UK terrorist threat level raised to 'severe'

The UK terror threat level is being raised from "substantial" to "severe", Home Secretary Alan Johnson has said.

The new alert level means a terrorist attack is considered "highly likely". It had stood at substantial since July.

It is in response to the perceived increased threat from international terrorism following the failed Detroit airliner bombing on Christmas Day.

Mr Johnson stressed there was no intelligence to suggest a terrorist attack was imminent.

'Real threat'

The decision to raise the threat level was made by the UK's Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC).

Mr Johnson said JTAC kept the threat level under constant review, making its judgments based on a broad range of factors including the intent and capabilities of international terrorist groups in the UK and overseas.

He said: "We still face a real and serious threat to the UK from international terrorism, so I would urge the public to remain vigilant and carry on reporting suspicious events to the appropriate authorities and to support the police and security services in their continuing efforts to discover, track and disrupt terrorist activity."

Mr Johnson said the new level meant people needed to be "more aware".

The decision to raise the threat level was not specifically linked to the failed Christmas Day bomb attack on a plane bound for Detroit or to any other incident, he said.

Mr Johnson said the government would not reveal specific intelligence details.

"We never say what the intelligence is and it would be pretty daft of us to do that," he said.

He added: "It shouldn't be thought to be linked to Detroit or anywhere else for that matter."

But the UK had not reached the highest threat level of "critical", which would mean an attack was imminent.

Mr Johnson said: "We have a very adept and very focused counter-terrorism facility in this country, which consists of many police officers as well as security officers, so the public should be reassured by that."

Security plan

The US Department of Homeland Security said the move meant the UK would be on a similar level of alert to America.

In a statement it said: "The UK is raising their measures to effectively where we are with the airport security measures that we have taken and announced over the last few weeks.

"We have enhanced our security measures and communicated specific information to industry, law enforcement and the American people."

Mike Granatt, a former head of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat in the Cabinet Office, said the move would have an effect both on the public and behind the scenes.

He told BBC News: "The main reason for alert states is to warn people who have a specific task that they ought to do something differently, they ought to be taking more steps or they ought to move to a different phase of the security plan.

"It also raises awareness among the public to keep their eyes open, and one shouldn't forget that the millions of pairs of eyes of the public are an extremely useful weapon in the fight against terrorism."

BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said the perceived threat from Yemen since the Christmas Day attempted attack may be one factor behind the decision to raise the threat level.

But he added there might be additional factors which have not been revealed by the government.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced on Wednesday that direct flights between Yemen and the UK were to be suspended over fears about their safety.

The change in threat level comes days ahead of two major international conferences, on Yemen and Afghanistan, in London on Wednesday and Thursday.

There are five levels of terror threat, ranging from low - meaning an attack is unlikely - to critical, when an attack is expected imminently. Severe is the second-highest level on the scale.

The threat level was first made public on 1 August 2006, when it was set at severe.

It was raised to critical on 10 August that year after a series of arrests over an alleged plot to blow up transatlantic aircraft but lowered to severe again the following week.

The threat level was last at critical in June 2007, following the attack on Glasgow Airport and the failed car bombings in central London.

The United States’ slide to corporatocracy

Following the US Supreme Court that removed restrictions on corporate donations to political campaigns, Daniel Patrick Welch looks forward to a day in the not-too-distant future where there will be congressmen representing corporations and where homelessness and disease will vanish because no one will count or diagnose the sick.

”To those who envision a grey, faceless corporate future, I say lighten up. I see a warmer, fuzzier world where politicians might even become sort of expensive, exotic pets, like say a python, an ostrich or a pot-bellied pig.”

I know, I know. I’ve seen the blogosphere screeching about the death of democracy now that the Supreme Court has rolled back restrictions on corporate donations to political campaigns. Whiner! Haven’t you all stopped for even a moment to think how this might benefit humanity? Sure, we’re all aware of the downside, but would it kill us to think positive for a change?

