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Le pentagone vient de “craquer” devant l’enquête de CBS, et reconnait que le nombre de soldats US tués par la guerre en Irak dépasse les 15 000 hommes !!

http://www.presstv.com/Detail.aspx?id=31710&sectionid=3510304

1 libération du Koweit
2 chasse à Ben Laden et aux Talibans en Afghanistan
3 chasse aux armes de destruction massive et rétablissement de la démocratie en Irak
4 projet de chasse à la bombe atomique en Iran

On peut faire (au moins) 2 hypothèses :
1 Les Etats-Unis ont une grande obstination à défendre les opprimés et les “grandes valeurs de la civilisation”
2 Les Etats-Unis tâchent de faire main basse sur le Golfe Persique (son pétrole, évidemment) et d’empêcher quiconque (la Chine, par exemple) de tenter d’en faire autant, lorsque le besoin s’en manifestera dans toute son ampleur…

Les esprits prompts à secourir les Etats-Unis répondront assurément que l’un n’empêche pas l’autre… Sauf qu’en pratique, c’est-à-dire dans la réalité...

L’examen attentif d’une carte de la région, avec l’oeil d’un stratège militaire (conventionnel, parce que s’agissant de pétrole, ce ne serait pas très efficace d’utiliser un armement qui rendrait la région invivable), est assez éloquent.

Il est fort à parier que les Etats-Unis ne quitteront ni l’Afghanistan, ni l’Irak (sur ce dernier point l’affaire semble d’ailleurs entendue, à en juger par les milliers de milliards de budget prévu).

Par conséquent, quiconque (et particulièrement la Grande-Bretagne) aurait des velléités d’abandonner le combat, même pour d’excellentes raisons, risque fort de tomber immédiatement en disgrâce (voire pire). Quel sera le prix à payer pour éviter cette sanction ?

La Géorgie serait-elle le premier pays au monde à avoir utilisé le dernier cri de la technologie américaniste de “sécurité” contre sa population? Etant le deuxième pays derrière Israël pour les montants de l’aide américaine reçue, on sait maintenant au mois en partie comment ces montants ont été dépensé...

Et par ailleurs, qui sera le premier à utiliser l’appareil décrit dans le deuxième article ci-dessous?

Géorgie: la police a utilisé la force acoustique contre les manifestants

MOSCOU, 19 novembre - RIA Novosti. La police géorgienne a utilisé un système acoustique spécial destiné à générer un état de panique afin de disperser les manifestations de l’opposition à Tbilissi le 7 novembre dernier, a annoncé dimanche la chaîne russe NTV.

Les images diffusées montrent un groupe de policiers à bord d’une Jeep manipulant un instrument hexagonal fixé sur une base rotative, orienté vers un groupe de manifestants qui prend la fuite.

“Les unités des forces spéciales américaines ont employé un système semblable au cours des opérations militaires en Irak. Le 7 novembre, ce système a été utilisé par les commandos spéciaux de la police géorgienne afin de disperser une manifestation pacifique à Tbilissi”, a commenté un expert sous couvert d’anonymat.

Selon la chaîne, ce système, dont le principe est basé sur l’émission d’une impulsion sonore mille fois supérieure au seuil tolérable, est produit par une compagnie américaine.

“Le système provoque une forte douleur auditive, une sensation de peur incontrôlée et de panique. Ce son est tellement fort qu’il est impossible de s’y soustraire, même en se bouchant les oreilles. Selon certains spécialistes, l’utilisation de ce système peut provoquer des troubles psychiques”, a indiqué l’expert.

Cet instrument, mis au point après l’adoption des conventions internationales sur les armements, n’est interdit par aucune d’entre elles.

***********************************************************************************************************

We test US army’s new secret weapon

Michael Hanlon – Daily Mail September 18, 2007

“Where do I put my finger? There ... OK? Nothing’s happening ... is it on?” - “Yes, it’s on. Move your finger a bit closer.”

“Er ... ow! OW!” Not good. I try again. “OOWW!” I pull my hand away sharpish. My finger is throbbing, but seems undamaged.

