zaterdag 3 november 2018

The New Tyranny of the Dollar

The New The 





The New Tyranny of the Dollar

 
Among the many legacies that US President Donald Trump received from his predecessors is a "secondary sanctions" regime that allows the US to bar malign actors from most of the global economy. Under Trump, however, this sophisticated set of tools has become a bludgeon with which to threaten allies.
BERLIN – Donald Trump may not want to launch wars in the Middle East, but that doesn’t mean he’s getting the United States out of the regime-change business. His administration has made it clear that it wants crippling sanctions on Iran to serve the same purpose as the Bush administration’s 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Since withdrawing in May from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Trump has been looking for ways to turn up the pressure on the Iranian regime. On November 4, US sanctions on the country’s vital oil industry will go into force. And the administration wants to go even further, by imposing secondary sanctions on other countries with the goal of shutting Iran out of the dollar-based global economy entirely.
To that end, the US wants to bar Iranian banks from the Society for World Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) and the global payments system that it oversees. This would effectively send Iran back to a pre-globalization dark age. The problem for Trump and his advisers, though, is that SWIFT is not a US institution. It is registered and based in Belgium, which, along with the European Union’s 27 other member states, supports the JCPOA.
America’s exploration of increasingly sophisticated “smart” sanctions is not new. At least since the start of the “war on terror,” the US has been pulling every financial lever that it can to destroy global networks like the one Osama bin Laden used to launch the attacks of September 11, 2001.
At first, the US focused mainly on freezing the assets of extremist groups and their affiliates. But then Stuart Levey, the under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US Department of the Treasury, had another idea. While traveling in Bahrain, he read a local newspaper report about a Swiss bank shutting down its business with Iran. It occurred to him that the US could use its own influence over the private sector to block malign actors from the global economy.
Soon thereafter, the US started pressuring banks around the world to drop their business with Iran. Eventually, the authorities declared that any bank doing business with Iran would be shut out of the US market. With that announcement, “secondary sanctions” were born.

Levey’s secondary sanctions were tremendously successful. No sane business leader would ever choose the basket-case economy of a Middle Eastern mullah state over that of the US. And when banks (namely, France’s BNP Paribas) were accused of violating the sanctions, the fines were so large that they sent shockwaves through global financial markets. It didn’t take long for the US to deploy similar methods of “connectivity warfare” against North Korea, Sudan, and even Russia.
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden once likened secondary sanctions to a “twenty-first-century precision-guided munition.” Because they are more of a scalpel than a sledgehammer, they were particularly attractive to Europeans, who recognized them as an effective alternative to war. Unlike the West’s sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s, they offered a way to punish regimes rather than entire populations.
Under President Barack Obama, targeted sanctions became America’s weapon of first resort. Together with the EU, the Obama administration sharpened and fine-tuned the punitive measures against Iran. This proved so effective that Iran eventually came to the negotiating table, where it agreed to limit its nuclear-enrichment activities under the JCPOA.
In Trump’s hands, however, the scalpel has become a sledgehammer. As one senior European policymaker put it to me, the Trump administration’s new sanctions are like cluster bombs, falling on friend and foe alike.
Since Trump scrapped the JCPOA, European leaders have been looking for ways to preserve some of the benefits for Iran, so that it will not restart its nuclear program. But the US has been making this difficult, by threatening individuals on European corporate boards, including the directors of SWIFT, with targeted sanctions.
Even more shocking, similar threats have reportedly been made against key European public officials. European leaders’ request to the European Investment Bank for its help in supporting the Iran nuclear deal doesn’t seem to have borne fruit, most likely owing to US threats against the EIB’s corporate interests and directors.
Moreover, there are even rumors of veiled US threats against central bankers, including the directors of the European Central Bank. For its part, the Bundesbank was considering opening an account to finance trade with Tehran, so that private German banks would not be forced to comply with the whims of an American president; but it dropped the idea fairly quickly and without much explanation. The Banque de France actually did create an account (through the French public investment bank, Bpifrance) to finance trade with Iran; but it, too, quickly reversed course.
At this point, one cannot rule out the alarming possibility that top European officials are being pressured to shirk international law out of fear of being imprisoned on their next trip to the US. Not surprisingly, Europeans are debating anew the appropriate use of sanctions.
Moreover, as the US financial system increasingly becomes an extension of Trump’s national-security policy, European policymakers have begun to lament the “tyranny” of the dollar. In a recent commentary in Handelsblatt, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas went so far as to call for the creation of an independent European payments system. It would seem that even the most staunchly Atlanticist EU member states are being driven to create an alternative to the dollar regime, even if that alternative is nowhere in sight yet.
In the near term, the question for Europeans is how to hold their own in a dollar-denominated world. The EU has already stood up to Trump’s protectionist attacks, by threatening counter-measures against US producers. Now, it must do the same in the financial sector. Threats to European institutions and personnel should be met with threats of proportionate counter-measures. That, unfortunately, is the only diplomatic language Trump seems to understand.

