America Facing Depression And Bankruptcy

Long-time economic, political and market analyst Bob Chapman publishes the International Forecaster, offering incisive analysis absent through mainstream sources, especially important now given America's deepening economic crisis getting harder to conceal as evidence mounts.

His August 25 issue says the following:

"Twenty countries (including America) are headed into bankruptcy and more will follow. That brings up the subject of state debt in the US. America has been in an inflationary depression for 18 months. States have been cutting back for two years," but still face huge budget gaps required to be closed....2011 will be a terrible year (with) 80% of states expect(ing) deficits of more than $200 billion. 2012 looks even worse." Most worrisome, "there is no recovery and there never has been....the US economy and financial system is comatose." The worst is yet to come and will hit hard on arrival.

On August 24, economist David Rosenberg said, "Now (I'll) tell you why this is a depression, and not just some garden-variety recession," what he's been repeating for months unlike few others, corporate analysts claiming the fall 2007 downturn "ended sometime last year." Not so, it's deepened, growing evidence providing more clarity.

Offering a historical perspective, Rosenberg said the Great Depression wasn't marked by declining GDP each quarter. The 1929 - 33 recession lasted four years, followed by recovery and another "deep downturn" in 1937 - 38.

During the first one, "there were no fewer than six - six! - quarterly bounces in GDP data," averaging 8% at an annual rate, accompanied by sharp market increases, then declines confirming false positives. So "guess what? We may be reliving history (now). If you're keeping score, we have recorded four quarterly advances in real GDP," averaging only 3%. The late 1930s reversal showed "how fragile the post-bubble recovery really was," a faux one again repeated in a weaker economy now than then, one headed for serious trouble ahead, harming millions more Americans as a result.

The Fed cut interest rates to near zero with no effect, at best buying time, resolving nothing. "Then the Fed tripled the size of its balance sheet - again with little sustained impetus to a broken financial system."

Weeks back, then confirmed with new data, Rosenberg stressed weakness, numerous indicators turning down, including production, retail sales, consumer confidence, and housing, a bellwether industry impacting the entire economy. New reports show it's collapsing, some readings to record lows, others disturbingly weak throughout the country.

July existing home sales dropped 25.5%, the largest monthly decline since records began in 1968, bringing annualized sales back to 1995 levels, and signaling worse trouble ahead. Other housing data confirm the malaise, including new home sales, housing starts and permits.

As worrisome were increasing layoffs and first-time unemployment claims hitting 500,000, flashing red for trouble nearly three years after the initial downturn, combined with a near-22% unemployment rate, not the bogus 9.5% headline number, the 1980 calculation reengineered to conceal weakness like all other fake economic data, putting lipstick on an economy, increasingly looking and smelling more like a pig, a sick one.

According to Rosenberg, "You know you are in a depression when:

-- "Congress (extends) jobless benefits seven times (in the past two years) when almost half (of those) unemployed have been looking for at least a half year;"

-- the adult male unemployment rate (25 - 54 years) "hit a post-WW II (high and still tops) the 1982 peak," the worst then since the Great Depression;

-- "youth unemployment is stuck near 25%," and for inner-city black youths it's 80% or higher; "these developments will have profound long-term consequences - social, economic and political;"

-- the depression's fiscal costs keep mounting, the federal deficit soaring with no end to it in sight;

-- for over a year into a supposed recovery, the Fed still contemplates new ways to stimulate growth, its tool, of course, printing money (funny money, or as one analyst calls it, "toilet paper") and quantitative easing, compounding the deficit, or the equivalent of throwing fuel on a fire instead of monetary and fiscal sanity plus sound economy policies to extinguish it;

-- after two years of record trillion dollar plus deficits to kick-start the economy, interest rates are shockingly low, flashing weakness, not strength; to wit, on August 24, the 5-year note was 1.36%, 7-year at $1.95%, 10-year at 2.50%, and 30 year at 3.57%; as well as 30-year fixed mortgage rates at record lows below 4.5% (4.42% on August 24), despite "no fewer than eight (government) programs to put a floor under the housing market;" we're in big trouble "when (Washington) can expend so many resources (on) one sector" in vain;

-- the FDIC keeps shuttering more banks; again, the carnage keeps spreading, yet most economists cling tenaciously an economic recovery theme, at most hit by a soft patch; Rosenberg's response - "Some recovery (when) the private credit market is basically defunct....what replaced it was rampant government intervention (buying time) by trying to (put) a floor under the economy;" once it stops, and it will, they'll be no hiding the dire truth, and no end of pain for growing millions.

The Worst Is Yet to Come

Financial expert and investor safety advocate Martin Weiss began warning about a major economic decline long before it began and keeps at it, citing evidence most analysts downplay or ignore, including:

-- America's worst ever housing depression showing no signs of abating; since January 2006, housing starts alone have plunged from 2.3 million annually to a recent 477,000 low that may not yet reflect a bottom because demand is so weak for this bellwether industry;

-- record long-term unemployment, its worst since first officially tabulated over 60 years ago; and

-- "the most chronic credit squeeze ever recorded....suffer(ing) its deepest plunge since WW II."

As a result, he sees deepening economic trouble ahead, no matter what steps the administration, Congress or the Fed undertake. He expects little more stimulus, just another futile central bank attempt to print money (lots of it) to buy time. "These paper dollars will not create real prosperity," just an illusory, "temporary, false prosperity," but none at all for most people, hung out to dry on their own.

He also expects a sovereign debt crisis to hammer Europe and the US, saying America's plight exceeds the dire situation of PIIGS countries (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain), citing the Bank of International Settlements (the central bank of central bankers) saying US debt will hit 400% of GDP, more than triple Greece's burden at 129% that plunged the country into (undeclared) bankruptcy. Indeed the worst for America is yet to come..

America Is Already Bankrupt

Boston University Economics Professor Laurence Kotlikoff explains it in his August 10 article, titled "US Is Bankrupt and We Don't Even Know It," saying:

"Let's get real. The US is bankrupt. Neither spending more nor taxing less will help the country pay its bills." What's needed, he says, is reengineering the economy by "radically simplify(ing) its tax, healthcare, retirement and financial systems...." Revitalization depends on it with unfunded liabilities topping $110 trillion and growing. Even the IMF is worried, saying "closing (America's) fiscal gap requires a permanent annual fiscal adjustment equal to about 14 percent of US GDP," meaning, of course, from working households, not corporate interests or national security, the most glaring areas needing reform.

The fiscal gap represents "the difference between projected spending (including debt service) and projected revenue in all future years. (It's) the government's credit-card bill and each year's 14 percent GDP is the interest on that bill."

When it's not paid, it increases the balance owed. And each trillion the Fed prints bailing out bankers compounds it. Make them pay, not the public they robbed, starting with shutting them down, breaking them up, seizing their assets, and nationalizing them for the collective good.

Kotlikoff is scary saying "Uncle Sam's Ponzi scheme will stop, (perhaps) in a very nasty manner," citing three possibilities:

(1) massive benefit cuts on retirees;

(2) huge tax increases hitting working Americans hardest, and/or

(3) printing vast amounts of money ad infinitum until debt overload crashes the economy eventually.

Calling America "Worse than Greece," he believes "Most likely we will see a combination of all three responses with dramatic increases in poverty, tax(es), interest rates and consumer prices," the path we're on heading us for the worst of all possible worlds.

