#1
Gosh, perhaps there's something about central banks centrally mispricing debt that benefits billionaires in our neo-feudal economy (it's not that capitalist!)
Catherine Austin Fitts is an American investment banker and former public official who served as managing director of Dillon, Read & Co. and as United States Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Housing during the Presidency of George H.W. Bush. She has widely written and commented on the subject of public spending and has alleged several large scale instances of government fraud.
#4
There are 12 Federal Reserve districts. Off the top of my head, the only places with riots and a federal reserve bank is Minneapolis & Nueva York with honorable mention to Atlanta and, maybe, Cleveland. Chicago is such a mess that they don't even count. Philly, too.
I haven't watched the video, so I'll have to see what Fitts says.
[IsraelTimes] $290 million weapons deal comes during Trump’s twilight days, even as successor Biden vows to pursue reset of relations with Riyadh to address human rights concerns.
Is that a lot for a country like Saudi Arabia? It seems like a lot.
The $290-million deal will include 3,000 GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb I (SDB I) munitions, containers, support equipment, spares and technical support, Reuters cited the Pentagon as having announced. Iranian Proxy Houthi butts puckering in 5...4...3..
The Trump administration notified Congress of the intended sale on Tuesday. It is unclear whether there is still appetite for such weapons deals after Democrats last month nearly blocked a major sale to the UAE that included 50 F-35s. Relations with Saudi Arabia are even more strained than US ties to the UAE, which also played a role in the devastating Yemen bombing campaign.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/31/2020 02:45 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia
[NRO via Yahoo] Non-profit humanitarian agency World Vision United States improperly transacted with the Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA) in 2014 with approval from the Obama administration, sending government funds to an organization that had been sanctioned over its ties to terrorism, according to a new report.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) recently released a report detailing the findings of an investigation his staff began in February 2019 into the relationship between World Vision and ISRA.
The probe found that World Vision was not aware that ISRA had been sanctioned by the U.S. since 2004 after funneling roughly $5 million to Maktab al-Khidamat, the predecessor to Al-Qaeda controlled by Osama Bid Laden. However, that ignorance was born from insufficient vetting practices, the report said.
"World Vision works to help people in need across the world, and that work is admirable," Grassley said in a statement. "Though it may not have known that ISRA was on the sanctions list or that it was listed because of its affiliation with terrorism, it should have. Ignorance can't suffice as an excuse. World Vision's changes in vetting practices are a good first step, and I look forward to its continued progress."
The investigation was sparked by a July 2018 National Review article in which Sam Westrop, the director of the Middle East Forum's Islamist Watch, detailed MEF's findings that the Obama administration had approved a "$200,000 grant of taxpayer money to ISRA."
Government officials specifically authorized the release of "at least $115,000" of this grant even after learning that it was a designated terror organization, Westrop wrote.
According to the Senate report, World Vision submitted a grant application to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to carry out its Blue Nile Recovery Program on January 21, 2014. The proposed program sought to provide food security, sanitation equipment, and health services to areas hard-hit by conflict in the Blue Nile region of Sudan
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/31/2020 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
#1
DITTO Same neighborhood shakedown used by criminals, you wouldn't want anything bad to happen to your shop would yez, so --- here will protect yez for like oh $---- a week. So Xero bought in as the old
familiar neighborhood organizer that he was. You know dis is a temp job I have, my boss sam will pay yez, so whats my cut ?
Posted by: One Eyed the Ruthless4917 ||
12/31/2020 6:11 Comments ||
Top||
[AlAhram] 'Pardoning the Blackwater contractors is an affront to justice and to the victims of the Nisour Square massacre and their families,' said the UN working group on the use of mercenaries in a statement.
US President Donald Trump ...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election... 's pardon of four American men convicted of killing Iraqi civilians while working as contractors in 2007 violated US obligations under international law, UN human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... experts said on Wednesday.
Nicholas Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder, while Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were convicted of voluntary and attempted manslaughter, over the incident in which US contractors opened fire in busy traffic in a Baghdad square and killed 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians.
The four contractors, who worked for the private security firm Blackwater owned by the brother of Trump's education secretary, were included in a wave of pre-Christmas pardons announced by the White House.
