I don’t want to be spied on all the time….do you? I would rather die when some nutcase blows me up then have the US Government know everything about me. Which they already do.
“This is an unprecedented form of political interference that I don’t believe can be seen elsewhere in western governments,” he went on. “But no legal means currently exist to challenge such activities or to see penalties for such abuses,” he said.
Unfortunately, Snowden is right. There is no legal precedent to challenge the US Government on spying on it’s own citizens. Outside of living off the grid in the mountains of Tibet, does anyone know how one can legitimately avoid the US Surveillance machine? Please suggest your solutions in the comment section.
Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!
No legal means exist to challenge mass surveillance, said NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, testifying to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
A former NSA contractor, Snowden was speaking to the PACE session in Strasbourg via a video link-up from Moscow.
Wanted in the US on treason charges, he sparked a huge international scandal last year he leaked to the media classified evidence of American government spying programs.
“I would like to clarify that I have no intention of harming the US government or straining bilateral ties between any nations. My motivation is to improve the government, not to bring it down,” Snowden said.
Snowden told the European parliamentarians that any kind of web traffic can be analyzed and searched with little effort.
The technique can be used to identify a person with a certain social or religious group and business interactions. Using this technology, NSA can also make a list of home addresses of people who match a certain criteria.
Snowden added, however, that there are no “nightmare scenarios” where the US government would, for instance, fingerprint all gay people. However, they can follow law violators as well as those where just had the bad luck to follow a wrong link on the internet, he said.
The NSA gathered “explicit sexual material regarding religious conservatives whose political views it disfavored and considered radical for the purpose of exposing it to damage their reputations and discredit them within their communities,” Snowden told PACE.
“This is an unprecedented form of political interference that I don’t believe can be seen elsewhere in western governments,” he went on. “But no legal means currently exist to challenge such activities or to see penalties for such abuses,” he said.
Mass surveillance is also used by the NSA, as well as by its partners and adversaries, for the purposes of economic espionage, Snowden said.
“The NSA had unlawfully compromised the world’s major transaction facilities to include SWIFT and Visa. And in their reports they explicitly noted that such information provided “rich personal information” including data that “is not about our targets,” Snowden told the parliamentarians gathered in Strasbourg.
In yet another sign of stupidity from traditional financial media, The Daily Ticker is trying to figure out why recent market action is “Not the start of a bear market”. Chief equity strategists from Citigroup delivers the well scripted answer (read below if you are really interested). Traditional financial media and most market pundits would lead you to believe that it is impossible to predict or time the financial markets. BS. We do it here everyday and we do it successfully.
While I am not at liberty to say if a bear market has already started (info available only to our premium subscribers), it is fairly easy to predict financial markets in both price and time once you have a complete mathematical breakdown and internal composition of the stock market. In fact, if you would be interested in learning when the bear market will start (to the day) and it’s internal composition, please Click Here.
Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!
So are we seeing what could be a 5% to 10% correction for the market, or could this be the beginning of a bear market?
“To a great degree what we’ve seen is high-growth momentum stocks reversing direction,” Tobias Levkovich, chief equity strategist at Citigroup, tells us in the above video. He thinks people have misinterpreted the selling, saying investors are moving from small to large-cap stocks, from growth to value and toward quality. Levkovich says what we are seeing is “discreet parts of the market” like biotech, social media and cloud computing “start to lose what had been a small little bubble forming.”
He doesn’t think we’re going to see this horrible correction — he thinks this will remain more “discreet,” but says 5% to 10% would be normal, healthy and cleansing — and he’s expecting that in the first half of this year. He says he doesn’t expect a bear market, though.
Citi is still looking for the S&P 500 to end the year at 1975, posting 7% overall growth commensurate with earnings growth.
In a number of posts over the last couple of days I have made the case that Russia is laying the groundwork for their eventual invasion of East Ukraine.WHY? They must do so to counterbalance the US/NATO. If they don’t and Ukraine falls into Western/EU/NATO hands it will be viewed as a major defeat/disaster for Russia. Plus, Ukraine is a huge mess right now. It is literally facing a fiscal Abyss that will make the Great Depression in the US look like the tech boom of the late 1990’s. Further, people in East Ukraine are desperate to join Russia. Given their economic catastrophe and ethnic Russian background you will see people declaring independence and calling for referendums to join Russia, just as Crimea did. This is already happening.
