Meanwhile, the Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, demanded that a deal be made by next week at the latest. "I think the leaders understand we don't have a lot of time, and we want to wrap up the broad outlines of an agreement by the end of this week -- certainly by the end of next week -- so that we have time to legislate it and put it in place," Geithner said. It has been reported that after the negotiations have ended, Geithner may resign, and on Monday he said on Meet the Press, "We don’t have the ability (because of the overhang in housing and the problems in the financial sector) to artificially engineer a stronger recovery"--further proof that Keynesian economics has failed. On Wednesday, Moody's again threatened that it may downgrade the U.S.'s debt if a deal was not made, putting the American's Aaa rating on review. The U.S. has maintained that highest rating since 1917, and it would be a major blow to the weakening dollar. The situation may be exacerbated by Bernanke who told Congress Wednesday that another stimulus may be needed. His remarks immediately sent stocks and gold up, and the dollar down. The feds claim that the slowdown of the American economy is a result of the disaster in Japan and temporary surges in price of gasoline and food. The economy needs at least to add 125,000 jobs per month to keep up with the rate of population growth; however, last month, the U.S. only added 18,000 jobs and the May figure was adjusted, showing that just 25,000 were added. The jobs growth in June was the weakest in 9 months. Americans satisfaction with the way the country and their lives are going fell to 16% according to Gallup. Suffering is growing everywhere. 8 people were injured in Dallas after a stampede of 5,000 rushed to get rental vouchers, and sales decreased for the first time in almost a year. Economists fear that with business stockpiles also rising for 17 straight months that when an economic downturn comes, businesses will respond by ordering steep cutbacks. Of course this miscalculated demand is a result of record low interest rates from the Fed which distorts the entire system. In Europe, the Irish debt was slashed to the junk Ba1 rating on Wednesday by Moody's, and the country will likely need a second bailout like Greece. This signals a raise in the country's bond interest rates and will make it harder for Ireland to pull itself out of default. France has been pushing for Hibernia to raise it's corporate taxes, but Ireland has so far refused, saying it would harshly hurt its competitiveness. The EU responded by calling the downgrade "incomprehensible", with Italy and Spain's "borrowing costs hit[ting] their highest level for 14 years yesterday" (Irish Times) as well. This downgrading of the Irish debt will likely require private investors to enter the fray and assume some of the risks of the bailouts.
Through the stimulus package, American tax payers may have been funding Attorney General Eric Holder's "Fast and Furious" operation, which facilitated the sales of illegal firearms to Mexican drug cartels, under "Project Gunrunner". The guns, which were sold knowingly to illegal aliens, appear to have killed people on both sides of the border, including Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry. Eric Holder was caught in a bold faced lie when he claimed to have not known about the project until a few weeks ago. According to the article in the New American by Alex Newman: "A couple of years ago, [Holder] was bragging about the scandalous program by name during a speech in Mexico. 'My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner,' he boasted to an anti-gun crowd outside of Mexico City in 2009." Ostensibly this operation was done to amp up gun control laws in America, once the weapons were discovered to originate in America. Susan Jones of CNSNEW.com reports that the NRA has plans to sue the Obama Administration for selling illegal guns to Mexicans, especially after stern talk by the Justice Department's Deputy Attorney General James Cole saying that it was now required that sellers in Ca, NM, Ariz., and Tex. report "multiple sales of certain semi-automatic rifles to the same person within a five-day period" in an attempt to halt the flow of arms to drug cartels. The NRA says this is a distraction from the feds' illegal activities on the border and wishes to bring the focus back towards it. Rep. Blake Farenthold (R.-Tx) agreed in a radio interview that this might have been part of a conspiracy to further control the sale of firearms in the U.S., saying that its just another attempt to control 2nd amendment right and build a database of gun owners. If you want to know the type of people these guns are going to check out this article by Lt. Colonel James Zumwalt, where he describes several disturbing murders committed by the drug cartels, including a face being skinned and stuck to a soccer ball. It was reported several weeks ago of Mexican bus passengers forced to fight each other to the death as a sort of initiation by gangs. The winner would then be made to go on suicide missions. The administration's operation is even more damning when you consider that many of these narco-gangs have connections to Hizbullah--the Iranian terrorist organization.
