FREEDOM REPORT
VOLUME 10, NO.11 DECEMBER 2006
Ron Paul's
A publication of the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education.
http://www.free-nefl.com/Dec-06.pdf
Ron Paul’s
TEXAS STRAIGHT TALK
October 30, 2006
The NAFTA Superhighway
By now many Texans have heard about
the proposed “NAFTA Superhighway,” which is also referred
to as the trans-Texas corridor. What you may not know is
the extent to which plans for such a superhighway are moving
forward without congressional oversight or media attention.
This superhighway would connect Mexico, the United
States, and Canada, cutting a wide swath through the middle
of Texas and up through Kansas City. Offshoots would
connect the main artery to the West Coast, Florida, and the
northeast. Proponents envision a ten-lane colossus the width
of several football fields, with freight and rail lines, fiberoptic
cable lines, and oil and natural gas pipelines running
alongside.
This will require coordinated federal and state eminent
domain actions on an unprecedented scale, as literally
millions of people and businesses could be displaced. The
loss of whole communities is almost certain, as planners
cannot wind the highway around every quaint town, historic
building, or senior-citizen apartment for thousands of miles.
Governor Perry is a supporter of the superhighway
project, and Congress has provided small amounts of money
to study the proposal. Since this money was just one item
in an enormous transportation appropriations bill, however,
most members of Congress were not aware of it.
The proposed highway is part of a broader plan advanced
by a quasi-government organization called the “Security and
Prosperity Partnership of North America,” or SPP.
The SPP was first launched in 2005 by the heads of state
of Canada, Mexico, and the United States at a summit in
Waco.
The SPP was not created by a treaty between the nations
involved, nor was Congress involved in any way. Instead,
the SPP is an unholy alliance of foreign consortiums and
officials from several governments. One principal player is
a Spanish construction company, which plans to build the
highway and operate it as a toll road. But don’t be fooled:
the superhighway proposal is not the result of free-market
demand, but rather an extension of government-managed
trade schemes like NAFTA that benefit politically-connected
interests.
The real issue is national sovereignty. Once again,
decisions that affect millions of Americans are not being
made by those Americans themselves, or even by their
elected representatives in Congress. Instead, a handful of
elites use their government connections to bypass national
legislatures and ignore our Constitution—which expressly
grants Congress the sole authority to regulate international
trade.
The ultimate goal is not simply a superhighway, but an
integrated North American Union—complete with a
currency, a cross-national bureaucracy, and virtually
borderless travel within the Union. Like the European Union,
a North American Union would represent another step toward
the abolition of national sovereignty altogether.
A new resolution, introduced by Representative Virgil
Goode of Virginia, expresses the sense of Congress that the
United States should not engage in the construction of a
NAFTA superhighway, or enter into any agreement that
advances the concept of a North American Union. I
wholeheartedly support this legislation, and predict that the
superhighway will become a sleeper issue in the 2008
election.
Any movement toward a North American Union
diminishes the ability of average Americans to influence the
laws under which they must live. The SPP agreement,
including the plan for a major transnational superhighway
through Texas, is moving forward without congressional
oversight— and that is an outrage. The administration needs
a strong message from Congress that the American people
will not tolerate backroom deals that threaten our sovereignty.

Good Morning America| World News| 20/20| Primetime| Nightline| This Week| ABC News Now| i-Caught Saturday, February 02, 2008
Feb. 1, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4228113&page;=1


Top fundraisers for the presidential campaigns of Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain lobby on behalf of foreign governments and sometimes helped their clients gain access to the senators, according to a Center for Investigative Reporting and ABCNews.com review of records.




The review found that six Clinton "Hillraisers," designated donors who have raised at least $100,000 for the senator's presidential campaign, are registered with the Justice Department to lobby for foreign governments.

See a chart of presidential fundraisers lobbying for foreign governments.

Two of Clinton's top moneymen, John Merrigan and Matthew "Mac" Bernstein, are part of a lobbying team hired by the rulers of Dubai to defend against a U.S.-based lawsuit alleging that the rulers had enslaved young boys to race camels. The lobbyists' firm, DLA Piper, arranged a meeting with Clinton and three other senators last year on behalf of Dubai, according to filings. Dubai paid the firm $3.7 million for a year's work.

Merrigan and Bernstein also signed, on behalf of the firm, a $100,000-per-month contract with the Turkish government last March to prevent "the introduction, debate and passage of legislation and other U.S. government action that harms Turkey's interests or image." The lobbying effort opposed a resolution, co-sponsored by Clinton, that would call the World War I era massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a genocide.

The firm scored dozens of meetings with members of Congress and their staffs over the course of six months, including an August conference with Clinton's Senate staff regarding "U.S.-Turkey relations," according to filings. Two months later, Clinton acknowledged to the Boston Globe editorial board that she had concerns about the resolution, saying "the adamant expression of real dismay and outrage by this Turkish government has to be factored into this."

July 30, 2007

http://www.strike-the-root.com/72/allport/allport5.html

At the Brink

There is much debate in the freedom movement, and especially in the voluntaryist / abolitionist / market-anarchist community, on whether Ron Paul's candidacy is helpful or harmful to the cause of freedom. Given the high stakes involved, this is no surprise. We face a truly desperate situation both politically and economically, with the recent meltdown of Bear Stearns and much other bad news leading to speculation that Monday (July 30, 2007) will see a major drop in the Dow and perhaps other signs of an impending economic collapse. Exact timing and velocity of such events are never predictable, but trends, history, and current situations are knowable – and they all suggest, at least to me, that the time is near for a storm-of-the-century economic jolt. In addition, many believe the administration or some rogue element in the FedGov plans a false flag operation this summer, in the form of another massive terrorist event, to justify the imposition of martial law and an attack on Iran . The recent executive order allowing for confiscation of property from anti-war protesters (or from essentially anyone the Secretary of the Treasury wishes to target, given the extremely vague wording of the order) has added to the concern. This order becomes law, unless Congress acts to prevent it, in mid-August.

Many Americans are deeply concerned about where this is all headed. For that matter, many are downright terrified, and I think with good reason.

It makes sense, then, that Dr. Paul's presidential campaign is drawing supporters from parts of the political spectrum that are normally hostile to each other. Many Democrats support Paul for his anti-war stance, while many anti-state market anarchists (who believe the political process is mostly a way to falsely legitimize the exercise of coercive power) are also supporting this most unexpected of Republican candidates.

To see why, it helps to remember that Paul was the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate in 1988. His message has not changed since then: Paul remains a small-government libertarian. Elected to Congress ten times, Dr. Paul has a long record of voting in accordance with his libertarian and constitutionalist principles. Paul's nickname – "Dr. No" – stems from his consistent voting against any bill that is not clearly authorized by the Constitution. In many cases, Paul's vote has been the only vote opposing an increase in State power.

- 2 -

Will Tyranny and Economic Disaster

Lead us to a Free and Compassionate World?

