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The political dimension of hydrocarbon trade between Russia and Central Asia

Dmitry Bokarev
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 15:18 UTC
pipeline construction
Central Asia is strategically important for Russia in terms of security. It plays the role of a sort of buffer between Russia and countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan etc., where the threat of terrorism is strong. Therefore, good relations with the countries of the region, their peace and prosperity are among Russia's most important interests. Cooperation in the oil and gas industry is a powerful means to achieve this.

It's well known that the countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) have significant hydrocarbon resources. For Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the extraction and sale of energy resources are the backbone of their entire economy. For Kazakhstan, this industry is also exceptionally important since oil is its primary export commodity. While Tajikistan also has substantial oil and gas reserves, hydrocarbon recovery there is poorly developed, providing only a small percentage of the country's own demand. Tajikistan imports the remainder from Russia and Uzbekistan. Kyrgyzstan has completely handed over supervision of its oil and gas industry to Russia.
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Star of David

Partitioning the Middle East: A Roadmap to US-Israeli Hegemony

Bas Spliet
Newsbud
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 13:05 UTC
trump and Netanyahu
We are often told that the invasion and occupation of Iraq and the war in Syria are disastrous failures of Western foreign policy. This article, however, argues that the architects of these wars were, and are, well aware of the destabilising consequences of their military efforts, and in fact, had always regarded the breakup of Iraq and Syria along sectarian lines as a desirable outcome. The millions of deaths and injuries resulting from these horrific wars, as well as the displacement of several more millions, then, are nothing more than "collateral damage" to achieve US-Israeli hegemony in the region. Viewed from this perspective, post-9/11 Western Middle East policy in retrospect is not a failure, but a success.

Part I: Partition, the only solution?
"Let's look at the reality on the ground in the Middle East: Iraq and Syria are effectively partitioned along sectarian lines. [...] In the current, chaotic moment, we see two post-imperial systems collapsing at once: the state boundaries drawn by the Versailles Treaty in 1919 to replace the Ottoman Empire [...], and a U.S.-led system that kept the region in a rough balance [which has been shattered] by America's failed intervention in Iraq. The 'line in the sand', as author James Barr called the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement to partition the region, is dissolving before our eyes, and the primary beneficiaries are ruthless Islamic terrorists."[1]

-David Ignatius, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, in a 2014 article in the Washington Post
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Bad Guys

Trial & Terror: Why the US 'quietly released' 400 people convicted on terrorism charges

Trevor Aaronson
The Intercept
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 13:05 UTC
Terrorism billboard
© Larry Downing / Reuters
Over the last 15 years, the U.S. government has quietly released more than 400 people convicted on international terrorism-related charges, according to a data analysis of federal terrorism prosecutions by The Intercept. Some were deported to other countries following their prison terms, but a large number of convicted terrorists are living in the United States. They could be your neighbors.

The release of people convicted on terrorism-related charges with little if any monitoring by law enforcement might suggest U.S. government officials believe they can be fully rehabilitated following minor prison terms. A more likely explanation is that many of these so-called terrorists weren't particularly dangerous in the first place.

Among them is one of the Herald Square bombers, who plotted to attack the New York subway in 2004. Shahawar Matin Siraj and James Elshafay, egged on by informant Osama Eldawoody, conspired to plant bombs at the Herald Square station. They drew rough plans on napkins, surveilled the station, and discussed how they might acquire explosives. It was all talk. The two alleged bombers took different paths after their arrests. Siraj fought the charges and went to trial, where he was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He won't be released until 2030. Elshafay pleaded guilty and received a comparably modest sentence of five years in prison and three years of supervised release. He's been a free man since January 28, 2009.
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Bad Guys

The Only Game in Town: US Deep State & the Business of 'Counter-Terrorism'

Gareth Porter
Middle East Eye
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 13:05 UTC
al Qaeda terrorist bombing attack
Since 2001, senior Pentagon and CIA officials have sacrificed American interests in weakening al-Qaeda to pursue their own interests
New York Times columnist Tom Friedman outraged many readers when he wrote an opinion piece on 12 April calling on President Trump to "back off fighting territorial ISIS in Syria". The reason he gave for that recommendation was not that US wars in the Middle East are inevitably self-defeating and endless, but that it would reduce the "pressure on Assad, Iran, Russia and Hezbollah".

That suggestion that the US sell out its interest in counter-terrorism in the Middle East to gain some advantage in power competition with its adversaries was rightly attacked as cynical.

But, in fact, the national security bureaucracies of the US - which many have come to call the "Deep State" - have been selling out their interests in counter-terrorism in order to pursue various adventures in the region ever since George W Bush declared a "Global War on Terrorism" in late 2001.

Comment: Further reading: Civilian deaths in US strikes in Syria & Iraq are 'greatest catastrophe since WWII'

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Pumpkin

Best of the Web: The Russians are coming! No wait, it's the zombies! No, the Nazis are back!

