ECONOMIC 9-11: DID LEHMAN BROTHERS FALL OR WAS IT PUSHED?

A year after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, questions still swirl around its collapse. Lawrence MacDonald, whose book A Colossal Failure of Common Sense came out in July 2009, maintains that the bank was not in substantially worse shape than other major Wall Street banks. He says Lehman was just “put to sleep. They put the pillow over the face of Lehman Brothers and they put her to sleep.” The question is, why?

The Lehman bankruptcy is widely considered to be the watershed event that changed the rules of the game for those Wall Street banks considered “too big to fail.” The bankruptcy option was ruled out once and for all. The taxpayers would have to keep throwing money at the banks, no matter how corrupt, ill-managed or undeserving. As Dean Baker noted in April 2009:

“Geithner has supposedly ruled out the bankruptcy option because when he, along with Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke, tried letting Lehman Brothers go under last fall, it didn’t turn out very well. Of course, it is not necessary to go the route of an uncontrolled bankruptcy that Geithner and Co. pursued with Lehman. . . . [But] the Geithner crew insists that there are no alternatives to his plan; we have to just keep giving hundreds of billions of dollars to the banks . . . , further enriching the bankers who wrecked the economy.”

Although Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on Monday, September 15, 2008, it was actually “bombed” on September 11, when the biggest one-day drop in its stock and highest trading volume occurred before bankruptcy. Lehman CEO Richard Fuld maintained that the 158 year old bank was brought down by unsubstantiated rumors and illegal naked short selling. Although short selling (selling shares you don’t own) is legal, the short seller is required to have shares lined up to borrow and replace to cover the sale. Failure to buy the shares back in the next three trading days is called a “fail to deliver.” Christopher Cox, who was chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2008, said in a July 2009 article that naked short selling “can allow manipulators to force prices down far lower than would be possible in legitimate short-selling conditions.” By September 11, 2008, according to the SEC, as many as 32.8 million Lehman shares had been sold and not delivered – a 57-fold increase over the peak of the prior year. For a very large company like Lehman, with plenty of “float” (available shares for trading), this unprecedented number was highly suspicious and warranted serious investigation. But the SEC, which was criticized for failing to follow up even on tips that Bernie Madoff’s business was a ponzi scheme, has yet to announce the results of any investigation.

More Questions

Other questions about the Lehman collapse are raised in David Wessel’s July 2009 book In Fed We Trust. Why was Bear Stearns saved from bankruptcy but Lehman Brothers was not? How could the decision makers not realize the dire consequences of letting Lehman go down?

One possible explanation is that they actually thought the bank would be bought out at the last minute, just as Bear Stearns was. In both cases, the parties worked feverishly over the weekend after the stock’s collapse to try to negotiate a deal. For Bear Stearns, the negotiations succeeded, with the help of the New York Federal Reserve, which provided the loan used by JPMorgan Chase to complete the deal. With Lehman, however, the interested buyer was British, and the help that was needed was from the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling. The weekend after the September 11 stock collapse, intense negotiations were pursued with Barclays Bank, which was prepared to underwrite Lehman’s debts; but it needed a waiver from British regulators of a rule requiring shareholder approval. Negotiations continued until the market was getting ready to open in Japan on Sunday, but UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling would not give the necessary waiver. He said something to the effect that he did not want to infect Britain with America’s cancer. The sentiment was understandable, but the question was, why did he wait until it was too late for the Treasury or the Federal Reserve to move in with other arrangements?

The issue takes on more significance in light of the fact that Chancellor Darling played a similar role in another 9-11 collapse the previous year. On September 11, 2007, frantic customers were lining up outside Northern Rock, the UK’s fifth largest mortgage lender, in the first British bank run in 141 years. The bank’s shares plunged 31% in a single day. Like the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the U.S., the bankruptcy of Northern Rock changed the rules of the game. Britain’s major banks too would now be saved at any cost, in order to avoid the loss of customer confidence, panic and bank runs that could precipitate a 1929-style market crash.

With Northern Rock, as with Lehman Brothers, Alistair Darling could have saved the day but backed down. Northern Rock had a willing buyer, Lloyds TSB; but the buyer needed a loan from the Bank of England, which the Bank’s Governor, Mervyn King, had denied. Darling was advised by his staff to overrule the Governor and grant the loan, but this would have cost political capital for UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who had been widely lauded for giving the Bank of England its independence in 1997.

Brown is criticized domestically for precipitating the financial crisis with errors made as Chancellor of the Exchequer before he became Prime Minister. Critics maintain the British Treasury has abdicated its responsibility as the financial overseer of the British economy to the Bank of England, which in many ways controls the government, because its advice is always followed regarding the British budget. The whole scenario suggests that the much-vaunted virtues of an independent central bank are overblown. Some economists, including Milton Friedman and Ben Bernanke, blame poor policymaking by an independent Federal Reserve for bringing on the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Shock Therapy?

According to Representative Paul Kanjorski, speaking on C-SPAN in January 2009, the collapse of Lehman Brothers precipitated a $550 billion run on the money market funds on Thursday, September 18. This was the dire news that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson presented to Congress behind closed doors, prompting Congressional approval of Paulson’s $700 billion bank bailout despite deep misgivings. It was the sort of “shock therapy” discussed by Naomi Klein in her book The Shock Doctrine, in which a major crisis prompts hasty emergency action involving the relinquishment of rights or funds that would otherwise be difficult to pry loose from the citizenry.

Like the “bombing” of Lehman stock on September 11, the $550 billion money market run was suspicious. The stock market had plunged when Lehman filed for bankruptcy on September 15, but it actually went up on September 16. Why did the money market wait until September 18 to collapse? A report by the Joint Economic Committee pointed to the fact that the $62 billion Reserve Primary Fund had “broken the buck” (fallen below a stable $1 per share) due to its Lehman investments; but that had occurred on September 15, and the fund had suspended redemptions for the following week. What dire reversal happened on September 17? According to the SEC, it was another record day for illegal naked short selling. Failed trades climbed to 49.7 million – 23% of Lehman trades.

The Larger Question Is Why?

All of this suggests that Lehman Brothers did not just fall over the brink but was pushed. Judge James Peck, who presided in the bankruptcy proceedings, said “Lehman Brothers became a victim, in effect the only true icon to fall in a tsunami that has befallen the credit markets.”

If Lehman was indeed sacrificed, who pushed it and to what end? Some critics point to Henry Paulson and his cronies at Goldman Sachs, Lehman’s arch rival. Goldman certainly came out on top after Lehman’s demise, but there are other possibilities as well, involving more global players. The month after Lehman collapsed, Gordon Brown and the EU leaders called for using the financial crisis as an opportunity to radically enhance the regulatory power of global institutions. Brown spoke of “a new global financial order,” echoing the “new world order” referred to by globalist banker David Rockefeller when he said in 1994:

“We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the new world order.”

Richard Haas, President of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in 2006:

“Globalisation . . . implies that sovereignty is not only becoming weaker in reality, but that it needs to become weaker.”

Sovereignty is one of these cherished rights that nations will give up only with “the right major crisis.” Gordon Brown put it like this:

“Sometimes it takes a crisis for people to agree that what is obvious and should have been done years ago, can no longer be postponed. . . . We must create a new international financial architecture for the global age.”

In April 2009, Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling hosted the G20 summit in London, which focused on the financial crisis. A global currency issue was approved, and an international Financial Stability Board was agreed to as global regulator, to be based in the controversial Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland. The international bankers who caused the financial crisis are indeed capitalizing on it, consolidating their power in “a new global financial order” that gives them top-down global control. Just some food for thought as September 11 rolls around again.

