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The Spyfiles

Mass interception of entire populations is not only a reality, it is a secret new industry spanning 25 countries
It sounds like something out of Hollywood, but as of today, mass interception systems, built by Western intelligence contractors, including for ’political opponents’ are a reality. Today WikiLeaks began releasing a database of hundreds of documents from as many as 160 intelligence contractors in the mass surveillance industry. Working with Bugged Planet and Privacy International, as well as media organizations form six countries – ARD in Germany, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism in the UK, The Hindu in India, L’Espresso in Italy, OWNI in France and the Washington Post in the U.S. Wikileaks is shining a light on this secret industry that has boomed since September 11, 2001 and is worth billions of dollars per year. WikiLeaks has released 287 documents today, but the Spy Files project is ongoing and further information will be released this week and into next year.
International surveillance companies are based in the more technologically sophisticated countries, and they sell their technology on to every country of the world. This industry is, in practice, unregulated. Intelligence agencies, military forces and police authorities are able to silently, and on mass, and secretly intercept calls and take over computers without the help or knowledge of the telecommunication providers. Users’ physical location can be tracked if they are carrying a mobile phone, even if it is only on stand by.
But the WikiLeaks Spy Files are more than just about ’good Western countries’ exporting to ’bad developing world countries’. Western companies are also selling a vast range of mass surveillance equipment to Western intelligence agencies. In traditional spy stories, intelligence agencies like MI5 bug the phone of one or two people of interest. In the last ten years systems for indiscriminate, mass surveillance have become the norm. Intelligence companies such as VASTech secretly sell equipment to permanently record the phone calls of entire nations. Others record the location of every mobile phone in a city, down to 50 meters. Systems to infect every Facebook user, or smart-phone owner of an entire population group are on the intelligence market.

Selling Surveillance to Dictators

When citizens overthrew the dictatorships in Egypt and Libya this year, they uncovered listening rooms where devices from Gamma corporation of the UK, Amesys of France, VASTech of South Africa and ZTE Corp of China monitored their every move online and on the phone.
Surveillance companies like SS8 in the U.S., Hacking Team in Italy and Vupen in France manufacture viruses (Trojans) that hijack individual computers and phones (including iPhones, Blackberries and Androids), take over the device, record its every use, movement, and even the sights and sounds of the room it is in. Other companies like Phoenexia in the Czech Republic collaborate with the military to create speech analysis tools. They identify individuals by gender, age and stress levels and track them based on ‘voiceprints’. Blue Coat in the U.S. and Ipoque in Germany sell tools to governments in countries like China and Iran to prevent dissidents from organizing online.
Trovicor, previously a subsidiary of Nokia Siemens Networks, supplied the Bahraini government with interception technologies that tracked human rights activist Abdul Ghani Al Khanjar. He was shown details of personal mobile phone conversations from before he was interrogated and beaten in the winter of 2010-2011.

How Mass Surveillance Contractors Share Your Data with the State

In January 2011, the National Security Agency broke ground on a $1.5 billion facility in the Utah desert that is designed to store terabytes of domestic and foreign intelligence data forever and process it for years to come.
Telecommunication companies are forthcoming when it comes to disclosing client information to the authorities - no matter the country. Headlines during August’s unrest in the UK exposed how Research in Motion (RIM), makers of the Blackberry, offered to help the government identify their clients. RIM has been in similar negotiations to share BlackBerry Messenger data with the governments of India, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Weaponizing Data Kills Innocent People

There are commercial firms that now sell special software that analyze this data and turn it into powerful tools that can be used by military and intelligence agencies.
For example, in military bases across the U.S., Air Force pilots use a video link and joystick to fly Predator drones to conduct surveillance over the Middle East and Central Asia. This data is available to Central Intelligence Agency officials who use it to fire Hellfire missiles on targets.
The CIA officials have bought software that allows them to match phone signals and voice prints instantly and pinpoint the specific identity and location of individuals. Intelligence Integration Systems, Inc., based in Massachusetts - sells a “location-based analytics” software called Geospatial Toolkit for this purpose. Another Massachusetts company named Netezza, which bought a copy of the software, allegedly reverse engineered the code and sold a hacked version to the Central Intelligence Agency for use in remotely piloted drone aircraft.
IISI, which says that the software could be wrong by a distance of up to 40 feet, sued Netezza to prevent the use of this software. Company founder Rich Zimmerman stated in court that his “reaction was one of stun, amazement that they (CIA) want to kill people with my software that doesn’t work."

