DOW update - - the heat is on

A rare event instead of window dressing we had an window stripping event closing at the quarters low in a quarterly reversal. Left hand the daily DOW chart with the death cross about to happen within 2-3 days which creates a 90 % probability with all the other factors that a big bear market is ahead. This is a very unusual cluster where a daily reversal turned into weekly and quarterly breaking plenty of crucial levels although the DOW is the only one of the big 3 which is right at the edge but that is just a random observation as the bear market is on. From now on its about in which waves it will unfold and not if it will happen - a retest of the lows as I have been writing over a year is part of the process. The first big target is 8250 in 6-9 months for now the first short term target may be 9400 which is a 38% level with the former one being a 62% level and the target deriving from the Head & Shoulder pattern as well. From 9400 we might have a brief counterswing to 9800-10000 even if that happens it a good point to add shorts but one should run a big line going forward as the earnings season will not be a pleasant one except the big banks with there cheat earnings.

part 3

6. Shall we be scared goldman can calculate head and shoulder patterns - the evergreen bull is gettin more and more bearish within its overall bullish dichotomy

excerpt

Cold Shoulder: Goldman Warns If 1,040 Is Taken Out In S&P, 865 Is Next Stop

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/29/2010 11:35 -0500

Here is why the entire Liberty 33 trading desk is set on preventing a break of 1,040 in the S&P - as Goldman's trading desk technician John Noyce warns, the next stop in the head and shoulders formation, should 1040 be taken out, would be 865, not to mention a complete rout for global teleprompter stocks post the mid-term elections.

7. Disgusting DC makes the final watering down of the FIN REG charade - do you remember the tom hanks joke about lawyers in one of his movies - what are 1000 politicians chained together at the ground of the sea? A good start

excerpt

Government Betrays Americans Again, Prepares To Drop Bank Levy To Win Support For Fin Reg

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/29/2010 11:26 -0500

Goldman off to the races as 3 reports confirm that the captured and bribed congressmen and senators are about to drop the $19 billion bank levy in order to win the support of Scott Brown and others who demand that banks gradually lose every expense item from their P&L over time, and have revenue translate to net income.We anticipate more such 11:59th hour horsetrading, as the entire already worthless bill is reduced to one ply toilet paper for Wall Street's CEOs.

NDX weekly update

as ı write the triangle or overall support gets tested and its rather just a matter of time - days or hours until we take it out. the matter that we drop sharply below the 200 day MA for the NDX as well with a gap in consecutive 7 days down is a very bearish price action. the target once we close below 1780 on a weekly basis is 1500. like ı wrote 2 weeks back if ı were a bull ı would be scared as the death cross is one of the harbingers of bad things to come in the next weeks and months. the lunar eclipse on the grand cross lived up to its promise of a sell of and we can expect more as the last time in 1931 it triggered a downmove of at least 20 percent. at some point later today if they have the chance is hard to say the window dressers with PPT will try to save the day or rather a bit of the quarter but even that chart for monthly and quarterly terms looks quite bearish now.

part 2

A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker.
Buddha


4. This thieve and actually terrorist Cassano who headed the AIG unit which brought the whole financial world to a collapse took over 300 mio in cash bonus pays out of AIG and still receives a 1 mio advisor fee per month - how fucking insane are Geithner ,Feinberg or even Obama letting this guy walk away and on top paying him 1 mio a month. Seems to be time to throw all of them into jail with the snake oil salesmanship of Obama going after BP is nothing but a charade as well.



5. Buffett now has a big stake in the drug money laundering operation of Wachovia which is owned by his praised and widely held stocks of Wells Fargo - lets see what the nice chap from Omaha has to say about that after he defended the criminal habits of Moodys. probably Obama should allocate more resources to this kind of problems than chasing Taliban in foreign countries he rather should fight Mexican cartels

excerpt

Banks Financing Mexico Drug Gangs Admitted in Wells Fargo Deal

By Michael Smith

June 29 (Bloomberg) -- Just before sunset on April 10, 2006, a DC-9 jet landed at the international airport in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, 500 miles east of Mexico City. As soldiers on the ground approached the plane, the crew tried to shoo them away, saying there was a dangerous oil leak. So the troops grew suspicious and searched the jet.

They found 128 black suitcases, packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100 million. The stash was supposed to have been delivered from Caracas to drug traffickers in Toluca, near Mexico City, Mexican prosecutors later found. Law enforcement officials also discovered something else.

The smugglers had bought the DC-9 with laundered funds they transferred through two of the biggest banks in the U.S.: Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp., Bloomberg Markets reports in its August 2010 issue.

This was no isolated incident. Wachovia, it turns out, had made a habit of helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. Wells Fargo & Co., which bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers -- including the cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22 tons of cocaine.

The admission came in an agreement that Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia struck with federal prosecutors in March, and it sheds light on the largely undocumented role of U.S. banks in contributing to the violent drug trade that has convulsed Mexico for the past four years.

‘Blatant Disregard’

Wachovia admitted it didn’t do enough to spot illicit funds in handling $378.4 billion for Mexican-currency-exchange houses from 2004 to 2007. That’s the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money-laundering law, in U.S. history -- a sum equal to one-third of Mexico’s current gross domestic product.

“Wachovia’s blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international cocaine cartels a virtual carte blanche to finance their operations,” says Jeffrey Sloman, the federal prosecutor who handled the case.

Since 2006, more than 22,000 people have been killed in drug-related battles that have raged mostly along the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) border that Mexico shares with the U.S. In the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, 700 people had been murdered this year as of mid- June. Six Juarez police officers were slaughtered by automatic weapons fire in a midday ambush in April.

Rondolfo Torre, the leading candidate for governor in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas, was gunned down yesterday, less than a week before elections in which violence related to drug trafficking was a central issue.

45,000 Troops

Mexican President Felipe Calderon vowed to crush the drug cartels when he took office in December 2006, and he’s since deployed 45,000 troops to fight the cartels. They’ve had little success.

Among the dead are police, soldiers, journalists and ordinary citizens. The U.S. has pledged Mexico $1.1 billion in the past two years to aid in the fight against narcotics cartels.

In May, President Barack Obama said he’d send 1,200 National Guard troops, adding to the 17,400 agents on the U.S. side of the border to help stem drug traffic and illegal immigration.

Behind the carnage in Mexico is an industry that supplies hundreds of tons of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamines to Americans. The cartels have built a network of dealers in 231 U.S. cities from coast to coast, taking in about $39 billion in sales annually, according to the Justice Department.

