International Forecaster Weekly

Iran And Nuclear Weapons

Iran and nuclear weapons... job blackmail in NYC... mercinary army... vets sick from depleted uranium... watching the yeild curve... the head of the Fed...

Bob Chapman | August 21, 2005

The talk in Washington is that Iran needs to be invaded to keep it from developing nuclear weapons when the real reasons are similar to those in Iraq. Take over the oil, set up another strategic position in the Middle East, placate Israel and stop the new Iranian commodity exchange from trading oil in euros, which will destroy the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The nuking of Iran is really all about economics and resources. It is about petro-dollar recycling. It has nothing to do with WMD, a nuclear program or fighting international terrorism. This is part of the same operation planned for Iraq in the late 1980s and early 1990s; the installation of pro-US governments and military bases before the onset of peak oil. In Iraq to stop selling oil in euros and in Iran to make sure their commodity exchange never opens. All this has to be consolidated by the onslaught of peak oil. Russia is contemplating selling oil in euros. Will the neocons stretched as they are militarily, dare to attack Russia? Very few people realize that in September 2000 Saddam Hussein switched from dollars to euros for oil payment. The US invaded and in June 2003 Iraq switched back to selling oil in dollars. There was no mention of this in the media, as usual. Iran’s opening of a Bourse for oil in euros is far more serious a matter then just selling oil in euros. It is now expected that trading will commence in March 2006 in conjunction with the NY, NYMEX and London’s IPE in regard to oil trades. The NYMEX and the IPE are controlled by international oil companies and by elitists. This exchange allows the euro to gain a firm foothold in the international oil trade. This is seen by US elitists as an encroachment on dollar supremacy and with the weakness of the dollar over the last few years and its negative future due to the wars and current account deficit and debt, trading oil in euros by Iran would soon end the dollar’s vaunted position as the world’s reserve currency. As we write working drafts are being circulated within the administration that layout the neocon invasion and occupation strategy. By using drafts they evade congressional subpoenas and the Freedom of Information Act keeping their intentions away from Congress and the people. Not that Congress gives a hoot – 95% of them are bought and paid for. The new scenario for Iran is the same as it was for Iraq, which has been a failure. Half of the military thinks the neocons are insane, the other half unfortunately go along with this foolish program. Another reason for the Iran program again is it is to be used as a cover for the failing financial system. The neocons know the viability of the US economy is nearing an end. If you look at history you can see the war tactic is used over and over as cover for economic and financial dislocation.

Worse yet, along with an Iran invasion comes another 9/11 or 7/7 type event to justify the invasion. We are told our VP Dick Cheney wants the Pentagon prepared to launch a nuclear attack on Iran even if the Iranian government has had nothing to do with terrorism or an attack. STRATCOM – Northern Command is preparing along with FEMA to implement martial law in the US if the people rise up to stop the neocon plans. Our government already has 450 sites in Iran that they intend to bomb into the Stone Age. Half the military brass is appalled at what the neocons intend to do. They know it will certainly lead to WWIII and nuclear war. This is an unprovoked nuclear attack. Now you can fully understand why I call these people lunatics. Of course, few of these staff officers will risk damaging their careers by speaking out about such heinous actions. There are grave moral implications but for the most part that historically has never bothered military types. There has been absolutely no effort at diplomacy by the neocons. They can only make their plan work by invasion and occupation. The neocons see no other option. In opposition to such a plan, just two weeks ago the National Intelligence Estimate said, “Iran is about a decade away from manufacturing the key ingredient for a nuclear weapon.” That leaves the glaring question, why would our VP advocate a nuclear attack against Iran even if Iran has done nothing? You, of course, already know. We have outlined it in this article. There is a major elitist effort to stop economic inevitability and stop the demise of US economic supremacy. The dollar is failing and that means the titans that control America and the American people are facing a whole new way of life. They are going to have to face their enormous un-payable debt, which will bankrupt the country. They are trying to avoid this unpalatable situation by imposing global domination at any cost.

