Cowards: What Politicians, Radicals, and the Media Refuse to Say Read online

  Chapter 4

  ECONOMIC TERRORISM

  FINANCIAL WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

  PAGE 66: “‘aware of the lines in their own hands’” Kevin Freeman, “The Weapons of Our Warfare,” humanevents.com, January 18, 2012, http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48871.

  PAGE 67: “global economy had lost close to $50 trillion” Kevin Hechtkopf, “Summers: $50 Trillion In Global Wealth Has Been Erased,” EconWatch blog at cbsnews.com, March 13, 2009, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503983_162-4863891-503983.html. • “compelling evidence of outside manipulation” Bill Gertz, “Financial Terrorism Suspected in 2008 Economic Crash: Pentagon Study Sees Element,” Washington Times, February 28, 2011, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/28/financial-terrorism-suspected-in-08-economic-crash. • “‘Nobody wants to go there’” Bill Gertz, “Financial Terrorism Suspected in 2008 Economic Crash: Pentagon Study Sees Element,” Washington Times, February 28, 2011, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/28/financial-terrorism-suspected-in-08-economic-crash. • “how our enemies might harm our economy” Kevin D. Freeman, Secret Weapon: How Economic Terrorism Brought Down the U.S. Stock Market and Why “It Can Happen Again” (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2012), 180.

  PAGE 68: “money, livestock, land, and possessions for the food Joseph had stored” Dr. Gary North, “Was Joseph an Immoral Ruler?” Biblical Economics Today 14, no. 2 (Feb./March 1992), http://www.garynorth.com/freebooks/docs/a_pdfs/newslet/bet/9202.pdf. • “Napoleon was also a big fan of economic weaponry” Tor Egil Førland, “The History of Economic Warfare: International Law, Effectiveness, Strategies,” Journal of Peace Research 30, no. 2 (May 1993) 151-162. • “‘chain reaction that eventually led to the attack on Pearl Harbor” Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War: The Grand Alliance, Volume 3 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1950) 426-427. • “counterfeited British currency in the hopes of destroying their economy” Andreas Schroeder, Scams!: True Stories From the Edge (Toronto: Annick Press Ltd., 2004) 72–87; Larry Allen, The Encyclopedia of Money (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO LLC, 2009), 306. • “if they did not withdraw their troops from the Suez Canal” James P. Hubbard, The United States and the End of British Colonial Rule in Africa, 1941-1968 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2010) 153–54. • “oil embargo against the U.S. and Israel in 1973” U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian “OPEC Oil Embargo, 1973-1974,” Milestones:1969-1976 in history.state.gov, accessed April 6, 2012, http://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/OPEC. • “break the ‘Evil Empire’ of the Soviet Union” Peter Schweizer, Victory: The Reagan Administration’s Secret Strategy That Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1996), xviii. • “short the British pound and ‘break the Bank of England’” David Litterick, “Billionaire who broke the Bank of England,” The Daily Telegraph, September 13, 2002, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2773265/Billionaire-who-broke-the-Bank-of-England.html. • “North Koreans have been counterfeiting” David Rose, “North Korea’s Dollar Store,” Vanity Fair, August 5, 2009, http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/09/office-39-200909.

  PAGE 69: “economic warfare approach against Iran” Pepe Escobar, “US Wants SWIFT War On Iran,” Middle East blog at atimes.com, February 17, 2012, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NB17Ak04.html. • “our national debt could be extinguished within a decade” “President Clinton: The United States on Track to Pay Off the Debt by End of the Decade,” clinton4nara.gov, December 28, 2000, http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/new/html/Fri_Dec_29_151111_2000.html. • “‘Unrestricted Warfare’” Col. Qiao Liang and Col. Wang Xiangsui, Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America (Panama City: Pan American Publishing Company, 2002). • “‘slaves to technology in [our] thinking’” Col. Qiao Liang and Col. Wang Xiangsui, Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America (Panama City: Pan American Publishing Company, 2002), 15. • “‘in the ranks of new concept weapons’” Col. Qiao Liang and Col. Wang Xiangsui, Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America (Panama City: Pan American Publishing Company, 2002), 16.

  PAGE 70: “‘military thinking and the methods of operation’” Col. Qiao Liang and Col. Wang Xiangsui, Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America (Panama City: Pan American Publishing Company, 2002), 122. • “‘that George Soros is not a financial terrorist’” Col. Qiao Liang and Col. Wang Xiangsui, Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America (Panama City: Pan American Publishing Company, 2002), 36. • “‘rather, it will be George Soros’” Col. Qiao Liang and Col. Wang Xiangsui, Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America (Panama City: Pan American Publishing Company, 2002), 39.