I mean, let’s face it: corporations have controlled the agenda since the Mayflower Compact duped those non-puritan losers into thinking it didn’t matter where they “settled”, as long as they made some money. Come on, people – it's not as if corporate whoredom hasn't been a Staple(tm) of our “democracy” from the beginning. The latest victory for corporate personhood just kicks the can a little bit further down Wall Street. Corporations are people too, dammit!

Do we really need such archaic forms of government. When business and information are moving around the globe at the speed of light, can we really afford to wait two, or four or even six years for an “election”? Get real. Corporations know how to spend money wisely, and if we give ourselves completely to their benign control, won’t we all sleep just a little better at night? Now don't you smirk! (We own that gesture).

True, some changes will be in order. But we’ve been indulging this 18th century protocol crap for too long. Will the Gentleman yield? I yield to the Gentlelady from Texas. Come on. Besides, all these geographic obstacles have outspent their welcome, anyway. How about the Senator from Viacom? The Senator from Monsanto is up five points in heavy trading today... No more of this sillynanny powdered wig stuff. It’s time to update our institutions: The Gentleman from United Health Care! As in, The Gentleman from United Health Care asks consent to revise and extend his remarks. And what’s with this gender bias – aren’t we beyond that? Think of the post-feminist breakthrough inspired by a whole new term, say, Gentlecorp.! As in, will the Gentlecorp. yield? I yield to the Gentlecorp..

To those who envision a grey, faceless corporate future, I say lighten up. I see a warmer, fuzzier world where politicians might even become sort of expensive, exotic pets, like say a python, an ostrich or a pot-bellied pig. "Julia and I would love to come to the thing tonight, but we have to stop off at the house and feed our congressman." Or, to paraphrase Mrs. Slocumb, "If I'm not home to feed my senator by six o'clock, I shall be stroking it all evening!" And think of the bonding experience for regular Americans around the water cooler. "Hey, did you hear Jim and Martha made a killing on their Senate seat. Any idea what they're going to do with the money?" This might be particularly appropriate for the senators from Blackwater or Haliburton. Or maybe "Pssst! I have a line on a seriously undervalued senator – but we have to act fast if we want to get in on the ground floor."

And it’s not just in the formal setting of CongressCorp that these sweeping changes will take place. Think of the advances for humankind! Not since Upton Sinclair ruined the meat industry with his snarky, lopsided hatchet job will corporations have been so free to not tell it like it is. Imagine – no more cholera, no more botulism or ecoli. In fact, no more disease or pain of any kind, now that definitions and regulations will become a thing of the past, consigned to history with the swipe of a corporate pen. Just like the World Health Organization did to smallpox. Well, virtually.

Homelessness will disappear, along with hunger, poverty and war. Unemployment will vanish – who’s counting? Want another double cheeseburger? Pile it on – coronary artery disease and diabetes, like obesity and racism, are things of the past when those silly rules that require reporting or cataloging them are gutted like the mad cows they are not (BSE doesn’t exist without testing, genius!). Age of Aquarius? Yeah, right! Make way for the Age of Corporatarius!

Sure, the American Dream will change. But be honest, hasn't it always been in flux? From the dream of female suffrage to joining a union, from home ownership to the negro right to vote – all these quaint notions have come and gone over time. I remember a political cartoonist in the 1980s lampooned the dream of a black man running for president. An older, African American man was bouncing a grandson on his knee: "President? No, son – but you may grow up to be frontrunner!"

Such cynicism! Within a mere 20 years a black corporation was elected to the very White House this cartoonist implied was out of reach. And that was in the bad old days when corporations had to connive and scheme to line the public trough with billions of dollars of corporate cash. Brand Obama shattered the beige ceiling for millions. And, in time, so will the SCOTUS ruling today, setting the scene for that day not long from now, in some town or godforsaken hamlet somewhere between Orlando and the dawn, in some lonely, lowly, humblest of business schools, a Latina or African American grandma will smile, her eyes brimming with tears as she looks on at her successful granddaughter: "I always knew that if you prayed hard enough and worked hard enough... that someday you might just... grow up to [sniff] own a United States senator!

