USA And The Future Of The World

dhu · (This post was last modified: 02-29-2008, 04:42 AM by dhu.)

QUOTE(Swamy G @ Feb 27 2008, 08:08 PM)Thanks, but that link does not work.

I like to show some friends how Unkil likes his "checks and balances". ButÂ I need little dots that I at least can connect. Else, it is just going to sound paranoid and jingo.
[right][snapback]79042[/snapback][/right]


you'll be lucky if your friends are not typical psecs. It's difficult to even get past the "missionaries have bad intentions" stage with most psecs.

Rajiv Malhotra is a good start as far as connecting the dots. Also it helps to place these dots in a worldwide neo-colonialist framework rather than just related to India; eg, the same is being attempted in Burma. You can give them William Engdahl's article on Burma where he exposes the nexus between state dept, missionaries, and the "democracy" movement.

It also depends on their preferences. if they are concrete types, it's good to show connections between the various western state and ngo operations - eg Romila Thapar's Kluge chair. If they are non-concrete types, you will have to embed your arguments in the more general "framework" view propounded by balagangadhara; that is, these discrete entities tend to reproduce the theological arguments of christianity (eg heathen-nonheathen). It always helps to reference native americans and their re-education by both missionaries and the american state. You will have to be armed with knowledge about caste manipulation since psces always bring this up as an equal equal argument. Of course, it is same as comparing the American decimation and re-education of native americans to hatfields and mccoys. Emphasize the systematic nature of the colonial project eg no one doubts the existence of 19th century colonialism.

best thing would be to send them to this forum with nod from moderators.
--------------------------------

QUOTEthe-axis-of-neocolonialism

SAJA is but a small node of a vast South Asian movement on American campuses. The South Asian movement carefully hides the fact that this term was invented by Henry Kissinger as part of the Cold War foreign policy to contain the non-NATO world. The South Asian Studies departments across the US have been funded ever since by âTitle VI Grantsâ from the US State Department, intended to promulgate and promote a theory of that âareaâ in order to support US foreign policy. Edward Said analyzed this and wrote that besides the military, the Western powers also have âarmies of scholars at work politically, militarily, ideologically.â

The following quote from a governmental report describes why the US Department of Defense invests in the social sciences to understand and reengineer the âothersâ: âThe Armed Forces are no longer engaged solely in warfareâ¦. For many countries throughout the world, we need more knowledge about their beliefs, values, and motivations; their political, religious, and economic organizations; and the impact of various changes or innovations upon their socio-cultural patterns. ...â[44]

The same report recommends specific kinds of social research and reengineering, and one can find in this list many projects that are being carried out in the US academe and via NGOs in India. Never has the Indian media done an investigative report on why the US Defense Department is to be served by Indian scholars in this manner:

02-29-2008, 05:07 AM

Dhu/Swamy, Someone here at IF had written a 300+ page book on 'South Asia' file for limited circulation a while back. If he/she can put it online somewhere it'll help.

dhu · (This post was last modified: 02-29-2008, 01:05 PM by dhu.)

there's a reference to a book at the end of this 17 page file. Not sure if it's the one you're looking for.

http://kaushal42.blogspot.com/2005/11/so...-file.html

**acharya** · 02-29-2008, 10:52 PM

QUOTE(Viren @ Feb 28 2008, 11:37 AM)Dhu/Swamy, Someone here at IF had written a 300+ page book on 'South Asia' file for limited circulation a while back. If he/she can put it online somewhere it'll help.
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http://www.indiaresearch.org/articles.html

http://www.indiaresearch.org/India_at_Stra...sroad_eBook.pdf

02-29-2008, 11:04 PM

QUOTEyou'll be lucky if your friends are not typical psecs. It's difficult to even get past the "missionaries have bad intentions" stage with most psecs.
I would not call them psecs. I detect a kind of apathy in the younger generation {that is a generalization, I agree}. Everybody just wants to come up in life in their chosen area of interest. Have a good time. Lives are more dictated by the 'modern' capitalistic thinking. Also I consider it is because of the rise of 'individualism' and the resulting focus on things that satisfy an individual. And to add to the masala, there is dilution of knowledge about OUR traditions and history. So all thinking is strongly influence by Western thinking.

Sorry for the off topic ramblings. But the problem I face is 'nobody seems to be interested in knowing such things'. I see this indifference right in my own younger cousins - all with a 4+ year degree in professional education and earning far far better than what their parents earned.

And thanks for all your pointers, if I have further questions I will come back.

dhu · 03-02-2008, 01:09 AM

May 15, 1959
TRAINING UNDER THE MUTUAL SECURITY PROGRAM
(with emphasis on development of leaders)

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/ST/STappendix3.html
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/ST/STindex.html

Husky · (This post was last modified: 03-02-2008, 07:25 AM by Husky.)

