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Friday 11.11.2011

Veterans Day 2011 - Freedom Isn't Free

Is Italy Next to Fail and Will Gold Go to $3,000 an Ounce?
by Peter Morici, Ph.D. - AmericanEconomicAlert.org
Europe is approaching the end game. Credit markets and other governments know what its leaders won't admit, namely the euro is failing. And then gold, more than the dollar, is set to rocket in value as the crisis unfolds.
In addition to looser monetary policy, i.e., generous European Central Bank purchases of member country bonds,and austerity-higher taxes and less spending across most of the EU states, Eurozone governments have a three pronged policy for avoiding a contagion: the European Financial Stability Fund to purchase and insure bonds of troubled governments; IMF supervision of finances for those governments; and direct loans to several governments -- and in Greece's case, a 50 percent haircut on private holders of the debt. None of those three policies are working out.

Max Keiser: China to beat IMF to Italy's gold

Bernanke Says Treasuries Still 'Safe Haven'
By Scott Lanman and Steve Matthews - Bloomberg.com
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said U.S. Treasury securities remain a "safe haven" for investors after Standard & Poor’slowered its credit rating on the nation’s debt in August.
"The downgrade didn't scare off any investors," and the action, along with the prospect of other downgrades, hasn’t done “significant damage” to the economy, Bernanke said today in response to a question at a town-hall-style event in El Paso, Texas. At the same time, the nation must take measures to establish a sustainable path for the national debt amid rising Social Security and health-care costs, he said.

Bernanke Knows He’s Powerless This Time Around
Submitted by Phoenix Capital Research - ZeroHedge.com
During Round 1 of the Great Crisis, the US tried to combat the collapse of the private banking sector (especially the TBTFs) by shifting debt onto the public’s balance sheet and printing money to buy Treasuries so we could maintain a massive deficit (north of $1 trillion).
Put another way, the powers that be attempted to solve a MASSIVE debt implosion by issuing more debt. Aside from the fact this is outright insane, the problem with this is that we’re at a point of debt saturation in the system.

Keiser Report: Gold Wars (E208)

Investors Fleeing Bonds,
Savings Spur Record Flows Into Gold: India Credit
By Tushar Dhara and Swansy Afonso - Bloomberg.com
Investors in India are withdrawing from government bonds and national-savings schemes to pour record amounts into gold.
Funds that invest in sovereign debt shrank 4 percent from a month earlier to 30.2 billion rupees ($606 million) in September and those that buy gold rose 8 percent to an all-time high of 81.73 billion rupees, according to the Association of Mutual Funds in India that is also known as AMFI. Individual investors withdrew 78.7 billion rupees between April and September from small-savings deposit plans such as those run by post offices, the most since at least 2000, government data show.

Could the Euro Trigger A 2008-Like Crash? Si, Oui, Yes.
By Charles Hugh Smith - OfTwoMinds.com
If we dispense with all the fancy stuff, we end up with a simple see-saw with the euro and global equities on one end and the much-hated U.S. dollar on the other.
If we scrape away the ever-hopeful headlines predicting a new figurehead lackey or another vote will magically fix Greece, Italy, the euro, Europe's crumbling banks, etc., the global stock markets can be distilled down to one chart. And here it is: a see-saw with the U.S. dollar on one end and the euro and equities on the other.

DEATH OF THE EURO
By Macer Hall - Express.co.uk
PREPARATIONS were under way last night for the break-up of the euro as Europe’s debt crisis spiralled out of control.
As Treasury officials worked through the night to soften the impact on Britain, David Cameron warned that the single European currency was facing its "moment of truth".
Business Secretary Vince Cable went further and spoke about "Armageddon" while Brussels officials warned that the chaos threatened to plunge us all into a new recession.
Ministers are understood to be deeply concerned that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel are secretly plotting to build a new, slimmed down eurozone without Greece, Italy and other debt-ridden southern Euro- pean nations.