(No corporations were harmed in the writing of this article.)

ECB prepares legal grounds for euro rupture as Greece festers

Fears of a euro breakup have reached the point where the European Central Bank feels compelled to issue a legal analysis of what would happen if a country tried to leave monetary union.

"Recent developments have, perhaps, increased the risk of secession (however modestly), as well as the urgency of addressing it as a possible scenario," said the document, entitled "Withdrawal and Expulsion from the EU and EMU: Some Reflections."

The author makes a string of vaulting, Jesuitical, and mischievous claims, as EU lawyers often do. Half a century of ever-closer union has created a "new legal order" that transcends a "largely obsolete concept of sovereignty" and imposes a "permanent limitation" on the states' rights.

Those who suspect that the European Court has the power pretensions of the medieval papacy will find plenty to validate their fears in this astonishing text.

Crucially, the author argues that eurozone exit entails expulsion from the European Union as well. All EU members must take part in EMU (except Britain and Denmark, with opt-outs).

This is a warning shot for Greece, Portugal, Ireland, and Spain. If they fail to marshal public support for draconian austerity, they risk being cast into Icelandic oblivion. Or for Greece, back into the clammy embrace of Asia Minor.

ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet upped the ante, warning that the bank would not bend its collateral rules to support Greek debt. "No state can expect any special treatment," he said. He might as well daub a death's cross on the door of Greece's debt management office.

This euro-brinkmanship must be unnerving for the Hellenic Socialists (PASOK). Last week's E1.6 billion (L1.4 billion) auction of Greek debt did not go well. The interest rate on six-month notes rose to 1.38 percent, compared to 0.59 percent a month ago. The yield on 10-year bonds has touched 6 percent, the spreads ballooning to 270 basis points above German Bunds.

Greece cannot afford such a premium for long. The country must raise E54 billion this year -- front-loaded in the first half. Unless the spreads fall sharply, the deficit cannot be cut from 12.7 percent of GDP to 3 percent within three years. As Moody's put it, Greece (and Portugal) face the risk of "slow death" from rising interest costs.

Stephen Jen from BlueGold Capital said the design flaws of monetary union are becoming clearer. "I don't believe Euroland will break up. Too much political capital has been spent in the past half century for Euroland to allow an outright breakage. However, severe 'stress-fractures' are quite likely in the years ahead."

As Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain (PIIGS) slide into deflation, their "real" interest rates will rise even higher. "It is tantamount to hiking rates in the already weak PIIGS," he said. This is the crux. ECB policy will become "pro-cyclical," too tight for the South, too loose for the North.

The City view is that the North-South split may cause trouble but that there will always be a bailout to prevent a domino effect. "If a rescue turns out to be necessary, a rescue will be mounted," said Marco Annunziata from Unicredit.

It comes down to a bet that Berlin will do for Club Med what it did for East Germany: subsidise forever. It is a judgment on whether EMU is the binding coin of sacred solidarity or just a fixed exchange rate system like others before it.

Politics will decide, and in Greece it is already proving messy as teams of "inspectors" ruffle feathers. The Orthodox LAOS party is not happy that an EU crew dared to demand an accounting from the colonels. "The Ministry of Defence is sacrosanct," it said.

Greece alone in Western Europe treats the military budget as a state secret. Rating agencies guess it is a ruinous 5 percent of GDP. Does the country really need 1,700 battle tanks, 420 combat jets, and eight submarines? To fight NATO ally Turkey? Merely to pose the question is to enter dangerous waters.

Who knows what the IMF surveillance team made of their mission in Athens. The fund's formula for boom-bust countries that squander their competitiveness is to retrench and devalue. But devaluation is ruled out. Greece must take the pain, without the cure.

