Toxic Chemicals Used in Fracking Shale Deposits

 

Catherine J. Frompovich
Activist Post
Some cartoons or something thought to be ‘comedic’ or contradicts “logic” routinely have been referred to as “Frick and Frack” cartoons. This website shows numerous illustrations of what this writer would call “illogical logic.”
Nothing is more illogical, perhaps, than fracking—the newest craze in energy production that finds fossil fuel providers fracking everywhere, including backyards.

Cows graze on farmland near Wyalusing, Pa., as fracking takes place in the background.
The process extracts natural gas from shale. / AP file photo

Fracking in the backyard / Photo Source

Well water that’s been fracked. / Photo Source

How about drinking water volatility? See this YouTube video for a spectacular example: Kitchen faucet water flaming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LBjSXWQRV8
To learn more about fracking, maybe readers will want to watch a 36 minute video “Fracking, An Inconvenient Truth.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uokmsSi7LTY .
However, what’s most important to know about fracking is what’s used to frack shale deposits to extract gas deposits. The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce issued a report on April 18, 2011 titled, “Chemicals Used in Hydraulic Fracking” [1] wherein 750 chemicals were listed. Fourteen commonly are used, and probably are carcinogenic. They included:

• Acrylamide
• Acetaldehyde
• Benzene
• Benzyl Chloride
• Diesel
• Di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate
• Ethylene Oxide
• Formaldehyde
• Lead [metal/mineral]
• Naphthalene
• Nitrilotriacetic Acid
• Propylene Oxide
• Sulfuric Acid
• Thiourea [genotoxic carcinogen] [5, pg.4]

According to that CEC report,

Some of the components used in the hydraulic fracturing products were common and generally harmless, such as salt and citric acid. Some were unexpected, such as instant coffee and walnut hulls. And some were extremely toxic, such as benzene and lead. Appendix A lists each of the 750 chemicals and other components used in hydraulic fracturing products between 2005 and 2009.

The most widely used chemical in hydraulic fracturing during this time period, as measured by the number of compounds containing the chemical, was methanol. Methanol, which was used in 342 hydraulic fracturing products, is a hazardous air pollutant and is on the list for potential regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Some of the other most widely used chemicals were isopropyl alcohol (used in 274 products), 2-butoxyethanol (used in 126 products), and ethylene glycol (used in 119 products). [1, pg.1] [CJF emphasis added. So why allow methanol in fracking?]

Ironically, that same CEC report went on to state:

Between 2005 and 2009, the oil and gas service companies used hydraulic fracturing products containing 29 chemicals that are (1) known or possible human carcinogens, (2) regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act for their risks to human health, or (3) listed as hazardous air pollutants under the Clean Air Act. These 29 chemicals were components of more than 650 different products used in hydraulic fracturing. [1, pg.1] [CJF emphasis added. Why are there no controls on fracking chemicals?]

Now, here’s the CEC’s candor about fracking and yet no one is doing anything to stop the insanity of what’s going on regarding ‘frack’ the public:

Some of these chemicals, if not disposed of safely or allowed to leach into the drinking water supply, could damage the environment or pose a risk to human health. During hydraulic fracturing, fluids containing chemicals are injected deep underground, where their migration is not entirely predictable. Well failures, such as the use of insufficient well casing, could lead to their release at shallower depths, closer to drinking water supplies.4 Although some fracturing fluids are removed from the well at the end of the fracturing process, a substantial amount remains underground.5 [1, pg.3] [CJF emphasis added]

Congress IS to blame, as you can read from this in that report. Lobbyists’ money talks, I’d say!

While most underground injections of chemicals are subject to the protections of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), Congress in 2005 modified the law to exclude “the underground injection of fluids or propping agents (other than diesel fuels) pursuant to hydraulic fracturing operations related to oil, gas, or geothermal production activities” from the Act’s protections.6 Unless oil and gas service companies use diesel in the hydraulic fracturing process, the permanent underground injection of chemicals used for hydraulic fracturing is not regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). [1, pg.3] [CJF emphasis added]

Apparently, irresponsible Congress gave the fossil fuel suppliers and drillers a similar “get out of jail free card” in 2005 – similar to what Congress gave vaccine manufacturers about their toxic vaccines in 1986. This type of congressional action seems to have lobbyists’ fingerprints all over modifications to the laws to excluded underground injection fluids or propping agents. No wonder those fracking drills are popping up all over, just like three hundred or more vaccines are in the new development pipelines, especially when industries have congressionally-approved “get out of jail free cards” handed to them.
When will the gullible U.S. public, plus the monopolized media, get their heads out of the sand?
But dear readers, here’s the real slap-in-the-face to consumers’ health by every health agency and oversight department at federal, state and local levels:

Under OSHA regulations, manufacturers may withhold the identity of chemical components that constitute “trade secrets.”15 [1, pg.5] [CJF emphasis added]

What most U.S. citizens probably do not know is that under the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the chemical industry in the U.S. can stamp “trade secret” on a new chemical and about two-thirds of the chemicals introduced since then have had that label that allows their contents to remain “unknown and secret.” Furthermore, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), “Industry has placed ‘confidential business information’ (CBI) claims on the identity of 13,596 new chemicals produced since 1976…” [2]
Furthermore,

