Archive for September 2008
The Destabilization of Bolivia and the “Kosovo Option”
The Destabilization of Bolivia and the “Kosovo Option”
by Michel Chossudovsky
The secession of Bolivia’s Eastern provinces is part of a US sponsored covert operation, coordinated out of the US State Department, in liaison with US intelligence.
The death squads armed with automatic weapons responsible for killing supporters of Evo Morales in El Porvenir are supported covertly by the US. According to one report, “USAID has an “Office of Transition Initiatives” operating in Bolivia, funneling millions of dollars of training and support to right-wing opposition regional governments and movements.”(The Center for Economic and Policy Research, September 2008). The US also provides support to various opposition groups through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
The expelled US Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg worked under the helm of Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who directly oversees the various “activities” of US embassies around the World. In this regard Negroponte plays a far more important role, acting behind the scenes, than Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. He is also known as one of the main architects of regime change and covert support to paramilitary death squads both in Central America and Iraq.
Philip S. Goldberg’s mandate as ambassador to Bolivia was to trigger the fracture of Bolivia as a country. Prior to his appointment as ambassador in early 2007, he served as US Chief of Mission in Pristina, Kosovo (2004-2006) and was in permanent liaison with the leaders of the KLA paramilitary, who had integrated civilian politics, following the NATO occupation of Kosovo in 1999.
Supported by the CIA, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), whose leaders now head the Kosovar government, was known for its extensive links to organized crime and the trade in narcotics. In Kosovo, Goldberg was involved in setting the stage for the subsequent secession of Kosovo from Serbia, leading to the installation of an “independent” Kosovar government.
In the course of the 1990s, Goldberg had played an active role in the break up of Yugoslavia. From 1994-1996 he was responsible for the Bosnia Desk at the State Department. He worked closely with Washington’s Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke and played a central role as Chief of Staff of the US negotiating team at Dayton, leading up to the signing of the Dayton Accords in 1995. These accords were conducive to the carving up of Bosnia-Herzegovina. More generally they triggered the destruction and destabilization of Yugoslavia as country. In 1996, Goldberg worked directly as Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott (1994-2000), who together with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, played a key role in launching the war on Yugoslavia in 1999.
The Central Role of John Negroponte
Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte plays a central role in the conduct of covert operations. He served as US ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985. As Ambassador in Tegucigalpa, he played a key role in supporting and supervising the Nicaraguan Contra mercenaries who were based in Honduras. The cross border Contra attacks into Nicaragua claimed some 50 000 civilian lives. During the same period, Negroponte was instrumental in setting up the Honduran military death squads, “operating with Washington support’s, they assassinated hundreds of opponents of the US-backed regime.” (See Bill Venn, Bush Nominee linked to Latin American Terrorism, Global Research, November 2001)
“Under the rule of General Gustavo Alvarez Martnez, Honduras’s military government was both a close ally of the Reagan administration and was “disappearing” dozens of political opponents in classic death squad fashion.
(See Peter Roff and James Chapin, Face-off: Bush’s Foreign Policy Warriors , Global Research, July 2001)
This did not prevent his nomination to the position of US Permanent Representative to the UN under the Clinton administration.
The Salvador Option
Negroponte became Ambassador to Iraq in 2004, where he set up a “security framework” for the US occupation, largely modeled on the Central American death squads. This project was referred to by several writers as the “Salvador Option”.
While in Baghdad, Negroponte hired as his Counselor on security issues, a former head of special operations in El Salvador. The two men were close colleagues going back to the 1980s in Central America. While Negroponte was busy setting up the death squads in Honduras, Colonel Steele had been in charge of the US Military Advisory Group in El Salvador, (1984-86) “where he was responsible for developing special operating forces at brigade level during the height of the conflict.”:
“These forces, composed of the most brutal soldiers available, replicated the kind of small-unit operations with which Steele was familiar from his service in Vietnam. Rather than focusing on seizing terrain, their role was to attack ‘insurgent’ leadership, their supporters, sources of supply and base camps.” (Max Fuller, For Iraq, “The Salvador Option” Becomes Reality, Global Research, June 2005)
In Iraq, Steele was “assigned to work with a new elite Iraqi counter-insurgency unit known as the Special Police Commandos”. In this context, Negroponte’s objective was to encourage ethnic divisions and factional strife, by triggering covert terrorist attacks directed against the Iraqi civilian population.
Negroponte was appointed as the Head of the Directorate of National Intelligence in 2005, and subsequently in 2007 came to occupy the Number Two position in the State Department.
The Kosovo Option: Haiti
This is not the first time that the “Kosovo model” of supporting terrorist paramilitaries has been applied in Latin America.
In February 2003, Washington announced the appointment of James Foley as Ambassador to Haiti. Ambassadors Goldberg and Foley are part of the same “diplomatic stable”. Foley had been a State Department spokesman under the Clinton administration during the war on Kosovo. He was involved at an earlier period in channeling support to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
Amply documented, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was financed by drug money and supported by the CIA. ( See Michel Chossudovsky, Kosovo Freedom Fighters Financed by Organized Crime, Covert Action Quarterly, 1999 )
At the time of the Kosovo war, the then ambassador to Haiti James Foley had been in charge of State Department briefings, working closely with his NATO counterpart in Brussels, Jamie Shea. Barely two months before the onslaught of the NATO led war on 24 March 1999, James Foley, had called for the “transformation” of the KLA into a respectable political organization:
“We want to develop a good relationship with them the KLA as they transform themselves into a politically-oriented organization,’ ..`We believe that we have a lot of advice and a lot of help that we can provide to them if they become precisely the kind of political actor we would like to see them become… “If we can help them and they want us to help them in that effort of transformation, I think it’s nothing that anybody can argue with..’ (quoted in the New York Times, 2 February 1999)
In other words, Washington’s design was “regime change”: topple the Lavalas administration and install a compliant US puppet regime, integrated by the “Democratic Platform” and the self-proclaimed Front pour la libération et la reconstruction nationale (FLRN), whose leaders are former FRAPH and Tonton Macoute terrorists. (For further details see Michel Chossudovsky, The Destabilization of Haiti, Global Research, February 2004)
Following the 2004 coup d’Etat which led to the downfall of the Aristide government, KLA advisers were brought into Haiti by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to assist in the country’s reconstruction. (See Anthony Fenton, Kosovo Liberation Army helps establish “Protectorate” in Haiti, Global Research, November 2004)
Specifically, the KLA consultants were to assist in restructuring the Haitian police force, bringing into its ranks, former members of FRAPH and the Tonton Macout.
In support of the “Office of Transition Initiatives,” (OTI) … USAID is paying three consultants to help consult for the integration of the former brutal military into the current Haitian police force. And who are those three consultants? Those three consultants are members of the Kosovo Liberation Army.” (Flashpoints interview, November 19, 2004, www.flashpoints.net )
USAID’s “Office of Transition Initiatives” (OTI)
The Salvador/ Kosovo option is part of a US strategy to fracture and destabilize countries. The USAID sponsored OTI in Bolivia performs much the same function as a similar OTI in Haiti.
It is also worth noting that there was an Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) in Venezuela, where a plot, according to reports, was recently uncovered to allegedly assassinate President Hugo Chavez. The role of the OTI office in Venezuela is discussed in Eva Golinger’s recent book “Bush vs. Chavez.”
The stated purpose of US covert operations is to provide support as well as as training to “Liberation Armies” ultimately with a view to destabilizing sovereign governments. In Kosovo, the training of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the 1990s had been entrusted to a private mercenary company, Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI), on contract to the Pentagon.
Pakistan and the “Kosovo Option”
It is worth noting that in Pakistan, recent developments point towards direct forms of US military intervention, in violation of Pakistani sovereignty.
Already in 2005, a report by the US National Intelligence Council and the CIA forecast a “Yugoslav-like fate” for Pakistan “in a decade with the country riven by civil war, bloodshed and inter-provincial rivalries, as seen recently in Balochistan.” (Energy Compass, 2 March 2005).
According to a 2006 report of Pakistan’s Senate Committee on Defence, British intelligence was involved in supporting the Balochistan separatist movement. (Press Trust of India, 9 August 2006). The Bolochistan Liberation Army (BLA) bears a canny resemblance to Kosovo’s KLA, financed by the drug trade and supported by the CIA.
Washington favors the creation of a “Greater Balochistan” similar to a Greater Albania which would integrate the Baloch areas of Pakistan with those of Iran and possibly the Southern tip of Afghanistan, thereby leading to a process of political fracturing in both Iran and Pakistan. (Michel Chossudovsky, The Destabilization of Pakistan, December 30, 2007)
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10284
Is the US Waging Israel’s Wars?
Is the US Waging Israel’s Wars?
By LINDA S. HEARD
Many throughout the Muslim world and beyond are asking this question: What are the real reasons
behind the US invasion of Iraq and its wish to overthrow the governments of Syria and Iran?
