Financial Warfare As The New Regime Change Instrument
Just two weeks ago some idiot published this on "War Is Boring":
After six years of massive expenditures and lurid propaganda, on Jan. 9 Tehran shut down its troubled space program. The unceremonious cancellation occurred without notice in the Iranian press.Authorities are spreading the space agency’s manpower and assets across four ministries including the telecoms ministry and the ministry of defense.
That story was likely planted to instigate some riffs within Iranian politics. That did not work well. Here is notice in the Iranian press:
Tehran, Feb 2, IRNA - Manager of Electronic Industries Space Projects Mehdi Sarvi on Monday declared that Fajr satellite has established its contact with ground station, hours after it was launched and put into the orbit.
...
During the ceremony, Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said the project was accomplished only thanks to the sincere endeavors of the Iranian scientists.Developed by indigenous technology and know-how, he noted, the satellite which is called 'Fajr' indicated the high capabilities of Iran's satellite-carriers.
...
The minister referred to the chance to develop and design a new generation of satellite-carriers and also enter the world market of space services, using domestic potential and planning complicated space missions as some of the achievements of the project.
Congrats to Iran for this successful launch.
The above just demonstrates again that one can not trust any "news" on countries not liked by Washington. Consider this headline by NBC: Ex-Los Alamos Scientist Gets 5 Years in Venezuelan Nuclear Bomb Plot. A headline fitting the story would be something like "Crazy old scientist falls for FBI sting". The story has nothing to do with Venezuela and the whole "nuclear bomb" stuff was just phantasies an FBI agent used to entrap some poor old person. But Venezuela is on Washington's shit list and the CIA is currently busy instigating another coup against the elected Venezuelan government.
The CIA and the State Department are also involved in instigating the current demonstrations in Hungary. Another attack on an elected government that does not walk the line the U.S. administration orders it to walk. Next in line is likely the new government of Greece.
But instigating color revolutions, protests and coups is often not enough to destroy a government that the U.S. dislikes. In a recent interview Alastair Crooke points to the newest weapon in Washington's regime change arsenal - financial warfare:
The International Order depends more on control by the US Treasury and Federal Reserve than on the UN as before.It started principally with Iran and it has been developed subsequently. In a book, “Treasury's War,” the tool of exclusion from the dollar-denominated global financial system is described as a “neutron bomb.” When a country is to be isolated, a "scarlet letter" is issued by the US Treasury that asserts that such-and-such bank is somehow suspected of being linked to a terrorist movement -- or of being involved in money laundering. The author of "Treasury's War" [Juan Zarate], who was the chief architect of modern financial warfare and a former senior Treasury and White House official, says this scarlet letter constitutes a more potent bomb than any military weapon.
This system of reliance on dollar hegemony no longer requires American dependency on the UN and hands control to the US Treasury overseen by Steve Cohen -- a reflection of the fact that the military tools have become less available to the US administration, for domestic political reasons.
Crooke believes that the drop in the Russian ruble a few weeks ago was engineered by the U.S. Treasury. He is not completely right though about David S. Cohen, the U.S.Treasury man who has implemented the financial warfare instruments against Iran and Russia. That man is no longer with the U.S. Treasury but is the new number 2 in the CIA. That tells you all you need to know about the intensity with which the U.S. plans to use these new weapons.
Any country that does not do do what Washington wants is now threatened with financial ruin. China and Russia are preparing defenses against such a threat but smaller countries have little chances to escape such attacks.
The media though will not delve into that. Should some country's economy drown (see Venezuela) because of U.S. financial marked manipulations all blame will be put on the foreign government and its "irresponsible economic policies" and the media will again call for and support "regime change".
Posted by b on February 2, 2015 at 19:14 UTC | Permalink
I read reps from Germany (the american puppet) is apparently in Hungary now.
Will we see a new color revolution? This is crazy.
Posted by: Anonymous | Feb 2 2015 19:44 utc | 2
I think the 'financial arm' will be much less effective in the medium term than its advocates expect. There are ways to get outside the US payments system, and though they are costlier, they are not so costly as to make them infeasible. The US is less and less the indispensable nation for multilateral clearing. The dollar is a convenience, not a necessity.
