2012 Election Predictions

Roughly two years ago I started tracking the public positions, admissions and reported flops of various candidates in an attempt to provide some visibility into the usually sordid and murky political machine. While its success can be debated (It was hot linked on the Huffington Post and it seems to have anticipated Romney's lackluster support if one considers that I gave him a 50% chance of winning, exactly where he is polling now), it did not achieve the result that I anticipated that it would.

An individual such as myself who relies not only on faith, but a fairly rigorous intellect to cut through the jingoistic garbage that has led so many voters down the deceptive road, reasoned that it would only take a revealing of the positions of the major politicians to effectively expose them as fraudsters and sway a significant majority towards a position of liberty and economic freedom.

While the 'Liberty' movement achieved some amazing goals and almost reached critical mass, what was even more amazing was the absolute cognitive dissonance displayed by many individuals. During the election cycle, the right adopted the ideology, if not the mantra -

Anyone but Ron Paul.

As the cycle progressed and every candidate was tried and ultimately rejected, the reasoning boiled down to this axiom:

Romney not good, Obama worse - Vote Romney

Of course we now know this doctrine as  -

Anyone but Obama.

This does absolutely nothing to address our proactive concerns - 'What are we for?', not 'What are we against?', let alone deal with the relevant observations that other countries have survived significantly longer with dedicated socialists and fascists helming the country. What the right seemed to be arguing is that Obama = the death of liberty.

Years of social studies classes came flooding back in which candidates were trotted out before the masses who then legitimatized their servitude by voting for one of the oppressors. Back then, I reasoned that the masses in these countries must have been unaware of the disastrous futures they were creating for themselves and their progeny. 'You must sacrifice now if you want prosperity later!' was my cry despite their collective embrace of stockholm syndrome.It wasn't until years later that a quote would shed some light on this -

In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.
- Notebook, 1904 ~ Mark Twain

Anyways, I digress. On to the predictions -

I believe that Romney will win.

•  The results will be close. I'm guessing a 51.5% to 48.5% popular vote for Romney.
• Democrats are currently over represented in polls
• Turnout will be low, very low in general. 
• Moderate among Republicans, low among Democrats.
• There will be allegations of cheating by the Democrats 
• Democrats will cheat as well.
• At least one state will have major irregularities. (As many as 3)
• This will result in medium scale riots (at least 3)

After the election...
Whereas Obama was a puppet in a suit, Romney is a bankster through and through. He's here to oversee the receivership of the United States into the global financial order and everything he does will emulate his time at Bain, asset strip the entity while simultaneously claiming the opposite. This will be achieved politically by blaming Democrats and achieved financially through austerity and war.

• Romney will waste little time in setting up a statist unification platform laced with religious overtones. Perhaps something like 'Believe in America again.' (Update 11/5: "Believe In America" is in fact the campaign's slogan since April 2011. I don't recall hearing it, but I must have heard it somewhere and internalized it into a prediction. We'll leave this one off.)
• Romney will quickly take up the power of the state to fix the world. (Come to Israel's aid) This will play huge with the Religious Right.
• Christians will begin to bristle that a Mormon is telling them what to do. (Don't we have a 1st Amendment?!)
• The Republicans will quickly adopt the mantra that 'The other side messed up the economy!' (Democrats have been pinning this on Bush and now Republicans will now policy-wise return the favor.)
• I think Obamacare will be repealed but the focus will shift to replacement immediately. (Perhaps some sort of 'augmentation' to Obamacare to fix it.

Syria - CIA Arming Terrorists to Stage Yet Another Coup

• Rebels are slaughtering civilians
• Houla massacre
• West providing training and arms to the Free Syrian Army and Muslim Brotherhood
• Libya staging grounds
• Terrorists emanating out of Libya’s eastern Cyrenaica region – most notably Benghazi
• “Libyan Islamic Fighting Group” (LIFG) officially merged with Al Qaeda in 2007, its commanders including Abdul Hakim Belhaj and Mahdi al-Harati 
•  British Special Forces are training Syrian rebels
• British MI6 operatives and UKSF (SAS/SBS) personnel have reportedly been training the rebels in urban warfare as well as supplying them with arms and equipment.
• US CIA operatives and special forces are believed to be providing communications assistance to the rebels.
• Arms provided by proxy states Qatar and Saudi Arabia to Turkey into Syria
• 'Saudi weapons' seen at Syria rebel base in an Aleppo mosque
• Multiple shipments include Kalashnikov assault rifles, BKC machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank weaponry

Note: This is a resource and will be updated as needed.

Syria 'Bombs' Turkish Village, Turkey Declares 'Almost War'

In response to a 'Syrian' shelling of Turkey, Syria is the sole rational voice thus far -

 Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said that relevant authorities in Syria are investigating the source of the Wednesday mortar fire on a border town in Turkey.

Zoubi offered his sincerest condolences on behalf of the Syrian government to the family of those killed in the incident and the Turkish people.

"In case of border incidents that occur between any two neighboring countries, countries and governments must act wisely, rationally and responsibly, particularly since there's a special condition on the Syrian-Turkish borders in terms of the presence of undisciplined terrorist groups spread across the borders who have varying agendas and identities," the Minister told the Syrian TV, affirming that these groups constitute a threat to Syria's security and regional security.

The minister stressed that the Syrian-Turkish borders are long and are being used to smuggle weapons, equipment and terrorists into Syria where they committed massacres, the latest such massacre being the one committed by Al Qaeda in Aleppo.

A reasonable person at this point would be howling at the Turks right now 'What do you expect? You let these terrorists cross into our country through your borders! Of course they're bombing people. They're ter-or-ists!'

Of course Turkey wastes little time in declaring war not war on Syria -

The Turkish parliament on Thursday approved a government proposal to use military force against Syria “when necessary” in response to Wednesday’s cross-border bombardment that killed five civilians.

In an emergency meeting of parliament convened on Thursday morning, the Grand National Assembly voted 320-129 in favor of a bill calling for “a one-year-long permission to make the necessary arrangements for sending the Turkish Armed Forces” into Syria in light of the “negative impact of the ongoing crisis in Syria on our national security, as well as on regional stability and security.”

Of course long-time readers know that this is what NATO has wanted all along.

Iran - Current Military Actions

The Christian Science Monitor was kind enough to put together a list of all of the Imminent Iran Threat statements since 1979.

Here is a brief and expanding history of the recent U.S./Iranian conflict.

