Kerry talks economics, finds Morsi preoccupied with Islamizing Egypt

March 9, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Debka

When visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry sat one-on-one with Egyptian  President Morsi in Cairo, Sunday, March 3, he talked at length about Egypt’s  calamitous economic straits, relations with Israel, democratization and  essential reforms.

He had hoped to find the Egyptian president amenable to getting to grips with his country’s fast approaching bankruptcy. In the event, Morsi nodded politely but, debkafile’s Middle East sources report, he was far more preoccupied with pushing forward the three-point plan he and the Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme leader Mohammed Badie have begun implementing:

1. The Muslim Brotherhood will not settle for a parliamentary majority in the coming general election – most likely in April or June; it is aiming for 100 percent of the seats. 2. To set the stage for this campaign, the Brothers have installed their loyalists in the governates of Egypt’s 19 provinces. The spreading of Brotherhood values in the national constituency is going full steam ahead across Egypt. The MB turned to this course when they saw they had no hope of exercising total control over the restive capital and the protest movements springing up regularly in Tahrir Square. So they decided to build up their support in the country at large in the hope of making Cairo an isolated Island in the predominantly Islamist country.

3. To boost their popularity in the coming election, Morsi and Badie decided they could not afford the painful measures required by the International Monetary Fund for a $4.8 billion loan to tide the economy over its current crisis – spending cutbacks, downsizing the vast Egyptian civil service, reducing food subsidies and cutting away dead wood.

Instead, they dropped their credit application to the IMF altogether and so avoided mass unemployment and widespread hardship in the months leading up to the election. However, the US Secretary of State sternly called the Egyptian president’s attention to three major concerns which need to be addressed with the utmost urgency: a) Egyptian foreign currency reserves continue to bleed dangerously and no one knows how to stop the disastrous drain. By April, it is predicted that no more than $4 billion will be left to sustain a population of 80-90 million souls.

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Sexual Violence: Fear and Loathing in Egypt

February 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment
By Reem Abdellatif

When I walk into Tahrir Square alone these days, carrying my notebook, I try to remain calm, act like I belong and move with the cascading crowds.

If you seem scared or intimidated, they smell your fear.

Like other female reporters, I have grown accustomed to being constantly on guard while doing my job. But that can’t guarantee safety. Sexual assaults on women protesters — and journalists — have become commonplace in Cairo.

In late January, the United Nations strongly urged the Egyptian government to act, saying it had received 25 reports of assaults on women in Tahrir Square in a single week — 19 of them in a single day. One young woman was hospitalized with lacerations after being raped with a sharp object. Witnesses described bite marks all over the woman’s body.

Earlier this month, a public gang rape of two young women in Tahrir Square was caught on video. Dozens of men surrounded the women like they were pieces of meat. Some men who tried to help were also sexually assaulted. The victims said the attack against them was very systematic, almost as if it had been planned.

This week, a report from Amnesty International concluded that the government’s failure to aggressively pursue perpetrators of the harassment “has fueled violent attacks against women in the vicinity of Tahrir Square.”

Every day on the job, I wonder: “Is today my turn?” As a journalist, my job is to remain neutral and objective. But, as a woman in Egypt, simply being out in society and doing my job might be considered an act of rebellion and resistance.

There are times when I move through the crowds of men wishing I didn’t speak Arabic or that I could cover my ears. Maybe if I couldn’t hear them, I would be spared their uninvited remarks about my breasts and my body.

Intellectually, I know that such men are acting out against women because they view us as weaker. But when I’m alone, I sometimes wonder: “Did I do something subconsciously to deserve their harassment?” That is how it works with abuse.

I remind myself often that I’m a journalist. My job is not only to hear but to listen. As an Egyptian woman, I know that a renaissance boils beneath the surface. Despite violence and repression, women are half the population, and they are mobilizing.

When the Egyptian uprising began, it appeared that society would be more open to women’s advancement and to discussing the roots of violence against women. But we are still far from that point.

It will take time, but the fear barrier is bound to give way.

Since Islamist President Mohamed Morsi came into power last June, many women have started to feel that their core freedoms could be threatened by political Islam, and this has spurred working women, single mothers, activists and artists to break taboos and push society’s boundaries.

Growing protests of discontent, led by women of all ages and backgrounds, have swept across the nation from the Mediterranean city of Alexandria to Morsi’s palace walls.

The world got a glimpse of the struggle Egyptian women face in December 2012, when a brave girl was stripped of her veil and clothes — down to her blue bra — in the middle of Tahrir Square. This was done not by simple ruffians but by Egyptian soldiers during a protest demanding an end to military rule after Hosni Mubarak‘s ouster.

It took time for the world to realize that this kind of attack wasn’t a rare occurrence. But Egyptian women knew.

The intolerable treatment of women in Egypt long predates Morsi’s rule. I was first attacked at age 16 by a group of random teenage boys looking for fun in the coastal city of Alexandria. I’ll never forget their faces as they made a game out of groping me. I wept in the street.

Things are bound to get worse before they get better. The country’s leadership supports all sorts of vague laws that deny women full equality. Morsi, who is part of the Muslim Brotherhood, must appease an ultra-conservative Islamist base that won’t welcome improving conditions for women.

Now in Egypt, women face more men who won’t look them in the eye during a conversation. Some self-proclaimed Islamists have agreed to be interviewed by me but refused to look at me directly or even turn their faces toward me. They believe that looking at a women’s face is sinful and invites sexual desire.

Yet one fact can’t be overlooked: Almost 40% of Egyptian women are the sole breadwinners in their households. Many have had to overcome domestic abuse, sexual assault and poverty.

