cats. A naked woman riding a killer whale. Grim reapers. Snakes. Swords. Occult symbols. A wizard with a staff that shoots lightning bolts. Moons. Stars. A dragon holding the Earth in its claws. No, this is not the fantasy world of a 12-year-old boy.
It is, according to a new book, part of the hidden reality behind the Pentagon's classified, or "black," budget that delivers billions of dollars to stealthy armies of high-tech warriors. The book offers a glimpse of this dark world through a revealing lens — patches — the kind worn on military uniforms.
WAR e-mail format for military: YAHOO! WARriors
WAR fund: PayPal (payable to thedailywarrior@gmail.com)
