Tag Archives: crime

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Class Warfare: Quantitative Easing benefits top 5% of the rich, neutral or negative effect for everyone else! More proof it’s the fault of the Too Big to Fails!

23 August 2012, the Bank of England tried to make it look as though flooding the markets with cash is benefiting everyone. But their own words revealed the truth: “…asset purchases have boosted the value of households’ financial wealth held outside pension funds, although holdings are heavily skewed, with the top 5% of households holding 40% of these assets.”

Quantitative easing is a monetary policy that tries to stimulate the economy by buying up privately held financial assets.  But as the Bank of England (BoE) pointed out, 40% of those assets are owned by only 5% of the people in the United Kingdom!  You can be sure it’s a similar situation in the United States.

The BoE also admitted that traditional ‘savers’ are the ones who’re losing, as interest rates on traditional savings accounts are at record lows.  So much for trying to get people to put money away for a rainy day.

One British company, that offers financial services for people over 50 years of age, pointed out that retirees are the big losers in all this quantitative easing (QE): “…the 21 million over 50s…have been negatively impacted……It is asserted, but not proven, that pension savers are no worse off due to QE gilt buying [gilt is a British term for government bonds], because the value of their pension savings has gone up to offset the fall in the annuity income they will receive when converting their pension fund into a pension income. This assertion is simply not correct and the reality is very different for those recently or soon to be retired.”-Ros Altmann, Saga

The BoE tried to smooth things over by saying the worst that could happen to retirement funds is nothing: “….QE is estimated to have had a broadly neutral impact on the value of the annuity income that can be purchased from a typical personal pension pot invested in a mixture of bonds and equities.”

The British National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) responded by pointing out that if pension funds were already in trouble before the QE started in 2009, and the QE has a neutral impact, then nothing has been improved (except for the rich).  The NAPF states that what has actually happened is that retirement funds are worse off as a result of QE: “…schemes that were already in substantial deficit before the financial crisis are likely to have seen those deficits increased.”

Essentially; quantitative easing only helps the 5% of the people (elites) holding financial assets (such as bonds), it is doing nothing, or actually making things worse, for 95% of the people!!!

Fukushima

One Year Later: Nuclear waste estimates from Fukushima Daiichi revised…upward!

21 August 2012, the Environment Ministry of Japan has revised upward the estimated amount of radioactive waste in nine prefectures around Fukushima Daiichi.

As of now, there is 42,575 tons of waste, containing radioactive cesium levels of more than 8,000 becquerels per kilogram, in storage.  Officials originally estimated that only 50,000 tons of debris would be contaminated with that much radiation, but it’s now obvious there is much more.

A newly passed law makes the national government of Japan responsible for disposal of all nuclear waste.  Recently it was decided that four or five prefectures will be designated as permanent nuclear waste disposal sites.  However, there is great concern over the fact that Japan is crisscrossed by seismic faults.  Officials stated that any new waste site must not be built near a fault line.

Not surprisingly at least 75% of the contaminated waste is being collected in Fukushima Prefecture.

Fukushima

One Year Later: Fish contaminated with 380 times safe limit of radiation! More proof the GE designed disaster reactors are still spewing!

21 August 2012, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCo) announced it has caught fish near the failed Fukushima Daiichi reactors that have as much as 38,000 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium!

TEPCo says they’ve caught 20 kinds of fish and shellfish from 5 locations along the Pacific coast, just 1 kilometer (0.62 mile) off Minamisoma City, from mid July to the beginning of August.

A type of trout was contaminated with the most cesium, 38,000 becquerels.  That’s 380 times the safe limit set by the Japanese government!  To top that, the last time TEPCo tested local fish the amount of contamination was 18.8 times the safe limit!

Fishing was allowed to resume about 50 kilometers northeast of Fukushima Daiichi, on a trial bases, but not for rock trout or other fish that are showing up highly contaminated in TEPCo’s surveys.

