Category Archives: International

International, Technology

More March 11 Tsunami Mile Stones

The latest studies of the effects of the massive, and multiple, tsunamis that hit Japan’s northeastern Pacific Coast, shows record seabed shift, and just how far a 140 ton rock can travel.

Researchers from the Chiba Institute of Technology and Tsukuba University, discovered that a 140 ton boulder was moved 470 meters (1,541 feet) by the massive waves.  The boulder was part of a breakwater along the coast line of Sanriku region.

Regarding the sea bed, the Japanese Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology compared seabed maps made in 1999 and 2004, to those made only days after the March quake. Going by those maps, the sea bed actually slipped 50 meters (164 feet), that’s a record recorded slip!  Previously it was estimated the sea bed shifted 24 meters (79 feet).  It was also discovered that the sea bed rose 10 meters (33 feet), equal to a 16 story building!

Business/Economics, International, Technology

Government & Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo says new radiation leak is pouring Strontium into the Pacific Ocean

On December 4, Tokyo Electric says they found a leak in a desalinization unit.  It’s not a small leak, so far 45 tons of contaminated water has poured out.

What’s really interesting is that the de-salting unit is supposed to be treating water that had already had radioactive contaminants removed.  TEPCo is saying the water is contaminated with 130,000 becquerels per cubic centimeter of strontium!

Company officials say it is highly likely that the strontium contaminated water made it into the Pacific Ocean, because there is a drainage ditch nearby leading to the ocean.  It’s most likely strontium 90, which has a half life of 28.8 years, and causes many cancers including bone cancer.

TEPCo also made confusing statements; one said workers had checked the unit just 21 hours prior and found no signs of leaking, but then in another statement TEPCo officials admitted they did not act fast enough (a now typical trait of TEPCo management) as it was known that water was building up inside the unit, but they thought it would not leak out.

TEPCO says it will take them two weeks to improve their leak detection of the water treatment units.

International, U.S.

World War 3: Germany confirms Iran sorry for U.K. embassy attack

Despite what British officials, and U.S. and U.K. media have been saying, more and more governments are confirming that Iran did indeed officially apologize for Iranian university students attacking the British embassy in Iran.

Germany is the latest: Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle says Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi “…was deeply sorry for what has happened…” and vowed “…to do everything to prevent such an incident from happening again.”

This follows Spanish officials reporting the same thing.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

World War 3: U.S. troops evacuating from Pakistan

On December 4, U.S. forces began evacuating Pakistan’s Shamsi air base, after the Pakistani government, backed by China, gave them 15 days to get out or else.

Local Pakistani TV stations reported seeing U.S. forces leaving the air base. Their reporters observed U.S. transport aircraft landing at the base, and U.S. personnel loading luggage and equipment on the planes.

GEO also reported that security around the air base has been increased.

To try and convince the Pakistani government to change its mind, the foreign minister of UAE paid a visit to Pakistani President, Asif Ali Zardari. He said no.

Also, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, tried to get Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani to change his mind about boycotting the Bonn Conference. He said no.

Pakistan’s embolden anti-U.S. stance comes after making new deals with China, increasing Chinese military support for Pakistan.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Economic War: Get ready for stocks to crash! China continues ping pong games with European & U.S. bail outs, now says No Way!

“The argument that China should rescue Europe does not stand, as reserves are not managed that way…China’s purchases of European bonds, International Monetary Fund bonds and U.S. bonds are also based on those principles.”-Fu Yin, Vice Foreign Minister of China

Back on November 28, the Commerce Minister of China, Chen Deming, said they were more than willing to save struggling economies: “Some European countries are facing a debt crisis and hope to convert their assets to cash and would like foreign capital to acquire their enterprises. We will be closely watching and pushing forward the progress.”

Now, December 3, an official higher up than Chen says no way.  The Vice Minister of China, Fu Yin, says China’s $3.2 trillion in foreign reserves should be managed under the principles of “safety, liquidity and proper profitability”.