“The chemical industry has turned TSCA – a law once thought to protect people and the environment – into its own witness protection program, where it has safely stashed the very existence of thousands of chemicals behind the doors at EPA,” said Richard Wiles, Senior VP for Policy and Communications at EWG. “Mafia informants don’t enjoy the level of protection these secret chemicals receive under the federal toxics law,” added Wiles. [2]

Probably the most insidious and unknown releases from fracking are radioactive emitters such as Radon-222 [3] and Polonium-210[4], which are released from the shale as drilling heads penetrate the strata for thousands of feet disturbing heretofore solid walls of shale.
The other probability that accompanies fracking is inducing man-made earthquakes. The U.S. Geological Survey website “Man-Made Earthquakes Update” can acquaint readers with that possibility.

Seismicity of the coterminous United States and surrounding regions, 2009–2012. 

Black dots denote earthquakes with a magnitude ≥ 3.0 are shown; larger dots denote events with a magnitude ≥ 4.0. Background colors indicate earthquake hazard levels from the U.S. National Seismic Hazard Map (NSHM). Learn more about the NSHM here.

And the last, if not most important issue, regarding fracking is this: Since fracking is so prevalent anyone who has a well as their domestic water supply should have it tested by a reputable water testing laboratory for all the regular tests, i.e, bacteria and pesticides, plus radioactive elements and, now, a panel of fracking chemicals. That ought to be done at least once a year, but every 6 months would be safer, in my opinion—similar to going to the dentist to make certain you don’t have any health problems that start with the teeth—so you can assess “how well your well really is.”
Here are some Internet sites that can help readers understand the necessity of proper well water testing. Please know that this writer has no interest in any of them and is not paid to recommend any. I do this because of my concern for the quality of both your water and overall health.
Baseline Testing / The most important thing to do before fracking begins
http://www.dontfractureillinois.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Before-Fracking-Flier.pdf
State of Maine’s Water Tests Available / A listing of numerous water tests and prices for them as an idea of what’s out there to use as a guide
http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/public-health-systems/health-and-environmental-testing/guide.htm
New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Environmental Fact Sheet / Water Quality Testing for Private Wells
http://des.nh.gov/organization/commissioner/pip/factsheets/dwgb/documents/dwgb-2-1.pdf
This site discusses water testing for fluoride and Nitrates-Nitrites.
https://engineering.purdue.edu/SafeWater/drinkinfo/testwater.html
Northeast Laboratory Services / Water Testing Kits
http://nelabservices.com/water-testing-kits/
Here’s to clean water!
Notes:
[1] http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Hydraulic-Fracturing-Chemicals-2011-4-18.pdf
[2] News Release – Off the Books: Industry’s Secret Chemicals published Jan. 4, 2010 by EWG http://www.ewg.org/node/28385/print
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radon
[4] http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Factsheets/English/polonium210.html
[5] http://www.who.int/ipcs/publications/cicad/en/cicad49.pdf
Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies. Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting.
Catherine’s latest book, published October 4, 2013, is Vaccination Voodoo, What YOU Don’t Know About Vaccines, available on Amazon.com.
Her 2012 book A Cancer Answer, Holistic BREAST Cancer Management, A Guide to Effective & Non-Toxic Treatments, is available on Amazon.com and as a Kindle eBook.
Two of Catherine’s more recent books on Amazon.com are Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into What’s Probably Making Us Sick (2009) and Lord, How Can I Make It Through Grieving My Loss, An Inspirational Guide Through the Grieving Process (2008).

Toxic Chemicals Used in Fracking Shale Deposits
Activist
Wed, 14 May 2014 22:54:00 GMT

New Worldwide Campaign to Stop Torture

 

image source

Joe Wright
Activist Post
While most people might be under the impression that we are far removed from the barbaric practices of the Dark Ages, a new worldwide campaign from Amnesty International exposes that we actually appear to have entered a new period of darkness that is descending upon our innate human rights.
Despite the fact that most Americans disagree with the indefinite detention and torture provisions contained within the National Defense Authorization Act, and citizens worldwide overwhelmingly believe that torture should be prohibited, the global War on Terror in the wake of 9/11 has most certainly unleashed a new wave of depraved torture techniques under the thin guise of terms such as "enhanced interrogation." But that is only part of the story. Because of the widespread use of CIA rendition "black sites" overseas much of the very worst forms of torture are hidden in countries where it has previously been acceptable or routinely overlooked. Now that even First World Western nations are openly discussing the value of torture for intelligence gathering, and torture continues to be legitimized by the U.S. legal system, the worldwide commitment by governments to eradicate torture is waning. Consequently, the use of torture is exploding.
The Convention Against Torture was adopted by the UN in 1984. Regardless, as Amnesty International's Secretary General Salil Shetty states: 

Governments around the world are two-faced on torture - prohibiting it in law, but facilitating it in practice...

Torture is not just alive and well – it is flourishing in many parts of the world. As more governments seek to justify torture in the name of national security, the steady progress made in this field over the last thirty years is being eroded.