•  Oct 4, 2012 - “Turkey’s Parliament approved a motion Thursday that authorizes further military action against Syria,” the New York Times reports. The attack and Turkey’s response will be used by the United States and NATO to impose a no-fly zone over Syria similar to the one established in Libya. Mainstream media reports riot in the streets of Iran because of a crumbling economy. Hundreds of police disbursed groups that formed, firing tear gas into the crowds.
• Oct 2012 - The Rial, Iran's currency, crashes massively due to economic sanctions imposed by the West.
• Sep 22, 2012 - Iran accused Germany's Siemens of implanting tiny explosives inside equipment the Islamic Republic purchased for its disputed nuclear program.
• Sept 2012 - Turkey begins efforts to support the FSA and allow it to conduct military operations from its territory.
• Aug 17, 2012 - Fordo underground enrichment facility power lines were blown up through sabotage.
• June 19, 2012 - The Flame virus is reported to be a precursor to the Stuxnet virus and created by the US/Israel to use against Iranian cyber security.
• May 2012 - A massacre in Houla, Syria,  was the work of the FSA, according to eye witnesses.
• Feb 23, 2012 -16 US intelligence agencies, indicates that Iran is conducting research that could eventually enable it to develop a nuclear weapon, but that it has not sought to do so.
• Feb 21, 2012 - Iran’s Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base started the four-day exercises codenamed Tharallah on Monday within an area of 190,000 square kilometers in southern Iran, with the key objective of boosting the country’s air defense near the Persian Gulf and the nation’s Bushehr nuclear power plant.
• Feb 21, 2012 - The IAEA declared its latest inspection visit to Iran a failure, with the regime blocking access to a key site suspected of hosting covert nuclear weapon research.
• Feb 20, 2012 - Iran stopped selling crude to British and French companies.
• Feb 19, 2012 - US military officials confirmed Saturday that US drones are flying over Syria.
• Feb 19, 2012 - Syrian forces captured 40 Turkish intelligence operatives working with the “opposition” inside Syria who confessed to working with the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad to train the US-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA)
• Feb 19, 2012 - An Iranian destroyer and an escorting supply ship docked at the Syrian port of Tartus.
• Feb 19, 2012 - Two Republican US Senators, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, called for arming Syrian “rebels”.
• Feb 19, 2012 - The Egyptian government withdrew its ambassador to Syria.
• Feb 14, 2012 - The US aircraft carrier, USS Lincoln, transitions out of the Persian Gulf while being shadowed by Iranian ships as well as an Iranian drone and surveillance helicopter.
• Feb 13, 2012 - Twin attempts to bomb people affiliated with the Israeli embassies in New Delhi and Tbilisi, Georgia. Israeli blames Iran and cites no evidence.
• Feb 11, 2012 - Brigadier General Issa al-Khouli is assassinated in Syria.
• Feb 9, 2012 - Tanks are sighted in Homs, Syria.
• Feb 9, 2012 - The Independent newspaper based in London, cited “evidence” claiming that Syrian President Assad’s security forces have indiscriminately killed scores of newborn babies in Homs this week.
• Feb 9, 2012 - Attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by MEK, MKO and PMI, Iranian dissident groups that are financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service reports US officials.MEK claims it has killed 40,000 Iranians who support the government. The CIA has trained the group at a little-known base in Nevada.
• Feb 9, 2012 - Rebel forces report the Syrian army had transferred a significant quantity of grenades and mortars containing chemical agents to a school building in Homs.
• Feb 8, 2012 - Iran is preparing to dispatch 15,000 troops to assist the Syrians.
• Feb 8, 2012 - British and Qatari special operations units are operating with rebel forces under cover in the Syrian city of Homs just 162 kilometers from Damascus
• Feb 7, 2012 - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would visit Damascus with Russian Foreign Intelligence Service chief Mikhail Fradkov.
• Feb 6, 2012 - An Arab League report points the blame on the Feb 3rd Syrian 'massacre' to armed gangs in Syria.
• Feb, 2012 - Mossad chief Tamir Pardo made a secret visit to officials in the United States.
• Feb 6, 2012 -The US withdraws its Syrian ambassador and shutters its embassy.
• Feb 6, 2012 -US funded Tunisian president prepares to withdraw support of Syrian government
• Feb 5, 2012 - Obama invokes the NDAA, thereby unilaterally declaring war on Iran.
• Feb 5, 2012 -A diplomat based in Islamabad said on Sunday that an Israeli attack on Iran would force Pakistan to support a Iranian response, according to the Israeli website Ynetnews.com
• Feb 4, 2012 - Russians put Rapid Reaction Force (aka Spetsnaz) units in Black Sea bases on the ready to set out for Syria and defend Damascus.
• Feb 4, 2012 - Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council move against Syria
• Feb 3, 2012 - Reports emerge that Syrian troops had shelled  the Homs district of Khaldiyeh, killing an estimated 350 people there and injuring some 1,500.
• Feb 3, 2012 - Israeli facilities in North America -- and around the world -- are on high alert, according to an internal security document obtained by ABC News that predicted the threat from Iran against Jewish targets will increase. 
• Feb 3, 2012 - Khamenei..promised that human history is on the verge of a great event and that soon the world will realize the power of Allah.
• Jan 27, 2012 - Iran to pass law halting sales of oil to Europe.
• Jan 24, 2012 - India is the first buyer of Iranian oil to agree to pay for its purchases in gold instead of the US dollar. China is expected to follow suit.
• Jan 23, 2012 - The USS Enterprise is heading to the Persian Gulf region in a direct message to Tehran.
• Jan 23, 2012 - A 43-year-old Iranian military officer, Raze Ali Fimani, was killed when motorcyclists reportedly fired shots at a group of soldiers who were headed to an air force base.
• Jan 23, 2012 - A senior Iranian official said Iran would “definitely” close the Strait of Hormuz if an EU oil embargo disrupted the export of crude oil. (Notice the "if" part of the statement. Iran is basically saying 'Attack us financially and we will respond militarily')
• Jan 23, 2012 - The EU has agreed to freeze the assets of the Iranian central bank and ban all trade in gold and other precious metals with the Iranian Central Bank and other public bodies in Iran.
• Jan 22, 2012 - The USS Abraham Lincoln passed through the Strait of Hormuz and entered the Gulf without incident. In addition, the HMS Argyll, a Type 23 frigate from the Royal Navy, a guided missile cruiser and two destroyers from the US Navy completed the flotilla, along with one warship from the French navy.
• Jan 20, 2012 - The Pentagon admits that a new US commando team is operating near Iran.
• Jan 20, 2012 - The Obama administration is considering closing the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria.
• Jan 19, 2012 -Large armor movements are witnessed in Santa Cruz.
• Jan 18, 2012 - The US aircraft carrier, USS Lincoln, arrives in the Gulf, bringing the total to 3.
• Jan 16, 2012 - Gen. Barry McCaffrey presented a seminar to roughly 20 NBC executives and producers — including NBC News President Steve Capus — entitled “Iran, Nukes & Oil: The Gulf Confrontation.”
• Jan 13, 2012 - Russia has claimed that NATO is preparing to impose a no-fly zone in Syria to protect rebel fighters.
• Jan 12, 2012 - A senior U.S. official said that the latest round of American sanctions are aimed at shutting down Iran’s central bank.
• Jan 12, 2012 - IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz testified in closed session to the Israeli Knesset’s foreign affairs and defense committee that Israel was engaged in sabotaging Iran’s nuclear program through a series of “unnatural” acts
• Jan 12, 2012 - A massive buildup of forces in the area.
• The aircraft carriers USS Abraham Lincoln and CVN 70 Carl Vinson which has arrived by way of Hong Kong are joining the area.
• 9,000 US troops including airmen, missile interceptor teams, marines, technicians and intelligence officers are scheduled to land in Israel in the coming weeks.
• Jan 11, 2012 - Iranian nuclear scientist Prof. Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, deputy director of the first uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, was killed after a magnetic bomb was attached to the side of his car by two men on a motorcycle. (Israeli sources close to Jewish writer Richard Silverstein point to Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) and the Mossad.)
• Jan 10, 2012 - The IAEA- Iranian officials earlier said the Fordo plant, deep inside the mountains near the central Iranian city of Qom, was built to produce 20-percent uranium needed for a research reactor in Tehran, which produces medical isotopes to treat cancer patients. 
• Jan 9, 2012 -  Iran says it will no longer accept the U.S. dollar as payment for its oil shipments to India, Japan and China.
• Jan 9, 2012 - Iran has begun 20% uranium enrichment at a new underground site built to withstand possible airstrikes
• Jan 9, 2012 - Iran has sentenced alleged CIA spy, 28 year old Amir Hekmati, to death. 
• Jan 9, 2012 - The Russian carrier Admiral Kuznetsov anchored at Syria’s Tartus port along with the destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and frigate Yaroslav Mudry.
• Dawoud Rajha was received on the deck by a guard of honor of marines under a flyover of Russian Su-33 and Su-25 fighter-bombers
• Jan 9, 2012 - France consigned an air defense destroyer Forbin to the waters off Tartus”
• Jan 8, 2012 - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says is not yet building a bomb and called for continued diplomatic and economic pressure to persuade Tehran not to take that step.
• Jan 8, 2012 - RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV, took off from the USS Stennis aircraft carrier for for a Broad Aerial Maritime Surveillance Mission (BAMS) over the coasts of Iran.
• Jan 8, 2012 - Ali Ashraf Nouri, a senior commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, told Khorasan daily on Sunday that the Iranian government has decided to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf if the country’s oil exports are blocked.
• Jan 8, 2012 - Philip Hammond, the UK's Defence Secretary, warned the regime in Tehran that Britain will not tolerate the ‘very significant consequences’ if it fulfils a threat to block the Strait of Hormuz.
• The HMS Daring is a Type 45 destroyer that has the world’s most sophisticated naval radar is sent to the Gulf.
• French Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier is dispatched to the area as well.
• Jan 7, 2012 - Iran launches security exercises on Afghanistan border. Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Revolutionary Guards' ground forces, said the "Martyrs of Unity" exercises near Khvat, 60 km (40 miles) from Afghanistan, were "aimed at boosting security along the Iranian borders," Fars reported.
• Jan 6, 2012 - Forces with the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier strike group, the target of Tehran's threat, rescued 13 Iranian fishermen from Somali pirates days after passing through the Strait.
• Jan 6, 2012 - Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, naval commander for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps announces wargames, The Great Prophet, to coincide with the joint US/Israeli Austere Challenge 12 in February.
• Jan 5, 2012 - Iran via Turkey, announces its willingness to negotiate with the U.S.
• Jan 3, 2012 - Iran threatened to take action if the US aircraft carrier USS Stennis which "moved to the Sea of Oman because of our drill returns to the Persian Gulf." Army chief Lt. Gen. Ataolla Salehi said:" Iran will not repeat this warning."
• The USS Bataan and USS Makin Island are also in the Sea of Oman
• Jan 2, 2012 - The Rial was widely reported to be trading down 12% in the black market from Saturday's rate, and Mehr news service reported that housing prices had tumbled 20% during the last few weeks. 
• Jan 2, 2012 - Last days of the 10 day Iranian drills.
• Iran tested its Qader missile, a long-range sea-to-shore missile, and the surface-to-surface Nour missile.  
• Dec 31, 2011 - Obama signs the NDAA into law. It contains sanctions against Iran's oil sales by companies that trade in Iran. (An act of economic and therefore actual war)
• Dec 28, 2011 - The USS Stennis transited the Strait of Hormus and entered the Sea of Oman where Iran was staging a naval drill.
• Dec 24, 2011 - Iran launches 10 day military drills.
• Dec 22, 2011 - Iran announces military drills to be held in the Persian Gulf.
• Dec 21, 2011 - A U.S. missile hit an oil depot in the southwest village of Abadan.
• Two rockets reportedly hit the village of Manyuhi near the border of Iraq’s al-Faw Peninsula near the Persian Gulf and the Iraqi city of Basra.
• “In the border city of Arvand-Kenar, the invading American and British airplanes violated the airspace of the Islamic Republic of Iran three times,” a commander told the Islamic Republic News Agency.
• Dec 19, 2011 - Former CIA and current DOD  head Leon Panetta announces that Iran will have a nuclear weapon within a year and the U.S. will not rule out a military attack.
• Dec 13, 2011 - Iran is reported to have closed the Gulf, oil spikes and the report is soon retracted.
• Dec 12, 2011- Iran unveils footage of the captured US drone. Barrack Obama demands the drone's return, Iran subsequently declares the drone Iran's property.
• Iran said its new Abadan refinery will raise its daily output of high-octane gasoline by almost 12,600 barrels by January 20, 2012.  (The same location is hit by a missile 9 days later)
• Dec 11, 2011 - Blast hits Iranian steel plant in Yazd, killing 7 wounding 12
• Dec 5, 2011 - Iran moves to a war footing.
• Dec 4, 2011 - Failed US UAV drone (RQ-170 Sentinel) overflight, which which is shot down over 140 miles into Iranian territory.  (Of course the US denies it, they deny that they had advanced warning of the bombings on Pearl Harbor until historical truth bites them in the rear end. Also of particular note is the US attacks on Pakistan troops just a few days earlier.) 
• NATO command in Afghanistan released a terse statement Sunday: "The UAV to which the Iranians are referring may be a US unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week. The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status."
• Dec 2, 2011 - Europe prepares oil import embargoes against Iran. 
• Dec 1, 2011 - The US Senate unanimously passes sanctions against Iran.
• Nov 30, 2011 - UK, Germany, Italy and France all recall their ambassadors from Iran.
• Nov 29, 2011 - Protesters attack the UK embassy in Tehran, Eight UK embassy staff taken hostage.
• Nov 28, 2011 - Explosion in an Iranian nuclear facility in Isfahan.
• Multiple eyewitness accounts of the Israeli military moving large missiles into position outside of Jerusalem and in the West Bank
• Nov 28, 2011 - Libya’s transitional ruling authority has agreed to send weapons and fighters over to Syria to help the Free Syrian Army fight government forces. Many of these were the same al-Quaeda fighters from Libya.
• Late Nov - British Special forces have met up with members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the armed wing of the Syrian National Council. The apparent goal of this initial contact was to establish the rebel forces' strength and to pave the way for any future training operations.
• Nov 24, 2011- Iran's intelligence ministry had arrested 12 CIA "spies." The alleged spies were trying to cripple Iran in the nuclear, military and security areas.
• Nov 21, 2011- US names Iran as an area of "primary money laundering concern", a step designed to dissuade non-U.S. banks from dealing with it 
• Nov 12, 2011 - Explosion at an Malard Iranian military base outside Tehran that killed about 30 members of the Revolutionary Guard, including General Hassan Moghaddam, the head of the Iranian missile defense program. (Note - Missile defense, not offense.) It is believed that Israeli Intelligence is responsible. L.A. Times adds the U.S. as the culprit. 
• Nov 8, 2011- IAEA report - Based on documents found on a laptop by MEK and Israel in 2004. The documents stop in 2003.