ONE YEAR LATER: DOGS & CATS STILL ABANDONED IN RADIATION ZONES, GOVERNMENT NOW SEARCHING FOR OWNERS. OTHER PETS FORCED INTO SHELTERS BECAUSE OWNERS CAN’T KEEP THEM.

Technology, U.S.

U.S. Education front for child porn industry? Idaho education official admits to producing more than a terabyte of child porn!

A 45 year old Meridian Middle School counselor (in Idaho) admitted to police that he had more than one terabyte of child pornography on dozens of computers in his house.  According to Ada County prosecutor, the school counselor also told cops he produced some of the porn.

A boy was found in his home and claimed to have been molested many times by the school official.

The counselor was arrested 18 August 2012, after police spent most of Friday night searching his home. He was arraigned in an Idaho court on 20 August.  He faces 10 counts of sexual exploitation and is being held on a $1 million USD bond.

The counselor says he is part of an internet group that produces and trades child porn. Despite his admissions to police, the Meridian School District continues to employ him, he is currently on administrative leave (although it appears they have removed his name from their website).

International, U.S.

World War 3: U.S. occupation of Afghanistan; 17 Aug – 20 Aug. Green on Blue attacks continue to increase. More Kiwis killed. U.S. incompetence, kills people who caught a murderer with drone strike!

20 August 2012

USA (USA without periods means United States Army) General Martin Dempsey is in Afghanistan to find out why so many Afghan government forces are getting pissed off enough at U.S. forces that they open fire upon them.  Dempsey is meeting with USMC General John Allen.

ISAF stated: “An International Security Assistance Force service member died when an individual wearing an Afghan Uniformed Police uniform turned his weapon against ISAF service members in southern Afghanistan today.”

In Paktiya Province, a convoy belonging to an advisor to President Hamid Karzai, ran over a mine: “Mriza Ali Zadran, brother of Amanullah Khan Zadran, his uncle and his nephew were killed following the blast.”-Rohullah Samoon, governor of Paktiya

19 August 2012

ISAF stated: “Three International Security Assistance Force service members died following an improvised explosive device attack in eastern Afghanistan today.”

ISAF claims they killed a “leader” in Kunar Province, using a NATO airstrike.

In Bamiyan Province, at least four New Zealand Kiwi troops were killed, after crossing a road where Mujahideen planted a mine.

Afghan police officials in Kandahar Province claim a policeman shot and killed a U.S. led occupying soldier. They say the shooting took place inside a police station.

USMC General John Allen met with President Hamid Karzai, to discuss the increasing Green on Blue attacks.  This after numb nuts U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta demanded Karzai do something about such attacks.

In Kunar Province, villagers caught a murderer.  The man was convicted of killing another man from a rival family.  But at the execution, where about 80 people had gathered, the United States launched a drone strike, killing about 60. ISAF said this about the drone strike:   “…there are no civilian casualties…”  ISAF swears all the people present were Mujahideen planning an attack.

18 August 2012

In Kunar Province, local government officials say the United States killed four civilians during an airstrike.

In Helmand Province, U.K. Ministry of Defence says one of their occupying Red Coat soldiers was killed.

17 August 2012

In Kandahar Province, two U.S. occupying personnel were wounded by an Afghan government soldier.

ISAF stated: “Two U.S. Forces-Afghanistan service members died this morning as a result of an insider threat attack in Farah province, Afghanistan today. A member of the Afghan Local Police turned his weapon against two USFOR-A service members. The attacker was shot and killed.”

In Faryab Province, an Afghan politician was assassinated. He was shot while walking out of a Mosque.

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: United Nations threatens investigation into U.S. drone strikes!

“…users of targeted killing technology should be required to subject themselves, in the case of each and every death, to impartial investigation. If they do not establish a mechanism to do so, it will be my recommendation that the UN should put the mechanisms in place through the Human Rights Council, the General Assembly and the Office of the High Commissioner.…..The Obama administration continues formally to adopt the position that it will neither confirm nor deny the existence of the drone program, whilst allowing senior officials to give public justifications of its supposed legality in personal lectures and interviews. In reality the administration is holding its finger in the dam of public accountability. There are now a large number of law suits, in different parts of the world, including in the U.K., Pakistan and in the U.S. itself, through which pressure for investigation and accountability is building.”-Ben Emmerson, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism

In the past week more than 27 people were killed by U.S. UAV strikes, in Pakistan.  The victims included women and children.

