Welcome to Sott.net
Thu, 04 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Newspaper

Saudi King Abdullah has died at 90


Yahoo! News
Fri, 23 Jan 2015 01:16 UTC
Salman bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud
© REUTERS/Yuya Shino/Files
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud arrives at Haneda airport in Tokyo in this file photo from February 18, 2014. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has died, state television reported early on Friday and his brother Salman became king, it said in a statement attributed to Salman.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, the powerful U.S. ally who joined Washington's fight against al-Qaida and sought to modernize the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom with incremental but significant reforms, including nudging open greater opportunities for women, has died, according to Saudi state TV. He was 90.

More than his guarded and hidebound predecessors, Abdullah assertively threw his oil-rich nation's weight behind trying to shape the Middle East. His priority was to counter the influence of rival, mainly Shiite Iran wherever it tried to make advances. He and fellow Sunni Arab monarchs also staunchly opposed the Middle East's wave of pro-democracy uprisings, seeing them as a threat to stability and their own rule.

He backed Sunni Muslim factions against Tehran's allies in several countries, but in Lebanon for example, the policy failed to stop Iranian-backed Hezbollah from gaining the upper hand. And Tehran and Riyadh's colliding ambitions stoked proxy conflicts around the region that enflamed Sunni-Shiite hatreds - most horrifically in Syria's civil war, where the two countries backed opposing sides. Those conflicts in turn hiked Sunni militancy that returned to threaten Saudi Arabia.

Comment: Saudi Arabia has played an important role in the maintenance of American hegemony and has been a partner in the empire's crimes in the Middle East. Now Its king is dead. Will the new king change his policies towards US, Iran and Syria? Only time will tell. For now, oil prices rose based on the speculations of volatility.
Oil Climbs as Saudi King's Death Spurs Policy Speculation

Oil rose after the death of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Futures rallied as much as 3.1 percent in New York and 2.6 percent in London after the Saudi royal court announced the death in a statement. Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz will succeed Abdullah on the throne.


      Read More...
Light Sabers

E-bay owned PayPal stops services in Crimea


ITAR-TASS
Fri, 23 Jan 2015 08:35 UTC
Image
© ITAR-TASS
US payment system PayPal has stopped providing services to clients on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula, the PayPal press service said on Friday.

"Unfortunately, currently we are not able to provide our services to the clients in Crimea. We apologize for any related inconveniences," a spokesperson for the payment system told TASS.

The PayPal payment system, allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet, is a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay, a US multinational corporation and e-commerce company.

PayPal, founded in 1998 and headquartered in the US state of California, has more than 100 million active users in over 190 countries and works with 25 foreign currencies.

Last year, international payment systems Visa and MasterCard also announced that they stopped providing services for payment transactions for clients in Crimea amid the US sanctions against Russia.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Eye 2

Psychopathic Nazi Ukrainian army shells bus and trolley in Donetsk city center, killing dozens of civilians including children

George Eliason
Global Research
Thu, 22 Jan 2015 19:46 UTC
Image
This morning January 22nd at 8:30 local time in Donetsk the Ukrainian army fired what appear to be 82mm shells at buses and trolleys near the center of the city.

The targets were located within roughly a 25 meter radius of each other. The OSCE is investigating.

The terrorist strike on the bus shown above claimed the lives of 13-15 people including children. There are reported to be over 20 other critically injured, many with blast amputations. The driver of a car next to the blast burnt to death. The blast was large enough to blowout 2nd story windows in an apartment across from it and stopped the clock at 8:30.

Donetsk Defense Minister Vladimir Kononov gave a statement that a group of terrorists launching attacks on civilians have been caught and are Ukrainian military operatives. Small teams of Ukrainian army/terrorists have been perpetrating random drive by shootings with automatics in Donetsk since the Ukrainian army reignited the hot war eleven days ago.

      Read More...
Arrow Down

Saudi Arabia's tyrant king misremembered as man of peace

Murtaza Hussain
firstlook.org
Fri, 23 Jan 2015 19:08 UTC
Obama and Abdullah
© Gerald Herbert/AP
After nearly 20 years as de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah ibn-Abdulaziz al-Saud died last night at the age of 90. Abdullah, who took power after his predecessor King Fahd suffered a stroke in 1995, ruled as absolute monarch of a country which protected American interests but also sowed strife and extremism throughout the Middle East and the world.