• Oct 18, 2011 -  UK's decision to freeze $1.6bn of Iranian assets 
• Oct 11, 2011- Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington. (A used-car salesman attempted to recruit a Mexican drug cartel to carry out the hit. The man representing himself as a cartel operative turned out to be a paid informant of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).)
• Aug 10, 2011- US attempts to blame Iran for 2 downed Navy Seal helicopters. (No evidence)
• July 2010 - It is believed that the M Star Japanese oil tanker carrying oil from Saudi Arabia was damaged by Revolutionary Guards speedboat from the island of Abu Musa by firing a single missile in the northern outlet of Hormuz.
• June 2011 - The former speaker of the US House of Representatives Newt Gingrich said that the US should "sabotage" Iran's oil and gas infrastructure as part of its efforts to bring down the government.
• Summer, 2010 - Stuxnet virus deployed to attack the Iranian Natanz facility.
• January 2010 - Assassination of Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, killed by a bomb outside his Tehran home.
• June 13, 2009 - Green revolution begins with seeming support of  Mir-Hossein Mousavi #iranelection hastag was suddenly trending on twitter
• 2009 - The CIA dispatched a stealth surveillance drone into the skies over Iran. The RQ-170 Sentinel penetrated more than 600 miles inside the country, captured images of Iran’s secret nuclear facility at Qom and then flew home.
• July 7, 2008 - A story by journalist Seymour Hersh appearing in the July 7, 2008 issue of The New Yorker reported U.S. covert action plans against Iran involved extensive activity by the CIA, DIA and Special Forces.
• 2008 - Congress funds destabilization efforts against Iran. "a CIA plan that reportedly included a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran’s currency and international financial transactions, according to ABC News."
• Feb 12, 2008 - Hezbollah mastermind Imad Moughniyeh was killed in Damascus when a bomb planted in the headrest of his car was detonated.
• Early 2008 - Bush administration officials held a meeting recently in the Vice President’s office to discuss ways to provoke a war with Iran. The “meeting took place in the Vice-President’s office. ‘The subject was how to create a casus belli between Tehran and Washington,’”
• Jan 6, 2008 - Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked three U.S. Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz,” Pentagon officials said. According to one official, “Five small [Iranian] boats were acting in a very aggressive way… and causing our ships to take evasive maneuvers.”
• Dec 3, 2007 - The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate that concluded with “high confidence” that the Islamic republic halted an effort to develop nuclear weapons in the fall of 2003.
• March, 2007 - America is secretly funding terrorist groups in Iran in an attempt to pile pressure on the Islamic regime to give up its nuclear program.
• March 23, 2007 - Iranian naval forces captured 15 British Royal Navy personnel for trespassing into the Iranian territorial waters off Iran-Iraq border coast. (The sailors were released April 4th on compassionate grounds after Iran broadcast their apology for trespassing Iranian territorial waters.)
• July 31, 2006 - Christian Zionists lobby for attacks against Iran.
• June 15, 2006 - Iran and Syria sign a mutual defense pact.
• Wargame rehearsals by the United States and Israel against Iran for at least the last 4 years (2011, 2010, 2009, 2008)

