http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/current_issues/ci12-9/ci12-9.html
http://www.sputniknews.com/business/20141110/195426237/Russian-Central-Bank-Sets-Economic-Scenario-with-Oil-Prices-at.html
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Petrodollar/recycling
First I'm going to remark that although many facts shared here may be accurate, I'm not always in agreement with them.
My first reason is that the petrodollar is being recycled for bank liquidity.
Why else would traders get free loans from the US Federal Reserve to speculate in oil with?
In reality, when prices hit a ceiling (or peak), demand drops. So supply enters the market to meet demand and drop prices, which is what Russia and other oil producers want to do. Which is lucrative since India and China are developing.
With that being said, there should be enough liquidity with the petrodollar without the subsidized speculation. And the banks are not really loaning all that much anyways to businesses, keeping our economy in horrible shape.
\
Transnational Crime in the Americas Tom J. Farer
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/07/us-oil-funds-idUSKBN0IR1TV20141107
WASHINGTON,
April 7 (UPI) -- U.S. lawmakers and advocacy groups voiced concerns over a
contract awarded to Swiss-Dutch firm Vitol to fill U.S. petroleum reserves due
to its ties to Iran.
The
U.S. Senate voted last week on a non-binding measure that puts the opposition
to using federal funds for companies involved in the Iranian energy
sector
on the record. Vitol is an active supplier of refined petroleum to Iran, the
Platts news service reports.
The
U.S. Department of Energy announced in January it had awarded a contract to buy
oil from Vitol for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Mark
Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said
in a statement that the non-binding Senate measure could affect the Vitol
contract.
"The
question now is whether this unequivocal statement by the Senate will affect
the U.S. Department of Energy's decision," he said. "The Obama
administration can rectify this mistake by following the Senate's wishes."
U.S.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., issued a bipartisan letter to the Energy
Department in the wake of the January deal requesting a review of the contract
because of Vitol's connection to the Iraqi Oil-for-Food scandal.
The
United Nations established the Oil-for-Food program in 1995 to allow Iraq to
sell oil in exchange for food and other aid without violating sanctions. Vitol pleaded
guilty in 2007 to grand larceny in connection with paying Iraqi officials $13
million in kickbacks from the program.
- See more at:
http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/us-lawmakers-scorn-vitol-spr-contract/#sthash.giuqQavQ.dpuf
I'm going to sound like a conspiracy
theorist when I tell you that the same day Obama orders "Internet
Regulation", it means CENSORSHIP.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/10/technology/obama-internet-regulation/index.html?sr=fbmoney111014internetobama0100story
http://books.google.com/books?id=xgZUDbcrV9EC&pg=PA77&lpg=PA77&dq=petrodollar+bank+liquidity&source=bl&ots=PpuzJSnyh0&sig=yZW2l-VbP7Y26hC7MslfJyxLf68&hl=en&sa=X&ei=DvZgVOL8GcT2igLNyIHQBQ&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=petrodollar%20bank%20liquidity&f=false
http://books.google.com/books?id=xgZUDbcrV9EC&lpg=PA77&ots=PpuzJSnyh0&dq=petrodollar%20bank%20liquidity&pg=PA81#v=onepage&q=petrodollar%20bank%20liquidity&f=false
OMG! LOOK! ANOTHER
BROKEN LINK! FROM THE NY FED.
http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/current_issues/ci12-9/ci12-9.html
Here are a few charts I got from Zerohedge:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-07/petrodollar-dominoes-how-strong-dollar-slamming-oil-exporters-and-other-brics
Russia and China just signed a $400 billion gas deal. Obama isn't happy
about that.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-10/russia-china-add-to-400-billion-gas-deal-with-accord.html
Zerohedge came up with their own
conclusions.
But
you can bet your last ruble that Vladimir Putin knows exactly where Tajikistan
is. Because the group that met there is the Russian president’s baby.
It’s
the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), consisting of six member states:
Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
The
SCO was founded in 2001, ostensibly to collectively oppose extremism and
enhance border security. But its real reason for being is larger. Putin sees it
in a broad context, as a counterweight to NATO (a position that the SCO doesn’t
deny, by the way). Its official stance may be to pledge nonalignment,
nonconfrontation, and noninterference in other countries’ affairs,
but—pointedly—the members do conduct joint military exercises.
Why should we care about this meeting in the middle of nowhere? Well,
obviously, anything that Russia and China propose to do together warrants our
attention. But there’s a whole lot more to the story.
Since the SCO’s inception, Russia has been treading somewhat softly,
not wanting the group to become a possible stalking horse for Chinese expansion
into what it considers its own strategic backyard, Central Asia. But at the
same time, Putin has been making new friends around the world as fast as he
can. If he is to challenge US global hegemony—a proposition that I examine in
detail in my new book, The Colder War—he will need as many
alliances as he can forge.
Many observers had been predicting that the Dushanbe meeting would be
historic. The expectation was that the organization would open up to
new members. However, expansion was tabled in order to concentrate on the
situation in Ukraine. Members predictably backed the Russian position and
voiced support for continuing talks in the country. They hailed the Minsk
cease-fire agreement and lauded the Russian president’s achievement of a peace
initiative.
However, the idea of adding new members was hardly forgotten. There are other
countries which have been actively seeking to join for years. Now, with the
rotating chairmanship of the organization passing to Moscow—and with the next
summit scheduled for July 2015 in Ufa, Russia—conditions could favor the
organization’s expansion process truly taking shape by next summer, says Putin.
