George Orwell’s Guide to the News

by Adrian Salbuchi
Russia Today
December 1, 2011

The Western mainstream media falsifies the news resorting to euphemisms, half-truths and lies in the best (worst) style of George Orwell’s novel 1984. We all live in the unreal world of “Newspeak” used by the Global Power Elite to control our minds.

Man gets confused when things that happen around him and to him, or which are done in his name, cannot be properly grasped, understood or made sense of. Normally, such confusion leads to inaction. If you’re lost at night in the middle of a forest but you can still see the stars, then a bit of astronomical knowledge will at least quickly tell you which way is north. But if it’s cloudy or you’re ignorant of the constellations in starry heaven, then you might as well light up a fire and do nothing until dawn…. You’re Lost!

Today, mainstream media coverage uses programmed distortion, confusion, even outright lying when its Money Power masters order it to support the “official story” on any major political, economic or financial process. When looked at closely, however, the “official story” of things can be seen to be inaccurate, misleading, often hardly believable if not downright stupid.

Examples of this: Iraq’s inexistent WMD’s leading to the invasion and destruction of that country; global mega-banker bail-outs with taxpayer money; irrational US diplomatic, military, financial and ideological alignment to Israeli objectives; “we-killed-Osama-Bin-Laden-and-dumped-his-body-into-the-sea”; and the wide array of “whodunits” surrounding 9/11 in New York and Washington, 7/7 in London, the AMIA/Israeli Embassy attacks in Buenos Aires in 1992/1994, and – of course – that all time favorite: who shot JFK…?

These are but a few of the paradigmatic cases that have at least served to trigger millions of people to wake up and think with their own minds instead of the mainstream media’s! But unfortunately the vast majority of such cases are not so clear-cut. The vast majority of Newspeak lies are like knots, difficult to untie as they carry built-in complexity resembling Gordian Knots. And, as with all Gordian Knots, you need to cut right through them, and this requires swift and precise action plus a good measure of intellectual courage.

To give an example of what we say, let’s take a quick look at how a “Newspeak” operation works. It requires sequential planning, it requires time, it requires proper logistics, it requires “credible” spokespeople in public and private sectors, it requires choosing the right words and images at the right time and in the right circumstances.

So, let’s say the Global Power Elite – working through the governments of the US, UK, EU into which they are deeply embedded, and joint-venturing with a wide array of media outlets, defense companies, oil companies, security and construction companies, and powerful lobbies – decide that they wish to overrun and destroy a specific country… Libya, for example…

How do they ensure that “the international community” will just quietly look on (except for the still relatively small minority of voices that are increasingly raising hell against them)?

The Seven Step Mainstream Media Country Destruction Guide

1. First, they start by targeting a country ripe for “Regime Change”, and brand it a “rogue state”; then…

2. They arm, train, finance local terrorist groups through CIA, MI6, Mossad, Al-Qaeda (a CIA operation), drug cartels (often CIA operations) and call them “freedom fighters”; then…

3. As mock UN Security Council Resolutions are staged that rain death and destruction upon millions of civilians, they call it “UN sanctions to protect civilians”; then…

4. They spread flagrant lies through their “newsrooms” and paid journalists, and call it “the international community’s concerns expressed by prestigious spokespeople and analysts…” then…

5. They bomb, invade and begin to control the target country and call it “liberation”; then…

6. As the target country falls fully under their control, they impose “the kind of democracy that we want to see” (as Hillary Clinton before visiting Egypt and Tunisia on March 10, 2011), until finally…

7. They steal appetizing oil, mineral and agricultural reserves handing them over to Global Power Elite corporations, and impose unnecessary private banking debt and call it “foreign investment and reconstruction.”

Their keynotes are: Force and Hypocrisy, which they have used time and again to destroy entire countries, always in the name of “freedom”, “democracy”, “peace” and “human rights”. Utmost force and violence is used to achieve their ends and goals.

Their Elders recommended this many decades ago in a blueprint for World Domination written on a hoary manuscript of old…

“What did you say…? That you don’t want to be ‘liberated’ and ‘democratized’?!?”

