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Tue, 23 Oct 2007 13:14:09
Iran converts its dollar reserves.
The Central Bank of Iran says the process of converting the country's dollar reserves to other foreign currencies has been completed.

The process of diversifying Iran's foreign exchange reserves by converting reserves held in dollars to other currencies is almost complete, Fars news agency quoted Tahmasb Mazaheri, President of the Central Bank of Iran, as having told the American publication, The Emerging Market.

He added that the procedure has been carried out in the best possible way and achieved maximum results.

Experts believe Iran has gained huge profits by adopting the measure because of the sharp fall in the value of the US dollar.

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http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=28 ... onid=35...
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Iran "perhaps single greatest" security risk to US: Rice

WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (AFP) Oct 24, 2007
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice singled out Iran Wednesday as "perhaps the single greatest challenge" to US security but stressed that diplomacy was the preferred way to end its nuclear drive.

President George W. Bush last week warned that a nuclear-armed Iran evoked the threat of "World War III," and Vice President ceeb Cheney on Sunday spoke of "serious consequences" unless the Islamic republic comes to heel.

Their bellicose tone revived speculation that US hardliners are pressing for a military conflict with Iran, which also stands accused of fueling attacks on US troops in Iraq by Shiite extremists.

In testimony to Congress, Rice said "serious consequences" would include a third round of sanctions from the United Nations Security Council to punish Iran's refusal to renounce uranium enrichment.

http://www.spacewar.com/2006/071024170647.mcoghc7i.html

They unloaded their dollars AFTER the value has dropped??? The Iranians are not the sharpest tools in the shed.

The real question is, what does Ahmedinijad want? What's his desired end state? Why is he constantly seeking confrontation with the US?

MAD MAC,

Are you trying out for FOX NEWS commentator?
Don't phrase it that simple. It's not Iranian vessels in the Gulf of Mexico or laying siege to Boston harbor. It's the US that has been intricately involved in the affairs of Iran overtly and covertly for decades.

People got fed up w/ the Shah, kicked him out and the 'mole on the ground' was lost for the US and the US has been trying to starve the regime into submission since. Sanctions are a tool of coercion, a financial gun pointed at you. In the Iraq case, it was just ripening the country for invasion so why are you surprised when Iran sees the writing on the wall and tries to go down swinging instead of waiting to be malnourished and then pounced upon?

Was it not the US who actually encouraged Saddam Hussein to create a war w/ Iran? Did 1 million Iranians not die in chemical weapons that were supplied by the West? How many US civilians have the Iranians killed?

These might be 3rd world buggers to you, but all men have a sense of pride and when a man's back is against the wall then he doesn't have much choice does he?

Don't get me wrong, I've said and have always said that there are MANY great things about the US that many Muslim countries should strive to emulate, but don't come here w/ that "What have we done to deserve this" BS when you darn well that if you live by a code then you also die by it too.

US foreign policy has been dirty and ugly in many parts of the world and you need to get to the core issues instead of talking like a blond ditz from the commercial networks who thinks Palestine is only a small town in Texas.

That's the problem w/ Machiavelli.....he left out the part of "backlash" or "blowback" part. And it's b/c of that crooked thinking that wars are fought every 20 years with devastating effects.

Iran isn't perfect either, but I feel if they had some semblance of security assurances then they wouldn't be pursuing a nuclear weapon.

Let's just be honest w/ ourselves. This is a war to maintain Israeli/US hegemony in the region. Israel would be threatened by anything it didn't have overwhelming force over, PERIOD. To them, parity in the region is an unthinkable threat...........this war isn't to prevent Iranian hegemony in the region, rather it's to maintain Israeli hegemony in the region.

Besides, the role of nuclear weapons the last 60+ years has been one of security, a last ditch defense mechanism. Force projection is still in the conventional realm.

GB,

Odayga MM dhuunta baad u gashay, meeshan in uu isaga cararo baan filaayaa!

Is Sheikh AQ still the imaam down in VA? My brothers are good friends with him, he still talks in that Sijui accent from NFD?

[quote="Koronto91"]GB,

Odayga MM dhuunta baad u gashay, meeshan in uu isaga cararo baan filaayaa!
Is Sheikh AQ still the imaam down in VA? My brothers are good friends with him, he still talks in that Sijui accent from NFD? [/quote]

Koronto91,

Yeah Sh. AQ is still there, he was doing joint tarawix here. How's Kh doing?

Sh. Kh is doing well. But since he left us to open his own masjid, we haven't been keeping much in touch with them, I am sure you have heard the little conflict we had down here. Sh. A/Nur & him keep in touch from what I hear, do you recall A/Nur? He used to be a Muadim while Kh was imaam at Assunah?

I think I vaguely remember...but I was only there 1 day. Yeah I heard about that other issue....unfortunate Although I don't know enough about the issue though.

