Deutsche Bank "Raises The Warning Flag": What The Most Important Chart For The Market Reveals

Back in 2010 we were the first to show that the only thing that matters for centrally-planned, Fed (and HFT)-manipulated markets is the size of the Fed's balance sheet and the only financial statement of any macro relevance is the Fed's weekly H.4.1 release. Initially mocked (but... but...the fundamentals), the subsequent proliferation of charts showing the correlation between the Fed's balance sheet and the S&P 500, has confirmed that virtually everyone - even the Treasury itself - has agreed that the only marginal driving force for the world's largest stock market - i.e. the catalyst for the biggest artificial bull market rally in recent history - is the Federal Reserve, specifically the amount of debt monetized/liquidity injected.

And then that chart slowly disappeared from view for the simple reason that for all of 2013, the Fed's balance sheet would grow by an equal $85 billion per month in linear "bottom left to upper right" fashion, resulting in an S&P500 that tracked this balance sheet growth tick for tick.

It is time to revisit this chart because as Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid reminds us, the days of relentless Fed balance sheet, and thus S&P, growth are over, thus the need by Deutsche Bank to "raise the warning flag".

The risk sell-off we've seen in recent weeks frustrates us a little as the chart we've published most this year has pretty much predicted that tougher times would come around July. We've been paying it a lot of attention for over a year now but decided to wait until the autumn before we raised the warning flags. The chart in question (included in today's pdf) is the one showing the Fed balance sheet and the S&P 500 (as a proxy for risk generally). As you can see, since the Fed balance sheet was used as an aggressive policy tool post-GFC, the graph suggests that the S&P 500 is well correlated with the size of the Fed balance sheet with the former leading the latter by 3 months. Given that the Fed have recently signalled that they will likely be finishing expanding their balance sheet in October, 3 months before that was July. This is important as virtually all of the mega rally in the last 5 years has come in the Fed balance sheet expansion periods. The other periods have been more challenging for markets.

In other words, the growth is over. As for the downside, well that's where the Fed's tightening rate hikes come into play, and once the market has determined the date when the Yellen Fed begins fighting "noisy" inflation and "lack of labor slack", watch as the entire stock market is sold off in calm, cool and orderly fashion. Just like high yield debt... 

... over the past month.

Credit to Zero Hedge

More than 400 Ukrainian soldiers cross border into Russia

MOSCOW – A Russian border security official said more than 400 Ukrainian soldiers crossed into Russia, according to a report from the Interfax news agency. It wasn't immediately clear why the soldiers entered Russia, with both sides giving conflicting accounts.

The Russian official said the soldiers deserted the Kiev government and the Russian side opened a safe corridor, while a Ukrainian military official said the soldiers, without giving a number, were forced into Russian territory by rebel fire after running out of ammunition.

Vasily Malayev, head of the Federal Security Service's border patrol in the Rostov region, told Interfax that 438 Ukrainian soldiers had reached Russia on Monday. He said the Russian side had allowed the soldiers to safely enter the country.

Russia's Defense Ministry couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The Ukrainian military confirmed that part of a brigade had most likely crossed into Russian territory, although it disputed Russia's version of events and wouldn't say how many soldiers went over.

A spokesman for the Ukrainian military operation in the east, Oleksiy Dmitrashkovsky, said troops from the army's 72nd brigade were penned into their position and came under a sustained barrage of fire from separatist forces. Rebel fighters used tanks, mortars, artillery and Grad missile launchers over four hours, Dmitrashkovsky said, and eventually the brigade was forced to divide up into two sections.

"One was meant to break out and join forces with a support unit. The other unit had the task of providing fire cover," Dmitrashkovsky said. "In doing that they fired their weapons until no ammunition remained, after which they abandoned their position and reached a place near a border crossing on Russian territory."

Dmitrashkovsky said it was too early to confirm how many soldiers had crossed into Russia.

"We do not have such information. The Russians are capable of claiming anything they want," he said.

Earlier Monday, Interfax reported that Russia's air force began military drills in central and western regions of the country, a move that could spark further fears that Moscow is ready to flex its military muscle in Ukraine.

The drills will start Monday and last through Friday, air force chief Igor Klimov was reported as saying, and will involve more than 100 fighter jets and helicopters.

Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have been battling the Kiev government since April, a conflict that has claimed at least 1,129 civilian casualties, according to a U.N. estimate. Ukraine and Western countries have accused Russia of providing the rebels with equipment and expertise, a claim that the Russian government has repeatedly denied.

Credit to FOX News

Absolute Failure & Collapse of the Financial System

ISIS Praises John McCain For Helping Them Invade Iraq

By Theodore Shoebat

The Muslim terrorist group, ISIS, issued a statement attributing their success to the Iraq war, and they had John McCain to thank for it. In the statement they wrote:

…the crusader John McCain came to the Senate floor to rant irritably about the victories the Islamic State was achieving in Iraq. He forgot that he himself participated in the invasion of Iraq that led to the blessed events unfolding today by Allah’s bounty and justice.