QUOTE(dhu @ Mar 2 2008, 01:09 AM)May 15, 1959
TRAINING UNDER THE MUTUAL SECURITY PROGRAM
(with emphasis on development of leaders)

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/ST/STappendix3.html
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/ST/STindex.html
[right][snapback]79153[/snapback][/right]Reminds me.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0609/S00259.htm
QUOTEThailand US Trained Military Mount Bloodless Coup
Wednesday, 20 September 2006, 8:45 am
By Richard S. Ehrlich

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Troops from Thailand's U.S.-trained military, backed by tanks and armored personnel carriers, seized the prime minister's office on Tuesday (September 19) night and filled TV screens with propaganda, in a bloodless coup led by a "revolutionary body" to end corruption and stop perceived attacks on the king. "There has been social division like never before," a self-appointed Military Reform Council announced without identifying its members.And here it becomes apparent why the American-trained Thai army headed by an islamic mentioned the King at all:
QUOTEThe frail constitutional monarch, 78, has limited political power, but is regarded as a "father" of all Thais and attracts devout emotional loyalty, psychologically trumping the influence of any prime minister or general.

Thailand has suffered more than a dozen coups and coup attempts since the 1930s. Some coups initially appeared to be a military success, but quickly crumbled after the king declined to support the new regime.

In the 1970s, and in 1992, military coup leaders remained in power until deadly insurrections by common citizens in Bangkok forced changes at the top amid widespread revulsion against the army's dictators.

This Buddhist-majority, Southeast Asian nation did not seem to be in immediate danger of ending its tight military alliance with the United States, or Bangkok's robust capitalist policies.US (or Thai military with 'US relations') has learned to try and get the King's support (or, more specifically, avoid his opposition) first.

This is also interesting:
QUOTECrucially the king, born in Cambridge, Mass., did not immediately appear to publicly voice his support for, or against, the coup.I hope this has had no effect on him being very Thai, Buddhist.

Husky · (This post was last modified: 03-02-2008, 11:34 AM by Husky.)

QUOTE(Swamy G @ Feb 27 2008, 08:08 PM)Thanks, but that link does not work.

I like to show some friends how Unkil likes his "checks and balances". ButÂ I need little dots that I at least can connect. Else, it is just going to sound paranoid and jingo.
[right][snapback]79042[/snapback][/right]Sorry, my post merely copied someone else's previously posted material (on IF) and that contained the old link. Harshvardan's #223's got the correct link.

Different topic.
Old news, but goes to show how the land of the free is only free for the likeminded - contrary to all grand claims. And of course, how much of the oft-touted "innocent until proven guilty" was just PR on their part...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/23/a...habeas.php
QUOTEJ. Edgar Hoover sought mass arrests in 1950, document shows
By Tim Weiner Published: December 23, 2007

A newly declassified document from 1950 shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty.

Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, 12 days after the Korean War began. It envisioned putting suspect Americans in military prisons.

Hoover wanted President Harry Truman to proclaim the mass arrests necessary to "protect the country against treason, espionage and sabotage." The FBI would "apprehend all individuals potentially dangerous" to national security, Hoover's proposal said. The arrests would be carried out under "a master warrant attached to a list of names" provided by the bureau.

The names were part of an index that Hoover had been compiling for years. "The index now contains approximately twelve thousand individuals, of which approximately ninety-seven percent are citizens of the United States," he wrote. "In order to make effective these apprehensions, the proclamation suspends the Writ of Habeas Corpus."

Habeas corpus, the right to seek relief from illegal detention, has been a fundamental principle of law for seven centuries. The Bush administration's decision to hold suspects for years at GuantÃ¡namo Bay, Cuba, has made habeas corpus a contentious issue for the U.S. Congress and the Supreme Court.More at link.
Oh drat. That little habeas corpus thingy stands in the way of the will of the US govt. Go ahead, mow it over. Big man.

Goes to show it's only a democracy when things are going according to plan. Their system is very precariously poised on the edge of a knife. Any deviation and their government becomes nervous, autocratic and comes down on people.

I'm not arguing here whether it's 'right or wrong' to incarcerate potential terrorists or whatever (I haven't given it quite as much thought as it deserves yet: "Where do individual freedoms end, or do they even have an end"... black hole) - speaking here in more general, sci-fi context, by the way.

The excerpt posted was just to illustrate the hypocrisy in all the claims/adverts made by the US govt about its country and in the one-sided accusations their Human Rights media wing hurls at other countries that exercise no such hypocrisy.

QUOTEThe U.S. Constitution says habeas corpus shall not be suspended "unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it." The plan proposed by Hoover, the head of the FBI from 1924 to 1972, stretched that clause to include "threatened invasion" or "attack upon United States troops in legally occupied territory."

Hoover's plan was declassified Friday as part of a collection of documents concerning intelligence issues from 1950 to 1955. The plan called for "the permanent detention" of 12,000 suspects at military bases as well as in federal prisons.

The FBI, he said, had found that the arrests it proposed in New York and California would cause the prisons there to overflow. So the bureau had arranged for[B]"detention in Military facilities of the individuals apprehended" in those states.

