Leave it to MSM to miss something like this.

Got Four In Lebanon

How could they possibly miss THAT?

Does NBC think the US Fed is outsourcing that to the Middle East?

I tracked down the video of this report

Charles, did I ever mention that you kick ass? Because you do.

So... large-scale counterfeiting of US currency by Hizballah (which has been known for years, but here's yet more proof). Casus belli, anyone?

I thought that we were the evil great satan. Why would they want to use our money? Ben Franklin is probably spinning in his grave.

Good Grief

ZG

#2 haakaondahl--

That is just f**cked up. Indian blue helmets are not the enemy. Get a grip.

And I saw a stack of three dollar bills with Bill Clinton's picture on it.

Hey
It's in their manual:

Military Organization Requirements:
The Military Organization dictates a number
of requirements to assist it in confrontation and endurance.
These are:
1. Forged documents and counterfeit currency
2. Apartments and hiding places
3. Communication means
4. Transportation means
5. Information
6. Arms and ammunition
7. Transport

[Link: 64.233.161.104...]

GREAT find, Charles!

Actually, this is further evidence of Iranian involvement. Those in the know say that the current re-design of all US currency got started because the IRANIANS got so good at counterfeiting US bills in the '80s that it became a serious problem.

Boo-hoo. IDF got rid of a couple of counter-fitters at the same time it got rid of a couple of terrorists.

No way!
Are you suggesting these guys are petty criminals?
/sar... oh forget it.

Dan Rather will get to the bottom of it.

Courage!

Hey zombie,staing cool? only 110F here in Contra Costa County today,power back too.

Casus belli... Go get'em George.

If these hezhissy's are so all powerful, why don't they make their own damned money. Just as bad as that nutcase in North Korea. Counterfeiting US currency is big business there as well.

ZG

Dan Rather will get to the bottom of it.

Courage!

ROFLMAO! Trust NBC to invent the "truth" while missing the obvious.

NBC News misses a lot of things, like the fact that we are a nation at war, with Islamist Terrorists, and that they are co-habiting with the enemy so much lately that they walk bow-legged and look pregnant.

#9 zombie
possible Iranian involvement, and possible North Korean involvement as well.

You guys are crazy. The jews bombed an art gallery. That was some poor guy's work of art.

/Hizball.Kos

All -

I can ensure you that the production of high-quality counterfeit US 100 bills by Hezbollah is well-known, and has been for years, by the USG.

Equally well known is that even higher quality counterfeits are run off the official mint presses of North Korea and distributed to criminal networks around the world by that government via diplomatic pouch and its embassies. In exchange for this service, the North Korean government receives in-kind payment (drugs) or real cash (at a hefty discount of course).

Aside from local enforcement (i.e. trying to catch the locals who use the result), the USG has done nothing.

There must be some very happy nerds at hearing this news!

During the American Revolution, the British counterfeited U.S. currency in such large amounts that the Continental currency soon became worthless. "Not worth a Continental" became a popular expression that is still heard today.

Just another way to bring the USA down.

Hey, reality is relative, isn't it? These are fake but accurate $100 bills. Counterfeiting a few billion won't hurt us. We can afford it. It's our fault they're doing it, because colonialism made them poor. What's the problem?

/asshat off

MSM Is The Story.

Someone please tell me that they saw the David Gregory "What I would have asked Bush" blog wannabe today on msnbc.com.

It was pitiful. And now I can't find it.

BTW...time to start emailing the Secret Service, FBI, Bureau of ENgraving & Printing, Whitehouse.gov etc about this.

We wouldn't want this little story to get lost now, would we?

GREAT WORK, Charles! NBC (in this VDO clip) is spinning "...Israelis hit defenseless BRIDGES and CIVILIAN VICTIM CENTERS and INNOCENT FINANCIAL DISTRICTS..."

Ooops! Blew yourself right out of the water, NBC! NO innocent financial districts HERE!

Couple this with the fact that Iran purchased some of the special high pressure intaglio printing presses(required to print US currency) and you have proof of an Iranian-led Islamic conspiracy to destroy the US/world economy.

Now what will be done about it?

This might also partially explain why Iran will only sell oil for "Euros".

I've some experience handling cash. Those are as phony as a 3 dollar bill. In fact, they're too crummy to fool even an MSM reporter. I've seen teens do better with a scanner and a color printer.

NBC also caught banks in Lebanon collecting money for Hezbo "charities". Also, disturbing indications that U.S. banks like Wachovia, Citibank and Bank of New York have been getting their hands into the Hezbo money business.

Counterfeiting by a foreign government is considered "financial warfare" against the US.

#25 Peter Griffin

Someone please tell me that they saw the David Gregory "What I would have asked Bush" blog wannabe today on msnbc.com.

It was pitiful. And now I can't find it.

I saw it.
Here's a link

Gregory actually blamed US foreign policy for the Iranian nuke problem.
You're right. It was pitiful.

If these fakes are that obviously fake, what do they DO with this cash? Or aren't they that obvious to everyone. Can I print some with my hound in the middle? Maybe $39 bills? That buys one tray of dog food cans.