The U.S. and Pakistan are facing a showdown after the former decided to withdraw $800 billion in aid to the extremist-battered country (one-third of the $2 billion they receive yearly). Pakistan, still furious over bin Laden's assassination, reacted by threatening to bring its 100,000 troops away from the Afghan border and claimed that the aid was in part to support the military effort. A Pakistani military spokesman said the country may turn to their "all-weather friend" China for future support on Monday, a bad omen for the American-Pakistani alliance. Islamabad still sees the May 2nd killing of Osama bin Laden as an assault on its sovereignty, and in less than 12 hours, 38 militants were killed in Pakistan from U.S. drone attacks early this week--the strikes occurred in North-Western Pakstan in the Waziristan tribal areas, a hot bed for Islamic militants. These are on the tail of Obama's announcement of reducing aid, and some see this an escalation of conflict between the two countries. It also signals that the U.S. will continue to bomb inside the country. On Monday, disturbing news was published that the "CIA Organized Fake Vaccinations To Obtain Osama Bin Laden's Family DNA". The American agency hired a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, to run a drive in Abottabad, even having him start the drive in a poorer area of town to make it look more authentic. The doctor was eventually arrested by the Pakistani ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence Agency). This action by the CIA before Osama's death is downright creepy, and it makes you ponder what other strange missions have been carried out under the guise of vaccinations. Médecins Sans Frontières, a international charity, later complained that these actions gave a bad name to immunization efforts around the world. On Wednesday it was reported that the head of the ISI, Lieutenant-General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, would be visiting Washington to have unscheduled talks, saying on anonymity, "Relations have not broken down. Intelligence sharing is going on... We are talking to each other despite difficulties." The U.S. is more negatively viewed in the Middle East now then at the end of Bush's tenure, with Obama also hitting new lows in Arab countries after his Libya air strikes and failure to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
For the third time in three days, Israel air striked the Gaza strip. Four were said to have been injured, including two children reported Aljazeera. 19 have been killed since April from similar attacks, which are in retaliation of projectiles shot into Israel from the Hamas-controlled strip of land. 20 were killed in Syria on Friday, after the biggest protest in the country so far, with some estimates reaching up to a million people marching. So far the capital had avoided the brunt of violence with the main uprisings taking place in poor communities around the country. However, the economy has stagnated, and this might be the beginning of a full revolt if Damascus also falls. Iran, Syria's main ally, is offering the country $5.8 billion in loans to avert the rise in anger and investor fear, as well as 290,000 barrels of oil each day. On Monday, supporters of Assad ransacked the Amercan and French embassies in Damascus, angering Washington and the US ambassabor Ford, who said “the street will wash them away”. The Syrian opposition will hold a conference on Saturday in Turkey to determine where the country will go after the fall of Assad and his brother. Also in Turkey, 15 suspected al Qaeda members were arrested on Wednesday who had plans to attack the American embassy in Ankara. 1,500 pounds of chemicals were confiscated, as well as various other weapons and documents. We now know where some of these weapons might be coming from. Newly revealed documents show that China sold missiles to Iran, Syria and Pakistan, violating the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). The MTCR is a group of 34 countries that agree to secure the sales of missiles with ranges over 185 miles and warheads heavier than 1,000 pounds. According an article in The Washington Times by Bill Gertz, "Among the violations were sales to Iran by China’s Dalian Sunny Industries, also known as LIMMT; sales of ballistic-missile goods to Syria; and transfers by Shanghai Technical By-Products International Corp. to Iran of ballistic-missile items," and that Chinese diplomats may have lied to the U.S. about its activities. China also appears to have sold dangerous arms to its neighbor, North Korea. The U.S. recognized the Libyan rebels as the legitimate government on Friday. However, Gaddafi remains defiant, telling his supporters, "Trample on those recognitions, trample on them under your feet." The leader is now being offered an ultimatum: step down, or the West will increase their attacks. According the article by Tulay Karadeniz on Reuters, "The U.N. Secretary-General's special envoy to Libya, Abdul Elah al-Khatib, will be authorized to present terms for Gaddafi to leave power, but the British foreign minister said military action against Gaddafi would be stepped up at the same time." This decision should free up funds for the deadlocked the rebel forces, as Britain sends four more tornado planes to continue their assault on the secular country. In Egypt, gunmen destroyed part of a natural gas pipeline which supplies about 40 percent of Israel's gas and sections of Jordan. Since Mubarak was forced from the presidency, pipe lines have been attacked four times in the increasingly vulnerable region. Protests and sit-ins around the country threaten to shut down Egypt. “Farce, farce, farce, the gang is still ruling,” protest groups chanted in Tahir square. There were also uprisings near the Suez Canal, making officials fear that they may try to shut down the important commercial route.
Ahmed Wali Karzai was shot by his security guard early this week, highlighting the precarious nature of Aghanistan's government. Ahmed was Afghan president Hamid half brother, and was an ardent supporter of the United States in the region, spending part of his life living in Chicago and speaking with a noticeable American accent. The president responded to the assassination by saying, “This is the life of all Afghan people, I hope these miseries which every Afghan family faces will one day end.” Ahmed was based in the southern province of Kandahar was widely rumored to be involved in Afghan's huge heroin trafficking economy. Specifically, the ATF's "Gun Runner" Project and the slaying of Ahmed Karzai show the enormous profits which government, banks, and businesses make by laundering drug money. In the article by David DeGraw, titled "The 'War on Drugs' is a $2.5 Trillion Racket: How Big Banks, Private Military Companies and the Prison Industry Cash In", gives the startling toll of Mexico's drug war: 45,000 dead since December, 2006. It is clear that the "Project Gunrunner" is another method used by the government to keep the war on drugs alive, and even with the cost of people's lives. The United States has the largest prison population in the world, and most of them are there because of minor drug offenses. If certain drugs were made legal, banks and governments would lose billions. According to Wikipedia, 92% of the world's opium comes from Afghanistan, with that total only increasing since the U.S. invaded in 2001, with the Russians blaming the Americans recently of supporting the Afghan drug industry.
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