Just caught this from this evening’s Washington Times. I’ve done no research yet, nor found a link to the actual report. But here’s the basics…. a Pentagon contractor, Kevin D. Freeman, wrote an analysis in 2009 titled “Economic Warfare: Risks and Responses” in which he suggested the economic crash of 2008 was three pronged attack against the US economy by outside forces, and is still in progress now.
“There is sufficient justification to question whether outside forces triggered, capitalized upon or magnified the economic difficulties of 2008,” the report says, explaining that those domestic economic factors would have caused a “normal downturn” but not the “near collapse” of the global economic system that took place.
Suspects include financial enemies in Middle Eastern states, Islamic terrorists, hostile members of the Chinese military, or government and organized crime groups in Russia, Venezuela or Iran. Chinese military officials publicly have suggested using economic warfare against the U.S.
Michael G. Vickers, assistant secretary of defense for special operations, said the Pentagon was not the appropriate agency to assess economic warfare and financial terrorism risks. (Associated Press)In an interview with The Times, Mr. Freeman said his report provided enough theoretical evidence for an economic warfare attack that further forensic study was warranted.
This is a lengthy piece, and what becomes notable is already too many agencies haven’t given this type of terrorism a second thought. Ironic since the September 11 attacks was all about bringing this nation to it’s knees by knocking out the financial district, and crippling response from the Pentagon and WH or Congress. Do we never learn?
This is still a breaking story, so for now, I’m throwing this out for y’all to chew on with much added commentary until I read more. Added sources and information in the comments by all of you would be appreciated!
Vietnam era Navy wife, indy/conservative, and an official California escapee now residing as a red speck in the sea of Oregon blue.
China seems a likely candidate, and I am pretty sure they are going to be a worse and more persistent enemy than islamic terrorists, because of our trading policys. They have already been screwing the US, then Obama just had to have a photo op with the president, so now I’m sure hu jinto is a commie terrorist(among other things).
I’ll wait for your more involved investigation into this Mata, but on the surface, I’d say we have exactly the wrong President needed to deal with it if it is found to be true.
If I was betting, I’d say Soros had his hand in it. He deals in international currency manipulation and I wouldn’t put it beyond the obambi supporter (or puppeteer) to crash the economy in the months before a critical election.
@Bookdoc:
Agree; also add Maurice Strong – between Soros, and Strong-it enabled to get Obama elected. As we watch Obama’s presidency unfold, it’s clear that ‘destruction’ of America is agenda #1.
What about Spooky Dude? There’s a history there. Plus, if China collapses our economy…good look with collecting on all those T-bills they own.
Bookdoc, Soros is the evil pro at this type of chicanery. A well placed 7.62 followed by another should be his well deserved reward for his BS. I found this stuff about the same time as Mata, but she is the best one to follow it up, that’s a given. Good luck hunting Mata!
China has long resented the United States. It knows that it cannot “better” America in military warfare. America has been very focused on the development of military technology, pushing it to its limits to minimize loss of life while maximizing effectiveness. That has been a costly focus.
America has also done well in the protection of its computer systems and communications systems from attack.
The open back door has been America’s financial systems. Even its money is not controlled by America/Congress, it relinquished that to The Fed. Firms like Goldman and JPMorgan, were able to execute hundreds of billions of dollars, . . . sorry, Trillions, worth of offshore transactions in the world of credit default swaps.
The very reason they were called SWAPS was to keep these “insurance of debt” vehicles from being regulated like insurance. UNREGULATED meant No Capital Reserve requirements. Debt in the banking world = asset. In the CDS world, CDSs were Assets, because they had interest and service fees tied to them, yet no one was checking on the veracity of the underlying “assets” at the heart of those CDSs. These instruments had started life as no-money-down-negative-amortization mortgages, while some might even never have existed at all.
Lack of rules and regulations provided ample and rapid-fire trading room OFFSHORE. The focus was on completing as many transactions in the shortest possible time possible, . . . there were waterfront mansions in the Hamptons to acquire or build. It is unlikely that anything resembling an accurate Transaction record could possibly be compiled. Ever. Opportunity knocked for subterfuge.