Upgrades to US currency security make counterfeiting not a trivial thing to do. North Korea has been accused of counterfeiting too.

This raises an interesting thought: might there be a US currency counterfeiting club that shares technology just like AQ Kahn traded nuke tech? If so, Iran, Syria and perhaps Pakistan might all be dipping their hands in the US treasury. Club "members" might take advantage of Hezbollah worldwide operations to distribute the bad notes to minimize the risk of getting caught by the US.

Final thought, how much money has been passed and what damage has it done to the value of US currency, the value of the dollar and US economy. In the end, our treasury has been buying these notes for some time at full value.

Israel might just have paid for a couple years of aid with one bomb.

#6 OR

That is just f**cked up. Indian blue helmets are not the enemy. Get a grip.

One Frenchman, one Finn, One Chinese Man and I firget the nationality of the other*. They are, of course, not the enemy. But they wear the Blue Helmet, and the UN is part of the problem. Blue Helmets = Dead Israelis.
I do not doubt that this is a mistake, but it could just as easily be a warning, and I would not call it unjustified if so.
This unwillingness to cause a few civilian casualties, in the face of an enemy with a completely different rationality, has only put us, the good guys, in a position where we must now cause many civilian casualties just to stop the enemy's advance.
If Israel wanted to give the UN a shot across the bow, I can't think of a more effective way. If they didn't, they're smoking crack--the UN will kill them.
You cannot deny that as an organization, the UN is virulently anti-Israel, and that any multi-national force under its control can only spell bad news for Israel.

So those soldiers are not, as individuals, enemies of Israel, and I would rather they were simply not there in the first place. But they are not there as individuals, they are there in the uniform of the United Nations, which regards Israel as a problem to be solved.

*CNN reporting, YMMV.

#13 mbruce
Hey zombie,staing cool? only 110F here in Contra Costa County today,power back too.

No, not staying cool. Absolutely blistering where I am. And no air conditioning! It's impossible to work or get anything done. I have a huge report about an event from a couple days ago, ready to go, and it's too hot to put it online. Ugh.

#31 ted

You're right, ted.

Also acts of war: killing US soldiers in Iraq by proxy; arming and training terrorists to kill US soldiers and citizens by proxt; holding US diplomatic personnel as hostages, etc.

But the Islamic Republic has never been held to account and has never had to pay much of a price.

At a certain point, one has to stand back from the action and objectively observe: at what point does the US' non-response to repeated acts of aggression become inexplicable?

There is a reason why the Mullahs are confident and not worried, why their "navy" now cruises the Gulf with banners that read "The US Cannot Do Anything".

We have taught them not to fear us.

#33 Molly

Those bills could circulate for years without ever seeing a bank or touching US soil,and never be detected.

Benjamin Franklin never imagined how popular he would become; folks making wallpaper with his portrait and all.

#9 zombie

Wasn't it a Clancy book that talked about how the Shah was the only person outside the US to get a Treasury printing press?

They do look a bit odd... the top bill is printed correctly, but the rest seem to be overlapped. The sheet doesn't seem to be folded or accordioned.
Did someone mess up their step and repeat command in Quark or something?

now that is an useful idiot!

#42 i was of course refering to Engel.

I just hope their semtex suppliers get wind of this.

counterfeiting eh ?

well, like that fwenchman once said it's a very small step to start from murder to eventually stealing bread and sleeping under bridges...

#41 Hillbilly

Now that you mention it,they do look odd.

Perhaps those are strips off the sheet and the stack partially slid.

or

They were "posed"

Why aren't they counterfieting Euros?

HAAA haa haa haa... whooo hoo hoo hoo... apparently the cameraman had more on the ball than the "reporter".

Way to go NBC.

From the Treasury report on counterfeit US currency. My old stomping grounds, Colombia, is where the real work comes from!

Counterfeiting in Colombia involves organized criminal groups that employ skilled individuals familiar with offset lithography and processes to modify various substrates (that is, papers) and inks to create good quality counterfeit U.S. dollars. These counterfeit distribution networks frequently employ the same individuals involved in the trafficking of narcotics to the United States, and they utilize many of the same smuggling methods. Because of the relatively low penalties for counterfeiting U.S. currency in Latin American countries compared with those for narcotics trafficking, counterfeiting may be seen as an attractive alternate or parallel activity. Suppression of counterfeiting operations in Colombia is complicated by the same problems faced in the suppression of narcotics. Government resources are limited, and the country’s sociopolitical issues are complex. Nevertheless, the Secret Service’s Plan Colombia project can claim some major successes. Secret Service statistics, shown in table 6.7, reveal the cumulative impact of major seizures of counterfeit U.S. dollars, plant (counterfeit manufacturing operation) suppressions, and dismantling of distribution networks. The increase in foreign arrests has been accompanied by a measurable decrease in Colombian counterfeit passing since the inception of Plan Colombia. Plan Colombia continues to grow and develop, with additional law enforcement training, special programs, and legislative efforts within Colombia to enhance penalties for counterfeiting.

I caught this story last night and said wtf when I saw it (no tivo and since it was on the screen for just about 1 second tops, I didn't know what to think). Then, when Taranto posted the link today, I still couldn't believe it.