The prisoners eventually would have had a right to a hearing under the Hoover plan. The hearing board would have comprised one judge and two citizens. But the hearings "will not be bound by the rules of evidence."Yeah, because evidence is so overrated, isn't it. Confused

arcasm
Americans should thank their stars that Hoover wasn't president. Then again, Bush is their president.... And Guantanamo Bay in Cuba (and Cuba is not part of America) is a reality <!--emo& Sad

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' />

03-07-2008, 11:04 PM

Belarus expels US ambassador QUOTEMINSK, Belarus - The Belarusian Foreign Ministry on Friday demanded that the U.S. ambassador leave the country and recalled its ambassador to the U.S. over Washington's economic sanctions against the ex-Soviet nation. 
It was coming, US is trying very hard to stop Belarus merger with Russia.

ramana · 03-11-2008, 08:46 PM

X-posted....
QUOTE("Raju")Why The Western World Needs Armageddon
By Benjamin Fulford
Former Asia-Pacific Bureau Chief
Forbes Magazine
03-10-8

The Western world is suffering from an ancient illness that can only be cured with Armageddon therapy. Christianity and Judaism represent a schism between the Greco-Roman civilizations and the Sumerian-Egyptian civilizations. This schism has resulted in a society with a split personality. On the surface Greco-Roman values such as Democracy and the rule of law predominate. Under the surface ancient Sumerian-Egyptian derived secret societies manipulate the masses for the benefit of a hidden elite. To heal the split personality disorder and to cure the West's obsession with end times, we need to fulfill Judeo-Christian biblical prophesy. We have the technology to do this now. For the sake of the planet it must be done.
Â
Let us start by analyzing the origins of the West's mental illness. For over 3,000 years, Sumerian/Egyptian civilization had evolved a system of government that involved having people believe in an all powerful God while at the same time a man with God-like powers sat on a throne. The God-king had at his service priests, financiers and warriors who controlled the masses on his behalf. They had deep and esoteric knowledge of how to manipulate society using a combination of religion, financial incentives and violence. When their rule was secure, the existence of a king as an intermediary between God and the people was not kept secret. His rule was absolute and not to be questioned. His symbol was an eye at the top of a pyramid. Jesus Christ was a rebel in their midst who called for greater help for the poor and more equality among humans.
The Greco-Roman civilization evolved a slightly different system of government. Open debate between elite members of society formed the basis of government. It also used laws and precedents as a basis for arbitrating social disputes. Later it adopted a non-hereditary form of dictatorship.
Â
When the Roman empire conquered the ancient Sumerian kingdom that had Jerusalem as its capital, a 3,000 year old social system was violently attacked and its elite rulers slaughtered and scattered. They then stole many of their ideas and created a new system, incorporating the philosophy of Christ and Greco-Roman religious beliefs. That new pyramid became the Roman Catholic Church. The new "Christian" system belittled and insulted the creators of the original pyramid system.
Â
The ancient Sumerian system of government with the knowledge of their elite class was forced, due to intensive persecution, to become a secret society. We know of them today as the Freemasons or the pyramid with the eye on top. The goal of this secret society was to get revenge against the Romans and restore the rightful rule of the ancient line of Sumerian kings.
Â
The Sumerian sect was able to survive and thrive in central Asia and create a kingdom. When that kingdom was overthrown by the Mongols and the Russians, the elite fled to Europe and once again operated as a secret society. This time they wanted revenge against the Russians, the Mongols and the Romans as they worked towards the goal of ruling all of humanity.
Â
The Sumerian ruling class was able, in Europe, to trigger a "protestant" revolt against papal rule. This led to the rise of two competing power pyramids in Europe. In the Catholic countries the pyramid was visible and the pope was its eye. In the Protestant countries only a tiny elite was ever aware of the existence of a Sumerian or Babylonian power pyramid and the presence of a would-be God king in their midst. The secret Sumerian ruling class of intermarried aristocrats and plutocrats had, for safety reasons, to keep their presence hidden from the majority who believe they have a Democratic law-abiding government.
Â
This dual nature of Western society, the public and the "occult" has degenerated to the point where it threatens the safety of the entire planet. The Sumerian self-styled God kings, bent on imposing their highly-centralized system of government on the planet, have been continually manipulating the peace-loving majority into war after war.
Weapons technology has become too fearsome, however, for war to continue to be a way to continue "diplomacy by other means." Furthermore, the rise of the internet and the collective conscious it represents, means that the occult part of the Western world can no longer manipulate people with 911-type events.
Â
So, what needs to be done is to come up with a solution that satisfies both the hidden and open strata of the West. That solution is Armageddon.
Â
Here is a suggested way of carrying out that Armageddon in a way that satisfies both Jewish and Christian millennial prophesies.
Â
First of all the Western secret governments (I believe they have split into two factions) need to prepare the biggest inside job in history. With the cooperation of the aware portion of humanity, they will create a huge, fake world-wide disaster. Television news programs will broadcast scenes of famine, plague and global total warfare involving all forms of weapons of mass destruction. There will be earthquakes, plagues of locusts and as much else as can be predicted. Hopefully the armies of Europe, China, Russia and India etc. could be asked to cooperate to make the show as real as possible. The event must be so terrifying that humans will never wish to wage war again.
Â
The role of the anti-Christ can be played by a devil worshipping secret society. The Messiah can be played by the collective human mind that found expression in the internet. At the end the devil worshippers will repent and "convert" and be forgiven.
Â
Humanity can then have a party to end all parties and inaugurate a "New Age."
Â
To fulfill Christian prophesy, all humans who wish it must be given DNA therapy to assure the close equivalent of immortality. People will also be given the choice to enhance their intelligence and other abilities through gene therapy.
Â
The Western elite can then become the chosen people because it is a fairly safe bet that intelligence genes carried by families like the Rothschilds and the Einsteins will become prized. Most people will choose to have the intelligence genes of the families that ruled the West for so long and helped make it strong.
Â
The release of suppressed technology, most importantly the suppressed energy technology, would lead to an exponential economic expansion that would allow this planet to easily support 20 billion people (although the population is expected to reach a plateau of 8 billion). The new technology would also allow a systematic colonization of space.
The Jews can then finally celebrate their freedom from "Babylonian" captivity and rebuild their temple (but not over the remains of the old one). The Catholic church, I am sure, can then be convinced to hand over any relics they may have in their possession (including, it is rumored, the original Menorah) of the original temple.
Â
The Sumerian ruling elite will no longer have to hide but can operate in the open, using the internet and their powers of persuasion to get a large global following for their God king.
Â
Once all this is accomplished the West will finally be cured of its split-personality disorder. It will no longer harbor a hidden agenda of world-conquest. The result will be a permanent end to warfare. World wars can be replaced by a world court and special competitive campaigns. The first one could be an intensive 3-year effort to remove disease, poverty and environmental destruction.
Â
After that humanity could have, as a basic purpose, the job of combining energy with carbon to create life, lots and lots of varied and beautiful life.
Â
The current UN Security Council can be replaced by a group of seven sages. China, India, Japan and Asean, Europe, Africa, the Muslim world and the Americas could each select one of the sages. Decision making would be by simple majority and a veto would only apply to the region the sage represents.
Â
All that it would take for this to happen is a psychological cure for the Western world. Armageddon therapy to unify the Sumerian and Greco-Roman traditions is just the right sort of cure.
Â
Benjamin Fulford
benjaminfulford@hotmail.com

