Europe and America Wrestle over Tighter Financial Regulation

In the wake of the financial crisis, governments in Europe and the US sought to rein in the global banking sector. One year later, little has been accomplished — and success in the near future seems doubtful. Competing oversight visions could increase trans-Atlantic tensions.

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With the revelation of Iran’s secret uranium enrichment facilities, North Korea’s brazen testing of missiles and nuclear weapons, and nuclear-endowed Pakistan’s descent into instability, the urgency of the nuclear proliferation problem has never been greater. Based on his extensive experience in tracking the illicit nuclear trade as one of the world’s foremost proliferation experts, in Peddling Peril David Albright offers a harrowing narrative of the frighteningly large cracks through which nuclear weapons traffickers—such as Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan—continue to slip.

Six years after the arrest of Khan, the networks he established continue to thrive, with black markets sprouting up across the globe. The dramatic takedown of the leader of the world’s largest and most perilous smuggling network was originally considered a model of savvy detection by intelligence and enforcement agencies, including the CIA and MI6. But, as Albright chronicles, the prosecutions of traffickers that were much anticipated have not come to pass, and Khan himself was released from house arrest in February 2009.

Iran, Pakistan, and North Korea all use statesponsored smuggling networks that easily bypass export regulations and avoid detection. Albright illuminates how these networks have learned many ways to trick suppliers across the globe, including many in the United States, into selling them vital parts, and why, despite the fact that, since 2007, several dozen companies have been indicted—with some pleading guilty—for suspicion of participating in illicit trade, very few prosecutions have been achieved.

Peddling Peril charts the dealings of several of these companies. Albright also reports on the hopeful story of the German company Leybold’s decision to become an industry watchdog, and shows how this story reveals just how effective corporate monitoring and government cooperation would be if more serious efforts were made. Concluding with a detailed plan for clamping down tightly on the illicit trade, Albright shows the way forward in the vital mission of freeing the world of this terrifying menace.

Amazon.Com link.

About the Author

David Albright is the president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) and was its founder. He has been quoted over 150 times in the New York Times and Washington Post and has appeared over 200 times on network television news shows, including Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Nightline, NBC Nightly News, and The Lehrer Report. He is one of the world’s most respected and sought-out specialists on nuclear proliferation. He lives in Alexandria, VA.

Today, Peddling Peril becomes available in bookstores in the United States and Canada.  The book, written by David Albright with the assistance of others at ISIS, shows how during the last three decades states have proliferated by using illicit nuclear trade and how not enough has been done to stop this pathway to the bomb. Peddling Peril, which grew out of a multiple year research project at ISIS, draws from a vast amount of documents that range from shipping and procurement manifests, to blueprints, satellite imagery, court files, interviews with involved parties and declassified dossiers.

In support of the book’s release, ISIS is also unveiling a section of its website dedicated to providing interested readers with supplemental materials that enable them to further explore the information and details behind the stories in the book.  An increasing amount of material will become available in the coming months as we add more information and documents and provide continuing coverage of the vital issues raised in this book.

Visit the Peddling Peril section of our website: http://isis-online.org/peddlingperil

The world’s five biggest AAA-rated states are all at risk of soaring debt costs and will have to implement austerity plans that threaten “social cohnesion”, according to a report on sovereign debt by Moody’s.

The US rating agency said the US, the UK, Germany, France, and Spain are walking a tightrope as they try to bring public finances under control without nipping recovery in the bud. It warned of “substantial execution risk” in withdrawal of stimulus.

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Iran attempted to buy a nuclear bomb from Pakistan as early as 1987, a leading Middle East analyst has told Haaretz.

Documents obtained by Simon Henderson, a research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former journalist, offer crucial evidence that Iran’s nuclear program is not wholly for civilian purposes as it claims – but aimed at developing an atomic bomb.

Iran tried to buy nuclear bomb from Pakistan as early as 1987 – Haaretz – Israel News

China has emerged as Iran’s top economic partner, investing heavily in the energy sector and filling the gaps left by Western firms forced out by international sanctions.

In 2009, China became Iran’s premier trade partner, with bilateral trade worth 21.2 billion dollars against 14.4 billion dollars three years earlier.

China takes over from West as Iran’s main economic partner – Yahoo! News

Is Vladimir Putin, Russia’s all-powerful prime minister, in trouble?

Anti-government protests, a rare thing indeed, have begun to draw thousands of people across the country. And on Sunday, United Russia, the party created with the sole purpose of promoting Putin’s agenda, fared far worse than it hoped in regional elections, losing a key mayoral seat and its majority in half of the regions where votes were held.

Russian Election | United Russia | Vladimir Putin

Today, China is heading for another pendulum swing towards economic crisis and anti-Western nationalism. The Shanghai banking sector is filled with corruption, lack of transparency and bad loans. The gap between the booming coastal provinces and the still poor interior remains huge. Communism as an ideology has been displaced by surging nationalism.

A major economic crisis or a war with the United States over Taiwan could trigger the next wild pendulum swing. Either event could topple the current, relatively moderate leadership and produce new leaders who will energetically implement xenophobic and domestically bloody policies.

FOXNews.com – Why Are So Many Americans So Wrong About China?

How long can the United States remain the world’s largest economy as well as the world’s largest debtor?

“Not indefinitely,” suggests former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. “History tells us that great powers when they’ve gotten into very significant fiscal problems have ceased to be great powers.”

Raum: Greece’s crisis could presage America’s | thetowntalk.com | The Town Talk

It seems to this observer that it is only a matter of time before the UK sinks into an irreversible sovereign debt cataclysm, with the United States not far behind. Anyone who believes that the same political establishment and financial elites that have led both nations to this hellish fiscal precipice can now lead us to a sustainable solution is, in all probability, being excessively hopeful.

Sheldon Filger: UK Economic and Debt Crisis Approaches Dangerous Tipping Point

Raising the amount of vitamin D in the blood appears to help some people — at least those deficient in the vitamin — reduce their risk of heart disease by about 30%, researchers announced Monday. The findings, though preliminary, support further investigation of the interplay between vitamin D and heart health.

Vitamin D linked to lower heart disease risk – latimes.com