The policy is conceptually foolish and arguably cynical. It is to bleed a society in order to uphold the ideology of the European Project. Greece's national debt will be 120 percent of GDP this year. S&P says it will reach 138 percent by 2012. A fiscal squeeze -- without any offsetting monetary or exchange stimulus -- will cause tax revenues to collapse. Debt will rise higher on a shrinking economic base.

Even if Greece can cut wages without setting off mass protest, it lacks the open economy and export sector that may yet save Ireland in similar circumstances. Greece is caught in a textbook deflation trap.

Labour minister Andreas Loverdos says unemployment would reach a million this year -- or 22 percent, equal to 30 million in the US. He broadcast the fact with a hint of menace, as if he wanted Europe to squirm. Two can play brinkmanship.

Russian bombers fly patrols over Pacific

Two Russian Tu-95MS Bear strategic bombers have carried out a routine patrol flight over the Pacific Ocean, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

"Two turboprop Tu-95 MS bombers, which took off from the Ukrainka airbase, have successfully completed patrol tasks over the Aleutian Islands in the Pacific Ocean," Lt. Col. Vladimir Drik said.

The bombers spent about 20 hours in the air practicing instrumental guidance flights over neutral waters and in-flight refueling.

Russia resumed strategic bomber patrol flights over the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans in August 2007, following an order from then-President Vladimir Putin.

All flights by Russian aircraft are performed in strict compliance with international law on the use of airspace over neutral waters, without intruding the airspace of other states.

The Ukrainka airbase is one of the largest strategic air force bases in Russia's Far East.

Carol loses her husband and the IRS comes after her

Click this link ....... http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4155238/highlight/42024

Is The U.S. Economy Being Tanked By Mistake or By Intent?

The government wants Americans to believe the greatest economic collapse in history was the result of ineptness and mistakes yet still have confidence in their financial institutions.

Should American bankers be let off the hook because they self-declare, before an investigational panel, that the failure of their newly invented risk swaps and other highly leveraged investment schemes was simply due to "mistakes"? Not malfeasance – just every-day mistakes? Bankers just fell asleep at the helm at a critical juncture in American history. Is that what we are being led to believe?

Oh well, it’s just 18 million American homes that now lay empty in the wake of unprecedented foreclosures, and the bankers have collected obscene bonuses for reckless lending of their depositors’ money. It’s like the captain and crew of a ship saying, not to worry, twenty-percent of the passengers were lost overboard, but this was due to unavoidable mistakes, and then being rewarded with bonuses when they reach port.

Are Americans to believe that the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates to create a false bubble in the economy, at the same time the Securities Exchange Commission allowed investment banks risky reserve ratios and exerted lax control over investment tycoons like Bernie Madoff, and in lock step, the credit rating agencies (Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s) handed out sterling A+ credit ratings on risky mortgage-backed securities, while the US Treasury Department stood by and did nothing?

Shall Americans conclude the world’s largest economy is beyond the management skills and regulation of virtually every financial arm of government and the private sector? If so, widespread incompetence would suggest Americans had better come up with some institution or instrument of their own invention to protect their money.

Whatever or whomever did bring down the American economy, it appears to be an orchestrated effort. If one arm of the financial industry had objected or performed their job responsibly, the whole economic collapse could have been averted. The credit rating agencies alone could have put an abrupt halt to what amounts to a financial collapse of western civilization.

Lenses into the future: a planned default?

Americans cannot see the economy as the elites do. The elites have lenses into the future. They have access to information that foretells the future of our economy. They can see a better picture of when mounting debt will rise beyond the ability to repay.

They certainly can see pension funds, private and public, are under-funded and there is no way, with Baby Boomers now entering their retirement years, these obligations can be met. Medicare expenses are totally out of control with enrollees able to rack up bills in the tens of thousands of dollars beyond what they ever paid into the system.

At some point, seeing no way out, maybe a decision was made to default on our debts. There are rumblings that the world economy is being intentionally brought to its knees in order to usher in a one-world currency.