Orwell’s World

Across the world, mass surveillance contractors are helping intelligence agencies spy on individuals and ‘communities of interest’ on an industrial scale.
The Wikileaks Spy Files reveal the details of which companies are making billions selling sophisticated tracking tools to government buyers, flouting export rules, and turning a blind eye to dictatorial regimes that abuse human rights.

How to use the Spy Files

To search inside those files, click one of the link on the left pane of this page, to get the list of documents by type, company date or tag.

Berlin claims that €50m contribution disappeared into US treasury coffers with 15% 'administrative fee' taken by army 
Afghan national army recruits on a training exercise
WikiLeaks cables show Germany has questioned the US about money contributed by allies to a trust fund to finance the Afghan national army's kit and infrastructure. Photograph: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images
The US military has been charging its allies a 15% handling fee on hundreds of millions of dollars being raised internationally to build up the Afghan army. Germany has threatened to cancel contributions.
According to a protest to the US from Germany's ambassador to Nato this year, Berlin raised questions about the fate of €50m (£42m) it dispensed last year as the biggest contribution to a "trust fund" for the Afghan national army.
In protests in Berlin, Brussels, and Washington last February the German government demanded to know what was happening to the money, why earmarked projects were not going ahead and why the US military was taking 15%.
A cable to Washington from the US mission to Nato sought instructions on how to respond to the protests from Ulrich Brandenburg, the German ambassador to the military alliance.
"He said that money for earmarked projects had not been disbursed, resulting in delayed projects. He also said that the US army corps of engineers was charging a 15% administrative fee. He said that German parliamentarians were beginning to ask questions about how this money has been handled, adding that this could make it difficult for Berlin to provide additional contributions in the future."
Originally set up in 2007 to finance Afghan army kit and infrastructure, the trust fund had risen to more than €123m by the start of this year, according to Nato figures, with another €151m pledged involving 20 countries.
The German contribution was by far the biggest, more than double the second-placed €22m given by the Dutch, although Australia had pledged €150m.
Ivo Daalder, the US ambassador to Nato, told Washington that the German complaint raised "serious political concerns".
"The appearance that the US is charging allies an excessive fee for the use of monies they have donated to the ANA [Afghan national army] trust fund may be difficult to explain away during a parliamentary debate. Brandenburg is probably correct in arguing that issues such as this could make it more difficult to encourage nations to donate to the trust fund."
The US ambassador added that the German protest may be "inaccurate" since the 15% was probably a "contingency" rather than an "administrative" fee.
The German complaint said its €50m was transferred to an account of Shape, Nato's planning headquarters in Belgium, in October last year, with €7m earmarked for three military schools and barracks in Kabul, Mazar-I-Sharif, and Feyzabad.
"As of today no project financing has occurred," the Germans said on 3 February. In violation of the agreement setting up the contribution the money had then gone to the US treasury "including assignment of the US army corps of engineers and an administrative fee of 15%" .
Brandenburg said questions were being asked by German MPs and the Merkel government in Berlin was under pressure to explain what had happened with the money.
"Charging a 15% fee for managing and executing ANA TF, especially when applied to the funding of projects pursued by Germany, will inevitably attract heavy criticism by German audit bodies and parliamentary commissions."
The German protest voiced "concern about the fact that any further delay in allocating funds to the prioritised German projects and executing the remainder of funds donated by Germany must substantially impair prospects for any further German contributions to the ANA TF."

Assange’s files confirm the evaporation of EU foreign policy

Looking for something about the European Union in Wikileaks’ files could be a mistake. How come ? Doesn’t Brussels represent EU interests up against the power of America ? Not exactly. It’s rather that the US are making arrangements with individual countries in order to avoid having plans that are too extensive.

