AMTV News: 4th Aircraft Carrier to Gulf, Condi VP, Amerikan Incarceration & Burn Penn State

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

Aircraft Carrier USS John C Stennis

This is AMTV News, I’m your host Topher Morrison.  Today is Finally Friday 13^th of July, 2012.  Our final production video is located at the bottom of this post. Enjoy...

War drums…

US Sends 4^th Aircraft Carrier to Persian Gulf

RT

Along with a fleet of SeaFox drone submersibles the aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis will join the Eisenhower, Lincoln and Enterprise in the Persian Gulf.  It’s an unexpected show of extraordinary force and comes on the heels of a 12,000 troop, 19 nation, massive military drill imitating a Middle East invasion.  US raises…Iran your bet.   

Next…

Neocons Love Them Some Condoleezza Rice

Noonan, Limbaugh, Kristol

No its not a Mexican dish – it just might be the next vice president of the United States.  They’ve all been floated Pawlenty, Huntsman, Christie, Haley, Jindal, Portman, Ryan and Rubio, but this looks to be their ’54 special reserve select.  Eager to erase a polarizing Palin this liberal kryptonite – black, female, experienced and academic – brings back the fervor and favorability of Herman Cain with none of the baggage.

Land of the free, hu…

America #1 in Incarceration

AllGov

This is what the drug war has brought us – the prison industrial complex.  Over a 30-year-period, from 1980 to 2010, the US incarceration rate has quadrupled from over half a million to over 2.2 million and leads the world in per capita incarceration 743 persons per 100,000, ahead of Rwanda and Russia. 1 in 9 state employees work in corrections to the tune of over $30,600 per inmate roughly more than what 1/3 of Americans make a year.

Here’s a lesson in futility…

Karzai: Taliban Chief Can Run For President

Dawn.com

Can’t we all just get along.  After 11 years, $546 billion and over 3,000 dead soldiers in our adventure in the Graveyard of Empires President Karzai welcomes reconciliation with Mullah Omar supreme leader of the Taliban.  This is what nation building looks like – a dog chasing its tail.

Next…

M2 Just Shy of $10 Trillion!

Zero Hedge

Still in shock after we learned the S&P 500 is 50% larger only because of the Federal Reserve’s printing press the M2 – the total amount of money available in the economy – is just 8 and a half billion dollars shy of 14 digits for the first time in history.  Gone is the housing bubble and our confidence, going are our municipalities; coming is a world wide economic train wreck.  Ground Zero is America’s Private Central Bank and everyone with a dollar to their name.

A runaway cult…

Burn Penn State Football to the Ground

Business Insider

“JoePa” over 61 years effectively became a one-man cult raising over a billion dollars for Penn State during his tenure.  The institution as a result morphed into a “roque civilization with its own structure, authority,  and ethical assumptions.”  From the janitors to the upper echelons of PSU depravity rained for over a decade as Jerry Sandusky ensconced within the pantheon of litany lions roamed wild freely sating himself one young boy after another.  Football - a base American pastime – was given precedence over innocence.  Because of it – the NCAA “death penalty” should be merely the first step along the long road of repentance.

Catch my latest choice headlines on AMTV News Monday – Friday at AMTV Media and catch our in depth commentary and analysis of stories like these at GreeneWave.com part of the AMTV network.

 

AMTV News: LIBOR Scandal, Big Drug Banks, Iran Black Market Oil

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

 

This is AMTV News, I’m your host Topher Morrison.  Today is Tuesday July 10^th 2012.

Drug Cartels Launder with B of A, Again

Huffington Post

After being caught laundering $3 billion in 2006 from one branch, Bank of America officially rejoins an infamous list of big banks including Wells Fargo, Wachovia, and of course the British Crown’s original repository of opium proceeds – HSBC.  These are just a few among countless others in the Laundromat of the War on Drugs.  FBI affidavit submitted to a Texas federal court linked the Las Zetas Mexican drug cartel, a local racehorse business and several B of A accounts.  Should any unscrupulous banking practices be exposed expect B of A to receive a slap on the wrist.  In 2010 Wachovia settled a nearly $400 billion laundering binge to the tune of merely $160 million.

Bank Runners Vote With Their Wallets

Guardian

It’s been said Barclay’s LIBOR scandal was like finding your house was built on quicksand, rampant rate manipulation by the world’s leading financial institutions and yet again nobody sees a jail cell.  Well, its time to stop having Tea Parties and occupying Wall Street and vote with your wallet!  There has been an explosion of requests to move money from the ‘big five’ banks to smaller more responsive and hopefully more ethical alternatives like co-ops, building societies and credit unions. 

The Rate Heard Round the World

CNBC

The outbreak of negative interest rates in Europe is a telltale sign the second shoe has dropped in the ongoing global financial saga, central banks don’t want you saving they want you risking your money in the markets.  The negative rates is ultimately an effort to depreciate sovereign currency, driving global money parkers elsewhere and hopefully spurring exports and growth.  Problem is this hurts the local banks reliant on interest from loans and savings accounts to stay afloat.  This also runs the risk of competing with the biggest depreciator of them all – the Federal Reserve.

Iran’s Black Market Oil

RT 

In the face of EU sanctions Iran is still selling its oil to Europe through a private Iranian consortium.  Selling up to 20% of its average volumes to privately-owned European refineries it is likely the union of exporters, under an agreement with Iran’s central bank and oil ministry, will offer minor privileges and discounts to buyers in light of international restrictions.  Japan and China are also eager to bypass sanctions approving insurance and offering tankers to secure their energy. Don’t expect the transactions to be in US dollars though, which reminds me how did that work out for Hussein and Ghaddafi again?

Yes, Obamacare IS the Biggest Tax Increase in History

Reason

From Kevin Drum at Mother Jones, to Ezra Klein at the Washington Post, to Bloomberg’s Elizabeth Dwoskin, to the New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn and all the links back to Drum and Klein herd journalism of the left claims Obamacare isn’t the largest tax hike in US history, problem is – it’s the biggest tax increase in the history of the world.  According to page 36 of Drum’s cited CBO analysis it’s $525 billion worth of new taxes.

