Gold closed at $505.90 an ounce on Friday, up less than 0.1% from $505.50 the week before. The dollar closed at 0.8425 euros last week, up 1.2% from 0.8323 at the previous Friday's close. That put the euro at 1.1869 dollars, compared to 1.2015 the week before. Gold in euros would be 426.24 euros an ounce, up 1.3% from 420.72 euros an ounce the Friday before. Oil closed at 58.43 dollars a barrel Friday, up 0o.6% from $58.06 the week before. Oil in euros would be 49.23 euros a barrel, up 2.1% from 48.23 euros a barrel the Friday before last. The gold/oil ratio closed at 8.66 Friday, down 0.6% from 8.71 at the previous Friday's close. In U.S. stocks, the Dow closed at 10,883.27 on Friday, up less than a tenth of a percent for the week from 10,875.59. The NASDAQ closed at 2,249.42, down 0.1% from 2,252.48 the week before. The yield on the ten-year U.S. Treasury note closed at 4.38%, down six basis points from 4.44 the week before.
Friday saw the release of the U.S. new housing sales numbers for November. The numbers were surprisingly bad:
Puppet Masters
The truth of what happened in Halabja had always been hidden from the public, and many who knew exactly what happened in this Kurdish village in the second half of March 1988 disputed the western media coverage of the story.
It is a fact that key Kurdish leaders aided by the CIA and the Israeli Mossad have used a wide network of public relations companies and media outlets in the west to manipulate and twist the truth of what happened in Kurdish Halabja in 1988 in favour of the Kurdish political parties. [...]
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW) "at least 50,000 and possibly as many as 100,000 people, many of them women and children, were killed out of hand between February and September 1988, the victims being Iraqi Kurds systematically put to death in large numbers on the orders of the central government in Baghdad".
It is a fact that key Kurdish leaders aided by the CIA and the Israeli Mossad have used a wide network of public relations companies and media outlets in the west to manipulate and twist the truth of what happened in Kurdish Halabja in 1988 in favour of the Kurdish political parties. [...]
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW) "at least 50,000 and possibly as many as 100,000 people, many of them women and children, were killed out of hand between February and September 1988, the victims being Iraqi Kurds systematically put to death in large numbers on the orders of the central government in Baghdad".
Bush has opened a Pandora's box with his shock and awe tactics. The ultimate quagmire will keep mutating and unleashing its deadly new powers for years on end. And there is nothing anyone - not even the "indispensable nation" - can do about it. We have all been, and will remain, shocked and awed.Iraq is a giant, messy albatross hanging from President George W Bush's neck. The faith-based American president believes "we are winning the war in Iraq". The reality-based global public opinion - not to mention 59% of Americans, and counting - know this is not true.
Bush felt that "God put me here" so he could conduct a "war on terror". Somebody up there must have a tremendous sense of humor - once again manifested in the way He allotted winners and losers in Iraq's December 15 parliamentary elections.
Gold pulled back last week, closing at 505.50 dollars an ounce, down 5.2% from $532.00 last week. The dollar closed at 0.8323 euros on Friday, down 1.7% from 0.8466 euros the week before. The euro, then, was worth 1.2015 dollars at Friday's close, compared to 1.1812 the previous week. Gold in euros, then, would be 420.72 euros an ounce, down 7.1% from 450.39 the Friday before. Oil closed at 58.06 dollars a barrel, down 2.9% from $59.76 at the previous week's close. Oil in euros would be 48.23 euros a barrel, down 4.9% from 50.59 euros the week before. The gold/oil ratio closed at 8.71, down 2.2% from 8.90 the previous week. The yield on the ten-year U.S. Treasury note was 4.44%, down nine basis points from 4.53 the week before. In the U.S. stock market, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10,875.59 on Friday, up 0.9% from10,778.58 at the previous Friday's close. The NASDAQ closed at 2,252.48, down 0.2% from 2,256.73 the week before.
Another strange week. With the price of gold falling more than 5% and oil down about 3%, both markets that are susceptible to short term manipulation, it looks like they want us to keep our heads in the sand for a few more weeks or at least until after Christmas. But the people don't seem to be falling for it completely this time, as holiday retail sales are okay but not great, due to consumer anxiety:
Another strange week. With the price of gold falling more than 5% and oil down about 3%, both markets that are susceptible to short term manipulation, it looks like they want us to keep our heads in the sand for a few more weeks or at least until after Christmas. But the people don't seem to be falling for it completely this time, as holiday retail sales are okay but not great, due to consumer anxiety:
Government ministers tried to suppress a health scare over milk potentially contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals, the head of Britain's independent food watchdog has revealed.
