War crimes du jour

• US to expand drone attacks into Pakistani cities - Monday, December 14, 2009
• 'US fighter jets attack Yemeni fighters' - Monday, December 14, 2009
• US 'sends special forces to Yemen' amid crisis
• Yemen rebels say air raid kills 120, accuse U.S
• Obama Declares War On Pakistan - Monday, December 14, 2009
• Obama's Afghan Surge Will Rely Heavily On Private Contractors Mercenaries
• Report: U.N.-Backed Congo Troops Killing Civilians
• UK court 'issued warrant for Livni'
• Rothschild Zionist Miliband Steps Up Bid to Hide Proof of Torture
• Camp Delta, MKUltra and Cheney House Cleaning
• DoD to add $100B to 2011-15 spending
• Torture Roulette

The Obama administration has picked the worst possible case for its first torture trial.
By Dahlia Lithwick, Slate, Dec. 14, 2009, at 6:38 PM ET

For close to a year now, the Obama administration has been playing judicial Whac-a-Mole over accountability for Bush administration torture policies. Each time an opportunity arises to assess the legality of Bush-era torture, the Obama administration shuts it down. When another case pops up, the administration slaps it down. This all started last February when the Justice Department invoked the alarming "states secrets" privilege in an effort to shut down an ACLU lawsuit against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen DataPlan Inc. for its role in Bush's "extraordinary rendition" program. (That case will be reheard at the 9th Circuit tomorrow).

Since then, Attorney General Eric Holder's Justice Department has worked tirelessly to shutter or pre-empt torture litigation in cases ranging from a civil suit against former Bush lawyer John Yoo filed by Jose Padilla, (in which the Obama administration has now taken the position that Justice Department lawyers' advice on torture issues should have absolute immunity from lawsuits) to shifting its position on the release of torture photos.

This morning, and with the blessing of the Obama administration, the Supreme Court declined to revisit an appeals court ruling dismissing a lawsuit filed by four British citizens released from Guantanamo in 2004. The men sued former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and 10 military officials for alleged acts of torture and religious abuse. The Obama Justice Department urged the court not to hear the appeal, claiming the lower court got it right when it determined, among other things, that Guantanamo detainees were not "persons" for purposes of American law and that "torture is a foreseeable consequence of the military's detention of suspected enemy combatants." Lawyers for the detainees asked the court to hear the appeal because, "[l]eft in place, the court of appeals' decision will be a final assertion of judicial indifference in the face of calculated torture and humiliation of Muslims in their religion."

No luck. That means today yet another path to accountability for government-sanctioned torture was blocked at the starting gate. To be clear, it's not that torture victims are losing these trials. They can't even find their way into a courtroom. And, time after time, it's the Obama administration barring the door.

In a conference call with reporters late last week, ACLU lawyers pointed out that, as of this month, not a single torture victim has had his day in court, and that no court has yet ruled on the legality of the Bush-era torture policies. Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's National Security Project, put it bluntly: "On every front, the [Obama] administration is actively obstructing accountability. This administration is shielding Bush administration officials from civil liability, criminal investigation and even public scrutiny for their role in authorizing torture." Jaffer added that "The Bush administration constructed a legal framework for torture. Now the Obama administration is constructing a legal framework for impunity.".. Read all

Update: White House To Add $100 Billion More To Pentagon's 2011-15 Budgets

Gold is Up on Russian Central Bank’s 30-Ton Purchase

from The Daily Reckoning by Rocky Vega:

Russia’s central bank is going to buy roughly $1 billion of gold from its own state repository. The timing of the announcement took place with a move upward in the price of gold after recent floundering near four-week lows. The price rise also coincides with a softer dollar that’s likely the result of markets jittery over the Federal Reserve meeting about to begin tomorrow.

According to TheStreet.com:

“Reports from Moscow indicate that Russia’s central bank will buy 30 tons of gold from the state repository bringing the country’s total gold holdings to 5%. The sale strengthens the notion that global central banks are transitioning from net sellers of gold to net buyers. This follows the Reserve Bank of India’s purchase of 200 tons of gold at record prices from the IMF in early November.

“Although gold prices are down from their $1,226 highs, the precious metal was adding $4.20 to $1,124.10 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.”

So, despite some recent weakness in the price of gold, the pattern of net purchasing by central banks remains in place. Read the full coverage over at TheStreet.com in its post on the gold price rise.

More: China's Big Gold Story

"...State Council advisor Ji Xiaonan believes Beijing should start investing in at least 1,000 tonnes of gold per year for its official reserves. Claiming to have led an expert 'task force' on the matter last year, "We suggested that China's gold reserves should reach 6,000 tons in the next 3-5 years and perhaps 10,000 tons in 8-10 years," the China Youth Daily quoted Ji in late November. Yet the Western media, typically, misread that quote, saying "That is in line with many officials' view that China should decrease the proportion of its $2 trillion foreign exchange reserves held in Dollar-linked investments and raise its gold holdings to diversify its portfolio."

