Post-Mubarak Egypt Inches Toward Iran

By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani,
June 28, 2011
Courtesy Of "Anti-War"

CAIRO — Based on several recent statements by Egyptian and Iranian officials, Cairo and Tehran appear closer than ever to restoring diplomatic ties following a 31-year hiatus.

“The Egyptian foreign minister and the Islamic Republic of Iran have announced their readiness to expand diplomatic relations between the two countries,” Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on June 18.

Under the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, Egypt — long considered a “strategic partner” by Washington — had rebuffed repeated Iranian overtures, often expressing downright hostility toward the Islamic republic. Under the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), however, which has managed the nation’s affairs since Mubarak’s February departure, Cairo’s attitude toward Iran appears to have undergone a sea change.

“In Mubarak’s time, Egypt slavishly complied with U.S./Israeli policy in the region, a major component of which is the isolation of Iran,” Wahid Abdelmagid, political analyst at the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, told IPS. “But since the revolution, Egypt’s official position vis-à-vis Iran has reversed course.”

The first sign of the apparent policy realignment came less than a week after Mubarak’s ouster, when the SCAF granted permission to two Iranian warships — for the first time in more than three decades —  to pass through Egypt’s Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea. At the time, Israeli officials described the move as “a provocation.”

Then, in early April, Nabil al-Arabi, Egypt’s first post-revolutionary foreign minister, declared that Cairo was ready to “turn a new page” with Iran. “The Egyptian and Iranian people,” he said, “deserve to have mutual relations reflecting their history and civilization.”

On May 25, al-Arabi met with Iran’s Salehi on the sidelines of a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Bali, Indonesia, where the two men reportedly discussed the prospect of reactivated bilateral relations. Less than a week later, a 50-strong Egyptian delegation — made up of revolutionary activists, clergymen, and cultural figures — visited Tehran, where they, too, discussed with Iranian counterparts the possible resumption of ties.

“Since the revolution, there has been a marked increase in activity, both on the official and popular levels, between the two countries,” Ibrahim Mansour, an Egyptian political analyst, told IPS.

Iran, for its part, which had unequivocally supported Egypt’s Jan. 25 Revolution, has welcomed the new, friendlier climate. Salehi, describing the Egyptian delegation’s visit as “a step toward preparing the ground for improved relations,” said Iran was ready to resume relations with Egypt “as soon as possible.”

Iran severed diplomatic ties with Cairo in 1979 in the wake of Iran’s Islamic revolution, after former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David peace agreement with Israel. Cairo further alienated the nascent Islamic Republic later the same year by granting political asylum to deposed shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Relations remained hostile through much of the 1980s, when Egypt supported Saddam Hussein’s Iraq against revolutionary Iran in the two countries’ eight-year-long war of attrition. Today, Cairo remains the only Arab capital not to have formal relations with Tehran.

Over the last decade, Iran has frequently expressed its desire to restore ties with Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country. “If the Egyptian government was willing, we would open an embassy in Cairo the same day,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in mid-2007.

But the Mubarak regime — taking its cue from Washington and Tel Aviv — repeatedly rebuffed such overtures, choosing instead to paint Iran as a “threat” to regional security. Egypt also cited Tehran’s Khaled Islambouli Street, named after one of Sadat’s alleged assassins, as an excuse to hold off on a formal rapprochement.

“Iran repeatedly signaled its desire to restore ties, but the Mubarak regime manufactured reasons to keep relations frozen,” said Mansour. “But all these excuses — including the street name — have now fallen by the wayside, along with the former regime.

“Now the only ones voicing objections to the notion of restored Egypt-Iran ties are the U.S. and Israel,” he added.

Politics aside, Mansour believes restored relations with Iran would prove beneficial for Egypt’s ailing economy. Along with activating bilateral trade, he said, such a move could give Egypt’s tourism sector —  which before the revolution had been a foreign-currency mainstay — a badly-needed shot in the arm.

“If relations were fully restored, a million Iranians would come every year,” he said, pointing to Egypt’s many religious shrines sacred to Shi’ite Muslims. “This would give a huge boost to Egypt’s tourism industry, which has suffered badly in the wake of the revolution.”

Prospects for rapprochement, however, suffered a possible setback in mid-May, when al-Arabi was elected secretary-general of the Arab League in the place of outgoing league chief Amr Moussa. Last week, the ruling SCAF appointed veteran diplomat Mohamed al-Orabi to take al-Arabi’s place at the foreign ministry.