It is true, the war in Iraq that was started by Bush led to the enabling ISIS to commit the massacres and violence it is doing now. ISIS knows that Saddam would have not tolerated them, and would have without hesitated cut them to pieces, as his predecessor Nebuchadnezzar would have done.

Iraq does not need democracy, but a fierce dictatorship like Saddam. But thanks to John McCain and his ilk, we have devils like ISIS invading Iraq and butchering Christians, and the jihadists are thanking McCain for their victories and atrocities.

All I can say is, I miss Saddam.

Credit to Shoebat.com

The Monsanto Sponsored Ebola Vaccine Will Kill More People Than the Ebola Itself

Monsanto, or Monsatan as many call them, has partnered with the Department of Defense to use a proxy third party company to develop a vaccine against Ebola. The seed money began at $1.5 million. The value of the deal could grow to an estimated $86 million dollars. The company’s name is Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation (TKMR) (TKM.TO), a leading developer of RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics. “TKM-Ebola, an anti-Ebola virus RNAi therapeutic, is being developed under a $140 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Medical Countermeasure Systems BioDefense Therapeutics (MCS-BDTX) Joint Product Management Office”.  As breaking and shocking of a news story as this has the potential to be, the real story is that this is not the most important part of the Ebola threat which has invaded the United States.

The most three evil corporations, in no particular order are Standard Oil, Goldman Sachs and Monsanto. So, has this announcement raised eyebrows? Of course it has. Everything Monsanto touches has a distinct trail of greed, corruption and influence peddling.

On last night’s broadcast of The Common Sense Show, I hosted Joe Hagmann of the Hagmann and Hagmann Report. Joe expressed the view that the real threat to our citizens may not come from the Ebola itself, but it likely would come from the resulting vaccine. In a mid-afternoon phone conversation  I had with Joe Hagmann, prior to the show, I asked him if he had heard about Monsanto being given control of the development of an Ebola vaccine with DOD seed money. Subsequently, the News Director of my show, Annie De Riso discovered that this was the case and the information was less than 48 hours old.

Will the Threat Be In the Form of Ebola Or Will It Come From the Vaccine?

Late last week, I reported the following:

“A desperate search is on to find the hundreds of passengers who flew on the same jets as Sawyer (i.e. Patient Zero). A total of 59 passengers and crew are estimated to have come into contact with Sawyer and effort is being made to track each individual down. There is an inherent problem with this “track down.  Presumably, some of the passengers connected to other flights, which known to be the case. Let’s just say for the sake of argument that only 20 people, a low estimate given the nature of the airports that Sawyer was traveling in, were connecting to other flights, the spread of the virus would quickly expand beyond any possibility of containment because in less than a half a day, nearly a half a million people would be potentially exposed. Within a matter of a couple of hours, Sawyer’s infected fellow travelers would each have made contact with 200 other passengers and crew. Hours later, these flights would land and these people would go home to the friends, families and coworkers across several continents”.

I believe that as many have reported in the past 48 hours, Ebola has broken any possibility of containment and has now been unleashed on every continent. Many of my medical sources are telling me that modern medicine really does not know what the potential is for Ebola to spread from a significant, regionalized threat to a threat to become a global pandemic which would be as bad or worse than the 1918 Spanish Flu.

On last night’s show, Joe Hagmann expressed the opinion that perhaps the threat would be from the Ebola but from the virus. However, I am aware of 100,000 West Africans that are coming into this country, primarily acting as drug couriers. These men come from the seven country region in West Africa where the Ebola outbreak is raging out of control. And course, as I have stated many times, this has led even prominent physicians (e.g. Dr. Jane Orient) to state that it is not a matter of if, but when Ebola is spread throughout America and the world.

The UN Has Been Preparing to Assist with Health Crisis

Since the knowledge that UN military vehicles were being transported around the United States back in May, I have developed two sources from the DEA. One source is newly retired and maintains frequent contact with me. The other source has gone dark for the past 10 days and the covert communication method we were to use does is not working.

At the moment that I was signing off of my show last night, the retired DEA agent called me. He told me that the friendly debate over Ebola that I has having with Joe Hagmann was a meaningless conversation. He said that one of the five strains of Ebola has been weaponized and was developed at Ft. Dietrick. He further stated, that this strain of Ebola was released 8 months ago.  What he described is the classic Hegelian Dialectic in which the problem is created and a desired solution is enacted. Joe Hagmann may have been correct  in that the goal is to develop a vaccine. That is where the money is and that is where the future power over the people lies.

History Speaks Will America Listen?

