Bill Clinton 'lost vital White House nuclear codes'

Telegraph

For several months during Bill Clinton's administration, a former top military officer says the White House lost the card with a set of numbers for opening the briefcase containing the codes for a nuclear attack.

Gen Hugh Shelton, who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, said in his new memoir, "Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior" that "the codes were actually missing for months. That's a big deal -- a gargantuan deal."

A similar claim was made by Lt Col Robert Patterson, a former aide, in a book published seven years ago. He was one of the men who carried the briefcase, known as the "football", and he said that the morning after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke that he made a routine request of the president to present the card so that he could provide an updated version.

"He thought he just placed them upstairs," Lt Col Patterson recalled. "We called upstairs, we started a search around the White House for the codes, and he finally confessed that he in fact misplaced them. He couldn't recall when he had last seen them."

He said the President lost the card holding the codes, which is known as the biscuit, in 1998, but according to Gen Shelton, the card went missing in 2000.

Former president Jimmy Carter was rumoured to have once left the '"biscuit" in a suit that was sent to the dry cleaners.

Will the Federal Reserve Cause a Civil War?

Time.com

What is the most likely cause today of civil unrest? Immigration. Gay Marriage. Abortion. The Results of Election Day. The Mosque at Ground Zero. Nope.

Try the Federal Reserve. November 3rd is when the Federal Reserve's next policy committee meeting ends, and if you thought this was just another boring money meeting you would be wrong. It could be the most important meeting in Fed history, maybe. The US central bank is expected to announce its next move to boost the faltering economic recovery. To say there has been considerable debate and anxiety among Fed watchers about what the central bank should do would be an understatement. Chairman Ben Bernanke has indicated in recent speeches that the central bank plans to try to drive down already low-interest rates by buying up long-term bonds. A number of people both inside the Fed and out believe this is the wrong move. But one website seems to believe that Ben's plan might actually lead to armed conflict. Last week, the blog, Zerohedge wrote, paraphrasing a top economic forecaster David Rosenberg, that it believed the Fed's plan is not only moronic, but "positions US society one step closer to civil war if not worse." (See photos inside the world of Ben Bernanke)

I'm not sure what "if not worse," is supposed to mean. But, with the Tea Party gaining followers, the idea of civil war over economic issues doesn't seem that far-fetched these days. And Ron Paul definitely thinks the Fed should be ended. In TIME's recent cover story on the militia movement many said these groups are powder kegs looking for a catalyst. So why not a Fed policy committee meeting. Still, I'm not convinced we are headed for Fedamageddon. That being said, the Fed's early November meeting is an important one. Here's why:

Read more: http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2010/10/19/will-the-federal-reserves-next-meeting-lead-to-civil-war/#ixzz12zyfbMwj

Al-Qaeda Mastermind Invited To Pentagon After 9/11

Al-Qaeda terror mastermind Anwar Al-Awlaki, the man who helped plot the aborted Christmas Day bombing, the Fort Hood shooting, the Times Square bombing attempt, and who also preached to the alleged September 11 hijackers, dined at the Pentagon just months after 9/11 documents obtained by Fox News show.

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U.S. Wars Are Bankrupting the World

The endless and infinite "war on terra" is bankrupting the planet. I don't mean moral bankruptcy; that goes without saying. I mean financial bankruptcy. And don't take my word for it. This is the argument made in a new book called "Terrorism and the Economy: How the War on Terror Is Bankrupting the World," by Loretta Napoleoni, a financial reporter for Internazionale, l'Unita, il Caffe, Mondo e Missione, El Pais, Vanity Fair Spain, and Vanity Fair Italy.

Perhaps Napoleoni is insufficiently subservient to Wall Street to write for U.S. newspapers -- unlike, say, the United States government: "Washington needs Wall Street's help to keep international investors funding the U.S. debt," the author explains, "which in turn provides the $1.6 billion needed each month to keep troops in Iraq and Afghanistan." Which explains the lack of criminal prosecutions and serious regulation of Wall Street.