If the uprisings in the Middle East have taught us anything, it is that women won’t be left out of the increasing freedoms. And that is true in Egypt as well. Instead of yielding to intimidation, women have come back in greater numbers, filling the streets with calls for change. Someday, those calls are likely to be heard.

Author Reem Abdellatif is a special correspondent for LA Times in Cairo.

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Morsi Backs Down: Revokes Power Grab,Referendum On Constitution Still Up

December 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Egypt’s President has scrapped the decree that gave him sweeping new powers and effectively put him above the law of the land. But the opposition says that’s not enough facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterest
Filed Under: 2012, Africa, Arab Spring, Censorship, Culture, Democracy, Economy, Egypt, History, International News, Journalism, Law, Media, NEWS, Terrorism, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

Fighting in Gaza leaves U.S. in difficult position with Turkey, Egypt

November 20, 2012 By 488 Comments
Wahington Post Anne Gearan
The Israeli-Hamas conflict is putting the Obama administration at odds with two of its most important partners in the Middle East, threatening to undermine other U.S. objectives in the region at a time of political upheaval.  On Monday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, which has frequently served as a moderate voice in the region, described Israel as a “terrorist state” and condemned the airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, which is run by the Islamist group Hamas. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has warned Israel against a ground invasion and thrown his support behind Hamas’s leadership, sending his prime minister to Gaza.Pyongyang, however, might not be able or willing to follow Burma’s example of reform and opening.The growing outcry has exposed the United States to criticism that it has not done enough to press Israel to agree to a cease-fire. The conflict has also created a wedge in relations with officials in Egypt and Turkey and highlighted the limits of U.S. influence in the aftermath of the revolutions that swept the region last year.
Against this backdrop, President Obama on Tuesday escalated U.S. involvement in trying to resolve the conflict, dispatching Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to meet with officials in Israel, the West Bank and Egypt. She leaves for the region from Phnom Penh, where she took part in the East Asia Summit with Obama.Since the United States does not have relations with Hamas, however, Clinton is scheduled to meet in Ramallah with West Bank Palestinian leaders who are on the sidelines of the Gaza crisis, leaving it unclear how much she can hope to achieve.Hours before Clinton was due to arrive in Israel, police and ambulances were called to…     Read More
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Filed Under: 2012, America, BREAKING NEWS, Egypt, International News, Journalism, Law, Media, Middle East, Military, NEWS, Politics, Turkey, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , ,

BLIND LEADING THE BLIND: ‘False Flag Energy’ and Syrian Regime Change

October 14, 2012 By 496 Comments

Andrew McKillop
21st Century Wire
Guest Columnist

For the Libya war and regime change, things seemed straightforward: Libya is a big supplier of oil and gas to Europe. Quickly replacing the Gaddafi regime was necessary, despite “the Colonel” being recycled back into grace with a Condoleeza Rice, Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi smile and handshake, only a few years before.

 Once corporate penetration was underway, western central planners quickly replaced Gaddafi with a Shariah-proclaiming shaky government and its fundamentalist militias, who celebrated Sept 11th 2012 in a special way, by killing the US ambassador and staff in manner mirroring the demise of the late Colonel. But hydrocarbon supplies are vital!

On to Syria

 Syria is a very minor exporter of oil (about 0.14 Mbd or 0.27% of world export supplies), with its exportable surplus on a slow downhill for more than 10 years. Kurdish separatists operating in and partly controlling eastern Syria have big plans to raise oil output, but their longstanding war with the el-Assad regime has blighted foreign drilling and related oil E&P activity. Most major oil investors (especially Canadian and Indian) have been tapering down their eastern Syria E&P for more than 3 years, since 2008-2009. Conventional gas resources are not large, mostly difficult access, and their development has been stunted by political and security concerns. Shale gas and shale oil potentials in Syria are however large, but like conventional gas resources are impossible to develop at present.

The country’s hydropower and water resource potential is also large, but any claim that Syria is a “resource-rich jewel” to be liberated, democratized and brought to market as soon as possible – but possibly not Libya-style – is way off the mark. The nearest-term regional economic role for Syria is development of its agriculture potential, which has been attempted by the father-and-son el-Assad regime, since the 1980s but bad planning, execution and management, and endemic corruption inside the regime only resulted in Syria attaining exporter status in a major agrocommodity (wheat) for a few years in the 1990s. Since that time Syria has tilted back into food import dependence – exactly like Saudia Arabia and the Gulf states whose leaderships pretend to believe in Syria becoming “the Arab world’s bread basket”, under strict Sunnite rule, of course.

 Energy resource or energy transport issues are unimportant players in this regime-change experiment, but in a recent Market Oracle posting on the supposed energy drivers behind regime change, William Engdahl writes: “Huge gas resource discoveries in Israel, in Qatar and in Syria combined with the emergence of the EU as the world’s potentially largest natural gas consumer, combine to create the seeds of the present geopolitical clash over the Assad regime”.

He continued: “Natural gas is rapidly becoming the “clean energy” of choice to replace coal and nuclear electric generation across the EU most especially since Germany’s decision to phase out nuclear after the Fukushima disaster. Gas is regarded as far more “environmentally friendly” in terms of its so-called “carbon footprint.”

