IRAN STOPS ACCEPTING US DOLLARS

Americans are in the crosshairs of terrorists worldwide purely due to Washington's policy in the Muslim world, not because there is an Islamic enemy whose only aim is to kill Americans for their freedoms and lifestyle, insists a former CIA officer. Historian Michael Scheuer, an author of "Through our enemies' eyes", who worked for the agency for over 20 years till 2004 and at one time was the chief of the CIA's 'Bin Laden unit', says America's greatest enemy -- radical Islam -- never existed: neither when Bin Laden was alive, nor now.

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Cuban Missile Crisis, the Sequel; $3,000 Gold Possible
Read more: http://www.beaconequity.com/cuban-missile-crisis-the-sequel-3000-gold-possible-2012-01-09/#ixzz1j6AxvLDh
In what appears as swift retaliation by Iran against U.S.-led economic sanctions imposed on the Persian Gulf state, suddenly Iran says it will no longer accept the U.S. dollar as payment for its oil shipments to India, Japan and China. In addition, bilateral trade between Iran and Russia will break from the dollar for settlement in favor of Iranian rial and Russian rubles, according to Iran’s state-run Fars news agency. But unlike a similarly bold move taken on Oct. 30, 2000, (effective Nov. 6) by Saddam Hussein to rid Iraq of the U.S. dollar as payment for Iraqi oil, Iran asserts the new arrangement to drop the dollar was Russia’s idea. “The proposal to switch to the ruble and the rial was raised by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Astana, Kazakhstan, of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,” according to Bloomberg.

So, is the U.S. about to embark on another Iraq, or is the situation with Iran more akin to an October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis with Cuba’s big brother, Russia?

In his book, Clark makes a case for a world that will most probably include a future riddled with war in the Middle East, as the U.S. takes preemptive measures to secure—not only oil—but more importantly, to assure a continuation of dollar hegemony in global trade as a means of preventing a Greenback collapse as a medium of exchange and value.

As a preface to his book, Clark posited an essay in January 2003, titled, Revisited — The Real Reasons for the Upcoming War With Iraq: A Macroeconomic and Geostrategic Analysis of the Unspoken Truth. In the essay, Clark cites an anonymous source who told him the NY Fed (through the Treasury ESF) ultimately dictates foreign policy via the U.S. dollar, and that any threat to the artificial support of the dollar must illicit an immediate response at the NSA level.

After reading Clark’s essay, anonymous, or not, the source appears to be a very, very good one.

According to anonymous:

The Federal Reserve’s greatest nightmare is that OPEC will switch its international transactions from a dollar standard to a euro standard. Iraq actually made this switch in Nov. 2000 (when the euro was worth around 82 cents), and has actually made off like a bandit considering the dollar’s steady depreciation against the euro. (Note: the dollar declined 17% against the euro in 2002.)

The real reason the Bush administration wants a puppet government in Iraq — or more importantly, the reason why the corporate-military-industrial network conglomerate wants a puppet government in Iraq — is so that it will revert back to a dollar standard and stay that way. (While also hoping to veto any wider OPEC momentum towards the euro, especially from Iran — the 2nd largest OPEC producer who is actively discussing a switch to euros for its oil exports).

Saddam sealed his fate when he decided to switch to the euro in late 2000 (and later converted his $10 billion reserve fund at the U.N. to euros) — at that point, another manufactured Gulf War become inevitable under Bush II. Only the most extreme circumstances could possibly stop that now and I strongly doubt anything can — short of Saddam getting replaced with a pliant regime.

Big Picture Perspective: Everything else aside from the reserve currency and the Saudi/Iran oil issues (i.e. domestic political issues and international criticism) is peripheral and of marginal consequence to this administration. Further, the dollar-euro threat is powerful enough that they will rather risk much of the economic backlash in the short-term to stave off the long-term dollar crash of an OPEC transaction standard change from dollars to euros. All of this fits into the broader Great Game that encompasses Russia, India, China. [Emphasis added]

As we know, following Iraq’s decision to dump the dollar in favor of the Euro, 14 months later U.S. President George W. Bush delivered his ‘Axis of Evil’ speech on the first State of the Union address of his presidency on Jan. 23, 2002. Iraq, Iran and N. Korean are the nations of that axis, according to Bush.



