Denmark is among the elite of nations collaborating with the US National Security Agency, enjoying privileges that only Anglo-Saxon nations trump. This new piece of information is part of an analysis carried out by The Guardian based on thousand of Snowden documents. This raises the question: what exactly do we provide in exchange?

Denmark is part of the inner circle of nations collaborating with the NSA. This new piece of information stems from documents provided by former NSA employee Edward Snowden and analyzed by The Guardian.

The alliance referred to as 'The Nine Eyes' places Denmark above key European allies. In the past weeks focus returned to collaborations between US and European intelligence services - the nature of which both PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt and Minister of Justice Morten Bødskov refused to comment on.

A revealing page-one article in today's New York Times ("Tap on Merkel Provides Peek a Vast Spy Net") reports on how the NSA's global spying program, dating back at least to early in the Bush/Cheney administration, was vacuuming up the phone conversations (and no doubt later the internet communications) of not just leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but opposition leader Merkel before her party took power in Germany.

As the Times puts it, the phone monitoring, which actually dates back to the Cold War Era before 1990, "is hardly limited to the 35 leaders of countries like Germany, and also includes their top aides and the heads of opposing parties."

That's pretty far-reaching, and the paper says that it has learned, primarily courtesy of revelations from the documents released by fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden, that the spying went even beyond that, to target up-and-coming potential leaders of so-called "friendly states."

But the Times buys without question the explanation offered by professional liar James R. Clapper, the director of national intelligence and ultimate head of the embattled National Security Agency, that the NSA's spying on leaders and potential was and is and has been, first of all, well known to presidents, and secondly that its purpose was simply to see "if what they're saying gels with what's actually going on, as well as how other countries' policies "impact us across a whole range of issues."

That's pretty broad. The first explanation is really a euphemistic way of saying the NSA wants to see if American's purported friends and allies are lying. The second is a euphemistic way of saying that the US is spying to gain inside information about its allies' political goals and strategies, and probably their negotiating positions on things like trade treaties, international regulations, etc.

What the Times does not ask in its entire report on this spying program on leaders and potential leaders is whether there could be another motive for this extraordinary spying campaign on leaders: blackmail.

Politicians lie. It's their stock in trade. They have to if they are to be elected.

If they told you that once elected they would vote to continue stealing your money and stealing your liberty, that they would openly and unashamedly take political graft, that their primary aim would be to enrich themselves and their sugar daddies, that they would support laws that select societal winners and losers - and the people would always be the losers - they would never be elected.

So it is certainly no surprise that the undocumented White House usurper whose very life is a fraud would unapologetically tell you for three years that "If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it. Period," and then turn around and brazenly say that he never said that. And not only say it, but say it with all the aplomb that comes from believing that video and audio recorders don't exist.

A wealthy Maryland journalist (who's neither a Democrat or Republican) has exposed a scandal brewing within the current Administration.

He says it could ruin Obama's entire Presidency... and would also result in some of the most dramatic changes to ordinary American life in more than 50 years.

The Department of Homeland Security is coming to Wisconsin in style. The DHS is going to spend $19 million dollars on a private armed security force unit in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The unit will have "Top Secret" security clearance according to the official solicitation which also suggests that the DHS is not looking to hire armed guards, but professionals or military trained mercenaries.

This just goes to show you how the Department of Homeland Security continues to treat the American public it serves as the enemy. What on earth is the Department of Homeland security preparing for?

Past Department of Homeland Security purchases being purchased by the Pentagon none of which is for use in wars overseas.

• Department of Home Land Security purchase 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition
• DHS buys 2,717 "Navistar Defense" armored vehicles for service on the streets of America. Manufacturer website and vehicle specs.
• DHS purchased 7,000 full-auto assault rifles to be used inside the United States, calling them "personal defense weapons"
• DHS purchases 10,000 bulletproof check points.
• DHS "Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) agreement for .40 caliber hollow point ammunition" by the DHS.
• Homeland Security to purchase "riot expansion kits"
• DHS also recently purchased half a million dollars worth of fully automatic pepper spray launchers

Why does DHS have enough illegal hollow point ammo to fight a 7 year war on hand? Why are they getting mobile armored units and bulletproof checkpoints? Is it Al Qaeda who is recording all our telephone conversations, emails, instant messages, texts, banking statements and putting camera's up on the street corners?

A new law suit claims some of the world's largest oil companies - including BP, Royal Dutch Shell, manipulated Brent Crude spot prices in collaboration with Morgan Stanley, Vitol Group, and other energy traders.