9/11 and Israel


Odigo logo
Israeli instant messaging company, Odigo, admitted that two of its employees received instant messages warning of an impeding attack 2 hours prior to the first plane hitting. This warning was NOT passed on to the authorities.

  • Odigo had a feature on its service that allowed the passing on of messages through a search feature based on nationality. Knowing these two particular Israelis were forewarned, it is possible - even likely - that they passed the message on to other Israelis. This is especially so considering that, out of the 4000 Israelis believed to have worked in and around the WTC and the Pentagon only FIVE died. 5/4000 Israelis. Statistically, with no forewarning about 10% (ie 400 of 4000) would have died; a toll as low as 200-300/4000 would not convincingly indicate foreknowledge. But only FIVE Israelis died and two of the five were aboard the allegedly hijacked flights; thus only three Israelis died in the WTC itself on 9/11 - An astonishing statistic!. NB - this applies to Israeli nationals, NOT American Jews. Many Jews died in the WTC on 9/11.
  • Odigo has offices in New York, and in Herzliya, Israel. Herzliya also happens to be the home of the Mossad Headquarters.
  • Odigo was later acquired by another Israeli company called Comverse. The CEO of Comverse was Kobi Alexander, "dual" Israeli-US citizen, with connections to Mossad. He has been charged on several counts of fraud.

There are about 30 separate reports of anomalous securities/derivatives dealings in currencies, precious metals, insurance companies and airlines, listed on the History Commons 9/11 Timeline, that indicate foreknowledge of the attacks.

  • On Sep 10, 2001, the Tokyo branch of Goldman Sachs warned its American employees to steer clear of American buildings.
  • ZIM, an Israeli company, vacated its office (10,000 square feet) in the North WTC tower a week before 9/11, breaking its lease. 49% of this company is owned by the Israeli government. The lease ran till the end of 2001, and it cost the company $50,000 to break it early. Later, FBI agent Michael Dick, who was investigating Israeli spying before and after 9/11 and looking into the suspicious move, was removed from his duties by the then head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, Michael Chertoff, another Jew and staunch supporter of Zionism.
According to a non-official cover (NOC) CIA source who worked closely with Dick, the 'Israeli movers' moved in explosives when ZIM moved out. With ZIM Israel bailing out just in time, this left one Israeli company, Clearforest with 19 employees, in the WTC on 9/11. Of the five employees in the building all managed to escape.


Mossad seal
In 2001, an elite US Army study center devised a plan for enforcing a major Israeli-Palestinian peace accord that would require about 20,000 well-armed troops stationed throughout Israel and a newly created Palestinian state. The report attempts to predict events in the first year of a peace-enforcement operation, and sees possible dangers for U.S. troops from both sides. Of the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, the US army officers say: "Wildcard. Ruthless and cunning. Has capability to target U.S. forces and make it look like a Palestinian/Arab act."
The amazing thing about this is that this story was reported in the Washington Post on September 10, 2001. 

Shortly before 9/11, over 140 Israelis had been arrested for suspected espionage. Some of them were posing as Art students. These suspects targeted or penetrated Military bases, DEA, FBI, Secret Service, ATF, U.S. Customs, IRS, INS, EPA, Interior Dept., U.S. Marshal’s Service, various US Attorneys Offices, Secret government offices Unlisted private homes of law enforcement/intelligence officers. Most of the suspects served in military intelligence, electronic surveillance intercept and or explosive ordinance units.
Dozens of Israelis were arrested in American malls kiosks selling toys, acting as a front for a spying operation.
60 detained suspects worked for the Israeli company AMDOCS which provides most directory assistance calls and most call records and billings services for the U.S. by virtue of its contracts with the 25 largest telephone companies in the U.S.
All alleged 9/11 hijackers had fake IDs. During a joint FBI-CIA operation against the alleged lead hijacker Mohammad Atta in Fort Lee, NJ in 2001, the operation was photographed by Israeli agents and thereby compromised. These Jews were arguably providing cover for the future patsy hijacker teams.

  • Video - Israel spies on the USA part 1 
  • Video - Israel spies on the USA part 2 
  • Video - Israel spies on the USA part 3 
  • Video - Israel spies on the USA part 4 

Following 9/11, over 60 Israelis were detained either under the Patriot anti-Terrorism Act or for immigration violations. Some of them were active Israeli military personnel. A number of them failed polygraph examinations when questioned for surveillance activities against the US Some of them were found to have been spying on Arabs.

