CASE 229 - 2010 - The year that was

2010 (MMX) was a common year that started on a Friday in the Gregorian calendar. It was the 2010th year of the Common Era or the Anno Domini designation; the 10th year of the 3rd millennium and of the 21st century; and the 1st of the 2010s decade.
2010 was designated the: International Year of Biodiversity

The year/decade began amidst a global financial crisis, which was responsible for an increase in civil unrest around the world as governments struggle to try and manage the crisis. Other economic issues such as inflation, and an increase in commodity prices, oil and wars sparked immense unrest in many lower-income countries. In some countries this unrest evolved into socio-economic crises which set off numerous revolutions, such as in Kyrgyzstan and greece in 2010, Tunisia, Egypt , Libya in 2011. This trend continues at present.

5 richest people of 2010

1. William H. Gates III
2. Carlos Slim Helú
3. Warren Edward Buffett
4. Lakshmi Mittal
5. Mukesh Ambani

Top 5 richest companies of 2010

1. Wal-Mart
(Arkansas, USA) $408.21 Bn $14.33 Bn + 7.0% 2,100,000

2. Royal Dutch Shell
(The Hauge, Netherlands) $285.12 Bn $12.51 Bn - 52.4% 101,000

3. Exxon Mobil
(Texas, USA) $284.65 Bn $19.28 Bn - 57.4 % 102,700

4. BP
(London, UK) $246.13 Bn $16.57 Bn - 21.6% 80,300

5. Toyota Motor
(Toyota Village, Japan)

Major disasters, stories, facts, events of 2010

1) On April 20, 2010 an explosion on BP's Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig, operating in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, left eleven crewmen dead and resulted in a fire that sank the rig and caused a massive-scale oil spill [41] that became the worst environmental disaster in United States history. On June 18, 2010 oceanographer John Kessler said that the crude gushing from the well contains 40 percent methane, compared to about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits. Methane is a natural gas that could potentially suffocate marine life and create "dead zones" where oxygen is so depleted that nothing lives. "This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history," Kessler said. On June 20 an internal BP document was released by Congress revealing that BP estimated the flow could be as much as 100,000 barrels (4,200,000 US gallons; 16,000 cubic metres) per day under the circumstances that existed since the April 20 blowout. On July 15, 2010, The BP Oil Spill is stopped for the first time, 86 days after oil started leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.



2) On February 27, 2010 an 8.8 magnitude earthquake occurs in Chile, triggering a tsunami over the Pacific and killing 497. One of the largest earthquakes in recorded history, this rare megathrust earthquake probably shifts Earth's axis and slightly shortens its days



3) A series of major volcanic events occur at Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland in April 2010. The eruptions led to widespread disruption of air travel across Europe grounding planes and affecting the travel plans of millions of passengers worldwide. This caused a knock-on effect to many events around the world. Scientists began recording volcanic activity there in 2009 which increased through March 2010 culminating in the second phase eruption in April 2010. It is considered the largest air traffic shut-down since World War II. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimated that the airline industry worldwide would lose €148 million (US$200 million, GB£130 million) a day during the disruption.



4) October 13, 2010 - 2010 Copiapó mining accident: Thirty-three miners near Copiapó, Chile, trapped 700 metres (2,300 ft) underground in a mining accident in San José Mine, are brought back to the surface after surviving for a record 69 days, some say it was masonic rituals



5) At the beginning of 2010 about 1.75 billion people in the world were Internet users. By August 31, this had climbed to 1.95 billion. One billion mobile broadband users predicted by sometime in 2011, and 4.6 billion people worldwide were subscribed to mobile phones in 2010



6) Burj Khalifa becomes the tallest man-made structure ever built (standing at 828 m) after it officially opened on January 4, 2010.



7) 2010 UEFA Champions League Final was held at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, Spain and was Won by Barcelona of Spain - Spain also won the 2010 FIFA world cup in South Africa, the continents 1st ever major event



8) The Large Hadron Collider's first high power collisions took place in March 2010.

9) 2010 Commonwealth Games was held in New Delhi, India, for 2 or 3 years before the games it was deemed to fail, but until a day or 2 before the games started they finished building the arenas, complexes, hotels and infrastructure

10) On April 10, 2010, Polish President Lech Kaczyński, his wife, and 94 other people, including dozens of government officials, are killed in a plane crash.

CASE 230 - The North Pole

The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets the Earth's surface. It should not be confused with the North Magnetic Pole.
The North Pole is the northernmost point on Earth, lying diametrically opposite the South Pole. It defines geodetic latitude 90° North, as well as the direction of True North. At the North Pole all directions point south; all lines of longitude converge there, so its longitude can be defined as any degree value..



While the South Pole lies on a continental land mass, the North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean amidst waters that are almost permanently covered with constantly shifting sea ice. This makes it impractical to construct a permanent station at the North Pole (unlike the South Pole). However, the Soviet Union, and later Russia, have constructed a number of manned drifting stations, some of which have passed over or very close to the Pole. In recent years, a number of studies have predicted that the North Pole may become seasonally ice-free due to Arctic shrinkage, with timescales varying from a few years to fifty years or more.



The sea depth at the North Pole has been measured at 4,261 m (13,980 ft). The nearest land is usually said to be Kaffeklubben Island, off the northern coast of Greenland about 700 km (430 mi) away, though some perhaps non-permanent gravel banks lie slightly closer. The nearest permanently inhabited place is Alert in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada, which is located 817 kilometres (508 mi) from the Pole.