For all their grandiose posturing, in truth, Iraq, Syria and Iran have never posed a direct threat to the US mainland. Put simply, they’re too far away from the neighbourhood. So why would the US be willing to expend so many human lives and so much treasury on changing the regimes of countries it doesn’t like?
Theories abound. At the top of the list is America’s quest for oil, a shrinking, non-renewable resource. But, in reality, the US gets very little of its oil from the Middle East and the Gulf. Most comes from South America and Africa.
Another theory revolves around the petrodollar monopoly, which both Iraq and Iran have sought to disband by trading their oil in Euros. There may be something in this one but it doesn’t explain why Syria is in the firing line.
The US says it wishes to export ‘democracy’ to the region but its reaction towards the Shiite government in Iraq, led by the Dawa Pasrty that has close ties with Iran, and the way that the democratically-elected new Hamas-led Palestinian government has been isolated, hardly lends credence to this. Democracy will not bring US-friendly governments, which is what the Bush administration really seeks.
A premise, which many in the Arab world believe, should also be dissected. Is the US manipulating and remoulding the area so that Israel can remain the only regional superpower in perpetuity?
This is not as fanciful as one might imagine on first glance. Read the following strangely prophetic segment from an article published in 1982 by the World Zionist Organisation’s publication Kivunim and penned by Oded Yinon, an Israeli journalist with links to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Yinon’s strategy was based on this premise. In order to survive Israel must become an imperial regional power and must also ensure the break-up of all Arab countries so that the region may be carved up into small ineffectual states unequipped to stand up to Israeli military might. Here’s what he had to say on Iraq:
“The dissolution of Syria and Iraq into ethnically or religiously unique areas such as in Lebanon is Israel’s primary target on the Eastern frontIraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel’s targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In the short run, it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to Israel.
“An Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause its downfall at home even before it is able to organize a struggle on a wide front against us. Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and Lebanon.
“In Iraq, a division into provinces along ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman times is possible. So, three (or more) states will exist around the three major cities: Basra, Baghdad and Mosul and Shiite areas in the South will separate from the Sunni and Kurdish north.”
Sound familiar?
Now let’s focus on the reality, 24 years on.
The eight-year long Iran-Iraq War that ended in 1988 was responsible for over a million casualties but did not result in Yinon’s desired break-up. Iraq still stood as a strong homogenous entity.
Iraq was, however, severely weakened in 1991 as a result of the Gulf War brought about by Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. Still, the country remained unified.
It took the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and the subsequent occupation to destabilize Iraq and split the country on sectarian lines. Indeed, its new constitution is drawn around a loose federation with partial autonomy for the northern Kurds and the southern Shiites, and the country is now rife with sectarian, religious and ethnic strife. Some say “civil war”.
Turning to Syria, until the March 2003 invasion of Iraq Syria under President Bashar Al-Assad enjoyed reasonably good relations with the West. We should also remember that Syria fought alongside the US-led allies during the Gulf War. Syria also voted, albeit reluctantly, for the UN resolution that oiled the invasion, and was a strong partner in the so-called ‘War on Terror’.
Then, lo and behold, Syria could do no right. Suddenly, it was accused to all kinds of ‘crimes’ from hiding Iraq’s mythical weapons of mass destruction, harbouring insurgents and terrorists, and allowing the free passage of fighters and arms into Iraq.
Heavy pressure was then put on to Damascus to end its de facto occupation of Lebanon following the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and, now the Syrian government is being investigated by the UN, accused of involvement.
Today the US is actively engaged in weakening the Al-Assad government and is supporting opposition parties. If it is successful, experts predict that Syria, like Iraq, will fall victim to sectarianism and internecine conflict.
Lebanon, which had been recovering from a long civil war and an Israeli occupation, and was on the point of finding some semblance of unity, is also in danger of being destabilized with parties lining up into pro-Syrian and anti-Syrian confederations.
Yinon described the Arab-Muslim world as a temporary house of cards put together by foreigners and arbitrarily divided into states, all made up of combinations of minorities and ethnic groups which are hostile to one another.
He then goes on to bemoan Israel’s relinquishment of the Sinai to Egypt under the Camp David Peace Treaty due to that area’s reserves of oil, gas and other natural resources.
“Regaining the Sinai Peninsula is, therefore, a political priority, which is obstructed by Camp David” he writes. “And we will have to act in order to return the situation to the status quo which existed in Sinai prior to Sadat’s visit and the mistaken peace agreement signed with him in March 1979.”
Yinon then predicts that if Egypt is divided and torn apart, some other Arab countries will cease to exist in their present forms and a Christian Coptic state would be founded in Upper Egypt. Presently there are growing problems between Egypt’s Muslims and Copts, perceived by some hard line Egyptian Muslims as being more loyal to the US than their own country. This has resulted in open clashes often with resultant deaths.
Apart from Muslim-Copt divisions, Yinon was wrong in his calculations concerning Egypt. He believed Cairo would break the peace treaty with Israel giving the Israelis the opportunity to drive their tanks straight back into the Sinai and other coveted areas. However, the Egyptian government under the ever pragmatic President Hosni Mubarak has stuck to the letter of the treaty and has become an important US ally over the years.
Yinon’s solution to the ongoing Israel-Palestine problem was to herd the Palestinians across the Jordan River and label Jordan a Palestinian state.
He rejected the land for peace principle, saying, “It is not possible to go on living in this country in the present situation without separating the two nations, the Arabs to Jordan and the Jews to the areas west of the river.
Genuine co-existence and peace will reign over the land only when the Arabs understand that without Jewish rule between the Jordan and the sea they will have neither existence nor security – a nation of their own and security will be theirs only in Jordan.”
Yinon, and others of like mind must once again be disappointed. Jordan gave up any thoughts of Pan-Arabism long before the demise of King Hussein and his son King Abdullah is now America’s staunchest Arab ally in the region. With a two-thirds Palestinian majority in his country, Abdullah has chosen self-preservation by hanging on to US coattails.
The idea of packing 4.5 million Palestinians across the Jordan is no longer being openly touted, although this option was on the table in 2002 according to an article by Professor van Creveld in Britain’s Daily Telegraph.
A then Gallup poll showed that 44 per cent of Jewish Israelis favoured the expulsion of Palestinians across the River Jordan.
Professor Creveld believed Ariel Sharon favoured this plan too. Sharon was quoted in his article as emphasizing Jordan’s Palestinian majority and referring to it as the Palestinian state. “The inference that the Palestinians should go there is clear,” wrote Creveld.
If you feel the idea that the US would put itself on the line for the sake of Israel is far-fetched, then it is worth remembering the words of the assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who claimed in his book that the Israeli government was, in fact, responsible for the design of American policy in the Middle East after the 1967 ‘Six Day War’.
Yinon’s essay does not focus on Iran, but let’s look at comparatively recent statements coming out of Israel on this subject.
During a visit to Washington in November 2003 two years before the US government turned its fire on Iran – the Israeli Minister of Defence Shaul Mofaz told US officials that “under no circumstances would Israel be able to abide by nuclear weapons in Iranian possession.
During the same month, Meir Dagan, Director of the Mossad, told a parliamentary committee that Iran posed an “existential threat” to Israel, assuring members that Israel could deal with this threat.
Last year, the rhetoric out of Israel was ratcheted up with the Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom telling the press that “the idea that this tyranny of Iran will hold a nuclear bomb is a nightmare, not only for us but also for the whole world.”
Israel’s Prime Minister designate Ehud Olmert is continuing the tradition of hyping the Iran threat, assisted, it must be said, by fiery rhetoric coming out of Tehran’s reckless leader Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.
An article in the Daily Telegraph dated February 18 headed “America would back Israel attack on Iran” clearly indicates that it is Israel leading the charge against Iran.
The article quotes George W. Bush as saying,
“Clearly, if I was the leader of Israel and I’d listened to some of the statements by the Iranian ayatollahs that regarded the security of my country, I’d be concerned about Iran having a nuclear weapon as well. And in that Israel is our ally, and in that we’ve made a very strong commitment to support Israel, we will support Israel if her security is threatened.”
A year later and the US government is no longer portraying Iran’s purported nuclear ambitions as a threat to Israel, but a threat to the United States. In this way the case against Iran and the possible repercussions emanating from that, can be sold to the American people. Suddenly Israel’s concerns have become theirs. Interestingly, more than 55 per cent of the US public say they would back strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to a recent poll.
As the columnist Doug Ireland writes in his expose “The Real AIPAC Spy Ring Story It was all about Iran”,
“Bush’s slip-of-the-tongue that revealed his real intentions was front-page news in Le Monde and other European dailies but received little attention in the States-side major media.”
Justin Raimondo wrote in September last year,
“This case has received relatively little publicity in relation to its importance. It isn’t just the fact that, for the first time in recent memory, Israel’s powerful lobby has been humbled. What is going on here is the exposure of Israel’s underground army in the US covert legions of propagandists and outright spies, whose job it is to not only make the case for Israel but to bend American policy to suit Israel’s needs) and in the process, penetrate closely-held US secrets.”