And there's still more to the story - particularly about the potential source of those bills. I tracked down a couple of other stories on the superbills, and guess which countries keep coming up:

Iran and North Korea.

One theory is that back when the Shah was in charge, the US gave/sold a surplus intaglio press to the Iranians. Now that the mullahs are in charge, they're producing superb counterfeits using the intaglio press method - which when combined with quality paper can produce a bill with the look and feel of the real deal.

And it makes perfect sense too that both Iran and NK are making counterfeits to fund their ops. Neither has anything else of value, and US currency is accepted everywhere.

The NYT report on the problem.

Slate has an explainer on the superbills.

#41 Hillbilly Geek

Bad batch? So worthless they didn't even bother to detroy it. Now it is high value evidence.

The Mo world goes nuts over cartoons. The West is pragmatic about Ben's authentic portrait.

"You can see where the rocket came right through here..." [paraphrasing]

Rocket? Wouldn't it more likely be a gps-guided bomb or other such air-dropped ordnance? Why would he use the term rocket?

New Evidence on Old News

Title: "Iran, Syria Accused of Counterfeiting US Dollars." A House task force has released a report alleging a joint Iran-Syria conspiracy to counterfeit US dollars, purportedly in order to strengthen Iran's economy and weaken the US. (920701)

Author: JASPERSEN, M C (USIA STAFF WRITER)
Date: 19920701

Text:
*NEA305

07/01/92 *

IRAN, SYRIA ACCUSED OF COUNTERFEITING U.S. DOLLARS (Congressional Task force releases report) (660) M. C. Jaspersen USIA Staff Writer Washington -- A House task force has released a report alleging a joint Iran-Syria conspiracy to counterfeit U.S. dollars, purportedly in order to strengthen Iran's economy and weaken the United States.

"The fact of the matter is that the Iranian government, in cooperation with Syria, has undertaken a massive counterfeiting campaign in order to alleviate their financial difficulties and pursue economic warfare against the West," Representative Bill McCollum (Republican of Florida) said in a July 1 news conference.

More ...

The real story: How flippin' great the IDF really is at hitting legitimate targets.

#38 LizardRadio

Those bills could circulate for years without ever seeing a bank or touching US soil,and never be detected.

And then, most likely, some Saudi's going to end up getting burned when it's finally detected. They pass these things around the souks of Beruit and Damascus, and they won't see an American bank until someone brings them there.

Hezbollah walks away with something of value, and some unknowing schmuck gets it confiscated, and may be looking at jailtime.

I'm also trying to track down where I heard that the financial targets were among the first ones hit throughout Lebanon when Israel began its airstrikes. IIRC the report claimed the Israelis hit eight such locations within the first day of strikes.

The Israelis knew exactly what they were doing, and the attacks not only put a crimp in Hizbullah financing, but will help the US eliminate a potential source of superbills entering the food chain.

Ayatollah Ghillmeni

It's been going on since 1979.

When the Sha was deposed by the mullah's, The U.S. Treasury had just approved and allowed shipment to him of identical 100 ton presses which is used to print U.S. bills.

The Mullah's have been printing U.S. cash for a long long time.

It's a problem that the Israeli's have at least found a solution to, who would have thought a f-16's and f-15's stop counterfeiting ?

The "sheet" in the background looks just like the one in the foreground.

I'd like to see a blown up image of those bills.

There is definitely something odd here.

Charles, after restarting my 'puter, still no joy listening to your Prager session. Can't be that...

McCollum, chairman of the House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, which authored the report, said the "origins of this strategy go back to Iran's efforts to rebuild its economy in the wake of the Iran-Iraq war. When it became apparent that Iraq's exports could not meet its hard-currency needs the plan for a counterfeit operation was devised," McCollum said.

"The Iranians last week outraged me personally when they put in their official publication the statement that this counterfeit money was being produced by the United States 'intelligence community' and distributed over there," McCollum said. "That's hogwash."

McCollum said the task force has been working on the report since last fall, and that it has been made public because "there has been increasing speculation in the media about the subject of an Iranian counterfeit $100 dollar bill." He cited NBC television news and U.S. News and World Report magazine stories on the purported scam.

McCollum said the task force believes the Khomeini regime developed the operation using U.S. printing presses supplied to the former Shah of Iran.

... Since 1979

counterfeiting operation == "financial district" to the MSM.

And I used to think that the islamists actually used real mosques as armories...

armory == "mosque" in the MSM,
munitions plant == "automotive machine shop"
bivouac == "wedding party"
torture chamber == "hospital"
training camp == "school"

OT

2 dead, 2 missing after U.N. post hit

By HUSSEIN DAKROUB, Associated Press Writer 36 minutes ago

BEIRUT, Lebanon - An Israeli bomb destroyed a U.N. observer post on the border in southern Lebanon, killing two peacekeepers and leaving two others feared dead in what appeared to be a deliberate strike, U.N. chief
Kofi Annan said.

This war has been going on for two weeks. Why were they still there? Kofi you have their blood on your hands.

#34 Ayatollah Ghilmeini

This raises an interesting thought: might there be a US currency counterfeiting club that shares technology just like AQ Kahn traded nuke tech?

