Syria, the Saudi connection: The Prince with close ties to Washington at the heart of the push for war

Syria, the Saudi connection: The Prince with close ties to Washington at the heart of the push for war

He has been gone from the capital for eight years, but Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who as Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington wielded influence over no fewer than five different US presidents, has re-emerged as a pivotal figure in the struggle by America and its allies to tilt the battlefield balance against the regime in Syria.

Appointed by the Saudi king, his uncle, last year as the head of the Saudi General Intelligence Agency, Prince Bandar has reportedly for months been focused exclusively on garnering international support, including arms and training, for Syrian rebel factions in pursuit of the eventual toppling of President Bashar al-Assad.
It is a long-term Saudi goal, that in the past several days has been subsumed by the more immediate crisis over the purported use of chemical weapons by Damascus, which, according to Riyadh, must be met by a stern response. That message is being delivered to President Barack Obama by the current Saudi Ambassador in Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, who is a Bandar protégé.
It was Prince Bandar’s intelligence  agency that first alerted Western allies to the alleged use of sarin gas by the Syrian regime in February.
While a trip earlier this month to the Kremlin to try to cajole President Vladimir Putin into withdrawing his support for President Assad reportedly failed, Prince Bandar automatically has greater leverage in Western capitals, not least because of friendships forged during his time in Washington. His most recent travels, rarely advertised, have taken him to both London and Paris for discussions with senior officials.
As ambassador, Prince Bandar left an imprint that still has not quite faded. His voice was one of the loudest urging the United States to invade Iraq in 2003. In the 1980s, Prince Bandar became mired in the Iran-Contra scandal in Nicaragua.
Months of applying pressure on the White House and Congress over Syria have slowly born fruit. The CIA is believed to have been working with Prince Bandar directly since last year in training rebels at base in Jordan close to the Syrian border.
The Saudis are “indispensable partners on Syria” and have considerable influence on American thinking, a senior US official told The Wall Street Journal yesterday. He added: “No one wants to do anything alone”.

Source:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-the-saudi-connection-the-prince-with-close-ties-to-washington-at-the-heart-of-the-push-for-war-8785049.html

Experts: Don't bomb chemical weapon sites in Syria

Experts: Don't bomb chemical weapon sites in Syria

  WASHINGTON (AP) - You simply can't safely bomb a chemical weapon storehouse into oblivion, experts say. That's why they say the United States is probably targeting something other than Syria's nerve agents.
But now there is concern that bombing other sites could accidentally release dangerous chemical weapons that the U.S. military didn't know were there because they've lost track of some of the suspected nerve agents.
Bombing stockpiles of chemical weapons - purposely or accidentally - would likely kill nearby civilians in an accidental nerve agent release, create a long-lasting environmental catastrophe or both, five experts told The Associated Press. That's because under ideal conditions - and conditions wouldn't be ideal in Syria - explosives would leave at least 20 to 30 percent of the poison in lethal form.
"If you drop a conventional munition on a storage facility containing unknown chemical agents - and we don't know exactly what is where in the Syrian arsenal - some of those agents will be neutralized and some will be spread," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, a nonprofit that focuses on all types of weaponry. "You are not going to destroy all of them."
"It's a classic case of the cure being worse than the disease," Kimball said. He said some of the suspected storage sites are in or near major Syrian cities like Damascus, Homs and Hama. Those cities have a combined population of well over 2 million people.
When asked if there is any way to ensure complete destruction of the nerve agents without going in with soldiers, seizing the chemicals and burning them in a special processing plant, Ralf Trapp, a French chemical weapons consultant and longtime expert in the field, said simply: "Not really."

Trapp said to incinerate the chemicals properly, temperatures have to get as hot as 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. Experts also say weather factors - especially wind and heat - even time of day, what chemicals are stored, how much of it is around and how strong the building is all are factors in what kind of inadvertent damage could come from a bombing.
There is one precedent for bombing a chemical weapons storehouse. In 1991, during the first Persian Gulf War, the U.S. bombed Bunker 13 in Al Muthanna, Iraq. Officials figured it contained 2,500 artillery rockets filled with sarin, the same nerve gas suspected in Syria. More than two decades later the site is so contaminated no one goes near it even now.
That bunker is a special problem for inspectors because "an entry into the bunker would expose personnel to explosive, chemical and physical hazards," says a 2012 report by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which implements the international chemical weapons convention.
Pentagon planners are also worried about accidentally triggering a nerve agent attack by hitting weapons stores that have been moved by the government to new locations.
Over the past six months, with shifting front lines and sketchy satellite and human intelligence coming out of Syria, the U.S. intelligence community has lost track of who controls some of the government's chemical weapons supplies, according to one senior U.S. intelligence official and three other U.S. officials briefed on the information presented by the White House as reason to strike Syria's military complex. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the briefings publicly.
That's a very real risk, said Susannah Sirkin, international policy director for the Physicians for Human Rights, which has been monitoring weapons of mass destruction for more than two decades.
"You would risk dispersing agents into the environment," she said. "Given that sarin is not seen or smelled, that's terror."
Another issue is that by bombing storage sites that are near contested areas in the civil war, the chemical weapons can fall into others' hands, including extremist rebels or pro-Assad militia, Kimball said.
"What we're looking at in Syria is an unprecedented situation," Kimball said.
---
AP Intelligence Writer Kimberly Dozier contributed to this report.

Source: --- http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130830/DA8G7HS00.html

Online:
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons: http://www.opcw.org

A 'Doomsday Plane' Was On The Ground In Turkey Yesterday

 Everybody knows E-4Bs are extremely important.

In the event of a war, a terrorist attack, an alien invasion and so on (hence the “doomsday plane” nickname), these aircraft are destined to keep the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other “decision makers” alive to direct nuclear (and conventional) forces, by receiving, verifying and relaying EAM (Emergency Action Messages).

One aircraft is usually airborne every 12 hours, with another one ready for departure with a 5-minute notice. If national command centers on the ground are attacked or unavailable, an E-4B is immediately scrambled: that’s why a “doomsday plane” was seen orbiting above Washington DC minutes after a hijacked plane had crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11.
The E-6B Mercury, whose mission could be a sign that the Syria air war has just started, can do the same job.
Anyway, an E-4B was on the ground at Incirlik on Aug. 27. What was the doomsday plane doing in Turkey?

Source: http://theaviationist.com/2013/08/27/e-4b-incirlik/#.Uh33bGTEZ4E#ixzz2dMy1DC3f

SAUDI CLERIC PRAYS FOR AL-SISI AND AL-BASHAR FALL;RESULTING IN CLASHES BETWEEN EGYPTIANS AND SAUDIS.

SAUDI CLERIC PRAYS FOR AL-SISI AND AL-BASHAR FALL;RESULTING IN CLASHES BETWEEN EGYPTIANS AND SAUDIS.