Back to the question of whether the US is, indeed, waging wars on behalf of Israel. In short, we can’t be certain and we may never know since the Bush White House has sealed its private tapes and papers for 100 years.
There is one thing that we do know. Oded Yinon’s 1982 “Zionist Plan for the Middle East” is in large part taking shape. Is this pure coincidence? Was Yinon a gifted psychic? Perhaps! Alternatively, we in the West are victims of a long-held agenda not of our making and without doubt not in our interests.
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle Eastern affairs based in Cairo. She can be reached at sierra12th@yahoo.co.uk
Pakistan’s Balkanization
Pakistan’s Balkanization
By SHAHID R. SIDDIQUI
Lahore, Pakistan
Re-mapping of the Muslim world is under spotlight in the US and Pakistan’s balkanization forms a part of this agenda. American strategists are propagating the need to redraw its borders on ethnic lines by creating new political entities in the name of justice long denied to ‘oppressed Muslim minorities’. ‘Internal factors’ are identified in each case, sometimes very naïvely, that they believe could lead to desired fragmentation. Redrawn maps were released, ostensibly to test the waters. That this also reflects the mindset of the US administration can be seen by its efforts and actions to engineer grounds for military intervention, regime-change or fragmentation in target countries.
Rising militant Islam, serious challenges to American hegemony as world power, shifting of the economic epicenter to Asia and the worsening economic situation at home, all point to another ‘New World Order’ in the making – wherein America stands to lose much of its power and glory by mid century, if not sooner. Resurgent Russia and a powerful China are forcing it to redefine its strategic global planning, with focus on Eurasia. A paranoid America is willing to pursue all options to prevent its slide from power.
American strategists favor fracturing and weakening the national unity of Islamic states that could become strongholds of Islamic militants. They want oil rich territories like Kurdistan, Eastern Arabian Peninsula and Balochistan carved out, unified and controlled by puppet regimes, while splintering other Muslim countries. This would enable the US to secure its oil supplies, micromanage a fragmented Muslim world and choke vital financial resources to Islamic militants. Iraq is already going through the motions.
US invasion of a hostile Iran is feared to come before the new administration takes over. Apart from considering it dangerous to Israeli security and a spoiler in Iraq, the US suspects Iran will trigger the crash of US dollar, and consequently the US economy, by transacting oil sales in Euros in collusion with Venezuela.
The US considers Pakistan unstable due to “political and economic mismanagement, divisive politics, lawlessness, corruption and ethnic friction” and cites this as cause for growing Talibanization. It fears that this might bring Islamic radicals to power with control over the nukes – a frightening scenario for Israeli and the US.
Pakistan’s military controls Pakistan’s nukes, is an important player in the political dispensation of the country, is resentful of American pressure to fight a war against Taliban that it considers against Pakistan’s interests, and has made a shift from the liberal British colonial mindset to a more religious one. From its strategic perspective a friendly government in Kabul that will keep peace on Pakistan’s western border has always been critical to its defense planning for this would enable it to face off India on the east, which remains its primary concern. This has led it to maintain close links with Afghan Jihadi groups and the Taliban, until the US forced General Musharraf to abandon them after 9/11. Aware of this, the US fears that this can eventually tilt the balance of war in Taliban’s favor and impede its long term objectives in the region. Therefore, a weaker military with lesser geographical spread and without nuclear fangs would clearly suit the US, as well as the Indians who are piggybacking the US.
Of late, Balochistan has been the target in the Indian scheme of Pakistan’s further dismemberment. India and the US were disturbed by Gen. Musharraf’s new overtures towards China, seeking Chinese strategic economic interests in Balochistan. Motivated by the prospects of Balochistan’s development and economic uplift and to checkmate foreign aided secessionist moves in the province, he wanted China to use Gawadar-Sinkiang land corridor for its imports through Gawadar port and transportation of oil refined at a Chinese owned Gawadar based refinery. China also showed interest in joining Pak-Iran gas pipeline project transiting through Balochistan. China’s presence in Gawadar would bring it to the Indian Ocean, a sensitive spot both for Indians and Americans – the former seeing this as a threat to its control of the ocean with its blue water navy in the offing and the latter upset with its proximity to the Straits of Hormuz.
These are grounds enough to balkanize Pakistan.
Col. Ralph Peters, supposedly Pentagon’s military scholar and former intelligence official, writing in June 2006 issue of Armed Forces Journal on balkanization of the Middle East (Blood Borders), advocates the incorporation of North West Frontier Province into Afghanistan and creation of a sovereign Free Balochistan, carved out of Baloch areas of Pakistan and Iran. His grounds: ethnic affinity. Pakistani Balochistan is estimated to hold 25.1 trillion cft. of gas and 6 trillion barrels of oil.
In his recent article “Drawn and Quartered” Selig Harrison of the Center of International Policy, Washington, DC, concludes that Pakistan’s balkanization is imminent owing to the rising nationalist sentiment in the Pashtun belt and growing disillusionment of the Pashtuns, Balochis and Sindhis with Punjab and Pakistan. He believes that ethnic diversity threatens Pakistan’s unity,
Both Col. Peters and Harrison are essentially singing the same tune and seem to be presenting a doctrine that broadly reflects US foreign policy.
General Aslam Beg, Pakistan’s former Army Chief, notes in an article that to pursue certain common interests with regard to Pakistan and the region, India and the US have signed the Strategic Partnership Deal the declared objective of which is “to contain and curb the rising military and economic power of China and the increasing threat of Islamic extremism in the region”. Gen. Beg says this deal has led to the creation of a joint espionage network of CIA, Mosad, MI-6, Raw and others in Afghanistan, which is engaged in activities aimed at destabilizing Pakistan, Iran, China, Russia and other Central Asian states. He claims that dissidents from Pakistan are being trained at Sarobi and Kandahar for missions inside NWFP, whereas bases at Lashkargah and Nawah are being used to train dissidents from Balochistan for missions inside that province and also in support of the so called Balochistan Liberation Army.
In this backdrop, recent calls by some Afghan leaders to ‘liberate Pakistani Pashtuns’, the departure of Gen. Musharraf and the cozy relationship between his successor and Karazai of Kabul who lost no opportunity to malign Pakistan, assume significance. The latest American decision to send drones and troops into Pakistan’s territory, despite the declared Pakistan’s opposition, to launch aerial and ground attacks on its tribesmen killing innocent women and children, also raise serious concerns. This seems to be an attempt at drawing a wedge between Pakistan and the independent tribes on the Pakistan side of the Pak-Afghan border belt by establishing Pakistan’s inability to protect their life and property and promote a secessionist movement.
Michel Chossudovsky, Director of the Center for Research on Globalization, Ottawa (author of War on Terrorism) in his article “The Destabilization of Pakistan” says: “Washington’s foreign policy course is to actively promote the political fragmentation and balkanization of Pakistan as a nation”. He states: “The US course consists in fomenting social, ethnic and factional divisions and political fragmentation, including the territorial breakup of Pakistan. This course of action is also dictated by US war plans in relation to both Iran and Afghanistan. This US agenda for Pakistan is similar to that applied throughout the broader Middle East Central Asian region.”
Chossudovsky points out that “the US strategy, supported by covert intelligence operations, consists in triggering ethnic and religious strife, abetting and financing secessionist movements while also weakening the institutions of the central government.”
The US initiatives to balkanize the region are misguided and a grave miscalculation, promising an extremely volatile and unstable geopolitical scenario. Given the ability of jihadi militants to challenge and even defeat US imperialism, this could cause the situation to easily spiral out of control, proving counterproductive to US interests worldwide and seriously undermining the regional and international security environment. It is doubtful if EU will go along with such US plans due to its own security imperatives and in the end the US might find itself to be the Lone Ranger.
In case of Pakistan, the plan will not be easy to accomplish. The military that holds the key to political power and unification of the country, supported by pro-Pakistan segments of the population, will be the biggest stumbling block. Having the benefit of East Pakistan experience behind it and geography no more a handicap, it stands a much better chance at successfully thwarting such attempts and maintaining national integrity
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20840.htm
US Islamophobia Hate DVDs spread anti Islam message in Florida inciting holacaust against Muslims
US Islamophobia Hate DVDs spread anti Islam message in Florida inciting holacaust against Muslims
Millions of propaganda DVDs distributed with Florida newspapers promote Islamophobia ahead of US elections.
The mass mailing of a controversial DVD “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” has sparked anger among many in South Florida.
The hour-long video began turning up in mailboxes last week as a direct mailing, and also as an advertising insert in dozens of newspapers, including The Miami Herald and the South-Florida Sun-Sentinel.
The DVD is promoted by Clarion Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to “educating the public about national security threats.”
South Florida Muslims say it maligns their faith and fuels hysteria ahead of the fast-approaching US presidential vote.
“I think it’s very irresponsible of the newspapers themselves to disseminate such propaganda,” said Altaf Ali, executive director of the Florida chapter of The Council on American-Islamic Relations. “It’s fueling hysteria.”
