Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Friday 02.03.2012
Gold may hit $2,000 within 3 months: James Turk
CommodityOnline.com The Gold Report: Given the volatile 2011 market and the fact that gold trades at seasonally lower prices in the summer, James, what led you to say you believe we've already hit the low for the gold price in 2012? James Turk: We started this year in an unusual position. Normally, we see seasonal strength in the last quarter. We didn't get it. We'd been in a correction since the high in Silverback in April 2011. The high in gold came during the summer, which was very unusual, but basically both metals have been moving sideways. Starting from the end of a correction, value is more important than seasonality. Clearly, gold and silver both represent good, undervalued assets at the moment.
Gold Breaks Bearish Trendline; Key Target for Silver at $37
BY RICHARD RUSSELL - FinancialSense.com
....If the year 2012 has a title, the title should be "uncertainty."
Nobody's asking, "What happens if there's a recession in the next year?" Or "What if unemployment is 9% or more at presidential election time?" If either of the above occur, the GOP could run a donkey, and it would be our next president. Obama must have a good economy to win.
What about gold? Remember gold? Don't worry about the yellow metal. Over the last week gold has broken out above a bearish trendline and the direction is now UP. The next task -- for gold to trade in the 1800s.
Getting back to the gold standard
Commentary: Jim Grant says gold, not paper currency, is the future
By Brett Arends, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Jim Grant’s rise to power may be delayed.
The legendary Wall Street writer, publisher of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, has been mentioned by two of the rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. Newt Gingrich said if elected president, he’d name Grant to help run a commission looking at a possible return to the gold standard. And Ron Paul said, if elected president, he’d go all-in and name Grant — one of Wall Street’s best-known gold bugs — as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve.
As Paul wants to abolish the Fed, it would doubtless be a temporary post. But Grant says he found the offer — which came out of the blue — very flattering.
Gold: The target is between $2,750 to $3,000 by June 2013
By David Nichols - CommodityOnline.com
It's not often that a financial market tells us its intentions in a clear and obvious way. But occasionally it happens.
And it just happened last Wednesday.
First, to set the stage: Gold came into last week off a 17-week correction, with the direction of the next 17 weeks still up in the air. The big correction in 2008 lasted 34 weeks, so gold was at a critical balance point heading into the Fed meeting -- it was either going to move into the next up leg now, or in 17 weeks, in early May.
Syrians buying 30 times more gold
in the aftermath of the uprising
DAMASCUS (Commodity Online): Syria's 10-month-old uprising has seen an upturn in ordinary people Buying Gold, according to a report this week from the Financial Times.
"I realized gold's value because of the crisis," the FT quotes a Syrian accountant called Rasha, who it says is using her entire monthly salary to Buy Gold.
One Syrian Gold seller meantime says the numbers of people Buying Gold at his store is 30 times higher than before the crisis began.
Silver: Elliott Wave analysis targets $158.34/oz in Wave 3
By Alf Field - CommodityOnline.com
I have received numerous emails asking about silver. This article was prompted by a question enquiring what the Silverprice might be if my Gold forecast of $4,500 proved to be correct. As I own some silver bullion and a number of silver mining shares, the question caused me to pause and take a closer look at silver.
Gold and silver tend to move in tandem, not in an exact synchronization, but enough to suggest that the Major waves of both metals should coincide from a time perspective. We know that in gold the Major ONE wave peaked in March 2008 at $1003 and that Major TWO declined to $680 in November 2008.
European debt crisis remains supportive influence for gold
LONDON (Commodity Online): Concerns about Greece and Portugal are underpinning demand for gold, said Commerzbank in a research note.
According to Commerzbank, Gold defied a downward trend in commodity prices and a firmer U.S. dollar Tuesday. The metal is higher again so far Wednesday.
"There has still been no breakthrough in negotiations between the so-called Troika and Greece on debt restructuring, and the tug-of-war is therefore continuing," they added.
Ingredients for Inflation
BY DOCK TREECE - FinancialSense.com
The definition of inflation is a very hotly debated issue among investors, economists, and of course politicians. Long-time readers will know we’ve written about it many times before, but given recent developments feel the need to provide a brief refresher course to help investors understand the risks quickly emerging in financial markets.
