>USA File: Google shuts down anti-Obama blogs; presidential candidate’s birth certificate, posted at campaign website, lacks official ensignia

>According to NewsBusters blogger Warner Todd Huston Google, which owns Blogger.com, is shutting down blogsites opposed to Kremlin-backed US presidential candidate Barack Obama. “It looks like Google has officially joined the Barack Obama campaign,” Huston writes, “and decided that its contribution would be to shut down any blog on the Google owned Blogspot.com blogging system that has an anti-Obama message.” He continues:

Yes, it sure seems that Google has begun to go through its many thousands of blogs to lock out the owners of anti-Obama blogs so that the noObama message is effectively squelched. Thus far, Google has terminated the access by blog owners to 7 such sites and the list may be growing. Boy, it must be nice for Barack Obama to have an ally powerful enough to silence his opponents like that!”

Pictured above: Senator Obama addresses the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2008.

Perhaps Obama worshippers are nervous about the fact that their Manchurian Candidate might be an illegal alien with a State of Hawaii birth certificate of dubious validity. According to his Wikipedia entry, Obama was reportedly born on August 4, 1961 at the Kapiolani Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Obama, Sr. from Kenya, and Ann Dunham, a White American from Wichita, Kansas. The current prime minister of Kenya Raila Odinga claims to be Obama’s first cousin, but this link is disputed by other relatives of Obama’s father. On June 24 Israel Insider reported:

The “birth certificate” claimed by the Barack Obama campaign is not certified as authentic and appears to be a photoshopped fake. The image, purporting to come from the Hawaii Department of Health, has been the subject of intense skepticism in the blogosphere in the past two weeks. But now the senior spokesman of that Department has confirmed to Israel Insider what are the required features of a certified birth document — features that Obama’s purported “birth certificate” clearly lack.

The birth certificate peddled as genuine by the Obama presidential campaign team can be found here, but is lacking an embossed official seal, authoritative signature and certificate number, like all valid State of Hawaii birth certificates. Israel Insider has posted two additional articles on this topic, which Obama’s supporters are predictably labelling as a “smear campaign”: “Obama campaign claims suspect ‘birth certificate’ as genuine item” and “As Obama stonewalls on uncertified birth certificate, official doubts mount”.

So, in addition to being a frontman for the Soviet strategists, a potential ally for the communist regimes in Havana, Pyongyang, and Tripoli, all of which have offered qualified endorsements of Obama as their preferred “progressive” candidate, and banner-bearer for the Communist Party USA and American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations, Obama appears to be an illegal alien with no lawful right to assume the presidency of the USA. The last revelation doesn’t throw water on CPUSA executive Sam Webb’s enthusiasm for an Obama White House. “Obama’s candidacy is unique in all of this excitement,” gushes the People’s World Weekly. “It is transformational and new. It has brought new forces into the process and built new organizational forms. ‘What makes it different is that it has the feel of a movement,’ Webb said. Obama speaks to people’s desires and inspires them. ‘He is a fresh voice on the political scene. His courage and astuteness are obvious,’ Webb said.”

If public opinion polls are correct, then Obama will probably trounce Republican candidate John McCain and Moscow’s Leninists will be nearer to submerging Soviet America into the Red World Order. Hey, Google: We love Obama. There, now leave us alone.

>Asia/Africa Files: Mongolia and Zimbabwe remain under communist control, African Union summit refuses to condemn Mugabe over sham run-off vote

>Following its supposed renunciation of Marxism-Leninism in 1992, the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP) embraced “social democracy” and followed Mikhail Gorbachev’s lead by joining the Moscow-controlled Socialist International. Apart from a short interregnum between 1996 and 2000 and again between 2004 and 2006, the MPRP has effectively controlled Mongolia since 1921. In yesterday’s parliamentary election the MPRP won 41 seats, compared to the 25 obtained by the chief opposition group, the Mongolian Democratic Party. The incumbent Prime Minister Sanjaagiin Bayar (pictured above, casting his ballot) represents the MPRP and assumed his position as head of government in November 2007.

Democratic Party leader and former prime minister Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj appears to be little more than a pawn of the Not-So-Former Soviet Union and Moscow’s minions in the MPRP. Elbegdorj studied in Soviet Ukraine, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in military journalism in 1988 and imbibed the deceptive political and economic reformism of Soviet Tyrant Gorbachev. After returning to Mongolia Elbegdorj founded the Mongolian Democratic Union, the forerunner of the party he currently leads, and participated in the Democratic Revolution of December 1989 that “forced” Mongolia’s ruling communists to welcome the “opposition” into the halls of power in Ulan Bator. Between 2004 and 2006 Elbegdorj held the post of prime minister in coalition with “ex”-communists.

On July 10, 2007 Elbegdorj was critically injured and his driver killed in a car crash en route to Kharkhorin from Ulan Bator. He suffered critical head injuries but fully recovered. Popular suspicions that the accident was an assassination attempt, presumably orchestrated by Mongolia’s “ex”-communists to remove Elbegdorj from the 2008 election, circulated but were not substantiated. Red China’s state-controlled media reports below on the election results:

Preliminary results: Mongolia’s ruling party wins parliamentary election
2008-06-30 21:37:13

ULAN BATOR, June 30 (Xinhua) — Mongolia’s ruling party has won a majority in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, according to preliminary results released Monday.

The ruling Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party won 41 seats, more than half of the 76 seats in parliament, said Battulga Bataa, chairman of the General Election Commission.

In addition, preliminary results showed the Mongolian Democratic Party taking 25 seats and independents winning one seat.

Final election results were not expected till Tuesday.

The election registered 311 candidates nominated from 11 parties and one coalition, as well as 45 independent candidates. The new parliament members will serve a four-year term.

There are 26 election districts in the country, from which two to four members of parliament will be elected.

The State Great Hural is the supreme power organization of Mongolia. The new government will be established solely or jointly by parties that win seats in parliament.

Opinion polls showed that this year’s election would be a competition between the two main parties, the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party and the Democratic Party.

Ulan Bator remains under Moscow’s thumb in the twenty-first century. In April Prime Minister Bayar conducted a three-day visit to the Russian capital where he conferred with then Prime Minister, now Gazprom CEO, Victor Zubkov and Agriculture Minister Aleksei Gordeev, who is also the chairman of the Russian-Mongolian intergovernmental commission. High on the agenda at the Zubkov-Bayar meeting was an agreement by Russia to provide 100,00o tons of wheat to Mongolia in order to postpone the arrival of the global food crisis in Russia’s second-largest trading partner after China. The Eurasia Daily Monitor reports on the neo-Soviet state’s abiding interests in Mongolia:

Russia has great hope for expanding its operations in Mongolia. Following his meetings with Bayar, Zubkov noted that annual bilateral Russian-Mongolian trade was predicted to rise to $1 billion over the next few years (RosBusinessConsulting, April 11). Bayar held a press conference at Ulaan Baatar’s Chinggis Khaan international airport upon his return, elaborating on the success of his visit. Among the accomplishments were agreements on further Russian investment in the Ulaanbaatar Railways, cooperation in uranium production, and student exchanges (Mongoliin medee 87/2374, http://www.olloo.mn; April 21). The most significant accomplishment of Bayar’s visit, however, was a Russian agreement to supply Mongolia immediately with 100,000 tons of wheat on preferential terms.

Russian election monitors, representing the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and its potemkin rivals United Russia and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, were on the ground in Mongolia to observe yesterday’s sham poll. Not surprisingly, state-run Itar-Tass reports, the Kremlin’s obedient emissaries “did not register any violations at Sunday’s election to the Mongolian Great Khural, or parliament.” Russian delegation head Valery Maleyev opined:

During examination of work at polling stations in Ulan-Bator, Darkhan and a number of aimaiks (regions), any violations have not been found. The election was democratic and properly organized, and it went successfully. It is difficult to overestimate the very presence of the Russian parliamentary delegation in Mongolia on these days. This indicates that importance is attached in our country to the consolidation of the inter-parliamentary cooperation with Mongolia. We express hope for the rapid formation of a new State Great Khural and then of a Mongolian government, and we hope that they will keep the continuity and traditions in the ties between or countries.

Meanwhile, European Union leaders are denouncing the June 27 presidential run-off vote in Zimbabwe, where long-time, genocidal communist dictator Robert Mugabe succeeded in scaring off the only remaining opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, thereby securing a sixth term as president. “We want them (the AU) to say the 27 (June) election is illegitimate,” Tsvangirai, a “former” ZANU-PF cadre, informed Dutch public television. In a tremendous admission UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon believes that the election “did not reflect the will of Zimbabwe’s people” and that the result was “not legitimate.” Ban should be awarded for his astute observation.

The EU’s counterparts in the communist-dominated African Union have pledged themselves to deal harshly with Mugabe by . . . folding their arms and doing absolutely nothing of consequence. Indeed, Comrade Bob was the esteemed guest at the today’s AU summit in Egypt (pictured above). The Congo Republic’s “ex”-Marxist President Denis Sassou-Nguesso declared: “We will persuade him [Mugabe] to accept the solution that we will propose [of a unity government]. This is certain. We are invested in this.” “Many African leaders,” reports Reuters below, “have previously appeared over-awed by Mr. Mugabe, long seen as a liberation hero.” Indeed, that’s the whole problem.

African summit pushes Mugabe to negotiate
OPHEERA MCDOOM
Reuters
June 30, 2008 at 11:54 AM EDT

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — African leaders on Monday pushed President Robert Mugabe to open talks with the opposition after he was re-elected unopposed in an election condemned as violent and unfair by the continent’s own monitors.

Mr. Mugabe, 84, flew to an African Union summit in Egypt soon after being sworn in for a new term, extending his unbroken rule since independence from Britain in 1980.

As Mr. Mugabe arrived, the African Union’s own monitors said Friday’s election did not meet their standards. They were the third African observer group to condemn the poll.

The summit was opposed to Western demands for hefty sanctions to punish Mr. Mugabe but was moving towards a clear consensus on negotiations to end a deep and violent crisis in the ruined country.

Regional power South Africa, a key player in the Zimbabwe situation, called for Mr. Mugabe’s ZANU-PF and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC to enter talks on a transitional government. Mr. Tsvangirai withdrew from the ballot because of attacks on his supporters.

Pretoria is the designated southern African mediator in Zimbabwe although President Thabo Mbeki has been widely accused of being ineffective and too soft on Mugabe.

The statement was the first time South Africa has publicly called for a unity government and appeared to indicate the line that the African Union will take. Any stronger measures are likely to be blocked by divisions at the summit.

Zimbabwe’s crisis has ruined a once prosperous country, saddling it with the world’s worst hyper-inflation and straining neighbouring nations, especially South Africa, with a flood of millions of economic refugees.

Conference sources said countries from east and west Africa wanted to take a strong stand on Zimbabwe but Mr. Mugabe’s neighbours in southern Africa were divided.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, Mugabe’s biggest critic in the southern region, was rushed to hospital in Egypt just before the summit after suffering a stroke.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, an outspoken critic of Mugabe, called in Nairobi for his suspension from the AU until a fair election was held. But President Mwai Kibaki told Reuters at the summit that negotiations for a unity government were the only solution.

Like other summit leaders he said he was optimistic a solution would be found.

Asked if Mr. Mugabe would accept a deal agreed by the summit, Congo Republic’s President Denis Sassou-Nguesso told Reuters: “We will persuade him to accept the solution that we will propose. This is certain. We are invested in this.”

Many African leaders have previously appeared over-awed by Mr. Mugabe, long seen as a liberation hero. But the conduct of the elections provoked unprecedented criticism from within Africa.

Mr. Tsvangirai pulled out of the election because of violence in which he said nearly 90 of his followers were killed.

Monitors from both Zimbabwe’s neighbours in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Pan-African parliament said the vote was undermined by violence and did not reflect the will of the people.

Some of the summit leaders favour a power-sharing deal modelled on one that ended a bloody post-election crisis in Kenya this year.

Both Mr. Mugabe and Mr. Tsvangirai say they are ready for African-sponsored talks although the issue of who would lead a unity government remains a possibly insuperable obstacle.

Mr. Tsvangirai called on the summit leaders not to recognize Mr. Mugabe’s re-election, after electoral officials said he won more than 85 per cent of the vote, in which he was the only candidate.

“We want them (the AU) to say the 27 (June) election is illegitimate,” he told Dutch public television.

Mr. Tsvangirai won the first round of elections on March 29 but fell short of the majority needed for outright victory. He said that result should be the basis for negotiating a transition.

A group of eminent international personalities, including three Nobel peace laureates, backed Mr. Tsvangirai, calling on the summit to reject the election because of the violence.

Both Mr. Tsvangirai and the group, known as the Elders, called on the AU to appoint a special envoy to mediate in the crisis.

South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said Zimbabwe was deeply divided and polarised after the election.

“ZANU-PF and the MDC must enter into negotiations which will lead to the formation of a transitional government that can extricate Zimbabwe from its current political challenges,” a foreign ministry statement said.

It said neither ZANU-PF nor MDC were “able individually to extricate Zimbabwe from the current impasse.”

Analysts believe Mr. Mugabe ignored international condemnation and went ahead with the vote so he could negotiate with Tsvangirai from a position of strength.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon believes the election did not reflect the will of Zimbabwe’s people and the result was not legitimate, his spokesman said on Monday.

State media in Zimbabwe said police had arrested 14 MDC activists, including a recently elected member of parliament, for carrying weapons and intimidating voters.

>End Times File: Barclays, Netherland’s Fortis follow Royal Bank of Scotland, Morgan Stanley alerts: US Fed has no credibility, bank failure looms

>– International Monetary Fund to Conduct Financial Sector Assessment of the US Economy

– Cascading Global Financial Crisis Predicted by Bank for International Settlements in 2007 Report

– Islamic Terrorists Collaborating with Moscow to Sink the US Dollar

According to The Times, citing British defense ministry sources, “Iran has moved ballistic missiles into launch positions, with Israel’s Dimona nuclear plant among the possible targets.” Tehran’s aggressive military posture was apparently assumed in response to the Israeli Air Force’s exercise over the Mediterranean Sea and Greece during the first week of June, itself an alleged practice run for taking out Iran’s nuclear power plants. Major-General Mohammad Jafari, commander of the Revolutionary Guard, informed a Tehran daily: “This country [Israel] is completely within the range of the Islamic Republic’s missiles. Our missile power and capability are such that the Zionist regime – despite all its abilities – cannot confront it.” The Israeli media quotes former Mossad director Shabtai Shavit as saying that “Israel has only one year to stop Iran from developing nuclear bomb.”

The deadline for the opening salvos of the Fourth World War has been established. Neo-Soviet Russia is readying itself to support Israel’s Arab enemies. Is the USA, however, ready to take on the Moscow Leninists whose “military kit” may be based on old technology, but who have been preparing for many decades to fight and win a nuclear war?f

Pictured above: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (right) speaks with his Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki during the opening ceremony of the 29th Annual Session of the OPEC Ministerial Council in the Iranian city of Isfahan, on June 17, 2008.

Meanwhile, the world financial system continues to unravel in advance of a severe economic recession that will include hyperinflation and epidemic fuel and food shortages, already in progress. Following alerts about an impending global stock crash issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland and Morgan Stanley to their respective clients, Barclays Capital (signage below) is warning its customers that irresponsible monetary policies of central banks worldwide, including the US Federal Reserve System, are push the world economy into a pre-hyperinflationary situation. Britain’s Telegraph quotes Barclay’s chief equity strategist Tim Bond as saying: “This is the first test for central banks in 30 years and they have fluffed it. They have zero credibility, and the Fed is negative if that’s possible. It has lost all credibility.” Bernard Connolly, global startegist at Banque AIG, moreover, warns that “Inflation targeting by central banks has become a totemism that threatens to crush the world economy.”

Barclays warns of a financial storm as Federal Reserve’s credibility crumbles
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 28/06/2008
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Barclays Capital has advised clients to batten down the hatches for a worldwide financial storm, warning that the US Federal Reserve has allowed the inflation genie out of the bottle and let its credibility fall “below zero”.

“We’re in a nasty environment,” said Tim Bond, the bank’s chief equity strategist. “There is an inflation shock underway. This is going to be very negative for financial assets. We are going into tortoise mood and are retreating into our shell. Investors will do well if they can preserve their wealth.”

Barclays Capital said in its closely-watched Global Outlook that US headline inflation would hit 5.5pc by August and the Fed will have to raise interest rates six times by the end of next year to prevent a wage-spiral. If it hesitates, the bond markets will take matters into their own hands.

“This is the first test for central banks in 30 years and they have fluffed it. They have zero credibility, and the Fed is negative if that’s possible. It has lost all credibility,” said Mr Bond.

The grim verdict on Ben Bernanke’s Fed was underscored by the markets yesterday as the dollar fell against the euro following the bank’s dovish policy statement on Wednesday.

Traders said the Fed seemed to be rowing back from rate rises. The effect was to propel oil to $138 a barrel, confirming its role as a sort of “anti-dollar” and as a market reproach to Washington’s easy-money policies.

The Fed’s stimulus is being transmitted to the 45-odd countries linked to the dollar around world. The result is surging commodity prices. Global inflation has jumped from 3.2pc to 5pc over the last year.

Mr Bond said the emerging world is now on the cusp of a serious crisis. “Inflation is out of control in Asia. Vietnam has already blown up. The policy response is to shoot the messenger, like the developed central banks in the late 1960s and 1970s,” he said.

“They will have to slam on the brakes. There is going to be a deep global recession over the next three years as policy-makers try to get inflation back in the box.”

Barclays Capital recommends outright “short” positions on Asian bonds, warning that yields could jump 200 to 300 basis points. The currencies of trade-deficit states like India should be sold. The US yield curve is likely to “steepen” with a vengeance, causing a bloodbath for bond holders.

David Woo, the bank’s currency chief, said the Fed’s policy of benign neglect towards the dollar had been stymied by oil, which is now eating deep into the country’s standard of living. “The world has changed all of a sudden. The market is going to push the Fed into a tightening stance,” he said.

The bank said the full damage from the global banking crisis would take another year to unfold.

Rob McAdie, Barclays’ credit strategist, said: “The core issues have not been addressed. We’re still in a very large deleveraging cycle and we’re seeing losses continue to mount. We think smaller banks will struggle to raise capital. We’re very bearish – in the long-term – on high-yield debt. The default rate will reach 8pc to 9pc next year.”

He said investors had taken their eye off the slow-motion disaster engulfing the US bond insurers or “monolines”. Together these firms guarantee $170bn of structured credit and $1,000bn of US municipal bonds.

The two leaders – MBIA and Ambac – have already been downgraded as the rating agencies belatedly turn stringent. The risk is further downgrades could set off a fresh wave of bank troubles. “The creditworthiness of many US financial institutions will decline in coming months,” he said.

The bank warned that engineering and auto firms we’re likely to face a crunch as steel and oil costs surge. “Their business models will have to be substantially altered if they are going to survive,” said Mr McAdie.

A small chorus of City bankers dissent from the view that inflation is the chief danger in the US and other rich OECD countries. The teams at Société Générale, Dresdner Kleinwort, and Banque AIG all warn that deflation may loom as housing markets crumble under record levels of household debt.

Bernard Connolly, global startegist at Banque AIG, said inflation targeting by central banks had become a “totemism that threatens to crush the world economy”.

He said it would be madness to throw millions out of work by deflating part of the economy to offset a rise in imported fuel and food prices. Real wages are being squeezed by oil, come what may. It may be healthier for society to let it happen gently.

Pictured here: US Federal Reserve Chairman Benjamin Shalom (“Helicopter Ben”) Bernanke arrives at the Strategic Economic Dialogue at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, on June 17, 2008.

At the regional level the Dearborn County government in Michigan has reportedly withdrawn US$20 million from Peoples Community Bancorp, apparently in response to that financial institution’s dubious health. The Dearborn County Register reports: “The company’s stock dropped from about $20 a share in 2007 to $2.26 this week, and an announcement was made in December 2007 that the bank’s quarterly dividends would be suspended. In February of this year a planned merger with Integra Bank Corporation was cancelled, and, in April, Peoples announced it lacks liquidity to repay a $17.5 million outstanding line of credit due Monday, June 30.” The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the same newspaper relates, does not insure deposits over US$100,000.

In a more alarming development still that does not bode well for the US banking system, the Australian media reported on June 30 that “The IMF had ‘informed’ Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke of plans that would have been unheard of in the past: a general examination of the US financial system. The IMF’s board of directors has ruled that a so-called Financial Sector Assessment Program is to be carried out in the US.”

European financial institutions are expecting a major meltdown in the US banking system. This past week, Reuters reports, “Fortis raised 1.5 billion euros ($2.36 billion) from a heavily discounted share issue this week, part of a package of measures to shore up its finances by more than 8 billion euros.” These measures, the Dutch-Belgian bank’s supervisory board chairman informed Belgian financial daily L’Echo, will be sufficient to preserve the institution’s solvency. According to the Dutch media, however, “Fortis expects a complete collapse of the US financial markets within a few days to weeks.” The same source continues:

That explains, according to Fortis, the series of interventions of last Thursday to retrieve € 8 billion [euros]. “We have been saved just in time. The situation in the US is much worse than we thought,” says Fortis chairman Maurice Lippens. Fortis expects bankruptcies amongst 6,000 American banks which have a small coverage currently. But also Citigroup, General Motors, there is starting a complete meltdown in the US.

Uncertainties about the global economy and crude oil prices prompted investors to once again initiate a spate of sell-offs this week in US stock markets. On June 27, according to BBC News, “New York’s Dow Jones closed down 0.93%, or 106.9 points, at 11,346.51 as the cost of oil rose to a fresh high above $142 a barrel.”

The cascading global financial crisis was in fact predicted by the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements, the central bankers’ bank. In a 2007 report the BIS warned:

The current market turmoil is without precedent in the postwar period. With a significant risk of recession in the US, compounded by sharply rising inflation in many countries, fears are building that the global economy might be at some kind of tipping point. These fears are not groundless. The magnitude of the problems yet to be faced could be much greater than many now perceive. It is not impossible that the unwinding of the credit bubble could, after a temporary period of higher inflation, culminate in a deflation that might be hard to manage, all the more so given the high debt levels.

Finally, as we have previously documented, Kremlin insiders are sending signals to other members of the Communist Bloc and its Islamo-Marxist proxies that the end of capitalism is drawing nigh. Britain’s Telegraph quotes Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller as saying “The global economy is facing a great surge in oil and gas prices that will end with prices at a radically new level.” Miller previously issued a warning to the effect that crude oil prices would not max out until reaching US$250 per barrel, a figure that would devastate the capitalist countries. With respect to the influence of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Comrade Miller stated: “Not a single decision has been passed of late that would really influence the global oil market.”

The self-serving observations from the Kremlin’s “energy czar” do nothing to conceal the fact that Russia’s state-run natural gas and oil entities are benefiting from high fuel prices, the profits from which are then pumped back into the neo-Soviet state’s remilitarization program. Comrade Miller admitted: “We see North America as a region of our strategic interests. Gazprom is in the process of creating a new configuration of gas supplies to the US and Canada. We intend to break into the American market in 2014.”

Working in hand in glove with the neo-Soviet leadership, Al Qaeda and its cohorts in the international terrorist network, which are apparently more pliable than the Arab regimes, are also seeking to undermine US economy with potential terrorist attacks. On June 16 the Middle East Media Research Institute reported:

Numerous postings on Islamist websites in the past two years reflect the mujahideen’s growing interest in the state of the U.S. economy. As was argued in a 2007 MEMRI analysis, many of the jihadists and their supporters have come to view their struggle against the U.S. and the West as an economic war. More specifically, they have come to the conclusion that it is financial, rather than military, losses that will prompt the U.S. to change its policies in the Middle East and elsewhere. Consequently, they emphasize the importance of targeting U.S. interests around the world, and of directing their military jihad primarily at targets that affect the U.S. economy.

>Middle East File: Outrageous treason of Olmert regime: Israel funding Hamas; Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades fires more rockets at Israel from Gaza

>The outrageously treasonous regime of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in collaboration with his colleague French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Bush Administration, neo-Soviet Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations have together resolved to rob the Jewish people of the land that God promised to their nation’s founder Abraham 4,000 years ago. Together the nations, with God’s chief enemy among men at their head, have conspired to divide Jerusalem between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The prophet Daniel warns of Antichrist’s division of the land of Israel for “gain”: “Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain” (Daniel 11:39). Along the same theme the prophet Joel speaks of those days immediately prior to the return of Jesus Christ: “For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land” (Joel 3:1-2). Note that here God refers to Israel as “my land.”

Yesterday Israel Today revealed that the Israeli government is funding Hamas, the terrorist organization that rules the Gaza Strip, which is sworn to the destruction of Israel, and which successfully negotiated a truce that its comrades in arms in Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are refusing to obey and which, moreover, Hamas, will simply use to regroup and rearm for the next assault on Israel. The MSM reports today that “Palestinian militants fired two rockets at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip on Thursday, breaching a cease-fire for a second time.” The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are the militant wing of Fatah, which rules the West Bank under the leadership of Soviet-trained President/Archterrorist Mahmoud Abbas. Today’s rocket attack, responsibility for which was claimed by the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, proves that the Palestinian government cannot be trusted in any future peace negotiations with Israel. Tuesday’s rocket attack from the Gaza Strip was claimed by the Islamic Jihad.

Pictured above: On June 25 PM Olmert prevented a key coalition partner, the Labor Party, from bringing down his Kadima-led government in a no-confidence vote, buying him time to orchestrate land-for-peace agreements with the Palestinians and Syria.

Israel funding Hamas, Olmert admits
Thursday, June 26, 2008 Israel Today Staff

The office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted on Wednesday that it is allowing the transfer of hundreds of millions of shekels to the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip every month.

Most of the funds enter Gaza in currency exchanges for the dollars and euros Hamas smuggles into the territory following fund-raising trips to Iran and other supportive Middle East regimes.

In a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office earlier in the week, the Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center warned that the government was actively aiding the perpetuation of Hamas rule in Gaza, despite its own stated policies.

Shurat Hadin director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner explained that without the influx of Israeli shekels, the currency of record in Gaza, Hamas would be financially unable to rule. By allowing the entry of shekels into Gaza, Darshan-Leitner noted that Israel is breaching an economic embargo of Gaza by Western powers that Israel itself insisted upon, and is helping a terrorist organization to launder money, a direct violation of the Terror-Funding Act of 2005.

Worse, said Darshan-Leitner, is the fact that ” the Israeli government’s policy of transferring shekels is assisting the Hamas terrorists with their missile attacks on the Negev communities.”

In response, Olmert’s office wrote that “due to conclusions that there is an Israeli interest that the transfer of funds continue, a decision was made to continue to transfer certain sums of money to the Gaza Strip.”

Shurat Hadin has threatened to sue the government both in local and international courts if the transfer of funds does not cease.

Meanwhile, President Sarkozy, who will next week assume the rotating presidency of the EU, is determined to bring Libya on board with his Mediterranean Union (MU), which is none other than the revived Roman Empire of Bible prophecy. Libyan strongman Muammar al-Qaddafi stridently opposes his country’s participation in the proposed MU, while Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has expressed reservations over the involvement of Israel in this EU “upgrade.” A no-show in Paris by Qaddafi and Bouteflika, both of whom are staunch Soviet allies, at the July 13 launch summit for the MU would be a major embarrassment for the French government. To keep the ball rolling, Sarkozy’s chief of staff, Claude Gueant, has been dispatched to Tripoli to assure Qaddafi that joining the MU is in Libya’s best interests. “The meeting with Colonel Gaddafi focused on bilateral relations, regional and African issues as well as the project of a Union for the Mediterranean,” the office of the French president explained in a press release. The “Union for the Mediterranean” is the formal name of the proposed international organization.

>End Times File: Libya’s threat to curtail oil output forces crude to US$140 per barrel, militants attack facilities in Nigeria, Colombia

>– Capitalist Economies Tremble on Verge of Ruin as OPEC President Chakib Khelil Warns Crude Oil Prices May Reach US$170 by Summer’s End

– Khelil Covers for Tehran: International Threats Against Iran Could Push Crude to Unbelievable US$400 Per Barrel

With the pro-Soviet regime in Libya threatening today to curtail petroleum production, the Communist Bloc and its Islamic proxies continue to “nuke” the Western economies by forcing crude oil futures to a record high of US$140 per barrel. “The Libyan comments are helping send us higher,” explains Brad Samples, commodity analyst for Summit Energy Inc., which is based in Louisville, Kentucky. “The Libyans are responsible for only about 2 percent of production, but with supplies tight every missing barrel will have an impact.” Today’s surge in the price of crude, Fox Business reports, provoked a sell off on Wall Street that forced the Dow Jones Industrial Average to drop 3.03% to 11453.42, contributing to a total decline of 1,500 points over the last five weeks.

Meanwhile, Marxist militants in Nigeria and Colombia, namely the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, sabotaged oil production and distribution facilities this past weekend, contributing to volatility in the commodities markets. Nigeria’s under-the-radar communist President Umaru Yar’Adua has brought the full power of the armed forces to bear against the Niger Delta insurgents, but the guerrillas have dismissed the government’s military response as an “empty threat.”

The obvious attempts by the world communist movement to force the capitalist countries into a severe recession did not prevent Venezuela’s red dictator Hugo Chavez in May from blaming international capitalism for the spike in fuel prices. “The recent leap in oil prices,” he ranted, “is due to wasteful and excessive oil consumption by developed countries, and also due to conflict in Iraq and the constant threat against Iran and Venezuela.”

Pictured above: Pump prices at a gas station in Los Altos, California, on June 26, 2008.

Oil Surges Above $140 to Record as Libya Warns of Output Cut
By Mark Shenk

June 26 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil jumped above $140 a barrel to a record as Libya threatened to cut output, OPEC’s president said prices may reach $170 by the summer and the dollar weakened.

Libya may curb output because of a U.S. law that allows terror victims to seize assets of foreign governments as compensation. OPEC President Chakib Khelil said oil may surge on a European interest rate rise, France 24 reported. Oil, gold and copper climbed today as the dollar dropped because the Federal Reserve gave no signal of higher interest rates yesterday.

