Egypt accused of 'deceiving' Hamas

Egypt "collaborated" with Israel in its Gaza attack and lulled Hamas into thinking the Israel Defense Forces would not attack Gaza, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi reported Sunday.
The report, based on Arab diplomatic sources, claims that Egyptian Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman told a number of Arab leaders that Israel was intending to attack the Gaza Strip in a limited manner in order to pressure the Palestinian organization into agreeing to a renewed ceasefire. 

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Israel launches air strikes on Gaza, 145 dead

Israeli warplanes destroyed dozens of security compounds across Hamas-ruled Gaza on Saturday in unprecedented waves of air strikes, killing at least 145 people and wounding more than 310 in the single deadliest day in Gaza fighting in recent memory, Palestinian medical officials said.
The strikes came in response to renewed rocket fire from Gaza on Israeli border towns. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said "the operation will last as long as necessary" but it was not clear if it would include a ground offensive.
Asked if Hamas political leaders might be targeted next, military spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovitch said "Any Hamas target is a target."

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Nobody threw shoes at Brown – but his guilt is still undeniable

At least this time there was no ballistic footwear. The last time Gordon Brown made a surprise visit to Iraq to announce troop withdrawals, he was whacked so hard on the head by the giant DM attached to his own left leg – and if nothing else, you had to admire his Nadia Comanecian elasticity of movement – that it took this unfolding economic catastrophe to rouse him from the ensuing psephological coma.

That was in October 2007 when he torpedoed a reputation for straightness, as skillfully nurtured as it was ill deserved, with an act of political opportunism so cretinously transparent that it beggared all belief. The chump flew to Basra and announced troop reduction figures that proved, after 0.37 seconds of the barely numerate's inspection, what is known to professors of political science as a whopper, but which I guess, in honour of the week's hilarious shoe theme, we should know as arrant cobblers.

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Banks hit worldwide by US 'fraud'

Some of the world's biggest banks have revealed they are victims of an alleged fraud which has lost $50bn (£33bn).

Bernard Madoff, who was arrested on Thursday, has been charged with fraud in what is being described as one of the biggest-ever such cases.

Among the banks that have been hit are Britain's HSBC and RBS, Spain's Santander and France's BNP Paribas.

Other victims include film director Stephen Spielberg's Wunderkinder Foundation charity.

One of the City's best-known fund managers has criticised US regulators for not detecting the alleged fraud.

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US accuses Britain over military failings in Afghanistan

 The performance of Britain’s overstretched military in Afghanistan is coming under sustained criticism from the Pentagon and US analysts even as Gordon Brown ponders whether to send in further reinforcements.
Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary who has been asked to remain in his job under Barack Obama, is understood to have expressed strong reservations about counterinsurgency operations in British-controlled Helmand province.
He has already announced plans for a surge of 20,000 US troops into Afghanistan but Mr Brown, who was given a bleak progress report when he visited Afghanistan at the weekend, is said to be reluctant about committing another 2,000 British troops on top of the 8,400 already there.

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Fed Cuts Benchmark Rate to Near Zero

The Federal Reserve entered a new era on Tuesday, lowering its benchmark interest rate virtually to zero and declaring that it would now fight the recession by pumping out vast amounts of money to businesses and consumers through an expanding array of new lending programs

Though important as a historic milestone, the move to an interest rate of zero from 1 percent is largely symbolic. The funds rate, which affects what banks charge for lending their reserves to each other, had already fallen to nearly zero in recent days because banks have been so reluctant to do business.
Of much greater practical importance, the Fed bluntly announced that it would print as much money as necessary to revive the frozen credit markets and fight what is shaping up as the nation’s worst economic downturn since World War II.

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Russia claims US plans new bases for Central Asia

Russia's top military officer warned that Moscow felt threatened by U.S. policy in ex-Soviet Central Asia and claimed that Washington was attempting to establish new military bases there, news agencies reported Tuesday.
Gen. Nikolai Makarov, the chief of the Russian military's general staff, said Washington planned to establish a foothold in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Interfax and ITAR-Tass reported. U.S. officials denied there were plans.
Makarov also said U.S. support for bids by Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO made Russia feel threatened. He cast doubt that relations between the countries would improve under Barack Obama.

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UN gives OK to land, air attacks on Somali pirates

On the same day Somali gunmen seized two more ships, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize nations to conduct land and air attacks on pirate bases on the coast of the Horn of Africa country.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on hand to push through the resolution, one of President George W. Bush's last major foreign policy initiatives.
Rice said the resolution will have a significant impact, especially since "pirates are adapting to the naval presence in the Gulf of Aden by traveling further" into sea lanes not guarded by warships sent by the U.S. and other countries.

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Cheap-oil era is over

Now, just as the world economy slows and oil drops below US$50 a barrel, the IEA has released the most important report in its three-decade history, World Energy Outlook 2008. This report does something both very important and most amazingly unprecedented. It takes an extensive inventory of global oil supplies.