Wikileaks has based its reputation on playing the game on many levels. What Assange placed online for the theme US - EU gives a truly typical portrait of the relationship that the greatest army in the world has with its allies, in terms of policy and spending. It is obvious that in the new globalised world, the EU is playing in the second division when it comes to foreign policy. Beyond environmental, training and transition projects, the EU does not appear in Wikileaks’ reports as a significant diplomatic power. Its purposes represent an institutional ’superstructure’, not comparable to the ’political’ state.
First of all, EU interests are much closer to American interests than we usually think. There is noEuropean country that doesn’t have to deal individually with the US, despite public opinion. For example : in 2007, during the war on terror, the U.S. embassy in Spain reported : ’We must not give Zapatero the idea of having to choose between the US and the EU.« Washington knows Zapatero’s socialist views mean that they cannot target a common political interest. But the diplomat said : »We have many well-established interests in Spain, as do NATO. We need to act on France and Germany. We strongly support the European Union and its enlargement. " This enlargement seems to be at odds with the economic crisis of the PIGS countries (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain ), which are the Member States with more default risk in the eurozone.
In this respect, the Italian Prime Minister declares himself hopeful, indeed, in a conversation with Ambassador David Thorne in January 2010, he recalled how his close friendship with Prime Minister Papandreou would solve any risk of contagion for Italy. This is only a statement, certainly, but still a private visit by the US ambassador to the premier in office. Many private opinions have emerged about this, also in light of what is happening in politics on a national level. Today Ambassador Thorne’s website states that he recently took part in a campaign for a Gay Help Line. We can perhaps assume that recent statements by Prime Minister Berlusconi have not gone unnoticed.
But what the US (and NATO) are really interested in is the war on terror. Without this war there would be no Wikileaks. According to Washington, the EU Member States - Germany especially - should collaborate more actively in training activities taking place in Afghanistan. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini is also talking about Afghanistan, proposing to the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that opium plantations should be transformed into olive groves, and that schools should be created where the Afghan ruling class can be educated.
To find something more specifically related to the European Union, we must look to our MIddle Eastern borders, where Turkey, in a file dated 20/01/10, is described as ’very close to Europe’, especially regarding imports from the European Community. But, at the same time, Turkey is described as being attracted to the idea of ’Neo ottomanism’, which would lead to it being classified more and more frequently as Middle Eastern and therefore Muslim, and thus jeopardizing its already uncertain participation in the project of the European Community.
Friction is also present in US relations with France, also regarding foreign policy. In February this year, Paris accused the US of failing to adequately consider its European allies in the Afghan strategy. A diplomatic way to justify the sale of four Mistral warships to Moscow, which was completed just 2
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The logo of Wikileaks
Wikileaks is an international non-profit organisation that receives secret documents anonymously and then loads them on its website.
months later, for 600 million euro. This was Russia’s first acquisition of heavy weaponry made in the EU. Less than a year earlier, on 3rd November 2009, Sarkozy and Kouchner sent a warm welcome to a US official, reiterating that the EU “is the strongest and closest ally of the United States, and France and Germany are the natural leaders”.
Ambassador Rifkin noted that this was a very different attitude to the one long presented by former President De Gaulle. Business is business, as we all know, but US protests at France taking the opportunity to arm Russia have not gone unnoticed. Even better, we can find them in one of the several files Wikileaks has made available to the public. An event that no one could have imagined, that may not change the forces at work, but that marks the “9/11 of world diplomacy “, as Franco Frattini put it.