I was told people can take it for a second, maximum. No way, not for a wimp like me.

I try it again. It is a bit like touching a red-hot wire, but there is no heat, only the sensation of heat. There is no burn mark or blister.

Its makers claim this infernal machine is the modern face of warfare. It has a nice, friendly sounding name, Silent Guardian.

I am told not to call it a ray-gun, though that is precisely what it is (the term “pain gun” is maybe better, but I suppose they would like that even less).

And, to be fair, the machine is not designed to vaporise, shred, atomise, dismember or otherwise cause permanent harm.

But it is a horrible device nonetheless, and you are forced to wonder what the world has come to when human ingenuity is pressed into service to make a thing like this.

Silent Guardian is making waves in defence circles. Built by the U.S. firm Raytheon, it is part of its “Directed Energy Solutions” programme.

What it amounts to is a way of making people run away, very fast, without killing or even permanently harming them.

That is what the company says, anyway. The reality may turn out to be more horrific.

I tested a table-top demonstration model, but here’s how it works in the field.

A square transmitter as big as a plasma TV screen is mounted on the back of a Jeep.

When turned on, it emits an invisible, focused beam of radiation - similar to the microwaves in a domestic cooker - that are tuned to a precise frequency to stimulate human nerve endings.

It can throw a wave of agony nearly half a mile.

Because the beam penetrates skin only to a depth of 1/64th of an inch, it cannot, says Raytheon, cause visible, permanent injury.

But anyone in the beam’s path will feel, over their entire body, the agonising sensation I’ve just felt on my fingertip. The prospect doesn’t bear thinking about.

“I have been in front of the full-sized system and, believe me, you just run. You don’t have time to think about it - you just run,” says George Svitak, a Raytheon executive.

Silent Guardian is supposed to be the 21st century equivalent of tear gas or water cannon - a way of getting crowds to disperse quickly and with minimum harm. Its potential is obvious.

“In Iraq, there was a situation when combatants had taken media as human shields. The battalion commander told me there was no way of separating combatants from non-combatants without lethal force,” Mr Svitak tells me.

He says this weapon would have made it possible because everyone, friend or foe, would have run from it.

In tests, even the most hardened Marines flee after a few seconds of exposure. It just isn’t possible to tough it out.

This machine has the ability to inflict limitless, unbearable pain.

What makes it OK, says Raytheon, is that the pain stops as soon as you are out of the beam or the machine is turned off.

But my right finger was tingling hours later - was that psychosomatic?

So what is the problem? All right, it hurts, but then so do tear gas and water cannon and they have been used by the world’s police and military for decades.

Am I being squeamish?

One thing is certain: not just the Silent Guardian, but weapons such as the Taser, the electric stun-gun, are being rolled out by Britain’s police forces as the new way of controlling people by using pain.

And, as the Raytheon chaps all insist, you always have the option to get out of the way (just as you have the option to comply with the police officer’s demands and not get Tasered).

But there is a problem: mission creep. This is the Americanism which describes what happens when, over time, powers or techniques are used to ends not stated or even imagined when they were devised.

With the Taser, the rules in place in Britain say it must be used only as an alternative to the gun. But what happens in ten or 20 years if a new government chooses to amend these rules?

It is so easy to see the Taser being used routinely to control dissent and pacify - as, indeed, already happens in the U.S.

And the Silent Guardian? Raytheon’s Mac Jeffery says it is being looked at only by the “North American military and its allies” and is not being sold to countries with questionable human rights records.

An MoD spokesman said Britain is not planning to buy this weapon.

In fact, it is easy to see the raygun being used not as an alternative to lethal force (when I can see that it is quite justified), but as an extra weapon in the battle against dissent.

Because it is, in essence, a simple machine, it is easy to see similar devices being pressed into service in places with extremely dubious reputations.

There are more questions: in tests, volunteers have been asked to remove spectacles and contact lenses before being microwaved. Does this imply these rays are not as harmless as Raytheon insists?