Read more: http://www.beaconequity.com/cuban-missile-crisis-the-sequel-3000-gold-possible-2012-01-09/#ixzz1j6BiGeao

Gerald Celente: EU Collapses in 90 Days, Bank Holiday and War
Twenty-two months of hysteria of an impending European financial collapse, starting with Greece in March of 2010, will finally come to an end in 2012, according to the founder of Trends Research Institute, Gerald Celente.

Hysteria of the horrid possibility of a European meltdown and the dire implications for the world economy a collapse implies will end, as the event finally turns into unequivocal reality by April 1, with accusations of ‘fear mongering’ by a significant portion of the mob quickly dropped in favor of the next predictable reaction to the crisis: outrage against those who allowed the collapse.

“I would say, since I’ve been doing this work, over 30 years ago, I’ve never been more concerned than I am right now,” Celente told ABC, Australia.

In Celente’s latest forecast, titled, The First Great War of the 21st Century—Prepare, Survive, Prevail, he paints a bleak picture for 2012, predicting a worsening of class warfare that already wages within more than a dozen countries, from Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain and Qatar to the UK, Greece and Italy, which will eventually spread to eastern Europe/central Asia and more intensely in the United States.

But, what the world has seen so far is only a economic and social symptom of central bankers’ stop-gap remedies, haphazardly applied to the global financial crisis since its beginning in the U.S. and the fall of Bear Stearns in 2008.

After dozens of trillions of dollars thrown at a global solvency crisis with nothing but further deterioration to show for the money spent, some wonder if the world is about to slide still further into depression.

According to Celente, when the European Union falters from too much supply of debt coming due ($7.3 trillion from G-7 nations, see zerohedge.com) against the backdrop of sliding demand for more debt, the European domino will topple other dominoes, widening the global depression to include the world’s larger economies.



Read more: http://www.beaconequity.com/gerald-celente-eu-collapses-in-90-days-bank-holiday-and-war-2012-01-04/#ixzz1j6DQLGxm

Silver Price: Attention All Crybabies, Get the Checkbook Out!
It will be China who will drive the silver price higher for all silver bugs. So relax, be patient and enjoy.

One man who provides the silvery details to the China story, Stephen Leeb Ph. D, economist, NY Times best-selling author, and promoter of his latest book, Red Alert, is back to remind silver bugs of the bright future for the silver price in his latest interview on GoldSeek Radio (GRS). (Previous BER articles about Leeb and silver, click here and here.)

“Silver is an utterly critical metal when it comes to renewable energies, solar panels; there’s no other game in town,” Leeb told GSR. “ . . . Silver-based solar is going to play a major part in our energy future . . . China used to export silver, now they’re importing, and they are very big importers. And they [China] went on to say that they’re not going export any silver what so ever.” Though China recently relaxed its strict export quota of rare earths, silver was not included in the increased export quota. And for good reason, according to Leeb.

Who is Stephen Leeb. He’s not the marquee name in Google’s search results. He is not as well-known as Jim Rogers; he’s not Marc Faber; and he’s not Peter Schiff.

Leeb is, however, a prolific author and researcher who’s looked at China’s multi-decade economic plans—plans that require a monstrous amount of critical industrial metals, including silver, to fulfill a national, strategic goal of reducing fossil fuels consumption within the People’s Republic. Leeb predicted the oil price would top $100 when it traded at $27. Now, he’s more alarmed at what he has discovered about China’s future consumption needs for the new energy commodity, silver. (See Robert Hirsch interview (audio) on the subject of Peak Oil on Financial Sense Newshour of Dec. 15.)

Leeb’s emphasis on detailed points about silver and its importance to renewable energy projects in China is ahead of the curve from most precious metals advocates—though, Rogers, in a broader sense, has already taken Leeb’s thesis regarding China voracious needs to include almost any commodity. And according to Leeb (echoed by Jim Rogers), the supply and demand characteristics for silver in the renewable energy sector must include a much, much higher price.

“I do believe [$200] is not an unreasonable target” for silver, Leeb told GoldSeek Radio host Chris Waltzek.

Read more: http://www.beaconequity.com/silver-price-attention-all-crybabies-get-the-checkbook-out-2011-12-29/#ixzz1j6EhqqL9

CBS News' Kimberly Dozier speaks with Robert Baer, who recounts his unique experiences as a CIA operative and discusses the future state of diplomacy between the U.S. and Iran.