According to Mansour, al-Arabi’s sudden transfer to the Arab League came as “a big disappointment” to those who had been heartened by his promised foreign-policy changes.

“Al-Arabi’s initial statements had prompted a good deal of optimism on the part of the public about anticipated changes in Egyptian policy and the restoration of Egypt’s leading role in the region,” he said. “But these hopes were dashed when he was abruptly kicked upstairs to the Arab League.”

“The move will certainly affect the current drive to restore relations with Iran,” said Mansour. “But we won’t know exactly how until we understand the new minister’s policy orientations.”

Abdelmagid, for his part, said that dialogue with Iran would likely continue during Egypt’s current transitional phase. “But I doubt we’ll see a formal restoration of ties until after Egypt holds presidential and parliamentary elections,” he said.

Parliamentary elections are slated for September, according to the timetable laid down by the ruling SCAF. Presidential elections are expected to be held four months later at most.

(Inter Press Service)

Read More By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa Al-Omrani

• Egyptian Military Under Mubarak’s Shadow – February 18th, 2011
• People Power Pushes Mubarak Out – February 11th, 2011
• Egypt’s Fate Lies in a Square – February 4th, 2011
• Egypt Punishes Gaza More – July 26th, 2010

• ‘Mediterranean Intifada’ Helping Hamas – July 9th, 2010

The Anglo-American Endgame For Afghanistan

By M.K. Bhadrakumar
June 16, 2011
Courtesy of "Global Research"