Sir John Krebs said he was put under 'enormous pressure' not to make public the risks which arose from the handling of the foot and mouth outbreak, because of the potential impact on struggling dairy farmers. When the pressure from agriculture ministers failed, he was told that Downing Street would be 'very unhappy' with him.
Sir John Krebs said he was put under 'enormous pressure' not to make public the risks which arose from the handling of the foot and mouth outbreak, because of the potential impact on struggling dairy farmers. When the pressure from agriculture ministers failed, he was told that Downing Street would be 'very unhappy' with him.
Comment: And yet, people still believe that these psychopaths are looking out for their best interests in passing laws against smoking???!!
Running Time: 00:32:28
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An Ethiopian student who lived in London claims that he was brutally tortured with the involvement of British and US intelligence agencies. Binyam Mohammed, 27, says he spent nearly three years in the CIA's network of 'black sites'. In Morocco he claims he underwent the strappado torture of being hung for hours from his wrists, and scalpel cuts to his chest and penis and that a CIA officer was a regular interrogator.
Comment: It is so handy to have torture to fall back on to "create" terrorists. Hmmm... makes one wonder if Osama was "rendered" and now just appears on film from his secret CIA prison cell to act the role of the boogie man?
Gold closed at 532.00 dollars an ounce on Friday, up 4.6% from the week before. The dollar closed at 0.8466 euros for the week, down 0.8% from 0.8534 at the previous Friday's close. That put the euro at 1.1812 dollars, compared to 1.1718 the previous week. Gold in euros would be 450.39 euros an ounce, up 3.8% from 433.86 at the close of the week before. Oil closed at 59.76 dollars an ounce, up 0.7% from 59.32 the Friday before. Oil in euros would be 50.59 euros a barrel, compared to 50.62 the previous week. The gold/oil ratio was 8.90 at Friday's close, up 3.9% from 8.57 the week before. The yield on the ten-year U.S. Treasury note was 4.53%, up two basis points from 4.51 the previous week. In the U.S. stock market, the Dow closed at 10,778.58, down 0.9% from 10,877.51 the Friday before. The NASDAQ closed at 2,256.73, down 0.7% from 2,273.37 at the previous week's close.
It's happening. Much of what we've been predicting for the past year seems to be taking place. The housing bubble has popped, gold and other precious metals are shooting up in price as those with money are rushing to seek shelter.
It's happening. Much of what we've been predicting for the past year seems to be taking place. The housing bubble has popped, gold and other precious metals are shooting up in price as those with money are rushing to seek shelter.
Running Time: 00:41:46
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It did not happen overnight but slowly came to America's shores from testing grounds in China and the Middle East.
Progressive and investigative journalist web site administrators are beginning to talk to each other about it, e-mail users are beginning to understand why their e-mail is being disrupted by it, major search engines appear to be complying with it, and the low to equal signal-to-noise ratio of legitimate e-mail and spam appears to be perpetuated by it.
In this case, it, is what privacy and computer experts have long warned about: massive censorship of the web on a nationwide and global scale. For many years, the web has been heavily censored in countries around the world. That censorship continues at this very moment. Now it is happening right here in America.
The agreement by the Congress to extend an enhanced Patriot Act for another four years will permit the political enforcers of the Bush administration, who use law enforcement as their proxies, to further clamp censorship controls on the web.
Progressive and investigative journalist web site administrators are beginning to talk to each other about it, e-mail users are beginning to understand why their e-mail is being disrupted by it, major search engines appear to be complying with it, and the low to equal signal-to-noise ratio of legitimate e-mail and spam appears to be perpetuated by it.
In this case, it, is what privacy and computer experts have long warned about: massive censorship of the web on a nationwide and global scale. For many years, the web has been heavily censored in countries around the world. That censorship continues at this very moment. Now it is happening right here in America.
The agreement by the Congress to extend an enhanced Patriot Act for another four years will permit the political enforcers of the Bush administration, who use law enforcement as their proxies, to further clamp censorship controls on the web.
Comment: Comment: Don't hold your breath. See: Political Ponerology for a better understanding of what is going on here on the planet today: it is a process that has been witnessed and identified and examined carefully. It is advisable for all of you to read and consider this information now: your future may depend on it.
