Signs of the Times

http://www.sott.net Signs of the Times: The World for People who Think. Featuring independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events. en_us Original content Copyright 2015 by Signs of the Times/Sott.net. For other content, see our Fair Use Policy at www.sott.net. Tue, 24 Mar 2015 07:36:36 +0100 http://bit.ly/1GOjHPh SOTT.net http://www.sott.net http://bit.ly/1CkQtYy Australian scientists have uncovered what is believed to be the largest asteroid impact zone ever found on Earth, in central Australia. A team lead by Dr Andrew Glikson from the Australian National University (ANU) said two ancient craters found in central Australia were believed to have been caused by one meteorite that broke in two. "They appear to be two large structures, with each of them approximately 200 kilometres," Dr Glikson said. "So together, jointly they would form a 400 kilometre structure which is the biggest we know of anywhere in the world. "The consequences are that it could have caused a large mass extinction event at the time, but we still don't know the age of this asteroid impact and we are still working on it." The material at both impact sites appears to be identical which has led researchers to believe they are from the same meteorite. http://bit.ly/1CkQtYy Tue, 24 Mar 2015 07:36:36 +0100 http://bit.ly/1GOjGL2 Surviviors of institutional abuse have expressed outrage over Government plans to seal all major industrial school and orphanage investigation records for 75 years. The move, which also allows for the possible destruction of documents, must now be ratified by the Dáil in a bill which will be brought forward by Education Minister Jan O'Sullivan. The Irish Independent has learned that the bill has been approved by Cabinet for drafting. The Retention of Records Bill 2015 will provide for the strict and confidential sealing of documents from the Commission into Child Abuse, the Residential Institutions Redress Board and the Residential Institutions Review Committee. Tom Cronin of Irish Survivors of Institutional Abuse International said abuse survivors were "shocked and horrified" that the records would be sealed for so long. "I can understand that these documents are sensitive and that they might need to be sealed for a period of years. "But why seal them for 75 years? Why not seal them for five or 10 years? By the time they can be accessed again, everyone associated with this most shameful period of Irish history will be long dead. The whole thing won't be anything more than a footnote in history by 2090," he said. http://bit.ly/1GOjGL2 Tue, 24 Mar 2015 04:52:01 +0100 http://bit.ly/1CkQw6u Republican hardliners, ignoring newly-reelected Benjamin Netanyahu's pre-polling remark that a Palestinian state would not happen on his watch, accused Barack Obama of dropping the ball regarding Israel and the Islamic State. US partisan fractures deepened at the weekend following Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's reelection. With peace talks stalled, the Palestinians have attempted to win international recognition of statehood in the UN. Republicans, however, downplayed the Israeli leader's campaign pledge that a Palestinian state would not happen during his tenure. Senator John McCain was unfazed by Netanyahu's remarks, instead focusing his vitriol against the Democratic president. "The least of your problems are what Bibi Netanyahu said in a political campaign. If every politician was held to what they said in a political campaign, obviously that would be a topic of long discussion,"McCain told CNN. Comment: Yes indeed, and that topic would be: How often do politicians lie on the campaign trail in order to get elected? It would be likely that in McCain's case, that list would be quite lengthy. No wonder he's an Israeli puppy. They like their politicians to have no problems lying to the American public. Poor Bibi, actually being taken to task for what he said on the campaign trail. The nerve of some people! "The president has his priorities so screwed up that it's unbelievable." http://bit.ly/1CkQw6u Tue, 24 Mar 2015 02:46:18 +0100 http://bit.ly/1GOjI5u US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2007 had supposedly asked ex-Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd "how do you get tough on your banker?" This was over concerns about China's growing power and hold on US finances and according to Wikileaks Rudd told Clinton to keep force as a last resort. Do the Chinese trust the Americans? As superpowers, both are wary of each other. The business of America has always been business, not friendship or the interest of others in mind except their very own. That is understandable. About the American hubris- I once read somewhere that hubris was the downfall of a Greek hero