Kiev will respond with force to put down the uprising (already happening) and Russia will be “forced” to go in to protect ethnic Russians. I will give this a maximum of 10-14 days to fully play out and for Russia to enter East Ukraine. As you can imagine this will spark a massive fight on an international stage between Russia/West and everyone else. In fact, I would expect the economic warfare and the cold war to intensify from this point on. Putin already suggested that Russian companies should de-list from foreign exchanges to avoid future problems. You must connect the dots here.
The US Stock market is not prepared for any of this. As such, when Russia invades expect stocks to crater and gold to surge.
Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!
SEC is an absolute joke run by Wall Street. No surprise here. Madoff and recent High Frequency Trading scandal is a clear indication of that. In case of HTF, various people have been ringing the bell for at least 5 years. Yet, it was not until the 60 Minutes did a story on it that these lazy government shills decided to investigate. What recently departed SEC attorney had to say about the agency is even worse (see full story below). In no uncertain terms he states…..
The SEC has become “an agency that polices the broken windows on the street level and rarely goes to the penthouse floors,” Kidney said, according to a copy of his remarks obtained by Bloomberg News. “On the rare occasions when enforcement does go to the penthouse, good manners are paramount. Tough enforcement, risky enforcement, is subject to extensive negotiation and weakening.”
Kidney said his superiors were more focused on getting high-paying jobs after their government service than on bringing difficult cases. The agency’s penalties, Kidney said, have become “at most a tollbooth on the bankster turnpike.”
In other words, keep stealing Wall Street. No one is watching, checking or prosecuting.
Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!
A trial attorney from the Securities and Exchange Commission said his bosses were too “tentative and fearful” to bring many Wall Street leaders to heel after the 2008 credit crisis, echoing the regulator’s outside critics.
James Kidney, who joined the SEC in 1986 and retired this month, offered the critique in a speech at his goodbye party. His remarks hit home with many in the crowd of SEC lawyers and alumni thanks to a part of his resume not publicly known: He had campaigned internally to bring charges against more executives in the agency’s 2010 case against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS)
The SEC has become “an agency that polices the broken windows on the street level and rarely goes to the penthouse floors,” Kidney said, according to a copy of his remarks obtained byBloomberg News. “On the rare occasions when enforcement does go to the penthouse, good manners are paramount. Tough enforcement, risky enforcement, is subject to extensive negotiation and weakening.”
Kidney said his superiors were more focused on getting high-paying jobs after their government service than on bringing difficult cases. The agency’s penalties, Kidney said, have become “at most a tollbooth on the bankster turnpike.”
Photographer: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg
The Securities and Exchange Commission has taken a beating from critics including… Read More
His March 27 remarks drew applause from the crowd of about 70 people, according to witnesses. In an interview, Kidney said he hadn’t heard any blowback from SEC officials.
Kidney, 66, has worked at the agency since 1986 except for a four-year stint at Aetna Inc. At the SEC he won a half-dozen insider-trading trials. His speech bemoaned the lack of SEC enforcers who “believe in afflicting the comfortable and powerful.”
The SEC has taken a beating from critics including lawmakers, judges and advocacy groups who say the agency has been too easy on the banks that helped fuel the 2008 crisis by peddling mortgage-backed securities of questionable value to unwary investors. No senior executive at a major financial firm has gone to jail and the SEC has brought civil charges against only a handful.
In his speech, Kidney also hit the agency for using misleading statistics to showcase its enforcement efforts. The SEC should focus on the quality of its actions, rather than try to file as many as possible just to tout its record to lawmakers and the media, he said.
“It is a cancer,” Kidney said of the agency’s use of numbers. “It should be changed.”
‘Lower Burden’
Kidney said in the interview that he will always be an SEC loyalist and was trying to offer constructive criticism that could help the agency. He said he wasn’t singling out any specific cases or officials in his comments.
