September 3rd,2010

Campaign for Liberty Launches Push to Stop Cap and Trade Bill

Allison Bricker

CORPORATI$M visit LibertyManiacs.com for t-shirts, mugs and more Liberty Gear for Freedom Fighters.
Image Courtesy: LibertyManiacs.com

SPRINGFIELD, VIRGINIA – Representative Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty (C4L), formed after his 2008 Presidential Campaign so as to continue advocating the message of limited Constitutional government, has launched a new push to stop H.R. 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. Hoping to build on the successful effort to secure an Audit of the FEDERAL RESERVE, albeit the FOMC and international transactions are still protected from view, C4L now focuses on creating a groundswell to stop the insidious scheme by Corporatists in government to create a ”cap and trade” framework.

If passed and signed into law, the system will solely benefit the largest of companies thus further consolidating their power while simultaneously stifling competition, which of course is the number one sin in the mind of the Corporatist.

Austrian Market analysts estimate that should the bill pass the Senate, we as individuals could see approximately six-hundred and fifty billion in new taxes and caution that such a boondoggle will also prevent the creation of new jobs from upstart companies on Main Street while further insulating Wall Street’s corporation from bearing any form of pressure by the market whatsoever.

Video Courtesy: ChooseLiberty

Thus, the Corporatists know that such a system should it be proposed voluntarily would suffer a complete failure before it even began due the enormous barriers raised for new and small business, and therefore must rely on the FORCE of government in order to corner the energy market.

As such, C4L has launched an email blitz of its existing members and has created a website, where individuals can consent to sending a letter to both of their Federal Senators. The draft letter goes on to formally request that their Senators vote against both HR 2454 as well as any future efforts at a Cap and Trade scheme, and even goes so far as to urge the Senators to wage a filibuster if needed so as to kill the bill prior to a final vote.

 

 

Source(s): Campaign for Liberty, Stop Cap and TaxMises Institute, “The Costs of Carbon Legislation” by Robert P. Murphy Published June 01, 2009Government Printing Office Online Document Depository, H.R. 2454The Washinton Post, “Tilting at Green Windmills” By George F. Will, Published Thursday, June 25, 2009

Rep. Ron Paul: Abolish Government Loan Guarantees to Normalize Housing Market

Allison Bricker

Dr. Paul Cites Growing Momentum to Abolish Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but will government make Smaller Banks Act as New Proxy?

Cannon House Office BuildingIn his weekly Texas Straight Talk address, Representative Ron Paul discusses the growing momentum to abolish Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Nevertheless, Dr. Paul points out that this would be only the first step to allowing the housing market to normalize and that unless the people speak up, the Central Authority will merely seek to put indenture smaller banks to act as proxy agents to continued government backing of mortgage loans regardless of the borrowers ability to repay. [TRANSCRIPT]

Video: TheSmokingArgus
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Representative Ron Paul Texas Straight Talk for August 23rd, 2010 _TRANSCRIPT (PDF 252kb)

Senator Jon Kyl: Economic Recovery and Creating Jobs

The Smoking Argus

— BEGIN OFFICIAL STATEMENT—

Russel Senate RotundaHello. I’m Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona.

The effects of the ongoing economic slump have been severe and have touched all Americans. Too many people have lost jobs; others are working reduced hours or for lower pay. The latest report shows that unemployment has stubbornly stayed at just below 10 percent. Nearly four million workers have lost their jobs since President Obama took office.

