Black Eyed Tales of Faerie

The problem I have with apparent stories of the paranormal is that they are also magnets for fiction writers who swiftly grab the imagery and embellish it all.  Worse, we have exactly one eye witness which is unlikely and when others might be available, they seem to be blind.

This makes the application of my methodology impossible and it is reasonable to conclude this is all a hoax.

However, what we can do is give them the benefit of a doubt for a moment or two.

I note that this particular phenomenon arose first rather recently in 1998.  This article surveys the data a decade later and provides a base line.

I generally class these types of events that also include the ‘men in black’ and ET with his large black eyes and must also include all of faerie from the past as possibly waking dreams.  Somehow when one is possibly on autopilot, the subconscious intrudes with a dream creation whose form is often shaped by other similar tales.  Had the witnesses had these events while clearly asleep, they would have simply been dismissed as dreams and forgotten.  No one gets exercised over dream interpretation these days.

After saying that, the one item that intrudes of import that has my attention is the presence of solid black eyes.  These have an explanation that is far too compelling.  This is the key artificial adaptation necessary for space adapted humanity presently living in space habitats.  Their bodies all appear to be at least trim and they maximize cover or at least that seems to be implied.  Fashion is not understood and many other nuances are forgone.  They appear to also be generally unseen in the normal course of daily traffic suggesting technical means.

All this implies an ongoing presence of field operatives who are among us.  The individual operator may be here quite briefly and does not become acclimatized at all as noted from the interaction.  There obviously could be thousands flowing in and out every day for a range of reasons including tourism.

I suspect that activity may becoming somewhat more open and even visible because it is expected that we will soon be accessing space with our own magnetic exclusion vessels. (MEV)  They may not care too much anymore because they see the end is nigh.

Are Black-Eyed Beings Walking Among Us?

By Ted Twietmeyer

5-6-8

http://www.rense.com/general81/blak.htm

This is perhaps one of the strangest topics which scores about a 20 + on the weirdness scale of 1 to 10.

First, we should take a brief look at some of the characteristics of the human eye as to what's normal and what isn't. The white part of a human eye is called the sclera, which comprises 5/6 of the outer surface of the eye. The sclera is a very thin tissue made of several layers, with a total thickness varying between .3mm and 1mm thick depending on where on the eye it's measured.

I should mention here for reference later that human eyes are filled with a clear, gelatinous material known as the vitreous humor. This material must be crystal-clear to permit the unobstructed passage of light from the rear of the lens to the retina. Some people have "floaters" in their eyes, which are minerals or crystals and may cause strange glints of light when in a brightly lit area.

Regardless of race, most healthy humans have a white color (or nearly white) sclera. Other life-forms such as horses, dogs, lizards etc often have a dark brown or black sclera.

EYE DISEASES

 Fig.1  This child is not a black-eyed being but has a curable illness. The bluish-black sclera in his eyes is a rare disease called alkaptonuria. This child also had black urine as another symptom. He was placed on ascorbic acid and a low protein diet to reverse the condition. However, the sclera does not turn pitch black with this disease. This disease strikes about 1:250,000 and can be treated by diet and drugs. [1]

Health problems such as liver problems or a particular vitamin or diet deficiency can also cause the sclera to become yellow. The sclera can also become yellow in the elderly as a product of fat deposits.

There are special drugs in the form of eye-drops which doctors and researchers use that temporarily cause the white sclera of the eye to become transparent. This permits a doctor or researcher to directly view the retina using off-axis (side view) imaging for diagnosing eye disease, without the limited viewing the retina through the lens and cornea structures of the eye. There is no long- lasting effect from temporarily making the sclera transparent. After a period of time the drug dissipates and the surface of the eye returns to its normal white color.

BLACK-EYED BEINGS

Are there beings or people among us whose sclera, pupils and iris are completely BLACK? We will refer to them as beings, because at this time we really don't know who or what they are. There are numerous eye witness accounts of people like this in almost every location you can imagine, and from many corners of the Earth. We will look at some of those accounts later.

Below are some common characteristics of black-eyed beings I've discovered from examining eyewitness testimony:

* Sometimes the adult or child dresses in attire to fit into the local population, but odd variations can also cause the black-eyed person to stand out. Eyewitness accounts have stated that the clothing is either overly neat as though they are from a by-gone era, or have strange color combinations.

* Black-eyed beings may dress in black or dark clothes

* When black-eyed children approach adults they do not act shy like normal children. Instead, they are often quite forceful about what they want from the adult and may try to intimidate or persuade. These children may be verbally forceful in demanding entry into a home or a vehicle on a public street, but apparently they do not become physical.

* Evil is a common characteristic that eyewitnesses often sense from both black-eyed children and adult beings. However, this feeling is not experienced by every eyewitness.

* In public places such as restaurants or airport gate waiting areas, often people will not sit anywhere near them especially after making eye contact.

* It is possible that some (or all) of these beings do not have a home, and are roaming the Earth endlessly. One eyewitness who was alone with a man in an elevator late at night asked him where he was going. His curt response was "NOWHERE!"

* These beings have been reported by people world-wide, and are not known to originate from any particular location on Earth.

* One eyewitness was in an elevator with a black-eyed being. The following day he checked a security camera videotape but it did not record the presence of the black-eyed being in the elevator. Only the eyewitness was seen alone on the videotape.

