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Iran dumps the dollar, switches to euros in foreign oil trade


Sputnik
Sat, 06 Feb 2016 13:05 UTC
money
© AFP 2016/ ATTA KENARE
Iran has switched to euro in its foreign oil trade, in a bid to cut reliance on the US dollar. After the removal of sanctions, Tehran would also want to recover in euros some of its previously frozen assets.

Iran has turned away from the US dollar in oil trade and is denominating in euros all new and outstanding oil contracts with companies, including French oil and gas giant Total, Spanish refiner Cepsa and Litasco, the trading arm of Russia's Lukoil, a source at National Iranian Oil Co told Reuters.

"In our invoices we mention a clause that buyers of our oil will have to pay in euros, considering the exchange rate versus the dollar around the time of delivery," the source said.

Lukoil and Total declined to comment, and Cepsa did not respond to a request to comment. Iran has also told its trading partners who owe it billions of dollars that it wants to be paid in euros rather than US dollars.
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Jet4

Corrupted military: F-18 air supply system has bugs the US military can't fix


Sputnik
Sat, 06 Feb 2016 06:09 UTC
F-18 fighter jet
© AP Photo/ Matt York
The Navy and Marines of the United States have unsuccessfully struggled for five years to solve a defective on-board oxygen supply system on the supersonic F-18 Hornet aircraft that could kill a pilot and lead to a crash of the $60 million jet.

The Boeing F-18 Super Hornet jet uses an On-Board Oxygen Generation System (OBOGS), manufactured by British defense technology company Cobham plc, that scrubs the same air taken from the engine intakes, filtering it and providing the pilot with breathable air. In practice, the system repeatedly fails, leading to constant interruptions in the air supply, according to Navy documents obtained by Breaking Defense.

Navy papers revealed some 297 incidents related to F-18 OBOGS during tests conducted from May 2010 to October 2015. The statistics also indicated an increase in the number of failures over that period.

Comment: Further reading:
The root of the crisis lies in a nation that is being led by corrupt Washington Presidents, Generals, Congressmen who prostitute themselves to a seemingly endless hog trough of corruption. None excels in this official corruption more than the US Pentagon and its incestuous role with the corrupt military industrial complex.

Psychopaths have destroyed America


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Bad Guys

US, Saudi Arabia 'discussing parameters' of the Saudis' offer to send troops to Syria


Sputnik
Sat, 06 Feb 2016 05:34 UTC
Syria
© AFP 2016/ FAYEZ NURELDINE
The United States is discussing the parameters of Riyadh's offer to deploy ground troops to fight the Daesh in Syria, US State Department spokesperson John Kirby stated in a press briefing.

On Thursday, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Defense said it stands ready to deploy ground troops to Syria to fight the Daesh, which has been outlawed by many countries, including the United States and Russia.

"We obviously have some questions about it [the Saudi proposal]. We are going to continue to talk to the Saudis about exactly what the parameters are here," Kirby said on Friday. "We just need to learn a little bit more what this proposal is."

Comment: Further reading: Saudi Arabia's offer to send troops to 'fight ISIS in Syria' is farcical

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Bad Guys

Saudi Arabia's offer to send troops to 'fight ISIS in Syria' is farcical


Sputnik
Sat, 06 Feb 2016 05:16 UTC
ISIS
© REUTERS/ Ali Hashisho
Saudi Arabia is offering to send troops to Syria to give the world the impression that Riyadh wants to combat the Islamic State, despite its continual support for the terror group, Gulf Affairs Institute Director Ali al-Ahmed told Sputnik.

On Thursday, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Defense said it stands ready to deploy ground troops to Syria to fight the Islamic State, which is also known as Daesh.

"The Saudis want to appear that they are against terrorism and against ISIS [Islamic State]," al-Ahmed told Sputnik on Friday when asked why Riyadh would announce that it was prepared to send troops to Syria. "ISIS [Islamic State] is a Saudi proxy, just like the 1980s when they supported the so-called mujahideen in Afghanistan."