“I don’t think we did a very aggressive job with all the major players in the crash of ’08,” he said, noting that as a civil enforcement agency, the commission does not need to prove its cases beyond a reasonable doubt like the Justice Department does. “The SEC has a lower burden of proof and we should be pushing the envelope a bit.”
The Goldman Sachs suit was one of the highest-profile SEC actions arising from the credit crisis. The bank agreed to pay $550 million to settle claims that it misled investors when it packaged and sold a complex security known as a collateralized debt obligation that was linked to subprime mortgages.
The SEC also sued Fabrice Tourre, who was vice president on the team that put together the deal at issue in the SEC case, known as Abacus 2007-AC1. A federal jury found Tourre liable last year, and he was ordered in March to pay $825,000 in penalties and other costs.
Goldman Executives
Kidney, who was part of the initial team that was building the Goldman Sachs case, pressed his bosses in the enforcement division to go higher up the chain. He later took himself off the team after being given a lesser role, according to people familiar with the matter.
In particular, the people said, Kidney argued that the commission should sue Tourre’s boss, Jonathan Egol. Kidney also wanted to bring a case against Paulson & Co. or some executives at the hedge fund, which helped pick the portfolio of securities that were underlying the Abacus vehicle and then bet against it.
The SEC ultimately decided not to sue Egol, the Paulson firm or any individuals from the hedge fund.
Andrew Williams, a spokesman for Goldman Sachs, declined to comment.
While Kidney declined to comment on the Goldman case in particular, much of his role is laid out in a September 2010 report by the agency’s inspector general’s office, which reviewed whether the SEC succumbed to political pressure in bringing the enforcement action. Kidney’s name is blacked out in the report.
‘Little Secret’
In his retirement speech, Kidney noted that he had been “involved in a high-profile case or two” and said he had gotten a message from above not to take too many risks.
“I have had bosses, and bosses of my bosses, whose names we all know, who made little secret that they were here to punch their ticket,” Kidney said. “They mouthed serious regard for the mission of the commission, but their actions were tentative and fearful in many instances.”
Stephen Crimmins, a former colleague of Kidney’s at the SEC who attended the retirement party, said he was one of the “finest lawyers ever to serve in the enforcement division.” Kidney was known for winning the SEC’s first jury trial, which was an insider trading case.
Kidney earned his legal degree at night from George Washington University’s law school while working as a Supreme Court reporter for the United Press International wire service and at U.S. News & World Report.
“People point to him as being very frank and not one to just say what people want to hear,” said Crimmins, now a partner at the K&L Gates law firm in Washington. Speakers at the party even ribbed Kidney about it, Crimmins said.
“There were some high-ranking people in the room, and everyone took it in stride,” Crimmins said. “Everyone there respected that.”
America has been on a roll lately, making friends in all the right places. Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Ukraine, North Korea, Libya, China, etc…. Continuing in this tradition of fairness and brotherhood, the US warned China on it’s recent currency depreciation, raising “serious concerns” and suggesting that China gets back to the path of currency appreciation. You know, since everyone believed the Chinese Yuan would appreciate when floated at market.
That would be a solid advice if the US wasn’t trying to do exactly the same thing. Even thought the US Treasury/FED has been trying to inflate the dollar away over the last 2 decades (without too much luck), it is their Chinese counterparts that are succeeding. Yet, not by design. It appears that Yuan is declining based on market forces as opposed to government intervention. Either way, the US has no business telling other nations what to do with their currencies when every nation, more or less, is trying to succeed in competitive debasement of their own currency at the expense of their neighbors.
Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!
(Reuters) – The United States warned Beijing on Monday that the recent depreciation of the Chinese currency could raise “serious concerns” if it signaled a policy shift away from allowing market-determined exchange rates.
Washington has been pressing China for years to allow its currency to trade at stronger values. A weak yuan makes Chinese exports cheaper for U.S. consumers at the expense of U.S. producers. A weaker yuan also makes Chinese consumers less able to buy foreign goods.
Last month, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew welcomed a decision by China to allow its currency to vary more against the dollar in daily trading.
Monday’s comments by a senior official from the Treasury Department suggested the United States was not completely sold on China’s intention to reduce authorities’ interventions in exchange markets.