 

Catch our in depth commentary and analysis of stories like these at GreeneWave.com part of the AMTV network.

October Surprise? Saudis Prepare for US Strike on Iran

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

Royal Saudi Air Force

With the financial world fundamentally in question after the recent LIBOR scandal rocked headlines, confirming once again the game is rigged, all that is left to assure laymen and markets is overt strength – a clear signal of who’s in control.

“It is already decided,” one Saudi prince told an unnamed European official, according to Debka File.  When asked by the ‘European’ if America will abstain from pursing its well-rehearsed plan to overthrow Tehran, the prince said, “Anything can happen, of course. But this time we’re sure the American decision to attack is final and we are already making appropriate preparations.”

To be sure, Saudi forces have been on high alert on the Jordanian border due to the escalating violence in Syria and U.S. Naval forces have been building in the Persian Gulf in response to threats from Iran to close the vital Strait of Hormuz.

If there was any doubt that U.S. challenges in the region reflected a genuine concern over Iranian nuclear ambitions they were confirmed when the New York Times reported last week the reshaping of American force projection is “about Iran’s regional hegemonic ambitions,” according to a senior Defense Department official.

Keeping nations in their place and open for business is the crux of American foreign policy and what animates the strategy of containment around Russia, an emergent China and the renewed interest in the African continent not seen since the infamous days of Cecil Rhodes.  Should these countries attempt to orchestrate their own affairs especially outside the realm of the petrodollar severe consequences abound.

Muammar Ghaddafi, for instance, on March 2^nd of 2011 threatened to expel western oil companies from Libya.  March 14^th he invited their Chinese, Russian and Indian counterparts to fill their place.  Shortly thereafter, on March 17^th, UN no-fly resolution 1973 was passed of which the aforementioned countries including their BRICS ally Brazil abstained.

Professor Peter Dale Scott, author of American War Machine observed the following pattern prior to the Iraqi invasion in an article from Global Research:

"As Ellen Brown has pointed out, first Iraq and then Libya decided to challenge the petrodollar system and stop selling all their oil for dollars, shortly before each country was attacked.

Kenneth Schortgen Jr., writing on Examiner.com, noted that ‘[s]ix months before the US moved into Iraq to take down Saddam Hussein, the oil nation had made the move to accept Euros instead of dollars for oil, and this became a threat to the global dominance of the dollar as the reserve currency, and its dominion as the petrodollar..’

According to a Russian article titled ‘Bombing of Lybia – Punishment for Qaddafi for His Attempt to Refuse US Dollar,’ Qaddafi made a similarly bold move: he initiated a movement to refuse the dollar and the euro, and called on Arab and African nations to use a new currency instead, the gold dinar. Qaddafi suggested establishing a united African continent, with its 200 million people using this single currency. … The initiative was viewed negatively by the USA and the European Union, with French president Nicolas Sarkozy calling Libya a threat to the financial security of mankind; but Qaddafi continued his push for the creation of a united Africa."

Libya’s huge gold stores and abundant oil supply made it a player in the region, able to chart its own course in world affairs.  The Central Bank of Libya, essentially off the globalist reservation, was a prime target for takeover.  Ghaddafi’s overtures to China, Russia and India merely served as the catalyst.

The last bank in the world not a part of the “hive of compliant nations” dominated by the banking cartel is the Central Bank of Iran.  Unfortunately Tehran is suffering from 50% inflation rates, EU oil sanctions and earlier this year was shut out of the international bank clearing system, called SWIFT.  Its central bank overseen by public office holders, unlike our privately held Federal Reserve, committed a similar transgression to that of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Ghaddafi.

“In its trade transactions with other countries, Iran does not limit itself to the U.S. dollar, and the country can pay using its own currency,” Reuters quoted central bank governor Mahmoud Bahmani as saying. “If a country should so choose, it can pay in gold and we would accept that without any reservation.”  While Iran is trying to escape from the globalist choke hold, this is undoubtedly the move others have paid dearly for.

MIT professor and U.S. foreign policy expert Noam Chomsky provided his insight in an article by Dominique de Kevelioc de Bailleul at Beacon Equity Research.

“Iran broke ranks with the United States in 1979, and this is a crime for which it has to be punished,” said Chomski in a discussion with Gilbert Archcar for the book, Perilous Power.  “And it goes way beyond rational state interests.  As with Cuba, it’s the Mafia mentality: You can’t allow disobedience to exist; it’s too dangerous because other people might get the idea that they can be disobedient as well.  So Iran’s going to have to be punished for that act of disobedience.”

The end of exclusive American dominion is at hand and with it the reign of the global petrodollar economy.  China, Russia and others have been trading outside the U.S. premier world reserve currency for some time.

While the long-term trajectory of Pax Americana is obvious the wars over Iraq, Libya, Syria and coming soon Iran are the often erratic and always violent symptoms of an empire in decline.  Where there was once a free market, which spurred growth, expansion and innovation have now been replaced by the narrowing objectives of the state, which have demonstrably subsumed the private interests of large multinational corporations.  Its meddlesome and corrupt systems are made manifest in the energy and financial industries both of which as a result are in seemingly perpetual tumult.

Syria: The West and Gulf Allies Arming Terrorists and WMDs Return

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

The New York Times on Thursday came out with the shocking headline - that is if you weren't paying attention: “C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition."  However, rather than attempt to detail the larger context of the Syrian crisis it is obvious the author Eric Schmidt and this kingpin of the mainstream media (MSM) have merely moved on to the next chapter in Syrian propaganda in light of an increasingly astute alternative media and informed public.

