> Subject: blackout
>
> - Prison Planet.com - http://www.prisonplanet.com -
>
> March 31: Operation Global Blackout: Hackers Intend to Shut Down the Internet by Disabling Core DNS Servers
>
> Posted By admin On March 29, 2012 @ 3:03 am In Commentary,Tile | 9 Comments
>
> Mac Slavo
> SHTFPlan.com [1]
> Thursday March 29, 2012
>
> The hacking group known as Anonymous intends to attack the core servers that control the routing of all internet traffic. DNS, or Domain Name Servers, are a critical backbone of the web and make it possible for internet surfers to reach web site destinations by typing in a domain name in their browsers. Once a particular web site is requested, a query is sent to a domain name server, which then redirects that web address to a specific IP address on the web. Without these servers, access to web sites through traditional means (typing in a ‘dot com’) becomes impossible, because there is no way to direct the traffic to the appropriate web site destination.
>
> According to a statement released by Anonymous, it is these servers that will come under fire on Saturday, March 31.
>
> Anonymous says they do not intend to ‘kill’ the internet completely, but rather, the end game of Operation Blackout 2012 is a temporary take down of the internet where “it hurts most.” According to the group, the operation is being carried out to:
>
> …protest SOPA, Wallstreet, our irresponsible leaders and the beloved bankers who are starving the world for their own selfish needs out of sheer sadistic fun, on March 31, anonymous will shut the Internet down. (source [2])
>
>
> Excerpt of statement:
>
> Citizens of the United States, We are Anonymous.
>
> This is an urgent emergency alert to all people of the United States. The day we’ve all been waiting for has unfortunately arrived. The United States is censoring the internet. Our blatant response is that we will not sit while our rights are taken away by the government we trusted them to preserve. This is not a call to arms, but a call to recognition and action!
>
> The United States government has mastered this corrupt way of giving us a false sense of freedom. We think we are free and can do what we want, but in reality we are very limited and restricted as to what we can do, how we can think, and even how our education is obtained. We have been so distracted by this mirage of freedom, that we have just become what we were trying to escape from.
>
> For too long, we have been idle as our brothers and sisters were arrested. During this time, the government has been scheming, plotting ways to increase censorship through means of I S P block aides, D N S blockings, search engine censorship, website censorship, and a variety of other methods that directly oppose the values and ideas of both Anonymous as well as the founding fathers of this country, who believed in free speech and press!
>
> The United States has often been used as an example of the ideal free country. When the one nation that is known for its freedom and rights start to abuse its own people, this is when you must fight back, because others are soon to follow.
>
> Read full Statement [3]
>
> If this latest threat is carried out, it will highlight the significant security risks inherent in the internet as it exists today. According to numerous reports, including those of the head of US Cyber Security General Keith Alexander, infrastructure, commerce and transportation are susceptible to attacks [4] that could damage physical equipment like thousand-ton machines, cause widespread power outages, and affect just-in-time delivery systems that keep food, gas and commerce flowing.
>
> If Anonymous is capable of attacking core DNS servers that take down the web, even for a day, it would be a show of just how fragile our entire way of life really is. Though Anonymous hackers undoubtedly include some of the best and brightest techies out there, they would likely pale in comparison to the cumulative power of hackers operating under the sponsorship of a large Asian government (we won’t name any names), or a coordinated rogue terror network that acts not for the purpose of protest, but devastation.
>
> If such an attack were to be unleashed on the Untied States terrorism experts suggest a coordinated take-down of the entire United States could be executed in as little as 15 minutes [5].
>
>
>
> Article printed from Prison Planet.com: http://www.prisonplanet.com
>
> URL to article: http://www.prisonplanet.com/march-31-operation-global-blackout-hackers-intend-to-shut-down-the-internet-by-disabling-core-dns-servers.html
>
> URLs in this post:
>
> [1] SHTFPlan.com: http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/march-31-operation-global-blackout-hackers-intend-to-shut-down-the-internet-by-disabling-core-dns-servers_03282012
>
> [2] source: http://www.bgr.com/2012/03/28/anonymous-hackers-plan-to-shut-down-the-internet-this-saturday/
>
> [3] Read full Statement: http://www.scribd.com/doc/73211990/Operation-Blackout
>
> [4] infrastructure, commerce and transportation are susceptible to attacks: http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/cyber-attacks-will-target-physical-infrastructure-commerce-transportation-systems_09142011
>
> [5] could be executed in as little as 15 minutes: http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/900-seconds-cyber-attack-wouldnt-take-long-to-bring-down-the-usa_05122010
>
>
> Click here to print.
>
> Copyright © 2008 PrisonPlanet.com. All rights reserved.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
China’s Rising Maritime Aspirations: Impact on Beijing’s Good-Neighbour Policy
RSIS presents the following commentary China’s Rising Maritime Aspirations: Impact on Beijing’s Good-Neighbour Policy by Li Mingjiang. It is also available online at this link. (To print it, click on this link.). Kindly forward any comments or feedback to the Editor RSIS Commentaries, at RSISPublication@ntu.edu.sg
No. 053/2012 dated 28 March 2012
China’s Rising Maritime Aspirations:
Impact on Beijing’s Good-Neighbour Policy
By Li Mingjiang
Synopsis
The proceedings at the recent political congresses in Beijing indicate an emerging consensus in China on the need to safeguard and expand its maritime interests. This may defeat the government’s policy goal of improving relations with neighbouring countries.
Commentary
THE RECENT annual sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) – two of the most important political events in China - demonstrated the country’s elite’s aspiration and resolve to safeguard China’s interests in the East Asian seas. At the same time, Premier Wen Jiabao, in his report to the NPC, vowed to give priority to improving relations with neighbouring countries in China’s foreign affairs.
Experiences in recent years indicate that these two sets of policy objectives may not be mutually reconcilable and is extremely difficult to maintain a balance between the two.
Proposals for tighter maritime policies
China’s elite seized the opportunity during the political congresses to demand for more effective protection of Chinese maritime interests. Wang Zhuwen, president of Dalian Ocean University and also a deputy to the NPC, pointed out that the lack of maritime awareness has constrained the development of China’s maritime cause. Hence, he proposed that maritime education should be included in the primary and middle school curriculum.
At the NPC session Liu Cigui, Director of the State Oceanic Administration, indicated that China is serious about carrying out law enforcement activities in the seas. He said China’s regular patrol activities now cover all the maritime zones under Chinese jurisdiction. These extend to the estuary of the Yalu River in the north, Okinawa Trough in the east, and Zengmu Reef (James Shoal) in the south, as well as features including the Suyan Islet (Socotra Rock), Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands, Huangyan Islands (Scarborough Shoal) and the Nansha Islands (Spratlys).
Chen Mingyi, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC, suggested that China should establish a National Maritime Commission to coordinate China’s maritime policy. He further proposed that China should formulate a long-term comprehensive plan to transform China into a maritime power by 2020 to better protect China’s interests in the three million square kilometres of maritime zones.
Major General Luo Yuan, a deputy in the CPPCC, attracted much attention when he proposed that China should integrate its maritime law enforcement forces to form a national coast guard to safeguard China’s marine rights and interests in the face of growing challenges in the South China and East China seas. Luo suggested that China make efforts in five policy areas in the South China Sea, including consolidating administrative jurisdiction, strengthening the legal grounds of its claim, enhancing its military presence, promoting economic activities, and improving its capability to shape international opinion.
Luo also proposed that China publish a white paper on the South China Sea issue to provide a comprehensive account of the historical and legal grounds of China’s claim in the South China Sea.
At a CPPCC session Wang Zhifa, the Deputy Director of the State Tourism Administration, announced that it is working with Hainan Province and other central government agencies to promote tourism in the Paracels. He noted that doing so would be advantageous for securing China’s sovereignty claim and border security.
Some CPPCC members proposed that China should step up efforts to protect the Diaoyu Islands following the recent official publicity of the names of the islands to underscore China’s sovereignty claim over them. For instance China Central Television should include Diaoyu Islands in its weather forecasts to further demonstrate China’s sovereignty over them. This proposal was endorsed as feasible by Zheng Guoguang, the Director of the State Meteorological Administration and also a deputy in the CPPCC.
Ambition and Confusion
Nevertheless China’s aims and ambitions for the coastal seas are not entirely clear. The Chinese media and many Chinese analysts have described China’s ambition in the East Asian seas in very loose terms. For instance, they have asserted that China is entitled to three million square kilometres of “water territory”, “ocean territory”, “maritime territory” or “territorial seas”. At recent political meetings in Beijing, Wang Dengping, the Political Commissar of the PLA Navy’s North Fleet, noted that China’s possession of an aircraft carrier is justified because China owns a large maritime area - in his own words, three million square kilometres of haiyang guotu (ocean territory). Presumably the three million square kilometres would include most of the East China Sea and the maritime zone within the “nine-dotted line” in the South China Sea.
But many Chinese experts on maritime affairs, particularly the maritime lawyers, would probably not support the usage of these terms to describe China’s ambition in East Asian seas. Even officials in the foreign policy community would not subscribe to such an expansive definition of China’s maritime interests. On the South China Sea claim, for instance, there is at least one official view that does not accord with the ambitious mindset of some members of the Chinese elite.
For example, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei made the following observation on February 29: “The core of the South China Sea dispute is the sovereignty disputes over some Spratlys islands and reefs and the demarcation of some maritime zones in the South China Sea. It is necessary to point out that no country, including China, makes a sovereignty claim over the whole South China Sea.”
Although many Chinese analysts claim that Beijing has not developed a clear maritime strategy, there seems to be no doubt that China’s interests in the maritime arena are growing fast. The discourse at the recent political congresses in Beijing clearly exudes a sense of urgency in China to employ tougher policies in the maritime domain and step up efforts to transform itself into a maritime power.
Going by experiences in the past few years, Premier Wen’s foreign policy goal might fail if regional maritime disputes are not handled properly.
Li Mingjiang is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the China Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.
No. 053/2012 dated 28 March 2012
China’s Rising Maritime Aspirations:
Impact on Beijing’s Good-Neighbour Policy
By Li Mingjiang
Synopsis
The proceedings at the recent political congresses in Beijing indicate an emerging consensus in China on the need to safeguard and expand its maritime interests. This may defeat the government’s policy goal of improving relations with neighbouring countries.
Commentary
THE RECENT annual sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) – two of the most important political events in China - demonstrated the country’s elite’s aspiration and resolve to safeguard China’s interests in the East Asian seas. At the same time, Premier Wen Jiabao, in his report to the NPC, vowed to give priority to improving relations with neighbouring countries in China’s foreign affairs.
Experiences in recent years indicate that these two sets of policy objectives may not be mutually reconcilable and is extremely difficult to maintain a balance between the two.
Proposals for tighter maritime policies
China’s elite seized the opportunity during the political congresses to demand for more effective protection of Chinese maritime interests. Wang Zhuwen, president of Dalian Ocean University and also a deputy to the NPC, pointed out that the lack of maritime awareness has constrained the development of China’s maritime cause. Hence, he proposed that maritime education should be included in the primary and middle school curriculum.
At the NPC session Liu Cigui, Director of the State Oceanic Administration, indicated that China is serious about carrying out law enforcement activities in the seas. He said China’s regular patrol activities now cover all the maritime zones under Chinese jurisdiction. These extend to the estuary of the Yalu River in the north, Okinawa Trough in the east, and Zengmu Reef (James Shoal) in the south, as well as features including the Suyan Islet (Socotra Rock), Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands, Huangyan Islands (Scarborough Shoal) and the Nansha Islands (Spratlys).
Chen Mingyi, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC, suggested that China should establish a National Maritime Commission to coordinate China’s maritime policy. He further proposed that China should formulate a long-term comprehensive plan to transform China into a maritime power by 2020 to better protect China’s interests in the three million square kilometres of maritime zones.
Major General Luo Yuan, a deputy in the CPPCC, attracted much attention when he proposed that China should integrate its maritime law enforcement forces to form a national coast guard to safeguard China’s marine rights and interests in the face of growing challenges in the South China and East China seas. Luo suggested that China make efforts in five policy areas in the South China Sea, including consolidating administrative jurisdiction, strengthening the legal grounds of its claim, enhancing its military presence, promoting economic activities, and improving its capability to shape international opinion.
Luo also proposed that China publish a white paper on the South China Sea issue to provide a comprehensive account of the historical and legal grounds of China’s claim in the South China Sea.
At a CPPCC session Wang Zhifa, the Deputy Director of the State Tourism Administration, announced that it is working with Hainan Province and other central government agencies to promote tourism in the Paracels. He noted that doing so would be advantageous for securing China’s sovereignty claim and border security.
Some CPPCC members proposed that China should step up efforts to protect the Diaoyu Islands following the recent official publicity of the names of the islands to underscore China’s sovereignty claim over them. For instance China Central Television should include Diaoyu Islands in its weather forecasts to further demonstrate China’s sovereignty over them. This proposal was endorsed as feasible by Zheng Guoguang, the Director of the State Meteorological Administration and also a deputy in the CPPCC.
Ambition and Confusion
Nevertheless China’s aims and ambitions for the coastal seas are not entirely clear. The Chinese media and many Chinese analysts have described China’s ambition in the East Asian seas in very loose terms. For instance, they have asserted that China is entitled to three million square kilometres of “water territory”, “ocean territory”, “maritime territory” or “territorial seas”. At recent political meetings in Beijing, Wang Dengping, the Political Commissar of the PLA Navy’s North Fleet, noted that China’s possession of an aircraft carrier is justified because China owns a large maritime area - in his own words, three million square kilometres of haiyang guotu (ocean territory). Presumably the three million square kilometres would include most of the East China Sea and the maritime zone within the “nine-dotted line” in the South China Sea.
But many Chinese experts on maritime affairs, particularly the maritime lawyers, would probably not support the usage of these terms to describe China’s ambition in East Asian seas. Even officials in the foreign policy community would not subscribe to such an expansive definition of China’s maritime interests. On the South China Sea claim, for instance, there is at least one official view that does not accord with the ambitious mindset of some members of the Chinese elite.
For example, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei made the following observation on February 29: “The core of the South China Sea dispute is the sovereignty disputes over some Spratlys islands and reefs and the demarcation of some maritime zones in the South China Sea. It is necessary to point out that no country, including China, makes a sovereignty claim over the whole South China Sea.”
Although many Chinese analysts claim that Beijing has not developed a clear maritime strategy, there seems to be no doubt that China’s interests in the maritime arena are growing fast. The discourse at the recent political congresses in Beijing clearly exudes a sense of urgency in China to employ tougher policies in the maritime domain and step up efforts to transform itself into a maritime power.
Going by experiences in the past few years, Premier Wen’s foreign policy goal might fail if regional maritime disputes are not handled properly.
Li Mingjiang is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the China Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
The United States in Korea: A Strategy of Inertia
from STRATFOR
The United States in Korea: A Strategy of Inertia
March 27, 2012 | 0857 GMT
By George Friedman
After U.S. President Barack Obama visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone on March 25 during his trip to South Korea for a nuclear security summit, he made the obligatory presidential remarks warning North Korea against continued provocations. He also praised the strength of U.S.-South Korean relations and commended the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed there. Obama's visit itself is of little importance, but it is an opportunity to ask just what Washington's strategy is in Korea and how the countries around North Korea (China, Russia, South Korea and Japan) view the region. As always, any understanding of current strategy requires a consideration of the history of that strategy.
The Korean War and the U.S. Proto-Strategy
Korea became a key part of U.S. Cold War-era containment strategy almost by accident. Washington, having deployed forces in China during World War II and thus aware of the demographic and geographic problems of operating on the Asian mainland, envisioned a maritime strategy based on the island chains running from the Aleutians to Java. The Americans would use the islands and the 7th Fleet to contain both the Soviets and the Chinese on the mainland.
Korea conceptually lay outside this framework. The peninsula was not regarded by the United States as central to its strategy even after the victory of the communists in the Chinese civil war. After World War II, the Korean Peninsula, which had been occupied by the Japanese since the early 1900s, was divided into two zones. The North came under the control of communists, the South under the control of a pro-American regime. Soviet troops withdrew from the North in 1948 and U.S. troops pulled out of the South the following year, despite some calls to keep them in place to dissuade communist aggression. The actual U.S. policy toward an invasion of the South by the North is still being debated, but a U.S. intervention on the Korean Peninsula clearly violated Washington's core strategic principle of avoiding mainland operations and maintaining a strategic naval blockade.
U.S. strategy changed in 1950, when the North Koreans invaded the South, sparking the Korean War. Pyongyang's motives remain unclear, as do the roles of Moscow and Beijing in the decision. Obviously, Pyongyang wanted to unite the peninsula under communist control, and obviously, it did not carry out its invasion against Chinese and Russian wishes, but it appears all involved estimated the operation was within the capabilities of the North Korean army. Had the North Korean military faced only South Korean forces, they would have been right. They clearly miscalculated the American intent to intervene, though it is not clear that even the Americans understood their intent prior to the intervention. However, once the North Koreans moved south, President Harry Truman decided to intervene. His reasoning had less to do with Korea than with the impact of a communist military success on coalition partners elsewhere. The U.S. global strategy depended on Washington's ability to convince its partners that it would come to their aid if they were invaded. Strategic considerations aside, not intervening would have created a crisis of confidence, or so was the concern. Therefore, the United States intervened.
After serious difficulties, the United States managed to push the North Korean forces back into the North and pursue them almost to the Yalu River, which divides Korea and China. This forced a strategic decision on China. The Chinese were unclear on the American intent but did not underestimate American power. North Korea had represented a buffer between U.S. allies and northeastern China (and a similar buffer for the Soviets to protect their maritime territories). The Chinese intervened in the war, pushing the Americans back from the Yalu and suffering huge casualties in the process. The Americans regrouped, pushed back and a stalemate was achieved roughly along the former border and the current Demilitarized Zone. The truce was negotiated and the United States left forces in Korea, the successors of which President Obama addressed during his visit.
