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Subject: wrong forum - Senator - USA crossing the Financial Rubicon
Stephen,
It's the wrong forum for this kind of discussion.
Whilst being in Australia this might have relevance to
people here, people in other countries aren't interested
in discussions of our local and domestic politics.
David
Quoting Stephen GOULD <sggould@oic.org>:
> <color><param>0100,0100,0100</param>20:53 Tue 07 Sep 2004 REF</color>:
> 611BACEN2
>
> Y/R: Aus-USA-FTA
>
> TO: Senator Peter COOK cc Australian Senators
>
> Chair - Senate Inquiry Aus-USA-Free Trade Agreement
>
> AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT
>
>
> Dear Senator COOK
>
>
> I e-mail as according to the Senate Web page "all Senate committees are
> authorised to meet after any dissolution of the House of Representatives".
>
>
> http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/index.htm
>
>
> This e-mail provides additional evidence from US Sources over US
>
> Government policies and why the "US in now crossing the Financial
>
> Rubicon for International Trade"
>
>
> RESPONSE FROM TRADE MINISTER MISSED THE POINTS
>
>
> On 11 Aug 2004 the Minister of Trade responded to my letter to the Prime
>
> Minister on 04 July 2004. My letter outlined how the US may be deceiving
>
> Australia by non-disclosure on Chapter 16: Electronic Commerce
>
>
> In his response the Minister of Trade totally missed the points made in the
>
>
> letter.
>
>
> The Minister stated "The US, given its economic importance, is often a
>
> standards setter rather than a standards taker."
>
>
> The issues in my letter were:
>
>
> 1 The US may have legislated for a US E-commerce Standard
>
> 2 The US had not disclosed that fact in the Treaty
>
> 3 The costs had not been factored into the financial calculations
>
> 4 Australian Business and Consumers would pay in perpetuity
>
>
> My letter to the Minister of Trade included an extract from the
>
> US book "Rogue Nation" by Clyde PRESTOWITZ 2003.
>
>
> This extract warns about the 2002 Bush Administration "Trade Promotion
> Authority Act". The benefits of US International Tree Trade Agreements
>
> (P58 - Do as I say, not as I do") are very dubious for US Trading partners.
>
>
>
> This book includes references to 98 other books listing concern with
>
> US Policies.
>
>
> SPEECH TO US COMMONWEALTH CLUB 31 AUG 2004
>
>
> Early this evening I received a copy of a speech by Mike RUPPERT
>
> that he gave on 31 Aug 2004 to the Commonwealth Club in San
>
> Francisco.
>
>
> I have attached the speech as part of this e-mail because it it deals
>
> with other examples of US Government deception. This includes the
>
> Iran-Contra Affair, BCCI and the 9/11 issue.
>
>
> NEXT STEPS
>
>
> Senator COOK there is still time to amended the FTA as there is a
>
> 60 days cooling off period (Chapter 23.4). That date is 12 Oct 2004.
>
>
> Given that the election is on 09 Oct 2004, does the Constitution
>
> enable the "Senate Standing Committee into the FTA" to write to the
>
> US requesting:
>
>
> 1 the reasons why the US had not disclosed that it had legislated for
>
> a Non-ISO E-commerce Standard for Financial Trade Transactions
>
> in Chapter 16: Electronic Commerce ?
>
>
> 2 As that key issue had not been disclosed, was the the Treaty
>
> still valid ?
>
>
> 3 would the US be prepared to disclose its calculations for
>
> E-commerce transactions ?
>
>
> Further information on E-commerce transaction cycles for
>
> Import/Export goods can be provided if required
>
>
> Yours sincerely
>
>
> Stephen GOULD
>
> Chair - Management Committee
>
> XML & E-COMMERCE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP
>
> OPEN INTERCHANGE CONSORTIUM
>
>
> E: sggould@oic.org
>
> T: {61}(2) 9953-7412
>
> W: http://www.oic.org/z/XZIG/
>
>
>
> From: <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param>"James B. Warburton"
> <<lordben@tpg.com.au></color>
>
> To: <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param>"Late Night Live"
> <<lnl@your.abc.net.au></color>
>
> <bold>Subject: <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param>Ruppert on Cheney,
> 9/11, Peak Oil, Currency Wars</bold></color>
>
> Date sent: <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param>Tue, 7 Sep 2004 20:34:27
> +1000</color>
>
>
> Well, you can't say you haven't heard of Mike Ruppert before. He's just
>
> published his long-promised "Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the
>
> American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil". And here is the text of his
>
>
> address to the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, California, Tuesday, August
>
>
>
>
> 31, 2004. I reckon it's time to interview him ...