Also in the past week, at least eight civilians were killed, and 30 wounded, by U.S. drone strikes in Somalia.  At least three people were killed by U.S. drone strike in Yemen.

On 15 August 2012, Pakistan’s Senate Committee on Defence and Defence Production released their own study on just who the victims of drone strikes are. They concluded that increasingly the victims are not combatants!

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: South America united against British Empire! UNASUR 7 point resolution demands U.K. obey international laws, hopes for peaceful settlement

Declaration of Guayaquil
IN SUPPORT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ECUADOR
THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF UNASUR

The Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of UNASUR extraordinary meeting in the city of Guayaquil, on August 19, 2012, considering:

That the Minister of Foreign Trade and Integration of Ecuador, informed the Council that the citizen Julian Assange, requested on 19 June 2012, political asylum in the Embassy of Ecuador in London, a matter on which the Governments of Ecuador, the U.K. and Sweden, have been holding diplomatic talks about the demands for the extradition of Mr. Assange and the request for asylum;

That Ecuador was considering the request for asylum in accordance with the principles of protection of human rights and international law;

On 15 August, the Government of the Republic of Ecuador was notified in a U.K. memorandum a threat to “take action to arrest Mr. Assange in the current facilities of the Embassy” by invoking its national law on facilities diplomatic and Consular of 1987 (diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987);

That pursuant to Article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, of which the U.K. is a signatory, “premises of the mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State may not enter them without the consent of the Head of Mission” and that “the premises of the mission, their furnishings and other property thereon and the means of transport of the mission may not be immune from search, requisition, attachment or execution”;

That according to the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, states must refrain from the threat or use of force or to act in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations in international relations, and solve their differences peacefully.

That the Security Council of the United Nations, in SC/10463 press release of November 29, 2011, condemned in the strongest terms violations of diplomatic immunity and recalled the fundamental principle of the inviolability of diplomatic missions states consular receptors in relation to the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

UNASUR declaration:

1. Express its solidarity and support to the Government of the Republic of Ecuador to the threat of violation of local diplomatic mission.

2. Reaffirm the sovereign right of states to grant asylum.

3.  Strongly condemn the threat of use of force between states and to reiterate the full observance of the principles enshrined in international law, respect for sovereignty and the faithful observance of international treaties.

4. To reaffirm the fundamental principle of the inviolability of the premises of diplomatic missions and consular offices and the obligation of the receiving states, in relation to the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

5. Reaffirm the principle of international law under which no law can be invoked for failure to complete an international obligation, as well is reflected in Article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969.

6.  Reiterate the relevance of institutions of asylum and refuge to protect the human rights of people who believe that their life or limb is threatened.

7.  Urge the parties to continue dialogue and direct negotiations in search of a mutually acceptable settlement under international law.

Guayaquil, August 19, 2012, 21:30 hours

Union of South American Nations are: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela

International, Technology, U.S.

World War 3: South America gettin’ riled ’bout Julian Assange. Bradley Manning international hero!

“Inside this embassy in the dark, I could hear teams of police swarming up into the building through its internal fire escape……. If the U.K. did not throw away the Vienna Conventions the other night, it is because the world was watching.”-Julian Assange, 19 August 2012 statement from Ecuadorian embassy in London

“We are continuing to seek a diplomatic solution. We remain ready to continue the conversations we have had, but that is now a question for the Ecuadorians.”-British government statement

“We warn the government of the United Kingdom that it will face grave consequences around the world if it directly breaches the territorial integrity of the embassy of the Republic of Ecuador in London!”-Bolivian Alliance for the People of Our America