When the uprising began in Janurary of 2011 during the larger Arab Spring (Arab Nightmare, whatever you’d like to call it) the media painted the Syrian uprising suffuse in glowing terms of fledgling democracy – the demonstrators could do no wrong and why would they?

The dark underbelly of the uprising, left untouched and out of regular reports by MSM journalists for over a year, is its connections with the larger geopolitical machinations of Washington and nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance.  Slowly, reality set in as the actors once called “demonstrators,” changed to “protestors,” then to “activists,” then “opposition,” and “rebels” until now, peppering the rebels, it is finally being acknowledged that there is a sordid mixture of foreign back terrorists hailing from all over the region.

The Cold War II Panorama

Syria is just one piece of America’s greater hegemonic mosaic planned by realist and neoconservative cliques since the fall of the Soviet Union.  It encompasses the whole of what has been envisioned as the "New Middle East," the Pacific and the rest of the world.

Syria is witnessing first hand the clash of a newly realigned international political system between the NATO alliance and its ostensible counter balance - the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).   The SCO, most importantly its prominent members China and Russia, is a mutual security organization and as an economic bloc of major eastern powers it is of great import.   Its emerging prominence is what Paul Wolfowitz, then Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, in the ensuing years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, referred to as the “rise of the next superpower” and what the neoliberal agenda has been preparing for over two decades since.

As early as 1991 Syria was slated for regime change.  In 2002, then US undersecretary of State, John Bolton added Syria to the growing “Axis of Evil.”   In 2005 the Washington Post revealed that millions of dollars were funneled through various State Department proxies to Syrian political opposition groups and other endeavors including an anti-regime satellite channel, Barada TV, based in England.

The US government has also taken an active role in training activists and developing new technologies to help protect them against prosecution by authoritarian governments.  In an April 2011 the French news agency AFP reported that the US government for two years budgeted $50 million dollars to train 5,000 activists from various parts of the world including Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon.  When these democracy cells were sent home they spread and created, what a State Department official referred to as, “ripples,” which reverberated throughout the region during the Arab Spring.

While this type of social intervention is an example of freedom of association we must remember we are not speaking of private individuals, but the fate of nations. This subversive strategy may be disagreeable to many taxpayers, it may not, and how this type of social engineering is justified under the Constitution is, if anything, unclear, unfortunately it’s also irrelevant to a certain extent because it is only one part of the larger geostrategic stratagem.

These relatively innocuous covert actions merely lay a foundation of leverage against a target government.  The subsequent acts are promoted by a complicit, gullible and negligent media enamored with the idea of democratic struggle regardless of where it may lead.  It is finally brought to a crescendo in the eyes of the international community and eventually acted upon by multilateral military intervention.  Call it humanitarian intervention or as CNN last Thursday attempted to inject no less than five times – securing weapons of mass destruction.

Imagine for instance the Chinese handpicking the brightest and most charismatic activists among US society during Occupy Wall Street or the Tea Party Movement then training, funding and equipping them for political sabotage.  It would make the Citizens United case pale in comparison.

Regardless of the merit, foreign political influence (to be distinguished from cultural, business, etc.) of any kind especially to this degree creates massive distrust and unrest and therefore opportunity for intervention and bloodshed with no guarantee a liberal democracy will replace autocratic rule.

Lack of Context

Eric Schmitt while detailing much of the dubious actions on the part of US intelligence and the Obama administration narrows the scope of the Syrian civil war within the known paradigm.  Without question the goal of “regime change” is advanced.   Schmidt reports for the New York Times:

“The weapons [being supplied to Syrian rebel groups] including automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and some antitank weapons, are being funneled mostly across the Turkish border by way of a shadowy network of intermediaries including Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood and paid for by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the officials said.

The C.I.A. officers have been in southern Turkey for several weeks, in part to help keep weapons out of the hands of fighters allied with Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups, one senior American official said. The Obama administration has said it is not providing arms to the rebels, but it has also acknowledged that Syria’s neighbors would do so.”

If Libya is any indication of how the US government refuses to help “fighters allied with Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups” Syria is in big trouble.  The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) ranked #28 on the US State Department’s list of terrorist organizations was the beneficiary of the NATO led no fly zone that aided opposition groups – of which LIFG (an Al Qaeda affiliate as of 2007) made up a significant part – in their deposal of dictator Muammar Ghaddafi.
 

Leaders of Al Qaeda affiliate LIFG have been helping the Syrian National Council and its Free Syrian Army in repeated reports since at least late last year.  The US government has since the Carter administration had a dubious history of creating, funding and training known terrorist organizations.  In the region the US governement was reported to have trained the Iranian Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) in the deserts of Nevada. 

Schmidt's article continues:

"With Russia blocking more aggressive steps against the Assad government, the United States and its allies have instead turned to diplomacy and aiding allied efforts to arm the rebels to force Mr. Assad from power."

"Diplomacy" is evidently a catch all term, which occupies the space outside of direct military action.  When Joe Sixpack thinks of diplomacy ambassadors, summits and negotiations come to mind.  The problem is the US has had no official diplomatic relations with Syria since 2005, and according to the administration diplomacy, as most would understand it, will only occur after regime change.

Schmidt additionally neglects to mention Iran and China are also attempting to thwart a possible invasion and are supporting the Assad regime in kind, fearing a war would undoubtedly destabilize the region and allow western interests to set up shop for the inevitable confrontation with Iran.  Syria, in other words, is the Path to Persia.  Continuing:

"By helping to vet rebel groups, American intelligence operatives in Turkey hope to learn more about a growing, changing opposition network inside of Syria and to establish new ties. “C.I.A. officers are there and they are trying to make new sources and recruit people,” said one Arab intelligence official who is briefed regularly by American counterparts."

Indeed this is the endgame, “to establish new ties.”  By doing so western powers can more easily back the right horse during a bid for leadership and therefore have a great influence on the decision making in any subsequent administrations.  Additional support like “providing satellite imagery and other detailed intelligence on Syrian troop locations and movements” or setting “up a rudimentary intelligence service” all serve this purpose and future designs in the Middle East.  And finally:

"The struggle inside Syria has the potential to intensify significantly in coming months as powerful new weapons are flowing to both the Syrian government and opposition fighters."