‘You’re Missing the Point’

Twenty million people in the U.S. regularly use illegal drugs, spurring street crime and wrecking families. Narcotics cost the U.S. economy $215 billion a year -- enough to cover health care for 30.9 million Americans -- in overburdened courts, prisons and hospitals and lost productivity, the department says.

Tuesday Brainstorming - part 1

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.
Abraham Lincoln

1. War preparations in full gear - who says Israel and USA have a friction as the massive military presence happens with any UN resolution but with a consent within G8 it seems as Berlusconi clearly said that the war option is the only way.

excerpt

Third US carrier, 4,000 Marines augment US armada opposite Iran
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report June 28, 2010, 10:45 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags: Iran Persian Gulf USS Nassau

USS Nassau: More US naval-air-marine muscle off Iran

debkafile's military sources report that Washington has posted a third carrier opposite Iran's shores. It is supported by amphibious assault ships and up to 4,000 Navy and Marine Corps personnel, bringing the total US strength in these waters to three carriers and 10,000 combat personnel.
The USS Nassau (LHA-4) Amphibious Ready Group 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, tasked with supporting the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet area of operations, is cruising around the Bab al-Mandeb Straits where the Gulf of Aden flows into the Red Sea. Its presence there accounts for Tehran announcing Sunday, June 27 that its "aid ship for Gaza" had been called off, for fear an American military boarding party would intercept the vessel and search it. This would be permissible under the latest UN sanctions punishing the Islamic Republic for its nuclear program.
The third US carrier group to reach waters around Iran consists of three vessels:
1. The USS Nassau Amphibious Assault ship is not just an enormous landing craft for the 3,000 Marines aboard; its decks carry 6 vertical take-off AV-HB Harrier attack plans; four AH-1W Super Cobra, twelve CH-46 Sea Knight and CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters, as well choppers convertible to fast V-22 Osprey airplanes capable of landing in any conditions.
This vast warship has 1,400 cabinets for sleeping the entire Marine-24th Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard.
2. The amphibious transport dock ship USS Mesa Verde which carries 800 Marines equipped for instantaneous landing.
3. The amphibious dock landing ship USS Ashland which carries 400 Marines and 102 commandos trained for special operations behind enemy lines.

debkafile adds: The USS Ashland was the target of an al Qaeda Katyusha rocket attack in 2005 when it was docked in Jordan's Aqaba port next door to the Israeli port of Eilat. One of the rockets exploded in Eilat airport. The ship exited harbor in time to escape harm.
These new arrivals are a massive injection of naval, air and marine muscle to the strength Washington has deployed in the Persian Gulf-Red Sea-Indian Ocean arena in recent months. The USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group consisting of twelve warships is cruising in the Arabian Sea opposite Chah Bahar, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards biggest naval base not far from the Iranian-Pakistan border. It is there that most of Iran's special commando units are housed.
Also posted in the Arabian Sea, further to the west, is the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Strike Group.

2. The expiring one year finance facility of the ECB puts the markets under big distress as the unseen rise of the CHF shows on a daily basis. They offer unlimited 3 month financing facilities but it seems that the necessary healing of the financial system has failed on both ends of the ocean as the FED wants to keep up zero financing unlimited as well. Which is proof of the structural failure on one hand but also that the cooked balance cheats are bleeding and need subsidies by taxpayers to survive. The problem is that negative interest rates created by central banks, as also the BIS has warned ,will created disaster as it steals money from Mainstreet and diminishes buying power undermining GDP growth on the one hand and forces investors to make pathetic investments in high risk instruments creating dangerous bubbles on the other hand. ınteresting after the FED s anti blogger pamphlet yesterday declaring only Ph Ds in economics know hoe economy works well I think the last century they have proven the opposite rather. On the contrary it is rather a cheap shot to step up against the public disgust and or public consent that they are a useless bunch one could say but I rather suspect since they have a hidden agenda that they obey a master who has different purpose than to serve the public interest.

excerpt

Spanish Banks Rage at End of ECB Offer

Spanish banks have been lobbying the European Central Bank to act to ease the systemic fallout from the expiry of a 442 billion euros ($542 billion) funding program this week, accusing the central bank of “absurd” behavior in not renewing the scheme.

GlowImages | Getty Images

On Thursday, the clock runs out on the ECB financing program – the largest amount ever lent in a single liquidity operation by the central bank – under the terms of the one-year special liquidity facility launched last summer

One senior bank executive said: “Any central bank has to have the obligation to supply liquidity. But this is not the policy of the ECB. We are fighting them every day on this. It’s absurd.”

Another top director said: “The ECB’s policy is that they don’t want to provide maturity of more than three months. But they have to adapt.”

Banks across the euro zone, but in Spain in particular, have found it hard in recent weeks to secure liquid funding in the commercial markets, with inter-bank funding virtually non-existent.

The 442 billion euro ECB facility, which charges interest at a rate of 1 percent, is not set to be renewed, something that banks in Spain and elsewhere in Europe say ignores current commercial realities.

A special offer of six-day liquidity will tide banks over until the following week’s regular offer of seven-day funds. On Wednesday, the ECB will also be offering unlimited three month liquidity, and further offers of three-month liquidity will keep banks going until at least the end of the year.

3. Alex about to become hurricane and will in any case produce big waves pumping oil to tn the coast - the question rather is how much harm will it do.

excerpt

Alex to Become Hurricane as Swells Reach Gulf Spill

By Yee Kai Pin and Brian K. Sullivan

June 29 (Bloomberg) -- Tropical Storm Alex, the first named system of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, strengthened as it forced the evacuation of some offshore rigs and pushed swells toward a slick left by the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

The storm, with maximum sustained winds of 65 miles (105 kilometers) per hour, was about 505 miles southeast of Brownsville, Texas, and moving north at 5 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory posted on its website at about 10 p.m. Miami time yesterday.

“Alex is expected to increase in forward speed to the northwest,” the hurricane center said. “Alex is also forecast to strengthen to hurricane force within the next 24 hours.”

The U.S. and Mexican governments issued hurricane watches from south of Baffin Bay in Texas to La Cruz, Mexico, according to the hurricane center. A watch means storm conditions may develop within 36 hours. A tropical storm watch has been issued from Baffin Bay to Port O’Connor, Texas.

“Alex will be a large hurricane,” Jim Rouiller, senior energy meteorologist for Planalytics Inc., a weather adviser to energy interests, said yesterday. “Current projections place the destructive right forward quad of Alex across southeast Texas, possibly up to Corpus Christi.”

Oil Spill

The storm’s track keeps it away from a direct hit on an oil slick from a damaged BP Plc well. Large ocean swells are making their way to the site, according to Brian LaMarre, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Slidell, Louisiana.

