BREAKING NEWS: France wants to ‘temporarily suspend’ trade talks with US over NSA spying

End Of Days News

BREAKING NEWS: France wants to ‘temporarily suspend’ trade talks with US over NSA spying

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BREAKING NEWS: France wants to delay the ‘biggest bilateral trade deal in history’ by 2 weeks after learning the USA was allegedly tracking economic communications of EU member states. “It would seem wise to… Read More →

By Printing Money Central Banks Have Already Begun the Next Stage of Warfare

End Of Days News

Since the Financial Crisis erupted in 2007, the US Federal Reserve has engaged in dozens of interventions/ bailouts to try and prop up the financial system. Now, I realize that everyone knows the Fed is “printing money.” However, when you look at the list of bailouts/ money pumps it’s absolutely staggering how much money the Fed has thrown around.



Here’s a recap of some of the larger Fed moves during the Crisis:

• Cutting interest rates from 5.25-0.25% (Sept ’07-today).
• The Bear Stearns deal/ taking on $30 billion in junk mortgages (Mar ’08).
• Opening various lending windows to investment banks (Mar ’08).
• Hank Paulson spends $400 billion on Fannie/ Freddie (Sept ’08).
• The Fed takes over insurance company AIG for $85 billion (Sept ’08).
• The Fed doles out $25 billion for the automakers (Sept ’08)
• The Fed kicks off the $700 billion TARP program (Oct ’08)
• The Fed buys commercial paper from non-financial firms (Oct ’08)
• The Fed offers $540 billion to backstop money market funds (Oct ’08)
• The Fed agrees to back up to $280 billion of Citigroup’s liabilities (Oct ’08).
• $40 billion more to AIG (Nov ’08)
• The Fed backstops $140 billion of Bank of America’s liabilities (Jan ’09)
• Obama’s $787 Billion Stimulus (Jan ’09)
• QE 1 buys $1.25 trillion in Treasuries and mortgage debt (March ’09)
• QE lite buys $200-300 billion of Treasuries and mortgage debt (Aug ’10)
• QE 2 buys $600 billion in Treasuries (Nov ’10)
• Operation Twist reshuffles $400 billion of the Fed’s portfolio (Oct ’11)
• QE 3 buys $40 billion of Mortgage Backed Securities monthly (Sept ‘12)
• QE 4 buys $45 billion worth of Treasuries monthly (Dec ’12)

The Fed is not the only one. Collectively, the world’s Central Banks have pumped over $10 trillion into the financial system since 2007. This money printing has resulted in a massive expansion of Central Bank balance sheets, spread inflation into the system, and done nothing to address the key solvency issues that lead up to the great crisis.



This competitive debasement has lead to increased tension between the world’s Central Banks. You will never hear their stated outright for the simple reason that the single most important responsibility of the Central Banks is to maintain confidence in the system.



However, underneath the veneer of goodwill and the occasional necessary coordinated intervention, tensions are rising between Central Banks. When the US debases the US Dollar it pushes the Euro higher. This hurts German exports which in turn angers the Bundesbank.



The Bundesbank fired a warning shot at the Fed last autumn when it announced it wanted to have its Gold reserves at the Fed audited. To be clear here: no one of major financial import has ever questioned the Fed’s trustworthiness before. However, at the time of this announcement Germany stated it had no intentions of actually moving its reserves.



Fast-forward to today and Germany has not only audited and checked its Gold reserves at the Fed but it is now moving them. In plain terms, Germany has told the world that A) it does not trust the Fed and B) it is through playing around.



This situation will likely be getting worse going forward. The fact that Germany will be removing all of its Gold reserves from France certainly doesn’t bode well for future German French relations if push ever comes to shove (it’s not as though Europe has a history of getting along well).



Look for increased tension to grow between the world’s Central Banks in the coming months and years. This tension will likely result in:

1. Economic warfare (see the recent situation in Iran)
2. Political infighting
3. Key players being sacrificed

Given that the financial system and economic “recovery” have been built on a house of cards, these political developments will have major impacts on the financial markets.



Outside of internal dissent, the power players in the global economy (the US, China, Japan, and Germany) are showing increasing signs of tension both internal (China and the US) as well as external (China vs. Japan, Germany vs. the US, the US vs. China).