Amnesty International is seeking to address this erosion of human rights through a new global campaign simply called: Stop Torture. Their video and press release are posted below. For people of good conscience, it is a depressing and revolting subject, but we need to act now to thwart further abuse. We can do this by telling governments around the world that torture is never acceptable under any circumstances, nor are justifications for torture-light going to be tolerated.
People inside the system also need to begin refusing to cooperate with such directives, understanding that history has never been kind to previous regimes and their enforcers who have felt justified opening the floodgates of torture under calls for stronger national security.
Lastly, we can never forget that what is permitted in times of war has a way of trickling down into the everyday lives of the people supposedly being protected from the threat of terrorism. One only has to look at the growth of the police state and the increasingly brutal police tactics and treatment of average citizens to see that this cancer is already spreading.
From Amnesty International:
Since 1984, 155 states have ratified the UN Convention Against Torture, 142 of which are researched by Amnesty International. In 2014, Amnesty International observed at least 79 of these still torturing – more than half the states party to the Convention that the organisation reports on. A further 40 UN states haven’t adopted the Convention, although the global legal ban on torture binds them too.
Over the last five years, Amnesty International has reported on torture and other forms of ill-treatment in at least 141 countries from every region of the world – virtually every country on which it works. The secretive nature of torture means the true number of countries that torture is likely to be higher still.
In some of these countries torture is routine and systematic. In others, Amnesty International has only documented isolated and exceptional cases.  The organization finds even one case of torture or other ill-treatment totally unacceptable.
The Stop Torture campaign launches with a new media briefing, Torture in 2014: 30 Years of Broken Promises, which provides an overview of the use of torture in the world today.
The briefing details a variety of torture techniques – from stress positions and sleep deprivation to electrocution of the genitals – used against criminal suspects, security suspects, dissenting voices, political rivals and others.
As part of the campaign Amnesty International commissioned a Globescan survey to gauge worldwide attitudes to torture. Alarmingly, the survey found nearly half (44%) of respondents – from 21 countries across every continent - fear they would be at risk of torture if taken into custody in their country.
The vast majority (82%) believe there should be clear laws against torture. However, more than a third (36%) still thought torture could be justified in certain circumstances.
“The results from this new global survey are startling, with nearly half of the people we surveyed feeling fearful and personally vulnerable to torture. The vast majority of people believe that there should be clear rules against torture, although more than a third still think that torture could be justified in certain circumstances. Overall, we can see broad global support amongst the public for action to prevent torture,” said Caroline Holme, Director at GlobeScan.
Measures such as the criminalisation of torture in national legislation, opening detention centres to independent monitors, and video recording interrogations have all led to a decrease in the use of torture in those countries taking their commitments under the Convention Against Torture seriously.
Amnesty International is calling on governments to implement protective mechanisms to prevent and punish torture – such as proper medical examinations, prompt access to lawyers, independent checks on places of detention, independent and effective investigations of torture allegations, the prosecution of suspects and proper redress for victims.
The organization’s global work against torture continues, but will focus in particular on five countries where torture is rife and Amnesty International believes it can achieve significant impact. Substantive reports with specific recommendations for each will form the spine of the campaign.

• In Mexico the government argues that torture is the exception rather than the norm, but in reality abuse by police and security forces is widespread and goes unpunished. Miriam López Vargas, a 31 year-old mother of four, was abducted from her hometown of Ensenada by two soldiers in plainclothes, and taken to a military barracks. She was held there for a week, raped three times, asphyxiated and electrocuted to force her to confess that she was involved in drug-related offences. Three years have passed, but none of her torturers have been brought to justice.

• Justice is out of reach for most torture survivors in the Philippines. A secret detention facility was recently discovered where police officers abused detainees ‘for fun'.  Police officers reportedly spun a ‘wheel of torture’ to decide how to torture prisoners.  Media coverage led to an internal investigation and some officers being dismissed, but Amnesty International is calling for a thorough and impartial investigation which will lead to the prosecution in court of the officers involved.  Most acts of police torture remain unreported and torture survivors continue to suffer in silence.

• In Morocco and Western Sahara, authorities rarely investigate reports of torture. Spanish authorities extradited Ali Aarrass to Morocco despite fears he would be tortured. He was picked up by intelligence officers and taken to a secret detention centre, where he says they electrocuted his testicles, beat the soles of his feet and hanged him by his wrists for hours on end. He says the officers forced him to confess to assisting a terrorist group. Ali Aarass was convicted and sentenced to 12 years behind bars on the basis of that “confession”. His allegation of torture has never been investigated.

• In Nigeria, police and military personnel use torture as a matter of routine. When Moses Akatugba was arrested by soldiers he was 16 years old. He said they beat him and shot him in the hand. According to Moses he was then transfered to the police, who hanged him by his limbs for hours at a police station. Moses says he was tortured into signing a “confession” that he was involved in a robbery. The allegation that he confessed as a result of torture was never fully investigated. In November 2013, after eight years waiting for a verdict, Moses was sentenced to death.

• In Uzbekistan, torture is pervasive but few torturers are ever brought to justice. The country is closed to Amnesty International. Dilorom Abdukadirova spent five years in exile after security forces opened fire on a protest she was attending. On returning to Uzbekistan, she was detained, barred from seeing her family, and charged with attempting to overthrow the government.   During her trial, she looked emaciated with bruising on her face. Her family are convinced she had been tortured.