To that end, the participants in Dushanbe signed documents that
addressed the relevant issues: a “Model Memorandum on the Obligations of
Applicant States for Obtaining SCO Member State Status,” and “On the Procedure
for Granting the Status of the SCO Member States.”
This is extremely important, both to Russia and the West,
because two of the nations clamoring for inclusion loom large in geopolitics:
India and Pakistan. And waiting in the wings is yet another major player—Iran.
In explaining the putting off of a vote on admittance for those
countries, Putin’s presidential aide Yuri Ushakov was candid. He told Russian
media that expansion at this moment is still premature, due to potential
difficulties stemming from the well-known acrimony between India and China, and
India and Pakistan, as well as the Western sanctions against Iran. These
conflicts could serve to weaken the alliance, and that’s something Russia wants
to avoid.
Bringing longtime antagonists to the same table is going to require some
delicate diplomatic maneuvering, but that’s not something Putin has ever shied
away from. (Who else has managed to maintain cordial relationships
with both Iran and Israel?)
As always, Putin is not thinking small or short term here. Among the priorities
he’s laid out for the Russian chairmanship are: beefing up the role of the SCO
in providing regional security; launching major multilateral economic projects;
enhancing cultural and humanitarian ties between member nations; and designing
comprehensive approaches to current global problems. He is also preparing an
SCO development strategy for the 2015-2025 period and believes it will be ready
by the time of the next summit.
We should care what’s going on inside the SCO. Once India and Pakistan get in
(and they will) and Iran follows shortly thereafter, it’ll be a geopolitical
game changer.
Putin is taking a leadership role in the creation of an international
alliance among four of the ten most populous countries on the planet—its
combined population constitutes over 40% of the world’s total, just short of 3
billion people. It encompasses the two fastest-growing global economies. Adding
Iran means its members would control over half of all natural gas reserves.
Development of Asian pipeline networks would boost the nations of the region
economically and tie them more closely together.
If Putin has his way, the SCO could not only rival NATO, it could fashion a new
financial structure that directly competes with the IMF and World Bank. The New
Development Bank (FKA the BRICS Bank), created this past summer in Brazil, was
a first step in that direction. And that could lead to the dethroning of the US
dollar as the world’s reserve currency, with dire consequences for the American
economy.
As I argue in The Colder War, I believe that this is Putin’s ultimate
aim: to stage an assault on the dollar that brings the US down to the level of
just one ordinary nation among many… and in the process, to elevate his
motherland to the most exalted status possible.
What happened in Tajikistan this year and what will happen in Ufa next
summer—these things matter. A lot.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-07/putin-signs-secret-pact-crush-nato
Now let's retract.
"It’s the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO),
consisting of six member states: Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan."
Who trades oil here?
Viotol?
http://www.businessinsider.com/presenting-the-worlds-16-largest-commodity-traders-2011-10?op=1
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-15-biggest-energy-comapnies-in-the-world-2011-10#now-lets-go-bigger-and-take-a-look-at-which-sectors-are-cleaning-up-16
Now let's retract."It’s the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), consisting of six member states: Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan."Who trades oil here? Viotol?
Putin Signs Secret Pact To Crush NATO
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/07/2014 13:51 -0500
Back on September 11 and 12, there was a summit meeting in a city that involved an organization that most Americans have never heard of. Mainstream media coverage was all but nonexistent.
The place was Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, a country few Westerners could correctly place on a map.
But you can bet your last ruble that Vladimir Putin knows exactly where Tajikistan is. Because the group that met there is the Russian president’s baby.
It’s the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), consisting of six member states: Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
The SCO was founded in 2001, ostensibly to collectively oppose extremism and enhance border security. But its real reason for being is larger. Putin sees it in a broad context, as a counterweight to NATO (a position that the SCO doesn’t deny, by the way). Its official stance may be to pledge nonalignment, nonconfrontation, and noninterference in other countries’ affairs, but—pointedly—the members do conduct joint military exercises.
Why should we care about this meeting in the middle of nowhere? Well, obviously, anything that Russia and China propose to do together warrants our attention. But there’s a whole lot more to the story.
Since the SCO’s inception, Russia has been treading somewhat softly, not wanting the group to become a possible stalking horse for Chinese expansion into what it considers its own strategic backyard, Central Asia. But at the same time, Putin has been making new friends around the world as fast as he can. If he is to challenge US global hegemony—a proposition that I examine in detail in my new book, The Colder War—he will need as many alliances as he can forge.
Many observers had been predicting that the Dushanbe meeting would be historic. The expectation was that the organization would open up to new members. However, expansion was tabled in order to concentrate on the situation in Ukraine. Members predictably backed the Russian position and voiced support for continuing talks in the country. They hailed the Minsk cease-fire agreement and lauded the Russian president’s achievement of a peace initiative.
However, the idea of adding new members was hardly forgotten. There are other countries which have been actively seeking to join for years. Now, with the rotating chairmanship of the organization passing to Moscow—and with the next summit scheduled for July 2015 in Ufa, Russia—conditions could favor the organization’s expansion process truly taking shape by next summer, says Putin.
To that end, the participants in Dushanbe signed documents that addressed the relevant issues: a “Model Memorandum on the Obligations of Applicant States for Obtaining SCO Member State Status,” and “On the Procedure for Granting the Status of the SCO Member States.”