Napoleoni traces some surprising changes in the world financial system over the past nine years to the latest U.S. warmaking spree: "Though it may sound implausible, as soon as the West focused its attention on the war on terror, the United Arab Emirates and the rest of the Persian Gulf began experiencing an unprecedented economic boom. Money started to flow toward their economies." The U.S. government did not investigate the sources of terrorist funding, but did put restrictions in place through the PATRIOT Act that led money launderers to take their business to Europe, which suffered from that transfer as well.

The U.S. claimed it wanted to cut off the terrorists' lifeline, but Napoleoni finds little evidence of action behind the claim. Instead she sees Bush's failure to pursue bin Laden's bankers as in line with his failure to try to prevent 9-11 or to capture or bring bin Laden to trial. The 9-11 attacks were Bush's excuse for war, and war was what he wanted.

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Your retirement account might get smaller this year

CNNMoney.com

NEW YORK -- Older Americans whose retirement accounts took a beating from the market's downturn caught a break last year: The government suspended rules that required them to make annual withdrawals, buying them time for their portfolios to recover.

But now that the markets are starting to come back, Uncle Sam wants his share again.

That means if you're 70 ½ or older and have a retirement account -- including a 401(k) or IRA -- you must resume withdrawing the annual minimum from those plans this year, so that the money can be taxed. The so-called "Required Minimum Distribution," or RMD, you must take out depends on your age and the size of your retirement account.

Of course, if you're retired and using your account to live on, this probably isn't an issue. But if like many people, you still have other sources of income and want to keep as much money in your account as possible to let it grow, now is the time to plan ahead.

"With [RMDs] back on this year, folks shouldn't wait until the last minute to figure out what they need to withdraw," said Ken Hevert, vice president, personal retirement products at Fidelity. "You need to be forward-looking if you don't want to find yourself in a situation where your request doesn't get processed on time."

Failing to withdraw the correct amount of money from your account on time means serious penalties -- a 50% tax on the amount that should have been withdrawn.

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France burns as strike descends into violence

The Independent

France teetered on the edge of a complex and multi-layered crisis yesterday as petrol shortages worsened and violence by disaffected suburban youths spread and intensified. 

Around 3.5 million people, according to unions – about the same or marginally fewer than last week – joined marches around the country to protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to raise the retirement age to 62. One-day strikes in the public sector disrupted rail and air services but were patchily observed by workers in other sectors.

The sense of crisis threatening the country came not from these "official" protests but from spreading blockages of schools and universities by students and by continuing strikes at oil refineries and the picketing of fuel distribution depots by hardline union branches.

Mr Sarkozy promised rapid action to lift the fuel blockages as the government admitted that 4,000 – almost one in three – petrol stations were "waiting for supplies" (in other words empty).

The Prime Minister, François Fillon, said that "no one has a right to take an entire country hostage" and promised emergency action to restore petrol supplies to normal within five days. Potentially even more seriously, there was a second day of violent clashes between police and hooded youths in Lyon, in Nanterre, west of Paris, and in a score of other towns and suburbs.

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CIA 'failed to pass on concerns' about Afghanistan suicide bomber

The Guardian

Three weeks before a man claiming to be an al-Qaida turncoat blew himself up at an Afghanistan base, killing seven CIA agents, the agency was warned that he might still have been plotting against the US, an investigation has revealed.

Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi, a 36-year-old doctor who had been recruited by Jordanian intelligence officials, blew himself up in December after being taken to a CIA base at Khost, Afghanistan.

Balawi had been taken to the base to be "assessed" regarding information he had on a CIA target, but upon arrival he detonated a bomb hidden under his clothing, killing seven CIA agents a Jordanian intelligence officer and an Afghan driver. Six other officers were wounded.

"He had confirmed access within extremist circles, making a covert relationship with him – if he was acting in good faith – potentially very productive," the director of the CIA, Leon Panetta said yesterday in a letter to employees.

"But he had not rejected his terrorist roots. He was, in fact, a brutal murderer."

Panetta said that separate internal reviews had found that critical warnings about Balawi were not shared with other officials, security measures on the base were insufficient and it was unclear who was in charge of the operation.

