Another MSNBC report has surfaced that we are close to capturing ABU al Zarqawi. They have been close to capturing him and bin Laden several times over the past couple of years. They always make such announcements when the dollar is under acute pressure. This is the CIA at work in behalf of the elitists, who run our government. We are victims of perpetual lying. This is not democracy and freedom when our media is dictated to by our corporate fascist government. These elitists are self-serving crooks. They cannot allow the free market to be free. No matter what they do in the end, they will lose. The dollar will fall and the only safe havens will be gold and silver.
In some instances, government can intervene in markets for the sake of our financial survival, but not every day in every market with the help of corporate interests. The major brokerage houses, investment banks and bullion banks make fortunes on this insider activity and are guaranteed against loss. There is nothing legal or constitutional about this fleecing of the American public. This shows you how important our regulatory agencies really are and when they function, it is to protect the interests of these insiders.
Besides, the skiing Davos and the World Economic Forum has turned out to be quite a sounding board for the G-7 meeting, which we will address later in this issue. An example is Swiss media headlines: “Bank of China’s Zhu Says He Does Not Think China Will Revalue in the Next 6-18 Months.” That is explicit. Eighteen months from now, they expect the cut to only be 5%, which is hardly worth it, a crumb, a token.
It looks like total funding for military operations in 2005 will be $105 billion. That is 13 times the budget for the EPA. In conjunction with our invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, we will spend $780 million to combat the drug trade. That is a laugh - we run the drug trade.
There is now no question that the American occupation of Iraq is a disaster for Americans and Iraqis alike. The war, which supposedly ended in April of 2003 in reality, was just beginning. Our President could not have been more wrong. Our military is a broken, dispirited, disheartened force, so much so that desertions are closing in on 6,000. The only way America can win in Iraq is to hunt down the insurgents and kill them. That is impractical and impossible. Shock and awe will not root these people out. Bombing them into the Stone Age, as our President wants to do, will not work either. This is another dark day in American history. Our country is being led to failure after failure by a lunatic. We have become so desperate that we now have teams of Iraqi assassins who are used to infiltrate and eliminate the leadership of the Iraqi resistance. This is our new Salvador Option, like the death squads that operated in El Salvador during the 1980s, a throwback from the operation Phoenix program in Vietnam, which we were invited to participate in but refused. Desperate people do desperate things. That is how we degenerate into ideological perversity and our leadership has done just that again. America is finding out that the resistance they face is not founded on the formal structure of the Baath Party, but on a mixture of tribal and religious motivations. It has now become a grassroots national liberation movement, which can be a model for what we expect to happen in the immediate years ahead on the streets of America. The Salvador type of option can never work because it is a moral and ethical failure. Freedom fighters do not confront armies; they use guerrilla tactics as we did in the American Revolution. They are in use in Iraq and they will soon be used in America again. History will condemn what we have done in Iraq just as they have in what we did in Vietnam. Eventually assassination will lead to civil war in Iraq and the perversion of any notion of liberation. The best thing we can do is leave and help them rebuild their country and society. They can sort out their own problems. During the inauguration, our President had 13,000 troops, police officers and federal agents protecting him. Many of them were military commandos from Delta Force. There use is forbidden under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which restricts military forces from performing domestic law enforcement duties, like policing. It was enacted after the Civil War in response to the misuse of federal troops who were policing the South. The commandos used at the inauguration were the same type of Special Operations Forces who are hunting top insurgents in Iraq, Osama bin Laden in the wilds of Afghanistan and Pakistan and may be hunting you in the future in the streets and forests of America. The Northern Command, under a contingency plan called JCS Conplan 0300-97, calls for special-mission units in “extra-legal” missions to combat terrorism in the US. Worse yet, this illegal and unconstitutional plan has been confirmed by three senior Defense Department and Bush administration officials and they characterized it as “extra-legal,” which in simple language means illegal. They combat terrorism under the Defense Department Authorization Act, Public Law 106-65 to assist local enforcement. The problem is anyone who disagrees with the administration is a terrorist.