The American people have been telling Washington that promoting job growth must be the first priority. But, for more than a year, Congress and the President have focused instead on a controversial health spending bill which a majority of Americans said they didn’t want. [FULL TRANSCRIPT]

—END OFFICIAL STATEMENT—

Video Courtesy: GOP Weekly Address
Related Material(s)

Source(s): Republican National CommitteeGOP Weekly Address YouTube Channel

President Obama: Relief for the Middle Class at Tax Time

The Smoking Argus

—BEGIN OFFICIAL STATEMENT—

Weekly Address: Recovery Act Benefiting American Families During Tax Season

The White HouseWASHINGTON D.C. – In his weekly address, President Barack Obama spoke to the American people about how to take advantage of Recovery Act tax benefits ahead of Tax Day – April 15, 2010. Largely due to the Recovery Act, the average tax refund is up nearly 10 percent this year. One-third of the Recovery Act was made up of tax cuts – tax cuts that have already provided more than $160 billion in relief for families and businesses, and nearly $100 billion of that directly into the pockets of working Americans. To help taxpayers see for themselves exactly how they can benefit from Recovery Act tax credits and collect every dollar owed when they file this tax season, the White House launched a new interactive Tax Savings Tool available at www.WhiteHouse.gov/Recovery. [FULL TRANSCRIPT]

—END OFFICIAL STATEMENT—

Video Courtesy: The White House YouTube Channel
Related Material(s)

Source(s): The White House Briefing RoomThe White House YouTube Channel

JP Morgan Chase Defrauding Commodities Market to Protect Dollar

Allison Bricker

U.S. Government Complicit as Whistleblower’s Evidence on Silver Manipulation Ignored by CFTC

The Corrupt House that Morgan BuiltNEW YORK, NEW YORK – Precious Metal Commodity traders from J.P. Morgan’s [Chase] investment bank are using the bank’s massive market share to periodically and in an artificial manner, drive down the price of silver via shorts. This allows the House of Morgan to buttress their physical Silver reserves, as according to some current estimates silver is leveraged at a rate of 100 to 1, meaning that for every ounce of actual silver, there exist 100 paper claims, in a manner similar to the practice of fractional reserve banking1. Moreover, it allows the House of Morgan to reap additional massive profits off the backs of those caught outside of the short-loop in silver, but even this is not the endgame.

The Smoking Argus is currently awaiting a return call from Mr. Brian Marchiony who is the J.P. Morgan Media Relations contact as of this writing.

Consequently, the House of Morgan gained this massive position in silver as a result of the New York FEDERAL RESERVE rescinding the original offer to provide a collateralized loan to Bear Stearns in favor of a non-recourse loan based on Bear Stearns assets to J.P. Morgan, orchestrated by then New York FED bank President, Tim Geithner. This taxpayer-funded fire sale in March of 2008 resulted in the House of Morgan obtaining all the liquid assets of Bear Stearns and shielded J.P. Morgan’s assets from seizure should the toxic mortgage debt assumed by the taxpayer on behalf of the FEDERAL RESERVE default.2

Fellow readers, it should be easy to recall that during the height of the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, people wondered just how one man was able to defraud his clients for a period of over 10-years without so much as a whimper from government regulators. However, upon a more thorough investigation, testimony surfaced that the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] was indeed aware of Mr. Madoff’s ruse as it was warned by former industry executive, Mr. Harry Markopolos a decade prior, but chose not to act upon the information provided.3

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

George Santayana

Relying on this widely accepted fallacy that government regulation ensures a level playing field and that mistakes are only the result of the “wrong” party being in power, the House of Morgan now looks to escalate the fraud to an entirely new level via its manipulation of a market in the Trillions of dollars. As now comes the case of wealthy London Commodities trader turned whistleblower, Andrew Maguire. Mr. Maguire has uncovered and documented evidence of what will go on to become the largest fraud in human history utterly eclipsing Mr. Madoff, aided yet again by a deafening silence from government.

Beginning in November of 2009, Mr. Maguire notified the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] that the House of Morgan was utilizing its taxpayer-funded position in the Silver market to cover and flush its ETC holdings via signaling its traders of the London Bullion Market Association to sell short en masse thereby causing a precipitous drop in price.

