cryptogon.com

In his teens, he was a drill sergeant in the cadets. While still in his early 20s, he started volunteering information to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. A few years ago, at age 30, the Canadian-born Muslim was publicly advocating for sharia law while privately making $1,500 a month for informing on Islamic extremists.

He submitted an application to be a CSIS intelligence officer, but was not upset when turned down.

“I was happy it did not work out,” Mr. Shaikh, now 33, testified Friday in a Brampton court. “I was interested in a more central role.”

Defence lawyers put him on the stand Friday alleging he played a central role – and then some – in unfurling Canada’s most high-profile terrorism conspiracy. Calling Mr. Shaikh an “agent provocateur” they suggested that, in the cause of fighting terrorism, he committed terrorist offences himself.

Ten adults have yet to face trial in the 2006 conspiracy, whose key elements now notoriously involve a winter training camp, an alleged bomb plot and some chatter by would-be jihadists about storming Parliament and beheading politicians.

While trials are far off for the people accused of being the ringleaders, a young man whose case was peripheral, but proceeded faster, was found guilty last fall of being part of a terrorist group. The landmark verdict was hailed as an important bellwether for the wider case and test of Canada’s counterterrorism laws.

The conviction has not technically been registered, pending the outcome of the defence’s abuse-of-process motion to have the charges stayed.

The defence has argued this week that without Mubin Shaikh, there would have been no terrorist conspiracy.

The young man’s lawyers called Mr. Shaikh this week to recap his work infiltrating a group of young extremists, first as a CSIS informant, but ultimately as a police agent. Posing as a committed jihadist, he gave the group tips on countersurveillance, led paramilitary training exercises, and even bought a rifle for a ringleader (before getting rid of it, unfired).

“I thought that if the RCMP didn’t tell me I couldn’t do it, I inferred that I could do it,” Mr. Shaikh testified.

But Mitchell Chernovsky, the lawyer for the defendant, now 21, plans to argue that the police agent committed more illegal acts than his client, found guilty of participating in terrorist training led by Mr. Shaikh. The lawyer is arguing that police agents cannot commit crimes to unfurl wider conspiracies – at least not unless special strictures are followed.

Beyond, that Mr. Chernovsky suggests, federal agents have a moral obligation not to entrap vulnerable youth. “Did you ever tell anyone clearly and unambiguously terrorism was wrong,” he asked Mr. Shaikh.

The agent replied, “not so much.” The voluble witness agreed he played his role “to the hilt,” becoming a mentor, a role model and drill sergeant to young recruits. Unlike ringleaders whom he said were demonstrably dangerous, he characterized the younger recruits as sheep who were easily manipulated.

Regardless, “I could not come out and say terrorism is against Islam. … I had to play my role,” Mr. Shaikh said.

He added that he tried to drop hints aimed at turning the teen away from terrorism, at least when no one else was watching.

“I liken it to the breadcrumbs of Hansel and Gretel,” he said. “I tried to leave a trail where I could.”

Charges were stayed long ago against other teenagers who were accused of peripheral involvement. The youth at hand, a zealous convert arrested shortly before his 18th birthday, remains the only non-adult offender before the courts.

A publication ban shields the identity of all accused.

The world’s largest maker of plasma display TVs also announced a net loss for the October-December quarter and lowered its forecast for the fiscal year through March to a net loss of 380 billion yen ($4.2 billion), its first annual loss in six years.

Panasonic blamed the dismal results on the global slowdown set off by the U.S. financial crisis, the rapid surge of the yen and sudden price drops. Sales slid in a wide range of products, including flat-panel TVs, DVD recorders, microwaves, lamps and semiconductors, it said.

The Osaka-based manufacturer plans to cut the jobs — half of which will come in Japan — by the end of March 2010. They amount to about 5 percent of its 300,000-strong global work force.

Panasonic also will shutter 14 overseas plants and 13 plants in Japan by the end of March to adjust production and cut costs, company spokesman Akira Kadota said. The company said it has 230 production sites around the world but declined to give a regional breakdown.