Mass Mind Control is Upon Us - It's Time to Awaken Your Consciousness

Many people may not realize that when they turn on the television in their home, what they see as a constant flow of images is actually flickering. Although we do not see this consciously, the repetitive pattern of flickering images creates a state that is similar to hypnosis in the television viewer. Studies by researcher Herbert Krugman have shown that within 30 seconds of television viewing, brain waves switch from predominantly beta waves, indicating alert and conscious attention, to predominantly alpha waves, indicating an unfocused, receptive lack of attention. The brain's left hemisphere, which processes information logically and analytically, tunes out while the person is watching TV, while the right hemisphere of the brain, which processes information emotionally and non-critically, is allowed to function without hindrance. Due to this phenomenon, television transmits information, which is not actively thought about at the time of exposure, much like hypnosis. When viewing television, we do not consciously rationalize the information resonating within our unconscious depths at the time of transmission and the viewer becomes more open and suggestible.

Because of the passive, hypnosis-like viewing of television as well as its predominance in the homes of nearly all Americans, the television is one of the most powerful tools used today. As of 2009, six companies controlled all of the major media outlets in the United States. That is a very small number of people controlling all of the information that streams into millions of homes across America each day through their television sets. In recent years, a number of investigations and exposes have revealed that these giants' silence independent voices and investigations, discourage journalism that interferes with the agendas of special interests, and eliminate diversity in the information they provide. Because of the control that these companies have over the information that most Americans receive on a daily basis, these criticisms and revelations are never known by most of the American public.

These media giants work hand and glove with the federal government as well as many multinational corporations to disseminate carefully planned messages. Through the television and other forms of media, they tell you what to think about, what to worry about, what to smile about, and what to be scared of. They have sold the public on the idea of the newscaster being an extension of the family, a trusted figure who encourages the acceptance of the information being presented as true and accurate. In 2008, the pentagon spent more than $2 billion compensating major media outlets for disseminating public relations messages. These messages are delivered to the television viewer as news produced by the television station, not as paid and produced by the pentagon. In the same year, pharmaceutical companies paid television outlets more than $4 billion for advertising, which included Video News Releases (VNR), specially tailored pieces that appear within the nightly news disguised as researched and reported by the local stations. No other industrialized nation in the world allows drug ads on television let alone these cleverly disguised VNRs hidden within the news.

And yet while all this has been happening behind the scenes, the American public has been duped into staking all their trust in select major media outlets as they express brand loyalty in television stations, newspapers, and magazines. Many people have been tricked into believing that the mainstream media reports only objective news while any information delivered from outside the mainstream is to always be questioned. Somehow the public has bought into the idea that the TV wouldn't lie to them. Many people will not pay any regard to information that is not covered by the major media; if they did not hear about it on the nightly news then they simply don't care. This is the mindset that the major media moguls want us to have, as we are willfully ignorant and obedient to their every direction. Our unanalytical and loyal viewership is in their best interest.

Major media news networks continually bombard us with the possibility of an endless amount of scenarios, which produce fear and then shape our reactions to real situations. This is predictive programming; it gets us familiar with an idea so that when it happens we expect it and do not react and question. Although most people refer to television programming as the shows that are aired on television, it can also refer to the programming of the people that occurs on a daily basis. Most people believe they are just simply being entertained, but they never realize that their way of life is being shaped for them and their thoughts are actually being given to them. They are being familiarized with ideas, concepts, and fear so they won't question certain interventions in the future. TV gives us what messages must be imprinted in our minds, gives us what button to push in what sequence, and if it's done the right way with the right production and the right propaganda then the public will react and do exactly as they've been programmed to do.

When one continually controls the information, one controls the people absorbing the information. The manufactured and controlled information on TV can be referred to as the signal and that constant signal is what shapes and guides the masses to their conclusions. In order to take back our minds, we must first learn to "Unplug the Signal." By turning off your TV you will realize the world that you're living in is suddenly very unfamiliar to you. You will see that news of no importance is constantly debated and analyzed, and as you listen to the conversations of people around you, you realize they're talking robots just repeating what they've heard on the news. This is exactly what Zbigniew Brzezinski talked about in his book "Between Two Ages". He said, "Shortly, the public will be unable to reason or think for themselves. They'll only be able to parrot the information they've been given on the previous night's news."

While once engaged by the television set and other forms of the mass media, Nathan Janes began to notice that the reality that he was being sold was not his own. In a society saturated with meaningless advertising art with no substance Janes became (more...)

Proof of 9/11 Lies by the US Government and Media

An article detailing Flight 93's last minutes was briefly available at dailynews.yahoo.com on 9/11/2001. It not fit the official story of the last moments of Flight 93 and rapidly disappeared from news websites, but it can still be found at the web archive:

Minutes before the 10 a.m. crash, an emergency dispatcher in Pennsylvania received a cell phone call from a man who said he was a passenger locked in a bathroom aboard United Flight 93. The man repeatedly said the call was not a hoax, said dispatch supervisor Glenn Cramer in neighboring Westmoreland County. "We are being hijacked, we are being hijacked!" Cramer quoted the man from a transcript of the call. The man told dispatchers the plane "was going down. He heard some sort of explosion and saw white smoke coming from the plane and we lost contact with him," Cramer said. [Yahoo News, Tuesday September 11 11:27 PM EDT]

Thanks to a reader a paper version of the story also emerged:

Click images for full size

It was reported that a missile was heard before the crash:

"I know of two people - I will not mention names - that heard a missile," [Mayor Ernie Stuhl] said. "They both live very close, within a couple of hundred yards. . .This one fellow's served in Vietnam and he says he's heard them, and he heard one that day." The mayor adds that based on what he knows about that morning, military F-16 fighter jets were "very, very close." [philly.com]

Debris fell from Flight 93 nearly six miles from the crash scene...

[I]nvestigators also are combing a second crime scene in nearby Indian Lake, where residents reported hearing the doomed jetliner flying over at a low altitude before "falling apart on their homes." "People were calling in and reporting pieces of plane falling," a state trooper said. Jim Stop reported he had seen the hijacked Boeing 757 fly over him as he was fishing. He said he could see parts falling from the plane. [pittsburghlive.com]

...human remains were found miles from the crash scene...

Finding the flight data recorder had been the focus of investigators as they widened their search area today following the discoveries of more debris, including what appeared to be human remains, miles from the point of impact at a reclaimed coal mine. [Pittsburgh Post Gazette]

...light debris was found eight miles from the crash scene...

"Pennsylvania state police officials said on Thursday debris from the plane had been found up to 8 miles away [from the crash site] in a residential community where local media have quoted residents as speaking of a second plane in the area and burning debris falling from the sky." [Idaho Observer]

...and the following footage proves Flight 93 did not crash in a single piece but came apart in midair and scattered over a wide area:

The military refused to rule out a shoot down on September 15, 2001...

[F]ederal investigators said on Thursday they could not rule out the possibility that the United jet was shot down. "We have not ruled out that," FBI agent Bill Crowley told a news conference when asked about reports that a U.S. fighter jet may have fired on the hijacked Boeing 757. "We haven't ruled out anything yet." [CBS 58 News]

...the Washington Envoy to Canada says Bush ordered a shoot down...

[I]t was a Canadian general at Norad who scrambled military jets under orders from Bush to shoot down a hijacked commercial aircraft headed for Washington. [cnews]

...Donald Rumsfeld said the plane was shot down...

"I think all of us have a sense if we imagine the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess hall in Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon..." [WorldNetDaily]

...and in the opening remarks of a Guantanamo trial it was said the plane was shot down:

"If they hadn't shot down the fourth plane [Flight 93] it would've hit the dome," Stone, a Navy officer, said in his opening remarks. [Reuters]

Yet the official story removes all evidence of a shoot down, specifically the phone call reporting an explosion and smoke on board the aircraft while it was in flight, and the same media that carried early reports of evidence of a shoot down now parrots the official version without question.

The important point here isn't the shoot down. Most people would agree that under the circumstances, it was the best course of action. The point is that we are seeing clear evidence of the manipulation of information being fed to the public regarding 9/11.

What else is the government concealing about 9/11?