Ali said the video began circulating more than a year ago, and he questioned the timing of the mass distribution just weeks before the November 4 presidential election.
Ali feared that the DVD would “incite more hate and bigotry against our community.”
The Huffington Post reported that the Clarion Fund plans to reach 28 million households with the video in all, targeting viewers in potentially critical battleground states such as Florida, Ohio and Colorado.
The Clarion Fund did not respond to phone calls Tuesday seeking comment.
Ali also said he worried viewers might attribute legitimacy to the film because it was packaged with their city newspaper. He said his phone had been ringing off the hook with complaints, often from newspaper readers who planned to cancel their subscriptions.
An article at the DAVD group’s site was said to have all but endorsed John McCain this past week before being pulled down.
One newspaper which refused to distribute the DVD, said the film played on “people’s fears and served no educational purpose”.
The DVD did not clearly differentiate between radical Islam and mainstream Islam, and newspapers did not inform their readers of the controversial nature of the film.
“It seemed (designed) to get people up in arms,” John Brough, 70, a retired businessman in New Port Richey was quoted as saying, fearing the film might encourage Americans to react harshly to all Muslims.
The DVD claims to show the “parallels between the Nazi movement of World War II, the radicals of today, and the Western world’s response to both threats.”
Ironically, critics noted the DVD actually incites sentiments against Muslims similar to the sentiments the Nazis had incited against the Jews.
The film’s re-distribution comes at a time of rising Islamophobia.
It comes following the release of a controversial game called “Muslim Massacre,” which trumpets itself as a “game of modern religious genocide.”
The game, which can be downloaded for free on the Internet, urges players to “wipe out the Muslim race with an arsenal of the world’s most destructive weapons.”
Players in the game — the aim of which is to “ensure that no Muslim man or woman is left alive” — control an “American Hero” wielding a machine gun and a rocket launcher parachuted into the Middle East.
Crocodile tears for Darfur flood the civilized world
Crocodile tears for Darfur flood the civilized world
More celebrities are joining the crocodile tears for Darfur band wagon. See
Organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Save Darfur Coalition are silent on the role of the United States and other democracies in fueling the violence in Sudan.
See http://allthingspass.com/journalism.php?jid=165
And http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/Geopolitics___Eurasia/Oil_in_Africa/oil_in_africa.html
For some strange reason these activists are not too concerned about the Congo were a larger number of killings and rapes have occurred. Can it be because the United States, Israel and Europe benefit from the diamonds, other natural resources, and sale of weapons, that the death of millions of black Africans in the Congo is not so tragic?
See
http://worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/congo.htm
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=9832
http://zmagsite.zmag.org/JulAug2007/snow.html
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Read more on Africa:
The Return of U. S. Death Squads From Afghanistan to Africa
Darfur rebel group wants Western oil companies to replace Chinese
The Arab President US Media Doesn’t Want You to See
DARFURISM, UGANDA, & US WAR IN AFRICA: THE SPECTRE OF CONTINENTAL GENOCIDE
Intelligence: Terror false flags operation in U.S., Europe possibly imminent
Intelligence: Terror false flags operation in U.S., Europe possibly imminent
CIA/Mi6/Mossad terrorist operatives reportedly dispatched, in place, and possibly ready to execute terrorist operation in U.S., Europe“Pray for the successes of our brothers in America & Europe. Expect ‘good news’ soon.” Posted by Arabic speaking Islamic terrorist supporter (it means CIA/MI6/Mossad)
By Douglas J. Hagmann, Director
17 September 2008: A disturbing communication posted in a high level Arabic language forum suggests that some type of terrorist operation is currently underway, targeting sites within the United States and Europe. According to information developed within the last 24 hours by a deep-cover intelligence operative, Islamic terrorists have been dispatched to the U.S. and Europe and may be in place, preparing to execute unspecified terrorist attacks within the U.S. and Europe.
Neither the targets nor the types of attacks were able to be identified from an analysis of the communications, although it appears possible that the European and American operations could be conducted in tandem. Also unclear is the timetable of potential attacks, although the wording pertaining to the “anticipated celebration” of the success of such attacks suggests that they will be carried out within the next few days.
While many such threats by Islamic terrorists are published constantly and end up being nothing more than propaganda, it is important to note that the origin and nature of the communications isolated here meet a significantly higher standard of evidence for threat evaluation purposes. As such, it is the recommendation of this agency that individual awareness of any suspicious activity be stepped up accordingly, and immediately reported to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
Increased vigilance by law enforcement and security professionals is also urged, especially at areas of likely “hard” targets such as our infrastructure.
http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/20081917Arch
Islamabad Hotel Bombing: A CIA/MI6/MOSSAD false flag like Bali and Jakarta(update3)
Islamabad Hotel Bombing; A false flag like Bali and Jakarta
This is a false flag terrorist action, a signature instrument of warfare
Have a look at the crater; it is enormous: 40 meters deep.
Only a small nuke, one that is less than 1kton (a mininuke), even smaller perhaps, 0.1kton (a micronuke) could have done this.
Otherwise, they would have had to have found a pretty large truck, one that holds 100 tons or more of explosives to have done this. Unlikely.
Those people in the picture are unaware they are walking unprotected in a radioactive zone. The radiation is not massive as this is a thermonuclear bomb, not a pure fission bomb, but the effects will show up in time later with a mysterious epidemic of deaths.
Little do these people know that the Israelis have struck before in a similar fashion, most notably in Indonesia, in the Bali bombing (the first one; the second one was done to destroy evidence), and elsewhere eg. Lebanon. Joe Vialls has covered this topic well.
And of course, CIA military officers were the target. The Zionists are simply setting up the Americans against the Pakistanis.
The Americans will be used like this, as false flag targets, until they are of no use to the Zionists anymore.
This is how the Afghani Taliban were set up.
It looks like Pakistan is the new Afghanistan.
Look for more false flags with Pakistanis as patsies.
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“..Earlier, a U.S. State Department official led three colleagues through the rubble from the charred building, one of them bleeding heavily from a wound on the side of his head. One of the four, who identified himself only as Tony, said they had been moving toward the rear of a Chinese restaurant inside the hotel after a first, small blast when a second explosion hurled them against the back wall.
“Then we saw a big truck coming to the gates,” he said. “After that, it was just smoke and darkness.”…”
Got that? THEN WE SAW A BIG TRUCK COMING TO TH EGATES…”After the exp;losion had hurled them against the wall. hmmmm
Di dthey make a mistake? Wonder if these were the “cia targets” (yeah sure), and would be valuable to know the orietnation of the chinese restaurant adn hence the blast vector.
But if it IS a correct quote, how could they see the Truck coming AFTER the hue blast? Weird. Truck a fufry then? IF that is a true order of events.
Wonder if it was a gas line and if it was, where was it, how deep and how on earht could a small explosion penetrate deeply enough through ground from a surface vector ppint to resuolt in deep earht penetration???
Just like Bali and Jakarta.
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What Was Mysterious Activity Going on in the Marriott Hotel Islamabad by United States Marines
Marriott Hotel has now become a ghost house which was yesterday the most beautiful and prestigious hotels in the Islamabad. While the condemnation of the blasts and the deaths and the loss of property is going on from all the quarters, some intriguing news is also pouring in.
After the blast, mysteriously fire was started at the fourth and fifth floors. It was said that this fire was the result of gas pipeline burst running through the hotel. The million dollar question is that was the gas pipeline not running through the other floors? Why the fire broke out from the fourth and fifth flours? That is the question which perhaps holds the key to the mystery as why the hotel was targeted yesterday, in which more than 60 people died including many foreigners.
Though it would never get confirmed but the fire on the fifth and fourth floor of the hotel broke out because those flours were housing the mysterious steel boxes under the heavy guard of United States marines and no one including the Pakistani security forces and the security men of the hotel were allowed to go near with the them. These boxes were shifted inside the hotel when the Admiral Mike Mullen met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and others in Islamabad.
It is said that one member of parliament Mumtaz Alam who belongs to the PPP, the ruling party was there eye witnessed the whole scene when the white truck of US embassy came to the gate of Marriot Hotel and US marines themselves unloaded the steel boxes from the trucks and shifted them to the fourth and fifth floors without passing through them the scanners at the entrance of the hotels. When the truck was there, all the entrance and the exit passage way to the hotels were closed.
And now this blast has occurred at the Marriott, while that mysterious activity was going on.
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This bombing occurs just days prior to Zardari’s attending the 63rd UN General Assembly session. Ahmadinejad will deliver a speech, as well. Zardari has already started the “we will fight the terrorists’ craptalk. Good boy, now sit.
It seems there is a “radical Islamists kill CIA agents” spin being spun. Also, as others have pointed out, witnesses detail TWO explosions happening, like Oklahoma City in 95.
The US is in effect punishing the people of Pakistan for having the audacity to be enraged at the US for killing it’s citizens. In other words, the US is saying to Pakistan with this attack “you see, you won’t let us kill the bad guys and look what happens, we told you so.” It will not work, of course.