* A common occurrence among children with black eyes is to ask permission to enter a vehicle or a home. Apparently there are certain laws these beings must follow, such as being invited in. What's interesting is that this law requiring permission is known to apply to supernatural evil, such as demons. If laws ruling supernatural interference did not exist, then all of humankind would be in utter chaos and terror, and society could never develop to the level of what it is today.

* Solid form - unlike ghosts or other disembodied entities, eyewitness accounts have not spoken of transparency. These black- eyed beings appear to be solid and can speak verbally, although this does not negate a supernatural origin.

* Some accounts indicate that at least some of these beings have olive colored skin.

* Eyewitness accounts of these beings often take place at night or inside buildings. Perhaps they cannot tolerate direct sunlight.

* Black-eyed adults could be related to the "Men in black" (MIB) who have also appeared with pitch black eyes to intimidate UFO witnesses. MIB often appeared to those who make it past a close encounter of the first kind. There haven't been any new accounts of MIB visits in recent years that I know of. Perhaps these black- eyed beings are of the same race as the MIB, who may now be unemployed.

Many years ago we had a relative who was an albino (now deceased.) An albino is the result of a genetic mutation that prevents pigment generation anywhere in the body. Her skin was extremely light, almost white but slightly pink as a result of no pigmentation to fully cover the fine blood vessels. Her hair was always white even when she was quite young. The sclera of her eyes was basically devoid of all white color, resulting in a pinkish-red color from the coloring of blood vessels in the thin sclera. However, she did not normally wear glasses as her vision was close to normal. This is mentioned here to show that human beings who are albino would be at the far opposite end of the spectrum from black-eyed beings.

In black-eyed beings, apparently the sclera is black as well as the pupil and iris. Witnesses are probably not seeing the retina directly. Humans have the classic red-eye in photographs as a result of flash photography. To see into the eye of a black-eyed being would probably require a similar intense on-axis light source. However, if eyewitnesses can actually see a black retina as some have claimed, then the retina of these beings must absorb light even better than the eyes of human beings.

Late at night in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle on a highway deer, opossums and other animals have eyes (retinas) have a green or red color. This is a retro-reflection from the animal's retina. It is similar to how a reflector on a bicycle or driveway marker reflector works. Human beings have a non-reflective retina, reflecting back only about 1% of the light that enters the eye.

One might dismiss these strange black-eyed people as a rare genetic mutation, except for one simple fact that apparently no one talks about  If both the sclera is black AND the vitreous humor inside the eye is black as well, these beings would almost certainly have to be blind since no light could reach the retina through black vitreous humor.

EYE WITNESS ACCOUNTS

Below are some relevant excerpts from several very lengthy eyewitness accounts.

(A note here to the grammar nit-pickers: There are grammatical, typographical errors and other problems in these accounts, but these statement extracts have been retained as the eyewitness has written them to avoid changing any intended meaning. I have added a few statements in parentheses for clarity. If I've made errors myself in this essay, forget about it!)

AT HOME LATE ONE NIGHT

A lady named Adele was at home when two boys knocked on her door at 11PM at night. What follows is a verbatim excerpt from her testimony. After a long introduction Adele began to describe the boy's details:

"He was young boy of about 17 or 18, approximately," Tee says. "He asked me about an open apartment for rent. I remember feeling very scared and shaken by his appearance. He did not look weird by his dress or such. It was his eyes. I remember feeling the hair on my neck stand up, and I was shaking just from looking in his eyes."

Like Chris, Tee also felt that deep sense of malevolence. "I could not look him straight in the eyes," she says. "I felt like I was about to die. Now, some people may think that I was just over- reacting or something, but the eyes were completely black  like there was no real pupil. He spoke normally to me, but I had to just shut the door in his face and get as far from him as I could. I felt like I was in extreme danger." [2]

(What might have happened to Adele if these children were allowed entry into her home?)

MAN SITTING IN A CAR ON A STREET

In this incident which took place in Abilene, Texas, a journalist was in his parked car late at night writing a check to pay an internet bill at a drop box when two children approached him for help, knocking on his car window. They were asking for a ride home to retrieve money from their mother to see a popular movie, at the movie theater close to the parked vehicle. What made this event highly unusual to the witness was that these children asked for a ride home when the final showing of the film was already half over. The following is a verbatim excerpt from his account. One of the two boys is identified as the "the spokesman" by the eyewitness. He is the only boy who talked during the discussion. When the eyewitness was reluctant to let the boys into his car they persisted. Here are his words:

"C'mon, mister. Let us in. We can't get in your car until you do, you know," the spokesman said soothingly.

(Note the child was apparently following the unspoken law that permission must be granted first as indicated by the statement "We can't get in your car until you do, you know." The testimony continues)

"Just let us in, and we'll be gone before you know it. We'll go to our mother's house." We locked eyes. To my horror, I realized my hand had strayed toward the door lock (which was engaged) and was in the process of opening it. I pulled it away, probably a bit too violently. But it did force me to look away from the children. I turned back. "Er ... Um ...," I offered weakly and then my mind snapped into sharp focus.