During the H1n1 scare of a few years ago, we know that law enforcement officials in several states practiced a DUI roadblock kind of scenario in several states in which they were equipped with mock vaccine testing equipment to tell whether someone, or not, had been given the new vaccine against the virus. The roadblock consisted a large van for processing, a couple of busses and chase cars on the flanks to run down people who tried to avoid the checkpoint. According to my well-placed sources in Colorado, this was rehearsed over and over. These law enforcement officers were told that their families would be collected by DHS and protected in isolation against the spread of the pathogen and any resulting rioting. Former and highly decorated State Trooper from Kansas, Greg Evensen, stated on my show that these families would be not held for safekeeping, they were to be held hostage to force the law enforcement officials to do the bidding of the powers that be.

The bidding that Greg Evensen was speaking of was the fact that if you did not demonstrate that you had the vaccine, you would be given two choices, immediate injection with the vaccine or your car would be impounded and you would be sent to a medical FEMA camp by one of the busses present at the scene.

At one point during the H1N1 scare, I thought the public’s reaction to forced vaccinations, which began in many hospitals, forced the government to abandon its plans to launch the program. In the present time, I think that this was a beta test designed to put the mechanisms into place and to condition the public that this will someday happen.

I am presently traveling and I contacted two of my sources in law enforcement to ask them if they had done any drills with regard to the outbreak of Ebola. I was told that they had not. However, one source stated that a recent DHS memo reminded the officials that they were to remain current on their containment and interdiction procedures with regard to any virulent outbreaks.

The sum total of what we are looking is this. The short-term goal according to my DEA source is to make money off of the vaccine. The long-term goal is to begin to lockdown the country by using fear and the natural course of Ebola spreading. He stated that once people see communities being exposed, we will accept any restriction including mandatory vaccinations. I told him that no vaccine could be developed, tested and effectively used in a short time. He responded by stating that that the public is too stupid to know the difference. He has a point because that was what the government had done with the vaccine related to the H1N1 scare.

I have real concerns over the safety of such a vaccine. First, there is the Monsanto reputation issue in which they repeatedly proven that they cannot be trusted. Second, producing a vaccine in such a short amount of time is fraught with problems. Third, the use of the infamous adjuvants will no doubt resurface. During the H1N1 scare, it is was discovered that the vaccine was using MF59 and Squaylene in the vaccine to increase the volume of an existing batch. The adjuvants were linked to serious central nervous system damage.

There is another concern that I have as well. In December of 2012, I reported that I had a contact from FEMA who retired and “bugged out” to a communal safe haven with like minded officials from DHS and FEMA. His primary fear was the spread of a pandemic which he expected to happen within two years. His expertise was in counter-bioterrorism. You can read these stories at this link.

In San Diego, in October  31, 2012, DHS ran a Zombie preparedness drill and of all things the drill centered around shooting “crazed zombies”. I was told that the new weaponized strain temporarily turns people into people who act like they are on PCP.  The drill was participated in by Navy special forces and the Marines. The drill was later repeated in Idaho by the same entities. And let’s not forget that the homeless are being collected across the country and forcibly detained in makeshift shelters. I would submit that this is another dry run.

Conclusion

What does it all mean? The trend curve of information is pointing to the fact that Ebola is spreading but that the greater threat to the most people will not come from the Ebola but for the treatment of Ebola.  Monsanto needs to watched very carefully because my DEA source states that  vaccine will be on the market by year’s end.

Credit to Common Sense

Historical Facts about "Tisha B'Av A Day Of Mourning" and Obama's Birthday

Tennessee Doctor In Self-Quarantine On Return From Liberia Ebola Hotspot

A Tennessee doctor, working at the same Liberian clinic as Dr. Kent Brantly - the Ebola-infected American who was flown to Atlanta yesterday for treatment - has placed himself in quarantine as a "precaution for [his] family." As ABC reports, Alan Jamison, a retired pediatrician, returned home to Morristown, Tenn., after he was evacuated from Liberia by the aid group he was volunteering for, says he's "feeling well" and showing no sign of symptoms; and claims since landing in the US, he said he's had no physical contact with anyone. As Mark St.Cyr notes, the Ebola virus which has been separated from the U.S. populace by the fortune of geological positioning has not only arrived on our doorstep, but was flown in deliberately on its own personal G5. Many are asking questions of; why? But perhaps the more crucial question is 'what if?' The what if question was this: "What if they need to bring them back because they had no choice? What if the reason they need to get them into better facilities is for the worst of all reasons? i.e., It’s already here."

As ABC reports,

A Tennessee doctor who placed himself in quarantine after volunteering in West Africa, where the Ebola virus is rampant, says he's "feeling well" and showing no sign of symptoms.

Alan Jamison, a retired pediatrician, returned home to Morristown, Tenn., after he was evacuated from Liberia by the aid group he was volunteering for -- working at the same hospital as Dr. Kent Brantly, an American now fighting the deadly virus.