In a statement last night Senator John McCain eulogized Abdullah as "a vocal advocate for peace, speaking out against violence in the Middle East". John Kerry described the late monarch as "a brave partner in fighting violent extremism" and "a proponent of peace". Not to be outdone, Vice President Joe Biden released a statement mourning Abdullah and announced that he would be personally leading a presidential delegation to offer condolences on his passing.

It's not often that the unelected leader of a country which publicly flogs dissidents and beheads people for sorcery wins such glowing praise from American officials. Even more perplexing, perhaps, have been the fawning obituaries in the mainstream press which have faithfully echoed this characterization of Abdullah as a benign and well-intentioned man of peace.

Tiptoeing around his brutal dictatorship, The Washington Post characterized Abdullah as a "wily king" while The New York Times inexplicably referred to him as "a force of moderation", while also suggesting that evidence of his moderation included having had: "hundreds of militants arrested and some beheaded" (emphasis added).

While granting that Abdullah might be considered a relative moderate within the brazenly anachronistic House of Saud, the fact remains that he presided for two decades over a regime which engaged in wanton human rights abuses, instrumentalized religious chauvinism, and played a hugely counterrevolutionary role in regional politics.
      Read More...
Black Magic

Netanyahu invited to appeal for more carnage before U.S. Congress

Robert Parry
Consortium News
Thu, 22 Jan 2015 00:00 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Netanyahu: "What we need right now is a clear message to the people of this country. This message must be read in every newspaper, heard on every radio, seen on every television... I want *everyone* to *remember*, why they *need* us!"

Exclusive: Conservative Pat Buchanan once got in trouble by calling Capitol Hill "Israeli occupied territory," but even he might not imagine what's happening now - with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu invited to address a joint session of Congress to decry President Obama's foreign policy, Robert Parry notes.

Showing who some in Congress believe is the real master of U.S. foreign policy, House Speaker John Boehner has invited Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session and offer a rebuttal to President Barack Obama's comments on world affairs in his State of the Union speech.

Boehner made clear that Netanyahu's third speech to a joint session of the U.S. Congress - scheduled for Feb. 11 - was meant to counter Obama's assessments. "There is a serious threat in the world, and the President last night kind of papered over it," Boehner said on Wednesday. "And the fact is that there needs to be a more serious conversation in America about how serious the threat is from radical Islamic jihadists and the threat posed by Iran."

The scheduling of Netanyahu's speech caught the White House off-guard, since the Israeli prime minister had apparently not bothered to clear his trip with the administration. The Boehner-Netanyahu arrangement demonstrates a mutual contempt for this President's authority to conduct American foreign policy as prescribed by the U.S. Constitution.

In the past when Netanyahu has spoken to Congress, Republicans and Democrats have competed to show their devotion by quickly and frequently leaping to their feet to applaud almost every word out of the Israeli prime minister's mouth. By addressing a joint session for a third time, Netanyahu would become only the second foreign leader to do so, joining British Prime Minister Winston Churchill who never used the platform to demean the policies of a sitting U.S. president.

Comment: See also: Obama and Netanyahu face off over Iran as Bibi goes behind his back to meet U.S. senators

      Read More...
Eye 2

Leon Brittan: Thatcher minister accused of failure to act on child sex abuse dossier dies

Paul Peachey
The Independent
Thu, 22 Jan 2015 18:31 UTC
Image

MP Simon Danczuk was about to challenge Lord Brittan (centre) about what he knew about child sex abuse. Flanking Leon Brittan are Tory grandees Edward Heath and Willie Whitelaw
The Prime Minister has led tributes to Lord Brittan, the former Home Secretary, whose retirement after years of public service has been dogged by controversy over the alleged cover-up of child abuse on his watch.

The death of Lord Brittan, at the age of 75 from cancer, was greeted with sorrow by his family and the admiration of his political peers, but with disappointment from abuse victims' groups seeking answers about an alleged establishment paedophile ring.

As the youngest Home Secretary since Winston Churchill, Lord Brittan was a key member of Cabinet after the Conservative landslide of 1983 swept Margaret Thatcher back to power.

He was a central figure in the controversy over the policing of the miners' strike and the Libyan embassy siege that resulted in the fatal shooting of PC Yvonne Fletcher. He was forced to resign from the cabinet over the Westland affair and spent a decade in Brussels as one of the UK's European commissioners.

