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Iran Launches New Military Exercise, This Time Along Afghanistan Border

Tyler Durden's picture




 

While the aftermath of the first 10 day Iranian wargame in the Straits of Hormuz is still lingering, especially in the price of oil, and the world is bracing itself for parallel exercises between a joint US-Israel operation and a concurrent Iranian effort in the weeks ahead, Iran is not waiting and has already started a brand new military exercise, this time inland and far closer to a key US strategic asset - Afghanistan (and its poppies). From Reuters: "Iran launched a military manoeuvre near its border with Afghanistan on Saturday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, days after naval exercises in the Gulf increased tensions with the West and pushed up oil prices. Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Revolutionary Guards' ground forces, said the "Martyrs of Unity" exercises near Khvat, 60 km (40 miles) from Afghanistan, were "aimed at boosting security along the Iranian borders," Fars reported." Naturally, this "reason" is bogus. That said, at this point we are at a loss as to which country it is that is desiring a military escalation more, because both sides appear hell bent on moving past the foreplay stage. Regardless, the whole situation is starting to smell more and more like the summer of 2008 when crude would move up in $5 increments on flaring tensions between Israel and Iran, coupled with Goldman predictions of near-quadruple digit Brent, only to have the entire energy complex implode in the aftermath of Lehman. The recent decoupling of oil from all other risk indicators (oil higher is not a good thing for the economy) is vaguely reminiscent...

In other news, the US Stennis, better known as the CVN-74, recently saved several Iranian fishermen from pirates:

Forces with the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier strike group, the target of Tehran's threat, rescued 13 Iranian fishermen from Somali pirates days after passing through the Strait.

 

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi played down the political significance of the rescue.

 

"On some occasions, Iran has helped and secured the released of many other countries' sailors that had been caught by pirates," he told state-run Press TV.

 

"This is a humanitarian gesture and it is not related to the countries' relations with each other."

Of course, the liberation of one country's oil will most certainly be presented as a humanitarian gesture as well. But everything in due course.

 

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Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:35 | 2042122 LetThemEatRand
LetThemEatRand's picture

"The enemy aggressor is always pursuing a course of larceny, murder, rapine and barbarism. We are always moving forward with high mission, a destiny imposed by the Deity to regenerate our victims, while incidentally capturing their markets; to civilise savage and senile and paranoid peoples, while blundering accidentally into their oil wells."  Flynn, 1944.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:54 | 2042171 JR
JR's picture

Exactly. The key aspect of this event is that the exercise takes place within the borders of Iran.

To characterize this as an offensive or an increase in tensions is to forget that the US is outside her borders with its "asset" Afghanistan and has been racheting up aggressive talk, now to include Federal Reserve-based, world-reserve currency sanctions against a sovereign nation.

Is it now politically incorrect (like criticizing Israel on the floor of the United States Congress) to have a military exercise within your own borders if Israel, circling your borders, considers you aggressive?

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:24 | 2042233 trav7777
trav7777's picture

what is possibly to be gained by all of this?

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:51 | 2042278 lolmao500
lolmao500's picture

Message from Iran to NATO : fuck with us and we'll make Afghanistan even more hellish.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:31 | 2042353 economics1996
economics1996's picture

Trav777 China may be advising Iran to create "noise" to keep US troops on alert, and distracted from the real potential enemy, China, as well as the economic benefit of higher oil prices for Iran.

Of course the greedy Iranian bastards might just and a few more dollars on top of the price of crude.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:53 | 2042385 Jam Akin
Jam Akin's picture

How about the Iranians are moving to secure the borders against inflow of drugs from Afghanistan?  While at the same time keeping tensions at a high level to support higher crude prices - a move that probably does not affect the long term supply contracts that China has wisely negotiated in advance.

 

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:59 | 2042397 whstlblwr
whstlblwr's picture

How about Ron Paul is right.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/01/ron-paul-vindicated-...

Hey lazy ass democrats get registered to vote Ron Paul. Keep hearing them tell us if RP is nominee they'll vote him against Obama. Guess what you have to help make him the nominee. Vote in the primary.

NH voters, RP is only Republican who can defeat Obama.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 17:40 | 2042681 AldousHuxley
AldousHuxley's picture

current elites and institutions are too powerful to be brought down by outside forces. Only way is to let them self-destruct through their own arrogance.

 

 

 

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:09 | 2042417 Ned Zeppelin
Ned Zeppelin's picture

Agree high oil pices are a goal of the Iranian government and tensions raise prices.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 16:56 | 2042590 DeadFred
DeadFred's picture

High oil prices are also the goal of the bankers who are telling Obama to sic the military on Iran. Make money on the way up, then much more money on the way down. All you need is advanced notice. What do they care if a few billion people suffer for it?

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 17:51 | 2042696 AldousHuxley
AldousHuxley's picture

bankers don't care about flipping oil assets. They do care about controlling oil assets to be traded in US dollar to enable acqusition of all other assets.

 

Even OPEC knows that too high oil prices are not optimal profit sweetspots: (1) spurs alternative energy investments (2) slows flow of money in economy to a halt (3) makes themselves attractive targets of foreign takeover by Russia, China, NATO, US, etc.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:55 | 2042387 wanklord
wanklord's picture

Stupid and ignorant mule,

your comments only prove that you are indeed the offspring of failed generations (your imbecility is unique). In fact, the blame must be placed on the states involved in eugenics during the first decades of the twentieth century for not strictly enforcing the sterilization laws on your ancestors; consequently, you are the best evidence that defective genes have been transmitted from one generation to the next – and the chances that your descendants’ DNA carrying a more complex sequence of these defective genes are 100% guaranteed.

Besides that, never forget the following, stupid brute:
“It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind…Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927)

As soon as the war is on, you Strauss' Vulgar Many can certainly say good-bye to all of your ridiculous investments.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:06 | 2042414 Goldilocks
Goldilocks's picture

Eugenics Altruist ???

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 16:30 | 2042544 americanspirit
americanspirit's picture

In bold face type too. But not all caps. What a missed opportunity to really us what he really thinks. Look for this guy on the nearest street corner soon with a big sign and loudspeaker (But he'ld better choose that street corner carefully - I can think of quite a few neighborhoods where he would last, oh, say, ten seconds.)

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 16:59 | 2042600 DeadFred
DeadFred's picture

Ah, it's Saturday, he just missed his meds this morning.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 17:53 | 2042699 Jam Akin
Jam Akin's picture

Who are you callin' a mule Wanker?  I got no time for you or your racist friends batty bwoy.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 20:11 | 2042883 fnord88
fnord88's picture

I don't read shit in all bold or all Caps. I just assume the poster has a small dick.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:58 | 2042295 JR
JR's picture

The aggressiveness is initiated by the U.S. because Israel believes its dominance in the Middle East is threatened by a strong Iran. For months the war talk has been increasing from the US War Party (led by the neocon-Zionist influence in Congress), a cooperative media, and by pressure on subservient politicians in Britain and France.

Iran is simply signaling that it refuses to give up its sovereignty by implying it will fight if its nuclear industry is attacked, increasing the danger of world war that the US and Israel have created.

The result is a lose-lose for all the parties: Iran, of course, with the potential for hundreds of thousands of its people killed; Israel because of its enhanced role as world pariah, and saddest of all, the people of the United States to be identified by future generations as the world’s most militant aggressors – pounding away at countries for no reasons other than greed, Empire and Zionism.