Inflation was defined as expansion in money supply for years and years – and it still is by economists from the Austrian school of thought. However, in the early 2000s the FederalReserve conveniently stopped keeping track of M3 – the broadest measure of money supply which most had used to gauge inflation.
They're lying to you... In Giant Misdirection,
Americans Save More
While Their Real Wealth Declines Faster Americans save more at almost zero interest
as their dollars drop in value
by Bill Sardi - LewRockwell.com
What a time for Americans to begin replenishing their savings accounts, at the exact time when they are likely to be penalized for doing so.
For the past 30 years Americans have been saving less and less money and only with the recent economic downturn beginning in 2008 did Americans begin to re-stock their savings accounts. The American consumer economy has benefited as Americans chose to spend rather than save.
But suddenly, savings are on the way up again, up to 4% in December 2011 from 3.5% in November, the highest savings rate increase in five months.
War, Bank Runs, Riots & Gold Going Mainstream 1/4
War, Bank Runs, Riots & Gold Going Mainstream 2/4
War, Bank Runs, Riots & Gold Going Mainstream 3/4
War, Bank Runs, Riots & Gold Going Mainstream 4/4
China Considers Offering Aid in Europe’s Debt Crisis
By KEITH BRADSHER and LIZ ALDERMAN - NYTimes.com
HONG KONG — Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said Thursday thatChina would consider working with the International Monetary Fundto help shore up Europe’s finances. But he left unclear whether China was willing to drop conditions that so far have made its proposed help unappealing to European nations.
While Chinese leaders have pledged not to link political demands to financial investments, they have sought concessions, such as getting the European Union to relax trade strictures against low-cost Chinese goods. Mr. Wen’s comments came at a Beijing news conference after he met with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on the first day of her three-day visit to China.
China’s Wen Raises Euro Funding Prospect
By Bloomberg News
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao raised the prospect of contributing to the euro-area’s bailout programs, telling Chancellor Angela Merkel thatChina may be prepared to assist in resolving its debt crisis.
The Chinese government is considering funding options for the temporary European Financial Stability Facility and its permanent successor, the European Stability Mechanism, through theInternational Monetary Fund to help stabilize the monetary union, Wen said yesterday after meeting Merkel in Beijing. China has previously said that it needs more detail on any plan to contribute funds to the euro area.
Greece: European Central Bank,
other central banks must be part of debt relief deal
AP - WashingtonPost.com
ATHENS, Greece — The European Central Bank and national central banks should be part of a debt relief deal with near-bankrupt Greece’s private sector creditors ahead of a pressing deadline early next week, the Greek Finance Minister said Thursday.
Evangelos Venizelos said the deal should also involve reducing the interest rates Greece pays its European partners and the International Monetary Fund for its first bailout agreed in May 2010
Who's Still OK With Deficit Spending Now?
By Chuck Butler - DailyReckoning.com
02/02/12 St. Louis, Missouri – I had to laugh yesterday when the New York traders came in and didn't sell the currencies right away… I said to myself, "Self, maybe the 'big boys' read the Pfennig and now know that I've uncovered their 'game,' so they have to lay low for a while!" HA! Whatever the case, the currencies held their gains most of the day, and even added on in some cases.
CBO: How Hosed Are We?
By Megan McArdle - TheAtlantic.com
The latest Budget and Economic Outlook is out from the CBO, and boy is it grim reading. The projections continue to deteriorate, largely because the recession has been longer and deeper than the CBO projected. We can now expect $1 trillion deficits even past Obama's first term.
Aha! You want to say. "It's mostly the fault of George Bush and his nefarious tax cuts for the rich!"
If only it were so simple. The ten year cost of the Bush tax cuts is $2.8 trillion, but only about a quarter of that is for the taxes on high earners; the rest is for tax breaks affecting those making less than $250,000 a year. Moreover, "extend tax policies" also assumes that we fix the AMT to prevent it from hitting middle-income voters. That costs another $800 billion over 10 years--about the same as the "tax cuts for the rich".
