A friend of mine sent me these links regarding Iraq and North Korea's recent switches to the Euro.

I'm just learning about all of this stuff myself, so I won't pretend to understand any of it yet.

It all seemed quite relevant and I felt compelled to pass the information on to you...

http://www.praesentia.us/archives/000117.html

December 06, 2002
Euro Vs. Dollar - The real reason behind Gulf War II?

This could be also titled, "The real reason behind Bush's Axis of
Evil statement"

What would happen if the Dollar stopped being the currency that most
of the world traded in/with? Some smart fellows at the Democratic
Underground have some ideas about this event.

Many thanks to GoreN4 and Reality Bytes for this wonderful information.
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THE REAL REASONS FOR THE UPCOMING WAR AGAINST IRAQ

...(Hint: It has nothing to do with any threat from Iraq's Weapons of
Mass Destruction, but it does have something to do with the mid-term
elections, not much about Isreal, but mostly it has to do with how
the ruling class at Langley and the Bush oligarchy view Iraq, Iran
and Saudi's hydrocarbons at the macroeconomic and geo-strategic
level.)

Short Answer about Iraq = Oil profits, geo-strategic control of the
2nd largest unclaimed hydrocarbon deposits, controlling OPEC, and the
threat to the U.S reserve currency from the Euro.

Long Answer about Iraq = OPEC, U.S. Dollar vs. Euro oil transaction
standards, and the Real Reason for a War with Iraq: "The Federal
Reserve's greatest nightmare is that OPEC will switch its
international transactions from a dollar standard to a euro standard.
Iraq actually made this switch last year (when the euro was worth
around 80 cents), and has actually made off like a bandit considering
the dollar's steady depreciation against the euro.

The real reason the Bush administration wants a puppet government in
Iraq - or more importantly, the reason why the
corporate-military-industrial network conglomerate wants a puppet
government in Iraq - is so that it will revert back to a dollar
standard and stay that way" (while also helping veto any wider OPEC
momentum for the switch from Iran - which is seriously considering
switching to euros as their oil transaction currency as of Sept 2002
- or other members such as Saudi Arabia whose regime appears
increasingly threatened/weak from an internal coup). The
administration is acutely aware of this and in preparation for
invading Iraq we will create a huge and permanent military presence
in the Persian Gulf region, just in case we need to grab Saudi's oil
fields as well as Iraq's oil fields

"Saddam sealed his fate when he decided to switch to the euro in late
2000 and converted his $10 billion reserve fund at the U.N. to euros
- at that point, another manufactured Gulf War become inevitable
under Bush II. Only the most extreme circumstances could possibly
stop that now and I strongly doubt anything can - short of Saddam
getting replaced with a pliant regime."

Big Picture Perspective: Everything else aside from the reserve
currency and the Saudi/Iran oil issues (i.e. domestic political
issues andl international criticism) is peripheral and of marginal
consequence to this administration. Further, the dollar-euro threat
is powerful enough that they'll rather risk much of the economic
backlash in the short-term to stave off the long-term dollar crash of
an OPEC transaction standard change from dollars to euros. All of
this fits into the broader Great Game that encompasses Russia, India,
China."

This info about oil currency is completely censored in the
corporate-controlled U.S. media - as the truth would curtail consumer
confidence, reduce spending\ borrowing and it would create immense
political pressure on the Bush junta to form a new energy policy that
slowly weans us off middle-eastern oil. This article from Radio Free
Europe confirms Iraq switched from dollars to euros on Nov. 6, 2000

'Iraq: Baghdad Moves to Euro'
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2000/11/01112000160846.asp

Keep in mind that - contrary to one of the main points in this
November 2000 article - the steady depreciation of the dollar versus
the euro since Sept 2001 means that Iraq has profited handsomely from
the switch in their reserve & transaction currencies. The euro has
gained roughly 15% against the dollar in that time, which means any
reserve funds that Iraq would've previously held in dollars have
gained that same percent value since the euro transition.

Otherwise, the effect of an OPEC switch to the euro would be that
oil-consuming nations would have to flush dollars out of their
reserve funds and replace these with euros. The dollar would crash
anywhere from 20-40% in value and the consequences would be those one
could expect from any currency collapse and massive inflation (think
Argentina currency crisis, for example). You'd have foreign funds
stream out of the U.S. stock markets and dollar denominated assets,
there'd surely be a run on the banks much like the 1930s, the current
account deficit would become unserviceable, the budget deficit would
go into default, and so on. Your basic 3rd world economic crisis
scenario.

The United States economy is intimately tied to the dollar's role as
reserve currency. This doesn't mean that the U.S. couldn't function
otherwise, but that the transition would have to be gradual to avoid
such dislocations (and the ultimate result of this would probably be
the U.S. and the E.U. switching roles in the global economy)."

The following two articles from the summer of 2002 discuss Iran's
vacillating position about switching to the euro as their standard
currency payment for oil exports, and this may help explain Bush's
sudden urgency to topple Saddam. In the build-up for Iraq it is clear
the Bush junta plan to keep a large and permanent U.S. military force
in the Persian gulf to "maintain order" in a post-Saddam Iraq (aka.
to protect their newly installed puppet regime). Iran would become
essentially surrounded by the U.S. military in that scenario

'Economics Drive Iran Euro Oil Plan, Politics Also Key' (August 2002)

http://www.iranexpert.com/2002/economicsdriveiraneurooil23august.htm

'Iran may switch to the euro for crude sale payments' (Sept 2002)

http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/ntm23638.htm

This administration is deceiving and manipulating the American people
on an unprecedented scale about the underlying weakness of our
economy due to massive debt manipulation and unsustainable personal
indebtedness, our utter dependence on middle-eastern oil, their
apparent complicity in allowing the September 11th attacks for occur
for geo-strategic and political purposes, as well the very real but
unspoken macroeconomic reasons for this upcoming war with Iraq. We no
longer have a free media, as the ugly truth is out there for those
who dare to seek it, and can face their own cognitive dissonance. For
those who wish can handle the truth about 9/11, this essay by the
famous American writer Gore Vidal is a good intro:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2531833.stm

North Korea embraces the euro

Communist North Korea has said it will stop using American dollars
from Sunday and start using euros instead.
The decision was made soon after a US-led international consortium
announced that it was halting fuel aid to the state because of its
covert nuclear weapons programme.

But the move is seen by many analysts as an attempt by the
authorities to exercise control over the foreign currency hoarded by
its citizens.

The US currency has been used widely in the black markets

Foreign residents in Pyongyang are none too happy with the enforced
currency swap and many have complained about the low exchange rates
set by the North Korean authorities.