 

A fight broke out between Saudis and Egyptians attending prayers at a Riyadh mosque on Friday after a Saudi cleric was reported to have blasted Egyptian Defense Minister General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi during a sermon. Pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat reported the incident at the al-Ferdous Mosque, while a 46-second video of the fight went viral on YouTube showing a Saudi man taking off his traditional headdress and hitting another man, who was reported to be Egyptian. According to al-Hayat , the Egyptian was initially angered when the Saudi cleric blasted General Sisi, the man who played a leading role in the overthrow of Egyptian Islamist President Mohammad Mursi in July. The report said the Saudi cleric had been praying for the downfall of both Syria’s Bashar al- Assad and General Sisi, prompting uproar from the Egyptians who were in attendance. An Arabic hashtag on Twitter “#Ferdous_Mosque_Fight" has attracted users on the microblogging site to voice their views on the incident, reported a blog post on Global Voices Online. One Twitter user @iar_98, named Ibrahim al-Rasheed, wrote: “The people of Egypt are more knowledgeable of their affairs and it is of bad taste for this preacher to employ himself as a guardian over Egyptians.” Others attacked the Saudi clergyman for talking politics. “Next time, those praying should break the preacher's jaw so that he learns his lesson and stops including his political opinion in sermons,” a Twitter user posted. Another user, commenting on the incident using the hashtag, said the violence was unacceptable. “No to violence. Political differences should be peaceful, and resorting to violence and excusing it, by any side, is unacceptable.” @WaleedSulais posted. “Cursing others is unacceptable and beating up whoever objects to that is vile. People have dignity,” he added.

Where Syria Fits in the World’s Oil Supply System 

 

Oil futures surged to a six-month high Tuesday as traders bet that a possible U.S.-led military strike in Syria could disrupt the security of crude supplies in the Middle East.
Here’s why:
Syria itself isn’t a major oil producer. The country’s exports have been severely restricted by U.S. and European Union sanctions in recent years and its energy infrastructure has been damaged by unrest. However, it lies in close proximity to pipelines and sea routes that transport much of the world’s crude.
To the southwest is the Suez Canal, one such chokepoint, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of the Suez with the Mediterranean Sea. The canal transports about 800,000 barrels of crude and 1.4 million barrels of petroleum products daily, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Another regional oil shipping route potentially threatened by the Syria crisis is the Sumed, or Suez-Mediterranean, pipeline, also in Egypt, which moves oil from the Persian Gulf region to the Mediterranean. The Sumed handles 1.7 million barrels of crude oil per day, the EIA said.
In a research note, JBC Energy said that “although currently there are no indications that the canal and/or pipeline are not operating under normal conditions, a disruption of oil flows through these two strategic routes would definitely have repercussions.”
To the north of Syria is Turkey, which has the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline that carries a large supply of Iraqi oil to the Mediterranean, and the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline which transports oil from Central Asia. Oil prices have risen in the past when those pipelines were sabotaged.
And to the east of Syria are the oil fields of northern Iraq, a country that produced 3 million barrels of crude a day in 2012.
Even before the Syria situation escalated over the past 24 hours, market participants were already monitoring violence in the Middle East as Egypt’s military overthrew President Mohammed Morsi last month and protests in Libya have led to the closure of key oil terminals and export declines.
However, rising tensions and even conflict in the region don’t guarantee a disruption to oil supplies. For example, the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, in which President Hosni Mubarak was ousted, didn’t have a major effect in oil flows through the Suez Canal. In fact, according the EIA, the 2.97 million barrels of crude oil and refined products that were transported through the canal in both directions last year and was the highest to date.
Meanwhile, other Middle Eastern nations, such as Saudi Arabia, which has the world’s largest oil production capacity at 9.8 million barrels of crude a day, also have the ability to ramp up their own production.
With these possible mitigating factors in mind, October light, sweet crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange was recently up a sharp 2.8% at $108.93, but earlier only equaled a recent high of $109.32 reached on July 19.
Inventories also remain at healthy levels. Combined government-held and commercial oil inventories in the major industrialized countries that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, were sufficient to cover 93 days of forward demand at the end of June, according to the International Energy Agency, the OECD’s energy policy watchdog.
That compares with 91 days of forward demand cover in June 2011, when the EIA led a coordinated drawdown of 60 million barrels of oil from inventories to cover supply shortages caused by the Libyan civil war. The U.S., the world’s largest oil consumer, accounted for half of the response to the Libyan crisis and sold 30.64 million barrels of crude oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
In the meantime, traders will remain focused on the Syrian crisis as about 4.5 million barrels of oil a day flow through the Suez and Sumed, while Turkey’s port of Iskenderun is an export point for crude piped from Iraq and Azerbaijan.


–David Bird and Dan Strumpf contributed to this post.

Source:  http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/08/27/where-syria-fits-in-the-worlds-oil-supply-system/

Syria crisis: Russia and China step up warning over strike

 

Russia and China have stepped up their warnings against military intervention in Syria, with Moscow saying any such action would have "catastrophic consequences" for the region.

The US and its allies are considering launching strikes on Syria in response to deadly attacks last week.
The US said there was "undeniable" proof of a chemical attack, on Monday.
UN chemical weapons inspectors are due to start a second day of investigations in the suburbs of Damascus.
The UN team came under sniper fire as they tried to visit an area west of the city on Monday.
A spokesman for UK Prime Minister David Cameron says the UK is making contingency plans for military action in Syria.
Mr Cameron has cut short his holiday and returned to London to deal with the Syrian crisis.

"Attempts to bypass the Security Council, once again to create artificial groundless excuses for a military intervention in the region are fraught with new suffering in Syria and catastrophic consequences for other countries of the Middle East and North Africa," he said in a statement.
Late on Monday, the US said it was postponing a meeting on Syria with Russian diplomats, citing "ongoing consultations" about alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria.
Hours later, Russia expressed regret about the decision. The two sides had been due to meet in The Hague on Wednesday to discuss setting up an international conference on finding a political solution to the crisis.
The Russian deputy defence minister, Gennady Gatilov said working out the political parameters for a resolution on Syria would be especially useful, with the threat of force hanging over the country.

On Monday, Mr Cameron spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin who said there was no evidence yet that Syria had used chemical weapons against rebels, Mr Cameron's office said.

The official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, said Western powers were rushing to conclusions about who may have used chemical weapons in Syria before UN inspectors had completed their investigation.
UN visit Both the Syrian government and rebels have blamed each other for last Wednesday's attacks.
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said three hospitals it supported in the Damascus area had treated about 3,600 patients with "neurotoxic symptoms", of whom 355 had died.

US officials said there was "little doubt" that President Bashar al-Assad's government was to blame.