Phil Butler
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 14:50 UTC
NATO flag on car
According to Bloomberg, Vladimir Putin is "quietly" annexing the Donbass region into Mother Russia. Meanwhile, NATO is holding a parliamentary assembly in the middle of icebound nowhere. Here in Germany the geniuses in charge of the government have created a "Ministry of Truth" in order to suppress deadly populism. Terror still grips us, North Korea is set to start Armageddon, and America's Rex Tillerson has an Exxon plan for Syria. In short, Trump changed nothing. Here we are, still caught in Alice's Wonderland.

Blooming Icebergs of Fake News and BS

Taking all this current madness from the top, it took four authors at Bloomberg to compile the fake news Putin is stealing eastern Ukraine away from the Kiev Nazis. Authors Henry Meyer, Ilya Arkhipov, Stepan Kravchenko, and Yuliya Fedorinova assure Bloomberg readers the Kremlin is masterminding a scheme to undermine the Kiev regime's credibility in the Donbass! As if shelling kids every day had made Poroshenko more popular in Donetsk. Read what these idiots tell their zombie readership:
"Russia has been moving gradually, using a blockade by Ukrainian activists as political cover to take over key economic links with the separatist zones. Last week, Russian Railways slashed rates for shipping coal and iron ore to points near the rebel areas, where the metals industry provides most jobs. That will allow Russia to replace Ukrainian supplies halted by Kiev and ensure that steel plants continue to function, according to two people in the industry."
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Airplane Paper

Hang-gliding terrorist gets his US citizenship revoked


RT
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 15:01 UTC
facemask man
© Mohammed Salem / ReutersThe man is believed to be living in Egypt.
A man convicted of being a member of an Egyptian terrorist organization has had his US citizenship revoked. Khaled Abu al-Dahab was found to have trained budding jihadists to hang glide as part of a plan to bomb targets from the air in Egypt.

The US District Court for the District of Columbia last week ordered the "denaturalization" of al-Dahab, described as a "senior jihadist."

His offences include lying to immigration officials and being a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization for 10 years, reported the SFGate.

Al-Dahab, 57, came to the US from Egypt in 1986, becoming a lawful permanent resident in 1989 after marrying a US citizen. He became a naturalized citizen in 1997.
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Info

Saudi king returns perks to state employees, fires ministers and hires sons


RT
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 14:40 UTC
Saudi King Salman
© Faisal Al Nasser / ReutersSaudi King Salman
A royal decree issued on Saturday restored allowances and benefits to civil servants and military personnel in Saudi Arabia. The change ends the unpopular cuts triggered by tumbling oil prices and has boosted the Saudi stock market.

King Salman removed his civil service minister Khaled al-Araj, information minister Adel al-Turaifi, and technology minister Mohammed al-Suwaiyel. He also set up a committee to investigate allegations of abuse by the civil service minister.

Shortly after the announcement the Saudi share index TASI rose by one percent, on the back of expectations higher disposable incomes will give a boost to consumer sectors such as retailing and food.


Comment: Saudi king's son who 'bombed ISIS and Yemen' named as ambassador to US

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Clipboard

Senior Russian senator: 'Western liberalism among major threats to civilized world'


RT
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 14:17 UTC
Konstantin Kosachyov
© Alexei Danichev / SputnikKonstantin Kosachyov
Islamic fundamentalism, North Korea's pseudo-communist ideology and Western liberalism are the triple threats currently facing the civilized world, Senator Konstantin Kosachev has warned.
"The three ideological fundamentalisms are currently as follows: Islamism, personified by Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL]; a pseudo-communism, manifested by the DPRK [North Korea]; and the liberal-globalization represented by certain elites of the West.

Comment: It is gratifying to hear a Russian politician - his views perhaps representing a common understanding among Russian politicians - define in a very precise and clear way the real problem with the West and the cabal of psychopathically-deranged individuals who appear to be in a state of full-blown terror at the prospect of Western populations seeing them for what they are and, as a result, the 'elite's' power and control slipping away as a direct result of their incessant lies and corruption.

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Bad Guys

Tory government plans to remove the UK from certain human rights agreements


RT
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 13:59 UTC
British soldiers
© Mohammad Ismail / Reuters
Attempts by the government to remove the UK from certain human rights laws in battlefield situations have been as branded as an attack on soldier's rights, lawyers have told an inquiry.

Plans to suspend the European Convention on Human Rights in wartime would also damage the UK's international reputation, according to representatives of the Law Society and human rights organization Liberty.

This appears to contradict the Conservative Party's longstanding claim that it alone is the party of defense.
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Info

Moscow calls OSCE patrol car blast 'likely a provocation' to undermine peace process in E. Ukraine


RT
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 13:56 UTC
OSCE bomb attack
© Sputnik/ Lugansk People's Republic people's militia
Moscow has called the explosion of a car belonging to the OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM), in which a US citizen was killed and several others injured, a provocation aimed at disrupting peace efforts and reigniting the smoldering conflict.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has issued a statement, extending its condolences to the family of the US citizen killed in the blast, and wishing a speedy recovery to the injured. While the name of the person killed has not been released, the ministry said the US citizen was contracted by a medical company to work for the OSCE's mission in Ukraine.

"The circumstances of what had happened point out to a highly likelihood of it being a provocation, aimed at derailing the conflict settlement process in Donbass," the ministry said in its statement Sunday.
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