Based on the latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data, he calculates a $202 trillion fiscal gap - "more than 15 times the official debt" because Congress "label(s) most of its liabilities 'unofficial' to keep them off the books, (out of sight) and far in the future" to concern other officials, not them. Labeling, of course, isn't fixing. It's just concealing unpleasant realities, letting others, not them, face the music in out years.

Current federal revenue totals $14.9% of GDP, the IMF saying that closing it requires "an immediate and permanent doubling of our personal-income, corporate and federal taxes as well as the payroll levy set down in the Federal Insurance Contribution Act."

Such policy would produce a 5% surplus this year, the IMF prescribing ad infinitum fiscal austerity, saying delay will make it tougher ahead. "Is the IMF bonkers?" Not at all, just preferential, wanting workers, not special interests hit hardest, the way it's raped and mauled economies for years, serving capital, not people, now aiming at America, the biggest plum of all ripe for plucking with millions of vulnerable households, easy pickings for the powerful, harming, not relieving their needs by:

-- cutting wages and benefits;

-- destroying, not creating jobs; privatizing everything for private gain; and

-- turning America into Guatemala, a corporatist's dream.

Indeed let's get real. Bad policy begets bad results, and bad solutions makes it worse. For sure, America is "broke and can no longer afford no-pain, all-gain 'solutions.' "

It needs responsible ones, too many to list, but here's a few:

-- end imperial wars and a bloated defense budget;

-- reinvent government to make it responsive to public needs and democratic values;

-- make offenders pay most, starting with Wall Street, defense contractors, Big Oil, Big Pharma, Agribusiness, and other corporate predators profiting at public expense for decades;

-- make now the time for payback, assuring their victims fair and equitable reimbursements;

-- reinvigorate industrial America;

-- end Wall Street's financial chokehold;

-- return money creation power to Congress as the Constitution mandates;

-- encourage publicly-owned state banks like North Dakota's, making it prosperous when most states are debt-strapped and faltering;

-- create full-time, good-paying jobs with benefits; don't destroy them;

-- bring back those offshored;

-- protect homeowners from foreclosure;

-- re-institute progressive taxes, including a Tobin tax (perhaps 1%) on all speculative financial transactions, a millionaire's/Wall Street bank levy generating a huge windfall, enough to smack if not close the budget gap, making those most able pay; for example, the Bank for International Settlements estimated annual 2008 global over-the-counter derivatives trading at $743 trillion; a 1% tax would yield $7.43 trillion, and if taxes curbed speculation, the take would still be enormous;

-- dismantle corporate predators;

-- think small and local, not big and global;

-- reinstitute financial, environmental, and other consumer-friendly regulations;

-- get money out of politics;

-- end the two-party monopoly;

-- institutionalize a free, open, fair media and Internet;

-- assure equitable social benefits for all, including universal, single-payer health care, government-supported public and higher education, and more; and

-- reinvigorate an eroding democracy before it's too late to matter.

Responsible policies, all of the above and more, will reinvigorate America. The unsustainable fiscal crisis is reason enough to do it.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Farmer sues French MoD after two low-flying fighter planes 'frighten 4,800 chickens to death'

A French farmer is suing his country’s Ministry of Defence after two low-flying fighter jets caused 4,800 of his chickens to drop dead.

Etienne Le Mehaute said there was an 'almighty din' when the planes passed over his farm in Pelguien, Brittany, on Tuesday afternoon.

'We were having lunch when there this enormous roar of engines,' said Mr Le Mahaute. ‘We could feel the shockwaves down our back.

‘The chickens were absolutely terrified and thousands dropped dead. We piled their bodies up and there were some 4,800 who did not pull through.’

Noisy: A French farmer is suing his country's Ministry of Defence after two low-flying fighter jets caused 4,800 of his chickens to drop dead (file picture)

Mr Le Mehaute, who has around 68,000 birds in total, wants £12,000 from the MoD for his loss.

MoD spokesman Frederic Solano has confirmed two jets were in the area at the time, but denied they broke low-flying regulations. He said an investigation into the deaths had been launch.

The British government regularly pays out compensation to civilians who complain about noisy military jets.

Last year defence chiefs paid out £42,000 to a Staffordshire farmer whose chickens laid fewer eggs because they were frightened by the Red Arrows display team.

And another £117,000 was handed over to a Yorkshire racehorse owner after the animal injured itself when it was spooked by jets.

A total of £7.6million has been paid out in damages over the past four years because of military noise pollution, according to official documents released earlier this year.

Rural Brittany: Mr Le Mehaute said there was an 'almighty din' when the planes passed over his farm in Pelguien

CASPER OPINION: AUGUST 28, 2010

From Jackson Hole Helicopter Ben says he and his helicopter are ready with more of the same, debts and deficits, and the Market jumps 160 points. As the 'world' says NO louder and louder, no more toilet paper money, Ben and the Corporation prepare another tsunami of debt in pursuit of 'the Status Quo' which is intentionally bankrupting the country. Having already admitted they are Monetizing the Debt they now say more and more of the same will result in a different outcome than experienced to date.

Deeper and deeper into the Black Hole announced from Jackson Hole.

'The people', acting through their Mutual Funds, have withdrawn 33 Billion from the markets so far this year.

Someone wrote saying 'you are just another Glenn Beck' and the Corporation led by Obama are the good guys. 'None are so blind', etc.. The theme of Becks Big Deal in D.C. today is "Faith, Hope and Charity" which the kool-aid drinkers view as undermining the country and the Obama Administration. No to the former, yes to the latter.

By now you are aware Obama and Hillary have charged America and Arizona with Human Rights violations at the U.N. where Cameroon is to be one of the countries sitting in judgment of the United States. Imagine putting a non-free country on a U.N. Human Rights Commission. Imagine a U.S. President and Secretary of State doing such a thing. Wake up America, the Criminal Cabal in CONTROL of Washington D.C. are not Americans, they are NWO Traitors. Posted on RMN this morning is an article from Watcher/VKD quoting Obama as saying in a 2008 'Meet the Press' interview he and Michelle do not place their hands over their hearts at the playing of the National Anthem as he does not want to be perceived as 'taking sides'. And, that our National Anthem should be changed to 'I'd Like to Teach The World to Sing'. La La Land Liberals. Liberalism is a Mental Disorder. Neither of their feet is grounded in reality, they are void of Common Sense.

By now you are aware of yesterdays breaking news that Obama has committed portions of 'The Stimulus Plan Money' to the repair of Mosques and Muslim Statues Worldwide. No, I am not kidding, WAKE UP. No wonder 'THEY' need Cap and Trade taxes, International Taxation based on a SCAM called MANMADE Global Warming. And, he wants the Mosque at Ground Zero and is playing golf at Martha's Vineyard yesterday with the Mayor of New York, Bloomberg, to figure out how to ram it down Americas throat. And, don't forget, HR-1388 (Hamas to U.S.A.) was just passed and he has signed an Exec. Order allocating Twenty Million Dollars to bring HAMAS members to the U.S. permanently with all the usual 'perks', free housing, etc.. As he said in his book, when push comes to shove 'I will stand with the Muslims' and, according to the President of Egypt, he admits to being a Muslim while in Muslim Countries. Now comes the 'collusion' as described in last nights update. And still no Birth Certificate. Do you not wonder why? It is because he was not born in the U.S. and is not 'Constitutionally Qualified' to be President. That why the Democratic Party would not certify him to be Const. Qualified to run for office, the first time in history such a thing has happened proving the Democratic Party was in on the Communist Takeover of America from the very beginning, since before he was elected with his subterfuge of 'hope and change'. Their 'hope' realized, a 'change' to a Communist State with the Liberal Elite in CONTROL permanently. He is a SHILL for the NWO and is President of a Corporation acting as Legitimate Government when in fact they are nothing more than a Criminal Financial Cabal. His deceit, his Treason, his Marxist/Communist NWO plans for America are supported by all Muslim Nations which are demanding that he be allowed to continue with the destruction of our Country. A PARTICIPATING Main Street Media, most of which are Liberal Extremist themselves, are assisting this 'Hope and Change' conversion to Communism in every possible way. Unless the 'Glenn Becks' of this Country are somehow able to 'Bust Through' the Ideological Blindness of the Kool-aid Crowd Freedom and Free Enterprise will be a historical novelty by the end of his first term.