The plaintiffs accuse the companies of deliberately submitting false and misleading information about Brent prices to Platts, the energy and oil market news outlet, which is used by traders worldwide in daily transactions, Bloomberg reports.

"By providing false or inaccurate information and engaging in false or sham trading, defendants undermined the entire pricing structure for the Brent Crude Oil physical and futures markets," the plaintiffs allege.

By fixing the North Sea oil benchmark, the oil companies and traders, not only manipulated the oil market, but petroleum, food, and other products that look to Brent as a guide for buying and selling across world exchanges. Four traders - John Devivo, Robert Michiels, Anthony Insinga and Kevin McDonnell - filed the class act in a Manhattan court in New York on October 4.

Other companies accused of 'fixing' are Trafigura AG and Trafigura Beheer British Virgin Island, Dutch commodity trading firms, Phibro Trading LLC, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Vitol Group, a Swiss-based, Dutch-owned energy trader, S.A., and other unnamed traders.

The plaintiffs hope to bring some transparency to oil and commodity exchanges, where it is alleged the prices are superficially hiked up or driven down by the companies to gain the most profit in futures and spot trading. The plaintiffs describe this method as 'spoofing' - hiking the price of oil up to drive markets while planning to cancel them later.

Prices for Russian Urals and Dubai crude may are also being questioned.

Nineteen companies selling carbon credits have been shut in the past 15 months for bilking investors out of 24 million pounds ($38.7 million), British regulators said on Wednesday, warning more firms were trying to sell carbon as a viable option for private investors.

The UK Insolvency Service said more than 1,500 investors had been ripped off by the firms, which target mainly the elderly with high pressure sales techniques and promises of hefty returns of more than 40 percent.

"Salesmen played on peoples' keenness to 'do their bit' to save the environment while making an investment at the same time," the Service said in a statement.

The companies typically offer carbon offsets approved by the United Nations - a feature used to give the offering credibility - as well as those issued in the opaque and unregulated voluntary market. Each credit is equivalent to a reduction of one tonne of carbon dioxide and can be used to offset a company's carbon footprint.

The Insolvency Service, along with Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), cautioned inexperienced investors against buying carbon credits because the market is illiquid and sellers often massively inflate prices.

The Service said it had seen an increase in the number of companies selling carbon credits in the past year.

At least one person was killed and eight injured in a series of explosions outside a provincial Communist party office in central China on Wednesday morning.

The blasts occurred at 7.40am outside of the Shanxi Communist party committee offices in Taiyuan city, the provincial capital of Shanxi, according to China's official newswire Xinhua.

"Judging by steel ball bearings scattered throughout the scene, [police] suspect an improvised explosive device," Xinhua reported. "Right now the police have blocked off the scene and the incident is under investigation."

The state broadcaster CCTV attributed the blasts to seven bombs hidden in roadside flower displays. More than 20 vehicles were damaged, CCTV reported. The motive for the attack was unclear.

"About 7.40 in the morning I heard some explosions," said a witness surnamed Gao, who lives in a dormitory close to the party offices. "At first I'd thought they were only firecrackers or something until I heard a police whistle. I realised something was wrong and immediately went downstairs to the scene.

The bank bail-in rumble is growing louder. After the events in Cyprus, a small country and potentially meaningless in the eyes of most people, it seems that bail-in idea has spread like a virus across the Western world.

Only in the last week, we saw the following developments:

• Slovenian parliament has approved bank bail-in rules. (source)
• The leader of the Eurogroup Working Group (Thomas Wieser) revealed that the eurozone should introduce bank bail-in rules from 2016, as reported by the German Der Spiegel. (source)
• UK based Co-operative Bank announced a bondholder bail-in rescue plan. (source)

All these events come right after the IMF super tax proposal of 10% on savings accounts of households with a positive net worth in Europe (reported on this site) earlier this month.

One could rightfully ask the question why this type of measures are considered in a world which is being flooded with liquidity on a scale that mankind has never seen before (whether one calls it money printing, quantitative easing, easy money, or helicopter money).

Twitter has repeatedly suspended an account critical of the Affordable Care Act.

The account, @mycancellation, was just getting started when Twitter suspended it - twice - before reinstating the account late Saturday night.

The purpose of @mycancellation or mycancellation.com was to allow some of the millions of Americans who are losing their health insurance to post pictures of themselves with their cancellation letters. "Help us show Washington the faces who lost what they liked," the account asked. "ObamaCare canceled your health insurance. Now, send us your letter," the tagline for the website advertised.

Real ppl are losing insurance they were told they could keep. Send your picture & letter: letters@mycancellation.com pic.twitter.com/G0XY6IyQ4G
- My Cancellation (@MyCancellation) November 3, 2013