North Korea: The Weak, Fearsome Lunatic
The great mystery of the post-Cold War world is the survival of the North Korean regime. With a dynamic South, a non-Communist Russia and a China committed to good economic relations with the West, it would appear that the North Korean regime would have found it difficult to survive. This was compounded by severe economic problems (precipitated by the withdrawal of economic support from the Chinese and the Russians) and reported famines in the 1990s. But survive it did, and that survival is rooted in the geopolitics of the Cold War.
From the Chinese point of view, North Korea served the same function in the 1990s as it did in 1950: It was a buffer zone between the now economically powerful South Koreans (and the U.S. military) and Manchuria. The Russians were, as during the Korean War, interested in but not obsessed by the Korean situation, the more so as Russia shifted most of its attention west. The United States was concerned that a collapse in North Korea would trigger tensions with the Chinese and undermine the stability of its ally, South Korea. And the South Koreans were hesitant to undertake any actions that might trigger a response from North Korean artillery within range of Seoul, where a large portion of South Korea's population, government, industry and financial interests reside. In addition, they were concerned that a collapsing North would create a massive economic crisis in the South, having watched the difficulties of German integration and recognizing the even wider economic and social gap between the two Koreas.
In a real sense, no one outside of North Korea was interested in changing the borders of the Peninsula. The same calculations that had created the division in the first place and maintained it during and after the Korean War remained intact. Everyone either had a reason to want to maintain an independent North Korea (even with a communist regime) or were not eager risk a change in the status quo.
The most difficult question to answer is not how the United States viewed the potential destabilization of North Korea but rather its willingness to maintain a significant troop level in South Korea. The reason for intervening in the first place was murky. The U.S. military presence between 1953 and 1991 was intended to maintain the status quo during the Cold War. The willingness to remain beyond that is more complex.
Part of it simply had to do with inertia. Just as U.S. troops remain in Germany a generation after the end of the Cold War, it was easier not to reconsider U.S. strategy in Korea than to endure the internal stress of reconsidering it. Obviously, the United States did not want tensions between South Korea and North Korea, or to have the North Koreans misunderstand a withdrawal as an invitation to try another military move on the South, however unlikely. The Japanese saw Korean unification as problematic to their interests, since it could create a nearby industrial economic power of more than 70 million people and rekindle old rivalries. And North Korea, it would seem, actually welcomes the American presence, believing it limits South Korean adventurism. Between inertia and what we will call a proto-strategy, the United States remains.
With the loss of its Cold War patrons and the changing dynamic of the post-Cold War world, the North Koreans developed a survival strategy that Stratfor identified in the 1990s. The Koreans' intention was to appear -- simultaneously -- weak, fearsome and crazy. This was not an easy strategy to carry out, but they have carried it out well. First, they made certain that they were perceived to be always on the verge of internal collapse and thus not a direct threat to anyone but themselves. They went out of their way to emphasize their economic problems, particularly the famines in the 1990s. They wanted no one to think they were intent on being an aggressor unless provoked severely.
Second, they wanted to appear to be fearsome. This would at first blush seem to contradict the impression of weakness, but they managed it brilliantly by perpetually reminding the world that they were close to developing nuclear weapons and longer-range missiles. Recognizing that the Americans and Japanese had a reflexive obsession with nuclear weapons, Pyongyang constantly made it appear that they were capable of developing nuclear weapons but were not yet there. Not being there yet meant that no one had to do something about the weapons. Being close to developing them meant that it was dangerous to provoke them. Even North Korea's two nuclear tests have, intentionally or incidentally, appeared sub-par, leaving its neighbors able to doubt the technological prowess of the "Hermit Kingdom."
The final piece was to appear crazy, or crazy enough that when pressed, they would choose the suicide option of striking with a nuclear weapon, if they had one. This was critical because a rational actor possessing one or a few weapons would not think of striking its neighbors, since the U.S. counterstrike would annihilate the North Korean regime. The threat wouldn't work if North Korea was considered rational, but, if it was irrational, the North Korean deterrence strategy could work. It would force everyone to be ultra-cautious in dealing with North Korea, lest North Korea do something quite mad. South Korean and U.S. propaganda did more for North Korea's image of unpredictability than the North could have hoped.
North Korea, then, has spent more than two decades cultivating the image to the outside world of a nation on the verge of internal economic collapse (even while internally emphasizing its strength in the face of external threats). At the same time, the country has appeared to be on the verge of being a nuclear power -- one ruled by potential lunatics. The net result was that the major powers, particularly South Korea, the United States and Japan, went out of their way to avoid provoking the North. In addition, these three powers were prepared to bribe North Korea to stop undertaking nuclear and missile development. Several times, they bribed the North with money or food to stop building weapons, and each time the North took the money and then resumed their program, quite ostentatiously, so as to cause maximum notice and restore the vision of the weak, fearsome lunatic.
The North was so good at playing this game that it maneuvered itself into a position in which it sat as an equal with the United States, Japan, Russia, China and South Korea -- and it would frequently refuse to attend the six-party talks. The ability to maneuver itself into a position equal to these powers was North Korea's greatest achievement, and it had a tremendous effect on stabilizing the regime by reinforcing its legitimacy internally and its power externally. Underneath this was the fact that no one was all that eager to see North Korea collapse, particularly since it was crazy and might have nuclear weapons. North Korea created a superb strategy for regime preservation in a very hostile region -- or one that appeared hostile to the North Koreans.
Crucially for Pyongyang, North Korea was of tremendous use to one power: China. Even more than North Korea's role as a buffer state, its antics allowed China to emerge as mediator between the inscrutable Pyongyang and the frustrated United States. As China's economy grew, its political and military interests and reach expanded, leading to numerous tensions with the United States. But Beijing recognized that North Korea was a particular obsession of the United States because of its potential nuclear weapons and American sensitivity to weapons of mass destruction. Whenever North Korea did something outrageous, the United States would turn to China to address the problem. Having solved it, it was then inappropriate for Washington to press China on any other issue, at least for a while. Therefore, North Korea was a superb mechanism for the Chinese to deflect U.S. pressure on other issues.
For all of their occasional provocations, the North Koreans have been careful never to cross a line with conventional or nuclear power to compel a response from the South or the United States. Their ability to calibrate their provocations has been striking, even as their actions have escalated through nuclear tests to military action against South Korean ships and islands in the West Sea. Also striking is the manner in which those provocations have increased China's leverage with the United States.
The Difficulty of Extrication
At this point, it would be difficult for the United States to withdraw from South Korea. The North Korean nuclear threat fixes the situation in place, even for troops that aren't relevant to that threat. The troops could be withdrawn, but they won't be because the inertia of the situation makes it easier to leave them there than withdraw. As for the South Koreans, they simultaneously dislike the American presence and want it there, since it ensures U.S. military involvement in any crisis.
While the U.S. troop presence in Korea may not make the most sense in a global U.S. military strategy, it ironically seems to fit, at least for now, the interests of the Chinese, South Koreans and Japanese, and even in some sense the North Koreans. The United States, as the global power, therefore is locked into a deployment that does not match the regional requirements, requires endless explanation and is the source of frequent political complications. What we are left with is a U.S. strategy not based necessarily on the current situation but one tied to a historical legacy, left in place by inertia and held in place by the North Korean nuclear "threat."
Read more: The United States in Korea: A Strategy of Inertia | Stratfor
The United States in Korea: A Strategy of Inertia
March 27, 2012 | 0857 GMT
By George Friedman
After U.S. President Barack Obama visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone on March 25 during his trip to South Korea for a nuclear security summit, he made the obligatory presidential remarks warning North Korea against continued provocations. He also praised the strength of U.S.-South Korean relations and commended the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed there. Obama's visit itself is of little importance, but it is an opportunity to ask just what Washington's strategy is in Korea and how the countries around North Korea (China, Russia, South Korea and Japan) view the region. As always, any understanding of current strategy requires a consideration of the history of that strategy.
The Korean War and the U.S. Proto-Strategy
Korea became a key part of U.S. Cold War-era containment strategy almost by accident. Washington, having deployed forces in China during World War II and thus aware of the demographic and geographic problems of operating on the Asian mainland, envisioned a maritime strategy based on the island chains running from the Aleutians to Java. The Americans would use the islands and the 7th Fleet to contain both the Soviets and the Chinese on the mainland.
Korea conceptually lay outside this framework. The peninsula was not regarded by the United States as central to its strategy even after the victory of the communists in the Chinese civil war. After World War II, the Korean Peninsula, which had been occupied by the Japanese since the early 1900s, was divided into two zones. The North came under the control of communists, the South under the control of a pro-American regime. Soviet troops withdrew from the North in 1948 and U.S. troops pulled out of the South the following year, despite some calls to keep them in place to dissuade communist aggression. The actual U.S. policy toward an invasion of the South by the North is still being debated, but a U.S. intervention on the Korean Peninsula clearly violated Washington's core strategic principle of avoiding mainland operations and maintaining a strategic naval blockade.
U.S. strategy changed in 1950, when the North Koreans invaded the South, sparking the Korean War. Pyongyang's motives remain unclear, as do the roles of Moscow and Beijing in the decision. Obviously, Pyongyang wanted to unite the peninsula under communist control, and obviously, it did not carry out its invasion against Chinese and Russian wishes, but it appears all involved estimated the operation was within the capabilities of the North Korean army. Had the North Korean military faced only South Korean forces, they would have been right. They clearly miscalculated the American intent to intervene, though it is not clear that even the Americans understood their intent prior to the intervention. However, once the North Koreans moved south, President Harry Truman decided to intervene. His reasoning had less to do with Korea than with the impact of a communist military success on coalition partners elsewhere. The U.S. global strategy depended on Washington's ability to convince its partners that it would come to their aid if they were invaded. Strategic considerations aside, not intervening would have created a crisis of confidence, or so was the concern. Therefore, the United States intervened.
After serious difficulties, the United States managed to push the North Korean forces back into the North and pursue them almost to the Yalu River, which divides Korea and China. This forced a strategic decision on China. The Chinese were unclear on the American intent but did not underestimate American power. North Korea had represented a buffer between U.S. allies and northeastern China (and a similar buffer for the Soviets to protect their maritime territories). The Chinese intervened in the war, pushing the Americans back from the Yalu and suffering huge casualties in the process. The Americans regrouped, pushed back and a stalemate was achieved roughly along the former border and the current Demilitarized Zone. The truce was negotiated and the United States left forces in Korea, the successors of which President Obama addressed during his visit.
North Korea: The Weak, Fearsome Lunatic
The great mystery of the post-Cold War world is the survival of the North Korean regime. With a dynamic South, a non-Communist Russia and a China committed to good economic relations with the West, it would appear that the North Korean regime would have found it difficult to survive. This was compounded by severe economic problems (precipitated by the withdrawal of economic support from the Chinese and the Russians) and reported famines in the 1990s. But survive it did, and that survival is rooted in the geopolitics of the Cold War.
From the Chinese point of view, North Korea served the same function in the 1990s as it did in 1950: It was a buffer zone between the now economically powerful South Koreans (and the U.S. military) and Manchuria. The Russians were, as during the Korean War, interested in but not obsessed by the Korean situation, the more so as Russia shifted most of its attention west. The United States was concerned that a collapse in North Korea would trigger tensions with the Chinese and undermine the stability of its ally, South Korea. And the South Koreans were hesitant to undertake any actions that might trigger a response from North Korean artillery within range of Seoul, where a large portion of South Korea's population, government, industry and financial interests reside. In addition, they were concerned that a collapsing North would create a massive economic crisis in the South, having watched the difficulties of German integration and recognizing the even wider economic and social gap between the two Koreas.
In a real sense, no one outside of North Korea was interested in changing the borders of the Peninsula. The same calculations that had created the division in the first place and maintained it during and after the Korean War remained intact. Everyone either had a reason to want to maintain an independent North Korea (even with a communist regime) or were not eager risk a change in the status quo.
The most difficult question to answer is not how the United States viewed the potential destabilization of North Korea but rather its willingness to maintain a significant troop level in South Korea. The reason for intervening in the first place was murky. The U.S. military presence between 1953 and 1991 was intended to maintain the status quo during the Cold War. The willingness to remain beyond that is more complex.
Part of it simply had to do with inertia. Just as U.S. troops remain in Germany a generation after the end of the Cold War, it was easier not to reconsider U.S. strategy in Korea than to endure the internal stress of reconsidering it. Obviously, the United States did not want tensions between South Korea and North Korea, or to have the North Koreans misunderstand a withdrawal as an invitation to try another military move on the South, however unlikely. The Japanese saw Korean unification as problematic to their interests, since it could create a nearby industrial economic power of more than 70 million people and rekindle old rivalries. And North Korea, it would seem, actually welcomes the American presence, believing it limits South Korean adventurism. Between inertia and what we will call a proto-strategy, the United States remains.
With the loss of its Cold War patrons and the changing dynamic of the post-Cold War world, the North Koreans developed a survival strategy that Stratfor identified in the 1990s. The Koreans' intention was to appear -- simultaneously -- weak, fearsome and crazy. This was not an easy strategy to carry out, but they have carried it out well. First, they made certain that they were perceived to be always on the verge of internal collapse and thus not a direct threat to anyone but themselves. They went out of their way to emphasize their economic problems, particularly the famines in the 1990s. They wanted no one to think they were intent on being an aggressor unless provoked severely.
Second, they wanted to appear to be fearsome. This would at first blush seem to contradict the impression of weakness, but they managed it brilliantly by perpetually reminding the world that they were close to developing nuclear weapons and longer-range missiles. Recognizing that the Americans and Japanese had a reflexive obsession with nuclear weapons, Pyongyang constantly made it appear that they were capable of developing nuclear weapons but were not yet there. Not being there yet meant that no one had to do something about the weapons. Being close to developing them meant that it was dangerous to provoke them. Even North Korea's two nuclear tests have, intentionally or incidentally, appeared sub-par, leaving its neighbors able to doubt the technological prowess of the "Hermit Kingdom."
The final piece was to appear crazy, or crazy enough that when pressed, they would choose the suicide option of striking with a nuclear weapon, if they had one. This was critical because a rational actor possessing one or a few weapons would not think of striking its neighbors, since the U.S. counterstrike would annihilate the North Korean regime. The threat wouldn't work if North Korea was considered rational, but, if it was irrational, the North Korean deterrence strategy could work. It would force everyone to be ultra-cautious in dealing with North Korea, lest North Korea do something quite mad. South Korean and U.S. propaganda did more for North Korea's image of unpredictability than the North could have hoped.
North Korea, then, has spent more than two decades cultivating the image to the outside world of a nation on the verge of internal economic collapse (even while internally emphasizing its strength in the face of external threats). At the same time, the country has appeared to be on the verge of being a nuclear power -- one ruled by potential lunatics. The net result was that the major powers, particularly South Korea, the United States and Japan, went out of their way to avoid provoking the North. In addition, these three powers were prepared to bribe North Korea to stop undertaking nuclear and missile development. Several times, they bribed the North with money or food to stop building weapons, and each time the North took the money and then resumed their program, quite ostentatiously, so as to cause maximum notice and restore the vision of the weak, fearsome lunatic.
The North was so good at playing this game that it maneuvered itself into a position in which it sat as an equal with the United States, Japan, Russia, China and South Korea -- and it would frequently refuse to attend the six-party talks. The ability to maneuver itself into a position equal to these powers was North Korea's greatest achievement, and it had a tremendous effect on stabilizing the regime by reinforcing its legitimacy internally and its power externally. Underneath this was the fact that no one was all that eager to see North Korea collapse, particularly since it was crazy and might have nuclear weapons. North Korea created a superb strategy for regime preservation in a very hostile region -- or one that appeared hostile to the North Koreans.
Crucially for Pyongyang, North Korea was of tremendous use to one power: China. Even more than North Korea's role as a buffer state, its antics allowed China to emerge as mediator between the inscrutable Pyongyang and the frustrated United States. As China's economy grew, its political and military interests and reach expanded, leading to numerous tensions with the United States. But Beijing recognized that North Korea was a particular obsession of the United States because of its potential nuclear weapons and American sensitivity to weapons of mass destruction. Whenever North Korea did something outrageous, the United States would turn to China to address the problem. Having solved it, it was then inappropriate for Washington to press China on any other issue, at least for a while. Therefore, North Korea was a superb mechanism for the Chinese to deflect U.S. pressure on other issues.
For all of their occasional provocations, the North Koreans have been careful never to cross a line with conventional or nuclear power to compel a response from the South or the United States. Their ability to calibrate their provocations has been striking, even as their actions have escalated through nuclear tests to military action against South Korean ships and islands in the West Sea. Also striking is the manner in which those provocations have increased China's leverage with the United States.
The Difficulty of Extrication
At this point, it would be difficult for the United States to withdraw from South Korea. The North Korean nuclear threat fixes the situation in place, even for troops that aren't relevant to that threat. The troops could be withdrawn, but they won't be because the inertia of the situation makes it easier to leave them there than withdraw. As for the South Koreans, they simultaneously dislike the American presence and want it there, since it ensures U.S. military involvement in any crisis.
While the U.S. troop presence in Korea may not make the most sense in a global U.S. military strategy, it ironically seems to fit, at least for now, the interests of the Chinese, South Koreans and Japanese, and even in some sense the North Koreans. The United States, as the global power, therefore is locked into a deployment that does not match the regional requirements, requires endless explanation and is the source of frequent political complications. What we are left with is a U.S. strategy not based necessarily on the current situation but one tied to a historical legacy, left in place by inertia and held in place by the North Korean nuclear "threat."