Posted by: Knut | Feb 2 2015 19:54 utc | 3
You need to write about something you know; for example, how Germany is fucking up Europe again.
Posted by: slothrop | Feb 2 2015 20:17 utc | 4
@1 ralpieboy - i think SA is doing what usa wants spending money on isis and maintaining its dictatorship which also suits the usa very well..
the media has always been a rubber stamp for the usa's bullshit.. it has gotten worse since ww2, but that is a long time for it to develop the deep servitude (being bought out essentially) with the military industrial and financial complex.. the usa is essentially a sack of lying shite on the foreign policy front. always has been and until it completely caves in - always will be.
Posted by: james | Feb 2 2015 20:27 utc | 5
@b: "Next in line is likely the new government of Greece."
All too true, I fear.
Sharing the wealth of a nation with the peons is the new 4th reich's greatest nightmare.
Posted by: ben | Feb 2 2015 20:34 utc | 6
Financial warfare is the most important weapon available to the US at the moment. With the advance of computerisation, control is in the hands of those who control the networks, that is, Visa, Mastercard, etc. They've already done it to Iran. My ex-student had to bring cash sewed into his coat in order to finance his wife, who was also doing a doctorate.
Posted by: Laguerre | Feb 2 2015 21:15 utc | 7
slothrop @ 3
i don't remember which punk group it was, but at some point during their show somewhere in Germany the lead singer hurled a beer bottle or two into the audience...
...the injuries were minor, but upon being arrested same singer said something like, "fucking hell, you guys start a world war every 30 years or so...and you're upset about a couple of beer bottles?"
Posted by: john | Feb 2 2015 21:16 utc | 8
'The above just demonstrates again that one can not trust any "news" on countries not liked by Washington'
this is true.... esp DPRK which gets on the most hated list because people believe the lies of the US press.
Posted by: brian | Feb 2 2015 21:31 utc | 9
@ b
Interesting pieces :
Cohen will also visit Israel for regular consultations on issues of shared interest.
We know about shared interest
So will he make himself available to the Jewish community, AIPAC , JINSA et al.
Posted by: Yul | Feb 2 2015 21:32 utc | 10
'The CIA and the State Department are also involved in instigating the current demonstrations in Hungary. Another attack on an elected government that does not walk the line the U.S. administration orders it to walk. Next in line is likely the new government of Greece.'
Govts that dont want to be unceremoniously removed need to close the local US embassy. Bolivia did ad sleep better at night now
Posted by: brian | Feb 2 2015 21:33 utc | 11
@slothrop
You need to write about something you know; for example, how Germany is fucking up Europe again.You must be American. Europeans don't have these feelings.
Posted by: Laguerre | Feb 2 2015 21:33 utc | 12
@b: "The CIA and the State Department are also involved in instigating the current demonstrations in Hungary."
The man behind it is Andre Goodfriend, who was a good friend to ISIS when he was US ambassador to Syria from 2009 to 2012 (key dates those). He then was sent to Budapest to stir up some more shit (three Maidan style demos in three months) with cash allegedly from the "Norwegian Fund." Of the November demonstration Vladislav Gulevich wrote:
"Other signs of a ‘Hungarian Maidan’ were also evident: demonstrators defiantly jumped around chanting «He who does not jump pays the tax» (the Ukrainian version of this standard spectacle is «He who does not jump is a Moskal»). See full article at http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/11/12/viktor-orban-threatened-by-maidan-style-protest-movement.html.
Goodfriend managed to rile the Hungarian government to the extent that he was demoted to senior advisor and is now Chief of Mission pending the arrival of the new ambassador, Colleen Bell, a soap opera producer. John McCain was furious:
"We're about to vote on a totally unqualified individual to be ambassador to a nation which is very important to our national security interest," McCain said on the Senate floor. "Her qualifications are as a producer of the television soap opera 'The Bold and The Beautiful,' contributed 800,000 [dollars] to Obama in the last election and bundled more than $2.1 million for President Obama's re-election effort." McCain had in December called Hungary's PM Viktor Orban a "neo-fascist dictator."