One of the biggest mistakes may have been the failure of a CIA officer in Jordan to pass along concerns raised by Jordanian intelligence about Balawi's ties to al-Qaida.

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At the border, a perilous spillover

Source: Washington Post

When a major Mexican drug cartel opened a branch office here on the California side of the border, U.S. authorities tapped into its cellphones - then listened, watched and waited.

Their surveillance effort captured more than 50,000 calls over six months, conversations that reached deep into Mexico and helped build a sprawling case against 43 suspects - including Mexican police and top officials - allegedly linked to a savage trafficking ring known as the Fernando Sanchez Organization.

According to the wiretaps and confidential informants, the suspects plotted kidnappings and killings and hired American teenage girls, with nicknames like Dopey, to smuggle quarter-pound loads of methamphetamine across the border for $100 a trip. To send a message to a rival, they dumped a disemboweled dog in his mother's front yard.

But U.S. law enforcement officials say the most worrisome thing about the Fernando Sanchez Organization was how aggressively it moved to set up operations in the United States, working out of a San Diego apartment it called "The Office."

At a time of heightened concern in Washington that drug violence along the border may spill into the United States, the case dubbed "Luz Verde," or Green Light, shows how Mexican cartels are trying to build up their U.S. presence.

The Fernando Sanchez Organization's San Diego venture functioned almost like a franchise, prosecutors say, giving the group greater control over lucrative smuggling routes and drug distribution networks north of the border.

"They moved back and forth, from one side to the other. They commuted. We had lieutenants of the organization living here in San Diego and ordering kidnappings and murders in Mexico," said Todd Robinson, the assistant U.S. attorney who will prosecute the alleged ring next year.

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Report Shows Drone Strikes Based on Scant Evidence

New information on the Central Intelligence Agency’s campaign of drone strikes in northwest Pakistan directly contradicts the image the Barack Obama administration and the CIA have sought to establish in the news media of a program based on highly accurate targeting that is effective in disrupting al-Qaeda’s terrorist plots against the United States.

A new report on civilian casualties in the war in Pakistan has revealed direct evidence that a house was targeted for a drone attack merely because it had been visited by a group of Taliban soldiers.

The report came shortly after publication of the results of a survey of opinion within the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan showing overwhelming popular opposition to the drone strikes and majority support for suicide attacks on U.S. forces under some circumstances.

Meanwhile, data on targeting of the drone strikes in Pakistan indicate that they have now become primarily an adjunct of the U.S. war in Afghanistan, targeting almost entirely militant groups involved in the Afghan insurgency rather than al-Qaeda officials involved in plotting global terrorism.

The new report published by the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC) last week offers the first glimpse of the drone strikes based on actual interviews with civilian victims of the strikes.

In an interview with a researcher for CIVIC, a civilian victim of a drone strike in North Waziristan carried out during the Obama administration recounted how his home had been visited by Taliban troops asking for lunch. He said he had agreed out of fear of refusing them.

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NED, legal front for the CIA

For 30 years, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) subcontracts the legal part of the illegal operations of the CIA. Without arousing suspicion, she has established the largest network of corruption in the world, buying trade unions and employers, political parties of left and right, for they represent the interests of the United States rather than those of their members. Thierry Meyssan described by the extent of this device.

In 2006, the Kremlin denounced the proliferation of foreign associations in Russia, some of which allegedly involved in a secret plan to destabilize the country orchestrated by the American Foundation for Democracy (National Endowment for Democracy - NED). To prevent a "color revolution" Vladislav Surkov was developing a strict regulation of these "non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In the West, this administrative support was described as a new attack of the "dictator" Putin and his advisor against freedom of association.

This policy has been followed by other states which, in turn, were presented by the international press as "dictatorships".

The Government of the United States ensures that it works to "promote democracy around the world." He claims that Congress can subsidize the NED and that it can in turn and independently, directly or indirectly assisting associations, political parties or trade unions, working in the sense anywhere in the world. NGOs are, as their name suggests, "non-governmental" can take political initiatives that the embassies could take without violating the sovereignty of states that receive them. The whole question therefore is this: the NED and the network of NGOs it funds are they civil society initiatives unfairly punished by the Kremlin or screens of U.S. intelligence caught interference?

