Wednesday

The Daily WAR (10-16)

Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
 
 
 
    Benedict XVI paid homage today to the evangelizing and diplomatic work of Cardinal Pio Laghi, who died Sunday at age 86.
 
    The Vatican's Apostolic Penitentiary is holding a 2-day conference on the 5 "ultimate crimes" of abortion, using the Eucharistic host in Satanic rites, clergy pedophile offences, violation of the confessional, and "offences against the person of the Pope."
    For the first time Vatican officials will this week discuss in public sins committed by clergy considered so deadly that they require forgiveness from the Pope himself, The Times Online reports.
 
    Italy's rabbis have pulled out of the Italian Catholic Church's annual celebration of Judaism, saying recent decisions by Pope Benedict XVI were negating 50 years of interfaith progress.
 
 
 
    Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest bank, has issued a profits warning, saying it made an estimated loss of $6.4bn in the 4th quarter of last year.
 
    Germany is to take the radical step of changing its constitution in order to ensure excessive public borrowing is prevented, the country's chancellor, Angela Merkel, announced on Tuesday.
    The country is also to impose strict new rules to ensure that the extra debt created by its latest stimulus plan is paid off quickly.
    In a sign that investors are increasingly differentiating between Eurozone countries, yield margins between German and other Eurozone bonds have widened considerably in recent weeks.
 
Do what?!...
    With carmakers all over the world hurting, Chancellor Merkel has said she will confront Barack Obama over Washington's automotive aid package. But is the pot calling the kettle black?
 
    Italy's highest court has issued a written judgment ordering Germany to pay damages to the families of Italian WW2 victims of Nazi war crimes. But Germany says the ruling is judicially wrong.
 
 
 
    How is today the Franco-German?
    It is less strong. Quite frankly ... there will be no integration without the couple.
    Take a map of Europe, look at the demographic and economic weight of the different areas. A set is clear in its consistency: France, Germany, Benelux, northern Italy.
    If this all cracks, there will be no European integration.
 
    Barack Obama faces a full plate of tasks when he takes office -- and Europe will be asked to the table. But will the EU be able to agree on its responsibilities and be willing to take on more?
 
German press...
    The drama being played out by Russia and Ukraine has been full of sudden reversals. Germans commentators argue that Europe must take its energy security more seriously in order to avoid an encore performance of this hostage drama.
 
    The bitter gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine descended into near-chaos on Tuesday, leaving EU diplomats baffled as promises to restart supplies fully were broken and Moscow suggested that the US had meddled in the affair.
    Alexander Medvedev, the deputy chief executive of Gaz­prom, said: "We believed the door for Russian gas was open, but again it has been blocked by the Ukrainians."
    He accused the US of encouraging Ukrainian action: "It looks like . . .  they are dancing to music being orchestrated not in Kiev but outside the country."
 
    Expectations that the Ukraine-Russia gas dispute would be resolved swiftly were shattered Tuesday after they exchanged further accusations, leaving Europeans cold for a 2nd week.
 
    The European Union has threatened legal action against Russia and Ukraine unless they restore blocked gas supplies.
 
    The EU's diplomatic efforts in the Russia-Ukraine crisis may have focused on restoring the flow of gas but could it also have been trying to avoid a more ominous escalation as predicted by a Russian security document?
 
 
 
    The Zionist ideology is antithetical to the Torah.
    Zionism was deviously designed to replace the Torah and its holy, God-given commandments with nationalistic, power-driven ideals that are devoid of holiness, godliness, or spirituality.
    God-fearing Jews believe that the ultimate Redemption of the Jewish Nation will come about only through the Hands of God, and that at the time of the Redemption, peace will reign in the entire world.
    Any other type of forced redemption is but a sinful transgression, condemned by God and His Holy Torah.
    Obviously, the State of Israel has absolutely no connection with either Jews or Judaism.
 
A son of Shelah?...
    Operation Cast Lead must continue until Hamas "loses the will to fight," Israel Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday.
 
    Right-winger calls for destruction of Hamas in defence of democracy.
 
    Despite the horrifically high death toll among civilians, Israel continues its war in the Gaza Strip, even threatening to launch a full invasion. So far the UN and the EU have failed in their attempts to bring about a cease-fire.
 
    German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday called for a swift ceasefire in the Palestinian territory of Gaza after holding a telephone conversation with his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni.
 
    The West suspects Iran of providing support to Hamas in its ongoing fight against Israel. Spiegel spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki about the ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip and whether the West truly understands the Middle East.
 
    Israel was hit by 3 rockets from southern Lebanon today prompting fresh fears the conflict in Gaza could spread across the region.
 