“Then, take this Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Hanoi, Berlin, Dresden, Baghdad, and Basra!! Take that Tokyo, Gaza, Lebanon, Kabul, Pakistan, Tripoli, Belgrade, Egypt, El Salvador and Grenada!! And take that, Panama, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Somalia, Africa!!”

Always bombing people to smithereens… Always, of course, in the name of “freedom”, “democracy”, “peace” and “human rights”

The Horizontal Power of the State

by Luis R. Miranda
The Real Agenda
July 13, 2011

How many liberals, libertarians, conservatives and anarchists, to cite a few, dislike the outcomes that result from having an out of control State? It would be interesting to carry out a survey and find out exactly. However, a survey is not necessary, unless you are a statistics or a math fan, to learn that most people are dissatisfied with the current state of affairs. Proof that government involvement causes more harm than good is in every aspect of life. But it is not government or the State the party responsible for such outcomes, it is the people who support those States or governments who carry the blame.

 Although government and the power structures are seen as built in a pyramidal shape, the truth is that the government or State is built horizontally. See, government is composed by the people that give it the legal and moral support to exist, and so those very same people are responsible for whatever the State or government does or does not do. Therefore, all things that originate from the State -good or bad- are a direct result of the people supporting the system we know today as the government or the State.

 The problem is, most people do not know or understand this. People complain about the current state of affairs without realizing that they are to blame for the misery they are experiencing. Other people do recognize it, but are too hypocrite or afraid to do something about it. They do not speak against it because they fear social rejection. Those afraid should be happy to know that the problem of an abusive and out of control State or government is solved with actions, not words. Why? Because language is so fragile that it can be bent in all sorts of ways to say whatever anyone wants. It is nearly impossible to inject a dose of common sense into anyone who has been previously indoctrinated; and we all are to a certain degree. However, if one acts on something that is seen as wrong or abusive, other people will see what we mean and realize, all by themselves, that our actions make more sense than what they have thought all their lives to be true.

 Waking people up so that they act to change the current state of affairs is an impossible task if one only uses words. The reason for that is culture has rooted so deeply into their minds, that people’s reality is nothing else than what culture tells them it is. Nothing else. As it is widely clear, culture does not ‘teach’ people reality or truth, but a mixture of half-truths and plain open lies. How do you make people understand that although the Nazis directly killed 6 million jews and indirectly murdered a total of 40 million people, there is another entity that has killed almost seven times more humans than the Nazis did. It may come as a surprise to many that in modern times States or governments are responsible for the deaths of at least 262 million people. That is a fact that culture will not tell anyone.

 In our culture-created ‘reality’ the problem is terrorism, but instead of dealing with the root causes of terrorism, the State treats its bosses -the people- as criminals; all of them. Suddenly, everyone is guilty until proven innocent and everyone submits to this way of thinking. It is checking the inside of the shoes I am wearing what will solve the problem of terrorism, culture tells us. It is giving the State a photo of my naked body what is seen as the solution to end terrorism, the media tells us. Meanwhile, the terrorists, the real terrorists, who operate the scanners at the airports, who killed at least a million people in Iraq, who cleansed Bosnia and who are now cleansing Libya, Pakistan, Yemen and Syria use people’s complacency to continue doing all those things we dislike so much.

 People support the state and everything it does because that is how they were raised. Depending where you live, the educational system taught you anything from obeying to worshipping the State. Along with that indoctrination comes the role culture plays in people’s lives. Culture reinforces the paradigms we have all brought up with, so that everything continues business as usual. Humans were grown to accept and demand an explanation of reality that should never change, and that is that the State, any State, has our best interests in mind. That is why we must all pay taxes on our properties for the rest of our lives, even though we purchased them and paid taxes on the purchase. That is why we elect people from two majority parties and believe that the system gives us a choice. That is why we all obey the laws created by the State, although it does not obey them itself. This happens because the laws are for the slaves, not the masters. And guess what? The masters are also humans like you and me, no matter how much they like to think of themselves as superior beings.