“The Libyan comments are helping send us higher,” said Brad Samples, commodity analyst for Summit Energy Inc. in Louisville, Kentucky. “The Libyans are responsible for only about 2 percent of production, but with supplies tight every missing barrel will have an impact.”

Crude oil for August delivery rose $5.09, or 3.8 percent, to $139.64 a barrel at 2:59 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a record settlement price. Futures touched $140.39 today, surpassing the previous intraday record of $139.89 reached on June 16.

“I think you’re seeing a clear flight from equities into commodities,” said Kyle Cooper, an analyst at IAF Advisors in Houston.

Record oil prices helped send U.S. stocks tumbling. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index plunged 31.83, or 2.4 percent, to 1,290.14 at 3:04 p.m. in New York. The Dow decreased 289.53, or 2.5 percent, to 11,522.30.

GM Plunges

General Motors Corp., the largest U.S. automaker, plunged the most in three years as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. advised selling the stock because of a worsening sales outlook amid soaring gasoline prices, falling consumer confidence and tight credit. GM stock was down $1.37, or 11 percent, to $11.44.

Libya’s National Oil Corp. Chairman Shokri Ghanem declined to say when a decision would be made on whether to lower Libyan production or give any indication of the size of the cut under consideration. The African country produced an average 1.85 million barrels of crude oil a day last year, or 2.2 percent of global supply, according to a report this month from BP Plc.

Ghanem said the cuts may be made because of law passed by Congress in January that would let families of American victims of Libyan-linked attacks confiscate Libyan assets and those of companies doing business with the North African nation. At least two lawsuits have already been filed in Washington.

U.S. legislation allowing lawsuits against the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may also lead to reductions, Ghanem said.

NOPEC

President George W. Bush has said he’d veto a so-called NOPEC bill passed in May by the House of Representatives, because it may limit the availability of gasoline and further increase fuel prices.

An oil price of $150 a barrel may be “around the corner,” Ghanem said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

A decision by the European Central Bank to increase interest rates in July may cause the dollar to decline and prompt investors to buy more oil, Khelil, who is also the Algerian oil minister, told the Paris-based television channel. Prices would ease toward the end of the year, he said.

Threats against Iran would also support prices during the summer, he said. A political crisis that would stop Iran’s oil production would push prices over $200 a barrel, to possibly $400 a barrel, he said.

Saudi Arabia pledged it will pump an extra 200,000 barrels a day next month to calm the oil market at a June 22 meeting. The kingdom hosted the summit of 35 producing and consuming countries in the Red Sea port of Jeddah.

OPEC Matters

“The Saudis go out of their way to have this specific meeting outside the OPEC frameworks, and if you’re the OPEC president, you want to be important, so you come out of it and say $150 to $170,” said Roger Read, an analyst at Natixis Bleichroeder in Houston. “He’s trying to prove he matters and OPEC matters and the Saudis don’t make all the decisions.”

The dollar is also lower on a forecast that the ECB will boost interest rates. The currency’s drop against the euro made commodities cheaper for buyers outside the U.S. The dollar was at $1.5756 per euro as of 3:23 p.m.

“Now the worry is that the European Central Bank may raise rates, which would be the same as another Fed cut,” said Peter Beutel, president of energy consultant Cameron Hanover Inc. in New Canaan, Connecticut.

The Federal Reserve yesterday left its benchmark interest rate at 2 percent and said “uncertainty about the inflation outlook remains high” as energy and commodity prices continue to rise. Leaving the interest rate unchanged ended the most aggressive series of rate cuts in two decades.

Commodity Rally

“Commodities are rallying because there’s a lack of confidence that the Fed will raise rates,” said Phil Flynn, a senior trader at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. “They didn’t raise rates yesterday and it doesn’t look like they will raise them soon. Their statement yesterday was too wishy-washy.”

The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities jumped 11.13, or 2.5 percent, to 463.27, after earlier reaching a record 463.41. The index gained 49 percent in the past year.

Brent crude oil for August settlement rose $5.50, or 4.1 percent, to settle at a record $139.83 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices climbed to $140.56 today, the highest since trading began in 1988.

Source: Bloomberg

>Asia File: Nepali Maoists applaud PM Koirala’s resignation, Beijing urges two main communist parties to lead as fuel price strike paralyzes capital

>– Nepali Prime Minister Condemns India’s Communist-Backed Government for Promoting His Ouster

– Civil War Survivors Demand High-Level Commission to Probe Maoist Atrocities in Nepal

– Bhutan’s Maoist Guerrillas Wage War Against Dragon King from Bases in Nepal

Today the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which holds the largest number of seats in that country’s new Constituent Assembly, applauded the resignation of centrist Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. “I declare I have given up the prime minister’s post through this assembly today. With me or without me, we all need to maintain the culture of consensus,” Koirala announced to the assembly. “I appeal to them [the Maoists] to garner consensus for the formation of a new government under their leadership.” A week ago Koirala lashed out at the Indian government and India’s communist parties, which support Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, for supporting his ouster: “The republic agenda in Nepal is the brain child of the Gandhi family and the Indian communists…we made a blunder in haste. India is going berserk in Nepal and no body speaks…I will prefer to die but will not quit the government… I will expose Indian highhandedness. They cannot stop me from becoming the president…If I want, I will become the president. The Army officers have told me not to resign.”

Under the leadership of Pushpa Kamal Dahal, whose nom de guerre Prachanda means “fierce one,” the Maoists waged a bloody civil war between 1996 and 2006 against the Nepali monarchy, which was formally abolished on May 28 of this year.

Nepal’s PM steps down, Maoists to lead new republic
June 26, 2008

KATHMANDU (AFP) — Nepal’s veteran prime minister announced his resignation Thursday in a move that paves the way for a new Maoist-led government following the abolition of the monarchy.

The announcement by centrist politician Girija Prasad Koirala, who is 83 and in failing health, resolves a political stalemate over power-sharing that followed the declaration of a republic on May 28.

The Maoists have positioned their leader, Prachanda, to replace him as leader of the landlocked Himalayan nation and one of the world’s poorest countries.

The prime minister, whose Nepali Congress party was soundly defeated by the Maoists in April polls for a 601-member constitutional assembly, called on the ultra-leftists to form the next government.

“I declare I have given up the prime minister’s post through this assembly today. With me or without me, we all need to maintain the culture of consensus,” Koirala told the body.

“I appeal to them (the Maoists) to garner consensus for the formation of a new government under their leadership,” Koirala also said in a statement read out by Ram Chandra Poudel, Nepal’s peace minister.

The Maoists and Congress — Nepal’s two main parties — have been arguing for weeks over who should become the first president and prime minister of the world’s youngest republic.

On Wednesday, they reached a deal that the president and prime minister will be elected through the assembly that will draft Nepal’s new constitution.

“Now we all must focus on drafting a new constitution by giving up our petty political differences and ending confusion,” Poudel said.

Prachanda and second-in-command Baburam Bhattarai joined hundreds of other assembly members showing their approval of Koirala’s resignation by banging on the tables in the massive assembly hall.

Nepal’s Maoists, who have 220 seats in the assembly, twice as many as Congress but just less than a majority, welcomed the veteran premier’s resignation.

“We are glad he finally did it. We have been demanding his resignation as it had been a stumbling block for the leaders trying to reach consensus,” Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara told AFP.

“The resignation is a step towards the formation of the government under our leadership,” he said.

Koirala’s party is likely to remain outside the new government that will be led by the former rebels, Congress officials have said, and he will not stand for election as president.

Girija Babu, as he is affectionately known, began his political career in 1947 as a union organiser in his home town of Biratnagar in southern Nepal.

He was imprisoned by Nepal’s deposed royals in 1960, and spent seven years behind bars before going into exile in India.
In 1973 he masterminded the hijacking of a Royal Nepal Airlines plane known to be carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from the state bank to fund his then-banned Nepali Congress party.

His latest stint in government began in 2006 after he became prime minister following an unsuccessful 14-month period of direct rule by ex-king Gyanendra.

Koirala and Prachanda, whose name means “the fierce one,” are credited with ending a decade-long civil war that killed at least 13,000 people until it was ended in a 2006 peace deal.

The rebels launched their “people’s war” with the aim of toppling the monarchy and establishing a communist republic, but since the 2006 peace deal, they have said they will follow democratic norms and not return to war.

Pictured here: Outgoing PM Koirala shakes the hand of the man who will most likely be Nepal’s next head of government, genocidal Maoist leader Prachanda, on May 28, 2008. The Indian press reports that “Victims of Maoists’ decade-long insurgency in Nepal have demanded a high-level commission to probe the killings, forced disappearance and intimidation as the former rebels are poised to lead a government in the Himalayan nation.”

After the Maoists and the social democratic Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) holds the third largest number of seats in the constituent assembly. Together the two communist parties have agreed that Prachanda will assume the post of prime minister, while the CPN-UML chairman will assume the ceremonial post of president, which replaces the monarchy. The Indian press, moreover, reveals that Communist China was the prime mover behind the power-sharing arrangement between Nepal’s two largest communist parties and, in fact, endorses the unification of all communist forces in the former kingdom under the Maoists’ leadership. “Over the last few years,” The Times of India reports, “China sent 26 delegations to Nepal — ranging from ministerial to official to cultural teams — to woo Nepal with a carrot-and-stick policy” that would produce a reliable pro-Beijing regime in Kathmandu in opposition to the Dalai Lama’s agents based in the Himalayan country.

China moots unified Left party in Nepal
25 Jun 2008, 0123 hrs IST,TNN

KATHMANDU: In a bid to suppress all pro-Tibet demonstrations and activities in Nepal, the Himalayan nation’s giant northern neighbour China has stepped up diplomatic lobbying in Kathmandu, mooting a single communist party, a report said.

Over the last few years, China sent 26 delegations to Nepal — ranging from ministerial to official to cultural teams — to woo Nepal with a carrot-and-stick policy, the Commander daily said on Tuesday.

It has also stepped up invitations to Nepal’s parties and media, taking them to Beijing on state-sponsored junkets to emphasize its ‘One China’ policy that regards Tibet as an integral part of the communist republic.

With over half a dozen communist parties in Nepal, Beijing is trying to unify them for the formation of a single communist party that would wield far greater power, just as in China, the daily said, quoting unnamed diplomatic sources.

The highlight of the interactions was the Maoist minister for information and communication Krishna Bahadur Mahara’s low-profile visit to China this month when he reportedly proposed the name of Maoist chairman Prachanda as the chief of the new consolidated party.

Enraged by the continuing anti-China protests in Kathmandu despite the Girija Prasad Koirala government saying that it would not brook any such activity in Nepal, Beijing wants a pro-China hardline government in Nepal.

In 2005, when Gyanendra had seized power with the support of the army, Beijing supported him against the world for closing down the office of the Dalai Lama’s representative in Nepal, in the hope that the authoritarian regime would be an ally. The move to have a unified communist party in Nepal, the daily said, would crush the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), the third largest party in Nepal.

On June 25 the Nepal Telegraph published an interview of Professor Wang Hong-wei, a senior member of a Beijing think tank and thus an authoritative spokesman for the Communist Party of China, who confirmed Red China’s suport for a unified communist party in Nepal:

In the larger interest of the people of Nepal, the communist parties should stop repeating past blunders. Both the parties, the UML and the Maoists, ideologically believe in Marxism and their final goal is Socialism…the Maoists have now joined the competitive politics. I wish both of parties merge with each other. I am very happy that now the two parties have unanimously decided to select the candidate for the president and the prime minister…this is a great leap forward and perhaps the good beginning. Keeping aside the differences, if the two parties unite they can do miracles and they can never be defeated. Their unity will pave way for uniting other smaller communist parties in Nepal.

Meanwhile, Nepal’s new communist government will face the challenges posed by the regional ramifications of the global surge in fuel and food prices. A transportation strike, one of a series of protests arranged by Nepal’s numerous communist parties and their student wings, continued to paralyze the economy in Kathmandu today:

Fresh protests over a recent hike in fuel prices forced thousands of students home and vehicles off the streets in the Nepali capital on Thursday, police said. Three small communist parties have called for a transport strike in the Kathmandu valley to protest against a recent hike of about 25 percent in diesel and petrol prices. Nepal imports about 800,000 tonnes of fuel from India to which it owes millions of dollars. Authorities say the price hike was required to fund imports as the global oil prices continues to rise. Ordinary Nepalis are fed-up with frequent strikes. “This is getting too much and I think protests and strikes must end now and ordinary people must not be troubled every time,” said Ram Krishna Pathak, a government employee. Transport across Nepal was shut down for two days this week and protesters have stoned and destroyed dozens of vehicles since last week.

Pictured above: A striking transport worker argues with a police officer in Kathmandu, on June 24, 2008. On Tuesday thousands of passengers were stranded across Nepal as bus drivers, who are demanding a 35 percent hike in fares, refused to operate their vehicles. Prachanda and his cohorts in the CPN-M will no doubt manipulate the unrest to impose a full-blown communist dictatorship that will curry Beijing’s favor by cracking down on Nepal’s Tibetan exiles. Today 42 Tibetans, including 23 Buddhist monks, 17 nuns, and two laymen, began a protest journey from Kathmandu to Tibet, although the marchers anticipate that Chinese authorities will arrest them at the border.

India’s State of Sikkim: A Hotbed for Maoist Intrigue

The consolidation of the CPN-M’s power over Nepal will also provide a reliable base of operations for the Communist Party of Bhutan (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist), a guerrilla movement that is seeking to overthrow the Bhutanese monarch, Dragon King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck. On June 7 the Bhutanese media reported that “A member of the Communist Party of Bhutan (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) based in Nepal was killed while trying to plant a bomb near the Damchen petroleum depot at Kharbandi, Phuentsholing at around 2:15 am on June 4.”

Like Nepal, Bhutan is situated in the Himalayan Mountains and separated from the other country by the Indian state of Sikkim. This formerly independent kingdom was annexed by India in 1975 and is a hotbed of intrigue for South Asia’s assorted Maoist parties. Bhutan’s Nepal-based Maoists must traverse Sikkim to strike targets in their homeland. In 2004 former Sikkimese Chief Minister Nar Bahadur Bhandari accused his successor Pawan Kumar Chamling, leader of the Sikkim Democratic Front, of “actively supporting” Nepal’s Maoists.

In a related story, Sikkim’s capital Gangtok was secretly visited by Prachanda and his henchmen in July 2007, according to the Nepal Telegraph. During this clandestine visit “the Nepali Maoists met with one influential official of the South Block, India, who had remained instrumental in managing the 12 point agreement in between the State and the rebels then. It is also rumored that the Maoists high command are still in touch with this ‘gentleman’ as and when situation so demands.” The “South Block” refers to the building in New Delhi in which the prime minister’s office and ministries of defense and external affairs are located. Such revelations confirm outgoing PM Koirala’s contention above that his ouster was orchestrated by the Indian government. Thus, we see that the communist practice of exporting revolution remains alive and well in the twenty-first century.

>USSR2 File: Medvedev meets VTB chairman, Soviet strategists seize global financial crisis to promote ruble as reserve currency for CIS, SCO, world

>The credit squeeze in the USA, precipitated in part by last year’s subprime mortgage meltdown, has haunted, in cooperation with world peak oil production and a shakey US dollar, financial and money markets worldwide since last August. “The U.S. is dealing with the most complex financial crisis in more than five decades,” former Federal Reserve System Chairman Alan Greenspan opined yesterday. “Neoliberalism has not freed the market from government. Rather, it has freed governments from any responsibility for taking care of ordinary people or the health of the planet,” complain the Trotskyists at the International Socialist Organization, where “neoliberalism” is a communist codeword for capitalism.

Pictured above: Russian “President” Dmitry Medvedev welcomes World Bank chief Robert Zoellick to the Kremlin, on June 16, 2008.

Lo and behold, the Soviet strategists, anticipating Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization by year’s end, charge into the fray to rescue the world economy from disaster with the lowly ruble. The ruble, they boldly predict, will become the reserve currency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, which is little more than a placeholder for the soon-to-be-restored Soviet Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and, yes, the world.

With respect to neo-Soviet Russia’s admission to the WTO, Bloomberg reports: “Russia may enter the World Trade Organization by the end of the year, ending more than a decade of negotiations and helping sustain economic growth in the world’s largest energy exporter in case the price of crude falls, an adviser to the Russian government said.” How convenient for the advancement of the Second October Revolution and East-West convergence, about which former KGB officer Anatoliy Golitsyn warned the world in two long-forgotten books, New Lies for Old (1984) and The Perestroika Deception (1995, 1998), ignored by dot.gov and its “policy experts.”

State-run Voice of Russia, below, reports that the “nuclear option” with which the Communist Bloc intends to sink the US economy is preceding according to plan. The article quotes Andrei Kostin, chairman of the state-run Vneshtorgbank (VTB).

RUBLE TO EMERGE AS REGIONAL RESERVE CURRENCY
25.06.2008

The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev believes that under the present conditions of global financial instability Russia faces the strategic task of making the ruble a regional currency. He said as much during his meeting with the chairman of the board of directors of Vneshtorgbank, Russia’s second largest bank, Andrei Kostin. Most analysts agree that chances for the ruble to become one of the world reserve currencies are higher then ever. Dmitry Smyslov, a senior expert at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, takes a look at the issue:

The current state of the Russian economy is quite favorable in terms of helping the ruble transform at least into a regional reserve currency in which other CIS countries and neighboring states would keep their currency reserves. There have been some positive shifts in this direction. Of course, it’s hard to say when exactly the ruble will convert itself into a full-blooded reserve currency because this depends on a whole mass of circumstances. The main prerequisite is the removal of all barriers on capital flows between Russia and neighboring countries. The second requirement is stable economic growth in neighboring countries and their capacity to buy Russian goods. Other important circumstances include the opening of an oil exchange in St. Petersburg where oil is traded in rubles only. These are the conditions that needed for the ruble’s transformation into a reserve currency, first for the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and then probably into a world currency.

Vneshtorgbank President Andrei Kostin has said the Russian banking community is already at work on fulfilling the tasks assigned to it. He believes Moscow is a real candidate for becoming a regional reserve financial center. The ruble as a potential reserve currency is gaining more weight as the dollar continues to fall. The idea of creating regional currencies along with the dollar and euro is becoming increasingly popular with some countries. For example, Brasil’s initiative to build a regional currency union has encountered enthusiastic support in Latin America. Similar proposals have been launched by a number of Middle East and Asian countries as they begin to search for an alternative to the weakening dollar.

In December 2007 two VTB managers were bumped off, presumably by Vladimir Putin’s Red Mafiya. On December 11 Oleg Zhukovsky, a managing director at VTB, was found dead in the swimming pool of his dacha near Moscow. A murder investigation is ongoing. A mid-level manager at VTB, Alexander Funin, was found dead on December 24. VTB Chairman Kostin will no doubt say the right thing to please his Kremlin masters.

Meanwhile, representatives of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), formerly known as the Committee for State Security (KGB), paired up with their Belarusian counterparts, who still travel under the name KGB, in Brest, Belarus in a session that will consider ways to jointly protect the Union State of Russia and Belarus against infiltration by Western spies. The Belarusian state media reports today:

A joint session of Belarus’ State Security Committee (KGB) and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) was held in Brest on June 24. The participants of the session discussed the ways to maintain security of the Union State, fight international organized crime, smuggling and corruption, BelTA learnt from the KGB information and public relations center. The Belarusian delegation was headed by Belarus’ KGB chairman Yuri Zhadobin, at the head of the Russian delegation was FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov. The participants of the session summed up the results of the joint investigation work, laid down the plan of the further cooperation, studied the ways to improve the legal framework of the cooperation between the special services of the two countries.

New FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov, who led the Russian delegation, is pictured above. Medvedev visited his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Brest on June 22. There the two “ex”-communist presidents reaffirmed their commitment to the treaty of formation undergirding the Union State. “Belarus and Russia will always be together,” Comrade Lukashenko, an advocate of restoring the Soviet Union, declared during the meeting. “Our nations will never live separately of each other.”

>End Times File: Antichrist(?) addresses Knesset, promises Mideast peace; IDF soldier kills self at Sarkozy farewell; Islamic Jihad breaks truce

>Israeli Police Deny Soldier’s Suicide Was Attempt to Assassinate Sarkozy

In the November 2, 2007 issue of The Omega Letter, Jack Kinsella writes: “But Israel couldn’t accept a European-led peace process because Israel didn’t have anybody in Europe that they felt they could trust. Until Ehud Olmert met Nicolas Sarkozy and, peering into his soul, found there a closet Zionist.” Today, six months later, French President Nicolas Sarkozy wound up a three-day visit to Israel. Sarkozy, whose political career was catapaulted into the international limelight less than three years ago during France’s November 2005 immigrant riots, will assume the rotating presidencies of the European Union and the United Nations Security Council on July 1. Sarkozy was accompanied by his model-turned-singer wife Carla Bruni, whom the Israeli tabloid press worshipped with glowing praise as “Queen Carla.”

France’s First Couple is of Jewish descent, which is one reason why the Israelis have understandably warmed up to the French again since the departure of President Jacques Chirac. Nicolas’ aristocratic artist father Pal is of Hungarian Jewish origin, while his mother’s father was of Greek-Syrian Jewish origin. More than 600,000 Sephardic Jews live in France, which boasts two heads of government from the twentieth century who were Jewish but center-left in ideology: Prime Ministers Leon Blum (1936-1937, 1938, 1946-1947) and Pierre Mendes-France (1954-1955). Sarkozy, by contrast, is professedly conservative in orientation, although he has established a strategic partnership between France and neo-Soviet Russia and Red China.

Yesterday, Sarkozy addressed the Knesset, or Israeli parliament (pictured above), visted the sobering Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, and met with the parents of Israeli Defense Force Corporal Gilad Shalit, held hostage for nearly two years by Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip and that regularly lobs rockets at southern Israel. While reaffirming France’s unwavering support for Israeli national security and the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program, Sarkozy also insisted that the “roadmap” to peace entails a separate Palestinian state, the internationalization of Jerusalem, and the cessation of construction of new Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which is part of the Palestinian National Authority. Excerpts of Sarkozy’s Knesset speech follow:

I reiterate here in the clearest manner: As far as France is concerned, a nuclear Iran is totally unacceptable.

France is determined to continue to lead, along with its partners, a policy that integrates gradually intensifying sanctions with openness, in case Iran chooses to honor its international obligatons.

France is Israel’s friend, and will always stand by her side when her security or existence are threatened. Those who scandalously call for the destruction of Israel will always, always, find France blocking their path.

Jews the world over feel a powerful bond to their homeland. The fate of every Jew is tied up to the fate of all other Jews. The fact that the world has such a prospering Jewish state is a source of pride and honor to every one of them.

Because in Israel, Judaism is not defined through its relation to anti-Semitism; because this is the place where every Jew can find refuge if one day, God forbid, he does not have another place to run to; because this is the only place in the world where all know that Jews will never be made to wear a yellow star, where Jews will be forbidden from riding the bus, visiting the cinema and the theater and working in various professions.

After Sarkozy presented himself as Israel’s foremost guarantor of peace and safety, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who faces corruption charges that have endangered his political career and the stability of the current government, gushed: “Next month France is starting its term at the presidency of the EU. I am positive that this is a wonderful opportunity to lead the Union, under your leadership, to a unified and unwavering position against the Iranian nuclear threat. We thank you for your declaration that Israel’s security is non-negotiable and for your steadfast and decisive stance vis-à-vis the danger of nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran, whose president has publicly called to strike Israel off the map.” Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who is a close friend of fellow rightist Sarkozy and will likely become the next prime minister, differs with the French president over the issue of the proposed division of Jerusalem. After meeting President Sarkozy earlier today, Netanyahu rightly insisted, below: “Jerusalem is the historic capital of the Jewish people. Jerusalem will not be divided, and only Israeli control in the city will guarantee freedom of worship for all religions.”

Today Sarkozy visited Bethlehem in the West Bank, where he embraced one of Israel’s sworn enemies, Soviet-backed Palestinian President/ Archterrorist Mahmoud Abbas. In the picture above note that the European Union flag accompanies the French and Palestinian flags. The EU under Sarkozy’s leadership intends to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within the context of Sarkozy’s pet project known as the Mediterranean Union. Note, too, the portrait of Palestine Liberation Organization and KGB-trained terrorist Yasser Arafat in the background.

At least three portents marred Sarkozy’s departure from Israel at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. First, an IDF soldier positioned along the perimeter of the French president’s farewell ceremony allegedly committed suicide with his own firearm. According to Haaretz, Israeli police deny that this incident was an assassination attempt on the French leader, even though the farewell ceremony for of a foreign head of state is a very unusual place to carry out a suicide, to say the least. Other news sources state that the security guard was a policeman, rather than a soldier.

In the photograph below, released by the Israeli Government Press Office, security officers rushes PM Olmert from the scene of a suicide at Sarkozy’s farewell ceremony at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, on June 24, 2008. Meanwhile, the French president and his wife beat a hasty retreat into Sarkozy’s presidential aircraft.

Border policeman dies from self-inflicted shot at Sarkozy farewell
Last update – 17:59 24/06/2008
By Haaretz Service

An Israeli soldier on the perimeter of a farewell airport ceremony for French President Nicolas Sarkozy apparently shot himself on Tuesday in a incident that did not endanger the visiting leader, Israel Radio said.

The shooting occurred while a military band was playing and went unnoticed by Sarkozy and Israeli leaders at the ceremony. Dark-suited men then quickly ushered Sarkozy and his wife up the stairs of their plane. In a panic, Sarkozy’s wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, rushed up the stairs ahead of her husband.

At the same time, security guards, with their guns drawn, rushed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres toward their cars. The incident was over within minutes, and Olmert returned and boarded the plane to inform Sarkozy what had transpired, witnesses said.

The plane departed without further incident. Israel Radio said the soldier was stationed 100 meters to 200 meters away from the plane when the gunshot was fired. Two women soldiers who witnessed the shooting fainted and were treated by medics. Police and volunteer medical service Zaka said the soldier apparently committed suicide. Police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, denied reports that there had been an assassination attempt on the French leader.

Netanyahu to Sarkozy: Jerusalem will never be divided

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier Tuesday during a meeting with visiting Sarkozy that Jerusalem would never be divided in a future peace agreement with the Palestinians. “Jerusalem is the historic capital of the Jewish people. Jerusalem will not be divided, and only Israeli control in the city will guarantee freedom of worship for all religions,” Netanyahu, the chairman of the right-wing Likud party, said.

Netanyahu’s comments came after the French president told the Knesset on Monday that the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of both Israel and a Palestinian state was a condition for peace. The Palestinians, he said, “have the right to a viable state of their own.”

He added that such a state would “ensure Israel’s security.” Sarkozy also met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem on Tuesday, at the end of a three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Sarkozy is slated to get a look at a new electric car, a French-Israeli project, in an event to be hosted by President Shimon Peres.

His first presidential visit to Israel, accompanied by his wife Carla Bruni and eager photojournalists, has been marked by mutual warmth and expressions of a renaissance in Franco-Israeli relations. Much of the visit has been carried live on Israeli television, in particular a tour of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.

Sarkozy also told the Knesset that Israel must end its settlement activity in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and said that there would be “no peace without a solution to the problem of the Palestinian refugees,” a key sticking point in negotiations between the two sides.

The French leader also urged Israel to “encourage legislation that would entice settlers to leave the West Bank.” He also spoke strongly against the Iranian nuclear threat. “A nuclear Iran is intolerable,” Sarkozy told the lawmakers. “Anyone trying to destroy Israel will find France blocking the way.”

The electric powered vehicle that will be presented to Sarkozy on Tuesday is at the center of a joint venture between automotive giant Renault-Nissan, which is building the car, and Project Better Place of Israel, which came up with the business model and is supposed to operate a recharging grid to be built across Israel beginning in 2009.

Pictured here: Sarkozy greets well-wishers as he and his wife leave the Knesset, on June 23, 2008.

Second, during the course of Sarkozy’s visit, elements of Islamic Jihad based in the Gaza Strip broke a six-month truce between Israel and Hamas, brokered by Egypt and implemented less than one week ago, by launching three rockets into southern Israel. Under the terms of the truce, Israel would lift is economic blockade of Gaza, while Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls the Strip, refrains from attacking Israel. Hamas spokesentity Sami Abu Zuhri protested that “The rocket attack came because of Israeli provocation this morning. Hamas is committed to the calm. We will talk with other factions and make sure they are committed, too.” The “provocation” to which Zuhri refers is the killing by IDF soldiers of two Palestinians in Nablus, in the West Bank. One of the Palestinians was a member of Islamic Jihad.

Third, the Israeli media reports today that US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen will briefly visit Israel at the end of the week for talks with IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi. The Jerusalem Post states that Mullen’s “surprise visit” has “fueled speculation” that a US, Israeli, or joint military operation against Iran’s nuclear capabilities is looming, either before Olmert is forced out of office or US President George W. Bush steps down in January 2009. Arutz Sheva reported yesterday that: “The Labor party caucus decided Monday afternoon to back party chairman Ehud Barak and vote against the government Wednesday on a bill to dissolve the government. The decision effectively is the last nail in the coffin for the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.”

The Jerusalem Post, moreover, notes the proximity between Mullen’s arrival in Israel and a military operation during the first week of June in which, according to the New York Times, citing “American officials”, “More than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters participated in the maneuvers, which were carried out over the eastern Mediterranean and over Greece during the first week of June . . . The exercise also included Israeli helicopters that could be used to rescue downed pilots. The helicopters and refueling tankers flew more than 900 miles, which is about the same distance between Israel and Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at Natanz . . .”

In a related story, crude oil prices climbed again to US$136 per barrel over consumer fears of tight supplies and after Nigeria’s Marxist militants sabotaged Chevron’s Abiteye Olero pipeline, shutting down operations that produce more than 100,000 barrels of crude each day. A US-Israeli war against Tehran will unquestionably drive up oil prices even further, a move that will not register well with motorists, who are also voters, and endanger the Republican candidate in November’s US presidential election, John McCain.

Pictured here: Sarkozy and wife tour the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, on June 24, 2008. A Catholic by religious affiliation, Sarkozy is also a canon of the church, an honor bestowed upon all presidents of France.