“A hurricane is like a giant plunger and the waves radiate out,” Joe Bastardi, chief hurricane forecaster at AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania, said yesterday. “Some big swells are coming out and pushing oil to the coast and there isn’t anything anyone can do about it.”

The waves may reach as high as 12 feet in the next 36 hours, pushing the oil into the Gulf Coast wetlands, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the U.S. government’s national incident commander, said at a press conference. Allen said he doesn’t think current operations to capture spilled oil will be affected.

part 2

3. The market in America after China one of the worst performers is about to test the 1040 level once again soon- though we might have a little interruption the next 2 days with window dressing. Some markets are clearly in panic mode as the Swiss makes new highs against the Euro on a daily basis despite fierce interventions by the SNB - we should see a bounce back in the Euro in July.

Krugman jumps the bandwagon and also calls for the depression as I did since a year with mind blowing parallels to the 30's.

The Third Depression

Recessions are common; depressions are rare. As far as I can tell, there were only two eras in economic history that were widely described as “depressions” at the time: the years of deflation and instability that followed the Panic of 1873 and the years of mass unemployment that followed the financial crisis of 1929-31.

Neither the Long Depression of the 19th century nor the Great Depression of the 20th was an era of nonstop decline — on the contrary, both included periods when the economy grew. But these episodes of improvement were never enough to undo the damage from the initial slump, and were followed by relapses.

We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost — to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs — will nonetheless be immense.

And this third depression will be primarily a failure of policy. Around the world — most recently at last weekend’s deeply discouraging G-20 meeting — governments are obsessing about inflation when the real threat is deflation, preaching the need for belt-tightening when the real problem is inadequate spending.

In 2008 and 2009, it seemed as if we might have learned from history. Unlike their predecessors, who raised interest rates in the face of financial crisis, the current leaders of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank slashed rates and moved to support credit markets. Unlike governments of the past, which tried to balance budgets in the face of a plunging economy, today’s governments allowed deficits to rise. And better policies helped the world avoid complete collapse: the recession brought on by the financial crisis arguably ended last summer.

But future historians will tell us that this wasn’t the end of the third depression, just as the business upturn that began in 1933 wasn’t the end of the Great Depression. After all, unemployment — especially long-term unemployment — remains at levels that would have been considered catastrophic not long ago, and shows no sign of coming down rapidly. And both the United States and Europe are well on their way toward Japan-style deflationary traps.

Neither the Long Depression of the 19th century nor the Great Depression of the 20th was an era of nonstop decline — on the contrary, both included periods when the economy grew. But these episodes of improvement were never enough to undo the damage from the initial slump, and were followed by relapses.

We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost — to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs — will nonetheless be immense.

And this third depression will be primarily a failure of policy. Around the world — most recently at last weekend’s deeply discouraging G-20 meeting — governments are obsessing about inflation when the real threat is deflation, preaching the need for belt-tightening when the real problem is inadequate spending.

In 2008 and 2009, it seemed as if we might have learned from history. Unlike their predecessors, who raised interest rates in the face of financial crisis, the current leaders of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank slashed rates and moved to support credit markets. Unlike governments of the past, which tried to balance budgets in the face of a plunging economy, today’s governments allowed deficits to rise. And better policies helped the world avoid complete collapse: the recession brought on by the financial crisis arguably ended last summer.

But future historians will tell us that this wasn’t the end of the third depression, just as the business upturn that began in 1933 wasn’t the end of the Great Depression. After all, unemployment — especially long-term unemployment — remains at levels that would have been considered catastrophic not long ago, and shows no sign of coming down rapidly. And both the United States and Europe are well on their way toward Japan-style deflationary traps.

4. RBS calls for a depressive stockmarket move triggered by monster money printing presses.

excerpt

Prepare for Cliff-Edge, 'Monster' Money Printing: RBS

The credit team at RBS in London are getting very bearish and warning clients to "get ready for the cliff-edge," where prices of stocks and commodities will "collapse."

RBS credit chief Andrew Roberts said the edge is just around the corner for the European banking industry and the economies of Europe and the US.

"Surely risks associated with us being wrong are low, i.e. rates stay where they are," Roberts wrote in a research note.

"But risks associated with us being right are 10 percent returns in (10-year US Treasurys) and at the same time that equities/commodities will collapse far beyond what even some equity bears anticipate."

Brainstorming Monday - part 1

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
Abraham Lincoln


1. Congrats Mr President you have indeed triggered a hiring spree - the only flaw is that its high profile banksters who get drastic raises as well - but you are worth all the money Wallstreet invested in your campaign donations to say the least. Be assured that picking up 250k per speech at banks around the world will be a well deserved treat once you are thrown out of DC as Mr Clinton was also able to gather his 50 mio. bonus.
As stated before the zero financing of the FED adds aprox. 20 bil of free profits for every 1 tril balance cheat on Wallstreet

excerpt

Wall Street Hiring Jumps Most Since 2008 as Guarantees Return

y Michael J. Moore

June 28 (Bloomberg) -- Leverage is back on Wall Street -- and this time it’s the bankers who have it.

Firms are adding jobs for the first time in two years, rebuilding businesses cut during the financial crisis and offering guaranteed payouts to lure top bankers. In New York, 6,800 financial-industry positions were added from the end of February through May, the largest three-month increase since 2008, according to the New York State Department of Labor.

Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc. are among banks that are hiring to replenish their ranks, while Nomura Holdings Inc. and Jefferies Group Inc. have been recruiting talent from larger firms in a bid to increase their standing on Wall Street.

“Candidates are now getting multiple offers, and companies risk losing their desired candidates if they don’t act quickly enough -- and that’s a real change,” said Constance Melrose, managing director of eFinancialCareers Ltd., which has seen a 75 percent rise in investment banking jobs posted on its website from a year earlier.

The removal of uncertainty regarding Congress’s financial reform bill may reinforce the hiring rebound. A deal reached by members of a House and Senate conference last week diluted provisions from the tougher Senate bill, limiting rather than prohibiting the ability of federally insured banks to trade derivatives and invest in hedge funds or private-equity funds.

Increased Headcount

Five of the largest banks on Wall Street -- Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley -- increased their total headcount in the first quarter, the first three-month jump since the start of 2009, when Bank of America purchased Merrill Lynch & Co. The five banks posted combined net income of $16.2 billion in the first quarter, and three reported record fixed-income trading revenue. It was the highest combined profit for the banks since the second quarter of 2007.

New York City had 429,000 financial jobs as of May 31, up from 422,200 in February, according to the Department of Labor data. That’s still down from the peak of 473,800 in August 2007, the data show.

