A mysterious Libyan ship -- reportedly carrying weapons and bound for Syrian rebels -- may have some link to the Sept. 11 terror attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Fox News has learned.

Through shipping records, Fox News has confirmed that the Libyan-flagged vessel Al Entisar, which means "The Victory," was received in the Turkish port of Iskenderun -- 35 miles from the Syrian border -- on Sept. 6, just five days before Ambassador Chris Stevens, information management officer Sean Smith and former Navy Seals Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed during an extended assault by more than 100 Islamist militants.

On the night of Sept. 11, in what would become his last known public meeting, Stevens met with the Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin, and escorted him out of the consulate front gate one hour before the assault began at approximately 9:35 p.m. local time.

This story showed up on the foxnews.com Internet site on Thursday...and is one that I borrowed from yesterday's King Report. The link is here.

God help them if Obama and Romney ever had to participate in a real debate about a real issue at the Oxford Union. They would be massacred.

The "debates" revealed that not only the candidates but also the entire country is completely tuned out to every real problem and dangerous development. For example, you would never know that US citizens can now be imprisoned and executed without due process. All that is required to terminate the liberty and life of an American citizen by his own government is an unaccountable decision somewhere in the executive branch.

No doubt that Americans, if they think of this at all, believe that it will only happen to terrorists who deserve it. But as no evidence or due process is required, how would we know that it only happens to terrorists? Can we really trust a government that has started wars in seven countries on the basis of falsehoods? If the US government will lie about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in order to invade a country, why won't it lie about who is a terrorist?

America needs a debate about how we can be made more safe by removing the constitutional protection of due process. If the power of government is not limited by the Constitution, are we ruled by Caesar? The Founding Fathers did not think we could trust a caesar with our safety? What has changed that we can now trust a caesar?

Always controversial...but never far off the mark...Paul lets it all hang out in this longish essay that was posted over on thedailybell.com website on Wednesday. I thank reader Carl Lindfors for bringing it to our attention...and the link is here.

I am convinced – actually, at this point, it seems rather obvious - that global policymakers have made a very problematic situation worse. The global system would be less vulnerable today had speculative markets not again fixated on aggressive policy measures. I argued at the time that the ECB’s Long-Term Refinancing Operations (LTRO) only exacerbated European fragilities. In particular, the $1.3 TN of central bank liquidity ensured that Spanish, Italian and other European banks increased their exposure to suspect sovereign debt. It was a policy roll of the dice. The LTROs did incite big rallies in European debt and equities, along with global risk markets more generally. Not unpredictably, within months Europe was succumbing to an ever deeper crisis. Global markets and economies were hanging in the balance.

In desperation, ECB president Draghi fashioned his “big bazooka:” Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) – the promise of open-ended support for Spain and other troubled issuers. Importantly, Mr. Draghi made an extraordinary warning to those that had positioned bearishly against Europe. And while the jury is very much out on whether Draghi has much of a bazooka, this somewhat misses the point. The Draghi Plan incited a major short-covering rally in Spain, Italy and periphery bonds, in European equities, and global risk markets more generally. Indeed, the Draghi Plan forced the sophisticated speculators to cover their European shorts and even go leveraged long. Instead of a roll of the dice, it was betting the ranch.

Doug's weekly Credit Bubble Bulletin is always a must read for me...and this one is no exception to that rule. It's posted on the prudentbear.com Internet site...and I thank reader U.D. for sending it our way. The link is here.

About a month ago I asked a former colleague in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office what Hague saw as the endgame in the Julian Assange asylum standoff, and where the room for negotiation lay. My friend was dismissive – the policy was simply to wait for the Presidential election in Ecuador in February. The United States and allies were confident that Correa will lose, and my friend and I having both been senior diplomats for many years we understood what the United States would be doing to ensure that result. With Correa replaced by a pro-USA President, Assange’s asylum will be withdrawn, the Metropolitan Police invited in to the Embassy of Ecuador to remove him, and Assange sent immediately to Sweden from where he could be extradited to the United States to face charges of espionage and aiding terrorism.

I have been struck by the naivety of those who ask why the United States could not simply request Assange’s extradition from the United Kingdom. The answer is simple – the coalition government. Extradition agreements are government to government international treaties, and the decision on their implementation is ultimately political and governmental – that is why it was Teresa May and not a judge who took the final and very different political decisions on Babar Ahmad and Gary Mackinnon.

