Saudi Arabia threatens to blockade Qatar over terrorism Riyadh wants to contain radical groups and media at odds with foreign jihad policy
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal attends an Arab foreign ministers emergency meeting to discuss the Syrian crisis at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo yesterday. Photograph: Reuters
Saudi Arabia has threatened to blockade neighbouring Qatar by air, land and sea unless Doha cuts ties with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, closes global channel al-Jazeera, and expels local branches of the US Brookings Institution and Rand Corporation think tanks.
The threat was issued by Riyadh before it withdrew its ambassador to Doha and branded as “terrorist organisations” the brotherhood, Lebanon’s Hizbullah and al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and Jabhat al-Nusra.
Although the kingdom has long been the font of Sunni ultra-orthodox Salafism and jihadism, it now seeks to contain radical movements and media and other organisations giving them publicity.
King Abdullah has decreed that any Saudi who fights abroad could be jailed for 20-30 years, and those who join, endorse or provide moral or material support to groups classified as “terrorist” or “extremist” will risk prison sentences of five to 30 years.
The decree followed the gazetting of a sweeping new anti- terrorism law prohibiting acts that disturb public order, promote insecurity, undermine national unity or harm the reputation of the kingdom.
Contradiction
While the law and decree are meant to curb jihadi operations on Saudi soil as well as counter non-jihadi dissidence, these legal instruments appear to contradict government policy on foreign jihad.
While 400 Saudis have returned home from Syrian battlefields, another 1,000-2,000 are believed to be fighting with jihadi groups funded by the government as well as wealthy Saudis, Kuwaitis and Qataris.
An informed source speculated the decree sends a message to Saudis: “Don’t come home. Fight unto death or victory.”
For half a century Saudi Arabia used its oil wealth to promote Muslim fundamentalists, notably the brotherhood and its offshoots, to counter the secular pan-Arab nationalism preached by Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Syrian and Iraqi Baath parties.
The kingdom provided refuge for brotherhood officials and activists from Egypt and other countries where governments were battling the movement. However, in recent years, Riyadh fell out with the brotherhood because it did not follow Saudi dictation.
After Shia clerics overthrew the shah of Iran in 1979 and tried to export their “Islamic revolution” to the wider Muslim world, which is 85 per cent Sunni, Saudi Arabia, which sees itself as the guardian of Sunni orthodoxy, turned to evangelism.
The object has been to convert Muslims to “Wahhabism,” the Saudi puritanical interpretation of Islam. The Saudi campaign in Syria is against Damascus’s ally Shia Iran as well as godless, secular Baathism.
The rise in the price of oil since the 1970s has enabled the Saudis to train clerics and build schools, Islamic centres, universities and mosques around the world.
Traditionally gentle, tolerant, mystic Sufis, who had served as Islam’s missionaries, have been replaced by narrow, harsh Wahhabi preachers and imams. Over the past 30 years the kingdom has spent more than $100 billion (€72 billion) on promoting Wahhabism.
Even before the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia – partnered by the US Central Intelligence Agency – trained and armed mujahideen (holy warriors) from Afghanistan and across the Muslim world to fight the Soviet Afghan republic. After the war ended with the Soviet withdrawal from that country in 1989, veterans of this conflict fanned out to fight in Bosnia, Algeria, Libya, the Caucasus and elsewhere.
Blowback Fearing blowback from Saudi jihadis engaged in the Syrian war, Riyadh has recently given the Syrian file to the interior minister Prince Mohamed bin Nayef, who has been in charge of an anti-terrorism campaign in the kingdom and Yemen, replacing intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan.
The Wall Street Journal has quoted a key Saudi source who said the shift suggests that Riyadh could rely more on diplomatic than military means by exerting pressure on Russia, Iran and Hizbullah, Damascus’s chief supporters, to resolve the conflict by removing President Bashar al-Assad.
Nevertheless, Riyadh also favours providing shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to “vetted” rebels, well aware these weapons could fall into al-Qaeda hands.
"God's an old hand at miracles, he brings us from nonexistence to life. And surely he will resurrect all human flesh on the last day in the twinkling of an eye. But who can comprehend this? For God is this: he creates the new and renews the old. Glory be to him in all things!" Archpriest Avvakum
Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia.
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Published time: March 11, 2014 08:40 Foreground, from left: Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, Refat Chubarov, and leader of the Russian Unity public organization and deputy of autonomous Crimea region's parliament Sergei Aksyonov (RIA Novosti / Taras Litvinenko)
The House of Saud may be up to something in Crimea. Let’s pivot back to the desert to see how that could possibly be accomplished.
A week ago, Minister of Information and Culture Abdelaziz Khoja proclaimed that the House of Saud “renews its firm position condemning terrorism in all its forms.” That was the preamble to ask all Saudi nationals, jihadists or otherwise, to abandon Syria. They were committing a crime, Saudi King Abdullah, ever closer to meeting his maker, decreed.
Then, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain all called their ambassadors from Qatar, under the pretext that Doha continues to support “hostile media,” as in Al Jazeera.
Finally Saudi Arabia officially declared the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Nusra Front (Al-Qaeda’s official Syrian branch) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) - the rogue jihadists fighting both the Assad government in Syria and the Maliki government in Iraq - as terrorist organizations. Any Saudi member of any of these outfits not back to the Kingdom in 15 days would be thrown in jail for up to 30 years.
By decree, the Saudi Interior Ministry (just in case) also branded as terrorists the Shiite Huthi rebels in northern Yemen, as well as an obscure, Saudi-based outfit called ‘Hezbollah Inside the Kingdom’. None of the above can so much as have a Facebook account. Petromonarchy implosion
It’s easy to laugh this off as the epic implosion of that prime collection of what the West calls ‘our’ bastards – the petromonarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), also known as Gulf Counter-Revolution Cub.
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef (Reuters / Hamad I Mohammed)
And yes, soon the whole thing degenerated into a trademark, vicious inter-Arab catfight. For Qataris, for instance - accused by the Saudis of “meddling” - the meddlers are in fact the Saudis, who supported the August 2013 military coup in Egypt and are responsible for the giant mess among fighting outfits in Syria. Predictably, reams of Saudi and Emirati journalists quit assorted Qatari media jobs, many following a ‘polite’ request by the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information.
Yet it's more complicated. The Saudi royal decree follows an ultra-hardline counterterrorism law which targets any sort of criticism of the House of Saud. So this is not only about the House of Saud being terrified of blowback from assorted hardcore jihadists, after they hone their skills in the Levant. They are terrified of anything that moves in and around Saudi Arabia. Imagine their feelings about the world at large.
They are terrified of young, Westernized Saudis with ‘revolutionary’ ideas. They are terrified of jihad freelancers. They are terrified of Muslim Brothers supported by their cousins in Qatar – which the West, laughably, praises as practicing a ‘more moderate’ brand of medieval Wahhabism. The old Emir Hamad al Thani – who recently deposed himself to the benefit of his son Tamim – had skillfully manipulated the Brotherhood as the key lever of Doha’s wide Middle-Eastern ambitions.
RIA Novosti / Roman Hasaev
To spice up the Saudi-Qatari melee, there was only one Saudi prince among the royals who was in favor of some accommodation, following the orders of his American exceptionalist masters. Yet Saudi heir apparent Prince Nayef, a perennial Minister of Interior from 1975 to 2012, is now dead.
And now it’s wide in the open that Riyadh and Doha virtually come to blows on about everything – from Palestine and Egypt to Syria. After all, every grain of sand in Southwest Asian deserts always knew that the House of Saud is in favor of Salafis while Doha’s state policy was always to support the Ikhwan.
Now it’s easy; you’re either with us or you’re a terrorist. Well, the Bush-Cheney regime in the US had thought about this one first. The difference is that with so many freelancers, Jihad Inc. was handed a monster PR problem, and the usual Gulf financiers, mostly Saudi and Emirati, lost control of the pack.
