Deutsche Bundesbank Had to Leave 1200 Tons of Gold in NY, they still can't go in and check or count the gold.

Deutsche Bundesbank Had to Leave 1200 Tons of Gold in NY, they still can't go in and check or count the gold. HT: Cryptogon. Source: Norberthaering.

With big fanfare, Deutsche Bundesbank announced on February 9 that ahead of plan they had repatriated 300 tons of gold from New York. This put a positive spin on a rather disturbing fact –1236 tons of gold that is supposed to be part of Germany’s currency reserve will continue to be kept outside of German control in New York – indefinitely.

The German gold in question is being kept in storage at the New York Fed, an institution that is owned and controlled by Wall-Street-banks, in a country, whose current president considers it an imposition that the law and so-called judges tell him what he is allowed to do and not allowed to do.

I am not criticizing the Bundesbank for storing 37 percent of Germany’s official gold in in a place there it has no control over it. It seems clear that they negotiated hard with the US and acted rather shrewdly. Their negotiation position was much enhanced in 2012 by the leakage of a report of the German Court of Auditors, which was very critical of the conditions under which German gold was being held in New York. This created public and political pressure on the Bundesbank to renegotiate and to get that gold out of New York. At the same time, the US-side could hardly afford to snub this demand, because there was lots of speculation, even in the US, that something was amiss with the gold reserves of the US and the rest of the world that were stored in the country. 

The way in which the official gold of the US, and the gold held in custody for other countries, is guarded against public scrutiny and shielded from its owners, gives fodder to any number of conspiracy theories. Had the New York Fed refused to let a foreign central bank, which was under such obvious pressure, retrieve some of their gold, these conspiracy theories around official gold might very well have become intense enough to damage trust in the dollar.

Reaching an agreement was apparently not easy. On the way, the Bundesbank announced a relocation plan for the next three years and then, very soon, superseded it by anouther one that allowed time until 2020 for finishing the intended relocations. First they said they were going to publish the report of the auditors, then they didn’t. This kind of behavior would not be expected if the semi-official story (from unnamed sources) was true, that the Bundesbank just had to say how much gold they wanted at what time and the Fed would have put it at the gate at that time with no further questions asked.

The Dutch Get in the Way

According to its (second) gold relocation and storage plan, unveiled in early 2013, the Bundesbank will be storing half of Germany’s gold reserves in its own vaults in Frankfurt am Main by 2020. This required a transfer to Frankfurt am Main of 300 tons of gold from New York and 283 tons of gold from Paris. 1236 tons will continue to be kept in storage in New York, plus (a much more reasonable) 432 tons in London.

In the summer of 2013 Bundesbank started with a first transport of 5 tons of gold to Frankfurt and then stopped the transports again right away. In hindsight, a plausible explanation for this unusual behavior could be a when secret repatriation program of the Dutch central bank, which was only made public when it was concluded in 2014. 

Apparently, the Dutch came out and said something like “If the Germans are allowed to take out their gold, we want to have our’s too.” This created the threat that more and more countries would use the precedent of the Fed’s lenience with the Germans to demand getting back their own gold. 

The withdrawals were halted until a plan was in place of how everybody could be treated the same and nobody could take out too much gold. Judging from what the Germans and the Dutch did, the scheme seems to be that the US will allow central banks to repatriate as much gold from New York as is absolutely necessary to allow them to have half of their gold at home.

After that was settled, the Dutch were first to be allowed to withdraw their allotment. They were finished in late summer 2014. The Bundesbank managed to get 85 tons out in the rest of the year. In 2015, another as yet unknown institution besides the Bundesbank withdraw gold -30 tons overall. The Bundesbank got 99 tons back. 

In 2016, finally, Bundesbank was alone in withdrawing gold from New York. This might explain why the Fed was more forthcoming than the Bundesbank had expected and handed out the final 111 tons of their 300-ton-allotment.

A hiden message

When the Bundesbank had announced their plan of where to keep how much gold in the future, it was craftily sold as a message to the German people and politicians that they would get a chunk of the gold that was in New York under their control and store half of the official German gold in Germany. This, however, was not the main message.


The main message had New York and Washington as addressees. It consisted in the promise that in exchange for getting those 300 tons, they would leave four times as much in New York and stop forever fussing about it. This is my reading anyway, based on what I understand is usual diplomatic custom and lingo in such affairs. 

This way of reading it is bolstered by the fact that the conveniently critical Court of Auditors has gone completely silent since the Bundesbank announced their new plan for where to store the gold. 

This is not what one should have expected. None of the concerns of the auditors has been addressed in any significant way. The Bundesbank can still not go in and check or count the gold. There are still the terms and conditions of the New York Fed, which say that they give no guarantee. 

If it should turn out that the gold has been stolen in some mysterious way, that’s bad luck. None of the other problems were fixed and no convincing reason was provided why it should be in Germany’s interest to keep such a large portion of its gold outside its control. The fact that a fifth of the gold that used to be kept in New York under such unfavorable conditions has been retrieved, is not a very convincing reason for the auditors to fall completely silent. After all, they had clearly said that the way that the German national treasure is stored there, is against the law. Read the full story Here.

'CHANGE' - US Gold Reserves shrink as Europe's Banks Seek Financial Independence.

'CHANGE' - US Gold Reserves shrink as Europe's Banks Seek Financial Independence. (SP).

European Central banks keep demanding the return of their gold bullion from the vaults of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, reducing the gold stockpile kept under the streets of Manhattan to its lowest level in decades; economist Lew Rockwell is convinced that the move is an indication that Europe is desperately striving for independence. Read the full story here.

ISIS reveals plans to mint their own currency to "destroy the international monetary system."

Russian Gold production: Too much of a good thing?

Russian Gold production: Too much of a good thing? (RBTH).

Russian gold producers may need to reduce their mining operations to prevent prices from falling further as the result of an increase in supply on the market.

Russia is the world’s third-largest gold-producing country. Over much of the past decade, the rising price of gold made it a safe haven for investors put off by the volatility of stock markets. But in 2013, gold prices began to fall, and many market forecasters today think this trend is set to continue – due in part to a glut of gold on the market. Russian gold producers remain undeterred. 

By the end of 2013, for the first time in 25 years, Russia surpassed the U.S. in the total output of mined gold, reaching third place among gold-producing countries. Gold mining in Russia has been growing rapidly in recent years. According to the Federal State Statistics Service, also known as Rosstat, the amount of mined gold was 12% in 2013 and 7% in 2012.

According to the Russian Gold Producers Union, gold extraction and production in the first half of 2014 increased 27% in comparison with the same period the previous year and exceeded 116.7 tons. 

“We see that the consumption of physical gold is stable,” says Nikolai Zelensky, general director of Nordgold. “It is mostly consumed by developing countries such as China and India.” 

In his words, for example, China’s demand for gold in 2014 is approximately 1,000 tons a year, which is about 25% of world consumption. 

“Bearing in mind that Russia has a series of projects that gold producers must implement in 2014-2015, gold production in Russia will continue growing in the upcoming four or five years,” adds Mr. Zelensky. 

Russian regions continue increasing their gold extraction. In particular, according to Vladimir Pechenyi, governor of the Magadan Region (the main gold-producing region in the Far East), the development of ore deposits will help the region mine up to 80 tons of gold a year. By comparison, in 2014, the region plans to mine only 24 tons. 

The increase in volume has done nothing to reverse the sharp fall in the price of gold in recent years. From 2012 to 2013, the average price of gold decreased 24%, while silver fell 38%. 

In his interview with the Kommersant business newspaper, CEO of Polymetal Vitaly Nesis stated that if the market price for gold falls below $1,000 an ounce, some production operations will have to be closed. 

According to Mr. Nesis, economic incentive to launch new enterprises only exists only when the price of gold rises to $1,500-$1,600 an ounce. Therefore the recovery of the market will take place only after a worldwide reduction in the production of gold and silver, Mr. Nesis concludes. Hmmm....Ok .....you are forewarned.

China, gold prices & US default threats....Where there is Smoke there's 'Tungsten Gold bars?'

China, gold prices and US default threats...."Where there is Smoke there's 'Tungsten Gold bars?'(RT).

Since August 1971, when US President Richard Nixon unilaterally tore up the Bretton Woods Treaty of 1944 and told the world that the Federal Reserve ‘gold window’ was permanently closed, Wall Street banks and US and City of London financial powers have done everything imaginable to prevent gold from again becoming the basis of trust in a currency. 