Who owns the North pole
http://90north.tripod.com/northpole.htm

CASE 228 - Haliburton

Halliburton is the world's second largest oilfield services corporation with operations in more than 70 countries. It has hundreds of subsidiaries, affiliates, branches, brands and divisions worldwide and employs over 50,000 people. The company has its headquarters in the North Belt office in Houston, Texas, and in offices in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (opened March, 2007), where Chairman and CEO David J. Lesar works and resides, "to focus [the] company’s Eastern Hemisphere Growth." The company will remain incorporated in the United States. Halliburton's major business segment is the Energy Services Group (ESG). ESG provides technical products and services for petroleum and natural gas exploration and production. Halliburton's former subsidiary, KBR, is a major construction company of refineries, oil fields, pipelines, and chemical plants. Halliburton announced on April 5, 2007 that it had finally broken ties with KBR, which had been its contracting, engineering and construction unit as a part of the company for 44 years. They have made such a total pig's ear out of rebuilding Iraq's oilfields that it is estimated to cost $8billion in lost production. It will be left to another bidding company to sort out the mess they left behind after the military finally cancelled their contract. So, after getting their good buddies at Halliburton $20 billion of business in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion, do you think Bush & Cheney will ask for any of it back on behalf of the US taxpayers?



Not only is Haliburton and the people who work or have worked for it are corrupt but also incompetent. I honestly believe they are in Iraq to loot the American treasury. Why are NO BID contracts a good thing? And Haliburton represents the worst in Republican privatization. And people are paying them with money borrowed from China and other central banks.

Industry: Oil & Gas Equipment & Services
Founded 1919, Duncan, Oklahoma, USA
Founder(s): Erle P. Halliburton
Headquarters: Houston, TX, USA
Dubai, UAE
Area served: Worldwide
Key people:David J. Lesar (Chairman), (President) & (CEO)
Products Products and services to the energy industry
Revenue US$18.279 billion (2008)
(U.S. 46% International 54%)
Operating income: $4.010 billion (2008)
Net income: $2.224 billion (2008)
Total assets: $14.385 billion (2008)
Total equity: $7.725 billion (2008)
Employees: 52,000 (September 2009)
Website Halliburton.com

The Cheney - Halliburton Circle of Corruption
http://www.costanzo.org/Rex/Commentary/cheney_halliburton_circle.htm

CASE 227 - The magna carter

The Magna Carta is an English charter, originally issued in the year 1215, and reissued later in the 13th century in modified versions that omit certain temporary provisions, including the most direct challenges to the monarch's authority. The charter first passed into law in 1225. The 1297 version, with the long title (originally in Latin) The Great Charter of the Liberties of England, and of the Liberties of the Forest, still remains on the statute books of England and Wales.
The 1215 Charter required King John of England to proclaim certain liberties, and accept that his will was not arbitrary, for example by explicitly accepting that no "freeman" (in the sense of non-serf) could be punished except through the law of the land, a right which is still in existence today.

Magna Carta was the first document forced onto an English King by a group of his subjects, the feudal barons, in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their privileges. It was preceded and directly influenced by the 1100 Charter of Liberties, when King Henry I had specified particular areas where his powers would be limited.
Despite its recognised importance, by the second half of the 19th century nearly all of its clauses had been repealed in their original form. Three clauses remain part of the law of England and Wales, however, and it is generally considered part of the uncodified constitution. Lord Denning described it as "the greatest constitutional document of all times – the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot". In a 2005 speech, Lord Woolf described it as "first of a series of instruments that now are recognised as having a special constitutional status", the others being the Habeas Corpus Act, the Petition of Right, the Bill of Rights, and the Act of Settlement.
The charter was an important part of the extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law in the English speaking world, although it was "far from unique, either in content or form". In practice, Magna Carta in the medieval period did not in general limit the power of kings, but by the time of the English Civil War it had become an important symbol for those who wished to show that the King was bound by the law. It influenced the early settlers in New England[4] and inspired later constitutional documents, including the United States Constitution



The Great Charter of 1215

Rebellion and creation of the document

Over the course of his reign a combination of higher taxes, unsuccessful wars, and conflict with the Pope had made King John unpopular with his barons. Some barons began to conspire against him in 1209 and 1212; promises made to the northern barons and John's submission to the papacy in 1213 delayed a French invasion. In 1215 some of the most important barons engaged in open rebellion against their King. This was not unusual; every king since William the Conqueror had faced rebellions. However, in every previous case there had been an obvious alternative monarch around whom the rebellion could rally. In 1215, however, John had no obvious replacement. Arthur of Brittany would have been a possibility, if he had not disappeared (widely believed to have been murdered on the orders of John). The next closest possible alternative was Prince Louis of France, but as the husband of Henry II's granddaughter, his claim was tenuous, and the English had been at war with the French for thirty years. Instead of a claimant to the throne, the barons decided to base their rebellion around John's oppressive government. In January 1215, the barons made an oath that they would "stand fast for the liberty of the church and the realm", and they demanded that King John confirm the Charter of Liberties, from what they viewed as a golden age.

John prevaricated. During negotiations between January and June 1215, a document was produced, which historians have termed 'The Unknown Charter of Liberties',[8] seven of the articles of which would later appear in the 'Articles of the Barons' and the Runnymede Charter. In May, King John offered to submit issues to a committee of arbitration with the Pope as supreme arbiter, but the barons continued in their defiance. With the support of Prince Louis the French Heir and of King Alexander II of the Scots, they entered London in force on 10 June 1215,with the city showing its sympathy with their cause by opening its gates to them. They, and many of the moderates not in overt rebellion, forced King John to agree to a document later known as the 'Articles of the Barons', to which his Great Seal was attached in the meadow at Runnymede on 15 June 1215. In return, the barons renewed their oaths of fealty to King John on 19 June 1215. The contemporary, but unreliable chronicler, Roger of Wendover, recorded the events in his Flores Historiarum. A formal document to record the agreement was created by the royal chancery on 15 July: this was the original Magna Carta, though it was not known by that name at the time. An unknown number of copies of it were sent out to officials, such as royal sheriffs and bishops.
The 1215 document contained a large section that is now called clause 61 (the original document was not actually divided into clauses). This section established a committee of 25 barons who could at any time meet and overrule the will of the King if he defied the provisions of the Charter, seizing his castles and possessions if it was considered necessary. This was based on a medieval legal practice known as distraint, but it was the first time it had been applied to a monarch.
Distrust between the two sides was overwhelming; what the barons really sought was the overthrow of the King, the demand for a charter was a "mere subterfuge". Clause 61 was a serious challenge to John's authority as a ruling monarch. He renounced it as soon as the barons left London; Pope Innocent III also annulled the "shameful and demeaning agreement, forced upon the King by violence and fear." He rejected any call for restraints on the King, saying it impaired John's dignity. He saw it as an affront to the Church's authority over the King and the 'papal territories' of England and Ireland, and he released John from his oath to obey it. The rebels knew that King John could never be restrained by Magna Carta and so they sought a new King.
England was plunged into a civil war, known as the First Barons' War. With the failure of Magna Carta to achieve peace or restrain John, the barons reverted to the more traditional type of rebellion by trying to replace the monarch they disliked with an alternative; in a measure of some desperation, despite the tenuousness of his claim, despite the fact that he was French, they offered the crown of England to Prince Louis of France.