CIA supporters in the UK have argued vociferously that it would be impossible for Sweden to give Assange the assurance he would not be extradited to the United States, with which he would be prepared to return to Sweden to see off the rather pathetic attempted fit-up there. In fact, as extradition agreements are governmental not judicial instruments, it would be perfectly possible for the Swedish government to give that assurance. Those who argue otherwise, like Gavin Essler and Joan Smith, are not being truthful – I suspect their very vehemence indicates that they know that.

This very interesting article was written by Craig Murray, Former U.K. ambassador to Uzbekistan, about Julian Assange and Ecuador...and I thank U.K. reader Tariq Khan for sending it to me on Monday. It's posted on the craigmurray.org.uk Internet site...and the link is here.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s foreign-exchange controls are driving pesos underground.

A quarter of Argentines are keeping their pesos at home, up from 19 percent a year ago, according to a survey conducted in September by the Catholic University of Argentina and TNS Gallup. The increase reflects how people are shifting money out of banks to trade dollars in a cash-dominated black market where the cost of the U.S. currency has surged 35 percent this year, according to Buenos Aires-based research company EconViews.

“Money’s moving out of the banking system and out of the formal economy,” Ritondale said in a telephone interview from Buenos Aires. “As much as the government wants to promote the use of pesos, the truth is they won’t be able to achieve it. You can’t get it done” with interest rates below inflation.

This longish Bloomberg story was posted on their website early yesterday afternoon Mountain Standard Time...and I thank Washington state reader S.A. for sending it along. I consider it well worth reading...and the link is here.

According to the National Association of Pension Funds, 48 per cent of all workers are planning to work in paid or volunteer work beyond the state pension age.

Eight in ten of the people choosing to stay in paid work will do so because they will not have enough money to stop working, the group found.

The findings prove that Britain is facing a “pension time-bomb” as people have not saved enough for their retirement, experts said.

The NAPF found that over half of all workers are not members of a workplace pension scheme. Even among 55-64 year-olds, just 40 per cent of people have a workplace pension.

This story was posted on The Telegraph's website earlier this morning BST...and I thank Roy Stephens for his first offering in today's column. The link is here.

Tens of thousands of jobs were lost between July and September raising the number of unemployed to 5.78 million people, Spain’s National Statistics Institute reported, a level unseen since the dictatorship of Francisco Franco ended in the mid-1970s.

The number of Spanish households in which every member is out of work climbed to 1.74 million, roughly one tenth of all Spanish families.

The rise in the number of jobless comes as Spain sinks deeper into recession, with output expected to decline for the third consecutive quarter.

This story was posted on the telegraph.co.uk Internet site late yesterday morning BST...and is Roy Stephens second offering in a row. The link is here.

In austerity-ravaged Greece, neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn is on the rise. Their MPs give fascist salutes, while on the streets black-shirted vigilantes beat up immigrants. And some of their most enthusiastic supporters are in the police.

It's a warm October evening and children on bicycles are riding up and down among the young men with crew cuts, the sleeves of their black T-shirts tight over pumped-up biceps, strolling with the stiff swagger of the muscle-bound. They look relaxed, off-duty. Two of them slap a handshake: "Hey, fascist! How's it going?"

Trestle tables are stacked with Golden Dawn merchandise: black T-shirts bearing the party's name in Greek, Chrysi Avgi, the sigma shaped like the S on SS armbands; mugs with the party symbol, a Greek meander drawn to resemble a swastika; Greek flags and black lanyards, lighters and baseball caps. I lean over to talk to one woman stallholder, dressed in Golden Dawn black with thickly kohl-rimmed eyes, but as soon as she opens her mouth a man in a suit strides up: "What are you writing? Are you a journalist? Tear that page out of your notebook. No, no, you can't talk to anyone."

It sounds very much like the activities of the Hitler Youth back in the 1930s. This very long must read story showed up in The Guardian yesterday...and is Roy's third story in a row. The link is here.

The finance ministers of Germany, Netherlands and Finland go rogue; they claim that legacy bank debts are none of their business. All the while, the people at the top of the European pyramid react to these local and national solo-runs by calling for more federalism, something that nobody wants.

This is an elite that is out of touch with the people. This is probably not surprising because, despite everything that has happened, the people who are running the European project are dancing to bankers’ and financiers’ tunes rather than listening to the people who are pulling in the opposite direction.

The people in Brussels and deep in the policy-making establishments in every European capital claim that they are increasing moves towards more federalism in order to save the euro. This is their prerogative. However, in order to save the euro, they will risk destroying the EU.

This story was written by one of Ireland's most well-respected economists...David McWilliams. It was posted on his website about ten days ago...and I thank reader "Declan from Ireland" for bringing it to my attention...and now to yours. It's worth reading if you have the time...and the link is here.