  PAGE 71: “‘social panic, street riots, and a political crisis’” Col. Qiao Liang and Col. Wang Xiangsui, Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America (Panama City: Pan American Publishing Company, 2002), 122-123. • “the Chinese currently holds a staggering $3 trillion in foreign reserves” “China’s Foreign Exchange Reserves, 1977-2011: Foreign-Exchange Reserves Reached US $3.2 Trillion in December 2011,” chinability.com, accessed April 7, 2012, http://www.chinability.com/Reserves.htm. • “(more than $1 trillion by China)” SWF Institute, “Sovereign Wealth Fund Rankings,” swfinstitute.org, accessed April 7 2012, http://www.swfinstitute.org/fund-rankings. • “this wealth has been accumulated since the year 2000” Tina Aridas, “Largest Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF) – 2010 Ranking,” gfmag.com, http://www.gfmag.com/tools/global-database/economic-data/10300-largest-sovereign-wealth-funds-swf-2010-ranking.html (accessed April 7, 2012). • “‘Why then would they shy away from economic warfare?’” Kevin D. Freeman, Secret Weapon: How Economic Terrorism Brought Down the U.S. Stock Market and Why It Can Happen Again (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2012), 210. • “vice chairman of the Central Military Commission” Lev Navrozov, “China’s Gen Chi: U.S. Easily Defeated,” newsmax.com, December 10, 2009, http://www.newsmax.com/navrozov/china-haotian-chi/2009/12/10/id/339799.

  PAGE 72: “it was estimated that he had ‘several billion’ dollars” richwebnews, “Gaddafi’s Libya Wealth Estimated in Several Billions,” allvoices.com, February 23, 2011, http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8281804-gaddafis-libya-wealth-estimated-in-several-billions. • “$200 billion in Western markets” Paul Richter, “Gaddafi Salted Away About $200 Billion,” Sidney Morning Herald, October 22, 2011, http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/gaddafi-salted-away-about-200-billion-20111022-1md9z.html. • “four times the estimated wealth of Warren Buffett” “The World’s Billionaires,” Forbes.com, http://www.forbes.com/profile/warren-buffett, accessed April 24, 2012. • “When prices collapsed, so did their economy” Peter Schweizer, Victory: The Reagan Administration’s Secret Strategy That Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1996), xviii. • “As the world’s largest consumer of oil, the United States” “The World’s Top Consumers and Producers of Oil,” cnn.com, June 3, 2008, http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/02/oil.map/index.html. • “‘adds almost $60 billion to annual consumer bills’” Ross DeVol, “The $110 Effect: What Higher Gas Prices Could Really Do to the Economy,” theatlantic.com, March 13, 2012, http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/the-110-effect-what-higher-gas-prices-could-really-do-to-the-economy/254386/. • “$147.50 in mid-2008” “Timeline: Half a Century of Oil Price Volatility,” reuters.com, November 20, 2008, http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/11/20/us-oil-prices-idUKTRE4AJ3ZR20081120. • “estimated $1 trillion in additional dollars was paid by the West” Kevin D. Freeman, Secret Weapon: How Economic Terrorism Brought Down the U.S. Stock Market and Why It Can Happen Again (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2012), 73.

  PAGE 73: “‘warranted by ordinary commercial transactions’” Kevin D. Freeman, Secret Weapon: How Economic Terrorism Brought Down the U.S. Stock Market and Why It Can Happen Again (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2012), 73. • “
‘They don’t know who holds what positions’” “Did Speculation Fuel Oil Price Swings?” 60 Minutes, April 14, 2009, http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4713382n. “‘the weapon of oil or Silah al Naft’” Walid Phares, “OPEC War Against America’s Economic Independence?” counterterrorismblog.org, October 10, 2008, http://counterterrorismblog.org/2008/10/opec_war_against_americas_econ.php. • “‘absolute necessity to use that weapon’” Walid Phares, “OPEC’s Heavy Hand” humanevents.com, October 10, 2008, http://counterterrorismblog.org/2008/10/opec_war_against_americas_econ.php. • “Iran believes this will eventually spell the end for the dollar” Sharmine Narwani, “How Iran Changed the World,” al-akhbar.com, February 17, 2012, http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/4308. • “the rest of the world may agree” Garry White, “Iran Presses Ahead with Dollar Attack,” The Daily Telegraph, February 12, 2012, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/commodities/9077600/Iran-presses-ahead-with-dollar-attack.html. • “‘force down the price of a security or commodity by sustained selling’” ”dictionary.com, “Bear Raid,” http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bear+raid (accessed April 8, 2012).