Read more: The United States in Korea: A Strategy of Inertia | Stratfor
Monday, March 26, 2012
BRICS for a New Global Order
RSIS presents the following commentary BRICS for a New Global Order by C. Raja Mohan. It is also available online at this link. (To print it, click on this link.). Kindly forward any comments or feedback to the Editor RSIS Commentaries, at RSISPublication@ntu.edu.sg
No. 052/2012 dated 26 March 2012
BRICS for a New Global Order
By C. Raja Mohan
Synopsis
The Fourth BRICS Summit in Delhi this week will focus on deepening financial cooperation and developing common positions on the current crises in the Middle East. However the rising non-Western powers are not out to form an anti-West bloc.
Commentary
AS THE leaders of China, India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa meet in Delhi this week (28-29 March), one cannot but wonder how an improbable concept from Wall Street - the heart of Western capitalism – could have such a remarkable influence in the international system. Coined a decade ago by Goldman Sachs to promote an investment fund in emerging markets, BRICS is now either lionised or denounced as a countervailing bloc against the West.
For many in the developing world, chafing under Western dominance since the end of the Cold War, the BRICS forum has emerged as the definitive new tribune and a potential foundation for different and more equitable world order. For those in the West, so accustomed to dominating the international political discourse during the last two decades, the prospect of a powerful non-Western bloc is deeply disconcerting.
Evolution of BRICS
To be sure, the leaders of the BRICS themselves have never made exalted claims for their forum. It is the supporters and critics who have invested the forum with a lot more political weight than it could perhaps carry. In the near term, BRICS will focus on small and incremental steps towards the consolidation of a grouping which is both politically diverse and geographically disparate.
As the nations currently contributing the largest share of world economic growth, the BRICS now want to transform the global financial structures that have been dominated by the West for centuries. That the global financial system has become crisis-ridden amidst the failure of the Western regulatory systems has given a rare opportunity for the non-Western powers to seek its transformation and a say in its future management.
The BRICS is being built on the foundation of a Russia-China-India strategic dialogue that was launched a decade ago. The initiative was a Russian one while Brazil joined the forum in 2009 to constitute the first summit at Yekaterinburg, Russia. The second summit was held in Brasilia in 2010 and South Africa joined the forum at the Third Summit held in Sanya, Hainan last year.
Located in different corners of the world, BRICS is not about promoting regionalism that has had so much success in Europe and East Asia. Its vision is naturally global. In the last three years, the BRICS has sought greater coordination among the emerging powers on international issues - from food and energy security to sustainable development - that are of greatest concern to the non-Western powers.
The Sanya summit saw for the first time the emergence of some concrete proposals in the area of finance. At the initiative of Beijing, a framework agreement was signed for cooperation in the banking sector and the leaders agreed to consider the prospects for trade in local currencies.
Bigger goals
The Delhi summit is likely to examine a proposal to create an inter-governmental development bank by the BRICS nations. The summit is also likely to extend solid support to the business communities from their countries to deepen trade and investment ties. However the declarations from the Delhi summit will also indicate how the BRICS manage some of their current differences on global political issues, particularly relating to the Middle East.
On Syria, China and Russia had vetoed a recent Arab League sponsored resolution in the United Nations Security Council, while India and South Africa have voted for it. The recent Presidential statement from the Council on Syria reflected a consensus that should facilitate a common position among the BRICS in favour of a ceasefire in Syria and negotiations between the government and the opposition.
On Iran, the BRICS have a common interest in a peaceful resolution of the nuclear crisis and preventing a confrontation between the West and Iran, while disagreeing with the United States and Europe on the unilateral sanctions against Iran.
Not an anti-West bloc
More broadly, the BRICS have deep concerns over the current Western attempts at regime change in different parts of the Middle East and the violation of the principle of national sovereignty. Given their shared concerns about international terrorism, the BRICS are also likely to express their common anxiety about the future of Afghanistan amidst the US plans to withdraw after a decade of fighting the insurgency there.
Despite their many differences with the West, the BRICS have no desire to become an anti-Western or anti-American bloc. All the forum members want to build productive relationships with the United States on the basis of equality and with the aim of constructing a genuine multipolar world. The question for the BRICS, then, is how to deepen the democratisation of international relations and modernising global governance rather than countering the West with a non-Western bloc.
During the BRICS summit in Delhi, there will be much interest in Chinese President Hu Jintao’s bilateral talks with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as the contradictions between China and India constitute the single most important weakness of the BRICS.
There has been intense political effort by Beijing and Delhi in recent months to put their bilateral relations on a more positive footing and manage their differences maturely. President Hu, who last travelled to Delhi in 2006, and Prime Minister Singh are likely to announce some concrete new steps to expand their cooperation in the bilateral, regional and international domains.
C. Raja Mohan is an Adjunct Professor of South Asian Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. He heads the Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation, Delhi and is a Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore.
No. 052/2012 dated 26 March 2012
BRICS for a New Global Order
By C. Raja Mohan
Synopsis
The Fourth BRICS Summit in Delhi this week will focus on deepening financial cooperation and developing common positions on the current crises in the Middle East. However the rising non-Western powers are not out to form an anti-West bloc.
Commentary
AS THE leaders of China, India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa meet in Delhi this week (28-29 March), one cannot but wonder how an improbable concept from Wall Street - the heart of Western capitalism – could have such a remarkable influence in the international system. Coined a decade ago by Goldman Sachs to promote an investment fund in emerging markets, BRICS is now either lionised or denounced as a countervailing bloc against the West.
For many in the developing world, chafing under Western dominance since the end of the Cold War, the BRICS forum has emerged as the definitive new tribune and a potential foundation for different and more equitable world order. For those in the West, so accustomed to dominating the international political discourse during the last two decades, the prospect of a powerful non-Western bloc is deeply disconcerting.
Evolution of BRICS
To be sure, the leaders of the BRICS themselves have never made exalted claims for their forum. It is the supporters and critics who have invested the forum with a lot more political weight than it could perhaps carry. In the near term, BRICS will focus on small and incremental steps towards the consolidation of a grouping which is both politically diverse and geographically disparate.
As the nations currently contributing the largest share of world economic growth, the BRICS now want to transform the global financial structures that have been dominated by the West for centuries. That the global financial system has become crisis-ridden amidst the failure of the Western regulatory systems has given a rare opportunity for the non-Western powers to seek its transformation and a say in its future management.
The BRICS is being built on the foundation of a Russia-China-India strategic dialogue that was launched a decade ago. The initiative was a Russian one while Brazil joined the forum in 2009 to constitute the first summit at Yekaterinburg, Russia. The second summit was held in Brasilia in 2010 and South Africa joined the forum at the Third Summit held in Sanya, Hainan last year.
Located in different corners of the world, BRICS is not about promoting regionalism that has had so much success in Europe and East Asia. Its vision is naturally global. In the last three years, the BRICS has sought greater coordination among the emerging powers on international issues - from food and energy security to sustainable development - that are of greatest concern to the non-Western powers.
The Sanya summit saw for the first time the emergence of some concrete proposals in the area of finance. At the initiative of Beijing, a framework agreement was signed for cooperation in the banking sector and the leaders agreed to consider the prospects for trade in local currencies.
Bigger goals
The Delhi summit is likely to examine a proposal to create an inter-governmental development bank by the BRICS nations. The summit is also likely to extend solid support to the business communities from their countries to deepen trade and investment ties. However the declarations from the Delhi summit will also indicate how the BRICS manage some of their current differences on global political issues, particularly relating to the Middle East.
On Syria, China and Russia had vetoed a recent Arab League sponsored resolution in the United Nations Security Council, while India and South Africa have voted for it. The recent Presidential statement from the Council on Syria reflected a consensus that should facilitate a common position among the BRICS in favour of a ceasefire in Syria and negotiations between the government and the opposition.
On Iran, the BRICS have a common interest in a peaceful resolution of the nuclear crisis and preventing a confrontation between the West and Iran, while disagreeing with the United States and Europe on the unilateral sanctions against Iran.
Not an anti-West bloc
More broadly, the BRICS have deep concerns over the current Western attempts at regime change in different parts of the Middle East and the violation of the principle of national sovereignty. Given their shared concerns about international terrorism, the BRICS are also likely to express their common anxiety about the future of Afghanistan amidst the US plans to withdraw after a decade of fighting the insurgency there.
Despite their many differences with the West, the BRICS have no desire to become an anti-Western or anti-American bloc. All the forum members want to build productive relationships with the United States on the basis of equality and with the aim of constructing a genuine multipolar world. The question for the BRICS, then, is how to deepen the democratisation of international relations and modernising global governance rather than countering the West with a non-Western bloc.
During the BRICS summit in Delhi, there will be much interest in Chinese President Hu Jintao’s bilateral talks with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as the contradictions between China and India constitute the single most important weakness of the BRICS.
There has been intense political effort by Beijing and Delhi in recent months to put their bilateral relations on a more positive footing and manage their differences maturely. President Hu, who last travelled to Delhi in 2006, and Prime Minister Singh are likely to announce some concrete new steps to expand their cooperation in the bilateral, regional and international domains.
C. Raja Mohan is an Adjunct Professor of South Asian Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. He heads the Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation, Delhi and is a Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore.
The Great Betrayal of 2012
The Great Betrayal
of 2012
SHOCKING EVIDENCE:
The Obama administration
is CONSPIRING with China’s leaders
to destroy the value of every U.S. dollar
you earn, spend, save and invest.
IN THIS REPORT:
What you must do immediately
to protect yourself and prosper.
PLUS:
The investments that are designed to soar
185% ... 200% ... 257% ... up to 365%
as Washington and Beijing gut the U.S. dollar.
Hello, this is Larry Edelson, reporting from Shanghai, China.
I have to be careful; if the authorities even suspected that I’m going to reveal certain facts in this presentation, there would be hell to pay. I could be arrested and deported or worse, have to do serious prison time.
I am only willing to take that risk because what I’m about to say is absolutely essential to your survival — to your financial survival.
Wise men have predicted the developments I’m talking about for centuries. Two hundred years ago, Napoleon warned, “When China wakes, it will shake the world.”
Truer words were never spoken.
China has awakened. And now, it’s about to shake the world to its foundations — starting with the United States.
This is the Shanghai World Financial Center.
It’s the tallest skyscraper in China — 101 floors. It took 11 years to complete.
It houses the Shanghai Futures Exchange and Stock Exchange. It is also home to China’s largest banks, insurance companies and its financial ratings agencies.
But this is much more than just an office building.
It is also ground zero for the single greatest economic triumph in China’s history.
But for Americans, it’s about to become an icon; the symbol of the most catastrophic event in our nation’s financial history ...
An event that will render everything you think you know about our government, about our economy and about investing obsolete.
I’ve created this special presentation to give you the uncensored facts — facts that the U.S. media won’t report — and to help you prepare while there’s still time.
Plus, if you take the steps I recommend, you could make quite a bit of money in the process.
Once again, this is Larry Edelson.
You may have seen me in Forbes, or on Bloomberg, CBS Marketwatch, CNBC or another major financial program or publication.
Or perhaps you’ve seen my forecasts and recommendations on the Money and Markets website or in my own e-zine, Uncommon Wisdom.
In my 33 years in finance, I have managed several large investment funds and founded my own brokerage and money management firm with offices in New York, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Vienna and Osaka, Japan.
I live here in Asia. My home is a short flight from Shanghai. I also work here; I use a lot of what I learn about China and the rest of Asia to help thousands of people all over the world make better financial decisions.
Plus, as a financial guide for hundreds of thousands of private investors, I’ve become well known for accurately warning them of major turns in the markets well in advance.
I accurately warned my readers of the stock market crash of 1987 and the rally that followed ...
The bursting of the tech stock bubble in 2000 that cost U.S. investors an estimated $6.5 trillion in losses ...
And the 2007 collapse in U.S. stocks that drove the S&P 500 56% lower.
I also nailed the bottom of gold prices at $255 in 1999 and the bull market that has taken the yellow metal to well over $1,800 per ounce so far ...
In June of 2004, I warned that the price of oil would start a rocket ride higher, from $38 to well over $100 a barrel, and a gallon of gas to near $4.
Now I have a truly shocking forecast for you — it is by far, the most alarming warning I have ever issued.
It is so disturbing, in fact, that most people who read this report will simply refuse to believe it. But I must warn you: Ignoring this warning will have consequences — and those consequences will be catastrophic for millions of Americans.
On the other hand, every crisis creates great opportunities — and this one is no exception.
Because in terms of its sheer power to create wealth, the event I’m talking about DWARFS the industrial revolution that created hundreds of millionaires at the beginning of the 20th Century ...
It towers miles above the computer, internet and technology revolutions that created thousands of millionaires — and hundreds of billionaires — in the 1990s ...
It’s already creating the greatest explosion of wealth in the history of mankind.
At its core, though, the story I’m about to tell you is one of betrayal: The cruelest, most callous financial treachery in our nation’s 236-year history.
It’s a story that’s so shocking, nobody in the U.S. media has dared report it:
I have uncovered compelling evidence that the Chinese government is conspiring with Washington, D.C. to impoverish you and sentence your children and your grandchildren to lives of financial servitude.
Now please don’t misunderstand: I’m not a political man and this is NOT a political presentation. It’s not about Democrats or Republicans or who should win the U.S. elections in November.
I am a financial and investment analyst. And as such, my ONLY allegiance is to my family and to the individual investors I help.
I created this presentation for one, simple reason: To give you the truth you need to protect your home, your savings, your investments and your retirement from the single greatest economic crisis in our nation’s history ...
In this presentation, I will show you exactly why Beijing and Washington are working together to bankrupt you.
I will show you how to protect yourself and your family from their scheme to destroy your wealth.
And, I will tell you about the four kinds of investments I believe will double your money, then double it yet again in 2012 and beyond.
Because in finance as in life, the best defense is a strong offense.
Everybody knows that China is on the move. Even despite the recent global slowdown — and despite what the naysayers may try to tell you — China’s economy is still growing more than seven times faster than America’s is.
But what most Americans do NOT know — what our media steadfastly refuses to admit — is that China is already so rich, it can now DICTATE economic policy to the world; even to the United States of America.
I know — it’s hard to believe. Especially since many have been saying that China’s economic explosion is over.
But consider the shocking report that Yahoo Finance recently posted. I quote:
“The International Monetary Fund has just dropped a bombshell, and nobody noticed.
“For the first time, the international organization has set a date for the moment when the ‘Age of America’ will end and the U.S. economy will be overtaken by that of China.”
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), by 2016, the United States will no longer be the world’s number one economic power.
According to the IMF, China will be richer than America in less than five years.
But according to the prestigious Peterson Institute — and based on data just published by the University of Pennsylvania — the IMF is wrong: The Chinese economy will NOT surpass America’s by 2016.
Nor will it happen in 2017 or even in 2020, for that matter.
Peterson and the University of Pennsylvania say China is ALREADY the world’s #1 economicpower.
And the thing is, they proved it.
These two highly respected institutions just presented irrefutable proof that in real terms — when you adjust for the domestic purchasing power of respective currencies ...
The U.S. economy produced goods and services valued at $14.6 trillion in 2010 ...
But China’s Gross Domestic Product soared to $14.8 trillion.
China’s economy is already larger than America’s.
And what’s worse, the United States is falling farther behind every day:
According to the official figures from both Washington and Beijing, the U.S. economy grew about 1.7% in 2011.
China’s economy grew 9.2%.
That’s more than SEVEN AND ONE-HALF TIMES FASTER; fast enough to nearly DOUBLE the size of China’s already-massive economy once each decade.
And if you get to know a little more about both nations, China’s burgeoning economic power becomes even more unsettling. Because the fact is, Beijing has become so powerful, it can now dictate economic policy to the U.S.
>> The Beijing government has almost no debt ...
>> But Washington has nearly $145 trillion in debt and obligations.
** China has $3.2 trillion in cash — and its cash reserves are growing ever larger, month after month ...
** But Washington has almost no cash on hand and has to borrow nearly half of every dollar it spends — much of it is borrowed from China.
>> China’s total tax revenues are up nearly 30% from a year ago ...
>> But Washington’s tax revenues are dramatically down due to the sluggish U.S. economy.
** The U.S. has about 160 million workers ...
** China has 810 million workers — more than 5 times more than the United States.
>> 97% of all Chinese workers are employed ...
>> But 14 million U.S. workers are either unemployed or underemployed.
** In China’s urban areas, wages ROSE 7.6% in 2011 — and the increase was about double that in rural areas.
** Meanwhile, inflation-adjusted wages for U.S. workers dropped 1.7%.
The investment facts are even more startling:
Securities valued at more than $6 trillion trade on Chinese exchanges every day and that number is growing by leaps and bounds.
China enjoys the largest foreign capital inflows of any nation on Earth, surpassing the United States as the world's favorite place to invest.
China is now the world’s #1 mine operator ... its #1 car maker ... its #1 manufacturer ... its #1 exporter.
You really have to see China to believe what’s happening here.
I used to think New York and Beverly Hills were the world’s pinnacle for high-end shopping ...
But here in Shanghai, the Nanjing Road shopping district puts them to shame. So does the New Shanghai Shopping City here in the Pudong financial district ...
And these are only two of EIGHT massive, world-class, state-of-the-art shopping districts in this one city alone!
I once believed that Las Vegas topped the world when it came to luxury hotels and entertainment ...
But even Vegas’ biggest and best can’t hold a candle to the world’s largest hotels and casinos in Macau.
I thought that Palm Beach’s mansions and posh housing communities were the ultimate ...
But they pale in comparison to the massive luxury housing developments and neighborhoods filled with extravagant Western-style mansions here.
Any way you look at it, China is already the nation on the way UP. While sadly, the U.S. is the nation on the way OUT.
I just read a study by The Program for International Student Assessment that ranked Chinese students #1 in the world. American students were ranked fourteenth.