Baltic Dry: The Death Of An Index
247WallSt.com
Just what does a cratering Baltic Dry Index mean? Frankly, it looks and acts as though it is signaling the next recession is here already rather than signaling that it is coming. That flies in the face of many current trends, but perhaps it is the woes of Europe. After all, Belgium is the first country so far to have two negative GDP quarters and the other Eurozone nations are somehow claiming that they will escape a 2012 recession. There is a lot more to the story.
Keiser Report: Chutzpah Economics (E244)
Bernanke Won’t Trade Inflation Goal for Jobs
By Joshua Zumbrun - Bloomberg.com
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank will seek to keep prices rising at a 2 percent rate and rejected suggestions that it would sacrifice its inflation goal to boost employment.
"Over a period of time we want to move inflation always back toward 2 percent," Bernanke said today in Washington in response to a question from Republican Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Budget Committee. "We're always trying to bring inflation back to the target."
Rising Deficits Pose Major Threat to Economy: Bernanke
By: Jeff Cox - CNBC.com
Rising federal budget deficits are posing a significant threat to the U.S. economy and are likely to cause a crisis if not brought under control, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Thursday.
Calling the situation "unsustainable," the central bank leader pointed out that surging health-care costs, along with the high level of government spending used to pull the economy out of recession, are creating fiscal hazard.
Fed chief warns Congress
against hampering growth while cutting debt
By Zachary A. Goldfarb - WashingtonPost.com
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on Thursday cautioned lawmakers against taking any steps that would hurt economic growth as they work to cut the nation’s debt, and he defended the central bank’s recent actions to support the economy.
In testimony before the House Budget Committee, Bernanke urged Congress to put a priority on finding a sustainable level of federal spending over coming decades.
But, he said, they also must "take care not to unnecessarily impede the current economic recovery." Supporting growth now, he said, "will lead to lower deficits and debt in coming years."
Geithner: Dodd-Frank critics
are toying with another financial meltdown
By Peter Schroeder - TheHill.com
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner swung back at critics of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law Thursday, arguing that those detractors are pushing for a repeat of the financial crisis.
Both in Congress and on the campaign trail, the Obama administration's reforms have come under fire. Lawmakers are pushing several bills that would repeal portions of the law, and every major Republican candidate has vowed to kill it as one of their first acts in office.
Timothy Geithner defends financial overhaul from GOP criticism
By Jim Puzzanghera - LATimes.com
Reporting from Washington—
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has a message for voters as they listen to Republican presidential candidates call for repeal of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law: Remember the pain.
"I would say remember 2008 and 2009," Geithner told reporters Thursday during a news conference touting the benefits of the overhaul. "Remember the fact that the reason why we're living with very high unemployment with millions of Americans that have lost their homes, terrible damage to the basic economics of America is because of the failures that caused this crisis in the financial system."
Goldman Sachs likely to avoid criminal charges
in DOJ probe, insiders say
By MARK DECAMBRE - NYPost.com
Goldman Sachs is ready to turn over a new gold-plated leaf.
Nearly nine months after the Justice Department launched a probe into whether the Wall Street firm misled clients and lied to lawmakers, executives are increasingly optimistic that the bank will avoid criminal charges and focus on what it does best: minting money.
The DOJ investigation into Goldman was spurred by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who, in a scathing report in April, accused Goldman executives of unloading subprime loans on unsuspecting clients and misleading Congress during testimony in 2010.
House votes to freeze congressional, federal pay
By Ed O'Keefe - WashingtonPost.com
House lawmakers voted Wednesday night to freeze their pay and the salaries of congressional staffers and civilian federal employees, scoring a symbolic victory for congressional Republicans who have targeted government compensation as an example of excessive federal spending.
On a vote of 309 to 117, GOP supporters scored the two-thirds majority needed to approve the measure under a suspension of normal procedural roles.
It Is Safe to Resume Ignoring the Prophets of Doom ... Right?