The “allies,” a term which is supposed to bring us back to WWII, and the new “axis” of China, Russia and Iran are playing Syria like a game of Rock’em Sock’em Robots.  The thing is the Syrian people and their nation aren’t a toy and western citizens should refrain from using them as such in some vain attempt at reliving the democratic revolutions of our own past.

Global Research’s Professor Michael Chudovksy gives a comprehensive breakdown of Syria.  More importantly that the "protests" was in fact an armed insurrection from the beginning:

Massive War Games Planned Off Syrian Coast

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

Iran, Syria, Russia and China are planning the “biggest-ever wargames in the Middle East,” according to an unconfirmed report on the semi-official Iranian news site Fars News. A Syrian official denied the claims, however, China and Russia have come to the aid of both countries in recent months at the UN Security Council, vetoing military intervention in Syria and expanded sanctions on Iran.

According to the report this new axis, as it were, are preparing 90,000 troops, 400 aircraft and 1,000 tanks for the massive joint maneuvers, which are to take place along the Syrian coast within a month.

It has been recently reported that Russian armament sales will continue unabated to Syria including shipment of refurbished Cold War era attack helicopters.  The shipment has been reported to have turned back off the Scotland coast after losing its insurance due to the controversial nature of its mission, however, its transponder has since been turned off and verification cannot be achieved.  It is possible the armaments are still on their way to Syria.

Russia’s tacit support of the Bashar al Assad regime has the US State Department dismayed, however, in light of covert training, funding and harboring militant opposition elements in Turkey, a NATO member, the western nations are hardly blameless in the intervention.  It has been reported that presumably US, UK, France, Jordan and Turkey have Special Operations Forces in Syria since at least December of 2011 training opposition forces and providing reconnaissance.  Outfinanced and outgunned and fearing another Libyan style multilateral qu d’etat Iranian Quds Force and Russian SOF have also been reported providing similar assistance to the Syrian military.

Russian interests in the region center around the deep sea ports of Tartus and Latakia.  In 2007 Russia endeavored to reestablish a permanent naval presence in the Mediterranean for the first time since the Cold War.  Needless to say the prospect alarmed many in Washington and Tel Aviv.  China has a similar and potentially sticky port access issue in Gwadar, Pakistan in a region where NATO and US forces are waging a full-blown drone war and are covertly, as in Syria, aiding opposition forces.  It has been speculated that this Balochistan region could change Sino-US strategic equations significantly.  An effort in Congress to drive a wedge between the region and the Pakistani government in Islamabad was shelved in February – at least for now.

The Fars News report of war games states that Russian “atomic submarines and warships, aircraft carriers and mine-clearing destroyers as well as Iranian battleships and submarines will also arrive in Syria” and that Egypt has agreed to let 12 Chinese warships cross the Suez Canal for the exercises.  Considering US designs to deny Chinese naval freedom out of Pakistani ports and therefore projection into the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf China has a vested interest in aiding Russia and its claims to access the Mediterranean.

Syria meanwhile faces international pressure, predominantly from the West’s NATO member nations, to end a 15-month crackdown on local rebels trying to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad.  But this is of course more than about “rebels.”  The small wars of the last decade are mere peons on the grand chessboard, however, it looks as though larger pieces are being moved into place.

To understand the containment policy I invite you to read NATO's Ring of Fire: The Western Flank and Russia and its follow up The Eastern Flank, China and the Indian "Linchpin."

You may even wish to delve further into America's Pacific Century: Containing China and indulge in an informative analysis of US hegemonic machinations in a new video from Nile Bowie and Global Research TV.

Escape from EU: Rise of the 4th Reich

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

Where is Snake Plissken when you need him?  Greece is in shambles.  Spain is on the brink and the planet is on the verge of realizing it never recovered from the last recession.  Japan evidently already realizes it as Tokyo’s stock market hit a 28-year-low today, New York will undoubtedly react.  While some in Europe are rallying jittery technocrats to centralize and unite, reason urges otherwise.

The New York Times reports:

“Mario Monti of Italy called for using euro bonds to create a quicker path to common debt for Europe. And Mariano Rajoy of Spain floated the idea of a common fiscal authority in Europe to synchronize budgets and manage debts.

German policy makers have said that kind of deeper budget integration and supervision is a prerequisite before any sort of euro bonds could be issued.”

This process, to embolden Brussles, is estimated to take between five and ten years, but the wonderful thing about a crisis is its ability to motivate.  To be sure, whatever happens will happen soon.  George Soros predicts three months and Joschka Fischer, Germany’s former vice-Chancellor, gives EU leaders two weeks to save the project.

Either the EU will crumble beginning with Greece’s departure on June 17^th after their elections and return to the Drachma (test trading since last week) or a more powerful central government in Europe will emerge.

If this sounds a bit scary it should.  Spain’s Rajoy urged the 17-nation union to “cede more sovereignty” to a central fiscal authority and parroted the European Commission’s call for a banking union with a single regulator and deposit guarantee fund.  Joining the pro union chorus is also new French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici: “We need to go toward a banking union,” he said on RTL radio.  With that the socialists are officially on board in Paris.  The thing is who has the money to put where their mouth is?  Not Rajoy.  Not Monti.  Maybe Moscovici, but Germany on the other hand…

Given the current crisis Soros sees a possible 4^th Reich ahead, “a German empire with the periphery as the hinterland,” he said.  While CNBC says this was a “warn[ing]” from Soros his statements clearly suggest he wrestles with little misgivings on the prospect.

With northern creditor nations bailing out ailing Spain and Greece, Germany is effectively at the helm and Soros knows it.  “We need to do whatever we can to convince Germany to show leadership and preserve the European Union…the future of Europe depends on it,” said Soros, reports Bloomberg News.