Capt M Kumar · 03-19-2008, 05:11 AM

<!--emo&

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /> Indian workers begin satyagrahaIndian workers begin satyagraha

India, US looking into 'slave treatment' of Indian workersMarch 11, 2008HT
Email Author
New Orleans, March 18, 2008
First Published: 23:51 IST(18/3/2008)
Last Updated: 03:02 IST(19/3/2008)

âWatch out! We're coming!â they sang in Malayalam.

Over 100 Indian guest workers who broke an Indian-US human trafficking chain on Tuesday began a satyagraha to protest âthe Indian governmentâs failure to protect Indian workers,â departing on foot from New Orleans on their way to confront Ambassador Ronen Sen in Washington, DC.

The workers, members of the Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity, will travel on foot through historically racist sections of the United States, following in the footsteps of African-American freedom fighters, who marched to win basic human rights. âMahatma Gandhiâs salt satyagraha exposed the tyranny of the British salt tax system. Our guest worker satyagraha will unmask the US guest worker programme as a system of bonded labour,â worker and organiser Rajan Pazhambalakode said.

Letter to ambassador
Workers will arrive in DC on March 26 and demand a mass meeting with the Ambassador, whom they excoriated in a letter on Tuesday for abandoning them. âWe write in response to your seven-day-long silence, followed by a 97-word letter that adds insult to the workers' injury as survivors of human trafficking. Apparently 18 months of human trafficking merited less than 100 words from you,â the workers wrote. âYou leave us no choice but to launch a satyagraha so that the truth will come to light and justice will be served.â

âOur own government turned its back on us after we were treated like slaves,â said Sabulal Vijayan, one of over 500 Indian workers who were bound as forced labour to Gulf Coast marine construction company Signal International, as the group began their journey with a rally at the Department of Labor building in New Orleans. The workers allegedly paid $20,000 to Indian and US recruiters for false promises of work-based permanent residency in the US, and instead they received ten-month H2B guest worker visas and worked at Signal in deplorable conditions.

âThe only answer is satyagraha,â Vijayan said. âThe father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi, broke the salt tax of the British government with a satyagraha. We are following in his footsteps to get justice in this country,â Vijayan added. âIn my own country I was free, but this programme made me a bonded labourer in the United States. Meanwhile my father died in India without me by his side. I donât want compensation for my loss â I want justice for the Indians who will come here after me," said former Signal worker Paul S Konar.

Meeting supporters
The workers will meet with their growing network of supporters and allies as they travel through key sites of the US civil rights struggle, including Jackson, Mississippi; Selma, Alabama; Atlanta, Georgia; and Greensboro, North Carolina. They will arrive in DC on March 26 as US Congress prepares for a session in which a massive expansion of the guest worker programme is at the top of the agenda.

As reported by Hindustan Times, over 100 workers walked out from Signal on March 6 and demanded federal prosecution of the company and its US and Indian recruiters. The Department of Justice has since opened an official investigation into the workers' charges of human trafficking, and the workers have filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the traffickers.