Meanwhile, Sarkozy’s plans for reviving the Roman Empire in the form of the “Euro-Mediterrean Union” have hit several roadblocks. No doubt France’s “hyperactive” president will surmount these obstacles, possibly with his “volcanic temper,” which he shares with wife Carla. Nineteen of the 27 European Union countries have ratified the Lisbon Treaty, except Ireland, where the national constitution required ratification by popular referendum, a step that led to its rejection by Irish voters. This past weekend Axel Poniatowski, official spokesperson for the French president, stated that: “There is no other choice for the Irish Government but to hold a second referendum.” The French president plans to visit Ireland on July 11 to woo that country into the Lisbon Treaty, which is also known as the Reform Treaty and is designed to streamline the operations of the EU as outlined in the Maastrict and Rome treaties.

In addition to the obstacle presented by Ireland with respect to reforming the EU, Libya has presented an obstacle in the establishment of the proposed Mediterranean Union, which will embrace the EU, North Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean, including Israel, the very territory covered by the ancient Roman Empire and then some. Most EU countries, as well as Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco, are now on board for upgrading the Barcelona Process on Euro-Mediterranean integration, but Algeria and Turkey have expressed reservations, while long-time Libyan strongman and Soviet ally Muammar al-Gaddafi (pictured below) has vocalized outright opposition to the MU. During a June 10 mini-summit in Tripoli he protested:

We are members states of the Arab League and also the African Union and we will not take any chances with damaging Arab or African Unity. Our European partners need to understand that. We are in favour of partnership projects but they must take account of these red lines. If Europe wants to cooperate with us, let them do so through the Arab League or the African Union… we will not accept that they deal only with a small group. The European Union insists on its own unity and refuses to be divided and the initiative of our dear Sarkozy has been firmly rejected by Europe. The Arab League will not agree either to the division of his ranks or the destruction of its unity.

France’s Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner responded to Qaddafi’s strident opposition by pointing out the Libyan leader’s earlier opposition to the Barcelona Process, inaugurated in 1995: “European countries must turn towards the Mediterranean and work together, on the northern shore as well as the southern shore. That is what we are working for. Colonel Gaddafi is not in agreement with this vision. Neither was he in agreement with the Barcelona process which we intend to support and pursue. Four main areas of cooperation will be proposed in Paris on July 13: reducing pollution in the Mediterranean Sea, promoting solar energy, setting up joint civil protection operations and a joint water plan.” Irked by Qaddafi’s refusal to join the party, on June 11 Le Monde newspaper editorialized: “He was hosted in Paris with every honour. Yet he has just rejected in a tempestuous fashion one of the projects dearest to Sarkozy’s heart.”

Not surprisingly, lingering doubts remain in the minds of Arab politicians that the proposed MU “serves Israeli interests.” In a June 12 interview with Iran’s Alalam News, Secretary General of Egypt’s Action Party Majdi Hussein complained: “France is a colonialist power in line with the Israeli interests, so efforts should be made to counter the plan with Arab and Islamic alternatives.” Hussein continued his rant:

Some countries like Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia have unconditionally accepted France’s idea of formation of the Mediterranean Union, while other countries like Algeria and Libya have set conditions for signing up to the bid on sidelining Israel. Certain countries cannot turn down calls from a Western state like France for accession to the plan. The plan might be a cover to include the occupying regime [Israel] among Arab and Muslim states.

Notwithstanding these “burps” in the restoration of the Roman Empire of Bible prophecy, the highlight of the MU’s kick-off summit and the main venue in which Sarkozy will showcase his indispensible peace-making skills will be a peace conference between Israeli PM Olmert and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the summit sidelines. “The Syrian president will be there, sitting next to, at the same table, as the Israeli president,” FM Kouchner informed the French parliament on Tuesday, June 17. “Israel and Syria on Monday,” reported AFP on the same day, “wrapped up a second round of indirect talks in Turkey and agreed to hold more meetings in July.”

Antichrist(?) Visits the Temple Mount, Fraternizes with the Enemies of Israel; Syrian Antichrist Candidate Bashar al-Assad Demoted

Pictured here: Sarkozy, then leader of the Union for a Popular Movement, France’s main rightist party, and Minister of Finances in President Jacques Chirac’s cabinet, visits the Dome of the Rock, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, on December 16, 2004. Posing with him are Sheikh Mohammad Hussein (center), Director of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Adnan Al-Hussein, General Director of the Waqf, or the Islamic Trust that administers the Temple Mount. Later, during the same visit to the Temple Mount, Sarkozy donned the Jewish kippah and visited the nearby Western Wall in the company of his Jewish countrymen.

Numerous Bible prophecies reveal that the Jews will rebuild their Temple here in the very near future and that Antichrist, the chief adversary of God among men, will claim deity in that rebuilt structure before Jesus Christ returns from heaven. For at least 12 years Sarkozy’s spiritual adviser has been Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Dovid Zaoui. The Chabad-Lubavitch sect of Hasidic, or Orthodox, Judaism, is committed to building the Third Temple on the Temple Mount, and views Sarkozy’s election to the French presidency as a significant step in the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom on earth. Muslims worldwide fervently but erroneously deny that a Jewish Temple ever stood on these grounds, while Israel as a nation and much of the world, for that matter, remains blinded to the fact that the Hebrew prophets predicted two comings for Messiah, first as a suffering savior for the sins of mankind and second as conquering king. The millennial kingdom of Messiah is based wholely on the blood that God the Son, the last sacrifice for sin, shed on Calvary’s cross. The messiah for which the Chabad-Lubavitch Jews long, however, is not Yeshua, but “another who will come in his own name” (John 5:43).

In past posts we have duly noted that Sarkozy, more than any other European leader in the last 100 years, bears striking resemblances to the Antichrist prophesied in the Bible. The Antichrist is a man of great wickedness who will not only rule the world for seven years under a bloody, Satanically engerized regime but deceptively present himself as Israel’s coming messiah with the intent of opposing the return of Jesus Christ to establish his thousand-year kingdom in Jerusalem. We have documented the following as well as other intriguing facts about the French president’s character and career.

Sarkozy, like all presidents of France, is co-prince of Andorra. In Daniel 9:26 we learn that Antichrist is the “prince that shall come.” In Isaiah 21:25-27 we also learn that Antichrist is the “profane wicked prince of Israel,” from whom Jesus Christ will wrest the crown of Israel.

Sarkozy, through his mother’s family, is of Syrian Jewish descent. In the seventh and eighth chapters of Daniel’s prophecy we learn from the visions of the third and fourth beasts that Antichrist is the “little horn” that arises from the territories of both the Greek and Roman empires. Writing in the early part of the twentieth century, Clarence Larkin explains: “From what we have thus far learned of the Antichrist, the probability is that he will be a SYRIAN JEW, for it is not likely that the Jews will accept as their Messiah one who is not a Jew, unless the claimant by false pretense makes them believe he is one. This, however, does not prevent the Antichrist being a Roman citizen, and the political head of the revived Roman Empire, for Saul of Tarsus was both a Jew and a Roman citizen.” Thus, Antichrist is Roman and Syrian, or Gentile, as well as Jewish. The popes don’t qualify on these points.

Sarkozy is the architect of the revived Roman Empire of Bible prophecy, to be called the Mediterranean Union, which will include Syria, a fact that will subordinate Bashar al-Assad, another Antichrist candidate in the minds of some Christians, to Sarkozy. In Revelation 13 we learn that the “beast from the sea” refers to both the revived Roman Empire and its dictator. The two are inextricable and both animated by the Devil. Like Larkin, British theologian/preacher A. W. Pink wrote in the early part of the twentieth century. Knowing only of the League of Nations, the forerunner of the United Nations, Pink described Antichrist’s involvement in the formation of the last world empire:

“And I saw…a Beast rise up out of the sea”. In Scripture, the troubled “sea” is frequently a figure of restless humanity away from God. The Antichrist will come upon the scene at a time of unprecedented social disturbance and governmental upheaval. He will appear at a crisis in the history of the world. From other prophetic scriptures we gather that, following the removal of the Church from this earth, and some time before Daniel’s seventieth week begins, there will be a complete overthrow of law and order, both civil and political. All Divine restraint being removed, lawlessness will prevail. We have no doubt that Satan will designedly bring this about. It will create a situation beyond the diplomatic skill of earth’s statesmen. This will provide the desired opportunity for the coming Superman, who will be a diplomatic genius. Just as many leaders today are satisfied that a League of Nations would be the best device for preserving peace, so in the day to come the Man of Sin will satisfy the world that this is the only solution to the baffling problems then confronting the Powers of earth. Thus will the Antichrist resurrect the old Roman Empire at a time of universal confusion and tumult. He will himself be the acknowledged head or Emperor, the last of the Caesars. Hence the double significance of this figure – “a Beast rising out of the sea”. Out of a state of anarchy will come forth this might Despot, who will speedily arrogate to himself all authority, both Divine and human; and in the end it will be seen that he embodies a lawlessness even worse and more fatal than that out of which he sprang. A Beast indeed will he soon appear to be. Pregnant with meaning is this title. Having rejected God’s “Lamb”; a Beast shall be the world’s ruler. This will be God’s reply to the satanic teaching of Evolution now so popular almost everywhere. The leaders of modern thought insist on the beastial origin of man, and so a Beast shall yet lead the majority of his generation to Perdition!

Note Pink’s comment: “Thus will the Antichrist resurrect the old Roman Empire at a time of universal confusion and tumult.” Sarkozy’s commitment to regional and world government and the demise of national sovereignty is also evident in his September 25, 2007 speech to the United Nations General Assembly:

In the name of France, I call upon all states to join ranks in order to found the new world order of the 21st century on the notion that the common goods that belong to all of humankind must be the common responsibility for us all. The UN should ensure access for all human beings to vital resources, such as water, energy, food, medication and knowledge. More morality is needed in financial capitalism and a fairer distribution of profits, earnings in commodities, raw materials and new technologies. There must be a change of mindset and behaviour.

The news headlines today trumpet: Global fuel crisis. Global food crisis. The demise of the US dollar. The collapse of the world banking system. The time has arrived for the Man of Sin to deceive the world and God’s chosen nation. If another, more qualified candidate awaits in the wings, then Sarko is certainly doing his part to roll out the red carpet.

>EU File: Milosevic’s Socialists dump alliance with nationalists, join Tadic’s pro-EU Democrats, "ex"-communists to receive key cabinet portfolios

>Immediately following the May 11 parliamentary election in Serbia it appeared that the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) would form a governing alliance with the slavishly pro-Moscow Democratic Party of Serbia and the Serbian Radical Party. Instead, the old party of deceased Serbian communist warmonger Slobodan Milosevic has joined forces with the Democratic Party of Serbian President Boris Tadic, who is pro-European Union. Ivica Dačić, the current SPS chief, is pictured above with Tadic yesterday in Belgrade. Shortly after the election, too, Dacic travelled to Moscow where he met with Putin croney and Speaker of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov, “other senior officials,” as well as, apparently, Milosevic’s exiled widow and son, Mirjana Markovic and Marko.

In return for supporting Serbia’s integration into the EU, even as Brussels supports the independence of Serbia’s breakaway province of Kosovo, the SPS will receive key cabinet portfolios such as the interior, energy, and education ministries, as well as two deputy prime minister and parliamentary speaker posts. The political horsetrading in Belgrade, which will permit Moscow to guide Serbia’s admission into the EU, should really come as no surprise to those who subscribe to the Golitsynian thesis regarding “post”-communist Eastern Europe. From the beginning Moscow has covertly guided the transformation of the European Economic Community into Mikhail Gorbachev’s “new European Soviet.” BalkanInsight.com reports today:

Serb Democrats & Socialists Closer to Deal

23 June 2008 Belgrade _ Serbia’s pro-Europeans and Socialists agree on the principles for forming Serbia’s next government after a second round of talks.

The head of the pro-European camp, Serbia’s President Boris Tadic met leaders from the Socialist bloc at his residence late on Sunday and his Democratic Party later also said that “the principles on which a government will be formed have been agreed.”

The statement added that “the talks will continue and intensify so that Serbia can get a stable and socially responsible government soon.”

On Saturday the two camps officially started talks on a new government after the Socialists declared negotiations had failed with the nationalist bloc made up of the outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia and the hard-line Serbian Radical Party had failed.

Ivica Dacic, the Socialists’ leader said they could not agree on two key issues, the future of a key European Union pre-membership deal known as the Stabilisation and Association Agreement which Serbian pro-European leaders signed in late April amid outcry from nationalist parties; and social welfare.

After Sunday’s meeting there was no news on the composition of a new government.

But media reported that Tadic held parallel talks with partners from his For a European Serbia coalition on sharing power within the new cabinet.

Media also reiterated earlier speculation that the new government could be expected by end June.

Sources close to talks uphold earlier statements that the Socialists, once led by late strongman Slobodan Milosevic, will get the key Interior Ministry and ministries for energy and education, as well as two deputy Prime Minister and parliament speaker posts.

Meanwhile, Milorad Dodik, Prime Minister of Bosnia’s Serb Republic, also supports the integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina into the EU, but warns that Bosnian Serbs still regard “Serbia as the Motherland.” “Certainly we will give our contribution to European integration but at the same time it is unacceptable that this integration is used as an alibi for internal reform. Why should Bosnia and Herzegovina change its internal structure when no other (EU) member country had to do it?” he warned in a recent interview with the Slovenian media. Pictured above: On January 9, 2008 Serbian President Tadic talks with Dodik after signing an agreement that will promote “special ties” between Belgrade and Banja Luka, the Serb Republic capital.

From 1986 through 1990 Dodik was municipal prime minister of the Bosnian town of Laktaši. In 1990, while Bosnia and Herzegovina was still part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), he was elected to the Bosnian parliament as a candidate of the Union of Reform Forces. Dodik is currently president of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNS), which holds the largest number of seats in the Serb Republic’s National Assembly. The SNS evolved from the Independent Members of Parliament Caucus (IMPC), which in December 2001 united with the Democratic Socialist Party. The IMPC, in turn, traces its origin to the Union of Reform Forces, founded in 1990 by Ante Markovic, a Bosnian Croat who was the last SFRY prime minister. The Democratic Socialist Party, for its part, is a splinter party of the Socialist Party of the Serb Republic, itself linked to the “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia.

The Southeast European Times reports that PM Dodik attended the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg earlier this month: “Republika Srpska (RS) Prime Minister Milorad Dodik arrived in Russia on Friday (June 6th) to participate in the three-day International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg. Dodik met with a number of Russian bankers and investors and said there is strong investor interest in RS. He also discussed privatisation of the RS oil sector with the Russian company Zarubezhneft.”

In summary, Bosnian Serb Dodik, like Dacic in Serbia, is yet another “ex”-communist politician from the Not-So-Former Soviet Bloc. Serbian and Bosnian Serb politicians, moreover, remain closely allied with Moscow.

>Latin America File: Region’s Red Axis prepares to absorb El Salvador as hip FMLN frontman maintains 20-point lead over ruling ARENA candidate

>If it flies like a duck, swims like a duck, and eats like a duck, it’s a duck. The FMLN is a communist party.
— Salvadoran President Tony Saca, recent comment

The Soviet/Cuban-backed Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front was unable to take El Salvador by force of arms during that country’s 1980-1992 civil war. The deceptive self-dismantling of the Soviet Union in 1991, however, forced communist insurgents throughout the Western Hemisphere to adopt a new tactic that entailed seizing power at the ballot box. With the exception of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the resurgent Shining Path in Peru, which soldiered on through the jungles in their attempt to overthrow the “neo-liberal” regimes in Bogota and Lima, Latin America’s leftists repackaged themselves as sensible, suit-and-tie-wearing “moderates” and networked through the Sao Paulo Forum.

With the election of Hugo Chavez to the presidency of Venezuela in 1998, a massive leftward political shift swept and continues to sweep across Central and South America. El Salvador’s “ex”-communist rebels, hiding behind the seemingly benign face of their candiate Mauricio Funes, a hip ex-TV reporter and Salvadoran talk show host, are poised to take that country’s presidency for the first time in the March 2009 election. Funes, as the story below reports, maintain a respectable 20-point lead over ruling ARENA party candidate Rodrigo Avila, El Salvador’s former police chief.

The political, economic, and social turmoil generated by the global fuel-food crisis, which came to a head last year with skyrocketing prices and endemic shortages, has pushed an additional 500,000 Salvadorans and Guatemalans into poverty over the last year, according to the United Nations World Food Program. That the FMLN intends to propagandize the regional effects of the fuel-food crisis is revealed by Cuba’s state-run media. “The Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) is to present several proposals Friday, aimed at reducing effects of high oil and food prices in El Salvador,” Prensa Latina reported on June 13. “Among those initiatives are to demand that the Elias Antonio Saca administration secure the $350 million promised to reactivate farming, subsidies, and programs like that of Solidarity Network.”

Pictured above: Funes (left) shakes hands with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, during a meeting on the sidelines of the Central American Integration System Summit in San Salvador, on May 29, 2008. Along with Cuba’s communist tyrant Fidel Castro, Lula co-founded the narco-terrorist Sao Paulo Forum. The article below reveals that Funes “is a friend of Brazil’s leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He says that, like Lula, he respects financial markets and private investment but wants more justice for the poor.” “It’s a myth that a FMLN victory would mean the end of private companies and private property,” Funes informed Reuters recently. Sure, Comrade Funes. Whatever you say. And Fidel Castro is an “agrarian reformer.”

Ex-journalist leads Salvador polls for rebel party
By Alberto Barrera

Wednesday, June 18, 2008; 10:36 AM

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) – A former CNN journalist could lead a leftist party of former Cold War Marxist guerrillas to power for the first time in El Salvador’s presidential election next year, opinion polls show.

Recent surveys by the University of Central America and CID-Gallup give ex-TV reporter and Salvadoran talk show host Mauricio Funes a lead of up to 20 points over ruling party candidate Rodrigo Avila, El Salvador’s former police chief.

The left has never won an election in El Salvador, and picking a moderate candidate for the March 2009 vote reflects a determination by the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, to shake off its Marxist roots.

The former rebels, who battled a series of U.S.-backed governments in a 1980-1992 civil war, has lost the last three presidential elections to the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance, or ARENA, which has been in power since 1989.

However, the FMLN has moved closer to the political center and now has the largest bloc in El Salvador’s national assembly.

“Choosing Mauricio is a reflection of the changes in the FMLN,” said Gerson Martinez, an FMLN lawmaker and a rebel during the civil war that killed 75,000 people.

Although much of Latin America has swung to the left in recent years, the FMLN’s violent past kept it from winning the presidency. Its candidates scored highly in polls throughout the last three presidential campaigns but were defeated by ARENA on election day.

The FMLN’s hardline former leader Schafik Handal ran for president in 2004 but lost to conservative U.S. ally Tony Saca. El Salvador is one of the United States’ closest allies in Latin America and sent troops to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Leadership changes since Handal’s death in 2006 have made the FMLN more palatable to swing voters, analysts say.

Meanwhile, Saca has struggled to curb gang violence and convert economic growth into tangible gains for the poor. He is also unpopular for supporting the war in Iraq.

The FMLN sees Funes, 48, with his clean-cut look of cropped hair and slick glasses, capitalizing on discontent with Saca, even if his message of change is short on details.

Funes has become a familiar face as a political commentator on Salvadoran television after presenting an interview program that was generally critical of the government. He also worked as a correspondent for international news channel CNN.

Already under attack from El Salvador’s conservative media, Funes, who left CNN last year to focus on politics, is a friend of Brazil’s leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He says that, like Lula, he respects financial markets and private investment but wants more justice for the poor.

“It’s a myth that a FMLN victory would mean the end of private companies and private property,” Funes told Reuters recently.

He also says he would open diplomatic ties with China if he wins the election. El Salvador is one of only a handful of countries that recognize Taiwan instead of mainland China.

Source: Washington Post

Under the title “Losing El Salvador? Chavez’s friends are poised for victory,” Daily Standard journalist Jaime Daremblum cuts through Fune’s “relatively moderate” image to uncover FMLN’s Marxist-Leninist core:

While Funes cuts a relatively moderate figure, he does not have any real sway over the FMLN’s structure and ideology, which are inspired by old-fashioned Marxism-Leninism. The FMLN is a party that continues to defend the leftist narcoterrorists in Colombia, and refuses even to call them terrorists. Many analysts question how much its core beliefs have really changed. “If it flies like a duck, swims like a duck, and eats like a duck, it’s a duck. The FMLN is a communist party,” President Saca said recently.

In May 2008 Spain’s El Pais disclosed that one document found on the infamous laptop computer of executed FARC commander Raul Reyes contained a reference to FMLN senior official Luis Merino acting as middleman between the Colombian guerrillas and Australian arms dealers. Merino is also a member of the Central American Parliament and his pseudonym on Reyes’ computer was llamado Ramiro. Understandably, the rightist press in El Salvador has obtained a lot of mileage out of this revelation. According to Tim’s El Salvador Blog, after the El Pais story was published, Funes failed to adequately distance his party from the alleged FMLN-FARC nexus.

The neo-Soviet leadership has been carefully monitoring the fall of Latin America to neo-communism and will no doubt labor discreetly with the FMLN to ensure its electoral victory. The Soviet Union’s involvement with insurgent forces in the Western Hemisphere goes way back to the 1950s and 1960s, when Nikolai Leonov was the KGB’s liaison with Latin American terrorist Che Guevara and Cuban revolutionaries Fidel and Raul Castro. Between 1983 and January 1991, Leonov was Deputy Chief of the First Chief Directorate of the Soviet State Security Committee. His subordinate in the First Chief Directorate during that period was . . . Vladimir Putin, Russia’s current prime minister. Earlier this month the Moscow-based Nikolai Ostrovski Resistance Museum organized a tribute to Che on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of his birth. In attendance were the Cuban ambassador to Russia Jorge Marti, Leonov, and others.

Meanwhile, five members of the international narco-terrorist gang Mara Salvatrucha, consisting originally of former FMLN guerrillas, were stabbed and strangled to death in a Salvadoran prison on June 11. Less than one week before, Canadian police, acting on information provided in a five-month investigation, raided 22 locations in the Toronto area and apprehended 21 suspected MS-13 gang members, 17 of whom were charged with weapons offences and trafficking narcotics. Most significantly, three suspects were charged with conspiracy to murder a member of the Canadian judiciary. “We’re confident with the conclusion of this investigation that we have identified the individuals who are responsible for establishing the MS-13 clique in Toronto,” assured Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair. “We believe with the arrest we have effectively ended the activities of this gang.”

An anarchist website admits: “Mara Salvatrucha began life in the 90s on the streets of Los Angeles amongst the Salvadoran refugee community as a self-defense outfit. Police reports claim young exiled members of the Salvadoran guerrilla FMLN were instrumental in training and organizing the street gang in its initial years.”

>Communist Bloc Military Updates: Two Bear, two Backfire bombers fly patrol over Arctic, Atlantic; Indo-Soviet partnership flourishes with new missile

>“President” Medvedev Chairs Russian Security Council Meeting, Assesses Kremlin’s Ability to Cope with Global Food Crisis

The Russian Air Force’s weekly overseas patrols, officially revitalized in August 2007, continue with the latest mission flown by two Tu-95 Bear bombers and two Tu-22M3 Backfire bombers (pictured above) over the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. The aircraft are based out of Engels Air Base in Russia’s Saratov Region. Kremlin spokesentities are emphatic in asserting that their military aircraft abide by international aviation rules and never violate national airspace. In reality, this is not the case since we have documented under our Russian Strategic Aviation Updates (see blog’s right column and linked archives) numerous penetrations of US, Canadian, British, Icelandic, Norwegian, Finnish, and Japanese airspace, as well as provocative overflights near US aircraft carrier groups. State-run Novosti reports:

Four Russian strategic bombers patrol Arctic, Atlantic oceans
17:1320/ 06/ 2008

MOSCOW, June 20 (RIA Novosti) – Four Russian strategic bombers are carrying out a routine patrol over remote areas of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, a Russian Air Force spokesman said on Friday.

“Two Tu-95MS Bear and two Tu-22M3 Backfire strategic bombers based at Engels airfield in southern Russia’s Saratov Region are conducting on Friday a routine patrol flight over the Arctic and Atlantic oceans,” Lt. Col. Vladimir Drik said.

Russia resumed strategic bomber patrol flights over the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic oceans last August, following an order signed by former President Vladimir Putin. Russian bombers have since carried out over 80 strategic patrol flights and have often been escorted by NATO planes.

Drik reiterated that all Russian strategic patrols are performed in strict accordance with international rules on the use of airspace over neutral waters without violating the borders of other states.

Air Force commander, Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin said in April that Russia would drastically increase the number of strategic patrol flights over the world’s oceans to 20-30 a month in the near future.

Meanwhile, the military component of the Indo-Soviet partnership is flourishing in the midst of joint projects such as BrahMos Aerospace’s new ground-hugging, short-range, supersonic missile that features sea-, air-, and land-based launch platforms (pictured here). The Indo-Soviet missile can allegedly outperform the US Tomahawk cruise missile. Novosti also reports, below, that “India is planning to produce at least 140 Su-30MKI fighters by 2014 under a Russian license with full technology transfer.”

India, Russia develop airborne supersonic cruise missile
16:4920/ 06/ 2008

NEW DELHI, June 20 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian-Indian BrahMos Aerospace joint venture has finished the development of the airborne version of an advanced supersonic missile, the company’s managing director has said.

Established in 1998, BrahMos Aerospace designs, produces, and markets supersonic missiles, whose sea-based and land-based versions have been successfully tested and put into service with the Indian Army and Navy.

“For the airborne version…we had to reduce the mass of the missile and to ensure aerodynamic stability after its separation from the aircraft. The air-launched platform has its own initial speed during the launch of the missile, so we have reduced the size of the booster. Now the missile is ready,” Sivathanu Pillai told RIA Novosti in an exclusive interview.

The BrahMos missile has a range of 180 miles (290 kms) and can carry a conventional warhead of up to 660 pounds. It can hit surface targets while flying at an altitude as low as 10 meters (30 feet) and at a speed of Mach 2.8, which is about three times faster than the U.S.-made subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile.

The official said the Indian Air Force had chosen SU-30 MKI Flanker-H multirole fighter as a trial platform for the missile.

“We have a schedule for flight trials, but progress has slowed down, as Russia’s Sukhoi Design Bureau has its own priority for fifth generation aircraft,” Pillai said.

India is planning to produce at least 140 Su-30MKI fighters by 2014 under a Russian license with full technology transfer.

Experts estimate that India might purchase up to 1,000 BrahMos missiles for its Armed Forces in the next decade, and export 2,000 to third countries during the same period.

The well-established Indo-Soviet partnership is also evident in the five-day visit that Indian Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor will make to Russia between June 23 and 27. “The last time an army chief from India visited Russia was in September 2007,” reports the same source above, “as part of the INDRA-2007 joint counter-terrorism exercise in Russia’s northwest Pskov Region.” On this tour General Kapoor will specifically visit Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the North Caucasus military district. The Yantar Shipyard in Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad is also building three missile frigates for the Indian Navy, to be delivered in 2012. On Monday Atomstroyexport, Russia’s nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly, announced that it has supplied the first three batches of nuclear fuel for India’s Kudankulam nuclear power plant under the terms of a 1988 deal between India and the Not-So-Former Soviet Union. The Kudankulam NPP is located in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Unless US strategists (who do not appear to be welcome in the White House or Pentagon) counter Sino-Soviet designs on the Indian subcontinent, the world’s second-most populous country will soon obtain full-member status in the Eurasian Communist Bloc, otherwise known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Meanwhile, the neo-Soviet leadership is taking stock of the global food crisis in the latest meeting of the Russian Security Council, chaired by “President” Dmitry Medvedev (Soviet Komsomol graduate). State-run Itar-Tass reports the the following persons attended: Presidential Chief of Staff Sergei Naryshkin (Soviet Komsomol graduate); Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (former Soviet apparatchik); Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov (son-in-law of Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov); Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev (former Federal Security Service (FSB) chief and career Chekist); new FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov (career Chekist); new Foreign Intelligence Service chief Mikhail Fradkov (former prime minister); Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov (“ex”-CPSU cadre and former prime minister); Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev; and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.

“The officials discussed various issues of foreign and domestic policy,” Itar-Tass reports. “Separately, they considered the issue of ensuring the country’s food security.” No doubt, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (“ex”-CPSU cadre, career Chekist, and former FSB chief and Russian Federation president), as well as Communist Party of the Russian Federation Chairman Gennady Zyuganov and Communist Party of the Soviet Union Chairman Oleg Shenin will be brought up to speed on the meeting’s decisions. Putin and his sidekick Medvedev are pictured above at the Kremlin on June 11.

Yesterday, at the Russia in the 21st Century symposium in Moscow, Comrade Lavrov addressed the need for “international collective leadership,” which, translated out of commiespeak, means world government and expanded powers for the United Nations. He also took a swipe at the USA and Israel, which are allegedly preparing to decapitate the nuclear capabilities of Iran, Moscow’s staunchest ally in the Middle East. “I believe that the international community,” droned Russia’s foreign minister, “wants to be very sure that whatever unilateral action is being prepared under the pretext of implementing the decisions of the IAEA and the Security Council should be really very factually substantiated. We have been repeatedly asking our American and Israeli colleagues, who insist that Iran is certainly involved in making an atomic bomb, to provide factual information about this matter. So far we have seen none.”

>EU File: Fuel protest hits Brussels ahead of EU summit; Royal Bank of Scotland, Morgan Stanley: Stock crash, economic catastrophe looming

>Following the June 12 referendum in Ireland that rejected the Lisbon Treaty, a document that would amend the Treaty on European Union (1992) and Treaty of Rome (1957) and patch up the shortcomings of another ill-fated document, the European Constitution, European leaders have been scrambling about in damage control mode. Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France and soon-to-be president of Europe, responded to Ireland’s thumbs down on the Lisbon Treaty by commenting, below: “I suspect Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon Treaty is an expression of anger over high fuel and food prices.” Yesterday the British Parliament ratified the Lisbon Treaty, even though 62 percent of Britons believe their country should withdraw from the European Union.

On June 16 European leaders met in Prague to salvage their “federal empire.” The Prague Post quotes Sarkozy, who attended the meeting, as saying: “Don’t force me to make a decision. We have put the ratification process on hold and don’t need to decide right now. The only thing that is clear about the Lisbon Treaty is that it will not come into effect Jan. 1, as was planned. Meanwhile, we need to give time to European politicians to find a solution.” Europe’s political fixers are again meeting today and tomorrow in Brussels where, as the BBC News reports below, they will “address high oil and food prices as well as map a way forward for the Lisbon Treaty.”