Gedo Boy
It still begs th question, what does he want? Officially, Iran wants to export it's revolution. You can see how we might interpret that in a negative light.

LoL@ blonde ditz

Brilliant observation, G-B.

[quote="MAD MAC"]Gedo Boy
It still begs th question, what does he want? Officially, Iran wants to export it's revolution. You can see how we might interpret that in a negative light.[/quote]


MAD MAC,

In 2003, Iranian reformers offered a 'Grand Bargain' to the Bush Adminstration.....you can see the fax here:

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/opi ... rgated.pdf

It went without answer by the Bush Adminstration. Here's what they were willing to put on the table:


US Aims:

WMD: full transparency for security that there are no Iranian endeavors to develop or possess WMD, full cooperation with IAEA based on Iranian adoption of all relevant instrucments (93+2 and all further IAEA protocols).
Terrorism: decisive action against any terrorists (above all AlQaida) on Iranian territory, full cooperation of all relevant information.
Iraq: coordination of Iranian influence for activity supporting political stabilization and the establishment of democratic institutions and a non-religous movement.
Middle East:

1). stop of any material support to Palestinian opposition groups (Hamas, Jihad, etc) from Iranian territory, pressure on these organizations to stop violent action against civilians within borders of 1967.
2). action on Hizbollah to become a mere political organization within Lebanon
3). acceptance of the Arab Leage Beirut declaration (Saudi initiative, two-states-approach).

The Iranians are committing an offense far greater than Saddam Hussein's conversion to the euro of Iraq’s oil exports. Of course the bUsh administration would say the conflict is about Iran's nuclear ambitions, but there are unspoken macroeconomic drivers explaining the real reasons behind the US aggression, and it has to do with Iran's switch to euro based oil bourse.
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The Oil-extortion Racket

The dollar’s link to oil has helped to keep it afloat but, in truth, it’s just another dismal rip-off. More than 70% of the world’s oil is denominated in USD; a virtual monopoly for the USA. Until last year, even Russia was using dollars in its oil transactions with Germany. Imagine a comparable deal, like the US purchasing oil from Canada in rubles?!?

It’s lunacy; and yet this is the system the US hopes to preserve so it can maintain its unique status as the world’s “reserve currency” and keep expanding its debt into perpetuity. It explains why the Federal Reserve has been able to increase the money supply by a whopping 15% for the last 6 years! Trillions of dollars are now circulating in the oil trade keeping the value of the dollar high by creating artificial demand.

The other reason the dollar hasn’t succumbed to hyperinflation is because the current account deficit is running at roughly $800 billion per year. The Asian giants (China and Japan) and the oil exporting countries are mopping up more than $700 billion of our red ink every year!

The dollar’s link to oil forces central banks to maintain humongous stockpiles of USD to pay the steadily rising price of oil that keeps their industries and vehicles running. Otherwise they would have chucked the flaccid greenback years ago and converted to the more steadfast euro.

The so-called ‘global economic system’ has nothing to do with competition, free markets or private enterprise; that’s just public relations gobbledygook. In practice, it is the world’s biggest extortion racket, wherein, the “Godfather”-- Uncle Sam-- holds a gun to the heads of his subjects and forces them to use our fiat-paper to purchase the oil thatlubricates their economies.

Why would anyone accept a personal check from a nation that owes the bank more than $8.6 trillion dollars?

Why, indeed?

It’s blackmail, pure and simple; and yet, the Chinese, Japanese etc. continue to play along knowing full-well that we neither have the inclination nor the resources to pay them back in kind?

It’s madness.

Every so often, a rebel nation will try to break the shackle of greenback-tyranny and operate outside the US-run system? For example, Saddam Hussein switched to euros 6 months before he was carpet-bombed in Shock and Awe. His defiance only hastened his ultimate downfall.

Now Iran and Venezuela are threatening to convert to euros. Is it any surprise that they are both on Bush’s axis-of-evil hit list?

Russia has already made the conversion to euros and rubles (and has considerably depleted his supplies of USD) but, of course, regime change is more difficult when a state has nuclear weapons. Instead, the mainstream media is conducting an impressive “Swift Boat” campaign against Putin, smearing him as a “Russian autocrat” who is “rolling back democracy”. At the same time, the Bush administration is threatening to deploy missile systems in Eastern Europe and ratcheting up the pressure in the former Soviet republics.

Bush would rather restart the Cold War than abandon the supremacy of the greenback. But, why? Is Dollar-primacy really that crucial to our economy?

The greenback is the baling wire that keeps the global economy in the hands of the doddering old misers at the Federal Reserve. It’s the cornerstone of the whole wretched system; a system which now includes torture, extraordinary rendition, and myriad other war crimes.

