Commander of Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili said the country's experts have built a new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with bombing abilities, Press TV reported.
Esmaili said the new drone, named "Hazem", is a long range aircraft which can be used in air defense operations.
He noted that the drone will be used in targeting and identification operations, and for carrying cargo whenever needed.
The Iranian commander added that "Hazem" is not designed for carrying missiles, but "we can mount explosives on them".
In recent years, Iran has made great achievements in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing essential military equipment and systems.
"Karrar", Iran's first indigenous long-range drone unveiled in August 2010, is capable of carrying a military payload of rockets to carry out bombing missions against ground targets, flying long distances at a very high speed, and gathering information.
The country's indigenous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), Shahed 129, unveiled in September, 2012, can carry out combat and reconnaissance missions with its 24-hour nonstop flight capability.
Tehran has repeatedly assured other nations that its military might poses no threat to other countries, insisting that the Islamic Republic's defense doctrine is entirely based on deterrence.
Trend
RENO, Nev. (KRNV & MyNews4.com) -- Some rattling and rolling in the area has earthquake experts on alert. In the past week more than 100 small earthquakes have shaken the earth beneath Spanish Springs.
So far they've been too small to feel, but quake experts want you to know they're happening. There's no reason to panic - but it's a good reminder to make sure you're prepared.
"People can consider certain mitigation steps in case these earthquakes increase in intensity and there's a larger one," said Ken Smith, associate director of the Nevada Seismological Laboratory.
Smith says most injuries from earthquakes are caused by falling or flying objects - and you don't want to wait for a big quake to get ready.
"Secure your water heaters. Secure your valuables. Secure your book cases," Smith said.
It's not strange for a dozen quakes this size to happen in a week, but there have been at least 115 since October 8, and about 60 of those have been since Thursday.
"These things are totally unpredictable," Smith said. "It could stop today, or it could keep going at a level of very small events that no one would feel."
Or they could get stronger. so far they're small - with the biggest two quakes shaking at magnitude one - but there's potential for one that really rocks Reno.
"We have faults around here that are capable of magnitude seven type events," Smith said.
So this week the Great Nevada Shakeout will teach people to drop, cover and hold-on just in case there's a big quake. It's Nevada's largest earthquake drill and it's this Thursday, October 18 at 10:18 am.
NBC
Europe could be plunged into war if the euro collapses, Vince Cable warned last night.
The Business Secretary said the consequences would be 'incalculable' for Europe and 'awful' for the UK but cautioned that there was 'no automatic guarantee' that Europe would not disintegrate into conflict.
Mr Cable spoke out just two days after the European Union was handed the Nobel Peace Prize, an award that provoked widespread ridicule at a time when tensions over the single currency have led to violence and civil unrest across Europe.
Mr Cable told an audience at the Cheltenham Literary Festival: 'I think we need to take stock that if the eurozone were to unravel in a way that destroyed the European project - and there is a risk that could happen - the consequences would be absolutely incalculable.
'We tend to forget, until we were reminded last week of that Nobel Prize, the European project was constructed in order to rescue Europe from extreme nationalism and conflict. There is no automatic guarantee that won't return.' The Business Secretary described the euro as 'very valuable' and said the UK would 'be heard very loudly if it does unravel'.
He added: 'My sense is that the Germans in particular realise how much is at stake. A series of sensible measures have been taken in recent months.
'I think deep down there is enough common sense and a sense of survival to prevent this getting out of control. If it does, I'm afraid the consequences for us will be awful.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2217672/Europe-plunged-war-euro-collapses-says-Cable-warns-awful-consequences.html#ixzz29NnPoX7s
Joseph Herrin (10-13-2012)
Governing Who?
From the time that the Federal Reserve System was established in 1913 America has firmly been in the hands of a secret government. Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild, the founder of the Rothschild banking family stated, "Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws." The Bible affirms this truth, for it declares that “The borrower is the lender’s slave” (Proverbs 22:7). Woodrow Wilson, reflecting back on his part in passing the Federal Reserve Act stated,
I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world, no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.
Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, stated in the year 1815, “When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes… Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency...”
Eleven years after the founding of the Federal Reserve, Reginald McKenna, Chairman of the Midland Bank, one of the largest in the nation, stated, “I am afraid the ordinary citizen will not like to be told that... they who control the credit of the nation direct the policy of Governments and hold in the hollow of their hand the destiny of the people.”
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the purpose of this teaching series is NOT to stir up any patriotic fervor in your hearts, nor enmity toward those who have used the government for self interest, or Luciferian plans. The goal of these writings is to cause you to see the world as it truly is. America is a nation acting out a charade. It pretends to be a democracy where the people freely choose their government officials, a nation whose people establish government policy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every declaration that comes forth from Washington, D.C., that Luciferian capital of the nation, is lies, deception, and subterfuge. This is the nature of Satan, and it is the way in which his disciples conduct themselves.
I regularly encounter Christians who speak as if there is some significant difference between choosing a Republican or a Democratic candidate for public office. They do not perceive that these are but two heads of the same beast. Nothing changes in the policy of the government from one election to another. The course of the nation is set. Satan rules through an invisible government. How many presidential candidates have gained Christians’ votes because they said they were pro-life? Yet there has been NO movement by any candidate to bring an end to abortion in America. Whether a Democrat or Republican is elected makes no difference. The Satanic policies of the country go on apace, not deviating from the set course.