As a means of preventing war the Magna Carta was a failure, rejected by most of the barons, and was legally valid for no more than three months. It was the death of King John in 1216 which secured the future of Magna Carta

Read in full
http://www.bl.uk/treasures/magnacarta/index.html

CASE 226 - The History of Saudi Arabia

Except for a few major cities, towns and oases, the harsh, dry and hot climate historically prevented much settlement of the Arabian Peninsula. People of various cultures have lived in the peninsula over a span of more than 5,000 years. The Dilmun culture, along the Gulf coast, was contemporaneous with the Sumerians and ancient Egyptians, and most of the empires of the ancient world traded with the states of the peninsula.

The Saudi state began in central Arabia in about 1750. A local ruler, Muhammad bin Saud, joined forces with an Islamic reformer, Muhammad Abd Al-Wahhab, to create a new political entity. Over the next 150 years, the fortunes of the Saud family rose and fell several times as Saudi rulers contended with Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and other Arabian families for control on the peninsula. The modern Saudi state was founded by the late King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud (known internationally as Ibn Saud). In 1902, Abdul Aziz recaptured Riyadh, the Al-Saud dynasty's ancestral capital, from the rival Al-Rashid family. Continuing his conquests, Abdul Aziz subdued Al-Hasa, the rest of Nejd, and the Hijaz between 1913 and 1926. In 1932, these regions were unified as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.



Boundaries with Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait were established by a series of treaties negotiated in the 1920s, with two "neutral zones" one with Iraq and the other with Kuwait was created. The Saudi-Kuwaiti neutral zone was administratively partitioned in 1971, with each state continuing to share the petroleum resources of the former zone equally. Tentative agreement on the partition of the Saudi-Iraqi neutral zone was reached in 1981, and partition was finalized by 1983. The country's southern boundary with Yemen was partially defined by the 1934 Treaty of Taif, which ended a brief border war between the two states. A June 2000 treaty further delineated portions of the boundary with Yemen. The location and status of Saudi Arabia's boundary with the United Arab Emirates is not final; a defacto boundary reflects a 1974 agreement. The border between Saudi Arabia and Qatar was resolved in March 2001. The border with Oman also is not demarcated.

King Abdul Aziz died in 1953 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Saud, who reigned for 11 years. In 1964, Saud abdicated in favor of his half-brother, Faisal, who had served as Foreign Minister. Because of fiscal difficulties, King Saud had been persuaded in 1958 to delegate direct conduct of Saudi Government affairs to Faisal as Prime Minister; Saud briefly regained control of the government in 1960-62. In October 1962, Faisal outlined a broad reform program, stressing economic development. Proclaimed King in 1964 by senior royal family members and religious leaders, Faisal also continued to serve as Prime Minister. This practice has been followed by subsequent kings.



The mid-1960s saw external pressures generated by Saudi-Egyptian differences over Yemen. When civil war broke out in 1962 between Yemeni royalists and republicans, Egyptian forces entered Yemen to support the new republican government, while Saudi Arabia backed the royalists. Tensions subsided only after 1967, when Egypt withdrew its troops from Yemen. Saudi forces did not participate in the Six-Day (Arab-Israeli) War of June 1967, but the government later provided annual subsidies to Egypt, Jordan, and Syria to support their economies. During the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Saudi Arabia participated in the Arab oil boycott of the United States and Netherlands. A member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Saudi Arabia had joined other member countries in moderate oil price increases beginning in 1971. After the 1973 war, the price of oil rose substantially, dramatically increasing Saudi Arabia's wealth and political influence.

In 1975, King Faisal was assassinated by a nephew, who was executed after an extensive investigation concluded that he acted alone. Faisal was succeeded by his half-brother Khalid as King and Prime Minister; their half-brother Prince Fahd was named Crown Prince and First Deputy Prime Minister. King Khalid empowered Crown Prince Fahd to oversee many aspects of the government's international and domestic affairs. Economic development continued rapidly under King Khalid, and the kingdom assumed a more influential role in regional politics and international economic and financial matters.

In June 1982, King Khalid died, and Fahd became King and Prime Minister in a smooth transition. Another half-brother, Prince Abdullah, Commander of the Saudi National Guard, was named Crown Prince and First Deputy Prime Minister. King Fahd's brother, Prince Sultan, the Minister of Defense and Aviation, became Second Deputy Prime Minister. Under King Fahd, the Saudi economy adjusted to sharply lower oil revenues resulting from declining global oil prices. Saudi Arabia supported neutral shipping in the Gulf during periods of the Iran-Iraq war and aided Iraq's war-strained economy. King Fahd played a major part in bringing about the August 1988 cease-fire between Iraq and Iran and in organizing and strengthening the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a group of six Arabian Gulf states dedicated to fostering regional economic cooperation and peaceful development.

In 1990-91, King Fahd played a key role before and during the Gulf war. King Fahd's action also consolidated the coalition of forces against Iraq and helped define the tone of the operation as a multilateral effort to reestablish the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Kuwait. Acting as a rallying point and personal spokesman for the coalition, King Fahd helped bring together his nation's GCC allies, Western allies, and Arab allies, as well as nonaligned nations from Africa and the emerging democracies of eastern Europe. He used his influence as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to persuade other Arab and Islamic nations to join the coalition.