Posted by: Lochearn | Feb 2 2015 21:39 utc | 13
Posted by: john | Feb 2, 2015 4:16:28 PM | 7
That pretty much sums up Germany.
Merkel in Hungary talking democracy is crazy. It sure smells color revolution. She needs it now as Orban will hate her.
She has been harping on about Russia's influence in South East Europe for the last few weeks.
It sounds like refighting WW1 all over again.
Posted by: somebody | Feb 2 2015 21:59 utc | 14
@12 quote "McCain had in December called Hungary's PM Viktor Orban a "neo-fascist dictator." "
when mcquack isn't saddling up with isis leaders or wannabe leaders, he saddles up with similar losers.. i guess he doesn't like competition on what he regards as his propriety terrain, lol..not that the description fits.. just like going 0 to 60, next stop orban will be the new hitler, in a long line promotional bs to convince a brain dead public to believe a-holes like mcquack..
Posted by: james | Feb 2 2015 22:01 utc | 15
Several related thoughts/facts:
- Venezuela has implemented a disastrous financial policy from the day Hugo Chavez took office. And now with oil at ~ $ 50 "the chickens are coming home to roost". In that regard the "Evil Empire" doesn't have to do anything. Just wait & see how Venezuela blows itself up.
- Remember the coup in april 2002 ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Venezuelan_coup_d'%C3%A9tat_attempt
http://www.globalresearch.ca/venezuela-coup-and-countercoup-revolution/18618
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/21/usa.venezuela
- Chavez wanted to improve relations with the US in 2009 (after G.W.Bush was gone) but it seems that was rebuffed by the US.
For those who "dislike" the US Empire, I can say that the Empire is on the precipice of a financial collapse as well. From 1981 onwards the US federal debt has increased from ~ $ 1 trillion to over ~ $ 18 trillion now in 2014/2015. The interest payments remained "manageable" because US interest rates went down from over 15% in 1981 to ~ 1.7% in very late 2014. But when I look at the charts then I think US interest rates will/could rise/explode higher in the near future and that WILL kill the US housing market & the US economy.
In that regard, I am surprised to see that the US Empire continues to "double down".
Posted by: Willy2 | Feb 2 2015 22:20 utc | 16
"In that regard, I am surprised to see that the US Empire continues to "double down""
The entire course of U.S. history has been one double-down piled upon another.
Posted by: Matt | Feb 2 2015 22:28 utc | 17
All this financial warfare stuff is scary. I'm damn sure the Chinese will be much better at it than the 'west',I suspect they are even now very close to being able to just pull out the plug. They won't have any need to bomb us back to the stone age, they can just remove our ability to buy and sell...now would be a good time for the 'west' to rejoin the human race and try to get along, tomorrow could be too late
Posted by: bridger | Feb 2 2015 22:30 utc | 18
The US should think twice about weaponizing the financial system when Wall Street is sitting on top of a smoldering volcano of derivatives, just waiting for the next unexpected crisis to trigger an eruption. Who is to say that others can't play the financial warfare game?
Posted by: Gareth | Feb 2 2015 23:12 utc | 19
@17 @18
What would happen if Russia and China were to dump their dollar denominated foreign currency reserves, buying back their own rubles and yuan with the proceeds, and announce that they were accepting just rubles / yuan in payment for their respective exports - everything from oil and gas to solar panels and iPhones?
Posted by: jfl | Feb 2 2015 23:30 utc | 20
b, do you know if this satellite and/or any of the others was/were lofted by Iranian rockets, or Russian?
Iran’s National Fajr Satellite transmits data to stations on earth
President Rouhani congratulated the great nation of Iran on the successful launch of Fajr satellite and said the Iranian scientists have entered a new phase in space sciences.“Thank God, today Fajr National Satellite was launched into space by domestic launcher named Safir-e-Fajr,” he said.
Laguerre no. 11
"You need to write about something you know; for example, how Germany is fucking up Europe again.
You must be American. Europeans don't have these feelings."
Not even Greeks?
Posted by: sleepy | Feb 3 2015 1:09 utc | 22
@Willy2 - More and more you're just pushing out US government claptrap.
