Does govt halt show loss of touch with reality at Capitol Hill?

ISRAEL'S NETANYAHU: WE WILL NOT LET IRAN GET NUKES EVEN IF WE STAND ALONE

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu played the spoiler Tuesday to any easing of Iran's relations with the West, telling world leaders his country will do whatever it takes to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, even if it has to stand alone.

Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly, Netanyahu asserted that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani must have known about a terror attack on a Buenos Aires Jewish community center in 1994, as well as the 1996 bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans, because he was national security adviser at the time.

Last week, President Barack Obama and the Iranian leader spoke on the phone, the highest level contacts between their countries in 34 years.

Netanyahu said Israel's future is threatened by a "nuclear-armed" Iran seeking its destruction and urged the international community to keep up pressure through sanctions.

"Israel will not allow Iran to get nuclear weapons," he said. "If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone, but in standing alone Israel will know that we will be defending many, many others," Netanyahu added.

An Iranian diplomat, Khodadad Seifi, shot back: "Unlike Israel, Iran would not and did not attack any country."

"It is not due to its inability, but due to its principled policy in rejecting any use of force," Seifi, a deputy ambassador to Iran's U.N. mission, told the assembly. "Therefore the Israeli prime minister had better not even think about attacking Iran let alone planning for that."

At the White House, press secretary Jay Carney said Netanyahu's skepticism about Iran and its intentions is "entirely justifiable" because until recently Iran's leadership "was pledging to annihilate Israel." He said the U.S. share's Israel's goal of keeping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Carney stressed that Obama will be "very firm" on demanding verifiable, transparent action to ensure that Iran has given up its nuclear weapons ambitions.

Netanyahu said a nuclear-armed Iran would have a choke-hold on the world's main energy supplies.

"It would trigger nuclear proliferation throughout the Middle East, turning the most unstable part of the planet into a nuclear tinderbox. And for the first time in history, it would make the specter of nuclear terrorism a clear and present danger," the Israeli leader said.

Netanyahu said the greater the pressure, the greater the chance for diplomacy to succeed. He said the only diplomatic solution that would work is one that requires Iran to completely dismantle its nuclear weapons program and prevents it from starting one in the future.

This would require a halt to all uranium enrichment, removing uranium stockpiles from Iran, dismantling the infrastructure for "nuclear breakout capability" _ reaching the point where the country can make a quick dash to a nuclear weapon.

He also said it would require stopping all work at a heavy water reactor aimed at producing plutonium, which like uranium can be used to produce nuclear weapons.

Netanyahu called Rouhani "a loyal servant of the regime" and stressed that he has done nothing to stop Iran's nuclear program since his election in June.

Rouhani was at the U.N. last week and presented a more moderate face of the hard-line clerical regime in Tehran.

He agreed to the first nuclear talks with six world powers since April, held on the sidelines of the General Assembly last week. U.S. and European diplomats emerged from the talks saying they saw a marked shift in Iran's tone for the better. But they also insisted it must be backed up by concrete actions to assure the world Tehran is not seeking to develop a nuclear weapon.

The parties agreed to meet again in Geneva on Oct. 15-16 for more substantive negotiations.

Iran insists its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes only and that it does not seek a weapon.

Netanyahu asserted that Rouhani must have known about the murder of 85 people in a 1994 terror attack on the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires and the killing of 19 American soldiers in Saudi Arabia in 1996 because he was head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council from 1989-2003.

The U.S. has also accused Iran of sponsoring acts of terrorism around the world throughout the 1990s, blaming Iran and its proxy Hezbollah for a 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29 people, as well as the community center attack two years later. Some analysts linked Iran's Quds Force to helping direct the 1996 bombings of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American military personnel.

Netanyahu said Rouhani condemned the "violent scourge" of terrorism. "Yet in the last three years alone, Iran has ordered, planned or perpetrated terrorist attacks in 25 countries on five continents," he charged, without providing any evidence to back up the accusation.

Netanyahu said Rouhani launched a "charm offensive" because tough sanctions from the U.N., the U.S. and many others "have taken a big bite off the Iranian economy" and the regime is under intense pressure from the Iranian people to get the sanctions lifted.

He also accused the Iranian president of masterminding his country's strategy to advance the nuclear weapons program and said his goal was the same as his hard-line predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"Ahmadinejad was a wolf in wolf's clothing. Rouhani is a wolf in sheep's clothing, a wolf who thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the international community," Netanyahu said.