Second opportunity that knocked was the gaping hole called Uncovered Shorts. It actually does not take vast amounts of money to create havoc through this door, yet Wall Street has fought off all attempts at closing it. Given that there are trillions worth of offshore funds that are managed offshore, controlled by quiet unassuming fund managers, it wouldn’t take many of these to be assigned to attack the U.S. markets.
While the Putin crowd in Moscow is no friend of the U.S., it is more likely that China, which is more patient, and looks to affecting a long term strategy of economic dominance, will do all it can to end the dominance of King Dollar. China also knows it cannot wholesale destroy the Dollar, because such an event would overnight result in massive demonstrations, even revolution, in China.
It’s time to reject the notion and Fear that the dollar is under attack and threatened. China should Fear retaliation on the economic front using the Dollar. Its leaders would be running for the hills. America may have exported many manufacturing jobs to China, but America didn’t get stupid – it retains all the knowledge.
The answer is strong, assertive, knowledgeable leadership. Negotiate strong international trading agreements with teeth, and assume the upper hand. Trade deals with China have been and remain one-sided. Slam a few “Wall Street” heads into the pavement, and straighten them out (life in jail clarifies the mind). Close the loop holes, in the markets which won’t take a genius to figure out, but will take determination and resolve. Get a new leader, . . . no, make that, get a leader.
The USA has done things like this and other things to bring down countries it determine to be a threat to us. Other countries have been doing the save to us for years. I am guessing the reason we haven’t been hearing about it is that we had politicians in office who wanted our intelligence community to find out about such threats and counteract them. Our King-in-Chief and his court don’t have the security of our country as a high priority.
Just like we have done with other countries, I know other countries are trying to infiltrate our churches, schools, civic organizations, news media, entertainment industry, and our government. I have never seen so many of them against the USA as I am now. It seams that our enemies are joining forces to take over the USA then devide it like a pie, each group getting their piece. Which group will get the piece you live in?
I vote spooky dude … Follow the money.
It’s clear that economic destruction of America is the goal of lying Obama.
After reading the above posts it seems like we all know “Spooky Dude” George Soros is the most likely suspect. He is Obama’s puppet master, the economic collapse insured that Obama would win the election. This in turn allowed Obama to further wreck our economy by tripling our national debt. It also allowed Obama to use the crisis to nationalize our financial industry, auto industry, health care, ect.
Let’s go back a bit. why did they attack the World Trade Towers? don’t forget. That attack shut down Wall Street!!! It all ties in and I for one do believe this President is hell bent on destroying our economic system and delivering this country to his Marxist handlers! Nothing else can explain the actions taken by this administration other than that.
Here’s The Only Chart You Need To See To Understand Why The US Is Screwed
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-only-chart-you-need-to-see-to-understand-why-the-us-is-screwed-2011-2
We have seen the Enemy and the Enemy is the past several Economically Illiterate Congress Sessions.
Expenses vs Revenue tells it all. That placed the US in a vulnerable position for opportunists to strike.
It is the Elected Folks that viewed the US Treasury as a cookie jar that no one was watching. At this point blaming Outsiders is just bone stupid. We were at a tipping point years ago but the balance sheet was ignored. We elected Fools to Public Office so We deserved to be Fooled.
Congress is the Steward of Public Funds and Public Trust. May I say, Look no Further than there to start.
I don’t have the ability to post the pie charts so go to the site for a look. Some of Us saw it coming. If You leave the Treasury door open, it is difficult to blame the thieves.
PS…Add this to the mix.
GAO Details Billions in Federal Waste — Report Obtained by Fox News
http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/02/28/gao-details-billions-federal-waste-report-obtained-fox
You will see this after the release from GAO from other Media sources. Judge for Yourselves. Congress controls the Nation’s purse strings. Someone voted Them into Office. They just didn’t get there all by Themselves.
JR, would Soros have enough capital to do this on his own or would it necessarily take an economic power as large as China to do the deed.
I think Soros would want to hedge his bets with all the money he was investing to elect the unknown puppet Obama to the presidency as Mark’57 pointed out.
