Secret HistoryS


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Document reveals possible U.S./Saudi collusion with Israel before the Six Day War


Middle East Monitor
Fri, 01 Dec 2017 23:23 UTC
king faisal
© Knudsen, Robert L./WikipediaFaisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was King of Saudi Arabia from 1964 to 1975
A historical letter sent from the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia to the then US President, Lyndon B Johnson, in 1966 reveals the monarch's possible collusion with the US over Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula. Published by Al Motamar net news website, it has been described as "dangerous" by former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has long promised to reveal the contents of the document.

"King Faisal's letter to US President Lyndon Johnson said that the Egyptian forces would not withdraw from Yemen unless Israel moved to occupy Gaza, Sinai and the West Bank," explained Saleh. The Head of the General People's Congress urged the current Yemeni president and the rest of the Arab countries participating in the Saudi-led coalition, especially Egypt, to withdraw immediately from the alliance fighting in Yemen. "The events in Saudi Arabia, the blockade on Qatar, and the Sudanese President's visit to Russia are all a part of the changing equations [in the Middle East]," he claimed.

According to Saleh, the letter mentions what King Faisal described as Egypt's dangerous role in Yemen and the region in general through its support of the rebels and provoking the people's emotions against "us all" - the US and Saudi Arabia - as well as Egypt's ongoing and historical efforts to overthrow "our governments". Faisal also called Egypt "the greatest enemy" of Saudi Arabia and the US.

In his letter, the then Saudi monarch stressed the need for the US to support Israel to carry out a swift operation against Egypt by which it would control vital areas in the country - the Sinai Peninsula - not only forcing the government in Cairo to withdraw its forces from Yemen, but also to distract Egypt with Israel for as long as possible. King Faisal also suggested that the Gaza Strip under Egyptian control should be seized immediately, and believed that it was important to take control of the West Bank from Jordan in order for the Palestinians to lose hope of having control of any land administered by an Arab government.
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Info

Blood red sky that lasted 9 days: Mysterious hue seen over Far East Asia in 1770 was caused by biggest solar storm ever recorded

Joe Pinkstone
Daily Mail, UK
Thu, 07 Dec 2017 19:35 UTC
giant magnetic storm (stock image)
In 1770, people living in far-east Asia saw the sky turn a deep crimson for over a week - an event that was recorded in ancient scrolls. Now, scientists have analysed the historical event, and suggest the red hue was caused by a giant magnetic storm (stock image)
In 1770, people living in far-east Asia saw the sky turn a deep crimson for over a week - an event that was recorded in ancient scrolls.

Now, scientists have analysed the historical event, and suggest the red hue was caused by a giant solar storm.

Lost to the annals of time, the event could be the largest recorded solar flare in recorded history.

China, Korea and Japan all saw a deep red sky for nine days in the late 18th century.

Researchers from Osaka University have unearthed new documents which suggest the celestial phenomenon was caused by a geomagnetic storm.

'Historical documents can let us trace back solar activity for millennia,' Dr Hisashi Hayakawa, who led the study, told Live Science.

Comment: The main problem with this theory is that it occurred during the 'Little Ice Age', conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Causes are suggested to have been decreased solar activity, increased volcanic activity, as well as other factors.

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Info

Archaeologists revise chronology of the 'Natufian Culture' in the Near East


Popular Archaeology
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 17:39 UTC
Shubayqa 1 site
© University of CopenhagenArchaeologists working at the Shubayqa 1 site.
New research by a team of scientists and archaeologists based at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the University of Copenhagen suggests that the 15,000-year-old 'Natufian Culture' could live comfortably in the steppe zone of present-day eastern Jordan - this was previously thought to be either uninhabitable or only sparsely populated.

The hunter-gatherers of the Natufian Culture, which existed in modern-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria between c. 14,500 - 11,500 years ago, were some of the first people to build permanent houses and tend to edible plants. These innovations were probably crucial for the subsequent emergence of agriculture during the Neolithic era. Previous research had suggested that the centre of this culture was the Mount Carmel and Galilee region, and that it spread from here to other parts of the region. The new study by the Copenhagen-Weizmann team, published in Scientific Reports, challenges this 'core region' theory.

The new paper is based on evidence from a Natufian site located in Jordan, c. 150 km northeast of Amman. The site, called Shubayqa 1, was excavated by a University of Copenhagen team led by Dr. Tobias Richter from 2012-2015.
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Black Cat

Flesh-eating ancient 'marsupial lion' species discovered in Queensland, Australia


RT
Thu, 07 Dec 2017 12:36 UTC
Marsupial lion
Scientists have discovered a strange new species of marsupial lion in northern Australia. The fearsome predator has been extinct for at least 18 million years.

The animal was uncovered by a team of Australian scientists who analyzed fossilized remains of its skull, teeth and upper arm bone, all found in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area of remote north-western Queensland.

The team, from the University of New South Wales, published their findings in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology and named the strange creature 'Wakaleo schouteni' in honor of palaeo-artist Peter Schouten.

Wakaleo schouteni was a meat-eating, marsupial, predator that roamed Australia's rainforests some 18 to 26 million years ago. It's estimated to be as big as a medium-sized dog, weighing about 23kg (51lb), according to the study.

Comment: See also: Did mega-drought kill ancient Aboriginal culture?

