Showing posts with label Globalization. Show all posts
McCain: US will have 'the most militarized border since the fall of the Berlin Wall'
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| John McCain (Win McNamee / Getty Images / AFP) |
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said that an amendment to a US immigration bill would cause the US to have the “most militarized border” since the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.
A bipartisan amendment to the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill would double the number of Border Patrol agents from 20,000 to 40,000, fund construction of 700 miles of fencing along the US-Mexico border, and provide billions of dollars for advanced surveillance equipment.
Many Republican lawmakers have refused to support the immigration reform bill as it currently stands, arguing that it does little to enforce the border. The Senate advanced an amendment to the legislation with a 67-27 vote last Monday, winning significant support from Republican lawmakers and instilling hope that the immigration reform bill could make it through the upper chamber. But although the amendment would strengthen the border, it would also rival the security at the former Berlin Wall, McCain said in a CNN interview.
"The legislation concerning beefed up border security removes any validity to the argument that border security is not sufficient," McCain said of the amendment, which was authored by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.).
"I mean this is not only sufficient, it is well over-sufficient,” he added. “We'll be the most militarized border since the fall of the Berlin Wall. That's why I think this amendment was very important.”
The most secure version of the Berlin Wall, which formerly served to prevent emigration from East Germany, was reinforced with a smooth pipe to make it difficult to scale. It was surrounded by mesh fencing, trenches, barbed wire, attack dogs, and beds of nails under balconies that were hanging over the border. Border security guards were stationed at 116 watchtowers and 20 bunkers, and received “shoot to kill” orders if anyone tried to illegally cross it.
According to the Centre for Contemporary History, 136 deaths have been attributed to border crossing attempts at the Berlin Wall. And although the US-Mexico border would use different security methods than East Germany, it would be the most secure since the fall of the Berlin Wall – a comparison that McCain believes would garner support for the amendment.
"This is a border security measure which I think should suffice to satisfy any critic and it is a tough way forward and it is a way forward, a tough way forward so that we can resolve this and bring 11 million people out of the shadows," McCain said.
If the amendment is passed and the reform bill implemented, the US border fence would be seven times as long as the Berlin Wall and have four times as many agents to guard it.
International confidence in US economy ‘crumbling’ after Snowden leaks
Along with exposing widespread international surveillance, Edward Snowden has revealed how exactly the US is financing its military ambitions, according to Max Keiser.
RT: Surely not even you can make any kind of link between the Snowden saga and the US economy?
Max Keiser: The American economy runs on the confidence, confidence that the world accepts the US dollar as world reserve currency, confidence that the US bond market will remain the standard. And what we are seeing is a sell-off in a bond market and a sell-off in the stock market, because confidence in the US and its ability to maintain a global empire through interest rates and the Central Bank policy is crumbling before the world’s very eyes. What’s interesting is that Edward Snowden worked for Booz Allen. Booz Allen allegedly along with a few other companies are the masterminds behind LIBOR market rigging, energy market rigging, FOREX market rigging. And this is really the fuel that keeps the American military empire going, because the American economy itself cannot support its military ambitions so they’ve resorted to market manipulation and the kind of intelligence that Edward Snowden is able to aggregate is key to manipulating markets in ways that make Booz Allen, allegedly, the channel for billions and billions of dollars into America’s military campaigns. And this is really about money, markets and manipulations. It’s not about security. It’s not to do with anything that the White House says. Remember, the White House is a puppet of Wall Street, Booz Allen, the hedge funds and the financial interests of the corrupt bankers.
RT: Can you also give us an idea of how some of those big companies like Google, or Facebook could actually benefit from this surveillance program PRISM? Is there financial a financial gain from them?