Pictured above: Slovenia’s “ex”-communist Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whose country currently holds the EU’s six-month rotating presidency, welcomes Sarkozy to the European Summit at the heardquarters of the European Council, on June 19, 2008. Sarkozy will take over Jansa’s position on July 1. Pictured below: Belgian farmers and transport workers protest express their displeasure over high fuel prices to the European Summit.

Fuel protesters target Brussels
Page last updated at 13:01 GMT, Wednesday, 18 June 2008 14:01 UK

Hundreds of truck, tractor and taxi drivers are converging on the centre of Brussels on the eve of a crucial European summit.

The farmers and transport workers are protesting at the crippling effect of soaring fuel prices.

Global oil prices have quadrupled in the past seven years, nearing $140 (90 euros) a barrel in Monday’s trading.

There is a heavy police presence in Brussels, blocking access to EU sites ahead of an EU leaders’ meeting.

Some streets have already been sealed and police have razor-wire barricades ready to throw across roads if necessary, says the BBC’s EU correspondent Laurence Peter in Brussels.

He said an army of tractors were lined up in a park next to the national museums, about 1km (half a mile) from the EU Commission building.

Firecrackers exploded and tractors blared their horns.

One farmer said there were about 1,000 tractors at the protest, though there was no independent count available.

“We want a fair price for our milk and meat,” said Emmanuel Tassignon, a farmer from Mons in Belgium’s Wallonia region.

“The prices of fertiliser and animal feed have gone up, but the retail price for our produce has not.”

EU-wide protests

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said he suspects Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon Treaty is an expression of anger over high fuel and food prices.

He has proposed introducing a cap on petrol taxes and using the additional revenue generated by high oil prices to fund aid for the struggling fisheries and transport sectors.

But the EU says that there is little it can do to combat high fuel costs directly, preferring to target its efforts on longer-term measures to promote alternative fuel sources.

Nevertheless, the summit is expected to address high oil and food prices as well as map a way forward for the Lisbon Treaty.

French fishermen have been protesting for weeks, with Belgian and Italian colleagues also involved.

UK, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch lorry drivers have also held similar protests.

The caesars of the revived Roman Empire of Bible prophecy, however, are not deterred by the obstinant Irish. In addition to streamlining and modernizing the decrepit French military and re-integrating the same into the NATO military command, Sarkozy is proposing a strengthened and unified European army that will be able to field 60,000 troops overseas. The Financial Times reports below: “Mr Sarkozy will also call for Europe to pool vitally needed logistical resources and will risk triggering controversy in some capitals by suggesting military transport aircraft could be pooled under a single EU command. It also wants EU countries to pool air-to-air refuelling and transport helicopters.” A “putative” EU military staff is already based in Brussels, but its role consists primarily of passing strategic information to Javier Solana, the EU’s Foreign Policy Chief, while EU military operations are directed from either NATO or national headquarters.

Sarkozy sets out plans to give EU a bigger military role
By Ben Hall
Published: June 17 2008 03:00 Last updated: June 17 2008 03:00

President Nicolas Sarkozy will today set out ambitious plans to give the European Union a bigger role in defence despite the institutional crisis that has been triggered by Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon treaty.

In legislative proposals launched today, France will call for the EU to be given its own structures to plan and run military operations, despite opposition to such a move in Britain, which fears such a capability would overlap and compete with the Nato military alliance.

Mr Sarkozy will also call for Europe to pool vitally needed logistical resources and will risk triggering controversy in some capitals by suggesting military transport aircraft could be pooled under a single EU command. It also wants EU countries to pool air-to-air refuelling and transport helicopters.

Until now, Mr Sarkozy has stressed the need to increase Europe’s capabilities rather than create new institutional structures.

But the white paper reaffirms France’s long-standing desire for the EU to have a “permanent and autonomous strategic planning capacity”. It adds: “The development of international intervention by the EU also requires a stepping up of the means to plan and lead military operations.”

There is already a putative EU military staff based in Brussels, but its role consists essentially of giving strategic advice to Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy supremo, while military operations are run out of either Nato or national headquarters, and the UK wants to keep it that way. Some British officials had hoped a compromise between London and Paris could be found on the issue of planning by confining it to co-ordination of Nato military operations and the EU’s police and judicial activities.

But the white paper makes clear that France’s ambitions remain in tact.

“If we don’t have the means to influence strategic planning the Americans will say ‘What is all this about?’,” said an official who helped draw up the white paper.

France, which takes over the EU presidency on July 1, wants the bloc not only to meet its promise of making available 60,000 men for overseas missions of up to a year, but simultaneously to earmark troops for up to three longterm peacekeeping operations.

EU and Russian peacekeepers are currently deployed in Chad where insurgents are endeavoring to topple the regime of strongman President Idriss Deby Itno, who accuses the government of neighboring Sudan of fomenting the unrest. In tit-for-tat fashion, the Islamo-Marxist regime in Khartoum accuses N’Djamena of covertly backing Sudan’s various insurgent forces. The South African media reports: “European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Tuesday defended the role of the EU force in Chad, or EUFOR, and rejected accusations by President Deby that it was partisan and favoured the rebels.”

Pictured here: France’s Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank since 2003.

Meanwhile, at least two reputable financial institutions have this week issued alerts that the world is facing economic disaster by year’s end. In the first case, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has advised clients to “brace for a full-fledged crash in global stock and credit markets over the next three months.” Bob Janjuah, RBS credit strategist, offered the following revelation with respect to his US and European counterparts: “The [US] Fed[eral Reserve System] is in panic mode. The massive credibility chasms down which the Fed and maybe even the ECB [European Central Bank] will plummet when they fail to hike rates in the face of higher inflation will combine to give us a big sell-off in risky assets.” Respected journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, writing for Britain’s conservative Telegraph, reports:

RBS issues global stock and credit crash alert
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor
Last Updated: 12:19am BST 19/06/2008

The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to brace for a full-fledged crash in global stock and credit markets over the next three months as inflation paralyses the major central banks.

“A very nasty period is soon to be upon us – be prepared,” said Bob Janjuah, the bank’s credit strategist.

A report by the bank’s research team warns that the S&P 500 index of Wall Street equities is likely to fall by more than 300 points to around 1050 by September as “all the chickens come home to roost” from the excesses of the global boom, with contagion spreading across Europe and emerging markets.

Such a slide on world bourses would amount to one of the worst bear markets over the last century.

RBS said the iTraxx index of high-grade corporate bonds could soar to 130/150 while the “Crossover” index of lower grade corporate bonds could reach 650/700 in a renewed bout of panic on the debt markets.

“I do not think I can be much blunter. If you have to be in credit, focus on quality, short durations, non-cyclical defensive names.

“Cash is the key safe haven. This is about not losing your money, and not losing your job,” said Mr Janjuah, who became a City star after his grim warnings last year about the credit crisis proved all too accurate.

RBS expects Wall Street to rally a little further into early July before short-lived momentum from America’s fiscal boost begins to fizzle out, and the delayed effects of the oil spike inflict their damage.

“Globalisation was always going to risk putting G7 bankers into a dangerous corner at some point. We have got to that point,” he said.

US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank both face a Hobson’s choice as workers start to lose their jobs in earnest and lenders cut off credit.

The authorities cannot respond with easy money because oil and food costs continue to push headline inflation to levels that are unsettling the markets. “The ugly spoiler is that we may need to see much lower global growth in order to get lower inflation,” he said.

“The Fed is in panic mode. The massive credibility chasms down which the Fed and maybe even the ECB will plummet when they fail to hike rates in the face of higher inflation will combine to give us a big sell-off in risky assets,” he said.

Kit Jukes, RBS’s head of debt markets, said Europe would not be immune. “Economic weakness is spreading and the latest data on consumer demand and confidence are dire. The ECB is hell-bent on raising rates.

“The political fall-out could be substantial as finance ministers from the weaker economies rail at the ECB. Wider spreads between the German Bunds and peripheral markets seem assured,” he said.

Ultimately, the bank expects the oil price spike to subside as the more powerful force of debt deflation takes hold next year.

In another article Evans-Pritchard quotes a report by Morgan Stanley’s European analysts as saying: “We see striking similarities between the transatlantic tensions that built up in the early 1990s and those that are accumulating again today. The outcome of the 1992 deadlock was a major currency crisis and a recession in Europe.” The report warns: “This could trigger another ‘catastrophic’ event.”

>Latin America File: Calderon bolsters regime against revolution, endorses 6-month food price freeze; Californian motorists buy up Tijuana diesel

>In the short term the faux rightist, “pro”-Washington regime of President Felipe Calderon may head off a full-blown communist revolution in Mexico with the elimination of import tariffs on foodstuffs and its endorsement of industry-imposed food price controls. However, in the long-run such measures only advance the cause of nationalization and comprehensive government intervention in the market, two objectives of communists everywhere. The article below reports: “In January, Calderon cajoled retailers, including Wal-Mart de Mexico, into cutting prices on 300 household goods for three months. Last year, he convinced supermarkets to temporarily freeze the price of tortillas, a staple of the Mexican diet, after they jumped 25 percent.” Pictured above: Calderon addresses journalists during a news conference at the presidential residence Los Pinos in Mexico City, on June 18, 2008.

Mexico freezes basic food prices to fight inflation
Wed Jun 18, 2008 4:57pm EDT
By Noel Randewich and Anahi Rama

MEXICO CITY, June 18 (Reuters) – Mexico is freezing prices on some 150 food products, ranging from cooking oil to beans, to ease the impact of rising global food costs on households and the economy, President Felipe Calderon said on Wednesday.

Calderon, who recently lowered import tariffs on some key foodstuffs, said industry federation Concamin had agreed to not raise prices on some foods until the end of the year.

“With this decision by Concamin, the prices of more than 150 products will freeze from today and until the end of the year,” Calderon told a news conference with the head of the industry group.

Like many countries, Mexico is feeling the effects of soaring prices of basic foods due to the increased use of biofuels and the growing demand for grains to feed a booming Asia, compounded by droughts and market speculation.

Mexican annual inflation rose to 4.95 percent in May from 4.55 percent in April, the highest rate since late 2004.

The cost of cooking oil, a large component within the consumer price index, has surged more than 50 percent over the past year. Prices of cooking oil, often made from grains, will only be frozen until the end of August, the government said.

Mexico last month reduced import tariffs to zero on a number of foodstuffs and cut prices of home-grown rice to 10 percent below international market prices as part of a package of measures to ease the effect of rising food prices on consumers.

Almost all of the products included in Wednesday’s agreement are processed foods like canned fruits and vegetables, condiments and drinks. Many items on the list are repeated in different packaging sizes.

In January, Calderon cajoled retailers, including Wal-Mart de Mexico, into cutting prices on 300 household goods for three months. Last year, he convinced supermarkets to temporarily freeze the price of tortillas, a staple of the Mexican diet, after they jumped 25 percent.

Some economists warn that Calderon’s food deals may be delaying inevitable prices rises and could make inflation worse in long term.

“They are inherently faced with risks — they are temporary, and require further negotiations to be extended — and could face resistance from producers and retailers unhappy about sliding margins,” HSBC emerging markets strategist Clyde Wardle said in a note.

Long-standing subsidies on gasoline and other fuels, expected to cost the government $19 billion this year, have helped Mexico maintain the one of the lowest inflation rates in Latin America.

Most economists predict Mexico’s central bank will hold its key interest rate steady at its monthly review on Friday, although many expect a rise before the year is over.

“We expect the central bank to take notice of (Calderon’s) measures but to still turn more hawkish in the face of the recent acceleration of both headline and core inflation,” Goldman Sachs economist Alberto Ramos said in a report.

Analysts raised their forecasts for 2008 headline inflation to 4.39 percent in a May survey by the central bank published this month, up from 4.18 percent in April.

Meanwhile, public transportation in the Mexican border city of Tijuana ground to a halt yesterday as the city faced a critical shortage of diesel, a result of Californian motorists purchasing the fuel south of the border, which is cheaper due to government subsidies. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports about Tijuana’s regional fuel crisis: “The gas stations still selling diesel have reported huge lines of semis, pickups and municipal buses, something never before seen.”

>Feature: Medvedev meets Soviet agent Kissinger at Kremlin, invites Zyuganov’s communists to assist in "matters of national significance"

>“Moscow’s Candidate” Barack Obama Poised to Take White House in November

Yesterday former US Secretary of State and veteran mover and shaker in the globalist stratosphere Henry Kissinger met Russian “President” Dmitry Medvedev at the Kremlin, no doubt to reassure Moscow’s Leninist masterminds that the US political elites are doing their part to advance East-West convergence. Along with former KGB/SVR chief and Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov, alleged Soviet agent “Bor” Kissinger co-chairs the so-called Russian Federation-United States Public Forum, otherwise known as the Strategic Working Group, or Strategic Vision Group. This semi-clandestine organization last convened at the White House in January. State-owned Kommersant Daily reports below: “After paying compliments to each other, the parties continued negotiations behind closed doors.” I’ll bet.

Medvedev, Kissinger Meet in Kremlin
June 18, 2008

Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger met in the Kremlin June 17, RIA Novosti reported.

When meeting with Henri Kissinger in the Kremlin, President Dmitry Medvedev first expressed pleasure about the chance to get acquainted with the prominent policymaker of the U.S. and then proposed to Kissinger to deliberate on burning issues of Russia’s-American dialogue when having a cup of tea.

Kissinger does a lot for relations of Russia and the U.S., Medvedev emphasized, reminding that he co-chairs a special format, the RF-U.S. Public Forum. Russia’s president urged the American guest “to speak on any issue of current life.” The RF Chamber of Commerce chief Evgeni Primakov co-chairs the Public Forum on behalf of Russia.

Kissinger responded by calling a grand privilege the mere chance of meeting a new president of Russia. He also wished success to Medvedev, as it is vital both for Russia and worldwide.

After paying compliments to each other, the parties continued negotiations behind closed doors.

“Yevgeny Primakov,” writes William F. Jasper of the John Birch Society, “is not exactly a household name to most Americans. He should be, because there is very good reason to believe that he and a coterie of top ‘former’ communist leaders are still directing policy in the Kremlin. Mr. Primakov is today presented as one of Russia’s top business leaders, headlining as president of the Russian Chamber of Commerce. What could sound more disarmingly capitalist?”

The Kissinger-Primakov clique is no doubt carefully monitoring the US presidential election campaigns since the Kremlin has already expressed its preference for a Democratic Obama Administration in the White House, a development that will certainly fast track America into world government. Today Fox News reported that “Moscow’s Candidate” in the US presidential election is poised to steal the race from Republican candidate John McCain: “Regarding who is most electable today, June 2008 is the first month Obama leads McCain with 42 percent to McCain’s 39 percent.” The Voice of Russia gloats about the sinking of the Republican Party: “McCain’s popularity rating has been adversely affected by the political heritage of the incumbent US President George Bush, specifically the Iraq war and economic problems.” It is for this very reason that the Soviet strategists lured the USA into the War on Terror with the KGB/GRU/StB/Mukhabarat/PLO military operation known as “911.”

Pictured here: Zyuganov and Medvedev at the Kremlin, on June 17, 2008. Who’s taking orders from whom?

Behind “President” Medvedev stands his mentor Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, himself a loyal Party member for the neo-Soviet leadership, which includes Gennady Zyuganov and Oleg (“Man in the Shadows”) Shenin. Kommersant Daily also reveals that in addition to meeting “Agent” Kissinger yesterday, Medvedev, a graduate of the Soviet Komsomol, invited Communist Party of the Russian Federation Chairman Zyuganov to the Kremlin for talks that would enable Russia’s (open) communists to participate in “matters of national significance”:

In the Kremlin yesterday, Medvedev proposed to communists to take part in the matter of national significance. “We have nowhere to step back, it’s time to pass all those documents,” the president said referring to the national program for corruption fighting. “In essence, it’s clear what should be there… But there are nuances, both legal and economic, which could be debated.” The CPRF faction is the second in the State Duma “in terms of significance and authority” and it has its own ideas, so it should be also involved in the process, according to the president.

So, the communists were urged to come up with their own counter-corrupt amendments and to join the elaboration of judicial reform. Zyuganov accepted the offer, specifying that the faction has not only the experts and ideas but also the ready bills.

The chummy relations between Russia’s covert and open communists, the only people who wield any real power in the Kremlin, demonstrates the fictitious nature of the so-called collapse of Soviet communism in 1991.

>Latin America File: Region’s leftist-dominated regimes organize EU-style Union of South American Nations at Brasilia summit

>On May 23, 2008 the Latin American Red Axis, with little concern on the part of the shopping mall regimes in North America, achieved its realization of a fully integrated, European Union-style political-economic-military bloc. The member-states of the new Union of South American Nations signed a constitutive treaty at a summit in Brasilia and elected Michelle Bachelet, the socialist president of Chile, as Unasur’s first president pro tempore. Prior to the May 23 summit, Venezuela’s neo-communist dictator Hugo Chavez, setting the tone for future US-South American relations, lashed out at his favorite perceived adversary. “The US empire is Unasur’s number one enemy,” he insisted.

Unasur’s flag, which is clearly a knock off of the EU logo, is pictured above. The flag’s red field apparently symbolizes the leftist orientation of the union’s founders.

Every country on the South American continent belongs to the new union, with the exception of French Guiana, which is an overseas department of France. Every country on the South American continent, moreover, has a center-leftist or neo-communist government, with the exception of war-weary Colombia and Paraguay, where the new leftist president, Fernando Lugo, must politically cohabit with a conservative-dominated national legislature. The South American Parliament will be located in Cochabamba, Bolivia, while its financial institution, the Bank of the South (Banco del Sur), will be located in Bogota, Colombia. Other nascent institutions of South America’s new Communist Bloc include a single-market zone, the Initiative for Infrastructure Integration of South America, the South American Energy Ring, the Interoceanic Highway, and the South American Defense Council. Unasur unites two existing regional customs unions, the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and the Andean Community.

Pictured here, from left to right, Unasur leaders: Chavez, Suriname President Ronald Venetiaan, Paraguayan President-Elect Fernando Lugo and incumbent President Nicanor Duarte Frutos, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Bolivian President Evo Morales, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Bachelet, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Guyanan President Bharrat Jagdeo, Peruvian President Alan Garcia, and Uruguayan Vice-President Rodolfo Nin Novoa.

The communist-controlled Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, consisting of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Dominica, which are not part of South America per se, and Venezuela and Bolivia, rests like a coiled viper in the bosom of the new continental union.

Pictured here on June 17, 2008: Chavez chums around with Cuban President Raul Castro and his cadaverous older brother and chairman of the Communist Party of Cuba Fidel Castro.

Yesterday Chavez visited Havana for the second time this year and praised the Cuban and Bolivarian Revolutions: “The Cuban Revolution will soon be celebrating its 50th anniversary and the Bolivarian its 10th and, whatever the initiatives of U.S. imperialism may be, we will continue to defeat them.” Sporting his trademark red T-shirt, Comrade Hugo, upon his arrival at José Martí International Airport, declared: “How wonderful to be in Havana! Fidel is the father of all Latin American revolutionaries.” The deluded dictator of Venezuela commented futher on the global fuel-food crisis, which he attributes to the failure of international capitalism: “Some days ago, I received a note from Fidel in which he referred to the worsening of the energy, food and financial crisis throughout the world, as well as the increase of poverty, famine and other critical situations caused by climate change and other threats. Fidel calls this situation the mother of all crisis and, in short, is a crisis of ideas, of governments, of the model, of capitalism in general; we’re going to discuss all of this.” Along the same theme, Kremlin-run Novosti quoted Chavez in May as blaming the current surge in oil prices on the “wasteful and excessive oil consumption by developed countries,” the conflict in Iraq, and the “constant threat” against Iran and Venezuela.

In a related story, on June 12 The Economist profiled the zig-zags of Venezuela’s foreign policy, under the guidance of President Hugo Chavez: “In January this year he told a startled world that the FARC guerrillas in neighbouring Colombia should be treated not as terrorists, as they are by most countries, but as an “insurgent force”, with rights under the laws of war. On June 8th he surprised everyone again by calling on the same guerrillas to give up the struggle they had waged for four decades, release their 700 or so hostages and recognise that guerrilla warfare in Latin America ‘is history.'” In the article’s title The Economist posed the following question about Chavez: “Is he a master tactician or failing bungler?” Chavez is a cunning communist in the pay of Moscow, Beijing, and Havana, so he definitely falls into the “master tactician” category. The answer is not too difficult to unearth, although the MSM has yet to clue in. Barely two weeks before Comrade Hugo flip-flopped on FARC, the pro-Washington regime in Bogota foolishly consented to join Unasur, thereby bringing Colombia’s Marxist insurgency under Unasur’s leftst-communist management. Hence, the Latin American Axis, of which Chavez is a major player, obviously feels confident that FARC can lay down its arms and enter Colombia’s political process.

Pictured here: Correa, Lugo, and Chavez at the Unasur summit.

Since the establishment of Unasur Latin America’s leftist and communist leaders continue to power network. Yesterday, reports the Cuban state media, Urguay center-leftist President Tabare Vazquez dutifully trekked to Havana where he met his counterpart Raul Castro. At the same time, as reported by the Mexican media, Paraguay’s President-Elect, Fernando Lugo, whose status as Catholic bishop has only been suspended not revoked by the Vatican, dutifully trekked to the Western Hemisphere’s other communist headquarters, Caracas, there to hold a two-day meeting with Chavez, from whom he deceptively distanced himself prior to his election. On Monday, as reported by Prensa Latina, Lugo made a pit stop in Ecuador, where he was a priest between 1978 and 1982, and swapped notes with the country’s aspiring neo-communist dictator Rafael Correa.

“Twenty-First-Century Socialism” or “Sandinista Hell”?

The anti-USA, anti-capitalism paranoia articulated by Latin America’s communist regime portends future confrontations between Washington and the collective leadership of Unasur. Granma, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of Cuba, recently interviewed Venezuelan-American author Eva Golinger on the subject of alleged US-orchestrated subversion in Chavez’s incipient socialist republic. The US State Department and Central Intelligence Agency are identified as key culprits, as well as the US Agency for International Development, the National Endowment for Democracy, the International Republican Institute, Freedom House, and the Center for International Private Enterprise, a non-profit affiliate of the US Chamber of Commerce.

In like fashion, as reported by the Chinese state media, the official radio station of Nicaragua’s ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), La Nueva Radio Ya, contends that the CIA, in collusion with Spain’s right-wing Popular Party, is attempting to “destablize” President Daniel Ortega’s pathetic government by “training saboteurs.”

Nicaragua accuses CIA, Spanish party of training saboteurs
2008-06-16 09:57:57

MANAGUA, June 15 (Xinhua) — The official radio station of Nicaragua’s ruling party Sunday accused the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a Spanish party of training young people to destabilize the country.

The CIA and the Popular Party (PP) of former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar are training people to provoke confrontation in Nicaragua, said La Nueva Radio Ya, or the New Radio Already.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega had previously denounced the U.S. government of funding a rightist group against his government.

However, this was the first time that the official radio station of the ruling Sandinist Front of National Liberation (FSLN) openly pointed to the CIA and the PP for training saboteurs.

“This group of young people are working in Nicaragua after being sent to Miami of the United States and Spain to attend seminaries on how to generate chaos,” said the radio station. Theyalso took trainings in universities at home, it said.

Many young people appeared on the media with the name of “Youth for the Democracy in Nicaragua,” it said, adding “They are no different to those that seeded violence in Bolivia and Venezuela.”

This is typical communist hogwash and follows Comandante Ortega’s threat in May to nationalize the Nicaraguan facilities of Spanish electricity provider Union Fenosa SA. “Every day there are power blackouts,” ranted Ortega. “These are actions of economic sabotage.” A week after Comrade Dan through his tantrum, the neo-Sandinista regime and Union Fenosa SA arrived at an arrangement by which Managua will acquire a 16 percent stake in the company and a seat on its board.

Pictured here: Former guerrilla commander and “icon” of the 1979 Nicaraguan Revolution, Dora Maria Tellez receives a medical examination in downtown Managua on June 5, 2008. Tellez founded the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), which defected from the FSLN in 1995 in protest against Ortega’s authoritarian tendencies. Now Tellez is conducting a hunger strike to protest President Ortega’ stated intention to prevent the MRS from legally participating in November’s municipal elections. In a June 18 article Human Events journalist Joseph Hart exposes the “Sandinista Hell in Nicaragua”:

Nicaraguans realize that Ortega’s presidency, though only in its second year, is already a failure. Throughout the country, billboards depict the triumphant image of “Presidente Daniel” and his promises to lift up the poor of the world. But the reality below those billboards is barren countryside, horrendous roads, and rampant poverty. The reality is that an M&R Consultants poll released last month showed 64 percent of respondents believe Ortega to be an authoritarian ruler who wants to become dictator, while 88 percent say there has been no improvement in the Nicaraguan economy since he took office.

Notwithstanding the anti-USA, anti-capitalist invective streaming from the capitals of Latin America, the USA has joined Nicaragua in a multinational peacekeeping exercise hosted by Managua and called “PKO North.” The US Army website reports; “PKO North, which runs this year from June 10-20, is sponsored by U.S. Southern Command and planned and executed by U.S. Army South and the government of Nicaragua. The exercise has been conducted each year in Latin America or the Caribbean since 1995.”

>Asia File: Nepali Maoist leader eager to become prime minister, integrate guerrillas into army, crack down on Tibetan secessionists, visit Beijing

>Chinese and Indian Communists Conspire to Propel Maoists into Power in Kathmandu, Oust Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala

The Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, formerly the Kingdom of Nepal, is communism’s latest conquest in Asia, with a little under-reported help from the Butchers of Beijing. On May 28 Nepal’s King Gyanendra abdicated according to the wishes of the Maoist-dominated Constituent Assembly and departed the royal palace yesterday to begin his new life as a commoner.

Not surprisingly, Prachanda (pictured above), the nom de guerre of the chairman of the soon-to-be-ruling Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), is anxious to become prime minister and integrate his guerrillas into the national army, a prospect that does not thrill Nepal’s army commander General Rukmangad Katawal. The general articulated his opinion of the integration plan last week: “The army’s ‘purity” shouldn’t be compromised in the name of democratization.” One Maoist commander, Barsaman Pun, however, is more blunt about the Maoists’ intentions. On June 14 he insisted that the People’s Liberation Army, which since 2006 has been confined to camps under United Nations supervision, should be reorganized into a “separate security force” within the state apparatus.

On June 13 the Maoists, to hasten the formation of a communist-controlled regime, instigated a bloodless coup against Nepal’s social democratic head of government Girija Prasad Koirala by withdrawing from the interim coalition cabinet. According to a June 16 report from Bloomberg: “Five Maoist ministers resigned from Koirala’s interim government last week to pressure the prime minister to step down and allow a new administration to be formed.”

Prachanda, whose real name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal, is also “eager” to visit his masters in the People’s Republic of China. “Nepal’s Maoist leader Prachanda,” the Chinese state media gushes, “said Thursday he hopes to visit China soon and seek inspiration in Chairman Mao’s hometown Shaoshan.” Prachanda is quoted as saying: “I want to go to Chairman Mao’s village and home to get some more inspiration by seeing and feeling.” The last thing Nepal, or the world for that matter, needs are communists with “more inspiration.” In most cases, communism with “more inspiration” leads to more bloodshed.

In return for Beijing’s support, Prachanda, once he becomes prime minister, has promised to crack down on the pro-Tibetan secessionists that have plagued Kathmandu in recent months with their protests, which are designed to tarnish the Beijing Olympics, to take place in August. “We will not tolerate anti-China activities on our soil and we will take strong administrative measures to control these activities,” Prachanda threatened. In light of this comment, it is clear that there exists a line of control between Beijing and Kathmandu that will only be strengthened in coming months and years. The Beijing-Kathmandu Axis, as reported in the story below, will no doubt enjoy the blessings of the pro-communist US State Department, which has expressed its intention of removing Nepal’s Maoists from its list of terrorist groups.

Nepal leader eager to visit China
By Jiao Xiaoyang (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-13 07:37

KATHMANDU — Nepal’s Maoist leader Prachanda said Thursday he hopes to visit China soon and seek inspiration in Chairman Mao’s hometown Shaoshan.

“I am very eager to visit China,” the chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) told China Daily at his residence.

“When our communication minister was there (in China) he was instructed to prepare for my visit. I hope I will soon be in Beijing,” Prachanda said, referring to Maoist senior leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara’s low-profile visit to Beijing earlier this month.

“I want to go to Chairman Mao’s village and home to get some more inspiration by seeing and feeling.”

The CPN (Maoist), which waged a decade-long armed struggle before signing a peace deal in 2006, emerged as the largest party in the April elections for the Constituent Assembly. The assembly declared an end to Nepal’s 240-year-old Shah dynasty a fortnight ago, and is working on a new constitution and the formation of the government.

Prachanda is widely tipped to be prime minister in the new government.

He said his country will maintain “equidistance” between China and India – the Himalayan country’s only two neighbors – while seeking rapprochement with Washington, making it clear the new Nepal will not be driven by ideology in foreign relations.

“Equidistance means not siding with one country against another. My exact meaning of equidistance is to have good relations with both the neighbors,” he said.

India’s new ambassador to Nepal, Rakesh Sood, recently had high-profile parleys with top leaders in Kathmandu and discussed thorny issues such as power sharing among political parties in Nepal. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said last month that New Delhi supports Nepal’s “democratic experiment”.

When it comes to foreign relations, ideology will “not be a barrier”, said Prachanda. “We are eager to have diplomatic relations with countries which do not share our ideology.”

He expressed cautious optimism on relations with the US, which still has the Maoist group on its terrorist blacklist.

“Some discussions are going on with the ambassador of the US and the last time I met one of the ministers of the United States they said that they are going to change the previous policy but it will take some time,” said Prachanda.

“They said that they will continue with joint projects in Nepal, other economic aid will continue. There will not be any change even when we lead the government.”

Tibetan secessionists

Prachanda said the new government will take “strong measures” against anti-China activities in his country.

