Nuclear Dump in Washington Leaking Radioactive Waste

Nuclear Dump in Washington Leaking Radioactive Waste

Repeated calls to address problems at facility ‘met with silence’ by state and federal officials
February 16 2013

Reports that a storage tank for nuclear waste at the Hanford Nuclear facility in Washington state–one of the most contaminated nuclear waste sites in the country–is leaking radioactive waste were confirmed that state’s governor Friday.

The news raises concerns about the integrity of similar tanks at south-central Washington’s Hanford nuclear reservation and puts added pressure on the federal government to resolve construction problems with the plant being built to alleviate environmental and safety risks from the waste.

The tanks, which are already long past their intended 20-year life span, hold millions of gallons of a highly radioactive stew left from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Energy said liquid levels are decreasing in one of 177 underground tanks at the site. Monitoring wells near the tank have not detected higher radiation levels, but Inslee said the leak could be in the range of 150 gallons to 300 gallons over the course of a year and poses a potential long-term threat to groundwater and rivers.

The Northwest News Network, in an interview with Tom Carpenter, head of the Seattle-based watchdog group Hanford Challenge, found that Friday’s news highlights the fact that problems have been endemic to the site for years and there’s not even a place to transfer the contained waste or a place to return any that may be recovered from spills or leaks.

“If you have another leak, what do you do?,” ask Carpenter.  “You don’t have any strategy for that. And the Hanford Advisory Board and the state of Washington and Hanford Challenge and others have been calling upon the Department of Energy to build new tanks. That call has been met with silence.”

And the Chicago Tribune adds:

Though more than a third of the 149 old single-shell tanks at the site are suspected to have leaked up to 1 million gallons of nuclear waste over the years, this is the first confirmed leak since federal authorities completed a so-called stabilization program in 2005 that was supposed to have removed most liquids from the vulnerable single-shell tanks.

The new leak calls into question the effectiveness of that program, and state officials said it increased the urgency of ending roadblocks to a permanent storage solution for the 53 million gallons of waste housed at the sprawling site that was a center for atomic bomb-making material after World War II. Source

Also while speaking of  weapons grade Plutonium.

Liquid bomb-grade uranium to be shipped secretly from Chalk River to U.S.

By Ian MacLeod,  February 10, 2013

OTTAWA — Nuclear officials are preparing to secretly transport a toxic stew of liquid bomb-grade uranium by armed convoy from Chalk River to a South Carolina reprocessing site.

The “high priority” mission marks the first time authorities have attempted to truck highly-enriched uranium (HEU) in a liquid solution, prompting nuclear safety advocacy groups on both sides of the border to sound the alarm for greater government scrutiny.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has confirmed the plan to the Citizen. It follows Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s commitment at last year’s global nuclear security summit to return HEU inventories to the United States to lessen the risk of nuclear terrorism.

Officials with CNSC and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., which operates Chalk River Laboratories, say federal law prohibits publicly releasing details about the mission, including the number of transport truck trips involved, the routing through Eastern Ontario and the timing.
But documents filed with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) suggest many truck trips will be required and could begin in August.

This does seem to be an unprecedented, cross-border shipment of liquid high-level waste and, for that reason alone, it needs the highest order of environmental review on both sides of the border,” says Tom Clements, a South Carolina campaign co-ordinator for Friends of the Earth and former executive-director of the Nuclear Control Institute in Washington.

Small amounts of HEU in solid form have long been exported, without incident, by the U.S. to Canada for the production of medical isotopes at Chalk River’s NRU reactor.

What’s different this time is the HEU to be transported for reprocessing at the U.S. government’s Savannah River Site is in liquid form and believed to from Chalk River’s controversial Fissile Solution Storage Tank, or FISST.

The 24,000-litre waste tank is largely unknown outside the nuclear establishment, but within the industry in Canada and internationally, it is a source of persistent unease.

The double-walled, stainless-steel vessel contains 17 years’ worth of an intensely radioactive acidic solution from the production of molybdenum-99, a vital medical isotope produced by irradiating HEU “targets.

The liquid must be carefully monitored, mixed and warmed to prevent it from solidifying and — in a worst-case scenario — potentially achieving a self-sustaining chain reaction of fissioning atoms called criticality.

The energy and heat from such a chain reaction could potentially rupture the tank, release the solution into the environment and endanger anyone nearby. There would be no danger of a nuclear explosion.

Not surprisingly, FISST is under constant surveillance by the International Atomic Energy Commission for any hint of an accidental atomic chain reaction.

Taken out of service around 2003, FISST is believed to be near-full and sitting inside a thick, in-ground concrete vault in a building two hours northwest of Ottawa. In the years since, HEU-bearing liquid waste produced during isotope production has been solidified and placed in secure storage.

The FISST’s chief ingredient is an estimated 175 kilograms of HEU containing 93 per cent uranium-235, the isotope that sustains a fission chain reaction. Also present are plutonium, tritium, other fission products and mercury. About 20 kilograms to 45 kilograms of HEU is considered sufficient to construct a small nuclear weapon or a Hiroshima-sized bomb.

NRC documents note that the radioactive payload to be removed from Canada, “is highly enriched target material,” containing 7.2 grams of HEU per litre, which precisely matches the description and composition of the FISST’s contents.

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. had planned to take until 2020 to resolve the FISST issue, but CNSC staff have said they want it dealt with during Chalk River Laboratories’ current five-year-operating licence, which expires Oct. 31, 2016.

Earlier this month, Clements made a formal request to the U.S. Department of Energy for an extensive and public environmental hearing before the radioactive shipments are approved. He said a 1996 U.S. environmental review of HEU shipments to Savannah River did not consider the implications surrounding liquid HEU.

The Canadian group Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Responsibility is urging Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver to do the same here.

But NRC documents on the issue call for an “expedited” certification review of a plan to transport the HEU liquid waste in stainless-steel casks originally designed to carry dry nuclear waste, such as spent fuel rods from reactors.

NAC International Inc., a U.S. company specializing in nuclear packaging and transport, is seeking NRC and CNSC approvals to use its NAC-LWT (legal weight truck) cask system to haul the radioactive liquid from Canada, something that the CNSC and other experts say has never been done before.

In documents, NRC officials characterize the request as, “a high priority for review to support the (U.S.) Department of Energy’s Global Threat Reduction Program,” to reduce civilian use of weapons-grade uranium. The company filed the request, with supporting technical data, on Dec. 28.

In a Jan. 31 reply to the company, the NRC said it wants the company to produce more technical information about the viability and safety of using the casks to transport liquid HEU. It gave the company two weeks to comply, adding if all goes well, approval could be expected by May 10.

The company did not respond to requests for comments late last week.

The CNSC has a separate review underway of the proposed change to the cask payload, one of several approvals required on both sides of the border before the radioactive waste can be moved along continental roads and highways.

No HEU transport is authorized without CNSC approval in order to ensure safety to the public, workers and the environment,” it said in a statement Friday. “Safety requirements must be met in accordance with CNSC and Canada’s Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations.

These containers must undergo stringent testing, which simulate both normal and hypothetical conditions of transport, including free-drop testing, puncture testing and thermal testing.

Carriers must be specially trained and a transportation security plan must also be approved, it said.

The primary purpose of this plan is to assure that the nuclear material to be transported will receive adequate physical protection against any threats that may arise during its transport.

AECL is generally tight-lipped about FISST. A spokesman Friday would only say that “AECL is participating in HEU repatriation activities.

NAC International, in filings with the NRC, proposes to that each cask carry a total of up to 257 litres of HEU solution. Each cask would hold four smaller containers, with each of those holding up to 64 litres. The estimated HEU content in each would be about 1.8 grams.
At Savannah River, the liquid is to be taken to a complex known as H-Canyon and down-blended in to low-enriched uranium fuel for U.S. power and research reactors. Source

Action Alert   February 4, 2013

Please write to U.S. and Canadian Authorities

Proposed Import and Transport of Liquid Radioactive Wastes

Bearing Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) to the U.S. from Canada

The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) is planning to import and transport liquid radioactive waste containing weapons-grade highly-enriched uranium (HEU) from Canada’s Chalk River Laboratories (CRNL) to the DOE’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina.

The proposed movement of liquid HEU-bearing radioactive waste was confirmed at the recent SRS (Savannah River Site) Citizens Advisory Board meeting in Augusta, Georgia on January 28-29. This proposal is (so far as we are aware) the first of it’s kind.

We are asking citizens and elected officials to send an urgent request to the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s SRS NEPA officer, Drew Grainger, who can be emailed at:drew.grainger@srs.gov
(NEPA is the U.S. National Environmental Protection Act.)

Tell DOE that a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) must be done on the proposed import to the U.S.A. of HEU-bearing liquid radioactive waste from Canada’s Chalk River.  (See Tom Clements’ letter, below, as a sample of concerns to be raised.)

No SEIS has yet been done. Such an SEIS is absolutely necessary so that an informed public policy discussion can occur.

Also, please write to the Canadian Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Joe Oliver asking him to ensure that a full Environmental Assessment is conducted under Canadian Law, with an independent panel and public hearings E-mail him at joe.oliver@parl.gc.ca

Please cc to ccnr@web.ca so we can keep monitoring this situation.

For background information : http://ccnr.org/HEU_liquid_waste.html .

SRS is where 35 MT of weapons-grade plutonium was made.  SRS still processes tritium for all US nuclear weapons and is where a $7- billion plutonium-based nuclear fuel (MOX, or “mixed oxide” nuclear fuel) plant is being built.

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US going from Police State, To Military State

US Lawmakers Corruption “Busted”

If any ordinary person did this they would go to Jail.

When Lawmakers make Laws that allow them to break the law that is a crime. No Lawmaker should be above the Law.

This is an absolute Breach of Trust. I would even say and act of Treason against the citizens of the US.

I knew about this years ago so what took everyone else so long to figure this out? If the US mainstream media had not been so corrupt this would have been brought to light years ago.

Koto’s to 60 minutes.

’60 Minutes’ Blows The Lid Off Congressional Insider Trading

’60 Minutes’ Blows The Lid Off Congressional Insider Trading
Zeke Miller | Nov. 14, 2011, 7:52 AM
Members of Congress can legally make trades on non-public information they obtain during their official duties, CBS News’ ’60 Minutes’ reported on Sunday night.

Legalized Corruption of Government Exposed by Abramoff

Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff (who spent time in prison after
pleading guilty to corrupting public officials) exposed how the
U.S. government is legally corrupted.

Government Corruption: U.S. Congress Exempts Itself From Insider Trading Laws

Washington conducts public business for private gain

By: Examiner Editorial

November 19 2011

It’s not been a good week for those whose livelihoods depend on either having access to the power brokers and decision makers of the Washington federal establishment or being one of them. Like the great and mighty Wizard of Oz who was exposed as all too human when Dorothy’s little dog Toto pulled back the curtain, the public’s business in Washington was shown to be conducted for private gain.

To begin with, among the multiple stunning revelations from Peter Schweizer’s book, “Throw Them All Out,” was that two past speakers of the House made millions of dollars as a result of information and opportunities afforded by their positions. Democrat Nancy Pelosi and her husband cashed in big time by getting special access to an initial public offering of Visa stock even as the House under her leadership refused to move important credit card industry reforms. Similarly, Republican Dennis Hastert bought a piece of land back home, then used an earmark to channel federal funds to build a highway nearby. Hastert more than doubled his money when he sold the land not long after.

Making a killing from public service is far from limited to Pelosi and Hastert, and often it’s perfectly legal because Congress exempts itself from many of the laws the rest of us have to observe, including those against insider trading. Lawmakers frequently say that they make a financial sacrifice to serve in Congress, but somehow they manage to leave Washington with a great deal more money than they had when they arrived. As former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin wrote Friday in the Wall Street Journal, “the corruption isn’t confined to one political party or just a few bad apples. It’s an endemic problem encompassing leadership on both sides of the aisle. It’s an entire system of public servants feathering their own nests.”

The same culture of corruption is found at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, too. Just this week, President Obama – facing recession-levels of unemployment and a tough re-election campaign – had a choice between a decision that would create thousands of new jobs, or one that would insure millions of dollars in campaign contributions for his effort to secure a second term. At least 20,000 new jobs would have resulted if Obama had approved the Keystone XL pipeline, but that would have angered the environmentalists who oppose the project — and who have donated generously to Obama in the past.

You’d think that Obama would have locked up the environmentalist vote with the billions of tax dollars that he’s sent their way already. We learned additional details about that corrupt process this week when it was revealed that more than $16 billion of the $20 billion spent by Obama’s clean energy loan program went to companies linked to former members of his White House staff, prominent corporate campaign donors, and campaign contribution bundlers. The U.S. Constitution begins with the words “We, the people,” and goes on to frame a government that is supposed to be their servant. It’s time Washington was reminded of who serves who. Source

This another Documentary on Corruption but a bit different.