The US already has turned one corner – sanctions.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:05 | 2042310 Worker Bee
Worker Bee's picture

This is more like one of those high school fights with a lot of pushing and no fighting. Come at me bro!

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:37 | 2042365 Goldilocks
Goldilocks's picture

Here is a “little” CORPORATE perspective from a rather revealing yet morbid creepy movie… Syriana (<= check it out ya’ll ;-)

At any rate, grow stronger, bitchez… adapt.

Syriana, @1:22:06, (total length 2:07:35)
Pg. 94 of 130 (Pg. labeled 139) in script (some discrepancies)
http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/syriana/site/med/Syriana-Screenplay.pdf
 

Danny D.:

Some trust-fund prosecutor got off message at Yale…

…thinks he’s gonna run this up the flagpole?

Make a name for himself?

Maybe get elected some two-bit congressman from nowhere…

…with the result that China or Russia…

…can suddenly start having, at our expense…

… all the advantages we enjoy here?

No, I tell you. No, sir.

Corruption charges. Corruption?

Corruption is government intrusion…

…into market efficiencies in the form of regulation.

That’s Milton Friedman. He got a goddam Nobel Prize.

We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it.

Corruption is our protection.

Corruption keeps us safe and warm!

Corruption is why you and I are prancing around in here…

…instead of fighting over scraps of meat out in the street.

Corruption is why we win.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 17:59 | 2042710 AldousHuxley
AldousHuxley's picture

bullies never actually want to fight. they use intimidation to get what they want.

 

bullies are afraid of a small chance that the small guy can actually win, because nobody has to beat a bully twice.

 

Russia-China-Iran nukes the shit out of Israel, US will lose all credibility amongst allies to be able to defend anything. When socialist Brazil and Europe aligns more with socialist China, then US is a bully down on the ground surrounded by past victims.

 

Thanks to globalism and greed of few elites, China now has the fuck you money and they are going to use it to tell USA one day. Iran war might be that day.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:29 | 2042352 dizzyfingers
dizzyfingers's picture

...war? good for business? invest your son or daughter?

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 18:03 | 2042715 AldousHuxley
AldousHuxley's picture

war is usually  a lose lose proposition....unless the outcome is a sure thing.

 

what you want to do is stay in the sidelines until the winner is almost determined, then side with the winner at the last minute to get some piece of the prize.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:36 | 2042362 e2thex
e2thex's picture

<what is possibly to be gained by all of this?>

1. It boosts the price of oil thus impacting all nations dependent on it

2.  It makes military cuts unlikely when they are being considered as is the case now.

3. It supports the price of oil.

4. It arouses all the armchair hawks to kill another five thousand of our young in the name of freedom (See oil.)

5.  It raises the price of Whole Foods pistachio nuts.

6. It angers my father-in law (See #5)

7. It raises the USA contribution to the IMF

8. It pushes us firmly into a real Recession in the next two year. 

9. It helps put people back to work building arms and losing real ones when they step on them.

10 It takes the attention away from bankers who are actively working on their next five social-networking IPOs.

11. It creates the need for larger embassies where people can go to declare political asylum.

12.  It diverts attention away from anything that's toxic in this economy.

I'm gonna stop at twelve.

Is it okay to be wedged between the ten commandments and Wilson's fourteen points?

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:53 | 2042386 Oleander
Oleander's picture

So I should go long pistachio nuts? Glad I bought 5 lbs for Christmas.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:14 | 2042423 Ned Zeppelin
Ned Zeppelin's picture

+1

Sun, 01/08/2012 - 03:16 | 2043641 Element
Element's picture

Put a missile launcher on a speed-boat and what do you get?

 

You get a tanker killer.

They are small and short-range missiles with similarly small warheads within pic #2.

i.e. almost useless against USN and USMC units.

But a couple of those boats can fuck-up a narrow channel full of tankers rather nicely.

The pretty blue missile in pic #1 is a frigate killer ... two of them would do so much damage to a DDG size ship that it would have to be scrapped.

Pic #3 looks like the northern end of the Gulf of Aquaba, probably on the Saudi side, near to Elat, southern-most Israel ... hence the weapon.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:37 | 2042363 doggings
doggings's picture

what is possibly to be gained by all of this?

depends if youre trading oil or not.

..looking for about $10/barrel x 10k barrels.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:42 | 2042364 IQ 101
IQ 101's picture

 Perhaps the Iranians desire to cause further contraction of the US economy by creating tensions that drive the price of oil up and cause the average American to curtail their activities due to higher fuel costs?

The Persians are not Arabs and a war with them would not be Iraq part 2 or 3. who knows what their Chino Rus allies have been selling them under the table? Make a few war noises and the US military start getting trigger jiggy, always on the lookout for a new munitions recipiant, 

The name Iran was the result of Hitler and co's marketing input in the mid 1930's Iran meaning Aryan (google it) formerly known as Persia.

The Persians are playing the US military like a fiddle. Sabre rattle, peace gesture, rinse , repeat. oil go's up, US economy contracts, over 20 or 30 years the effect is enormous.

Just my opinion, the Persians have been playing this game for a long, long time.

 

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 17:21 | 2042640 ElvisDog
ElvisDog's picture

That's a good point that is lost on many who spout the "Iran will dominate the Middle East" meme. The Iranians (Persians) are not generally liked by the rank-and-file in the Arab world. It's similar to the idea of China and Japan becoming close allies - i.e. not gonna happen.

Sun, 01/08/2012 - 00:19 | 2043322 DaveyJones
DaveyJones's picture

well said

Sun, 01/08/2012 - 03:26 | 2043670 Element
Element's picture

The Persians are playing the US military like a fiddle. Sabre rattle, peace gesture, rinse , repeat. oil go's up, US economy contracts, over 20 or 30 years the effect is enormous.

 

Maybe there's something to that but you're certainly forgetting and discounting the fact that the sanctions being put in place are already throttling Iran's currency, financial connections, trade and economic blood-flow. 

This is a classic strategic stangulation.

It is also an act of outright war.

The Iranians are NOT just playing around with oil price here.

This means actual war will occur.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:43 | 2042375 richard in norway
richard in norway's picture

higher heroin prices, expect a crime wave when the price doubles. plus the big international pushers wont be happy that a major source of income is threatened., big oil big drugs its all the same people. the taliban outlawed poppy growing and look what happened to them!

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 18:10 | 2042727 AldousHuxley
AldousHuxley's picture

taliban owns poppy growing, so they want it made illegal so only they can profit behind the scenes.

 

 

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 20:32 | 2042917 Cathartes Aura
Cathartes Aura's picture

amrkns have Big Pharma with the upgrades, why worry. . .

It has been called "10 times stronger than Vicodin," and is designed to kick out all your pain; while also getting you addicted to this opiate Zohydro that manufacturers hope will leave you comfortably numb in 2012.

 

“Oxycodone is now the most-abused medicine in the U.S., with hydrocodone second, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The latest drug studies come as more pharmaceutical companies are getting into the $10 billion-a-year legal market for powerful yet highly addictive opioid narcotics.”