UN inspectors spent nearly three hours in the western district of Muadhamiya on Monday where they visited two hospitals and interviewed survivors, eyewitnesses and doctors.
A UN spokesman said they had collected some samples.
Earlier in the day, the UN convoy came under fire from unidentified snipers and was forced to turn back before resuming its journey.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the shooting and asked the UN team in Syria to register a complaint.
'Accountability'

In the most forceful US reaction yet, US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday described the recent attacks in the Damascus area as a "moral obscenity".
He said the delay in allowing UN inspectors to the sites was a sign the Syrian government had something to hide.
He said Washington had additional information about the attacks that it would make public in the days ahead.
"What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world. It defies any code of morality," Mr Kerry said at a news conference on Monday.
"Make no mistake, President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world's most heinous weapons against the world's most vulnerable people."

Washington has recently bolstered its naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean and military leaders from the US, UK and their allies have convened a meeting in Jordan.
Analysts believe the most likely US action would be sea-launched cruise missiles targeting Syrian military installations.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters on Monday the West had not produced any proof that President Assad's forces had used chemical weapons.
He was responding to suggestions from some Western countries that military action against the Syrian government could be taken without a UN mandate.

Mr Lavrov said the use of force without Security Council backing would be "a crude violation of international law".
Earlier, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague told the BBC an international military response to the suspected use of chemical weapons would be possible without the backing of the UN.
The UN Security Council is divided, with Russia and China opposing military intervention and the UK and France warning that the UN could be bypassed if there was "great humanitarian need".
In a column in The Times newspaper, former UK PM Tony Blair has written that if the West does not intervene to support freedom and democracy in Egypt and Syria, the Middle East will face catastrophe
The UN says more than 100,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Assad began more than two years ago. The conflict has produced more than 1.7 million registered refugees.

Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant leaks: What you need to know

 

More than two years after a massive earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan, public confidence in the plant’s operators continues to sink as fresh leaks are being discovered in the plant's defence system.
Earlier this week, Tokyo Electric Power Co. revealed that approximately 300 tons of highly radioactive water had escaped from the temporary storage tanks hastily built in the aftermath of the massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
According to the cash-strapped utility company, the leaking water tanks were made using a rubber seam that was intended to last only five years.

TEPCO says it will build additional storage tanks with welded seams that are more watertight, but that it will continue to use the rubber-seamed tanks despite at least five of them having leaked since last year.
News of the latest leak this week comes after TEPCO admitted earlier in the summer that it is struggling to stop radioactive groundwater -- which picks up trace amounts of contamination when it flows through the damaged reactor buildings -- from seeping into the ocean.
TEPCO officials estimate that approximately 300 tons of toxic water is rushing into the Pacific Ocean daily, enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every eight days.
The breach prompted the Japanese government to take a more direct role in the clean-up effort, marking a significant escalation in pressure for TEPCO to take a more aggressive approach in what some critics say appears to be a losing battle.
Here are some answers to some basic questions about the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
#1. What can be done to plug the leak and stop more contaminated water from seeping into the ocean?
According to a full status report released last year, TEPCO has already put in place a number of measures in an attempt to control the radioactive water. The ill-fated utility company built a groundwater bypass system which tried to reroute water flowing down from the mountain side of the plant, before it seeped into the basement of the reactor buildings. The solution did little to siphon off the water.
In its latest attempt, the Japanese government will be building an underground frozen barrier. The plan reportedly involves sinking pipes into the ground in an attempt to freeze the soil.
While the proposed strategy has been described by some Japanese officials as a high-tech forward thinking plan, some experts believe the idea is just another Band-Aid solution
"It's not a solution that has any permanence," Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer with Fairewinds Energy Education, told CTVNews.ca.
"The problem with freezing the soil is that as soon as you get an earthquake, you lose power and then your ice turns to mush and you're stuck."
Gundersen, who has visited the Fukushima power plant in the past, said a better solution would be to dig a two-metre wide trench down to bedrock level and fill it with a material called zeolite: a volcanic material that comes from Mother Nature.
"It's incredibly good at filtering radioactive isotopes. So whatever is inside the fence will stay inside and whatever is outside the fence would be clean," said Gundersen, who estimates the price tag for such a project would be around $10 billion.
#2. What is perpetuating the crisis?
According to some experts, the clean-up effort at the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has been hampered by a reluctant government and a "bankrupt firm."
"TEPCO has an enormous degree of influence within the Japanese government," Andrew DeWit, a professor of public finance at Rikkyo University in Tokyo, told CTVNews.ca. "Basically, you've got a bankrupt firm that has been left to take care of the Fukushima Dai-ichi clean-up and decommissioning pretty much on its own."
Dewit added that although TEPCO became a nationalized firm last year, the utility company does not directly answer to any regulatory bodies, including the country's nuclear watchdog, which he says hasn't been exercising its full regulatory and investigatory authority.
"You've got a couple of agencies up there and nobody is really solely in charge of this and solely responsible," he said. "Considering the gravity of the situation, you've got a completely untenable sort of arrangement."
DeWit said the "only solution" would be for Japan's popular prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who he says is the most equipped and powerful actor in the country, to strong arm TEPCO and tell it what to do.
DeWit, however, is doubtful that will happen given Abe's political interests.
"His big deal is getting the constitution rewritten and repositioning the country in terms of geopolitics," said DeWit. "So his interests in this issue would appear to be quite marginal."