For the first time I noticed their eyes. They were coal black. No pupil. No iris. Just two staring orbs reflecting the red and white light of the marquee. At that point, I know my expression betrayed me. The silent one had a look of horror on his face in a combination that seemed to indicate: A) The impossible had just happened and we've been found out!" The spokesman, on the other hand, wore a mask of anger. His eyes glittered brightly in the half- light. "Cmon, mister," he said. "We won't hurt you. You have to LET US IN. We don't have a gun."

That last statement scared the living hell out of me, because at that point by his tone he was plainly saying, "We don't NEED a gun." He noticed my hand shooting down toward the gear shift. The spokesman's final words contained an anger that was complete and whole, and yet contained in some respects a tone of panic:

"WE CAN'T COME IN UNLESS YOU TELL US IT'S OKAY. LET ... US .... IN!"

I ripped the car into reverse (thank goodness no one was coming up behind me) and tore out of the parking lot.

(Question is - do these boys actually have a home? What might have happened to the eyewitness IF they were allowed entry into his vehicle?)

AIRLINE PASSENGER

In another work-for-word account a black-eyed man boarded a commercial airliner. Apparently some sort of mind control was being used, as flight attendants and the captain all saw different colors in this same man's eyes, including pitch black:

I glanced up just in time to see a late arriving passenger, noting his well-appointed leather jacket, pants and shoes all were nice complimentary shades of brown. His haircut was in the European cut with tendrils on the nape, instead of the precise American haircut. I froze as I looked into his eyes. They were black in entirety. He looked European or a light Arabian. I don't remember seeing the white part of his eyes.

Flight attendant continues) That man is very scary, I am so afraid. I was very frightened too, ready to pee my pants. I laid my arm on the door ledge and watch out the porthole and wondered if we would survive this trip. The feeling was unanimous with the other girls and we were on total edge. I was pondering why each of us thought his eyes were a different color.

(Later in the flight she describes the man's eyes) We were so distressed that the Captain put on his hat to come out for a look. That passenger closed his eyes and appeared to be sleeping. We landed without ado and matter of fact, the airplane emptied in world record time about 2-3-minutes. This man was coming and the Captain was saying goodbye. I refused and hopped back into the galley. I whispered, "Here he comes and I watched the Captain as all the color drained from his face, when the man passed out the door. The captain said, WOW...whoa that was a strange man!

(If this black-eyed man was not human, how did he obtain a boarding pass?)

BANK BUILDING IN AUSTRALIA

Here is another verbatim extract from a story about a strange man seen in an elevator in a bank building, as told by the bank executive who worked late that evening:

I found to my surprise that a few people have had similar experiences regarding people with pitch-black eyes. Unlike some, though, I didn't feel a sense of dread or a feeling that I was about to die. I felt more an awareness and discomfort, like when you see someone advance angrily toward you only to walk past you.

Anyway, it was September 2, 2000, and one of the roles as an executive is you sometimes have to put in really late nights. My office was on the fifth floor and it was coming up to 12 in the morning. I was the only employee, as far as I know, on the first five floors apart from Ben, another fellow banker on my floor and Stan, who is a security officer.

(He continues after a lengthy introduction) The elevator stops at floor 2 and in comes a tall man with more or less a black crew-cut. The first thing I did was open my mouth to ask what sector he was from and who gave him permission, but as I looked into his eyes they where entirely black. The pupils, the retinas everything. I remember not really being spooked about his eyes. To be honest, I just thought he might've had a disability in his eyes. As the elevator slowly starts up moving back on route, he asked me where I was going, and I simply replied, "home." He then asked why, and I more or less laughed and just said I want to go to sleep and see my wife. He then just mummered very softly, like he was talking to himself, "It must be nice to have a home."

I figured he was just being friendly and that he must be renting. As we got to B1, I realized he hadn't pushed the button on where he was going, so I asked, "Where are you going?" to which he replied rather angrily looking at me with his creepy eyes, "Nowhere."

(At this point, the eyewitness stated he ran to his car. When he looked behind him, he noticed the strange man in the elevator did not get out. He continues on with his account)

Now the real freaky part. As I drove down the street, all the lights were out - and this is in Sydney (city of NSW). Then I turn... and guess who is walking just ahead of the car - our favorite black-eyed man! No need to say, I sped home, probably breaking five road laws. How could he have left the building and be ahead of me when he had no car, and went up to floor 6?

It gets weirder. On the videotapes and records, there shows no one using the elevator at that time apart from me.

BLACK EYED BEING IN STARBUCKS

Witness begins her statement that it was a nice sunny day in November and she had been out running some errands. No country, state or city is given but it may have be in the United States. Although it was November, the black-eye being wore no coat or jacket. Perhaps this took place in the southern United States:

I got my tea, headed out the door, had to stop and organize myself as my keys migrated to the bottom of the purse and I still had to get my wallet in! So I plopped the stuff down on an open table and tried to get my act together. I felt like I was being watched, so turned around to give whatever

to the perv that I assumed was watching me, and the smart aleck remark died in my mouth as I caught sight of him and made (inadvertent) eye contact.

I should note here: I did not see anything unusual in his manner of dress. Jeans, black shirt, lightweight black jacket, (no hat, no overcoat) not unusual dress. His hair was almost black, but didn't look any darker than my boyfriend's hair (boyfriend is of Japanese descent). His skin tone was a bit olive and pale but not overly so. It was the eyes and the aura, coming off of him that scared me.