These tensions will lead to economic warfare and very likely physical warfare in the coming years.

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-02-03/printing-money-central-banks-have-already-begun-next-stage-warfare

France in Mali fights the unfinished Libyan War

France to triple troops in Mali after no agreement on African force

France pledged to triple size of its 750-strong force fighting an Al Qaeda-rebel force threatening to overrun Mali after West African army chiefs failed to agree on the deployment of the 3,300 troops promised by the region at a meeting in Bamako Tuesday. The regional force was to have taken over from France. President Francois Hollande accordingly ordered the French force to be increased to 2,500. DEBKAfile: This number is a drop in the sand for contending with well-trained, highly mobile al Qaeda and rebel forces equipped with high quality weaponry in he vast desert state of Mali.

 

http://www.debka.com/newsupdatepopup/3467/

Islamists counter French airstrikes, capture Diabaly in central Mali

Al Qaeda-led insurgents Monday struck the town of Diabaly which houses a Malian army base in government-controlled central Mali in retaliation for French airstrikes Sunday which targeted rebel positions near the town. The rebels fought with reinforcements from the Mauritania. French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said French bombardments had blocked the Islamist advance fromn the north to the east of Mali, but the situation in the west “remains difficult.”

 

 

http://www.debka.com/newsupdatepopup/3454/

Mali-based Islamists pledge attacks on French soil

Islamist fighters in northern Mali have pledged to strike “at the heart” of France, after a joint Malian-French offensive -- which has entered its fourth day -- began pushing back al Qaeda linked rebels controlling the region.

 

A military offensive to reclaim Mali’s north from Islamists fighters entered its fourth day on Monday, with al Qaeda linked-rebels promising attacks on French soil in retaliation to the European country’s intervention in the unstable West African country.

 

Malian and French soldiers, backed by heavy French military air support, pushed back rebel fighters from the central town of Konna over the weekend.

A dozen French fighter planes, including four Rafale jets, hit rebel targets in the cities of Goa and Kidal, deeper in the country’s rebel-held north. Residents of Goa said French air raids had struck bases and destroyed weapons depots.
Nevertheless, Malian soldiers continued to struggle against well-equipped rebels, who on Monday wrestled away control of the central town of Diabaly, according to French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. “We knew that the key spots would be towards the west… where the most important fighting is going on today,” Le Drian told French BFM television.

Also on Monday, Islamists vowed to strike back at France.

"France has attacked Islam. We will strike at the heart of France," Abou Dardar, a leader of Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), one of the Mali-based groups with ties to al Qaeda, told the AFP news agency.

Asked where attacks would take place, Dardar said: "Everywhere. In Bamako, in Africa and in Europe."

Flat-bed trucks carrying humanitarian aid were on standby in the town of Sevare, some 20 kilometres from Konna, where dozens of French soldiers were dispatched to secure the airport.

“It seems to be that the French intervention has saved Mali,” Alain Mallet, a French national and 20-year resident of Sevare told FRANCE 24 on Sunday. “The Islamist groups were a few kilometres from here and everyone knew that the Malian army was completely overwhelmed.”

Mali and France launched a joint offensive on January 11 against Islamist fighters controlling Mali’s north – a vast desert region roughly the size of France. Allied Islamists and Tuareg rebels took advantage of a power vacuum in April 2012 to overrun the area.

Building up before ground campaign

The operation to retake the north has received the official backing from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), of which Mali is a member, and has been promised logistical support from the United States and Britain.

Malian troops on the ground and around 550 French soldiers deployed so far are awaiting the arrival of a 3,300-stong multi-nation African force. French President François Hollande said French involvement would last “as long as is necessary.”

Click on map to enlarge

French army commander Colonel Paul Gèze told Malian television on Sunday that the French military contingency would reach full strength on Monday, but would primarily be deployed around the capital of Bamako to protect the 6,000-strong French expatriate community.

The Malian army was preventing journalists from travelling further north from the town of Sevare on Sunday.

According to France 24’s Mathieu Mabin, who was in the city of Sevare, residents eagerly awaited the arrival of French troops and supported a ground offensive into rebel-controlled areas. “We have not come across a single Malian who is against France’s intervention,” Mabin said.

Human Rights Watch said ten civilians, including three children, had died as a result of the French bombing campaign in Konna. The London-based rights group said the joint Malian-French offensive posed grave risks to the civilian population, and called on Islamists to release child soldiers they had recruited in Mali and Niger in recent months.

French flag flies in Bamako

President Hollande held a special ministerial meeting to discuss the situation in Mali, a former French colony, on Monday morning. Hollande, whose approval rating has tanked at home since he took office in May 2011, has been championing the cause of an international military intervention among diplomats for months.

The president on Sunday met with members of the Malian expatriate community of France at the Elysée Palace. The group said France had acted with “courage” in taking the fight to Islamists.

MALI - FRANCE Former PM Villepin warns of 'blind' Mali intervention

French flags could be seen flying from apartment windows and cars in Bamako, where Malians overwhelmingly praised France’s support and appeared to welcome the prospect of having French soldiers in their territory.

“We are proud of the French,” Moussa, a man who fled his native Timbuktu months ago, told France Inter radio. “We have been suffocating and [France] has given us a breath of oxygen. We are ready to fly Malian and French flags alongside each other.”

France's Le Drian told a press conference on Saturday that France had intervened not only because the security of Mali and West Africa were in peril, but because there was also a threat to France and Europe.

Western leaders have warned that northern Mali could become a base of operation for terrorists intent on striking European and American targets. “We have been determined to act for more than six months now,” Le Drian said.

During the press conference Le Drian also confirmed the death of French pilot Damien Boiteux, the first and, until now, only recognised French casualty in the fight to take back the country.

Malian army sources have said that dozens of rebels have been killed near the frontline, including Abdel Krim, nicknamed “Kojak”, a key leader of Ansar Dine, another Islamist group now facing French air power.

Mali's interim president, Dioncounda Traore, said that 11 Malian soldiers had died in fighting over the weekend.

On France’s request, the UN Security Council was also meeting on Monday in New York to discuss international military intervention.

http://www.france24.com/en/20130114-mali-france-intervention-terrorist-attacks

Over 100 dead in French strikes and fighting in Mali

 