The young Muslim men who are abducted off the streets of Europe and Asia and taken to CIA Black Sites where they are waterboarded or stacked in naked pyramids; are tortured in defense of the crumpled piece of green paper we carry in our pants pockets.

Think I’m kidding?

Just look at Bush’s budget for 2007-2008; $700 billion for foreign wars?!? There’s no way the US can pay off that debt through the normal means of increasing exports. In fact, Bush has already said that he plans to preserve his unfunded tax cuts whether they produce massive deficits or not.

What Bush plans to do is force the foreign central banks to hold more dollar-based assets, thus, thrusting our gigantic debt onto our trading partners. According to Bob Chapman of The International Forecaster, “US debt was up 10.1% to $4.085 trillion and accounts for 58.8% OF ALL THE CREDIT ISSUED GLOBALLY LAST YEAR. The US is producing more debt than the rest of the world combined.

As long as foreign lenders are willing to take our paper, Bush will keep expanding our debt. As Chalmers Johnson opined, “We are dependent on ‘the kindness of strangers’”. (The Blanche Dubois economy)

Of course, if the central banks grow tired of this pyramid-scheme and dump the dollar; the world can get on with the business of addressing global warming, poverty, AIDs, Peak Oil, nuclear proliferation etc. That won’t happen as long as the dollar reigns supreme and a small cadre of unelected racketeers at the Fed continue Gerry-rig the system.

Economic justice and equitable distribution of wealth begin with greater parity among the currencies. That requires “regime change” for the greenback and a loosening of its tyrannical grip on the system.

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article323.html

Mad Mac

No the question should be: What does US want with Ahmedinijad??? I mean, why does US feel this need for pre-emptive attack??? What is it that-- the US are sooooo afraid of?? I personally think the US government has not gotten over the invasion of the japanese at the pearl harbor. Seriously, they have this incessant fear of being attacked, especially with nuclear.And 911 certainly did not help the matter.It only accelerated this ridiculous, baseless fear.Why does US take Ahmedinijad so seriously?? Look at how they took Saddam serious when he was making empty and bluffing threats, and as a result millions of iriaqis now dead, and thousands of american and other west country soldiers dead.Mad Mac haven't u learnt a lesson from all this horror? Do you ever take a break from thinking like a soldier?Are you bored? Do you always have to feel 'useful' via big toy gear, put on your boots, pick your ak47 and match to attack?? Ahmedinijad is a clown, any credence we give him is an insult to intelligencia, or common sense.He is an idiot who looks like our idiot, i mean facially and physically,(yes, i mean Bush), and and obviously thinks like our idiot as well.Let us dismiss him, not completely of course. We can still watch him, monitor him and u know make some arrangements to disable any inappropriate plans he may have. We can do all this quitely without sounding like fools who are just big bullies waiting to be provoked by any idiot and matching to figh without a cause, just like any idiot.Mad Mac-- chill -- eh?

The window for cutting a deal with Iran has closed............ waster opportunity in my opinion.

That article on the greenback is a rehash of an older one. Some people talk about currency values, but currency values are tied to how solid the financial foundation is of the state that generates that currency. The US dollar has slid in value, because of some poor financial and policy decisions being made by the US government.

The problem with those who advocate more "equal deistribution of wealth" is they never are honest in analyzing why wealth is not equally distributed, and thus draw false conclusions concerning said re-distribution.

Yeah, I read that article around 2 years ago called 'The Iranian Oil Bourse' where they were going to the Euros.....there werew some interesting points in that article

I'm not an economist, but here's the main points I got from that article:

While it's true that industrial output says a lot about the strength of the currency (try paying CATERPILLAR for equipment w/ Somali shillings), the dollar is the global defacto currency in some or large part due to the fact that oil, midEast oil must be purchased w/ US dollars.

That means every industrialized nation, which are the nations that matter, must purchase oil in US dollars which means they must have US $ on hand...........if countries could offload some dollars b/c they could pay in Euros/Roubles then that currency would be in much more demand which would take currency demand away from the dollar.

- If the US succeeded in reforming Iran/Iraq, that would be a virtual energy coup over Russia b/c then Europe wouldn't depend as much on Russia for energy and the US would have a strong dollar due to oil through the whole MidEast being acquired through dollars.

That would also put more pressure on Chavez b/c he would lose a major ideological ally in Iran and most of his oil goes to the US anyways so he's economically tied to the US.

Yeah, but at the end of he day it all comes down to supply and demand. Sure, dolars re used everywhere in international transactions, but that's not where it's strength (or lack of it) comes from.

And the fundamntal US problem is, it imports more value than it exports, and that is driving down the value of the currency. Nobody likes this, as it makes it harder and harder for a lot of states to export to a major market. But there has to be equilibrium and the markets will force it to happen.