By ADAM DAVIDSON - NYTimes.com
I remember the first time I interviewed a relatively unknown economist named Nouriel Roubini. It was 2005, and as we sat in his New York University office, he laid out his scary vision of the future. Roubini is a specialist in the flow of money around the world and the crises that (sometimes) result. But on that day he wanted to talk about the U.S. housing market.
Homeowners, he said, had become too used to financing their lifestyles with money siphoned from overvalued homes. This housing bubble would pop, he warned, and send the world into a vicious recession, possibly even a depression. I remember leaving his office both stunned and confused. Only after calling a few leading economists was I reassured that this Roubini guy was expressing a fringe view that merited little attention. Like a lot of reporters that year, I turned around a tongue-in-cheek story about Dr. Doom and his scary (but probably best ignored) world view. Oops!
Fantastic Mr. Frum:
How he learned to stop worrying
and love debt, deficits, and the dollar
Fed's Low Rates Killing Credit, Slowing Recovery: Gross
By: Jeff Cox- CNBC.com
The Federal Reserve's zero-interest-rate policy is hampering economic recovery by discouraging bank lending, Pimco bond titan Bill Gross said in an analysis.
For banks, a healthy lending environment exists where they can borrow at low rates in the short term and lend at significantly higher rates over the long term, a situation that creates a profit through a positively slopedyield curve.
When the slope is tighter, banks still can make money if they can count on the principal value, rather than the yield, of their bonds rising. Bond prices rise when yields fall.
The question was asked if it made sense for Treasury to permit bids and awards at negative interest rates in marketable Treasury bill auctions. [A Treasury employee] noted that there were operational issues associated with such a rule change, but that the hurdles were not insurmountable. It was the unanimous view of the committee that Treasury should modify auction regulations to permit negative rate bidding and awards in Treasury bill auctions as soon as feasible.
Put simply, the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, composed mostly ofWall Street types, is urging that investors be allowed to pay the government for the privilege of lending it money. For example, an investor would be able to bid and then pay the government $101 for a $100 Treasury bill.
Thomas Friedman and the End of "Average"
By Bill Bonner - dailyreckoning.com
02/02/12 Baltimore, Maryland – We got a chuckle out of Thomas Friedman. Maybe he would be good as a brick mason. Or maybe a baker. Shame he got caught up in journalism. He has no talent for it.
In a recent column he tells us that "Average is over." Typically, it makes no sense. What Friedman seems to mean is that an average person can’t expect to do very well in today’s America. He says average guys are being replaced by robots and Chinese people.
There’s even a new device that will make waiters obsolete. You go into a restaurant. You find a computer at your table. You use it to order your food.
Okay, so what?
Making It in America
By ADAM DAVIDSON - TheAtlantic.com
In the past decade, the flow of goods emerging from U.S. factories has risen by about a third. Factory employment has fallen by roughly the same fraction. The story of Standard Motor Products, a 92-year-old, family-run manufacturer based in Queens, sheds light on both phenomena. It’s a story of hustle, ingenuity, competitive success, and promise for America’s economy. It also illuminates why the jobs crisis will be so difficult to solve.
I FIRST MET MADELYN "Maddie" Parlier in the "clean room" of Standard Motor Products’ fuel-injector assembly line in Greenville, South Carolina. Like everyone else, she was wearing a blue lab coat and a hairnet. She’s so small that she seemed swallowed up by all the protective gear.
The Health Care Racket
by RALPH NADER - CounterPunch.org
Looking at millions of individual bills that makeup the 2.7 trillion dollars of annual health care costs opens a gigantic window on the massive waste, redundancy, profiteering, fraud and sometimes criminal over-billing.
Here is a partial example of what I mean, in the words of Philip M. Boffey, the estimable science writer for the New York Times:
"Why does an appendectomy in Germany cost roughly a quarter what it costs in the United States? ($3,285 compared to $13,123). Or an MRI scan cost less than a third as much, on average, in Canada? ($304 compared to $1,009)."
"Americans continue to spend more on health care than patients anywhere else. In 2009, we spent $7,960 per person, twice as much as France, which is known for providing very good health services. And for all that spending, we get very mixed results—some superb, some average, some inferior—compared with other advanced nations."