China’s Tianhe-1A super computer is the fastest in the world, capable of processing more than 2.5 thousand trillion calculations per second.
American technicians don’t even know how that kind of speed could be possible.
And while the U.S. is winding down its space program, China is preparing to put a man on the moon!
And when you look at China’s military, the contrast between the two nations gets downright scary:
China has THE LARGEST ARMY IN THE WORLD — 2.2 million active-duty military personnel — 600,000 more than America has.
And while the U.S. is cutting its military expenditures, China has increased military spending every year for more than 20 years ... and is still boosting it by an average of 11.8% per year.
China’s military is state-of-the-art: It just unveiled the J-20 — its first stealth fighter.
It also has spy satellites, modern battle tanks, aircraft carriers, nuclear attack submarines, cruise missiles, and more.
China’s nuclear arsenal is especially worrying: While the U.S. has been steadily reducing its stockpiles for nearly 30 years, China continues to build up its forces and is refusing to even begin talks on nuclear arms reduction.
In the size of its economy and economic growth ... in science ... in technology ... in the scholarship of its students ... in the growth of its military ... in every conceivable area, China is ALREADY the world’s most dominant nation.
More importantly: Because of China’s newfound status as the world’s #1 super power, it is now ready, willing and able to DICTATE economic policy to the rest of the world ... and that includes America.
And of course, there’s another reason why China is now in a position to dictate economic policy to the United States of America:
Nearly 50% of every dollar Washington spends today is borrowed money — much of it borrowed from China.
Without the billions Beijing loans Washington, the entire U.S. government would go bust. Washington would become a virtual ghost town. Millions of Americans who count on government checks would be financially destroyed.
So you see, the entire world — including the United States — must bow to China’s superior economic power — the greatest the world has ever seen.
And at a recent economic conference, we were treated to images of our own president doing just that.
Nobody who watched that humiliating display on television had any doubt which man has the greater power; which man is in control.
And make no mistake: the Chinese know they’re in the driver’s seat. People’s Liberation Army Senior Colonel Liu Mingfu recently said, “To save itself, to save the world, China must prepare to become the world’s helmsman.”
I can’t even begin to tell you how painful it is for me to have to tell you any of this.
Even though I live and work in Asia, I will remain an American citizen to my final breath. My mom, my sister, my brother and my three grown kids all live in the States. I want nothing but the best of everything for them and for my country.
But if my three decades as a financial analyst have taught me anything, it’s that terrible things happen when we ignore reality.
And take it from me: There WILL be terrible consequences for those who fail to act on the investment intelligence in this presentation.
But once you grasp the reality that Beijing is now in charge, you’ll find it’s quite easy to insulate yourself — and even to make a substantial sum in the process.
Because now, I have compelling evidence that China is not satisfied to merely surpass the U.S. economy; it has already begun a campaign to DOMINATE the U.S. economy.
The shocking part is that our own leaders in Washington, D.C. have become Beijing’s willing accomplices.
I know this is an outrageous assertion — but I’m about to prove it; so please hear me out ...
Because China has already begun to wage war against the dominance and value of the U.S. dollar ...
With the help of our leaders in Washington, D.C.!
I’ll explain:
For decades now, the U.S. dollar has been the world’s currency of choice. Most of the world’s central banks hold their reserves in U.S. dollars. Most international transactions have been settled in U.S. dollars.
That means there is always a high demand for dollars around the world — and as a result of that demand, the greenback has held its value more effectively than many other currencies have.
But since 2009, President Obama has spent more than $10.6 trillion, and run up trillion-dollar deficits year after year.
To fund Washington’s spending addiction, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has borrowed an estimated $4 trillion since 2009. And, Ben Bernanke — the Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve — has created nearly $8 trillion out of thin air since 2009.
As a result, the value and the buying power of the dollar have already begun to plunge:
*Gasoline prices have shot the moon — you’re paying over 25% more than you paid just 24 months ago!
*The price for heating oil rocketed 29% in a recent 12-month period, sending home heating bills up more than 50% per month!
*Milk and cheese prices are up 18% and 15% respectively ... the price of beef and veal used in restaurants is up 17% ... coffee prices are up more than 20% ... and egg prices have soared nearly 30%!
* And everywhere you look, you see “sticker shock” on health insurance ... medicine and medical care ... college tuition ... airline tickets ... and more.
As a result of this precipitous decline in the dollar’s buying power ...
France, India and many other countries ...
The U.N., the IMF and other international organizations ...
Are ALL calling for the end of the dollar’s reign as the world’s reserve currency.
And even the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party says — and again, I quote:
“The world urgently needs to create a diversified currency and financial system and fair and just financial order that is not dependent on the United States.”
In fact, the U.S. dollar is already being abandoned by many countries and companies in favor of the Chinese currency — the yuan:
> Investors can now buy yuan-denominated bonds in Hong Kong.
> Caterpillar and McDonald’s recently financed their mainland China projects directly via yuan bond offerings instead of U.S. dollars.
> And China’s trade with Russia, Vietnam and Thailand is now being settled in yuan instead of U.S. dollars.
> Apple Computer is even accepting iTunes payments in yuan!
Now, China believes it’s time to make the supremacy of its currency — the yuan — OFFICIAL — by gutting the U.S. dollar. And our own leaders — President Obama, Treasury Secretary Geithner and Fed chief Bernanke — are obediently helping Beijing do just that!
Hard to believe? Especially in an election year? I agree! But remember: President Obama saw what a weaker dollar did for U.S. stocks in 2009: It gave birth to huge rallies! Having the stock market explode higher just before the elections would be a godsend for any incumbent president!
Look: You’ve seen the news reports of Obama, Geithner and Bernanke complaining about China’s currency. Those complaints are only growing louder now — even in this election year!
The administration claims the “weak yuan” gives China an unfair trading advantage. It makes China’s products cheaper than ours on world markets.
So they’re demanding that China increase the yuan’s value in order to level the playing field for American exporters.
But anybody with even shred of common sense can instantly see the Obama administration’s claims are pure baloney.
Look: The average U.S. worker earns nearly 6.5 TIMES MORE than his or her Chinese counterpart.
Those sky-high labor costs are cooked into every product produced in America — and that’s what makes American products far more expensive than similar Chinese-made products.
So even if Beijing DOUBLED or TRIPLED the value of the yuan, Chinese products would still sell for far less than U.S.-made products do: Boosting the yuan’s value would do little if anything to help U.S. exporters!
So why does Washington really want to jack up the value of the Chinese yuan? What’s the truth that Washington won’t tell you?
By RAISING the value of the Chinese yuan, Washington and China will automatically CRUSH the value of the U.S. dollar ...
So Washington can repay its otherwise unpayable debts with cheaper dollars!
Look: The “official” U.S. national debt is now over $15 trillion — nearly three times more than the most indebted nations in Europe ... COMBINED!
But when you add in the debts Washington owes to veterans, seniors and government pensioners, the total amount is nearly ten times more: A staggering $145 trillion.
That’s nearly TEN TIMES the total value of the goods and services the U.S. economy produces ...
That’s far more debt than Washington can ever hope to pay.
In fact, Washington’s only hope of avoiding default is to destroy the value of its own currency, then pay its debts back with dollars that are only a shadow of their former selves.
Plus, with a weak dollar and strong Chinese yuan, China can buy up even more of our debt and protect the massive investment it has already made in America by helping Washington avoid default.
That’s a massive “win-win” for both Washington and Beijing:
Plus, a rising yuan will once and for all solve Beijing’s #1 economic problem: Rising domestic inflation. As the yuan’s buying power rises, price inflation in China will decline dramatically.
More importantly, as the yuan’s purchasing power explodes, China will also be able to lock up even more of the world’s supply of oil, coal, steel, copper, lumber and other natural resources ... to take control of thousands more companies ... and to extend its economic control throughout the world.
But why lie about their intentions?
Because if they told the truth, there would be hell to pay.
Just imagine how voters would react if the president stepped before the microphones and said ...
“My fellow Americans, we politicians have spent too much money and now, we can’t pay our debts.
“The only way to avoid default is to destroy the value of your money and then repay our debt with cheaper dollars.
“Of course, that means your cost of living will double and double again and most of you will be reduced to poverty ...”
See what I mean? Telling the truth would be tantamount to political suicide.
Any way you look at it, this is treachery of the highest order: The U.S. dollar — and YOUR income, savings, investments and retirement — is being sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.
And while the insult to our national pride and patriotism will be painful, the personal toll will be excruciating.
The dollar’s demise will be catastrophic for everyone who earns, saves or invests dollars. The price you pay for food, electricity, gasoline and just about everything else will skyrocket.
Many Americans — particularly those on fixed incomes — will have to choose between buying medicine, paying the rent, or buying food.
Homelessness, hunger and hopelessness will be the everyday reality for millions of Americans.
Some will rightfully blame Washington for their misery. Others will blame Wall Street. Mass demonstrations and hunger marches will dominate the headlines.
Cities will burn.
When the dust settles, the United States will be little more than just another name on the long list of once-proud countries that squandered their wealth ... that were ultimately driven to their knees and forced to submit to the nations that took their places.
Now as I said earlier, I’m well aware that the vast majority of everyday Americans who read this presentation will simply ignore these facts.
I understand; most people are in denial. The U.S. has been number one their entire lives. They’ve always assumed that would never change.
They can’t accept the fact that we are no longer king of the hill.
I don’t take their skepticism personally. I know their eyes also glaze over when President Sarkozy of France announces that — quote: “We must rethink the financial system from scratch ...” and that it’s time to “change the rules of the game.”
They simply change channels when CNN features former British Prime Minister Brown touting “a new global financial order,” describing this as a “decisive moment” for the world.
And they choose not to even listen to Henry Kissinger — the man whose historic visits opened U.S. relations with China 41 years ago in 1971 — when he says we must accept a new global hierarchy with China in a dominant role.
Nevertheless, most people who read this presentation will probably think I’ve gone off the deep end.
But if anything I say to you today helps you protect and grow your wealth through this chaotic time, that’s a risk I’m willing to take.
After all; most folks were extremely skeptical when I warned that the bubble in internet and technology stocks would burst in 2000 ...
Just before the tech wreck wiped out $6.5 trillion of invested wealth ...
Almost nobody listened when I urged investors to buy gold for just $255 per ounce — before it soared to over $1,800 ...
Or when I predicted in June 2004, that oil would soar from $35 a barrel to well over $100 — which it did.
Or when I warned in 2007 of the stock market collapse that crushed stocks a whopping 56%.
And frankly, most folks thought I’d lost my mind in early 2009, when I publicly announced that the bear market was over — just before stocks soared over 50%. But each time, investors who heeded my forecasts — and more importantly, acted on them — had the chance to pile up substantial profits.
Now, you have a similar opportunity. Because the way I see it, this is a virtual “can’t-lose” situation for you:
If I’m right about the dramatic events ahead, you stand to make a fortune.
If I’m half-right, you could still make a bundle.
And even if I’m wrong, no promises of course, you could still do very well. After all, these stocks I’m about to tell you about are already soaring.
So what’s the secret to protecting and growing your wealth in this challenging new world?
Simple:
Own the handful of stocks that are positioned to soar as China rises ... as the yuan surges ... and as the U.S. dollar plunges!
Take natural resource stocks: Right now, they have not just one, but THREE important reasons to soar ...
First, the world simply can’t live without the things these companies produce.
And that steady, high demand for their products is hugely bullish for their stocks.
Second, China’s insatiable hunger for these natural resources virtually guarantees they’ll continue to soar!
Just look at this map. China now controls vast mineral and food resources all around you: In Europe ... Africa ... the Middle East ... South America ... Canada ... even Australia!
Already, China consumes 41% of the world’s copper ... 41% of its nickel ... 43% of its steel ... 45% of its tin ... 46% of its lead ... nearly 47% of its zinc ... and huge amounts of most other natural resources.
What’s more, China’s enormous craving for resources is growing by the day. And the stock of companies that provide these natural resources stand to make investors richer than Midas.
And third, these natural resources have intrinsic value — so they naturally soar when the dollar sinks. And not only should the stock of companies that produce these natural resources soar as Washington and Beijing cut the value of the U.S. dollar ...
They’re ALREADY spinning off impressive profits!
While the average Dow or S&P 500 stock has gone almost nowhere recently ...
Nucor up 23.3% ...
U.S. Steel up 24.3% ...
Silver Wheaton up 26.4% ...
Walter Energy up 30% ...
Southern Copper up 31.8% ...
Uranium One up 32.3% ...
Yanzhou Coal up 33.4% ...
Alpha Natural Resources up 41% ...
Ivanhoe Mines up 49.4% ...
Jiangxi Copper up 53.1% ...
and Novagold up 73.53%.
All in a single year!
And as Washington and Beijing jack up the value of the yuan and crush the value of the dollar, I believe your gains will be far, FAR greater!
Plus, to help you go for even greater profits with the money you can afford to risk, I recommend inexpensive investment vehicles that offer you unlimited profit potential PLUS strictly limited risk — many that give you up to THREE YEARS for the trade to work out in your favor.
And over the past year, you could have used these muscle-bound vehicles to go for gains of ...
185% on China Petroleum ...
200% on Yanzhou Coal ...
257% on New Gold, and ...
369% on CNOOC ...
Naturally, neither you nor I can go back and grab those profits. But just think about it. That 369% gain is enough to a turn a $25,000 grubstake into $117,200 and these are just a few of the many examples I could name!
To help you take full advantage of this historic profit opportunity, I’ve just put the finishing touches on my hot-off-the-presses report — The Conspiracy Files: Survive and Prosper — to help you get your family and your wealth through this chaotic time.
In this compelling volume, I detail the specific steps you must take immediately to protect your wealth while also harnessing this historic sea change in ways designed to cement your financial security in this terrifying new world.
You’ll discover ...
Six steps you must take now to protect your wealth ...
Six U.S. stock sectors that will most likely get hit the hardest as the dollar plunges ...
42 individual stocks no investor should own now ...
The WORST investment you could make today ...
The Basic Survival Portfolio — the select stocks, mutual funds and currency investments that could multiply your money many times over ...
The single best way to protect your assets ...
And much, MUCH more.
PLUS, I lay out my basic emergency portfolio for you — including ...
My 3 favorite gold stocks — buying them will be like buying gold at a 92% discount — for as little as $145 per ounce!
4 companies that are getting the richest providing oil, strategic metals and chemicals to China ...
3 Rare Earth giants capable of multiplying your money many times over ...
7 Western companies that are perfectly positioned to explode in value as China begins exerting its influence on world affairs.
I also name 16 more stocks I expect to explode in value as the Chinese yuan soars and the dollar dives:
My 5 favorite food and water stocks ...
My 4 top energy companies ...
My 4 “must-have” tech stocks, and ...
The 3 financial stocks no investor can afford to ignore.
Best of all, The Conspiracy Files: Survive and Prosper won’t cost you a penny.
More on that in a moment; first, let me tell you about four more reports — each containing investment recommendations I’ll want you to act on — that I want you to have, free:
Portfolio #1: The Great Energy Windfall of 2012: You’ll discover three energy stocks set to multiply investors’ money. Some of these shares are up 1,260% since 2000 — enough to turn a $25,000 grubstake into more than $340,000!
Portfolio #2: The Great Agriculture Jackpot of 2012: In this remarkable report, I name the four food stocks I believe are most likely to multiply your money in the year ahead. Here again, the profits are likely to be enormous — and you probably won’t have to wait long to begin seeing them! Thanks to massive demand from China, food stocks are already exploding higher.
Portfolio #3: The Great Materials Explosion of 2012: In 2011, these stocks are up as much as 167% — and I fully expect them to shoot the moon in 2012 and beyond!
Portfolio #4: The Great Gold Bonanza of 2012: You’ll discover my favorite gold stocks — including the miner that’s producing gold at just $250 an ounce.
And I’ll show you how to get all the gold bullion you want at huge discounts or even free. It’s easy when you learn how to buy gold like an insider!
And I’ll give you a way to avoid the biggest rip-offs when buying bullion coins ... the best way to buy gold in absolute privacy ... my confidential “short list” of gold dealers ... and much more, all FREE!
Normally, each one of these five emergency reports would be valued at $79 — a total value of $395. But because of the pressing nature of this situation, I want you to have them free, just for accepting a risk-free trial membership in my Real Wealth Report service.
Just join me now and you can download all five reports instantly. You’ll also need an easy way to keep up with your investments — and a membership in Real Wealth is the best way I know to do that.
Normally, a full year of Real Wealth Report is $198.
But because of the pressing nature of this crisis, I don’t want you to have to pay that much.
So if you join me now, not only will you get all five of the special reports I’ve prepared to help you protect your wealth and profit — a $395 value ...
You’ll also save 75% off the regular membership rate and get 12 months for just $49.
You save $149 and get a full year of Real Wealth Report for just 13 cents per day.
Just click the button below; it will take you to a secure order form. After you click the “SUBSCRIBE” button, you’ll receive an email where you can download all five free reports at no charge.
Or, call TOLL-FREE 1-800-604-3649
(Overseas, call 1-561-627-3300)
Plus, you’ll also receive a second free subscription to our daily online newsletter, Uncommon Wisdom. With Uncommon Wisdom, you’ll get our unhedged, no-holds-barred news analysis and investment recommendations every trading day of the year.
And you’ll also receive V.I.P. introductions to each of my live briefings.
Once every three months, I meet Real Wealth Report members personally online and share my detailed overview of the world and U.S. economies.
Plus, I review the technical strength of each major market. I give you my thoughts on every investment I recommend. And I take questions ... live ... from Real Wealth Report members.
And of course you’ll also receive a fresh electronic copy of Real Wealth Report every month to make sure you stay on top of this historic global transformation — and also on the investments that are skyrocketing as a result.
