Financial Terrorism

Tonight: If you've been a regular viewer of Glenn's TV program or a radio listener for the last several years, you know that he has been warning us about the perfect storm for quite a while now. The perfect storm occurs when all of the forces in the world who want to take America and capitalism down come together and hit us at the exact same time. You have the extremists, communists, Iran and others all out to get us at a time when we are so vulnerable and broken due to factors like our borders, debt, energy and financial crises, the war and even political correctness. What, if anything, can we do?

Full Show Video:  Financial Terrorism – The Perfect Storm

Glenn Beck Show Research (3.2.11)

On TV, Glenn warned of a recent report from a Pentagon affiliate that warned of possible financial terrorism takeing place on the U.S. The report broke out three different phases:

• The first phase was a speculative run-up in oil prices that generated as much as $2 trillion of excess wealth for oil-producing nations, filling the coffers of Sovereign Wealth Funds, especially those that follow Shariah Compliant Finance.
• The second phase appears to have begun in 2008 with a series of bear raids targeting U.S. financial services firms that appeared to be systemically significant [such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers]. … This created a system-wide crisis, caused the collapse of the credit markets, and nearly collapsed the global financial system.
• The risk of a Phase Three has quickly emerged, suggesting a potential direct economic attack on the U.S. Treasury and U.S. dollar. Such an event has already been discussed by finance ministers in major emerging market nations such as China and Russia as well as Iran and the Arab states. A focused effort to collapse the dollar by dumping Treasury bonds has grave implications including the possibility of a downgrading of U.S. debt forcing rapidly rising interest rates and a collapse of the American economy. In short, a bear raid against the U.S.financial system remains possible and may even be likely. [Emphasis added]

These items add to a growing list of elements in a “Perfect Storm” including revolution, rising oil prices, protests, the border, domestic radicals and more that Glenn fears are rapidly building to a fundamental change in the western way of life. People who want to collapse our society are seeing an opportunity, and Glenn will talk more about this tomorrow.

Glenn also talked about a new chant full of Socialist rhetoric that is being taught in schools.

Finally, Glenn talked about this Pakistani man who was recently assassinated. Why is this so important?

Links to stories and information used in tonight’s program:

1. Why Dollar’s Reign Is Near An End
“For decades, the dollar has served as the world’s main reserve currency, but, argues Barry Eichengreen, it will soon have to share that role. Here’s why and what it will mean for international markets and companies.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110301-714544.html
2. George Soros: rocketing oil price is a bubble

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/2790539/George-Soros-rocketing-oil-price-is-a-bubble.html#<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/2790539/George-Soros-rocketing-oil-price-is-a-bubble.html>

3. Financial terrorism suspected in 2008 economic crash

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/28/financial-terrorism-suspected-in-08-economic-crash/print/# <http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/28/financial-terrorism-suspected-in-08-economic-crash/print/>

4. What Really Killed Bear Stearns?

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/what-really-killed-bear-stearns/

5. Federal Reserve chief warns GOP: Don’t hold debt-ceiling vote hostage

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke approves of plans to bring federal deficits under control, but he tells senators not to link such a move to a coming vote on raising the debt ceiling.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0301/Federal-Reserve-chief-warns-GOP-Don-t-hold-debt-ceiling-vote-hostage

6. China PLA officers urge economic punch against U.S.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/02/09/us-china-usa-pla-idUSTRE6183KG20100209

Gas Prices: Up 24 cents in 8 days
http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/02/news/economy/gas_prices/<http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/02/news/economy/gas_prices/>

• The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline rose 1.2 cents Wednesday to $3.387, according to a daily survey from motorist group AAA. Prices have jumped 23.6 cents over the past eight days.

GAS PRICES RISING

• From Feb. 21 – Feb. 28
• From Feb. 28 – March 1
• From March 1 – today

WIKILEAKS TIMELINE
**THE DATES BELOW ARE OF THE FIRST TIME WIKILEAKS RELEASED A DAMAGING REPORT ABOUT THE COUNTRY. THEY HAVE SINCE RELEASED ADDITIONAL DOCS ON EACH**

TUNISIA

• June 2008: One of the U.S. government cables released by WikiLeaks exposed the corruption of Tunisia’s President’s family, its reach into business in the country, and ability to transcend the rule of law. President Ben Ali’s family was called “The Family” throughout the leak. The government attempted to block access to WikiLeaks earlier this month. (Business Insider)

• January 14, 2011: Riots force Pres. Zine al Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country after 23 years of power

EGYPT

• July 2008: The consequence of invading Iraq was to strengthen the hand of Iran, concluded a key U.S. ally in a 2008 meeting with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), according to a State Department cable obtained and released by WikiLeaks. Mubarak openly spoke of such ties in the meeting with Kerry. Mubarak said that he could not publicly oppose Iran for fear of “sabotage and Iranian terrorism.” He said Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism is “well-known but I cannot say it publicly. It would create a dangerous situation.” (Huff Po)

• Dec. 2008: US diplomatic memos released by WikiLeaks this month show previously unknown friction with Egypt over military assistance and strategy (AP)

• Jan 25 2011: Rioting begins

• Feb. 11, 2011: After 18 days of protest, Mubarak steps down

LIBYA
**LAST WEEK WIKILEAKS RELEASED A CABLE ON LIBYA
Nov 2010?