The U.S. and NATO now acknowledge that a complete withdrawal from the South and Central Asian region by 2014 is not in the cards. Regional powers face a challenge  -It is a sad state of affairs that a once-proud nation is being traded in the bazaar. The core issue for the U.S. is that the Taliban should mellow on its uncompromising opposition to the long-term western troop presence as quid pro quo for what passes for “reconciliation.” -Not much ingenuity is required to anticipate that India's interests will be severely damaged if this region becomes the arena of a “new cold war” stemming out the long-term NATO military presence in South and Central Asia...The Indian move to seek membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) promises to provide a much-needed forum for New Delhi to partake in regional processes where India gets to work with Russia, China and Pakistan. The Anglo-American project to craft an Afghan endgame that ensures long-term western military presence in the South and Central Asian region has entered a critical phase. The United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) now acknowledge that a complete withdrawal from the region by 2014 is not in the cards. Several stages of diplomatic and political deception concealed this “hidden agenda.” Regional powers — Pakistan and India, in particular — are sadder and wiser today. Looking back, the military stalemate in Afghanistan provided a persuasive argument for the West to justify the opening of a political track. The U.S. and Britain literally shoved down the throat of regional countries at the London conference in January last year their idea of reconciliation with the Taliban. India was assured that what was being contemplated was mere “reintegration” — and not “reconciliation” — and was given a bit of tutoring in the subtle uses of the English language. Pakistan was in a triumphalist mood, having been assured privately that it would be the kingmaker in any peace process. Equally, Russia was basking in the sunshine of the newly-invented process of “reset” in relations with the U.S. Iran, which was consistently wise to the western game plan, boycotted the London conference. China, of course, kept its head below the parapet. Following the London conference, which must stand out as a first-rate drama of diplomatic deception, the U.S. and Britain rightly proceeded to claim an “international mandate” for talking to the Taliban. With the help of Saudi Arabia, a series of secret meetings with the representatives of various insurgent groups commenced. NATO aircraft provided transportation for Taliban participants in these meetings and according to Der Spiegel, Berlin got U.S. intelligence operatives and Taliban representatives to meet face-to-face on German soil more than once. All the while, the Anglo-American deception continued and a thick layer of fog surrounded the entire process. Mark Sedwill, U.K.'s special representative on Af-Pak, during last week's visit to New Delhi, said with a delightfully airy vagueness that will be the envy of any diplomat:  “There are channels of communication being explored… This outreach to the senior leaders is still in the very early stages. And we don't know how serious they are… It is Afghan-led but that doesn't mean that others are not involved. Others are involved. All initiatives are with Afghan consent and on their behalf.” Meanwhile, former Afghanistan President and head of the Afghan High Council for Peace, Burhanuddin Rabbani, revealed that his members have held preliminary talks with the main Taliban group led by Mullah Mohammad Omar and the so-called Quetta Shura and that the “multiple channels” are indeed “getting momentum.” According to the Guardian, representatives of the Haqqani network visited Kabul “very recently.” Simultaneously, the U.S. is spearheading a move in New York for the removal of the Taliban from the United Nations' list of terrorists so that they can travel and openly take part in talks. The idea has been floated that the Taliban be permitted to open “representative office” in a third country. The U.S. is piloting a proposal to remove 20 Taliban figures from the U.N. list. Alongside, it is pushing for a range of changes to the U.N.'s so-called “1275 list,” which comprises around 450 terrorists belonging to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The U.S. wants to “separate” the Taliban from al-Qaeda and the justification being given is that the al-Qaeda and the Taliban belong to two “different fields of action” as unlike the al-Qaeda which is a global organisation, the Taliban is “Afghanistan-centric.” The plain truth, however, is that the U.S. wants to hold out the tantalising prospect of lifting sanctions against select Taliban figures as a bargaining chip to get them to talk and cut deals directly with American negotiators. Unsurprisingly, having been caught unawares at the London conference, Russia, China and India are today on guard and view the U.S. moves at the U.N. Security Council with reserve. The western propaganda has drummed up a grim scenario in Afghanistan, which provides the raison d'etre of long-term western military bases. The visiting French Foreign Minister, Alain Juppe, told journalists in Washington last week that the U.S. is engaged in tripartite talks with the Taliban and Pakistan, that it wants the Taliban to be part of the solution but has had difficulty so far finding credible interlocutors on the Taliban side who are willing to talk peace and that talks are under way “as we speak.” He said that despite the U.S.' surge a year ago, and notwithstanding claims of progress by U.S. and NATO generals commanding the troops, actual progress against the Taliban is inadequate. “The strategy doesn't succeed as well as we expected on the ground,” he said. He went on to doubt the feasibility of the “transition” through 2014 that is being planned in July, since the Afghan army and police are ill-prepared to assume responsibility for security. Regional Opposition The sum and substance of what Mr. Juppe said is that despite the efforts to engage the Taliban and notwithstanding the “transition” that is being planned, the insurgency will not end in the near future. What he left unsaid was that continued western troop presence beyond 2014, therefore, is a must.  To be sure, Washington is secretly negotiating a ‘strategic partnership agreement' with the Kabul government that provides for military bases on a long-term basis. Again, the U.S. is in denial but its doublespeak is increasingly getting exposed.  The regional powers oppose a long-term U.S.-NATO military presence but Washington counts on the Kabul government to deliver. The Kabul government is on the horns of a dilemma insofar as the American dollar holds its own attractions in the Hindu Kush but then, one has to be alive first to enjoy the good life and the bottom line is that Afghan people may not like the prospect of foreign military occupation and the regional powers are opposing it. In a fit of disgust, Pakistan reportedly advised the Kabul government to swap the American dollar for the Chinese yuan. The Afghan bazaar is agonising. Whereas the U.S. remains confident about the Afghan bazaari culture and estimates that the Afghan protagonists after some pretentious hard bargaining will ultimately settle for a deal that won't burn a hole in America's pocket. Core Issue It is a sad state of affairs that a once-proud nation is being traded in the bazaar. The core issue for the U.S. is that the Taliban should mellow on its uncompromising opposition to the long-term western troop presence as quid pro quo for what passes for “reconciliation.”  To this end, Washington needs to deal with the Taliban directly, on a one-to-one basis without Pakistani or Afghani intermediaries — despite the U.S.' proforma acknowledgement all through of Pakistan's key role as ‘facilitator' and despite paying lip-service that reconciliation with the Taliban ought to be “Afghan-led.”  This tussle lies at the core of the U.S.-Pakistan tensions, as Islamabad is credited with influence over the Quetta Shura. Pakistan's military leadership resents that contrary to earlier pledges, when the crunch time approached, the U.S. bypassed the Inter-Services Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency operatives began networking directly with various militant organisations. Through two months of sustained grilling of the U.S.'s ace intelligence operative Raymond Davis in a Lahore jail by the ISI, Pakistani military leadership got to know a lot about the reach of the CIA's penetration of Pakistan's body polity. A huge challenge faces Indian policymakers also. Quite obviously, New Delhi views these developments with concern. The good part is that it has measured the “big picture” while being what Washington fondly calls the U.S.' “indispensable partner in the 21st century.” Thus, New Delhi persists with its far-sighted dialogue approach toward Pakistan although it is deeply disappointed by Pakistan's lack or response on 26/11 investigations and on dismantling the terrorist infrastructure. New Delhi also takes care not to identify with the U.S.'s ‘containment' strategy toward China. Not much ingenuity is required to anticipate that India's interests will be severely damaged if this region becomes the arena of a “new cold war” stemming out the long-term NATO military presence in South and Central Asia. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took the initiative to strengthen New Delhi's ties with Kabul while judiciously leaving it to the latter to set the parameters in deference to Pakistani sensitivities. The Indian move to seek membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) promises to provide a much-needed forum for New Delhi to partake in regional processes where India gets to work with Russia, China and Pakistan. India's policymakers are doing extraordinarily well in navigating the country's passage through a rather dangerous situation. The Anglo-American enterprise capitalised on the absence of a regional initiative. The U.S.' diplomacy brilliantly succeeded in creating disruptions in Russia's and India's traditional ties with Iran to isolate Tehran, which is an influential player in Afghanistan, apart from tapping into the contradictions in India's relations with China and Pakistan. The U.S. selectively engaged Russia under the rubric of “reset.” On the whole, however, the regional powers are today a wiser lot about the criticality of a neutral Afghanistan. The writer is a former diplomat. Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/messages Stop NATO website and articles:http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com