The stage was also set for Obama to implement further emergency legislation to hamstring the US economy; thus allowing, the Soros the vulture to pick at the country’s economy while it writhes in its death throes. The weakened condition of the economy and the Keystone Cops appearance of Obama/Geitner and crew is merely part of the subtrefuge (how can someone be so naive, utterly clueless, and devoid of common sense concerning the economy) that allows Soros the ability to rape and pillage the economy while Americans wallow in the deepening mire with no bottom of what increasingly looks like a Third World like type of national depression, from which there is no escape. Especially with the evil Soros guiding the Idiot in the White House.
The question is, does this take a vast amount of money and is Soros’ fortune capable of this manipulation: certainly the man is capable, since he already shorted and ruined the Bank of England and he without question directs the Idiot in the White House.
Readers I will be working the next 10 days and not likely to have the time to join the debate, read the report and be ready for Mata’s dissertation: this may well be the most important single issue in our country since its founding.
That may be in effect the rape and pillage of our country by one man and his puppet. Here is the report.
Actually, I’m a little surprised that this is only just now bubbling back to the surface. There were a number of people, myself included, who believed that this was far too coincidental in it’s timing with several other activities. The Russians have tried before, and so the idea is not new, and subject to being copied.
If I can ge the time I will see if I can find the conversations and supporting links that I was working off of back in 2008 – 2009 where we were quite convinced this was a manufactured event.
This is a load of crap. Did foreigners make the USG provide sub-prime loans to illegal-aliens and others who couldn’t normally qualify for home loans? NO!
Did foreigners/terrorists securitize these loans like Goldman Sachs, BofA, Citi, etc., did and then sell them all over the world, lumping AAA mortgages in with the sub-prime crappola? NO!
Did foreign forces force our American idol crazed fellow Americans to buy homes they couldn’t afford? NO!
Did “outside” forces force the SEC to look the other way as the Madoffs of Wall Street ripped off everyone in sight? NO!
This “report” is laughable in the extreme. An obvious attempt at misdirection and obfuscation hoping Americans will not place the blame squarely where it belongs: On ourselves.
Let’s face it friends; we have met the enemy and he is us. We got greedy, very much so, and we’re screwed because of it.
If you watch financial news networks during US trading hours you’d see that often times an attempt it made to mess up one or another of the big three, Dow, Nasdaq S&P.
Just the other day, the Nasdaq was down for the whole day.
But messing with the market itself?
We are doing a fine job of that ourselves.
When you look at foreign indicators, like the ”Footsie” and the DAC, the CAC and the Nikkei, you see we usually mirror or lead rises and falls every day.
Somebody would have to be messing with the entire world.
Only Soros tried to do that in modern times.
He failed, although he cost a few economies dearly in his attempt.
If anyone is messing with the US economy it is Obama.
I mean, just the other day he went in front of the US Chambers of Commerce and naively insisted business people simply spend their sidelined cash to help the economy, damn the personal losses that would result.
Hopefully, no one listened to him.
@Skookum: The financial analyst that did the study concluded that it would only require a few billion dollars in the right places to crash the system, or as he put it, ” It’s like bringing down a jumbo jet with a box cutter”.
Consipracy theories at their finest! You see, it was a foreign “conspiracy” that did it.
I need a beer.
@Skookum: # 14
Sadly enough, the opposing views in the above comments are IMHO representative in the aggregate, of what occurred to bring about the meltdown. I do, however, find that those who dismiss the above article out-of-hand and relegate it to the heap of conspiracy theories, are making a mistake. While it is absolutely necessary that there be a shift in consciousness here and a clean-up on the home front of bodies like Congress, there are outside forces at work.
Yes, America and too many other Western countries let greed and entitlement get out of control.
Yes, Congress became a willful and enabling body to the fiasco.
Yes, Greenspan and Bernanke were intelligent men, incapable of listening to their intuitive selves – they knew, they just didn’t believe what they knew. They threw fuel on the fire.
Yes, there were plenty of opportunists who made billions personally through abuse of system weaknesses. However, there are some very jealous, spiteful foreign leaders, which American taxpayers have made rich by purchasing their countries’ output, who do not wish the United States well.
China has been caught with spies embedded in all levels of the North American landscape, so it’s a good place to look for outside manipulation, but it isn’t to the Chinese leadership’s advantage to destroy the dollar – weaken it yes, but destroy it . . . NO way. Chinese leadership in the whole is patient. Very patient.
