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The 7 billion dollar French bank robbery and the Bin Laden Trades
Kerviel could have been the fall guy
Another submarine telecom cable severed
2-17-08: Iranian Oil Bourse opens today
Part 4 of the Bin Laden Trades.
See Part 1
See Part 2
See Part 3
Canada Free Press, 9-4-07
www.canadafreepress.com/2007/business090407.htm
``9/11, bin Laden trades
MASSIVE WALL STREET PUT OPTIONS SIGNAL UPCOMING TERROR ATTACK
$4.5 billion options bet on catastrophe within four weeks
The two sales are being referred to by market traders as "bin Laden trades" because only an event on the scale of 9-11 could make these short-sell options valuable.
There are 65,000 contracts @ $750.00 for the SPX 700 calls for open interest. That controls 6.5 million shares at $750 = $4.5 Billion ...
The entity or individual offering these sales can only make money if the market drops 30%-50% within the next four weeks. If the market does not drop, the entity or individual involved stands to lose over $1 billion just for engaging in these contracts! Clearly, someone knows something big is going to happen BEFORE the options expire on Sept. 21 [2007] ...''
Commentator 1 on 9-23-07:
``I see no evidence for a "box trade"; just as there was none on 9-11-01. The gangsters took a real hit, and we should thank the courageous whistle blowers at Minot and Barksdale. But we should not forget that the Oil Gang is still running the show. To avoid tragic exposure to war in the Middle East and Central Asia [a Kondratieff peak war, 'the Kazakh War of 2020'], we should do everything we can to get off oil -- drive plugin hybrids, promote oilgae, methanol, and commuter rail, etc.''
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Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2008
Commentator 2 wrote:
``Subject: The 7 billion dollar French bank robbery
The money is probably now safely deposited in Dubai via Senegal. The scheme time line would take at least 2 years to posture the setup and wait for the exact time to execute. Everything reported points to a masterpiece of crime.''
Commentator 3 wrote:
``Nah - that money had already been lost months ago! and this was just the final chapter made public.
This whole episode is a drama intended to throw-off the bloodhounds with a little "misdirection". Despite the irreproachable source of [this] version of the conspiracy theory, methinks that it goes much deeper and back in time a few months ... and, of course, the poor lad accused of all the bad trades is little more than a scapegoat. He will turn-up soon, likely the victim of an apparent "suicide" with a convincing mea culpa note pinned to his coat..
Scapegoat for whom, you ask?
Well it is a bit surprising that none of the Blogs I visited this morning to get briefed on the SocGen fiasco have yet to pick up on the connection to the Bin Laden Trades.
How quickly they forget ...
The option trades had almost gone unnoticed in Europe - but were an almost identical set of seemingly ill-advised option trades, made prior to the 9-11 anniversary, as happened on the Chicago options market, and been noticed by bloggers ... back then.
Makes one think that someone with nefarious intentions, and with that much "credit" was convinced that the Arabs had a 9-11 sequel in mind for us back in September. Or else that it was a "false-flag" operation which was caught ahead of time. As in ... err... did we ever find out what happened to the missing cruise missile nuke in Louisiana???
Surprise, surprise. Three months later, after an anonymous investor had placed a massive bet on an index of Europe's top 50 stocks falling by a third by the end of September, what happens? That investor took a $7 billion (US) loss then, and it was the apparent "end-of story."... Oops...
Now the perpetrator has likely been found... err... make that, been "scapegoated."
To refresh your memory, that mystery investor of last fall quietly bought option contracts on the Eurostoxx 50 index that would result in massive profit only if it plunged below 2,800 (from 4,100) by the end of September [2007]. It did not, and almost $5bn Euros was lost back then ... which, coincidentally or uncoincidentally, is only slightly less than the recent SocGen [loss] announcment. The Bank Board probably threw in a few other ill-adviced misdeeds into the mix, as well.
The real identity of the investor back then remains unknown to all but a few, and they aint talkin' shall we say... but the broker was the same A.B. Brown (Alex Brown) of 9/11 infamy.
This is the investment arm of Deutsche Bank, which is the giant European Bank favored by the Saudis and the BinLaden family. The cross-connection of the French Bank to Deutsche is not yet known, but Google and I are digging into that, as we speak.
Until 1998 Deutsche was headed by the man who became the Executive Director of CIA -- A.B. 'Buzzy' Krongard.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._B._Krongard
In fact, Krongard is but one American name in a long history of CIA/European connections and involvement with shady Banking ...
It is almost a tradition to do one's "dirty laundry" in a nice place like Paris. The bureaucracy there is so slow to react that getting caught is low probability. And it is most pleasant for spooks to be able to enjoy fine cuisine while conspiring to perpetuate their NWO [New World Order] ideals.''
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Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 21:06:06 -0400
Commentator 4 wrote:
Subject: Loose Nukes -- in case anyone's still interested
``Interesting article, with a possible explanation for the "impossible" missing nukes:
www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6909
Capsule summary: The nukes were intended for Iran, and the plane was supposed to head off to war. But there is a lot of reluctance in the upper echelons of the military to take the (arguably insane) step of nuking Iran, and instead of going according to plan, the whole thing blew up in the government's face, derailed by folks who decided blow the whistle rather than march over a cliff on Cheney's orders ...''