If you listened to Mosocovici the entire planet depends on what happens in Europe and therefore how Germany plans its next move. “Let’s not delude ourselves: If the euro falls apart, so will the European Union, triggering a global economic crisis on a scale that most people alive today have never experienced,” he said, reports The Daily Telegaph.

In a way he might be right, the world is walking a tight rope finer than frogs hair.  US employment numbers are wilting, a fact Obama “lays at the feet of European leaders.”  Brazil, China and India all see anemic growth.  Iran has been writhing in hyperinflation since at least January with fresh sanctions taking their effect at the beginning of the month and the rest of Middle East on perpetual red alert with Syria in the throws of civil war.  To top it all off the first world isn’t setting any kind of example. The OECD club is at a record average public debt of 106% of GDP and the red flags in bond markets couldn’t be raised higher:

“German 10-year Bund yields closed at 1.17pc. The two-year notes turned negative. British Gilts closed at 1.53pc, the lowest in 300 years. US Treasuries fell to 1.45pc, lower than at any time during the Great Depression.”

Greece is aflame with persistent protests, Cyprus isn’t looking good, neither is Portugal and Italy’s ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi claims his “people are in shock.  Confidence has collapsed. [And they] have never had such a dark future.”  The Daily Telegraph’s Ambro Seevans Pritchard agrees:

“Indeed, the jobless rate for [Italian] youth has jumped from 27pc to 35pc in a year. Terrorism has returned. Anarchists knee-capped the head of Ansaldo Nucleare last month [and] Italy’s tax office chief was nearly blinded by a letter bomb.”

If the real politik lesson holds – let not crisis go to waste – who will pass this global opportunity up?

Should history provide us prologue as it often does.  This is exactly the time when the fearful and insecure turn to anything for security.  With these nations biting their nails strength will need to come from somewhere, lets hope it comes from independence not unity.  Perhaps this is a time when Germany should exit, followed shortly by France and allow the EU to stand on its own for what it is, “a valueless and physically unattractive monument to the hubris of bureaucrats who valued an economic ‘system’ over any actual economies,” writes Tim Cavanaugh of Reason.

The European experiment has failed.  Attempting to prolong the endeavor will only beget more crises down the road.  Individual states should stand on their own, go through the necessary withdrawals and kick the bailout addiction and let the pusher banks sucker some other region.  Let not your hearts be troubled, if the euro is destroyed it will be scary, but we’ll all be the better for it.

It is interesting to note, however, with all the buzz talk about the zombie apocalypse and 2012 how fitting it would be to see Germany’s Angela Merkel leading her zombie states army into perpetual debt slavery.

Flame Virus and Blowback on the Digital Battlefield

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

The “Flame” virus is the atom bomb of 21^st century espionage, to date the largest and most elaborate computer bug ever discovered.  It has lived in the deep recesses of Iranian government computers for years, spying on everyone and everything it comes into contact with.

It is more than a mere surveillance virus, it’s an “entire” self-contained “cyber espionage operation” according to Roel Schouwenberg, a senior security researcher with Russian based Kaspersky Labs, one of the first security networks to analyze the malware.  While mostly infecting Iranian computer systems the virus has also been detected throughout the Middle East in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Sudan and even as far as Europe under the name sKyWIper or “Wiper,” this according to Hungarian based CrySyS Lab.  By their estimates Flame may have been active “for as long as five to eight years.”

Iran’s National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) or MAHER Center, which initially discovered the worm working its way through their systems, reported it was undetectable by 43 known antivirus protocols and only discovered after several investigations.  The intruder has thus far been successful at not only remaining undetected until recently, but responsible for “mass data loss” according to MAHER officials.  Iranian agencies have since developed a removal tool to eliminate the threat.

At a whopping 20 megabytes Flame is 20 to 30 times larger than the infamous Stuxnet and Duqu viruses discovered in 2009 and 2010.  Stuxnet was used to attack Iran’s nuclear program, the ravenous bug caused centrifuges in a targeted facility to spin out of control, ultimately destroying it and setting back potential nuclear capability by years if new estimates by Israeli intelligence are correct.

Flame exceeds previous generations of malware.  It has the capability to collect lists of “vulnerable passwords”, “create series of user’s screen captures,” covertly send intelligence back to remote servers, link to discoverable Bluetooth devices and even act as a beacon for a Bluetooth device to link back.  It is quite versatile, capable of infecting Windows XP, Vista and 7 other common operating systems.

While Flame was created on a different platform than Duqu or Stuxnet, in fact utilizing a well known, easier to use “Lua” programming language, responsible for popular games like Angry Birds evidence seems to suggest that Flame is similar enough in that the previously “unassailable” Linux OS is also thought to be vulnerable.  The fact that Flame uses this unorthodox, albeit simpler code has been credited with its ability to outwit standard countermeasures even given its relatively colossal size.

One of the most interesting parts of Flame is its various permutations.  It has an ability to carry out very specific tasks each time it is recreated.  Besides the aforementioned it can also turn on microphones, potentially cameras and send back all relevant information through multiple domains to its command and control servers (C&C) located all over the world.  Moreover, as a veritable binary spy it has an exit strategy.  The controller can use the “browse32” function to create a digital LZ and pluck the virus out from behind enemy lines leaving not a trace.

The State-Sponsored Cyber War

There is little doubt in the cyber security realm that Flame is anything, but a state-sponsored operation.  The two other possible culprits – hacktivists and cybercriminals – don’t match Flame’s modus operandi.  Flame isn’t after bank accounts and it doesn’t resemble the rather simple tools known to be used by Anonymous, LulzSec and others.  Rather than targeting multilateral corporations or political institutions, the high concentration of attacks within Iran and throughout the Middle East suggests geopolitical objectives generally pursued by nation states.