Experts also believe that given Abe's interest in restarting Japan's nuclear energy program in an attempt to reawaken the country's languishing economy, there is very little political incentive for him to pour money into the clean-up effort.
"The problem is the Japanese government hasn't been fighting this battle. They've been letting Tokyo Electric try fight using their earnings," said Gundersen, who said the entire clean-up effort will cost at least half a trillion U.S. dollars.
"The Japanese government under Abe doesn't want to admit (to the cost) because they are trying to restart a nuclear energy program and the last thing they need to do is tell the Japanese people that ‘oh by the way, you're on the hook for another half trillion dollars,'" he said.
According to Gundersen, many of the recent reported problems at the crippled nuclear power plant were predicted more than two years ago by experts at the outset of the disaster.
"At the root of the problem is not that it wasn't foreseeable, it's that the Japanese government didn't have the courage to step up two years ago and fight this as if it was a war," Gundersen said, adding that the government has been treating the clean-up effort as budgetary exercise.
"You don't fight a war on a budget and the Japanese government has allowed Tokyo Electric to fight this as a budget."
#3. What are the 'unknowns'?
Following the 2011 disaster, TEPCO has faced a growing catalogue of problems, including several leaks of radioactive water which has been accumulating as a result of continual water injections to cool the damaged reactors.
Although no one can confirm where the melted fuel cores are located, some experts believe some of the radioactive material from the damaged core has moved into the earth. The recent spike in radiation levels in the water may therefore be coming from groundwater coming into contact with the melted cores.
Earlier this month, TEPCO said that radiation levels in its groundwater observation hole located on the east side of the complex had reached 310 becquerels per litre for cesium-134 and 650 becquerels per litre for cesium-137.
According to the World Health Organization, drinking water at 300 becquerels per litre would be approximately equal to one year's exposure to natural background radiation, or 10 to 15 chest X-rays.
#4. What are the 'knowns'?
In an effort to cool the damaged reactors, TEPCO has been pumping an enormous amount of water in and out of the complex. But that water is contaminated with radioactive material and has been rushing back out into the ocean due to leaks in its storage tanks.
In an attempt to recover the contaminated water from the leaking tanks, TEPCO is betting on a state-of-the-art filtration system to clean the radioactive material from the accumulated water before discharging it back out into the ocean. But according to an April report from the IAEA, the filtering system "has not accomplished the expected results" and is still a work-in-progress.
In addition to the leaking toxic water, experts point to another culprit behind why high levels of radiation have been found in the ocean: the natural movement of groundwater from the mountains that streams into the basements of the damaged reactors each day. Keeping that water from flowing into the ocean is headache TEPCO has been struggling to deal with. According to a report from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, the "accumulation of enormous amounts of liquids due to the continuous intrusion of underground water into the reactor and turbine buildings is influencing the stability of the situation."
#5. What are the potential risks to people worldwide?
The question of health risks is a murky one and the answer varies according to who you ask.
According to Gundersen, who says this is the last year he's eating west coast fish, the deluge of toxic water into the Pacific has already contaminated the ocean.
He says that halfway across the Pacific, scientists are measuring cesium levels that are 10 times higher than normal.
Gundersen said naturally occurring cesium levels are approximately 1 becquerel per cubic metre. He said the current levels are 10 becquerels per cubic metre.
"Of course, scientists will say that is still a low level but it's such a big ocean and there are so many organisms that rely on it… so it's a concern and it's a concern that's getting worse because the plant continues to leak."
But according to Dr. Bonnie Henry, the director of public health emergency management for the B.C. Centres for Disease Control, the size of the ocean creates a dilution effect, protecting humans not immediately in the plant's area from any health risks.
"The dilution factor and time factor means that there are no concerns of health risks in B.C.," said Dr. Henry.
She added that the Pacific salmon that's commonly eaten in Canada are not exposed to the contaminated water from the crippled Dai-ichi plant because its migratory pattern doesn't include the waters near Japan.
"The Pacific salmon that we have don't generally go that far into the waters around Japan. They are mostly around the Alaska Gulf and into the central part of the Pacific."
#6. What are the risks to people in the immediate area?
According to a report from the WHO that was published earlier this year, researchers concluded that the radiation released in the immediate wake of the accident could cause a "somewhat elevated" lifetime risk of cancer among the local population.
Outside the immediate area of the plant, however, even in locations within Fukushima prefecture, the report found that there were no observable increases in cancer above the "natural variation in baseline rates."
Some individuals, however, have claimed their health is deteriorating as a result from exposure to radiation while helping with relief operations in 2011.
Lt. Steve Simmons told the Japan Daily Press that he has lost 30 per cent of his muscle mass and has lost the ability to take care of himself.
"We've never had any kind of health issues until he was exposed to radiation from Fukushima," Simmons' wife, Summer, said. "The muscle weakness has progressed to the point where he needs 24-hour care."
Despite what Simmons says, however, medical professionals, including those working for the U.S. Department of Defense, have not been able to provide a diagnosis, reports the Japan Daily Press.
In the latest leak, radiation levels were measured from about 50 centimetres above the toxic puddle was approximately 100 millisierverts per hour -- the maximum cumulative exposure allowed for plant workers over five years.
#7. What is TEPCO planning in the near future?
In November, TEPCO is planning to remove 400 tons of highly irradiated spent fuel at the plant's damaged Reactor No. 4.
The operation, according to Gundersen, is fraught with risks, including the possibility of releasing a large amount of radiation if a fuel assembly breaks or gets too close to a neighbouring bundle.
"The problem with Dai-ichi is that the racks (that hold the spent fuel) are damaged. So TEPCO is not going to be able to easily pull the fuel from them," he said, adding that the rubble left over from the earthquake and tsunami in 2011 and the murky water means plant operators will not be able to use a computerized arm.
"The Japanese seem to think they can pull these out easily but in my experience, it's not going to be an easy process," Gundersen said.
It is unclear how bad the situation could get, but according to independent consultants Mycle Schneider and Antony Froggatt in the recently published World Nuclear Industry Status Report, "Full release from Unit-4 spent fuel pool, without any containment or control, could cause by far the most serious radiological disaster to date."