Over the years, Real Wealth Report has made a huge difference for thousands of readers. Mike C. of Inverness, Illinois says ...
“I’ve only been a subscriber for a couple of months. So far I'm very impressed. Those moves saved me approximately $50,000.00 in the last two months.”
Troy S. of Christchurch, New Zealand says we’ve earned his trust:
“I have just started investing with you, but I’m already up about 20%. I got recommended to you by a friend, and now have recommended you to many of my friends.
Reverend James B. of Powhatan, Virginia counts on us to keep his money growing:
“Confidence in your honest predictions has helped to allay any worries about losing my retirement funds. I am 50% better off because of trusting you, Larry.”
Nevertheless, as I said earlier, this is a “no-risk” membership. You must be thrilled with Real Wealth Report and the investment results I help you achieve or you can cancel anytime for a full refund.
And even if you cancel a year from now — on the last day of your membership, your five free emergency reports and everything else you’ve received in the meantime will be yours to keep with my thanks for giving Real Wealth Report a fair try.
Or, call TOLL-FREE 1-800-604-3649
(Overseas, call 1-561-627-3300)
Or just call 1-800-604-3649 (overseas, call 1-561-627-3300).
But once you’ve experienced Real Wealth Report for yourself, I sincerely doubt you’ll ever want to invest without it. After all — Marc S. of Columbus, Ohio says ...
“Thanks to you, I've about doubled my investments.”
And Randy O. of Irving, Texas is thrilled with the profits he’s earning thanks to Real Wealth Report:
“I began subscribing to Real Wealth Report before gold was at $300 an ounce, so you know my portfolio is up several hundred percent.”
Annette J. of Clinchfield, Georgia says we’ve impressed her:
“For the first time I have real gains of 30-60%, even in the down markets. I follow your advice closely and try to invest as you call it.”
You’ll have to act quickly, though; the Obama administration and Beijing are getting closer to crushing the dollar with every passing day.
So if you’ll just click the button below in the next five minutes, I’ll make sure you receive a sixth report — SWING FOR THE FENCES — absolutely free.
Every once-in-a-while, when you see an investment trend you believe is both inevitable and will be with us for a while — many investors get the itch to swing for the fences with highly leveraged investment vehicles like options.
Options are cheap — purchasing one option allows you to control 100 shares of the underlying security for a fraction of what it would cost you to actually buy the stock.
Plus, while the purchase of options offers you unlimited profit potential — there’s virtually no limit to how far or how fast the option can rise — you can never lose a penny more than you invest.
In Swing for the Fences, I give you the basics you need to begin taking advantage of this power-packed investment vehicle — including ...
What options are and how they multiply your profit potential ...
The best options for profiting from surging natural resources ...
Important terms you must know before trading options ...
Simple options trading strategies that boost your profit potential while further limiting your risk ...
And much more!
Best of all, Swing for the Fences is yours, free, just for joining me in Real Wealth Report now.
Please remember: Even if I’m 100% wrong about Beijing’s intentions, you could probably do quite well — after all: These stocks I’m about to tell you about are already soaring.
If I’m only half right and the dollar is only partially devalued, you could do even better; I see these investments doubling and more.
But if I’m as right about this as I have been about gold, oil, and food over the past ten years, you stand to multiply your money many times over.
The best news in this entire presentation is that you still have some time left to prepare before Washington and Beijing gut the value of your dollars.
But there isn’t much time left. The announcement could come almost any day now — and when it does, it will be too late to protect yourself.
Time is wasting: Click the button below to save $149 on a full year of Real Wealth Report and you’ll be reading your six free reports in seconds.
Or, call TOLL-FREE 1-800-604-3649
(Overseas, call 1-561-627-3300)
Thank you very much for spending this time with me today. I look forward to welcoming you aboard and helping you get your family through this in safety and comfort.
Best wishes,
Larry Edelson
Editor, Real Wealth Report
The performance experienced by any user comment and/or testimonials, on this page and/or our website, is not what you should expect to experience. Although Weiss Research accepts the testimonials in good faith, Weiss Research has not independently examined the business records of any of the users and therefore has not verified any specific figures or results quoted therein. These results may not be typical, and your performance, if any, will vary depending upon many factors which includes but is not limited to how closely you follow the recommendations, the price you received and commissions paid. There is also risk you will not make any money at all. In the event when a customer does not provide us with a usable video/audio of themselves, the testimony presented are Actual Testimonials by our Customers but may be recorded by a third party. Testimonials may be edited for clarity or brevity. No one has been paid to share their stories here.
of 2012
SHOCKING EVIDENCE:
The Obama administration
is CONSPIRING with China’s leaders
to destroy the value of every U.S. dollar
you earn, spend, save and invest.
IN THIS REPORT:
What you must do immediately
to protect yourself and prosper.
PLUS:
The investments that are designed to soar
185% ... 200% ... 257% ... up to 365%
as Washington and Beijing gut the U.S. dollar.
Hello, this is Larry Edelson, reporting from Shanghai, China.
I have to be careful; if the authorities even suspected that I’m going to reveal certain facts in this presentation, there would be hell to pay. I could be arrested and deported or worse, have to do serious prison time.
I am only willing to take that risk because what I’m about to say is absolutely essential to your survival — to your financial survival.
Wise men have predicted the developments I’m talking about for centuries. Two hundred years ago, Napoleon warned, “When China wakes, it will shake the world.”
Truer words were never spoken.
China has awakened. And now, it’s about to shake the world to its foundations — starting with the United States.
This is the Shanghai World Financial Center.
It’s the tallest skyscraper in China — 101 floors. It took 11 years to complete.
It houses the Shanghai Futures Exchange and Stock Exchange. It is also home to China’s largest banks, insurance companies and its financial ratings agencies.
But this is much more than just an office building.
It is also ground zero for the single greatest economic triumph in China’s history.
But for Americans, it’s about to become an icon; the symbol of the most catastrophic event in our nation’s financial history ...
An event that will render everything you think you know about our government, about our economy and about investing obsolete.
I’ve created this special presentation to give you the uncensored facts — facts that the U.S. media won’t report — and to help you prepare while there’s still time.
Plus, if you take the steps I recommend, you could make quite a bit of money in the process.
Once again, this is Larry Edelson.
You may have seen me in Forbes, or on Bloomberg, CBS Marketwatch, CNBC or another major financial program or publication.
Or perhaps you’ve seen my forecasts and recommendations on the Money and Markets website or in my own e-zine, Uncommon Wisdom.
In my 33 years in finance, I have managed several large investment funds and founded my own brokerage and money management firm with offices in New York, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Vienna and Osaka, Japan.
I live here in Asia. My home is a short flight from Shanghai. I also work here; I use a lot of what I learn about China and the rest of Asia to help thousands of people all over the world make better financial decisions.
Plus, as a financial guide for hundreds of thousands of private investors, I’ve become well known for accurately warning them of major turns in the markets well in advance.
I accurately warned my readers of the stock market crash of 1987 and the rally that followed ...
The bursting of the tech stock bubble in 2000 that cost U.S. investors an estimated $6.5 trillion in losses ...
And the 2007 collapse in U.S. stocks that drove the S&P 500 56% lower.
I also nailed the bottom of gold prices at $255 in 1999 and the bull market that has taken the yellow metal to well over $1,800 per ounce so far ...
In June of 2004, I warned that the price of oil would start a rocket ride higher, from $38 to well over $100 a barrel, and a gallon of gas to near $4.
Now I have a truly shocking forecast for you — it is by far, the most alarming warning I have ever issued.
It is so disturbing, in fact, that most people who read this report will simply refuse to believe it. But I must warn you: Ignoring this warning will have consequences — and those consequences will be catastrophic for millions of Americans.
On the other hand, every crisis creates great opportunities — and this one is no exception.
Because in terms of its sheer power to create wealth, the event I’m talking about DWARFS the industrial revolution that created hundreds of millionaires at the beginning of the 20th Century ...
It towers miles above the computer, internet and technology revolutions that created thousands of millionaires — and hundreds of billionaires — in the 1990s ...
It’s already creating the greatest explosion of wealth in the history of mankind.
At its core, though, the story I’m about to tell you is one of betrayal: The cruelest, most callous financial treachery in our nation’s 236-year history.
It’s a story that’s so shocking, nobody in the U.S. media has dared report it:
I have uncovered compelling evidence that the Chinese government is conspiring with Washington, D.C. to impoverish you and sentence your children and your grandchildren to lives of financial servitude.
Now please don’t misunderstand: I’m not a political man and this is NOT a political presentation. It’s not about Democrats or Republicans or who should win the U.S. elections in November.
I am a financial and investment analyst. And as such, my ONLY allegiance is to my family and to the individual investors I help.
I created this presentation for one, simple reason: To give you the truth you need to protect your home, your savings, your investments and your retirement from the single greatest economic crisis in our nation’s history ...
In this presentation, I will show you exactly why Beijing and Washington are working together to bankrupt you.
I will show you how to protect yourself and your family from their scheme to destroy your wealth.
And, I will tell you about the four kinds of investments I believe will double your money, then double it yet again in 2012 and beyond.
Because in finance as in life, the best defense is a strong offense.
Everybody knows that China is on the move. Even despite the recent global slowdown — and despite what the naysayers may try to tell you — China’s economy is still growing more than seven times faster than America’s is.
But what most Americans do NOT know — what our media steadfastly refuses to admit — is that China is already so rich, it can now DICTATE economic policy to the world; even to the United States of America.
I know — it’s hard to believe. Especially since many have been saying that China’s economic explosion is over.
But consider the shocking report that Yahoo Finance recently posted. I quote:
“The International Monetary Fund has just dropped a bombshell, and nobody noticed.
“For the first time, the international organization has set a date for the moment when the ‘Age of America’ will end and the U.S. economy will be overtaken by that of China.”
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), by 2016, the United States will no longer be the world’s number one economic power.
According to the IMF, China will be richer than America in less than five years.
But according to the prestigious Peterson Institute — and based on data just published by the University of Pennsylvania — the IMF is wrong: The Chinese economy will NOT surpass America’s by 2016.
Nor will it happen in 2017 or even in 2020, for that matter.
Peterson and the University of Pennsylvania say China is ALREADY the world’s #1 economicpower.
And the thing is, they proved it.
These two highly respected institutions just presented irrefutable proof that in real terms — when you adjust for the domestic purchasing power of respective currencies ...
The U.S. economy produced goods and services valued at $14.6 trillion in 2010 ...
But China’s Gross Domestic Product soared to $14.8 trillion.
China’s economy is already larger than America’s.
And what’s worse, the United States is falling farther behind every day:
According to the official figures from both Washington and Beijing, the U.S. economy grew about 1.7% in 2011.
China’s economy grew 9.2%.
That’s more than SEVEN AND ONE-HALF TIMES FASTER; fast enough to nearly DOUBLE the size of China’s already-massive economy once each decade.
And if you get to know a little more about both nations, China’s burgeoning economic power becomes even more unsettling. Because the fact is, Beijing has become so powerful, it can now dictate economic policy to the U.S.
>> The Beijing government has almost no debt ...
>> But Washington has nearly $145 trillion in debt and obligations.
** China has $3.2 trillion in cash — and its cash reserves are growing ever larger, month after month ...
** But Washington has almost no cash on hand and has to borrow nearly half of every dollar it spends — much of it is borrowed from China.
>> China’s total tax revenues are up nearly 30% from a year ago ...
>> But Washington’s tax revenues are dramatically down due to the sluggish U.S. economy.
** The U.S. has about 160 million workers ...
** China has 810 million workers — more than 5 times more than the United States.
>> 97% of all Chinese workers are employed ...
>> But 14 million U.S. workers are either unemployed or underemployed.
** In China’s urban areas, wages ROSE 7.6% in 2011 — and the increase was about double that in rural areas.
** Meanwhile, inflation-adjusted wages for U.S. workers dropped 1.7%.
The investment facts are even more startling:
Securities valued at more than $6 trillion trade on Chinese exchanges every day and that number is growing by leaps and bounds.
China enjoys the largest foreign capital inflows of any nation on Earth, surpassing the United States as the world's favorite place to invest.
China is now the world’s #1 mine operator ... its #1 car maker ... its #1 manufacturer ... its #1 exporter.
You really have to see China to believe what’s happening here.
I used to think New York and Beverly Hills were the world’s pinnacle for high-end shopping ...
But here in Shanghai, the Nanjing Road shopping district puts them to shame. So does the New Shanghai Shopping City here in the Pudong financial district ...
And these are only two of EIGHT massive, world-class, state-of-the-art shopping districts in this one city alone!
I once believed that Las Vegas topped the world when it came to luxury hotels and entertainment ...
But even Vegas’ biggest and best can’t hold a candle to the world’s largest hotels and casinos in Macau.
I thought that Palm Beach’s mansions and posh housing communities were the ultimate ...
But they pale in comparison to the massive luxury housing developments and neighborhoods filled with extravagant Western-style mansions here.
Any way you look at it, China is already the nation on the way UP. While sadly, the U.S. is the nation on the way OUT.
I just read a study by The Program for International Student Assessment that ranked Chinese students #1 in the world. American students were ranked fourteenth.
China’s Tianhe-1A super computer is the fastest in the world, capable of processing more than 2.5 thousand trillion calculations per second.
American technicians don’t even know how that kind of speed could be possible.
And while the U.S. is winding down its space program, China is preparing to put a man on the moon!
And when you look at China’s military, the contrast between the two nations gets downright scary:
China has THE LARGEST ARMY IN THE WORLD — 2.2 million active-duty military personnel — 600,000 more than America has.
And while the U.S. is cutting its military expenditures, China has increased military spending every year for more than 20 years ... and is still boosting it by an average of 11.8% per year.
China’s military is state-of-the-art: It just unveiled the J-20 — its first stealth fighter.
It also has spy satellites, modern battle tanks, aircraft carriers, nuclear attack submarines, cruise missiles, and more.
China’s nuclear arsenal is especially worrying: While the U.S. has been steadily reducing its stockpiles for nearly 30 years, China continues to build up its forces and is refusing to even begin talks on nuclear arms reduction.
In the size of its economy and economic growth ... in science ... in technology ... in the scholarship of its students ... in the growth of its military ... in every conceivable area, China is ALREADY the world’s most dominant nation.
More importantly: Because of China’s newfound status as the world’s #1 super power, it is now ready, willing and able to DICTATE economic policy to the rest of the world ... and that includes America.
And of course, there’s another reason why China is now in a position to dictate economic policy to the United States of America:
Nearly 50% of every dollar Washington spends today is borrowed money — much of it borrowed from China.
Without the billions Beijing loans Washington, the entire U.S. government would go bust. Washington would become a virtual ghost town. Millions of Americans who count on government checks would be financially destroyed.
So you see, the entire world — including the United States — must bow to China’s superior economic power — the greatest the world has ever seen.
And at a recent economic conference, we were treated to images of our own president doing just that.
Nobody who watched that humiliating display on television had any doubt which man has the greater power; which man is in control.
And make no mistake: the Chinese know they’re in the driver’s seat. People’s Liberation Army Senior Colonel Liu Mingfu recently said, “To save itself, to save the world, China must prepare to become the world’s helmsman.”
I can’t even begin to tell you how painful it is for me to have to tell you any of this.
Even though I live and work in Asia, I will remain an American citizen to my final breath. My mom, my sister, my brother and my three grown kids all live in the States. I want nothing but the best of everything for them and for my country.
But if my three decades as a financial analyst have taught me anything, it’s that terrible things happen when we ignore reality.
And take it from me: There WILL be terrible consequences for those who fail to act on the investment intelligence in this presentation.
But once you grasp the reality that Beijing is now in charge, you’ll find it’s quite easy to insulate yourself — and even to make a substantial sum in the process.
Because now, I have compelling evidence that China is not satisfied to merely surpass the U.S. economy; it has already begun a campaign to DOMINATE the U.S. economy.
The shocking part is that our own leaders in Washington, D.C. have become Beijing’s willing accomplices.
I know this is an outrageous assertion — but I’m about to prove it; so please hear me out ...
Because China has already begun to wage war against the dominance and value of the U.S. dollar ...
With the help of our leaders in Washington, D.C.!
I’ll explain:
For decades now, the U.S. dollar has been the world’s currency of choice. Most of the world’s central banks hold their reserves in U.S. dollars. Most international transactions have been settled in U.S. dollars.
That means there is always a high demand for dollars around the world — and as a result of that demand, the greenback has held its value more effectively than many other currencies have.
But since 2009, President Obama has spent more than $10.6 trillion, and run up trillion-dollar deficits year after year.
To fund Washington’s spending addiction, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has borrowed an estimated $4 trillion since 2009. And, Ben Bernanke — the Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve — has created nearly $8 trillion out of thin air since 2009.
As a result, the value and the buying power of the dollar have already begun to plunge:
*Gasoline prices have shot the moon — you’re paying over 25% more than you paid just 24 months ago!
*The price for heating oil rocketed 29% in a recent 12-month period, sending home heating bills up more than 50% per month!
*Milk and cheese prices are up 18% and 15% respectively ... the price of beef and veal used in restaurants is up 17% ... coffee prices are up more than 20% ... and egg prices have soared nearly 30%!
* And everywhere you look, you see “sticker shock” on health insurance ... medicine and medical care ... college tuition ... airline tickets ... and more.
As a result of this precipitous decline in the dollar’s buying power ...
France, India and many other countries ...
The U.N., the IMF and other international organizations ...
Are ALL calling for the end of the dollar’s reign as the world’s reserve currency.
And even the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party says — and again, I quote:
“The world urgently needs to create a diversified currency and financial system and fair and just financial order that is not dependent on the United States.”
In fact, the U.S. dollar is already being abandoned by many countries and companies in favor of the Chinese currency — the yuan:
> Investors can now buy yuan-denominated bonds in Hong Kong.
