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SOTT EXCLUSIVE: U.S. jumping for joy over South Stream pipeline closure

William Barbe
Sott.net
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 23:41 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/ Gerry Broome
Shouldn't he be dead by now? John McCain.
Anyone who takes the time to fully understand the reasons why Russia cancelled the South Stream pipeline project and then listens to the US response to the news can only conclude that the US government has lost all touch with reality.

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice said on Tuesday:
"The news that Russia has pulled back from its South Stream pipeline to southern Europe... is indicative of the mounting cost that Russia is paying for its behavior," Rice said. "As a result, a major project, which had been championed by Putin and the Russian government, is now not likely to materialize."

"When you look at where the Russian economy is, it has suffered over the last year substantially as a result of sanctions and also as a result of declining oil prices and the combination is pretty powerful."
President Obama also crowed on Wednesday:
[Obama] doubted Russian President Vladimir Putin will change course until politics catch up with the rough economic situation in Russia.

Obama said Putin has promoted a nationalist, backward-looking approach to Russian policy that scares neighbors and hurts Moscow's economy.
Have mercy! The only way Obama and Rice could have come up with that conclusion is if they were somehow mistaking themselves for Putin and US foreign policy for Russian foreign policy. We can almost hear these two earnestly tell the EU: "Don't worry this is going to hurt Russia more than it will hurt you. So man up!" Meanwhile, EU bureaucrats must be 'sweating bricks' at the projected loss of billions for EU economies as a result of the death of South Stream. But what can they do? It is almost certain that they are being blackmailed by the USA, courtesy of the NSA and its pathological voyeurism. This isn't going to end well.

Comment: EU losers! Russia scraps South Stream pipeline project, announces major alternative gas deal - Did Putin just poach Turkey?

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Light Saber

Putin's counterpunch to EU: Exit South Stream, enter Turk Stream

Pepe Escobar
RT
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 00:00 UTC
Putin-Erdogan
© RIA Novosti/Sergey Guneev
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the concluding news conference in Ankara.
So the EU "defeated" Putin by forcing him to cancel the South Stream pipeline. Thus ruled Western corporate media. Nonsense. Facts on the ground spell otherwise.

This "Pipelineistan" gambit will continue to send massive geopolitical shockwaves all across Eurasia for quite some time. In a nutshell, a few years ago Russia devised Nord Stream - fully operational - and South Stream - still a project - to bypass unreliable Ukraine as a gas transit nation. Now Russia devised a new deal with Turkey to bypass the "non-constructive" (Putin's words) approach of the European Commission (EC).

Background is essential to understand the current game. Five years ago I was following in detail Pipelineistan's ultimate opera - the war between rival pipelines South Stream and Nabucco. Nabucco eventually became road kill. South Stream may eventually resurrect, but only if the EC comes to its senses (don't bet on it.)

Comment: No matter how many times these psychopathic EU leaders shoot themselves in the foot (e.g., with their sanctions on Russia), they fail to realize their mistake. It's the citizens of these nations who pay for it. All because they bought the lies told by their leaders. Or perhaps they do realize, and their leaders just don't care what they think.

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Quenelle

Hungary stands up to US: Summons US ambassador over John McCain's "neo-fascist" comment


Raw Story
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 20:04 UTC
John McCain
© Screenshot
John McCain
Hungary's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday summoned the U.S. ambassador in Hungary over comments made by U.S. Senator John McCain on Tuesday, calling Prime Minister Viktor Orban a "neo-fascist dictator."

The ministry called in Chargé d'Affaires André Goodfriend over McCain's comments, in which the Arizona Republican called on his Senate colleagues to block the approval of the new Ambassador to Hungary, Hollywood producer Colleen Bell.

Comment: Hungary is part of EU and a NATO member. EU was concerned about Hungary's drift towards Russia. So it's not a surprise to see war-mongering mad dog John McCain barking at Hungary at the behest of the American empire.

Viktor Orban said regarding his priorities:
"The question is not which side Hungary should take but what the Hungarian interest is," Orban told ethnic Hungarian leaders last week. "Peace, energy security and opportunities for commerce. These are what we have to accomplish."
It's not new for the fascist American empire to brand anybody who looks after their own interests, instead of following the empire's orders, or who allies with anybody who defies them as "neo-fascists".

John McCain may be an old fool, but his words generally translate into actions because he is aligned with the most powerful faction in the US. Everywhere he intervenes turns into ask: Egypt, Libya, Ukraine, Bulgaria (he delivered the message in June that Bulgaria was not to participate in the South Stream gas pipeline project), and now Hungary.



