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U.S. House votes to lift 40-year ban on crude oil exports to 'compete against foreign oil suppliers like Iran and Russia'


RT
Sat, 10 Oct 2015 01:38 UTC
Image
© Andrews Cullen/Reuters
The US House of Representatives has voted in favor of lifting a four-decade ban on oil exports. Lifting the prohibition has been a years-long priority for the oil industry and its lobbyists.

Lawmakers voted 261-159 in favor of lifting the ban on Friday, with 26 Democrat lawmakers joining 235 Republicans in the vot. However, they were 55 votes short of being able to override a presidential veto. President Barack Obama has promised to reject the proposal if it were to pass Congress.

Debate on the issue now moves to the Senate, where the measure faces a sharp hurdle to passage and needs Democratic support to get it over the 60-vote hurdle to end debate on the issue.

The White House has said that Congress should instead "be focusing its efforts on supporting our transition to a low-carbon economy."

The House measure has the backing of oil and gas corporations, who argue that lifting the ban would create jobs and stimulate more US petroleum production. Already, US production has increased 80 percent since 2008 and helped drive down the global price of oil to half of what it was in the summer of 2014.

"An extra dollar or two for the price of our product today is very important because our margins are incredibly squeezed," Doug Suttles, the chief executive of Encana, a Canadian company that pumps oil and gas in the US, told the Wall Street Journal

More than a dozen oil companies, including Hess Corp, ConocoPhillips and Encana, formed a coalition to press the matter with Congress for over than a year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"This is a vote to level the playing field for US workers and businesses who should be allowed to compete against foreign oil suppliers like Iran and Russia," George Baker, executive director of the coalition of more than a dozen oil companies, which also includes Marathon Oil Corp and Apache Corp, told the Journal.


Comment: The U.S.'s only interest in passing this legislation is controlling and dominating the oil industry. See:

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Megaphone

China will not tolerate U.S. incursions in South China Sea, slams U.S. plans to send warships


Sputnik
Sat, 10 Oct 2015 18:00 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/ Bullit Marquez
China said on Friday it would not tolerate violations of its territorial waters as the United States considers sailing warships close to Beijing's man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea.

A Pentagon official said the United States was considering sending ships within the next two weeks to waters inside the 12-nautical-mile zones that China claims as territory around islands it has built in the Spratly chain, Reuters reported.

China claims most of the South China Sea, though Washington has signaled it does not recognize Beijing's territorial claims and that the US Navy will continue to operate wherever international law allows.
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Eye 1

'You're either with us or against us' - Washington and al-Qaeda are officially together at last

Justin Raimondo
Anti-War
Sat, 10 Oct 2015 13:44 UTC
support war on terror

... so that we can take all your freedoms away in its name and with your consent!
We have just observed the 14th anniversary of "Operation Enduring Freedom," otherwise known as the war in Afghanistan. It is the longest war in US history, a conflict that never even came close to achieving its stated goal of stabilizing the area and eradicating the Taliban. The US-backed central government in Kabul today has no more control of the country than it did when first established, and the Taliban is on the march, retaking city after city and inching toward the capital with the inevitability of high tide at the beach. And while the pretext for this costly adventure - the capture of Osama bin Laden - has long since been rendered moot, his heirs and legatees not only persist, but they prosper - with our help.

For a long time that help arrived by indirection: the jihadists prospered in reaction to our intervention. As we lurched around Afghanistan, and then Iraq, kicking down doors, slaughtering civilians, and setting up torture chambers from Bagram to Abu Ghraib, we created the conditions for a global insurgency that had once been relatively localized. The classic theory of "blowback" operated with relentless predictability.

But then something else occurred: the so-called "Arab Spring." You'll recall that the War Party, in selling the invasion of Iraq to the American public, promised that our intervention would provoke a wave of sympathy throughout the Muslim world, and the Middle East would witness the arising of a movement demanding their version of "democracy" on a regional scale. President George W. Bush made a speech declaring that the US was leading a "global democratic revolution" that would incite a "fire in the mind" of the populace and soon put an end to the Bad Guys.

Comment: Also see: SOTT Exclusive: Whose side are we on? The collapsing narratives in the 'War on Terror'

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Eye 1

Propaganda alert! Mixing the Big Lie with a little 'truth' in Russia's battle for Syria

Owen Matthews
The Spectator
Sat, 10 Oct 2015 13:54 UTC

Comment: This piece is an excellent example of just how subtle propaganda can be. Here the author shows a more 'enlightened' approach to Russia's involvement in Syria, acknowledging Western mistakes and praising Russian resolve. He takes a little truth, and then mixes it with the most glaring, and bizarrely inaccurate, 'Big Lies'. In the process the author completely misinforms the audience, so, out of respect for reality, we dissect the piece and expose the 'Big Lies'. But expect them to get worse as the West reacts to the changing balance of power with even more brazen and bizarre propaganda.


