Motive, Means, and Opportunity for the Next Attack In Place

by Kevin D. Freeman on March 19, 2012

Three news items landed on my desk today from three different sources all pointing to a Phase Three attack designed to destroy the American way of life or even Western civilization as we know it. This isn’t alarmist. Rather it is the studied conclusion of current events with a solid understanding of the fragility demonstrated in 2008. Make no mistake. Our system nearly imploded less than four years ago and we have done very little to address the risks of a systemic attack on our financial system. Since the publication of my report nearly three years ago for DoD (Economic Warfare; Risks and Responses), I have gone to great lengths to educate and awaken our national security apparatus, Congress, and anyone in a leadership position who would listen. In the past year or so, I have taken the case to the American people to get them to wake up to the very real threats we face. This effort has included hundreds of interviews in national and local media, Op-Eds, articles in major publications, a national speaking tour, and finally the publication of the NY Times best-selling book Secret Weapon (www.secretweapon.org).

Despite our best efforts, we have not received the attention necessary to address this fast-developing crisis. Many fine people have listened and understood our message. Far too many, however, have ignored the warnings due to arrogance. They wrongly assume that the events of 2008 were “one-offs” that won’t repeat. They can’t believe that we have enemies who would do harm to our economy. In short, they doubt that anyone has the motive, means, and opportunity to bring harm to our economy. Quite simply, they are wrong and their excessive arrogance is endangering all of us.

[If you haven’t been following us over the past year, first go to www.secretweapon.org. From this website, you can access our Reviews tab and see responses from some of the people we have briefed. These are serious people representing experience from every Presidential administration dating back to Jimmy Carter. And, that’s just a portion of those who have been in senior leadership positions over the past 30 years who now know of and acknowledge the serious problem we are describing. You can also check out the Newsroom tab. Scroll through and view, listen to, or read a small portion of interviews, Op_eds, and articles. Be sure to dive into the Previous Entries at the bottom of the page because there are some really good media pieces in earlier entries. Then, be sure to really dive through this Blog. Start at January 2011 and read the many posts on all subjects that back up what we are saying. And, you can even find the report I prepared for DoD. Here is a web link (although I have not verified it page by page):  SCRIBD.com Economic Warfare by Kevin Freeman. There have been almost 52,000 downloads of that report.]

Rarely a day goes by without some fresh report of a warning. Some days we learn more about who might want to do us harm. Other days, we learn how we might be vulnerable. Today, however, we had three crystal clear examples of motive, means, and opportunity, all pointing to a Phase Three attack as we have described. These three are separately sourced but fit together like giant puzzle pieces. We will review them one-by-one.

First, the MOTIVE. While dated 12 February, a copy of this article arrived in our offices just today. It is from the UK Telegraph and is titled:

Iran presses ahead with dollar attack

Last week, the Tehran Times noted that the Iranian oil bourse will start trading oil in currencies other than the dollar from March 20. This long-planned move is part of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s vision of economic war with the west.

Why are we bringing this up today? Because the planned effort to start attacking the dollar commences tomorrow. We have blocked their access to the SWIFT system, which they view as an act of economic warfare similar to closing international waterways. Do you need clearer motive than that? The Iranians believe we are already in an economic war.

Next, the MEANS. Yesterday (which we found waiting on the computer this morning), it was reported in Israel News that the Treasury found and froze $21.1 billion of terrorist assets in 2011 alone:

US freezes $7.5M of Hezbollah, Hamas accounts

Treasury submits report showing it has frozen $21.1 billion of terror organizations’ assets in 2011, including $12 million of al-Qaeda’s, $55 million of Iran’s accounts

That’s a stunning amount of money and is just what they were able to identify and freeze. Keep in mind that Muammar Gaddafi had $200 billion hidden away, mostly in foreign accounts according to reports late last year. That’s quite a jump from the “several billion” previously estimated:

As Libya takes stock, Moammar Kadafi’s hidden riches astound

New estimates of the former leader’s assets — more than $200 billion — are called ‘staggering.’

October 21, 2011|By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Washington — Moammar Kadafi secretly salted away more than $200 billion in bank accounts, real estate and corporate investments around the world before he was killed, about $30,000 for every Libyan citizen and double the amount that Western governments previously had suspected, according to senior Libyan officials.

The new estimates of the deposed dictator’s hidden cash, gold reserves and investments are “staggering,” one person who has studied detailed records of the asset search said Friday. “No one truly appreciated the scope of it.”

Can we agree that this is sufficient to acknowledge means? Gaddafi’s $200 billion is four-times the massive wealth of Warren Buffet, certainly sufficient to move markets. Scarier still is how little we knew about how much he had hidden away in Western markets. These staggering figures don’t even count the trillions in Sovereign Wealth Funds from the Middle East or trillions more held by China in reserves. But, the announcement of over $21 billion seized by the Treasury in 2011 alone is more than sufficient to describe means.

This brings us to OPPORTUNITY. Reported late last night by The Wall Street Journal was a stunning story that acknowledged European market infrastructure weakness AND the fact that those weaknesses ARE being exploited without our awareness:

March 18, 2012, 8:01 p.m. ET

Financial News: Alarm Bells Ring Over ‘Mafia-Like’ Market Abuse

By Michelle Price  FINANCIAL NEWS

European exchanges have voiced concerns that regulators are unable to monitor and detect what they have described as professionalised “mafia-like” market abuse.

On Friday, the Federation of European Securities Exchanges said the fragmentation of trading across multiple venues had “made it possible that potential abuses may be occurring which may not necessarily be evident to any single venue”. It added: “The method of effective detection of market abuse must be urgently addressed.”

The warning follows the revelation last month that the German authorities are investigating an international ring alleged to have operated manipulative trading strategies on a segment of the Deutsche Börse-owned Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

The market’s head of trading surveillance, Michael Zollweg, told German journalists last month that the incident was an example of how manipulative trading has evolved into an industry with “mafia-like” international structures.

Isn’t this precisely what we have been warning about? We shared earlier that when Osama bin Laden was killed, he had in his possession a strategy concept to destroy the economies of Europe. We have been told that this was using financial tactics such as those attributed to George Soros by the Chinese PLA in their analysis of Unrestricted Warfare. We know that the Germans urgently banned naked shorting and Credit Default Swaps in response to what they believed to be financial market attacks on the European economies.

Sadly, there are none so blind as those who will not see. Help us get the attention of key policymakers before it is too late. This is a national security issue of the highest order. To learn more, visit www.secretweapon.org.

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