NEWS ARTICLE from Global Research, 9-24-07, by Wayne Madsen
``Air Force refused to fly weapons to Middle East theater
WMR has learned from U.S. and foreign intelligence sources that the B-52 transporting six stealth AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missiles, each armed with a W-80-1 nuclear warhead, on August 30, [2007] were destined for the Middle East via Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
However, elements of the Air Force, supported by U.S. intelligence agency personnel, successfully revealed the ultimate destination of the nuclear weapons and the mission was aborted due to internal opposition within the Air Force and U.S. Intelligence Community ...
Just as this report was being prepared, Newsweek reported that Vice President Dick Cheney's recently-departed Middle East adviser, David Wurmser, told a small group of advisers some months ago that Cheney had considered asking Israel to launch a missile attack on the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz. Cheney reasoned that after an Iranian retaliatory strike, the United States would have ample reasons to launch its own massive attack on Iran.
However, plans for Israel to attack Iran directly were altered to an Israeli attack on a supposed Syrian-Iranian-North Korean nuclear installation in northern Syria.
WMR has learned that a U.S. attack on Iran using nuclear and conventional weapons was scheduled to coincide with Israel's September 6 [2007] air attack on a reputed Syrian nuclear facility in Dayr az-Zwar, near the village of Tal Abyad, in northern Syria, near the Turkish border.
Israel's attack, code named OPERATION ORCHARD, was to provide a reason for the U.S. to strike Iran. The neo-conservative propaganda onslaught was to cite the cooperation of the George Bush's three remaining "Axis of Evil" states -- Syria, Iran, and North Korea -- to justify a sustained Israeli attack on Syria and a massive U.S. military attack on Iran ...
WMR has learned from military sources on both sides of the Atlantic that there was a definite connection ... involving the B-52 that flew the six nuclear-armed cruise missiles from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale.
There is also a connection between these two events as the Pentagon's highly-classified PROJECT CHECKMATE, a compartmented U.S. Air Force program that has been working on an attack plan for Iran since June 2007, around the same time that Cheney was working on the joint Israeli-U.S. attack scenario on Iran.
PROJECT CHECKMATE was leaked in an article by military analyst Eric Margolis in the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, the "Times of London", is a program that involves over two dozen Air Force officers ...
British intelligence sources have reported that the Israeli attack on Syria was a "true flag" attack originally designed to foreshadow a U.S. attack on Iran.
After the U.S. Air Force push back against transporting the six cruise nuclear-armed AGM-129s to the Middle East, Israel went ahead with its attack on Syria in order to help ratchet up tensions between Washington on one side and Damascus, Tehran, and Pyongyang on the other ...''
[For more on how the CIA makes money on Wall Street, see www.amazon.com/ -- "Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil," by Michael C. Ruppert
On the web see www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/index.shtml]
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Commentator 5 wrote on 1-28-08:
``Some problems have no solution. That is not the issue. It's the attempt to solve a problem that is important. Finding a substitute for oil, for example, may not impact the climate much but it will have many other benefits ...''
Commentator 1 wrote:
``It is critical that we get off oil no matter where it comes from. For Americans, this is the issue of highest national security. As the world oil glut tips the price of oil into a precipitous drop, the chance is better than 50% that Bush will attack the Iranian oil fields before November, 2008, to reduce supply, even at the risk of closing the Straits of Hormuz.''
Commentator 3 wrote on 1-28-08:
``[Jerome] Kerviel is the so-called "rogue" trader (or scapegoat) who is taking the heat for the recent French banking scandal ... which is becoming a story with many far-reaching tentacles- there are whispers of Halliburton, a secret CIA-Clique (reminiscent of the Star Chamber), the Bin-Laden option trades, secret infiltration of the European banking system by ArAms, and it all may eventually get back to our beloved (and aptly-named) "Vice" President.
Keep you eye on this site for upcoming salacious details:
BTW an "ArAm" is short for ArabAmerican, which is more an earned distinction, based on avarice ... more than anything racial or ethnic. It comes from the former 'suits' of this outfit, which is now the largest corporation in the World, Exxon notwithstanding:
They (ArAms in general and Aramco in particular) actually have far more net wealth than the entire United States of America ... which recently, under the watchful anti-terrorist-eyes of the Bush Administration, has sunk to become a net-debtor nation. (no exaggeration)''
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www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL2871897420080128
NEWS ARTICLE from Reuters, 1-28-08, By Tom Miles
[Kerviel could have been the fall guy]
``HONG KONG (Reuters) - Incredulous equity traders said on Monday [1-28-08] they wanted a better explanation from Societe Generale for how a single rogue trader managed to build up a $73 billion position and cause the French bank to lose $7 billion.
"I think most people are just astonished that someone could get away with that kind of trade for so long without being noticed," said Matt McKeith, head of equity dealing at First State Investments in Hong Kong ...
McKeith speculated Kerviel ... could have been the fall guy for something systematic in the bank. I think more is going to come out. Perhaps he's been hung out to dry. Perhaps they were legitimate positions."
A trader at a foreign bank in Seoul, who was not authorized to speak to the media about the matter, agreed.
"It's just mysterious. It's unbelievable that this could happen and I want to know how. Even a very small deal cannot go undetected for more than two days if it was not reconciled. It's not a matter of one trader's methods," said the trader.''
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www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSL2422020620080129
NEWS ARTICLE from Reuters, 1-29-08, By Andrew Hurst and Tim Hepher
``France warns SocGen predators
PARIS (Reuters) - France warned foreign banks on Tuesday [1-29-08] not to try to grab control of Societe Generale as it reels from losses blamed on a rogue trader, but shares in the bank spiked higher on takeover speculation.
