Monday, April 1, 2013
China
has placed military forces on heightened alert in the northeastern part
of the country as tensions mount on the Korean peninsula following
recent threats by Pyongyang to attack, U.S. officials said. Reports from
the region reveal the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) recently
increased its military posture in response to the heightened tensions,
specifically North Korea’s declaration of a “state of war” and threats
to conduct missile attacks against the United States and South
Korea. According to the officials, the PLA has stepped up military
mobilization in the border region with North Korea since mid-March,
including troop movements and warplane activity. China’s navy also
conducted live-firing naval drills by warships in the Yellow Sea that
were set to end Monday near the Korean peninsula, in apparent support of
North Korea, which was angered by ongoing U.S.-South Korean military
drills that are set to continue throughout April. North Korea,
meanwhile, is mobilizing missile forces, including road-mobile short-
and medium-range missiles, according to officials familiar with
satellite imagery of missile bases. The missile activity is believed to
be North Korea’s response to the ongoing U.S.-South Korean military
exercises that last week included highly publicized flights by two B-2
strategic nuclear bombers near North Korean territory as part of annual
military exercises.
North
Korea’s government announced last week that since March 26 its missile
and artillery forces have been placed on the highest alert
status. Specifically, Nodong medium-range missiles and their mobile
launchers were spotted in satellite imagery, the officials said. There
are also indications North Korea will soon conduct a flight test of its
new KN-08 road-mobile ICBM or its intermediate-range Musudan mobile
missile. Test preparations had been detected in the past, the officials
said. A military provocation by North Korean forces against the South is
not expected while the current war games are underway in South Korea,
officials said. However, the situation remains dangerous as hostilities
could break out as a result of a miscalculation. South Korea’s
government has said it would respond to any North Korean military
provocation with force. The Chinese military activities near North Korea
were detected in Jilin Province, and intelligence reports from the area
on March 19 indicated that PLA forces were ordered to go to “Level One”
alert status, the highest level of readiness. Large groups of soldiers
were seen on the streets in Ji’an, a city in Jilin, amid reports that
the PLA had been ordered to combat readiness status. PLA heavy armored
vehicles, including tanks and armored personnel carriers, were reported
moving near the Yalu River that separates China from North Korea. The
troops were part of the 190th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, stationed in
Benxi, in Liaoning Province. The movements are believed to be related to
increased tensions in Korea. Additionally, PLA troops and military
vehicles were seen near Baishan, in Jilin province, around March
21. Low-flying PLA air force jets, believed to be fighters, also were
heard and seen at several border locations in China, including Yanji and
Yanbian in Jilin, Kuancheng, in Hebei province, and Dandong, in
Liaoning province. Chinese forces along the border responded to some
unknown event in North Korea near Siniju on March 21 that involved
Chinese fighter jets flying over the area. The officials said the
Chinese military activities appear to be based on concerns about a new
outbreak of conflict between North Korea and South Korea and the United
States.
China’s
military maintains a long-standing defense treaty with the North that
obligates China to defend North Korea in the event it is attacked. The
last time Chinese forces backed Pyongyang was during the Korean War when
tens of thousands of Chinese “volunteers” drove south into the
peninsula. Chinese military spokesmen frequently refer to their
relations with the Korean People’s Army, as the North Korean military is
called, as ties “as close as lips and teeth.” Other reports from China
indicate that the heightened tensions have led to a disruption of trade
between China and North Korea along the border between the two
countries. One sign of slowed commerce between China and North Korea was
a Chinese Internet report from a restaurant owner in Dandong, China, a
border city, who said commerce between the two countries was disrupted
following North Korea’s Feb. 12 underground nuclear test. Since that
time, it has been more difficult for the goods from North Korea to reach
China because the North Korean Customs Office closed frequently as a
result of increased Chinese inspections of North Korean goods. U.S.