"Venezuela has implemented a disastrous financial policy from the day Hugo Chavez took office. And now with oil at ~ $ 50 "'the chickens are coming home to roost'. In that regard the "Evil Empire" doesn't have to do anything. Just wait & see how Venezuela blows itself up."
Sorry, but Venezuelan revolution has not survived two decades in the crosshairs of the United States by following "disastrous policies".
Yes, the Venezuelan economy has ups and down - but it always has, and in this regard, the Chavista era is one of remarkably (relative) low inflation and economic growth. Not to mention the major facts that will help the country survive and thrive in the future - the massive reduction of poverty and the spreading of education to all sectors of the society. Not to mention the $250 billion that China has committed to invest in Latin America will certainly help shore up the weak sectors.
Venezuela has not only avoided becoming a neo-liberal dumping ground through this "disastrous policy", it has lead the entirety of South America and the Caribbean into a remarkable era of independence from the United States. Those like Willy here who want to join in the constant put downs of Venezuela and lay out the next predictions of its downfall (we've heard them since day one) ought to consider that that flock of chickens they keep waiting to scratch their way to Venezuela - might be bound for their country instead.
Posted by: guest77 | Feb 3 2015 1:41 utc | 23
Thanks for that NBC piece b. I hadn't heard that. Reminds one, of course, of the case of Wen Ho Lee, another nuclear scientist the US government tried to railroad using the basest racism (but eventually had to pay $1.6 million to him). Looks like this time they "got their (80 year old) man". Similar to how they convince mentally defective teenagers (is there any other kind) to blow up Christmas celebrations and then declare they've "saved America" from another Terror plot.
The FBI, it seems, picks on the very young and the very old and the slow - in this regard they are hardly better than people running email scams out of Nigeria.
That NBC News picks up on this and puffs up its headlines with the only part of the story which is a fiction in its entirety: that the Venezuelan government had anything at all to do with this - is a perfect of how manipulative the US media.
The US media, like the US economy and our pop culture and, well, like every other aspect of US society, has been converted away from our benign national traditions, into dangerous weapons with one purpose - to be yielded by the US elite in their quest for power.
It is the very definition of totalitarian.
Posted by: guest77 | Feb 3 2015 1:58 utc | 24
I do fear that there a four countries in South America right now that are quite vulnerable to US financial warfare. I suspect that the US is going to be working hard to take the B out of BRICS. Greece, of course, as mentioned is extremely vulnerable. The Spanish electorate will obviously be hit with a propaganda fear campaign like we haven't seen since Scotland but if they refuse to tow the line they will be next. Such is the power of the US dollar as the international reserve currency. What the rulers of America don't seem to realize that reserve currencies gain their status because of the trust of international markets. Trust is a very intangible thing that simply resides in the minds of millions of different players. Change those minds and poof, it is gone.
Posted by: ToivoS | Feb 3 2015 2:22 utc | 25
No doubt that b is right, the US uses its tightly controlled economy in the same way it might use its military - as a weapon. And that is one of the reasons that it prefers to maintain an economy which is by far the most imbalanced and unequal in the world - for the control it gives them in wielding it as such.
Though they are struggling to come to grips with how to manage the effects of such aggressive US actions, the rest of the world is not simply accepting this status quo. China's pumping $250 Billion into Latin America, as well as China's pledges to shore up the Russian economy - should this be required - is evidence that they are not resigned to the whims of the United States.
In Xinhua today, one can read The full text of joint communique of Russian, Indian, Chinese foreign ministers' meeting that was held today, and it has some very telling passages. The main take away is this: the US is fooling itself if it believes for a second - as you'll often hear in its media - that it can turn any of the BRICS against each other. The US is clearly the isolated nation - its tactics are a danger to everyone across the globe.
The Ministers noted the significant and rapid changes underway in the world and underlined that the international community should remain committed to democratization of international relations and multi-polarity. They expressed their support to the idea of adopting a UN General Assembly resolution on the inadmissibility of intervention and interference in the internal affairs of states. They opposed forced regime change in any country from the outside, or imposition of unilateral sanctions based on domestic laws.The Ministers recognized that the year 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations and the victory in the Second World War, and paid tribute to all those who fought against Fascism and for freedom.