"I feel very comfortable and I'm looking forward to being able to be with my family again," Jamison told ABC News via Skype.

Since landing in the U.S., he said he's had no physical contact with anyone and has only been near his daughter, who picked him up from the airport. Jamison said he plans to hole up at home until the 21-day incubation period is completed.

"I'm out of the major risk period right [now]," he said. "The isolation that I'm going through right now is in excess of what the CDC suggested for the precaution for my family."

...

Jamison isn't sure how Brantly, who is in isolation and expected to arrive in the U.S. next week, became infected with Ebola.

"He was very cognizant and careful with the hygiene precautions that he used," Jamison said. "I'm not sure how it occurred that he was exposed."

After this, perhaps Mark St.Cry's perspective on "What If?" with regard Ebola is more prescient that he imagined...

Often times we get caught up in the asking of why rather than asking what if. It sounds like such a subtle distinction and for some it’s an exercise not worth pursuing. However, it is sometimes this very innocuous line of questioning that is the only thing that gets at the root of many issues facing not only business in general, but sometimes rooting out the answers one doesn’t want to actually face – never mind deal with.

Personally I made many of my marks in business by being the person who more often than not had to pick up the pieces or control their trajectory as to where they may land ahead of time during my tenure in the business world. Today the professional moniker is “an expert in Crisis Management.”

Expert is not for vanity’s sake. If I had done it once that could be racked up to chance, twice could be coincidence, but three times and more and you’ve distinguished yourself with a track record.

Although I have always been somewhat of a contrarian, it was when a friend of mine years earlier asked me a rhetorical question during a crisis taking place where we lived that shaped much of my reasoning and understandings for years to come.

Earlier that day the city where we grew up experienced a power outage causing a city-wide black out that was still not resolved as we were talking later that afternoon.

The outage occurred during the mid morning. It wasn’t as if the streets or neighborhoods were cloaked in darkness. Yet, in less than 30 to 45 minutes after the outage started looters began smashing windows downtown and stealing everything that wasn’t nailed down.

It didn’t start with just one, it was a mob from all accounts that started the spree.

As we were discussing the reasons for “why” and more he made a statement that sticks with me to this day: “You keep asking why would they do this so quickly. The question you need to answer is, what if this is what they were waiting for?” That subtle change in questioning changes everything both in how you address the “why” and more.

Again it changes the thought process in how one looks as to deal with situations in their heads while opening up lines of questioning that help one zero in and fix a true underlying issue; rather than addressing or wasting time arguing moot points. i.e., If you only think about why someone is looting in general terms you rationalize the intent (boredom, mob behavior, frustration, etc.) far different from what if the intent was as soon as opportunity showed itself – that was what was to be done.

His reasoning was it happened far too quick. He said, “People just don’t lose the power and begin smashing windows 30 minutes later unless that’s exactly what you were waiting for.

Whether he was right or wrong didn’t matter. His line of thinking in objective analysis was spot on and I never forgot it. Plus it has served me well these decades later throughout my professional life.

So what does all this have to do about the issues today?

Well, it has a lot to do with what has just transpired in Atlanta in the willful experiment in both transporting as well as containing one of the world’s worst known viruses to the United States.

I use the words “experiment” as well as “willful” deliberately for this has never been done here before.

As of right now the Ebola virus which has been separated from the U.S. populace by the fortune of geological positioning has not only arrived on our doorstep, but was flown in deliberately on its own personal G5. Many are asking questions of; why?

I was speaking with a friend where I pondered a “what if” rhetorical rebuttal to their questioning of “why” and they nearly froze. As I said before: Changing why to what if many times opens up far more doors than one first believed even available.

The what if question was this: “What if they need to bring them back because they had no choice? What if the reason they need to get them into better facilities is for the worst of all reasons? i.e., It’s already here.”

Of course this is absolutely nothing more than a thought experiment. I’m not trying to be an alarmist banging pots and pans out in the streets with a sign around my neck claiming “The End Is Near!” Nor, do I have, know, or pretend to know what we should or should not be doing. I’m just asking a question because the answers are far too important and meaningful to not only business, but for much, much, more.

Here’s why one really needs to think (and that means clearly and rationally) for there are just too many other things happening that no one wants to even consider, let alone ponder “what ifs.”

Here’s what we know as of today. Not speculation, not hyperbole, not innuendo, but fact.

First: We know as of today we have an out of control southern border crisis where tens of thousands of both children and more are crossing in droves. Many have confirmed cases of infections diseases such as tuberculosis and others that have been all but eradicated in the U.S. currently.

What we also know is: we don’t know who or all the identities of those that crossed are. We know the bulk, but what about god forbid just one terrorist mixed within carrying the deadly Ebola virus. What if that were to be true?