That's not entirely nescessary. Many bills produced in other cuontries share some security characteristics with US bills. Watermarks (which are old tech), color-shifting ink, interwoven polyester strips (with or without fluorescent dyes) and micro-printing.

You'll find that in bills all over the world.

The paper used, though, does vary. I can tell a dollar from a Mexican peso by feel alone. US bills tend to crumnple less, but break more often.

I think US bills carry a magnetic strip, too, but I wouldn't swear to it.

Bottom line is, any country that prints money (that is to say, every country), has the expertise to produce high-quality counterfit bills that would pass muster with bank tellers and other epople experienced in handling cash.

#58 TotallySirius

You might be on to something, there. Looks hinky.

#64 Noam

Hillbilly Geek(#41) was the first to notice.

I don't see quite so much harm in the counterfeiting maybe.

Assuming the bogus bills ever get back to the US banking system, they will be recognized as fakes and the "sender" will get zero value for them in return.

So assuming the Bank of Terror (I mean Gaza or Lebanon) sends in a hundred million in bank notes to the Federal Reserve to pay a debt or trade in - they will be laughed out of town and be "stuck" with all that fake money. Actually not "stuck" because I imagine the US gov't would burn the shit and say "tough titty".

Anyone offer another opinion ?
I dunno, maybe it's not such a big deal ?

All of this chatter about civilian casualties. A tear in God's eye, to be sure. But place a harness upon Israel and the U.S. in the attempt to eliminate this evil, clear and present danger, and a few hundred collateral damage deaths will in retrospect seem meaningless. We're talking a thousand-fold or many, many more. Taking on evil head-on will never, every be pretty, nor squeaky-clean.

#2 i'll have to read the article of course, but how did they know that it was an israeli bomb? did it go "oooy veeey" when it was dropping or something?

Same with that convoy of civilians blown up, how do we know it was israelis shooting them up, might as well been hizbALLAH trying to get more negative press against israel.

totally sirius, noam:

It does look like the two sheets appear to be misprints. There is overlapping that doesn't appear to be explained by having multiple sheets overlapping each other.

It could be that the sheets were misfed or some similar error. In any event, looks like the IAF was right on target.

CNN reports that certain percentages of Americans think that certain things will come to pass.

"Seventy-five percent of Americans say that they think the United States will be drawn into the war in Lebanon..."

However, the small print on the screen shows that a different question was actually asked.

Americans who are very are somewhat concerned that:

America will be drawn in to the war---75%
It will spread to a regional conflict---xx%
Some other propositions---xx%

For example, I can be very (or somewhat) concerned that America will be drawn into the war, and therefore answer YES and so be included in the 75%, but NOT actually think that it will happen. Concern and belief are two very different things. I am concerned that a Democrat will win in 2008. But I do not think it will happen.

This is another example of shoddy journalism producing results which "coincidentally" support the political views of the journalists. They could just as easily have reported the same poll in terms of "People who are not certain that the following events will come to pass", with even more accuracy. But that smells fishy to Liberals.

The problem is that when they misunderstand the facts they report, and therefore report them closer to their own understanding, it doesn't smell fishy to them, and they therefore think that we are whack-jobs for calling them out on their shortcomings. And they say so with the power of the MSM bullhorn.

but,i'll bet NBC spotted all those waskely JEWS.. UNREAL

LawHawk:

Hezbollah banks under attack in Lebanon
Israel seeks to destroy group’s financial infrastructure

Israeli intelligence sources tell NBC News that among the targets hit in Lebanon are as many as a dozen financial institutions — part of a previously secret campaign to destroy Hezbollah's financial infrastructure. Some banks were demolished, others deliberately damaged but not destroyed. In one case, Israel also took out a bank manager's home.

In an exclusive interview, Israel's top counter-terror official says these attacks are a warning. MORE--->> [Link: www.msnbc.msn.com...]

#32 Nuke

Thanks.

Gregory is a clown

It is un-American to walk past a Benjamin and not notice it. Yet alone a bail of them.

#2, #68

As i expected, no legitimate source or even claim that "we saw israeli fighters strafing us". It might as well been hizbALLAH mortar fire.

#29 D'kian_

The north Koreans on the other hand

DAVID ASHER, FORMER COORDINATOR, NORTH KOREA WORKING GROUP: They are an extraordinary piece of work. In many ways, the quality of the super note exceeds the quality of the U.S. dollar in terms of manufacturing methods.

#66

Here's how the counterfeiting works.

Superbills are produced by Iran or other third party. They're provided to terrorists to purchase equipment from unsuspecting third parties - including arms dealers etc.

Terrorists now have the guns, dealers now have bogus bills, which will continue to be passed along until uncovered.

In the meantime, those terrorists used funny money to buy their arms caches. And there are reports that Russia is awash in superbills, which wouldn't be all that surprising giving who they deal with...

#69 lawhawk

No doubt there was some funny business going on there which the IAF fortunately ended.

I'm just puzzled as to why the sheets look so strange.

Let's not forget that a NoKo bank was recently shut down for trafficking superbills.

