Gas Games In The Eastern Mediterranean Are Threatening Europe

admin

The European Commission is offering European consumers the so-called Southern Gas Corridor, which provides for the supply, in particular, of Azerbaijani and Central Asian gas along the Turkey – Greece – Italy route. The project’s potential participants have their own interests, however, and are divided by long-standing antagonisms that are turning the corridor into a military and political delayed-action mine.
***
Turkey, which is traditionally reluctant to play by the European Union’s rules, is playing a particular role here. Ankara’s plans to build an Israel – Turkey pipeline are being superimposed on the desire of the Turkish elite to occupy key positions in the development of offshore natural gas fields in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, primarily around Cyprus. These plans are unleashing a whole host of problems between Cyprus, Greece and Turkey, while, at the same time, affecting the interests of Israel, as well as Egypt and Libya, which are claiming their rights to the continental shelf. The world’s leading oil and gas companies are also pursuing their own economic objectives in the region, the most active of which are the French company Total and the Italian company ENI.
The current focus of contention is the offshore Block 11, situated in the territorial waters of Cyprus. Turkey, which is also speaking on behalf of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, has already sent a frigate, TCG Gkeada, to the region. The frigate’s commander has been ordered to use whatever measures necessary to counteract ‘undesirable’ activity around the continental shelf. But any actions by Nicosia and Athens in support could be deemed ‘undesirable’, since Turkey’s official position is that all the gas resources on Cyprus’ continental shelf belong not only to the Greek Cypriots, but also to the Turkish Cypriots. And by the latter is meant the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Aug 28, 2017.

FacebookTwitterRedditPinterestLinkedInWhatsAppEmail

TRUMP IS REVERSING THE BAN ON MILITARY GEAR FOR POLICE

admin

Concern about the increasing police state was ramped up when word spread that the Trump administration is going to reverse the ban on the transfer of surplus military gear to the police.
The new plan, outlined in documents obtained by USA Today, would roll back an Obama administration executive order that blocked armored vehicles, large-caliber weapons, ammunition, and other heavy equipment from being repurposed from foreign battlefields and used on America’s streets. A military and battlefield type response by the police in St. Louis three years ago after rioting prompted the ban.
But executive orders are fairly easily undone, and Donald Trump is planning to do just that. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is scheduled to address the annual meeting of the Fraternal Order of Police, the nation’s largest police union, and he will likely outline the program changes there later today. Sessions is onboard with a militarized police force to take out drug users and steal more money from civilians through the controversial civil asset forfeiture program.

This post was published at The Daily Sheeple on AUGUST 28, 2017.

FacebookTwitterRedditPinterestLinkedInWhatsAppEmail

India And China Agree To “Disengage Troops” Along Disputed Border Area

admin

On Monday morning, the world had one less geopolitical hotspot to worry about, when following months of escalating verbal jawboning and explicit threats on both sides, India agreed with China to disengage at the contested territorial dispute face-off site in Doklam. India’s foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar tweeted on Monday that disengagement of border personnel at the ‘face-off site at Doklam’ has been agreed to and is on-going, with China confirming that India had pulled its troops from the Chinese side of a disputed Himalayan border area on Monday afternoon, after a months-long stand-off which started in June.
The de-escalation started earlier on Monday when India’s foreign ministry said it had agreed with China to an “expeditious disengagement” of troops from the Doklam plateau, an area close to the borders of China, India and Bhutan, SCMP reports.
‘In recent weeks, India and China have maintained diplomatic communication in respect of the incident at Doklam,’ India’s Ministry of External Affairs said. ‘On this basis, expeditious disengagement of border personnel at the face-off site at Doklam has been agreed to and is ongoing.’

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Aug 28, 2017.