Comodity Futures Trading Commission SealThe CFTC for those not familiar with this particular alphabet soup agency is an agency of the U.S. government formed in 1975 tasked to investigate and prosecute fraud in the commodities market. Its current chairman, appointed by President Obama is Gary Gensler, who surprise, is yet another Goldman Sachs crony bequeathed a seat of power within our government.

Nevertheless, hoping to offer additional proof so as to solicit some sort of action regarding the Morgan scheme, Mr. Maguire again contacted CFTC Senior Investigator Eliud Ramirez on February 3rd, 2010 to outline the then forthcoming short sale of sliver to take place through to Friday, February 5th upon release of the January unemployment report. As that Friday’s price drop began just as predicted and growing impatient with the lack of a response, Mr. Maguire drafted additional emails in real-time urging the CFTC look into the short sell orders, yet all that he received in return was silence.4

Finally, after threatening to go public with the information given to the CFTC, Mr. Maguire received a response from Senior Investigator Ramirez, which stated:

“Thank you so very much for your observations.”

Eliud Ramirez, Senior Investigator
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
February 9th, 2010

Email Correspondence
Between Maguire & CFTC

Shortly thereafter he was removed from the witness list to testify before the CFTC and on March 23rd, Mr. Maguire contacted Adrian Douglass of the Gold Anti-Trust Commission [GATA] a private citizen’s action group to solicit their help in blowing the whistle on Morgan’s manipulation of the commodities market. Thus, as Mr. Bill Murphy Chairman of GATA prepared to testify before CFTC commissioners on the systemic problems in the futures commodity market, he revealed Mr. Maguire’s name and portions of his email communications with the CFTC into the record.
[See VIDEO]

When pressed by Commissioner Bart Chilton, who himself was included in the original email communication between Andrew Maguire and the CFTC to provide a specific example of fraud within the market, GATA Chairman Murphy opened the floodgates citing the warning provided to the CFTC by Mr. Maguire regarding the February 5th silver manipulation. Somewhat flustered, Commissioner Chilton then remarked:

“Alright, okay, well that’s more specific than I anticipated.”

Commissioner Bart Chilton
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
March 25th, 2010

The following day with his name now in the public as a whistleblower, Mr. Maguire and his wife were involved in what has been reported as a “bizarre” car accident. Whereby upon their return home from shopping, a car sped out of a side-alley and rammed their vehicle sending both Mr. and Mrs. Maguire to the hospital. Witnesses to the accident attempted to block the suspect, but had to dive out of the way themselves when in an attempt to make a speedy getaway, the suspect almost hit them along with several other parked vehicles on the road. Police in London, then took to the air and finally apprehended the suspect, but as of this writing are still refusing to release any names. Mr. and Mrs. Maguire were released from the hospital the following day and are expected to make a full recovery5.

Also as a result of Bill Murphy’s testimony before the CFTA and following the Maguire car accident, multiple old-media outles cancelled interviews with Mr. Murphy as the story was becoming far too hot to handle and perhaps its implications all too foreboding. However not all was lost, Kingworld Media, who broke the Madoff Ponzi scheme secured an interview with both Andrew Maguire and Adrian Douglass of GATA to assist in spreading the word to the public regarding the consequences of the House of Morgan’s material fraud.

Like all private Central Banks, they siphon the wealth of nation via interest payments (Profits to the Central Bank) on the National Debt, wholly collateralized by current and future Income Taxes. - see the report by the Grace Commission 1984Thus, just what is the endgame of such a massive level of fraud and manipulation? Quite simply the suppression of silver and the larger gold market serve to help retain a strong dollar and thus allow the FEDERAL RESERVE, of which J.P Morgan is a shareholder, to continue printing money whilst keeping a lid, at least in the short-term, on runaway inflation. Whether exposed by continued reporting by the New-Media, i.e the blogosphere or by a naked short squeeze, this house of cards shall too fall, just as the mortgage bubble. However, the consequences are of a far greater nature than any previous financial scheme foisted upon the American people.

