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To: John Vosilla who wrote (65324)	7/6/2006 8:27:25 AM
From: shades	Respond to of 110194

CIA-backed Italian spies arrested (I don't know if he was the lone gunman, but I highly suspect Cheney was the lone gunmen when he shot that lawyer. hehe) Why doesn't Italy like our Spooks? businessday.co.za ROME — Two members of the Italian military secret service were arrested yesterday for their possible role in the 2003 abduction, allegedly by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), of a Muslim cleric in Milan, the city’s public prosecutor said. An earlier media report indicated that three Italians had been arrested rather than two. “Six arrest warrants were issued, of which four were against American citizens and two against officials in the Sismi (Italy’s military intelligence service),” the office of public prosecutor Manlio Minale said in a statement. One of the Americans worked at a US military base in northern Italy and the other three are members of the CIA, the statement said. Arrest warrants for 22 CIA members were issued by the Italian authorities last year. One of the Italians is under house arrest and the other is in custody. Unconfirmed Italian media reports said that one of those arrested was Marco Mancini, a director of the Sismi. Mancini was reported last May to have been involved in the abduction, and has since been on sick leave, news agency Ansa reported yesterday. Milan magistrate Armando Sparato has long been investigating the clandestine arrest and removal to Egypt of Egyptian-born imam Osama Mustafa Hassan, also known as Abu Amar. The investigation indicates that Amar, who had political refugee status in Italy, was abducted on February 17, 2003 by CIA operatives and taken to the US air base at Aviano in northern Italy for interrogation. Amar was then flown to Cairo via the US base at Ramstein in Germany, according to the investigation, and is now in an Egyptian jail, where Italian investigators have been unable to question him. One of the 22 CIA members subject to arrest warrants issued last year is Robert Lady, a former official in the US consulate in Milan. Milan’s public prosecutor also issued international arrest warrants for the 22 as well as extradition requests to the US. Both measures were blocked by the justice ministry of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, a close ally of US President George Bush. Sapa-AFP

To: John Vosilla who wrote (65324)	7/6/2006 8:36:55 AM
From: shades	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Is Cheney Betting On Economic Collapse? Written by Richard Kastelein Thursday, 06 July 2006 The Veep's Curious Investment Portfolio By MIKE WHITNEY Wouldn't you like to know where Dick Cheney puts his money? Then you'd know whether his "deficits don't matter" claim is just baloney or not. Well, as it turns out, Kiplinger Magazine ran an article based on Cheney's financial disclosure statement and, sure enough, found out that the VP is lying to the American people for the umpteenth time. Deficits do matter and Cheney has invested his money accordingly. The article is called "Cheney's betting on bad news" and provides an account of where Cheney has socked away more than $25 million. While the figures may be estimates, the investments are not. According to Tom Blackburn of the Palm Beach Post, Cheney has invested heavily in "a fund that specializes in short-term municipal bonds, a tax-exempt money market fund and an inflation protected securities fund. The first two hold up if interest rates rise with inflation. The third is protected against inflation." Cheney has dumped another (estimated) $10 to $25 million in a European bond fund which tells us that he is counting on a steadily weakening dollar. So, while working class Americans are loosing ground to inflation and rising energy costs, Darth Cheney will be enhancing his wealth in "Old Europe". As Blackburn sagely notes, "Not all bad news' is bad for everybody." This should put to rest once and for all the foolish notion that the "Bush Economic Plan" is anything more than a scam aimed at looting the public till. The whole deal is intended to shift the nation's wealth from one class to another. It's also clear that Bush-Cheney couldn't have carried this off without the tacit approval of the thieves at the Federal Reserve who engineered the low-interest rate boondoggle to put the American people to sleep while they picked their pockets. Reasonable people can dispute that Bush is "intentionally" skewering the dollar with his lavish tax cuts, but how does that explain Cheney's portfolio? It doesn't. And, one thing we can say with metaphysical certainty is that the miserly Cheney would never plunk his money into an investment that wasn't a sure thing. If Cheney is counting on the dollar tanking and interest rates going up, then, by Gawd, that's what'll happen. The Bush-Cheney team has racked up another $3 trillion in debt in just 6 years. The US national debt now stands at $8.4 trillion dollars while the trade deficit has ballooned to $800 billion nearly 7% of GDP. This is lunacy. No country, however powerful, can maintain these staggering numbers. The country is in hock up to its neck and has to borrow $2.5 billion per day just to stay above water. Presently, the Fed is expanding the money supply and buying back its own treasuries to hide the hemorrhaging from the public. Its utter madness. Last month the trade deficit climbed to $70 billion. More importantly, foreign central banks only purchased a meager $47 billion in treasuries to shore up our ravenous appetite for cheap junk from China. Do the math! They're not investing in America anymore. They are decreasing their stockpiles of dollars. We're sinking fast and Cheney and his pals are manning the lifeboats while the public is diverted with gay marriage amendments and "American Celebrity". The American manufacturing sector has been hollowed out by cutthroat corporations who've abandoned their country to make a fast-buck in China or Mexico. The $3 trillion housing (equity) bubble is quickly loosing air while the anemic dollar continues to sag. All the signs indicate that the economy is slowing at the same time that energy prices continue to rise. This is the onset of stagflation; the dreaded combo of a slowing economy and inflation. Did Americans really think they'd be spared the same type of economic colonization that has been applied throughout the developing world under the rubric of "neoliberalism"? Well, think again. The American economy is barrel-rolling towards earth and there are only enough parachutes for Cheney and the gang. The country has lost 3 million jobs from outsourcing since Bush took office; more than 200,000 of those are the high-paying, high-tech jobs that are the life's-blood of every economy. Consider this from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) June edition of Foreign Affairs, the Bible of globalists and plutocrats: "Between 2000 and 2003 alone, foreign firms built 60,000manufacturing plants in China. European chemical companies, Japanese carmakers, and US industrial conglomerates are all building factories in China to supply export markets around the world. Similarly, banks, insurance companies, professional-service firms, and IT companies are building R&D and service centers in India to support employees, customers, and production worldwide." ("The Globally integrated Enterprise" Samuel Palmisano, Foreign Affairs page 130) "60,000 manufacturing plants" in 3 years?!? "Banks, insurance companies, professional-service firms, and IT companies"? No job is safe. American elites and corporate tycoons are loading the boats and heading for foreign shores. The only thing they're leaving behind is the insurmountable debt that will be shackled to our children into perpetuity and the carefully arranged levers of a modern police-surveillance state. Welcome to Bush's 21st Century gulag; third world luxury in a Guantanamo-type setting. Take another look at Cheney's investment strategy; it tells the whole ugly story. Interest rates are going up, the middle class is going down, and the poor dollar is headed for the dumpster. The country is not simply teetering on the brink of financial collapse; it is being thrust headfirst by the blackguards in office and their satrapies at Federal Reserve.