In These New Times

A new paradigm for a post-imperial world

Planned US Missile Defense in Eastern Europe Beset by Delays

Posted by seumasach on November 1, 2008

Antiwar.com

31st October, 2008

US General Henry Obering is “very concerned” this week as Polish lawmakers still haven’t ratified August’s deal to host a US interceptor missile base in Northern Poland. The base, ostensibly aimed at preventing Iranian missile strikes but being built well outside of the range of Iran’s missile arsenal, will not see its first interceptor missile “in the ground in Poland until 2012″ according to the General. Even then, the base’s full complement of 10 missiles won’t be online until 2013 or 2014 even if Poland ratifies the deal by year’s end.

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Britain accused of betraying Georgia and handing victory to Russia

Posted by seumasach on November 1, 2008

 

We wouldn’t be true Brits if we weren’t betraying someone, but in our view this is the “right betrayal”, as New Labour might put it. We recently speculated as to a possible shift in policy corresponding with the appointment of Mandelson. Is this it?

David Blair

Telegraph

30th October, 2008

Britain is preparing to “sell” Georgia and hand a “victory” to Russia by agreeing to start talks on a partnership agreement between Moscow and the European Union, according to senior European diplomats.

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Jeremy Warner: Lehman’s: time to call in the Serious Fraud Office

Posted by seumasach on November 1, 2008

 

Independent

31st October, 2008

Isn’t it about time the Serious Fraud Office is called in over the collapse of Lehman Brothers? In the US, Federal investigators are crawling all over what is now unambiguously the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, yet in Britain, no criminal investigation of any aspect of the banking maelstrom has yet been announced. This is despite growing evidence of malfeasance in connection with the Lehman’s insolvency in particular, but also more generally in the market-ing of some of the securities at the heart of the crisis. Where there is financial meltdown, there is nearly always fraud, so why isn’t the SFO in there asking questions, collecting evidence and bringing prosecutions, as its US counterparts are in spades?

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Russian leader outlines finance reform plan

Posted by seumasach on November 1, 2008

 

“The new financial system should have common sources based on many global financial centres and many reserve currencies,” 

“Medvedev said he would propose to the summit that the world economy reduce its reliance on the US dollar as the main reserve currency.”

“They should be based on a harmonised system, not like the one we have now when those who use the rules of continental Europe feel unhappy about the Anglo-Saxon model,” he said

The Peninsula

1st November, 2008

 

MOSCOW • Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will tell a summit on the financial crisis in Washington next month that the health of the world economy should no longer be reliant solely on the United States, he said yesterday.

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Overwhelming UN General Assembly vote against blockade of Cuba

Posted by smeddum on November 1, 2008

FOR THE 17TH CONSECUTIVE OCCASION
Overwhelming UN General Assembly vote against blockade of Cuba granma

NEW YORK.—The UN General Assembly today approved by an overwhelming majority the resolution demanding an end of the U.S. blockade of Cuba, a vote passed by the Assembly over 17 years, the news agencies report. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Bush gang’s parting gift: a final, frantic looting of public wealth

Posted by seumasach on October 31, 2008

 

Naomi Klein

Guardian

31st October, 2008

In the final days of the election many Republicans seem to have given up the fight for power. But don’t be fooled: that doesn’t mean they are relaxing. If you want to see real Republican elbow grease, check out the energy going into chucking great chunks of the $700bn bail-out out the door. At a recent Senate banking committee hearing, the Republican Bob Corker was fixated on this task, and with a clear deadline in mind: inauguration. “How much of it do you think may be actually spent by January 20 or so?” Corker asked Neel Kashkari, the 35-year-old former banker in charge of the bail-out.

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Black hole gapes for pensions

Posted by seumasach on October 31, 2008

Henry C.K. Liu

Asia Times

31st October, 2008

More than three years before the current financial crisis, in a series Greenspan, the Wizard of Bubbleland that began on September 14, 2005, I warned:

Through mortgage-backed securitization, banks now are mere loan intermediaries that assume no long-term risk on the risky loans they make, which are sold as securitized debt of unbundled levels of risk to institutional investors with varying risk appetite commensurate with their varying need for higher returns. But who are institutional investors? They are mostly pension funds that manage the money the US working public depends on for retirement. In other words, the aggregate retirement assets of the working public are exposed to the risk of the same working public defaulting on their house mortgages.

When a homeowner loses his or her home through default of its mortgage, the homeowner will also lose his or her retirement nest egg invested in the securitized mortgage pool, while the banks stay technically solvent. That is the hidden network of linked financial landmines in a housing bubble financed by mortgage-backed securitization to which no one is paying attention. The bursting of the housing bubble will act as a detonator for a massive pension crisis

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Eastern Congo Destabilization: A Brutish empire attack on nation building

Posted by seumasach on October 31, 2008

 

October 31, 2008 (LPAC)–The London-based Brutish imperial financial cartel has renewed a revolt in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, as part of its overall strategy to eliminate nation-states in Africa. Goma, a provincial capital in eastern Congo, has been surrounded by anti-government rebels, who have announced that their goal is to sabotage a large cooperative Congo-China agreement, which will greatly benefit Congo, unless the deal is sabotaged. In the last few days alone, thousands of civilians fled Goma, after seeing UN peacekeepers moving out their civilian personnel as the rebels advanced. Congo rebel leader Laurent Nkunda’s troops are well-trained and well-armed. They employ hit-and-run tactics, and use the population as a shield. Nkunda has long been receiving support via Rwanda, according to reports.

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Wifi and electromagnetic fields

Posted by seumasach on October 31, 2008

Andrew Goldworthy

Mobilfunk

30th October, 2008

We are constantly being misled by elements of the mobile phone and
electronics industries (who have huge vested interests in the
infrastructure) into believing that the pulsed microwaves used in cell
phones and Wifi are harmless. Their sole justification for this is that
the radiation is too weak to generate significant heat when they are
absorbed by living tissues.

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Snow blankets London for Global Warming debate

Posted by seumasach on October 31, 2008

 

 

Andrew Orlowski

The Register

29th October, 2008

Snow fell as the House of Commons debated Global Warming yesterday – the first October fall in the metropolis since 1922. The Mother of Parliaments was discussing the Mother of All Bills for the last time, in a marathon six hour session.

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Posted in Ecological and Public Health Crisis | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Australia: Debt Driven Globalism

Posted by seumasach on October 31, 2008

 

Jeremy Lee

Global Research

31st October, 2008

The Prime Minister of the UK, Mr. Gordon Brown, in an article in the Washington Post, (Friday October 17, 2008) advocated that “The Financial Crisis is also an Opportunity to Create new Rules for Our Global Economy.”

There it is! Now out in the open! President Bush’s swan song in mid-November will be to host a Global Conference (150 nations) to establish a World Money System! There’ll be plenty of dire warnings about the consequences if we fail to take this last chance for humanity!

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