The group sent a list of demands to Ambassador Sen in their letter late Monday, including pressure on the US Department of State to restrict travel to India for Signal's US recruiters, as well as pressure on the US government to halt any expansion of the guest worker program until both governments have adopted an agreement that reflects the interests of workers, as well as companies and recruiters. 
I think this is a challenge to Boobby Jindal even!

dhu · 03-27-2008, 03:40 AM

The Financial Tsunami Part V (FW Engdahl)

By the early days of 2008 it was becoming clear that Financial Securitization would be the Last Tango for the United States as the global financial superpower.

Capt M Kumar · 04-02-2008, 02:39 PM

<!--emo&

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /> Primary school kids 'planned knife attack on teacher'

Posted 7 hours 57 minutes ago

Nine-year-olds at a school in the US state of Georgia brought a broken steak knife, handcuffs and electrical tape to school in a plot to injure their teacher, authorities said.

Teachers at Center Elementary School in Waycross, Georgia, uncovered the plot when a pupil reported that a child in the third grade had brought a weapon into the school.

"The plan was to handcuff the teacher, put tape over her mouth and hit her over the head with the paperweight and possibly cut her," said Lt Duane Caswell of Waycross police, adding that some students said the knife was simply there to cut the tape.

"It was a rather elaborate scheme for children of that age," he said.

The students spent a week planning the attack and planned to carry it out on the day they were caught, Caswell said.

Nine pupils in the grade, most of whom were nine years old, have been disciplined and some were given long-term suspensions, said Theresa Martin, spokeswoman for the Ware County school district in the south-eastern part of the state.

Lt Caswell said police were also planning to charge three of the children in the juvenile court system with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and possession of a weapon on a school property.

- Reuters

dhu · (This post was last modified: 04-05-2008, 02:22 PM by dhu.)

Sub-prime scam behind Spitzer fall (Organiser)
By Sandhya Jain


New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer, who resigned after a government leak about his involvement in a sex scandal, was reportedly stung by a White House-Wall Street nexus to silence his relentless criticism of their handling of the current financial crisis. Observers predict at least 2.5 million American families may lose their homes this year due to predatory lending practices protected by the White House.

Mr. William Engdahl, author of A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order, argues in Asian Times Online that Spitzer had an impressive record as State Attorney General for pursuing financial crimes like the Enron fraud and corruption by Wall Street investment banks during the 2002 dotcom bubble. He made powerful enemies, such as Hank Greenburg, former head of AIG insurance group, and Wall Street. As New York Governor, Spitzer was attacking Bush administration complicity in fixing covert bailouts for Wall Street friends from taxpayer funds, at the expense of ordinary homeowners, when the âscandalâ broke and drove him out of office.

Spitzerâs crime was his harsh condemnation of the White House for the current financial disaster. In February 2008, he testified before the US House of Representatives Financial Services subcommittee on problems in New York-based specialised insurance companies, called âmonolineâ insurers. He told CNBC he blamed the crisis and its broader economic fallout on the Bush administration.

He said years ago the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) went to court and blocked New York State efforts to investigate the mortgage activities of national banks. The OCC did not stop questionable loan marketing practices or uphold higher underwriting standards. The crisis could have been avoided if OCC had done its job, but the âBush administration let the housing bubble inflate and now that itâs deflating weâre dealing with the consequences. The real failure, the genesis, the germ that has spread, was the sub-prime scandal,â he said. Fraudulent marketing and very low âteaserâ mortgage rates that ballooned higher should have been stopped. When mortgages are marketed, it is mandatory to ensure the borrower can afford to repay the debt; these ground rules were ignored.

Spitzer was doomed with a signed article in the Washington Post on February 14, 2008, titled âPredatory Lendersâ Partner in Crime: How the Bush Administration Stopped the States from Stepping in to Help Consumers.â He blamed the government for the sub-prime crisis: âIn 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act pre-empting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks.â Indian readers may note that national banks in America, including the Federal Reserve, are private banks, not government-owned.

The former New York Governor alleged the Bush administration failed to protect consumers, but âembarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.â He accused President Bush of being the âpredator lendersâ partner in crimeâ and a fugitive from justice. He decided to launch a campaign to take on the Bush regime and the most powerful financial powers on earth, thus scripting his own exit.

Diplomat Bhaskar Menon feels there was a political method in the sub-prime mortgage crisis. He argues that since Alan Greenspan began lowering interest rates to get the US economy out of the post 9/11 recession, the descent into economic madness can only be explained as politically motivated. The sub-prime mortgage mess has two elements: first, people with little capacity to repay were given mortgages; second, the mortgages were packaged into investment grade securities.

For unknown reasons, the most sophisticated bankers in the US and Europe, insurance companies and hedge funds plunged deep into the sub-prime mess, and are now saddled with bad debt. New York Times reports an arcane form of risk insurance in the bond market has led to an inverted pyramid of obligations amounting to $16 trillion. Other unconfirmed reports say the funds available to the FDIC, which guarantees individual bank deposits, are a quarter of what is needed in the event of a general financial collapse. The ratio of American personal debt to GDP is the highest ever at $3 trillion; if mortgage debt is included, personal debt is over $13 trillion, almost equal to the $14 trillion GDP. America can take the entire international financial system to ruin.