Those hoping to have formal talks with the top institutions in Europe will remain disappointed, confirming, amongst other things, that the real diplomacy is still played out among the sovereign states, thus bypassing the European diplomatic institutions. It is clear to Washington that it is easier to play on separate tables rather than to develop practical solutions in an enlarged Europe. This is the reason why Washington prefers to test the waters by asking for the support of Germany, France or even Slovenia, regarding giving asylum to Chinese Uighur refugees and former Guantanamo detainees, before dealing with Brussels.
The EU is considered as a cover or a symbol for charitable or cultural initiatives, such as a programme put forward by France in 2007 to encourage Iranian civil society. These efforts take a back seat, however, compared to the interests cultivated by the US regarding Israel and Turkey, two key allies in conflict with one another. Here the European Union can play an important role, as long as it does not continue to make gaffes of the sort that Wikileaks is currently helping to spread. Such as, for example, the document dated 07/31/2009, telling how the EU sent “low-rank” diplomats to the inauguration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s new mandate (controversial to say the very least).
According to the source in the report, “if Iran had found out the hierarchal status of the Europeandiplomats, it may have withdrawn the invitation, as had already happened in the past”. Although many of the statements published by Wikileaks are claimed to be “irrelevant”, it seems necessary to reiterate that the sources are so numerous, relevant and detailed that Wikileaks cannot be considered as a simple collection of “what has already been said”.
There is a huge amount of information regarding global hot spots, but the European Union is not among these, apart from the Balkans, which are often mentioned and where the contribution of theEuropean Union is crucial. Angela Merkel is careful indeed to ensure that Serbia will not enter the EU without giving up Kosovo permanently. A significant convergence of policies on both sides of the Atlantic has been clearly defined, with some “laissez faire” granted by the US to the EuropeanUnion. For example, the US does not have much to say about the popular trend amongst Europeancountries to be far less active in the African diplomatic field, and to focus instead on commercial initiatives.
This means missions dedicated to business (who knows, maybe even the sale of weapons ?) and more “pragmatic” and less substantial diplomacy. Wikileaks will certainly help here, by pillorying the real opinions of US diplomats, and especially the pro-Western policy with its tactics which are to the detriment of others. And, according to Sarkozy, the “others” in the European Union are the 25 EU countries apart from France and Germany.
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Julian Assange
Julian Assange is a board member and the main spokesman for WikiLeaks
Source : flickr, Abode of Chaos
It has been already said, but deciding who plays the part of the good guy and who plays the PIG has an impact. In the US files, Italy appears on the inside, as many Italians would like to see (or not). During the visit the US ambassador paid him in the aftermath of the attack at Milan Cathedral, Berlusconi said he was depressed, but he expressed his appreciation for Pierluigi Bersani, chairman of Italy’s Democratic Party. He did however stress that Massimo D’Alema remains the opposition party’s most authoritative speaker, mainly due to the “brave decisions” taken in the Balkans. A more than dignified picture, which paints Italy in the role of loyal ally to the United States first and founding member of the European Union second. However, EU interests have a long reach, so much so as to be summoned by Mauricio Funes, the President of San Salvador, who - in an article in El Pais - requested Europeansupport as well as American to ward off the crisis that broke out in Honduras as a result of the coup d’état in 2009.
Another example is in Russia, where the EU seeks to remind the US that Moscow’s support for sanctions against Iran needs the power of Brussels to mediate between the two former Cold War rivals. However, the Hot War is elsewhere, even if Wikileaks does not fail to reveal the ambiguity of the EuropeanUnion regarding Georgia and Chechnya, where Putin is certainly not an easy ally. The US is said to be moving away from the European Union, preferring the leaders of tomorrow, such as China, India and Brazil, but also Turkey, Iran and Israel, the Mediterranean half moon which slipped out ofEuropean hands a long time ago in the rush of decolonisation. It was a move wanted by the US in the face of European power, as they hoped to directly manage dialogue with rational and sovereign democracies. A very optimistic plan, considering that now “re-colonisation” is occurring in the form ofEuropean goods and rights, but without the anthropological appeal that was there first time round. Nobody trusts the US, nor Europe, which is today facing a crisis of identity in terms of foreign policy like never before.
