Is Iran Getting More Uranium For Enrichment From Bolivia and Venezuela?

By Lance Winslow

One of the best intelligence agencies in the world is based out of Israel and they are very careful to protect themselves. They have reason to believe that Iran is getting Uranium to enrich from both Bolivia and Venezuela, but are these reports true? First we must ask the question do these two nations have Uranium and other nuclear material deposits and mining operations? Well, in fact they do.

Venezuela has signed on with Russia to develop mining, and exploration of Uranium and Thorium supposedly for "peaceful purposes" says the agreement (November 2008). Well that lets Russia off the hook, but does not answer the question is Venezuela selling Uranium to Iran? What about Bolivia, do they have Uranium Mines and deposits? Oh yes, Bolivia is mineral rich and has two Uranium Mining Companies operating there, and they have 11 locations of known natural Uranium deposits, although one Chinese report says they are only "small points" and not all are huge deposits worthy of development, but some are.

Okay, so there are Uranium Deposits in both Bolivia and Venezuela, that makes sense, and it is confirmed by the Canadian Company mining in Bolivia, the Chinese, the IAEA, Russians, the CIA Factbook and their own governments. So, next question is Bolivia and Venezuela selling Uranium to Iran? Well, Iran is getting it from somewhere as they were to have ran out halting their spinning wheels. So, how true are the Israeli Intelligent reports, are they accurate? I believe so.

You see, there are actually numerous reports within the intelligence community of Iranian support, training and cells operating in Venezuela with FARC, this is nothing new. Venezuela has interfered with the elections in Nicaragua, Ecuador, Argentina, and established ALBA which includes Cuba. Iran's president has visited both Bolivia and Venezuela, also promised economic support to build factories, help with agriculture (cocoa leaf production), mining etc. There are uranium deposits in both Venezuela and Bolivia.

Iran temporarily ran out of yellow cake previously and was working to get more, as it went from 6,000 centrifuges to 23,000. Even if Israel is speculating on some of what they claim, there is ample evidence, even major media news, and statements by officials in various capacity to back up the rest of their intelligent reports. You know, it really makes a lot of sense to me. I'd have to agree with the Israelis even though I do not have official capacity to read the secret reports proving it.

Interestingly enough, President Obama must know about all these connections, and yet has done very little. Is he employing the "keep your enemies closer" strategy or is he trying to be nice to everyone to propel his own popularity on the World Stage? Think on that, I pretty much have already determined what I think.

Lance Winslow - Lance Winslow's Bio. Lance Winslow is also Founder of the Detail Guys, a cool little Franchise Company; http://www.detailguys.com/founder.shtml/.

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Increasing World Population

By Howard Hehrer

Even if the most industrialized nations in the world observe rationalization of food and population control, the fact remains that lesser nations are growing at a rate 15 times faster then the industrialized nation's norm. This means that in just forty years, the population (Haub and Cornelius 1999) will at least double. With this increase in population comes new problems.

Several factors contribute to this heightened growth of population in less industrialized nations - perhaps the most prominent being motherhood. In the least industrialized nations, motherhood is the highest position a woman can achieve, and the number of children she has is reflective of her social status. Children are a blessing from God, and to have many shows favor in the eyes of a higher power. Thus, woman in the least industrialized nations have more children.

Secondly, for the poorest in the least industrialized nations, children are economic assets. When there is no insurance and no one to work when the head of the family is crippled, sick, or dead, children prove to be a viable resource in filling these holes. The more children you have, the more productive a family can be, and thus the family obtains more resources. Also, when the family grows old, the children can take care of the elderly, and thus the cycle repeats.

As a result of the desire for many children, Mexico's population will likely double in the next 32 years. Conversely, Austria's population is growing so slowly that it would take more than 2000 years to double its population. In today's world, 6% of the entire population is 0-4 year olds, and only 4% is 40-44 year olds. The world is becoming a younger place.

Overpopulation will lead to a shortage in the world's net resources. With an exponential increase in humans will come an exponential use of food, minerals, oil, and fresh water. The increased use of oil will lead to further destruction of the ozone layer, consequently higher world temperatures, the melting of polar ice caps, the rising levels of the ocean, and more intense and frequent hurricanes. The increased need for food and fresh water will leave people to starve and thirst to death more frequently, and the overuse of croplands will result in infertile and barren lands, which will likely be left to further urbanization.

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Japan - Unemployment, Underemployment, and Other Financial Pain

By Tom Aaron

On Saturday, May 2, 2009, the Associated Press reported that the March jobless rate in Japan rose to 4.8%, up .4% from February and the worst unemployment in Japan since August 2004. Americans and Europeans hearing this rate may laugh and say that rate is nothing. Indeed, next to European and American rates, many of which are in double digits, 4.8% looks like paradise.

First, however, Europeans and Americans may fail to understand what 4.8% means. Jiro and Akiko Sato know that 4.8% in Japan is much higher. Optimistic Akiko thinks the American equivalent is probably under 10% while pessimistic Jiro thinks that the number zoomed by 10% long ago. Statistics on this are very difficult to find though, so neither Akiko nor Jiro really know. This 4.8% does not include people who have given up looking for work. This number also does not include married women who are discouraged from participating in the job market for structural and cultural reasons. Many women quit their jobs when they get married or have children. The cost and lack of availability of childcare encourage leaving the workplace.

If the husband works and the wife does not work full time, most husbands also receive a monthly allowance from their employer for their dependent wife and substantial tax breaks as long as the wife earns approximately $10,000 a year or less. Jiro receives an allowance of approximately $200.00 a month as Akiko does not work. Couple this with a system where many jobs demand long hours and it is no wonder that many young married woman only work part-time or not at all. Akiko, with a B.A. from Waseda, one of Japan's top universities, quit her job before having children.

