Category Archives: European theater

Governments Hoarding Gold in Preparation for Global Collapse

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Countries are increasingly using gold for trade rather than dollars, euros or any other currency. Both India and China has recently been trading gold to Iran for oil and various moves away from the old system of trade have been observed world-wide.

Aside from the collapsing value of the dollar and Euro on reason countries are heading into gold is to avoid sanctions by the U.S. and Europe and have money on hand to by arms and supplies for military actions that the West might try to stop. India and China using gold for oil is also a stealth attack on the dollar, increasing both the value of gold and the pressure on the dollar.

Twelve other countries are noticeably increasing gold reserves in a move that is clearly a preparation for eventual global financial turmoil. From Mineweb.com:

According to the latest IMF statistics at least 12 countries are known to have increased their gold reserves in March indicating the continuation of a trend now going back more than two years, and one which has been on its own a substantial supporter of the higher gold prices seen over the period.  Overall Central Banks appear to have purchased no less than 58 tonnes in the month, which could suggest an acceleration in their increases in holdings if buying at this rate continues throughout the year.

While the majority of these countries only raised their reserves by a very small amount, there were indeed some quite significant purchases – notably from Mexico, which increased its holdings by 16.81 tonnes to a total of 122.58 tonnes; Russia with purchases of 16.55 tonnes giving it total reserves now of 895.75 tonnes; Turkey with 11.48 tonnes taking it to 209.6 tonnes in its reserves.  Argentina bought 7 tonnes taking its holdings to 61.74 tonnes, Kazakhstan with 4.3 tonnes – up to 96.16 tonnes and Ukraine with 1.18 tonnes bringing its holding to 29.21 tonnes.  A further half dozen countries raised their holdings by increments of less than a tonne.

This, of course, only shows the figures for those nations which are, one assumes, wholly transparent in reporting their gold holdings.  There have been some quite sharp ‘upwards adjustments’ in the past from some countries which have been less open in their reporting – notably China which is assumed by most observers to be building its gold reserves strongly over the three years since it last announced an upgrade in its holdings.

The continuing upwards trend in Central Bank purchasing is yet another indicator of unease in the sector about the prospects for those currencies – notably the dollar, the euro, the pound sterling and the Japanese yen – which provide the bulk of their monetary reserves.

European Parliament member Nigel Farage has just warned that the politicians there know Europe will collapse but are unable to figure out a way to tell the public:

There are going to be some serious banking collapses and the impact of that on some sovereign states, will be serious.  I’m afraid we’ve gotten to a point where we really can’t stop this now.  We’re beginning to reach a stage where however much false money you create, the problem becomes bigger than the people trying to solve it.  We are very close to that point.

When I talk about the threats and the risk that this thing could wind up in some kind of rebellion, some sort of awful social cataclysm, they (other European politicians) are now very worried indeed.  They will talk to you in private, but in public, nobody dares utter a word.

I think the deterioration, in the last two or three weeks, in the eurozone is very serious indeed.  It’s the bond spreads in Italy and Spain.  It’s the fact that youth unemployment is now over 50% in some of these Mediterranean countries.

It’s riot and disorder on the streets.  And yet a month ago I was here and there was Herman Van Rumpuy telling us, ‘We’ve turned the corner.  Everything is solved.  There are no more problems with the eurozone.’  What a pack of jokers they look like.”

So hoarding gold or other commodities is a good idea for any country and especially any citizen who realizes the government can’t take care of them.

WW III Watch: Russian “Anti-Terror” Troops Land in Syria

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Not of course to be confused drunken barbarians Russia sent into Georgia a few years ago specifically to spread terror. These Russian troops are anti-terror specialists which is convenient since Assad is saying he’s fighting terrorists.

Which is of course true since the insurgency is a Muslim Brotherhood/Al-Qaeda supported government overthrow. But Syria is a Baathist (National Socialist) dictatorship so either way the victor will be an enemy of the West. We should be staying out of this one and building up our forces for the inevitable world war that will start once the MB announces the formation of a new caliphate, but we’re apparently pursuing a policy that would require sending 300,000 troops in. Smart power!

From The Blotter:

A Russian military unit has arrived in Syria, according to Russian news reports, a development that a United Nations Security Council source told ABC News was “a bomb” certain to have serious repercussions.

Russia, one of President Bashar al-Assad’s strongest allies despite international condemnation of the government’s violent crackdown on the country’s uprising, has repeatedly blocked the United Nations Security Council’s attempts to halt the violence, accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to start another war.