> Caterpillar and McDonald’s recently financed their mainland China projects directly via yuan bond offerings instead of U.S. dollars.
> And China’s trade with Russia, Vietnam and Thailand is now being settled in yuan instead of U.S. dollars.
> Apple Computer is even accepting iTunes payments in yuan!
Now, China believes it’s time to make the supremacy of its currency — the yuan — OFFICIAL — by gutting the U.S. dollar. And our own leaders — President Obama, Treasury Secretary Geithner and Fed chief Bernanke — are obediently helping Beijing do just that!
Hard to believe? Especially in an election year? I agree! But remember: President Obama saw what a weaker dollar did for U.S. stocks in 2009: It gave birth to huge rallies! Having the stock market explode higher just before the elections would be a godsend for any incumbent president!
Look: You’ve seen the news reports of Obama, Geithner and Bernanke complaining about China’s currency. Those complaints are only growing louder now — even in this election year!
The administration claims the “weak yuan” gives China an unfair trading advantage. It makes China’s products cheaper than ours on world markets.
So they’re demanding that China increase the yuan’s value in order to level the playing field for American exporters.
But anybody with even shred of common sense can instantly see the Obama administration’s claims are pure baloney.
Look: The average U.S. worker earns nearly 6.5 TIMES MORE than his or her Chinese counterpart.
Those sky-high labor costs are cooked into every product produced in America — and that’s what makes American products far more expensive than similar Chinese-made products.
So even if Beijing DOUBLED or TRIPLED the value of the yuan, Chinese products would still sell for far less than U.S.-made products do: Boosting the yuan’s value would do little if anything to help U.S. exporters!
So why does Washington really want to jack up the value of the Chinese yuan? What’s the truth that Washington won’t tell you?
By RAISING the value of the Chinese yuan, Washington and China will automatically CRUSH the value of the U.S. dollar ...
So Washington can repay its otherwise unpayable debts with cheaper dollars!
Look: The “official” U.S. national debt is now over $15 trillion — nearly three times more than the most indebted nations in Europe ... COMBINED!
But when you add in the debts Washington owes to veterans, seniors and government pensioners, the total amount is nearly ten times more: A staggering $145 trillion.
That’s nearly TEN TIMES the total value of the goods and services the U.S. economy produces ...
That’s far more debt than Washington can ever hope to pay.
In fact, Washington’s only hope of avoiding default is to destroy the value of its own currency, then pay its debts back with dollars that are only a shadow of their former selves.
Plus, with a weak dollar and strong Chinese yuan, China can buy up even more of our debt and protect the massive investment it has already made in America by helping Washington avoid default.
That’s a massive “win-win” for both Washington and Beijing:
Plus, a rising yuan will once and for all solve Beijing’s #1 economic problem: Rising domestic inflation. As the yuan’s buying power rises, price inflation in China will decline dramatically.
More importantly, as the yuan’s purchasing power explodes, China will also be able to lock up even more of the world’s supply of oil, coal, steel, copper, lumber and other natural resources ... to take control of thousands more companies ... and to extend its economic control throughout the world.
But why lie about their intentions?
Because if they told the truth, there would be hell to pay.
Just imagine how voters would react if the president stepped before the microphones and said ...
“My fellow Americans, we politicians have spent too much money and now, we can’t pay our debts.
“The only way to avoid default is to destroy the value of your money and then repay our debt with cheaper dollars.
“Of course, that means your cost of living will double and double again and most of you will be reduced to poverty ...”
See what I mean? Telling the truth would be tantamount to political suicide.
Any way you look at it, this is treachery of the highest order: The U.S. dollar — and YOUR income, savings, investments and retirement — is being sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.
And while the insult to our national pride and patriotism will be painful, the personal toll will be excruciating.
The dollar’s demise will be catastrophic for everyone who earns, saves or invests dollars. The price you pay for food, electricity, gasoline and just about everything else will skyrocket.
Many Americans — particularly those on fixed incomes — will have to choose between buying medicine, paying the rent, or buying food.
Homelessness, hunger and hopelessness will be the everyday reality for millions of Americans.
Some will rightfully blame Washington for their misery. Others will blame Wall Street. Mass demonstrations and hunger marches will dominate the headlines.
Cities will burn.
When the dust settles, the United States will be little more than just another name on the long list of once-proud countries that squandered their wealth ... that were ultimately driven to their knees and forced to submit to the nations that took their places.
Now as I said earlier, I’m well aware that the vast majority of everyday Americans who read this presentation will simply ignore these facts.
I understand; most people are in denial. The U.S. has been number one their entire lives. They’ve always assumed that would never change.
They can’t accept the fact that we are no longer king of the hill.
I don’t take their skepticism personally. I know their eyes also glaze over when President Sarkozy of France announces that — quote: “We must rethink the financial system from scratch ...” and that it’s time to “change the rules of the game.”
They simply change channels when CNN features former British Prime Minister Brown touting “a new global financial order,” describing this as a “decisive moment” for the world.
And they choose not to even listen to Henry Kissinger — the man whose historic visits opened U.S. relations with China 41 years ago in 1971 — when he says we must accept a new global hierarchy with China in a dominant role.
Nevertheless, most people who read this presentation will probably think I’ve gone off the deep end.
But if anything I say to you today helps you protect and grow your wealth through this chaotic time, that’s a risk I’m willing to take.
After all; most folks were extremely skeptical when I warned that the bubble in internet and technology stocks would burst in 2000 ...
Just before the tech wreck wiped out $6.5 trillion of invested wealth ...
Almost nobody listened when I urged investors to buy gold for just $255 per ounce — before it soared to over $1,800 ...
Or when I predicted in June 2004, that oil would soar from $35 a barrel to well over $100 — which it did.
Or when I warned in 2007 of the stock market collapse that crushed stocks a whopping 56%.
And frankly, most folks thought I’d lost my mind in early 2009, when I publicly announced that the bear market was over — just before stocks soared over 50%. But each time, investors who heeded my forecasts — and more importantly, acted on them — had the chance to pile up substantial profits.
Now, you have a similar opportunity. Because the way I see it, this is a virtual “can’t-lose” situation for you:
If I’m right about the dramatic events ahead, you stand to make a fortune.
If I’m half-right, you could still make a bundle.
And even if I’m wrong, no promises of course, you could still do very well. After all, these stocks I’m about to tell you about are already soaring.
So what’s the secret to protecting and growing your wealth in this challenging new world?
Simple:
Own the handful of stocks that are positioned to soar as China rises ... as the yuan surges ... and as the U.S. dollar plunges!
Take natural resource stocks: Right now, they have not just one, but THREE important reasons to soar ...
First, the world simply can’t live without the things these companies produce.
And that steady, high demand for their products is hugely bullish for their stocks.
Second, China’s insatiable hunger for these natural resources virtually guarantees they’ll continue to soar!
Just look at this map. China now controls vast mineral and food resources all around you: In Europe ... Africa ... the Middle East ... South America ... Canada ... even Australia!
Already, China consumes 41% of the world’s copper ... 41% of its nickel ... 43% of its steel ... 45% of its tin ... 46% of its lead ... nearly 47% of its zinc ... and huge amounts of most other natural resources.
What’s more, China’s enormous craving for resources is growing by the day. And the stock of companies that provide these natural resources stand to make investors richer than Midas.
And third, these natural resources have intrinsic value — so they naturally soar when the dollar sinks. And not only should the stock of companies that produce these natural resources soar as Washington and Beijing cut the value of the U.S. dollar ...
They’re ALREADY spinning off impressive profits!
While the average Dow or S&P 500 stock has gone almost nowhere recently ...
Nucor up 23.3% ...
U.S. Steel up 24.3% ...
Silver Wheaton up 26.4% ...
Walter Energy up 30% ...
Southern Copper up 31.8% ...
Uranium One up 32.3% ...
Yanzhou Coal up 33.4% ...
Alpha Natural Resources up 41% ...
Ivanhoe Mines up 49.4% ...
Jiangxi Copper up 53.1% ...
and Novagold up 73.53%.
All in a single year!
And as Washington and Beijing jack up the value of the yuan and crush the value of the dollar, I believe your gains will be far, FAR greater!
Plus, to help you go for even greater profits with the money you can afford to risk, I recommend inexpensive investment vehicles that offer you unlimited profit potential PLUS strictly limited risk — many that give you up to THREE YEARS for the trade to work out in your favor.
And over the past year, you could have used these muscle-bound vehicles to go for gains of ...
185% on China Petroleum ...
200% on Yanzhou Coal ...
257% on New Gold, and ...
369% on CNOOC ...
Naturally, neither you nor I can go back and grab those profits. But just think about it. That 369% gain is enough to a turn a $25,000 grubstake into $117,200 and these are just a few of the many examples I could name!
To help you take full advantage of this historic profit opportunity, I’ve just put the finishing touches on my hot-off-the-presses report — The Conspiracy Files: Survive and Prosper — to help you get your family and your wealth through this chaotic time.
In this compelling volume, I detail the specific steps you must take immediately to protect your wealth while also harnessing this historic sea change in ways designed to cement your financial security in this terrifying new world.
You’ll discover ...
Six steps you must take now to protect your wealth ...
Six U.S. stock sectors that will most likely get hit the hardest as the dollar plunges ...
42 individual stocks no investor should own now ...
The WORST investment you could make today ...
The Basic Survival Portfolio — the select stocks, mutual funds and currency investments that could multiply your money many times over ...
The single best way to protect your assets ...
And much, MUCH more.
PLUS, I lay out my basic emergency portfolio for you — including ...
My 3 favorite gold stocks — buying them will be like buying gold at a 92% discount — for as little as $145 per ounce!
4 companies that are getting the richest providing oil, strategic metals and chemicals to China ...
3 Rare Earth giants capable of multiplying your money many times over ...
7 Western companies that are perfectly positioned to explode in value as China begins exerting its influence on world affairs.
I also name 16 more stocks I expect to explode in value as the Chinese yuan soars and the dollar dives:
My 5 favorite food and water stocks ...
My 4 top energy companies ...
My 4 “must-have” tech stocks, and ...
The 3 financial stocks no investor can afford to ignore.
Best of all, The Conspiracy Files: Survive and Prosper won’t cost you a penny.
More on that in a moment; first, let me tell you about four more reports — each containing investment recommendations I’ll want you to act on — that I want you to have, free:
Portfolio #1: The Great Energy Windfall of 2012: You’ll discover three energy stocks set to multiply investors’ money. Some of these shares are up 1,260% since 2000 — enough to turn a $25,000 grubstake into more than $340,000!
Portfolio #2: The Great Agriculture Jackpot of 2012: In this remarkable report, I name the four food stocks I believe are most likely to multiply your money in the year ahead. Here again, the profits are likely to be enormous — and you probably won’t have to wait long to begin seeing them! Thanks to massive demand from China, food stocks are already exploding higher.
Portfolio #3: The Great Materials Explosion of 2012: In 2011, these stocks are up as much as 167% — and I fully expect them to shoot the moon in 2012 and beyond!
Portfolio #4: The Great Gold Bonanza of 2012: You’ll discover my favorite gold stocks — including the miner that’s producing gold at just $250 an ounce.
And I’ll show you how to get all the gold bullion you want at huge discounts or even free. It’s easy when you learn how to buy gold like an insider!
And I’ll give you a way to avoid the biggest rip-offs when buying bullion coins ... the best way to buy gold in absolute privacy ... my confidential “short list” of gold dealers ... and much more, all FREE!
Normally, each one of these five emergency reports would be valued at $79 — a total value of $395. But because of the pressing nature of this situation, I want you to have them free, just for accepting a risk-free trial membership in my Real Wealth Report service.
Just join me now and you can download all five reports instantly. You’ll also need an easy way to keep up with your investments — and a membership in Real Wealth is the best way I know to do that.
Normally, a full year of Real Wealth Report is $198.
But because of the pressing nature of this crisis, I don’t want you to have to pay that much.
So if you join me now, not only will you get all five of the special reports I’ve prepared to help you protect your wealth and profit — a $395 value ...
You’ll also save 75% off the regular membership rate and get 12 months for just $49.
You save $149 and get a full year of Real Wealth Report for just 13 cents per day.
Just click the button below; it will take you to a secure order form. After you click the “SUBSCRIBE” button, you’ll receive an email where you can download all five free reports at no charge.
Or, call TOLL-FREE 1-800-604-3649
(Overseas, call 1-561-627-3300)
Plus, you’ll also receive a second free subscription to our daily online newsletter, Uncommon Wisdom. With Uncommon Wisdom, you’ll get our unhedged, no-holds-barred news analysis and investment recommendations every trading day of the year.
And you’ll also receive V.I.P. introductions to each of my live briefings.
Once every three months, I meet Real Wealth Report members personally online and share my detailed overview of the world and U.S. economies.
Plus, I review the technical strength of each major market. I give you my thoughts on every investment I recommend. And I take questions ... live ... from Real Wealth Report members.
And of course you’ll also receive a fresh electronic copy of Real Wealth Report every month to make sure you stay on top of this historic global transformation — and also on the investments that are skyrocketing as a result.
Over the years, Real Wealth Report has made a huge difference for thousands of readers. Mike C. of Inverness, Illinois says ...
“I’ve only been a subscriber for a couple of months. So far I'm very impressed. Those moves saved me approximately $50,000.00 in the last two months.”
Troy S. of Christchurch, New Zealand says we’ve earned his trust:
“I have just started investing with you, but I’m already up about 20%. I got recommended to you by a friend, and now have recommended you to many of my friends.
Reverend James B. of Powhatan, Virginia counts on us to keep his money growing:
“Confidence in your honest predictions has helped to allay any worries about losing my retirement funds. I am 50% better off because of trusting you, Larry.”
Nevertheless, as I said earlier, this is a “no-risk” membership. You must be thrilled with Real Wealth Report and the investment results I help you achieve or you can cancel anytime for a full refund.
And even if you cancel a year from now — on the last day of your membership, your five free emergency reports and everything else you’ve received in the meantime will be yours to keep with my thanks for giving Real Wealth Report a fair try.
Or, call TOLL-FREE 1-800-604-3649
(Overseas, call 1-561-627-3300)
Or just call 1-800-604-3649 (overseas, call 1-561-627-3300).
But once you’ve experienced Real Wealth Report for yourself, I sincerely doubt you’ll ever want to invest without it. After all — Marc S. of Columbus, Ohio says ...
“Thanks to you, I've about doubled my investments.”
And Randy O. of Irving, Texas is thrilled with the profits he’s earning thanks to Real Wealth Report:
“I began subscribing to Real Wealth Report before gold was at $300 an ounce, so you know my portfolio is up several hundred percent.”
Annette J. of Clinchfield, Georgia says we’ve impressed her:
“For the first time I have real gains of 30-60%, even in the down markets. I follow your advice closely and try to invest as you call it.”
You’ll have to act quickly, though; the Obama administration and Beijing are getting closer to crushing the dollar with every passing day.
So if you’ll just click the button below in the next five minutes, I’ll make sure you receive a sixth report — SWING FOR THE FENCES — absolutely free.
Every once-in-a-while, when you see an investment trend you believe is both inevitable and will be with us for a while — many investors get the itch to swing for the fences with highly leveraged investment vehicles like options.
Options are cheap — purchasing one option allows you to control 100 shares of the underlying security for a fraction of what it would cost you to actually buy the stock.
Plus, while the purchase of options offers you unlimited profit potential — there’s virtually no limit to how far or how fast the option can rise — you can never lose a penny more than you invest.
In Swing for the Fences, I give you the basics you need to begin taking advantage of this power-packed investment vehicle — including ...
What options are and how they multiply your profit potential ...
The best options for profiting from surging natural resources ...
Important terms you must know before trading options ...
Simple options trading strategies that boost your profit potential while further limiting your risk ...
And much more!
Best of all, Swing for the Fences is yours, free, just for joining me in Real Wealth Report now.
Please remember: Even if I’m 100% wrong about Beijing’s intentions, you could probably do quite well — after all: These stocks I’m about to tell you about are already soaring.
If I’m only half right and the dollar is only partially devalued, you could do even better; I see these investments doubling and more.
But if I’m as right about this as I have been about gold, oil, and food over the past ten years, you stand to multiply your money many times over.
The best news in this entire presentation is that you still have some time left to prepare before Washington and Beijing gut the value of your dollars.
But there isn’t much time left. The announcement could come almost any day now — and when it does, it will be too late to protect yourself.
Time is wasting: Click the button below to save $149 on a full year of Real Wealth Report and you’ll be reading your six free reports in seconds.
Or, call TOLL-FREE 1-800-604-3649
(Overseas, call 1-561-627-3300)
Thank you very much for spending this time with me today. I look forward to welcoming you aboard and helping you get your family through this in safety and comfort.
Best wishes,
Larry Edelson
Editor, Real Wealth Report
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Saturday, March 24, 2012
'Blocked' jetstream to blame for freak weather in Russia and Pakistan, say scientists
'Blocked' jetstream to blame for freak weather in Russia and Pakistan, say scientists
By Niall Firth
UPDATED: 10:36 GMT, 12 August 2010
A massive heatwave in Russia and the current devastating floods in Pakistan could be linked by the unusual behaviour of the jetstream, scientists believe.
The jetstream is the high-altitude wind that circles the globe from west to east and normally pushes a series of wet but mild Atlantic lows across Britain.
But meteorologists who study the phenomenon say that it is producing unusual holding patterns which keep weather systems in one place and produce freak conditions.
Enlarge A satellite map which shows the intense heat that has built up over Russia after the jetstream has been held up due to Rossby waves
A satellite map which shows the intense heat that has built up over Russia after the jetstream has been held up due to Rossby waves
The jetstream is being held by the Rossby waves that normally produce its distinctive wave-like pattern.
