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By Howard Rich

As the infamous Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) winds down this
week, Republicans and Democrats in Washington, D.C. are patting
themselves on the back for a job well done. Not only are they claiming
to have saved the nation from a “Second Great Depression,” this
so-called economic miracle was apparently purchased at a bargain
basement price.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, TARP will cost
taxpayers “only” $66 billion. The White House puts the figure even lower
— at $50 billion.

Of course these rosy, election-year estimates are based on government
liquidating its ownership stake in hundreds of “private” corporations —
including a 92 percent stake in the American International Group (AIG)
and a 61 percent stake in General Motors (GM).

For taxpayers to recoup their “investment” in AIG, the government
will have to sell 1.66 billion shares of common stock at an average
price of $29 per share. At GM, the government must sell 304 million
shares of common stock at an average price of nearly $134 per share.
Hitting these targets would be a daunting task in any economic climate —
and may prove insurmountable in our ongoing malaise.

“How does one get $49 billion out of a company that’s currently worth
$25 billion?” an investment research publication recently asked. “The
follow on question is: why would investors buy AIG shares while the
government’s AIG stock sale could last 18-24 months?”

Short answer? They wouldn’t — and likely won’t.

Meanwhile GM has dramatically scaled back its initial public offering
in recent weeks — a sign that the company will be forced to continue
operating under the “Government Motors” banner for the foreseeable
future.

But this debate isn’t about getting an accurate accounting of the
final TARP tab and assessing its risk versus reward — it’s about
honestly assessing the problems that come with government picking
winners and losers in the marketplace in the first place. Even if
government’s taxpayer-funded investments yielded better than average
returns (or huge cash windfalls), that doesn’t make them right — nor
does it mean taxpayers will ever see one red cent of their money back.

And while TARP has enabled union bosses in Detroit and AIG executives
all over the world to make out like bandits (as bureaucrats across the
country did in the wake of the “stimulus”), what about the people who
were forced to pick up the tab? What about the 15 million Americans who
are currently unemployed? Or the millions of American households that
have seen their income levels decline in each of the last two years?
What about the small business owners whose taxes are about to skyrocket
as government begins making interest payments on its massive new debt?

Certainly interest rates are low for the time being, but the threat of rising rates is a ticking time bomb.

In designating the wealthiest Wall Street banks as “too big to fail”
Washington told the rest of America that it was “too small to succeed.”

Also, there is also considerable debate as to the accuracy of the
“doom and gloom” pronouncements that preceded TARP — which would
obviously negate much of its supposed efficacy in avoiding a global
economic meltdown.

For example, a week before TARP passed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke appeared before the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S.
Congress and made an impassioned plea for taxpayer-funded intervention,
saying that emergency action was required immediately in order to
“address the grave threats to financial stability that we currently
face.”

At this hearing, Bernanke testified that the commercial paper market
was on the verge of shutting down. This sent major shock waves through
Congress, as many companies use the sale of this short-term debt to pay
their bills and make payroll. A week after Congress passed TARP,
however, Bernanke announced the creation of a special commercial paper
funding facility — thus arbitrarily alleviating one of the key pressures
he had used as leverage to help get the bailout passed.

Perhaps the most effective argument against those who claimed that
the sky would fall in October 2008 absent government intervention is the
fact that government intervened — and the sky fell anyway. Economists
in their taxpayer-funded ivory towers will no doubt continue to do
battle over hypothetical contingencies, but that doesn’t change the fact
that 8 million jobs vanished in just over a year’s time — and those
jobs aren’t coming back anytime soon.

Meanwhile, none of the TARP money that’s been repaid to the U.S.
government thus far is actually being returned to taxpayers. Nor is it
being used to pay down America’s ballooning debt. Instead, it’s being
spent on new bailouts, more borrowing and additional deficit spending.

Also, in confronting the “toxic” realities of TARP it’s important to
remember that its initial $700 billion outlay represents only a small
sliver of the money government has spent, lent, pledged and printed
since the recession began in December 2007.