"The government is determined that Societe Generale remains a great French bank," Prime Minister Francois Fillon told parliament ...
SocGen said on January 24 [2008] it had uncovered massive unauthorized stock trading by one of its employees that led to 4.9 billion euros ($7.2 billion) of losses, the world's biggest rogue trading scandal.
Jerome Kerviel, a 31-year old junior trader, was placed under investigation for breach of trust and other misdeeds on Monday, but judges threw out the stronger accusation of fraud made by the bank and prosecutors freed him on bail.''
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www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/01/29/bcnkerviel129.xml
NEWS ARTICLE from The Telegrpah (London), 1-29-08, By Henry Samuel and Nick Allen in Paris
``Jérôme Kerviel: Bank knew what I was doing
The French "rogue trader" accused of the biggest banking fraud in history has claimed that he was being made a scapegoat by his employers who had "tolerated" his risky deals as long as they made money.
Jérôme Kerviel, 31, has been placed under official investigation but allowed to walk free [he might be safer in jail] on condition he remained in the country. He faces multiple charges of forgery, computer hacking and breach of trust, but the charge of attempted fraud was not pressed ...''
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www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jan/27/europeanbanks.marketturmoil
ARTICLE from The Guardian, 1-27-08, by Jason Burke and Alex Duval Smith
``French Rally Behind Rogue Trader
``... Jerome Kerviel, the 31-year-old trader whose fraudulent stock market transactions last week cost his employer, Societe Generale, £3.7 billion ($7.4 billion), was Saturday [1-26-08] in a Paris police station after being taken into custody around 2 p.m. by French financial police, who drove him, hidden in the back of a Renault, past journalists and photographers waiting at the gates ...
Lawyers for Kerviel said Saturday that their client was "entirely prepared to co-operate with the authorities."
France has been polarized by the unlikely figure of the taciturn, clean-cut man behind the biggest "rogue trader" scandal of all time. Some 300 miles west of Paris, in his home village of Pont l'Abbe on the Brittany peninsula, Kerviel is a hero - particularly with the ladies in the hair salon his mother used to own ...
Maryvonne Even, 40, said Kerviel was a scapegoat. "He was probably caught fiddling - a bit - and the bosses decided to blame him for all their losses," she said.
This is not just local Breton solidarity. In France, where there is profound popular distrust for big finance, strong opposition to "international capitalism" and a belief in the "French model" as opposed to "savage Anglo-Saxon liberalism", the views of the ladies in Pont l'Abbe are widespread.
For Isabelle Mercier, 44, queuing outside a Societe Generale branch in Paris, the "rich and the powerful" always find someone to blame: "Anyone who is a threat to them is eliminated one way or another." Mohammed Benali, a market trader at the nearby Marche d'Aligre, agreed. "It is time the bosses and the rich were taken down a peg," he said ...
The crisis broke nine days ago, on a Friday evening [1-18-08]. Kerviel had already left the La Defense offices of the bank for his modest flat in the upmarket western Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine when he was called on his mobile phone. An anomaly in one of his trades had been discovered ...''
The bank has been criticized for not sitting out the turmoil and quietly unwinding the trades once markets recovered. But it's unlikely SocGen could have kept the fraud secret for long. If the losses had become public before the positions were closed, SocGen would have risked a run similar to that which paralyzed Northern Rock.''
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11amdesign.com/wordpress/?p=285
BLOG ARTICLE from 11amDesign.com, 1-25-08
[Crash by March 21, 2008]
``The Federal Reserve's biggest emergency interest rate cut in more than two decades is sparking debate as to why they slashed interest rates by 0.75 percentage point, the first cut between regularly scheduled meetings since September 2001 ...
High volume selling of tainted investments by Societe Generale may have sparked this week's emergency rate cut by the US Fed, according to a report, but others are reporting something even bigger.
Billions of put option contracts are betting that the stock market will crash by March 21, [2008] signaled by the rouge put option trades on the NASDAQ-100 index through the Power Share (QQQQ) contracts.
Currently, the March `out of the money' put contacts (645,250) outweigh the March `in the money' call contacts (85,907) by 559,343 contacts, signaling a huge imbalance which is estimated to crash the NASDAQ market by 30% to 40% from it current level. What we're looking at is roughly 3 BILLION DOLLARS of put option contacts putting pressure on the market.
This is not the only put option contracts with huge imbalances. The entity or individual offering these sales can only make most of this money if the market drops 30%-40% within the next 8 weeks. If the market does not drop, the entity or individual involved stands to lose over $3 billion just for engaging in these contracts!
Clearly, someone knows something big is going to happen BEFORE the options expire on March, 21 [2008] ...''
Commentator 3 wrote:
``Apparently, even though the "Bin Laden" option trades went flat 6 months ago, that huge (paper) loss did not deter a planned second-chance effort to recoup the initial loss, and create havoc in the Western economies.
From 11amdesign.com/wordpress/?p=285
``The Federal Reserve's biggest emergency interest rate cut in more than two decades is sparking debate as to why they slashed interest rates by 0.75 percentage point, the first cut between regularly scheduled meetings since September 2001 ..."
Possible Rationale (still trying to verify the details below):
Well, following hot on the footsteps of the SocGen announcement is the newly discovered warning -- from other sources than SocGen -- that a massive level of put option contracts had been placed recently. This time it was done differently than last Fall, so as to avoid early detection, as happened 6 months ago.