Where is the strong Europe that was ready to accept Turkey, Russia and even Israel ? Wikileaksdoes not tell us, and it is certain that newspapers now finally have more realistic sources to draw from, rather than reporting vague quotes from many leaders from Europe and beyond. Yet, despite the low budget and the enormous deficits - that will reach 12% for England in 2010, according to the governor of the Bank of England, reported by Wikileaks on 17 February - in its current state theEuropean economy does not have any effect on the interests that seem to be important for Member States : the institutional support of companies such as italian energy company Eni, real multinational powers, which Europe cannot give up if it wants to have voice in a global world. Yet the then EU Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten, stated even in 2004 that : « The EU will never be a real power, the dubious value of its leaders, the Cyprus problem and the difference between an alliance and a union count for too much. Not to mention the ’killer eyes’ of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. »
Patten ended his mandate in 2004, but only after getting some things off his chest, declaring his admiration for the US to US envoys in Brussels : « In Europe there is always someone at the table who is too cautious, we do not take decisions like the United States. » Not to mention the quality of the leaders of some countries. « If you have to dine with them, you’d better bring a long spoon. »
All this is about Berlusconi’s friend George Papadopolous, inevitable interlocutor in the Cyprus-Turkey affair, for which the EU does not know how to spend funds at their disposal. « But then » – the U.S. diplomat adds - « We could not expect much from someone who was Milosevic’s lawyer.” »We are too dependent on Russian energy,« Patten insisted in 2004. »Putin seems to be very reasonable when it comes to the Middle East or energy policies, but when it comes to Islamic extremism in Chechnya, his eyes become those of a killer.” It has been dubbed the “Very British Worldview of Chris Patten”, so why did he accept the task of looking after European interests abroad, if these are his beliefs ? Because Europe is very democratic, but it is an alliance, not aunion.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan's president told the outgoing head of the United States Pacific Command that "activities" by China's People's Liberation Army could convince the island to enter into political talks with Beijing, according to an American diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks.
The cable described a meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou and Adm. (Ret.) Timothy Keating on Dec. 15, 2009 — weeks after Keating left his PACOM post. Keating was one of the most senior American officials involved in planning the U.S. military posture in the western Pacific, including in the Taiwan Strait, the 100-mile- (160-kilometer-) wide maritime corridor dividing mainland China from Taiwan.
"Despite warming economic ties," the American cable quoted Ma as saying, "(China's) military posture across the Strait remains unchanged. PLA activities in recent months demonstrated that Taiwan may need to move beyond economic discussions into political discussions with the mainland."
China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and Beijing continues to regard the island as part of its territory, to be taken over by persuasion if possible, by force if necessary.
Upon taking office in May 2008, Ma pivoted sharply away from his predecessor's anti-China policies, engaging Beijing in a series of economic agreements that have helped to lower tensions between the sides to their lowest level in six decades.
However, Ma has been consistently wary of moving that engagement into the political sphere, not least because many Taiwanese fear that such discussions could be used by the mainland as a wedge to undermine democratic Taiwan's de facto independence.
The issue remains a sensitive one today, particularly in the run-up to next January's presidential election. In that poll Ma will face Tsai Ing-wen of the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party, which unlike Ma's Nationalists, opposes expanded China ties.
The U.S. diplomatic cable quotes Ma as saying that despite the Chinese military pressure, talks between the sides on military and security issues would only begin after China removed the estimated 1,200 ballistic missiles it had aimed at Taiwanese targets in late 2009.
The missiles remain in place today, and many analysts believe that their number has actually grown.
The cable contained no elaboration on what Ma meant by "PLA activities in recent months," though Lin Chong-pin, Taiwan's former deputy defense minister, said this may have been a reference to the deployment of the missiles, the continuation of Chinese military exercises simulating an attack on Taiwan, and China's ongoing military buildup.