Then, when their children are older and women like Akiko are ready to participate in the workforce again, good jobs are not available, regardless of the unemployment rate. The Japanese job market offers little for women returning to the work force or senior citizens. Women, especially educated women with skills, have little incentive to punch a cash register at the supermarket or a convenience store if their husbands have good jobs. Instead, many of them spend their time shopping, take lessons in English conversation or flower arrangement, and volunteer. Akiko never went back to work. She was interested in working, but the job market did not encourage her. Now, she does pilates, is starting to learn Italian, and volunteers to help the elderly.

Over the past years, in fact, as temporary work has been legalized and spread, two tiers of employees have emerged: those with real jobs that pay good wages and those who do similar work and receive much less pay for the same job. Married women returning to work often fall into the second category, again discouraging their participation in the job market. Emiko, Akiko's classmate from high school is not as fortunate as Akiko. Her husband was let go from his job at a gas company due to restructuring and she has to work. She stands behind a cash register for approximately $7.00 an hour.

As if this is not enough of a problem for Japan, prices also fell, reminding Japan of the specter of deflation that has been hovering for years. As unemployment rose in March, prices and spending fell. Industrial production was a small ray of sunlight, rising 1.6 percent in March, the first increase in six months.

The small ray of sunlight in these dark economic times is expected to widen as factory output is projected to increase by 4.3 percent in April and an additional 6.1 percent in May. As Japan's economy depends on exports, such growth is vital for Japan to return to prosperity. The collapse in global demand has caused the deepest recession in Japan since the end of World War II.

Increasing domestic demand would help the Japanese economy, but structural reasons including insufficient pensions and a system where people are often required to retire years before they can get their quarterly pension payments encourage people to save instead of spend. Jiro will be retiring next year when he hits 60. He will no longer get his $130,000.00 a year salary, but the quarterly payments will not start until he is 65. His lump sum retirement is probably about right for the next five years, but he wants to save that for when he really needs it. So, Jiro will look for a new job. He will be extremely lucky to find something paying $40,000 a year.

He is worrying about finding something due to the very low export rate. When the Japanese economy booms, exports are the basis. When exports drop, so do the economy and job opportunities. Now, exports are dropping and Japan, like all other countries, is feeling the pain. Jiro, like most Japanese men in his position, is wondering if he will find a new job. He is feeling the pain too.

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We Cannot Expect Pakistan to Do What America Could Not

By Abdul Malik Mujahid

As Pakistan begins an all-out air and land assault on its own people and its president asks America for drones, we must ask: can Pakistan succeed in defeating the Taliban when America has not?

We must consider that if America, with its military might, satellites and well-equipped soldiers has not been able to stop the Taliban from crisscrossing the Afghan-Pakistan border in the last seven years, we cannot expect Pakistan to be able to accomplish that for us.

As a child living in southern Pakistan, hundreds of miles away from Afghanistan, I used to watch the camel caravans of Afghans as they descended on our town at the beginning of winter. One or two families with children would be riding on a few camels as the men walked along. The rest of the camels would be carrying firewood to sell to the locals. Although that was forty years ago, the cultural ties between the two people are still essentially the same.

There is literally no border between Afghanistan and Pakistan or for that matter between Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Yes, there are soldiers on a couple of roads entering each country but overall, these are open borders.

People living on both sides of Afghanistan's border are tribally and linguistically the same. They have crossed between the countries freely for centuries.

And America knows this.

America used this knowledge to its advantage when it trained, financed, equipped and guided Afghans to defeat the occupying Soviet Union in the 1980s. These Mujahideen, then allies in America's war against communism by proxy, were Afghan refugees trained in Pakistan by the CIA. That began thirty years ago, not after 9/11.

This is why we cannot plead ignorance. We knew the region well enough. However, that knowledge did not help us stop Osama bin Laden and his friends from getting away during the Battle of Tora Bora.

Tora Bora is a cave complex in eastern Afghanistan originally built with the assistance of the CIA during the Mujahideen's resistance against Soviet occupation. Osama bin Laden and the CIA both being allies at one point, knew it well.

The U.S. believed that bin Laden and his allies were hiding in Tora Bora, but despite overrunning it, we failed to kill or capture him or his supporters. It is amazing that after seven years of using our cutting edge technology and spies, and a $50 million dollar bounty, we still don't know where he is and whether he is even dead or alive.

So if knowledge of the area is not the problem, then why did we succeed in defeating the Soviets but not the Taliban?

The answer lies in the support of the region's people and the advantage the terrain provides to them.

In the war against the Soviets, people on both sides of the Afghan border were in favor of it. This time they are not. Consider that in the 1980s, we did not have to enter the country to fight the Soviets. The local support meant we could "outsource" the actual fighting to those who shared our ideals and knew the territory best.

Fast forward to today: not only do we lack this acceptance for our goals in the region, but we are actually fighting in its rugged, high terrain that is ideal for guerrilla warfare, unlike the flat plains of Iraq.

If America cannot stop the Taliban from crossing the borders it controls, there is no chance Pakistan will be able to do the same.

We are making a deadly and costly mistake by trying to coerce Pakistan to achieve what we have failed to do. President Barack Obama has been reaching out to the Muslim world, seeking diplomacy over militarism. It must do the same in Afghanistan instead of Afganizing Pakistan.

Abdul Malik Mujahid is a Pak-American Imam in Chicago, President of Sound Vision, and serves as the vice chair for a Council for a Parliament of World Religions.

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