>
>
> "What we are witnessing now is a collision: a collision of a financial
>
> system -- relying on fractional reserve banking, debt-financed growth, and a
>
>
> fiat currency system -- with a system of planetary and energy resources that
>
>
> are finite, limited, and running out. Infinite growth is battling with
>
> finite energy. One is not possible without the other, and I have absolutely
>
>
> no doubt as to which side will win."
>
>
> ...
>
>
> This speech is long, but a must read for anyone interested in the future of
>
>
> the United States, peak oil, 9/11, the 2004 election, and related topics.
>
>
> There are very few journalists digging up credible new information about
>
> 9/11, but this speech -- a teaser for Ruppert's upcoming book -- is full of
>
>
> critical information that should be on the front page of every newspaper on
>
>
> the planet. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of this
>
> information.
>
>
<color><param>0000,0000,0000</param>http://www.rense.com/general57/ruppert.htm</color>
>
>
>
> Address of Michael C. Ruppert at the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco,
>
> California, Tuesday, August 31, 2004
>
>
> Thank you for that gracious introduction.
>
>
> Let me begin by thanking Pat Lamken for inviting me to be here today and for
>
>
> her efforts to arrange what is certainly for me a historic landmark in
>
>
> my 26 years of work to bring to light information vitally important, life
>
>
> and death, information which has been virtually ignored by the mainstream
>
>
> media. This information has also remained completely unaddressed or even
>
>
> publicly acknowledged by those elites in both America and the world that
>
> determine and shape public policy and direct the course of human events.
>
>
> I say this with the full and complete awareness that I am tonight standing
>
>
> partially in the midst of those elites and that those elites are listening.
>
>
>
> I have long been aware of the stature and prestige of the Commonwealth Club,
>
>
> for its ability to attract some of the world’s most influential speakers;
>
>
> also for its reputation for bi-partisanship; and perhaps most importantly
>
>
> for its willingness to present conflicting or opposing viewpoints.
>
>
> My appearance here tonight no doubt marks a departure for the Club even from
>
>
> that inspiring record.
>
>
> With today’s remarks I intend to establish a whole new definition of
>
> “conflicting viewpoint.”
>
>
> I applaud the Club’s record, and am mindful that, had it not been for the
>
>
> dangerous and epochal historical events taking place around us, I would
>
> never have been afforded such an opportunity as this. Because clearly, my
>
>
> writing and public speaking have demonstrated that where we are today is
>
> exactly where I said we would be if something fundamental was not changed
>
>
> about how we both view the world, and how we interact with it.
>
>
> Before preparing this speech, of course, I did some research to see who had
>
>
> spoken here before.
>
>
> I was happy to see that I follow on the heels of such notables as former CIA
>
>
> Director James Woolsey, and two members of the Kean commission on 9/11:
>
> Slade Gorton and Richard ben-Veniste. These are not people whom I would
>
> call “kindred spirits.” I also saw the name of Homeland Security Secretary
>
>
> Thomas Ridge and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. These are also
>
> leaders of whom I have been sharply critical in the past and will be sharply
>
>
> critical of in the future.
>
>
> I also saw names like John Kerry, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, Joseph
>
> Lieberman, and Madeleine Albright.
>
>
> My record as a journalist and lecturer shows that I have not embraced, and
>
>
> have indeed been fiercely critical of, most of these opinion makers. While
>
>
> I am more inclined to find kinship with Dennis Kucinich, I also state
>
> categorically that no political leader who does not address the real causes
>
>
> of the problems facing us will ever be considered by me as a true kindred
>
>
> soul or as a political champion for the future.
>
>
> Such praise and endorsement I offer only to the likes of my good friend, the
>
>
> honorable Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, and to former Assistant Secretary of
>
>
> Housing Catherine Austin Fitts. I heartily recommend them to the club as
>
>
> potential speakers for future events.
>
>
> I also saw the names of spiritual leaders and independent or international
>
>
> voices like Al Franken, Jane Goodall, Arianna Huffington, rabbi Michael
>
> Lerner, Norman Mailer, Ted Turner, Hans Blix, and King Abudullah II.
>
>
> In looking at this long list of prestigious speakers, I was very aware that
>
>
> the life’s work of Michael Ruppert did not place me in any category that fit
>
>
> with these people. For the most part, I have long considered them to be
>
> part of a serious problem rather than pathfinders to its solution.
