http://www.newsweek.com/id/187342
Extraordinary Measures
A new memo shows just how far the Bush administration considered going in fighting the war on terror.
Michael Isikoff
Newsweek Web Exclusive
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Justice Department secretly gave the green light for the U.S. military to attack apartment buildings and office complexes inside the United States, deploy high-tech surveillance against U.S. citizens and potentially suspend First Amendment freedom-of-the-press rights in order to combat the terror threat, according to a memo released Monday.
Many of the actions discussed in the Oct. 23, 2001, memo to then White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's chief lawyer, William Haynes, were never actually taken.
But the memo from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel—along with others made public for the first time Monday—illustrates with new details the extraordinary post-9/11 powers asserted by Bush administration lawyers. Those assertions ultimately led to such controversial policies as allowing the waterboarding of terror suspects and permitting warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens—steps that remain the subject of ongoing investigations by Congress and the Justice Department. The memo was co-written by John Yoo, at the time a deputy attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel. Yoo, now a professor at the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, has emerged as one of the central figures in those ongoing investigations.
In perhaps the most surprising assertion, the Oct. 23, 2001, memo suggested the president could even suspend press freedoms if he concluded it was necessary to wage the war on terror. "First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully," Yoo wrote in the memo entitled "Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activity Within the United States."
This claim was viewed as so extreme that it was essentially (and secretly) revoked—but not until October of last year, seven years after the memo was written and with barely three and a half months left in the Bush administration.
At that time, Steven Bradbury, who headed the Office of Legal Counsel throughout Bush's second term, concluded that Yoo's statements about overriding First Amendment freedoms were "unnecessary" and "overbroad and general and not sufficiently grounded in the particular circumstance of a concrete scenario," according to a memo from Bradbury also made public Monday.
Kate Martin, the director for the Center for National Security Studies, a Washington think tank, said the newly disclosed memo by Yoo and Robert Delahunty, another OLC lawyer, was part of a broader legal reasoning that gave President Bush essentially unfettered powers in the war on terrorism. "In October 2001, they were trying to construct a legal regime that would basically have allowed for the imposition of martial law," said Martin. (Yoo, also a visiting scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, did not respond to a request for comment. Gonzales's lawyer, George Terwilliger, said he had not yet had a chance to review the newly released memo and also declined to comment.)
On Jan. 15, 2009—with only five days left before Bush left office—Bradbury also rescinded three other legal memos written during the president's first term that claimed broad powers to unilaterally suspend treaties, bypass restrictions on domestic surveillance and take other actions to combat terrorism without the approval of Congress. Bradbury said in a separate legal memo that the claims made in these earlier memos were based on unsound legal reasoning and should not be viewed as "authoritative." But he offered no explanation for why he waited until the waning days of Bush's presidency to withdraw them.
The most controversial, and best known, of Yoo's legal opinions was his Aug. 1, 2002, memo that effectively approved the president's right to disregard a federal law banning torture in ordering the interrogation of terror suspects. An accompanying (and still unreleased) memo from the same day approved the CIA's authority to use "waterboarding" (or simulated drowning) against terror suspects.
In a related matter, the CIA acknowledged in a legal filing Monday that it has destroyed 92 interrogation tapes of two suspects who were subjected to waterboarding. While it was previously known that the agency had destroyed some tapes, the number of destroyed tapes was far more "systemic" than had previously been known, according to Amrit Singh, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, which has been seeking records about the destroyed evidence under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
A U.S. government official familiar with the matter said all of the destructions took place in November 2005 and mostly involved the interrogations and detention of Abu Zubaydah, a "high-value" detainee who was captured in March 2002 and remains today at the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay. A small number of the destroyed tapes also involved the interrogation and detention of another suspect, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, an alleged architect of the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole. Justice Department special counsel John Durham, who is investigating the destruction of the tapes, previously said he planned to finish his interviews by the end of February, but has given no indication of whether he plans to charge anybody involved with a crime.
The newly disclosed Oct. 23, 2001, memo was in response to a request from Gonzales, at the time President Bush's top lawyer, and Haynes, who was chief counsel at the Pentagon, to determine if there were any restrictions on the use of the U.S. military inside the country in targeting terror suspects. The Yoo memo essentially concluded there were none. The country, he argued, was in a "state of armed conflict." The scale of violence, he argued, was unprecedented and "legal and constitutional rules" governing law enforcement—such as the Fourth Amendment prohibition on "unreasonable" searches and seizures—did not apply.
At one point, the memo says, the U.S. military could be used for "targeting and destroying" a hijacked airline or "attacking civilian targets, such as apartment buildings, offices or ships where suspected terrorists were thought to be." At another point, the memo advices: "Military action might encompass making arrests, seizing documents or other property, searching persons or places or keeping them under surveillance, intercepting electronic or wireless communications, setting up roadblocks, interviewing witnesses or searching for suspects."
URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/187342
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Updates, Plus Why China Is Soaring …
Updates, Plus Why China Is Soaring …
by Larry Edelson 02-26-09
Larry Edelson
Could the economy and the financial system get any worse than they already are? Absolutely!
As I’ve often warned here in my Money and Markets columns, central banks and governments of the world will do anything and everything to try and prevent a meltdown of the global economy.
They will fight it tooth and nail. They will backstop and guarantee just about anything. They will print money like crazy … issue their mountain of new debt. Invest in banks, mortgage brokers, and even effectively semi-nationalize real estate!
Some of their policies will help. Most will fail … backfire … and aggravate the crisis.
In the end, not only will we have witnessed the collapse of a mountain of debt in the private sector but also in the public sector. With precious few exceptions, most governments around the globe are going to end up defaulting on their IOUs … their bonds … their contingent liabilities and promises.
And in the end, a whole new monetary system will be needed.
Right now, you can take your cues from gold, the ultimate currency, which has rocketed back to $1,000. It may take a short-term breather. Still, all of my indicators suggest the yellow metal will soon move to new record highs. Probably around $1,250 an ounce.
All of my indicators suggest gold will soon move to new record highs. Probably around $1,250 an ounce ... and eventually to well above $2,000 an ounce!
All of my indicators suggest gold will soon move to new record highs. Probably around $1,250 an ounce … and eventually to well above $2,000 an ounce!
But mark my words: $1,250 gold will be merely a stepping stone to much higher prices, eventually to well above $2,000 an ounce!
Meanwhile, for the broad stock markets in the U.S. … Europe … and Japan, I expect to see one more sell-off, which has already started. There’s no sure way to say at what levels the Dow may fall to at this time. It could be just a couple hundred points lower, around Dow 7,000 … or it could be Dow 6,500 … or 6,000, perhaps even lower.
But I can say this with a high degree of confidence:
After this selling wave in stocks is over, despite how bad the news out there is and the fact that this crisis will not be over for years — I expect to see a major multi-month rally take place, with the Dow gaining back at least 50% of what it has lost since its major top at the 14,000 level.
It may just be a bear market rally. It’s too soon to say. But rest assured I will keep you posted on how to play it.
Meanwhile … in my Money and Markets column of October 9, 2008, I told you that …
Other than cash, gold, and a few select natural resources, the only other market I would be investing in would be China.
I told you how — despite what all the naysayers were claiming about a massive slowdown — China’s retail sales were exploding higher to their fastest pace in more than nine years …
I told you how jewelry sales were soaring … how demand for electrical appliances such as TVs, refrigerators, washers and dryers were rocketing to record highs …
I showed you how domestic consumption in China overall was skyrocketing as disposable income — again, exactly the opposite of what the doomsayers were saying — was zooming higher, climbing more than 14% in the urban areas and bettering 19% in the rural areas.
What’s happened since then to the Shanghai Composite 300 Index, China’s major stock index akin to our Dow Jones Industrials?
After hitting its low in early November at 1,612, the index has soared more than 730 points — a whopping 45% — to 2,344 as I pen this column.
After surging a whopping 45%, the Chinese stock market is now the best performing market on the planet.
After surging a whopping 45%, the Chinese stock market is now the best performing market on the planet.
That makes the Chinese stock market the best performing market on the planet, again.
And yet, it’s likely just the beginning of a brand new leg up in China’s markets that will see the Shanghai composite TRIPLE in the next 18 to 36 months.
Why China is Booming
How could China explode higher when the world is in its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression? What about the tens of thousands of factories closing in China and the millions of Chinese losing their jobs that we’re hearing about?
My answers …
First, bank lending is soaring. Chinese banks issued $237 billion in new loans in January, up an amazing 101% year-over-year. This huge leap in lending is almost equal to one-third of the total lending for all of 2008. That’s because instead of the fresh money sitting in the banks like has happened in the U.S., loans are immediately flooding the economy.
China’s main measure of money supply, like our M2, jumped 18.8% in January. And 39% of all lending in January went to infrastructure projects including power grid, railways and nuclear plants.
Second, China’s Purchasing Manager’s Index showed its second monthly rise, jumping from 41.2 in December to 45.3, up 6.7 points since its low in November of last year. New orders, including exports, jumped sharply.
