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Global Economy is a subject near and dear to Mr. Ruppert’s heart. Spend a short time listening to what Mike told a captive radio audience on Goldline's American Advisor recently. Hear what Mike has to say about the current 2005 state of affairs, especially as it concerns the ever rising gold market. The CD is an audio version only and is over 26 minutes in length. Mike Ruppert on Gold - (FREE SHIPPING!) Total is 8.95!
Quick jump to below stories: Software Being Developed to Monitor Opinions of U.S. - BY ERIC LIPTON, NY Times Russian oil grab 'puts western supplies at risk' - BP and Shell face bids, says energy expert - New UN body may be needed to police markets - by Terry Macalister, The Guardian Russians give Shell Sakhalin-2 ultimatum - By Julian Evans in Moscow, and Michael Binyon, The Times Online Friends In High Places? - by Tim Iacono, FinancialSense.com Global warming will threaten millions say climate scientists - By Michael McCarthy, The New Zeland Herald Cuba’s Children’s Congress Preps - by Presna Latina Bolivian opposition raises doubts over military accord with Venezuela - by The Associated Press
[“Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, said the effort (reported below) recalled the aborted 2002 push by a Defense Department agency to develop a tracking system called Total Information Awareness (TIA) that was intended to detect terrorists by analyzing troves of information.” TIA has not been aborted, it is alive and well whether admitted or not. As Mike Ruppert wrote in chapter 23 of Crossing the Rubicon: “Even if Congressional attempts to suspend funding for the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program are successful, the program will still be in place and operating "off the books" using either funds obtained from the drug trade or stolen from the U.S. Treasury (see below). The government doesn't give up such power easily.” The below experiment between American Universities and Homeland Security is a sort of public face for TIA. Remember, with this type of technology, there is more than we are being told. – MK] Software Being Developed to Monitor Opinions of U.S. BY ERIC LIPTON October 3, 2006 NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/us/04monitor.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — A consortium of major universities, using Homeland Security Department money, is developing software that would let the government monitor negative opinions of the United States or its leaders in newspapers and other publications overseas. Such a “sentiment analysis” is intended to identify potential threats to the nation, security officials said. Researchers at institutions including Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Utah intend to test the system on hundreds of articles published in 2001 and 2002 on topics like President Bush’s use of the term “axis of evil,” the handling of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, the debate over global warming and the coup attempt against President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. A $2.4 million grant will finance the research over three years. American officials have long relied on newspapers and other news sources to track events and opinions here and abroad, a goal that has included the routine translation of articles from many foreign publications and news services. The new software would allow much more rapid and comprehensive monitoring of the global news media, as the Homeland Security Department and, perhaps, intelligence agencies look “to identify common patterns from numerous sources of information which might be indicative of potential threats to the nation,” a statement by the department said. It could take several years for such a monitoring system to be in place, said Joe Kielman, coordinator of the research effort. The monitoring would not extend to United States news, Mr. Kielman said. “We want to understand the rhetoric that is being published and how intense it is, such as the difference between dislike and excoriate,” he said. Even the basic research has raised concern among journalism advocates and privacy groups, as well as representatives of the foreign news media. “It is just creepy and Orwellian,” said Lucy Dalglish, a lawyer and former editor who is executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Andrei Sitov, Washington bureau chief of the Itar-Tass news agency of Russia, said he hoped that the objective did not go beyond simply identifying threats to efforts to stifle criticism about an American president or administration. “This is what makes your country great, the open society where people can criticize their own government,” Mr. Sitov said. The researchers, using an grant provided by a research group once affiliated with the Central Intelligence Agency, have complied a database of hundreds of articles that it is being used to train a computer to recognize, rank and interpret statements. The software would need to be able to distinguish between statements like “this spaghetti is good” and “this spaghetti is not very good — it’s excellent,” said Claire T. Cardie, a professor of computer science at Cornell. Professor Cardie ranked the second statement as a more intense positive opinion than the first. The articles in the database include work from