Schiff: Cypriots Are Getting a Better Deal than Americans

Schiff Report
March 18, 2013

ARIZONA CLASHES WITH OBAMA AND HOLDER AT THE SUPREME COURT-AGAIN

Breitbart
March 20, 2013

Arizona is once again embroiled in a fight against the federal government at the Supreme Court of the United States. The Court heard arguments on Mar. 18 in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona.

In earlier years people had to go to their county seat of government--typically the county courthouse--to register to vote in a system that made it very difficult to commit voter registration fraud. A federal commission is authorized by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA, or “Motor Voter”), which was pushed and signed by Bill Clinton, to develop a federal form for mail-in registration.

Arizona passed a law requiring people registering to vote by mail to include proof of citizenship. It was designed as a modest attempt to prevent illegal voting by foreigners that could undermine the legitimacy of the election returns in the democratic process.

The record in this case includes over 200 people who had submitted fraudulent voter registrations, who later swore under oath to a commission investigating this matter that they were not even U.S. citizens. They say workers from groups like the now-defunct ACORN--who were getting paid for each registration form they turned in--talked them into signing it, and that these individuals did not know it was a crime for them to do so.

NVRA requires states to "accept and use" the federal form. Arizona argues it accepts and uses the form, and that adding the requirement for someone to attach proof of citizenship is allowed. The plaintiffs and the Obama administration argue that if you add anything to the federal requirements, you are not accepting and using the federal form. This case will turn in part on which side the justices take on that issue.

Usually when federal law conflicts with state law, it is resolved under the Supremacy Clause in Article VI of the Constitution, whereby federal law trumps state law under certain circumstances. Instead of the Supremacy Clause, this case will be decided under the Elections Clause in Article I of the Constitution. That provision says that states are primarily in charge of voting and elections, but "Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations …"

There is a large body of Supreme Court precedent interpreting the Supremacy Clause. This case may turn on whether the Elections Clause works by the same rules, or instead if there is a different framework that determines when federal election law trumps state election law.

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US’ New “Syrian PM” Yet Another Muslim Brotherhood Extremist

Tony Cartalucci
Infowars.com
March 20, 2013

The Western media eagerly announced that long time US resident Ghassan Hitto was chosen as the new “interim prime minister” of NATO’s proxy forces fighting in Syria. While most headlines attempted to focus solely on Hitto’s long stay in the US and his role in a tech firm based in Texas, The Globe and Mail reported in their article, “Canadian loses bid to lead Syria’s rebels; Ottawa’s stance assailed,” that:

Ghassan Hitto, a Kurd with links to the Muslim Brotherhood, was elected in the early hours of Tuesday at a meeting of leading opposition figures of the Syrian National Coalition.

Some reports indicate that Hitto was in fact pushed forward specifically by the Muslim Brotherhood. The AFP reported in their article, “Ghassan Hitto voted premier of Syria’s rebel territory,” that:

Some Coalition members described Hitto as a consensus candidate pleasing both the opposition’s Islamist and liberal factions.

But some of the 70-odd Coalition members withdrew from the consultations before the vote could take place, accusing opposition heavyweight Muslim Brotherhood of imposing Hitto as a candidate.

The article would also say:

“We don’t want what happened in Egypt to happen in Syria. They hijacked the revolution,” Coalition member Kamal Labwani, who walked out of the vote, told AFP.

Associated Press would report in their article, “Syrian opposition elects Ghassan Hitto as interim PM,” that:

Mr Hitto, 50, who is believed to have Islamist leanings, received 35 of 49 votes in a meeting of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) in Istanbul in the early hours yesterday. He was supported by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is a powerful bloc within the opposition.

This latest round of political “musical chairs” is meant to once again clear the board for the West in hopes of confusing the public, while NATO’s proxies remain firmly led and comprised primarily of hardcore terrorists and sectarian extremist intent on the ruination of Syria, just as was done in the now decimated North African nation of Libya. Hitto takes the reins of this Western-contrived front from fellow sectarian extremist, Moaz al-Khatib, also an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood and an unabashed defender of Al Qaeda’s al-Nusra front, who frequently takes credit for the indiscriminate bombings, murder and maiming of civilians across Syria.

Since long before the 2011 violence began, the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia had conspired to use sectarian extremists, specifically the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorist groups linked directly to Al Qaeda as the main force with which to overthrow the Syrian government, not for “spreading democracy,” but specifically to undermine and destroy neighboring Iran and reassert Western hegemony across the Middle East.

West Planned Overthrow of Syria Via the Brotherhood Since 2007

Pulitizer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, in his 9-page 2007 New Yorker report titled, “The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?” stated explicitly that:

“To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.”

Hersh’s report would also include:

“the Saudi government, with Washington’s approval, would provide funds and logistical aid to weaken the government of President Bashir Assad, of Syria. The Israelis believe that putting such pressure on the Assad government will make it more conciliatory and open to negotiations.”