There are other hints that the US is intentionally tanking its economy.

• Normally the US Patent & Trademark Office could be seen as a pathway to jump-start the economy. Some 6300 patent examiners hold the future fate of the American economy in their hands. But the patent office is backlogged. It embarrassingly has 6 years of patent applications, what amounts to over 1 million filings, waiting to be evaluated. Over $700 million of fees have been siphoned off by Congress to pay for other extraneous government projects, slowing the patent approval process to an agonizingly pace. About 7 of every 10 applicants were granted a patent in the past. But today, less than half are approved.
• In the past decade there also appeared to be an effort to drive States into debt. Colorado, a State that had a mandated spending limit, was belittled for stifling its economy. Lies were told that Colorado was so bogged down with this limitation that it repealed its spending limit bill. That was far from the truth.
• Another business stifling practice has been to limit the amount of large funds actually available to the economy in what is called M3 money supply. M1 is the amount of currency and traveler’s checks in circulation outside banks, along with demand deposits and other checkable deposits. M2 is M1 plus savings deposits, such as money market accounts. M3 is M2 plus large time-restricted deposits, institutional money-market funds and other large liquid assets. M3 is the best official measure of the total supply of money.

As of March 23, 2006, the M3 money supply is no longer published by the US central bank. So Americans can’t get a full view of what government is doing with the total money supply. The M3 is now estimated by two websites – ShadowStats.com and NowAndTheFuture.com. A severe contraction in the M3 money supply began to be reported in August of 2008. It appears there has been a sudden downturn in M3 funds, which could choke the economy at a critical time.

"Total money"
M3 plus credit, recent time
http://www.nowandfutures.com/key_stats.html

By plan or mistake?

It would be difficult for the American public to even contemplate the idea that their government may be intentionally tanking the economy. So we are left with the commonly-heard claim that people in government are just incompetent, there is no conspiracy of any kind. Regardless, heads should roll, and we still have the same derelict captains (Bernanke, Geithner) at the helm.

Whatever is planned for the future US economy, there certainly must be contingency plans in place to devalue the dollar, issue new currency, declare banking holidays, reappraise the value of real estate to true market value (~ 30% drop), sell off government-held real estate assets to hedge funds, confiscate guns, invoke marshal law, etc. If these events occur, they won’t be without forethought. Call it conspiracy if you will.

On November 21, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt stated, "The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the United States since the days of Andrew Jackson."

Few Americans recognize the merger of state and corporate powers, with the news media also subservient to those in power. How gullible the public has been over recent decades to not see how government and business have conspired to raise the price of goods.

The oil embargo of the 1970s

I can recall the gasoline crisis/OPEC oil embargo of the 1970s. I was traveling around the US on business at the time and I noticed that shortages of gasoline were not nationwide but were actually being staged in different regions. In Seattle there was no shortage of gasoline, but there were long lines at gas stations in Los Angeles. There was no scarcity of gasoline in Atlanta, but later there were long lines at gas pumps throughout Georgia. TV screens around the nation made it falsely appear the shortage was nationwide.

The 1970s gasoline crisis was a concerted effort between government, oil producers and the news media to fool Americans into thinking there was a pervasive shortage of gasoline despite the fact OPEC, the oil-producing cartel, was founded because of an over-abundance of oil.

I recall reading an article in Fortune Magazine in 1963 how oil companies longed to find a way to raise the price of gasoline to European levels. Pre-OPEC, oil was sold at competing prices. That couldn’t be tolerated. A spot-price had to be introduced. Then one country couldn’t undersell another and prices would "stabilize." The OPEC cartel eliminated competition, except for Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in recent times. Of course, Chavez is demonized. We do not have free markets, we have controlled markets based upon contrived events.

Graph of oil prices from 1861–2007, showing a sharp increase in 1973, and again during the 1979 energy crisis. The orange line is adjusted for inflation.

