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Vader

Syria not a bargaining chip in relations with West - Lavrov


RT.com
Thu, 16 May 2013 11:50 UTC
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© RIA Novosti / Eduard PesovRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Moscow will make no "backstage" agreements on Syria in exchange for Western concessions on missile defense or any other disputed issues, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

"This is not serious. I think that those who try suggest that indulge in wishful thinking," Lavrov said in an interview with Lebanon's Al Mayadeen TV channel.

"Everyone knows well that Russia's stance on a whole range of crucial issues is not opportunistic," the Russian top diplomat emphasized.

At the same time, he pointed out, this does not mean that Moscow's position on such issues is definitive.

"We defend only the things that are in the basis of modern world order - the US Charter principles and other international legal documents, and we insist on their fulfillment," Lavrov said. "We do not want and we will not put up with attempts to distort reached agreements, particularly the legally binding ones," he underlined.

However, within the framework of these principles and agreements, Moscow is ready to look for compromises, acceptable primarily for the sides of the conflict.

Lavrov reiterated that Russia does not support President Bashar Assad in the Syrian conflict. He explained that Moscow acts not "for the sake of the regime or any person inside of at the top of this regime" but for the sake of the Syrians. The minister noted it was Russia's aim to stop suffering and uphold the basic principles of international law - such as national sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference in internal affairs.
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Blackbox

Mystery sponsor of weapons and money to Syrian mercenary "rebels" revealed

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Fri, 17 May 2013 11:29 UTC
Previously, when looking at the real underlying national interests responsible for the deteriorating situation in Syria, which eventually may and/or will devolve into all out war with hundreds of thousands killed, we made it very clear that it was always and only about the gas, or gas pipelines to be exact, and specifically those involving the tiny but uber-wealthy state of Qatar. Needless to say, the official spin on events has no mention of this ulterior motive, and the popular, propaganda machine, especially from those powers supporting the Syrian "rebels" which include Israel, the US and the Arabian states tries to generate public and democratic support by portraying Assad as a brutal, chemical weapons-using dictator, in line with the tried and true script used once already in Iraq.
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On the other hand, there is Russia (and to a lesser extent China: for China's strategic interests in mid-east pipelines, read here), which has been portrayed as the main supporter of the "evil" Assad regime, and thus eager to preserve the status quo without a military intervention. Such attempts may be for naught especially with the earlier noted arrival of US marines in Israel, and the imminent arrival of the Russian Pacific fleet in Cyprus (which is a stone throw away from Syria) which may catalyze a military outcome sooner than we had expected.
However, one question that has so far remained unanswered, and a very sensitive one now that the US is on the verge of voting to arm the Syrian rebels, is who was arming said group of Al-Qaeda supported militants up until now. Now, finally, courtesy of the FT we have the (less than surprising) answer, which goes back to our original thesis, and proves that, as so often happens in the middle east, it is once again all about the natural resources.
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Bullseye

SOTT Focus: Syria: WMD Redux

Richard Sawyer
Sott.net
Wed, 15 May 2013 15:01 UTC
syria iraq wmds
© unknownIraq has WMDs, Assad has WMDS, Trump has Russian connections!
"There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, 'Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. But fool me... can't get fooled again!'."

~ Dubya interpretation of 'Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me', Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002
The anti-Assad propaganda is in full swing with contradictory and unsubstantiated claims that the Syrian government has "used chemical weapons against its own people." Against this backdrop of faulty, evocative rhetoric, Israel recently launched deadly air strikes on Syrian territory. Like textbook plagiarism or a record on repeat, we're seeing a re-run of the 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' (WMD) lies that led to the illegal invasion of Iraq ten years ago.

UN investigator Carla del Ponte reported that if any sarin gas was used in Syria, it was actually fired by the US-backed opposition rebel forces, not the state forces of President Bashar al-Assad.

The damning additional fact is that the Syrian 'rebels' the West are arming are, in reality, terrorist 'Al-Qaeda' factions, as has been admitted in the French daily Le Monde and supported by an admission in the New York Times. Just as many Azawadi rebels in northern Mali last year defected from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad to Al-Qaeda-in-the-Islamic-Maghreb and other CIA fronts ahead of full-scale military intervention by Western powers in January 2013, Free Syrian Army 'rebels' are consolidating their allegiances to (and pooling their resources with) Jabhat al-Nusra, "an Al Qaida associate operating in Syria" that is responsible for cross-border attacks in Turkey and Lebanon.
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Chess

All eyes on Syria: Russian warships enter Mediterranean to form permanent task force


RT News
Thu, 16 May 2013 08:35 UTC
Russian warship
© RIA Novosti/Vitaliy AnkovThe "Admiral Panteleyev" anti-submarine warfare ship of the Pacific Fleet
Warships from Russia's Pacific Fleet have entered the Mediterranean for the first time in decades. Russia's Navy Chief says the task force may be reinforced with nuclear submarines, as the country starts building up a permanent fleet in the region.

