Richard Silverstein – the American blogger who says he has been given the text of a memo outlining Israel’s plans for a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities – is clear about what he thinks it is.
It is impossible to verify the document, but Silverstein calls it a product of the Israeli military’s “dream factory which manufactures threats and then creates fabulist military strategies to address them. indeed an Israeli cabinet paper of some kind. He says it came from a senior Israeli politician – a former minister – and he describes it as a “sales pitch”, used by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak to try to win round sceptical members of Israel’s divided inner security cabinet.
The text supplied to the BBC is just that – text.
There is no document as such and thus it is impossible to verify if it is indeed an Israeli cabinet paper of some kind. But its purpose for Mr Silverstein is clear.
He believes it was passed by a serving officer to the politician and then leaked by him precisely to alert the outside world to the scale of Israel’s military plan to strike at Iran and thus to reduce its chances of ever happening.
An unprecedented public debate is underway in Israel on the wisdom of launching an attack against Iran. And this leaked document, whatever its source, and whatever its original purpose, has become an element in that debate.
‘Paralyse the regime’
The document itself is striking in both the scale and scope of the military operation that it proposes.
It also employs a range of technologies, many of which we have known that the Israelis are developing, but this document suggests that they are battle-ready and fully operational.
The leaked text suggests that an Israeli operation would begin with a massive cyber attack against Iran’s infrastructure, to “paralyse the regime and its ability to know what is happening within its borders”.
Ballistic missiles would be fired at Iranian nuclear targets, albeit with conventional non-nuclear warheads. Cruise missiles would be fired from Israeli submarines in the Gulf.
It has long been assumed that Israel’s small force of German-built Dolphin-class submarines has been adapted to fire cruise missiles, though it is not clear if these are a version of the US-made Harpoon or a derivative of the much longer range Israeli-built Popeye.
According to the text, it will not be just the main Iranian nuclear facilities that are struck, but command-and-control systems; research-and-development facilities and the residences of senior personnel in the nuclear and missile development apparatus.
Read the full BBC news report here.
© 2012 BBC News
8/16/2012
Common Dreams – Jonathan Marcus – Leaked Israel Memo : Propaganda Or Iran War Plan? – 16 August 2012
NaturalNews – J.D. Heyes – U.S. Banks Told To Prepare For Financial Collapse – 16 August 2012
(NaturalNews) Is the nation and the world headed for another financial meltdown? You would think so, judging by what U.S. banks have been told to prepare for by regulators.
According to documents obtained by Reuters, officials from the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have directed five of the country’s top banks -Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co. – to develop plans for preventing a collapse if they once again faced serious problems because they wouldn’t be able to count on government assistance.
The program, which began in 2010 and was largely kept secret, is in addition to “living wills” banks were instructed to craft plans to help regulators dismantle them should they actually fail. The revelations “show how hard regulators are working to ensure that banks have plans for worst-case scenarios and can act rationally in times of distress,” Reuters reported.
The documents said the banks were initially told to develop “recovery plans” two years ago. Government regulators told banks to consider dramatic efforts in any planning to stave off a collapse during tough economic times, to include the selling off of businesses, locating other funding sources if they are shut out from regular borrowing markets and otherwise reducing risky ventures.
‘Protecting the crown jewels’
Any plan should be flexible enough to launch within three to six months, the documents showed, and banks were to “make no assumption of extraordinary support from the public sector,” meaning, in all likelihood, another taxpayer-funded bailout like the one they received in 2007-2008.
Not surprisingly, Reuters reported, officials from the Federal Reserve and the five named banks refused to comment.
Bank recovery plans are different from the living wills, which are also known as “resolution plans,” required under provisions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law. The living wills seek to eliminate bailouts of too-big-to-fail banks by demonstrating how they could self-liquidate without damaging or threatening the nation’s financial infrastructure.
“Recovery plans are about protecting the crown jewels,” Paul Cantwell, a managing director at consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal, told Reuters. “It’s about, ‘How do I sell off non-core assets?’ The priority is to the shareholders. A resolution plan is about protecting the system, taxpayers and creditors.”