The debate in libertarian circles about whether to support or reject Ron Paul's campaign is essentially a debate over which methods and tactics will best serve to move us in the direction of more love and more freedom.

My stand on the issue is that Paul's candidacy is the best thing we could have hoped for at this moment in time, and that the dramatic growth in support for Dr. Paul's campaign is just about the only bright spot in our current situation. Large numbers of people in America are rallying to, learning about, and becoming excited about the idea of freedom. This is a first in my lifetime, and I am old enough to remember when Ike was president. I am not concerned that most of these people are not yet abolitionists; they are opening their eyes to reality, and embracing freedom as they understand it. That is a start, and without a start, one never gets anywhere.

I see little in history to suggest that dictatorships or economic disasters are good for the cause of freedom, and much to suggest the opposite. Here in America , the (government-caused) Great Depression led to FDR unconstitutionally criminalizing gold ownership and massively increasing the size of the federal government. FDR also schemed to get America into WWII and then targeted a racial minority (Japanese-Americans) for internment in concentration camps during the war. None of this led the American public to rise up and take their freedoms back; instead, both the media elite and the public in general seemed enamored of FDR at the time, and that bizarre affection continues.

Hitler came to power after Germany's hyperinflation episode had done to Germans what Mugabe's hyperinflation is now doing to those in Zimbabwe. Tyranny and over-issued fiat currency turned each of those nations into a dangerous madhouse, where all but the super-rich were impoverished and where the local currency was worthless, where necessities were increasingly scarce, and where desperation was the constant tone of life. It took Germany 's defeat in WWII to end the nightmare in what became West Germany , while in East Germany it took another lifetime beyond that, until the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe . Tens of millions were murdered by the Nazis and later by the Communists, and for every victim murdered, hundreds more were terrorized or completely impoverished or harmed in some other way. Zimbabwe is still in the midst of the storm, and I note that freedom-seekers are not flocking there.

To say it plainly: all the historical evidence I have seen suggests that a massive social, economic, or political breakdown in America will not somehow lead to more freedom, but rather to hardship and perhaps to outright horror on an epic scale, lasting for decades or longer.

The path to freedom lies in another direction.

- 3 -

The Goal is Love and Freedom

The disaster we are so clearly headed for is a threat to love and freedom, for us and for generations to come. Love and freedom together are the foundation of any healthy society, which makes this cause for serious alarm. Nothing else matters so much as do love and freedom. Cultural details and religious beliefs can vary; such things are largely matters of taste and familiarity. But love and freedom are essentials – they are important regardless of anything else. When levels of love and freedom are high, other things take care of themselves. Without high levels of love and freedom, disaster is certain.

Love and freedom require each other because these two characteristics are integral parts of a basic human duality. For that reason, neither love nor freedom survives for long without the other.

If Paradise is, as I see it, simply a healthy world characterized by love and freedom, then Hell would be the opposite: an unhealthy world of widespread, severe neurosis and tyranny.

Imagine such a world, and shudder – a world so unhealthy that death camps and wars were commonplace horrors and where hundreds of millions of people might be killed in such fashion in a single century. Imagine a world with people so miserable as to substitute greed (for things, lovers, power, or anything else) for the love they needed but did not get in childhood and infancy – a need which no amount of getting in the present could satisfy. Imagine a world where some damaged souls were so miserable, alienated, and angry as to actually enjoy hurting others on purpose. Imagine those people, in particular, gravitating to the ego-stroking power that comes with an authoritarian government job. Hitler, Mao, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, and dozens of others come to mind – along with their underlings and henchmen, right down to the jackbooted thugs on the streets. Look carefully, and you will see their shadows gathering in today's America .

If even thinking about such a world is almost too much to bear, I understand. Preventing such an abomination from materializing here is the most important immediate task of this generation.

- 4 -

The Path Back From the Brink

is the Path to Love and Freedom

What methods and tactics have the best chance of preventing a descent into iron-fisted dictatorship in this country? How can we best encourage movement, instead, in the direction of more love and freedom?

At this moment, here in these United States , Ron Paul's surprise campaign for president is by far the most powerful and positive tool we have – and I say that as an abolitionist, not a minarchist. Getting to the goal requires that we at least begin moving in the direction of the goal, and nothing else has accomplished that in my lifetime.

Dr. Paul, and the thousands of volunteers drawn to his campaign, are educating the public about freedom and are creating such enthusiasm that even the corporate, mainstream media is having trouble ignoring the phenomenon. It is actually possible that the Paul campaign will, directly or indirectly, halt and perhaps even begin reversing the slide into tyranny that has, until now, seemed unstoppable.

If there is anything more positive for the future of freedom and compassion in this country, I have yet to see it. I urge you to support Ron Paul's campaign in whatever way you can.

Related links

http://nonais.org/index.php/2008/01/26/microchips-everywhere/

January 26, 2008
Microchips Everywhere
News — walterj 5:01 pm
Interesting mainstream article. We have been point out these issues for a long time. Perhaps the public will finally wake up and smell the RFID tagged coffee…

Microchips with antennas will be embedded in virtually everything you buy, wear, drive and read, allowing retailers and law enforcement to track consumer items - and, by extension, consumers - wherever they go, from a distance. … microchips are turning up in some computer printers, car keys and tires, on shampoo bottles and department store clothing tags. They’re also in library books and “contactless” payment cards (such as American Express’”Blue” and ExxonMobil’s “Speedpass.”)
:
With tags in so many objects, relaying information to databases that can be linked to credit and bank cards, almost no aspect of life may soon be safe from the prying eyes of corporations and governments, says Mark Rasch, former head of the computer-crime unit of the U.S. Justice Department. By placing sniffers in strategic areas, companies can invisibly “rifle through people’s pockets, purses, suitcases, briefcases, luggage - and possibly their kitchens and bedrooms - anytime of the day or night,” says Rasch, now managing director of technology at FTI Consulting Inc. (FCN), a Baltimore-based company.
:
In an RFID world, “You’ve got the possibility of unauthorized people learning stuff about who you are, what you’ve bought, how and where you’ve bought it … It’s like saying, ‘Well, who wants to look through my medicine cabinet?’”
He imagines a time when anyone from police to identity thieves to stalkers might scan locked car trunks, garages or home offices from a distance. “Think of it as a high-tech form of Dumpster diving,” says Rasch, who’s also concerned about data gathered by “spy” appliances in the home. “It’s going to be used in unintended ways by third parties - not just the government, but private investigators, marketers, lawyers building a case against you …”
:
As RFID goes mainstream and the range of readers increases, it will be “difficult to know who is gathering what data, who has access to it, what is being done with it, and who should be held responsible for it,” Maxwell wrote in RFID Journal, an industry publication. The recent growth of the RFID industry has been staggering: From 1955 to 2005, cumulative sales of radio tags totaled 2.4 billion; last year alone, 2.24 billion tags were sold worldwide, and analysts project that by 2017 cumulative sales will top 1 trillion - generating more than $25 billion in annual revenues for the industry.
:
A 2005 patent application by American Express itself describes how RFID-embedded objects carried by shoppers could emit “identification signals” when queried by electronic “consumer trackers.” The system could identify people, record their movements, and send them video ads that might offer “incentives” or “even the emission of a scent.”
:
In 2006, IBM received patent approval for an invention it called, “Identification and tracking of persons using RFID-tagged items.” One stated purpose: To collect information about people that could be “used to monitor the movement of the person through the store or other areas.”
Once somebody enters a store, a sniffer “scans all identifiable RFID tags carried on the person,” and correlates the tag information with sales records to determine the individual’s “exact identity.” A device known as a “person tracking unit” then assigns a tracking number to the shopper “to monitor the movement of the person through the store or other areas.”