This is extremely important, both to Russia and the West, because two of the nations clamoring for inclusion loom large in geopolitics: India and Pakistan. And waiting in the wings is yet another major player—Iran.
In explaining the putting off of a vote on admittance for those countries, Putin’s presidential aide Yuri Ushakov was candid. He told Russian media that expansion at this moment is still premature, due to potential difficulties stemming from the well-known acrimony between India and China, and India and Pakistan, as well as the Western sanctions against Iran. These conflicts could serve to weaken the alliance, and that’s something Russia wants to avoid.
Bringing longtime antagonists to the same table is going to require some delicate diplomatic maneuvering, but that’s not something Putin has ever shied away from. (Who else has managed to maintain cordial relationships with both Iran and Israel?)
As always, Putin is not thinking small or short term here. Among the priorities he’s laid out for the Russian chairmanship are: beefing up the role of the SCO in providing regional security; launching major multilateral economic projects; enhancing cultural and humanitarian ties between member nations; and designing comprehensive approaches to current global problems. He is also preparing an SCO development strategy for the 2015-2025 period and believes it will be ready by the time of the next summit.
We should care what’s going on inside the SCO. Once India and Pakistan get in (and they will) and Iran follows shortly thereafter, it’ll be a geopolitical game changer.
Putin is taking a leadership role in the creation of an international alliance among four of the ten most populous countries on the planet—its combined population constitutes over 40% of the world’s total, just short of 3 billion people. It encompasses the two fastest-growing global economies. Adding Iran means its members would control over half of all natural gas reserves. Development of Asian pipeline networks would boost the nations of the region economically and tie them more closely together.
If Putin has his way, the SCO could not only rival NATO, it could fashion a new financial structure that directly competes with the IMF and World Bank. The New Development Bank (FKA the BRICS Bank), created this past summer in Brazil, was a first step in that direction. And that could lead to the dethroning of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency, with dire consequences for the American economy.
As I argue in
The Colder War, I believe that this is Putin’s ultimate aim: to stage an assault on the dollar that brings the US down to the level of just one ordinary nation among many… and in the process, to elevate his motherland to the most exalted status possible.
and even more:
(ACCORDING TO ME, THIS IS THE ALIBI. I THINK THE BANKS WANT OIL PRICES TO REMAIN HIGH. GOING OVER THE PRICE CEILING WOULD DROP SALES OF GAS WHICH HURTS SALES FOR BOTH THE ARABS AND RUSSIA.
RUSSIA'S REDUCED VALUE OF THE RUBLE CAN EXPORT MORE NATURAL GAS TO CHINA.
THE COMMODITY SPECULATORS CAN TELL YOU WHO WANTS OIL PRICES TO GO UP.
THE BANKERS NEED THAT LIQUIDITY. ERIC ZEUSSE EXPLAINED A LOT. I DON'T AGREE WITH EVERY DETAIL BUT HE APPEARS TO AT LEAST GET THE CAUSATION CORRECT. HE THINKS THAT THE ARABS AND THE U.S. WENT IN TO SCREW RUSSIA WITH WEAKENED GAS PRICES. I THINK THAT THE BANKS ARE DOING IT, AS THE VETS ARE SUING THE BANKS FOR FUNDING IRAQ. WHY WOULD THE BANKS CARE that MUCH?
THEY SHOULD, THEY'RE ENTITLED TO COMPENSATION FOR THAT.
Obama's Secret Deals With Saudi Arabia & Qatar
What's Behind Lower Gas-Prices and the Bombings of Syria and of Eastern
Ukraine: Obama Represents U.S. & Arabic Aristocracies, Against Those of
Russia & Iran
By Eric Zuesse
(The following report reconstructs U.S. President Barack
Obama's foreign policy, on the basis of what I have deemed to be reliable news
accounts of his Administration's actions, not of its mere words. This
reconstruction is grounded in the linked-to news-sources, all of which I have investigated
and verified -- and some of which I wrote. The ones that I wrote are themselves
sourced to the links within those reports, all of which I have, likewise,
personally checked and verified. Consequently, the chain of verifications back
to this reconstruction's primary sources is available to any online reader, and
every reader is encouraged to track back to its ultimate source any allegation
that might appear to be at all questionable to him or her in the present
article. Not only will this exercise be helpful to the reader concerning that
given point at question, but it will open that person to an associated world of
deeper discovery, which I hope that this news-report and analysis will do for
many readers, and which is the reason I wrote it: so as to share with others
what I and other careful and cautious researchers have discovered, though it
might be, in some instances, starkly at variance with what our Government, and
most of the press, have been more commonly presenting as ‘truth' about these matters.
At least, this exercise will provide an alternative frame of reference
regarding these issues, an alternative possibility to consider, and which I
have verified, from every root to every branch, in this tree of historical
reconstruction of the events.)
INTRODUCTION:
November 07, 2014 "ICH"
- Why is the Ukrainian Government, which the U.S. supports, bombing the pro-Russian residents who live in Ukraine's own
southeast?
Why is the American Government, which aims to oust Syria's
leader Bashar al-Assad, bombing his main enemy, ISIS?