"Pardoning the Blackwater contractors is an affront to justice and to the victims of the Nisour Square massacre and their families," said Jelena Aparac, chair of the UN working group on the use of mercenaries, said in a statement. Perhaps Jelena needs sanctions and a ban on travel to the US
The Geneva Conventions oblige states to hold war criminals accountable for their crimes, even when they act as private security contractors, the UN experts said.
"These pardons violate US obligations under international law and more broadly undermine humanitarian law and human rights at a global level."
By allowing private security contractors to "operate with impunity in armed conflicts", states will be emboldened to circumvent their obligations under humanitarian law, they said.
The pardons were strongly criticised by many in the United States. General David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, respectively commander of US forces and US ambassador in Iraq at the time of the incident, called Trump's pardons "hugely damaging, an action that tells the world that Americans abroad can commit the most heinous crimes with impunity".
In a statement announcing the pardons, the White House said the move was "broadly supported by the public" and backed by a number of Republican politicians.
#1
Give the UN an eviction notice on the NYC property, and tell them you arranged a real estate swap for an international sinking atoll in the Pacific.
Posted by: One Eyed the Ruthless4917 ||
12/31/2020 6:15 Comments ||
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#2
Do they think President Trump gives one shit what those asshole diplomats think?
'International Law' seems to only be mentioned when advantageous to the New World Order folks.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/31/2020 10:19 Comments ||
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#8
Anyone who does is a traitor to our country. at this point, that's a long list, they'll have to go to the back of the line behind our homegrown "doimion picked"/elected officials/treasonous rats,Antifart/BLM terrorists, and assorted Karen Governors.
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/31/2020 12:07 Comments ||
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#10
Well said, #6 JohnQC.
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/31/2020 12:09 Comments ||
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#11
The UN seeing Trump leaving the WH is reasserting its claim to authority and power that is not recognized by these American people, at least 72 million of them, armed to the teeth.
[Rudaw] The United States has provided the Iraqi Army with 30 armored vehicles, the US embassy said on Wednesday, to "maintain the security" in Baghdad’s "international zone", more commonly known as the Green Zone.
"The United States is committed to helping the Iraqi army keep Iraq and Baghdad safe. To this end, the United States on Monday provided the Iraqi army with thirty armored vehicles to help secure the international zone," read the US embassy statement.
The vehicles were presented to the Special Command Division (SCD) at al-Asad Air Base in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, "and will be used by the Iraqi military in their patrols," the embassy said.
"This contribution is one part of a larger plan by the U.S. Military’s Office of Security Cooperation — Iraq to support the SCD in securing the heart of Baghdad".
The provision comes amid frequent rocket attacks targeting the Green Zone — home to the US embassy, other foreign diplomatic missions, and Iraqi government offices.
On December 20, eight rockets were fired at Baghdad’s Green Zone, injuring one Iraqi soldier and damaging the US embassy compound and civilian homes. No group has yet grabbed credit for the attack.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held Iran-backed militias responsible for "flagrantly and recklessly" targeting the US embassy, saying they must "cease their destabilizing actions."
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh condemned Pompeo’s remarks on Monday, saying that attacking diplomatic and residential premises is "unacceptable" and has always been rejected by Tehran.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/31/2020 01:50 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq
[Rudaw] Iraq has paid off a ’considerable part’ of its more than $6 billion energy debt to Tehran, Iranian energy minister Reza Ardakanian said on Tuesday.
Ardakanian was in Baghdad on Tuesday to hammer out differences over Iran’s export of natural gas, and Iraqi debt repayments to Iranian state energy companies that are either delayed or cannot be accessed due to US banking sanctions on Tehran.
"Despite the restrictions in this area, fortunately the Ministry of Electricity of Iraq and the state officials succeeded in paying a considerable part of the claims to Tavanir Company as well as parts of the claims of the National Gas Company," Ardakanian was quoted as saying by the semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency.
"A good agreement has been reached in this regard and this agreement is being prepared for signature so to speed up the process of withdrawing from financial funds to buy goods and services."
The meeting in Baghdad comes after Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... substantially slashed its natural gas export to Iraq, threatening to plunge part of the country into darkness. The spokesperson for Iraq’s electricity ministry said on Sunday that Iran had slashed its natural gas exports from 50 million cubic meters (mcm) a day to just three mcm — cutting the amount of electricity Iraq can produce by up to a third.