OT: Here's the next big LLL/MSM/BS story:

Israeli Bomb Kills UN Observers

What are they there to observe?

In which stock exchange will there be a dip tomorrow?

Globular Clusters!

Where?

41 hillbilly geek

Maybe they were stacked that way on purpose to document serial numbers?

I just can't think of a printing press or computer printer snafu that would result in overlayed images like the ones in the picture.

#78 TotallySirius

Having worked in the printing business for a few years...having a sheet come out askew is not uncommon. In the trade, they usually allow for 10% spoilage.

I do believe there was some funny business here though. But the look of the sheets is not a concern except for the mere fact that it is even there in the first place.

#82 Killgore

There are no globular clusters in that pic,where are the globular clusters?

There should be globular clusters.

Where are the globular clusters?

LOL

#67 Cartman

All of this chatter about civilian casualties. A tear in God's eye, to be sure. But place a harness upon Israel and the U.S. in the attempt to eliminate this evil, clear and present danger, and a few hundred collateral damage deaths will in retrospect seem meaningless. We're talking a thousand-fold or many, many more. Taking on evil head-on will never, every be pretty, nor squeaky-clean.

Agreed.

I'll re-post something I said last night--about twelve hours ago, so I think this is a different shift of lizards. Pardon me if you saw this already.

The problem is that we (the world) have surrendered the battlefield to hostage-takers. The result is that now the battlefield is the world itself, and we are losing on all fronts except Iraq and Lebanon. And those are hardly settled issues.

The shittiest end of this thoroughly shitty deal is that the only way out is through a mountain of dead civilians--because we were unwilling to accept a molehill of dead civilians for far too long.

Containment, Appeasement, Rapprochement, Sanctions, Armistice, Sunshine Policy, Engagement, Withdrawal... All for Nothing. Time wasted, opportunities lost.

We have lost decades and allowed hundreds of millions to become hostages, in order not to ruffle the feathers of foul birds we should shoot, not feed.

And the peaceniks who for so long beat the drum against the defense of Democracy should be the first to die--they have killed millions of innocents by disarming those who would combat evil.

Man, I'm in a mood. If I see a protester this afternoon, you'll see me on the news tonight. "Stubble-headed foreigner goes berserk at peaceful demonstration in Tokyo--locals bewildered, still chanting for peace".

Sigh.

I was taught not to hate, but I hate NBC news. They've fallen so low. They are so blatantly, so treachly, so teeth grindingly biased, they are pitiful specimens of non-news staging, ignorant, arrogant media elites with idiot compassion who don't seem to research anything. And did I mention that the men have no testerone. They have no balls. They have been terrorized by jiahd and now they are cowards and dhimmis of mohammed and his moon god.

Good to get that out.

That does it! I am writing a very stern letter.

#87 TotallySirius
The pic has some oddities. It's hard to tell exactly what's what. Hey, I just found Waldo!

#86 Kawfy

The fact that they are there is not in question.

What they are and why they are there is probably important.

What those clowns are up to and how they are doing it is probably important too.

/too much CSI

Lawhawk,

but when does the money-go-round stop ?
at some point someone is left holding a bag of useless money

or, is there a great big, vast conspiracy at several governments where old US money is taken and new fake money reprinted
as if that gov't(s) were the f-ing US Mint ?

at some point, someone "should" go home poor for accepting and being left with that money, I hope, at least

#68 so.cal.swede

#2 i'll have to read the article of course, but how did they know that it was an israeli bomb? did it go "oooy veeey" when it was dropping or something?

Oh no you didn't! ! !

Definitely something wrong with that picture of Ben. Beyond the fact that he shouldn't have been there in the first place, in sheet-form.

From the shot just prior to the close-up money shot, "finicial district of Sidon", there appears to be quite a bit of this Ben type paper floating around, in a steady breeze. There also appears to be some bluring in certain spots.

FOR THE SAKE
OF REVENGE,
R

I'm beginning to hate anything not American or Israeli. Now is the time to defend freedom. Stand firm for Israel and its people.

Saw that segment the other night, no I don't acctually watch that channel personally but it was on at the gym. My first though was..hmmm..stopped a conterfit ring, then wondered if the US may be providing the Isralies with some targets. Just a thought which I hope is true.

Nazi-erallah orders beyond Haifa rocket attacks...

[Link: www.ynetnews.com...]

Anyone catch the Israeli Ambassador to the USA's reaction on CNN? I have never before seen what's his name open mouthed in astonishment while the Israeli Ambassador demanded an apology from Kofi-boy.

Damn, that man is even better than Gillerman!

The Bluehats should have known not to be near the Hezzies in their observing. Did they communicate with the IDF before wandering into Hezzieland?

Re: #99 Blitzer- That what his name.

#46 TotallySirius
I was into you "sheet cut into stips" theory but it really looks like a solid sheet. Anyways after a bomb stike I don't think they'd lay themselves out like that. The sheet in the background looks better but it seems like it has some overlaps too.
/I gotta stop staring at it.

#80 Doss

OT: Here's the next big LLL/MSM/BS story:

Israeli Bomb Kills UN Observers

What are they there to observe?