Third, Beijing is taking advantage of low prices for natural resources to ensure its supply chain. The recent buying spree includes …
Arrow A $19.5 billion investment in resource conglomerate Rio Tinto by Aluminum Corp of China, financed by the China Development Bank
Arrow China Petrochemical’s $1.5 billion purchase of Canada’s Tanganyika Oil operating in Syria
Arrow A $25 billion loan to the Russian government in exchange for 290,000 barrels of oil per day for the next 25 years and a pipeline to China to carry the oil
Arrow A $10 billion loan to Brazil securing up to 160,000 barrels of crude a day
Arrow A deal with Venezuela for up to 1 million barrels of oil per day by 2015 in return for another $4 billion to top off an existing development fund
Arrow A $1.7 billion bid by China Minmetals for OZ Minerals, an Australian zinc producer on the verge of bankruptcy
Unfortunately, all this is knocking the U.S. out of the box when it comes to securing natural resources overseas. And that’s bound to continue as the U.S. pours money into its economy while Beijing uses its $2 trillion cash reserves to go on a shopping spree.
Philosophic and strategic issues aside, no matter how you look at it, it’s a positive for China’s economy.
Fourth, retail sales continue to explode higher. January’s major retailers reported a whopping 24.5% year-over-year jump in retail sales, with nearly every category, from clothing sales to electronics and luxury items exploding higher.
For January, Mercedes Benz saw sales of its S-Class models jump an impressive 26% in China.
For January, Mercedes Benz saw sales of its S-Class models jump an impressive 26% in China.
Even Mercedes Benz saw vehicle sales jump 11% in January, with its S-Class models jumping an impressive 26%.
Fifth, Chinese demand is climbing again and starting to push the price of its imported natural resources higher. The price of imported iron ore has climbed 28% since its low last October, while hot-rolled steel prices have surged 41% since November.
My view: Despite all the gloom about China and tales of its GDP slumping to 6% or lower in 2009 — I believe China’s economy is going to surprise almost everyone … grow at better than 8% for the year … and help lead the global economy higher as well.
I already told you how the Shanghai Composite is up 45% from its lows. And over the near-term, say the next six months, I expect it will likely rally much higher … from its current 2,300 level to well over 3,300.
My two favorite China plays for you to consider: The iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI), which tracks China’s Shanghai stock market, and the U.S. Global Investors China Regional Opportunities Fund (USCOX).
Both offer terrific profit potential, are easy to buy, and are great ways to grab a stake in China without having to open a foreign brokerage account or buy stocks overseas.
Best wishes,
Larry
by Larry Edelson 02-26-09
Larry Edelson
Could the economy and the financial system get any worse than they already are? Absolutely!
As I’ve often warned here in my Money and Markets columns, central banks and governments of the world will do anything and everything to try and prevent a meltdown of the global economy.
They will fight it tooth and nail. They will backstop and guarantee just about anything. They will print money like crazy … issue their mountain of new debt. Invest in banks, mortgage brokers, and even effectively semi-nationalize real estate!
Some of their policies will help. Most will fail … backfire … and aggravate the crisis.
In the end, not only will we have witnessed the collapse of a mountain of debt in the private sector but also in the public sector. With precious few exceptions, most governments around the globe are going to end up defaulting on their IOUs … their bonds … their contingent liabilities and promises.
And in the end, a whole new monetary system will be needed.
Right now, you can take your cues from gold, the ultimate currency, which has rocketed back to $1,000. It may take a short-term breather. Still, all of my indicators suggest the yellow metal will soon move to new record highs. Probably around $1,250 an ounce.
All of my indicators suggest gold will soon move to new record highs. Probably around $1,250 an ounce ... and eventually to well above $2,000 an ounce!
All of my indicators suggest gold will soon move to new record highs. Probably around $1,250 an ounce … and eventually to well above $2,000 an ounce!
But mark my words: $1,250 gold will be merely a stepping stone to much higher prices, eventually to well above $2,000 an ounce!
Meanwhile, for the broad stock markets in the U.S. … Europe … and Japan, I expect to see one more sell-off, which has already started. There’s no sure way to say at what levels the Dow may fall to at this time. It could be just a couple hundred points lower, around Dow 7,000 … or it could be Dow 6,500 … or 6,000, perhaps even lower.
But I can say this with a high degree of confidence:
After this selling wave in stocks is over, despite how bad the news out there is and the fact that this crisis will not be over for years — I expect to see a major multi-month rally take place, with the Dow gaining back at least 50% of what it has lost since its major top at the 14,000 level.
It may just be a bear market rally. It’s too soon to say. But rest assured I will keep you posted on how to play it.
Meanwhile … in my Money and Markets column of October 9, 2008, I told you that …
Other than cash, gold, and a few select natural resources, the only other market I would be investing in would be China.
I told you how — despite what all the naysayers were claiming about a massive slowdown — China’s retail sales were exploding higher to their fastest pace in more than nine years …
I told you how jewelry sales were soaring … how demand for electrical appliances such as TVs, refrigerators, washers and dryers were rocketing to record highs …
I showed you how domestic consumption in China overall was skyrocketing as disposable income — again, exactly the opposite of what the doomsayers were saying — was zooming higher, climbing more than 14% in the urban areas and bettering 19% in the rural areas.
What’s happened since then to the Shanghai Composite 300 Index, China’s major stock index akin to our Dow Jones Industrials?
After hitting its low in early November at 1,612, the index has soared more than 730 points — a whopping 45% — to 2,344 as I pen this column.
After surging a whopping 45%, the Chinese stock market is now the best performing market on the planet.
After surging a whopping 45%, the Chinese stock market is now the best performing market on the planet.
That makes the Chinese stock market the best performing market on the planet, again.
And yet, it’s likely just the beginning of a brand new leg up in China’s markets that will see the Shanghai composite TRIPLE in the next 18 to 36 months.
Why China is Booming
How could China explode higher when the world is in its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression? What about the tens of thousands of factories closing in China and the millions of Chinese losing their jobs that we’re hearing about?
My answers …
First, bank lending is soaring. Chinese banks issued $237 billion in new loans in January, up an amazing 101% year-over-year. This huge leap in lending is almost equal to one-third of the total lending for all of 2008. That’s because instead of the fresh money sitting in the banks like has happened in the U.S., loans are immediately flooding the economy.
China’s main measure of money supply, like our M2, jumped 18.8% in January. And 39% of all lending in January went to infrastructure projects including power grid, railways and nuclear plants.
Second, China’s Purchasing Manager’s Index showed its second monthly rise, jumping from 41.2 in December to 45.3, up 6.7 points since its low in November of last year. New orders, including exports, jumped sharply.
Third, Beijing is taking advantage of low prices for natural resources to ensure its supply chain. The recent buying spree includes …
Arrow A $19.5 billion investment in resource conglomerate Rio Tinto by Aluminum Corp of China, financed by the China Development Bank
Arrow China Petrochemical’s $1.5 billion purchase of Canada’s Tanganyika Oil operating in Syria
Arrow A $25 billion loan to the Russian government in exchange for 290,000 barrels of oil per day for the next 25 years and a pipeline to China to carry the oil
Arrow A $10 billion loan to Brazil securing up to 160,000 barrels of crude a day
Arrow A deal with Venezuela for up to 1 million barrels of oil per day by 2015 in return for another $4 billion to top off an existing development fund
Arrow A $1.7 billion bid by China Minmetals for OZ Minerals, an Australian zinc producer on the verge of bankruptcy
Unfortunately, all this is knocking the U.S. out of the box when it comes to securing natural resources overseas. And that’s bound to continue as the U.S. pours money into its economy while Beijing uses its $2 trillion cash reserves to go on a shopping spree.
Philosophic and strategic issues aside, no matter how you look at it, it’s a positive for China’s economy.
Fourth, retail sales continue to explode higher. January’s major retailers reported a whopping 24.5% year-over-year jump in retail sales, with nearly every category, from clothing sales to electronics and luxury items exploding higher.
For January, Mercedes Benz saw sales of its S-Class models jump an impressive 26% in China.
For January, Mercedes Benz saw sales of its S-Class models jump an impressive 26% in China.
Even Mercedes Benz saw vehicle sales jump 11% in January, with its S-Class models jumping an impressive 26%.
Fifth, Chinese demand is climbing again and starting to push the price of its imported natural resources higher. The price of imported iron ore has climbed 28% since its low last October, while hot-rolled steel prices have surged 41% since November.
My view: Despite all the gloom about China and tales of its GDP slumping to 6% or lower in 2009 — I believe China’s economy is going to surprise almost everyone … grow at better than 8% for the year … and help lead the global economy higher as well.
I already told you how the Shanghai Composite is up 45% from its lows. And over the near-term, say the next six months, I expect it will likely rally much higher … from its current 2,300 level to well over 3,300.
My two favorite China plays for you to consider: The iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI), which tracks China’s Shanghai stock market, and the U.S. Global Investors China Regional Opportunities Fund (USCOX).
Both offer terrific profit potential, are easy to buy, and are great ways to grab a stake in China without having to open a foreign brokerage account or buy stocks overseas.
Best wishes,
Larry
A Banana Republic By 2012? Change for the Worse
March 2, 2009
President Obama has presented the most irresponsible budget in US history. His fiscal year 2010 budget projects federal spending of $3.5 trillion and a federal deficit of $1.75 trillion. In other words, 50 percent of the government’s budget consists of red ink.
featured-stories - A Banana Republic By 2012? Change for the Worse
Coulter
Obama’s budget deficit for 2010 alone exceeds the totality of “Reagan Deficits” for Reagan’s two terms of office.