These powerful spinning wind currents are caused by the Earth’s shape and rotation and push the jet stream from east to west at high altitudes.
Now scientists believe that Rossby waves are acting against the jetstream’s usual pattern, holding it in place, according to a report in New Scientist.
Since mid-July, when it would normally be moving eastwards the jetstream has been held in one place as strong Rossby waves push against it.
When the jet stream is held in one place it traps the weather systems that are caught between its meanders. Warm air is sucked north to the ‘peaks’ while cold air travels to the ‘troughs’.
Professor Mike Blackburn of the University of Reading believes that a blocked jetstream could be behind a heatwave in Japan which killed 60 and the sudden end to warm weather in the UK.
A satellite image from this afternoon shows smoke from wildfires burning in Russia. The red dots indicate active fires. Scientists believe the jetstream could be to blame
A satellite image from this afternoon shows smoke from wildfires burning in Russia. The red dots indicate active fires. Scientists believe the jetstream could be to blame
Pakistani flood survivors evacuate a flooded area in Bssera village near Muzaffargarh today
Pakistani flood survivors evacuate a flooded area in Bssera village near Muzaffargarh today
In Pakistan, the blocking event took place at the same time as the summer monsoon, with tragic consequences.
Floods triggered by heavy monsoon rain over much of Pakistan began nearly two weeks ago and have killed around 1,600 people and forced more than two million from their homes.
Many survivors from flooded villages have lost their stores of food as well as crops and livestock and are surviving on relief handouts.
In Russia, the immobile jetstream pulled in hot air from Africa creating stifling conditions and horrendous smog in Moscow.
Hundreds of wildfires have been burning across three time zones. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday boarded a fire-fighting plane to dump water on blazes close to Moscow, where the smoke has caused thick smog
Scientists are still unclear as to the cause of ‘blocking events’ although there have been some research that linked them to low solar activity.
Enlarge A graph for 24 - 30th July which shows a succession of meanders along the jet stream,
A graph for 24 - 30th July which shows a succession of meanders along the jet stream, with a northward meander (ridge of high pressure) over the Atlantic, a southward meander (trough of low pressure) over Europe. Here the jet splits, around a large 'blocking' anticyclone over western Russia. On the eastern side of this anticyclone, air moves into the southward meander (trough) close to Pakistan from quite far north
Enlarge A graph from the same period over a number of years
A graph from the same period over a number of years shows what scientists would normally expect over this period with calmer winds and fewer 'trapped' weather patterns
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1302225/Blocked-jetstream-blame-freak-weather-Russia-Pakistan.html#ixzz1q68rrVMg
By Niall Firth
UPDATED: 10:36 GMT, 12 August 2010
A massive heatwave in Russia and the current devastating floods in Pakistan could be linked by the unusual behaviour of the jetstream, scientists believe.
The jetstream is the high-altitude wind that circles the globe from west to east and normally pushes a series of wet but mild Atlantic lows across Britain.
But meteorologists who study the phenomenon say that it is producing unusual holding patterns which keep weather systems in one place and produce freak conditions.
Enlarge A satellite map which shows the intense heat that has built up over Russia after the jetstream has been held up due to Rossby waves
A satellite map which shows the intense heat that has built up over Russia after the jetstream has been held up due to Rossby waves
The jetstream is being held by the Rossby waves that normally produce its distinctive wave-like pattern.
These powerful spinning wind currents are caused by the Earth’s shape and rotation and push the jet stream from east to west at high altitudes.
Now scientists believe that Rossby waves are acting against the jetstream’s usual pattern, holding it in place, according to a report in New Scientist.
Since mid-July, when it would normally be moving eastwards the jetstream has been held in one place as strong Rossby waves push against it.
When the jet stream is held in one place it traps the weather systems that are caught between its meanders. Warm air is sucked north to the ‘peaks’ while cold air travels to the ‘troughs’.
Professor Mike Blackburn of the University of Reading believes that a blocked jetstream could be behind a heatwave in Japan which killed 60 and the sudden end to warm weather in the UK.
A satellite image from this afternoon shows smoke from wildfires burning in Russia. The red dots indicate active fires. Scientists believe the jetstream could be to blame
A satellite image from this afternoon shows smoke from wildfires burning in Russia. The red dots indicate active fires. Scientists believe the jetstream could be to blame
Pakistani flood survivors evacuate a flooded area in Bssera village near Muzaffargarh today
Pakistani flood survivors evacuate a flooded area in Bssera village near Muzaffargarh today
In Pakistan, the blocking event took place at the same time as the summer monsoon, with tragic consequences.
Floods triggered by heavy monsoon rain over much of Pakistan began nearly two weeks ago and have killed around 1,600 people and forced more than two million from their homes.
Many survivors from flooded villages have lost their stores of food as well as crops and livestock and are surviving on relief handouts.
In Russia, the immobile jetstream pulled in hot air from Africa creating stifling conditions and horrendous smog in Moscow.
Hundreds of wildfires have been burning across three time zones. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday boarded a fire-fighting plane to dump water on blazes close to Moscow, where the smoke has caused thick smog
Scientists are still unclear as to the cause of ‘blocking events’ although there have been some research that linked them to low solar activity.
Enlarge A graph for 24 - 30th July which shows a succession of meanders along the jet stream,
A graph for 24 - 30th July which shows a succession of meanders along the jet stream, with a northward meander (ridge of high pressure) over the Atlantic, a southward meander (trough of low pressure) over Europe. Here the jet splits, around a large 'blocking' anticyclone over western Russia. On the eastern side of this anticyclone, air moves into the southward meander (trough) close to Pakistan from quite far north
Enlarge A graph from the same period over a number of years
A graph from the same period over a number of years shows what scientists would normally expect over this period with calmer winds and fewer 'trapped' weather patterns
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1302225/Blocked-jetstream-blame-freak-weather-Russia-Pakistan.html#ixzz1q68rrVMg
9/11 Truth, Inner Consciousness and the "Public Mind"
9/11 Truth, Inner Consciousness and the "Public Mind"
by James Tracy
Global Research, March 18, 2012
memorygapdotorg.wordpress.com
With few exceptions the news that will shape public discourse is subject to a de facto censorial process of powerful government and corporate elites beyond accountability to the public. It is here that Sigmund Freud’s notion of repression is especially helpful for assessing the decrepit state of media and public discourse in the United States. In Freud’s view, one’s collective life experiences are registered in the subconscious, with those particularly disturbing or socially impermissible experiences being involuntarily suppressed, only later to emerge as neuroses. Whereas suppression is conscious and voluntary, repression takes place apart from individual volition.
With opinion polls indicating at least half of the public distrusting the official account of September 11th, the foremost basis for the “war on terror”, no public event has been more repressed in public consciousness via the mass media than 9/11. The enduring usefulness of Freud’s theory is suggested in repeated manifestations of the repressed episode to haunt the public mind for which a surrogate reality has been crafted.
Peter Dale Scott describes occasions such as the assassination of President John Kennedy and September 11th as “deep events” because of their historical complexity and linkages with the many facets of “deep government”—the country’s military and intelligence communities and their undertakings. The failure to adequately explain and acknowledge deep events and pursue their appropriate preventative remedies leads to continued deceptions where unpleasant experiences are contained and a new “reality” is imposed on the public mind. Together with the notion of repression, the term is also applicable for considering how instances of such historical import are dealt with in mass psychological terms, or, more specifically, by ostensibly independent alternative news media capable of recollecting the real.
For example, on May 1, 2011 President Obama announced the assassination of Osama bin Laden, the mythic mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, to an apparently ecstatic nation. Most conventional news outlets reported Obama’s announcement unquestioningly because it fit the scheme of their overall erroneous reportage on September 11th. When alternative news media and bloggers almost immediately pointed to various contradictions in the story—the observations of eye witnesses to the raid, doctored photos of bin Laden’s alleged corpse, and international press reports that Bin Laden died many years prior—corporate news outlets acted swiftly to repress the well-reasoned critiques as “conspiracy theories” with a barrage of swiftly-produced editorials and op-eds. Indeed, the announcement of Bin Laden’s supposed demise came just four days after the Obama administration released the president’s purportedly authentic long-form birth certificate, an event at once uncannily amplified and repressed by the proclamation of bin Laden’s fate; where the vocabulary of repression produced another term, “deather”.
Again, the life of a lie is predicated on the success of subsequent deceit and the strength of the alternate experience created to stand in for the truth. Nowhere is the repression and revision of the memory of September 11th more acute than in progressive news media claiming to offer an alternative to corporate-controlled journalism. Some of these media themselves have multi-million dollar annual budgets and are especially open to manipulation by elite interests, often through self-censorship, via corporate underwriters and grants from powerful, tax-exempt foundations.
The Democracy Now! news hour is a case in point. A markedly persuasive program with a highly-educated and influential audience, Democracy Now! has substantial credibility, much of which was earned through its scrutiny of the George W. Bush administration and the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. It is through the use of this credibility that Goodman and Democracy Now! have consciously suppressed serious questions pertaining to September 11th, thereby playing an important role in dividing the 9/11 Truth movement from its antiwar counterpart and cultivating the latter, with its inevitable confused detachment from history.
The success of Democracy Now! in this regard lies in its adherents’ belief that it represents an authentically radical alternative to mainstream news—a claim that has some validity given the program’s willingness to address race and gender-related issues and its copious attention to acts of social protest. In terms of analysis, however, Democracy Now’s coverage is at best lacking and at worst outright misleading, bearing more of a resemblance to its mainstream equivalents than real alternative news outlets. This phenomenon has only increased despite the Obama administration’s intensification of many policies begun under its predecessor.
A working example is Democracy Now’s coverage of the so-called “Arab spring” over the past several months. While reports from alternative and international news outlets have pointed to the ties between the Libyan and Syrian “opposition” and the intelligence and military apparatuses of NATO’s leading countries—Britain and the United States—Democracy Now! has fallen into lockstep with corporate news outlets that have valorized such forces as fighting against the tyrannical Gaddafi and Saad regimes. In the case of Syria there are conflicting reports on whether the Saad regime or death squads run out of Turkey by NATO are in fact responsible for the many deaths that have occurred over the past year. The Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya networks along with allegedly independent human rights groups have depicted the Saad regime as responsible for much of the Syrian bloodshed. Democracy Now! parrots and reinforces such reports without question, even though genuinely alternative media have scrutinized these claims.
In November 2011 the independent journalist Webster Tarpley journeyed to Syria to conduct a firsthand investigation of the Saad regime’s alleged brutality. His findings utterly diverge with those many western audiences had become used to. After interviewing Syrian officials and embarking on unescorted tours of Syria over a two week period, where he spoke to dozens of Syrian commoners, Tarpley reported that almost all of the violence was chiefly attributable to the same forces involved in the overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya. While innocent pedestrians have been subject to bombings and being targeted by snipers and death squads—recognized techniques of US forces from El Salvador to Iraq to provoke ethnic division and civil war—the Syrians Tarpley spoke to held the Saad regime in high regard and wanted an increased Syrian army presence to prevent such attacks.
Tarpley broadcast from Syria on his own weekly World Crisis Radio program and proceeded to report his findings on alternative outlets, including Russia Today, Iran’s Press TV, Alex Jones, and Jeff Rense. Despite the notoriety Tarpley was absent from Democracy Now! and like avenues, in all probability not just because of his unorthodox conclusions on the “Arab spring”, but also an intellectual honesty that steered him toward, among other endeavors, a rigorous and unadorned interrogation of September 11th, thus placing him beyond the pale of the Left’s permissible discussion and dissent.
The repression and revised imposition of September 11th and the attendant “war on terror” on the public mind have important implications not only for the integrity of public discourse, but also for the collective sanity of western culture and civilization. As crafted by dominant news media 9/11 has become the cracked lens through which we view and conceive of our own history, identity, and purpose. Each act of subverting or evading factual accounts of actually existing events manifests itself as a small fissure in the broader edifice of truth and rationality. So does it also contribute to furthering the designs of broader forces seeking to build a once seemingly pretend brave new world.
by James Tracy
Global Research, March 18, 2012
memorygapdotorg.wordpress.com
With few exceptions the news that will shape public discourse is subject to a de facto censorial process of powerful government and corporate elites beyond accountability to the public. It is here that Sigmund Freud’s notion of repression is especially helpful for assessing the decrepit state of media and public discourse in the United States. In Freud’s view, one’s collective life experiences are registered in the subconscious, with those particularly disturbing or socially impermissible experiences being involuntarily suppressed, only later to emerge as neuroses. Whereas suppression is conscious and voluntary, repression takes place apart from individual volition.
With opinion polls indicating at least half of the public distrusting the official account of September 11th, the foremost basis for the “war on terror”, no public event has been more repressed in public consciousness via the mass media than 9/11. The enduring usefulness of Freud’s theory is suggested in repeated manifestations of the repressed episode to haunt the public mind for which a surrogate reality has been crafted.
Peter Dale Scott describes occasions such as the assassination of President John Kennedy and September 11th as “deep events” because of their historical complexity and linkages with the many facets of “deep government”—the country’s military and intelligence communities and their undertakings. The failure to adequately explain and acknowledge deep events and pursue their appropriate preventative remedies leads to continued deceptions where unpleasant experiences are contained and a new “reality” is imposed on the public mind. Together with the notion of repression, the term is also applicable for considering how instances of such historical import are dealt with in mass psychological terms, or, more specifically, by ostensibly independent alternative news media capable of recollecting the real.
For example, on May 1, 2011 President Obama announced the assassination of Osama bin Laden, the mythic mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, to an apparently ecstatic nation. Most conventional news outlets reported Obama’s announcement unquestioningly because it fit the scheme of their overall erroneous reportage on September 11th. When alternative news media and bloggers almost immediately pointed to various contradictions in the story—the observations of eye witnesses to the raid, doctored photos of bin Laden’s alleged corpse, and international press reports that Bin Laden died many years prior—corporate news outlets acted swiftly to repress the well-reasoned critiques as “conspiracy theories” with a barrage of swiftly-produced editorials and op-eds. Indeed, the announcement of Bin Laden’s supposed demise came just four days after the Obama administration released the president’s purportedly authentic long-form birth certificate, an event at once uncannily amplified and repressed by the proclamation of bin Laden’s fate; where the vocabulary of repression produced another term, “deather”.
Again, the life of a lie is predicated on the success of subsequent deceit and the strength of the alternate experience created to stand in for the truth. Nowhere is the repression and revision of the memory of September 11th more acute than in progressive news media claiming to offer an alternative to corporate-controlled journalism. Some of these media themselves have multi-million dollar annual budgets and are especially open to manipulation by elite interests, often through self-censorship, via corporate underwriters and grants from powerful, tax-exempt foundations.
The Democracy Now! news hour is a case in point. A markedly persuasive program with a highly-educated and influential audience, Democracy Now! has substantial credibility, much of which was earned through its scrutiny of the George W. Bush administration and the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. It is through the use of this credibility that Goodman and Democracy Now! have consciously suppressed serious questions pertaining to September 11th, thereby playing an important role in dividing the 9/11 Truth movement from its antiwar counterpart and cultivating the latter, with its inevitable confused detachment from history.
The success of Democracy Now! in this regard lies in its adherents’ belief that it represents an authentically radical alternative to mainstream news—a claim that has some validity given the program’s willingness to address race and gender-related issues and its copious attention to acts of social protest. In terms of analysis, however, Democracy Now’s coverage is at best lacking and at worst outright misleading, bearing more of a resemblance to its mainstream equivalents than real alternative news outlets. This phenomenon has only increased despite the Obama administration’s intensification of many policies begun under its predecessor.
A working example is Democracy Now’s coverage of the so-called “Arab spring” over the past several months. While reports from alternative and international news outlets have pointed to the ties between the Libyan and Syrian “opposition” and the intelligence and military apparatuses of NATO’s leading countries—Britain and the United States—Democracy Now! has fallen into lockstep with corporate news outlets that have valorized such forces as fighting against the tyrannical Gaddafi and Saad regimes. In the case of Syria there are conflicting reports on whether the Saad regime or death squads run out of Turkey by NATO are in fact responsible for the many deaths that have occurred over the past year. The Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya networks along with allegedly independent human rights groups have depicted the Saad regime as responsible for much of the Syrian bloodshed. Democracy Now! parrots and reinforces such reports without question, even though genuinely alternative media have scrutinized these claims.
In November 2011 the independent journalist Webster Tarpley journeyed to Syria to conduct a firsthand investigation of the Saad regime’s alleged brutality. His findings utterly diverge with those many western audiences had become used to. After interviewing Syrian officials and embarking on unescorted tours of Syria over a two week period, where he spoke to dozens of Syrian commoners, Tarpley reported that almost all of the violence was chiefly attributable to the same forces involved in the overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya. While innocent pedestrians have been subject to bombings and being targeted by snipers and death squads—recognized techniques of US forces from El Salvador to Iraq to provoke ethnic division and civil war—the Syrians Tarpley spoke to held the Saad regime in high regard and wanted an increased Syrian army presence to prevent such attacks.
Tarpley broadcast from Syria on his own weekly World Crisis Radio program and proceeded to report his findings on alternative outlets, including Russia Today, Iran’s Press TV, Alex Jones, and Jeff Rense. Despite the notoriety Tarpley was absent from Democracy Now! and like avenues, in all probability not just because of his unorthodox conclusions on the “Arab spring”, but also an intellectual honesty that steered him toward, among other endeavors, a rigorous and unadorned interrogation of September 11th, thus placing him beyond the pale of the Left’s permissible discussion and dissent.
The repression and revised imposition of September 11th and the attendant “war on terror” on the public mind have important implications not only for the integrity of public discourse, but also for the collective sanity of western culture and civilization. As crafted by dominant news media 9/11 has become the cracked lens through which we view and conceive of our own history, identity, and purpose. Each act of subverting or evading factual accounts of actually existing events manifests itself as a small fissure in the broader edifice of truth and rationality. So does it also contribute to furthering the designs of broader forces seeking to build a once seemingly pretend brave new world.