There are members of the news media today who promote their programs as airing fair and accurate reporting without bias. Yet all the major media outlets are owned by a small number of huge international corporations. These corporations are tied to big banking, to global interests that are working toward a one world government. Everything is spin today. Even the opposing views of the left and the right are cunningly contrived to control the conversation and to establish lines of demarcation within which Americans will discuss their political issues. Nothing outside of certain predefined limits is permitted. There is no such thing as a free and open public discussion in the media.
This has been the state of affairs in America for generations. When I was younger I used to believe the reasons given for America’s entrance into World War I and World War II. I had been taught to accept that these were “righteous” wars, and that America was on the side of right, and opposing evil forces in the world. The public school education I received, television programs I viewed on the wars, even the conversations I heard in church, all supported this view. I have come to understand that what was delivered to me at the first was propaganda. It was created by the same powers that contrived a way to get Americans to adopt the Federal Reserve System. I had been fed lies and deception from my youth on up. It has been by the grace of God that my eyes have been opened to discern that America is a nation living in an altered state of reality. What is believed, and what is real, are two entirely different matters.
Much of America’s recent history has been cast as a struggle against Communism. America’s form of government is actually a Constitutional Republic, not a Democracy, yet the media and government spokespersons have heralded America as a champion of Democracy. This has been evident especially since World War I when the Committee on Public Information was formed to persuade Americans to support the war. The motto the CPI found most effective was “Making the world safe for Democracy.” It was suggested that Democracy equates to personal freedom, while other forms of government are oppressive.
The disciples of Lucifer in the global banking houses understand that wars create vast opportunities for the rich to get richer, and wars foster an environment for social and political change. This is why wars have been routinely engineered by the unseen powers. Their authority over the nations grows as their wealth increases. By means of war they are able to move the course of nations along the path laid out by Satan, ultimately leading to a one world government, a single financial system, and absolute control over the lives of mankind.
Facts are deliberately hidden from the populace, for if they knew the truth of world events they would be able to see past the deception being foisted upon them. The myth of America’s great struggle against world Communism would be shattered if it became known that American banking and industrial interests financed the Bolshevik revolution, built up the infrastructure of Soviet Russia, and equipped their armed forces. This was necessary in order for the money powers to create an image of a threat to world freedom, leading to an arms race and a myriad of conflicts.
Senator Joseph McCarthy was one American who became aware that there were a large number of people in governmental positions who were working in support of global Communism. McCarthy has been demonized by the press. His efforts to expose Communist supporters in American government have been compared to “witch hunts.” Knowing that global money powers own the media, their condemnation of individuals, and praise of others, should cause the saints to examine carefully the views being promoted. The darkness reacts violently to the light, for they are opposed to one another.
McCarthy also told the American public that it was at the Yalta conference in 1945 that Roosevelt and Stalin planned, not only the Korean War that the United States was then involved in, but also the Vietnamese war that was to follow some 10 to 12 years later. It was on September 23, 1950, that McCarthy charged: “Here was signed the death warrant of the young men who were dying today in the hills and valleys of Korea. Here was signed the death warrant of the young men who will die tomorrow in the jungles of Indochina [Vietnam].”
[Source: The Unseen Hand, Ralph A. Epperson]
A decade before the Vietnam War began, McCarthy stated that a secret agreement had been made between President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Stalin to carry out the war. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was from New York. Since the late 18th century the Franklin and Delano families have been connected with financial interests in New York. From 1921 to 1928, the boom years of the roaring twenties, Roosevelt worked as a banker and speculator from his office on Broadway and Liberty streets in Manhattan.
To be specific, Franklin D. Roosevelt was, at one time or another during the 1920s, a vice president of the Fidelity & Deposit Company (120 Broadway); the president of an industry trade association, the American Construction Council (28 West 44th Street); a partner in Roosevelt & O'Connor (120 Broadway); a partner in Marvin, Hooker & Roosevelt (52 Wall Street); the president of United European Investors, Ltd. (7 Pine Street); a director of International Germanic Trust, Inc. (in the Standard Oil Building at 26 Broadway); a director of Consolidated Automatic Merchandising Corporation, a paper organization; a trustee of Georgia Warm Springs Foundation (120 Broadway); a director of American Investigation Corporation (37-39 Pine Street); a director of Sanitary Postage Service Corporation (285 Madison Avenue); the chairman of the General Trust Company (15 Broad Street); a director of Photomaton (551 Fifth Avenue); a director of Mantacal Oil Corporation (Rock Springs, Wyoming); and an incorporator of the Federal International Investment Trust.
That's a pretty fair list of directorships. It surely earns FDR the title of Wall Streeter par excellence. Most who work on "the Street" never achieve, and probably never even dream about achieving, a record of 11 corporate directorships, two law partnerships, and the presidency of a major trade association.
In probing these directorships and their associated activities, we find that Roosevelt was a banker and a speculator, the two occupations he emphatically denounced in the 1932 Presidential election.
[Source: Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, Antony C. Sutton]
In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson appointed Franklin Roosevelt’s “favorite uncle” Frederic Adrian Delano to a position on the Federal Reserve. From 1931 to 1936 Fred Delano was chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, VA.