It is most unfortunate indeed that we are witnessing the literal fleecing of our economy, with the gatekeepers in government put in place to protect markets and consumers against fraud, are merely the sycophants and beneficiaries of the private central bank. Further, it should be no surprise that the servants to the Central Bankers, i.e. Senator Dodd has insulated the FED even further by removing any semblance of a true audit from his “financial reform bill” which of course just renders even more power unto the corrupt 3rd Central Bank of the United States.

Fellow readers, we must continue to work towards excising this parasitic cancer entwined into our system by ending the FEDERAL RESERVE and returning our Republic to sound money in lieu of the useless paper fiat we now so rely. Until this occurs, it will matter not which puppet-in-chief inhabits the oval office as both major party candidates are routinely funded by the very banks that are leeching this Republic dry.

The cost of inaction is to pass on a nation to our children and the larger posterity, a dead carcass utterly resembling nothing of which we knew as children or what the Founding Generation sought to construct. Should we choose the path of least resistance and instead prefer the noxious repugnant odor of apathetic distraction, then and only then will we truly deserve the title of the lost generation. Thus, the question you have to reconcile; is whether peace and contented conformity is so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and economic servitude?

Source(s): 1Kingworld Interview Andrew Maguire and Adrian Douglass march 30, 20102Washington Post “Fed Takes Broad Action to Avert Financial Crisis”, By Neil Irwin and David Cho – Monday, March 17, 20083Digital Journal “Markopolos: SEC knew about Madoff operations 10 years ago By Chris V. Thangham. Feb 5, 2009 • 4 Email Correspondence between Andrew Maguire and CFTC, originally obtained by GATA5New york Post “JPMorgan ‘chase’ story in UK” By MICHAEL GRAY March 29, 2010

GOP Weekly Address: Rep. Kevin McCarthy Jobs and Bailouts for Wall Street

The Smoking Argus

House of Representatives SealOFFICIAL STATEMENT – President Obama wants Congress to pass job-killing legislation that would guarantee permanent bailouts for Wall Street. Under his plan, unelected Washington bureaucrats would be granted virtually unlimited power to pick winners and losers and hardworking American taxpayers would pick up the tab for the reckless decisions made by irresponsible bankers. [TRANSCRIPT]

—END OFFICIAL STATEMENT—

Video Courtesy: Republican House Conference
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Source(s): Republican House Conference Channel on YouTube

Ontario’s War on Drugs: Bootlegging Tobacco and Cigarettes

Guest Contributor

A Warning to Freedom Lovers.


A friend of mine told me he went to his storage unit yesterday to stash away some items for safe-keeping. While he was there, an employee of the facility told him agents of the state, in this case, employees of Ontario, Inc. had visited him.

These state employees were handing out a paper with the following content:

Illegal Tobacco – Know the Signs

  1. Observe tobacco products.
  2. Smell associated with tobacco products.
  3. Renters who pay cash.
  4. Rental of numerous storage units.
  5. Delivery of sea container to a newly rented storage unit.
  6. Use of rental vehicles. (i.e. 20′ one-ton truck)
  7. Visits by many individuals to the storage unit.
  8. Numerous visits to the storage unit.

If you suspect that a unit rented from you is being used to store tobacco products, please contact the ministry of Revenue’s confidential tip line at:

(905) 440-4227 – “We want the information not your name.”

ONTARIO MINISTRY OF REVENUE

McGovernment - Freedom is Slavery, War is Peace, and you WILL be Lovin' it.Ontario Incorporated (or whichever government you wish to use as an example) is a very large business entity. Unlike most legal business entities, like Wal-Mart or McDonald’s etc., many of the employees of Ontario Inc. are allowed to carry guns. You might wonder why Ontario Inc.’s employees carry guns while those of Wal-Mart and McDonald’s Inc. arm themselves with smiles.