With files from The Associated Press

Source: http://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/japan-s-fukushima-nuclear-plant-leaks-what-you-need-to-know-1.1423249#ixzz2cvXuQ4bS

Saudi king calls on Arabs to stand with Egypt

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi King Abdullah called on Arabs to stand together against "attempts to destabilize" Egypt, in a strong message of support for the country's military leadership read out on Saudi television on Friday.

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, its people and government stood and stands by today with its brothers in Egypt against terrorism," he said.
"I call on the honest men of Egypt and the Arab and Muslim nations ... to stand as one man and with one heart in the face of attempts to destabilize a country that is at the forefront of Arab and Muslim history," he added.
Saudi Arabia was a close ally of former president Hosni Mubarak and has historically had a difficult relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood. It pledged $5 billion in aid to Egypt after Mohammed Mursi of the Brotherhood was ousted from the presidency last month.

(Reporting by Angus McDowall; editing by Andrew Roche)

Source:  http://ca.news.yahoo.com/saudi-king-calls-arabs-stand-egypt-151611137.html

Egypt unrest unnerves neighbouring Gaza and Israel

Tensions are high in Gaza following the violent repression of the Muslim Brotherhood by the Egyptian military, with divisions inside the tiny coastal strip reflecting splits within the population of its vast neighbour to the south.
Officially Hamas, the Islamist party that has ruled Gaza for more than six years, says it has no intention of becoming involved in Egypt's internal affairs. But the toppling of President Mohamed Morsi and the crackdown on the Brotherhood, close ideological allies of Hamas, has been a massive blow and it is extremely nervous about the impact of the bloody turmoil next door.
Sermons following Friday prayers at mosques across the territory lambasted General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the Egyptian military leader, and defended the Muslim Brotherhood. The website of Hamas's military wing, the Izzadeen al-Qassam Brigades, reported that scores of Palestinians joined marches in support of Morsi.
Hamas hailed the electoral success of the Muslim Brotherhood last year as evidence of the rise of political Islam in the Middle East following a string of uprisings against the established order. An end to Hamas's international isolation would inevitably follow, it argued.
However, some in Gaza – where support for Hamas is far from universal – support the Egyptian army's crackdown.
Among ordinary people, many of whom have family, education and business ties in Egypt, an important consequence of the turmoil has been the de facto closure of the Rafah crossing, the main passage not only to Egypt but to the rest of the world.
Around 50 foreign passport holders and humanitarian cases were allowed to cross through Rafah on Saturday, but about 100 people were waiting at the border on Sunday amid an atmosphere of rising frustration.
Israel is also closely monitoring events in its biggest and strategically most important neighbour. The Israeli security cabinet was briefed for two hours on Friday, and the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has instructed ministers to refrain from commenting publicly on the situation.
Israel's immediate concern is continuing instability across the border in the vast and lawless Sinai desert, but it also fears the potential loss of Egypt as a stable and largely peaceful actor in the region. "To our dismay, Egypt is walking down the road towards possible anarchy," said an Israeli government official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "This has implications not just for Egypt but the whole region. More chaos means more room for terror organisations and global jihadists to operate."
He added: "As much as we dislike the message of the Egyptian army, there is no other option. It is a simple but cruel formula: army or anarchy."
Israel was working closely with the United States and Europe, he said. "We hope they hear what we have to say. The view from here is very different from afar: we are right on the border."
Co-operation between the Israeli and Egyptian armies, which continued throughout Morsi's year in office, is still functioning despite the internal focus. Alex Fishman, defence analyst for the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, said: "For the time being, there are no signs that relations between [the Israeli and Egyptian security establishments] have cooled, since the Egyptian army has shared strategic interests with Israel, even apart from its relations with the United States."
But he said the military authorities may deem it shrewd to respond to popular anti-Israel opinion. "The Egyptian street is beginning to press, and the current regime is going to have to toss it a bone. Regrettably, it is going to be an Israeli bone," he wrote.

 Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem

Source:  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/18/egypt-turmoil-gaza-israel

Hosni Mubarak to be freed from jail as Army tightens its grip on Egypt 

 

Hosni Mubarak, the man whose 30-year tyranny as Egypt’s leader triggered a revolt which shook the Middle East, will be freed from prison by the end of the week, his lawyer claimed.

Many Egyptians, plagued by violence and insecurity, will welcome the return of the former President; others will greet his release with indifference. For some, the development will mark the most obvious confirmation yet that the military establishment still reigns supreme and the gains of the Egyptian revolution are being lost.
Mubarak, who was arrested shortly after being toppled in February 2011, is currently being held in the Tora Prison in south Cairo.
Among his fellow inmates are senior Brotherhood figures rounded up since the 3 July popular coup .
Following an appeal against his original conviction for involvement in the killing of protesters, the only grounds for the former President’s continued detention rest on a separate corruption case relating to gifts he received during his time in power. But Mubarak’s lawyer, Farid el-Deeb, said that case would soon be resolved.
“All we have left is a simple administrative procedure that should take no more than 48 hours,”  Mr Deeb told the Reuters news agency. “He should be freed by the end of the week.”
There was speculation, however, that further charges could be brought against Mubarak, or else authorities would find another reason to keep the former air force chief detained. A judicial source, speaking to Reuters, said Mubarak would spend at least two more weeks behind bars before the criminal court made a final decision in the outstanding case against him.
In an ironic twist, the ruling on Mubarak’s fate came as it was announced that new charges were being brought against his successor, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi, for inciting violence.
As the battle over the fate of Egypt’s former presidents went on, the Egyptian news bulletins were filled with yet more examples of brutal violence.
In North Sinai, a largely lawless region which has long been plagued by Islamic militancy, 25 policemen were killed after their minibuses were ambushed by gunmen. Egyptian officials said the men were ordered off the vehicles and then shot dead in a mass-execution style killing.
The attack followed the deaths of 36 prisoners who had been rounded up following the weekend violence in Cairo. There were conflicting accounts of exactly how the prisoners died, but they had been on their way to a prison north of the capital in a large convoy containing hundreds of detainees.
Following last Wednesday’s state-led massacre of several hundred Islamists – an event which Human Rights Watch described yesterday as the “most serious incident of mass unlawful killings in modern Egyptian history” – the worsening security situation has fed into an impression of a nation at war with itself.
Muslims and Christians – who in Tahrir Square were once declared to be “on one hand”, in the words of the famous revolutionary chant – are now more fearful of each other than ever, especially since the wave of church attacks carried out by Islamists since last week.
Some activists are attempting to tread a pathway through the deepening fear and polarisation. The recently established Masmoua, or “Heard” campaign, aims to encourage Egyptians against veering to the extremes of either the Brotherhood or the military.
One Egyptian writer, speaking to The Independent yesterday, expressed a cynicism felt by many Egyptian activists after the events of recent days. “Everything I worked for over the past two and a half years has gone down the drain,” he said.

Source:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/hosni-mubarak-to-be-freed-as-army-tightens-its--grip-on-egypt-8775237.html

 

 Israel Gave Chemical Arms to Al-Qaida in Syria Attack

British MP and veteran anti-Israel activist George Galloway on Wednesday responded to the latest alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria, stating that if there has been any use of sarin gas, it was radical Islamist group al-Qaida, using gas supplied by Israel.
The Respect Party MP for Bradford West, who is a longstanding supporter of Hezbollah and Hamas, stated: "If there has been use of chemical weapons, it was al-Qaida," asking, "Who gave al-Qaida chemical weapons?"
Staring determined into the camera, Galloway stated: "Here's my theory. Israel gave them the chemical weapons."
Throwing out another option in defense of Syrian President Bashar Assad, of whom he has previously shown support, the British MP said "If there has been any use of nerve gas, it is the rebels that used it."

 

 The Syrian government and the opposition have accused each other of using chemical weapons, and both have denied doing so. A UN inquiry will try to establish only whether chemical weapons were used, not who used them.

The United Nations has been demanding unfettered access in Syria to conduct the investigation

Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.jpost.com/International/Galloway-Israel-gave-chemical-arms-to-al-Qaida-in-Syria-attack-323986

Use of unauthorised vaccine caused H5N1 outbreak

BHAKTAPUR: Veterinary doctors today said that use of unauthorised anti-bird flu vaccine imported from abroad could be responsible for bird flu outbreak in the Kathmandu Valley.

They claimed that evolution of Nepal-grown strain of bird flu virus was an evidence that unauthorised vaccine was behind the spread of H5N1 virus. According to the experts, bird flu virus first seen in chickens was H5N1’s 3.2 Mongolia and H5N1’s 3.1 Chinese species.

However, the latest H5N1 3.3.1.1 detected in the fowls is purely a virus strain that grew in Nepal, and it was the result of the use of unauthorised anti-bird flu vaccine, they said.
Dr Sitalkaji Shrestha, General Secretary, Nepal Veterinary Association, said that anti-bird flu vaccine could not be used in Nepal as no such vaccine was registered with the concerned authority. He, however, said that such unauthorised vaccines were being imported. Dr Shrestha said the government had ‘given the consent at policy level’ for vaccine import after poultry entrepreneurs demanded use of it. “But the vaccines have entered Nepal illegally. The government has consented for vaccine import only at the policy level,” Dr Shrestha added.