Over the past few weeks, Tibetan secessionists have protested almost daily in front of the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu. They are usually detained by police and soon released, only to repeat the story the next day.

“When we lead the government, we will change the situation,” said Prachanda.

He said Nepal’s new government will discuss with India the open border, which enables Tibetan demonstrators to come to Kathmandu from Dharmashala, the Dalai Lama’s base in India.

“We will not tolerate anti-China activities on our soil and we will take strong administrative measures to control these activities,” he said.

Pictured here: The Beijing-New Delhi Axis personified: PM Singh meets Chinese President/Tyrant Hu Jintao in Beijing in January 2008. In addition to boosting bilateral trade, India and China look forward to a second round of joint military exercises, the first having taken place in December 2007.

The transformation of Nepal from a Hindu monarchy into a communist hellhole has also received the endorsement of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his communist allies in parliament. In a move that shows no strategic discernment for the future of his own country, he stated last month that New Delhi supports Nepal’s “democratic experiment.” How long that support lasts in view of India’s Maoist insurgency remains to be seen. Over the weekend guerrillas of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) abducted 17 traders in the central state of Chhattisgarh and sabotaged the worksite of a road construction company that was delinquent in paying its “revolutionary tax.” Although Nepali Maoists deny linkages to their Indian counterparts, on June 13 Nepalnews.com reported that “Some parties belonging to the ruling United Progressive Alliance of India have come together to back the Maoists and press for the formation of a government led by its chairman in Nepal . . .” The report, citing the Indian media, continues:

Constituents of Nepal Democratic Movement Solidarity Committee – which had backed the democratic agitation in the country – held a meeting, Thursday, in New Delhi where they expressed dissatisfaction at Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala for ‘staying in power against people’s mandate.’

“Koirala should clear the way for the formation of the government led by Maoist chief, as the chairman of the largest party. We are sad that he has not resigned yet,” an Indian leader who participated in the meeting told Kantipur.

The meeting also formed a pressure group including Sitaram Yechury, politburo member of Communist Party of India (Marxist); DP Tripathy, general secretary of Nationalist Congress; and D Raja, national secretary of CPI.

The daily reports that the pressure group will press the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to support Koirala. “We demand that the Indian government does not support Koirala. We will meet with PM Singh on Saturday in this regard,” the leader said. nepalnews.com sd Jun 13 08

Incidentally, Nepal’s Dr Dilli Raman Regmi Foundation has conferred upon the genocidal Maoist leader and his most reliable American ally–globetrotting troublemaker, veteran communist enabler, and former US President–Jimmy (“Peanuts”) Carter its top peace award. What do we learn from such monstrously absurd acknowledgments? Namely, that if you want to be recognized as an advocate of peace start a communist insurgency, slaughter thousands of civilians, curry the favor of the West’s globalist elites, and confuse the MSM with your propaganda. Comrade Gorbachev, haven’t we been here before?

>USSR2 File: Soviet communists, foreign comrades manipulate global fuel-food crisis to ruin capitalist countries, force Ukraine to dump pro-NATO stance

>At $250 [per barrel for oil] there would be a massive shutdown of companies.
— Carlos Mattei, Procurement Vice President, glassmaker Vitro SAB, Monterrey, Mexico; quoted by Bloomberg, June 16, 2008

At $7-a-gallon gasoline, you’re probably looking at food prices almost double.
— Peter Beutel, President, energy consultant Cameron Hanover Inc., New Canaan, Connecticut; quoted by Bloomberg, June 16, 2008

Today the cost per barrel of crude oil reached an all-time high of nearly US$140 as the US airline industry faces the loss of several carriers to bankruptcy. A study issued by AirlineForecasts and the Business Travel Coalition, reported below, reveals that the current price of petroleum “will increase yearly airline costs by 30 billion dollars, while airlines will be able to generate only four billion dollars in fare increases and incremental fees.” The study concludes that US carriers “could be forced to park upwards of 1,000 aircraft and shed over 80,000 employees, and still not return to health. The consequences will be devastating to US jobs, families, businesses, communities and our American way of life.” Pictured above: One of two major carriers in Hawaii, bankrupt Aloha Airlines permanently shut down operations on March 31, laying off 1,900 workers in the tourism-dependent state.

Soviet communists and their comrades worldwide are spinning the double-headed fuel-food crisis to expose the so-called “internal contradictions” of capitalism and generate revolutionary situations where they can seize power. One of the main reasons that the cost of both fuel and food are surging globally is increasing demand from the rapidly expanding economies of Red China, semi-communist India, and neo-communist Brazil, all three of which are locked into tight political-economic arrangement with neo-Soviet Russia called the “BRIC alliance.” AFP relates below: “The surge in oil prices is showing no sign of abating amid strong demand, particularly from developing powerhouses China, India and Brazil, and tight supply.”

Another reason is natural disasters, such as the recent flooding in the US Midwest. “An expanding drought in Australia’s grain belt has already been blamed for contributing to a world food crisis,” reports the Australian media, “and now floods in the US midwest, which have devastated the corn crop, are adding to the misery.”

US airline catastrophe looms under record oil prices: study
June 13, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US airline industry is set to crash as record oil prices threaten to push several carriers into bankruptcy, threatening “our American way of life,” an industry study said Friday.”

As a consequence of the skyrocketing price of oil, the US commercial aviation industry is in full-blown crisis and heading toward a catastrophe,” said a study issued by AirlineForecasts and the Business Travel Coalition.

At current oil prices near 130 dollars a barrel, several large and small US airlines will default on their obligations to creditors, beginning at end-2008 and early 2009, the study said.

The grim industry snapshot comes as US airlines cut fleets, jobs and capacity and add fees as they struggle with spiraling jet fuel costs and a weak domestic economy.

On Thursday, United Airlines and US Airways announced they would start charging 15 dollars for the first checked bag. Both carriers this month became the latest to try downsizing to survive the fuel crisis.

The study shows that oil at 130 dollars will increase yearly airline costs by 30 billion dollars, while airlines will be able to generate only four billion dollars in fare increases and incremental fees.

Recently introduced bag-checking charges and other fees would only yield 1.0-1.5 billion dollars at the industry level.

“The implication is that several large and small airlines will ultimately end up in bankruptcy, and of those, some will be forced to liquidate,” the study said.

“Stabilizing this ailing industry must become a national policy priority,” the study said, calling on the White House, Congress, federal regulators and state officials to take action.

Every 10 dollar increase in the price of oil results in four billion dollars in additional costs for the 40 passenger-only airlines, according to the study, “Oil Prices and the Looming US Aviation Industry Catastrophe: A Hole In The Transport Grid.”

The airlines are on track to spend 30 billion dollars more on jet fuel in 2008 versus 2007, it found, with the top 10 carriers accounting for almost 25 billion dollars.

The study found that with oil prices in the 135 dollar range, the airline industry “could be forced to park upwards of 1,000 aircraft and shed over 80,000 employees, and still not return to health.

“The consequences will be devastating to US jobs, families, businesses, communities and our American way of life.”

Oil spiked to a record 139 dollars a barrel a week ago, nearly double last year’s 72 dollar average, and settled above 134 dollars Friday.

The surge in oil prices is showing no sign of abating amid strong demand, particularly from developing powerhouses China, India and Brazil, and tight supply.

Some analysts are predicting oil will hit 200 dollars a barrel in the coming months, after crossing 100 dollars for the first time in early January.

To cover oil prices at 130 to 140 dollars, fares would have to go up by 21-24 percent and airline seat capacity reduced by 18-20 percent, the study said.

“Were oil to climb toward 200 dollars, as some analysts predict, the damage escalates and the airline industry could be forced to shrink 35 percent or more,” it said.

“Absent direct policy intervention, the likelihood is several airlines will fail.

“The Business Travel Coalition said it plans to put forward specific proposals to President George W. Bush’s administration and Congress to help alleviate the crisis.

“We urgently need a new energy policy that will give the airlines a fighting chance to survive and recover,” the study said.

– Gazprom CEO Miller Warns Oil Prices Will Max Out at US$250 Per Barrel, Denies TNK-BP Takeover Bid

– Western Investors Follow Kremlin Cue, Purchase Petroleum Options for December 2008

The neo-Soviet leadership, like many Western analysts, is predicting that the per barrel cost for oil will max out at US$250 and that food prices will double, a trend that will force the USA, Japan, and Europe into “deep recession.” On June 10 Alexei Miller, CEO of Kremlin-run Gazprom, the world’s biggest natural gas provider, was quoting as saying: “Crude will climb to $250 a barrel in the foreseeable future.” In what could be described as a case of self-fulfilling prophecy, Bloomberg reports below that Western financial speculators are now taking their economic cues from the Kremlin: “Some investors are already betting on Miller’s forecast. At least 3,008 options contracts have been purchased giving holders the right to buy oil at $250 a barrel in December, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The options closed at 64 cents on June 13.” Pictured above: Comrade Miller and his master, neo-Soviet Russia’s KGB-communist dictator Vladimir Putin.

“At $250,” warns Carlos Mattei, procurement vice president for glassmaker Vitro SAB in Monterrey, Mexico, “there would be a massive shutdown of companies. Many of these small companies have to choose between paying the gas bill or payroll.” Indeed. A massive shutdown of companies in the West is precisely the goal of the Communist Bloc as the Soviet strategists employ capitalism to bolster their own regimes and force the Western economices into bankruptcy. It should be noted that Russian “President” Dmitry Medvedev, who takes his orders from mentor Prime Minister Putin and like many members of Russia’s “new” elite, graduated from the Soviet Komsomol, sits on Gazprom’s Board of Directors.

Unlike Mattei, however, Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, New Jersey, takes Miller’s prediction with a grain of salt because it could benefit Gazprom: “It’s silly to take people with incredibly vested interests [like Miller] as having an unfettered, unbiased opinion. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania, also rejects the Kremlin’s prediction, insisting that “I don’t see how we get to $250 because the economy is broken long before that, and demand falls and that causes prices to fall.”

Whether oil reaches US$250 is irrelevant. The capitalist economies will have long since been damaged, prompting leftist leaders, like US presidential aspirant Barack Obama, and their backers, like US Congresswoman Maxine Waters, to advocate nationalization schemes that advance communism. “The U.S. may be forced to nationalize airlines if oil keeps rising,” warns Barry Sternlicht, founder and CEO of Starwood Capital Group LLC, was quoted as saying on June 2. “I’m not sure the model that the airlines are in right now is going to work unless the U.S. does what many other countries have done.”

Gazprom CEO’s $250 Oil Forecast Is Doom Traders Love (Update1)
By Michael Janofsky

June 16 (Bloomberg) — At $250 a barrel for crude oil, food prices double. The U.S., Japan and Europe plunge into deep recession. Companies go bankrupt. Airlines are nationalized. Sport-utility vehicle sales dry up as gasoline tops $7 a gallon.

The scenario may not be unimaginable. Alexei Miller, chief executive officer of OAO Gazprom, the world’s biggest natural- gas company, said June 10 that crude will climb to $250 a barrel in the “foreseeable future.”

Prices may reach that level only after a war or attack on major oil installations, says Jeff Spittel, an analyst at Natixis Bleichroeder Inc. in New York.

While executives, elected leaders and economists disagree on the probability of Miller’s vision, there is consensus that the price would jolt everyday life.

“It would be a disaster for all the oil-importing countries, all the democracies and China,” says James Woolsey, vice president of consultant Booz Allen & Hamilton Inc. in McLean, Virginia, and a former Central Intelligence Agency director. “And it would be hugely beneficial for the many monarchies and dictatorships that are the main suppliers.”

Some investors are already betting on Miller’s forecast. At least 3,008 options contracts have been purchased giving holders the right to buy oil at $250 a barrel in December, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The options closed at 64 cents on June 13.

Rising oil costs have been responsible for a third of global food inflation since 2004, according to London-based research firm New Energy Finance.

“At $7-a-gallon gasoline, you’re probably looking at food prices almost double,” says Peter Beutel, president of energy consultant Cameron Hanover Inc. in New Canaan, Connecticut.

“Massive Shutdown”

Crude oil prices reached a record $139.89 a barrel today, more than double what they were a year earlier. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley forecast the cost may reach $150 in the next few months.

At $250, “there would be a massive shutdown of companies,” says Carlos Mattei, procurement vice president for glassmaker Vitro SAB in Monterrey, Mexico. “Many of these small companies have to choose between paying the gas bill or payroll.”

Still, slowing demand may curb prices. The International Energy Agency, an adviser to 27 oil-consuming nations, last week cut its forecast of world oil use for a fifth month as record costs dented consumption. The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects prices will drop to $120 by December 2009.

“Over a decade or more, after you adjust for inflation, if the price doubled, we would expect demand to fall by 30 percent,” says Douglas MacIntyre, the agency’s senior oil market analyst. U.S. oil consumption fell 5.7 percent from 1973 to 1975 as the Arab oil embargo led to import shortages.

“Incredibly Vested Interests”

Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, New Jersey, is skeptical about Miller’s prediction because it may benefit Gazprom.

“It’s silly to take people with incredibly vested interests as having an unfettered, unbiased opinion,” Kloza says.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania, says the firm’s economic models break down if the price of oil goes over $200 a barrel.

“The U.S. goes into deep recession, as does most of Europe and Japan, and that takes much of the developing economies with it,” he says. “I don’t see how we get to $250 because the economy is broken long before that, and demand falls and that causes prices to fall.”

Oil at $250 would slash the growth of U.S. gross domestic product by about 2.5 percentage points, says Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Nationalized Airlines

The U.S. may be forced to nationalize airlines if oil keeps rising, Barry Sternlicht, founder and CEO of Starwood Capital Group LLC, told a hotel conference June 2 in New York. Carriers won’t be able to raise fares enough to cover costs, requiring government subsidies to make tickets affordable.

“I’m not sure the model that the airlines are in right now is going to work unless the U.S. does what many other countries have done,” Sternlicht says.

US Airways Group Inc. would need an average fare of about $1,000 per round trip to break even with oil at $250, President Scott Kirby says. That’s more than triple the current average of $300. Fuel accounted for 31 percent of US Airways’ 2007 operating expenses.

Automakers would be devastated, says Daniel Coker, CEO of Northville, Michigan-based Amerigon Inc., a supplier of parts that heat and cool car seats.

“Well, $250 per barrel would cripple the auto industry,” he says.

Transportation Reduced

Households will cut back on transportation, says John Wolkonowicz, an analyst at Global Insight.

“You certainly won’t see mom hauling around the kids in a Chevy Suburban,” he says.

Imports of smaller cars accounted for 23 percent of U.S. auto sales in 1980, up from 15 percent in 1972, according to Ward’s Automotive Reports, which tracks vehicle sales.

At $250 a barrel, even energy-producing states would cut services, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said in an e-mail.

“It’s not clear that the additional revenue would enable us to meet the inflationary impacts that this would impose on road construction, school lunches and even public safety,” he said.

Gazprom CEO Miller has also become embroiled in the legal spat between British Petroleum, the world’s third largest energy company, and the Russian co-owners of TNK-BP, the third largest oil company in Russia. “Gazprom has never offered and has never received offers to buy TNK-BP’s shares and has no links to the conflict at the company,” Comrade Miller informed reporters today. Reuters offers the following analysis of the politically motivated dispute: “Many analysts have said they suspect a conflict between BP and the Russian shareholders at TNK-BP has been triggered by state pressure on the firm as the Kremlin wants a state company such as Gazprom to buy a big stake in Russia’s No.3 oil firm.”

During the latest farcical political season in Russia, which included the December 2007 State Duma election and the March 2008 presidential election, the Kremlin imposed Soviet-style price controls on food and fuel in order to ensure that Russians voted en masse for the crypto-Stalinist United Russia party, a front for the continuing Communist Party of the Russian Federation/Soviet Union. The ruse, which is primarily designed for Western consumption ala the predictions of KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn, worked. Russian communism is alive and well and has only transformed itself along lines palatable to the socialists of the European Union and the capitulationist of NATO, in advance of a total merger between the Communist Bloc and Mikhail Gorbachev’s “new European Soviet.”

Fuel prices are once again rising in Russia, prompting that country’s airline industry to seek permanent price controls from the government, a policy that harmonizes nicely with the platform of the CPRF/SU. “Unfortunately, airlines do not have the resources to influence the aviation fuel market, which is monopolized in Russia,” commented Olga Trapeznikova, director of the AiRUnion press center. “The state should initiate the process of regulating fuel prices.”

The neo-Soviet rent-a-mob has also materialized on the streets of Vladivostok to articualte the popular demand for price controls on fuel. The communist-sanctioned slogans of the day include: “For people’s petrol” and “Prices for fuel under state control.” On April 26, the Vladivostok Times reports, “at the central square the participants of the action held the meeting where signatures on the address to the President of Russia with a suggestion to hand over prices for fuel to State control were collected.” News like this is only the tip of the iceberg regarding the economic disaster which is neo-Soviet Russia, where 20 million people live in poverty and, as in the old Soviet days, state revenues are funnelled into military expansion.

Fuel Crisis Leads to Communist-Sponsored Political Turmoil in India

Meanwhile, in India, where successive governments have already committed the world’s second-most populous country to fast-track membership in the Communist Bloc via the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, communists are manipulating the fuel crisis to bring down the government, which is dominated by the social democratic Indian National Congress and assorted leftist allies. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), in particular, has threatened to withdraw parliamentary support for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh if officials raise retail fuel prices to offset the increasing losses of state oil corporations. Pictured above: CPI(M) cadres protest in New Delhi on June 11, 2008. The banner in the foreground reads: “Left parties strongly protest against the hike in prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas.” Nepali communists have already orchestrated protests against high fuel prices in Kathmandu.

CPI(M) says to protest any fuel price increase
Sat May 31, 2008 12:18am IST

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s main communist party, an important government ally, said on Friday it would protest in the streets if ministers agree to raise retail fuel prices to help ease mounting losses of state oil firms.

India is debating how best to bail out oil retailers and refiners losing tens of millions of dollars a day due to crude oil’s record run while having to sell petrol and diesel at cheap, government-set rates.

The ruling Congress Party-led coalition is widely expected to raise prices over the weekend, but wary of upsetting voters in a year dotted with important elections, the size of the hike is likely to far less than the 15-20 percent increases sought by the oil ministry.

“We will go to the streets if the government does not listen, we are totally opposed to any price rise,” said Prakash Karat, head of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the largest among the left parties.

Congress has lost a string of state elections and has been widely criticised by opposition parties and the left for fast rising food and other commodity prices which pushed inflation over 8 percent in mid-May to a new 3-½ year high.

The country’s oil minister, Murli Deora, said on Thursday some communist leaders had been helpful and cooperating on the issue of raising petroleum prices but Karat ruled out any negotiations over the issue.

The left has proposed a cut in excise and import duties on crude oil and petroleum products to tide over the crisis

Russian Communists Urge Kremlin to Hold “Pro”-NATO Regime in Ukraine Hostage with Natural Gas Ultimatum

Although communists decry the negative effects of spiralling fuel costs on the underclasses, they do not hesitate at the same time to hypocritically advocate the use energy as a weapon. A case in point is the ongoing natural gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine. The crypto-communist regime in Kiev, under the leadership of Komsomol businesswoman Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and FSB poisoning victim President Viktor Yushchenko, is deliberately pushing the West into open confrontation with Russia by inisting that Ukraine join NATO. By contrast, as the story below notes, “A poll conducted in April by the FOM-Ukraina pollster showed a majority of Ukrainians oppose NATO membership.” The pro-Moscow Party of Regions, under the leadership of former prime minister and “ex”-CPSU cadre Viktor Yanukovich is demanding a referendum on Ukraine’s accession to NATO.

Last Friday NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer announced that Ukraine will contribute troops to the NATO Response Force, even though the Not-So-Former Soviet republic has yet to sign onto the NATO Membership Action Plan. This is a provocative move that will no doubt “infuriate” the Leninist masterminds in Moscow, who are in fact seeking just such a pretext to take on the Western Alliance as aggrieved victim. Novosti reports below: “Russia staunchly opposes the post-Soviet country’s NATO ambitions, and the Kremlin threatened in February to retarget missiles at Ukraine if it joins NATO.” Pictured above: NATO Chairman Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (right) and Ukrainian Defence Minister Yuri Yekhanurov (left) listen as Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ogryzko (center) speaks during a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, in Kiev on June 16, 2008.

Ukraine to take part in NATO Response Force
17:2113/ 06/ 2008

BRUSSELS, June 13 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine will contribute to the NATO Response Force as a partner country, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Friday.

The Response Force consists of rapid deployment forces with land, air and sea components, capable of swiftly reacting to crisis situations.

Scheffer’s announcement came after a Ukraine-NATO commission meeting in Brussels, held as part of the Western military alliance’s two-day meeting of defense ministers.

Ukraine was one of the first NATO partner countries to offer to play a role in the NATO Response Force.

The country’s pro-Western leadership has been pursuing NATO membership since 2004, when President Viktor Yushchenko came to power. Ukraine failed to secure membership in the NATO Membership Action Plan, a key step toward joining the alliance, at a NATO summit in April, but was told the decision would be reviewed in December.

Russia staunchly opposes the post-Soviet country’s NATO ambitions, and the Kremlin threatened in February to retarget missiles at Ukraine if it joins NATO.

A poll conducted in April by the FOM-Ukraina pollster showed a majority of Ukrainians oppose NATO membership.

The poll found that 54.9% of respondents would vote against joining the military alliance if a referendum were to be held, while 22.3% would vote in favor.

Meanwhile, open communists in Russia are urging the Kremlin, which they control anyway through their loyal cadres Putin and Medvedev, to apply a little energy blackmail against the “pro”-Western regime in Kiev to subvert its plans for NATO membership.”We are obligated and will insist and do everything we can to make Ukrainian politicians feel the consequences today,” deputy head of the CPRF Central Committee Vladimir Kashin threatened during a protest outside Ukraine’s Moscow embassy in April. Pictured above: Russian communist placard depicts Ukrainian President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Tymoshenko as minions of US President George W. Bush. The words on the poster state: “If you don’t join NATO, we’ll kill you a little bit.”

Russian Communist Party Threatens Gas Cutoff to Sway Ukraine on NATO Membership
By Peter Fedynsky Moscow
03 April 2008

A senior member of the Russian Communist Party says energy should be used to influence Ukraine’s decision about NATO membership. VOA Correspondent Peter Fedynsky has this report from Moscow.

About 100 demonstrators, mostly members of the Russian Communist Party, gathered in front of the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow to protest Kyiv’s decision to seek NATO membership. Communist parliament members told the crowd the alliance is an aggressor that will make false promises of multi-billion-dollar payments to Ukrainians if they join the western defense alliance.

They said most Ukrainians oppose NATO, and accused Ukraine’s leaders of anti-Russian policies that violate what they characterized as ancient bonds of friendship, language, and faith between Ukrainians and Russians.

Deputy head of Russian Communist Party Central Committee Vladimir Kashin addresses rally with a bullhornParliament member and Communist Party Central Committee deputy head, Vladimir Kashin, later said Russia should apply economic pressure against Ukraine to protect its interests.

The lawmaker asks why Russia’s natural gas should not be used as a lever against Ukraine.

“We are obligated,” he said, “and will insist and do everything we can to make Ukrainian politicians feel the consequences today.” Kashin recognizes that ordinary Ukrainians could be hurt by such a move, but adds that they should elect politicians who serve all people, not just a separate group.

One demonstrator held a placard depicting Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko dressed as generalissimos next to President Bush in a white helmet with NATO insignia.

Ms. Tymoshenko’s energy advisor, Oleksiy Hudyma, told VOA the Russian government ended its gas cutoff to Ukraine earlier this year because it could also have hurt consumers in the European Union.

Hudyma says Moscow thought it could use energy to force the Tymoshenko government to make a number of concessions, including its position on NATO and ending the presence of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. He says the tactic failed, making another Russian gas cutoff unlikely.

The energy advisor says Ukraine is prepared to pay world prices for Russian gas supplies, which will discourage Moscow from engaging in gas wars with his country.

Hudyma notes Ukraine’s NATO membership is a goal, not an imminent reality, adding that Ukrainian leaders have time to explain the benefits of such membership to a skeptical population in order to win a referendum on the issue.

Instead of cutting off natural gas supplies to Ukraine, however, the neo-Soviet regime in Moscow warns that it will double the cost of energy delivered to Kiev on January 1, 2009. On June 6 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied that the decision was “political.” Yeah, right.

>End Times File: Food-fuel crises lead to more protests, riots worldwide; British government deploys army to counter effects of truckers’ strike

>– Petrol stations across Britain running dry as motorists horde gasoline; soldiers to man tankers, police to guard fuel depots; Labour PM Brown condemns striking hauliers

– Jerome Cordier, spokesman for Unostra, France’s union of trucking companies: “Recent protests mark a new phase of coordinated strikes across Europe.”

– Nepali communists organize protests against high fuel prices in Kathmandu

– Argentine truckers stage sympathy strike for farmers engaged in three-month standoff with government, paralyze distribution to urban centers

– Flooding in US Corn Belt wipes out 2008 harvest

The double-pronged global food-fuel crisis is providing the Moscow Leninists and the Western internationalists with a pretext for global dictatorship. According to Bible prophecy, however, the man to fill that role of world dictator will emerge from Western Europe. On Wednesday Russian “President” Dmitry Medvedev declared: “We will work with whatever US administration appears, if only because our country’s responsibility in maintaining world order, peace and stability on the planet is colossal. We are counting on a constructive and friendly dialogue with whatever administration comes to power.”

In Spain this week a five-day self-employed truckers’ strike that targetted high fuel costs produced international ramifications, paralyzing highway traffic in both Spain and France, shutting down automobile manufacturers in Spain, Germany, and Belgium, forcing the Lisbon airport in Portugal to refuse refuelling requests from airliners, emptying Spanish supermarket shelves of produce, and resulting in the deaths of one striker in Portugal and two in Spain, all of whom were run over by vehicles on the picket lines. Pictured above: Spanish police break up a picket of striking Spanish truckers in Iznalloz, near Granada, on June 11, 2008.

Truckers in France, the Netherlands, and Poland also staged strikes this week, while British tanker drivers began a four-day road blockade today. Transport workers in Asia, including South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, India, and Nepal are also protesting high fuel costs.

Global fuel protests escalate, with auto plants and airlines hit
June 11, 2008

MADRID (AFP) — Auto plants in Spain were paralysed and Portugal’s main airport banned planes from refueling Wednesday as a third day of strikes by thousands of truckers caused heightened chaos and shortages.

Truckers in Thailand also threatened to strike next week while their counterparts in South Korea plan to stop work on Friday, as the outrage over soaring fuel prices intensified around the world.

Tens of thousands of truck drivers launched stoppages in France, Portugal and Spain on Monday to demand government help to cope with the rising price of fuel caused by rocketing oil prices, which last week reached almost 140 dollars a barrel.

The protests have paralysed roads, causing huge tailbacks, notably on the French-Spanish border and around major Spanish cities, and left supermarkets short of fresh produce and some petrol stations without supplies. Two strikers were run over by vehicles and killed at picket lines on Tuesday.

The Spanish auto plants of Seat, Nissan, Renault, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Mercedes Benz said they had cut or halted production as the strike left them short of parts.

In Belgium, the Volvo and Audi auto plants said they would be forced to close from Thursday due to the strike in Spain.

In Portugal, the strike hit air transport as fuel shortages forced authorities at Lisbon airport to ban planes from refuelling, except those on high priority flights.

“We cannot refuel any planes, except those on urgent, military or state flights,” a spokesman for the airport authority, Rui Oliveira, told Lusa news agency.

The European Commission on Wednesday called on EU nations to take targeted action to help those most vulnerable deal with high oil prices.

The commission, the EU’s executive body, said the measures should focus on the fishing, farm and transport sectors, as well as the chemical and auto industries.

In Spain, road haulage unions resumed negotiations with the government that were suspended on Tuesday after a truck driver was run over and killed by a van as he manned a picket line in the southern city of Granada.

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba promised to guarantee deliveries of food, fuel, medicines and spare parts for auto plants, under police escort if necessary.

Portuguese police stepped up patrols after a striker manning a picket line north of Lisbon was run over and killed by a lorry on Tuesday.

Police escorted about 40 oil trucks to petrol stations around Lisbon and the western town of Setubal. Strikers had prevented the trucks from leaving a warehouse north of the capital.
Long queues formed at many petrol stations, some of which were out of supplies.

The Portuguese truckers vowed to step up their blockades Wednesday, particularly in the north of the country, where they plan to seal off the port of Leixos as well as supermarket warehouses.

Several supermarket chains have already expressed concern over the shortage of fresh products, especially milk.

In Spain too, the blocked roads meant wholesale food markets in large cities suffered shortages of fresh fish, milk, fruits and vegetables.

Truckers also maintained a blockade of a motorway across the French-Spanish border by the western town of Biriatou. On the French side, traffic jams were reported up to the western port of Bordeaux.

But Spanish police early Wednesday reopened the main motorway linking Barcelona with France at the northeastern border town of Jonquera. On the French side, truckers who had blocked the road since Monday also left.

Elsewhere in Europe, around 50,000 Polish truckers staged one-hour protests across the country Wednesday, although without blocking roads, the organisers said.

The British government is also finalising contingency plans to cope with a four-day strike by oil tanker drivers this weekend.

And Dutch truckers announced plans to block roads at 18 points across the country for 30 minutes on Thursday.

Across the world, Thai truck drivers threatened Wednesday to go on strike next week and block roads to the capital with 400,000 lorries unless the government helps them pay for soaring fuel costs.

Truckers in South Korea have voted to go on strike on Friday.

In Malaysia, the opposition has planned a series of rallies culminating in a July 12 demonstration which they hope will attract 100,000 people following the government’s fuel price hike of 41 percent last week.

The Associated Press reports today that the Spanish truckers’ strike has “tapered off.” Many taxi drivers in Catalonia heeded a strike call, but in the rest of Spain drivers won concessions on demands for fare rises. The socialist government of Prime Minister Zapatero deployed riot police on Wednesday to clear two border crossings with France and roads leading into Madrid, and provided police escorts for drivers who did not back the strike. Over the past year the cost of diesel has risen 36% in Spain. Prime Minister Jose Zapatero denounced the strikers: “The government is going to have zero tolerance for any act of intimidation or violence.” Although social democrats like Zapatero generally portray themselves as “friends of the working class,” in truth, when the working class and unionized workers strike social democratic governments often respond in a fashion that is sometimes more heavyhanded than that of a rightist government.