Israel and the United States top the short list of likely culprits and for simplicity’s sake Israel has been more than happy to tacitly admit complicity – again.  According to Vice PM Moshe Yaalon Israel is “blessed as being a country rich with high-tech” and takes pride in the “opportunities” this has given them.  More specifically the likely source is Israel’s Unit 8200, equivalent to the United State’s National Security Agency (NSA) and in fact founded in 1952 off surplus American military equipment.  The unit has allegedly been responsible for using a secret “kill switch” to deactivate Syrian air defenses during Operation Orchard.  Moreover, alumni of the military intelligence branch have gone on to found leading Israeli IT companies.  Unit 8200 is shrouded in mystery including its commander a Brigadier-General whose identity remains classified.

Considering Israel and the U.S. have acknowledged conducting clandestine operations in Iran this is merely the next logical chapter after years of ongoing low intensity warfare.  No conventional troops, no sorties just faux color revolutions, Nevada trained proxy insurgencies a la Mujadahideen-e-Khalq (MEK), multi lateral sanctions and a cornucopia of sabotage or given recent events the newest tactic – cybertage.  The perfect strategy for the 21^st century, after all it’s discrete and politically correct.

The responsibility for conducting these offensive cyber operations in the new digital battlefield is likely the newest player on the military industrial complex’s bench, the Pentagon’s Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM), which virtually ties together the strategic mosaic of American global hegemony.

According to the U.S. officials USCYBERCOM is responsible for merely “defense” of military telecommunications infrastructure (.mil etc.), but recent reinterpretations of what the best defense actually is and broad mission statements make vividly clear its hegemonic intent:

“USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries.”

Domestic considerations are left to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its brand new baby the National Cybersecurity Center, a mini Pentagon, recently completed and based in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Ring leading the cyber security circus is undoubtedly the now nearly century old ultra secretive NSA no stranger to flouting international or U.S. law.  A fact well documented by James Bamford in his works Puzzle Palace and Body of Secrets.

Digital attacks are nothing new to the U.S. strategy.  Preceding even Hollywood movies like War Games and Hackers the CIA was purportedly behind “the mother of all Scada attacks” 30 years ago when it used a “logic bomb” to blow up a Siberian gas pipeline.  The KGB was trying to steal pipeline control software and the CIA rigged the software to over pressurize the Soviet pipelines.  In a similar vein,  Flame has been found infecting the Iranian oil industry responsible for 80% of the country’s revenue.

Digital Blowback

Over and over again we hear from not only Iran’s leadership, but through our own intelligence services that Iran is demonstrably no closer to a nuclear weapon than they were almost 10 years ago.  That is precisely the need for an all encompassing super virus like Flame, a virus capable of telling us about literally every key stroke Iranian officials make.  Western nations have no evidence thus far of Iran’s nefarious intent merely hearsay, the opinion of “intelligence experts”, former “security chiefs” and crazy theocrats bent on Islamic empire.  Western and Israeli intelligence agencies are looking for a “smoking calutron,” thus far they have failed.

Nevertheless it is political gold to be tough on Persia with persistent little regard for how we arrived at this point of mistrust – meet our lingering Iranian war psychosis.  Probably the most disturbing part of it all is the obvious self-fulfilling prophecy and the clear opportunity for digital blowback and ultimately the validation of everything the government wishes to convince us is a real threat.

In March on “60 Minutes” retired U.S. Air Force General Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and NSA, commented on the downside of the Stuxnet virus. “There are those out there who can take a look at this… and maybe even attempt to turn it to their own purposes,” Hayden said.  His opinion was backed up by Sean McGurk, a former cybersecurity official at DHS who noted the Stuxnet source code could be copied and used against new targets, possibly aimed back at the United States.  Whoever created Stuxnet or DuQu, “They opened the box. They demonstrated the capability… It’s not something that can be put back,” according to Mcgurk.

Flame opens the same Pandora’s Box.  As Thomas Friedman was famous for noting, the World is Flat – so is the digital battlefield.  “In warfare, when a bomb goes off it detonates; in cyberwarfare, malware keeps going and gets proliferated,” said Roger Cressey, senior vice president at security consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton, at a Bloomberg cybersecurity conference held in New York last month.  The idea that our own espionage malware will proliferate in our fruitless attempt the prevent the proliferation of other weapons of mass destruction (albeit physical in nature) will surely use up a life time supply of irony.

Alas, this is the sign of our times.  We end one war only to receive another in its stead.  The code wars of the future may be entirely of our own design and will make the asymmetrical warfare of the War on Terror seem like a brief and illequipping prologue as citizens and or terrorists with sophisticated knowledge of software coding could wreak crippling global havoc.  Perhaps if our own government’s malware doesn’t pervade every system on Earth an idealistic Luddite might send us all back to the Stone Age so that we might live history all over again.

Reset.

Banes of Our Existence, a Political Cartoon

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

Original political cartoon by Michael Ramirez as seen on Real Clear Politics.

"FALSE PARADIGM" is added by Topher Morrison.

You ever wish political cartoons would be a little more balanced?  Wish they would stop browbeating a false paradigm while feigning comedy?  Above is an original cartoon by Michael Ramirez. Below is my enhanced version.

As seen through the patented objectivity lens of Topher Morrison

22 Ways The MIC is an Entitlement Program

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

BEFORE YOU READ: Realize how big this building is.

The Military Industrial Complex in the News

Last Friday the Associated Press released this video about East Orange, New Jersey.  Previously crime-ridden, suffering from gang violence and urban blight, East Orange recently became proving grounds for high tech pre-crime technology, courtesy of the federal government. 

From nearly a mile away and controlled remotely from the comfort of either a surveillance station or a squad car a bright red beam of light fixed above a video camera can instantly bathe anyone suspected of possible criminal activity.  Aaron Dykes of InfoWars.com breaks it down.  While this is an astonishing development it is unfortunately a typical domestic attendant of our national security posture. 