And Americans are angry that sub-prime borrowers took mortgages they couldn’t afford.
The bald fact is that the US government is going to have to borrow–or print–half of the money it intends to spend in Obama’s first budget. This fact has fallen through the cracks as New York Times headlines proclaim “A Bold Plan Sweeps Away Reagan Ideas.” It certainly does sweep away Reagan ideas. No Reagan budget ever presumed that the federal government could borrow half of its annual expenditures. Indeed, Obama’s budget deficit for 2010 alone exceeds the totality of “Reagan Deficits” for Reagan’s two terms of office.
As presidential budgets are marketing devices rather than financial statements, they are imbued with optimistic assumptions. Obama’s budget is based on optimistic assumptions about the extent of decline in GDP. A more realistic projection of GDP decline would reveal that Obama’s budget is the first since World War II in which more than half of the government’s expenditures must be financed by red ink. I suspect that the red ink component of the FY 2010 budget will surpass World War II budgets.
To whom can the US government turn for $1.75 trillion for FY 2010, on top of $1.2 trillion for FY 2009?
Not to taxpayers. Obama’s net tax increase comes to $170 billion over 10 years, or $17 billion a year, a drop in the bucket. A supply-side economist could have told him that not even these paltry revenues will be realized.
Not to private savers. Americans are over their heads in debts.
Not to foreigners. Thanks to Clinton/Bush financial deregulation and Wall Street and bankster greed, the rest of the world is in financial turmoil and hasn’t $1.75 trillion in savings to lend. Possibly, the stock market will collapse further, and whatever remaining wealth Americans have will flow into “safe” US Treasuries.
The only other alternative is the printing press. Printing press finance would destroy the dollar as reserve currency and ignite high inflation. The US would be unable to pay for its imports, and Americans whose incomes do not rise with the rate of inflation would be plowed under.
This prospect is not a “war on terror” scare tactic like “anthrax,” “weapons of mass destruction,” “al Qaeda connections,” and “Iranian nukes.”
The economic catastrophe that the US faces is very real. But there is no awareness of this reality in Obama’s budget. The crux of Obamanomics is the assumption that the economy can run forever on consumer loans, if we can just get the banks to lend, and the federal government can run forever on loans from China, Japan,and Saudi Arabia.
Obama is requesting $130 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during 2010 plus a $75 billion supplemental request for the wars during 2009. This $205 billion is on top of $534 billion for the Pentagon in 2010, for total military spending of $739 billion.
The Chinese government’s budget shows China’s military spending at $59 billion in 2008. (The Pentagon claims Chinese military spending is between $97 billion and $139 billion.) Russia’s military spending in 2009 is projected to be about $50 billion.
In the midst of the greatest economic crisis in US history when trillions of dollars are being added to US national debt, Obama’s budget spends more on two pointless wars than the total military spending of China and Russia combined. Obama’s wars serve only the profits of the military/security complex and the promotion rate of military officers. The longer the wars continue, the larger the number of officers who can retire at higher ranks, thus further swelling future annual deficits and the national debt.
Moreover, as is becoming apparent, the Bush/Obama war in Afghanistan cannot be fought without fighting a war in Pakistan.
As if this isn’t enough war, Obama parrots Dick Cheney’s charge, totally unsupported by any evidence, that Iran is making nuclear weapons. The chances are high that the new White House Moron will have us at war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq. As Obama’s wars expand, the $205 billion for war in Iraq and Afghanistan will become $400 billion annually and then $600 billion annually.
Obama’s “troop withdrawal” from Iraq has proved to be just another con job. Obama has announced that the withdrawal doesn’t include the 50,000 US soldiers who will remain in Iraq indefinitely–like the US troops that have been kept in Japan and Germany for 64 years and in Korea since the early 1950s,
Meanwhile Medicare is on the ropes. The latest Medicare trustees report says that Medicare’s funds for hospital payments will be exhausted in 10 years. To make ends meet, Obama proposes cutting payments to Medicare providers.
Obama’s plan is to make doctors and patients pay for Medicare. One way to get National Health is to make it uneconomic for private health care to service Medicare patients. Already many doctors will not accept Medicare patients because of the low payments, endless paperwork, and risk of prosecution for “over-billing.” Looking at one recent Medicare patient medical bill, Medicare and supplemental insurance paid 29 percent of the billed amount, requiring the doctor to eat 58.5 percent of his charges and the patient to pay 12.5 percent. The doctor was paid $93.16 on a $320.89 bill. And Obama wants to reduce payments to providers?
What is Obama thinking? A country that can’t afford Medicare can’t afford National Health. Medicare provides only for the elderly, and it provides very little. A person pays the Medicare tax as long as he earns and on the totality of earnings. For the rich the Medicare tax can exceed the cost of a gold-plated private insurance policy.
Basic Medicare leaves a person unprotected. To provide better coverage, it is necessary to enroll in Medicare Part B for which the premium is $308.30 per month or $3,699.60 per year. On top of this, a person needs a privately supplied supplemental policy to complete Medicare coverage. AARP’s policy, which, after deductibles are met, covers half of drug costs, cost the “Medicare protected” elderly $ 273.50 per month or $3,282 per year. The drug prescription plan passed by Congress costs the individual yet more.
The two supplements to Medicare cost the Medicare patient $6,981.60 per year. In addition, if the Medicare patient has much retirement income besides Social Security, he pays income tax on 85% of the $3,699.60 Medicare Part B premium as it is part of taxable Social Security, which for someone in the 25% bracket is another $925 dollars.
In the late 1970s, Democratic Senator Russell Long, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told me that as Social Security was collected as a tax on wages and salaries, the US government had promised never to tax the benefits. So much for any commitment that the US government makes to the American people.
A top Social Security income, net of Medicare Part B premium, is $23,220 per year. Deduct the AARP policy, and the elderly who have paid in maximum Social Security taxes, get $20,000 per year. Of course, few Social Security retirees receive the maximum payment. AARP’s Public Policy Institute reports that in 2006 the average annual Social Security benefit for a retired worker was $12,372. Such a worker would have little left after paying the Medicare Part B premium and an additional premium for a supplement.
Offshoring and “free trade” have destroyed employer-provided health coverage for millions of employees. Private health care coverage can cost as much as one-third and even one-half of a person’s earned income, and some people are not insurable. National Health seems to be in the cards–only there is no money for it. All the money is being spent in pointless wars and on bailouts of financial fraud. The Obama budget puts bankster bailouts and pointless wars ahead of the health of the American people.
National Health advocates emphasize that a single-payer system is less expensive because it eliminates layers of profits. It is also less expensive for a less promising reason. Unless there is a parallel private health care system, National Health systems limit health spending to what is provided in the government budget. Over time, health care has to compete with everything else in the budget. Every part of the budget has its partisans and special interests. It is fantasy to assume that National Health will always be well funded. Just look at the state of the National Health Service in the UK.
Obama’s plan to tax the rich is another con job. Obama’s budget defines the rich as a person with a $250,000 before tax income. This is a rotten joke. The rich are the banksters, such as Hank Paulson with his $160 million annual bonus, and heads of hedge funds with their $1,000 million annual incomes. To confuse the struggling middle class with the real rich is criminal. A person with a $250,000 income before tax does not come close to being rich. Obama’s “tax the rich” scheme will devastate the upper middle class and leave the super rich undamaged.
The only change we have from Obama and the Democrats is for the worse. Bush’s FY 2008 budget deficit was $450 billion. The FY 2009 deficit is projected at $1.2 trillion. The budget deficit in Obama’s first budget is $1.75 trillion, a fourfold increase in two years.
Obama’s projected budget deficits are an understatement. For example, Obama’s budget assumes a less steep economic decline than the economy is experiencing, and it projects that war costs will drop to $50 billion annually beginning in 2011–this despite Obama sending more troops to Afghanistan and recent congressional testimony of Lt. General David Barno, former head of US forces in Afghanistan, who said the war in Afghanistan could last until 2025.
The “war on terror” will never end, because the moronic US government has defined everyone who resists US hegemony as a “terrorist.” The great danger to American civil liberty is that the US government regards as terrorists American citizens who realize that the neoconservative dream of American hegemony is a fantasy. As the Obama regime has not repealed the Bush regime rule– “you are with us or against us”–Americans who oppose hegemonic war are lumped into the “against us” category.
There seems little chance that civil liberties will be restored. Obama and his “liberal” Justice (sic) Department have sided with Bush/Cheney on every important civil liberties issue. Yet, the ACLU sees “hope” in Obama’s rhetoric!
On February 21 Yahoo News reported: “President Barack Obama’s administration has sided with predecessor George W. Bush on the rights of detainees at Bagram air base in Afghanistan, saying they cannot challenge their detention in US courts. In a two-sentence court filing Friday, the US Justice Department said “the government adheres to its previously articulated position” of denying habeas corpus rights to Bagram detainees, backing a similar decision by the Bush administration.”
“Earlier this month,” Yahoo News reports, “the Obama administration backed another Bush anti-terror policy when it urged a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing Boeing Company of helping fly suspects to secret CIA detention centers overseas. The Justice Department said the case should be thrown out to protect state secrets.”