These options are betting that the US stock markets will crash by March 21, [2008]. Reportedly, these are not NYSE but instead NASDAQ-100 index options placed through (QQQQ) contracts. However, crashing the smaller exchange would likely have a domino effect on the NYSE.
This seems to be, for all purposes, somewhat of a renewed continuation of the so-called 'Bin Laden' trades of last Fall ...
However, apparently the Fed/SEC is wise to this scheme, and will step in again if necessary. (we hope) ...
Currently, the March [21, 2008] (out of the money) put contacts (100 shares each) is 645,250 and outweigh the March (in the money) call contacts by 559,343 contacts, well over half a million contract or 56 billion shares worth ... signaling a huge imbalance, which was estimated to be able to crash the NASDAQ market by 30% to 40% from it current level, unless a deep-pocket rescue effort steps-in fist. How many of these came through SocGen is not known.
This may very well represent (possibly) part of an expected profit that the Kerviel conspiracy would have reaped, had not they not been caught ahead of time. The havoc that followed would be difficult to estimate.
This story is far from over, and until March 21, [2008] when these put options expire, the economies of the USA and Europe are still at great risk.
The good news is that if the US SEC decides to meet the risk head-on, [the gangsters could again take a big hit] ...''
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Commentator 3 wrote on 2-3-08:
``Another submarine telecom cable in the Middle East has been severed, adding to global net problems caused by breaks in two lines under the Mediterranean two days earlier. The mundane explanation of "anchors" has been ruled out now. This is now looking intentional.
It could merely be three aligned random problems and not evidence of a conspiracy, yet the close timing is suspicious... but of what?
The Falcon cable is off Dubai, and owned by the Indian firm Reliance, which also owned one of the other cables ...''
Commentator 6 wrote:
``According to Michael Mandeville, neither Israel nor Iraq were affected, but Iran was totally knocked out. Now if you were going to launch a sneak attack on Iran, and didn't really want the rest of the World to know about it till the dust had settled, what would you do?''
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www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=1093185900
NEWS ARTICLE from The Middle East North Africa Financial Network (MENAFN), 2-18-08
``Iran launches oil exchange
JORDAN (MENAFN) -- The Iranian Oil minister announced the launch of an oil exchange with the first trade made [on Sunday, 2-17-08] in a petrochemical product, based on the Gulf economic free zone island of Kish, Reuters reported ...''
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Commentator 1 on 2-17-08:
``As of the opening of the Iranian Oil Bourse today, selling oil for euros, not dollars, I think the chance of an American attack on the Iranian oil fields has never been greater.''
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www.business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?leftnm=lmnu9&subLeft=2&autono=312626&tab=r
NEWS ARTICLE from The Business Standard, 2-5-08,
``4th cable snaps, Qatar-UAE traffic disrupted
by Rajesh S Kurup & Leslie D'Monte / Mumbai
In less than a week's time, a fourth submarine cable was severed in West Asia, disrupting voice and telecommunication traffic between Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Even though sources attributed the disruption on Sunday night to power outage and not a ship's anchor that affected the earlier two Mediterranean cables (FLAG Telecom's FLAG Europe-Asia cable and SeaMeWe-4), thousands of bloggers across the world are attributing this to a possible sabotage in the Mediterranean Sea in a bid to isolate Iran.
Cutting these cables might affect Iran's ability to defend itself since communication is of vital importance during military action, they allege.
The fourth submarine cable was damaged between Haloul (Qatar) and Das (the UAE). Egypt's ministry of maritime transportation, after reviewing the satellite pictures, said there were no ships (which led to the speculation and allegations) near the cable channel 12 hours before or after the damage near Alexandria, Egypt.
"...to have three undersea cables, or is it actually four cables?, cut in the same region in just a two-day span, strains credulity; the more so, when we look at how the damage has played out across the region... communication cable cutting in West Asia leaves Israel and Iraq still connected, while completely shutting down the Iranian internet. Funny how that works, isn't it?" asks a professor on his site.
"Seriously, is there anyone who doesn't think this is either a precursor to military action, or a direct attack on Iran's about-to-launch Euro-based oil market?" asks another blogger.
"Iran is back online, but its traffic is now passing through the UK and the US, the latter controlling the 13 primary routers. Can you say wiretap?" queries another.
Others recall spy stories of the US Navy sending out special operations teams to go out on submarines and deploy undersea operations, on the seabed itself, specifically for cutting or tapping communication cables with special airlocks and very sophisticated equipment, much of it thoroughly documented in Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew ...''
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www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=225&page=27
NEWS ARTICLE from Organiser, 2-16-08, By Sandhya Jain, Bharat Prakashan(Delhi)
Issues: February 24, 2008
``Internet and the Iran oil bourse
The Iranian Oil Bourse [scheduled to open on 2-17-08] will hasten the speed with which major oil countries dump the dollar for the euro; thus hastening the collapse of the US economy. [The Chinese and Japanese have purchased trillions of dollars of U. S. government bonds in order to guarantee their ability to buy oil from Arabs who will only accept dollars ('the petrodollar').]
It is pertinent that public opinion in America and other western nations is still ignorant that Saddam Hussain's decision to switch from dollars to euros for the purchase of Iraqi oil was the principal factor behind the invasion of Iraq.