MK: Absolutely, because all of the manipulation involves rigging the indexes. And the indexes are all data-sensitive. So, if you can manipulate the data, you can manipulate the indexes and you manipulate the markets. And if you have advanced knowledge of that inside information you can make billions of dollars of front-running, high-frequency trading, algorithmic trading. And, of course, all the banks on the Wall Street are in on this and all the banks in the UK. It’s very telling that the foreign minister of Ecuador said that, look “you are talking about us extraditing Edward Snowden, what about bringing back those bankers we asked you to bring back to Ecuador who we caught rigging and terrorizing our market?” What about the Icelandic bankers that have been asked by the government of Iceland to be extradited back to Iceland that are being held in the UK? What about these other instances where banking terrorists are being sheltered in the US and the UK? They’re not responding to extradition agreements. So this’s all about financial legerdemain, unfortunately, Americans don’t have enough money to fight their wars anymore so they have to resort to snooping, data-gathering, and market manipulation.
RT: What about the diplomatic fallout? We’ve seen tensions between China and Washington but that of course leads to economic tension. Could that impact trade between the two?
MK: I hope Russia, China, and Ecuador stand up to the financial terrorists in America and Britain. Stay the course. Don’t give in and don’t appease the financial terrorists on Wall Street.
RT: But how could a small country like Ecuador stand up to a giant like America, where there is indeed trade between the two?
MK: What Edward Snowden has proved is that if you live a principled life and stay true to your convictions then you can change the world.
RT: Are we going to see financial fallout between China and the US?
MK: Well China has got a fantastic card to play, one trillion US dollars that they can dump on the market anytime and jack interest rates up five or six points, which would throw the real estate market back into collapse. China is pulling the strings here and China has all the cards to play. America is the biggest debtor nation in the world. Look at the bond market today, it’s selling off spectacularly all over the world because confidence in the American hologram of finance is collapsing. They flipped the switch. They see that the emperor has clothes. They see that there’s no underlying economic activity to support the military and financial occupations emanating from the US. It’s game over!
Snowden admits taking Booz Allen job to collect data on NSA surveillance
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| The Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp office (Reuters / Kevin Lamarque) |
Edward Snowden signed on to work with intelligence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton only to obtain information about the United States’ surveillance programs, the NSA leaker told the South China Morning Post.
The paper, one of only three outlets to have acknowledged contact with Snowden along with The Guardian and the Washington Post, wrote on Monday that he admitted to taking the job just to collect intelligence.
“My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked,” he told the Post. “That is why I accepted that position about three months ago.” According to the paper, Snowden was asked specifically if he went to the contractor to gather evidence of surveillance, to which he replied, “Correct on Booz.”
The Post said the interview was conducted on June 12. Snowden reportedly left Hong Kong late last week and was believed to be in Moscow as of Sunday. An indictment against him was unsealed in the US days earlier and American officials are seeking his extradition back to the States.
“I’m not going to get into specifics, but it is our understanding that he is still in Russia,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said during a briefing with reporters on Monday. "We have asked the Russians to look at all the options and expel Snowden to the US.”
Snowden, 30, has been charged with the unlawful disclosure of classified intelligence and is wanted in the US for a myriad of counts that could bring him decades in prison if convicted. During Monday’s presser, Carney said the decision on the part of Hong Kong to release Snowden “was a deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant.”In the latest Post article, Snowden defended his actions and the method he went about selecting documents to send to The Guardian.
“I did not release them earlier because I don’t want to simply dump huge amounts of documents without regard to their content,” he told the paper. “I have to screen everything before releasing it to journalists.”
Snowden also hinted at the likelihood of more leaks to come:“If I have time to go through this information, I would like to make it available to journalists in each country to make their own assessment, independent of my bias, as to whether or not the knowledge of US network operations against their people should be published,” he said.
Snowden took a job making six-figures at Booz Allen earlier this year rounding off a career that formerly found him working for the Central Intelligence Agency and Dell computers. Last week, Reuters reported that hiring screeners at Booz Allen found possible discrepancies in the resume Snowden submitted when he first sought work, but ultimately the contractors decided to bring him on board anyway.
