Characteristic Terms

CIA-waged drone war 'spreads anarchy' around the world

A graffiti depicting a US drone at a street in Sana’a, Yemen
© Photo: EPA


The US said it is mapping out a new national security strategy that will be announced in early 2014. The white paper on the next stage of Washington’s war on al-Qaeda will be released at the time of mounting international criticism of US drone strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen.

Drone airstrikes are one of the main reasons for the spread of anarchy and military conflicts that have been mushrooming around the world. This is according to a report by UN special rapporteurs Ben Emmerson and Christof Heyns who accused the US of carrying out unmanned aerial attacks on foreign soil under the guise of an anti-terror war without borders.

The UN rights ombudsmen argued however that other countries could follow America’s example and justify their overseas operations by the US precedent, thus triggering a domino effect, while British MP Ed Davey said US drone strikes in Pakistan, among others, used loopholes in international laws that don't mention UAVs. Mr. Davey also said Washington "transgressed the sovereignty" of Pakistan by launching airstrikes on its turf.

Meanwhile, a report by the International Crisis Group concluded in May 2013 that drone strikes were "ineffective" at combating terrorism because they left key problems unresolved. A Hellfire missile attack may stop insurgents from crossing into a NATO-controlled zone in Afghanistan; however their ability to regroup, rearm and recruit will remain intact, it claimed. Vladimir Shcherbakov, an expert with the Independent Military Review, disagreed:

"The US has been using its UAVs to target terrorist leaders. It is the absolute rule of war: kill the commander first, it will decapitate an armed group and make it unable to fight. Of course, this position won’t stay vacant, but the cell will be crippled for a while, especially if the killed commander managed all the funds."

Since 2004, unmanned aircraft in Pakistan killed over 20 al-Qaeda leaders, more than 2,200 militants and 400 to 900 civilians. The majority of rebel strongholds sprawl along the Afghanistan border, which lies in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous Pashto tribal area. The area’s status means that controls on the Pakistani troops there are very tight, which makes drones the only means of wiping out al-Qaeda leaders.

But this attitude has already led to a barrage of criticism from the local population and human rights groups worldwide. Vladimir Shcherbakov says that President Obama’s decision to pass the reigns of the CIA-run drone program into the hands of the military has been designed to calm down watchdogs.

"There have been continuous debates on whether it is lawful to eliminate foreign citizens in their own homes using remotely-controlled drones. It’s one thing when the military do this, and quite another when assassinations are the work of an intelligence agency. They are probably shifting the responsibility to increase transparency, although I think this effort is very likely to fail, because the Pentagon has been equally tacit about its operations. Besides, the very idea that the CIA can hand over drone controls to the military at the eleventh hour is a utopia."

All attempts to marry the intelligence and the military have so far been to no avail, partially because the two agencies use different technologies and communications. But the main stumbling block is that the CIA is not quite ready to relinquish its role in the so-called "drone war," the Washington Post says. So we are probably in for more air attacks, until the laws are amended.

Credit to Voice of Russia

Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_01_03/CIA-waged-drone-war-spreads-anarchy-around-the-world-2660/

Obamacare Causing Hospital Workers To Go Unpaid

Obamacare Glitch Delaying Medicare Payments

The contractor building the financial management system for Healthcare.gov is being blamed by a Houston hospital for delayed Medicare reimbursements that have caused the hospital to miss payrolls for weeks. Novitas Solutions is the federal government’s new Medicare payment processor for the south-central region of the country hired by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a division of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS.)

ABC-KTRK in Houston reports:

According to the CEO Jason Leday, more than 150 employees haven’t been paid in nearly a month.

“I understand that they have children and a house payment, bills. Not getting paid is wow,” nearby resident Theresa Gutierrez said.

The hospital is strapped for cash not because its not making money, but because Leday says a new Medicare payment facilitator named Novitas Solutions is taking too way long to pay out Medicare claims to the hospital.

Leday says he’s owed nearly $3 million in payments from Medicare and can’t make payroll…

The Texas Medical Association says they are familiar with complaints like this one regarding the medicare payment facilitator- and a representative told us smaller community hospitals like this one are in similar situations.