The eyes, blacker than black, no white at all, wall to wall black, and I just felt a darkness around him, an evil. As I looked in his eyes, I somehow KNEW that was not a human soul occupying that body, and I felt that he knew that I knew that he was not human.

Interesting side note: three open tables around the table "he" was sitting at, were empty, and stayed empty. People would just come out the door, look in that direction, and leave. No one would sit near "him".

I got the feeling that "he" was amused by this. That he could keep humanity away and he was challenging me, "Are you going to run away too?" My reply was "I am leaving because I was planning on leaving." (All this was telepathic.)

BLACK-EYED WOMAN SEEN IN MICHIGAN

A woman and her husband stopped at their usual rest stop in Michigan on the way to their second home for a short vacation. Below is an excerpt from her account:

My husband and I were on our way up north on I-75 during the afternoon. Luckily, it was not at our normal time in the evening. We have a little place in northern lower Michigan, and often go up there for the weekends. As was our custom, we pulled in at our usual rest stop, and I went into the women's restroom.

As I was preparing to leave the room, I suddenly noticed a thin, dark-haired woman standing alone and starring directly at me. I instantly felt a terrible

sense of dread, as though there was something deeply unnatural about her. I then noticed the eyes which had been staring coldly at me, and they were completely black. I saw no color whatsoever, and no pupils. I felt an extremely strong need to get away from her as quickly as possible, as there was something quietly threatening about her. Her stare was devoid of any emotion other than something very cold and disconnected.

My instant and unwavering feeling during this whole experience was that she was not human. I don't know what me made feel this so strongly, but it was my most singular, strongest sense while looking at her. There also was something almost predatory about her, as though she was homing in on prey while she stood there so still. I also had a strange sense of her feeling superior or stronger in some way. Again, the sense of a predator watching its prey.

I left as quickly as possible, showing as little reaction to her as possible. It seemed important, for some unknown reason, for me to act unaffected by her while in her presence. I felt a huge sense of relief as I got back into the car and left. I have to say that this was one of the most memorable brief experiences I've ever had around a person, especially a stranger. I have never been able to shake the unexplainable feeling that she wasn't human.

BLACK EYED CHILD SEEN AT YMCA IN CALIFORNIA

Here is yet another verbatim extract from a sighting in Encinitas, California:

(After her introduction she continues) I work at the local YMCA as a youth counselor, one night as I sat in the parking lot clearing room on the seat next to me for my friend to sit down this kid comes up to the side of the car, immediately as this kid gets near us we can tell something is wrong, my friend just hopped into the back of the car and we lock all the doors. The kid didn't say anything, but before I realized it I had rolled down the window, when I got a closer look at the kid I was alarmed at how young he looked, I'd say about 7-10 years old.

He was your average very blonde white kid, pale skin, but he gave off a terrible aura of bad things. He told me to let him in the car, never giving a reason, I was compelled by some force to open the door, but my friend kept telling me "there's no more room" The kid began to repeat this phrase back, sounding very angry. "NO MORE ROOM, NO MORE ROOM" at this point he and I made eye contact, I saw that his eyes were fully black, no whites to

them at all. He grabbed my arm through the window, and dug his fingernails into my forearm, his skin was cold. I shoved him from the window and shouted "THERE'S NO MORE ROOM" and slammed my foot on the accelerator. We drove over the curb and flattened a bush before leaving the parking lot, as we sped towards my friend's house we saw this kid twice, once at a fruit stand, and again at a red light.

(Two days later another black-eyed child appears outside the eyewitness's home)

We go back to watching the movie when there is a knock on the door. Not just one or two, but a knock that you get when someone is angry with you, like when the government comes in all the movies. I look out the peephole and see no one, so I opened the door. Standing there is a teenage kid, pale skin, jet black hair. I ask him if he needs help, and he told me he needed a telephone. This kid looks fairly straight-edge, he looks like the type you can trust, I get no bad aura from him, and I'm about to let him in when I notice his eyes. Deep black, just like the kid in the parking lot. I slam the door in his face, and look out the peephole, I still see no one through it. [3]

**

Are all of these eyewitness accounts fiction?

This seems unlikely as those who wrote them were not seeking fame or fortune, so what could possibly be a motive to fabricate these stories? Most likely, there are thousands or tens of thousands of these sightings but most people haven't taken the time to document them, or know where they can be posted.

There are common characteristics to each of these eyewitness accounts of something that often triggers a human innate sense of evil, fear, night time appearances, a certain peculiar forcefulness and sometimes a sense of terror of the unknown.

Perhaps these black-eyed beings are one of the 63 races visiting Earth (this was the last total known according to a retired Air Force officer friend of mine.) Or maybe these beings have the ability to come and go from another dimension that co-exists with ours, which is hopefully not hell.

If these black-eyed beings are not human but are inter-dimensional, alien or of supernatural origin it might explain why they do not appear on a video recording in at least one case. Yet these beings are real, physically exist and communicate with people according to eyewitness accounts.

Data4science.net recently sent out a request for additional eyewitness testimony to almost 1,000 volunteers who are signed up with the website. It is still a bit too early to tell if anyone in the list has encountered these beings, or if they will share their story.

