walking away from the explosion

June 2010: James Corbett explains the connection between the IMF, "austerity measures," and pain. (via SOTT)

"The first step is to nurture the understanding that the austerity offered by the bankers is not the solution to our problems, but the beginning of them." ~ James Corbett




September 2010: Europeans protest against austerity measures. (via Kenny's Sideshow)

"Unions see the austerity measures as punishing workers. They say the economic crisis was triggered by overpaid and irresponsible bankers and financial traders."



Correct!

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Meanwhile, Neithercorp Press writes Economic Collapse Update: Acceleration in Autumn.

Right now, at this very moment, you and your descendents for generations to come are being enslaved by forcefully imposed usury. Our country has been “volunteered” for a financial debasement on a scale that dwarfs the Great Depression or even the Weimar catastrophe. We ignore this reality at our peril. Since the initial meltdown began in 2008, we have seen two and a half years of stall tactics and skewed statistics designed to prolong total collapse while central banks position themselves for optimal gain.

In case you were wondering what was taking so long. He discusses the role of China in our upcoming demise.

The problem is that the elites in our government fueling this conflict are well aware that China can and likely will begin a T-bond dump that will implode our currency. They know that China has absolutely no incentive to increase imports from the United States while it holds all the industrial capability necessary to supply itself with needed goods and a solidified ASEAN trading bloc to support its expansion. They also know full well that tariffs and trade embargos in the midst of economic meltdown tend to inflame retaliation and lead to even greater collapse, just as the Smoot – Hawley Tariff Act did in 1930, right before the Great Depression spiraled out of control.

A trade/currency war is EXACTLY what global banks want, in order to remove the dollar as the world reserve currency, create panic and desperation in the American populace, and to introduce the SDR (along with a stronger Yuan as a component) as the only workable security capable of holding together international commerce.

Has China known the plan in advance?

Are the Chinese aware of this plan? I believe that elements of the Chinese government and its central bank have been clued in all along. Why else would China, an export based economy for decades, abruptly decide to drastically reposition itself as a consumer hub at the center of an Asian trading bloc, all in the span of three years? I don’t think many mainstream analysts realize how radical this Chinese metamorphosis has been, and how significant it really is. The move seems unprecedented and almost irrational, unless you are a Chinese financial official cognizant of a plan to unseat American primacy. Then, a rush to detach from the U.S. makes perfect sense.

...If banking elements of China are working in concert with other central banks to force the U.S. into “global harmonization” under the IMF, it means this entire trade war state of affairs, all the accusations and cross-accusations, all the talking points and debates, every facet of the issue that has burgeoned so far this season, is one fantastic charade! What’s the point? While China is being built up as the villain of our American economic collapse fairy tail instead of the global banks, America is being built up as the villain for the rest of the world.

Scapegoats -- always very useful. In this case, Americans can hate and blame the Chinese all they want for ruining our economy, when it was actually the banksters. It will be no skin off China's back because Americans will be slaves at that point, and the US military will do the bidding of China's new best friends, the banksters. So no sticks and stones, just name calling and grousing from a bunch of poverty-stricken Americans? No big deal. Think of it as a little favor. The Chinese will take the blame and play the bad guys for a time, and it will be made up to them later.

More supporting evidence that some people in China have known the plan all along and have been working with their good international banking friends:

See: getting the show on the road
See: party time in Beijing: "The people who have run America into the ground are now going to take their party balloons and go to China."
See: making a correction?

The resources of the world, particularly the new world, have been divvied up. Game over for the Anglo speaking world. China is the next big thing, and the Jewish bankers are moving on. We don't expect the Catholic Church to have much sway in China. We suspect that by mutual agreement, the Catholic Church was slated to lead the new world order religion when the time came. We suspect that the Jewish banking families, having amassed tremendous power and ready to make a big move for Asia, recently reneged on the deal and decided to go a different route, thus imploding the very agreements which have brought the world to this perilous place.

See: necessary but not sufficient

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We see more and more evidence of a special romance between China and Israel.

Chinese envoy: We admire Israel (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3961612,00.html)

On Tuesday, September 28, China marks 18 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel. The Chinese, like the Israelis, view this number as a symbolic milestone. "For us it symbolizes happiness and prosperity," the ambassador explains.

A festive gala dinner was to be held at the Beit Shean amphitheater in the presence of President Shimon Peres. This location was chosen, among other things, in honor of former politician David Levy, who lives in Beit Shean and served as foreign minister when the relations with China were first established.
Zhao says he is working with the Israeli Foreign Ministry on preparing Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming visit to China, where he says the prime minister is expected to be welcomed warmly.
"You might not know this," he says, "but we in China admire you and your Jewish mind, which has brought many Nobel prizes. The free China was established in 1949, one year after Israel, but we view what you have achieved as a miracle. We are brothers, almost twins. We admire you for creating miracles for 62 years."
Undoubtedly, the greatest success in China and Israel's relations is the trade ties. In the past 18 years, trade relations have been extended and have grown from $42 million to $6 billion.
"Israel contributes greatly to China in agricultural affairs, an important and significant field in China," Zhao says. "These days more than 20 universities have established ties with Israeli universities; nearly 20 Chinese universities have signed twin city agreements with Israeli cities; and the first Confucius Institute opened at Tel Aviv University in 2007.
"All these are signs of good relations. We have learned a lot from you. The Chinese government sees the importance of developing the relationship between China and Israel, and is willing to advance mutual trust and cooperation between the two countries and two governments." 