King Fahd suffered a stroke in November 1995. Since 1997, Crown Prince Abdullah has taken on much of the day-to-day responsibilities of running the government.





OIL

Saudi oil production is at, or nearing, its peak sustainable level, and that it is likely to start dropping irreversibly in the quite foreseeable future, when the decline happens the decline rate would probably be quite steep because the experimental use of water injection to maintain reservoir pressure right at the start of the fields’ development—rather than at the end, as is standard—had depleted the supplies.

This would create a massive problem for Saudi Arabia since it depends on oil for 90% of its exports and 75% of its government revenues. Oil accounts for 45% of GDP in this sparsely populated country of 25 million people. However, as the price increases it will still do very well.

CASE 225 - NWO Gradualism

Conspiracy theorists, truthers, freemen, anarchists, generally speculate that the New World Order is being implemented gradually, citing the formation of the U.S. Federal Reserve System in 1913; the League of Nations in 1919; the International Monetary Fund in 1944; the United Nations in 1945; the World Bank in 1945; the World Health Organization in 1948; the European Union and the euro currency in 1993; the World Trade Organization in 1998; South American Union 2000 and the African Union in 2002, codex 2009 as major milestones, you could even go back further into history and find its been an even longer gradual process.



An increasingly popular conspiracy theory among American right-wing populists is that the hypothetical North American Union and the amero currency, proposed by the Council on Foreign Relations and its counterparts in Mexico and Canada, will be the next implementation of the New World Order. The theory holds that a group of shadowy and mostly nameless international elites are planning to replace the federal government of the United States with a transnational government. Therefore, conspiracy theorists believe the borders between Mexico, Canada and the United States are in the process of being erased, covertly, by a group of globalists whose ultimate goal is to replace national governments in Washington, D.C., Ottawa and Mexico City with a European-style political union and a bloated E.U.-style bureaucracy.
Skeptics argue that the North American Union exists only as a proposal contained in one of a thousand academic and/or policy papers published each year that advocate all manner of idealistic but ultimately unrealistic approaches to social, economic and political problems. Most of these get passed around in their own circles and eventually filed away and forgotten by junior staffers in congressional offices. Some of these papers, however, become touchstones for the conspiracy-minded and form the basis of all kinds of unfounded xenophobic fears especially during times of economic anxiety. Major movers and shakers of Gradualism are the illuminati, the bilderberg group and the fabian society who have transformed the face, ideas and how politics is actually run

The Fabians believed that social reform could be achieved by a new political approach of gradual and patient argument, ‘permeating’ their ideas into the circles of those with power: ‘the inevitability of gradualism’ was an early slogan.

CASE 224 - The African Union - AU

The African union consists of 53 African states, 4 Suspended states. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Fully stablished on 9 July 2002, the AU was formed as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states. The AU's secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.



The advent of the African Union (AU) can be described as an event of great magnitude in the institutional evolution of the continent, but it could also wipe out individual countries and turn Africa into a Western style business world, it became the 2nd of 5 intercontinental states. On 9.9.1999, the Heads of State and Government of the Organisation of African Unity issued a Declaration (the Sirte Declaration) calling for the establishment of an African Union, with a view, inter alia, to accelerating the process of integration in the continent to enable it play its rightful role in the global economy while addressing multifaceted social, economic and political problems compounded as they are by certain negative aspects of globalization.

The main objectives of the OAU were, inter alia, to rid the continent of the remaining vestiges of colonization and apartheid; to promote unity and solidarity among African States; to coordinate and intensify cooperation for development; to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Member States and to promote international cooperation within the framework of the United Nations. Indeed, as a continental organization the OAU provided an effective forum that enabled all Member States to adopt coordinated positions on matters of common concern to the continent in international fora and defend the interests of Africa effectively. Through the OAU Coordinating Committee for the Liberation of Africa, the Continent worked and spoke as one with undivided determination in forging an international consensus in support of the liberation struggle and the fight against apartheid.

The map of the African union with the 5 suspended states and Morocco, not part of the Union




The Objectives of the AU

To achieve greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and the peoples of Africa;
To defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its Member States;
To accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the continent;
To promote and defend African common positions on issues of interest to the continent and its peoples;
To encourage international cooperation, taking due account of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
To promote peace, security, and stability on the continent;
To promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance;
To promote and protect human and peoples' rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and other relevant human rights instruments;
To establish the necessary conditions which enable the continent to play its rightful role in the global economy and in international negotiations;
To promote sustainable development at the economic, social and cultural levels as well as the integration of African economies;
To promote co-operation in all fields of human activity to raise the living standards of African peoples;
To coordinate and harmonize the policies between the existing and future Regional Economic Communities for the gradual attainment of the objectives of the Union;
To advance the development of the continent by promoting research in all fields, in particular in science and technology;
To work with relevant international partners in the eradication of preventable diseases and the promotion of good health on the continent.

CASE 223 - Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is a United States aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area. Lockheed Martin employs 133,000 people worldwide. Robert J. Stevens is the current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
Lockheed Martin is among the very largest defense contractors in the world, and in 2008 70% of Lockheed Martin's revenues came from military sales. It "receives one of every 14 dollars doled out by the Pentagon."
Lockheed Martin operates in four business segments. These comprise, with respective percentages of 2009 total net sales of $45.2 bn, Aeronautics (27%), Electronic Systems (27%), Information Systems & Global Solutions (27%), and Space Systems (19%). In 2009 US Government contracts accounted for $38.4 bn (85%), foreign government contracts $5.8 bn (13%), and commercial and other contracts $0.9 bn (2%).[3] In both 2009 and 2008 the company topped the list of US Federal Contractors.
The company has received the Collier Trophy twice – in 2001 for being part of developing the X-35/F-35B LiftFan Propulsion System, and again in 2006 for leading the team that developed the F-22 Raptor fighter jet.

