Eric Sprott: Is the West Dishoarding Its Sovereign Treasure?

By Adam Taggart: And if so, what will happen once it's done?

We are well into the financial crisis. Everyone’s trying to keep it together, even though it would appear from the reading of the economy things are not going well at all here. And everyone's ignoring things.
But I think, in their hearts, the Central Bankers must know what they’re doing is totally irresponsible. And the tell of that irresponsibility – which is the debasing of the currencies – is the fact that real things will go up in value. This should be reflected in the price of gold and silver.

So expresses Eric Sprott, CEO and founder of Sprott Asset Management, and one of the most experienced and vocal advocates for owning precious metals.
The past decade has validated Eric's thesis, as gold has risen considerably against all world fiat currencies. But what vexes him is that in recent years, when currency debasement has accelerated to extreme levels, precious metals prices have been clearly suppressed, particularly versus the U.S. dollar.
As the topic of price manipulation is nothing new, Eric finds his focus increasingly drawn to where the precious metals are going at these bargain prices - who is accumulating and who is dishoarding:

I’ve done a lot of work on the flow of metals. I come up with a net change of 2,300 tons a year in new buying in gold when the supply of gold hasn’t even gone up in the last twelve years. And you keep wondering: Well, where’s all this gold coming from?

Dan Bongino @ Guns Across America Rally in Annapolis, MD

opditch: Dan Bongino, former US Secret Service Officer and former US Senate Candidate speaks at the Annapolis, MD Guns Across America Rally. Jan 19th, 2013. SIGN UP! http://bongino.com

Pakistan Relying On China - Anonymous Part 2

Morris: 3 factors for Pakistan: Elections in Pakistan in next 2 or 3 months - Americans withdrawing from Afghanistan 2014 - Growing Chinese Influence. The Gwadar Port in The Arabian Sea was just handed over to China. Source

The greedy crooked banksters who have ruined this country are still taking home even more money than anyone else!

By Rowan Bosworth-Davies: I don't think there is much dispute that the financial crisis and the recession which has followed which has done so much to destroy the living standards and the future hopes of so many millions of working people in this country, was caused by the criminal antics of the investment bankers, who allowed their greed and their avarice to overcome any sense of prudence and sound banking judgement, they might once have possessed.

This period of scandalous mis-management, downright criminality, bankers' hubris, and coupled with gross regulatory incompetence has effectively brought this country to its knees, and now, thanks to another period of arrogant political misjudgement, it now looks as if we are going to experience an even greater period of financial upheaval.  As our Triple A rating starts to take lumps from the global financial markets, as the pound devalues possibly to parity with the Euro, inflation rises, and wages get squeezed even tighter, porky millionaire's son, Georgie Osborne flip-flops around like a beached bloater, desperately trying to persuade us that his policies are working, opening and shutting his mouth, but with nothing of value coming out.

The Pope is gambling that a younger man can win back the Church’s soul!

Doubts grow about motives for ‘retiring’ as Italian and Greek sources offer further clues

Smoke gets in your eyes?

The Slog: If I recall correctly, it was some time in May last year that a reliable and generous media tipster for The Slog, now largely retired, told me to start looking more closely at financial corruption within the Vatican, and the emergence of a powerful clique using the Papacy’s assumed innocence as a front for its activities. I did note what he said, and I did use a Roman contact to fill me in on anything of relevance. But as so often happens in a world where the unexpected has become commonplace (and invention almost ubiquitous) I moved onto urgent stories and ignored the importance of that one. Big mistake.
Having arrived to a techno-blackout here in France, three days into it I (briefly) got a signal on my mobile and texted a close friend in London to ask what, if anything, of significance had happened. ‘The Pope has resigned’ said the reply. ‘Very funny’ I texted back.  Later that day, having established it was true, I drove over to a friend’s house and went online to read the coverage. As so often with the British press, the vast majority of the coverage was respectful and concerned about the Pope’s health. I simply couldn’t believe that such a historically unique event was being written about in a way that almost suggested normality.

Karzai orders USA out of two provinces, citing torture and murder

RT: The Afghan government has demanded the withdrawal of all US Special Forces on Sunday from the Wardak and Logar provinces within two weeks, accusing them of “harassing, torturing and murdering innocent civilians.”
Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi said that President Hamid Karzai had ordered the ministry of defense to kick out the US Special Forces, which he accused of fueling “insecurity and instability” in the volatile provinces, which are close to the capital Kabul.
“The US Special Forces and illegal armed groups created by them are causing insecurity, instability, and harass local people in these provinces,” Faizi told a press conference.
A further statement released by the Afghan president’s office said that the decision to expel them was made by the National Security Council.
“After a thorough discussion, it became clear that armed individuals named as US Special Force[s] stationed in Wardak province engage in harassing, annoying, torturing and even murdering innocent people," it said.
"A recent example in the province is an incident in which nine people were disappeared in an operation by this suspicious force and in a separate incident a student was taken away at night from his home, whose tortured body with throat cut was found two days later under a bridge.

The Invention of Israel with Shlomo Sand

Afshin Rattansi talks to India's Prime Minister about why he would buy weapons from visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron. Our reporter goes to the new drone headquarters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. We talk to the author of The Invention of the Land of Israel, Shlomo Sand, about his latest book.

Bahraini protester run over by western backed 'royal' regime militia

UK and Europe Banned Press TV: New footage shows regime militiamen in Bahrain being sent to the streets to confront anti-regime protesters.

Not The BBC Sucks A Cock News: AAA, Pedophiles and Tainted Food

The artist taxi driver

Spies, secrets and the Israel gulag media

ZenTV247: Focus on the Israel gulag and the story about one prisoner that revealed multiple layers of censorship. Prisoner X was a suspected Mossad operative-turned-double agent who, in 2010, reportedly committed suicide in an Israeli gulag jail.

Int’l protests mark Bradley Manning’s 1,000 days in prison

RT: Rallies, marches and performances in some 70 cities worldwide marked Bradley Manning’s 1,000th day in jail. They come days before his pretrial hearing, where the defense will seek to dismiss the charges against him due to lack of a speedy trial. Coordinated events throughout the US, UK, Canada, across Europe, and as reaching as far as South Korea and Australia took place “to raise awareness about the young Army private” who allegedly exposed US war crimes in Iraq.  Manning is accused of publicly passing classified files to WikiLeaks, whose founder Julian Assange remains holed up in London's Ecuadorian Embassy, evading prosecution from Western powers.
“There has never been a more important time to broadcast our message of support for exposing war crimes, international justice, and people’s right to know what the government does in our name,”

Obama admin won’t say if they claim authority to assassinate US citizens on US soil without charges

By Madison Ruppert: Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the Obama administration’s assassination program is the fact that they simply refuse to address if they claim the authority to kill Americans on US soil without charge or trial.

While they clearly claim the authority to kill Americans abroad without requiring any clear evidence based on secret meetings and a classified legal justification, they dodge any and all questions around assassinations on US soil.
Individuals in the Obama administration – including Obama himself – have chosen to simply answer a question that was never asked when they are confronted with the issue.
This recently came up in a series of written questions and answers (original without notes here) from Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to John Brennan, Obama’s nominee for the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
“Could the Administration carry out drone strikes inside the United States?” asked the Committee.
“This Administration has not carried out drone strikes inside the United States and has no intention of doing so,”