Here at Signs of the Times, we have talked about this censorship (and attendant COINTELPRO defamation campaigns) on a number of occasions. When we first brought it up - having collected and analyzed certain data with the assistance of several computer/internet techs, we were ridiculed for even suggesting such a thing. When Laura wrote, on September 14, 2001:
...if nothing that is sensible prevails, the one thing we CAN expect is a severe and sudden infringement of our freedoms.... she certainly could see where the events of 9/11 were designed to take us.
Unless the reality changes through awareness, I may not be able to say much more very much longer. Phones and computers will be monitored, or severely controlled. Restrictions may be legislated so as to create a basis for prosecution. Individuals may be rounded up and taken to detention centers. In a state of war, or under threat of terrorist attacks, all constitutional rights (which are amendments, by the way) are suspended.
We may be told what we can or cannot say and to whom we may say it. And this may be within a matter of days.
I hope all who are reading this realize that. I have known for some time that the powers that be - and I don't necessarily mean the government, though it will be effected through the government - will seek a way to curtail the communication between people that has been growing apace for the past few years via the internet. What better way to do it than war?
We have arrived.
Comment: This is but one article that gets us a lot closer to the truth of the "Saddam gassed his own people" story. Former CIA operative Stephen Pelletière has also published much information pointing to the fact that the claim is little more than a fabrication of the American and Israeli governments.
Of course, we should not forget that, back in 2003, when the Bush administration was attempting to justify its planned invasion of Iraq and Bush's attempts to link Saddam and Osama were being met with much derision, the "Saddam gassed his own people" claim was used as useful back up. We should not be surprised therefore that this claim is as bogus as the Osama-Saddam link.
Another very interesting link to the alleged gassing of the Kurds by Saddam is found in the participation of current Iraqi President and Kurish leader Jalal Talabani. While Saddam was busy with the war with Iran, the Kurds took the opportunity to try and further their long term goal of independence from Iraq. Talabani it seems was deeply involved in this conflict and was on the ground in Halabja in 1988. From the Uruknet.info site:
(1) The rebel Kurdish Leader, Jalal Talabani facilitated the introduction of the Iranian forces into Halabja by night so that the Iraqi commander was unaware of the penetration.
(2) Jalal Talabani, an ethnic Kurd, was the rebel force leader in March 1988. In the events around Halabja he obviously deceives his own people, the Kurds, as he first exposes them to Iranian attack, and right after causes them to be gassed with cyanide.
(3) Instead of his own people, Talabani is admittedly siding with the Iranians, but on the other hand Talabani deceives the Iranians too: he entangles them to a very serious international crime, the use of chemical weapons with no profit whatever for Iran (the attack failed). Guilty or not, the Iranians have been under very serious suspicions after this event, made possible by nobody else than Jalal Talabani.
(4) Later on, in the second Iraq war (the one still raging), Mr. Talabani resurfaces as one of the leading allies of the United Stated, waging an illegal war (by UN standards) against Iraq and Iraqi people. As a reward for his contributions he is chosen (rather: seated) as the president of the New Iraq, fitting very well among other scum gathered by the U.S. as the puppet 'government' of Iraq.
From this and the difficult Iran-U.S. relationship, one is seemingly not mistaken in thinking that Mr. Talabani completed his well-started treason of the Iranians (back in 1988), now finding new friends in the United States government.
Talabani (is there some symbolism in that name?) recently received Dick Cheney in Baghdad where he greeted his as "a hero for liberating Iraq", which would seem to put him squarely in the NeoCon camp. But we should also remember that the historic ally of the Kurds are the Israelis, specifically the Mossad who has been working with the Kurds in Iraq for quite some time as mentioned by Seymour Hersh in an article in the New Yorker earlier this year.
What does all of this mean other than the obvious fact that the truth about the alleged gassing of the Kurds by Saddam in 1988 is very different from what we are being told here in the West?
Well, while we cannot know for sure, we can state some liklihoods. For example:
The real reason for the US invasion of Iraq is NOT generally known.
The US invasion of Iraq was carried out at the behest of Israel.
The US invasion of Iraq is but the first step in a larger plan, probably Israel's.
The Iranian president is an agent of certain Western interests
Israel plans to invade Iran in March 2005.
Israel expects to receive US help for an attack on/war with Iran. Israel may not get such help. Israel may "lose" a conflict with Iran in 2006. Iran may consolidate its power and align with Iraq.
There is another group, above and beyond the American and Israeli governments who are the real masterminds. Their plan is to create the conditions for a major war in the Middle East, wherein a majority of Semitic peoples (Semitic Jews included) will perish.
If we discover the Ultimate Truth we can quickly dispense with the sideshows that are designed to distract from this ultimate truth.