The Death of Money
How America's cheap money addiction is inflating the next bubble and undermining faith in government.
By PETER HARTCHER - The-American-Interest.com
Time magazine starred Alan Greenspan on its cover in 1998 for cutting interest rates, naming him one as of three people comprising a “Committee to Save the World.” Eleven years later, the same magazine indicted him as one of three people most culpable for the great economic collapse of 2008–09. Then, in 2009, Time named Greenspan’s successor, Ben Bernanke, as “Man of the Year” for cutting interest rates as part of “an effort to save the world economy.” Guess what comes next in this sequence of praise and blame, relief and recrimination. You have to work hard not to see it on the horizon, and the reason is clear: When money is too cheap for too long, it inevitably creates a problem.

Euro has one of worst drops this year
Italian 10-year yield tops 7% after margin boost;
sterling weakens
By Deborah Levine and William L. Watts, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The euro took one of its biggest hits this year against the U.S. dollar Wednesday after Italian government bond yields surged, raising fears the euro zone’s third-largest economy could need a bailout.
Risk-averse investors moved to the perceived safety of the U.S. currency.
The euro fell to $1.3553, down from $1.3836 in North American trading late Tuesday. It’s only the fourth time this year the shared currency has fallen 2% or more.

Greenspan:
Europe’s Debt Crisis Comes Down to North vs. South
By Javier E. David - WSJ.com
The divergence between northern Europe’s powerhouse economies and the comparatively less competitive southern region is an "odd dilemma" that euro-zone leaders must confront, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Thursday.
In a wide-ranging discussion at the Council of Foreign Relations, the man who was once considered the most powerful central banker in the world said the introduction of the euro currency never resolved the fundamental north-south divide of the continent’s economies.

EU warns of 'deep, prolonged recession'
By Matthew Dalton - MarketWatch.com
BRUSSELS -- The European Union Thursday slashed its growth forecast for the 27-nation bloc in the coming year and said it can't exclude the possibility of a deep, prolonged recession.
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said in its semiannual forecast the economy is struggling with weak confidence, financial turmoil, government austerity packages and a slowdown in Europe's main trading partners.
It said the EU's gross domestic product in 2012, adjusted for inflation, would grow just 0.6%--sharply down from its forecast only six months ago of 1.8%.

New recession threatens the globe as debt crisis grows
Europe's escalating debt crisis has cast a black shadow over the world's fragile recovery, threatening to tip large parts of the global economy into a deep downturn and even outright recession.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
The OECD's index of leading indicators for China, India, Brazil, Canada, Britain and the eurozone have all tipped below the warning line of 100, with the pace of the decline in Europe exceeding the onset of the Great Contraction in early 2008.
Professor Simon Johnson, a former chief economist at the IMF, rattled nerves earlier this week by warning the world is "looking straight into the face of a great depression".
The grim data is coming thick and fast. Japan's machinery orders fell 8.2pc in September as the post-Fukushima rebound lost steam and the delayed effects of the super-strong yen began to bite. Export orders have been declining for eight months. "Outright contraction is possible in the quarters ahead," said Mark Cliffe from ING.

Lindsey Williams -
2012 The Beginning of The End -
Full 3 DVD Set - October 2011 (3:21:04)

New Greek Premier Lucas Papademos
seeks unity over euro
BBC.co.uk
New Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has said the priority of his incoming coalition cabinet is to seek unity to keep Greece in the eurozone.
"The choices we make will be decisive for the Greek people," he said, adding that the euro was vital for prosperity.
Debt-laden Greece must quickly approve a EU bailout to secure vital loans.
Mr Papademos, a former European Central Bank vice-president, was named on Thursday after protracted talks. His cabinet is to be sworn in on Friday.