On Friday, October 11, when there was no sign of any deal between US Congress members and the Obama White House that would end the government shutdown, the Chicago CME Group, which operates Comex - the Chicago Commodity Exchange, where contracts in gold derivatives are traded - announced that at 8:42am Eastern time the trading was halted for 10 seconds after a safety mechanism was triggered because a 2-million-ounce (56.7 million grams) gold futures sell order was executed.

Something rotten in gold market.  

The result of that huge paper gold sale was that at just the time when a possible US government debt default would send investors in a panic rush to the safety of buying gold, instead, the price plunged $30 an ounce to a three-month low of $1,259.60 an ounce. Market insiders believe the reason was direct market manipulation.

David Govett, head of precious metals at bullion broker Marex Spectron, calls the sudden huge futures sale suspicious. 
"These moves are becoming more and more prevalent and to my mind have to either be the work of someone attempting to manipulate the market or someone who really shouldn’t be trusted with the sums of money they are throwing around. There are ways of entering and exiting a market so that minimum damage is caused and whoever is entering these orders has no intention of doing that," Govett said.
UBS gold trader Art Cashin echoed the suspicion. 
“…if that happens once it could be an accident of technology, or it could be a simple error. But when it happens five times over a period of months, it does raise questions. Is it being done purposefully? Is somebody trying to influence the market?” 


That ‘someone’ market sources believe is the Obama White House, in league with the Federal Reserve and key Wall Street banks that would be ruined were gold to really rise.

Hmmmm.......According to unofficial calculations, the Peoples’ Bank of China today holds about 3,500 tons of monetary gold, surpassing Germany, to make it number two in the world after the Federal Reserve.

And there are grave doubts whether the Federal Reserve actually holds the 8,044 tons of gold it claims it does. 

The former International Monetary Fund director, France’s Dominique Straus-Kahn, demanded an independent audit of the Federal Reserve gold after the US refused to deliver to the IMF 191 tons of gold agreed to under the IMF Articles of Agreement signed by the Executive Board in April 1978 to back Special Drawing Rights issuance.

Immediately before he could rush back to Paris, he was hit by a bizarre hotel sex scandal and abruptly forced to resign. 

Straus-Kahn had been shown a secret Russian intelligence report prepared for President Vladimir Putin in which ‘rogue’ CIA agents revealed that the US Federal Reserve had no gold reserves and only lied that it did.

The stakes for Washington and Wall Street in depressing the gold price are staggering. Were gold to soar to $10,000 or more, where many believe current demand-supply pressures would find it, there would be a panic selloff of the dollar and of US Treasury bonds. China now holds a record $3.7 trillion of foreign currency reserves and the US Treasury bonds and bills are about half that.

That selloff would send US interest rates sky-high, forcing a chain-reaction of corporate and personal bankruptcies that have been avoided since the financial crisis broke in 2007 only owing to record near-zero Federal Reserve interest rates. That selloff, in turn, would be the end of the US as the world’s sole superpower. Little wonder the Obama Administration is manipulating gold. It cannot last very long at this pace, however. Read the full story here.


Like Nessie these 'Stories' pop up once in a while:



Related: Hmmm.....Flashback: MFS - The Other News - March 26 th :  "Not everything that shines is Gold !" Tungsten Filled 1 kilo Gold Bar Discovered in UK.
Within mere hours of this scam being identified – Chinese officials had many of the perpetrators in custody.
And here’s what the Chinese allegedly uncovered: Roughly 15 years ago – during the Clinton Administration [think Robert Rubin, Sir Alan Greenspan and Lawrence Summers] – between 1.3 and 1.5 million 400 oz tungsten blanks were allegedly manufactured by a very high-end, sophisticated refiner in the USA [more than 16 Thousand metric tonnes]. Subsequently, 640,000 of these tungsten blanks received their gold plating and WERE shipped to Ft. Knox and remain there to this day. I know folks who have copies of the original shipping docs with dates and exact weights of “tungsten” bars shipped to Ft. Knox.

Another "Swiss Gold Bars Scam" discovered - Tungsten-Filled 10 Oz Gold Bar Found In The Middle Of Manhattan's Jewelry District.

Video - Canadian Billionaire Ned Goodman Predicts End Of U.S. Dollar As World’s Reserve Currency.

Flashback:

"CHANGE" - Currency war Brics’opening move to unseat US dollar as trade currency.

Scam Complete: The US Government Takes A Page From Diocletian’s Book.

Scam Complete: The US Government Takes A Page From Diocletian’s Book.(SovereignManblog).By Simon Black.

Early in the 4th century, Emperor Diocletian issued an infamous decree to control spiraling wages and prices in the rapidly deteriorating Roman Empire.As part of his edict, Diocletian commanded that any merchant or customer caught violating the new price structures would be put to death.

This is an important lesson from history, and a trend that has been repeated numerous times. When nations are in terminal economic decline, governments will stop at nothing to keep the party going just a little bit longer.
I thought of Diocletian’s desperation a few days ago when I read about the recent sanctions imposed on US rating agency Egan-Jones. It’s a similar story–
For years, major rating agencies (S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch) have championed the outright fraud of our financial system by pinning pristine credit ratings on insolvent governments and their heavily inflated currencies.
In doing so, the rating agencies are effectively claiming that the greatest debtor that has ever existed in the history of the world is nearly ‘risk-free’.
Clearly this is a ridiculous assertion. With a debt level over 100% of GDP, the US is so broke that the government must borrow money just to pay interest on the money it’s already borrowed. They’ve lost over a trillion dollars a year since 2008, yet they still spend money on things like drones and body scanners. It’s crazy.
As with any good scam, the government must maintain public confidence. The moment someone says ‘the Emperor has no clothes,’ that shallow, fragile confidence will come crashing down and expose the scam. Dissent must be vigorously and swiftly pursued.
So when S&P finally downgraded the US one notch in August 2011, the SEC and Justice Department announced that S&P was under investigation, just two weeks later.
Egan-Jones, a smaller rating agency, has been even more aggressive, downgrading the US credit rating three times in 18 months. And while the federal government may not have imposed Diocletian’s death penalty, they are just as willing to squash dissent.
In a country that churns out thousands of pages of new regulations each week, it’s easy to find a reason to go after someone. As you read this letter, in fact, you are probably in violation of at least a dozen regulatory offenses.
In the case of Egan-Jones, the SEC brought administrative action against the agency within two weeks of their second downgrade. And a few days ago, the case was settled.
I’m sure you have already guessed the ending: Egan-Jones is banned from for the next 18 months from rating US government debt. They’ve effectively been silenced from telling the truth.
The lesson here is obvious. Just as in Roman times, bankrupt nations today will stop at nothing to keep up the scam just a little bit longer.
Given that all this is happening at a time when Congress is voting to suspend the debt ceiling entirely, these actions are the clearest sign yet of just how desperate the government has become.
Could the warning signs be any more obvious?Hmmmm.....They know their Pyramid scam is crumbling that's why they want your weapons, cause when it does 'explode' they'll have to face 250 million plus angry, hungry and well armed Americans.Hey.... they might even stock up a billion plus hollow point bullets.....Oh wait they have.Read the full story here.

Video - Currency World War looms as Japan, China, US & Europe decline.

"Deutsche Gründlichkeit" - Germany to repatriate gold from US and France.

"Deutsche Gründlichkeit" -  Germany to repatriate gold from US and France.(RT).Germany’s central bank is set to reclaim some of its vast gold reserves held in the US and France, a German daily reported. The move follows an audit criticizing Bundesbank for mismanagement, stating the funds had never been “verified physically.”
Bundesbank voiced plans to withdraw its entire 450-ton store of gold bullion from the Bank of France in Paris, and a portion of the 1,500 tons currently held by the New York Federal Reserve, Handelsblatt reported.
The German government refrained from commenting on the reports ahead of its presentation of a new plan for the management of its gold reserves on Wednesday. Germany boasts the world’s second-largest bullion reserves at 270,000 gold bars ($177.5 billion), second only to the US.
Germany’s gold stockpile was relocated abroad during the Cold War amid fears of a possible Soviet invasion. There is no reason now to maintain overseas stockpiles, Bundesbank said – from now on, the bank will only keep small amounts of gold abroad for trading purposes.
About 30 percent of Germany’s gold reserves are currently being held in the country at the facilities of Frankfurt-based Bundesbank.
The move follows a damning report by the German Court of Auditors criticizing the management of Bundesbank’s foreign bullion stockpiles. Auditors said that the stores “had never been verified physically,” and were not under proper control.
Bundesbank was taken aback by the criticism, stressing there was no need for speculation on Germany’s overseas holdings and that "there is no doubt about the integrity of the foreign storage sites." The central bank is widely regarded as one of the most trustworthy institutions in German society.
Veteran gold dealer Jim Sinclair said that Bundesbank’s strategy marked a change in trends in the global gold market, heralding a move away from paper administration of funds.Read the full story here.