President Bush has cited as a model for his plans to overhaul Social Security. Chile’s plan is 25 years old and has been copied by a number of countries. People put 10% of their salaries in private investment accounts that they controlled. The Chilean government continues to direct billions of dollars to a safety net for those whose contributions were not large enough to insure even a minimum pension approaching $140 a month. Almost 50% of Chileans live outside the system making a living in the underground economy, some are self-employed, or only work seasonally. Thus, it is impossible to think that a system of this nature is going to resolve the income needs of Chileans when they reach old age. Investment fees ate up 30% of cash inflow. The real problem is pay as you go systems ultimately do not work. You need a high birth rate to make them work. Most of our population growth comes from 18-20 million illegal aliens, most of who don’t pay into the system. Privatization is based on a 10% return, which is ridiculous. Six to seven percent would be closer to reality over 100 years. Chile has spent $66 billion on benefits and the system is still not self-sustaining and spending on pensions makes up more than a quarter of the national budget, nearly as much as spending on education and health combined. The invested funds have fueled economic expansion but not the profits of the pension recipients. Chile’s system is in part a failure. The brokerage business made billions but not the participants. Mr. Bush says this is a great example for other countries. He is dead wrong. It’s a way to supply investment capital for corporations and fees for investment bankers. The funds supply cheap corporate financing. The bottom line is, the cost to the Chilean government has been 5 to 6% of economic output, whereas in 2003, Social Security outlays in the US totaled 4.2% of GDP. Therefore, those who opted to stay in the old government system are getting twice the pension of those who gambled in the stock and bond market. Partial privatization of the US Social Security system is a scam and a Ponzi scheme created to bring trillions of dollars in profits to Wall Street.
Corporate welfare is a deadly title. It denotes corporatism and corporatism is fascism. Johnson & Johnson just signed up for a one-year “tax holiday” – government subsidized opportunity for American multinationals to bring their foreign profits back to the US at a tax rate of 5.25% versus the normal rate of 35%. We individual taxpayers should be so lucky. They are repatriating $11 billion. Schering-Plough is returning $9.4 billion and Eli Lilly $8 billion. In all, corporate America will avoid $10 billion or more in taxation as the IRS hounds you for $300.00 or some such paltry amount. Our government call the tax breaks a tax holiday. We call it legal tax evasion.
One of our fellow subscribers wanted you to know that while his son was driving back from school in Delaware last week, he stopped for gas at a BP station in Delaware. They informed him they did not take cash, only debit or credit cards. Next, they will only take your microchip.
Americans between 25 and 34 now have the second biggest rate of bankruptcy. The average credit card debt for this group increased by 55% from 1992 to 2001, with the average adult household now spending about 24% of its income on debt payments. Adults between 17 and 24 between 1992-2001, saw a 104% increase. Among the youngest adult households with incomes below $50,000, nearly one-in-seven with credit card debt was in debt hardship. Fifty percent of the 25 to 34 year olds do not own homes. The big problems are student loans and job losses. Young people just do not understand how evil debt really is and the parents are as buried as they are and set a horrible example. In the job area, very few ever thought their job would be outsourced. We can thank our President, Congress, Wall Street and corporate America for that. Bankruptcies among the under 25 crowd were up 96% over the past 10 years. Ninety-nine percent of these bankrupts just do not care and education is not needed, it isn’t heeded. Once the economy begins to turn down this year and outsourcing of service jobs increase, the problem will get much worse.
New wireless sensors are coming with computing power to help secure US borders, bridges, power plants and ships by detecting suspicious movements or dangerous cargo and radioing warnings back to a command center. Motes in a few years will cost $10 each. These devices will help military and industry and they will also help government track you whenever they wish.
In 1994, the Republicans promised to eliminate the Department of Education; instead, they imposed more mandates and expanded it. There is no constitutional law allowing Congress to interfere in state school systems. In 2005, the Congress approved $60 billion more for the Department of Education and a good part of that went for pork items.
Whom are the elitist corporations making all the money in Iraq? Here is the list.