Novitas also runs the south-central region’s Medicare website which was launched just two days before the October 1 launch of Healthcare.gov. As THE WEEKLY STANDARD reported on December 19, that site has experienced problems reminiscent of Healthcare.gov’s troubles, and the site will not be fully operational until well into 2014.

Novitas’s direct connection to Healthcare.gov stems from an emergency, no-bid contract for “financial management services” awarded in August and first reported by THE WEEKLY STANDARD in September. The services required included accounting, tracking of accounts receivable and accounts payable, documenting funds collected by CMS, and data validation, among other things. CMS justified the no-bid award because the “prospect of a delay in implementing the Marketplace by the operational date of January 1, 2014, even for a few days, would result in severe consequences, financial and other” and that the services required were “beyond what was initially anticipated and beyond CMS’ currently available resources.”

Novitas did not respond to KTRK for its story, and so far has not responded to a request for comment since the story ran. In the past, Novitas has referred requests for comment to HHS.

Despite initially promising more information about the August contract, HHS/CMS has ignored repeated requests for clarification about the nature of the work and how it relates to the mission of Healthcare.gov. HHS has not responded to a request for comment about the reports of slow payments to hospitals either. source – Weekly Standard

Credit to nowtheendbegins.com

Hezbollah upgrading its arsenal against Israel

The Shiite Lebanese group Hezbollah is smuggling advanced guided-missile systems into Lebanon in preparation for a future conflict with Israel, according to US officials.

The group’s armament efforts have been hampered by at least five IDF air strikes against its smuggling routes and depots in Syria in 2013 alone. In response, the Lebanese group is attempting to smuggle weapons into Lebanon in pieces, believing that the piecemeal shipments, overseen by Iran’s Al-Quds force, are more difficult to spot and intercept, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The new strategy sees Israel and Hezbollah battling to shape the future war between them under cover of the conflict currently waging in neighboring Syria.

Parts of an advanced antiship missile system are already in Lebanon, the Journal reported, citing US officials and “previously undisclosed intelligence.” Additional systems meant to strike Israeli planes and ground targets are already en route in Syrian depots controlled by Hezbollah.

According to the officials, the systems would mark a significant upgrade in Hezbollah’s capabilities and its “ability to deter Israel” in a future conflict. If deployed, Hezbollah would gain the ability to shoot down Israeli aircraft in any aerial campaign over Lebanon or Syria, while also peppering Israeli cities with its estimated 100,000 “dumb” rockets, stored in villages and hidden silos throughout southern Lebanon.

The Israeli warship, Hanit, which was attacked by Hezbollah during the 2006 Lebanon War, allegedly by a C-802 antiship missile manufactured by Iran. (photo credit: Tsahi Ben-Ami/Flash90)

Citing both US and Israeli officials, the Journal report claims Hezbollah is working to obtain the new capabilities in order to better serve as an Iranian deterrent in case Israel decides to strike Iran’s nuclear program.

And, the officials said, the significantly improved capabilities are an enticement to the Lebanese Shiite group to remain on the ground in Syria supporting the regime of the country’s dictator Bashar al-Assad, who depends on its forces for his survival.

According to Israeli and US sources, Israel’s strikes on past Hezbollah smuggling efforts have kept shipments of SA-17 antiaircraft and Fateh-110 ground-to-ground weapons out of Lebanon.

But the Israeli strikes are not foolproof, the US officials believe. As many as 12 Russian-made antiship systems located in Hezbollah depots in Syria may have survived Israeli strikes, and some components may already be in Lebanon.

Credit to The Times of Israel

Read more: US officials: Hezbollah upgrading its arsenal against Israel | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-officials-hezbollah-upgrading-its-arsenal-against-israel/#ixzz2pLcU9bLm

The spray from their hoses turn to ice as it hit the building.

Firemen tackling a blaze in Minneapolis, where temperatures have been below -20C, saw the spray from their hoses turn to ice as it hit the building.

The north-eastern US has been hit by a major winter storm, with 53cm (21 inches) of snow recorded in one town in Massachusetts.