Related:  "German Efficiency" - Germany will physically inspect its gold reserves worldwide.

"Deutsche Gründlichkeit" - Why Germany Wants to See its US Gold.

Germans want to Check the 'fed reserve' Vaults about Their Foreign Gold Reserves.

Will the 'Gold Standard' make a comeback to the U.S. in 2013?

Will the 'Gold Standard' make a comeback to the U.S. in 2013?

Will the 'Gold Standard' make a comeback to the U.S. in 2013?(Yahoo).By Oliver Hirt and Caroline Copley.

Divisible gold 'Combibar' can easily be broken into one gram pieces and used as payment in emergency

Private investors in Switzerland, Austria and Germany are lining up to buy gold bars the size of a credit card that can easily be broken into one gram pieces and used as payment in an emergency.
Now Swiss refinery Valcambi, a unit of U.S. mining giant Newmont, wants to bring its "CombiBar" to market in the United States and build up its sales presence.
India - the world's largest consumer of gold where the precious metal has long served as a parallel currency. Investors worried that inflation and financial market turmoil will wipe out the value of their cash have poured money into gold over the past decade.
Prices have gained almost 500 percent since 2001 compared to a 12 percent increase in MSCI's world equity index. Investors worried that inflation and financial market turmoil will wipe out the value of their cash have poured money into gold over the past decade.
Sales of gold bars and coins were worth almost $77 billion in 2011, up from just $3.5 billion in 2002, according to data from the World Gold Council.
"The rich are buying standard bars or have deposits of phsyical gold. People that have less money are buying up to 100 grams," said Michael Mesaric, CEO of Valcambi "But for many people a pure investment product is no longer enough. They want to be able to do something with the precious metal."

Mesaric said the advantage of the "CombiBar" - which has been dubbed a "chocolate bar" because pieces can be easily broken off by hand into one gram squares - is that it can be easily transported and costs less than buying 50 one gram bars.
"The produce can also be used as an alternative method of payment," he said.
Valcambi is building a sales network in India and plans to launch the CombiBar on the U.S. market next year. In Japan, it wants to focus on CombiBars made of platinum and palladium.Since the launch of the machines, which operate under the name "GOLD to go", 50,000 customers have withdrawn more than 21 million euros in gold. The average buyer is male, over 50 years old and well off.Read the full story here.

Related:  Virginia introducing Bill to return to Gold and Silver standard in case of Federal Reserve System breakdown.
The US Treasury, Federal Reserve and the FDIC Mulling New Gold Regulation; ‘May be biggest event in gold market since US dropped gold standard’

"Deutsche Gründlichkeit" - Why Germany Wants to See its US Gold.

"Deutsche Gründlichkeit" - Why Germany Wants to See its US Gold.(Spiegel).By By Sven Böll and Anne Seith.Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann wanted to personally convince Peter Gauweiler that the German gold was still where it should be. Early this summer, the head of Germany's central bank took the obstinate politician from the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), a party that is a member of the government coalition in Berlin, and a number of his colleagues into the Bundesbank's inner sanctum: the gold vault.
There, 6,000 gold bars are stacked on industrial-strength shelves in a purpose-built building in Frankfurt. An additional 76,000 bars of bullion are stored in four safe boxes, in sealed containers.

But even this personal inspection wasn't enough to reassure the visiting member of parliament -- on the contrary: "The Bundesbank monitors its domestic gold in an exemplary fashion," Gauweiler says, "and this makes it all the more incomprehensible that the bank doesn't look after its reserves abroad."
For quite some time now, Gauweiler has been pestering the government and the Bundesbank with questions concerning where and how the country's reserves are stored, and how often they are checked. He has submitted requests and commissioned reports on the topic.
Last week, Gauweiler celebrated his greatest triumph to date in his gold campaign, which has been a source of some amusement for many fellow German politicians: A secret report by the Federal Audit Office had been made public -- and it contained stern criticism of the German central bank in Frankfurt. The Bonn-based auditors urged a better inventory system, including quality checks.
This demand, which even the bank's inspectors saw as nothing more than routine, alarmed the Berlin political establishment. Indeed, the partially blacked-out report read like the prologue to an espionage thriller in which the stunned central bankers could end up standing in front of empty vaults in the US.

For decades, German central bankers have contented themselves with written affirmations from their American colleagues that the gold still remains where it is said to be stored. According to the report, the bar list from New York stems from "1979/1980."
The report also noted that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York refuses to allow the gold's owners to view their own reserves.
Not surprisingly, this prompted strong reactions in Berlin:
The relevant Bundesbank board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele was summoned to Berlin to provide an explanation to the parliamentary budget committee. Heinz-Peter Haustein of the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP) was even quoted by Germany's mass-circulation Bild newspaper as saying that "all the gold has to be shipped back."

There is in fact nothing unusual about how Germany deals with the precious metal. Many other central banks store a portion of their gold reserves abroad. The Netherlands, for example, places its trust in its colleagues in Ottawa, New York and London.
But the relationship Germans have with their gold is a special one. Germany hoards nearly 3,600 metric tons of the precious metal -- only the US has more. 
Much of this gold treasure was amassed under the Bretton Woods international monetary system, in which the dollar served as the world's key currency and was directly convertible to fixed quantities of gold.
Before the gold standard was terminated in 1971, the current account surpluses generated by Germany's "economic miracle" were partially balanced out in gold. Thousands of US bars of gold alone were transferred to German ownership.
But since the euro is not backed by gold, such vast reserves are actually no longer necessary. Nevertheless, the Germans continue to resolutely defend them -- and every attempt to use this treasure has been met with dismay.

Finally, in 2007, "following numerous enquiries," Bundesbank staff members were allowed to see the facility, but they reportedly only made it to the anteroom of the German reserves.
In fact, auditors from the Bundesbank made a second visit in May 2011. This time one of the nine compartments was also opened, in which the German gold bars are densely stacked. A few were pulled out and weighed. But this part of the report has been blacked out -- out of consideration for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
"I would like more transparency on the issue," says Bundesbank board member Thiele. The Americans are very sensitive, though, when it comes to security procedures in their gold storage facilities. In their second major depository, the legendary Fort Knox, practically no one in recent decades has been allowed to view the gold reserves.Read the full story here.

"Gold Confiscation Coming?" - The Terrifying Line in Obama's Speech That Everyone Missed.

"Gold Confiscation Coming?" - The Terrifying Line in Obama's Speech That Everyone Missed.(NI). Obama said he'd create a million new manufacturing jobs, recruit another 100,000 math and science teachers, cut tuition growth in half, and reform the tax code. All by magic, apparently, since he's provided no detailed plans on any of this. But while everyone was picking apart these and other flaws in Obama's speech, they overlooked the most frightening line of all. That was when Obama promised that he'd pursue "the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that Franklin Roosevelt pursued during the only crisis worse than this one." That promise might have made liberal hearts swoon.
But as Amity Shlaes explained in her outstanding history of the era — "The Forgotten Man" — it was precisely FDR's "bold, persistent experimentation" that was largely to blame for the length, depth and severity of the Great Depression.
Convinced that the government had to do something, FDR tinkered and experimented, she said, figuring that if he didn't "get it right the first time ... maybe he'd get it right the second time." But the very arbitrariness of FDR's actions, she found, made it impossible for businesses to make plans. And so, as FDR's bold experiments increased, business activity decreased and markets froze. "From the point of view of a business," Shlaes said in a 2009 interview, "it is annihilating to hear Washington uncertain, and that itself retards recovery because you really don't know what to expect." If Obama wants to conduct experiments, he should get a job as a high school science teacher, and not use the entire nation as guinea pigs, particularly when we already know how his tests will turn out.Hmmmm.........Executive Order 6102 is an Executive Order signed on April 5, 1933, by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt "forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates within the continental United States". The order criminalized the possession of monetary gold by any individual, partnership, association or corporation.Read the full story here.