That’s a tab taxpayers will still be picking up decades from now.

The author is chairman of Americans for Limited Government.


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Extraordinary state secrecy motion is granted

Haifa, Israel – The Haifa District Court on Thursday granted a
government request to allow soldiers to testify behind a screen in the
lawsuit filed by Rachel Corrie’s family against the State of Israel for
her unlawful killing in Rafah, Gaza.

The order includes the driver of the bulldozer that killed Rachel,
who is slated to testify later this month. However, Judge Oded Gershon
ruled that both the commander of the unit and the second soldier in the
bulldozer that hit Rachel would testify in plain view, because their
faces were already publicly known.

Rachel Corrie / Courtesy Rachel Corrie Foundation


Rachel Corrie, an American human rights defender from Olympia,
Washington, was crushed to death on March 16, 2003, by a Caterpillar D9R
bulldozer while nonviolently protesting the demolition of Palestinian
homes.

In asking for the highly unusual protective measures, state attorneys
argued that they were necessary to protect the soldiers’ safety and
prevent their images from being circulated. They based the request on an
overbroad security certificate issued by Defense Minister Ehud Barak in
2008, but did not provide concrete evidence to substantiate their
concerns for the soldiers’ safety or security.

Corrie attorneys opposed the motion, arguing that allowing the
soldiers to testify behind a screen infringes upon the right to an open,
fair and transparent trial. They asked to dismiss the request, filed
just 48 hours before the first soldier’s testimony. Alternatively, the
lawyers asked the court to allow the family to see the witnesses even if
the public could not, but their request was denied. Lawyers for the
Corrie family plan to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of
Israel.

“While Rachel stood in front of a wall to protect the two families
huddled behind it, the state is now making the soldiers hide behind a
wall that denies us the opportunity to see them,” said Cindy Corrie,
Rachel’s mother. “The State of Israel has been hiding for over seven
years. Where is the justice?”

The first soldier to testify under the extraordinary new measures was
the commander of the second bulldozer. Known to the court only as A.S.,
with voice muffled behind the screen, he told the court he did not see
the other bulldozer strike Rachel and did not remember much about that
day.

Contrary to the detailed affidavit he signed less than eight weeks
ago, A.S. said he did not know how Rachel had been hurt; did not know
the distance from which the bulldozer had approached Rachel; and did not
know the height and width of the mound of earth the bulldozer was
pushing.

Also testifying on Thursday was the head of the Military Police
Special Investigative Unit, Shalom Michaeli, who oversaw the
investigation into Rachel’s killing. He told the court that he stood by
his 2003 investigation and saw no reason that anyone should have been
prosecuted.

Michaeli was also in charge of the investigation into the killing of
Iman al Hams, a 13-year-old Gaza school girl who was shot and killed by
an Israeli soldier in Rafah as she lay injured on the ground in October
2004. A military police internal investigation subsequently found major
failures in Michaeli’s investigation, saying it was conducted
unprofessionally and with negligence. The solider who killed al Hams was
court-martialed but subsequently acquitted – in part because of this
flawed investigation.

Michaeli’s cross-examination revealed similar flaws in the Corrie
investigation. These flaws support the family’s claim of government
negligence, for allowing soldiers and their commanders to act recklessly
using armored military bulldozers without due regard for the presence
of civilians.

* Michaeli said that he ordered only a partial transcript of
radio transmissions because he did not think it important to transcribe
the full audio.

* He said he did not go to the site of Rachel’s killing because
it was dangerous, the terrain had already been altered, and the vehicles
removed by the Israeli military. He acknowledged that he could have
gone to the scene in an armored vehicle, but chose not to.

* Michaeli testified in his written affidavit that when he
inspected the bulldozer he did not find any signs of blood or other
evidence that the vehicle had injured anyone. However, in court
testimony he said the bulldozer could have been washed “or even painted”
before he inspected it.