Obama, Cameron, Netanyahu Push Thermonuclear World War III
> This article appears in the March 23, 2012 issue of Executive Intelligence Review. Mike Billington
> Obama, Cameron, Netanyahu Push Thermonuclear World War III
>
> by Jeffrey Steinberg
>
> March 20—In the aftermath of back-to-back Washington summits, President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all dancing on the edge of thermonuclear war and the potential extinction of the human race. To say anything less would be to lie in the face of the greatest threat to humanity in recorded history.
>
> The Israeli Prime Minister's Washington visit in early March, highlighted by his three-hour Oval Office session with President Obama and speeches by the two leaders at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) convention, was widely reported in the American mainstream media as a victory for the U.S. President. Obama ostensibly stood his ground and insisted that Israel must cancel any plans for preventive military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities—at least until the completion of the pending P5+1 (UN Security Council Permanent Five plus Germany) talks and the pending imposition of a Western embargo on Iranian oil exports and access to the international banking system.
>
> Unfortunately for the world, nothing could be further from the truth. According to one senior U.S. intelligence official with direct access to the Obama White House, the President gave Bibi everything but the kitchen sink. Behind closed doors, Obama gave Israel precisely the added military assets needed to carry out an Israeli attack on Iran, according to the source. These assets, according to an Israeli Ministry of Defense source, include additional mid-air refueling tanker planes, upgraded U.S. bunker-buster bombs to penetrate hardened Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo and elsewhere, and jamming equipment to penetrate Iran's formidable air-defense systems.
>
> According to the Israeli source, President Obama also agreed to work with Israel to secure access to countries bordering on Iran for SAR (search-and-rescue) teams that would be activated to rescue downed Israeli pilots. According to the source, who traveled with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak to Washington recently, the United States might even provide Israel with U.S. Special Forces to abet SAR operations. According to a retired U.S. four-star general, who served for decades in the Middle East, Israel already has secret military training teams in Azerbaijan. The general did not rule out Israeli efforts to access Azeri air bases for an Iran attack, which would cut 800 miles off the distance.
>
> The Israeli source also asserted that the United States and Israel are already at war with Iran. He described seamless cyber-warfare collaboration between the two countries, explaining that Barak has told his cyber-war teams that he wants eight hours of quiet—meaning a massive disruption of Iran's power grid during an initial bombing assault.
>
> The senior U.S. intelligence source suggested that the Israeli report that the U.S. was about to deliver two new Boeing mid-air refueling tankers could be accurate, but that these would be on commercial contract, and not from the Pentagon's arsenal (the U.S. Air Force no longer purchases the Boeing tankers, following a contract scandal several years ago).
> Media Leaks
>
> The reports from these confidential sources have been buttressed in recent days by media leaks, reflecting an intense behind-the-scenes policy battle in both the United States and Israel over the existential issue of war versus diplomacy.
>
> On March 15, Aluf Benn, an editor of the Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz, reported that, since his return from Washington, Prime Minister Netanyahu has been boasting that he received a green light from President Obama for an attack. Drawing the parallel between Israel's 1967 pre-emptive attack on Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, and its 1981 bombing of Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor, Benn reported that Obama and Netanyahu agreed to publicly disagree over an Israeli attack, on Iran while secretly reaching accord.
>
> That being the case, Benn wrote, then Netanyahu is hinting that in his Washington visit, he received Obama's tacit approval for an Israeli attack against Iran under the guise of opposition. Obama will speak out against it, but act for it, just as the past U.S. administrations publicly condemned the settlements in the territories, but allowed their expansion. And in this manner Netanyahu summarized the visit:
>
> "I presented before my hosts the examples that I just noted before you, and I believe that the first objective that I presented to fortify the recognition of Israel's right to defend itself—I think that objective has been achieved."
>
> Benn concluded:
>
> "To use Netanyahu's 'duck' allegory, what looks like a preparation for war, acts like a preparation for war, and quacks like a preparation for war, is a preparation for war, and not just a 'bluff or a diversion tactic.' Until his trip to Washington, Netanyahu and his supporters in the media refrained from such explicit wording and made do with hints. But since he's been back, Netanyahu has issued an emergency call-up for himself and the Israeli public."
>
> Several days after the Benn story, Ma'ariv's top national security correspondent Ben Caspit reported that, for the first time, Netanyahu had gotten the endorsement of a majority of members of his security cabinet for an attack on Iran. Caspit claimed that, since his return from Washington, Netanyahu has been meeting individually with all 14 members of the security cabinet, and now has the informal endorsement of at least eight members. So far, Netanyahu has not formally convened the security cabinet to seek official authorization, but that could happen at any moment.
>
> In response to the accelerating threat of war, the U.S. military and intelligence establishment, which is nearly unanimous in its opposition to any Israeli preventive strike, fired back through a series of leaked stories.
>
> On March 18, James Risen, the national security correspondent of the New York Times, published a front-page story, providing previously undisclosed details of the 2010 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear program. That update of the November 2007 NIE upheld the conclusion that Iran had abandoned pursuit of a nuclear weapon in late 2003, and had not resumed work on weaponization. According to Risen, the completion of the 2010 NIE was delayed when new intelligence, drawn from intercepts of conversations among leading Iranian officials, suggested that Iran might be preparing to resume work on building an actual bomb. After months of in-depth probing and re-evaluations, the 16 agencies that comprise the U.S. intelligence community concluded that Iran had not resumed bomb research.
>
> Risen also reported that the U.S. evaluation, contained in the still-classified NIE, is shared by the Mossad and other Israeli intelligence services. This same message has been delivered, repeatedly, by top U.S. military and intelligence officials in public testimony. Both Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, have testified before Congress that Iran's leaders have not yet decided to go for a nuclear weapon.
> Motivated To Attack
>
> A senior U.S. intelligence official explained, on condition of anonymity, that Israel's leaders are motivated to attack Iran at this point, despite the recognition that there is no threat of an imminent Iranian nuclear weapons breakout. According to the official, the immediate concern for Netanyahu and Barak is Iran's advanced work on ballistic missiles and precision guidance systems. Iran has developed solid-fuel missiles that can reach targets in Israel, with an improved degree of accuracy, carrying conventional explosives. Once Iran has a large enough arsenal of these longer-range missiles, it will have a devastating, albeit conventional, retaliatory capacity to punish Israel for any preventive attack. It is this factor, the source argued, that is driving Israel to attack Iran sooner rather than later. When Israeli Defense Minister Barak refers to a closing window of access to select targets in Iran, he is not actually referring to Iran's ability to harden the targets underground or deep within mountains. He is referring to Iran's ability to devastate Israeli population centers with conventional missile strikes.
>
> In recent weeks, several top-rank American military strategists have warned that any Israeli attack on Iran will lead to thermonuclear war. Harlan Ullman, known as the author of the shock-and-awe doctrine adopted by then-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Colin Powell, in the 1991 Operation Desert Storm against Iraq, wrote about the imminent danger of thermonuclear war in a highly polemical article, carried by UPI, titled "Dr. Strangelove, Israel and Iran." Earlier, Gen. Barry McCaffrey had also warned that any military strike by Israel against Iran would lead inevitably to nuclear war.
>
> The day after the Risen article was published, the New York Times again took the war-avoidance side in another leak, based on a recent classified war-simulation exercise. Pentagon correspondents Mark Mazzetti and Thom Shanker provided a detailed account of a recently concluded two-week war game, Internal Look, which began with an Israeli bombing attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. According to the authors, the war game played out a narrative in which the United States found itself pulled into the conflict, after Iranian missiles struck a Navy warship in the Persian Gulf, killing about 200 Americans, according to officials with knowledge of the exercise. The United States then retaliated by carrying out its own strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. In the end, the war game reinforced for military officials the unpredictable and uncontrollable nature of a strike by Israel, and a counterstrike by Iran.
> 'British Brains, American Brawn'
>
> While the Obama-Netanyahu summit drew far greater attention and far more speculation about the actual substance, the two-day love-fest between President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron may have been far more significant in escalating the drive for global confrontation. While President Obama's personal interactions with Netanyahu have been frictional, the President is a slavish Anglophile, committed to the old Winston Churchill vision that with British brains and American brawn, we can rule the world. In the current context, the British monarchy is fully deployed through their puppet Obama on a two-track policy. Either Russia and China, the two leading thermonuclear-weapons powers in Eurasia, capitulate to Anglo-American demands for full participation in the bailout of the doomed global financial system, and the de facto imposition of radical population reduction, or the United States and Britain will launch preventive thermonuclear war, knowing full well that Russia and China will retaliate with devastating thermonuclear assaults of their own, wiping out most of humanity.
>
> That is the desperate posture of the British Empire, facing the imminent total disintegration of its global financial system.
>
> It is for this reason that Lyndon LaRouche has repeatedly stated that the only durable war-avoidance option on the table is the removal of President Obama from office by impeachment, or by invoking the 25th Amendment. Anything short of that puts all of humanity in immediate jeopardy.
> Obama, Cameron, Netanyahu Push Thermonuclear World War III
>
> by Jeffrey Steinberg
>
> March 20—In the aftermath of back-to-back Washington summits, President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all dancing on the edge of thermonuclear war and the potential extinction of the human race. To say anything less would be to lie in the face of the greatest threat to humanity in recorded history.
>
> The Israeli Prime Minister's Washington visit in early March, highlighted by his three-hour Oval Office session with President Obama and speeches by the two leaders at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) convention, was widely reported in the American mainstream media as a victory for the U.S. President. Obama ostensibly stood his ground and insisted that Israel must cancel any plans for preventive military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities—at least until the completion of the pending P5+1 (UN Security Council Permanent Five plus Germany) talks and the pending imposition of a Western embargo on Iranian oil exports and access to the international banking system.
>
> Unfortunately for the world, nothing could be further from the truth. According to one senior U.S. intelligence official with direct access to the Obama White House, the President gave Bibi everything but the kitchen sink. Behind closed doors, Obama gave Israel precisely the added military assets needed to carry out an Israeli attack on Iran, according to the source. These assets, according to an Israeli Ministry of Defense source, include additional mid-air refueling tanker planes, upgraded U.S. bunker-buster bombs to penetrate hardened Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo and elsewhere, and jamming equipment to penetrate Iran's formidable air-defense systems.
>
> According to the Israeli source, President Obama also agreed to work with Israel to secure access to countries bordering on Iran for SAR (search-and-rescue) teams that would be activated to rescue downed Israeli pilots. According to the source, who traveled with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak to Washington recently, the United States might even provide Israel with U.S. Special Forces to abet SAR operations. According to a retired U.S. four-star general, who served for decades in the Middle East, Israel already has secret military training teams in Azerbaijan. The general did not rule out Israeli efforts to access Azeri air bases for an Iran attack, which would cut 800 miles off the distance.
>
> The Israeli source also asserted that the United States and Israel are already at war with Iran. He described seamless cyber-warfare collaboration between the two countries, explaining that Barak has told his cyber-war teams that he wants eight hours of quiet—meaning a massive disruption of Iran's power grid during an initial bombing assault.
>
> The senior U.S. intelligence source suggested that the Israeli report that the U.S. was about to deliver two new Boeing mid-air refueling tankers could be accurate, but that these would be on commercial contract, and not from the Pentagon's arsenal (the U.S. Air Force no longer purchases the Boeing tankers, following a contract scandal several years ago).
> Media Leaks
>
> The reports from these confidential sources have been buttressed in recent days by media leaks, reflecting an intense behind-the-scenes policy battle in both the United States and Israel over the existential issue of war versus diplomacy.
>
> On March 15, Aluf Benn, an editor of the Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz, reported that, since his return from Washington, Prime Minister Netanyahu has been boasting that he received a green light from President Obama for an attack. Drawing the parallel between Israel's 1967 pre-emptive attack on Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, and its 1981 bombing of Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor, Benn reported that Obama and Netanyahu agreed to publicly disagree over an Israeli attack, on Iran while secretly reaching accord.
>
> That being the case, Benn wrote, then Netanyahu is hinting that in his Washington visit, he received Obama's tacit approval for an Israeli attack against Iran under the guise of opposition. Obama will speak out against it, but act for it, just as the past U.S. administrations publicly condemned the settlements in the territories, but allowed their expansion. And in this manner Netanyahu summarized the visit:
>
> "I presented before my hosts the examples that I just noted before you, and I believe that the first objective that I presented to fortify the recognition of Israel's right to defend itself—I think that objective has been achieved."
>
> Benn concluded:
>
> "To use Netanyahu's 'duck' allegory, what looks like a preparation for war, acts like a preparation for war, and quacks like a preparation for war, is a preparation for war, and not just a 'bluff or a diversion tactic.' Until his trip to Washington, Netanyahu and his supporters in the media refrained from such explicit wording and made do with hints. But since he's been back, Netanyahu has issued an emergency call-up for himself and the Israeli public."
>
> Several days after the Benn story, Ma'ariv's top national security correspondent Ben Caspit reported that, for the first time, Netanyahu had gotten the endorsement of a majority of members of his security cabinet for an attack on Iran. Caspit claimed that, since his return from Washington, Netanyahu has been meeting individually with all 14 members of the security cabinet, and now has the informal endorsement of at least eight members. So far, Netanyahu has not formally convened the security cabinet to seek official authorization, but that could happen at any moment.
>
> In response to the accelerating threat of war, the U.S. military and intelligence establishment, which is nearly unanimous in its opposition to any Israeli preventive strike, fired back through a series of leaked stories.
>
> On March 18, James Risen, the national security correspondent of the New York Times, published a front-page story, providing previously undisclosed details of the 2010 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear program. That update of the November 2007 NIE upheld the conclusion that Iran had abandoned pursuit of a nuclear weapon in late 2003, and had not resumed work on weaponization. According to Risen, the completion of the 2010 NIE was delayed when new intelligence, drawn from intercepts of conversations among leading Iranian officials, suggested that Iran might be preparing to resume work on building an actual bomb. After months of in-depth probing and re-evaluations, the 16 agencies that comprise the U.S. intelligence community concluded that Iran had not resumed bomb research.
>
> Risen also reported that the U.S. evaluation, contained in the still-classified NIE, is shared by the Mossad and other Israeli intelligence services. This same message has been delivered, repeatedly, by top U.S. military and intelligence officials in public testimony. Both Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, have testified before Congress that Iran's leaders have not yet decided to go for a nuclear weapon.
> Motivated To Attack
>
> A senior U.S. intelligence official explained, on condition of anonymity, that Israel's leaders are motivated to attack Iran at this point, despite the recognition that there is no threat of an imminent Iranian nuclear weapons breakout. According to the official, the immediate concern for Netanyahu and Barak is Iran's advanced work on ballistic missiles and precision guidance systems. Iran has developed solid-fuel missiles that can reach targets in Israel, with an improved degree of accuracy, carrying conventional explosives. Once Iran has a large enough arsenal of these longer-range missiles, it will have a devastating, albeit conventional, retaliatory capacity to punish Israel for any preventive attack. It is this factor, the source argued, that is driving Israel to attack Iran sooner rather than later. When Israeli Defense Minister Barak refers to a closing window of access to select targets in Iran, he is not actually referring to Iran's ability to harden the targets underground or deep within mountains. He is referring to Iran's ability to devastate Israeli population centers with conventional missile strikes.
>
> In recent weeks, several top-rank American military strategists have warned that any Israeli attack on Iran will lead to thermonuclear war. Harlan Ullman, known as the author of the shock-and-awe doctrine adopted by then-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Colin Powell, in the 1991 Operation Desert Storm against Iraq, wrote about the imminent danger of thermonuclear war in a highly polemical article, carried by UPI, titled "Dr. Strangelove, Israel and Iran." Earlier, Gen. Barry McCaffrey had also warned that any military strike by Israel against Iran would lead inevitably to nuclear war.
>
> The day after the Risen article was published, the New York Times again took the war-avoidance side in another leak, based on a recent classified war-simulation exercise. Pentagon correspondents Mark Mazzetti and Thom Shanker provided a detailed account of a recently concluded two-week war game, Internal Look, which began with an Israeli bombing attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. According to the authors, the war game played out a narrative in which the United States found itself pulled into the conflict, after Iranian missiles struck a Navy warship in the Persian Gulf, killing about 200 Americans, according to officials with knowledge of the exercise. The United States then retaliated by carrying out its own strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. In the end, the war game reinforced for military officials the unpredictable and uncontrollable nature of a strike by Israel, and a counterstrike by Iran.
> 'British Brains, American Brawn'
>
> While the Obama-Netanyahu summit drew far greater attention and far more speculation about the actual substance, the two-day love-fest between President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron may have been far more significant in escalating the drive for global confrontation. While President Obama's personal interactions with Netanyahu have been frictional, the President is a slavish Anglophile, committed to the old Winston Churchill vision that with British brains and American brawn, we can rule the world. In the current context, the British monarchy is fully deployed through their puppet Obama on a two-track policy. Either Russia and China, the two leading thermonuclear-weapons powers in Eurasia, capitulate to Anglo-American demands for full participation in the bailout of the doomed global financial system, and the de facto imposition of radical population reduction, or the United States and Britain will launch preventive thermonuclear war, knowing full well that Russia and China will retaliate with devastating thermonuclear assaults of their own, wiping out most of humanity.
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> That is the desperate posture of the British Empire, facing the imminent total disintegration of its global financial system.
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> It is for this reason that Lyndon LaRouche has repeatedly stated that the only durable war-avoidance option on the table is the removal of President Obama from office by impeachment, or by invoking the 25th Amendment. Anything short of that puts all of humanity in immediate jeopardy.
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