officials and private analysts said the slowdown may be a sign of
Beijing’s displeasure at the North Korean nuclear test. China also held
up exports of crude oil to North Korea in February, according to customs
data reviewed by Reuters news agency. The agency said in a
Additionally,
the Chinese plan to set up a special highway passenger line to connect
Tumen to North Korea over the next several years. Other reports from the
region stated that North Korean cities in the northern part of the
country were placed on “combat” alert and have conducted evacuation
drills, officials said. The drills have been carried out in three-day to
five-day intervals when power and water supplies were suspended as part
of the exercises. Chinese citizens living in border cities in China
also reported hearing air-raid sirens as part of the exercises,
officials said. U.S. officials say China’s main fear for its fraternal
communist client regime in North Korea is a collapse of order that leads
to large-scale refugee flows into China. Reports from inside North
Korea also revealed that North Korean soldiers have been issued bread,
instant noodles, sausages, milk, and dried fish that appeared to be
supplied by the United Nations as aid meant for the civilian
population. The Feb. 12 underground blast, North Korea’s third, is
credited by analysts with setting off the latest round of belligerence
by the Pyongyang regime. After the test, the U.S. government continued
to refuse to acknowledge North Korea as a nuclear-armed state. That
prompted the regime of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to issue unprecedented
threats to fire nuclear missiles at the United States. The Pentagon
responded by using annual military exercises with South Korea to fly
B-52 strategic bombers and later B-2s near North Korea. Frontline F-22
fighter-bombers, the Air Force’s most advanced jets, were sent on Sunday
to take part in the military drills. North Korea’s latest threats
included announcing a state of war and cutting off military and other
communications. North Korea’s ruling communist Korean Workers Party
announced on Sunday that the nuclear arsenal is the “nation’s life” and
would not be given up even if offered “billions of dollars,” the
Associated Press 
Obama Urges Quick Adoption of Arms Trade Treaty by UN General Assembly
By Admin on April 1, 2013
Despite failing to be adopted by consensus vote on last Thursday, the Arms Trade Treaty’s (ATT) civilian disarmament agenda marches on.
In an interview with The New American in advance of Thursday’s ill-fated final plenary session of the conference at UN headquarters deliberating the Arms Trade Treaty, a member of the U.S. delegation said the they were prepared to vote in favor of adoption of the gun grab.
They never got the chance, however, as Iran, Syria, and North Korea objected to the treaty, declaring it to be too favorable to the interests of the United States.
That point is debatable.
As I reported from the conference, the text of the treaty mandates several infringements on the right of people to keep and bear arms as protected by the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
For example, the Preamble of the Arms Trade Treaty points to the United Nations Charter as the source of guiding principles upon which the agreement is based. Citizens of the United States, however, recognize God as the source of all rights they enjoy. Not even the Constitution claims to be the giver of rights; it is merely the protector of them.
The ultimate American statement on the issue of the provenance of rights was written by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
The UN would see the Declaration of Independence replaced by the Declaration of Human Rights and would have the Creator replaced with government as the source of rights.
Take, for example, the principle of the ATT declaring the “inherent right of all States to individual or collective self-defence [sic] as recognized in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations.”
States have no “right of self-defense.” In fact, states have no rights at all. Men have rights and they may cede a portion of the protection of those rights to government. This is a provisional grant, revocable at the will of the people.
Ironically, moreover, it is in defense of tyranny of the government that individuals typically need to collectively exercise their natural right of self-defense.
Should those who govern ever exceed the boundaries drawn by the people around their power, the people retain the right — the natural right — of self-defense.
Furthermore, no document — not even the Constitution — grants rights. Rights are given by God and societies may draft constitutions in order to protect those rights from assault by government.
Again, the words of Thomas Jefferson pronounced in the Declaration of Independence establish the American position:
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their CREATOR, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. [Emphasis in original]
Regardless of the promises of its advocates, the Arms Trade Treaty violates not only the Second Amendment, but also the American concept of the source of rights and the right of the people to defend themselves against the “long train of abuses” of any government.
President Obama will not be deterred, however. Not by the Declaration of Independence, not by the Second Amendment, and not by the failure of the ATT conference to adopt the treaty by consensus.
Peter Woolcott, president of the conference and ambassador from Australia, ordered the treaty sent to the Secretary General of the United Nations for presentation to the General Assembly for its approval.
The Obama administration is determined to make that happen.
During a phone conference held after the vote, the U.S. lead negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Tom Countryman, reaffirmed the president’s support for implementation of the treaty.