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U.S. Debt and Deficits, Learning from Canada's Experience

There are those who say the US is doomed, that there is no way out from our problems with deficits, future entitlement promises, and a dysfunctional political system. And in my darker moments I worry that they are right.

I get the problems, probably more than most. But there is a way out. Hopefully, it does not entail collapse first, as some suggest. But it will require a lot of hard decisions. Some will be very hard.

For example, many point to the unfunded Medicare liabilities of some $70 trillion. I don’t worry about them so much, as they will never be paid, at least not under the current system. LONG before we get to that point, there will be a crisis that will force us to deal with the issues. Rule: if something can’t happen, then it won’t. We can’t pay the Medicare bill, so it won’t happen. Something else will happen in the meantime. It may not be good or pleasant, but something will come along to change the rules. More taxes? Fewer benefits? That is up in the air. But the system as it currently stands will not be allowed to prevail. Ask Greece how that is working out for them.

In today’s Outside the Box we look at a country where they had an even worse problem than we are faced with here in the US. They were on the ropes and their bond market was balking. Yet, their left-wing government made some very hard choices and turned things around. And now they are on top.

The country? Canada. Maybe we need to look north for a lesson.

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Global Grandiosity: America’s 21st Century World Architecture

voltairenet.org

Hubris, currently incarnated by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, is a malady which has run through the U.S. ruling class for decades. Rick Rozoff points out that ordinary citizens exhibiting analagous symptoms would normally be committed to a mental institution. However, when they take hold of players wielding absolute power on the global stage, their megalomaniac delusions and disconnect with reality pose an absolute threat to the entire world. The proverb "pride goes before a fall" is thought to sum up the modern definition of hubris.

Megalomania: Unreasonable conviction of one’s own extreme greatness, goodness, or power. An obsession with doing extravagant or grand things. A delusional mental disorder that is marked by feelings of personal omnipotence and grandeur. An extreme form of egotism. Adolf Hitler is generally considered to have been a megalomaniac.

Delusion of grandeur: Individuals with grandiose delusional disorder have an inflated sense of self-worth. Their delusions center on their own importance, such as believing that they have done or created something of extreme value or have a “special mission.” A conviction of one’s own importance, power, or knowledge. [A] delusion (common in paranoia) that you are much greater and more powerful and influential than you really are.

The above are composite dictionary definitions of the afflictions in question, ones which are symptomatic of the two most severe forms of mental illness: Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

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Lawless Nation - Congress

By Michael Collins
Part II of III (Part I)

WASHINGTON - Placed in office through legalized bribery, supported by public funding for their every need, protected against the laws that we're expected to obey, Congress represents the epitome of lawlessness; lawmakers who have no regard for the law. (Image)

Members of Congress are different. They get to retire at age 62 with lifetime pensions and health benefits. To qualify, they need just five years of service. They get free phone, mail, and other communications plus paid domestic and foreign travel. Supposedly, they're not allowed to take gifts but the list of exceptions offers plenty of room for luxurious appreciation.

The biggest gift of all - a six to seven figure job with a major corporation or lobbying firm right after retirement - is still fair game for any member. The revolving door never stops.

But supposedly Congress passes laws for the public benefit. They come to power based on contributions from their patrons, usually large donors. Then members resolutely deny that these contributions translate into legislation favorable to the donors. If pressed, member's state that the contributions merely buy access not votes.

In fact, members routinely vote the interests of their largest patrons. Thus, the contributions are a form of legalized bribery ("a favor or promise given to influence the judgment or conduct of a person in a position of trust.").

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Obama's Lost Magic

Source: Spiegel.de

Two years on from his historic election victory, US President Barack Obama is trying to recover his lost magic as defeat for the Democrats looms in the midterm elections. But he is no longer the man he used to be, and his window of opportunity has passed.