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Light Sabers

Jon Stewart and Larry Wilmore on "Don't shoot, Hands up" and racism


Raw Story
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 00:00 UTC
Jon Stewart
© YouTube
'Daily Show' host Jon Stewart on June 24, 2014
Daily Show host Jon Stewart and correspondent Larry Wilmore rebuked conservatives on Tuesday for harping on crime statistics in response to the Ferguson demonstrations.

"What would you say to those people?" Stewart asked Wilmore, who will debut as host of the Nightly Show next month.

"I would say they can go f*ck themselves, Jon," Wilmore said. "First of all, can we quit calling it 'Black-on-Black' crime? It's just crime, ok? I mean, 'Black-on-Black' just makes it sound like a category on Redtube."

The conversation about "Black-on-Black" crime, Wilmore argued, is already happening within Black communities.

Comment: Truth from a comedian. Sadly, they're often the best place to look: George Carlin, Bill Hicks... Maybe that's because it really takes a sense of humor to understand the total absurdity of modern civilization.

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War Whore

Human Rights Watch: Kiev failed to probe cluster bomb use against Donbass civilians - should invite ICC investigation


RT
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 17:34 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti/Alexey Kudenko
A local resident outside his house destroyed in the Ukrainian army's artillery attack in Donetsk's Oktyabrsky district.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Kiev has failed to investigate its army's use of prohibited cluster bombs against civilians in the country's east. It also recommends Kiev invite the International Criminal Court to investigate.

The human rights watchdog is dissatisfied with the investigation conducted by the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office into the use of cluster bombs by the Ukrainian armed forces in the east of the country, Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth told a media briefing in Kiev on Wednesday.

"Instead of analyzing physical evidence," Ukraine's Prosecutor General looked into the"presence of weapons in depots," and said they were not taken anywhere, said Roth.

He explained the watchdog had appealed to Ukraine's Military Prosecutor's Office regarding the use of cluster bombs and Grad multiple rocket launchers by Kiev's military in residential areas. In turn, the prosecutor appealed to the Ministry of Defense. Therefore he said "it's no surprise" the ministry did not find any violations by Kiev's military. In addition, the inspection did not check cluster bombs, but mines, he added.
Image
© RIA Novosti/Mikhail Voxresenskiy
Fragments of cluster munitions used by the Ukrainian military to shell the town of Gorlovka, the Donetsk region.
The HRW is not satisfied with this kind of investigation, he stressed.

Human Rights Watch found out during its own investigation that cluster bombs were used by pro-government forces in residential areas in eastern Ukraine, Roth said.

The area affected by the cluster bombs has a distinctive appearance, so the watchdog can say for sure that it was used in the area, Roth added. In addition, during talks with the defense ministry officials they didn't deny the "possibility" of the use of imprecise weaponry, however rejected the evidence provided by HWR, he said.

Comment: Considering that the ICC is useless, HRW requesting an investigation is an empty gesture.

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Cult

Russian bears and Byzantium: Misreading Russian grand strategy

Dr. Matthew Crosston
Near Eastern Outlook
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 19:24 UTC
Russian aid convoy
© Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
A Russian convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Ukraine is parked at a camp near Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Rostov Region, Aug. 16, 2014.
Common complaints within Intelligence Studies about the examination of foreign intelligence communities, especially those not residing in the west, run the gamut from being too historically driven to being completely ahistorical and thus nothing more than a simple organizational review of facts and details to being too often inevitably compared against a standard framework that uses either the United States or the United Kingdom as the backdrop. While these analyses are all important, they have failed to look at how the competing conceptualizations of culture within the discipline engender entirely different approaches and therefore radically different conclusions about how we view and evaluate said communities. Below is a 'case glance' of the phenomenon utilizing the Russian Federation. Perhaps most interesting and fairly unexpected is how in terms of security affairs American understanding about Russia seems to be hurt more analytically by grand strategic culture and is often never analyzed from a perspective that emphasizes contemporary reality, purpose-based objectives and actual organizational functionality.

Comment: In other words, American analysts are seeing exactly what they want to see regarding Russia while screening out the realities of contemporary Russia's words and actions. When American foreign policy regarding Russia is built on illusions, the result can only be disastrous, as we are witnessing in real time. Worse, the main effects are being visited on others (the EU and EU aspirants). The architects of these policies have yet to really suffer the consequences of their blindness.

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Bullseye

Merkel facing widespread public discontent over Russian sanctions


Sputnik International
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 18:01 UTC
Merkel
© Reuters / Francois Lenoir
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel
Public support for the anti-Russian sanctions is slowly eroding in the EU due to lack of prominent developments in the Ukrainian crisis.

German chancellor Angela Merkel may have hard time keeping Russia sanctions in place, as she is facing widespread public discontent, both within her nation and in the EU. The restrictive measures were introduced earlier this year and now their effects on the EU economy, and German in particular, are undermining trade. The EU is facing two possible options at this point, either a gradual revocation of the economic restrictions on Russia or a further tightening of the sanctions regime with the implementation of new restrictions, according to a report by Financial Times.