“We look forward to this text being adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in the very near future,” Countryman said. “It’s important to the United States and the defense of our interests to insist on consensus. But every state in this process has always been conscious of the fact that, if consensus is not reached in this process, that there are other ways to adopt this treaty, including via a vote of the General Assembly.”
Later, Countryman predicted that barring any further alterations to the text, the General Assembly vote on the gun control treaty within days.
Predicting that the president would take such a tack in order to accelerate his drive toward the absolute disarmament of civilians and the establishment of a government monopoly over all means of armed resistance, U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) declared his intent to stand in defense of the right to keep and bear arms.
The most recent collapse of ATT negotiations should serve as a wake-up call to the world’s democracies of the inherent flaws in the U.N. treaty process that puts us on level ground with dictatorships who abuse human rights and arms terrorists.
In the coming weeks, I anticipate ATT supporters will seek new avenues for treaty adoption, such as the U.N. General Assembly. Given the apparent support of the Obama Administration for the ATT, members of the U.S. Senate must continue to make clear that any treaty that violates our Second Amendment freedoms will be an absolute nonstarter for ratification.
As The New American reported recently, Moran is the chief sponsor of a resolution, S. Con. Res. 7, that enjoys bipartisan support from 32 co-sponsors. Moran’s measure declares that it is the sense of Congress that “the President should not sign the Arms Trade Treaty, and that, if he transmits the treaty with his signature to the Senate, the Senate should not ratify the Arms Trade Treaty.”
Representative Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) has offered a companion measure in the House.
Both the Moran and Kelly resolutions declare that the Arms Trade Treaty “poses significant risks to the national security, foreign policy, and economic interests of the United States as well as to the constitutional rights of United States citizens and United States sovereignty.”
The measures also points out that UN gun grab “fails to expressly recognize the fundamental, individual right to keep and to bear arms and the individual right of personal self-defense, as well as the legitimacy of hunting, sports shooting, and other lawful activities pertaining to the private ownership of firearms and related materials, and thus risks infringing on freedoms protected by the Second Amendment.”
Others of Moran’s colleagues are riding to the defense of the right to keep and bear arms, as well.
On March 23, the Senate approved a measure sponsored by Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) “to uphold Second Amendment rights and prevent the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty.” By a vote of 53-46, the Senate passed Inhofe’s amendment to the budget bill.
While all these events auger positively for the future of the Second Amendment, Americans must remain vigilant. The treaty may still be approved by a majority of the UN General Assembly, and regardless of the outcome of that vote, President Obama is intent on executing its unconstitutional mandates, seizing control of all privately owned firearms and ammunition.
Image Reference
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
US Moves Guided-Missile Destroyer To N. Korea
The U.S. Navy is shifting a guided-missile destroyer in the Pacific to waters off the Korean peninsula in the wake of ongoing rhetoric from North Korea, U.S. defense officials said.
The USS McCain is capable of intercepting and destroying a missile, should North Korea decide to fire one off, the officials said.
Still, U.S. defense officials insist that there is nothing to indicate that North Korea is on the verge of another launch.
The White House on Monday said the United States hasn’t seen large-scale movements from North Korean military forces in the aftermath of harsh rhetoric from the reclusive government. source – NBC News
oh yeah who gave them the weapons oh thats right the islamic terrorist in the white house
Mexican drug cartels: ‘The most serious threat the US has faced from organized crime’
Published time: April 01, 2013 20:47
AFP Photo / Lucas Castro
In an exposé published by The Associated Press this week, reporter Michael Tarm cites an extensive review of federal court cases, government drug-enforcement data and interviews with top law enforcement officials to back up the claim that violent drug lords from south of the border have established bases within the US that are now working as remote hubs for international narcotics rings.
These groups, writes Tarm, once rarely journeyed out of Mexico or, if that, far beyond the nation’s border with the US. In recent years, however, Mexican cartels like the infamous Zetas have extended their reach into the US by literally deploying entire units to oversee domestic operations.
It isn’t amateur drug mules or wannabe gangsters that are being sent abroad either. The AP says some of the most trusted agents aligned with Mexican drug militias now operate out of the US “to tighten their grip on the world's most lucrative narcotics market and maximize profits.”