many American newspapers and news wire services, including The Miami Herald and The New York Times, as well as foreign sources like Agence France-Presse and The Dawn, a newspaper in Pakistan. One article discusses how a rabid fox bit a grazing cow in Romania, hardly a threat to the United States. Another item, an editorial in response to Mr. Bush’s use in 2002 of “axis of evil” to describe Iraq, Iran and North Korea, said: “The U.S. is the first nation to have developed nuclear weapons. Moreover, the U.S. is the first and only nation ever to deploy such weapons.” The approach, called natural language processing, has been under development for decades. It is widely used to summarize basic facts in a text or to create abridged versions of articles. But interpreting and rating expressions of opinion, without making too many errors, has been much more challenging, said Professor Cardie and Janyce M. Wiebe, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Pittsburgh. Their system would include a confidence rating for each “opinion” that it evaluates and would allow an official to refer quickly to the actual text that the computer indicates contains an intense anti-American statement. Ultimately, the government could in a semiautomated way track a statement by specific individuals abroad or track reports by particular foreign news outlets or journalists, rating comments about American policies or officials. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, said the effort recalled the aborted 2002 push by a Defense Department agency to develop a tracking system called Total Information Awareness that was intended to detect terrorists by analyzing troves of information. “That is really chilling,” Mr. Rotenberg said. “And it seems far afield from the mission of homeland security.” Federal law prohibits the Homeland Security Department or other intelligence agencies from building such a database on American citizens, and no effort would be made to do that, a spokesman for the department, Christopher Kelly, said. But there would be no such restrictions on using foreign news media, Mr. Kelly said. Mr. Kielman, the project coordinator, said questions on using the software were premature because the department was just now financing the basic research necessary to set up an operating system. Professors Cardie and Wiebe said they understood that there were legitimate questions about the ultimate use of their software. “There has to be guidelines and restrictions on the use of this kind of technology by the government,” Professor Wiebe said. “But it doesn’t mean it is not useful. It can just as easily help the government understand what is going on in places around the world.” [Read every word of this one. This analysis reasons that recent developments between western oil firms and Russia fall in favor of the Kremlin, implying an impending “checkmate” of the West. Except for the fact that Odell seemingly dismisses Peak Oil – or at least the prospect of sharp decline rates in global supply – his perspective seems to be in line with FTW’s map. – MK] Russian oil grab 'puts western supplies at risk' BP and Shell face bids, says energy expert # New UN body may be needed to police markets Terry Macalister Monday October 2, 2006 The Guardian http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1885258,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1 In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. A former government adviser has warned it is "only a matter of time" before BP or Shell faces a bid from a Russian state-owned group such as Gazprom which could threaten western oil supplies. Professor Peter Odell, an energy economist, says ExxonMobil is also vulnerable to a Chinese takeover as the large UK and American stock-listed oil groups lose their influence in global markets. "A Chinese bid for Exxon and/or Chevron and/or a Russian bid for Shell and/or BP, backed by funds provided by the wealthy member countries of Opec seem likely to be only a matter of time. "With the 'majors' gone there will be concern in the main OECD countries for the future security of supplies," he said in an unpublished speech to Opec ministers in Vienna last month. Professor Odell, who was an adviser to Tony Benn, the UK energy minister in the late 1970s and has since worked for a host of different foreign governments, said he was not being alarmist or deliberately controversial. "Latest figures show the western oil majors are losing their leadership of the global oil system and now have only 9% or 10% of the world's reserves. They appear unable to win new production rights except as minority partners in state-run systems," Mr Odell says. The Russian gas group Gazprom is keen to expand its sphere of influence outside its home country and told the Guardian earlier this year it would like to buy a British energy company. The treatment by Russian officials of Shell at Sakhalin-2 and BP on the Siberian Kovykta field has also been interpreted as the Kremlin manoeuvring in the energy sector for political ends. Alexander Ryazanov, chief executive of Gazprom's oil arm Gazprom Neft, said that the unit's healthy cashflow and help from its parent would make it easy to find up to $25bn(£13.3bn) to take a 50% stake in the joint venture, TNK-BP. The Chinese - and the Indians - meanwhile have been using state-owned