European credit crunch going global, central banker Jean-Claude Trichet warns

THE central banker at the heart of the euro zone storm has warned that the region's troubles are symptomatic of the economic malaise of Western nations.

Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, told The Times of London yesterday the sovereign debt threats are "not only a euro area issue, but have a European aspect and a global aspect".

"We were not at ease with the idea that, in the heat of the crisis, all countries were called on to spend as much as possible, embark on deficits as much as possible," he said. "I believe the tensions we are observing in Europe today are part of a much more global phenomenon."

Mr Trichet's words came amid financial market turmoil and political chaos in Greece. World markets and Western governments fear Greece will be unable to service its E340 billion ($457bn) debt and that the country has become effectively ungovernable.

Shares dived to three-month depths around the world, and the euro slid to a new record low against the Swiss franc over fears a collapse could trigger a new global financial crisis.

The ECB chief warned against a debt default by Greece, and insisted no officials had raised the prospect of troubled euro members, including Portugal and Ireland, leaving the bloc.

He said the euro zone should be judged as a whole. "A bird's-eye view of the euro area gives elements that are rather encouraging and often not perceived," Mr Trichet said.

Adding to the crisis fears, an Irish minister said private lenders to the stricken Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society should share some of the losses suffered by taxpayers.

The centre of the crisis remained Greece, where Prime Minister George Papandreou was struggling to quell revolt against his austerity measures. His country has the lowest credit rating of any in the world, according to Standard & Poor's, over concerns of a default on its national debt.

The Australian


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Gerald Celente on Jeff Rense

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U.S. Urged Japan to Speed Up Contingency Plans for War in Korea

WikiLeaks is again proving a thorn in the side of the U.S. military, with recently leaked documents indicating that Washington asked Tokyo to conduct a status report on the availability of its civilian airports and ports in 2008 in the event of a war breaking out on the Korean Peninsula.

Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported on Wednesday Washington called on Tokyo to wrap up the report on its 23 airports and harbors earlier than scheduled so that American forces could use them as strategic bases if aggression broke out in the region, according to a report that the U.S. Embassy in Japan submitted to the U.S. State Department on July 31, 2008. The embassy report was obtained by WikiLeaks.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning Thomas Mahnken visited Japan on July 17, 2008 and repeatedly asked high-ranking Japanese Defense Ministry officials to speed up completing the status report. But Japan dragged its feet, arguing that it was difficult to get fast results in sensitive areas such as Nagasaki, where memories of the atomic bomb dropped on it by U.S. forces during World War II still haunt the city, as well as in regions controlled by the opposition political party.

Japan said that the secret nature of the report also made it harder to gain the trust and cooperation of provincial governments without revealing the purpose of compiling the information.

In the end, Tokyo compiled status reports on two airports and ports. Washington responded by urging it to wrap up the project on the remaining sea and air bases by September of 2009. It also asked for information on the ports' fueling facilities and staff numbers, according to the Asahi Shimbun.

"The U.S. needed information on Japanese airports and ports, because it needed to mobilize passenger planes and naval vessels to transport its citizens to Japan in the event of an emergency," the Japanese daily reported.

Japan is required to support the U.S. military in the event of an emergency by providing the use of its civilian airports and ports, according to a revised defense treaty that Washington and Tokyo signed in 1997.

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http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/06/16/2011061600605.html

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Nato chief urges Europeans to boost defence spending

Nato chief Rasmussen: 'Europe needs to step up'

Nato's Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has told the BBC that European members of the alliance need to spend more on defence.

Mr Rasmussen said Nato was needed more than ever, but that European countries needed to "step up to the plate".

He echoed the comments made last Friday by the outgoing US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, who criticised the Europeans for not doing enough.

Mr Gates said Nato faced the risk of collective military irrelevance.

He said he was exasperated that only four European countries - France, the UK, Greece and Albania - are spending 2% of GDP on defence.

"If current trends in the decline of European defence capabilities are not halted and reversed, future US political leaders - those for whom the cold war was not the formative experience that it was for me - may not consider the return on America's investment in Nato worth the cost."

Libya had revealed serious shortcomings, he added. Only 11 weeks into the operation against a poorly-armed regime, the allies began to run short of munitions. Supplies had to be brought in from the US.'Proper investments'

In an interview with the BBC's Newsnight programme, Mr Rasmussen said Nato was "more wanted and needed than ever", but that he shared Mr Gates' concerns about declining defence budgets across Europe.

"If we are to compete we also need proper investments," he said.

BBC 
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Iran successfully launches second satellite into orbit

Iran has successfully launched a second domestically-built satellite into orbit, Iran's Arabic language al-Alam television reported on Wednesday.

"Iran launched a domestically built rocket and the Rasad 1 (satellite) has been put into orbit," al-Alam reported.

In February 2009, Iran launched its first domestically-built satellite, OMID.

The United States and its allies fear Iran is seeking to build nuclear bombs and are concerned that the long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into orbit can also be used to launch warheads.

Iran says its nuclear program is solely to generate electricity.

The Rasad 1 (Observation) satellite will be used for transmitting images and weather forecasts, TV reported.
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http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/iran-successfully-launches-second-satellite-into-orbit-1.367922

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Iran’s Ahmadinejad calls for alliance against West

ASTANA, Kazakhstan (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday called for a security alliance of several former Soviet nations and China to form a united front against the West.

Mr. Ahmadinejad’s address to fellow heads of state at the summit of theShanghai Cooperation Organization in Kazakhstan likely will deepen suspicions that the bloc is intended as a counterweight to the United States across the region.

In a summit declaration signed by all the member states, the organization also attacked missile defense programs in another apparent dig at the United States.

“The one-sided and unlimited development of missile defense systems by one government or a narrow group of governments could cause damage to strategic stability and international security,” the document said.

Much of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s fiery speech was devoted to leveling an exhaustive series of thinly veiled accusations against unnamed Western countries, which he described as “enslavers, colonialists (and) invaders.”

“Which one of our countries (has played a role) in the black era of slavery, or in the destruction of hundreds of millions of human beings?”Mr. Ahmadinejad said, opening his address.

The SCO was formed in Shanghai in 2001 by China, Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to address religious extremism and border security in Central Asia, but in recent years it has attracted interest in full membership from countries such as Iran, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. I

Iran‘s entry to the SCO has been resisted by the existing members, who worry that Iran‘s membership would lend the group a more explicitly anti-American quality, a concern that Mr. Ahmadinejad seemingly was unwilling to allay.

Russia has been an active opponent of U.S.-backed plans to create a missile shield in Europe and was likely behind the inclusion of harsh words against the proposal in the summit declaration.

Moscow sees the U.S.-led missile defense plans as a potential threat to its security. It has agreed to consider NATO’s proposal to cooperate on the missile shield, but it insists the system be run jointly.

Reprising the criticism addressed at Washington, Afghan President Hamid Karzai renewed calls for the United States to respect his country’s sovereignty.

Mr. Karzai in recent months has become increasingly strident in his attacks against NATO’s accidental bombings of Afghan civilians, describing the Western-led alliance as being at risk of becoming an “occupying force.”
Washington times

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Gerald Celente on RT

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