This explains how the US Government interferes with other countries. Corrupts their politicians and wages illegal wars. The US has also and still does drive other countries into financial ruin.The Weight of Chains explains a lot. These are the things still being done to many countries today.  Do take the time to watch it. Knowledge is power.

I bet a few US politicians made a bundle on some these events as well.

The Weight Of Chains 2010 Documentary

If the link above does not work go HERE It has numerous links to choose from;

A few politicians made money on Private Prisons in the US.

The Prison Industry in the United States Costs Taxpayers Billions

US wants to Censor the Internet

In the UK seems some of the Politicians are also corrupt.Well this is old news. They have been corrupted for years.

If the mainstream media in both countries ever did their job as they were suppose to all of this would have come out years ago and much of the corruption would have been prevented.

A select few have done their jobs but many other have not. What the world needs now is a media that actually does their jobs. Oddly enough what governments do affects their families friends and recitatives as well.  Of course if the owners of such media are preventing the truth from being told then those bosses should be reported. Publishing lies is illegal. The guy at the top is responsible.

Failing to tell the truth is a crime against the public at large.

The US main stream media promotes propaganda to promote their wars. The wars initiated by the US are all based on lies/fraud/misinformation.

When the press tells these to the public they are as guilty as the Government who wages the wars.

It is the job of the press to expose the lies/fraud/misinformation.

What is needed is for the journalists to do what the  OWS folks are attempting, which is to say we’re not going to take it anymore.  So to all the journalists take over the media and tell the truth. Start a new News site what ever but do take over and tell the truth. How many reporters are there in the US. If is were not for you those rich guys at the top would be broke. They need you more then you need them.

So to all the Journalists who want to tell the truth. Strike for truth. Join the OWS protesters. Imagine if every journalist in America walked off the job because they were forced to tell lies by the bad owners.

If it wasn’t for Bloggers and a few honest Journalist we would all be living in complete darkness.

For all the Testimony

http://www.youtube.com/ivaw

The Iraq war was based on lies. Many in Congress or those who worked for the Bush Administration profited from that war.

Now it is Libya. Yes many in the US Government and other Governments will profit from the Invasion of Libya.

Libyans money was stolen with the help of the UN. Now much of that money cannot be found.  This is theft. So who stole the money that not be fond. It didn’t just mysteriously vanish off the face of the earth.

Do we have a real reporter out there who can find out who stole the money or as usual will it be swept under the carpet?

• Indonesian Citizens Protest Obama’s Visit to Bali
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• Israel: Segregation of Children in Extremist religious schools, Lost rights of Women
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• US is lobbying nations to bring Cluster Bombs back “NO” would be my Answer
• Canada: Stop Harper’s cruel crime bill
• ICC to Probe NATO, NTC War Crimes in Libya War
• US, NATO and Rebel war crimes in Libya
• The Libya American’s never saw on Television
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Aafia Siddiqui: Victimized by American Depravity

By Stephen Lendman

April 1 2010

On February 3, 2010, after a sham trial, the Department of Justice announced Siddiqui’s conviction for “attempting to murder US nationals in Afghanistan and six additional charges.” When sentenced on May 6, she faces up to 20 years for each attempted murder charge, possible life in prison on the firearms charge, and eight years on each assault charge.

In March 2003, after visiting her family in Karachi, Pakistan, government Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agents, in collaboration with Washington, abducted Siddiqui and her three children en route to the airport for a flight to Rawalpindi, handed them over to US authorities who took them secretly to Bagram prison, Afghanistan for more than five years of brutal torture and unspeakable abuse, including vicious beatings and repeated raping.

Bogusly charged and convicted, Siddiqui was guilty only of being Muslim in America at the wrong time. A Pakistani national, she was deeply religious, very small, thoughtful, studious, quiet, polite, shy, soft-spoken, barely noticeable in a gathering, not extremist or fundamentalist, and, of course, no terrorist.

She attended MIT and Brandeis University where she earned a doctorate in neurocognitive science. She did volunteer charity work, taught Muslim children on Sundays, distributed Korans to area prison inmates, dedicated herself to helping oppressed Muslims worldwide, yet lived a quiet, unassuming nonviolent life.

Nonetheless, she was accused of being a “high security risk” for alleged Al-Qaeda connections linked to planned terrorist attacks against New York landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge and Empire State Building, accusations so preposterous they never appeared in her indictment.

The DOJ’s more likely interest was her supposed connection, through marriage, to a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the bogusly charged 9/11 mastermind who confessed after years of horrific torture. US authorities tried to use them both – to coerce KSM to link Siddiqui to Al-Qaeda, and she to admit his responsibility for 9/11 — something she knew nothing about or anything about her alleged relative.

Her trial was a travesty of justice based on the preposterous charge that in the presence of two FBI agents, two Army interpreters, and three US Army officers, she (110 pounds and frail) assaulted three of them, seized one of their rifles, opened fire at close range, hit no one, yet she was severely wounded.

No credible evidence was presented. Some was kept secret. The proceedings were carefully orchestrated. Witnesses were either enlisted, pressured, coerced, and/or bought off to cooperate, then jurors were intimidated to convict, her attorney, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, saying their verdict was “based on fear, not fact.”

Awaiting her May 6 sentencing, Siddiqui is incarcerated in harsh maximum security solitary confinement at New York’s Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), denied all contact with friends and family, no mail or reading materials, or access to her previously allowed once a month 15 minute phone call to relatives.

Justice for Aafia Coalition (JFAC)

In February 2010, Muslim women in America, Britain, Canada, and Australia united in outrage over Siddiqui’s treatment and bogus conviction, demanding her release and exoneration.

March 28 was the seventh anniversary of her abduction, commemorated by a global day of protest, JFAC saying it was “to have events, demonstrations, letter-writing campaigns, khutbahs (sermons or public preaching), etc. in towns and cities all over the world in solidarity with Aafia” – for justice, against sadism and barbarity against an innocent woman, guilty of being a target of opportunity, not crimes she didn’t commit.

JFAC published a transcript of the March 26 Kamram Shahid-conducted Pakistan Front Line TV interview with Siddiqui family members, including her mother, Ismat, sister, Fowzia, and young son, Ahmed, who asked “why have they imprisoned her and why did they imprison me?” In response to whether he’d like to give his mother a message, he said:

“I love you and I am waiting for you (to) come back soon, if Allah permits.”

Ismat confirmed some of Aafia’s torture in shocking detail, saying:

She endured a lot, some of the worst of it including “six men… strip(ping) her naked. All her clothes would be removed. She told this to the Pakistani senators too, that they would strip her naked, then tie her hands behind her back, and then they would take her, dragging her by the hair. You cannot imagine the cruelty they have done to her. They would take her like this to the corridor and film her there.”

“After that, they observed that she would read the Qu’ran, from memory and from the book. They again would send six, seven men, who would strip her naked and misbehave etc. They took the Qu’ran and threw it at her feet and told her that only if you walk on the Qu’ran will we return (it) to you. She would cry and shout that she would not do it. Then they would beat her with their rifle butts so much that she would be bloodied. All her face and body would be injured. Then they used to pull out her hair one by one, just like this…. They threatened (to) take her to the court like this, naked.”

After “beat(ing) her so much that she bled… they made her lie on a bed. Then they tied her hands and feet – hands and feet both tied so that she (could) not even… scratch her wounds. Then they applied torture to the soles of her feet and head. They put her in some machines to make her lose her mental stability. They gave her such injections on the pretext of medical treatment.” When she pleaded not to do it, “they would make her unconscious and then give them to her. Such is (their) cruelty.”

“This epic cruelty – and look at (the) Islamic world…. They are all silent and making their palaces in Hell…. She was not even a criminal in their law. And she has done no crime. They did not accuse her of terrorism. She is not a terrorist.”

Her sister Fowzia said “It is all on tape. I am not making this up. They are sadists or whatever. All the strip searching was video-taped. (She called Aafia) a poster child for this torture and rendition,” one of many others brutalized in American prisons. Court testimony revealed that her children were also tortured, Ahmed later released on condition he say nothing, two still missing and presumed murdered. “I think even Genghis Khan did not do this,” said Fowzia.

In an August 2008 address to Pakistan’s Senate, Fowzia explained that “Aafia (can’t) get justice in the US…. They are sure to make her out to be a major terror figure to mask the five years of torture, rape and child molestation as reported by human rights groups.”

Her case is much more important than “my sister or one woman. Her torture is a crime beyond anything she was ever accused of (which was basically nothing) and this is a slap on the honor of our nation and the whole of humanity. The perpetrators of those crimes are the ones who need to be brought to account. That is the real crime of terror here.”

Fowzia appealed for Aafia’s extradition to Pakistan, despite little hope of expecting a government complicit in crime to cooperate beyond rhetoric. At first, it denied knowledge, then, after meeting with family, interior minister Faisal Saleh Hayat and other officials promised to work for her release, still denying complicity for what happened.

Because her ordeal sparked nationwide protests, Pakistan’s government is in damage control, apparently wants to shift blame to Washington, investigating officer Shahid Qureshi, in a report to the judicial magistrate, saying “FBI intelligence agents without any warrants or notice” committed the abduction — knowing full well about ISI’s complicity.

During confinement, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said Siddiqui had a kidney and her teeth removed. Her nose was broken and not properly set. Her gun shot wound was improperly treated. Reuters reported that she lost part of her intestines and still bleeds internally from poor treatment. Those around her notice she’s deathly pale because of extreme trauma and pain.

After years of horrific torture and abuse, a federal Bureau of Prisons psychological evaluation diagnosed her condition to be “depressive type psychosis” besides the destructive physical toll on her body.

World Outrage and Support

The Muslim Justice Initiative (MJI) said Siddiqui’s “recent guilty verdict… shocked and outraged masses across the globe” in announcing an April 2 online webinar discussion on her behalf, featuring her brother Mohammed, sister Fawzia, noted UK journalist and Siddiqui advocate, Yvonne Ridley, and Tina Foster, Executive Director of the International Justice Network (IJN). Information on the event can be found at muslimsforjustice.org.

On February 3, Siddiqui’s conviction date, IJN said the following:

It “represents the family of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui in the United States,” its attorneys “monitoring her trial, which began on January 19 and ended with a guilty verdict today in US Federal Court in the Southern District of New York.”

Today marks the close of another sad chapter in the life of our sister, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. Today she was unjustly found guilty. Though she was not charged with any terrorism-related offense, Judge Berman permitted the prosecution’s witnesses to characterize our sister as a terrorist – which, based on copious (exculpatory) evidence, she clearly is not. Today’s verdict is one of the many legal errors that allowed the prosecution to build a case against our sister based on hate, rather than fact. We believe that as a result, she was denied a fair trial, and today’s verdict must be overturned on appeal.

Himself victimized by US torture, including at Bagram, author of “Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim’s Journey to Guantanamo and Back,” Moassam Begg (like others), called Aafia “the Grey Lady of Bagram because she (was) almost a ghost, a spectre whose cries and screams continue to haunt those who heard her.” So much so that for six days in 2005, male prisoners staged a hunger strike in protest.

After sentencing, her next journey may be to isolated life confinement in federal Supermax hell — according to the US Department of Justice National Institute of Corrections, intended for the most dangerous criminals, guilty of “repetitive assaultive or violent institutional behavior,” the worst of the worst who threaten society or national security.

Hardly the place for a woman called shy, soft-spoken, deeply religious, polite, studious, thoughtful, and considerate of others, especially persecuted Muslims being brutalized in America’s global gulag, courtesy of an administration that pays lip service to ending torture but practices it as sadistically as George Bush and the worst of history’s tyrants.

Source

Related

Dr Aafia Siddiqui found guilty

Kidnapped tortured for years and now in an American prison.

Even her children were in prison and tortured.

This is a travesty.  This is the American way.

Bush is Scott free in spite of the fact he is responsible for the torture of hundreds or maybe even thousands and the deaths  of over a million  or two million  people.

There sure is something wrong with this picture.

Why haven’t the people who Tortured and Raped Aafia Siddiqui not been charged and thrown in jail?????????

Why is that. Why are they free?????

If they are allowed to go free we definitely live in a sick, demented, sadistic  world. It says a lot about American justice doesn’t it?

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Vietnam War Veteran on Hunger Strike in Protest of Afghanistan War

Vietnam War Veteran on Hunger Strike in Protest of Afghanistan War

November 20 2009

He’s starving himself for peace. A Vietnam veteran is fasting in Washington trying to bring about an end to the Afghan war which he sees as putting unbearable pressures on American soldiers.

Thomas Mahany hasn’t eaten in 7 days.

Stand by Thomas Mahany say “No to War”!

“Playing For Change: Peace Through Music”, comes the first of many “songs around the world” being released independently. Featured is a cover of the Ben E. King classic by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it travelled the globe.