英國‧若得逞將造成數千人死‧嚴重過911‧策劃炸7機‧3人罪成

（英國‧倫敦）英國伍爾維奇刑事法庭陪審團週一（9月7日）宣判，3人因策劃用液體炸彈炸毀由英國至北美的7架航班而被判有罪。如果這一陰謀得逞，將導致數千人死亡，危害程度將超過美國911慘劇。

檢察官指出，這是一項“全球性的恐怖事件”。

策劃主謀28歲的阿卜杜拉被判共謀殺害數千人罪名成立。2006年他把液體炸彈偽裝成飲用水帶上飛機企圖在空中引爆液體炸彈，但陰謀最後被挫敗，各國航空業自此對乘客攜帶液體和膠狀物品上機採取了嚴格限制。

坦維爾（28歲）和阿薩德（29歲）同樣被控試圖用自制的液體炸彈炸毀從倫敦希思羅機場飛往美國和加拿大的航班。

檢察官：製造全球性恐怖事件

皇家檢察院在宣佈裁決後表示：“這是一個經過嚴密策劃及精密的陰謀，企圖製造全球性的恐怖事件。”

當局補充，3人“企圖在短時間內攻擊7個航班，如果陰謀得逞，將有數千名無辜的人死亡”。

防止這項陰謀的反恐行動是英國歷來最大型行動，涉及3500萬英鎊（約馬幣2億令吉）的費用。

媒體今日（週二，9月8日）報導，時任英國首相布萊爾和美國總統布什已經獲悉這項行動。

3人將被判刑

3人此前被控蓄意謀殺，但第一輪審訊中的陪審團無法斷定他們的罪名。他們將於週一被判刑。

內政部長約翰遜對裁決表示歡迎，並說：“我感到欣慰，陪審團終於確認這個跨大西洋飛機爆炸陰謀，3人也被控有罪。”

“這個案件說明，我們確實面對恐怖份子真切及嚴重的威脅。這是一個特別複雜和大膽的陰謀，一旦得逞會帶來重大的人命損失。”

中國‧孩子的爸是誰？產前親子鑒定中掀熱潮

（中國‧河南）懷孕了，但孩子的爸是誰，卻不清楚？中國近年就掀起產前親子鑒定熱潮！

據瞭解，產前親子鑒定在上世紀90年代已出現，但突然“流行”起來是在近兩年。

其中，河南省人民醫院從1999年開始做這項鑒定，每年前來作鑒定的人數都會翻番，去年的鑒定量已達590多例。

一位業內人士說：“大部份要求鑒定的，都是不知道孩子父親是誰的孕婦。不少人做了鑒定後，很可能會把孩子打掉。”

據一家親子鑒定中心負責人肖女士透露，很多當事人都不願意露面，直接把樣本寄過來。有的是孕婦拿著男子血液標本或者偷偷拔掉男方幾根帶毛囊的頭髮自己來的。

新加坡‧汽油調低14仙

（新加坡）新加坡汽油售價經過8月三度調高後，週一（9月7日）調低6仙（馬幣14仙）；然而，調低後的汽油價格仍比一個月前高3仙。

本地四家石油公司週一先後調低油價，有別於8月底個別汽油公司在不同天調整售價。

調低後的油價，加德士油站未打折扣的98辛烷值汽油至每公升1.92新元、92和95辛烷值汽油則分別是每公升1.737新元和每公升1.787新元；柴油則每公升1.263新元。

蜆殼汽油Formula95、Formula98，V-Power和柴油則分別是每公升1.787元、1.92元、2.029元和1.263元。

蜆殼及新加坡石油公司（SPC）週一早上分別調整售價。上午11時30分，經營加德士油站（Caltex）的雪佛龍石油公司也跟進。埃克森美孚（Exxon Mobil）旗下的埃索（Esso），則在下午1時調整價格。

新加坡‧白領麗人10秒偷手提袋‧過程被拍上載互聯網

（新加坡）眾目睽睽下10秒內偷走手提袋，白領麗人幹案經過全程被拍下，上載到互聯網！

一名上班族打扮的女郎，大庭廣眾之下，在一家快餐店內偷走顧客的手提袋，她的動作俐落，得逞後還能裝得若無其事的大步走出快餐店。

斯文女下手，男同黨遮擋，女同黨“看水”。

網友猜測，女郎能如此鎮定，相信不是第一次幹案。

女郎以為神不知鬼不覺，豈知整個幹案經過已被全程拍下，上載到包括STOMP的熱門網站，掀起網民的熱烈討論。

錄像中，只見一名裝扮斯文、穿著緊身裙、拎著一個黑色包包的金發女郎獨自步入快餐店，雖然眼前有很多空位，但她絲毫沒有要坐下的意思，反而是東張西望，環顧四週。

約一兩秒後，眼尖的女郎發現有位女顧客，大意地把手提袋放在身後和椅背中間，由於和親友談得入神，女顧客的身體稍微往前傾，沒有夾緊手提袋。

女郎見有機可乘，立即走到女顧客的身後，假裝要坐在後面的空位。其實那只是她的“障眼法”，她故意側著身體，左手拎著自己的包包，右手卻挑起女顧客的手提袋，動作“一氣呵成”，轉身後就手拿兩個包包，若無其事地走出快餐店。

女郎幹案的整個過程“乾淨俐落”，前後僅花了10秒，手提袋被偷走的女顧客完全不知情，就連她身旁的家人和周圍的顧客都沒有反應。

日本‧“御宅族”迷戀偷拍網上傳‧公主變性感模特兒

（日本‧東京）日本皇室近來甚為頭痛，這次不是繼後香燈問題，或二皇子與皇太子不和問題，而是作為皇室第3代的2位公主真子、佳子，青春少艾，令舉國“御宅族”瘋狂迷戀，甚至鬧出偷拍事件！

被繪製成漫畫動畫片

二皇子文仁長女真子。（圖：香港明報）

17歲的真子和15歲的佳子，是明仁天皇的孫女、二皇子文仁的2名女兒。她倆因為外型清純可愛，令“御宅族”（指熱衷及博精於動畫、漫畫及電腦遊戲的人）大為著迷，不僅在網上大量流傳她們的相片，還繪製可愛的漫畫公仔、編製動畫短片

據報導，只要在互聯網搜尋器上輸入真子的昵稱“真子RINPEN”，就會搜尋出一堆迷真子公主的網站，裡面有真子的圖像或網友製作的漫畫插圖。

真子在網友的想象之下大玩角色扮演（Cosplay），從清純學生妹一下披上軍服變成革命鬥士，一下又穿上泳裝變成性感模特兒。

繼真子之後，她的妹妹佳子公主現在也逐漸引起“御宅族”的注意，化身可愛小貓咪，顛覆公主的傳統形象。今年5月，她的一名男同學還把偷拍她的照片上載到網上，掀起風波。

不過，日本宮內廳表示，真子和佳子根本不知道自己成了大明星，也希望網友不要太過度迷戀，以免擾亂兩人平靜的生活。

新加坡‧歌台當局兩次揭發‧4女郎混水摸魚募捐

（新加坡）4名白衣女郎，連續3晚混水摸魚，拿著捐款箱混進歌台人群中，向公眾募捐，第一次得逞，後兩次被當眾揭發，落荒而逃。

據瞭解，4名年齡30歲左右的女郎，清一色身穿白衣、藍色牛仔褲。她們專挑人潮多的歌台下手，分別是大前晚的加冷舊機場路歌台、前晚蔡厝港北的“汽車天橋歌台”以及週一（9月7日）晚上的碧山歌台。

第一晚是在週六（5日），地點在加冷舊機場路。

當晚，歌台司儀在台上呼吁大家捐款支持3家福利團體和廟宇，3家團體的負責人就進入人群募捐。4名女郎沒有獲得理事批准，也敢敢拿錢箱去募捐。有人問她們來自哪間廟，她們都說不上來，最後還拿了錢箱就跑。

被中元會理事發現

第二晚是在週日（9月6日），地點在蔡厝港北5路汽車天橋下的歌台。4人企圖重施故計時，被中元會理事發現，把她們趕出會場。

第3晚是週一晚上，這批女郎又在碧山22街的歌台出現。這回，她們又趁歌台司儀在台上呼吁大家捐款給慈善團體時，混進人群中收錢。司儀發現後，當場揭發她們在大前晚沒經過理事批准向公眾募捐，嚇得4人馬上離開。

新加坡‧樓下設廠樓上開賭‧瓦解“廠房賭館”

（新加坡）工業區暗藏非法賭館，這相信是新加坡今年第一起遭瓦解的“廠房賭館”！

非法賭館就設在工廠3樓的一個廠房，該座工廠有許多修理汽車、電單車的廠房、燒焊鋼鐵工廠以及出入口公司等，敲敲打打的聲響不絕於耳，不法之徒在樓上關起門來經營賭館，以為能掩人耳目。

警方在打擊非法罪案一向不遺余力，據悉，像這樣暗藏工業區內的“廠房賭館”近年來比較少見，週一（9月7日）瓦解的這一間，相信是今年首個案例。

據瞭解，這家無招牌的廠房在那裡經營大約一年多，總是大門深鎖，只讓熟客進入，而且全部只限現金交易。非法賭館的兩道門外共裝有4台電眼，其中經營者還將針孔電眼，暗藏在看似電表箱的盒子內，監視門外的動靜。

Top Chinese official signals move away from dollar

The Chinese are becoming increasingly wary of the growing supply of U.S. dollars, leading the head of the nation’s green energy initiatives to signal a move away from dollar reserves and toward, gold, euros and yen, according to a published report.