Second: We know that there were infected people with this deadly virus detained and isolated after being seen visually suffering from the virus at: an airport. Albeit in the country of origin, but as I said earlier the question to ask is “what if” one made it past?

Third: This could have far more impact to western civilization and its society than any conventional means of warfare could ever have. And the people wanting to inflict harm are more than willing to use any and all means to bring about that end. No matter how hard one tries to equate or affix the immorality as to why one wouldn’t or shouldn’t.

I’ve talked, debated, and down right argued with people many times over the years where they begin to get up in arms as to defend positions through the “why” frame of reference. Well, “why would people to do this?” or “Why would one do that when …..?” (you can fill in the blank.)

What has over turned their soap box over whether it be about business, or just plain discussions on life more often than not is when I posit the “what if.” e.g., What if it doesn’t work? What if that doesn’t happen? What if there’s another reason? What if what you think to be true is in actuality wrong? This is when and where the questioning, reasoning, breakthroughs and more have happened. I believe you get what I’m trying to convey.

Don’t take any of this as a slam of the poor victims we just brought back. I have great compassion as well as admiration for these doctors and others that have the courage of their convictions to walk head first into a truly horrific condition as to try not only heal, but to help foster ways as to prevent.

These people are doing work where statutes should be erected at every public square in their honor. I understand and can easily rationalize all of the “whys” these people would embark on such truly humanitarian work.

What I currently fear is that once again I’m near alone where no one seems to even be thinking, let alone contemplating the obvious…

What If?

Finally, if you were wondering just how Ebola outbreaks spread so quickly, SCMP has created the ultimate history of how one of the deadliest viruses on earth, with a 90% mortality rate, is spreading faster than efforts to control it.

Click image for large legible version

Credit to zero hedge

Smart glasses that allow the blind to see could be on sale by 2016

A pair of smart glasses that could transform the lives of blind and partially-sighted people could be in the shops as soon as 2016.

The revolutionary technology enables those suffering from sight loss to see obstacles and faces, similar to the fictional high-tech visor worn by Geordi La Forge in TV's Star Trek.

The smart glasses consist of a video camera mounted on the frame of the glasses; a computer processing unit that is small enough to fit in a pocket; and software that provides images of objects close-by to the see-through displays in the eyepieces of the glasses.

The joint project between the University of Oxford and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has won a £500,000 grant in a Google charity competition.

Scroll down for video


+3


Iain Cairns (pictured) tried out the smart glasses in Oxford's Covered Market. He said that the glasses add extra information and detail to what he sees and that everyone has 'drawings around them'. A version of what he sees is pictured on the laptop (left)

The money will enable RNIB and Oxford University to create 100 pairs of smart glasses and test them with 1,000 people.

This will be the first large-scale test of smart glasses and augmented reality for sight enhancement anywhere in the world and is the first step towards getting the glasses made available to everyone who needs them - for as little as £300.

There are 300,000 people registered as blind in the UK who still have some remaining vision and it si estimated the glasses could help half of them.

The smart glasses enable those with very limited vision to make use of what sight remains, increasing their confidence and helping them navigate and communicate with people.

The prototype has already enabled users to identify faces and obstacles more clearly than they have seen for years.

Oxford scientists' 'smart glasses' that have netted £500,000






Dr Hicks of Oxford University is pictured wearing the innovation. Right, the Star Trek character Geordi LaForge

Within 18 months, RNIB hopes to be able to revolutionise the lives of 1,000 people living with sight loss, providing the foundations to create a low-cost version with additional functionality for people with sight loss around the world.

‘The idea of the smart glasses is to give people with poor vision an aid that boosts their awareness of what’s around them – allowing greater freedom, independence and confidence to get about, and a much improved quality of life,’ says Dr Stephen Hicks of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford, who is leading the development of the glasses.

'The group has been awarded further funding from the Royal Society to look at introducing more features into the glasses, such as face, object or text recognition. An audio prompt via an earphone would give people more information about who or what they are seeing.

‘We eventually want to have a product that will look like a regular pair of glasses and cost no more than a few hundred pounds - about the same as a smart phone,’ says Dr Hicks.


The idea of the smart glasses (pictured) is to give people with poor vision - who are severely sight impaired but can see a small amount - an aid that boosts their awareness of what's around them

Iain Cairns, a copywriter for a marketing agency in London, tried out the smart glasses in Oxford’s Covered Market. The 43-year-old was diagnosed with the inherited eye condition choroideremia at around the age of 12. He has an area of central vision left in each eye.

He can still work in front of a computer and carry on writing, but started using a cane around three years ago – mostly as a sign to others that moving around can be more of a problem.

On having the glasses fitted outside a café in the Covered Market, Iain reacted: ‘I can see your face.

'It’s like the Lord of the Rings when he puts the ring on and sees things in a new way.




