The US has implemented industry sector sanctions on Russia's Yuzhno-Kirinskoye Field, developed by Gazprom. The statement said that the field "is reported to contain substantial reserves of oil in addition to reserves of gas."

The Yuzhno-Kirinskoye Field, which is located in the Sea of Okhotsk off the coast of Russia's Sakhalin island, is part of the Sakhalin-3 project, developed by Russia's gas giant Gazprom. Opened in 2010, the field plans to go into operation by 2019.

Restrictions on the Russian energy project were implemented by the US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) on Friday, as reported in the Federal Register. The field was added to the list which "identifies entities and other persons reasonably believed to be involved... in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States."

"The US Government has determined... that exports, reexports, and transfers (in-country) of all items subject to the EAR to this Russian field by any person without first obtaining a BIS license present an unacceptable risk of use in, or diversion to, the activities specified in the Russian industry sector sanctions," the statement said.

What is the relationship between war in a military theater and "economic warfare"?

An act of war is invariably an economic undertaking which supports dominant corporate interests. The conduct of US-NATO military operations is carried out on behalf of powerful financial institutions.

US led wars in the Middle East under the humanitarian mantle of the "global war on terrorism" largely serve the interests of Wall Street, the Anglo-american oil conglomerates, the so-called 'defense contractors", the biotech conglomerates (Monsanto et al), Big Pharma and the corporate media.

But modern warfare is by no means limited to the sphere of military and intelligence operations. Washington not only imposes economic sanctions on countries which do not support its imperial agenda, it also fosters the outright destabilization of national economies. While the Pentagon and NATO coordinate military operations against sovereign countries, Wall Street carries out concurrent destabilizing actions on financial markets including the rigging of the oil, gold and foreign exchange markets directed against Russia and China.

A hacking group has sent an open letter to the head of military counterintelligence at the Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) to complain about Defense Ministry staff allegedly sidestepping the corporate email system to share top secret information, using public services instead.

The members of the Shaltay Boltay hacking group claim that they have accessed emails and mobile devices belonging to Ksenia Bolshakova, an assistant to Roman Filimonov, who is a former head of the construction department at the Defense Ministry.

"After careful examination of the array, it is with great regret that we found out about the absolute incompetence of staffers at some of the departments of the Defense Ministry when it comes to information security; to be more specific, we're dealing with criminal negligence," a letter addressed to FSB Colonel-General Aleksandr Bezverkhny said.

According to the hackers, the ministry's employees were sending unencrypted official documents, containing sensitive data about Russia's defense capabilities, through free email services such as Yandex, Mail.ru and Gmail, RBC reported. The emails span a period between 2011 and 2015.

The unsecured e-mail channels were used to "transmit reports and information on the issues discussed at the meetings with the Minister of Defense and his deputies," the hackers said. Emails also allegedly included information on the units hosting the Iskander ballistic missile systems and the positioning of Russia's 4th gen nuclear submarines.

This week on 'Behind the Headlines', your hosts are joined by Amari Roos, Dutch editor for Sott.net sister site, nl.sott.net. Amari has also written English articles on Sott.net, focusing on the blowback from anti-Russian sanctions and propaganda, so we'll be getting her perspective how the Dutch MH17 'investigation' is going.

This week we'll also be taking 'sitreps' on the various war theaters in 'Sy-raq', 'Af-Pak' and Yemen, the utterly farcical campaigning dislayed by Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton for the 2016 US presidential elections, and the latest foiled ISIS terror plots.

All that and more this Sunday August 9th, 2015, from 2-4pm EST / 11am-1pm PST / 7-9pm UTC / 8-10pm CET.

Running Time: 02:21:00

Download: MP3

Just before the opening of the new extension of the Suez Canal in Egypt, the branch of the Islamic State in Egypt, calling themselves 'Wilayet Sina' (Arabic for 'the Sinai Province of the Islamic State'), captured one Croatian citizen and have threatened to execute him unless their demands are met. Some media are speculating that the ISIS militant in the video is none other than Jihadi John himself, who we were told recently, has defected from ISIS due to fears of losing his own head.