Now, following the new order, any commando, mercenary, suicide bomber or beheader must abide by the strict American-Saudi playbook; otherwise he won’t be fully weaponized, or worse, will become a candidate for incineration by one of Obama’s choice Hellfire missiles. The Empire needs you, boys, but you gotta behave. A shuttle to Simferopol?
And that brings us, not accidentally, to Crimea. I was told by a very good Saudi source to keep a close eye on the House of Saud’s machinations in Ukraine; they seem to be immensely interested in what’s going on. This follows the destitution of too volatile Bandar bin Sultan, aka Bandar Bush, from his perch as top intelligence commander of the war on Syria (US Secretary of State John Kerry was crucial in his downfall); Bandar’s replacement by Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who is quite popular in Washington; and the ‘recall’ of Saudi fighters in the Levant.
The Tatars in Crimea are Muslims. They are about to ‘celebrate’ the 70th anniversary of their mass deportation by Stalin. They were back to Crimea by the end of the 1980s, and now number roughly 250,000 in Crimea; 13 percent of a largely Russian population, with an unemployment rate of at least 50 percent.
Refat Chubarov, the president of the Majlis, the National Assembly of Crimean Tatars, considers the Crimean referendum on March 16 a “threat” to the Ukraine. He is not promoting a jihad, but as many Tatar representatives, already forecasts “serious consequences” if Crimea’s statute is changed. There is certified Tatar backing to the neo-Nazis/fascists of the Svoboda and Right Sector kind in Kiev. From this ‘alliance’ to jihad, it’s just a suicide bombing away.
Whatever happens in Crimea, the House of Saud is up to something. Bandar Bush had boasted to President Putin that he controlled Caucasus jihadists and could turn them on and off at will. His successor might as well be tempted to turn them on not in the Caucasus, but in establishing a shuttle from the Syrian desert to Simferopol. What a spectacular favor to his American masters. The emperor, after all, is soon to visit Riyadh.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
"God's an old hand at miracles, he brings us from nonexistence to life. And surely he will resurrect all human flesh on the last day in the twinkling of an eye. But who can comprehend this? For God is this: he creates the new and renews the old. Glory be to him in all things!" Archpriest Avvakum
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of declaring war on Iraq and supporting global terrorism. The Iraqi leader blamed the two countries for orchestrating the latest wave of bloody violence to hit Iraq this year.
In a heated attack on Iraq’s Sunni Gulf neighbors, Prime Minister Maliki leveled a number of accusations at Qatar and Saudi Arabia in an interview with France 24. He said both countries are supporting extreme sectarian groups within Iraq, with a view to destabilizing the country and are “attacking” Iraq through Syria.
“I accuse them of inciting and encouraging the terrorist movements. I accuse them of supporting them politically and in the media, of supporting them with money and by buying weapons for them,” Maliki told FRANCE 24. “I accuse them of leading an open war against the Iraqi government,” said Maliki, adding that Saudi Arabia and Qatar not only supported terrorism in Iraq, but also sponsor terrorism worldwide.
He went on to warn the Gulf States that their support of global terrorism “will turn against them” and Iraq does not intend to retaliate because it does not wish to “widen the arena of confrontation.”
Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (Reuters / Thaier Al-Sudani)
Addressing allegations he is marginalizing Iraq’s Sunni population, Maliki said such accusations come from sectarians with foreign agendas spurred on by Saudi and Qatari support. Both countries are “buying weapons for the benefit of these terrorist organizations,” he said.
Iraq has been hit by a wave of bloodshed over the past year, with January registering as the most deadly month in the country since April 2008. Suicide bombings and sectarian conflicts across the country claimed the lives of over 1,000 people in January and over 700 in February.
On Saturday violence left 15 people dead, including a parliamentary election candidate and four children, security and medical sources report. Iraq will hold elections this year on April 30 and Maliki has been pushing security forces to bring violence in the country to heel in the run-up.
One of the main conflict areas in the country is the province of Anbar where anti-government militants seized control of the city of Fallujah in December. Since then government forces have been unable to get the city back from the rebel fighters.
In connection with its ongoing fight against insurgency, Iraq will hold an international counter-terrorism conference this Wednesday in Baghdad. Attendees will discuss issues of arming, supporting, funding terrorist groups and training camps in some countries.
"God's an old hand at miracles, he brings us from nonexistence to life. And surely he will resurrect all human flesh on the last day in the twinkling of an eye. But who can comprehend this? For God is this: he creates the new and renews the old. Glory be to him in all things!" Archpriest Avvakum
DUBAI, December 15 (RIA Novosti) – The second consignment of Russian weapons and military equipment, to be delivered to Iraq under the deal signed in 2012, will arrive later than previously announced, a senior Iraqi lawmaker said on Sunday.
Last year, Iraq signed a $4.3 billion deal with Moscow to buy Russian weapons and military equipment, including around 40 Mi-35 and Mi-28NE attack helicopters. Iraq took collection of the first four Mi-35 helicopter gunships this fall.
Iraqi officials said in November that the second shipment is expected by the end of the year.
“The second batch of Russian weapons will arrive in Iraq in January,” said Muhammed al-Aqili, a deputy head of the ruling faction in the Iraqi parliament.
He did not specify what types of arms and equipment were due to arrive.
The reason for the delay is unknown.
Iraq is looking to use the newly bought military materiel to bolster its borders and for use in antiterrorist operations.
The 2012 contract also envisages the purchase of 48 Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile gun systems and Ka-52 single-seat attack helicopters.
"God's an old hand at miracles, he brings us from nonexistence to life. And surely he will resurrect all human flesh on the last day in the twinkling of an eye. But who can comprehend this? For God is this: he creates the new and renews the old. Glory be to him in all things!" Archpriest Avvakum
MOSCOW, March 11 (RIA Novosti) – An airborne division based in central Russia began large-scale exercises Tuesday against the backdrop of an ongoing political and security crisis in Ukraine.
The Defense Ministry said units of the 98th Guards Airborne Division, based in Ivanovo, a city east of Moscow, were put on high alert and moved to unspecified locations to “check readiness” in simulated combat conditions.
Four thousand troops, 36 military transport aircraft and an unspecified number of combat vehicles are taking part in the exercises, which will run until March 14.
The drills will include a massive simultaneous paradrop involving 3,500 servicemen, the ministry said.
The drills come in the wake of a number of military exercises in Russia’s western regions in the past days, including air defense drills, combat readiness snap checks and a launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Russia says the exercises are not linked to the development in Crimea.
The turbulent political crisis gripping Ukraine has led to a standoff between Russia and the West over the fate of Crimea, an autonomous Ukrainian region with a narrow ethnic Russian majority.
Crimean authorities have refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new central government in Kiev, which was installed after the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych in late February.
Local officials announced last week that they intended for the peninsula to become part of Russia.
A referendum on the issue has been set for March 16. Authorities in Kiev and international leaders have condemned the referendum as illegitimate.
Ukraine has lost control over Crimea in recent days as thousands of heavily armed troops without insignia and traveling in military vehicles with Russian plates swarmed the area, taking control of administration buildings and taking over military bases.
The Kremlin has denied the troops are Russian and has instead described them as “local militias.”
"God's an old hand at miracles, he brings us from nonexistence to life. And surely he will resurrect all human flesh on the last day in the twinkling of an eye. But who can comprehend this? For God is this: he creates the new and renews the old. Glory be to him in all things!" Archpriest Avvakum
(Corrects dateline)
* Russia, Iraq oil sales rise more than projected China import growth
* Producers in Latin America, Africa offering discounts to Asian buyers
* Latin America, Africa volumes to China dropping this year
By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen
SINGAPORE, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Russia and Iraq are boosting crude shipments to a Chinese market where oil demand is growing at its slowest in more than 20 years, forcing rival suppliers to divert cargoes elsewhere.
The redirected shipments from Latin America, Africa and some Middle Eastern producers that were originally expected to go to Chinese refineries will drag on benchmark prices this year, and state oil companies have already started cutting official selling prices in their search for buyers.