“The overall mood on Wall Street is significantly better than it was last year,” said Richard Lipstein, a managing director at Boyden Global Executive Search Ltd. in New York. “Hiring comes down to what products are increasingly active, and there has been some pent-up demand for people, and that demand follows increased optimism.”

Morgan Stanley, Citigroup

Firms are paying 30 percent to 40 percent more than what employees are expecting to earn to lure them from other banks this year, according to an April report from Options Group, a New York-based executive search and compensation consulting company. Equity derivatives and commodities trading are two of the fastest-growing areas, the report said.

Morgan Stanley, which added about 400 employees to its sales and trading business over the last year, has recruited financial institutions banker David Heaton, 43, along with Michael Johnson and Jonathan Cox in the natural resources group, from Deutsche Bank AG. The New York-based bank also hired Gary Shedlin, 46, from Citigroup in March to be a vice chairman in its investment banking division.

2. Below some excellent piece of intel over the new fleet deployment in front of Iran's coast where a warrior admiral is taking over from a guard admiral type which is a clear hint that the attack is being prepared.

excerpt

arsing Recent Carrier Strike Group Movements

Submitted by Marla Singer on 06/27/2010 20:07 -0500

• Afghanistan
• Iraq
• Japan
• Kaufman
• national security

As with any Nimitz class carrier, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) doesn't deploy alone. Instead she sails with a number of other support vessels composing a "Carrier Strike Group." Within the Eisenhower's traditional strike group (Carrier Strike Group Eight) are:

Command Destroyer Squadron Two Eight, composed of 8300 ton Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers focused on antiair, antisubmarine, antisurface, and strike operations using the AN/SPY-1D Phased Array Radar, an AEGIS upgrade, and the best-in-class AN/SQQ-89 integrated ASW Suite. Originally designed to deal with former Soviet air threats (like Iran's Su-25, MiG-29A (Fulcrum) and MiG-29UB aircraft?):

The USS Bainbridge (DDG 96)
The USS Barry (DDG 52)
The USS Laboon (DDG 58)
The USS Mitscher (DDG 57)
The USS Ramage (DDG 61)

Along with:
Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers:

The USS Carney (DDG 64)
The USS McFaul (DDG 74)
The USS Farragut (DDG 99)

...and 9600 ton Ticonderoga class guided missile cruisers:

The USS Hue City (CG 66)
The USS Anzio (CG 68)
The USS Vicksburg (CG 69)

Generally, Carrier Strike Groups are also escorted by two or three attack submarines as well. Those aren't talked about much.

Carrier Strike Group Ten, built around the USS Harry S. Truman, is composed of a substantially similar group. It will, however, replace Command Destroyer Squadron Two Eight with Command Destroyer Squadron Two Six:

USS Hawes (FFG 53)
USS James E. Williams (DDG 95)
USS Kaufman (FFG 59)
USS Ross (DDG 71)
USS Oscar Austin (DDG 79)
USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81)
USS Elrod (FFG 55)

The presence of three Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates (FFG 53, FFG 59, FFG 55) is interesting. Zero Hedge readers may remember the Oliver Hazard Perry class by its most famous member, the USS Stark (FFG 31) which was struck by not one but two Exocet anti-ship missiles launched from an Iraqi plane in 1987 and somehow managed to limp to Bahrain and was eventually repaired and returned to service. Less famous, but more dramatic, the USS Samuel B. Roberts struck an Iranian mine, which blew a 6 meter hole in the vessel, flooded the engine room, and actually broke the keel. For the unwashed, the end of the keel is typically the end of a warship. Despite this, the Samuel B. Roberts was not only salvaged, but repaired and returned to action.

The USS Stark (FFG 31) lists to port after being
struck by Iraqi Exocet missiles in 1987

For comparison, the only real action the Arleigh Burke class has seen is via the USS Cole (DDG 67) which was attacked while in port by suicide bombers.

Though the Eisenhower and Carrier Strike Group Eight are due to rotate out of the area after a six month deployment in July, two things are interesting with respect to this rotation.

Firstly, the arrival of Carrier Strike Group Ten with the Harry S. Truman puts two anti-air and anti-cruise missile groups in the U.S. Fifth Fleet AOR ("Area of Responsibility," Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea and East African Coast) at the same time. Also, this is the first time the Harry S. Truman has been in the Fifth Fleet AOR. (The Eisenhower relieved the USS Nimitz, which is now sitting patiently in San Diego, back in January).

Sailors aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) render honors
to the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) (Arabian Sea, June 26, 2010)

Second, the outgoing Carrier Strike Group Eight is commanded by Rear Admiral Phillip S. Davidson. Of course, one does not manage to command a Carrier Strike Group without active and combat deployment, but Davidson's background is far more weighted to strategy and policy accomplishments. To wit:

Adm. Davidson’s initial sea service assignments were in frigates and destroyers in both the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets and he has made deployments to the Persian Gulf, Western Pacific, Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Eastern Pacific and Baltic Sea areas of operation. He was also the Commanding Officer in two warships, commanding USS Taylor (FFG 50) from August 1998 to June 2000 and USS Gettysburg (CG 64) from October 2004 to June 2006. He deployed and earned Battle Efficiency “E” awards in both of those ships.

Ashore, he has served in a variety of operations, planning and policy billets on the U.S. Pacific Fleet staff, the Navy staff and the Joint Staff; as the Navy’s Military Aide to the Vice President of the United States; and as a Special Assistant to the Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, the Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Command, and later, to the Chief of Naval Operations. He was the Deputy Director for Strategy and Policy in the Joint Staff/J-5 in his first flag officer assignment.
Rear Admiral Davidson is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval War College. His decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat “V” and other personal, unit and campaign awards. He has a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies and is a Joint Specialty Officer.1

His replacement, Rear Admiral Patrick Driscoll, Commander of Carrier Strike Group Ten, has enjoyed a career with a decidedly different focus, specifically: A combat hardened strike fighter pilot and commander with significant experience in the Iraq-Iran theater. Notice:

Driscoll's initial fleet assignment was with the 1983 Battle "E" winning VS-32 “Maulers," where he completed two Indian Ocean deployments and was selected as the Atlantic Fleet Sea Strike Pilot of the Year. Following transition training in the A-7E CORSAIR II, Driscoll deployed with the VA-105 "Gunslingers" to the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean, which included participation in tanker escort operations during Operation Earnest Will.

His next sea assignment was with the "Clansmen" of VA-46, where he deployed aboard the USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) to the Red Sea in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Driscoll then attended the Naval War College, with a follow-on joint assignment with the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in July of 1993.