The US Treasury, Federal Reserve and the FDIC Mulling New Gold Regulation; ‘May be biggest event in gold market since US dropped gold standard’

The US Treasury, Federal Reserve and the FDIC Mulling New Gold Regulation; ‘May be biggest event in gold market since US dropped gold standard’.(SR).See also: Bank of International Settlements: Gold Becomes a Tier 1 Asset Class for Banks, A Stabilizing Mechanism‎
Is gold safe or dangerous now?
US authorities have recently called for comment on a rule change that may impact the gold market.
The US Treasury, Federal Reserve and the FDIC have jointly sought comment on changing some capital adequacy rules for when an institution holds gold in its own vaults or in another’s vaults.
According to the draft documents released, when gold is currently held as an asset, it is risk weighted at 15% – that is, a 15% haircut is taken on its current value for capital adequacy calculations. (See page 86 of the attached Federal Reserve document.)
However, in this same document, they are proposing that there be no (zero) discount.
That would then put gold on the same basis as cash.Fans of gold are taking an interest in this potential development. As Greene notes: “It may be one of the most important events in the gold market since the US abandoned the gold standard.”Read the full story here.

Related? Societe Generale: Gold Could Surge Over 500%


Related - Buyer beware ! MFS - The Other News : 

This bar was purchased by staff of a scrap dealer in xxxxx, UK yesterday. The bar appeared to be perfect other than the fact that it was 2gms underweight. It was checked by hand-held xrf and showed 99.98% Au. Being Tungsten, it would not be ferro-magnetic. The bar was supplied with the original certificate. The owner of the business that purchased the bar only became suspicious when he realized the weight discrepancy and had the bar cropped. He estimates between 30-40% of the weight of the bar to be Tungsten.

The amount of “salted tungsten” gold bars in question was allegedly between 5,600 and 5,700 – 400 oz – good delivery bars [roughly 60 metric tonnes].
This was apparently all highly orchestrated by an extremely well financed criminal operation.

Within mere hours of this scam being identified – Chinese officials had many of the perpetrators in custody.
And here’s what the Chinese allegedly uncovered:
Roughly 15 years ago – during the Clinton Administration [think Robert Rubin, Sir Alan Greenspan and Lawrence Summers] – between 1.3 and 1.5 million 400 oz tungsten blanks were allegedly manufactured by a very high-end, sophisticated refiner in the USA [more than 16 Thousand metric tonnes]. Subsequently, 640,000 of these tungsten blanks received their gold plating and WERE shipped to Ft. Knox and remain there to this day. I know folks who have copies of the original shipping docs with dates and exact weights of “tungsten” bars shipped to Ft. Knox.Read the full story here.

"Not everything that shines is Gold !" Tungsten Filled 1 kilo Gold Bar Discovered in UK.

"Not everything that shines is Gold !"Tungsten Filled 1 kilo Gold Bar Discovered in UK.(SD).Australian Bullion Dealer ABC Bullion has contacted SD to advise that one of its suppliers has provided them photographic evidence of a tungsten filled 1 kilo gold bar discovered this week. The bar passed a hand-held xrf scan which showed 99.98% pure AU. The tungsten was only discovered when the bar was physically cut in half. After numerous reports of 400oz tungsten filled bars being discovered in Hong Kong, this is the first documented and verified report with photographic evidence that has been made public.
Submitted by Australian Bullion Dealer ABC Bullion:
Attached are photographs of a legitimate Metalor 1000gm Au bar that has been drilled out and filled with Tungsten (W). This bar was purchased by staff of a scrap dealer in xxxxx, UK yesterday. The bar appeared to be perfect other than the fact that it was 2gms underweight. It was checked by hand-held xrf and showed 99.98% Au. Being Tungsten, it would not be ferro-magnetic. The bar was supplied with the original certificate. The owner of the business that purchased the bar only became suspicious when he realized the weight discrepancy and had the bar cropped. He estimates between 30-40% of the weight of the bar to be Tungsten.

The amount of “salted tungsten” gold bars in question was allegedly between 5,600 and 5,700 – 400 oz – good delivery bars [roughly 60 metric tonnes].
This was apparently all highly orchestrated by an extremely well financed criminal operation.

Within mere hours of this scam being identified – Chinese officials had many of the perpetrators in custody.
And here’s what the Chinese allegedly uncovered:
Roughly 15 years ago – during the Clinton Administration [think Robert Rubin, Sir Alan Greenspan and Lawrence Summers] – between 1.3 and 1.5 million 400 oz tungsten blanks were allegedly manufactured by a very high-end, sophisticated refiner in the USA [more than 16 Thousand metric tonnes]. Subsequently, 640,000 of these tungsten blanks received their gold plating and WERE shipped to Ft. Knox and remain there to this day. I know folks who have copies of the original shipping docs with dates and exact weights of “tungsten” bars shipped to Ft. Knox.Read the full story here.

The Federal Reserve’s Explicit Goal: Devalue The Dollar 33%

The Federal Reserve’s Explicit Goal: Devalue The Dollar 33%.(BI).The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) has made it official: After its latest two day meeting, it announced its goal to devalue the dollar by 33% over the next 20 years. The debauch of the dollar will be even greater if the Fed exceeds its goal of a 2 percent per year increase in the price level.
An increase in the price level of 2% in any one year is barely noticeable. Under a gold standard, such an increase was uncommon, but not unknown. The difference is that when the dollar was as good as gold, the years of modest inflation would be followed, in time, by declining prices. As a consequence, over longer periods of time, the price level was unchanged. A dollar 20 years hence was still worth a dollar.
But, an increase of 2% a year over a period of 20 years will lead to a 50% increase in the price level. It will take 150 (2032) dollars to purchase the same basket of goods 100 (2012) dollars can buy today. What will be called the “dollar” in 2032 will be worth one-third less (100/150) than what we call a dollar today.
The Fed’s zero interest rate policy accentuates the negative consequences of this steady erosion in the dollar’s buying power by imposing a negative return on short-term bonds and bank deposits. In effect, the Fed has announced a course of action that will steal — there is no better word for it — nearly 10 percent of the value of Americans’ hard earned savings over the next 4 years.
Why target an annual 2 percent decline in the dollar’s value instead of price stability? Here is the Fed’s answer:
“The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) judges that inflation at the rate of 2 percent (as measured by the annual change in the price index for personal consumption expenditures, or PCE) is most consistent over the longer run with the Federal Reserve’s mandate for price stability and maximum employment. Over time, a higher inflation rate would reduce the public’s ability to make accurate longer-term economic and financial decisions. On the other hand, a lower inflation rate would be associated with an elevated probability of falling into deflation, which means prices and perhaps wages, on average, are falling — a phenomenon associated with very weak economic conditions. Having at least a small level of inflation makes it less likely that the economy will experience harmful deflation if economic conditions weaken. The FOMC implements monetary policy to help maintain an inflation rate of 2 percent over the medium term.”In other words, a gradual destruction of the dollar’s value is the best the FOMC can do.Here’s why: First, the Fed believes that manipulation of interest rates and the value of the dollar can reduce unemployment rates.The results of the past 40 years say the opposite.
The Fed’s finger prints in the form of monetary manipulation are all over the dozen financial crises and spikes in unemployment we have experienced since abandoning the gold standard in 1971. The financial crisis of 2008, caused in no small part by the Fed’s efforts to stimulate the economy by keeping interest rates too low for, as it turned out, way too long is but the latest example of the Fed failing to fulfill its mandate to achieve either price stability or full employment.
The Fed’s most recent experience with Quantitative Easing also belies the entire notion that monetary manipulation can spur the economy. Between November 2010 and June 2011, the Fed tried to spur economic growth by purchasing $600 billion in Treasury securities, flooding the banking system with reserves and keeping interest rates low. In response the economy, which had been growing at a 3.4% annual rate, slowed to a 1% annual rate in the first half of 2011. Once the Fed stopped supplying all of that liquidity, economic growth in the second half of the year accelerated to a 2.3% annual rate.
Second, the Fed does not use real time indicators of the price level. Instead, it views inflation through the rear view mirror of the trailing increases in the PCE. And, even when it had evidence of rising inflation — as it did in the first quarter of last year — it chose to temporize, betting that the spike in inflation would prove temporary.This spike in inflation did prove temporary, as Fed Chairman Bernanke predicted at the time, but not for the reasons — a slack economy — that he cited. Instead, the growing debt crisis in Europe led to a massive shift in deposits out of the euro and into the dollar — an event totally out of the Fed’s control. Yet, this increase in the demand for dollars was far more important than any action taken by the Fed because it increased the value of the dollar and produced a slowdown in the inflation rate.
What we are left with is a trial and error monetary system that depends on the best judgment of 19 men and women who meet every six weeks around a big table at the Federal Reserve in Washington. At the end of a day and a half of discussions, 11 of them vote on what to do next. The error the members of the FOMC fear most when they vote is deflation. So, they have built in a 2% margin of error.
Given the crudeness of the tools the FOMC uses to set monetary policy, allowing for such a margin of error is no doubt prudent. For example, when the economy slowed in the first half of last year, inflation picked up, accelerating to a 6.1% annual rate during the second quarter. And, when the economic growth accelerated in the second half, inflation slowed. These results are the precise opposite of what the Fed’s playbook says are supposed to happen.
The best the Fed can do — an average debauch in the dollar’s value of 2% a year while producing recurring financial crises and a more cyclical economy — is demonstrably inferior to the results produced by the classical gold standard. Here’s just one example. The largest gold discovery of modern times set off the 1849 California gold rush and increased the supply of gold in the world faster than the increase in the output of goods and services. The price level in the US did increase by12.4 percent over the next 8 years. That translates into an average of just 1.5% a year. The gold standard at its worst was better than the best the Fed now promises to do with the paper dollar.
The Fed’s best is hardly good enough. The time has arrived for the American people to demand something far better — a dollar as good as gold.
Regards,
Charles Kadlec,
for The Daily Reckoning.

MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• HT:RightTruth.Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis to speak at the United Nations.Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis, founder and president of Hineni, the internationally renowned Torah outreach organization will be addressing audiences at the United Nations in New York City on Thursday, January 27th on the occasion of Holocaust Memorial Remembrance Day. This most special event is being sponsored by the International B'nai Brith organization to commemorate to the legacy of those who perished during the Holocaust and as a forum to address escalating global anti-Semitism and racism.In an interview granted to the Jewish media, Rebbetzin Jungreis disclosed the salient points of her upcoming address by saying, "The scourge of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial is growing at an alarming rate. The real tragedy is evidenced by the "screaming silence" of the international community, just as we heard during the nightmarish years of the Holocaust.Rebbetzin Jungreis said that she'll be speaking about her own personal experiences as a young child and that of her family during the Holocaust, when they were expelled from their home in Szeged, Hungary by the Nazis and deported to the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. "We often ask ourselves, how could a mass genocide of such monumental proportions take place during the 20th century in a place like Europe which epitomized the zenith of civilization; including the arts, culture and education. How could a scenario arise in which human beings could sink to a level of moral depravity that was lower than a ghastly beast. The world turned its collective back on the Jews and today we are witnessing the very same ominous signs once again," she intoned."Hitler's goal was the total annihilation of the Jewish people and he was quite open about it. Today we confront such maniacal despots as Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whose message of Holocaust denial is being embraced by purportedly civilized people. He, too, openly states his intentions of obliterating the State of Israel and all of its inhabitants, as his uranium enrichment programs aimed at building a formidable nuclear arsenal continue unabated", the Rebbetzin ruefully observed.NOTICE: This article has been updated and corrected, the date Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis, founder and president of Hineni, the internationally renowned Torah outreach organization will be addressing audiences at the United Nations in New York City on Thursday, January 27th on the occasion of Holocaust Memorial Remembrance Day.Hmmmm.....But how many are willing to listen,at the Islamic Nations?Read the full story here.

• The story of what started the revolution in Tunesia!Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia: Mohamed Bouazizi spent his whole life on a dusty, narrow street here, in a tiny, three-room house with a concrete patio where his mother hung the laundry and the red chilis to dry. By the time Mr. Bouazizi was 26, his work as a fruit vendor had earned him just enough money to feed his mother, uncle and five brothers and sisters at home. He dreamed about owning a van.Faida Hamdy, a 45-year-old municipal inspector in Sidi Bouzid, a police officer's daughter, was single, had a "strong personality" and an unblemished record, her supervisor said. She inspected buildings, investigated noise complaints and fined vendors like Mr. Bouazizi, whose itinerant trade may or may not have been legal; no one seems to know.On the morning of Dec. 17, when other vendors say Ms. Hamdy tried to confiscate Mr. Bouazizi's fruit, and then slapped him in the face for trying to yank back his apples, he became the hero -- now the martyred hero -- and she became the villain in a remarkable swirl of events in which Tunisians have risen up to topple a 23-year dictatorship and march on, demanding radical change in their government.The revolution has rippled beyond Tunisia, shaking other authoritarian Arab states, whose frustrated young people are often written off as complacent when faced with stifling bureaucracy and an impenetrable and intimidating security apparatus. That assumption was badly shaken with Mr. Bouazizi's reaction to his slap, and now a picture of him, in a black jacket with a wry smile, has become the revolution's icon.In a series of interviews, the other fruit vendors, officials and family members described the seemingly routine confrontation that had set off a revolution. They said that Mr. Bouazizi, embarrassed and angry, had wrestled with Ms. Hamdy and was beaten by two of her colleagues, who also took his electronic scale. He walked a few blocks to the municipal building, demanded his property, and was beaten again, they said. Then he walked to the governor's office, demanded an audience and was refused."She humiliated him," said his sister, Samia Bouazizi. "Everyone was watching."Sometime around noon, in the two-lane street in front of the governor's high gate, the vendor drenched himself in paint thinner then lit himself on fire. A doctor at the hospital where he was treated said the burns covered 90 percent of his body. By the time he died on Jan. 4, protests that started over Mr. Bouazizi's treatment in Sidi Bouzid had spread to cities throughout the country.On Jan. 14, the president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, fled the country.Hmmm.....Action leads to reaction?read the full story here.

• HT:HotAir.Breaking: Olbermann announces the end of “Countdown”; Update: Settled contract with MSNBC “late this week”; Update: “Stealth move”; Update: Real reason revealed?Why? No idea. There was no inkling of it on Google News earlier today. It sounds from the clip like he was let go, but he signed a four-year contract extension in 2008 so I’m not sure how the mechanics of firing him would work. Could be that he resigned, but there’s been no indication of which I’m aware that he was considering that. Unhappiness with Olby among MSNBC employees has been rumored for ages, and some speculated last year that Comcast might want to “rein in” MSNBC, but as I say, this is all just theorizing at the moment. In fact, even Mediaite, which should have access to insiders at MSNBC via Dan Abrams, only has the company’s vague official statement at the moment:“MSNBC and Keith Olbermann have ended their contract. The last broadcast of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” will be this evening. MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC’s success and we wish him well in his future endeavors.”Stand by for updates galore, no doubt.Read the full story here.

