Was the 2008 Financial Collapse Part of a Terrorist Attack?

According to a 2009 government report commissioned by the Defense Department, Kevin Freeman, the pentagon contractor who wrote the report, says that outside forces coordinated to take what was thought to be a normal downturn into a 50 trillion dollar cash drain from the global economy. Freeman goes on to say that the job is not done yet, and that a massive effort to destroy the U.S. Dollar is the "end game" if the goal is truly to destroy America. Now many have come out to call Freeman's claims ridiculous and wrong-headed, but can you so easily dismiss his report as such? Many agencies and financial institutions are defending themselves from hundreds of hacking attempts each day. Many times, online retailers have customer information stolen off their servers at an alarming rate. The attack, according to the report, was in three parts. First was the intentional rise in oil prices in 2007 that generated as much as 2 trillion dollars for oil nations. The second phase was that undetectable traders attacked the financial institutions such as Bear Sterns and Lehman brothers, in what is described as a raid driving down the prices of their stocks through manipulation of news and complex trades. The third phase is said to be the massive U.S. public debt that now threatens the position of the dollar as the reserve currency, something that is discussed by other nations around the world. One of the problems is that we spend billions of dollars on the weapon systems for the military every year, but spend relatively little on protecting our electronic commerce and financial markets. It would appear that the threat is not being taken seriously as outside analysts insist that nobody wants to go there. The main problem remains that after such an event does take place, you will not only have the incredible loss of money that may be associated with such an attack, but the loss of confidence in the system that has become the backbone of today's commerce, not to mention the financial markets themselves. Either way, this is an issue that can be addressed now, while it is still in the early stages of becoming a major problem, or it can be addressed later when massive damage has already been done and fortunes are lost. I for one hope that this can be addressed now before we find our selves looking in the rear-view mirror.

Counterfeiting and US Currency History

Paper money has been printed and used in the US since before the establishment of the United States as an independent nation. It has undergone many changes during the last two centuries and continues to evolve even today. Most of the major changes, to some degree, have been influenced by the practice of counterfeiting. During the early 1800's, state-chartered banks in the US could issue currency. This not only created many problems with counterfeiting, but also with insolvent banks. This made for a feeling of uncertainty about whether or not the currency you had was worth anything. Eventually, this led to a currency panic and was the impetus for the creation of the National Currency Act, which was renamed the National Banking Act of 1864. This Act took banking out of the hands of individual states and into a network of federally chartered banks that could legally issue currency backed by the Treasury Department. The First National Bank of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was the first to acquire a national charter. Eventually, over 1,500 state banks were converted to federally chartered banks. Even though they were federally backed, bank notes issued by federally chartered banks consisted of independent designs based on the institution. They held the names of the financial institutions that issued them, but universally incorporated the National Treasury Seal, which was intended as a deterrent to counterfeiting. There were different sized bills, typically larger than those we use today. Initially, the currency was printed by independent printing houses, but in 1876 currency printing for all national banks became the responsibility of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, under the direction of the Department of the Treasury. Although the US Mint produces coins, paper money is still produced by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing today, with locations in Washington DC and Fort Worth, Texas. Freeport National Bank, now known as Texas Gulf Bank, was chartered in 1913 and located in Freeport, Texas. It is just one example of the thousands of nationally-chartered banks that issued their own currency under the provisions of the National Currency Act. Examples of $5 and $20 bank notes issued by Freeport National Bank can be found on the Texas Gulf Bank history timeline. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created the nation's first centralized bank to regulate and produce money, called the Federal Reserve. It wasn't until 1929 that the design of paper money was standardized. At that time, the bills were reduced in size to lower the cost of printing, and designs were standardized not only to reduce costs, but to make it easier for the public to recognize counterfeited bills. Federal Reserve Notes are now the only US currency produced. US Currency today continues to change, as the government strives to keep pace with the increasing sophistication of counterfeiting technology. Since 1990, bills have included microprinting and a security thread to make counterfeit bills easier to detect. Over the last 10 years, bills with additional coloring and enhanced security features have been introduced.To date, every denomination has been redesigned except for the one dollar bill (although the new $100 bill has not yet been released due to manufacturing problems). Current projections are that it will be released during 2013. Security features are easily recognizable and can be checked to determine if a bill you have is authentic or counterfeit. Some of the security features currently in use on new currency include:

Financial Terrorism - The Hidden War

When America was hit on 9/11, many people instantly saw the destruction that was inflicted on the country pouring over the news channels. What many people did not see was the massive bets that were placed in the stock markets prior to the terrible events of that day. Short positions taken in the airline sector were just one of the most glaring examples. The government took the threat so serious at the time, that Operation Green Quest was formed just to go after terrorist financing sources. The group was later dismantled in 2003, and the job of finding and tracking these organizations fell back on the shoulders of the FBI and the Department of Justice. The fact of the matter still remains, why is it that we are told about every little incident that is related to the terrorism that we have already been programmed to understand? Events like shoe bombs and plots to blow up buildings or planes, but we are left in the dark when it comes to the plans to take down our financial system. Let me ask you a question. One terrorist blows up plane that takes off from an airport. The second crashes our stock market with the intent of toppling our economy. Which is worse? The loss of life with the explosion of the plane is instant, obvious, and heart breaking for the survivors of their loved ones. The stock market crash is a headline that runs on the evening news and gets a lot less attention. Why? Maybe there is a very good chance that the news will not report that a financial crash is a terrorist attack in the first place, not fully understanding the nature of the crash. It is not as obvious as an airliner burning on the ground. Also, to do so would compromise the confidence in the financial system. And although people will eventually have to fly again, they may not be so eager to put money into a marketplace they know is vulnerable to attacks and may not even be able to be stopped. The impact of a financial attack on the country can wipe out retirement and investment accounts due to losses that can take years to recover from, if at all. This overall has the ability of impacting far more people than the loved ones left in the wake of downing a plane. It's a new world out there, folks, and the ability for nations and organizations to hack into computers and manipulate our markets are growing by the day, in my opinion. So much so that I have created and started to write a fictional series based on these types of financial attacks that have happened and may be more common in our future. When you think of terrorism as it applies to the world of finance, you must forget what you have been told. This is not about a religion or an agenda that is being pushed or protested. This is about money and removing a big player from the world stage-the U.S. Don't think Taliban; think drug cartels and billionaires of opposing countries that have the most to gain by a weakened or hobbled America. They can not only carry out their objective of destroying a country, but they can become extremely wealthy doing it. Sometimes, just the threat alone or the leverage an enemy can hold over a nation or institution can be enough to sway policy or the position a country may hold on a particular matter. Let me ask you another question. They tell us if we see something, to say something. How do you report what can't be seen by the average citizen?