Iran Accuses U.S. of Violating Its Airspace
April 2nd, 2007The U.S. might be trying to get the Iranians to “paint” aircraft with their air defense systems. The U.S. would use this intelligence for final target selection for the initial phase of the attack. Air defense and communications systems will be hit first.
Via: People’s Daily:
Two U.S. airplanes have violated Iran’s airspace in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, Iran’s state television Sunday quoted a local military commander as saying on its website.
The airplanes on Saturday trespassed Iranian airspace from the northwest of Abadan, Khuzestan province, and disappeared from its southwest, said Colonel Aqili, commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in Abadan.
“The planes cast out white smoke trails, attracting the local people’s attention,” he was quoted as saying, but without giving the types of the two U.S. airplanes or their duration of the alleged violation.
March Contributions
April 2nd, 2007Cryptogon and Farmlet readers made March an incredible month for contributions. Total earnings came to $975.24. That includes $5.90 in AdBrite earnings.
That total is just shy of double the monthly goal of $500! Many thanks to all of you.
We had four Blue Host web hosting signups in March. Blue Host continues to amaze me with what they provide for $6.95 per month. Cryptogon activity is now well within the non-trivial range, and Blue Host has been excellent. (Recent denial of service attack survival story.) Farmlet traffic is increasing as well. Each Blue Host account is capable of hosting six completely separate domains. Both Cryptogon and Farmlet are hosted on the same exact hosting package that readers are signing up for here.
Amazon activity was also very heavy in March. This was the best month for Amazon commissions ever. Product purchases ranged from a used copy of Spider’s Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq (excellent book, by the way), all the way up to a Ladycomp (mentioned here). It all adds up!
I started posting some of the items that people are buying in the Store; the logic being that other Cryptogon readers might have similar interests. Cryptogon readers order some far out stuff, man. If you’re curious, check it out.
Thanks also to readers in Germany who remembered to get their Amazon goods via Cryptogon. Below are the links to all of the Amazon sites that I have an affiliate relationship with. If you live in the U.S., Canada, UK, Germany or France, please remember to begin your session on Amazon via these links.
amazon.com – amazon.ca – amazon.co.uk – amazon.de – amazon.fr
They are always posted in the Store for future reference.
Thanks again!
Los Angeles Suffers Longest Dry Spell in 130 Years
April 2nd, 2007Via: Breitbart:
Los Angeles is going through its longest dry spell in at least 130 years, the National Weather Service said Sunday, fueling fears of rampant wildfires which have plagued the US west coast in recent years.
“The rain season is currently the driest to date in downtown Los Angeles since records began in 1877,” the weather service said in a statement.
As Bee Colonies Disappear Across the Nation, Experts Are Wondering Why
April 2nd, 2007Via: Jacksonville Daily News:
Louie Foy has been charming Mother Nature’s pollinators for more than 40 years. Foy, who keeps bees at his home in Verona, makes honey from his tiny pets and knows everything about them — when they breed, what makes them angry, when they die.
But for the past three weeks, Foy has been stumped. He can’t figure out what drove some 30 of his colonies away.
“They just disappeared,†Foy said. “I have a few dead ones left but very few. Most of them, there’s just nothing there, and I have no idea why.â€
Researchers throughout the country are scrambling to find out too. They wonder why colonies like Foy’s are vanishing without a trace or warning. Coined “colony collapse disorder,†or CCD, scholars have several theories but no conclusions.
Area beekeepers learned about it in January at the American Beekeepers meeting in Austin, Texas. Concerns were raised by Maryann Frazier, an apiculture extension associate at Penn State University.
“During the last three months of 2006, we began to receive reports from commercial beekeepers of an alarming number of honey bee colonies dying in the eastern United States,†Frazier said at the meeting. “Since the beginning of the year, beekeepers from all over the country have been reporting unprecedented losses.â€
Although Onslow County has no large commercial beekeepers, some mid-level breeders are feeling the pinch.
“This is a relatively new thing; there’s a lot about it we don’t know,†said Jeff Morton, horticulture specialist for Onslow County Cooperative Extension.
Top apiarists, or bee specialists, explained common symptoms and theories surrounding the ailment during the January meeting. Experts believe the disorder affects the bees’ immune system, causing them to flee and die off.