Quoting an Illinois Congressman last week, an Obama sidekick, when asked a question about the Constitution replied, 'I don't have time for such silliness'.

Another 473,000 first time applicants for unemployment LAST WEEK, 400,000 to 500,000 every week.

Poor Biden, as Rome Burns he is ordered to carry publicly the 'All is Well' message. They are not blind or stupid, they know exactly what they are doing. Their NWO is to be constructed upon the ruins of the United States. In all the goings on described in these updates Obama, Biden and Hillary are joined at the hip. Anything, anything at all, to preserve the Status Quo and their Fraudulent Financial Playpen and to stop the disclosures of their TREASONOUS Actions against the American people. Government Payola to the Unions, Acorn and all supporters of their 'takeover' using generations of taxpayer funds and liabilities as their 'piggy bank' is insidious, corrupt and just one example of their use of the public purse to purchase support. They are doing the same Internationally, issuing domestic debt to fund such as Mosque Repair Worldwide with U.S. Taxpayer Funds and this is minor when compared to the Hundreds of Billions being funneled to Foreign Central Banks. The 'Printing Press' and 'The Color of Law' and the 'Mortgaged Future' of Americans are being used to steamroll opposition to their insanity. We are paying for the rope and the construction of the scaffolding to used at our hanging.

The TAKEDOWN of America is essential to the construction of a 'Controllable' NWO. Will they succeed? The WAR rages on as you can observe from the updates but no, they will not succeed because they can not get at the Real Money, the metals backed money. They are entrapped in a FIAT Hell of their own making. "No one is going to get me out of the White House" says Obama. When he loses the 'purchasing/bribery' capacity of the toilet paper Printing Press, coupled with the exposures and disclosures, he will be lucky is he is still welcomed in Kenya.

casper 8-28-10 opinion

Why General Petraeus’ Assassination Inc. Threatens Us All

"[General McChrystal says that] for every innocent person you kill, you create 10 new enemies." —"The Runaway General," Rolling Stone, 6/22/10

The truth that many Americans find hard to take is that that mass U.S. assassination on a scale unequaled in world history lies at the heart of America’s military strategy in the Muslim world, a policy both illegal and never seriously debated by Congress or the American people. Conducting assassination operations throughout the 1.3 billon-strong Muslim world will inevitably increase the murder of civilians and thus create exponentially more "enemies," as Gen. McChrystal suggests—posing a major long-term threat to U.S. national security. This mass assassination program, sold as defending Americans, is actually endangering us all. Those responsible for it, primarily General Petraeus, are recklessly seeking short-term tactical advantage while making an enormous long-term strategic error that could lead to countless American deaths in the years and decades to come. General Petraeus must be replaced, and the U.S. military’s policy of direct and mass assassination of Muslims ended.

The U.S. has conducted assassination programs in the Third World for decades, but the actual killing—though directed and financed by the C.I.A.—has been largely left to local paramilitary and police forces. This has now has changed dramatically.

What is unprecedented today is the vast number of Americans directly assassinating Muslims—through greatly expanded U.S. military Special Operations teams, U.S. drone strikes and private espionage networks run by former CIA assassins and torturers. Most significant is the expanding geographic scope of their killing. While CENTCOM Commander from October 2008 until July 2010, General Petraeus received secret and unprecedented permission to unilaterally engage in operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, former Russian Republics, Yemen, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, the Horn of Africa, and wherever else he deems necessary.

Never before has a nation unleashed so many assassins in so many foreign nations around the world (9,000 Special Operations soldiers are based in Iraq and Afghanistan alone) as well as implemented a policy that can be best described as unprecedented, remote-control, large-scale "mechanized assassination." As the N.Y. Times noted in December 2009: "For the first time in history, a civilian intelligence agency is using robots to carry out a military mission, selecting people for killing in a country where the United States is not officially at war."

This combination of human and technological murder amounts to a worldwide “Assassination Inc.” that is unique in human affairs.

The increasing shift to direct U.S. assassination began on Petraeus’s watch in Iraq,where targeted assassination was considered by many within the military to be more important than the "surge." The killing of Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was considered a major triumph that significantly reduced the level of violence. As Bob Woodward reported in The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008:

"Beginning in about May 2006, the U.S. military and the U.S. intelligence agencies launched a series of top secret operations that enabled them to locate, target and kill key individuals in extremist groups. A number of authoritative sources say these covert activities had a far-reaching effect on the violence and were very possibly the biggest factor in reducing it. Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) responsible for hunting al Qaeda in Iraq, (conducted) lightning-quick and sometimes concurrent operations When I later asked the president (Bush) about this, he offered a simple answer: ‘JSOC is awesome.’" [Emphasis added.]

Woodward’s finding that many "authoritative sources" believed assassination more important than the surge is buttressed by Petraeus’ appointment of McChrystal to lead U.S. forces in Afghanistan. McChrystal’s major qualification for the post was clearly his perceived expertise in assassination while heading JSOC from 2003-‘08 (where he also conducted extensive torture at "Camp Nama" at Baghdad International Airport, successfully excluding even the Red Cross).

Another key reason for the increased reliance on assassination is that Petraeus’ announced counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan obviously cannot work. It is absurd to believe that the corrupt warlords and cronies who make up the "Afghan government" can be transformed into the viable entity upon which his strategy publicly claims to depend—particularly within the next year which President Obama has set as a deadline before beginning to withdraw U.S. troops. Petraeus is instead largely relying on mass assassination to try and eliminate the Taliban, both within Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The centrality of assassination to U.S. war plans is revealed by the fact that it was at the heart of the Obama review of Afghan policy last fall. The dovish Biden position called for relying primarily on assassination, while the hawkish McChrystal stance embraced both assassination and more troops. No other options were seriously considered.

A third factor behind the shift to mass assassination is that Petraeus and the U.S. military are also determined to attack jihadi forces in nations where the U.S. is not at war, and which are not prepared to openly invite in U.S. forces. As the N.Y. Times reported on May 24, "General Petraeus (has argued) that troops need to operate beyond Iraq and Afghanistan to better fight militant groups."

The most significant aspect of this new and expanded assassination policy is President Obama’s authorizing clandestine U.S. military personnel to conduct it. The N.Y. Times has also reported:

In roughly a dozen countries—from the deserts of North Africa, to the mountains of Pakistan, to former Soviet republics crippled by ethnic and religious strife—the United States has significantly increased military and intelligence operations, pursuing the enemy using robotic drones and commando teams, paying contractors to spy and training local operatives to chase terrorists (Military) Special Operations troops under secret "Execute Orders" have conducted spying missions that were once the preserve of civilian intelligence agencies.