What happens when someone with a weak heart is zapped?

And, perhaps most worryingly, what if deployment of Silent Guardian causes mass panic, leaving some people unable to flee in the melee? Will they just be stuck there roasting?

Raytheon insists the system is set up to limit exposure, but presumably these safeguards can be over-ridden.

Silent Guardian and the Taser are just the first in a new wave of “non-lethal” weaponry being developed, mostly in the U.S.

These include not only microwave ray-guns, but the terrifying Pulsed Energy Projectile weapon. This uses a powerful laser which, when it hits someone up to 11/2 miles away, produces a “plasma” - a bubble of superhot gas - on the skin.

A report in New Scientist claimed the focus of research was to heighten the pain caused by this semi-classified weapon.

And a document released under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act talks of “optimal pulse parameters to evoke peak nociceptor activation” - i.e. cause the maximum agony possible, leaving no permanent damage.

Perhaps the most alarming prospect is that such machines would make efficient torture instruments.

They are quick, clean, cheap, easy to use and, most importantly, leave no marks. What would happen if they fell into the hands of unscrupulous nations where torture is not unknown?

The agony the Raytheon gun inflicts is probably equal to anything in a torture chamber - these waves are tuned to a frequency exactly designed to stimulate the pain nerves.

I couldn’t hold my finger next to the device for more than a fraction of a second. I could make the pain stop, but what if my finger had been strapped to the machine?

Dr John Wood, a biologist at UCL and an expert in the way the brain perceives pain, is horrified by the new pain weapons.

“They are so obviously useful as torture instruments,” he says.

“It is ethically dubious to say they are useful for crowd control when they will obviously be used by unscrupulous people for torture.”

We use the word “medieval” as shorthand for brutality. The truth is that new technology makes racks look benign.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=482560&in_page_id=1965

Dollar no longer welcome at Taj Mahal
By Andrew Buncombe in Delhi
Published: 19 November 2007

The Taj Mahal may have been built as a testament to love but some hard-headed business decisions are now holding sway at India’s most famous monument. First among them is that the US dollar is no longer welcome.

With parts of the American economy in turmoil and the dollar rapidly losing its long-held position as the currency of choice, Indian authorities have calculated they are losing considerable sums of money by allowing foreign tourists to pay using greenbacks.

A statement by India’s Ministry for Tourism and Culture said the government had decided to act “in view of the international practices and also to avoid any anomaly on account of falling exchange rates of the US dollar vis-a-vis the rupee and the consequent fall in revenues”.

Until the change, foreign tourists visiting the Taj Mahal in Agra, south-west of Delhi, could enter by paying a fixed $5 (£2.45) fee – a price that was set when the dollar was worth around R50. But with the dollar having fallen by 12 per cent this year against the rupee and the current exchange rate closer to R39 to the dollar, the government has now fixed the entry price for foreigners at R250 – more than $6.

“These rates have been fixed in line with international practices,” a ministry spokesman said. “It will avoid any anomaly on account of falling dollar-rupee exchange rates.”

The ruling will affect around 120 sites overseen by the Archaeological Society of India, of which 27 – including the Taj Mahal – are World Heritage sites. The new rates are expected to be introduced as soon as this week to avoid a loss of income as the value of the dollar continues to fall.

Indians pay around R10 or R20 to enter the archaeological sites, a disparity often questioned by foreign visitors but defended by the authorities, who say most overseas visitors are considerably wealthier than the locals.

At the moment, nationals from the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation also do not have to pay the higher fee. Neither do foreigners holding a Person of Indian Origin card. But if India’s economic boom – with growth of more than 8 per cent a year and a newly wealthy middle class – continues, the authorities may have to rethink the pricing structure.

The snub to the dollar by the Indian authorities is just the latest indication of how many are now turning away from what for generations was considered the safest of the world’s currencies. After months of turmoil, partly created by the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage markets in the US, the lack of confidence in the dollar has reached the point where many international traders are transferring their wealth to stronger currencies such as sterling or the euro.

