Hezbollah: Chemical And Dirty Bomb Program Near Damascus, Coming Attractions: 'This Is What Happens When Your Economic And Monetary Systems Collapse

Hizballah launches Chemicals & Dirty Bombs program at secret Syrian site

[It's hard not to consider this article without contemplating Isaiah 17]

The southwester town of Zabadani, 30 km west of Damascus, is a ghost town, depopulated by five years of Syrian war ravages, except for one sign of life – or rather death. Since December, Hizballah has enclosed this once attractive tourist resort, strategically located on the Damascus-Beirut highway, into a heavily fortified ex territoria enclave whose high walls conceal the terrorist group’s new program for the development of weapons of mass destruction. 

Most of the facilities for the research and development of chemical weapons and dirty bombs are sunk below the surface of the secret 2.5 sq. km site.

Syrian and Iranian engineers and technicians are developing the chemical weapons for Hizballah’s arsenal, and foreign experts were hired from outside the Middle East to help build radioactive weapons. They are kept out of sight in on-site accommodation at Zabadani.

A telltale sign that the Shiite terrorist organization was actively pursuing a radioactive bomb program – and which prompted our investigation - was dropped in a speech given by Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Feb. 16.

He boasted that a pair of Hizballah rockets falling on the Israeli city of Haifa would cause a catastrophe equivalent to a “nuclear bomb” attack. He elaborated on this: “An Israeli expert had said that Haifa’s residents fear a deadly attack on the ammonia storage tanks which contain more than 15,000 tons of this gas. That would lead to the deaths of tens of thousands of Israelis and affect another 800,000,” he declared.

“This would be exactly like a nuclear bomb and we can say that Lebanon today has a nuclear bomb, seeing as any rocket that might hit these tanks is capable of creating a nuclear bomb effect,” Nasrallah said.

When someone like the Hizballah terrorist chief drops four references to a nuclear bomb in as many sentences, ending with the boast that “Lebanon today has nuclear bomb,” it must be presumed that he is crowing over some sort of nuclear device in hand.

It may not be an actual atom bomb – which would call for multimillion dollar investment, expertise and time, “only” a “dirty bomb” (essentially a conventional bomb mixed with radioactive material). That too could cause massive damage to Haifa’s chemical industry, resulting in a high death toll, runaway panic and major disruption – the perfect weapon for terrorists.

Israeli officials decline to discuss Hizballah’s new WMD program, but it certainly raises hard questions for Moscow and the commanding Russian military presence in Syria. It is hard to believe that the Shiite terrorists can develop game-changing poison chemicals and dirty bombs in the heart of Syria, without Russian intelligence noticing what was going on. Does that mean that Vladimir Putin is amenable to his air force providing it with cover?      

Plunging Manufacturing Numbers Mean That It Is Time To Hit The Panic Button For The Global Economy

We haven’t seen numbers like these since the last global recession.  I recently wrote about how global trade is imploding all over the planet, and the same thing is true when it comes to manufacturing.  We just learned that manufacturing in China has now been contracting for seven months in a row, and as you will see below, U.S. manufacturing is facing “its toughest period since the global financial crisis”.  Yes, global stocks have bounced back a bit after experiencing dramatic declines during January and the first part of February, and this is something that investors are very happy about.  But that does not mean that the crisis is over.  All bear markets have their ups and downs, and this one will not be any different.  Meanwhile, the cold, hard economic numbers that keep coming in are absolutely screaming that a new global recession is here.

Just consider what is happening in China.  Manufacturing activity continues to implode, and factories are shedding jobs at the fastest pace since the last financial crisis…

For years, the expansion of the Chinese economy has helped fuel global economic growth.  But now things have shifted dramatically.

At this point, things are already so bad that the Chinese government is admitting that millions of workers are going to lose their jobs at state-controlled industries in China…

But it isn’t just China.  Right now manufacturing activity is slowing down literally all over the planet, and this is exactly what we would expect to see if a new global recession had begun. 

And of course the news is not good.  There were more signs of trouble for U.S. manufacturing in the February numbers, and this continues a trend that stretches back well into last year.  The following is what Chris Williamson, the chief economist at Markit, had to say about these numbers…

it’s no surprise that the manufacturing sector is facing its toughest period since the global financial crisis.“

As good paying manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas, they have been replaced by low paying service jobs.  As a result, the middle class is shrinkingand the ranks of the poor are exploding.

It is hard to believe, but today more than 45 million Americans are on food stamps, and a significant percentage of those individuals actually have jobs.  They are called “the working poor”, and it is becoming a major crisis in this nation.

And no matter what Obama may say, unemployment remains a major problem in the United States as well.  At this point, unemployment rates in 36 states are higher than they were just before the last recession hit in 2008.

Can Americans Handle Four More Years Of This?

Council on Foreign Relations Declares War on Trump – Are His Days Numbered?