MEMRI (A less then reliable non-profit, possibly Israeli intelligence) disseminates a translation of a speech by Ahmadinejad in which the leader threatened to "wipe Israel off of the map?",. When properly translated, the statement was  'Israel would, because of its own faults, vanish from the pages of history'.

Some lovely pictures of Iran.

The "suitcase nuke" theory put to rest.

Note: This is a resource and will be updated as needed.

Fusions Centers Publically Revealed as Monstrosities - Shut Them All Down

As if anyone needed to be told this -

A multibillion-dollar information-sharing program created in the aftermath of 9/11 has improperly collected information about innocent Americans and produced little valuable intelligence on terrorism, a Senate report concludes. It portrays an effort that ballooned far beyond anyone's ability to control.

I willing to go so far as to say it's probably produced next to no terrorism intelligence.

What began as an attempt to put local, state and federal officials in the same room analyzing the same intelligence has instead cost huge amounts of money for data-mining software, flat screen televisions and, in Arizona, two fully equipped Chevrolet Tahoes that are used for commuting, investigators found.

Nooooo, ya don't say. The government is basically just driving around like Jack Bauer playing the part of a big-time terrorism 'expert'?

The report underscores a reality of post-9/11 Washington: National security programs tend to grow, never shrink, even when their money and manpower far surpass the actual subject of terrorism. Much of this money went for ordinary local crime-fighting.

Nooooo...not terrorism, but a police state?!? Who saw that coming?!?

Disagreeing with the critical conclusions of the report, Homeland Security says it is outdated, inaccurate and too focused on information produced by the program, ignoring benefits to local governments from their involvement with federal intelligence officials.

Of course they disagree. No one likes being revealed as liars and murderers. But I guess the Keynesian trickle down of training your local police force to be the Gestapo is worth it in their eyes.

Because of a convoluted grants process set up by Congress, Homeland Security officials don't know how much they have spent in their decade-long effort to set up so-called fusion centers in every state. Government estimates range from less than $300 million to $1.4 billion in federal money, plus much more invested by state and local governments. Federal funding is pegged at about 20 percent to 30 percent.

