The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), Title II of Pub.L. 95-223, 91 Stat. 1626, enacted October 28, 1977, is a United States federal law authorizing the U.S. Presidents to regulate commerce after declaring a national emergency in response to any unusual and extraordinary threat to the United States which has a foreign source. It is largely an amendment to the Trading with the Enemy Act 1917 and the National Emergencies Act, which deal primarily with when and to what extent the President can declare an emergency.

Freezing and Seizing Qadhafi’s Assets
25 mrt 2011

(...) On February 25, 2011, President Obama issued Executive Order 13566 freezing all assets held in the United States by the Libyan government, Muammar Qadhafi, and four of his children. Soon after, Treasury Department Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen announced that the United States had frozen at least $30 billion in Libyan government assets, including those held by the Central Bank of Libya and the Libya Investment Authority, Libya’s oil-heavy sovereign wealth fund. By all indications, the Treasury Department is likely to continue its expansion of the Order’s coverage.

(...) In light of the current conflict, the chronic deficiency of stable infrastructure, responsive law enforcement, and political will in Libya’s pervasively corrupt Jamahiriya system has especially grave implications for U.S. security and counterterrorism efforts. Invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (15 U.S.C. § 1701), the National Emergencies Act (15 U.S.C. § 1601), and section 301 of title 3 of the U.S. Code, the President in Executive Order 13566 declared that threats to the security and stability of Libya constituted an “unusual and extraordinary” threat to U.S. national security and foreign policy. In fact, there are already early indications that the chaos and unrest in Libya are creating a fertile breeding ground for terrorist activity.

(...) Looking ahead, it is highly probable that Libya will be unable to initiate formal asset recovery procedures. Under the United States’ relatively progressive in rem non-conviction-based asset forfeiture system, which does not require a civil or criminal conviction to confiscate assets, guilt is assigned to the property in question and prosecutors need prove only by a preponderance of the evidence that assets were involved in an illegal activity.

(...)

(...) authorizing the U.S. Presidents to regulate commerce after declaring a national emergency in response to any unusual and extraordinary threat to the United States which has a foreign source.
bron

"military and economic decision-making has to be more unified"

(alsof dat al niet het geval is sinds WO-II: zie de akkoorden van Bretton Woods, opgelegd door de overwinnaar van de oorlog)

• 26,3 miljoen in 2007
• 45,8 miljoen vandaag

Uncle Sam wants your ass

Americans must also worry about the Inland Drone Empire - as the pitifully unpopular US Congress and President Obama have now fully authorized their "integration" into American airspace by 2015; by 2020, they will number at least 30,000. For the moment, the Pentagon has "only" 7,000 drones (ten years ago there were less than 50).

Predictably, massive corporate lobbying by drone manufacturers such as General Atomics was key for the approval of the new legislation. There's even a drone caucus, with 55 Congressmen (and expanding), and a global lobby with 507 corporate members in 55 countries, the Association for Unmanned Vehicles International, which essentially sets the rules.

The Orwellian overtones are inescapable; this is all about 24/7 drone surveillance of large swathes of the US population via radar, infrared cameras, thermal imaging, wireless "sniffers" and, crucially, crowd-control weapons. You better monitor the skies very closely before you even start thinking about protesting. And wait for the imminent arrival of nuclear-powered drones, which can go on non-stop for months, and not only days.

Tom and Nick's digital file is absolutely essential reading for contextualizing the lineaments of an already de facto surveillance state, where everyone is a suspect by definition, and the only "winner" is the military-industrial complex.

The US Federal Reserve bought roughly three quarters of all Treasury issuance last year. Let that sink in for a moment. Roughly $0.74 out of every $1 in debt created by the US in 2011 was bought by the US Fed… not by the bond market, not by foreign countries, but by our own Central Bank.