In 1996, Driscoll reported once again to the "Gunslingers" of VFA-105 deploying aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) and participated in Operation Deliberate Guard over Bosnia and Operation Southern Watch in Iraq. Driscoll's next assignment was the commanding officer and flight leader of the Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron (The Blue Angels) for the 1999 and 2000 show seasons.

In April of 2001, Driscoll reported to Carrier Air Wing 5 based in Atsugi, Japan. During Operation Enduring Freedom, he led the TACAIR strike element aboard the USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63), which served as an Afloat Forward Staging Base during combat operations in Afghanistan. He deployed again in 2003 and led his air wing in combat during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 2008 he served in Baghdad, Iraq as Director of Communication and spokesman for Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I). He is currently serving as Commander, Carrier Strike Group TEN.

Driscoll’s staff assignments include: Deputy Director, Deep Blue; EA to the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information, Plans and Strategy; EA to the Vice Chief of Naval Operations and the Chairman’s Joint Strategic Working Group.

Personal awards include the Legion of Merit with two gold stars, the Distinguished Flying Cross with Combat V, three Bronze Stars, and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal. He is a distinguished graduate of the Naval War College and holds a Masters degree in National Security and Strategic Studies.2

Driscoll relieved Rear Admiral Mark Fox in May of last year.

Even in the event Carrier Strike Group Eight rotates out immediately, in Carrier Strike Group Ten the Arabian Sea has a group of vessels battle proven in this theater and against a similar foe commanded by an experienced air combat officer and filled with freshly deployed fighting men and women.

New moon on July 12th.

Hmmmmm.

Some uncomfy facts about Israel

excerpt

Group of Eight leaders expect Israel may decide to take
action against Iran out of concern that the country is building
nuclear weapons, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
said yesterday.

Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure.
Abraham Lincoln

http://www.davidicke.com/articles/war-and-terror-mainmenu-45/19027-time-to-tell-the-truth-about-israel-without-fear-of-the-mind-police

Time To Tell The Truth About Israel ... Without Fear Of The Mind Police

Sunday, 11 January 2009 18:29

TIME TO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT ISRAEL ...

... WITHOUT FEAR OF THE MIND POLICE

The Thought Censors don't like it? Tough

By David Icke

January 10^th 2009

Hello all ...

So yet again the people of the virtual-concentration camp, known officially as 'Gaza', are being bombarded from the sky and from the ground by the bully-boys of Tel Aviv.

State-of-the art Israeli jets and tanks, paid for by the United States, strike civilian targets in this tragic, poverty-stricken wasteland which acts as a holding camp for the human beings the Israeli government would rather be dead.

The world watches as a nation of people, the Palestinians, is systematically crushed and destroyed by the tyrants who call the shots in Israel on behalf of that country's real power structure - the House of Rothschild.

And, taxpayers of America (and elsewhere), you are paying for this calculated slaughter.

The Palestinian 'territories' of Gaza and the West Bank

American aid to Israel accounts for something like a third of all US overseas aid when Israel is home to just .001 per cent of the global population and has one of the highest incomes per head in the world. This is without all the 'private' donations from US corporations and individuals which are tax-deductible even when given to the Israeli military, unlike any other foreign power.

According to 2007 figures, the United States government gave more than $6.8 million to wealthy Israel every day while to the desperate and devastated Palestinians of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank they gave just $300,000.

US military 'aid' to Israel increased by more than a quarter to an average $3 billion a year in 2007 - a figure guaranteed for ten years. This and other support makes Israel the biggest recipient of United States foreign military funding since the Second World War.

The United States is also Israel's biggest supplier of fighter planes, weapons and other military technology. As a result, Israel has the world's largest F-16 fleet outside the US Air Force. In their book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt write:

'Since the October War in 1973, Washington has provided Israel with a level of support dwarfing the amounts provided to any other state. It has been the largest annual recipient of direct U.S. economic and military assistance since 1976 and the largest total recipient since World War ll. Total direct U.S. aid to Israel amounts to well over $140 billion in 2003 dollars.

Israel receives about $3 billion in direct foreign assistance each year, which is roughly one-fifth of America's entire foreign aid budget. In per capita terms, the United States gives each Israeli a direct subsidy worth about $500 per year. This largesse is especially striking when one realizes that Israel is now a wealthy industrial state with a per capita income roughly equal to South Korea or Spain.'

Why do they do this? Because the House of Rothschild controls Israel and the House of Rothschild controls the political system of the United States. The network that links the two is called 'Zionism', a Rothschild creation - just like Israel itself.

The might of this Zionist cabal spanning Israel, the United States, Europe and beyond is yet again, like the playground bully that it is, attacking the little kid in the callipers - the people of Gaza.

At the time of writing the death toll is more than 800 Palestinian men, women and children with thousands injured, many disabled for life. They are bombing the unarmed innocent knowing there will be no credible response - the way all bullies operate. Oh, brave men of Israel; oh how Yahweh would be so proud:

'When the LORD your God hands these nations over to you and you conquer them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaties with them and show them no mercy.'

Deuteronomy 7:1-4

What we are seeing in Gaza, and have seen so many times, both there and in the Lebanon, is merciless Old Testament slaughter: cold, calculated, heartless slaughter.

'So they sent twelve thousand warriors to Jabesh-gilead with orders to kill everyone there, including women and children. "This is what you are to do," they said. "Completely destroy all the males and every woman who is not a virgin".'

Judges 21:10-24

'Then I heard the LORD say to the other men, "Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked. Show no mercy; have no pity! Kill them all - old and young, girls and women and little children. But do not touch anyone with the mark. Begin your task right here at the Temple".'

Ezekiel 9:5-7

'So they began by killing the seventy leaders. "Defile the Temple!" the LORD commanded. "Fill its courtyards with the bodies of those you kill! Go!" So they went throughout the city and did as they were told.'

Ezekiel 9:5-7

The parallels are endless between the bloodthirsty 'God' of the Old Testament and the actions of the heartless, soulless, Artificial Intelligence that controls Israel, most notably the biological robots of the House of Rothschild who thus have no soul, no empathy, no more mercy for the consequences of their actions than a desktop computer.

Imagine if Iran or anyone else outside Israel and the United States (both Rothschild assets) was doing what the Israeli military is doing in Gaza. There would be global condemnation, not least from Israel and the United States, resolutions passed in the UN Security Council fiercely attacking the country involved and talk of the need for sanctions or military intervention to 'save the innocent'.