In Portugal truckers ended their strike on Wednesday after the ANTRAM union reached an agreement with the government. “We are lifting the blockade of all trucks involved in the stoppage,” union representative Antonio Loios announced.

In France truckers plan another massive national strike beginning June 16, while Italian truckers are preparing to strike on June 30. This week Jerome Cordier, who represent Unostra, the French union of trucking companies, was quoted by London’s Guardian newspaper as saying: “Recent protests mark a new phase of coordinated strikes across Europe.” No doubt Eurocommunists will endeavor to exploit this discontent to maneuver themselves into power throughout Western Europe.

Across the English Channel Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who last year treasonously sold out his country’s sovereignty to the European Union, is bracing for a four-day strike by tanker drivers that began this morning. The British media reports that: “The Army is being put on stand-by to intervene in the petrol tankers’ driver strike amid fears it could snowball beyond a trucker dispute into a widespread protest.” British soldiers are poised to man the tankers in order to ensure that emergency response vehicles do not run out of fuel, while police with emergency powers are preparing to surround fuel depots to “protect essential supplies.” In another typical display of leftist hypocrisy PM Brown, who represents the Labour Party, has condemned the pending strike. In April Scottish motorists, fearing a fuel shortage as the country’s sole oil refinery continued a phased shutdown in the face of strike action, besieged service stations in an earlier round of panic fuel buying.

Petrol: Army on stand-by to drive tankers amid fears other protesters could join fuel strike
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:58 PM on 13th June 2008

The Army is being put on stand-by to intervene in the petrol tankers’ driver strike amid fears it could snowball beyond a trucker dispute into a widespread protest.

Troops are being poised to take to the wheel of tankers if ambulances, fire engines and police cars begin to run out of fuel.

Emergency powers could also allow police, already on guard at the picket lines, to surround depots in order to protect essential supplies.

Gordon Brown has condemned the strike and Downing Street has said the Government’s response will be proportional to the level of disruption.

Ministers believe they can hold out to the end of the four-day strike without calling on Army drivers or a major police operation – as long as it remains a trucker’ protest.

But there are fears the 500 strikers could be joined by other groups, including protesters against high fuel taxes who brought the country to a standstill in 2000.

Tanker drivers from other companies have already been showing their solidarity with the Shell workers after they walked out in a pay dispute at 6am this morning.

Many were seen turning away from refineries today because they did not want to cross the picket line.

Petrol stations across the UK have already started to run dry, with Shell predicting every single one of its outlets will be closed by the end of the first 24 hours.

The military would not be used to fill stations but only to ensure emergency services were not affected.

Business Secretary John Hutton, the Cabinet minister in charge of the emergency response, said contingency plans were in place to minimise disruption.

‘Our advice to motorists is just to buy the fuel they need.’

The AA warned drivers not to waste a single drop of fuel over the weekend.

President, Edmund King, said: ‘Drivers should cut out short journeys, stick to speed limits and take off roof-racks to save fuel. But above all do not queue up at fuel stations. Don’t waste a drop.’

The Shell drivers have refused an improved pay offer of 7.3 per cent backdated to January, which would take average earnings to more than £39,000.

Retailers and the Government have called for ‘restraint’ and said there was plenty of fuel to go around, while the Petrol Retailers Association assured there would be no problem as long as people ‘bought normally’.

But motorists today appeared determined to defy the official advice against panic-buying and flocked to petrol stations to fill up.

In further misery for drivers, a six-hour, go-slow protest by truckers on motorways in north west England tomorrow is due to cause more chaos on the roads.

Around 100 lorries are expected to join a 40mph convoy for the 120-mile round trip down the M6 in Cheshire to Carnforth, Lancashire, and then back again.

The drivers walked out at 6am this morning for four days of industrial action after last-minute talks to resolve their pay dispute failed.

Pickets at terminals around the country were manned by hundreds of trade union members, with police on guard in case of any violence.

Union leaders warned fuel would start to run out ‘almost immediately’ and all Shell’s forecourts would be affected within 24 hours.

Garages across the UK – from Cornwall to London – soon started to run out and started turning cars away.

At the Shell station in Bayswater, central London, a rush of customers last night and in the early morning had drained the pumps.

Its last delivery was yesterday morning, but a rush of customers through the evening and the early morning had emptied supplies.

SNIP

Striking truckers and transport workers have severely disrupted the economies in South Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand, provoking the governments of these export-dependent countries there to adopt counter-strike measures. “If the government arrests any of the striking truckers, our member unions will immediately launch nationwide strikes,” warned Lee Seok-haeng, head of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. “The people are angry,” declared Safarizal Saleh, a leader of the youth wing of the Parti Islam Semalaysia, the chief Islamist party in Malaysia. Since the beginning of the year gasoline prices have in Malaysia have shot up by 41 percent while diesel has surged 63 percent in the wake of rising crude oil prices. Pictured here: Thai truckers strike on June 11, 2008.

Fuel Protests Intensify Across Asia
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: June 14, 2008

SEOUL, South Korea — Thousands of South Korean truck drivers went on strike Friday to protest rising fuel prices, threatening to paralyze the country’s ports and challenging the already unpopular government of President Lee Myung-bak. Across Asia, sharp rises in fuel prices continued to stoke public anger.

In Malaysia and Thailand, consumers and truckers demanding bigger fuel subsidies from their governments threatened to strike and Thai fishermen warned that they would burn their boats. More than 5,000 truckers blocked entrances to ports and cargo terminals in South Korea, demanding that the government increase subsidies, authorize higher freight charges and introduce a minimum wage.

The government warned that it would punish drivers if they attempted to block non-striking truckers from picking up cargo. The Transport Ministry confirmed on Friday that it would immediately revoke striking truckers’ annual fuel subsidy payments of about 15 million won, or $14,500.

“The government intends to use whatever means to end this transportation crisis as soon as possible and minimize its impact on the national economy,” said Prime Minister Han Seung-soo.

Tension escalated around major ports as police planned to escort non-striking drivers through the blockades.

“If the government arrests any of the striking truckers, our member unions will immediately launch nationwide strikes,” said Lee Seok-haeng, head of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which controls unions in auto, construction and other key industries. A two-week truckers’ strike in 2003 cost exporters 540 billion won, or $519 million at Friday’s exchange rates, Mr. Han said, citing figures from the Korea International Trade Association.

Mr. Han predicted that the current strike will cause 128 billion won in export losses a day. The government said it would use military vehicles and increase rail service to keep the country’s factories running and ease the paralysis at the ports. But rail unions said on Friday that they would not cooperate.

With the country’s traditional negotiating season starting, unions seized on President Lee’s unpopularity to boost their leverage.

Mr. Lee’s administration has been shaken by weeks of anti-government protests against a decision in April to resume the import of American beef.

In Malaysia, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi faced rising public discontent as the opposition said it would draw 20,000 people to a march in Kuala Lumpur on Friday to protest fuel costs. “The people are angry,” said Safarizal Saleh, a leader of the youth wing of the Parti Islam Semalaysia, the main Islamist party and one of the organizers of the rally, Reuters reported. Gasoline prices have in Malaysia have jumped by 41 percent and diesel 63 percent as crude oil costs have surged.

In Thailand, the Land Transport Federation of Thailand gave the government until Tuesday to subsidize fuel for truckers or face 100,000 vehicles rumbling into already traffic-clogged Bangkok. Also protesting or planning to stage demonstrations in this still heavily agricultural nation were garlic, cabbage and rice farmers, along with fishermen, The Associated Press reported. “The government is trying its best to reduce the immediate problem of the various groups of protesters,” said Natawut Saikau, a government spokesman, according to the AP.

Elsewhere in Asia Filipino truckers and mini-bus operators blocked roads leading to the presidential palace in Manila. The story below reports that “Gasoline prices in the Philippines are not subsidised and have risen 14 times since the start of the year for a total increase of about 24 percent.”

Trucks block Manila streets to protest fuel prices
Thu Jun 12, 2008 1:21pm IST

MANILA, June 12 (Reuters) – Hundreds of trucks and mini-buses blocked roads leading to the Philippines’ presidential palace on Thursday to demand the lifting of sales tax on fuel products.

Traffic ground to a halt near Malacanang Palace as a phalanx of anti-riot police officers stopped a long convoy of trucks and mini-buses from reaching the country’s seat of power. About 500 three-wheeled motor taxis joined the protest.The protesters, displaying placards and streamers, called on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to remove a 12 percent sales tax on all petroluem-based products as well as provide more subsidies to the poor.

Gasoline prices in the Philippines are not subsidised and have risen 14 times since the start of the year for a total increase of about 24 percent. Pump prices for unleaded gasoline are now about 55 pesos ($1.2) per litre from 44.50 in January.

“We cannot afford to celebrate with those who commemorate our freedom,” Dante Lagman, the leader of a transport group, said in a statement referring to the fact Thursday was also the country’s Independence Day.Inflation has been surging in the country in recent months. Arroyo’s government has announced plans to increase subsidies to the poor, providing them access to cheaper rice and medicines and distributing 500 pesos cash to 2 million people to help pay electricity bills. ($1 = 44.4 pesos)

In India, where communists hold the balance of power in parliament and Maoist rebels terrorize one third of the country’s districts, a one-day strike against high fuel prices brought the Indian state of Kashmir to a stand still. However, the story below reports: “Protests over fuel price rises have lost steam elsewhere in India as political parties sense grudging acceptance by citizens of the unpopular price hike.”

Indian Kashmir shuts down over fuel protests
Wed Jun 11, 2008 5:42am EDT

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) – A one day strike to protest against fuel price rises shut shops and banks in Indian Kashmir on Wednesday, coinciding with a protest by transporters demanding they be allowed to raise fares and freight charges.

Protests over fuel price rises have lost steam elsewhere in India as political parties sense grudging acceptance by citizens of the unpopular price hike.

But streets in Srinagar, Kashmir’s summer capital, were deserted and schools and colleges were closed in response to Wednesday’s strike, called by the Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation.

“We express utter dismay over the rise of essential commodities, petrol, diesel and cooking gas, and urge people to observe a complete strike on June 11,” the group said in a statement.

India increased petrol and diesel prices last week by around 10 percent after the cost of fuel subsidies brought state oil companies close to bankruptcy.

Wednesday was also the third day of a four-day strike in Kashmir called by the state’s transport operators demanding an increase in passenger fares and freight charges.

The government has deployed several hundred buses and other vehicles to offer rides after the strike drove about 75,000 vehicles off roads across the state, but residents say it has not been enough.

Officials in Kashmir said there had been no breakthrough in negotiations with transport operators.

Lastly, in Nepal, where the monarch was abolished last month and the Maoists, who hold the largest number of seats in that country’s constituent assembly, are threatening to form a new government, with or without coalition partners, fuel price hikes have provoked protests in Kathmandu (pictured here). The following article reports: “Fuel prices are a test for Nepal’s political parties, now squabbling to form a new government likely to be led by the Maoist former rebels.” Nepal’s fuel protests were organized by the All Nepal Free Students Union, the youth section of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), a communist grouping with a smaller support base than that of the soon-to-be-ruling Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).

Fuel price hike triggers protest in Nepal capital
Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:09am EDT
By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU, June 10 (Reuters) – Student activists burned tyres on roads and blocked traffic in Kathmandu on Tuesday to protest against a hefty increase in fuel prices, but many Nepalis hope the unpopular hike will at least mean smoother supplies.

Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) on Monday increased petrol and diesel prices by about a 25 percent to stem losses at the state-run oil company and help overcome a domestic fuel shortage.

Fuel prices are a test for Nepal’s political parties, now squabbling to form a new government likely to be led by the Maoist former rebels.

Many ordinary Nepalis, fed up with long queues at petrol pumps, think some hike was unavoidable but say the increase was too big.

Some, like Kathmandu taxi driver Bill Shrestha, said even though expensive they would rather have a steady supply of more expensive fuel than not have at all.

“If petrol is available in the market after the increase it is okay. I don’t mind,” the 25-year-old Shrestha said. On Tuesday, transport operators announced a 30 percent hike in fares for long distance buses and 35 percent for taxis and buses operating on shorter routes with immediate effect.

NOC said fuel supplies should return to normal within a few days — for the first time in at least six months. The cost of subsidising the retail price had left NOC short of funds to buy sufficient quantities of fuel from India.

But student protesters say the government should have arranged for relief to students as well as to poor people and looked for alternative energy sources to tide over the shortage before rushing with the price hike.

“The government is not sensitive to the difficulties of the people,” said Thakur Gaire, chief of the All Nepal Free Students Union that organised the protests. The union is the student arm of the Communist UML party, Nepal’s third largest group.

“The government must withdraw the decision immediately,” Gaire said.In January, a similar increase in oil prices was withdrawn after nationwide anti-government protests crippled life for two days, but this time such a possibility looks remote.

Consumer groups said the 25 percent increase was unprecedented and would hit ordinary people.

“Cost of public transport as well as food items will increase now,” said Jyoti Baniya, chief of the Forum for the Protection of Consumers’ Interest.

“In the name of price adjustment the state is out for loot.”

Nepal imports about 800,000 tonnes of oil annually.

In South America, Reuters reports, Argentine truckers agreed to remove roadblocks, after staging a sympathy strike for farmers, that paralyzed the distribution of goods to the country’s urban centers. Argentine farmers, in turn, have been engaged in a three-month standoff with the government over grain export taxes. Argentine Justice Minister Anibal Fernandez indicated that the government “was willing to send unarmed military and police forces to break up roadblocks if necessary.” Pictured here: An employee works at a closed gas station in Rosario, Argentina, on June 13, 2008.

Argentine truckers agree to clear roadblocks
June 13, 2008

Argentine trucker groups have agreed to clear roadblocks that halted cargo traffic and fanned fears of food and fuel shortages, after farm leaders reportedly agreed to start selling grains again.

At the same time, Justice Minister Anibal Fernandez told reporters the Government was willing to send unarmed military and police forces to break up roadblocks if necessary.

The heads of two transportation groups called for truckers to clear rural highways and put an end to protests over a three-month stand-off between farmers and the Government, which has left many truck drivers without work.

“We’ve decided to end the protest measure because (farm leaders) confirmed yesterday in meetings and today by telephone that we’ll be able to load grains and move them to port,” Federation of Rural Transporters head Carlos Di Nunzio said.

It was not clear how quickly the roadblocks would be cleared, or if truckers grouped in other associations would obey the orders.

Television images showed trucks carrying grains, milk, food and other goods parked on highways as truckers demanded an end to the farm dispute.

“It’s crucial that we restore the free circulation of vehicles,” Mr Fernandez said.

“(Police and military) forces will act the same way they always have, without arms, without cracking down, but we won’t allow these roadblocks.”

Farmers angry over a tax hike on soy exports ended their latest strike this week.

But some still refuse to send their goods to markets, and the truckers wanted both sides to reach a definitive deal to end the conflict.

A source at one of the country’s four leading farm groups said farm leaders could not force growers to sell their goods, casting doubt on whether the dispute could be defused.

Finally, Dow Jones Newswires reports that “U.S. grain markets caught fire Wednesday, as fearsome spring floods raised the specter of short harvests this fall,” a prospect that will no doubt drive up grain prices even higher and promote still more unrest worldwide. Linn Group analyst Jim Riley is quoted as saying that “Many traders and analysts fear that flooding, which has devastated the Corn Belt during the past 7-10 days, may prevent farmers from seeding more than 84 million acres to corn — instead of the 86 million acres originally forecast by the government.” He adds: ” If the yield estimate (of 148.9 bushels per acre) is correct, [this] will lower production even further.” The specter of famine continues to loom behind failed grain, corn, and rice harvests worldwide.

>Latin America File: Neo-Sandinista regime consolidates power, bans two parties; Managua dispatches leftist priest to head UN General Assembly

>The Associated Press reports today that the Moscow-backed neo-Sandinista regime has banned two parties in advance of municipal elections in November. The first party is the Sandinista Renovation Movement, consisting of defectors from the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front, while the second is the Conservative Party. The leader of the Sandinista breakaway faction has threatened to hold a hunger strike unless her party is decriminalized. Clearly, the FSLN does not relish competition.

Nicaragua’s government has barred two political parties from running in the country’s Nov. 9 municipal elections. The country’s electoral agency said Wednesday that the Sandinista Renovation Movement [MRS]had failed to meet a deadline for naming party representatives in all of the country’s electoral districts. The party broke away from the ruling Sandinista Front in the 1990s. The small Conservative Party was also barred on the same grounds. MRS leader Dora Maria Tellez is on a weeklong hunger strike to demand her party’s return to the race. Nicaragua has authorized 17 other parties to run on the November ballot. The two barred parties were expected to be contenders for many key mayoral posts.

In April thugs dispatched by Ortega’s regional allies on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast roughed up members of the Constitutional Liberal Party in a broader pattern of Sandinista-directed intimidation against opposition parties.

Pictured above: On June 2 Nicaraguan Presiden Daniel Ortega again visited the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, where he is patiently wooing center-left President Manual Zelaya into Latin America’s Red Axis. Nicaraguan First Lady, former guerrilla girl, and architect of Nicaragua’s FSLN-stacked Citizens’ Power Councils Rosario Murrillo hovers in the background.

In yet another example of the Communist-Catholic convergence in the Third World, Rev. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, a leftist Roman Catholic priest who was Nicaragua’s foreign minister between 1979 and 1990, during the Sandinistas’ first term in power, has assumed the presidency of the United Nations General Assembly. Following his election, Mr. d’Escoto took a swipe at the Bush White House: “It is no secret to anyone that some of its policies have made for difficult relations, not only in Latin America, but for the rest of the world.”

Former Nicaraguan Official Wins U.N. Assembly Presidency
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
Published: June 5, 2008

UNITED NATIONS — The Rev. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, an outspoken leftist critic of the United States and a former foreign minister in Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, was elected president of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.

Mr. d’Escoto, 75, an American-born Roman Catholic priest, said he would not use his new position as a platform to disparage the United States, but wasted no time at taking a few oblique swipes at Washington.

In his inaugural speech, he said member states had to unite against “acts of aggression, such as those occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan.” And, without naming the United States, he said no countries should act as if collective agreements applied to all but them.

Asked about his past anti-American statements, including calling President Bush a liar during a June 2004 radio interview, Mr. d’Escoto said, “It is no secret to anyone that some of its policies have made for difficult relations, not only in Latin America, but for the rest of the world.”

Relations between Nicaragua and the United States were quite tense in the 1980s when American-financed contra rebels tried to overthrow the Sandinistas.

Mr. d’Escoto, Nicaragua’s foreign minister from 1979 to 1990, professed, however, to “love the U.S.” and said Americans, too, seemed to want change, adding that he had noticed signs about “change that we can believe in.” When it was pointed out that that message echoed Senator Barack Obama’s campaign slogan, Mr. d’Escoto said flatly that he was not endorsing anyone.

The American ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, told reporters that Mr. d’Escoto had said some “unacceptable things in the past,” but that the United States had been assured that he would use his one-year presidency to create consensus. Differences over American policy toward Iraq and Afghanistan should come as no surprise, Mr. Khalilzad added.

The General Assembly controls the United Nations budget, but its resolutions are nonbinding. Among Mr. d’Escoto’s tasks will be inviting Mr. Bush to address the group for his last time as president at its annual meeting this fall.

Source: The New York Times

>Communist Bloc Military Updates: Russia asserts supremacy at North Pole, plans polar naval expansion, trains units for Arctic warfare

>Under deceased Soviet Tyrant Boris Yeltsin the Russian Bear crawled into his cave and hibernated. Under Vladimir Putin and his sidekick Dmitry Medvedev, the Bear is back, claws sharpened, nose sniffing for blood. The Kremlin is asserting its sovereignty over the Arctic region vis-a-vis the other four polar states: USA, Canada, Denmark (which includes Greenland), and Norway. General Vladimir Shamanov, head of the Kremlin’s combat training directorate, boasts that: “Russia has the capability to defend its claim to roughly half of the Arctic Ocean – including the North Pole. We have a number of highly professional military units in the Leningrad, Siberian and Far Eastern military districts which are specifically trained for combat in the Arctic regions.” Last August two mini-submarine crews planted the Russian flag on the Arctic seabed in a dramatic assertion of Kremlin expansionism (see map above). The Russian Air Force’s revitalized overseas missions, including those over the North Pole, are no doubt designed to reinforce Kremlin claims in the region. The Telegraph, referring to the Arctic Bear bomber patrol earlier this week, reports below: “Russian assertiveness in the sensitive region was again on display yesterday when Nato jets shadowed two Russian bombers, designed for anti-submarine warfare, on a reconnaissance mission close to the North Pole.”

Russia plans Arctic military build-up
By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
Last updated: 10:49 PM BST 11/06/2008

Russia has raised the stakes in the international scramble for the Arctic by announcing it will boost its military presence in the region to protect its “national interests”.

The defence ministry said naval vessels would be sent to the Arctic Ocean, which is believed to be home to 25 percent of the world’s untapped energy resources, as part of a Summer training zone.

Gen Vladimir Shamanov, the head of the combat training directorate, stated that Russia had “highly trained military units” prepared for Arctic warfare.

He revealed that Russia would expand its naval presence in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as part of a strategy to flex the country’s growing military might on the world stage.

“The summer training programme envisions the increased presence of the Russian navy not only in the Atlantic but also in the Arctic and the Pacific,” Gen Shamanov said. “We are also planning to increase the operational radius of the Northern Fleet’s submarines.”

The West has become increasingly concerned by Russia’s determination to flex its military muscle in international waters and airspace.

Disquiet over the Kremlin’s intent in the Arctic is likely to grow still further after Gen Shamanov, a prominent military hawk who was accused of war crimes in Chechnya, suggested that the focus of Russia’s military strategy would shift towards “protecting national interests” in the Arctic.

Russia had the capability, he said, to defend its claim to roughly half of the Arctic Ocean – including the North Pole.

“We have a number of highly professional military units in the Leningrad, Siberian and Far Eastern military districts which are specifically trained for combat in the Arctic regions,” he said.

Russian assertiveness in the sensitive region was again on display yesterday when Nato jets shadowed two Russian bombers, designed for anti-submarine warfare, on a reconnaissance mission close to the North Pole.

While the Kremlin attracted international criticism after a titanium Russian flag was planted on the sea bed underneath the North Pole last year, other countries with an Arctic shoreline have been accused of playing an equally aggressive role in militarizing the region.

Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister, last year ordered military ships to the Arctic amid growing tensions with both the United States and Russia over competing territorial claims in the region.

Russia, the United States and Canada have also announced plans to build nuclear icebreakers to defend their Arctic interests.

US naval vessels and British nuclear submarines held joint war games in the Arctic Ocean last year, a development that aroused suspicion in Moscow.

The five nations with Arctic Ocean coastlines – Russia, Canada, the United States, Denmark and Norway – all have sometimes overlapping claims to Arctic territory that exceeds maritime borders fixed by international law.

A United Nations commission has been established to study the legitimacy of the claims. The issue has taken on added urgency as global warming causes the ice in the Arctic to melt, thereby raising the realistic prospect of harnessing the ocean’s energy treasure trove for the first time.

Russia, already the world’s largest energy producer, has the longest coastline of the Arctic nations and therefore has filed the biggest claim.

Despite occasional outbreaks of imperialist rhetoric, the Kremlin has consistently promised not to colonize the Arctic unilaterally and has pledged to abide by international adjudication on its territorial rights in the region.

Source: The Telegraph

>Communist Bloc Military Updates: Four Tu-160 Blackjack bombers complete 9-hour Arctic patrol, Russia beefs up military presence in Kyrgyzstan

>Shanghai Cooperation Organization Disguises War Preparations as Russian Personnel Join NATO-Led Military/Anti-Terrorist/Disaster Scenario Exercises

In April the Kremlin’s air force promised near-daily missions for strategic aviation and it appears to be delivering, thanks to a robust, state-run petroleum industry in Russia. The Kremlin media reports today: “Four Russian Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers are conducting patrol flights over the Arctic Ocean, a spokesman for Russia’s Air Force said on Wednesday. ‘Four Tu-160 bombers took off today from the Engels airbase [near Saratov in southern Russia] for routine patrol flights over the Arctic Ocean,’ Lt. Col. Vladimir Drik said.'” As we blogged earlier this week, two Tu-95 Bear bombers completed an Arctic mission on Tuesday.

Pictured above: Russia’s Blackjack bomber, a NATO designation, is a heavy knock-off of the US Air Force’s B1 bomber. Sixteen “White Swans,” the affectionate term used by Russian pilots, are currently in service, four more are slated for service by the end of 2008. Production of the Tu-160, per earlier reports at this blog, was ramped up again last year, after a 13-year hiatus.

The Russian Air Force, according to state-run Novosti, is also beefing up its presence in the Not-So-Former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan with more flight training programs to prepare more pilots (for the Fourth World War, presumably). Russia’s air base in Kant will receive four combat trainers from the Krasnodar military pilot school, an An-26 transport plane, and several new Su-27 fighter jets. Located near the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, Kant was established in October 2003 under the aegis of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. It currently hosts about 400 troops, as well as several Su-25 Frogfoot attack aircraft, Su-27 Flanker fighters, and two Mi-8 assault helicopters.

Russia beefs up military presence in Kyrgyzstan
15:3711/ 06/ 2008

MOSCOW, June 11 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will deploy more personnel and equipment at its air base in Kyrgyzstan, the Air Force commander told a Russian daily on Wednesday.

In an interview with the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper, Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin also said that flight training programs would be intensified to prepare more pilots.

He earlier said the base was set to receive four combat trainers from the Krasnodar military pilot school, plus an An-26 transport plane and several new Su-27 aircraft.

The Russian base in Kant, about 20 miles west of the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, was established in October 2003, and currently deploys about 400 troops, including 250 officers and NCOs and 150 conscripts, as well as several Su-25 Frogfoot attack aircraft and Su-27 Flanker fighters, and two Mi-8 assault helicopters.

The 2003 bilateral agreement between Russia and Kyrgyzstan stipulates the presence of the Kant air base in the Central Asian republic for 15 years with an automatic extension every five years after the expiration of the original term.

The agreement is in the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organization – a regional security bloc in Central Asia, which also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Kyrgyz Defense Minister Ismail Isakov said in March that Russia annually pays some $4.5 million to Kyrgyzstan for military bases and also provides Bishkek with military and technical equipment as part of the lease agreements.

Finally, in yet another example of Leninist-scripted East-West convergence designed to lull the West into a false sense of security, Russia participated in a NATO-led anti-terrorist exercise, called Bold Monarch 2008, off the coast of Norway between May 26 and June 7:

The Russian Navy will participate for the first time in a large-scale submarine rescue exercise conducted by NATO countries and their allies, a Navy spokesman said on Friday. The Bold Monarch 2008 exercise will be staged near the Norwegian coast from May 26 to June 7. “The purpose of the exercise is to ensure compatibility of rescue equipment used by the Russian Navy and the navies of NATO countries, and to demonstrate ability to coordinate cooperative efforts during escape and rescue missions,” Captain 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said. Support personnel and equipment from Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands; Norway, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, the U.K. and the United States will be engaged “to solve complex rescue and medical problems in a variety of scenarios.” Russia will send the Georgy Titov deep-sea rescue ship from the Northern Fleet to join the exercise, the spokesman said.

Concurrently, Russian rescue services joined another NATO “disaster scenario” exercise in Finland that involved 1,000 troops from 25 countries. State-run Voice of Russia reports today that a small Russian naval presence is also participating in yet another international war game, this time in the Baltic Sea: “A Russian patrol boat and a beach assault barge have joined international naval wargames in the Baltic Sea. All coastal powers plus Britain and the United States are taking part. The focus is on practising operations against terrorists. The exercise lasts to the 20th of June.”

By inviting Russia to join NATO-led military/anti-terrorist/disaster scenario exercises, the so-called leadership of the Western Alliance is overlooking the fact that Moscow is actively building an anti-Western alliance across the Eurasian landmass. The militaristic nature of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, embodied in the Sino-Soviet exercises Peace Mission 2005 and Peace Mission 2007, is now so obvious that SCO defense ministers, meeting in the Tajik capital Dushanbe in mid-May, apparently felt compelled to release a communique disavowing hostile intentions toward “third countries”:

Efforts by member-states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to bolster their military potential are not directed against any third countries or aimed at forging a military alliance. The statement comes in a joint communiqué signed by the SCO defense ministers after their talks in the Tajik capital Dushanbe on Thursday. Earlier the same day they signed agreements on trust-building measures in the military field and on closer interaction in combating international terrorism. The documents will enable the SCO members to work out rapid reaction measures to deal with emergency situations in the region.

The “policy experts” in the hopelessly pro-communist US State Department will no doubt believe such lies.

>EU File: Tu-95 bombers violate Icelandic airspace despite Kremlin’s emphatic denials, French fighter jets based at Keflavík escort Russian aircraft

>Even though Kremlin spokesentities are emphatic in their contention that Russian bomber flights never violate national airspace, NATO member states will no doubt beg to differ. The incident described below in the Icelandic media apparently refers to the two Tu-95 Bear bombers mentioned in the Kremlin media yesterday and reported at this site. Today Russian Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Drik related: “After completing an almost 20-hour flight, the crews returned to the airbase in Engels. During air patrols, the Russian planes were accompanied by NATO fighters.” He then insisted that “All flights by Russian aircraft were performed by skilled pilots in strict compliance with international laws on the use of air space over neutral waters, without violating the borders of other states.” The only reason, however, that Russian bombers are again lurking around Iceland is because the Kremlin is training a new generation of pilots to fly their ALCM-capable aircraft to North America.

French Mirage 2000 fighter jets (pictured above) under NATO command have been stationed in Iceland in response to the Russian Air Force’s overseas patrols, even though Western governments persist in propagating the lie that the Cold War is “over.” In January of this year Andre Lugovoi, former FSB officer, current Russian State Duma deputy, and alleged murderer of (his ex-colleague) FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko, was quoted as saying: “I don’t agree that the Cold War is back. It has never ended.”