Too Much Gas – Too Many Pipelines

 Huge unconventional (deep offshore) gas reserves have been discovered, and proven or are in the process of being proven in the territorial waters of the following countries:

Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Cyprus, Azerbaijan. Several other close-by countries are highly prospective, meaning likely also to possess very large reserves of deep offshore gas, called “stranded gas”. This only concerns local and regional, eastern Med and Caspian unconventional gas resource finds: worldwide finds are truly massive, and concern all continents. Any talk about world gas shortage, or control of gas resources by a small number of countries mostly hostile to the West has been exploded, since 2007-2009. This real world state of facts has yet to filter through to Think Tank strategists, deep in their bunkers mulling 1970s-vintage energy crisis issues with a Cold War mindset, in which War on Terror was as unknown as global stranded gas and shale gas resources and reserves. As recently as 2008 and playing a major role in the setting of Europe’s climate-energy package of policies and programs basically seeking energy independence and energy security, the dark shadow of these Cold War-era energy crisis issues – now bolstered by Al Qaida shadows, played a major role in the European quest to reduce gas import dependence by any means. Increased dependence on Qatari gas, let alone Libyan, Algerian, Russian and Norwegian gas – Europe’s 4 largest pipeline gas suppliers -  featured nowhere in this 2008 plan, and was in fact the exact opposite of the plan’s published goals.

The basic reason for this, despite the energy security, geopolitical and terror war trimmings, is economic. Europe’s 4 largest pipeline gas suppliers, utilising an already overcapacity pipeline system feeding Europe, with zero need for pipeline capacity growth, operate “oil indexed prices” for gas. In simple terms this prices gas imports to Europe at up to $16 per million BTU, equivalent to oil at $92.80 a barrel. US gas prices this year have average about $2.50 per million BTU before a very recent “surprise comeback” to a little over $3. Importing either Israeli gas (after 2020-2022 when the gas is developed) or Qatari gas through a hypothetical trans-Syria pipeline would have no interest at all to Europe, unless their offer price fell well below current prices operated by the 4 largest pipeline suppliers. Possibly unknown to the deep-thinking Think Tank community, too often based in the US – the southern, south-eastern and eastern European regions are now criss-crossed with gas pipelines at a variety of stages: existing and operational; in construction; planned and in project. The major problem is not the transport capacity – but filling the lines at prices Europe is prepared to pay. Many pipeline projects are now on hold, not for geopolitical reasons, but because at the same time and rapidly, LNG re-gasification terminals are under construction in all coastal EU27 states. Rates of construction are so fast, despite high costs, that certain countries such as France will by 2015-2016 have sufficient LNG terminals to handle LNG imports covering entire national gas consumption needs. At the same time, gas pipeline capacity to northern and western Europe, including France, continues to grow.

 World LNG supplies are on an unstoppable upward growth track, running at well over 20% per year, as LNG suppliers and potential suppliers also grow at an unstoppable rate. Under any hypothesis, LNG prices will be far below present European and Asia gas import prices and will surely and certainly force down global gas prices. Arab suppliers of LNG such as Qatar will have no dominance in the coming global LNG supply system and will be price-takers, due to the vast size of new stranded gas resources discovered and proven in countries such as Mozambique, Tanzania, west African states, Australia and Brazil, as well as the eastern Mediterranean “new gas” countries. Gas shortage does not exist.

Pipelines (and Gas) the World Doesn’t Need

 Energy resource shortage in Europe is decreasingly on the menu, and hard to defend under any rational study of European regional, west Asian, MENA (Middle East and North Africa), African and world energy resource potentials. The former dominance of oil from Arab states, and gas from Russia was in any case the focus of European Commission and member state energy policies – with the target of diversifying energy sources and supply sources – since the 1960s and has continued and intensified ever since. The current supposed “CO2 based” clean energy policies of the Commission, enacted as energy law in the member states since June 2009 (but in no way cast in stone) only push the quest for energy independence further. These long-term policies, concerning gas, have been responsible for the massive growth of pipeline gas capacity to Europe – which is now accompanied by the massive growth of LNG import terminal capacity, to feed national based gas pipelines, all of which are interconnected in continental Europe.

Washington self-styled White Witch, Hillary Clinton, is working overtime to try and dislodge the Assad dynasty from power in Syria.

Related to the Syrian regime change experiment, or simply the grisly end of a Mafia-type Arab dictatorship, getting rid of el-Assad is in no rational way the signal for yet another, one more, high cost natural gas pipeline linking West Asia and Europe – this would certainly be one more underutilized or even useless pipeline! Taking overpriced Qatari gas, by pipeline, is for the least eccentric: Qatar is able to export LNG to Europe at high prices, already. The real interest is to force Qatar to cut its prices – which will happen, however many football teams and luxury hotels the “western-friendly” Qataris can buy to curry favour with European political, media and corporate elites. The claim that the only “realistic way” that EU governments, from Germany to France to Italy to Spain, will be able to meet EU mandated CO2 reduction targets by 2020 is a major shift to burning gas instead of coal, is also unreal on technical grounds. This claim ignores the complex realities of EU27 energy, and world energy - especially fast-evolving technology in power generation. Heavily criticised by the Greens and Climate Crazies, Germany’s decision to build more coal-fired power plants takes no account of the Syrian situation, but pays plenty of attention to the fact that even if gas-fired power plants can reduce CO2 emissions by 50-60% over conventional coal-fired plants, they are distanced in CO2 reduction performance by new generation clean coal plants, like IGCC power plants developed and built, in Germany - by Siemens. Replacing old coal-fired facilities with IGCC technologies can reduce Germany’s current coal power related CO2 emissions by 40 million tons per year for the same amount of power supply (about 46% of total German power supply). For the US, Siemens pitches “clean coal” as follows. German hard coal resources, notably in the Ruhr basin, are now a highly politicised issue also confused by technology issues – especially concerning in situ underground gasification by fracking, extending to much greater depths than economically extractable “physical coal”. Even in IGCC power plants “physical coal” would emit as much, or more CO2 per unit kWh of electric power generated as gas-fired plants using gasified coal, making coal gasification a major focus of German energy R&D. Resource estimates for German remaining coal reserves range from as high as 75 to 100 billion tons coal equivalent, to less than 500 million tons, due to the politicised spin – very like the “imaginative” estimates of recoverable oil reserves in Arab countries of the Middle East, which always increase, on paper, at any time of geopolitical stress like the present.

