What if I told you that 10 months before 9/11, Saddam Hussein did something very big, and pissed off the US Administration?
Shane March 13th, 2008
In November of 2000, Hussein switched to selling oil in Euros, when normally all OPEC nations sell their oil in US Dollars. Why?
As Ron Paul explains the US added a secret agreement to the overall OPEC Agreement where OPEC nations promised to sell oil in US dollars, and no other currency. This effectively backs the US dollar in oil, and all countries need US dollars in their reserves. This article explains why.
This is why some people call our currency The Petrodollar.
When Hussein started selling oil in Euros, it attacked the dollar’s dominance as the world currency. And of course, two other countries tried, or are trying, to follow suit. Venezuela tried in 2001, and within a year Chavez was almost removed in a military coup - in the Ron Paul speech I linked to above, he states it is widely rumored that our CIA was involved in that coup.
And now Iran is starting its own oil bourse (exchange).
Notice a trend here?
Luckily for Bush, 9/11 happened not long after Hussein started selling oil in Euros, otherwise we would not be in Iraq. Interestingly, all Iraqi reserves were quickly converted back to US dollars once we took over, and oil was once again sold in US dollars. Boy were we lucky we had an excuse to get our military into the Middle East. Whew.
To add some fuel to the fire, you have Peak Oil. The link goes to a US Department of Energy Report, called the Hirsch Report, that talks about the peaking of world oil supplies, and future ‘energy shortages.’ Oh, and US and UK oil companies are also going to reap profits from the sale of Iraqi oil. Like icing on the cake.
Luckily we are in Iraq, making permanent bases to ’spread Democracy’. It is also very fortunate that Global Warming became widely known about a year and a half after the Hirsch Report stated:
“Waiting until world oil production peaks before taking crash program action leaves the world with a significant liquid fuel deficit for more than two decades.
Most sources feel we either hit ‘peak’ in 2005, or will hit it by 2012. So fortunately Global Warming became an issue. How would the US Government explain to people why they had to save energy and drive more fuel efficient cars? What would happen if the morning news started with “we are headed for 20 years of energy shortages, the worlds oil is in decline!”.
Panic. People would at least go into Survival Mode™, not spending any more money than necessary… which would send our economy into a horrible spiral.
So here we are. Our military is smack dab in the middle of the remaining oil left in the world, people are working to ‘become energy independent’ and never think to ask why we didn’t need to be independent back when Saddam was killing the Kurds… and they don’t panic because luckily, we have another reason to use to explain to people why they need to cut back on energy usage and of course, why other countries should too. We are ensuring that the worlds oil is sold in dollars… except for those pesky Iranians, trying to set up their oil bourse. I wonder what will happen when Iran gets that set up?
Iran completes oil bourse, February 17th, 2008.
Oh yes, the next time you see tiny speedboats ‘menacing’ US warships, remember that The Gulf of Tonkin never happened. 50K Americans, and millions of Vietnamese died and years later it turns out there were not even any Vietnamese boats there at all on the second day… and on the first day, OUR soldiers shot at the Vietnamese - and they still did not fire back at us.
So ask yourself: do you think Bush would care about 3000 dead Americans, now that you see there are solid, very real motives for attacking Iraq?
4,000
One tragedy in all of this is the fact that the world is just now waking up to this trend of invading countries that want to sell their own resources in their own way.
The choice that has been made by the government on behalf of the population is actually quite superficial. The government assumed that people would rather keep their jobs and lifestyle, and listen to news of wars across the world, than perhaps losing their job and have world peace.
America is a nation of gun-toting war mongers, so the choice made was to go to war and stay economically healthy. But here’s the catch: Economic systems which are interfered with by the state always have NEGATIVE long term consequences, of which the typical reaction is to interfere even more, thus precipitating a spiral of economic blowback.
The only thing a state can do is use force. The people in Washington are themselves a product of a philosophically corrupted educational system. For the last 3 or 4 generations Americans have been indoctrinating themselves with anti-market philosophies, in that they are taught that the state is the first place to conduct anything.
Socialism, the dreaded word that many people speak for aesthetic effect rather than for making clear and logical arguments, has been the root cause for America’s economic collapse. America was filled with a tremendous amount of thinkers and influential people who are sympathetic to it, in various forms of support for things laid out in part 2 of The Communist Manifesto:
1. Free state run education, which has created a society not of liberated minds and independent thinkers, but a nation full of dependent, freedom hating, state pandering demagogues.
2. Progressive income tax, which has KILLED the productive spirit, the enterprising and original entrepeneurial attitide.
3. Centralized banking, which has been the number one factor operating to obliterate our industrial base, our prosperity, and our competitive edge in the global economy. We do not produce anymore, all we do is consume, which is exactly what Keynes said would bring prosperity to a nation. Milton Friedman was another monkey wrench in that he didn’t think money and banking should also be left to the free market system. Perfect for the government and Fed to use as a spokesman for a financially planned economy.
4. Number one reason: FIAT monetary system. All of people’s misguided philosophies and ideas can be summed up in the perceived need for fiat money. This perceived need stems from people’s totally incorrect thought that the state is a provider of everything. This is perhaps the biggest fallacy of all time. The state cannot provide anything in a positive sense, all they can do is take from some and give to others. They are redistributors, not producers. Many people actually think the state can “provide” healthcare, financial management and housing, among other things. This is FALSE. All they can do is destroy the currency if they try.
After decades of Keynesian and Friedmanite economics, America has now become not a beacon of hope in the world, but rather it has become a leech, a bloodsucker, a vampire on the world’s productiveness. America only consumes what the world produces. The average American is in massive debt, the state is in massive debt, and all this is because they consume more than they produce.
America is aware of this, but rather than face the music and start from scratch, in order to build up the economy again in a free market, they instead chose to become the world’s policeman, overthrowing democratically elected leaders around the world, stealing resources, smuggling drugs, spying on civilians, promoting the devluation of mankind by engaging in torture, rape, and murder.
The American government is a crime family. Remember how 20 years or so ago, and before then, there were many crime families? Where did they go? I’ll tell you. They went into public office. America is now a country run by the mafia, where us and the world are constantly threatened in order to secure their place as sole “protector”, for a fee of course. Those who “rat” are either killed (Dr. Kelly) or they are excommunicated (Joe Wilson). They have patsies in the media, they have buttons in all countries, and they demand UNEARNED respect. We are not allowed “to ask them about their business”. They run prostitution rings, gambling operations, drug operations, and assassinations. They tend to be alcoholics and other drug users, they listen in to people’s phone calls and emails, just to make sure nobody rats them out. The media is scared to death of them so they never implicate them. They bitch and they moan, but they never IMPLICATE them unless told to do so by the state itself. Those not in the family are “outsiders” and are not respected; they are fodder.
The mafia is not Italian, it is Jewish. I think it’s time everyone started to realize that America is run by the Jewish mafia. One clue out of many that can prove this is the fact that the media has made it very clear that anyone who says this should be painted as an “anti-semite” and ridiculed. I myself am Jewish, my mother comes from a Jewish family and my father lived in a Jewish ghetto in Europe. The opportunity that Hitler has given the Jews is one of the most profound and least understood facts out of all others. The Jewish mafia has been able to take control of America from the inside out. Almost all of the Fed board is Jewish mafia. The media should be called Jewish Mafia Communications.
I hope nobody takes this to mean that Jews are bad people. This statement is non-sensical to me because I view everyone as individuals, not which group they belong to. But this does not mean everyone else thinks this way. The average Jewish citizen has no idea what is going on. Most of them are good people with a good nature of peace and commerce with all. Unfortunately however the country IS run by Jewish mafia.
This mafia wants to destroy and conquer the Arab states of the world who have been their enemies for many years. The Jewish mafia is using the military power of the US in order to accomplish this task. Is it racist to say that Jews have business in their culture and blood? Absolutely not. It was the only way for them to survive years of persecution in almost all countries they lived in. They became good at it because that was the only way to stay alive. Nothing has changed you know. They are being threatened by Arabs all the time. Do you think that they will risk total elimination again? Do you think they will let the year 2000 come and go and not fulfill a 200o year old prophecy of reclaiming the world they were promised? Do you think that any society can compete with that history and that biblical kind of motivation? No other religion has it stated that they will take control of the world in 2000.
The Project for A New American Century (PNAC) was written in anticipation of fulfilling Jewish prophecy. Ever notice how many Jews are involved in the writing of it? Do you know how they are able to do it and not be stopped? The project is a Jewish prophecy written in a business proposal style. Do you see?
The petrodollar was simply the fiscal means by which to take ownership of the world God has promised them, for then the Messiah will return, and guess what? Once the Jewish mafia takes control of the world, there is going to be a need for a world government. And guess what again? That world government is going to require a figurehead, a leader, a world leader. See where I am going with this? THAT PERSON WILL BE THE MESSIAH. Not the real Messiah of course but the natural creation of a world leader based on the commitment to the prophecy. Once that person is elected or placed into the top position, then history will end for the Jews.