“If the recent currency weakness signals a change in China’s policy away from allowing adjustment and moving toward a market-determined exchange rate, that would raise serious concerns,” the official, who asked not to be named, told journalists in a phone call.
In comments that outlined U.S. positions before meetings later this week of the International Monetary Fund and between Group of 20 nations, the official noted the widening of China’s currency trading band came just after a drop in the yuan’s value that coincided with reports of “considerable intervention” in exchange markets by Chinese authorities. That is exactly the sort of behavior Washington wants Beijing to ditch.
The United States also appears likely to pressure Europe at the meetings to act more decisively to fix its troubled banking sector.
The Treasury official said recent economic data from Europe showed the region was experiencing “chronic low inflation and weak demand.” That appeared to be a nod to growing concerns that Europe’s economy is so weak it risks falling into a dangerous spiral of falling prices and wages known as deflation.
“More needs to be done to support growth,” the Treasury official said.
The official had blunt words for other economic powers as well, saying that Japan should avoid engaging in too much fiscal austerity.
He said U.S. sanctions on Russian officials were already having an impact on Russia’s economy. The official also chided emerging markets for going too slowly in adopting free-floating currencies.
“Resistance in many emerging markets to moving more quickly to market-determined exchange rate regimes is hindering the rebalancing needed to ensure a lasting, strong global recovery,” the official said.
Too late Mr. Summers.I have been a long term proponent that Summers is one of a very few people who understands what kind of a fiscal mess we are in. That is the primary reason he passed on the FED Chairmanship last year. He can see and he knows what is coming down the pipeline and he wants nothing to do with cleaning it up or worst, be blamed for it. A smart individual, unlike Janet Yellen.
Yet, his solution for today’s fiscal crisis is idiotic at best (see his article below). Sure, massive Government spending might prolong current state of stagflation, but it will in no way allow us to avoid the final collapse. His suggestion is equivalent to giving a drug junky that final and massive injection of heroin. Nothing more and nothing less. Plus, it’s already too late. As our mathematical and timing work clearly indicate, the bear market of 2014-2017 is just around the corner. A sever US Recession will not be that far behind. If you would be interested in learning exactly when the bear market will start (to the day) and it’s internal composition, please Click Here.
Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!
CNBC Writes: Larry Summers calls on US government to spend
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has urged global leaders to form a global growth strategy to combat economic stagnation and has called upon the U.S. government to ramp up investment expenditure.
Writing in the Financial Times on Monday, Summers took the opportunity to openly address central bankers and finance ministers who are gathering in Washington this week for the biannual International Monetary Fund meetings.
PLAY VIDEO
Larry Summers: Ukraine very important test for Europe
Lawrence Summers, former Treasury Secretary and Harvard University professor, discusses challenges facing Ukraine, and the impact on the global economy and the EU’s role in the Ukrainian crisis.
“In the U.S. the case for substantial investment promotion is overwhelming. Increased infrastructure spending would reduce burdens on future generations, not just by spurring growth but also by expanding the economy’s capacity and reducing deferred maintenance obligations,” he said.
“Government could do much at no cost to promote private investment including authorizing oil and natural gas exports, bringing clarity to the future of corporate taxes, and moving forward on trade agreements that open up foreign markets.”
Since the global financial crisis of 2008, loose monetary policies from central banks across the globe have resulted in record low interest rates in the hope of stimulating borrowing and spending. This has been accompanied by asset purchases by the U.S. Federal Reserve and others. Summers believes that while this may be better than the strategies put in place during the Great Depression of the 1930s, it doesn’t necessarily have a big impact on spending decisions.
Any spending this loose monetary policy induces tends to represent a pulling forward rather than an increase of demand, he said, adding that no-one can confidently predict the ultimate impact on markets of the unwinding of central bank balance sheets.
“Creative consideration should also be given to ways of mobilizing the trillions of dollars in public assets held by central banks and sovereign wealth funds largely in the form of safe liquid assets to promote growth,” he said.
“In a globalized economy, the impact of these steps taken together is likely to be substantially greater than the sum of their individual impacts. And the consequences of national policy failures are likely to cascade.”
