PDF (36 pages): Convoy of Martyrs in the Levant (June 2012)
Two best graphics below. Note small sample numbers.
Berto Jongman: Snapshot of Foreign Rebel Fighters in Syria
08 Wild CardsChuck Spinney: The Oslo Peace Process Scam
01 Agriculture, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, 12 Water
The chart below shows that Oslo Peace Process was simply a cover and deception operation to ensure Israel's successful colonization of West Bank
The graph on the left shows how the settler buildup was not even slowed down by the so-called Peace Process. Note also how the rate of settlement in the West Bank accelerated after the accession of Barack Obama to the Presidency. The map on the right lays out locations of settlements (red areas). Areas A (brown) and B (tan) are the areas under varying degrees of Palestinian control as of 2012. Not shown are the Israeli only access roads connecting the settlements and the Israeli roadblocks that effectively restrict Palestinian travel among their areas, stifling the flow of Palestinian commerce. Also not shown is the fact that Israelis control all but one or two of the major springs in the West Bank and all of the pumping stations that extract water from the crucial aquifers lying under the West Bank. (One third of Israel's water budget comes from the aquifers under the West Bank)
So, why did President Bill Clinton go along with the scam during the Oslo process in the crucial 1990s, and why has Barack Obama allowed the rate of settlement to accelerate on his watch?
Well, as the American humorist Russell Baker said, “Politics is about money; where it comes from; where it goes?” Attached is but one small window into the convoluted pathways implicit in Baker's world view:
Bill Clinton takes a cool half-million from Jewish National Fund for speech in Israel
NIGHTWATCH: Turkish Unrest, Islamization
08 Wild Cards
Turkey: Protestors clashed with police for a third day in Istanbul. One press service reported 1,000 people were injured and 1,000 were arrested in the past three days. Protests also took place in Ankara, Adana and Izmir. One Turkish news source claims protests have occurred in 67 of 81 provinces. More are threatened on Monday.
Comment: Government plans to demolish the last large green space and public park in Istanbul and replace it with a mosque were the catalyst for the protests, primarily by secular urban youth. Another factor was a new law restricting alcohol sales. The root of the unrest is the growing lack of empowerment for secular interests and people who are less devout Muslims.
The protests resemble a Turkish variant of the Arab spring uprisings, which started with secular young city dwellers protesting conditions. The youth in the big cities are often out of touch with the electorate at large in almost every Islamic Middle Eastern country. Their ideas about elected government are naïve, as they have been reported in media interviews.
Turkish youths and city dwellers who support the protests are railing against the actions of a legitimately elected president and parliament. Their complaints are that the government is too authoritarian, too Islamist and not representative of secular Turks.
For Turkey, the revolution began when Prime Minister Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) was elected a decade ago. It started a slow moving Islamist revolution that gutted the political power of the Army and continues to move Turkey toward a system of laws based on Sharia. It was not the revolution the secularists expected.
The Erdogan government is representative of the majority of Turks, as evidenced by its repeated electoral majorities. Any concessions it makes will be temporary. The direction of Turkey's political development is set and popular, except among some in the cities.
Opinion: China’s Empire Soft and Pervasive + Meta-RECAP
02 China
Opinion: China’s Economic Empire
By HERIBERTO ARAÚJO and JUAN PABLO CARDENAL
New York Times, June 1, 2013
EXTRACT
By buying companies, exploiting natural resources, building infrastructure and giving loans all over the world, China is pursuing a soft but unstoppable form of economic domination. Beijing’s essentially unlimited financial resources allow the country to be a game-changing force in both the developed and developing world, one that threatens to obliterate the competitive edge of Western firms, kill jobs in Europe and America and blunt criticism of human rights abuses in China.
Ultimately, thanks to the deposits of over a billion Chinese savers, China Inc. has been able to acquire strategic assets worldwide. This is possible because those deposits are financially repressed — savers receive negative returns because of interest rates below the inflation rate and strict capital controls that prevent savers from investing their money in more profitable investments abroad. Consequently, the Chinese government now controls oil and gas pipelines from Turkmenistan to China and from South Sudan to the Red Sea.
Continue reading “Opinion: China’s Empire Soft and Pervasive + Meta-RECAP”
Mini-Me: Turkey Today, Saudi Arabia Tomorrow? Arabs Fight for Identity, Justice, & Legitimacy
08 Wild Cards
Huh?
News
Anti-government protests spread across Turkey
Police Retreat as Protests Expand Through Turkey
Protests in Turkey Reveal a Larger Fight Over Identity
Tens of Thousands take to streets in Turkey, clash with police
Turkey protesters hold Istanbul square after days of violent clashes
Berto Jongman: GLADIO B Comes Home to London — USA Next?
04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Law Enforcement, Military, Officers CallUK pays price for MI5 courting terror
By Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Asia Times, 30 May 2013
The brutal murder of an off-duty British soldier in broad daylight in the southeast London district of Woolwich raises new questions about the British government's national security strategy, at home and abroad. Officials have highlighted the danger of “self-radicalizing” cells inspired by Internet extremism, but this ignores overwhelming evidence that major UK terror plots have been incubated by the banned al-Qaeda-linked group formerly known as Al Muhajiroun.
Equally, it is no surprise that the attackers had been seen earlier on the radar of MI5, the UK's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency. While Al Muhajiroun's emir, Syrian cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed – currently self-exiled to Tripoli in northern Lebanon – has previously claimed “public immunity” due to murky connections with British intelligence, compelling evidence suggests such connections might still be operational in the context of foreign policy imperatives linked to oil and gas interests.
Continue reading “Berto Jongman: GLADIO B Comes Home to London — USA Next?”
4th Media: DPRK’s (North Korean) Nuclear “Electro Magnetic Pulse” [EMP] Bomb Could Be An Equalizer
02 China, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 06 Russia, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 10 Security, 11 Society, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence
I strongly agree with [former US CIA Director] R. James Woolsey and [a former CIA analyst and Executive Director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, an Advisory Board to Congress] Dr. Peter Vincent Pry that the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) threat to the U.S. demands our strongest attention (“How North Korea Could Cripple the U.S.,” op-ed, May 21).
