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Libya no-fly zone cost could hit $1 bln in months
WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) – The no-fly zone over Libya could end up costing the Western coalition more than $1 billion if the operation drags on more than a couple of months, defense analysts say.
Zack Cooper, a senior analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said the initial cost of eliminating Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s air defenses was likely to be between $400 million and $800 million.
The expense of patrolling the no-fly zone once it is established is likely to be $30 million to $100 million a week, he said.
The U.S. military has no official cost figures yet for the operation, which has been going on less Read more…
True Obama debt bigger than planet’s entire GDP
 President Obama |
As the Obama administration prepares to finance a Fiscal Year 2011 budget deficit expected to top $1.6 trillion, the American public is largely unaware that the true negative net worth of the federal government reached $76.3 trillion last year.
That figure was five times the 2010 gross domestic product of the United States and exceeded the estimated gross domestic product for the world by approximately $14.4 trillion.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. GDP for 2010 was $14.861 trillion. World GDP in 2010, according to the International Monetary Fund, was $61.936 trillion.
“As government obligations continue to spiral out of control and the U.S. government shows no willingness to make the magnitude of spending cuts required to return to fiscal responsible, the U.S. economy is headed to a great collapse coming in the form of a hyper-inflationary great Read more…
Between Sudan and Libya, Critics See U.S. Inconsistency
Why the rush to use force against Qaddafi when Sudan has suffered more?
Actor George Clooney helped conceive a project along with John Prendergast of the Enough Project that helps track violence in Sudan.
He went on to acknowledge that in a world full of Read more…
Google to run US Commerce Department?
Rumor has it US President Barack Obama may name Google CEO Eric Schmidt as the next US Secretary of Commerce.
According to sources close to the matter, who expressed the search is still preliminary; the US president is considering both Schmidt and Pfizer CEO Jeffrey Kindler.
Obama has actively considered non academic and political elites to fill roles in his administration, including past executives from JPMorgan Chase and Read more…
Gadhafi’s $30 Billion In US Assets Blocked By Treasury
Libya’s people have taken most of the country, Gadhafi still controls Tripoli – Getty Images via @daylifeIn addition to having his assets frozen by the Swiss and British governments, Colonel Muammar al-Gadhafi’s holdings in the United States have been blocked by the Department of the Treasury, which claims to have located at least $30 billion in Libyan assets.
After an executive order signed by President Barack Obama on Friday declared the “actions of Colonel Muammar Qadhafi [sic], his government, and close associates, […] an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the U.S. Treasury began to track down Libyan assets in Read more…
GOP budget cuts would kill 700,000 jobs: report
WASHINGTON – The Republican budget proposal to sharply cut federal spending would cost 700,000 jobs through 2012, according to the independent analyst Moody’s.
In a new report obtained Monday by the Washington Post, Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi analyzes the House Republican budget proposal cutting spending by $61 billion this year and projects that it will curtail job growth.
“The House Republicans’ proposal would reduce 2011 real GDP growth by 0.5% and 2012 growth by 0.2%. This would mean some 400,000 fewer jobs created by the end of 2011 and 700,000 fewer jobs by the end of 2012,” Zandi concluded.
The numbers challenge the Read more…
Suspected Terrorist Had NYC in His Sights
A 20-year-old Saudi student arrested in Texas on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack with explosive chemicals had looked at New York City as a possible target.
Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, attending college near Lubbock, Texas, was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
“It is war … until the infidels leave defeated,” the chemical engineering student wrote in online postings.
Federal prosecutors said he had researched online how to construct an improvised explosive device using several chemicals as ingredients.
Court papers said Aldawsari had been researching New York City, including viewing real-time traffic cameras online that showed the city.
The FBI said he also had looked up the Dallas home of Read more…
Washington proposes $5.50 fee for Canadians entering U.S. by air, sea
The U.S. has been charging that fee to other international passengers, except Canadians, Mexicans and Caribbean nationals who have been exempt from paying it since 1997.
Obama said the fee would raise $110 million yearly to help reduce the country’s budget deficit. The fee would also apply to air and sea travelers from Mexico and the Caribbean.
An average of 16 million Canadians fly to their North American neighbor yearly. The $5.50 fee, if approved by the U.S. Congress, would raise about $110 million and help defray the cost of beefed up boundary security.
The fee would not apply to Read more…
Argentina accuses US of trying to smuggle weapons into country
Diplomatic row over cargo US claims was intended for training program further sours already poor relationship
Relations between the US and Argentina have deteriorated after Buenos Aires lodged a formal complaint over a US military plane that landed late last week carrying guns, drugs and satellite phones.
The Argentinian government claimed the US was trying to sneak the weapons into the country, though it didn’t offer an explanation of why Washington might want to do this.
The US state department said the consignment was intended for a police training program in Argentina.
Officials from Argentina and the state department have been in talks aimed at resolving the row.
The relationship between the two countries has been poor since Barack Obama released details of a Latin American tour next month that includes Brazil, Chile and El Salvador but not Argentina.
The Argentinian foreign ministry, in a statement on Sunday night, said “sensitive material” had been seized that had not been declared on the inventory submitted by the US embassy, including weapons, GPS equipment and drugs such as morphine. Read more…
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