The world will also become more and more religious as it starts to become used to having one person rule the world, and a sort of “person worship” will take place. Once this occurs, the world will start to become more and more free individually, as the whole world starts to see how one person can live and be worshipped and looked up to by all mankind. For if the whole world starts to become a one person worshipper, that devotion to one person will start to reflect on their own lives, thus providing a powerful force for becoming independent. The more independent the world’s peoples become, the more liberty there will be. Then there will be no stopping the human race to colonize the universe and become super-beings…
And so it was written…
was the euro even around in november 2000? I thought it went into effect spring of ‘01
…just sayin
Private Freedom has hit the nail on the head, Time for America to hand in the sheriff badge, The UN is suppose to be in charge but america does what ever it likes, with the freedom of the internet we able to cross reference and check whats really happening, 911 was an inside job without doubt, American citizens have to take back washington, it will be hard as the Mafia family has members in all areas of government, All countries should be buying oil in there own currency, then america will have to go cap in hand to the world, TIME FOR A INTERNATIONAL ENQUIRY INTO 911 , no amercan government people allowed, german, italy, japanese, french, russian and many more government officials have said it was an inside job, lets do something about it, america land of the brave, home of the free, more like land of the evil empire, home of the cowards ….
Here is a list of what the amercan government has been doing, THE CIA IS THE WORLDS LARGEST STATE SPONSORED TERRORIST GROUP
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/CIAtimeline.html share this link with everybody you know
Global warming is the friendly excuse to keep everybody from panicking? Don’t worry, oil’s not running out, it’s just that all the world’s coastal cities are going to be underwater, tropical diseases will spread north, and weather patterns will change so crops will fail and we’ll run short of food?
Pretty reassuring all right, Good thing nothing bad’s gonna happen or I might go into survival mode.
I’m pretty sure that you are absolutely insane. But that being said, I enjoyed this. There’s probably some truth in there….
Good memory. I recall the very same thing.
Peak Oil is bollocks. Cassini shows there are lakes on Titan that have compounds resembling deposits on Earth. The abiotic theory is gaining ever more ground.
There won’t be a shortage of energy, there also won’t be a shortage of stupid people messing things up for the rest of us.
For q, about the Euro… from the Wiki article, for banking and electronic transfer purposes it was introduced in 1999…
The [euro] currency was introduced in non-physical form (traveller’s cheques, electronic transfers, banking, etc.) at midnight on 1 January 1999, when the national currencies of participating countries (the Eurozone) ceased to exist independently in that their exchange rates were locked at fixed rates against each other, effectively making them mere non-decimal subdivisions of the euro. The euro thus became the successor to the European Currency Unit (ECU). The notes and coins for the old currencies, however, continued to be used as legal tender until new notes and coins were introduced on 1 January 2002.
Beginning on 1 January 1999, all bonds and other forms of government debt by Eurozone nations were denominated in euro.
Cheers,
B
Saddam signed a deal with Total Oil of France for exclusive distribution rights for Iraqi oil … that didn’t sit well either.
just keep doin’ what your doing
@anon - I was talking about the people who died on 9/11. I thought it was around 3000….
@Q: the Euro was introduced in 1999. (oops, Bellerophon beat me to it.)
@Private_Freedom: Don’t know if I agree with everything you said, but I agree with most of it.
@Joe - yeah I know the Global Warming/Peak Oil thing is kind of out there, just my own theory. Think about it though.
The last time Climate CHange was pushed by the media was in the 1970s - when we had an energy crisis. At that time they forcast a coming Ice Age.
Global Warming is not inducing any panic, Peak Oil would. imo.
How can Peak Oil not ever ever ever be mentioned by any media organization? It is at LEAST as big a problem as GLobal Warming, yet no one reports on it. Why?
@Weird bix: uh… thanks. I’d be interested to know why you think I am insane though, instead of just insulting me, so I can back up my arguments….
@Peter - I have read about the abiotic theory, but I don’t think anyone has proposed that oil will be replenished at anywhere near the rate at which we remove it from the ground. Even if it is true, there would never be enough ‘production’ by the earth to keep up our lifestyles…
Also @anyone - it is very possible that Global Warming is completely legit, but was ignored until politicians found a use for promoting it. I still wonder though…why was China given an exemption from the Kyoto treaty…? Something isn’t right.
Stupid fucking hippies.
Most people here in th UK believed that the war was about oil and nothing else!—–we just do not understand how stupid Americans are not to come to the same conclusion, perhaps it s because you spend too much time waving your flag and not enough time asking your leaders questions.—–me, l have never given the party that l voted for, unquestioning loyalty, they are as good as the last job they did!—and l will dump them as soon as look at them. You will see at the next general election Here, the ruling labour party will be wiped out!—–what worries me most is that in the meantime they will join America in an attack on Iran, with more of our “boys” killed in the name of “freedom”.
Please forgive us, the propaganda is very strong here.
Great article zorn.
I have to disagree with a point you made in one of the comments… Peak Oil is by no means as serious as Global Warming. So one will be an inconvenience and cause us to have to find alternative fuels… the other could result in the death of most life on Earth, including us. hrm… slight difference there.
Other than that, great article.
Did you notice that in the news they’re now reporting that there is a growing movement to celebrate Saddam as a martyr for standing up against the West?
In Death, Saddam Fascinates Iraqi Supporters
Keep up the good work.
Hmm, no I did not see that, pretty interesting.
On the Peak Oil vs GW… it is hard to say. Oil production could possibly drop *fast*, which would mean we would be unable to change to alternative fuels quick enough to stop economic troubles.
Fossil fuels are the most efficient way of getting energy. “renewable’ fuels are a scam, ethanol is horribly, horribly inefficient compared to fossil fuels.
It just bothers me that climatologists have been talking about climate change since the 1970s - the last time we had an energy crisis. And as I pointed out, why does no one ask why the US has not needed ‘energy independance’ for decades, but now does?
And even Gore promoted Ethanol - yet it is horrible for the environment. Ethanol helps combat Peak Oil problems, but does not help (some say it worsens) Global Warming.
It just seems weird. But glad you liked it Phreadom.
NO PROPOGANDA, just ask the questions that should be answered, if no answer then there is concern, lets not ask who did 911, ask why the cover up occured, after all isnt this important, 911 truth is about being honest. everybody starts out searching/cross referencing the truth, the official answer defies pshyics, engineeering principles and reality, thats enough to ask why, accept that first then you can debate from a researched view. some of us know the truth. up to you, people like J are good for the truth cause he shows why some people cant look at the bigger picture, patriots look for the real answers, nationalist call everyone who has a different point of view hippies, guarentee he is an employee till he is old enough to get a pension….
I totally agree on the Ethanol scam. It’s terrible across the board.
They’re looking at things like switchgrass, and I think even Hemp would make a great fuel if the government could get over the ridiculous morality mongering FUD.
Grass Makes Better Ethanol than Corn Does
Basically the whole corn Ethanol thing was political speak which in reality didn’t do anything at all to lessen dependence on oil and actually dramatically raised food prices etc while also doing basically nothing to lower pollution. It was just putting money in the hands of the Corn industry at the expense of everyone else.
But still, even economic troubles… even dire ones… are not as bad as most life on Earth being wiped out.
I’m not saying it would be pleasant… but we’re talking about 2 different leagues of “bad”.
I’m still being conservative on my Global Warming views… I believe it’s happening, but I tend to be a bit more reserved on looking at the evidence. Be it a combination of factors such as increased solar radiation, Earth orbit, global climate cycles, CO2 emissions, ocean PH and CO2 saturation levels, deforestation, other greenhouse gas emissions, alteration of the atmosphere such as the ozone layer etc… it could be any number of things. We are definitely seeing a shift in the weather, and there is definitely a man made effect and a huge increase in CO2 etc… but to simply say “CO2 emissions are causing global warming! I think is a dangerously oversimplified view of the issue.
We can’t work to solve it if we don’t understand it, and fear mongering seems to generally only be done either by the ignorant, or by those with specific agendas.
As a side note, petroleum products are used vastly more for plastics and fertilizers etc than they are for energy production. This is something that is often missed when talking about fossil fuel dependency. People seem to think that if we can switch to solar power, hydrogen etc that somehow we’ll no longer need oil. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.
For instance, corn based ethanol production requires fertilizer to grow the crops, fuel to run the machinery, fuel to run the trucks to deliver the ethanol, as ethanol cannot be piped like oil.
Not to mention that even if we converted our entire corn output into ethanol production, it would only offset something like 12% of our fossil fuel consumption, and I believe that is before factoring in the costs mentioned above. It’s nice to see that this is finally starting to be understood and addressed in more mainstream sources.
Hydrogen production also requires energy for production that people seem to fail to take into account.
You get the idea.
Anyway, back to the topic of valuing oil on the US Dollar. I had actually considered this recently but wasn’t aware of this issue with Saddam switching to Euros. This article was the first time I’d heard of it. I’d heard rumblings here and there about the threats of OPEC nations to switch to the Euro but wasn’t aware that anyone actually had.
This seems particularly more likely today than when I first started hearing about it. The Euro is vastly outperforming the US Dollar and several countries are divesting themselves of US Dollar holdings in favor of more diversified funds. China is putting pressure on the US by threatening to call in our debts etc. We’re really in a bad spot financially, and I really don’t see anyone at the top doing anything to fundamentally fix that.