     Osama bin Laden is reported to have issued a video recording calling on Muslims to wage jihad against Israel over its offensive in Gaza.
    The recording, which was dated to the current month in the Islamic calendar and called "A Call for Jihad to Stop the Aggression against Gaza", was posted on websites today.
    "God has bestowed us with the patience to continue the path of jihad for another 7 years, and 7 and 7 years. The question is, can America continue its war with us for several more decades to come? Reports and evidence would suggest otherwise."
 
    To anyone who knows anything about military strategy, the Israeli attack on Gaza is not intended to achieve results on the ground there, but to create a global crisis, by finding the pretexts to expand the war regionally and moving the forces that would help expand it.
    The Anglo-Saudi assets that LaRouche has been warning about, have been right at hand to deliver this service.
    The Anglo-Saudi/Israeli/Bush-Cheney provocateurs stand exposed today, but it should not be ruled out that some bloody acts of terrorism, whether in Israel or elsewhere, could still lead to the globalization of the conflict.
 
    Turkey's prime minister defended his outspoken criticism of Israel's Gaza offensive on Tuesday and said it did not mean he was anti-Semitic, though he also remarked that the "Jewish-backed media" was falsely suggesting that Hamas uses civilians as human shields in the Gaza Strip.
    "Excuses are found for mass killings of children at schools, hospitals and mosques, especially by Jewish-backed media. News stories saying that terrorists hide among children or (describing bombings) as technical errors or accidents are aimed at making fun of the world (public opinion)."
 
    The main US airbase supplying troops in Afghanistan could be closed down by the government of Kyrgyzstan in return for billions of dollars of Russian investment.
 
    The untold story of why the US is bound to fail in Afghanistan.
    The first of 20,000-30,000 additional US troops are scheduled to arrive in Afghanistan next month to re-win the war Bush neglected to finish in his eagerness to start another one.
    However, "winning" the military campaign against the Taliban is the lesser half of the story.
 
    Pakistan has deployed some additional troops along the border with India since the Mumbai attacks, but India has not responded in a similar manner, the Indian army chief said today.
    "The aspect of some troops coming towards the east...we are aware. That has happened. They have come to the eastern border of Pakistan with India."
 
    Arresting Bashir will be catastrophic for the peace in Sudan, African Union Peace and Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra told AFP yesterday from Doha, where ministers from various Africian and Arab states are gathering to discuss Sudan.
    In a rare move on Monday, Islamist leader Hassan Turabi, also leader of Popular Congress Party, asked Bashir to surrender to the International Court in the Hague for his crimes in Darfur.
 
    For more than 2 weeks, Germany has been conducting naval operations in the Gulf of Aden, in order to secure the international sea routes.
    According to Germany's Defence Minister (CDU), this is "the most robust mandate" in Germany's post-war history.
    No longer was it a matter of providing "aid, protection and mediation," as in earlier operations, he stressed, but the forces could expressly engage in combat.
    The mandate, passed by the Bundestag in December by a large majority, sanctions German military personnel not only to attack hostile ships but also to sink them.
    The despatch of the frigate Karlsruhe is only the beginning. Under the new mandate, up to 1,400 German military personnel can now be deployed in the Gulf of Aden.
    This massive concentration of foreign military in the region was made possible by UN resolution 1816, passed on June 2, 2008.
    The enormous military operation, however, cannot be explained simply by the fight against piracy.
    In times of economic crisis, none of the world's great powers want to cede control of this important maritime route to their competitors, and through which the majority of the Asia-Europe trade runs.
    Under the banner of the fight against piracy, international disputes are beginning over commercial routes and sea lanes that can result in violent military conflicts.
 
 
 
    Hillary Clinton said Tuesday the Obama administration would take no options off the table when dealing with Iran but a policy review was under way over how to tackle Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
 
 
 
    In a final, childish act, Bush refuses to answer a question from Helen Thomas, the most senior member of the White House press corps.
(Cartoon: HISTORY'S SHOE)
(Cartoons: BYE-BYE BUSH)
 
Only about money?...
    President Bush declared a state of emergency in the District of Columbia today and ordered the use of federal funds for Barack Obama's inauguration.
    "An emergency exists in the District of Columbia," White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement.
 
By the way, about that birth certificate...
    Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. will welcome Barack Obama and Joseph Biden -- 2 senators who voted against his confirmation -- to the Supreme Court this afternoon, the court announced Tuesday night.
    The court said Roberts, who will administer the oath of office to Obama next Tuesday, invited the pair to meet with him and the associate justices in the ceremonial West Conference Room, and maybe take a tour of the place. Reporters and photographers are not invited.
    [WAR: Is SCOTUS going to bring up Obama's birth controversy? Are they going to give him an ultimatum, or strike a deal "for the good of the country"?...]
 
