Kurt Nimmo | Jihad Jane is a near perfect patsy for a government eager to extend indefinitely the phony GWOT against the mirage of cave-dwelling terrorists who are said to have relocated to Anywhereville, USA.

Read More: Neocon Bloggers Celebrate Indictment of “Crazy” Patsy Jihad Jane

Source: Infowars

The US-based Christian charity World Vision said Wednesday, March 10, it has suspended operations in Pakistan after militants stormed its offices, killing six staff members and injuring several others.

Read More: BREAKING NEWS: World Vision Suspends Pakistan Operations After Militants Kill Staff

Source: Worthy Christian News

Hungary’s President László Sólyom signed a law Wednesday, March 10, making denial, or playing down, of the Holocaust a criminal offense punishable by up to three years imprisonment.

Read More: BREAKING NEWS: Hungary Bans Holocaust Denial; Violators Face Prison

Source: Worthy Christian News

AFP | The lockdown, which affected around 50 schools in the Minneapolis public school district, meant children were told to remain in their classrooms while access to outside visitors was strictly limited.

Read More: Minneapolis schools locked down over vague threat posted on internet

Source: Infowars

A funeral service was underway Wednesday, March 10, for a former Hungarian chief rabbi who was persecuted under Communism because of his involvement in spreading the Jewish faith,the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary (MAZSIHISZ) confirmed.

Read More: NEWS ALERT: Persecuted Hungarian Rabbi Raj Dies; Funeral Underway

Source: Worthy Christian News

Kurt Nimmo | Is the Department of Education expecting problems or do they plan to enforce government “education” (indoctrination) laws at gunpoint?

Read More: Department of Education Posts Order for Police Shotguns

Source: Infowars

Wall Street Journal | Treasury Department data shows that Social Security recipients comprise a large and growing percentage of people from whom the Treasury recovers debts.

Read More: Treasury Plans to Take Social Security from Elderly for Unpaid Loans

Source: Infowars

WideShut | Advert says the hermit down the street might be a terrorist.

Read More: TalkSport UK: Is Your Neighbor a Terrorist?

Source: Infowars

Putin: ‘The demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.”

A customs union among Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan could boost trade and further the Kremlin’s dream of reintegrating the economies of the old Soviet Union

businessweek.com | Mar 8, 2010

By Kenjali Tinibai

The inauguration of the Russia-Kazakhstan-Belarus customs union at the beginning of this year gave a very visible push to the Kremlin’s long-term goal of economic reintegration of the former Soviet republics.

There has never been any doubt that the Russian government would play the leading role in decision making, whether in a customs union or the in the next step foreseen, a single market that could soon become a reality. Many analysts interpret the Kremlin’s intent as to re-create a kind of modernized Soviet Union, at least at the economic level.

COMMON RULES, HIGHER PRICES

The Kremlin’s initial moves in support of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s goal of a Russian-dominated zone embracing much of the former Soviet Union have been in the economic sphere. A half-dozen states have been drawn into the Russian economic embrace, and now Belarus and Kazakhstan have accepted Moscow’s invitation to begin applying common customs tariffs on the majority of imported goods

It’s early days yet for the customs union. The three countries began applying common tariffs on 1 January, and a few types of products are temporarily exempt. But the impact of the new measures is provoking indignation among consumers in Kazakhstan, who are upset over higher prices for a wide range of goods.

“Why does a new Toyota Camry made in Russia [now] cost 40,000 American dollars when all over the world the price is just 22,000?” one blogger complained on a Kazakh Internet site.

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Poll: Russian “Putin Generation” youths admire Soviet dictator Josef Stalin

The prices of imported clothing, leather goods, shoes, and perfumes have risen on the back of higher duties.

Many medicines imported from outside the former Soviet countries are also more expensive now. Customs duties rose by 5 percent on imported insulin, hemoglobin, and some kinds of antibiotics, as well as vitamins. The duty on leather goods went from 5 percent of the cost of the goods to 20 percent, a rise of about $7 per kilogram.

In Kazakhstan you can hear the view that the system of common tariffs is working to strengthen Russia’s positions. Some Russian officials are openly saying that the new tariff setup is based largely on the Russian system. And Moscow’s ambitions go well beyond the customs union now in place. The Russian, Kazakh, and Belarusian leaders have approved documents to establish a “common economic space” on 1 January 2012 – a single market for goods, investment, and labor.

When the three countries’ presidents signed the documents establishing the customs union in November they promised that it would boost trade, make their countries more competitive, and promote investment opportunities. Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan Nazarbaev, put the combined trade turnover of the three members at $900 billion. Although that is probably an embellishment, as leaders of post-Soviet states often tend to overstate figures relating to intrastate economic schemes, the customs union does have enormous potential, and, as Nazarbaev also declared, it could become a major exporter of oil and grain in the future.

But these benefits may seem rather abstract to many consumers in Kazakhstan who so far are seeing mostly higher prices. Where products from developed countries used to be comparatively inexpensive, many Kazakhs have noted considerable rises in the retail cost of goods imported from outside the union. Some of the loudest complaints concern the price of cars.

On 1 January the customs duty on imported cars rose from 10 percent of the price – the old Kazakh rate – to match the Russian rate of 30 to 35 percent. Behind these measures, some see Russia attempting to give an unfair advantage to its own auto industry products – cars that are uncompetitive on world markets.

The new tariff system could unleash a flood of imports of all sorts, they warn, undermining domestic producers’ market positions and perhaps causing an upturn in inflation. In 2007, Kazakhstan exported about $46 billion worth of goods and services, dominated by hydrocarbons, and imported about $30 billion worth, according to the World Bank.