The company aims to cut labor costs 20% under bankruptcy protection, and will soon begin negotiations with its three major unions. Some management jobs would also be cut.
AMR also proposes to end its traditional pension plans. The move has been strongly opposed by the airline's unions and the U.S. pension-insurance agency.
CEO Thomas Horton said the company hopes to return to profitability by cutting spending more than $2 billion per year and raising revenue by $1 billion per year.
. . . Horton said cost-cutting will include restructuring debt and aircraft leases, grounding older planes, and changing labor contracts.
Pay cut for bureaucrats Overpaid federal employees don’t need a raise in a malaise
By The Washington Times
Those with a government job are sitting pretty. A typical fed’s total compensation averages 16 percent more than that of his neighbor at an equivalent private-sector gig. In this troubled economic time of 8.5 percent unemployment, nothing beats the public dole’s 100 percent job security. President Obama thinks this cushy setup isn’t enough; he wants federal bureaucrats to get even more money. On Wednesday, theHouse put the kibosh on that.
Senate approves bill
banning insider trading by lawmakers, 96-3
By Alexander Bolton and Josiah Ryan - TheHill.com
The Senate voted 96 to 3 Thursday to prohibit members of Congress from using non-public information for personal financial gain but beat back a slew of amendments to further limit congressional perks.
The Senate action puts pressure on House Republicans to pass similar legislation to quell allegations of congressional self-dealing at a time when Congress’s approval rating is at an all-time low
PACs Americana A dispatch from the future, where PACs have absorbed America's political parties.
By Jon Lovett - TheAtlantic.com
In retrospect, the transformation began the way most major changes in society begin: without anyone fully realizing what was taking place. Yes, when the Supreme Court handed down its 2010 Citizens United decision — allowing virtually unlimited spending by corporations and individuals to sway elections — there was a fair amount of outrage, mostly from the left. President Barack Obama, then in his first term, spoke out against what he called the corporate takeover of our democracy. But even those who imagined the threat posed by this unfettered influence could not have conceived of what would happen in the years that followed.
Gallup Points to Weaker Employment Report Tomorrow [Friday]
BY LANCE ROBERTS - FinancialSense.com
Gallup released their latest employment poll today and the news doesn't bode well for tomorrow's January employment report. According to the most recent survey U.S. employment, without seasonal adjustment, increased to 8.6% as of the end of January and 8.7% as of February 1st. Either way you look at it the recent upward trend is the opposite of what we want to be seeing at this point.
Own Vs. Rent Riles Government Housing Policy
By: Diana Olick - CNBC Real Estate Reporter
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants under government conservatorship, together owned 182,212 foreclosed properties as of the end of September.
While they aggressively market and sell these homes to investors and owner-occupants alike, the numbers are still too high; these number could go far higher, as foreclosures previously stalled by paperwork issues come back into process.
That’s why the federal regulator overseeing the two is launching a bulk sale program, offering investors the chance to buy foreclosed properties at a discount, as long as those investors turn the properties into viable rentals for a specified number of years.
Improving the TV-to-computer connection
By Mark A. Kellner-The Washington Times
If you have more house than cable TV outlets, or if you simply must watch "Judge Judy" or a Washington Nationals game out on the deck using a tablet computer, a small $179 device could make your life a whole lot easier.
What’s more, I believe the technology in Elgato’s HDHomeRun could be a key part of the future of broadcasting, in which television and computing are merged. It may not be that far off, and, well, I think it makes sense. After all, there should be little to keep cable TV programs away from your computer screen.
Venezuela Announces "Irrevocable" Withdrawal
from World Bank’s Arbitration Body Venezuela has now placed itself directly in the line of fire with the globalist elites
By Ewan Robertson - Venezuela Analysis
The Venezuelan government has announced Venezuela’s "irrevocable" withdrawal from the World Bank affiliated arbitration body the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
According to an official statement released by Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday this week, the move has been taken on the grounds of defending national sovereignty and "to protect the right of the Venezuelan people to decide the strategic orientation of the social and economic life of the nation".