companies to expand abroad to secure supplies for their energy-hungry industries. Professor Odell foresees a return to state-owned companies in the west too, along the lines of Norway's Statoil and Austria's OMV which have also been expanding fast. He predicts a "new British National Oil Corporation, a revived Petro-Canada and a deprivatised Total in France and Belgium". The publicly quoted companies such as Shell and BP have not helped their own plight in the eyes of those countries with expanding needs for oil, says Professor Odell, a Briton who currently works at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He believes western oil companies have endangered their own survival by skimping on investment and using their cash for share buybacks and "extortionate" executive remuneration packages. Professor Odell is considered to be quite conservative but he is a sceptic about the world running out of oil fast. "The ultimate physical sufficiency of global oil and gas resources is not in doubt so that one can ignore the present-day Jeremiahs," he told Opec ministers. He believes the need for better order in global markets will eventually lead to the creation of a United Nations International Energy Organisation which will include input from Opec and others. [This ultimatum from the Kremlin to Shell and ExxonMobil comes after it revoked a critical environmental authorization for the project. Russia wants a bigger (more equitable) piece of their own natural resources (how dare they!) and seems pleased to push the West out of this critical project amid rising political tensions – MK] Russians give Shell Sakhalin-2 ultimatum By Julian Evans in Moscow, and Michael Binyon October 5, 2006 The Times Online http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9072-2389291,00.html In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. THE Kremlin yesterday gave an ultimatum to Shell and ExxonMobil over their multibillion- dollar cost overruns on the $20 billion (£10.6 billion) Sakhalin-2 oil and gasfield project. Russia is demanding that Shell and Exxon either stick to original cost agreements, return to the Kremlin and renegotiate the deal’s terms, or sell up and go. Arkadi Dvorkovich, adviser to President Putin, told The Times: “As far as Sakhalin-2 goes, you know which side started changing the terms and who asked for expenditure to be doubled. It was clear . . . that the Russian side would never agree to this.” Last year Shell doubled the projected costs of Sakhalin-2 from $10 billion to $20 billion. Under the project’s production-sharing agreement (PSA), that meant the Russian state would get no profit for many years, until project costs were paid off. Mr Dvorkovich said: “If it’s more beneficial to work under the PSA, (Shell) should do that, rather than switch to a new legal regime. If neither of those options are acceptable, it may be more beneficial to sell their interest to a third party.” Mr Dvorkovich said that renegotiating the PSA was possible, but the Government would not initiate such a renegotiation. [Tim Iacono is my kind of “conspiracy theorist” – the kind that likes lots of solid documentation to back up his “theories.” – MK] Friends In High Places? by Tim Iacono October 4, 2006 FinancialSense.com http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/2006/1004b.html In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Life is always much more fun when there's a good conspiracy theory to kick around. When the New York Times starts kicking it around too, then it can really be enjoyable. Such is the case with the recent plunge in the price paid for gasoline by formerly dour consumers leading up to an election where the party in power is clearly having difficulty wooing the electorate. It just so happens that the newly appointed Treasury Secretary used to run the investment bank that controls the world's most important commodity index, which seven weeks ago cut the weighting of unleaded gasoline by nearly 75 percent, causing all commodity investments based on this index to sell their unleaded gasoline futures. For the same number of buyers, a glut of sellers means lower prices, and voila! Prices at the pump drop precipitously, consumer confidence rebounds, and the electorate develops a new spring in their step. Or at least, that's what some would have you believe. A recent poll revealed that 42 percent of the respondents thought the White House had somehow manipulated the price of gasoline so that it would decrease before this fall's elections. They were only slightly outnumbered by the 53 percent who believed there to be no trickery involved. Still, there are a few too many events that have lined up so precisely over the last few months that it's hard not to take notice. A recent New York Times story observed the changes made to the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index back on August 9th, particularly its fortuitous timing. Heather Timmons writes: Wholesale prices for New York Harbor unleaded gasoline, the major gasoline contract traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, dropped 18 cents a gallon on Aug. 10, to $1.9889 a gallon, a decline of more than 8 percent, and they have dropped further since then. In New York on Friday, gasoline futures for October delivery rose 4.81 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $1.5492 