In The News

Missile Spotted In 'Launch Position', U.S. And S. Korea Armed Forces Placed At 'Vital Alert' Watchcon 2

G8 foreign ministers including US Secretary of State John Kerry have held a second day of talks in London with the crisis on the Korean peninsula topping the agenda.

Kerry has already met with his Russian and Japanese counterparts to discuss the Korean crisis, in which US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel warned Pyongyang was ''skating very close to a dangerous line''.

The secretive communist state has threatened nuclear strikes against the United States and South Korea, and observers are expecting a missile launch at any time.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of Russia, which maintains close ties to North Korea's key ally China, warned after talks with Kerry on Wednesday against exacerbating tensions with military manoeuvres.

U.S., S. Korea On Top Alert As North Missile Spotted In Launch Position

The United States and South Korean armed forces went on the highest level of alert - Watchcon 2 - Thursday, April 11, ready for multiple launches after  at least one North Korean ballistic Musudan missile was sighted fueled and ready to launch at any moment on the country’s eastern coast.  With an estimated range of more 3,400 kilometers, it places US bases in Guam and the Okinawa islands within range as well as South Korea and Japan.

According to a senior US defense official in Washington, the floating SBX X-band radar is in position for tracking missiles fired by Pyongyang. South Korean officials, commenting on the apparent movement of several ballistic missiles on North Korea’s east coast, report that this is an apparent attempt to confuse intelligence monitoring by the US, Japan and South Korea.
The US and Japan, which earlier deployed Patriot interceptors in Tokyo, have said that any missile would be intercepted if it showed signs of heading for the United States or Japan. But neither mentioned a US military target or the possibility of a missile flying over Japan to land in the Pacific Ocean.

South Koreans are for the first time showing signs of anxiety about a possible outbreak of war. People have started stocking food and parents were telling reporters Thursday that children are being kept home from school in case of a sudden war emergency.
Several Western intelligence sources attribute Pyongyang’s saber-rattling to a power struggle ongoing in the top ranks of the North Korean military command between supporters of the young leader Kim Jong-Un and his opponents, who say he lacks the qualities befitting a commander-in-chief of the North Korean armed forces.

In his drive for military credibility, say those sources, the young leader is constantly photographed on visits to army units accompanied by a bevy of generals and soldiers and demonstratively testing their weapons and barking out operational orders.

In one television segment aired by North Korean state TV Wednesday, hundreds of North Korean soldiers were shown standing in their positions and then, upon catching sight of the president and party, rushing toward him in great excitement, although they didn’t dare get too close.

Such staged scenes, say the sources, point up the North Korean president’s weakness and uncertainty rather than his control and popularity in the army.

Those sources predict that Kim Jong-Un may feel compelled to assert himself by ordering a missile launch. Backing down at this point, a failed launch or a foreign interception would be a black mark against him and seriously undermine a leadership which is rooted in a ruthless personality cult. It might even lead to his ouster.

The Korean crisis heads the agenda of the G8 foreign ministers meeting in London Thursday.

Top Economic Advisers Forecast War And Unrest

We’re already at war in numerous countries all over the world.

But top economic advisers warn that economic factors could lead to a new world war.

Kyle Bass writes:

Trillions of dollars of debts will be restructured and millions of financially prudent savers will lose large percentages of their real purchasing power at exactly the wrong time in their lives. Again, the world will not end, but the social fabric of the profligate nations will be stretched and in some cases torn. Sadly, looking back through economic history, all too often war is the manifestation of simple economic entropy played to its logical conclusion. We believe that war is an inevitable consequence of the current global economic situation.

Similarly, Larry Edelson wrote an email to subscribers entitled “What the “Cycles of War” are saying for 2013″, which states:

Since the 1980s, I’ve been studying the so-called “cycles of war” — the natural rhythms that predispose societies to descend into chaos, into hatred, into civil and even international war.

I’m certainly not the first person to examine these very distinctive patterns in history. There have been many before me, notably, Raymond Wheeler, who published the most authoritative chronicle of war ever, covering a period of 2,600 years of data.

However, there are very few people who are willing to even discuss the issue right now. And based on what I’m seeing, the implications could be absolutely huge in 2013.