Full article:  9-11/Israel did it/Dancing Israelis

3 of the 5 "Dancing Israelis" on Israeli TV
Of the 90 or so detained Israelis there was a group of five Israelis, now widely known as the "dancing Israelis", who were spotted in multiple locations filming, and celebrating the attacks.
The men were detained by NYPD. The police and FBI field agents became suspicious when they found maps of the city with certain places highlighted, box cutters (the same items that the hijackers allegedly used), $4,700 cash stuffed in a sock, and foreign passports. Police also told a New Jersey local paper, The Bergen Record, that bomb sniffing dogs were brought to the van and that they reacted as if they had smelled explosives. According to the Jewish Weekly Forward the FBI later determined that at least two of the Israelis were Mossad agents. 

According to ABC News 20/20, after these five Israelis were detained, the driver of the van - Sivan Kurzberg - told the officers: "We are Israeli. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are the problem."
They later appeared on an Israeli talk show and claimed that they were in NYC that morning "to document the event". Witnesses reported they had set cameras PRIOR to the first plane strike, and were seen congratulating one another afterward. The five jubilant Israelis were also seen photographing one another. The FBI seized and developed their photos, one of which shows Sivan Kurzberg flicking a cigarette lighter in front of the smoldering ruins in an apparently celebratory gesture.

  • Video - Five Dancing Israelis Arrested On 9/11 
  • Video - Cheering Israelis 1
  • Video - Cheering Israelis 2


Daily Mail: 'Mysterious Interstellar Asteroid'

Mysterious interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua could be a giant solar sail 'sent from another civilization to look for signs of life,' claim astronomers

  • Mysterious object Oumuamua arrived in our solar system in October 2017 
  • NASA spotted unexpected boost in speed and shift in trajectory as it passed through the inner solar system last year
  • Now one study claims it could actually be a solar sail sent by aliens 
  • By MARK PRIGG FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 


A mysterious asteroid called Oumuamua, the first interstellar object ever seen in the solar system, could be a gigantic alien solar sail send to look for signs of life, a new study has claimed. 
Astronomers from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) analyzed the strange cigar shape of the object, and an unexpected boost in speed and shift in trajectory as it passed through the inner solar system last year.  
They concluded that the strange asteroid 'might be a lightsail of artificial origin.'
Scroll down for video 
Astronomers from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics concluded that the strange asteroid 'might be a lightsail of artificial origin.'
Astronomers from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics concluded that the strange asteroid 'might be a lightsail of artificial origin.'

WHAT IS A LIGHTSAIL? 

Much like the wind pushing a sailboat through water, solar sails rely on sunlight to propel vehicles through space. 
The sail captures constantly streaming solar particles, called photons, with giant sails built from a lightweight material. 
Over time, the buildup of these particles provides enough thrust for a spacecraft to travel in space.

The study – 'Could Solar Radiation Pressure Explain 'Oumuamua's Peculiar Acceleration?', which recently appeared online – was conducted by Shmuel Bialy, a postdoctoral researcher at the CfA's Institute for Theory and Computation (ITC) and Professor Abraham Loeb, the director of the ITC, the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University, and the head chair of the Breakthrough Starshot Advisory Committee.  
The researchers say the strange acceleration could the the result of solar radiation pushing a giant solar sail.
They found a sail that was only a fraction of a millimeter thick (0.3-0.9 mm) would be sufficient for a sheet of solid material to survive the journey through the entire galaxy. 
Lightsails with similar dimensions have been designed and constructed by humans, including the Japanese-designed IKAROS project and the Starshot Initiative with which he is involved. 
 'Considering an artificial origin, one possibility is that ‘Oumuamua is a lightsail, floating in interstellar space as a debris from an advanced technological equipment,' they wrote
The JPL team has not yet worked out how to power the craft - and many of their ideas rely on technology that doesn't yet exist, such as this laser sail being developed by the Breakthrough project, which hopes to make to same trip to Alpha Centairi. 
The JPL team has not yet worked out how to power the craft - and many of their ideas rely on technology that doesn't yet exist, such as this laser sail being developed by the Breakthrough project, which hopes to make to same trip to Alpha Centairi. 
'Alternatively, a more exotic scenario is that ‘Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization,' they added.
Another option, which explains the lack of communication, a lack of any kind of signal could mean the giant object is actually an 'alien shipwreck'.
Professor Loeb previously wrote in Scientific American, 'Oumuamua could be the first known case of an artificial relic which floated into our Solar System from interstellar space.
'This opportunity establishes a potential foundation for a new frontier of space archaeology, namely the study of relics from past civilizations in space,'
'Finding evidence for space junk of artificial origin would provide an affirmative answer to the age-old question 'Are we alone?'. This would have a dramatic impact on our culture and add a new cosmic perspective to the significance of human activity.' 
This illustration shows ¿Oumuamua racing toward the outskirts of our solar system. As the complex rotation of the object makes it difficult to determine the exact shape, there are many models of what it could look like.
This illustration shows 'Oumuamua racing toward the outskirts of our solar system. As the complex rotation of the object makes it difficult to determine the exact shape, there are many models of what it could look like.
Loeb told Universe Today, 'Oumuamua could be an active piece of alien technology that came to explore our Solar System, the same way we hope to explore Alpha Centauri using Starshot and similar technologies' 
'The alternative is to imagine that `Oumuamua was on a reconnaissance mission. The reason I contemplate the reconnaissance possibility is that the assumption that `Oumumua followed a random orbit requires the production of ~10^{15} such objects per star in our galaxy. This abundance is up to a hundred million times more than expected from the Solar System, based on a calculation that we did back in 2009. A surprisingly high overabundance, unless `Oumuamua is a targeted probe on a reconnaissance mission and not a member of a random population of objects.'   
The cigar-shaped object, named 'Oumuamua, was spotted by the Haleakala observatory in Hawaii on October 19 last year.
A NASA reconstruction of the 'outgassing' of of ′Oumuamua. The cigar-shaped object was first spotted by the Haleakala observatory in Hawaii on October 19 last year. Now a new study claims it could be a solar sail from an alien civilization.
Its appearance and behaviour baffled scientists and led to speculation that it might even be an alien artefact - and now they have found it got a strange speed boost while passing through, which has helped identify it as a comet. 
Telescopes first spotted the mysterious red-tinged object last October as it zipped through the inner solar system. 
Since then, astronomers have flip-flopped between comet and asteroid for our first confirmed interstellar guest.
'Our high-precision measurements of ′Oumuamua's position revealed that there was something affecting its motion other than the gravitational forces of the Sun and planets,' said Marco Micheli of ESA's (European Space Agency) Space Situational Awareness Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre in Frascati, Italy, and lead author of a paper describing the team's findings.