* Michaeli said he knew, prior to opening the investigation,
there was a video camera recording the area around the clock. But he
failed to obtain the tape until March 23, a week after the incident,
because it had been previously taken by senior commanders. When
questioned about his failure to interrogate the camera operator, who
panned away from the scene only minutes before Rachel was killed, he
said he did not think it was relevant.

* When asked whether he questioned the bulldozer crews about an
Israeli military manual for low intensity conflict that states
bulldozers should not be operated near people, Michaeli said the manuals
were not relevant. He added that bulldozer operators could not be
expected to follow such procedures in this zone. He went on to say that
he believed the Israeli army was “at war” with everyone in the area,
including the ISM peace activists.

Michaeli still heads the Military Police Special Investigative Unit,
but has since been promoted from Sergeant Major to Warrant Officer.

“Today I was struck by the lead investigator’s failures – his failure
to look for evidence, to secure evidence, to resolve conflicting
evidence, and to turn evidence over to this court,” said Craig Corrie,
Rachel’s father. “This is not what we and the U.S. government were
promised by the government of Israel when Rachel was killed and it is
not what we will accept now.”

The proceedings on Thursday were attended by representatives of the
US Embassy, who have closely followed the hearings throughout the trial.

Subsequent hearings are scheduled for October 17,18 and 21 between
the hours of 9:00-16:00 before Judge Oded Gershon at the Haifa, District
Court, 12 Palyam St., Haifa, Israel.


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Before 9/11 guess what 2 countries DID NOT have a Rothschild owned and started Central Bank; Afghanistan and Iraq.

World Trade Center is an act by Israel with the complicity of Britain and America, under orders of the Rothschild. Why? These are the reasons:

1.To establish Rothschild central banks in the Middle East. (By now, only a few countries in the world DO NOT have Rothschild owned banks! Countries such as, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Sudan. And now, today, Afghanistan and Iraq have Rothschild central banks after the United States invaded!)

2.To take away rights and freedoms of the American peoples, us giving up liberties for safety.

3.To follow Albert Pike's plan for the beginning of the 3rd world war, to begin racial strife against the Islamic world.

4.To create a massive amount of wars to generate more money from it, while again, setting up their banks!

Now! Less than a week before the 9-11 attack on September 5th, the so-called lead hijacker Mohamed Atta and several other hijackers made a still-unexplained visit onboard one of Pro Israeli lobbyist, Ashkenazi Jew, Jack Abramoff's casino boats, but no investigation was ever made of this.

It is discovered that US drug agents' communications have been penetrated and suspicion falls on two companies, AMDOCS and Comverse Infosys. Who are both owned by Israelis, AMDOCS generates billing data for most US phone companies and is able to provide detailed logs of who is talking to whom. Comverse Infosys builds the tapping equipment used by law enforcement to eavesdrop on all American telephone calls, but suspicion forms that Comverse Infosys, which gets half of its research and development budget from the Israeli government, has built a back door into the system that is being exploited by Israeli intelligence and that the information gleaned on US drug interdiction efforts is finding its way to drug smugglers. The investigation by the FBI leads to the exposure of the largest foreign spy ring ever uncovered inside the United States, operated by Israel and half of the suspected spies have been arrested when 9-11 happens. On 9-11, 5 Israelis are arrested for dancing and cheering while the World Trade Towers collapse, they were employed by Urban Moving Systems, and the Israelis are caught with multiple passports and thousands of dollars on each of them. Two of them are later revealed to be a part of Mossad, the Israeli Secret Intelligence Agency and Police force. As witness reports track the activity of the Israelis, it happens to be that they were seen at Liberty Park at the time of the first impact, suggesting a foreknowledge of what was to come, the Israelis are interrogated, and then eventually sent back to Israel.