The media at the time of his first Presidential race portrayed F.D.R. as a common man, and a corporate outsider opposed to big banking. Herbert Hoover, whom F.D.R. ran against, was characterized as a pawn of the bankers, and insensitive to the common man. The truth was radically different from the media portrayal. The news was definitely being “spun” to get Roosevelt elected. His connections to big banking, including J.P. Morgan, were legion.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was also descended on the Roosevelt side from one of the oldest banking families in the United States. FDR's great-grandfather James Roosevelt founded the Bank of New York in 1784 and was its president from 1786 to 1791. The investment banking firm of Roosevelt & Son of New York City was founded in 1797, and in the 1930s George E. Roosevelt, FDR's cousin, was the fifth member of the family in direct succession to head the firm. So the New York City banking roots of the Roosevelt family extend without interruption back into the late 18th century. In the industrial sphere James Roosevelt built the first American sugar refinery in New York City in the 1740s, and Roosevelts still had connections with Cuban sugar refining in the 1930s. FDR's father, also named James Roosevelt, was born at Hyde Park, New York in 1828 into this old and distinguished family. This James Roosevelt graduated from Harvard Law School in 1851, became a director of the Consolidated Coal Company of Maryland and, like the Delanos in subsequent years was associated with the development of transportation, first as general manager of the Cumberland & Pennsylvania Railroad, and then as president of the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad, the Susquehanna Railroad Co., Champlain Transportation Co., Lake George Steamboat Co., and New York & Canada Railroad Co. James Roosevelt was also vice president and manager of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co. and chairman of the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua, but most significantly was an organizer of the Southern Railway Security Company, established in 1871 and one of the first of the security holding companies formed to buy up and consolidate railroads. The Southern Railway Security Company was a consolidation or cartelization scheme similar in its monopolistic principle to the trade associations formed by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1920s and to the National Recovery Act, another cartelization scheme, of the New Deal. James Roosevelt's second wife was Sara, daughter of Warren Delano, and their son was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, later President of the United States.
Franklin was educated at Groton and Harvard, then went on to Columbia Law School. According to his son Elliott, FDR "never graduated or took a degree, but he was able to pass his New York State bar examination." FDR's first job was with the old established downtown law firm of Carter, Ledyard and Milburn, whose principal client was J. Pierpont Morgan, and in three years FDR worked his way up from minor legal research posts to the firm's municipal court and admiralty divisions. We should note in passing that, when FDR first went to Washington D.C. in 1916 to become Assistant Secretary of the Navy, it was Thomas W. Lamont—international banker and most influential of the Morgan partners—who leased the FDR home in New York.
[Source: Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, Antony C. Sutton]
The facts reveal that in F.D.R. the bankers had a loyal servant who was carrying forth a scheme that was not in America’s interests, but in the interests of the global banking and industrial powers. When Roosevelt sat down with Stalin and Churchill at Yalta they planned future wars that would advance the Luciferian plans of the money powers.
Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin
America’s government has maintained an image of being opposed to Communism, but her policies, and the actions of her bankers and industrialists, have been quite the opposite. At a time when Russia was still vulnerable to overthrow from members of her own country, American policy betrayed those who opposed the Communist government, sending millions to their deaths. Many Russians who were anti-Communist, put their trust in the American government who outwardly evinced a policy to stop Communism. The misplaced trust in America’s political leaders proved to be a fatal mistake for many. Ralph Epperson writes of the period following World War II.
Roosevelt and Eisenhower approved the forced repatriation of some six million people back to Russia, many of whom were tortured or killed after they reached their destination.
Two Russians who have written of this abominable decision of these American leaders are Nikolai Tolstoy and Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. The Americans called this repatriation “Operation Keelhaul,” after the naval form of punishment or torture where the prisoner is hauled under the keel of a ship by a rope tied to the prisoner’s body.
These six million individuals were not only soldiers who had fought on the side of the Germans against the Russians, but they were women and children as well.
700,000 of this total were soldiers under the command of Lt. Gen. Andrei Vlasov, a brilliant Soviet officer and one of the heroes of the battle of Moscow in 1942. In April of 1945, General Vlasov led his troops to the American lines so that they could surrender and then volunteer to return to Communist Russia and attempt to oust the Bolshevik government. They laid down their arms and considered themselves to be American Prisoners of War.
Vlasov was informed that permission to pass through the American lines had been refused, so he had to order his unarmed men to save themselves as best they could. Most of them were forcibly repatriated back to Russia and executed. General Vlasov himself was taken from an American escort by Soviet troops and spirited away to Moscow where he was later executed.
The British government behaved no more honorably. Despite guarantees to the contrary, more than 30,000 Cossacks, including women and children, led by General P.N. Krasnov, were disarmed and forcibly turned over to the Russian Army. Many committed suicide rather than be repatriated back to the Communist government in Russia.
[Source: The Unseen Hand, Ralph A. Epperson]
In another section of his book, Epperson relates the immense support that America gave the Soviets in building up their industrial capacity, their military, and in keeping them afloat financially. The ultimate goal of the global elite guiding this policy was the formation of a single world government. Joseph Stalin spoke of the reasons that the Communist nations needed the support of Capitalist nations. He said:
It is essential that the proletariat of the advanced countries should render real and prolonged aid to the backward nationalities in their cultural and economic development. Unless such aid is forthcoming, it will be impossible to bring the various nations and peoples within a single world economic system that is so essential for the triumph of socialism.
[Source: Dan Smoot Report, June 22, 1959]
Ralph Epperson shares the following information.
It was America’s early plan to conceal the true intent of their sale of technology to Russia: to build a superior Russian military power. To accomplish this subterfuge, it became their task to convince the skeptical that the technology was being sold to Russia to assist them in reconstructing their war-ravaged economy, and that such aid was civilian and not military.
For instance, some of the first factories constructed in Russia in the 1920's and 1930's were “tractor” factories, constructed in the Russian cities of Volgograd, Kharkov, and Chelyabinsk. All three were constructed by American companies...