Here is a nice little selection of LOCKHEED products that assist Governments in spying and killing people who disagree with their beliefs and policies:

Air-to-Air Missiles
Anti-Armour Missiles
Fire Support
Precision Strike
Strategic Systems
Fingerprint ID systems
Shuttle
ISS
Orion
MRO
Phoenix Mars Lander
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)
2001 Mars Odyssey
Stardust
Hubble Space Telescope
Spitzer Space Telescope
Nuclear Systems & Solutions
C-5 Galaxy
C-130 Hercules
F-16 to the F-22
F-35
F-22 Raptor
F-35 Lightning II
Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM)
U-2 (shot down over Soviet airspace before)
SR-71



LOCKHEED MARTIN explains:

“Whether it’s providing satellite imagery to track threats or developing systems to analyze complex security data or deploying fingerprint ID technology for rapid first response, Lockheed Martin offers the depth of expertise and technological capabilities to help protect our homeland… Our information security capabilities span secure communications, computer network defense, intrusion detection and prevention, and the full array of information operations.”



LOCKHEED MARTIN is ruthless and beyond the reach of any real global Government control

One of LOCKHEED’s contracts is with a company called, CIFA, a Defense Department Agency, providing consultancy and staff for data mining and intelligence gathering and got surprisingly got caught ‘illegally obtaining information on American Citizens’ according to The National Security Archive:

“CIFA did not comply with the 90-day retention review policy specified by that directive and the CORNERSTONE database did not have the capability to identify TALON reports with U.S. person information, to identify reports requiring a 90-day retention review, or allow analysts to edit or delete the TALON reports.”

The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) started the Information Awareness Office in 2002, its function was to gather as much information on American citizens as possible and be used by secret agencies. Data Mining included internet activity, rental car records, social security numbers, credit card purchases, driver’s licences, airline tickets, medical records, educational history, utility bills, tax returns, etc.

DARPA was disbanded in 2004, but the data-mining was contracted out to agencies like the National Security Agency (NSA), the Defense Intelligence Agency and the FBI, who contract out to companies like good old LOCKHEED MARTIN.

The US Act that allows Government-appointed agencies to spy on whoever they see fit internationally is the Patriot Act:

“Section 215 of the Patriot Act allows the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to authorise broad warrants for nearly any type of record, including those held by banks, libraries, internet service providers, credit card companies, even doctors of ‘persons of interest’.”

CASE 222 - World Trade organization

History

The Bretton Woods Conference of 1944 proposed the creation of an International Trade Organization (ITO) to establish rules and regulations for trade between countries. Members of the UN Conference on Trade and Employment in Havana agreed to the ITO charter in March 1948, but ratification was blocked by the U.S. Senate (WTO, 2004b). Some historians have argued that the failure may have resulted from fears within the American business community that the International Trade Organization could be used to regulate (rather than liberate) big business (Lisa Wilkins, 1997; Helen Milner 1993).

Only one element of the ITO survived: the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Seven rounds of negotiations occurred under the GATT before the eighth round - known as the Uruguay Round — which began in 1986 and concluded in 1995 with the establishment of the WTO. The GATT principles and agreements were adopted by the WTO, which was charged with administering and extending them and approximately 30 other agreements and resolving trade disputes between member countries. Unlike the GATT, the WTO has a substantial institutional structure.

World Trade Organization (WTO)

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international organization which deals with trade between nations. Its origins lie with the establishment of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1948, which aimed to reduce tariff barriers to trade in goods. As a result of GATT, an informal international organization developed, but it wasn't until the final GATT round in 1994 (Uruguay Round) that a formal international organization (the WTO) was established to oversee the global trading system.



The WTO aims to lower trade barriers among member countries to ensure that trade is free and predictable. Its principles are based on the idea that reducing trade barriers promotes economic growth and prosperity and that trade between countries should be free from discrimination.

At the heart of the WTO are its trade agreements which have been negotiated and ratified by the majority of the world's trading nations (148 member countries as at February 2005). The three key agreements cover trade in goods (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, GATT), trade in services (the General Agreement on Trade in Services, GATS) and trade in ideas (the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property, TRIPS).

As a result of TRIPS, intellectual property has been linked inextricably with trade policy, making it a controversial and political agreement.

The WTO is overseen by a Ministerial Conference and a General Council. The Ministerial Conference meets at least once every two years and provides the mandate for negotiations on the international Agreements and other issues. The outcomes of the Conference are released as declarations, for example the Doha Declaration reporting on the meeting of the Ministerial Conference in 2001. The fifth WTO Ministerial Conference held in Cancun, Mexico in September 2003 broke down over basic disagreement on agriculture subsidies. The sixth WTO Ministerial Conference will be held in Hong Kong between the 13th and 18th of December 2005.



Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)

Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is arguably the most important and comprehensive international agreement on intellectual property rights. Member countries of the WTO are automatically bound by the agreement. The Agreement covers most forms of intellectual property including patents, copyright, trademarks, geographical indications, industrial designs, trade secrets, and exclusionary rights over new plant varieties.

CASE 221 - The Merovingian dynasty

Origins

According to the seventh century chronicler Fredegar, the wife of semi-legendary King Clodio had an encounter with a legendary sea creature known as a Quinotaur. From this encounter came the ruler Merovich after whom the Merovingians were named. The son of Merovich was said to be Childeric, and his son was Clovis I (465 - 511). The details of the lives and deeds as well as the actual relationship between Chlodio, Merovich and Childeric are shrouded in myth and legend. However these Salic chieftains were related, they were certainly part of the leading family of the Salian Franks. They were distinguished, like other Germanic aristocratic families by the fashion of allowing their hair (and sometimes beards as well) to grow long, and they became known as "the long haired kings". Also known as "the Sorcerer Kings", the Merovingians are said to have possessed supernatural powers including the abilities to cure illness simply by touching the afflicted and to tame wild animals.