...Succeeding in China is every Israeli businessman's dream.
"Well, it's the dream of 90% of businesspeople in the world. But Israelis have a good chance, because it's a win-win situation."

Win WIN WIIIIIIIIIN!! Worth reading in full. Reads like a lover's quarrel toward the end.

China doesn't appear to share Israel's concerns on the Iranian threat. 

"That's not true. We are against the development of a nuclear weapon by the Iranians, but Iran has the right to use nuclear energy for civilian purposes. We agree with Washington's stand on this matter. We believe that the nuclear problem must be solved through a dialogue between the sides, and China definitely takes part in these discussions." 

(Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad is threatening to destroy Israel. What is your stance on this? 
"We have made it clear, to the Iranians as well, that we are against countries using such threats."

You didn't rush to join the sanctions against Iran. 
"That's not true. The UN adopted a resolution on the sanctions several months ago, and we joined it."

Peace talks have been launched, and for some reason China is not taking part in them.
"We play an important and significant role in the Middle East as members of the UN Security Council. A special delegation is scheduled to visit Israel next month, including the Chinese representative." 

China's Middle East Envoy to visit Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Turkey and Egypt from October 11-23.

Seems to us that people who say "that's not true" to Israel's claims are normally tagged as "anti-semitic," but that doesn't seem to be the case with the Chinese. China seems to have some special anti-anti-semitic powers??

Can we get one of these capes?

(image from puking pastilles)

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Meanwhile, we found the Stuxnet worm curious. Stuxnet is just the beginning by Chris Dodds:

One of the big news stories of the IT security world over the past couple of weeks has been that of Stuxnet, a worm designed to attack industrial control systems. The discovery of Stuxnet is significant because of it’s complexity; this isn’t your standard 5cr1pt k1dd13 toy. Stuxnet appears to be the end product of a highly competent team of developers who have selected a very worrying target- SCADA systems.

SCADA is used to control everything from oil transportation pipelines to McDonald’s fountain drink robots. Manufacturing and the energy sectors in particular rely on SCADA systems in their day to day operations. So far, the major target of Stuxnet appears to be Iran’s nuclear power and processing infrastructure, with some spidering off into other Middle Eastern and Eastern countries.

... If certain systems such as compressed gas transports are attacked, there are ways an attacker could reprogram the SCADA system to cause back pressure and  explosions. If you’ve got a 30 inch natural gas line running under your city, it might be worth taking note.
Stuxnet wasn’t designed to propagate across the world indefinitely. It was built to attack a single target and dig its hooks in. To do what? – We don’t yet know. But it certainly highlights the possibility that there may already be other similar exploits in the wild or in development with their lasers set on us instead of the Iranians. In fact, our infrastructure could already be compromised and we wouldn’t even know it. In my experience, the culture of security around these systems is too immature to do much good. For a lot of companies and governments, it’s just not seen as a priority.

According to Paul Woodward writing in the Eurasia Review, the Stuxnet worm appears to have been a very sophisticated attack on Iran's Bushehr plant. (condensed)

A German team of industrial cyber security experts who have analyzed the way the worm operates now claim that it may have been designed to attack the newly operational Bushehr nuclear reactor.

Ralph Langner envisages that the highly sophisticated attack would have required a preparation team that included “intel, covert ops, exploit writers, process engineers, control system engineers, product specialists, military liaison.”

“Stuxnet is a 100-percent-directed cyber attack aimed at destroying an industrial process in the physical world,” says Langner, who last week became the first to publicly detail Stuxnet’s destructive purpose and its authors’ malicious intent. “This is not about espionage, as some have said. This is a 100 percent sabotage attack."

...If Bushehr was indeed the target, it may have presented itself first and foremost as a target of opportunity. From the point of view of governments with an interest in sabotaging Iran’s nuclear program, Bushehr would not be the most attractive target, but access provided to Russian contractors may have made it the easiest target.

Last September, Reuters reported: “Israel has been developing ‘cyber-war’ capabilities that could disrupt Iranian industrial and military control systems.”

So let’s assume that using Stuxnet, Israel has indeed launched the world’s first precision, military-grade cyber missile. What are the implications?

1. Iran has been served notice that not only its nuclear facilities but its whole industrial infrastructure is vulnerable to attack. As Trevor Butterworth noted: “By demonstrating how Iran could so very easily experience a Chernobyl-like catastrophe, or the entire destruction of its conventional energy grid, the first round of the ‘war’ may have already been won.”