Wondering why gold at $1850 is cheap, or why gold at double that price will also be cheap, or frankly at any price? Because, as the following leaked cable explains, gold is, to China at least, nothing but the opportunity cost of destroying the dollar's reserve status. Putting that into dollar terms is, therefore, impractical at best, and illogical at worst. We have a suspicion that the following cable from the US embassy in China is about to go not viral but very much global, and prompt all those mutual fund managers who are on the golden sidelines to dip a toe in the 24 karat pool. The only thing that matters from China's perspective is that "suppressing the price of gold is very beneficial for the U.S. in maintaining the U.S. dollar's role as the international reserve currency. China's increased gold reserves will thus act as a model and lead other countries towards reserving more gold. Large gold reserves are also beneficial in promoting the internationalization of the RMB." Now, what would happen if mutual and pension funds finally comprehend they are massively underinvested in the one asset which China is without a trace of doubt massively accumulating behind the scenes is nothing short of a worldwide scramble, not so much for paper, but every last ounce of physical gold...
From Wikileaks:
3. CHINA'S GOLD RESERVES 

"China increases its gold reserves in order to kill two birds with one stone"

"The China Radio International sponsored newspaper World News Journal (Shijie Xinwenbao)(04/28): "According to China's National Foreign Exchanges Administration China 's gold reserves have recently increased. Currently, the majority of its gold reserves have been located in the U.S. and European countries. The U.S. and Europe have always suppressed the rising price of gold. They intend to weaken gold's function as an international reserve currency. They don't want to see other countries turning to gold reserves instead of the U.S. dollar or Euro. Therefore, suppressing the price of gold is very beneficial for the U.S. in maintaining the U.S. dollar's role as the international reserve currency. China's increased gold reserves will thus act as a model and lead other countries towards reserving more gold.Large gold reserves are also beneficial in promoting the internationalization of the RMB."
Perhaps now is a good time to remind readers what will happen if and when America's always behind the curve mutual and pension fund managers finally comprehend that they are massively underinvested in the one best performing asset class.
You already know the basic reasons for owning gold – currency protection, inflation hedge, store of value, calamity insurance – many of which are becoming clichés even in mainstream articles. Throw in the supply and demand imbalance, and you’ve got the basic arguments for why one should hold gold for the foreseeable future.
All of these factors remain very bullish, in spite of gold’s 450% rise over the past 10 years. No, it’s not too late to buy, especially if you don’t own a meaningful amount; and yes, I’m convinced the price is headed much higher, regardless of the corrections we’ll inevitably see. Each of the aforementioned catalysts will force gold’s price higher and higher in the years ahead, especially the currency issues.
But there’s another driver of the price that escapes many gold watchers and certainly the mainstream media. And I’m convinced that once this sleeping giant wakes, it could ignite the gold market like nothing we’ve ever seen.
The fund management industry handles the bulk of the world’s wealth. These institutions include insurance companies, hedge funds, mutual funds, sovereign wealth funds, etc. But the elephant in the room is pension funds. These are institutions that provide retirement income, both public and private.
Global pension assets are estimated to be – drum roll, please – $31.1 trillion. No, that is not a misprint. It is more than twice the size of last year’s GDP in the U.S. ($14.7 trillion).
We know a few hedge fund managers have invested in gold, like John Paulson, David Einhorn, Jean-Marie Eveillard. There are close to twenty mutual funds devoted to gold and precious metals. Lots of gold and silver bugs have been buying.
So, what about pension funds?
According to estimates by Shayne McGuire in his new book, Hard Money; Taking Gold to a Higher Investment Level, the typical pension fund holds about 0.15% of its assets in gold. He estimates another 0.15% is devoted to gold mining stocks, giving us a total of 0.30% – that is, less than one third of one percent of assets committed to the gold sector.
Shayne is head of global research at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. He bases his estimate on the fact that commodities represent about 3% of the total assets in the average pension fund. And of that 3%, about 5% is devoted to gold. It is, by any account, a negligible portion of a fund’s asset allocation.
Now here’s the fun part. Let’s say fund managers as a group realize that bonds, equities, and real estate have become poor or risky investments and so decide to increase their allocation to the gold market. If they doubled their exposure to gold and gold stocks – which would still represent only 0.6% of their total assets – it would amount to $93.3 billion in new purchases.
How much is that? The assets of GLD total $55.2 billion, so this amount of money is 1.7 times bigger than the largest gold ETF. SLV, the largest silver ETF, has net assets of $9.3 billion, a mere one-tenth of that extra allocation.
The market cap of the entire sector of gold stocks (producers only) isabout $234 billionThe gold industry would see a 40% increase in new money to the sector. Its market cap would double if pension institutions allocated just 1.2% of their assets to it.
But what if currency issues spiral out of control? What if bonds wither and die? What if real estate takes ten years to recover? What if inflation becomes a rabid dog like it has every other time in history when governments have diluted their currency to this degree? If these funds allocate just 5% of their assets to gold – which would amount to $1.5 trillion – it would overwhelm the system and rocket prices skyward. 
And let’s not forget that this is only one class of institution. Insurance companies have about $18.7 trillion in assets. Hedge funds manage approximately $1.7 trillion. Sovereign wealth funds control $3.8 trillion. Then there are mutual funds, ETFs, private equity funds, and private wealth funds. Throw in millions of retail investors like you and me and Joe Sixpack and Jiao Sixpack, and we’re looking in the rear view mirror at $100 trillion.
I don’t know if pension funds will devote that much money to this sector or not. What I do know is that sovereign debt risks are far from over, the U.S. dollar and other currencies will lose considerably more value against gold, interest rates will most certainly rise in the years ahead, and inflation is just getting started. These forces are in place and building, and if there’s a paradigm shift in how these managers view gold, look out!
I thought of titling this piece, “Why $5,000 Gold May Be Too Low.” Because once fund managers enter the gold market in mass, this tiny sector will light on fire with blazing speed. 
My advice is to not just hope you can jump in once these drivers hit the gas, but to claim your seat during the relative calm of this month's level prices.