Apparently bailing out the United States, European countries, or even the IMF, does not meet those requirements.

Fu restated a requirement for future bailouts, that Chen indicated a week ago; any bail outs must play by China’s rules: “Successful investment should be reciprocal.”

 

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: British embassy bombed in Bahrain

A minivan blew up near the U.K.’s embassy in Bahrain. This happened after it was revealed that the pro-U.S. government of Bahrain was hiring U.S. and British security forces to come in and help squash the ongoing rebellion of the people of Bahrain.

The majority of the people of Bahrain are Shia Muslims, some ethnic Iranians.

On March 14, troops from Wahhabi/Salafi dominated Saudi Arabia, and the Wahhabi/Salafi dominated United Arab Emirates, invaded to help the anti-Shia Bahraini government squash the peaceful protesters.  That hasn’t stopped the protests, so now guns for hire from the United States and United Kingdom have been contracted.

Contrary to what the main stream U.S. media says, the Bahraini royal family are Wahhabi/Salafi Muslims, the same as Osama bin Laden, and the majority of the so called al Qaeda.

Bahraini government officials say Shia dominated Iran is behind the explosion near the U.K. embassy.

Bahrain is also where the headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet is located.

 

 

 

Business/Economics, International

Government Incompetence: 25,700 Brits froze to death because they could not afford to heat their homes! Charles Dickens where are you?

“According the national office of statistics, there were 25,700 deaths relating to fuel poverty in 2010-11, this is shameful. And sadly is likely to rise in line with the fuel poverty figure increase.”-Mike Jeram, UNISON, the U.K.’s biggest public sector trade union

According to U.K. government reports, the number of people who can not afford to heat their homes, called fuel poverty, makes up about one quarter of the British population, an increase from the previous winter.

“The government has yet again made false promises, as it looks likely to fail its legal duty to end fuel poverty by 2016….the government is pushing people further into poverty with its austerity agenda!”-Mike Jeram

The Institute of Fiscal Studies predicts that British households’ incomes in 2015 would be worse than their income in 2002!

International

Scotland issues Declaration of Independence! Your Scotland, Your Future!

“It is a great way to give people the information they want about the road to independence and the kind of Scotland we can build when the Scottish Parliament has responsibility for all the decisions affecting Scotland.”-Nicola Sturgeon, SNP Deputy Leader and Member of Scottish Parliament

The Scottish National Party (SNP) is publishing 500,000 issues of what is essentially a declaration of independence from the United Kingdom!  It’s titled Your Scotland, Your Future!

A referendum on Scotland’s independence is planned for 2014/2015.

 

International

Government Incompetence: The Swiss say the British are lying about Iranian embassy take over

Swiss reporters, who witnessed the take over of the British embassy in Iran, say British claims that the Iranian government did nothing to stop it, is a lie.

Also, British envoy to Iran, Dominick Chilcott, claimed he and his staff suffered an ordeal at the hands of Iranian college students who entered the embassy.

John Cattman and Michael Verase, correspondents working for Swiss German language St Galler Tagblatt newspaper, said that could not have happened. They say they witnessed all British staff had moved into the protected basement before the Iranian university students came onto the embassy compound.

They also said that Iranian police were trying to get the students off the embassy grounds.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

World War 3: Iran shoots down U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle, China says it will support Iran even if it means the Third World War, part of recent moves towards War

“Iran’s military has shot down an intruding RQ-170 American drone in eastern Iran.”-Iranian government statement

In the early morning hours on December 4 (U.S. time), the Iranian military shot down a U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).  The U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone is used for intelligence, surveillance and for target acquisition.

An unnamed Iranian military official said Iran will take action against all foreign UAVs, even those outside Iran’s borders: “…the operational and electronic measures taken by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Armed Forces against invading aircraft will not remain limited to Iran’s borders.”

This is part of a quickening pace of actions on all sides that look like war is inevitable.