But as the patent makes clear, IBM’s invention could work in other public places, “such as shopping malls, airports, train stations, bus stations, elevators, trains, airplanes, restrooms, sports arenas, libraries, theaters, museums, etc.” (RFID could even help “follow a particular crime suspect through public areas.”)

Another patent, obtained in 2003 by NCR Corp. (NCR), details how camouflaged sensors and cameras would record customers’ wanderings through a store, film their facial expressions at displays, and time - to the second - how long shoppers hold and study items.

Why? Such monitoring “allows one to draw valuable inferences about the behavior of large numbers of shoppers,” the patent states.

Then there’s a 2001 patent application by Procter & Gamble, “Systems and methods for tracking consumers in a store environment.” This one lays out an idea to use heat sensors to track and record “where a consumer is looking, i.e., which way she is facing, whether she is bending over or crouching down to look at a lower shelf.”
The system could space sensors 8 feet apart, in ceilings, floors, shelving and displays, so they could capture signals transmitted every 1.5 seconds by microchipped shopping carts.

The documents “raise the hair on the back of your neck,” says Liz McIntyre, co-author of “Spychips,” a book that is critical of the industry. “The industry has long promised it would never use this technology to track people. But these patent records clearly suggest otherwise.”
:
Still, the idea that tiny radio chips might be in their socks and shoes doesn’t sit well with Americans. At least, that’s what Fleishman-Hillard Inc., a public-relations firm in St. Louis, found in 2001 when it surveyed 317 consumers for the industry.

Seventy-eight percent of those queried reacted negatively to RFID when privacy was raised. “More than half claimed to be extremely or very concerned,” the report said, noting that the term “Big Brother” was “used in 15 separate cases to describe the technology.”

It also found that people bridled at the idea of having “Smart Tags” in their homes. One surveyed person remarked: “Where money is to be made the privacy of the individual will be compromised.”

In 2002, Fleishman-Hillard produced another report for the industry that counseled RFID makers to “convey (the) inevitability of technology,” and to develop a plan to “neutralize the opposition,” by adopting friendlier names for radio tags such as “Bar Code II” and “Green Tag.”
:
[I]n the United States, RFID is not federally regulated. And while bar codes identify product categories, radio tags carry unique serial numbers that - when purchased with a credit card, frequent shopper card or contactless card - can be linked to specific shoppers. And, unlike bar codes, RFID tags can be read through almost anything except metal and water, without the holder’s knowledge.
-AP News

NAIS for shoppers. What is it going to take to wake up the public? Some people already get it but all to many turn a blank face when asked to care about farmers and homesteaders dealing with the USDA’s proposed National Animal Identification System.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/beane2.html

by Larry L. Beane II


"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, But a just weight is His delight." (Prov. 11:1)

A crooked merchant can use dishonest scales as a way to steal from the customer. If the sign says that a pound of Cajun pastrami sells for $9.99 per pound, you expect to get 16 avoirdupois ounces for ten bucks. But what if the merchant is clever and rigs the scale to read a full pound at only 15.5 ounces? That's not a lot to shave off, but like the urban legend of the computer programmer that rolls additional fractions of cents into his own bank account, when multiplied over thousands of transactions, that's a lot of money stolen. And what's to stop the merchant from lulling people into slowly changing the scales a little at a time, year after year, so that, say in 50 years, your "pound" of meat is really only 8 ounces? If it's done slowly enough, you won't even notice.

It seems that such schemes were around in the days of King Solomon, as Proverbs 11:1 demonstrates. In fact, there are at least two other mentions of "dishonest scales" in the Book of Proverbs.

For this reason, weights and measures are standard. The days are long over from when the tailor sold cloth based on the distance from his nose to his outstretched hand (which would naturally make one avoid "vertically challenged" merchants). No more is the standard cubit the measure of the king's forearm (which changed every time a new sovereign was crowned). No, indeed, today weights and measures are standardized. In fact, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (formerly the Bureau of Weights and Measures) carefully defines units of measure that are the legal standards for commerce in the United States.

Retailers are required to use "honest scales" that are calibrated, checked, and certified by the appropriate government bureaucracies. So, in all likelihood, the pound of Cajun pastrami really does have 16 ounces. The gallon of gasoline is, in all likelihood, really four quarts. The mile on Googlemaps is truly the same, whether in Texas or Rhode Island.

But back to the pastrami. The pound is carefully standardized and regulated, but what about the dollar?

Of course, a dollar is a dollar, right? Dollars don't change. Can the "scales" be dishonest when it comes to currency?

From 1790–1913, the United States dollar was constant. It was tied to gold and/or silver. A dollar bought pretty much the same thing for Thomas Jefferson as it did for Teddy Roosevelt. A careful look at inflation rates from 1790–1913 shows some minor fluctuation, but for the most part, a 1913 dollar was the same as an 1850 dollar, and was the same as a 1790 dollar.

Sure, prices went up and down due to supply and demand. An orange in Louisiana was (and still is) cheaper than it will be in Maine. An apple in Washington was (and still is) cheaper than it will be in Mississippi. Coffee was more expensive for some reason in New Orleans in 1862 than it was in New York City. Hmmm, I wonder why? Of course, that market reality led to the inclusion of chicory in the coffee sold in the occupied Crescent City – especially at the Cafe du Monde (established in 1862) – where coffee and chicory is still the drink of choice.

Yet in spite of market forces, the dollar was still the dollar just as the pound was still the pound. The scales were honest, and the monetary unit was likewise fixed and standard. This made investing fair and gave incentive to save. For why should anyone put money in the bank if the value of the dollar were to drop over time?

In the collection of O. Henry tales from the Stories for Young People series, there is an interesting disclaimer. Most of these short stories take place a hundred years ago. In the introduction (page 7) there is a "final note on currency" that reads: "When it comes to matters of money, the reader should remember how much the value of a specific sum has changed over the last hundred years in the United States: a dollar then would be worth over twenty today."

Interesting.

Of course, the pound, the mile, the yard, the foot, the pint, and the degree Fahrenheit, are carefully regulated and kept standard. It would be preposterous to say that back in 1908, the yard was comprised of sixty feet, or that a gallon was made up of eighty quarts. And yet, we accept the degradation and the devaluation of our currency as normal. We can't even compare economic data in our own day and age without saying something like "as measured in 1995 dollars" – since the dollar as a monetary unit is not standard, but is systematically devalued every year.