But when Israel does it we have vacuous calls for a truce, an end to the violence while 'understanding Israel's position', and, in terms of soon-to-be President 'Change' Obama, silence. It's all a fraction of what others would face because Israel is a wholly-owned asset of the Rothschilds and so is not subject to the same rules as anyone else. As former Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, said:

'Israel may have the right to put others on trial, but certainly no one has the right to put the Jewish people and the State of Israel on trial.'

And Prime Minister Golda Meir betrayed the same Zionist arrogance:

'This country exists as the fulfilment of a promise made by God Himself. It would be ridiculous to ask it to account for its legitimacy.'

Ah, it's all in the Old Testament? Gotcha, right, well do as you like then.

The 'Jewish homeland' was from the start a Rothschild fiefdom orchestrated through the global secret society network of interbreeding families known as the Illuminati.

During the Israeli military attacks on the Lebanon in 2006, the Israeli writer, Barry Chamish, told of a meeting with Evelyn Rothschild's grandson, who abandoned the family to be a Mormon (so actually he didn't, even if he thought he did).

Chamish said he learned that just seven families were enjoying the 'fruits of the war' with the Lebanon. The grandson had said of the Rothschilds: 'They created Israel as their personal toy. It makes them richer and gives them more control. It's not going to be destroyed.'

The Rothschilds funded the early European settlers in Israel, manipulated events in Germany that led to the horrific treatment of Jewish people and others, and then used that as the excuse to reach their long-term goal - a Rothschild-Illuminati stronghold in Palestine using the Jewish population as fodder to be used and abused as necessary.

They called their plan 'Zionism'. This term is often used as a synonym for Jewish people when it is actually a political movement devised and promoted through the House of Rothschild and opposed by many Jews.

Poster for the Irgun terrorist group

The Israeli bully-boys spend most of their time condemning the terrorism of others and yet their very State was created through terrorism of the most grotesque kind via groups like Irgun, Haganah and the Stern Gang, which bombed and terrorised Israel into being and from which came the Israel Defence Forces, the IDF, which is bombing Gaza today.

Among the leading lights in these and other terrorist groups were Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir and Ariel Sharon, butchers who became Israeli Prime Ministers and had the nerve to condemn Arab terrorism. And to this day the butchery goes on with the goal of destroying the Palestinian people.

After the Rothschild-controlled Zionist terrorists had bombed the State of Israel into existence in 1948, an estimated 800,000 Palestinians were made refugees and fled what had been their own country. Their descendents are said to number some four million.

And the world simply looked on - just as it does to this day - because Israel is a law unto itself and so terms like justice, fairness, decency and mercy do not apply.

Palestinian families fleeing the newly-imposed Israel after their country was occupied by Zionist terrorism in 1948.

The idea was always to destroy the Palestinian people step-by-step long before Israel was even created. The Balfour Declaration of 1917, in which the Rothschild-controlled British government supported the establishment of a 'Jewish' homeland in Palestine, said that 'nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine'.

But the Rothschild sidekick Chaim Weizmann would later say: 'With regard to the Arab question - the British told us that there are several hundred thousand Negroes there but this is a matter of no consequence'. Nor have they been ever since and the goal of destroying them is closer today than ever before.

The first Prime Minister of Israel, yet another terrorist called David Ben-Gurion, made no secret of this fact within his inner circle. Former Israel Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, said in an uncensored version of his memoirs, published in the New York Times on 23 October 23^rd, 1979:

'We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question - What is to be done with the Palestinian population?' Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said "Drive them out!"'

The current bombing campaign against the Gaza Palestinians is just the latest step to that end. They have forced Palestinians into a Gaza Strip that is little more than a massive concentration camp in which they control all that goes in and out, people or supplies of food, medicines and other essentials.

When the Israelis close the border posts, that's it, the Palestinians are trapped and at the mercy of the soulless and heartless that control the Tel Aviv government and military under Rothschild direction.

One writer recently described conditions in Gaza:

' ... Israel nails shut the coffin that is Gaza under a siege that has lasted nearly three years, steadily intensifying so that malnutrition rates rival those of sub-Saharan Africa, sewage runs raw in the streets and pollutes the ocean, homes are still being bulldozed to super-add collective punishment upon collective punishment; men, women and children are still being sniped at and killed; children are deafened by continuing sonic booms, the vast majority of them suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome, and many of that majority have no ambition other than becoming "martyrs" ...'

And it's a whole lot worse now.

How can anyone inflict such a lack of mercy on an entire people? The question can only be answered when we understand that Zionist extremists really do believe they are God's Chosen People and that therefore the Palestinians are little more than cattle.

The Israel Prime Minister and terrorist, Menachem Begin, described the Palestinians in a speech to the Israeli parliament as 'beasts walking on two legs'. Another Prime Minister and terrorist, Yitzhak Shamir, told Jewish settlers in 1988 that the Palestinians 'would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads smashed against the boulders and walls.'

Prime Minister and terrorist, Ariel Sharon, then Israeli Foreign Minister, confirmed in 1998 what the plan really was for the Palestinians:

'It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialisation, or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands.'

The plan is to kill or drive out the Palestinian people using poverty, hunger and war and so allow the Zionists to expand into 'Greater Israel'. That plan is now well advanced.

In early 2008, the United Nations' leading humanitarian affairs official said he was 'shocked' by the 'grim and miserable' conditions in Gaza. Undersecretary General John Holmes blamed this on Israel closing the border crossings and so limiting the supply of food and other materials - just as they are doing today.

He said: 'All this makes for a grim human and humanitarian situation here in Gaza, which means that people are not able to live with the basic dignity to which they are entitled'.

But they are just 'beasts walking on two legs', right?

Richard Falk, the UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on the occupied territories, has also condemned Israel for its actions in Gaza. He is Jewish and therefore much more dangerous to the Israel government because he can't be dismissed as the old favourite 'anti-Semitic'. Or maybe he is a 'self-hater', the tag given by these sick people to those Jews who speak out against Israel.

Falk's punishment for daring to criticise the Promised Land as a UN official was to be held for 20 hours and then denied entry to the country and so he is prevented from doing his job of reporting on conditions for the Palestinian people during the current air and ground attacks.

His entry was denied in mid-December - perfect timing not to be there for the latest bombing that they knew was coming. Click here for an interview with Richard Falk ...

The Bush administration for the last eight years has been dominated by the Neo-conservative, or 'Neocon', network which is, itself, dominated by US/Israeli duel citizens and/or Zionists like Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearle, Dov Zackheim, William Kristol, Robert Kagan, Elliot Abrams, Douglas Feith, John Bolton, Robert B Zoellick, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and others. The neo-con godfather is the late Leo Strauss, a German-born Jewish 'philosopher', who believed that people must be governed by a 'pious elite'.

