statism watch

F. William Engdahl, Online Journal
October 10, 2008

What’s clear from the behavior of European financial markets over the past two weeks is that the dramatic stories of financial meltdown and panic are deliberately being used by certain influential factions in and outside the EU to shape the future face of global banking in the wake of the US subprime and asset-backed security (ABS) debacle.

The most interesting development in recent days has been the unified and strong position of the German chancellor, finance minister, Bundesbank and coalition government, all opposing an American-style EU Superfund bank bailout. Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson pursues his crony capitalism to the detriment of the nation and benefit of his cronies in the financial world. It’s an explosive cocktail that need not have been.

Stock market falls of 7 to 10 percent a day make for dramatic news headlines and serve to foster a broad sense of unease bordering on panic among ordinary citizens. The events of the last two weeks among EU banks since the dramatic state rescues of Hypo Real Estate, Dexia and Fortis banks, and the announcement by UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling of a radical shift in policy in dealing with troubled UK banks, have begun to reveal the outline of a distinctly different European response to what in effect is a crisis ‘Made in USA.’

There is serious ground to believe that US Goldman Sachs ex CEO Henry Paulson, as Treasury secretary, is not stupid. There is also serious ground to believe that he is actually moving according to a well-thought-out long-term strategy. Events as they are now unfolding in the EU tend to confirm that. As one senior European banker put it to me in private discussion, ‘There is an all-out war going on between the United States and the EU to define the future face of European banking.’

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Paul Joseph Watson, prisonplanet.com
October 10, 2008

Legendary investor Jim Rogers warned during a CNBC interview this morning that global central banks are creating the environment for an inflationary holocaust by their ceaseless overprinting of currency, a measure that isn’t even successful in stabilizing the stock market.

Rogers said that the only solution to the market crisis was to let failing banks and speculators go bankrupt and stop pumping endless amounts of liquidity into the system, labeling it outrageous that responsible investors and taxpayers are being made to bail out crooks on Wall Street.

“The way to solve this problem is to let people go bankrupt,” Rogers stressed, “All of this pumping money into the system is not going to save it – see what the market is saying, it’s saying we don’t buy that, let people go bankrupt,” he added.

“Then you will hit bottom and then you start over. The people who are sound will take over the assets from the people who aren’t sound and we will start over. This is the way the world has worked for a few thousand years,” said Rogers.

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CBC News
October 10, 2008

Finance officials from the G7 countries announced a series of measures Friday to try to slow the effects of a financial crisis that is crippling markets around the globe.

Finance ministers, as well as bank heads from the Group of Seven countries — the most powerful economic nations in the Western world — pledged to take “decisive action and use all available tools” to ease the crisis.

The group issued a five-point plan Friday evening after a meeting in Washington with U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.

“The G7 agrees today that the current situation calls for urgent and exceptional action,” read a statement issued at the end of the meeting. “We commit to continue working together to stabilize financial markets and restore the flow of credit, to support global economic growth.”

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CBC News
October 10, 2008

‘Market transaction’ will cost government nothing, Tory leader says

The federal government’s $25-billion takeover of bank-held mortgages to ease a growing credit crunch faced by the country’s financial institutions is not a bailout similar to recent moves made in the United States and other Western countries, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said Friday.

“This is not a bailout; this is a market transaction that will cost the government nothing,” he told reporters at a campaign rally in Brantford, Ont., ahead of Tuesday’s federal election.

“We are not going in and buying bad assets. What we’re doing is simply exchanging assets that we already hold the insurance on and the reason we’re doing this is to get out in front. The issue here is not protecting the banks.”

Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced the government’s plan to buy the securities through the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corp. and provide much-needed cash to financial institutions that sell the so-called “National Housing Act mortgage-backed securities.”

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CBC News
October 10, 2008

World stock markets plunged on Friday amid a massive sell-off of stocks and escalating fears about a global recession.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index tumbled 881.06 points, or 9.6 per cent, on Friday to 8,276.43, its lowest closing level since May 2003.

Kenji Akasaka, 69, president of a Tokyo printing company, told the Associated Press he had never seen it this bad in the 40 years he has traded stocks.

Akasaka said he invests mainly in blue chips that include Toyota Motor Corp. and Nintendo Co. Both have lost about half their value over the last year.

“I pray before I go to bed that the Dow will recover,” Akasaka said. “I get sleepless, thinking about losses.”