"The task force has successfully passed through the Suez Channel and entered the Mediterranean. It is the first time in decades that Pacific Fleet warships enter this region," the Pacific Fleet spokesman, Capt. First Rank Roman Martov told RIA.

Russian warship
© RIA Novosti/Vitaliy AnkovGuards missile boats of the Pacific Fleet.
The vessels are now heading to Cyprus and will make a port call in the city of Limassol, he added.

The group includes destroyer "Admiral Panteleyev," two amphibious warfare ships "Peresvet" and "Admiral Nevelskoi," as well as a tanker and a tugboat.

The ships left the Far-Eastern port city of Vladivostok on March 19 to join Russia's Mediterranean task force, which currently consists of vessels from Northern, Baltic, and the Black Sea Fleets, including a large anti-submarine ship, a frigate and a Ropucha-II Class landing ship.
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Star of David

Israel threatens new air-strikes to topple Assad regime

Mark Landler
The New York Times
Thu, 16 May 2013 15:06 UTC
Mount Hermon
© Atef Safadi/European Pressphoto AgencyFor several hours on Wednesday, Israel closed Mount Hermon, above, a popular tourist site in Golan Heights, after mortar shells fired from Syria landed there.
"Israel is determined to continue to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah," the Israeli official said. "The transfer of such weapons to Hezbollah will destabilize and endanger the entire region."

"If Syrian President Assad reacts by attacking Israel, or tries to strike Israel through his terrorist proxies," the official said, "he will risk forfeiting his regime, for Israel will retaliate."

The Israeli official, who had been briefed by high-level officials on Israel's assessment of the situation in Syria, declined to be identified, citing the need to protect internal Israeli government deliberations. He contacted The New York Times on Wednesday.

Comment: Biased reporting one would expect from the New York Times promoting the weapons transfer idea to justify unprovoked air-strikes. The motives for Israel's warning could be to provide pubic support and motivation for the 'rebel' opposition they are supporting with the US and its allies to covertly overthrow the Assad regime.

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Dollar

BP and Shell raided for rigging prices for more than a decade

Rupert Neate and Terry Macalister
The Guardian
Wed, 15 May 2013 14:34 UTC
price rigging
© Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty ImagesThe suspected violations – related to the Platts’ price assessment process – may have been going on since 2002.
European commission carries out 'unannounced inspections' to investigate claims prices were rigged for more than a decade

The London offices of BP and Shell have been raided by European regulators investigating allegations they have "colluded" to rig oil prices for more than a decade.

The European commission said its officers carried out "unannounced inspections" at several oil companies in London, the Netherlands and Norway to investigate claims they may have "colluded in reporting distorted prices to a price reporting agency [PRA] to manipulate the published prices for a number of oil and biofuel products".

The commission said the alleged price collusion, which may have been going on since 2002, could have had a "huge impact" on the price of petrol at the pumps "potentially harming final consumers".

Comment: The whole financial system is a rigged game. This is just one in a long line of recent announcements of insider price rigging. See: Banks have rigged everything: The biggest price-fixing scandal ever

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Card - MC

Cashless society in Africa: Mastercard Biometric RFID national identity card

Timothy Alexander Guzman
Global Research
Thu, 16 May 2013 14:26 UTC
ID card Africa
© Mastercard
It was recently announced at the World Economic Forum in Cape Town, South Africa that MasterCard and the Nigerian National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) under the government of Nigeria would form a partnership to distribute a new identity card to every Nigerian citizen. The purpose of the card is to have all Nigerian citizens participate in the financial services sector under the control of MasterCard, a multinational financial services corporation headquartered in New York. MasterCard's press release 'MasterCard to Power Nigerian Identity Card Program' stated:
As part of the program, in its first phase, Nigerians 16 years and older, and all residents in the country for more than two years, will get the new multipurpose identity card which has 13 applications including MasterCard's prepaid payment technology that will provide cardholders with the safety, convenience and reliability of electronic payments. This will have a significant and positive impact on the lives of these Nigerians who have not previously had access to financial services.
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Blackbox

Hmm...What could finally topple Iran's regime? Earthquakes...

