C***@nomore.tox
2009-02-17 16:50:52 UTC
U.S. Intel Chief's Shocking Warning: Wall Street's Disaster Has
Spawned Our Greatest Terrorist Threat
By Chris. Posted February 17, 2009.
The Director of National Intelligence argued that Wall Street, rather
than Islamic jihad, has produced our most dangerous terrorists.
We have a remarkable ability to create our own monsters. A few decades
of meddling in the Middle East with our Israeli doppelgnger and we get
Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaida, the Iraqi resistance movement and a
resurgent Taliban. Now we trash the world economy and destroy the
ecosystem and sit back to watch our handiwork. Hints of our brave new
world seeped out Thursday when Washington's new director of national
intelligence, retired Adm. Dennis Blair, testified before the Senate
Intelligence Committee. He warned that the deepening economic crisis
posed perhaps our gravest threat to stability and national security.
It could trigger, he said, a return to the "violent extremism" of the
1920s and 1930s.
It turns out that Wall Street, rather than Islamic jihad, has produced
our most dangerous terrorists. We will see accelerated plant and
retail closures, inflation, an epidemic of bankruptcies, new rounds of
foreclosures, bread lines, unemployment surpassing the levels of the
Great Depression and, as Blair fears, social upheaval.
The United Nations' International Labor Organization estimates that
some 50 million workers will lose their jobs worldwide this year. The
collapse has already seen 3.6 million lost jobs in the United States.
The International Monetary Fund's prediction for global economic
growth in 2009 is 0.5 percent--the worst since World War II. There are
2.3 million properties in the United States that received a default
notice or were repossessed last year. And this number is set to rise
in 2009, especially as vacant commercial real estate begins to be
foreclosed. About 20,000 major global banks collapsed, were sold or
were nationalized in 2008. There are an estimated 62,000 U.S.
companies expected to shut down this year. Unemployment, when you add
people no longer looking for jobs and part-time workers who cannot
find full-time employment, is close to 14 percent.
And we have few tools left to dig our way out. The manufacturing
sector in the United States has been destroyed by globalization.
Consumers, thanks to credit card companies and easy lines of credit,
are $14 trillion in debt. The government has pledged trillions toward
the crisis, most of it borrowed or printed in the form of new money.
It is borrowing trillions more to fund our wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq. And no one states the obvious: We will never be able to pay
these loans back. We are supposed to somehow spend our way out of the
crisis and maintain our imperial project on credit. Let our kids worry
about it. There is no coherent and realistic plan, one built around
our severe limitations, to stanch the bleeding or ameliorate the
mounting deprivations we will suffer as citizens. Contrast this with
the national security state's strategies to crush potential civil
unrest and you get a glimpse of the future. It doesn't look good.
"The primary near-term security concern of the United States is the
global economic crisis and its geopolitical implications," Blair told
the Senate. "The crisis has been ongoing for over a year, and
economists are divided over whether and when we could hit bottom. Some
even fear that the recession could further deepen and reach the level
of the Great Depression. Of course, all of us recall the dramatic
political consequences wrought by the economic turmoil of the 1920s
and 1930s in Europe, the instability, and high levels of violent
extremism."
The specter of social unrest was raised at the U.S. Army War College
in November in a monograph [click on Policypointers' pdf link to see
the report] titled "Known Unknowns: Unconventional 'Strategic Shocks'
in Defense Strategy Development." The military must be prepared, the
document warned, for a "violent, strategic dislocation inside the
United States," which could be provoked by "unforeseen economic
collapse," "purposeful domestic resistance," "pervasive public health
emergencies" or "loss of functioning political and legal order." The
"widespread civil violence," the document said, "would force the
defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend
basic domestic order and human security."
"An American government and defense establishment lulled into
complacency by a long-secure domestic order would be forced to rapidly
divest some or most external security commitments in order to address
rapidly expanding human insecurity at home," it went on.
"Under the most extreme circumstances, this might include use of
military force against hostile groups inside the United States.
Further, DoD [the Department of Defense] would be, by necessity, an
essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a
multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance," the document
read.
In plain English, something bureaucrats and the military seem
incapable of employing, this translates into the imposition of martial
law and a de facto government being run out of the Department of
Defense. They are considering it. So should you.
Adm. Blair warned the Senate that "roughly a quarter of the countries
in the world have already experienced low-level instability such as
government changes because of the current slowdown." He noted that the
"bulk of anti-state demonstrations" internationally have been seen in
Europe and the former Soviet Union, but this did not mean they could
not spread to the United States. He told the senators that the
collapse of the global financial system is "likely to produce a wave
of economic crises in emerging market nations over the next year." He
added that "much of Latin America, former Soviet Union states and
sub-Saharan Africa lack sufficient cash reserves, access to
international aid or credit, or other coping mechanism."