So if your in the area go out and Stand by Thomas Mahany say “No to War”! Bring your friends, Bring your neighbors, Bring everyone you can and Say No to War? Bring a Whole Lotta Love. Bring the Whole Country!

Write the papers write the TV media, it’s time for the US to say no more war.

Get Out Of My Country

This is a must listen –  Interview With Malalai Joya

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Civilians

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What Afghans have to look forward to, the same weapons were used there as in Iraq.

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More than half of British public against UK mission in Afghanistan

Mining is one of Afghanistan’s few economic bright spots. Significant deposits of copper, iron, gold, oil and gas, and coal — as well as precious gems such as emeralds and rubies — are largely untapped.

The US is whining it is not getting mining contracts. They are screaming corruption. Source

Personally the US  should clean up the corruption in their own back yards before  accusing others.  The US is a leader of taking bribes especially at election time. Their politicians are bought and sold by big oi, gas, phama and the Israeli lobby groups.  They should take a look in the mirror before accusing others.

Why would the Afghans want to award them contracts considering, they destroyed their country, murdered their citizens,  left a deadly trail of radioactive poison etc etc.

Seems to me the US has corruption mastered.

The US should, Get out of Afghanistan.

Those who sent them there under false pretenses, should be tried for War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity.

Jan 19: Throw a shoe, sing for peace: Protesters gather in D.C.

January 19 2009

An anti-Bush protest outside the White House in Washington

Photo: AFP

Photo: AFP

Antiwar, anti-Bush, anti-Obama — advocates of varied causes arrive at the capital to voice opinions, petition and stage political theater.
By Robin Abcarian
Reporting from Washington

Forbes Hill, an animator from Los Angeles, was walking past Dupont Circle on Monday morning looking for an art gallery to visit when he noticed the Raging Grannies — peace activists who set antiwar lyrics to familiar songs — warbling away at a microphone on a makeshift stage.

Then he spied a 25-foot-tall inflatable President Bush figure in a “Mission Accomplished” flight suit. People were chucking shoes at it.
Hill had stumbled across one of the few angry gatherings in a town bathed in good vibes in anticipation of today’s inauguration of Barack Obama. (Well, angry-ish. Everyone who threw shoes smiled and giggled in spite of themselves.)

The shoe hurling, sponsored by several anti-Bush, pro-peace groups, was inspired by Iraqi journalist Muntather Zaidi, who threw his shoes at Bush last month during a Baghdad news conference.

Hill’s sister, Ashley Hill of Durango, Colo., picked up a pair of strappy brown leather sandals from one of the piles of donated shoes strewn around Dupont Circle. Hill pointed his camera phone.

“This is totally cathartic,” Hill said as he snapped a shot of Ashley launching the sandals. “How can you resist?”

The shoes bounced off the midsection of the giant Bush, forcing a local television cameraman to duck as they sailed past his head.

On the stage nearby — behind a neat line of boots, loafers and sneakers — Gael Murphy, co-founder of the antiwar group Code Pink, called Zaidi courageous and thanked “everyone who has stood up and spoken truth to power in their own way.”

“Hold onto your shoes,” Murphy said to the crowd of about 100 protesters. “The struggle is not over.”

Barbara Cummings, a retired government worker from San Diego, solicited signatures for a petition urging Atty. Gen.-designate Eric H. Holder Jr. to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for war crimes. She also sold posters featuring Bush and Cheney’s faces behind bars, with the slogan “I have a dream.”

“Just because we’ve elected a new president doesn’t negate that crimes were committed,” Cummings said. “Obama has said that no one is above the law. Bush and Cheney have admitted proudly they condoned torture. We will never regain our moral standing in the world if we just allow these criminals to say, ‘Bye bye.’ ”

The shoe hurlers planned to march later to the White House, where a few were going to toss their ammunition over the fence.

This year’s protests are expected to be notably mild compared, for example, with 1973’s raucous anti-Vietnam War demonstrations aimed at President Nixon or the angry shouts of “Hail to the thief!” in 2001 after George W. Bush’s disputed victory over Al Gore. A handful of anti-Obama protests — most centered around the abortion issue — were planned for Inauguration Day.

The Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, said his group would carry anti-abortion banners near the swearing-in. “We want to send a clear signal to President Obama from Day One, from the very moment you are sworn in, the pro-life community will be there.”

Obama, who favors abortion rights, has muted some of the criticism by choosing evangelical Pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at today’s ceremony.

Members of the Save Darfur Coalition plan to circulate petitions urging Obama to act on the crisis in war-torn Sudan.

Meanwhile, at the base of the Dupont Circle fountain, the political theater intensified as a gray-haired man in a bright orange prisoner’s jumpsuit prepared to be “waterboarded.” He was thrown to the ground (gently), his face covered by a towel (on top of a clear plastic face mask) and his “torturer” doused his head with a gallon of water.

The “victim,” Steve Lane, a chemist who lives in Bethesda, Md., and writes grants for the National Institutes of Health, looked shaken when it was all over.

“It’s so horrible, this feeling of helplessness,” Lane said. “Even though it’s make-believe, it still panicked me when the water accidentally got in my mouth.”

This was the fifth or sixth time Lane had volunteered for “waterboarding” at an anti-Bush demonstration, he said.

“We were doing a leash thing like they did at Abu Ghraib,” he said, referring to the infamous photographs of Iraqi prisoners being mistreated by American soldiers. “Then this guy I work with on this said, ‘Let’s step it up a notch.’ So that’s what we did.”

Source

Bushes last day in office, several hundred protesters marched from Dupont Circle to Penn Ave. In solidarity with Iraqi shoe thrower Muntada Al-Zaida, protesters then threw shoes over the barricade fences between Penn Ave and the White House.

The march arrives

Shoes thrown over barricades

More shoes thrown over White House barricades

Area of impact

WHY shoes are thrown at Bush! Photos: Indymedia

The event was held to demand that George Bush, Cheney, et all be prosecuted for war crimes-and that Obama deliver on his promises to end the war and shut down Guantanimo Bay.

Few if any shoes cleared the main White House fence(the final fence out of several), but the image of shoes flying towards the White House is long overdue! On the approach march, protesters held shoes aloft, just like in anti-Bush protests in so many other nations.

Several speakers both in Dupont and in front of the White House reminded everyone present that Muntada al-Zaidi has been held in custody and tortured ever since!

Prior to the march, activists demanding the closure of Guantanimo Bay re-enacted a waterboarding session, in the context of security officials trying to unravel a plot against the Inauguration itself!

Source

Anti-war protesters throw shoes at White House

WASHINGTON

Anti-war protesters were throwing shoes outside the gates of the White House on President George W. Bush’s last day in office.

About 500 people marched to the White House and threw about 40 pairs of shoes at the gate while tourists looked on and took photos.

Supporters say they acted in solidarity with Muntadhar Al-Zeidi (MOON’-tuh-dahr ahl-zay-EE’-dee), the Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at Bush during a news conference in Baghdad in December.

The event was sponsored by several peace groups. Organizer Jamilla El-Shafei of Kennebunk, Maine, says the event allowed protesters to express their anger over Bush. She says he is “leaving with no accountability for eviscerating our Constitution.”

Source

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Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America’s War On Iraq 4,229

The War And Occupation Of Iraq Costs

$588,201,053,050 See the cost in your community

A father carrying his Daughter.

This little girl is just one of the million George Bush has been responsible for killing.

The British helped as did other countries.

The worst offenders are George W Bush and Company and Tony Blair and Company

This was a war for Oil not to free the people of Iraq.

There were No Weapons of Mass Destruction.

That was all propaganda.

They Both want to control the Middle East.

Promoting Democracy and Freedom was not part of their agenda.

What was done in Iraq was Genocide pure and simple.

Any country involved in the war in Iraq should be hanging their heads in absolute shame.  The masterminds of it should be charged.

They should be imprisoned for their crimes.

Justice must be served.

I was reading this yesterday.

France, UK pushing EU sanctions for Iran

January 19 2009

France and Britain are reportedly making attempts within the European Union to slap new round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear ambitions.

French daily Le Monde reported on Monday that Paris and London have been pressing the EU to expand its embargos in a bid to prevent Iran from obtaining equipment and technology for its oil industry.

“Having failed in their attempt for now due to the lack of a European consensus, French and British officials seem to be focusing on another objective – banning the activities of Iran’s Saderat and Mellat banks from the EU’s territory,” Le Monde said.

The news comes as the United States has earlier imposed its own sanctions on both Saderat and Mellat banks.

Le Monde report added that Britain and France are also working on adding to the list of Iranian organizations targeted by EU sanctions in order to make it harder for Iran to evade international sanctions.

In an attempt to pressure Iran into halting uranium enrichment, the UN Security Council has so far imposed three sets of sanctions on the country.

Washington, Tel Aviv and their European allies claim that Tehran has plans ‘to build a nuclear weapon’ and argue that the use of military force is a legitimate option in retarding Iran’s nuclear progress.

Iran argues that the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) – to which it is a signatory – gives the country the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, adding that nuclear energy is essential for meeting its growing energy demand.

Source

Seems to me, if they should be Sanctioning anyone it Should Be Israel and the US.

What the US or Israel have said or done is irrelevant as they are both rogue states.

Both have used Nuclear weapons on innocent civilians and if anyone is not to be trusted it would be those two especially. Both have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. Britain participated in an illegal war along with the US and France has been in great part responsible for the Demise of Haiti and it’s people over the years.

They might want to take a look in their own back yards and clean up their messes before condemning Iran.

They all have “Nuclear Weapons” and should not posses them any more then anyone else.

They for all intense and purpose they are hypocrites. Practice what you preach or shut the hell up. They should clean the nuclear weapons out of their own closets. We know for a fact they have them. Iran just wants nuclear power plants.

Iran to date has not been a waring state.

The others however would think nothing of dropping a Nuke on Iran and killing again millions of people so they can control yet more of the Middle East.

This is just pathetic. They of all people have committed more crimes and killed more innocent people over the years then one wants to remember but it is true.

Iran has done nothing wrong and do not have Nuclear weapons. The sanctioning is just to starve innocent  people.  Gaza is a good example as was Iraq. Sanctions kill.

Seems the warmongers are at it again. This is the beginning of a war even if you don’t realize it. Like Iraq they sanction them, make them weak and then go in for the kill. Killing over a million people as they did in Iraq however was also pre- meditated they planed it long before the invasion ever occurred.

Many of the wars perpetrated by some countries are pre planned just like Israel pre planned this last rampage in Gaza. They have systematically exterminated a few million Palestinians over the years. This type of behavior in all countries must end. Seems those who are the richest, are the ones who are the greatest Criminals and Thieves.

That is what they are nothing more nothing less.

They want the natural Resources of weaker countries. They have been repeatedly doing it over and over for years.

It all began way back in time. They explore they find they steal , kill, murder, maim and enslave the populations of countries.

They did it to the people in Africa and sold Africans to the US as  slaves.

They conquered and killed the Aboriginals in many countries. Australia, Canada. the US, South America  etc etc.

History must not keep repeating itself.

They have been doing it for years. They stole there land and their lives.

One would think in 2009 the world leaders and people would realize this must stop.

How sad the so called civilized world are really the savages. Not the innocent people they slaughter.

Poverty and death is created and imposed on the less fortunate countries, by the rich and powerful countries.

The rich and powerful countries also do the same thing to their own people. They really should clean up their own back yards.

The Financial Crisis was caused, by those so called Rich and powerful countries as well.

History is a great teacher just a pity they never learn anything from it.

War must never be an option. Of course those who make and sell weapons love war. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Those who invest in these companies love.  $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Those countries who conquer weaker countries love $$$$$$$$$$$

They want the land the resources and will do anything to steal them including war. Including lieing,  including killing innocent people and manufacturing enough lies to hoodwinked, their population into believing it is for a just cause,  which 9 times out of ten it is not. Could be 100% of the time. Their lies and deception must be brought to the fore front.

The planet cannot sustain war. The pollution left behind will kill for years to come. You included. War is killing all of us on the planet.

War is like the plague.  Cancer causing, disease creating,  plague.

The weapons they use cause deformities, in unborn babies.

They cause mental illnesses, mentally challenged,  and the list is extremely extensive.  I would have to write all day to do the list of illnesses caused by weapons of mass destruction.

Radiation alone causes so many long term problems. In any form it is horrific.  When they say your illness is caused because it’s in your Genes well it is. But the cause of the Genes deformation in the first place,  would be radiation. This became all to obvious after the Nuclear bomb testing in the US and other countries. Cancers started to pop up. Babies were born deformed etc etc. The mentally challenged didn’t just magically appear on the planet. The Bomb testing was the actual cause. The wind blows it goes as with most of their weapons. Chemical toxic slop. Agent Orange is till affecting those in Vietnam and the war veterans.