Just to put these numbers into perspective - WITH state spending, the total amount ranges from $1.3 billion on the low end to $8.5 billion on the high end. I like to use my handy triplicator to give me a better idea of exactly what was spent - 3 x $8.5 billion = $25.5 billion. I think we'll go with that number.

Despite that, Congress is unlikely to pull the plug. That's because, whether or not it stops terrorists, the program means politically important money for state and local governments.

Oooooh, NOW we get to the heart of what this is really about. Bribes for contractors.

A Senate Homeland Security subcommittee reviewed more than 600 unclassified reports over a one-year period and concluded that most had nothing to do with terrorism. The panel's chairman is Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

"The subcommittee investigation could identify no reporting which uncovered a terrorist threat, nor could it identify a contribution such fusion center reporting made to disrupt an active terrorist plot," the report said.

What's that? Exsqueeze me? Is that the sound of sweet vindication rolling of their lips?!? To put it into plain English - 'Uh, all this extra investigating found ZERO indication of terrorism and even if it did, we have done nothing about it.'

When fusion centers did address terrorism, they sometimes did so in ways that infringed on civil liberties. The centers have made headlines for circulating information about Ron Paul supporters, the ACLU, activists on both sides of the abortion debate, war protesters and advocates of gun rights.

So in truth, they were not only a gargantuan waste of money, they actively prevented liberty. Consider this post from 2 years ago -

It doesn't take much to establish that this DHS nonsense is neither going to A) Stop here or B) Shrink in scope.  People often wonder just how Germany became the monstrosity it was back in the 30's, well folks, you have front row seats courtesy of the US Federal Government.

Once the nature of your freedoms are changed (I.E. - The US Constitution grants your rights instead of securing them) it won't be long until the reach of your freedoms are changed. After all, driving is a privilege bestowed by the government, correct? Ask yourself once, just where did the authority to grant this privilege come from, if not from the people themselves? (Bear in mind one cannot exercise authority one has not been granted from another source.)

Once you grasp this concept, several things will slide into view:

1. Most governments (The Federal especially) are content to grab power that does not belong to them. (Think of this as your local librarian seizing your car because she wrote herself a note authorizing herself to do so.)
1. They pass this off as a necessary service to you.
2. Once established, they send you through their system to "get your power/property back". "Come to our courts and we'll see if we agree with you." Good luck.
1. These systems are not as much rule of law as policy determined by unelected bureaucrats.
3. Their sights know no bounds. Once a bureaucrat gets a taste of The Power, nothing can quench it. "Doing good." becomes the excuse that tyranny is foisted upon the subjects.

Notice how easy this is to call ahead of time?

Martial Law In America

Federal Executive Orders
10995 - Federal seizure of all communications media in the United States
10997 - Federal seizure of all electric power, fuels, minerals, public and private.
10998 - Federal seizure of all food supplies and resources, public and private and all farms and equipment. There's also a clause in the "Omnibus Crime Bill" that forbids citizens to store more than a 30 day supply of food.
10999 - Federal seizure of all means of transportation, including cars, trucks, or vehicles of any kind, and total control over highways, seaports and waterways.
11000 - Federal seizure of American people for work forces under federal supervision, including the splitting up of families if the government so desires
11001 - Federal seizure of all health, education and welfare facilities, both private and public
11002 - Empowers the Postmaster General to register all men, women and children in the United States
11003 - Federal seizure of all airports and aircraft
11004 - Federal seizure of all housing and finances and authority to establish forced relocation. Authority to designate areas to be abandoned as "unsafe", establish new locations for populations, relocate communities, build housing with public funds.
11005 - Seizure of all railroads, inland waterways, and storage facilities both public and private.
11051 - Provides FEMA complete authorization to put above orders into effect in times of increased international tension of economic or financial crisis.
11921 - If the President declares an emergency, Congress has no power to intervene for 6 months. Sets the FEPA as the control over production and distribution of: wages, salaries, energy sources, credit and flow of money in an ambiguous emergency.
12148 - Establishes FEMA in concert with Defense Department for defense planning and funding.
12656 - National Security Council appointed to assess emergency powers. This means limitless powers for intelligence and surveillance of U.S. citizens. Individual mobility or movement would be restricted and groups of civilians could be isolated. The National Guard would become "federal" and charged with sealing all borders and controling U.S. airspace and ports of entry.
12919 - (that consolidated all other EO's) endows FEMA with limitless power over EVERYTHING. Former FEMA minon General Frank Salzedo said that FEMA's role is "prevention of dissident groups from gaining access to U.S. opinion, or a global audience in times of crises."


The Real Effect
Infragard, Threat Fusion Centers, Clergy Response Teams, Governors areas


From Chuck Baldwin -

• Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.

• An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.

•In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings--about 17 million square feet of space.

(10/16/05)

Government Continues to Criminalize All Behavior

Taking a page from the drug marketing handbook, the army casts a wide net -

A leaked U.S. Army document obtained by Wired Magazine characterizes people “frustrated with mainstream ideologies” as potential terrorists, while also framing those who “believe in government conspiracies” as violent radicals.

“These are some warning signs that that you have turned into a terrorist who will soon kill your co-workers, according to the U.S. military. You’ve recently changed your “choices in entertainment.” You have “peculiar discussions.” You “complain about bias,” you’re “socially withdrawn” and you’re frustrated with “mainstream ideologies,” writes Spencer Ackerman.

The manual (PDF) was produced in 2011 by the Asymmetric Warfare Group, a unit within the U.S. Army headquartered at Fort Meade, Maryland. The document is intended to weed out “internal threats” within the ranks of U.S. soldiers.

Given that both the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have identified returning veterans as one of the primary domestic terror threats, the document is seemingly designed to spot such radical extremists well ahead of time.

Examples of behavior that is considered an indication of potential terrorism include the following;

- Complaining about bias;

- Being frustrated with “mainstream ideologies”;

- Being reclusive;

- Believing in government conspiracies “to the point of paranoia”;

- Visiting “extremist” websites or blogs;

- Altering your reading habits;

- Having “peculiar discussions”;

- Being “highly emotional”;

- Using “social networks”.

Notice the lack of any sort of objective measurements? There's a reason for that, let's use a hypothetical example -

I have a (fictional) neighbor, let's see if he fits the critereia:

• He was complaining that his tax bill was too high and that the government was trying to appropriate his land. 
• He was also upset that the local paper wouldn't report on it.
• Come to think of it, I haven't seen him much in the last few weeks.
• He did mention a 'Tax Patriot' group to me the last time I saw him, the town board has it listed as an 'extremist' site. 
• When I finally did see him again, he was trying to get me to sign up to join the Tax Patriot group and has been posting their stuff to his Facebook page. I better report him....

