Puppet MastersS


Blackbox

Now that Uzbekistan's Islam Karimov is dead, China's LNG imports could be threatened

Islam Karimov
The death of Islam Karimov could throw Uzbekistan into a succession crisis, undermining stability, emboldening terrorists, and threatening the New Silk Road.

Following reports of a stroke, a global guessing game has ensued, with observers uncertain as to the status of Uzbekistan's president, Islam Karimov. While rumours of his death have been circulated by the opposition, the government has made no announcement one way or the other. Competing claims put Karimov's time of death sometime between last Thursday and Monday. Alternatively, his daughter thanked well-wishers, stating on Wednesday that Karimov was recovering.


Comment: He is confirmed to have died: Uzbekistan President Karimov dies after 27 years of rule


The uncertainty surrounding the president is par for the course for Uzbekistan, which Karimov has ruled with the aid of a personality cult since 1989. Consequently, as Uzbekistan seeks to mark 25 years of independence, the country's celebrations are overshadowed by Karimov's nebulous condition. The country has only known one leader, and as such his demise raises serious questions about the state's trajectory and sustainability.

Deirdre Tynan, Central Asia project director for International Crisis Group sums up the situation in which Uzbekistan finds itself: "this is a huge test, one that has been anticipated for some time. But if Uzbekistan stumbles, if the transition turns to political chaos, the risk of violent conflict is high; and in a region as fragile as Central Asia, the risk of that spreading is also high."

Eye 1

Best of the Web: Pathology, incorporated: The facade of American democracy

Psychopaths Rule Our World
With the rigged Democratic presidential nomination behind us, the US election reality show continues. The mass media is creating sensations around what has become a national embarrassment with this contest of the lesser of the two crazies. On the one hand we have Donald Trump, depicted as a quintessential narcissist and on the other, Hillary Clinton who is often portrayed as a sociopath. Hype is created by putting these labels on the candidates, pitting one personality disorder against the other.

This is a corporate sponsored election charade doing business as usual and distracting people from the real power behind the veil. In The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profits and Power, filmmaker and law professor Joel Bakan (2004) examined the consistent character attributes of corporations and concludes that if they were a human, they are a textbook example of a psychopath.

Eye 2

Psychopathic mind: Behind RAND's US-China war plans

Chinese anti-missle systems
The RAND Corporation was commissioned to publish a report titled, "War with China: Thinking Through the Unthinkable," in which it describes its assessment of possible war between the US and China in the Pacific in both 2015 and in 2025.

The report's introduction summarized its findings, stating:
Premeditated war between the United States and China is very unlikely, but the danger that a mishandled crisis could trigger hostilities cannot be ignored. Thus, while neither state wants war, both states' militaries have plans to fight one. As Chinese anti-access and area-denial (A2AD) capabilities improve, the United States can no longer be so certain that war would follow its plan and lead to decisive victory. This analysis illuminates various paths a war with China could take and their possible consequences.
The report makes an attractive concession to possible Chinese politicians and business leaders (and their counterparts throughout the rest of Asia) who may read the report and be tempted to take it at face value, claiming that war with China, even today, would be costly for the US, and that the window of opportunity for a decisive victory over China will likely be closed come 2025.

Comment: Psychopathic think tank: RAND Corporation lays out scenarios for US war with China


Info

Thawing relations? Britain and Iran appoint ambassadors for first time since 2011

Nicholas Hopton
© TwitterNicholas Hopton
London has appointed an ambassador to Iran for the first time since 2011, when the British embassy in Tehran was stormed by students protesting against Western sanctions.

Britain named Nicholas Hopton, the current charge d'affaires in Tehran, as its ambassador to the Islamic Republic. Hopton has previously served as the British ambassador to Qatar and Yemen.

The move signals a continued thawing in diplomatic relations after Iran and the P5+1 group signed an historic deal curbing Iran's nuclear capabilities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

Iran has announced the appointment of Hamid Baeidinejad as the country's new envoy to London.