Last September while covering a debate between libertarians and neo-conservatives I highlighted one of the most glaring inconsistencies within conservative dogma.  While on one hand, with regard to social welfare, conservatives spit incendiary rhetoric at nearly every encroachment by the federal government; on the other, in foreign policy they applaud almost identical invasions (pun intended). 

Why is there is no cry from so called conservatives for restraint when our National Security Budget for fiscal year 2012 is estimated at $1.2 trillion, $185 billion of which is in interest payments alone?  It is because Eisenhower’s infamous Military Industrial Complex (MIC) is not dissimilar to its sprawling domestic cousins – a burdensome and ineffectual entitlement program with teeth.  The MIC provides an entitlement in four ways, from September’s article:

“…First to those presidents [and politicians] whom wield its power for political gain either through victory or diversion, second to those military and intelligence commanders [and bureaucrats] whom direct massive swaths of tax payer dollars to influence world affairs, third to a high tech industry addicted to generous government injections and [fourth] to foreign entities whom ‘invite’ our intervention and therefore defense subsidization in order to accomplish what they cannot [or will not] on their own.”

By no means is this list exhaustive.  As John Stossel recently points out on his Fox News program the noble foreign policy goals, which our Dear Leaders burden themselves with know no bounds.

            The American public wants a lot from their military and considering they pay $1.2 trillion per annum, a lot is to be expected.  But as we have seen in the case of East Orange, local law enforcement has become militarized and it isn’t the first time pre-crime technology has been in the news.  Pre-crime software has been used in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. to route future criminals for months!

Militarization of Law Enforcement

Much of these developments fall under what I term industrial blowback, the unintended allocation and consequences of our military’s equipment and or expertise.  For example, a local New York CBS News affiliate just days ago reported the NYPD experimenting with drones over the city.  It might seem reasonable at first; New York City after all is one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas.  The problem is, drones are being used in rural areas as well and not just to protect the border. 

Last December a North Dakota family was arrested with the help of a Predator drone for ‘stealing six cows’, which evidently kept wandering onto their land; pretty expensive toy for such a remote area.  These aren’t isolated incidences, there are scores of other examples of our military’s tools being used at home namely a field-tested surveillance blimp previously designed to help troops in Iraq conduct door-to-door raids.  If you’re a resident Ogden, Utah you might have already seen this little beauty flying over your Sunday BBQ.

The fifth entitlement recipient is obviously local law enforcement and like any welfare queen it is quickly becoming addicted to government largesse.  Faced with addiction the best thing to do now is: Step One, Admit There’s a Problem.  Unfortunately, as is most often the case, intervention is all that is left.  In many ways this explains the rise in the protest movement and protest candidates like Ron Paul.  However, while the protester may have been Time Magazine’s Person of the Year and Ron Paul is more popular than ever our national security infrastructure is still metastasizing, as there has been no real anti-war (or its anti-police state ancillary) movement since the election of Barack Obama exposed it as largely anti-Bush.

Where have they gone and why?  Obama has yet to come through on closing Guantanamo Bay, we are still mired in Afghanistan after 10 years, still involved in regime change and the Transportation Security Administration is still busy reaching in our pants and they have left the airports too.  Toting their backscatter x-rays among other things onto American highways, beta testing their V.I.P.E.R. teams, testing their F.A.S.T. technology at large public events and still flouting the Constitution, just ask Senator Rand Paul (R-KY).  On Monday TSA agents detained him on his way to the Senate in brazen violation of not only the 4^th Amendment, but also his privilege as a Senator from arrest before a vote in Congress.

    Sen. Paul may be awake and speaking out against the growth in our police state, but it has been evident watching the endless GOP debates that mainline conservatives weren’t influenced by the Washington Post’s two-year investigation exposing Top Secret America.  This amazing series details how politicized and privatized our national security infrastructure has become. 

Since 9/11, 854, 000 people now hold top-secret security clearances, 33 building complexes have been built for top-secret work, the equivalent of almost 3 Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings – nearly 17 million square feet!  The most shocking statistic testifies to an inherent conflict of interest.  Apparently over 265,000 private contractors retain top-secret clearances; our government has effectively incentivized creating enemies!  But do they actually create real life straw men?  There is evidence.  Judge Andrew Napolitano on Fox News exposed the FBI for as much in this video, a must see.           

            Still not convinced ex administrators like Homeland Security’s Michael Chertoff are raking in millions after building up their own entitlement nest egg and slipping into the private sector to reap the rewards?  Below, I expand on John Stossel’s list and show how foreign policy hawks turn into central planners right before your eyes.  According to Stossel: “People Want The Military To…”

·      6) Keep Oil Cheep – As I have argued before oil may in fact be abiotic, in other words it is not a fossil fuel and in fact renewable.  This would clearly undermine the Peak Oil theory, but that’s an argument for another day.  However, as OilPrice.com recently covered, America has the largest oil and gas reserves on the planet!  Instead of fighting in the Middle East “conservatives”, libertarians and independents should fight job-killing pseudo-environmentalists here at home.  While cheap oil is what Americans want invading armies merely create more instability and therefore higher prices.  The entitlement – not only the high gas prices and record profits for oil companies, but establishing a false scarcity providing the environment for green energy subsidies to flourish whether they are justified or not.  Peak Oil theory sure makes for strange bedfellows…

·      7) Contain China – The Defense Department really hasn’t done a good job of this at all.  Take Afghanistan for example.  Evidently it not only harbors terrorists, but nearly $1 trillion in precious metals too.  Unfortunately we lost the opportunity to develop Afghanistan’s biggest copper deposit to, you guessed it, China.  I guess our troops are meant to scurry around the country trying to win hearts, not mines.  Next door, the Pakistani government asked China to build the Gwadar deep-sea port, potentially giving China broader access to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.  If that wasn’t all, Africa is opening up to the China too.  The Seychelles is the newest country to court China for a military base and this time it’s right in the backyard of a not-so-secret U.S. drone headquarters.  Want more examples?  I’m sure you can find them on your own, HINT: Brazilian oil.  The entitlement is obvious – foreign defense subsidies.  Evidently it’s a buyers market with two super powers quietly competing.