They are there to A) Observe rockets soaring into Israel, and B) Prevent Israel from doing anything about it. I hear they all have neck injuries from watching so many rockets.

Please see my #2 and #35 on this topic :-)

And you are quote right about this being big on MSM. Wolf Blitzer basically just told Christianne Ammanpour to shut up with her apologetics for Kofi Annan's unfounded accusation*. It was great! It was subtle, but clear.

*I'm not even saying that Annan is wrong--I don't know. But neither does he, and he therefore has no foundation to say that the "attack appeared deliberate". You would think that the world's top-ranking diplomat would repond, well, diplomatically. "We shall soon see," would have been appropriate.

Goodness, haakondahl, you seem to be in the same mood I'm in. Let us know how the "chant for peace" rally went. Is this peace in the middle east, peace in the world or for the religion of peace and their global jihad?

Islam is only 20% of the world's population. If the Free can arrive at a common agreement, amazing amounts of energy could be channeled and we can win. We also have on our side the ability of think outside the box. Islam can only think inside a box that can't be changed. To the Free, the only constant is change. It's a big difference. But before we can access this energy, we must correctly name our enemy, or enemies as it is in this case, and know them inside and out.

The only people I know in this country (the US) walking around with a roll of hundred dollar bills are people who have been audited by the IRS or are about to be audited by the IRS. I wouldn't accept payment of a substansial sum in bills. Certified check cashed at the bank drawn on and and deposited is the only way to go.

#104 msdixie

We also have on our side the ability of think outside the box. Islam can only think inside a box that can't be changed.

Thank you for expressing an absolute truth. Very well articulated.

I made all of these points a week ago.

#56 haakondahl 7/18/2006 09:32PM PDT
That man with Nic Robertson is a "HEZ'B'ALLAH PRESS OFFICER".

Some CNN segments have identified him as such. Most do not.

The credulous Nic Robertson should shut his damned mouth instead of uttering nonsensical statements such as "nobody has been tidying up around here", and "I didn't see any military debris". I realize that he has issued some disclamatory statements, but on the whole, he is supporting the unproven and unproveable Hez'b'allah party line.

Look at the way the man says, "I want to say something to you--Where is the International Community? Were is the United Nations? Where is the world?" I am paraphrasing here, but when he recites this list, he glances up and to the left before asking each question. This is a dead giveaway that he is recalling a memorized list. Nothing wrong with that, I supppose, but this is staged to apppear as spontaneous, within an emotional outburst. Nic believes.

CNN is being played by the media masters of Pallywood, who are frankly better at this than CNN. Of course, part of this is because CNN sympathizes with the terrorists, and are therefore quite honestly blind to the manipulation.

Also interesting is Nic Robertson's uncurious acceptance of the man's statements that "Now there's jet fighters--we have to move". He accepts the proposition that the man is receiving news from a network of informers, and that a warning has come through. He completely ignores the possibility that the man, having said his bit, wants to rush the cameras out of the zone.

The man also says, "Thank God, nobody was killed here. Everybody evacuated before the bombs fell." Never mind the ISRAELI LEAFLETS WARNING THE CIVILIANS.

CNN stumbles over itself to point out that "Nic Robertson could not be sure that there were no traces of military hardware in the rubble, as they were going quite quickly." This sort of mealy-mouthed proof by faint criticism is the nuanced hatchet job the MSM specializes in. By giving lip sevice to a ridiculously mild critique of the veracity of their own information, they give the impression that they have presented both sides.

Why were they going quickly? Because Hez'b'allah said to.
Where did they go? Into Hez'b'allah's decimated restricted-entry compound.
What did the camera shoot? What Hez'b'allah told it to.
Why did they leave so quickly? Hez'b'allah said so.
Who said no obvious terrorist gear was removed? Hez'b'allah said so.
That is the beginning of the other side, which CNN should present but never will.

What they should have said is this:

"Of course, Nic Robertson, despite being a brave man who has seen a lot of rubble in his days, has absolutely NO IDEA what was in those apartments now that they are collapsed in a heap on the ground. The entire neighborhood, widely reported to be a hotbed of Hez'b'allah rocket launches and high-level meetings, was sealed off as a Hez'b'allah-only restricted entry zone for years before the bombing. CNN knows that the rubble of an apartment building which contained many civilian households, many rocket launchers and a terrorist headquarters is indistinguishable from the rubble of an apartment building which contained only civilan households. Perhaps if the Israelis hadn't warned all of the inhabitants before the bombing, they would be able to see a lot more evidence."

When an officer of the enemy military offers your camera a guided tour at a trot through a bombed out zone and tells you what to think about it, while issuing directions to your cameraman ("Shoot me. Here"), you are enemy propaganda.

That man with Nic Robertson is a "HEZ'B'ALLAH PRESS OFFICER". And now, so is Nic Robertson.

Could some knowledgeable-type lizard 'splain to Cato how these things are so easily counterfeitable when the new bills were supposed to obviate such things?

And assuming people are just accepting overseas hundred-dollar bills without holding them up to the light, whathehell is up with that? Don't peope care about forgeries anymore?

My local grocery store has a special felt-tipped pen that turns a certain color if the money's funny. What's so hard about getting one of those?