Comment: Further reading:
"The US strategy of supporting terrorist networks in MENA now seems to be paying dividends. It has allowed US Defense Secretary Ash Carter to welcome a Saudi offer to participate in ground operations in Syriaby a US-led coalition, and Carter's openness to the introduction of US ground forces in Libya. Both developments are in keeping with the US strategy of promoting terrorism and endless war in the Middle East and North Africa to keep its adversaries at bay and maintain its hegemony over the region," the academic concluded.

US encourages Saudi intervention, broader war in Syria


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Monkey Wrench

Hellacious Hillary and the 6 biggest reasons why the Iowa caucus turned into a voter fraud circus

Joachim Hagopian
Sott.net
Fri, 05 Feb 2016 00:00 UTC
Hillary

No sooner out the gate with the closest caucus vote in Iowa history already on the books, the very first state tally of delegate votes leading to the 2016 presidential election bears strong indication of voter fraud. It's been reported that Hillary Clinton instructed her staff in Iowa to rig the caucus voting by falsely standing in the O'Malley corner of the room when the final precinct hand counts are tallied. Since Martin O'Malley supporters fell drastically short with only about 1% of the required 15% "viability threshold" needed for his delegate votes in each precinct to be included in the final count, standard Iowa caucus protocol stipulates that any O'Malley voters would then be given the option to back either Clinton or Bernie Sanders in a final tally. But Hillary already cheated having dictated to her staff to go and falsely be counted as O'Malley supporters voting for Hillary in the final count when she knew O'Malley supporters would by default favor Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. That's the first major discrepancy coming out of Iowa earlier this week implicating voter fraud in the caucus. Ironically back in the 2008 Obama vs. Hillary campaign cycle, it was Hillary crying afoul when the Obama camp cut a deal with Bill Richardson supporters to use this very same unethical, deceitful tactic that the already untrustworthy, win-at-all-cost Hillary's now apparently pulled in Iowa.

The second even more blatant evidence that the Iowa state caucus and entire Democratic Party presidential election process has been rigged is that mega-giant corporation Microsoft founder Bill Gates is now in charge of counting both the Democratic and Republican votes in this year's state primary elections.

Tech savvy Betanews journalist Brian Fagioli recently had this to say about Microsoft counting votes:

Comment: You think the world getting bushwacked by W., was bad, or getting bomb, bomb, bombed by Obama worse? Look out for hellacious Hillary who is just hell on wheels when it comes to getting something she wants ie. the Presidency. (That is if the U.S. is even still standing in its present form when the next elections come around)

As was recently noted in reference to the governments prevention of releasing draft indictments made in the now infamous Whitewater scandal Clinton was involved in:
"She's one of the most well-known women in the world, seeking the office of the presidency and her privacy interests outweigh the public interest in knowing what's in that indictment? It's absurd and it's shameful that the administration is proposing this," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in an interview. "This is a political decision to protect her candidacy—because it is laughable, legally."


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Jet4

Done fooling around: Russian airstrikes pulverize 'moderate' rebels for 36 straight hours

Rudy Panko
Russia Insider
Fri, 05 Feb 2016 03:03 UTC
russian su-34 syria

The Su-34 in Latakia
Russia conducts largest aerial campaign since the start of its participation in the Syrian conflict

It's a bad time to be a "moderate" in Syria: Even the Washington Post is now reporting that Al-Nusra and other freedom-loving moderate groups are losing the war. As the SAA closes in on Aleppo, Russia is paving the way for a new offensive in northern Homs. And by "paving the way", we really mean "36 hours of continuous airstrikes":
For 36 straight hours, the Russian Air Force has pulverized the Islamist rebel defenses in northern Homs, as the Syrian Arab Army's 47th Brigade of the 11th Tank Division and the National Defense Forces (NDF) prepare to strike the imperative villages of Harbinifseh and Kisseen that are located along the Orontes River.

According to a senior officer from the Syrian Arab Army, the Russian Air Force's powerful airstrikes over northern Homs are part of the largest aerial campaign launched by the Russian Federation since the advent of their participation in the Syrian Conflict.
Trusted western media outlets are already crying foul, accusing Russia and Assad of derailing peace talks.