Using shadowy middle men, multiple bank accounts and a fleet of ghost ships, Iran's coal trade is quietly booming as the Islamic Republic tries to sidestep Western sanctions and prevent its industrial economy from crashing.

Tougher measures imposed by the European Union and the United States have tightened the screws on Tehran, which relies on its shipping trade for many imports including food, consumer and industrial goods. Many foreign companies, including shipping firms, have pulled out for fear of losing business in the U.S. and due to the complexities of arranging non-sanctioned deals.

Despite the setbacks, industry sources say producers in Ukraine are providing Iran with coking coal, also known as metallurgical coal, and coke - key steel ingredients.

This Reuters story showed up on their Internet site early yesterday morning Eastern time...and is Roy Stephens final contribution in today's column. The link is here.

China overtook the U.S. as the world's top destination for foreign direct investment in the first half of 2012, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

China absorbed $59.1 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first six months, down slightly from $60.9 billion a year earlier, the agency said in a report.

The United States attracted $57.4 billion in 2012's first half, down 39 percent from a year earlier, it said.

During 2011, the U.S. received $227 billion in FDI while China attracted $116 billion, according to UNCTAD.

This Reuters story ended up as a posting on the cnbc.com Internet site in the wee hours of Thursday morning. I thank Federico Schiavio for sending it our way...and the link is here.

Official figures released yesterday reveal foreign share ownership is at a 20-year high, with overseas investors owning 47 per cent of all shares for a total value of $550 billion.

"Foreigners are certainly in love with Australia. Not only do foreign investors hold almost half our listed shares they also hold almost 80 per cent of Australian government bonds," CommSec chief economist Craig James said yesterday.

Elsewhere, locally based companies and households are increasingly turning to cash as their preferred investment sector.

This very interesting story appeared in Australia's Herald Sun back in late September...but it's still worth reading. It's posted in the clear on the news.com.au Internet site...and I thank reader Gary Black...a Kiwi in Oz...for bringing it to our attention. The link is here.

The first is with Gerald Celente...and it's headlined "It's Not Just Germany's Gold That's Missing". The second blog features Egon von Greyerz...and it's entitled "Two Absolutely Incredible & Key Gold Charts".

Any time a bank, and especially an entire banking sector, is willing to pay you paper "dividends" for your gold, run, because all this kind of quid pro quo usually ends up as a confiscation ploy.

Sure enough, as Dow Jones reports today, the gold, which did not belong to the banks and was merely being warehoused there (or so the fine print said), was promptly sold by these same institutions to generate cash proceeds and to boost liquidity reserves using other people's gold, obtained under false pretenses.

And now, it is time for the forced sellers to become forced buyers, as "the State Bank of Vietnam, the country's central bank, may allow local banks to buy up to 20 metric tons of gold over the next two months to improve their liquidity ahead of a ban soon on their use of gold as a means of boosting their operating capital." What they mean is that having been caught engaging in an illegal reserve boosting operating, the banks are now "allowed" to undo their transgressions ahead of a "ban" on what inherently was not a permitted practice.

This story showed up on the Zero Hedge website yesterday...and I thank Washington state reader S.A. for his second and final offering in today's column. It's a must read...and the link is here.

The Zero Hedge story above was based on a Dow Jones story filed from Hanoi yesterday...and since there was no link to it in the ZH item above, I thought I'd post it on its own. I thank Manitoba reader Ulrike Marx for finding it for us...and the link is here.

GATA secretary/treasurer Chris Powell's dispatch yesterday...criticizing The Telegraph's international business editor, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, and CNBC Senior Editor John Carney for not getting comment from the German Bundesbank and the Bank of England for their reports about the mysterious and long-secret removal of some German gold reserves from London -- drew a cordial explanation from Evans-Pritchard yesterday.

I'll let Chris carry on in this GATA dispatch from yesterday...and the link is here.

The Bundesbank said the Federal Reserve Bank of New York will help it meet auditing requirements related to its gold reserves that were demanded by Germany's Audit Court.

"We have been in discussions with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York about the Bundesbank's holdings of gold," the Bundesbank said yesterday in a letter to the German parliament's budget committee. "The discussions have been fruitful and the Federal Reserve has expressed a commitment to work with the Bundesbank to explore ways to address the audit observations, consistent with its own security and control processes and logistical constraints."

The agreement is part of a compromise between the German central bank and the Audit Court, which has called on the Bundesbank to take stock of its gold holdings outside Germany, saying it has never verified their existence.

I found this Bloomberg story in a GATA release yesterday. It's certainly worth reading...and the link is here.