He wants everything to be as it was before. He wants it to be as innocent and passionate, as honest and boundless. He wants it to be as full of promises and the conviction that everything is possible in the Land of Opportunity. Because, as he told his supporters back then, "We are the ones we've been waiting for." It was a rallying cry so powerful and romantic it sounded like a line from a good song.

Today, Barack Obama is the first black president of the United States. Back then, in 2008, he was probably the best election campaigner of all time. And now he is on the campaign trail again. This fall he is speaking in Philadelphia, Chicago and Columbus, Ohio, spreading the message that "they" (the Republicans and their donors) want to rob "us" (open-minded, young Americans) of our future. 

At the Crossroads

It is like a grown-up going back to the places of his youth: the public swimming pool where he learned to swim, the intersection where he had his first kiss. It's a sentimental journey, and at the same time an admission that youth doesn't last forever.

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Geithner Weak Dollar Seen as U.S. Recovery Route

Source: Bloomberg

Oct. 19 -- For U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, a weaker dollar may now be in the national interest.

The dollar has dropped more than 7 percent since Aug. 27, when Chairman Ben S. Bernanke signaled the Federal Reserve is prepared to ease monetary policy. Where once such a decline may have been met with resistance from the U.S., Geithner may now be tolerating it as a way of bolstering the recovery.

Companies from Costco Wholesale Corp. to Deere & Co. have credited the weaker dollar for giving their earnings a boost, and the currency’s slide has helped propel the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 11,000 for the first time since May. Higher stock prices in turn are bolstering consumer and business confidence. The danger is that the decline gets out of hand, fueling increases in the cost of living over the long term and prompting investors to avoid U.S debt.

“In an era where deflation pressures appear to be the greatest risk, growth is below trend and the U.S. wants to boost exports, why would they not want” a weaker dollar, Jim O’Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management in London, said in an interview. “The answer is when it becomes a problem for financial markets. Until then it’s a straightforward strategy.”

The U.S. currency is slipping in reaction to a decline in interest rates that’s making U.S. assets less attractive to overseas investors. The yield on the two-year Treasury note touched 0.3508 percent yesterday, the least since reaching a record low 0.3270 percent on Oct. 12.

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Collapsing empire watch

Source: Salon

It's easy to say and easy to document, but quite difficult to really internalize, that the United States is in the process of imperial collapse.  Every now and then, however, one encounters certain facts which compellingly and viscerally highlight how real that is.  Here's the latest such fact, from a new study in Health Affairs by Columbia Health Policy Professors Peter A. Muennig and Sherry A. Glied (h/t):

In 1950, the United States was fifth among the leading industrialized nations with respect to female life expectancy at birth, surpassed only by Sweden, Norway, Australia, and the Netherlands.  The last available measure of female life expectancy had the United States ranked at forty-sixth in the world.  As of September 23, 2010, the United States ranked forty-ninth for both male and female life expectancy combined.

Just to underscore the rapidity of the decline, as recently as 1999, the U.S. was ranked by the World Health Organization as 24th in life expectancy.  It's now 49th.  There are other similarly potent indicators.  In 2009, the National Center for Health Statistics ranked the U.S. in 30th place in global infant mortality rates.  Out of 20 "rich countries" measured by UNICEF, the U.S. ranks 19th in "child well-being."  Out of 33 nations measured by the OECD, the U.S. ranks 27th for student math literacy and 22nd for student science literacy.  In 2009, the World Economic Forum ranked 133 nations in terms of "soundness" of their banks, and the U.S. was ranked in 108th place, just behind Tanzania and just ahead of Venezuela. 

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Chinese firms are helping Iran to improve its missile technology and develop nuclear weapons

Source: Washington Post

During a visit to Beijing last month, a delegation led by Robert J. Einhorn, the State Department's special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control, handed a "significant list" of companies and banks to their Chinese counterparts, according to the senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue in U.S.-Chinese relations. The official said the Obama administration thinks that the companies are violating U.N. sanctions, but that China did not authorize their activities.

The Obama administration faces a balancing act in pressing Beijing to stop the deals and limit Chinese investments in Iran's energy industry. U.S. officials say they need to preserve their ability to work with China on issues ranging from the value of its currency to the stability of North Korea. But the administration also wants to make progress in efforts to dissuade Iran from building a nuclear weapon and to convince other powerful states that China is not receiving lenient treatment because of its energy needs.