India earned an estimated $6.5bn last year from the more than four million tourists who visited the country, many of whom will have made the journey to the Taj Mahal to visit India’s most famous – and now, probably most expensive – monument.

Lire cet article paru sur le site du Réseau Voltaire :

http://www.voltairenet.org/article153012.html

C’est assez “hénaurme” mais, après tout…

Quelqu’un connaît-il Michael Salla, son auteur ?

Le parcours de Guy Debord est ce qu’il est, ses opinions politiques sont ce qu’elles sont, n’empêche que ses analyses sur “La société du spectacle” sont plus d’actualité que jamais…
Ce genre d’information le prouve, s’il le fallait…

A lire (ou à relire) :
Guy Debord, Oeuvres, Quarto Gallimard, 2006
ou, plus précisément :
Guy Debord, La société du spectacle, Folio (?).

Et c’est bien à cause de la possibilité de ces contre-mesures immédiates (genre anti-missiles patriot, certainement plus au point aujourd’hui que lors de la première guerre du Golfe), que les Etats-Unis, hormis quelques gesticulations, se fichent bien d’un éventuel nucléaire nord-coréen… Et bien entendu iranien ! Sauf que… un excellent prétexte !

Blair croyait peut-être en la justesse de sa politique extérieure, mais après la catastrophe irakienne il devait à la vérité d’admettre que cette politique fut au moins une erreur (sinon une faute). Qu’il insiste à la trouver juste est la marque d’un mépris pour la vie.

...mais ça ne changera pas grand chose au fait que “la machine est en route, semble t-il”
Sans doute ls journalistes d’Alter-info, de Bellaciao, etc ne font-ils qu’intepreter les sommes de refus “de paiement en dollars” lors de leurs derniers voyages hors USA?
Ca fait déja un moment que le dollar n’est plus trop accepté... en Egypte depuis déja 4 à 5 ans (mais Euros bienvenus), et dans certains pays du Moyen Orient…
Que l’amérique latine finisse par rejeter le dollar, ou le prendre avec méfiance, c’est nouveau et important à vérifier, car s’il y avait une zone d’influence “dollar”, c’était bien celle-là!
Mais c’est probable, compte-tenu de la répulsion endémique qu’on pouvait ressentir localement vis à vis de la puissance US et ...des dollars (Ceci dit, il m’est difficile d’en parler, n’y étant pas allé depuis 5 ans maintenant!)
D’ailleurs, il commence à avoir pas mal de “beau Monde” pour dénigrer le dollar; Jim Rogers sur Bloomberg (dernier speach virulent en date du 16/11/07), le fond Hattaway, Bill Gates, et…sans le dire, mais en agissant conformément… Dick Cheney lui-mème!
Ils n’ont pas attendu Cibelle pour se positionner!

Le dollar à l’air “grillé” question réputation. La seule chose qui lui reste sont le soutien des banques centrales et des grands investisseurs.. Ca semble assez clair à présent.

Peut-être plus lourd de conséquences que les \“people\” : les \“ordinary people\” ? ( http://www.cnbc.com/id/21829883 )

\“Chinese lunchtime television on Friday gave ordinary people a basic tip on how to play the currency markets: sell the dollar! ...\”

Cependant l\‘attitude des \“ordinary people\” reste moins importante que les politiques d\’états :
\“The prospect of ordinary Chinese ditching the dollar should be less alarming than reports that have roiled global markets of Beijing diversifying its official foreign exchange reserves…\”

Résumons :
\“Three Solutions to Dollar Weakness\”
- Selling dollar FOR YUANS as soon as possible to invest in DOMESTIC mutual funds.
- change the dollar for deposits into strengthening currencies… euro, British pound (? £ ?), Australian dollar and the Canadian dollar.
- INVEST the dollars abroad, in search of higher yields\”

La troisième solution est en cours : les fonds souverains (bénéficiants des surplus de Banques centrales: Chine, Inde, Norvège, Canada, pays du Golfe, Brésil…) achètent le solde rentable des USA : les meilleures parts de marché et les entreprises qui ont encore un avenir. Resisteront le CMI (Complexe Militaro Industriel) et sa politique belliciste fondamentale ... mais là aussi le destin impérial est de se privatiser aux mercenaires : c\‘est en cours.

