The Truth Behind the Mask - The Imperative of Knowing History

[truthisgold]

I cross post today an urgent message, gleaned from three very well informed journalists who know their history well. Urgency dictates that I introduce them and furnish you with the links from which to read their messages in entirety.

The first, by Eric Margolis, reminds us of Afghanistan's solid history of making mincemeat out of its invaders, from Alexander the Great in 327–325 BC, to the Soviets in 1989, disasters all.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis138.html

In the second, Kevin Barrett reveals in OpEdNews's "Obama: Political Messiah, or Just Another Third World Dictator?" the facts behind the most recent resident of our White House and cites Webster Tarpley's work in detail, Tarpley being among the foremost political and historical researchers of our time. Further research has substantiated the fact that indeed, Tarpley's work is almost faultless in terms of his list of players and the historical context in which they exist.

The third of this terrifying trilogy is Christopher Bollyn's work on Obama’s new budget director Peter R. Orszag.
Oddly, Orszag’s background has received virtually no attention in the media. At this critical moment, however, it would be foolish to ignore the troubling background of Obama’s budget director, which deserves to be looked at very carefully. Orszag, for example, could start by explaining exactly what happened to the Icelandic economy. Orszag was, after all, the founder and president of the economic consultancy firm which advised the Central Bank of Iceland - before it went bankrupt. How did Icelandic banks become so indebted? Ask Peter Orszag.Orszag is an economist who served six years in the Clinton administration (1993-8) under Robert E. Rubin, the former treasury secretary who recently resigned from his senior position at the woefully mismanaged and nearly bankrupt Citigroup. The fact that Orszag was a protégé of the now disgraced Rubin certainly does not bode well for the Obama administration.

Rubin strongly opposed the regulation of derivatives when such regulation was proposed in 1997. Credit derivatives of mortgage-backed securities were the key reason for the recent failure of a number of large financial institutions, including AIG and Citigroup.

In 1999, Rubin joined Citigroup as a board member and a participant "in strategic managerial and operational matters of the Company.” The Wall Street Journal noted that Citigroup shareholders suffered losses of more than 70 percent since Rubin joined the firm and that he encouraged changes that led the firm to the brink of collapse. In December 2008, investors filed a lawsuit contending that Citigroup executives, including Rubin, sold shares at inflated prices while concealing the firm’s risks.

It is only by educating ourselves and others that we can hope to right the wrongs perpetrated against our nation by seeking redress under our Constitution, and keeping a watchful eye on not only our elected, selected and perfected officials, but those whom they would seek to appoint. Lest we, as George Santayana warn, be doomed to repeat it, history must be learned applied to us all through learning, sharing and action.