Radiation  Fall out in the US.

When I said they would kill their own. They did. They are still doing it. Only now they are killing all of us.

The legacy of them will live on for billions of years. Is this what we want for our future.

War is exterminating everyone on the planet.  Seems the leaders in some countries, just don’t get it. Well before they kill us all they had better get a grip on reality.

War for Peace is, like F$@#$ing to get your Virginity back.

It defeats the purpose when the slop you leave on the planet kills everyone.  You and I included, or our children, or our childrens children.

The “warmongers” are the problem, not the innocent victims they murder.

They create the wave of wars. They create the circumstances. They create the weapons. They make the profits. They enslave the people.

They are killing all of us for power, land, natural resources and money.

They use our sons and daughters , friends and families to fight their filthy wars. Not for Peace,  not to protect us, but for Greed, Power and domination..

They kill millions of innocent people.

They would kill you too.

“War Pollution” is devastating to the planet.

Related Articles

Who profits from WAR?

War “Pollution” Equals Millions of Deaths

Outcry over weapons used in Gaza

Unusually Large U.S. Weapons Shipment to Israel: Are the US and Israel Planning a Broader Middle East War?

Gaza (6) A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Israel Hits another “United Nations” Building in Gaza

Israel is so sorry for yet another hit on the UN.

Right and I have land on Mars for sale. I have a bit of real-estate on Pluto too any buyers?  So we are all suppose to swallow their propaganda are wee.  Crying “wolf” is becoming a real pass time for Israeli leaders.

I guess we all have ” Really %$#@@$@  stupid”  written across our foreheads too.

Smoke rises from the United Nations headquarters after it was hit during Israeli bombardment of Gaza City, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009. Photo: AP / Hatem Moussa

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert apologized Thursday for the shelling of a UN compound that brought “very sad” consequences, but he insisted that Israeli forces were firing back at militants who shot at them first.

“It is absolutely true that we were attacked from that place, but the consequences are very sad and we apologize for it,” he said.

“I don’t think it should have happened and I’m very sorry.”

A senior Israeli commander, who spoke to The Associated Press under condition of anonymity prior to Olmert’s public remarks, said militants shot anti-tank weapons and machine guns from inside the UN compound on Thursday.

Israel’s apparent counter-attack set the compound on fire, destroyed food supplies and forced hundreds of refugees to flee the area.

UN officials said it was “nonsense” that militants had been firing from inside the compound.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is meeting with Israeli officials in Israel Thursday, has demanded an investigation into the incident.

“I conveyed my strong protest and outrage to the defense minister and foreign minister and demanded a full explanation,” Ban said.

During a meeting with Ban on Thursday, Olmert said the shelling was a “sad incident,” but he blamed the militants.

Earlier Thursday, the UN chief said that Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told him the attack on the UN compound was a “grave mistake.”

Barak also reportedly said Israel would pay extra attention to protecting UN facilities.

A UN employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said 700 Palestinians had just sought shelter in the compound Thursday morning.

“These were people who were scared. They rushed into the nearest UN facility,” he told The Associated Press.

UN spokesman Chris Gunness says at least three people were wounded.

The compound houses the UN Works and Relief Agency, which distributes food aid to hundreds of thousands of Gazans.

Meanwhile, Israeli ground troops have moved deep into Gaza City, engaging in close-combat fighting with Hamas.

“People are very, very nervous, there is very heavy fighting,” CTV’s Tom Kennedy reported Thursday from Jerusalem.

Israeli forces kill Hamas leader

Israeli forces also killed the top Hamas security official in the Gaza Strip on Thursday.

Hamas interior minister Said Siam died when Israeli forces attacked his brother’s home after receiving word that he was inside.

The raid killed Siam, his brother, and his brother’s family.

Both Hamas and Israeli military officials confirmed his death.

Siam is believed to have presided over thousands of Gaza Strip security agents and to be among Hamas’ top five leaders in the region.

Raids put media at risk

Also on Thursday, Israeli shells struck a hospital, five high-rise apartment buildings and a building used by media outlets.

“The feed point that we at CTV use to get images out of Gaza, that is now burning,” Kennedy said.

Several reporters were reported injured.

The Foreign Press Association demanded that Israel stop its attacks on buildings housing reporters.

Amani Abu Ramadan, a Canadian who lives in Gaza, said the situation is really bad.

“It’s absolutely crazy in Gaza right now,” Ramadan told CTV’s Canada AM on Thursday.

“I can’t get in contact with many of my family members in Gaza because of the phones that are down.”

She said getting to the Erez border crossing, where many Canadians were evacuated from Gaza Strip earlier this month, is “near fatal.”

“The Israelis are shooting at anything that is moving on the main highways or even on the side streets that might be like a small mini-bus, or a micro-bus, or a taxi,” she said.

“Even they’re shooting at ambulances and television crews.”

Since the Israeli offensive began on Dec. 27, about 1,100 Palestinians have been killed, including about 550 civilians.

Thirteen Israelis have also died. Israeli military reported 14 firings of rockets into Israel on Thursday.

Truce negotiation

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said his country has sent an envoy to Cairo for truce talks with Egyptian mediators.

Regev says envoy Amos Gilad will be negotiating the “parameters of the end game” with the mediators.

“The Israeli government is saying that diplomatic efforts pushing towards a ceasefire now have momentum,” Kennedy said.

Israel, which launched the offensive against Hamas in Gaza on Dec. 27, wants a total stoppage of Palestinian rocket fire into southern Israeli towns.

Regev said Gilad will not be meeting with Hamas envoys in Egypt.

Egypt is pushing both Israel and Hamas to accept a 10-day truce to allow time for a more comprehensive accord to be negotiated.

Israel has also dispatched a senior diplomat to Washington to discuss international guarantees that Hamas will not rearm its militia, reports The Associated Press.

In Israel, Ban met with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Thursday.

“We have some elements now in place which may allow a cease fire to come fairly soon,” he told a news conference. “I hope so, but that depends on the political will of the Israeli government.”

He said a complete truce agreement was not necessary to halt the fighting.

“You can discuss terms and conditions later, my demand is to cease firing immediately,” he said.

“I’m well aware that rockets have been fired at Israeli civilians for years from Gaza,” he said. “I have always condemned these as acts of terrorism and said they must cease.”

United Nations workers and Palestinian firefighters work to try and put out a fire and save bags of food aid at the United Nations headquarters after it was hit in an Israeli bombardment in Gaza City, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009. Photo: AP / Hatem Moussa

Source

Egypt is pushing both Israel and Hamas to accept a 10-day truce to allow time for a more comprehensive accord to be negotiated.

Or is it it will take that long for the “Weapons of Mass Destruction” to be delivered to Israel. They may be running short after all. The US is in the process of sending them more.

Israel is lieing as usual. They broke the ceasefire on “November 4 2008”. That is when the war really began. Seems the media failed to inform people of that fact. I guess they were too busy with  the Financial Crisis to mention it.

Israel has “Weapons of Mass Destruction” supplied by the US. They are targeting anything and everything. They are totally destroying Gaza for Natural Gas no less. They should be treated, as the war criminals they are. When some say bombs are raining down, they are coming down like rain. Pouring rain. Like a Tsunami.

The after math will also hit the Israelis, as the pollution, from the Weapons will also make them sick and die as well. Nothing like murdering your own for Natural Gas and Bloodthirsty Power over others, weaker then yourself. Those in Gaza are in a massive “Gas Chamber” of death.  No escaping the “Prison Compound” they are trapped in either.

The wind blows and it goes right next door to Israel . Their soldiers will die  from it too. How stupid they are not to foresee the after math of death. Cancers and other illness, will run ramped. That I can guarantee.

How blind are those who live in Israel?

Israelis shell hospitals and UN HQ

Three hospitals and a UN complex are bombed as Israelis push further into Gaza.

More than 300 children have been killed in Israel’s continuing assault, UN says. Children ‘paying price of Gaza war’

Bin Laden urges jihad against Israel

January 15 2009: CAIRO – Osama bin Laden urged Muslims to launch a jihad against Israel, seeking to harness anger over the Gaza offensive with a new message posted on the Internet yesterday. The Al Qaeda chief vowed to open “new fronts” against the United States and its allies beyond Iraq and Afghanistan and also criticized Arab leaders, accusing most of them of being allies of the United States and Israel. The White House dismissed the call to jihad, saying it reflects bin Laden’s isolation and shows he is trying to remain relevant at a time when his ideology and mission are being challenged. Bin Laden spoke in a 22-minute audiotape posted on Islamic militant websites where Al Qaeda usually issues messages. The authenticity of the tape, bin Laden’s first since May, could not be independently confirmed. Source

How George W Bush, is that “Bull Shit”.

They could at least get a new Script.

This tells me the Americans are of course,  behind this attacks on Gaza.

Bin Laden is in all likelihood, dead. He had a kidney disease, for which he needed dialysis. Odds of him still even being alive, are extremely, small to say the least.

There have been a number of times the Americans, have fabricated videos or tapes of him.

This too is probably BS. Seems Bin Laden pops up when the US is looking for “support” and to instill “fear”  in people. What propaganda. They have beat this to death more times then not. To a point of nausea.  They should put their Bin Laden, propaganda in a Museum where it belongs.

It is an antique scenario after all.

Bush defends foreign policy in final legacy tour
January 15 2009: “The war, launched without UN authorization, undercut US credibility abroad and contributed to a resounding victory by Obama against John McCain”.

“Bush also made clear that he sees his failed effort to broker peace between Israeli and the Palestinians in his final year as not completely in vain, despite a 3-week-old Israel-Hamas war in Gaza with no end in sight.” Source

He is also the one supplying “Weapons of  Mass Destruction” to Israel.

Broker peace my foot. Broker more war, would be more like it. Bush loves war, as does his weapons making, profiteering,  friends and those who invest in Weapons companies, who also stand to make a tidy profit. The more war the more Profit. $$$$$$$$$$$. Daddy must be so proud of his Son.

Israel will do anything for the US. Heaven forbid they didn’t get all that Aid money and “Weapons of Mass Destruction”.

The US and Israel are worse then Saddam could ever imagine being.  

Bush is a war criminal like his Israeli counter parts are and both should be treated as such. Exterminating, over a million people in Iraq is a crime.

Israel is doing the same thing.

Shoot Then Ask, Israeli Soldiers Told

Gaza (6) A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

US delivering more “Weapons of Mass Destruction” to Israel

79 % of the time: Israel caused conflicts not Hamas

Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus Shells/Targets UN School

Israel killing their own by Using Deadly Weapons of Mass Destuction against Gaza

Indexed List of all Stories in Archives

US Veto Blocks UN Anti-Israel Resolution

US Veto Blocks UN Anti-Israel Resolution

December 28, 2008

The UN Security Council has been unable to force an end to Israeli attacks against Gaza due to the intervention of the United States.

Washington once again used its veto powers on Sunday to block a resolution calling for an end to the massive ongoing Israeli attacks against the Gaza Strip. The council has only been able to issue a ‘non-binding’ statement that calls on Israel to voluntarily bring all its military activities in the besieged region to an immediate end.

The statement comes as Israel has begun a fresh wave of air strikes on Gaza on Sunday, killing at least six people.  At least 230 people were killed and 800 wounded in similar attacks on Saturday.  The number of Palestinians deaths has so far risen to 271.

The council called on the parties to address the humanitarian crisis in the territory but has not criticized the Israeli air attacks. Croatian UN Ambassador Neven Jurica read out the non-binding statement on behalf of the 15-member body that “called for an immediate halt to all violence” and on the parties “to stop immediately all military activities.” “The members of the Security Council expressed serious concern at the escalation of the situation in Gaza,” he said, as the president of the council.

The council also requested the opening of border crossings into Gaza to address the serious humanitarian and economic needs in Gaza and to ensure medical treatment and a continuous supply of food and fuel.

US representative to the UNSC, Zalmay Khalilzad, defended the Israeli move, saying Tel Aviv has the right to self-defense. “I regret the loss of any of all innocent life,” he said, adding that Hamas rockets precipitated this situation.

Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip say they fire rockets into Israel in retaliation for the daily Israeli attacks against them. Unlike the state-of-the-art Israeli weapons and ammunition, the home-made Qassam rockets rarely cause casualties.

The US, a staunch ally to Israel, has so far vetoed over 40 anti-Israeli resolutions sought by the council since 1972.

Since 2004, Washington has prevented the adoption of four other resolutions that called for Tel Aviv to halt its operations in the Gaza Strip.

Source

Seems the US is just as responsible for the deaths of the  Palestinians as is Israel. The US is preventing peace. They are just a guilty as Israel.

