08 Wild Cards – Page 113 – Public Intelligence Blog

Steele smiling head shot — Robert David STEELE Vivas

The truth about what happened in Japan will not be known for some time. Remarkable, however, is the below admission of two key attributes for successful governance: first, share all information broadly and quickly; and second, do not believe ignorant over-confidence (if not outright lies) told by “experts” from both the public and private sector. The Japanese government may not be practicing complete openness, for example, with respect to the radioactive contamination of the Tokyo suburbs, but this is a step in the right direction. “The truth at any cost lowers all other costs.”

Japan’s government failed responding to earthquake, tsunami: PM

Japan's prime minister acknowledged Saturday the government failed in its response to last year's earthquake and tsunami, being too slow in relaying key information and believing too much in “a myth of safety” about nuclear power.

“We can no longer make the excuse that what was unpredictable and outside our imagination has happened,” Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said. “Crisis management requires us to imagine what may be outside our imagination.”

Read full article.

2012/03/03

Josh Kilbourn: Israel, Others Begin US Stock Spree

08 Wild Cards, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Government

Next Leg Of The Ponzi Revealed – Foreign Central Banks To Begin Buying US Stocks Outright Starting Today

Tyler Durden

ZeroHedge, 1 March 2012

We were speechless when we read this from Bloomberg.

The Bank of Israel will begin today a pilot program to invest a portion of its foreign currency reserves in U.S. equities.

The investment, which in the initial phase will amount to 2 percent of the $77 billion reserves, or about $1.5 billion, will be made through UBS AG and BlackRock Inc. (BLK), Bank of Israel spokesman Yossi Saadon said in a telephone interview today. At a later stage, the investment is expected to increase to 10 percent of the reserves.

A small number of central banks have started investing part of their reserves in equities. About 9 percent of the foreign- exchange reserves of Switzerland’s central bank were invested in shares at the end of the third quarter, the Swiss bank said on its website.

The investment will be made in equity index trackers and will include between 1,500 to 2,000 shares, among them stocks like Apple Inc. (AAPL), Saadon said.

NIGHTWATCH: Syria Ground Truth vs. US Media

08 Wild Cards, Corruption, IO Impotency, Media

Syria: Special comment: Over the weekend, news video footage from Homs, the so-called center of the opposition uprising, raised questions about the actual effectiveness of the opposition. The videos showed Syrian police, firefighters and militia using fire hoses to disperse a major opposition rally in Homs. So who controls Homs? Apparently the government does, with the exception of a few photogenic neighborhoods.

A European news outlet published a city map that shows the neighborhoods of Homs based on sectarian residence patterns. The map shows that most of the videos of violent confrontations have been taken in two or three mostly Sunni neighborhoods in the south of the city.

Homs is a large city and most of it appears to experience little to no violence, based on the video footage and the map of neighborhoods. The vast majority of Sunni neighborhoods and the Christian and Alawite neighborhoods report no violence. Life goes on in most of Homs.

If the Homs firefighters and police retain the capability to use fire hoses against demonstrators, then the government remains in control in that city. That is a basic precept of internal instability analysis. Homs still has a functioning government that responds to orders from Damascus.

The point of this comment is that most US news reporting on the struggle in Syria appears aimed at grabbing headlines rather than at providing a balanced view of both sides of the struggle. Non-US news sources present a different view of the unrest. For example, it is difficult to maintain that the opposition dominates Homs, when the fire brigade is secure enough to turn hoses on an opposition rally there. US news analysts completely missed the significance of the fire brigade operations shown in their own videos..

The bottom line is that the opposition holds no ground that it does not physically occupy and then only when government forces are not present or chasing it. Homs does not appear to be under siege or under opposition control, based on German news reporting. Some neighborhoods are and that is worth further research. It also helps explain why the al Asad government exhibits no signs of panic or severe stress commensurate with the urgent statements by the UN, Arab League and US officials. More on this topic later.

Phi Beta Iota: The truth at any cost lowers all other costs. The US media is 65-95% owned by Wall Street, with the bulk of their revenues coming from advertising by corporations that profit from war and instability.

See Also:

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

NIGHTWATCH on Syria at Phi Beta Iota

Search: map of sunni and shiite muslim groups

2012/02/27

NIGHTWATCH: Syria Update

05 Iran, 08 Wild Cards

Syria-Saudi Arabia: During Friday's meeting in Tunisia, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said he supported giving weapons and ammunition to groups fighting the Syrian regime. “I think it's an excellent idea,” Prince Saud told reporters in Tunisia. Asked why, he replied: “Because they have to defend themselves.”

Comment: Prince Saud's remarks make clear that Saudi Arabia has decided to roll back the Shiite heresy in Syria and block Iranian influence in Arab lands.