Hersh also reported that a supporter of the Lebanese pro-US-Saudi Hariri faction had met Dick Cheney in Washington and relayed personally the importance of using the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria in any move against the ruling government:

“[Walid] Jumblatt then told me that he had met with Vice-President Cheney in Washington last fall to discuss, among other issues, the possibility of undermining Assad. He and his colleagues advised Cheney that, if the United States does try to move against Syria, members of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood would be “the ones to talk to,” Jumblatt said.”

The article would continue by explaining how already in 2007 US and Saudi backing had begun benefiting the Brotherhood:

“There is evidence that the Administration’s redirection strategy has already benefitted the Brotherhood. The Syrian National Salvation Front is a coalition of opposition groups whose principal members are a faction led by Abdul Halim Khaddam, a former Syrian Vice-President who defected in 2005, and the Brotherhood. A former high-ranking C.I.A. officer told me, “The Americans have provided both political and financial support. The Saudis are taking the lead with financial support, but there is American involvement.” He said that Khaddam, who now lives in Paris, was getting money from Saudi Arabia, with the knowledge of the White House. (In 2005, a delegation of the Front’s members met with officials from the National Security Council, according to press reports.) A former White House official told me that the Saudis had provided members of the Front with travel documents.”

At one point in Hersh’s report, it is even admitted that officials from US ally Saudi Arabia admitted to “controlling” the “religious fundamentalists.” The report states specifically:

“…[Saudi Arabia's] Bandar and other Saudis have assured the White House that “they will keep a very close eye on the religious fundamentalists. Their message to us was ‘We’ve created this movement, and we can control it.’ It’s not that we don’t want the Salafis to throw bombs; it’s whothey throw them at—Hezbollah, Moqtada al-Sadr, Iran, and at the Syrians, if they continue to work with Hezbollah and Iran.”

Also in 2007, the Wall Street Journal would publish a report titled, “To Check Syria, U.S. Explores Bond With Muslim Brothers.” In this report, it was revealed that even in 2007, Syrian opposition groups were being created from whole-cloth by the US State Department and paraded around in front of Syria’s embassies in the West. The article begins with one such protest, stating:

On a humid afternoon in late May, about 100 supporters of Syria’s largest exile opposition group, the National Salvation Front, gathered outside Damascus’s embassy here to protest Syrian President Bashar Assad’s rule. The participants shouted anti-Assad slogans and raised banners proclaiming: “Change the Regime Now.”

Later in the article, it would be revealed that the National Salvation Front (NSF) was in contact with the US State Department and that a Washington-based consulting firm in fact assisted the NSF in organizing the rally: 

In the weeks before the presidential election, the State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative, which promotes regional democracy, and NSF members met to talk about publicizing Syria’s lack of democracy and low voter turnout, participants say. A Washington-based consulting firm, C&O Resources Inc., assisted the NSF in its planning for the May 26 anti-Assad rally at the Syrian embassy, providing media and political contacts. State Department officials stress they provided no financial or technical support to the protestors.

And while the Wall Street Journal then, just as the US State Department and the Western media houses are now portraying the Syrian opposition as representing a wide range of interests across Syrian society, it was admitted then, just as it is plainly obvious now, that the sectarian extremist Muslim Brotherhood was in fact at the very center of the “uprising:”

One of the NSF’s most influential members is the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood — the decades-old political movement active across the Middle East whose leaders have inspired the terrorist groups Hamas and al Qaeda. Its Syrian offshoot says it has renounced armed struggle in favor of democratic reform.

The continuous necessity of the West to rebrand its proxy front stems from the fact that it, along with the Western agenda that created it, lacks any dimension of legitimacy. Combined with the increasingly tenuous reputation of the West’s media monopolies and a better informed public, the lifespan of each new proxy is decreasing exponentially.

Hitto has yet to form a “government,” and already his ties to extremists are being exposed – even by other members of his own contrived front – perhaps realizing the difficulties that lie ahead with disasters like Libya and Egypt smoldering behind. Any aid or political support the US, UK, France, and its partners in the Middle East including Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar attempt to lend Hitto’s foreign-contrived government will be done so with the public’s full understanding that such support is being willfully given to sectarian extremists who not only fail to represent the West’s ideals of “democracy” or “freedom,” but fail to represent even the majority of people living in Syria.

Yet despite these apparently insurmountable difficulties, should the West pick a leader not affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and its terrorist spin-offs, the opposition in Syria would splinter and collapse – because the “secular moderates” the White House keeps telling the world about, simply do not exist. Its otherwise irrational insistence on propping up one discredited Muslim Brotherhood dictator after another is clearly indicative of this.

Tony Cartalucci is the writer and editor at Land Destroyer

Chase Customers See Bank Balance Reduced to Zero

Glitch stokes panic on Twitter

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com 
March 19, 2013

Millions of Chase Bank customers were affected by an unfortunately timed glitch which resulted in their checking and savings accounts showing a zero balance for several hours yesterday, prompting many to take to Twitter and express panic that their money had been stolen.