Leaders Lie, Civilians Die, Israelis-Palestinians

Global protests against Israel

White House Protesters Throw Shoes at Bush Effigy

White House Protesters Throw Shoes at Bush Effigy
December 17 2008

Anti-war protesters throw shoes at a fellow demonstrator wearing a prison uniform and mask of President George W. Bush outside the White House in Washington, on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008. (AP Photo)

By  Tom Fitzgerald

President Bush may have though he’d see the last of shoes being thrown his way, but the anti-war group Code Pink showed up at the White House Wednesday to stage a protest inspired by the President’s much-discussed shoe ducking incident.

The protesters took turns throwing shoes at a large puppet that was made up to look like President Bush. A shoe memorial was also laid out on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House to represent the Iraqi civilians who have been killed during the war.

The group’s founder, Meda Benjamin, says she views the Iraqi reporter who threw his footwear at the president as a role model, saying “We feel that the Iraq reporter is now a hero throughout the world because he has expressed the sentiment of millions of people who are so angry at George Bush’s policies”

Critics of Code Pink say the event was more publicity stunt than constructive discussion of the problems facing a post-Bush administration.

Brian Darling of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, says Code Pink may have to change its style once Barack Obama inherits both the White House and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying “There is a mainstream left which respectfully discusses what’s happened in Iraq and then there is Code Pink – no where near respectful – and their actions are out of the mainstream.”

The U.S. Secret Service stood by during the protests; however there were no conflicts with authorities and no arrests were made.

Source

Berkeley Code Pink activists support Iraq shoe-throwing reporter

December 17 2008

Code Pink members and supporters hold a “Farewell Kiss, Shoe-in” outside the Marine Recuitment…

Anti-war activists from the group Code Pink gathered at a Marine recruiting station in Berkeley this morning to show solidarity with an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush on Sunday.

Members of the group and others marched around the recruiting station holding shoes in the air to show support for Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi, who hurled two shoes at Bush during a news conference in Baghdad.

In many Arab countries, showing the sole of one’s shoes, much less throwing shoes at another person, is considered extremely disrespectful.

Organizers said their demonstration was to show support for the Iraqi people who have been killed, tortured or maimed and U.S. soldiers who have died since the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq.

The Code Pink protest didn’t effect operations at the Shattuck Avenue recruiting station, said Marine Corps spokesman Sgt. Matt DeBoard.

“Code Pink has been protesting at Shattuck Square for almost a year now,” he said. ”They don’t bother us and we don’t bother them.”

He repeated the Marine’s contention that their recruiting and military operations help defend Americans right to freedom of speech. “Our position is that we do what we do so that everyone can express their opinion.”

For more than a year, women from CodePink picketed weekly in front of the U.S. Marine recruiting center at 64 Shattuck Square in downtown Berkeley. They say the Marines are not welcome in liberal, anti-war Berkeley and that the office should shut its doors.

In January, the Berkeley City Council got involved when it officially stated that the Marines were “uninvited and unwelcome intruders” and granted CodePink a permit waiver and a free parking space in front of the Marine center for the weekly protests. The move angered people across the country, who flooded City Hall with about 25,000 letters and e-mails.

Source

Protesters shake shoes at US Embassy in London

Dec 17: Peace Activists Take Shoes to White House in Solidarity with Shoe-Throwing Iraqi Journalist

Please also sign Petitions at below link.

Join the Calls to release Iraqi Journalist Muntadhar Al-Zaydi

Auto workers rally in Jackson

December 16 2008

JACKSON, MS

The debate over whether the big three automakers should be bailed out by congress was brought to the Mississippi capitol.

United Auto Workers Union members marched through the capitol joined by state lawmakers and supporters. They voiced the opinion that if Wall Street was bailed out why not the automakers. The worry is that if Ford, GM and Chrysler aren’t given money from Washington the companies could go under and take thousands of American families with them.

Robert Schaffer of the MS AFL-CIO says, “It’s getting to the point to where it’s fine for them to make decisions about everybody else’s welfare, but if we were in a situation where they were losing their jobs and they were losing their health care off those fat salaries in Washington DC. They would have a different out look on everything trust me.”

A bill to bailout auto makers passed the house, but failed in the United States senate. President Bush and the white house says they are working on a plan-B that all sides can agree on.

Source

Canadian Governments willing to help Auto Industry

Obama, McCain discuss ways to change ‘bad habits’ of Washington

November 17 2008

By BETH FOUHY

CHICAGO

President-elect Barack Obama and former Republican rival John McCain pledged Monday to work together on ways to change Washington’s “bad habits,” though aides to both men said it was unlikely McCain would serve in an Obama cabinet.

The two men met in Obama’s transition headquarters in Chicago for the first time since the Illinois senator vanquished McCain in the presidential election Nov. 4.

Obama said they wanted to talk about “how we can do some work together to fix up the country,” and he added that he would offer his thanks to McCain “for the outstanding service he’s already rendered.”

Obama has said he is likely to invite at least one Republican to join his cabinet, but McCain was not expected to be a candidate. McCain is serving his fourth term in the U.S. Senate.

Obama and McCain sat together for a brief picture-taking session with reporters, along with Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s incoming White House chief of staff, and South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, McCain’s close friend.

Obama and McCain were heard briefly discussing football, and Obama cracked that “the national press is tame compared to the Chicago press.”

When asked if he planned to help the Obama administration, McCain replied, “Obviously.”

After the meeting, the two issued a joint statement saying: “At this defining moment in history, we believe that Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington so that we can solve the common and urgent challenges of our time.”

“It is in this spirit that we had a productive conversation today about the need to launch a new era of reform where we take on government waste and bitter partisanship in Washington in order to restore trust in government, and bring back prosperity and opportunity for every hardworking American family,” it said.

“We hope to work together in the days and months ahead on critical challenges like solving our financial crisis, creating a new energy economy and protecting our nation’s security.”

Obama and McCain clashed bitterly during the fall campaign over taxes, the Iraq War, and ways to fix the ailing economy. Things got ugly at times, with McCain running ads comparing Obama to celebrities Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and raising questions about his rival’s distant relationship with a 1960s-era radical, William Ayers.

Obama’s campaign labelled the 72-year old McCain “erratic” and ran a campaign ad falsely suggesting that McCain and Rush Limbaugh shared similar anti-immigration views.

McCain delivered a gracious concession speech on election night, paying tribute to Obama’s historic ascendancy as the country’s first black president. The two agreed that night to meet after the election when McCain called Obama to concede defeat.

Meanwhile, Obama said in his first television interview since his historic election that Americans shouldn’t worry about the growing federal deficit for the next couple of years and also urged help for the auto industry.

While investors are still riding a rollercoaster on Wall Street, Obama told CBS’ “60 Minutes” in an interview broadcast Sunday that the economy would have deteriorated even more without the $700 billion bank bailout. Re-regulation is a legislative priority, he said, not to crush “the entrepreneurial spirit and risk-taking of American capitalism” but to “restore a sense of balance.”

He also said, “We shouldn’t worry about the deficit next year or even the year after. … The most important thing is that we avoid a deepening recession.”

Obama said he has spent the days since the election planning to stabilize the economy, restore consumer confidence, create jobs and get sound health care and energy policies through Congress.

“There’s no doubt that we have not been able yet to reset the confidence in the financial markets and in the consumer markets and among businesses that allow the economy to move forward in a strong way,” Obama said. “And my job as president is going to be to make sure that we restore that confidence.”

While he said “we have the tools,” the president-elect said not enough has been done to address bank foreclosures and distressed homeowners.

“We’ve gotta set up a negotiation between banks and borrowers so that people can stay in their homes,” Obama said. “That is going to have an impact on the economy as a whole. And, you know, one thing I’m determined is that if we don’t have a clear, focused program for homeowners by the time I take office, we will after I take office.”

Obama credited Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson for trying to remedy “an unprecedented crisis” the country hasn’t seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

A member of the transition team works with Paulson daily, Obama said, getting the needed background and sometimes offering approaches to address the economic meltdown.

Obama also acknowledged meeting with former Democratic rival Senator Hillary Clinton last week, but refused to say whether she was being considered for secretary of state, as has been widely reported. He also said the Republican party will be represented in his cabinet.

In the CBS interview, Obama also said that as soon as he takes office he will work with his security team and the military to draw down U.S. troops in Iraq, shore up Afghanistan and “stamp out al-Qaida once and for all.”

Obama confirmed reports that he intends to close the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, and “make sure we don’t torture” as “part and parcel of an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world.”

Obama also said he plans to put al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in the crosshairs.

“I think capturing or killing bin Laden is a critical aspect of stamping out al-Qaida,” Obama said. “He is not just a symbol, he’s also the operational leader of an organization that is planning attacks against U.S. targets.”

Source

Moscow aims to restore trust with the U.S.

November 16 2008

Dmitry Medvedev has said the election of Barack Obama provides an opportunity for a renewal of trust between Moscow and Washington. Relations between the two sides have soured since the U.S. announced plans to build an anti-missile defence shield in Europe.

Speaking in the U.S. capital, the Russian President said “we have great hope and aspirations for the new administration.”

Medvedev has been doing the diplomatic rounds in the past week, from the EU summit in Nice to the G20 in Washington. A top issue for discussion has been the proposed U.S. anti-missile defence shield in Europe.

Speaking at Saturday’s G20 summit in Washington, The Russian president explained that Russia will place short-range missiles in its westernmost Kaliningrad region only if the planned U.S. bases are built in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Relations between the two sides were on the agenda before the Russian president managed to take off from Moscow.

The day after the U.S. election Medvedev gave a speech to the parliament’s upper chamber, announcing a plan to counter the US missile defence system in Europe with Iskander missiles deployed in Kaliningrad.

The address caused much alarm and criticism in the West, and ahead of the EU meeting Medvedev had to explain once again what he meant.

“I would not in any way link my speech on November 5 to any other political events, apart from my address to the Russian Federal Assembly. In other words, it is not in any way linked to the U.S. presidential election, or any other political events,” Medvedev told the French newspaper Le Figaro.

“I think it’s an absolutely adequate response. We did not start this. It is only a response to the unilateral move to deploy the US radars and missiles”.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who heads the EU at the moment, did not want to be held up by U.S-Russia sticking points. Sarkozy and preferred to focus on progress as well – like the EU’s work as a peace broker following last summer’s crisis in the Caucasus.

The U.S. couldn’t be avoided altogether. Russian and French leaders and the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso were expected for dinner at the White House shortly after the Russia-EU summit wrapped up with plans for future security meetings.

The G20 meant all eyes were on the economy. They couldn’t help but wander in the direction of the man who will inherit an enormous task in January, even though he was far from Washington this weekend. Moscow anticipates that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama might better understand Russia’s concern about NATO expansion and missile defence in Europe.

“I hope we’ll be able to build normal partnership relations with the new administration and find solutions to some difficult issues which we could not find with the current administration,” Medvedev said.

Source

World Leaders Must Roll Back Radical WTO Financial Service Deregulation

Nov. 14, 2008

To Address Crisis, World Leaders Must Roll Back Radical WTO Financial Service Deregulation Requirements, not Push WTO Doha Round’s Further Financial Sector Deregulation

Bush’s Stubborn, Ideological Defense of Market-uber-alles Global Economic Deregulation Model Threatens Summit’s Prospects

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Remedying the financial crisis will require significant changes to existing World Trade Organization (WTO) rules that lock in domestically and export worldwide the extreme financial services deregulatory agenda favored by the world’s banking and insurance giants that fostered the crisis, Public Citizen said.

“President Bush’s insistence that further deregulation and liberalization is the solution to addressing the financial crisis spawned by radical financial services deregulation is the sort of backwards, ideological approach that could squander the prospects that Saturday’s summit produces any remedies for the crisis,” said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch division.

Calls by many other world leaders for new global financial services regulation have been accompanied by a seeming total lack of awareness that most of the world’s countries are bound to expansive WTO financial services deregulation requirements to stay out of the business of regulating financial services. More than 100 countries signed the 1997 WTO Financial Services Agreement.

Despite the pervasive role of the WTO in worldwide financial service deregulation, in the lead up to this Saturday’s G-20 Global Financial Crisis Summit in Washington, D.C., the only comments regarding adherence to global trade rules have been of the red herring variety: panicky warnings about the perils of countries raising tariffs to block imports in response to dire economic conditions – something no country has proposed.

In contrast, in recent weeks, the Bush administration and governments worldwide have taken various measures to counter the crisis. These measures contradict the fundamental precepts of the current globalization model – and in some cases violate the rules implementing this model, such as those of the WTO. Plus, many of the most basic national and international remedies now being proposed to fix the mess and avoid future meltdowns occupy policy space that governments ceded to the WTO a decade ago.

“Altering the WTO financial services rules is critical for creating domestic policy space to address the crisis,” Wallach said. “However, even in the face of this crisis, the United States and the European Union are pushing for further financial services liberalization in the ongoing WTO Doha Round, the conclusion of which they are now pushing as a cure to the crisis, even as they find that flaunting the existing WTO terms is the necessary course of action.”