One way scholars are hunting for a cure is through bee and hive autopsies. Attention has also been drawn to nearby colonies that remain but inexplicably become weakened.
Uninsured Patient Billed More than $12,000 for Broken Rib
March 31st, 2007Via: San Francisco Chronicle:
There are 47 million people in this country without health insurance. Richmond resident Joey Palmer is one of them.
He learned how costly this can be after fracturing a rib in a relatively minor motorcycle accident and subsequently being hit with a bill for more than $12,000 from San Francisco General Hospital.
“There’s no way I could pay something like that,” Palmer, 32, told me. “I’m not a bum, but I’m not making a lot of money right now. How is anyone supposed to pay a bill like that?”
Iman Nazeeri-Simmons, director of administrative operations at San Francisco General, said she sympathizes with Palmer’s situation.
“It’s not us,” she said. “It’s the whole system, and the system is broken. We need to look closely at making changes and at how we can deliver care in a rational way.”
Palmer’s story illustrates the broader problem of runaway health care costs in the United States and a system that leaves millions of Americans to fend for themselves.
It also underlines the importance of universal coverage that guarantees affordable health care to anyone, anywhere — a goal that’s become a central issue in California and in the current presidential campaign.
“We are the only developed country that doesn’t cover all its people,” said Stan Dorn, a senior research associate at the nonpartisan Urban Institute. “We also spend a lot more than the rest of the developed world.”
The United States spent an average of $6,102 per person on health care in 2004 (the latest year for which figures are available), according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Canada spent $3,165 per person, France $3,159, Australia $3,120 and Britain a mere $2,508. At the same time, life expectancy in the United States was lower than in each of these other countries and infant mortality was higher.
Children Face Criminal Checks from the Cradle
March 31st, 2007Via: Telegraph:
Checks will be made on all children to identify potential criminals under an extension of the “surveillance state” announced by Tony Blair.
A Downing Street review of law and order also foreshadowed greater use of sophisticated CCTV, an expanded DNA database and “instant justice” powers for police.
The review is intended to chart a course for the next 10 years by focusing more “on the offender, not the offence”.
Most crime is committed by a small number of offenders who could be identified almost from birth, ministers believe.
Mossad’s Nazis
March 31st, 2007Even if you’re numb to this kind of information, as I am, the following article is really far out.
Nazi war criminal working for Mossad: Check
Nazi war criminal’s Mossad handler also happened to be a drug dealer: Check
Catholic priest Nazi sympathizer with large amount of cash: Check
Wimpy’s burgers: Check
Via Haaretz:
In the late 1940s, Walther (Walter) Rauff, an SS officer who was responsible for the murder of at least 100,000 people and was wanted by the Allies as a war criminal, was employed by the Israeli secret service. Instead of bringing him to justice it paid him for his services and helped him escape to South America. Documents of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that have been released over the past several years show that the Americans were aware that Rauff’s case was not exceptional.
…
The fact that Rauff supplied intelligence to Israel has been published before, but for some reason the reports did not generate a public debate over the moral implications of Israel’s providing protection to a major Nazi criminal, who was the subject of an international campaign by Nazi hunters Simon Wiesenthal and Beate Klarsfeld to bring him to trial. Similarly, the renowned U.S. Holocaust researcher Richard Breitman, who as director of historical research for the Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group reviewed Rauff’s CIA file, chose to ignore information indicating that Israeli intelligence systematically employed Nazis in Arab countries.
…
According to CIA records Rauff’s handler was Ted Cross, whose Hebrew name was David Magen. Cross was recruited in 1948 for clandestine activity by Asher Ben-Natan, director of operations in the Foreign Ministry’s Political Department, which served as the precursor to the Mossad. Cross was fluent in several languages and had served in British intelligence in World War II.
According to an article by Gil Meltzer in the daily Yedioth Ahronoth from a year ago, Cross – who was from a wealthy Jewish Budapest family named Gross – was an international adventurer, a hedonist and a womanizer. To pay for his flashy lifestyle, he dealt in drugs. When Israel discovered that he had also sold his services as an agent to Egypt – for the very handsome sum of $20,000 – he was arrested and sentenced to a lengthy prison term. After his release he went into the restaurant business and, among other things, helped found the Wimpy’s hamburger chain.