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Books

Trump & Jerusalem: A legal & historical analysis

Lorenzo Kamel
Al Jazeera
Thu, 07 Dec 2017 15:15 UTC
Jerusalem's Old City
© Ronen Zvulun/ReutersA general view shows the Dome of the Rock and Jerusalem's Old City from David Tower
US President Donald Trump has said it is time to officially recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The decision comes seven decades after the Declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel, that was unilaterally announced on 14 May 1948 by David Ben-Gurion. At the time,no borders were settled for the new state. It is also for this reason that Israel's admission to the United Nations (UN) soon became a strategic priority. The admission to the UN, in fact, was and is the "most secure and expeditious way" of gaining widespread or universal recognition.

Yet, Israel's original application for admission to the UN was rejected by the UN Security Councilon December 17, 1948. The second bid for application was made on February 24, 1949. "Negotiations", assured the then Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban at the General Assembly of the UN, "would not, however, affect the juridical status of Jerusalem, to be defined by international consent".

These binding assurances - that served as the basis for Israel's admission to the UN - were made one year after the war of 1947- 48 (see Uri Avnery's "sacred mantras" on "rejectionism"): none of the historical events of the following seven decades has the legal capacity to erase them. Even more so considering that when, in 1980, Israel passed a Basic Law which declared Jerusalem "complete and united", as the "capital of Israel", the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 476affirming that "measures which have altered the geographic, demographic and historical character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem are null and void".
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Snow Globe

100 years ago today: Halifax, Canada devastated by massive explosion


Canada Encyclopedia
Wed, 06 Dec 2017 20:47 UTC
Halifax was devastated on 6 December 1917 when two ships collided in the city's harbour, one of them a munitions ship loaded with explosives bound for the battlefields of the First World War. What followed was one of the largest human-made explosions prior to the detonation of the first atomic bombs in 1945. The north end of Halifax was wiped out by the blast and subsequent tsunami. Nearly 2,000 people died, another 9,000 were maimed or blinded, and more than 25,000 were left without adequate shelter.
Halifax explosion1
Destruction caused by the Halifax Explosion, 6 December 1917.
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Archaeology

Oldest known waterway system that took a mystery Neolithic civilisation 3,000 people and nearly a decade to build is found in China

Harry Pettit
Daily Mail
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 13:50 UTC
Pictured is a map of the Liangzhu Ancient city
Pictured is a map of the Liangzhu Ancient city and its newly discovered hydraulic system along China's Yangtze River Delta. The team found levees (1), dams (2-11), mounds (12) and sections of the outer city wall (13, 14). Meirendi (15) and Bianjiashan (16) were part of this wall
An enormous waterway system built 5,000 years ago is rewriting the history of early Chinese engineering.

The recently excavated dam system was used by the Liangzhu society, a mysterious Neolithic group known for its stunning jade artefacts.

It took 3,000 people nearly ten years to build the waterway, which pushes back the date of the earliest known complex Chinese water system to around 5,100 years ago.

Experts found a series of high and low dams, as well as levees, that they say is one of the world's largest and oldest known hydraulic engineering systems.

Until now, the oldest known comparable systems had been Mesopotamian, dating to around 4,900 years ago.
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USA

The epochal consequences of Woodrow Wilson's war: 'The entire 20th Century was a giant mistake'

David Stockman
ContraCorner
Wed, 21 Jan 2015 23:20 UTC
woodrow wilson post card
© flickrPatriotic postcard from World War I.
Committee for the Republic

Washington DC January 20, 2015

My humble thesis tonight is that the entire 20th Century was a giant mistake.

And that you can put the blame for this monumental error squarely on Thomas Woodrow Wilson - a megalomaniacal madman who was the very worst President in American history........well, except for the last two.

His unforgiveable error was to put the United States into the Great War for utterly no good reason of national interest. The European war posed not an iota of threat to the safety and security of the citizens of Lincoln NE, or Worcester MA or Sacramento CA. In that respect, Wilson's putative defense of "freedom of the seas" and the rights of neutrals was an empty shibboleth; his call to make the world safe for democracy, a preposterous pipe dream.
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Archaeology

The historical mystery of the Dalhousie Mountain carvings

Jordan Gill
CBC News
Sun, 19 Nov 2017 15:20 UTC
dalhousie mountain mystery carvings
© Mary-Clare VautourNames carved onto a rock on Dalhousie Mountain. Questions remain as to who carved them and why?
On top of a hill in Dalhousie, colloquially known as Dalhousie Mountain, there are numerous names carved into rocks.Most are weathered and worn from the elements, but names such as "J.D. Howe" and the date "SPT 1880" can still be seen.However, there is a mystery. What exactly are these names doing on the top of that mountain?

Bill Clarke, the director of the Restigouche Regional Museum, said there's no concrete explanation as to who carved the names or why.

Clarke also said not a lot of research has been done to find out.

"We haven't really done a lot of research on them largely because there's so much else to do."
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Colosseum

Amazing pictures - Drowned city of the Caesars Baiae was Roman empire's wine-soaked party town of luxury

Michael Havis, Tom Howell
Mirror
Mon, 04 Dec 2017 12:09 UTC
The sunken city of the Caesars, lost for centuries beneath the waves, has been revealed in stunning new photographs.

Baiae was the resort of choice for the Roman super-rich and became notorious for its sprawling mansions.

Baiae Roman sunken city
© Pen News/Antonio Busiello
Italy is hardly short on Roman ruins - but what's left of Baia is in a league of its own

Comment: More on Baiae: Unsolved Mystery: Ancient Tunnels at Baiae

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