Russian Planes Cross through Icelandic Airspace
10/06/2008 12:40

A French air force presence located at Keflavík airport is keeping an eye on two Russian bombers that have flown into Icelandic airspace. “This reminds me of old times” said Geir H. Haarde, Prime minister after paying a visit to the French air force at Keflavík.

The Russian planes are so-called “Bears” and are long-range bombers. Russian authorities informed Norwegian authorities about their whereabouts, explaining their presence was an exercise. Norwegian authorities passed the information on to the Icelandic government. Mbl.is reports.

The Russian planes entered Icelandic airspace around 10 am from north of Norway, then flew west and then south of the island, disappearing around 12 am. Two of the four French jets escorted the Russian planes as they flew west of Iceland to ensure the safety of commercial flights in the area, since the Russian planes do not broadcast any signals picked up by civilian air traffic control.

Urdur Gunnarsdóttir, a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirmed that the Russian authorities released information about the jets’ flights, but Icelandic authorities have expressed their upset over bombers that enter Icelandic airspace without prior notice. The French air force was in Keflavik as a part of NATO´s regular air patrol program. Since Iceland has no air force, other NATO countries which have air forces are obligated to patrol around the Icelandic airspace as well as Icelandic air control area regularly.

Source: Iceland Review

In August 2007, shortly after President, now Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, formally announced the resumption of long-range aviation missions, a Russian military aircraft, presumably a bomber, apparently penetrated Canadian airspace by more than 200 kilometres, flying over the Labradoran town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay (population 8,000). The Canadian Forces Air Command, which had to scramble fighter jets from neighboring Quebec to intercept the visitor, was somewhat tardy in its response, to say the least.

>End Times File: Spanish truckers strike over high fuel prices; Sarkozy: Dump fuel tax; Medvedev blames USA for crisis; Waters: Nationalize oil firms

>The worldwide fuel-food crisis, characterized by high gasoline and diesel prices and severe grain and rice shortages, has manifested itself in numerous trucker strikes across the European Union, as well as in Central America. Today, in protest of business-crippling fuel costs at the pump, 90,000 Spanish truck drivers blocked the border between their country and France, and snarled traffic in the national capital, Madrid (pictured here). The incoming President of Europe, Nicolas Sarkozy, is urging EU governments to ease up on value-added fuel taxes in order to provide relief to those hauling and distributing the continent’s goods, but his plea has falled on deaf ears. A union of South Korean truckers have voted to strike this week.

Spanish, French, Portuguese Truck Drivers Step Up Fuel Protests
By VOA News 09 June 2008

Spanish truck drivers block traffic on Spanish border with France in Behobia, northern Spain, 9 June 2008Truck drivers in Spain, France and Portugal are stepping up protests over rising fuel prices, as demonstrations spread Monday across Europe.

Traffic backups were reported in Madrid and Barcelona, as truckers pushed their demands for gas price relief and other drivers topped off fuel tanks in anticipation of gasoline shortages.

Protest actions also snarled traffic at main border crossings between Spain and France. French television showed trucks backed up several kilometers near the southern French city of Bordeaux, after Spanish protesters at the nearby border smashed windshields on trucks attempting to enter Spain.

Separately, Reuters news agency says Portuguese truckers threatened to block roadways to Algarve, a popular tourist region, to prevent goods from reaching the area.

Meanwhile, French fishermen from Mediterranean ports today suspended their three-week fuel price protests.

The French news agency AFP says the protests, which blocked key ports and fuel terminals, were suspended ahead of a June 23-24 meeting of European fisheries ministers, who are set to discuss fuel proposals.

French fishing fleets at the Atlantic ports of Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne-Ser-Mer called off their protests last week, to await the outcome of the ministerial talks.

Source: Voice of America

Independent US truckers launched a strike on April 1, but this action did little to prompt petroleum manufacturers to lower prices. Another convoy of protesting truckers wound its way to Washington DC on April 28. High fuel prices and costly commutes, Bloomberg.com reports today, are also undermining a way of life for many Americans who have sought refuge in the suburbs and “exurbs” beyond the suburbs, forcing long-distance commuters to sell their “dream house in the country” at a loss and forcing North American SUV manufacturers to close down plants. “Our whole economy reflects the relative costs of energy: the cars we drive, the houses we occupy, the kinds of factories we have and the equipment in them,” remarks Dana Johnson, chief economist at Comerica Bank in Dallas. “I’m expecting relatively large changes in all of these things.” A capitalist economy is predicated on cheap fuel and food and the communists at Kremlin-run Gazprom and Lukoil know this. On June 5 RedOrbit.com reported: “Russian oil major Lukoil has reported net income of $3.16 billion in the first quarter of 2008, an increase of 143.5% compared to the same period in 2007.”

Medvedev: US Capitalism Behind World’s Woes; Maxine Waters Does a “Hugo Chavez”, Puts Obama over the Top in Primaries

Meanwhile, speaking at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum on June 7, Russian “President”/ Gazprom Chairman Dmitry Medvedev blamed the USA for provoking the global food-fuel crisis and presented neo-Soviet Russia’s political leadership, natural resources, and business savvy as paving the way to the world’s “salvation.” “The crisis unfolding before our eyes — the financial crisis, the rise in prices of natural resources and produce and also a series of global [natural] catastrophes,” he warned, in an obvious jab at US capitalism, ” — clearly demonstrate that the current system of global institutions cannot meet the challenges before it.” Specifically, he demanded that the world community permit Russia’s (Leninist) leaders to play a “key role in reshaping international institutions.” Hence, the Kremlin’s drive to join the World Trade Organization by the end of 2008. Not-So-Former Soviet republic Ukraine joined the WTO in February in another perfect example of communist-manipulated East-West convergence.

Not surprisingly, the far left in America, which has subverted the Democratic Party, is using the fuel-food crisis to woo voters into opting for communist “solutions” to the “contradictions” posed by capitalism. On May 23 crypto-communist US Representative Maxine Waters, in an amusing faux pax, reacted to skyrocketing fuel prices by calling for the nationalization the US oil industry: “And guess what this liberal would be all about. This liberal will be about socializing … uh, um. …” After a long pause to perform some embarrassing damage control, Congresswoman Waters concluded: “Would be about, basically, taking over, and the government running all of your companies. …” On June 7 Hillary conceded defeat in the Democratic primaries and urged her supporters to back fellow “fellow traveler” Barack. On June 4 National Public Radio reported that “Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) was just one of the party superdelegates who put him over the top — but she previously endorsed Hillary Clinton’s campaign.” Will Obama return the favor by soliciting Comrade Maxine’s intelligent economic counsel in the next Democratic White House administration? Will Comrade Maxine take aim at Lukoil’s expanding profit margin after she dethrones US oil producers? Not likely.

The fuel-food crisis: Just another catastrophe that will provoke calls for world dictatorship and the man to fill the post.

>Communist Bloc Military Updates: Bear bombers carry out routine patrol over Arctic Ocean; US NATO envoy: Russia to join alliance

>I would like to see Russia as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
— Victoria Nuland, US envoy to NATO, quoted by Novosti, June 9, 2008

Although its bomber airframe/power plant technology is old, the Russian Air Force is once again probing the periphery of NATO-NORAD airspace. However, a nuclear warhead-tipped ALCM is still a nuclear warhead-tipped ALCM. According to the Kremlin media its bombers have been in the air on an almost daily basis since April. State-run Novosti reports below that “Russia resumed strategic bomber patrol flights over the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic oceans last August, following an order signed by then president Vladimir Putin.”

Russian strategic bombers fly routine patrol over the Arctic
15:1409/ 06/ 2008

MOSCOW, June 9 (RIA Novosti) – A pair of Russian Tu-95 Bear strategic bombers took off Monday from the Engels airbase in central Russia on a routine patrol flight over the Arctic Ocean, an Air Force spokesman said.

Russia resumed strategic bomber patrol flights over the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic oceans last August, following an order signed by then president Vladimir Putin.

“Two Tu-95 bombers have started a regular patrol flight over remote areas of the Arctic,” Lt. Col. Vladimir Drik said. “The aircraft will perform a variety of tasks, including midair refueling from two Il-78 aerial tankers based at the Dyagilevo airbase [also in central Russia].”

Drik said that all flights by Russian aircraft were performed by skilled pilots in strict compliance with international laws on the use of air space over neutral waters, without violating the borders of other states.

Although it was common practice during the Cold War for both the U.S. and the Soviet Union to keep nuclear strategic bombers permanently airborne, the Kremlin cut long-range patrols in 1992. The decision came as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the ensuing economic and political chaos.

However, the newly-resurgent Russia, awash with petrodollars, has invested heavily in military technology, and the resumption of long-range patrols is widely seen among political commentators as another sign of its drive to assert itself both militarily and politically.

Air Force commander, Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin said in April that Russia would drastically increase the number of strategic patrol flights over the world’s oceans to 20-30 a month in the near future.

In yet another example of the tragic myopia, collective insanity, and jaw-dropping gullibility of Western governments, the permanent US representative to NATO, Victoria Nuland, declared today that “I would like to see Russia as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Speaking as a mom and as a strategist and a lifetime student and friend of the Russian people, I would love to live in a world where Russia wanted to be a NATO member and Russia had met the very high standards that NATO sets for openness, democracy, reform, rule of law that new NATO members must meet.” Speaking as a mom and a strategist? Nuland’s comments provide a little but frightening glimpse into the mindset of dot.gov. No wonder the Kremlin’s creaky bomber fleet is airborne again. Moscow’s Leninist masterminds apparently expect little resistance on Missile Day.

Meanwhile, on June 6 the Commonwealth of Independent States, the placeholder for the Not-So-Former Soviet Union, convened a summit of heads of state in St. Petersburg, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s old stomping grounds. On May 23 PM Putin attended a summit of CIS heads of government in Minsk, upstaging his protege “President” Dmitry Medvedev in the foreign policy department. On June 6 state-run Itar-Tass reported on the more recent of the two CIS get-togethers:

CIS leaders begin informal summit in St Petersburg
06.06.2008, 18.08

STRELNA (St. Petersburg suburb), June 6 (Itar-Tass) — An informal CIS summit has begun in the St. Petersburg suburb of Strelna. The chiefs of all the 12 CIS states, among them Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, convened at the Konstantin Palace, presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko told Itar-Tass.

“Traditionally, informal meetings do not have a rigid agenda, which allows delegates to raise various questions and put forward ideas and initiatives,” he said. “This summit is a good opportunity to discuss topical aspects of the CIS development.”

“The chiefs of state will focus on economic subjects,” Prikhodko said. “They will discuss energy and transport cooperation.”

In the opinion of the aide, the presidents will also consider humanitarian contacts. “They will discuss best ways to strengthen the CIS humanitarian space,” he said.

There will be a number of organizational issues on the agenda, among them the next meeting of CIS premiers due in Bishkek this fall.

The same as last year, this summit takes place on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg World Economic Forum. “This forum is a convenient floor for informal discussions of key aspects of the CIS multilateral cooperation,” Prikhodko said.

CIS leaders had a number of bilateral meetings before the beginning of the summit.

High on the agenda at the CIS summit is the integration of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the military pact that binds the “former” Soviet republics, and the Eurasian Economic Cooperation Organisation, the trading bloc that covers more or less the same territory. The Moscow Leninists have used the CSTO and EurAsEC to hold the “post”-Soviet space together in advance of restoring the Soviet Union at some future propitious date. On June 6 Itar-Tass reported:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is ready to discuss with other CIS leaders a possible merger of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and the Eurasian Economic Cooperation Organisation (EurAsEC). At the Friday meeting with the Russian president Uzbekistan’s counterpart Islam Karimov proposed to merge these structures in order “to establish a strong organisation based on the merger of the two ones (the foresaid organisations).” Medvedev agreed that “various forms of integration contribute to the cooperation between various countries.” Meanwhile, the Russian leader proposed to discuss Karimov’s idea at the current bilateral meeting and with CIS counterparts.

The CIS provides Moscow with an important venue to issue orders to its satellites and ensure that the Soviet leadership’s long-range strategy for the triumph of world communism is proceeding apace. The Communist Century website gloats: “The Twentieth Century was the century of Socialism. The Twenty-first Century is the century of the transition to Communism. [T]he massive expansion of the productive forces worldwide associated with globalization is laying the material basis for communism. This is true even though this process is occurring largely under capitalist social relations.”

The Kremlin continues to exert its baleful influence throughout Western Europe through strategic partnerships with France, Germany, and Italy, as well as an impending strategic partnership with the European Union, itself an ambitious project of the Moscow Leninists and styled the “new European Soviet” by former Soviet Tyrant Mikhail Gorbachev. Upon visiting Berlin on June 5, “President” Medvedev gushed to his host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel: “I see a special sign in this that proves of prospects for the development of our partnership in the spirit of equal, respectful and mutually advantageous cooperation.” Having graduated from the Komsomol, Medvedev is a tool of the neo-Soviet leadership. Similarly, faux rightist politician Merkel was raised in the German Democratic Republic. There she joined both the GDR’s communist youth organization as well as the deceptive national “democratization” movement orchestrated by the East German and Soviet hierarchies. One of the current international projects that is drawing Berlin into Moscow’s orbit is the NordStream natural gas pipeline project, instigated by Putin and his good buddy Gerhard Schroeder, then Germany’s social democratic chancellor whose colleagues presently riddle Merkel’s coalition government. The Kremlin recently awarded “Comrade” Schroeder with a post in the foreign relations section of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Schroeder already sits on the shareholders’ committee of NordStream, a joint enterprise of Kremlin entity Gazprom, BASF/Wintershall, and E.ON Ruhrgas.

>End Times File: Sarkozy cozies up to Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic Judaism: Is someone grooming French president for role of Israel’s coming Messiah?

>Although this blog is primarily directed toward studying the Soviet long-range strategy for world communism, we also consider other phenomena related to the “demise of Western Civilization,” which definitely includes “end times” scenarios described in the Holy Bible.

Pictured above: French President Nicolas Sarkozy addresses the United Nations General Assembly. In July he will assume the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, of which France is a permanent member.

Introduction

For some weeks now we have been building a case for identifying Nicolas Sarkozy, the charismatic, “hyperactive” President of France, Co-Prince of Andorra, and soon-to-be President of the European Union and President of the United Nations Security Council, as the best modern candidate for the Antichrist of the Bible. Many nominees for this position have been trotted out over the last 100 years, but their proponents have often failed to take into account relevant Scriptural clues for Antichrist’s character and career. For example, proponents of Mikhail Gorbachev or Vladimir Putin as Antichrist have neglected Bible verses that the “man of sin” will arise from Western Europe, not the Slavic nations. In other cases, advocates of Javier Solana, Prince Charles of Wales (or his son Prince William) or King Juan Carlos of Spain as Antichrist have neglected Bible verses that portray the “beast from the sea” as Israel’s coming false Messiah, not merely a peace broker for the Middle East conflict. To one degree or another, these Antichrist “runners up” have dabbled in the endless Middle East “peace process.” Unlike Sarkozy, however, they have never enjoyed the fawning adoration of the Israeli government and people, not to mention French and American Jews. Indeed, last month Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s described French-Israeli relations since Sarkozy became president of France as a “love story.” I know of no other European political leader whose relationship with Israel has ever been characterized in such rapturous terms.

There are different theories about Antichrist. Some attempt to be Biblical, others do not. Among those theories that attempt to be Biblical preterists and futurists insist that Antichrist, like Christ, is a specific man. Preterists identify Antiochus Epiphanes or Nero Caesar as Antichrist, while futurists hold to the position that Antichrist will be a man who rules a revived Roman Empire immediately prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Historicists, by contrast, allegorize relevant Bible prophecies by insisting that Antichrist is a dynasty of men, specifically the popes of Rome. We have no argument with the contention that the spirit of Antichrist animated Antiochus and Nero and presently animates the leader of the ecumenical/interfaith movement, but we must maintain that the literal fulfillment of Bible prophecy will transpire in the brief reign of a final world dictator of unprecedented wickedness.

In terms of Antichrist’s national origins, the Scriptures lead us to believe that this man will emerge from Western Europe, but at the same time possess an important connection to Israel. Hence, we believe that Antichrist will be a representative of the “Gentile-ized” Jewish diaspora and, thus, be both Gentile and Jewish. This combination of personal characteristics is necessary to deceive both the nations and Israel. The chief role of Satan’s man, in cooperation with his henchman, the false prophet, will be to resist Jesus Christ when He returns from heaven–bodily, visibly, and gloriously–to establish His Millennial reign in Jerusalem.

The main way in which Antichrist will affect Satan’s plans will be to oversee the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and present himself as King of Israel. For, it is in this structure that, according to the apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 that the final Antichrist, aping the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes (“Manifestation of God”), will present himself as God to Israel and the world: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” Other prophetic references to the presence of a Third Temple in Jerusalem at the end of this age can be found in Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15, Mark 13:14, and Revelation 11:1-2. In the second century BC Antiochus conquered Judea, terminated the Jews’ Temple worship and, in its stead, erected a statue of himself in the house of the Lord.

In view of the “personality cult” that the “ex”-communist dictator of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov created prior to his death in 2006 and embodied in a golden statue of himself in the national capital (pictured above), the skeptical reader should not conclude that such idolatry is no longer possible in the twenty-first century. Think again.

While clues exist in Scripture that permit us to make an educated guess as to who might be Antichrist, we must also acknowledge the impossibility of knowing for certain that Sarkozy, or any other specific man, will fulfill this role since your resident blogger will be long gone before God pours out his judgment upon the nations. (See this link for a Scriptural defense of the pretribulation rapture and refutation of opposing viewpoints.)

Finally, in identifying Sarkozy, who is ethnically Jewish, as the “best candidate for Antichrist in 100 years” we believe that it is necessary to head off any charges of anti-Semitism by restating our whole-hearted commitment, support, and admiration for the Jewish people and the State of Israel. We believe most ardently that Israel is God’s Chosen Nation and will, in the not-too-distant future, become the “head of the nations” under the reign of King Jesus, with the church age saints assisting Christ in that dominion. Furthermore, we are not endeavoring to spin some sort of Frankist-Sabbatean Jewish conspiracy theory behind the world’s ills, but merely documenting Biblically significant facts related to Sarkozy’s character, career, and associations. In summary, we’re not making up this stuff. Follow the weblinks and ponder.

Pictured here: President Sarkozy maintains a little-reported relationship with a Jewish messianic group that is participating in plans to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. Here he attends a Chabad-Lubavitch service with his spiritual adviser, Rabbi Dovid Zaoui. In the background is the Chabad-Lubavitch flag, sporting the crown of King Messiah. Many Christians, at least of the premillennial variety, believe that Jesus will wear that crown when He returns from heaven in the not-too-distant future. Does Sarkozy have other plans?

Nicolas Sarkozy: Architect of the Revived Roman Empire and Self-Anointed Guardian of Israel: Just Another Middle East Peace Broker?

In one sense Sarkozy is the consummate politician, who endeavors to be all things to all men, or at least most men, while feeding his own lust for power. To gratify the Americans he supports close Paris-Washington ties. To gratify the Europeans and the Arabs he advocates the Mediterranean Union. To gratify the Russians he promotes close Paris-Moscow ties. To the Jews he is a friend of Israel. To the Christians he is a good Catholic. To the Muslims he is a friend of the “French Caliphate” (see picture below). To French patriots he endorses tough anti-immigration policies. By contrast, to the French Left and its labor union running dogs he shows little mercy.

In the early part of 2007, while on the campaign trail, presidential aspirant Sarkozy articulated his vision of a “bi-state” solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a vision that supposedly guarantees the Jewish state’s national security. In a May 2007 interview with the Jersualem Post he outlined his vision, which conforms to that of the capitulationists in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party, and acknowledged that the Palestinians are still intent on destroying Israel:

I do not see the incompatibility between the rights of Palestinians to create a viable state and the consideration of the security of the State of Israel as nonnegotiable. Only if Israel is guaranteed that its existence will not be threatened and the Palestinians are allowed to form a viable state can we achieve a durable and viable solution.

I defend the right of Israel to protect itself against external aggression, particularly when it takes the form of blind and cowardly acts of terrorism. But the measures taken must not condemn the search for a negotiated peace settlement. They must be appropriate and proportional.

In the future, [Israel] will depend on the viable character of the Palestinian state, notably its continuity. They [Palestinians] do not want a state at the moment. If they do become a state, they will have to borrow incredible amounts of money, and will not receive aid the way they do now. Right now, they’re focused on destroying the State of Israel.

Following the February 2006 kidnapping, torture, and death of a 23-year-old French Jew by a gang near Paris, then Interior Minister Sarkozy joined the largely Jewish demonstration to protest the despicable murder of Ilan Halimi. After he entered Elysee Palace, President Sarkozy reoriented French foreign policy away from blindly currying the favor of the Islamic and Arab worlds toward adopting a tough stand against the hostile anti-Israel regimes in Syria and Iran, and embracing the national security of the Jewish state as an extension of France’s. “The community is thrilled, and so am I,” gushed Nicole Guedj, a Jew who is a former minister and member of France’s highest legal body, the Council of State. “Nicolas Sarkozy really understands as president of France what the word security means to the State of Israel — and says it publicly.” However, not all Jews are enraptured with Sarkozy, the Jewish media reports. Some even deny that the quarter-Jewish French president is a “real” Jew. “We have rarely heard such words of support for Israeli security from a French president,” commented Meyer Habib, vice president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), a pro-Zionist umbrella for French Jewish organizations. Habib adds: “Sarkozy has known the feeling of anti-Semitism, though he is not Jewish.” “Yes, he is certainly a friend of Israel’s, but he is also the president of France,” remarked CRIF fundraiser Gil Taieb but, he warned: “Jewish fawning over Sarkozy is excessive.”

In an effort to preserve his image as a “friend of Israel” Sarkozy doctored embarrassing revelations that Paris had conducted informal, low-level meetings with Hamas, the Soviet/Iranian-backed terrorist group that seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. As the Jerusalem Post reports below, the latest meeting between the French government and representatives of Hamas took place under the auspices of a “retired French ambassador” at Sarkozy’s private residence.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy told Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni that France would not have any contact with Hamas, according to a statement put out Sunday night by Livni’s office. The statement came a week after French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner confirmed that a retired French ambassador held contacts last month with Hamas. According to the statement, the meeting, which took place in Sarkozy’s private residence, also dealt with the Iranian nuclear issue, and the Palestinian negotiations. Following their meeting, Sarkozy and Livni went to the central ceremony in Paris marking Israel’s 60th anniversary. Sarkozy is scheduled to visit Israel at the end of June, just prior to France’s assuming the rotating presidency of the EU in July.

The same article notes that the French president is scheduled to visit Israel at the end of June. Before then, President Sarkozy is making a few pit stops, in Greece and Lebanon, two countries that he hopes to woo into his Mediterranean Union, which we believe is the revived Roman Empire of Bible prophecy. The MU, which will be launched at its first-ever summit in Paris on July 13, will consist of the EU, north Africa, and Levant, including Israel, the exact territory encompassed by the ancient Roman Empire and then some.

On June 6 President Sarkozy stopped in Athens, the first such visit by a French head of state in 25 years. He was accompanied by French Defence Minister Herve Morin, Secretary of State for European Affairs Jean-Pierre Jouyet, and Jean-Francois Cope, president of Sarkozy’s ruling, right-wing Union for a Popular Movement party. “Team France” held talks with socialist Greek President Karolos Papoulias and rightist Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis. The agenda focused on the upcoming French presidency of the EU and the proposed Mediterranean Union, which, the Chinese state media reports, “Greece supports without any reservation.” The office of the French president released a statement highlighting the cordial relations between Paris and Athens: “The Greeks are all too aware that President Nicolas Sarkozy, through his maternal grandfather who was from Salonika, has Greek origins.” Indeed.

After wooing the Greeks, Sarkozy visited Lebanon, where he met Lebanon’s new pro-Hezbollah president, Michel Suleiman, formerly chief of the Lebanese armed forces, and reviewed French peace-keeping troops operating in Lebanon under United Nations command. Suleiman’s candidacy was promoted by the Arab League and endorsed by the UN, Russia, Iran, Syria, France, and the USA. The UN and the first three states listed previously can be safely described as enemies of Israel, but this did not bother the policy “experts” at the pro-communist US State Department. In early May 2008, during Hezbollah’s abortive coup against the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, General Suleiman ordered his troops to stand down until the Soviet/Syrian/Iranian-backed insurgents demonstrated their ability to hold the entire country hostage. In this light, Sarkozy’s support for President Suleiman and the Doha Agreement, which facilitated Hezbollah’s acquisition of more than one third of the government’s cabinet positions, and the French president’s professed determination to uphold Israeli security are hard to reconcile.

After briefly suspending relations with Damascus in December 2007, Sarkozy revitalized French-Syrian relations on May 29, 2008 by calling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to discuss recent political developments in Lebanon and peace negotiations between Syria and Israel. Both Lebanon and Syria were once French mandates. In an interview published on June 6, published in various Lebanese dailies, Sarkozy revealed that “France would resume contacts with Syria only when positive, concrete developments occurred in Lebanon with a view to getting out of the crisis.”

Meanwhile, the Arab states have conducted their own mini-summits prior to the kick-off conference for the MU. Not surprisingly, they are particularly worried about the role of Israel in Sarkozy’s so-called “Club Med.” While Sarkozy visited Greece and Lebanon, Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci hosted a meeting of potential MU states, including Slovenia, which holds the rotating EU presidency until next month, when France assume the position. Medelci anxiously whined: “The Mediterranean Union must not normalize (relations) between Israel and Arab countries, something which has not been achieved by the Barcelona process.” The EU launched the so-called Barcelona process in 1995 to politically and economically integrate the European Union and five countries along the Mediterranean’s southern rim. Sarkozy’s MU project will take this process one step further. “Mediterranean Union countries which do not have relations with Israel must not be forced to be part of joint projects with Israel inside the Union,” Medelci warned.

In addition to “super-sizing” the EU with some Mediterranean “add ons” and staunchly pro-Moscow state of Serbia, the next president of Europe is urging that France rebuild its antiquated military, re-integrate the French military into the command structure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and transform the EU into a military power with teeth. France wants to create an efficient and strong European security and defence policy. “The main goal for the French [EU] presidency is to strengthen EU military capabilities,” stated Admiral Anne-François de Saint Salvy, a senior French defence ministry official. “The EU has to really increase operational capabilities and Nato has to decrease its command structures.”

The resuscitation of the Roman Empire as a military power with the physical means and legal pretext (Daniel 9:27) to invade and occupy Israel is in fact predicted in the Holy Scriptures: 1) beginning at the midpoint of Daniel’s seventieth prophetic week of years (Daniel 7:21, 25, 8:24, 11:42, 45), in response to the attempted Russian-Arab invasion of Israel, and 2) continuing to the military campaign of Armageddon (Ezekiel 28:8-9, Zechariah 14, Revelation 16:14, 16, 19:19), in which the “kings of the east,” probably referring to Russia’s allies in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which include China, Iran, and India, launch a counter-attack against the armies of the Beast, meaning the European Union-Mediterranean Union. The battle of Armageddon terminates with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the national salvation of Israel, and the inauguration of the Son of God’s thousand-year kingdom.

Pictured here: Sarkozy and his third and current wife, model-turned-singer-turned France’s First Lady Carla Bruni.

Obsessive Sarkosis: Antichrist as Self-Adoring Narcissistic Playboy

Throughout the Old and New Testaments Antichrist picks up many names descriptive of his character and career, which are the complete opposite of the holiness and selflessness of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. A comparison of some Old Testament references to Antichrist and the character and career of Sarkozy is instructive.

First and foremost, the Bible depicts Antichrist as a great boaster and full of restless ambition: “I considered the horns [kings, leaders], and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things” (Daniel 7:8); “And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done” (Daniel 11:36); “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4); “And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies” (Revelation 13:4-5).

This portrait of Antichrist describe Sarkozy’s personality with little trouble. In a 2006 biography of the French president, playwright and novelist Yasmina Reza quotes Sarkozy, who was then Interior Minister, as saying: “I’m going to get a palace in Paris, a chateau in Rambouillet, a fort in Brégançon. This is the life.” On another occasion, Sarkozy admits: “I’m a stranger to my past. The only thing that interests me is this afternoon, tomorrow.” Reza also exposes Sarkozy’s disdain for others, even those who are supporting him: “Arriving at a rally one day to find orchestrated crowds chanting ‘Sarko President!’ he turns on his staff. ‘Who put these yelling [expletive deleted by blogger] with placards out there? None of you understand a thing about anything. Can’t I be left in peace? Who organized this? Ah la la, my God, my God. It’s pathetic. I’d be better off by myself.’”

Sarkozy also nurses grand plans for the transformation of Paris into an architectural “wonder of the world.” On June 5, 2008 The Telegraph reported that “President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has tasked a group of top architects, including Britain’s Richard Rogers, to dream up a Grand Paris to rival Greater London that could stretch as far as the Channel.” The article continues:

The plan was dubbed by Mr Sarkozy’s special advisor the most ambitious since Baron Haussman changed the face of the French capital with his grand, rectilinear avenues. It has been described as the President’s bid to go one better than his predecessors who have all sought to make their mark on the capital.

Socialist Francois Mitterrand commissioned the glass pyramid at the Louvre, Georges Pompidou backed the famous modern art centre that takes his name, while Jacques Chirac ordered a new museum on the bank of the Seine.

But Sarkozy advisor Henri Guaino told Le Monde that the President wanted to go much further than simply building “monuments to the glory of the regime.”

He has given ten architects – backed by teams of planners, engineers, sociologists and even philosophers – six months to come up with novel ideas of expanding the city, which at present is roughly 15 times smaller than Greater London.

Paris has two million inhabitants compared to Greater London’s 7.5 million, and the transport and economic links between the walled city and the suburbs of the Ile de France area are poor. Public transport officials say that some suburban rail links are well beyond saturation limits.

Richard Rogers, who co-designed the Pompidou centre, was among those Mr Sarkozy invited to the Elysee palace on Wednesday. He asked them to redesign the capital’s boundaries, transport, the way it is governed, its environmental impact and its aesthetics.

“I don’t want a virtual city: I want projects. You have the absolute freedom to dream, and the means to go with it,” Mr Sarkozy reportedly told them.