Merkel’s Greek Strategy Risks Backfiring
as Euro's Exit Routes Are Mapped
By Simon Kennedy - Bloomberg.com
Germany and France’s drive to force Greece to honor its euro commitments risks backfiring on Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy.
A week after the currency’s guardians declared for the first time that countries can be ejected from the 17-nation bloc, U.S. stocks tumbled on concern German politicians are already creating exit chutes for the weakest members.
The sell-off suggests Europe’s crisis is spiraling into a new stage as investors bet on which countries are most likely to quit the euro, starting with Greece. The risk is that this will make it harder for debt-laden countries to convince investors they can get their finances in order and for policy makers such as Merkel, Sarkozy and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi to bolster the euro’s defenses.

The European Debt Crisis, Two Years On
By Eric Fry - DailyReckoning.com
11/10/11 Laguna Beach, California – No doubt, most Daily Reckoning readers are aware of yesterday’s shocking headlines: Mariah Carey lost 70 pounds… and Taylor Swift won the Country Music Award for "Entertainer of the Year."
Meanwhile, the European Union continued to unravel faster than a Kardashian marriage.
Because the European leaders have failed to contain the crisis within the economic boundaries of the Peloponnesian Peninsula, it is now fanning out across the Ionian Sea and up the Adriatic like a toxic plume… and is washing ashore in Italy.
Investors are terrified to wade into the water. Italian bond yields are spiking higher and stocks are plummeting worldwide.

Jim Rogers ET Now - 08 Nov 2011

A Financial Nightmare For Italy:
The Yield Curve For Italian Bonds Is Turning Upside Down
TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
What we are all watching unfold right now is a complete and total financial nightmare for Italy. Italian bond yields are soaring to incredibly dangerous levels, and now the yield curve for Italian bonds is turning upside down. So what does that mean? Normally, government debt securities that have a longer maturity pay a higher interest rate. There is typically more risk when you hold a bond for an extended period of time, so investors normally demand a higher return for holding debt over longer time periods. But when investors feel as though a major economic downturn or a substantial financial crisis is coming, the yield on short-term bonds will often rise above the yield for long-term bonds. This happened to Greece, to Ireland and to Portugal and all three of them ended up needing bailouts. Now it is happening to Italy and Spain may follow shortly, but the EU cannot afford to bail out either of them. An inverted yield curve is a major red flag. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be much hope that there is going to be a solution to this European debt crisis any time soon.

France plots eurozone 'breakaway group’
France is drawing up plans to create a breakaway organisation of eurozone countries with its own treaty, parliament and headquarters – a move that could significantly undermine the existing European Union.
By Bruno Waterfield - Telegraph.co.uk
The proposal would see a formal "union within a union" created, but would lead to a significant deterioration in Britain's influence in Europe.
David Cameron is drawing up urgent plans to stop Britain being "railroaded" into agreeing to decisions taken by the new eurozone bloc.
France and Germany are understood to want to strengthen the union between eurozone countries with new taxes and legal measures to stop nations borrowing and spending too much in future.
Weaker countries such as Greece could even be barred from the new eurozone, under radical suggestions from some of those involved in discussions over the plan.

S&P accidentally announces downgrade of French debt
Business News - BBC.co.uk
Standard & Poor's accidentally released a message to some of its subscribers on Thursday saying that it had downgraded French debt from its top AAA rating.
S&P said it was investigating what had gone wrong and stressed that France still had an AAA rating.
The French market regulator AMF said it was also investigating how the error could have happened.
It came on the day that the difference between the yield of French and German bonds hit a record high.
At the end of Thursday's trading, the yield on a French OAT 10-year bond was 3.456% while the yield on a German 10-year bond was 1.776%.

Peter Schiff on Goldseek Radio - 09 Nov 2011

Sorry, there is no euro break-up plan – yet
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
Very quickly, I have grave reservations about the Reuters story claiming that top German and French officials have had "intense consultations" on plans to reshape or "prune" the currency bloc, reducing it to a manageable core.
The Brussels press corps do not believe it. Nobody seems to know which German official is briefing behind the scenes that "you’ll still call it the euro, but there will be fewer countries."
The claims do not remotely reflect the stated position of Chancellor Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy. Merkozy might like to see Greece tossed to the wolves. That is a different matter.