Americans love the white medicine

"It's like the wild West," said Peter Jackson, co-founder of Advocates for the Reform of Prescription Opioids. "The whole supply-side system is set up to perpetuate this massive unloading of opioid narcotics on the American public."

http://www.huliq.com/10282/super-painkiller-zohydro-feared-be-2012-new-a...

Sun, 01/08/2012 - 00:27 | 2043335 DaveyJones
DaveyJones's picture

never seen anything like oxy in the criminal justice system in 20 years. Of course the manufacturers intentionally hid the dangers and of course they paid $ and avoided jail. In the meantime, kids get hooked and don't

"On May 10, federal prosecutors announced fines and a plea agreement against OxyContin producer Purdue Pharma for illegally “misbranding” its powerful narcotic painkiller as less addictive than it actually was and deliberately misleading regulators, doctors and patients about the drug’s risks. The company was fined $600 million in criminal and civil penalties in conjunction with the felony charge."

  

Sun, 01/08/2012 - 00:58 | 2043425 lasvegaspersona
lasvegaspersona's picture

The problem of addiction is real but the increasing problem of getting doctors to write adequate amounts of pain meds for patients is real too.

Everytime someone starts using terms like 'hillbilly heroin" another layer of confusion and fear is added. 

The feds have further confused the issue. Oxycodone is Schedule 2 and hydrocodone is Sched 3. They are very similar in potency. Why? There is no current hydrocodone formulation that does not have a bunch of acetominophen  (Tylenol) in it. This means that to give a patient adequate amounts of pain meds one needs to prescribe oxycodone the higher scheduled drug. Why? Doctors often feel they will be targeted for 'review' if they write narcotics even if appropriate. The louder this discussion gets the greater is the risk that patients will be forced  live in  pain even though safe and effective (and cheap!!) solutions are readily available.

For the sake of those at risk of addiction as well as those in pain I hope the discussion on this 'hot' topic can be kept rational and the drama can be kept to a minimum.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:01 | 2042406 macholatte
macholatte's picture

what is possibly to be gained by all of this?

Poppies - opium - morphine - HEROIN

How you gonna have a war on drugs if there ain't no drugs?

 

The cultivation of opium reached its peak in 1999,
when 225,000 acres - 350 square miles - of poppies were sown...
The following year the Taliban banned poppy cultivation,
declaring it to be "un-Islamic" -
a move which cut production by 94 per cent...
http://www.orwelltoday.com/afghanheroin.shtml

 

Afghanistan retook its place as the world's leading producer of heroin last year, after US-led forces overthrew the Taleban which had banned cultivation of opium poppies.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2814861.stm

 

Afghanistan: Heroin producer to the world

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/drugs/heroin-afghanistan.html

 

THE OPIUM KINGS

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/heroin/

 

.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:21 | 2042435 macholatte
macholatte's picture
Obama plans to cut tens of thousands of ground troops

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/04/us-usa-military-obama-idUSTRE8031Z020120104

 

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 16:22 | 2042530 WonderDawg
WonderDawg's picture

Obama was going to cut deficit spending in half by the end of his first term. Instead, he's doubled it. The list of lies that Hopey the Clown has told is too long to list, so I'll just say that I hesitate to believe anything that motherfucker, or any of the status quo puppet motherfuckers, says.

Scuse my language.

Sun, 01/08/2012 - 03:28 | 2043671 Element
Element's picture

Yeah, but he totally eliminated earmarks.  

 

/sarc

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 16:25 | 2042535 WonderDawg
WonderDawg's picture

Iran might be able to fuck around with our navy and rattle their sword and make some noise and get away with it, but God help them if they fuck with the CIA's opium supply.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 19:32 | 2042830 UnpatrioticHoarder
UnpatrioticHoarder's picture

 

Extraordinary rendition flights have ceased, so the CIA can no longer move heroin that way.

 

However fortunately for them they have a drone program of their own, outside the Pentagon, maybe they use it to protect truck convoys carrying US dollars into Afghanistan and heroin out. Or more likely they land the drones at Afghan airstrips, put the heroin on board and fly it out.

 

Note that extraordinary renditions ceased around 2003 and the CIA drone flight started around 2004.

 

The closure of the CIA drone base in Pakistan may threaten the CIA (or Exchange Stabilisation Fund) cash flows, disrupting other covert ops such as gold and silver price suppression.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:25 | 2042439 suckerfishzilla
suckerfishzilla's picture

The FED will get to establish a bank in Iran more favorable to FED policies in the aftermath of a US invasion.  Iran gets to keep stoning adulterers if they can effectively resist an invasion.

Sun, 01/08/2012 - 03:55 | 2043695 suckerfishzilla
suckerfishzilla's picture

Four pudgy fingers can find the vote down button.  Nobody is running their mouth about just why they did that though.  Are these two sentences true or not true?  hmm?

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:29 | 2042445 suckerfishzilla
suckerfishzilla's picture

I would celebrate a shortage of Heroin in the US.  More junkies will be jonesing for a fix because of higher prices.  We'll have to get more of our smack from SE Asia. 

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 16:54 | 2042486 G-R-U-N-T
G-R-U-N-T's picture

"what is possibly to be gained by all of this?"

 

How about freedom from tyranny? Or perhaps you would like this form of rule...

 

http://movieclips.com/oK5M-1984-movie-obrien-tortures-winston/

 

http://movieclips.com/Qo3qw-1984-movie-crowds-shout-at-goldstein/

 

 

Sun, 01/08/2012 - 02:47 | 2042652 Element
Element's picture

Trav - the answer is quite obvious from Iran's perspective.

Each US drone is a high-res multispectral mapping system.

The recon they are doing is to refine low-level ingress and egress options, for missiles and aircraft, to refine US attack-planning.

US war-planners are requesting these flights. That's what such recon "intelligence gathering" amounts to.

These flights are developing classes of targets, and very precise geo-location triangulation data for weapon guidance, in a rapid-fire high-intensity precision air attack to knock out as many targets as possible, as soon as possible, in the priority order they wish to destroy them, to obtain the disorienting, crippling demoralising and dysfunction effects they want.

The Iranians have the US drone, and will know this for sure by now.

So it makes perfect sense for Iran to do this, given the RQ-170 flew from Afghanistan.

Guarding against that activity and an attack requires a large-scale national response --and this is it--or a part of it.

The Pentagon knows exactly what this is for, and why the Iranians are doing it now.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:37 | 2042254 francis_sawyer
francis_sawyer's picture

Is it now politically incorrect (like criticizing Israel on the floor of the United States Congress) to have a military exercise within your own borders if Israel, circling your borders, considers you aggressive?

In other news... There were military "exercises" in Ft. Benning, Georgia... & it was reported yesterday that someone shuffled some papers within the walls of the Penatgon...

OMFG!!! War is imminent!!!