It would seem fairly logical that an organization responsible for tracking the global oil industry would as a matter of course, indeed of its very nature, take a close look at actual oil supplies every year, but this in fact has not been the case. For almost its entire existence, the IEA has quite unbelievably looked at demand and assumed supply would be there to meet it. 


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More than 160 US, NATO vehicles burned in Pakistan

Militants torched 160 vehicles, including dozens of Humvees destined for U.S. and allied forces fighting in Afghanistan, in the boldest attack so far on the critical military supply line through Pakistan.
The American military said Sunday's raid on two transport terminals near the beleaguered Pakistani city of Peshawar would have "minimal" impact on anti-Taliban operations set to expand with the arrival of thousands more troops next year.
However, the attack feeds concern that insurgents are trying to choke the route through the famed Khyber Pass, which carries up to 70 percent of the supplies for Western forces in landlocked Afghanistan, and drive up the cost of the war.

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Indian Minister Says Pakistan Is Using Hoax As Distraction

ndia's foreign minister accused Pakistan on Sunday of trying to deflect attention from the role of its citizens in last month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai by leaking word of a hoax phone call to the Pakistani president's office that reportedly forced its air force to go on high alert.
The episode underscored the high level of tension that remains between the two nuclear-armed nations nearly two weeks after the attacks, as India continues to charge that a terrorist group with past ties to the Pakistani government was responsible and Pakistan insists that it was not involved.

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Russia Allocates $2 Billion on New Arms, Countering U.S. Shield

Russia will spend an extra $2 billion next year on weapons, including modernizing short-range Iskander missiles that could counter a proposed U.S. anti-missile shield.
The government decided to allocate an extra 60 billion rubles ($2.1 billion) after Russia’s August war with U.S.-allied Georgia, state broadcaster Vesti-24 cited Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov as saying on its Web Site.
“Irrespective of the economic situation, it will continue to rise,” Ivanov said of Russia’s defense spending. “There is an objective need to speed up further the rearmament of our army and navy.”

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India, Russia regain elan of friendship

The visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to New Delhi last week turned out to be an occasion for the Indian government to fundamentally reassess the strategic significance of the traditional India-Russia partnership. No doubt, the visit took place at a turning point in contemporary history and politics against the backdrop of massive shifts in the international system.

Medvedev arrived in India in the immediate aftermath of the horrific terrorist strikes on Mumbai. The regional security situation - especially Afghanistan - naturally figured prominently in the agenda of the visit. 


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NATO scuttles US plan to encircle Russia

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ministers in Brusselshave decided to ignore the wishes of the United States and delay the admission of Georgia and the Ukraine, in effect indefinitely, in what the George W Bush administration is sheepishly trying to claim is a positive "compromise".

The decision, follows the alarm which peaked among European Union member states last August over the prospect of having to go to war with Russia over an erratic leader in the Caucasus who had provoked Moscow into a reaction. 


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Pak on track to being named terrorist state

US intelligence circles are now re-evaluating Pakistan's contribution to the war on terror, and the ISI's dominant role in the country and its ties with jihadi outfits, at the behest of the Bush administration. The White House itself lost faith in the Pakistan Army's bonafides several months ago which led to Washington's decision to withdraw support to military ruler Pervez Musharraf and back a new civilian government, officials and congressional aides who spoke on background explained. The decision to dump Musharraf was taken at vice-president Dick Cheney recommendation, they added, because of evidence that Pakistan was continuing to help Taliban elements attacking Nato forces.

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Recession, Rate Cuts and Stocks: Why This Time It's Different

On a day when the National Bureau of Economic Research says the current recession is both official and a full year old and the Federal Reserve Chairman says he's willing to cut interest rates from an already rock-bottom 1 percent, the contrarian in me expected to see at least a few folks start shouting "Buy!"

That's because during most downturns, by the time a recession is officially announced, the damage has already been done in stocks. That, mixed with possible rate cuts that are "certainly feasible," according to Ben Bernanke, should theoretically be good news for battered shares. Not this time. Here's why:

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China’s six-to-one advantage over the US

America outspends China on defense by a margin of more than six to one, the Pentagon estimates. [1] In another strategic dimension, though, China already holds a six-to-one advantage over the United States. Thirty-six million Chinese children study piano today, compared to only 6 million in the United States.[2] The numbers understate the difference, for musical study in China is more demanding.

It must be a conspiracy. Chinese parents are selling plasma-screen TVs to America, and saving their wages to buy their kids pianos - making American kids stupider and Chinese kids smarter. Watch out, Americans - a generation from now, your kid is going to fetch coffee for a Chinese boss. 


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Iran may go to war with Somali pirates

Iran has warned that it may resort to force in an effort to free Iranian hostages and a ship hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia.

"Should Iran feel the need to launch a military offensive against the hijackers, the international community has already given the military go-ahead," said Iranian Deputy Minister of Road and Transportation Ali Taheri.