So, why was there no inflation (devaluation) of the currency until 1913? That's the year the United States created a central bank. The Constitution makes no provision for the Federal government to do any such thing, and the Constitution even specifies that money must be backed by gold and silver. But, of course, the folks that tell us the Constitution is a "living document" will tell us that the dollar simply must be "flexible" (while the same people would never in a thousand years propose a "flexible" foot, pound, or gallon to shrink over the course of time).

Today, the dollar has no definitional standard – unlike the highly regulated gallon or inch. Rather, dollars – freed from any tie to gold or silver – are printed on paper out of nothing. Every year, the government incurs an ever-increasing debt, and constantly prints more money to pay its bills (great gig, huh?), which lowers the relative market value of every dollar in your pocket (or in your money market fund, in your stock portfolio, or even dollars that you have yet to earn).

Uh, what does Scripture say about "dishonest scales" again?

Here is an insightful piece by Pat Buchanan about "paper money" created out of thin air by the central bank (the Federal Reserve Bank – which, by the way, is neither truly Federal, has no reserves, and isn't really a bank) – and what the ramifications are for us today: a debt-heavy nation, a culture of borrowing, a people who refuse to save (and indeed are given disincentive to save by the "dishonest scales" of fiat currency), a demographic reality of retiring baby-boomers and a paucity of younger workers to keep the pyramid scheme of entitlement going.

It's not good.

You can only devalue currency for so long before the chickens come home to roost. I find it utterly amazing that nobody (well, almost nobody) wants to address this issue. Both the Democrats and the Republicans want to keep the scam alive, and even try to convince us that we have more wealth than we really do by playing around with the interest rates at which the money is created out of nothing. Can you just imagine if a government agency systematically lowered the pound by a few tenths of an ounce every year? People would see right through that scam, and would quickly identify who the "winners" and "losers" would be in such a racket. But let the government do it with our so-called dollar, and if you even question it, you're some kind of loony extremist (or at least some kind of geeky right-wing economist).

Look, when I spend $9.99 for a pound of Cajun pastrami, I just want it to really be a pound and really be $9.99. Is that really all that unreasonable? It hardly seems like rocket science. From my reading of Scripture, when the Lord spends ten bucks on lunch meat, He also expects to get His money's worth. The proof text is right there in Prov. 11:1 (which, if it were up to the Federal government, would probably be somewhere back about 1 Samuel after adjusting for inflation).

January 26, 2008

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http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=6214

Bush Establishes Financial Propaganda Council
01-22-2008
www.roguegovernment.com
Lee Rogers



The amount of insanity coming out of the United States government has reached a new level today. George W. Bush has issued a new executive order establishing a group called the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy. The insanity of this executive order is unparalleled. The so called purpose of this Council is to keep this nation economically competitive and encourage the financial literacy of the American people. The government working in conjunction with the Federal Reserve has done everything in their power since the implementation of the Federal Reserve to ensure that the American people know nothing about how our monetary system really works. It is interesting that in light of major financial problems and an increased awareness of the Federal Reserve amongst the American people that we see the formation of such a Council. This group is not going to educate the American people about how the financial system actually works. If they did, they would be forced to admit that the Federal Reserve creates money out of thin air that has no value. The establishment is not going to do that. Instead, this group will be used to spread propaganda about the economy, mislead the American people as to what is really creating all of the financial problems and provide phony solutions to these problems. This group may even go as far as saying that we need to replace the U.S. Dollar with a regional currency. The bottom line is that the government has continuously lied about everything, so why should we listen to what this newly formed Council is going to tell us? Not only that, but the government and the Federal Reserve are the ones that really need an educational lesson on monetary policy because they are the ones who have been destroying the economy through this fiat currency. Endless foreign wars and expanding the money supply was what destroyed Rome, and they are doing the exact same thing which if continued will result in our doom.

The financial ups and downs that we see is a direct result of the fractional reserve banking system which uses a monetary unit that has no tangible backing by gold, silver or any other hard asset. During the 19th century, the United States saw great economic expansion because we had a stable monetary system. Gold and silver was primarily used as money during this time. This encouraged savings because the money stored value. Inflation was non-existent throughout the 19th century with the exception of the Civil War when Lincoln issued Greenbacks to fund the war. After the formation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, the bankers sought to destroy the link between the monetary system and gold. They were able to do that after engineering the Great Depression by intentionally putting a squeeze on the money supply. This is why there was a massive deflation during this time period. They used the economic problems that they created in order to justify a seizure of the gold using the excuse that it would help solidify the economy. The gold was melted down and taken to Fort Knox, KY. Ownership of gold in any substantive quantity was made illegal domestically. This ended the gold standard from a domestic standpoint. Internationally, gold was still accepted for the U.S. Dollar until 1971 when Richard Nixon shut the window on gold redemption and ended the post World War II Bretton Woods agreement which had made the U.S. Dollar the world’s reserve currency. The Federal Reserve had printed too much money and there wasn’t enough gold to be exchanged for the amount of Dollars they created. Since that point in time, the Federal Reserve has literally printed the money out of thin air, created all of the economic booms and busts through the manipulation of interest rates and the money supply. They have devalued the U.S. Dollar by over 95% since 1913 which slowly robbed wealth from the American people through their creation of additional Dollars otherwise known as inflation. It is a simple supply and demand issue, and right now the Federal Reserve has created too many Dollars which is causing massive inflation and currency devaluation. The mortgage meltdown and the fiasco in the global stock markets the past couple of days are a symptom of the irresponsible and downright criminal monetary policies of the Federal Reserve.

Of course, this new group that Bush is setting up will not teach anybody about the true history of money or the criminal nature of the Federal Reserve. Instead, this group will be used to spread propaganda to the American people about the financial markets and provide phony solutions to problems that the establishment intentionally created through their manipulation of the money supply.

Let’s analyze the various sections of the executive order. Below is the stated mission of this new Council straight from the executive order.

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America and to promote and enhance financial literacy among the American people, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. To help keep America competitive and assist the American people in understanding and addressing financial matters, it is the policy of the Federal Government to encourage financial literacy among the American people.

Of course, it has never been the policy of the government or the Federal Reserve to educate the American people as to the true nature of our financial system. This mission statement is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

The President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy will be a group under the Department of Treasury as stated in section 2.

Section 3 of the executive order details the membership of the Council. There will be 19 members on the Council appointed among individuals not employed by the government. The Council will be directed by the Treasury Secretary and funded by the Department of Treasury.