“We hope there will be a change in monetary policy as soon as they have positive growth again,” said Cheng Siwei, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee, according to The Telegraph.

He added: “If they keep printing money to buy bonds it will lead to inflation, and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard. Most of our foreign reserves are in US bonds and this is very difficult to change, so we will diversify incremental reserves into euros, yen, and other currencies.”

Siwei also noted that China is especially interested in purchasing gold, but will move methodically in that arena so as not to agitate the market.

“To the degree that they sell dollars and buy gold, Yen or Euros, there can only be downward pressure on the U.S. dollar,” noted Edward Harrison with economic analysis publication RGE Monitor.

“One cannot rely on the words of one Chinese official to represent policy makers in China,” he added. “And Cheng never said the Chinese are now actively diversifying away from the U.S. dollar. Nevertheless, Chinese officials have been talking along this dollar bearish line for months now and I tend to believe their words will lead to action.”

However, some believe China has already begun this diversification.

“[Siwei's] comment captures exactly what observation of gold price action suggests is happening,” opined Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in a Telegraph op-ed. “Every time it looks as if the bullion market is going to buckle, some big force steps in from the unknown.

“Investors long-suspected that it was China. We later discovered that Beijing had in fact doubled its gold reserves to 1054 tonnes. Fait accompli first. Announcement long after.”

Business Insider added: “It’s going to be slow, and the country is loathe to buy too heavily, else it distorts the market more than it would like, but over time it will keep accumulating the shiny metal.”

On Monday gold exchange rates hit a six-month high at $995.19 an ounce, with some predicting the metal may appreciate over and above the $1,000 mark very soon.

“The underlying factor is still the dollar,” said Dan Smith, a UK-based Standard Chartered Plc analyst, according to Bloomberg News. “If we do see a break in the dollar, it could be one of the triggers to take gold higher.”

Sunday, central bank supervisors from all the world’s most powerful nations agreed, at America’s behest, to strengthen the “Basel II” framework for international commerce and increase currency liquidity in all member nations. They also agreed to empower “global supervision” of financial industries, which they said will ultimately result in markets with greater resistance to economic stress.

China has over $2 trillion in U.S. dollar reserves.

'Raising questions about 9/11 gets an Army sergeant demoted for 'disloyalty'

Originally published May 30, 2007, on the cover of Fort Worth Weekly.

These days, Donald Buswell’s job is not as exciting or dangerous as it once was. For the past few months, his working hours have been spent taking care of some 40-plus wounded soldiers at San Antonio’s Fort Sam Houston medical center. The work is sometimes menial, even janitorial, but he doesn’t mind. After all, Buswell has been where these men are — three years ago, he too was recovering from wounds received in a battle zone in Iraq.

“I truly consider this an honor,” Buswell told his dad not long ago.

Still, it’s not exactly where Buswell expected to be after 20 years of well-respected service in the Army.

Since joining the Army in 1987, he had risen to the rank of sergeant first class, serving in both Gulf Wars, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Korea. He ended up with shrapnel scars and a Purple Heart and, back in the U.S. after his last tour in Iraq, a job as intelligence analyst at Fort Sam Houston.

He couldn’t have foreseen that one e-mail could derail his career and put him on his way out of the Army. One e-mail, speculating about events that millions of people have questioned for the last six years, was all it took.

Sgt. Buswell wants to know: What really happened on 9/11? And he said so in his e-mail. In the few paragraphs of that August 2006 message — a reply not to someone outside the service, but to other soldiers — Buswell wrote that he thought the official report of what happened that day at the Pentagon, and in the Pennsylvania crash of United Airlines Flight 93, was full of errors and unanswered questions.

“Who really benefited from what happened that day?” he asked rhetorically. Not “Arabs,” but “the Military Industrial Complex,” Buswell concluded. “We must demand a new, independent investigation.”

For voicing those opinions in an e-mail to 38 people on the San Antonio Army base, Buswell was stripped of his security clearance, fired from his job, demoted, and ordered to undergo a mental health exam.

(He was also ordered not to speak with the press. Information for this story came from documents, conversations with Buswell’s family members and friends, and sources within Fifth Army who asked not to be named.)

As if all that weren’t enough, Fort Sam Houston’s chief of staff penned a letter accusing Buswell of “making statements disloyal to the United States.”

His father, Winthrop Buswell, said that his son “is one of the most patriotic people I know.”

“Donald saw something that his conscience led him to dispute,” he said. “That’s just the type of man he is.”

For his dissent, Donald has paid a heavy price.

Buswell (left) received the Purple Heart for injuries sustained in Iraq (courtesy photo)

Baghdad’s early light danced across the surface of a man-made lake. For Buswell, that April 2004 morning was the perfect time for a run. Behind him, the soldiers of Baghdad’s Camp Victory were, for the most part, not yet stirring. The path he took was a historic one: In the palace just a couple of hundred yards away, surrounded by the lake, Saddam Hussein was in custody, locked away in a former torture cell.

Five miles into the jog, Buswell paused to catch his breath, and something splashed in the water nearby with unusual force. He jumped back, surprised, and surveyed the area with care. Seeing no threat, he resumed his run, heading toward a couple of Iraqi men painting a small building.

Seconds later, Buswell heard a growing whistle and turned just in time to see a 122mm rocket barreling toward him. He dove out of the way, and the round hit several dozen yards behind him. Picking himself up off the ground, he saw another white trail forming over the water. He started running again, but had made it only a few steps when the force of another impact blew him to the ground. Shrapnel, rocks, and dirt rained down on him. Ahead, a fourth round hit the Iraqi painters, blowing off body parts and engulfing them in flames.

Horrified, Buswell ran toward the men and tried to extinguish the flames. The men were still alive, screaming in agony. Then, he heard the increasingly familiar whistle of another rocket and once again hit the dirt. The one that struck the nearby road was a dud, like the first that hit the water. Had it exploded, Buswell probably would have died. When he turned to look again at the two Iraqi men, he saw they were dead, their bodies charred and smoking.

“It was like the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan,” his dad recalled him saying.

By this time, troops from the camp were running toward the scene. Only when the first of those soldiers arrived and screamed for a medic did Buswell realize he’d been hit. Sharp flakes of metal were embedded up and down his left leg and all over the right side of his back.

The relatively minor wounds Buswell suffered that day were his first in a battle zone, despite the fact that he’d served in southern Iraq during Desert Storm a decade before. In his first few years in the Army, Buswell had been a metalworker and had dealt with explosives. Since 1990, he had been an intelligence analyst.

Buswell’s wounds were cleaned and bandaged within an hour of the rocket attack, and he rejoined his unit almost immediately. But 2004 had more — and more pleasant — developments in store for him.