Political observers feel the Iran government's plan to inaugurate its Oil Bourse this month had a connection with the sudden inexplicable cutting of several undersea internet cables. All internet access in Iran was cut and total internet blackout was experienced for a few days. Indian BPOs and focus of media attention for the slowdowns that nearly crippled the industry for almost a week, were probably unintentional targets of what appears to be a far deeper conspiracy.
Possibly nine cable cuts have been detected since January 23. The first report said two cables were cut off the Egyptian Mediterranean coast, disrupting three-quarters of the international communications between Europe and the Middle East. These cuts were initially attributed to hits by ships anchors. But later, the Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said video footage of coastal waters in the region of the two cables showed there was no ship traffic for 12 hours preceding and 12 hours following the time of the cable cuts.
In view of subsequent developments, sabotage seems more likely. A few days later, another undersea cable was found cut in the Persian Gulf, 55 kilometers off Dubai. There followed reports of another damaged undersea cable between Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Soon another report mentioned a cut undersea cable running through the Suez to Sri Lanka. As media interest caught on, the Khaleej Times reported on February 4, 2008 that as many as five undersea cables were damaged, including a cable in the Persian Gulf near Bandar Abbas, Iran; and SeaMeWe4 undersea cable near Penang, Malaysia.
There is no logical explanation for the sudden damage to nearly nine undersea cables in the course of a week. The known list so far includes one near Marseille, France; two near Alexandria, Egypt; one near Dubai, Persian Gulf; one off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Persian Gulf; one between Qatar and the UAE, in the Persian Gulf; one in the Suez, Egypt and one near Penang, Malaysia. The Bharti Airtel-VSNL-seven global telecom firms' new submarine cable from India to France via the Middle East was cut in more than one place. In fact, the most affected region is the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.
It is striking that almost all these cuts have taken place near Muslim countries, which are naturally affected. Thus suggests the handiwork of parties capable of undersea cable sabotage, having a pronounced anti-Muslim bias ...
This brings us back to the Oil Bourse that Iran planned to open in February 2008 [2-17-08], for trade in `non-dollar currencies'. Obviously, this has enormous geo-political and economic implications for America, as hitherto the dollar had been dominant international reserve currency for oil transactions.
The American economic meltdown on account of sheer fiscal indiscipline spanning decades has, however, caused corporates, bankers, and governments to look for alternative currencies. In the age of sovereign wealth funds, no nation wants to buy the sharply falling dollar. A functional Iranian Oil Bourse, selling oil tankers in non-dollar currencies, is a terrible snub to America.
As discussed previously in these columns, members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, propose to adopt a monetary union and single currency by 2010 (like the euro). Last May, Kuwait ended the dominance of the dollar and adopted a basket of currencies, triggering rumours that the UAE and Qatar would follow suit. In December 2007, the GCC, barring Kuwait, agreed to continue to peg their currencies to the American dollar, but experts expect this to change as the dollar continues to slide. Certainly, by 2010, they will go for the new GCC currency.
It is equally certain that if Iran manages to open its own Oil Bourse, the GCC will trade there on account of geographic proximity. This will make Iran the main hub for oil deals in the Middle East. The three damaged undersea cables in the Persian Gulf are an expression of anger and frustration at the inevitability of this development. For Iran, there is an additional message that its nuclear programme is riling the falling superpower.
The Iranian Oil Bourse will hasten the speed with which major oil countries dump the dollar for the euro; thus hastening the collapse of the US economy. It is pertinent that public opinion in America and other western nations is still ignorant that Saddam Hussain's decision to switch from dollars to euros for the purchase of Iraqi oil was the principal factor behind the invasion of Iraq. This could have encouraged other OPEC nations, besides Nigeria, Mexico, Venezuela, to follow, and thus endangered US economy.
Despite the invasion of Iraq and the possible threat to Iran, the US monopoly over the oil trade is now in peril. Hitherto, oil has been valued in dollars and mainly traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange or London's International Petroleum Exchange, both of which are owned by American corporates. This monopoly compelled national banks the world over to buy dollars, and this compulsion allowed the US to build a debt of over eight trillion dollars. Once the euro emerges as the principal oil currency, the dollar will plummet in value, sinking the American and British economies. Political observers fear a knee-jerk reaction from Washington. ''
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www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2088.html
COMMENTARY by Michael Knight from Dani Web, 2-15-08
Michael_Knight's Blog
``Rumors and speculation about why five undersea cables to the Middle East have been severed and what it means for IT security ...
The comment storm across the blogosphere ... has raised awareness of several important facts: The USS Jimmy Carter, a Seawolf-class nuclear-powered submarine, can spy on the Internet underwater; the Pentagon considers the Internet an enemy weapons system, and President George W. Bush signed a secret order to expand the NSA's network-monitoring programs just four days before the first two fibre-optic cables were mysteriously disrupted.''
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www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/4511
Article from Capitol Hill Blue, 2-10-08,
By Robert A. Kezelis
``... In 1985, FBI agent Robert Hanssen began spying for the USSR, just 6 years before its collapse. One of the secrets he sold to them was the fact that a special ops submarine managed to tap the most important USSR military undersea cable in existence. The sub did this not once, but repeatedly, coming back to pick up the recorded tapes, and to replace, even upgrade the tapping equipment.
The exact dates of tapping and the results of that spying are murky, but by the few, reliable accounts that discussed that op, it was incredibly successful.
In 2001, after the attack by Saudi, Yemeni and other extremists, Iran initiated contact with the US, attempting to coordinate and deal once and for all with the Taliban and the hated Al Qaida. Iran had as much distaste for AQ as the US did.