On Tuesday, Somali pirates captured the Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship Delight, which was chartered by an Iranian company, along with its 25 crewmembers in the Gulf of Aden. The ship was carrying 36,000 metric tons of wheat. 



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The Monetary Conspiracy For World Government

Economics and Money aren't supposed to be as abstruse as it is made out to be, and nor does it take a Ph.D. from M.I.T. to realize that one is being taken for a sodomized ride on the Capricorn of economics gibberish. It is the responsibility of every denizen of the world to understand how humanity is being herded into global debt-enslavement and a centrally managed world-government, baby-step at a time, by manufacturing deliberate crisis and then proposing the next baby-step as its solution or fait accompli. Each baby-step erodes away some aspect of national sovereignty. 911 helped setup the global police state as a proposed solution to 'terrorism' – a manufactured product – to create the sine qua non mechanisms for world-government. “World government could only be kept in being by force”, as Bertrand Russell had put it.

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US Global Trends report: Key points

Global Trends 2025, a new report written by the US National Intelligence Council (NIC) ahead of President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration, envisages a future world marked by diminished US power, dwindling resources, and more people.
The NIC, an independent government body, emphasises that its report is not about "crystal-ball gazing" but offers a range of potential futures, including the following key trends.

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Missile Defense and the American Empire

Currently, only two countries – Russia and China – possess long-range nuclear ballistic missiles that can reach the U.S. mainland. However, Russia is not the same strategic hegemon and superpower that the former Soviet Union was during the Cold War, and China is not a direct military peer competitor to the United States. And to the extent that either or both might represent a nuclear threat, the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal acts as a deterrent.

If there is a case to be made for missile defense, it is for the relatively unlikely possibility of unauthorized or accidental launch by either Russia or China. But this is less of a threat per se and more of a happenstance. And as such, it would only warrant a more limited missile-defense system to act as an insurance policy and mitigate the damage.

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Nuclear Aid by Russian to Iranians Suspected

International nuclear inspectors are investigating whether a Russian scientist helped Iran conduct complex experiments on how to detonate a nuclear weapon, according to European and American officials. As part of the investigation, inspectors at the International Atomic Energy Agency are seeking information from the scientist, who they believe acted on his own as an adviser on experiments described in a lengthy document obtained by the agency, the officials said.

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Estonian Spy Scandal Shakes NATO and EU

Communications between the suspected top spy and his commanding officer seemed like a throwback to the Cold War. Investigators allege that in order to send messages to his Russian contact, Herman Simm, 61, used a converted radio which looked like a relic from yesteryear's world of consumer electronics. But there was nothing old-fashioned about what Simm, a high-ranking official in the Estonian Defense Ministry in Tallinn, reportedly transmitted to Moscow over the years. It was the very latest intelligence information.


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The Great Depression of the 21st Century: Collapse of the Real Economy

The financial crisis is deepening, with the risk of seriously disrupting the system of international payments. 

This crisis is far more serious than the Great Depression. All major sectors of the global economy are affected. Recent reports suggest that the system of Letters of Credit as well as international shipping, which constitute the lifeline of the international trading system, are potentially in jeopardy.  

The proposed bank "bailout" under the so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is not a "solution" to the crisis but the "cause" of further collapse.  

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(Sorry Guys I missed This)Georgia Claims on Russia War Called Into Question

Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the longstanding Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression.

Georgia moved forces toward the border of the breakaway region of South Ossetia on Aug. 7, at the start of what it called a defensive war with separatists there and with Russian forces.

Instead, the accounts suggest that Georgia’s inexperienced military attacked the isolated separatist capital of Tskhinvali on Aug. 7 with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire, exposing civilians, Russian peacekeepers and unarmed monitors to harm.

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Putin's portion of humble pie

Important men like Robert Gates don't usually spend much time in bijou backwaters like Tallinn, the picturesque capital of Estonia. But the US defence secretary has two strong reasons for being there today. One was to demonstrate Washington's solidarity with the Baltic states rattled by Russia's summer invasion of Georgia. The other was to urge Nato defence ministers to offer an alliance membership plan to Ukraine.
All the same, Gates was in the wrong place. The people with most influence over what happens next on Georgia and Ukraine were gathering far to the south, in Nice, ahead of tomorrow's EU-Russia summit hosted by France. The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, will be there, as will European leaders. The Americans were not invited.

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Torture – Yes We Can?

A recent Wall Street Journal piece describing the transition process as it relates to intelligence-gathering reveals we aren't going to see much change in this vitally important realm, the one in which the Bush administration truly made its blackest mark. This will "create tension within the Democratic party," we are told, apparently because even the worst party hacks will have a hard time going along with the revised Obama Doctrine on the issue of torture.
According to the Journal, Obama's advisors on intelligence matters are "centrists" in the Clinton mold and outright Republicans, who favor torture "with oversight." These, we are told, are the "pragmatists," likely candidates for positions in Obama's national security bureaucracy. "He's going to take a very centrist approach to these issues," avers Roger Cressey, who served as a counter-terrorism official under Clinton as well as Bush II.

