SAAB is now officially bankrupt. The company filed for bankruptcy after two Chinese companies changed their minds about buying the Swedish automaker.
There was talk that General Motors was concerned about the Chinese getting their hands on U.S. technologies, because GM supplied those parts to SAAB.
The demise of SAAB will now hurt GM’s parts sales.
“I don’t think there actually has been a revolution yet. I think that what’s happened is that the figurehead of the military regime has been deposed very dramatically. Certainly that was a hugely significant event, it was an earthquake….Until then I think the two sides are stuck in their current positions, fighting it out through a range of ways. And one of these ways is street battles between the military security forces and the people.”-Yaakov Lappin, Jerusalem Post
On December 17, Egyptians protesting the pro-U.S. military government of Egypt, set the Shura Council building on fire. Unfortunately the fire spread next door, to the oldest science library in Cairo.
Egyptian Scientific Institute burned, destroying more than 150,000 books going back to the late 1700s. It was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798, and first called L’Institut d’Egypte.
Among the books, maps and charts destroyed is the first edition of the Description de l’Egypte, started under Napoleon Bonaparte by French scientists. Egyptian officials say they still have two other editions located at two separate libraries.
Egyptians have been protesting the U.S. backed military government, mainly because of the thousands of people who’ve been rushed through military court trials, something the protestors were against from the beginning. The military court trials convinced many Egyptians that they were not getting a new government, but just more of the same after the resignation of U.S. backed Hosni Mubarak.
1. “The war in Iraq is finally over after nine years.”
Rothkopf notes the U.S. has been militarily engaged in Iraq since the early 1990 and this will likely be just the end of another installment in the long running series of U.S. warmongering policies in the region.
2. “America’s mission in Iraq was a success.”
He expresses astonishment at such a claim while Iraq is divided, undemocratic, corrupt, and the U.S. invasion has cost U.S.$1 trillion, thousands of U.S. lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, and its national reputation. U.S. war in Iraq bears greater semblance to a full-scale “fiasco”, he says.
3. “We are winning in Afghanistan.”
Rothkopf describes this one as a hot from the oven “howler” by the U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. Washington has strengthened the region’s extremists and the threat of instability in nuclear Pakistan is now actually higher than it was when U.S. went in, he says.
4. Tie: “Pakistan is America’s ally” and “Afghanistan is America’s partner.”
Neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan can by any “credible definition” be called a U.S. ally. This is attested to by the animosity of Islamabad towards Washington and Kabul’s belittling of the U.S. on the world stage, Rothkopf says.
5. “America is unthreatened by China’s growth.”
A “prayer” by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Rothkopf says. “It should be true. But it’s not,” he adds.
6. Tie: “Republicans are the problem” and “Democrats are the problem.”
Rothkopf dubs this one as “the great lie of American politics.” He says the problem with U.S. politics is not the parties, but the money. “The system is so resolutely corrupt that recent scandals have only resulted in more money flowing into the system and past reforms being undone,” he notes.
7. “Cutting the taxes of millionaires helps create U.S. jobs.”
There is not even one single solitary shred of evidence to support this “idiotic” suggestion, Rothkopf notes.
8. “This next summit of European leaders will be decisive …”
Rothkopf says despite the fact that this claim has been made every few weeks for the past months, the “supposedly sophisticated financial markets” of the United States continue to fall for it.
9. “The Obama administration is committed to serious financial services reform.”
The U.S. financial system is still plagued by all the threats that instigated the 2008 recession. “Not an inch of progress,” Rothkopf says.
10. “Only nine percent of Americans approve of Congress.”
“This can’t possibly be true. There can’t possibly be that many,” Rothkopf says in a stinging sarcastic tone.
11. “The operation in Libya will be over in a matter of days or weeks.”
Rothkopf says the operation was wrong to begin with, “and then wrong and then wrong again for months.”
12. “I love Israel.”
Even though everyone in U.S. politics makes such an assertion, nobody really means it, Rothkopf notes. What the politicians really mean, however, is that “I want American Jews to think I love Israel enough to vote for me and give me money,” he says.
“Those are just a few of a bumper year for duplicity, mendacity, and craven misstatements.”-David J. Rothkopf, Foreign Policy
On 16 December 2011 the Japanese government declared the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant in “Cold Shut Down”. On 18 December, the governor of Fukushima challenged that claim.
Governor of Fukushima Prefecture, Sato Yuhei, met three national government Cabinet members. He asked them how they could make such a declaration when no one at the national level talked to anyone living around the nuclear plant, or even made an inspection tour.
The Minister for Nuclear Crisis Compensation, Edano Yukio, said the contamination zones will be redefined, and the national government will considering local governments’ requests.
The three Cabinet members also said that areas with radiation levels of 20 millisieverts per year or higher, will require former residents to continue living elsewhere, and, those people from areas with readings of over 50 millisieverts per year should expect not to be able to return for a long long time.