Menon says the political nature of events can be understood by looking at Asia. The American invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent mess in that country was not, he claims, the result of ignorance or miscalculation, but a deliberate attempt to dismantle Iraq. Add to this the propaganda over Iranâs nuclear programme, the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the fragility of Nepal following brutal civil strife, insurgencies in Indiaâs resource-rich and strategically important places, and the current turmoil in Tibet, and you have a macro-picture of Asia being destabilised. It needs hardly to be added that all fingers point to Washington as the source of instability.

One reason could be to destabilise China, because a stable world and peaceful Asia will made China a formidable power. But if the world economy collapses and there is unrest in Asia, Beijing will be cornered. This will also threaten the stability of South East Asia and India. The Islamic world is already in turmoil; matters could get worse with rising regional distress. No doubt America and Europe would also suffer, but their elites have the ability to shift the cost of distress on the general masses while cushioning themselves perfectly. Americaâs rich have grown richer with every world or regional war! What is more, the Euro-Americans would have staved off an economic and political challenge from Asia. This is now the challenge before Asiaâs ruling elites - do they still believe their future lies with the West rather than with their own nations and peoples?

dhu · (This post was last modified: 04-08-2008, 10:40 AM by dhu.)

Must It Be the Rest Against the West?
December 1994

Absent major changes in North-South relations, the wretched should inherit the earth by about 2025

by Matthew Connelly and Paul Kennedy

Shambhu · 04-23-2008, 01:33 AM

The money-sucking, friend-losing, terrorist-recruiting war that has and will:

1. change the US' stature in the world,
2. help the rise of china,
3. keep the US poor for a long time (though only the working class will be hurt the most)
...(effects 4 through 127598 not listed here)

http://www.truthdig.com/interview/item/200...3_trillion_war/

dhu · 05-02-2008, 12:50 PM

The RAND Corporation: America's University of Imperialism

by Chalmers Johnson

Capt M Kumar · 05-02-2008, 08:03 PM

<!--emo&

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Washington, May 02, 2008
First Published: 11:05 IST(2/5/2008)
Last Updated: 11:54 IST(2/5/2008)

Expressing concern over the situations in Tibet and Myanmar, President George W Bush has said that the United States is working with India to promote democracy and the peace throughout the Asia.

"We're working with India to promote democracy and the peace it yields throughout the continent. We're working together to extend the hope of liberty throughout Asia," Bush told a gathering that included prominent Indian Americans here on the occasion of the Asian American Heritage month.

"I know you share my concerns about the situation in Tibet. I welcome the recent statements by the Chinese government expressing its willingness to meet with representatives of the Dalai Lama -- precisely what I have suggested President Hu Jintao do. I think it's important that there be a renewed dialogue and that dialogue must be substantive so we can address the real way," Bush said.

"In Burma, the brutal military regime continues to reject the clear will of the Burmese people to live under leaders of their own choosing. So over the past eight months, my administration has tightened sanctions on the regime. We've imposed visa bans on the junta's generals and their families and their cronies, trying to send a clear message -- and we hope the rest of the world follows as well," he said.

"Today, I've issued a new executive order that instructs the Treasury Department to freeze the assets of Burmese state-owned companies that are major sources of funds that prop up the junta. I'm sending yet another clear message, that we expect there to be change and we expect these generals to honour the will of the people," the president said.

In his opening remarks Bush recalled the contributions of the Asian Americans stressing the vibrancy the community had brought in.

**acharya** · 05-12-2008, 11:01 AM

Rise of Nationalism
Frays Global Ties
Trade, Environment
Face New Threats;
Balkanized Internet

By BOB DAVIS
April 28, 2008; Page A1

The world isn't as flat as it used to be.

During the long march toward globalization, international borders and trade barriers came down. Communism fell. Protectionist walls in Latin America and elsewhere were dismantled. Governments -- long prone to meddling in trade -- took a back seat to broader market forces.

In a globalization manifesto, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman declared that the Internet and other planet-spanning technologies were erasing national boundaries. The world, he said in a 2005 best seller, was flat.

No longer. The global economy appears to be entering an epoch in which governments are reasserting their role in the lives of individuals and businesses. Once again, barriers are rising. Call it the new nationalism.

"The era of easy globalization is certainly over," says Pulitzer Prize-winning author Daniel Yergin, whose 1998 book, "The Commanding Heights," detailed the triumph of markets over nations, starting with British deregulation under Margaret Thatcher. "The power of the state is reasserting itself."

Just a decade ago, Asia, Latin America and Russia were on financial life support from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. The U.S. was planning yet another round of global trade negotiations. The European Union was writing a constitution to shift power to Brussels from member nations.