Credit to Dailymail
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2714588/Star-Trek-style-smart-glasses-allow-blind-sale-2016.html#ixzz39NUeVzqy

ISIS Captures Iraq's Biggest Dam: Baghdad Water Supply In Jeopardy

With the world's attention focused on the ongoing death and destruction in Gaza most have forgotten that just two months ago a vicious Al-Qaeda spinoff, after taking over the north of Iraq and a third of Syria's territory including its oil production facilities, proclaimed the creation of an Islamic State caliphate a few hundred kilometers north of Baghdad. The reason why the ISIS story fell off the front pages is that while the jihadists were consolidating their power in the caliphate region, it was believed that they have no chance of advancing onto Baghdad and the energy-rich Iraq regions south of Baghdad (and thus have little impact on the price of Brent). And yet there was one major "weakest link" - recall that a month ago we reported that "Baghdad May Lose Its Drinking Water As ISIS Approaches Dam", an outcome which would put Iraq's capital, and its 8 million residents, at the mercy of ISIS.

According to Al Arabia it is this "weakest link" that is now in play after ISIS took over Iraq's biggest dam unopposed by Kurdish fighters, who also lost three towns and an oilfield on Sunday to the Sunni militant group, witnesses said cited by Reuters.

Iraqi security officials said Wednesday that fighters for the
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria were advancing on the Haditha Dam, the
second-largest in Iraq.

VOA confirms:

Islamic State fighters seized control of Iraq's biggest dam, an oilfield and two more towns on Sunday after inflicting their first major defeat on Kurdish forces since sweeping through the region in June

Local officials said militants with the extremist group Islamic State took control of the towns of Zumar and Sinjar near the city of Mosul on Sunday, waging fierce clashes with Kurdish forces.

The French news agency AFP quoted a United Nations spokesman saying 200,000 people have fled Sinjar and said there are grave concerns for their safety.

It gets worse: control of the dam could give ISIS, which has threatened to march on Baghdad, the ability to flood major cities. This in turn will merely serve to further facilitate the expansion of ISIS as it approaches Baghdad from the north...

Meanwhile, ISIS also seized two small towns in northern Iraq after driving out Kurdish security forces, officials and residents said, according to the Associated Press.

The fresh gains by the Sunni extremist militants have forced dozens of residents to flee from the religiously mixed towns of Zumar and Sinjar, near the militant-held city of Mosul, to the northern self-ruled Kurdish region.

Earlier on Sunday, ISIS militants have successfully captured an oil field close to the Iraqi town of Zumar after fighting with Kurdish forces who had control of the area.

ISIS, which had a lightning advance through northern Iraq in June, warned residents in nearby villages along the border with Syria to leave their homes, suggesting they were planning an assault, witnesses said. ISIS fighters killed 16 Kurdish troops in attacks in northern Iraq, while 30 pro-government forces died battling the jihadists on other frontlines, officials said Saturday.

Zumar is a small Kurdish-majority outpost northwest of Mosul, which used to be under federal government control but was taken over by the Peshmerga in June.

In other attacks on Saturday, five would-be volunteer fighters were killed and 16 wounded in a suicide car bomb attack on a Shiite militia recruitment center in the town of Balad, north of Baghdad, police said.

... and from the south.

In equally intense overnight fighting on the main front south of Baghdad, at least 23 pro-government forces were killed by relentless mortar shelling of their positions in Jurf al-Sakhr.

ISIS militants began attacking the town late Friday, killing 11 soldiers and 12 members of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia, an officer and army medic said.

Another seven soldiers were wounded during a subsequent government operation against jihadist fighters in Jurf al-Sakhr, Al-Hamya and Latifiya, the sources said, claiming 37 IS fighters were killed.

Using the western city of Fallujah as a rear base, jihadists have repeatedly attacked Jurf al-Sakhr, where pro-government forces are keen to prevent a foray that would expose the nearby holy Shiite city of Karbala and further encircle Baghdad by cutting the main road to the south.

And if Baghdad does indeed fall, all those recent Crude shorts will be less than happy.

Finally, here is a visual summary of all the most recent clashes as ISIS approaches Baghdad, courtesy of the ISW:

Credit to Zero Hedge

Ebola terror at Gatwick as passenger collapses and dies getting off Sierra Leone flight

 

Ebola fears: A passenger died at Gatwick after getting off a glight fromm Sierra Leone


Airport staff tonight told of their fears of an Ebola outbreak after a passenger from Sierra Leone collapsed and died as she got off a plane at Gatwick.

Workers said they were terrified the virus could spread globally through the busy international hub from the West African country which is in the grip of the deadly epidemic.

The woman, said to be 72, became ill on the gangway after she left a Gambia Bird jet with 128 passengers on board. She died in hospital on Saturday.