According to a veterinary doctor, poultry farmers in Chitwan had used such unauthorised vaccines for the first time. He said that vaccines manufactured by Merial, Pfizer and Civa companies usually enter the country. Civa is a French company, whereas Merial and Pfizer are United States-based companies.

Meanwhile, the US Embassy in Kathmandu today said no US vaccine for avian influenza is being ‘officially imported’ into Nepal.

Dr Prabhakar Pathak, Joint-Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture Development, however, expressed ignorance about the import of anti-bird flu vaccine.

According to Dr Shrestha, no new vaccine can be imported into the country unless certain guidelines are formulated about the use of the vaccine.

Tulsiram Dhukhwa, chairman, Bhaktapur Poultry Farmers’ Association, said farmers had concealed vaccines after ‘rumours started doing the rounds that anti-bird flu vaccine was behind the avian flu outbreak’.

“Poultry entrepreneurs are frightened and are not telling the truth for the fear of possible action. They are afraid as anti- bird flu vaccine resulted in the outbreak,” Dhukhwa said, adding that vaccine sellers, even though poulteres bought vaccines from them, would not provide the farmers with the bills as they were unauthorised and were imported illegally.

Dr Sudip Humagain, a veterinarian, said that vaccines can never stop bird flu and added that anti-bird flu vaccines must have been used in Nepal.

“They rather help in spread of bird flu. Had the vaccine been not used, new strain of virus would not have originated,” Dr Humagain added.

READ ALSO: 'Jabs for avian influenza banned'

Source: http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Use+of+unauthorised+vaccine+caused+H5N1+outbreak%3A+Vets&NewsID=387171&a=3

Egypts General Al-sisi may run for President.

Egypt’s Defense Minister and coup leader Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will run
for president – possibly before the end of the year, DEBKA file ’s Exclusive
sources report. He is deep in preparations for launching his election
campaign Thursday August 15 and plans to keep it short. Untroubled by
criticism from the United States and Europe, he plans to restore the Egyptian
army to political center stage in Cairo and keep the democratic process
under control. Like former presidents Gemal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat and
Hosni Mubarak, the defense minister will repress the Muslim Brotherhood he
unseated on July 3 before cutting a deal with its leaders to permit them a
restricted measure of political activity.
Tuesday July 30, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel phoned Gen. El-Sisi
and, according to the official statement issued in Washington, talked about
this week’s visit to Cairo by European Union Foreign Policy Coordinator
Catherine Ashton and her two-hour conversation with deposed Egyptian
president Mohamed Morsi.
This dry communiqué omitted to reflect the attempts by Hagel and Ashton to
twist the Egyptian general’s arm intor releasing Morsi from detention and re-
integrating the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’s national politics.
Hagel specifically pressed him to bring Muslim Brotherhood members into
the interim government and give them free rein to run candidates for
parliament in early 2014.
El-Sisi told Hagel and Ashton that it was up to the Muslim Brotherhood to
subscribe to his roadmap for the caretaker administration which is ruling the
country until elections are held. He then floored the US defense secretary by
announcing he was launching a lightning campaign for his own run for the
presidency in an early election. German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle,
who arrived in Cairo Thursday, was also taken aback.
Wednesday, the US Senate voted 86-13 in favor of a motion to block a bill
calling for the suspension of US military aid to Egypt. This bill was tabled by
the Obama administration to signal its displeasure with and objections to the
military coup.
Nonetheless, President Obama has chosen to send to Cairo some time in
August, two senior Republican Senators, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey
Graham of South Carolina, to try and smooth over the rough passage between
Cairo and Washington.
The administration can’t do much with Gen. El-Sisi. He addresses
Washington and European officials with courtesy but then goes off and does
the exact opposite of what they ask of him.
His actions present Washington and its European allies with unpalatable
facts:
1. The defense minister is determined to restore the Egyptian army to center
stage of Egypt’s political scene – as in the days of his predecessors.
2. Egypt is reverting to the Mubarak era when the army decided who would
be president.
3. The democratic process in Egypt will be controlled and overseen by the
army.
4. Again like all former presidents Gemal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat and
Hosni Mubarak, El-Sisi is bent on repressing the Muslim Brotherhood which
he unseated last month until he can cut a deal with its leaders permitting
them to be politically active within pre-set confines. The Brothers will be
allowed to seat a small number of representatives in parliament.
5. Should the Americans or Europeans punish the military strongman by
halting or cutting back on economic and military aid to Egypt, he is confident
that Saudi Arabia and some oil emirates will make up the shortfall.
DEBKAfile ’s Washington sources report that the administration responded
Thursday by naming Robert Ford, US ambassador to Syria, as the new envoy
to Cairo. Ford made a name for his unconventional methods and for reaching
groups opposed to the Assad regime at the outset of the Syrian uprising.
Our sources report that while the West is focusing on restoring the Muslim
Brotherhood to the political center, the defense minister is wholly wrapped up
in his drive for two goals: Breaking up the constant pro-Morsi Brotherhood
sit-in in central Cairo, even by military force if need be; and getting his
election camp

President Obama refuses to punish NSA for world spying.

by Stephen Lendman
Huey Long once said fascism will arrive "wrapped in an American
flag." In "Friendly Fascism," Bertram Gross (1912 - 1997) called
Ronald Reagan its prototype ruler. Gross didn't know Obama.
He represents the worst of rogue governance. He advances America's
imperium. He heads its police state apparatus. He's waging war on
humanity. He's doing it abroad and at home.
He puts a smiling face on repression. He's hardline. He's ruthless.
He's done what supporters thought impossible. He exceeds the worst
of George Bush. He says one thing. He does another. He demands it.
His promises ring hollow. He broke every major one made. He's a
serial liar. He's a moral coward. On August 9, he defended the
indefensible. He did so disingenuously.
He deplores transparency and reforms. He claimed otherwise. He lied
saying so. He paid lip service to policies he won't change. He
hardened them on his watch.
A disingenuous White House press release headlined "Background on
the President's Statement on Reforms to NSA Programs," saying:
"President Obama believes that there should be increased
transparency and reforms in our intelligence programs in order to give
the public confidence that these programs have strong oversight and
clear protections against abuse."
"That is what he has pursued as President, and today he is
announcing several initiatives that will move that effort forward."
"Since the disclosures were first made, the President has held a series
of meetings with Intelligence Community leaders, during which he has
emphasized the importance of transparency and openness and
directed IC leadership to press forward with declassification of
relevant materials, to the maximum extent possible, without
undermining national security."
"Already, the Administration has declassified unprecedented
information about the activities of the National Security Agency
(NSA)."
"On July 31, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) made public
three documents dealing with the Section 215 program."
"The Administration has also engaged Congress on these issues on
35 occasions, including several committee hearings and all-Senate
and all-House Members' meetings."
"On August 1, the President met with a group of bipartisan members
of Congress to discuss key programs under the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act."
"The President and senior White House and Administration officials
have also engaged in a national dialogue on privacy in the 21st
century, soliciting feedback from relevant stakeholder groups in the
private sector, academia, and civil society."
"To date, the Administration has taken various steps to advance this
national privacy dialogue, including: meeting with the Privacy and
Civil Liberties Oversight Board, and leading several conversations on
privacy issues with a broad array of organizations representing
industry, civil society, civil rights and transparency groups."
"Most recently, the President met with a group of leaders from the
private sector, civil society and academia yesterday at the White
House to discuss a range of privacy issues."
"Today, the President directed his Administration to work with
Congress to pursue appropriate reforms to our nation's surveillance
programs and the court that oversees them. Specifically, he laid out
four steps his Administration will take:
(1) The Administration will work with Congress to pursue appropriate
reforms to Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act. After having a dialogue
with members of Congress and civil libertarians, the President
believes that there are steps that can be taken to give the American
people confidence that there are additional safeguards against abuse.
For example, steps could be taken to put in place greater oversight,
transparency, and constraints on the use of this authority.
(2) The Administration will work with Congress to improve the
public’s confidence in the oversight conducted by the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).
Specifically, steps can be taken to make sure civil liberties concerns
have a greater voice in appropriate cases by ensuring that the
g