The timing is just right, as a huge “terrorist attack” sets the tone for the new government, in respect to it’s attitude toward “militants”. And as I said before, it occurs just prior to the 63rd UN G. A. session.
But all of this only reveals how detached the West is from reality. The Pakistani people won’t buy any of it. It will only cause the US to be more hated and distrusted.
The coming days will reveal more to us…
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Bomb a warning to end Pakistan-US cooperation
Marriott bomb seen as warning to Pakistan to end cooperation with US on fighting militants
KATHY GANNON
The brazen truck-bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad Saturday is a warning from Islamic militants to Pakistan’s new civilian leadership that it should end already-strained cooperation with the United States to pursue al-Qaida and the Taliban, analysts said.
The massive bomb targeting an American hotel chain killed at least 40 people and wounded hundreds, setting a fire that blazed for hours and gutted most of the five-story luxury hotel.
“The attack on the hotel is a message to the Pakistani leadership: End all cooperation with the Americans or pay the price,” said Brian Glyn Williams, associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Massachusetts. “Both sides see Pakistan as a vital battlefield in their global struggle and clearly Pakistani civilians are paying the price for being in the middle of this struggle,” he told The Associated Press.
The U.S. has angered Pakistanis with increasing cross-border raids by its forces from Afghanistan to root out Islamic militants entrenched in the lawless and rugged tribal regions along the border.
Local newspapers are filled with outrage from columnists who accuse the United States of treating Pakistan as a surrogate, flaunting its sovereignty and killing innocents. Civilian casualties from the U.S. assaults have prompted tribesmen in the volatile frontier to threaten revolt.
Williams said the country’s new leaders are caught between pressure from the U.S. to crack down on the militants and al-Qaida demands that they cut all ties with America.
Officials have harshly criticized U.S. incursions into Pakistani airspace and last week, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Pakistan to try to calm the anger.
At the same time, the government is also talking tough to the other side.
Just hours before the suicide bombing, Pakistan’s newly elected President Asif Zardari vowed to wage war against extremists who have been battling government troops in the violent northwest. Osama bin Laden and his top deputies are believed to be hiding in the border region and the U.S. claims al-Qaida and the Taliban have found a safe haven to regroup there.
Zardari has received several threats from al Qaida and the Taliban, who are suspected of assassinating his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, in December.
Last month al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri accused Pakistan’s new leaders of acting on behalf of the United States and called on his followers to rise up against them.
“Let there be no doubt in your minds that the dominant political forces at work in Pakistan today are competing to appease and please the modern day crusaders in the White House and are working to destabilize this nuclear-capable nation under the aegis of America,” said an audio message purported to be from al-Zawahri.
The militant groups that operate in Pakistan’s northwest are a ferocious and disparate group.
The Pakistani Taliban operate under the umbrella group, Tehrik-e-Taliban, which was established last December. It used a tried and tested strategy to gain control of the area — promising to restore law and order.
Within months of taking control, the Pakistani Taliban then terrorizes the local population with public beheadings. Occasionally men accused of spying for the United States are taken to the center of the village and publicly beheaded. Taliban fighters often make videos of the gruesome beheadings that circulate in the markets in northwest Pakistan.
Daniel Markey, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former State Department official, questioned the government’s ability to wage a successful battle without overhauling Pakistan’s intelligence service, which is often accused of aiding and abetting the militants.
“They are able to fight but not able to win without a lot of changes,” he said. “Most will have to be done by the Pakistani army and (intelligence), some by civilian government, and some that would need outside assistance,” Markey added.
Source: AP News
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=365108
Read the great article of Joe Vialls (The Truth Seeker)
Here: Bali false flag bombing
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Indonesia too was a stooge US country with a islamic fundamentalist problem, due mainly , as in Pak, to the gross corruption and injustice of the regime.
bali! boom. Indonesia back off the sanction list for weapons and makes huge purchases and all are happy as teh plundering contineus and the false flags continue (notice the Aceh bombing at a concert, adn notice the court case where military guilty of plantin gbombs etc) using Islamists as the target (in Suharto time the Communists suffered the genocide). All for the plundering. Now fully armed.Repeated in Jakarta at Aussi embassy just before the Anitterrorism based elections. Bangbang gets in and police chief dines with Bali bombers.
Pakistan has an exact bomb event with same crater. Again times for max islamic casualties at break of fast. Who would want to target tose breaking their fast? Again At night.
Uk/US patsy Mr 10%, whose wife was killed (she interviewed with David frost and said OBL was dead and the financials should be dug to find the culprits of terrorism, ouch bye bye) . Again corrupt regime against Islamic based backlash. Again military issues. Strategic position.
Next thing this will be blamed upon Iran…………NOTE NO RESPONSIBLITY CLAIMED YET, out of character for real terrorist attack.
Typical of false flag.
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False Flag Op in Pakistan, Islamabad, Marriot Hotel
Ask questions, demand answers!
1. Who can make profit for bombing Islamabad now?
2. President is just changed, who wants to rule his thoughts?
3. New government has take some policy, towards whom, against whom?
4. Why Marriot, why like that?
5. Timing is the right question, why now?
6. Who was on the building, and why?
When I look these questions, and challenging the history of alledged “terrorists” who rise up always there where most needed: 7/7 in London, 8/8 in Georgia, 9/11 in USA, In Madrid, Yemen, Afghanistan…
I see always a need for policy, to rejoin the coalition of “War on Terrorism” … All the attacks have been for making alliance stronger against that black forse: Al Quaida, what ever it is, when wanted to show up… I am confused. And now in Islamabad: Just the time when your country was taking a step away from “coalition of will” Against threatening Iraq and Iran… A bomb near the new president.
Dont matter if one of GI-Joe’s is dead, they kill their boys like thousands in war against that great myth: Al Qaida. I see that there is very probable reason, real profiteer from attacks…
1. Pakistan is going away from coalition. You are armed with sophisticated western arms, and you are good customers of US war industry. Your break way hurt the main business: Control The Fear. You are a neignbour to Iran, too important to loose now when the great step is on the door of history: They have main target over all your freedom, and human rights: Defeat Persia. Zionist believes give them rights to do any bad, for their god purpose.
2. Blackmale: “If you dont do as we say, your country is in great danger, and this will happen again.” And just how did his wife died? In a bomb… Before her precidency: They rule him with obvious fear: Make A bomb. U.S. Blackwater industrial complex.
3. Towards tribe leaders, against US. “Just tell me why, suspected “Al-Quaida” terrorists from mountains, who are now getting growing goverment protection against US drone-attacks, would thank government by truckload of TNT?” There is no common sence… Also nobody has still taken any responsibility to this attack… ust wait for a new “Osama-Video*tm” to be released soon… Why Al quaida, if ever existed in real life, will attack a goverment who is turnbing against US imperium and Zionist targets???
4. Marriot Hotel is international company, and insured in very many ways. All the healing of wounds is secured by international companys, and rebuilded then by zionist bankers.
5. Attack of Iran is coming closer every day… There is no place for broblem in nearby country: Then policy makers just do as before: Bomb the main city inside of coalition, blame terrorists, and then “coalition of will” is more strong… Thats called National Terrorism.
6. Look those who are most scared, not corpses, they cant tell you a thing no more… : Look those who are in true shock: They had been lucky this time: They know their value for other possible future. Ask them.
And after all: Look this evidence!
Was it an attack on US Marines?
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread393485
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Mossad/CIA Busy In Islamabad
“A huge truck bomb exploded at the entrance to the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on Saturday evening, killing at least 40 people and wounding at least 250, the police said.
The blast, one of the worst acts of terrorism in Pakistan’s history, went off just a few hundred yards from the prime minister’s house, where all the leaders of government were dining after the president’s address to Parliament.
The toll was expected to grow because of reports that people had been trapped inside the six-story hotel, which has been a favorite meeting spot of both foreigners and well-connected Pakistanis in the heart of the capital. The building was quickly engulfed in flames and continued to burn for hours Saturday night.
The bomb left a vast crater, 40 feet wide and 25 feet deep, at the security barrier to the hotel. Witnesses said security guards were buried under a mound of rubble. Cars across the street from the hotel were mangled, and trees on the street were charred and stripped of their branches. The blast shattered windows in buildings hundreds of yards away.”
Of course it just happened and more information/disinformation is forthcoming, but this event has all the trappings of a classic Mossad false flag attack.
For one thing look at the photo above. No conventional explosive as in a car bomb will dig a crater that deep. Elementary physics dictate that dynamite, ammonium nitrate, C4 or any number of other explosives take the path of least resistance and will explode upward and outward. It’s more reminiscent of the mini nuke that was set off in front of the Sari nightclub in Bali. It’s probably a safe bet that no muslim terrorist group possesses such weapons, which don’t just shatter or pulverize but vaporizes.
It’s also a safe bet that this convenient quote by an unnamed individual will get big play in MSM:
“An American intelligence official said the attack “bears all the hallmarks of a terrorist operation carried out by Al Qaeda or its associates.”