The plans are being utilized by regulators as part of their ongoing supervisory role.
“Recovery plans required of the largest banks are helpful in ensuring banks and regulators are prepared to manage periods of severe financial distress or instability affecting the banking sector,” said Mike Brosnan, senior deputy comptroller for large banks at the OCC. He told the newswire his agency continually evaluates all contingency measures as part of living will requirements for large U.S. banks and financial institutions.
Good news for taxpayers?
Documents show that, over the summer thus far, nine global banks have submitted living wills to the Fed and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.; regulators have since released the public portion of those documents.
But the recovery plans requested a couple of years ago had thus far received almost no publicity. “The names of the banks required to submit them have not been previously disclosed, and Reuters obtained them only through a Freedom of Information Act request,” the newswire reported.
Fed officials supplied letters requesting the plans from the banks – not the actual plans because regulators declared them to be confidential since they were supervisory in nature. In all, the Fed said it withheld 5,100 pages of documents.
The report said recovery plans have been mentioned in public in the past, but only briefly and without specifics. During congressional testimony in July 2010, Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo said only that the “largest internationally active U.S. banking organizations” were developing recovery plans, an effort prompted and led by the Financial Stability Board, which coordinates international regulators.
If anything, the disclosure of these planning details should give heart to American taxpayers who, from the sound of it, won’t be on the hook for any future bank failures.
Sources:
http://www.reuters.com
http://www.bizjournals.com
http://www.todayonline.com
JPMorgan, Barclays Among Banks to Get N.Y. Subpoenas
Bloomberg Business Week
By David McLaughlin on August 16, 2012JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Barclays Plc (BARC) are among seven banks subpoenaed in New York and Connecticut’s investigation into alleged manipulation of Libor, according to a person familiar with the matter and company filings.
Subpoenas were sent in recent weeks to five of the banks, Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) in addition to JPMorgan and Barclays, the person said yesterday. Citigroup Inc. (C) and UBS AG (UBSN) received subpoenas earlier this year as part of the investigation.
To read the rest of this story, visit BusinessWeek.com.
You are in a Galactic shift of immense power and by now you are beginning to feel the changes
You are in a Galactic shift of immense power and by now you are beginning to feel the changes
Posted on 2012/08/16
Commentary and Highlights from Kauilapele's Blog :You know, many times, I don’t know what I am doing. It did not even cross my mind to put this up last night. Lots going on. Internal, external, pro-ternal, con-ternal. But all for the Highest.
Anyway, I knew I had to post this before retiring to my other job, Galactic Adventurer (many of you are in that role as well!), traveling here, and there, on adventures to who knows where. What a Show!
I will say this, that the part where he says, “…you will find that your level of consciousness is growing. At a physical level you may feel at times as though you are walking upon air, even bouts of dizziness,” I can tell you, that’s something going on all the time these days, at least in my field of energy. And to get involved in any kind of petty, old paradigm, duality-based conversations or readings, is essentially impossible. No way. No more.
Highlights
- We are entering the closing stages of the preparations for Ascension, and that requires a great deal of co-operation from our Allies.
- The removal of many top members of the Illuminati proceeds, and… a build up to remove others who are their pawns in the political and Government circles. It is going well…
- One aspect of your upliftment proceeds… You are in a Galactic shift of immense power and by now you are beginning to feel the changes.
- At your level following your daily routine, you could be forgiven for thinking that very little was happening. That is far from the truth…
- As you absorb more Light so you will find that your level of consciousness is growing. At a physical level you may feel at times as though you are walking upon air, even bouts of dizziness.
- It is also the subconscious realization that you have at last lifted up out of duality, and that it can no longer have any hold over you.
- Think big and think Ascension, as it is the most fantastic experience that you will have and you will remember every second of it.
- The old technologies have long passed there usefulness, and must make way for great advances which so far you have been denied. As you already know much of it is based upon free energy…
- Another great change will see all pollution making applications replaced by ones that are pollution free.
- The Galactic Federation of Light has well prepared for the coming time, and has made audio presentations that will give you a clear understanding of what is going to happen.