  PAGE 74: “‘once in 4 billion years’” Vedant Misra, Marco Lagi, and Yaneer Bar-Yam, “Evidence of Market Manipulation in the Financial Crisis” (report, New England Complex Systems Institute, Cambridge, MA, January 3, 2012), http://necsi.edu/research/economics/bearraid.pdf. • “‘hitting the U.S. economy through all possible means’” James Pethokoukis, “Al Qaeda’s Failed War on the U.S. Economy,” Money blog at usnews.com, September 11, 2008, http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/09/11/al-qaedas-failed-war-on-the-us-economy. • “‘the destruction of the American economy’” James Pethokoukis, “Al Qaeda’s Failed War on the U.S. Economy,” Money blog at usnews.com, September 11, 2008, http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/09/11/al-qaedas-failed-war-on-the-us-economy.

  PAGE 75: “‘through all possible means.’” James Pethokoukis, “Al Qaeda’s Failed War on the U.S. Economy,” Money blog at usnews.com, September 11, 2008, http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/09/11/al-qaedas-failed-war-on-the-us-economy.

  PAGE 76: “‘the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it’” “Rep. Kanjorski: $550 Billion Disappeared in ‘Electronic Run on the Banks’,” liveleak.com, February 7, 2009, http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ca2_1234032281. • “perpetrators aren’t always caught” Zachary A. Goldfarb, “SEC Faults Its Handling Of Tips on Short Sales,” Washington Post, March 19, 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/18/AR2009031803459.html. • “‘linked to naked short selling’” Gary Matsumoto, “Naked Short Sales Hint Fraud in Bringing Down Lehman (Update 1),” bloomberg.com, March 19, 2009, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aB1jlqmFOTCA.

  PAGE 77: “‘could tank major companies’” Andy Kessler, “Have We Seen the Last of the Bear Raids?: The Short-Sellers Probably Saved Us Five to 10 Years of Poor Bank Earnings,” Wall Street Journal, March 26, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123802165000541773.html. • “‘financial weapons of mass destruction’” James B. Kelleher, “Buffett’s ‘Time Bomb’ Goes off on Wall Street,”reuters.com, September 18, 2008, http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/09/18/us-derivatives-credit-idUSN1837154020080918. • “also pumping trillions of dollars into the system” David Goldman, “CNNMoney.com’s Bailout Tracker,” cnn.com, November 16, 2009, http://money.cnn.com/news/storysupplement/economy/bailouttracker. • “‘U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency’” Keith B. Richburg “China, Other Developing BRICS Nations Seek Change in Global Economic Order,” Washington Post, April 14, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/china-other-developing-brics-nations-seek-change-in-global-economic-order/2011/04/14/AFarMgdD_story.html. • “infiltrate. . .the stock market and several key utilities” “Napolitano: Hackers ‘Came Close to Shutting Down Critical Infrastructure,” homelandsecuritynewswire.com, October 28, 2011, http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/napolitano-hackers-came-close-shutting-down-critical-infrastructure. • “hackers to infiltrate. . .NASA” Defense Systems Staff, “IG Finds more than 5,400 Cybersecurity Incidents at NASA,” defensesystems.com, March 6, 2012, http://defensesystems.com/articles/2012/03/06/agg-nasa-cyberattack.aspx.

  PAGE 78: “‘likely a single group acting on behalf of a government’” John Ribeiro, “McAfee on a Mammoth Cyberattack, Hackers Compromised 72 Organizations Since 2006,” networkworld.com, August 3, 2011, http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/080311-mcafee-hackers-compromised-72-organizations.html. • “including our satellite systems” Melanie Eversley, “‘Suspicious Events’ with Satellite Confirmed,” USA Today, October 28, 2011, http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/10/nasa-confirms-satellites-were-hacked/1. • “‘plans for their own advantage’” Tom Gjelten, “U.S. Not Afraid to Say It: China’s the Cyber Bad Guy,” npr.org, February 18, 2012, http://www.npr.org/2012/02/18/147077148/chinas-hacking-of-u-s-remains-a-top-concern. • “disseminated it to anyone in the world” US v. Sergey Aleynikov, 737 F.Supp.2nd 173 (2010). • “convicted of stealing trade secrets” Patricia Hurtado, “Ex-Goldman Programmer Freed After Theft Conviction Thrown Out,” bloomberg.com, February 18, 2012, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-17/ex-goldman-programmer-s-conviction-overturned-on-appeal.html. • “a ‘disruptive scheme’ to surgically target the American economy” Robert Wenzel, “Paulson: Russia Tried to Get China to Blow Up Fannie and Freddie,” economicpolicyjournal.com, January 29, 2010, http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2010/01/paulson-russia-tried-to-get-china-to.html. • “‘emergency authority to prop up these companies’” Michael McKee and Alex Nicholson, “Paulson Says Russia Urged China to Dump Fannie, Freddie Bonds,” bloomberg.com, January 29, 2010, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=afbSjYv3v814. • “‘held nearly $500 billion of those bonds, did not sell’” Aaron Back, “Much Ado in China About Fannie and Freddie,” China Real Time blog at wsj.com, February 12, 2011, http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/02/12/much-ado-in-china-about-fannie-and-freddie.