I’ve got a lot to learn in the area, but what I’ve seen worries me.
I am really skeptical of the Jewish Mafia theory, but everything else here is dead on balls. Some type of “Christ figure” will destroy humanity. Know that “God” is in everyone. God is everyone. You are God. Not a god, but you are the culmination of creation. We are the free thinkers put here to change the way of the dinosaur. We must use our collective consciousness not to fight and beat our brother, but to love and respect our brother or sister for you PC types. Thrive for power and you shall gain power. Power corrupts. Thrive for love and you shall gain love. Love heals.
A follow-up to my earlier comment about the possible causes of Global Warming…
Not Much Warming Under the Sun
Funny that I should run across that right after posting my comment.
Phreadom, the threat of peak oil is much broader than “an inconvenience” (but I think the threat is overstated and I’ll say why in a bit). Peak oil isn’t simply about ‘we hit 50% and we have as much left as we’ve already used’. The issue is that once the pressure of an oil well drops, it takes much more energy to pump oil out, to where it takes 1 barrel of oil to retrieve 5 barrels (and this is where we are today), where once it took about 1 barrel worth of oil energy to retrieve 30. The rate of return gets lower and lower.
At some point it takes 1 to retrieve 1 and there is no reason to retrieve any more. That might happen with a well when it still has quite a lot of oil left, it’s just that it’s effectively irretrievable.
We use petroleum for farming, for fertilizers, for irrigation, for transporting food. The peak oil scenario would include mass starvations, lack of potable water, no medicine, etc. Vast numbers of people starving, needing medical treatment etc in modern societies. (Go find one of those sites that show what NYC would be like in a mere 5 years if they stopped pumping out the water. Within 20 years, it’s unrecognizable.)
Anyhow, the reason I think it’s overstated is that peak oil only refers to the light crude that’s so popular because you get a fairly a high return on energy spent. Except as the return is less and less, the price per barrel goes up, and it’s 108 $USD right now.
At some point as the price goes up (70? 80$ a barrel?) it starts being competitive to refine the shale oils and sand tar oils from Venezuela and Canada, both of which have vast supplies. Given these resources, I don’t think the worst-case peak oil scenario will happen any time in the next few decades. Just that the poor and middle classes will be more and more squeezed and the US will have more wars to try to appropriate/guarantee resources.
And global warming should by then have forced us to take the drastic measures to cut petroleum dependencies.
Behind the scenes the world is dumping dollars wholesale, all the intel/government comunitee’s know the truth, Bush fucked it with his blatent lies, if you dont impeach him that just inspires the world to justify the dumping of the dollar, you dont care so why should we, but hey no problem, i have Job’s for three americans at half price that i used to employ three mexcans/ricans to do, God bless america U.S.A U.S.A U.S.A U.S.A .. once the Aussies telll you to go to hell your on your own and its happening as i type….. US exchange rate AU1$ = 92c 93c 94c 95c 96c 97c 98c 99c 100c 101c 102c 103c …………………………… bye bye USA , love ya george, teach all americans for arse fucking the world for 50 years and letting the exec Cabal have there run, you could of stopped them, time to suck international cock .. 104c 105c 106c 107c 108c 109c 110c ………….
With Bear Stearns and the Carlyle Group failing, with the subprime mortgage crisis (a diversion?) and the fall of the dollar, the rise in the price of oil, etc., is it possible that those who are losing will once again throw good money after bad? Bush gave a speech today at the NY economic club. He was his cheerleader self, but he did not say he had faith in the American people (a word I was hoping to hear). No, he had faith in the American economy. And that we should promote our liberty abroad and not go all Smoot-Hawley and isolationist. It was a war rally, and a call to the imperial system disguised as “universal values” and open markets.
The Era Of Fictitious Capitalism
Addison Wiggin - Wed 03 Dec, 2003
[…]
“Until now,” writes Wang, “US dollars [have counted] for 60-70% in settlement transactions and currency reserves. However, before the ‘fictitious capital’ era, more exactly, before the fictitious economy began inflating insanely in the 1990s, America could not possibly capture surplus products from other countries on such a large scale simply by taking advantage of the dollar’s special status in the world…Lured by the concept of the ‘new economy’, international capital flew into the American securities market and purchased American capital, thus resulting in the great performance of US dollar and abnormal exuberance in the American security market.”
And here we arrive at the crux of Wang’s argument that a war is brewing. “While [fictitious capital] has been bringing to America economic prosperity and hegemonic power over money,” he suggests, “it has its own inborn weakness. In order to sustain such prosperity and hegemonic power, America has to keep unilateral inflow of international capital to the American market…If America loses its hegemonic power over money, its domestic consumption level will plunge 30-40%. Such an outcome would be devastating for the US economy. It could be more harmful to the economy than the Great Depression of 1929 to 1933.”
Japan’s example suggests, as your editors have oft reminded you - and as we explain at length in ‘Financial Reckoning Day’ - a collapse in asset values in a fictitious economy can adversely affect the real economy for a long time.
In the era of fictitious capital, Wang surmises, America must keep its hegemonic power over money in order to keep feeding the enormous hole in its consumerist belly. Hegemonic power over money requires that international capital keep flowing into the market from all participating economies. Should the financial market collapse, the economy would sink into depression.
America’s reigning financial monopolies, he believes, (whoever they may be), would not stand for it.
Addison Wiggin,
The Daily Reckoning
P.S. Wang writes that he was disturbed to draw these conclusions. And as noted above, he recommends that the Chinese government plan accordingly.
He could not be any more disturbed than your editors here in the Paris office. We’ve grown to like the perspective we’ve developed while enjoying carafes at the Paradis and watching passersby pass by. Trouble is, if Wang’s conclusions are correct, then the currency most suited to challenge the hegemony of the US dollar has just this week closed at a historic high of $1.20.
[…] Don’t Fear The Truth.com by Zorn In November of 2000, Hussein switched to selling oil in Euros, when normally all OPEC […]
Sorry, forgot link
http://www.dailyreckoning.co.uk/economic-forecasts/the-era-of-fictitious-capitalism.html
The Era Of Fictitious Capitalism
Addison Wiggin - Wed 03 Dec, 2003
[…]
“Money transactions related to material goods production,” writes Wang, “counted 80% of the total [global] transactions until 1970. However, only 5 years after the collapse of the Bretton Woods the ratio turned upside down - only 20% of money transactions were related to material goods production and circulation. The ratio dropped to 0.7% in 1997.”
As we note in our book, since Alan Greenspan assumed the central role at the most powerful central bank in the world, he has expanded the money supply more than all other Fed chairmen combined. From 1985-2000, production of material goods in the US has increased only 50%, while the money supply has grown by a factor of 3. Money has been growing more than six times as fast as the rate of goods production. The results? Wang’s research reveals that in 1997, before the blow-off in the US stock market, mind you, global “money” transactions totalled $600 trillion. Goods production was a mere 1% of that.
[…]
Dear Private_Freedom:
I just don’t know how you can say those things. After all, we’re blessed by God. And, and, we have lots of flags to wave. We wave them all the time. That’s got to count for something. And we’ve got all of these ribbon magnets that say “Support Our Murdering Troops” and stuff like that. And we’ve got yellow ribbons to tie around trees (damned if I know what these morons are trying to communicate, though!), and we tie plenty of ‘em. And we’ve got apple pie. Oh, and I almost forgot — motherhood. Don’t forget motherhood. America’s got it!
And I heard that the Iranians have a death star — did you know that? A death star!! Time to invade!! Halliburton needs more money!! On a more serious note . . .
Crime “family” is right. How obvious does it have to get that the entire electoral process in the USSA is a dog-and-pony show? There’s been a Clinton or a Bush in the White House continually since 1981. Fully 40% of people alive in Amerika have never lived a day in their lives when there wasn’t a Bush or a Clinton in there. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m g**-damned sick and tired of watching these two groups of crooks pass the keys to the White House back and forth as if it’s a f***ing Myrtle Beach time-share! What’s it going to be in 2012 — Chelsea vs. Marvin?
Reminds me of a paper I wrote a few years ago on the subject of the Petrodollar and the danger the US faces by oil moving to a Euro standard. Paper is on GoogleDocs:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddfc6zgv_2hrzx8zg6
“the trading of oil in dollars has served the interests of the US, giving it an immediate advantage over other countries because it carries no currency exchange risk”
Yep, to the tune of $500 billion every year.
About the same as the official defense/military budget.
Basically subsidized/paid by other countries.
Ekk
How does that work exactly? I don’t know anything about currency exchanges, can anyone elaborate?
Electronz - Issue 305
10 February 2003
Weekly International Ezine focusing on the New Economics
=====================================================
In This Issue :
[ 1 ] DOLLARS, THE EURO AND WAR IN IRAQ.
[ 2 ] RELIGIOUS LEADERS OPPOSING WAR.
=====================================================
[1] DOLLARS, THE EURO AND WAR IN IRAQ.
This story is based on material sent to SANE by Richard Douthwaite’s organisation FEASTA in Ireland.
