Did China or Jihadists try to bankrupt America? Pentagon report reveals financial terrorists may have triggered economic crash
Two mystery investors 'were number one traders in all financial companies that collapsed or are now financially supported by the U.S. government'
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 3:48 PM on 2nd March 2011
Terrorists and other 'financial enemies' were likely responsible for the near collapse of the U.S. financial system in 2008, a new Pentagon report has concluded.
The 2009 report, Economic Warfare: Risks and Responses, said financial terrorism by Jihadists or countries such as China may have cost the global economy $50 trillion in a series of co-ordinated strikes against the U.S. economy.
In an astonishing conclusion, the report claims two unidentified traders deliberately devalued trillions of dollars' worth of stocks at the height of the crisis.
Attack: The report concludes that state or terrorist organisations contributed to the collapse of the U.S. financial system through a series of targeted financial attacks
The report also concludes that untraceable actors undertook a three-tiered attack beginning in 2007, and that 'Phase III [of the attack] may be under way right now.'
'In addition, these same actors have clearly demonstrated the means to carry out such an attack.
'There is sufficient justification to question whether outside forces triggered, capitalised upon or magnified the economic difficulties of 2008.'
The report concluded that: 'Without question, there were actors who had the motive to harm the U.S. economy.
The report was commissioned in early 2009 by the Pentagon's Irregular Warfare Support Program - which prepares U.S. government and military agencies for emerging non-traditional threats.
Its author, economic analyst Kevin Freeman, published it in June 2009 before passing it on to investigators at the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in November 2010.
Although never classified, sources indicated that the report emerged only after concerned Congressmen and Defence Department officials highlighted its existence to media sources.
Speaking to MailOnline, a source close to the report added: 'It is my understanding that people in the DoD and government officials thought this should be brought to public attention.'
Speaking to the Washington Post, Mr Freeman said that American security forces needed to address vulnerabilities in the U.S. financial system.
He said: 'We spend hundreds of billions of dollars on weapons systems each year.
'But a relatively small amount of money focused against our financial markets through leveraged derivatives or cyber efforts can result in trillions of dollars in losses.
'This is the equivalent of box cutters on an air plane.'
When asked who he thought may be responsible for the attacks, Mr. Freeman added: 'Unfortunately, the two major strategic threats, radical jihadists and the Chinese, are among the best positioned in the economic battle space.'
Collapse: The destruction of Lehman Brothers in 2008 caused panic in the markets, prompting a massive U.S. government bail out
The attacks, according to the report, were part of a three-phase strategy.
The first phase was the deliberate inflation of oil prices in 2007 that generated as much as $2 trillion of excess wealth for oil-producing nations, 'filling the coffers of Sovereign Wealth Funds, especially those that follow Shariah Compliant Finance.'
In the second phase, untraceable investors attacked financial institutions such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers in a 'bear raid'.
The term refers to a strategy where investors try to force the value of companies down through malicious rumours or complex financial trades that impact its stock price.
The report says that as the crisis began, 'virtually overnight' two relatively small brokers emerged to trade, 'trillions of dollars worth of U.S. blue chip companies.'
Crucially, these as yet unidentified investors are currently the number one traders in, 'all financial companies that collapsed or are now financially supported by the U.S. government,' according to Mr Freeman.
Blame: The report points to China or terrorist organisations as possible candidates for the massive financial attacks on the U.S.
Attacks on banks, especially Lehman Brothers which collapsed in 2008, caused interbank lending to seize up and stock markets around the world to collapse.
The U.S. government then had to step in and bail the system out.
Following this, the 'third phase' has seen the massive U.S. public debt now threatening the primacy of the dollar as a global currency.
'Such an event,' the report says, 'has already been discussed by finance ministers in major emerging market nations such as China and Russia as well as Iran and the Arab states.
'In short, a bear raid against the U.S.financial system remains possible and may even be likely.'
The report also points to evidence by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who said in 2008 that the Russian government had made a 'top-level approach' to the Chinese, asking them to dump shares in American mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae - forcing both into insolvency.
The Chinese military, according to the report, 'has been advocating the potential for an economic attack on the U.S. for 12 years or longer as evidenced by the publication of the book Unrestricted Warfare in 1999.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1361898/Pentagon-reveal-financial-terrorists-triggered-economic-crash.html#ixzz1FhUfFl1o
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