So at this point our local town board police department receives a call that there might be a possible 'extremist'. They dish a few dollars out to the concerned citizen for their 'tip', log a 'potential terrorist' into the government statistics and pay the neighbor a visit. While visiting, they notice some 'code violations' and 'subversive material' and fine the individual. Of course, he has issues paying the enormous court costs so a lien is placed against his home which wanted the home in the first place. Several months later, he's in jail for willful failure to pay his bills and subsequently finds his name on the terror watch list.

To make matters even worse, after he is released from jail, he is re-arrested for possession of 'illegal firearms' and sent to prison to do some hard time.

Is this really the sort of country we want to live in?

Tom Sullivan (Explosives Loader) - "9/11 Explosive Evidence - Experts speak out" (AE911TRUTH)

US Lobbyist Advocates Invading Iran and False Flags

And people wonder why I generally despise lobbyists -

Speaking at a Washington Institute for Near East Policy policy forum luncheon on “How to Build US-Israeli Coordination on Preventing an Iranian Nuclear Breakout,” WINEP director of research Patrick Clawson listed a raft of historical examples of where governments have either staged or exploited attacks in order to become embroiled in war.

Clawson is also a former senior economist with the IMF and the World Bank.

Lamenting how it is “Very hard for me to see how the United States President can get us to war with Iran,” Clawson added, “the traditional way [that] America gets to war is what would be best for U.S. interests.”

By the “traditional way,” Clawson clearly intimated that he thinks the U.S. should stage or provoke an attack in order to create a manufactured casus belli for striking Iran.

“We can do a variety of things to increase the pressure,” said Clawson as fellow attendees at the luncheon snickered, adding that sanctions are not the only option and that “we are in the game of using covert means against the Iranians, we could get nastier about it.”

“So, if in fact the Iranians aren’t going to compromise, it would be best if somebody else started the war,” Clawson said.

Mentioning an incident on August 17 when power cables serving the Fordow Enrichment Plant were severed by an explosion, Clawson stated, “Iranian submarines periodically go down, someday one of them might not come up – who would know why? – clearly hinting that the U.S. should attack Iranian ships in order to provoke a response. 

Reeling off a number of incidents that the U.S. President “had to wait for” before taking America to war, Clawson mentioned the Gulf of Tonkin, the Lusitania, the attack on the USS Maine, Pearl Harbor, as well as the attack on Fort Sumter during Abraham Lincoln’s tenure.

This is exactly the kind of garbage that I rail against on a regular basis. The Iranians are Persians, people much like you and I. I would argue that the presence of nuclear weapons has made the world safer, not worse off. The United States is the only country that has used a nuke on another country and yet we are led to believe that it's the other guys that are out of control. Who has invaded the most nations in the last 50 years? Who has slaughtered hundreds of thousands if not millions in the name of its own self-interests? Who is currently advocating a quasi-socialist/fascist system of government in which property rights do NOT exist?

The United States.

Personally, I believe if they haven't already, the Persians will develop nuclear weapons, if only for the sole purpose of keeping NATO OUT of their country. At this point, who could blame them!?!

Identification and Papers Please

This raises the inevitable question of what is a violation of the fourth?

The Eleventh Circuit US Court of Appeals has ruled that private contractors operating toll roads on behalf of the state have the power to detain and store records on motorists who pay by cash at toll booths – another example of how using cash is increasingly being treated as a suspicious activity.

Having been held hostage by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and the private contractor in charge of the state’s toll road, Faneuil, Inc. at a toll booth last year for paying cash and refusing to have a report filled out on them and their vehicle, Joel, Deborah and Robert Chandler filed suit.

“Under FDOT policies in place at the time, motorists who paid with $50 bills, and occasionally even $5 bills, were not given permission to proceed until the toll collector filled out a “Bill Detection Report” with data about the motorist’s vehicle and details from his driver’s license. Many of those who chose to pay cash did so to avoid the privacy implications of installing a SunPass transponder that recorded their driving habits,” reports TheNewspaper.

“They were likewise unwilling to provide personal information to the toll collector, but they had no alternative because the toll barrier would not be raised without compliance. FDOT policy does not allow passengers to exit their vehicle, and backing up is illegal and usually impossible while other cars wait behind.”

The three-judge panel dismissed the suit, ruling that detaining motorists in order to record details about people who paid by cash was not a constitutional violation and that the state and the contractor could subject motorists to such treatment because, “In Florida, a person’s right and liberty to use a highway is not absolute.”

The problem with much of this line of thinking is that there is never a line of thinking that violates the 4th because we find end runs around them. I'm fairly certain that the argument on this one would be that it's not the state who's detaining the person, but a private company. No one ever addresses the issue - What's a private company doing detaining other private individuals? Of course the answer to that is that they are doing it at the behest of the state, which raises yet another question - How can the state confer powers that it does not possess?!? (The truth is, it cannot) Inevitably the answer comes back, it's policy and this is exactly the case in this situation. It is not state law that is detaining these people, it is policy

This allows both parties to simultaneously avoid blame and get exactly what they want that US Constitutional Law prohibits. Basically the reasoning goes like this -

Company (to private citizen) - We need you to voluntarily wave your 4th Amendment rights.
Citizen - I don't want to do that.
Company - But we need you to do it. (The company may have to comply under terms of its contract, but the citizen is not bound)
Citizen - Are you trying to tell me that I have to do this?
Company - The state does require it.(Implying that this is the law)
Citizen - Which law requires it? (An honest inquiry into the legitimacy of the law)
Company - Look, we don't want a scene, why are you causing a scene?!? (Now implying that the citizen, by exercising his rights is somehow violating the company's rights) We need you to step over here.
Citizen - WHAT? No way, I'm leaving.
Company - You can't. (Not true) In fact, we're calling the state to fix this.
(At this point the citizen falsely believes that the state will act in a judicious, third-party role. Boy is he wrong.)
State, LEO division (Arriving on scene) - What's the problem here?
Company - (Framing the situation) We just want to comply with you, wonderful state, but this guy is preventing us from doing it.
State (To citizen) - Why would you do this, just give the guy what he wants.
(At this point, the citizen is faced with a very difficult choice - Take the chance that this LEO will have half a brain in his head and enforce only the law thereby allowing him to continue OR face possible arrest, trial and imprisonment at the hands of a system that is only interested in getting what it wants.)

Day after day, this exact scenario plays out in airports, highways and other such places where there is interaction between these parties. And when an arrest does occur, typically the state points at the company stating that 'They can't control those renegade companies' and the company points at the state stating likewise. A judge, wanting to appear "TOUGH ON CRIME" sometimes throws these poor saps in jail over a non-existent crime, the shrill harpy women are all too happy to support a dynamic safety effort and the overall net-effect is that another tax payer becomes a tax consumer as he rots in a cell.