Particularly extraordinary is the fact that these vastly expanded military assassination teams are not subject to serious civilian control. As the N.Y. Times has also reported, Petraeus in September 2009 secretly expanded a worldwide force of assassins answerable only to the military, without oversight by not only Congress but the president himself:

The top American commander in the Middle East has ordered a broad expansion of clandestine military activity in an effort to disrupt militant groups or counter threats in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and other countries in the region, according to defense officials and military documents. The secret directive, signed in September by Gen. David H. Petraeus, authorizes the sending of American Special Operations troops to both friendly and hostile nations in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa. Unlike covert actions undertaken by the C.I.A., such clandestine activity does not require the president’s approval or regular reports to Congress. [Emphasis added]

Although sold to the American public and Congress as targeted, selective assassination aimed only at a handful of "high value" insurgent leaders, the program has in fact already expanded far beyond that. As personnel and aircraft devoted to assassination exponentially increase, so too do the numbers of people they murder, both "insurgents" and civilians.

While it is reasonable to assume that expanding the number of Special Operations commandos to its present worldwide level of 13,000 will result in increasing assassinations, the secrecy of their operations makes it impossible to know how many they have murdered, how many of those are civilians, and the effectiveness of their operations. It is not known, for example, how many people U.S. military assassins murder directly, and how many they kill indirectly by identifying them for drone strikes. Much of their activity is conducted, for example, in North Waziristan in northwest Pakistan which, as the N.Y. Times reported on April 4 "is virtually sealed from the outside world."

More information, however, has emerged about the parallel and unprecedented mass mechanized assassinations being carried out by the C.I.A. drone programs. It is clear that they have already expanded far beyond the official cover story of targeting only "high-level insurgent leaders," and are killing increasing numbers of people.

The CIA, of course, is no novice at assassination. Former CIA Director William Colby’s Operation Phoenix program in South Vietnam gave South Vietnamese police quotas of the number of civilians to be murdered on a weekly and monthly basis, eventually killing 20-50,000 people. CIA operatives such as Latin American Station Chief Duane "Dewey" Clarridge also established, trained and operated local paramilitary and death squads throughout Central and Latin America that brutally tortured and murdered tens of thousands of civilians, most notably in El Salvador where CIA-trained and -directed killers murdered Archbishop Romero and countless other Salvadorans.

But the present CIA assassination program in Pakistan and elsewhere is different not only because it is Americans who are themselves the assassins, but because of the unprecedented act of conducting mechanized mass assassination from the air. The CIA, as Nick Turse has reported for TomDispatch.com, is exponentially increasing its drone assassination program:

"(Drone) Reapers flew 25,391 hours (in 2009). This year, the air force projects that the combined flight hours of all its drones will exceed 250,000 hours. More flight time will, undoubtedly, mean more killing."

There were already signs in 2009, when drone strikes were a fraction of what they are now, that they were striking large numbers of civilians and proving militarily and politically counterproductive. Most Pakistanis believe it is largely civilians who are being killed, and anti-American hatred is growing accordingly. A Gallup poll conducted in July 2009, based on 2,500 face-to-face interviews, found that "only 9 percent of Pakistanis supported the drone strikes." A Global Research study documented the drone murder of 123 civilians in January 2010 alone.

A particularly significant indication of the drone strikes’ military ineffectiveness has come from Colonel David Kilcullen, a key Petraeus advisor in Iraq, who testified to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on May 23, 2009, that, "Since 2006, we’ve killed 14 senior Al Qaeda leaders using drone strikes; in the same time period, we’ve killed 700 Pakistani civilians in the same area. We need to call off the drones."

Kilcullen’s testimony was ignored, however, and as drone strikes have not only been continued but exponentially increased, there are increasing signs that they have vastly increased the scope of the killing far beyond the claimed "high-level insurgent leaders." The N.Y. Times reported on Aug. 14:

[The CIA has] broadened its drone campaign beyond selective strikes against Qaeda leaders and now regularly obliterates suspected enemy compounds and logistics convoys, just as the military would grind down an enemy force.

Reuters reported on May 5 that:

The CIA received approval to target a wider range of targets in Pakistan’s tribal areas, including low-level fighters whose identities may not be known, U.S. officials said on Wednesday. Former intelligence officials acknowledged that in many, if not most cases, the CIA had little information about the foot soldiers killed in the strikes.

What this means is clear: the CIA is assassinating an expanding number of "low-level" people, labeling them as "fighters," but has little if any idea of who they really are. The history of such mechanized campaigns from the air, such as Laos where I have studied the U.S. 1964-‘73 air war intensively, is that increased warfare from the air inevitably becomes increasingly indiscriminate, destroying civilian and military targets alike. As the drone program continues to expand, it will inevitably wind up killing more civilians—and, if McChrystal is right, exponentially create more people committed to killing Americans.

Numerous moral, legal and ethical objections have been raised to this program of mass assassination. Philip Alston, the United Nations special representative on extrajudicial executions, has stated that "this strongly asserted but ill-defined license to kill without accountability is not an entitlement which the United States or other states can have without doing grave damage to the rules designed to protect the right to life and prevent extrajudicial executions."

The notion that a handful of U.S. military and CIA officials have the right to unilaterally and secretly murder anyone they choose in any nation on earth, without even outside knowledge let alone oversight, is deeply troubling to anyone with a conscience, belief in democracy, or respect for international law. It was precisely such behavior that made the Gestapo and Soviet secret police symbols of evil. Since the U.S. Congress has never reined in an Executive Branch that has routinely ignored international law since 1945, however, it is likely that the question of whether this program will be continued will be determined by its perceived effectiveness, not its morality.

The evidence is mounting that U.S. assassinations are so ineffective they are actually strengthening anti-American forces in Pakistan. Bruce Reidel, a counterinsurgency expert who coordinated the Afghan review for President Obama, said: "The pressure we’ve put on (jihadist forces) in the past year has also drawn them together, meaning that the network of alliances is growing stronger not weaker."

Reidel’s striking conclusion that jihadi forces in Pakistan are stronger after six years of drone airstrikes the CIA claims are weakening them, is echoed by numerous other reports indicating that General Petraeus’ strategy of using military force against Al Qaeda, Afghan and local insurgent forces in Pakistan has pushed them further east from isolated northwest areas into major cities like Karachi, where they operate freely and work together far more closely than before. The general’s miscalculations regarding Pakistan are reason enough for him to be replaced.

In the long run, General Petraeus’ strategy of expanding both ground and mechanized assassination throughout the 1.3 billion-strong Muslim world is likely to do the greatest disservice to his country’s interests. It is true that U.S. leaders have used local forces to assassinate tens of thousands since 1945 and that while these programs were largely ineffectual, they did not lead to attacks on American soil.

But 9/11 has changed the calculus. It is clear that in today’s wired and globalized world, marked by large-scale immigration, cheap telecommunications and airline travel, where crude technologies like car bombs or IEDs can be as easily detonated in New York as in Kandahar, and where America’s enemies are growing increasingly technologically sophisticated even as nuclear weapons proliferate and become miniaturized, it is the height of folly to foment geometrically growing anti-American hatred in the volatile Muslim world.