The New York and New Jersey governors have declared a state of emergency, urging people to stay indoors.

This is how US broadcaster ABC reported the story with Gio Benitez.
Credit to BBC

Can Parents Save Their Children by Leaving the USA?

An expatriate who has left America for the greener pastures of Germany, has written to me over a dozen times telling me to get out of America while I still can. I freely admit, that on the balance sheet, the reasons to leave outweigh the reasons to stay. And the reasons to move our children away from the growing tyranny in this country are even more numerous. However, our enemy calls themselves the New World Order for a reason. It may be possible to move to a place like Norway and get some temporary relief, but in reality, you would only staying one step ahead of the burning bridge.

A burglar breaks into your house, you retreat to your bedroom and the burglar kicks in your bedroom door. You hide under the bed and the burglar overturns your bed. Then you run into the closet and you realize at that moment that you have run out of places to hide and you must fight the burglar or die. This is where America is at today. We run from reality by playing fantasy football and watching Duck Dynasty. We think it is someone else’s problem to solve. We are afraid and we keep running to a new distraction. Then there is the reality that we are out of places to hide. And there is even a more sobering reality, American parents have lost the ability to protect their children.

This is the first part in a series which illustrates that we are out of places to run and it is time to stand up, resist, or perish. The ultimate benefactors, or victims, of our collective action, or inaction, is our children.

Americans Are Leaving the Country In Record Numbers
It is becoming increasingly clear, that if we want to be able to enjoy our golden years and give our kids a future, we need to stop running from our problems and face reality. Last year over a 155,000 Americans expatriated to foreign countries, mostly for economic reasons. I have bad news for these people. You expats may have temporarily escaped high taxes and over regulation from the federal government, however, when, and not if, the dollar collapses, all foreign currencies will collapse as well and you will be trapped in a foreign land.

I do not disparage the expatriates and their reasons for leaving. America is a shell of its former self. Our nation has been conquered and is now being occupied by the bankers. Your reasons for leaving are valid. However, at the end of the day, it will not make any difference with regard to your final fate.

Our Children Have a Bleak Economic Future
If there is a compelling reason to leave America, it would be to provide our children with a future which is much brighter than the future that they will be burdened with in the United States.

Even if there are not any severe political/military disruptions in America’s immediate future, our children have a dismal future and the numbers do not lie.

At this point in time, about half of all recent college graduates are working at jobs that do not even require a college degree. The number of Americans in the 16 to 29 year old age bracket with a job declined by 18 percent between 2000 and 2010. Incomes for U.S. households led by someone between the ages of 25 and 34 have fallen by about 12 percent after you adjust for inflation since the year 2000. In the United States today, 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees. One poll discovered that 29 percent of all Americans in the 25 to 34 year old age bracket are still living with their parents. Overall, approximately 25 million American adults are living with their parents according to Time Magazine.

America is no longer the land of opportunity as the United States is not even in the top ten. In fact, the United States only ranks 20th in terms of overall gross pay!

We Have Left Our Children With No Escape Valve
With the education system we have left our children, we have not provided them with any chance to climb out of this tremendous economic hole that we have put them in. The Education Policy Institute assessed the affordability of higher education costs and found that the United States ranks 13th in higher education affordability. The United States is dead last in educational achievement among the most developed nations.

Americans need to stop listening to Obama and the mainstream media, there is not going to be any economic recovery. No matter how many times they lie and bend the numbers to cushion America’s fall from financial grace, we have no hope economically because there is nothing left to salvage. America only has to look at three economic indicators to know that we are in a lot of trouble, The debt is $17 trillion dollars, unfunded (partially or otherwise) mandated social programs constitutes another $240 trillion dollars and the credit swap derivatives total between $1 quadrillion dollars to $1.5 quadrillion dollars, which is six times the GDP of the planet. Do you get it now? There will be no recovery.

When we let the bankers steal from us, our children ultimately paid the price. America parents have miserably failed their children.

Conclusion
There are very sound economic reasons to look at when deciding that leaving the country. However, I strongly feel that you are only delaying the inevitable by leaving. We are not just going to see an American economic collapse, we are going to witness a global collapse.