Russia's Rosneft, backed by its government to push East Siberian oil to Asia, and Iraq, armed with big discounts and easy terms, have landed contracts that will raise their combined shipments nearly 50 percent more than China's import demand is forecast to grow in 2014.
With state refiner PetroChina and oil major BP Plc also delaying or dropping refinery projects in China due to worries about demand growth, sellers will be scrambling for shares in a market smaller than they had anticipated.
"Lots of people all around the world want to sell crude to Asia, and there may not be enough demand for everyone," said Andrew Reed at Energy Security Analysis, Inc.
China's oil demand rose just 1.6 percent last year, its slowest pace since 1992. Its crude imports grew 4 percent, their slowest since at least 2007, according to Reuters data, and down from a rise of more than 17 percent in 2010.
Although top China oil company China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has said the nation's crude imports will rise 7.1 percent this year, or about 370,000 barrels per day (bpd), the bumps in Russian and Iraqi supplies would more than match that increase.
Russia's biggest oil producer Rosneft, which supplied over 300,000 bpd to China in 2013, will ship an additional 180,000 bpd this year, with China-bound exports eventually to rise to more than 900,000 bpd.
"It's a logical move. Russia is simply trying to secure a long-term offtaker of its crude," Reed said.
As Iraq pushes hard to raise its market share in China and Asia, it is set to become China's second-largest crude supplier this year by increasing shipments by 68 percent to 882,000 bpd.
Last year, Iraq passed Iran to become China's fifth-largest supplier after cutting its official selling prices for its main crude Basra Light.
FIGHT FOR SHARE
China's increased imports from Russia and Iraq only intensifies the fight for Asian market share among other oil exporters.
Producers in Latin America and Africa are already offering steeper discounts to Asian buyers as import needs in their traditional U.S. and European markets drop. BFO-QUA
"As the Atlantic basin needs less and less oil, crude from Latin America, Africa and Russia will have to find a new home," said Jeff Brown of FG Energy.
"Naturally they're looking to Asia."
This prospect of oversupply and ongoing slow growth in China prompted investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and Barclays in December to lower their oil price forecasts for 2014.
Dutch bank ABN AMRO in January cut its average Brent price for this year to $95 a barrel from $100.
"Oil oversupply is here to stay, at least in the next few years, outpacing the rise in demand and thus keeping oil prices under pressure," it said in a research note.
This month, however, the International Energy Agency (IEA) became the third major forecaster to say that global oil use would be higher than expected this year due to economic growth in the United States and Europe.
Oil inventories are also at their lowest since 2008 because of stronger-than-expected demand and supply problems in a number of OPEC countries, the IEA said.
Still, the bump in supplies to China from Russia and Iraq look especially bad for Latin American exporters, who had been looking to Asia as surging U.S. shale oil output robs them of decades-old customers.
By the end of the first quarter, shipments of Latin American crude to China are likely to have fallen by 10 percent from a year earlier to around 504,300 bpd, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters. Compared with the first quarter of 2012, that volume would mark a fall of about 25 percent.
Latin American producers deliver a set volume of crude and products to China under annual deals, and Chinese companies sometimes launch tenders to resell a portion of them, after factoring in domestic requirements.
"If China's oil demand slows down, resales of Venezuelan and Ecuadorian crude and products will increase," said a trader working in a private firm and involved in PetroChina's sales.
All Ecuadorian fuel oil being delivered by Petroecuador to PetroChina, some 100,000 bpd, is currently being resold by PetroChina, and it also frequently resells crude and different Venezuelan refined products, the trader said.
Shipments of West African grades to China are also likely to fall in January and February versus a record in November, although it is too early to say if the drop reflects a decline in China's appetite for the crudes. (Additional reporting by Marianna Parraga in HOUSTON and Simon Falush in LONDON; Editing by Manash Goswami and Tom Hogue)
"God's an old hand at miracles, he brings us from nonexistence to life. And surely he will resurrect all human flesh on the last day in the twinkling of an eye. But who can comprehend this? For God is this: he creates the new and renews the old. Glory be to him in all things!" Archpriest Avvakum
Walid Shoebat Former Muslim Brotherhood
Member Now Peace Activist You are here: Home > Egyptian Official ties Obama’s Brother to Brotherhood
Egyptian Official ties Obama’s Brother to Brotherhood
By Shoebat Foundation on August 19, 2013 in Blog, General
Egyptian government and mainstream media has reported a major development regarding the role of Barack Obama’s brother (presumably, his half-brother Malik Obama) with the Muslim Brotherhood. As we have reported before, Malik is a member of the Islamic Da’wa Organization (IDO), an arm of the Sudanese government, which is led by President Omar al-Bashir, who is himself a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
These facts would lend credibility to the following claims from Egypt. It is also important to note that August 25th is a very key date in Egypt; it is when imprisoned Muslim Brotherhood leaders go on trial there.
The former Chancellor of the Constitutional Court of Egypt and current adviser, Tahani Al-Jebali stated that the reason the United States cannot fight the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood is because the brother of U.S. President Barack Obama is the architect of the investments for the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood. Tahani Al-Jebali: Obama’s brother a Muslim Brotherhood investment architect
Jebali stated she would like…
“…to inform the American people that their president’s brother Obama is one of the architects of the major investments of the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
She added…
“We will carry out the law and the Americans will not stop us. We need to open the files and begin court sessions. The Obama administration cannot stop us; they know that they supported terrorism. We will open the files so these nations are exposed, to show how they collaborated with them [the terrorists]. It is for this reason why the American administration fights us.”
Here is video of Jebali explaining this, via Youm 7:
Jebali also appeared on Egyptian television to explain how important this news is to Americans who are concerned about their President’s actions, saying it “is a gift to the American people”, implying there is much more to come:
She noted that the cost to Egypt has been great and that her country will not allow any conspiracy against its people, the Egyptian state or any one of the members of the Security Council. Leading Egypt to Chapter 7 is unacceptable and would plunge her country into a dire state similar to that which exists in Iraq and Libya.
If these reports are correct, Turkey appears to play a central role in the conspiratorial nature of this activity and that Egypt has asserted to the international community that it will not tolerate such activity.
This information is reported by three very credible Arabic sources. [1][2][3]
Again, based on what we already know about Malik Obama’s affiliations, that he is a key player relative to international Muslim Brotherhood investments isn’t a shock at all.
See for yourself (again, our calls to Obama sycophant George Clooney have gone unanswered):
One person who may want to give very serious thought to singing like a canary is Lois Lerner. Her signature is at the bottom of Malik Obama’s tax-exempt approval letter. Lerner illegally granted Malik’s foundation retroactive tax exempt status, backdating it 38 months when the law prohibits doing so further back than 27 months.
On top of that, Malik may be tied to international Muslim Brotherhood investments?!
For more on Malik Obama, click here. **UPDATE on August 19, 2013 at 8:30pm EST** Al-Wafd, another prominent Arabic source is reporting similar news. Under the title, “Obama’s Brother is Muslim Brotherhood” and on Egypt’s National Television, (Tahani Al-Jebali) stated:
“There are many reasons why the United States does not take a strong stand against the Muslim Brotherhood.”
One such reason, which she says is a gift to the American people, is that Obama’s brother is a major operative with the Muslim Brotherhood in that he is the conduit for funneling monies for the organization.
She also added…
“Documents from the Egyptian national security must be brought into the light in order to confirm that this international organization (Muslim Brotherhood) shows exchanges with the CIA so as to reach the power center of (Egypt).”
"God's an old hand at miracles, he brings us from nonexistence to life. And surely he will resurrect all human flesh on the last day in the twinkling of an eye. But who can comprehend this? For God is this: he creates the new and renews the old. Glory be to him in all things!" Archpriest Avvakum
Just a heads up Avvakum, Sorcha Faal/David Booth is NOT a reliable source.