 The problem with culture-created ‘reality’ is that because it is factually false, it needs continuous support to make it believable. It is exactly like “tell a lie a thousand times and it will become truth”. That is what culture does. People who believe in the system of paradigms imposed by the social engineers paradoxically require a constant reinforcement of what they believe is true. So, for example, people have been taught that world war I was fought for the sake of democracy, or that government came after the Great Depression to save everyone, or that world war II happened to save Capitalism, or that the central banks exist to control the horrendous forces that make the free market imperfect and dangerous. The problem with all these false realities, which to many of us are real, is that our future and the future of our sons and daughters will be shaped by the decisions made by people who believe these false truths.

 This is so because everyone thinks the State or government exists to fix everything that is wrong and therefore there is nothing to be afraid of. Right there is the origin of the Nanny State. Since individuals are not capable of managing their own lives -that is what we have been taught- there will always be a State to put the knob on the screw that got loose, an entity to give us all we need. What people do not realize, is that that same entity, if allowed, will also take away everything it handed out because of the power vested upon it. It is because the reality created and reinforced by culture revolves around collectivist views of dependency, that the State has become the inconvenience it is today. Although the evidence shows that this entity we all supposedly owe everything we have to, has destroyed everything it has touched, the level of indoctrination people are under not only does not allow them so see such destruction, but also automatically directs them to seek more reinforcement of their false reality.

 From education to economy, from foreign policy to welfare, the State has shredded everything. Intentionally, by the way. It is precisely because the evidence does outmatch culture and the false paradigm that people continuously go back for their daily, weekly and monthly dose of false ‘reality’. That is why the social engineers made sure there is a New York Times, CNN, Dancing with the Stars and American Idol; so the slaves get their blue pill whenever they need it and do not threaten to leave the human farm. The blue pill will keep them within the horizontal State they regard in their reality as a hierarchical pyramid, but that in reality is as flat as surf board. That little distinction is what separates humans from being free, truly free, and from putting an end to the out of control State.

 The key to liberating yourself from the abuses of the State resides on the ability to recognize that the State will do what you allow it to do and that it is its horizontal structure what makes it so evilly successful. In fact, the strength of the State does not come from itself, but from your relatives, neighbors, friends, co-workers, classmates and so on. In other words, the slave population to which you and I belong to. The slaves themselves support this system for a series of reasons. One, because they were taught to do that. Two, because they directly benefit from a trinket created by the State and they do not want to lose it. Three, because they do not wish that others surpass them and become more successful. Four, because the collapse of the system will mean a state of reality they cannot cope with. It is the ignorance, lack of humility and above all the indoctrination of the majority which prevents them from taking the red pill and opening their eyes to the real world. Instead, the slaves themselves guarantee the survival of the pyramidal looking State by attacking the minority who intends to warn them about the lie they live under. It is the voluntary acceptance of the false reality most people live in which allows the State to grow out of control. While most people waste time in senseless sports tribalism, racism, envy and cultural adequacy, their fellow slaves at the mid levels assure the social engineers that the State will continue to grow stronger.

 The horizontal nature of the State and they way it is used by the controllers to maintain most people blind and complacent is what explains the possibility of a few hundred people ruling over billions. It would be impossible otherwise. But it is exactly its very horizontal nature what presents people with the opportunity to break the chains from the State and to prevent it from growing larger and meaner. It is even possible, I would argue, not only to slim the State down, but also to make it work for the people, as most of us believe it should have always been. Change on this regard is not easy, however. It requires honesty from the part of those who want to ‘fix things’. If the success of the corrupt State relies upon the moral and practical support it receives from the slaves themselves, it is the withdrawal of that support what will end our slavery.

 If you pay your property taxes every year because you are afraid the State will come to raid your house and take you to jail, you are a slave of the State, and every time you pay your taxes you are a supporter of the State and as such its accomplice in all its wrongdoings. If you file your tax return and by doing so legitimize the powers of the State to tax your income, which is why you exist in the the States’ eyes, you are an accomplice of the State. If you do not like wars, but you vote for politicians who allow for the financing of invasions and killings in foreign countries, you are an accomplice of the invasions and the murder. If you do not like the corruption or inefficiency of the bureaucracy but you elect fellow slaves who will continue the back room and closed door deals, you are an accomplice of the State.