Credit to The common Sense

Why 2014 Doesn’t Have To Be 1914

In a recent Brookings Institution essay entitled “The Rhyme of History: Lessons of the Great War,” historian Margaret Macmillan argues that there are strong and haunting parallels between today’s geopolitical landscape and Europe of 1914. Pivoting off the well-know Mark Twain adage that history does not repeat itself, but does rhyme, Macmillan suggests that the one-hundredth anniversary of World War I encourages us to reflect on the “valuable warnings” of the past. The actual and potential conflicts in the year ahead are many, and some of the same structural forces that lead to the Great War a century ago will be prevalent in 2014.

Macmillan is an eminent historian (her book, Paris 1919 is a must-read), but analogies between 1914 Europe and the world today should not be drawn hastily. World War I continues to preoccupy scholars and pundits alike, in part because it was so destructive, and in part because there is still no consensus on why exactly it occurred.With the centennial of the conflict approaching, we can expect to see 1914 references made a great deal — particularly with respect to the power transition that is currently in progress in the Pacific —  but we should remain duly skeptical of this tempting parallel.Many of the conditions that were present in antebellum Europe do indeed prevail today.  Whether these forces actually raise the risk of war is far from established, however, and the expectation that they do may itself increase the chance of conflict.

In her Brookings essay, Macmillan identifies several conditions that were present in Europe before the Great War that, she argues, also raise the risk of conflict today.  The first of these conditions isglobalization and its unintended consequences. In both 1914 and at present, there existed the common assumption that the world was becoming too interconnected to resort to war — conflict would be prohibitively costly. But, Macmillan points out, a hundred years ago as now, those who preached interdependence often ignored the fact that globalization can lead to job loss, foster intense localism and nativism, and provide a breeding ground for radical ideologies and movements (including those that employ terrorism). Globalization, Macmillan warns us, can also heighten interstate rivalries.

Related to this is a second trend — rising nationalism and sectarianism. Once trapped in interstate rivalries, leaders may seize upon nationalism and bitter historical enmity to appeal to their publics. In 1914, the predominant antagonisms were the Anglo-German and Russo-German rivalries; today they include Sino-American and Sino-Japanese competition.  Third, Macmillan reminds us that tightly-knit defensive alliances may encourage conflict or cause it to spread. In 1914, Germany saw itself as inextricably bound to Austria, as France did to Russia. Today, she warns, the United States could easily be drawn into war in either the Middle East or East Asia by its alliance ties.

Finally, Macmillan warns that “World Policemen” may be forced into retirement, leaving a vacuum of instability and uncertainty. By the early 20^th century, the British clearly could not sustain the demands and costs of their empire. Likewise, Macmillan avers, the United States will not be able to preserve hegemony indefinitely. Even if it its reach is primarily confined to Asia, the most obvious challenge to U.S. influence will come from a rising China, and crises or conflicts may break out unless the dominant powers can establish a stable international order.

Macmillan is hardly the first to point to these conditions as potential precursors to conflict. With respect to China’s rise, analysts have argued frequently that Washington and Beijing’s national security interests put the two countries on a collision course. Some have gone so far as to insist that this clash is inevitable.  But in her comparison of the international conditions that preceded the Great War and those that prevail today, Macmillan fails to address one truly crucial question: Why did the forces of globalization, nationalism, interlocking alliances, and power transition combine to produce war in 1914 specifically?

The prevailing patterns that Macmillan identifies as historical rhymes may all be thought of as permissive conditions to conflict: these forces may have helped to pave the way to the Great War’s onset, but none alone was the immediate cause of war in 1914.  Moreover, these forces were almost certainly present in Europe prior to that fateful year. Why, then, did they not combine to produce a major war when Austria annexed Bosnia in 1908? Why did they not stoke the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 and produce global conflagration then? If we are to accept that any specific set of conditions caused the First World War in 1914, we must also be able to explain why those forces did not produce war earlier or later, or why conflict could not have been avoided altogether despite their prevalence.