Former Goldman Sachs technical analyst Charles Nenner – who has made some big accurate calls, and counts major hedge funds, banks, brokerage houses, and high net worth individuals as clients – saysthere will be “a major war starting at the end of 2012 to 2013”, which will drive the Dow to 5,000.

Billionaire investor Jim Rogers notes:

A continuation of bailouts in Europe could ultimately spark another world war, says international investor Jim Rogers.

***

“Add debt, the situation gets worse, and eventually it just collapses. Then everybody is looking for scapegoats. Politicians blame foreigners, and we’re in World War II or World War whatever.”

Marc Faber says that the American government will start new wars in response to the economic crisis:

• “The next thing the government will do to distract the attention of the people on bad economic conditions is they’ll start a war somewhere.”

• “If the global economy doesn’t recover, usually people go to war.”

We’re in the middle of a global currency war – i.e. a situation where nations all compete to devalue their currencies the most in order to boost exports. And Brazilian president-elect Rousseff said in 2010:

The last time there was a series of competitive devaluations … it ended in world war two.

Jim Rickards agrees:

Currency wars lead to trade wars, which often lead to hot wars. In 2009, Rickards participated in the Pentagon’s first-ever “financial” war games. While expressing confidence in America’s ability to defeat any other nation-state in battle, Rickards says the U.S. could get dragged into “asymmetric warfare,” if currency wars lead to rising inflation and global economic uncertainty.

As does Jim Rogers:

Trade wars always lead to wars.

And given that many influential economists wrongly believe that war is good for the economy … many are overtly or quietly pushing for war.

Moreover, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said that the Iraq war was really about oil , and former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill says that Bush planned the Iraq war before 9/11. And seethisand this. If that war was for petroleum, other oil-rich countries might be invaded as well.

And the American policy of using the military to contain China’s growing economic influence – and of considering economic rivalry to be a basis for war – are creating a tinderbox.

Finally, multi-billionaire investor Hugo Salinas Price says:

What happened to [Libya's] Mr. Gaddafi, many speculate the real reason he was ousted was that he was planning an all-African currency for conducting trade. The same thing happened to him that happened to Saddam because the US doesn’t want any solid competing currency out there vs the dollar. You know Gaddafi was talking about a golddinar.

Indeed, senior CNBC editor John Carney noted:

Is this the first time a revolutionary group has created a central bank while it is still in the midst of fighting the entrenched political power? It certainly seems to indicate how extraordinarily powerful central bankers have become in our era.

Robert Wenzel of Economic Policy Journal thinks the central banking initiative reveals that foreign powers may have a strong influence over the rebels.

This suggests we have a bit more than a ragtag bunch of rebels running around and that there are some pretty sophisticated influences. “I have never before heard of a central bank being created in just a matter of weeks out of a popular uprising,” Wenzel writes.

Pat Robertson Warns Of 'Terrible Suffering For U.S.' If Israel Loses Jerusalem

CBS "700 Club" host Pat Robertson has warned Secretary of State John Kerry that any peace agreement in the Middle East that results in Israel losing parts of Jerusalem will be calling on "God's wrath."

"I think this is headed for disaster for the United States," Robertson said on a video posted on April 9. The televangelist was responding to the latest news story concerning peace developments between Israel and Palestine, being moderated by Kerry.

"Each of them made very serious and well-considered, constructive suggestions with respect to what the road forward might look like," Kerry said while meeting Israel and Palestinian leaders this week in peace negotiations that are expected to last several months.

Hagel En Route To Israel As Iran Becomes More Defiant

US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is scheduled to arrive in Israel on April 21 in what is seen locally as an "urgent" visit, just as Iran is becoming increasingly defiant in its nuclear program.

Hagel had promised to visit Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon after both were appointed to their new positions earlier this year. But the timing of the visit was "very surprising, certainly in its urgency," according to Army Radio.

The Iran nuclear threat is expected to be the main topic of discussion between Hagel and Ya'alon.

Iran on Tuesday marked its "National Nuclear Technology Day" by announcing the opening of two new uranium mines and a new plant capable of producing 60 tonnes of raw uranium (also known as "yellow cake") per year.

Days earlier, talks between international powers and Iran over its nuclear program broke down. European officials said Iran had submitted proposals that were already rejected during talks last year. This is unsurprising, as Israel has been warning for years that Iran is simply playing a stalling game until it can successfully test a nuclear weapon.

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