>
>
> That realization brought to mind what was perhaps the single most memorable
>
>
> line from the 1992 vice-presidential debates in which Ross Perot's running
>
>
> mate, retired navy admiral James Stockdale a medal of honor winner and
>
> former Vietnam prisoner of war pow asked, “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?”
>
>
>
>
>
> I am not prone to over-analyzing such opportunities. I have always said
>
> that, if given the chance, I would walk into the lion’s den or the devil’s
>
>
> bedroom to make my case, and that is what I intend to do today. This is as
>
>
> close as I have come thus far to either. For here, I can see tonight parts
>
>
> of the elite whose consciousness and attitudes must be changed if humanity
>
>
> is to even partially meet the challenges that are “in our faces.”
>
>
> For any of you who might be either lions or devils, I hope that you have had
>
>
> a good meal recently, and also that you have checked your pitchforks at the
>
>
> door. I also implore that your ears be open and your minds accessible.
>
>
> For those of you who realize that a global crisis is casting its shadow
>
> across the entire planet, and who wish better to understand its dynamics, I
>
>
> am here to offer some of my experience and learning as a “mapmaker” who has
>
>
>
>
> no allegiance to partisan politics or any desire except to tell you the
>
> truth, no matter how disquieting it may be, or how divergent it may be from
>
>
> whatever cherished beliefs you may hold; from whatever cosmological
>
> principles you may believe in; or from whatever economic or other personal
>
>
> interests you may have.
>
>
> A spiritual teacher once told me that my problem was not that I thought
>
> highly of myself; not that I thought lowly of myself; but that I thought
>
> constantly of myself. In that vein, let us all tonight try to think of
>
> issues larger than ourselves, our personal interests, our wants, or our
>
> fears.
>
>
> Viewed from almost any perspective -- be it geopolitics, economics, climate,
>
>
> spreading warfare that threatens to unleash a global orgy of bloodletting,
>
>
> rising energy prices, documented energy shortages, fresh water shortages,
>
>
> biological warfare, the repression of civil liberties at home and abroad, or
>
>
> any of a dozen other issues -- planet Earth and all of its inhabitants are
>
>
> in great danger. This is not a time to think of national security. It is a
>
>
> time to think of planetary security indeed, of planetary survival.
>
>
> And I must recognize also that I would never have been afforded this
>
> incredible opportunity to speak to you today, had it not been for the
>
> consistent support and generosity; the research and activism; the courage
>
>
> and disenfranchisement, and above all the loyalty, of all those people who
>
>
> have helped my newsletter, “from the wilderness”, grow in just six years
>
> from 68 to more than 15,000 monthly readers worldwide. Today our web site,
>
>
> at:
>
>
> <color><param>0000,0000,0000</param>http://www.fromthewilderness.com</color>
>
>
>
> ... averages more than 12,000 visitors a day.
>
>
> These include members of Congress, business and economic leaders,
> professors
>
> at more than 30 universities, respected journalists, and political leaders
>
>
> in many countries.
>
>
> If anything had an impact on my thinking as I prepared these remarks, it was
>
>
> my awareness that these loyal supporters are the people on whose behalf I
>
>
> presume to speak. It is their voice and their commitment which has given
>
>
> rise to my voice. I could not, and would not, be here were it not for them.
>
>
>
> But I also, if I may be that bold, presume to speak for all mankind,
>
> regardless of religion, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual preference,
>
>
> bank account or any other artificial distinction.
>
>
> This is no time to be shy.
>
>
> This is not a time when men and women of good conscience can afford to be
>
>
> politically correct or be guided by anything except a willingness to discard
>
>
> every “cherished” belief or opinion which stands in the way of an accurate
>
>
> and fearless appraisal of the world around us.
>
>
> As I have said so many times in the last three years, while delivering more
>
>
> than 40 lectures on the truth and lies of 9/11 and peak oil, in eight
>
> countries: the events in the five years following the attacks of September
>
>
> 11th will determine the course of human history for the next 500 years or
>
>
> more.
>
>
> I can only assume that the record of my lectures and writings, wherein I
>
> have come to be known as a man who backs up everything he says and
> presents
>
> it to his audiences for verification, had something to do with how the board
>
>
> of governors reached its decision to extend this invitation.
>
>
> For many years now, not a single fact, citation or piece of evidence,
>
> presented in my lectures, or in my best-selling video, “the truth and lies
>
>
> of 9/11” has been proved inaccurate.
>
>
> I am known as a man who does not expect people to take his word on faith but
>
>
> who asks and even expects people to challenge his research, evaluate it, and
>
>
> reach their own conclusions.