M.K. Bhadrakumar is a frequent contributor to Global Research.  Global Research Articles by M.K. Bhadrakumar

An Uncensored Investigation Of The US Federal Reserve

Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Bank?



"What is the Federal Reserve?" Few people can actually answer that question. We interviewed leading economists, authors, Wall Street bankers, politicians (and other entertainers) about one of the most critical controversies (and controversial institutions) of our time: The US Federal Reserve. And then, we took a shower.

Bait and Switch TV: Investigative Satire
[STANION STUDIOS] Presents Part 1 of 8 segments in the controversial saga of the Federal Reserve Banking system. Firmly rooted at the center of the current financial crisis, the Federal Reserve holds the purse strings for the USA monetary system. So it is hardly conspiracy theory to wonder about why this private and mega-powerful "federal" reserve system has been so controversial since its inception, why President Jackson was so opposed to a cartel as our central bank, what are the Fed's actual factual successes and failures over the last 100 years, and how does currency, and control of that currency, determine the balance of power in a nation, and the world.

Bait and Switch TV makes the financial collapse fun, and easy enough for a child to understand. But fun bedtime stories aside, we also propose real, obtainable, non-extreme alternatives to Federal Reserve Banking in this BSTV episode, including an in-depth look at the promising prospects of public, state-owned banks. Public banking can circumvent the federal reserve system without upsetting necessary capitalist apple carts, like the credit system, essential to a healthy and innovating economy.

UPCOMING SEGMENTS in this comedic documentary "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Bank?" --with Bait and Switch TV's Expert Interviews & Comedian Correspondents:

o History of the Federal Reserve & Fractional Lending

o The Fed, Shadow Banking & Leveraged Buyouts (LBOs)

o Federal Reserve, BIS, IMF & Global Investment Banks

o Government Sachs, Futures, Front-Running & the Fed

o The Fed, Discounts, Derivatives & Re-emerging Cap&Trade

o End the Fed? Meh! It's Never Gonna Happen

o WHAT TO DO: TAKING BACK THE MONETARY SYSTEM -- The Fed VERSUS State-Owned Public Banks

So subscribe to BSTV and get a taste of our controversial and sizzling hot investigative issues --dipped, deep-fried, and drizzled with comedy. Why dish up and season life and death topics with humor? Leesa Stanion | Stanion Studios takes serious subjects and produces comedic investigative documentaries with expert interviews, animations, satire, and music because, sometimes, laughter can help make reality just a little more palatable.

Ben Bernanke, Ron Paul, and Wall Street Movie. Investment banking

Europe and America: The Global Debt Crisis

By GEAB
June 21, 2011
Courtesy Of "Global Research"