Well, no, it doesn’t. It bears all the hallmarks of a fascist false flag attack which is conveniently timed to jump start fear and anger to enable the perpetrators to accomplish their agenda, which is to suck a nation of 175 million deeply into the war on terror scam.
“The Marriott is an icon,” said Abdullah Riar, a former aide to Mrs. Bhutto. “It’s like the twin towers of Pakistan.
Recall that prior to the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, Australians were overwhelmingly opposed to supporting and being part of fascist conquest and slaughter in the middle east. The only people on board with an american strike were the toadies in government. The Bali blast was in front of a nightclub that was popular with Aussies and they made up most of the dead, while if it were muslim fanatics who set off the explosion, they would have picked the american hangout down the road. Afterwards all opposition to the Iraqi invasion was nullified by calls of righteous indignation and anger and from that point on the australians were dragged into the quagmire.
From the initial reports the same exact thing has just occured in Islamabad. In the past several weeks there’s been a huge outcry from Pakistanis about american forays and strikes inside their border from Afghanistan, subsequently killing Pakistani citizens. The Pak military was even given orders to repel american cross border attacks with deadly force. Obviously the monsters playing out their phony WOT can’t have the uppity wogs asserting themselves when there’s a conquering agenda to follow, so this should teach them a lesson to follow orders and allow the ziofascists have their way with impunity.
By all reports this was a massive explosion that follows the false flag modus operandi exactly. It was so powerful it was heard almost 20 miles away. It happened at dusk, ensuring that operatives would have all night to fix the evidence to point to the designated patsies. American agents were quick to offer their “assistance” immediately, just as in Bali:
“The F.B.I. offered to send special agents to help investigate, said a senior American official, who declined to be identified because of the nature of the matter.”
In any nuke explosion the incredibly hot thermal wave sets fire to everything around. The entire Marriott hotel was engulfed in flames and was burning fiercely after the blast in Islamabad. Just as in Bali, where no trace of around 100 people were found, the fireball seems to have done more than just smash people up into small parts. “Witnesses said that security staff at the front of the hotel, where the blast was strongest, had ’simply been vaporised.” And just like in Bali there apparently were one or two smaller preliminary explosions that would scatter traces of common explosives to contaminate the murder scene. ‘First there was a blast and then all the electricity went out … then it came back on and there was a second much bigger blast or a series of deafening blasts.’ And of course, the “vast crater”.
My guess is that that’s the last we see of the crater because it’s just too incriminating, and an hour surfing around now brings up only images of burning buildings. Also we’ll hear from the Pak government all the usual strong condemnations about terrorism. But there was great danger doing this. The entire world has had years since 9/11 to understand how the real terrorists do things and blame it on the designated patsies. It just may be that instead of being bludgeoned by this false flag catastrophe into going along with a slow motion western invasion of their country, Pakistanis will now fiercely resist the ziofascists, and they do have nukes.
http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2008/09/mossadcia-busy-in-islamabad.html
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At least 60 people were killed and scores others injured when an explosives laden vehicle was blown up at the entrance of Marriot Hotel here on Saturday.
Those killed include five women. 257 wounded, some of them critically were shifted to the local hospitals after the deadly explosion. The death toll is feared to rise further.
The powerful explosion caused fire in many parts of the hotel besides shattering the windowpanes of the buildings around the hotel.
According to details, a small vehicle broke through the security barrier outside the hotel before an explosives laden dumper truck was struck with the hotel causing a huge explosion.
The cowardly terrorist act of attack on innocent people is one of the series we are wittessing these days from Tribal areas to Islamabad. The timing of this attack is when President Zardari announced major steps in fight against terrorists. The elements involved in these terrorists acts inside Pakistan are being trained and financed by CIA and India’s RAW in Afghanistan headed by former Guantanamo Bay detainess Baitullah Mahsud who is presently working closely with Indian backed Northern Aliiance in Afghanista.
Despite repeated informations provided to US and NATO force about exect location of Baitullah Mahsud and his gang by Pakistani agenicies, no action has been taken against him by US. This reflects the true intentions of USA in name of war on terror. The sole purpose of American lead war on terror seems to take control of “FATA’ region along with Afghanistan and Baluchistan for future energy route from Central Asia and also to contain China.
For this purpose, once again religious extremists are being used as in previous Afghan war against Soviet Union with active support of Indian RAW to destablise Pakistan. We, the citizens of Pakistan condemn these cowerdly acts and demand from government to respond by all means, military and diplomatic to defeat the conspiracy against Pakistan.
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Was Marriott Hotel Islamabad an attack on US Marines and What Was Stored On Floors 4 And 5 U.S. military equipment?
Witnessed by many, including a PPP MNA and his friends, a US embassy truckload of steel boxes was unloaded and shifted inside the Marriott Hotel on the same night when Admiral Mike Mullen met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and others in Islamabad.
Both the main gates (the entrance and the exit) of the hotel were closed while no one except the US Marines were either allowed to go near the truck or get the steel boxes unloaded or shift them inside the hotel. These steel boxes were not passed through the scanners installed at the entrance of the hotel lobby and were reportedly shifted to the fourth and fifth floors of the Marriott.
Besides several others, PPP MNA Mumtaz Alam Gilani and his two friends, Sajjad Chaudhry, a PPP leader, and one Bashir Nadeem, witnessed this mysterious activity to which no one other than the PPP MNA objected and protested.
A source present there told that after entertaining them with refreshments at the Nadia restaurant at midnight when Mumtaz Alam, along with his friends, was to leave the hotel, he found a white US embassy truck standing right in front of the hotel’s main entrance.
Both the In-gate and the Out-gate of the hotel were closed while almost a dozen well-built US Marines in their usual fatigues were unloading the steel boxes from the truck. No one, including the hotel security men, was either allowed to go near the truck or touch the steel boxes, which were being shifted inside the hotel but without passing through the scanners.
Upon inquiry, one of the three PPP friends who was waiting for the main gates of the hotel to open to get his car in, was informed that the suspicious boxes were shifted to the fourth and fifth floors of the hotel. Mumtaz Alam was furious both at the US Marines and the hotel security not only for the delay caused to them but also for the security lapse he was witnessing.
On his protest, there was absolutely no response from the Marines and the security men he approached were found helpless. Mumtaz Alam told the hotel security official that they were going to endanger the hotel and its security. He was also heard telling his friends that he would never visit the hotel again. He also threatened to raise the issue in parliament.
One does not know whether the PPP MNA revisited the hotel after that mysterious midnight but his brother Imtiaz Alam, who is a senior journalist, was in the same hotel when the truck exploded at the main gate of the hotel. Imtiaz Alam had a lucky escape and found his way out of the hotel with great difficulty in pitch darkness.
One of the lifts he was using fell to the ground floor just after he forced the door open on the 4th floor and got out of it.
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The camera would have been a security camera, with monitoring in the hotel’s security office, and recording either on a VCR (if old fashioned) or a propper loop recording digital multi-channel security recorder. I found an image that is a collage of six frame grabs from the recording, and it’s noticable that the camera is panning around, and zooming in on the truck. Thus, it was being monitored live by a security person.
As for why it cut out – considering the explosion was at the main street entrance, and the building’s power feed may well have come in near there, it’s quite conceivable that the power went off within a single video frame-time during the explosion. Also if it was a digital recorder, there’s a latency between the incoming video stream and when the data is written to the disk, due to video encoding processing. So the explosion being missing is believable.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=ql&ie=UTF8&cd=1&t=k&ll=33.732589,73.087487&spn=0.002427,0.005472&z=18
Marriott hotel
@Paperinoisback – looking at the google aerial image (which will be a year or two old) and the many pics on the net, it’s clear where the major explosion was. Also the various images of scenes around the outside of the hotel match for that being the major explosion origin.
However, there is something very odd…
For an explosion forceful (and high VOD) enough to have dug that crater from a surface detonation, there’d have been a high velocity shock wave expanding horizontally outwards. This would have pushed parked cars nearby away, and certainly caused asymetrical overpressure damage (panels pushed in on one side, panels ripped off in one direction, etc.
But we don’t see this. We see the cars in pretty much their original parked positions, with nearly symetrical (inwards from all sides and downwards) overpressure damage. This is hard to explain, unless… the explosion was underground, vented predominantly straight up, then expanded in a lower velocity overpressure pulse from higher up.
There are also one or two pics of what I gather are cars closest to the crater, that are nearly completely buried in dirt and rubble. This too indicates an underground explosion.
It is very noticable that NONE of the cars are burnt. Not even singed. One picture from AP makes it look like a row of cars are burnt, but it seems to be either AP photoshopping again, or a lighting trick. Since in shots of definitely the same cars from other sources, those cars are shockwave damaged, but have no obvious heat damage. Though, I’d like to see a shot of the same cars from the other (facing the bomb) side.
This really makes me wonder about the ‘fireball heat set the upper floors on fire’ claim. So very uniformly… That’s odd too.