Ebola has killed 256 people in Sierra Leone. A total of 826 have died in West Africa since the outbreak began in February. Tests were carried out to see if the woman had disease.

The plane was quarantined as ­officials desperately tried to trace everyone who had been in contact with the woman.

Airport workers faced an anxious wait to see if the woman had Ebola. One said: “Everyone’s just ­petrified.

“We’ve all seen how many people have died from Ebola, especially in Sierra Leone, and it’s terrifying.”





Speaking of the horrific moment the passenger collapsed, the shocked staff member added: “The woman was sweating buckets and vomiting.

“Paramedics arrived to try and help her. The next thing everybody was there… emergency crews, airfield operations, even immigration.

“They closed down the jet bridge and put the aircraft into quarantine.

“They took everyone’s details, even the guy who fuels the aircraft.”

The plane carrying the woman came from Freetown in Sierra Leone – a country with the highest number of victims from the disease.

It stopped at Banjul in The Gambia before landing in Gatwick at 8.15am on Saturday after a five-hour flight.

Public Health England tried to allay fears of an Ebola ­breakout in Britain.

It said the woman showed no ­symptoms during the flight.

 

Out of Africa: A Gambia Bird jet



One ­official added: “Public Health England is aware a passenger arriving on a flight from The Gambia that landed at Gatwick airport on Saturday fell ill shortly after disembarking.

"The passenger was taken to hospital and sadly died.

“In line with standard ­procedures, tests are being undertaken to determine the cause of death.

“The patient’s symptoms suggest that Ebola is very unlikely but as a precaution this is one of the tests being undertaken.

"The patient was not symptomatic on the plane and therefore there is no risk of Ebola being passed on to either flight crew or other passengers.

“England has world class health care and disease control systems which are active permanently, ­regularly tested and proven to be effective.

“As such, if the UK does see a case of imported Ebola, this will not result in an outbreak in this country.”


 

Killer: The Ebola virus



South East Ambulance Service confirmed it had dealt with the sick woman at the airport.

Communications chief Janine Compton said: “We attended Gatwick airport at 8.30am on Saturday to attend an adult female patient who was seriously ill.

"She was taken to East Surrey Hospital in Redhill where she subsequently died.”

A Gatwick airport spokeswoman added: “A passenger collapsed after disembarking a flight from the Gambia.

"She was treated by airport medical staff at the scene but died later in hospital. The cause of death is yet to be confirmed.”

At around 11pm on Sunday, the Department of Health said that tests for the deadly Ebola virus on the woman who died at Gatwick had proved negative.

There is no cure for Ebola. Symptoms in the later stages include external and internal bleeding, vomiting and diarrhoea.

At this point the disease is highly contagious.

Victims have a 90% chance of dying, although doctors said in this epidemic the rate is 60%.

The outbreak began in the forests of eastern Guinea in February. It quickly spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone.

A jump in the number of cases and the death toll has raised international concern and placed under-resourced health facilities in the West African nations under strain.





Last week, the Ebola crisis was described as out of control by World Health Organisation chief Margaret Chan and could be ­“catastrophic”.

At the same time, Sierra Leone declared a state of emergency and called in troops to quarantine victims. Liberia also imposed controls.

Ms Chan revealed 60 doctors, nurses and health care workers had now lost their lives trying to save others. She said: “This outbreak is moving faster than our efforts to control it.

“If the situation continues to ­deteriorate, the consequences can be catastrophic in terms of lost lives but also severe socio-economic disruption as well as a high risk of spread to
other countries.”


Credit to DailyMirror
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ebola-terror-gatwick-passenger-collapses-3977051#ixzz39NOTFxre

West Africans Are Streaming Across the U.S. Southern Border Carrying the Ebola Virus

Why hasn’t Obama closed the southern border in the same fashion?

Whether the title of this article is true today, or tomorrow, this is a factual report. Given our border situation, there is nothing that can be done to keep Ebola out of the United States, even if all planes were grounded immediately.

One of the most often asked questions that I am receiving today centers on how I know that West Africans are coming into the United States in significant numbers.  Although some people will not believe something is so unless they see it on CNN, I am unequivocally stating that the arrival of Ebola through our southern border has already happened or is imminent.

What I have learned over the past three weeks about the path of Ebola into the United States is frightening and it is not being discussed anywhere in the main stream media.

To those who have asked me about how we know that Ebola-exposed West Africans are coming into the country, this article will answer this question.

West Africans Are Coming Across Our Southern Border

Dr. Jane Orient

While appearing on my talk show, Dr. Jane Orient, an internal medicine specialist and the Executive Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), clearly stated that Border Patrol informants told her that as many 100,000 West Africans are in Central America, have been taught to speak Spanish and are coming across our Southern border. Dr. Orient further stated that Ebola screening practices had not been implemented at the border with immigrants that were being detained. Please note that the incubation period for Ebola is up to 21 days.