Two months after the attack, he returned to the United States, to Fort Hood in Central Texas, and married his girlfriend Lori, officially becoming step-dad to her 11-year-old daughter Kaitlyn, who calls him “DD” (Daddy Donald) for short. In one of those strange quirks of war, Buswell had actually met Lori’s ex-husband and Kaitlyn’s dad — Darren Cunningham — while both were based at Camp Victory. The two became close friends. When Cunningham, a military police officer, was killed in a rocket attack in October 2004, just a month before his retirement, Buswell became even more of a father figure for Kaitlyn — and in some ways helped Cunningham’s family deal with his death.

Darren Cunningham and Buswell met and became friends in Iraq, and Buswell later helped Cunningham’s family deal with the MP’s death (courtesy photo)

For the next two years, Buswell worked at his intelligence post at Fort Hood, then was transferred to a similar job in San Antonio. But as he worked, he studied and read about what had happened on 9/11 — and came to the conclusions that would get him in so much trouble.

The terrorist attacks of 2001 had a profound effect on Buswell.

Before the much-disputed presidential election of 2000, Buswell shared with his father a view that very few held at the time. He was convinced that if George W. Bush won, he would take the country to war with Iraq to finish his father’s work. He believed the younger Bush would be too beholden to oil interests — and feared what that would mean for America’s foreign policy.

When the planes hit the World Trade Center towers on 9/11, Buswell later told his father, he figured that war with Iraq was coming, even if the country had nothing to do with the attacks. Being a loyal soldier, he kept his views private for a long while.

“He didn’t want to rock the boat,” Buswell’s father said. “Like all of us, he was somewhat in shock after what happened on 9/11.” And, as he told his father, his job was to serve. He was proud to do it, no matter who was directing policy.

By the time he was transferred to Fort Sam Houston, Buswell had developed strong opinions about what had happened. He had come to believe that the World Trade Center attacks were aided by persons on the inside and that the planes that crashed into the towers were just one component of a larger, more complex attack. The career soldier had effectively become a member of what’s known as the “9/11 truth movement,” which has continued to grow in spite of news media coverage that has generally refused to take the questions seriously. The movement includes many factions, espousing theories from the somewhat plausible to the really out-there folks who talk about space weapons bringing down the New York towers. The doubters include people like Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who recently agreed to distribute Loose Change Final Cut, a 9/11 conspiracy movie, and actors Charlie Sheen and Rosie O’Donnell, whose 9/11 dissents have been well-publicized.

In light of his new job, Buswell wanted to make sure his superiors knew of his views. He went to Chief Warrant Officer Mario Torres, a legal advisor to his division at Fort Sam Houston. Buswell told Torres he would not be willing to write reports or give speeches that required him to say things he didn’t believe regarding 9/11.


He shared with Torres his belief that the facts contradicted large parts of the official story of what had happened that day, calling the attacks an “inside job” — one of the central beliefs of many truth movement members. Torres didn’t see a problem: Buswell would not be working on anything related to 9/11, he said, and compared the sergeant’s views versus the official story to liking beer over wine. His concerns dismissed, Buswell went to work.

It was only a few weeks later, on Aug. 2, when Buswell received the e-mail that knocked his career off its tracks. The unsolicited message was sent to him and 38 others by someone who gave his name as Larry Anderson. No such person could be located at the San Antonio fort, and Buswell’s superiors declined to comment or to talk about the sender of the original e-mail.

The e-mail’s subject line read: “F4 vs. Concrete Wall.” The message referred to “loony liberal reasoning” that there must have been a conspiracy involved in the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon because there allegedly wasn’t enough airplane debris left behind for the building to have been hit by an airliner. Anderson referred to a film clip showing, he said, an Air Force engineering test in which an F4 Phantom fighter jet crashed at 500 mph into a heavily reinforced concrete wall surrounding a nuclear reactor site. The jet “turned to vapor,” Anderson claimed, thereby explaining the lack of plane wreckage at the Pentagon.

Later that day, Buswell committed the same infraction as Anderson: From his Army computer, he sent a mass reply to all the folks who got the initial message. Buswell’s crime was clicking the “Reply All” button — a mistake he still regrets.

The comparison between the F4 and a 757 hitting the Pentagon, he wrote, “serves only to muddy the issue,” because the fighter jet hitting a concrete barrier hardened to nuclear containment standards is very different from a plane hitting the Pentagon. The real issue, Buswell said, was that the official story on what happened that day “is filled with errors.

“We all know and saw 2 planes hitting the WTC buildings,” he wrote. “[W]e didn’t see the 757 hit the Pentagon, nor did we see the plane crash in Shanksville, PA. Both the PA and Pentagon ‘crashes’ don’t have [the] tell-tale signs of a jumbo-jet impacting those zones!

“The Pentagon would have huge wing impacts in the side of the building; it didn’t. Shanksville, PA would have had debris, and a large debris field; it didn’t.”

He went on to express doubt that “some Arabs in caves with cell phones” had been responsible for the tragedies of that day.

“I mean, how are Arabs benefiting from pulling off 9/11?” Buswell asked. “They have more war, more death and dismal conditions, so, how did 911 benefit them? Answer: It didn’t. So, who benefited from 9-11? The answer is sad, but simple: The Military Industrial Complex.” The idea of a 9/11 conspiracy, he added, is neither “Liberal Lunacy ... nor is it Conservative Kookiness.”

“People, fellow citizens we’ve been had!” he wrote. “We must demand a new independent investigation into 911 and look at all the options of that day ... Even the most incredulous theories must be examined.”

Not an opinion one might have expected from a career soldier — but then, expressing opinions, especially those of dissent, is the American way. The e-mail exchange hadn’t seemed particularly important to Buswell, he later told his family. He found out differently the next morning.

His key wouldn’t open the door to his office.

Buswell told his dad it was an honor to care for wounded soldiers (courtesy photo)

That was the first clue Buswell had that something was wrong. In short order, he was informed that a “15-6 investigation” had been opened regarding his use of the military e-mail network. It’s the same designation given the investigation into the Abu Ghraib torture scandal.

Over the next few days, Buswell was informed of the removal of his security clearance, subjected to intense scrutiny and intimidation, and alienated from other members of his intelligence division when he was relegated to secretarial work while the investigation went on. He was fired from his job and demoted to platoon sergeant.

In a letter appointing Major Edwin Escobar to lead the investigation, Col. Luke S. Green, chief of staff of the Fifth Army, wrote, “SFC Buswell failed to obey a general order or regulation when he used his Government issued email account to send messages disloyal to the United States [emphasis added] with the intent of engendering disloyalty or disaffection for the United States in a manner that brought discredit upon the United States Army.”

Green added that Buswell “allegedly asserts that he has information that proves a conspiracy on the part of the US military industrial complex to attack targets within the United States (e.g., The Pentagon), opinions which he asserts publicly and over Government email systems.”

However, no other documents related to the investigation mention Buswell’s opinions or question his loyalty. Officially, he was charged only with violating an Army policy regarding use of the military’s e-mail network. Winthrop Buswell said his son has acknowledged the infraction, but also noted it was the first time he’d ever heard of the rule being enforced.

Green, at the behest of Lt. General, Robert T. Clark, deputy commanding general of the Fifth Army, ordered that Buswell undergo a mental health exam. However, the physician in charge of the medical center’s mental health division declined to administer the test, saying that Buswell’s actions did not warrant it.

Buswell fought back. He contacted U.S. Rep. Charles A. Gonzales of San Antonio to register a complaint. Gonzales subsequently requested information from the Army about the investigation, but according to his aides, no other action has been taken. The request was given a congressional inquiry case number and promptly put aside.

In another sense though, Buswell has given up — at least on the idea of continuing his Army career. He filed retirement papers, set to take effect April 1, 2008.

“Donald expressed to me his disappointment in the Army after all that has happened,” said his father. “I raised my son to love America. He still gets chills when he sees the flag flying and hears our national anthem. He’s committed his life to serving our country, only to get tossed aside like this. It brings me great sadness.”

When his son gets out, he said, he plans to become an advocate for the 9/11 truth movement.

For the last 10 months, Buswell has spent his days tending to the needs of wounded Iraq War veterans at the San Antonio medical center.