On December 15, 2010, in the GEAB N°50, LEAP/E2020 anticipated the explosion of Western government debt (1) in the second half of 2011. We were then describing a process that would start with the European government debt crisis and then set fire to the heart of the global financial system, namely US federal debt (2). And here we are with this issue at the start of the second half of 2011, with a global economy in complete disarray (3), an increasingly unstable global monetary system (4) and financial centres in desperate straits (5), all this despite the thousands of billions of public money invested to avoid precisely this type of situation. The insolvency of the global financial system, and of the Western financial system in the first place, returns again to the front of the stage after just over a year of political cosmetics aimed at burying this fundamental problem under truckloads of cash.  We estimated in 2009 that the world had about 30 trillion USD in ghost assets. Almost half went up in smoke in the six months between September 2008 and March 2009. For our team, it's now the other half’s turn, the 15 trillion USD of ghost assets remaining, purely and simply vanishing between July 2011 and January 2012. And this time, it will also involve government debt, unlike 2008/2009 where it was mostly private players who were affected. To gauge the extent of the coming shock, it is worth knowing that even US banks are starting to reduce their use of US Treasury Bonds to guarantee their transactions for fear of the increasing risks weighing on US government debt (6).  For the financial world’s players, the Autumn 2011 shock will literally be the ground giving way beneath their feet, since it’s really the foundation of the global financial system, the US Treasury Bond, which will plunge sharply (7). US Federal debt and forecasts (2000-2016) (in billions USD) - Sources: US Treasury/ Berruyer / GEAB, 06/2011 In this issue, we discuss the two most dangerous aspects of the Autumn 2011 shock, namely:  . the detonating mechanism of European government debt  . the explosion process of the US bomb in terms of government debts  At the same time, in the context of the acceleration of the rebalancing of global power relationships, we introduce the anticipation of a fundamental geopolitical process for the holding of a Euro-BRICS summit by 2014.  Finally, we focus our recommendations on the means of avoiding being part of the 15 trillion USD in ghost assets that will go up in smoke in the coming months, with a special mention for developments in real estate in Europe whose collapse we used to anticipate for 2015 will start in fact as early as 2012.  In the public announcement of this GEAB issue, we introduce a portion of the anticipation on the detonating mechanism of European government debt. European Central Bank balance sheet holdings (red: asset backed securities / light blue: public sector bonds / green: bank bonds / dark blue: other corporate bonds / beige: other securities) - Sources: Spiegel / BCE, 05/2011 The detonating mechanism of European government debt The Anglo-Saxon financial operators have played sorcerer's apprentice for the last year and a half and the first headlines in the Financial Times in December 2009 on the Greek crisis quickly became a so-called "Euro crisis". We will not dwell on the vicissitudes of this enormous chicanery with a news item (8) orchestrated from the City of London and Wall Street, as we have already devoted many pages to it in a number of GEAB issues throughout this period. Suffice it to say that eighteen months later the Euro is doing well while the dollar continues its downward spiral against major world currencies; and that all those who bet on the collapse of the Eurozone have lost a lot of money. As we anticipated the crisis favors the emergence of a new sovereign, Euroland, which now allows the Eurozone to be much better prepared than Japan, the United States or the United Kingdom (9) for the Autumn 2011 shock ... even if it ends up, quite reluctantly, playing the role of detonator. The "bombardment" (since we must call things by their proper name) (10), interspersed with breaks of several weeks (11), to which Euroland has been subjected during all this time, in fact had three consecutive major effects, two of them far from the results expected by Wall Street and the City: 1. at first (December 2009 - May 2010), it removed the European currency’s sense of invulnerability formed in 2007/2008, introducing doubts about its durability and more precisely putting the idea that the Euro was the natural alternative to the US dollar (or even its successor) into perspective  2. then (June 2010 - March 2011), it conducted Euroland leaders to start work at "top speed" on all measures to safeguard, protect and strengthen the single currency (measures which should have been taken many years ago). In so doing it has revitalized European integration and reinstated the founding core at the head of the European project, thus marginalizing the United Kingdom in particular (12). At the same time it has boosted increasing support for the European currency from the BRICS, headed by China, which after a moment of hesitation became aware of two fundamental points: first Europeans were acting seriously to face up to the problem and secondly, given the Anglo-Saxon determination, the Euro was obviously an essential tool for any attempt to exit the "dollar world" (13).  3. Finally, (April 2011 - September 2011), it is currently compelling the Eurozone to start reaching for the sacrosanct private investors to make them contribute to solving the Greek problem especially via “voluntary” repayment rescheduling (or any other form of cuts in expected profits) (14).  