It is HIGHLY recommended to verify anything you see posted by her/him with known reliable sources.
Is what ive recently posted better, lol?
I don't like Sorcha Faal, just her/his/it's links.
"God's an old hand at miracles, he brings us from nonexistence to life. And surely he will resurrect all human flesh on the last day in the twinkling of an eye. But who can comprehend this? For God is this: he creates the new and renews the old. Glory be to him in all things!" Archpriest Avvakum
I don't like Sorcha Faal, just her/his/it's links.
Yeah, other stuff looks just fine.
I just want to make sure readers of the site realize what sources info is coming from. I generally prefer to avoid having unreliable sites like Alex Jone's, Hal Turner's, and Faal's/Booth's posted here so as to not "taint" our site. Despite the abundance of evidence to the contrary, there are still a lot of people out there that think a Trans-Asian Axis is nothing more than a conspiracy theory and I like to do everything I can to avoid giving naysayers ammo to lump us in with actual conspiracy nuts.
If you can't source info from reliable sites and have to post it from a source like Faal/Booth, just make sure it has a prominent caveat noting that they are an unreliable source.
Yep. But there are plenty of people, even on the right, who have their head in the sand about it.
Well, I 'd say that while I do believe in a 'Trans-Asian Axis' and have for some time, I also believe that the particular membership in the Axis is not necessarily what say, Yosef Bodansky might believe it is. I myself differ from others as to where this Axis comes from, it's membership, and it's aims. I think most conservative Americans see North Korea as part of an Axis, along with a number of Islamic nations, and definitely see China as a would-be world Hegemon, so we're already halfway there in convincing people that there is an actual long term strategy behind this alliance we describe.
And as to the 'Sorcha Faal' sourcing, I can accept and agree with that Ryan.
"God's an old hand at miracles, he brings us from nonexistence to life. And surely he will resurrect all human flesh on the last day in the twinkling of an eye. But who can comprehend this? For God is this: he creates the new and renews the old. Glory be to him in all things!" Archpriest Avvakum
RIYADH (Reuters) - President Barack Obama sought to reassure Saudi King Abdullah on Friday that he would support moderate Syrian rebels and reject a bad nuclear deal with Iran, during a visit designed to allay the kingdom's concerns that its decades-old U.S. alliance had frayed.
Flying by helicopter to the king's desert camp, Obama underscored the importance of Washington's relationship with the world's largest oil exporter in a two-hour meeting that focused on the Middle East but did not touch on energy or human rights.
Last year senior Saudi officials warned of a "major shift" away from the United States after bitter disagreements over its response to the "Arab spring" uprisings, efforts to negotiate with Iran, and Washington's decision not to intervene militarily in Syria, where Riyadh wants more American support for rebels. While the two leaders discussed "tactical differences", they both agreed their strategic interests were aligned, a U.S. official told reporters after the meeting.
"I think it was important to have the chance to come look him (King Abdullah) in the eye and explain how determined the president is to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon," the official said. View gallery U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and U.S. President Barack Obama are greeted upon their arriva …
The meeting was a chance to assure the king that "we won't accept a bad deal and that the focus on the nuclear issue doesn't mean we are not concerned about, or very much focused on, Iran's other destabilizing activities in the region."
The leaders had a full discussion about Syria, where a three-year-old civil war has killed an estimated 140,000 people and uprooted millions.
Overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia is backing the insurgents in their battle to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is supported by Riyadh's rival, Shi'ite power Iran.
The official said both countries shared the objective of a political transition in Syria and supporting moderate opposition to Assad. Riyadh has long differed from Washington about Obama's reluctance to supply rebels with surface-to-air missiles, sometimes known as MANPADS.
View gallery U.S. President Barack Obama meets with King Abdullah at Rawdat al-Khraim (Desert Camp) near Riyadh i …
The Washington Post reported on Friday that the United States was ready to increase covert aid to Syrian rebels under a new plan that included training efforts by the CIA, and was considering supplying MANPADS.
The White House has not closed the door to the possibility of such a move in the future, but officials said U.S. qualms about providing those weapons to rebels had not changed.
"We have made clear that there are certain types of weapons, including MANPADS, that could pose a proliferation risk if introduced into Syria," deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters on Air Force One during Obama's flight from Rome to Riyadh. "We continue to have those concerns."
REASSURANCE
Saudi officials made no immediate comment on the meeting but Saudi state media said the talks were focused on Middle East peace efforts and the Syrian crisis. View gallery Marine helicopters bring U.S. President Barack Obama and his delegation for a meeting with Saudi Kin …
The elderly king, accompanied by a number of senior princes, had what appeared to be an oxygen tube connected to his nose at the start of the meeting at his desert farm at Rawdat Khuraim northeast of the capital Riyadh.
Saudi state television showed Obama, accompanied by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Adviser Susan Rice, listening attentively while King Abdullah spoke, gesticulating with both hands as he made a point.
While Saudi Arabia supplies less petroleum to the United States than in the past, safeguarding its energy output remains important to Washington, as does its cooperation in combating al Qaeda.
The Saudis, meanwhile, want more reassurance on American intentions regarding talks over Iran's nuclear program, which could lead to a deal that lifts sanctions on Tehran in exchange for concessions on its atomic facilities.
Riyadh fears such a deal could come at the expense of Sunni Arabs in the Middle East, some of whom fear that Shi'ite Iran would take advantage of any reduction in international pressure to spread its influence by supporting co-religionists. View gallery U.S. President Barack Obama is greeted upon his arrival in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia March 28, 2014. Obam …
Major powers suspect Iran's nuclear program is aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability. Tehran says its work is aimed only at generating electricity.
An editorial in the semi-official al-Riyadh newspaper on Friday said Obama does not know Iran as well as the Saudis do, and could not "convince us that Iran will be peaceful".
"Our security comes first and no one can argue with us about it," it concluded.
In the run-up to the visit, officials had said Obama would aim to persuade the monarch that Saudi concerns that Washington was slowly disengaging from the Middle East and no longer listening to its old ally were unfounded.
Contrary to Saudi preferences for Syria, Obama has shown himself wary of being drawn into another conflict in the Muslim world after working hard to end or reduce American military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. View gallery U.S. and Saudi delegations sit opposite as U.S. President Barack Obama meets with King Abdullah at R …
BETTER COORDINATION, HUMAN RIGHTS
Rhodes said coordination with the kingdom on policies toward Syria, particularly on providing help to the Syrian rebels, had improved.
"That's part of the reason why I think our relationship with the Saudis is in a stronger place today than it was in the fall when we had some tactical differences about our Syria policy," he said. The Saudi king was accompanied in the talks by Crown Prince Salman, Prince Muqrin, who was named second-in-line to rule on Thursday, and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.
Powerful Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who recently met top U.S. officials in Washington to discuss Syria, was not present.
Also present was the new American ambassador in Riyadh, Joseph Westphal, whose appointment was confirmed by the Senate late on Wednesday, apparently in order to let him attend Friday's meeting.
U.S. officials said Obama had not had time to raise concerns about the kingdom's human rights record. They said Washington would continue to press Riyadh about its concerns, which include women's rights. Obama will award Dr. Maha Al-Muneef with the Secretary of State's International Woman of Courage Award in Riyadh on Saturday, the White House said.
(Additional reporting Lesley Wroughton and Angus McDowall in Riyadh and Sami Aboudi in Dubai; Editing by William Maclean and Ken Wills)
"God's an old hand at miracles, he brings us from nonexistence to life. And surely he will resurrect all human flesh on the last day in the twinkling of an eye. But who can comprehend this? For God is this: he creates the new and renews the old. Glory be to him in all things!" Archpriest Avvakum
The ballots are in, and it’s a landslide, and no one is surprised, yet, western talking heads are predictably in denial.