Now the Russian Black Sea fleet’s Iman tanker has arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus on the Mediterranean Sea with an anti-terror squad from the Russian Marines aboard according to the Interfax news agency. The Assad government has insisted it is fighting a terrorist insurgency. The Russian news reports did not elaborate on the Russian troops’ mission in Syria or if they are expected to leave the port.

[…]

RIA Novosti, a news outlet with strong ties to the Kremlin, trumpeted the news in a banner headline that appeared only on its Arabic language website. The Russian embassy to the U.S. and to the U.N. had no comment, saying they have “no particular information on” the arrival of a Russian anti-terrorism squad to Syria.

Moscow has long enjoyed a cozy relationship with the Assad regime, to which it sells billions of dollars of weapons. In return Russia has maintained a Navy base at Tartus, which gives it access to the Mediterranean.

Last week Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia had no plans to send troops to Syria.

[…]

Russia’s Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov denied reports that Russian special forces were operating inside Syria. He did say, however, that there are Russian military and technical advisors in the country.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said the U.S. government had not heard of the reports of Russian troops in Syria and declined to comment.

This is an escalation of the situation in the middle east. With Obama firmly in the corner of the Brotherhood/Al-Qaeda take over of the region it will be a matter of time before the “revolutionaries” ask America for support against the increasingly belligerent and imperialistic Russians. Then all hell will break loose.

“Mystery Virus” Killing Thousands of Lambs in England and Europe

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I put mystery in quotes because they know exactly what the virus is and are pretty sure how it spreads so there really isn’t mystery here. But it’s more pressure on the global food supply we don’t need. England’s Muslim population relies heavily on lamb to stick to their halal diets – when the prices of those lambs double than triple the Brits are going to have a problem on their hands.

From The Telegraph:

The Schmallenberg virus causes lambs to be born dead or with serious deformities such as fused limbs and twisted necks, which mean they cannot survive.

Scientists are urgently trying to find out how the disease, which also affects cattle, spreads and how to fight it, as the number of farms affected increases by the day.

So far, 74 farms across southern and eastern England have been hit by the virus, which arrived in this country in January.

A thousand farms in Europe have reported cases since the first signs of the virus were seen in the German town of Schmallenberg last summer.

The National Farmers Union has called it a potential “catastrophe” and warned farmers to be vigilant. “This is a ticking time bomb,” said Alastair Mackintosh, of the NFU. “We don’t yet know the extent of the disease. We only find out the damage when sheep and cows give birth, and by then it’s too late.”

It is unclear exactly how the disease arrived in Britain, but the leading theory is that midges carried the virus across the Channel or North Sea in the autumn. However, scientists cannot yet rule out transmission of the disease from animal to animal.

Infected ewes do not show any symptoms of the virus until they give birth, with horrific results. Farmers have described delivering the deformed and stillborn animals as heartbreaking.

The lambing season has only just begun, which means that the full impact of the disease will not be felt until the weather warms up and millions more animals are born.

On the Continent, some farms have lost half of their lambs. So far the worst hit in Britain have lost 20 per cent, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Approximately 16 million lambs are born in Britain every year and sell at market for about £100 each. The effect of the disease on farms that are already struggling in the downturn could be severe.

“For any business to lose 20 per cent of your stock would be a huge blow,” said Mr Mackintosh. “For a farmer to lose 20 per cent of your flock is catastrophic. If it was 50 per cent you would be put out of action.

“I was talking to one who has 10,000 sheep. If he loses even five per cent of the animals born this year, that’s a hell of a lot of lambs. I know another who says 10 per cent of his ewes have become barren. He has 6,000 ewes, so that is 600 animals producing nothing.”

The Food Standards Agency has sought to allay any fears about eating lamb, although little is known about the virus so far.

That last sentence is problematic. If they aren’t sure how it spreads why are we sure the lambs are safe to eat?

In a related note the British government has admitted it’s totally out of money. When people start demanding free lambs the Brits are not going to be able to provide and then the London riots will look like tea time.

