Friday

The Daily WAR (11-10)

Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
 
 
 
    Benedict XVI did not know Bishop Richard Williamson's position as a denier of the Holocaust when he lifted the prelate's excommunication in order to facilitate dialogue with the Lefebvrites, affirmed the Vatican.
 
    3 German Catholic organizations have shown solidarity with Pope Benedict XVI.
    The conservative organizations say that the backlash against the pope has spiralled out of proportion. They condemn what they see as a "manipulative media campaign."
    [WAR: Could be part of an agenda to discredit B16 before the release of his 3rd encyclical -- which will cover the church's social doctrine and how economies should be run (not the neo-liberal/Anglo-Saxon/NWO way)?]
 
    Chancellor Merkel (a Lutheran) faced criticism from within her Christian Democratic party Thursday over her call for the pope to take a clearer stand on Bishop Richard Williamson's anti-Holocaust views.
    Inside the Vatican, however, there is reportedly anger at Merkel's involvement in an internal church appointment that was originally an attempt by the pope to heal a rift within the Catholic Church.
 
    The full story about Benedict XVI's reconciliation with excommunicated bishops, contrary to the media's portrayal, can reaffirm Jewish-Catholic relations, stated the president of an interreligious foundation.
    He said he found that Vatican actions "typically do not concern themselves with years, but rather with centuries."
 
    The Holy See is welcoming a United Nations proposal that offers subsidiarity and solidarity as paths to foster social integration.
    Archbishop Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the UN, affirmed this in an address to the UN Economic and Social Council.
    "Social cohesion, as an expression of social justice, is overall a condition that must be assured to all persons by reason of their lofty dignity. Beyond that it is also an indispensable condition to meet the global crises that confront humanity today."
 
 
 
    The Oberbayern and the Franks in the CSU.
 
    The Obama administration is facing its first big international test this weekend as Vice President Biden heads to a conference in Munich in the face of a confrontational stance from an old cold war adversary.
 
    Joe Biden hopes to use the meeting to repair US relations with Europe that were damaged during the Bush administration, while Germany looks for a strong message to Moscow in the US Vice President's speech.
 
    The US is experiencing its worst crisis in decades. Obama is trying to fight it by preparing one gigantic economic stimulus program after the other.
    But the hangover is inevitable, and if the desired economic miracle doesn't materialize, it will be a massive one.
 
 
 
    Henry Kissinger has made a return to frontline politics after Obama reportedly sent him to Moscow to win backing from Vladimir Putin's government for a nuclear disarmament initiative.
    The Daily Telegraph has learned that the 85-year-old former US secretary of state met President Medvedev for secret negotiations in December.
 
    This year will bring an acceleration of the race for the "High North" — the scramble for territorial rights over the Arctic, which has been dubbed the new Cold War.
    Why now? Two summers in which the Arctic ice has melted much further than expected have suggested that the Northwest Passage, a hugely valuable sea route, might open up through the once-frozen sea.
    The retreat of the ice cap also offers the chance of extracting the huge oil and gas reserves believed to lie in fields around the North Pole.
 
 
 
    A once obscure Right-wing party, which has pledged to deprive any Israeli of the vote if they refused a "loyalty test", has become a possible kingmaker in the country's election.
    Two opinion polls suggested that Yisrael Beiteinu, a hard right movement led by Avigdor Lieberman, will seize the balance of power when Israel votes next Tuesday.
 
    Recently Netanyahu has expressed a desire for a unity government, saying he would call on "all of the Zionist parties" to join a broad coalition.
    If possible such a coalition could wield enormous power, with polls suggesting it could control upwards of 90% of the Knesset.
 
    Benjamin Netanyahu has secretly issued a stern warning to Hamas that if its rocket campaign continues once he's in power, he will not hesitate to eliminate the terror group's leadership in both the Gaza Strip and Syria.
    The warning is particularly strong, since Hamas' leadership in Syria is protected by the Damascus regime.
 
    So you thought it was all going to be different, did you, that we were in for a change – a Big Change?
    In Afghanistan, we are about to see the "liberal" Democratic version of the Bush Doctrine put into practice, as we venture into the tribal areas of Pakistan.
    It's the same old game, only with different players. Instead of Iraq, it's going to be Afghanistan and Pakistan.
 