Similar politicised and radical variations of coal reserve estimates apply to Poland’s USB, Ukraine’s Donbass and Russia’s western coalfields. Under any rational scenario however, these European coal resources could cover 350 – 500 years of current European and Russian coal needs.

The need for any kind of energy transported across Syria’s frontiers – either oil or gas – is zero in Europe. We should ask here that Washington and London’s brain-trust take note then, and think about ceasing to promote a bankrupt drive to break yet another nation state – and for the wrong reasons, whilst risking wider regional instability through their own reckless efforts.

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Filed Under: 2012, Africa, America, Arab Spring, Economy, Energy, IMF, International News, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Trends, Turkey, UK Politics, Uncategorized, United Nations, US Politics, WAR ON TERROR, World Bank, WORLD NEWS Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Strange Bedfellows: How the U.S. and Egypt control the destiny of the region

March 20, 2012 By 1 Comment
Patrick Henningsen 21st Century Wire March 20, 2012 For the past five decades, the CIA has enjoyed near total anonymity whilst operating behind a web of international shell companies and NGOs like USAID. In the 21st century, the agency has come to rely on a much more complex array of ‘human rights’ and  ‘pro-democracy’ foundation-funded and US State Department-funded organizations around the globe like the National Endowment for Democracy, CANVAS and the Open Society Institute. But keeping its influence peddling and regime change activities hidden from the public view has become increasingly difficult in the age of digital awareness. Perhaps the foreign intelligence services have spread themselves too thin across the globe, or overestimated the public’s ability see through an increasingly transparent agenda. Or maybe this new revolution business has become too well-funded, with too many high-flying international consultants, and has tried too hard to look trendy in staging pop political campaigns like KONY 2012 - making it harder and harder to conceal their not-so-clandestine activities. Obama’s latest move sent a clear message to Washington’s New World Order partners: provided American operatives overseas are not harmed, Washington does not care all that much about human rights, and even less about its local NGO Arab operatives – like all those Arab NGO workers hung out to dry in Cairo this month. Present and future non-US NGO workers might take note here - as working for US-funded democracy and human rights programs in places like Egypt will not guarantee you any protection should you organization come under fire for spying. Egypt remains as the Middle East’s most populated country, and most strategically placed – controlling the Suez Canal, and bordering neighbors Israel, Sudan and Libya. Unfortunately for Washington, Egypt’s military junta have quickly figured out how the US is always able to play both sides of the geopolitical game. Realizing that they had served their purpose in helping to secure Libya for NATO, Egypt knew it may soon fall fast out of favor with their paymasters in Washington, perhaps with yet another western-backed ‘Arab Spring’ at some point in the near future. Meanwhile, thousands of real pro-reform Egyptian protestors were literally beaten to death by Cairo’s brutal military junta. On December 27, 2011, Washington’s favored Egyptian military ruling government did the unthinkable - raiding 17 NGO’s in Cairo, many of which were arguably under the CIA’s cloak and dagger regime change workshop umbrella. The raids included the State Department-funded National Democratic Institute (NDI) founded by Madeleine Albright, and the International Republican Institute (IRI), headed by regime change enthusiast John McCain. Cairo’s surprise spook-house raid sent shockwaves through US State Department, as administrators led by Hillary Clinton decried the move “completely unacceptable”, not because it had anything specifically to hide (interestingly, we do not recall Clinton actually denying that spying was going on in Cairo), but because Egypt is the US’s second largest recipient of US military aid in the world - with annual military gift vouchers totally approximately $1.5 billion per annum – mostly for military hardware. In reality there is no real relationship between US foreign aid and the pro-democracy traits of its winning contestants. The Obama administration quickly reconsidered its previously stern position with Egypt over the NGO raids, going ahead with full military aid to Egypt. It’s hard to imagine another scenario that could do more damage to U.S. and British intelligence operations in the Middle East. Clinton was even forced to issue a “national security waiver” exempting the White House from explaining to Congress why Egypt is not “implementing policies to