Tuesday, March 31, 2009
China Confidential Report Confirmed: Resurgent Russia Backs Restoration of Global Gold Standard
On November 13, 2008 China Confidential reported:While the price of gold may be falling in tandem with that of oil, a major gold producing nation that also happens to be a major oil producer is considering making its own currency convertible into gold.
The Telegraph reported today:
The currency is the ruble. Russian officials, this reporter has learned, are seriously considering proposals for a gold-backed ruble or a gold-backed special drawing right.
Also under consideration in Moscow: ideas for a currency backed by a basket of commodities, including gold and oil.Arkady Dvorkevich, the Kremlin's chief economic adviser, said Russia would favour the inclusion of gold bullion in the basket-weighting of a new world currency based on Special Drawing Rights issued by the International Monetary Fund.
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Chinese and Russian leaders both plan to open debate on an SDR-based reserve currency as an alternative to the US dollar at the G20 summit in London this week, although the world may not yet be ready for such a radical proposal.China 'Kill Weapon' Aimed at US Aircraft Carriers
With tensions already rising due to the Chinese navy becoming more aggressive in asserting its territorial claims in the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy seems to have yet another reason to be deeply concerned.
After years of conjecture, details have begun to emerge of a "kill weapon" developed by the Chinese to target and destroy U.S. aircraft carriers.
First posted on a Chinese blog viewed as credible by military analysts and then translated by the naval affairs blog Information Dissemination, a recent report provides a description of an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) that can strike carriers and other U.S. vessels at a range of 2000km.
The range of the modified Dong Feng 21 missile is significant in that it covers the areas that are likely hot zones for future confrontations between U.S. and Chinese surface forces.
The size of the missile enables it to carry a warhead big enough to inflict significant damage on a large vessel, providing the Chinese the capability of destroying a U.S. supercarrier in one strike.
Because the missile employs a complex guidance system, low radar signature and a maneuverability that makes its flight path unpredictable, the odds that it can evade tracking systems to reach its target are increased. It is estimated that the missile can travel at mach 10 and reach its maximum range of 2000km in less than 12 minutes.
Supporting the missile is a network of satellites, radar and unmanned aerial vehicles that can locate U.S. ships and then guide the weapon, enabling it to hit moving targets.
The ASBM is said to be a modified DF-21.
While the ASBM has been a topic of discussion within national defense circles for quite some time, the fact that information is now coming from Chinese sources indicates that the weapon system is operational. The Chinese rarely mention weapons projects unless they are well beyond the test stages.
If operational as is believed, the system marks the first time a ballistic missile has been successfully developed to attack vessels at sea. Ships currently have no defense against a ballistic missile attack.
Along with the Chinese naval build-up, U.S. Navy officials appear to view the development of the anti-ship ballistic missile as a tangible threat.
After spending the last decade placing an emphasis on building a fleet that could operate in shallow waters near coastlines, the U.S. Navy seems to have quickly changed its strategy over the past several months to focus on improving the capabilities of its deep sea fleet and developing anti-ballistic defenses.
As analyst Raymond Pritchett notes in a post on the U.S. Naval Institute blog:
"The Navy's reaction is telling, because it essentially equals a radical change in direction based on information that has created a panic inside the bubble. For a major military service to panic due to a new weapon system, clearly a mission kill weapon system, either suggests the threat is legitimate or the leadership of the Navy is legitimately unqualified. There really aren't many gray spaces in evaluating the reaction by the Navy…the data tends to support the legitimacy of the threat."
In recent years, China has been expanding its navy to presumably better exert itself in disputed maritime regions. A recent show of strength in early March led to a confrontation with an unarmed U.S. ship in international waters.
-USNIObama State Legal Adviser Pick Likes Islamic Law
As the new American President prepares to take the world stage at the G20 summit in London, his Third World orientation is increasingly clear--and alarming.
Obama's nominee for State Department legal adviser could be a future Supreme Court pick. He believes U.S. law should be based on foreign precedent, and, astonishingly, that even barbaric Islamic law could have a home in the United States. Is this the effective end of America?
IBD observes:We have commented many times on the opinion of a number of U.S. Supreme Court justices that American jurists should include foreign law and precedent in their decisions. In several prominent cases, this has already happened.
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In a speech in South Africa, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the March 2005 Roper v. Simmons decision, in which a 5-4 majority ruled against executing murderers who were 17 or younger, "perhaps the fullest expressions to date on the propriety and utility of looking to the 'opinions of (human)kind.' "
More recently, Justice Stephen Breyer said: "We see all the time . . . how the world really . . . is growing together. The challenge (will be) whether our Constitution . . . fits into the governing documents of other nations." Whether our Constitution fits?
Agreeing with Ginsburg and Breyer is one Harold Koh, a former dean of Yale Law School who's been nominated by President Obama to be the State Department's legal adviser. He's an advocate of what he calls "transnational legal process" and argues that the distinction between U.S. and international law should vanish.
Koh believes laws of places like Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka should carry equal weight with the laws of Virginia and South Dakota, and that it's "appropriate for the Supreme Court to construe our Constitution in the light of foreign and international law" in its decisions.