“The service has mostly been good to Donald,” said the elder Buswell, a painter and retired locomotive engineer from Loudon, N.H. “He wouldn’t have made a career out of it if it wasn’t. But after all the controversy and the investigation, the thing that surprises me most is how he reacted to being fired. When they assigned him to the medical center, he told me, ‘Dad, I truly consider this to be an honor. To be given such an important task as some kind of retaliation against me is confusing, but it is truly my honor to help these men and women right now.’”

On the other hand, the elder Buswell said, his son’s empathy toward the soldiers now in his care isn’t surprising.

“He provides great solace to the soldiers,” Winthrop said. “He is a good listener and knows what they’re going through, having been in Iraq and suffering injuries there as well. They truly appreciate him.”

Family members say that’s par for the course for Buswell, a guy who delivered a Father’s Day present to Darren Cunningham from his daughter back in 2004 and even consulted Darren about raising his friend’s daughter, from whom Cunningham had years earlier become estranged.

“I don’t know what I’ve done in my life to deserve such a blessing, but having Donny around has helped me and my family deal with losing Darren,” said Glenn Cunningham, Darren’s older brother. “I really admire and respect Donny for that, and because of how principled he is. Some people don’t have the sense of honor that Donny has. And, you know, Donny ... He says things sometimes that get him into trouble, but he says them because he feels it’s the right thing to do. And I really, deeply respect that.”

To this day, Winthrop Buswell said, his son still cannot believe the military would come down on him so hard for sharing a view widely held across the United States.

“Donald really did nothing wrong,” his father said. “He responded to an e-mail. How many of us in civilian life respond to e-mail forwards from co-workers or friends? Is that really a crime? ... He is convinced, as I am also, that the 9/11 attacks are not what they seem. We love this country. I even voted for Bush in 2000. Sadly, I must say that I do regret it.”

He shares many of his son’s doubts and questions about what happened six years ago.

“When you look back at that day — that terrible, terrible day — it seems almost like another lifetime ago,” he said. “Donald believes bombs were planted in the towers and that the investigation exhibited a number of very questionable characteristics. Like, how could fire melt the steel core of the towers? Or, why did the 9/11 Commission not talk about World Trade Center 7? That [building] fell around 5 p.m., but we don’t know why. And if it is true what we’ve heard recently, that a physics professor at [Brigham Young University] found elements of steel-cutting agents in the melted steel from the towers, why is that met with cries of insanity? There is a possibility that what really happened was much more than what we were told.”

Not everyone close to the Buswells shares those views. Glenn Cunningham, who has become close friends with Buswell, much like his brother Darren, does not put much stock in conspiracy theories.

“I’m not one for conspiracies, but from what Donny is saying, it really does sound kinda questionable,” he said. “But I haven’t looked at it. I’m not in any movement ... And I just can’t imagine what people expect to come out of it. Of course I want to know the truth. Truth is always important, and if they’re lying to cover something up, we should find out. But then what?”

Winthrop Buswell isn’t strident when he talks about 9/11. He just raises questions and encourage others to do the same — and that’s all his son has done, he said.

“I pray Donald does not get in further trouble for standing up and speaking with his conscience,” he said. “I wish we were not all swept up in it. But here we are. So what will we do?

“Donald told me once, ‘Dad, I hate feeling the way I do. I just hate it. And if I’m wrong, gosh, I’ll just apologize to no end. But I can’t deny where the facts have led, and I can’t tell you how disappointed I am. The evidence just seems so prominent, and the question must be asked.’”

“Sadly, I agree with my son,” concluded Buswell. “I want the truth. Nothing less. We should all want that.”

By Stephen C. Webster

Hong Kong recalls gold reserves, touts high-security vault

In a challenge to London, Asian states invited to store bullion closer to home

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Hong Kong is pulling all its physical gold holdings from depositories in London, transferring them to a high-security depository newly built at the city's airport, in a move that won praise from local traders Thursday.

The facility, industry professionals said, would support Hong Kong's emergence as a Swiss-style trading hub for bullion and would lessen London's status as a key settlement-and-storage center.

"Having a central government-sponsored vault would create a situation where you could conceivably look at Hong Kong as being a hub, where metal could be traded for the region," said Sunil Kashyap, managing director at Scotia Capital in Hong Kong, adding that the facility was the first with official government backing in the region.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, which functions as the territory's unofficial central bank, will transfer its gold reserves stored in other vaults to the depository later this year, the Hong Kong government said in an earlier statement.

The monetary authority reported $63 million in physical gold reserves as of July 31, according to its International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity statement. The authority wouldn't disclose where the reserves are held, but local media reports cited gold traders as saying that London's the most likely location.

Traders said the new depository facility could also foster new financial products, such as exchange-traded funds based on precious metals.

The 3,660-square-foot depository, located at the city's main Chek Lap Kok Airport, will serve as a "storage facility for local and overseas government institutions," according to the government statement.

Martin Hennecke, a financial advisor with the Hong Kong-based Tyche Group Ltd., said that could be appealing to regional central banks unnerved after watching the global financial system teeter on verge of implosion last year.

"Central banks are increasingly aware of the importance of having gold reserves at time of financial crisis and having it easily available at their own disposal," he said.

Meanwhile, local newspaper reports said the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange had signed an agreement to use the depository for its physical settlement and storage needs.

Marketing efforts will be launched to convince Asian central banks to transfer their gold reserves to the Hong Kong facility, according to reports citing Raymond Lai, finance director with the Hong Kong Airport Authority.

Efforts will also be made to reach out to commodity exchanges, banks, precious-metals refiners and ETF providers, the reports said.

Management firm Value Partners planned to launch an ETF gold fund that will use Hong Kong instead of London as a repository for the gold backing the fund, local reports said Thursday.

Is another 9/11 set to unfold?

Earlier this year, quite by happenstance, I read a book written by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter James B. Stewart. "Heart of a Soldier" tells the story of two men who, well before it happened, foretold not only of the terrorist attack of 9/11 but also the 1993 bombing in the World Trade Center parking garage that preceded it. One of the men, Rick Rescorla, was chief of security for Morgan Stanley with an office in the World Trade Center. He died on 9/11, but not before he shepherded all but six of Morgan Stanley's 2,700 employees to safety because of a well-prepared and well-executed evacuation plan. He'd have made it out, too, had he not gone back in the building looking for those six. The other man, Daniel J. Hill, is still alive. With another Sept. 11 approaching I wanted to talk to The Man Who Predicted 9/11. Although... [read full story]

Airline passengers can keep their shoes on at security

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- Good news for harried travellers who resent having to remove their shoes at airport-security checkpoints: now you can just say no.

Canada's airport security agency has issued a bulletin to front-line officers instructing them they cannot require domestic or international passengers to doff footwear before walking through metal detectors.

"Never suggest, ask or demand that passengers remove footwear prior to entering the WTMD (walk-through metal detector)," says the one-page directive, issued in April.

"This bulletin is effective immediately."

In a major exception, however, officers can still order passengers heading for the United States to remove their shoes, consistent with higher air-security standards set by Washington.

As well, if a hand-held metal detector signals an alarm for shoes after the walk-through, a passenger can be required to remove footwear for examination.

And "if a passenger offers to remove footwear, allow them to do so," adds the directive.

The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, or CATSA, says the new bulletin will be written into the next edition of its operating manual.

The document was obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

Typically, shoes that passengers have been required to remove are sent through hand-baggage X-ray machines for closer inspection.

Footwear came under greater scrutiny by airport security officers around the world after British citizen Richard Reid was arrested in late 2001 for a failed attempt to bomb an American Airlines flight to Miami by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes.

A flight attendant managed to thwart Reid as he tried to hold a match to a fuse sticking out of the heel of one shoe.

The April shoe directive for Canadian screeners appears at odds with a "notice to passengers," currently posted on the CATSA website, that says "all passengers boarding any flights may also be requested to remove footwear for additional screening."

A spokesman for the authority said the spring bulletin is nothing new.

"It's a reminder to screening officers about the existing policy," Mathieu Larocque said in an interview.

"The purpose of the bulletin was simply to reinforce an existing policy. Nothing has changed. ... We're striving for consistency."