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:21 | 2042220 disabledvet
disabledvet's picture

Is that Errol Flynn? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXHVDRgAFMk&feature=player_detailpage
Look's like Zero Hedge was started far earlier than first thought...'44 to be exact.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:43 | 2042265 stock trout
stock trout's picture

Flynn was an interesting character whatever one thinks about him. He was accused of being a Nazi spy in WWII and was associated with Fidel Castro. With that  kind of resume he would fit well into the ZH community.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Errol_Flynn

 

 

 

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:23 | 2042226 cocoablini
cocoablini's picture

This is just a stunt coordinated between both Iran and manipulators( (Goldman,GE, Exxon,JP, name your corrupt business) to increase the price of oil in an economic deflation using external, non-supply excuses. Basically, usage of oil has declined by like 10 million barrels or more a year since 2008 and Saudis want at least 85 a barrel.
The oil price would naturally be at around 65 or less with China and the rest of the world plummeting economically into a depressionary death spiral. Since The idiots at OPEC cannot agree on the orientation of toilet paper, nevermind decreasing supply to increase price. soooooooo, with the help of fraudster money, the Mullahs get backdoor money from undisclosed sources( plus they front run the futures markets and insider trade) and send army troops around to scare up the derisk trade and get oil up to 120. Same with North Korea. Does anyone really think the Iranians are suicidal to start a war with Israel. Get real- they are just trying to make fast cash in the vacuum of a declining oil price.
All the movers in the Builderbergs, family farm and richie rich boy clubs are just creating volatility in the the secular depression to make casino bets. Don't bet against the house though.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:59 | 2042296 Manthong
Manthong's picture

Very interesting..

So do you think the boyz  will let the market correction happen, or do they just want to keep pumping stealth funny money to push the fantasy further?

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 18:51 | 2042787 cocoablini
cocoablini's picture

The boys and bots are playing volatility now. They create events which cause an obvious market reaction which, of course, they knew was going to occur. Big swings with a general manipulated up trend back to previous 2006 highs. Then all the retail idiots pour money back into the ponzi and the whole Pyramid cyle starts again. Except this time, the deleveraging is so strong it easily outwits idiots in the Fed,admin and treasury.
But it's ok for tbtf banks and insider corporate cronies, which can now interfere in world affairs to get a cheap price or sell something high. Washington DC, just follow the money.

Sun, 01/08/2012 - 03:40 | 2043683 Element
Element's picture

If only you were right ... you might want to consider that the Pakis, Chinese, Russians, Syrians, Iraqis and Iranians want the US and NATO out.

Happy 'investing' ... sorry, speculating.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:12 | 2042313 G-R-U-N-T
G-R-U-N-T's picture

LetThemEatRand,

If you want to know where your head is you may want to look up your ass.

On another note: http://www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/2011_CMPR_Final.pdf

http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi-bin/D.PL?d=ww2010.i.china110828

"If the Americans are determined to interfere [then] we will be determined to respond. We ... will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all of the cities east of Xian [a city in central China]. Of course the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds ... of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese."

-General Zhu Chenghu

On American intervention in Taiwan....

Eyes should be on China.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:05 | 2042410 macholatte
macholatte's picture

THAT QUOTE WAS FROM 2005

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:20 | 2042421 G-R-U-N-T
G-R-U-N-T's picture

Yep! So....Here chew on this insanity....

From the article.

"(There have been recent news stories that General Electric Corp. is planning to partner with Chinese firms and provide them with a great deal of American aerospace technology that will also have military use. This deal by GE is going to be a disaster.)"

Absolutely damn right! Perhaps GE and the Obama administration know something we don't holmes!

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 16:24 | 2042537 LetThemEatRand
LetThemEatRand's picture

grunt,

I just looked up my ass and I saw you in the there.  An asshole.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:21 | 2042434 Pay Day Today
Pay Day Today's picture

You're right. Nowadays the US has announced an increased military presence throughout the Asia Pacific aimed at countering Chinese military power. That's made things so much better.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:28 | 2042442 G-R-U-N-T
G-R-U-N-T's picture

You have no idea what the hell your talking about PDT.

Many have no idea what the PRC are capable of.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:35 | 2042123 Sudden Debt
Sudden Debt's picture

Does anybody realises how big iran is?
It would take 4 million soldiers to take and hold it hostage untill all the oil is drained.
At 1 million a head that's 4 trillion dollars to take over iran.
That's a whole lot of printing... Even for ben.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:43 | 2042146 LetThemEatRand
LetThemEatRand's picture

Somehow I doubt that Halliburton, BP, Exxon, Shell, Xe or whatever Blackwater is going by these days, Goldman, JP Morgan, Boeing, Raytheon, GE, etc are too concerned about the printing.  Thus, ObamaRomney isn't concerned either.  Just like Iraq.   Another gigantic opportunity to funnel money from the willing taxpayer to the private corporations, while the large majority of the sheep cheer for the Red White and Blue on the sidelines.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:49 | 2042152 Sudden Debt
Sudden Debt's picture

Yes, but this time we're broke. This isn't the millenium anymore.
This is why nato must join and even another 3rd party to split the costs.
China or russia. Otherwise we can't pay for it.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:51 | 2042157 LetThemEatRand
LetThemEatRand's picture

Very true, but all the more reason TPTB will do it.  Nothing like printing up a few trillion of cash out of thin air, giving it to the corporations, and then telling Joe Six Pack it's now a debt he owes and that he needs to give up his social security, Medicare, public schools, etc to pay it back.  

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:00 | 2042185 Caviar Emptor
Caviar Emptor's picture

Right. We were broke before Iraq and Afghanistan. Now we're just brok-er. And After an Iran scenario we'd only be broker-er. That's OK in the minds of the kleptocrats in oil-military-industrial complex and DC. 

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:24 | 2042234 disabledvet
disabledvet's picture

Speak for yourself. This video just in from the Captain of the Stennis addressing his men!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=q7vtWB4owdE

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:59 | 2042298 Broker NotBroke
Broker NotBroke's picture

Did somebody say my name?

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:08 | 2042318 gravedestruction
gravedestruction's picture

BNB

Is that Kermit's capitalist cousin teaching the kids about how to flip properties on robot chicken?

That was a hilarious skit...

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:06 | 2042195 WonderDawg
WonderDawg's picture

You left out one important step. TPTB create the cash out of thin air, give it to the banksters who then lend it to the MIC, taking their vig in the process. Can't leave out the TBTF PDs, they have to have their cut first.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:49 | 2042482 Joe Sixpack
Joe Sixpack's picture

"...and then telling Joe Six Pack it's now a debt he owes and that he needs to give up his social security, Medicare, public schools, etc to pay it back."

 

Jeesh, it always gets put on my back!

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:50 | 2042164 GeneMarchbanks
GeneMarchbanks's picture

Xe = Blackagua, I believe.

Backward looking, my friend. This conflict, if it were to escalate, would create a mushroom cloud where the bond market used to be.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:57 | 2042177 LetThemEatRand
LetThemEatRand's picture

If that happens, won't TBTF just get another bailout?  Dimon and Blankfein would love to pick the bones of a few more MF Globals while they consolidate more power. 

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:03 | 2042191 GeneMarchbanks
GeneMarchbanks's picture

Yes, under a hopium induced best case scenario you'd be correct. You give too much credit to the 'control' of those warlocks who for the most part are profit driven, suicidal maniacs.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:38 | 2042457 IQ 101
IQ 101's picture

A simple solution to this whole mess would be to make every American eligible for a large loan, regardless of credit ratings, say $250,000.

The real estate market would tighten overnight, debts would be payed off,

the banker handlers would fatten up on loan interest, the malls would be packed as would the car lots, pole dancers would make great tips and mega corps would increase profits relatively, a temporary inflation event would soon pass as the imbecile crowd shove their Benny bucks into strippers panties and blow.