…
The CIA received information that Rauff had acted on behalf of British intelligence in Syria and gave his handlers a copy of the Syrian intelligence service and political police reorganization plan. He seems to have been the servant of several masters at once. According to the CIA documents, in November 1949 Rauff arrived in Rome from Beirut and stayed at the Pensione Telentino under the name of Walter Ralf. Sources at the hotel said that he had little money and lived frugally. He had no visitors and received only a few telephone calls. A Catholic priest known for his Nazi leanings gave Rauff 40,000 lire. On December 17, 1949, Rauff set sail for Ecuador. Both the ticket and his passport were supplied by either Israeli or British intelligence.
The Weirdest Story You Will Read Today
March 30th, 2007Travolta. Scientology. Global Warming. Other planets. Dome cities.
Via: This Is London:
His serious aviation habit means he is hardly the best person to lecture others on the environment. But John Travolta went ahead and did it anyway.
The 53-year-old actor, a passionate pilot, encouraged his fans to “do their bit” to tackle global warming.
Travolta, a Scientologist, claimed the solution to global warming could be found in outer space and blamed his hefty flying mileage on the nature of the movie business.
But his appointment as a “serving ambassador” for the Australian airline Qantas doesn’t seem to have much to do with the movies. Nor does a recent, two-month round-the-world flying trip.
“It [global warming] is a very valid issue,” Travolta declared. “I’m wondering if we need to think about other planets and dome cities.
“Everyone can do their bit. But I don’t know if it’s not too late already. We have to think about alternative methods of fuel.
“I’m probably not the best candidate to ask about global warming because I fly jets.
“I use them as a business tool though, as others do. I think it’s part of this industry – otherwise I couldn’t be here doing this and I wouldn’t be here now.”
Travolta’s five private planes – a customised £2million Boeing 707, three Gulfstream jets and a Lear jet – are kept at the bottom of his garden in the US next to a private runway.
Crude Oil Near Six-Month High on Iran’s Capture of U.K. Crew
March 30th, 2007These prices are going to start pounding the U.S. economy.
Via: Bloomberg:
Oil traded near a six-month high as 15 British sailors and marines seized in the Persian Gulf remained in Iranian custody for an eighth day, heightening concern the standoff will threaten oil supplies from the Middle East.
U.K Prime Minister Tony Blair said today Iran would face “continuing isolation” until the servicemen are freed. Iran backed away yesterday from an offer to release Faye Turney, the only woman captured, and said the U.K. must admit violating its territorial waters. Oil has risen 7 percent since Iran seized the group on March 23.
“People are still concerned about the continuity of supply” from Iran, the Middle East’s second-biggest exporter, said Rob Laughlin, a senior broker at Man Financial Ltd. in London. “There is a threat, and it’s two million barrels a day” at stake.
…
Almost a quarter of the world’s oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
“The market is very, very nervous,” said Michael Fitzpatrick, a vice president for energy risk management at Fimat USA in New York. “We’ve had very rapid tightening according to last week’s inventory data, demand is growing, and every other day there’s some refinery glitch or port closure.”
Money: Going Tactical
March 30th, 2007WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy sell or hold any financial instrument.
UPDATE 6 April 2007: Bank of America Delays BullionValut Deposits
In the post below, I discussed how I wanted to immediately move some of our money into gold using the BullionVault system. I did, indeed, try to move some money to BullionVault. I used the electronic payment option for customers with U.S. bank accounts and followed BullionValut’s instructions exactly. Since I haven’t used BullionVault before, I decided to try it out by moving a small amount of money at first.
I’m a Bank of America customer and BullionVault uses Bank of America to receive funds from clients with U.S. bank accounts. If you were to use BofA’s system to pay anyone, a slow payment would take four days. I’ve never had it take longer than that. It has been a week since I made the payment to BullionVault, and Bank of America finally said that it was complete on April 3rd.
The money STILL hasn’t shown up in BullionVault.
I emailed BullionVault:
I should be showing a deposit of US$ to BullionVault user account [DELETED]. Do you know what the story is with this?
I sent this payment several days ago, and my bank only indicated that it was delivered to BullionVault’s Bank of America account on 3 April.
Transaction Description: BANK OF AMERICA, N.A. Bill Payment
Date: 04/03/2007
Reference Number: [DELETED]
Amount: $[DELETED]I’m a Bank of America customer so I didn’t expect delays like this.