“Thirty years ago Amnesty led the campaign for a worldwide commitment to combat torture resulting in the UN’s Convention Against Torture. Much progress has been made since, but it is disheartening that today we still need a worldwide campaign to ensure that those promises are fulfilled,” said Salil Shetty.
Please visit http://www.amnesty.org/en/stoptorture to learn more.
Twitter: #StopTorture
Recently from Joe Wright:

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New Worldwide Campaign to Stop Torture
Activist
Wed, 14 May 2014 22:54:00 GMT

That 'frightening' chat with Ben Bernanke

 

Editor’s note: Mark Leibovit is one of the investment world’s top-rated gold timers, and helps investors anticipate and benefit from both the ups and the downs of the precious metals markets with his Leibovit VR Gold Letter (available to WND readers at a huge discount).

*****

From Bloomberg News:

Einhorn finds dinner chat with Bernanke ‘frightening’

David Einhorn, manager of the $10 billion Greenlight Capital Inc., said he found a recent dinner conversation with former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke scary.

“I got to ask him all these questions that had been on my mind for a long time,” Einhorn said in an interview today with Erik Schatzker and Stephanie Ruhle on Bloomberg Television, referring to a March 26 dinner with Bernanke. “It was sort of frightening because the answers were not better than I thought they would be.”

Einhorn, 45, has been critical of Bernanke’s willingness to leave interest rates near zero for more than five years. The hedge-fund manager has said the benefits of low rates diminish over time until they are more harmful than helpful and that the Fed’s stimulus has led to income inequality. Bernanke, a former Princeton University economics professor, stepped down this year after eight years helming the U.S. central bank. …

*****

From King World News:

‘This is what’s going to happen when all hell breaks loose’

Forty-two-year market veteran John Hathaway, co-portfolio manager of the Tocqueville Gold Fund, spoke with King World News about what to expect when “all hell breaks loose.” Hathaway is one of the most respected institutional minds in the world today when it comes to gold, and also discussed the bullion banks’ secretive involvement in the gold market, including such banks as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Hathaway: “It’s scary that Bernanke can be so complacent and say to David Einhorn (hedge fund manager and president of Greenlight Capital) that there is no risk of hyperinflation. There has to be some risk. The Fed is arrogant, it’s complacent, and there is erroneous thinking. You pretty much name the accusation and the Fed is guilty as charged.

“But I am also watching the U.S. Dollar Index. Normally when you have geopolitical tensions, there is a kind of Pavlovian, kneejerk rush into the dollar. Up to now we have seen quite the opposite. The continued weakness in the dollar is saying to me that America’s protective cover for geopolitical risks is certainly not what it used to be.”

King World News: “When you see the dollar hitting 19-month lows, and very close to hitting two-year lows in this environment, investors are beginning to say, ‘Something is wrong here.’”

Hathaway: “This is definitely not what we would expect to see based on the history of how the dollar has traded. But the dollar is now in an area where it has mounted countertrend rallies. The reality is that the foreign exchange market is pretty tough to control. I’m sure central planners are in there trying to manipulate currency rates. So the dollar is the canary in the coal mine. It’s something for everybody to watch because it is certainly anomalous that the dollar would be so weak at a time when investors are circling the wagons.

“The carry trade, to me, is something that is never talked about. But if you think about it, when you have borrowed gold, which these guys have done, and used it as a funding mechanism for lots of different things, the reckless borrowing and leveraging of gold has now become an incredibly crowded trade.

“This is especially true when the price of gold is weak because you have low funding costs in terms of lease rates, and then on top of that you’ve got your basis risk going your way because you are short that currency. In a rising market that is not a factor, but it was certainly a factor back in the late 1990s when we saw the whole syndrome of central bank selling, gold companies hedging, and a 20-year bear market. So it was a free-for-all in terms of abusing the gold market with that type of trade and leverage.”

*****

From Mining.com:

Embry: Hold onto gold as ‘currency event’ likely

John Embry, chief investment strategist at Sprott Asset Management LP, said last month that the rally at the beginning of the year was encouraging, but to remember that sentiment for gold is still extremely negative. He says the stock market’s new highs are a result of the Fed “jamming cash into the economy.” With nowhere else to go, cash is creating bubbles in stocks, real estate and bonds, he warns.

Q: “Gold has fallen back down over the last month. Do you think optimism for a fast recovery in gold has fizzled out?”

Embry: “I believe that is probably a fair assessment of what has happened since. I think that the decline in the last month has hurt confidence in the West. But I can assure you that the Eastern interests are rubbing their hands and piling into all the physical gold they can get. Once they realize that there is a limited amount remaining for them to pour their U.S. dollars into, I believe the price will move up sharply.”

*****

From MoneyandMarkets.com:

Putin, gold and silver: What you need to know right now

According to Larry Edelson with Weiss Research:

It’s a fait accompli. War and bankrupt economies go hand in hand. When desperate, like the governments of the United States and Europe are now, strange things start to happen.

You only need look at the historical record. The collapse of Rome was accompanied by many different civil rebellions and international conflicts. Ditto for the Ottoman Empire. The British Empire, when it fell on desperate times. For Spain. For Germany.