Should the expansion continue at its current rate, US authorities warn that it could eventually become harder if not impossible to extradite the cartels to outside of the US. Soon, says Tarm, drug smugglers may expand into other ventures, like prostitution, kidnapping-and-extortion rackets and even money laundering.
"It's probably the most serious threat the United States has faced from organized crime," Jack Riley of the US Drug Enforcement Administration explains to the AP.
Southern California, Texas and Arizona aren’t the new homes of these groups, either. Nine non-border states across the US now have a documented Mexican cartel presence, with the AP claiming that these collectives have expanded as far north as Pennsylvania, roughly 1,500 miles away.
In Chicago, Illinois, the cartels have even become the new kings. In the Windy City, the Chicago Crime Commission now considers Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, as Public Enemy No. 1 — the same title once bestowed on gangster kingpin Al Capone. Unlike his prohibition era counterpart, though, Guzman has never once set foot in the eastern Illinois town.
"People think, 'The border's 1,700 miles away. This isn't our problem.' Well, it is. These days, we operate as if Chicago is on the border,” Riley tells the AP.
But if geographical boundaries no longer apply in terms of the growing drug trade, will the same trends found in Mexico make their way up north too? The Houston Chronicle reported over the weekend that 3,000 drug-cartel murders have been carried during just the first 100 days since the country's president, Enrique Peña Nieto, took office in December. And since 2006, the death toll is thought to exceed 70,000 — or nearly 20 times more than NATO combat deaths in Afghanistan, adds the paper.
As recently as last Friday, seven people were killed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico after a gunman opened fire in a bar using an AK-45 assault rifle.
"It has not been determined whether the attack is connected to drug trafficking, but by the type of weapon involved, it is to be assumed," police spokesman Carlos Gonzalez told Reuters.
But given the documented expansion of the drug gangs into locales like Chicago — where crime states have skyrocketed in recent months — the surge in cartel presence in the US is likely already being accompanied by a wave of violence as well. The Texas Department of Public Safety cites 22 killings and five kidnappings in Texas due to cartel activity from 2010 through mid- 2011, but as gangs penetrate further into the mainland, those numbers are expected to only grow.
heard it all before still no one impeaches that ass hole why should i believe you
GOP Rep. Threatens Impeachment If Obama Goes Around Congress to Enact Gun Control
Rep.
Steve Stockman, R-Texas, second from right, participates in a mock
swearing-in ceremony with Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner,
R-Ohio, for the 113th Congress on Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013 in Washington.
Credit: AP
Should President Barack Obama decide to
make good on his threat to enact gun regulations through executive
order, Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) says he may, among other actions,
file articles of impeachment against the commander-in-chief.
“I will seek to thwart this action by
any means necessary, including but not limited to eliminating funding
for implementation, defunding the White House, and even filing articles
of impeachment,” Stockman said in a statement on Monday.
In a statement, Stockman didn’t hold back, saying Obama is launching an “attack on the very founding principles of this republic.”“The President’s actions are an existential threat to this nation,” Stockman said in a statement. “The right of the people to keep and bear arms is what has kept this nation free and secure for over 200 years. The very purpose of the Second Amendment is to stop the government from disallowing people the means to defend themselves against tyranny. Any proposal to abuse executive power and infringe upon gun rights must be repelled with the stiffest legislative force possible.”Obama said in a Monday morning press conference that he will make public recommendations from a task force run by Vice President Joe Biden to curb gun violence in the wake of shootings in Newtown, Conn. Last week, Biden said some of those restrictions may be achieved through executive order instead of the legislative process.
Stockman said tinkering with the Second
Amendment requires due process and the consent of Congress, the
representatives of the American people. Stockman is a former member of
the U.S. House of Representatives who returned after 15 years in January
to oppose John Boehner as speaker of the House.
“The President’s actions are not just
an attack on the Constitution and a violation of his sworn oath of
office – they are a direct attack on Americans that place all of us in
danger…If the President is allowed to suspend constitutional rights on
his own personal whims, our free republic has effectively ceased to
exist,” he added.
obama sings exeivite order over april fools jokes make him look dumb
Obama Bans Practical Jokes After April Fool’s Day Harassment
(PP)- President Barack Hussein Obama once again squashed American’s first amendment right of free speech by issuing an executive order banning all practical jokes in and around the White House on April 1st, also known as April Fool’s Day.