A growing number of military and counterinsurgency experts support Colonel Kilcullen’s belief that these assassination programs abroad are not protecting Americans at home. Both the "Underwear" and the "Times Square" bombers attributed their attempts to blow up Americans to their anger at the drone strikes. While Americans were saved by their incompetence, the U.S. may not be so lucky the next time, and the time after that. One thing is crystal clear: inflaming anti-American hatred throughout the Muslim world can only exponentially increase the numbers of those committed to killing Americans.

Such fears are increasing in Washington, as the N.Y. Times reported in the wake of the Times Square bombing:

A new, and disturbing, question is being raised in Washington: Have the stepped-up attacks in Pakistan—notably the Predator drone strikes—actually made Americans less safe? Are they inspiring more attacks on America than they prevent? As one American intelligence official said, "Those attacks (on two Pakistani Taliban leaders) have made it personal for the Pakistani Taliban—so it’s no wonder they are beginning to think about how they can strike back at targets here."

As General Petraeus and the U.S. military "make it personal" to increasing number of people throughout the Muslim world, they are recklessly sowing a whirlwind for which many of us, our children and grandchildren may well pay with our lives for decades to come.

It is difficult for most Americans to grasp the fact that their leaders’ incompetence—Republican and Democrat, civilian and military—poses one of the single greatest threats to their own safety. But only when Americans do so will there be any hope of making America more secure in the dangerous years to come.

A clear place to begin protecting America is to abandon the assassination approach to war, ditch General Petraeus, end the military and CIA’s focus on worldwide and mechanized mass assassination, and halt its reckless expansion of U.S. war-making into nuclear-armed Pakistan and so much more of the Muslim world.

Final Note: Duane ‘Dewey’ Clarridge: The True Face of U.S. Policy Toward the Muslim World

“We’ll intervene whenever we decide it’s in our national security interest. And if you don’t like it, lump it. Get used to it, world!" -- Duane Clarridge, interviewed by John Pilger in "The War on Democracy"

As the N.Y. Times reported, Clarridge is presently advising CIA assassination efforts in Pakistan. ("Duane R. Clarridge, a profane former C.I.A. officer who ran operations in Central America and was indicted in the Iran-contra scandal, turned up this year helping run a Pentagon-financed private spying operation in Pakistan.") Watch an extraordinary three-minute video interview with Clarridge [link below] that reveals the true face of U.S. policy in the Muslim world.

Fred Branfman, the editor of “Voices From the Plain of Jars: Life Under an Air War” (Harper & Row, 1972), exposed the U.S. secret air war while living in Laos from 1967 to 1971.

Pilots Concerned Over Increase in Laser-Strikes at Honolulu Airport

Pilots taking-off and landing at Honolulu International Airport are reporting more and more cases of laser beams shining into their cockpits.

"So far in 2010 pilots have reported 21 laser-strikes on aircraft around Honolulu International Airport," says Ian Gregor, FAA Western-Pacific Region Spokesman.

That's already the same number reported last year - and it's happening to a handful of aircraft in Hilo and on Maui.

"I've seen video of what a laser-strike looks like and it is pretty dramatic," says Gregor.

A laser-strike can pose a serious risk to flight crews and passengers.

"The flash of the laser hitting your retina can cause you temporary blindness and cause you real control problems especially in the process of landing or taking off," says Hank Bruckner, pilot & flight instructor.

Bruckner says it's happened to a friend of his...

"One described it as a big flash in his eye."

He says maneuvering an aircraft close to the ground is critical and any distraction, especially at night, could be catastrophic.

"Temporary blindness even in a multi-crew aircraft it's a really serious matter," says Bruckner.

The FAA says it is unaware of any plane crashes caused by a laser strike, but says they do result in close-calls. Pilots have had to hand-over controls or abort their landings.

"It is a Federal crime to interfere with a flight crew," says Gregor.

People have been caught this year pointing lasers at planes in California and New Mexico.

"It's a pretty hair-raising thing. It's just not something that should be tolerated," says Bruckner.

The FAA says the most recent laser-strike happened 6-miles ENE of Honolulu on August 19th to an American Airlines Boeing 767.

This Economy Is Ripping The Dignity Of Millions Of Unemployed Americans To Shreds

If you can still put a roof over your head and food on the table for your family, you should consider yourself to be very fortunate. There are millions of Americans out there right now that are really, really suffering. The cold, hard reality of it is that there aren't even close to enough jobs out there for everyone right now. It is almost as if we are all caught in a really bizarre game of musical chairs where the losers get stripped of their tickets to the middle class. What this horrible economy is doing to the dignity of millions of middle class Americans is incredibly saddening. There are a lot of very highly educated and very hard working Americans who cannot seem to get jobs no matter what they do and now find themselves doing whatever they can just to survive. It can be really hard to keep your dignity when you played by all the rules and you worked as hard as you could all your life and now you find yourself a half step away from being homeless. Those of us who are still doing okay should never look down on those who are struggling in this economy, because the truth is that any of us could be next.

If you really want to read some horror stories about what long-term unemployment is doing to some people in America, you should go spend an hour or two over at Unemployed-Friends some time. It is a great forum with a lot of great resources for the unemployed, but it also contains dozens and dozens and dozens of heartbreaking stories from middle class Americans who have had their lives shattered by this economic downturn.

The following is a typical story on Unemployed-Friends. It is from a 48 year old Air Force veteran who has lost everything and is now sleeping in his vehicle. It turns out that Scott48's job was shipped off to India and now he has been out of work for over two years....

"I am a 48 year old USAF Vet. I got my house in 1996 with the help of the VA. In 2009 the company I worked for went out of buisness(gone to India) I then became a 99er. I notified Wells Fargo that I lost my job and they said they would work with me, the next mortgage statement I got they conveniently increased my mortgage! With what I got from UE was enough for the house but I had to cut out the luxury of food, gas, utillities, insurance, entertainment and alcohol. That was it for me, so the forecloser ball was in motion. I had to give my dog to my cousin so he would get fed, I took everything I owened to the auction( execpt tools, clothes, pictures, tech manuals and my Saxophone) and sold it. I went to a half-way house the VA recomended for a week and it was joke, so my cousin said I could stay with her. After 4 months she diecided that I wasnt looking hard enough and kicked me out, and Ive applied for everything except selling myself. This summer I was staying in an abandoned house due to forecloser and the real estate company has now put it on the market, and I am now on the street sleeping in my vehicle or a friend here and there. Keeping clean is going to be a challenge cuz the Flying J truck stops charge $10 for a shower, rip-off. What a country!"

The truth is that this economy is driving many Americans to the brink of desperation. Even recent college graduates are becoming desperate enough to actually consider suicide. The following story is from an Unemployed-Friends user known as 08pacollegegrad....

"I could just take any job like working at fast food places, but I hear people who try can't even get hired there. I went to Wendy's for lunch the other day and I thought of picking up an application...but the slot where they keep the applications was completely empty. That should say it all. Plus, I feel like if I take just any job...I will be set back further and never be able to gain experience in my chosen fields.

I follow up on job applications, but employers ignore me for the most part when I try to contact them. I sent five follow up e-mails last week and got no responses. I contacted an employer expressing my interest in working for them, but all they gave me is the link to their online application system that I have never gotten a job from.

I am thinking of applying for more internships (I have already done two), but I don't want employers to think why I am applying for an internship when I should have had a full fledged job by now.

I have almost killed myself over my situaion and am taking anti-depressants right now. I see a psychiatrist every 4-6 weeks, but I still have days where I feel so empty. I am sick of sitting at home searching for jobs and praying for a response that never comes."