Israel is preparing for Iran to become a nuclear power and has accepted it may happen within a year, the London Times reported on Monday citing an Israeli security report. If Iran does test a nuclear weapon, INSS predicts a profound shift in the Middle East power balance. Russia would seek an alliance with the US to prevent nuclear proliferation in the region, although Saudi Arabia would likely pursue its own nuclear programme, the report concluded based on current policies. INSS specialists believe that an Iranian test in January 2013 would follow increasingly provocative demands by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime, including the redrawing of its Iraqi borders and action against the vessels of the US Fifth Fleet. "The simulation showed that Iran will not forgo nuclear weapons, but will attempt to use them to reach an agreement with the major powers that will improve its position," said a passage of the report published by the Times."The simulation showed that (the Israeli military option), or the threat of using it, would also be relevant following an Iranian nuclear test," it added. read more at link


For the second time in as many weeks, the U.S. Navy has rescued distressed Iranian sailors, despite the extremely high tensions between the two nations. According to the Navy's account, at about 3 a.m. local time an American Coast Guard patrol boat in the north Persian Gulf was hailed by flares and flashlights from an Iranian cargo ship whose engine room was flooding. Six Iranians were rescued from the ship, fed halal meals in accordance with Islamic law, and later taken to shore. Last week, the U.S. Navy rescued more than a dozen Iranian sailors who had been held hostage by pirates in the Arabian Sea for weeks. American sailors on a "visit, board, search and seizure team" were able to free the sailors and take 15 suspected pirates into custody without incident on Jan. 5, the Navy said. The pirates had been apparently using the Iranian vessel as a "mothership" to launch pirate operations in the region.


According to the military's account, an American helicopter from the destroyer USS Kidd "detected a suspected pirate skiff alongside" an Iranian-flagged fishing ship in the Arabian Sea approximately 175 miles southeast of Muscat, Oman, Thursday. At the same time, the Iranian ship was able to send a distress call, claiming the ship was held by pirates. American Navy sailors with a "visit, board, search and seizure team" then boarded the Iranian ship and were able to detain 15 suspected pirates and free the 13-member Iranian crew, the Pentagon said. A Navy Criminal Investigative Service agent on the scene, Josh Schminky, said the Iranian crew had been forced to help the pirates carry out operations and pirates had apparently been using the Iranian ship as a "mothership". "When we boarded, we gave [the Iranians] food, water, and medical care," Schminky said in a Pentagon report. "They had been through a lot. We went out of our way to treat the fishing crew with kindness and respect." read more at link

Iran's Revolutionary Court found 28-year-old Amir Hekmati "Corrupt on Earth," said the Fars news agency, and sentenced him to death "for cooperating with the hostile country . . . and spying for the CIA." Under Iranian law, Hekmati has 20 days to appeal. His trial and death sentence came as Iran announced that it had enriched uranium at an underground facility and as the U.S. imposed harsher economic sanctions on Iran to stop its nuclear program. Hekmati's mother Behnaz Hekmati released a statement saying that she and her husband Ali were "shocked and terrified by the news that our son, Amir, has been sentenced to death. We believe that this verdict is a result of a process that was neither transparent nor fair."

"Amir did not engage in any acts of spying, or 'fighting against God,' as the convicting judge has claimed in his sentence," said the statement. "Amir is not a criminal. His life is being exploited for political gain."

The U.S. State Department has asked the Iranian government repeatedly to allow Swiss diplomats, who represent U.S. interests in Iran, to meet with Hekmati. Iran has refused, according to the State Department.

"Allegations that Mr. Hekmati either worked for, or was sent to Iran by the CIA are simply untrue. The Iranian regime has a history of falsely accusing people of being spies, of eliciting forced confessions, and of holding innocent Americans for political reasons," she said.

Hekmati's family also said they had been rebuffed in all attempts to speak with the Iranian government.

"A grave error has been committed," said Hekmati's parents Monday. "We pray that Iran will show compassion and not murder our son, Amir, a natural born American citizen, who was visiting Iran and his relatives for the first time."