In
trying to maintain his false image of being the calm, cool and
collected leader of the free world, President Obama clamped down on
staff members and massive federal government agencies exposing him as a
gullible dunderhead, and an easy mark for even the most obvious and
childish prank.“The first four April Fool’s Days at the White House were brutal on the President, especially in the Oval Office,” said a former Secretary of State. “Last year a five year old son of one of Michelle’s 108 assistants put a “Wet Paint” sign on his chair, and the President had to stand up all day. After he figured it out, Obama sat down on a whoopee cushion during a meeting with Queen Elizabeth which was quite embarrassing for ‘Mr. Suave’ who was so startled that he nearly wet his pants.”
Several of the President’s federal co-workers expressed their discontent with Obama’s infringement on free speech because April Fool’s Day has been the only time any federal employee could get away with showing their true feelings about the thin skinned President and his radical left wing policies.
“Most IRS agents are very upset with Obama because he has them chasing down little girls trying to collect the taxes on their babysitting money,” said one IRS bag man. “Nobody likes looking like a jerk just because he follows the bosses orders, so when IRS agents sent Obama over a million letters on April Fool’s Day saying he is being audited, well… that gave them an opportunity to blow off some steam.”
Surprisingly, Republicans and conservatives have been shy about playing tricks on Mr. Obama for April Fool’s Day, believing they would appear mean spirited to low information voters that see any attack on Obama as being racist.
“During Obama’s first year in the White House, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had an assistant place a Diet Coke can with a short curly hair on it inside Air Force One,” said a secret service agent. “Well, the First Lady found it and went all Anita Hill on the President right in front of Chris Matthews from MSNBC. Since then, Matthews reports any attack on Obama as racist even though it was just a black-on-black prank gone awry.”
The Palookaville Post has learned that prior to the executive order banning pranks on the President, several staffers were planning extravagant hoaxes during the annual White House Easter Egg Hunt, one of which was to have former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger dress up as the Easter Bunny and challenge Obama to an arm wrestling contest which the President would of course lose. The prank was not meant to be funny, but intended to expose Obama as the weak leader that he is.
Ace Cub Reporter Jimmy Olsentwins
List Released With 132 Names Who Pulled Cyprus Deposits Ahead Of "Confiscation Day
List Released With 132 Names Who Pulled Cyprus Deposits Ahead Of "Confiscation Day"
With every passing day, it becomes clearer and clearer the Cyprus deposit confiscation "news" was the most unsurprising outcome
for the nation's financial system and was known by virtually everyone
on the ground days and weeks in advance: first it was disclosed that
Russians had been pulling their money, then it was suggested the president himself had made sure some €21 million of his family's money was parked safely in London, then we showed a massive surge in Cyprus deposit outflows in
February, and now the latest news is that a list of 132 companies and
individuals has emerged who withdrew their €-denominated deposits in the
two weeks from March 1 to March 15, among which the previously noted
company Loutsios & Sons which is alleged to have ties with the
current Cypriot president Anastasiadis.
From Sigma:
So, ironically enough, in answer to our question from last week, "So Who Knew", the answer appears to be everyone.
From Sigma:
Money transfers made within 15 days, namely from 1 until March 15. On Friday, March 15, had met the Eurogroup, which officially decided to impose a tax on deposits by companies and individuals in all financial institutions in Cyprus.
These 132 companies and individuals have withdrawn all deposits in euros, dollars and rubles, which were transferred to other banks outside Cyprus.
The disclosure of the list, which shows that the outflow of deposits from local banks other financial institutions outside Cyprus became massively raises suspicion that some had inside information about the decisions taken by the other 16 eurozone countries in exchange for financing deficits of the economy.
In listings, and the company is Loutsios & Sons Ltd, which carried 21 million deposit in a UK bank, while the owner of the company is alleged to have family ties with the President of the Republic, Nikos Anastasiadis.
The first column are names of companies and individuals in the second record of the amounts withdrawn in the third column refers to the amount withdrawn in the same currency, the currency in the fourth and the fifth and last column refers to the date of transfer.
So, ironically enough, in answer to our question from last week, "So Who Knew", the answer appears to be everyone.
(29 votes)
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