These “tractor” factories, ostensibly constructed to supply farm tractors to the Russian farmer, today produce tanks, armored cars, self-propelled guns, launchers, missile carriers, anti-aircraft guns, and trucks.
In addition, military tanks, so essential to any military structure, are constructed in two key production plants: “the Gorki plant and the Zil plant...” The Gorki plant was built from scratch by Henry Ford in the 1930's...
One of the most recent examples of American technology coming back to haunt the American people has come from the experience in building the Kama River truck factory in Russia in 1969. This plant, capable of producing 100,000 heavy duty trucks and 150,000 diesel engines a year, more than all U.S. manufacturers put together, cost the Russians over $1.4 billion. Nearly $1 billion of that total came from the United States in the form of computers, heavy equipment, and foundry equipment...
In addition to building the plants that produce the military hardware essential to Russia’s armed forced, the Americans constructed essential industries to assist the actual construction process. For instance, there are two steel plants in Russia... Both of these plants were constructed by American companies, the one in Magnitogorsk by the Arthur G. McKee & Co., the builder of the U.S. Steel plant in Gary, Indiana, and the other by the Freyn Engineering Company of Chicago.
The oil industry also received American attention... Lenin gave three oil boring concessions to three major oil companies: Standard Oil Company (Rockefeller); the Comparre Oil Company of New Jersey..., and Royal Dutch Shell.
In addition to the oil concessions, Standard Oil received a concession to build a 150,000 ton kerosene plant, capable of producing 100 octane gasoline. Standard Oil also concluded a deal to market Russian oil in Eastern European markets...
Gary Allen, another researcher of merit into this subject has stated: “It is possible the Rockefellers still own oil production facilities behind the Iron Curtain, drawing profits out through Switzerland.
[Source: The Unseen Hand, Ralph A. Epperson]
What is even more shocking is that the American government sent the Soviets plans for America’s military technology, including the building of submarines and the atomic bomb. The transfer to Russia of the technology to build nuclear weapons was alluded to in a novel written by the son of Franklin Roosevelt in 1980. The book is titled A Family Matter. The dust cover of the book states, “Roosevelt... makes a bold secret decision - to share the results of the Manhattan Project with the Soviet Union.”
The world banking interests would have had a hard time selling to America and the West the idea of a Soviet threat if America alone had nuclear weapons and Russia did not. There would have been little basis for an arms race, thus the technology was given to the Russians. It was necessary for the Russians to have nuclear weapons so that a state of continual threat of nuclear destruction could be used to justify both exorbitant military spending and various policy actions.
An article in the Wall Street Journal of April 25, 1975, headlined: “U.S. Quietly Allows Uranium Shipments to Soviet Union for Processing into Fuel.” The article detailed that the State Department had approved the sale of 1.4 million pounds of uranium oxide mined in Wyoming and New Mexico to the Soviet government. It would in turn be processed into pellets rich in Uranium 235. “This isotope provides the power for nuclear electric plants and for the atomic bomb.”
[Source: Ibid]
Why, one might ask, if the American government truly considered the Soviet Union to be an “Evil Empire” would it be sending it highly controlled material used in the construction of weapons of mass destruction?
There have been some men in high positions within the U.S. government and military who have discovered what has been done clandestinely to build up the Soviet Union, all the while the same government and military are saying that the Soviet Union was the greatest threat to global freedom and peace. Two men in particular were James Forrestal, America’s first Secretary of Defense, and General George Patton. These men were adamantly opposed to aiding the Soviets, and discovering that the policies and actions of the American government were aiding the Communists, these men became outspoken critics. Both men met untimely deaths while in the care of the government in military hospitals. For those who care to pursue this subject further, their stories make insightful reading. Interestingly, both James Forrestal and Joseph McCarthy, died in Bethesda Naval Hospital under suspicious circumstances.
People of God, as the media and government have for decades talked about the “Red Menace” of the Soviet Union, they have used this as an excuse for massive military spending and entry into numerous conflicts. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union during the Reagan years, it was needful that the money powers raise up a new threat. This has led to what is currently known as “the war on terror.” Conveniently, this threat is hard to identify, is global in nature, and the conflict has no termination date for there is no way to measure when the threat has been removed.
Tens of millions of lines of newsprint were devoted to the threat of the Soviet Union, and now the same amount is assigned to the war on terror. The news media, the government, and others are continually keeping this conflict before the eyes of the people. Massive spending programs are being justified due to the threat, and policy changes, even alterations to the basic rights of American, are being taken due to the supposed necessity of protecting America from these threats. The truth of the matter is that the war on terror is completely contrived. It is a bill of goods sold to Americans and the world, but there is no substance to it.
Some would ask, “How can this be? We hear about the war on terror daily. Surely there must be some threat. How can all these reports be false?” I am reminded of a passage of Scripture in which the Lord spoke to His disciples about the character of the last days.
Matthew 24:6
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled...
What is the difference between a war, and a rumor of war? Could it be that Yahshua was indicating to His disciples that there would be reports of wars that were fabricated, that were untrue, but would be believed by millions? By the expression “rumors of war” could He have been referring to such “wars” as “the Cold War” and “the War on Terror?”
Interestingly, the Greek word translated as “rumors” is also translated as “report.”
John 12:38
That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report?
It is certain that a world under the dominion of Satan, the great deceiver, is being subjected to a flood of lies and deception. It is great folly for Christians to believe the lies, and to be influenced by those who espouse lies. How many Christians bought into the lie of the great Red menace, not realizing that the very nation and its military that they feared was birthed, established, strengthened, and sustained, by the policy of the U.S. government and the material, industrial, and financial aid of American Capitalists? How many realized that the same Capitalists own the media that hid from view all knowledge of this deception, while promoting in the American mind an image of Russia as a great threat to Democracy?