Acknowledging India's important role in driving global economic growth, and supporting the openness of APEC, China and Russia would welcome India's participation in APEC...China and India shared the plans of Russia's Chairmanship in the SCO... China and Russia welcomed India's application for full membership of SCO and supported India to join the SCO after completing all necessary negotiations and legal processes.
The Ministers affirmed the need for all countries to join efforts in combating terrorism under the auspices of the United Nations...They underlined the need to bring to justice perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of terrorist acts. Highly alarmed by the new trends in international terrorist acts...
They expressed support for the efforts of the Syrian Government to combat terrorism....
The Ministers stressed that an independent, objective, fair and transparent international investigation should be carried out for the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17....
called for immediate reform of the international financial system ...[they] reject protectionism as well as all forms of unilateral measures of economic pressure taken without relevant decisions of the UN Security Council...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2015-02/02/c_133965412.htm
Posted by: guest77 | Feb 3 2015 2:38 utc | 26
I can't wait until they throw Putler out if SWIFT. he doesn't like Western values, he can use tally sticks.
Posted by: PeterP | Feb 3 2015 3:38 utc | 27
Posted by: Willy2 | Feb 2, 2015 5:20:59 PM | 15
i take it Willy2 likes the US empire
Posted by: brian | Feb 3 2015 3:55 utc | 28
I just LOVE this story.
Beneath the bluster is an implied admission that America is a cowardly, incompetent, loud, but undeniably chickenshit, military joke. This, folks, is the beginning of the END of the US of A.
The fact that they've had as much pseudo-military hardware as the rest of the world combined for 40+ years, but have been consistently outclassed, militarily, by the defenders of almost every pissy little country on the planet, suggests that there IS a very attractive, permanent, military solution to America's financial shenanigans and delusions.
I'm having my ribs taped to minimise the damage when the shooting (and laughing) begins.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 3 2015 3:57 utc | 29
War by other means - IMF - World Bank are weapons of war, by John Pilger:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017242138
Posted by: ben | Feb 3 2015 4:27 utc | 30
@21
My thought exactly.
@23
Not only NBC ... FAIR.org listed a few more right off the top of the vile, continuous, and monolithic US mshm.
@26
Funny, I was wondering what would happen if Russia and China were to dump their dollar denominated foreign currency reserves, buying back their own rubles and yuan with the proceeds, and announce that they were accepting just rubles / yuan in payment for their respective exports - everything from oil and gas to solar panels and iPhones?
And insist that European consumers of energy and American consumers of most anything pay for their purchases in rubles / yuan as well, I might add.
Posted by: jfl | Feb 3 2015 8:16 utc | 31
@22: The US has been regarding South & Middle America as their "backyard" in which they can do whatever they want. Remember the Monroe doctrine ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine
But that doesn't absolve the governments in Middle & South America to put all the blame for their disastrous economic policies on the US Empire. In that regard it would be a good thing to see the US go bankrupt. Because then governments (South & Middle America & the Middle East) can't put the blame on the US Empire anymore.
Posted by: Willy2 | Feb 3 2015 8:36 utc | 32
Somewhere in the (near) future the US consumer & US financial markets will wage a financial war on the US government as well.
Just look at the development of US interest rates. The 30 year yield is currently at ~ 2.2%. I wouldn't be surprised to see that yield go/explode higher this year, to say 4, 6 or 8%.
Posted by: Willy2 | Feb 3 2015 8:45 utc | 33
Posted by: sleepy | Feb 2, 2015 8:09:28 PM | 21
Greeks know that it is their own oligarchy doing it.
But Germany owes Greece - and others - repayment of wartime extortions
Germany has a peace treaty with the allied forces since 1990 but there are quite a few accounts open in respect to other countries.
What a brilliant idea. Refight WWII financially!
Posted by: somebody | Feb 3 2015 10:04 utc | 34
@15: ...."From 1981 onwards the US federal debt has increased from"....
Easily fixed. Just go to war with the foreign countries that are holding that debt, then install a puppet govt that's willing to write off that debt.
Belgium had better watch out!