FacebookTwitterRedditPinterestLinkedInWhatsAppEmail

Journalist Interrogated, Fired For Story Linking CIA And Syria Weapons Flights

admin

A months-long investigation which tracked and exposed a massive covert weapons shipment network to terror groups in Syria via diplomatic flights originating in the Caucuses and Eastern Europe under the watch of the CIA and other intelligence agencies has resulted in the interrogation and firing of the Bulgarian journalist who first broke the story. This comes as the original report is finally breaking into mainstream international coverage.
Investigative reporter Dilyana Gaytandzhieva authored a bombshell report for Trud Newspaper, based in Sofia, Bulgaria, which found that an Azerbaijan state airline company was regularly transporting tons of weaponry to Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Turkey under diplomatic cover as part of the CIA covert program to supply anti-Assad fighters in Syria. Those weapons, Gaytandzhieva found, ended up in the hands of ISIS and al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq and Syria.
While it’s long been understood that the US-Gulf-NATO coalition arming rebels inside Syria facilitated the rapid rise of the Islamic State as the group had steady access to a “jihadi Wal-Mart” of weapons (in the words of one former spy and British diplomat), the Trud Newspaper report is the first to provide exhaustive documentation detailing the precise logistical chain of the weapons as they flowed from their country of origin to the battlefield in Syria and Iraq. Gaytandzhieva even traveled to Aleppo where she filmed and examined labeled weapons shipping containers held in underground jihadist storehouses.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Aug 28, 2017.

FacebookTwitterRedditPinterestLinkedInWhatsAppEmail

YouTube “Economically Censors” Ron Paul, Labels Videos “Not Suitable” For All Advertisers

admin

Former US Congressman Ron Paul has joined a growing list of independent political journalists and commentators who’re being economically punished by YouTube despite producing videos that routinely receive hundreds of thousands of views.
In a tweet published Saturday, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange tweeted a screenshot of Paul’s ‘Liberty Report’ page showing that his videos had been labeled ‘not suitable’ for all advertisers by YouTube’s content arbiters.
YouTube economically censors former presidential candidate @RonPaul for criticizing U. S. foreign policy on Afghanistan and WikiLeaks. pic.twitter.com/AnC88rZkhO
— Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) August 26, 2017

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Aug 27, 2017.

FacebookTwitterRedditPinterestLinkedInWhatsAppEmail

Ep. 984 Strength Trainer Mark Rippetoe on Fitness, Government, and Entrepreneurship

admin

By popular demand, popular (and iconoclastic) strength trainer Mark Rippetoe joins me to discuss strength training and fitness (and what so many people get wrong), as well as his libertarian views – and how it all meshes together.
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

This post was published at The Tom Woods Show on 25th August 2017.

FacebookTwitterRedditPinterestLinkedInWhatsAppEmail

Tillerson Out? “Frustrated” Trump “Fed Up” With Secretary Of State: Axios

admin

After North Korea launched three more short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea early on Saturday morning, local time, political observers were eagerly looking forward to Trump’s response, especially since the president had managed to get boxed in by Kim Jong Un: on one hand, do nothing and be mocked and ridiculed not only by the North Korean press, but by the rest of the developed world, whose view of Trump’s diplomatic skills could hardly be any worse; or on the other hand, launch a military campaign, either surgical or broad, and risk a retaliation against South Korea and millions of US allies dying.
In the end the US appears to have chosen the former and on Sunday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the firing of three ballistic missiles by North Korea this week was a provocative act but that the United States will continue to seek a peaceful resolution. The de-escalating tone took place just days after Tillerson credited the North with showing some restraint by not launching a missile since the ICBM test in July, and he had expressed hope that the easing of tension could lead to dialogue. That was not meant to be, although in it appears that what happened next is North Korea called the US bluff, and the US folded.

‘We do view it as a provocative act against the United States and our allies,’ Tillerson said in an interview on Fox News Sunday. ‘We’re going to continue our peaceful pressure campaign as I have described it, working with allies, working with China as well to see if we can bring the regime in Pyongyang to the negotiating table.’


This post was published at Zero Hedge on Aug 27, 2017.

FacebookTwitterRedditPinterestLinkedInWhatsAppEmail