·      8) Chase Terrorists – We’ve done that for over 10 years, but evidently we’re now in the business of helping them – wait what?  CLUE: Who were Libya’s rebels?  We also kill U.S. citizens whom are accused of aiding terrorists, as was the case in Yemen when Anwar Al-Awlaki and his teenage son were eliminated by a CIA drone.  If that was a touchy subject the NDAA bill made it ok to arrest U.S. citizens without trial.  Appalled?  Don’t worry the new Expatriation Act will revoke U.S. citizenship if you’re deemed a menace.  What!?  I thought I read somewhere all men were created equal and with certain unalienable rights?  Maybe terrorists aren’t human then, that must be it.  The entitlement – perpetuating fear, a war that by definition can never end and expanding Executive power.

·      9) Train Foreign Militaries to Chase Terrorists – Danger Room, Wired.com’s national security blog, just reported we have new clandestine commando team operating near Iran, known as Joint Special Operations Task Force-Gulf Cooperation Council, JSOTF-GCC for short.  They are responsible for training all of our allies in the Middle East and even Blackwater’s newest guise is still winning big contracts. To understand a little more about our peace president’s Secret Wars here is the Daily Beast.  The entitlement – more foreign defense subsidy, reliance on the private/public intelligence apparatus, private contractors, and equipment manufacturers.

·      10) Protect Sea Lanes – Evidently we do more than that.  Our Coast Guard has been responsible for not only our shores, but Iranian shores as well.  They recently rescued 6 Iranians 50 miles southeast of the Iraqi port city of Umm Qaser.  I thought they were called the U.S. Coast Guard not the U.N. Coast Guard.  The entitlement – Iranians can spend a little more on domestic concerns rather than their own coast guarding capabilities with the U.S. on the ready.

·      11) Stop Genocide – This is the most compelling argument for intervention, I know it tugs at my heart, but as was the case in East Timor and Darfur unless you have resources crucial to American interests you’re most likely SOL.  The entitlement – public relations i.e. “The Global Force for Good.”

·      12) Protect European, East Asian, and Middle East States from Aggression – Don’t they have their own militaries?  Also when it comes to rich countries like Australia, Japan, Germany and South Korea why can’t they begin to take care of themselves?  The entitlement – a generous tax break for their economies at the expense of the U.S.

·      13) Humanitarian Missions – As I mention above the latest “humanitarian mission” in Libya put into place a dubious regime.  The entitlement – you don’t have to have legitimate broad appeal to start a revolution just the right connections.

·      14) Respond to Natural Disasters – We responded to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and to the 2010 Haitian earthquake, which killed thousands and while these efforts are praiseworthy where is the mandate?  It isn’t found in the Constitution and the American people are rarely asked to vote on it.  Our charity is undeniable in this country; there are many ways of aiding needy foreign nations without involving our military.  In the end its our money and our governments should be planning and saving for a rainy day of our own.  The entitlement – disaster relief, in other words, national disaster insurance package courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.

·      15) Secure the Internet – The ultra secret National Security Agency is completing construction of 1.5 million square foot NSA West officially known as the Cybersecurity Data Center in Utah.  Regarded by Sen. Orin Hatch as the largest defense construction effort in recent memory.  The entitlement – brand new battlefields and weapons a la stuxnet!

·      16) Police the Mexican Border – American’s may want the military to do this, but this is one of the legitimate activities the military is not engaged in.

·      17) Transform Failed States into Democracies – Democratizing states are notorious for being violent.  In the end effective democracy is more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner.  We’ve been in Iraq and Afghanistan for years and we haven’t come close to achieving the results American’s would consider acceptable.  The aforementioned nations are not healthy, peaceful or friendly.  The entitlement – public relations, “making the world safe for democracy.”

A few Stossel didn’t mention in closing:

·      18) Opening Markets – We opened the biggest market on Earth not with a missile, but with a ping-pong ball.  Richard Nixon’s open door policy was one of his forgotten triumphs.  When we have used military force things generally get a little dicey: 1854 Mathew C. Perry forces Japan to trade with the U.S.  Touched by power politics by 1904 Japan turns imperialistic and expands its holdings into Russia, China, culminating in the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The 1953 CIA backed Iranian coup d’ etat results in the Iranian Islamic Revolution.  The 2003 Iraq invasion results in an Iranian Super-state.  The entitlement – more problems to fix.

·      19) Policy Leverage – A recent article on Essential Intelligence covered the “crisis” brewing in the Strait of Hormuz, where most of the world’s oil now passes.  The dot connectors suspect that this may be in part a ploy to highlight the vulnerability of the strait and therefore muster support for an Arabian Oil Pipeline.  The entitlement – further subsidization of international corporations’ adventurism abroad ignoring the emancipating prospect of energy independence at home.

·      20) Support NGO Activity – The rise of non-governmental organizations has been met with both hope and skepticism.  Alleviating the burden of nation building, relief, intelligence gathering, etc. from governments saves money, but when these NGOs become guises for politians and their special interests they become a menace.  John McCain’s International Republican Institute had its hands all over Libya.  The entitlement – first dibs on contracts, information and influence in nation building.   

·      21) Direct Foreign Aid – Is the easiest and most obvious form of foreign welfare, most Americans are against it unless a small socialist ethnocracy is the recipient.

·      22) Drug War – Since the Vietnam era nearly every theatre of war has seen an increase in drug activity.  It unfortunately is a way of providing funding for covert operations, it provides future leverage against “fri-enemies” and is very often a backdoor through which to pass and garner information.  The entitlements are endless – off the books funding, information gathering, immunity, but most importantly it sustains deep state politics a world beyond the purview of our representatives in Congress.