"My government will investigate the issues raised by the U.S. side," said Wang Baodong, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy.

Einhorn's trip is part of a worldwide effort by the Obama administration to persuade countries to push Iran to enter into negotiations over its nuclear program, which the Islamic Republic says is peaceful. The Obama administration has cobbled together a growing network of countries and companies that have announced measures to cut investments in Iran.

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Pentagon braced for Iraq revelations from WikiLeaks

The Independent

The US Pentagon said yesterday that it had a 120-member team prepared to review a massive leak of as many as 500,000 Iraq war documents, which are expected to be released by the WikiLeaks website this month. 

Pentagon spokesman Col Dave Lapan said that the timing of the leak remained unclear but the Defence Department was ready for a document dump as early as Monday or Tuesday, a possibility raised in previous WikiLeaks statements.

Still, people familiar with the upcoming leak say they do not expect WikiLeaks to release the classified files for at least another week.

If confirmed, the leak would be much larger than the record-breaking release of more than 70,000 Afghan war documents in July, which stoked debate about the 9-year-old conflict but did not contain major revelations.

It was the largest security breach of its kind in US military history.

"It's the same team we put together after the publication of the (Afghan war documents)," Col Lapan said, adding it was unclear how many of the 120 personnel would be needed to contribute to the Iraq leak analysis.

Although the Iraq conflict has faded from public debate in the United States in recent years, the document dump threatens to revive memories of some of the most trying times in the war, including the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

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Iran brokers behind-the-scenes deal for pro-Tehran government in Iraq

Iran has brokered a critical deal with its regional neighbours that could see a pro-Tehran government installed in Iraq, a move that would shift the fragile country sharply away from a sphere of western influence.

The Guardian can reveal that the Islamic republic was instrumental in forming an alliance between Iraq's Nouri al-Maliki, who is vying for a second term as prime minister, and the country's powerful radical Shia cleric leader, Moqtada al-Sadr.

The deal – which involved Syria, Lebanon's Hezbollah and the highest authorities in Shia Islam – positions Maliki as a frontrunner to return as leader despite a seven-month stalemate between Iraq's feuding political blocs.

It also positions Iran as a potent buffer to US interests at a time when America is looking to change its relationship with Iraq from military overlords to civilian partners.

Senior officials in Iraq have given the Guardian details of the behind-the-scenes Iranian campaign which began in earnest in early September.

At the time the US had only just withdrawn its last dedicated combat units from Iraq but left behind a political vacuum with no government in place after March elections delivered a seemingly irrevocably split parliament.

According to sources the Iranians saw their opportunity.

"The Iranians were holding out until then," said a key source about the timing of the Iranian move. "They were not going to give the Americans the satisfaction of leaving on a good note."

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I-1098: Would Legislature expand an income tax?

Seattle Times

OLYMPIA — A big question hangs over Initiative 1098.

Can state lawmakers be trusted to keep the initiative's promise to target only the affluent — those with income exceeding $200,000 for individuals and $400,000 for couples — and not extend the income tax to everyone?

The Defeat 1098 campaign says hell no, hammering the point through television and radio ads that argue lawmakers assuredly would broaden the tax. History, in fact, has shown lawmakers' willingness to tinker with initiatives when they can.

The Legislature can't touch an initiative in the first two years without a two-thirds vote in both houses — a political impossibility. After two years, a simple majority vote suffices. That's much easier to accomplish.

The real issue — if voters approve the initiative Nov. 2 — is whether lawmakers would be so determined to apply a controversial tax to everyone that they would risk voter backlash.

There are many examples of lawmakers changing initiatives after two years. They repeatedly suspended Initiative 601, a spending-limit measure approved by Washington voters in 1993, and eventually rewrote it.

They also suspended a subsequent initiative approved by voters to make it harder for lawmakers to increase taxes, as well as measures to increase spending, such as the class-size reduction measure, Initiative 728.

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