“I ask President Obama to do the right thing. The United States must renounce its witch hunt against WikiLeaks. The United States must dissolve its FBI investigation. The United States must vow that it will not seek to prosecute our staff or our supporters. The United States must pledge, before the world, that it will not pursue journalists for shining a light on the secret crimes of the powerful!”-Julian Assange, 19 August statement from Ecuadorian embassy in London

“We believe this is a bilateral issue between Ecuador and the United Kingdom and that the OAS [U.S. created Organization of American States] has no role to play in this matter.”-U.S. State Department statement

“They’re [United Kingdom] out of touch. Who do they think they’re dealing with? Can’t they see that this is a dignified and sovereign government which will not kneel down before anyone?”-Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador

“And to the [U.S.] Army private who remains in military prison in Ft Leavenworth, Kansas, who was found by the United Nations to have endured months of tortuous detention in Quantico, Virginia, and who has yet, after two years in prison, to see a trial, he must be released.  Bradley Manning must be released!  If Bradley Manning did as he was accused, he is a hero and an example to all of us, and one of the World’s foremost political prisoners.  Bradley Manning must be released! On Wednesday Bradley Manning spent his 815th day on detention without trial. The legal maximum is 120 days!”–-Julian Assange, 19 August statement from Ecuadorian embassy in London

“This is a sort of declaration of war. The U.S. has degenerated into a rogue state. What the U.S. wants, the U.S. gets from its allies, regardless of if it’s legal or if it’s ethical or in breach of human or legal rights. We’re all lackeys.”-Christine Assange, mother of Julian Assange

“This is not a bilateral dispute between two countries, it is about respect for international law, respect for humanitarian law and respect for embassies and diplomatic corps!”-Nicolás Maduro, Chancellor of Venezuela

“This Friday, there will be an emergency meeting of the foreign ministers of Latin America, in Washington DC, to address this very situation.”-Julian Assange, 19 August statement from Ecuadorian embassy in London

“Britain….is wrong. The threat is not only an aggression to Ecuador, it’s against Bolivia, it’s against South America, against the whole of Latin America!”-Evo Morales, President of Bolivia

“To my family, and to my children who have been denied their father: Forgive me, we will be reunited soon.”-Julian Assange, 19 August statement from Ecuadorian embassy in London  (see video of speech here)

International, U.S.

World War 3: South America’s ALBA issue declaration against United Kingdom, in support of Julian Assange

IX Declaration of the ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) Political Council

1. We reject intimidation threats uttered by government spokesmen in the U.K. of Great Britain for violating the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations, and the principles of international law.

2. Categorically reaffirm our support for the sovereign right of the Government of Ecuador to grant diplomatic asylum to citizen Julian Assange.

3. We express our opposition to the U.K.’s position of trying to resolve in a manner contrary to international law, disputes with the nations of the world, particularly Latin America and the Caribbean.

4. We support the request for the invitation of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) to discuss the hostile position of the Government of the United Kingdom against the Government of the Republic of Ecuador, and set a clear position of support for Ecuador.

5. We believe in promoting relevant United Nations a broad debate about the inviolability of diplomatic premises and full respect by all States of the principles of international law.

6. We warn the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain about the serious consequences that would be triggered worldwide, in case of a direct attack on the territorial integrity of the Republic of Ecuador in London.

7. We call on all governments in the world, Social Movements, the intelligentsia, to oppose this new claim of the British Government to impose by force its will on sovereign nations of the World.

8. We promise to do our best to give the widest publicity with this declaration.

Members of ALBA: Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, Dominica, Saint Vincent & Grenadines, Antigua & Barbuda.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

LIBOR: Japan orders investigation

17 August 2012, the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) ordered an investigation into TIBOR, or Tokyo Inter-Bank Offered Rate.

It’s a system similar to Britain’s LIBOR, and tries to regulate interest and currency rates.

18 financial institutions in Japan have been ordered to reveal their TIBOR operations. Specifically the FSA is looking for evidence that bank employees unfairly manipulated rates.  FSA is concerned about the credibility of the TIBOR system.

The Japanese Bankers Association gave an immediate response to the order, saying their were no TIBOR irregularities, despite the European and U.S. investigations into TIBOR.