Indeed, in the copious literature on World War I, scholars have attempted to dissect these important counterfactuals. Some argue that the structural conditions that Macmillan identifies really did make a European conflict inevitable — interlocking alliances, the Anglo-German power transition, nationalism, and other factors meant that war would have occurred in 1915 or 1916 if it did not in 1914. But other analysts insist that the Great War was the immediate result of assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. If he had not been killed in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 — or if he had been shot and lived — the great powers might have avoided war, not just in that year, but in perpetuity. If an idiosyncratic event like the Archduke’s assassination is the key to explaining the war, however, it is not clear how much credence we should give to other underlying factors. Macmillan’s background conditions for conflict may be insufficient to bring about a war, and indeed, may not even be necessary. And if this is true, then the parallels that can be drawn between the onset of the First World War and geopolitics today may be impoverished at best.

So is this a simple warning that decision makers should approachhistorical analogies with caution? It is that, but also more. Among the many causes of the First World War that international relations scholars have identified was the widespread belief in European capitals that a great power conflict was highly likely. Combined with prevailing military technologies and strategies of the time, this assumption led statesmen to think that they would be advantaged if they struck first, rather than waiting for an adversary attack that was sure to come in due course.  By overemphasizing historical parallels, we risk convincing ourselves that conflict is imminent, when in fact it remains eminently avoidable. If we were to combine Macmillan’s warnings about economic interdependence, nationalism, alliances, and power transitions, for example, it would be tempting to flag the next fracas over the Senkakus/Diaoyus, where all of these forces are clearly present, as the new Sarajevo. Combined with great power military strategies that may be escalatory, conflict anticipation via analogy could produce disastrous results indeed.

With the one-hundredth anniversary of the First World War fast upon us, and a power transition manifestly under way, Macmillan’s essay will certainly not be the last analysis to draw connections between 1914 and present-day geopolitics. Indeed, there is surely value in paying heed to the similarities and differences between the two eras. By listening anxiously for historical rhymes that portend major conflict, however, we risk deafness to the multitude of factors that make the challenges of the present day unique, and soluble far short of war. A rhyme, after all, is a correspondence of sound, but not of meaning.

Here’s to wishing the world a 2014 that is considerably more peaceful than the centennial it will mark.

Credit to Zero Hedge

Gerald Celente Forecasts 2014 Trends

"The Biggest Redistribution Of Wealth From The Middle Class And Poor To The Rich Ever" Explained...

While the growth of inequality in America has been heavily discussed here, it was Stan Druckenmiller's outbursts (and warnings that "from beginning to end - once markets adjust from these subsidized prices - that the wealth effect of QE will have been negative not positive") that brought it more broadly into the average American's mind. QE, taxes, income disparity, and entitlements are four major means by which wealth is transferred from the poor and the middle class to the rich. The following simple chart explains it all...

Via Shane Obata-Marusic ( @sobata416)

A - “the rich hold assets, the poor have debt” is how Citi’s Matt King described the distribution of wealth in the US.

B - QE has resulted in a loss of purchasing power for the US dollar. Faced with this problem, consumers in the middle class are taking on more non-housing debt in order to maintain the same standard of living. In addition, the US government – which continues to run a deficit year after year – continues to accumulate debt. Due to these facts, total debt outstanding – aka credit market instruments for all sectors - is at all time highs. More debt means more interest payments and lower savings rates. These trends do not bode well for the middle class consumer.

C - On the other hand, QE has been great for the rich. QE has inflated the prices of assets such as property, bonds, stocks, and non-home real estate:

Home prices in Detroit are going up despite the fact that the city is bankrupt. The “housing occupancy” table is meant to show what appears to be a higher than average amount of speculative demand i.e. lower than average owner occupancy rates.

The rich have most of the assets which is why the average family income of the top 0.01% increased by 76.2% from 2002 to 2012. In contrast, the average family income of the bottom 90% decreased by 10.7% over that same period.

D - Taxes as a percentage of real disposable income have more than doubled since 1980. This trend has not been kind to the bottom 90%.