I find that both bombings are different parts of the same
Obama-initiated business-operation, in which the American aristocracy, Saudi
aristocracy, and Qatari aristocracy, work together, to grab dominance over
supplying energy to the world's biggest energy-market, Europe, away from
Russia, which currently is by far Europe's largest energy-supplier.
Here are the actual percentage-figures on that: Russia supplies 38%, #2 Norway (the only European nation
among the top 15) supplies 18%, and all other countries collectively supply a
grand total of 44%. That's it;
that's all -- in the world's largest energy-market. Russia is the lone giant.
But U.S. President Obama's team want to change that. (Unfortunately, the residents
in southeastern Ukraine are being bombed and driven out to become refugees in Russia , as
an essential part of this operation to choke off Russia's gas-supply to
Europe.)
Obama has initiated, and is leading, this international
aristocratic team, consisting of the U.S. aristocracy and Sunni Moslem
aristocracies -- the Saudi and the Qatari royal families -- to choke off
Russia's economic lifeblood from those European energy sales, and to transfer
lots of this business, via new oil and gas pipeline contracts and new
international trade-deals, over to the royal families of Saudi Arabia and
Qatar. Those royals, in turn, are assisting Obama in the overthrow of the key
Russia-allied leader of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, who has performed an
indispensable role in blocking any such massive expansion of Saudi and Qatari
energy-traffic into Europe, and who has thus been a vital protector of Russia's
dominance in the European energy-market.
America's aristocracy would be benefited in many ways from
this changeover to Europe's increasing dependence upon those Sunni Moslem
nations, which have long been allied with U.S. oil companies, and away from the
Shiite Moslem nation of Iran, and from its key backer, Russia.
The most important way that America's aristocrats would
benefit would be the continuance, for the indefinite future, of the U.S.
dollar's role as the international reserve currency, in which energy and
energy-futures are traded. The Sunni nations are committed to continued
dominance of the dollar, and Wall Street depends on that continuance. It's also
one of the reasons the U.S. Treasury's sales of U.S. Federal debt around the
world have been as successful as they are. This also provides essential support
to the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Furthermore, Obama's effort to force the European Union to
weaken their anti-global-warming standards so as to allow European imports of
oil from the exceptionally carbon-gas-generating Athabasca Canada tar sands --
which are approximately 40% owned by America's Koch brothers, the rest owned by
other U.S. and allied oil companies -- would likewise reduce Europe's current
dependency upon Russian energy sources, at the same time as it would directly
benefit U.S. energy-producers. Obama has been working hard for those oil companies to
become enabled to sell such oil into Europe .
And, finally, the extension of U.S. fracking technology into
Ukraine, and perhaps ultimately even into some EU nations, where it has been
strongly resisted, might likewise reduce the enormous flow of European cash
into Russian Government coffers to pay for Russian gas (which doesn't even
require fracking).
In other words, the wars in both Syria and Ukraine are being
fought basically in order to grab the European energy market, away from Russia,
somewhat in the same way (though far more violently) as Iran's share of that
market was previously grabbed away by means of the U.S.-led sanctions against
that country. The current bombing campaigns in both Syria and Ukraine are
directed specifically against Iran's chief ally, Russia.
First, will be discussed here the bombing-campaign against
Iran's and Russia's ally Assad in Syria; then against the residents of the
ethnic-Russian areas of Ukraine.
SYRIA:
As the articles that are headlined below document, there has
been proposed, in order to promote Russian gas flowing into
Europe, an eastbound Iran-Iraq-Syria-Turkey-Europe gas pipeline (but sanctions
stopped that); and there was also proposed, in order to undercut
Russian gas flowing into Europe, a northbound Qatar-Saudi-Jordan-Syria-Turkey-Europe
gas pipeline -- those being two different and competing ways of supplying gas
into Europe.
Russia's ally Syria is crucial to both
proposed pipelines, which means that Assad has needed to be overthrown in order
for the northbound pipeline from Qatar to be constructed and so to compete
against Russia's gas-supplies to Europe.
There have also been some differences between the Saudi and
Qatari royal families as regards their motives for removing the Shiite Assad
from leading Syria. Qatar's royals ( and also Turkey's aristocrats ) want him to
be replaced by an anti-Iranian, Sunni Moslem Brotherhood leader (the type of
person that Obama euphemistically calls by such terms as ‘moderate Moslems'
though they were hardly that in Egypt once they gained power there ).
Qatar's royals have protected themselves from being overthrown by
fundamentalist Moslems; they've done it especially by supporting the Moslem
Brotherhood as a means of displaying their own loyalty to Moslem clerics. (The
public trusts the clerics, but doesn't trust the aristocrats; and, like
everywhere, aristocrats obtain their perceived ‘legitimacy' from the local
clergy, whom aristocrats buy-off with special favors.) The Moslem Brotherhood
want to control Syria, and would love to approve a gas pipeline from Qatar
through Syria to Europe, to reward their chief benefactor, Qatar's royals. As
for the Saudi royals, they want Assad to be replaced by an anti-Iranian, Sunni
ISIS leader, who will represent the Sauds' Wahhabist sect in Islam, which
provides Saudi royals their ‘legitimacy.' (Saudi royals say they
don't like Al Qaeda and ISIS, but that's said mainly for public consumption in
the West.) Right now, Saudi Arabia supplies less than 5% of Europe's
energy, which is a mere one-eighth of what
Russia does. So: each of these two royal families relies primarily
upon a different category of Islamists. Obama prefers the ‘moderate' Muslim
Brotherhood to the extremist ISIS, but Saudi royals accept his having that
preference, because any way to weaken Iran and its backer Russia is fine with
them, especially since it would open wide the enormous European market for
their oil.