Attention

Geoeconomic significance of the G20 summit meeting in China

China's President Xi Jinping
© Damir Sagolj/Reuters China's President Xi Jinping speaks at a news conference after the closing of G20 Summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, September 5, 2016.
What has just taken place in Hangzhou, China, is of immense geoeconomic importance. Beijing from the start treated the G20 very seriously; this was designed as China's party, not the declining West's. And much less Washington's.

Outlining the agenda for the discussions, President Xi Jinping went straight to the point also geopolitically, as he set the tone: "The outdated Cold War mentality should be discarded. We urgently need to develop an inclusive, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable new security concept."

Compare it with Xi's so-called "four prescriptions" - "innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive" - necessary to re-boost the world economy.

Acting like the de facto World Statesman-in-Chief, Xi then proceeded at the summit opening to introduce a quite ambitious package - the result of excruciating planning for months in the run-up to Hangzhou.

The package is designed to propel the global economy back to growth and at the same time install more made in China-friendly rules for global economic architecture and governance.

The target could not be more ambitious: to smash mounting anti-trade and anti-globalization sentiment, especially across the West (from Brexit to Trump), simultaneously pleasing his select audience - arguably the most significant gathering of world leaders in China's history - yet at the same time, in the long run, aiming at prevailing over US-led Western dominance for good.

That's a predictable but still remarkable turnaround for China, which benefited like any other nation from globalization - with growth over the past three decades mostly propelled by foreign direct investment and a deluge of exports.

Yet now geoeconomics has reached an extremely worrying zone of turbulence. Since the end of the Cold War in 1989 - and of "history" itself, according to academic simpletons - it's never been so dire. Greed led globalization to be "defeated" by inequality. In a nutshell, low inflation - due to global competition - led to the proverbial "expansionary" monetary policies, which inflated housing, education and health care, squeezing the middle class and allowing unlimited wealth flowing to a 1 percent minority of asset owners.

Yet even in de-acceleration, China was responsible for more than 25 percent of global economic growth in 2015. It remains the key global turbine - while at the same time carrying the self-attributed burden of being the representative of the Global South in global economic governance.

China's outbound investment surged 62 per cent to a record US$100 billion in the first seven months of 2016, according to China's Ministry of Commerce. But there's a problem, which economists have dubbed "asymmetric investment environment": China remains more closed than other BRICS members to foreign investment, especially in service sectors.

Jet4

PKK commanders killed in Turkish airstrike in northern Iraq mountains near Iran

Iraq map
Turkey says it has killed 30 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants during airstrikes in northern Iraq.

According to a statement released by the Turkish army's General Staff, two militant positions were hit in Iraq's Qandil Mountains.

The statement noted that several high ranking PKK members were among those killed.


Comment: The Qandil Mountains are very close to Iran.


Attention

Syrian Army, Hezbollah readying to launch large-scale operation near the Golan Heights

Syrian army
Syrian army soldiers and the Lebanese Hezbollah Resistance Movement are coordinating the final steps for launching a large-scale joint anti-terrorism operations in Quneitra province in Southern Syria, military sources said Monday.

"The Syrian army and Hezbollah fighters have been working on a joint plan to end militancy in Southern Syria, particularly near the Golan Heights," the sources said.

"Hezbollah has deployed a large number of its forces at Quneitra passage which has connected the Syrian territories to the occupied Golan," they added.

Comment: You can bet Israel will be keeping a close eye on this situation, especially with their enemy Hezbollah so close.

Was the latest Israeli shelling into Golan Heights a test by the Syrian army to see what they might be up against?


No Entry

Obama crashes G20 by warning Beijing of 'consequences' in South China Sea tensions

Obama and Xi Jinping
© AFP 2016/ JIM WATSON
After being poorly received at the airport ahead of the G20 Summit, President Obama created a stir at the summit threatening "consequences" against China while in the country as a guest.