Many Americans spend day after day after day looking for a job that never comes. The sense of hopelessness that can build after doing this for a few years is almost indescribable. The following is another incredibly sad story from an Unemployed-Friends user known as feuxdejoie....

"I lost my job in June 2008, my husband was working but sentenced to prison for 4 years, for DUI, no accidents or injuries. I had been using my unemployment to pay bills but my last check came June 12, 2010. I'm alone and scared. The city that I live in has the highest unemployment in the State, Illinois. Our children are grown and I sit alone all day searching for jobs. My husband can only call once a month because of the outrageous rates for telephone calls. I'm at the end of my rope and don't know where to turn if they don't pass a tier V for unemployment or open up some jobs.
I turned 50 in April and had worked all of my life, starting at age 14 with a work permit! My employer stated to me that they needed someone bilingual and terminated me even after I told them that I would take classes to learn. I signed up for college and began classes in January then unemployment told me that I wasn't elgible for unemployment while attending school."

There are millions of Americans who believe that their lives are over because they can't get decent jobs. When you lose your job, your home, your car, your health insurance and then finally your unemployment insurance runs out, it is easy to lose all hope as an Unemployed-Friends user named Ember has done....

"so i feel pretty much hopeless. been unemployed since July 2008. in over two years i haven't even been called for an interview. tired of looking and applying for jobs outside of my field that require experience i don't have. it's all for naught. i have two bachelor of science degrees. my BS degrees, cuz that's what they're worth. since losing my job i've gotten divorced. lost my house. lost my health insurance. totalled my car and sustained chronic back pain. and moved in with my mom. and did i mention, when all this started i was a new mom, just back from maternity leave? so (now) i'm raising a toddler on my own, with no income. my unemployment insurance ran out a few weeks ago. i don't even know what to do now. i just want to disappear. i'm tired of trying. i'm tired of being a burden on everyone. if i didn't have the responsibility to take care of my child i wouldn't be around anymore."

This final example is from an Unemployed-Friends user identified as Faith1028. Be warned that this one will shake you to your core if you have any sensitivity at all. As you read this, keep in mind that this kind of thing is literally happening to millions of Americans these days....

"HI, y'all! This is my story. I'm from Chicago.

I lost my job 11.06.09 - I did my best to remain positive & confident that I would get a job by the end of November.

December 2009 - Still no job. I'm getting food stamps (LINK card) & Unemployment Benefits. Not much money at all, but I'm surviving. Thanks to all this stress, my stomach has been burning and/or been painful daily for all December. I puked my guts out on the 26th.

January 2010 - My stomach is still hurting every day. I had to close out my savings account. I haven't told my slumlord or my fellow tenants that I lost my job; I go on pretending I'm still going to work everyday. Unfortunately on the 26th, I got my eviction notice. I called the office to ask why. The response was "I don't know." I became hysterical. I've no job, no money, no family/friends to help. (I have many *relatives*, but no *family*.) I truly believed my only alternative was suicide. I wanted to say good-bye to my brother (my only sibling), but we haven't spoken to each other for over 4 years; I no longer have his address/phone number. I found him on Facebook. I didn't bring up my situation because I felt he wouldn't care. We exchanged a few messages and that was it. I haven't heard from him since. Good riddance.

February 2010 - Someone found a family that I can stay with for only $250/month! My own room! They turned out to be aquaintances of mine. Vegetarian, too! At least I have a place to stay. I'd rather live alone, but, hey, I'm desperate! -- And I'm not too crazy about the bedbugs. OW!

June/July 2010 - Thanks to daily/nightly use of citrine crystals since 30 May, I have no more stomach problems!
Thanks to weekly use of a natural (green!) pesticide from PlusNaturalEnzymes.com, I no longer have a problem with bedbugs! However...
Mid-June, my Unemployment Benefits ran out. Of course, I'm still looking for a job! What am I supposed to do - put a gun to someone's head and force them to hire me? As of this date, I have $12 left to my name; $0 in my chequeing account. I recently reapplied for and am now receiving food stamps. Before I got my food stamps back, I've eaten whatever (Vegetarian!) food I can get, even stuff I'm allergic to. As a result, I've become sick: cold-like symptoms, pain in lower intestines...and a rash over my arms, legs, & neck. Oh, does it itch! At least my food allergies are not life-threatening.
Needless to say, my depression has gotten worse.

I am really trying hard to remain positive -- and alive.
But why? Is it really all worth it?

I haven't paid July's rent, and the people I'm staying with are getting very *impatient*; I fear I'll be evicted again! The money is coming! It's not my bloody fault!

Someone on Twitter sent me a link to this site. I know I'm not the only one suffering; some folks have already committed suicide. I don't want to die, but I don't want to be homeless, either. I am so bloody scared.
Just give me money that my tax dollars paid for!
--Or better yet: GIVE ME A BLASTED JOB!!"

The really sad thing is that there are countless other stories just like these being posted all over the Internet all the time.

People are hurting.

People are losing hope.

So how did we get here?

Well, it turns out that the "haves" have figured out that they really don't need the "have nots" after all. Incredible advances in technology have increasingly enabled employers to replace humans with machines and computers. In addition, as we have detailed previously, millions upon millions of middle class American jobs are being shipped off to China and to dozens of third world nations where workers are more than happy to work for less than a tenth of what an American worker would make.

All of those jobs that have been lost to technology and that have been sent overseas are not going to come back. The hordes of long-term unemployed that we are seeing now is just the beginning. It is going to get a lot worse.

So the next time you hear a hard luck story from an unemployed American, don't look down on that person.

You might be next.

"Monetary Shock and Awe": The Fed Prepared to Launch Most Radical Intervention in History

The equities markets are in disarray while the bond markets continue to surge. The avalanche of bad news has started to take its toll on investor sentiment. Barry Ritholtz's "The Big Picture" reports that the bears have taken the high-ground and bullishness has dropped to its lowest level since March ‘09 when the market did a quick about-face and began a year-long rally. Could it happen again? No one knows, but the mood has definitely darkened along with the data. There's no talk of green shoots any more, and even the deficit hawks have gone into hibernation. It feels like the calm before the storm, which is why all eyes were on Jackson Hole this morning where Fed chairman Ben Bernanke delivered his verdict on the state of the economy on Friday.

Wall Street was hoping the Fed would "go big" and promise another hefty dose of quantitative easing to push down long-term interest rates and jolt consumers out of their lethargy. But Bernanke provided few details choosing instead this vague commitment:

“The Committee is prepared to provide additional monetary accommodation through unconventional measures if it proves necessary, especially if the outlook were to deteriorate significantly."

Check. There's no doubt that Helicopter Ben would be in mid-flight right now tossing bundles of $100 bills into the jet-stream like confetti if he had the option. But Bernanke is fighting a rearguard action from inside the FOMC where a fractious group of rebels want to wait and see if the recent downturn is just a blip on the radar or something more serious, another tumble into recessionary hell.

This week, the markets were blindsided by two days of dismal housing news, grim durable goods orders, a slowdown in manufacturing, and modest gains in employment. 4 years later, and housing is still mired in a depression. When does it end? Households and consumers are buried under a mountain of debt; personal bankruptcies, delinquencies, defaults and foreclosures continue to mount while politicians threaten to tighten the purse-strings putting more pressure on families who can barley put food on the table let alone pay the mortgage.

