“Some people think that they can trouble Iran through oil sanctions but I should say that we have so much reserves that even if we don’t sell oil for two to three years, the country will be administered easily.”-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, April 10, 2012
April 11, 2012, Iran follows through on threat to cut off oil to Germany, now Italy is next.
Iran also announced sanctions against 100 European Union companies. Sasan Khodaei, Deputy President of Iran Trade Promotion Organization, said the companies will no longer be able to sell products to Iran.
One reason for the sanctions is that Iran is now able to make the products for themselves.
Hydraulic Press Manufacturing (HPM) was a 135 year old Ohio plastics company, but it went bust in 2009.
However, you can still buy products with the HPM brand, but it’s not a U.S. company anymore.
In 2011 a Chinese company called Guangdong Yizumi Precision Machinery, bought all the rights to HPM and all its products. Production has been started in southern China.
The Chinese company says they’ve even hired former U.S. employees of HPM. They are setting up shop in the United States and already have contracts in north America worth $3 million USD.
The U.S. state of Utah experienced a leak of personal information on the internet after a state Medicaid worker accidentally published the info of 280,000 people on the internet.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is also looking into a possible hack job as well, that affected another 500,000 people.
In total almost 800,000 people, who’ve applied for help with medical care, are affected.
Utah state officials claim they will notify those whose info was made public. They also warn that people should expect scammers to try to use their personal info to get to their money.
April 10, 2012, Sony announced the biggest loss in its history!
Sony says it lost about $6.4 billion USD for their quarter ending in March! That’s $4 billion more than they first estimated back in February.
Sony officials blame the monster loss on huge declines in sales in the United States!
Another Japanese company, Sharp, says it will post record loses as well.
Sharp says loses could be as high as $4.6 billion USD, much higher than first thought back in February!
They also blame lack of economic recovery, saying their TV sales have crashed!
Sharp is now forced to sell controlling stake in its liquid crystal panel factory to a Taiwan company, Hon Hai Precision Industry.
April 6, 2012, a 45 year old California man pled guilty to ripping off the United States Postal Service using a trucking company called Golden Pacific Logistics (GPL).
According to the prosecutor the man was awarded $6.4 million USD in contracts to do business with the USPS, of which $4.4 million were fraudulent. His 39 year old wife pled guilty back on March 28.
The man was also a U.S. Postal Service manager, and he used his position to get the fraudulent contracts for his trucking company. They will be sentenced on July 11.
In Connecticut, a 50 year old former postal clerk was just sentenced for stealing money orders he sold to customers, and for embezzling union funds.
He managed to steal $11,300 worth of money orders by voiding them after he sold them to customers, or by going through people’s mail and taking the postal money orders. He ripped off his fellow postal workers by stealing more than $8,800 in Postal Union funds, while serving as president of Local 3093 Union from 2007 through 2008.
He was sentenced to five years probation, the first six months being home arrest with electronic monitoring, 200 hours of community service and paying restitution of $20,201.
The USPS is also warning people of a malware (malicious software) email.
People are getting emails basically telling them they have a refund waiting, and it looks like you’re clicking on the USPS ClicknShip link, but you’re actually opening a program that collects all your info off your computer.
The USPS says just delete such emails, and contact them directly about any refunds.
Note: The United States Postal Service operates on money that comes from you and me buying postal products, not our taxes!
U.S. department of Energy reported on April 6, 2012, that radioactive particles of cesium and cobalt are being found on construction materials.
A contractor discovered the contamination. Officials think it could be from the demolition of old buildings in that area of the INL site, which would imply that the buildings were contaminated before being torn down.
A local east Idaho DOE spokesman said there was no concern “…unless you get it onto your skin…” and you had “…prolonged exposure…”
Employees and vehicles are now being checked for contamination as they enter and leave the site.
According to Azerbaijani media, Iran’s Oil Ministry is confirming that their oil exports are dropping due to Western oil sanctions.
Iranian oil officials say Japan has made the biggest cut in oil purchases, despite recently getting an exemption from the United States. Japan cut Iranian oil imports by 28% from January to April 2012.
However, Iran’s oil exports have also gone down due to their own oil embargo of the European Union. The EU’s own oil sanctions go into effect on July 1.
Speaking of Japan, Tokyo Electric, the operator of the nuclear disaster reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, has been using oil to generate electricity, a lot more oil.
TEPCo reported that in March 2012 they used four times the amount of oil than in March 2011. They also used the most natural gas since August 2011, and August was a record for gas use by TEPCo; 2.079 million tons.
Regarding natural gas, the United States is so full of it, that there is no where left to store the stuff. Underground salt caverns, depleted oil fields and aquifers are being used but even they are rapidly filling.