For every major economic power throughout history, when governments became bankrupt and desperate for cash, they imploded by attacking others and their very own citizens, through sleight-of-hand tax increases, through confiscatory policies that first racked everyone’s money, then confiscated it, through loss of civil liberties, through propaganda and more, lots more.

Weakened, they lash out. They prepare to rally the people, they look for distractions, reasons to spend even more money, all with the aim of consolidating the national psyche. This is what the United States is doing now. Russia is doing the same thing. Putin is rallying the national psyche. The Russian economy, weakened internally by corruption, by alcoholism, by declining revenues from the three-year bear market in commodities, is not in much better shape than Europe or the United States. So the battlefield is now prepped. Russia versus the West. Russia versus Europe and the United States.

*****

From Got Gold Report:

Gold trade nearly net long Comex gold futures

The “Got Gold Report’s” Gene Arensberg says that what he calls “the gold trade,” the biggest operators in the gold business, have cut their usual short positions to almost nothing, indicating that they see little downside risk to the gold price. Arensberg’s commentary is headlined “Gold Trade Nearly Net Long Comex Gold Futures.”

*****

From the American Enterprise Institute:

Coins that go clunk: 50th anniversary of the disappearance of silver money

The year 2014 is a little noticed 50th anniversary: the anniversary of the disappearance of U.S. silver coins from circulation in 1964. In that year, the American people decided that silver was probably going to be a better store of value than paper dollars, regardless of the pronouncements of the central bankers and politicians of the time. The people were right. At silver’s year-end 1960 price of 91 cents an ounce, the 0.77 ounces of silver in a silver dollar had been worth about 70 cents. But by late 1963, it was worth a dollar. Today, with silver at approximately $20 an ounce, the silver in a silver dollar is worth more than $15. (Silver has been as high as $49 an ounce.)

Up to the 1960s, American dimes and quarters (as well as half-dollars and silver dollars in those days) rang when you dropped them on a table. Now they go clunk. This change from coins made of silver, it might be said, is of little practical importance. Yet it symbolizes a profound shift in the behavior of the U.S. government with respect to money, a precursor to the immensely destructive Great Inflation of the 1970s.

Long before the 1960s, all the gold coins and bullion of American citizens had been confiscated by their government under its diktat of 1933. At the same time, the same government defaulted on the bonds it had promised to pay in gold. It took the extreme, indeed despotic, step of making any possession of gold coins or bullion by American citizens illegal and a punishable, criminal offense! It became harder for Americans to protect themselves against money printing. This law, which today is hard to believe, was real, and lasted four decades, until 1974.

*****

From King World News:

What’s really happening in Ukraine and the war on gold

An outspoken hedge fund manager out of Hong Kong spoke with King World News about what is really happening in Ukraine and the ongoing war in the gold market. William Kaye, who 25 years ago worked for Goldman Sachs in mergers and acquisitions, also discussed the relentless propaganda coming out of the Western mainstream media outlets:

“To make gold an asset of serious interest again to a range of investors, we have to get through the next big number which is $1,400. That’s pretty important. We talked about this a while back and I was skeptical at the time that we would get through $1,400 in the short term and we didn’t. The defense of that number was extreme.

“When gold was approaching $1,400 we weren’t seeing the type of tightness in the market that you would want to see in order to break that key level. And then, after a reversal in which gold went below $1,280, we started to see real tightness in the gold market once again.

“So we started to see backwardation in gold, and we also saw GOFO [Gold Forward Offered] rates which were negative. In that situation, people are holding on to their gold and not lending it into the system. Every time they have taken the gold price to $1,280 or below we see the reemergence of those symptoms of tightness.

“If we see increased geopolitical tensions and the reemergence of India fully coming back into the gold market, these are the types of things that can act as a catalyst to move gold through key resistance levels. There have been clear signs of renewed Indian buying, which is interesting because you wouldn’t think that prior to a new government being installed, which is expected to be more gold-friendly, that you would see mass buying.

“I believe the renewed buying is from dealers who anticipate more gold demand and want to be in a position to fill it when a lot of these controls get relaxed and the tariffs come down. So that could be one of the driving forces for the gold market. And if we see that increased Indian demand along with robust Chinese demand and strong demand from Russia and Eastern Europe, then the cartel could be put on their back foot. We are not there yet but over the long term I anticipate far higher gold and silver prices than we see currently.”

*****

Special offer: WND readers can get a huge discount on the insider investor newsletter produced by top-rated gold market timer Mark Leibovit, the Leibovit VR Gold Letter.

That 'frightening' chat with Ben Bernanke
Mark Leibovit
Thu, 15 May 2014 01:14:31 GMT

IT TAKES TREY GOWDY JUST THREE MINUTES TO SILENCE THE MEDIA

ObamaCare Processors Getting Paid To Do Nothing

 

• Politics
• US

By: Samuel Eaton May 14, 2014

Wentzville, MO - An ObamaCare processor operated by Serco with a 1.2 billion dollar contract is paying its employees in a Wentzville, Missouri process center to do nothing, according to a Serco employee and whistleblower.