What am i missing, How would it not work? They do not even need to print too many extra dollars, it is only digits on a screen, call it the Obama card.Fools would end up in life long debt and the canny would invest and prosper? Darwin, Keynes and Bernank would all be proven correct and geniuses, a new social order/adjustment would emerge.

Of course this is a bull shit propositon, the motivation of evil men is not to empower the deserving but to glorify the degenerate, and do God's work (sarc) by impoverishing their neighbors.

I do not believe any of this is half as complicated as economysts and lawyers would like us to believe, human nature is what it is, (whatever that means), the alternative is certain mathematical doom / tragedy,

The well fed tend not to complain and the ponzi would get another decade of respect,

This is most likely an idiotic idea and i have not the wit to see the flaw, Why would such a scheme not be productive,  a booster shot for global

shoppers. 

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:00 | 2042300 CrockettAlmanac.com
CrockettAlmanac.com's picture

If that happens, won't TBTF just get another bailout?  Dimon and Blankfein would love to pick the bones of a few more MF Globals while they consolidate more power.

 

Do you mean that our current situation is a near carbon copy of the crony capitalist system which Ayn Rand portrayed in Atlas Shrugged?

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 22:48 | 2043117 StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

Just a few more missing pieces... :>(

                      Atlas Shrugged: Directive 10 289...

In the name of the general welfare, to protect the peoples security and total stability, it is decreed for the duration of the national emergency that:

#1. All workers, wage earners, and employers of any kind whatsoever shall henceforth be attached to their jobs and shall not leave nor be dismissed nor change employment, under penalty of a term in jail.  The penalty shall be determined by the Unification Board, such Board to be appointed by the Bureau of Economic Planning and National Resources.  All persons reaching the age of 21 shall report to the Unification Board, which shall assign them to where, in its opinion, their services will best serve the interests of the nation.

#2.  All industrial, commercial, manufacturing and business establishments of any nature whatsoever shall henceforth remain in operation, and the owners of such establishments shall not quit nor leave nor retire, nor close, sell or transfer their business, under penalty of the nationalization of their establishment and of any and all of their property.

#3.  All patents and copyrights, pertaining to any devices, inventions, formulas, process and works of any nature whatsoever, shall be turned over to the nation as a patriotic emergency gift by means of Gift Certificates signed voluntarily by the owners of all such patents and copyrights.  The Unification Board shall then license the use of such patents and copyrights to all applicants, equally and without discrimination, for the purpose of eliminating monopolistic practices, discarding obsolete products and making the best available to the whole nation.  No trademarks, brand names or copyrighted titles shall be used. Every formerly patented product shall be known by a new name and sold by all manufactures under the same name, such name to be selected by the Unification Board.  All private trademarks and brand names are hereby abolished.

#4.  No new devices, inventions, products, or goods of any nature whatsoever, not now on the marker, shall be produced, invented, manufactured or sold after the date of this directive.  The Office of Patents and Copyrights is hereby suspended.

#5.  Every establishment, concern, corporation or person engaged in production of any nature whatsoever shall henceforth produce the same amount of goods per year as it, they or he produced during the Basic Year, no more and no less.  The year to be known as the Basic or Yardstick Year is to be the year ending on the date of this directive.  Over or under production shall be fines, such fines to be determined by the Unification Board.

#6.  Every person of any age, sex, class, or income, shall henceforth spend the same amount of money on the purchase of goods per year as he or she spent during the Basic Year, no more and no less.  Over or under purchasing shall be fined, such fines to be determined by the Unification Board.

#7.  All wages, prices, salaries, dividends, profits, interest rates and forms of income of any nature whatsoever, shall be frozen at their present figures, as of the date of this directive.

#8.  All cases arising from the rules not specifically provided for in this directive, shall be settled and determined by the Unification Board, whose decisions will be final.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 20:48 | 2042938 Cathartes Aura
Cathartes Aura's picture

"Xe = Blackagua, I believe."

ahhh, it is a corporate chameleon, slippery when wet:

Academi[2] – previously known as Xe Services LLC, Blackwater USA and Blackwater Worldwide – is a private military company founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark.[3][4] Academi is currently the largest of the U.S. State Department's three private security contractors. Academi provided diplomatic security services in Iraq to the United States federal government on a contractual basis.[1] Academi also has a research and development wing that was responsible for developing the Grizzly APC along with other military technology. The company's headquarters is located in Arlington County, Virginia.[5][6]

The Obama administration awarded Academi a $250 million contract to work for the U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan.[7]

but so very popular, nonetheless. . .

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:31 | 2042217 Hansel
Hansel's picture

Blackwater/Xe goes by Academi now.  Got to keep changing the name to shed the reputation.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academi

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 20:52 | 2042942 Cathartes Aura
Cathartes Aura's picture

replied before reading further down thread - ahh well, can never be too much truth gathered in one place, eh!  +1

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:23 | 2042225 Mr. Lucky
Mr. Lucky's picture

I prefer Robama.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:59 | 2042395 Jam Akin
Jam Akin's picture

Nice one!  Could also go with Obamney.  

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 22:49 | 2043122 StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

Could you get behind "Romneylan?"

 

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:01 | 2042187 HungrySeagull
HungrySeagull's picture

Not worth it, even if you sold Iran at premium prices and all it's contents you could never replay this ludicrious venture.

 

That did not stop the Germans from trying. Stalingrad took care of that idea.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:24 | 2042228 Sudden Debt
Sudden Debt's picture

It's not always if it's worth it or not.
China for example is crashing as we speak. They need a war to keep their industry going just like the US and the EU or they'll be at risk of severe ssocial unrest in the comming years when the economy finally crumbles.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:17 | 2042427 Ned Zeppelin
Ned Zeppelin's picture

Still, the Chinese have a lot of reserves to cushion the fall.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 16:38 | 2042558 Sudden Debt
Sudden Debt's picture

Unless that cushion is all that remains and all the rest goes up in smoke.
Remember the gold and silver propaganda in china?
There must be a reason why they are pushing the citizens to buy silver and gold. My thout is that when the bottom falls out of the yuan, they'll need a backup currency FAST.
And they don't have enough dollars to,cover it.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:35 | 2042250 Rynak
Rynak's picture

They cannot beat iran with a conventional war. Not just because of how big iran is, not just because of the terrain, not just because of its equipment, not just them being on friendly terms with russia and china - on top of all this, they also have hezbollah in lebanon, another force which "they" (in this case israel) already have practice in losing against conventionally.

Iran will not fall by conventional means, no matter what they try. I see only two ways how they could beat iran.... one of them (making it fall from inside) is uncertain to even result in a more friendly replacement, and the other (nuclear strike) may easily lead to global nuclear war.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:11 | 2042325 Randall Cabot
Randall Cabot's picture

They are not going to try to beat Iran in a conventional war-they just want to bomb them back as many years as they can, you know, kick the can down the road and worry about it later.

Sun, 01/08/2012 - 03:49 | 2043689 Element
Element's picture

Bombs are good for you ... they stimulate the economy ... just ask Japan ... and Germany ... and Washington ... and ... and Hamid Karzai!