The result is that drilling and pumping of the LNG will have to stop, natural gas prices are at ten year lows (we consumers like that). Maybe this will mean an end to fracking and man made earthquakes?
But that might be bad news for places like Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The town has seen an economic boom; their tax revenues have gone up more than 10% between 2006 and 2010, and 115 new business in and around Lycoming County have been created.
In Egypt, ever since the January 2011 Revolution their gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan keeps getting blown up. April 9, 2012, it got blown up again, for the 14th time since the Revolution.
In Libya, U.S. officials are investigating oil deals made with Italy’s Eni, and France’s Total. The companies are being investigated for their connections to Muammar Gaddafi.
Eni officials said certain payments made to Gaddafi might have violated the U.S. Foreign Corruption Practice Act. The U.S. is helping the new Libyan government investigate many oil companies, and could result in huge fines being levied in favor of the new government.
The Washington Post reporting that the United States did indeed spy on Iran using UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles, aka drones).
The report says the National Security Agency has at least three years worth of drone surveillance data on Iran. The program is being run by the Central Intelligence Agency’s Iran Operations Division (aka Persia House).
April 7, Yemen military officials say a U.S. drone strike killed 24 anti-government Mujahideen in two locations. They say some of those killed were foreign Arabs.
There are several anti-government groups in Yemen, two are called Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and Partisans of Sharia.
Reports this past week say that the continued use of drones in Yemen could draw the U.S. into a full blown civil war: ”The more the U.S. applies its current policy, the stronger Al Qaeda seems to get.”–Charles Schmitz, American Institute of Yemen Studies
“Drones are a weapon of terror in many ways, and the kind of hostility this is going to breed may not be worth the counter-terrorism gains.”-Barbara Bodine, former U.S. ambassador to Yemen
“Heavily armed American soldiers have begun appearing in large numbers at the Sheraton Hotel in the capital, Sana, a Yemeni official said.“-Los Angeles Times
Also on April 7, Israeli forces attacked Gaza Strip with drones. Israeli officials said they targeted two men on a motorcycle in the town of Rafah: “Aircraft thwarted a rocket launch in the southern Gaza Strip.”-IDF statement
Despite claiming to have “thwarted” a rocket launch by Palestinians, two rockets were launched at Israel the next morning, April 8.
April 6, “An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicle crashed in northern Afghanistan…”-ISAF statement
No further details were presented. Some reports also said a NATO helicopter crashed in the same area, but it might be witnesses confusing the rotary wing drone for a manned helicopter.
There are conflicting reports about drone operations ending in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Most reports say drone operations will end after 2014, but there is a report that says assassination drones (aka MQ 9 Reapers) will actually quadruple their terror activity until 2016!
The report says the Reapers will operate from Australia’s Cocos Islands: “But don’t expect the worldwide drone war now being waged in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen to wind down. To the contrary, an Air Force announcement posted online this week indicates the Pentagon anticipates more than quadrupling the size of the global drone war over the next four years.”-Salon, Air Force ramps up drone war
April 5, the U.S. puppet government of Somalia stated to the United Nations that they have given the U.S. permission to use drones against their own people.
“I’m not going to get into matters that relate to intelligence. I will say that the United States has been and remains extremely focused-as do all members of the international community-on combating the terrorist threat that Al Shabaab poses, as an active threat not only to Somali but to the people of the region and beyond, in particular, given its active affiliation with Al Qaeda.“-Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the UN
April 3, a U.S. drone crashed and exploded in Somalia. The drone went down near the town of El-Bur, which is considered a stronghold of the anti-Western government Mujahidden group called al-Shabaab. However, the residents of the town say al-Shabaab fighters left the town on March 24.
Not even a week after Japan set tougher limits on radioactive cesium in food, but more mushroom farms are found to be contaminated.
In a town 300 kilometers (186.4 miles) from Fukishima Daiichi, a farm in Kanagawa Prefecture discovered their mushrooms contain 141 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram.
The new safe limits are 100 becquerels (prior to that the government was allowing food with 500 becquerels to be sold!).
Bamboo shoot farms in Chiba Prefecture have also turned up contaminated.
Ibaraki Prefecture also reporting that bamboo shoots and shiitake mushrooms are contaminated.
In Gunma Prefecture, beef is contaminated with 106 becquerels of radioactive cesium, although the new safe limits for beef don’t go into effect until October! Gunma officials say they are still asking cattle ranchers not to ship the beef.
ONE YEAR LATER: SOME FUKUSHIMA FARM ANIMALS WILL BE ALLOWED TO LIVE