Just months ago, 57 out of 57 economists surveyed predicted that the economy would avoid a double dip recession. Now they're not so sure. Stock market gains have been wiped out and the S&P 500 has dropped 14 percent from its high in April. All of the main economic indicators are testing new lows. The so-called "soft patch" is looking like another hard landing. The fear is palpable. On Thursday, the Dow slipped another 74 points by the end of the session. It could have been worse. The markets have been holding on by their fingernails hoping that Bernanke will bail them out. But it's going to take more than the usual promise of low interest rates for an "extended period" to boost enthusiasm. Wall Street is looking for the "big fix", a trillion dollar resumption of the Fed's bond purchasing program (QE) to pump up flaccid asset prices, electro-shock demand, and raise consumer inflation expectations. The big banks and the brokerage houses want Bernanke to rout the Cassandras and the gloomsters and pump some adrenalin into sluggish indexes. The Fed chairman promised to help.....but not just yet, which is why the markets continue to seesaw.

Bernanke takes the threat of deflation seriously. His earlier speeches laid out a deflation-fighting strategy that is so radical it would shock the public and Wall Street alike. Here's an excerpt from a speech he gave in 2002 which illustrates the Fed boss's willingness to move heaven and earth to fend off the scourge of pernicious deflation:

Ben Bernanke: “My thesis here is that cooperation between the monetary and fiscal authorities in Japan could help solve the problems that each policymaker faces on its own. Consider for example a tax cut for households and businesses that is explicitly coupled with incremental BOJ purchases of government debt – so that the tax cut is in effect financed by money creation. Moreover, assume that the Bank of Japan has made a commitment, by announcing a price-level target, to reflate the economy, so that much or all of the increase in the money stock is viewed as permanent.

Under this plan, the BOJ’s balance sheet is protected by the bond conversion program, and the government’s concerns about its outstanding stock of debt are mitigated because increases in its debt are purchased by the BOJ rather than sold to the private sector. Moreover, consumers and businesses should be willing to spend rather than save the bulk of their tax cut: They have extra cash on hand, but – because the BOJ purchased government debt in the amount of the tax cut – no current or future debt service burden has been created to imply increased future taxes.

Essentially, monetary and fiscal policies together have increased the nominal wealth of the household sector, which will increase nominal spending and hence prices....from a fiscal perspective, the policy would almost certainly be stabilizing, in the sense of reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio....

Potential roles for monetary-fiscal cooperation are not limited to BOJ support of tax cuts. BOJ purchases of government debt could also support spending programs, to facilitate industrial restructuring, for example. The BOJ’s purchases would mitigate the effect of the new spending on the burden of debt and future interest payments perceived by households, which should reduce the offset from decreased consumption. More generally, by replacing interest-bearing debt with money, BOJ purchases of government debt lower current deficits and interest burdens and thus the public’s expectations of future tax obligations." (Some Thoughts on Monetary Policy in Japan, Governor Ben S. Bernanke, The Federal Reserve Board Tokyo, Japan, May 31, 2003)

Yikes! This is monetization writ large. Anyone who thought Bernanke lacked cohones should reread this passage. The Fed chair is prepared to launch the most radical intervention in history, monetary Shock and Awe. But will the bewhiskered professor be able to persuade congress to follow his lead, after all, the fiscal component is critical to the program's success. They're two spokes on the same wheel. Here's how (I imagine) it would work: Congress passes emergency legislation to suspend the payroll tax for two years stuffing hundreds of billions instantly into the pockets of struggling consumers. The Fed makes up the difference by purchasing an equal amount of long-term Treasuries keeping the yields low while the economy resets, employment rises, asset prices balloon, and markets soar. As the economy accelerates, the dollar steadily loses ground triggering a sharp increase in exports and sparking a viscous trade war with foreign trading partners. Then......it's anyone's guess? Either Bernanke's "nuclear option" succeeds in resuscitating the comatose economy or foreign holders of dollars and dollar-backed assets dump their gargantuan trove of US loot in a pile and set it ablaze. It's all a roll of the dice.

India cancels China defense exchanges

Lt. General BS Jaswa had hoped to travel to Beijing in August as part of an exchange but was denied a visa.

India has cancelled defense exchanges with communist China after Beijing denied a visa to an Indian army general from the Jammu and Kashmir state.

China refused to issue a visa to the General Officer Commanding in Chief in Jammu and Kashmir, Lt. Gen. BS Jaswal.

The commander is responsible for Indian army operations in the Muslim-majority disputed region.

New Delhi said Beijing had to be sensitive to the Indian government's concerns, one of which is the Kashmir region.

"While we value our exchanges with China, there must be sensitivity to each others' concerns. Our dialogue with China on these issues is ongoing," India's External Affairs Ministry said in a statement, Hindustan Times reported on Friday.

Kashmir has witnessed protests against Indian rule triggered by recent killings blamed on government forces. Sixty-four people have lost their lives in two months of violence. The New Delhi government's refusal to send a word of apology over the slayings and the reluctance shown by the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to order an end to shootings have added to the anger of protestors.

Indian-administered Kashmir has been the scene of pro-independence demonstrations almost on a daily basis despite strict curfews.

Anti-India sentiment runs high in the region. Residents reject Indian dominion over the region -- claimed by both India and Pakistan -- and want a separate homeland or unity with Pakistan.

More than 68,000 people have lost their lives in Kashmir since 1989.

MP/JG/MGH

US: $1.9M in computers for kids missing in Iraq

The U.S. military is demanding to know what happened to $1.9 million worth of computers purchased by American taxpayers and intended for Iraqi schoolchildren that have instead been auctioned off by Iraqi officials for less than $50,000, the military said Friday.

The U.S. press release was a rare public admission by the military of the loss of American taxpayer money in Iraq and an equally rare criticism of Iraqi officials with whom the Americans are trying to partner as the military hands over more and more responsibility and withdraws troops from the country.

A shipment of computers intended for schoolchildren in the central Babil province was found to have been auctioned on Aug. 16 for $45,700 _ before the computers could be sent to the province, the U.S. military said.

The computers were auctioned off by a senior Iraqi official at the southern port of Umm Qasr, the statement said.

"United States Division-South Commander Maj. Gen. Vincent Brooks called for an immediate investigation into the actions of the Umm Qasr official to determine why computers destined for children to facilitate their education were approved for auction," it read.

The port director, Talib Bayesh, told The Associated Press that the equipment had been sitting in the port for more than 90 days and that, according to the law, any items sitting in the port for more than three months without being claimed could be confiscated by the port and sold at public auction.

"Thus we sold the shipment by auction for only $45,000," he said.

The loss of the computers highlights what have been two flashpoints of controversy during the Iraq war: the accountability of American money and the widespread corruption that many say is one of the biggest challenges to Iraq's future.

Meanwhile, an aide to Iraq's top Shiite cleric said Iraqi lawmakers should use their salaries to buy ice for the poor who are suffering through a miserably hot summer without electricity.

The comments by Ahmed al-Safi _ an aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a revered figure with Iraq's Shiite majority _ were a stab at both deadlocked Iraqi legislators and the country's latest power crisis.

Iraq's scorching summers have been made acutely difficult this year by widespread power outages that have pushed Iraqis, frustrated with their government's inability to provide basic services, out into the streets to protest.

Iraqis who do not have refrigerators _ or don't have electricity to keep them running _ use ice to keep food cold and in makeshift air conditioning units used by people who don't have proper ACs.