in some classical tragedy. We are entering a new era- the era of a currency war that will test the might of the US economy and the dollar against the might of the Chinese economy and the yuan. The rope in the tug of war will be crude oil. The US economy based hegemony is being challenged by China and therefore it is naturally given that the US will try to maintain its global geopolitical and financial position. Between the giants, the global financial system could end up being completely redefined through a devastating war in the Middle East. http://bit.ly/1GOjI5u Tue, 24 Mar 2015 02:30:07 +0100 http://bit.ly/1CkQueP Okinawa's governor ordered a halt to an underwater survey needed for reclamation of land for a new $8.6-billion base, which would host US troops after the Futenma facility on the island is closed. Takeshi Onaga is delivering on the promise he made to voters to oppose the construction, after his election last November. At a media conference on Monday, he announced that defense ministry contractors must stop the survey due to the damage it's causing to coral reefs. If they don't, Onaga said he would revoke approval for drilling operations given by his predecessor in December 2012 within days. The survey is necessary for the eventual construction of an off-shore runway for the future US military base in the less populous area of northern Okinawa, which would house thousands of troops after the closure of the Futenma base in the south. The facility is viewed by locals as a source of noise, pollution and crime. Opposition to its presence flared up after the rape and abduction of a 12-year-old girl by three US servicemen in 1995. http://bit.ly/1CkQueP Tue, 24 Mar 2015 02:27:25 +0100 http://bit.ly/1GOjGL4 A member of the Royal family was claimed to be part of a suspected paedophile ring under investigation by police in the late 1980s, a former police officer has said. The former Metropolitan Police officer says he was told by a detective sergeant that the investigation into the ring, which was also claimed to include an MP, was shut down for national security reasons. "I was in a car with two other vice squad officers. ... The detective sergeant said he had just had a major child abuse investigation shut down by the CPS regarding a royal and an MP," he told the Sunday Mirror newspaper. "He did not mention names, but he said the CPS had said it was not in the public's interest because it 'could destabilise national security'." Comment: Which means the people may rise up against the nation. The police officer identified the two colleagues, the newspaper said. http://bit.ly/1GOjGL4 Tue, 24 Mar 2015 02:12:56 +0100 http://bit.ly/1GOjGL5 Move over, Manhattan. The controversial stop-and-frisk practice once common among the New York Police Department has spread to Chicago, according to a new report, and is more prevalent in the Windy City than in the Big Apple. A report published by the American Civil Liberties of Illinois on Monday accuses Chicago Police Department officers of overwhelmingly targeting minorities during an apparent stop-and-frisk surge last year. African-Americans accounted for around 72 percent of civilians stopped by the CPD during a four-month period last summer, according to the ACLU. This is despite them accounting for less than one-third of Chicago's population. Whites and Hispanics were subjected to stop-and-frisk policing 17 percent and 9 percent of the time respectively. From May through August 2014, according to the report, the CPD stopped around a quarter of a million people without making an arrest. With statistics showing that minorities are predominantly the victims of these searches, the ACLU report suggests constitutional violations may be afoot. http://bit.ly/1GOjGL5 Tue, 24 Mar 2015 02:12:31 +0100 http://bit.ly/1CkQw6v Four cops are out of a job after an internal review within the Ft. Lauderdale Police Department in Florida uncovered a slew of racially-charged messages sent between officers, and even a homemade movie that's ripe with hateful epithets. Three officers have been fired, Ft. Lauderdale Police Chief Frank Adderley said at a news conference on Friday, and a fourth, Alex Alvarez, had already resigned in the midst of a five-month probe launched late year when his former fiancée filed a complaint with the department. The woman, who has not been named, approached authorities in October 2014 about text messages sent between Alvarez and other officers with the Ft. Lauderdale police. "She said she had personally seen it herself and felt it was inappropriate," Adderley said. A subsequent review of text messages sent between the cop and his colleagues uncovered several instances in which the officers used derogatory terms. "I had a wet dream that you two found those two n*****s in the VW