People of God, the extent of deception today is truly astounding. Satan is flooding the world with lies. He is causing multitudes to be swept away in the flood of deception. Not seeing through the lies, they become the unwitting pawns of Satan, responding as he would have them to do.
An hour is at hand when Satan will bring all his plans for world government to fruition. Many Christians will be herded along with the world into compliance with all the schemes of the adversary because they lack discernment. It is a time to be exceptionally wary.
Joseph Herrin
Just what might happen if the Iranians got their hands on a nuclear weapon? Would they fire it at an Israeli city, causing tens or hundreds of thousands of casualties? Or would they use it as a geopolitical weapon, seeking to dominate the Middle East and forcing the hand of Western powers, either subtly or by overtly threatening death and destruction to those who fail to heed their dictates?
While political scientists and world leaders have debated the likelihood of those two possibilities, there is a third plausible scenario: The use of a nuclear weapon by Iran to carry out an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack against Israel, the US, or Europe. Such an attack could cause severe damage to the electrical grid in the targeted nations, to the extent that the routines of daily life — centered around the use of electrical power — could be halted, for a short or even long period of time.
An EMP is an above-atmosphere level detonation of a nuclear device that produces enough radiation to wreak havoc with electrical systems. The blast produces a very brief but intense electromagnetic field that can quickly induce very high currents in electrical devices, shorting them out. The stronger the electromagnetic field — the “pulse” — the stronger the current, and the more likely electrical devices are to “blow out.” It’s akin to a power surge that shorts out your refrigerator or TV when too much voltage surges through the electrical outlet… on a whole other scale.
While there is much speculation as to what exactly an EMP would do to electrical appliances and digital devices — scientists have differences of opinion over how badly they would be affected (the world hasn’t really experienced a direct EMP blast yet, so much of the speculation is based on educated guesses) — the far-greater concern is what an attack would do to the electrical infrastructure in a targeted area. If an EMP strike is large enough, or there are enough such strikes, the blasts could knock out power plants, electrical substations, and other sensitive equipment, causing a massive power failure that may take weeks or months to overcome. Data centers housing servers would likely be badly damaged as well, as would be communications systems.
The EMP issue is hardly being discussed in Israel, said Dr. Emily Landau, director of the Arms Control and Regional Security Program at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies and a lecturer at Tel Aviv University. “There isn’t much discussion of it right now, but when the discussion does begin, there is no doubt that it will focus on the balance between how much it will cost to deal with, versus how likely such an attack may be,” she said.
Landau, an expert on Iran’s nuclear program, believes that Iran could very well be planning an EMP attack on Israel, based on statements the Iranian regime has made, and actions it has taken. And, she said, Iran would be capable of delivering an EMP attack if it acquired a nuclear weapon.
“Some are skeptical that Iran would use a nuclear bomb just for an EMP attack,” said Landau. “If they already have a nuclear weapon, why not use it for the main purpose for which it was designed? But while a nuclear bomb targeting an Israeli city would cause mass destruction on a local or regional basis, an EMP attack could cause even more lasting damage, destroying Israel’s electrical grid.”
If Iran did opt for an EMP attack, the damage to Israel would be very high, she said. “Iran doesn’t have a nuclear bomb yet, and hopefully they won’t have one, but if they do manage to build a bomb, an EMP attack is a real possibility,” Landau added. “Many people in the US are concerned about EMP now, and although the public discussion hasn’t begun in Israel yet, I expect that it will in the near future.”
The US Congress in 2000 established the Congressional Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack. In 2004, the committee produced a 70-page executive summary on the EMP threat, and it issued a final report on the matter in 2008. According to the report, “several potential adversaries have or can acquire the capability to attack the United States with a high-altitude nuclear weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse (EMP). A determined adversary can achieve an EMP attack capability without having a high level of sophistication.”
The impact would be devastating, the report said. “EMP is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences. EMP will cover the wide geographic region within line of sight to the nuclear weapon. It has the capability to produce significant damage to critical infrastructures and thus to the very fabric of US society, as well as to the ability of the United States and Western nations to project influence and military power,” it said.
Dr. Peter Vincent Pry was lead staffer for the Congressional committee, and he, too, is worried that Iran could use a nuclear bomb to carry out an EMP attack — on Israel and/or the US.
“Iran openly talks about using an EMP to attack Israel or the US,” said Pry, who is currently executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, a privately funded US group that seeks to educate the public and government leaders about the EMP threat to the US. According to Pry, Iran is actively preparing for an EMP attack. “Tehran has undertaken offshore exercises using Scud missiles fired and positioned in such a way that they exploded in the atmosphere — exactly the method you would use for an EMP attack,” he said.
Iran’s arsenal of atomic bombs would be no match for the US, which could obliterate any memory of Islamist Iran in a matter of minutes. But, Pry told The Times of Israel, he believes that Iran could get the most leverage out of a nuclear bomb by using it to trash large parts of the electrical grid in the US, making it easy for the Islamist regime to swoop in and act as it wishes on the world stage. “They could even marshal a major Islamic invasion of Israel, massacring the Jews and ushering in the era of the 12th Imam, the Islamic messiah, whose arrival Iran’s leadership believe is imminent,” Pry suggested grimly.