Well, the short answer is that while McDonalds and Wal-Mart are evil, profit seeking companies who must compete for your dollars in what is commonly known as the “private sector,” Ontario Inc. is a loving, caring company who knows it’s goods and services are so superior to anything offered by the private sector that it exempts itself from the restrictions that apply to greedy, privately owned concerns.

It’s “products”, and “services”, are so essential that it need not rely upon your voluntary financial support. It “knows,” how valuable it’s offerings are, sets the price independent of any market forces, and demands that you become it’s customer; or else!

Unlike Wal-Mart or McDonald’s, which must use advertising, smiles and competitive prices to persuade you to part with your dollars, Ontario Inc. has something far more effective, men with guns.

Oh! If only McDonald’s Inc. could have the same privileges and powers as Ontario Inc, it could legislate Wendy’s, Harvey’s, and Burger King Etc. out of existence. It would then become the sole supplier of burgers and fries.

After a few years, once the public had forgotten that they used to have a choice of suppliers, McDonald’s could declare itself essential. It could require that all of the citizens within its jurisdiction pay for its burger making services, whether they used them or not. It would have finally discovered the perfect business model; guaranteed profits, guaranteed success.

Citizens would receive an annual bill from McDonald’s. It might be based upon how many burgers the citizen *should have* purchased the previous year (Note: *should have* – based upon the recommendations of highly paid consultants and McDonald’s funded universities etc.) Payment would be mandatory.

Perhaps, McDonald’s management would have been elected by an ignorant mass of easily manipulated voter/sheep (See the current government of the United States of America.) In addition, the majority of them would have voted for the aspiring CEO because he was a “progressive”, who sincerely believed that the price one paid for burgers ought to be based on the ability to pay. Those with higher incomes would be forced to pay a higher price for their burgers. Those with no income would get their burgers subsidized.

The receivables department of McDonald’s would be staffed by a bunch of Happy Cops dressed up as smiling clowns…. with guns… and the legal power to peer into your financial records…. to make sure you had not made any false statements on your burger returns. And as a BONUS… no need to worry too much about the quality of their product since they are immune from any competitive market forces. They could sell you ground rat if they wanted. (See the recent U.S. Health Care Bill.)

Eventually, organized labor would see the wonderful opportunities available to its members in “representing”, all McDonalds employees. The govern…. excuse me, I meant McDonald’s worker at the drive-thru window asking if you would like fries with your burger would now be making $60, 000 a year. (Irate customers with cell phone cameras might take the occasional snapshot of the McDonald’s order taker snoozing away as the cars sat lined up. People at house parties would proudly proclaim that their son or daughter had just passed the exam and landed themselves a job (for life) at McDonalds.

Clip Courtesy: WGA/Dreamworks/JamesKlanto
© 2002 Warner Bros. Pictures

If the above seems far-fetched, I have two words for you … Post Office.

So… back to the tobacco Gestapo… and the company for which they work. It has come to my attention, though I will not say how… that the true market price of a carton of cigarettes is in the neighborhood of $25. However, under Ontario’s monopoly, the price of a carton of cigarettes purchased “legally”, is about $75.00, give or take a few dollars. Government Inc., therefore, is losing about $50 “profit”, on every carton sold outside of its greedy and tenacious authority.

And if one of its gun-toting clowns happens to barge into your storage locker, confiscate your stash and slap you with a nasty and spiteful fine, don’t be confused when he smiles at you and says, “Have a Nice Day.”

Ontario Inc. We will ram it up your butt whether you like it or not. And if you don’t like it, go fuck yourself. Smiles might be free somewhere else, but here; you pay a 5% tax.

Guest Contributor: Freelance Writer and Taxicab Driver
Mr. Weinhold graduated from Mohawk College located in Hamilton, Ontario in 1981 with a degree in Chemical Technology. Passionate about politics and outspoken about the ever-growing largess of government Hans describes himself as a lifelong libertarian. Currently self-employed as a taxicab driver Hans currently spends most of his time loitering, smoking cigarettes, shooting the breeze with his fellow cab-drivers waiting for their next customer from the Hamilton International Airport.