Section 4 of the executive order establishes the exact functions of the Council which includes obtaining information and advice concerning financial literacy, improving financial education for children and adults, promote effective access to financial services, especially for those without access to such services, conduct research on the financial knowledge of people and provide reports to the President through the Secretary of the Treasury on these matters. So basically speaking they are going to adopt a strategy to spread propaganda to the American people that will effectively mislead them into making decisions with their money. Since when has the government sought to have an informed and smart population? The Department of Education has done everything in their power to dumb down the American people through standardized tests and other failed strategies. Not only that, but there have been so many lies from the U.S. government and the establishment media, so why should we trust any information coming from this Council? Even more ridiculous is that the Council is going to try to promote access to financial services and in particular access to financial services to those without access to such services. One of the biggest groups of people that this pertains to is of course the expanding population of illegal aliens in the United States. So this Council will likely be spreading propaganda talking about how we need to provide financial services to illegal aliens. This is insane.

In section 6 of the executive order it states that the Council will last for two years. It is interesting that many gold bugs and economists have been predicting a financial meltdown and believe that the economy could crash within the next few years. Maybe that's just a coincidence but it is certainly an interesting one. Perhaps, this group will be in charge of promoting a new regional currency to replace the Dollar which is on the brink of a collapse thanks to the Federal Reserve’s policy of destroying its value.

The bottom line is this Council is going to serve as a means to spread propaganda to the American people on the financial system. They are even going to target children with the propaganda. The establishment needs to counter critically important information being put out about how horrible the central banking system is. Ron Paul has done a tremendous job interjecting these truths about the financial system into the GOP presidential debates and this has undoubtedly scared the establishment. There is little doubt that the people on the Council will be establishment insiders and they will not serve the American people’s best interest. People are scared because the housing market is in the toilet, the currency is being devalued, wages are not rising with the price of goods and services, precious metals are at record nominal levels and we’ve seen oil approach $100 a barrel in recent months. This Council is going to try to set aside people's fears through education and because of this, it should be called the President’s Council on Financial Propaganda instead of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy. Do not listen to what this Council says or tries to promote. Buy gold and silver and protect yourself from what the Federal Reserve and our government are doing to our economy. Foreign wars and the policy of devaluing our currency are destroying our economy and it is all being done by design by these criminals.




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http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section;=0&article;=105662&d;...

Tuesday 15 January 2008 (07 Muharram 1429)






Editorial: Peace Now
15 January 2008

Our region is not short of bloodshed and instability. Iraq, Lebanon, the occupied Palestinian territories and Afghanistan are all scenes of past and present conflicts where largely innocent blood has flowed in plenty. We do not need yet another dangerous conflict.

That is why it was so sad, even depressing, to hear US President George W. Bush use his visit to the Gulf to continue his saber-rattling against the Iranians — and over a nuclear weapons program which his own intelligence chiefs say Tehran abandoned five years ago. To any dispassionate observer, US military action against Iran is unthinkable. Unfortunately the Bush administration’s record since 9/11 has not only embraced the unthinkable but more dangerously, it has embraced it in an unthinking fashion.

To continue such dire warnings was inconsiderate given that Bush was the guest of Gulf states which are on Iran’s doorstep. Such warnings were not what we wanted to hear. As Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal told his Canadian counterpart Maxime Bernier this week in a message that he then repeated to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner — confrontational behavior by Washington toward Iran was not the answer. If Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states had a problem with Iran concerning its nuclear program, then they would talk to Tehran as neighbors should.

Before Bush’s Middle East visit, White House briefers were telling correspondents that the president would be pushing the Israelis for a Palestinian settlement in return for Arab backing of a tough stance with Iran. It was suggested that Israel might be more tractable if the “Iranian nuclear threat” were removed. But the linkage simply is not there. It is because of the enduring injustices visited upon the Palestinians, with US connivance, that the Arab world, not least Saudi Arabia which has long been a US ally, has been so disappointed by the failure to reward loyalty and friendship by Washington’s driving through a Palestinian settlement. And further, it is because Israel — again with US connivance — has acquired a nuclear arsenal that Iran and, before it, Saddam’s Iraq even thought of acquiring their own nuclear deterrents.

Purblind US policies and Washington’s desperate failure time and again to listen to the advice and guidance of its Arab friends in the region have brought us to this new moment of tension with Iran. We do not need more threats of war. Warmongering has already created the greatest level of regional instability in 60 years. Bush’s inflammatory threats against Iran ride roughshod over the counsels of peace that he has heard from every Arab government on his Middle East visit.

Whatever threat Iran may constitute, now or in the future, must be addressed peaceably and through negotiations. The consequences of further war in the region are hideous, not least because they are incalculable. Even Bush, with the ruin of Iraq before him, must surely see that. Yet in his confrontational remarks about Iran, he offers no carrot, no inducement, no compromise — only the big US stick. This is not diplomacy in search of peace. It is madness in search of war.

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Please be sure to keep stocked with ample food, water, and ammunition at all times. It is best if you have a place outside of any city where you and your trusted family and friends (avoid anyone you cannot trust absolutely, including family members) can stay throughout a state of emergency. Make sure you have an alternative power source (generator, solar panels, windmill, etc.).

It may become necessary for you to adapt to low-tech devices. Start providing for this possibility. For example, communications might be achieved through couriers and messengers, telegraph, ham radio, carrier pigeon, etc. I AM NOT KIDDING!

Be sure that you have maps (topological maps are best because they show all of the back roads that run through National Parks, etc.). Also, stock up on desirable supplies like can openers, soap, etc. These will prove very useful for bartering.

Most important… DO NOT PANIC! You are so much smarter than those who would subvert your rights. Do not allow a (possibly manufactured) state of emergency to overwhelm your common sense. If you keep your head on straight, you will likely survive anything, because your intelligence far surpasses that of the bureaucrats.


Good luck and may God Bless and Keep you!

The Fram Oil Filter Candidate
by Hal Cranmer


http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/cranmer4.html

But hear me now, somebody said "Fair Warning, Lord !
(This is Meanstreet) Lord, strike that poor boy down"
~ Van Halen

When I played football in high school there would always be a late August week of practice known as "Hell Week." Practices would start at 6:30 in the morning and, with some breaks in between, would not be complete until 6–7pm. They were long, hot days filled with many full-contact drills. The idea behind them, the head coach would tell us, was to make sure we were in the best shape we could be in for the season. When the fourth quarter came around in a tough game, he wanted to make sure the other team was sucking wind, not us.

Around the same time as those practices, there was a commercial on TV for Fram Oil Filters. The commercial was set in a junkyard, and an auto mechanic was holding one of the filters. The mechanic’s memorable line was "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later," meaning you can buy an inexpensive oil filter now, or you can pay for a new engine when yours breaks down. My coach would always cite that commercial when we were tired and dragging during hell week. We could pay for a week in August, or we could pay on game day throughout the season.

Today that same Fram commercial from the 80’s is very applicable to the Presidential race. All of the candidates except Ron Paul want to turn that slogan on its head. The politicians tell voters that you don’t need to pay now – and if you elect them you don’t have to pay later. You never have to pay! We’ll get someone else to foot the bill. Run your car into the ground, we’ll keep it going – for free!