Do you remember the illegal spying? The US telecom industry succumbed to Bush regime pressure and broke the law together with President Bush. The illegal act made the US telecom industry subject to lawsuits, but the Bush regime placed its co-conspirators above the law.
Now Obama has sided with the Bush regime. On February 26, therawstory.com reported: “The Obama Justice Department continues to stand behind a Bush era law meant to prevent lawsuits against telecommunications companies accused of illegally sharing private customer information with intelligence agencies. In a brief filed late Wednesday obtained by Raw Story, the Department of Justice provided its views to Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, after the San Francisco federal judge questioned the constitutionality of the wide-sweeping law and whether it gives the U.S. Attorney General too much power in deciding whether a company is immune from lawsuits after it has shared information with federal agents.”
On February 26 antiwar.com reported that the “new CIA director (Leon Panetta) declares nothing has changed, nothing will change.” Panetta declared that the US policy of conducting war on Pakistan’s sovereign territory “would continue.” The attacks, Panetta claimed, “have been successful.” For the CIA, claims of success equal legality. Did the Bush regime ever express greater arrogance and hubris?
With Rahm Israel Emanuel, an Israeli dual citizen, in charge of the White House and Obama’s schedule, Obama will have an even less independent foreign policy in the Middle East than Bush. Somehow someone among the Obamacons managed to put forward an appointment that could challenge the Israel Lobby’s stranglehold. Charles Freeman, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, former top Pentagon official, and president of the Middle East Policy Council, was chosen by Admiral Denis Blair, Director of National Intelligence, to head the National Intelligence Council.
The neocons went berserk. Steve Rosen, formerly of AIPAC, currently indicted as an Israeli spy, Gabriel Schoenfeld, who wants the New York Times indicted for allegedly violating the Espionage Act for reporting the Bush regime’s illegal spying, Daniel Pipes, who sees Muslim terrorists under every bed, Michael Rubin of the warmonger American Enterprise Institute, and Frank Gaffney, possibly the goofiest person in America, damned Freeman’s appointment as “deeply troubling,” because Freeman has an open mind on the Middle East situation.
In other words, if you are not on Israel’s side, you are disqualified.
There is no more certain indication of continuing war in the Middle East on Israel’s behalf than for Freeman’s appointment to be blocked.
Pay close attention to this one. If Obama succumbs to the Israel Lobby and nixes Blair’s appointment of Freeman, the US will have to finance interminable wars on top of trillion dollar bailouts and massive unemployment.
The US might not even make it to 2012 before it is a banana republic.
President Obama has presented the most irresponsible budget in US history. His fiscal year 2010 budget projects federal spending of $3.5 trillion and a federal deficit of $1.75 trillion. In other words, 50 percent of the government’s budget consists of red ink.
featured-stories - A Banana Republic By 2012? Change for the Worse
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Obama’s budget deficit for 2010 alone exceeds the totality of “Reagan Deficits” for Reagan’s two terms of office.
And Americans are angry that sub-prime borrowers took mortgages they couldn’t afford.
The bald fact is that the US government is going to have to borrow–or print–half of the money it intends to spend in Obama’s first budget. This fact has fallen through the cracks as New York Times headlines proclaim “A Bold Plan Sweeps Away Reagan Ideas.” It certainly does sweep away Reagan ideas. No Reagan budget ever presumed that the federal government could borrow half of its annual expenditures. Indeed, Obama’s budget deficit for 2010 alone exceeds the totality of “Reagan Deficits” for Reagan’s two terms of office.
As presidential budgets are marketing devices rather than financial statements, they are imbued with optimistic assumptions. Obama’s budget is based on optimistic assumptions about the extent of decline in GDP. A more realistic projection of GDP decline would reveal that Obama’s budget is the first since World War II in which more than half of the government’s expenditures must be financed by red ink. I suspect that the red ink component of the FY 2010 budget will surpass World War II budgets.
To whom can the US government turn for $1.75 trillion for FY 2010, on top of $1.2 trillion for FY 2009?
Not to taxpayers. Obama’s net tax increase comes to $170 billion over 10 years, or $17 billion a year, a drop in the bucket. A supply-side economist could have told him that not even these paltry revenues will be realized.
Not to private savers. Americans are over their heads in debts.
Not to foreigners. Thanks to Clinton/Bush financial deregulation and Wall Street and bankster greed, the rest of the world is in financial turmoil and hasn’t $1.75 trillion in savings to lend. Possibly, the stock market will collapse further, and whatever remaining wealth Americans have will flow into “safe” US Treasuries.
The only other alternative is the printing press. Printing press finance would destroy the dollar as reserve currency and ignite high inflation. The US would be unable to pay for its imports, and Americans whose incomes do not rise with the rate of inflation would be plowed under.
This prospect is not a “war on terror” scare tactic like “anthrax,” “weapons of mass destruction,” “al Qaeda connections,” and “Iranian nukes.”
The economic catastrophe that the US faces is very real. But there is no awareness of this reality in Obama’s budget. The crux of Obamanomics is the assumption that the economy can run forever on consumer loans, if we can just get the banks to lend, and the federal government can run forever on loans from China, Japan,and Saudi Arabia.
Obama is requesting $130 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during 2010 plus a $75 billion supplemental request for the wars during 2009. This $205 billion is on top of $534 billion for the Pentagon in 2010, for total military spending of $739 billion.
The Chinese government’s budget shows China’s military spending at $59 billion in 2008. (The Pentagon claims Chinese military spending is between $97 billion and $139 billion.) Russia’s military spending in 2009 is projected to be about $50 billion.
In the midst of the greatest economic crisis in US history when trillions of dollars are being added to US national debt, Obama’s budget spends more on two pointless wars than the total military spending of China and Russia combined. Obama’s wars serve only the profits of the military/security complex and the promotion rate of military officers. The longer the wars continue, the larger the number of officers who can retire at higher ranks, thus further swelling future annual deficits and the national debt.
Moreover, as is becoming apparent, the Bush/Obama war in Afghanistan cannot be fought without fighting a war in Pakistan.
As if this isn’t enough war, Obama parrots Dick Cheney’s charge, totally unsupported by any evidence, that Iran is making nuclear weapons. The chances are high that the new White House Moron will have us at war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq. As Obama’s wars expand, the $205 billion for war in Iraq and Afghanistan will become $400 billion annually and then $600 billion annually.
Obama’s “troop withdrawal” from Iraq has proved to be just another con job. Obama has announced that the withdrawal doesn’t include the 50,000 US soldiers who will remain in Iraq indefinitely–like the US troops that have been kept in Japan and Germany for 64 years and in Korea since the early 1950s,
Meanwhile Medicare is on the ropes. The latest Medicare trustees report says that Medicare’s funds for hospital payments will be exhausted in 10 years. To make ends meet, Obama proposes cutting payments to Medicare providers.
Obama’s plan is to make doctors and patients pay for Medicare. One way to get National Health is to make it uneconomic for private health care to service Medicare patients. Already many doctors will not accept Medicare patients because of the low payments, endless paperwork, and risk of prosecution for “over-billing.” Looking at one recent Medicare patient medical bill, Medicare and supplemental insurance paid 29 percent of the billed amount, requiring the doctor to eat 58.5 percent of his charges and the patient to pay 12.5 percent. The doctor was paid $93.16 on a $320.89 bill. And Obama wants to reduce payments to providers?
What is Obama thinking? A country that can’t afford Medicare can’t afford National Health. Medicare provides only for the elderly, and it provides very little. A person pays the Medicare tax as long as he earns and on the totality of earnings. For the rich the Medicare tax can exceed the cost of a gold-plated private insurance policy.
Basic Medicare leaves a person unprotected. To provide better coverage, it is necessary to enroll in Medicare Part B for which the premium is $308.30 per month or $3,699.60 per year. On top of this, a person needs a privately supplied supplemental policy to complete Medicare coverage. AARP’s policy, which, after deductibles are met, covers half of drug costs, cost the “Medicare protected” elderly $ 273.50 per month or $3,282 per year. The drug prescription plan passed by Congress costs the individual yet more.
The two supplements to Medicare cost the Medicare patient $6,981.60 per year. In addition, if the Medicare patient has much retirement income besides Social Security, he pays income tax on 85% of the $3,699.60 Medicare Part B premium as it is part of taxable Social Security, which for someone in the 25% bracket is another $925 dollars.
In the late 1970s, Democratic Senator Russell Long, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told me that as Social Security was collected as a tax on wages and salaries, the US government had promised never to tax the benefits. So much for any commitment that the US government makes to the American people.
A top Social Security income, net of Medicare Part B premium, is $23,220 per year. Deduct the AARP policy, and the elderly who have paid in maximum Social Security taxes, get $20,000 per year. Of course, few Social Security retirees receive the maximum payment. AARP’s Public Policy Institute reports that in 2006 the average annual Social Security benefit for a retired worker was $12,372. Such a worker would have little left after paying the Medicare Part B premium and an additional premium for a supplement.
Offshoring and “free trade” have destroyed employer-provided health coverage for millions of employees. Private health care coverage can cost as much as one-third and even one-half of a person’s earned income, and some people are not insurable. National Health seems to be in the cards–only there is no money for it. All the money is being spent in pointless wars and on bailouts of financial fraud. The Obama budget puts bankster bailouts and pointless wars ahead of the health of the American people.