If only we had these sort of democratic turnouts in the west: 83% voter turnout, with 97% of voters opting for a sovereign, independent Crimean state.Even the arch-globalist and darling of Davos himself, Mikhail Gorbachev, has endorsed the result, stating that it ‘corrects a mistake made long ago by Soviet Union’. From the horse’s mouth:
“Earlier Crimea was merged with Ukraine under Soviet laws, to be more exact by the [Communist] party’s laws, without asking the people, and now the people have decided to correct that mistake. This should be welcomed instead of declaring sanctions”.
The Anglo-American Neoliberal ’regime change’ paradigm so heavily relied upon by the US and its allies for corporate expansion - is in danger of becoming irrelevant. Everyone can can see it, unless you are in Washington, or working for a major media monster. Kiev’s initial extremist coup de tat was initiated and funded by the EU and Washington DC, but that game is over, and now Russia is dictating the pace of the geopolitical game, leaving the west in a dizzy game of catch-up, trying desperately to glue their new Neo-Nazi government in Kiev into place. In he end, Kiev gets good old home-grown Nazi-leaning fascists, while Crimea gets economic and political stability. Unfortunately for the bruisers in Kiev, sooner or later, they will have to talk to Moscow.
Now we’ve got all that freedom and democracy out of the way, it’s time to face up to the real play here – it’s all about energy. Whoever can carve out their share of this pie will have the cloud necessary to call the geopolitical economic shots in this all-important Eurasian heartland.
But are our leaders and media in the west telling us the truth about the very important energy play? How can they, when they do not even know themselves…
Putin’s ‘Energy Stranglehold’ on Europe
March 17th, world stock exchanges from Moscow to New York and Frankfurt to Shanghai, all gave a whoop of joy at the symbolic-only prospect of European and American “hard hitting sanctions” being set against Russia for its ‘Crimean action’. The wait was over, the panic wasn’t needed, at least not yet, so jobbers, croupier-traders and sociopath hedge fund managers got back to doing the thing they know best of all. However…
How long it takes for the outdated geopolitical theories and rationales that bolstered the panic to crumble and then disappear, is another question. Mainstream press and media, eager to recycle Cold War-era scare stories, always backtracks to Russia’s energy grip on the Old Continent. Writing in the UK ‘Guardian’ (“Ukraine crisis is about Great Power Oil, Gas Pipeline Rivalry”), March 6th, mainstream analyst Nafeez Ahmed recycles the well-tried, well-worn theory of Putin acting against the Kiev self-proclaimed government, which was instantly recognized by Washington, London, Paris and other EU capitals, because Ukraine is a “critical energy transport corridor” that Russia wants to dominate by any means, including military invasion and an “illegal” referendum in Crimea.
This old theory says that Russia needs the Ukraine for its energy dominance, so the West and Russia have totally opposing goals, and this could mean war. So they say.
The first problem is the “Ukraine energy corridor theory” is a major exaggeration. Ukraine is a critical corridor country for gas supply to Europe, only. Oil has got almost nothing to do with it. Also, the gas pipeline transport role of Ukraine can only decline – and will decline, particularly as the Nord Stream (see image, left) and South Stream gas pipelines, which completely avoid Ukraine, are completed and ramped-up.
In addition LNG terminal financing and building, is now a fevered speculative boom spreading across Europe. Some countries including Poland and France intend to build enough LNG import capacity to cover their total gas needs, by or before 2017-2020. LNG supplies, almost by definition, will come from a large and increasing number of supplier countries, many of them “exotic” such as Mozambique and Australia (and Russia and the US, but in Russia’s case that is not so exotic).
Whether Crimea rejoins the Russian Federation – which it looks like it will (Russia has announced today its full recognition of the new Crimean Republic), or stays with Ukraine, has less and less real world leverage and hold on European energy.
The old geopolitical models and paradigms, which in any case were weak, are being superseded and replaced as we speak. Sadly, heirs Obama, Cameron, Kerry, Hague and the rest of the regime change sales team, will be the last to figure this out. Count on Germany to see the light first, because their mutual trade relationship with Russia is bigger and more substantial than any of the other big EU bully boys.
To be sure, Putin may have acted to force Ukraine to play the role of Russian energy subsidiary, but both the Ukraine and Russia have no other choice than to play those roles now, this is not the way western journalists want us to take it.
Long running gas price and gas debt disputes, unpaid bills between Russia and Ukraine – whatever its government, have been constant since Ukraine left the collapsed USSR in 1991. One key reason that ousted President Yanukovych was voted in by Ukrainians in 2010, and the blonde siren YuliaTymoshenko was voted out, was her extreme radical – and probably corrupt attempt to pay Russia a much higher price for domestic gas consumed by the Ukraine, partly repay gas debts, and for trading Russian-sourced gas in other EU markets. Talk about corruption in government. Her attempt using her own murky off-shore Swiss-based commodity trading and finance company, created to those ends with a few hand-picked Ukrainian oligarchs – was a total disaster, and Yanukovych largely profited politically from it.
The Multiple and Basic Faults of Dominant Theory
Today’s arguments coming out of Washington and London claim that despite appearances, or even reality, that: ‘The Ukraine’s energy transport corridor role is poised to expand. The country will become more strategic, not less. Its role will expand. Ukraine will link oil and natural gas reserves and production in the Black Sea and Caspian basins, with Europe’. The exact opposite is at least as likely, not because of the new political uncertainty, but because European gas will be transported and sourced from and through a number of other different countries – and on a much more accelerating basis.
The Russian energy dominance theory, and its subset of Ukraine’s critical transport corridor role was cobbled together during the Cold War era, and heavily used by Zbigniew Brzezkinski for his own political grandstanding. The theory seemed seductive to its writers, and Washington think tanks who were intoxicated by the sounds of their own speeches, but in reality, it is light years away from the real world situation and the powerful global energy trends happening today – which are really setting the future path.
WESTERN CORPORATE-FUNDED THINK TANKS: Where western politicians get all of their bright ideas these days.
In fact, if we take only gas pipelines serving Europe, the total quantity of lines from a few inches diameter (the industry uses inches for measuring) to 4 feet diameter, both public and private, both national and international is so huge it can only be estimated. One guess would be about 400,000 kilometres. Only the much-larger area United States has more, at about 450 000 kilometres. And the oversupply problem also concerns oil pipelines, you can be sure. Renovating and replacing, and simply keeping the lines operating and filled, is a major task.
To date, projected new east-west oil pipelines serving the EU states are almost absent. One reason is that Europe’s oil demand, like its gas demand is on a downward track that all analysts agree “has no light at the tunnel’s end”. This could or might change, but by 2005 in some EU states, long before the 2008 financial economic crisis – and since 2009 for the rest, their national oil and gas demand has been declining, every year for the straight majority of countries. This trend is called structural, by more and more analysts. In some cases their oil and gas needs, today, are back to 2000-2003 levels, and declining, making their existing energy transport infrastructures more than sufficient. Politicians tend to ignore these kind of fact because they are not being told them by their army of corporate lobbyists and their platoons of pale, sweaty ‘twenty-something’ policy hacks who generate creative writing assignments in the basements of think tanks.
When we look at electricity demand in EU28 countries, the “decline paradigm” has been operating since the late 1990s in an increasing number of countries.
One immediate result for oil is that European refining and oil transport capacity are both heavily surplus to needs. Analysts and sector specialists suggest at least 15%, even 20% of refinery capacity will have to be cut, trimmed, out-placed or shut down by 2020. Linked and associated oil pipelines, mostly local, will also have to go. Oil refining, in Europe, is a sunset industry heavily dependent on state subsidies in most countries and mostly unprofitable. Its needs for new pipelines is very low.
Transport infrastructures for oil supplied to European refineries are in surplus for another simple reason. The intensely developed “legacy network” of oil shipping routes and maritime installations including mostly seaboard refineries, throughout Europe and across SE Europe and west Central Asia, makes oil pipelines unattractive – we mean unnecessary – so the financial investment rationale for new European oil pipelines very, very weak.
