Iran declaring 'economic warfare'

I said this was going to happen months ago. I've been beating on pots and pans yelling at the top of my lungs that we were quietly selling off our national security to make deals with devils. Though I think Pat Buchanan is a nut, this story is exactly why he promotes isolationism for the US. Bush has himself a real quandry here. He can't afford for Iran to move toward using eros as a reserve currency simply because he cannot afford for the US' economy to his the skids. By the same token, seeing as we are now the country of invertebrates that can be intimidated by knife wielding seven-year-old girls with no will no fight anybody for more than three months, we're looking to our enemies to help us out in Iraq. Bush is moving away from Olmert in Israel in trying to create dialogue with Iran in the hopes that talking to them may result in the stabilization of the Sunni-Shia conflict in Iraq.

You see, while we were watching Terry Schiavo blink on camera, a crazy woman runaway from her wedding, and some communist "peace mom" make a nuisance out of herself, Iran was building coalitions and economic partnerships with Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Venezuela and other countries. In other words, while we were wasting time in pop culture isolationism, Iran was stacking the deck against us and creating a protective shell around themselves so as to quietly and diligently go about the business of building a nuclear bomb. They will have the bomb. It is just a matter of time. The US' sad, selfish, hysterical, power-mongering behavior on Capital Hill has blinded and retarded to the point of impotency in the Iran issue. Both the Democrats and the Republicans have failed us here. They've allowed Iran to rest comfortably behind Russia, China and India, where it can flout international law with gusto.

Iran may have signed a virtual "death warrant" by openly declaring a governmental decision to move away from the dollar in the country's foreign-exchange transactions, says WND columnist Jerome Corsi.

"The Bush administration will see Iran's decision as economic warfare, a move calculated to weaken the dollar in retaliation for the U.S. seeking U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran's continued uranium enrichment," Corsi told WND.

Speaking to reporters at an e-commerce conference in Tehran Tuesday, Iran's Minister of Economy and Finance Davood Danesh Jaafari presented the policy as a defensive move aimed at blocking Washington's ability to monitor and interfere with Iran's conduct of international business.

"Some U.S. banks have been disrupting our dollar transactions for a long time and Iran, in return, has been decreasing its dependence on the dollar," Jaafari explained.

The U.S. Treasury in September barred Iran's state-run Bank Saderat from having any links with U.S.-owned banks because of Iran's support of terrorism.

As a result of the increasing pressure from the Bush administration, Iranian banking authorities have complained European banks are increasingly reluctant to transact Iranian import and export sales in dollars and to extend open lines of credit for Iranians in dollars, fearing U.S. penalties. Iran also is concerned the U.S. government might soon be forced to devaluate the dollar.

Corsi previously has argued Saddam Hussein "signed his death warrant" by getting the U.N. to agree Iraq could hold foreign exchange currency in Euros resulting from "oil for food" transactions.

Iran's announcement this week will be seen by Washington as a follow-up to its intention to create an oil bourse pricing oil in Euros, Corsi believes.

"With our continuing budget and trade deficits, the Bush administration has to react strongly to any suggestion that world international markets might move away from dollar transactions or dollar holdings of foreign exchange currency," he said.

The risk also includes China, Corsi noted.

"With China now holding $1 trillion in their foreign exchange currency, the recent decision that China intends to diversify their holdings more into Euros threatens the ability of the U.S. Treasury to float our budget deficits by selling U.S. government debt into the foreign exchange currency holdings market," Corsi explained.

Corsi is concerned the Bush administration has been "de-industrializing the United States" by pursuing a free trade policy that allows China to replace U.S. manufacturers with what Corsi describes as "under-market slave labor or near slave labor."

"Now with Iran on the verge of announcing the capacity to produce highly enriched and possibly weapons-grade uranium," Corsi comments, "we are increasingly vulnerable to Iran spearheading an anti-American attack on the dollar."

Corsi points out China recently signed a multi-billion dollar deal "guaranteed to make Iran one of the major suppliers of oil and natural gas to China for decades to come."

"If China joins Iran in pressuring the dollar, we face dollar devaluation much faster that the Bush administration has allowed the U.S. public to know," Corsi said.