RUSSIA’S AMBITIONS

At first glance it may seem that domestic producers in Kazakhstan now have a price advantage over imports, because of the higher import duties. The truth is that old marketplace rivals have given way to new ones. The Russian government is the dominant influence over common economic policies in the customs union’s coordinating structures. Kazakh companies may now face a raft of new competition from Russian firms under less than equal conditions.

One Kazakh economic analyst thinks local businesses must get ready for cutthroat competition from Russian imports.

According to Dosym Satpaev, director of the Risk Assessment Group think tank in Amaty, Russian companies are likely to gain the advantage on the Kazakh market over the next several years, thanks to the more competitive products the far larger and comparatively more developed Russian economy can turn out. Meanwhile, he says, the Kazakh economy will continue to be hampered by organizational deficits, quality control, and other problems. Kazakhstan is not yet ready for economic integration of the type Russia is spearheading, he warns.

Economic data alone underline Russia’s leading role in the new customs union and proposed single market. Although the Kazakh economy is one of the largest of the ex-Soviet republics, with a 2008 GDP estimated by the World Bank to be $132 billion, it’s less than a tenth the size of Russia’s.

Coming close on the heels of the launch of the customs union, the victory of a close friend in the Ukrainian presidential election will give new impetus and vigor to the Kremlin’s aim of further asserting its dominance of the post-Soviet economic space.

So far Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have indicated strong interest in joining the customs union, and as for the second-largest economy in the post-Soviet sphere, Ukraine, president-elect Viktor Yanukovych told the British Daily Telegraph that he favored joining the growing Russian-led economic zone. Ukrainian entry into the customs union would shift the regional balance of power strongly toward inner Eurasia, and, particularly if no positive steps toward creating a more liberal political system occur in Russia, the European Union could then expect to face stronger Russian pressure in the center and west of the continent.

Given that the Kremlin is seeking to regain its influence in Eurasia, if Ukraine joins the Russian-led economic zone, the Baltic states and the Central and Eastern European former Warsaw Pact members will take the brunt of that pressure.

Read More: Russian Trade Zone: A Soviet Reunion

Source: Aftermath News

Hundreds more town hall staff and private security guards are to be handed police-style powers in a fresh Home Office drive to create an army of civilian “spies”.

Telegraph | Mar 8, 2010

By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor

Almost 1,700 people, also including car park attendants and dog wardens, already have powers to hand out a string of fines and even take photographs of low level offenders under the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme.

But the Government has quietly announced it plans to review the scheme with chief police officers to see how it can be expanded further.

Rank and file officers warned the move is “blurring the lines” of legitimate law enforcement and is creating a “third tier” of policing.

Even chief constables are now cautious over the scheme following it’s rapid growth, which has seen numbers increase by a fifth in just 12 months.

It will further fuel concerns that, with increasing budget pressures, the Government is keen to push for policing on the cheap.

Under CSAS, a chief constable can give employees of local authorities or private companies limited powers such as the right to hand out on-the-spot fines for offences including disorder, truancy and littering; stopping vehicles for roadside tests and confiscating alcohol.

They have their own uniform and badge and can demand names and addresses as well as take photographs of offenders.

There are 1,667 so-called “accredited persons” in England and Wales with 109 organisations, including 31 private companies, involved across 26 forces.

A further 478 civilians have been given the power to stop vehicles to check for out-of-date tax discs.

But a section buried in a recent Home Office neighbourhood policing strategy document read: “The Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS) is a powerful way for the police to work with partners and to make the most out of other people whose job is to keep their neighbourhoods safe by giving them a limited range of powers to tackle ASB (anti-social behaviour).

“The Government and ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officer) will review CSAS to see how it can be expanded to more forces and organisations.”

The review is to be carried out this summer but Peter Davies, Nottinghamshire assistant chief constable and ACPO lead on CSAS, said: “Accredited persons do play a part in building safe and secure neighbourhoods.

“However, their role must remain distinct from that of police officers whose task is to uphold and enforce the law, tackling all forms of harm to the public and communities.”

The move also raises fresh fears over the future of policing, especially with chief officers under pressure to cut costs. There are already more than 16,000 police community support officers and now a growing number of accredited civilians.

Simon Reed, the vice-chairman of the Police Federation, said: “It is just growing out of control. The growth rates are phenomenal.

“It is blurring the lines between police as the legitimate law enforcement organisation and these pseudo agencies springing up.

“It is effectively a third tier of policing. We are having all these police powers devolved to anyone and there does not seem to be any boundaries to law enforcement. Where will it end?”

Dylan Sharpe, campaign director of Big Brother Watch, said: “Those empowered by these schemes don’t have anything near the proper training, experience or respect to try and boss around members of the public.”

A leaked document last month suggested one in five police officers could lose their job under cost-cutting measures.

Up to 28,000 officers would be replaced by civilian workers — saving hundreds of millions of pounds — under suggestions put to a Workforce Council meeting chaired by Acpo and involving the National Policing Improvement Agency, the Home Office-funded body responsible for finding efficiencies within the service.

The Daily Telegraph also disclosed that forces are losing thousands of officers by freezing recruitment and replacing them with volunteer special constables.

Three quarters of all forces have stopped taking new recruits meaning that up to 3,200 officers could be lost nationwide over the next three years.

David Hanson, the policing minister, said: “Police are cracking down hard on anti-social behaviour, but beating it is not just a job for them. We are determined to give powers to communities to help tackle the crimes that matter most to them and the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme is part of that drive

“It gives limited powers to people already working in community safety, which was backed by two thirds of the public in a nationwide survey. The scheme is yet another tool to tackle anti-social behaviour and can help free police time to tackle serious crime and protect the public.”

Read More: Hundreds of town hall staff and security guards to be handed police-style powers to create an army of civilian “spies”

Source: Aftermath News