 

/sarc

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:06 | 2042380 Eally Ucked
Eally Ucked's picture

I think what Iranians want to show that all that 130K Nato forces will be anihilated, they have only 2 ways to supply them through Pakistan or Russian former republics. They are trapped there and they want to show that is the case

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:11 | 2042420 Randall Cabot
Randall Cabot's picture

That is a very keen observation: The encirclers will become the encircled!

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:27 | 2042444 Pay Day Today
Pay Day Today's picture

Add to that a Shia led Iraqi Government which is heavily pro-Iranian. Tens of thousands of Iraqis with very recent experience killing US forces are no doubt ready to cross the border and visit family members in Iran and do it all over again. Probably armed with Iraqi gov munitions supplied by the US. The irony.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:45 | 2042467 Weimar Ben Bernanke
Weimar Ben Bernanke's picture

Without Air-cover any invading Iranian force going to Afghanistan would get annihilated by the US airforce. Any attack into Afghanistan would really give the US and NATO an excuse to carpet bomb Iran to its knees. Iran knows this and are not stupid to do an offensive into Afghanistan.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 16:36 | 2042554 Eally Ucked
Eally Ucked's picture

Yes, you're right the only problem is how to supply those NATO forces and US Airforce.If you play computer game you dont run out of ammunition supply, in real world it's a bit different. If I recall that correctly in WWii Patton army needed about 30 trains of ammunition per day to continue to advance. 

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 17:38 | 2042673 Randall Cabot
Randall Cabot's picture

They can't even annihilate the ragtag Taliban.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 21:27 | 2043003 Weimar Ben Bernanke
Weimar Ben Bernanke's picture

Guerrilla warfare is different then a conventional war. Any war with Iran will be a aero-naval war. The Taliban is a guerrilla force that blends with the population and knows the land with that it does hit an run tactics. Second the modern US military was trained to defeat,crush,and decimate any conventional force on the planet. If we let the gloves come off in a war with Iran,Iran's military will be non-existent. The US air force and navy cannot be matched by any force on Earth. The Russians have a good military but they had a tough time with the Chechens twice. So to say we cant defeat a ragtag force applies to all modern militaries. Insurgencies are hard to beat,a conventional army not so.

Sun, 01/08/2012 - 01:32 | 2043508 Rynak
Rynak's picture

But the iranians do have experience with training guerilla forces, do they not? Your post sounds a bit like the iraq premise all over again, except of iraq having little experience in guerilla training, and yet succeeding in at least creating a quagmire, even if not outright defeat.

And as for a pure air-sea war..... won't directly defeat iran, but just weaken them against..... air-sea based war. What are you going to do then afterwards?

What it comes down to is: Without a ground war, all the west has, is embargos.... and that at best just will bring an uncontrolled internal fall.

So, let's assume a heavily overoptimistic scenario (from an US-kleptocracy POV)... iran falls internally, russia and china magically stick their heads into the ground, hezbollah does not bombard israel in retaliation, and a shaky puppet gov is created.... what supporters and outright forces would iran still have available, compared to ..... iraq? Ouch?

Even in that overoptimistic scenario.... iraq looks like a piece of cake.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:42 | 2042261 francis_sawyer
francis_sawyer's picture

Does anybody realises how big iran is?
It would take 4 million soldiers to take and hold it hostage untill all the oil is drained.

---

Yeah... But will all the "investment" in math & sciences in the schools that Obama has promised... Why can't some fucker just invent a giant goddamned STRAW that we could deploy from outer space to reach down and just suck all the oil out from under Iran (since that's the gist of this whole thing)...

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 18:50 | 2042786 Always Positive
Always Positive's picture

4 million soldiers? I dont think so..

Occupy the oil fields closest to Iraq, build a pipeline and defend both with what-ever force is required, including nuclear.  Drain the oil & withdraw. Repeat with the fields closest to Kuwait, Afghanistan, Turkey and finally, the US's very close allies in Pakistan.

No need to occupy the entire country - who needs sand?

Obviously you guys have forgotten (if you ever knew) the humiliation suffered by the US of A when the Iranians occupied the US embassy in Tehran and treated you with utter with scorn & contempt. They think the same of you now. You don't owe Iran anything.

Armadinnerjacket has publically, repeatedly said that he (iran) wants to see Israel wiped off the map. But the many Jew-haters on this forum are  too busy trashing Israel and would raise a cheer if that country was attacked, yet again, by its cowardly, devious enemies.

Alternatively, when oil hits $250 and  you lose your jobs, homes and what's left of your pride; when you have to pimp your daughters or starve - in other words, when reality sets in.... you may, reluctantly and quietly, come around to agreeing with me.

 

 

 

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 22:13 | 2043060 NoVolumeMeltup
NoVolumeMeltup's picture

Maybe you're on the wrong forum. Try feebrepublic

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:44 | 2042124 DormRoom
DormRoom's picture

IRan may be drawing all the shia faithful to its fold.  Since any US-Israel conflict will imply hositility with Sunni Saudi Arabia (Recall the bizarro false flag operation of assasinating a Saudi Prince by Iran's revolutionary guard last year).  So Iran will need to protect its regional power alliances, and prepare for an assymetrical assault (terrorist bombing on the Saudi Royal Family) on Saudi Arabia,  as it heads off a main assaut with US0Israel.

 

I'm expecting news of a bombing in Saudi Arabia to confirm Iran's hand.

 

Iran controls Basra, and Iraq.   Pakistan is a vassal of Saudi Arabia.  Afghanistan is no man's land.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:00 | 2042302 lolmao500
lolmao500's picture

Iran, if they are not stupid, have sleeper cells in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia ready to bomb stuff/assassinate people.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 16:36 | 2042556 americanspirit
americanspirit's picture

And London and New York and Washington DC. And they are not stupid.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 17:15 | 2042629 lolmao500
lolmao500's picture

Who will miss those scumbags politicians if they get offed by Iranian special ops? Nobody.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:05 | 2042309 CrockettAlmanac.com
CrockettAlmanac.com's picture

Afghanistan is Pashtun land. It's only a "no man's land" for invaders both ancient and modern.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:44 | 2042379 memyselfiu
memyselfiu's picture

the pashtun are mostly sunni...

Sun, 01/08/2012 - 00:29 | 2043348 Iwanttoknow
Iwanttoknow's picture

Uzbeks and hazaras are not and speak perisan.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:36 | 2042125 Stroke
Stroke's picture

It's a shame that while the U.S. is hunkered down in Afghanastan we don't take the trouble to eradicate the poppies

 

It must have something to do with "the war on drugs".....,.What a fuckin' joke...

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:40 | 2042141 Transformer
Transformer's picture

$500 billion to the banks?

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:50 | 2042162 toady
toady's picture

HEY!

STAY AWAY FROM MY POPPIES!

Do you know the profit margins on that stuff?

ASTRONOMICAL!

And don't let them Iranians anywhere near my fields! They just burn them and kill the farmers, and thats a real buzzkill.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:11 | 2042202 Cyrano de Bivouac
Cyrano de Bivouac's picture

Toady -It's interesting that you brought up that point. I've read that a motive for Nato's war against Serbia was the Serbian success in interdicting heroin traffic into Europe. 