Japan was singled out by Summers for its “dangerous” fiscal contraction as the country introduced a value-added tax at the start of the month. He poured scorn on this type of policy, suggesting that Japan’s fight against deflation (falling consumer prices) is far from over. A return to stagnation and deflation could rapidly call its solvency into question, he said.
For Europe, Summers says that there was no strategy for durable growth in place yet and called for “strong actions” to restore the banking system so that it can channel credit back into the struggling economy. In emerging markets, he said it was key that measures to bolster capital flows were put in place, thus making sure they do not become net exporters once again.
Capital has flown out of some emerging markets in recent months in anticipation of higher interest rates in the U.S. and Summers believes that it is imperative that exports to emerging markets from developed markets aren’t affected.
The situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate.Fast. As I indicated yesterday, Russia is executing a brilliant strategy in order to lay the groundwork for an eventual East Ukraine invasion. In fact, looking at things from an analytical perspective, I highly doubt it would be more than 10 days before Russia is “forced” to go in. In one of my later posts today I will outline exactly why Russia will go in and how it will impact the stock market. Yet, one item caught my eye.
“We are particularly concerned that the operation involves some 150 American mercenaries from a private company Greystone Ltd., dressed in the uniform of the [Ukrainian] special task police unit Sokol,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Greystone is more or less an extension of the US Government or the Pentagon….when need be. Yet, if I was in charge of the company, I would get my people out of Ukraine NOW. When (not if) Russia goes in it will go after such mercenaries with all that they have got to teach America a lesson and to make sure further meddling by the West in Ukraine is highly discouraged. This will make Benghazi look like a picnic.
Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!
The Russian Foreign Ministry has voiced concerns over the buildup of Ukrainian forces and US mercenaries in the southeastern part of the country, calling on Kiev to immediately cease military preparations which could lead to a civil war.
As parts of Ukraine push for greater autonomy – with Donetskand Kharkov declaring independence on Monday – the self-imposed government in Kiev is reportedly dispatching additional forces in turbulent regions to avoid potential disobedience by local law enforcements.
“We are particularly concerned that the operation involves some 150 American mercenaries from a private company Greystone Ltd., dressed in the uniform of the [Ukrainian] special task police unit Sokol,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Organizers and participants of such incitement are assuming a huge responsibility for threatening upon the rights, freedoms and lives of Ukrainian citizens as well as the stability of Ukraine.”
Ukraine’s acting interior minister, Arsen Avakov, confirmed that additional police special forces units have arrived in southern and eastern parts of Ukraine from other regions.
“These special forces are ready to solve operational problems without the regard to local peculiarities,”Ukraine’s Interior Ministry quoted Avakov as saying. “I urge all the hotheads now to defer from criticism and panic, and help the police keep the situation under control.”
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, special forces backed by militants from the Right Sector are being tasked with suppressing protests in the southeastern regions of Ukraine, which for weeks have been calling for a referendums on the regions’ statuses within Ukraine. Moscow called on the government in Kiev to refrain from actions that could spark a civil war in Ukraine.
“We urge [Kiev] to immediately stop all military preparations which could lead to a civil war,” the statement reads.
On Monday, a source in the Interior Ministry of Ukraine told Ria Novosti that three special forces units have been redeployed to the Donetsk and Lugansk regions to suppress anti-government protests. The source claims that they consist of Interior Forces units, the newly-formed National Guard, Right Sector radicals, and Blackwater (Greystone) mercenaries and Falcon units. LifeNews also reported seeing armed Titan special forces units in Donetsk.
The reports of Greystone Limited (an affiliate of Academi/Blackwater) operating in Ukraine remain unconfirmed.
In a separate press release on Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that it is “closely watching what happens in the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, in particular in the Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkov regions.”
Moscow noted that without “real constitutional reform in Ukraine,” the “federalization” of the country, and the implementation of Russian as a second official language, long-term stabilization of the crisis is unlikely.
The ministry said that is time to stop “putting the blame on Russia, accusing [Moscow] of all the troubles in today’s Ukraine.”