protect freedom of expression, association, and religion, and due process of law”, yet still collecting its billions in US aid. Although Egyptian courts lifted their travel ban on all American espionage suspects on March 1, 2012, criminal trials are still due to resume this April 10th against Egyptian NGO workers. NGO’s under the gun are the NDI, the IRI and of course, George Soros’s Freedom House, along with some 400 other NGOs also under official investigation. Egypt played its role in bringing down Libya During the fabled Arab Spring in 2011, Washington and London were under a very tight time table because of what was going on next door in Libya and needed a partner they could rely on. In order for NATO’s al-Qaida rebel forces, the Egyptian military junta obediently smuggled arms and al-Qaeda fighters over their western border into eastern Libya to help overthrow the regime of the late Col. Muammar Gaddafi. The Wall Street Journal report confirmed this on March 17, 2011: “Egypt’s military has begun shipping arms over the border to Libyan rebels with Washington’s knowledge, U.S. and Libyan rebel officials said… … The shipments-mostly small arms such as assault rifles and ammunition-appear to be the first confirmed case of an outside government arming the rebel fighters. Those fighters have been losing ground for days in the face of a steady westward advance by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.” Good for US: Christian persecuted in Egypt and the wider region Myth: Because of evangelical pro-Israel right-wing voters, Washington will care deeply about the mistreatment of Christians in the Middle East and East Africa. And here’s the point: once you get past the myth of the fabled Arab Spring, you quickly realize that it’s common practice now for Washington’s illustrious State Department and London’s Foreign Office to back Islamist governments throughout the region, along with the usual protocol of partnerships for dictatorships and monarchies throughout the Middle East.  Christians are being targeted in what looks like obvious provocateur events against the Copts in Egypt, and Orthodox Christians in Sudan, Syria, Iraq and Turkey – and Washington appears not to care at all. Why? Obama’s ignorance of Christian persecution is no mere political omission – it is the policy of Washington. Don’t think for one second that if a Mitt Romney were to take office in January 2013, this policy would change at all. For Washington and London, Islamist governments, with their bent towards theocracies – unlike Christian secularists, are much easier to manipulated and play against neighboring nations. Washington and the CIA’s real priorites in the region are aligned with a policy of destabilization, namely Israel and backing Islamist regimes. Where the US wants stabilty, it will back Monarchies and Dictators – as is the case with the Gulf States and Egypt’s military junta.  This also feeds into Washington and London’s strategy of surrounding the settler state Israel with Islamist regimes, thus furthering the old mantra that ‘Israel needs to defend itself’, and that is ’a clash of civilizations’ between east and west, and ensuring conflict for the next 50 years. For this very reason, it is a top priority of engineers in Washington and London to bring down the secular/multi-religious society led by President Assad in Syria. The goal is destabilization and this simply cannot happen with a solid secular regime in place there. The same observation should be applied to Libya too, and the results speak for themselves now as the al-Qaida’s own Jolly Roger is flying over Benghazi.  Although GOP mouthpieces like Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney speak about the horrors of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the reality is that this islamist group was created and is mostly steered by the British intelligences agencies who work in concert with the CIA. A classic case of controlled oppostion dating back to the the 1920′s – but still, US politicians name-drop ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ in order to scare Americans about the horrors of Islamic extremism and what a threat they pose to Israel. Egypt is, and always has been the central choke-point in the Middle East, and no matter if it’s a brutal military junta or a pedestrian dictator- democracy matters little to Washington. The military aid will continue to flow and real reformers will continue to be killed and imprisioned there. And when placed under pressure, the US will throw all its Egyptian intelligence assets under the bus – and still send Cairo its $1.5 billion cheque. Alas, strange bedfellows these two countries do make. facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterest
Filed Under: 2012, 2012 Election, Arab Spring, BREAKING NEWS, Egypt, International News, Israel, Libya, Obama, United Nations, US Politics, WORLD NEWS Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