a gallon. Prices have fallen 9.4 percent this year. The August announcement by Goldman Sachs caught some traders by surprise. The firm said in early June that it planned to roll its positions in the harbor contract into another futures contract, the reformulated gasoline blend stock, which is replacing the harbor contract at the end of the year because of changes to laws about gasoline additives. Later in June, Goldman said it had rolled a third of its gasoline holdings into the reformulated contracts but would make further announcements as to whether the remainder would be rolled over. Then in August, the bank said it would not roll over any more positions into gasoline and would redistribute the weighting into other petroleum products. Not surprisingly, Goldman Sachs had no comment on the recent change. Having looked at this commodity index some time ago as part of the work done for the Iacono Research website, the weightings from late June were already available in spreadsheet form. A comparison between the composition from a few months ago to the most recent data available at the GSCI page of Goldman's website shows the following changes. The Times article states that the adjustment prompted the sell-off of some $6 billion in unleaded gasoline futures contracts, some of these being replaced by Reformulated Gasoline Blendstock for Oxygen Blending ("RBOB") futures and, as shown in the chart above, the rest being distributed to other commodities. Note that there was a hefty decline in the natural gas weighting as well. There have been many other factors at work contributing to plunging energy prices over the last two months - the calming of tensions in the Middle East, a mild hurricane season, and improving energy production around the world - but the August 9th date serves as the peak for nearly all energy products. The plunge of unleaded gasoline prices around this time is clear in the chart below. So, indulging some conspiratorial inklings just a bit further, a reasonable question to ask is whether there might be a relationship between falling gasoline prices and other energy prices. Were plunging gasoline prices just part of a broad energy price decline or did it serve as a catalyst? The price of heating oil, for example is often affected by the price of crude oil, and gasoline prices can impact how much traders will pay for other commodities. As it turns out, the end of the first week in August marks a peak for almost all energy commodities - crude oil, heating oil, gasoline, and more. But one look at the chart below and it becomes clear which energy commodity led the others down. With the exception of a brief exchange with always-volatile natural gas shortly after August 9th, other energy prices appear to have been led down by the falling price of unleaded gasoline. It looks like a contagion in the graphic above, spread by unleaded gasoline and picked up by other energy commodities that were unable to fight off its effects. Not until ten days before Aramanth Advisors fesses up to their bad energy bets on the weekend of September 17th and 18th did the plunge in natural gas prices surpass that of unleaded gas. Of course, owning near ten percent of all natural gas contracts just prior to that fateful weekend, the actions of Aramanth traders leading up to their confessional likely exacerbated this decline. So, as far as conspiracy theories go, this is quite a good one. The motivation for the commodity index change and the impact on other energy prices will likely never be confirmed or corroborated, but it makes for an interesting story. Make a little change that causes $6 billion in unleaded gasoline futures to be dumped onto the NYMEX, then watch prices tumble. Stand clear, watching for traders like Aramanth to implode, and get ready to mop up any other messes that arise during the process - all to relieve a little pain at the pump, prior to the polls opening. Some at the White House may be patting themselves on the back figuring that the best thing they've done in years was to get Hank Paulson to take the job at Treasury. It's good to have friends in high places. Snow on top of Mount Kilimanjaro melting India faces major water shortages Mexico City water shortage Global warming will threaten millions say climate scientists By Michael McCarthy October 4, 2006 The New Zeland Herald http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10404255 In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Drought threatening the lives of millions will spread across half the land surface of the earth in the coming century because of global warming, according to new predictions from Britain's leading climate scientists. Extreme drought, in which agriculture is effectively impossible, will affect nearly a third of the planet, according to the study from the Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research. It is one of the direst forecasts so far of the potential effects of rising temperatures around the world - yet it may be an underestimate, the scientists involved said yesterday. The findings, released at the Climate Clinic at the Conservative party conference in Bournemouth, drew astonished and dismayed reactions from aid agencies and development specialists, who fear that the poor of developing countries will be worst hit. "This is genuinely terrifying," said Andrew