    Moscow has correctly assessed that the announced Obama troop buildup in Afghanistan has no relevance to the stated aim of combatting the 'Taliban', but rather with a new attempt by the Pentagon strategists to encircle both Russia and China on Eurasia in order to retain US global military dominance.
    It is not waiting for a new policy from Washington. Rather Russia is acting to secure its perimeter in Central Asia through a series of calculated geopolitical moves reminiscent of the famous Great Game of more than a Century ago.
    The stakes in this geopolitical power game could not be higher — the issue of world war or peace in the coming decade.
 
    The threatened closure of a key Pentagon supply base in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, with serious implications for the Obama administration's planned escalation of the US-led war in Afghanistan, has deepened tensions between Washington and Moscow.
    The critical role played by the base has also been underscored by the mounting crisis Washington confronts in relation to its principal overland supply route to Afghanistan from Pakistan — the Khyber Pass — which accounts for some 75% of the supplies for US forces.
    At issue is the growing rivalry between Moscow and Washington over control of the region's strategic energy reserves, a key objective that underlies the US war in Afghanistan just as much as its intervention in Iraq.
 
    The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Thursday threatened to intensify attacks on the government installations and NATO supplies if the military operations in Swat and the tribal areas were not stopped.
    He claimed that a decision to accelerate attacks on the NATO supplies had already been taken and now the TTP militants would use all means to stop supplies to the US and its allies in Afghanistan.
 
    A court in Pakistan has ended the house arrest of Dr. Khan, a scientist who admitted selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
    "The court has said as he was not involved in nuclear proliferation or criminal activity, there is no case against him, therefore, he is a free citizen."
 
    An Egyptian Muslim cleric has instructed that husbands should not beat their wives to the point that their beauty is scarred or bones are broken, but that it should be clear that: "A word would be enough for any wife with lofty morals, but with you, words do not help."
 
    Obama supports implementing the war crimes indictment by the International Criminal Court against Sudanese President Bashir, a strong indication of the tough approach the new administration will take toward Sudan as well as its favorable view of an international body the Bush administration refused to join.
 
 
 
    President Ahmadinejad asked world powers on Thursday to be "polite" in dealing with Tehran, a day after diplomats from 6 countries met to discuss the nuclear standoff.
    "Bullying powers should learn how to speak correctly and be polite so Iran's cultured and peace-loving people listen to them. Iranians are logical people and if you have logical talk to offer, then provide it and say it. We listen to and welcome anyone who offers a solution to the problems of the world."
 
    Top-level Iranian and American officials participated in four closed-door international conferences last year to discuss Tehran's nuclear program, the director of the sponsoring organization confirmed to WND.
    The executive director of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, insisted the meetings were unofficial gatherings in which the participants did not represent their governments in direct negotiations.
 
    Israel will go along with Obama's Iran diplomacy, but try to shorten the deadline for results by signaling its willingness to attack Iranian nuclear sites if need be.
    A former US Middle East negotiator said the [Netanyahu] visit would entail a "strategic conversation" with Obama.
    "It need not be conclusive or threatening, but it will be very serious and ... scare the daylights out of the president that unless the international community mobilizes to address the situation, the Israelis will."
 
 
 
    Britain's relationship with its greatest ally is already showing signs of strain under Barack Obama, but it is vital for our future.
    The pooling of intelligence resources between Britain and the US is one of the pillars of the special relationship between the countries, which dates back to America's entry to WW1.
    Today, the relationship has developed to such an extent that the relatively modest resources available to Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) mean it relies heavily on its better-funded and technologically-superior American counterparts.
    The successful defence of our realm is very much in American hands.
 
    France is in talks on taking control of 2 NATO command posts, including a prestigious one in the US that has never been led by a foreign commander, defense officials said Thursday.
    Such a move could also be accompanied by the injection of hundreds more French troops into NATO, a European defense official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because no deal had been finalized.
 
    Some of us have been warning that it was not healthy for the US media to have deified rather than questioned Obama.
    We are quite literally, after only 2 weeks, teetering on an Obama implosion — and with no Dick Morris to bail him out — brought on by messianic delusions of grandeur, hubris, and a strange naivete that soaring rhetoric and a multiracial profile can add requisite cover to good old-fashioned Chicago politicking.
 