Many cities pay huge taxpayer subsidies to large corporations that promise quality jobs and then fail to deliver. Higher tax revenues that are promised often fail to materialize. NYC holds the record for job blackmail. Of 80 corporate subsidies, 39 later announced major layoffs, or they were engaged in merger activity that led to layoffs. Ten companies laid off 3,000 people in all. There are thousands of cases similar throughout the country and it costs cities $50 billion a year. This is essentially corporate extortion because it not only takes money out of the taxpayers’ pockets but it is especially harmful to schools. The subsidies come as property tax abatements, corporate income tax credits, sales and excise tax exemptions, tax increment financing, low interest loans and loan guarantees, free land and land write-downs, training grants, infrastructure aid and cash grants. Thus, instead of creating jobs, they have been outsourcing and in some cases offshoring. Few have delivered on their promises. Worse, they provide poverty wages and fail to provide healthcare for workers. Wal-Mart is a prime example. The concept is a lose-lose proposition for cities, towns and states and should be stopped. If you add up front and back door costs, a Wal-Mart store with 200 employees costs federal taxpayers $420,750 a year.

This isn’t free enterprise, this is corporatist socialism. Governors say they must create no-tax zones for factories to be competitive with other states as the country bleeds jobs to free trade and globalization. These practices defy common sense and good government. Companies work together to gain these subsidies but governments are forbidden to do so. Besides sucking up tax jobs as we said job creation is a scam. This rampant tax dodging tells us these corporations do not care a wit about the community they happen to be in as schools, roads, bridges and health care falls apart. Today corporate America has nothing in common with anything. They are simply money machines with no conscious.

America’s mercenary Army is taking on the appearance of Roman Legions of two-thousand years ago. A US company out of Ecuador has signed up 1,000 Colombian police and military staff to work as hired guns in Iraq for less than 50% of what US soldiers are paid. We are sure they were not told that two-thirds of those who are not killed in battle will die of depleted uranium poisoning and die horrible agonizing deaths. These hired killers are paid $2,500 to $5,000 a month, half of what US and British mercenaries are paid.

Seventy-seven year old Don Stout, Korean War veteran had eight law-enforcement personnel jump from a helicopter and inspect his property for marijuana without a warrant. Although Stout cannot pinpoint why authorities entered his property without a warrant, earlier that day he aired strong opinions against President Bush, calling him an outright liar, on a free speech and truth-telling talk radio show on WAIF a local Albany, Ohio station. He said people are finally starting to wake up to lies, deceit and treachery imposed on the American people by what he calls a lying dog of a President. “I think the rest of his buddies are corrupt, down right crazy and Bush should be impeached plain and simple for lying to people about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Bush is personally responsible for the deaths of many good young men in order that his rich buddies could profit from the illegal war.” This Bush critic thinks America is in a crisis and at the brink of martial law at the hands of government tyrants bent on destroying the country from within. “I think we have lost this country and many people feel it is too late and feel helpless about doing anything about it.” He is looking for another 9/11 event to put the country into a state of emergency and martial law while at the same time taking the heat off Bush. “This reminds me of Nazi Germany. The people are being fed propaganda and in turn the dollar is going to hell as are the rest of our freedoms. I do not think we should give up our freedoms in order to be safer, whereas all the government is trying to do is take us over from within.” The station will continue to air the program and people’s views. It has since reported mysteriously having its transmitter knocked out on two occasions from “two mysterious bolts of lightening. The station services southeastern Ohio and parts of West Virginia. Stout says, “I do not want to trade security for my rights as an American. I believe we need to take our country back from these thugs and brown shirts before our jobs, our financial security and our lives are taken away from us right before our very eyes.” He also believes the Ohio elections were stolen and we agree. He also believes, “Bush is losing popularity because a lot of people over here are finally starting to see through his lies, lies that are costing young American lives every day this illegal war continues.”

For the second time since the Iraq war began the Pentagon is struggling to replace body armor that is failing to protect American troops from the most lethal attacks by insurgents. The troopers need ceramic plates to withstand certain munitions the insurgents use. Tens of thousands of soldiers face death because they do not have these plates due to delays at the Pentagon. The troops have been waiting since May 2004 that is 14 months, as soldiers die everyday because they do not have the proper equipment.

There is increasing discussion by truck drivers about high diesel prices and they are talking about parking their rigs in protest all over the country. Drivers are losing money on every trip.

In 1935 both Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Adolph Hitler started infrastructure plans to create jobs during the depression. Now we have our President acknowledging that we are experiencing a serious economic crisis. The newly-signed law to develop the US transport system will allow the spending of $286 billion. We believe that is what our politicians are getting ready for.