In Korea, all children are older than their European peers

16.07.2013

 

We are used to counting our age from the day of birth. It turns out that not all peoples count age this way. Korea has long been using a different method of calculation. This is not the only difference, and the traditional relationship between parents and children in this country can serve as an excellent example to the rest of the world.

The countdown of children's age in Korea does not begin with the birth of a child, like in the West, but starts in the beginning of the year, rounding up the time spent by a child in the mother's womb. In addition, people become older not on the day of birth, but on January 1^st, according to the lunar calendar. For example, a child born in late December of 2013 will turn two on January 1^st, 2014.

This strange, at first sight, tradition can be explained by historical and cultural peculiarities of life of the residents of the East Asian region. Unusual for the Europeans system of chronology originated in ancient China and is still widely used in other cultures of East Asia. In Japan and Vietnam the system is now used in traditional divination and religion, but it has been forever removed from the everyday life. The eastern part of Mongolia echoes the unusual ancient traditions, and the age is traditionally determined by the number of full moons since conception for girls, and the number of new moons from the birth for boys.

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Koreans count their age in units called sal with the addition of Korean ordinal numbers. For example, a child born on the 29^th day of the 12^th month (lunar calendar) in the East Asian interpretation reaches the age of two on Seollal (Korean New Year), whereas under the Western system she is only a few days old. It is important for teachers and tutors of young Korean children to clarify whether the age they are told is according to the Korean or Western system.

Except for the legal sphere, East Asian age calculation system continues to be widely used by Koreans, but city dwellers use the traditional system more often.  

 

The Gregorian calendar and the calculation of age from birth is officially accepted in Korea, and used in completing legal documents and procedures. In addition, it is used to count age limits for alcohol and tobacco use, the age of consent and the age of marriage, restrictions on viewing pornographic video, as well as the school and the draft age.

While the age is calculation based on the lunar New Year, Koreans celebrate the day of their birth as well.  

Particularly important for the Koreans is the first year of a child's life. This tradition emerged in Korea at the time when infant mortality rate was very high. It was believed that if the child lived up to one year, the crisis was over, and that the child would live a long life. On this day, a child was blessed for prosperous future.

This holiday, Dol or doljanchi, is celebrated for all children in Korea. During the celebration the babies wear a hanbok, a special bright colored silk suit made specifically for this holiday, and a hat, a jobawi or gulle for baby girls and a bokgeon or hogeon for baby boys. On this day big celebrations and feasts are held. No matter how poor the family is, ample holiday treats are provided. Everyone from the poorest peasant child to an heir to the Emperor have this ritual. When this holiday is celebrated for the emperor's son, the magnitude of the celebrations is truly enormous, with a lavish table, congratulatory speeches and even amnesties for prisoners.

One of the most interesting rituals during the holiday is when Koreans set a variety of items on a table next to the child, each of them representing a specific meaning. The child picks something up and the adults make a conclusion on what the child will become in the future. Traditionally these items include rice, a thread, money, a brush, a book and a bow. Modern parents, as a rule, do not follow this custom too strictly, and set on their table a computer mouse, a baseball or a toothbrush. After the child makes her choice, they sing, dance and celebrate, give gifts, usually money, gold rings and clothes.

The members of the family thank the gods guarding the growing child by offering rice and traditional soup. The soup (Miyeok Guk) is served at each birthday party to remind of the suffering of the mother at birth.

One-year-olds sit next to their parents, watching the ritual in their honor. Since that day, the participation of children in traditional rituals, ceremonies and celebrations becomes a requirement of Korean life. On this day, a child first begins to understand the importance of traditional festivals, feels love and respect, gets to know family members and feels like a full member of the family. The child learns not only to treat gifts and entertainment with respect, but also for the first time feels respect for the elder and listens to their teachings and wishes. During such celebrations young Koreans get familiar with ancient traditions and rules of national ceremonies that became law for the Korean people.

Traditionally, Koreans celebrate birthdays only twice in their lifetime, at the age of one and 60. According to the Korean tradition, a child represents the divine source until the age of five or six. It is believed that after one year of age the baby's soul is fully formed, and they directly communicate with the souls of the ancestors helping them in the afterlife. This is why Korean parents spoil their children and allow different mischiefs.

It becomes apparent that in traditional Korea birth of children is given a great importance. Interestingly, according to the Confucian tradition adopted today in Korea, any person is always in absolute obedience to their parents, and not until they become of age, as it happens in Europe.

Koreans are some of the most caring parents in the world, and a question about their son or grandson is able to soften even the most unfriendly person. Korean children are given all mental and financial strength by their parents. Even if there is a conflict between the spouses it rarely affects children. Despite some oddities in determining age, the nations of the West have much to learn from the Koreans.

Julia Chmelenko

Tony Blair: Libya, Lockerbie, Arms and Betrayals.

"The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men." (Samuel Adams, 1722-1803, letter 1775.)

This will surely have you falling down with surprise. According to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act and obtained by the (UK) Sunday Telegraph, the August 2009 release from Scotland's Barlinnie jail of Libyan Abdelbaset al- Megrahi, accused of the bombing of  Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988, hinged on an oil and arms deal, allegedly brokered by roving war monger (sorry, roving "Peace Ambassador") Tony Blair.

Felicity Arbuthnot

At this point it should be said that anyone who has read John Ashton and Ian Ferguson's meticulous "Cover up of Convenience" (i) on the Lockerbie tragedy could only regard Mr al-Meghrahi's conviction as between very unsafe and very questionable.