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China fears India-Japan space alliance

India and Japan's agreement in October to expand cooperation between the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), in the field of disaster management, has the raised the ire of a China fearful that the US is masterminding a powerful space alliance between its allies in the region.

All of Asia wants to see improved regional disaster management capabilities, but the growing ties between ISRO and JAXA come just as India and Japan are devising an action plan to advance security cooperation.

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Gates, European leaders rap Medvedev for bellicose talk

 Russia's threat to station missiles along its border with Europe drew strong criticism from senior United States and European officials Thursday, as they prepared to confront President Dmitri Medvedev on the matter before heading together to Washington to discuss reforming the world financial system.
In an interview, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, strongly criticized Moscow's threat to put missiles in the enclave of Kaliningrad, which shares a border with Poland and Lithuania, and he warned that "cold war rhetoric" over the issue was "stupid."
"We don't need a cold war," he said in an interview. "We need cool heads."

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Russia rejects US missile offer

Russia has rejected US proposals aimed at easing Moscow's concerns over a planned missile shield in central Europe, a Kremlin source has said.

The source said the proposals by the Bush administration were "insufficient" and would put President-elect Barack Obama "in a dead-end situation".
The US insists the shield is a defence against missiles from "rogue" nations, but Russia sees it as a direct threat.
Moscow has said it will deploy missiles in the Baltic to neutralise the shield.

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Insight: 'Bretton Woods Two'? New World Order

A deep-seated global crisis is often a chance to redraw the map, reflecting shifts in the balance of power in different ways.
First, the crisis can confirm or nudge ahead trends which seem to be happening anyway - like the shift of power from Western to emerging Eastern players.
Second, it can put flesh on reforms already in the air - like plans to overhaul the international financial architecture to be discussed at this weekend's summit being hosted by President Bush in Washington.

And third, there are the instinctive emergency reactions, supposedly temporary, but which can end up reshaping the global chessboard for years to come - the hurried nationalisation of some Western banks, for instance, or possibly Iceland's desperate bailout appeal to Russia - a Nato member putting financial survival ahead of any security provisos.

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Economic group says developed world in recession

The world's developed economies have slid into recession and will shrink further in 2009, a top international organization said Thursday.
In its latest economic forecasts, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said gross domestic product was likely to fall by 0.3 percent in 2009 for its 30 member countries, representing democracies with market economies.
It said the U.S. economy would contract by 0.9 percent, Japan's by 0.1 percent and the euro area by 0.5 percent.
Additionally, it was the first time since 1974-5, when they were suffering from the Arab oil embargo and a severe bear market for stocks, that the U.S., Europe and Japan have fallen into recession.
This time, all three are shrinking in the same year; in the wake of the first oil price shock in 1973, Japan saw negative growth in 1974 followed a year later by the U.S. and Europe.

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Mystery of lost US nuclear bomb

Its unique vantage point - perched at the top of the world - has meant that Thule Air Base has been of immense strategic importance to the US since it was built in the early 1950s, allowing a radar to scan the skies for missiles coming over the North Pole.

The Pentagon believed the Soviet Union would take out the base as a prelude to a nuclear strike against the US and so in 1960 began flying "Chrome Dome" missions. Nuclear-armed B52 bombers continuously circled over Thule - and could head straight to Moscow if they witnessed its destruction.

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The New World We Live In

I think history will mention 2007 as the last year of the western civilisation that have dominated the world since the middle ages(1500AD-date). Especially diffirent is the last 60 years(after the second world war).

Humanity has been able to multiply our knowledge and our understanding of our environment and ourselves(science) such that,60 years looks like a millenium ago. Our achievements have been tremendous and remarkable. During the collapse of the soviet Union(USSR), people talked about the end of history and the last man(google) where people assumed western civilisation had triumphed and will dominate humanity as the main ideology since the rival ideology of communism and socialism had been defeated. So there we went, booming, prospering and teching, untill 2007.

The whole system choked on itself.
As we sought an absolutist ideology of unregulated free market capitalism, we have created a system of corporate greed whose unsatiable greed have resulted in things like outsourcing, turning some countries to be the consumers and some to be the producers. However, they forgot the history, that countries can only be rich by selling things other countries want to buy.
How can we be rich by washing each others clothes and charging them for it- its called services
We by becoming the consumers mean, we kill employment(-check USA & Britain),we kill innovation as there is no more the motivation to seek the unknown, we create large negative trade deficits because we produce nothing but buy more than anyone ,just to name a few.

As a result of this so called Globalisation(even though the Doha Round of talks failed) we have in effect become the deptors with disgruntled creditors.
Our creditors are from far away places like UAE, Kuwait, China, India, Japan and Russia.

Unfortunately, as it is with every people, they also have plans of their own for during our dominance, we have shown the good and bad sides of power and they have learnt well. They know which side of the coin they have to be to have what they want.