Just before Iran shot down the U.S. UAV, officials with the People’s Liberation Army National Defense University (China’s equivalent to any of the U.S. military academies) announced full military support of Iran: “China will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a Third World War.”-Major General Zhang Zhaozhong

Just this past week the U.S. Treasury Department asked all nations to stop buying oil from Iran (a futile move I pointed out).  If anyone really knows the ‘why’ of why Japan attacked the United States on December 7, 1941, it is because the U.S. stopped all oil sales to Japan. At that time the U.S. was the world’s main supplier of oil.

Just a few days ago the Japanese government responded to the current request from the U.S. Treasury by saying that out of necessity they can not stop buying Iranian oil.  Currently nearly 10% of the oil Japan gets comes from Iran. With more than 80% of their nuclear power plants off line, Japan’s need for petroleum is skyrocketing: “We need to be very careful in making such a decision, given that our priority is securing energy supply in the aftermath of the massive earthquake.”-statement from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs

I also pointed out that the result of such an oil ban would actually hurt us little guys: “As soon as such an issue is raised seriously the oil price would soar to above $250 a barrel.”-Ramin Mehmanparast, Iran’s Foreign Ministry

Also in the past week, the United Kingdom cut off all diplomatic ties with Iran, after Iranian protestors took control of the British Embassy in Tehran (on November 29, U.S. time).  This despite the  fact that Iranian police arrested at least 12 of the protestors, and Iran officially apologized. Western governments, and media refused to report the apology but Spanish officials confirmed it:  “He said he was aware that it had violated the Vienna Convention and for that reason he was passing on to his apologies.”-Trinidad Jimenez, Foreign Minister of Spain

Even British officials admitted that Iran apologized, but said they didn’t care: “…this remains a very serious failure by the Iranian government.”-William Hague, Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom

U.S. Vice President, Joe Biden, said there’s no proof that the Iranian government was behind the U.K. embassy take over: “I don’t have any indication how and or if it was orchestrated.”

The U.K. has thrown out all Iranian diplomats in Britain, and Iran has now done the same with British diplomats.

Norway also closed their embassy in Tehran, temporarily. They re-opened their embassy on December 1.

On December 1, former Assistant Counsel of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Franklin Lamb, said Iran was being set up for inevitable war: “The other side (the UK) is provoking them (Iranian government). Hopefully the Tehran government will not fall in some of these traps that I think are being laid for it in a very dangerous way.”

On December 3, Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, said he would not allow the U.S. to use Iraq as a base for attacking Iran: “Clearly we are no enemy to Iran and we do not accept that some who have problems with Iran would use us as a battlefield.”

Recently al-Maliki was the target of an assassination bomb.

On December 2, U.S. Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, said Iran is “a very grave threat to all of us”, and, any threat to the shipping of oil out of the Persian Gulf was the “red line” that would cause the U.S. to attack Iran.  Iran has warned that if they are threatened they will close the Strait of Hormuz, blocking all shipping from the Persian Gulf.

Also on Decmber 2, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, and current Security Council President, Vitaly Churkin, said the latest IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear program was a trick, because Iran was actually cooperation on the nuclear issue: “We thought that we were on the verge of restarting those talks on the basis of our proposals, because we started receiving some encouraging signals, substantive signals from the Iranian side…”

On December 1, the U.S. Senate passed, yet again, new sanctions against Iran, this time targeting the banks of Iran, and any foreign or U.S. banks doing business with Iran.

Also on December 1, the European Union passed new sanctions against 37 Iranian individuals and 143 companies/organizations from Iran, or doing business with Iran.

In response to the latest sanctions, Russia and China warned the West: “We hope the countries involved will keep calm, rational and restrained to avoid emotional actions.”-Hong Lei, Chinese Foreign Ministry

“We speak out categorically against cranking up a spiral of tension and confrontation on issues linked with Iran. We believe that this…is fraught with severe consequences.”-Alexander Lukashevich, Russian Foreign Ministry

And all these statements and events took place in just the past week.