…That any Act by the Congress of the United States, Executive Order of the President of the United States of America or Judicial Order by the Judicatories of the United States of America which assumes a power not delegated to the government of United States of America by the Constitution for the United States of America and which serves to diminish the liberty of the any of the several States or their citizens shall constitute a nullification of the Constitution for the United States of America by the government of the United States of America. Acts which would cause such a nullification include, but are not limited to:

I. Establishing martial law or a state of emergency within one of the States comprising the United States of America without the consent of the legislature of that State.

II. Requiring involuntary servitude, or governmental service other than a draft during a declared war, or pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

III. Requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service of persons under the age of 18 other than pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

IV. Surrendering any power delegated or not delegated to any corporation or foreign government.

V. Any act regarding religion; further limitations on freedom of political speech; or further limitations on freedom of the press.

VI. Further infringements on the right to keep and bear arms including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition; and

The Obama administration has given the Pentagon a $527 billion limit, excluding war costs, for its fiscal 2010 defense budget, an official with the White House’s Office of Management and Budget said Monday.

The average workweek in December fell to 33.3 hours. That’s the lowest average on record, dating back to 1964, and a sign of more job reductions to come since businesses often cut hours before eliminating positions entirely.

Those are the “official” government numbers. But, as a closer look demonstrates, the unemployment figures can be understated – and misleading.

The government actually compiles unemployment figures in six different categories; as you might expect, the numbers tend to minimize the bad news.

The most commonly number quoted in the media is the “official” unemployment rate – known as U3 (the bottom line of the three in the chart below) – which now stands at 7.2%.

But to get the real picture, you have to add both in what the government refers to as “discouraged” workers (U4) and “marginally attached” workers (U5) – those who have stopped looking for work, or who haven’t looked for work recently (represented by the middle line of the three in the chart). That number (U6) depicts an unemployment rate t that’s approaching an eye-popping 14%.

And it gets worse.

Every week it gets worse and worse and worse. Today it was Japan….

THERE HAS NEVER BEEN DATA THIS BAD FOR ANY MAJOR ECONOMY – EVEN IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION. December industrial production came in down 9.6%, worse than the METI forecast. It is now down almost 21% year over year. METI forecasts a further 4.7% decline in February. The inventory to production ratio soared again. Maybe METI will be correct.

If it is, Japan industrial production will have fallen 28% (non annualized) in four months. It will have fallen by a third in about a year. Nothing in the history of major nations compares. A 28% decline in four months would be more than half of the entire decline in U.S. industrial production over the 3 years and nine months of the U.S. Great Depression.

It would be a greater decline in four months than in any 12 month period in the Great Depression in the U.S. We are literally looking at the unimaginable. (I am attaching the U.S. industrial production index from the Great Depression for comparison).

States are currently at the mid-point of fiscal year 2009 — which started July 1 in most states — and are in the process of preparing their budgets for the next year. Over half the states had already cut spending, used reserves, or raised revenues in order to adopt a balanced budget for the current fiscal year — which started July 1 in most states. Now, their budgets have fallen out of balance again. New gaps of $46 billion (over 9% of state budgets) have opened up in the budgets of at least 42 states plus the District of Columbia. These budget gaps are in addition to the $48 billion shortfalls that these and other states faced as they adopted their budgets for the current fiscal year, bringing total gaps for the year to over 14 percent of budgets.

…

It may be particularly difficult for states to recover from the current fiscal situation. Housing markets may be slow to fully recover; the decline in housing markets has already depressed consumption and sales taxes as people refrain from buying furniture, appliances, construction materials, and the like. Property tax revenues are also affected, and local governments will be looking to states to help address the squeeze on local and education budgets. And as the employment situation continues to deteriorate, income tax revenues will weaken further and there will be further downward pressure on sales tax revenues as consumers are reluctant or unable to spend.