Now we face a dangerous world. By trying to avoid the collapse of our societies, we have taken desperate measures that have resulted in what is effectively state socialism even though the media(Rupert Murdoch's pupets) do not mention it directly.
Look up the definition of socialism if you dont remember from JSS to know that when governments bail out and buy large says in business with taxpayer's money we have a socialist state. This is exactly what capitalism is against. If we are capitalist, then the fall of one is an opportunity for a competitor, who will now have the chance to excel at the expense of the fallen. But Now if the government bails out the fallen, where is the need for the competition???? Hence where is the capitalism?????

My friends, I admonish you. as Proverbs 4:7 .....and with all thy getting get
understanding.Lets seek to understand our days that we shall be able to make better judgement and defend our western civilisation that has brought us the properity, knowledge and development you and me enjoy today.

We live in a completely new world today.

Possible Israeli attack against Iran worries EU

ANKARA – 'A possible Israeli strike against Iran is not completely off the radar,' a senior European Union diplomat says. Iran's intention to purchase Russian made S-300s anti-ballistic missiles could push Israel to a quicker offensive, according to diplomats


With the entire world is still celebrating the election of Barack Obama, it may not be the best time for pessimism about the future, such as fears of a possible Israeli attack onIran in two months.
“A possible Israeli strike against Iran is not completely out of the picture,” a senior European Union diplomat told Turkish media here. “The perfect time (for Israel) is between now and Jan. 20 (Obama’s inauguration day).”

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EU calls for 'new deal for new world' with Obama

"This is a time for a renewed commitment between Europe and the US. I want to assure Senator Obama of the support of the European Commission and of my personal support in forging this renewed commitment to face together the many challenges ahead of us," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.

"We need a new deal for a new world. I sincerely hope that with the leadership of President Obama, the US will join forces with Europe to drive this new deal - for the benefit of our societies, for the benefit of the world," he said in a statement.

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The List: What McCain and Obama Didn’t Talk About

The issue: Between the crackdown on protesters in Tibet, the Sichuan earthquake, and the buildup to the Summer Olympics, China dominated the world’s headlines for much of 2008. A veritable cottage industry emerged of pundits forecasting the United States’ decline and China’s emergence as an economic and military superpower. Yet the country that is home to 20 percent of the world’s population, that owns 20 percent of U.S. foreign debt, that has the world’s largest army, and that is America’s largest trading partner was strangely absent from this presidential election. Tellingly, during the only presidential debate focused on foreign policy, not one question on China was asked.


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China, Russia renounce the dollar?

The recent meeting between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao, created a financial sensation. Wen said that the two nations could withstand the global financial crisis if they joined forces; Putin urged him to go farther and stop using U.S. dollars in Russian-Chinese settlements.
This idea is nothing new. Russia and China reached a "framework" agreement in November 2007, which was followed by China's similar agreement with Belarus.


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The End of International Law?

A parallel new Bush doctrine is emerging, in the last days of the soon-to-be-ancien regime, and it needs to be strangled in its crib. Like the original Bush doctrine -- the one that Sarah Palin couldn't name, which called for preventive military action against emerging threats -- this one also casts international law aside by insisting that the United States has an inherent right to cross international borders in "hot pursuit" of anyone it doesn't like.

They're already applying it to Pakistan, and this week Syria was the target. Is Iran next?

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Report: Turkey Promises to Play Role in Stopping US Attacks Into Pakistan

Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff Parvez Kayani is being rushed to Turkey this evening for a meeting with Turkish government officials hot on the heels of Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani’s talks with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. The meeting appears to be the first step toward Turkish involvement in pressing the United States to halt its air strikes against targets inside Pakistan.


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US elections: the world has no vote but it knows who it wants

There are endorsements that no one welcomes, however enthusiastic: Hamas for Obama, Osama for McCain. But what of the entire globe? Barack Obama goes into today’s vote with the overwhelming backing of the world beyond America’s borders in a presidential race that has gripped audiences like no election before.

Obamamania is at fever pitch across Europe, where his ratings regularly exceed 80 per cent. Germany, the Netherlands and France form the cheer-leading front row. Not since John F. Kennedy has France so fallen for a presidential candidate; ifcitoyens had the vote, Mr Obama would trounce Mr McCain by 72 points.

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India seeks 'velvet divorce' from Iran

Mukherjee candidly admitted that "in this changing context, we need to look at India-Iran relations afresh". Indeed, that "context" is dramatically changing. A fortnight before the visit, Delhi deployed for the first time ever a warship in the Persian Gulf region, which will operate in close coordination with the Western navies under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the region.

Mukherjee assertively said in Tehran, "India has a natural and abiding stake in the safety and security of the sea lanes of communication from the Malacca Strait to the Persian Gulf." 