Larocque, who said the bulletin was not prompted by passenger complaints, declined to provide the relevant amendments of the screening manual, saying it is a secret document.

And he did not clarify why the bulletin indicated the shoe directive was "effective immediately" if it had already been CATSA policy.

The agency does not keep detailed enough records of complaints to indicate whether show-removal is an issue for travellers, Larocque said.

Tougher rules for shoe-screening that followed the Reid arrest have prompted a raft of passenger complaints around the world. Numerous blogs and travel websites allege that foot diseases are being spread and that security checkpoints are needlessly clogged by people struggling with shoelaces.

Several footwear manufacturers have also promoted "airport friendly" shoes containing little or no metal that might otherwise trigger alarms on metal detectors.

CATSA is a federal agency created in 2002 in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. On Jan. 1, 2003, the organization took over sole responsibility for air-passenger screening, which had previously been handled by the airlines.

The agency contracts out airport screening to private companies, while ensuring security and service standards are consistent across Canada.

Jason Bermas Debunks National Geographic 9/11 Hit Piece

Jason Rips into National Geographic’s 9/11 hit piece and takes on the “no planes” theory, that is designed to make the real 9/11 Truth movement look foolish.

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UN Calls For Bank Of The World, New Global Currency

Proposals for a new centralized economic world order outlined in globalist report

The United Nations has called for the establishment of a new global reserve currency to be overseen by a bank of the world in an effort to reduce the role of the Dollar in international trade.

Details of the proposal were outlined in a report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development. The report also calls for the new global reserve bank to monitor and manage the national exchange rates of member states.

“There’s a much better chance of achieving a stable pattern of exchange rates in a multilaterally-agreed framework for exchange-rate management,” Heiner Flassbeck, co-author of the report and a UNCTAD director, told Bloomberg News.

“An initiative equivalent to Bretton Woods or the European Monetary System is needed.” said Flassbeck.

He also added that while the UN also backed strengthening Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), a synthetic paper currency issued by the International Monetary Fund that was dormant for half a century until earlier this year, that would not be enough to "protect emerging markets".

This latest call for a new reserve currency from the UN echoes previous efforts by the global body to initiate talks on replacing the Dollar.

Meanwhile, an influential Chinese policy maker has slammed the US Federal Reserve's policy of printing money to buy Treasury debt, declaring that it threatens to set off a serious decline of the dollar and compel China to redesign its foreign reserve policy.

Earlier in the year, China expressed support for a Russian proposal for the creation of a new supra-national global currency as an alternative to the Dollar as the world reserve currency.

Other heavyweight elites such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, UK Business Secretary and top Bilderberg member Peter Mandelson and EU heads such as Joaquin Almunia, to name but a few, have called for a new economic world order consisting of vastly increased overarching centralization.

The creation of a de facto world currency to supplant the Dollar would likely lead to a complete collapse of the greenback, of which trillions are held in in foreign exchange reserves by many foreign countries.

As we have repeatedly warned, the introduction of a new global currency system is a key cornerstone in the move towards global government, centralized control and more power being concentrated into fewer hands.

Furthermore, a global central bank will establish a de facto financial dictatorship which will wield power over the economies of every country on the planet with no accountability whatsoever.

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Goldman Sachs Is Not Capitalism: On a Very Confused Michael Moore

Michael Moore is one confused theorist. In his latest movie, Capitalism: A Love Story, he tells us at the end the end of his two hour movie that "Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil."

He wants to replace capitalism with, get this, "You have to eliminate it and replace it with something that is good for all people and that something is democracy."

Last I looked, democracy was a political system, and capitalism was an economic system. There is no reason you can't have a democratic socialist system, or for that matter, a democratic capitalist system. There is no reason you can't have a socialist dictatorship or capitalistic dictatorship. There's no mutually exclusivity between political systems and economic systems. In other words, Moore doesn't know what the hell he is talking about.

As for capitalism itself, Moore seems to think it is Goldman Sachs and other banking institutions that are the beginning and end of capitalism. He completely ignores, or is not aware, that the Goldman Sachs rip off of the masses was done in cahoots, and here is the key, with the GOVERNMENT. No government influence over the banking system, no government ability to tax and give the money to bankers, no rip off.

What else can be said? M Moore=Confusion.

As I sit here typing this on my lap top, outside, enjoying the beautiful Los Angeles day, I think of the result of capitalism being the lap top I am using, the Blackberry next to me, the Boston Red Sox scores being sent to me live on my Blackberry, the comments coming from around the country, make that around the world, to my blog posts, the youtube video I viewed earlier, the pre-washed jeans I am wearing, the non-wrinkled shirt I am wearing, the new fusion-sushi restaurant down the street, the bottled water I am drinking, the twitter post coming to me, and the emails coming to me.

The positive results of capitalism are so prevalent that it is really hard to recognize how vast they are. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is as impossible to count all the positive creations of capitalism as it is to count the stars in the universe. Goldman Sachs is like a meteor that has caused a a huge destructive crater on earth. Moore has looked at this 155 mile in diameter crater and has pronounced all stars evil, including the sun.

Yes, Moore will look inside the Goldman created creator, film from its edges, yell at the crater and, I'm sure, get filmed being thrown out by security guards. But, he won't for a minute, show you the cell phone he is using, the lightweight camera he is using, the sophisticated web site he is using to market the film, the sophisticated network used to distribute the films.

If Moore is really so down on capitalism, I will really be impressed with his movie making abilities, and his theories on capitalism, when he goes to a truly non-capitalist country, say Cuba, and uses only film and communications tools he acquires there.

I'd also like to see the fat man eating on a totally Cuban food rationed diet, while he is making such film. And I don't want to even imagine being around the seedy fat man with the coming shortage of toilet paper in Cuba.

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Your questions and comments ...

Dear friends who've just viewed the National Geographic Conspiracy Theory on 9/11,

Thank you for taking time to come here and find our contact information in order to share your thoughts. We ask that if you are interested enough in this issue to write us hate mail because you actually believe the nonsense National Geographic states we "all believe" that you take a few minutes to click on a couple of the links to your left, in the "New to 9/11" section. What you will find is that essentially nothing that producer presented as the "beliefs" of "Truthers" actually reflects the real questions being asked by 9/11 truth advocates, as represented at this website.

This silly attempt to boil down the "Truthers" (what, people who are not actively pursuing answers to 9/11 questions are not in favor of truth? ridiculous...) to a few people who believe there was no plane at the Pentagon and the buildings were brought down by "thermite" is just that -- silly. Since you've come this far, why not have a look at a few of the 40 Questions or the Family Report Card and ask yourself why, after nearly eight long years, family members and other Americans are still wanting for answers to these core questions ... and ask yourselves why you're still not allowed to have those answers. And have a look at the articles on the front page at 911research.com or Journal of 9/11 Studies, and learn what the scientists are actually saying in their recently published peer-reviewed article. (No, it's not "thermite".)

We will attempt to issue a more thorough response within the next few days, particularly highlighting statements from those scientists (physicists, chemists, engineers) interviewed by National Geographic but not represented in the final edit. In the meantime, a brief review of these links will provide you with a much more accurate picture as to why millions of Americans (and our neighbors around the world) are still demanding a full investigation, restoration of our civil liberties, and truth-telling so that finally, accountability and closure will be forthcoming.

After this short effort at due diligence, if you still feel inclined to send us hate mail because you choose to believe the self-serving falsehoods served up by your corporate media, please feel free to do so. We'll be publishing a few of your more brilliant statements in our "Humor" section soon. Thank you.

As 9/11’s 8th anniversary approaches

As 9/11/2009 approaches with the end of summer, marking an end of innocence for America, the two major groups of 9/11 activists have announced their agendas for activities before, on, and after 9/11.

Journalists, activists, questioners and answerers from around the world will participate. We Are Change will hold events beginning on Thursday, Sept. 10, through Saturday, Sept. 12. We Demand Transparency will similarly hold events from Saturday, Sept. 10, through Sunday, Sept. 13.