As part of its original WTO commitments, the United States agreed to conform a broad array of financial services – including banking, insurance and other financials services – to comply with WTO rules.

“Unless the radical financial services deregulation agenda that has been aggressively promoted and entrenched by the WTO, World Bank and International Monetary Fund is understood as a source of the current crisis, reform proposals will not address the crisis’ root causes,” Wallach said.

For more information about the WTO’s role in the crisis, read our memo to reporters, Elimination of WTO’s Radical Financial Service Deregulation Requirements Must Be Addressed at Nov. 15 Summit.

Source

Letter to U.S. Congress from 243 Civil Society Groups in 90 Developing Countries: To Combat Global Poverty and Allow Developing Countries to Develop Please Reject Pressure to Give President Bush New Fast Track Authority to Push WTO Escalation Via the Doha Round

More Fair Traders have been elected.

Fair Trade Gets an upgrade

The GM genocide: Thousands of Indian farmers are committing suicide after using genetically modified crops

The World Bank and IMF in Africa

President Bush: global crisis does not mean free market has failed

November 14, 2008

By Suzy Jagger, James Bone, Tom Baldwin and Francis Elliott

As he sought to deflect European calls for more regulation, President Bush told world leaders flying into Washington yesterday for an emergency meeting that the global financial crisis did not signal the failure of the free market.

Speaking on Wall Street last night, he said: “Government intervention is not a cure-all. While reforms in the financial sector are essential, the solution to today’s problems is sustained economic growth. The surest path to that growth is free markets and free people.”

His comments were a veiled warning to Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, who are pushing for a drastic restructuring of the world’s financial regulatory systems.

Leaders representing the Group of 20 nations are due to gather in Washington for a working dinner this evening and formal meetings tomorrow to discuss reforms that could prevent a repeat of the global financial meltdown experienced over the last three months.

While this weekend’s summit is not expected to produce dramatic actions, Mr Bush, who is hosting the meeting, has a list of topics that he wants the group to consider, including forcing banks to be more transparent in their accounts. The President is also proposing changes to the way that some complex securities are traded, and a reform of institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

Other leaders have come with their own national agendas. Gordon Brown wants the IMF to create a special body of experts who would act as an early warning system for new financial crises. Arriving in New York for the summit, Mr Brown defended his own plans to cut taxes and told fellow leaders that “the cost of inaction will be far greater than the cost of any action”. He hopes to gain political cover for a package of tax cuts and public-spending increases by persuading other nations to match the giveaway at the meeting of the G20 group of nations. “It is now becoming increasingly accepted around the world that a temporary and affordable fiscal stimulus is necessary,” he said. “By acting now we can stimulate growth in all our economies.” He said that there was a “need for urgency”.

France is more preoccupied with plans to introduce cross-border regulations, which would allow them to control the operations of French banks such as Société Générale abroad. The Germans are pushing for very heavy regulation of hedge funds.

All leaders of the G20, however, are united by one factor – fear. During the last three months banks and insurers across the world have collapsed, governments and central banks have sought to cope by co-ordinating interest rate cuts and injecting billions into the global banking system to keep it afloat, and the world’s biggest economies are now facing a prolonged period of severe economic recessions.

The UN Secretary-General gave warning that the financial crisis could trigger unrest and even war. In a letter to the G20 leaders, Ban Ki Moon also underlined the perils of protectionism. “The lesson of the 1930s is that a spiral of protectionism can deepen a recession,” he said.

The ghost at this weekend’s feast is Barack Obama. He has declined an invitation to attend the summit, preferring to remain in Chicago where he is putting together policies and personnel for an administration that will take over on January 20.

According to British diplomats in Washington, Mr Brown believes that he is in broad agreement with the President-elect on the shape of international economic intervention.

Source

President Bush told world leaders flying into Washington yesterday for an emergency meeting that the global financial crisis did not signal the failure of the free market.

Speaking on Wall Street last night, he said: “Government intervention is not a cure-all. While reforms in the financial sector are essential, the solution to today’s problems is sustained economic growth. The surest path to that growth is free markets and free people.”

So he actually believes that? Well that’s fine he has the right to believe it if he wants to.

He also went on about the Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as well, which was anything but true.

He is a flipping Genius who knows all and should be worshiped, because he thinks he is a flipping Genius.   Spare me the rhetoric of the all knowing Bush.

So anyway the rest of us would believe this BS because WHY ?????????????????????????
Because we all have stupid written across out foreheads.  Right sure we do.

Bushes comments were a veiled warning to Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, who are pushing for a drastic restructuring of the world’s financial regulatory systems.

Restructuring and regulations are needed for sure.

The free for all and doing anything  financial institutions want too, must come to and end.

De regulation has proved to be a total failure.

Bush knows how to drive a country into a 11 trillion dollar debt, but he certainly doesn’t know how to correct the mess he and his Administration created.

His financial advice is useless.  Listening to him on any count would be absolute foolishness.

He didn’t  run his own country with any inkling of responsibility, how on earth can he tell the rest how to run theirs?

“Free people” like Bush knows anything about that, after all he has done to oppress Americans.

He has taken away their rights on more fronts then the average Dictator.

When Bush wants to help, I advise ducking for the incoming nightmare he will create.

He has created many.

Here is a little question for you.

If you had a magical little button in front of you,

Now if you  push the little button, it would magically make Bush vanish off the planet.

Would you push it?

Paulson has shelved the original plan

By Greg Ro

November 12, 2008

WASHINGTON

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson laid out details for the next stage of the government’s financial-market rescue package Wednesday, announcing that he has shelved the original plan to buy troubled mortgage assets while turning his attention to nonbank financial institutions and consumer finance.

In a broad and deep review of the controversial $700 billion effort, Paulson defended the steps taken to date, but in the same breath said that financial markets remain fragile and that the focus must remain on “recovery and repair.” See MarketWatch First Take commentary.

“I believe we have taken the necessary steps to prevent a broad systemic event. Both at home and around the world, we have already seen signs of improvement,” Paulson said in a speech at the Treasury Department. See the full text.

But in a striking admission, Paulson said that buying up mortgage assets “is not the most effective way” to use government funding.

Purchasing these so-called “toxic” assets was once the cornerstone of the rescue plan for financial markets and was almost the entire focus of Congress when the package was being debated before its enactment. But almost as soon as Treasury received the money, it decided that giving capital to banks in return for preferred stock was a better use of the funds.

Paulson said that he was “still comfortable” with the $700 billion price tag for the rescue plan and that he didn’t need to go to Congress for additional funds: “I still am comfortable that with the $700 billion we have what we need.”

The Treasury Secretary said he met with members of President-elect Barack Obama’s economic team to discuss the rescue package earlier this week.

Some of the money saved from not buying mortgage assets will now be used to shore up the market for credit-card receivables, auto loans and student loans, according to Paulson.

“This market, which is vital for lending and growth, has for all practical purposes ground to a halt. With the Federal Reserve, we are exploring the development of a potential liquidity facility for highly-rated AAA asset-backed securities,” he said.

The plan to shore-up asset back securities is not ready yet, he added. “This will take weeks to design and then it will take longer to get up and going.”

Paulson declined to say how much it would cost, saying only that “it would need to be significant in size to make a difference.”

Alex Merk, president of Palo Alto Calif.-based Merk Investments, a mutual-fund firm, said that market participants were frustrated with Paulson’s communication skills and changing tactics.

“He’s been flip-flopping on every plan and it doesn’t look like he has a plan,” Merk said in an interview.

According to Merk, the rescue plan is failing to get banks to lend money, and that holders of mortgage assets who had been hoping to sell to the government at a good price have now seen these hopes dashed.

Earlier Wednesday, federal bank regulators issued a joint statement jawboning banks to start lending money to consumers. But Merk said that there are many factors that are making banks hoard capital.

“They don’t trust their own balance sheets, and why lend to consumers when the consumer sector is going down the drain?” he commented.

Markets are also looking beyond Paulson to the Obama administration, which is likely to be much more focused on helping consumers and homeowners — putting some of Paulson’s plans at risk, Merk added.

Brian Bethune, U.S. economist at HIS Global Insight, said that Paulson’s Treasury remains “behind the curve in the sense of understanding the systemic risk.”

The Treasury would also consider giving some capital to nonbank financial institutions, following completion of bank funding. Banks that are publicly traded have until Friday to request government assistance.

At a sensitive stage

“Although the financial system has stabilized, both banks and nonbanks may well need more capital, given their troubled asset holdings, projections for continued high rates of foreclosures and stagnant U.S. and world economic conditions,” Paulson said.

Paulson only described nonbank financial institutions in general terms, saying they “provide credit that is essential to U.S. businesses and consumers.”

However, many are not directly regulated and are active in a wide range of businesses, and taxpayer protections in a program of this sort would be more difficult to achieve,” he commented.

Bethune of HIS Global Insight said that insurance companies and the financial arms of the auto companies were the likely candidates for government assistance.

Economists said the plan would not stem the sharp drop in consumer spending.

“I doubt this is going to have a big offset to the really dramatic fall in consumer spending that we’re going to see in the coming year,” said Martin Feldstein, an economics professor at Harvard University.

Meanwhile, sweeping proposals to modify mortgages remain on the table, Paulson said. The cost of these programs will be substantial and don’t belong under this rescue package, he added.

On a related matter, the Treasury secretary pointed out that funding for the U.S. auto industry should not come out of the financial-market rescue plan. Congress has other vehicles to use to fund for the troubled sector, he said, adding that the key to any program for the industry was “long-term viability.”

G20 summit

Over the weekend, leaders of 20 countries will gather in Washington to discuss how to improve cooperation to foster stability in the global financial system.

Paulson took a cautious line on the meeting. “To adequately reform our system, we must make sure we fully understand the nature of the problem, which will not be possible until we are confident it is behind us.”

The White House won’t support a plan under which the International Monetary Fund would be responsible for devising a strategy to solve the problems, “unless member nations all see that they have a shared interest in a solution.”

Paulson said that the U.S. had a major role in the global crisis but wasn’t the only culprit. Global trade imbalances — the high U.S. deficit between imports and exports as well as matching surpluses in Asia — also played a role, along with Europe’s rigid structural regimes.

“Those excesses cannot be attributed to any single nation,” he remarked.

Figuring out oversight issues won’t be enough. “If we only address regulatory issues — as critical as they are — without addressing the global imbalances that fueled recent excesses, we will have missed an opportunity to dramatically improve the foundation for global markets and economic vitality going forward,” according to Paulson.

Source

Should the US Experts be trusted?

Can Anyone Halt The Mortgage Meltdown?

Wall Street and Washington come together to help troubled mortgage borrowers. Too late?

Fifteen months into the worst credit crisis in decades, major banks and the federal government are coming together on a solution for struggling mortgage borrowers.

The goal is to hasten the process for renegotiating hundreds of thousands of delinquent loans, either those held by major banks or held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , the mortgage finance giants that faltered and were taken over by the government this summer.

Renegotiating loans for struggling homeowners has taken on more urgency as jobless claims rise and the economy declines. Housing prices continue to fall, leaving many with mortgages greater than the value of their homes, and banks continue to suffer major credit losses as a result.

Citigroup , JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have separately announced plans to help ailing borrowers. On Tuesday, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the regulator for Fannie and Freddie, announced its own sweeping plan.

The agency is targeting delinquent borrowers who haven’t filed for bankruptcy. The goal is to modify mortgages for borrowers who can support payments but make sure those payments don’t make up more than 38% of income.

James Lockhart, head of the agency, urged U.S. mortgage servicing firms–companies that process payments of loans rather than owning them outright–to adopt the plan as a national standard.

For the government, halting the steady slide in housing prices is the holy grail of all of its big plans to prop up the ailing banking system. It is throwing trillions of dollars at shoring-up banks caught in the housing mess, but nothing has, so far, put a floor under the plunging housing prices at the heart of the credit crisis. Going at the problem from the perspective of a borrower is yet another way to achieve that end.

The government studied the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s approach to modifying loans of failed IndyMac Bank and used that as the model for this broader program.

Neel Kashkari, the Assistant Treasury Secretary in charge of the department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, said the plan will take pressure off mortgage servicing companies, “helping ensure that borrowers do not fall through the cracks because servicers aren’t able to get to them.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Citigroup announced its loan modification plan. The bank is stopping foreclosures for borrowers who live in their own homes and have enough income to stand a chance at repaying a renegotiated loan. It will also expand the program to include mortgages for which the bank collects payments but does not own.

Over the next six months, Citi will contact 500,000 borrowers who are not currently delinquent but close to falling behind to see if those loans could be modified.

Two weeks ago, JPMorgan said it would expand its mortgage modification program to an estimated $70 billion in loans, representing 400,000 borrowers. That is on top of the $40 billion in mortgages JPMorgan has rewritten since early 2007.