Pendleton of Christian Aid. "It is a death sentence for many millions of people. It will mean huge migration off the land at levels we have not seen before, and at levels poor countries cannot cope with. It will mean huge conflict." One of Britain's leading expert on the effects of climate change on the developing countries, Andrew Simms from the New Economics Foundation, said last night: "There's almost no aspect of life in the developing countries that these predictions don't undermine - the ability to grow food, the ability to have a safe sanitation system, the availability of water. I think that for hundreds of millions of people for whom getting through the day is already a struggle, this is going to push them over the precipice." The findings represent the first time that the threat of increased drought from climate change, long feared, has actually been quantified with a modern supercomputer climate model such as the one operated by the Hadley Centre. Their impact will be all the greater from the fact they may well be an underestimate, as the study did not include potential effects on drought from global-warming-induced changes to the earth's carbon cycle, such as forests dying back in a warming world. In one unpublished Met Office study, when the carbon cycle effects are included, future drought is even worse. The current results are regarded as most valid at the global level and so far there is less confidence in them giving a regional picture, but the clear implication is that the parts of the world already stricken by drought, such as Africa, will be the places where the projected increase will have the severest effects. The study, by Dr Eleanor Burke and two Hadley Centre colleagues, models how a widely-used measure of drought known as the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) is likely to increase globally during the coming century with predicted changes in rainfall and heat around the world because of climate change. It shows the PDSI figure for moderate drought, currently at 25 per cent of the earth's surface, rising to 50 per cent by 2100, the figure for severe drought, currently at about eight per cent, rising to 40 cent, and the figure for extreme drought, currently three per cent, rising to 30 per cent. Senior Met Office scientists are sensitive about the study, funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), stressing it contains a number of uncertainties: there is only one climate model involved, one future scenario for emissions of greenhouse gases (a moderate-to-high one) and one drought index. Other studies might give different results. Nevertheless, the result is "significant", according to Dr Vicky Pope, head of the Hadley Centre's climate programme. Further work would now be taking place to try and reduce the uncertainties and get a handle on the potential risk of different levels of drought in different places, she said. The full study - ITALS Modelling the recent evolution of global drought and projections for the 21st century with the Hadley Centre climate model OFFITALS - will be published later this month in ITALS The Journal of Hydrometeorology OFFITALS. It will be widely publicised by the British Government at the negotiations in Nairobi in November on a successor to the Kyoto climate treaty. But a preview of it was given by Dr Burke yesterday in a presentation to the Climate Clinic, the roadshow-cum-think-tank formed to press politicians for tougher action on climate change by Britain's major environmental groups, with The Independent as media partner. The Climate Clinic has been in operation at all three party conferences. Dr Burke agreed that the predictions in her study were possibly conservative and that an unpublished study she had done which included the global carbon cycle had shown more severe drought still in coming decades, although she declined to give details of it. While the present study in its entirety will be widely seen as a cause for great concern, it is the figure for the increase in extreme drought that some observers find most frightening. "It strikes me as overwhelming that we're talking about 30 per cent of the world's land surface becoming essentially uninhabitable in terms of agricultural production in the space of a few decades," said Mark Lynas, the author of ITALS High Tide OFFITALS, the first major account of the visible effects of global warming around the world. "These are parts of the world where hundreds of millions of people will no longer be able to feed themselves where they live, and will need to migrate to areas of the world that are still inhabitable. "And it is such a crucial point that this is a conservative prediction and does not include the real rate at which carbon dioxide [the major greenhouse gas] will accumulate in the atmosphere." Andrew Pendleton of Christian Aid said: "This means you're talking about any form of development going straight out of the window. The vast majority of poor people in the developing world are small-scale farmers who have no technology and rely on rain for food and livelihood and survival; they're in a position where if you push them only slightly, they're going to fall off. If we fail to take action to stop this we are committing what in my mind is effectively genocide." - INDEPENDENT [I cannot imagine how different the United States would be if we had