This ISIS video was titled "A message to the Egyptian government" and claims that the hostage can be saved if the Egyptian government releases certain female Muslim prisoners in 48 hours even though it is uncertain which female Muslim prisoners are supposed to be released since the jihadi organization apparently forgot to specify. According to the Croatian media, the deadline has now been removed from the ISIS website and the Croatian captive has been transported to ISIS-controlled area in Libya. Certain news outlets are claiming that he has already been beheaded, but the authenticity of the beheading video couldn't be confirmed immediately. The Croatian citizen was abducted in Cairo while driving on a highway according to reports and worked as a subcontractor for the French seismic survey group CGG.

The New Suez Canal

The construction of this mega project started on the 5th of August 2014. It is essentially an expansion of the existing Suez Canal which connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. The area surrounding the Canal is supposed to be turned into an industrial, commercial and logistics hub meaning the construction of more ports, factories etc. The Egyptian leadership is already referring to the Canal as the "Egypt's gift to the world" since it is supposed to decrease the transition time for ships and also help the Egyptian economy. But the importance of the Suez Canal goes further than that.

The Suez Canal is a global artery of maritime trade and of vast strategic importance as a military and energy corridor. The "Global Constabulary" that is Washington's self-imposed role as global arbiter would be crippled without Egypt firmly in place.

Even if speaking hypothetically, when U.S. General James Mattis says that if the Suez Canal is closed, then the U.S. military will engage Egypt offensively (meaning attack or invade), he is not joking. [1] The Suez Canal is an important part of the global economy, the military network of the U.S. and NATO, and Washington's modern-day and ever more mutinous empire.

Egypt has seen continued violence in the Sinai, which borders the Suez Canal, due to clashes between the military and the ISIS-affiliated extremists. The activity of these militants didn't seem to have much effect on the project as it was finished on the 23rd of July, only a year after construction first began.

By terminating the Mistral deal with Russia, France closed the door on a golden opportunity to establish strategic and trade partnership with Russia, said Philippe Migault, a senior research fellow at the French Institute of International and Strategic Relations (L'Institut de Relations Internationales et Strategiques - IRIS).

The $1.3 billion deal was officially terminated on Wednesday. Paris is reported to have already transferred some 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to a Russian bank as a compensation for the non-delivery of two Mistral-class helicopter carriers.

"We [France] managed to close the door on the entire Russian defense market, potential Eldorado, and all in order to please US and European "allies." Due to the cancellation of the Mistral contract, a strategic partnership with Russia collapsed," Migault said.

Last night's FOX News GOP Presidential Debate Extravaganza featured the most riveting two minute political exchange ever heard on national television. During a brief colloquy between Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and Fox moderator Brett Baier, the pugnacious casino magnate revealed the appalling truth about the American political system, that the big money guys like Trump own the whole crooked contraption lock, stock, and barrel, and that, the nation's fake political leaders do whatever they're told to do. Without question, it was the most illuminating commentary to ever cross the airwaves. Here's the entire exchange direct from the transcript:

FOX News Brett Baier (talking to Trump): Now, 15 years ago, you called yourself a liberal on health care. You were for a single-payer system, a Canadian-style system. Why were you for that then and why aren't you for it now?

TRUMP: As far as single payer, it works in Canada. It works incredibly well in Scotland. It could have worked in a different age, which is the age you're talking about here.

What I'd like to see is a private system without the artificial lines around every state. I have a big company with thousands and thousands of employees. And if I'm negotiating in New York or in New Jersey or in California, I have like one bidder. Nobody can bid.

You know why?

Because the insurance companies are making a fortune because they have control of the politicians, of course, with the exception of the politicians on this stage. (uneasy laughter) But they have total control of the politicians. They're making a fortune.

Get rid of the artificial lines and you will have...yourself great plans...

BAIER: Mr. Trump, it's not just your past support for single-payer health care. You've also supported a host of other liberal policies....You've also donated to several Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton included, and Nancy Pelosi. You explained away those donations saying you did that to get business-related favors. And you said recently, quote, "When you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do."

TRUMP: You'd better believe it.