(Reuters) - French aircraft pounded Islamist rebels in Mali for a second day on Saturday and neighboring West African states sped up their plans to deploy troops in an international campaign to prevent groups linked to al Qaeda expanding their power base.
France, warning that the control of northern Mali by the militants posed a security threat to Europe, intervened dramatically on Friday as heavily armed Islamist fighters swept southwards towards Mali's capital Bamako.
Under cover from French fighter planes and attack helicopters, Malian troops routed a rebel convoy and drove the Islamists out of the strategic central town of Konna, which they had seized on Thursday. A senior army officer in the capital Bamako said more than 100 rebel fighters had been killed.
A French pilot died on Friday when rebels shot down his helicopter near the town of Mopti. Hours after opening one front against al Qaeda-linked Islamists, France mounted a commando raid to try to rescue a French hostage held by al Shabaab militants in Somalia, also allied to al Qaeda, but failed to prevent the hostage being killed.
French President Francois Hollande made clear that France's aim in Mali was to support the West African troop deployment, which is also endorsed by the United Nations, the European Union and the United States.
Western countries in particular fear that Islamists could use Mali as a base for attacks on the West and expand the influence of al Qaeda-linked militants based in Yemen, Somalia and North Africa.
"We've already held back the progress of our adversaries and inflicted heavy losses on them," Hollande said. "Our mission is not over yet."
A resident in the northern city of Gao, one of the Islamists' strongholds, reported scores of rebel fighters were retreating northward in pickup trucks on Saturday.
"The hospital here is overwhelmed with injured and dead," he said, asking not to be identified for fear of reprisals.
In Konna, a shopkeeper reported seeing scores of dead Islamist fighters piled in the streets, as well as the bodies of dozens of uniformed soldiers.
A senior official with Mali's presidency announced on state television that 11 Malian soldiers had been killed in the battle for Konna, with around 60 others injured.
Human Rights Watch said around 10 civilians had died in the violence, including three children who drowned trying to cross a river to safety. It said other children recruited to fight for the Islamists had been injured.
With Paris urging West African nations to send in their troops quickly, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, chairman of the regional bloc ECOWAS, kick-started a U.N.-mandated operation to deploy some 3,300 African soldiers.
TROOPS BY MONDAY
The mission had not been expected to start until September.
"By Monday at the latest, the troops will be there or will have started to arrive," said Ali Coulibaly, Ivory Coast's African Integration Minister. "Things are accelerating ... The reconquest of the north has already begun."
The multinational force is expected to be led by Nigerian Major-General Shehu Abdulkadir and draw heavily on troops from West Africa's most populous state. Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal each announced they would send 500 soldiers.
French army chief Edouard Guillaud said France had no plan to chase the Islamists into the north with land troops, and was waiting for ECOWAS forces. France has deployed some special forces units to the central town of Mopti and sent hundreds of soldiers to Bamako in "Operation Serval" - named after an African wildcat.
Concerned about reprisals on French soil, Hollande announced he had instructed Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to tighten security in public buildings and on public transport in France.
Hollande's intervention in Mali could endanger eight French nationals being held by Islamists in the Sahara. A spokesman for one of Mali's rebel groups, Ansar Dine, said there would be repercussions.
"There are consequences, not only for French hostages, but also for all French citizens, wherever they find themselves in the Muslim world," Sanda Ould Boumama told Reuters. "The hostages are facing death."
The French Defense Ministry said its failed bid on Friday night to rescue a French intelligence officer held hostage in Somalia since 2009 was unrelated to events in Mali.
The ministry said it believed the officer had been killed by his captors along with at least one French commando. But the Harakat Al-Shabaab Al-Mujahideen insurgent group that was holding Denis Allex said he was alive and being held at a location far from the raid.
RED ALERT
The French Foreign Ministry stepped up its security alert on Mali and parts of neighboring Mauritania and Niger on Friday, extending its red alert - the highest level - to include Bamako.
France advised its 6,000 citizens in Mali to leave. Thousands more French live across West Africa, particularly in Senegal and Ivory Coast.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Friday urged an "accelerated international engagement" and said the bloc would speed up plans to deploy 200 troops to train Malian forces.
A U.S. official said the Pentagon was weighing options such as intelligence-sharing with France and logistics support. French officials suggest U.S. surveillance capacity, including unmanned drones, would prove valuable in vast northern Mali.
In Britain, a spokesman said Prime Minister David Cameron had spoken to Hollande to express support for France's intervention and to offer two C-17 transport planes to assist the mission.
He said both men discussed "the need to work with the Malian government, regional neighbors and international partners to prevent a new terrorist haven developing on Europe's doorstep and to reinvigorate the U.N.-led political process once the rebel advance has been halted".
Military analysts voiced doubt, however, about whether Friday's action was the start of a swift operation to retake northern Mali - a harsh, sparsely populated terrain the size of France - as neither equipment nor ground troops were ready.
"We're not yet at the big intervention," said Mark Schroeder, of the risk and security consultancy Stratfor.
More than two decades of peaceful elections had earned Mali a reputation as a bulwark of democracy - but that image unraveled in a matter of weeks after a military coup last March that paved the way for the Islamist rebellion.
Interim President Dioncounda Traore, under pressure for bolder action from Mali's military, declared a state of emergency on Friday. Traore cancelled a long-planned official trip to Paris on Wednesday because of the violence.
"Every Malian must henceforth consider themselves a soldier," he said on state TV.
On the streets of Bamako, some cars were driving around with French flags draped from the windows to celebrate Paris's intervention.
"It's thanks to France that Mali will emerge from this crisis," said student Mohamed Camera. "This war must end now."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/12/us-mali-rebels-idUSBRE90912Q20130112 

French-backed Malian troops drive Islamists out of Konna

In heavy fighting Saturday, Mali government forces with French air support partly regained the strategic town of Konna, gateway to the Mali capital of Bamako. The al Qaeda-led Islamist alliance which captured Konna appeared to be retreating. In Washington, a US official told Reuters the Pentagon was weighing options in the west African desert nation, including intelligence-sharing with France and logistics support. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius confirmed France had carried out air strikes against the rebels to prevent them overruning the whole of Mali.

http://www.debka.com/newsupdatepopup/3435/