The reality is that the west and its Arab client states wanted terrorist groups to have a seat at the negotiating table, which was (rightfully) unacceptable to Moscow.

It looks like Russia has found a more effective way of negotiating with Al-Nusra and Ahrar Al-Sham: Surrender or be turned to dust.

Comment: The 'moderates' and their extremist brethren are decamping to their master's bases in Turkey post haste. They obviously aren't being paid enough to stick around for the ground offensive to come.

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Arrow Down

Coming home to Roost: An explosive situation is brewing in Turkey


WhoWhatWhy
Wed, 03 Feb 2016 01:05 UTC
bullet holes
© Rebecca Harms / Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Buildings are riddled with bullet holes, the sound of explosions can be heard day and night, and many residents have already packed up their belongings and fled. It sounds like war-torn Syria, but the actual location is a surprise: inside the supposedly secure borders of Turkey.

"There is constant fighting with tanks and heavy weapons in the center, and a lot of houses have been destroyed," said a teacher in Diyarbakir, the main Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. The man refused to have his name published for fear of losing his job. He told WhoWhatWhy: "It's become worse in the last three or four days."

The Turkish government claims to have "neutralized" over 3,100 Kurdish PKK militants since August. The Kurds dispute those numbers. The Turkish Human Rights Foundation says some 170 civilians have been killed, while Turkish media reports claim that over 100,000 have been displaced.

Turkey has been fighting Kurdish militants in the country's southeast for more than three decades; 40,000 people have lost their lives in the violence. But the danger of igniting a wider conflict has escalated since last summer. That's when a two-year ceasefire collapsed, partly as a spillover from the Syrian civil war next door.

Comment: See also:
Pepe Escobar: Why Erdogan, the Sultan of Chaos, is freaking out

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Arrow Down

Abandoning a sinking ship: Mass exodus of western businesses from Ukraine

Olga Samofalova
Vineyard of the Saker
Mon, 01 Feb 2016 01:38 UTC
Ukrainian economy

Not much to show for it all...
Ukraine continues to reap the rewards of its "Revolution of Dignity" which, far from integrating the country with Europe, destroyed the authority of the state and ruined the country's economy

Western companies continue fleeing the Ukrainian market to cut their losses. Groupon Inc., the discount outlet, as well as the computer giant Asus have just shut down. Shopping malls, formerly filled with brand outlets, are now selling second-hand clothing. Large financial corporations and oil and gas companies are hurriedly following the small businesses retreat.

It's been nearly two years since the first Western companies started leaving the Ukraine. According to local media, flight is due to currency instability, decline in local purchasing power and in some cases, political pressure, as happened with the Russian brand Bosco.

Not only has the Ukrainian market failed to attract new participants in the last eighteen months, it has lost nearly thirty major-brands, a third in fashion chains.

Comment: The free-fall started almost immediately. Businesses hate instability and uncertainty. Most prescient:

Ukraine trade agreement with EU will mean economic suicide says Putin's aide

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Info

US role in Europe: Seventy years of harassing political establishment and people


Oriental Review
Thu, 04 Feb 2016 01:40 UTC
According to a "sensational" article by the Telegraph, the US director of National Intelligence was recently instructed by Congress to "conduct a major review into Russian clandestine funding of European parties over the last decade." This disclosure - a classic "controlled leak" - is intended to warn disobedient yet popular political entities across Europe to scale back their ambitions to rebalance the roles and weight of their nation states within the European Union. Hungary's Jobbik, Greece's Golden Dawn, Italy's Lega Nord, and France's Front National are explicitly included in the US "warning list," while other unnamed "parties" in Austria, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands are being advised that they are "under a US security probe." Even the new British Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is suspected of flirting with the Russians. So, according to the sponsor of the Telegraph's story, any European politician who dares to question NATO's eastward expansion, the policy of anti-Russian sanctions, or the current European stance on the Ukrainian conflict is essentially a witting or unwitting tool of "Russia's hybrid warfare."
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Play

South Front: EU could fall apart in period of months


South Front
Fri, 05 Feb 2016 00:21 UTC
south front
Foreign Policy Diary - EU future?


Comment: More context on the refugee crisis the EU is facing:

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