What in the world are the elite up to? In recent days, we have learned that the New York Fed is moving a lot of operations to Chicago because of concerns about what a “natural disaster” could do, the federal government is buying 62 million rounds of ammunition commonly used in AR-15 semi-automatic rifles for “training” purposes, and NORAD is moving back into Cheyenne Mountain because it is “EMP-hardened”. In addition, government authorities have scheduled a whole host of unusual “training exercises” all over the nation. So are the elite doing all of this in order to prepare for something really BIG, or should we just chalk up all of this strange activity to rampant government paranoia?

First, let’s talk about what the New York Fed has been doing. What kind of natural disaster would be bad enough to completely shut down the operations of the New York Federal Reserve Bank? It would have to be something very unusual, and apparently the New York Fed is very concerned that such an event could happen. According to Reuters, the New York Fed has been transferring personnel to Chicago and building up its satellite office there just in case a “natural disaster” makes it impossible for normal operations to continue in New York…

The New York branch of the U.S. Federal Reserve, wary that a natural disaster or other eventuality could shut down its market operations as it approaches an interest rate hike, has added staff and bulked up its satellite office in Chicago.

Some market technicians have transferred from New York and others were hired at the office housed in the Chicago Fed, according to several people familiar with the build-out that began about two years ago, after Hurricane Sandy struck Manhattan.

Officials believe the Chicago staffers can now handle all of the market operations that are done daily out of the New York Fed, which is the U.S. central bank’s main conduit to Wall Street.

This seems very odd.

In all of U.S. history, there has never been a natural disaster in New York City that would have been bad enough to totally shut down the operations of the New York Fed for an extended period of time.

So why are they so concerned?

Well, I can think of one event that could cause such a disruption…

An east coast tsunami.

This is something that I wrote about in this article. But other than that, it is hard to imagine a natural disaster which could shut down the New York Fed for an extended period of time.

Another very odd thing that we learned about this week is an absolutely massive purchase by the government of ammunition that is commonly used in AR-15 semi-automatic rifles. The following comes from an article by Paul Joseph Watson…

The Department of Homeland Security is set to purchase over 62 million rounds of ammo typically used in AR-15 semi-automatic rifles, just weeks after the ATF was forced to back down on a ban on M855 bullets.

A posting on FedBizOpps.gov this week reveals that the DHS is looking to contract with a company to provide 12.6 million rounds of .223 Remington ammunition per year for a period of five years – totaling 62.5 million bullets.

The solicitation explains that the purchase is intended, “to achieve price savings over the current .223 Rem duty ammunition.” The bullets will be used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents nationwide for “training” purposes.

Why in the world would U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents nationwide need such a massive amount of ammunition for “training” purposes?

That seems very odd.

Something else that seems very strange is the fact that NORAD is moving back into Cheyenne mountain after all these years…

It shut down nearly ten years ago as the threat from Russia seemed to subside, but this week the Pentagon announced that Cheyenne Mountain will once again be home to the most advanced tracking and communications equipment in the United States military.

The shift to the Cheyenne Mountain base in Colorado is designed to safeguard the command’s sensitive sensors and servers from a potential electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, military officers said.

The Pentagon last week announced a $700 million contract with Raytheon Corporation to oversee the work for North American Aerospace Command (NORAD) and US Northern Command.

Admiral William Gortney, head of NORAD and Northern Command, said that ‘because of the very nature of the way that Cheyenne Mountain’s built, it’s EMP-hardened.’

So the U.S. military is concerned about an EMP attack all of a sudden?

Have they been reading The Economic Collapse Blog?

Spending 700 million dollars to move back inside a mountain just because it is “EMP-hardened” is a pretty big deal.

Do they know something that we don’t?

On top of everything else, we have been seeing lots of strange “training exercises” being scheduled all over the nation recently.

For example, the following is from a news story about one being held in Iowa…

This week you may notice extra emergency vehicles and public safety officers running around in tactical gear, Hazmat suits, and bomb suits. It’s a part of a statewide drill Des Moines is hosting Tuesday and Wednesday to prepare emergency personnel for dealing with weapons of mass destruction.

Brian O’Keefe with the Des Moines Fire Department said emergency officials in Iowa need to be prepared for anything.

“You know we’re number one seed producer with corn and soy, chicken embryo development, middle of the country heartland. So I’m sure all states access it. But we’re a target like any other large community,” said O’Keefe.

And here is an excerpt form a news story about an exercise known as “Northern Exposure” that is being held in Michigan…

The National Guard event is called Northern Exposure, which is taking place across Michigan during the month of June, he said. According to the Michigan National Guard website, Northern Exposure is “a major exercise in Michigan where the military provides defense support to civilian authorities.”

