Italy and Greece: Rule by the Bankers

Source: Global Research.ca
Michael Roberts

"Technocratic governments" ruling on behalf of financial markets

Both Greece and Italy will be ruled by so-called ‘technocratic’ governments. Even though both Greek prime minister George Papandreou and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi were elected comfortably in parliamentary polls and were never defeated in any vote of confidence in parliament, they have been ousted – to be replaced by unelected ex-central bankers and former executives of hedge funds and investment banks. From now on, financial markets will rule directly over the lives of the Italian and Greek people.

Democracy should be put above markets, said Papandreou. Berlusconi said that the appointment of a government of technocrats would be “an undemocratic coup” that ignored the 2008 election result. But it is still happening. In Greece, Lucas Papademos will become prime minister. He was head of the Greek central bank when Greece joined the euro and boasts of his leading role in achieving that. Now he takes over in order to keep Greece in the euro, a decision that now President Nicolas Sarkozi says was “a mistake.” Papademos was in charge when Greek officials lied about their fiscal position to the EU authorities and he presided over the failure of the Greek government to collect taxes from rich Greeks (like himself). But he is now the financial markets’ own man. Greece is to be run by the very man most responsible for getting them into this mess. It's like Alan Greenspan taking over as President of the United States after Wall Street demanded President Obama step down for failing to cut entitlement spending enough to balance the budget!

IAEA Iran Report Spins Intelligence

Source: TheRealNews.com
Gareth Porter

Why World War III: Destroy The Global Economy, Create A Greater Israel, And Establish A Global Authoritarian Government

Source: The Excavator

"As a result of this unrelenting propaganda against Iran, the talk now is not; ‘has Iran really got a nuclear weapons program’, or even; ‘if it has, how can this be a threat to any one of the nuclear armed nations of the world, including Israel, which could obliterate Iran in an instant’ but, rather, the talk is; ‘how best can an attack be launched’, ‘who should launch the attack’, and ‘how far can the West go in attacking Iran in order to prevent retaliation’.

Even those against an attack aren’t against it because there is absolutely no moral, practical or legal justification for it; they’re against because of the consequences such an attack might bring. They worry not so much about the massive loss of life such a conflict will bring to the region but they worry that it’ll send the cost of oil sky-rocketing and doing untold damage to an already very wobbly global economy." - Damian Lataan; Why War Against Iran? (September 3, 2010).

"In short, for Israel an attack against Iran and Israel’s other enemies on the pretext of pre-empting an immediate threat to its own existence will be the do or die action it will take in order to realize Zionism’s ultimate endgame; the creation of a Greater Israel.

The coming confrontation is not about Iran being a threat; it is about Israel ridding itself of all of its enemies in the places that it would like to annex as part of its realization of creating a permanent Greater Israel nation abundant with fertile lands, its own water resources, and living space. War is its pretext." - Damian Lataan; The U.S. And Israel's 'Obsession' With Iran - The Real Reasons (November 6, 2011).

"The law is whatever people determine it to be." - David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister.

"Before the founding of the state, on the eve of its creation, our main interests was self-defense. To a large extent, the creation of the state was an act of self-defense. . . . Many think that we're still at the same stage. But now the issue at hand is conquest, not self-defense." - David Ben-Gurion.

There is a mistaken belief held by many people that the U.S. government won't attack Iran or allow Israel to attack because of the economic repercussions that will follow.

Oil prices will rise to astronomical levels, global trade will diminish, and world poverty rates will increase rapidly as the global economy comes to a standstill.

People ask: Who wants to see this nightmare scenario unfold?

The answer is clear: The Western plutocratic elite.

Ron Paul Only Republican Candidate Not Calling For Iran Attack

Source: Infowars
Kurt Nimmo

Once again, Rep. Ron Paul represented the voice of reason at the latest Republican debate held on Saturday in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Asked about attacking Iran, Paul said the president is obliged to follow the Constitution and go through Congress before attacking the country. He compared the current situation to the one before the United States launched its invasion of Iraq in 2003.



“I’m afraid what’s going on right now is similar to the war propaganda that went on against Iraq,” he said.

Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich strongly advocated going to war with Iran. Romney said that if “crippling sanctions” fail, military action would be used because it is “unacceptable” for Iran to become a nuclear power like the United States, Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel.

“If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. And if you elect Mitt Romney, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” said Romney.