Ron Paul is the mechanic in the junkyard. He wants America to buy an oil filter and feel a little pain now, in order to avoid a tremendous pain later. Sure, switching over to a gold standard will hurt people who are highly leveraged, or that benefit from inflation, but the alternative is eventual bankruptcy for the whole nation – which is worse?

Eliminating the IRS will make business for tax accountants dry up, but there are many other uses in business for these highly-skilled (and patriotic I might add) people. Expanding the IRS, like so many Presidential candidates must do in order to pay for their programs, will take away more freedom, and the economy will continue to suffer more and more.

Foreign policy. Bringing the troops home and removing ourselves from foreign entanglements would hurt the profits of Halliburton and Bechtel in the short term. It would also make it harder for dictators in other countries to finance their governments. But wouldn’t it be better to introduce Harley Davidson, Levi Strauss and Victoria Secret to these countries we fight instead? In the long run, which set of products would a foreign country embrace more – our war machine, or our leisure-time activities?

Reducing government spending is overall the hardest preventative maintenance that the American electorate can do. So many people have become dependent on government that the thought of being left without their security blanket is abhorrent. Ron Paul is asking those people to look at the total costs. The people may be getting a dependable check now from the government, but inflation will increasingly destroy their standard of living. Those same people will fall further and further behind if they do not turn to the free market to increase their wealth.

Ron Paul’s Mandate

No matter who wins in November, they will have to deal with Ron Paul’s ideas. That is because Dr. Paul is a champion of the free market, which is always present. Sure, when government grows too large, many people start calling the free market the black market. But even if you lived in the Soviet Union, or North Korea, you would still have to deal with people trading with each other on a voluntary basis. No amount of government can ever stamp that out. Human innovation is just too powerful.

Yet many politicians try – including the current bunch in the US.

And the results are inevitable. The free market passes judgment on the people who tolerate an overreaching government, and the verdict is grim. Countries who follow the ideas Dr. Paul proposes always prosper, those that don’t always suffer.

Sure, many politicians pay lip service to the free market. They talk about wasteful spending, and the need to cut taxes, but they never do anything. If they cut taxes, the politicians don’t cut spending. They just make up for the shortfall by printing money. Always and everywhere they just grow government, one way or another.

Ron Paul is the one politician crying "Fair Warning," and everyone wants to strike him down for it. Nobody wants to lose their "bennies." They want to hit the open road and just keep driving – Jiffy Lube be damned!

Other politicians are taking note of what Ron Paul is saying, because it IS resonating, but they don’t mean it. Fred Thompson is boasting about his one dissenting vote on many pieces of legislation in the Senate (although the truth is not as impressive as it sounds). Mike Huckabee has talked about abolishing the IRS (which is pretty laughable considering how much Gov. Huckabee liked to tax in Arkansas). And Democrats are now condemning the Iraq War after they all voted for it 5 years ago.

The reason Ron Paul’s ideas always win, is because they are not his ideas. Other politicians come up with their plans, which they want to force on to the American people (and the rest of the world in many cases). Ron Paul is like a really good financial analyst. He takes a look at the present situation, looks for parallels in the past, and applies what has worked before to the world of today. He doesn’t tell us what "should" work, but rather what "will" work based on human nature. Human nature has never changed – and it never will. We all want to increase pleasure and remove discomfort. To do this for some at the expense of others, will always and everywhere bring on the wrath of the "others." Ron Paul does not try to change the world. He tries to remove the constraints that hold people back, and let the people of the world, change the world.

That is why the other politicians worry about Ron Paul. His ideas will always crush their ideas. Sometimes it takes a little longer, but it will inevitably happen.

Dr. Paul attributes his popularity to the message, not to himself. That is because he is just trying to show people how the world works, not how he will work the world. The other candidates are offering policy prescriptions that try to fight the ideas Ron Paul talks about.

For instance, many candidates talk about a stimulus package for the economy, as if they can control the economy. Ron Paul wants to let the economy be, because he knows that every person in the economy is doing all we can to stimulate it. When a politician talks about stimulus, what they really mean is higher taxes, inflation or regulation that take away your own "stimulus."

For over 30 years, Ron Paul has been a lonely voice trying to align the country with the forces of the market. During that time the rest of the political establishment has been driving on blindly, without a care about what is going on under the hood. Lately the knocks and pings are getting louder. The question is – will you pay the price by electing Ron Paul now, or will you pay him later when the free market passes judgment on another candidate’s ambitious plans? As for me – I’ll head to Autozone!

January 19, 2008

Hal Cranmer [send him mail] is an Air Force Academy graduate and former military and commercial pilot. He now works for an industrial manufacturing company in Minnesota.

Copyright © 2008 LewRockwell.com

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid;=7803
Main Japanese Opposition Party Questions 9/11 in Parliament
Broadcast on Japanese public TV



Global Research, January 15, 2008




for complete transcript in english scroll down

VIDEOS NOW SUBTITLED - not complete gets updated

Japan's prime minister and main opposition rival clashed on Jan. 9th, 2008 over the controversial naval mission in support of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan as the ruling bloc prepared to force an enabling law through parliament

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, squaring off in parliament with Democratic Party leader Ichiro Ozawa for the first time since taking office, praised the navy's refueling mission as helping the global war on terrorism and urged the opposition-controlled upper house to vote on it before parliament ends on Jan. 15.

Ozawa insists the refueling mission violates Japan's pacifist constitution, and has not been approved formally by the United Nationsa position Fukuda flatly rejected.

Ozawas Japan Democratic party which is in the opposition tried to block the resumption of the mission, which supplies fuel
and water to US-led forces operating in the Indian Ocean.

It claims that oil supplied by Japanese ships has been diverted for use in
operations in Iraq, an accusation the Americans deny.



On January 11th 2008 the opposition-controlled upper house voted down the bill to restart the mission to refuel U.S. and other ships patrolling the Indian Oceanmember of Parliament

Yukihisa Fujita of the Japan Democratic party, made a 20 minute long statement
at the House of Councillors, the upper house of the Diet (parliament) of Japan, ahead of the voting

He questioned the official version of 9/11 presented
to the japanese government and the public by the US administration in a session of the defence commission.

He asked the current Prime Minister Fukuda who was the Chief Cabinet Secretary under Koizumi cabinet in 2001 .

"How could terrorists attacked the Pentagon?"


Mr.Yukihisa Fujita stressed that of the 24 people that died on 9/11 only 13 were identified and 11 bodies remain unaccounted for.
He pointed out that there was never an official police investigation into the deaths of these japanese nationals.
He asked whether terrorism is crime or war. Some Japanese people were killed, so he believes this was a crime and the japanese police should investigate the
real suspects.

The Japanese government assumed that the suspect was Al-Queda because Bush told then Prime minister Koizumi in 2001 after the attacks of 9/11 had happened
and later did send the self-defense force to Iraq based on that assumption.


US President George W Bush has recently pressed Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to ensure Tokyo resumes crucial naval operations to support the war in Afghanistan.