Exactly. It must have been planted underground.
where this single source of blast was, to me it’s rather obscure. OTOH, i agree with your point on the cars being left in their original position, something rather strange. Take a look at this pic:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1716414.ece
Now at this:
http://media.washingtontimes.com/media/img/photos/2008/09/20/pakistanbomb.jpg
Looks like the parked cars are just left of the crater. Now with such a deep crater, wouldn’t you expect the cars to be just blown away if the blast was above the surface?
Now if you look at this other pic:
http://www.am770chqr.com/News/World/Article.aspx?id=50788
You will see that there are cars that are even closer to the crater, and these one, too, were not pushed away.
Also peculiar, in the first and second pic, is the way the first floor of the hotel (or first half-floor), just above the arches, looks totally unscathed, while the top floors are entirely engulfed by flames. Consider the height of a truck in relation with the structures in the photos: wouldn’t the blast force impact this first half floor too? You bet.
Also I believe no bomb could have started flames on the WHOLE length of the hotel. It must have been more than one.
One last thing: in the second photo, look at the silver car – it is closest to the crater, yet it’s the least damaged. Looks like all the cars on the left of it have been hit by a force coming from upwards (=the hotel’s top floors). This would also explain why they didn’t move. Besides, look at the leftmost car and the way its roof has caved in.
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Taliban denies role in hotel attack
AlJazeera.net
Sdeptember 22, 2008
A senior commander of the Taliban in Pakistan has denied that his group was responsible for a bomb attack at Islamabad’s Marriott hotel, in which at least 53 people died and 270 were injured.
Baitullah Mehsud said on Monday that the Taliban had no role in Saturday’s attack, Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Islamabad, reported.
“Mehsud said that their group does not believe in killing so many locals in the attack,” Hyder said.
“RDX was used in the attack, which is a very volatile substance. The big question is: Where did such a large amount of RDX come from? In previous attacks, militants have not used this substance.”
In addition to the dozens killed, at least 270 people were injured in the attack on the hotel, a favoured place for foreigners and the wealthy elite.
British Airways announced on Monday that it was temporarily suspending flights to and from Pakistan, citing security concerns after the hotel bombing.
The airline, which offers six flights to Pakistan each week, did not face a direct security threat, but took the step out of caution, Suhail Rehman, a BA spokesman, said.
Foreign diplomatic missions and non-governmental organisations operating in Pakistan have also reviewed their security status.
Question over bomb
One of the lines of inquiry taken by Pakistani investigators is that the bomb attack was carried by an al-Qaeda cell operating in Islamabad.
They said that the attackers constructed the 600kg truck bomb at a safe house in the capital because vehicles entering the city are subject to routine searches.
“Our focus at the moment is to track down the network in Islamabad which must have facilitated the movement and construction of the bomb,” a senior official said.
Video footage of the attack showed the truck failing to break down a security barrier at the entrance to the Marriott hotel.
Security guards at the five-star hotel tried to put the resulting fire with extinguishers before the full bomb detonated, devastating the complex.
Two Americans, the Czech ambassador to Pakistan and a Vietnamese woman were among those killed in Saturday’s attack.
A Danish intelligence agent is still missing after the blast.
“Carrying 600 kilos of explosives over long distances and through checkpoints is not possible, so our immediate suspicion is that the bomb was loaded in Islamabad,” the official said.
It is possible that the explosives used in the bomb could have been sneaked into Islamabad in small quantities from the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, he said.
Military operation
A senior Pakistani security official said on Monday that the explosives used in the bombing were like those used in two recent deadly attacks.
“We are collecting evidence. The explosives were similar to those used in the Danish embassy, which was claimed by al-Qaeda, and the attack on the ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) camp in Rawalpindi last year,” the official said.
An al-Qaeda leader claimed responsibility for the attack on the Danish embassy, but no group said it had targeted the ISI facility.
Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan’s president, said after the Marriott attack that the government will take a tough line against fighters linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Pakistan’s military is currently trying to bring under control of the country’s tribal region bordering Afghanistan, an area long considered to be a safe haven for opposition fighters.
Pakistani troops Fire on US helicopters…
NAHAL TOOSI
Pakistani troops and tribesmen opened fire on two U.S. helicopters crossed into the country from neighboring Afghanistan, intelligence officials said Monday.
The helicopters did not return fire and re-entered Afghan airspace without landing, the officials said.
Pakistan’s army and the U.S. military in Afghanistan said they had no information on the reported incursion late Sunday, which will likely add to tensions between Islamabad and Washington.
A spate of suspected U.S. missile strikes into Pakistan’s border region and a raid by U.S. commandos that killed around 15 people have angered and embarrassed Pakistani leaders.
President Asif Ali Zardari is currently in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly. The newly elected leader is also expected to meet President Bush.
The two intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. They said informants in the field told them of the incursion around one mile inside the disputed and poorly demarcated border in the Alwara Mandi area.
A week ago, U.S. helicopters reportedly landed near Angoor Ada, a border village in South Waziristan but returned toward Afghanistan after troops fired warning shots.
A military spokesman said last week that troops had orders to open fire in case of another cross-border raid by U.S. troops.
Associated Press writers Zarar Khan in Islamabad and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan contributed to this report.
Source: AP News http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=367360
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Official Story Of Pakistan Truck Bombing Is A Lie
The recent truck bombing at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad Pakistan has been sold to the people of the world as an operation conducted by a blood thirsty Al-Qaeda suicide bomber. The official story states that an Al-Qaeda suicide bomber blew up the Marriott Hotel with a truck bomb killing 53 people and injuring hundreds. Surveillance video of the so called truck bomb that they claim caused all of this death and destruction showed an explosion so weak that it was incapable of doing any real damage to a security shack that was located just a few feet away from where the truck was parked. People who were roughly 15 to 20 feet from the blast were even able to run away from the explosion. It is laughable to think that this truck bomb was responsible for causing massive damage to the Marriott Hotel killing and injuring all of those people. Watching the video is proof that it was just a cover story for the real operation. Foreign news outlets including the Daily Pakistan reported that there was a contingent of U.S. Marines who were in the hotel guarding boxes with unknown contents at the same time that this truck bombing occurred. With all this in mind, it is obvious that we are not getting the full story.
What’s even more ridiculous about the official story is the fact that they want us to believe that an Al-Qaeda suicide bomber would attack a hotel in a country that is on uncertain terms with the United States. In fact, the Pakistan military has recently been in combat with U.S. military units that have violated their national border. The official story simply doesn’t make any sense and can easily be written off as a lie.
The video evidence indicates that there is no possible way that the truck bomb could have caused the damage that they claimed. With U.S. Marines staying in the hotel guarding boxes with unknown contents, the investigation should focus in on the U.S. Marines that were in the area. The damage of the hotel is more indicative of a blast that took place on the inside, instead of the over glorified truck explosion that barely did any damage to the surrounding area. It is quite possible that the boxes under control of the U.S. Marines contained explosive devices that did the real damage to the hotel.
There’s no doubt that it is much more likely that this was some sort of black operation designed to further socially engineer the American people to believe that there is an abundance of terrorism in Pakistan, as yet another excuse to have U.S. military operations in the area. The operations don’t really have anything to do with terrorism; instead it has everything to do with maintaining western influence over Pakistan. While all of this is going on, the corporate controlled media continues to spread propaganda that Osama Bin Laden is hiding somewhere in the area around the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Billions have been spent on the terror war but some how they still cannot find Bin Laden and every videotape of Bin Laden released after the 9/11 attacks has appeared to have been a fake. Isn’t it more plausible that Bin Laden is most likely dead and that his likeness is being used as a character to propagandize the phony terror war?
With all this said, it is obvious that there are many questions about this so called suicide truck bombing attack. We will probably never know 100% who was behind this, but the one thing that is certain is that the truck bomb was not responsible for the death and destruction that resulted. There should be an immediate investigation into the activity of the U.S. Marines that were in the hotel when this occurred.
http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=12094
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Is the us preparing to attack pakistan
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Pakistan Invades America — “Without Permission”
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America is Retreating Everywhere Except In Pakistan
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US accused of backing terrorism in pakistan
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Court documents shed light on cia illegal operations in central asia using islam-madrassas
Obama calls for US military mobilization
“Puppet” Obama calls for US military mobilization
By Patrick Martin
In remarks that clearly pointed toward the restoration of the military draft under an Obama administration, the Democratic candidate said Thursday night that his job as president would include demanding that the American people recognize an “obligation” for military service. “If we are going into war, then all of us go, not just some,” Senator Barack Obama declared.
Obama’s comments came as he and his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain, took part in a forum on national service at Columbia University in New York City. Earlier in the day, both candidates joined in a memorial service at the site of the World Trade Center, commemorating the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
While “national service” encompasses more than the military, including such government-run programs as the Peace Corps, Americorps and Teach for America, as well as private and religious programs, both McCain and Obama focused on expanding the US Armed Forces as a major goal of the next administration, whether Democratic or Republican.