Last week in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Romney said that as president he would send war ships to the region and work with Israel to undermine Iran.

Gingrich advocated “maximum covert operations” and assassinating Iran’s scientists. He said the United States should destroy Iran’s “systems, all of it covertly, all of it deniable.”

Presidential Candidate Romney: "Prepare For War Against Iran"

Source: Trend News Agency

Accusing President Barack Obama of naivete on Iran, Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney promised Thursday that if elected president he would "prepare for war" with the Islamic republic, the AFP reported referring to the Wall Street Journal.

Romney said he would back up US diplomacy "with a very real and very credible military option," deploying carrier battle groups to the Gulf and boosting military aid to Israel.

"These actions will send an unequivocal signal to Iran that the United States, acting in concert with allies, will never permit Iran to obtain nuclear weapons," he wrote.

Romney, a frontrunner in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, keyed his column to a International Atomic Energy Agency report this week citing "credible evidence" that Iran had worked on a nuclear explosive device.

Iran denies it is developing nuclear weapons and insists its nuclear program is for generating electricity, but the report has prompted calls in the West for tougher UN sanctions and demands by Israel for world to act to prevent Tehran for getting nuclear weapons.

Romney said the United States "needs a very different policy."

"'Si vis pacem, para bellum.' That is a Latin phrase, but the ayatollahs will have no trouble understanding its meaning from a Romney administration: If you want peace, prepare for war," he said.

Will U.S. Army Be Used to Crush Public Resistance?

Source: American Free Press
Keith Johnson

The Alternative Futures Symposium in Chantilly, Va. was all part of the U.S. Army’s Unified Quest 2012 exercise, the latest in a series of annual war games that in recent years has focused on America’s response to a global financial meltdown in which average citizens took to the streets en masse.

In November 2010, CNBC’s Eamon Javers had this to say about last year’s exercise: “Ever since the crash of 2008, the defense-intelligence establishment has been paying a lot of attention to global markets and how they can serve as a threat to U.S. national security interests.”

Javers went on to report: “The Army is having a very interesting yearlong exercise called Unified Quest 2011. In that war-gaming series, the Army is looking at the implications of a large-scale economic breakdown in the U.S. that would force the Army to keep domestic order amid civil unrest and deal with global fragmented power and drastically lower budgets.”

According to Javers, 30 military officials from the Marine Corps War College were concerned enough to visit the trading floor of JP Morgan in October 2010 to study volatile markets and the economy.

Inside Defense magazine also reported on Unified Quest 2011 in a November 2010 article entitled “Army Officials Think Through the What-ifs of a Global Economic Collapse,” wherein it was revealed: “Officials picked the scenario of a worldwide economic collapse because it was deemed a plausible course of events given the current global security environment. In such a future, the United States would be broke, causing a domino effect that would push economies across the globe into chaos.”

Towards Economic Collapse: Europe’s Debt Crisis has Spiraled out of Control

Source: The International Forecaster
Bob Chapman

As Chancellor Merkel and PM Sarkozy search for a solution that doesn’t exist they continue to lose credibility. Nothing of substance has been agreed upon that is legal and can be implemented. At the IMF Christina LeGarde is frantically waving her arms like a cheerleader telling anyone that will listen that if the six sovereigns in financial trouble are not aided the euro will fail and peace in Europe will disappear. The elitists are frantic because they cannot find a solution. LeGarde says without help there will be ten years of depression. She obviously hasn’t done her homework. Try 30 or more years. Sarkozy, Merkel and Jans Weidmann council member of the ECB has said the ECB cannot bail out governments by printing money. He is also head of the Bundesbank and said a key lesson of what is being proposed is the hyperinflation in Weimer Republic, which followed WWI. Over in Italy PM Berlusconi, who looks and acts like Benito Mussolini has been unseated and as a result the Italian bond market is on the edge of collapse. There is big pressure downward in stock and bond markets as a result and the US Treasury again attacks gold and silver hoping they can keep gold from breaking about $1,800. The PPT’s ability to achieve this is more than questionable.