In Psalm 110:6 Antichrist is also typified as the “head over many countries,” suggesting that Antichrist will briefly exercise authority over many countries. As of July 2008 Sarkozy will hold the rotating presidencies of the Council of the European Union and United Nations Security Council, of which France is a permanent member. The post of President of the European Union is scheduled to become a permanent position in 2009. Sarkozy is also touted as becoming one of the first co-presidents of his proposed Mediterranean Union. A head of state from North Africa, such as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, will probably hold the other co-presidency. Mubarak has enthusiastically endorsed Sarkozy’s vision for a federation of Euro-Mediterranean states.

In Isaiah 22:25 Antichrist is typified as “the nail,” suggesting that Antichrist will be hard, ruthless, and inflexible, like a nail. Sarkozy’s tough, anti-immigrant, “law and order” reputation has provoked leftists into calling him “authoritarian” and “fascist.” The World Socialist Web Site does not hesitate to classify Sarkozy as an authoritarian “Bonapartist” ruler along the lines of Benito Mussolini and Joseph Goebbels: “Sarkozy is attempting to develop a new mechanism to uphold the rule of the French bourgeoisie. His aim is to establish a bonapartist-type government with powerful authoritarian elements, which on the one hand is based on the state apparatus, and on the other on an amorphous mass of discontented middle class layers and disoriented sections of the working class. This aim underlies his social demagogy, which recalls the demagogy of a Mussolini, a Goebbels and other such representatives of authoritarian rule.” The left-leaning Independent reported before his election to the presidency in May 2007: “True, M. Sarkozy, 52, the centre-right candidate for the presidency, angrily denied that he was a fascist or even a ‘nationalist.’ He reminded the crowd that France’s greatest, modern political hero, Charles de Gaulle, had also been accused of having fascist, anti- democratic leanings.”

In Daniel 11:36 Antichrist is typified as “the willful king,” suggesting that Antichrist obeys only his own will in his quest for power. We covered this point above in connection with Antichrist as a great boaster. Antichrist sleuths, however, might question Sarkozy’s candidacy in light of Daniel 11:37, which states of the “willful king”: “Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.” The primary historical personage of which Daniel is here prophesying is probably Antiochus Epiphanes. According to some Bible expositors, Antichrist, who will not regard the desire of women, will be single, as was Christ, or even a homosexual, which Christ most certainly was not. Other expositors point out that two thousand years ago Jesus was in fact the “desire of women,” meaning that ancient Jewish women looked forward to the privilege of giving birth to Messiah, while Antichrist has no regard, or worship, for Christ or the “god of his fathers.” Female disciples, moreover, faithfully accompanied Jesus during His earthly ministry, remained with Him during the agony of His crucifixion, and were the first to meet the resurrected Savior.

Assuming, however, that the first interpretation is correct, namely, Antichrist must be single because Christ was single, it should be pointed out that Sarkozy is renowned for his playboy lifestyle and married his third and present wife in February 2008. It may be that when the moment arrives to present himself as Israel and the world’s savior, Sarkozy, if he is Antichrist, might dump the pretense of being an ordinary man by concurrently dumping his trophy wife Carla Bruni. If anything, Sarkozy’s multiple marriages and alleged affairs prove that he is faithless, an attribute of Antichrist, while Jesus Christ is called “Faithful and True” (Revelation 19:11).

In Zechariah 11:16-17 Antichrist is typified as “the idol shepherd,” suggesting that Antichrist will lead Israel and the world into false worship with the agency of the world’s preeminent religious leader, the false prophet, and later into the worship of himself. By religious affiliation, as we have noted before, Sarkozy is Catholic—which is not unusual, since many Jews, under fear of persecution or ostracism, have converted to Catholicism over the centuries. Indeed, Sarkozy is an honorary Catholic canon, or clergyman (pictured here). The president of France is entitled to be named Honorary Canon of the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome, a custom deriving from similar honors bestowed to the king of France. Thus, the president of France is associated with the organization that, under Pope Benjamin XVI, is currently leading the one world religion movement described in chapters 13, 17, and 18 of Revelation.

Without question Sarkozy conforms to the character of Antichrist. Like many politicians he is obsessed with his image but this infatuation with self is particularly acute. Consider the testimony of Carla. France’s First Lady’s description of her husband, related in the June 4, 2008 issue of The Telegraph, is instructive since Sarkozy’s personality conforms to that of the prophesied Antichrist as a manipulator: “His physique, his charm, and his intelligence have all seduced me. He has five or six brains and is remarkably clever. I’ve never dated a half-wit before, it’s not my style. But him; he’s very, very quick. And he’s got an incredible memory.”

Sarkozy is also the object of an “unhealthy fascination” by many of his countrymen. French psychiatrist Serge Hefez, reports The Australian in May 2008, has somewhat humorously identified a “new mental illness” among the French: obsessive Sarkosis. According to the Bible, this phenomenon could be expected to accompany Antichrist’s personality, which demands worship. Hefez’s analysis of France’s obsession with their president is telling:

He’s penetrated some of their deepest fantasies. I noticed all this passion in people speaking of him and I thought there is something particular about this man – he’s like a reflection of us in the mirror. He’s the incarnation of the post-modern man, obsessed with himself, turned toward pleasure, autonomous and narcissistic. And he exhibits his joys and sorrows, all his private life, his sentimental doubts and pleasures. He represents the individualism of the society to the extreme, that it’s the individual who counts, not the society.

The same story continues about France’s “Sarkotoxication”:

Mr Sarkozy has reportedly launched legal proceedings against the makers of a satirical T-shirt that mocked his reputation as a law-and-order hardliner. The T-shirt has Mr Sarkozy’s name written across the chest with a gun target replacing the letter “o”. Above his name is the French national motto “liberty, equality, fraternity” splattered with blood.

French television covers Mr Sarkozy’s every gesture, in both homage and mockery. It is all part of what the French call the “pipolisation” of political life, a term, presumably derived from People magazine, that refers to the idolatry of celebrities and soap opera.

One news website asked: “After a year of dependency, how can we stop being Sarkotoxicated?” As yet, there appears to be no cure.

Along the same theme The Telegraph refered to Sarozy as a “desparate adolescent” with a desire to be loved and adored, attributes that perfectly describe the Biblical Antichrist and his future entrance into the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem to receive worship. The following article also quotes French psychiatrist Hefez, as well as Le Point journalist Philippe Grimbert, who opines: “With Nicolas Sarkozy, the accession to power no doubt reactivated his adolescent urges that remained so strong within him. His adolescent desire to be leader of the pack and have all the nicest-looking girls is also intact. In his desperate desire to be loved, Sarkozy behaves like an adolescent who asks you to love him in a way that makes you want to reject him.”

Nicolas Sarkozy ‘like a desperate adolescent’
By Henry Samuel in Paris
Last updated: 2:16 PM BST 29/05/2008

Nicolas Sarkozy is ‘desperate for attention’

In a series of interviews, six psychoanalysts, one of whom has interviewed Mr Sarkozy in person, tried to deconstruct the President’s unconscious and find out why France is so obsessed with its hyperactive leader.

Their conclusions, published in weekly magazine Le Point, are almost unanimous: the French elected an impulsive teenager unwilling to let go of his illusions of omnipotence.

“With Nicolas Sarkozy, the accession to power no doubt reactivated his adolescent urges that remained so strong within him,” said Philippe Grimbert.

“His adolescent desire to be leader of the pack and have all the nicest-looking girls is also intact.

In his “desperate desire to be loved, Sarkozy behaves like an “adolescent who asks you to love him in a way that makes you want to reject him,” said he added.

The French picked him because he was like a “mirror” held up their own narcissism, according to Serge Hefez, whose book, Obsessional Sarkosis, describes France’s relationship with its leader as an illness.

But when the public realised that his quest for power resembled more an addiction than a sign of strength, they were turned off, he said.

“He appeared suspect… more like an addict than a head of state.”

Mr Sarkozy’s desire to dominate came from the sudden departure of his father when he was a boy, at the height of his oedipal phase, several said.

But paradoxically, his electorate may have replaced the role of the “father he never knew”, by imposing limits on his behaviour, according to Mr Grimbert.

They severely reprimanded his love of glitz and public displays of affection with former Italian model Carla Bruni — now his wife, with a slump in approval ratings.

“This message from the French for whom he wants to become once again the favourite, might spark in him a move towards maturity,” he said.

If that happens, he may recover his lost popularity, he predicted.

In spite of his attempt to reform France’s socialist economy, which has proven very unpopular with the country’s labor unions, leftists, and statists, Sarkozy appears to be regaining his popularity. On June 5, 2008 Reuters reported: “French President Nicolas Sarkozy gained in popularity in May according to a new opinion poll released on Thursday that will make welcome reading for the head of state after months of poor ratings. The number of people who approve of Sarkozy rose to 37 percent from 32 percent a month earlier, according to a poll by TNS Sofres for the Figaro magazine, while the number of people who disapprove of him dropped to 61 percent from 66 percent.” Antichrist will demand the adulation of the masses.

Pictured here: In December 2004 then Minister of Economy and Finances Sarkozy visited the Western Wall. The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is the future site of Antichrist’s claim to deity.

Sarkozy: “My Roots Are in Salonika”; Greek City Haven for Sabbatai Zevi, Seventeenth Century False Messiah

As noted in passing above, we have unearthed important information that connects President Sarkozy to present and past movements promoting false Jewish messiahs. Sarkozy has maneuvered himself into a position of trust with not only French Jews and Israel’s government and public, but also the worldwide Jewish messianic movement which, if he is Antichrist, the French president could possibly hijack in order to present himself as Israel’s Messiah.

Some Bible expositors believe that Antichrist may be a descendent of the Israelite tribe of Dan. Lineages are important in the Bible. The lineage of Jesus Christ, the Second Adam, is traced back to the First Man, Adam, which means “man” in Hebrew. Jesus’ lineage is used to establish his authority as Israel’s Messiah, the divine Son, or heir, of King David, and Savior of the world. Some Bible expositors believe and the Jewish Encyclopedia admits that Antichrist will emerge from the idolatrous tribe of Dan, which Jacob cursed in Genesis 49:15, just as Jesus emerged from the tribe of Judah, which Jacob previously blessed in verses 8-10.

Proving Sarkozy’s relation to this ancient Israelite tribe, through his mother and the Mallah family of Salonica, Greece or possibly his Hungarian father, Pál Sárközy de Nagy-Bócsa, whom the left-leaning Independent relates was also Jewish, may be humanly impossible. The Mallahs resided in Salonica until 1943, when the Germans deported the city’s Jews to the death camps of Nazi-occupied Poland. Most members of the Mallah family perished in the Holocaust. Some modern rabbis, in fact, believe that the Falasha Jews of Ethiopia, who immigrated to Israel in the 1990s, are descended from Dan. However, Greece and Ethiopia are in the opposite direction of the other. Incidentally, if the Independent article is correct, then Sarkozy is three-quarters Jewish, not simply one quarter, as we have previously indicated.

Sarkozy’s great-great grandfather Aaron Mallah founded the rabbinical school in Salonica (Thessalonika), Greece, a haven for Sephardic Jews expelled from Catholic Spain in the fifteenth century. The Mallah family itself, after leaving Spain, immigrated first to Provence, France, before moving further east to Greece. Intriguingly, Nicolas and his siblings were not informed of their Jewish ancestry until 1972, when the president of France was then 17 years old.

In the late seventeenth century Salonica became the home base for the false Jewish messiah Sabbatai Zevi, whose messianic pretensions provoked great strife among the Jews of Europe at the time and prompted numerous copycats like Jacob Frank in the eighteenth century. At the end of his career, Zevi and some of his follower outwardly converted to Islam, while privately maintaining Jewish practices. So entrenched did Sabbateanism become in Salonica, that “Salonican” and “Sabbatean” became synonymous words in some quarters. In subsequent decades Sabbatean Jews from Salonica emigrated to Turkey where they became known as Donmeh, or crypto-Jews who professedly embraced Islam, and spearheaded the Young Turks movement, which installed the present secular republic of Turkey in 1923. We were unable to confirm whether the Mallah family or the rabbinical school founded by Sarkozy’s great-great-grandfather were Sabbatean, or followers of Sabbatai Zevi. However, one online Jewish database notes that a rabbi by the name of Haim Joseph Mallah, who died in 1720, disseminated Sabbateanism throughout Poland and Ukraine. His connection to the Mallah family in Salonica, if any, is not indicated in this short blurb.

In an article covering a contemporary proposal to raze Sabbatai Zevi’s shrine and residence in Izmir (formerly Smyrna), Turkey, the left-wing Jewish journal Forward relates that “Sabbateanism did not die out in 1666, or even 10 years later when Tzvi himself died. There were subsequent messiahs — largely forgotten men like Baruchiah Russo and Jacob Frank — and, as recent scholarship has shown, Sabbateanism greatly influenced the 18th-century emergence of Hasidism.” Journalist Jay Michaelson adds: “Today, many doenmeh are among Turkey’s elite, though it is taboo to speak their names; since doenmeh are regarded as traitors by both Muslims and Jews, it is scandalous to accuse a person of being one of them, even if his or her identity is an open, unspoken secret.”

While visiting Greece in July 2006 then Interior Minister Sarkozy was honored at the French embassy in Athens by Salonica’s Jewish community. In April 2007 the European Jewish Press reported:

A plaque was unveiled which said: “In memory of Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to Greece from the Thessaloniki Jewish Community, the town of your ancestors, mother and city of Israel and Jerusalem of the Balkans.” Along with the plaque the community gave the French minister an album of his genealogical tree going back to his great-great-grandfather along with pictures of his ancestors. Sarkozy recognized some of the people in the pictures from his family albums. At the event the wife of the president of the Jewish community of Salonika David Saltiel, Lucy, who was born from the same Mallah family, was also present. A visibly moved Sarkozy thanked the community and said: “My roots are here.” Most of the members of the Mallah family perished in the Holocaust. Today the remaining members are living mainly in Switzerland, France and England.

Although we cannot prove that Sarkozy and the surviving Mallahs are Sabbateans, the President of France is indeed associated with neo-Sabbateanism in the form of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, the world headquarters of which is based in Brooklyn, New York.

By the way, “Nicolas” means “conqueror of the people.” The surname Sarkozy, moreover, refers to someone from Sárköz, a region of Hungary near the Danube River that was transformed from marshland into fertile farmland in the mid-nineteenth century. In the Hungarian Sárköz means “Mud Passage.” According to various linguistic theories, the Hungarians inherited their non-Indo-European language from the Turks or possibly even the Sumerians. It is possibly through this route that “Sarkozy” traces its ultimate origin to ancient Assyria, where “sar” means prince and “kusi,” refers to an inhabitant of the ancient land of Kush, probably Ethiopia. Kush, or Cush, in turn, means “dark.” Hence, Sarkozy literally means “Prince of Darkness,” a term that the president’s detractors actually applied to him in his role of tough-talking Interior Minister during the November 2005 riots that rocked France. In conclusion, then, Nicolas Sarkozy boasts a name that is a very suitable for Antichrist.

Incidentally, too, some Bible expositors believe that the reference to “the Assyrian” in Isaiah 10:5-12 is another type of Antichrist and thus “the man of sin” will sport some connection to Israel’s ancient/modern enemy, Assyria/Syria. The Mallah family, through which Sarkozy traces his Jewish heritage has a tenuous connection with Syria, where this surname exists to this very day and possibly among that country’s ancient Jewish communities. In Hebrew Mallah is a variation of Malachi, which means “messenger” or “angel.” In Arabic Mallah means “navigator.”

Antichrist’s French Connection: Sarkozy Cozies Up to Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic Judaism: Is Someone Grooming the French President for the Role of Israel’s Coming Messiah?

Note: The links to Chabad.info below do not function on the Sabbath (Saturday) or other Jewish holidays.

Sarkozy’s spiritual mentor for 12 years has been Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Dovid Zaoui. Chabad-Lubavitch Jews are the largest sect of Hasidic Judaism, numbering 200,000 worldwide, and the most theologically conservative branch of Judaism. Chabad-Lubavitch Jews believe in a coming Jewish Messiah and the importance of rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem to hasten that coming. The founder of this Hasidic sect was eighteenth-century Rabbi Shneur Zalman, who lived in Russia. In the left-wing Jewish journal Forward, quoted above, we learn that “Sabbateanism greatly influenced the 18th-century emergence of Hasidism.” At least one Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi, Dov Levanoni, is actively involved with the new Sanhedrin, or council of rabbis, organized in Israel in October 2004. The main purpose of this organization is to promote and execute the construction of the Third Temple on the Temple Mount, including the ancient Levitical sacrificial system defined in the Torah. Other rabbis on the Sanhedrin include Yisrael Ariel, founder of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, which has fashioned the attire of the revived Levitical priesthood, and Yoel Shwartz, founder and rabbi of the Nahal Haredi, the Israeli Defense Forces unit for Hasidic Jews.

Sarkozy regularly participates in Chabad-Lubavitch activities, according to Chabad.info, and believes that the last “Rebbe” of the Chabad-Lubavitch Jews, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who died in 1994, is “Messiah’s Messenger and Emissary.” “Sarkozy wrote a letter of congratulations to the Jewish citizens of France on the occasion of the 105th birthday of the ‘leader of world Jewry,’ the Lubavitcher Rebbe,” reports the same source, adding: “Sarkozy, who is now president of France, coined in his letter as ‘Melech Hamoshiach Shlita!'” Rabbi Schneerson has had no successor since his death, but some Chabad-Lubavitch Jews believe that Schneerson was himself the Messiah and will be raised from the dead in the near future to carry out that role. However, this position has created strife with other Chabad-Lubavitch Jews who reject Schneerson’s alleged messianic candidacy.

According to Chabad.info, moreover, the president of France does not make any important decisions without first consulting Rabbi Zaoui: “The newly appointed president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy is a close friend of the Shliach of the Rebbe MH’M Shlita to Neuilly Paris, Rabbi Dovid Zaoui.” Neuilly-sur-Seine is a wealthy commune, or district, on the western outskirts of Paris. Sarkozy was mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine from 1983 to 2002 and still lives there. In Chabad-Lubavitch terminology, moreover, a shliach is an emissary of the deceased Rebbe Schneerson.

“Sarkozi always showed support for all Chabad activities, and he always seeks my advice before any important steps” Rabbi Zaoui told Chabad.info. Rabbi Zaoui offered him to write to the Rebbe by way of the Igros Kodesh…and he always received unbelievable answers. Recently, after Sarkozy was elected as president of France, he has not forgotten his close friend and confidant, who he shares an ongoing relationship with.

The Igros Kodesh is apparently a mediumistic channel by which followers of the Rebbe communicate with the spirit of the deceased Rabbi Schneerson.

More importantly, in the following quote, we learn that Chabad-Lubavitch Jews view the election of Sarkozy to the French presidency as an important step toward the establishment of the Messiah’s kingdom on earth.

In the year 1992 – 5752, the Rebbe pointed at the ‘revolution’ in France during the last 200 years (referring to the fact that all over France, which was once a symbol immodesty and atheism, a huge wealth of flourishing Jewish institutions were established) as a clear sign of the impending Geulah. There is no doubt that the appointment of the new president is another step in the direction of the Geulah’dike ‘Revolution’ in France.

Geulah is Hebrew for “redemption” and in the context of Chabad-Lubavitch Judaism refers to Messiah’s kingdom, of which the “Geulah’dike Revolution in France,” mentioned above, is part and predecessor. Reform Jewish Rabbi Dov Gartenberg, who maintains his own blog, commented on the recent 60th anniversary celebrations of the State of Israel by outlining a vision of the future similar to that accepted by fundamentalist Christians:

Geulah, meaning redemption is a traditional religious concept with different connotations. The traditional notion of redemption has these principle features:

1. Geulah will be an era of peace and prosperity ushered in by God through his messiah.

2. Geulah will be a time of justice and compassion between people.

3. With Geulah the Jewish people will regain their faith in God and will follow the Torah.

4. As a result of Geulah the Jews both living and dead will be brought back to the land of Israel where they will witness the restoration of the Jewish commonwealth, the Temple in Jerusalem and the Davidic monarchy.

5. The Jewish people will no longer be oppressed and will live in security in their land.

Of course, fundamentalist Christians believe that Yeshua, or Jesus of Nazareth, will sit upon the Davidic throne after ousting Antichrist and overthrowing his armies, which will then be in possession of Jerusalem.

Pictured here: Sarkozy and Rabbi Zaoui attending a First World War armistice day ceremony (presumably in 2006), when the president was still Minister of the Interior. Chabad.info writes: “A ceremony was held today, November 11, in Paris to mark the armistice of World War I. Minister of Interior and Safety, Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, attended along with other municipal elected officials. Shliach of the Rebbe in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Rabbi David Zaoui, was invited to the event and spoke about the day when ‘A nation will not lift a sword against another nation and will no longer practice war.'”

An extensive article on the relationship between Sarkozy and Rabbi Zaoui, was also reported in the Chabad-Lubavitch journal Beis Mosiach, published in Brooklyn, New York. The article begins by praising the former French Interior Minister for his “zero tolerance” policy toward anti-Semitism. There Rabbi Zaoui was quoted as saying that President Sarkozy is a “great admirer” and “big believer” of the Rebbe. According to Beis Mosiach, “Since then, R’ Zaoui has become a good friend of Sarkozy, with Sarkozy attending many events held at the Chabad house. Even when he was unable to attend, he would send a letter acknowledging the event. He is a big believer in the Rebbe MH’M. He has a dollar from the Rebbe in his wallet. He saw the fulfillment of several brachos he received through the Igros Kodesh.” Some of the teachings propagated at Neuilly-sur-Seine’s Chabad house, Zaoui explains, are Geula and Mosiach: “One of the things we are very particular about here at the Chabad house is ‘Yechi Adoneinu.’ It’s on every flyer we produce, and at every meeting my staff or I have with people, no matter their views, they will hear about the prophecies of Geula and who Moshiach is.” The same issue of Beis Mosiach contains an article on the importance of rebuilding the Temple.

From the 1970s to the Rebbe’s death in 1994, Rabbi Elazar Shach (1898-2001), early leader of Israel’s Shas Party, was involved in a series of public disputes with Rabbi Schneerson on the subject of the latter’s alleged messianic status. Rabbi Shach compared the Chabad-Lubavitch sect and Rabbi Schneerson to the followers of Sabbatai Zevi, the 17th-century false messiah of Salonica, Greece, from which President Sarkozy’s Jewish ancestors hail. Shach once described Schneerson as “the madman who sits in New York and drives the whole world crazy.” Shach’s newspaper, Yated Ne’eman, became a vehicle in which he supported his contention that Chabad-Lubavitch was becoming a breakaway sect of Judaism focused around Schneerson as Messiah. In its obituary for Shach, the Jewish Telegraph Agency states: “Shach likewise rejected the tendency among some Chabad Chassidim to revere their rebbe as the Messiah, blasting it as ‘total heresy. Those who say so will burn in hell’”

In summary, Nicolas Sarkozy, the semi-Jewish president of France, co-prince of Andorra, soon-to-be President of the European Union and President of United Nations Security Council, architect of the revived Roman Empire of Bible prophecy, known as the Mediterranean Union, and self-anointed guardian of Israel’s national security is a closet supporter of Hasidic Judaism. In light of these facts, one is compelled to pose the question: “Has Sarkozy hijacked Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic Judaism to position himself as Israel’s coming Messiah, or are Rabbi Schneerson’s disciples grooming the French President for this role?” I’d like to believe it’s a coincidence, but I don’t believe in coincidences anymore.

>USSR2 File: Kremlin sacks Baluyevsky, appoints new armed forces chief; Putin invites ambassador into cabinet; Kremlin pumps $25 billion into research

>– Putin on Paris Trip: USA Is a “Frightening Monster”

– Inclusion of Russia’s Ambassador to Washington into Putin’s Cabinet Signals East-West Convergence Top Priority for Soviet Strategists

In March rumors swirled around the possibility that the Kremlin’s belligerent armed forces chief Yuri Baluyevsky, who stridently opposed US NMD deployments in Poland and the Czech Republic, would be served with a pink slip for opposing badly needed administrative reforms in the Russian military. Reality has at lost caught up with the rumors. Today “President” Dmitry Medvedev transferred General Baluyevsky to the country’s Security Council, where Nikolai Patrushev, previously head of the Federal Security Service (FSB/KGB), was recently parked in a major reshuffling of the deckchairs of state. Baluyevsky’s replacement is General Nikolai Makarov, previously director the armed forces’ procurement department and an ally of Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, which could be the main reason for Yuri’s transfer. Pictured above: Makarov, Serdyukov, and Medvedev at the Kremlin, on June 3, 2008. General Makarov, as the first article below reports, is 58 years old and has commanded units throughout Russia and the Not-So-Former Soviet Union, except in war-ravaged Chechnya.

Russian president replaces military chief
Tue Jun 3, 2008 5:58am EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday replaced armed forces’ chief of general staff General Yuri Baluyevsky, who media said had clashed with Russia’s defense minister.

Medvedev announced the appointment in his place of General Nikolai Makarov, a First Deputy Defense Minister, during a televised meeting with Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. He said Baluyevsky would move to be deputy head of the country’s Security Council.

“I received the proposal from the defense minister to appoint his new first deputy as head of the General Staff,” Medvedev said. “I’ve studied these proposals and I support them.”

Makarov is 58 years old and has commanded units throughout Russia and the former Soviet Union except in Chechnya, where Russian soldiers have fought two wars since 1994 against mainly Muslim rebels.

In March, Russian media reported Baluyevsky had offered to resign because of proposed staff cuts and in protest at Serdyukov’s appointment as defense minister. Serdyukov is a former tax official with no military experience.

Pictured here: The Kremlin’s new top general, Makarov.

Be assured, however, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation/Soviet Union remains the discreet but guiding force in “post”-Soviet Russia since all of the major political players in Moscow are either “ex”-communists (like Prime Minister Vladimir Putin), open communists (like Gennady Zyuganov), ex-Komsomol (like Medvedev and United Russia State Duma faction leader Boris Gryzlov), “ex”-KGB types (like Putin), or “ex”-GRU types (like United Russia’s ideologist Vladislav Surkov). Prime Minister Putin, moreover, remains a faithful frontman for the Party, to wit his characterization of the USA as a “frightening monster” during his May 30 visit with faux rightist French ally President Nicolas Sarkozy. In Paris Putin urged Sarkozy to drop his pro-Washington sentiments: “France, I hope, will continue to conduct an independent foreign policy.” Since the inauguration of Medvedev as “president” in May, Kremlinologists worldwide recognize that the Russian Constitution–which at least officially allocates the execution of foreign policy to the president, not the prime minister– has little authority since Putin himself wields the real power in Russia politics.

Meanwhile, recognizing the obvious lag in neo-Soviet technology vis-a-vis the West, the Kremlin has decided to pump US$25 billion into research and development projects between 2008 and 2010, the results of which will probably be directed into beefing up Russia’s military “kit.” In any event, this kit, while perceived as relying on old technology (such as the Tu-95 Bear bomber which in some cases boasts airframes built as recently as the early 1990s), still packs a punch. Russia, moreover, has recently upgraded its missile systems with the Topol-M ICBM and Bulava SLBM, its air defense systems with the S-400 Triumf, its submarine fleet with the fourth-generation, Bulava-armed Borey Class nuclear submarine, and its main battle tank assets with the T-95.

Russia to spend $25 bln on science research in 2008-2010 – Putin
15:4929/ 05/ 2008

MOSCOW, May 29 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will spend around 600 billion rubles ($25 billion) on scientific research in 2008-2010, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

“We have allocated substantial resources for the development of such promising areas as nano- and biotechnology, nuclear energy, aerospace and other research in 2008-2010. Federal target programs alone will receive about 600 billion rubles for these purposes,” Putin told a meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The volume of budget financing for the Russian Academy of Sciences has increased considerably, with the academy’s budget growing from over 37 billion rubles ($1.6 billion) in 2007 to around 45 billion rubles ($1.9 billion) in 2008, Putin said.

Federal budget spending on civil science in 2008 will reach around 125 billion rubles ($5.3 billion) and about 200 billion rubles ($8.5 billion), taking into account extra-budgetary funds, Putin said.

Source: Novosti

The invitation that PM Putin has extended to Russia’s veteran ambassador to the USA, Yuri Ushakov, into his cabinet as deputy chief of staff, is significant from the point of view the long-range Soviet strategy. Ushakov’s appointment indicates that the Moscow Leninists are determined to press ahead with East-West convergence, with the threat of nuclear blackmail ala the Russian Air Force’s resuscitated long-range bomber missions. The establishment last year of the clandestine Kissinger-Primakov Strategic Working Group also demonstrates that the baleful influence of the Kremlin extends into the White House, whether occupied by a faux rightist Republican (like John McCain) or a crypto-communist Democrat (like Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama). Pictured above: Ambassador Ushakov with then Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine General Peter Pace, at the Russian Embassy in Washington DC, in February 2006.

Putin appoints ambassador to US to his Cabinet
June 2, 2008

MOSCOW (AP) — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin appointed Russia’s longtime ambassador to the U.S. to his Cabinet on Monday, a move likely to deepen speculation that the former president will claim a strong foreign policy role.

Putin named Yuri Ushakov as a deputy Cabinet chief of staff, government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. The appointment was revealed shortly after the Kremlin said President Dmitry Medvedev had relieved Ushakov of the Washington post because he was taking another job.

Putin became prime minister last month after ceding the presidency to Medvedev, his hand-picked successor. He has stressed that constitutional powers of the presidency, such as setting foreign policy, would not shift to the prime minister’s office.

Peskov told The Associated Press that Ushakov’s post, with responsibility for coordinating the foreign relations of the prime minister and Cabinet, is new. But he said the appointment did not mean that Putin was seeking unusual foreign policy muscle.

Under the Russian Constitution, the president is the undisputed head of state and is responsible for setting policy. The prime minister heads the Cabinet, which implements policy and focuses largely on the economy.

But Putin has overshadowed Medvedev at times since his unprecedented move from the Kremlin to Russia’s No. 2 post. He was treated like a head of state during a high-profile visit late last week to France, where his reception underscored the clout he continues to hold.

Ushakov had been ambassador to the United States since 1999, serving throughout Putin’s eight-year presidency.

Source: Associated Press