Daniel Nisman
CSMonitor.com
Wed, 15 May 2013 11:59 UTC
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© Stanislav Filippov/AP/FileEU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iran's chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, leave a podium in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Feb. 26. Ms. Ashton and Mr. Jalili meet in Istanbul today to work toward an agreement on Iran's nuclear program.
In the past half-century, earthquakes have directly contributed to the overthrow of at least two authoritarian regimes in Nicaragua and Iran. By exposing government corruption and incompetency, earthquakes wield the ability to inflict political damage to the world's most ironclad regimes with a level of potency matched only by their unpredictability. As EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili meet in Turkey today to continue working toward an agreement on Iran's nuclear program, the Iranian leadership should heed history's warning: No nuclear program can save a regime from a toppling earthquake.

In 1972, a powerful earthquake devastated Nicaragua's capital, Managua, setting off a chain reaction of public discontent that eventually led to the ousting of the notoriously corrupt Somoza dynasty. For the Nicaraguan people, President Somoza's squandering of international emergency aid following the earthquake was the last straw in a series of blatantly corrupt moves that showed little regard for their wellbeing.

The second instance occurred in September 1978 in Iran, when a 7.7 magnitude earthquake killed more than 26,000 near the eastern city of Tabas. The dismal response of the equally corrupt shah pushed Iran's already bubbling popular uprising to a boiling point, one month after the CIA made its historically erroneous assessment that the country was "not in a revolutionary or even pre-revolutionary situation."

As the Somozas and the shah can attest from their resting place in history's dustbin, earthquakes are much more than nature's most destructive physical force.

Comment: Author Daniel Nisman is the Middle East section intelligence director at Max Security Solutions, a geo-political and security risk consulting firm.

And then we have this:
A Haiti Disaster Relief Scenario was envisaged by the U.S. Military one day before the earthquake
The Militarization of Emergency Aid to Haiti: Is it a humanitarian operation or an invasion?

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Arrow Down

Everything is rigged, continued: European Commission raids oil companies in price-fixing probe

Matt Taibbi
Rolling Stone
Wed, 15 May 2013 11:05 UTC
Finance Workers
© Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesEuropean finance workers
We're going to get into this more at a later date, but there was some interesting late-breaking news yesterday.

According to numerous reports, the European Commission regulators yesterday raided the offices of oil companies in London, the Netherlands and Norway as part of an investigation into possible price-rigging in the oil markets.

The targeted companies include BP, Shell and the Norweigan company Statoil. The Guardian explains that officials believe that oil companies colluded to manipulate pricing data:
The commission said the alleged price collusion, which may have been going on since 2002, could have had a "huge impact" on the price of petrol at the pumps "potentially harming final consumers".
Lord Oakeshott, former Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said the alleged rigging of oil prices was "as serious as rigging Libor" - which led to banks being fined hundreds of millions of pounds.
The inquiry also involves Platts, the world's largest oil price reporting agency. The concept here is very similar to both the LIBOR scandal, which involved banks manipulating the benchmark rates for interest rates, and to the possible rigging of interest rate swap prices through the manipulation of ISDAfix, the benchmark rate for those instruments, which is also the subject of a regulatory probe.
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MIB

'Old-school' spycraft persists in digital age

Carl Schreck
RIA Novosti
Tue, 14 May 2013 19:11 UTC
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© FSBA table behind Ryan Christopher Fogle shows some of the items that were allegedly confiscated from him.
The alleged espionage arsenal that a purported American spy was carrying when he was caught Monday night in Moscow - including a compass and a map of the Russian capital - looks decidedly old-school in the age of iPhones and GPS navigators.

But when it comes to spy tradecraft, newer isn't necessarily better, a veteran clandestine services officer with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

"Just as espionage itself is very old, many of the tradecraft methods for espionage are still valid," said Peter Earnest, who operated intelligence collection and covert operations in Europe and the Middle East during a 35-year career with the CIA.

"Cell phones and text messages can be hacked," Earnest added. "By resorting to written messages and dead-drop sites, you may be ensuring the intelligence service and perhaps the agent a level of security that trying to talk on the phone or something else doesn't."
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