Herman Melville once said, "The eye is the gateway to the soul." If the eye of these beings really is completely black, then this might be an ominous message about who these beings are.

Here are a few parting positive thoughts:

Edward R. Murrow  "The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer."

Bill Cosby - "Every closed eye is not sleeping, and every open eye is not seeing."

Daryl Ryman  "Your mind is your best camera . . . Go out and take some beautiful pictures."

And finally

"Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different."

- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine

At this point in time, I'm not categorically saying black-eyed beings exist. Time will tell. If you have experienced seeing one of these beings, please write me with all the details you can remember including city, state and country. Names will be withheld.

We'll include your story anonymously in an update if sufficient feedback from readers is received, or new evidence is discovered.

Ted Twietmeyer

© 2008

tedtw@frontiernet.net

www.data4science.net

[1] https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/5513/1/ dv05060.pdf

[2] http://paranormal.about.com/od/humanenigmas/a/aa090406.htm

[3] http://www.freewebs.com/thekingofwolves/index.htm

Iran is a Buy

I learned a long time ago that the best way to gather intelligence on a country is to tune into their markets.  Even boots on the ground cannot compete with thousands of locally informed investment decisions.  One can even sense pending shifts or even black swans.  I have picked off a few over the years.  The only question is always what?

For what it is worth we are approaching a bullish phase for resource stocks, although this may be at the expense of general markets and continuing unemployment woes in the US.  The USA continues to track the development of a full blown depression based economy similar to 1929 through 1932.  Failure to resolve the foreclosure crisis has hamstrung the economy and I see only fools in charge who will never give up their positions.  If anything Obama is far less prepared that Herbert Hoover.

In Iran, the money is betting that whack job and the blind mullahs cannot hold it together any longer.  The only question is what will tip it over.

I have not looked at the available stocks, but the telecommunication companies are a good place to start.  When money disappears, they can accept chickens and pay folks in chickens every day and still come out like bandits.

Iran is a Buy

By Christian A. DeHaemer | Friday, August 6th, 2010

In yet another example of why sanctions don't work, the Tehran Stock Exchange  (TSE) is booming. In fact, the TSE just hit a record high, and it remains one of the most undervalued markets on Earth.

You know the deal...

Iran has been a supporter of terrorism for the past forty years. The current president is a rabble-rouser who plays to his most conservative Islamic base. He denies the holocaust, and threatens to destroy Israel on a regular basis.

He steals elections.  His thugs in the militia beat and jail students who protested the sullied election. His judges sentence females accused of adultery to death by burying them up to the waist, and having their neighbors throw rocks at their heads.

Iran will have the bomb

On top of this, Iran is actively seeking the atomic bomb.  And in a year or two they will have it.  There is nothing to stop them from getting this weapon, just like there was nothing to stop India, Pakistan, North Korea or Israel.  But that's not going to stop the powers that be from posturing like a guinea hen.

In fact, the U.S. believes Iran is such a threat that it has built up bases and carrier groups completely surrounding the country.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen, said last week on "Meet the Press" that the Pentagon has plans for attacking Iran and that "military actions have been on the table and remain on the table."

CIA Director Leon Panetta, in late June, appeared on ABC's "This Week" and carefully hinted at covert war options against Iran's nuclear ambitions.

And the United Nations has written a strongly-worded letter and offered up a fourth round of sanctions on high-tech and military goods. Hillary Clinton gave away who-knows-what to get the Russians on board.

It is not working

Despite all the saber rattling and jawboning, Iran remains uncowed.

In fact, judging by the stock market, Iran is doing just fine. The Tehran Stock Exchange hit an all time high on Monday and is up more than 60% this year.

Furthermore, the TSE remains ridiculously undervalued.

The average price to earnings ratio is 5.5, and the average dividend yield is 15.8%. This is the average of 337 companies listed with a total market capitalization of $70 billion.  The average.

That's incredibly cheap for the country that ranks third in the world in terms of petroleum and natural gas reserves.

In fact, the Tehran Stock Exchange's main index is up 27% since March 21 – about the time the saber rattling began.

This is because while the U.S. and Europe are trying to "put the pressure" on Iran, the leaders in the country are making it easier for foreigners to invest.

In fact, in the new sanctions there are no restrictions for foreign investors to invest in Iran. Capital gains taxes have been cut to zero.  And as far as I can tell there are no restrictions on investing in Iran.

According to Reuters the sanctions are as follows:

The U.S. effectively deprived foreign banks of access to the U.S. financial system if they do business with key Iranian banks or Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.

And EU measures set limits on the transfer of funds into Iran, requiring any transfer of over 40,000 euros to have prior government authorization.

Despite these sanctions Iran is taking a different course than America - Iran is trending toward capitalism.  Iran will raise $12.5 billion this year by selling state firms, including two refineries.  I forget how much Bush and Obama paid for GM, AIG, Freddie, Fannie, etc.  Was it billions or trillions?

The truth is that Iran was the only country in the Middle East to hold candlelight vigils after 9/11.  The vast majority of the country (two-thirds, or some 50 million people), is under the age of 30.  They do not remember the Islamic revolution in the 1970s, nor do they care.

They want what we all want: peace, prosperity and freedom.  And they will get it along with the bomb.