2. The perception that it has both developed capabilities and shown its willingness to engage in cyberwarfare, will serve Israel as a strategic asset even if it never admits to having launched Stuxnet.

3. When it comes to cyberwarfare, Israel ranks as a major global power. It’s own tiny infrastructure makes it much less vulnerable to attack than is the sprawling infrastructure of the United States. It’s highly developed military IT industry means that it not only has great domestic human resources but that Israeli IT specialists, through research and employment, have the best possible access to most of the leading development facilities and vendors around the world.

4. As a cyber arms race takes off, we should not imagine that it will be like other arms races where power resides more in capabilities than in the use of those capabilities. “Whereas nuclear weapons have been used twice in human history, cyber weapons are employed daily and there is therefore an existential need to create some form of regulatory system that allows more than implicit deterrence,” says Robert Fry.

5. If AQ Khan demonstrated the ease with which a nuclear proliferation network can operate, the fact that the raw material upon which cyberwarfare is based is arguably the most easily transferable object on the planet — computer code — means that in certain ways the era of cyberwarfare may prove to be more dangerous than the nuclear era.

6. In the strategic landscape of cyberwarfare the most dangerous player may turn out to be a small but highly developed fortress-state that feels threatened by much of the rest of the world; that neither trusts nor is trusted by any of its allies; that sees its own stability enhanced by regional instability; that has seen its own economic fortunes rise while the global economy suffers; and that views with contempt the notion of an international community.

Paul Woodward

Paul Woodward describes himself by nature if not profession, as a bricoleur. A dictionary of obscure words defines a bricoleur as “someone who continually invents his own strategies for comprehending reality.” Woodward has at various times been an editor, designer, software knowledge architect, and Buddhist monk, while living in England, France, India, and for the last twenty years the United States. He currently lives frugally in the Southern Appalachians with his wife, Monica, two cats and a dog.

We like his analysis very much. (h/t malcontent from a NewsHogger story)

Speculating further on the Russian angle... and Russia's strange behavior lately...

One could spin complicated theories as to why Russia would want to sabotage its own facility, but Occam's Razor probably applies here -- and other reporting has indicated that the United States and Israel have, in fact, approved a covert sabotage campaign that may include a cyber component.

We turn once again to aangirfan, Jewish control of Russia?

On 6 September 2010, Russia and Israel signed an agreement on military cooperation....

Is Russia a Mafia state and is it close friends with Israel?...

On 28 September 2010, at voltairenet.org/en, Ivashov suggests that Medvedev has opted for the US-Israeli camp.
("In the Interests of Israel": Why Russia will not sell the S-300 Air Defense System to Iran)


1. On September 22 2010, it was announced that Russia will not sell the S-300 air defense system to Iran.

...10. There is a fear that Russia will join the "military escapades of the Anglo-Saxons and of the Israeli Zionist leadership in the name of the shadowy financial oligarchy’s global dominance."

The US and Israel are supposedly friends, but that friendship seems to be ending because Israel has not been a good friend?
Israel and Russia are old enemies, but are they really friends in secret?
Russia and the US are friends but only through their mutual acquaintance Israel? 
Israel and China are new friends, good friends, now that the friendship with the US is ending?
Russia and China should be friends but they don't trust each other because of Israel?


Have you ever had "friends" like this, who lie and stir up trouble at every opportunity? We have. They're called sociopaths.


Today the NYT reports on a reference to a Book of Esther name in the Stuxnet computer code. In the Book of Esther, Old Testament "Jews" preempt a Persian plot to destroy them.

That use of the word “Myrtus” — which can be read as an allusion to Esther — to name a file inside the code is one of several murky clues that have emerged as computer experts try to trace the origin and purpose of the rogue Stuxnet program, which seeks out a specific kind of command module for industrial equipment....some security experts see the reference as a signature allusion to Esther, a clear warning in a mounting technological and psychological battle as Israel and its allies try to breach Tehran’s most heavily guarded project. Others doubt the Israelis were involved and say the word could have been inserted as deliberate misinformation, to implicate Israel.

We don't doubt for a second that they would leave an in-your-face calling card. Anyway, it would seem now that there is NO JUSTIFICATION for an actual, physical attack on Iran, given this development. In fact, Iran could have some sort of catastrophe triggered by this Stuxnet worm and then no doubt we would hear it blamed on the usual suspects: HUMAN ERROR or TERRORISTS, or perhaps an ACT OF GOD....?

"...walking away calmly from an explosion in the background is so Bollywoodish!"

We agree. But it doesn't matter.

(source)

At this point we conclude that any talks going forward about an actual military attack on Iran are very much like the "fantastic charade" mentioned above in reference to trade war with China.

And when the explosion happens, wherever it happens, it will be the banksters who walk away calmly.