Other internal conflicts also exist within Obama's team. For
example, an expert on these matters, Felix Imonti, explained to me in a
personal communication, that, “Qatar ... abandoned the [pipeline] plan in 2010
for a very simple reason. Saudi Arabia will not permit a pipeline to be constructed
across its territory. Qatar is interested along with Turkey in installing a MB
government in Syria. ... The Saudi objective is to drive out the Iranians from
Syria.” The Saudis' “objective was to establish a Wahhabi based [fundamentalist
Moslem] state that would include western Iraq with Syria,” which, of course, is
what ISIS is all about. Imonti also says: “Egypt [except for the brief time
when it was controlled by the MB] is a bought puppet of Saudi Arabia. The
Egyptians are bombing Qatari groups in Libya.” That Egyptian action is
indirectly a Saudi attack against the Qatari royals' own support-base. These
issues between the two royal families are like squabbles within a family: more
is shared in common than splits them apart. Obama's decisions are often
determinative on such matters.
So, America's aristocracy supports both the Saudi and the
Qatari aristocracies, despite their disagreements, in order to defeat the
aristocracies in Russia, China, and the other “BRIC” countries.
Or, as President Obama's speech at West Point, on 28 May 2014 ,
propagandized for this view on the part of America's aristocracy:
"Russia's aggression toward former Soviet states unnerves capitals in
Europe, while China's economic rise and military reach worries its neighbors.
From Brazil to India, rising middle classes compete with us.” So, Obama made
clear to the graduating cadets that the BRIC countries are the enemy, from the
standpoint of America's aristocracy. Ours want to crush the aristocrats in
Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Though it's alright for those other countries
to produce more, that's true only if American aristocrats control the local
ones, like in any other international empire -- not if the local
aristocrats there do. Similarly, for example, the British Empire didn't wish
for local aristocrats in India to be in control, but only for those client
aristocrats to be of use . Obama added, placing a nationalistic
coloration on his promotion of America's empire: “The United States is and
remains the one indispensable nation.” He promised to keep it that way: “That
has been true for the century passed [sp.: past [[somebody at the White House
didn't know the difference between ‘past' and ‘passed']] and it will be true
for the century to come.”
An important asset of the American aristocracy happens to be
shale-gas-fracking technology, which is overwhelmingly owned
by America's aristocrats . Though Qatar is a major gas-producer,
it has no need for fracking, and so is merely a gas-competitor in that regard,
but they do share America's pro-Sunni, anti-Assad goal, and also America's
anti-Russian goal. Although Qatar ships most of its gas into Asia, they'd like
to have some way to pipe it more nearby, into Europe, to undercut Russia's
Gazprom. And that's why the U.S. is working with Qatar to bump Assad from
Syria.
The Saudis are actually doing the most of all to defeat
Russia, by driving oil prices down so low as to upset Russia's economic plans,
which have been based upon minimum $100/barrel projections. We're already
around 10% below that. As Imonti writes, “The Saudis can sustain these lower
prices for seven or eight years while drawing on their foreign reserves to
cover the deficits. They could very well be trying to break the fracking
business in the U.S. that has high production costs. [Of course, America's gas
aristocrats won't like that, but Obama has to balance multiple
sub-constituencies, including Qatar's royals.] They might also be directing the
target towards Russia that supports Assad and Iran. They could be doing all of
the above with one action.” If the Sauds keep this up “for seven or eight
years,” then Russia will be hit a lot harder than Russia is being hit, or is
likely to be hit, by any economic sanctions.
Qatar has been the main funder of the overthrow-Assad
movement, for the Moslem Brotherhood; and Saudi Arabia has been the main funder
of the overthrow-Assad movement, for ISIS. Both are Sunni organizations.
However, Qatar has also funded ISIS. Obama, when he decided to bomb ISIS, was
acting on behalf of America's aristocrats, but Saudi and Qatari aristocrats
might have felt differently about it. He possessed the freedom to do this,
which those aristocrats don't have, because everyone in the Islamic world knows
that Obama is no Moslem; everyone understands that America is in a permanent
state of war against fundamentalist Islam of all sorts. Only Moslem aristocrats
need the approval of Islamic fundamentalists. In America, aristocrats don't
even need the approval of Christian fundamentalists, the type of
fundamentalists that might be able to threaten their authority in the West
(since the West is predominantly Christian, not Moslem). And the same is true
regarding Jewish aristocrats in Israel: aristocrats fear only their local
majority clergy. That's basic survival-knowledge for aristocrats, anywhere, in order
to be able to get the public to accept the rightfulness of the aristocracy
itself there.
So, ISIS gets money from the aristocracies of Saud, and of Qatar (and also, more
recently, of Kuwait) -- whatever is needed, in order for
those aristocrats to retain the loyalty of their local clerics, and thus their
public. It's like aristocrats do in every country, getting “God's approval” of
their wealth, by throwing a few coins to the preacher, the local mouthpiece for
“God,” thus relying upon the public's trust in clergy. Even Mafia aristocrats
do it. That has been the way of conservatism for millennia; it's the way
conservatism works. In more-recent centuries, a modified version of that trick
has grown up, as liberalism, in which the aristocrats' validation comes instead
from scholars, and so aristocrats throw a few coins to them, instead of to
clerics. But it's no different -- it's authoritarianism, equally in either
case. It's purchased authority. Aristocrats don't really fear the clergy, nor
the scholars: they actually fear the public, such as what happened during the
French Revolution, and during the Russian Revolution. But that's another story
altogether, going back millennia, actually.