Hekmati, an Arizona-born Iranian-American who served the U.S. Marines as a rifleman from 2001 to 2005, was arrested while visiting his extended family, including two elderly grandmothers, in Tehran on Aug. 29, 2011, according to the family. The family said they were urged by the Iranian government to keep quiet about his arrest with the promise of later release, but then in December, Hekmati was shown on Iranian television allegedly confessing to being an undercover agent of the Central Intelligence Agency on a mission to infiltrate the Iranian Intelligence Ministry.
read more at link

Carol wrote:

]
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/iran-sentences-us-spy-death/story?id=15320365#.TwzY7M1bk4h
Iran Sentences US 'Spy' to Death

Iran's Revolutionary Court found 28-year-old Amir Hekmati "Corrupt on Earth," said the Fars news agency, and sentenced him to death "for cooperating with the hostile country . . . and spying for the CIA." Under Iranian law, Hekmati has 20 days to appeal. His trial and death sentence came as Iran announced that it had enriched uranium at an underground facility and as the U.S. imposed harsher economic sanctions on Iran to stop its nuclear program. Hekmati's mother Behnaz Hekmati released a statement saying that she and her husband Ali were "shocked and terrified by the news that our son, Amir, has been sentenced to death. We believe that this verdict is a result of a process that was neither transparent nor fair."

"Amir did not engage in any acts of spying, or 'fighting against God,' as the convicting judge has claimed in his sentence," said the statement. "Amir is not a criminal. His life is being exploited for political gain."

The U.S. State Department has asked the Iranian government repeatedly to allow Swiss diplomats, who represent U.S. interests in Iran, to meet with Hekmati. Iran has refused, according to the State Department.

"Allegations that Mr. Hekmati either worked for, or was sent to Iran by the CIA are simply untrue. The Iranian regime has a history of falsely accusing people of being spies, of eliciting forced confessions, and of holding innocent Americans for political reasons," she said.

Hekmati's family also said they had been rebuffed in all attempts to speak with the Iranian government.

"A grave error has been committed," said Hekmati's parents Monday. "We pray that Iran will show compassion and not murder our son, Amir, a natural born American citizen, who was visiting Iran and his relatives for the first time."

Hekmati, an Arizona-born Iranian-American who served the U.S. Marines as a rifleman from 2001 to 2005, was arrested while visiting his extended family, including two elderly grandmothers, in Tehran on Aug. 29, 2011, according to the family. The family said they were urged by the Iranian government to keep quiet about his arrest with the promise of later release, but then in December, Hekmati was shown on Iranian television allegedly confessing to being an undercover agent of the Central Intelligence Agency on a mission to infiltrate the Iranian Intelligence Ministry.
read more at link

""A grave error has been committed," said Hekmati's parents Monday. "We pray that Iran will show compassion and not murder our son, Amir, a natural born American citizen, who was visiting Iran and his relatives for the first time."



Like a grave error was committed by the US Army criminals in Guantanamo Bay of which Obama has done ZERO about it .

So the Iranian sentence is Just . CIA spies must be executed .

US officials have expressed optimism China is open to working with Washington in its efforts to get major oil importers to reduce dependence on supplies from Iran.
The officials spoke after US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner arrived in Beijing as part of a lobbying effort which Washington hopes will add to the pressure on Tehran to curb its expanding nuclear program. “We are in the early stages of a broad global diplomatic effort to take advantage of this new legislation to significantly intensify the pressure on Iran. We are telling the [Chinese] what’s important to us and they are listening,” said a senior US official in Beijing after Mr Geithner met with Chinese officials on Wednesday. “We have a reasonable shot at getting a number of countries to wean themselves off Iranian oil.”

enemyofNWO wrote:

Like a grave error was committed by the US Army criminals in Guantanamo Bay of which Obama has done ZERO about it .

So the Iranian sentence is Just . CIA spies must be executed .

We don't know if he is a CIA spy. And I would hope he is returned home unharmed.

Obama is a loser. What do you expect from someone who had no clue on how to be a leader and protect American citizens when he is selling them out left and right.

Russia has given Iran its bear hug and warns Israel and the West that an attack on Tehran would be considered an attack on Moscow. Russia has given Iran its bear hug and warns Israel and the West that an attack on Tehran would be considered an attack on Moscow. The threat heightens the prospect of World War III in the event of a military strike on Iran.

“Iran is our neighbor,” Russia's outgoing ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told reporters in Brussels. “And if Iran is involved in any military action, it’s a direct threat to our security.”

Kremlin Security Council head Nikolai Patrushev accused Israel of provoking the United States towards war against Iran, the Russian Interfax news agency reported Friday. “But at the same time, we believe that any country has the right to have what it needs to feel comfortable, including Iran," he added.

Rogozin warned on Friday that more attacks on Iran could cause "a scorching Arab Summer." read more at link