Europe’s combined oil transport and refining capacities must fall – not increase. Put another way, why build new oil transport capacities with oil pipelines costing $7.5 million-per-kilometre?
Only the many projected – but few financed and built – new gas pipelines in the wide area spanning the Caspian, south and east Europe, and the MENA region are potential but small scale game changers. Apart from the Nord Stream and South Stream gas pipelines, building progress with new gas lines is however slow or very slow, in part because of the existing high level of “legacy infrastructures”.
The essential point is that Ukraine’s role in European oil transport is close to zero, and its role in European gas transport, although still significant, is declining. Massaging this reality into a major geopolitical crisis is at worst political grandstanding, and simple ignorance at best.
The Image of Scarcity
Also massaged into the media and worked to death by grandstanding politicians eager to appear clever to voters and to pick a fight with Russia (perhaps confusing it with Mali or Iraq), is the image of gas and oil scarcity. Like climate change and global warming, this favourite character role always gets a major stand-in these days. Some journalists have even claimed this scarcity was another reason former Ukraine leader Viktor Yanukovych rejected the EU association-partnership deal he was on the point of signing, in the days before he was overthrown by the Kiev Flash Mob.
Apart from Putin’s offer of a one-third (33%) cut in the extreme gas price that Yanukovych’s hapless predecessor Yulia Tymoshenko tried to force on Ukainians, and the $15 billion state debt repurchase offer by Moscow – his government also turned down US Chevron Corp’s and European Shell’s fuzzy-edge but claimed-as-enticing proposals to accelerate investment in shale gas and shale oil E&P (exploration & production) in Ukraine (now you can see who was really upset and could have stirred up this geopolitical brew).
The argument is that these proposals, if they ever became actual plans, could or might at some unspecified future date have included oil pipeline construction activity, with some of that in Ukraine, and able to bring new non-Russia gas and oil into “energy-starved” Europe. The proposals were backed by Washington and the EU, so when Yanukovych turned them down he was obviously acting to artificially maintain energy scarcity in Europe, to the benefit of Russia and Putin. That’s the narrative anyway.
In fact, hydrocarbons E&P is powering ahead in the region without any special needs for increased US or EU political support to energy corporate investment and activity.
Reported by media including the UK ‘Independent’ and energy sector ‘Offshore’ magazine, US Exxon and Russia’s Rosneft have made encouraging finds in Crimean and Russian offshore areas, while in the Romanian sector test drilling by Austria’s OMV found interesting deposits, so much so that the majors are bringing in the panoply of deepwater drilling technology. Other majors cited by the specialty press that are either already operating onshore and offshore in Ukraine and Crimea, or are considering near-term action, include Spanish, Chinese, French and Malaysian companies, among others. Canada’s Trans Euro Energy has already found commercial resources of natural gas on the Crimean mainland, underlining the distinct prospectivity and probable large gas and condensate potentials in Crimea.
Available public data only concerning Ukrainian and Crimean conventional onshore gas resources published by the IEA, EIA, CIA, European Commission, and energy majors indicate the country (or 2 countries) have around 1.25 trillion cubic metres of conventional gas – about 120 years of Ukraine’s national consumption. However, the country’s gas production peaked in 1975 and has declined ever since. Very basically, and impossible to be ignored (even by geopolitical “hawks”) this has nothing to do with resource scarcity or Ukraine “depending on Russian gas”. Ukraine profited from ultra-cheap Russian gas – and even forgot to pay for it!
Eastern Ukraine’s giant Donbas coal field is estimated by many analysts as holding very impressive quantities of coalbed methane, with published outline estimates from the US EIA and other sources extending well above 1 trillion cubic metres. The coal field is also deep, due to depletion, incurring high coal production costs and methane or coal dust explosion danger for miners, making coalbed methane extraction, instead of physical coal, the logical future path. Onshore shale gas potentials in the region, including Ukraine and Crimea are also probably large or very large. There is no shortage.
Scarcity is Off the Menu
Natural gas resource scarcity, therefore, does not apply in the Black Sea-Caspian Sea region. This is also shown by the massive gas discoveries, and start of production, from Azerbaijan’s gas and condensate fields. In the eastern and southern Mediterranean, gas E&P continues to make large new finds and extend previously-known offshore gas and condensate reserves, for example offshore Israel and Cyprus. Further away, in east Africa, truly gigantic offshore stranded gas resources have been discovered offshore Mozambique and Tanzania, since 2009.
The argument that Russia is making an “energy resource and transport corridor grab” in Crimea and perhaps subsequently in east Ukraine, driven by energy scarcity among other factors, is therefore impossible to take seriously. Another key reason includes the huge amount of cash already invested by Moscow, in oil and gas E&P in the region, helping accelerate discovery and development. This, in theory at least, would heavily play against Russia’s ability to get the whip hand on this large region’s large proven and potential reserves and so doing, dominate the energy importers of Europe. In other words, Russia is speeding hydrocarbons E&P – and is hard to portray as a geopolitical power trying to limit E&P with the sole intent of profiting from scarcity.
Especially in the Ukraine case, the scarcity theme has also been projected on gas and oil pipeline and transport capacities and oil and gas infrastructures in the region. While this applies to some extent in the east of the region, Caspian Sea and onshore, it is more possible to talk of overcapacity and oversupply in the west of the region. Ukraine, notably, is oversupplied with massive but outdated and badly maintained gas pipeline and gas storage infrastructures, while it is undersupplied with gas and oil E&P financing and technology.
In the Caspian, as Italy’s ENI and its consortium partners (Shell, Exxon, Total, Conoco, the Kazakh government and Impex) have found in their Kashagan project, extreme high costs and a harsh environment, plus a lack of infrastructures have heavily slowed down development of this giant oil and gas field. In the region’s west and Black Sea, these barriers are lower, and timelines for projects to reach export status will be shorter, making it even harder to portray Putin’s strategy as a resource grab. One clear bottom line is that Gazprom will soon have no other option than to cut gas prices, simply due to increase in total gas availability in the region.
This is hard to portray as a “resource grab” and profiting from scarcity!
Resource Scarcity Fears and Geopolitical Musings
From the right distance away, from roughly 8000 kilometres in Washington that is, in the 1990s, both eastern and western Europe could look like an energy resource depleted region, in which Russia’s Vladimir Putin would later make a thinly-disguised energy resource grab. More than 15 years ago, Zbigniev Brzezinski was advising US political leaders that the “real meaning of the Cold War” was an attempt by Russia to make Europe dependent on Russian energy and cut off western Europe’s access to energy resources and energy transport routes of the Black Sea, Caspian Sea and Central Asia. We can note Brzezinksi in the 1990s did not include the Suez Canal, because that theory of Russian conspiracy to cripple Europe’s oil transport security, by supporting Egypt’s Nasser, was put to bed long ago. Today, his 1990s-vintage theories also need putting to bed – or in the document shredder.
US energy corporations… to be sure, are still interested in eastern Europe-Central Asia, but since the 1990s the often extreme high costs, lack of infrastructures, and unpredictable local political partners – usually recycled Soviet-era party bosses now calling themselves “democratic” – have tamed US and international energy corporate hopes and their willingness to spend in the region. To be sure, the western fringe of this large region, including Ukraine, is better served with energy infrastructures, but as present events show, political turmoil and unpredictability still runs high, and at least as important, Ukraine already has more gas infrastructures than it needs. More important for US energy corporations who were drawn to the region, their own shale gas and shale oil revolution is led by and focused on North America. Home is best - for now.
US Big Energy’s political masters in Washington may still be ensnared in Cold War-vintage geopolitics, and energy resource shortage themes, but these are not the reality on the ground. Since at latest the period from 2005 to date, outlooks for hydrocarbons reserve discovery, and output development and growth have radically increased on an almost worldwide basis – including SE Europe and Central Asia. At the same time, only taking Europe, its oil and gas demand trends are on a sustained downward track, meaning the continent has overcapacity of its existing energy transport and refining infrastructures. This is the real European energy problem, today.