—————————————————————————
We are entering the closing stages of the preparations for Ascension, and that requires a great deal of co-operation from our Allies. To dismantle the web of corruption, and the corporations that have been empowered by the Illuminati, has been a mammoth task and is still proceeding. Bear in mind that the plan of the dark Ones was established over 200 years ago, and its tentacles have penetrated almost every facet of your existence. Like a cancer it has quickly spread until it has become difficult to completely eliminate, but we have been able to bring it to a halt. Our allies have been using the very circumstances that the dark Ones have created, to turn it in upon themselves and have seriously weakened their power structure.
The removal of many top members of the Illuminati proceeds, and in general there is a build up to remove others who are their pawns in the political and Government circles. It is going well and will soon open up opportunities to move nearer to Disclosure, and get organized for the advancement of other projects. Believe us Dear Ones, we are well behind those who are carrying the responsibility for getting things really off the ground. We will all breath [breathe] a sigh of relief when at last we can be seen to openly work with you. One aspect of your upliftment proceeds regardless of any activities to hold up your progress, and that is the amount of Light being received by you. It is pouring upon the Earth from many sources, many of which are outside of your solar system. You are in a Galactic shift of immense power and by now you are beginning to feel the changes.
At your level following your daily routine, you could be forgiven for thinking that very little was happening. That is far from the truth, and many Beings off Earth are involved in one of the most exciting adventures they have ever attended. It is such that your Universe is aware of the immense importance of what you are about to experience. If you truly realised what you have undertaken, you would hardly concern yourselves with what we would call the minor details. They are of course important to you, but none more so than your actual Ascension. So please keep your unwavering focus on where you are going, and leave the details to us and you will not be let down.
As you absorb more Light so you will find that your level of consciousness is growing. At a physical level you may feel at times as though you are walking upon air, even bouts of dizziness. That will pass and you will be truly aware of a greater peace within and be so assured about your future, that you will stand out as one who is glowing with love. Emotions will be calm and easily controlled, but you will experience a deep feeling of happiness and joy just to be on Earth at such a momentous time. It is also the subconscious realization that you have at last lifted up out of duality, and that it can no longer have any hold over you. You have reached your goal and won the battle to come through it all with your Light shining bright.
Think big and think Ascension, as it is the most fantastic experience that you will have and you will remember every second of it. Every soul has the same opportunity to lift up, so please do not worry about those around you who seem disinterested. They will yet have a final chance to ascend and you cannot know exactly what might awaken them. Either way they will follow a course that is right for them, and they will continue to have life experiences that keep them on the path of evolution. Help people by all means when you have an opportunity to do so, but do not force your beliefs upon them because as helpful as they may seem, you may do more harm than good. Souls grow at different rates of progress, and no two of you are exactly the same. Leave them to find their own path, and know that they have Guides as you do who work with them in that respect.
As you are finding out there are many sources turning their attention to what the future means to you in real terms. It is after all only a short time before you ascend, and you will need to know what to expect. At present no one source is attempting to cover every aspect of the changes, but each in turn is informing you of what you will experience in the immediate future and immediately after Ascension. The old technologies have long passed there usefulness, and must make way for great advances which so far you have been denied. As you already know much of it is based upon free energy which is everywhere in the Universe. No matter how much you use you can never run out, and it is simple to collect it and put it into use.
Another great change will see all pollution making applications replaced by ones that are pollution free. Pollution has not just damaged your land, but also the airways and your oceans. You and other forms of life have suffered illnesses or death as a consequence, and the earth has become poisoned. There is to be clean and healthy water, pure air and land that has been cleansed of poisonous chemicals and all forms of waste. Mother Earth has to be restored to her pristine condition, after millennia of time allowing Man to live off her. Eventually all areas that have been polluted with negative energies will also be restored, until nothing but the higher energies remain.