something like a "children's congress" in which kids could get involved in community and national issues from a very early age. In order for that to happen, however, America would have to have genuine respect for the wellbeing of children and their future which it does not have. The Cuban Children's Congress is one outcome of a transformed society in which children are valued and included in the decision-making process. It is also of interest to note that Cuba has just announced it will build 20 more hospitals in Bolivia in addition to the 20 it has already supplied. Meanwhile the U.S. continues to maintain an embargo on the nation that does more harm to its own people than good. – CB] # Cuba’s Children’s Congress Preps October 1, 2006 Presna Latina http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={F5C12E40-1D2C-4D30-81EA-B2579D9754BD})&language=EN In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Havana, Oct 1 (Prensa Latina) Cuban children are working today on the preparation of their organization´s Congress in which, no matter their age, they could talk about serious question related to the present and future education. Almost 1000 children delegates will attend the IV Congress of the Pioneers Organization Jose Marti (OPJM) in session at the Convention Palace from Saturday, October 7 through 9. They represent over one million 400 thousands members of this important Cuban student"s organization, according to Juventud Rebelde newspaper. The Congress will work in five commissions: Elementary Education, Higher Education, Vocational Training, Organization and Culture, Sports and Recreation. Children from other provinces will attend this national meeting and develop an intense program of recreational and cultural activities. Bolivian opposition raises doubts over military accord with Venezuela September 28, 2006 The Associated Press http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/29/ america/LA_GEN_Bolivia_Venezuela_Military.php In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. LA PAZ, Bolivia A vaguely worded military pact between President Evo Morales' government and Venezuela ran into resistance Thursday in the opposition-controlled Senate. The accord, presented May 26 during a visit by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, would bring armed forces under the two leftist administrations closer together and have Venezuela help Bolivia construct a military base in the northern city of Riberalta and a river port on its border with Brazil. The treaty passed the House months ago with minimal opposition but some senators are questioning provisions that propose cooperations in areas such as "control of armament and disarmament" and "democratic control of forces." "Disarm who? Control of what forces? It could mean anything — whatever you want is in there," Carlos Borth, senator from the conservative opposition party Podemos, told the Associated Press on Thursday. The proposed pact calls on the two nations' armies to work toward the goal of "standardization and inter-operativity." Borth said the agreement was designed to open the door into Bolivia for the Venezuelan military. The pact was "expressly designed to provide (Venezuela) cover for eventual future actions," he said. "And with Chavez, one never knows." Podemos holds 13 of the Senate's 27 seats, and could block the measure with the votes of two lawmakers from other minor opposition parties. Antonio Peredo, head of the 12 senators representing Morales' Movement Toward Socialism party, or MAS, defended the treaty in a Thursday press conference. "The irrationality is on the side of the Podemos bench, in the way that they have declared war on the government because they don't want change in this country," Peredo said. Senators also were considering another agreement signed during Chavez' visit that calls for oil-rich Venezuela to help out its cash-strapped ally by purchasing US$100 million (€78.6 million) in Bolivian treasury bonds. Elected last year as Bolivia's first indigenous president, Evo Morales has quickly forged close ties with Chavez, joining the Venezuelan leader in frequent criticism of the United States. An unknown number of Venezuelan military personnel already serve in Bolivia. Some are training Bolivians to pilot the borrowed Venezuelan helicopters that ferry Morales about the country. Meanwhile, cooperation between Bolivia and the U.S. military has all but disappeared since Morales' election. Previously, U.S. troops held joint exercises with Bolivian soldiers and once created, trained and equipped an elite Bolivian anti-terrorism unit. Since Morales took office in January, relations with Washington have been mired in mutual suspicion. In May, Morales claimed the United States was plotting to assassinate him. The following month he accused the U.S. of sending soldiers to Bolivia disguised as students and tourists. Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy is demanding the return of equipment it provided the elite anti-terrorism unit. Borth conceded that Bolivian troops might benefit from training alongside their Venezuelan counterparts, and expressed Podemos' willingness to ratify a more clearly written treaty. "If they draw up a new accord — more rational and more specific — we'll pass it," he said. ___ Associate Press Writer Alvaro Zuazo contributed to this report.