 However, the moment you become honest with yourself and gather some courage to awaken your fellow slaves, that will be the moment things will begin to change. But remember, change will not come through words or the use of language; it will come through action. If the success of the immoral State and its immoral actions is based on the support you give it, your withdrawal of that support is also what will liberate you from the chains that attach you to it. One cannot fight the dominant culture with the spoken word for the simple fact culture is made up and controls society through words. Because the controllers and their instruments of crime cannot manipulate truth, they manipulate language to cheat; and no one is better at that. They are unbeatable. That is why in order to end popular culture’s mad fake reality, individuals should use actions, not words. It is how much we act what we preach what will get us out of the giant farm we live in and in which we are milked to the last drop every day of our lives.

 Remember that the State and those who support statism approve of the use of violence against those who dare question their existence. That is, you may be arrested, imprisoned, tortured and raped if you oppose the State. So can you be a friend or acquaintance of a person who supports war, state taxation, corruption and violence against yourself? Wouldn’t you be an accomplice of his actions and therefore an accomplice of the State? I don’t know you, but I will not have anything to do with anyone who has the immoral audacity and cowardice to attack me for speaking the truth instead of opposing those who kill millions, steal our pensions, feed us toxic foods and make us sick with their pharmaceuticals.

 If a supposedly free human being cannot speak his mind and pay the price of being ostracized by his peers in exchange for real freedom, then, there is no hope from freedom. If we are afraid of being pointed at because we live by our own standards and refuse those that culture and the State impose on us, then we don’t deserve to be free.

The Year Bilderberg was Exposed Worldwide

Detractors of the secretive roundtable group saw one of their biggest wishes come true in St. Moritz, Switzerland

by Alex Newman
The New American
June 13, 2011

The amount of publicity garnered by the secretive Bilderberg conference this year in St. Moritz, Switzerland, far surpassed the coverage afforded to past gatherings of the elite cabal, with major media outlets and international news wires finally reporting on the yearly event after refusing to do so for over five decades. Protests, the alternative media, and anti-Bilderberg politicians played an important role in spreading the news.

Bilderberg, named after the Dutch hotel where members first met in 1954, brings together some of the most influential figures on Earth. More than 120 top-level officials in government, banking, media, finance, business, think-tanks, armed forces, and even European royalty attend the confab every year.

Among the confirmed 2011 European and Canadian attendees were the British Chancellor of the Exchequer (“in his official capacity,” according to the Treasury), the President of the European Central Bank, the head of Canada’s central bank, the queens of the Netherlands and Spain, the Crown Prince of Norway, a representative of the unimaginably vast Rothschild banking empire, finance ministers, heads of state, and many more.

A reporter on the scene for the U.K. Guardian said there were also individuals in attendance who were not on the official list — a regular occurrence discovered almost every year. Among them were German Chancellor Angela Merkel, NATO Secretary-General Anders Rasmussen, and Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of Spain. Microsoft founder and multi-billionaire Bill Gates was reportedly spotted as well.

A handful of non-Westerners also attended, including Turkish business moguls and members of the political class in Turkey. A senior representative of the brutal Communist dictatorship ruling mainland China was there as well. So was a Russian oligarch.

More than two dozen prominent members of the American elite attended, too. An especially interesting cadre at the 2011 event included some of the masters of the internet world: The co-founder of Facebook; the executive chairman of Google; the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn; the founder and CEO of Amazon.com; the commander of the American military’s “cyber command” (or USCYBERCOM); Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer; and others.

Representatives of the non-digital American elite were out in force as well. Among them were former Ghaddafi adviser and Bush-era neo-con extraordinaire Richard Perle; billionaire David Rockefeller, who openly boasted in his autobiography of conspiring to erect a global political and economic system; Robert Rubin, former Treasury Secretary and current co-chairman of the immensely powerful, world-government-promoting Council on Foreign Relations; the vice-chairman of Citigroup; TV personality Charlie Rose; former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who frequently and publicly calls for what he refers to as a “New World Order”; the president of the World Bank; and others.