He said all Iranian presidents serve the same "unforgiving regime" where the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is a dictator and the real power.

Netanyahu also accused Iran of lamenting the human tragedy in Syria, while at the same time directly participating in President Bashar Assad's murder and massacre of tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children. He said Iran's regime is propping up the Syrian regime that just used chemical weapons against its own people.

Netanyahu took apart Rouhani's speech to the General Assembly last week, saying he wished he could believe the Iranian president's words "but we must focus on Iran's actions _ and it's the brazen contrast, this extraordinary contradiction between Rouhani's words and Iran's actions that is so startling."

Netanyahu said Iran has not crossed the "red line" that he set at last year's General Assembly, but claimed Rouhani has done nothing to stop the country's uranium enrichment program or its development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) "whose sole purpose is to deliver nuclear warheads."

"And Iran is building now ICBMs that the United States says could reach this city (New York) in three or four years," Netanyahu said.

He said Rouhani denounced attempts to change the regional balance in the Middle East through proxies."Yet Iran is actively destabilizing Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain and many other Middle Eastern countries," Netanyahu said.

He cited an attempt by Iranian agents to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States in Washington two years ago, and the arrest of an Iranian agent three weeks ago trying to collect information "for possible attacks against the American Embassy in Tel Aviv."

Israel's Shin Bet security agency says Iran recruited the Belgian-Iranian national Ali Mansouri last year and sent him to Israel to spy. He was arrested on Sept. 11 at Israel's international airport.

A lawyer for Mansouri said the allegations are baseless.

Israel announced the arrest on Sunday as Netanyahu left for the U.S. for talks on Iran. Israeli media have speculated that the timing of the announcement was politically motivated.

"I wish I could believe Rouhani, but I don't because facts are stubborn things," Netanyahu said, "and the facts are that Iran's savage record flatly contradicts Rouhani's soothing rhetoric."

Credit to Breitbart

Weak rocks may raise quake risk in New Madrid zone

Although its been a little more than 200 years since the last big one hit, the New Madrid Seismic Zone is still a hot spot for earthquakes. New research conducted by U.S. Geological Survey scientists shows why the zone is unique and may continue to pose a higher earthquake risk than adjacent areas in the central United States.

Using new technology, scientists now have high-resolution imagery of the New Madrid Seismic Zone, allowing them to map the area in more detail, a USGS news release said. The maps allow for greater understanding of the weak rocks in the zone that are found at deeper depths in the Earth's mantle compared to surrounding areas. Scientists also determined that earthquakes and their effects are likely to be narrowly concentrated in the zone.

The New Madrid fault extends about 165 miles from Marked Tree, Ark., to Paducah, Ky. The southern end of the zone is about 35 miles northwest of Memphis, Tenn.

The USGS research specifically investigated the Reelfoot Rift area, a 500-million-year-old geologic feature that contains the New Madrid Seismic Zone in its northernmost part. Scientists took images of rocks deep beneath Earth's surface to see their characteristics and understand their mechanical behavior -- especially their ability to withstand huge stresses placed on them.

Findings were published in the Earth and Planetary Science Letters journal.

USGS scientists used data from USArray, a network of 400 seismometers that is part of the National Science Foundation's EarthScope Program. Fred Pollitz, lead author of the report, and co-author Walter Mooney took measurements of different earthquakes around the world.

A surprising finding, the release said, was that weak rocks underlie the fault lines in the crust of the Reelfoot Rift and extend more than 100 miles down into the mantle. In contrast, weak rocks in other ancient rift zones in the central and eastern United States bottom out at much shallower depths. These weak mantle rocks have low seismic velocity, meaning they are more susceptible to concentration of tectonic stress and more mobile.

In many other geophysical studies such as this, when someone observed a low velocity anomaly, they could attribute certain properties to those rocks. "One of those properties is they're weaker, so they can't sustain the stress" of higher-velocity rocks.

USGS scientists were unavailable for comment because of the federal government shutdown. However, Charles Langston, a professor and director of the Center for Earthquake Research and Information at the University of Memphis, read the USGS research and said further study would be needed to get a more definitive data.

"The result is really interesting. I really like it because it ... looks like something you can point to that makes the New Madrid Seismic Zone look different," Langston said.

A number of some of the largest historical earthquakes in the nation occurred in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, in particular three earthquakes greater than magnitude-7 during 1811 and 1812.