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:31 | 2042243 disabledvet
disabledvet's picture

Very interesting Cyrano. And here's some video to back up your ridiculous claim:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbJHjiNkOYw&feature=player_detailpage

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:50 | 2042277 palmereldritch
palmereldritch's picture

Heroin Heroes

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n083/a05.html?3040

[snip]

"Law enforcement officials in Europe have suspected for years that ties existed between Kosovar rebels and Balkan drug smugglers.  But in the six months since Washington enthroned the Kosovo Liberation Army in that Yugoslav province, KLA-associated drug traffickers have cemented their influence and used their new status to increase heroin trafficking and forge links with other nationalist rebel groups and drug cartels.

The benefits of the drug trade are evident around Pristina-more so than Western aid.  "The new buildings, the better roads, and the sophisticated weapons-many of these have been bought by drugs," says Michel Koutouzis, the Balkans region expert for the Global Drugs Monitor ( OGD ), a Paris-based think tank.  The repercussions of this drug connection are only now emerging, and many Kosovo observers fear that the province could be evolving into a virtual narco-state under the noses of 49,000 peacekeeping troops.

For hundreds of years, Kosovar Albanian smugglers have been among the world's most accomplished dealers in contraband, aided by a propitious geography of isolated ports and mountainous villages.  Virtually every stage of the Balkan heroin business, from refining to end-point distrbution,is directed by a loosely knit hierarchy known as "The 15 Families," who answer to the regional clans that run every aspect of Albanian life.

The Kosovar Albanian traffickers are so successful, says a senior U.S.  State Department official, "because Albanians are organized in very close-knit groups, linked by their ethnicity and extended family connections."

The clans, in addition to their drug operations, maintained an armed brigade that gradually evolved into the KLA.  In the early 1990s, as the Kosovar uprising in Yugoslavia grew, ethnic Albanian rebels there faced increased financial needs.  The 15 Families responded by boosting drug trafficking and channeling money and weapons to the rebels in their clans.  As traffickers started taking bigger risks, drug seizures by police across Europe skyrocketed from a kilo or two in the early 1980s to multimilliondollar hauls, culminating in the spectacular 1996 arrest at Gradina, Yugoslavia, of two truckers running a load of more than half a ton of heroin worth $50 million.

German Federal Police now say that Kosovar Albanians import 80 percent of Europe's heroin.  So dominant is the Kosovar presence in trafficking that many European users refer to illicit drugs in general as 'Aibanka;' or Albanian lady.

The Kosovar traffickers ship heroin exclusively from Asia's Golden Crescent.  It's an apparently inexhaustible source.  At one end of the crescent lies Afghanistan, which in 1999 surpassed Burma as the world's largest producer of opium poppies.  From there, the heroin base passes through Iran to Turkey, where it is refined, and then into the hands of the 15 Families, which operate out of the lawless border towns linking Macedoniji, Albania, and Serbia.  Not surprisingly, the KLA has also flourished there.  According to the State Department, four to six tons of heroin move through Turkey every month.  "Not very much is stopped," says one official.  "We get just a fraction of the total.

Serbia vs. KLA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_War

[snip]

"The terms Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict refer to two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998[24] to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" (KLA), who sought independence (classified by Serbia as terrorists), against the Serbian police and Yugoslav Military. From March 24, 1999 to June 11, 1999,[25] NATO launched an air campaign on FR Yugoslavia, while the KLA continued battles with Yugoslav Security Forces, amidst a massive population displacement estimated to be close to 800,000 people.

The KLA, formed in 1991, began attacking police stations and Yugoslav government offices in February 1996, which resulted in an increase in the number of security forces, and escalation into a conflict, although it was initially viewed as an insurgency. The KLA was regarded by the US as a terrorist group until 1998 when it was de-listed for classified reasons,"

All emphasis mine.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:59 | 2042399 JW n FL
JW n FL's picture

 

 

disabledvet

Very interesting Cyrano. And here's some video to back up your ridiculous claim:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbJHjiNkOYw&feature=player_detailpage
I gave you a + 1 for the Costumes and Sword Fighting!! Happy New Year to You and Yours!! God Bless and God Love You and Yours!

Signed, Christian Constitutionalist with Weather Proof Ammo and More than 7 days of Food or the Extremist Protesting the Lobby Whores in Washington DC Ala’ American Terrorist The One and Only JW

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:54 | 2042172 ThisIsBob
ThisIsBob's picture

Iran has one of the biggest herion addiction problem of any country in the world.  Why would we want to lessen that?

(And simultaneously trash the Afganistan economy.)

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:59 | 2042299 lolmao500
lolmao500's picture

Yep, Iran nearly invaded Afghanistan in 1999-2000 because of that crap.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:31 | 2042354 JR
JR's picture

Yes, but...

World Drug Report 2010Annual Prevalence of Use as a percentage of the populations aged 15-64:

Opiates: Canada 0.50; United States of America 0.58, Iran (Islamic Republic of) 2.80 (Uncertainty range 1.50 - 3.20), Israel 0.50

Cocaine:  Canada 1.9, United States of America 2.6, Iran (Islamic Republic of) 0, Israel 0.6

Cannibis: Canada 13.6, United States of America 12.5, Iran (Islamic Republic of) 4.2, Israel 8.9

Amphetamine-type stimulants: Canada 1.5, United States of America 1.3, Iran (Islamic Republic of) 0, Israel 4.5 Yes, but...

Ecstasy: Canada 1.7, United States of America 1.0, Iran (Islamic Republic of) 0, Israel 0.7.

http://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2010/World_Drug_Report_2010_lo-res.pdf

Note: Cocaine is more addictive than opium; opium can be taken a few times without addiction; cocaine usually not. Heroin is a highly addictive drug derived from morphine, which is obtained from the opium poppy.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 16:32 | 2042551 WonderDawg
WonderDawg's picture

Note: Cocaine is more addictive than opium; opium can be taken a few times without addiction; cocaine usually not.

Bullshit.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:58 | 2042181 holdbuysell
holdbuysell's picture

"It must have something to do with "the war on saving drugs"...."

There, I fixed it for you.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:09 | 2042201 Caviar Emptor
Caviar Emptor's picture

Hehe. You don't know the sordid history....US was number one heroin facilitator in the region (and world) in the 1980s. Before that, US was #1 pusher of heroin in Southeast Asia and Vietnam in the 1960s-70s. 

Read it and weep: 

 

Bcci - The Cia Bank Of Mujahadeen Heroin, Iran-contra Cocaine, And Black Market Islamic Nukes

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news-topic/bcci/video-bcci---the-cia-bank-of...

Bank of Credit and Commerce International: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Credit_and_Commerce_International

CIA drug trafficking:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_drug_trafficking

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:37 | 2042255 kridkrid
kridkrid's picture

I'm pretty sure his post was sarcasm. 

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:39 | 2042459 my puppy for prez
my puppy for prez's picture

Thanks!  I've been looking for good links about this topic.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:45 | 2042269 francis_sawyer
francis_sawyer's picture

It's a shame that while the U.S. is hunkered down in Afghanastan we don't take the trouble to eradicate the poppies

Because that's the job of the Wicked Witch of the West, her crystal ball, & her team of flying monkeys...

 

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 18:59 | 2042321 CrockettAlmanac.com
CrockettAlmanac.com's picture

Does that mean that the Taliban, which nearly eradicated Afghan opium production, is the equivalent of The Good Witch of the North?