• New Twitter worm redirects to Fake AV!A new Twitter worm is spreading fast, using the “goo.gl” URL shortening service to distribute malicious links.The malicious links go through a number of redirections which are described below. The redirection chain may push Twitter users to a fake anti-virus (scareware) serving the “Security Shield” Rogue AV. The webpage is using exactly the same obfuscation techniques as a previous version (Security Tool), which is an implementation of RSA cryptography in JavaScript to obfuscate the page code.Our users are protected from this worm and all the URLS are being blacklisted in our products.Here are some of the technical details.Read the full story here.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.Eye on Extremism: Palestinian Islamic court forcibly divorces West Bank Ahmadi Muslim couple after declaring them 'apostates'.TULKAREM, West Bank -- For more than a year, a Palestinian couple belonging to an Islamic sect rejected by many mainstream Muslims endured insults from some of their neighbors and even death threats while struggling to maintain a quiet existence in this West Bank town.As word spread about them, things got worse. A local Islamic court branded them apostates and dissolved their marriage. The couple, Mohammed and Samah Alawneh, now live in legal limbo.Their plight demonstrates the tensions between a still largely conservative Palestinian society and a Western-backed government expected by the international community to ensure democratic freedoms.The government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is dominated by secular elites and frequently cracks down on hard-line Muslims connected to its militant Islamic rival, Hamas. The seat of Abbas' government, the vibrant West Bank city of Ramallah, is dotted with bars, liquor stores and night clubs frequented by secular Muslims, although consuming alcohol is strictly forbidden in Islam.At the same time, the Palestinian Authority - trying to build toward a state that would include the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip - has shown there are limits to its religious tolerance.Late last year, Palestinian police arrested a self-proclaimed atheist blogger for insulting Islam in his posts, and the man is still in custody. The Alawnehs are members of the Ahmadi sect, an Islamic offshoot whose members are often branded traitors and face persecution in the Muslim world. Another couple - the husband is Ahmadi, the wife is not - is facing the same proceedings."It's like we are still living in the Middle Ages," said Mohammed Alawneh, 35. "They are deciding whether you are a believer or not. Whether you'll go to heaven or hell - and whether you are an apostate."Followers of the Islamic Ahmadi Community are shunned by many mainstream Muslims because they recognize a 19th-century cleric as their prophet. A central tenet of Islam is that the Muhammad was the last prophet sent by God.There are believed to be more than 4 million [Updated estimates: 160MM] Ahmadis worldwide, most of them in South Asia but also with large communities in Africa and Europe. They frequently face isolation and persecution, particularly in Pakistan, where last year two of their mosques were bombed and 97 people were killed.A few dozen Ahmadi converts live in the West Bank, whose 2.5 million-strong Palestinian population is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, said the local Ahmadi leader, Sheik Mohammed Sharif.Cases involving Ahmadis, who have lived in the West Bank in small numbers for decades, have rarely been pursued - until now, lawyers said.The Alawnehs converted to the Ahmadi sect separately six years ago, marrying in 2009. Both faced insults and death threats from Muslim preachers when news of their conversions filtered out, they said. Mohammed's family renounced them. Some of Samah's colleagues at the university where she works shun her, though others do not.Then last year, a prosecutor in the local Islamic court, which regulates Muslim marriages, filed a complaint against them, accusing them of apostasy. They were found guilty in August, according to documents the couple showed The Associated Press.The court forcibly divorced the couple by canceling their marriage registration, because they were no longer considered Muslims.The Alawnehs say the complaint against them was initiated by Mohammed Alawneh's first wife, who was upset by his decision to take another wife. Islamic law permits a man to have up to four wives.The Palestinian Authority does not authorize civil marriage. All marriages must be registered with the government-funded Islamic courts or a Christian church.That means that the couple have no chance of ever legalizing their marriage in the West Bank, said their lawyer, Gandi Rabai. The couple may go abroad to marry, but so far, they have chosen to try to battle the issue in Palestinian courts, believing it is their right to marry freely in the West Bank, Rabai said.Expecting their first child later this year, they will not be able to register the baby with the Palestinian Interior Ministry - meaning the child cannot go to public school or qualify for medical care. The child will be scorned as illegitimate if they remain unmarried.The Islamic courts are also pursuing a case against Maher Salahat, a 34-year-old married father of five who belongs to the Ahmadi sect. They accuse him of apostasy and seek to divorce him from his wife, who is a Sunni Muslim. The case is still being investigated, Salahat said.Reem Shanti, the prosecutor who pressed charges against the Alawnehs, and other Islamic courts officials refused to comment.Mahmoud Habbash, the Palestinian Authority's Religious Affairs Minister, who oversees the courts, said he could not interfere in judicial affairs. Habbash said he had no solution to the couple's legal dead-end over registering their marriage in the West Bank.Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib said the Palestinian basic law, a forerunner to a constitution, guarantees freedom of expression and religious belief, but that the Islamic courts rule over civil issues such as marriage and divorce. There is no criminal punishment for being declared an apostate, he said.The Alawnehs said they would take their case all the way to the Palestinian Supreme Court. They said they feared a dangerous precedent has been set that could engulf not only people with unconventional religious views, but also the many non-practicing Muslims in the West Bank."If they open the door to declaring people apostates, anybody could accuse anybody," said the young woman, her hair covered with a Muslim headscarf, her eyes widening in fear. "But I believe I follow the real Islam. They can't break open my heart to see if I believe or not."Hmmmm....."Islam the Religion of Peace".Read the full story here.

• HT:IHateTheMedia.Top 10 places Hawaiian governor should look for Obama’s birth certificate.Hawaii’s new Democrat Governor Neil Abercrombie promised to find President Barack Obama’s birth certificate so that we, as a nation, could put to rest, once and for all, rumors that that he is not a U.S. citizen and therefore, fit – and “fit,” to be sure, is to be taken very loosely in any case – to serve as the Commander in Chief.But now comes the shocking – totally shocking – news that Governor has been unable to locate that pesky original birth certificate.Wherever could it be?There has to be a logical explanation, right?Well, IHateTheMedia.com to the rescue.We’re offering Governor Abercrombie the top ten places he should look for the document.Read the full story here.

• HT:AmnonAndJonathan.Is Israel becoming Iran's southern border ?An agreement was reportedly made between the March 8 forces backed by Syria and Democratic Gathering leader MP Walid Jumblat for his bloc to give seven votes for the opposition's nominee for the premier's post, Omar Karami, amid efforts to guarantee a eighth MP.An Nahar daily quoted March 14 forces as saying Saturday that Democratic Gathering MPs who are not members of Jumblat's Progressive Socialist Party have informed him that they would nominate caretaker Premier Saad Hariri. They are: Mohammed al-Hajjar, Fouad al-Saad, Henri Helou, Marwan Hamadeh and Antoine Saad.An Nahar said that Jumblat guaranteed that only five party members -- in addition to a sixth who could be MP Elie Aoun -- would vote for Karami.The remaining six ministers stand by Hariri, the daily said.Read the full story here. More here.

• Tony Blair: West must prepare to confront Iran.Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged the west to confront Iran with force in order to face the "looming and coming challenge" from Iran, reported French news agency AFP on Saturday."It [Iran] has to be confronted and changed. Iran is a looming challenge. It is negative and destabilizing. It supports terrorists," said Blair on Friday during his remarks at the Chilcot inquiry, the British inquiry into the war in Iraq."I say this to you with all of the passion I possibly can -- at some point the West has to get out of what I think is a wretched policy or posture of apology for believing that we are causing what the Iranians are doing, or what these extremists are doing," said Blair who serves as the Quartet representative to the Middle East.Blair stated that he could see the "impact and the influence of Iran everywhere." His comments came as Iran began a second round of talks on Saturday in Istanbul with six world powers over its nuclear program.During a press briefing in Washington, Crowley stated that the US is pursuing a "two-track strategy" toward Iran:"We are putting pressure on Iran. We think that pressure is having an impact. Iran is not in full compliance with international obligations. Iran remains arguably the leading international state sponsor of terrorism. Iran is undermining the international community’s efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East. These are all true. And we are willing to engage Iran to begin to address all of these issues," Crowley said.He added, "We’re in Istanbul, engaged with Iran to try to see if we can’t resolve the nuclear file. We are perfectly willing to move into other areas. And if we have the opportunity to engage Iran, we’ll continue to express our concerns about other things. But we’re not putting all of our eggs in one basket. We are willing to engage Iran, but we’re realistic." Hmmmm........What's the role and position of Turkey in all this?Get Turkey out of NATO!Read the full story here.

• HT:InfidelBloggers(Epaminondas).The Ghadir Iranian Domestic Sub? Iran paying North Korea for development of midget submarines.Western intelligence sources said Iran and North Korea have exchanged technology and expertise on the development and assembly of so-called midget submarines. They said Iran has provided financing for North Korean development as well as tested several prototypes since 2008. “The arrangement is simple: Iran pays for North Korean development and gets the first platforms off the production line,” an intelligence source said.The sources said Iran has been testing North Korean-developed midget submarines with attack capabilities. They said Pyongyang has produced the Daedong-B, which measures 17 meters and designed to contain torpedos. Daedong-B, with a width of four meters and height of two 2.2 meters, was tested in North Korea in 2010. The sources said North Korea invited Iranian Navy and defense officials for briefings on the submarine trials.“As has been amply demonstrated by the navies of North Korea and Iran, these small vessels make good platforms for ambushes even at submerged depths of 150 feet, enough room for the midget submersible to maneuver,” the U.S. consultant, Forecast International, said.“These submarines cannot travel too far on their own, and depend on support vessels to extend their range. However, in their shallow water element where sonar returns are cluttered, they can prove quiet and deadly. Their capabilities include the ability to lay mines or insert commandos on beaches.”Hmmmm.....A really peace full nation,only for self defence and stealth purposes?Read the full story here,video here.