The euro is being held together only by fear
There has been a lot of "thinking the unthinkable" over the past week. If the euro is ultimately unsustainable, why not just face up to reality and let this grand exercise in political hubris go?
By Jeremy Warner - Telegraph.co.uk
Would the consequences really be quite as bad as conventional analysis makes out? These questions need deconstructing.
The announcement of a referendum last week by Greek (then) prime minister George Papandreou prompted German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French premier Nicolas Sarkozy to ask in exasperation whether Greece wanted the euro or not.
Their intention was to frighten the Greeks into submission, and it worked. Papandreou is gone, and a government of national unity is being formed under the fully signed up eurocrat Lucas Papademos. Berlin and Paris have got their way.

ECB’s Policy Makers Say
They Can’t Do Much More to Stem Financial Crisis
By Jana Randow and Gabi Thesing - Bloomberg.com
European Central Bank policy makers said the bank can’t do much more to stem the region’s sovereign debt crisis, suggesting they are reluctant to significantly ramp up bond purchases to lower Italy’s borrowing costs.
"Not much more can be expected from us, it's up to the governments," Governing Council member Klaas Knot, who heads the Dutch central bank, told lawmakers in The Hague today. Three other policy makers have also publicly rejected calls for more ECB intervention and two further officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the central bank has no plans to make its purchase program unlimited.

As Italian Drama Persists,
Fears of Credit Crunch Spread to Small Businesses
By Catherine New - DailyFinance.com
The Atlantic Ocean is wide, but maybe not wide enough. On Thursday, markets had a mixed reaction to the deepening economic crisis in Europe. With Silvio Berlusconi's exit as Italy's prime minister, the nation is expected to name a new government within days. Some sources reported that the European Central Bank would step in and buy Italian bonds, easing fears that yields of more than 7% would cause the European economy to fracture.
In the U.S., small business owners grew nervous, while the equities markets took a slight hit. The crisis impacted oil prices, which fell on Europe's political news but were buoyed by reports of weak U.S. supplies. Gold prices fell nearly 2% to just above $1,750 an ounce, as the sell-off included precious metals. The wider commodities markets took a hit as well, with holiday treats like chocolate and sugar both trading down.

Italian Banks Are 'Free'-To-Trade
As Short-Sale-Ban Is Not Extended
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Unlike their French counterparts, it appears the hapless (or sensible) Italian demagogues have decided not to extend the short-sale ban that was enacted three months ago. With the US Treasury market closed and volumes likely thin elsewhere, we wonder what outlet the flight-to-safety flow will take as Italian bank equity reality is unleashed. In general the CDS market took the systemic brunt of the hedging and protection-seeking since the 8/11 ban and it seems likely that Intesa Sanpaolo and Mediobanca have the most to fall to catch up with peers in equity and credit.

Europe Must 'Move Quickly' to Stability: Geithner
By Cheyenne Hopkins - Bloomberg.com
U.S Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said Europe remains the "central challenge" to global growth and must "move quickly" to restore financial stability.
Geithner, who is in Honolulu attending the 21-member Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, said in prepared remarks that the APEC countries are all directly affected by the Eurozone crisis and he encouraged them "to take steps to strengthen growth in the face of these pressures from Europe."

Geithner urges Asia-Pacific economies to spur growth
BBC.co.uk
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has urged Asia-Pacific countries to increase efforts to restore growth to the global economy.
He was addressing finance ministers from the 21 countries that are members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) group.
Mr Geithner also pressed Europe to put in place a "strong plan" to resolve its debt crisis.
The comments come ahead of a summit of Apec leaders in Hawaii.
"We are all directly affected by the crisis in Europe," said Mr Geithner.
"But the economies gathered here are in a better position than most to take steps to strengthen growth in the face of these pressures from Europe."