    Barack Obama spent Tuesday evening at a dinner party with several prominent conservative columnists, including William Kristol and David Brooks of The New York Times, according to an Obama transition pool report.
    Also attending the party was The Washington Post's George Will and Charles Krauthammer. Together, some of the columnists at the dinner party have been some of Obama's severest critics.
    Obama transition officials refused to comment on the dinner, saying that it was off the record.
 
    A  senior fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs looks back at the rise and fall of the neocons, who encouraged President Bush to invade Iraq.
 
    The US State Department fiercely denied claims made by Ehud Olmert about his influence over President Bush, in an incident that has stirred up old debates about the role of the Israeli government and the so-called "Israel lobby" in formulating Middle East policy in Washington.
    On Monday, Olmert claimed that he demanded and received an immediate conversation with Bush, during which he convinced the president to overrule the wishes of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and abstain from a UN resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
 
    Why are so many oligarchs, royal families, and special-interest groups giving money to the Clinton Foundation?
    Why is Hillary Clinton, the spouse of the great influence-peddler, being nominated in the first place? In exchange for giving the painful impression that our State Department will be an attractive destination for lobbyists and donors, what exactly are we getting?
 
    The Department of Homeland Security has developed contingency plans to deploy the US military to protect American citizens in the event Mexico's drug war spills across the border.
    The DHS decision is yet another indication Mexico's drug war is threatening to spin out of control and threaten the well-being of US citizens living along our southern border with Mexico
 
    Globalists are "salivating" over the possibility of a Constitutional Convention at which issues such as the 2nd Amendment could handily be dismissed, according to a leader who warns Virginia likely is the next target for the drive.
    "There is no question in my mind that, should a new Constitutional Convention be called, it would be the end of the United States of America as we know it, and our current Constitution and Bill of Rights would be forever altered beyond recognition."
 
 
 
    Freight rates for containers shipped from Asia to Europe have fallen to zero for the first time since records began, underscoring the dramatic collapse in trade since the world economy buckled in October.
    "We have seen trade activity fall off a cliff. Asia-Europe is an unmit­igated disaster."
    The latest phase of the shipping crisis has spread to core trade of finished industrial goods, the lifeblood of the world economy.
    "This is no regular cycle slowdown, but a complete collapse in foreign demand."
    The World Bank caused shockwaves with a warning last month that global trade may decline this year for the first time since WW2. This appears increasingly certain with each new batch of data.
 
    If governments continue their attempts to rescue all banks and hedge funds, and to honor all demands from private financiers for ever greater sums of taxpayers' money, then we can be certain that we will see an even more dramatic collapse of the real economy, an explosion of hyperinflation in the near term, and a descent into a new Dark Age.
 
    Staggered by losses despite 2 US government rescues, Citigroup is accelerating moves to dismantle parts of its troubled financial empire in an effort to placate regulators and its anxious investors.
    Under pressure from Washington and Wall Street, the financial giant plans to split itself in 2.
    Citigroup faces a devastating 4th quarter, with expectations of a $10 billion operating loss, and potentially billions more this year.
 
    Even before word leaked out that Citigroup might split into pieces to shore up its finances, an unpleasant message was moving through Congress and Barack Obama's transition team: The banks need more money from US taxpayers. In all likelihood, a lot more money.
 
    Now Ben Bernanke is talking about a Bad Bank, a public owned institution that buys up toxic assets to relieve the financial sector.
    Speaking in London, and reported by many European newspapers, he welcomes Obama's rescue package, but said this was not enough.
    The financial sector remained vulnerable, and there would be no way around further relief to the financial sector, he said.
 
    President Bush -- at the request of Barack Obama -- Tuesday formally requested the next truckload of Wall Street bailout cash. The question is whether Congress should agree to this request or not, and I am against it for 4 reasons.
 
    Barack Obama called on Congress to quickly pass a new fiscal stimulus package that would provide nearly $100,000 trazillion gaquillion frijillion in an effort to revive the US economy, which some experts believe has entered a recession.
    When asked what safeguards would be put in place to ensure that none of the unprecedented $100,000 trazillion gaquillion frijillion was lost to waste, fraud, and abuse, Obama pointed behind the press corps, said "Oh my GOD! LOOK!" then quickly exited the room.
 
    No one person is responsible for the credit crisis, the failure of investment banks, the insolvency of commercial banks world-wide, the implosion of the world's stock markets, or for leading us to the precipice of another great depression. The truth is there were many.
 
    The financial crisis that started in the US, but progressively spread well beyond its borders, is going to present the eurozone economy with new challenges in the months to come, EU monetary chiefs warned on Tuesday at a European Parliament event marking the 10th anniversary of the common currency.
    "The real test for the cohesion of the eurozone is still facing us ... 2009 is going to be an extremely difficult year for the eurozone and its citizens."
    "Despite significant progress, the international representation of the euro is still often too fragmentary and national interests too often take precedence over the common interest that we have."
 
 
 
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