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The Senator From Arizona and the Senator From Arizona

He won the conservative icon's Senate seat from Arizona when Goldwater retired in 1986, and he has held Goldwater as a role model ever since. On Monday night, McCain will end his presidential campaign in the Arizona town where Goldwater launched his '64 presidential run. And, if the polls are right -- a big "if," admittedly -- McCain is about to emulate his mentor in another way: He could be heading for the worst presidential defeat of a Republican since Goldwater.


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In Syria, a short-sighted attack

THE WEEKEND attack inside Syria by US Special Operations Forces hunting for an alleged smuggler of Al Qaeda recruits into Iraq may have a fleeting tactical benefit, at best. In all other ways, it runs counter to the interests of the United States and its allies.
If this operation was not authorized at the highest level, there is something wrong with the administration's chain of command. And if President Bush and Vice President Cheney did authorize an action that risks sabotaging Israeli-Syrian peace talks, reversing the trend of Syrian cooperation in Iraq and Lebanon, and playing into the hands of Iran, then Bush and Cheney have learned nothing from their previous mistakes and misdeeds.

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Bush's attack on Syria is typical of his disastrous presidency

Sunday's cross-border raid into Syria by US forces serves as a reminder that although George W. Bush is now a "lame duck" president, he still retains the ability to make dangerous waves in the Middle East. His power might be easier to accommodate if it had been wielded over the years with good judgement for the purpose of achieving clearly defined objectives. The problem is that the 43rd president's pursuits in this part of the world have more often been haphazard, counterproductive and/or disastrous.

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US government throws oil on fire

Free-market fundamentalists have been operating in denial mode for more than a year, since the US financial sector imploded in a credit crisis from excessive debt in August 2007, claiming that the economic fundamentals were still basically sound, even within the debt-infested financial sector.

As denial was rendered increasingly untenable by unfolding events, champions of market fundamentalism began clamoring for increasingly larger doses of government intervention in failed free markets around the world to restore sound market fundamentals. For the market fundamentalist faithful, this amounts to asking the devil to save god. 


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Do our rulers know enough to avoid a 1930s replay?

 The freight rates for Capesize vessels used to ship grains, coal, and iron ore have fallen 95pc to $11,600 since May, hence the bankruptcy of Odessa’s Industrial Carriers last week with a fleet of 52 vessels. Cargo deliveries dropped 15.2pc at the US Port of Long Beach last month, but that is a lagging indicator.
From what I have been able to find out, shipping is slowing as fast as it did in the grim months of late 1931. “The crisis is now in full swing across the entire world,” said Giulio Tremonti, Italy’s finance minister. “It is hitting the real economy, the productive forces of industry. It’s global, it’s total, and it’s everywhere,” he said.
Italy’s industrial output has fallen 11pc in the last year. Foreign orders have dropped 13pc. But we are all in much the same boat. Europe’s car sales fell 9pc in September (32pc in Spain). US housing starts fell to a 45-year low in September.

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Is US fighting force big enough?

American's armed forces are growing bigger to reduce the strains from seven years of war, but if the US is confronting an era of "persistent conflict," as some experts believe, it will need an even bigger military.

A larger military could more easily conduct military and nation-building operations around the world. But whether the American public has the appetite to pursue and pay for such a foreign-policy agenda, especially after more than five years of an unpopular war in Iraq, is far from clear.

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Iraqi government fuels 'war for oil' theories by putting reserves up for biggest ever sale

The biggest ever sale of oil assets will take place today, when the Iraqi government puts 40bn barrels of recoverable reserves up for offer in London.

BP, Shell and ExxonMobil are all expected to attend a meeting at the Park Lane Hotel in Mayfair with the Iraqi oil minister, Hussein al-Shahristani.

Access is being given to eight fields, representing about 40% of the Middle Eastern nation's reserves, at a time when the country remains under occupation by US and British forces.

Two smaller agreements have already been signed with Shell and the China National Petroleum Corporation, but today's sale will ignite arguments over whether the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was a "war for oil" that is now to be consummated by western multinationals seizing control of strategic Iraqi reserves.

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Moving Beyond Empire

I am not one to decry what most people call globalization – the increase of trade, international investment, and even outsourcing – as a malignant development. The record is pretty clear that the countries that have participated most in international trade and opened themselves up to foreign investment have tended to prosper most – though not without temporarily troubling displacements – and that more people around the world have been lifted out of grinding poverty than in world history, largely because of increased trade.

The present crisis offers opportunities as well as dangers – opportunities to develop a more peaceful and prosperous world with fewer people living hand-to-mouth. But the temptation is likely to be for various countries, possibly including the United States, to crawl into a nationalist shell, perhaps increasing trade barriers and seeking the chimera of national self-sufficiency. To avoid such a fate, it is important to understand how the world has changed, even since the advent of the ill-fated Bush II administration, and to construct intelligent post-imperial policies.

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Israel's Peres warns Iran against surprise attack

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli President Shimon Peres on Sunday warned Iran against considering a surprise attack, at a ceremony commemorating the 35th anniversary of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

The war began with Syria and Egypt launching a surprise invasion of Israel on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in which early battlefield successes destroyed the myth of Israel's military invincibility.