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Tim Naumetz, Canadian Press
October 10, 2008

OTTAWA–A tape recording at the centre of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s $3.5-million defamation suit against the Liberal party was not altered as the prime minister has claimed, a court-ordered analysis of the tape by Harper’s own audio expert has found.

The key portion of the recorded interview of Harper by a B.C. journalist contains no splices, edits or alterations, says the finding by a U.S. forensic audio expert.

The findings may call into question Harper’s testimony about the interview during a sworn cross-examination conducted by a Liberal party lawyer in August.

The analysis was filed in Ontario Superior Court on Friday by lawyers for the Liberal party, despite attempts by Harper’s lawyer to keep the opinion out of the court file until at least next week.

Harper sued the Liberals in the midst of a raging controversy earlier this year over claims in a book by B.C. author Tom Zytaruk that the Conservatives offered the late Independent MP Chuck Cadman a $1-million life insurance policy in return for help defeating the minority Liberal government in 2005.

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One wonders what certain elements of the CIA will have to say about this…

Paul Ames, Associated Press
Ocober 10, 2008

BUDAPEST, Hungary–NATO defence ministers have agreed to let their troops attack drug barons blamed for pumping up to US$100 million a year into the coffers of resurgent Taliban fighters.

“With regard to counter-narcotics … ISAF can act in concert with the Afghans against facilities and facilitators supporting the insurgency,” said NATO spokesperson James Appathurai, referring to NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.

The U.S. has pushed for NATO’s 50,000 troops to take on a counter-narcotics role to hit back at the Taliban, whose increasing attacks have cast doubt on the prospects of a western military victory in Afghanistan.

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David Hambling, Wired.com
October 10, 2008

After years of testing, the Active Denial System — the pain ray which drives off rioters with a microwave-like beam — could finally have its day. The Army is buying five of the truck-mounted systems for $25 million. But the energy weapon may face new hurdles, before it’s shipped off to the battlefield; a new report details how the supposedly non-lethal blaster could be turned into a flesh-frying killer.

The contract for the pain ray trucks is “expected to be awarded by year’s end,” Aviation Week notes. “A year after the contract is signed, the combination vehicle/weapons will start be fielded at the rate of one per month.”

It’s been a very long time coming. As we’ve previously reported, there have been calls to deploy the Active Denial System in Iraq going back to 2004. But it’s always been delayed for legal, political, and public relations reasons. Anything that might be condemned as torture is political dynamite. Interestingly, the version being bought is not the full-size “Version 2,” but a containerized system known as Silent Guardian, which Raytheon have been trying to sell for some time. They describe Silent Guardian as “roughly 1/3 the size and power of the other Active Denial Systems,” and quote it’s range as “greater than 250 meters.” The larger system has a range somewhere in excess of 700 meters.

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Bob Mitchell, Toronto Star
October 10, 2008

A 35-year-old Mississauga man has filed a $9 million lawsuit against Peel Police Chief Mike Metcalf, the Peel Police Services Board and dozens of officers, including four who are alleged to have beaten and Tasered him inside a police station interrogation room.

Patrick Quinn, an admitted career criminal, claims he was repeatedly kicked, punched and electronically shocked several times by a Taser on Jan.15 and 16 , 2008, because he refused to provide information about guns on the street.

The beatings resulted in several broken ribs, bruising and swelling around his ribs, eyes, jaws, chest and shoulder, as well as Taser burns to his back, arms and face, according to his lawyer David Shiller, who filed the lawsuit earlier this week in Toronto.

All allegations contained in the Statement of Claim must still be proven in court.

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Nick Kyonka, Toronto Star
October 10, 2008

RCMP adviser testifies in cross-examination he found ‘problematic assumptions’

OTTAWA–In previous court cases, security expert Tom Quiggin told a judge yesterday, he has testified against allowing bail for a suspected terrorist held in custody.

But after reading the government’s accusations against security certificate detainee Hassan Almrei, Quiggin instead felt he had to advocate for his release, a federal court heard yesterday.

“What Mr. Almrei is essentially being accused of and what he actually is … I see a whole series of disconnects between the two,” Quiggin told Justice Richard Mosley under cross-examination yesterday.

While not accusing him of Al Qaeda membership, the government alleges Almrei’s time as an Afghan fighter against Soviet occupation forces in the early ’90s has given him iconic status among jihadists.

They also say he has ties to terror organizations and is capable of securing fake travel documents.

In testimony Wednesday, Quiggin rebuffed these accusations, calling Almrei a “small fish” with no profile or enduring ties to militants.

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