On Monday, President Barack Obama leveled a severe warning against what he views as China's continued misbehavior in the South China Sea saying that there will be "consequences" if Beijing refuses to back down from its increasingly aggressive behavior that he says is worrying its neighbors.

"Part of what I've tried to communicate to President Xi (Jinping) is that the United States arrives at its power, in part, by restraining itself," said Obama in a CNN interview. "You know, when we bind ourselves to a bunch of international norms and rules, it's not because we have to, it's because we recognize that, over the long-term, building a strong international order is in our interest. And, I think, over the long-term, it will be in China's interests, as well."


Comment: Obama talks like the US owns the world. They pick and choose what "international norms and rules" to follow and often dictate those rules.


Comment: Obama should be more like Putin: Trust and cooperation: Putin says Russia staying out of South China Sea dispute, wants Japan's trust in Kuril islands


Pistol

Boris Johnson and Theresa May disagree over arms sales to Saudis, war crimes in Yemen

Theresa May and Sauds
© Narendra Shresta/ReutersPM Theresa May and Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, G20 Summit.
British Prime Minister Theresa May and her foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, appear to be split over Saudi Arabia's alleged war crimes in Yemen, where the Gulf kingdom is intervening in a deadly civil war. The PM raised concerns over the Yemen conflict with Saudi Arabian diplomats at the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China. However, May's intervention is at odds with the foreign secretary, who said on Monday there is no evidence of war crimes in Yemen and so Britain can legally continue selling arms to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes in Yemen in late March 2015 and imposed an aerial and naval blockade on the crisis-ridden state. The Saudi-led coalition had hoped to influence the outcome of Yemen's bloody civil war. The military campaign, which has caused large-scale bloodshed and human suffering, targeted Yemen's Houthi population and a number of allied insurgent groups who support former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The intervention has been described as a humanitarian catastrophe by human rights experts, including key United Nations officials. By July 2015, the UN had described the humanitarian situation in the war-torn state as a "Level 3" emergency - the highest emergency ranking it ascribes.

Sources told the Independent that May was able to raise human rights issues with the Gulf kingdom because Britain and Saudi Arabia have a "strong relationship."

Comment: The Saudis' self-investigation of its war crimes will follow Israel's lead of under-the-rug sweeping denials and absolution. May is right to bring her concerns to the attention of G20 and the public. The UK is grossly implicated in the Yemeni war crimes, as a supplier of arms and therefore an accessory violator of IHL.


Bullseye

Any chance Israel will be put on trial for war crimes?

Bombing GAZA
© 99getsmart.comIsrael's ongoing war on Gaza, the macro.
An expected visit by ICC delegation could increase the risk of Israeli officials being tried for war crimes. Israel has agreed to allow the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to send a delegation to Israel and the occupied territories, it was revealed at the weekend, in a step that could dramatically increase the risk of Israeli officials being tried for war crimes.

Emmanuel Nahshon, a foreign ministry spokesman, confirmed to Al Jazeera on Sunday that Israel had agreed to the visit in principle, though the "when and how" were still under discussion. The ICC's move comes as human rights groups have harshly criticised Israel for closing investigations into dozens of allegations that its military broke the laws of war during an attack on Gaza in the summer of 2014. The Hague prosecutors are reportedly interested in examining how effective Israel's legal mechanisms are in investigating allegations of war crimes.

Under the terms of its founding statute, the ICC could take over jurisdiction of such probes if it is persuaded that Israel is unable or unwilling to conduct credible investigations itself. So far, only three Israeli soldiers have been indicted on a relatively minor charge - of looting - even though Israel's 51-day offensive, named Protective Edge, in July and August 2014 resulted in some 2,250 Palestinian deaths. The vast majority were civilians, including 551 children.
boy dead on beach
© rinf.comOne of four boys playing football targeted by Israeli gunfire.

Comment: Israel must think it has some sort of infallible wiggle-room immunity to ever agree to a sit down with the ICC. International justice dealt in even ONE case would be an improvement.