(Reuters, Feb. 24, 2011)

Libya placed billions of dollars at U.S. banks: WikiLeaks

• Libya’s secretive sovereign wealth fund has $32 billion in cash with several U.S. banks each managing up to $500 million, and it has primary investments in London, a confidential diplomatic cable shows. The cable, obtained by WikiLeaks and revealing the details of a January meeting between the head of the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) and the U.S. ambassador in Tripoli

YEMEN
**ON THE BRINK

• Sept. 15, 2009: The cables expose for the first time the true scale of America’s covert military involvement in the Arab world’s poorest nation amid deep concern in Washington that it has become the haven for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Workers at Yemen’s Sana’a International airport Workers at Yemen’s Sana’a International airport, where the US fears poor security will not be able to stop al-Qaida using it as a launch pad for terrorist attacks(The Guardian)

The Crisis in Yemen: On the Brink of a Showdown
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2056045,00.html<http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2056045,00.html>

• Only a few short months ago, (Yemeni President) Saleh was sitting snugly on a substantial pile of U.S. military aid as a result of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the most active arm of the organization, having carried out near daily attacks in the country and threatened deadly missions on American turf.
• Afraid that U.S. troops on the ground could create a second Afghanistan, the Pentagon started pumping money into the Yemeni army in the hope it would crush the al-Qaeda threat. Saudi Arabia followed suit, afraid that instability in its southern neighbor could seep across the border to target Saudi oil production. Saleh, already fighting rebels in the north and a separatist movement in the south, knew he could rely on Yemen’s volatility to garner the dollars he needed to pay off tribal foes and keep himself in power

SAUDI ARABIA
**ON MONDAY WIKILEAKS RELEASED A 1996 CABLE ON THE ROYAL FAMILY’S WEALTH**

(Reuters, 2/28/11)
Special Report: U.S. cables detail Saudi royal welfare program

• Besides the huge monthly stipends that every Saudi royal receives, the cables detail various money-making schemes some royals have used to finance their lavish lifestyles over the years. Among them: siphoning off money from “off-budget” programs controlled by senior princes,sponsoring expatriate workers who then pay a small monthly fee to their royal patron and, simply, “borrowing from the banks, and not paying them back.”
• As long ago as 1996, U.S. officials noted that such unrestrained behavior could fuel a backlash against the Saudi elite. In the assessment of the U.S. embassy in Riyadh in a cable from that year, “of the priority issues the country faces, getting a grip on royal family excesses is at the top.”
  

• Nov. 2010: The Guardian said some cables showed King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia repeatedly urging the United States to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear program. The newspaper also said officials in Jordan and Bahrain have openly called for Iran’s nuclear program to be stopped by any means and that leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt referred to Iran “as ‘evil,’ an ‘existential threat’ and a power that ‘is going to take us to war,’” The Guardian said

COPPER PRICES

From Feb 2, 2011 – TODAY

• High on Feb. 14 by labeling it $4.63.
• Low on Feb. 23 by labeling it $4.29

From March 2010 – TODAY

• High on Feb. 14 by labeling it $4.63.
• Low on JUNE 4 BY LABELING IT $2.79

Copper Sinks as Oil Tops $100 (WSJ, TODAY)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703559604576176351797075040.html<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703559604576176351797075040.html>

• Oil’s rally has raised concerns that higher energy costs will damp economic growth and crimp global demand for copper.
• “Copper is used in housing, cars, manufactured goods and demand for that type of stuff will drop as consumers clamp on spending to adjust for higher gasoline prices,” said Matt Zeman, head of trading at Kingsview Financial in Chicago.
• Despite Wednesday’s decline, copper prices remain near record highs of $4.6375 a pound, set Feb. 14. Prices for the red metal are up almost 35% from last year as analysts forecast global demand to outpace mine supply this year.

HOLDER “MY PEOPLE” SOT

• When you compare what people endured in the South in the 60s to try to get the right to vote for African Americans, to compare what people subjected to that with what happened in Philadelphia, which was inappropriate // in those terms I think does a great disservice to people who put their lives on the line for my people

HOLDER SISTER-IN-LAW SOT

• My wife’s sister integrated the University of Alabama – and George Wallace stood in the door and said that she as a state resident could not attend // To compare that kind of courage, that kind of action and to say the Black Panther incident, wrong though it might be, somehow is greater in magnitude or is of greater concern to us historically, I think just flies in the face of history and the facts.