Bush, with the vainglorious advice of Dick Cheney, and the truly inane insights of Condi Rice, rejected all contact. Bush followed up that rejection by labeling Iran part of the Axis of Evil.
Iran was understandably chagrined. The moderate leaders, who had pushed for more contact and cooperation, lost face, and worse, because of the US moves, they also lost control, allowing the more conservative forces to extend their power.
Iran decided to do more than simply react, they decided to take other steps to limit the damage that America could do to Iran. Their first step? Cutting economic ties. However, they were not the first to try.
The man that actually did demand Euro for his oil was Saddam Hussein in 2000. At first, his demand was met with ridicule, later with neglect, but as it became clearer that he meant business, political pressure was exerted to change his mind. When other countries, like Iran, wanted payment in other currencies, most notably Euro and Yen, the danger to the dollar was clear and present, and a punitive action was in order. Bush's Shock-and-Awe in Iraq was not about Saddam's nuclear capabilities, about defending human rights, about spreading democracy, or even about seizing oil fields [reduction of Iraqi oil production was essential for increasing the price of oil]; it was about defending the dollar, ergo the American Empire.
www.energybulletin.net/12125.html
This month, Iran was supposed to open its own bourse, trading oil and oil futures in Euros and other currencies, but not the dollar. Delinking oil from the dollar would protect Iran from Bush's spendthrift invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the resulting collapse of the US dollar.
Being a high tech project, the tubes of the internets would play a vital role in this new market. And behold, four major cables linking the Middle East to the rest of the world were severed, all within one week. Some ignorant US sources dutifully tried to blame it on "ship anchors", but even the Egyptians refused to go along with that bogus spin. Not only were two cables away from any shipping lines, no ships had passed through there at the time of the disruption.
Looking at the flotsam and jetsam that used to be the ancient and proud country of Iraq, replaced by a Green Zone which now sits next to the world's largest open sewer, one might suspect that decoupling oil from the dollar might incite a strong reaction by certain elements deep within the US power structure.
US submarine technology has not stayed static since the 1970s. To the contrary, it has improved, along with other military technology. As we learned last year from AT&T, tapping every single communication within a phone company is not all that hard, not for the NSA, CIA, and with the tacit support of your DOJ and White House.
How much of a stretch is it to add 2+2? Either the Israelis or the US, severed the intertubes providing Iran with internet access, and in the process, tapped the lines with hi-tech links, either before or during the repair process.
He who controls information flow, controls pretty much everything. And if the US managed to tap into the entire middle east's net connections with these "accidents", well I suspect our lives have just gotten a whole lot more complex.''
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Submitted by JeremiahJones on February 12, 2008
``It doesn't matter where the oil comes from, it's a global commodity. Price is determined by speculation over the supply-demand relationship (demand being pretty inelastic in the short run). Rebels in Nigeria boost cash flows to Dallas banks as East Texas crude is bid up. (Ever wonder where the funding for these obscure, long-running insurgencies comes from?) The oil cartels have been playing geopolitics for over a century: A little regime change here, a little rumble in the jungle there, pretty soon you're talking real pricing power.''
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www.oxan.com/worldnextweek/2008-02-14/Iranianoilbourselaunches.aspx
NEWS ARICLE from Oxford Analytica, 2-14-08,
February 16-22, 2008
``Iran launches oil bourse
The long-delayed Iranian Oil Bourse (IOB) will start operations on Sunday [2-17-08], the official Iranian news agency IRNA said, citing the country's oil minister.
The exchange, based on the Gulf island of Kish, a free trade zone, opens with a whimper, rather than the promised roar. The IOB has long been touted by Iranian news agencies as a petrobourse for petroleum, petrochemicals and gas in various non-dollar currencies, primarily the euro, which would have a negative impact on the US economy and financial system ...''
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Commentator 4 wrote on 2-4-08:
``Additional material on frantic U. S. catch-up attempts in the plug-in market, and alternative fuels.
See:
www.kiplinger.com/businessresource/forecast/archive/Park_It_and_Plug_It_080201.html
GM is betting on a breakthrough that will make ethanol as plentiful as gasoline by investing in Costaka Inc., a company that says it has perfected technologies that will enable it to make large quantities of cellulosic ethanol -- fuel produced from grasses and other plants as well as agricultural waste -- starting in 2011 for around $1 per gallon.
"Making ethanol for $1 per gallon isn't just a game changer. It's a whole new ballgame," says David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, an auto industry consultancy. E85 fuel that retails for even $2 per gallon will steeply undercut gasoline's price and significantly reduce U.S. oil consumption.''
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Commentator 1 wrote:
``The thought of $1/gallon ethanol adds urgency to the Oil Gang's imperative to protect its markets.
It is absolutely essential that we get off oil now, no matter where it comes from, because sooner or later the Oil Gang is going to realize that there is no peak oil; and they will stop at nothing to maintain price and eliminate competition.''
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www.sciencenews.org/articles/20080202/fob1.asp
NEWS ARTICLE from Science News, 2-2-08, by Sid Perkins
Vol. 173, No. 5, p. 67,
[Inorganic Oil]
``The Lost City hydrothermal field, which sits on the side of an undersea mountain about 2,500 kilometers east of Bermuda, was discovered in December 2000 (SN: 7/14/01, p. 21). Unlike most hydrothermal vents, which crop up along midocean ridges where tectonic plates spread to form new seafloor, those of the Lost City lie about 15 km west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge on ocean crust that's about 1.5 million years old.