Tiens que penser des cigales européennes qui plongent dans des déficits budgétaires d\’états ? Déficits qui sont supérieurs aux américains en terme de % du PIB pour certains. Et cela en une période prévisible depuis longtemps de risques financiers et monétaires?

Pensons à Sarkozy qui balance la marge budgétaire annuelle d\‘un état déficitaire dans un \“choc fiscal Bushien\”  (pour les riches) alors qu\‘il accroit le déficit budgétaire total au moment même où sa balance commerciale plonge. Et du haut de la branche qu\‘il scie il donne des leçons à tous les autres responsables : bientôt son \“mission accomplished\” ?

Cependant les américains, eux, cumulent depuis longtemps presque TOUS les déficits (budgets fédéraux et nationaux, balance commerciale, crédits à la consommation et surtout crédits immobiliers, investissements privés dépendants de l\’étranger, investissements publics à l\‘abandon—ponts, centrales, securité sociale, justice…—déclin de leurs réserves de matières premières, délocalisation massive des entreprises et déclin de la masse salariale, baisse de la consommation qui est la base du PIB aux USA, etc.

Il n\‘y a plus que les prisons américaines qui croissent, comme leurs cimetières malheureusement (guerres, nombre ahurissant de morts par armes à feu, suicides, détresse sociale).

La \“bombe climatique\” (le coût des conséquences de l\‘inaction) s\‘annonce comme la \“mother of all bombs\” : nous le verrons plus tôt que prévu car la convergence des causes s\‘accélère de manière aussi déterminante que la christallisation et la chute des grelons lors d\‘un ouragan.

Quand on rentre dans le mur on ferme les yeux : le \“point of recognition\” est bien plus dans l\‘oeil de l\‘observateur étranger qu\‘en amérique.

Juste une question.

Le Council on Foreign Relations, le German Marshal Fund, le Transatlantic Policy Network ( http://www.tpnonline.org/TPN%20transatlantic%20market%20paper%20FINAL.pdf) prônent pour 2015 une fusion du marché européen et du marché nord américain. Toujours selon ces organismes, il faut oeuvrer à la constitution de la Communauté nord américaine (Canada-USA-Mexique) avec à la clé la création d’une monnaie unique : l’améro, pour 2012 (les questions relatives à l’immigration aux USA, notamment hispanique, sont en relation avec ce projet. Ron Paul est farouchement opposé aux deux projets, voir son site)

Ma question est la suivante : de même que l’euro a permis à la France de continuer à accroître sa dette (que vaudrait le france aujourd’hui si la France était hors de la zone euro ?), ne faudrait-il pas envisager la fin du dollar comme prémice à une monnaie unique nord américaine ? quels en seraient les conséquences sur le plan financier et psychologique ?

Merci.

(sur ces questions, voir les articles de P Hillard sur le site diploweb.com, entre autres)

Je vous lis avec grand retard.
A propos de « Les technologies de souveraineté : usage et utilité en temps de crise :  permettez-moi tout a la fois d’objecter et d’abonder.
La souveraineté d’un pays comme la France est celle que lui permet ses recherches fondamentales et ses relations Chercheurs-Université-Défense.
Sans remonter à 1935, je vous propose d’examiner les successives « remises à jour » de nos industries d’armement à travers des constructions sous licences ou des fabrications en coopération plus ou moins obligées avec nos voisins ou allies. Mais à dupliquer, on est jamais premier! 
Un exemple frappant est celui de la défense aérienne depuis 1945 ! En ce début de 21e Siècle on facilite le travail des historiens qui n’auront qu’à recopier les chapitres précédents: sur ce même sujet, on propose en 2007 une excellente solution Française qui ne se démarque de ses concurrents que par son age : 25 ans !
Souveraineté ? J’en doute.
Sincerement.
G DeSornes