There will be no parades and no media shows which start out as… "we interrupt this broadcast to bring you this breaking news item…," but the almighty Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has spoken and they are endorsing Hillary Clinton, but mostly they have issued a position statement that Donald Trump must be stopped at all costs.

This is the caricature of Trump that ran in the mouthpiece of the Council on Foreign Relations, The Economist. Since when does the self-proclaimed righteous defender of the elite, founded by John Rockefeller, lower themselves to such blatant and childish mudslinging? They don't, and this behavior is representative of a departure of tactics employed by the elite. And the fact that elite are approaching such a state of desperation, near-panic, if you will, all options are on the table. Again, I say, the elite are proclaiming that all options are on the table when it comes to the fate of Donald Trump.

Relevant Excerpts From The CFR's The Economist

 …the Republican nomination could be all but over. Donald Trump has already won three of the first four contests. On March 1st, Super Tuesday, 12 more states will vote. Mr Trump has a polling lead in all but three of them. Were these polls to translate into results, as they have so far, Mr. Trump would not quite be unbeatable. It would still be possible for another candidate to win enough delegates to overtake him. But that would require the front-runner to have a late, spectacular electoral collapse of a kind that has not been seen before. Right now the Republican nomination is his to lose...

With the statement the CFR alarm was sounded. But there is more…

When pollsters ask voters to choose in a face-off between Mr. Trump and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner wins by less than three percentage points. Mr. Trump would have plenty of time to try to close that gap. An economy that falls back into recession or an indictment for Mrs Clinton might do it for him.

That is an appalling prospect. The things Mr. Trump has said in this campaign make him unworthy of leading one of the world's great political parties, let alone America. One way to judge politicians is by whether they appeal to our better natures: Mr. Trump has prospered by inciting hatred and violence. He is so unpredictable that the thought of him anywhere near high office is terrifying. He must be stopped (Editor's Note: Stopped at all costs?).

When the Council of Foreign Relations declares war on an individual, history shows (e.g. JFK, RFK, MLK, et al) have a short shelf-life. One can only imagine how John F. Kennedy felt when he knew that the interlocked and combined forces of the Federal Reserve, the oil industry and the military industrial complete were closing in on him. Donald Trump is in a very similar position.

This is often the fate of those who would date to buck the CFR power elite. I liken Trump and his future to Larry McDonald than I do John Kennedy. I see it ending the same way.

I do not want to end this article on a note of doom and gloom. Those of who work in the Independent Media know that if you are going to be on the list, you better be on the top of the list. Right now, placing extreme attention on the topic of Trump's safety, is the best way to keep him alive until Election Day.

“No Bread” – This Is What Happens When Your Economic And Monetary Systems Collapse

While Americans still enjoy easy access to basic necessities like food and medicine, the last several years have shown us just how bad things can get when it all hits the fan.

It’s a story that we have seen time and again throughout history, and one that is once again playing out before our eyes. Though the economic factors that trigger a crisis may be different, the outcome is often the same for the general populace.

When the country of Greece collapsed in 2012 we highlighted the desperate situation faced by its millions of residents:

With untold billions in private and public sector debt, the situation in Greece (and other debt laden European countries like Spain and Italy) has devolved to such an extent that some EU member nations are mobilizing their military personnel in preparation for full spectrum meltdown across the entire region.

Jobs are so scarce that many have been forced into underground barter economies and family farming to make ends meet. From massive austerity spending cuts that have torn to shreds the government social safety net, to shortages in critical life saving medicines and the near breakdown of the nation’s power grid, Greece is experiencing all of the overt signs of a nation on its last leg.

We need look no further than the deteriorating situation in Venezuela, where the government has tried everything from currency devaluations and price controls to blaming the country’s malaise on “hoarders” and speculators who purportedly drove up prices. As anger and frustration gripped the country, the government took unprecedented steps to restore order, to no avail:

In 2013, many began to suspect that the outlook for Venezuela was grim when prepping became illegal.  The Attorney General of Venezuela, Luisa Ortega Díaz, called on prosecutors to target people who are “hoarding” basic staples with serious sanctions.

Shortly thereafter, grocery stores instituted a fingerprint registry to purchase food and supplies. Families had to register and were allotted a certain amount of supplies to prevent “hoarding.”

Then, just over a year ago, it became even more apparent that the country was falling. when long lines for basic necessities such as laundry soap, diapers, and food became the norm rather than the exception. Thousands of people were standing in line for 5-6 hours in the hopes that they would be able to purchase a few much-needed items.

Cardboard signs on the door warning of “No bread” have become increasingly common at Venezuelan bakeries.

Venezuela gets 96 percent of its foreign currency from oil exports, and as crude prices have plunged, so have the country’s imports — among them wheat.

The leftist government of President Nicolas Maduro has tightly controlled access to hard currency, and this has affected imports ranging from medicine to toilet paper. Now it is seriously affecting imports of wheat, which Venezuela does not grow.

Add to this the soaring inflation rate — 181 percent in 2015, the world’s highest — and you see why customers are mainly interested in buying basic food items such as bread.

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