Reaction to the glitch was undoubtedly made more intense by the fact that the top global news story yesterday was about how residents of Cyprus were facing a mandatory “tax” that would see 10 per cent of their savings plundered for a banker bailout.

After Chase was hit by a denial of service attack last week, the bank blamed an “internal” issue for the glitch which left shocked customers thinking their online and mobile banking accounts had been emptied of deposits. The issue was resolved by 7:30pm PST.

ABC 7 reports that numerous customers heading to local ATMs and were relieved to see that their money was still in their accounts.

“We have a technology problem regarding customers’ balance information,” Chase said in a statement. “It has nothing to do with cyber threats. It is an internal issue. We are very sorry to our customers for the inconvenience. This began earlier this evening. It is not confined to the West Coast.”

Many took to Twitter to vent their anger, with innumerable people believing that their money had been stolen. Unsurprisingly, it seems that people who owed money to Chase did not see their debt reduced to zero.

Obama turning to executive power to get what he wants

McClatchy.com

March 20, 2013

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama came into office four years ago skeptical of pushing the power of the White House to the limit, especially if it appeared to be circumventing Congress.

Now, as he launches his second term, Obama has grown more comfortable wielding power to try to move his own agenda forward, particularly when a deeply fractured, often-hostile Congress gets in his way.

He’s done it with a package of tools, some of which date to George Washington and some invented in the modern era of an increasingly powerful presidency. And he’s done it with a frequency that belies his original campaign criticisms of predecessor George W. Bush, invites criticisms that he’s bypassing the checks and balances of Congress and the courts, and whets the appetite of liberal activists who want him to do even more to advance their goals.

While his decision to send drones to kill U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism has garnered a torrent of criticism, his use of executive orders and other powers at home is deeper and wider.

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Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/19/186309/obama-turning-to-executive-power.html#storylink=cpy

Gerald Celente: Cyprus Looting is Only The Beginning for Global Elite

Infowars.com
March 19, 2013

Alex invites economic trend forecaster and publisher of the Trends Journal Gerald Celente to discuss the looting of Cypriot bank accounts, and what the future holds for Italy, which may be the next nation to be similarly plundered. We’ll also cover other major headlines and take your calls.

This article was posted: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 at 6:14 am

Panic Grips Europe as Cyprus, EU, and IMF Confiscate Savings

The New American
March 19, 2013

Panic-stricken bank depositors in Cyprus emptied ATM machines across the nation after the surprise announcement Saturday that, as part of an extremely controversial European Union and International Monetary Fund bailout deal, authorities would seize up to 15 percent of all savings deposited in Cypriot banks. Markets across Europe plunged as fears of contagion or even a large-scale bank run in the region plagued investors, with the single euro currency falling to multi-month lows and gold rising back above $1,600 following news of the $13 billion scheme.

Critics ranging from banks and market analysts to politicians and even establishment media outlets lambasted the EU and IMF plan, saying it creates uncertainty and amounts to brazen wealth confiscation. Citizens and foreigners with money deposited in Cyprus, meanwhile, expressed outrage over the controversial scheme as well, demanding that it be halted immediately. Aside from Cypriots, Russians and Britons are expected to be among the hardest hit.

Despite imposing a $500 limit on withdrawals and a ban on online transfers, most ATM machines in Cyprus were completely drained of funds over the weekend as nervous depositors lined up to save what they could before the confiscation begins. March 18 is a national holiday, meaning financial institutions are closed. However, banks in Cyprus may also face an extended so-called “banking holiday” as national politicians iron out the details of the supposed one-time “stability” tax with EU and IMF policymakers.

The original EU-IMF plan would see accounts with less than $130,000 taxed at almost seven percent, while those above that threshold would have 10 percent confiscated by authorities. Anyone with more than 500,000 euros could lose 15 percent. However, some reports indicate that the initial EU-IMF plan called for seizing up to 40 percent of all savings.

The Parliament of Cyprus delayed a Saturday vote on the plan until March 18, reportedly because supporters of the scheme had not yet lined up enough votes to ram the wealth confiscation through. The vote is currently set for Tuesday. Recent news reports, however, say that vote could now be delayed until as late as Friday, and that changes in the exact confiscation figures could be forthcoming.

Some political leaders are scrambling to restructure the controversial plan, hoping to protect at least very small depositors from the savings grab, perhaps making up for it with a higher "tax" on wealthier individuals and larger accounts. Russian authorities — whose citizens have a significant amount of money deposited in Cypriot banks — are reportedly working to come up with an alternative bailout scheme.

Across the EU, however, the brazen confiscation of hard-earned savings was met with a mixture of seething anger and outright terror — fury over the confiscation of wealth that has already been taxed, and fear that similar plots could be hatched in countries such as Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, or even in Northern Europe. Top officials have declined to say whether the “tax” on deposits could be forced on other nations, too.  

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