He also believes foreign law trumps U.S. law on issues such as the death penalty....Krakowski's World
Translation: "The situation is definitely improving. Now everybody is hurting."North Korea Threatens War Against Japan
Jonathan Tirone reports:North Korea’s government vowed to wage war against Japan if Japanese defense forces try to shoot down a missile that the communist nation says will carry a communications satellite.
Continue here.
The escalation in North Korean rhetoric comes in the wake of reports that the nuclear-armed Stalinist/Kimist state has developed nuclear warheads for its missiles, as first reported by China Confidential. Scroll down for the stories.
China Confidential analysts believe North Korea is capable of attacking Japan and South Korea--and U.S. forces in the South. The threat from the North--which is cooperating closely with Iran--is much more serious than the Obama administration is admitting.
UPDATE: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today defended Japan's right to defend itself against the North Korean rocket, calling the pending launch "provocative." Read about it here.Marching Toward Yuan Dominance
A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.
China has taken the first step toward making the yuan the world currency. Click here for the story.Taliban Leader Promises to Attack Washington
Amid the Obama administration's attempts to appease the Taliban by reaching out to supposedly "reconcilable"--"non-Al Qaeda"--elements of the clerical fascist movement, Pakistan's top Taliban commander says his group will soon attack Washington, DC. Clickhere for the story.
He may not be bluffing. Counter-terrorism experts believe that Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other Islamist terrorist groups--including, possibly, Hezbollah--are planning Mumbai-style assaults on American cities.
Weakness invites aggression. Any and all attempts to appease radical Islam, including Islamist terrorists and Islamist terrorist-sponsoring nations, are bound to fail. Appeasement of radical Islam will not prevent war and terrorism; instead, it will lead to more war and more terrorism.Sitting at the Dock of the Bay: Best Sea-Based Radar Against N. Korean Missile Still Not Deployed
By Riki Ellison
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following essay is excerpted from a letter that Ellison, chairman and founder of theMissile Defense Advocacy Alliance, sent to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, urging him to make sure that America's missile defense assets are all in place to protect Alaska, Hawaii and other parts of the country prior to North Korea's planned missile launch.
One of the United States' most valuable assets and the best discriminating and tracking sensor for ballistic missile defense, the Sea Based X Band Radar, has not been deployed and has been docked for the past several months at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The SBX was the main sensor in the recent successful long range ballistic missile intercept on December 5, 2008 providing the primary targeting information for the Ground Based Missile Interceptor out of Vandenberg Air Force Base, Ca. that successfully intercepted a long range ballistic missile from Kodiak Island, Alaska.
The December 5th, 2008 test simulated a North Korean long range missile threat using the current U.S. missile defense deployed assets designed including for a long range ballistic missile intercept. The SBX was also successfully deployed and used with the Aegis Sea Based Missile Defense System for the February 21, 2008 successful NRO satellite shoot down which had a one in 45 chance of harming human life if not intercepted. The SBX is a self propelled X-band radar and has a sea speed of up to 10 knots per hour.
If deployed, the SBX can begin to emit its sensor 50 or so miles from Hawaii and can become effective by providing sensoring information to the deployed long range missile defense system in place today. The SBX cost $950 million dollars to build and costs additional tens of millions of dollars to maintain and operate annually.
The azimuth, or launch direction, for an ideal space orbital launch from North Korea using optimal rotation of the earth is in the mid-80s, which over flies the country of Japan and heads east towards the Pacific Ocean. The azimuth for a long range ballistic missile from North Korea to Hawaii is in the similar 80s degree range. North Korea has declared two "clear zones" on either side of Japan for the first and second rocket stages accounting for the debris falling from their rocket or missile launch. The North Korea trajectory following that flight path would terminate close to Hawaii if the rocket failed to achieve orbit or was a long range ballistic missile launch.
The SBX is the most powerful and most capable sensor to discriminate the debris, payload and a possible reentry vehicle in detail from a North Korean long range missile or rocket launch traveling at extreme high speeds across the Pacific Ocean.NORTH KOREA HAS NUCLEAR WARHEADS
Breaking news.
There is confirmation of China Confidential's assessment of the North Korean nuclear threat.
Last Wednesday, China Confidential reported:The [U.S.] administration line is that Pyongyang lacks the technology (a) to reliably and accurately hit U.S. territory, and (b) to miniaturize nuclear weapons into warheads for placement atop missiles.
AFP is reporting that
All of which may not be true. China Confidential analysts say North Korea's Taepodong-2 missile poses a serious potential threat to U.S. national security. Moreover, the North has been making major advances in warhead technology--and may be sharing the knowhow with Iran.intelligence agencies have obtained information that North Korea has assembled several nuclear warheads for its medium-range Rodong missiles capable of targeting Japan, an analyst said on Tuesday.
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Daniel Pinkston, senior analyst with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said he had received the information from agencies he declined to identify.
'Intelligence agencies believe the North Koreans have assembled nuclear warheads for Rodong missiles, which are stored at underground facilities near the Rodong missile bases,' Mr Pinkston told AFP.
He said the agencies believe that probably five to eight warheads have been assembled.
Scroll down to read the March 25 China Confidential story, "US Unofficially Downplaying North Korean Threat."
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Intelligence Agencies Reportedly Confirm China Confidential Story
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