Witnesses said the earthquakes sounded like cannons going off, and people on riverboats watched the sides of the river appear to cave in. There also was the smell of brimstone in the air, Langston said.

He said at least 200 earthquakes a year occur in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, but they're generally 3.5-magnitude and smaller. "You have to be close to them to feel it," he said.

Along the New Madrid fault, Langston said, there is a 7 percent to 10 percent chance for a quake of magnitude-7.5 or larger in the next 50 years. There is a 25 percent to 40 percent chance of a magnitude-6 or larger quake in the next 50 years.

"So there's a good chance we could have a damaging quake in the next 50 years," Langston said.

But the average time between "really large" earthquakes along the fault is 300 to 500 years. There is evidence of earthquakes in the zone as far back as 2350 B.C. Langston said the sands and plays in the Mississippi River area create sand blows, the effects of which can still be seen in white spots in farm fields.

Before this research, the New Madrid Seismic Zone had been mapped by the USGS as an area of high seismic hazard, but those assessments were a consequence of a short -- about 4,500 years -- earthquake record for the area, the release said.

In the future, USGS scientists plan to map the seismic structure of the entire nation using USArray. This effort started in California in 2004, will focus on the East Coast next, then move to Alaska. All the USArray and other EarthScope efforts also will help draft the USGS National Seismic Hazard Maps.

Credit to Southeast Missourian

The US. is 90 Days Away from the Total Loss of Sovereignty

As America races toward her date with destiny, there is yet another “fundamentally transforming” event coming her way and that event is known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Many of us in the alternative media believe that some of the effects of the TPP will be felt before the coming war and martial law crackdown. However, after careful analysis, I am convinced that the brunt of the TPP will be felt after the America we know has been totally taken over in a post-war and post-economic collapse scenario. At the end of the day, it does not matter when the implementation of the TPP comes, because when it does, America will no longer be recognizable to anyone who has grown up in this once great country

“We Are Five Days Away From Fundamentally Transforming America”

Many accuse the current President of being one of the most prolific liars to ever occupy the Oval office, and he is. However, with regard to his campaign promise to transform American, made five days prior to the ignorant sheep of this country electing him to the highest office in the land, he was telling the truth and we are now seeing evidence of this promise on several fronts. However, with regard to the TPP, his promise of transformative change could not be more accurate.

The Implementation of the TPP Is Progressing By Stealth

Some of you are reading these words have no idea what the Trans-Pacific Partnership consists of. Some of you have never heard of it. Some of you have heard or read the term, but fail to realize the extreme danger that the implementation of this so-called trade agreement will mean to America and our way of life. A scant few are coming to realize just how dangerous the TPP truly is. For the record, the TPP is masquerading as a free trade agreement involving the US, Australia, Japan, Canada,Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru and Singapore.

With regard to the TPP, ignorance of the organization is understandable. We in the alternative media have not fulfilled our duty to fully explore the ramifications of the TPP because so little is publicly known.Obama has taken full advantage of the cloudy environment and is preparing to even bypass the constitutionally required approval of the Congress before implementing the TPP through a process called “fast-tracking.”

Obama Is Effectively Attempting to Bypass Congressional Approval

President Obama is indeed seeking Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority for the TPP as he is feverishly attempting to get the deal done by the end of the year. If Obama does manage to sign the agreement without Congressional approval, this would effectively neuter Congress in the final approval process. Under such an agreement, this would permit Obama to sign the trade agreement “without Congressional approval.”

When something is secret and kept from you, it is usually very bad for you.

After “Fast-Tracking,” Obama would send the  finalized agreement to Congress and this would subsequently force a vote within 90 days. Congressional debate would be very  limited and no amendments would be permitted. Even if Congress wanted to protect the American worker and the American economy from devastation, they cannot if Obama obtains the power to fast-track the TPP.  

Let’s be clear, Obama is violating the separation of powers principle of the US Constitution by leaving Congress in the dark and by limiting their ability to use their Congressional powers as they would with any other legislation. The rumors of the TPP policies are so horrific that even the Kool-Aid drinkers from the Democratic party are calling on Obama to allow more transparency. Congress is asking Obama to allow for more transparency? I did not know that we passed a Constitutional amendment which states that Congress works for Obama. 