SO WHAT IS ACTUALLY GOING ON IN SYRIA?

November 26, 2011 By 43 Comments
21st Century Wire November 26, 2011 Patrick Henningsen, a political analyst from the US-based Infowars.com online magazine and Editor of 21st Century Wire, believes that the escalation of tensions over Syria between the world’s major powers may lead to a new chilling in world politics.
“I think we are going to see a new Cold War emerge in the next two years, and we are seeing the initial steps of that new Cold War right now,” he told RT.
Another chief concern is Russia’s close military co-operation with Syria – with reports of S-300 missile defense installations having been supplied from Moscow. Henningsen adds here:
“If the Western powers think they are going to get away with a no-fly zone in Syria, this is a very different prospect than Libya. This will be the first time, in Syria, and also, if you look forward – with Iran, that the West, actually, is engaging a country that has the ability to fight back”.
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While Blood Flows, Arab League Call Their Meeting In Cairo To Discuss… Syria?

November 25, 2011 By 3 Comments
By Patrick Henningsen 21st Century Wire November 25, 2011 If anyone has any doubts as to how out of touch the Arab League is with regards to Arab events, they only have to digest this twisted piece of theater taking place in Cairo. Members of the Arab League scheduled an emergency meeting today in Cairo, Egypt to work out what exactly they ‘must do about Syria’ – while outside of their conference (in Egypt, the world’s largest Arab country), a shamelessly violent US-backed military junta continues to crack the heads of genuine unarmed protesters in Tahrir Square. Meanwhile, no harsh words from Hillary Clinton, no democracy speeches from Obama, and certainly no condemnation from the Arab League – most of whom run military-style dictatorships back in their respective countries. Certainly, US puppet Bahrain can shoot who it wishes in its streets, and you will hear nothing from the Arab League. And certainly, not a peep from the UN. The Arab League has now publicly adopted the official Western propaganda line for this latest contrived stage of a so-called “humanitarian crisis” in Syria, claiming that President Bashar al-Assad has refused to end a ‘brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters’ in his country. The irony here is only eclipsed by the hypocricy of the pro-American Arab League. As Syria struggles to maintain order with CIA and MI6-backed armed rebels running wild inside its own borders, Egypt’s unelected military regime have murdered 35 and seriously injured over 1,500 of its own unarmed citizens protesting the military’s illegal occupation of the country’s civilian government. In addition, Syria’s own neighbor Turkey are hosting a 15,000-strong force of  paramilitary insurgents called the “Free Syria Army” over Syria’s Turkish border. This confirms the existence of an armed force operating with the covert approval of the Turkish government, and follows evidence that their attacks inside of Syria are placing Syrian security forces into body bags. Any US, UK, French or Israeli support of this armed insurrection is a clear violation of international law, and as is the case for Libya, this should be viewed as a crime against humanity. But do not expect the UN to raise any objections here. Somehow, the hypocrisy does not seem to bother Arab Leaguers, as Egyptian blood runs through the streets of Cairo. Instead, the Arab League stick to Washington, London and Tel Aviv’s agenda for Syria of economic sanctions, a No-Fly Zone and of course, regime change. While Syria fights against a western-backed civil war in its own country, the UN are no where to be found – a sad international situation which brings back memories of another useless international ‘league’ – The League of Nations, founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. During Hitler’s rise to military dominance, the League aptly stood by and did nothing as Germnay’s aggressive war machine marched eastward through Czechoslovakia, and later Poland in the early days of WWII. The result was the that feeble nature of the League of Nations was exposed on a global stage. Historically, the parallels between the reasons for the League’s collapse and today’s castration of the United Nations in New York have never been so stark:
On 23 June 1936, in the wake of the collapse of League efforts to restrain Italy’s war against Abyssinia, British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin told the House of Commons that collective security had…
“failed ultimately because of the reluctance of nearly all the nations in Europe to proceed to what I might call military sanctions … The real reason, or the main reason, was that we discovered in the process of weeks that there was no country except the aggressor country which was ready for war … [I]f collective action is to be a reality and not merely a thing to be talked about, it means not only that every country is to be ready for war; but must be ready to go to war at once. That is a terrible thing, but it is an essential part of collective security.”
. Ultimately, Britain and France both abandoned the concept of collective security in favour of appeasement in the face of growing German militarism under Hitler.
In 2011, and under the cloak of UN Resolution 1973, the recent illegal war and destruction of sovereign state Libya by Western Axis powers and their NATO military coalition, demonstrated the same policy of appeasement by UN member states towards the ambitions of the US, Britain, France, Italy and Israel – whose joint strike led to the dismembering of the Libyan state and its government. Following the war, Western nations have shamelessly moved in to carve up Libya’s state assets and bolster its new unelected government. Recent reports of the detention of 7,000 people in prisons and camps by the anti-Gaddafi forces, along with hundreds of reports of brutal rape, torture and extrajudicial assassination by NATO-backed Libyan rebels – all met with a deafening silence from the UN – as it was indeed complicit in the looting and raping of Libya by the West under the cynical disguise of “humanitarian intervention”. UN member states will normally stand back, preferring not to challenge the US and partner Israel, for fear of economic and political reprisals. This policy of economic and political retribution was demonstrated recently as the US threatened the withdraw the funding for the UN’s own UNESCO branch following a successful application for international recognition via UNESCO membership by fledgling state Palestine. Ultimately, the US retains control over the UN, because the US pays for most it, as well as hosts UN operations. This fact alone nearly compromises the entire institution. Following the US lead, Israel proceeded to pile on additional punitive measures against Palestine, threatening to build an additional 2,000 settler homes and freeze the transfer of Palestinian tax funds – all for joining UNESCO. Despite the open corruption and illegal coercion present through the Palestine debacle, once again, the UN and its member states remained mostly silent – further proof of the non functionality of the UN. Those who did voice an objection, would never be able to back it up with any real action, as the issue becomes swallowed into the UN’s internal politics and its impressive multi-billion dollar bureaucracy. The Arab League has shown itself to be nothing more than a passive functionary of US and NATO nation interests in the Middle East, and the UN has become nothing more than a newLeague of Nations, and acts a passive functionary of US and its partners. Unfortunately for the Syrians – as it was for Libya, regime change in Syria and the carving up of that country’s resources and national assets are a high priority now for the US and its Axis powers. And nothing can stop them, save for another powerful nation intervening on Syria’s behalf. Certainly, the UN will not do anything this time but flash a green light as it did with Libya, making the UN one of the biggest obstacles to international justice and  material accomplice to injustice the world has ever seen. The Arab League and the UN are simply two bad apples of the same bunch, and both need to exit from the world stage sooner than later. The Syrian affair is just the latest in a string of UN-sponsored, Western regime change and economic rape project by the West – nothing more. Meanwhile real reformers are beaten to death in Cairo, right in front of our eyes. -facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterest
Filed Under: Arab Spring, BREAKING NEWS, Syria, Uncategorized, WORLD NEWS Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A US-Backed Military Junta in Egypt Was Always The Plan