Despite what you may have heard, the atomic bomb has brought more peace for longer than any other item, thing or philosophy in history.  In ancient Rome, the doors to the Temple of Janus were closed when Rome was at peace.  They were closed on five occasions for a total of twelve years. 

And as an aside, the Samurai sword killed far more people in WWII than the atomic bomb did.  And the Roman short sword, or gladius, has killed more people than any weapon ever devised.

My point is that Pakistan and India used to go up 16,000 feet in the Hindu Kush and lob artillery shells at each other in the dead of winter.  They were arguing over a boundary line in a piece of territory that no one could ever use or inhabit.

Since they both got the bomb all they do is strut at the border like chickens. 

 Don’t get me wrong, there are obvious political risks to investing in Iran.  But right now there is tremendous upside.  The more sanctions you put on the country the more they will pull their money back home.  The political situation can’t be worse, so it will likely get better.  They will find a Mikhail Gorbachev.  Oil and gas will not get cheaper.  No one can beat a diversified 15% dividend yield.

If I can find a way in I’m betting on Iran.  I’m currently looking into ways to invest.  I’m rounding up my contacts as we speak (if you know anyone who can buy Iranian stocks drop me a line).

The only way I know how to play it is indirectly by buying the Wisdom Tree Middle East ETF (NASDAQ: GULF), which I told you was a buy last week.  GULF is far from a pure play however. 

I’ll find a way sooner or later.  And as I wait, I’ll be happy knowing my other frontier market, Mongolia, has given my readers 727% gains in six months.  The best way to make the most money in stocks is to get there first with the most.  I've done it in South Africa, Libya, and Mongolia.  I’ll do it in Iran as well.

Keep in touch,

Christian DeHaemer

Energy & Capital

Ellen Brown on the Sovereign Debt Trap

I have to thank Ellen Brown for digging up some of the history of State reserve banking through the past century which has been often clouded with misrepresentations and sheer ignorance even among supposed insiders.

Read this and ponder.  Today our private banking system has blown them selves up and is struggling to return to a sound capital base.  This makes it difficult to expand.  We most need the States to form State banks and deposit the States cash resources therein while promoting citizen deposits also.  The mortgage business alone would support this base.

At least this continues to show a way forward in this era of banking crisis.

Escaping the Sovereign Debt Trap: The Remarkable Model of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia

By Ellen Brown

URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20473

The current credit crisis is basically a capital crisis: at a time when banks are already short of the capital needed to back their loans, capital requirements are being raised.   Nearly a century ago, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia demonstrated that banks do not actually need capital to make loans – so long as their credit is backed by the government.  Denison Miller, the Bank’s first Governor, was fond of saying that the Bank did not need capital because “it is backed by the entire wealth and credit of the whole of Australia .”  With nothing but this national credit power, the Commonwealth Bank funded both massive infrastructure projects and the country’s participation in World War I.  

President John Adams is quoted as saying, “There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation.  One is by the sword.  The other is by debt.” The major conquests today are on the battlefield of debt, a war that is raging globally.  Debt forces individuals into financial slavery to the banks, and it forces governments to relinquish their sovereignty to their creditors, which in the end are also private banks, the originators of all non-cash money today.  In Great Britain , where the Bank of England is owned by the government, 97% of the money supply is issued privately by banks as loans.  In the U.S. , where the central bank is owned by a private consortium of banks, the percentage is even higher.  The Federal Reserve issues Federal Reserve Notes (or dollar bills) and lends them to other banks, which then lend them at interest to individuals, businesses, and local and federal governments.   

That is true today, but in the past there have been successful models in which the government itself issued the national currency, whether as paper notes or as the credit of the nation.  A stellar example of this enlightened approach to money and credit was the Commonwealth Bank of Australia , which operated successfully as a government-owned bank for most of the 20th century.  Rather than issuing “sovereign debt” – federal bonds indebting the nation to pay at interest in perpetuity – the government through the Commonwealth Bank issued “sovereign credit,” the credit of the nation advanced to the government and its constituents. 

The Bank’s achievements were particularly remarkable considering that for its first eight years, from 1912 to 1920, it did not have the power to issue the national currency, and it operated without startup capital.  Sir Denison Miller, Governor of the Bank from its creation in 1912 to 1923, was quoted in the Australian Press on July 7, 1921 as saying, “The whole of the resources of Australia are at the back of this bank, and so strong as this continent is, so strong is the Commonwealth Bank. Whatever the Australian people can intelligently conceive in their minds and will loyally support, that can be done.”

This was not just hype.  In a 2001 article titled “How Money Is Created in Australia ,” David Kidd wrote of the Bank’s early accomplishments:

“ Australia ’s own government-established Commonwealth Bank achieved some impressive successes while it was ‘the peoples’ bank’, before being crippled by later government decisions and eventually sold.  At a time when private banks were demanding 6% interest for loans, the Commonwealth Bank financed Australia ’s first world war effort from 1914 to 1919 with a loan of $700,000,000 at an interest rate of a fraction of 1%, thus saving Australians some $12 million in bank charges.  In 1916 it made funds available in London to purchase 15 cargo steamers to support Australia ’s growing export trade.  Until 1924 the benefits conferred upon the people of Australia by their Bank flowed steadily on. It financed jam and fruit pools to the extent of $3 million, it found $8 million for Australian homes, while to local government bodies, for construction of roads, tramways, harbours, gasworks, electric power plants, etc., it lent $18.72 million.  It paid $6.194 million to the Commonwealth Government between December, 1920 and June, 1923 - the profits of its Note Issue Department - while by 1924 it had made on its other business a profit of $9 million, available for redemption of debt.  The bank’s independently-minded Governor, Sir Denison Miller, used the bank’s credit power after the First World War to save Australians from the depression conditions being imposed in other countries. . . . By 1931 amalgamations with other banks made the Commonwealth Bank the largest savings institution in Australia , capturing 60% of the nation’s savings.”