As one can imagine, if the first blow really was one of the objectives pursued by Wall Street and the City (besides the fact of turning attention away from the United Kingdom and United States’ massive problems), on the other hand the other two had effects totally opposite to the desired outcome: to weaken the Euro and reduce its attractiveness worldwide.  Especially since a fourth series is gearing itself up which will see, by early 2012 (15), the launch of a Eurobond mechanism, enabling the sharing of a part of Euroland countries’ debt issuance (16), and the inevitable growing political pressure (17) to increase the share of the private contribution in this broad process of restructuring (18) the debt of the Eurozone’s peripheral countries (19).   Progression of Greek debt and its structure (in € Billions (red : expiring debt ; green : budget deficit ; violet : EU loans ; brown : IMF loans ; blue : other - Sources : Le Figaro / SG CIB, 05/2011 And with this fourth series one enters the heart of the contagion process that will trigger the US federal debt bomb. Because, first, in creating a global media and financial environment ultra-sensitive to the issues of government indebtedness, Wall Street and the City have revealed the unsustainable size of US, British and Japanese government deficits (20). This has even forced the rating agencies, faithful watchdogs of the two financial centres, to engage in a mad race to downgrade countries’ ratings. It is for this reason that the United States now finds itself under the threat of a downgrade, as we had anticipated, even though it seemed unthinkable to most experts only a few months ago. At the same time, the United Kingdom, France, Japan... also find themselves in the rating agencies’ crosshairs (21).  Remember that these agencies have never forecast anything of importance (neither subprime, nor the global crisis, nor the Greek crisis, nor the Arab Spring, ...). If they downgrade willy nilly today it’s because they have been caught at their own game (22). It’s no longer possible to downgrade A without affecting B’s rating if B is no better off. The "assumptions" on the fact that it’s impossible for any particular state to default on its debt have not withstood three years of crisis: this is where Wall Street and the City have fallen into the trap which threatens all aspiring sorcerers’ apprentices. They have not seen it would be impossible for them to control the hysteria kept up over Greek debt. So today it’s the US Congress, with the bitter debate on the debt ceiling and massive budget cuts, that the consequences of the misleading articles in recent months about Greece and the Eurozone enlarge. Once again, our team can only stress that if history has any sense, it’s certainly a sense of irony.   Industrial production in China (red) and India (green) (2006-2011) - Source: Marketwatch / Factset China / India Stats, 06/2011 ----------  Notes:  (1) Including the fact that private investors (especially banks) would be required to contribute to resolve the Greek debt problem.  (2) Without forgetting, of course, US local “muni” debts.  (3) The United States is falling back into recession. Europe is slowing as is China and India. The illusion of a global recovery is now truly over. It is precisely this very disturbing situation which explains why large companies hoard their cash: they don’t want to find themselves, like 2008/2009, dependent on banks which are short of liquidity themselves. According to LEAP/E2020, it’s worthwhile SMEs and individuals giving careful thought to this situation. Source: CNBC, 06/06/2011  (4) James Saft renowned columnist for Reuters and The New York Times, is even on the point of wishing "good luck to dollar hegemony". Source: Reuters, 05/19/2011  (5) The stock exchanges know that the "party" is over with the end of Quantitative Easing in the US and the return of the recession. And financial operators no longer know how to find profitable and not too risky investments.  (6) Source: CNBC/FT, 06/12/2011  (7) Even Saudi Arabia is now publicly concerned, with Prince AlWaleed referring to the "US debt bomb". Source: CNBC, 05/20/2011  (8) The latest example: the June 4th anti-austerity protest in Athens who had painstakingly assembled less than 1,000 protesters, while the Anglo-Saxon media again made headlines of this proof of rejection by the Greek population ... conjuring up thousands of demonstrators. Sources: Figaro, 06/05/2011; Financial Times, 06/05/2011; Washington Post, 06/06/2011  (9) The Telegraph of 06/07/2011 writes, for example, that since 1980 the UK spent £700 billion more than it earned. Much of that sum accounts for the 15 trillion USD in ghost assets which will disappear soon.  (10) We can see the exhaustion of the "end of the Euro" dialogue by the fact that Wall Street is now reduced to get Nouriel Roubini to intervene regularly to attempt to try to give credibility to this fairy story. Poor Roubini, whose forecasting work neither foresaw the global crisis, nor ever exceeded six months, finds himself reduced to having to foresee the "end of the Euro" in the next five years, or at least a fundamental reform of the Eurozone… potentially leading to increased European integration. We quote the author from his recent speech at a Singapore conference repeated in the Figaro of 06/14/2011. So if we summarize Nouriel Roubini’s prediction there would be an end to the Euro in 5 years, unless in fact the Euro is strengthened through the permanent establishment of a "new sovereign", Euroland. What forecasting! Beyond the effect of an eye-catching announcement, which consists of saying that within five years (an infinitely long time in a time of crisis, and Roubini spoke of much shorter maturity dates only a few months ago), one thing or the other can happen. Thank you Dr. Roubini! It's hard to try to forecast and to work for Wall Street at the same time. But indeed, you must take your part in the general (vain) attempt to convince Asians not sell dollar-denominated assets in favor of those in Euros.  (11) When the Anglo-Saxon experts and media really can’t invent anything more to justify keeping « the Euro crisis » as a headline.  (12) But also Sweden whose elite continue to live in the world after 1945, that in which they have been able to enrich themselves by taking advantage of the problems of the rest of the continent. As regards the United Kingdom, the City continues to try in vain to avoid going under the control of the European authorities as we see from this Telegraph article of 05/30/2011. The funniest in this article is the image chosen by the newspaper: a European flag in tatters. Yet it’s really the City which is losing its historic independence in favor of the EU and not the opposite. It is a glaring illustration of the inability to understand the events unfolding in Europe through the British media, even when it’s the Telegraph, otherwise excellent in terms of its coverage of the crisis.  (13) Hence their motivation to buy Euroland debt. Source: Reuters, 05/26/2011  (14) Sources: YahooActu, 06/13/2011; Deutsche Welle, 06/10/2011; Spiegel, 06/10/2011  (15) The crisis will not allow Euroland to wait for 2013, the projected date for revising the system adopted in May 2010, to resolve this discussion.  (16) Various options are being studied but most likely all organized around a system of dual tier government debt issuance: an issue carrying Euroland’s common signature (and, therefore, a very low interest rate) in respect of an amount up to a maximum percentage of each state’s GDP (40%, 50%, 60% ... it’s for Euroland leaders to choose); beyond this threshold, the issue is only guaranteed by the single signature of the State concerned, rapidly involving very high rates for the less serious students in the class.  (17) In this regard, it is regrettable that the international media are more interested in a few thousand Greek demonstrators (see further in this issue for a glaring example of the huge difference between the true numbers and those of the Anglo-Saxon media) supposed to embody the refusal of European austerity and Eurozone weakness rather than the Greeks’ actual expectations through this Greek intellectuals’ open letter which accuses not Euroland, but their own political and financial elite of being unable to respect their commitments and calling for the upgrading of the Greek politico-social system with that of the rest of Euroland. Source: L'Express, 06/09/2011  (18) As regards the word "restructuring", over which the articles or broadcasts of economists and financiers of all kinds rave at length, our team wishes to bring a clear and simple accuracy to it: it is obvious that part of the Greek debt belongs these 15 trillion USD ghost assets that will evaporate in the months to come. No matter the word used, "restructuring", "default"..., as we indicated in previous GEABs, Euroland will organize a process that will cause the least powerful or most exposed creditors to lose significantly on their Greek exposure. This is called a crisis, and it’s exactly what we are going through. And the "national interest" always works in the same way. But anyway, at this point, the problem will be moved to the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom and nobody will pay attention to the Greek case where the amounts are ridiculous in comparison: Greece, €300 billion; USA, 15 trillion dollars.  (19) And the upcoming review by the Karlsruhe Constitutional Court of Appeal against the European Stabilization Fund if it doesn’t call into question judgments already given, will increase the pressure in Germany that the private sector should have a stake in the solutions, that’s to say losses. Source: Spiegel, 06/13/2011  (20) A simple calculation allows us to measure the difference between the current Greek problem and the US crisis in the background: banks in particular will be forced to take a charge of between 10% and 20% of the cost of the Greek debt bailout, being between 30 and 60 billion €. That's what "excites" the rating agencies about European banks these days. The explosion of the US federal debt bomb will at least impose a cost of similar proportions on the banks and other institutional holders of this debt. Therefore, in this case we are talking about (which is a conservative estimate because the very nature of US Treasury Bonds use involves a larger private contribution) amounts between 1,5 and 3 trillion USD. This is consistent with our estimate of 15 trillion in ghost assets which will disappear in the coming quarters.  (21) Sources: Reuters, 06/08/2011; Le Monde, 06/11/2011; FoxNews, 05/30/2011  (22) And one of the consequences of this game is that the Europeans are preparing not only to severely regulate the rating agencies’ methods, but they will quite simply create competitors to Anglo-Saxon agencies, as the Chinese have already done whose Dagong agency believes that the United States has entered a process of defaulting on its debt. By losing the monopoly on measuring risk, Wall Street and the City will thus lose their ability to make or lose fortunes. Sources: CNBC, 06/02/2011; YahooNews, 06/10/2011