It presents a devastating insight into President Bush’s belligerent stance towards Iraq, one which would appear to be based totally on the economic self interest of the US.
The dollar is the world reserve currency. This gives a huge subsidy to the US economy because if a country wants to hold lots of dollars in reserve they must supply the US with goods and services in return for those dollars. In return the US creates a bit more credit. The more dollars there are circulating outside the US, the more goods and services the US has imported virtually for free. This is how the US manages to run a huge trade deficit year after year without apparently any major economic consequences. No other country can run such a large trade deficit with impunity. It is in effect getting a massive interest-free loan from the rest of the world.
One of Europe’s primary objectives, if not the primary objective, of setting up the Euro was to try and get some of this free lunch for Europe. If the Euro became a major reserve currency, or better still replaced the dollar as the major reserve currency, then Europe too could get something for nothing.
This would be a disaster for the US. Not only would they lose their subsidy, which has been increasing in size and in importance to American economic well being as the years have gone by, but countries switching to Euro reserves from dollar reserves would start spending their dollars in the US. In other words the US would have to start paying its debts to other countries. As countries converted their dollar assets into Euro assets the US property and stock market bubbles would, without doubt, burst. The Federal Reserve would no longer be able to print more money to reflate the bubble as it is currently openly considering doing,
There is, however, one major obstacle to this happening: OIL! Oil is of course by far the most important commodity traded internationally, and if you want to buy oil on the international markets you usually have to have dollars.
Until recently all OPEC countries agreed to sell their oil for dollars only. This meant that oil importing countries, like Japan, needed to hold dollar reserves in order to be able to buy oil. So long as this remained the case, the Euro was unlikely to become the major reserve currency. There is not a lot of point to stockpiling Euros if every time you need to buy oil you have to change them into dollars. But in November 2000 Iraq switched to the euro, with potentially perilous consequences for the US. Only one country has the right to print dollars: the US! If OPEC were to decide to accept euros only for its oil, then American economic dominance would be over. Not only would Europe not need dollars anymore, but Japan which imports over 80% of its oil from the Middle East would have to convert most of its dollar assets to Euro assets (Japan is of course the major subsidiser of the US). The US on the other hand, being the world’s largest oil importer would have to acquire Euro reserves, i.e. it would have to run a trade surplus. The conversion from trade deficit to trade surplus would have to be done at a time when its property and stock market prices were collapsing and its own oil supplies were contracting. It would be a very painful conversion; potentially disasterous.
The purely economic argument for OPEC converting to the Euro, at least for a while, seem very strong. The Eurozone does not run a huge trade deficit like the US, nor is it heavily indebted to the rest of the world like the US. Nearly everything you can buy for dollars you can also buy for Euros. Furthermore, if OPEC were to convert their dollar assets to Euro assets and then require payment for oil in euros, their assets would immediately increase in value. Also, since oil importing countries would be forced to convert their reserves into euros, whose price would therefore be driven up. OPEC could then at some later date back some other currency, maybe the dollar again, and again make huge profits. This would offer a virtually inexhaustible source of profit for OPEC.
But of course it would not be a purely economic decision. The Eurozone countries do not threaten Middle Eastern countries militarily as the US does.
One article, written at the time the decision was made, claimed it made no financial sense and would cost Iraq millions. According to this “expert” the decision to convert was made by people who “are not experts, they are not central bankers, they are not even oil men”. At the time the article was written, the euro was worth 82 US cents. It is now worth about $1.05. So on economic grounds alone, the Iraqi decision has been a huge success (the $10 billion Iraqi fund at the UN, mentioned in the article, has apparently also since been converted). There may however be military consequences to it. The economic threat to the US may be influencing it in its belligerent stance towards Iraq.
One other OPEC country has been talking publicly about possible conversion since 1999: Iran. And of course it has since been included in the “axis of evil”.
So, as Feasta sees it, this threatened war does not serve continental Europe’s growth interests at all. But a far better reason for opposing the war is that it is a blatant case of mass murder for profit
Further information about this matter can be found at:
http://www.praesentia.us/archives/2003_01.html#000227
http://www.praesentia.us/archives/2003_01.html
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2000/11/01112000160846.asp
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~dominc/electronz/archives/305.txt
[…] Click here to see source. […]
Funny how all of this stuff is happening now. Every day that i read the news i think more and more of how my ancestors of Anahuak/Turtle Island/Abya Yala had it right.
Regardless of the details I think it’s safe to say that we as inhabitants of this continent need to really examine and reflect on our daily lives. What is it that we do on a daily basis? What is the nature of the energy we bring into the world. Is it positive or is it negative?
Let’s take this time also to reflect on the fact that the main unit of any nation is the family.
How do you interact with your family on a daily basis. What are you teaching your children. What values are important in your culture.
There has been more than 500 years of horrible karma being accumulated on this continent alone that has yet to be rectified.
Are you simply adding to the surplus of fear and pain and frustration and vexation we have or are you living your life in love.
Manifesting your love for humanity, as we are all children of god, by showing respect not only for all humans, but for all of the natural world as well.
If we all as Americans (I’m an american citizen) are serious about maintaining this world for future generations the first step we need to take is to first acknowledge that a horrible wrong was done to the first peoples of this land.
Because even though we personally never killed any natives or stole any land we all collectively reap the benefits of such genocide and maliciousness.
We native people have always understood that White people are our brothers and, from the moment they arrived, we extended our hand in brotherhood and offered all that was ours.
All we are asking now is that these nations address us as brothers and we can show you all the way into the next thousands of years.
As my Lakota Brothers say it:
Aho! Mitakuye Oyasin!
Amen! All My Relations! (I am related to every Thing on this Planet)
ummm - what about rapture?
all you non-christian / non-jews will payyyyy…
ahahahahahaha.
[…] I took a break from work when I found this article about the reason behind the Iraq […]
Electronz - Issue 313
7 April 2003
Weekly International Ezine focusing on the New Economics
=====================================================
In This Issue :
[ 1 ] ISLAMIC BANKING: CONCEPT TO REALITY
[ 2 ] PRE EMPTIVE STRIKES AN UNACCEPTABLE DEFENCE.
=====================================================
[ 1 ] ISLAMIC BANKING: CONCEPT TO REALITY
Because of recent interest in this topic we circulated a call to our world-wide network for information about it (Issue 308) and received two conflicting sets of replies. Excerpts from the best of each type follows. The heading of this item is how Abdul Jabbar Karimi described his 5-page
contribution, with an air of authority throughout. Excerpts quoted:
“The need for an interest-free system stems from the Quranic condemnation of riba. Riba is an Arabic word for the predetermined return on the use of money. It is generally agreed that this term covers all forms of interest and not only ‘excessive’ interest or usury. The Quranic prohibition of interest is quite explicit and has to be taken as axiomatic. Transactions based on riba are strictly prohibited by the Quran, as the following verse (translation) forcefully states:
‘Those who devour riba, will not stand except as stands one whom the devil hath driven to madness by (his) touch’.
The Shariah Board consists of highly qualified shariah scholars to issue fatwa (religious decrees) on financial transactions.
Islamic banks can open accounts with the conventional banks. Special arrangements must be made to prevent the accounts getting overdrawn. The most important required condition is that the funds of the Islamic banking window must not be intermixed with the interest based conventional bank’s funds (i.e. where shariah provisions are not observed). Therefore there should be separate accounts, books and computer programs which show the complete segregation of funds.
An investigator into the transactions of banking, religious board is supposed to verify all the banking transactions (on sampling basis) as to their non-association with riba. They are obliged to go through the affairs of the bank with which they are associated and confirm if the institution is
conducting its affairs according to shariah principles.
Islamic commercial banks, in order to bring the financial transactions in line with Islamic shariah, have opened dedicated branches, offering interest free banking services to urban and far flung areas. One of the examples is National Commercial Bank, Saudi Arabia, Albaraka Islamic bank of ‘Dallah
Albaraka group’ of Saudi Arabia. The successful launching and operation of Islamic banks has established the fact that banking without interest is feasible.
Liquidity maintenance requirements of Islamic banks is different from the conventional banks, in the sense that they are prohibited by shariah to invest their funds in interest denominated instruments. Islamic banks are allowed to meet their requirements by investing their funds in shares of the
companies listed on the stock exchanges.
The supply of credit by Islamic banks can be regulated through credit ceilings thereby regulating the economic growth according to the targets”.
This ends the extracts from the explanation of Islamic banking by A.J.Karimi, without any mention of how they will charge or be paid for their services. The next contribution is from a monetary reform website, which does answer that question.
ISLAMIC BANKING ISN’T ISLAMIC.
“By contrast, Tarek El Diwany supplies a report with the above heading, sourced on home page <www.islamic-finance.com> which was established in September 1997 in order to promote a better understanding of the monetary system and its impact upon the practices of Islamic banking and finance.
Our view is that there cannot be genuine Islamic banking and finance in the absence of Islamic money. Because this vital foundation is missing, the Islamic banking and finance industry has tended to imitate the practices and structures of the usury-based system.