Yukihisa Fujita did question Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Minister of Finance Fukushiro Nukaga about the way in which the US government did inform the japanese government about the people responsible for the 9/11 attacks.


He then explained that in the USA many people doubt the official version of 9/11 and numerous websites and scientists have collected evidence that contradicts the governments version..



He presented several largescale photographs of: the Pentagon entry and exit hole,the flight path towards the Pentagon, the exploding WTC towers and the WTC 7 collapse.

He concluded that the japanese governments support of the "war against terror" is solely based on information provided by the US-administration. He demanded further investigation in the face of the governments drive to support the war more actively.

Yukihisa Fujita was elected to the House of Councillors for the first time in 2007


The Democratic Party of Japan (Minshinto) is a social liberal political party founded in 1998 by the merger of several smaller parties.
It is the second-largest party in the House of Representatives and the largest party in the House of Councillors, and it constitutes the primary opposition to the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party. broadcasted on public TV

Below is a transcript of testimony in the Japanese Parliament, broadcast live nationwide on NHK television.

The Member of Parliament talking about 911 is Yukihisa Fujita from the Democratic Party of Japan.

Head of the committee:

We will now begin the first session of the defense and foreign affairs committee. We will now start discussing the special anti-terror law. .We now call on Mr. Yukihisa Fujita

Fujita standing in front of microphone:

This will be the last televised broadcast of this committee for so I would like to talk about the origin of the war on terrorism which was the attacks of 911. On September 11 of 2002 I went to a theater house for a charity concert to help build a school in Afghanistan. They chose to have the charity concert on that day as a gesture of respect for the dead. Normally 911 commemorative events are for the people who died in New York but the people who held this event decided that more innocent people died as a result of 911 in Afghanistan than in New York. So they built a grade school near where the statue of Buddha was destroyed in Bamiyan. The name of the school is "the school of hope." They also lit candles to commemorate the dead both in Afghanistan and in New York in the year 2002, one year after the attacks. So, when discussing these anti-terror laws we should ask ourselves, what was 911, what is terrorism? So today, I would like to talk about the beginning of the war on terror.

So, I would like to ask the people who call this law an anti-terror law to realize that the biggest victim of the war on terrorism has been Afghanistan so I believe helping the people of Afghanistan should be our biggest priority. I would like to ask Mr. Inuzuka about this.

Tadashi Inuzuka walking to the microphone:

As Mr. Fujita says the main purpose of this law is to provide peace and security to Afghanistan. And, as he says, the biggest sufferers have been the people of Afghanistan. Afghanistan has 1.7 times the land area of Japan and 20 some million people live there. Also, because of a drought on the Eurasian continent close to 5 million have died due to water shortages. Even now 1 million people live close to the main battlegrounds. So, the main purpose is to provide stability to those war zones so in that context what should Japan do? However, instead of providing support by providing fuel to the U.S. forces we at the Democratic Party have decided that providing water is more important. The philosophy behind our anti-terror law is to get the ruling party to help deal with this problem.

Head of the committee: Mr. Fujita

Mr. Fujita:

I would like to talk about the origins of this war on terrorism. You may recall that in November I asked you if terrorism was war or if it was a crime. And the whole start of this war on terrorism was 911. What I want to know is if this event was caused by Al Qaeda or not. So far the only thing the government has said is that we think it was caused by Al Qaeda because President Bush told us so. We have not seen any real proof that it was Al Qaeda. I would like to know why the Prime Minister thinks it was the Taliban who was responsible for 911. Committee Chief, I want to ask the Prime Minister because he was chief cabinet officer at the time.

Prime Minister Fukuda:

Since the attacks we have communicated with the U.S. government and other governments at different levels and exchanged information. According to secret information obtained by our government and reports put together by foreign governments the 911 attacks were carried out by the international terrorist organization known as Al Qaeda.

Mr. Fujita:

So, you are talking about both secret and disclosed information. My question is has the Japanese government carried out its own investigation using the police and other resources? It is a crime so surely an investigation needs to be carried out. When a Japanese journalist was shot in Myanmar you carried out an investigation. In the same way over 20 Japanese people died on 911 so surely the government carried out its own investigation and decided that Al Qaeda was responsible. So, what kind of investigation did you carry out? At the time you were Chief Cabinet Secretary so surely you would know better than anybody so I want to ask you about your investigation.

Prime Minister Fukuda:

After the 911 attacks the National Police Agency sent an emergency anti-terror team to New York. They met with U.S. government officials and gathered information about missing Japanese.

Mr. Fujita:

So you are saying over 20 people died as a result of a crime and most of those people were working in New York. Also there were some Japanese who died in the four airplanes that were hijacked. I would like to know exactly how many people died in the buildings and how many died in the airplanes. I also want to know how you confirmed this. I would like the Foreign Minister to answer for me.

Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura standing at right in front of microphone:

We found the bodies of over a dozen Japanese following the simultaneous terror attacks carried out on September 11 2001. We were also informed about the death of 11 more people by the U.S. authorities. In total 24 Japanese died in those attacks. Of those 2 were in the airplanes.

Mr. Fujita:

I would like to ask what flights the two Japanese who died in the airplanes were on and how you determined who they were. If the foreign minister does not know it is OK to get a bureaucrat to answer:

Foreign Ministry division chief Ryoji Tanizaki:

Since this a question of fact, I will answer. As the Foreign Minister said, of the 24 people who died two were on the airplanes. One of them was on United Flight 93 and the other was on American airlines flight 11.As for how we know this, well I do not have the information in front of me but we were told by U.S. authorities and, in general, they use DNA testing. So we believe that is how we know about those two people.

Mr. Fujita:

So you are saying you do not know because you do not have the documents. Also, you say you believe there was DNA testing but you do not know. So what I want to say today is that this was a crime and crimes are supposed to be investigated. So the government needs to inform the victims families of the results of their investigation. Also, instead of just observing the anniversary of 911 every year you must be gathering information and reacting to it. So, during the past six years have you been supplying the families of the deceased with information? I would like to ask the Foreign Minister to answer.

Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura:

So you do not want to ask any more about how we confirmed the deaths of Japanese but want to know about reports to the victims families? We provided the families with information about the bodies and about compensation funds. Also, for the 13 Japanese whose remains we found, we helped the families deal with the bodies. We also financial support visits to the World Trade Center site for the families on every anniversary.

Mr. Fujita:

Since I do not have much time I would like to ask about the suspicious information being uncovered and the doubts people world wide are having about the events of 911. Many of these doubters are very influential people. In such circumstances I believe the Japanese government, which claims the attacks were carried out by Al Qaeda, should be providing the victims families with this new information. In that context I would like to ask several questions.

