by Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
January 1, 2012

With minimal media debate, at a time when Americans were celebrating the New Year with their loved ones, the “National Defense Authorization Act ” H.R. 1540 was signed into law by President Barack Obama. The actual signing took place in Hawaii on the 31st of December.

According to Obama’s “signing statement”, the threat of Al Qaeda to the Security of the Homeland constitutes a justification for repealing fundamental rights and freedoms, with a stroke of the pen.

The controversial signing statement (see transcript below) is a smokscreen. Obama says he disagrees with the NDAA but he signs it into law.

“[I have] serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists.”

Obama implements “Police State USA”, while acknowledging that certain provisions of the NDAA are unacceptable. If such is the case, he could have either vetoed the NDAA (H.R. 1540) or sent it back to Congress with his objections.

The “National Defense Authorization Act ” (H.R. 1540) is Obama’s New Year’s “Gift” to the American People.

He justifies the signing of the NDAA as a means to combating terrorism, as part of a counter-terrorism agenda. But in substance, any American opposed to the policies of the US government can –under the provisions of the NDAA– be labelled a “suspected terrorist” and arrested under military detention.

“Moreover, I want to clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens. Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a Nation. My Administration will interpret section 1021 in a manner that ensures that any detention it authorizes complies with the Constitution, the laws of war, and all other applicable law.”

Barack Obama is a lawyer (a graduate from Harvard Law School). He knows fair well that his signing statement –which parrots his commitment to democracy– is purely cosmetic. It has no force of law.

The signing statement does not in any way invalidate or modify the actual signing by President Obama of NDAA (H.R. 1540) into law.

“Democratic Dictatorship” in America

The Rest…HERE

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ExtinctionProtocol.com
January 1, 2012

IRAN – Iran announced a nuclear fuel breakthrough and test-fired a new radar-evading medium-range missile in the Gulf on Sunday, moves that could further antagonize the West at a time when Tehran is trying to avert harsh new sanctions on its oil industry. U.S. President Barack Obama signed a law on Saturday imposing tougher financial sanctions to penalize Iran for a nuclear research program that the West suspects is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. The move could for the first time hurt Tehran’s oil exports, and the European Union is due to consider similar steps soon. As tensions have risen, Iran threatened last week to close the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow Gulf shipping lane through which 40 percent of world oil flows, if sanctions hit its oil exports. At the same time, it signaled on Saturday that it was ready to resume stalled international talks on its nuclear program. It says the program is completely peaceful and, in what Iranian media described as an engineering breakthrough, state television said Iran had successfully produced and tested its own uranium fuel rods for use in its nuclear power plants. The rods were made in Iran and inserted into the core of Tehran’s nuclear research reactor, the television reported. Iran is trying to develop its own nuclear fuel cycle to power reactors without international help. Western countries are skeptical of some of Tehran’s engineering claims but say they fear Iran’s enrichment of uranium to make fuel could eventually lead to it producing a weapon. In what has become part of a pattern of saber-rattling in recent weeks, Iran is finishing a 10-day Gulf naval exercise. Deputy Navy Commander Mahmoud Mousavi told IRNA state news agency it had successfully test fired a medium-range surface-to-air missile equipped with “the latest sophisticated anti-radar technologies.” Iran has apparently delayed pre-announced plans to test its long-range missiles during the drill, saying the weapons would be launched in the next few days. Its long-range missiles could hit Israel or U.S. bases in the Middle East. The United States and Israel say they have not ruled out military action against Iran if diplomacy fails to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program. –Reuters

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by Mike Adams
NaturalNews.com
Sunday, January 01, 2012

In the aftermath of the signing of the NDAA by the traitorous President Obama, some citizens remain completely hoodwinked by the language of the bill, running around the internet screaming that the law “does not apply to American citizens.”

This is, naturally, part of the side effect of having such a dumbed-down education system where people can’t even parse the English language anymore. If you read the bill and understand what it says, it clearly offers absolutely no protections of U.S. citizens. In fact, it affirms that Americans are subjected to indefinite detainment under “existing authorities.”

Let’s parse it intelligently, shall we?

First off, the offending section of the bill that used to be called 1031 was moved to 1021. Here is the title:

(http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-…)

SEC. 1021. AFFIRMATION OF AUTHORITY OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES TO DETAIN COVERED PERSONS PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF MILITARY FORCE.