In addition, the U.S. military will be conducting some “unusual” training activityout in Arizona and California…

If you see some unusual helicopters overhead in the next couple of days, there’s nothing to worry about.

The I Marine Expeditionary Force G-7 will be conducting a Realistic Military Training this week, using the Prescott Municipal Airfield as a helicopter refueling point in order to facilitate a Long Range Raid at Camp Navajo, Arizona.

This Certification Exercise (CERTEX) is directed to be conducted from April 8-21, 2015 at various training locations throughout California and Arizona. The training at Prescott will take place on April 15, 16.

All of this is in addition to the exercise that people have really been buzzing about. It is called “Jade Helm”, and in this particular “unconventional warfare exercise”, the states of Texas and Utah will be designated as “hostile territory”…

“Jade Helm is a challenging eight-week joint military and Interagency (IA) Unconventional Warfare (UW) exercise conducted throughout Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado,” according to an unclassified military document announcing the training drill, which runs from July 15 through September 15.

Multiple branches of the US military, including Green Berets, Navy Seals, and the 82nd Airborne Division, will participate in the 8-week long exercise, which may result in “increased aircraft in the area at night.”

Troops will be tasked with honing advanced skills in “large areas of undeveloped land with low population densities,” and will work alongside “civilians to gain their trust and an understanding of the issues.”

The exercise, in which some participants will be “wearing civilian clothes and driving civilian vehicles,” lists Texas and Utah as “hostile” territory.

Should we be alarmed by these exercises?

Some people sure think so.

Another thing that has people scratching their heads are the weird closures of Wal-Mart stores all over the nation for supposed “plumbing problems”…

Not just one, but five Walmart stores across the U.S. are closing their doors due to plumbing problems that, in some cases, will take four to six months to repair.

Those closing include locations in Livingston and Midland, Texas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and near Los Angeles.

For the Brandon Walmart, I talked to Hillsborough County and Walmart to get answers about why these plumbing repairs will take so long and whether the issues are connected, but local customers are already skeptical.

“Why is it just plumbing problems? It’s gonna take them six months to fix up the store?” asked customer John Mambrl.

Yes, is it really going to take them six months to fix the toilets?

Either someone at Wal-Mart is extremely incompetent, or there is something fishy going on here.

In the end, perhaps there is nothing to any of this.

Perhaps all of these examples are just unrelated coincidences.

But then again, perhaps not.

What do you think? Please feel free to add to the discussion by posting a comment below…

Moscow (AFP) - Russia on Friday warned that the arrival of US paratroopers in Ukraine to train its forces fighting pro-Russian rebels could reignite the conflict, leading to mass bloodshed.

The arrival of hundreds of US paratroopers in war-torn Ukraine causes "serious concern," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

It warned that the US training programme was a step towards Washington supplying weaponry to the Ukrainians fighting pro-Russian separatists in the country's Donbass region.

"Washington's encouraging attitude to (Kiev's) revanchist plans carries a risk of reigniting mass bloodshed in our neighbouring country," Moscow said.

"It's obvious that American soldiers on Ukrainian soil will not bring it peace."

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier Friday that the arriving US troops "can seriously destabilise the situation."

Moscow blasted the US troops' mission to instruct the National Guard of Ukraine, a reservist force, for training those "who have stained themselves with the blood of women, children and old men in punitive operations in Donbass."

"What will the overseas military specialists teach them -- how to keep on killing those who speak Russian?" the ministry asked in a strongly-worded statement.

It argued that the military training programme was the "first step towards supplying Ukraine with the modern American weapons that Kiev's party of war so desires."

US President Barack Obama is under pressure from lawmakers and military officials to send weapons to Ukraine to help it fight the insurgency. but has so far held back.

Some of his European allies including Germany have warned that sending arms would cause the bloodshed to escalate.

Moscow argued that the arrival of US troops was a "clear breach" of the terms of a truce reached in the Belarussian capital of Minsk in February that called for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Ukraine.

Kiev says Russia has sent thousands of soldiers across the border in eastern Ukraine to support the rebellion, charges Moscow denies.

The ceasefire deal aimed to end a year of fighting that has killed more than 6,000 people, but fighting flared up again this month.

Car bomb kills three outside U.S. consulate in Iraq's Kurdish capital

ABC News Videos
Car Bomb Explodes Outside US Embassy in Iraq

By Isabel Coles

ERBIL (Reuters) - A car bombing claimed by the Islamic State killed three people on Friday outside the U.S. consulate in Erbil, in a relatively rare attack in the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region.