November 24, 2011 By 3 Comments
By Patrick Henningsen 21st Century Wire November 24, 2011 This week has seen round two take place in Egypt between the ruling elite and public reformers, as protests converged once again on Cairo’s central Tahrir Square. But this time, there will be no help on the way from the beacons of democracy in the west. As thousands of Egyptians camped out on the square, military police were determined to exhibit the same show of force that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has demonstrated his Zuccotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street activists have been intimidated, beaten and pepper sprayed by law enforcement. On state television yesterday Egypt’s military cited heavy US police action against the Occupy Wall Street movement across America in order to justify their own bloody suppression. Rather ironic. Clearly let down by the broken promises of their Arab Spring, anti-government demonstrators in Egypt are now calling for a ‘million-man march’ after being met with a violent government crack-down which has already claimed 33 lives and over 1,500 injured, with a steady stream of injured being carried out by motorcycle or on the backs of other protesters to field hospitals set up by volunteer doctors near Tahrir Square. But Egypt’s military junta is not flinching this time – especially after recently receiving the blessing and full backing of President Barack Obama and US Government to carry on and squash any and all domestic unrest. Watch this shocking video of the junta’s violence towards demonstrators: US investigative journalist Ralph Schoenman explained during his interview with Press TV today the relationship between Egypt’s ruling military junta and Washington DC. Schoenman states, ”The relationship between the US and the SCAF – the Supreme Council Armed Forces – is that of the imperial sponsor and sustainer relying upon the Supreme Council Armed Forces to maintain not merely the dictatorship, but the oligarchy in power; the protection of capitalism in Egypt on the part of the tiny oligarchy that has usurped all financial, economic and political power for itself.” Exactly 11 months ago, the world watched as a seemingly organic movement arose in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, calling for the downfall of Egypt’s stalwart US puppet, Hosni Mubarek. It succeeded in capturing the imagination of the world. In terms of a real revolution however – or real progress, Egypt’s own Arab Spring was nothing more the a cruel, staged event used as political leverage by the west in order to shatter the prospect of real reform in Egypt, and also to topple a series of US-non-friendly regimes in the wider Middle East region. Egypt’s transition last spring was no more than a progression of United States and Israeli long-range foreign policies and corporate goals for the region, and for whatever reasons –one which no longer required the services of President Hosni Mubarek. New moves on the grand chessboard have been happening between Egypt, Israel, and Jordan, as well as regime change projects to the west in Libya – meaning that the US-UK-Israeli axis powers would require a much stronger police state in Egypt, acheivable only through a solid military dictatorship there. In terms of geopolitical and economic power in the 21st century, controlling the supply and delivery of energy, particularly gas, has emerged as a key component for establishing dominance in any region. In Washington’s eyes, corporate interests will always trump issues of democratic reform. Currently, Egypt supplies roughly 40 percent of Israel’s natural gas, and neighboring Jordan depends on Egyptian gas to generate 80 percent of the Kingdom’s electricity, all through Egypt’s East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG) and its Arish–Ashkelon pipeline. It turns out that EMG is controlled by a US-Israeli holding company called the Ampal-American Israel Corporation (AAIC). The firm also has regional holdings in chemicals, telecommunications, real estate and leisure. Four partnering Israeli firms initially signed 20-year contracts worth up to $10 billion dollars to import Egyptian gas, but a series of sabotage incidents have disrupted the pipeline causing Moody’s to downgrade AAIC’s debenture rating, a condition which could be stifling investment into the gas firm’s major capital infrastructural projects. Not surprisingly, this joint venture has been opposed by the various cadres of opposition in Egypt, most notably the Muslim Brotherhood, who called for Cairo to revoke the US-Israeli gas deal, as far back as 2008. What any off-shore corporate giant requires when setting up shop overseas is corporate stability,coupled with zero social dissent in the region. To be sure, the best tried and tested stable interface for the international globalist corporation has always been an unelected military dictatorship, and Egypt has delivered exactly this to her benefactors in American, Israel and the Jordan. All Egypt’s military government requires out this arrangement is its annual $4 billion in US military aid, as well as pay-offs from the corporation to key members of the Egyptian military junta. Similarly, Libya’s unelected National Transitional Council was appointed by the US, Great Britain, Israel and France early in 2011, in order to prepare the country for a complete globalist takeover and the complete privatisation of the country’s industries, resources and assets. This type of nation-building was clearly the case in Iraq, and may soon ring true for both Syria and Iran. The mainstream media’s global brainwashing operation was a success in terms of framing the 2011 Arab Spring as genuine grass roots event, spreading freedom across the lands. Even today, many Occupy Wall Street supports and participants credit the legendary Arab Spring as the pretext for popular uprisings in Spain, and eventually in USA and Europe. In this case, and once again, people have allowed the Establishments power players and clandestine foundations to dictate a popular version of history. The genius in this globalist technique of social engineering to allow protesters to believe that it was they themselves, who designed and executed these recent waves of popular dissent. US journalist Schoenman added here, ”That is what the basic dynamic is – namely to prevent the revolution unfolding in Egypt from actually transforming Egyptian society”. Caught in this web of deception, ordinary citizens on the ground are then left to blame, and fight with each other when the story does not conclude with a happy ending – totally unaware that their political destinies have already been written ahead of time by government departments, think tanks and foundations, mainly in the US and Great Britain. We now that it was not Egyptian and Tunisian students working in a political vacuum, but the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), a professional consultancy, who took  students from the Middle East and trained them overseas as early back as 2009. CANVAS are still touting their recent role in working with Egyptian and Tunisian protesters, after teaching them the skills that helped bring down their presidents and spark regional revolt. There are also reports of CANVAS activity during the early days of Occupy Wall Street, including a video of CANVAS founder Ivan Marovic, himself addressing the OWS General Assembly. Formerly known as OPTOR!, and known for its role in bringing down the Milosevic regime in the former Yugoslavia, CANVAS is part-funded and supported by a number of ‘pro-democracy’ foundations, with links to George Soros’s Freedom House and Open Society Institute, as well as CIA-linked National Endowment for Democracy and USAID. Although mostly hidden from the public eye, these globalist foundations, professional think tanks and NGOs undertake research, host training seminars, and supply material which are then used to influence regime change all over the world. Theirs is the venue of choice for activities that cannot officially be conducted on the government clock. By the time it’s all said and done, the death toll in Egypt could reach to the hundreds, or thousands? The truth is, Washington and the UN are not interested in the people of Egypt anymore than they are genuinely interested in the Occupy Wall Street protesters who have been beaten out and pepper sprayed out of New York’s Zuccotti Park. These people simply do not represent enough $dollar signs – or business opportunity – to matter for Washington and the UN. The US-led rhetoric regarding freedom and democracy in Egypt was – and still is, a complete hoax. Egypt knows this now but sadly, the last people to ever figure this fact out will be the people in the US and Europe, blinded by ideals they still believe they have. -facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterest
Filed Under: 2012, Arab Spring, BREAKING NEWS, Egypt, United Nations, WORLD NEWS Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Washington’s agenda revealed: NTC rebels asking NATO to ‘stay in Libya’