In an indication of the bipartisan support for the increasing militarization of American society, McCain jokingly offered to name Obama his coordinator for national service if the Republican were to win the election, and Obama reciprocated.
The forum was co-hosted by Judy Woodruff of the Public Broadcasting Service and Richard Stengel, editor of Time magazine. Woodruff introduced Stengel as the man responsible for the magazine’s 2007 cover story, “The Case for National Service,” which Woodruff said had “ignited this movement.”
McCain was the first of the two candidates to appear at the forum. In response to a direct question from Woodruff, he rejected the restoration of the draft, voicing support for maintaining an all-volunteer army. Such a disavowal is to be expected 55 days before a presidential election, and no doubt Obama would have given a similar response had he been asked the same question.
But in the course of his discussion with Woodruff and Stengel, McCain repeatedly connected the imperative of “national service” with the outbreak of international crises in which an American military role would be posed. Citing the Russian intervention in Georgia and the deteriorating position of the US-backed regime in Afghanistan, he said the American people could “see a whole lot of things happening in the world that’s going to require us to serve.”
McCain also said that he would sign the bipartisan legislation, co-sponsored in the Senate by Democrat Edward Kennedy and Republican Orrin Hatch, to triple the size of Americorps, the domestic version of the Peace Corps.
Obama’s comments were even more directly related to building up the US military. He spoke at some length to offer effusive praise for the armed forces. Woodruff asked him about the record number of Army officers leaving the military because of repeated, lengthy overseas deployments.
The candidate responded, “Well, first of all, as commander-in-chief, my job is to keep America safe. And that means insuring that we’ve got the best military on Earth. And that means having the best persons in uniform on Earth. We have that right now, but as a consequence of these wars, they have been strained incredibly. I think it’s important for us to increase the size of our Army and our Marines so we can reduce the pace of tours that our young men and women are on.”
After recalling his grandfather’s service in World War II, in the army of General George Patton, he noted that his grandfather was eligible for GI Bill education benefits and Federal Housing Administration loans to help purchase a home because of government policies favoring the discharged veterans. “There was that sense of sacred obligation that, frankly, we have lost during these last two wars,” Obama said. “I want to restore that.”
Obama went on to make his most direct statement of the campaign about expanding military service, declaring: “But it’s also important that a president speaks to military service as an obligation not just of some, but of many. You know, I traveled, obviously, a lot over the last 19 months. And if you go to small towns, throughout the Midwest or the Southwest or the South, every town has tons of young people who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s not always the case in other parts of the country, in more urban centers. And I think it’s important for the president to say, this is an important obligation. If we are going into war, then all of us go, not just some.”
Taken in the context of a forum on national service, these comments have an unmistakable and ominous implication. Military service in the volunteer army is undertaken disproportionately by small-town and rural youth, for both economic and cultural reasons. It is far less common for middle class and working class youth in large cities, and especially their suburbs, to enlist in the military.
Obama holds out the prospect that, at least initially, his demand for wider participation in military service would consist of encouraging more enlistments in the volunteer army. When that failed, as it undoubtedly would, to produce sufficient cannon fodder for the next round of imperialist wars, the logical next step would be reactivation of the Selective Service System, which still exists, albeit in mothballed form.
In political terms, Obama’s appearance at Columbia was aimed at demonstrating to the American political establishment that he is prepared to reject any pressure from antiwar college students, who are a major component of his campaign’s personnel and volunteers. To that end, Obama not only called for expanded military service, he directly attacked the exclusion of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) from many college campuses.
Stengel noted that Columbia had invited President Ahmadinejad of Iran to speak on the campus, but “haven’t invited ROTC to be on campus since 1969.”
Obama replied, “Yes, I think we’ve made a mistake on that. I recognize that there are students here who have differences in terms of military policy. But the notion that young people here at Columbia or anywhere, in any university, aren’t offered the choice, the option of participating in military service, I think is a mistake.”
The suggestion that young people at Columbia or anywhere else are denied “the option of participating in military service” is preposterous. In no country in the world is there so much media advertising and societal pressure—largely, at this point, economic—to impel young people into the military.
ROTC became a focus of hostility on hundreds of campuses during the Vietnam War era, and was in many cases banned as a student organization. These restrictions largely ended after 1975, but they were continued or reestablished on a handful of campuses after the Clinton administration established the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, reaffirming the longtime Pentagon ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. Such a ban violates the non-discrimination rules imposed by many campuses on corporate recruiters.
In response to a further question from Woodruff, Obama elaborated on his efforts to recruit young people to become participants in, and potential victims of, military violence. “Inspiring young people to serve is something that the president is uniquely positioned to do,” he said, adding that this could be for civilian positions that are adjuncts to US military operations overseas, such as the State Department, USAID or civil engineering.
Obama returned to the subject of widening participation in military service in words that were cautiously phrased but deeply reactionary. “I think there are special obligations during wartime,” he said. “We always have potential conflicts around the world, and our military has to remain strong and ready. And so I want to encourage military service, as well as other ways of serving, regardless of whether there’s war or not. But I do think that over the last several years, the fact that the burden has been shouldered by such a narrow group is a problem.”
In a closely balanced election, with the outcome still very much in doubt, Obama hopes to win the support of the real decision-makers—the topmost levels of the financial, political and military elite. Only a Democrat, he is suggesting, with the smokescreen of “equal sacrifice” and “fairness,” can provide the millions of recruits for the US military machine that will be required for wars against countries such as Iran, Russia and China.
While utilizing the occasional high-flown phrase to appeal to the idealism of youth and students, Obama is offering the ruling class a brutal bargain: Select me as president, and I will repay you in blood.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/sep2008/obam-s13_prn.shtml
Gazprom, Total sign gas deal with Bolivian firm
Gazprom, Total sign gas deal with Bolivian firm
Gazprom and Total have signed a memorandum with Bolivian company YPFB on gas exploration and extraction, and the possible creation of a joint venture in Bolivia, the Russian energy giant said Friday.
The signing took place during a visit by a Gazprom delegation to the Latin American country, which started Thursday.
“The talks resulted in the signing … of a trilateral memorandum which foresees the joint assessment of the Acero block and marks another step forward to the creation of a new joint venture to produce hydrocarbons in Bolivia,” Gazprom said in a news release.
Bolivia is second in Latin America after Venezuela in terms of natural gas reserves (1.5 trillion cubic meters) and has a high gas-bearing potential.
Gazprom and YPFB signed a memorandum of understanding in February 2007 for prospecting and infrastructure projects as well as the training of staff.
The blocks selected by Gazprom experts – Sunchal, Acero and Carohuaicho – are located in southeastern Bolivia within the gas-bearing Subandino Sur basin. Experts estimate they contain up to 300 billion cubic meters of gas.
http://en.rian.ru/business/20080919/116962099.html
Morales: Bolivia will strengthen ties to Russia
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LA PAZ, Bolivia — President Evo Morales says he regrets not deepening Bolivia’s ties to Russia years ago.
A week after kicking out the U.S. ambassador, Morales says his administration “lost two and a half years in not strengthening relations with Russia” and will now “use its time wisely” to build better ties.
Bolivia plans to seek seek Russian aid in energy, agriculture, and defense, Morales says.
He spoke Thursday as he signed a natural gas deal with Russian state energy giant Gazprom and Paris-based Total SA. Bolivia says the deal could bring $4.5 billion into Bolivia.
Also Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mocked Russia’s efforts to make allies in Latin America in a scathing speech that labelled the former Cold War foe as isolated and irrelevant.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102ap_lt_bolivia_russia.html
The End Of The United States
The End Of The United States
Mike Robinson
As I write this, in a real sucker punch, the FTSE is up 10% so far today. Hooray, the world is saved!
Or not.
What could be behind this insane, hysterical reaction?
One reason is that late yesterday, the FSA called a halt to short selling of financial stocks in the UK. As a result, many (t)raders have had to get themselves out of short positions. That musta hurt!
The second, much bigger, reason is that the US Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, in collusion with the US Congress, is about to commit an act of blatant treason.
Instead of doing the right thing, which would have been to place the system in administratrion (bankruptcy reorganisation), he has decided to make the United States itself bankrupt.
The bankers are laughing up their sleeves.
What Paulson has announced is this: he will establish a Federal agency to buy up what will amount to trillions of dollars of bad debt. The debt will become the liability of the US taxpayer. The bankers will get off scot free. The US will also insure investors in US money-market funds, which have seen significant withdrawals in recent days.
The idea is that, in a reflection of the Resolution Trust Corporation, the debt will be warehoused so that it can get the chance “for much of it to recover a portion of its value.”
But make no mistake, as far as the financial system is concerned, this will achieve nothing, other than delay the inevitable once again.
The real benefit for Paulson’s controllers, is that long held goal of the financial elites – the end of the United States, and that pesky Constitution.
What about us, here in the UK? For us, there’s the small matter of the spectre of hyperinflation which will make Weimar Germany pale into insignificance.