Top officials in the Obama administration were also there including — quite ironically — the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) Keith Alexander were also on the official list, as were former Federal Reserve and military chiefs. Not on the public list but spotted at the conference, according to unconfirmed reports from correspondents in St. Moritz, was Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

By any objective standard, a meeting of over 120 of the world’s most powerful individuals would seem to be extraordinarily newsworthy. But until recently, the confab rarely attracted even a passing mention in the establishment press. The eerie silence fueled deep suspicion and innumerable theories about what the group may be plotting in secret. This year, however, was different,  at least in terms of media coverage.

In a story picked up by numerous large-circulation U.S. newspapers including the Washington Post, for example, the Associated Press wire service described the June 9-12 event as a “secretive gathering of senior government officials and business executives … that some liken to a shadow world government.” CNBC, Forbes, Fox News, the Baltimore Sun, Time magazine and others also ran stories about Bilderberg.

In China, the media were buzzing with news of the conference, too. One Chinese-language report by the French wire service AFP referred to the group as the “mysterious world shadow government” in a headline, according to Google Translate. Chinese media behemoth United Daily News ran a similar headline for another Bilderberg article.

European and Russian news outlets offered unprecedented levels of coverage as well, with the Guardian newspaper and the TV network Russia Today both sending correspondents to the scene. Several alternative-media outlets including the American Free Press and InfoWars sent reporters, too. And the Swiss press in particular has been overflowing with reports on Bilderberg for over a week.

Analysts speculated that the so-called “mainstream media” establishment — which is rapidly losing its market share as news consumers increasingly turn to alternative sources — was essentially forced to cover the conference in an attempt to salvage what remains of its credibility. But despite the increased attention, in one segment of the establishment press, news of the event was conspicuously missing.

Among the confirmed 2011 Bilderberg attendees were representatives of more than a few major media firms: the editor-in-chief and two correspondents of the Economist magazine; the chief international correspondent of Germany’s Die Zeit newspaper; the editor-in-chief of Helsingin Sanomat, Scandinavia’s largest daily subscription publication; a political columnist for the Dutch paper NRC Handelsblad; the CEO of Portuguese media giant Impresa; and more. None of those “news” outlets had covered the Bilderberg conference by press time on June 12.

There was, however, at least one notable exception. The CEO and publisher of Standard Medien AG, an Austrian media conglomerate, was also among those present at the Bilderberg summit. And one of his firm’s online portals, derstandard.at, reported the fact that Austria’s head of government, Federal Chancellor Werner Faymann, was in attendance.

A rival political party was apparently upset about the nation‘s Chancellor attending the meeting, even demanding an “intelligence” report about the conference from Faymann upon his return. So, not covering the growing scandal might have been raised serious questions about the integrity of Standard Medien among Austrian news consumers.

But even with the burgeoning Bilderberg coverage, critics still complained that the amount of media surrounding the conference was insufficient — especially considering the magnitude of the news. Other analysts noted that much of the “mainstream” coverage focused on downplaying the significance of the event or attempting to demonize critics.

But progress is certainly being made. While it would be impossible to calculate exactly how many people around the globe learned of Bilderberg’s existence over the past week, it’s safe to assume the number is in the millions — possibly tens or even hundreds of millions.

In recent years, authors, researchers, and the so-called “alternative media” have increasingly been spreading information and news about the cabal through the Internet. And not even including the new-found press coverage, the online exposure appears to have dramatically increased awareness about the confab.

Hundreds of protesters and critics from all across the political spectrum descended on St. Moritz to lambaste the elite attendees. They held up anti-Bilderberg signs and blasted their opposition through bull horns around the perimeter of the luxury Suvretta House hotel throughout the whole four-day gathering.

On the first day of the conference, along with a bogus “bomb” scare, a giant wall of curtains was erected around the edge of the Bilderberg compound. Presumably it was designed to keep protesters from looking in and conference attendees from being forced to see the growing crowd outside.

But at one point, angry protesters did get a chance to shout at some heavily guarded members of the elite in a face-to-face confrontation. During a “nature walk” outside the hotel, one activist even had a brief exchange with Thomas Enders, the CEO of Airbus. “We are just making our agendas,” Enders responded to a question about what was being discussed behind closed doors with politicians. “I don’t have to tell you, and you don’t need to know,” he arrogantly explained with a smile on his face.