At Cannes PM Sarkozy and President Obama discuss what a liar Israel’s PM Netanyahu is. Their candor was accidentally picked up by a supposedly muted speaker. What is now realized is that euro zone government bonds contain unexpected credit risks. All the European politicians and bureaucrats want to save the euro, but their promises and solutions are not worth the paper they are written on. They are so believable that China won’t lend them money. These characters have been kicking the can down the road since last spring with little or no long-term solutions, and no solutions to affect a recovery and create jobs. Austerity has replaced growth and that is expediting a failing economy, even in Germany. If economies don’t grow tax receipts fall and the ability to service debt is impaired. Big euro zone banks are broke just as their counterparts in NYC are. As this proceeds we ask how long can the ECB buy Italian and Spanish bonds?

In Greece a coalition has been made and Mr. Samaras has shown his true colors by backing Trilateral-Bilderberg Lucas Papademos, as interim PM. We hope Greek citizens realize that Papademos will sell them out. It is only a matter of when. The debt deal will probably be ratified, but at what price? Will it bring revolution or a coup? Who knows, but under the circumstances anything goes. 60% to 65% of Greeks oppose the bailout, but 71% want to stay in the euro, which is impossible.

Gaddafi's Gold-money Plan Would Have Devastated Dollar

Source: The New American
Alex Newman

It remains unclear exactly why or how the Gadhafi regime went from “a model” and an “important ally” to the next target for regime change in a period of just a few years. But after claims of “genocide” as the justification for NATO intervention were disputed by experts, several other theories have been floated.

Oil, of course, has been mentioned frequently — Libya is Africa‘s largest oil producer. But one possible reason in particular for Gadhafi’s fall from grace has gained significant traction among analysts and segments of the non-Western media: central banking and the global monetary system.

According to more than a few observers, Gadhafi’s plan to quit selling Libyan oil in U.S. dollars — demanding payment instead in gold-backed “dinars” (a single African currency made from gold) — was the real cause. The regime, sitting on massive amounts of gold, estimated at close to 150 tons, was also pushing other African and Middle Eastern governments to follow suit.

And it literally had the potential to bring down the dollar and the world monetary system by extension, according to analysts. French President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly went so far as to call Libya a “threat” to the financial security of the world. The “Insiders” were apparently panicking over Gadhafi’s plan.

"Any move such as that would certainly not be welcomed by the power elite today, who are responsible for controlling the world's central banks,” noted financial analyst Anthony Wile, editor of the free market-oriented Daily Bell, in an interview with RT. “So yes, that would certainly be something that would cause his immediate dismissal and the need for other reasons to be brought forward [for] removing him from power."

Out Of The Ashes Of The Collapse Of The Eurozone Will A "United States Of Europe" Arise?

Source: The American Dream

All over Europe, headlines are declaring that the eurozone is on the verge of collapse.  Many people falsely assume that this will mean the end of the euro and a return to national currencies.  Unfortunately, that is not going to be the case at all.  Instead, this is going to be yet another example of how the elite attempt to bring order out of chaos.  The European elite have no intention on giving up on a united Europe.  Rather, they hope to be able to bring to life a new "United States of Europe" out of the ashes of the existing eurozone.  Over the coming months we will see widespread panic and fear all across Europe.  The euro will likely sink like a rock and there will probably be huge financial problems in Europe and all around the globe.  But for the European elite, a great crisis like this represents a golden opportunity to tear down the existing structures and build new ones.  The solution that the European elite will be pushing will not be to go back to the way that Europe used to be.  Instead, they will be pushing the idea of a much more tightly integrated Europe really hard.

Of course it will not be called "the United States of Europe", but that is definitely what they have in mind.

But they know that the people of Europe will never go for this solution unless they feel enough fear and pain first.

Right now, the stage is being set for the coming financial crisis in Europe.  All over the EU, media outlets are priming Europeans to expect the worst.  For example, the following comes from an article in the Telegraph....

The collapse of the eurozone would cause a crash that would instantly wipe out half of the value of Europe’s economy, plunging the continent into a depression as deep as the 1930s slump, the president of the European Commission has warned.

Some newspapers are even warning that a financial "armageddon" is coming.  Just check out the following excerpt from an article in the Express....

PREPARATIONS were under way last night for the break-up of the euro as Europe’s debt crisis spiralled out of control.

As Treasury officials worked through the night to soften the impact on Britain, David Cameron warned that the single European currency was facing its “moment of truth”.

Business Secretary Vince Cable went further and spoke about “Armageddon” while Brussels officials warned that the chaos threatened to plunge us all into a new recession.