The two countries also agreed to allow Tehran to tap into the funds it has in Iraq in order to buy the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... vaccine.
Interesting. A previous report said an unnamed generous American had funded that purchase.
Iran is among the world’s worst-hit by the coronavirus pandemic, but its officials have said that sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States since 2018 are making acquisition of coronavirus vaccine doses difficult.
"Iran has substantial amount of funds abroad including in Iraq... with some considerations in mind, the health ministry could purchase the required dosage of the coronavirus vaccine from the European company and pay the costs from these funds."
Iran trialled a domestically produced vaccine on Tuesday, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported. Another Iran-produced vaccine will be approved for trials "in the very near future", health minister Saeed Namaki said.
Tuesday’s meeting also saw two projects for Iran to help rebuild Iraq’s electricity infrastructure finalised.
Iran has agreed to the immediate resumption of natural gas exports to Iraq, the Iraqi state’s al-Sabaah newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The newspaper reported Ardakanian as saying that gas supply had been cut "for technical reasons" — contradicting a National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) statement that said the reduction in the export of natural gas was because Baghdad had failed to pay off its debts.
"Iraq’s electricity ministry is in debt of more than five billion dollars," the NIGC said on Monday.
That’ll free up a lot lettuce for projects that have been scanted recently...
"Despite several contractual warnings, unfortunately ignored by the Iraqi side... this company has resorted to reducing the volume of gas exported."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/31/2020 01:43 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Rudaw] A Free Women’s Units Star (YJA Star) commander has said the unit has lost 112 fighters in 2020.
"In the past 11 months we have carried out 110 independent operations," Zozan Cewlik, leader of the YJA Star’s Central Command, said in an interview with the PKK-affiliated Firat News Agency (ANF) on Tuesday, adding that "316 fighters of the enemy were killed and 112 of our comrades were martyred."
YJA Star is a women’s wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), operating under the feminist philosophy of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The PKK is an gang struggling for the increased cultural and political rights of Kurds in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund... in the last four decades. It is regarded as a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies. Kurdish activists, politicians and journalists in Turkey are also targeted by Ankara for perceived links to the group.
Over half of the operations - 68 - were carried out in the Haftanin region in Duhok province, the commander added.
Turkey announces regular operations against PKK fighters in both Turkey and the Kurdistan Region. The Ottoman Turkish Ministry of Defense announced killing 10 PKK fighters in the Avashin-Basyan region of Duhok province on December 29.
On Wednesday, Turkey's defense minister Hulusi Akar said Turkey "neutralized 3,646 terrorists" this year, in both domestic operations and in the Kurdistan Region.
Turkey launched renewed Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in the Kurdistan Region and disputed territories in mid-June, dubbed Operation Claw-Eagle. Said to target Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) positions in the Kurdistan Region, eight civilians have been killed in the strikes. The ground operation, Claw-Tiger, concluded in September.
Ankara regularly carries out airstrikes and ground operations in the Kurdistan Region, against what it says are positions belonging to the PKK.
504 villages have been emptied by Ottoman Turkish and Iranian incursions into the Kurdistan Region since 1992, according to a report by the Kurdistan Parliament.
Both Erbil and Baghdad have repeatedly called on Ankara to halt its attacks and have demanded the PKK cease using Kurdistan Region and Iraqi territory to launch attacks on Turkey.
"2020 is the year in which the Kurdish people got to know the AKP. Regarding the politics of women and youth, their true colours were shown," added Cewlik.
Regarding their aims for 2021, Cewlik said the group will continue to pursue operations.
[Jpost] 176 rockets were launched from Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... , IDF yearly report finds
The Israel Air Force carried out 50 strikes against targets in Syria throughout 2020, the IDF revealed in its annual statistics report released on Thursday.
The latest attack that was attributed to Israel in Syria took place on Tuesday, in which one Syrian soldier died and three others were maimed.
Also on the Syrian front, the report revealed, two IED (improvised bomb) attacks were thwarted.
On the Lebanese border, the report mentioned, there were two attempts by Hezbollah to carry out attacks into Israel, and both were prevented by the IDF.
On the Gaza front, 176 rockets were launched by terrorist organizations toward Israel during 2020. Ninety of the rockets landed in open fields, and 80 were intercepted.