Europe’s key trade surplus status with Russia is also a major factor heavily shading the Cold War geopolitical musings of Brzezinski. EU trade surplus with Russia basically means that Europe trades manufactured goods and services, for Russian energy. This commercial interdependence of Europe and Russia makes it unrealistic to imagine that Washingtonian paranoia has any rational basis, suggesting again that the EU, sooner rather than later, will shelve its brave talk about sanctions against Russia and giving support to the anti-Russian aggressivity of the Kiev “government”.
As we know, political shadowboxing and geopolitical musing can fly far over the cuckoo’s nest, tempting would-be Great Statesmen or women to raise their stupidity quotient, even further. To be sure, the financially overheated SE European and Central Asian “energy and pipeline play” will likely suffer from the recent and present turn of events in Ukraine and Crimea but this will have little effect, over time, on hydrocarbon E&P and infrastructure development in the region. Among other real world results, this certainly implies a downward trend for both oil and gas prices in Europe.
"God's an old hand at miracles, he brings us from nonexistence to life. And surely he will resurrect all human flesh on the last day in the twinkling of an eye. But who can comprehend this? For God is this: he creates the new and renews the old. Glory be to him in all things!" Archpriest Avvakum
The start of World War III? — ‘I do not think it an exaggeration to say this could bring us to the brink of nuclear war’
‘Vladimir Putin is striking at the heart of the West’
‘We can chose to surrender any responsibility we have to protect Ukraine and the Baltic states’
‘Or we can mount a last-ditch attempt to deter Russia from furthering its imperial ambitions’
‘If we choose to resist Putin, we will risk a terrifying military escalation’
‘I do not think it an exaggeration to say this could bring us to the brink of nuclear war’
By Edward Lucas
Deep in the flat and featureless landscape of eastern Ukraine, it is all too *possible that the outline of World War III is taking shape.
Whipped up by the Kremlin *propaganda machine and led by Russian *military intelligence, armed men are erecting road blocks, storming police stations and ripping down the country’s flag.
They are demolishing not just their own country — bankrupt, ill-run and beleaguered — but also the post-war order that has kept most of Europe and us, here in Britain, safe and free for decades. Vladimir Putin is striking at the heart of the West.
As the situation continues to deteriorate, Ukranian soldiers stand guard beside a military helicopter to prevent pro-Russian activists from seizing the aircraft
His target is our inability to work with allies in defence against common threats. The profoundly depressing fact is that the events of the past few months, as Russia has annexed the Crimea and *suppressed opposition in Ukraine, have shown the West to be divided, humiliated and powerless in the face of these land grabs.
We are soon to face a bleak choice. We can chose to surrender any responsibility we have to protect Ukraine and the Baltic states — almost certainly Putin’s next target — from further Russian incursion. Or we can mount a last-ditch attempt to deter Russia from furthering its imperial ambitions.
If we do choose to resist Putin, we will risk a terrifying military escalation, which I do not think it an exaggeration to say could bring us to the brink of nuclear war.
Putin knows that. And he believes we will choose surrender. For the real story of recent events in Ukraine is not about whether that country has a free-trade deal with Brussels or gets its gas from Moscow.
It is about brute power. It is about whether Putin’s Russia — a rogue state on Europe’s doorstep — can hold its neighbours to *ransom, and whether we have the will to resist him. So far the answer to the first question is yes. And to the second a bleak no.
The Russian leader believes the collapse of the Soviet Union was a ‘geopolitical catastrophe’. He believes Russia was stripped of its empire by the West’s chicanery. And quite simply, he wants it back.
Report indicates that US aligned regimes are preparing for war
Caleb Maupin is a political analyst who lives in New York City, and is an activist with the International Action Center and Workers World Party. He was part of the Occupy Wall Street mo
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Published time: April 18, 2014 12:43 U.S. Army soldiers (Reuters/Andrew Burton)
Every year the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) releases a study on military spending around the world. This year's report contains many interesting details.
Some things in the report presented by the United Nations Commission on disarmament on April 14 have not changed at all. As has been the case for decades, the United States remains the largest military spender in the world, despite the much heralded "defense cuts." The US, NATO, and "non-NATO US allies" account for over 64 percent of all military spending in the world. Preparations for war in the Middle East?
The report, however, pointed out that US aligned regimes in the Middle East are rapidly increasing their military spending, and purchasing modern, high-tech weapons. The list of US aligned states in the Middle East is a collection of autocratic, repressive kingdoms and emirates. These countries are not "democratic" by any stretch. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, and other states are absolute monarchies. People are flogged, stoned, and beheaded routinely. Torture goes on without apology, and no elections take place. "Free speech" is nearly non-existent, as people are locked up, arbitrarily killed, and otherwise repressed for speaking out.
Those who consume US TV and print media are constantly bombarded with "journalism" demonizing the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Syrian Arab Republic, while the crimes of this lengthy list of US backed Middle Eastern states, which make not even the slightest pretense of being democratic, are ignored. The US props up these autocratic states with billions of dollars in foreign aid, and Wall Street oil corporations make trillions in profits through control of their natural resources. When the population of these states has risen up and demanded democratic and economic rights, these regimes use their stockpiles of US made weapons to gun down protesters, burn entire neighborhoods, and enforce their rule with terror and violence. The violent response to recent uprisings in Bahrain, the jailing of poets in Qatar, and the continued US coddling of their monarchs shows the complete hypocrisy of any "human rights" rhetoric from Washington D.C.
However, in the last year these US puppet regimes in the Middle East have increasingly embraced the business of war. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is now the fourth largest military spender in the entire world. It is stockpiling modern missiles, tanks, and other high tech mechanisms of destruction and death. Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates are also increasing their military build-up. These regimes are currently funding, training, and arming the insurgent groups in Syria, where over 100,000 people have already died in what was once a peaceful country. The millions of refugees in Syria are desperately fleeing to other parts of the region, as "rebels" burn their homes, kidnap their children, and carry out public beheadings. Money and weapons flowing from US-backed autocratic regimes is keeping the four-year civil war going, with more people dying each day.
The rise in military spending in the Middle East points toward plans for a wider war. The turmoil in Tunisia and Egypt in 2011 that resulted in the removal of US puppet Hosni Mubarak, and the failure to overthrow the Syrian Arab Republic after years of civil war, point toward a real weakness in US influence in the Middle East. When Obama announced he intended to rain cruise missiles on Syria, he was forced to back down. As the US aligned autocratic states in the gulf build up their military power, it looks as if some kind of desperate drive to regain lost influence may be in the works. Surrounding China and North Korea
The much discussed "Asian Pivot", where the US is increasing its military activity in the Pacific, comes at the very moment that US aligned regimes in Asia are rapidly increasing their military spending.
The government of the Philippines routinely carries out extralegal executions and assassinations. Journalists who print stories critical of the government routinely disappear and later wind up dead. The Philippines, already home to many US military bases, has increased its military spending by 17 percent. Much of the military activity in the Philippines is devoted to suppressing the New People's Army, a group of communists with a great deal of popular support who have been waging a "People's War" against the US backed autocratic state.
South Korea (where "National Security Laws" can land you in prison for tweeting, and striking workers are routinely gunned down), is the 8th largest arms importer in the world. The country is also home to US military bases, and it is stockpiling missiles, military aircraft, and other modern weapons.
U.S. Army soldiers with Charlie Company, 36th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division set up a supportive position during a mission near Command Outpost Pa'in Kalay in Maiwand District, Kandahar Province February 3, 2013. (Reuters/Andrew Burton)
Azerbaijan, a US aligned regime in Central Asia, is known for its violations of human rights. Amnesty International declares that human rights in Azerbaijan are in "steady decline." Over the course of the last ten years, Azerbaijan has increased its military spending by 378 percent.
Australia, the US aligned European settler state has increased its import of arms by 83 percent.