The whistleblower claims that despite not having enough work for their current employees Serco is still hiring. “They want to hire more people even though we still don’t have work to keep the people we have busy.” He claims that hundreds of employees sit staring into computer screens with little or nothing to do.

“There are weeks that a data entry person would not process an application.”

The whistleblower goes on to say:

“They’re told to sit at their computers and hit the refresh button every ten minutes.”

The goals set for the processors are to handle two applications a month and sometimes they are unable to even do that. The whistleblower claims that throughout several states Serco has 1,800 employees vying for 1 to 30 applications that appear in the database.

Why would Serco have so many employees working on a handful of applications? According to the whistleblower, Serco gets paid based on the number of workers they have employed, which means they want employees to show up even if there is nothing to do.

Serco refused to respond to the whistleblower’s comments.

Read more: http://benswann.com/obamacare-processors-getting-paid-to-do-nothing/#ixzz31kK5mxrX
Follow us: @BenSwann_ on Twitter

Bombshell: Sandy Hook Massacre Was A DHS Illusion Says School Safety Expert

Breaking: Charleston South Carolina Becomes 9th Republican Party to Censure Lindsey Graham

Breaking: Charleston South Carolina Becomes 9th Republican Party to Censure Lindsey Graham

• Politics
• US

By: Joshua Cook May 13, 2014

The Charleston County Republican Party voted to censure Sen. Lindsey Graham by the vote of 39- 32 tonight. This makes the 9th local Republican Party to censured Graham this election season.

The Charleston County Party is located in the “low country” which is considered a Graham stronghold.

The fact that Graham was censured by executive committeemen who represents voters in their precincts shows how weak and vulnerable Graham really is.

A poll recently conducted by Wenzel Strategies, the same firm that Sen. Rand Paul used for his victory, shows state senator Lee Bright as the most likely challenger to face Graham in a runoff if Graham stays below the 50 percent threshold.

Lee Bright won the Charleston County Republican Party straw poll last week and has strong grassroots support there.

Benswann.com’s Joshua Cook exclusively reported the first reading of the censure resolution, an approximate 29-point resolution that exposes Graham’s progressive voting record of big government expansion and disregard of civil liberties.

The “Censure Graham movement” has caught fire throughout the state. The only question is: who will be the 10th county Party to censure Sen. Lindsey Graham?

Read Other Stories

• Lexington County GOP Becomes the 8th to Censure Sen. Lindsey Graham
• Graham Support Crumbles: Pickens County is the 7th Republican Party to Censure Lindsey Graham (Interviews)
• Breaking: The Republican Liberty Caucus endorses U.S. Senate candidate Lee Bright against Lindsey Graham
• SOUTH CAROLINA COUNTY GOP CENSURES SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM
• Lindsey Graham to be Primaried by Female, Tea Party Favorite: Nancy Mace

Read more: http://benswann.com/breaking-charleston-south-carolina-becomes-9th-republican-party-to-censure-lindsey-graham/#ixzz31Zco5VEQ
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Former CIA director: ‘We kill people based on metadata’

 

Former National Security Agency (NSA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Michael Hayden (Reuters/Larry Downing)

At a recent debate concerning the National Security Agency’s bulk surveillance programs, former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden admitted that metadata is used as the basis for killing people.

The comments were made during a debate at Johns Hopkins University, after Georgetown University Law Center professor David Cole detailed the kind of information the government can obtain simply by collecting metadata – who you call, when you call them, how long the call lasts, and how often calls between the two parties are made.

Although NSA supporters often claim such metadata collection is permissible considering the content of the call is not collected, Cole argued that is not the case, since the former general counsel of the NSA, Stewart Baker, has already stated metadata alone is more than enough to reveal vast amounts of an individual’s personal information

Writing in the New York Review of Books, Cole elaborated (you can also watch his explanation around the 14 minute mark of the embedded video):

“People get hung up that there’s a targeted list of people,” the operator said. “It’s really like we’re targeting a cell phone. We’re not going after people – we’re going after their phones, in the hopes that the person on the other end of that missile is the bad guy.”

According to Cole, the realization that the NSA is collecting such vast amounts of information has prompted action from both Democrats and Republicans in Washington. Last week, two committees in the House of Representatives recently voted unanimously to support the USA Freedom Act, which would bar the NSA from collecting metadata in bulk. The data would remain in the possession of telecommunications companies, only to be accessed by the government if it can prove reasonable suspicion to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

As noted by Cole, however, the bill doesn’t address all the facets of the NSA’s surveillance program. As its currently written, the Freedom Act only applies to American citizens, not foreigners who are also under surveillance, nor does it address what he termed the NSA’s “guerilla-like tactics of inserting vulnerabilities into computer software and drivers, to be exploited later to surreptitiously intercept private communications.”

As RT reported previously, the NSA designed at least two encryption tools offered by the security firm RSA – one of which was made the default option, and which allowed the NSA to easily infiltrate computer security systems.

Delivered by The Daily Sheeple

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Contributed by RT of RT.com.

Former CIA director: ‘We kill people based on metadata’
Contributing Author
Mon, 12 May 2014 23:00:59 GMT

Cruz Releases Definitive List of 76 'Lawless' Obama Actions | The Daily Caller

Cruz Releases Definitive List of 76 'Lawless' Obama Actions | The Daily Caller

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz released a definitive list Wednesday of 76 “lawless” Obama administration actions and abuses of power.