While EMP is a serious threat, there are steps governments can take to protect their electrical systems, according to Avi Schnurr, chairman and CEO of the Electric Infrastructure Security (EIS) Council, which works with government agencies and power companies worldwide to help coordinate international efforts on electric infrastructure protection.
“In the US, the estimate is that it would cost on the order of $1 billion to make the changes that would protect the power grid against EMP,” he told The Times of Israel. “I don’t have an estimate for Israel, but given the enormous difference in the sizes of the two countries and their power grids, it should be extremely affordable — no more than a fraction of a percent of Israel’s annual electric bill.”
“Hardening” electrical infrastructure against EMP attack would entail making some gradual changes to the power grid, such as the installation of devices like GIC (geomagnetically induced current) blockers.
Even if Iran were not developing a nuclear weapon, protecting the power grid in this manner would be a good idea, said Pry. “You don’t need a nuclear weapon to set off an EMP. You can also easily get a non-nuclear pulse generator,” he said. “They’re perfectly legal. A terrorist could detonate one next to an electrical station and effectively black out a city or region. Such weapons don’t do as much damage as a nuclear pulse does, but they are effective enough.”
In fact, when it comes to EMP, nature itself can be an enemy. “An EMP can be caused by an event like a severe solar storm,” said Pry. Such events have occurred on at least two previous occasions – including in 1859, when the largest recorded geomagnetic storm ever was recorded. British astronomer Richard Carrington observed the storm’s largest flare, which caused a major coronal mass ejection (CME) to travel directly toward the Earth — leading telegraph systems all over Europe and North America to fail, in some cases shocking telegraph operators before blowing out because of the overload of electricity in the wires. (The phenomenon is named the Carrington effect, after the astronomer.)
It takes political will to do what is necessary to protect the grid, said Schnurr, and that will is beginning to show itself in Western countries, including in Israel, which, Schnurr claims, is more aware, and more active in the hardening of its grid, than most countries. “Work is going on associated with protecting the grid,” continued Schnurr. There is a greater degree and breadth of awareness on this issue, which is part of the reason why efforts have been made.”
Cost need not be a barrier, Schnurr stressed. Relatively speaking, “the cost associated with hardening the grid is quite small,” he said. Getting it done, he said, is of the utmost priority, and that will be the great challenge of governments — from Israel to the US, and many others — in the coming period.
The Israel Times
The air defense units of Russia’s Southern Military District will be rearmed with advanced S-400 Triumf air defense systems by the end of 2012, a spokesman for the district said on Monday.
The Southern Military District was created in October 2010. It comprises the republics of Adygea, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Kalmykia, Karachay-Cherkessia, North Ossetia, Chechnya, and the Krasnodar, Stavropol, Astrakhan, Volgograd and Rostov regions.
“In line with a plan for the rearmament of the southern Military District, the S-400 air defense systems will be put on combat duty by the end of this year to replace the S-300PM systems,” Col. Igor Gorbul said.
The S-400 Triumph long- to medium-range surface-to-air missile system can effectively engage any aerial target, including aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, and cruise and ballistic missiles at a distance of up to 400 kilometers (250 miles) and an altitude of up to 30 kilometers (18.6 miles).
Russia already has four S-400 regiments protecting national airspace around Moscow, in the Far East and in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.
Gorbul said that the Southern Military District received 16 pieces of new military hardware in 2012, including Pantsir-S (SA-22 Greyhound) short-range gun and missile air defense systems.
Pantsir-S is primarily designed to defend higher ranking air defense systems such as S-300 and S-400.
RIA Novosti
The latest executive order (EO) emanating from the White House October 9 now claims the power to freeze all bank accounts and stop any related financial transactions that a “sanctioned person” may own or try to perform — all in the name of “Iran Sanctions.”
Titled an “Executive Order from the President regarding Authorizing the Implementation of Certain Sanctions…” the order says that if an individual is declared by the president, the secretary of state, or the secretary of the treasury to be a “sanctioned person,” he (or she) will be unable to obtain access to his accounts, will be unable to process any loans (or make them), or move them to any other financial institution inside or outside the United States. In other words, his financial resources will have successfully been completely frozen. The EO expands its authority by making him unable to use any third party such as “a partnership, association, trust, joint venture, corporation, subgroup or other organization” that might wish to help him or allow him to obtain access to his funds.
And if the individual so “sanctioned” decides that the ruling is unfair, he isn't allowed to sue. In two words, the individual has successfully been robbed blind.
But it’s all very legal. The EO says the president has his “vested authority” to issue it, and then references endless previous EOs, including one dating back to 1995 which declared a “state of emergency” (which hasn’t been lifted): Executive Order 12957.
EO 12957 was issued by President Bill Clinton on March 15, 1995, which was also obliquely related to the Iran “problem”:
I, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America, find that the actions and policies of the Government of Iran to constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, and hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.
Clinton’s EO further delegated such powers as were necessary to enforce the EO to the secretaries of the treasury and state “to employ all powers … as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this order. The Secretary of the Treasury may redelegate any of these functions to other officers and agencies of the United States Government.”
Such EOs are the perfect embodiment of what the Founders feared the most: the combining of the legislative, executive, and judicial functions into one body. Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution says: “All legislative powers herein shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.” As Thomas Eddlem, writing for The New American, expressed it, “then it stands to reason [that] none is left for the president.”