    The targeted country is Romania. And the attackers seem to be a various of countries starting Russia and in second and unexpected Switzerland (former collaborator of the Nazi Germany) fallowed by Austria and other unknown country so far . The war seems to be more economic plunder, bribed being everyone starting the president of Romania Traian Basescu and so on.(We have some unbelievable examples like : Romania has sold their oil wealth to a 'joke' price 500 mil $ (to OMV AUSTRIA ) the amount was amortized in the first year , this days the European Union Forces Romania to sell on of the biggest copper resource of Europe estimated at 10.000.000.000 $ as a reply to this forces the Romanian government performs an auction and starting bid is 50.000.000$ ).
    But the amazing fact remains the accusations that behind all this sits a group of people belonging to a cult "The Masons" and other Nazi like cults(SATAN WORSHIPERS) which fallows the destruction of human race, this is one of the most terrifying experiments ever to be done, 'The Romania Experiment ' (The Extermination of a country).
                                                                                                                                             


European countries have reacted with irritation to the release by whistle-blowing website Wikileaks of secret memos written by US diplomats.
The messages describe Germany's Angela Merkel as risk-averse and Russia's Vladimir Putin as an "alpha dog".
France, whose President Nicolas Sarkozy is compared to an "emperor with no clothes", said the website was a "threat to democracy".
A selection of 250,000 cables from US embassies were released on Sunday.
France was made aware of the cables before their release, a government spokesman said, and pledged to support the US in defending diplomatic secrecy.
"We have to be very attentive and united at a state level to fight against what is a threat to democratic authority and sovereignty," Francois Baroin told Europe 1 radio.
"The protection of states is something serious, it's about the protection of men, of women, of citizens," he added.
Among the comments released by Wikileaks is a reported conversation in which a senior advisor to the French president branded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez "crazy" and Iran a "fascist state".
Mr Sarkozy himself was described in cables penned by US diplomatic officials as "thin-skinned" and "authoritarian".
'Feckless' Berlusconi
In Moscow, press secretary Dmitriy Peskov reacted with caution to the secret memos.


    "At the moment it is impossible to say anything definite. [We need to look at] the level of the diplomats and officials who are giving such a character description, and in which documents. And in general we need to resolve whether it concerns Putin," Mr Peskov is quoted as telling Russian newspaper Kommersant.
    Italian government officials are reported to have dismissed the leaks, which include descriptions of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as "feckless" and "vain".
    There were also observations that Mr Berlusconi's penchant for partying meant he was rarely sufficiently rested. His extraordinary closeness to Mr Putin led US diplomats to consider him Mr Putin's spokesman within Europe.
    According to German daily Der Spiegel, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is reported to have asked US embassies in Moscow and Rome to look into possible personal investments by Mr Berlusconi and Mr Putin which might influence the foreign and economic policies of the two countries.
    Italy's Il Corriere newspaper said government officials were breathing a sigh of relief, suggesting they had feared far worse. Mr Berlusconi, the newspaper reports, is said to have "laughed" at the contents of the leaked cables.
    But the left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper reported that Italy's foreign minister described the leaks as the "9/11 of world diplomacy".
    Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan refused to comment on reports in Der Spiegel that US diplomats had described him as surrounding himself with an "iron ring of sycophantic (but contemptuous) advisors", or that Mr Erdogan had "little understanding of politics beyond Ankara".
    "We should wait and see," Mr Erdogan said. "First let's see what Wikileaks has in hand, then we will evaluate whether [the] disclosed documents are reliable," he said, describing the website's reliability as "dubious".

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