The site also provides a database of several hundred PhD’s and other researchers in over thirty countries, and institutions database, a books list, details of forthcoming events, and occasional job opportunities. The contractum trinius was a legal trick used by European merchants in the Middle Ages to allow borrowing at usury, something what the Church fiercely opposed. It was a combination of three separate contracts, each of which was deemed permissible by the Church, but which together yielded a fixed rate of return from the outset. The result of these three simultaneously
agreed contracts was an interest payment of £10 on a loan of £100 made by A to B.
Researches heard of the contractum trinius before encountering the full documentation behind an Islamic banking murabahah contract. It was the kind of contract that Person A might use in order to finance the purchase of good X from Person B. The bank would intermediate in the transaction by
asking A to promise to buy good X from the bank in the event that the bank bought good X from B. With the promise made, the bank knows that if it buys good X from B it can then sell it on to A immediately. The bank would agree that A could pay for good X three months after the bank had delivered it. In return, A would agree to pay the bank a few percent more for good X than
the bank had paid to B. The net effect is a fixed rate of financial return for the bank, contractually enforceable from the moment that the bank buys good X from B. Money now for more money later, with good X in between. The above set of legal devices is nothing other than a trick to circumvent riba, a modern day Islamic contractum trinius. The fact that the text of these contracts is so difficult to come by is one shameful fact of Islamic banking. If so clean, why so secretive? The following is an excerpt from a murabahah contract that was used frequently by two major institutions during the 1990’s. The ‘Beneficiary acts as the agent of the Bank in taking
delivery of the goods.
“Promise to Purchase the Goods
1 The Beneficiary undertakes to purchase the Goods from the Bank
immediately after it has taken delivery thereof on behalf of the Bank on the
terms specified in this Agreement.
2 The contract of sale of the goods to the Beneficiary shall be concluded by
an exchange of telexes of telefax messages as soon as the Beneficiary has
taken delivery of the Goods on behalf of the Bank.
3 If, for any reason whatsoever, the Beneficiary shall refuse or fail to
take delivery…”
…etc, etc, for the rest of a 168 word sentence about breaches and remedies. We see here that there is even a guarantor used to ensure that the bank does not lose money on the deal in the event that the Beneficiary defaults. So much for profit-sharing. Yet the words ‘profit-sharing’ are to be heard constantly at all of the conferences. Some of the scholars, if pressed, will talk about moving
towards more satisfactory products such as mudaraba. Muslims must work within the existing banking system and change it from the inside. But we have been trying this for over forty years and nothing has changed. We are still fixing financial rates of return in advance using the Islamic triple
contract.
One head of Islamic Trade Finance admitted that there is no practical difference between the murabahah business that he does now and the conventional letter of credit business that he used to do in his previous job. Just the labels are different.
Only one thing can save current borrowers, and that is the creation of more money, either by the state or by the banks. This provides sufficient new money with which current borrowers can repay old debts. When the banks and the state don’t create enough new money, we have a recession. If they
create too much, then we have inflation. And always we have more debt. We must somehow overturn the monetary system as it is. And that will require us to defeat the monster that faces us”.
Our Comment: Readers hoping that Islamic theology may have analysed the function of money to expose why Mohammed was so opposed to “riba”, will be disappointed. Sadly, it appears that leaders of both Moslem and Christian churches have buried the prophets’ reasoning on why allowing money to
multiply itself was unnatural and would lead to the automatic concentration of power in fewer and fewer private hands. Instead, those leaders have re-interpreted the rules in such ways that they could be out-circuited to allow “riba” and “usury” to be legitimised. Even if you have to use
sentences with up to 168 words in the process.
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~dominc/electronz/archives/313.txt
Another issue that interests me and seems related is the concept of the NAU or north american union
Since we are talking about oil and economics makes sense to throw that in there
what if any information is available on the north american union?
As far as Global Warming being caused by CO2 from fossil fuels, when giant reptiles roamed the Earth, I don’t think there were very many SUV’s then.
Fluctuations in the output of the Sun however is a more likely cause.
George Warmonger: I already addressed that in comment #22.
(In short the article says that no, it’s not the Sun.)
That aside, are you really trying to say that because CO2 levels were high hundreds of thousands, or millions of years ago… that that means that we can’t possibly be the cause now?
Our atmosphere was incredibly high in CO2 at one point… then basically algae came along with photosynthesis and output Oxygen, which at the time was toxic to almost all other life on Earth and that almost killed everything… then we had very high Oxygen which enabled vastly larger insects etc… and then we’ve slowly gotten back to about where we are now… in a nutshell.
However, if you look at the record, the CO2 levels have skyrocketed since the Industrial Revolution, to levels not seen ever in the last almost MILLION YEARS.
This isn’t some natural cycle etc. This is a man made effect. The same as the changing PH of the ocean wiping out many forms of ocean life etc.
Man has had this foolish idea that because the ocean and the sky were so vast that he could just pollute and pollute and this never ending expanse would just eat it up. This is coming back to bite us now… hard.
(Not to mention that it’s not just the sea and the sky… beyond the sky in space we’ve polluted so much that it now poses a hazard to certain aspects of space activity, with something millions of documented pieces of debri hanging in a cloud around the Earth above our heads.
http://www.sasosedlacek.com/anglesko/projects_Spacejunk_eng.htm
At that link you can get a nice Google Earth plugin to let you view them etc.
Oh, and the TEXAS SIZED floating continent of garbage swirling around in the Pacific caught in the currents.
Sorry, but your argument simply doesn’t hold water, and that’s as nicely as I can put it. (If I need to, I can post a much more detailed article with numerous links to the information I briefly touched on. I only avoid doing it now because it would put my comment into moderation.)
The Blog is “don’t fear the truth” but I only see a lot of BS speculation but not a shred of definitive proof. If you really want to tell the the truth, tell it correctly and provide real proof to your readers. Be a part of the solution and not part of the problem.
Slouching towards Petroeurostan
By Pepe Escobar
[…]
On the other hand, the possible success of the exchange may be crucial to signal the US’s waning power in a world evolving towards multipolarity. The Saudis and the Persian Gulf petro-monarchies have already decided to reduce their US dollar holdings. Washington, sooner or later, may have to pay for its oil and gas imports in euros.
No wonder Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is so demonized by Washington as he repeats that the empire of the dollar is falling. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal conceded during the latest OPEC summit in Riyadh that the dollar would collapse if OPEC decided to switch to euros or a basket of currencies. During a closed meeting - with the microphones on, by mistake - Prince Saud said: “My feeling is that the mere mention that OPEC countries are studying the issue of the dollar is itself going to have an impact that endangers the interests of the countries. There will be journalists who will seize on this point and we don’t want the dollar to collapse instead of doing something good for OPEC.”
The trillion-dollar question is if, and when, most European and Asian oil importers may stampede towards the Iranian oil bourse. OPEC members as well as oil producers from the Caspian may be inevitably seduced by the advantages of selling at Kish - with no dreaded middlemen. Europeans, Chinese and Japanese will also see benefits if they can buy oil with euros, yen or even yuan - they won’t need US dollars – and the same applies to their central banks.
It would take only a few major oil exporters to switch from the dollar to the euro - or the yen - to fatally bomb the petrodollar mothership. Venezuela, Norway and Russia are all ready to say goodbye to the petrodollar. France officially supports a stronger role for the euro in international oil trade.
It may be a long way away, but ultimately the emergence of a new oil marker in euros in Kish will lead the way to the petroeuro global oil trade. The European Union imports much more oil from OPEC than the US, and 45% of Middle East imports also come from the EU.
The symbolism of the Iranian oil bourse is stark; it shows that the flight from the US dollar is irreversible - and so, sooner rather than later, is diminution of Washington’s capacity to launch wars on credit. But at this early stage in the game, only one thing is certain: the empire will strike back.
Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2008). He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JB21Dj07.html
Idiots…..you’ll believe anything……the earth doesn’t revolve around the sun you know…….
@Vince: I provided links to most of my major statements. Stop being a troll and contribute to the debate. Like say… provide some links refuting my claims?
@The unsilent majority. provide some substance. just harassing people does nothing. Prove me wrong.
Archives > June 27, 2005
IS TIME RUNNING OUT FOR MIDEAST RULERS?
Eric Margolis
[…]
The new model of Mideast rulers Washington has in mind can be seen in Afghanistan and Iraq. Turbans and general’s hats are out. The Mideast’s new look will be `moderates:’ low key non-flamboyant, English-speakers in sober business suits who are Muslims Lite and owe their total financial and political support, as well as personal protection, to Washington.
They will continue to sell oil cheap, open their markets to US business, buy arms they can’t use, allow US military bases, reconfigure their military forces for internal security control, suppress political Islam, and make nice to Israel. In other words, just what the former kings and generals did, but with far less flash and much more subtlety.
The new breed of Mideast rulers will be elected in nominally `democratic’ elections pre-determined to produce pro-US winners and exclude all but token voices from radicals or troublesome Islamists. The US media will sanctify them with glowing reports and fulsome praise.
[…]
The United States is hated across the Muslim World. If truly free elections were held tomorrow in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, not to mention medieval Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, or the Gulf, their US-backed regimes would be swept away and replaced by anti-US Islamists and nationalists.