But surely those days of Zionist dominance are over because 'Mr. Change' is coming to 'power' now. Er, if only. Barack Obama has packed his 'new' administration with Zionists like Rahm Emanuel, his White House Chief of Staff.

Emanuel's father, Benjamin, is a Zionist extremist who was a member of the Irgun terrorist group in Palestine that I mentioned earlier and we can clearly expect the Obama administration to be balanced and fair on its Israel/Palestinian policy. No wonder Obama has kept quiet on the Israeli bombing of Gaza.

Obama speaks out on Gaza crisis: 'Hey, I got nothin' to say, I got the chance of a par here ... ask my Chief of Staff, he's a rabid Zionist and his dad helped bomb Israel into existence. He'll know what's goin' on.'

The Obama government is going to be slavishly pro-Israel because he needed the sanction of the truly massive Zionist lobby in the United States to secure the presidency. His vice-president, Joe Biden, is a long-time bag-carrier for Israel. He said on Israeli television: 'I am a Zionist - you don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist'. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is another Israel puppetess who pledged to 'obliterate' Iran if it launched a nuclear attack on God's chosen country.

Would she say she would obliterate Israel if it launched a nuclear attack on Iran? No way.

The Palestinians have never had a chance because the table is weighted, the game is rigged and it always has been. At the time of the First World War, the Rothschild-controlled British government told the Palestine Arabs that if they fought the Ottoman Turks and forced them to leave Palestine and other lands they would be rewarded with an independent Palestine.

The Palestinian Arabs agreed and with support from the British through Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence - 'Lawrence of Arabia' - the Ottoman Empire was defeated. But their reward was not independence. It was first rule by a British 'Mandate' and then occupation by Zionist Israel.

The Arabs were lied to, as Lawrence later admitted, and they have been lied to ever since. All these 'road maps' and 'peace processes' are always designed to lead nowhere. They are just holding positions to maintain the status quo until the Palestinians are basically no more.

The Israelis always say they are killing people in 'retaliation' for attacks by the Palestinian group, Hamas, which officially controls the Gaza 'authority', although control is hardly the word with Israel deciding what and who goes in and out.

Hamas operatives are firing seriously low-tech rockets that have so far killed four people. Terrible, yes, and it should not be happening. I have no brief for Hamas, which is another tyranny in its own way, but ask yourself this: What would you do if you were faced with the situation the Palestinians are in after sixty years of oppression and persecution while the world does nothing?

If you remove the injustice, you remove the motivation for a violent response to that injustice. Put people in a position where they either accept their pathetic plight or open fire and some are bound to choose the latter.

But instead of tackling the root cause, injustice, Israel responds with a state-of-the-art bombardment that kills more than 800 and injures thousands in a few days, at least 90% of which are men, women and children who have nothing whatsoever to do with the rocket attacks. In 2007, 25 Palestinians were killed for every Israeli. That's more than just 'protecting yourself'.

As Jewish UN representative, Richard Falk, said in the last two weeks even before the ground offensive:

'The Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip represent severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva Conventions, both in regard to the obligations of an Occupying Power and in the requirements of the laws of war ...

Those violations include:

• Collective punishment: The entire 1.5 million people who live in the crowded Gaza Strip are being punished for the actions of a few militants.
• Targeting civilians: The airstrikes were aimed at civilian areas in one of the most crowded stretches of land in the world, certainly the most densely populated area of the Middle East.
• Disproportionate military response: The airstrikes have not only destroyed every police and security office of Gaza's elected government, but have killed and injured hundreds of civilians; at least one strike reportedly hit groups of students attempting to find transportation home from the university.'

This savagery towards Palestinians has been going on since the Zionist terror groups began their campaign of violence to secure the State of Israel and the scale of this ongoing evil has often been suppressed by the fear of being called 'anti-Semitic'.

The Rothschild dynasty has created a highly-funded network of 'anti-hate' groups, like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and so many others, to label as 'anti-Semitic' or 'racist' anyone who dares to expose or condemn Israel or its networks of manipulation within the United States and elsewhere.

Politicians (though all but are a few are terrified or rewarded into silence), university professors, people like me, and anyone with any kind of public stage, are immediately condemned by the ADL and smeared as 'racist' with support from the Robot Radicals of the Robot 'Left' if they expose Israel or anyone who happens to be Jewish.

The irony of those claiming to be the chosen people and above all others accusing anyone else of racism boggles the bloody mind.

Jewish people who challenge the tyranny, like the superb Norman Finkelstein, are dubbed 'self-haters' and often lose their jobs and livelihoods as a result. The Rothschild 'anti-hate' groups put any Big Brother to shame.

But we can't - and MUST NOT - stay silent on the plight of the Palestinians because we fear the consequences for ourselves. What are we, mice??

This is not about racism; it is about fascism and the daily onslaught against a helpless and tragic people. I don't give a shit what the ADL thinks about what I say, nor those on the 'Left' who parrot its propaganda like the juveniles that they are.

It needs saying and therefore someone needs to say it.

And, by the way, those that are running the Zionist agenda, which is part of much bigger global agenda in league with the Illuminati families, don't give a damn for Jewish people in general. They, too, are just an expendable irrelevance to the greater goal.

As the first Israeli Prime Minister, the terrorist, David Ben-Gurion, said:

'If I knew that it was possible to save all the children of Germany by transporting them to England, and only half by transferring them to the Land of Israel, I would choose the latter, for before us lies not only the numbers of these children but the historical reckoning of the people of Israel.'

What kind of sick mind does it take to say that? The kind that has run Israel since 1948 would appear to be the answer.

We need to drop the ludicrous, childish, labels of Jew and Gentile and Muslim and all this illusory crap and come together in the name of peace and justice for all. There is not a Jewish injustice or a Palestinian injustice, there is simply injustice.

Justice for one and no justice for another is 'justice' for no-one. For justice has no meaning unless it applies to all, and it will never apply to the Palestinians while the world stays silent and looks the other way.

The Dangerous Terrorists In Gaza

Preparations for WW3 running on full scale - yellow alert

Once we would know when Obama send his Nobel peace price back to Stockholm we would now it has started - but that might be after the fact if he has the decency to do so since he could claim ıran was attacked in order to contain the peace which apparently is bullshit as was the price.
The second excerpt is produced by the Mossad I assume as they write pro Israel aggression all the time

excerpt

USS Carrier Harry Truman Now Officially Just Off Iran, As Israel Allegedly Plotting An Imminent Tehran Raid

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/27/2010 12:50 -0500

• Iran
• Israel
• Turkey

As we first reported last week, in an article that was met with much original skepticism, the Pentagon has now confirmed that a fleet of 12 warships has passed the Suez Canal, and is now likely awaiting orders to support the escalation in the Persian Gulf. The attached image from Stratfor shows the latest positioning of US aircraft carrier groups as of June 23: the USS Harry Truman (CVN-75) is now right next to USS Eisenhower (CVN 69), both of which are waiting patiently just off Iran.