In Arizona, state officials learned that Obama had ordered ICE to deliver unscreened illegal immigrants to bus terminals in Phoenix and Tucson AFTER their arrival. The same was true in several border state communities and there was no evidence that ANY health screening had taken place.

Dr. Orient had also learned that the Border Patrol has taken to laundering their own clothing at their work site because of the risk to their families.

As an aside, Dr. Orient had also learned that Halliburton type of organizations were springing up to construct FEMA camp type detention facilities for people with serious illnesses (i.e. Ebola, drug resistant TB).  Later, I published proof of contracts being offered in 2011, to corporations such as KBR, to be able to construct such a camp in 72 hours.

A week after the Dr. Orient interview, I was traveling to San Diego for vacation and had a chance encounter with a Border Patrol agent in a convenience store in Yuma, AZ. I approached him, gave him my business card, promised not to use his name and proceeded to ask him questions about the border. In a short five minute conversation, he told me that Border Patrol officials are contracting drug resistant TB, Scabies and bacteriological pneumonia. When I told him of Dr. Orient’s claim that Border Patrol officials had told her that they were concerned over West Africans who were crossing our border, he said he was indeed aware that West Africans were crossing our border but he did not know in what numbers.

Nearly 10 days later, the Border Patrol Agent contacted me at the number on my business card and this time he had a partner on the phone. Both agents confirmed that the number of West Africans crossing our border matched Dr. Orient’s revelation. Further, they confirmed the presence of UN and World Health Organization officials at the detention center that they were assigned to after they were taken off of actual field duty and assigned clerical duties.

This is called double sourcing the information originally presented by Dr. Orient. But wait, there are more confirmations.

Retired Border Patrol Head Speaks Out

Adding fuel to this fire is a statement that comes from the chairman of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO), Zack Taylor, who states that West African illegal immigrants are presently coming into the U.S. through Mexico. These West Africans have been apprehended in the Rio Grande Valley sector in the last few years. Some of these West African groups have been taught to speak Spanish in order to infiltrate into the United States posing as Central American immigrants. This speaks to planning and collusion that some of these groups were taught to speak Spanish so they will “blend in” with other illegal immigrant groups. This is another piece of evidence that the coming series of pandemics has some governmental agency fingerprints on this invasion. Smart money would say that the CIA is involved.

Confirmation From a DEA Source

Zack Taylor’s revelation is confirmed by one of my DEA sources, through the revelation of circumstantial evidence. My insider DEA source has confirmed that the Sinoloa and Los Zetas Mexican drug cartels receive their weapons and drugs in  Peru from a drug cartel known as the SANCHEZ-Peredes. This cartel has been around since 1976 and is protected by the Peruvian army. The SANCHEZ-Peredes have strong ties to Hamas and other terror organizations including the drug trafficking corridor coming out of West Africa. The West African drug operatives are often used as couriers for guns and drugs. The SANCHEZ-Peredes also use the West Africans to transport drugs into the United States. This latter fact clearly explains why the West Africans are being taught to speak Spanish. This is why I would submit that this is an Iran-Contra style affair being conducted by the CIA.

Solely based upon these revelations, I agree with Dr. Orient’s assertion that it is not just a matter of if, but when, Ebola comes across our Southern border with Mexico.

Ominous Connections

The drug trade in West Africa is tied to Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda and now probably ISIS. This is an ominous discovery because it now opens the possibility that Ebola could be purposely sent to the United States with West African drug couriers. An organization, such as Hamas, could arrange to have a number of West Africans to become exposed to the virus and then fast track them across the southern border under the guise of trafficking in drugs.

In late June of this year, The London Guardian described the West Africans’ role in trafficking drugs into Europe and South America (i.e. SANCHEZ-Peredes cartel). Therefore, this pathway has been established in the media.

Amidst the cries of “conspiracy theorist”, I suppose we should never believe that Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood would do such a thing. On the contrary, it is likely that this has already happened.

Revelations from Our Government

On Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Senatorial website contains the copy of a 113 page senate report entitled “Eight Steps to Counter the Drug Trade in West Africa“.  The report details how prevalent West Africa is both in terms of the United States but also into Europe, transporting drugs into both continents. The Senate report also discusses the terrorist connections between the West African drug trade and known terrorist organizations.

Conclusion

While the country remains fixated on the delivery of Ebola patients to Emory hospital in Atlanta, we are still ignoring the spread of Ebola through air travel as evidenced by the fact that our government is doing next to nothing. Further, when one considers the growing body of evidence which shows that drug couriers coming from  West Africa into the United States as part of the drug trade, how could people like Dr. Orient conclude that it is not a matter of if, but when Ebola has a foothold on our country?

The government is fully aware of the threat whether they choose to make press releases to Wolf Blitzer or not!

Credit to Common Sense

---