Bernanke Says That Any Criticism
Of The Federal Reserve Is Based On "Misconceptions"
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is taking his show on the road in at attempt to help Americans feel better about the Federal Reserve. During a visit to the Fort Bliss headquarters of the Army’s 1st Armored Division this week, Bernanke held a town hall meeting during which he took questions from some of the soldiers. Bernanke tried to sound as compassionate as possible as he assured the soldiers that the Federal Reserve is looking out for the American people and is doing everything that it can to help create jobs. At one point, Bernanke even made the following statement: "For a lot of people, I know, it doesn't feel like the recession ever ended." That probably helped a lot of people feel better. A few probably even had a good cry. But what Bernanke did not explain to the troops is that the Federal Reserve is very much responsible for the fact that unemployment is rampant, for the fact that the U.S. dollar is rapidly being devalued and for the fact that we have accumulated the largest national debt in the history of the world.

Keiser Report: Fed, Treasury & Holy Troika (E207)

It's Official:
Wall Street Firms May Legally Steal
From Their Customers - Rationalizations to Follow
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
...and they may not have to pay them back, even when they are caught. The customers will be expected to 'take one for the team,' and for the good of the system. Confidence and all that.

"This means they can take segregated funds and leverage them to kingdom come. It means nothing is safe."
-- Andy Abraham

If you have a commodity account with Wall Street, they may gamble with your money, with your assets, the rule on segregated accounts be damned. If they lose the money you might be reimbursed, or not. The losses may have to be 'socialized' and haircuts received.
This is most likely a distortion of the principle known as 'rehypothecation' in which a broker can use customer positions and holdings as collateral pledged for a margin loan for the purpose of securing funding from a third party to service that loan.

Employers "scared" of taking on permanent staff
By Caroline Copley
(Reuters) - Employers burned by the cost of laying off workers in the last crisis are uneasy about taking on permanent staff amid faltering economic growth putting pressure on the current workforce, a staffing industry executive said on Thursday.
Demand for temporary workers often acts as a leading indicator for overall economic growth, as firms hire flexible workers at the start of a recovery and cut staff ahead of a downturn.
Staffing firms Randstad, USG People and Manpower have warned of slowing jobs growth in Europe as the region's debt crisis hammers consumer and business confidence.

Foreclosure Filings in U.S. Increase 7%
By Dan Levy - Bloomberg.com
U.S. foreclosure filings rose 7 percent in October to a seven-month high as lenders started to speed up action against delinquent borrowers after a yearlong review into documentation, according to RealtyTrac Inc.
A total of 230,678 properties received notices of default, auction or repossession, compared with 214,855 in September, the Irvine, California-based data seller said today in a report. One in every 563 U.S. households got a filing.
Notices plunged almost 31 percent from October 2010, when banks and loan servicers began slowing the process after complaints over the way they handled documents for defaults and home seizures. The monthly gain in filings signal that a “rain delay” in foreclosures may be easing, according to RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer James J. Saccacio. The backlog has been partly to blame for a stalled U.S. housing recovery, he said.

Risk Rises for Housing Agency
By NICK TIMIRAOS - WSJ.com ($)
Concerns are rising that the Federal Housing Administration could run out money if the economy doesn't recover soon, raising the risk the agency would seek a taxpayer bailout for the first time in its 77-year history.
Since the mortgage crisis erupted five years ago, the FHA has played a critical role in housing finance as private lenders retreated. It backs about a third of all new mortgages originated for home purchases, up from around 5% in 2006.