 Notes several other important points in this article:

• The citizen is paying in cash. Something that until recently that was not only considered normal but necessary. 'Oh sure', they say, 'you can pay in cash, we just need you to comply with certain conditions.' (Which is also being driven by the state)
•  Compliance is seen as being passed through. Data submission may be in-fact mandatory for the company, but the citizen is under no contract or law and thus not legally obligated to provide it. The judge in the case disagrees. Who's opinion counts? The judge.
• This grants a corporation, the reserved power of detention that only the state possesses. This is the textbook definition of fascism.

And we wonder where we went wrong in this country?

The State of the Markets

Zero Hedge provides a nice little chart -

US Military Breeds Dictators | Think Tank

China Turns On Imperialist US

Getting awfully thick in the world for US national interests -

"The car of the U.S. ambassador to China was surrounded by a small group of demonstrators on Tuesday, who damaged the vehicle and briefly prevented it from entering the U.S. Embassy compound in Beijing. A YouTube video of the incident showed the protesters chanting slogans such as “down with the U.S. imperialists” and, in an apparent reference to the Chinese government’s purchase of U.S. government debt, “return the money!”

What is incredibly interesting about these protests that are going on worldwide is that the Republicans are absolutely clueless as to why they are happening. I continually hear analysis of the situation claiming that Muslims are exploding because Obama apologized. Or because Obama is too weak. Or he doesn't love America enough... But as the above quote should demonstrate and as Ron Paul has consistently maintained, they don't hate us because we're free or we're weak, they hate us because we're in their country stealing their wealth.

Most of the time these are not terrorists , they are the other side of the war that we started and they intend to finish it.

In an apparent reference to that dispute and the United States’ security treaty with Japan, some of the demonstrators chanted: “The U.S. government is the mastermind.”

Update: RT explores this very issue...

War, War Everywhere You Look

Certainly the world is not becoming a safer place -

China’s most powerful military leader, in an unusual public statement, last week ordered military forces to prepare for combat, as Chinese warships deployed to waters near disputed islands and anti-Japan protests throughout the country turned violent.

Protests against the Japanese government’s purchase of three privately held islands in the Senkakus chain led to mass street protests, the burning of Japanese flags, and attacks on Japanese businesses and cars in several cities. Some carried signs that read “Kill all Japanese,” and “Fight to the Death” over disputed islands. One sign urged China to threaten a nuclear strike against Japan.

 From the 2012 New Year's predictions -

Start of the Asiatic war (Late Q3 - Q4) - With the US being over committed, it can't back up its positions in other countries, the East sees this and starts moving. Fires break out faster then they can be put out.  

Now, here's my assumption on this. I believe the Chinese are trying to get Japan to switch sides long term here AND split US forces from concentrating on Syria/Iran. China is basically telling Japan - 'Look, we're bigger, we're younger and we have Russia, plus we haven't forgotten WWII. The US is on the way out, if you're smart, you'll side with us and save yourself in the long run.' Japan will probably have little choice and will join China forming an even more powerful Kings of the East.

The US, somewhat clueless to this, will play along and try to defend Japan (Seeing as how they buy our bonds). Yet, behind the scene, Japan will start making more and more trade and defense deals with China, publicly confusing the US.At some point, Japan will outright betray the United States, perhaps militarily, but that's down the road a bit.

For now, I would expect we'll see a lot of posturing trying to drag American forces away from the Syria. But come November, if Romney wins, expect to see a lot more hawkish uber-patriotism filter in as the West starts to commit strategic blunders.

The Call for the Fourth Reich Goes Out

Barroso asks that they set the pyre ablaze and behold the embers -

CHIEF Eurocrat Jose Barroso ignited fury yesterday by calling for the EU to become a “federation of nation states” run from Brussels.
In his most ambitious rallying cry yet for political and economic unity, the European Commission President said “shared sovereignty” was the only solution to the debt crisis in the eurozone.

Mr Barroso also demanded “absolute loyalty” from member states.

“Let’s not be afraid of the words: We will need to move towards a federation of nation states,” he said.

Mr Barroso promised a new treaty to effectively establish an elected Europe-wide government and denounced opponents of his dream as “populists and nationalists”.

Mr Barroso set out a plan for the EU to “evolve” into a “deep and genuine economic and monetary union, a political union, with a coherent foreign and defence policy”.

He told Euro MPs: “We are in a defining moment. This moment requires decisions and leadership. In Europe, this means accepting we are all in the same boat. It means recognising the commonality of our interests. And it means demanding a true sense of common responsibility.

“Because when you are on a boat in the middle of the storm, absolute loyalty is the minimum you demand from your fellow crew members.”

This should come as absolutely no surprise to long-time readers of The Real Effect. Let's go over the prognostications.

Nov 2005! -

Watch for an increase in centralization of power shifting from the United States to Brussels and the European Union, setting up the scene for the forth-coming global prince.  

From Sept 2008 (before the US crisis)-

European Union -They will be hit by this economic downswing, but where the US will be ravaged by this downturn, the EU will "weather the storm" precisely because they are the EU. This will lead for calls to imitate them with the North American Union in order to survive. (Timeframe: 1 - 3 years)

Two years after that prediction, the EU found itself consumed  by the ravages of the economic malaise.

January 2010 -

Once the Union hooks are in, you can't get out and those politicians are going to make sure that they get their pound of flesh.

The EU will make it through this in one form or another (It might cease to be called the EU but it will still be the EU.) 

April 2010 (In response to the Greece crisis)-

Look out for the shell game at this point. This is where the "leaders", who caused the mess by the way, give you your solution by stating the only thing that will save us is TOTAL GLOBAL POWER.

"Only a sustainable global economy can continue to guarantee growing wealth without jeopardizing the chance for future generations to meet their own needs." And how do we sustain it? Why, by having the developed world issue half a trillion in debt each and every month.

But to achieve their goal, they need to first be UNSUCCESSFUL with their bureaucratic efforts. It only works if you bring in a global despot as the world savior, much like Adolph was to Germany in the 30's.

January 2011 -

Western Europe contracts massively, putting extraordinary pressure on the Euro. But the call out of Belgium isn't about revoking the Euro, rather about the preservation of the European Union and the need to 'pull together'. I would expect that we could begin to see propaganda calling for a United Europe in the face of "x" (economic crisis, terror, war). 