    As previously noted in Pawns of the Global Elite, Barack Obama was groomed for the presidency by key members of the Trilateral Commission.
    For anyone who doubts the Commission's continuing influence on Obama, consider that he has already appointed no less than 11 members of the Commission to top-level and key positions in his Administration.
 
    The problem with rightwing paranoia is thus its inconsistency. If the right distrusted war as much as domestic socialism, and Republican power as much as Democratic power, its fears would not be far off base.
 
    The New Orleans Police Department, along with 150 active duty US troops, are currently engaging in what they describe as "military training" as black helicopters whizz around the city dropping bombs in the latest example of Americans being incrementally conditioned to accept a state of de facto martial law.
 
 
 
    The US economy is suffering its steepest downturn since at least the 1970s and could descend into a depression, General Electric's chief executive, warned on Thursday.
    He said businesses and consumers alike were struggling to contend with tumultuous markets and a financial-services industry under siege.
    "Unlike the other downturns that I've been a part of, this one is faced with limited liquidity. Once you break through '74-'75, you don't stop 'til you get to 1929."
 
    Yes, dear reader, the picture is becoming clearer and clearer. It is not very different from what we expected...but it is drawing closer.
    We see more detail. Like an asteroid that is on course to destroy the earth, it is getting close enough so we can make out the hills, the craters and the dusty plains.
 
    What began early last year as a "credit crunch" and an "economic downturn" is now being characterized as a "long, severe recession."
    Once upon a time, such a crisis was known as a "depression" before Americans became squeamish about such stark language.
    America and the rest of the modern world, by doggedly pursuing the same mistaken policies of the 1920s and '30s, have made a full-blown depression all but inevitable.
    In fact, the parallels between the run-up to the Great Depression and today's economic havoc are stunning.
 
    The global financial crisis, which went through a major tipping point in September 2008, is only the detonator of the global systemic crisis.
    The financial and monetary chaos of the past months were only the triggers of a series of economic, social and political crises that will from now on give the pace to the last phase of this global systemic crisis.
    The most severe consequences - in human, social, economic and political terms - are still ahead of us, not behind.
 
    Germany and 5 major international financial and economic organizations pledged Thursday to undertake "determined and coordinated action" to fight the global economic downturn.
    The meeting painted a gloomy picture of the world economy and urged countries to "resist protectionist tendencies" and "work towards tangible further opening of world trade."
 
    Chancellor Merkel said on Thursday she wanted international financial institutions to be present at the G20 meeting in London. "We want closer cooperation (of these institutions) in the G20 process," she said.
 
    Has the Fed really "run out of ammunition"?
    Through its monetary policy, the Fed is trying to bail out an insolvent and illiquid banking system to maintain an unsustainable structure of production.
    As long as the currency is not totally destroyed, the Fed will never run out of ammunition.
    In order to assess the ammunition left, one should have a look at the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve – especially at the assets the Fed can still obtain.
    The Fed's balance sheet also gives insights on the condition or quality of the dollar.
 
    The US risks being hit by Zimbabwe-style hyperinflation and there are signs that the world's biggest economy risks turning into a banana republic.
 
    These are numbers nobody has seen before. German industry, like Japan's industry, is in virtual free-fall.
    FT Deutschland says on its front page that economists are now invoking the Great Depression, and they are fearing mass layoffs by the summer unless the economic cycle is turning by mid-year.
 
    Less than 2 months after forecasting its first ever full-year operating loss, Toyota Motor said today that it anticipates that loss to be 3 times as much as originally expected as global auto sales continue to plunge.
    With no sign of an end to the steep slide in the world auto market, analysts said they expected Toyota would suffer an even larger loss in the next fiscal year.
 
    The economic outlook in Japan is very grim. Right now, Japan has the worst growth outlook in Asia.
 
 
 
 
    Both evolutionists and creationists have certain built-in assumptions in interpreting and using scientific data when it comes to the earth's age.
    The issue many times comes down to which assumptions are more reasonable. Dating rocks is not a hard (no pun intended) science.
 
 
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