National Health advocates emphasize that a single-payer system is less expensive because it eliminates layers of profits. It is also less expensive for a less promising reason. Unless there is a parallel private health care system, National Health systems limit health spending to what is provided in the government budget. Over time, health care has to compete with everything else in the budget. Every part of the budget has its partisans and special interests. It is fantasy to assume that National Health will always be well funded. Just look at the state of the National Health Service in the UK.
Obama’s plan to tax the rich is another con job. Obama’s budget defines the rich as a person with a $250,000 before tax income. This is a rotten joke. The rich are the banksters, such as Hank Paulson with his $160 million annual bonus, and heads of hedge funds with their $1,000 million annual incomes. To confuse the struggling middle class with the real rich is criminal. A person with a $250,000 income before tax does not come close to being rich. Obama’s “tax the rich” scheme will devastate the upper middle class and leave the super rich undamaged.
The only change we have from Obama and the Democrats is for the worse. Bush’s FY 2008 budget deficit was $450 billion. The FY 2009 deficit is projected at $1.2 trillion. The budget deficit in Obama’s first budget is $1.75 trillion, a fourfold increase in two years.
Obama’s projected budget deficits are an understatement. For example, Obama’s budget assumes a less steep economic decline than the economy is experiencing, and it projects that war costs will drop to $50 billion annually beginning in 2011–this despite Obama sending more troops to Afghanistan and recent congressional testimony of Lt. General David Barno, former head of US forces in Afghanistan, who said the war in Afghanistan could last until 2025.
The “war on terror” will never end, because the moronic US government has defined everyone who resists US hegemony as a “terrorist.” The great danger to American civil liberty is that the US government regards as terrorists American citizens who realize that the neoconservative dream of American hegemony is a fantasy. As the Obama regime has not repealed the Bush regime rule– “you are with us or against us”–Americans who oppose hegemonic war are lumped into the “against us” category.
There seems little chance that civil liberties will be restored. Obama and his “liberal” Justice (sic) Department have sided with Bush/Cheney on every important civil liberties issue. Yet, the ACLU sees “hope” in Obama’s rhetoric!
On February 21 Yahoo News reported: “President Barack Obama’s administration has sided with predecessor George W. Bush on the rights of detainees at Bagram air base in Afghanistan, saying they cannot challenge their detention in US courts. In a two-sentence court filing Friday, the US Justice Department said “the government adheres to its previously articulated position” of denying habeas corpus rights to Bagram detainees, backing a similar decision by the Bush administration.”
“Earlier this month,” Yahoo News reports, “the Obama administration backed another Bush anti-terror policy when it urged a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing Boeing Company of helping fly suspects to secret CIA detention centers overseas. The Justice Department said the case should be thrown out to protect state secrets.”
Do you remember the illegal spying? The US telecom industry succumbed to Bush regime pressure and broke the law together with President Bush. The illegal act made the US telecom industry subject to lawsuits, but the Bush regime placed its co-conspirators above the law.
Now Obama has sided with the Bush regime. On February 26, therawstory.com reported: “The Obama Justice Department continues to stand behind a Bush era law meant to prevent lawsuits against telecommunications companies accused of illegally sharing private customer information with intelligence agencies. In a brief filed late Wednesday obtained by Raw Story, the Department of Justice provided its views to Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, after the San Francisco federal judge questioned the constitutionality of the wide-sweeping law and whether it gives the U.S. Attorney General too much power in deciding whether a company is immune from lawsuits after it has shared information with federal agents.”
On February 26 antiwar.com reported that the “new CIA director (Leon Panetta) declares nothing has changed, nothing will change.” Panetta declared that the US policy of conducting war on Pakistan’s sovereign territory “would continue.” The attacks, Panetta claimed, “have been successful.” For the CIA, claims of success equal legality. Did the Bush regime ever express greater arrogance and hubris?
With Rahm Israel Emanuel, an Israeli dual citizen, in charge of the White House and Obama’s schedule, Obama will have an even less independent foreign policy in the Middle East than Bush. Somehow someone among the Obamacons managed to put forward an appointment that could challenge the Israel Lobby’s stranglehold. Charles Freeman, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, former top Pentagon official, and president of the Middle East Policy Council, was chosen by Admiral Denis Blair, Director of National Intelligence, to head the National Intelligence Council.
The neocons went berserk. Steve Rosen, formerly of AIPAC, currently indicted as an Israeli spy, Gabriel Schoenfeld, who wants the New York Times indicted for allegedly violating the Espionage Act for reporting the Bush regime’s illegal spying, Daniel Pipes, who sees Muslim terrorists under every bed, Michael Rubin of the warmonger American Enterprise Institute, and Frank Gaffney, possibly the goofiest person in America, damned Freeman’s appointment as “deeply troubling,” because Freeman has an open mind on the Middle East situation.
In other words, if you are not on Israel’s side, you are disqualified.
There is no more certain indication of continuing war in the Middle East on Israel’s behalf than for Freeman’s appointment to be blocked.
Pay close attention to this one. If Obama succumbs to the Israel Lobby and nixes Blair’s appointment of Freeman, the US will have to finance interminable wars on top of trillion dollar bailouts and massive unemployment.
The US might not even make it to 2012 before it is a banana republic.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Not Everyone Included in New Credit Card Laws of 2010
http://www.creditorweb.com/articles/not-everyone-included-in-new-credit-card-laws-of-2010.html
Not Everyone Included in New Credit Card Laws of 2010
by: Debbie Dragon, creditorweb.com, 03/01/09
Consumers are looking forward to the implementation of the July 1, 2010 credit card rules which are designed to prevent some of the nastier tactics of credit card companies. Because the credit card industry has such a long time to “prepare” for the new laws, many consumers in the meantime are getting slammed with higher interest rates, changes in due dates and decreased credit limits as the credit card issuers look to reduce their risks and prepare for the changes.
The changes that will take place in 2010 are the biggest changes made to the credit card industry in nearly 30 years. Regulators from the Federal Reserve, National Credit Union Administration and the Office of Thrift Supervision approved the changes in an effort to ensure the consumer protections stated by the Federal Trade Commission Act are being upheld. The Federal Trade Commission Act bans unfair and deceptive trade practices, and as any credit card user has probably experienced at one time or another – credit card practices are not always fair to consumers!
Not all consumers will benefit from the new credit card rules in 2010, though. While most credit card holders will receive protection from double-cycle billing processes, limits to how often and for what reason the interest rate can be increased, a set grace period for making payments without penalties and improved payment allocation so that additional payments will pay highest interest debt first – not everyone qualifies for these protections.
Commercial Credit Cards
Business credit cards are not considered “consumer” cards, and therefore do not receive the same level of protection. Whether you have a small, one person business or a large corporate company – the credit cards used for those businesses will not fall under the new protections to be implemented in 2010. Commercial cards are any cards used for business or corporations – including debit and prepaid cards, credit cards and store credit.
Businesses regularly rely on credit cards in order to improve their cash flow and grow their businesses. Unfortunately, if the credit card industry is forced to reduce deceptive and unfair practices on consumer cards, they may try to recover some of that lost revenues on business credit card holders who are not covered by the 2010 rules!
Returning Military
A teleconference was held in February to discuss the upcoming credit card requirements, with representatives from the Federal Reserve, National Credit Union Administration, Office of Thrift Supervision and Benjamin Olson – an attorney for the Federal Reserve in attendance. For more than two hours, the attorney and representatives answered questions from credit unions and credit card lending institutions regarding the 2010 rules.
A question was posed by a lending institution regarding returning Military personnel. Currently, there is a “Service Members' Civil Relief Act” that protects active military members while they're deployed by requiring credit card companies reduce interest rates on their credit cards to 6%. When the military members return home though, the rates are returned to their previous, usually much higher, amounts. In 2010, credit card lenders will be restricted involving when and how much interest rates can be increased for cardholders; and returning military personnel is not listed as one of the approved reasons to increase interest rates at this time.
The question stumped the Federal Reserve attorney and the situation is currently under review.
Not Everyone Included in New Credit Card Laws of 2010
by: Debbie Dragon, creditorweb.com, 03/01/09
Consumers are looking forward to the implementation of the July 1, 2010 credit card rules which are designed to prevent some of the nastier tactics of credit card companies. Because the credit card industry has such a long time to “prepare” for the new laws, many consumers in the meantime are getting slammed with higher interest rates, changes in due dates and decreased credit limits as the credit card issuers look to reduce their risks and prepare for the changes.
The changes that will take place in 2010 are the biggest changes made to the credit card industry in nearly 30 years. Regulators from the Federal Reserve, National Credit Union Administration and the Office of Thrift Supervision approved the changes in an effort to ensure the consumer protections stated by the Federal Trade Commission Act are being upheld. The Federal Trade Commission Act bans unfair and deceptive trade practices, and as any credit card user has probably experienced at one time or another – credit card practices are not always fair to consumers!
Not all consumers will benefit from the new credit card rules in 2010, though. While most credit card holders will receive protection from double-cycle billing processes, limits to how often and for what reason the interest rate can be increased, a set grace period for making payments without penalties and improved payment allocation so that additional payments will pay highest interest debt first – not everyone qualifies for these protections.