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World's largest asteroid impact zone believed uncovered by ANU researchers in central Australia

© Supplied

Rock features showing shock metamorphic deformation in the mineral quartz from the Warburton Basin impact.

Australian scientists have uncovered what is believed to be the largest asteroid impact zone ever found on Earth, in central Australia.

A team lead by Dr Andrew Glikson from the Australian National University (ANU) said two ancient craters found in central Australia were believed to have been caused by one meteorite that broke in two.

"They appear to be two large structures, with each of them approximately 200 kilometres," Dr Glikson said.

"So together, jointly they would form a 400 kilometre structure which is the biggest we know of anywhere in the world.

"The consequences are that it could have caused a large mass extinction event at the time, but we still don't know the age of this asteroid impact and we are still working on it."

The material at both impact sites appears to be identical which has led researchers to believe they are from the same meteorite.

© Supplied

Dr Andrew Glikson studies samples from the two ancient asteroid craters found in central Australia.

Over millions of years the obvious craters have disappeared, but geothermal research drilling revealed the secret history hidden under an area including South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory.

"The next step will be more research, hopefully deep crust seismic traverses," Dr Glikson said.

"Under the Cooper Basin and Warburton Basin we don't have that information and our seismic information covers up to five kilometres and some other data such as seismic tomography and magnetic data.

"The mantle underneath has been up-domed which is a very promising indication of a major event."

There are many unanswered questions about the underground site and whether the twin asteroid impact could have affected life on earth at the time.

"When we know more about the age of the impact, then we will know whether it correlates with one of the large mass extinctions [at the end of specific eras].

"At this stage we do not have all the answers, but there has been a lot of interest and people are certainly interested in any impact on the dinosaurs."

The research has been published in the geology journal

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Survivors of institutional abuse outraged at plan to seal abuse reports for 75 years

© Unknown

Education Minister Jan O'Sullivan

Surviviors of institutional abuse have expressed outrage over Government plans to seal all major industrial school and orphanage investigation records for 75 years.

The move, which also allows for the possible destruction of documents, must now be ratified by the Dáil in a bill which will be brought forward by Education Minister Jan O'Sullivan.

The has learned that the bill has been approved by Cabinet for drafting.

The Retention of Records Bill 2015 will provide for the strict and confidential sealing of documents from the Commission into Child Abuse, the Residential Institutions Redress Board and the Residential Institutions Review Committee.

Tom Cronin of Irish Survivors of Institutional Abuse International said abuse survivors were "shocked and horrified" that the records would be sealed for so long.

"I can understand that these documents are sensitive and that they might need to be sealed for a period of years.

"But why seal them for 75 years? Why not seal them for five or 10 years? By the time they can be accessed again, everyone associated with this most shameful period of Irish history will be long dead. The whole thing won't be anything more than a footnote in history by 2090," he said.

Mr Cronin also expressed concern that, by sealing the documents, the Government may unwittingly frustrate any potential future legal action by abuse survivors.

"Who knows what new evidence or material might arise in the future? That new evidence might prove worthless because the vital supporting documentation will be locked away in a vault for 75 years."

Ms O'Sullivan has defended the Government's position, saying the records are "highly sensitive and contain the personal stories of victims of institutional child abuse".

"I believe that it is important that these records are not destroyed, both to ensure that future generations will understand what happened and out of respect to the victims who came forward," she said.

"By sealing the records for 75 years and ensuring appropriate safeguards on the release of the records thereafter, we are in a position to preserve these sensitive records."

Maeve Lewis, director of charity One In Four, said the bill represented a difficult compromise between those who wanted the records kept as a vital part of Irish history and those who demanded all documentation be destroyed on confidentiality grounds.

"It is a compromise. Our position was that these records had to be preserved as a vital part of Irish history. In fact, we felt that the destruction of these documents would be a crime," she said.

The Government plan is for all documents from the various abuse probes to be lodged with the National Archives.

Commission Into Child Abuse

Sometimes known as the Ryan Report or the Laffoy Commission after the judges who headed the lengthy probe, the investigation ran for 10 years, from 1999 to 2009. It inquired into the abuse of children in a range of different Irish institutions.

It examined all forms of abuse dating from 1936 and amongst its most shocking findings was the treatment meted out to children in industrial schools operated by Church bodies with the support of the State.

These ranged from rapes, beatings and the starvation of children, to youngsters being hired out as cheap labour. The abuse was described as "endemic" and was said to be "the most shameful episode in the history of the Irish State".

The Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB) was set up in 2002 to compensate those who were abused as children in various State and Church institutions since 1936.

By the end of 2013, the RIRB had dealt with 16,620 applications for compensation. The total awards made amounted to €944.1m. The average award was €62,530.

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Rats And Sinking Ships: Chairman Of Greek Bank Rescue Fund Resigns

With "The objective of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund is to contribute to the maintenance of the stability of the Greek banking system, for the sake of public interest," it appears the Fund's Chairman has decided to add some instability and leave the sinking ship:

• *GREEK BANK RECAPITALIZATION FUND CHAIRMAN RESIGNS: STATEMENT

Ironic (or coincidental) timing as Draghi proclaims he is not blackmailing Greece and Merkel says "Nein" to more liquidity.

As Bloomberg notes,

Christos Sclavounis, Chairman of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund, resigned, Athens-based institution says in e-mailed statement today.

* * *

Perhaps this is why...

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Paid shills: U.S. neocons defend Netanyahu and call Obama's priorities "screwed up"

© Reuters / Joshua Roberts

Republican hardliners, ignoring newly-reelected Benjamin Netanyahu's pre-polling remark that a Palestinian state would not happen on his watch, accused Barack Obama of dropping the ball regarding Israel and the Islamic State.