>
>
> Operating under the assumption that the past credibility of my research has
>
>
> produced a record which got me in the door at the Commonwealth Club, I am
>
>
> today, in the interest of time and for maximum impact, going to dispense
>
> with my customary slide presentation. I fully expect that anyone who
>
> challenges or disagrees with my assertions will go out and do some checking
>
>
> for him or her self.
>
>
> Almost everything I present to you today will be fully documented - by
>
> means of approximately 1,000 endnotes - in my soon to be released book,
>
> “Crossing the Rubicon: the Decline of the American Empire at the End of the
>
>
> Age of Oil.” The book, published by New Society Publishers, should be
>
> available for sale from the FTW web site within 2-3 weeks, and it will go on
>
>
> sale nationally, through all major outlets, by mid-October.
>
>
> September 11th
>
>
> Both here in the United States and around the World, I am not alone in
>
> believing that the attacks of September 11th were facilitated, orchestrated
>
>
> and executed by the United States government. However, there is a great
>
> deal of misunderstanding and conclusion jumping about these assessments that
>
>
>
>
> is not supported by the evidence.
>
>
> I was trained as a police officer and detective, and for many years now I
>
>
> have been an effective investigative journalist because I have adhered to
>
>
> strict evidentiary and investigative standards.
>
>
> The 9/11 attacks were the result of deliberate planning and orchestrated
>
> efforts by identifiable leaders within the U.S. Government, and the energy
>
>
> and financial sectors, to see a Pearl Harbor-like attack which would provide
>
>
> the American empire with a pretext for war, invasion and the sequential
>
> confiscation of oil and natural gas reserves, or the key transportation
>
> routes through which they pass. 9-11 was premeditated murder, and in my
>
> book, and here tonight, I will name some of the suspects who committed the
>
>
> crime. In my book I will show you overwhelming evidence of their guilt which
>
>
> I would be proud and confident to place either before a district attorney or
>
>
> a jury.
>
>
> Historically, the assertion that the United States government would
>
> orchestrate an attack upon American interests has ample precedent. Former
>
>
> national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski described the need for such an
>
>
> event in several places in his 1997 book “The Grand Chessboard.” It was I
>
>
> who first brought this book to world attention in late 2001. The Project
>
>
> for a New American Century made reference to the need for such an attack in
>
>
> its 2000 report “Rebuilding America’s Defenses.” Declassified top secret
>
>
> documents disclosed by author James Bamford in his book, “Body of Secrets”
>
>
> tell us that in 1962 the joint chiefs had approved a plan called “Operation
>
>
> Northwoods” which was a covert operation that would shoot down American
>
> aircraft and stage attacks on American military facilities with the intent
>
>
> of blaming those attacks on Fidel Castro and prompting the subsequent US
>
> invasion and occupation of Cuba.
>
>
> The declassified Northwoods documents can be seen and downloaded from the
>
>
>
> <color><param>7F00,0000,0000</param>>From The Wilderness web site. But once
> viewed, they cannot be ignored.
>
>
> </color>Therefore it cannot be said that such a thing has never been
> conceived of or
>
> carried out by American political leaders. From the sinking of the
>
> battleship Maine, to the Gulf of Tonkin, and indeed, even to Pearl Harbor
>
>
> itself, history today provides us with abundant documentation of US
>
> government complicity in varying degrees in similar attacks. The book “Day
>
>
> of Deceit” and other records from the National Archives have shown us that
>
>
> the Roosevelt administration had broken the Japanese codes well before
>
> December 7th, 1941, and that a conscious decision was made to allow the
>
> attack on Pearl Harbor to take place. This was intended to provide the
>
> necessary impetus for us entry into the second world war at a time when
>
> Great Britain was buckling under the military blitzkrieg, aerial bombing and
>
>
> u-boat warfare of the Third Reich.
>
>
> 'Crossing the Rubicon' is a detective story that gets to the innermost core
>
>
> of the 9/11 attacks. It places 9/11 at the center of a desperate new
>
> America, created by specific, named individuals in preparation for peak oil:
>
>
> an economic crisis like nothing the world has ever seen.
>
>
> Simply defined, peak oil is that moment in time when global oil and natural
>
>
> gas production begins an irreversible and permanent decline which will not
>
>
> yield or give way regardless of how much money and effort is spent trying to
>
>
> change it. With demand for this commodity still accelerating rapidly in
>
> both the US and the industrialized and developing world, the arrival of peak
>
>
> oil literally describes a point of 'overshoot' in which economic and
>
> ecological stasis let alone growth becomes unsustainable.