But Joe Wolverton, also in The New American, pointed out the particular piece of language the Founders used to limit the powers of the president which totalitarians have twisted to allow such powers to expand: the “take care” clause, to wit: Article II, Section 3: he [the president] shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed…
With every EO, the president avoids the cumbersome constitutional safeguards spelled out by the Constitution, and uses them to implement policies he "knows" are right. Says Wolverton: "With every one of these … executive orders, then, the president elevates his mind and will above that of the people, Congress and the courts."
The current administration has had a lot of help in justifying and codifying the legitimacy of executive orders, going all the way back to President George Washington who in 1793 issued his “Neutrality Proclamation,” which declared that the United States would remain neutral in the current conflict between France and Great Britain, and would bring sanctions against any American citizen who attempted to provide assistance to either party. The language of Washington is eerily similar to that used by President Obama in the present case:
I have therefore thought fit by these presents to declare the disposition of the United States to observe the conduct aforesaid toward those powers respectively, and to exhort and warn the citizens of the United States carefully to avoid all acts and proceedings whatsoever which may in any manner tend to contravene such disposition…
I have given instructions to those officers to whom it belongs to cause prosecutions to be instituted against all persons who shall, within the cognizance of the courts of the United States, violate the law of nations with respect to the powers at war, or any of them.
When James Madison protested Washington’s usurpation of powers not intended for the president, Congress acquiesced and passed, retroactively, the Neutrality Act of 1794, validating Washington’s usurpation.
President Lincoln engaged in similar usurpations, using presidential “directives” to run the early months of the Civil War, presenting Congress with, as Todd Gaziano put it,
the decision either to adopt his [directives] as legislation or to cut off support for the Union army.
Within his first two months in office, on April 15, 1861, Lincoln issued a proclamation activating troops to defeat the Southern rebellion and for Congress to convene on July 4.
He also issued proclamations to procure warships and to expand the size of the military; in both cases, the proclamations provided for payment to be advanced from the Treasury without congressional approval.
These latter actions were probably unconstitutional, but Congress acquiesced in the face of wartime contingencies, and the matters were never challenged in court.
President Franklin Roosevelt often overlooked the niceties of constitutional restraints as well. As Gaziano expressed it, “FDR also showed a tendency to abuse his executive order authority and [to] claim powers that were not conferred on him in the Constitution or by statute.”
As far as numbers of executive orders issued, Obama is a piker. At the moment, although the list is growing, his administration has issued only 900 or so executive orders. President Theodore Roosevelt issued 1,006 while President Woodrow Wilson issued 1,791. Even President Calvin Coolidge used the EO “privilege” 1,253 times.
The granddaddy of them all, FDR, issued an astounding 3,728 executive orders, but of course he was in office longer than Obama.
President Bill Clinton issued only 364 executive orders, but he made the most of them, using this extra-legal power to, among other things, wage war in Yugoslavia without congressional approval. Cliff Kincaid collated the numerous EOs issued by Clinton in 1998 and 1999, and concluded:
Clinton waged his war on Yugoslavia through executive order and presidential directive. Clinton used executive orders to designate a "war zone," call up troops, proclaim a "national emergency" with respect to Yugoslavia, and impose economic sanctions on the Belgrade government.
Clinton claimed war-making presidential authority through his "constitutional authority" to conduct "foreign relations," as "Commander in Chief" and as "Chief Executive." Under this self-designated authority, Clinton delegated command-and-control of U.S. forces to NATO and its Secretary-General Javier Solana, who decided when the air war would be discontinued…
The most outrageous executive order of all time was that issued by President Roosevelt that allowed the enforced internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans: 9066.
Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) called EOs patently unconstitutional. When asked about them by Fox News’ Megan Kelly, Paul responded:
The Constitution says that only Congress passes laws. The executive branch is not allowed to pass laws, nor should the judicial system pass laws. So it is clearly unconstitutional to issue these executive orders.
They’ve been done for a long time, both parties have done it, but the Congress is careless. They allow and encourage and do these deals … to get the president to circumvent the Congress. If something’s unpopular and he can’t get it passed, well, let’s just sign an executive order. So I think that is blatantly wrong. I think this defies everything the founders intended. I think it’s a shame that Congress does it, and I think it’s a shame that the American people put up with it.
New American
While the entire 'developed' world is now openly engaged in destroying the balance sheet of its assorted central banks - the sole means to devalue local currencies, a liability, by accepting ever more toxic 'assets' as currency collateral - thereby pursuing strategies which until now were strictly relegated to the banana republic playbook, there are some countries who see what is coming over the horizon, and refuse to join the printing frenzy. One such place is China, for whom, as we have repeatedly shown the threat of a fast onset of inflation is far greater (3x more bank deposits as a % of GDP than in the US, means a soaring capital market as a result of inflation will benefit far less while a deposit exodus will cause hyperinflationary havoc in minutes) than any other developed world country. And with the inability to hide "non-core" CPI as a result of food and energy being such a greater portion of overall inflationary bean counting than in the US, it means that despite the demands of Tim Geithner for immediate more easing by China, the PBOC is now stuck waiting to import everyone else's inflation: this includes the Fed, ECB, BOE, BOJ, Korea, Australia and all other bank engaged in adding liquidity, while its own hands are quite tied. Because recall that it was only last year that the NYT said that: "Inflation in China Poses Big Threat to Global Trade." Now we are told that lack of inflation poses the same threat, when in reality what they mean is that with the world tapped out, one more source of marginal liquidity is needed. Judging by overnight comments from the PBOC's head Zhou Xiaochuan that liquidity, suddenly so very needed to keep the game of musical chairs going, is not going to come from China just as we have warned for months on end.
China's central bank governor has warned that quantitative easing policies worldwide could cause inflationary risks, state news agency Xinhua said on Saturday.