Instead, Moscow urged Kiev to answer the legitimate questions that people in Ukraine have for the self-imposed government.
“Ukrainian people want to get a clear answer from Kiev to all their questions. It’s time to listen to these legal claims,” the Foreign Ministry said, accusing the Ukrainian government of acting “irresponsibly.”
At the same time, the ministry confirmed the Kremlin’s commitment to kickstart a national Ukrainian dialogue to stop the crisis. Russia is trying to propose the federalization of Ukraine, where regions would have broader powers of autonomy – including the right to promote regional language minority rights.
Pro-Russian activists guard a barricade set at the Donetsk regional council office building on the eastern city of Donetsk on April 7, 2014. (AFP Photo)
Meanwhile, the US hinted that Moscow could be behind the unrest in eastern Ukraine. In a daily briefing, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki stated that during the phone conversation between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, the US chief diplomat “noted the Ukrainian Government’s assertion that this appeared to be a carefully orchestrated campaign with Russian support.”
“He called on Russia to publicly disavow the activities of separatists, saboteurs, and provocateurs, calling for de-escalation and dialogue, and called on all parties to refrain from agitation in Ukraine. He made clear that any further Russian efforts to destabilize Ukraine will incur further costs for Russia, and the ministers all discussed convening direct talks within the next 10 days between Ukraine, Russia, the United States, and the EU to try to de-escalate the tensions.”
The White House has also urged Russia to refrain from interfering in Ukraine. “We call on President Putin and his government to cease efforts to destabilize Ukraine,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
On Monday, a group of anti-coup activists seized government buildings in Ukraine’s eastern cities of Donetsk and Kharkov, proclaiming the regions’ independence from Ukraine. Clashes between pro-independence demonstrators and security forces were also witnessed in Lugansk and Odessa.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said Monday the easy-money policies that have defined central bank actions over recent years have been….
“I think unconventional U.S. monetary policy has been sufficiently aggressive to replicate the outcomes that would have been achieved in more traditional times and is an effective tools to stimulate growth.”
Fair enough, but this begs the question. Since the FED already used their BAZOOKA of unconventional warfare against the recession and the financial collapse (2008-today), what are they going to do the next time it happens? While most economists would argue that 2008-09 was once in a lifetime, that is simply not true. Particularly, given today’s economic setup. Due to the same “unconventional” tactics, the economic setup we have today is not that different from the 2007. Basically, it is an extension of it at much higher leverage level.
So, what will happen when Unconventional and Conventional no longer work? I think we are about to find out. One thing is for sure, it looks scary.
Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said Monday the easy-money policies that have defined central bank actions over recent years have been effective tools to stimulate growth.
The official said that even though the Fed cut rates effectively to zero percent at the end of 2008 and has provided stimulus via unconventional bond buying programs and guidance about the outlook for short-term rates since that time, these tools appear to replicate the influence its traditional regime of manipulating short-term interest rates once delivered.
“I think unconventional U.S. monetary policy has been sufficiently aggressive” to replicate the outcomes that would have been achieved in more traditional times, Mr. Bullard said.
That said, the current tool kit of unconventional policies has some challenges. “It is difficult for policy to respond to declines in inflation” when short-term rates can be cut no further, Mr. Bullard said. Bond buying and future rate increase guidance “may or may not substitute effectively” for traditional changes in short-term interest rates, he said.
Mr. Bullard made his comments in presentation materials that largely mirrored a recent speech he gave in Hong Kong. He repeated Monday his belief that while the issue remains up for debate, he sees little value in increase international coordination between central bank leaders when it comes to making monetary policy.
Mr. Bullard’s presentation was prepared for delivery before an event at the USC Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles. The official, who doesn’t currently hold a voting role on the monetary policy setting Federal Open Market Committee, didn’t make forward looking comments on U.S. monetary policy or the economy.
F$&#, I hate seeing my tax money being used to kill other people. Especially when its going to the same people who were directly responsible for 9/11. I guarantee you, when they are not fighting Assad in Syria, these so called “freedom fighters” (aka Al Qaeda) are burning American flags. It seems as if the idiots in Washington will never learn.