Putin
© NEO
Saddam Hussein hanged: is Iraq a better place? A safer place? Gaddafi murdered in front of the viewers: is Libya a better place? Now we are demonising Assad. Can we try to draw lessons?

— Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, United Nations, 1 October
Russia was right about Iraq and Libya, and America and Britain were dead wrong. Regime change doesn't seem to have changed Middle Eastern countries for the better, as Vladimir Putin has been warning for years. His policy is not to support any armed groups 'that attempt to resolve internal problems through force' — by which he means rebels, 'moderate' or otherwise. In his words, the Kremlin always has 'a nasty feeling that if such armed groups get support from abroad, the situation can end up deadlocked. We never know the true goals of these "freedom fighters" and we are concerned that the region could descend into chaos.'

Yet after a decade and a half of scolding the West for non-UN-sanctioned military interventions, Putin has now unilaterally committed Russian forces to what the former CIA director General David Petraeus calls the 'geopolitical Chernobyl' of Syria. Russia finds itself allied with Syria, Iraq and Iran — a new 'coalition' no less, as Syria's president Bashar al-Assad described it on Iranian state TV last week. How and why did Putin fail to take his own advice about the unintended consequences that breed in middle-eastern quagmires? And most importantly, how has he managed — so far at least — to make Russia's intervention in Syria into something close to a diplomatic triumph?

Comment: Indeed, Putin can do that far easier than the Western powers for one very simple reason: geography.

The final paragraph paints Putin as merely another geopolitical strategist, aiming for power over Britain and America. But in reality Putin has said, time and time again - and backed up his words with corresponding deeds, that Russia is not interested in power for power's sake, but rather mutual respect, cooperation and trade. This is something the power-hungry punks in Washington and London - congenitally obsessed with being 'number 1' - simply cannot fathom:



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Yoda

Rewriting the rules: Putin's endgame in Syria

Mike Whitney
Counterpunch
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 17:09 UTC
Image
© Reuters
Russia doesn't want to fight a war with Turkey, so Russian generals devised a simple, but effective plan to discourage Turkey from taking any action that could lead to a clash between the two nations.

Last week, Russian warplanes intruded into Turkish airspace twice. Both incidents caused consternation in Ankara and send Turkish leaders into a furor. On both occasions, officials in Moscow politely apologized for the incursions claiming they were unintentional ("navigational errors") and that they would try to avoid similar intrusions in the future.

Then there was a third incident, a more serious incident, that was not a mistake. It was clearly intended to send a message to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Here's a short summary of what happened from an article at the World Socialist Web Site:
"Turkish officials claimed a third incident on Monday, when an unidentified MiG-29 fighter jet locked its radar for four and a half minutes on eight Turkish F-16 jets that were on patrol on their side of the border, in apparent preparation to open fire." ("US, NATO step up threats to Russia over Syria", World Socialist Web Site)
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SOTT Logo Radio

The Truth Perspective: Propaganda & cognitive bias - The battle for your mind


Sott.net
Sat, 10 Oct 2015 18:00 UTC
Sott Talk Radio logo
Broadcasting from deep in the heart of the American Empire, join your host 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.

Propaganda has reached new hieghts in the information age. After decades of psychological study and experiementation, our media has honed their disinformation skills by exploiting the weaknesses of the human mind. We're faced with an information war that shapes public opinion and world events. Those lacking an understanding of our vulnerabilities are open to manipulation and deception, leading the world further into chaos. Join us today as we discuss the rampent propaganda in the media and how we might win the battle for our minds by recognizing our cognitive bias.

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: 02:12:00

Download: MP3


Here's the transcript of the show:
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Newspaper

Monsanto's 'Scientists': A new wave of bad press

Katherine Paul
Organic Consumers Association
Wed, 07 Oct 2015 16:29 UTC
Image
© globalresearch.ca
The Monsanto public relations machine has done a stellar job in recent years of reducing the GMO debate to one that pits "pro-science advocates" against "anti-science climate-denier types"—with Monsanto portrayed as being squarely planted in the pro-science camp.

But that well-oiled machine may be starting to sputter.

Turns out that Monsanto executive solicited pro-GMO articles from university researchers, and passed the "research" off as independent science which the biotech giant then used to prop up its image and further its agenda.

We know this, thanks to thousands of pages of emails obtained by US Right to Know, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). And because a host of news outlets—including the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Bloomberg, the StarPhoenix and others—are now running with the story.

Comment: Is this the beginning of Monsanto's crash and burn?

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Bomb

29 ISIS camps destroyed by Russian Air Force in last 24 hours - total of 55 targets hit


RT
Sat, 10 Oct 2015 15:39 UTC
su-34
© Russian Defense Ministry / RIA Novosti
A Su-34 fullback bomber performs air strikes in the provinces of Raqqah and Aleppo
Russian warplanes in Syria have bombed 29 terrorist field camps and other facilities of the militant group Islamic State in the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

"Our aviation group over the past day has destroyed two militant command centers, 29 field camps, 23 fortified facilities and several troop positions with military hardware," ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Saturday.

