Gold closed at 542.20 dollars an ounce on Friday, up 4.3% (and more than 7% for the past two weeks) from $519.70 at the end of the week before. The dollar closed at 0.8239 euros on Friday, down 2.4% from 0.8440 the week before. That puts the euro at 1.2137, compared to 1.1849 at the previous Friday's close. Gold in euros would be 446.73 euros an ounce, up 1.9% from the previous week's 438.60. Oil closed at 64.31 dollars a barrel on Friday, up 5.4% from $61.04 the week before. Oil in euros would be 52.99 euros a barrel, up 3.0% from 51.43 for the week. The gold/oil ratio was 8.43 down 1.0% from 8.51 the week before. In the U.S. stock market, the Dow closed at 10,959.31, up 2.3% from 10,717.50 the week before (down when denominated in gold and oil, though). The NASDAQ closed at 2,305.62 on Friday, up 4.5% from 2,205.32 at the previous week's close. The yield on the ten-year U.S. Treasury note was 4.37%, down two basis points from 4.39 the week before.
Another odd week where the Mainstream Media in the U.S. are trying to push their rosy economic scenario while gold and oil are up sharply, and the U.S. seems to be careening from two disastrous and expensive military defeats while planning several more. Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba? Which will it be? And it is doing this planning with a major constitutional crisis looming (that is, if there is any constitution left to have a crisis).
Speaking of Iraq, lost in the bad news for the U.S. on the battlefield was the news that the International Monetary Fund's prescription for Iraq is working like a charm in producing the classic "IMF Riot":
Puppet Masters
Running Time: 00:47:06
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Item: Sharon is in the midst of a career-ending scandal when he is struck down by a life-threatening blood clot in his brain.
Item: A live Sharon will have to face prosecution for the Kern-Schlaff bribes, even in Israel's thoroughly corrupt legal system. A dead Sharon will not have to face prosecution. And that would be just fine for the creme de la creme of the country's political leadership.
Item: The prognosis is a living, or real, death.
Item: A live Sharon will have to face prosecution for the Kern-Schlaff bribes, even in Israel's thoroughly corrupt legal system. A dead Sharon will not have to face prosecution. And that would be just fine for the creme de la creme of the country's political leadership.
Item: The prognosis is a living, or real, death.
Gold closed at 519.70 dollars an ounce on Friday, up 2.7% from $505.90 the Friday before. The dollar closed at 0.8440 euros on Friday, up 0.2% from 0.8425 at the end of the previous week. The euro closed at 1.1849 dollars, down from 1.1869 the week before. Gold in euros would be 438.60 an ounce at Friday's close, up 2.9% for the week. Oil closed at 61.04 dollars a barrel, up 4.5% from $58.43 the week before. Oil in euros would be 51.43 euros a barrel, up 4.5% from 49.23 euros at the end of the previous week. The gold/oil ratio closed at 8.51, down 1.8% from 8.66 the week before. In U.S. stocks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10,717.50 for the week, down 1.5% from 10,883.27 at the previous week's close. The NASDAQ closed at 2,205.32, down 2.0% from 2,249.42 the week before. The yield on the ten-year U.S. Treasury note closed at 4.39%, up one basis point from 4.38 the week before.
Since Friday was the last market day of the year, let's look at how the numbers we have been following came out for the year.
Since Friday was the last market day of the year, let's look at how the numbers we have been following came out for the year.
Running Time: 00:31:57
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US President George W. Bush authorized Friday the export to China of certain sensitive equipment for a railroad project, saying it would not pose a threat to the US space industry.
Bush told Congress that the export of 36 accelerometers to China's Ministry of Railways for use in a railroad track geometry measuring system "is not deterimental to the US space industry," the White House said in a statement.
Accelerometers are instruments used to track speed.
Bush told Congress that the export of 36 accelerometers to China's Ministry of Railways for use in a railroad track geometry measuring system "is not deterimental to the US space industry," the White House said in a statement.
Accelerometers are instruments used to track speed.
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.
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 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:
Friday saw the release of the U.S. new housing sales numbers for November. The numbers were surprisingly bad:
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.
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.