Clovis I

Clovis I was the first important ruler of the Merovingian Dynasty and is considered the founder of the French State. He became Chieftain of the Salian Franks in 481. In 486, he defeated the last great Roman army in Gaul and went on to defeat many minor princes, kings and tribal chieftains to form the first Frankish Kingdom. Clovis I married in 493 to Clotilda (475 - 545), later St. Clotilda, daughter of Childperic, King of the Burgundians.



The Merovingian Kings

The Frankish Kingdom was split up among Clovis' sons, and was temporarily united several times during the next two centuries when a single heir survived; notably during the reigns of Clothaire I, Clothaire II, Dagobert I and Clovis II

Life in the Sixth Century

Germanic tribesmen living close to the North Sea tended to have fairly large timber houses supported by four rows of posts that divided the house into three rooms. The family lived in the centre room, while a smaller room on one side was used for storage and a larger room on the other side was used to house the animals whose body heat helped warm the living quarters. From this arrangement comes the story that "the people lived in the barn" or that "the cattle lived in the house." Further inland, people tended to inhabit dwellings that were supported by upright posts but without interior supports. These dwellings varied in size from 20 feet X 12 feet up to perhaps 25 feet square. Long, narrow buildings about 12 feet X 25 feet housed the cattle while smaller structures 12 feet square were used for storage. Some of these smaller storage buildings were partially underground. The main crops were barley, wheat, oats, peas and beans. Crop rotation was practiced, and fields were improved by adding limestone and manure. Depleted soil was abandoned and new land brought into use using the slash and burn technique. Simple scratch ploughs pulled by oxen were most common, and they didn't actually turn the soil. Grain was left attached to the hay and was roasted slightly to preserve it. Grain was separated from the hay as needed and ground using simple hand grindstones. Once ground, flour was used to prepare porridge and flat bread. Grain was also used to make beer. Cattle were very important and were an indicator of wealth. Pigs, sheep, goats, horses, chickens and geese were also kept. Every portion of the animals was used either for food or for the production of clothing, shelter and utensils. Wild animals were hunted and killed for sport and to eliminate nuisance animals. Wild animals are thought to have made up less than 5% of the total animals used. Iron was produced using small, crude but effective charcoal furnaces made of earth. These ovens held about a litre of ore, and only 200 grams of iron could be made at a time from the very best ore. This iron was worked into very high quality steel, far superior to the equipment of the Roman troops. However, the Germanic tribes were iron poor, and weapons such as long swords were rare. Each individual household was dominated by the father who held authority over all the members. A number of households, sometimes as many as fifty, were grouped into a family clan-like organization. A number of clans formed a tribe which was sometimes overseen by a "king" who was really a tribal chieftain. The "king" was usually chosen from one family that was most closely identified with the ethnic, cultural and historical traditions of the tribe - that is, from a "royal family." Some tribes had several kings, one to preside over meetings, one for religious ceremonies and one for military command. Other tribes didn't have a king at all.



In order to survive and prosper, a tribe had become almost completely militarized; that is, the tribe had to become an army. This is what appears to have happened with the Salian Franks whose Merovingian Kings dominated the region from the fifth century onwards.

The Decline of the Merovingian Kings

From the middle of the seventh century on, their power declined and the real authority rested to an ever increasing extent with the Mayors of the Palace. The king became a figurehead distinguished by his beard, long hair, crown and throne. When King Theuderic IV died in 737, he was not replaced. Charles Martel ruled instead as Mayor of the Palace. Charles Martel died in 741 and was succeeded by his sons Pépin the Short and Carloman. The brothers Pépin and Carloman instituted another king, Childeric III in 743, largely to ease the concern of other Frankish leaders about their growing power. Carloman withdrew from politics in 747 and retired to the monastery of Monte Casino. In 751, Childeric III also wisely decided to retire to a monastery and Pépin the Short had himself proclaimed king in November 751, thus officially ending the Merovingian Dynasty.



The Main Divisions of the Frankish Kingdoms under the Merovingian Kings

The Merovingian House - lots of info
http://www.allfaith.com/prophecy/merovingian.html

CASE 220 - Antarctica

The continent surrounding the South Pole constitutes nearly a tenth of the
world's land but is owned by no one. It has no indigenous people, as has
the Arctic. Pie-slice sections are claimed by seven nations -- the United
Kingdom, Argentina, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, France, and Norway.
Neither the United States nor the Soviet Union, prime players on the
southern stage, claims Antarctic territory nor honors the claims of others;
however, both consider the continent politically important. In addition, a
number of developing countries in the United Nations since 1983 have
expressed interest in being informed of and participating in the governance
of Antarctica.

Up to now, science has been king, thanks to the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, a
highly successful international agreement concluded by 12 scientifically
active nations -- Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New
Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and the United
States. Thirty-nine other nations now participate and 25 of these have
active scientific research projects.



The Antarctic Treaty grew from the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of
1957-58, a scientific assault on the Antarctic, and called for scientific
cooperation in the area south of latitude 60 degrees. It froze territorial
claims, banned all military activity and weapons testing, and established
Antarctica as off limits to nuclear explosions and the disposal of
radioactive waste. It provided all nations freedom of scientific inquiry
but obligated them to share the results. The question of resources was
avoided in 1959, but since that time two additional treaties protect seals
and marine living resources and regulate possible minerals development.

The Antarctic Treaty has evolved through regular meetings of its
consultative parties, originally the 12 nations who conducted the IGY.
Since then, 13 other nations who have carried out substantial scientific
research in Antarctica -- East Germany, Poland, Brazil, India, China,
Uruguay, Italy, West Germany, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Peru, Republic of
Korea -- have been accepted into the "club." Fourteen more nations have
agreed to abide by its terms.

The Treaty vowed not to interfere with historical claims, and at the same
time preserved the position of the countries that do not recognize these
claims. Australia, Chile, and Argentina have been most active in keeping
their claims alive. Argentina has set up a post office and in 1978 flew a
pregnant woman to its base at Esperanza, where Emilio Marcos Palma was born
and promptly declared an Argentine citizen.