Long-term commitment for U.S. forces in Afghanistan
By Shaun Waterman-The Washington Times
Top U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials Thursday downplayed talk of an early American pullout from Afghanistan, saying U.S. combat forces will stay there until the end of 2014, and there is a commitment for much longer than that.
CIA Director David H. Petraeus told lawmakers the media had "over-analyzed" comments by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who told reporters Wednesday that the U.S. wanted to step back from its leading role in combat and move to training and supporting Afghan forces as soon as next year.
* * * * *
Will Israel decide to attack Iran? Israel's profound choice on Iran No one disputes that Iran poses a threat to Israel. What will Netanyahu decide?
By Chuck Freilich - LATimes.com
In the end it will come down to Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu. His senior officials will make their cases, but he alone will have to make one of the most critical decisions in Israel's history: whether to attack Iran's nuclear program. I do not envy him.
There has been much media speculation lately about possible Israeli military action, largely from those who have never borne the crushing weight of momentous national decisions. Israelhas made many controversial decisions over the decades, some mistaken. One thing that cannot be said is that it has taken major military action lightly. Rarely if ever have the stakes been higher.
Doug Casey on the Coming War with Iran
Doug Casey, Chairman - CaseyResearch.com
(Interviewed by Louis James, Editor, International Speculator) L: Doug-Sama, I've heard you say you think the US is setting Iran up to be the next fall guy in the wag-the-dog show – do you think it could really come to open warfare? Doug: Yes, I do. It could just be saber rattling during an election year, but Western powers have been provoking Iran for years now – two decades, really. I just saw another report proclaiming that Iran is likely to attack the US, which is about as absurd as the allegations Bush made about Iraq bombing the US, when he fomented that invasion. It's starting to look rather serious at this point, so I do think the odds favor actual fighting in the not-too-distant future.
Chairman of Joint Chiefs to Israelis:
U.S. Won’t Join Your War on Iran
by GARETH PORTER - CounterPunch.org
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey told Israeli leaders Jan. 20 that the United States would not participate in a war against Iran begun by Israel without prior agreement from Washington, according to accounts from well-placed senior military officers.
Dempsey’s warning, conveyed to both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, represents the strongest move yet by President Barack Obama to deter an Israeli attack and ensure that the United States is not caught up in a regional conflagration with Iran.
Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away
– William Hughes Mearns, 1899
One of the most uncommented on ironies today is that Israel is threatening military action to prevent Iran from continuing the same clandestine route to nuclear weapons that Israel took; just as Israeli planes destroyed nuclear reactors in Syria and Iraq to prevent those countries from following Israel’s lead.
A parallel irony: President Obama champions an economic embargo to force Iran to back off its nuclear program. Yet, for more than half a century one American president after another declined to sound any alarums over Israel’s secret drive for nukes. Indeed, U.S. leaders refused to even officially acknowledge the foreboding intelligence about Israel’s intentions that American analysts were providing. That flimflam continues to this day.
Effort to Rebrand Arab Spring Backfires in Iran
By ROBERT F. WORTH - NYTimes.com
TEHRAN — It was meant to be a crowning moment in which Iranput its own Islamic stamp on the Arab Spring. More than a thousand young activists were flown here earlier this week (at government expense) for a conference on "the Islamic Awakening," Tehran’s effort to rebrand the popular Arab uprisings of the past year.
As delegates flooded into a vast auditorium next to a space needle in western Tehran, a screen showed images of the Iranian revolution in 1979, morphing seamlessly into footage of young Arab protesters in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya and Yemen.
US Nuclear Sub Heads Towards Persian Gulf Additional destroyer also on way to region near Strait of Hormuz
Paul Joseph Watson - Infowars.com
Following the announcement that a third US aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, would be heading to patrol waters near the Strait of Hormuz in March, it has also been revealed that the nuclear submarine USS Annapolis and the destroyer USS Momsen are also likely to heading towards the Persian Gulf in the build up to a possible attack on Iran.
"Two ships of the US Navy, the nuclear submarine USS Annapolis and the destroyer USS Momsen have passed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea. Although their destination is confidential, they are now getting dangerously close to the Persian Gulf," reports RT, citing Interfax News Agency.
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