Accordingly, the chemistry of the fluids surging from the Lost City vents differs radically from that found at other hydrothermal sites, says Giora Proskurowski, a geochemist at Woods Hole (Mass.) Oceanographic Institution ...
Lost City fluids ... contain small quantities of hydrocarbons such as methane, ethane, and butane. A number of clues suggests that those substances, whose natural production usually results from the long-term heating of sediment rich in organic matter, were actually produced by inorganic chemical reactions, Proskurowski says.
First, the rocks beneath the Lost City don't contain large amounts of organic matter.
Second, the hydrothermal fluids are rich in dissolved hydrogen but contain a much lower than normal concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide. This suggests that what are called Fischer-Tropsch inorganic chemical reactions, which convert carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen into hydrocarbons, generated the substances.
Finally, the proportion of the carbon-13 isotope in the hydrocarbons found in the Lost City fluids drops as the size of the hydrocarbon molecule grows, a trend opposite that found in sediment-derived hydrocarbons but characteristic of those generated by inorganic reactions, Proskurowski and his colleagues report in the Feb. 1 [2008] Science.
Although some types of microorganisms that inhabit the mineral chimneys in the Lost City may have generated a portion of the fluids' dissolved methane, none found there could have produced the ethane, butane, or other organic compounds in the vents' brew. Finding butane in the fluids is particularly important, because that hydrocarbon is a building block for some of the organic substances found in cell membranes, Proskurowski notes ...
Robert M. Hazen, a geophysicist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington (D.C.), agrees: "This is an exciting finding ... that demonstrates there are so many ways to make hydrocarbons in an abiogenic setting." ...''
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_biogenic_petroleum_theory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
``Deep biogenic petroleum theory
The deep biotic petroleum theory, similar to the abiogenic petroleum origin hypothesis, holds that not all petroleum deposits within the Earth's rocks can be explained purely according to the orthodox view of petroleum geology .
This theory is strictly different from abiogenic oil in that the role of deep-dwelling microbes is a biological source for oil which is not of a sedimentary origin and is not sourced from surface carbon ...
Deep microbes
Microbial life has been discovered 4.2 kilometers deep in Alaska and 5.2 kilometers deep in Sweden.
Methanophile organisms have been known for some time, and recently it was found that microbial life in Yellowstone National Park is based on hydrogen metabolism. Other deep and hot extremophile organisms continue to be discovered.
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www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/abstracts/2005research_calgary/abstracts/extended/hunt/hunt.htm
Hydrides and Anhydrides by C. Warren Hunt, 1119 Sydenham Road SW, CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA T2T 0T5, Tel. (403)-244-3341, Fax (403) 244-2834, E-mail: archeanc@telusplanet.net
``Hydrogen being 90% or more of all matter in the Universe, must have been abundantly present in the formation of the early earth. The consensus among scientists has been that most primordial hydrogen was expelled as the earth accreted. New evidence challenges the consensus raises questions as to the validity of other long-held geological concepts.
The new evidence involves the behavior of hydrogen nucleii, which at pressures characteristic of mantle depths have shed their electrons and inject themselves inside the first electron rings of metal atoms. Thus sequestered within the earth, hydrogen may comprise as much as 30-40 percent of total earth mass today.
Hydrogen penetration into metals was demonstrated by Vladimir N. Larin, a geologist, whose project over the last 34 years has been research in the USSR and FSU on sources of natural hydrogen. Three major effects result from the phenomenon: (1) transmutation, (2) densification, and (3) fluidization ...
From this data it is easily shown that the excess core and mantle density above that of the crust can be attributed to injected hydrogen, and the density differences between inner core, outer core, and lower mantle can be treated as phase effects. In this scenario the idea of an iron core is superfluous.
V.N. Larin demonstrated the fluidity of titanium hydride for this writer by setting a ruby in plasticized titanium intermetal. Under reduced pressure the hydrogen bled off, allowing the metal to recrystallize and leave the ruby set firmly in metallic titanium.
The potassium and titanium behaviors are not unique. All elements but noble gases form hydrides ...
The hydrides of silicon, the silanes (SiH4, Si2H6, Si3H8, Si4H10, etc.) are of special interest. Gases at standard conditions, they react vigorously with water, producing quartz, volcanic ash, and rock-forming minerals, depending on depth, pressure and the admixture of other metal hydrides. The high mobility of silane explains the mode of transfer of silicon from the interior to the oxidic crust. Crust then is the residue after silane and intermetal oxidation and release of hydrogen, which eventually escapes into space.
Carbon ... probably is prominent in the form of carbides in the interior. Its primary hydride form, methane (CH4), although energy-laden like silane, behaves quite differently in three important contrasting ways. First, it does not react with water; second, its combustion products are only gases; and third, it enables the biosphere.
Where silane is stalled in the crust by reacting with water, methane and hydrogen released by its partial oxidation proceed upward in fracture pathways.
Methane and hydrogen seep into deep, shield mines and through porous members of sedimentary series. Both are major constituents of fluid inclusions in sub-oceanic basalts as well as in shield granites. Their migration is differentially impeded due to their different molecular sizes. Methane may be trapped temporarily, while hydrogen escapes. Both enter the atmosphere worldwide on a large scale.