"Leon Brittan was a dedicated and fiercely intelligent public servant," David Cameron said. "As a central figure in Margaret Thatcher's government, he helped her transform our country for the better by giving distinguished service as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Home Secretary and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

"He went on to play a leading role at the European Commission where he did so much to promote free trade in Europe and across the world. My thoughts are with Leon's family and friends at this sad time for them." Sir John Major said Lord Brittan had one of the most "acute and perceptive brains" in politics that he used unsparingly for the public good.

Comment: See: UK Establishment: Unmasking psychopathic faces - Pedophilia and murder in VERY high places

      Read More...
TV

South Front Ukraine crisis video updates: Jan 21 to Jan 23

South Front
YouTube
Fri, 23 Jan 2015 18:17 UTC
south front
A lot has been happening in Novorossiya since Kiev launched its new offensive. The South Front channel on YouTube has done an excellent job distilling the daily events into short video updates. Here is what has been going on in the last few days.

      Read More...
Chess

Analyst says Saudi Arabia ruled by oligarch consensus therefore policies unlikely to change

Eric Draitser
RT
Fri, 23 Jan 2015 19:18 UTC
King Abdullah
© Reuters / Kirsty Wigglesworth
Saudi Arabia's late King Abdullah
Wahhabi extremism is a direct outcome of the foreign policy that the oligarch consensus in Saudi Arabia has pursued for decades, thus there won't be any substantive policy changes, geopolitical analyst Eric Draitser, told RT.

RT: What legacy is King Abdullah leaving behind?

Eric Draitser: There are a number of things we should consider. I think the most obvious is the five hundred pound gorilla in the room, the exporting of Wahhabi extremism, the continued export from Saudi Arabia of precisely the kind of extremism that has been fought in Syria that has been fought in Iraq and all throughout the region. This specter, this global threat of Wahhabi extremism emanating from Saudi Arabia a direct outgrowth of the foreign policy that Saudi Arabia has pursued going on for decades. And it's certainly not all at the feet of one individual, but rather I think it could be described more specifically as an oligarchy, a familiar oligarchy, but an oligarchy nonetheless. And I think that is probably the principle reason why the report there is correct in saying that there won't be substantive policy changes because those policies were not simply enacted by Abdullah; those are enacted by an oligarch consensus in Saudi Arabia.

Comment: Oil prices are now rising, so it will be interesting to see what transpires next:

The U.S./Saudi oil price manipulation smacks of desperation

      Read More...
Bomb

An old hand is at work in Yemen's bloody civil war

Robert Fisk
The Independent
Wed, 21 Jan 2015 17:36 UTC
Image
© EPA
Smoke and flames rising during heavy clashes between presidential guards and Shiite Houthi rebels in Sanaa.
An old hand is at work in Yemen's bloody civil war.
Yemen is not Syria. But America's skewed comprehension of the Middle East has now produced a remarkably similar scenario.

It's all about the Saudis. No matter how complex the new Yemeni civil war may appear - nor how powerful the Houthi rebels have become in the capital of Sanaa - it's the Zaidi sect of Shiism which the Houthis represent that frightens the Sunni Wahabi monarchy of Saudi Arabia, and not without reason.

For more than five years, there has been armed conflict between Saudi forces and the Houthis, who at one point captured a low mountain range inside the Saudi border. The Saudis blame the usual suspects: Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah. The Houthis blame the usual suspects: the Sunnis of Yemen and their Saudi supporters along - you guessed it - with the United States.

Comment: The Middle East sure is a complicated mess. And now the president of Yemen wants to step down:
The president of Yemen has resigned along with his prime minister in protest at the takeover of the capital Sanaa by Shia Houthi rebels, creating a dangerous political vacuum.


      Read More...
Stock Down

The folly of endless growth: Sooner or later, real physical and environmental limits apply

Chris Martenson
PeakProsperity.com
Wed, 21 Jan 2015 14:52 UTC
Image
© Arthur Cofod / Pictures Inc./Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
Central banks around the globe have taken us all into unchartered territory, where the possible paths boil down to a binary outcome: either it all works out or it doesn't.

Unfortunately, the 'it all works out' outcome has a very low probability of actually happening; so the binary outcome isn't equally weighted like a coin toss. By 'working out', here's what the central banks all striving (praying?) for:
  • Inflation of 2% to 3% per year
  • Economic growth of at least 6% per year (nominal) and a real (inflation adjusted) rate of 3% per year.
The reason that the central banks want all of this growth and inflation isn't because it's good for you, me, or anybody we know. Instead, the bankers need it because that's what our exponential money system requires.

Comment: This article really makes it clear where we are headed and it's not good.

      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts