FTR#441—Pecunia Nervus Belli, Part II—(Two 30-minute segments) (Sources are
noted in parentheses.) (Recorded on 1/11/2004)
Note: FTR#’s 260-316, 317, 324,
FTR#325 and succeeding programs are streaming
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Summary of FTR#441—(Note: The massive
volume of “For The Record” programs about 9/11 and related topics is summarized
and analyzed in the periodically-updated description for FTR#391. It is recommended that listeners use this
description and e-mail it to others. Also: The “meat” of the book “Martin
Bormann: Nazi in Exile” has been digested into an extended description for FTR#305. Listeners can now e-mail this
quintessentially important book to people around the world. In addition, the
professional history of the late Paul Manning, the book’s author, is presented
in the description “About Paul Manning.” This
enables listeners to acquaint others with Mr. Manning’s journalistic
credentials. Understanding the Bormann organization is essential to comprehending
the concept of “the Underground Reich.”) Analyzing the
macro-political and economic aspects of the events in and around 9/11, this
broadcast supplements information presented in FTR#407. (For more about the
economic impact of 9/11 and related events, see FTR#’s 344-346, 365-367, 372, 378, 396, 407,
412, 413, 415.) This broadcast underscores the economic
relationships between the Bush administration, the Bormann/Underground Reich
milieu, and the Arab petroleum-producing states, as well as the fundamental
conflict between those interests and the American national interest. Another
major aspect of the analysis presented here concerns the phenomenon of
globalization. Globalization in its modern form actually began in the immediate
post-World War I period, when the American robber barons (including the Bush
family) invested in Germany and Japan rather than the US, in order to escape
the regulations imposed by US anti-trust legislation. In addition to helping
precipitate and exacerbate the Great Depression in the United States, this
foreign investment fused the American economic elite with those of Germany and
Japan. The military power with which the Germans and Japanese overran Europe
and Asia was the transmogrified economic power of the US industrial boom of the
1920’s. In turn, the Japanese and Germans used the conquest to loot the liquid
capital of Asia and Europe. (For more about this, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 99, 290,
305, 426, 427, 428.) With the approach of the Cold War, the
political and economic status quo in Europe and Asia was solidified, and the
economic and political forces of the Axis restored to power. The US is
presently involved in a civil war between sincerely democratic, nationalist
forces and fascist internationalists whose allegiance is to the globalized,
multi-national corporate community. Much of the broadcast is devoted to an
expose of these political and economic forces and how they are playing
themselves out on the world political stage.
Program Highlights Include: Hitler’s vision
of New York skyscrapers exploding in flames; “The Turner Diaries” and its
climactic episode—a low-level suicide aerial attack on the Pentagon; the $180
billion plus (in early 1940’s dollars) looted by the Nazis from occupied
Europe; the $100 billion (in early 1940’s dollars) secreted by the Japanese in
the Philippines; the relationship between the Bormann organization and US-based
multi-national corporations; the functional connections between the Bormann
group and Bush-related economic interests; the decision by key German
industrialists to continue funding the Nazi Party in an underground, postwar
fashion; the neutralization of a class-action suit against the Japanese
Zaibatsus by powerful US political and corporate interests; the subversion of France by its power elite
during World War II; a comparison of the Bush administration to the French
industrialists and financiers who sided with Hitler; Karl Von Clausewitz’s
concept of Total War; the devastating effects of recent terror alerts on US
cities and states; the ruinous impact of the terror alerts on the airline
business; warnings by former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and the
International Monetary Fund about the impact of the Bush administration’s
economic policies—both warn of impending disaster; Al Taqwa director Ahmed
Huber’s connections to former SS officers who have named Osama bin Laden an
“honorary Prussian.”
1.
The program begins with a review of former Third Reich defense minister
Albert Speer’s account of Hitler’s vision of the annihilation of New York City.
“As Germany’s
defeat loomed during the final months of World War II, Adolf Hitler
increasingly lapsed into delusional [?] fits of fantasy. Albert Speer, in his
prison writings, recounts an episode in which a maniacal Hitler ‘pictured for
himself and for us the destruction of New York in a hurricane of fire.’ The
Nazi fuehrer described skyscrapers turning into ‘gigantic burning torches,
collapsing upon one another, the glow of the exploding city illuminating the
dark sky.’ An approximation of Hitler’s hellish vision came true on September
11, when terrorists destroyed the Twin Towers in New York, killing nearly 3,000
people.” (“The Swastika & the Crescent” by Martin A. Lee; Intelligence Report; Spring 2002 [#105];
Published by the Southern Poverty Law Center; p. 1; accessed at www.splcenter.org/cgi-bin/printas…pl?page=/intelligenceproject/ip—4uc.html
.)
2.
Next, reviewing information from FTR#399,
the broadcast highlights the similarity between the events of 9/11 and the
concluding episode of The Turner Diaries—the
blueprint for Timothy McVeigh and company, as well as the Nazi terror group The
Order. That Nazi tract concludes with a low-level suicide aerial attack against
the Pentagon. “I
conferred privately with Major Williams of the Washington Field Command for
more than an hour on the problem of attacking the Pentagon. The military’s
other major command centers were either knocked out on September 8 or
subsequently consolidated with the Pentagon, which the top brass apparently
regard as impregnable. And it damned near is. We went over every possibility we
could think of, and we came up with no really convincing plan—except, perhaps
one. That is to make an air delivery of a bomb.” (The Turner Diaries; “Andrew Macdonald;”
Barricade Books, Inc. [SC] 1996; Copyright 1978, 1980 William Pierce; ISBN
1-56980-086-3; p. 201.)
3.
“In the massive
ring of defenses around the Pentagon there is a great deal of anti-aircraft
firepower, but we decided that a small plane, flying just above the ground,
might be able to get through the three-mile gauntlet with one of our 60-kiloton
warheads. One factor in favor of such an attempt is that we have never before
used aircraft in such a way, and we might hope to catch the anti-aircraft crews
off their guard.” (Idem.)
4.
“Although the
military is guarding all civil airfields, it just happens that we have an old
crop duster stashed in a barn only a few miles from here. My immediate
assignment is to prepare a detailed plan for an aerial attack on the Pentagon
by next Monday. We must make a final decision at the time and then act without
further delay.” (Idem.)
5.
“November 9, 1993. It’s still three hours
until first light, and all systems are ‘go.’ I’ll use the time to write a few
pages—my last diary entry. Then it’s a one-way trip to the Pentagon for me. The
warhead is strapped into the front seat of the old Stearman and rigged to
detonate either on impact or when I flip a switch in the back seat. Hopefully,
I’ll be able to mange a low-level air burst directly over the center of the
Pentagon. Failing that, I’ll at least try to fly as close as I can before I’m
shot down.” (Ibid.; p. 202.)
6.
“It’s been more
than four years since I’ve flown, but I’ve thoroughly familiarized myself with
the Stearman cockpit and been briefed on the plane’s peculiarities: I don’t
anticipate any piloting problems. The barn-hangar here is only eight miles from
the Pentagon. We’ll thoroughly warm up the engine in the barn, and when the
door is opened I’ll go like a bat out of hell, straight for the Pentagon, at an
altitude of about 50 feet. . .” (Idem.)
7.
The selection of the date of the attack is worth noting. November 9th
is a date that the Nazis commemorated. It was the date of the Beer Hall Putsch
in 1923 and “Die Krystallnacht” in 1938. The Berlin wall came down on November
9, 1989. “Thus
end Earl Turner’s diaries, as unpretentiously as they began. His final mission
was successful, of course, as we all are reminded each year on November 9—our
traditional Day of the Martyrs.” (Ibid.;
p. 205.)
8.
Beginning substantive analysis of the macro-economic results of World
War II, the program sets forth the tremendous amount of capital looted by the
Germans from the occupied countries. By 1943, the Nazis had taken an estimated
$180 billion, minus what they looted from the USSR and Greece. By the end of
the war, they had taken a great deal more. These tremendous sums (in 1940’s
dollars), plus the capital the Third Reich already possessed, was secreted into
the corporate fronts set up by Martin Bormann in neutral countries. (That is
discussed in, among other programs, FTR#305.)
“In all, the
British estimated that the Germans had extracted the equivalent of about $180 billion
from occupied Europe as of 1943, including both direct levies for occupation
costs and a variety of hidden techniques such as currency manipulation. These
figures were based on financial statistics published by the Germans themselves
and do not include estimates for wealth seized from the USSR and Greece. As
such, even the $180 billion figure clearly underestimates the true total.” (The Splendid Blonde Beast: Money, Law and
Genocide in the Twentieth Century; Christopher Simpson; Common Courage
Press [SC]; Copyright 1995 by Christopher Simpson; ISBN 1-5671-062-0 [paper];
1-5671-063-9 [cloth].)
9.
Reviewing information presented in FTR#’s
427, 428, the broadcast underscores the tremendous capital looted from Asia
by Japan during World War II. Under Operation Golden Lilly, the Japanese
secreted more than $100 billion in the Philippines alone during the war. As
discussed in FTR#’s 290, 426-428,
the perceived necessity of preserving the existing political and economic order
in Japan in order to prosecute the Cold War permitted the Japanese oligarchs to
retain their ill-gotten gains. As was the case with Germany, the US attitude
about the approaching Cold War had the effect of solidifying the gains the
Japanese had achieved by force of arms. In
effect, the structural economic relationships between the American industrial
and financial elite through the cartels established with their Japanese and
German counterparts bestowed victory upon the Axis in World War II. The
outgrowth of these events is now unfolding, with the United States now facing
destruction and/or subjugation by the Underground Axis forces that grew from
the post-war realpolitik. As the cradle of democracy and a genuinely
multi-ethnic culture, the US (for all its sins) is something greatly hated by the
forces of darkness that were allowed to prevail at the conclusion of World War
II. Whether or not this country is able to survive the present peril remains to
be seen. “During World War II, Japan’s militarism
became a heady mixture of glory and greed as the army and navy embarked upon a
binge of conquest and looting, from which Tokyo could not extricate itself. We
know a lot about the conquest, but amazingly little about the looting. In the
Japanese holocaust, millions were killed and billions were stolen, but the loot
vanished. One of the great mysteries of World War II is what happened to the
billions of dollars’ worth of treasure confiscated by the Japanese Army from a
dozen conquered countries. The answer involves the imperial family, so it is an
essential part of this biography. . . .” (The Yamato Dynasty; Sterling Seagrave and Peggy Seagrave; Copyright
1999 by Peggy and Sterling Seagrave; Broadway Books [a division of Random
House] [HC]; ISBN 0-7679-0496-6; p. 18.)
10.
Golden Lily
stripped Asia of currency, gold, platinum, silver, gems, jewelry, art treasures
and religious artifacts, including more than a dozen solid gold Buddhas, each
weighing more than a ton. According to Japanese who participated, some $100
billion worth of gold and gems was hidden at more than two hundred sites in the
Philippines when it became physically impossible to move the loot to Japan. We
have corroborated accounts from eyewitnesses and participants, including
Japanese, and members of Prince Chichibu’s personal retinue.” (Ibid.; pp. 18-19.)
11.
Returning to the postwar events in Europe, the broadcast reviews the
Third Reich’s plans to go underground, utilizing the profound connections
between German heavy industry and finance and their Wall Street counterparts,
including the Bush family. “The Staff car had left Colmar at first light for
Strasbourg, carrying SS Obergruppenfueherer Scheid, who held the rank of
lieutenant general in the Waffen SS, as well as the title of Dr. Scheid,
director of the industrial firm of Hermadorff & Schenburg Company. While
the beauty of the rolling countryside was not lost on Dr. Scheid, his thoughts
were on the meeting of important German businessmen to take place on his
arrival at the Hotel Maison Rouge in Strasbourg. Reichsleiter Martin Bormann himself had ordered the conference, and
although he would not physically be present he had confided to Dr. Scheid, who
was to preside, ‘The steps to be taken as a result of this meeting will
determine the postwar future of Germany.’ [Italics are Mr. Emory’s] The Reishsleiter
had added, ‘German industry must realize that the war cannot now be won, and
must take steps to prepare for a postwar commercial campaign which will in time
insure the economic resurgence of Germany.’ It was August 10, 1944. The
Mercedes-Benz bearing SS Obergruppenfuerher Scheid moved slowly now through the
narrow streets of Strasbourg. . . .” (Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; Paul Manning; Copyright 1981 [HC];
Lyle Stuart Inc.; ISBN 0-8184-0309-8; pp. 23-24.)
12.
“A transcript
of that meeting is in my possession. It is a captured German document from the
files of the U.S. Treasury Department, and states who was present and what was
said, as the economy of the Third Reich was projected onto a postwar profit
seeking track. . . .” (Ibid.; p.24.)
13.
One of the firms that Dr. Scheid cited as an example of a company that
had been particularly useful to Germany was the Hamburg-Amerika Line. As
discussed in FTR#’s 273, 346, the Hamburg-Amerika Line was part
of the Bush family’s business operations on behalf of the Third Reich. Note
also that the Krupp firm is now part of Thyssen-Krupp, under the control of the
Thyssen-Bornemisza family and based in Lugano Switzerland. (For more about
this, see FTR#’s 370, 435. See also:
“ ‘Bush-Nazi Dealings Continued Until 1951’—Federal Documents” by John Buchanan
and Stacey Michael; The New Hampshire
Gazette; 11/7/2003 [vol. 248, #3]; accessed at www.nhgazette.com/cgi-bin/NHGstore.cgi?user_action=detail&catalogno=NN_Bush_Nazi_2 and
“How the Bush Family Made its Fortune from the Nazis” by John Loftus; available
at: http://www.john-loftus.com/Thyssen.asp
.) “ . . . Dr.
Scheid also affirmed, ‘The ground must now be laid on the financial level for
borrowing considerable sums from foreign countries after the war.’ As an
example of the kind of support that had been most useful to Germany in the
past, Dr. Scheid cited the fact that ‘patents for stainless steel belonged to
the Chemical Foundation, Inc. New York, and the Krupp Company of Germany,
jointly, and that the United States Steel Corporation, Carnegie, Illinois,
American Steel & Wire, National Tube, etc., were thereby under an
obligation to work with the Krupp concern.’ He also cited the Zeiss Company,
the Leica Company, and the Hamburg-Amerika line as typical firms that had been
especially effective in protecting German interests abroad. He gave New York
addresses to the twelve men.” (Idem.)
14.
The group also discussed provisions to continue to fund the Nazi party
in an underground fashion after the war. “A smaller conference in the afternoon was presided over by
Dr. Bosse of the German Armaments Ministry. It was attended only by
representatives of Hecko, Krupp, and Rochling. Dr. Bosse restated Bormann’s
belief that the war was all but lost, but that it would be continued by Germany
until certain goals to insure the economic resurgence of Germany after the war
had been achieved. He added that German industrialists must be prepared to
finance the continuation of the Nazi Party, which would be forced to go
underground, just as had the Maquis in France.” (Ibid.; p.26.)
15.
The profound continuity in the corporate relationships between the
Japanese oligarchs and their American counterparts is embodied in the failure
of class-action suits filed on behalf of victims of the Japanese occupation
during World War II. In what the Seagraves describe as the “last battle of the
Pacific War,” surviving victims of Japanese atrocities, including American
former POW’s sued for compensation for their wartime suffering. The federal
government effectively blocked these suits, maintaining that international
diplomatic relations took precedence over legal ethics and morality. “The real issue
is conflict of interest. During the Clinton Administration, U.S. Ambassador to
Japan Thomas Foley was adamant in rejecting compensation for POW’s and other
slave laborers, insisting that ‘The peace treaty put aside all claims against
Japan.’ His Deputy Chief of Mission, Christopher J. LaFleur, echoed this dogma
at every opportunity.” (Gold
Warriors—America’s Secret Recovery of Yamashita’s Gold; by Sterling
Seagrave and Peggy Seagrave; Verso [HC]; Copyright 2003 by Sterling Seagrave
and Peggy Seagrave; ISBN 1-85984-542-8; p. 12.)
16.
“It was a
matter of some interest to victims that Foley’s wife was a well-paid consultant
to Sumitomo, one of Japan’s biggest zaibatsu
conglomerates, heavily involved in wartime slave labor and a target of the lawsuits. The moment Foley ended his tenure as
ambassador and returned to America, he signed on as a paid advisor and lobbyist
to another huge conglomerate—Mitsubishi—one of the biggest wartime users of
slave labor.” (Idem.)
17. “Of
greater significance, perhaps, is that Lafleur is married to the daughter of
former prime minister and finance minister Miyazawa, one of the three Japanese
who secretly negotiated the 1951 treaty with John Foster Dulles. (Miyazawa also
is considered by professor Lausier and others to be the financial overseer of
the M-Fund.) Conflict of interest does not seem to be an obstacle in diplomatic
appointments to Tokyo.” (Idem)
17.
There is no such thing as a perfect historical analogy. Nonetheless,
the current and precarious situation of the United States can best be
understood by examining the work of the Fifth Column in the subversion of
France prior to, and during, World War II. (This is discussed in greater detail
in FTR#’s 372, 412, as well as Miscellaneous Archive Show M61,
available from Spitfire.) Joined
with the Nazi elite by structural economic relationships, and
fascist/anti-semitic ideology, the French power elite deliberately subverted
France in World War II. The US is facing similar subversion by the
Bush/Underground Reich elements, in league with the Arab oil producing states.
It is worth noting in this context, that a key element in the French Fifth
Column were the French steel-producing magnates, joined in a cartel with their
German counterparts. (See FTR#372.)
At the American end of that cartel was the Bush family. The UBC/Thyssen
interests joined the Bushes with the De Wendels (French) and the Rochling,
Thyssen and Flick interests in Germany. It is worth noting also that the
Bormann group has the most profound connections with the petroleum industry.
(See—among other programs—FTR#’s 305,
341, 385.) “The
activity of the Fifth Column will not be considered by historians a special
phenomenon of French public life, but as an integral part of Fascism. The Fifth
Column has appeared wherever Fascism has tried to gain a foothold. It was at
work in Spain, Austria, and Czechoslovakia before it turned up in France, and
there are Fifth Columns in the United States, India, and Latin America. By the
Fifth Column I do not mean only spies and licensed traitors. The Fifth Column
includes all who, by accepting fascist doctrines or methods, become the
conscious or unconscious accomplices of a foreign power. Treason and complicity
have their degrees and nuances. The General Staff of the Fifth column consists
principally of ambitious men who try to seize power by destroying or paralyzing
the democratic system. The body of the Fifth Column is composed of people who
think they are saving their country from the ‘communist menace’ or from
‘British imperialism,’ and who do not even know in whose favor their actions
are operating. Through hate of the Poplar Front, good Frenchmen, or men who
considered themselves such, served Hitler gratuitously by doing work to which
they would never have consented, had they had been offered payment. Why?
Because they detested the Republic and democracy more than they loved France.
They accepted the idea of the defeat as a necessary evil which permitted them
to rid France of the democratic system and to keep in power, in the neighboring
countries, the Fascist dictators whom they considered solely capable of
maintaining order in Europe. They afterwards became unconscious collaborators
of these dictators. They thought they were doing their duty in letting Hitler
free France from the ‘Judeo-Masonic’ influence, and Europe from the Communist
peril. These people who had never read Marx, considered the ‘Marxist danger’
more immediate than the Hitlerian. They preferred the risks of an entente with
a victorious Hitler to the risks of a democratic victory that would cause the
collapse of the Fascist dictators in Europe. Considering Hitler in Germany,
Mussolini in Italy, and Franco in Spain as knights of an anti-Bolshevist
crusade, they became precursors and later partisans of ‘collaboration with
Hitler’s New Order.’” (Triumph
of Treason; by Pierre Cot; Copyright 1944 [HC]; Ziff-Davis; pp. 62-63.)
18.
“Enough evidence
has been published already to prove that France was stabbed in the back by
those who saw in Hitler the new St. George who would slay the Communist dragon.
When Pierre Lazareff, former editor-in-chief of Paris Soir (the French newspaper with the widest circulation),
reports royalists as saying: ‘We need the defeat to wipe out the Republic;’
when Elie Bois, former editor of the Petit
Parisien (the most influential political newspaper), reports great
industrialists as admitting to him, during the winter of 1939-1940, that a plot
had been organized to replace the democratic regime by a ‘government of
authority’ and that this plot presupposed a Nazi victory; when Anatole de
Monzie writes, in a book passed by the censor of the Vichy government, that
marshal Petain said in February, 1940: ‘They will appeal to me in the third
week in May’; when Genevieve Tabouis tells of the work accomplished in the
Parisian salons by the Fifth Column’s ‘brigade mondaine’; when Henri de
Kerillis, former officer and nationalist deputy, exposes the inroads of the
Fifth Column in the conservative and military circles which he knew; when Henry
Torres reveals to us what was going on in the offices of the official propaganda
. . . we have every reason to accept their affirmations, which tally so
perfectly with the events.” (Ibid.; p. 63.)
19.
In order to fully grasp the nature of the subversion that the Bush
administration/Underground Reich faction is undertaking, the broadcast
highlights Prussian military theoretician Karl Von Clausewitz’s theories on
“total war.” (For more about Von Clausewitz, see FTR#’s 366, 396.) In his formulations about “total war,” Von
Clausewitz advanced the notion that war, politics and economics could be
understood as elements of a continuum. War is seen as an extension of politics
and vice versa. War and economics are inextricably linked. As Tacitus noted,
“pecunia nervus belli”—“money is the sinew of war.” “Karl Von Clausewitz--Prussian general whose
writings, especially On War,
advocated the concept of total war, in which all the enemy’s territory,
property, and citizens are attacked. . . . By means of a lengthy discussion of
a variety of situations likely to confront the military leader, Clausewitz
tried to develop in his reader a theoretically founded military judgement,
capable of weighing all pertinent factors in a given situation. He stated that
strategy should aim at three main targets; the enemy’s forces, his resources,
and his will to fight. . . .” (Encyclopedia
Britannica; 1997 edition; p. 361.)
20.
“ . . . On War has had a profound influence on
modern strategic concepts. Its most significant single contribution is the
doctrine of political direction in military matters. In maintaining that ‘war
is nothing but a continuation of political intercourse with the admixture of
different means,’ he denied that war is an end in itself. . . . By the middle
of the 20th century, when new long-range weapons systems had
appeared, the significance of Clausewitz’ strategic concepts relating
exclusively to land warfare declined although many of his basic ideas remained
as valid as ever.” (Idem.)
21.
For municipalities and states, the economic effects of the “war on
terror” have been very grave indeed. “For cash-strapped U.S. cities and states, this week’s
heightened national threat alert level has reignited concerns about costs
alongside fears of a new terror attack. From overtime for police officers to
extra patrols at key facilities and borders, cities nationwide must spend tens
of millions of dollars each week for the additional security measures, money
some local officials say they do not have.” (“Cash-Strapped Cities
Grapple with Security Costs” by Caroline Drees [Reuters]; 12/22/2003; p. 1;
accessed at http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?templ=story&u=nm/20031222/us_nm/security_usa_im
.)
22.
“It’s enormously
frustrating,’ said Randy King, spokesman for the city of Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania, a state capital of 49,000 people near the Three Mile Island
nuclear power plant. ‘All of it costs money, lots of money, and there’s no
federal reimbursement,’ he said.” (Idem.)
23.
“On Sunday, the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security raised the color-coded terror alert level
to ‘high’ orange from ‘elevated’ yellow—the fourth such move this year. Lifting
the level triggers a raft of automatic additional federal security precautions,
and serves as a guideline for cities and states. ‘We need to recognize that
every time the government ratchets up the threat level, we force the state and
local government officials to make a choice,’ said analyst David Heyman at the
Center for Strategic and International Studies.” (Idem.)
24.
In FTR#407, we examined the
struggle between the European Airbus consortium and Boeing over the pricing of
airframes in dollars vs. Euros, as well as the implication of SARS for the
airline business. The recent terror alerts have deepened the hemorrhaging
experienced by the air carriers. It will be interesting to see what the
long-term results of this hemorrhaging will be. Will the German
government-assisted Lufthansa benefit? Will the Airbus consortium benefit? Will
airframes be priced in Euros? “The rash of holiday flight cancellations, security actions
and terrorism warnings are going to compel many U.S. companies to reassess
whether to send employees abroad in coming weeks, not only out of fear of
attack but because of the inconvenience of canceled and delayed flights, business
travel experts said Friday.” (“Terror Scares Hit Airlines” [New York Times]; San Francisco Chronicle; 1/3/2004; p. B2.)
25.
In this context, it is important to note as
well that hampering the ability of American business personnel to travel abroad
will, ultimately, hurt the ability of US business to operate effectively in the
global marketplace. “Kevin Mitchell,
chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, said bookings could drop 10 to 15
percent after the latest incidents. That would be particularly bad news for the
airlines, which have lost business travelers—who usually pay the highest fares
and account for a disproportionate share of airlines’ profit—since the
industry’s peak in the year 2000, well before the Sept. 11 attacks. Dwindling
business travel was a big reason that the airlines had their lowest-ver revenue
last year.” (Idem.)
26.
“Airlines hope
that international travel to the United States will rise 5 percent during 2004,
to an estimated 42.2 million arrivals from abroad, according to the Travel Industry
Association, a trade group. That would have been the first increase since 2000.
Moreover, the carriers were particularly optimistic about the winter travel
season, which they expect to improve from last year, when bookings were
depressed by the SARS outbreak and the looming war with Iraq. But the
industry’s outlook dimmed as more flights were canceled Friday.” (Idem.)
27.
“By Friday,
seven flights bound for the United States had been canceled, including three by
British Airlines, which also canceled a scheduled trip to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,
from London. The cancellations were in addition to jet escorts by military
fighter planes within the United States, and the emergency landing of an Air
France flight in Newfoundland, where the plane, passengers and baggage were
searched.” (Idem.)
28.
“The moves came a
week after the government elevated its terror alert to high, raising the
prospect that an expected increase in travel between the United States and
other countries this year may be thwarted. ‘Quantifying the effect on people’s
willingness to fly, or the overall cost to airlines at this point is nearly
impossible,’ said Chris Tarry, an analyst in London.” (Idem.)
29.
“But according to
Robert Mann, Jr., an industry consultant in Port Washington, N.Y., the
psychological damage could not be discounted. ‘From an industrywide level, this
throws cold water on revenue growth,’ he said.” (Idem.)
30.
In FTR#’s 407, 412, 415 and 435, we examined the fact that Grover
Norquist and Karl Rove were the Republican Party’s point men for both the
Islamist connection to the GOP and for the drastic slashing of taxes. The
potentially devastating results from the economic policies of this
administration should be carefully considered. These policies have been
executed in tandem with the waging of a war engendered (in part) by the very
Islamists involved with the Norquist/Rove-sponsored Islamic Institute. Bush is
the only major world leader who has ever attempted to slash revenues while
waging war. It is Mr. Emory’s view that
the goal of this political and economic gambit is the physical and/or economic
and/or political subjugation and/or destruction of the United States. “Pecunia
nervus Belli.” (For more about the economic implications of 9/11, see—among
other programs—FTR#’s 344-346, 365-367,
372, 378, 396, 407, 412, 413, 415.) The program highlights a column by New York Times economics writer Paul
Krugman, in which he warns of the danger facing the US economy. “Argentina
retained the confidence of international investors almost to the end of the
1990’s. Analysts shrugged off its large budget and trade deficits;
business-friendly, free-market policies would, they insisted, allow the country
to grow out of all that. But when confidence collapsed, that optimism proved
foolish. Argentina, once a showpiece for the new world order, quickly became a
byword for economic catastrophe.” (“Rubin Gets Shrill” by Paul
Krugman; The New York Times;
1/6/2004; accessed at www.nytimes.com/2004/01/06/opinion/06KRUG.htm.?ex=10744334
.)
31.
“So what? Those
of us who have suggested that the irresponsibility of recent American policy
may produce a similar disaster have been dismissed as shrill, even hysterical.
(Hey, the market’s up, isn’t it?) But few would describe Robert Rubin, the
legendary former Treasury secretary, as hysterical: his ability to stay calm in
the face of crises, and reassure the markets, was his greatest asset. And Mr.
