Category: 06 Russia

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NIGHTWATCH: Syria Assad Interview, Other Comments

02 Diplomacy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 06 Russia, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards

Syria: President Asad gave an interview to Le Figaro which was published by the Syrian news agency Sana on 3 September. Excerpts follow.

Asad denied Syrian forces launched a chemical attack. He said Syria has no motive to make such an attack because it is winning the fight. He challenged the US to produce its proof and show it to the UN since the party making the accusations has the burden of proving them.

He said his soldiers were wounded in the attack on the 21st and the UN inspectors visited them in hospital.

He accused the US President of being a weak leader who succumbed to pressure from small groups and as one who starts wars instead of prevents them.

Concerning a Syrian response to a US attack, he reminded the interviewer that the architects of a war only control the first shot. He said the first and the greatest danger is that the situation will explode into a regional war.

In response to a question about Russian support he said,

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Syria Assad Interview, Other Comments”

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F. William Engdahl: The Stark Reality Behind Obama’s Russian ‘Statesmanship’

02 Diplomacy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 06 Genocide, 06 Russia, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Officers Call
F. William Engdahl
F. William Engdahl

The Stark Reality Behind Obama’s Russian ‘Statesmanship’

By F. William Engdahl

F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant, author and lecturer. He is author of the best-selling book on oil and geopolitics, A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order. It has been published as well in French, German, Chinese, Russian, Czech, Korean, Turkish, Croatian, Slovenian and Arabic. In 2010 he published Gods of Money: Wall Street and the Death of the American Century, and in 2011, Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order, completing his trilogy on the power of oil, food and money control.

With a diplomatic attitude more reminiscent of a spoiled brat grabbing his toys and leaving the room, US President Obama has resorted to diplomatic snubs and childish criticisms of Russian behavior as if the Russian leaders were small children.

In a press conference Obama described the Russian President as having a “slouch…looking like that bored schoolboy in the back of the classroom.” Yet behind the childish form of the latest White House refusal to meet President Putin before the G-20 St. Petersburg Summit is a grim reality:

Washington is rapidly losing its way to impose its will in the world on multiple fronts and the Putin snub is an impotent reflection of that loss of power. The real issues in US-Russian relations go far deeper.

Read rest of long detailed article — strongly recommended.

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Marcus Aurelius: False Embassy Threat a Preamble to War? + Syria Islam Divide Iran Nuclear Israeli Insanity RECAP Update 1.1 — More Prison Breaks?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 06 Russia, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Transnational Crime, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius

The retired Marine colonel who cued me to this report opined that, “This is a hell of a lot closer to the mark than any Administration or DoS blathering.”  I would be totally unsurprised to find him 100% spot-on.  I invite your attention to the final para, highlighted.  If that is true, the (in)actions of our government may have rendered us incapable, fiscally and operationally, of effective response.  Another Task Force Smith, another Kaserine Pass could be the foreseeable result.

Unmasking the embassy threat

Embassy closures are a signal of the rapidly escalated intervention in the region by the US

There is one thing certain about the publicized threat to our embassies; it is not what it is presented to be. To accept the official explanation of a nebulous threat from al Qaeda as the reason for closing our embassies across the Middle East and North Africa is being dangerously naive and simplistic.

This is much more serious than what we are being told, but not for the reasons we are being given. We are seeing the consequences of a long running “Cold War” on two major fronts of political conflict that could escalate into military engagement with proxy nations of world super powers. The world, and life as we know it, could change in an instant should we awaken one morning to the news of bombs flying across the Middle East. That is a very real possibility, as we are now in a heightened proxy war environment. We are standing in a thick forest of dry tinder, and the smallest of sparks could ignite a conflagration the likes of which we have never before seen.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: False Embassy Threat a Preamble to War? + Syria Islam Divide Iran Nuclear Israeli Insanity RECAP Update 1.1 — More Prison Breaks?”

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Mini-Me: Uzbekistan Wants to Join NATO, Conquer Eurasia [We Do Not Make This Stuff Up] — Full Reading [English Below the Line] Makes Clear This Is A Manifesto — From Water to Genocide to Labor to Historical Grievances

02 Diplomacy, 06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, 12 Water, Civil Society, Commerce, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, IO History, Military, Peace Intelligence
Who? Mini-Me?
Who? Mini-Me?

Huh?

Uzbekistan Media: We Should Join NATO, Conquer Eurasia

A recent piece in Uzbekistan's state-sanctioned media has advocated joining NATO and taking over the territory of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and most of the rest of Eurasia. The piece, published on 12news.uz, was taken down shortly after being published, but was preserved on inoSMI.ru.  [PBI: English translation below the line.]

The piece, at nearly 9,000 words, offers a number of controversial (to put it kindly) claims: that Tajiks are merely Persian-speaking Uzbeks, that Uzbekistan is the successor state to the Mongol Golden Horde, that the agreement between Russia and Kyrgyzstan to develop hydropower plants is invalid because it misspells “Kyrgyzstan,” among many others. Its main thesis, however, is that the “threats of a natural-technical character” — namely proposed hydropower plants in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan — are the gravest security threats facing Uzbekistan, comparable to a nuclear bomb. And the solution is that Uzbekistan should join NATO.

ca water 3The piece is a bit out there, but Uzbek analysts point out that it must have been officially sanctioned. “This site [12news.uz] is not just semi-official, it’s official,” dissident political analyst Tashpulat Yuldashev told uznews.net. “It's curated by Dilshod Nurullaev, former Security Commission chairman and advisor to the President,” he said. “There is total censorship in Uzbekistan, and such a politically charged article would not have been allowed to be published without permission from the very top.” That assertion was backed up by another Uzbek analyst to The Bug Pit.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Uzbekistan Wants to Join NATO, Conquer Eurasia [We Do Not Make This Stuff Up] — Full Reading [English Below the Line] Makes Clear This Is A Manifesto — From Water to Genocide to Labor to Historical Grievances”

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Paul Craig Roberts: Putin Chews Out G8, Merkel Supports Him — A Must Read!

06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, Corruption, Ethics, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military, Peace Intelligence
Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts

Below is a translation from As-Safir, a Lebanese newspaper, July 6, 2013, by Arabic-English translator Eric Mueller. As the translator was not present at the Group of Eight meeting, he cannot vouch for the accuracy of the report, only for the accuracy of the translation. The report by Dawud Rimal does reflect Putin's no-nonsense manner of speaking. The report from As-Safir contrasts with the US coverage.

Diplomatic sources: Putin tells G8 “You want Asad to resign. Look at the leaders you've made in the Middle East.”

MUST READ — Full text below the line.

Continue reading “Paul Craig Roberts: Putin Chews Out G8, Merkel Supports Him — A Must Read!”

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Neal Rauhauser: Caucasus Emirate, Chechnya, 2014 Olympic Threat, and Syria

06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards
Neal Rauhauser
Neal Rauhauser

The Caucasus Emirate

Doku Umarov, the most wanted Chechen terrorist in Russia, has made a direct threat against the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, which are to be held in Sochi on the Black Sea, an area once known as Circassia. The tribes that lived there were Muslim, but 600,000 were slaughtered and the rest were driven out around the time of the U.S. Civil War.

The Caucasus Emirate is both the group seeking to create an independent Islamic state and the name they seek to use for the state itself. Note Sochi itself, at the center on the left edge of the map.

Read full post with maps.