Commercial Credit Cards
Business credit cards are not considered “consumer” cards, and therefore do not receive the same level of protection. Whether you have a small, one person business or a large corporate company – the credit cards used for those businesses will not fall under the new protections to be implemented in 2010. Commercial cards are any cards used for business or corporations – including debit and prepaid cards, credit cards and store credit.
Businesses regularly rely on credit cards in order to improve their cash flow and grow their businesses. Unfortunately, if the credit card industry is forced to reduce deceptive and unfair practices on consumer cards, they may try to recover some of that lost revenues on business credit card holders who are not covered by the 2010 rules!
Returning Military
A teleconference was held in February to discuss the upcoming credit card requirements, with representatives from the Federal Reserve, National Credit Union Administration, Office of Thrift Supervision and Benjamin Olson – an attorney for the Federal Reserve in attendance. For more than two hours, the attorney and representatives answered questions from credit unions and credit card lending institutions regarding the 2010 rules.
A question was posed by a lending institution regarding returning Military personnel. Currently, there is a “Service Members' Civil Relief Act” that protects active military members while they're deployed by requiring credit card companies reduce interest rates on their credit cards to 6%. When the military members return home though, the rates are returned to their previous, usually much higher, amounts. In 2010, credit card lenders will be restricted involving when and how much interest rates can be increased for cardholders; and returning military personnel is not listed as one of the approved reasons to increase interest rates at this time.
The question stumped the Federal Reserve attorney and the situation is currently under review.
March 2, 2009 -- The Stanford-Poppy Bush Link - Wayne Madsen Report
March 2, 2009 -- The Stanford-Poppy Bush Link
publication date: Mar 1, 2009
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March 2, 2009 -- The Stanford-Poppy Bush Link
When "Sir" R. Allen Stanford decided to hide out in Fredericksburg, Virginia after trying to escape from Houston on a denied charter flight, he may have unwittingly provided investigators a key to an interlocking network of covert CIA front companies, airlines, and individuals dating back decades and involving a number of past covert activities, some of which developed into full-fledged scandals.
WMR has long written about the Houston-based marine salvaging company Oceaneering International. U.S. Judge Mark Fuller, who sentenced former Alabama Democratic Governor Don Siegelman to seven years in prison and is a Republican Party operative, declared on his financial disclosure statements that he has a financial interest in Oceaneering, as well as Doss Aviation, a contractor for the U.S. Air Force. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) is also reported to have a financial interest in both firms.
WMR previously revealed that Stanford Financial Group's aviation branch, Stanford Aviation, maintained an office in Fredericksburg co-located with two other aviation firms, Zenith Aviation and AV Craft, and a construction company, Abby Construction, a firm whose principal officer has a past link with Oceneering International.
In 1991, federal law enforcement agents raided AV Craft, Inc. in Miami, Florida. The firm, and others, were under investigation for selling bogus aircraft parts to major airlines like United Airlines. Other Florida firms raided were Classic Aviation Inc. of Hialeah and Air Advantage, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale. The Federal Aviation Administration refused to disclose the identities of aviation companies in Texas and Arizona that were also under investigation for selling bogus aircraft parts. An April 14, 2004, article in Frankfurter Rundschau as being located in San Antonio and being involved in the aircraft business in eastern Europe.
WMR has previously reported that U.S. intelligence sources have identified Oceaneering as a major CIA proprietary firm and one that inherited much of the previous covert marine business from another proprietary, Zapata Off-shore Drilling Company of Houston. Oceaneering is also headquartered in Houston having moved its headquarters from Santa Barbara, California to Houston in March 1980.
Oceaneering acquired a number of other firms after its move to Houston. Canada's off-shore surveying company Marinav Co. was acquired in 1982. In 1983, Oceaneering took over Steadfast Marine Inc, the U.S. Navy's marine search firm. Steadfast became Oceaneering's East Coast Division with locations in McLean, Virginia, just around the corner from the CIA's main gate, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 1984, Oceaneering acquired Solus Ocean Systems Inc. from Enserch of Dallas.
Oceaneering was contracted by the U.S. Navy to find the wreckage of Korean Airlines 007, shot down by the Soviet Union in 1983, and the space shuttle Challenger.
Oceaneering's acquisitions occurred under its chief executive officer J. Wesley Rogers. He had previously served as Oceaneering's executive vice president responsible for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. He also served on the board of Texas Commerce Bank-Lakeside.
On August 21, 2005, WMR reported: "The Bush family off-shore money tranches originated with gold bars and jewels spirited out of the Philippines upon the overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. The Marcos fortune was the price exacted by Vice President Bush for his being granted asylum in Hawaii. The gold bars were transported from the Philippines to the International Diamond Exchange Vaults near Rockefeller Center. A CIA proprietary firm called Oceaneering International of Houston procured barges to move some of the gold from secured warehouses to a specially-configured Boeing 747 which then flew the cargo to New York Oceaneering sealifted the remaining gold to Oregon. After George W. Bush’s victory in 2000, the last of the gold and jewels stored in New York was moved to UBS Bank in Zurich. Marcos and Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi set about to create Five Star Trust in 1983 as a means to create a vehicle to use the Philippine wealth to create and funnel fungible assets abroad. In 1989, Five Star Trust was officially established in the Isle of Man by a Houston-based attorney who was a close friend of the Bush family."
On July 12, 1986, Oceneering's Rogers died, along with his instructor pilot and a passenger, in a plane crash in a marshy area west of Galveston. Marcos had fled the Philippines for Hawaii in February 1986. Rogers was succeeded by John R. Huff, a veteran of Zapata Offshore, George H. W. Bush's old company that assisted the CIA in the Bay of Pigs invasion, Western Oceanic, and The Offshore Company, which became Sonat Offshore. One of Sonat's vice presidents was H. Irvin Smith, who also once worked for Zapata Offshore. Huff had also been an financial adviser for Falcon Partners, an investment bank.
In May 2006, Huff stepped down as CEO of Oceaneering, although he remained as non-executive chairman of the board of directors. In 2007, after Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) separated from Halliburton, the firm once headed by Dick Cheney, Huff became a board member of KBR. William P. Utt, former President and Chief Executive Officer of Siez Energy North America, became President and CEO of KBR. Huff also became an energy industry adviser to Avista Capital Partners, a private equity firm.
Huff and Utt were major contributors to the Republican Party. Huff donated money to former President George W. Bush, Senators David Vitter (R-LA), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Representative Ken Calvert (R-CA), former Representative Jack Fields (R-TX), and the presidential campaigns of Rudolph Giuliani and Mitt Romney. Utt gave to former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Representative Joe Barton (R-TX), and former President Bush.
Fredericksburg provides a unique window on the shadowy world of the CIA's connections with international banking and finance, oil, and aviation. Zenith Aviation, which shares the same address with Stanford Aviation, is ironic. ZenithTechnical Enterprises, Inc. was the name of the CIA front company in Miami that spearheaded the Bay of Pigs invasion with the assistance of Bush's Zapata Offshore. Operating out of Zenith in an abandoned section of the University of Miami campus was the CIA's JM/WAVE that targeted Cuba with 400 CIA officers that ran 2000 agents around the region. JM/WAVE, the CIA's largest operation outside of Langley, was headed by Ted Shackley who WMR has connected to the October Surprise by the Reagan-Bush 1980 operation to sell weapons to Iran in return for retaining U.S. hostages until after the 1980 presidential election denying Jimmy Carter a second term. Shackley operated out of the same Rosslyn, Virginia building where the doomed SS Poet was chartered to sail the weapons to Iran.
Lee Harvey Oswald's Dallas handler, George DeMohrenschildt, was found shot to death just prior to his 1977 testimony on the John F. Kennedy assassination to the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Found later in DeMohrenschildt's personal phone book was the following entry: "Bush, George H.W. (Poppy) 1412 W. Ohio also Zapata Petroleum Midland."
The CIA's code name for the Bay of Pigs invasion was "Operation ZAPATA." The names of the ships supplied by Zapata Offshore for the invasion were "Barbara" and "Houston."
Another person who operated out of 1911 North Fort Myer Drive in Rosslyn was Air Force General Richard Secord, one of the Iran-Contra conspirators. His firms share the name "Stanford" with the Stanford Financial Group empire of R. Allen Stanford, recently of Fredericksburg, home to some others with ties to the old CIA network. Secord was half-owner of Stanford Technology Trading Group Inc. of Virginia, along with Albert Hakim, another Iran-Contra conspirator, and a director of Stanford Technology Corporation of California. Hakim also controlled Stanford Technology Corporation S.A., in Panama, Sci Tech Trading Group Inc., and StanfordTechnology Corporation Services S.A. in Switzerland. Secord's Stanford Technology was used to purchase a 1973 Piper Seneca I from Blaxton Air craft Sales of Trinity, Alabama in 1985 but failed to immediately register the plane with the FAA. Unlike normal Pipers, the plane Secord bought could reach an altitude of 20,000 feet and had a range of 750 miles.