Tt's third (!! something very fishy there...) on the list after China and Japan, and it's a much, much easier takeover target.
Posted by: Johnboy | Feb 3 2015 10:04 utc | 35
Warfare today is all-encompassing. It includes points financial (which the US-West still pretty much control), points territorial, mostly for destruction of enemies, not to ‘win’ any ressources; and propaganda, to put all into competition against each other - divide to rule right from bozos in the neighborhood to cutting up countries like Iraq, so that most sleep walk into their own ruin and destruction, blinded by the light. So the MSM holds a straight flush.
Big Corps’ role is not blatantly on display, blanked out by ‘nationalist’ discourse. They are the entities in part fighting all these wars, to hold mini-territories (not countries or large regions), some workers, resources, but first to squeeeze out profits by any means. Gvmt. are complicit. Corporate-neo-feudalism, or sumptin’ like that.
Military, Industry, Agriculture, and illicit trades (bodies, finance, drugs, etc.) One vital point for them is free-flow of goods, resources and the control of transport (ships, rail, land, etc.) thus of territorial routes and choke-points is essential, specially for the no. 1 commodity, energy in all its forms, which drives all. (Extraction, refineries, pipelines, sea routes, etc.)
The map of the world is no longer Nation-States in pastel colors but a vast circuit of routes and control of these. Finance has some kind of ascendancy or advantage at present because it escapes physical territorial constraints (see for ex. high frequency trading) but not, ultimately, electrons themselves, which are produced by coal, barrages, oil, and transmitted by cables, etc.
Therefore uneasy alliances.
Posted by: Noirette | Feb 3 2015 16:28 utc | 36
@#20
Russia, and maybe China, are doing something similar to that move with physical gold. They share an interest in moving away from the Dollar, but China also has an interest in Dollar stability because they hold so much of the US debt.
Posted by: Thirdeye | Feb 3 2015 18:16 utc | 37
financial warfare is not so new:
Cool War: Economic sanctions as a weapon of mass destruction
By Joy Gordon
In searching for evidence of the potential danger posed by Iraq, the Bush Administration need have looked no further than the well-kept record of U.S. manipulation of the sanctions program since 1991. If any international act in the last decade is sure to generate enduring bitterness toward the United States, it is the epidemic suffering needlessly visited on Iraqis via U.S. fiat inside the United Nations Security Council. Within that body, the United States has consistently thwarted Iraq from satisfying its most basic humanitarian needs, using sanctions as nothing less than a deadly weapon, and, despite recent reforms, continuing to do so. Invoking security concerns -- including those not corroborated by U.N. weapons inspectors -- U.S. policymakers have effectively turned a program of international governance into a legitimized act of mass slaughter
etc
http://www.scn.org/ccpi/HarpersJoyGordonNov02.html
Posted by: brian | Feb 3 2015 21:26 utc | 38
"China and Russia are preparing defenses against such a threat but smaller countries have little chances to escape such attacks."
Unless they align their interests with Russia and China and stop playing both sides against he middle.
Posted by: psakiwacky | Feb 4 2015 8:41 utc | 39
@ peter f @ 27
This is essentially all that the "humanitarian" imperialists and their not-so-human leech-parasite finance capitalist masters, have left..You should be proud though, your brilliant rhetorical razor blades there aren't one bit more retarded than any other regular contributor to the New York Time - like Krugman for instance. Incidentally Russia will be jumping off at major points from the US/London/Brussels finance rackets in the near future, so that's got to make all of you happy right? I mean your reactions spring from schadenfreude and the bliss of pure nationalistic hatred right,and not from a gut twisting, ball wrenching terror of the actual reality of Russia and China actually walking completely away from the US/London/Brussels axis, right ?
Posted by: psakiwacky | Feb 4 2015 8:53 utc | 40
Why doesnt Russia just ignore the rules because of this and sell according to its interests?
http://rt.com/news/229183-saudi-russia-oil-assad/
Posted by: Anonymous | Feb 4 2015 13:24 utc | 41
The comments to this entry are closed.
"Any country that does not do do what Washington wants is now threatened with financial ruin"
Saudi Arabia excepted.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Feb 2 2015 19:18 utc | 1