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Time to go home, Nouri al-Maliki tells Britain

British combat forces are no longer needed to maintain security in southern Iraq and should leave the country, Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, has told The Times.

In an exclusive interview in Baghdad, Mr al-Maliki also criticised a secret deal made last year by Britain with the al-Mahdi Army, Iraq’s largest Shia militia. He said that Basra had been left at the mercy of militiamen who “cut the throats of women and children” after the British withdrawal from the city.

The Iraqi leader emphasised, however, that the “page had been turned” and he looked forward to a friendly, productive relationship with London. “The Iraqi arena is open for British companies and British friendship, for economic exchange and positive cooperation in science and education.”

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Financial Crisis: Who is going to bail out the euro?

Better late than never. A half-point cut in global interest rates may not halt the slide into a debt deflation, but at least we can hope to avoid the errors of the Great Depression. The slump – remember – had little to do with the 1929 crash. What turned the mild recession of 1930 into the sweeping devastation of the early 1930s was an entirely avoidable collapse of the banking system in both the US and Europe.


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US standing in Caspian drips away

On Sunday, en route to Astana, Kazakhstan, after a "very nice trip to India", US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters accompanying her, "I just wish I could have stayed longer in India". New Delhi must be one of a handful of capitals where officials from the George W Bush administration receive an expectant welcome, and the doomsday warnings emitted from New York and Washington do not seem to matter.

But there was another reason for Rice's trepidation as her jet descended to Astana - US influence and prestige in Central Asia and the Caspian region has again plummeted.


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The complete ISAB report

The Secretary of State's International Security Advisory Board(ISAB) has submitted a mind boggling cold war type Report to the secretary of state on how the American government should react to the growing Military capabilities of China at a time when Beijing is complaining about an unnecessary sale(IMO) of advanced weapon systems to Taiwan. 

Read the whole report here .

US told to increase nuclear arsenal as China threat looms

The International Security and Advisory Board (Isab), which reports to Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, warned that "holding the US homeland hostage to missile attack is important to Chinese military goals".

It claimed that China will have "in excess of 100 nuclear-armed missiles that could strike the United States" by 2015.

By contrast, it said the US had allowed its nuclear stockpile and expertise to "deteriorate and atrophy across the board" for the last two decades.

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'Displeased' China still engaged in Iran, NKorea nuclear talks

China has curtailed military exchanges with the United States in response to the sales and has said the plan threatens peace in its region.

The US official said several visits by Chinese warships to the United States had been cancelled and an unnamed Chinese general had also pulled out of a trip to the country.

"That is a way of showing displeasure without obviously cutting off important discussions that we need to have on crucial international issues," said the official.

"And there may be some other (nuclear) non-proliferation discussions where the Chinese have decided not to participate."

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Bush signs nuclear deal with India

This agreement sends a signal to the world: Nations that follow the path of democracy and responsible behavior will find a friend in the United States of America," Bush said at the signing ceremony for the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement.

Trade of nuclear supplies with India, the world's largest democracy, was banned when the South Asian country tested an atomic bomb 34 years ago.

The Senate voted last week to overturn the ban. The House of Representatives later passed the bill without debate.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called the deal "a historic agreement" that put the United States and India on a "firm footing." 

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Iceland is all but officially bankrupt

People go bankrupt all the time. Companies do, too. But countries?
Iceland was on the verge of doing exactly that on Thursday as the government shut down the stock market and seized control of its last major independent bank. That brought trading in the country's currency to a halt, with foreign banks no longer willing to take Icelandic krona, even at fire-sale rates.
As the meltdown in the Icelandic financial system quickened, with the government seemingly powerless to do anything about it, analysts said there was probably only one realistic option left: for Iceland to be bailed out by the International Monetary Fund.

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The current financial crisis is only the beginning

Yes, Virginia, the banking crisis will one day end, but what comes after promises to be even more arduous.
With the solvency of the Western banking system seriously in question, there is a temptation to hope that if only the latest bold, last-ditch rescue plan will work, we can go back to the good old days of 2006.
One could argue that the banking crisis is just the cold sweat, not the flu that follows it.
The problem is not just that the banking system has been broken by an orgy of foolish lending but moreover that huge swaths of the global economy are predicated on that foolish lending and the consumption it allowed.

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Chinese defense ministry condemns U.S. for Taiwan arms sales

Ministry spokesman Huang Xueping said China had noticed a Pentagon spokesman's recent comments on U.S.-China military ties, referring to Stuart Upton's remarks on Monday that Washington's arms sales were consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act.
    Upton added "uncertainty over the motivations and direction of China's military expansion leads others to hedge," and "this could lead to a security environment less favorable to China's interests, the region's, and our own."
    "We are strongly dissatisfied and opposed to the Pentagon spokesman's remarks. The so-called 'Taiwan Relations Act' severely runs counter to the principles of the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques and the fundamental norms governing international relations," Huang said.