Harnessing the Secret Power of Banking for the Public Good

The Commonwealth Bank was able to achieve so much with so little because both its first Governor, Denison Miller, and its first and most ardent proponent, King O’Malley, had been bankers themselves and knew the secret of banking: that banks create the “money” they lend simply by writing accounting entries into the deposit accounts of borrowers. 

This banking secret was confirmed by a number of early banking insiders.  In a 1998 paper titled “Manufacturing Money,” Australian economist Mike Mansfield quoted the Rt. Hon. Reginald McKenna, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, who told shareholders of the Midland Bank on January 25, 1924, “I am afraid the ordinary citizen will not like to be told that the banks can, and do, create and destroy money. The amount of money in existence varies only with the action of the banks in increasing or decreasing deposits and bank purchases. We know how this is effected. Every loan, overdraft or bank purchase creates a deposit, and every repayment of a loan, overdraft or bank sale destroys a deposit.”

Dr. Coombs, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia , said in an address at Queensland University on September 15, 1954, “[W]hen money is lent by a bank it passes into the hands of the person who borrows it without anybody having less. Whenever a bank lends money there is therefore, an increase in the total amount of money available.”

Ralph Hawtrey, Assistant Under Secretary to the British Treasury in the 1930s, wrote in Trade Depression and the Way Out, “When a bank lends, it creates money out of nothing.”  In his book The Art of Central Banking, Hawtrey clarified this, writing, “When a bank lends, it creates credit.  Against the advance which it enters amongst its assets, there is a deposit entered in its liabilities. But other lenders have not the mystical power of creating the means of payment out of nothing. What they lend must be money that they have acquired through their economic activities.”

Banks can do what no one else can: “create the means of payment out of nothing.”  The Commonwealth Bank’s far-sighted founders roped this guarded banking secret into the public service.

The Bank Collapse of 1893 Spawns a New Public Banking Model

The Commonwealth Bank was founded under conditions like those prevailing today: the country had just suffered a massive banking collapse.  In the 1890s, however, there was no FDIC insurance, no social security, no unemployment insurance to soften the blow.  People who thought they were well off suddenly found they had nothing.  They could not withdraw their funds, write checks on their accounts, or sell their products or their homes, since there was no money with which to buy them.  Desperate people were leaping from bridges or throwing themselves in front of trains. Something had to be done.

The response of the Labor government was to pass a bill in 1911 which included a provision for a publicly-owned bank that would be backed by the assets of the government.  In a rare move for the time, the bank was to have both savings and general bank business.  It was also the first bank in Australia to receive a federal government guarantee.

Jack Lang was Australia ’s Treasurer in the Labor government of 1920-21 and Premier of New South Wales during the Great Depression.  A controversial figure, he was relieved of his duties after he repudiated loans owed to the London bankers.  In The Great Bust: The Depression of the Thirties (McNamara’s Books, Katoomba, 1962), Lang described the Commonwealth Bank’s triumphs and tribulations in revealing detail.  He wrote:

“The Labor Party decided that a National Bank, backed with the assets of the Government, would not fail in times of financial stress. It also realised that such a bank would be a guarantee that money would be found for home building and other needs. After the collapse of the building societies, there was a great scarcity of money for such purposes.

“. . . Chief advocate of the cause of a Commonwealth Bank was King O’Malley, a colorful Canadian-American . . . Before coming to Australia , he had worked in a small New York bank, owned by an uncle. . . . He had been much impressed by the way that his uncle had created credit. A bank could create the credit, and at the same time manufacture the debit to balance it. That was the big discovery of O’Malley’s banking career. A born showman, he itched to try it out on a grand scale. He started his political career in South Australia by advocating a State Commercial Bank. In 1901 he went into the first Federal Parliament as a one-man pressure group to establish a Commonwealth Bank, and joined the Labor Party for that purpose.” 

King O’Malley insisted that the Commonwealth Bank had to control the issue of its own notes, but he lost on that point – until 1920, when the Bank did take over the issuance of the national currency, just as the U.S. Federal Reserve was authorized to do in 1913.  That was the beginning of the Commonwealth Bank’s central bank powers.  But even before it had that power, the Bank was able to fund infrastructure and defense on a massive scale, and it did this without startup capital.  These achievements were chiefly due to the insights and boldness of the Bank’s first Governor, Denison Miller. 

The other bankers, fearing competition, had thought that by getting one of their own men in as the bank’s governor, they could keep it in line.  But they had not reckoned on their independent appointee, who saw the opportunity posed by a government-backed bank and set out to make it the finest institution the country had ever known.  As Lang tells the story:  

“The first test came when a decision was required regarding the amount of capital needed to start a bank of that kind. Under the Act, the Commonwealth had the right to sell and issue debentures totalling £1 million. Some even thought that amount of capital would be insufficient, having in mind what had happened in 1893. . . .