The Galactic Federation of Light has well prepared for the coming time, and has made audio presentations that will give you a clear understanding of what is going to happen. You have a reasonably good idea already, but we want to expand your knowledge so that you feel comfortable with the changes. The speed at which they will take place will ensure that you do not feel put out by them. Even the lifting up of Earth’s vibrations will result in a degree of cleansing, because the lower energies will become transmuted through molecular changes. Our technologies will to a large extent allow us to operate directly from our craft that are stationed around your Earth. Indeed, we have already been working that way for quite a time, to keep major pollution in your oceans at a low level.
I am SaLuSa from Sirius, and thank you for your patience that shall be well rewarded. We are your friends and will treat you as such and share much with you that will be enjoyable, including some trips in our craft. Keep going and know that we and many other souls are with you, and love every one of you.
Thank you SaLuSa.
Mike Quinsey.
Saudis hold anti-regime demonstrations
NEWS BUSINESS
16 August 2012 Last updated at 08:47
Seven banks, including HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland, are to be questioned in the US for alleged manipulation of the Libor inter-bank lending rate.
Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and UBS have also received subpoenas from the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut.
Last month, Barclays was fined £290m by UK and US regulators for rigging Libor.
US regulators said they were investigating potential involvement by other banks in the Barclays scandal.
The investigation is predicated on the assumption that at least one other bank must have colluded with Barclays in any attempts to manipulate Libor rates, which are used as a reference to price trillions of dollars of financial products.
The US authorities will see whether supporting documents and testimony provide sufficient evidence for a criminal prosecution.
Criminal charges could also bolster the strength of civil lawsuits by investors seeking damages for losses due to any rate-rigging.
"This is the first time we're seeing a legal case that is trying to prove [collusion]. If they can prove it, then all the fees could amount to tens of millions of pounds," said Ralph Silva, a banking analyst at SRN.
UK investigation
A government-ordered review into Libor is currently being conducted by the managing director of the Financial Services Authority, Martin Wheatley.
Barclays was fined for trying to manipulate the Libor rates
The Wheatley review is examining how the Libor rate, the benchmark interest rate for trillions of financial contracts including some mortgages, is calculated and regulated.
The current Libor system is no longer a "viable option", Mr Wheatley said.
Libor is calculated using rates submitted by a group of leading banks who estimate how much it costs them to borrow in 10 currencies and 15 lengths of loans, ranging from overnight to 12 months.
There have been a series of allegations over the trading policies of banks in recent months.
Bank woes
On Tuesday, Standard Chartered agreed to pay $340m (£217m) to New York regulators to settle claims that it hid transactions worth $250bn with Iran.
Standard Chartered shares rallied on Wednesday after it agreed to settle the claims, after the institution had been threatened with having its US banking licence revoked.
Last week, New York's Department of Financial Services alleged that the US unit of the bank had illegally hidden 60,000 transactions with Iran worth $250bn over nearly a decade.
It accused the London-based bank of being a "rogue institution" for breaking US sanctions against Iran.
HSBC has also been accused of failing to prevent money laundering by the US Senate.
According to the Senate report, the US unit of HSBC carried out 28,000 undisclosed sensitive transactions between 2001 and 2007, an internal audit commissioned by the bank found. The vast majority of those transactions - worth $19.7bn - involved Iran.
As for Barclays, the Libor scandal led to the resignation of chief executive Bob Diamond as well as chairman Marcus Agius.
Last week, Sir David Walker was appointed as the new chairman.
He said he wants to review the way the bank operates and will begin his search for a new chief executive "within days".
Sir David is a senior banker who led the 2009 government inquiry into the rules governing how banks are run.
RBS has already admitted it is being investigated for fixing Libor.
It said: "RBS Group continues to receive requests from various regulators investigating the setting of Libor and other interest rates.
"We are co-operating with the investigations and are keeping relevant regulators informed."
Saudis hold anti-regime demonstrations Go Saudis go!!!
PressTV.ir
August 16, 2012
Anti-regime protesters hold pictures of prominent Shia cleric Nemr al-Nemr during a rally in Saudi Arabia’s coastal town of Qatif on
July 8, 2012.
Anti-regime protesters have demonstrated in Saudi Arabia to condemn the regime’s crackdown on peaceful protests and call for the release of political prisoners.