HOLDER DOJ RACE SOT

• The allegations, that somehow someway , this Justice Department does things on the basis of race is simply false. // Anybody who makes that contention is not telling the truth, is not familiar with the facts, or has a political agenda.

GLENN RACE CARD SOT, 1/6

• Let me predict the future. The progressives are becoming increasingly desperate // And the progressives still have a couple of pieces out on the table, you know, for the transformational puzzle that they’re putting together

GLENN RACE CARD ON IMMIGRATION SOT, 1/6

• Whether it passes or not is going to be irrelevant, quite frankly, to these people. It is exactly what they need. What is in the bill? It doesn’t matter. The issue will be racism. The progressives must reactivate their far left base.

Video: The Perfect Storm Overview

PENTAGON STUDY: ‘08 FINANCIAL CRISIS MAY HAVE INCLUDED WORK OF FINANICAL TERRORISTS

It seems those Pentagon economic “war games” we reported on in December may have been a very good idea.

That’s because it was revealed yesterday that a Pentagon contractor report suggests the U.S. may have been, and may currently be, the victim of financial terrorism. As the Washington Timessays, the 2008 economic crisis may have included “financial subversion carried out by unknown parties, such as terrorists or hostile nations … covertly using vulnerabilities in the U.S. financial system.”

The report was authored by financial analyst Kevin D. Freeman in 2009, and is called “Economic Warfare: Risks and Responses.”

From the Times:

“There is sufficient justification to question whether outside forces triggered, capitalized upon or magnified the economic difficulties of 2008,” the report says, explaining that those domestic economic factors would have caused a “normal downturn” but not the “near collapse” of the global economic system that took place.

Suspects include financial enemies in Middle Eastern states, Islamic terrorists, hostile members of the Chinese military, or government and organized crime groups in Russia, Venezuela or Iran. Chinese military officials publicly have suggested using economic warfare against the U.S.

“The new battle space is the economy,” Freeman told the Times. “We spend hundreds of billions of dollars on weapons systems each year. But a relatively small amount of money focused against our financial markets through leveraged derivatives or cyber efforts can result in trillions of dollars in losses. And, the perpetrators can remain undiscovered.

“This is the equivalent of box cutters on an airplane.”

So who does Freeman think could be responsible? The answer may not surprise you: Islamic terrorists, Russia, and China.

That possibility seems to be supported by news reported late last year that the Pentagon has been “war gaming” for a financial attack since early 2009 — and many of those scenarios have focused on China.

According to Freeman’s new report, the attack has three stages, two of which may have already been implemented:

• The first phase was a speculative run-up in oil prices that generated as much as $2 trillion of excess wealth for oil-producing nations, filling the coffers of Sovereign Wealth Funds, especially those that follow Shariah Compliant Finance.
• The second phase appears to have begun in 2008 with a series of bear raids targeting U.S. financial services firms that appeared to be systemically significant [such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers]. … This created a system-wide crisis, caused the collapse of the credit markets, and nearly collapsed the global financial system.
• The risk of a Phase Three has quickly emerged, suggesting a potential direct economic attack on the U.S. Treasury and U.S. dollar. Such an event has already been discussed by finance ministers in major emerging market nations such as China and Russia as well as Iran and the Arab states. A focused effort to collapse the dollar by dumping Treasury bonds has grave implications including the possibility of a downgrading of U.S. debt forcing rapidly rising interest rates and a collapse of the American economy. In short, a bear raid against the U.S.financial system remains possible and may even be likely. [Emphasis added]

“We have taken on massive public debt as the government was the only party who could access capital markets in late 2008 and early 2009,” Freeman told the Times regarding phase three, which has put the U.S. dollar’s global reserve currency status at risk.

“This is the ‘end game’ if the goal is to destroy America,” he added, noting that in his view China’s military “has been advocating the potential for an economic attack on the U.S. for 12 years or longer as evidenced by the publication of the book Unrestricted Warfare in 1999.”

According to the Times, Freeman’s suggestion has been largely ignored by the government, and there are many who don’t agree with his scenario. But while Freeman says at this point he’s only saying financial terrorism is a possible factor, ignoring that possibility is a mistake.

“The preponderance of evidence that cannot be easily dismissed demands a thorough and immediate study be commenced,” the report says. “Ignoring the likelihood of this very real threat ensures a catastrophic event.”

Pajamas Media has obtained a copy of the report and posted it online.

Update: Read the entire report from the Washington Times. Unfortunately this article has been removed?!?  Am still digging around on this one, but China seems to have its hands all over this one along with the usual suspects.

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