The People's Republic of China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, two Asian societies that have defied Wall Street and openly speak against international capitalism and imperialism are being surrounded by US and US aligned military forces. China's increasing economic influence around the world, especially in Latin America and Africa is a threat to Wall Street's economic power, and moves are being made to surround and suppress it. In response to a rising, hostile military presence on its borders, China has increased its military spending as well.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, despite remaining surrounded and under hostile sanctions, has actually re-adjusted its domestic budget. The "songun" policy of military first is being altered, and more money is being spent domestically on programs such as the new boom of housing construction. The successful test of nuclear weapons seems to have supplied the country with a new level of security, allowing it to cut back on its military spending.
The DPRK has a record of aligning with governments that defy Wall Street around the world, such as Zimbabwe. The DPRK has provided military aid to many countries fighting for independence from Wall Street domination over the course the last few decades. Kim Il Sung even famously welcomed a delegation from the Black Panther Party in 1969, supporting their fight against racism in the United States. The danger of a new world war
As the world economy remains in crisis, the trends in military spending are disturbing to many. Prior to WW1, exactly one hundred years ago, the US radical leader, Emma Goldman, mocked those who claimed the building up of armaments would prevent war. She declared that Woodrow Wilson's policy of "preparedness" in purchasing huge amounts of weapons was not a road to peace, but "the road to universal slaughter." She was proved correct when WW1 erupted across Europe, and millions of people died. Although Wilson had been elected on an anti-war platform, in 1917 the US entered the conflict, and those who dared protest were jailed, killed, and tortured.
In modern times, conflicts seem to be unfolding across the world at a rapid rate. Although these conflicts take place in different regions, they are all just episodes in the same global confrontation. In Venezuela, the popular democratic government, aligned with Russia and China, is fighting a group of violent opposition forces backed by Wall Street. In Syria, the government that has aligned with Palestine and provided healthcare and education, is also being attacked by violent extremists backed by Wall Street and it Gulf State puppets. In Ukraine, violent ultra-nationalists backed by Wall Street seized the government after it refused to join the IMF, and in Donetsk and other parts of the country, the people are fighting against them, hoping for support from Russia and China.
As US aligned states across the globe stockpile weapons, it looks like this trend of violence by Wall Street and its allies is not going away. They may be preparing for a much larger all-out war to keep control of the world, as their economic system grinds to a halt, and the countries seeking independent development continue to prosper.
Libertatem Prius!
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Well, I have to say this one caught me by surprise. LOL
Let's see if it's true, there's a source at the end, which of course, I can't see cuz it's blocked. I suspect this is nonsense, but hell, you never know do you? LOL
A stunning Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) report circulating in the Kremlin today states that two of the United States highest ranking military generals delivered a “personal plea” to President Putin from retired four-star general and former Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the 65th United States Secretary of State, General Colin Powell, and former President Jimmy Carter for “specific military telecommunications assistance” intended to aid them in overthrowing the Obama regime that these Americans claim is “run by blackmail” and is destroying their nation.
As to the mission of these American generals, this report continues, was to obtain permission from Putin, and Russian defense authorities, for those forces loyal to Powell and Carter, the ability to utilize the highly secure encrypted military and intelligence radio channels currently available on Russia’s Meridian 2 communication satellite and which use encryption technology that has not been broken by the United States National Security Agency-Central Security Service (NSA/CSS).
The purpose of this Powell-Clinton coup-plotting faction using secure Meridian 2 communication networks, these American generals told their Russian counterparts, was to enable them to safely communicate among each other as all of America’s normal means of communication (US Postal Service/Email/Phone and Cellular Calls/Internet, etc.) have been “totally compromised”
These American generals further confirmed that this Powell-Clinton coup-plotting faction is, indeed, behind the numerous Western spies leaking top-secret Obama regime and British intelligence documents to the worlds public, and as we had reported on in our previous report Switzerland Warning Against Obama Regime Stuns Russia.
Fears that these American generals expressed of the Obama regime being “run by blackmail,” GRU analysts in this report say, were recently verified by Russ Tice, a former intelligence analyst whistleblower for the NSA-CSS, who during a televised interview with Russia Today (RT) [see video HERE] cited specific targets that he saw NSA-CSS spying orders for, including former senators Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama, Colin Powell and high ranking military leaders, mostly 3 star generals and admirals.
And during a televised interview with the American Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) [see video HERE], Tice further noted that NSA-CSS spying orders were issued for US Supreme Court Justices and top US business leaders and that the “word to word” cell, telephone and email communications of all Americans were being recorded and saved too.
Important to note about Tice’s claims of the unprecedented NSA/CSS spying now taking place in the US, is that in 2008, the popular American actor Shia LaBeouf, while being interviewed on a television programme called the Tonight Show [see video HERE] told of his experience having a high level FBI agent play back for him phone conversations he, LaBeouf, had made a few years earlier as a demonstration about how much the American government knew about the private lives of their citizens.
Even worse, in their attack on our previous report, the minions of Glenn Beck failed at even the most rudimentary level to explain to either their readers or listeners (said to be in the millions) even the most basic truths of the Sisters of Sorcha Faal, our mission, or even our purpose for being.
To how the United States can survive such hypocrisy coming from such influential media figures like Glenn Beck, and from too many left-leaning other such media types to even mention, is readily apparent in the appeal made by these two American generals pleading for Russian help to overthrow their present regime.
Should the Powell-Carter coup-plotters be successful in their overthrowing of the Obama regime, however, it remains to be seen. But, and perhaps, even more important is that should they fail, their efforts will be kept from the American people (especially by the Glenn Beck types) like was done in 1933 when the Business Plot Coup nearly overthrew the Franklin Roosevelt regime, but which to this day no American school child or college student is allowed to know about.
However, I can see a pattern within the disinformation which makes looking at these articles a good thing.
"God's an old hand at miracles, he brings us from nonexistence to life. And surely he will resurrect all human flesh on the last day in the twinkling of an eye. But who can comprehend this? For God is this: he creates the new and renews the old. Glory be to him in all things!" Archpriest Avvakum
Re: World War Three Thread....
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal attends an Arab foreign ministers emergency meeting to discuss the Syrian crisis at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo yesterday. Photograph: Reuters
Michael Jansen
Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia.
Foreground, from left: Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, Refat Chubarov, and leader of the Russian Unity public organization and deputy of autonomous Crimea region's parliament Sergei Aksyonov (RIA Novosti / Taras Litvinenko)
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef (Reuters / Hamad I Mohammed)
RIA Novosti / Roman Hasaev
Municipality workers clean the area in the aftermath of an explosion in the Karrada commercial district in Baghdad (AFP Photo / Ali Al-Saidi)
Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (Reuters / Thaier Al-Sudani)
Mi-35 helicopter
Iraq Takes Collection of First 4 Russian Helicopter Gunships
Russian airborn troops
Tahani Al-Jebali: Obama’s brother a Muslim Brotherhood investment architect
Originally Posted by Ryan Ruck
By Jeff Mason and Steve Holland 5 minutes ago
Andrew McKillop
The first problem is the “Ukraine energy corridor theory” is a major exaggeration. Ukraine is a critical corridor country for gas supply to Europe, only. Oil has got almost nothing to do with it. Also, the gas pipeline transport role of Ukraine can only decline – and will decline, particularly as the Nord Stream (see image, left) and South Stream gas pipelines, which completely avoid Ukraine, are completed and ramped-up.
A Ukrainian military convoy traveling towards the eastern Ukrainian town of Slovyansk where Russian nationalists have seized the regional administration building
Caleb Maupin is a political analyst who lives in New York City, and is an activist with the International Action Center and Workers World Party. He was part of the Occupy Wall Street mo
U.S. Army soldiers (Reuters/Andrew Burton)
U.S. Army soldiers with Charlie Company, 36th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division set up a supportive position during a mission near Command Outpost Pa'in Kalay in Maiwand District, Kandahar Province February 3, 2013. (Reuters/Andrew Burton)
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