Cruz’s “The Legal Limit Report No. 4,” obtained by The Daily Caller, delves into little-known and little-reported details of President Obama’s executive actions. Cruz was set to discuss his report at the Federalist Society in the Promenade Ballroom of the Mayflower Hotel in Washington at 2:15 PM Wednesday.

“Of all the troubling aspects of the Obama presidency, none is more dangerous than the President’s persistent pattern of lawlessness, his willingness to disregard the written law and instead enforce his own policies via executive fiat,” Cruz stated in the report’s introductory remarks.

“President Obama has openly defied [rule of law] by repeatedly suspending, delaying, and waiving portions of the laws that he is charged to enforce. When President Obama disagreed with federal immigration laws, he instructed the Justice Department to cease enforcing the laws. He did the same thing with federal welfare law, drug laws, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act,” Cruz wrote. “In the more than two centuries of our nation’s history, there is simply no precedent for the White House wantonly ignoring federal law and asking others to do the same.”

Cruz details 76 specific actions over eight chapters. We’ve listed eight of them, as chronicled by Cruz, below:

1. “Obama implemented portions of the DREAM Act by executive action”

2. “Ended some terror asylum restrictions”

3. “Recognized same sex marriage in Utah despite a Supreme Court stay on a court order allowing the institution”

4. “Illegally revealed the existence of sealed indictments in the Benghazi investigation”

5. “Illegally delayed Obamacare verification of eligibility for healthcare subsidies”

6. “Ordered Boeing to fire 1,000 employees in South Carolina and shut down a new factory because it was non-union”

7. “Terminated the pensions of 20,000 non-union Delphi employees in the GM bankruptcy.”

8. “Government agencies are engaging in ‘Operation Choke Point,’ where the government asks banks to ‘choke off’ access to financial services for customers engaging in conduct the Administration does not like—such as ‘ammunition sales.’”

See the full report:

Follow Patrick on Twitter

Tags: Barack Obama, Ted Cruz

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/05/07/ted-cruz-releases-definitive-list-of-76-lawless-obama-actions/#ixzz31Qqh8Fu2

Spinning the Odessa Massacre

 

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook

After the brutal massacre of over 40 anti-regime protesters in the southern port city of Odessa – most of whom were burned to death after being trapped within the city’s Trade Unions House – the Western narrative of “Russian aggression” driving the current unrest in Ukraine is ringing particularly hollow.

Unable to spin the massacre carried out by the very ultra-right Neo-Nazi mobs that propelled the current unelected regime into power, both the West’s media machine and its politicians have attempted to remain as ambiguous as possible regarding the recent brutality resulting from what Kiev calls “anti-terror” operations.

The US condemned the violence in Odessa, but failed to identify the provocateurs or assign blame and instead called for an “investigation” into the deaths – the diplomatic equivalent of shrugging one’s shoulders. This response comes in sharp contrast to the West’s politically motivated responses to alleged government-sanctioned violence elsewhere in the world, most notably in Libya in 2011, and currently in Syria.

Additionally, as evidence emerges regarding the details of the Odessa massacre, only Russian news sources are covering it, while the West neither confirms nor denies reports, but rather misinforms its audiences through lies of omission. A particularly damning RT report titled, “Radicals shooting at people in Odessa’s burning building caught on tape,” stated:

New video has emerged online which shows a man shooting at the windows of Odessa’s burning House of Trade Unions. At least 39 anti-government activists died in the flames on May 2 in the building besieged and set ablaze by radicals.

A man in the video is wearing a bulletproof vest and is shooting several times in the direction of the burning House of Trade Unions.

The article would also report that:

Another video of the same man shows him speaking on the phone passionately arguing that he and his people are unarmed, while having to confront armed anti-government protesters. The man introduces himself as sotnik Mykola (“sotnik” is what Maidan group leaders in Kiev call themselves).

The report, complete with multiple videos and photographs, portrays a massacre of horrific and intentional brutality, trapping anti-regime protesters inside a building, torching it, and firing at the victims as they attempted to escape from being burned to death. The US’ calls to “investigate” the deaths and its refusal to acknowledge that the regime it has elected to back was responsible for the massacre, only further weakens its hand as the crisis continues to unfold.

Unelected Regime Blames Security Forces

In response to the violence in Odessa, Ukraine’s unelected prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, has blamed his own security forces for the violence. The BBC reported in its article, “Ukraine unrest: PM blames security service over Odessa,” that:

Some 42 people died in Odessa on Friday, most of them in the fire at the Trade Unions House, where separatist protesters had barricaded themselves in following running street battles with pro-Kiev activists.

Mr Yatsenyuk said the security service and law enforcement office had done “nothing to stop this crackdown”, saying they were “inefficient and they violated the law”.

The police chief of the Odessa region had been removed, he said, and the prosecutor’s office had started an investigation into “every single police officer”.

However, the new police chief appointed for Odessa only further confirmed the identity of the attackers that left over 40 dead while revealing the regime’s complicity in both the massacre and a wider agenda of coordinating with ultra-nationalists like the Neo-Nazi Right Sector faction.