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:59 | 2042297 lolmao500
lolmao500's picture

LOL, I told my sheeple cop uncle about the poppies in Afghanistan and how the culture of it was multiplied by thousands of folds since we invaded... know what he said? It's for the pharma industry! LOL

The sheeple will just create new mental gymnastic to avoid facing the truth.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:10 | 2042324 CrockettAlmanac.com
CrockettAlmanac.com's picture

They're growing opium to help the children! Why do you hate America?

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:37 | 2042126 NoVolumeMeltup
NoVolumeMeltup's picture

Through energy of attention, we create; good or bad.

Focus of mind and spirit is our hammer and chisel.

It is in our nature to build and flourish. Yet there are those opposed to art and beauty, for they know neither.

They control for gain. They destroy for its own sake.

They wish to relieve us of our tools for building. They intend to replace these with yokes for plowing the barren fields of misery. However, they cannot do this by force. Only the universe may cause force with persistence.

Instead by their expert wiles, they convince us to lay down our birthrights and take up the shackles.

They have an inordinate amount of distractions. They cause artificial wanting. They have neither souls nor consciences. Their god is material wealth and they have build a façade resembling a world in their image.

We will never know peace and freedom until they have been relieved of their liability, until their grip has been cut cleanly, until their illusions have been wiped from our eyes.

Yours in art and labor,

Mr. Nuff

http://culturalrespawning.wordpress.com/

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:38 | 2042133 Hephasteus
Hephasteus's picture

The strangest thing about that iranian fishing boat capture. Is it ran 23 search levels deep on google. Which meant it went to every wire simultanesously. Which means there was likely extreme pressure of will done on everybody to create this synchronicity and milk it for all it was worth.

They've given up on the consumer distraction and companies can no long afford to run the MSM. My TV has resorted to running loads of air force, and marines commercials as well as spattering of the continual jump into the college training program.

The google search is flabbergasting as even a super hot volcanic topic usually goes completely irrelavant after the 6th page of searches. So this thing had relevant to everything weighting on it.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:45 | 2042271 Coast Watcher
Coast Watcher's picture

No word on how the mullahs reacted to the news that the captain of the USS Kidd, the destroyer that actually rescued the Iranian fishermen, is Cmdr. Jennifer Ellinger.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:16 | 2042334 CrockettAlmanac.com
CrockettAlmanac.com's picture

How do you react to this?

 

Women Members of Iran's Basij Militia

http://www.life.com/gallery/28542/image/83817257/irans-military-strangel...

 

 

 

 

The Islamic Republic of Iran has two types of armed forces: the regular forces Islamic Republic of Iran Army, Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, Islamic Republic of Iran Navy and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), totaling about 545,000 active troops. Iran also has around 350,000 Reserve Force totaling around 900,000 trained troops.[201] Iran has a paramilitary, volunteer militia force within the IRGC, called the Basij, which includes about 90,000 full-time, active-duty uniformed members. Up to 11 million men and women are members of the Basij who could potentially be called up for service;

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:42 | 2042464 Pay Day Today
Pay Day Today's picture

In addition to their regular forces, Iran has hundreds of thousands of combat experienced Iran-Iraq war vets now in their 40's and 50's. The US has a tired, worn down, over stretched professional army. Best the US can do is rain down shock and awe from 50,000 feet up.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 16:36 | 2042557 WonderDawg
WonderDawg's picture

Best the US can do is rain down shock and awe from 50,000 feet up.

But we do it better than anyone else.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:04 | 2042307 palmereldritch
palmereldritch's picture

Hephasteus, perhaps this suggests a pre-conditioning for the yet to be delivered psyops meme:

"Noble, caring US servicemen attacked [False flag] by the very same Iranians sailors they saved!...Infamy!!"

Or something like that. Maybe add a drowning puppy.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:55 | 2042389 Hephasteus
Hephasteus's picture

Still It's an event. An event that was milked like a freaking cow. How can the world set up such an event between soldiers, pirates and fishermen into a synchronicity.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:06 | 2042415 palmereldritch
palmereldritch's picture

I'm not saying the initial event was synthetic.  It was most probably organic but in the psyop war for heart and minds and the ultimate synthetic terror of a likely false flag that will initiate this military confrontation it will serve the controllers well as they condition the masses to see the battle between "good" and "evil".

They work with what they have and when they find something they can use, they push it.  The media is just another drug. The message from your observation is that they will probably make this event a part of the legend yet to be launched.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:53 | 2042143 GeneMarchbanks
GeneMarchbanks's picture

Saved and returned them back to the safety of their homeland. Oh, the irony is so thick and rich you can sprinkle it on pancakes...

I wonder if Tehran based media is reporting on NDAA and US military exercises on the border with Mexico?

Durden, put up US flags on that map just for the historic record.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:18 | 2042216 thatthingcanfly
thatthingcanfly's picture

I'm waiting for a news release reporting operators from SEAL Team 2 rescuing 13 Iranian hostages from drug lords near the Afghani-Iranian border, and just across from the site of the Iranian military exercise, and returing them safely to their homeland.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 14:20 | 2042339 Randall Cabot
Randall Cabot's picture

 

 

Another great one from Brother Nathaniel: Who's Behind NDAA:

http://www.realzionistnews.com/?p=688   

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:13 | 2042150 thunderchief
thunderchief's picture

The Iranian government is running from itself.  The revolutionary guards are now the equivilant of government check cashing old farts.  Along with the mullahs.   Baby boomers without a cause.  Sydicated, institutionalized beaurocrats.   Iranian youth are not buying it.

Their currency has been trashed and they have to beg for cash trash US dollars.  They can buy nothing with their oil.  Not gold, not land, not stock.  They can only barter and foment.  Froth, foment and forray. 

Do not worry Iran, we have all been bent over by the big man on Wall Street.  It's just your turn again and again.  The Great Satin.  And he's got his feet in your boots, his hands in your pockets, and his cock in your arse.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:13 | 2042206 Mr Lennon Hendrix
Mr Lennon Hendrix's picture

Boomers have a cause?  Retirement, right?

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:32 | 2042242 thunderchief
thunderchief's picture

The Boomers are the great vacuum that keeps on a sucking.   When they are done sucking there is nothing left for Gen X and below.  Thanks Babyboomers.  You Suck. Literally.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:19 | 2042431 Ned Zeppelin
Ned Zeppelin's picture

The Great Satin: The Fabric of Your Life.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 12:48 | 2042154 apoorboy
apoorboy's picture

9,000 U.S. Troops to isreal wonder what the count truly is?

 

http://extragoodshit.phlap.net/?p=154287

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:10 | 2042200 Bob
Bob's picture

The incoming American soldiers are officially categorized as participants in Austere Challenge 12, the biggest joint US-Israeli war game ever held.

Hmmm, the kleptocratic oligarchs are using "our boys" to rebrand Austerity as a sexy American cause for the flag-waving fascist set.  It'll be interesting to watch the further elaboration of the Austerity brand. 

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:14 | 2042212 Mr Lennon Hendrix
Mr Lennon Hendrix's picture

It's what's for dinner....now eat your peas.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 13:48 | 2042274 francis_sawyer
francis_sawyer's picture

peas [au gratin]... Remember, Obama just gave the Federal [union members] employees a pay raise...

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 15:12 | 2042342 Randall Cabot
Randall Cabot's picture

Sending US soldiers to israel is equivalent to putting US passengers on the Lusitainia.

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