As for Soros, keep in mind that there were plenty of other left leaning billionaires like Geffen who’s ego hated Clinton for dissing them,etc., and so they funded Obama’s campaign. One shouldn’t draw parallels between the Bank of England and the massive US economy, or the massive float of the US dollar. Soros is a small fish in the enormous sea of the American dollar and the American economy who doesn’t have the capital, but he’s a giant in his mind, and he’s now purchased a chair in the White House dining room. Soros is a distraction from the reality that Unions control much more money than he does, and are much more dangerous.
While it doesn’t take a huge amount of money to create instability in a market, there are special interests which are very wealthy and powerful, whose financial moves would have to be overcome. THAT would take serious cash.
BTW, about all this fear mongering we’re being subjected to by the MSM, . . . . we should all keep in mind that there is only one country on Earth that owes its debt in its own currency.
Everyone else’s sovereign debt is owed in U.S. Dollars.
When Argentina, for example, went through hyperinflation, it’s debt was in U.S. dollars so the devaluation made the debt worse, unlike what America faces with its debt. Also, when Argentina imported anything, it bought it in U.S. dollars. That further imposed a serious burden on its population.
If America devalues King Dollar, its debt diminishes accordingly in proportion to that inflation relative to any other foreign currency. It also concludes major purchases such as oil, priced in U.S. dollars, paid for in U.S. dollars.
Foreign countries won’t be able to easily retaliate by increasing the prices to America to counterbalance the devaluation, because that would affect all their foreign buyers even if oil is their only export.
This isn’t going to be an easy transition back to a level of normalcy, but America remains in the driver’s seat.
The Administration doesn’t appear to see it or act like it, but the United States remains in great relative financial shape internationally, and more in control than is being promulgated by its leadership and MSM. Panderingly bowing to foreign leadership is idiotic, and isn’t fruitful for the home team.
The country still needs to dramatically slash spending, and as OT2 points out above, the “entitlement programs” piece of the pie is out of control. Each household that can, should also save each dime possible. However, let’s not believe the overwhelming doomsayers that are instilling fear in the hearts of middle America. Until a dramatic change occurs, the world trades in Dollars. Any internal winds suggesting to the contrary should become very suspect in their intentions.
Such terms such as ‘economy of force’ and ‘leverage’ spring to mind. Buying some influence with a Representative or Senator does not cost that much. Intelligence on which ones will vote with you for free is another plus, allows you to sway the ones on the fence with greater money. So one just has to get the right pebbles rolling, in isolation one pebble is nothing, in aggregation its an avalanche on the domestic side. On the international side, again its the money plus the right word in the right ear of someone who resents the United States’ standing in the world. So another word to use in this case is synergy. And what results is the perfect economic storm that takes the United States under.
Soros gets nominated as number one suspect because he has a track record of trashing countries to make money.
James Raider in comment # 7 has many of the elements. CDS, derivatives and short selling were at the core of the massive fraud that our banks perpetrated on us. Although there were plenty of bad mortgages given to people without means to repay them (and out right fraud by builders, mortgage originators and Realtors). They set in motion a cascade which popped the balloon of home values that were already highly leveraged, which could not be undone.
Although China owns a lot of our debt, it is hardly in a position to hurt anyone but itself. Of the $14 Trillion in our national debt outstanding, only $4 Trillion is owed to foreign governments, and only $891 Billion owned by mainland China.
http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt
Although I am a deficit hawk… it was not the budget deficit, nor the trade deficits that caused the problem, however they did not help given we have everything in hock when we really needed the money. And this problem will cause continuing unemployment for years to come. We don’t make shit in this country anymore.
We need the proper oversight of the banks and the markets, and yes, regulation. There should be no banks that are “too big to fail” and by definition they should not be allowed to exist, since inherently they would end up being backed by the full faith and credit of the USA… the same problem that attached itself to Freddy and Fanny, and by connection to AIG ($170+ Billion for the unregulated insurance on the CDO MBS CDS’s for that one company). Banks not too big to fail should fail when the time comes, and the managers and stockholders pay the price and not the American public.