The TPP Represents the Total Loss of US Sovereignty

The TPP is the brain child of the corporations. The TPP places all member nations directly under the control of the TPP instead of their respective national governments. Congress has been denied access to review any of the documents. Alan Grayson (D-FL) was granted a special exemption to view a small part of the TPP and he was told by TPP officials to keep his mouth shut as Grayson recalls that “They maintain that the text is classified information. I’m a member of Congress, but now they tell me that they don’t want me to talk to anybody about it because if I did, I’d be releasing classified information.”  Do you realize what this means? The corporate controlled TPP has granted themselves the authority to exercise the governmental power of classifying documents and Congress is included in the exclusion. Do you understand that this means we are living in a corporate dictatorship? It gets even worse.

Meet Your New Government: Monsanto and Walmart

As if it is not egregious enough that Congress is not allowed to view TPP documents, the 600 corporate officials, who form the TPP panel (e.g. corporate officials from corporations such asMonsanto and Walmart), have complete control of the development process of the TPP. Obama can view any part of the process, Congress and the American public cannot.

Further, a leaked chapter of the TPP speaks to the creation of a TPP Tribunal Council which will have the authority to force member nations to transform its laws, its civil procedures, its criminal procedures, even its electoral process, in order to abide by  the TPP Tribunal dictates. The bottom line, is that we are witnessing the destruction of the Constitution and the entire legal code of the United States, because once the tribunal makes a ruling with regard to a national law, there is no appeal. The Tribunal consists of unelected bureaucrats who are appointed by the creators of the TPP. The term of office for Tribunal officials is unlimited.

The most disturbing aspect of this agreement is that the TPP totally eviscerates the Tenth Amendment of the US Constitution. If, for example, the State of Arizona wanted to outlaw fracking, the TPP could overrule the local legislation if it so desired. To illustrate how far this unconstitutional corporate power extends, the TPP could declare cocaine trafficking to be legal and this could not be challenged.

The TPP represents the total obliteration of American sovereignty. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention another small set of details. How long do you think it will take until the TPP imposes a draconian version of cap and trade upon the American people and small businesses? The cap and trade version of what Obama tried to get passed in the Senate, when he first took office, consisted of reducing everyone’s energy consumption by 80% and utility rates “would necessarily skyrocket.” 

Please pause for just one moment and ask yourself if you like would like an 80% reduction of individual and business energy use and what that dramatic reduction of energy use would look like? The rank and file in this country would effectively be living in 1890.

This is Agenda 21 and it is being fully implemented through the backdoor. That is why the TPP is being kept from Congress and the American people.

These facts leads me to state that this President needs to be arrested and tried for treason.

Conclusion

Even “they” don’t want the TPP.

Obama’s fast tracking of the TPP is designed to be completed by the end of the year which would coincide with the commencement of many of Obama’s health care reforms.

I wish I could accurately state that the loss of sovereignty is the only threat that the TPP poses to the American people. However, to say so, would constitute a grossly inaccurate statement. Under the TPP, the alternative media will be destroyed, guns will be confiscated and the face of American employment will be forever changed in ways that you will not believe. If anything, this article has understated the threat posed to America by the TPP. The TPP is not a free trade agreement, it is a document which introduces a new era into American government. If the TPP passes, we will be living in an absolute corporate dictatorship.

These topics and more will be the subject of a follow up article to be published here later this week.

Finally, the government “officially” shut down tonight. I say let the government stay shut down. If my neighbor does not get her social security check, I will help feed her. We all need to reach out to those in need and help those who are impacted by this latest criminal action by our government. There is, however, a silver lining in a government shutdown. So long as the government is not officially operating, the TPP cannot be passed and while the government is shut down, perhaps this will give the people an opportunity to form a new government to take the place of the criminal government which has been hijacked by the central banksters who are bringing us the TPP.

Credit to the Common Sense Show

Jim Rogers: US govt shutdown is sham & charade to jerk us all around

Fed Purchases $6.78B in Treasurys

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York purchased Treasury debt worth $6.78 billion on Tuesday, reports MarketWatch.

Fed officials said they expected to purchase $6 billion and the bank was offered $25.567 billion in debt, which would mature from 2013 to 2014.

As a result of the announcement, yields rose.

10-year note yields rose to 3.39%, a gain of 5 basis points.

The Treasury debt purchase was the Fed's first of two buyback operations for this week.


Credit to Marc Faber Blog

Texas sheriffs to use war zone vehicle 'MRAP' on civilians