• Jordanian protests gather pace.AMMAN: Jordan's opposition has vowed continual protests over price increases and inflation until resignation of the prime minister and his government.More than 5,000 people from across the political spectrum, including the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, the left wing groups and the trade unions staged Friday what they called a “Day of Rage” in the Jordanian capital of Amman and in the northern town of Irbid.They demanded Prime Minister Samir Rifai step down and for Jordanians to be able to elect their prime minister and other ministers rather than having them appointed by King Abdallah.Streets protests have mounted over the past week, spurred on by Tunisia's example, and despite government moves to lower the prices on basic goods and fuel. “(Prime Minister Samir) Rifai, out, out! People of Jordan will not bow,” protesters chanted as they marched from Al-Hussein Mosque in central Amman to the nearby municipality building. “Our demands are legitimate. We want bread and freedom.”Police handed out bottles of water and juice to the demonstrators, who carried banners reading, “We demand social justice and freedom,” “No to oppression, yes to change” and, “We need a national salvation government.”Police spokesman Mohammad Khatib said about 4,000 people took part in the capital's peaceful protest, organized by the powerful Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm the Islamic Action Front.Hmmmm......Who's next?Read the full story here.

• Afghan national would be terrorist denied bail in explosive Ontario trial.PEMBROKE, Ont . -- A Pembroke man charged with attempting to possess explosive substances -- in what police allege was his intention to detonate an improvised explosive device at CFB Petawawa -- has been refused bail.Matin Abdul Stanikzy, 24, will remain in custody at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, a superior court judge ruled this week.Stanikzy, an Afghan national, faces charges of assault, attempting to possess an explosive substance, counselling to commit theft, uttering a threat to cause death and threatening to burn, destroy or damage personal property.On Nov. 17, city police arrested Stanikzy after investigating an assault allegation.The RCMP's anti-terrorism squad subsequently laid the other charges.Stanikzy was denied bail on Dec. 3.Earlier this week, a bail review sought by his lawyer, Stuart Konyer, was heard in Pembroke Superior Court.On Thursday, Justice Timothy Ray upheld the earlier decision of Justice of the Peace Richard Sculthorpe to deny bail. Ray ruled that the defendant poses a flight risk and that a refusal of bail is necessary to protect the public's safety.In the decision, Ray considered the allegations, which have not be proven in court.Ray referred to information presented by Crown attorney Jason Nicol during the Dec. 3 bail hearing, where court heard that police were called to a Pembroke, Ont., women's shelter on Nov. 17 to investigate an assault complaint. Officers spoke to a woman who told them she had been assaulted the night before.The woman advised police she was an employee of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited at Chalk River Laboratories. She recounted that Mr. Stanikzy arrived in Canada in November, 2009 and lived with his brother and sister-in-law in Toronto for six months. She moved with him to Pembroke when she was hired by AECL.She alleged the defendant asked her to obtain explosive materials so he could detonate an explosive device at CFB Petawawa. According to the allegation, he told her he wanted to wound or kill 30 to 100 people at CFB Petawawa.The woman said she recorded the conversation which she alleged took place in July 2010.According to the allegations laid out by the Crown, the woman told police Stanikzy had made comments about becoming a suicide bomber in Canada or becoming an interpreter in Afghanistan and leading Canadian troops into a Taliban or al-Qaida ambush.She told police he described himself as a supporter of the Taliban and al-Qaida and he perceived Canadians as his enemies. She alleged he specifically mentioned his desire to kill people at CFB Petawawa since "people there are getting ready to fight in his country of Afghanistan."The complainant told police Stanikzy said he does not care if he dies and that if he killed a non-Muslim he would be considered a martyr.In his decision to deny bail on Dec. 3, Sculthorpe said he found the Crown's case to be strong and noted the seriousness of the charges. He noted that the defendant had stated his intent to cause harm to a number of individuals, that the risk to the public was strong and could not be abated by conditions.Hmmmm.....How many more like him are running freely in Canada?Read the full story here.

• "Life or Death in Iran's Prisons".European Parliament Issues Resolution for Release of Nasrin Sotoudeh and Others.European Parliament resolution of 20 January 2011 on Iran – the case of Nasrin Sotoudeh.– having regard to its previous resolutions on Iran, notably those concerning human rights, and in particular those of 10 February 2010(1) and 8 September 2010(2) ,

1. – having regard to the declaration made by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navy Pillay, on 23 November 2010, expressing concern about the case of Nasrin Sotoudeh and stating that this was part of a much broader crackdown and that the situation of human rights defenders in Iran was growing more and more difficult,
2. – having regard to the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus in 1998, stipulating that states ‘shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of human rights defenders against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary actions’ as a consequence of their legitimate efforts to promote human rights,
3. – having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Iran is a party,
4. – having regard to the United Nations General Assembly resolution of 21 December 2010 on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran,
5. – having regard to Rule 122(5) of its Rules of Procedure,Read the full resolution here.

• Saudi Wahhabis accused of removing relics from the time of Prophet Mohammad.Saudi Arabia has been accused of an unprecedented onslaught on historic structures in the heart of Mecca and Medina -- the cradle of Islam, revered by the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. During a meeting at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, world heritage experts called on Saudi authorities to halt the destruction of sites linked with Islamic history. The experts also voiced concerns over the future of Mecca and Medina due to the rising destruction of historic structures. They say it's feared that a number of historic sites will be lost permanently if the current course of destruction is allowed to continue. “I call it cultural vandalism, of course we lost foreigner historical sites over the past sixty years, which will never be replaced again,” said Irfan al-Alawi, from Islamic Heritage Research Foundation.Saudi authorities, however, argue that they are trying to prevent idolatry.Hmmmm......That new Mecca clock wasn't appreciated by everyone it seems?Read the full story here. HT:TundraTabloids.

• Hawaii law bars release of Obama birth info. HONOLULU -- A privacy law that shields birth certificates has prompted Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie to abandon efforts to dispel claims that President Barack Obama was born outside Hawaii, his office says.State Attorney General David Louie told the governor that privacy laws bar him from disclosing an individual's birth documentation without the person's consent, Abercrombie spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz said Friday."There is nothing more that Gov. Abercrombie can do within the law to produce a document," said Dela Cruz. "Unfortunately, there are conspirators who will continue to question the citizenship of our president."Hmmmm.....No ....Really,did anyone even expect to see the full birth certificate?Read the full story here.

• Just as things were looking up, Obama's annual job approval average puts him near the postwar bottom.As if the poll showing improved approval of Congress under partial Republican leadership wasn't discouraging enough, now comes a new survey showing President Obama's second-year job approval near the bottom of presidents elected in the last six decades or so.Heading into the president's crucial 2011 State of the Union address next Tuesday evening, Gallup finds that Obama's second-year job approval averaged only 46.7%.That really looks pathetic when compared to his predecessor, George W. Bush's second-year average job approval of 71.3%. Or to the next highest second-year postwar job approval of 66.8% held by -- oh, look! -- another president named Bush. Of course, both of them were Republicans.Even Richard "I Am Not a Crook" Nixon had a majority 56.2% approval after two years.But don't forget that fellow Democrat Jimmy Carter also had a miserable second-year job approval of 45.3%. And he fought back from that basement approval to win a resounding second term. Oh, no. wait. He didn't. He got crushed in 1980, even with a third-party candidate.Anyway, despite Congress, the current Democrat in the Oval Office still has 655 days to right the SS Job Approval.
  Hmmmm......Memo ...Must keep manipulating those job numbers?Read the full story here.