CASE 219 - The Bank for International Settlements

BIS is what they call the Bank for International Settlements. It is located in Basel, Switzerland. Into it pours the cream from the centralized world money whirlpool -- quadrillions of dollars skimmed from the people of the world by the world's Rothschild-owned central banks, but only 57 are members of the BIS. It also provides banking services, but only to central banks, or to international organizations like itself. Based in Basel, Switzerland, the BIS was established by the Hague agreements of 1930. The BIS was formed in 1930. The main actors in its establishment were the then-Governor of The Bank of England (rothschild backed), Montagu Norman Rothschild, and his German counterpart Hjalmar Schacht, later Adolf Hitler's finance minister. The Bank was originally intended to facilitate reparation payments imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles after the First World War. The need for the bank was suggested in 1929 by the Young Committee, and was agreed to in August of that year at a conference at the Hague. And a charter for the bank was drafted at the International Bankers Conference at Baden Baden in November. The charter was adopted at a second Hague Conference on January 20, 1930.

During the period 1933–45, the board of directors of the BIS included Walter Funk, a prominent Nazi official, and Emil Puhl, who were both convicted at the Nuremberg trials after World War II, as well as Herman Schmitz the director of IG Farben and Baron von Schroeder, the owner of the J.H.Stein Bank, the bank that held the deposits of the Gestapo. There were allegations that the BIS had helped the Germans loot assets from occupied countries during World War II.

The BIS currently employs 589 staff in 54 countries.

The 57 nations members



Organization of central banks

As an organization of central banks, the BIS seeks to make monetary policy more predictable and transparent among its 57 member central banks. While monetary policy is determined by each sovereign nation, it is subject to central and private banking scrutiny and potentially to speculation that affects foreign exchange rates and especially the fate of export economies. Failures to keep monetary policy in line with reality and make monetary reforms in time, preferably as a simultaneous policy among all 57 member banks and also involving the International Monetary Fund, have historically led to losses in the billions as banks try to maintain a policy using open market methods that have proven to be unrealistic. Central banks do not unilaterally "set" rates, rather they set goals and intervene using their massive financial resources and regulatory powers to achieve monetary targets they set. One reason to coordinate policy closely is to ensure that this does not become too expensive and that opportunities for private arbitrage exploiting shifts in policy or difference in policy, are rare and quickly removed.
Two aspects of monetary policy have proven to be particularly sensitive, and the BIS therefore has two specific goals: to regulate capital adequacy and make reserve requirements transparent.

Regulates capital adequacy

Capital adequacy policy applies to equity and capital assets. These can be overvalued in many circumstances because they do not always reflect current market conditions or adequately assess the risk of every trading position. Accordingly the BIS requires the capital/asset ratio of central banks to be above a prescribed minimum international standard, for the protection of all central banks involved. The BIS's main role is in setting capital adequacy requirements. From an international point of view, ensuring capital adequacy is the most important problem between central banks, as speculative lending based on inadequate underlying capital and widely varying liability rules causes economic crises as "bad money drives out good" (Gresham's Law).



loads of statistics
http://www.bis.org/statistics/index.htm
http://www.bis.org/

CASE 218 - UNASUR - The Union of South American Nations

The Union of South American Nations

The Union of South American Nations is an intergovernmental union integrating two existing customs unions: Mercosur and the Andean Community of Nations, as part of a continuing process of South American integration. It is modeled on the European Union. The Unasur Constitutive Treaty was signed on May 23, 2008, at the Third Summit of Heads of State, held in Brasília, Brazil. According to the Constitutive Treaty, the Union's headquarters will be located in Quito, Ecuador. The South American Parliament will be located in Cochabamba, Bolivia, while the headquarters of its bank, the Bank of the South are located in Caracas, Venezuela. The combined population of the 12-member Union as at 1 July 2010 was estimated at 396,391,032.
On 4 May 2010, at an extraordinary heads of state summit held in Campana, 75 km (47 mi) north of Buenos Aires, former Argentine President Néstor Kirchner was unanimously elected the first Secretary-General of UNASUR for a two-year term, providing Unasur with a defined political leadership on the global stage. This new office was conceived as a first step towards the establishment of a permanent bureaucratic body for the supranational union, eventually superseding Mercosur and CAN political bodies. Although the Secretariat headquarters were originally planned to be located at Quito, Ecuador, it was reported that it will probably start operating at Buenos Aires, Argentina. On December 1, 2010, Uruguay became the ninth nation to ratify the UNASUR treaty, thus giving the union full legality.

Also please have a look at CASE 001 - The european Union - (EU) and CASE 183 The North American Union - (NAU)

Current work in progress

Union of South American Nations

Economy
Politics
Infrastructure
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Single market
One of the initiatives of UNASUR is the creation of a single market, beginning with the elimination of tariffs for non-sensitive products by 2014, and for sensitive products by 2019. The process is to be developed upon the progressive convergence of the procedures of pre-existing Mercosur and CAN subregional economic blocks.

Economic development

Presidents of the seven founding countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Venezuela and Uruguay) officially launched the South American Bank in Buenos Aires in December 2007. The heads of all the founding countries were at the ceremony, with the exception of President Tabaré Vázquez of Uruguay. The capital will be US$7b, with Venezuela responsible for US$3b and Brazil US$2b. The headquarters will be located in Caracas with offices in Buenos Aires and La Paz.
The Bank of the South will finance economic development projects to improve local competitiveness and to promote the scientific and technological development of the member states.

The founding chart affirms that the Bank will promote projects in "stable and equal" manner and priorities will be pointed to reinforce South American integration, to reduce asymmetries, and to promote egalitarian distribution of investments.
The Brazilian Minister, Guido Mantega, stated that the bank is not similar to the International Monetary Fund; it will be a credit institution similar to the World Bank.
Defence policy



Presidents and other members of UNASUR at the First Brasília Summit on September 29, 2005.