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Oil, war, lies and bulls**t'

There's hardly any doubt that the George W Bush administration lied rather consciously about the cause of invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. President George W Bush also has been deliberately untruthful to the American public on a number of domestic issues, such as illegal, indiscriminate wiretapping of US citizens, torture of foreign detainees and American political prisoners, and limitless encroachment on civil, human, and legal rights of the American citizenry at large.

As a consequence, at least on the issue of the invasion of Iraq, there's no discernable disagreement about the Bush administration's appalling lies. However, what is still questionable within the public (particularly, the anti-war) discourse is the mistaken belief that oil has been the primary cause of the US war



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White House considers ownership stakes in banks

The Bush administration is considering taking ownership stakes in certain U.S. banks as an option for dealing with a severe global credit crisis.
An administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no decision has been made, said the $700 billion rescue package passed by Congress last week allows the Treasury Department to inject fresh capital into financial institutions and get ownership shares in return.
This official said all the new powers granted in the legislation were being considered as the administration seeks to deal with a serious credit crisis that has caused the biggest upheavals on Wall Street in seven decades and continues to roil global markets.

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Nationalising British Banks

The UK government is poised to announce details of a £50bn rescue package for the banking system, the BBC's business editor has learned.

It will include a proposal to use taxpayers' money to invest in banks - in effect part nationalising them.

The dramatic initiative is aimed at stabilising the financial system and making sure banks have enough cash.

The news comes after a day of steep falls in UK banking stocks and a high-level Downing Street summit

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Nuclear bond for North Korea and Myanmar

A recent flurry of high-level contacts between North Korea and Myanmar raises new nuclear proliferation concerns between the two pariah states, one of which already possesses nuclear-weapon capabilities and the other possibly aspiring.

At least three delegations led by flag-level officers from Myanmar's army have traveled to Pyongyang in the past three months, hot on the heels of the two sides' re-establishment last year of formal diplomatic relations. According to a source familiar with the travel itineraries of Myanmar officials, Brigadier General Aung Thein Lin visited North Korea in mid-September.

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British envoy says mission in Afghanistan is doomed

 Britain’s Ambassador to Afghanistan has stoked opposition to the allied operation there by reportedly saying that the campaign against the Taleban insurgents would fail and that the best hope was to install an acceptable dictator in Kabul.
Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, a Foreign Office heavyweight with a reputation for blunt speaking, delivered his bleak assessment of the seven-year Nato campaign in Afghanistan in a briefing with a French diplomat, according to French leaks. However sources in Whitehall said the account was a parody of the British Ambassador’s remarks.
François Fitou, the deputy French Ambassador to Kabul, told President Sarkozy’s office and the Foreign Ministry in a coded cable that Sir Sherard believed that “the current situation is bad; the security situation is getting worse; so is corruption and the Government has lost all trust”.

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Pat Robertson: Nuke strikes in US after the election

Christian Broadcasting Network co-founder Pat Robertson, in a new update to his Web site, states that, "we have between 75 and 120 days before the Middle East starts spinning out of control."

The 700 Club host is convinced that Israel will attack Iran's nuclear energy facilities shortly after the US presidential election, triggering a series of "dramatic events" that conclude only once "God has rained fire on the islands of the sea and on the invading force coming against Israel."

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Brussels in stand-off with Russia on Georgia

European Union monitors were due to start a delicate mission in Georgia today aimed at helping to restore the country's fragile stability, with arguments between Brussels, Tbilisi and Moscow about the scope of the deployment still unresolved.
Under the EU-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended the brief summer war between Georgia and Russia, both sides are committed to withdrawing their forces to pre-conflict positions once international observers are in place.
But, far from pulling out of the separatist Georgian territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Russia has recognised the enclaves as independent states and announced plans for the long-term stationing of 8,000 troops. Moscow has also refused to allow the EU monitors access to the two regions, even though they are mandated to work throughout Georgia. "We have a clear stand - off here and I do not see how immediately we will get out of it," said an EU diplomat in Tbilisi.

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Confronting Taliban, Pakistan Finds Itself at War

 An estimated 250,000 people have now fled the helicopters, jets, artillery and mortar fire of the Pakistani Army, and the assaults, intimidation and rough justice of the Taliban who have dug into Pakistan’s tribal areas.
About 20,000 people are so desperate that they have flooded over the border from the Bajaur tribal area to seek safety in Afghanistan.
Many others are crowding around this northwest Pakistani city, where staff members from the United Nations refugee agency are present at nearly a dozen camps.

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Japan Reports Rare Trade Deficit

 Japan, a nation that rode exports to become the world's second-largest economy, posted a highly unusual trade deficit in August.

It was an alarm signal for the country's already shrinking economy and yet another worrisome indicator for troubled global markets. The August figure was Japan's first monthly trade deficit in 26 years, excluding the atypical month of January, when exports here always drop for the holidays.

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