Examine this map of failed banks in 2008–2009. There are over 2000 failed banks the FDIC indicates it needs to dissolve. Notice how evenly the bank failures are spread geographically across the US. The geographical locus of home foreclosures is centered in California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida. But bank closures appear to be more evenly spread, as if to create public awareness (and fear) in every geographic region that banks are in trouble. This is eerily similar to the geographically revolving gasoline shortages in the 1970s.

Tax cut or payoff to oil companies?

Another example of complicity between government and industry is the most recent run up in gasoline prices which began early in the past decade. The news media failed to note that when GW Bush passed his first tax cut in 2001, early in his first term in office, it was rapidly followed by an increase in gasoline prices at the pump. Had President Bush cut taxes in order to put money into consumers’ hands so they could then pay ghastly high gasoline bills? The tax cut appears to have been a hand-in-hand arrangement between oil producers and the federal government. Gasoline prices rose till the public began curtailing their driving. The oil companies had now determined the top price they could get for their refined oil without collapsing demand.

There is nothing wrong with companies determining the top price consumers will pay for their goods, but there is something wrong when government secretly schemes with oil companies to create false market value, as they have also done in real estate.

Looking back in recent American history, there were also shortages of coffee and bananas in the 1970s and 80s, all staged events blamed on storms in South America that ruined crops. In those days, Americans didn’t have easy access to weather maps and information via the internet. These shortages were prolonged and prices rose until usage declined. Then the barons who ruled the coffee and banana industries had found the top price they could sell their products at without dampening demand. Suddenly, the shortages disappeared. The public never imagined these shortages were all artificially created.

Just as the price of oil, bananas and coffee were covertly engineered by a hidden alliance between government, industry and news outlets, is currency being gamed in the same fashion today? If so, current economic events are not by mistake.

Since President Roosevelt banned citizens from owning gold in 1933, the people were left holding increasingly worthless pieces of paper.

Americans can’t imagine how monetary policy has eroded their purchasing power. The US was officially taken off the gold standard in 1971. Issuance of silver certificates ceased in 1964. Had the US dollar continued to be backed by gold, the rise in the value of gold would have offset recent increases in gasoline prices at the pump, a fact Ron Paul has brought to the public’s attention.

For example, a portion of the rise in oil prices in recent years is due to erosion in the value of the dollar. Had the dollar remained strong the relative price of a barrel of oil would only have been around $65 in 2007-2008. If you compare the spot price of oil to gold, there has been almost no increase. Imagine what a gold-backed currency would do for America? Again, government (the Federal Reserve) has now admitted that it has arranged gold swaps with foreign banks in a prearranged way to suppress the value of gold.

Is inflation inevitable? Or is it planned? Will the American public ever imagine the value of their money has long been manipulated just as the price of coffee, bananas, gasoline and gold have been engineered in an unholy alliance between government and bankers and corporate enterprise? Will the American public ever realize their government is working against them, plunder their wealth, in a growing fascist alliance with American corporations? The enemy is not the underpants airplane bomber as we are falsely being led to believe. The enemy is not a towelhead in Afghanistan. The enemy is not China. As Pogo once said, "we have met the enemy, and he is us."

January 19, 2010

Bill Sardi [send him mail] is a frequent writer on health and political topics. His health writings can be found at www.naturalhealthlibrarian.com. He is the author of You Don’t Have To Be Afraid Of Cancer Anymore.

Copyright © 2010 Bill Sardi Word of Knowledge Agency, San Dimas, California. This article has been written exclusively for www.LewRockwell.com and other parties who wish to refer to it should link rather than post at other URLs.

Over a Dozen Georgia Lawmakers Failed to File State Tax Returns

Over a dozen Georgia lawmakers have failed to file their 2008 state tax returns, on the heels of a scandal last year involving 22 Georgia lawmakers who failed to pay their 2007 state taxes.

• Associated Press
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• WXIA-TV