WHAT IS 'OUMUAMUA AND WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT IT?

A cigar-shaped asteroid named 'Oumuamua sailed past Earth at 97,200mph (156,428km/h) in October.
It was first spotted by a telescope in Hawaii on 19 October, and was observed 34 separate times in the following week. 
It is named after the Hawaiian term for 'scout' or 'messenger' and passed the Earth at about 85 times the distance to the moon.
It was the first interstellar object seen in the solar system, and it baffled astronomers.
Initially, it was thought the object could be a comet. 
However, it displays none of the classic behaviour expected of comets, such as a dusty, water-ice particle tail.
The asteroid is up to one-quarter mile (400 meters) long and highly-elongated - perhaps 10 times as long as it is wide.
That aspect ratio is greater than that of any asteroid or asteroid observed in our solar system to date.
But the asteroid's slightly red hue — specifically pale pink — and varying brightness are remarkably similar to objects in our own solar system.
Around the size of the Gherkin skyscraper in London, some astronomers were convinced it was piloted by aliens due to the vast distance the object traveled without being destroyed – and the closeness of its journey past the Earth. 
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Alien hunters at SETI – the Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence based at Berkeley University, California said there was a possibility the rock was ‘an alien artefact’.
But scientists from Queen’s University Belfast took a good look at the object and said it appears to be an asteroid, or ‘planetesimal’ as originally thought. 
Researchers believe the cigar-shaped asteroid had a 'violent past', after looking at the light bouncing off its surface. 
They aren't exactly sure when the violent collision took place, but they believe the lonely asteroid's tumbling will continue for at least a billion years.

The speed boost was consistent with the behavior of a comet, said co-author Davide Farnocchia of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
'This additional subtle force on ′Oumuamua likely is caused by jets of gaseous material expelled from its surface,' said Farnocchia. 
'This same kind of outgassing affects the motion of many comets in our solar system.'
Comets normally eject large amounts of dust and gas when warmed by the Sun.  
Karen Meech, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii's Institute of Astronomy and co-author of the study, speculated that small dust grains, present on the surface of most comets, eroded away during ′Oumuamua's long journey through interstellar space.
'The more we study ′Oumuamua, the more exciting it gets,' Meech said. 
'I'm amazed at how much we have learned from a short, intense observing campaign. I can hardly wait for the next interstellar object!'
′Oumuamua, less than half a mile in length, now is farther away from our Sun than Jupiter and traveling away from the Sun at about 70,000 mph as it heads toward the outskirts of the solar system. 
In only another four years, it will pass Neptune's orbit on its way back into interstellar space.
Because ′Oumuamua is the first interstellar object ever observed in our solar system, researchers caution that it's difficult to draw general conclusions about this newly-discovered class of celestial bodies. 
However, observations point to the possibility that other star systems regularly eject small comet-like objects and there should be more of them drifting among the stars.
Future ground- and space-based surveys could detect more of these interstellar vagabonds, providing a larger sample for scientists to analyze.  

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