Several lower-ranking members of the political class made a fuss about the event as well. Italian member of the European Parliament Mario Borghezio, for example, attempted to force his way into the conference on the first day. He was reportedly detained and roughed up by police, prompting the Italian embassy in Switzerland to demand answers.

Prominent Swiss politicians were furious about the gathering, too. Center-right Parliamentarian Dominique Baettig of the nation’s largest political party, for example, asked prosecutors to consider arresting attendees such as former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for war crimes, suggesting that Swiss officials at the event should be charged with treason. Baettig, too, tried unsuccessfully to barge in on the conference in what the Guardian‘s Charlie Skelton called a “historic moment.”

Some Bilderberg opponents have also suggested arresting U.S. attendees, citing the Logan Act. That law prohibits Americans from negotiating policy with foreign officials.

Regular Bilderberg attendee and former International Monetary Fund (IMF) boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn, another socialist, was recently arrested in New York on unrelated sex charges. But calls to prosecute various Bilderbergers for a wide range of criminal offenses are only growing louder.

Critics of the confab are, of course, routinely derided as conspiracy “theorists” or worse by establishment apologists. The government-funded BBC recently ran a vicious smear piece against people suspicious of Bilderberg, trying to link opposition to secret meetings of global policy makers with anti-Semitism and other unsavory associations.

But leaks and public statements by attendees over the years — reported on by the BBC, ironically — reveal that the cabal was instrumental in more than a few world-changing occurrences. The continental super-state known as the European Union and the failing regional “euro” currency, for example, are just a few of the developments in recent decades attributed to Bilderberg.

Anecdotal evidence also suggests the group plays an important part in the seemingly unexplainable rise to power of national leaders. Bill Clinton, for example, attended the conference in 1991 as a virtually unknown state governor. The following year he became President. Then-presidential candidate Barack Obama was reportedly there in 2008. British Prime Minster David Cameron and former PM Tony Blair both went to Bilderberg before rising to the top as well. So did a multitude of global power brokers too long to list.

Due to the tight secrecy, speculation about what may have been on the 2011 agenda is, as always, running rampant. But a press release posted on the relatively new “official” Bilderberg website cited by the AP and others offered some generalities about the topics of discussion: the euro, challenges for the EU, social networking, “security issues,” the Middle East, “demographic challenges,” China, and more. In 2007, “The New World Order” was the top item on the agenda.

“What is unique about Bilderberg as a forum is the broad cross-section of leading citizens that are assembled for nearly three days of informal and off-the-record discussion,” the group’s public statement notes, claiming that the “privacy of the meetings … has no purpose other than to allow  participants to speak their minds openly and freely.” Critics of the shadowy cabal, however, still aren’t buying it.

Tokyo-based Nomura: Oil prices may hit $220 a barrel

By Matt Egan
Fox Business
February 23, 2011

If the turmoil paralyzing parts of the Middle East and North Africa brings oil production in Libya and Algeria to a standstill, it could cause crude oil to explode to $220 a barrel, derailing the global economic recovery.

According to a new report from Tokyo-based Nomura, a simultaneous production halt from embattled Libya and neighboring Algeria would reduce OPEC spare capacity to 2.1 million barrels a day and may cause crude to spike from about $97 a barrel today to $220 a barrel.

“The closest comparison is the 1990-1991 Gulf War,” the Nomura analysts, led by Michael Lo, wrote, saying crude prices leaped 70% in seven months when OPEC’s spare capacity was cut to just 1.8 million barrels a day during that conflict with oil-rich Iraq.

While the $220 figure may sound high, Nomura said it could be an underestimate as speculative oil traders who were not around during the Gulf War may exaggerate the surge during an oil production halt.

The turmoil in Algeria hasn’t gotten nearly as much attention, but that government is also believed to be very vulnerable and recent protests have led the government there to lift its state of emergency.

The report comes as Wall Street has grown increasingly fearful the violence slamming Libya, Africa’s third-largest oil producer, will eat into the global economic recovery.

Even though the global economy has strengthened considerably in recent months, it’s clear $220 oil prices would seriously hurt growth, putting a huge burden on cash-strapped consumers and businesses, especially transportation companies like shipping giant FedEx (FDX: 89.25, 0.00, 0.00%), airliner JetBlue (JBLU: 5.70, 0.00, 0.00%) and cruise operator Carnival (CCL: 42.06, 0.00, 0.00%).