Thus the hydridic earth image comprises a mobile inner geosphere of highly-reduced, dense, intermetals and carbides, an outer geosphere of oxidic rock that has accumulated incrementally through geological time, and a transient liquid-gas envelope. The image implies a core that is neither iron nor very hot, because the heat source for endogeny is primarily not primordial heat but the chemical energy released in the upper mantle and lower crust, near the crust-mantle boundary by hydride oxidation.
Hydrocarbons other than methane are partially oxidized carbon forms, and thus unlikely to occur in any form but methane in the earth's interior where extreme reducing conditions prevail. When methane rises to outer crust levels from the interior, its chemical energy is available to metabolize bacteria and archaea that live there in total darkness at elevated temperatures. They get that energy by stripping hydrogen from the methane and oxidizing it metabolically.
When bacteria and archaea strip hydrogen from methane, they create 'anhydrides' of methane, CH3, CH2, etc. Two CH3s combine to make C2H6, ethane; two CH3s and one CH2 make C3H8, propane, etc. The process is known on the surface, where outcrops of petroliferous strata sometimes are sealed by bacterially produced tar seals behind which live oil has accumulated. In this case, bacteria have stripped hydrogen from live oil, rendering it immobile.
Anhydride theory merely extrapolates the process backward to explain stripping of methane, the lowest carbon numbered hydrocarbon. Petroleum can be interpreted as degenerated methane, a product of the biosphere. Petroleum produced by bacterial stripping of methane is, a mixture of anhydrides of methane, an organic product produced from inorganic methane.
Coal and oil shales are also anhydride products. In peat and kerogen-rich shales, partially oxidized carbon is present that has lost electrons and thus carries positive charges. By contrast, the carbon in methane that effuses from the highly reduced earth interior has acquired electrons and is negatively charged. Opposite charges cause capture of effusing methane by peat and kerogen ...
The terminal anhydride, pure carbon, the main component of the purest coals and asphaltites, and protein molecules (porphyrins and others) that are found in petroleum and coal are molecular residues of organic origin.
The fact that coal and oil shales have more carbon and hydrogen than their peat and fossil predecessors is clear evidence that fossils cannot fully explain their origins. These high carbon and hydrogen contents of oil shales and coals require abiogenic additions, whereas organic molecules require organic provenance. Methane and petroleum found in coal seams and organic shales should be seen as evidence of methane capture, not methane generation.
The topology of petroleum occurrence is a further defeat for the argument in favour of either an exclusively organic or exclusively abiogenic origin for petroleum. If oil were either rising from primordial sources in the earth's interior or created in 'oil windows' by catagenesis, the more mobile fractions would escape from the depths and be found more abundantly near the surface and less mobile fractions, low gravity oils, would be present at depth. Exactly the opposite is the norm. Methane gas, the most mobile hydrocarbon, is more abundant with depth, worldwide; and tars, the least mobile, are most abundant at and near the surface ...
Working backwards through the above points, we can say that:
Topologies of hydrocarbon occurrences indicate that methane effuses from the interior, not petroleum; ...
and that the discovery that hydrogen nuclei under pressure penetrate atomic shells of metals, transmuting the metals to intermetals, densifying them, and fluidizing them, creates an entirely new geological picture of the earth's interior, of endogeny, and of the mode by which the crust was created [and also of the almost infinite supply of petroleum and methane waiting to be found.] ''
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www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/Geopolitics___Eurasia/Peak_Oil___Russia/peak_oil___russia.html
ARTICLE By F William Engdahl, September 14, 2007
``... The 2003 arrest of Russian Mikhail Khodorkovsky, of Yukos Oil, took place just before he could sell a dominant stake in Yukos to ExxonMobil after a private meeting with Dick Cheney. Had Exxon got the stake they would have control of the world's largest resource of geologists and engineers trained in the abiotic techniques of deep drilling ...
Why then the high-risk war to control Iraq? For a century US and allied Western oil giants have controlled world oil via control of Saudi Arabia or Kuwait or Nigeria. Today, as many giant fields are declining, the companies see the state-controlled oilfields of Iraq and Iran as the largest remaining base of cheap, easy oil ...
Perhaps in some decades Western geologists will rethink their mythology of fossil origins and realize what the Russians have known since the 1950's. In the meantime Moscow holds a massive energy trump card.''
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See Part 1
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[Nymex oil futures peaked at an intraday high of $78.40 on July 14 [2006] but averaged $66.25 for the year, compared with $56.70 in 2005 and $41.47 in 2004 ...
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NEWS ARTICLE from The Plain Dealer, 10-17-07, by John Wilen, Associated Press
``NEW YORK -- Oil futures rallied to a new intraday record above $88 a barrel on Tuesday [10-16-07] amid concerns about disruptions to Middle Eastern crude supplies ... Traders are concerned that a Turkish incursion into Iraq in search of Kurdish rebels could disrupt crude supplies from northern Iraq ...
Light, sweet crude for November delivery rose $1.48 to settle at a record $87.61 a barrel. Earlier, prices rose as high as $88.20, a trading record ...''
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NEWS ARTICLE from The Plain Dealer, 10-19-07,
by John Wilen, Associated Press
``NEW YORK -- Oil prices surpassed $90 a barrel for the first time Thursday [10-18-07] ... Light, sweet crude for November delivery hit $90.02 ... Thursday was the fifth day in a row crude prices have set new records ...''
{The Oil Gang goes laughing to the bank.}]
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