Vous avez entendu parler de ces hommes, ces vieux soldats, âgés de 110 ans, qui, quelque jour, revinrent des champs de bataille de la première guerre mondiale, effarés d\’être vivants. Ces deux hommes sont encore parmi nous, profondément différents en cela, et en cela seulement, de leurs milliers de frères d\‘arme dont les noms sont rappelés partout en France. Deux \“poilus\”. C\‘est ainsi qu\‘ils sont nommés aujourd\‘hui, partout. Un surnom affectueux, sans doute. Quant à moi je ne puis m\‘empêcher, voyant la presse ressortir ses marronniers d\‘usage en novembre, de songer que la plupart ignore que ces poilus aux terribles visages étaient de jeunes garçons de 20 ans très semblables physiquement à ceux d’aujourd’hui. Simplement, il furent photographiés en enfer. Mais passons…

Ces hommes ont catégoriquement refusé qu\‘on organise des funérailles nationales pour le dernier d\‘entre eux (Cf. Le canard enchaîné du 14.11.07).

Leur argument est simple, évident, ils disent en substance,  sans s\’être concertés, qu\‘ils ne méritent nullement un tel honneur.

Passons sur le fait qu\‘il était sordide de les placer dans une position de concurrence à la survie. Passons sur le fait qu\‘un tel projet a pu être annoncé sans qu\‘ils soient consultés. Passons même sur le fait qu\‘un tel projet a pu être formé.

Ce qu\‘il convient de retenir, c\‘est l\’épouvantable méconnaissance du réel, de l\‘histoire, qui est le sceau de telles initiatives. Le recours à l\‘organisation artificielle d\’événements n\‘est certes pas nouveau. Mais l\‘Etat tombe rarement aussi bas. L\‘infecte et très profonde faute de goût commise à l\‘endroit de ces deux hommes graves, qui savent mieux que le Président ce qu\‘ils méritent, n\‘augure rien de bon. En d\‘autres terme, mobiliser l\‘histoire comme un simple figurant dans un spectacle politique de faible envergure revient à se déposséder de cette histoire, à se priver de sa terrible et tragique compagnie. De sa fécondité aussi.

On ne se mutile pas ainsi impunément.

C.

« Cette information n’est pas fondée. C’est une plaisanterie de journaliste. Je n’ai jamais dit ça à la presse. Nous n’avons jamais parlé des contrats de Gisèle et encore moins des sommes en jeu dans ces contrats », a déclaré Patricia Bündchen, la sœur de Gisèle et son agent. « Gisèle continue à signer ses contrats en dollars ou en euros, comme elle l’a toujours fait », précise-t-elle.
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/actudestars/20071111/ten-gisle-bndchen-aime-les-euros-et-les-bc0f742_2.html

Idem sur Rue89, Forbes, 20minutes etc.

Mais Alterinfo, Bellaciao, etc. préfèrent la version anti-dollar.

Certitude, non vérification, absence de citation de sources (ou qualité de celles ci) , contradictions ou info tronquée… qu’en penser sinon de conserver sa prudence.

La binaire-attitude de Bush alias Murdoch dans l’autre empire (des médias) ?

In Paul They Trust (The Feds May Differ)

By Alec MacGillis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 17, 2007; Page A01

The ardent supporters of Rep. Ron Paul, the iconoclastic Texas libertarian whose campaign for the presidency is threatening to upend the battle for the Republican nomination, got word yesterday of a new source of outrage and motivation: reports of a federal raid on a company that was selling thousands of coins marked with the craggy visage of their hero.

Federal agents on Thursday raided the Evansville, Ind., headquarters of the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve Act and Internal Revenue Code (Norfed), an organization of “sound money” advocates that for the past decade has been selling a private currency it calls “Liberty Dollars.” The company says it has put into circulation more than $20 million in Liberty Dollars, coins and paper certificates it contends are backed by silver and gold stored in Idaho, are far more reliable than a U.S. dollar and are accepted for use by a nationwide underground economy.