GEAB is a frequent contributor to Global Research.  Global Research Articles by GEAB

If

If you can keep your head when all about you others Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:


If you can dream-and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;


If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;


If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"


If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run --
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

Israel, An Impediment To A Nuclear-Free Middle East

Who Owns The Nuclear Weapons?

By Kourosh Ziabari
June 15, 2011
Courtesy Of "Global Research"

You might have frequently heard of the Western mainstream media's claims that Iran is pursuing a military nuclear program which is aimed at developing atomic weapons. Actually, spreading falsehood and untruth about the nature of Iran's peaceful nuclear program has been a constant, unchanging and recurring theme of the Western corporate media's coverage of Iran's events.

Over the past years, the world mainstream media, funded and fueled by certain Western governments to derail Iran's sublime position in the international community through their unyielding black propaganda have laboriously and persistently attempted to pretend that Iran's nuclear program poses a serious threat to the global peace and security and that Tehran is taking steps to create atomic bombs to drop on Israel and European countries.

Unfortunately, the people who believe such claims are credulously unaware of the fact that those who accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons are themselves the largest possessors of the state-of-the-art nuclear weapons and other types of weapons of mass destruction.

It should not be neglected that Iran has always been at the forefront of combating the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and also a victim of such weapons during the 8-year imposed war with the Ba'athist regime of Saddam Hussein which claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iranians, and it was the United States that equipped Saddam with such weapons to use against the Iranian people in an unequal and unjustifiable war in which the brutal Iraqi dictator was unconditionally supported by a strong coalition of the United States and its European allies.

Since the U.S.-manufactured controversy over Iran's nuclear program was ignited in the early 2000s, the White House and its cronies successfully distracted the international attention from the illegal, underground nuclear activities of Israeli regime and helped Tel Aviv to secretively further its nuclear program and build atomic weapons.

According to the Federation of American Scientists, Israel now possesses up to 200 nuclear warheads and since it is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), it cannot be held accountable over its military nuclear program.

The US Congress Office of Technology Assessment has recorded Israel as a country generally reported as having undeclared chemical warfare capabilities, and an offensive biological warfare program.

Since Israel started the development of nuclear weapons in early 1950s, it adopted a so-called policy of "deliberate ambiguity" and concealed its nuclear activities under this counterfeit label to enjoy immunity and avoid responsibility over its nuclear program, meaning that it neither confirms nor denies the possession of nuclear weapons, while even the U.S.-based scientific and research organizations have admitted that it has a perilous nuclear arsenal which is potentially able to evaporate the whole Middle East in a matter of seconds.

On June 19, 1981, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution which urgently called upon Israel to put its nuclear facilities under the comprehensive safeguards of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); however, Israel never heeded the calls of the UNSC and following that resolution, no significant decision was ever made to domesticate Israel and bring its dangerous nuclear facilities under control.

According to Nuclear Weapons Archive website, "the most specific and detailed information to be made public about Israel's nuclear program came from a former mid-level nuclear technician named Mordechai Vanunu. Vanunu had worked at the Machon 2 facility, where plutonium is produced and bomb components fabricated, for 9 years before his increasing involvement in left wing pro-Palestinian politics led to his dismissal in 1986. Due to lax internal security, prior to his departure he managed to take about 60 photographs covering nearly every part of Machon 2."

He made contact with the London Sunday Times and began to write an exclusive story about the details of Israel's nuclear program. Unfortunately for Vanunu, "the Israeli government had found out about his activities and the Mossad arranged to kidnap him and bring him back to Israel for trial," the report added.

Now, Iran has hosted dozens of representatives and experts from over 40 countries in the Second International Nuclear Disarmament Conference in Tehran to discuss the most important nuclear threats which jeopardize the international peace and security.

Last year, Iran had hosted the first Nuclear Disarmament Conference under the title of "Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapon for None."

According to the scholars and experts who took part in this years conference, the possession of nuclear weapons by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council along with Israel which is the sole possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East are among the main concerns of international community which not only thwart the creation of a nuclear-free Middle East but also portray an unquestionable exercise of double standards by the Western powers.

The Tehran conference on nuclear disarmament has concluded that all of the non-NPT members should ratify this treaty and allow the inspection of their nuclear facilities. It has also proposed that Israel should be disarmed as soon as possible, because it's the only owner of nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

Even as even the U.S. intelligence services have confirmed that Iran does not intend to produce nuclear weapons, Tehran is lethally under the pressure of the United States and its European friends over its civilian nuclear program. This is while 9 countries in the world own more than 20,000 nuclear warheads and this leaves us with a basic question: who poses the real threat to international peace and security?


 Global Research Articles by Kourosh Ziabari