On the markets short selling…naked short selling was taking place without the seller actually having possession of the security it was making available to “short” and basically was selling stocks that did not exist, which caused a collapse in value in the market and in particular in banks that were under stress at the time. Basically it was a total fraud… bigger rip off than having a printing press and counterfeiting money! It caused runs on the banks, and totally seized the system and confidence in asset values (as stock value were wildly fluctuating).
Madoff was a total scam artist… his fraud was $50 Billion (with some money coming back to lower the losses) and the fraud at Lehman Brothers was $768 BILLION. This debacle brought the Dow from 14,000 to under 7000… and trillions lost in value of individuals real property and other assets.
* I would add one additional proviso… the complexity of the collapse is beyond just these few elements, but they were major parts.
Soros.
The report was made in 2009. Here is a link to the actual report.
http://intellicept3.blogspot.com/2011/03/did-financial-terrorism-caused-2008.html
Thanks, intellicept3. I found the scribd version of it yesterday afternoon… sent it to Curt to download for me since I don’t have a scribd account. I like to have these stored on my computer so I can add bookmarks and highlights when I read thru. I’m not done with it yet, and the side research some of the comments and events led me to, but it’s one interesting read and a lot to absorb. This is most certainly not, as Ivan suggested, a report designed to draw away culpability of the “perfect storm” of absurd lending practices, the Congressional regulations that spurred it on, and their refusal of oversight. But it’s one more major component to that “perfect storm” that explains why a system can crash so quickly… not to mention the bearer bonds incident in 2009 as well. His three phase approach also seems to have validity… in which we are in phase three now. Tanking the US dollar.
As Freeman pointed out, while US officials and Wall Street may not have been the designers of any plans, some of this required willing (if not utterly stupid) participation… which is why he suggests any investigations take place out of the reach of both Wall Street and Washington DC. Some subsequent info I’ve also read takes it back to Geitherner/Summers days in the 90s as well. Now whether he suggests an international investigation by something like the UN body, I don’t know… but their corruption makes the US political corruption look like child play. There’s no way I’d trust their findings.
This is going to be interesting, following the threads. More intriguing than any Hollywood script, and perhaps more alarming because it’s not apt to be fiction.
Another take on it… The 9/18 Attack
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2222173/posts
By the way, I take everything with a grain of salt.
how about the UN goal to obtain the world power over the AMERICAS, back up
by the MUSLIM COUNTRYS, getting together to make coups after coups back
up also by US elected officials at any level of the ladder, conspiring to bring AMERICA down in a level that no recovery would be reach without agreeing to be ruled by the WORLD UN POWER
WHY ELSE DOES HE KEEP THE BORDERS OPEN?
@ilovebeeswarzone:
He? You mean Obama or Bush? Bush = Obama when it comes to illegal aliens.
Ivan, what are you saying, PRESIDENT BUSH IS not in power at this time, and
the present administration is not the like of it’s previous, don’t mix things up,
bye
You are correct, but President Bush kept the border open to illegals when we suffered the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and all throughout his presidency.
He also kept it open right after the financial collapse of fall 2008.
Don’t re-write history, learn it.
Yvan, now the same majority is in power with another leader, so why is the borders still open?
look for the present situation which has intensified in problems
@MataHarley: Thanks as well Mataharley. Reading the full report is better than just relying on the Washington Post report since things like these can easily be dismissed. By reading from the author himself, we can decipher his arguments and evidences.
Here are a couple more articles that should add to the discussion:
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=181349
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/03/george_soros_handicapping_amer.html
Bees #31
While Bush was president he could have stopped the illegals, but chose not to. He even wanted amnesty for them. When your campaign donations come from businesses who use the illegals for cheap labor, you have to do what they tell you to do or you don’t get any more money from them. Money rules in politics.
It seems like the best way to avoid the responsibility for the ineffective regulatory policies and the failures of our domestic institutions they want to blame the whole financial crisis and its consequences on foreign countries and some unknown forces.
SMORGASBORD, yes but dont forget that BUSH was against a majority of democrats who where in charge of passing bills and we know they where swindeling their own bills inside BUSH own bills,
and he new for sure but not to the extent of what they did, he didn’t have full control, compare to what was before the last november where the dems had full control, and they used it to ruin AMERICA
bye
Bees #38
We need a way to take the money out of the elections. As long as a politician needs someone else’s money to pay for their campaigns, the ones with the money will get what they want. That is why a lot of companies and individuals give to both parties. As long as money rules politicians, the people don’t matter.