October 28, 2011 By 3 Comments
Patrick Henningsen 21st Century Wire October 28, 2011 It seems that Libya’s US-backed Rebels don’t quite possess the stomach for regime change that their bosses in Washington DC and London have. The west’s new vichy-style government in Libya, aka the ‘National Transitional Council’ (NTC) have now asked NATO to stay until 2012, this allegedly in order ‘to stop Gaddafi loyalists fleeing’. It’s more likely, however, that the rebels are fearing reprisals from the thousands of innocent Libyans who have been maimed, raped and whose family members have been killed in the name of NATO’s liberation of Libya. The list of atrocities done in their name seems to be endless, with new reports of Rebel mass graves and executions coming out daily. Of course, nothing defines NTC’s barbaric nature better than the brutal execution of Moammar Gaddafi, beaten and shot to death, along with members of his family in Sirte. Yes, these are the violent animals that US President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and British PM David Cameron have backed and fought alongside of in the war for Libya’s riches. Call it mission creep, or call it 21st century imperialism, but it’s very easy to gather from this latest move that the NTC were never stable enough to facilitate numerous US and European multinational companies who are currently being lined up for hundreds of new ‘reconstruction projects’ and contracts in the country.

NATO and US have long-range plans for Libya

Far from being in control of the country and able to govern, it appears that NATO’s NTC rag-tag band of international al-Qaida mercenaries and tribal paramilitary gangs do not have anything near a mandate by the people to rule Libya, as western TV audiences have been led to believe for the last 9 months. The London Guardian reported this week on this latest bombshell, announced at a meeting with the US brokered military alliance in Qatar on Wednesday, where  NTC interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil announced:
“We look forward to Nato continuing its operations until the end of the year,” said Jalil, adding that stopping the flight of Gaddafi supporters to other countries was a priority. “We seek technical and logistics help from neighbouring and friendly countries,” 
Among other illegalities which contravene the UN’s flimsy Resolution 1973, which only allowed for a no-fly zone over Libya, Qatar stood in for the US as far back as March 2011, when it recognised the NTC as the legitimate authority in Libya. Writing its own rules, Qatar then went ahead to supply NATO-Rebel fighters with military provisions, heavy weaponry and more than $400m (£250m) in cash towards regime change. Worse yet, it was revealed today that the Qatari government has provided boots on the ground in support of the US and NATO’s plan for regime change in Libya. According to Ahram Online:
For the first time, Qatar reveals that it had soldiers on the ground across Libya assisting in the fight against Gaddafi’s regime, with the country to play a major role in integrating the rebels into the Libyan military… “We were among them and the numbers of Qataris on the ground were hundreds in every region,” said Qatari chief of staff Major General Hamad bin Ali Al-Atiya.
Under international law, this move by long-time US puppet Qatar is a flagrant violation of UN 1973, and other international laws, a crime of opportunity which should place Qatar firmly in international court. The US agenda in Libya was always to exact regime change- but without getting its hands dirty by being caught in public with troops on the ground. In this twisted operation, it assigned the job of fall guy to its chief partner in the Middle East, Qatar. But now it appears that the US and Britain are both reported to have had special forces troops on the ground in Libya in the run-up to Gaddafi’s assassination last week. Israeli intelligence news service DEBKA quoted US sources who admit that American drones kept Gaddafi’s home in Sirte under surveillance, while it was surrounded by US and British forces.
American sources are willing to admit that US drones operated by pilots from Las Vegas pinpointed the fugitive ruler’s hideout in Sirte and kept the building under surveillance for two weeks, surrounded by US and British forces. Both therefore had boots on the ground in breach of the UN mandate which limited NATO military intervention in Libya to air strikes.
In addition, US emirate puppet Qatar put its hands in the cookie jar very early on, providing the marketing and facilitating the selling of rebel-controlled Libyan oil exports beginning in March - oil which, under Gaddafi, was used to pay government salaries and state benefits on which most families depend. That system is now in chaos, as NTC Rebels and assorted western companies scramble to carve up the country’s state-owned assets and natural resources. The UK was then next to join in the party, when on Oct 4th, independent oil and gas explorer Heritage Oil became the first foreign firm to pump Libyan oil thanks to its acquisition of a Benghazi-based oil company. Qatar has stated yesterday that it will remain in Libya as the US proxy. Military commander Atiya said yesterday, that following the eventual departure of NATO troops in 2012, a new “international coalition”, led by Qatar would oversee “military training, collecting weapons, and integrating the rebels in newly established military institutions.” What is not mentioned here, is that any Qatari military operation will be accompanied by its numerous US advisers, as well as US military equipment, and CIA intelligence support. And so it begins. “The liberation of Libya”, to be divided up by a series of multinational companies, along with a permanent attachment of US and European military specialists. In a few months time, internal struggles will be rife and naturally, NATO will still be there- along with UN blue helmets. Whatever is left of the original NTC and their CIA contracted al-Qaida freedom fighters, will likely have ripped each other to pieces fighting over the scraps of wealth that are left by the US, Europe and Qatar. Surprised? This writer is not, as it was easily predicted on Oct 4th that NATO would be staying in Libya, and that there would be boots on the ground in 2012: By that time, all the horrors and atrocities which have been carried out by NATO and its Rebels will have been flushed out, and with any luck, people in the west might realize who brought real brutality and tragedy to the country of Libya. Let the rebuilding commence.facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterest
Filed Under: America, BREAKING NEWS, Libya, NATO, United Nations, US Politics, WORLD NEWS Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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