The remark was a not-so-subtle dig at Iraqi lawmakers who have bickered for months since the March 7 election over the formation of a new government but have only met once since the election and have failed to agree on who should lead the country.

Al-Safi said during a sermon in the holy city of Karbala that since lawmakers are not working, they should donate their earnings to buy ice for poor people.

"They can help in this situation of high temperature and the flames of summer in the shadow of the electricity crisis," al-Safi said. "The lawmaker brothers can make an announcement saying that during this period of time they did not do any actual work and that they wish to donate money to provide ice for the poor people."

Vietnam Veterans Want CIA Sanctioned

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - The Vietnam Veterans of America asked a federal judge to impose sanctions on the Central Intelligence Agency, for failing to produce documents on the CIA's testing of hundreds of kinds of drugs - including sarin and phosgene nerve gas and LSD - on thousands of soldiers.
The Vietnam Veterans of America sued the CIA in January 2009, claiming the agency had experimented on soldiers at Edgewood Arsenal and Fort Detrick, Md., testing the effects of mind-controlling drugs.
The VVA says soldiers were treated "in the same capacity as laboratory rats or guinea pigs." The underlying federal complaint claims that at least 7,800 soldiers were subjected to "at least 250, but as many as 400 chemical and biological agents."
This original complaint, filed in January 2009, claimed that "this vast program of human experimentation, shrouded in secrecy," was done without informed consent of the soldier-guinea pigs. "In 1970, defendants provided Congress with an alphabetical list showing that they had tested 145 drugs during Projects Bluebird, Artichoke, MKULTRA and MKDELTA." These drugs included sarin and other deadly nerve toxins, barbiturates, irritants, including cyanide, phosgene nerve gas, LSC, PCP and other psychedelics, THC "about times the then-street strength of marijuana," and tranquilizers.
In its request for sanctions, the Vietnam Veterans claims the CIA stalled discovery, in bad faith, by refusing to turn over requested documents related to the secretive project, without adequate explanation.
It claims the CIA has released only about 1,600 documents, and 40 percent of them "deal only with the six individual plaintiffs' military records and Veterans Administration claim files."
The complaint adds: "Defendants have continually resisted producing relevant documents by standing on myriad objections and unsubstantiated claims of privilege. ... Even more unbelievably, it appears that defendants have yet to search even the most obvious location for documents - Edgewood Arsenal itself. ...
"Defendants also consistently refused to enter into a routine protective order that would protect information subject to the Privacy Act or HIPAA from disclosure or use outside of this litigation, thereby permitting its production to plaintiffs. Instead, defendants have refused to produce documents containing such information, or have produced documents with such information wholly redacted. For example, defendants used the Privacy Act as a basis for withholding the names of all Edgewood test subjects other than the named plaintiffs, despite the fact that the test subjects are all potential class members and percipient witnesses. (Vecchio Decl. ¶ 6, Ex. A.) Defendants have also used the Privacy Act as an excuse to withhold documents concerning individuals who conducted the test programs. These categorical refusals to provide the names of critical witnesses, when a routine protective order could have obviated any of defendants' concerns, have unnecessarily delayed discovery and prejudiced plaintiffs."
Oral arguments in the case are to begin Sept. 29.

THE ‘DREAM’ TURNED NIGHTMARE

Forty seven years ago, on a day as hot as possible, Washington DC witnessed a demonstration which became known simply as ‘The March’. After months of organising the day finally came, August 28th, 1963. The day Martin Luther King shook the world with his speech ‘I Have A Dream’. The day we all shared that dream with him, millions of us, Black, White, Hispanic, Jew, Muslim, Christian…. EVERYONE was represented. EVERYONE was full of hope.

The end of the speech are the words that are best remembered….

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

BUT those hands are still not joined and we are far from being free. King spoke of peace, we have witnessed war after war, he spoke of Civil Rights, we have seen them disappearing one by one. No, we are not singing today, but we ARE still hoping for that ‘change’….. the time is long overdo. The ‘Dream’ has turned into a nightmare, but we cling to that hope. Below is a video of the historic speech, followed by a link to my post of last year..

And HERE is a post that appears on this Blog annually.

Analyst: Citigroup Is Cooking the Books

An all-out war has broken out between Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit and a prominent securities analyst who is saying that the big bank may be cooking the books by inflating its earnings through an accounting gimmick, FOX Business Network has learned.

The analyst, Mike Mayo, of the securities firm CLSA, has been telling investors that Citigroup (C: 3.75 ,0.00 ,0.00%) should take a writedown, or a loss on some $50 billion of “deferred-tax assets,” or DTAs. That is a tax credit the firm has on its financial statement that Mayo says is inflating profits at the big bank by as much as $10 billion.

For that critique, Mayo has been denied one-on-one meetings with top players of the firm, including CEO Vikram Pandit, Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach, and any other member of management, while other analysts enjoy full access to the bank’s top executives, FBN has learned.

In fact, Mayo hasn’t had a meeting with Pandit or anyone in Citigroup management since around the time of the financial crisis, in the fall of 2008, when Citigroup was on the verge of extinction and needed an unprecedented series of government bailouts to survive.

Since then Citigroup has been profitable, albeit marginally. Though it posted a loss for the full year of 2009, after it repaid a government bailout loan during the fourth quarter and began to unwind Uncle Sam’s ownership stake. One reason Citigroup may be unwilling to write off its DTAs: to do so may sink the troubled bank back into unprofitability.

Now, Mayo’s continued criticism of the firm’s accounting has turned a testy relationship between Pandit and Mayo into one of the most-bitter analyst-CEO confrontations seen on Wall Street for some time. When asked about the matter, a spokeswoman for Citigroup would only say “I have no comment on Mike Mayo.”

Mayo told FBN: “I’d like to know why all my competitors get meetings with Pandit and the key people there and I don’t.”

Stock research

has been among the most controversial—and some would say—conflicted businesses on Wall Street. Companies employ a number of methods to force analysts to hype their shares, including as Mayo is charging, withholding access to key executives who can provide insight into the company’s operations. In 2003, big firms like Citigroup and others paid billions of dollars in penalties to settle regulatory charges that their analysts inflated stock ratings in order to win lucrative stock underwriting business from the companies they cover, leading to billions of dollars in losses for investors who relied on the dubious analysis to buy stock.

Mayo, meanwhile, has had a sometimes-testy relationship with the various companies he covers. While other securities analysts look to curry favor with management in order to gain access, or so their firm’s could do business with the companies they cover, Mayo is often confrontational during meetings and on analyst conference calls.

In September 2000, Mayo was let go from Credit Suisse, people close to the firm have said, because of his history of downgrading the big banks which made no secret of their displeasure with his work, even though it won him a No. 2 spot in the coveted Institutional Investor rankings of bank analysts.

In September 2002, Mayo launched a major broadside against Citigroup, slamming the bank for its regulatory problems, namely its relationship helping to prop up scandal-plagued companies like Enron and WorldCom, as well as the management style of then CEO Sandy Weill. Mayo referred to Citigroup as “Noah’s Ark ” because Weill kept packing layers of management into the bank, including appointing two senior executives to run each business when only one was necessary.

People close to Citigroup say one of the current problems between the company and Mayo is the analyst’s insistence that Citigroup is possibly violating securities laws by failing to take losses on its DTAs. During conference calls, Citigroup has maintained that its accounting is in full compliance with the law, though Mayo has told investors the Securities and Exchange Commission should investigate the matter.

An SEC spokesman had no immediate comment.

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