No U.S. personnel were hurt in the blast, according to the U.S. State Department, which said a "vehicle-borne improvised explosive device" exploded right outside the entrance to the heavily fortified compound.

Iraq's Kurdish region is an important partner for the U.S.-led coalition in its campaign to "degrade and destroy" the Islamic State group, which overran large parts of Iraq last summer and threatened to reach Erbil.

A Reuters witness heard the blast, which was followed by gunfire and a column of black smoke high above the Ankawa district, a predominantly Christian neighborhood packed with cafes popular with foreigners.

"It seems the consulate was the target," Nihad Qoja, the mayor of Erbil's city center, told Reuters.

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Emergency workers gather at the scene of a car bomb in northern city of Irbil, Iraq, Friday, April 1 …

The head of security for Ankawa said three people were killed and 14 wounded.

"They (Islamic State) want to show they are present," Sherzad Farmand said.

Islamic State also claimed responsibility for two car bombings in the Baghdad that killed at least 27 people on Friday.

"The fighters of the Islamic State detonated two car bombs in the heart of the Iraqi capital this evening and a third in Erbil," the group said via its news agency.

U.S. officials said they found the Islamic State claim of responsibility for the Erbil consulate attack credible. "We have no reason to doubt their claim of responsibility," a U.S. counter terrorism official told Reuters.

Such attacks are relatively rare in Kurdistan, which has managed to insulate itself from the worst of the violence afflicting the rest of Iraq.

The last major attack in Erbil, also claimed by Islamic State, was in November, when a suicide car bomber blew himself up outside the governor's office, killing five.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Howard Goller)

Rodrigo Rato, 66, was seen being taken from his Madrid home on Thursday by officers from Spain's tax authorities.

He is already being investigated for fraud over his time as chief executive of the Spanish bank, Bankia, which had to be bailed out by the government.

Mr Rato served as a prominent member of Spain's Popular Party (PP).

He was Spain's finance minister in the conservative government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and later a leading figure under Mr Aznar's successor Mariano Rajoy.

He headed the IMF between 2004 and 2007.

Mr Rato became director of Bankia in 2010, but resigned two years later amid concerns over the bank's ability to stay afloat.

Prosecutors allege that company executives at Bankia misled regulators about the bank's finances. Mr Rato denies any wrongdoing.

Bankia bosses including Mr Rato were also accused of widespread misuse of company credit cards under his leadership.

(BBC News)

Wochit
Iran's Submits Four Point Plan

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Iran on Friday presented a four-point peace plan for Yemen to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, calling for international action to end the "senseless" Saudi-led air campaign on Huthi rebels.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Ban in a letter that Tehran stands ready to help the United Nations restore peace to Yemen, where the rebels have taken over the capital and driven President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi into exile.

Hadi and Gulf allies accuse Iran of arming the Huthis, which Tehran strongly denies.

The four-point plan calls for a ceasefire and immediate end to all foreign military attacks, the urgent delivery of humanitarian and medical aid, a resumption of political talks and the formation of a national unity government.

"It is imperative for the international community to get more effectively involved in ending the senseless aerial attacks and establishing a ceasefire," Zarif wrote.

The foreign minister added that "the only way to restore peace and stability is to allow all Yemeni parties to establish, without any foreign interference, their own inclusive national unity government."

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Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif takes part in a press conference at Necessidades Palac …

Zarif spoke with Ban by phone on Thursday, a UN spokeswoman said.

The Saudi-led coalition pounded Yemen on Friday as the air war entered its fourth week with little sign that the sides were ready to return to peace talks.

Ban has called for an immediate ceasefire, saying the country was "in flames" and all sides must return to political negotiations.

The UN envoy for Yemen, Jamal Benomar, resigned earlier in the week, saying he wanted to move on to a new assignment, but diplomats confirmed that he had lost the support of Yemen's exiled president and Gulf countries.

Saudi Arabia and its neighbors accuse Benomar of being duped by the Shiite Huthis who took part in peace negotiations as they pushed their offensive.

In his letter, Zarif said the situation in Yemen was "extremely alarming" and that the military intervention had destroyed hospitals, schools, food factories and other civilian infrastructure.

"This critical situation is escalating and humanitarian crisis in Yemen is approaching catastrophic dimensions," he added.

The foreign minister warned that the violence was benefiting Al-Qaeda groups in Yemen who were "gaining a strategic foothold in Yemen aided by the foreign aerial campaign."

On Friday, Al-Qaeda overran a key army camp in the Hadramawt provincial capital Mukalla, seizing heavy weapons and consolidating their grip on the city.

Iran presents Yemen peace plan to U.N.

The four-point plan calls for international action to end the "senseless" Saudi-led airstrikes on rebels.
'Critical situation is escalating'