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U.S., NATO worry about European defense cuts
BERLIN — First, Germany announced that it would suspend its draft, ending one of the touchstones of its post-World War II society. Then Britain and France, frequent rivals since at least the Norman Conquest, announced plans to share military equipment and research. And smaller countries across Europe are cutting defense budgets and shrinking militaries that were never large to begin with.
European policymakers say that the cuts are necessary given their financial straits, and that training, not sheer numbers, is what matters in a post-Cold War world.
But some top officials, including the U.S. defense secretary and the NATO secretary general, worry that the changes could burden the United States by reducing the number of European troops available for NATO missions and other military efforts around the world. NATO’s ability to function as a collective defense pact may be Read more…
Wikileaks: GMO conspiracy reaches highest levels of US Government
Recent Wikileaks cables are typically associated with information leaks related to U.S. war strategy, and foreign policy, which has led some people to conclude that leaked information of this nature is a possible threat to national security.
But in this case, Wikileaks cables leaked information regarding global food policy as it relates to U.S. officials — in the highest levels of government — that involves a conspiracy with Monsanto to force the global sale and use of genetically-modified foods.
In 2007, then-U.S. ambassador to France Craig Stapleton conspired to retaliate against European countries for their anti-biotech policies. U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks reveal the Bush administration formulated battle plans to extract revenge against Europe for refusing to use genetically modified seeds.
In the leaked cable, Stapleton writes: “Europe is Read more…
Control over your food: Why Monsanto’s GM seeds are undemocratic
Large biotech agribusinesses like Monsanto control much of the global seed market with genetically modified (GM) crops. This centralization of GM seeds threatens food safety, food security, biodiversity, and democratic ideals.
By Christopher D. Cook / February 23, 2011
Question: Would you want a small handful of government officials controlling America’s entire food supply, all its seeds and harvests?
I suspect most would scream, “No way!”
Yet, while America seems allergic to public servants – with no profit motive in mind – controlling anything these days, a knee-jerk faith in the “free market” has led to overwhelming centralized control of nearly all our food stuffs, from farm to fork.
The Obama administration’s recent decision to radically expand genetically modified (GM) food – approving unrestricted production of agribusiness biotech company Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” alfalfa and sugar beets – marks a profound deepening of this centralization of food production in the hands of just a few corporations, with little but the profit motive to guide them.
IN PICTURES: From Field to Fork: The foreign and domestic food chain
Even as United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials enable a tighter corporate grip on the food chain, there is compelling evidence of GM foods’ ecological and human health risks, Read more…
FROM THE DESK OF PASTOR JOHN HAGEE
For the past few days the world has been watching the Middle East implode! The streets of the nation of Egypt have been packed with riots and bloodshed. The Administration of Mubarak is apparently coming to an end. From my sources of information, I believe the Muslim Brotherhood is now in the driver’s seat to determine the future of Egypt .
The American media, with the exception of FOX News, is presenting the Muslim Brotherhood as moderate and lovers of democracy. This is utter nonsense. This is the hysterical jabber of our State Department that once again has fumbled the ball in the Middle East .
Making a long story short; if the Egyptian drama works out like the Fall of the Shah in Iran in 1979 (and I think it will) there will be a person approved of the Muslim Brotherhood to become Egypt’s new leader. He will appear initially as a moderate and within a few weeks embrace Sharia which is the Islamic law that now governs Iran .
Israel will be surrounded by Read more…
NATO Warns of Food Crisis and More Unrest, Prices Increase 15% in Four Months
The World Food Program’s representative in one of the countries which has seen protests, Yemen, recently stated: ‘There is an obvious link between high food prices and unrest.’
Credit: NATO
The 2008 food crisis was a warning of things to come. More recently, food prices rose by 15% in just the period October 2010 to January 2011, according to the World Bank’s Food Price Watch.
This time, the impacts have been felt more keenly in political and security circles. The President of Read more…
Global systemic crisis / World geopolitical breakup – End of 2011: Fall of the “Petro-dollar wall”
– Public announcement GEAB N°52 (February 16, 2011) –
Britain’s coming crunch with Europe
It did not take David Cameron long to realize that there were three parties in his coalition. A few months into government, the Prime Minister worked out that only half of the policies he was enacting came from the shared agenda drawn up when the Tories and LibDems got together. The other half comes from the EU. Or, more specifically, the Civil Service machine, which is busy implementing various EU Directives, often passed many years ago. Cameron is trying to put the brakes on this process.
As I say in my News of the World column, this has led to much frustration in Whitehall. And dismay: the Civil Service remembers how easily Labour waved through EU regulation and the piles of fat that Whitehall likes to pile on top of the EU regulation. Labour would claim that the EU rules were actually its idea, so as not to lose face. Only in government is it clear how far power has slipped; Cameron wants to claw it back.
Oliver Letwin has been tasked with stopping Whitehall from being a breeding ground for new regulations. Cameron jokingly refers to Letwin as a ‘contraceptive’, because it’s his job to stop these regulations being conceived – usually after a little European foreplay. It’s a huge task. The problem is that Read more…
The Fed is Wrong About Commodity Prices
Author: David Weinstein
I imagine he has to say it, but Bernanke is wrong when he says US monetary policy has nothing to do with international commodity prices. At the height of the Egyptian crisis, which was partly driven by rising food prices, Bernanke couldn’t say, “Oh yea, US policy economic policy is part of the problem in Egypt.” This attitude, however, is both prevalent and respected, and it’s largely wrong.
First of all, commodities as a group are not commoditized – they are not all the same. For instance, the amount of gold in the world is largely fixed relative to annual gold production. Along with its historical position as a store a value, Gold’s consistent volume about ground is a primary reason for its currency-like quality; i.e. almost entirely driven by overall liquidity. Corn production, on the other hand can vary greatly from year to year given the amount of land devoted to it and the weather. Oil is somewhere in the middle because production can vary, but the worlds known reserves are relatively fixed. The resulting differences in price volatility have been studied ad nauseam and are most simply articulated by the so-called ‘cob-web model’ (see chart below).
Very simply put: Read more…
Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport completes first stage testing of novel biometric security system
Sheremetyevo International Airport has completed the first stage of testing of the Russian-owned Artec Ventures new novel biometric security system BROADWAY 3D, which is based on using one of the most reliable biometrics – the three-dimensional surface of the face. The system delivers highly reliable identity recognition with minimal human involvement in the process of identification, which is of particular importance given the requirements set out in the Rules on the protection of airports and their infrastructural facilities (approved by Resolution No 42 of the government of the Russian Federation, dated 1 February 2011).
The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA with its R&D office in Moscow, Russia.
the team invented 3D face recognition technology in 1999 and cultivated it from an idea stage to a biometric solution that became an industry standard worldwide in 2006. This technology is widely Read more…
Gaddafi tells Palestinians: revolt against Israel
Ali Shuaib and Salah Sarrar
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Palestinian refugees should capitalize on the wave of popular revolts in the Middle East by massing peacefully on the borders of Israel until it gives in to their demands, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Sunday.
Gaddafi is respected in many parts of the Arab world for his uncompromising criticism of Israel and Arab leaders who have dealings with the Jewish state, though some people in the region dismiss his initiatives as unrealistic.
He was giving his first major speech since a popular uprising in neighboring Egypt forced President Hosni Mubarak to resign, an event which electrified the Arab world and prompted speculation that other Arab governments could also be toppled.
“Fleets of boats should take Palestinians … and wait by the Palestinian shores until the problem is resolved,” Gaddafi was shown saying on state television. “This is a time of popular revolutions.”
“We need to create a Read more…
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