First of all I would like to get all members of the committee to look at this panel and look at the pictures I have provided you with. This is concrete evidence in the form of photographs and other types of information. The first photograph has computer graphics attached to show how large the plane that hit the Pentagon was. A 757 is quite a large airplane with a width of 38 meters. So as you can see even though such a large plane hit the pentagon there is only a hole that is too small for the airplane. This is a photograph taken of firemen at work and you can also see there is no damage of the sort an airplane that large should make. I would also like you to look at the lawn in front and notice that there are no airplane parts on it. Let us now look at the third picture, which is also of the pentagon taken from a U.S. TV news report has captions that show the roof of the Pentagon is still intact. Again even though a huge airplane is supposed to have hit, there is not enough corresponding damage. Now let us move to the next photograph. Here is a photograph of a hole, as Minister Komura knows the Pentagon is a very strong building with many walls. Yet the airplane has pierced them. But as you know, airplanes are made of the lightest possible material. An airplane made of such light material could not make a hole like that. Next I would like to show a photograph of how the airplane hit the building. The airplane made a U-turn, avoiding the Defense Secretary's office and hitting the only part of the Pentagon that had been specially reinforced to withstand a bomb attack.

Also, in the middle of page five we have a comment from a U.S. airforce official. He says I have flown the two types of airplane used on 911 and I cannot believe it would be possible for someone who is flying one for the first time to be able to carry out such a maneuver. Also, as you know, they have not recovered the flight recorders from most of these 4 airplanes. Also, there were more than 80 security cameras at the Pentagon but they have refused to release almost all of the footage. In any case, as you have just seen there is no picture of the airplane or of its wreckage in any of these photographs. It is very strange that no such pictures have been shown to us.

As you know Japan's self-defense forces have their headquarters in Ichigaya. Can you imagine if an airplane hit a major city, if an hour and a half after an airplane hit New York that an airplane could hit the Pentagon? In such a situation how could our allies allow such an attack to take place. I would like the Defense Minister to answer this.

Defense Minister Fuyushiba Ishiba:

I have not prepared so I will have to answer ad-lib. If such a situation took place then the airforce would send fighters up to shoot down any airplanes. This is what happened with an attack on the German constitutional court. In the case of Japan our reaction would depend on what kind of airplane it was, who was flying it and what their purpose was. However, according to our laws it might be hard to order an airplane to be shot down just because it was flying at a low level. We would probably have self-defense forces fly with it and ask for a cabinet decision. Since an airplane would have many people on board we would have do discuss what to do. This happened a long time ago but a Cesna airplane was flown into the house of a person called Yoshio Kodama. There was also an All Japan Airways flight bound for Hakodate that was hijacked and had the pilot killed. It would be best if such a thing never happened but we need to prepare new laws for such situations and discuss them in Parliament.

Mr. Fujita:

Since we are running out of time I would like to present a new piece of evidence. Please look at this panel. The first picture is one you see often of the two towers that were hit by hijacked airplanes. I could understand if this happened right after the airplanes hit but here we can see large piece of material flying a large distance through the air. Some flew 150 meters. You can objects flying in this picture as if there was an explosion. Here is a picture I took from a book. This lets you see how far the objects flew. The third picture is of a fireman who was involved in the rescue talking about a series of explosions in the building that sounded like a professional demolition. We cannot present video today so I have written a translation of what the fireman said. Here his is saying "it went boom boom boom like explosions were going off."

Here is something said by a Japanese research team of officials from the fire department and the construction ministry. The interviewed a Japanese survivor who said that while she was fleeing there were explosions. This testimony appears in a report prepared with the aid of the construction ministry and the fire department. Now I would like you to see the following picture. Normally it is said that the twin towers collapsed because they were hit by airplanes. However, one block away from the twin towers is building number 7. It can be seen in the following map a block away from the WTC. This building collapsed 7 hours after the WTC buildings were attacked. If I could show you a video it would be easy to understand but take a look at this photograph. This is a 47 story building that fell in this manner (He drops and object to demonstrate). The building falls in five or six seconds. It is about the same speed as an object would fall in a vacuum. This building falls like something you would see in a Kabuki show. Also if falls while keeping its shape. Remember it was not hit by an airplane. You have to ask yourself if a building could fall in that manner due to a fire after 7 hours. Here we have a copy of the 911 commission report. This is a report put out by the U.S. government in July of 2004 but this report does not mention the collapse of the building I just described. It is not mentioned at all in here (he waves the book). FEMA also issued a report but they also fail to mention this building. Many people believe, especially after seeing the story about building number 7, that something is strange. Since this is an incident where many people died people think is should be investigated.

We are running out of time but I would also like to mention the put options. Just before the 911 attacks, ie on September 6th, 7th and 8th there were put options put out on the stocks of the two airlines United and American that were hit by hijackers. There were also put options on Merril Lynch, one of the biggest WTC tenants. In other words somebody had insider information and made a fortune selling put options of these stocks. The head of Germany's Bundesbank at the time, who is equivalent to the Governor of the Bank of Japan, said there are lots of facts to prove the people involved in the terror attacks profited from insider information. He said there was lots of suspicious trading involving financial companies etc prior to the attacks. The had of the Bundesbank was willing to say this much. I would like to ask the Finance Minster about these put options. Did the government of Japan know about this, and what do you think about this? I would like to ask Finance Minister Nukaga about this.

Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga:

I was in Burkina Fasso in Africa when I heard about this incident. I decided to fly immediately to the U.S. but when I got to Paris I was told there were no flights to America. So I only heard what was reported later about the facts. I know there have been reports about the points you raise. So we made it obligatory that people provide ID for securities transactions and for suspicious transactions to be reported and we made it a crime to provide money to terrorist organizations. We believe the international financial system should not be abused. In any case, terrorism is a horrible thing and must be condemned. This type of terrorism cannot be stopped by one country but needs to be stopped by international society.

Mr. Fujita:

I would like to ask finance specialist Mr. Asao to tell me about put options. A group of people with large amounts of money, clear insider information and financial expertise would have been necessary for such a thing to take place. Could a few terrorists in Afghanistand and Pakistan carry out such a sophisticated and large scale set of transactions? I would like to ask Mr. Asao to respond.

Keiichiro Asao:

I understand put options are a deal to sell stocks at a fixed price. In this case somebody must have had insider information to carry out such transactions because nobody could normally predict these airlines would have their planes hijacked. So, I believe this was certainly a case of insider trading.

Mr. Fujita:

Prime Minister, you were Chief Cabinet Secretary at the time and as somebody has already noted, this was an incident of the sort that humanity had never previously experienced. Also, there appears to be a lot more information about this incident coming out now than came out in the months after the attacks. Now that we are an internet and visual society, this information is being made public so if we look at the situation now, the whole starting point for these two laws , the start of the war on terror itself, as you have seen from the information I have presented, has not been properly investigated or analyzed. So I do not believe the government has acted properly by investigating this incident or asking the U.S. government for an explanation. So far we have not started refueling U.S. ships yet so I think we need to go back to the beginning and not just simply and blindly trust the U.S. government explanation and indirect information provided by them. There were too many victims so I think we need to start again from the beginning. We need to ask who the real victims of this war on terrorism are. I think the citizens of the world are its victims. Here in Japan we have disappearing pensions and disappearing records about victims of Hepatitis C contaminate