Presidents of UNASUR member states at the Second Brasília Summit on May 23, 2008.
The South American Defence Council was proposed by Venezuela and Brazil to serve as a mechanism for regional security, promoting military co-operation and regional defence. From the beginning Brazil, Argentina and Chile, the countries that took the leadership of the project, made clear that they did not intend to form a NATO-like alliance, but a cooperative security arrangement, enhancing multilateral military cooperation, promoting confidence and security building measures and fostering defense industry exchange. Colombia initially refused to join the defence council due to the strong military ties it has with the United States through the Plan Colombia. However after reviewing the proposal they decided to join on July 20, 2008. Shortly following the signing by Colombia's President, President of Chile Michelle Bachelet appointed a working group to investigate and draft a plan for the new council. Finally, on March 10, 2009, the 12 nation members held, in Chile, the first meeting of the newly formed council.

In mid-2010 UNASUR played a key role in mediating the 2010 Colombia–Venezuela diplomatic crisis. On 1 September 2010, the agency "UnasurHaití" was created to provide U$ 100 million in help to Haiti.
Infrastructure cooperation. There is an Initiative for Infrastructure Integration of South America (IIRSA) underway, which has received the support of the Inter-American Development Bank and the Andean Development Corporation.
UNASUR started plans of integration through infrastructure cooperation with the construction of the Interoceanic Highway, a road that intends to more firmly link the Pacific Coast countries, especially Chile and Peru with Brazil and Argentina by extending highways through the continent, allowing better connections to ports from Bolivia and the inner parts of Argentina, Peru, and Brazil. The first corridor, between Peru and Brazil, began construction in September 2005, financed 60% by Brazil and 40% by Peru, was expected to be ready by the end of 2009. The South American Energy Ring is intended to interconnect Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay with natural gas from several sources, such as the Camisea Gas Project in Peru and Tarija Gas Deposits in Bolivia. Though this proposal has been signed and ratified, economic and political difficulties in Argentina and Bolivia have delayed this initiative, and to date, this agreement remains more like a protocol than an actual project, since Chile and Brazil are already building LNG terminals to import gas from overseas suppliers.
Free movement of people Visits by South American citizens to any South American country of up to 90 days require only the presentation of an identity card issued by the respective authority of the travellers' country of origin. On 24 November 2006 Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela waived visa requirements for tourism travel between nationals of said countries.

Groups and committees
As of November 2010, several working groups have been created within UNASUR:

Working Group on Financial Integration
South American Council on the World Drug Problem
South American Council for Infrastructure and Planning
Board of Education, Culture, Science, Technology and Innovation
Coordination of Culture
Coordination of Education
Coordination of Science, Technology and Innovation
South American Council of Social Development
South American Defense Council
South American Energy Council
South American Council of Health
Working Group on Disputes Settlement

CASE 217 - The history of Argentina

Pre-Independence

Argentina, before the arrival of the Spanish / Jesuits, was inhabited by nomadic tribes. Of these tribes there were the Yamana who lived in Patagonia and the Gurani who lived in the tropical northeast. The tribes were the traditional hunters although some did settle and started to grow crops such as maize. The Spanish then entered the history books in 1536, first encountering the Querandi tribes during their search for gold and silver. Tensions rose and eventually escalated to an attack which drove the Spanish back to modern day Jesuit controlled Paraguay.

In 1580 the Spanish returned and founded Buenos Aires, ravaging and savagely removing nomads from the land.



Independence

In 1776 Buenos Aires was announced as the new capital of the viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata. Although the Spanish had control of the area, their trade restrictions on the locals led to a revolt which ended in a declaration of independence in 1816. As Argentina developed and grew there also grew a rift between the capital and the provinces. Those from the capital came to known as the Unitarists while those from outside the capital were known as the Federalists. Civil war followed which was a bloody, messy and exhausting period of Argentina’s history.



In 1829 Juan Manuel de Rosas came to power. A Federalist he actually applied his own brand on Unitarist principles which centralised control of the nation from Buenos Aires. Although stability returned to Argentina the country paid a price for it as the leader implemented policy through a strong military and the infamous mazorca (secret police). In 1852 Rosas was removed from power.

Modern Argentina

The next stage in Argentina’s history can be seen as the founding of the modern state. The new Unitarist government implemented a liberal constitution which opened up the country to foreign investment, trade and immigration. Cattle and crops were exported while Europeans immigrated to Argentina to fill roles in commerce and craft. Argentina began to become one of the most wealthy nations on earth.

The wealth however was in the hands of a minority. Poverty grew and mass migration from the rural areas to the cities began which intensified the wealth gap. This was not tackled until a colonel by the name of Juan Domingo Peron came into power in 1946. He introduced new social welfare and economic plans to try and ease the pressure on the working classes. Although popular, Peron is known to have abused his power by using force to squash the free press and political debate.

In 1955 a coup against Peron brought his reign to an end. He left to Spain and amazingly returned to power in 1973 when the then President, Hector Campora, resigned. However, Peron died soon after in 1974 and the country fell into a turbulent period of history that ended in 1976 when the military again took power.

The new regime began a process called the Process of National Reorganisation. In reality the process was a bloody and violent organised silencing of all forms of opposition from left-wing guerrillas to intellectuals to writers to doctors. The “Dirty War” (Guerra Sucia) is estimated to have taken 30,000 lives.

In 1981, as a means of diverting attention from economic problems and general discontent, General Roberto Viola decided to invade the British island of The Falklands (Islas Malinas). The brief occupation brought brief nationalistic zeal but soon ended once British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sent in her troops which took only 74 days to regain the island, 257 British and 649 Argentine soldiers lost and an Argentinian war cruiser was sunk by a British Sub marine.

In 1983 Argentina elected Raul Alfonsin. He succeeded in many ways; solving territorial disputes with Chile, curbing inflation and even trying military officers for violating people’s human rights. The successive Presidents from Carlos Menem (1989) to Fernando de la Rua (1999) all had to face severe economic troubles. Nestor Kirchner was voted into office in 2003. The 3 main subject of discussion or ways of life in Argentina are Politics - football - Industry



Full history
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/42a/index-e.html