The recent bombings in Syria, and in Ukraine, are a
business-operation being carried out as a war (and also very profitable for
U.S. armaments-makers, who likewise are controlled by America's aristocrats and
so this is a double-whammy for America's aristocracy -- and U.S. arms-makers
have consequently been soaring on the stock market). It's basically a grab by
U.S. and Sunni aristocrats, from Russian and Shiite aristocrats, of the market
to supply oil and gas into Europe. And it provides other advantages, too, for
U.S. aristocrats.
Natural gas, especially of the non-fracked variety, is
generally regarded as the bridge-fuel to get our planet to being able to
survive long-term while fusion and renewable forms of energy come online as
cost-competitive. Fracking is, as has been mentioned, an American technology,
but it's widely resisted even within American-allied nations. The U.S.
Government can impose it upon the American people, because they are trusting in
‘free enterprise,' but other governments are having a hard time trying to
impose it on theirs. That public resistance in Europe is giving protection to
the gas-import markets there; and this has benefited Russia, their major
existing gas-supplier.
Russia has the world's largest proven reserves of natural gas ,
and that's without their even needing to use fracking-techniques in order to
get at it. #2 Iran has 69% as much gas, and is allied with Russia, and it also
doesn't frack. But sanctions close them out of Europe. Then #3 Qatar, at 47%,
is allied with U.S. oil companies, but has no need to frack. Then #4
Turkmenistan, 37%, is allied with Russia, and also doesn't frack. Then #5 U.S.,
20%, is allied with U.S. oil companies, and only fracks. Then #6 Saudi Arabia,
17%, is also allied with U.S. oil companies, and doesn't need to frack.
The European Union bans fracking, because they have
environmentally-concerned publics. But U.S. and other Western corporate-owned
oil companies want to frack gas in Europe, just as they do in America; and the
new Ukrainian Government is desperate enough to want their land to be fracked.
UKRAINE:
The main shale-gas (fracking) field in Ukraine is Yuzivska,
right in the middle of the Donbass region, where the residents don't want
fracking and don't want U.S. rule (which includes fracking). Furthermore, the
people there reject the legitimacy of the Obama coup in Ukraine this year in February , and of its
subsequent rulers of Ukraine , who have been bombing them , because 90% of the voters in that region had voted for the
pro-Russian President whom Obama had overthrown , and because
the new, anti-Russian, regime doesn't want those people to stay (or at
least to stay alive ) in Ukraine, because
otherwise that post-coup regime would become ousted if any nationwide election
would ever again be held throughout Ukraine. This tactic of killing unwanted
voters is a variant of what the Republican Party does in the U.S., simply
trimming the voter-rolls in order to create a more-favorable “voting public.”
Except that it's being done in Ukraine by bombs and bullets , rather than by limiting
or restricting ballots.
“The West,” or the allies of Sunni aristocrats, are now
bombing intensively, both in Ukraine and in Syria; and, in both instances, the
argument for the bombings is to spread “democracy” there. It's giving a bad
name to ‘democracy,' to anyone who misbelieves that this is it.
BACK AGAIN TO SYRIA:
Below are the main sources that describe the Middle Eastern
part of this Obama-Putin power-struggle, that is the part in Syria instead of
in Ukraine. This is how international business is actually carried out – it's a
perfect libertarian world, since there is no international government; this
market is unregulated to so extreme an extent that even ethnic cleansings and
mass-murders go unpunished -- it's a pure free market, which operates on an
international scale (the only scale where libertarianism exists in even nearly
this pure a form); this libertarianism is an exemplar of the conservative ideal:
pure liberty for aristocrats, total lack of accountability . If anything, Barack Obama
might be even more of a conservative than was George W. Bush: under Obama, the IRS specifically allows blatantly illegal
tax-evasion by the mega-rich to go uninvestigated and unpunished, and
concentrates virtually all its resources on pursuing two-bit tax-cheats. That's what ‘democracy' has come to in America.
In America's client-states, such as in the Middle East and (since February) in
Ukraine, it's even worse.
The first of these articles explains why the price of oil
has been plunging, and who has been behind that:
---
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2014/10/24/the-secret-stupid-saudi-us-deal-on-syria/
"The Secret Stupid Saudi-US Deal
on Syria"
WILLIAM ENGDAHL | OCTOBER 24, 20143 COMMENTS
The Kerry-Abdullah Secret Deal & An Oil-Gas
Pipeline War
---
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-10/why-oil-plunging-other-part-secret-deal-between-us-and-saudi-arabia
"Why Oil Is Plunging: The Other Part Of
The "Secret Deal" Between The US And Saudi Arabia"
Tyler Durden on 10/11/2014 18:19 -0400
… [Excerpt:] Today's Brent closing price: $90.
Russia's oil price budget for the period 2015-2017? $100.
Which means much more "forced Brent liquidation" is in
the cards in the coming weeks as America's suddenly once again very
strategic ally, Saudi Arabia, does everything in its power to break Putin.