The Rest…HERE

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by Mike Adams
NaturalNews.com
Sunday, January 01, 2012

One of the most extraordinary documents in human history — the Bill of Rights — has come to an end under President Barack Obama. Derived from sacred principles of natural law, the Bill of Rights has come to a sudden and catastrophic end with the President’s signing of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a law that grants the U.S. military the “legal” right to conduct secret kidnappings of U.S. citizens, followed by indefinite detention, interrogation, torture and even murder. This is all conducted completely outside the protection of law, with no jury, no trial, no legal representation and not even any requirement that the government produce evidence against the accused. It is a system of outright government tyranny against the American people, and it effectively nullifies the Bill of Rights.

In what will be remembered as the most traitorous executive signing ever committed against the American people, President Obama signed the bill on New Year’s Eve, a time when most Americans were engaged in the consumption of alcohol. It seems appropriate, of course, since no intelligent American could accept the tyranny of this bill if they were sober.

This is the law that will cement Obama’s legacy in the history books as the traitor who nullified the Bill of Rights and paved America’s pathway down a road of tyranny that will make Nazi Germany’s war crimes look like child’s play. If Bush had signed a law like this, liberals would have been screaming “impeachment!”

Why the Bill of Rights matters

The Rest…HERE

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Activist Post
Saturday, December 31, 2011

As the United States edges closer to becoming a third world country; anger, frustration, and cynicism continue to mount in the minds of the American population. Americans are no longer optimistic about the direction of their country. This pessimism seems warranted as authentic political solutions appear to be in short supply in our corporate state.

The democratic political system is now clearly run by crony cartelism. The multinational banks have hijacked the economy and are openly looting the public. Mounting and impossible-to-pay off debt is crippling local governments. The entire spectrum of our rights continues to degrade as the close of 2011 saw the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, which declares America itself to be a war zone, and its citizens potential enemy combatants. Meanwhile, crimes that would land regular citizens in jail are now openly being committed by the elite and their organizations with no justice. Perhaps most telling, the power structure is establishing a control grid to eliminate Internet freedom, and even to use cyberspace in offensive acts of war. Given the current situation, it can seem impossible to affect real change. However, the exact opposite is the case.

The only reason the system is maintained is because the majority still acquiesce to it. However, change won’t come by electing new establishment politicians, because no matter how noble they may be they still must play the corrupt game. Change won’t come through violent protests or offensive cyber hacktivism, as that only invites and justifies the creeping police state. We must stop accepting and supporting the system, individually, in order to change it.

The Rest…HERE

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Jim Rogers isn’t too optimistic about stock markets in 2012, sees longer term systemic collapse

Bi-Me.com
December 30, 2011

INTERNATIONAL. Legendary global investor and chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings, Jim Rogers has been talking about his 2012 predictions.

In a nutshell, he is neither too optimistic about the stock market for 2012 nor about what’s going to happen in the world in the next two or three years.

Speaking to Australia Financial News Network (AFNN) December 23, Rogers said: “The problems are going to continue to get worse until someone solves the basic underlying problem of too much spending and too much debt.”

He sees the biggest risk to global growth in 2012 as “too much debt…too much consumption…and the central bank in the US which keeps printing money.”

Rogers, seen as one of the world’s most successful investors, highlighted the scale of the problem to his host: The problem is that the measures America needs [to solve the crisis] would cause huge pain for a while, but, if we don’t take our pain now, and we wait until the market forces the pain on us, then it’s going to be systemic collapse.”

Refusing to get drawn into US politics, Rogers nevertheless provided a tacit endorsement: “Gary Johnson and Ron Paul seem to understand the problems that are facing America,” he said.

So what is his prediction for stock markets in 2012?

“I am short stocks around the world. I’m short American technology stocks, I’m short emerging market stocks, and I’m short European stocks,” Rogers told AFNN.

“I’m not optimistic for the most part about stock markets. I don’t own many stocks anywhere in the world. The only offset for the caveat for me is that there is an election in the US, and in France, so wherever there are elections coming, and governments spend spend spend, and throw money out the window to buy votes, so some people are going to be much better off in 2012,” he added.

Speaking to the BBC’s Martin Webber December 26, Rogers reiterated his opposition to printing money as a solution to too much spending and too much debt: ” You can debase currency, and history is replete with governments that have debased their own currency and ruined their own currency for hundreds of – well for thousands of years.”

“You can do that and everything is okay for a while, but eventually you have inflation, you have high interest rates, you have currency turmoil, you have people no longer trusting each other to invest with each other, and then you have the end of the system, and we have chaos, and it starts over again,” he added.

Social unrest, civil war and…a huge mess

The Rest…HERE

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