And lastly: Death To Hezbollah!

#93

Usually, it's like musical chairs. Last person holding the funny money is screwed. Sometimes its a poor schlub. Other times, it's banks who didn't check before (in which case the tellers who missed it screwed up bigtime).

I don't know what kind of press they are using - and I'm certainly no expert! - but I did sit in on a bunch of press runs back in the day. IIRC, an offset press will spew out 10 to 20 sheets of funky drek that's ...um ...offset... before the first good "proof" sheet comes out. That might be what we are looking at in the photo above.

#107 haakondahl, psst. Wrong thread:-)

#104 msdixie

"Peace" demonstrations in Japan come in two flavors: Anti-American, and Pro-North-Korean. Sometimes both.

Furthermore, in Japan, the labor unions pay workers to take part in demonstrations which are political in nature and not at all related to labor.

Add to this the fact that japan has three democrat parties, a socialist and a communist party, and exactly one Republican--ME.

BTW, why is this not an act of war?

#66 Adrenalyn:

I dunno, maybe it's not such a big deal ?

Counterfeiting US currency is a big deal. It's basic economics: Fake currency devalues the real thing (the US government does not reimburse when it discovers fake currency in circulation), making it unstable. Such financial tactics are an act of war. That's a big deal.

After looking at the clip a few times, it appears that these are not uncut sheets, but rather partially completed bills that have been stuck together in this fashion so as to be imprinted again (most likely to recieve serial numbers).

Notice that in the framegrab above, the sheet in the foreground is displaying the bottom halves of the notes, while the sheet in the background is displaying the top halves.

Also, notice that the bill third from the bottom in the left hand column of the sheet in the foreground is exposing considerably more of the Treasury seal and Franklin's face than its neighbors. This indicates to me, and after watching the left hand edge of the foreground sheet carefully on the video, that the bills are overlapped in a fan type arrangement, and are not actually printed on the same sheet (it "ruffles" slightly as the wind blows)

Just saw Charles' update. Sounds like a plausible theory. But how big of a photocopy machine would be needed to make a copy on paper that size, and would such a machine be ordinarily found in a Lebanese financial institution?

It looks like the paper that ths bills are copied on has at least one bill's width margin all the way around...

#111 Roger

#107 haakondahl, psst. Wrong thread:-)

Yeah, I saw that :-) LGF froze for a while, and I couldn't even leave the page, so I just hit post before everything went down Ted Stevens' "tubes". Did you get frozen out for a bit? Anyway, my sheepish thanks for the heads-up.

BTW Now Larry King is refereeing between Blitzer and Ammanpour. Blitzer started winning, so King changed the subject.

Also, Ammanpour said something about, "...what is euphemistically called 'collateral' but is really civilan damage..."
Where is her linguistic crusade when she should say, "...what is euphemistically called 'a cease-fire', but is really a chance for Hez'b'Allah to regroup..."

Hmm? Thought so.

I note several points about this image:

1) The bills do not line up perfectly. Several are slightly askew and that skew doesn't carry across rows. If the bills were printed, then we would expect, given the format, that the two rows were printed together on the same plate. Odd things can happen on presses, but in nearly 15 years in the printing industry, I never saw two images on the same plate skew in different directions.

2) The edge of the top bill (which is the only one fully visible) is coterminus with the edge of the sheet. This is NOT consistent with the "fanned sheets" theory, as one would expect the top sheet to be a full sheet and therefore to continue above the top of the bill. In order to get what you see here from a stack of full sheets, you'd have to do a very tricky cutting job (removing all but the first bill from the top sheet, then a little less from the next one, etc.) and then carefully stack it all to make it perfectly overlap. Without a lot of time and glue, I don't think you could do it in a bombed-out building. Note also that the sheet in the background appears to have a similar format, but has a large crease that would not be possible in a stack of paper.

3) It's hard to judge scale, but assuming the bills are "life-sized" it would appear that they are printed on a standard A2 sheet (about 16"x23"), which would be normal for a fairly wide range of "bed" style blueprint copiers, but odd for a high-quality press.

4) It's very difficult to make out color with any accuracy in this sort of image, but it does not appear to me that the pictured bills have the characteristic green shade of U.S. currency. The Dept. of Treasury seal, which appears on the right side of the bill, should be especially obviously green. I don't see it here.

My conclusion is that these are photocopies of hundreds held by someone (probably a bank) probably to aid in tracking the bills in the event of robbery or theft. That's not to say that there's no counterfeiting going on in Lebanon--it's entirely possible that the reports that we've found a funny money ring among Hizbollah are fake-but-accurate.

#118 lostingotham

As much as I would like to see Lebanon smacked for counterfeiting, I suspect that your opinion is either correct, or very close to the truth.

Another point to be made is, why would the counterfeiting be taking place in Lebanon?

It makes more sense for Lebanon to be a distribution point, I'd think, rather than for bills to be produced there.

Here I thought that the Palestinian gas station employee in Dearborn who owns a $200,000. house, has five new autos' of which one is a Hummer, who has a wife and four kids and makes only 15,000 per year was involved in drugs

Must be receiving counterfeit money from Lebonan. He did say that his family was helping him.

didn't the US give some of their printing presses to Iran prior to the overthrow of the Shia which ended up in Nork hands?