On 18 December 2011, workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, found 230 tons of highly radioactive water in a tunnel under a building used to store contaminated water. This comes after the Japanese government declared the damaged nuclear reactors in “cold shut down”.
Tokyo Electric Power Company officials say the water is giving off 3 millisieverts per hour of radiation. Of course, and as usual, TEPCo officials don’t have clue how it got there, and are investigating.
This latest discovery reminds everyone to question TEPCo’s inspection and management capabilities. Even the Governor of Fukushima Prefecture is challenging the national government’s declaring the plant in cold shut down.
North Korean government media reporting that North Korea’s leader Kim Jon Il has died. He was 69 years old (some reports say he as 70).
North Korea’s state-run KCNA says he died of “great mental and physical strain” and a heart attack. He was on a train touring North Korea.
South Korea has put their military forces on alert.
“We have no intention of acting for the moment …We should not engage in war when it is not necessary, but there may come a time or another when we are forced to face tests…Our position has not changed on three points: a nuclear Iran is unacceptable, we are determined to stop that and all options are on the table.”– Ehud Barak, Defense Minister of Israel
Israel has formed a new commando unit called Depth Corps. “Depth” refers to commando raids that will be carried out over long distances: “The primary task of the corps will be to extend joint Israeli army operations into the strategic depth.”-Israeli military statement
Unnamed sources inside Israel’s military say the Depth Corps is also known as Iran Special Operations Command.
“We are dealing with fabrications whereby a war agenda, which has been on the Pentagon’s drawing board for many years, is now seeking justification to go live, and we’ve seen the drone attacks, we’ve seen the sanctions.”-Michel Chossudovsky, Center for Research on Globalization
On December 15, a lawsuit supposedly brought by victims of the September 11th, 2001 attacks, won a default judgment (default means the accused didn’t show up). The problem is that it blames Iran and Lebanon for the World Trade Center attacks! Analysts believe the leaders of the United States could claim this court case as ‘proof’ that Iran is part of anti-Shia/pro-Wahhabi al Qaeda (Iran is majority Shia Muslim).
“There is absolutely no evidence that Iran aided the 9/11 attacks. There is ample evidence after collection that there was conspiracy and the complicity of the U.S. government…There is absolutely no evidence that al Qaeda or the Taliban were involved in the 9/11 attacks. In fact, if there is anyone behind al Qaeda, it was the Central Intelligence Agency, going back to the Soviet Afghan war!”-Michel Chossudovsky, Center for Research on Globalization
Analysts say the U.S. government is setting the stage, just like they did prior to invading Iraq: “What we are seeing now is this strange self-fulfilling prophecy process. This is exactly what we saw with Iraq. This is a campaign to go to war.”–Jamal Abdi, National Iranian American Council
Iran even helped the U.S. topple the Taliban (who had executed Iranian diplomats): “Immediately afterwards Iran condemned the attacks. There were candlelit vigils on the streets of Tehran in solidarity with the Americans who lost their lives. You saw Iran cooperating with the United States in helping to topple the Taliban, the enemy of Iran.”–Jamal Abdi, National Iranian American Council
Here’s the real reason the U.S., and the United Kingdom, want to attack Iran: “…Iran has 10 per cent of the world’s oil reserves, four or five times the amount of the United States; it’s in a crucial region, it doesn’t accept U.S. hegemony and it’s an ally of Russia and China.”-Michel Chossudovsky, Center for Research on Globalization
Once again, the New York cops have incriminated themselves by posting comments that prove they are not there to serve and protect you.
“On my way to wall street…..Let the savagery begin…”-Michael DeRosa Sr, NYPD
“wish I was there with you guys..it would be nice to crack a white guy over the head.”-Rey Hernandez, NYPD
Not only that, but it turns out that while most of the focus has been on the NYPD’s handling of the Occupiers, a writer and social media guru, and his family, have been bullied by the NYPD simply because of where they live.
They live in a house that was sold to a NYPD cop. The cop apparently didn’t know the house was already ocupado. The tenants refused to leave. They knew their rights under New York laws. But the NYPD actually helped their fellow cop harass and threaten the family in the hopes they would move out.
The tenants stood their ground and now, supposedly, there will be an investigation, and two city councilman have taken up the family’s cause. You can read the first hand accounts of the harassment.
“We want our kids to learn that you don’t have to be scared or run away when you are bullied….What we hope that our kids take away from this situation, as uncomfortable as it is for them now, is that you if you don’t stand up for yourself no one will.”-Bryan Eisenberg, best selling author bullied by NYPD
Argentinians are saying no more to immigrants fleeing the United States.
Lawmakers in the lower House have passed a bill that would limit the amount of Argentine land foreigners could buy. But don’t worry, it means you rich immigrants fleeing the U.S. will have to settle for only 2,500 acres. Yes, under the bill you can still buy up to 2,500 acres of Argentine land, so I think the bill is just symbolic.
In a recent survey Argentinians proved to be just as xenophobic as people in the U.S. Many Argentinians surveyed said they were tired of the growing number of people coming from the United States, and taking their jobs!