• Congress to Press Obama on Religious Persecution of Christians.Members of Congress from a bipartisan human rights panel on Thursday challenged the Obama administration to get serious about putting pressure on the governments of Egypt and Iraq to halt violent attacks on Christian minorities."Human rights has been significantly demoted in the past two years, and it's appalling," said Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J. "This administration gets an F for its response to human rights abuses."For Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., the granddaughter of Assyrian and Armenian Christians who fled the genocide carried out by the Ottoman Turks and their Kurdish allies at the end of World War I, the dramatic upsurge in attacks against Christians in Iraq and Egypt was reminiscent of stories she had learned from childhood."Going to the market and riding the bus, Iraqi Christians face death every day," she said. "There is no question that Christians are being targeted" in Iraq.Rep. Eshoo called on the Obama administration to "move this up in the set of priorities of the State Department" by elaborating a "comprehensive strategy" for dealing with the persecution of Christians in Iraq."A crisis calls for more than good intentions," she said.Although tens of billions of U.S. taxpayer funds have gone to reconstruction programs in Iraq, a scant $20 million has been allocated to projects in the predominantly Christian Nineveh Plain in northern Iraq, the ancestral homeland of many Iraqi Christians and a relative safe haven to which thousands of families have fled in recent years.Worse, the way U.S. aid money has been spent is "not transparent," Rep. Eshoo said.So she and other members of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate recently asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a far-reaching audit of U.S. reconstruction assistance to Iraq, in particular as it touches on projects for Christian areas.Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., who chaired Thursday's hearing of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on Capitol Hill, slammed the Obama White House for its tepid response to the violence.After the Oct. 31 attack on Our Lady of Salvation Catholic Church in Baghdad by Muslim jihadists that killed 58 Christians attending mass, the White House "failed to even mention the word 'Christian' or 'church,' suggesting that this attack was simply part of a broader pattern of generalized violence in Iraq and not a targeted attack against an indigenous faith community," Rep. Wolf said.Wolf said he was exploring legislation that would require the State Department to designate special representatives in the embassies in Baghdad and Cairo whose sole job will be to monitor human rights and religious persecution.In tandem with that move, Wolf said he wants President Obama to appoint a "special envoy" to persecuted minorities in the Middle East, who will report back to the president, the secretary of state, and Congress.Hmmmm....Problem is does Obama want to help his "Fellow" Christians?Read the full story here.

• HT:RightSideNews.Obama's Plan to Admit Mexican Trucks.Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, explained what this means: "U.S. truckers would be forced to forfeit their own economic opportunities while companies and drivers from Mexico, free from equivalent regulatory burdens, take over their traffic lanes." We wonder if Mexico has any regulatory standards at all.Mexican trucks are known to be overweight and lacking in safety regulations we consider essential, such as anti-lock brakes. Mexico doesn't have national databases that track drivers' records, background checks, drug usage, and arrests, and it's known to be easy to get a commercial driver's license with a bribe.Nevertheless, Obama's Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, has announced he wants to admit Mexican trucks, and he thinks he can appease Congress by presenting on January 6 what he calls a "concept document." It is two pages of bureaucratic pablum that does nothing to assure the safety of Americans on our highways and roads.The concept document calls for a "review" of the Mexican carriers' safety program, the driving records of Mexican drivers admitted to the program, and inspection of Mexican trucks for safety and emissions. But the document says nothing about what the standard of review and inspection will be, and whether trucks and drivers who don't pass inspection will be rejected.Under the concept document, Mexican trucks would be subject to border inspections at the "normal border inspection rate," and subject to inspections within the U.S. "at the same rate as U.S. companies." That doesn't reassure us; the "normal" border inspection rate means that only a few violators will get caught, which the Mexicans will consider just a cost of doing business, and the notion that Mexican drivers need inspection only at the 50 percent U.S. rate is ridiculous.U.S. law requires truck drivers to speak and understand the English language. The concept document says it will "conduct an English Language Proficiency" test of each Mexican driver, but it doesn't say the Mexican drivers must speak English or pass the test.We know from the House testimony of the previous Transportation Secretary, Mary Peters, that the Department's policy is to approve Mexican drivers as "English proficient" even when they respond to an examiner's questions in Spanish. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), who was conducting the hearing, was so astounded at this answer that he asked Secretary Peters to repeat it.With the drug war in full battle array along our southern border, this is no time to start admitting Mexican trucks. It's a safe bet that many of the trucks will be carrying illegal aliens and illegal drugs.Another safety problem exists for U.S. trucks that would get access to Mexican roads under this misguided proposal. Trade is supposed to be two-way street, but U.S. drivers don't want to drive into northern Mexico, the most dangerous area in the world because of the ongoing war between drug cartels.Hmmmm.....If you wanted to destroy the American economy would you do anything different?Read the full story here.

• HT:Rferl.'Putin Palace' Pics: It's Good To Be The PM.A new website billing itself the "Russian WikiLeaks" has posted photographs of a lavish Black Sea mansion believed to have been commissioned for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.RuLeaks.net says it has no proof the mansion, still under construction and being built for a reported $1 billion, is Putin's.Although the website's authors are anonymous, it's believed to be backed by the Pirate Party of Russia, which advocates opposition to copyright laws.The mansion was first brought to public attention in December by a former business partner of Putin associates, who published an open letter to President Dmitry Medvedev decrying corruption in Russia.Pirate Party leader Pavel Rassudov, who denies connections to RuLeaks.ru, nevertheless told RFE/RL's Russian Service that the number of visitors to the site have spiked since it was launched a month ago."We have to confirm the mansion [is Putin's]," he said. "Then there has to be action, an appeal to the president asking whether there's corruption involved."Hmmmm.....Wow...The New Tsar his "Summer Palace"?This is not the residence of a PM this is the residence of the "Ruler" of all Russia?Read and SEE the full story here.

• HT:TheAmericanDream.22 Facts About California That Make You Wonder Why Anyone Would Still Want To Live In That Hellhole Of A State.Why in the world would anyone still want to live in the state of California at this point? Residents of California have been forced to endure a brutally oppressive level of taxation for many years, and yet the state of California has still managed to find itself on the verge of bankruptcy. California Governor Jerry Brown declared a "fiscal emergency" in his state on Thursday, but nobody is even pretending that such a declaration is actually going to help matters. Brown wants to cut even deeper into the state budget (even after tens of billions have already been slashed out of it in recent years) and he wants to explore ways to raise even more revenue. Meanwhile, the standard of living in California is going right into the toilet. Housing values are plummeting. Unemployment has risen above 20 percent in many areas of the state. Crime and gang activity is on the rise even as police budgets are being hacked to the bone. The health care system is an absolute disaster. At this point California has the fewest emergency rooms per million people out of all 50 states. While all of this has been going on, the state legislature in Sacramento has been very busy passing hundreds of new laws that are mostly about promoting one radical agenda or another. The state government has become so radically anti-business that it is a wonder that any businesses have remained in the state. It seems like the moving vans never stop as an endless parade of businesses and families leave California as quickly as they can.One of the only things keeping the population of California relatively stable at this point are the massive hordes of illegal immigrants that are constantly pouring into California cities. There are certain areas of major California cities that you simply do not ever want to go into anymore. In fact, there are rumors that the police will not even venture into certain areas anymore.Traffic in California is a bigger nightmare than it ever has been before and the state cannot even keep up with repairing the roads and infrastructure that it already has. There are a few areas of California where you can still see the promise of greatness and the amazing natural beauty that once attracted tens of millions of Americans to the state, but they are few and far between now. At this point, most of the state is turning into one gigantic hellhole.Perhaps the state could have some hope of turning things around if they had some solid leadership, but at this point the vast majority of the politicians in the state are pushing agendas that are so "radical" (not in a good way) and so "anti-American" that it is absolutely frightening.Yes, things really are that bad in California.The following are 22 facts about California that make you wonder why anyone would still want to live in that hellhole of a state....Read the full story here.

• Stunner: Gold Standard Fully Supported By... Alan Greenspan!?You read that right. After such establishment "luminaries" as World Bank president Robert Zoellick, Warren Buffett's father Howard, Jim Grant, and, most recently, Kansas Fed president Thomas Hoenig, all voiced their support for a return to a gold standard, the most recent addition to the motley group of contrite voodoo shamans is none othe than the man who is singlehandedly responsible for America's addiction to cheap toxic credit, who spawned such destroyers of the middle class as the current Chaircreature, and who currently is the chief advisor in John Paulson's crusade to gobble up every ounce of deliverable physical in the world: former Fed Chairman - Alan Greenspan! In an interview with Fox Business, the man who refuses to go away into that good night: "We have at this particular stage a fiat money which is essentially money printed by a government and it's usually a central bank which is authorized to do so. Some mechanism has got to be in place that restricts the amount of money which is produced, either a gold standard or a currency board, because unless you do that all of history suggest that inflation will take hold with very deleterious effects on economic activity... There are numbers of us, myself included, who strongly believe that we did very well in the 1870 to 1914 period with an international gold standard." And a further stunner: Greenspan himself wonders if we really need a central bank.Read the full story here.