Crude’s expiring March contract spiked 8.5% — its biggest one-day gain since April 2009 — to a 2 1/2-year high of $93.57 on Tuesday in response to the turmoil in Libya. The surge in oil prices sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling 178 points, its steepest decline since November.

With no resolution in sight, crude continued its gains on Wednesday, with the commodity’s April contract jumping $2.16 a barrel, or 2.30%, to $97.58. Brent crude continues to vault ahead of crude, surging another $3.92 a barrel, or 3.71%, to $109.70.

According to Bloomberg data, Libya pumped 1.59 million barrels of crude a day last month, while Algeria pumped 1.25 million barrels a day.

The markets have been pricing in the possibility the crisis in Libya will break out into an all-out civil war as longtime Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi has refused to step down. In a televised speech on Tuesday, he said, “I will fight to the last drop of my blood.”

Citing a source close to the al-Qaddafi regime, Time Magazine reported late Tuesday the leader has ordered security services to start sabotaging oil facilities. The forces plan to blow up several oil pipelines, cutting off flow to Mediterranean ports, the report said.

According to Italian authorities, the death toll during the political unrest in Libya may have jumped to about 1,000.

Internet Wiretapping Coming to a Server Near You

Federals want to spy on internet communications “to keep you safe”.  Internet Wiretapping to become common trend as military industrial complex expands power grab.  Not that they don’t do it already!

Charlie Savage

Federal law enforcement and national security officials are preparing to seek sweeping new regulations of the Internet, arguing that their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is “going dark” as people increasingly communicate online instead of by telephone.

Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters such as BlackBerry, social networking websites such as Facebook and software that allows direct “peer-to-peer” messaging such as Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.

The legislation, which the Obama administration plans to submit to Congress next year, raises fresh questions about how to balance security needs with protecting privacy and fostering technological innovation. And because security services around the world face the same problem, it could set an example that is copied globally.

James Dempsey, vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, an Internet policy group, said the proposal had “huge implications” and challenged “fundamental elements of the Internet revolution” — including its decentralized design.

“They are really asking for the authority to redesign services that take advantage of the unique, and now pervasive, architecture of the Internet,” he said. “They basically want to turn back the clock and make Internet services function the way that the telephone system used to function.”

But law enforcement officials contend that imposing such a mandate is reasonable and necessary to prevent the erosion of their investigative powers.

“We’re talking about lawfully authorized intercepts,” said Valerie Caproni, general counsel for the FBI. “We’re not talking expanding authority. We’re talking about preserving our ability to execute our existing authority in order to protect the public safety and national security.”

Keeping up with technology

Investigators have been concerned for years that changing communications technology could damage their ability to conduct surveillance. In recent months, officials from the FBI, the Justice Department, the National Security Agency, the White House and other agencies have been meeting to develop a proposed solution.

There is not yet agreement on important elements, such as how to word statutory language defining who counts as a communications service provider, according to several officials familiar with the deliberations.

But they want it to apply broadly, including to companies that operate from servers abroad, such as Research In Motion, the Canadian maker of BlackBerry devices. In recent months, that company has come into conflict with the governments of Dubai and India over their inability to conduct surveillance of messages sent via its encrypted service.

In the United States, phone and broadband networks are already required to have interception capabilities, under a 1994 law called the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act. It aimed to ensure that government surveillance abilities would remain intact during the evolution from a copper-wire phone system to digital networks and cell phones.

Often, investigators can intercept communications at a switch operated by the network company. But sometimes — like when the target uses a service that encrypts messages between his computer and its servers — they must instead serve the order on a service provider to get unscrambled versions.

Like phone companies, communication service providers are subject to wiretap orders. But the 1994 law does not apply to them. While some maintain interception capacities, others wait until they are served with orders to try to develop them. That can cause big delays, which the new regulations would seek to forestall.

Related Links:

Togel178

Pedetogel

Sabatoto

Togel279

Togel158

Colok178

Novaslot88

Lain-Lain

Partner Links