An Indiana group was sending out its
An Indiana group was sending out its “Ron Paul Dollars” when federal agents stepped in. (Libertydollar.org)
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Norfed officials said yesterday that the six-hour raid occurred just as its six employees were mailing out the first batch of 60,000 “Ron Paul Dollars,” copper coins sold for $1 to honor the candidate, who is a longtime advocate of abolishing the Federal Reserve. The group says it has shipped out about 10,000 silver Ron Paul Dollars that sold for $20 and about 3,500 of the copper $1 coins. But it said the agents seized more than 50,000 of the copper coins—more than two tons’ worth—plus smaller amounts of the silver coins and gold and platinum Ron Paul Dollars, which sell for $1,000 and $2,000.

“They took everything, all of the computers, everything but the desks and chairs,” the company’s founder and head, Bernard von NotHaus, said in a telephone interview from his home in Miami. “The federal government really is afraid.” Von NotHaus changed the name of Norfed to Liberty Services earlier this year, but affidavits for government search warrants served yesterday continued to use the older name.

News of the raid lit up Ron Paul online forums yesterday, the latest unlikely episode in a campaign that began as an idiosyncratic bid by the veteran congressman but has grown into a cause with the potential to influence the GOP contest. Paul, 72, has attracted droves of disaffected Republicans and independents to his platform, which includes ending the war in Iraq, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service and adhering to a strict libertarian interpretation of the Constitution.

He raised a record-breaking $4 million in a single day this month and nears double digits in some New Hampshire polls.

A Paul campaign spokeswoman said yesterday that the campaign has “no affiliation” with the Ron Paul Dollars. But Paul’s supporters said the seizure of the coins is sure to further stoke support for the campaign.
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“People are pretty upset about this,” said Jim Forsythe, head of the Paul Meetup group in New Hampshire, who said he recently ordered 150 of the copper coins. “The dollar is going down the tubes, and this is something that can protect the value of their money, and the Federal Reserve is threatened by that. It’ll definitely fire people up.”

Von NotHaus said agents also raided Sunshine Minting in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, a company that makes the organization’s coins. He said agents seized huge pallets of silver and gold, worth more than $1 million, that the organization says back the Liberty Dollars. Sunshine Minting did not return calls seeking comment.

The Indianapolis bureau of the FBI referred calls to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina in Charlotte. That office’s spokeswoman, Suellen Pierce, declined to comment. But bloggers at the libertarian Reason Foundation posted online a 35-page copy of the affidavit for a search warrant filed last week in Asheville, N.C., laying out the government’s case against Norfed. Pierce said the search warrant had been accidentally made public and has since been sealed.

In the affidavit, an FBI special agent states that he is investigating Norfed for federal violations including “uttering coins of gold, silver, or other metal,” “making or possessing likeness of coins,” mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. “The goal of Norfed is to undermine the United States government’s financial systems by the issuance of a non-governmental competing currency for the purpose of repealing the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Code,” he states.

The agent states that the investigation started two years ago. A year ago, the U.S. Mint issued a warning against using the Liberty Dollar, prompting a lawsuit by Norfed. But that has not kept Liberty Dollar fans from speculating online that the raid was prompted by Paul’s strong campaign or by the precipitous recent decline in the value of the dollar.

Von NotHaus said that he has known Paul for years because they “move in the same circles” but that he had expressly not talked with Paul about his plans for the special coins so as not to violate federal election laws. He posted a message on the organization’s Web site urging Liberty Dollar supporters to respond to the raid by donating to Paul, saying that “in light of this assault on our financial freedom, it is clear that we need Ron Paul to lead this country more than ever.”

Should he be charged, he said, “I’ll turn it into my golden opportunity to validate the Liberty Dollar as a legal, lawful currency and save the country from a monetary collapse.”

The seizure of the coins held an upside for those who have received their orders. On eBay, silver Ron Paul Dollars that were bought for $20 were selling for more than $300 last night.