As for the catalyst the two carriers may be anticipating, we provide the following update from the Gulf Daily News where we read that Israel may be on the verge of an attack of Iran, with an incursion originating from military bases in Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Israel is massing warplanes in the Caucasus for an attack on Iran, it was revealed yesterday.

Preparations are underway to launch the military attack from Azerbaijan and Georgia, reports our sister paper Akhbar Al Khaleej, quoting military sources.

Israel was, in fact, training pilots in Turkey to launch the strike and was smuggling planes into Georgia using Turkish airspace, they said.

However, Turkey was unaware of Israel's intention of transferring the planes to Georgia, the sources said.

The unexpected crisis between Israel and Turkey following an Israeli commando raid on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza Strip hit Israeli calculations.

Azerbaijan-based intelligence units, working under the cover of technicians, trainers and consultants, have helped with the preparations, the sources said.

Military equipment, mostly supplied by the US, was transported to a Georgian port via the Black Sea.

Georgian coastguard and Israeli controllers are co-operating to hide the operations from Russian vessels, said the sources.

They point out that according to Israel, it will not be in a position to launch a strike on Iran without using bases in Georgia and Azerbaijan due to the limited capabilities of its nuclear submarines stationed near the Iranian coast.

Meanwhile, Iran's Press TV reported that a very large contingent of US ground forces had massed in Azerbaijan, near the Iranian border. The independent Azerbaijani news website Trend confirmed the report.

Those reports came just days after the Pentagon confirmed that an unusually large fleet of US warships had indeed passed through Egypt's Suez Canal en route to the Gulf. At least one Israeli warship reportedly joined the American armada.

Press TV also quoted Iranian Revolultionary Guard Brigadier General Mehdi Moini as saying that the country's forces are mobilised and ready to face Israelli and American "misadventures" near its borders.

* Iran last night said it has cancelled plans to send an aid ship to the Gaza Strip as Israel "had sent a letter to the UN saying that the presence of Iranian and Lebanese ships in the Gaza area will be considered a declaration of war on that regime and it will confront it," Irna said.

We caution readers to take this news with a grain of salt as the Gulf Daily News' sister publication, Akhbar Al Khaleej, has a slightly less than stellar credibility rating. Then again, this is what some, Breaking News Online most notably, said about last week's carrier news, urging readers to ignore it.

excerpt 2

Panetta: Iran can build two nukes within two years - sanctions unavailing
DEBKAfile Special Report June 27, 2010, 10:23 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags: Panetta Iran nuclear Israel

Realism from CIA director Leon Panetta

CIA director Leon Panetta has admitted that Iran has enough low-enriched uranium for two nuclear bombs that would likely take two years to build. In an interview with ABC's This Week Sunday, June 27, the spy chief virtually admitted that every effort to halt Iran's drive for a nuclear bomb had failed. Asked if the latest round of UN sanctions would put an end to Iran's nuclear ambitions, he said: "Probably not."
According to debkafile's military sources, Panetta was the most realistic of any US official of late about the epic turn of events confronting the US, Israel, the Middle East and the Gulf nations, namely Iran's transformation into the region's second nuclear power after Israel.
His evaluation translates into the following prognosis: If today Iran has enough low-enriched uranium to build its first two nuclear warheads two years hence, it means that by then, by sustaining its present rate of progress, Tehran will have acquired enough fissile fuel to build another five to six bombs and another 10-12 by 2015. A nuclear arsenal was Iran's goal from the year 2000 and it is steadily advancing on this goal unhindered by any outside security interference, as debkafile's military and Iranian sources have reported for the last six months.
At the beginning of June, Israeli Mossad director Meir Dagan estimated that Iran was lagging behind its enriched uranium target due to a number of technical malfunctions. But he never said or even implied that the program was stalled. That it was not, Panetta has now confirmed.

In so doing, he refuted the latest firm-sounding assertions by US president Barack Obama and defense secretary Robert Gates that Iran will not be allowed to acquire nuclear arms.
Although he did not spell this out, the CIA director's words mean that since diplomacy and sanctions have reached a dead end, the only realistic option left for bring Iran's nuclear progress to a halt is a military strike. But in the same interview, asked about a potential Israeli military attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, Panetta said he thinks "Israel is giving the US room on the diplomatic and political fronts."

What he said, in effect, was that the Netanyahu-Barak government, which rarely moves in any direction without President Obama's okay, is still not considering military action against Iran - even at this eleventh hour before disaster - and willing to go along with the Obama administration's pretense that the diplomatic option can still work.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and defense minister Ehud Barak are sidestepping the toughest security threats Israel ha faced - a nuclear-armed Iran and the evolving extremist, anti-West "Northern Islamic alliance" in the process of formation by Iran, Turkey, Syria, Hamas and Hizballah. They are immersed instead in such side issues as calibrating the sustainability of the Gaza siege, the fictitious indirect talks with the Palestinians (Mahmoud Abbas is never in the country) and a possible handover to Lebanon of the tiny divided village of Ghajar, which no one wants other than the UN peacekeeping force.
Israel's leaders continue to hide from the public the fundamental differences between Israel and the Obama administration not just about Iran, but about its own nuclear capabilities in the face of the US president's determination to denuclearize the Middle East, starting with international restrictions and inspections for Israel's reputed arsenal.
The Netanyahu government's willingness to align its policies with Washington accounts for the constant flow of senior US military and defense officials visiting Israel and proclaiming the administration's dedication to Israel's security. Only last week, Michele Flournoy, US undersecretary of defense for policy, attended a session in Tel Aviv of the annual strategic dialogue between the two governments. She pledged that the US would always guarantee Israel's military and technological supremacy.

Last week too Barak was in Washington and held talks with Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of staff. Only 72 hours later, Mullen paid a short visit to Tel Aviv and was again closeted with Barak after meeting chief of staff Maj. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi and the IDF's high command.
When his turn for a statement came round, he said he tried to see regional events through Israeli eyes.
All these visits and talks are extremely important. But what use are they when their only purpose is to hold Israel back from using its military superiority to defend itself against Iran, a vital need which should be obvious to anyone seeing the Middle East through Israeli eyes?

The brakes Washington applies to Israel's freedom of action in its own defense have allowed Iran to reach the advanced stage in its nuclear objectives frankly described by Leon Panetta on June 27.