Rubin has formally joined the coalition of the shrill.” (Idem.)
32.
“In a paper
presented over the weekend at the meeting of the American Economic Association,
Mr. Rubin and his co-authors—Peter Orszag of the Brookings Institution and
Allan Sinai of Decision Economics—argue along lines that will be familiar to
regular readers of this column. The United States, they point, out, is
currently running very large budget and trade deficits. Official projections
that this deficit will decline over time aren’t based on ‘credible
assumptions.’ Realistic projections show a huge buildup of debt over the next
decade, which will accelerate once the baby boomers retire in large numbers.” (Idem.)
33.
“All of this is
conventional stuff, if anathema to administration apologists, who insist, in
flat defiance of the facts, that they have a ‘plan’ to cut the deficit in half.
What’s new is what Mr. Rubin and his co-authors say about the consequences.
Rather than focusing on the gradual harm inflicted by deficits, they highlight
the potential for catastrophe.” (Idem.)
34.
“ ‘Substantial
ongoing deficits,’ they warn, ‘may severely and adversely affect expectations
and confidence, which in turn can generate a self-reinforcing negative cycle
among the underlying fiscal deficit, financial markets, and the real economy. .
. . The potential costs and fallout from such fiscal and financial disarray
provide perhaps the strongest motivation for avoiding substantial, ongoing
budget deficits.’ In other words, do cry for us, Argentina: we may be heading
down the same road. . . .” (Idem.)
35.
The International Monetary Fund is warning of the grave consequences of
the Bush/Norquist/Rove economic policies as well. “With its rising budget deficit and
ballooning trade imbalance, the United States is running up a foreign debt of
such record-breaking proportions that it threatens the financial stability of
the global economy, according to a report released Wednesday by the
International Monetary Fund.” (“I.M.F. Says U.S. Debts Threaten
World Economy” by Elizabeth Becker and Edmund L. Andrews; The New York Times; 1/8/2004; accessed at www.nytimes.com/2004/01/08/business/08FUND.html?ex=107460
.)
36.
“Prepared by a
team of I.M.F. economists, the report sounded a loud alarm about the shaky
fiscal foundation of the United States, questioning the wisdom of the Bush
administration’s tax cuts and warning that large budget deficits pose
‘significant risks’ not just for the United States but for the rest of the
world. The report warns that the united States’ net financial obligations to
the rest of the world could be equal to 40 percent of its total economy within
a few years—‘an unprecedented level of external debt for a large industrial
country,’ according to the fund, that could play havoc with the value of the
dollar and international exchange rates.” (Idem.)
37.
“The danger,
according to the report, is that the United States’ voracious appetite for
borrowing could push up global interest rates and thus slow global investment
and economic growth. ‘Higher borrowing costs abroad would mean that the adverse
effects of U.S. fiscal deficits would spill over into global investment and
output,’ the report said. . . .” (Idem.)
38.
“ . . . But in
the report, fund economists warned that the long-term fiscal outlook was far
grimmer, predicting that underfunding for Social Security and Medicare will
lead to shortages as high as $47 trillion over the next 70 years or nearly 500
percent of the current gross domestic product in the coming decades. . . .” (Idem.)
39.
Von Clausewitz was a Prussian by birth. The broadcast concludes with a
look at a group of aging SS officers’ christening of Osama bin Laden as an
“honorary Prussian.” These SS men are associates of Ahmed Huber, a director of
Al Taqwa. (Al Taqwa is heavily intersected with the GOP’s ethnic outreach
organization and the Rove/Norquist Islamic Institute.) “By his [Ahmed Huber’s] account, a group of
aging SS officers and members of Hitler’s personal guard who meet every few
weeks in the German state of Bavaria for beer and conversation recently
bestowed the title ‘honorary Prussian’ on Bin Laden. They praised his ‘valiant
fight’ against the United States, Huber said. One of the members called Huber
after the meeting to tell him that henceforth they had decided to call the Al
Queda leader ‘Herr von Laden,’ Huber said.” (“Unlikely Allies Bound
by a Common Hatred” by Peter Finn; Washington
Post; 4/29/2002; p. A13; accessed at www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64385-2002Apr28?language=printer
.)