Control of the Arab World and its oil is a pillar of US world power. It’s unlikely Washington will ever countenance genuinely free Mideast elections. After Jimmy Carter called for democracy in Iran in 1979, and began withdrawing US support from its grotesque Shah, a key US ally, popular revolution erupted that brought in a violently anti-US Islamic government.
The Arab World’s only fully honest election was held in Algeria in 1992. It produced a landslide for Islamic parties. Algeria’s US and French-backed military junta immediately staged a coup, annulled the election and declared martial law.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2005
Posted by Eric Margolis on June 27, 2005 01:57 PM
http://www.ericmargolis.com/archives/2005/06/is_time_running.php
[…] What if I told you that 10 months before 9/11, Saddam Hussein did something very big, and pissed off the US Administration? http://dontfearthetruth.com/200..administration/ […]
Nice - that YOU Americans finally understand, what never happened … as your Govt. told you. Saddam never had any other weapons of mass destruction, than those sold by the US.
But Saddam sold OIL for EURO and sold it to ELF AQUITAINE (french company) and to LUKOIL (russian company). So Rockefeller decided that he must die and that Iraq had to be occupied (say: democratized).
But there are other fakes, than only 9/11 or the Tonking-incident for starting the Viet-nam war. There was Pearl Harbor to enter into WWII and there was the Lusitania to enter in WWI. And the Bushs financed Hitler and Rockefeller financed Trotzki (alias Bronstein) and Lenin.
It is a chance that Americans are always “innocent”, “defend” the world and bring “democracy”.
This is a web-site with information about what’s going on - even about the actual choice between McCain, Hillary Clinton and Ohhh Bama - they all serve ONE master!!! Written mostly in German language - but for those who understand - some quite nice information at:
http://politikglobal.blogspot.com
[…] Iraq stops selling oil in US Dollars, US invades. What if I told you that 10 months before 9/11, Saddam Hussein did something very big, and pissed off… […]
So long as the American masses are kept intoxicated on limitless freedoms (except political freedom of course; just an illusion of democratic institutes is enough) and kept ignorant of its governments underhand tactics, kept hooked to Hollywood and celebrity gossip, kept relatively well off (unless of course you happen to see ‘Sicko’ by Michael Moore), so will the neocon infested, Zionist infiltrated halls of power in Washington continue to squash the rest of the world underfoot such connotations as ‘war on terror’ ‘free world’ ‘democracy’ yada yada.
All this towards realizing what Rumsfeld and his cronies publicly boast as the vision for THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY.
And so long as the media continue to mislead the American public by misconstruing facts under the guise of a free and independent media (the only thing free about their media is the freedom to draw caricatures, talk about Britney spears newest undies- or the lack of it, publish pornography etc) by the likes of media barons such as Rupert Murdoch & other Jewish Interest Groups who owns the bulk of American media outlets, so will their so called “elected” leaders continue to invade sovereign lands and suck their natural resources openly And watch pacifically while innocent civilians (as the Palestinians) & sovereign nations are crushed in front of the worlds eyes.
The American mindset towards Israel is no chance happening; it is a psychology built in from the most tender ages (example- kindergarten teaches them Ann Franks diary and the horrors of a magnified Holocaust) through the media, teaching institutes as the prestigious universities and think tanks.
Coupled with this is the alliance of Christian zealots and such archaic notions as Palestine being the promised land for the Jews drive American foreign policy and public opinion, and who enjoy considerable clout over the Christian belt- where peace loving church going folk which make the bulk of the American population can be bent into any preferable ideology so long as they are kept well fed & their produce well subsidized, provided enough distractions(Sports, Hollywood, ‘Freedom’ ), kept voluntarily subdued beneath this veneer of supranationalism(die for the flag; God & Country: Support our troops) etc.
What the rest of us see as the beacons of western industrialization and superiority, be it LA NY DC , these are merely the economic powerhouses where the ruling elite make their trillions, oblivious to the hard working average blue collar Americans.
The fear of being labeled an anti-Semitic is so great and the loss to business so devastating that no leading newspaper or any other media outlet will dare criticize Israeli policy, at the expense of losing advertising revenue. Those of us who dare to question as per our ‘democratic right’ are immediately silenced through what ever means necessary(just ask Professors John J.Mearsheimer and Stephan Walt, whose infamous dossier has all but been erased from the publics memory by now,http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP06-011/$File/rwp_06_011_walt.pdf, Or Ziopedia.org or any number of individuals, groups, peoples, governments that dared to state the obvious)
The United States (and its 51st state) constitutes the single greatest threat to world peace and stability. It actions can be traced to almost every conflict present and past.
Its underhand tactics in the middle east (the one relatively visible example) has been cleverly hidden under the guise of the Osama-bogeyman and “Muslim terrorists” out to kill us all because “they-hate-our-freedom”.
When in fact History stands testament to the key role CIA has played in flaring sectarian discord along ethnic and religious lines towards its own interests, be it in installing puppet regimes or actively engaging in terror plots within sovereign nations. Everything that is wrong today in west Asia has nothing to do with ‘Moslem Terrorists’ as much to do with covert American intervention towards securing an uninterrupted supply of oil & absolute control of Oil fields(& its profits), plus the security of the State of Israel(Eliminate Iran from the equation and divide the middle east into mini states- each with their own flag to die for, arm them and let them go at each other, make sure their population is deprived of any education or economic vigor and finally ensure the continuity of this profitable cycle through breeding religious zealots; which is not a difficult task given the prevailing atmosphere of desperation, destitution, and hopelessness of a starving,unemployed majority youth population.All you need to do is secretly fund and support separatist movements and ‘mullahs’ with their archaic notions of religious supremacism propagated through the said underdeveloped population,brainwashed on apocryphal prophetic traditions ).
Add to this the Trillions to be made FROM War and the equation is near complete.
Pages upon pages can be exhausted on this, and for those of us who have come about this realization its enough to keep them awake at night, and feel pity for the American public who must inevitable face the consequences of the actions of its “elected” and the wrath of the rest of the world suffocating under it.
Only Americans can stop what is being done in its name. For this they need to take control of its secular institutions from the clutches of Jewish interest groups and Christian fundamentalists and the war mongering corporate behemoths bred by them to serve their interests.
Even Rome fell, and the realization is slowly dawning in on Americans that their country is no longer run by them. Its government by Zionists, its technology and skilled workforce, at least the bulk of it, by Asians (Indians, Chinese, japs, you name it) and what not.
Those of us non-Jew, or non-American; we seek no wars, we seek no clash of civilizations; it is They who bring it to our doorsteps, cleverly disguised, and say We started it!
And 9/11 is their biggest hoax yet. Only a fool willbuy the ‘official’ 9/11commission’s findings. All too convenient in that it provided the perfect opening for these bloodsuckers to trample on the rest of the world, all the while making us apologize for it.
Evidently, the internet has proven indispensable in giving voice to the renegades, those of us Outlaws who have managed to unplug, if you will, from the matrix of media control.
Only a matter of time though, before the internet is also brought under the radar(http://www.freepress.net/)
*
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
Venezuela opts for oil contracts in euros: report
AFP
AFP - Saturday, March 15 10:09 pm
CARACAS (AFP) - Venezuelan state oil giant PDVSA has decided to sign some oil contracts in euros in the face of a plummeting dollar, local media reported, citing officials.
(Advertisement)
“There are some contracts in euros, contracts for crude, products and spot markets in euros. This is a subject which we are working on,” said energy minister and Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) chief, Rafael Ramirez, in an interview with the journal El Universal published Friday.
It remained unclear which oil sales would require payment in euros.
Venezuela, Latin America’s leading petroleum producer, has previously backed Iran’s proposals for OPEC to abandon the dollar and use the euro for oil pricing. But the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries has rejected the idea, at least in the short-term.
The head of the journal Petroleum World, Elio Ohep, said the shift to euros was “good business” for Venezuela.
“PDVSA always had an interest to negotiate in dollars because the company had refineries in the United States and needed cash but currently with the euro rising, it is taking in more dollars and (Venezuelan) bolivars,” he said.
The dollar hit new lows this week against the euro and yen, with the euro at 1.5669 dollars at 21000 GMT on Friday.
Venezuela produces 3.3 million barrels of oil a day, according to official figures, and 2.4 million according to the International Energy Agency. Half of its production is sold to the United States market.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080315/r_t_afp_bs_economy/tbs-venezuela-commodities-oil-currency-e-5268574_1.html?printer=1
The Euro was not available for transactions like this until January 2002. Prior to this, it was used for internal accounting purposes, but it did not exist as a currency until its release on January 1, 2002. Did he have a time machine?
Read further back in the comments to find facts/explanation, James.
In the meantime look/see how things are moved further on.
Ekk
Russia throws a wrench in NATO’s works
By M K Bhadrakumar
[…]
Besides, post-Soviet Russia’s influence in Central Asia has peaked even as the first real possibility of the emergence of a “gas OPEC” involving Russia and the Central Asian countries has appeared. This may well outshine all other foreign policy legacies of Russia in the Putin era. Russia has been for long seeking an association of former Soviet gas producers and exporters on the pattern of the oil cartel. Russia and the Central Asian suppliers - Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan - have now agreed that starting in 2009, they will switch to the European price formula.