Thanksgiving Dinner's Pricetag Rises 13 Percent This Year
By Eamon Murphy - DailyFinance.com
Nothing is sacred, it seems, when it comes to the whims of the global economy.
The American Farm Bureau Federation announced ina statementon Thursday that the cost of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner -- turkey, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie and all the basic trimmings -- will increase about 13% this year, the biggest jump since 1990.
This figure is the result of the group's twenty-sixth annual informal price survey of classic Thanksgiving dinner menu items. The average cost of a 2011 Thanksgiving dinner for 10 will be $49.20, the group projects -- a $5.73 increase from last year's average.

GOP effort to stop FCC’s 'net neutrality' push fails
By David Eldridge-The Washington Times
Senate Democrats voted down a Republican-led effort to stop theFederal Communications Commission from enforcing new "net neutrality" regulations that critics have called a federal takeover of the Internet.
Republicans called the rules, set to go into effect Nov. 20, a regulatory overreach and an attempt by the FCC and the Obama administration to fix something that isn’t broken.
"The FCC has essentially granted itself power over all forms of communication — including the Internet. Regulators and bureaucrats all over government are overstepping their bounds," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Texas Republican who sponsored the resolution, which failed on a 52-46 party-line vote.

Secret Service renews Biden rental
Vice president to get $26,400
By Jim McElhatton-The Washington Times
Vice President Joseph R. Biden, the landlord, can count on at least 12 more months of rental income from the agency that protects his life.
Federal spending records show the U.S. Secret Service approved a purchase order on Nov. 2 to pay Mr. Biden $26,400 for agents to stay at a cottage on lakefront property he owns in Delaware.
Edwin M. Donovan, special agent in charge at the Secret Service's Office of Public Affairs in Washington, said Mr. Biden isn’t receiving all that money at once. Instead, he said, the purchase order shows plans by the Secret Service to pay Mr. Biden $2,200 per month for another year.

Rense & Marti Oakley - Total Surveillance, Total Control

Rense & Marti Oakley - Total Surveillance, Total Control, Pt 2

U.S. seeks new Keystone pipeline route
By Arshad Mohammed and Timothy Gardner
(Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday it will study a new route for the Keystone XL Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline, delaying any final approval beyond the U.S. 2012 election and sparing U.S. President Barack Obama a politically risky decision during an election year.
The decision was a victory for environmental groups, who say producing oil sands crude emits large amounts of greenhouse gases. It was a blow to TransCanada Corp, which planned to build and operate the conduit.
The State Department said that based on past experience a study of the new route could be completed as early as the first three months of 2013, well past the November 6 2012 U.S. presidential election.

Keystone XL:
Nebraskans take pipeline issue all the way to the White House
Nebraskans with generations of passion for their land stand up to Big Oil in fight to preserve their natural treasure
By Suzanne Goldenberg in Lincoln, Nebraska - Guardian.co.uk
The woman seated before the row of suited state legislators in her red Husker team hoodie was choking on tears. She had grown up on a farm in Nebraska. Her parents had grown up on farms, in the days before electricity and running water, and now she said generations of toil and sweat could be destroyed in an instant by a $7bn pipeline project.
A leak from the pipeline, which would run from the tar sands of Alberta to the refineries of Texas, could poison her land forever, Donna Roller told the hearing this week during a special session of the state legislature.

Canadian pipeline to Texas on hold until 2013
Unions, GOP call review a 'job killer'
By Tim Devaney-The Washington Times
Citing environmental fears, the State Department on Thursday ordered a new review of a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline, effectively delaying a final decision until after the 2012 elections and prompting a wave of criticism from businesses, unions and congressional Republicans, who called the move a "job killer."
The State Department instructed thatTransCanada’s planned Keystone XL pipeline be moved yet again, saying the current route could destroy Nebraska’s sandhills and the Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies water for much of the Midwest. The needed environmental reviews and approval processes for any new route for the pipeline will put off final approval for the project until at least early 2013.