Now borrowers shun the IMF and World Bank. Trade talks are shelved. Barriers to foreign investment are rising around the world. State-owned companies are expanding, particularly in oil and gas. Public support of immigration restrictions is growing in countries from the U.S. to India.
A CHANGED WORLD

â¢ On the Wane: Say adios to the 'flat' world marked by multilateralism and deregulation.
â¢ New Reality: National barriers have risen as states increase control over resources, boost protectionism, and even seek borders on the World Wide Web.
â¢ What It Means: Amid a globalization backlash, expect increased resistance to immigration and more difficulty reaching global environmental accords.

The rising influence of governments can be seen in massive state-funded investment pools, many backed by countries that were reeling financially a decade ago. Sovereign wealth funds from Asia and the Middle East are now propping up wobbly financial institutions in the U.S. and Europe, and may hunt next for real-estate bargains. The growth of state power may also serve to make dealing with global climate change -- the most borderless of all issues -- even more difficult.

Security Concerns

What accounts for governments' bigger role? The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, refocused the world on security concerns that can be addressed only by national governments. Countries enriched by the commodity boom are increasingly asserting their power, with Venezuela nationalizing oil fields and Russia threatening to cut off natural-gas supplies to Western Europe. A backlash against economic integration has also pressured national governments to retreat from multilateralism: Big pluralities in 21 of 34 nations polled by BBC World Service in December said the "pace of economic globalization" is moving too quickly.

The changes don't presage an era of full-blown protectionism. The 15 countries that have shared the euro since 1999 will, despite occasional grumbling, continue to do so. Governments continue to obey rulings by the World Trade Organization, even if they must rewrite their own laws to comply. Mr. Friedman, the flat-world theorist, says that the reassertion of state power may turn out to be an "episode" rather than a trend, and that technologies will continue to empower individuals across boundaries.

Even so, there are mounting indications that governments are on the ascendant.

National boundaries are going up even on the Internet, the emblem of the borderless world. The Internet was designed to be beyond the reach of governments, shifting power to individuals or private organizations.

Now, pressured by Russia, China, India and Saudi Arabia, the U.S. company that assigns Internet addresses is working on ways for countries to use characters from their home languages. The familiar .org, .com and country codes in Web addresses will be replaced with their equivalents in Chinese, Hindi and many other languages. While that should help locals navigate the Web, it would also put many sites behind curtains to users from abroad. That would spell the end of the days when anyone with a keyboard that produces Latin letters can see sites in any land -- essentially taking the "world wide" out of the World Wide Web.

"We're facing a step-by-step Balkanization of the global Internet," says Columbia University law professor Tim Wu. "It's becoming a series of national networks."

The rising strength of national governments expresses itself in different ways. For rich countries, it generally means higher taxes and more regulation. In the 30 mostly rich countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, tax revenue as a percentage of the local economy was higher in 2005, the latest year surveyed, than a decade earlier. That's because of the rising cost to governments of health care and social security.

In the U.S., the severity and scope of the current financial crisis has eroded the case for letting markets operate with ever-lower government guard rails. The current question is not whether regulation will increase, but by how much. All three presidential candidates say they would pass tougher financial-market regulation and would also boost government programs to retrain workers battered by the global economy.
[chart]

In rich and poor countries alike, immigration has become a powerful political issue, as improved transportation makes it easier for people to move across borders and compete for jobs with locals. There are backlashes against Burmese in India, Haitians throughout the Caribbean, Bolivians in Argentina and Zimbabweans in South Africa. In 44 of 47 countries polled by Pew Research Center last fall, majorities supported further restrictions on immigration.

In poorer countries of Africa and Asia, meanwhile, rising global food prices are prompting governments to erect new export barriers. "There is no place in the world that grows the food we need if we're forced to import," says India's finance minister, P. Chidambaram. "Therefore we have to be nearly self-sufficient in all food items."

Growing Influence

Capitals that once had little sway on the global scene now have a lot. The influence of Brazil, for example, has grown along with its economy. A week after WTO trade talks collapsed in July 2006, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab jetted to Brasilia to confer with the country's foreign minister, Celso Amorim, who also handles trade issues.

Mr. Amorim has become an unlikely power broker in the bid to wrap up the negotiations, which began in 2001. The talks broadly involve a prospective deal: The U.S. and Europe would slash agricultural subsidies if developing nations would lower their tariffs for industrial goods and broaden foreign financial firms' access to their markets.

In the past, developing nations essentially ratified global trade deals negotiated by the U.S. and Europe. But Brazil, India and China are no longer following that script. Mr. Amorim has put together a group of 20 developing nations that want to limit market openings at home while pressing for agricultural liberalization abroad. Their assent is essential to reaching a deal. So far they have withheld it.

"Brazil holds the key to getting this done," says Ms. Schwab.

'It Was a Party'

Citizens of poor countries feel exhilarated by their governments' new power. In Rio de Janeiro, Maria Aparecida Lemos, an AIDS patient who lost her sight, says she "celebrated like it was a party" last year when Brazil's president voided a Merck & Co. patent on an AIDS drug. A Brazilian company now makes the drug, Efavirenz, for a fraction of what Merck was charging. Under global trade rules, developing countries have the right to override patents in emergencies, but few had done so for fear of retaliation.