>
>
>
>
> I have insisted for many years now that any fundamental change in the
>
> current human paradigm, a change that will really make a difference, is
>
> impossible until we, collectively and as a species, change the way money
>
> works. In “Crossing the Rubicon”, I will explain just how and why the world’
>
>
> s current economic system is hastening, and worsening, a calamity of
>
> unimagined proportions.
>
>
> This all began for me some 27 years ago when, as a young policeman, I
>
> discovered that the CIA was deeply involved in the drug trade. The purpose
>
>
> of that involvement led me to discover, and prove -- using US Senate hearing
>
>
> records and documents from the CIA itself -- that an essential ingredient,
>
>
> perhaps the essential ingredient, in US economic supremacy was the
>
> maintenance of a flow of as much as $600 billion a year in drug profits
>
> through US financial markets and institutions.
>
>
> What we are witnessing now is a collision: a collision of a financial
>
> system -- relying on fractional reserve banking, debt-financed growth, and a
>
>
> fiat currency system -- with a system of planetary and energy resources that
>
>
> are finite, limited, and running out. Infinite growth is battling with
>
> finite energy. One is not possible without the other, and I have absolutely
>
>
> no doubt as to which side will win.
>
>
> 'Currency Wars'
>
>
> In November 2002, John Kenneth Galbraith wrote an article titled 'The
>
> Unbearable Costs of Empire'. None of these problems will be cured so long
>
>
> as war remains our dominant political theme. But serious though they are,
>
>
> they pale in comparison with the larger problem of the international trade
>
>
> and financial order under conditions of permanent war. It is a
>
> straightforward fact that if global oil production starts to decline but US
>
>
> consumption does not, everyone else will be required to cut purchases and
>
>
> uses of oil. But how can oil prices be held stable for Americans yet be
>
> made to rise for everyone else? Only by a policy of continuing depreciation
>
>
> in everyone else's currency.
>
>
> Such a policy of dollar hegemony amid worldwide financial instability, of
>
>
> crushing debt burdens and deflation throughout the developing world, is
>
> perverse. It will make our trading partners' exports cheap, render their
>
>
> imports dear and keep their real wages low. It will price American goods
>
>
> out of world markets, and lead to unsustainable dependence on foreign
>
> capital. It will be a policy, in short, of beggar-all-of-our-neighbors
>
> while we live alone, in increasing idleness and inside the 'dollar bubble'.
>
>
>
> This is the policy that Bush and Cheney are actually imposing on the rest of
>
>
> the world. But they cannot make it last. It will make lives miserable
>
> elsewhere, generating ever more resistance, terrorism and military
>
> engagement. Meanwhile, we will not experience even gradual exposure to the
>
>
> changing energy balance; we will therefore never make the investments
>
> required to adjust, even eventually, to a world of scarce and expensive oil.
>
>
> In the end, therefore, that world will arrive much more abruptly than it
>
> otherwise would, shaking the fragile edifice of our oil economy to its
>
> foundations.
>
>
> And we will someday face a double explosion: of anger against our arrogance
>
>
> and of actual shortage and collapsing living standards, when the confidence
>
>
> of investors in the dollar finally gives way.
>
>
> Compared with this future, a new commitment to collective security -- to a
>
>
> new world financial structure, to a rational energy and transportation
>
> policy, and to spending to meet our actual domestic needs -- would be a
>
> bargain.
>
>
> At the end of the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked
>
> what type of government the framers had given our new country. He famously
>
>
> replied, "... a republic, if you can keep it."
>
>
> In 49 BC, Julius Caesar, fresh from a battlefield victory in central Italy
>
>
> ordered his legions to cross a small creek called the Rubicon. Under the
>
>
> laws of the Roman republic, the army was not allowed to enter the capital
>
>
> city. As Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon, the Roman republic died, and
>
>
> the Roman empire was born.
>
>
> Our task, if we and much of human civilization are to survive, is not to
>
> keep our republic, but to take it back.
>
>
> Thank you.
>
>
> Text of Michael Ruppert's August 31, 2004 speech at the Commonwealth Club,
>
>
>
>
> by re-post Wednesday, September 1, 2004 at 9:34 AM. The text of the
>
> speech -- lightly edited for clarity -- may be found below, and is
>
> downloadable in .pdf format at:
>
>
<color><param>0000,0000,0000</param>http://www.fromthewilderness.com/PDF/Commonwealth.pdf
> </color>
>
>
> If you don't have a PDF file reader, you can download a free reader for
>
> Macintosh or Windows operating systems from adobe.com.
>
>
> A
>
> Stated<color><param>0100,0100,0100</param>
>
>
-------------------------------------------------------
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