The move, which bears all the hallmarks of the Kremlin, elevates energy cooperation between Russia and the Central Asian producers to an altogether higher level of coordination and common strategy in foreign markets. The implications are far-reaching for European countries and the US. Russia has checkmated US-sponsored trans-Caspian energy pipeline projects.
Surely, the great shortfall in the Putin legacy has been the failure of his presidency to make Russia a full-fledged partner of Europe. He has now made an offer to NATO that is irresistible - making Russia a participant in the alliance’s Afghan mission. The Russian offer comes at a time when the war in Afghanistan is going badly and NATO can afford to take help from whichever quarter help is available.
[…]
http://atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JC15Ag01.html
hey zorn, nice article, i agree with most of it. like ron paul says in his youtube video — “commerce with all, alliance with none.” i think pat buchanan can be a little nutty, but he’s right when he advocates a non-interventionist policy for the US. keep up the interesting blog, thanks — larry.
Ekk, the fact is that Saddam could not use euros before 1/1/2002. You can not use a currency that does not exist. I worked for a Dutch Import Export company from 200 to 2003. We used Guilders until the euro was available.
Until the Euro war available for the Netherlands - that’s what you wanted to say.
As soon as there will be a suitable CMS for replacing the actual blog-site with it’s limited functions, there will be established ‘files’ about themes like “mind-control” which was started by Walter Lippman, “FED” and it’s owner who has now all the money you don’t have any more (516 trillion in derivates - see politikglobal), “the upcoming plans for the NWO” - and last but not least:
“Russia - our last hope for a free humanity” since Russia opposes to the NWO. I do not only know about Russia by TV or newspapers - а иногда нахожусь в России.
http://politikglobal.blogspot.com
[…]
Until recently all OPEC countries agreed to sell their oil for dollars only. This meant that oil importing countries, like Japan, needed to hold dollar reserves in order to be able to buy oil. So long as this remained the case, the Euro was unlikely to become the major reserve currency. There is not a lot of point to stockpiling Euros if every time you need to buy oil you have to change them into dollars. But in November 2000 Iraq switched to the euro, with potentially perilous consequences for the US. Only one country has the right to print dollars: the US! If OPEC were to decide to accept euros only for its oil, then American economic dominance would be over. Not only would Europe not need dollars anymore, but Japan which imports over 80% of its oil from the Middle East would have to convert most of its dollar assets to Euro assets (Japan is of course the major subsidiser of the US). The US on the other hand, being the world’s largest oil importer would have to acquire Euro reserves, i.e. it would have to run a trade surplus. The conversion from trade deficit to trade surplus would have to be done at a time when its property and stock market prices were collapsing and its own oil supplies were contracting. It would be a very painful conversion; potentially disasterous.
The purely economic argument for OPEC converting to the Euro, at least for a while, seem very strong. The Eurozone does not run a huge trade deficit like the US, nor is it heavily indebted to the rest of the world like the US. Nearly everything you can buy for dollars you can also buy for Euros. Furthermore, if OPEC were to convert their dollar assets to Euro assets and then require payment for oil in euros, their assets would immediately increase in value. Also, since oil importing countries would be forced to convert their reserves into euros, whose price would therefore be driven up. OPEC could then at some later date back some other currency, maybe the dollar again, and again make huge profits. This would offer a virtually inexhaustible source of profit for OPEC.
But of course it would not be a purely economic decision. The Eurozone countries do not threaten Middle Eastern countries militarily as the US does.
One article, written at the time the decision was made, claimed it made no financial sense and would cost Iraq millions. According to this “expert” the decision to convert was made by people who “are not experts, they are not central bankers, they are not even oil men”. At the time the article was written, the euro was worth 82 US cents. It is now worth about $1.05. So on economic grounds alone, the Iraqi decision has been a huge success (the $10 billion Iraqi fund at the UN, mentioned in the article, has apparently also since been converted). There may however be military consequences to it. The economic threat to the US may be influencing it in its belligerent stance towards Iraq.
One other OPEC country has been talking publicly about possible conversion since 1999: Iran. And of course it has since been included in the “axis of evil”.
So, as Feasta sees it, this threatened war does not serve continental Europe’s growth interests at all. But a far better reason for opposing the war is that it is a blatant case of mass murder for profit
Further information about this matter can be found at:
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~dominc/electronz/archives/305.txt
I knew about this over 5 years ago.
Then before the dust from the Shock & Awe bombing had settled, Chase Manatten was in Iraq reorganizing their [national/nationalized] banking system, including the switc back to trading oil into US$.
Ekk
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/10/30/iraq.un.euro.reut/
U.N. to let Iraq sell oil for euros, not dollars
graphic
October 30, 2000
Web posted at: 8:45 PM EST (0145 GMT)
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) — A U.N. panel on Monday approved Iraq’s plan to receive oil-export payments in Europe’s single currency after Baghdad decided to move the start date back a week.
Members of the Security Council’s Iraqi sanctions committee said the panel’s chairman, Dutch Ambassador Peter van Walsum, would inform U.N. officials on Tuesday of the decision to allow Iraq to receive payments in euros, rather than dollars.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s office is to report in three months on the impact of the switch to euros, which a U.N. study said would cost Iraq at least $270 million.
Iraq’s U.N. Ambassador Saeed Hasan reported earlier that Baghdad would delay the changeover until after Nov. 6, rather than put it into effect on November 1, as originally announced. Iraq has called the dollar the currency of an “enemy state.”
MESSAGE BOARD
Share your thoughts on the situation in Iraq
Hasan said the delay would give the United Nations time to make arrangements for the change, as it requested.
Iraq had also threatened to stop oil exports, the bulk of which flow through the U.N. humanitarian programme, if its request for payment in euros was denied.
On Friday, the chief U.N. financial officer, Joseph Connor, asked Iraq to delay any action until proper arrangements could be made. He did not say how long he would need.
Connor, the U.N. undersecretary-general for management, told Hasan in a letter that the Central Bank of Iraq and U.N. officials should consult first on “banking arrangements involved and currency management issues.”
Baghdad currently is selling about $60 million in crude a day, about 5 percent of the world’s oil exports.
Under the U.N. “oil-for-food” programme, Iraq is permitted to sell unlimited quantities of oil to purchase needed supplies for its people, to alleviate the impact of U.N. sanctions. The embargoes were imposed when Baghdad’s troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
Contracts for goods as well as oil sales are approved by the United Nations, which has a dollar-based escrow account at the New York branch of the French bank BNP-Paribas. More than $10 billion is in the bank.
In a 10-page report on Friday, Suzanne Bishopric, the U.N. treasurer, outlined how Iraq should go about making the switch but said the euro would accrue lower interest than the dollar.
She said buyers of Iraqi crude would pay 10 cents a barrel less to offset the cost of dealing in euros rather than dollars.
Hasan assailed the report as “highly exaggerated,” and diplomats said he gave a detailed critique of her analysis in his letter to the committee.
@James - I am looking into the Euro thing, here is one talking about Saddam selling oil in euros in 2000.
http://www.rferl.org/features/2000/11/01112000160846.asp
You can find this in 100 different articles. Could they all have gotten it wrong? Did Ron Paul get it wrong?
There must be an explanation.
[…] http://www.spartantailgate.com/forum…hypocrite.html What if I told you that 10 months before 9/11, Saddam Hussein did something very big, and pissed off… Glenn Greenwald - Everyone we fight in Iraq is now "al-Qaida" - […]
Zorn, that is for selling oil through the oil for food program only. Remember the “for accounting purposes” thing? It only means the account would be maintained in Euros and any sales would be converted from US$ to Euros for maintaining the account. It required UN approval, which the US could have blocked if it wanted to. And does mention the lost revenue from conversion. They did not get it wrong, you just don’t seem to grasp how banking and markets work. Try being able to understand what you read.
Here is a list of what the amercan government has been doing, THE CIA IS THE WORLDS LARGEST STATE SPONSORED TERRORIST GROUP
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/CIAtimeline.html share this link with everybody you know
Hand in the badge america, the whole world is sick of your lies and bullshit, and by the way Bush we know world trade centre tower 7 was brought down by thermate 7 hours after the planes hit 1 and 2, destroying the command post that was used to blow the 1 and 2 up.. check out WTC7, the smoking gun, still 6 years later still no answer didnt even make the commission report , what a joke, and american citizens do nothing, so bye bye US dollars around the world
@James. Why the attack? I don’t understand markets? Try to understand what I am reading?
Enlighten me. I am calling your bluff. You have no idea ‘how markets work’. I never claimed to be an economist, just presented facts and logical arguments.
The article that I linked to is PERFECT. The author explains that people are puzzled. “Why is Saddam selling oil in Euros? It only costs him money! There is no reason for this!”
The original addition to the OPEC agreement in the 1970s was secret at the time - not publicized?
So with your superior knowledge of markets, you are telling me the US Government offered to use its military to protect OPEC nations IN RETURN FOR NOTHING MORE THAN THOSE NATIONS PROMISING TO SELL OIL ONLY IN DOLLARS…
for no benefit? All this effort, to secretly add something to the OPEC agreement - for nothing?