China mocks U.S. political model
By Patrice Hill-The Washington Times
HONG KONG — Chinese political and business leaders are increasingly triumphant after two decades of rapid economic growth that lifted unprecedented millions of people out of poverty and turned the nation into an economic superpower, saying their success proves its political and economic system is superior to the Western model.
In extensive talks with a series of Chinese leaders, an oft-cited point of criticism is the gridlock and "dysfunction" they see in Washington. They say fawning by U.S. political leaders seeking re-election has created an "entitlement culture" where the public has grown dependent on government largesse. Now, with the United States facing monumental economic and debt problems, the political system has been unable to curb generous entitlement programs or counter the economic downturn.

Palestinians may push for UN vote they expect to lose
Palestinians may demand vote on UN membership to force other countries to publicly justify their refusal of support
By Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem - Guardian.co.uk
The Palestinians are resigned to losing their battle for majority backing within the United Nations security council for their application for full UN membership but may still press for a vote next week in an attempt to discomfort countries who abstain or vote against.
The security council is to meet in New York on Friday to consider a report on the Palestinian bid. However, the Palestinians have failed to muster the required two-thirds majority among its 15 members, thus sparing the US the need to use its veto to prevent the application being approved.

Iran's supreme leader
warns West of 'strong slap and iron fist'
Iran's supreme leader has warned Israel and the United States that Tehran would respond with "a strong slap and iron first" if either launched a military strike aimed at crippling the country's nuclear programme.
By Alex Spillius - Telegraph.co.uk
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was speaking two days after the United Nations atomic agency released a report that for the first time said Iran was conducting experiments whose sole purpose was the development of nuclear arms.
"The enemies, particularly the United States and its pawns and the Zionist regime, should know that the Iranian nation does not seek to invade any country or nation," he said, addressing officers at a military academy in Tehran.

'Iran cornerstone of possible WW3 over Mid East'
Adrian Salbuchi

A Nuclear Iran Would Be the Gravest Threat
By Jeff Jacoby - PatriotPost.us
Ron Paul, the Texas congressman and isolationist would-be president, is against using tough economic sanctions or military force to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. How then, he was asked on "Fox News Sunday," would he persuade Teheran to abandon its quest for the bomb? "Well," Paul suggested, "maybe offering friendship to them."
Hmm, there's an idea. How might it work in practice?
Perhaps Paul could demonstrate his friendly intentions by announcing now, while still a candidate, that if elected he would be prepared to meet Iran's rulers without preconditions. Perhaps he could launch his presidency with an inaugural address urging "a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect," and promising the mullahs and their ilk "that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." Perhaps he could follow that up by taping a video greeting for Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, in which he quotes Persian poetry and assures the "leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran" of his eagerness for "partnership and commerce."

With Iran This And Iran That,
Here Is The Weekly US Naval Update
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Let's face it: with the Iranian invasion foreplay having gone on about 3 years too long, everyone is just waiting for the flashing red "GDP boosting" headline. But to know how close we are to I-day, there is one question needing an answer: where are the boats? Below we share the latest weekly update of US naval positioning, as usual courtesy of Stratfor. The chart is self explanatory: the 5th Fleet AOR is getting just a little too crowded.

Paul Craig Roberts:
Neo-Cons want war with Iran just like Iraq

Resolving Nuclear Issue Wouldn't End U.S.-Iran Tension
Even if Iran ended its nuclear program forever, the two sides disagree over so many issues that their conflict will almost certainly continue to be fought on the margins and in the shadows
By Patrick Disney - TheAtlantic.com
The alleged Iranian terror plot exposed last month served as a reminder of just how wide the gulf between the United States and Iran has become. While the ongoing conflict over its nuclear pursuits is generally the top Iranian priority of U.S. policy makers and analysts -- as the overwhelming attention on this week's International Atomic Energy Agency report on the Iranian nuclear program demonstrates -- the breadth of issues on which the United States and Iran are fundamentally at odds suggests that, even if the nuclear question were resolved tomorrow, U.S.-Iran ties would be unlikely to change for the better.

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