Poppy Bush is getting frail in his later years and will soon depart the scene, joining his past colleagues in covert crimes, Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, Ted Shackley, William Casey, and E. Howard Hunt in "spys' Hell." But as a March 9, 1983, letter from Bush to CIA director Casey reveals, Bush has a designated successor, someone that he was in personal contact with as Vice President and the only name not redacted in the otherwise name-redacted letter: Barack Obama's Secretary of Defense, Bob Gates.
With Gates at the Pentagon and retired Admiral Dennis Blair as Director of National Intelligence, little can be expected from the Obama administration in getting to the bottom of a massive covert intelligence operation that has had the United States under siege since 1961. The latest manifestation of that operation is the Stanford Financial Group fraud, the latest in a parade of the savings and loans, BCCI, and Enron.
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publication date: Mar 1, 2009
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March 2, 2009 -- The Stanford-Poppy Bush Link
When "Sir" R. Allen Stanford decided to hide out in Fredericksburg, Virginia after trying to escape from Houston on a denied charter flight, he may have unwittingly provided investigators a key to an interlocking network of covert CIA front companies, airlines, and individuals dating back decades and involving a number of past covert activities, some of which developed into full-fledged scandals.
WMR has long written about the Houston-based marine salvaging company Oceaneering International. U.S. Judge Mark Fuller, who sentenced former Alabama Democratic Governor Don Siegelman to seven years in prison and is a Republican Party operative, declared on his financial disclosure statements that he has a financial interest in Oceaneering, as well as Doss Aviation, a contractor for the U.S. Air Force. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) is also reported to have a financial interest in both firms.
WMR previously revealed that Stanford Financial Group's aviation branch, Stanford Aviation, maintained an office in Fredericksburg co-located with two other aviation firms, Zenith Aviation and AV Craft, and a construction company, Abby Construction, a firm whose principal officer has a past link with Oceneering International.
In 1991, federal law enforcement agents raided AV Craft, Inc. in Miami, Florida. The firm, and others, were under investigation for selling bogus aircraft parts to major airlines like United Airlines. Other Florida firms raided were Classic Aviation Inc. of Hialeah and Air Advantage, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale. The Federal Aviation Administration refused to disclose the identities of aviation companies in Texas and Arizona that were also under investigation for selling bogus aircraft parts. An April 14, 2004, article in Frankfurter Rundschau as being located in San Antonio and being involved in the aircraft business in eastern Europe.
WMR has previously reported that U.S. intelligence sources have identified Oceaneering as a major CIA proprietary firm and one that inherited much of the previous covert marine business from another proprietary, Zapata Off-shore Drilling Company of Houston. Oceaneering is also headquartered in Houston having moved its headquarters from Santa Barbara, California to Houston in March 1980.
Oceaneering acquired a number of other firms after its move to Houston. Canada's off-shore surveying company Marinav Co. was acquired in 1982. In 1983, Oceaneering took over Steadfast Marine Inc, the U.S. Navy's marine search firm. Steadfast became Oceaneering's East Coast Division with locations in McLean, Virginia, just around the corner from the CIA's main gate, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 1984, Oceaneering acquired Solus Ocean Systems Inc. from Enserch of Dallas.
Oceaneering was contracted by the U.S. Navy to find the wreckage of Korean Airlines 007, shot down by the Soviet Union in 1983, and the space shuttle Challenger.
Oceaneering's acquisitions occurred under its chief executive officer J. Wesley Rogers. He had previously served as Oceaneering's executive vice president responsible for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. He also served on the board of Texas Commerce Bank-Lakeside.
On August 21, 2005, WMR reported: "The Bush family off-shore money tranches originated with gold bars and jewels spirited out of the Philippines upon the overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. The Marcos fortune was the price exacted by Vice President Bush for his being granted asylum in Hawaii. The gold bars were transported from the Philippines to the International Diamond Exchange Vaults near Rockefeller Center. A CIA proprietary firm called Oceaneering International of Houston procured barges to move some of the gold from secured warehouses to a specially-configured Boeing 747 which then flew the cargo to New York Oceaneering sealifted the remaining gold to Oregon. After George W. Bush’s victory in 2000, the last of the gold and jewels stored in New York was moved to UBS Bank in Zurich. Marcos and Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi set about to create Five Star Trust in 1983 as a means to create a vehicle to use the Philippine wealth to create and funnel fungible assets abroad. In 1989, Five Star Trust was officially established in the Isle of Man by a Houston-based attorney who was a close friend of the Bush family."
On July 12, 1986, Oceneering's Rogers died, along with his instructor pilot and a passenger, in a plane crash in a marshy area west of Galveston. Marcos had fled the Philippines for Hawaii in February 1986. Rogers was succeeded by John R. Huff, a veteran of Zapata Offshore, George H. W. Bush's old company that assisted the CIA in the Bay of Pigs invasion, Western Oceanic, and The Offshore Company, which became Sonat Offshore. One of Sonat's vice presidents was H. Irvin Smith, who also once worked for Zapata Offshore. Huff had also been an financial adviser for Falcon Partners, an investment bank.
In May 2006, Huff stepped down as CEO of Oceaneering, although he remained as non-executive chairman of the board of directors. In 2007, after Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) separated from Halliburton, the firm once headed by Dick Cheney, Huff became a board member of KBR. William P. Utt, former President and Chief Executive Officer of Siez Energy North America, became President and CEO of KBR. Huff also became an energy industry adviser to Avista Capital Partners, a private equity firm.
Huff and Utt were major contributors to the Republican Party. Huff donated money to former President George W. Bush, Senators David Vitter (R-LA), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Representative Ken Calvert (R-CA), former Representative Jack Fields (R-TX), and the presidential campaigns of Rudolph Giuliani and Mitt Romney. Utt gave to former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Representative Joe Barton (R-TX), and former President Bush.
Fredericksburg provides a unique window on the shadowy world of the CIA's connections with international banking and finance, oil, and aviation. Zenith Aviation, which shares the same address with Stanford Aviation, is ironic. ZenithTechnical Enterprises, Inc. was the name of the CIA front company in Miami that spearheaded the Bay of Pigs invasion with the assistance of Bush's Zapata Offshore. Operating out of Zenith in an abandoned section of the University of Miami campus was the CIA's JM/WAVE that targeted Cuba with 400 CIA officers that ran 2000 agents around the region. JM/WAVE, the CIA's largest operation outside of Langley, was headed by Ted Shackley who WMR has connected to the October Surprise by the Reagan-Bush 1980 operation to sell weapons to Iran in return for retaining U.S. hostages until after the 1980 presidential election denying Jimmy Carter a second term. Shackley operated out of the same Rosslyn, Virginia building where the doomed SS Poet was chartered to sail the weapons to Iran.
Lee Harvey Oswald's Dallas handler, George DeMohrenschildt, was found shot to death just prior to his 1977 testimony on the John F. Kennedy assassination to the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Found later in DeMohrenschildt's personal phone book was the following entry: "Bush, George H.W. (Poppy) 1412 W. Ohio also Zapata Petroleum Midland."
The CIA's code name for the Bay of Pigs invasion was "Operation ZAPATA." The names of the ships supplied by Zapata Offshore for the invasion were "Barbara" and "Houston."
Another person who operated out of 1911 North Fort Myer Drive in Rosslyn was Air Force General Richard Secord, one of the Iran-Contra conspirators. His firms share the name "Stanford" with the Stanford Financial Group empire of R. Allen Stanford, recently of Fredericksburg, home to some others with ties to the old CIA network. Secord was half-owner of Stanford Technology Trading Group Inc. of Virginia, along with Albert Hakim, another Iran-Contra conspirator, and a director of Stanford Technology Corporation of California. Hakim also controlled Stanford Technology Corporation S.A., in Panama, Sci Tech Trading Group Inc., and StanfordTechnology Corporation Services S.A. in Switzerland. Secord's Stanford Technology was used to purchase a 1973 Piper Seneca I from Blaxton Air craft Sales of Trinity, Alabama in 1985 but failed to immediately register the plane with the FAA. Unlike normal Pipers, the plane Secord bought could reach an altitude of 20,000 feet and had a range of 750 miles.
Poppy Bush is getting frail in his later years and will soon depart the scene, joining his past colleagues in covert crimes, Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, Ted Shackley, William Casey, and E. Howard Hunt in "spys' Hell." But as a March 9, 1983, letter from Bush to CIA director Casey reveals, Bush has a designated successor, someone that he was in personal contact with as Vice President and the only name not redacted in the otherwise name-redacted letter: Barack Obama's Secretary of Defense, Bob Gates.
With Gates at the Pentagon and retired Admiral Dennis Blair as Director of National Intelligence, little can be expected from the Obama administration in getting to the bottom of a massive covert intelligence operation that has had the United States under siege since 1961. The latest manifestation of that operation is the Stanford Financial Group fraud, the latest in a parade of the savings and loans, BCCI, and Enron.
Readers are solely responsible for the content of the comments they post on this web site. Comments are subject to the site's terms and conditions of use and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or approval of Wayne Madsen Report.com. Readers whose comments violate the terms of use may have their comments removed or all of their content blocked from viewing by other users without notification.
AIG's new $30 billion handout to protect a U.S. intelligence - Wayne Madsen Report
March 2, 2009 -- AIG's new $30 billion handout to protect a U.S. intelligence operation
publication date: Mar 2, 2009
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March 2, 2009 -- AIG's new $30 billion handout to protect a U.S. intelligence operation
This just in from our intrepid source in Asia:
Maybe with now the Third Bailout, it's time to ask the hard questions about AIG.