As depleted uranium deaths stack up like cord wood and there is growing evidence and cause of death symptoms interpretations that point to a White House strategy to head off inevitable military tort claims against the government. This, as our illustrious leaders George and the neocons, attempt to convince Congress to provide a shield of tort reform protection around the defense industry corporate contractors. The cases from Gulf War I and the current invasion extend for miles - soldiers who have coughed up blood for years and others who do the same but die within hours of DU poisoning. While this transpires our government lies about the dead and wounded, has to be forced to provide adequate medical care and our President refuses to attend the funeral of any dead service person returning home from Iraq or Afghanistan.

Billions of dollars have disappeared in the Iraq budget, but our men and women often have no body armor, the vehicles are often not armor plated, they need medical aircraft and decent drinking water. We have vets who in the first Gulf War still display DU in their urine after all these years and some finally succumb to leukemia. After such extensive use of DU ammunition in Iraq all of the troops in Iraq are the walking dead. Being sent to Iraq is a death sentence. What is insidious is that all the upper echelons of the military and our government and Congress lie about DU deaths. Finally, fortunately legal clouds are looming, as grief-stricken parents and spouses begin to comprehend the extent of congressional and defense department’s prior knowledge of past illnesses and deaths. As you can imagine this war and occupation has as well doomed most of the Iraqi population for centuries to come. The life of DU is so strong that ten years after Gulf War I, during sexual relations, women have complained of a burning sensation and later die from DU exposure via semen. You ask yourself, how can a government be so evil, so uncaring and so callous. Sixty-two percent of sick vets have uranium isotopes in their organs, bones, brains and urine. This means two-thirds of new recruits and standing military are going to eventually die. Who in their right mind would re-enlist or join if they knew there was an excellent chance they’d die in addition to being in combat. What kind of a future does that augur for the military? Once everyone realizes what the elitists have done who will want to be professional military? What wife will want to have sexual relations with a husband who is hot with DU and could kill her and her offspring? This is nothing short of a nuclear holocaust. DU is today’s Agent Orange. These evil elitists in Washington have to be brought to justice as soon as possible before they are able to implement a draft and kill millions more of our children and grandchildren.

As we have said a number of times the yield curve is one of the indicators of an impending recession. When the yield curve goes negative for 90 days or more the country goes into recession within a year. That is why we are paying close attention to its behavior. There are those who believe long rates are going to drop – we don’t agree. We saw long rates fall from an intraday 4.42% to 4.24% to close the week ended August 12th at 4.27%. We don’t expect further volatility at these levels at this time. This is a good correction and we see consolidation and a move back up in rates. The gap between the 5-year and 10-year Treasuries has varied from 10 to 14 BP over the past two weeks. It is narrowing, as is the 2-year to 10-year spread at 21 BP. The reason the 10’s have held relatively low yields is that the Fed has put so much money into the system that it has nowhere else to go but to longer dated Treasuries. Usually institutions and governments purchase longer dated securities because they believe in the long-term stability of the dollar, they can plan their income and they most often hold them to maturity. Over the last several years another reason has developed and that is to support the dollar because of its massive current account deficit. They believe, and rightly so, that if they do not buy US Treasury paper they will be short changing their own economies. In this process as the dollar deteriorates in value versus their currencies they absorb losses, which have in the past few years been far more than the interest gains. Thus, institutions and governments today are not buying 10-year US Treasuries because they believe rates are going lower. They are buying to keep a corrupt system afloat. Between now and the end of the year yields will rise and once the recovery ends they’ll stabilize and probably fall again. We base these predictions on normal markets. If we have unusual events, such as our President invading Iran or Venezuela, all bets are off. We could have a third world war.

The question then arises will we have inflation or deflation? The head of the Fed, Sir Alan Greenspan, tells us he’ll inflate as long as it is necessary. Alan is supposed to retire in January and at least by June, so that someone suitable can be found to replace him. We do not believe any replacement will deviate much from the current path of thinking. In order to neutralize the negative effect of our inverted yield curve, there have been professionals such as Sir Alan who says it is no longer a viable indicator. The condition is as much psychological as it is economic, thus we are beset with elitist propaganda as usual trying to mollify the interpretation and effects of the situation. The holders of financial assets have for the past few years made enormous money by buying and holding Treasuries via leverage in the carry trade and corporations have had less opportunity with much more risk. One of the reasons the stock market has traded between Dow 9,500 and 10,700 for 2 1/2 years is there has been better guaranteed profits in Treasuries and real estate supplied by Sir Alan’s historically low interest rates and phenomenal supply of money and credit.