BAIER: — they do?

TRUMP: If I ask them, if I need them, you know, most of the people on this stage I've given to, just so you understand, a lot of money.

TRUMP: I will tell you that our system is broken. I gave to many people, before this, before two months ago, I was a businessman. I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And do you know what? When I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them, they are there for me. And that's a broken system.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you get from Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi?

TRUMP: Well, I'll tell you what, with Hillary Clinton, I said be at my wedding and she came to my wedding. You know why?

She didn't have a choice because I gave. I gave to a foundation that, frankly, that foundation is supposed to do good. I didn't know her money would be used on private jets going all over the world. It was.

BAIER: Hold on.....We're going to — we're going to move on." (Transcript: Read the Full Text of the Primetime Republican Debate, Time)

There it is, two glorious minutes of pure, unalloyed truth on national television. How often does that happen?

Broadcasting from deep in the heart of the American Empire, join your hosts Harrison Koehli and Elan Martin, and fellow Sott.net editors, as they discuss everything from current events and the latest machinations and manipulations of the global elite to history, science, and religion, and how it all fits together.

This week, join our hosts as they discuss religions and just how widespread and dangerous a certain type of religious mindset can be, whether atheistic or theistic. We'll talk about some recent news items, various religions, how they are all corruptible, and why they seem to have such a bad reputation.

The Truth Perspective is brought to you by the SOTT Radio Network and SOTT.net, your one-stop source for independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events.

Live every Saturday from 2-4pm EST / 11am-1pm PST / 8-10pm CET.

Running Time: 01:34:00

Download: MP3

Those of us in alternative news media shoulder a growing responsibility of shedding light on the truth where little to none exists anymore either in government and mainstream media. As such, citizens of the world but especially of America need to know that the so called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) like al Qaeda before them are the created, well-paid, well-armed secret mercenary ally of the US Empire in cahoots with Israel, other Western nations, NATO, and US Muslim allies Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other oil-rich Gulf state puppets.

Overwhelming evidence has been amassed to expose this basic fundamental fact. This sobering reality in and of itself proves that key members of the international crime syndicate posing as the US government have violated their sworn oaths to protect and defend America from both foreign and domestic enemies and clearly committed repeated acts of treason. The same neocons responsible for murdering 3000 of their own American citizens on 9/11 have also been the creators of ISIS and they have the blood of five US servicemen on their hands in Chattanooga... not to mention the millions of people in the Middle East and North Africa.

Update: In a huge win for the President, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has come out for the deal. Some of her statement echoes the president's warning: she says killing the deal could result in "an invasion with yet another massive and costly land war in the Middle East."

Original post:

In his new book on the US and Israel, former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren says that all the young Ivy Leaguers who went to work for President Obama had read The Israel Lobby, by Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, and that it was their playbook for understanding the Middle East. (Along with Edward Said's Orientalism).

Yesterday's speech shows that President Obama has also read The Israel Lobby and that its central points have become his chief concerns: The Israel lobby is a loose but powerful coalition of Israel supporters who will distort policy at every turn out of the sincere misguided belief that the US and Israel have the same interests; that coalition of conservative Jews in league with Republican hawks played a critical role in starting the Iraq war that has been an unmitigated disaster for our foreign policy. I have argued here for a long time that we won't defeat the war party till we identify its true cause, and Obama all but did so explicitly yesterday. "Every nation in the world that has commented publicly" supports this deal, except Israel, he said. And Israel has many friends in this country, including the president himself, he said.

Then he called out the "mindset" in the U.S. that opposes the deal as a mindset of warmongers. The same "mindset" that gave us the Iraq war will leave us no alternative but military strikes on Iran, and none of the advocates of that mindset have to go off and fight these wars themselves.

Never before have I heard Obama go step by step over why he was right to oppose the Iraq war, 13 years after the fact. But he is trying to defeat that "mindset," which as Paul Pillar says, he can't identify too explicitly because of political orthodoxies in D.C. Though he said that mindset's paranoia and reliance on force are inconsistent with American values and he'd be "abrogating" his constitutional duty if he sided with Netanyahu on the Iran Deal.