Category Archives: U.S.

Fukushima, U.S.

U.S. nuke experts barred from Japanese Prime Minister’s office!

“The Japan-U.S. alliance could collapse, completely contrary to [the recent trend of] being strengthened.”-Nagashima Akihisa, Democratic Party of Japan House of Representatives

The Daily Yomiuri is reporting that from the beginning, U.S. offers of help with the nuke crisis at Fukushima Daiichi, were given the cold shoulder by Japan’s government.

On 12 March, the U.S. ambassador made several calls to Prime Minister Kan’s office, asking him to allow nuclear experts from the U.S. to be involved with the decision making in the Prime Minister’s cabinet.  The answer was no.

U.S. officials pointed out that their B5B measures could offer fast response to the Fukushima Daiichi disaster.  B5B was developed after the 9/11/2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.  It is designed to provide fast response to any attack on a U.S. nuclear plant, with one of the objectives to provide continuous electrical power to the plants.

Lack of electrical power at the Fukushima Daiichi plant accelerated the disaster. So far the worst case scenario, created by U.S. officials, seems to be playing out.  The real reason why the U.S. imposed a much larger evacuation zone, than the Japanese government, was because U.S. analyst said things were going to get worse.

Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, repeatedly told Japanese officials that they should NOT let Tokyo Electric Power Company handle the situation.  He even threatened to have all U.S. citizens evacuated from Japan, not just military families.

Supposedly an official with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, when visiting TEPCo headquarters on 18 March, asked who was really in charge of Japan’s government.

Apparently, it is only after the Japanese government thought it would lose support of the United States, that it got serious about Fukushima Daiichi.

 

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Toyota expects more production problems

“Output reduction in Japan and overseas will most likely continue until September.”-Kohei Takahasi, JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Tokyo

Toyota expects to lose 35,000 vehicles from the North American shut down, and that’s spread over five days.  The problem is that, because of continued nuclear power issues, it looks like parts supply is not going to improve anytime soon.

Almost 70 percent of the Toyota vehicles sold in the U.S., are put together in North America, but, about 85 percent of the parts and materials come from Japan.

The North American car market is important for Toyota, making up about 60% of their profits.

On April 8, Citigroup downgraded Toyota stock to ‘sell’.  Citigroup said the downgrade was because Toyota has not addressed the problems created by the lack of electrical power in Japan.  It’s clear the lack of power in Japan will go on for longer than expected.

 

International, U.S.

Egyptians want U.S. backed military leaders out

Egyptians want the Military leaders out of government.  The military took over after weeks of protest forced long time President Hosni Mubarak to leave.

It just so happened that Egyptian military leaders were in Washington D.C. at the time the protests started.  They helped convince Mubarak to leave, and quickly took over.

Many protesters say that the military rulers are refusing to prosecute Mubarak, and his supporters.  They also think the military is still working with the former government.  Strangely the military says these new protesters are those pro-Mubarak thugs that attacked the anti-Mubarak demonstrators back in February.

So far, in this latest protest, two people have been killed, and 11 wounded by the military and police.

U.S.

Big Fire in Big Texas, Flooding up north in North Dakota, Iowa ripped by Tornadoes, get ready for another wacky weather year

Texas is dealing with unusually dry and windy weather for this time of year, and several fires.  One fire has already burned 71,000 acres, and is out of control.

Up north, North Dakota and Minnesota are dealing with a flooding Red River, thanks to wet weather.  “This is a ferocious river. We have to continue to be careful.”-Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota

The National Weather Service reported tornado sightings by storm chasers and spotters in at least 11 towns and cities in Iowa on Saturday night.  At least three tornadoes caused major damage.  One Iowa county is now dealing with fuel fires caused by the tornadoes.  Their main concern is the high winds could blow the fires out of control.

International, U.S.

NATO shoots down Rebel MiG 23 over Libya

NATO admits they shot down a Libyan rebel MiG 23.  This is causing more problems between rebels and NATO.  NATO has bombed rebel ground troops several times now.