"When those growth rates go down, my gut tells me that there are going
to be problems coming out of that, and we're looking for that," he
said. He referred to "statistical modeling" showing that "economic
crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they
persist over a one to two year period."
Blair articulated the newest narrative of fear. As the economic
unraveling accelerates we will be told it is not the bearded Islamic
extremists, although those in power will drag them out of the
Halloween closet when they need to give us an exotic shock, but
instead the domestic riffraff, environmentalists, anarchists, unions
and enraged members of our dispossessed working class who threaten us.
Crime, as it always does in times of turmoil, will grow. Those who
oppose the iron fist of the state security apparatus will be lumped
together in slick, corporate news reports with the growing criminal
underclass.
The committee's Republican vice chairman, Sen. Christopher Bond of
Missouri, not quite knowing what to make of Blair's testimony, said he
was concerned that Blair was making the "conditions in the country"
and the global economic crisis "the primary focus of the intelligence
community."
The economic collapse has exposed the stupidity of our collective
faith in a free market and the absurdity of an economy based on the
goals of endless growth, consumption, borrowing and expansion. The
ideology of unlimited growth failed to take into account the massive
depletion of the world's resources, from fossil fuels to clean water
to fish stocks to erosion, as well as overpopulation, global warming
and climate change. The huge international flows of unregulated
capital have wrecked the global financial system. An overvalued dollar
(which will soon deflate), wild tech, stock and housing financial
bubbles, unchecked greed, the decimation of our manufacturing sector,
the empowerment of an oligarchic class, the corruption of our
political elite, the impoverishment of workers, a bloated military and
defense budget and unrestrained credit binges have conspired to bring
us down. The financial crisis will soon become a currency crisis. This
second shock will threaten our financial viability. We let the market
rule. Now we are paying for it.
The corporate thieves, those who insisted they be paid tens of
millions of dollars because they were the best and the brightest, have
been exposed as con artists. Our elected officials, along with the
press, have been exposed as corrupt and spineless corporate lackeys.
Our business schools and intellectual elite have been exposed as
frauds. The age of the West has ended. Look to China. Laissez-faire
capitalism has destroyed itself. It is time to dust off your copies of
Marx.
Spawned Our Greatest Terrorist Threat
By Chris. Posted February 17, 2009.
The Director of National Intelligence argued that Wall Street, rather
than Islamic jihad, has produced our most dangerous terrorists.
We have a remarkable ability to create our own monsters. A few decades
of meddling in the Middle East with our Israeli doppelgnger and we get
Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaida, the Iraqi resistance movement and a
resurgent Taliban. Now we trash the world economy and destroy the
ecosystem and sit back to watch our handiwork. Hints of our brave new
world seeped out Thursday when Washington's new director of national
intelligence, retired Adm. Dennis Blair, testified before the Senate
Intelligence Committee. He warned that the deepening economic crisis
posed perhaps our gravest threat to stability and national security.
It could trigger, he said, a return to the "violent extremism" of the
1920s and 1930s.
It turns out that Wall Street, rather than Islamic jihad, has produced
our most dangerous terrorists. We will see accelerated plant and
retail closures, inflation, an epidemic of bankruptcies, new rounds of
foreclosures, bread lines, unemployment surpassing the levels of the
Great Depression and, as Blair fears, social upheaval.
The United Nations' International Labor Organization estimates that
some 50 million workers will lose their jobs worldwide this year. The
collapse has already seen 3.6 million lost jobs in the United States.
The International Monetary Fund's prediction for global economic
growth in 2009 is 0.5 percent--the worst since World War II. There are
2.3 million properties in the United States that received a default
notice or were repossessed last year. And this number is set to rise
in 2009, especially as vacant commercial real estate begins to be
foreclosed. About 20,000 major global banks collapsed, were sold or
were nationalized in 2008. There are an estimated 62,000 U.S.
companies expected to shut down this year. Unemployment, when you add
people no longer looking for jobs and part-time workers who cannot
find full-time employment, is close to 14 percent.
And we have few tools left to dig our way out. The manufacturing
sector in the United States has been destroyed by globalization.
Consumers, thanks to credit card companies and easy lines of credit,
are $14 trillion in debt. The government has pledged trillions toward
the crisis, most of it borrowed or printed in the form of new money.