The owner of the moving company used as a cover by the Mossad agents abandons his business and goes to Israel; the United States Government then classifies all of the evidence related to the Israeli agents and their connections to 9-11.
All of this is reported to the public by a four part story on Fox News by Carl Cameron, pressure from Jewish groups, like AIPAC force Fox News to remove the story from their website, and they did two hours before the 9-11 attacks happened.
Odigo, an Israeli company with offices just a few blocks from the World Trade Towers, receives an advance warning by the internet, the manager of the New York Office provides the FBI with the IP address of the sender of the message, but the FBI does not follow this up and the FBI investigated 5 Israeli moving companies as possible fronts for Israeli intelligence. And one week before the WTC attack, the Zim Shipping Company moves out of its offices in the WTC, breaking its lease and costing the company $50,000. And no reason has ever been given, but Zim Shipping Company is half owned by the State of Israel, the Rothschilds.

And before the attack, millions of dollars of put options on both American Airlines and United Airlines were traded. The FBI promised to follow up the purchasers, but never revealed their findings, because this would lead directly to Israel, the state behind the 911 attacks. NOT THE AL -QAEDA! The Al-Qaeda works for the CIA! You can research this yourself! It's so bluntly obvious it's ridiculous. But, for your own amuse, I will brief you on this: Osama Bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia in 1957, and his father becomes a close friend of the king Saudi Arabia and also becomes a very rich through his construction business and oil. But the construction business he owns is affiliated with the Pakistani Intelligence Agency, which is Saudi Intelligence, or, the CIA. And with Osama Bin Laden father's blessing, he becomes affiliated with the CIA in the Afghan war against the Soviets by helping to create major training camps for troops for the Mujahideen. And he helped build the Khost tunnel complex, which the CIA was funding as a major arms storage depot, training facility, and a medical center for the Mujahideen. Now you have some background information on Osama Bin Laden, I'd advise you to seek out more information yourself about him, there is several sources out there with the truth, but do not believe some of the false crap that is out there too, because there is just as much, actually more, than what is true. But he is not really important, so I have to move onto lots more yummy terrorist attacks and what not.

Also in 2001, Following the World Trade Center attack; anonymous letters containing anthrax were sent to various politicians and media executives, like the 9-11 attack this is immediately blamed on Al-Qaeda, until it is discovered that the anthrax contained within those letters is a specific type of weaponized anthrax made by a United States military laboratory. The FBI then discover that the main suspect for these anthrax letters is a Ashkenazi Jew, Dr. Philip Zack, who had been reprimanded several times by his employers due to offensive remarks he made about Arabs. Dr. Philip Zack was caught on camera entering the storage area where he worked at Fort Detrick which is where the Anthrax was kept. At this point, both the FBI and the mainstream media stopped making any public comments on the case.

And on October 3rd, Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, says this to Ashkenazi Jew, Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio,
"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that....I want to tell you something very clear, don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it."
Sadly, oh how true it is, oh sadly, how true.

And in 2002, the DEA issues a report that Israeli spies, posing as art students, have been trying to penetrate US Government offices. Police near the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in southern Washington State stop a suspicious truck and detain two Israelis, one of whom is illegally in the United States. The two men were driving at high speed in a Ryder rental truck, which they claimed had been used to, "deliver furniture." The next day, police discover traces of TNT and RDX military-grade plastic explosives inside the passenger cabin and on the steering wheel of the vehicle. The FBI then announces that the tests that showed explosives were, "false positived," by cigarette smoke, a claim test experts say is ridiculous. And based on an alibi provided by a woman, the case is closed and the Israelis are handed over to INS to be sent back to Israel. One week later, the woman who provided the alibi vanishes.

In 2003, The United States invades Iraq on 19 March, which this year is the holy, "Day of Purim," in the Jewish calendar. This, "Day of Purim," is a day the Jews celebrate their victory over Ancient Babylon, now based within the borders of Iraq. What is significant is that the previous U.S. led invasion of Iraq ended on the Day of Purim ten years earlier with the slaughter of 150,000 fleeing Iraqis under the current President's father.

Iraq, is now one of six nations (After we set one up in Afghanistan a year before.) left in the world who don't have a Rothschild controlled central bank. This war is mainly about stealing Iraq's water supply for Israel and is being fought with the blood of the American military, and for the oil for the United States.
And, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed states in a speech,

"Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."

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I hope there is justice for Rachel but I fear there will not be.

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