Bank of America will begin next month modifying 400,000 loans held by Countrywide Financial, the troubled lender it acquired this year. The plan, which starts Dec. 1, is part of an $8.4 billion legal settlement with 11 states.

Loan modifications have been complicated by the way the banking industry has approached mortgage lending in recent years, selling their loans off to other banks that bundle and resell them as securities rather than holding all loans separately.

For the banks, modification plans are self-preservation. Virtually no bank has been left untouched by the credit crisis, and Citi, JPMorgan, Bank of America and others will undoubtedly have rising credit costs for the next few quarters. Any plan to blunt those costs would be welcomed.

Source

Well I don’t really have a lot of faith in these guys. They are in great part the cause.  These very banks are the ones that had to get bailouts and now they are going to fix it are they?

Trusting them is a lot like letting the fox guard the chickens coup.

Russia will place missiles in Baltic region a response to US missile defence plans

REUTERS/RIA Novosti/Kremlin/Dmitry Astakhov

Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev makes his annual state of the nation address at the Kremlin. He pledged to station new missiles near Poland’s border in response to US plans for an anti-missile system and proposed extending the presidential term to six years from four

By Kevin O’Flynn

November 5 2008

The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that his country would place missiles in the Baltic region of Kaliningrad in response to US missile defence plans.

In a move that will reawaken Cold War memories, Mr Medvedev, making his first state of the union address only hours after the victory of Barack Obama, used tough rhetoric, attacking the United States for its role in the war in Georgia, the financial crisis and accusing it of moving aggressively against Russia.

“We have got the clear impression that they are testing our strength,” Medvedev said in an 85-minute speech to parliament that was interrupted more than 50 times by applause.

The short-range Iskander missile would be deployed in the enclave, between two EU states, Lithuania and Poland, after Russia’s warnings that the US plans for a defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic were a threat to Russia’s security. Russia would also station equipment that would electronically hamper the proposed defence systems.

Moscow has previously accused Washington of betraying promises made by the President George Bush Sr not to expand Nato. Mr Medvedev called it a “relentless expansion”. Russia-US relations have not been good as a financially resurgent Russia reasserted itself, but ties reached a new low after the Russia-Georgia war when Russia invaded Georgia after its southern neighbour attacked its rebel republic South Ossetia, killing Russian peacekeepers and hundreds of civilians.

Mr Medvedev said the war “was, among other things, the result of the arrogant course of the American administration, which did not tolerate criticism and preferred unilateral decisions”. The Russian President also laid much of the blame for the world financial crisis on the US. Russia’s stock market has fallen more than 70 per cent and oligarchs have lost $230bn (£140bn), Bloomberg reported.

The Russian President went on: “There is a need to create mechanisms to block those decisions made by some members of the world community that are wrong and sometimes just dangerous.” This was a clear reference to the United States.

Mr Medvedev also proposed extending the Russian presidential term to six years and parliamentary term to five years, moves he said would help implement reform. Instead, they will probably raise more doubts in the West about the President’s commitment to democracy and whether he is smoothing the way for the Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, to return to power.

Mr Putin, who led Russia during a record period of economic growth and ebbing civil liberties, has remained a commanding figure since he left office. He has far more powers than any prime minister before him and many believe Mr Medvedev is a stop-gap figure.

Despite the rhetoric, Mr Medvedev said Russia was not anti-American and he hoped the new administration could help improve ties. “I would like to stress: we have no problems with the American people,” the President said. “We have no innate anti-Americanism.”

Russia is facing mounting economic problems. With the rouble under pressure and the price of oil sinking, Russia’s huge reserves saved under the oil boom are starting to shrink and Russians are becoming more nervous about the economic future.

Source

Russia to deploy missiles near Poland

AP
November 5 2008

President Dmitry Medvedev today said Russia will deploy missiles in territory near Nato member Poland in response to US missile defence plans.

He did not say whether the short-range Iskander missiles would be fitted with nuclear warheads.

In his first state of the nation speech, President Medvedev also blamed the US for the war in Georgia and the global financial crisis.

He said he hoped Barack Obama would act to improve relations with Russia but he did not offer congratulations to the president-elect.

President Medvedev also proposed increasing the Russian presidential term to six years from the current four, a major constitutional change that would further increase the power of the head of state and could deepen Western concern over democracy in Russia.

The president said the Iskander missiles will be deployed to Russia’s Kaliningrad region, which lies between Poland and the ex-Soviet republic of Lithuania on the Baltic Sea, but did not say how many would be used.

Equipment to electronically hamper the operation of prospective US missile defence facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic will be deployed, he said.

President Medvedev singled out the United States for criticism, casting Russia’s war with Georgia in August and the global financial turmoil as consequences of aggressive, selfish US policies.

“Mechanisms must be created to block mistaken, egotistical and sometimes simply dangerous decisions of certain members of the international community,” he said shortly after starting the 85-minute speech.

President Medvedev, whose criticism of Washington echoed addresses by his predecessor Vladimir Putin, made it clear he was referring to the US

The president said Georgia sparked the August war on its territory with what he called “barbaric aggression” against Russian-backed South Ossetia.

The conflict “was, among other things, the result of the arrogant course of the American administration, which did not tolerate criticism and preferred unilateral decisions.”

President Medvedev also painted Russia as a country threatened by growing Western military might.

“From what we have seen in recent years, the creation of a missile defence system, the encirclement of Russia with military bases, the relentless expansion of Nato, we have gotten the clear impression that they are testing our strength,” President Medvedev said.

He announced deployment of the short-range missiles as a military response to US plans to deploy missile-defence facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic – former Soviet satellites that are now Nato members.

Speaking just hours after Mr Obama was declared the victor in the US presidential election, President Medvedev said he hoped the incoming administration will take steps to improve badly damaged US ties with Russia.

He suggested it is up to the US – not the Kremlin – to seek to improve relations.

“I stress that we have no problem with the American people, no inborn anti-Americanism. And we hope that our partners, the US administration, will make a choice in favour of full-fledged relations with Russia,” President Medvedev said.

Tension in Russian-American relations has been driven to a post-Cold War high by Moscow’s war with US ally Georgia.

On the financial crisis, President Medvedev said overconfidence in American dominance after the collapse of the Soviet Union “led the US authorities to major mistakes in the economic sphere.”

The administration ignored warnings and harmed itself and others by “blowing up a money bubble to stimulate its own growth,” he said.

President Medvedev said the president’s tenure should be lengthened to six years to enable the government to more effectively implement reforms.

He said the term of the parliament also should be extended by a year to five years, and that parliament’s power must be increased by requiring the Cabinet to report to MPs regularly.

The proposals were President Medvedev’s first major initiative to amend the constitution since he was elected in March to succeed his long-time mentor Putin.

Mr Putin, who is now prime minister and has not ruled out a return to the Kremlin in the future, has said that the presidential term should be increased.

Source

I really don’t think the US should have missiles in any country,  but their own. Seems they are antagonizing other countries constantly. There is no need for any of this. Russia would not be placing missiles if the US had not decided too. Russia does have the right to protect it’s citizens as does any other country.

Bush stepped out of line with his missile defence plans.

American missiles should be kept on American soil not in other countries. This type of action endangers the countries they are placed in.

The US plans for a defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic, now endanger both of those countries.

For every action there is a reaction. Pointing missiles at my country would anger me as well.

How would you feel if Bush aimed missiles at your country?  Threatened I bet.

This could have been prevented had Bush minded his own business.

Now Obama is left with the mess, Bush created. Placing missiles there does not protect the American people in any way. It’s just more war mongering.

U.S. bailout may include $250 billion for bank stock: official

Bush announcement said to be set for Tuesday morning
October 13, 2008
The U.S. government plans to provide new insurance for banks and spend as much as a quarter-trillion dollars to buy bank stock, an industry official said Monday night after banking executives and federal officials met to revamp the largest bailout in the country’s history.

President George W. Bush was to announce the expansion Tuesday morning.

The administration will use perhaps as much as $250 billion US of the $700 billion US bailout program recently passed by Congress to purchase stock in U.S. banks, providing the banks with desperately needed capital, the official said.

Reuters said the plan is expected to inject $125 billion of capital into the top nine U.S. banks as part of a $250 billion transfusion for the industry. It attributed that detail to a source briefed on the matter.

In addition, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will temporarily provide insurance for loans between banks, charging the banks a premium for doing so, the banking official told the Associated Press. That should unlock a vital credit flow that has come under severe stress, putting the health of the entire economy in peril.

The official, who spoke with knowledge of the Treasury Department meeting with the bankers Monday, commented only on condition of anonymity because the details of the plan had yet to be released.

This FDIC program would take the form of providing insurance for new senior preferred debt that one bank would sell to another bank. This debt would be insured by the FDIC for three years, helping to unlock bank-to-bank lending, which has fallen dramatically because of fears about repayment in the face of billions of dollars of bank losses because of bad loans, primarily in mortgages.

The official said the FDIC was also considering providing unlimited insurance on bank deposits for an unspecified period. In response to the crisis, Congress as part of the bailout bill temporarily boosted the deposit insurance cap from $100,000 to $250,000.

The administration’s proposals were explained during a meeting at the Treasury Department that had been called by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and included the top executives of the largest banks in the country. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke also participated.

Source

Carnage: Seven days that shook the world

Old certainties lie in pieces as markets hover on the brink of uncharted territory – and all trust has evaporated. Margareta Pagano and David Randall report

October 12 2008

It took centuries to build sophisticated free-market economies, but this weekend, it looks like it may have only taken one week for it all to unwind. Not only have stock markets fallen to their lowest levels for decades, but, more than that, the assumptions that have underpinned commercial life for years are now threatened, some possibly doomed. Banker is not trusting banker, savers can trust no one, share traders do not trust governments, leaders (including conservative ones) suddenly discovered the virtues of public ownership; and there is the very real prospect of a country in the developed world actually going bankrupt.

Today the world’s leading politicians and central bankers are working around the clock to flesh out a rescue package to prevent the crumbling financial system from cracking further. But they are now praying that the emergency package announced late on Friday night in Washington by the US Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, together with leaders from all the leading seven industrialised nations, will stabilise the world’s financial markets when they open again tomorrow. In an unprecedented move, the world’s heads of state have agreed to work together to buy shares in their banks and mortgages to prevent further systemic collapse.

Back in March, forecasters who said we were heading for the worst crash since the Wall Street crash of the 1930s were dismissed as doomsters. Today JK Galbraith’s book, The Great Crash 1929 is flying off the shelves, as everyone, from governments to financiers, seeks a template for the new commercial world, whatever that will be. But, for now, we can only try to understand what has been, not what is to come. This is how the week’s events unfolded:

Sunday

On a day that nearly everyone hoped would be confined to rest, recreation and a certain amount of sober reflection by traders around the world, German Chancellor Angela Merkel throws a pebble into hitherto calm Sabbath waters. Just 24 hours after a meeting between the four main EU economies in Paris concluded with President Nicolas Sarkozy declaring “European leaders acknowledge the need for close co-ordination and co-operation”, she follows Ireland’s example and guarantees all private deposits. It is a unilateral move that could see EU nations competing like fairground barkers to offer the best safety net for savers.

Words of a more elliptical nature come from the Chancellor Alistair Darling on The Andrew Marr Show. Asked if he was prepared to put public money into recapitalising banks, he says: “We are ready to do whatever it takes, and that is we’ve put money into the system to help banks generally. There are other measures that we will be taking too, and I’ll announce them when we’re ready to do that.” Mr Darling knows that his officials are preparing plans to recapitalise banks for some time, but couldn’t say so because the details are not yet ready, and the banks are not yet on board. But trading the next day will show that in the present febrile atmosphere, even cautious words can do damage.

And, in what was regarded by most media as a mere footnote, news comes from Iceland that the government and central bank are engaged in increasingly frantic efforts to prop up the country’s swooning banking system with an injection of £7.78bn. As the world goes to bed, the problems of a small northern island with a population about the size of Coventry’s seem the least of all our worries. Like so many of the experts’ assumptions, how wrong that would prove to be.

Monday

After Mr Darling’s comments the day before, the markets smell blood in the water. The FTSE opens at 4980.25 and within three hours it is down 300 points. Not a single firm in the FTSE 100 is rising, and, by 11am, there are only two stocks on the entire exchange that have gained. Mid-morning the price of oil falls to its lowest mark for eight months, the sort of tidings that, normally, would produce a bounce. Not today. Despite, or even because of, Mr Darling’s assurances that he is assembling a cavalry to ride to the rescue of the banks, the plunge continues. By the merciful close, the index is down 391 points, a fall of 7.8 per cent (its biggest one-day collapse), and the lowest total for four years: 4589.2.