It is borrowing trillions more to fund our wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq. And no one states the obvious: We will never be able to pay
these loans back. We are supposed to somehow spend our way out of the
crisis and maintain our imperial project on credit. Let our kids worry
about it. There is no coherent and realistic plan, one built around
our severe limitations, to stanch the bleeding or ameliorate the
mounting deprivations we will suffer as citizens. Contrast this with
the national security state's strategies to crush potential civil
unrest and you get a glimpse of the future. It doesn't look good.
"The primary near-term security concern of the United States is the
global economic crisis and its geopolitical implications," Blair told
the Senate. "The crisis has been ongoing for over a year, and
economists are divided over whether and when we could hit bottom. Some
even fear that the recession could further deepen and reach the level
of the Great Depression. Of course, all of us recall the dramatic
political consequences wrought by the economic turmoil of the 1920s
and 1930s in Europe, the instability, and high levels of violent
extremism."
The specter of social unrest was raised at the U.S. Army War College
in November in a monograph [click on Policypointers' pdf link to see
the report] titled "Known Unknowns: Unconventional 'Strategic Shocks'
in Defense Strategy Development." The military must be prepared, the
document warned, for a "violent, strategic dislocation inside the
United States," which could be provoked by "unforeseen economic
collapse," "purposeful domestic resistance," "pervasive public health
emergencies" or "loss of functioning political and legal order." The
"widespread civil violence," the document said, "would force the
defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend
basic domestic order and human security."
"An American government and defense establishment lulled into
complacency by a long-secure domestic order would be forced to rapidly
divest some or most external security commitments in order to address
rapidly expanding human insecurity at home," it went on.
"Under the most extreme circumstances, this might include use of
military force against hostile groups inside the United States.
Further, DoD [the Department of Defense] would be, by necessity, an
essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a
multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance," the document
read.
In plain English, something bureaucrats and the military seem
incapable of employing, this translates into the imposition of martial
law and a de facto government being run out of the Department of
Defense. They are considering it. So should you.
Adm. Blair warned the Senate that "roughly a quarter of the countries
in the world have already experienced low-level instability such as
government changes because of the current slowdown." He noted that the
"bulk of anti-state demonstrations" internationally have been seen in
Europe and the former Soviet Union, but this did not mean they could
not spread to the United States. He told the senators that the
collapse of the global financial system is "likely to produce a wave
of economic crises in emerging market nations over the next year." He
added that "much of Latin America, former Soviet Union states and
sub-Saharan Africa lack sufficient cash reserves, access to
international aid or credit, or other coping mechanism."
"When those growth rates go down, my gut tells me that there are going
to be problems coming out of that, and we're looking for that," he
said. He referred to "statistical modeling" showing that "economic
crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they
persist over a one to two year period."
Blair articulated the newest narrative of fear. As the economic
unraveling accelerates we will be told it is not the bearded Islamic
extremists, although those in power will drag them out of the
Halloween closet when they need to give us an exotic shock, but
instead the domestic riffraff, environmentalists, anarchists, unions
and enraged members of our dispossessed working class who threaten us.
Crime, as it always does in times of turmoil, will grow. Those who
oppose the iron fist of the state security apparatus will be lumped
together in slick, corporate news reports with the growing criminal
underclass.
The committee's Republican vice chairman, Sen. Christopher Bond of
Missouri, not quite knowing what to make of Blair's testimony, said he
was concerned that Blair was making the "conditions in the country"
and the global economic crisis "the primary focus of the intelligence
community."
The economic collapse has exposed the stupidity of our collective
faith in a free market and the absurdity of an economy based on the
goals of endless growth, consumption, borrowing and expansion. The
ideology of unlimited growth failed to take into account the massive
depletion of the world's resources, from fossil fuels to clean water
to fish stocks to erosion, as well as overpopulation, global warming
and climate change. The huge international flows of unregulated
capital have wrecked the global financial system. An overvalued dollar
(which will soon deflate), wild tech, stock and housing financial
bubbles, unchecked greed, the decimation of our manufacturing sector,
the empowerment of an oligarchic class, the corruption of our
political elite, the impoverishment of workers, a bloated military and
defense budget and unrestrained credit binges have conspired to bring
us down. The financial crisis will soon become a currency crisis. This
second shock will threaten our financial viability. We let the market
rule. Now we are paying for it.
The corporate thieves, those who insisted they be paid tens of
millions of dollars because they were the best and the brightest, have
been exposed as con artists. Our elected officials, along with the
press, have been exposed as corrupt and spineless corporate lackeys.
Our business schools and intellectual elite have been exposed as
frauds. The age of the West has ended. Look to China. Laissez-faire
capitalism has destroyed itself. It is time to dust off your copies of
Marx.