  PAGE 79: “‘closure of the file-sharing website Megaupload’” Rebecca Seales, “‘This Is Just the Beginning: Hacking Group Anonymous Takes Over Greek Ministry of Justice Website and Warns Other Governments Are in Its Sights,” Daily Mail, February 3, 2012, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2095950/This-just-beginning-Hacking-group-Anonymous-launches-cyber-attack-Greek-Ministry-Justice.html. • “‘This is JUST the BEGINNING’” Rebecca Seales, “‘This Is Just the Beginning: Hacking Group Anonymous Takes Over Greek Ministry of Justice Website and Warns Other Governments Are in Its Sights,” Daily Mail, February 3, 2012, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2095950/This-just-beginning-Hacking-group-Anonymous-launches-cyber-attack-Greek-Ministry-Justice.html. • “‘Yes, yes, yes’ he says, almost gleefully” John Arlidge, “George Soros on the Coming U.S. Class War,” Newsweek, January 23, 2012, http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/01/22/george-soros-on-the-coming-u-s-class-war.html.

  PAGE 80: “accused of short-selling American stocks” Adam Cohen, “How Bin Laden Funds His Network” Time, September 23, 2001, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,175972,00.html. • “‘reaches $640 billion of losses’” Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, “Death by a Thousand Cuts,” Foreign Policy, November 23, 2010, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/11/23/death_by_a_thousand_cuts. • “‘enrolled in doctoral programs’” Peter Bergen and Swati Pandey, “The Madrassa Myth” New York Times, June 14, 2005, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/14/opinion/14bergen.html. • “something of an egomaniac” Patrick Roberts, “Bin Laden had a Donald Trump-Sized Ego but Looked Like a Broken Old Man,” Irish Central, May 8, 2011, http://www.irishcentral.com/story/news/people_and_politics/bin-laden-had-a-donald-trump--sized-ego-but-looked-like-a-broken-old-man-121462604.html. • “did not list ‘concrete targets’” “Al-Qaeda Plotting Against European Economy,” Borneo Bulletin, August 26, 2011.

  PAGE 81: “‘bin Laden boasted of it on the world st
age’” Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, “Don’t Get Cocky, America: Al Qaeda Is Still Deadly Without Osama bin Laden,” Foreign Policy, May 2, 2011, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/05/02/dont_get_cocky_america. • “‘slaves to technology in their thinking’” Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America (Los Angeles: Pan American Publishing Company, 2002).

  Chapter 5

  THE AMERICAN DREAM IS A LIE

  PAGE 84: “‘more than anything else, is the American Dream.’” Arthur Edson, “The American Dream—Home of Your Own,” The Associated Press, August 27, 1947, http://bit.ly/Ko5R7u.

  PAGE 86: “‘have their basic needs met’” Madonna Gauding, “Occupy Wall Street Redefines the American Dream,” OccasionalPlanet.org, November 26, 2011, http://www.occasionalplanet.org/2011/11/26/occupy-wall-street-redefines-the-american-dream. • “‘individual farm ownership’” “‘Farm Dream’ Plan Urged by Roosevelt,” Hartford Courant, February 17, 1937. • “‘work and become great’” Ira Wolfert, “How an Immigrant Boy Made Way to Place on Supreme Court Bench,” Milwaukee Journal, January 8, 1939. • “won the Pulitzer Prize ten years earlier” Pulitzer.org, “1922 Winners,” Pulitzer.org, http://www.pulitzer.org/awards/1922 (accessed March 31, 2012). • “The Epic of America” Jim Cullen, The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 4. • “‘circumstances of birth or position’” James Truslow Adams, The Epic of America (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1931), 374.

  PAGE 87: “‘imperfectly even among ourselves’” Jim Cullen, The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 374-75. • “‘is the American dream’” Arthur Edsen, “The American Dream--Home of Your Own,” Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, August 27, 1947. • “‘rising wage scale’ of average workers” James Truslow Adams, The Epic of America (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1931), 379. • “‘observer of the political scene’” Merrill D. Peterson, The Jefferson Image in the American Mind (New York: Oxford University Press, 1960), 373. • “‘was his supporting theory’” Elizabeth A. Brennan and Elizabeth C. Clarage, Who’s Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners (Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1999), 281.