The remarks by People's Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Zhou Xiaochuan come even as analysts credit policy easing from G4 central banks - the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank (ECB), the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England - in the third quarter of the year as underpinning business confidence.
Ironically, unlike before when the West benefited from Chinese easing during periods of stress such as in the Lehman aftermath, this time around it is China who is sowing the fruits of others' relentless easing tactics. Only last night China reported that its trade surplus came well ahead of expectations, at $27.7 billion versus a consensus of $20.5 billion, with exports coming coming nearly double the expected 5.5%.
Chinese data on Saturday offered a sign that G4 policy easing was being felt in the world's second biggest economy, with trade numbers showing exports grew at roughly twice the rate expected in September while imports returned to the path of expansion.
"The data shows both imports and exports are improving - especially a rebound in export growth reflects a rising confidence after the U.S. and European countries launched further easing policies last month," said Xue Hexiang, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Shanghai, after the trade numbers were released.
In other words, China is now perfectly happy with the status quo, and is delighted that for once it does not have to be marginal provider of global growth impetus. Instead, it will continue resorting to ultra short-term liquidity intervention strategies such as a reverse repos, which it has been doing for the past several months, and will do no RRR or rate cuts for as long as the threat exists that some other bank will do it for them.
Across Asia, central banks are wary about the potential inflationary impact of the Fed's latest quantitative easing, dubbed QE3, as well as policy stimulus unveiled by the ECB.
Central banks "should consider draining excessive liquidity injected into the market and eliminate inflationary pressure in the long-term", Zhou was quoted as saying by Xinhua, which cited the Journal of Public Research, a magazine published by the People's Bank of China.
China's central bank said in September that it would "fine tune" policy to cushion the economy against global risks while closely watching the possible impact from recent policy loosening in the United States and Europe.
The bottom line is that those waiting for China to come in and provide that last bit of momentum to take the S&P to its all time highs, will be waiting, and waiting, as such an intervention will not come. Why? Thank the Chairman, whose open-ended easing has effectively taken out an even great short-term stock market growth driver, China, out of the picture. And judging by the recent market move, in which the entire QE3 jump has now been faded and then some, Bernanke better have some more magic up his sleeve, ironically, magic which will make any additional "developed world" easing that much less likely.
And just as the permabulls were hoping for once they would be right with their 1650 year end S&P forecasts...
Zero Hedge
TOKYO —
Japan and the United States are mulling a joint military drill to simulate retaking a remote island from foreign forces, reports said Sunday, amid a festering row between Tokyo and Beijing over disputed islets.
The exercise, part of broader joint maneuvers to start in early November, would use an uninhabited island in Okinawa, southernmost Japan, Jiji Press and Kyodo News agencies quoted unidentified sources as saying.
The drill would involve Japanese and US troops making an amphibious and airborne landing to retake the island using boats and helicopters, Kyodo said.
Japan and China have long been at loggerheads over the sovereignty of rocky outcrops in the East China Sea known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan and the Diaoyu Islands in China.
The Tokyo-administered island chain is uninhabited, but is thought to be sitting on top of valuable resources.
The dispute flared in August and September with landings by nationalists from both sides and the subsequent nationalisation of the islands by Tokyo.
The exercise would reportedly use the uninhabited island of Irisunajima. The tiny island, used as a firing range for U.S. forces, is also in the East China Sea but hundreds of kilometres (miles) away from the disputed island chain.
Jiji said some Japanese and U.S. government officials were cautious about holding the drill, fearing a likely angry response from China.
Japan Today
AFP - China's currency hit a record high against the US dollar on Friday, in what analysts said could be a response to US political pressure over claims the yuan is vastly undervalued.
The upcoming US presidential election and expectations the US government will soon release its semiannual report on exchange rate policies could have prompted Beijing to guide the yuan higher, analysts said.
The yuan touched an intraday high of nearly 6.2640 to $1.0, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System, marking the highest level since 1994 when the country launched its modern foreign exchange market.
"We don't rule out the possibility of China taking pre-emptive action ahead of the US election," Liu Dongliang, an analyst at China Merchants Bank, told AFP.
"But it's more like this move was meant to respond to the upcoming exchange rate report," he said, referring to the US Treasury Department's report on exchange rate policies that will address China, among others.
China's exchange rate is a long-running source of friction with the United States, which accuses Beijing of artificially undervaluing the yuan to boost exports.
But China claims it is moving towards greater flexibility, earlier this year letting the yuan trade against the dollar in a wider band.
US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has turned China into a campaign issue and on Thursday he renewed his vow to brand China a currency manipulator.
"The president's had the chance year after year to label China a currency manipulator, but he hasn't done so," Romney said of US President Barack Obama.
When the Treasury report was last released in May this year, it stopped short of accusing China of manipulating its exchange rate, but warned its "significantly undervalued" currency was a brake on global growth.
On Friday, China's foreign exchange market operator set the trading midpoint for the yuan at 6.3264 to $1.0, stronger than the previous day level of 6.3391.
At 0830 GMT, the yuan was quoted at 6.2672, according to the market operator, strengthening from Thursday's close of 6.2770.
"There is anticipation the authorities may want to send a signal and lift confidence in the domestic economy by allowing the currency to appreciate," Jiang Shu, a foreign exchange analyst at Industrial Bank, told AFP.
But Chinese officials have previously said the yuan was nearing "equilibrium" amid signs of capital flight on expectations of slowing growth in the world's second largest economy.
FRANCE 24