One terrorist tunnel along the Gaza border was exposed this year. The tunnel was dug by Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, and crossed into Israel. During that time, some 300 targets in Gaza were hit by the IAF.
Also, according to the report, there were some 1,500 rock hurling incidents in the West Bank during the past year. This is a small increase in comparison to 2019, during which 1,469 incidents were reported.
There were 31 cases of live-fire incidents in the West Bank during the year — 12 more than in 2019. Nine stabbing attacks were reported, three fewer than in 2019.
[AnNahar] Confusion arose among circles affiliated with Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... after the party’s al-Qard al-Hasan financial institution was hacked, despite the institution's assurance the hackers had no access to any of the internal data or account numbers of depositors, the Saudi Asharq el-Awsat reported on Wednesday.
A hacker group called "Spiderz" hacked into the cameras and servers of Hizbullah’s financial institution al-Qard al-Hasan, which the party says is a charity association.
The group collected and exposed a name list of borrowers, and published the links to the information on a special page on Twitter, attaching all details related to its customers.
Spiderz called on borrowers to refrain from paying their due installments for the benefit of the institution. It also urged depositors to withdraw their deposits. The hackers promised, via a video recording, to publish additional information later.
Al-Qard al-Hassan Association was established by Hizbullah in the 1980s. It was licensed by the Interior Ministry in 1987. It has 32 branches across Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... The hacking process created confusion among the association’s customers, given that their data was made public, said the daily.
The operation came a few months after the association launched an automated teller service in its branches in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the party's center of influence. This encouraged some to place financial deposits in the institution that is not subject to the Lebanese banking system.
The association downplayed the hack, saying the hackers failed to access any of the internal information. A spokesperson for the association said the hacking only affected the external network, explaining that the hack failed to reach the numbers of deposits, the value of loans, etc.
The data published to the public included lists of customers' names, account numbers and the type of currency in which they deal in. It also included a list of the most important customers, borrowers, loan amount, repayment rate, and personal information about customers.
The hacking operation also revealed the accounts of al-Qard al-Hassan Foundation in Jammal Trust Bank, which had been subjected to US sanctions in 2019 for providing financial services to Hizbullah, and was liquidated in Lebanon.
The information leaked included account numbers, government IDs and passport information, as well as registration forms, account statements and additional financial documents.
The leak also included details of bank accounts that the hacker group claims the organization owns in other Lebanese banks, including the Jammal Trust Bank, which was subjected to US sanctions last year for allegedly facilitating the financial activities of Hezbollah. The other banks listed could face US sanctions as well if the information is verified.
The hackers promised in the video to publish more information about the financial organization and other institutions affiliated with Hezbollah in the near future.
Sources told al-Akhbar that authorities believe that the attack was either carried out by foreign intelligence agencies or by local hackers with the help of former employees. As of Tuesday afternoon, the cyberattack was still ongoing and the organization is reportedly not the only Hezbollah-affiliated body being targeted, according to the news outlet.
We knew this kind of thing was happening, but it's nice to have the details.
[EpochTimes] At least $150,000 in U.S. taxpayer money went to an Islamic organization with ties to terrorism through a humanitarian organization from 2014 to 2015, a large amount of which was approved by the then-B.O. regime despite being informed the Islamic organization was a sanctioned entity, a Senate report shows.
On Dec. 23, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released a report of an investigation conducted by his staff into the relationship between World Vision, a non-profit humanitarian organization, and the Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA), an organization that has funded terrorist activities.
World Vision is a non-profit organization founded in 1950 to provide humanitarian aid to impoverished peoples in vulnerable areas across the world.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Same neighborhood shakedown used by criminals, you wouldn't want anything bad to happen to your shop would yez, so --- here will protect yez for like oh $---- a week. So Xero bought in old
familiar neighborhood organizer. You know dis is a temp job I have, my boss sam will pay yez, so whats my cut ?
Posted by: One Eyed the Ruthless4917 ||
12/31/2020 6:09 Comments ||
Top||
#2
ISRA was founded in the Sudan in the nineteen nineties. It supported Sheikh Azzam in Peshawar,Bin Laden in Khost, the Mujahideen in the Balkans, and has for decades been a known arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. That the State Department would support it makes sense.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat 
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
...
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