On Wednesday, demonstrators held rallies against the repressive regime of Al Saud in Eastern Province, demanding an end to human rights violation in the monarchy.
To read the rest of this story, visit PressTV.ir.
Saudis hold anti-regime demonstrations Go Saudis go!!!
PressTV.ir
August 16, 2012
Anti-regime protesters hold pictures of prominent Shia cleric Nemr al-Nemr during a rally in Saudi Arabia’s coastal town of Qatif on
July 8, 2012.
Anti-regime protesters have demonstrated in Saudi Arabia to condemn the regime’s crackdown on peaceful protests and call for the release of political prisoners.
On Wednesday, demonstrators held rallies against the repressive regime of Al Saud in Eastern Province, demanding an end to human rights violation in the monarchy.
To read the rest of this story, visit PressTV.ir.
Bless all the protesters in the world they are the ones carrying the weight of change in their shoulders
San Francisco Chronicle
JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press, August 14, 2012Striking mineworkers sit on a rocky outcropping near their shuttered platinum mine, Lonmin Platinum Mine near Rustenburg, South Africa, Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012. The unrest over pay and dueling unions has killed at least 10 people and represents a sign of the unrest gripping South Africa’s mining industry. Barnard O. Mokwena, an execute vice president for Lonmin, said the company continued to meet with the police regarding the unrest. On Tuesday, operations appeared at a standstill at a facility that represents 96 per cent of all production for the world’s third largest platinum producer. Photo: Denis Farrell / AP
MARIKANA, South Africa (AP) — Thousands of angry South African workers met Tuesday on a rocky cliff within sight of their platinum mine shuttered by violent protests, shouting demands for more pay over the roar of circling police and military helicopters.
As authorities pleaded for calm, the men trekked there from the simple hostels and shacks near the Lonmin PLC mine, carrying pipes, clubs and machetes across the barren fields with high-tension electrical wires overhead.
To read the rest of this story, visit SFGate.com.
Spain’s Creative Protests: Flamenco Flash Mobs and Supermarket Robin Hoods
Time Magazine
By Lisa Abend / Madrid, August 15, 2012Angry demonstrations are one thing, but the irate in Spain are stomping their flamenco heels at banks and robbing supermarkets to give to the poor
Marinaleda's mayor and Izquierda Unida Parliamentarian Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, center, walks next to protesters in Osuna, Spain, Aug. 9, 2012. Jon Nazca / ReutersOn a sweltering Saturday evening, a small crowd gathered in Madrid’s La Latina neighborhood to kick off a festival dedicated to one of the city’s patrons, the Virgin of the Paloma. In the nights to come, there would be paso doble contests, heaps of fried sheep intestine to consume at outdoor stalls and plenty of drunken dancing to Shakira at 2 a.m. But now, at this more politically inspired celebration, the biggest attraction was a carnival booth, called the Pim Pam Pum Indignado, where people paid 50 cents for the chance to throw a ball at a target adorned with the cartoon faces of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Rodrigo Rato (the recently resigned head of Bankia, which had to be nationalized earlier this year to the tune of 21 billion euros) and other protagonists of Spain’s economic crisis. As one bearded young man aimed carefully and toppled Angela Merkel with missile-like accuracy, the crowd erupted in a gleeful “Olé!”
Protests are everywhere and in almost every form these days in Spain. Ever since the Spanish government requested a bailout from the E.U. for its troubled banks in June, the growing list of austerity measures (a 7% reduction in civil servants’ pay; an increase in the value-added tax on goods and services; the abolition of subsidies for most medicines; rising power rates) has pushed a steady tide of demonstrators into the streets. Most of these protests are of the chanting and placard-waving variety; hardly a day goes by in Madrid without some kind of angry march in front of a government building or down a central artery. But as the crisis wears on and Spain appears to approach a second bailout — this one of its rapidly growing sovereign debt — new varieties of protest are emerging. Like the Pim Pam Pum Indignado, the criticism and outrage are becoming downright creative.
To read the rest of this story, visit World.Time.com.