The Russian Air Force conducted 64 sorties and hit a total of 55 targets, he said.

He added that the Russian effort has "considerably degraded" the strength of the terrorist forces in Syria.

"During the initial phase of the operation, our warplanes have destroyed the biggest and most important supply hubs of ISIL," Konashenkov said, calling Islamic State by its former name. This resulted in the "mobility and offensive capability" of the jihadists being reduced, he said.


Comment: With the aid of Russian airstrikes, the Syrian Army was able to recapture the village of Al-Bahsa, Hama Province. The 'moderate rebels' there left plenty of evidence of their reign of 'moderate' terror. RT's Murad Gazdiev shows the results in his special report:


This Russian report shows additional footage (not translated):




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Post-It Note

Attorney General says reports on the number of civilians killed by police should not be mandatory

Jay Syrmopoulos
The Free Thought Project
Tue, 06 Oct 2015 15:29 UTC
obama lynch
In complete reversal of course from the stated position of her predecessor, Attorney General Loretta Lynch says the federal government shouldn't mandate police departments to report lethal shootings of civilians.

Lynch's statements diverge drastically from her predecessor Eric Holder, who left the position in April of this year. Former Attorney General Holder is on record calling the lack of official data on police shootings "unacceptable," with him labeling the collection of this data a "first step" in improving ever deteriorating police-community relations.

Back in January, Holder said,
"I've heard from a number of people who have called on policymakers to ensure better record-keeping on injuries and deaths that occur at the hands of police. I've also spoken with law enforcement leaders - including the leadership of the Fraternal Order of Police - who have urged elected officials to consider strategies for collecting better data on officer fatalities. Today, my response to these legitimate concerns is simple: We need to do both."
The about-face by Lynch reveals an utter contempt for the civil rights of American citizens while pandering to the Fraternal Order of Police's default position.
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Airplane

Tit-for-tat? Turkish military aircraft wander into Armenian airspace


Sputnik
Sat, 10 Oct 2015 15:04 UTC
Turkish helicopter
© AFP 2015/ Mandy CHENG
Turkish military helicopters briefly violated Armenia's airspace several days ago, the head of Civil Aviation Department said in an interview with local media.

"Turkish military aircraft violated Armenia's airspace on October 6-7 for 2-4 minutes; certain measures were taken in accordance with special procedures," Artyom Movsisyan told the daily newspaper Hraparak.

Dispatcher at Armats, the Armenian Air Traffic Services agency, took corresponding steps to identify the aircraft."

The Ankara dispatcher told the Armenian one that military passenger helicopters had crossed the border, but had quickly left without advancing into Armenia's territory.

"The Ankara dispatcher also said the Turkish helicopters entered Armenia's airspace because of bad weather," Hraparak quoted Movsisyan as saying.

Armenia is hosting Russia's 102nd military base which is on combat duty as part of the Unified Air Defense System of the CIS countries and the Russian military contingent in the South Caucasus region.

Turkey, which is a NATO member state, expressed concern earlier this week about a an incident in which a Russian warplane, operating in Syria, trespassed into Turkish airspace, on October 3.


Comment: NATO in comparison called an emergency meeting and expressed deep concern because a Russian aircraft deviated into Turkish airspace for a few seconds! Not to mention that Turkey violates the airspace of Greece daily, with a total of 1306 violations from January to August 2015, to which NATO didn't react to support Greece.


Comment: Armenia is an ally of Russia, so this could be read as Turkey's response to Russian jets flying over their airspace, which, as Mike Whitney writers here, is Putin telling Erdogan that his strategy of forcing out Assad by funnelling terrorists and weapons into Syria is over:
Then there was a third incident, a more serious incident, that was not a mistake. It was clearly intended to send a message to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Here's a short summary of what happened from an article at the World Socialist Web Site:
"Turkish officials claimed a third incident on Monday, when an unidentified MiG-29 fighter jet locked its radar for four and a half minutes on eight Turkish F-16 jets that were on patrol on their side of the border, in apparent preparation to open fire." ("US, NATO step up threats to Russia over Syria", World Socialist Web Site)
This was no mistake. The only time a fighter pilot adopts these protocols is when he plans to take down an enemy plane. This was a message, and while it might have been over-the-heads of the politicians and the media but, I assure you, every general in the Turkish High-Command knows what's it means. This is a wake-up call. Moscow is indicating that there's a new sheriff in town and that Turkey had better behave itself or there's going to be trouble. There's not going to be any US-Turkey no-fly zone over North Syria, there's not going to be any aerial attacks on Syrian sites from the Turkish side of the border, and there certainly is not going to be any ground invasion of Turkish troops into Syria. The Russian Aerospace Defence Forces now control the skies over Syria and they are determined to defend Syria's sovereign borders. That's the message. Period.


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