The third bailout fund for AIG of 30 billion US dollars makes that insurance company the largest corporate recipient of federal funds, according to Bloomberg, which calculates its debt to the government at 70 billion dollars. AIG requested the third tranche, claiming that it could find no buyers for its Asian insurance operation, AIA.
This is patently untrue. In fact, China Life has shown strong interest in purchasing AIA's (AIG's Asian unit) assets in the Greater China region but, insurance industry insiders say, was rebuffed by AIG's asking price, which was astronomical considering the company's heavy debt burden. The transfer of AIA to the federal government, probably to protect sensitive private data that cannot be shared with foreign companies without igniting a major scandal, confirms suspicions long held about the 'revolving door' between AIG executives and the US intelligence agents.
Intelligence agencies in Japan, Indonesia and China have long suspected that AIG and its Asian unit, AIA, were heavily used as cover for placement of NOC agents, eavesdropping operations and for collecting private data unrelated to insurance matters on their nationals.
The links between the American International Group and the U.S. intelligence establishment were disguised by less than a fig leaf. This former CEO and chairman Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, who promotes himself as old China hand was a longtime member of the National Intelligence Council and adviser to the National Economic Council. Kenneth Starr's uncle, Cornelius Vander Starr, was also a top executive with the far-flung insurance company.
Beijing has kept a hawk eye on AIG's data collecting on Chinese citizens, which got a boost by hiring exiled Chinese dissidents following the Tiananmen incident. In more recent times, the new AIG tower on the posh downtown Hong Kong waterfront raised eyebrows for its fortress-like design and antennas spouting peeking out from its angular upper floors.
Considering the estimated 60 billion in losses sustained by AIG thus far, the Obama administration has an obligation to disclose to both investors and taxpayers the extent of US intelligence manipulation of the insurance company - and whether Agency officials were involved in diverting funds from the company to finance 'black operations' or to line their own pockets. Did the Agency-based executives run AIG into the ground by funneling corporate funds into covert operations outside of congressional authority? Or were billions simply spend on slush funds?
In Hong Kong, NOCs in AIG were known to lead the high life in vast and expensive expat apartments, wining and dining in tycoon-level restaurants and clubs, and keeping prostitutes on the AIA payroll disguised as insurance brokers. To local Hong Kongers who have a strong belief in 'feng shui', there was a dread of AIA since its first headquarters (still used as a back office) has windows shaped like coffins.
Readers are solely responsible for the content of the comments they post on this web site. Comments are subject to the site's terms and conditions of use and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or approval of Wayne Madsen Report.com. Readers whose comments violate the terms of use may have their comments removed or all of their content blocked from viewing by other users without notification.
publication date: Mar 2, 2009
Download Print
Previous | Next
March 2, 2009 -- AIG's new $30 billion handout to protect a U.S. intelligence operation
This just in from our intrepid source in Asia:
Maybe with now the Third Bailout, it's time to ask the hard questions about AIG.
The third bailout fund for AIG of 30 billion US dollars makes that insurance company the largest corporate recipient of federal funds, according to Bloomberg, which calculates its debt to the government at 70 billion dollars. AIG requested the third tranche, claiming that it could find no buyers for its Asian insurance operation, AIA.
This is patently untrue. In fact, China Life has shown strong interest in purchasing AIA's (AIG's Asian unit) assets in the Greater China region but, insurance industry insiders say, was rebuffed by AIG's asking price, which was astronomical considering the company's heavy debt burden. The transfer of AIA to the federal government, probably to protect sensitive private data that cannot be shared with foreign companies without igniting a major scandal, confirms suspicions long held about the 'revolving door' between AIG executives and the US intelligence agents.
Intelligence agencies in Japan, Indonesia and China have long suspected that AIG and its Asian unit, AIA, were heavily used as cover for placement of NOC agents, eavesdropping operations and for collecting private data unrelated to insurance matters on their nationals.
The links between the American International Group and the U.S. intelligence establishment were disguised by less than a fig leaf. This former CEO and chairman Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, who promotes himself as old China hand was a longtime member of the National Intelligence Council and adviser to the National Economic Council. Kenneth Starr's uncle, Cornelius Vander Starr, was also a top executive with the far-flung insurance company.
Beijing has kept a hawk eye on AIG's data collecting on Chinese citizens, which got a boost by hiring exiled Chinese dissidents following the Tiananmen incident. In more recent times, the new AIG tower on the posh downtown Hong Kong waterfront raised eyebrows for its fortress-like design and antennas spouting peeking out from its angular upper floors.
Considering the estimated 60 billion in losses sustained by AIG thus far, the Obama administration has an obligation to disclose to both investors and taxpayers the extent of US intelligence manipulation of the insurance company - and whether Agency officials were involved in diverting funds from the company to finance 'black operations' or to line their own pockets. Did the Agency-based executives run AIG into the ground by funneling corporate funds into covert operations outside of congressional authority? Or were billions simply spend on slush funds?
In Hong Kong, NOCs in AIG were known to lead the high life in vast and expensive expat apartments, wining and dining in tycoon-level restaurants and clubs, and keeping prostitutes on the AIA payroll disguised as insurance brokers. To local Hong Kongers who have a strong belief in 'feng shui', there was a dread of AIA since its first headquarters (still used as a back office) has windows shaped like coffins.
Readers are solely responsible for the content of the comments they post on this web site. Comments are subject to the site's terms and conditions of use and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or approval of Wayne Madsen Report.com. Readers whose comments violate the terms of use may have their comments removed or all of their content blocked from viewing by other users without notification.
Is George Soros a Global Warming Turncoat?
JunkScience.com Update
March 2, 2009
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Is George Soros a Global Warming Turncoat?
By Steve Milloy
March 2, 2009, JunkScience.com
NASA's global-warming-alarmist-in-chief James Hansen is urging the public
to
join the likes of Greenpeace and the Ruckus Society and others in a
March 2 rally in Washington to protest the burning of coal for
electricity.
But
before further clogging the already busy streets of the nation's
capital perhaps Hansen ought to first lay siege to the offices of
billionaire supporter George Soros...
Read the full column at JunkScience.com...
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102484074506&e=001T4lhkrOkdpyyhKHQMFpLEJZpcQamkegai9N4-NKuHqzNeY2cblGOOVJgdInT_A8LNCL2n0gzoCancu_5tKW1eVp9IxLr4XDJl5IVBSmEozsqk1LJpD9pFfxpSCP2YaUDamKma2092zXro4x8Cfi93g==]
Read the full column at Foxnews.com...
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Apocalypse? NO!
Why 'global warming isn't a global crisis!
Are Al Gore and the IPCC right about global warming being a planetary
emergency?
NO! ...
says the Viscount Monckton of Brenchley in a devastating 2007 lecture
delivered
at Cambridge University.
Watch Lord Monckton expose and eviscerate climate myth after climate myth.
"Climate
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havethe
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March 2, 2009
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Is George Soros a Global Warming Turncoat?
By Steve Milloy
March 2, 2009, JunkScience.com
NASA's global-warming-alarmist-in-chief James Hansen is urging the public
to
join the likes of Greenpeace and the Ruckus Society and others in a
March 2 rally in Washington to protest the burning of coal for
electricity.
But
before further clogging the already busy streets of the nation's
capital perhaps Hansen ought to first lay siege to the offices of
billionaire supporter George Soros...
Read the full column at JunkScience.com...
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102484074506&e=001T4lhkrOkdpyyhKHQMFpLEJZpcQamkegai9N4-NKuHqzNeY2cblGOOVJgdInT_A8LNCL2n0gzoCancu_5tKW1eVp9IxLr4XDJl5IVBSmEozsqk1LJpD9pFfxpSCP2YaUDamKma2092zXro4x8Cfi93g==]
Read the full column at Foxnews.com...
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102484074506&e=001T4lhkrOkdpxyzomsK9tFQxAOEeSd00Py-CLEF_dyN5igSPNBKBPr6okB_PgykUfdqZoR587bewTJJbs6ySemXkGPGXdffxRl2okyfZ-V4HtTJF026W4B3SYqCNhcRT4pT7ag_s854kd81q2-obt4_sxdo6wCZRkIN2wRsU6EA6mtN7h6FcA5dA==]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Apocalypse? NO!
Why 'global warming isn't a global crisis!
Are Al Gore and the IPCC right about global warming being a planetary
emergency?
NO! ...
says the Viscount Monckton of Brenchley in a devastating 2007 lecture
delivered
at Cambridge University.
Watch Lord Monckton expose and eviscerate climate myth after climate myth.
"Climate
change is a non-problem. The correct policy to address a non-problem is to
havethe
courage to do nothing," says lord Monckton.
DVD available in NTSC (US & Canada) and PAL (Europe and Asia).
GET IT AT THE
JunkScience.com Store
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102484074506&e=001T4lhkrOkdpw0kAjgOjGgPdzVT3K5kPY_qkI4M43To_DV-GlsV0xBA-yYRopyTkydM76P3m_6wLmZpLsZmPxysERWWH0uiI1po6LJ9cT0pi63dL8RkAQJuvA6aFTwExQF]!
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