Lawrence,
What you say is quite true.
If one is Sunni, then the USA is the terrorist. It is easy to get
carried away, and to waver out of precise focus on the details and
semantics of this situation.
That is, we must accept that 'guilt by association' is wrong, wrong,
wrong ... and should never be tolerated. We cannot let ourselves
associate terrorism and Islam as the general rule. In many of their
eyes, we are the international terrorists.
However, even though most Muslims are peace-loving, decent people, there
is a most vocal and politically active segment, which vehemently hates
the USA, Israel, and the West, and - let's also admit to this - they
hate us for very good reason!
We are the originators of this huge mess - no doubt about that.
Even so, and even if our own recent actions were wrong, and historically
going back in time 800 years: terribly wrong, and even if most of the
injustice starts with us, we cannot simply overlook the backlash, nor
fail to be prepared for the current degree of justifiable hatred coming
from that part of the world, just because we generated the initial problems.
There is no good solution to this problem.
Worst of all -- We created the problem to start with, aggravated it with
support for the State of Israel, and probably deserve some degree of
punishment for that; but will never allow compensation or even an
admission of guilt. Consequently the best that we can hope to do is to
back-away from this region altogether, let Israel go her own way, turn
our foreign policy into limited isolationisms for this region, and be
vigilant.
Most of all... let's not make the situation any worse than it already is
(by bombing Iran); and yet to keep our own military from over-reacting
as they WILL DO, we need to avoid the kind of massive payback, economic
or otherwise, WHICH WE DESERVE.
Did I mention: there is no good solution to this problem !?!
Jones
Lawrence de Bivort wrote:
> It would be quite a mistake to assume that terrorists are likely to be
> Muslim, or that Muslims are likely to be terrorists.
> It is true that this is what many Americans believe, and that they
have been
> urged on in this misimpression by some who wish Muslims poorly, so
let us be
> doubly vigilant to avoid these cognitive traps.
>
> The Internet is a purveyor of much information -- and much misinformation
> and disinformation.
> Cheers,
> Lawrence
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jones Beene [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January
28, 2008 5:32 PM
> To: vortex-l@eskimo.com
> Subject: [Vo]:OT: Financial Terrorism?
>
> Apparently, even though the "Bin Laden" option trades went flat 6
months ago, that huge (paper) loss did not deter a planned second-chance
effort to recoup the initial loss, and create havoc in the Western
economies.
>
> From a Blogger:
> http://11amdesign.com/wordpress/?p=285
>
> "The Federal Reserve's biggest emergency interest rate cut in more
than two decades is sparking debate as to why they slashed interest
rates... the first cut between regularly scheduled meetings since
September 2001."
>
> Possible Rationale (still trying to verify the details below):
>
> Well, following hot on the footsteps of the SocGen announcement is
the newly discovered warning -- from other sources than SocGen -- that a
massive level of put option contracts had been placed recently. This
time it was done differently than last Fall, so as to avoid early
detection, as happened 6 months ago.
>
> These options are betting that the US stock markets will crash by
March 21st. Reportedly, these are not NYSE but instead NASDAQ-100 index
options placed through (QQQQ) contracts. However, crashing the smaller
exchange would likely have a domino effect on the NYSE.
>
> This seems to be, for all purposes, somewhat of a renewed
continuation of the so-called 'Bin Laden' trades of last Fall. Iran may
be involved this time. There are SocGen links to Iran.
>
> However, apparently the Fed/SEC is wise to this scheme, and will step
in again if necessary. (we hope)
>
> This is being called attempted "financial terrorism".
>
> How they got a well-known bank involved in the first place, is
anyone's guess. It will be interesting to find out if Kerviel has Arab
(or Iranian) contacts, or has recently converted to Islam.
>
> Currently, the March (out of the money) put contacts (100 shares
each) is 645,250 and outweigh the March (in the money) call contacts by
559,343 contacts, well over half a million contract or 56 billion shares
worth ... signaling a huge imbalance, which was estimated to be able to
crash the NASDAQ market by 30% to 40% from it current level, unless a
deep-pocket rescue effort steps-in fist. How many of these came through
SocGen is not known.
>
> This may very well represent (possibly) part of an expected profit
that the Kerviel conspiracy would have reaped, had not they not been
caught ahead of time. The havoc that followed would be difficult to
estimate.
>
> This story is far from over, and until March 21 when these put
options expire, the economies of the USA and Europe are still at great risk.
>
> The good news is that if the US SEC decides to meet the risk head-on,
that kind of intervention will finally bankrupt the Bin Laden family
empire, and that of participating Arab enemies, who must have been
partners in this kind of massively coordinated financial terrorism.
>
> Jones
>
>