“On Monday, Israel’s Debkafile website reported that two moderate Syrian rebel militias — the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian Revolutionary Front — have been supplied with advanced US weapons, including armor-piercing, optically-guided BGM-71 TOW missiles, thanks to the Pentagon.”
The outcome? Foremost, the conflict will intensify, leading to more bloodshed on all sides as Syria turns into an all out proxy war between the US and Russia. More importantly, some time down the road you end up with another pissed off Mujahideen who wants to destroy America. If you don’t recall, the US supplied Osama Bin Laden with stinger missiles to shoot down Soviet helicopters in the 1980s. How well did that turn out?
Great job Obama…..this will surely bring piece and prosperity to the Syrian people.
Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!
Rebels embattled against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad have reportedly come into possession of high-powered anti-tank weaponry, the likes of which may have been supplied by the United States.
Images of rebels equipped with heavy arms have begun to circulate in recent days, and at least one news site has claimed that the source responsible is the US government.
On Monday, Israel’s Debkafile website reported that two moderate Syrian rebel militias — the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian Revolutionary Front — have been supplied with advanced US weapons, including armor-piercing, optically-guided BGM-71 TOW missiles, thanks to the Pentagon.
According to Debkafile’s report, US Gen. Martin Dempsey — the chairman of the Joint Chiefs — asked officials in Israel last week to help get Saudi Arabian fighter jets stationed at the kingdom’s Faisal Air Base at Tabuk near Jordan positioned in a manner that would provide air cover as American forces moved the weapons into southern Syria. Debkafile attributed the claims to unnamed military sources.
Late last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that US President Barack Obama and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah “appeared to narrow their disagreement on assisting Syrian rebels” amidst a meeting between the two. According to the Journal’s report, Obama administration officials said the meeting ended with the White House agreeing to increase its level of assistance to Syrian rebels.
“Senior US officials said their goal is to provide assistance to moderate Syrian rebels not just as a ‘counterweight’ to the Assad regime, but also to extremist elements of the opposition,” Carol Lee and Ellen Knickmeyer wrote for the paper.
At the same time, however, the Journal reporters said that the White House made it clear to the Saudis — who reportedly asked for America’s assistance — that Washington was not comfortable supplying certain weapons, including hand-held anti-aircraft missile launchers known as manpads, due to the “proliferation risk” involved with introducing those types of arms into the heart of Syria. The South China Morning Post also cited US officials as saying the Obama administration was considering supplying weapons and has recently “been able to develop deeper relations with the opposition.”
Screenshot from YouTube user asim zedan
Then over the weekend, a blog that specializes in covering the Syrian conflict published screenshots from just-uploadedYouTubevideos alleged to show rebels using the US-made tube-launched, optically-tracked, wire-guided anti-tank missiles.
“Until more photos or videos of the missile and possible other locations pop up, it’s hard to tell who might have been the supplier. But most likely, the TOWs were indeed foreign-supplied to the rebels,” one blogger wrote. “Since the TOW missiles are made in the US such a transfer likely needs permission from the Obama administration.”
Iran’s Fars News agency also reported on Monday that their sources said the US has supplied the anti-tank missiles to the militants fighting against Assad.
According to Debkafile, the report — if true — marks “the first advanced US weapon to be deployed in more than three years of civil war.”
“Our military sources report that Syrian tank armor is not thick enough to withstand the BGM-71 TOW rockets. To save his tanks, Assad has shifted the brunt of his anti-rebel operation to heavy air force bombardments, which claim a heavy toll among civilians,” Debkafile continued. “Washington is therefore confronted with its next decision about whether to give the rebels sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons as well.”
On Monday afternoon, White House press secretary Jay Carney said, “We are going to continue to press in every way we can to assist the Syrian people.”
“We are constantly doing is reviewing and assessing what else we can do,” Carney said. “These kinds of discussions, when bad things continued o happen in a place like Syria, always can be reduced to the question of: is the US going to use its military forces to try and do something?”
Carney said the administration will assess all options before making a decision based on what the White House believes is the right course of action to take in support of the Syrian people and in support of the United States’ own national security interests.