If “change” and “transparency” characterize the group issues, the gauntlet was thrown on the airwaves last Tuesday by Kevin Barrett [from the latter group] on his Fair and Balanced radio show. The gauntlet was laid down as well by 9/11Truth independent researcher, journalist, author Christopher Bollyn, focusing on his new online book, Solving 9-11: The Deception that Changed the World.

(My humble reading — among many other speakers — of some 9/11 poems from my book, State Of Shock, for We Are Change’s Saturday 5 PM event seems quiet by contrast.)

But then, bless his soul, that’s Bollyn, who bears the name [in sound] of King Henry’s second wife, Anne, who ended as many of her predecessors: at the chop-shop. That’s a little sick, but I truly love his writing, his courage, and his cry for truth (as well as Kevin Barrett’s). In fact, they broke a story last Tuesday morning on “the extremely serious implications of the discovery of super-thermite in the dust of the World Trade Center.”

In a statement from Chris’s website, Bollyn wrote, “I hope we will have time to discuss the Israeli programs to develop nano-thermite at their illegal nuclear weapons complex near Dimona in the Negev Desert. It should be noted that Israel’s illegal nuclear arsenal was built by Shimon Peres, the current president of Israel and Capo di tutti capi, or head of the international Zionist crime gang based in Tel Aviv. The super-thermite used on 9-11 was developed four years prior to September 11, 2001, at Israel’s Nuclear Research Center – Negev near Dimona, and in affiliated Israeli universities and institutions. Shimon Peres’ best friend, Arnon Milchan, is the owner of one of Israel’s largest chemical companies.”

If that weren’t enough, he added, “Obtaining nano-size iron oxide and aluminum to create super-thermite is no problem for an old weapons smuggler like Milchan, who smuggled nuclear triggers to Israel in the 1980s. Peres’ gang members have stolen plutonium from Pennsylvania and hijacked shiploads of uranium to build their nuclear arsenal and have never been held to account. The Mossadniks who smuggled plutonium to Israel later tried to get the security contract for the World Trade Center, as I write about in my book. Israeli scientists simply took American and European nano-technology for energetic films and tweaked them to suit their purpose to pulverize the World Trade Center on 9-11.”

And . . .”Super-thermite was used to pulverize the Twin Towers. The architects of this false-flag terror never thought that traces of their nano-thermite would be found in the dust. They were wrong. This advanced nano-composite explosive was evidently applied to the interior surfaces of the WTC as a thin film, like a primer or spray coating. Remaining bi-layered chips of this super-thermite detonated at 430 degrees Celsius and released more energy per mass than any other known explosive used in demolition (Jones, 2009). The only questions left to be answered are: Who made the stuff? and Who put it in the Twin Towers? We can say with a high degree of certainty that it was not Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida. There is no Arab state or army that has access to this level of nano-technology. This means the government and media have been lying to us about 9-11 for 8 years.”

Do we need all this now? Is it for real or a distraction? First, yes. Second, we’ll see.

To punctuate Bollyn’s ire, there was an older photo of him with a blackened eye and purple cheeks and a broken arm in a sling, taken recently after his Chicago neighborhood cops did a number on him in front of his wife and kids for being Chris Bollyn: which meant blowing the whistle louder, longer, and with more of a ring of truth about Zionism than you are likely to ever read. And there was just more of it this time, an amazing 338-page “free book” to download in chapters, or by the story, or by the pound of blood, sweat and tears it had taken Bollyn to write it.

Or course, Kevin, dear fellow, a booted professor emeritus for his truth-speaking, had his own opening sally to Bollyn’s interview in his Monday release, “Ever noticed how those of us in the 9/11 truth movement who mention the elephant in the living room — the evidence of Mossad/Zionist involvement, and more generally Zionist political power in the USA — get slandered, reviled, set up, threatened, verbally and sometimes physically assaulted, kicked off 911blogger, libeled at Wikipedia, and generally mistreated?”

Well, yes, Kevin, come to think of it, I have. And I’ve lost a few old friends, gotten a few threats and had a few viruses planted on my old hard drive. It comes with the turf. Barrett added, “(Compare the Wikipedia biographies for me and Christopher Bollyn to those of . . . well, pick any 9/11 truth advocates who ignore the Israeli connection.) I am acquainted with top-tier 9/11 truth leaders who know perfectly well the Zionists did it, but ‘won’t go there’ because, they tell me (in one case at least) they are literally afraid for their lives.

“Ha! As a Muslim, I know that martyrdom is the quickest way to paradise ” [now there’s chutzpah if not a great Muslim sense of humor], “So here’s my message to the Zionist operatives, including the truth movement infiltrators who have been torturing me for several years now: BRING IT ON. And get a load of this explosive interview I just did with Sander Hicks, who is running it on page one of

WeDemandTransparency.com – -First question: “Do you believe the holocaust happened?” Yabadabadoo!

“It garnered some angry ‘take me off the list you holocaust denier’ messages from people who apparently hadn’t actually read the interview, in which I don’t deny any of the many holocausts . . . and also some equally angry messages from people who DO deny that the Nazis killed six million Jews in gas chambers, including one calling me a ‘Jewish punk’ and suggesting to somebody who goes by jewlessworld@live.com’ that he should deal with me . . .” Okay, folks, so we’re off and running. “Boys [and girls] just like to have fun,” like the song says.

But under this pounding rhetoric, truth, and passion, yes, genuine, real passion, the souls of the dead are still seeking justice, their missed lives and truth. (I feel like I’m reading the Marquis de Queensbury rules at a Garden fight.) So, as we take the gloves off or put them on, remember the common goals: change and transparency. Or let’s keep a reasonably clear head as I was remanded by Jim Fetzer after I wrote Hirschorn’s 9/11 truth swill. Not that Jim hasn’t had a silly idea or two. But it’s all got to be more than running the bulls at Pamplona.

We still have a single purpose, to see what happened as clearly and as truthfully as possible on that horrific day. And even eight years later, to work off that energy to repair life, love and the republic, such as they are these days. As the bard said, the truth will out, even if it’s as dark as the orthodox Jewish scholar Lenni Brenner’s soon to be republished paperback, 51 Documents – Zionist Collaboration With the Nazis, a book that as scary to read as it was heroic to edit. It points to the fact that on the road to the holocaust, something truly horrific happened. Read on . . .

Amazon’s Product Description:

“The Nazi era is the most discussed period in history, yet most Jews and other Americans are unaware of the interaction between Zionism and Hitler and Mussolini. The reason is simple and stark: the Zionist record is dishonorable. This book brings to light, through the use of actual historic documents, the disservice that the Zionists did to Jews before and during the Holocaust. Some of these documents were published in English decades ago, but are only now seeing the light of day. Others are being translated into English for the first time. Included are documents from Propaganda Minister Goebbels’ newspaper, Der Angriff, detailing an SS-man’s visit to Palestine as the Zionists’ guest. Readers will also learn about Adolf Eichmann’s account of his personal dealings with the Hungarian Zionist Rezsö Kasztner, who was later assassinated in Israel as a Nazi collaborator who betrayed 400,000 Hungarian Jews. Also revealed is pro-Zionist propaganda put out by the Nazis, such as a medal for getting Jews to Palestine and a Nazi board game where the object is to move Jews to Palestine. The documents contained in this book were selected with due care so that a rounded picture of history emerges. The author concludes that Zionism betrayed the Jews; and the evidence that led him to that conclusion is contained in this book. This book shows that the consequences of Zionism demand exposure. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.” As I said, there’s a new one coming.

About the Author

“Lenni Brenner has authored three critically acclaimed books on Jewish history: Zionism in the Age of Dictators, The Iron Wall: Zionist Revisionism from Jabotinsky to Shamir and Jews in America Today. He currently resides in New York City.” [He told me the new book is coming].

Coda

And so, hard as truth, hard as life is to fathom sometimes, like 9/11 itself, we need also to keep an open mind, a sense of compassion, and even, dare I say, forgiveness. Or what we have learned from the past will be for nothing. And we will continue in this ring of pointless violence forever. To my brothers and sisters of the 9/11 Truth Movement, I love you all. And to the rest of you, I love you as well and hope for the best outcome for us all. See you at Ground Zero. Starting from zero, anything is possible.