The issues of yesterday – which, at the pace things are moving, instantly seems like yesteryear – are picked at by Mr Darling, who chips at Ms Merkel for her unilateral personal savings guarantee (by now mimicked by Sweden, Austria, Denmark and Portugal). And, as the FTSE continues its descent, the Dow takes up the theme. It ends the day 3.9 per cent down, all part of a global fall that sees $2.5 trillion wiped off world shares.

In Washington, Congress begins investigating the murky roots of the banking crisis. Before them is Richard S Fuld Jr, chief executive officer of Lehman Brothers, the largest bankruptcy in US history. Asked if it was true that he took home some £275m in compensation since 2000, Mr Fuld took off his glasses, held them, and looked uncomfortable. It’s not quite that much, he said. “We had a compensation committee that spent a tremendous amount of time making sure that the interests of the executives and the employees were aligned with shareholders,” he waffled, before admitting that he took home £172m in those years. Democrat Henry Waxman could not resist the obvious conclusion: “Even as Mr Fuld was pleading with Secretary Paulson for a federal rescue, Lehman continued to squander millions on executive compensation.” It is an issue that may yet keep American lawyers employed for years.

Tuesday

An upbeat start on the London markets, but, ultimately, a day of portents and rumours, and the growing tremors of a deeper, seismic events to come. The FTSE opens 2 per cent up, just about the time that Moscow is suspending trading on its market for an hour. By 9am the FTSE is already retreating from that early optimism.

Half an hour later comes the first of a series of shudders from Iceland. Icesave, the internet subsidiary of Landsbanki, is stopping customers – 300,000 in the UK – withdrawing their funds. And there’s soon more: Iceland, a country whose banks had swept across Europe over the past few years in a tide of acquisitions, is so short of funds that the government is having to borrow from Russia to help in the nationalisation of Landsbanki, its second-largest bank, and its currency, the krona, is being pegged. Then figures are released showing UK manufacturing output fell for the sixth month in a row, something that has not happened since Margaret Thatcher’s first year of office.

And the rumours fly. Royal Bank of Scotland has asked the Treasury for a capital injection (strenuously denied, but the firm’s shares still fall by a quarter), the Government is soon to unveil a rescue package for the banks, and, according to the BBC, they had done so in response to pressure from leading bankers. But some in Europe are not happy at the prospect of such state aid. At a meeting in Luxembourg, Czech finance minister Miroslav Kalousek says: “Politicians in Europe are going crazy. We didn’t live through 40 years of real socialism only to return to it.” He talks, but no one’s listening. The FTSE closes a hesitant 16.03 points up, and, in New York, the Dow takes a further dive by 508 points, not helped by the announcement from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that US bank losses could reach £1.4 trillion.

At 5pm, Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling meet the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, and the chairman of the Financial Services Authority, Lord Turner. A No 10 spokesman denies it is an emergency meeting, but, in the present climate, what else could it be? At 7.30 comes the news from Mr Darling that he will announce a comprehensive rescue package for the banks before trading opens tomorrow. Treasury officials and bankers will spend much of the night in talks. At 8.30pm, they ring Gandhi’s, a fashionable eaterie, and order take-aways – £245 worth. It’s going to be a long night.

Wednesday

A day that could be scripted by Lewis Carroll. Before the day is even fully light, Alistair Darling announces his £500bn rescue plan: £50bn for recapitalisation of the eight participating banks, a guarantee of £250bn of new short and medium-term bank debt, and an extra £200bn to allow banks to swap mortgage-backed securities for cash. Preferential shares, probably, for the Government (ie taxpayers) in return, and, says Mr Brown, we might even make a profit. We’ve been working on this for weeks, says Mr Darling. The market’s response? Opening 2 per cent lower, it embarks on a bipolar course through the day that has moments of manic highs, but more lasting depressions. It ends more than 5 per cent down at 4367, concluding the worst three-day run in more than 20 years.

The half-point interest-rate cut (soon seen as part of a co-ordinated trim around the world) makes a difference for a while, but an afternoon IMF warning that Britain is on the brink of a recession pushes stocks towards a gloomy day’s end. Helping them on their way was the news from Iceland: more large sums heading the way of its banks (this time from Sweden), and emergency powers to take over companies, limit directors’ authority, and call shareholders meetings. The Icelandic boom, which saw the average family’s wealth rise 45 per cent in five years, is over. It, and especially the roaring expansion of its banks (which hold liabilities eight times the nation’s GDP), was all built on foreign debt. But why, apart from those adventurous private savers in Icesave, should we care?

That becomes obvious during the Chancellor’s statement to the Commons. In response to a question from George Osborne, Mr Darling confirms that British local authorities had large sums invested in what was now the world’s shakiest banking system. Within hours, the Local Government Association is calling for government help, and, in the course of an evening in which council after council coughed to savings in Icelandic banks, it seems as much as £1bn is at risk. And thus a day in which the rate cut is going to save a £150,000 mortgage payer £570 a year ends with many more people not knowing whether to call their bank manager or the Samaritans.

Thursday

Not every country is in turmoil. In China, the nation’s ruling Communists open a four-day conference relatively unscathed by the panics and financial implosions. Their economy will grow by 9 per cent this year.

Back in the parallel universe, the Dow Jones has its worst one-day fall since 1987, down 7.3 per cent to 8579, its lowest for five years. The FTSE perks up in the morning, and is still up in mid-afternoon, but it can’t resist the siren call from across the Atlantic and ends the day 52.9 down at 4313.8. Iceland takes control of another one of its banks, and closes its stock exchange. And, according to the Halifax, UK house prices are falling at a record rate, down by 13.2 per cent in the year to September. The record of the day, however, is set by Britain’s trade gap in goods – the largest deficit since 1697. Small wonder that the Church of England says that more than 8,000 have logged on to an online prayer asking for divine intervention.

And maybe they’re being answered. Not only is nationalisation (partial or otherwise) now acceptable on both sides of the Commons, there is a bidding war on which party could be most punitive on executive bonuses. The Tories, calling for a complete ban, won. Mr Brown’s strongest words were reserved for Iceland. As more councils and charities discover they could lose major funds, he fumes: “We are holding the Icelandic authorities responsible. We are demanding that the money be paid back to the local authorities. We are prepared to consider all forms of action, including to freeze assets.”

Friday

In Russia, the government offers its banks a £51bn bailout; in Japan, the sub-prime crisis claims the scalp of Yamato Life Insurance, which files for bankruptcy with $2.7bn liabilities; Germany is preparing a rescue scheme for banks; Iceland (the country) seems to be heading into liquidation; and in the US, the Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency says General Motors, Ford and Chrysler could all be forced into liquidation. The FTSE closes 8.85 per cent down on the day at 3932, ending the second-worst week in its history, having lost 21 per cent since Monday. The Dow finishes a further 1.49 per cent down. Henk Potts, director of investment strategy at Barclays Stockbrokers, said the markets were “very close to panic”.

And from Washington comes the spectacle of the most right-wing president in generations embracing the policy of near-nationalisation. His Treasury Secretary says that part of the already-announced $700bn bailout would be used to take stakes in wobbly banks. Mr Bush now finds himself in the role assumed 73 years ago, with rather more grace, by President Franklin D Roosevelt. Ahead of Saturday’s G7 meeting, Mr Bush says: “The world is sending an unmistakable signal: we’re in this together and we’ll come through this together.” Hardly poetry, but the right message to the flapping traders who continue to discount billions of government commitment.

Yesterday

London lawyers are on their way to Iceland to retrieve our money, traders are stuck to their screens adjusting their positions, bankers are huddled in their offices working out how the Government’s bailout will work, while our political leaders use up a year’s worth of carbon footprint as they criss-cross the globe flying between the emergency IMF-G7 rescue talks in Washington to those in Paris tomorrow.

The world financial system is “on the brink of systemic meltdown,” IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn warns, as G7 finance ministers meeting in Washington agree to follow the British lead in part-nationalising their banks. British treasury officials, meanwhile, pledge to take majority stakes in banks should this be necessary to prevent the system’s collapse.

But what everyone wants to know now is when will this crisis be over? What the world needs is some kind of sign; some indication that the fat lady is ready to get up and sing. But, this weekend, there’s no sign she’s even in the theatre, let alone in the wings.

Research by Jesse Loncraine

The digested analysis. Digested…

* Starting with New Century in April 2007, a series of US institutions filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as risks of sub-prime lending finally emerged.

* Bear Stearns revealed in June that it was spending $3.2bn to bail out two of its funds that invested heavily in sub-prime loans. Nine months later, the Fed loaned JP Morgan $29bn to rescue Bear Stearns.

* Banks revealed as making “covenant-lite” loans with very relaxed borrowing terms. Private equity groups used this easy money until the loans disappeared in July.

* 9 August 2007: the official start of the credit crunch. BNP Paribas froze three funds that had difficulties with its sub-prime lending.

* Northern Rock involved in bank run in September 2007, the first in the UK since 19th century. Customers were frightened by the Rock’s need for emergency funding. Nationalised in February 2008.

* Banks turned to petro-dollar-fueled, government-backed sovereign wealth funds. In November 2007, Abu Dhabi gave Citigroup $7.5bn for a 4.9% stake; Kuwait took a $2bn stake in Merrill Lynch.

* Most major UK banks issued new shares or tapped investors for capital in March and April 2008. Shareholders’ stakes diluted as a result.

* Nationalisation of US mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September 2008. They had $5.4 trillion of mortgages guaranteed, but were worth $40bn combined.

* Attempts failed to sell US bank Lehman Brothers. It ended up in administration.

* The joke was that Iceland (pop: 320,000) was the world’s biggest hedge fund, with all its investments overseas. But the fund’s investment gambles didn’t come off.

The Crash by numbers

£250bn wiped off the FTSE last week

21% drop in value of Britain’s 100 top companies last week

111 profits warnings issued by British firms between July and September

8.9% fall in the FTSE on Friday, to end its worst week since Black Monday in 1987

£1bn losses by more than 100 local authorities with investments in Iceland banks

Source

Capitalism at it finest hour.

I might be going out on a limb here, but it seems, it doesn’t work all that well.

Seems the side affects of it are, just a major disaster to all involved.

Who will pay the price?

Well the tax payer.

The American way is, as we all may notice, the worst way.

Mark my words, there are those who are getting rich from this disaster.

World Bank director claims Federal Reserve is ‘part of government already’

By aaron

October 10th, 2008

You Tube | October 10, 2008

A caller on C-Span’s Washington Journal asserts that Congressman Ron Paul and Infowars.com are better sources to understand the current financial crisis than the dominant mainstream media and typical go-along political figures.

The caller also brings up the Federal Reserve as being the main issue that Washington needs to address.

Uri Dadush, Economic Department Director of the World Bank, seems stumped by the mention of the Federal Reserve, which he claims is ‘part of the system of U.S. government already’, before redirecting the conversation towards liquidity efforts in the private banking sector.

Dadush misses the point– perhaps out of confusion, and perhaps out of reluctance to discuss– that the Federal Reserve (which is private, but given power [unconstitutionally] by Congress) controls the money supply and can print at will.

Source

Seems he certainly was confused by the caller. If this is how well educated he is I would be skeptical of letting him anywhere near the World Bank, let alone be a Director of it. The Federal Reserve is privately owned and operated.

I guess the World Bank Director is OH misinformed. The Federal Reserve owns 54% of the Government one could say. Yes one could say that, as the Government owes them, that much money in comparison to what they owe the rest of the planet. Now lets see 54% of ten -elleven trillion = “yup they own the Government”. How comforting?

The caller is correct in a few of his comments.

The world Bank and IMF do put stipulations in when lending money to anyone.  They want countries to open their doors to Privatization and Capitalism.  Of course as we all now well know  Capitalism is a false foundation to stand upon. In view of the stock markets and bank failures of late.

They are rather forceful in wanting their natural resources to be used and abused.

Do they actually help or do they just help the corporations? Well seems they help the corporations exploit the countries. This of course leads to their natural resources being pillaged, plundered also polluting of the water and air.

From the original Canada-US free trade agreement and NAFTA to the WTO agreements and the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, these international treaties are about making it easier for the world’s largest corporations to lower their costs. It allows them to seek out the cheapest workers, the most lax environmental laws and to use the threat of relocation to get what they want. The notion that any country, its workers or consumers benefit from such agreements is a myth.

There are numerous organizations that could enlighten one on this issue. Of course it might take a bit of time to investigate.

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund Encourage Free Trade agreements and opening up countries to Capitalism.  Neither is good for anyone in said countries however.

Seems they are not actually there to help ordinary people just the corporations, they just pretend to help the poor.

Headquarters

International Monetary Fund,

700 19th Street, N.W.,

Washington, D.C. 20431

Source

Headquarters

The World Bank

1818 H Street, NW

Washington, DC 20433 USA

Source

Should we all be a bit suspicious? Well yes.

When the rights of any group of people are removed, you too loose the very same rights.