Thanks,
Kevin Flaherty
BullionVault promptly wrote back:
Dear Mr Flaherty,
Thank you for your email.
I can see your deposit pending on our Bank of America system – it should clear in the afternoon of the next working day (this will now be Tuesday 10th April, as we have Easter bank holiday Friday and Monday).
We have complained to BOA about these delays, but it seems they process these particular payments manually. We are currently looking into ways to improve this system.
Let me know if you have any questions, or if I can help in any way.
Regards
I must say, even I wasn’t paranoid enough on this. I expected the transaction to simply be noted in some Homeland Security database. Obviously, it’s all being archived in some crypt, forever. But held up and an inspected for manual processing? Again, even I wasn’t paranoid enough.
There is obviously a national security component to this type of transaction. While Bank of America processes millions of transactions per day in an automated manner, moving a few hundred dollars into a physical gold trading account requires manual processing… If you are inside the U.S., or have assets there, this type of nonsense represents a clear and present danger to you and your money. Only criminal regimes behave like this.
If this is happening now, what will be your chances of getting money out of that thing in the wake of a crisis? It’s like someone said it a comment on the post, “Zürich seems like a long swim to get your assets.”
Before even mentioning BullionVault, I warned people to TAKE PHYSICAL POSSESSION OF THE STUFF. Pay cash for it at a coin shop. The only reason I didn’t take my own advice is because New Zealand has less than a thriving precious metals market. However, that wasn’t a good enough excuse to break my own rule.
I honestly feel that BullionVault is a first class operation and that they are sincerely doing their best. I cannot, however, recommend this service for U.S. bank account holders, unless you are prepared to physically travel to your Brinks vault of choice to recover your gold in the event that the U.S. government bans gold ownership again, (BullionVault explicitly allows this in case the regime in your banking country turns overtly criminal). The U.S. has gone too far down the path of fascism for a service like this to be viable for Americans. I questioned Paul Tustain, the Director of Bullion Vault, about this and I am satisfied with his response. I am a Bullion Vault customer, and I have been pleased with the service so far.
– – – End Update – – –
The situation in the Persian Gulf could become a crisis for “life as we know it” at any moment. Personally, after the Zbigniew Brzezinski Senate drama, I didn’t think it was going to come to this. But here we are.
The situation hasn’t blown up yet, but Becky and I are now planning as if it will.
It seems sick to be thinking about money at a time like this, but money provides options during a crisis.
If the U.S. engages Iran in a military conflict, all of us, everywhere, are probably in VERY deep shit.
Becky and I don’t have much money saved, but we’re looking at this situation and all we see are bubbles. Real estate bubbles. Currency bubbles. Equity bubbles. The situation with Iran might be the thing that throws gasoline on the already smoldering real estate situation.
I know of no reliable way to save “money” in a time of crisis. Even cash savings are bets on fiat national currencies. Most of what little we have is in New Zealand dollars. The rest is in U.S. dollars. If this strategy had a name, it would be, “Dumb and Dumber.”
Besides just going to town and spending our meager savings on tools, sacks of grain, etc. what other options are out there for people once their strategic requirements are met? <--- This isn't a rhetorical question that I plan on answering. I'm asking you because I don't have any good answers. Nobody wants to admit this less than me, but I may need to revisit gold here, as a hedge against the "bet" Becky and I have made by holding New Zealand dollars. This would represent the biggest plate of crow I've ever had to eat on Cryptogon. My official position on gold, stated several times, is that it can't be trusted because it's traded in leveraged fiat currencies. Gold's price is not actually determined by supply and demand. I've written about this over and over again, but if you want more detail, see this comment.
How about FOREX? A small amount of capital could be used to hedge via currency trading. Hint: Very wealthy people pay professionals to do this for them. But what if there are network problems? Liquidity problems? Exchange problems?
This feels like a situation where there’s no good choice on how to proceed. As an analyst, I hate it when that happens. But if this thing goes down with Iran, I think it’s going to affect all of us.
Is gambling the only option? If not, what are the non-gambling options for wealth preservation? If gambling is the only option, which gambles have the best odds?
Becky and I are looking at shifting about 10% of our cash into gold immediately via BullionVault, with vaulting in Zürich. This seems like the least bad option.
If you have a plan, consider sharing some information in a comment. Maybe we can all come up with some ideas.