US partisan fractures deepened at the weekend following Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's reelection. With peace talks stalled, the Palestinians have attempted to win international recognition of statehood in the UN.

Republicans, however, downplayed the Israeli leader's campaign pledge that a Palestinian state would not happen during his tenure.

Senator John McCain was unfazed by Netanyahu's remarks, instead focusing his vitriol against the Democratic president.

"The least of your problems are what Bibi Netanyahu said in a political campaign. If every politician was held to what they said in a political campaign, obviously that would be a topic of long discussion,"McCain told CNN.

"The president has his priorities so screwed up that it's unbelievable."

According to McCain, Obama should put aside his personal differences with Netanyahu and "work together with our Israeli friends" in order to put the brakes on "ISIS and Iranian movement," which the firebrand US senator believes is "threatening the very fabric of the region."

At one point, McCain went so far as to tell the US leader: "Get over your temper tantrum, Mr. President."

Democratic Rep. Steve Israel, who appeared alongside McCain on the program, reminded that the fundamentals of the US-Israeli relationship are still intact.

"What counts is, are we providing Israel with the critical security equipment technology that they need? And on that, we are," he said.

Missouri Representative Steve King questioned why US Jews would remain loyal to the Democratic Party.

"I don't understand how Jews in America can be Democrats first and Jewish second and support Israel along the line of just following their president," King said.

Meanwhile, Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, who recently drew a harsh response from Democrats after inviting Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress without first notifying the White House, announced he will fly to Israel at the end of the month - the same time a deadline expires on negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.

Earlier this month, 47 Republicans signed an open letter to Iran claiming any deal made under Obama could be undone by the next elected US president. The letter, which some labeled 'treasonous', was sharply criticized by European diplomats who are attempting to put the final touches on the nuclear deal with Tehran.

Ron Dermer, Israel's ambassador to the United States, said Netanyahu has always supported a two-state solution, however "what he's against is establishing a terror state on the West Bank that would create not another Gaza, but another 20 Gazas," he told NBC's on Sunday.

Riyad Mansour, Palestine's permanent observer to the United Nations, appearing alongside Dermer, expressed strong reservations over Netanyahu's comments.

"When we were divided they did not negotiate with us; when we are united they don't want to negotiate with us," he said.

Obama said he was in the process of "evaluating" his policy towards Israel in the wake of the Israeli PM's controversial campaign statements. The day before the March 17 elections, Netanyahu made it clear that he wouldn't allow the creation of a Palestinian state, while backtracking on the remarks following his election victory.

"I indicated to [Netanyahu] that given his statements prior to the election, it is going to be hard to find a path where people are seriously believing that negotiations are possible," Obama said. "We indicated that [this] kind of rhetoric was contrary to what is the best of Israel's traditions."

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The Petrocurrency War

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2007 had supposedly asked ex-Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd "how do you get tough on your banker?" This was over concerns about China's growing power and hold on US finances and according to Wikileaks Rudd told Clinton to keep force as a last resort. Do the Chinese trust the Americans? As superpowers, both are wary of each other. The business of America has always been business, not friendship or the interest of others in mind except their very own. That is understandable. About the American hubris- I once read somewhere that hubris was the downfall of a Greek hero in some classical tragedy.

We are entering a new era- the era of a currency war that will test the might of the US economy and the dollar against the might of the Chinese economy and the yuan. The rope in the tug of war will be crude oil. The US economy based hegemony is being challenged by China and therefore it is naturally given that the US will try to maintain its global geopolitical and financial position. Between the giants, the global financial system could end up being completely redefined through a devastating war in the Middle East.

Some years ago I'd read a book "Petrodollar Warfare" by William Clark. The book was published in 2005 when the euro was a rising currency and China's yuan was a distant dream. Clark had written that the rationale for intervening (in Iraq) was not just for control of oilfields, but also for the control of the means by which oil is traded in global markets. Saddam was deposed by the US and its Arab allies (who held US$ as their reserve currencies) because he refused to sell oil in US$ alone. The same fate was meted to Libya's Gaddafi. Now Iran is in the American crosshairs not because it is purportedly developing a nuclear bomb which the CIA itself has denied but because it has been selling oil in several currencies from its Kish Island bourse. China is buying oil in international markets from countries that are willing to accept the yuan. Again, as per the EIA, China will become the largest importer of oil in 2014-15. Not only that but China's oil production from overseas equity shares through acquisitions increased from a meagre 150,000 BOPD in 2005 to 2.7 MMBOPD in 2013.