“When Denison Miller heard of it, his reply was that no capital was needed.”

Miller was wary of going to the politicians for money.  He could get by without capital.  Like King O’Malley, he knew how banking worked. (This, of course, was before the modern-day capital requirements imposed from abroad by the central banker’s bank, the Bank for International Settlements.)  Lang went on: 

“Miller was the only employee. He found a small office . . . and asked the Treasury for an advance of £10,000. That was probably the first and last time that the Commonwealth lent the Bank any money. From then on, it was all in the reverse direction.

“. . . By January, 1913 [Miller] had completed arrangements to open a bank in each State of the Commonwealth, and also an agency in London . . . . [O]n January 20th, 1913 he made a speech declaring the new Commonwealth Bank open for business. He said:

“‘This bank is being started without capital, as none is required at the present time, but it is backed by the entire wealth and credit of the whole of Australia .’

“In those few simple words was the charter of the Bank, and the creed of Denison Miller, which he never tired of reciting. He promised to provide facilities to expand the natural resources of the country, and it would at all times be a people's bank. ‘There is little doubt that in time it will be classed as one of the great banks of the world,’ he added prophetically.

“. . . Slowly it began to dawn on the private banks that they may have harbored a viper. They had been so intent on the risks of having to contend with bank socialisation that they didn’t realise they had much more to fear from competition by an orthodox banker, with the resources of the country behind him.

“. . . One of the first demonstrations of his vigor came when the Melbourne Board of Works went on the market for money to redeem old loans, and also to raise new money. Up to that time, apart from Treasury Bills and advances by their own Savings Banks, Governments had depended on overseas loans from London . . . . In addition to stiff underwriting charges, they found that the best they could expect would be £1 million at 4 per cent., at 97 1/2 net.

“They then decided to approach Denison Miller, who had promised to provide special terms for such bodies. He immediately offered to lend them £3 millions at 95 on which the interest rate would be 4 per cent. They immediately clinched the deal. Asked where his very juvenile bank had raised all that money, Miller replied, ‘On the credit of the nation. It is unlimited.’”

Another major test came in 1914 with the First World War: 

“The first reaction was the risk that people might start rushing to the banks to withdraw their money. The banks realised that they were still vulnerable if that happened. They were still afraid of another Black Friday.

“There was a hurried meeting of the principal bankers. Some reported that there were signs that a run was already starting. Denison Miller then said that the Commonwealth Bank on behalf of the Commonwealth would support any bank in difficulties. . . . That was the end of the panic. But it put Miller on the box seat. Now, for the first time, the Commonwealth Bank was taking the lead. It was giving, not taking, orders. . . .

“Denison Miller . . . was virtually in control of the financing of the war. The Government didn’t know how it was going to be achieved. Miller did.”

And so this interesting story continues.  Miller died in 1923, and in 1924 the bankers got back in control, throttling the activities of the Commonwealth Bank and preventing it from saving Australians from the ravages of the 1930s Depression.  In 1931, the bank board came into conflict with the Labor government of James Scullin.  The Bank’s chairman refused to expand credit in response to the Great Depression unless the government cut pensions, which Scullin refused to do. Conflict surrounding this issue led to the fall of the government, and to demands from Labor for reform of the bank and more direct government control over monetary policy.

The Commonwealth Bank received almost all of the powers of a central bank in emergency legislation passed during World War II, and at the end of the war it used this power to begin a dramatic expansion of the economy. In just five years, it opened hundreds of branches throughout Australia .  In 1958 and 1959, the government split the bank, giving the central bank function to the Reserve Bank of Australia , with the Commonwealth Banking Corporation retaining its commercial banking functions.  Both banks, however, remained publicly-owned. 

Eventually, the Commonwealth Bank had branches in every town and suburb; and in the bush, it had an agency in every post office or country store.  As the largest bank in the country, it set the rates and set policy, which the others had to follow for fear of losing customers.  The Commonwealth Bank was widely perceived to be an insurance policy against abuse by private banks, serving to ensure that everyone had access to equitable banking.  It functioned as a wholly owned state bank until the 1990s, when it was privatized.  Its focus then changed to maximization of profits, with steady and massive branch and agency closures, staff layoffs, and reduced access to Automated Teller Machines and to cash from supermarket checkouts.  It has now become just another part of the banking cartel, but proponents say it was once the lifeblood of the country. 

Today there is renewed interest in reviving a publicly-owned bank in Australia on the Commonwealth Bank model.  The United States and other countries would do well to consider this option too.

Special thanks to Peter Myers for reproducing major portions of Jack Lang’s book in his weekly newsletter. 

Ellen Brown developed her research skills as an attorney practicing civil litigation in Los Angeles . In Web of Debt, her latest of eleven books, she turns those skills to an analysis of the Federal Reserve and “the money trust.” She shows how this private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves, and how we the people can get it back. Her websites are www.webofdebt.com, www.ellenbrown.com, and www.public-banking.com.

Texas Photos IX

I think my friend has slowed down on his hobby.  here are a few>