Conversely, favourable tax rates on dividends and capital gains have allowed the rich to become wealthier over time.

E - Median household income has been in a downtrend since the late 90s.

In opposition, corporate profits are at all-time highs.

F - The entitlement problem is only going to get worse as more baby boomers leave the work force. Future generations will have to pay for the debt that the old and rich continue to take on.

Growing benefits and sympathetic tax rates on investments enabled the old to increase consumption by 164% from 1960-1991 .

G - In conclusion, QE, taxes, income disparity, and entitlements are contributing to “the biggest redistribution of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the rich ever” If things continue the way they are going, then millennials and future generations will pay the price:

Despite the fact that inequality in the US is nothing new:

Today, it might be worse than it ever has been:

Unless the distribution of wealth in America begins to change for the better, assets will continue to benefit the rich and debt will continue to burden the middle class and the poor.

For an economy that’s largely based on consumption, excess debt only serves to reduce expenditures and to slow economic growth over time.

Quality of life for the median American household is only going to get better if the issues associated monetary policy, entitlements, taxes, and income are addressed and dealt with.

For now, the best thing that you can do is to discuss these issues with your friends, family and colleagues and try to come up with solutions.

Credit to Zero Hedge

Italy's Pitchfork Movement Slammed For "Delirious" Nazi-Like Comments

Italy's anti-austerity Pitchfork movement, who described Italy as being "enslaved by wealthy Jewish bankers," has come under fire for "shamelessly recall[ing] a historical period characterised by death, violence and denial of the most elementary rights." The nation's Jewish community, writing in La Repubblica, said the Pitchfork leader's remarks demonstrate a "deeper sense of discomfort" fuelled by "the most violent and grimmest anti-Semitic stereotypes". Despite Italian stock and bond markets surging to multi-year highs, IB Times notes that mass demonstrations continue to rile the company's economy as Pitchfork followers demand the total removal of the ruling political class.

Via IB Times,

Italy's Jewish communities have hit back at the spokesman of the anti-austerity Pitchfork movement, who described Italy as being "enslaved by wealthy Jewish bankers".

The Pitchfork protestors' spokesman, Andrea Zunino, who made the anti-Semitic comments, represents thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets in towns and cities across Italy to voice anger at austerity measures.

Renzo Gattegna, representing the Jewish community, said the words were "delirious".

"[Those words] shamelessly recall a historical period characterised by death, violence and denial of the most elementary rights," he told daily La Repubblica.

Conspiracy theories regarding Jews and banking were popular during the rise of National Socialism and the Nazis.

Earlier, Zunino had claimed: "We want government resignation. We want sovereignty over Italy which is now the slave of bankers, like the Rothschild: it is odd that five or six among the world's richest people are Jews."

The Pitchfork movement, which started with a loose group of Sicilian farmers concerned about rising taxes and cuts to agricultural state funds, has evolved into a nationwide umbrella grouping of truckers, small businessman, the unemployed, low-paid workers, rightwing extremists and football supporters.

Zunino cites Hungary's controversial premier Viktor Orban, whose government has been accused of being weak in fighting rising anti-Semitism, as his role model.

But Gattegna said the Pitchfork leader's remarks demonstrate a "deeper sense of discomfort" fuelled by "the most violent and grimmest anti-Semitic stereotypes".

...

Thousands of Pitchfork demonstrators, riled by the country's struggling economy, have demanded the total removal of the ruling political class, as well as calling for tax cuts, lowered fuel prices, and dumping the euro.

Mass demonstrations threw some Italian cities into chaos on Monday with police officers using teargas on protesters who had been throwing rocks and bottles at the headquarters of Italy's tax collection agency.

Roadblocks, demonstrations and sit-ins continued from Milan to Bari in the south.

Shop-owners were reportedly threatened by demonstrators to either close their stores and join the protest, or face violence.

Of course, we have discussed the rise of social unrest and its linkages to austerity in the past but perhaps it is the huge gap between markets and high earner wealth and the struggling-with-record-unemployment working class that has fuelled the problems in Italy to this point.

Credit to Zero Hedge

The Pacific Ocean is Dying