[Note: The Russian Government's fiscal projections were based on $100/barrel,
but the Saudi-forced-down price was now $89/barrel. How long would Saudis and
Qataris keep this up? And how long would Assad hold off ISIS? Big bets are
being made on both.]
—
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-25/look-inside-secret-deal-saudi-arabia-unleashed-syrian-bombing
"A Look Inside The Secret Deal With Saudi Arabia
That Unleashed The Syrian Bombing"
Tyler Durden on 09/25/2014 10:17 -0400
… [Excerpt:] Said otherwise, the pound of flesh demanded
by Saudi Arabia to "bless" US airstrikes and make
them appear as an act of some coalition, is the removal of the Assad
regime. Why? So that, as we also explained last year, the holdings of
the great Qatar natural gas fields can finally make their way onward to
Europe, which incidentally is also America's desire -- what better
way to punish Putin for his recent actions than by crushing the main
leverage the Kremlin has over Europe?
—
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-27/meet-saudi-arabias-bandar-bin-sultan-puppetmaster-behind-syrian-war
" Meet Saudi Arabia's Bandar bin Sultan:
The Puppetmaster Behind The Syrian War"
Tyler Durden on 08/27/2013 15:21 -0400
… [Excerpt:] Of course, there is Syria:
Regarding the Syrian issue, the Russian president
responded to Bandar, saying, “Our stance on Assad will never
change. We believe that the Syrian regime is the best speaker on
behalf of the Syrian people, and not those liver eaters. During
the Geneva I Conference, we agreed with the Americans on a package of
understandings, and they agreed that the Syrian regime will be part of
any settlement. Later on, they decided to renege on Geneva I. In all
meetings of Russian and American experts, we reiterated our position.
In his upcoming meeting with his American counterpart John Kerry,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will stress the importance of
making every possible effort to rapidly reach a political settlement
to the Syrian crisis so as to prevent further bloodshed.”
Alas, that has failed.
So what are some of the stunning disclosures by
the Saudis?
Bandar told Putin, “There are many common values and
goals that bring us together, most notably the fight against
terrorism and extremism all over the world. Russia, the US, the EU and
the Saudis agree on promoting and consolidating international peace
and security. The terrorist threat is growing in light of the
phenomena spawned by the Arab Spring. We have lost some regimes. And
what we got in return were terrorist experiences, as evidenced by the
experience of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the
extremist groups in Libya. ... As an example, I can give you a
guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on the
Black Sea next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security
of the games are controlled by us, and they will not move in the
Syrian territory's direction without coordinating with us. These
groups do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime
but they will have no role or influence in Syria's political future.”
—
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-08/putin-laughs-saudi-offer-betray-syria-exchange-huge-arms-deal
"Putin Laughs At Saudi Offer To Betray Syria In
Exchange For ‘Huge' Arms Deal"
Tyler Durden on 08/08/2013 11:20 -0400
—
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-16/mystery-sponsor-weapons-and-money-syrian-rebels-revealed
"Mystery Sponsor Of Weapons And Money To Syrian
Mercenary ‘Rebels' Revealed"
Tyler Durden on 05/16/2013 19:12 -0400
... [Excerpt:] So there you have it: Qatar doing everything
it can to promote bloodshed, death and destruction by using not
Syrian rebels, but mercenaries: professional citizens who are paid
handsomely to fight and kill members of the elected regime (unpopular as
it may be), for what? So that the unimaginably rich emirs of Qatar
can get even richer. Although it is not as if Russia is blameless: all it
wants is to preserve its own strategic leverage over Europe by being
the biggest external provider of natgas to the continent through its
own pipelines. Should Nabucco come into existence, Gazpromia would be
very, very angry and make far less money!
—
The final source will be posted here in full, because it
goes closest to the reason for our bombing Syria:
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Qatar-Rich-and-Dangerous.html
"Qatar: Rich and Dangerous"
17 September 2012, by Felix Imonti
The first concern of the Emir of Qatar is
the prosperity and security of the tiny kingdom. To achieve that, he
knows no limits.
Stuck between Iran and Saudi Arabia is Qatar with the
third largest natural gas deposit in the world. The gas gives the nearly
quarter of a million Qatari citizens the highest per capita income on the
planet and provides 70 percent of government revenue.
How does an extremely wealthy midget with
two potentially dangerous neighbors keep them from making an
unwelcomed visit? Naturally, you have someone bigger and tougher to
protect you.
Of course, nothing is free. The price has been to allow
the United States to have two military bases in a strategic location.
According to Wikileaks diplomatic cables, the Qataris are even
paying sixty percent of the costs.
Having tanks and bunker busting bombs nearby
will discourage military aggression, but it does nothing to curb the
social tumult that has been bubbling for decades in the Middle Eastern
societies. Eighty-four years ago, the Moslem Brotherhood arose in Egypt because
of the presence of foreign domination by Great Britain and the discontent
of millions of the teaming masses yearning to be free.
Eighty-four years later, the teaming masses are still yearning.
Sixty-five percent of the people in the Middle East are
under twenty-nine years of age. It is this desperate angry group that
presents a danger that armies cannot stop. The cry for their dignity, “I
am a man,” is the sound that sends terror through governments. It is
this overwhelming force that the Emir of Qatar has been able to deflect.