Lockheed Martin with contracts for $21.9 billion in 2003 alone. Aegis, a UK firm owned by the Queen and run by mercenary Tom Spicer, who have been awarded $293 million in contracts. Bearing Point, a consulting division of KPMG, received $240 million in 2003 to help develop Iraq’s competitive private sector. Bechtel, an engineering firm, which builds hospitals, bridges, schools, airports, etc. BKSH and Associates run by Charlie Black, an old Bush family friend, and a Republican lobbyist, they contract with Fluor International whose ex-chair heads the Iraq oil ministry, and also on the board is the wife of James Woolsey, the ex-CIA Chief who is closely connected to Paul Wolfowitz. CACI and Titan who supply mercenaries and translators have received millions in no-bid contracts. Custer Battles, which supply mercenaries for millions of dollars. Halliburton, which has received billion in no-bid contracts. Loral Satellite, which guides missiles to their destinations and Qualcomm for radio contracts and cellular technology. These are the main companies raking in billions as our sons and daughters come home in body bags.
In further comment on Riggs Bank, which was convicted of money laundering and fraud and fined. They were laundering and transferring black ops cash for the CIA and that is probably why no one received any jail time. Riggs was not supposed to be exposed, but they screwed a former employee who spilled the beans to The Observer newspaper in London, so the government was forced to pursue them. They fronted for the CIA, Kissinger, Pinochet operation for 25 years and Prince Bandar bin Sultan and a horde of other Saudis as well. There were accounts for a host of diplomats, and the US oil companies used Riggs to pay off diplomats from oil producing nations. What you see is only the tip of the iceberg. There is no question Riggs was on the CIA payroll. Riggs was a laundry for everything and everybody.
The US has lost $9 billion in Iraq. They simply cannot find or account for it. We wonder how much CFR member L. Paul Bremer III pocketed? Most all of the money was stolen and you will never see any prosecutions.
As we have pointed out over-and-over again, criminality in Wall Street, banking, insurance, government and corporate America continues unabated. Marsh and McLennan, the world’s largest insurance brokerage, run by the Greenberg crime family, has agreed to pay $850 million to settle New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s accusations that it rigged bids and took kickbacks from insurers. Marsh and its officers neither admitted nor denied guilt and as usual, no one went to jail. The problem is the settlement is with one state. Now they have to make deals with the other 49 states.
Spitzer has already wrested $4.4 billion in fines from Wall Street banks for tainted research and from mutual funds stealing from small investors. This Marsh deal exceeds Bank of America’s $675 million settlement for fraud and theft from small investors. This is only the beginning of the probes into mutual fund trading by banks and insurance companies. AON, AIG, and Hartford Financial Services Group are next. AON and AIG are part of the Greenberg crime family. Five executives from ACE (Greenberg), AIG (Greenberg) and Zurich Financial Services have pleaded guilty. Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, former OSS and CIA operative and guiding light at the Council on Foreign Relations, controlled March via his son Jeffrey, ACE via his son Evan and AIG. This crime family will buy their way out and as usual will not go to jail. Only the unconnected and poor end up in our jails. Our latest report form Baghdad has linked the receipt of food rations, with voting as we reported earlier. This in now our second confirmation that if you do not vote; you do not get to eat. That is how Washington accomplished a 60% turnout at last Sunday’s election. Names and addresses were taken at the voting booth and those who did not vote will have their food rations withheld. What else would you expect from George and the neocons? Those who will not get their food rations have said they will probably starve to death. In addition, agents of Washington were outside the voting places buying votes with cash. Our government is a disgrace to humanity. Making matters worse, the election winner was Ayad Allawi, a CIA operative. The Pentagon will now build 14 permanent military bases and a $1.5 billion embassy. We do not see our troops leaving for at least five years. This is not democracy it is rule by military occupation and an appointed government. Voters voted for an anonymous list of candidates that they were not allowed to see prior to voting, all, of course, approved by the occupiers from Washington. This election was nothing less than a return to the semi-colonial status of the 1950s. There is no intention to have democracy in Iraq. To quote Henry “the pervert” Kissinger, “Middle East oil is too important to be left in the hands of Arabs.” And, so it is today, nothing has changed. The election was held under the supervision of US Ambassador John Negroponte, who was US Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-85. He was involved with Contra terrorists and death squads. Honduras was used as a launching pad for violent attacks into Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. This election was nothing more than illusion of progress in a phony transfer of power. The idea is to create a new fiction to legitimize the occupation. The lies of WMD and complicity in 9/11 have been exposed so now democracy will be used as a cover. Normally there would be verbal conflict between Sunni’s and Shiites. Now with this one sided Shiite election there could be violence and civil war. It is interesting that of those eligible to vote living abroad 80% did not vote. The bottom line is Iraqis want the US out now and George and the neocons have no intention of leaving.