I remember reading years ago that Iran was the #1 counterfeiter of US money worldwide. They had purchased most of their printing equipment from France.

So is this really any big surprise?

Been watching Richard Engel each night and I'm convinced he's nothing but a terrorist tool.

#118 lostingotham
All good points. Could be photocopies. Probably premature to call "Counterfeiting!" and let slip the dogs of war, but hey, these are exciting times, nu?
Still would be interesting to be able to look at them closer.

#85 buzzsawmonkey

I guess you were never a coin collector.

Actually, I was for a few years. it's an epxensive hobby, albeit a most interesting one.

Many countries do not print their own money, but outsource it

I didn't know that was still going on.

I do recal Mexican pesos up to the 70s were labeled "American Banknote Company" on the bottom center at the front of the bill. I also recall a few others from South america. Ecuador was one, I believe.

Still, countries with expertise in printing stamps and passports would also know how. Maybe not every country, but a great many of them.

BTW, and not that it matters, I work a couple of blocks away from the Mexico City mint. They don't give guided tours, alas.

What drives me nuts is that news organizations feel it is necessary to drive home the point that a reporter in embedded with US forces and agrees to certain limits on reporting. When Hizbollah or Saddam leads them around by the nose and/or requires payment for stories, suddenly its not news.

Argh, vid requires Flash Player 8, I'm on linux(we only have version 7 for this platform). Stupid Adobe idiots >

#118 lostingotham

I'm not in the "financial district" so I don't know. I only know if I were asked to come up with a away to track US money in case of theft, photocopying wouldn't be the way I would choose. But it could be the way they do it.

Before its all over, the NYT will discover this photo and claim it is evidence of the CIA's tracking of suspected terrorists' spending patterns. These hundies were scanned by a machine designed for duplicating large engineering drawings to display the serial numbers. The pics likely coincide with a timestamp on a surveilance camera.

Can you say SWIFT?

OK, thats my conspiracy. And I'm sticking to it.

No doubt the counterfeiters have been working to perfect their work on the two recent redesigns of the US $100 bill. First, we went to the larger heads because we gave an exact press and plates to the Shah in the 70s. Second, we added colored ink to make it more difficult.

The problem here is that in the black market the old, small face, non-colored ink, bills are still accepted. Banks are supposed to take them out of circulation, but the grace period for exchange is over. The US Treasury won't exchange old hundreds for new hundreds anymore. As far as the legitimate market is concerned, it is all new design hundreds.

What the press ought to do is walk into any market in the ME, or Hizb'allah controlled territory, and try to purchase things with the old small face hundreds. It's a good story and it will show you how the bills of the great satan are still being used by the haters of the great satan.

Hizb'allah may love Iranian financial suppport, but I guarantee you they aren't sending Euros to the Bekaa Valley.

NY Times Magazine
No Ordinary Counterfeit

#25 Peter Griffin -
I noticed on his TV report tonight that he is now pronouncing Hizb'allah as Hez-bel'-a.
This pronunciation seems to be spreading throughout the progressives. Ifill is using it too.
Gotta remove the "peace of submission to allah" from the "fundamentalist Islamic radicals".

All this talk about counterfeiting is interesting and stuff, but I don't see it in the photo.

What I see is a photocopy of a stack of bills to record serial numbers. I do not see counterfeit money.

That doesn't mean that counterfeiting isn't going on, but this picture doesn't show it, in my view.

#134 bobdog

See #118 lostingotham & the update.

Photocopiers capable of the printing the size paper depicted in the video are outrageously expensive and enormous machines. If someone were interested in copying the serial numbers of treasury bills there are alot of easier, faster and cheaper ways to do that than lining them up on a photocopier of that size. Any bank would have access to the digital check and bill scanners to do that kind of job.

The EU, ME and US banks have all standardized their document types and sizes. It makes no sense for a bank to have a photocopier of that size. Unless, of course, they routinely print money on them. The paper sheets are of the typical size used by the US Mint for printing paper notes.

Hmm! To me, it looks like the first-runs of an plate-type printing press project and they got their web and paper feed timing all messed up.

Tracer's right, that's an odd sized paper for a copier. On the other hand, it's clear even from the low-res picture that we're only seeing partial bills, specifically the lower-half of each where the serial number is, which lends credence to the theory that this was a method of recording serial numbers. Anybody know any bankers they can check with?

#136,

Canon's iR75W copier handles A2 sheets (as well as smaller sizes) and goes for about $15K--which is comparable with other mid-range office copiers (though in the U.S. people rarely buy these things, but rather lease them for about $300/mo). Either way, the price should be well within the means of even a small bank. The iR75W's footprint is also similar with the copiers you're used to seeing in the office. Canon's distributor in Lebanon is:

Image Systems S.A.L
460 Corniche Al-Nahr P.O. Box 11316
Beirut
Telephone: +961 1 582000
Ext 166 /167/168/169
Fax: +961 1 566276

If you're that curious, call them and ask what an iR75W goes for in Beirut these days.