Syria-Hamas: On Friday, Hamas leaders, including Ismail Haniya, publicly turned against the al-Asad regime in Syria by announcing their support for the opposition. During Friday prayers at Al Azhar mosque in Cairo, Haniya said, “I salute all people of the Arab Spring, or Islamic winter, and I salute the Syrian people who seek freedom, democracy and reform.” The crowd answered with calls of “No Hezbollah and no Iran” and “the Syrian revolution is an Arab revolution.”

The policy change also was announced at a rally in the Gaza strip. Hamas' leadership also confirmed longstanding reports that they have vacated offices in Damascus and moved to Lebanon.

Comment: The Hamas statements, if backed by action, represent a strategic setback for Iran and seem to signify that Hamas has reconciled with Arab leaders, such as the Saudis and the Muslim Brotherhood. This does not signify a reduction in hostility toward Israel, but the Palestinian cause appears to be an Arab cause once again.

Last year the Saudis warned the Iranians on several occasions to cease meddling in Arab affairs. A Saudi role in Hamas' change of policy has not been reported, but its congruence with Saudi desires and interests to contain Iran strongly suggests significant Saudi involvement.

While Iran is maintaining its defiance over nuclear issues, it is proving unable to preserve its strategic position west of Baghdad. It is being contained on multiple fronts.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

NIGHTWATCH on Syria at Phi Beta Iota

2012/02/262012/02/26

Dolphin: Tokyo Radiation Sufficient to Mandate Evacuation?

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, Government

It's perfectly safe. Really. Like Agent Orange was safe. Like the Gulf War anthrax vaccinations. And on and on and on. WHEN can the public rely on governments to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? We Dolphins ALWAYS tell the truth. Life works better that way. Below unvalidated, but it feels scary right.

Tokyo Radiation Level 25 Times the Fukushima Mandatory Evacuation Zone

Evacuate Tokyo and All US Forces From Japan?

Bob Nichols

VeteransToday, 25 February 2012

(San Francisco) Widely known Physicist Dr Paolo Scampa, the publisher of the EU AIPRI Blog and an eminent chemical physicist, announced today his latest calculations of deadly radioactivity in Tokyo itself. Both the nuclear regulatory and media responses have been missing in action.

mocho dr. — Mochizuki, Publisher of the highly respected Fukushima Diary

However, the outrageous statement of a Japanese politician pretty well sums up the level of understanding of the parasitic political class “Smile, and the radiation won’t hurt you.”

The Tokyo suburbs are about 100 miles or 160 km South of the six destroyed, deteriorating and badly leaking nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Station for Nuclear Reactors.

Dr Scampa stated:

“An absorbed dose of 2,94 microSievert/hour at 1 meter of soil means an average deposit of 9,065E5 Bq/m2 of Cs137 -0,661 MeV-. This amount for 1 meter is in fact situated between a maximum deposit of 5,439E6 Bq/m2 for low energy gamma rays from radioactive elements such as U238 (0,0495 MeV) and a minimum deposit of 2,176E5 Bq/m2 of very energetic gamma rays from radioactive elements such as Co60 (2,55 MeV). This dose corresponds to 25 times the maximum permissible “artificial” hour dose (0,114 microSievert/h-1) and 5 times the maximum permissible total – natural and artificial – hour dose (0,571 microSievert/h-1). [1]” Dr. Scampa. [End Quote]

This is a tragedy of huge proportions. There are 30 Plus Million People in Greater Tokyo. It is brought home personally to each person who sees the work of Fukushima Diary by Mochizuki.

Continue reading “Dolphin: Tokyo Radiation Sufficient to Mandate Evacuation?”

2012/02/26

Berto Jongman: US Preparing to Intervene in Syria

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards

US Pentagon preparing for Syrian intervention- Source

By Mohammad Ali Salih

asharq alawsat, 26 February 2012

Washington, Asharq Al-Awsat- with the crisis in Syria escalating on a daily basis, a US military source has stated to told Asharq Al-Awsat that the US Department of Defense, is preparing a scenario to intervene in Syria, based on NATO’s 1998 plan of intervention in Kosovo after the UN Security Council failed at the time to pass a resolution to halt the Yugoslav Government's acts of killing there because Russia objected to the draft resolution and China abstained from voting.

Read full article (includes Turkey – Jordan pincer movement)

2012/02/262012/02/26

Berto Jongman: US Embassy & Military Headquarters in Afghanistan Will Be Hit Again

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards

We will target US embassy and military headquarters in future – Taliban spokesman

By Mohammed Al Shafey

asarq alawsat, 23 February 2012

London, Asharq Al-Awsat – Afghanistan has returned to the headlines once more, with the recent escalation of violence in the south, and greater attention being paid to the peace negotiations that are taking place in Kabul. In addition to this, the extremist organization has opened a political office in Qatar, and is reportedly in the process of opening other political offices elsewhere.

Read full interview/article.

Category: 08 Wild Cards

Robert Steele: Japan Connects with the Truth