Senator Mitch McConnell: President’s Massive Health Care Overhaul

The Smoking Argus

OFFICIAL STATEMENT – In the Weekly Republican Address, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell discusses the flawed health care bill passed by Democrats this week and why it should be repealed and replaced.

Leader McConnell says, “In one of the most divisive legislative debates in modern history, Democrats decided to go the partisan route and blatantly ignore the will of the people. Americans opposed this legislation, and, now they’re clamoring to see it repealed and replaced. Democratic Leaders and White House officials may be celebrating their victory this week, but most of the rest of the country is not. Most people aren’t interested in celebrating a bill that makes their lives more complicated, takes more out of their paychecks and puts decisions they’re used to making themselves into the hands of federal bureaucrats.” [FULL TRANSCRIPT]

—END OFFICIAL STATEMENT—

Video Courtesy: Gop Weekly Address
Related Material(s)

Source(s): GOP Weekly Address YouTube ChannelRepublican National Committee

President Obama: Major Reforms Health Care and Higher Education

The Smoking Argus

The White HouseTHE WHITE HOUSE, OFFICIAL STATEMENT – In his weekly address, the President looks back on a week that saw the passage of two major sets of reforms: one putting Americans in control of their own health care, and one ensuring student loans work for students and families, not as subsidies for bankers and middlemen. [FULL TRANSCRIPT]

—END OFFICIAL STATEMENT—

Video Courtesy: The White House
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Source(s): The White House YouTube Channel

More Sanctions Against Iran Are Not the Answer

Wire Report

Iranian Woman in Tehran(Wire/Ind.Inst.) – Because President Barack Obama’s attempt to entice Iran to give up its nuclear program has ended in unsurprising failure, he is now trying to ratchet up the pressure on the regime by leading the drive to increase international economic sanctions. However, even if he were to succeed in getting Russia and China to go along in the United Nations Security Council, the measures would probably be unsuccessful in achieving their stated goal.

The history of economic sanctions illustrates that they can be simultaneously successful and yet not very effective. Sanctions are usually successful in the country or countries that impose them. They are used to demonstrate more resolve to a recalcitrant country than a diplomatic slap on the wrist, but don’t go as far as covert action or a military attack. Sanctions are the middle ground of protest when diplomacy is perceived as too weak and covert action and military action are perceived as too dangerous or excessive. They also satisfy domestic political constituencies who are demanding action.

Unfortunately, however, the economic and political effects of economic sanctions on the target country rarely achieve their often-lofty goals. Sanctions, if severe enough, can bite economically by cutting off trade and financial transactions—for example, the most multilateral and comprehensive sanctions in world history against Saddam Hussein’s regime before the first Gulf War to attempt to dislodge the Iraqi invaders from Kuwait. Yet over time, history shows that cheating on sanctions increases dramatically as it becomes profitable for companies and countries to get top dollar for evading the restrictions on commerce. Thus, in the long term, the real economic effect is to merely raise the cost of trade and financial transactions to the target country.

These increased costs do punish the target nation, but do sanctions usually achieve their intended political goal? Again, the Iraqi case is illustrative. Even in the extreme case of grinding (at least in the short and medium term) worldwide and comprehensive sanctions, Saddam Hussein refused to leave Kuwait until he was evicted by military force. Furthermore, this goal of sanctions was more modest than demanding that the target country abandon a nuclear program, which is perceived as vital to its security, or even trying to achieve regime change.

And in the case of Iran, it is unclear which of these two more ambitious goals the multilateral, but incremental and selective, sanctions are intended to achieve. The three prior selective rounds of multilateral sanctions were directed toward the objective of getting Iran to halt the enrichment of nuclear fuel. Yet restricting more and more Iranian scientists from traveling abroad and exhorting countries to cut off trade with Iran will hardly achieve this ambitious goal. Lately, however, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has accused the Iranian Revolutionary Guard military force of turning Iran into a military dictatorship and talked about an even more grandiose goal for any incremental increase in multilateral sanctions—undermining this heart of the regime.