It does not make any sense. People did not understand why Saddam was selling in Euros.
Here is an article about Venezuela accepting oil payments in Euros.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080315/tbs-venezuela-commodities-oil-currency-e-5268574.html
Here is an article about the US seeking to add Venezuela to the terror-sponsoring list.
http://www.cpa.org.au/garchve08/1358venez.html
Interestingly, people are being slaughtered like dogs in Tibet, the military is flat out shooting people who dissent - and the US does nothing.
If oil is sold in Euros, other nations need more Euros in their reserves. I do not understand the entire mechanics about how this works, I am still looking into it. But to just tell me I do not understand markets… bleh. there is nothing wrong with not being an expert in a field, as long as you do not pretend to be an expert. But you seem to be telling me that I know nothing, while you are the expert. Please, enlighten me. Tibet and Darfur are basically ignored, but the big oil producing nations are all part of the ‘Axis of Evil’. Hmm…
Actually, you inspired my next blog post.
ELECTRONZ ISSUE 3
7 July 2003
Weekly international Ezine focusing on the New Economics
===========================================================
In this issue:
[ 1 ]U.K. INQUIRY INTO CREDIT CREATION.
[ 2 ]RUSSIA AND HUSSIEN RELATIONSHIP
[ 3 ]ALTERNATIVE VIEW ON CHINA. (C/F Issue 327)
==========================================================
2 ]RUSSIA AND HUSSIEN RELATIONSHIP.
Many were surprised that the US invasion of Iraq proceeded over the opposition of UN and outright antagonism of Russia. Various reports suggested that the antagonism must have been driven by more than just the lack of legal justification, which France had frequently cited. Confirmation of this suspicion is available from the Wall Street Journal. Some revealing extracts from their story run as follows:
“What is at stake is more than just the physical oil that the US can’t consume enough of, but the denomination of the oil trade in US currency. That has permitted the US to pay for its oil imports in currency of its own making. The drop of the dollar vis-à-vis the Euro short-changes the oil exporters.
The reserve status of its currency enabled the US to print bills or computer entries at practically zero cost to import goods and securities from the entire world, even while its balance of payments worsened. That has led to a climb of the Euro in dollar terms since 1999 from about 83 US cents to a current $1.10 plus. That is an increase of about 45%. That earned Saddam Hussein a fat currency gain when he instructed the UN to shift the approximately $10 billion in his blocked currency account from dollars to Euros. This hasn’t been lost on Iran, another of Bush’s evil axis, a ferocious rival of Iraq, and a far greater oil exporter. “President Saddam Hussein had promised Russian companies the chance to develop more than 25 billion barrels of oil in Iraqi fields. The Russian government, meanwhile, would like to be repaid Soviet-era debts that totalled $8 billion when Iraq stopped paying in the early 1900’s.
“Russia (however), has indicated it is more worried about world oil prices than any oil contracts or the Soviet-era debt”, the US diplomat said. But those prices depend upon whether oil internationally continues to be quoted and paid for in terms of a sinking US dollar or in Euros. “The Kremlin already has amassed a lofty financial cushion against any decline in oil prices in the aftermath of the war. Its 2003 budget is based on an average oil price of $21.50 a barrel.
“’In the past, Russia tried to convince the world of its greatness by building rockets,’ said Roland Nash, head of research at Renaissance Capital Investment Bank in Moscow. ‘Putin has concentrated on the economy with essentially the same end in mind.’”
If the American administration would consider the costs in wealth, lives, morality, and sympathy among nations of its present autistic policies as a sole economic super-power, it would accept the erosion of its highly vulnerable position with grace. As did Britain and France in their day. That would not only provide an answer to the question that is bothering more and more Americans, “Why does the world hate us?” but a solution to the problem.”
Our Comment: Such blunt suggestions turning up in the W.S.J must be causing indigestion around the Bush network, but it will have to be pushed much harder before it can cause any policy directional changes. Unfortunately.
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~dominc/electronz/archives/326.txt
Let The Wall Street Journal tell the story (11/3/03, “Fast Wallet, Free Agent: Russia Goes its Own Way” by Alan Cullison). As ever, we treasure sources above suspicion of left-wing prejudice. “Moscow – Russia’s resistance to a US-led invasion of Iraq is a sign that the diplomacy of dependency may have run its course. After recovering from the post-Soviet economic deterioration of the 1990s, Moscow is awash in cash and not so easily plied by the West’s handouts.”
Private sources report that Muscovite tune-smiths are working on a blend of the International and the Czarist anthem to lyrics thanking the American insatiable appetite for SUVs for making possible their regaining economic independence. What is at stake is more than just the physical oil that the US can’t consume enough of, but the denomination of the oil trade in US currency. That has permitted the US to pay for its oil imports in currency of its own making. The drop of the dollar vis-à-vis the Euro shortchanges the oil exporters. That has not been lost on the oil exporters.
The reserve status of its currency enabled the US to print bills or computer entries at practically zero cost to import goods and securities from the entire world, even while its balance of payments worsened. That has led to a climb of the Euro in dollar terms since 1999 from about 83 US cents to a current $1.10 plus. That is an increase of about 45%. That earned Saddam Hussein a fat currency gain when he instructed the UN to shift the approximately $10 billion in his blocked currency account from dollars to Euros. This hasn’t been lost on Iran, another of Bush’s evil axis, a ferocious rival of Iraq, and a far greater oil exporter.
[…]
http://www.comer.org/Jan03/alligator.htm
Zorn, You just continue to be n example of the inability to understand. Look at this, http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/rm/2006/68968.htm. The US has been threatening Venezuela for a lot longer than their desire to sell oil in Euros. Not that is has anything to do with the fact that Iraq’s plan was to sell oil in dollars, then convert the sales to euros to maintain the Oil for Food account. That’s why the talk of losing money in the conversion was mentioned. I do not doubt that Iraq could have, and still will, start to sell oil in euros. But it does not change the facts. And it does not mean that people like you who hate the current administration are simply trying to make things up. Perhaps your next post can have some reality, but I doubt it. Iraq never made an oil sale in euros. The sales were in US dollars and converted. That is the fact and reality. yor blog will never newsworthy, it will always be the rantings of an idiot who could not grasp basic accounting and business principles. Just the posting of debunked conspiracy theories that sits here with yours.
“And it does not mean that people like you who hate the current administration are simply trying to make things up.”
Ahh, you tipped your hand there.
Iraq will not sell oil in Euros. They ceased doing so as soon as the US was in control.
Also, did the link you provided talk about Venezuela in 2006? Venezuela planned on selling oil in euros in 2000 - until a coup attempted to oust Chavez. Ron Paul stated that the coup was reportedly backed by the CIA. Don’t think the CIA would do that? Look for my post about the CIA overthrowing the democratically elected president of Guatemala in 1953. I would link it but I am busy.
Who are you? You ’sound’ familiar.
The Era of Fictitious Capitalism by Addison Wiggin
[…]
“War is the extension of politics and politics is the extension of economic interests,” Wang asserts. “America’s wars abroad have always had a clear goal, however, such goals were never made obvious to the public. We need to see through the surface and reach the essence of the matters. In other words, we need to figure out what the fundamental economic interests of America are. Missing this point, we would be misled by American government’s shows and feints.”
[…]
As we note in our book, since Greenspan assumed the central role at the most powerful central bank in the world, he has expanded the money supply more than all other Fed chairmen combined. From 1985-2000, production of material goods in the United States has increased only 50%, while the money supply has grown by a factor 3. Money has been growing more than six times as fast as the rate of goods production. The results? Wang’s research reveals that in 1997, before the blow-off in the U.S. stock market, mind you, global “money” transactions totaled $600 trillion. Goods production was a mere 1% of that.
[…]
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/Issues/2004/110404.html
THE ERA OF FICTITIOUS CAPITALISM
[…]
But Wang sees a darker side to the equation. “Fictitious capital is no more than a piece of paper, or an electric signal in a computer disk. Theoretically, such capital cannot feed anyone no matter how much its value increases in the marketplace. So why is it so enthusiastically pursued by the major capitalist countries?”
The reason, at least until recently, is that the “major capitalist countries” have been using their fictitious capital to finance consumption of “other countries’” material goods. Thus far, the most major of the capitalist countries, the United States, has been able to profit from the system because since the establishment of the Bretton Woods system, and increasingly since its demise, the world has balanced its accounts in dollars.
[…]
And here we arrive at the crux of Wang’s argument that a war is brewing. “While [fictitious capital] has been bringing to America economic prosperity and hegemonic power over money,” he suggests, “it has its own inborn weakness. In order to sustain such prosperity and hegemonic power, America has to keep unilateral inflow of international capital to the American market…If America loses its hegemonic power over money, its domestic consumption level will plunge 30-40%. Such an outcome would be devastating for the US economy. It could be more harmful to the economy than the Great Depression of 1929 to 1933.”
Japan’s example suggests, as your editors have oft reminded you, that a collapse in asset values in a fictitious economy can adversely affect the real economy for a lo