 Of course, this is a long reaching plan. From July 2011 -

This is part of long-reaching, globalist plan. Take a look -

• 1957 Establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) with Germany, France, Italy and the Benelux countries.
• 1967 Creation of the European Community (EC).
• 1987 The "Single European Act" provides for the creation of the Single European Market from 1993 and establishes the goal of a Monetary Union.
• 1990 Start of stage one of European Monetary Union (EMU) with the full liberalization of capital movements.
• 1991 Conclusion of the "Maastricht Treaty" on European Union (EU), establishment of the timetable for Monetary Union.
• 1993 Start of the Single Market permitting the free movement of people, goods, capital and services.
• 1994 Start of stage two of EMU. The European Monetary Institute (EMI) is established.
• 1998 Decision on EMU participants, confirmation of the starting date; establishment of the ECB. 1999 Start of the Monetary Union with the fixing of exchange rates; the ECB assumes responsibility for monetary policy and operates in euro; start of the currency changeover in the financial sector.
• 2002 Euro notes and coins replace the national currencies.

 And finally from January 2012 -

The groundwork is being prepped for Europe's phoenix moment. But like the mythical bird of lore, before the new can come into being, first the old must burn.

Remember, it was this summer that the Olympics unveiled their phoenix in the stadium during the closing ceremonies. I believe that this particular incarnation of the EU and Barroso specifically is meant to be sacrificed by the globalists in order to advance the script on this situation. How that sacrifice will be played out is difficult to predict, but look for nations to rail against his call to unite. When the world burns during 2013, that action by the nation states will be demonized to the point of becoming the blame that is assigned to nationalism itself prompting the leaders to firmly denounce the "evils of nationalism".

In short, Barroso's only job is to create the script that we're all bad, evil people when we want to belong to a nation and not a global construct. And the blame for all the devastation that they created will go to you because you will be framed as an evil, selfish person for wanting to exist. At that point, the exterminations of the useless cattle will start in earnest.

Timing Is Everything, the Phoenix Approaches

An awful lot of mad arabs out there, like in Yemen - 

Turmoil in the Arab world linked to an American-made video denigrating the Prophet Muhammad spread on Thursday to Yemen, where hundreds of protesters attacked the American Embassy, two days after assailants killed four Americans in Libya, including the ambassador, and crowds tried to overrun the embassy compound in Cairo.

Tunisia -

American flags were also burned in Tunisia, outside the US embassy in the capital, Tunis.

Cairo (Where the marines are sitting ducks) -

Egypt's Islamist president said on Thursday he backed peaceful protest but not attacks on embassies after Egyptians angry at a film deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammad climbed into the U.S. embassy in Cairo and tore down the American flag.

It's almost like, the Arabs are being unleashed, just after the 11th anniversary on 9/11. Hmmmm, what an odd coincidence. (See the Religious War series for clarification) Of course, we have an election coming up and the Bernank just announced a new open-ended round of printing -

The Fed said it will buy $40 billion of mortgages per month in an attempt to foster a nascent recovery in the real estate market.

The purchases will be open-ended, meaning that they will continue until the Fed is satisfied that economic conditions, primarily in unemployment, improve.

"There's strong hints that they'll do Treasurys next," Joe LaVorgna, chief economist at Deutsche Bank Advisors, said in a phone interview from London. "They're pulling out all the stops to try to get this economy to gain some traction and, most important, to get unemployment down."

As we said in January-

US Dollar officially goes inflationary. Printing comes in one form or another

What does this mean? It means that the Fed is just about finished and the US's economic end game is squarely in view. The Fed is 'paying' for things by robbing you of your purchasing power and they've just signaled that they want to be able to steal at will.

Naturally gold and silver have taken off like a rocket, as has the stock market. The liar Romney reportedly told Ben not to do it, but I have an incredibly difficult time believing that an individuals that's cut from the same cloth as his predecessors would choose a different option. It's always easy to say you oppose something and would change everything (See Obama on Gitmo), but actually doing it is a far different beast altogether.

But before the fated Phoenix can rise, first everything must burn.

American Embassies Attacked - IMF Riots and Arab Spring Join Forces

Whenever you stir the pot of anger in a country, the angry hive needs something to attack -

The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three embassy staff were killed in an attack on the Benghazi consulate and a safe house refuge, stormed by Islamist gunmen blaming America for a film they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad.

Gunmen had attacked and set fire to the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, the cradle of last year's uprising against Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule, late on Tuesday evening as another assault was mounted on the U.S. embassy in Cairo.

The problem with discussing many of these issues is you quickly devolve into a 'who hit who first?' kind of argument. Americans should be rightfully livid at the fact that heavily-armed terrorists are coordinately attacking their soil in foreign lands. They're probably right that Muslim anger has nothing to do with the fact that we bombed their country, stole their gold and forced a central bank on them, it was probably a movie. Those crazy Muslims, mad about movies...

But this raises the question of who started this in the first place?

...the Neocons are salivating over yet another pointless war that gives us the wonderful opportunity to have a dramatic Al-Quaeda face turn in true WWE style. It appears that bombing sovereign nations and aiding terrorist organizations in opposition to the Constitution is a Conservative Principle upon which this country stands.

The fires of Arabic fury are being stoked in Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. The pump is being primed, but the Muslims are not aimed yet. Yet, all bodes ill for the United States because even now, there are rumors of her demise.

Anyone who has ever seen 'professional wrestling' more than once should be familiar with terms "face" or "heel" turn. A face makes up the stable of "good" guy wrestlers and likewise the "heels" are the bad wrestlers. Much of the story lines in pro wrestling center around "turns" or scripts where the good guy becomes a bad guy and vice-versa. A given "character" can flip myriads of times based off of flimsy events such as a bump, a bad word or in this case, a movie.

Of course, the wrestlers all work for the same company and many of them are actually friends in real life, the turn creates the justifiable reason for the new feud in the storyline arc. al-Quaeda recently went through this again as they were pointed against Syria.

Let's quickly examine al-Quaeda in the long scope of history:

• Face: 1980s -  Bin Laden fighting against the USSR in Afghanistan as part of the mujahedin.
• Heel: 2000 - USS Cole bombing, 9/11
• Middle:  2002 - Bin Laden isn't a priority 
• Face: 2011 - al-Quaeda and US are on the same side
• Heel: 2012 - Embassies attacked (Above)

So what's the story! Are they good or are they bad? The truth is, they are whatever the government needs them to be at any given time in order to move the script. All they have to do is dust off some old footage of whatever character they want them to be, circulate the info and poof, instant support for a given position.

This is precisely why the foreign policy that the United States has engaged in over the last 70 years has not only been foolish, it's been downright murderous. Ron Paul rightly recognized the Keynesian styled fallacy of foreign policy that is run amuck in this country. Elements of a previous war cause blowback and create the pretext for the next war. This is not only inefficient, it is bankrupting us.

The way to fix this is to remove the blowback elements of the war, not necessarily the war itself.