Middle East Meltdown Could Mean Oil at $300 a Barrel, Pump Prices of $9.57 a Gallon
moneymorning.com [Editor’s Note: U.S. oil prices yesterday (Tuesday) hit their highest levels since September 2008 as investors reacted to fears that Middle East tumult would spread from Libya to such key Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as Iran and Saudi Arabia. But never fear: Even if the Middle East melts down and oil prices soar, there are moves you can make to hedge away your risk. We have two suggestions for you here.] By Martin Hutchinson, Contributing Editor, Money Morning The unrest in the Middle East oil patch is roiling the global oil markets on an almost daily basis. 
The events in Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Oman and other countries are also forcing us to ask that long-dreaded question: What happens if the countries throughout the Middle East region fall to radical governments? The answer is both stunning and surprising. In an absolute worst-case scenario – if the entire Middle East falls under radical control – we could be looking at $300-a-barrel oil and pump prices of $9.57 a gallon. Definitely a stunner. Here’s the surprise: Even such a worst-case outcome would Read more…
Global Food Prices Hit A Record High For The Third Straight Month
Global food prices broke another record in February: higher than January, December and the so-called food crisis of 2008.
The UN index showed a slight decline in sugar prices — still extremely high — with a rise in oil, cereal, dairy and meat.
At this point it’s hard not to see food as a key factor in the Arab revolts.
See Also: 25 Countries That Are Vulnerable To A Food Crisis
Kuwait is the Spear Pointing at the Heart of Saudi Arabia
Despite the reassurances and promises of change and trinkets for the masses, the front page news continues to reflect that Bahrain is the most dangerous situation for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The reasoning is that the Shi’a will spread their unrest into the Eastern Provinces along the rich oil producing regions of the nation and interrupt the flow of oil operations and embolden the Iranian regime to create mischief against their historic foe. In my opinion, this is a reach as the spear pointing towards the heart of the Kingdom is in Kuwait, a nation which has escaped the mainstream media’s attention up until this point in time.
The reason Bahrain is so key can best be summed up by the United States military interests in the region based there. Unfortunately for the media, the true story is the same one people realized in 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait. Kuwait is the key to destroying the stranglehold the Saudi royal family has held on the Persian Gulf and the revolutionary movements of the region have understood this for twenty years now. When the Iraqi regime was crushed by the U.S. this decade the focus shifted from expelling the various monarchies in the Gulf region to using terror to expel the American “occupiers” as our nation was so labeled. When the strategy of state sponsored and funded terrorism failed, the revolutionaries and Read more…
Documents Reveal TSA Research Proposal To Body-Scan Pedestrians, Train Passengers
A sample streetside scan image from American Sciences & Engineering.
Updated with the TSA’s response below, which denies implementing airport-style scans in mass transit.
Giving Transportation Security Administration agents a peek under your clothes may soon be a practice that goes well beyond airport checkpoints. Newly uncovered documents show that as early as 2006, the Department of Homeland Security has been planning pilot programs to deploy mobile scanning units that can be set up at public events and in train stations, along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets.
The non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on Wednesday published documents it obtained from the Department of Homeland Security showing that from 2006 to 2008 the agency planned a study of of new anti-terrorism technologies that EPIC believes raise serious privacy Read more…
Gaddafi warns of bloodbath if West intervenes
TRIPOLI: Libyan strongman Moamer Gaddafi warned on Wednesday “thousands” would die if the West intervened to support the uprising against him, as rebels drove back an attack by his forces on an eastern town.
The chilling warning came as western powers dampened expectations of any early imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya, amid a clamour from western states for action to prevent Kadhafi’s warplanes from attacking his own people.
The United States is a “long way” from deciding on whether to impose a no-fly zone, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said as two US Navy ships steamed into position off Libya.
The 22-member Arab League appeared to offer an Arab and Read more…
Lindsey Williams: MI6 Funded Muslim Brotherhood and Their “Day of Rage” Coming!
Mar 1, 2011 | Alex welcomes back to the show Lindsey Williams, the pastor with an inside track to the elite who correctly predicted a significant rise in global oil prices and the collapse of the american currency.
Earthquake seismic waves can trigger other seismic events across the planet
theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com
LOS ANGELES – By studying seismographs from the earthquake that hit Chile last February, earth scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have found a statistically significant increase of microearthquakes in central California in the first few hours after the main shock. The observation provides an additional support that seismic waves from distant earthquakes could also trigger seismic events on the other side of Earth. The results may be found online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. It has been well known that microearthquakes can be triggered instantaneously by distant earthquakes. However, sometimes the triggered events could occur long after the passage of the direct surface waves that take the shortest path on Earth’s surface. There are several other explanations out there about how such delayed triggering occurs. Some involve the redistribution of Read more…
Iran to build permanent naval base in Syria
Just two days after two Iranian warships reached the Syrian port of Latakia via the Suez Canal, Friday, Feb. 25, an Iranian-Syrian naval cooperation accord was signed providing for Iran to build its first Mediterranean naval base at the Syrian port, debkafile’s military and Iranian sources reveal.
The base will include a large Iranian Revolutionary Guards weapons depot stocked with hardware chosen by the IRGC subject to prior notification to Damascus. Latakia harbor will be deepened, widened and provided with new “coastal installations” to accommodate the large warships and submarines destined to use these facilities.
Iran has much to celebrate, debkafile’s military sources report. It has acquired its first military foothold on a Mediterranean shore and its first permanent military presence on Syrian soil. Tehran will be setting in place the logistical infrastructure for accommodating incoming Iranian troops to fight in a potential Middle East war.
According to our sources, the Read more…
U.S. Job Cuts Rose 20% From Year Ago, Challenger Says
Employers in the U.S. announced more job cuts in February than in the same month last year, led by a surge at government agencies.
Planned firings increased 20 percent to 50,702 last month from February 2010, the first year-over-year gain since May 2009, according to a report today from Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Announcements at federal, state and local government offices almost tripled from last year.
“More job cuts at the federal level are expected in the months ahead as pressure mounts to cut costs and rein in the soaring national debt,” John A. Challenger, the outplacement company’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.
Dismissals of government workers may contribute to a slowdown in consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy. Combined with the highest gasoline prices in two years, the threat of a pause in purchases may already be causing retailers, which had the second-biggest number of announcements last month, to pare payrolls, said Challenger.
“If gasoline tops $4 per gallon in the coming weeks, consumers may be forced to make significant changes to their spending habits,” said Challenger. “At this stage of the recovery, that could be an extremely damaging setback.”
Compared with last month, which saw the fewest firings for any January since record-keeping began in 1993, job-cut announcements climbed 32 percent. Because the figures Read more…
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