I agree with Smorgasbord….. Take the money out of the election and we’ll find out who the people decide to vote for.
yes, look at all the money taken and spent to buy his reelection as of today JULY 12, 2012.
THIS POST is still reflecting what it contained in 2011,
look at the MADOCK BROTHER, LOOK AT THE JPMORGAN FINANCIAL COLLAPSE,
LOOK AT THE OBAMA FAILED INVESTMENTS OF THE PEOPLE’S MONEY, ALL OF THEM ARE ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS OF THIS POST LOOK AT THE NOW ECONOMY, THE DEBT CEILING, THE REFUSAL TO HAVE THE JOBS COME IN BY OBAMA NAMING THE KEYSTONE PROJECT AMONG OTHER,
LOOK AT THE MONEY SENT TO HELP INSTAL A RADICAL ARAB SPRING, WHICH IS CLOSING THE RING SOONER NOW, LOOK AT THE WILLING DIVIDE FROM THE OBAMA GOVERNMENT NEVER EVEN PROJECTED SINCE THE BIRTH OF THIS UNITED STATES, LOOK HOW COMPLIANT OBAMA IS WITH THE UN ORG., HE EVEN ASK THEM TO INTERFERE IN THE PEOPLE’S DECISIONS,
LOOK AT HIM CIRCONVETING THE CONGRESS TO DECIDE ON HELPING THE BROTHERHOOD TO DEMOTE ALLIED FOREIGN LEADER , CITY AFTER CITY, NON STOP, AND LOOK AT THE ILLEGAL STILL COMING FROM ABOUT 150 DIFFERENT NATIONS OF THE WORLD SOME KNOWN WELL TO HATE
LOOK AT HOW THE SOUTHERN STATES HAVE TROUBLE AND NO HELP TO DEAL WITH THEM ONLY TO BE RESTRICKTED BY OBAMA AND HOLDER, LOOK AT ALL THE PEOPLE CONFUSED BY ALL THIS WHICH IS GOING ON, BUT ARE PROVIDED WITH THE STAMPS WHICH IS THE NEW FRAUDULENT MONEY TO BUY VOTES FROM OBAMA AND HIS AGENCIES, JUST LOOK
THERE ARE MORE TO FIND, AND THE BLOGS ARE TELLING US ALL THIS HERE AT FLOPPING ACES,
THEY HAVE THE BEST LINKS TO PROVE THEIR WRITTEN WORDS
THANK YOU MATA
CURT
INVESTMENT BOOKS MENTION A PROBLEM OF
IE AND SAFARI OVERLAPPING, TO BE LOOKED AT’.
investment books
YOU DO NOT APPEAR HERE ONLY IN MY COMMENT’S BACKING ON MY SITE,
so THE PROBLEM SHOULD BE LOOK AT BY CURT,
thank’s for bringing it
YVAN
HI,
YOU’RE ON MARCH 2 2011,
I come from the future to answer your 30 comment, that no BUSH DOES NOT = OBAMA
NOT THE LEAST,
COME BACK HERE IN THE 6 OF SEPTEMBER 2012, AND CHECK HOW IT HAS BECOME,
ARE WE BETTER OF THAN 4 YEARS AGO?
HELL NO, AND THOSE WHO SAY OTHERWISE ARE IDIOTS OR IGNORANTS OR DRUGG STONE OR LIARS TRYING TO SAVE THEIR JOBS, OR THOSE WHO COPYCAT ON OBAMA SPEECH., OR THOSE WHO BLINDLY DRINK THE OBAMA AND CLINTON KOOLAID NO QUESTIONS ASK THEY DON’T NEED ANY STINKING QUESTIONS BECAUSE THEY GET SOMETHING OUT OF IT,
THAT IS UNION’S JOBS, OR OBAMA’S JOBS, OR STIMULUS, OR WAIVERS, OR FOOD STAMPS, OR SMILES FROM OBAMA’S MOUTH, OR GIFTS FROM HIM AND HIS SCREW, OR INVITATION TO THE WHITE HOUSE, OR TRIP TO OTHER COUNTRIES TO BRING GOODWILL AND MONEY, OR OR OR