Not quite. Because for central banks, gold is a politically-charged asset, not simply a portfolio hedge. "Germany in 1944 could buy materials during the war only with gold," as Alan Greenspan noted in 1999. "Fiat money in extremis is accepted by nobody." And look at the numbers Ji quoted – 6,000 tonnes would take China way above Germany, while 10,000 would trump Washington...

...Even if China bought half the world's annual gold supply, it would only cost a few tens of billions of dollars, which is tiny compared to China's huge reserves."

"Even if it's sold at a market price, we should still buy," counters Xia Bin, head of a key Beijing think tank advising the State Council cabinet (and also making plain that this is his personal view).

"India's okay with it, why shouldn't we be? What's the use for so many dollars, whose purchasing power is weakening anyway? With so many foreign reserves in hand, I think China should buy, without doubt." Read all

Update: Gold Price Appreciation Likely on Eurozone Debt Concerns

Disclosure: I am long on physical gold

Shadowstats' John Williams: Prepare For The Hyperinflationary Great Depression

Excerpts from ZeroHedge, 14/12/2009:

The U.S. economic and systemic solvency crises of the last two years are just precursors to a Great Collapse: a hyperinflationary great depression. Such will reflect a complete collapse in the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar, a collapse in the normal stream of U.S. commercial and economic activity, a collapse in the U.S. financial system as we know it, and a likely realignment of the U.S. political environment. The current U.S. financial markets, financial system and economy remain highly unstable and vulnerable to unexpected shocks. The Federal Reserve is dedicated to preventing deflation, to debasing the U.S. dollar. The results of those efforts are being seen in tentative selling pressures against the U.S. currency and in the rallying price of gold.

...pushing the big problems into the future appears to have been the working strategy for both the Fed and recent Administrations. Yet, the U.S. dollar and the budget deficit do matter, and the future is at hand. The day of ultimate financial reckoning has arrived, and it is playing out.

...The U.S. has no way of avoiding a financial Armageddon. Bankrupt sovereign states most commonly use the currency printing press as a solution to not having enough money to cover obligations. The alternative would be for the U.S. to renege on its existing debt and obligations, a solution for modern sovereign states rarely seen outside of governments overthrown in revolution, and a solution with no happier ending than simply printing the needed money. With the creation of massive amounts of new fiat dollars (not backed by gold or silver) will come the eventual destruction of the value of the U.S. dollar and related dollar-denominated paper assets.

What lies ahead will be extremely difficult, painful and unhappy times for many in the United States. The functioning and adaptation of the U.S. economy and financial markets to a hyperinflation likely would be particularly disruptive. Trouble could range from turmoil in the food distribution chain to electronic cash and credit systems unable to handle rapidly changing circumstances. The situation quickly would devolve from a deepening depression, to an intensifying hyperinflationary great depression.

While the economic difficulties would have global impact, the initial hyperinflation should be largely a U.S. problem, albeit with major implications for the global currency system. For those living in the United States, long-range strategies should look to assure safety and survival, which from a financial standpoint means preserving wealth and assets. Also directly impacted, of course, are those holding or dependent upon U.S. dollars or dollar-denominated assets, and those living in "dollarized" countries.

Read all here

Cap-and-Trade Extortion Scam In Full Swing

A must read from Mish of the scam of the century that is backfiring:

"The cap-and-trade extortion racket promoted by the EU and UN has now blown sky high. Please consider Businesses hold world hostage over carbon credits.

WND research reveals the European Union's cap-and-trade exchange is vulnerable to a sophisticated form of corporate extortion in which EU bureaucrats in Brussels are manipulated into paying hundreds of millions of dollars in carbon permit bribes to keep companies from moving jobs to Third World nations.

In fact, it appears the scam is already under way.

The crux of the scheme is this: European steelmakers have threatened to leave the EU for India, eliminating the jobs of thousands of workers in the process, unless the EU grants the steelmakers free carbon credits worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Eurofer, a European trade group, is at the center of the scheme. The web of the plot, however, weaves in not only several companies, but also the United Nations' climate change chief:

• Among its members, Eurofer represents two EU steelmakers, Corus Redcar and ArcelorMittal, each of which has ties to India as well as to Rajendra K. Pachauri, the Indian industrial engineer who has been chairman of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, since 2002.
• Eurofer appears to have coordinated a threat to the European Union Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading System that its steelmakers would move their operations from the EU to India unless the EU cap-and-trade exchange issued them – at no cost – carbon emissions permits worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
• Once the bureaucrats in Brussels acquiesced, Corus Redcar and ArcelorMittal maneuvered to cash in windfall profits from the EU carbon permits given them at no cost.
• Additionally, Corus Redcar has now announced a decision to close operations in Great Britain nonetheless and relocate its steelmaking activities to India in order to gain additional U.N. carbon credits.