Merck says it had already reduced the price of Efavirenz and was willing to cut further, but not enough to satisfy Brasilia. "Brazil may not be the kind of place you want to invest in," says Jeffrey Sturchio, Merck's vice president for corporate responsibility. Brazilian officials shrug off such threats, figuring the country's growing wealth makes it a magnet for investment.

Energy companies have been among the first to feel the new nationalism. Since oil prices started rising in 2004, Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador have nationalized foreign-owned oil assets, the first big wave of nationalization since the 1970s. After Venezuela's state-owned oil firm doubled its ownership of heavy-oil projects along the Orinoco River last year, ConocoPhillips pulled out, taking a $4.5 billion charge. Exxon Mobil Corp. left as well, and is suing Venezuela for compensation.

Growing petro-nationalism has prompted Royal Dutch Shell PLC to change the global scenarios its economists create to help the company plot its next moves. In the 1990s, Shell's scenarios assumed government power was diminishing. The company invested heavily in Russia's Sakhalin oil fields, assuming it would see minimal interference. But as the Kremlin tightened its grip on the energy sector, Shell was forced to sell half of its stake in the project to Russia's state-owned OAO Gazprom.

In this decade's models, governments play a more central role. One of Shell's two current scenarios envisions that government dominion over resources -- nearly 80% of world oil reserves are controlled by state-owned firms -- will continue. In the other model, governments are still at the center of decision making but recognize a common interest and agree to address climate change, says Jeremy Bentham, Shell's vice president for global business environment.

Recognizing the powerful role of state-owned oil companies, Shell is investing heavily in unconventional oil sources, many of which have little prospect of expropriation. It recently announced a $10 billion expansion plan in the tar sands of Canada. It has also increased its focus on biofuels made from, among other things, algae and wood chips.

Pitney Bowes Inc., a postal-machine maker in Stamford, Conn., is also trying to adapt. Over the past decade or so, it had moved a lot of its production to China. It also had outsourced back-office computer operations to India.

But more recently, the company has started worrying about the security of those supply lines. "We're always concerned that the nationalists there will come and take over" our suppliers in China, says Cynthia Schmitt, the company's vice president for enterprise risk management.

So over the past three years, the company and its overseas suppliers have begun stockpiling more postage-machine components. Pitney Bowes also began insisting that its vendors in India have backup servers in other countries. So many U.S. companies do business in Bangalore and other Indian cities, Ms. Schmitt fears they could become terrorist targets.

Similar concerns are felt by other big companies. AMR Research Inc., a Boston consulting firm, says it surveyed supply-chain managers at big U.S. firms in March about how they would rank the risks they face doing business globally. About 30% of them rated "country risk" -- geopolitical problems or natural disasters -- as their most significant.

Some companies are seeking havens closer to home. As some U.S. corporations relocate operations from lower-cost spots in Asia, Mexico -- which has a free-trade pact with the U.S. -- has seen a surge in foreign investment, up 21% last year to $23.2 billion.

Some of the world's biggest new investors are government-run investment funds. In the Middle East and Russia, sovereign wealth funds are powered by oil revenue; in Asia, they're fed by other export earnings. In all, the funds have a total of $3 trillion in revenue and have used the money to buy stakes in Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and other battered Wall Street firms. While the infusions have been lauded by the U.S. Treasury and capital-short Wall Street firms, they also aroused suspicions here and internationally that the investors could have political agendas.

Now, many national governments are raising barriers against such foreign investment. The U.S., Canada, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Hungary and Greece are proposing or enacting restrictions on investment by state-owned firms from other countries, according to a forthcoming study by the Council of Foreign Relations. China and Russia, which have sovereign wealth funds, are staking out "strategic sectors" where foreign investment would be restricted, say the study's authors, investment-law specialist David Marchick and Dartmouth economist Matthew Slaughter.

National Muscle-Flexing

Muscle-flexing by national governments has also made it more complicated to tackle global environmental issues. In 1987, governments sent environmental ministers to Montreal to negotiate a global ban on the chlorofluorocarbons blamed for opening an ozone hole over Antarctica. The ministers expected the treaty would be ratified at home and enforced world-wide through trade sanctions. It was.

A decade later, the Kyoto Protocol flopped because the U.S. didn't sign, and China and India weren't required to limit emissions. Now, with national governments wary of making commitments, negotiators and think tanks in the U.S. and Europe are grappling with how to persuade states to take strong efforts to curtail greenhouse-gas emissions. One possibility: encourage governments to take specific actions to cut emissions now, and hold off on a treaty until states are more confident that their rivals are taking global warming seriously.

New nationalism could play out over a lengthy span, says Michael Klein, chief economist at the World Bank's private-sector arm, the International Finance Corp. "Disparate national interests may pull [countries] in different directions and render global actions more difficult," Mr. Klein says. "We're in for several decades of these centrifugal forces."

Write to Bob Davis at bob.davis@wsj.com

dhu · 05-25-2008, 03:30 PM

Superimperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (pdf)

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