KGS Nightwatch Report on Growing Iranian Military Provocations

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This note comes from KGS in a recent edition of their excellent Nightwatch report:

Iran-Egypt-US: A US Defense Department spokesman said the US has no indications that the Iranian naval ships which transited the Suez Canal with Egyptian permission ever reached a Syrian port this past weekend. Two Iranian frigates with a support ship supposedly transited the Suez Canal en route the Syrian port of Tartus, to join Russian ships there. Iranian media bragged about the out of area deployment.   Comment: The Iranian media claim the ships reached the Syrian port of Tartus, but the US says they did not. Neither side apparently is willing to divulge to open source news services the present location of the ships.   The US spokesman said there was nothing particularly noteworthy about the latest deployment of the warships. That statement is not accurate because the Iranians showed they are prepared to use military power, such as it is, in support of their allies. That is not a trivial demonstration of intent.   The navy’s execution seems to have fallen short, but the leadership’s intention is clear, which is backed up by the decision to cut crude exports to France and the UK. Iranian threats look serious, never mind that they also are potentially suicidal.   Iran is struggling to protect its interests simultaneously on two fronts – in Syria and against the international community. Iran seems comfortable confronting the international community, but is struggling to support effectively its proxy in Damascus.   The attempted deployment of naval ships to Syria measures the importance Iran attaches to the survival of the al Asad government. Cutting oil to the UK and France, by comparison, appears to have been a much less burdensome executive decision. Syria represents Iran’s greatest strategic vulnerability. The banking sanctions on dollar-delimited transactions are a close second and the oil export embargo is a distant third.   Iran-Europe: Iranian National Oil Company head Ahmad Qalehbani said on 20 February that Iran could cut crude exports to other European Union nations, in addition to France and the United Kingdom, if the member states continue to take hostile action against Iran.      Comment: Iran is playing hard ball. A cut in Iranian oil exports to Greece, for example, would undermine the austerity measures enacted by the Greek government as a condition for the European bailout. Greece could become insolvent even with the European bailout.

The report goes on to highlight China’s tepid support of sanctions. China and Russia can both be counted on, in my humble opinion, to side with the Iranian allied communist and Islamist countries if a larger war breaks out. These allies include Syria, Venezuela, Bolivia, Zimabawe, North Korea and other states which are Chinese and Russian clients. Many African communist countries were the beneficiaries of Chines and Cuban “advisers” in the 70s so I expect Chavez is willing to do take up that cause. Reports of Venezuelan allied FARC fighters aiding the regime in Libya bolster that opinion.

A war in Iran, which is inevitable, could drag the entire world into a world war.

London Based Oil Executive Linked to 9/11 Hijackers

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From The Telegraph:

Abdulaziz al-Hijji and his wife Anoud left three cars at their luxurious home in a gated community in Sarasota, Florida — one of them new — and flew to Saudi Arabia in August 2001. The refrigerator was full of food; furniture and clothing were left behind; and the swimming pool water was still circulating.

Security records of cars passing through a checkpoint at the Prestancia gated community indicated that Mr al-Hijji’s home, 4224 Escondito Circle, had been visited a number of times by Mohamed Atta, the leader of the

19-strong hijack team, who piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre in 2001.

The logs also indicated that Marwan Al-Shehhi, who crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower, and Ziad Jarrah, who was at the controls of United Airlines Flight 93 when it crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, had visited the house.

All three men had trained to fly at Venice Airport, which is 19 miles from Sarasota.

[…]

In email correspondence with the Telegraph, Mr al-Hijji strongly denied any involvement in the plot, writing: “I have neither relation nor association with any of those bad people/criminals and the awful crime they did. 9/11 is a crime against the USA and all humankind and I’m very saddened and oppressed by these false allegations.

“I love the USA. My kids were born there, I went to college and university there, I spent a good portion of my life there and I love it.”

Mr al-Hijji’s account is supported by the FBI, which has stated: “At no time did the FBI develop evidence that connected the family members to any of the 9/11 hijackers … and there was no connection found to the 9/11 plot.’’

Bob Graham, a former US senator who, in addition to co-chairing the congressional inquiry into 9/11, was chairman of the US senate intelligence committee at the time, disputes the FBI denials. He has long believed that there was Saudi support for the 19 terrorists, 15 of whom were subjects of the kingdom. He cites two secret documents to which he has recently had access.

The first document, Graham says, is “not consistent with the public statements of the FBI that there was no connection between the 9/11 hijackers and the Saudis at the Sarasota home. Both documents indicate that the investigation was not the robust inquiry claimed by the FBI.”

It should be remembered that much of the FBI malfeasance in the 90s regarding terror investigations was due to the influence of Jamie Gorelick, who went on to help destroy our economy in Fannie Mae. I’m not a fan of Wikipedia but here’s a decent summary of her less than stellar career.

Since Al-Qaeda has been shown to work with Iranian operatives and Iran is now angry at England the Brits may want to keep an eye on al-hijji