NATO says the downing of the rebel aircraft shows that they are enforcing the UN “no-fly zone”.  NATO says the no-fly zone applies to any Libyan aircraft.

The reason for NATO suddenly attacking a rebel aircraft, could be that the Libyan government has complained that rebel helicopters are being allowed to fly, despite the UN resolution stating that ALL military aircraft would be shot down by the coalition.

International, U.S.

African Union says Libyan government accepts ceasfire, African Union asks NATO to honor ceasfire

“We have completed our mission with the brother leader, and the brother leader’s delegation has accepted the road map as presented by us.”-South African President Jacob Zuma

African Union officials say Moammar Gadhafi accepted their “road map” for a cease-fire with rebels, and will meet with rebel leaders on Monday, April 11.

South African President Zuma also asked NATO to stop their airstrikes, to honor the ceasefire.  Details will not be released until after the Libyan government, and Libyan rebels meet.

Most member countries of the African Union opposed UNSCR 1973, and are upset that Western leaders did not consult with them about attacking one of their African Union members (Libya).

Business/Economics, International, Opinion, U.S.

Will Obama attack Ecuador? He kicked out their ambassador, oil is involved

Thanks to a WikiLeaks release, tensions between the United States and Ecuador are heating up.

The WikiLeaks document showed that the U.S. ambassador to Ecuador, Heather M. Hodges, made some not so nice comments about their President. Apparently President Rafael Correa gave her a chance to retract, or explain, her statements, and she allegedly refused. She was then declared persona non grata (unwelcome) in Ecuador, but not officially kicked out.

Now the United States has actually kicked out the ambassador from Ecuador. The U.S. State Department says it’s in retaliation for Ecuador ordering Hodges out of the country, which President Correa disputes. Correa says they simply said she was no longer welcome, but they were not “kicking her out”.

This continues a long list of problems between Ecuador and the U.S. In the past few years the United States was pushing Ecuador to allow U.S. military bases to be set up on their soil. The official reason was to fight drugs in Columbia, but many people believe it was to encircle Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. President Correa responded, in 2009, by saying that the only way the U.S. could build bases in Ecuador, was if Ecuador was allowed to build bases in the United States.

Now we have the WikiLeaks/ambassador fiasco. What’s next, oil? Maybe!

Ecuador has oil! They have been fighting international legal battles to prevent oil companies from coming in and drilling. That’s right, they do NOT want anymore oil pumped out of their ground. Ecuador does have active oil fields, but they don’t want anymore. The oil corporations, backed by governments (Chevron/United States), are saying to bad so sad, you just a piddly country, what you gonna do about it?

So far Ecuador has been petitioning United Nations members, but not getting much support.  There’s estimated to be hundreds of millions of barrels of oil still to be drilled and pumped out in Ecuador.  And with the price of oil making it more tempting, could President Obama (or any other future U.S. president) be planning some kinda humanitarian military intervention in Ecuador?

 

International, U.S.

Another broken Obama Promise, Gates says we will stay in Iraq

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Iraq today. He gave a speech to U.S. troops, but it wasn’t about leaving Iraq, it was about staying.

U.S. forces are scheduled to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, under a 2008 deal negotiated by George Bush Jr.

But Gates told troops that the Iraqi government now wants the U.S. to stay longer, and Gates said: “We’re open to that.”

About 10,000 Iraqis protested Gate’s visit, demanding that U.S. “get out”.

 

International, U.S.

Iraq attacks Pro-U.S. Iranian base

Iraq invaded the base of the Pro-United States People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran. The base is located inside Iraq, and has been there for 25 years (even during Saddam Hussein’s time, more proof how much the U.S. was involved with Saddam).

The U.S. has been supporting, covertly, the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran for decades, in their attacks against the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Even though the U.S. supports the Iranian rebels, the U.S. also lists them as terrorists.

Iraqi forces claim they attacked the Iranian rebels because they rioted, and started throwing rocks at them. There’s no explanation of why they rioted.

The Iranian rebels say the Iraqi government was acting on the behalf of the Iranian government.

Iraqi forces say they killed at least 25 Iranian rebels, and wounded 320.