Ironically, EU and U.N. officials who might have thought requiring cap-and-trade permits would operate as "protection racket" in which EU companies need to buy carbon credits to continue operations, have now found themselves on the losing end of the reverse scheme.

In the final analysis, the winners are the European Union corporations willing to play hardball with the European Union Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading System, and the losers are the EU middle class workers that are held hostage in the scheme.

Cashing In On The Scam

Inquiring minds are reading how Carbon credits bring Lakshmi Mittal £1bn bonanza.

LAKSHMI MITTAL, Britain’s richest man, stands to benefit from a £1 billion windfall from a European scheme to curb global warming. His company ArcelorMittal, the steel business where he is chairman and chief executive, will make the gain on “carbon credits” given to it under the European emissions trading scheme (ETS).

The scheme grants companies permits to emit CO2 up to a specified “cap”. Beyond this they must buy extra permits. An investigation has revealed that ArcelorMittal has been given far more carbon permits than it needs. It has the largest allocation of any organisation in Europe.

The investigation has also shown that ArcelorMittal and Eurofer, which represents European steel makers at European level, have lobbied intensively in Brussels. This has included threatening to move plants out of Europe at a cost of 90,000 jobs, and asking European commissioners to meet Mittal.

ArcelorMittal is now free to sell its surplus permits on the market or to hoard them for future use. The latter would allow it to avoid cutting greenhouse gas emissions for years, effectively undermining the point of the scheme.

ArcelorMittal, which is based in Luxembourg and has more than 80 steel plants around Europe, has confirmed Pearson’s figures. The ETS covers 10,000 industrial installations, responsible for 40% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The world's biggest polluters wanted the carbon cap so they could trade their permits (acquired for free), to other businesses who will have to buy them to expand.

Now some of those polluters are going to move to India anyway after extorting extra permits out of the EU.

Not only is the global warming data bogus and manipulated, the whole cap-and-trade program is now easily seen as nothing more than an extortion scam, a scam that has fittingly blown up in the face of the EU and UN clowns who created it (unless of course that was their intention all along).

Unfortunately, EU workers and taxpayers are the ones who are going to suffer over this, not the clowns who created this ridiculous scheme.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock - http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Updates: The Copenhagen climate summit is in chaos after poor countries walked out en masse on Monday morning.

The Real Reason Behind The Copenhagen Walk-Out

UK’s Richest Man Could Make More Than £1 Billion from Carbon Trading Scheme

The official NOAA ice core data

"...In other words, we’re pretty lucky to be here during this rare, warm period in climate history. But the broader lesson is, climate doesn’t stand still. It doesn’t even stay on the relatively constrained range of the last 10,000 years for more than about 10,000 years at a time...

...For climate science it means that the Hockey Team climatologists’ insistence that human-emitted CO2 is the only thing that could account for the recent warming trend is probably poppycock."

ClimateGate Expanding, Including Russian Data and Another Research Center

Climategate: Blair Cashing in on Climate Change

More: Climategate: With Business Interests Like These Are We Really Sure Dr Rajendra Pachauri is Fit to Head the IPCC?

Particularly interesting is Dr Pachauri’s connection with the “not-for-profit organisation” TERI. As we learn from its website, this used to stand for Tata Energy Research Institute, but was renamed in The Energy And Resources Institute in 2003. Nothing sinister, I’m sure, in its decision to play down the Tata connection; nor in the fact that Dr Pachauri makes no mention of the fact that he is funded by Tata on his website. And obviously, it is quite normal that TERI makes no disclosure on its website – or in its downloadable annual report (all you get is a pie chart with no figures on it) – about its financial arrangements: the pay scales of its 800 staff members and its esteemed director general are quite rightly hidden from the world’s prying eyes.' Read more...

More: What’s Going On? CRU Takes Down Briffa Tree Ring Data and More

Odd things are going on at the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. Widely available data, existing in the public view for years, is now disappearing from public view.

Background: The Corporate Climate Coup by David F. Noble TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2007

"This potential for profit-making from climate change gained the avid attention of investment bankers, some of whom were central participants in the PCA through their connections with the boards of the Pew Center and Environmental Defense. Goldman Sachs became the leader of the pack; with its ownership of power plants through Cogentrix and clients like BP and Shell, the Wall Street firm was most attuned to the opportunities. In 2004 the company began to explore the “market-making” possibilities and the following year established its Center for Environmental Markets, with the announcement that “Goldman Sachs will aggressively seek market-making and investment opportunities in environmental markets"