A year after he deposed his father in 1995,
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani established the Al-Jazeera television
satellite news network. He invited some of the radical Salafi preachers
that had been given sanctuary in Qatar to address the one and a half
billion Moslems around the world. They had their electronic soapbox and
the card to an ATM, but there was a price.
The price was silence. They could speak to the world
and arouse the fury in Egypt or Libya, but they would have to leave their
revolution outside of Qatar or the microphone would be switched off and
the ATM would stop dispensing the good life.
The Moslem Brotherhood, that is a major force across
the region, dissolved itself in Qatar in 1999. Jasim Sultan, a member of
the former organization, explained that the kingdom was in compliance
with Islamic law. He heads the state funded Awaken Project that
publishes moderate political and philosophical literature.
How Qatar has benefited from networking with
the Salafis is illustrated by the connections with Tunisia where
Qatar is making a large investment in telecommunications. Tunisian Foreign
Minister Rafiq Abdulsalaam was head of the Research and
Studies Division in the Al Jazeera Centre in Doha. His father-in-law
Al Ghanouchi is the head of the Tunisian Moslem Brotherhood party.
Over much of the time since he seized power,
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani has followed the policy of personal
networking, being proactive in business and neutral on the international
stage. The Emir is generous with the grateful, the Qatar
Sovereign Wealth Fund bargains hard in the board room and the kingdom
makes available Qatar's Good Offices to resolve disputes.
Qatar's foreign policy made an abrupt shift when
the kingdom entered the war against Qaddafi. The kingdom sent
aircraft to join NATO forces. On the ground, Qatari special forces armed,
trained, and led Libyans against Qaddafi's troops.
The head of the National Transition Council
Mustafa Abdul Jalil attributed much of the success of the revolution
to the efforts of Qatar that he said had spent two billion dollars. He
commented, “Nobody traveled to Qatar without being given a sum
of money by the government.”
Qatar had ten billion dollars in investments in
Libya to protect. The Barwa Real Estate Company alone had two billion
committed to the construction of a beach resort near Tripoli.
While the bullets were still flying, Qatar signed
eight billion dollars in agreements with the NTC. Just in case things
with the NTC didn't work out, they financed rivals Abdel Hakim Belhaj,
leader of the February 17 Martyr's Brigade, and Sheik Ali Salabi,
a radical cleric who had been exiled in Doha.
If Qatar's investments of ten billion dollars
seem substantial, the future has far more to offer. Reconstruction
costs are estimated at seven hundred billion dollars. The Chinese and
Russians had left behind between them thirty billion in
incomplete contracts and investments and all of it is there for the
taking for those who aided the revolution.
No sooner had Qaddafi been caught and shot,
Qatar approached Bashar Al-Assad to establish a transitional
government with the Moslem Brotherhood. As you would expect,
relinquishing power to the Brotherhood was an offer that he
could refuse. It didn't take long before he heard his sentence
pronounced in January 2012 on the CBS television program, 60 Minutes by
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.
The Emir declared that foreign troops should be
sent into Syria. At the Friends of Syria conference
in February, Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said, "We
should do whatever necessary to help [the Syrian opposition], including
giving them weapons to defend themselves."
Why would Qatar want to become involved in Syria where
they have little invested? A map reveals that the kingdom is a geographic
prisoner in a small enclave on the Persian Gulf coast.
It relies upon the export of LNG, because it
is restricted by Saudi Arabia from building pipelines to distant
markets. In 2009, the proposal of a pipeline to Europe through Saudi
Arabia and Turkey to the Nabucco pipeline was considered, but Saudi
Arabia that is angered by its smaller and much louder brother has
blocked any overland expansion.
Already the largest LNG producer, Qatar will
not increase the production of LNG. The market is becoming glutted
with eight new facilities in Australia coming online between 2014 and
2020.
A saturated North American gas market and a far more
competitive Asian market leaves only Europe. The discovery in 2009 of a
new gas field near Israel, Lebanon, Cyprus, and Syria opened new
possibilities to bypass the Saudi Barrier and to secure a new source
of income. Pipelines are in place already in Turkey to receive the gas.
Only Al-Assad is in the way.
Qatar along with the Turks would like to remove Al-Assad and
install the Syrian chapter of the Moslem Brotherhood. It is the best
organized political movement in the chaotic society and can block
Saudi Arabia's efforts to install a more fanatical Wahhabi based
regime. Once the Brotherhood is in power, the Emir's broad connections
with Brotherhood groups throughout the region should make it easy for
him to find a friendly ear and an open hand in Damascus.
A control centre has been established in the
Turkish city of Adana near the Syrian border to direct the rebels
against Al-Assad. Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin
Abdullah al-Saud asked to have the Turks establish a joint
Turkish, Saudi, Qatari operations center. “The Turks liked the idea
of having the base in Adana so that they could supervise its operations” a
source in the Gulf told Reuters.
The fighting is likely to continue for many
more months, but Qatar is in for the long term. At the end, there
will be contracts for the massive reconstruction and there will be the
development of the gas fields. In any case, Al-Assad must go. There
is nothing personal; it is strictly business to preserve the future
tranquility and well-being of Qatar.
—
I wish to express my appreciation to Mr. Imonti for his
allowing me to publish here the entirety of that article.
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most
recently, of They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican
Economic Records, 1910-2010 , and of CHRIST'S
VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity .
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40162.htm