State Attorney General of New York, Eliot Spitzer, tore into President Bush for failing to rein in corporate accounting fraud. Bush has “failed to protect investors” during corporate accounting scandals and Spitzer blasted the White House for seeking private Social Security accounts that depend on a system that is fundamentally broken.
Citigroup is again under investigation for rigging markets, this time in Europe. Last August they made huge trades in the euro zone government bond market, which destabilized the market. This illegal effort was a product of transparency and stiff competition. The intention was to turn the euro zone market into one that more closely resembles the less transparent US Treasury bond market, which is dominated by a handful of mega banks. They wanted to kill the small dealers off. Regulators are in possession of a Citigroup memo, which explains the strategy of the fix. Euro zone governments are furious because they have made great strides in lowering their borrowing costs since the euros launch six years ago. German prosecutors are investigating and we hope they bring criminal charges.
Finally, a federal judge has ruled that special military tribunals the Pentagon used to determine the likely guilt of most of the men held in prison in Guantanamo Bay are illegal. This is a big victory for civil liberties and the right to confront US accusations and challenge their indefinite detention. Due to government appeals, we do not believe these prisoners will be released soon. There is evidence the detainees were tortured and they never were afforded a lawful hearing on the evidence against them. They were totally deprived of their constitutional rights, as we reported over two years ago. Worse, the military produced no evidence that individuals were ever engaged in actual combat or terrorist crimes, yet they were continually held against their will. The judge also concluded that people who are members or fighters for the former Taliban government are entitled to international protections provided by prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention, but members of al Qaida are not. Judge Green said, “although this nation unquestionably must take strong action under the leadership of the Commander in Chief to protect itself against enormous and unprecedented threats, that necessity cannot negate the existence of the most basic fundamental rights for which people of the country have fought and died for well over 200 years.” The hearings set up to determine if the prisoners are “enemy combatants” are unconstitutional.
This is all part of the Caligula syndrome. This mental defective, our President, has taken a struggle against what may be a few thousand terrorists into a boundless crusade for “freedom” everywhere. Our President believes he is an absolute monarch in redefining our country’s national interest to embrace untold deaths, endless deficits and unlimited disaster. This is not support of democratic movements; this is arbitrary invasion and occupation, which is tyranny. This is the same type of insanity that allowed Edward Mandall House to lead Woodrow Wilson to make the world safe for democracy, after he promised he would never do such a thing. Eventually Wilson died insane from the effects of syphilis. His wars are to punish those who do not agree with his brand of imperialism and, of course, for profit for his fellow elitists. Any populist government becomes the victim of overthrow by our CIA, yet Mr. Bush supports some of the world’s nastiest tyrants. His liberation of Iraq is a myth, just look at the results. Death, destruction and another phony election. This is not an unusual chain of events with one that communes with God. His pious words and pretensions are a ruse to convince the ignorant that they should sacrifice their children on the altar of world government. This man is a liar and hypocrite who believes in nothing but the enslavement of people. His tyrannical wars are not just against those who he has condemned to regime change, but also on us and the planned destruction of our country and our way of life. He has truly made our government our enemy.
Under provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the DOJ has been collecting E-mail and IP addresses, without a warrant using trap-and-tracesurveillance devices. Now the FBI is monitoring the web-surfing habits of Internet users, also without a search warrant - that is - spying on you with no probable cause whatsoever. This is all in the name of never-ending terror and you are the probable terrorist and a threat to national security. We can only guess what the government says about us. We know for sure we are high up on their “hit” list.