"Keeping sanctions in place is a challenge for German policy," says Gernot Erler, an MP of the opposition Social Democratic Party.

Comment: The German people are becoming increasingly fed-up with Washington's dictates, now that their economic well-being is increasingly threatened by such short-sighted policies. Merkel has been holding firm in her support for the US so far, but that may change as it has been reported that German industry and businesses are lobbying Berlin to revise the sanctions policy, which is threatening thousands of German jobs and bilateral trade between Europe and Russia. Other EU ministers are backing off from America's aggressive stance towards Russia as well.

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Eye 1

MH17 investigation update - Malaysia excluded, Ukraine able to 'veto' results

Julie Lévesque
Global Research
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 16:46 UTC
Image
© Channel 1 / East2West News
283 passengers were killed after MH17 was shot down, including 80 children and 50 crew

Several authors have recently asked why Malaysia is not part of the MH17 joint investigation team and why is Ukraine, a suspect in this case, part of it? The questions we should first be asking are what exactly is the joint investigation team, in which legal framework is it operating and why was it established?

There are actually several investigations going on on the shootdown of MH17. We will, however, focus on two of them which people seem to get mixed up: the first official inquiry led by the Dutch Safety board (DSB), which published a preliminary report on September 9, 2014 and the joint investigation team inquiry, which was established August 7, 2014.

The first investigation, led by the DSB an independent organization, is ruled by the Convention on International Civil Aviation, also known as the Chicago Convention, which was established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations agency.

Comment: The MH17 false flag is part of an ongoing strategy of NATO's that is primarily aimed at to destabilizing and then conquering. Unfortunately NATO has grown old and, through the corruption it spreads (especially in places like Ukraine), it has become a raving lunatic and places lunatics in power:
Chris Martenson: Well, Ukraine, let's begin there because I think so much springs from there. The Western narrative is that back in February of 2014, the former President Yanukovych, he was corrupt, he was democratically ousted, and now freedom and democracy can flourish in Ukraine. Is there anything wrong with that story?

Dmitry Orlov: Well, everything. Yeah. I mean first of all, there are no noncorrupt Ukrainian politicians. The place has been pretty much cesspool of corruption ever since Ukrainian independence. In fact, the only sort of demographic competition happening in Ukraine is in terms of who can rob the place faster. And there are all sorts of new schemes being hatched all the time. For instance, they just recently figured out how to sell off all of the gold that Ukraine once possessed and they probably pocketed quite a bit of that...


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Chess

Putin puts the ball squarely in the EU's court: A new unpalatable choice

Crimson Alter
Fortruss.blogspot.fr
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 12:03 UTC
EU bureaucrats
© Brian Gable
Putin's model of handling the internal and external partners, competitors and even enemies have long been known to all who are willing to look at things rationally. At the first stage, Putin offers a very good compromise. It is taken as a sign of weakness and rejected. At the second stage, the situation for those who rejected the compromise is rapidly deteriorating and a new compromise is offered, but significantly less profitable. And this continues up until there is no more compromise, or until a forever inflexible partner will "choke on a polonium scarf" in London. For example, in the situation with South Stream, we are observing phase two: the deterioration of EU's position with a hint of a new compromise in the form of an extended "Blue Stream" and a gas hub on a border with Greece.

Comment: This situation that Europe is in, is selfmade. EU's leadership mealy-mouthed US puppets have not cared about their own citizens, but instead served their own self interests and those of their masters. This is bound to result in loss of electoral capital, when the reality of the situation makes itself felt.

See also: SOTT Exclusive: EU finger pointing and fallout from Russia's decision to halt South Stream

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Chess

EU losers! Russia scraps South Stream pipeline project, announces major alternative gas deal - Did Putin just poach Turkey?

Aeneas Georg
Sott.net
Tue, 02 Dec 2014 19:20 UTC
'The Russians are slow to saddle their horses, but they run really fast'... And as Dmitry Orlov said in an interview a couple of days ago:
They're not very interested in communicating. They're far more interested in acting. So, what we'll probably see is a constant stream of surprises coming from Russia that will be completely unannounced and not predicted by anyone.
It should be added that when they act, it is significant. And boy did they act recently! Putin announced yesterday the decision to scrap the South Stream pipeline and simultaneously open a new one to Turkey with the same capacity, which thus makes NATO member Turkey a strategic partner for Russia.
South Stream cancelled
© Unknown
Bye, bye South Stream
That was a surprise and it didn't take long for the fallout and finger-pointing to begin. The Bulgarians, who have several times blocked the South Stream pipeline under the excuse of 'following EU directives', didn't see this coming. After not taking Russia seriously at first, they're now blaming Russia for the project's collapse!
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