Iraq war 'caused slowdown in the US'

Peter Wilson
The Australian
Thursday, February 28, 2008

THE Iraq war has cost the US 50-60 times more than the Bush administration predicted and was a central cause of the sub-prime banking crisis threatening the world economy, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

The former World Bank vice-president yesterday said the war had, so far, cost the US something like $US3trillion ($3.3 trillion) compared with the $US50-$US60-billion predicted in 2003.

Australia also faced a real bill much greater than the $2.2billion in military spending reported last week by Australian Defence Force chief Angus Houston, Professor Stiglitz said, pointing to higher oil prices and other indirect costs of the wars.

Professor Stiglitz told the Chatham House think tank in London that the Bush White House was currently estimating the cost of the war at about $US500 billion, but that figure massively understated things such as the medical and welfare costs of US military servicemen.

The war was now the second-most expensive in US history after World War II and the second-longest after Vietnam, he said.

The spending on Iraq was a hidden cause of the current credit crunch because the US central bank responded to the massive financial drain of the war by flooding the American economy with cheap credit.

"The regulators were looking the other way and money was being lent to anybody this side of a life-support system," he said.

That led to a housing bubble and a consumption boom, and the fallout was plunging the US economy into recession and saddling the next US president with the biggest budget deficit in history, he said.

Professor Stiglitz, an academic at the Columbia Business School and a former economic adviser to president Bill Clinton, said a further $US500 billion was going to be spent on the fighting in the next two years and that could have been used more effectively to improve the security and quality of life of Americans and the rest of the world.

The money being spent on the war each week would be enough to wipe out illiteracy around the world, he said.

Just a few days' funding would be enough to provide health insurance for US children who were not covered, he said.

The public had been encouraged by the White House to ignore the costs of the war because of the belief that the war would somehow pay for itself or be paid for by Iraqi oil or US allies.

Full article here.

Lawyer Says Bin Laden Did Not Orchestrate 9/11 During Terror Trial

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Thursday, February 28th, 2008

Skepticism towards the 9/11 official story reached the Australian Supreme Court this week after a lawyer asserted that the attacks were not orchestrated by Osama bin Laden during the trial of an alleged terror group in Melbourne.

"To say that this was all orchestrated by Osama bin Laden is a silly thing to do. He’s never claimed responsibility for it," Remy van de Wiel QC told the Australian jury.

Unless you accept the credibility of a dodgy videotape of a fat Bin Laden doppelganger "miraculously discovered" in a house in Jalalabad by U.S. troops and pushed as authentic by the ever-honest U.S. government, then van de Wiel has a point.

Indeed, Bin Laden’s first public statement following the 9/11 attacks was to deny any responsibility for carrying them out.

"I have already said that I am not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge of these attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other humans as an appreciable act. Islam strictly forbids causing harm to innocent women, children and other people. Such a practice is forbidden even in the course of a battle," Bin Laden told the Pakistani-based Ummat newspaper.

Despite the fact that it only took three months to charge him with the 1998 embassy bombings, there has been no formal indictment of bin Laden over six years after 9/11 and the FBI’s wanted poster makes no reference of Bin Laden’s involvement in 9/11.

When asked by reporters why no reference was made, FBI agent Rex Tomb was forced to admit that "the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11."

Van de Wiel is the defense lawyer for Abdul Nacer Benbrika, leader of an alleged terror organization that the prosecution claims planned to carry out violent attacks in Australia.

Van de Wiel asserted that the group were incapable of organizing "a booze-up in a brewery," and pointed out the lack of evidence against them besides the fact that they liked to "bullshit to each other."

The case mirrors almost every other example we have studied in Britain, Canada and America , where a group of Muslims are infiltrated by security agents, radicalized and provocateured into saying something which could be perceived as advocating violence, and then arrested. Despite the complete lack of hard evidence of intent or capability to carry out attacks, the trials provide fodder for propagandists to cite in order to hoax the public into thinking terrorists are everywhere, thus convincing them to hand over more liberty in the name of security.

As we reported last week, four prosecutors In the Guantánamo Bay case assert that the trials are rigged and that convictions are already assured despite the fact that there is scant evidence to link Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his cohorts with 9/11, proving that the official story is a fable and the real perpetrators are being protected.

Bill Clinton Confronted in Austin

Youtube
Thursday, February 28, 2008

As mobs of people in the crowd shouted for the sign to be put down– and still others tore the 9/11 sign away– Clinton told the crowd, “It’s an honor to be heckled by people who are afraid of the truth.”

True doublespeak.

Part in parcel with the Clinton Administrations role in prior knowledge about Bin Laden’s operations as well as a looming attack…

Former National Security Advisor in the Clinton administration, Sandy Berger, was convicted of charges related to stealing/removing and destroying classified documents pertaining to pre-9/11 intelligence.

Questions and accusations also remain about the roles of Sandy Berger and the Clinton Administration at large of obfuscating the 9/11 Commission’s investigation (Bergers charges relate to this period).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Be…

Despite this, Sandy Berger has now joined the Hillary Clinton campaign in an advisory capacity and would likely enter a Hillary Clinton administration.
http://www.examiner.com/a-977346~He_s…

U.N. Report: During Crisis, Eat Bugs

Sunday , February 24, 2008

Crickets, caterpillars and grubs are high in protein and minerals and could be an important food source during droughts and other emergencies, according to scientists.

•Photos: Mmm! Bugs for Dinner

"I definitely think they can assist," said German biologist V.B. Meyer-Rochow, who regularly eats insects and wore a T-shirt with a Harlequin longhorn beetle to a U.N.-sponsored conference this month on promoting bugs as a food source.

Three dozen scientists from 15 countries gathered in this northern Thailand city, home to several dozen restaurants serving insects and other bugs. Some of their proposals were more down to earth than others.

A Japanese scientist proposed bug farms on spacecraft to feed astronauts, noting that it would be more practical than raising cows or pigs. Australian, Dutch and American researchers said more restaurants are serving the critters in their countries.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimates 1,400 species of insects and worms are eaten in almost 90 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Researchers at the conference detailed how crickets and silk worms are eaten in Thailand, grubs and grasshoppers in Africa and ants in South America.

"In certain places with certain cultures with a certain level of acceptance, then insects can very well be seen as part of the solution" to hunger, said Patrick Durst, a Bangkok-based senior forestry officer at the FAO.

The challenge, experts said, is organizing unregulated, small bug food operations in many countries so they can supplement the food that aid agencies provide. The infrastructure to raise, transport and market bugs is almost nonexistent in most countries.

Prof. Arnold van Huis, a tropical entomologist known as "Mr. Edible Insect" in his native Netherlands, blamed a Western bias against eating insects for the failure of aid agencies to incorporate bugs into their mix.

"They are completely biased," van Huis said. "They really have to change. I would urge other donor organizations to take a different attitude toward this ... It's excellent food. It can be sustainable with precautions."

There are questions about the safety of eating bugs and potential dangers from over-harvesting them, said Durst, who became interested in the practice known scientifically as entomophagy during his years working in Bangkok, where crickets and bamboo worms are sold as food by street vendors.

Tina van den Briel, senior nutritionist at the World Food Program, the U.N. agency that provides food in emergencies, expressed doubt that insects can benefit large, vulnerable populations. Most bugs are seasonal and have a short shelf life, she said.

"They can be a very good complement to the diet," said van den Briel, not a conference participant. "But they do not lend themselves to programs like ours where you transport food over long distances and where you have to store food for a few months."

She suggested a more practical benefit might be adding insects to animal feed or crushing them into a meal powder that could be used to make cookies or cakes.

Meyer-Rochow said aid agencies might even find a way to harvest crop-destroying swarms of locusts and crickets.

"These mass outbreaks could be a valuable food source," he said. "If the technology is available, they could be ground up like a paste and added to the food humans eat."

Scarce Shoppers Sap Sears 4Q Profit

CHICAGO (AP) -- Department store chain Sears Holdings Corp. said its fourth-quarter profit tumbled 47 percent because of continued poor performance at its Kmart and U.S. Sears stores.

The Hoffman Estates-based company, controlled by financier Edward Lampert, said Thursday earnings dropped to $426 million, or $3.17 per share. That's down from $811 million, or $5.27 per share, during the same period last year.

Revenue slipped to $15.07 billion from $16.18 billion.

The performance was in line with Wall Street forecasts after the ailing company warned last month that eroding sales might push its profit down as much as 57 percent.

Excluding a one-time gain from the sale of some assets, Sears said it earned $3.04 during the quarter.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected profit of $3.10 per share on higher revenue of $15.26 billion. Analyst forecasts typically exclude one-time items.

"Given the challenging retail environment, we will work to improve and tighten management of costs and inventory levels in 2008," said W. Bruce Johnson, Sears Holdings' interim CEO and president.

For the fiscal year, Sears suffered a similar slowdown, earning $826 million, or $5.70 per share. That's down more than 44 percent from the previous year's profit of $1.5 billion, or $9.58 per share.

Johnson, who took the helm of the company this month after president and chief executive Aylwin B. Lewis abruptly stepped down, also blamed the souring economy for the once-venerable retailer's trouble.

"Our fourth quarter and full year results continued to be negatively impacted by the worsening economic conditions faced by both our customers and competitors, as well as increased markdowns taken to clear excess inventory," he said in a statement.

Sears said it had about $1.6 billion in cash on hand - far less than the $3.8 billion the company had last year - as it continued to pour tens of millions into buying back stock.

Many investors have regarded Sears as a hedge fund masquerading as a retailer under Lampert, who acquired Kmart in 2003 and Sears, Roebuck and Co. in 2005. The company invests in foreign currency contracts as well as complex credit derivatives that are popular among hedge funds.

Investor confidence has appeared to melt away in recent weeks as Lampert's prospects of fixing Sears become more daunting.

In a note to investors Thursday, Lampert sought to silence critics as he defended his decision to buy back shares rather remodel stores that are showing their age.

"We know what it's like to be underestimated and questioned, but we intend to keep working on our game to achieve our full potential," he wrote.

Sears shares were unchanged in premarket trading.

Sprint Nextel Posts Wider $29.5B Loss

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) -- Sprint Nextel Corp. swung to a huge fourth-quarter loss of $29.5 billion on Thursday as it wrote down most of the remaining value of its 2005 purchase of Nextel Communications Inc. and continued to lose customers to competitors.

Chief Executive Officer Dan Hesse, who was hired in December to turn the nation's third largest wireless carrier around, said the quarter was more difficult than he had expected and it could be some time before proposed operational changes have any effect.

He also said that due to instability in the capital credit markets the company was borrowing from a revolving credit facility and was not declaring dividends for the "foreseeable future."

Sprint reported losing $29.5 billion, or $10.36 per share, during the quarter ending Dec. 31. By comparison, Sprint Nextel earned $261 million, or 9 cents per share, during the same period a year ago.

The company said last month it would likely have to write off most of the remaining $30.7 billion in goodwill value from the acquisition of Nextel and a number of affiliates. Sprint Nextel has struggled since the purchase, plagued by technical problems, unfocused marketing and a difficulty in merging the two companies' work forces into a cohesive whole.

Not including the write-down and other one-time charges, the company said it would have earned 21 cents per share before amortization, which was higher than the 18 cents per share expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Revenue during the quarter slipped 6 percent to $9.8 billion from $10.4 billion a year earlier, just missing analysts' expectations of $9.9 billion.

The company reported a net loss of 108,000 subscribers for the quarter as an increase in customers through its Boost prepaid brand and wholesale channels partially offset a loss of 683,000 subscribers who paid a monthly bill - considered the most valuable.

Sprint Nextel reported quarterly postpaid churn, or the measure of these monthly customers dropping service, remained level at 2.3 percent and the average revenue per user declined about 4 percent from a year ago to $58.

Sprint Nextel said overall wireless revenues declined about 6 percent to $8.5 billion.

"We plan to share some of our initiatives for improving the customer experience and operations next quarter," CEO Hesse said in a news release. "Strategic assessments and changes may take longer to complete."

Hesse, who replaced ousted CEO Gary Forsee, already announced last month that the company would lay off about 4,000 employees, or 6.7 percent of its work force, and close 125 retail locations. Earlier this month, he moved the company's corporate headquarters from Reston, Va., back to Kansas, which he said should improve efficiency and management oversight.

The company's shares have fallen more than 51 percent in value in the past year.

For the year, the company said it lost $29.6 billion, or $10.31 per share, compared with a profit of $1.3 billion, or 45 cents per share, in 2006.

Not including the goodwill writedown, the company said it earned 88 cents per share compared with $1.18 a year ago.

Annual revenue declined 2 percent to $40.15 billion.

Freddie Mac Posts Wider $2.5B Loss in 4Q

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Freddie Mac on Thursday said its loss widened to $2.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007 as defaults mounted on home mortgages and it set aside cash in expectation of further losses.

The fourth-quarter loss at Freddie Mac, the No. 2 U.S. buyer and backer of home loans, was larger than Wall Street expected and compares with a loss of $401 million in the last three months of 2006.

Freddie Mac reported the latest loss was equivalent to $3.97 a share versus a loss of 73 cents a share a year earlier and steeper than the loss of $2.34 per share that Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Financial had expected.

Analysts on average had expected Freddie to report a $1.5 billion loss for the quarter.

The report followed by a day an earnings release by Fannie Mae, the larger government-sponsored sibling of Freddie Mac, showing a loss of nearly $3.6 billion in the October-December quarter. A federal regulator announced Wednesday that Fannie and Freddie will be allowed to expand their roles in the turbulent mortgage market, through the removal on March 1 of an investment-portfolio cap placed in the aftermath of multilbillion-dollar accounting scandals at the companies.

Analysts said the impact will be limited, however, because of the large cash cushion the companies must maintain as a reserve against risk.

McLean, Va.-based Freddie Mac's loss for all of 2007 was $3.1 billion, or $5.37 a share, compared with a profit of $2.3 billion, or $3 a share, in 2006.

Ron Paul: Bernanke Deliberately Destroying Dollar

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

Congressman Ron Paul slammed Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke during a House Financial Services Committee meeting today for following a policy of deliberately destroying the dollar and wiping out the American middle class.

Paul held Bernanke to task over his refusal to address the decline of the dollar and its clear link to inflation.

"Inflation comes from the unwise increase in the supply of money credit….to argue that we can continue to debase the currency, which is really the policy of that you’re following, purposely debasing value of currency - which to me seems so destructive….it just puts more pressure on the federal reserve to create capital out of thin air in order to stimulate the economy and usually that just goes into mal-investment," said Paul.

Paul highlighted the fact that the M3 money supply was rising at a rate of 16 per cent and that this was the real rate of inflation.

"History is against you," Paul told Bernanke, "History is on the side of hard money - if you look at stable prices you have to look at the only historic sound money that’s lasted more than a few years - fiat money always ends, gold is the only thing where you get stable prices," he added, pointing out that despite the price of oil’s rapid ascent, it had remained flat when compared to the price of gold.

"I cannot see how we can continue to accept the policy of deliberately destroying the value of money as an economic value," said Paul, adding that the policy was "immoral," and would lead to a reduction in American’s living standards and "the middle class being wiped out."

Asked how he could defend a policy of deliberately depreciating the dollar, Bernanke stumbled through his response and was basically forced to agree with Paul’s point.

Paul’s comments come on the day that the dollar hit its all time low against the Euro.

Earlier this week, former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan laid the groundwork for the further collapse of the greenback by encouraging Gulf states to abandon their dollar peg.

Investment Banker Predicts $300 a Barrel Oil

YouTube
February 27, 2008

CDC Recommends All U.S. Children Get Flu Shots

Reuters
February 27, 2008

Remember, according to "experts," mercury is good for your children (see video below), and a number of flu vaccinations still contain thermisol. If you don’t know this, chances are your kids will get a dose of this IQ-reducing neurotoxin.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - All U.S. children aged from six months up to 18 should be immunized every year against influenza, a panel of federal vaccine advisers said on Wednesday.

The panel, which advises the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine matters, agreed unanimously at its regular meeting in Atlanta that the new recommendations should go into effect as soon as possible, but no later than the 2009-2010 flu season.

The vote from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices would add about 30 million children to the list of those who should be vaccinated, CDC spokesman Curtis Allen said. The current recommendations cover children aged 6 months to 5 years old.

“There about 59 million (children aged 5 to 18) but a lot of those children are already covered under current recommendations,” Allen said in a telephone interview.

Based on current vaccination rates, the CDC predicts about 7 million additional children will be vaccinated because of the expanded recommendations.

Read entire article

****** Poster Comments**********

Stay away from those flue shots. Just run a google search for thermerasol mercury in vaccines, or Cancer viruses in vaccines, or God forbid Aids in the vaccines.

I have avoided vaccines for as long as I can remember. I don't ever take flue shots, and I never get the flue. People I know who do take the shots are sick more often than I am. Roll the dice and take your chances with the flue. Your childs odds are better with the flue than with those dirty vaccines.