Video Courtesy: Patriot0987

The history of sanctions indicates, however, that surgically targeting the regime, while avoiding harm to innocent people, is almost impossible. The regime usually redirects the pain of sanctions away from the security forces and onto the backs of ordinary citizens (as Saddam Hussein did), causing a “rally around the flag” effect against the sanctioning nations. At a time when the autocratic rule in Iran is weakening because of election protests, the United States and the international community should be careful about giving the Iranian government an external threat against which to rally domestic support.

Because Russia and China, with substantial commercial connections to Iran, always drag their feet on further sanctions against Iran, it is increasingly likely that the next incremental round of sanctions will have to be watered down—as was the last round in 2008. Even if new sanctions are eventually imposed, Iran can continue to enrich uranium during the months that it will take the United States to convince Russia and China to go along.

Thus, since Iran lives in a rough neighborhood, mere incremental sanctions will be unlikely to end its quest for the ultimate deterrent against attack. The only other option would be a U.S. military attack on Iran, but this wouldn’t likely take out all of Iran’s nuclear facilities (because the U.S. doesn’t know where all of them are located) and could spur potent Iranian retaliation in Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, and worldwide via terrorist attacks. The only way to assure an end to Iran’s nuclear program would be a full-bore invasion of that inhospitable nation, which would make the invasion and occupation of Iraq look like a picnic.

Thus, the bad news is that, even if stronger sanctions are imposed, Iran will probably get nuclear weapons eventually. The good news is that this threat is less severe than the hysteria indicates. As it did with radical and nuclear-armed Maoist China, the United States could likely deter any attack by Iran’s few warheads—provided the Iranians could eventually develop a missile with long enough range to hit the United States—through the mere presence of the massive U.S. nuclear arsenal.

© 2010 The Independent Institute

smargus_table_space

Ivan Eland, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace and Liberty, The Independent Institute
Ivan Eland, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace and Liberty, The Independent Institute

Ivan Eland is Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at The Independent Institute. Dr. Eland is a graduate of Iowa State University and received an M.B.A. in applied economics and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from George Washington University. He has been Director of Defense Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, and he spent 15 years working for Congress on national security issues, including stints as an investigator for the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Principal Defense Analyst at the Congressional Budget Office. He also has served as Evaluator-in-Charge (national security and intelligence) for the U.S. General Accounting Office (now the Government Accountability Office), and has testified on the military and financial aspects of NATO expansion before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on CIA oversight before the House Government Reform Committee, and on the creation of the Department of Homeland Security before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Dr. Eland is the author of Partitioning for Peace: An Exit Strategy for Iraq, Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty, The Empire Has No Clothes: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed and Putting “Defense” Back into U.S. Defense Policy, as well as The Efficacy of Economic Sanctions as a Foreign Policy Tool. He is a contributor to numerous volumes and the author of 45 in-depth studies on national security issues.

His articles have appeared in American Prospect, Arms Control Today, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Emory Law Journal, The Independent Review, Issues in Science and Technology (National Academy of Sciences), Mediterranean Quarterly, Middle East and International Review, Middle East Policy, Nexus, Chronicle of Higher Education, American Conservative, International Journal of World Peace, and Northwestern Journal of International Affairs.

Dr. Eland’s popular writings have appeared in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, Miami Herald, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Newsday, Sacramento Bee, Orange County Register, Washington Times, Providence Journal, The Hill, and Defense News. He has appeared on ABC’s World News Tonight,  NPR’s Talk of the Nation,  PBS, Fox News Channel, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, CNN, CNN Crossfire,  CNN-fn, C-SPAN, MSNBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC), Canadian TV (CTV), Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, BBC, and other local, national, and international TV and radio programs.