In RT’s article, “Newly appointed Odessa police chief vows to revise release of anti-Kiev activists,” it states:

Addressing a pro-Kiev rally, Odessa’s new head of police spoke against ‘separatism’ and vowed to revise the earlier release of pro-autonomy activists.

Ivan Katerinchuk was appointed following deadly clashes and a fire on Friday that killed dozens in the southeastern port city.

Local media reported that a few hundred people attended the rally near the Odessa interior ministry on Sunday. Some of them were heavily armed with wooden and metal bats, chains, shields, and helmets.

It also states (emphasis added):

When speaking about the 67 released anti-government activists, he said that all will be investigated and it will be determined if they broke any laws.

He called on the Right Sector to exercise restraint and select individuals who will represent the group in order to easily communicate with it about further actions from police.

Clearly Right Sector, the Neo-Nazi militant front that spearheaded the so-called “Euromaidan” protests and the resulting putsch, are present in Odessa and working in coordination with Ukrainian security forces loyal to the regime in Kiev. This includes both the outgoing and the newly appointed police chief of Odessa. The Western media has not attempted to refute RT’s reports, and instead has elected to avoid mentioning altogether any relevant developments related to the Odessa massacre.

Wave of Fury Sweeps Ukraine

Over 60 anti-regime protesters who escaped the Trade Unions House blaze were arrested in addition to the 40 plus killed by Right Sector and other pro-regime factions in Odessa. After the massacre, anti-regime sentiment reached a fevered pitch. Protesters stormed the Odessa police station holding the survivors arrested earlier, prompting security forces to release them. While the newly appointed police chief of Odessa vows to “revise” the releases, it appears the city he resides over is divided and that further attempts to reassert Kiev’s control there will only result in more violence.

Meanwhile, the positions of anti-regime protesters elsewhere across the country have only hardened. Eastern cities like Slavyansk are standing firm against full-scale military operations launched by the regime in Kiev to consolidate their power across the rest of the country. Heavily armed gunships, armored vehicles, and special forces have been operating around the edges of towns and cities in the east of Ukraine, but have thus far been unable to enter them. The Western media, eager to report on progress made by Kiev, can only report on outer checkpoints and remote positions being taken by security forces.

The BBC’s report titled, “Ukraine unrest: PM blames security service over Odessa,” claims:

The BBC’s Sarah Rainsford, in the regional capital, Donetsk, says that while it appears the Ukrainian forces have sealed off the roads in and out of the town, they are moving around it and concentrating on smaller towns nearby.

Neo-Nazi Militants Rebranded as “Football Hooligans”

Lacking a cohesive military, Kiev has heavily depended on militant groups like Right Sector. Reeling from negative headlines since the height of the “Euromadain,” the regime is now attempting to portray Neo-Nazi militant groups as “football hooligans” operating beyond their control – even as officials like Odessa’s new police chief openly calls for closer coordination with them.

This is a familiar formula used across much of Europe’s racist, bigoted, nationalist movements, many of which are closely affiliated with Neo-Nazi groups active in Ukraine. The English Defense League (EDL), for example, draws direct parallels with Neo-Nazism, so much so that its own founder abandoned the movement after claiming it was in fact co-opted by Neo-Nazis. In the The Times article, “EDL chief Tommy Robinson quits after ‘neo-Nazi hijack of group’,” it states:

Tommy Robinson, the founder of the English Defence League, unexpectedly quit the organisation yesterday after claiming that it had been hijacked by extremists, including neo-Nazis.

The EDL’s composition of football hooligans and Neo-Nazis is repeated elsewhere. In a January 2014 Spiegel Online article titled, “‘Prepared to Die’: The Right Wing’s Role in Ukrainian Protests,” it described Ukraine’s Svoboda Party in relation to other Neo-Nazi groups across Europe:

The Svoboda party also has excellent ties to Europe, but they are different from the ones that Klischko might prefer. It is allied with France’s right-wing Front National and with the Italian neo-fascist group Fiamma Tricolore. But when it comes to the oppression of homosexuality, representative [Igor] Myroshnychenko is very close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, even if he does all he can to counter Moscow’s influence in his country.

In the coming days and weeks, Right Sector and Svoboda’s militant street front will continue coordinating with Kiev’s more heavily armed security forces in an attempt to consolidate its power across much of Ukraine. Already, the unelected government has declared its intention to deploy “special forces” to Odessa to rectify what it calls an “outrageous failure” to stop anti-regime protesters. This indicates that the “failure” was not the loss of life during clashes, but the failure to crush anti-regime sentiment across Odessa.

The regime and its Western sponsors will attempt to cover up, spin, and otherwise disassociate themselves from the inevitable atrocities that will be carried out as they attempt to do so. Portraying Neo-Nazi militants as “football hooligans” that are spontaneously taking to the streets and “coincidentally” helping Kiev eliminate its political opponents appears to be the narrative of choice and will almost certainly lead to both more incidents like the massacre in Odessa, and a greater backlash against the unpopular, struggling regime in Kiev.

Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”, where this first appeared.

Spinning the Odessa Massacre
TFAdmin
Wed, 07 May 2014 13:05:50 GMT