China has been importing 52% of its crude oil from the Middle East (including 10% from Iran and 20% from Saudi Arabia) while on the flip side the US has reduced its imports from Saudi Arabia to 16% while the imports from Canada have been steadily increasing over the years. In 2010 US oil production was 9.7 MMBOPD and consumption was 19.2 MMBOPD. That balance changed in 2014 as oil production increased to 13.4 MMBOPD due to shale oil while consumption has actually decreased to 18.7 MMBOPD due to alternate energy and fuel efficiency. Net imports, therefore, further decreased in 2014 by 1.3 MMBOPD (source: EIA)

For over 40 years the US$ has been enjoying an unprecedented and guaranteed position as the world's global currency reserve. In 1971, President Richard Nixon ordered the cancellation of the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold due to heavy inflation caused by the Vietnam war, trade deficit and the rising price of oil which made the dollar worth less than the price of gold used to back it from the Bretton Woods that all other currencies (including the British pound) to be indirectly linked to the gold standard wherein the Central Banks would trade gold among themselves at an agreed peg of US$35/ troy oz. All thirteen OPEC countries including Iran adopted the sale of oil in US dollar. This allowed the US to export much of its inflation.

In January 2015, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) issued a paper titled outlining that since the global financial crisis (of 2008), banks and bond investors have increased the outstanding US dollar credit to non-bank borrowers outside the United States from $6 trillion to $9 trillion (and up from $2 trillion in 2001). This increase due to quantitative easing (QE) by US Federal Reserve Bank has implications for understanding global liquidity and monetary policy transmission. The report explores the horrifying and addictive scale of global debt in US dollars. In layman language the debt is a direct result of the US printing of dollars since 2008.

According to SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) China's yuan became one of the world's top five payment currencies in November 2014, overtaking the Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar. Global yuan payments increased by 20.3 percent in value in December 2014. CIPS (China International Payments System)will also put the yuan on a more even footing with other major global currencies like the U.S. dollar, yen, pound sterling and euro. It is possible that in a few short years the yuan will share the same position with the dollar as with the price of oil being quoted in both yuan and dollar. This will cause a massive migration of dollars to head back into the US from foreign countries and foreign investors resulting in hyperinflation.

Having explained the impact the yuan in a few years and global debt addiction due to the US QE policies, we turn our attention to the new CIPS to be launched by end of 2015 as an alternative to SWIFT which links more than 9000 financial institutions in over 200 countries for facilitating global currency transactions. As per a Reuters report of 9 March 2015 "the launch of the CIPS will remove one of the biggest hurdles to internationalizing the yuan and should greatly increase global usage of the Chinese currency by cutting transaction costs and processing times. Reuters mentioned that "CIPS will become the superhighway for the yuan".

Under above scenarios, the 40 years of political and economic marriage of convenience between Saudi Arabia and the US would likely change. Iran could well emerge as the regional Middle East superpower and a close Chinese and Russian ally under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) - a new OPEC with nuclear bombs as suggested in brevity by Professor David Wall in Matthew Brummer's Journal of International Affairs . Could that well lead to World War 3 or history may refer to it as "the petrocurrency war"?

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Good for him! Okinawa governor blocks survey needed to build U.S. military base

© Reuters / Toru Hanai

Okinawa's governor ordered a halt to an underwater survey needed for reclamation of land for a new $8.6-billion base, which would host US troops after the Futenma facility on the island is closed.

Takeshi Onaga is delivering on the promise he made to voters to oppose the construction, after his election last November. At a media conference on Monday, he announced that defense ministry contractors must stop the survey due to the damage it's causing to corral reefs. If they don't, Onaga said he would revoke approval for drilling operations given by his predecessor in December 2012 within days.

The survey is necessary for the eventual construction of an off-shore runway for the future US military base in the less populous area of northern Okinawa, which would house thousands of troops after the closure of the Futenma base in the south.

The facility is viewed by locals as a source of noise, pollution and crime. Opposition to its presence flared up after the rape and abduction of a 12-year-old girl by three US servicemen in 1995.

In 1996, Tokyo and Washington agreed to shut the base down, but construction of a replacement stalled due to local resistance.

Onaga's move coincides with the announcement of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to the US in late April. Abe, who supports the construction of the new base, is expected to be praised for his determined position to oppose Chinese influence in the region.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told journalists the Japanese government was examining Onaga's documents. He called the governor's steps "extremely regrettable."

"We are going to continue with construction work without delay," the spokesman said.

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