The British Labour Party, which Blair headed for ten years, until 27th June 2007, have always insisted that the release had no connection with commercial deals. After leaving Downing Street, Blair visited Libya some six times.

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On 8th June 2008, the then British Ambassador to Libya, Sir Vincent Fean, sent Tony Blair's private office a thirteen hundred word briefing on the UK's eagerness to do business with Libya, according to the Telegraph. (ii) Blair flew to Tripoli to meet Colonel Quaddafi, just two days later, June 10th. Quaddafi paid: Blair, always lavish with other's money had requested, and was granted, the Colonel's private jet for the journey.  

Sir Vincent's "key objective" was for: "Libya to invest its £80 billion sovereign wealth through the City of London", according to the Telegraph, which also cites the Ambassador writing of the UK being : "privately critical of then President George Bush for 'shooting the US in the foot' by continuing to put a block on Libyan assets in America, in the process scuppering business deals." Britain however, was voraciously scrambling to fill the fiscal gap.

 

Unlike the US and UK who abandon or drone to death their own citizens who are in trouble, or even accused of it, Libya's Administration had stood by their man and seemed to be prepared to do even unpalatable deals to free him and had long been pressuring the UK to release al-Megrahi.

In May 2007, a month before he left Downing Street, Blair had made his second visit to Libya, meeting Colonel Quaddafi and his Prime Minister Al Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi in then beautiful and now near ruined city of Sirte.

Surely coincidentally, on this trip, a deal was seemingly thrashed out, including prisoner transfer, just before British Petrolium (BP) announced their approximate £454 million investment to prospect for £13billion worth of oil in Libya.

Also, states the Telegraph report: "At that meeting, according to Sir Vincent's email, Mr Blair and Mr Al Baghdadi agreed that Libya would buy a missile defence system from MBDA - a weapons manufacturer part-owned by Britains's  BAE Systems." This seemed to (also) hinge on a Memorandum of Understanding for a Prisoner Transfer Agreement: "which the Libyans believed would pave the way for al-Megrahi's release." Various sources state that the arms deal was worth £400 million, and up to two thousand jobs in the UK. Sir Vincent referred to the arms deal as a "legacy issue." Blair's "legacy", as ever, synonymous with destruction. 

Ironically, it was Blair who credited himself with persuading Colonel Quaddafi to abandon and destroy his weapons programmes  after his visit to the country in March 2004 (placing that Judas kiss  the Colonel's cheek) as a step to Libya returning to the fold of the duplicitous "international community." With friends like Blair, enemies are a redundancy.

When Blair returned to Libya in June 2008, the Telegraph contends that the British Government, then under Gordon Brown, Blair's former Chancellor of the Exchequer (who left the national coffers near empty) used the opportunity: " to press the case for the arms deal to be sealed. At the time, Britain was on the brink of an economic and banking crisis - and Libya, though the Libyan Investment Authority - had billions of pounds in reserves."

Saif al-Islam, Quaddafi's son, expressed the concern over the arms deal being voiced from within the Libyan military, given their close ties to the "Russian defence equipment camp." 

An earlier discovery by the Sunday Telegraph shows, in letters and emails, that Blair held hitherto undisclosed talks with the Colonel in April 2009, four months before al-Megrahi's release. (iii) 

Again he was flown at the expense of the Colonel, in his private jet: "In both 2008 and 2009, documents show Mr Blair negotiated to fly to the Libyan capitol ... in a jet provided by Quaddafi." Blair's Office denies the claims, saying they were transported in a Libyan government 'plane.

By the time of the 2009 visit: "Libya was threatening to cut all business links if al-Megrahi stayed in a British jail." Blair seemingly attempted to pour oil on troubled waters by bringing American billionaire, Tim Collins to that meeting to advise Quaddafi on building the beach resorts he was planning, on the Libyan coast. 

Further adding to the murk, a spokesperson for Collins stated:"Tim was asked to go by Tony Blair in his position as a trustee of Mr Blair's US faith foundation. Tim had no intention of doing any business with Quaddafi."

However: "Sources in Libya said Quaddafi had discussed with Mr Collins opening beach resorts along the Libyan coast, but that Mr Collins had dismissed the idea because the Libyans would not sanction the sale of alcohol or gambling at the resorts. 

Blair's spokesperson said of the visit: " ... Tony Blair has never had any role, either formal or informal, paid or unpaid, with the Libyan Investment Authority or the Government of Libya and he has no commercial relationship with any Libyan company or entity." A Blair first, seemingly, given the impression that he never touches down anywhere without emerging with a lucrative contract or a large cheque, 

However, Oliver Miles, a former British ambassador to Libya, is quoted as saying : "Mr Blair is clearly using his Downing Street contacts to further his business interests."

In a further coincidence, the Prisoner Transfer agreement for Mr al-Megrahi was signed the day before Blair's 2009 visit.

When al-Megrahi, who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, was released in August 2009, the British media and politicians were outraged. Scotland had done a deal and was benefiting financially from Libya. The latest revelations prove Scotland did no financial deals. When Mr al-Megrahi failed to die, politicians and media were even more outraged. They were a shaming spectacle.

Mental mind set can be a huge force in prolonging life in even the most serious cancer patients. No doubt in al-Megrahi's case, being back in a home and with a family he loved contributed to his extra time. He survived long enough to see his country destroyed by the devious forces the West embodies - and at which Blair excels.  Megrahi died in September 2012. 

Incidentally, Ambassador Fean reportedly "expressed relief" at al-Megrahi's release: "He noted that a refusal of Megrahi's request could have had disastrous implications for British interests in Libya. 'They could have cut us off at the knees."(iv)

Quaddafi, however, never signed the arms deal.

Footnote: The 2004 visit by Blair was arranged by Saif al Islam, who Blair seemingly knew well and had allegedly even offered suggestions on his PhD thesis when Saif was studying at the London School of Oriental and.African Studies (SOAS.)

In September last year Saif al-Islam's lady friend of six years, appealed, passionately, to Blair to intervene to save the life of his now captured, maimed and death penalty-facing friend: "The two are old friends - it is time that Mr Blair returned some loyalty. Mr Blair is a man of God - as a Christian he has a moral duty to help a friend in need", she has commented. (v)

Seemingly there has been no response from Blair's office. Further, an extensive search for a comment on the appalling death of  Colonel Quaddafi - his former host and private 'plane provider - and the demise of much of his family from this "Peace Envoy" and "man of God", has come up with absolutely nothing.

To mangle a quote: Beware of British offering deals.

Was Hitler the enfant terrible of European construction?

By Nicolas Bonnal

AP photo

In 1945, Himmler had written a famous letter (at least famous in France) to general de Gaulle in order to recommend him an alliance between France and Germany to save Europe from the Soviet Union: the defeat of Nazi Europe was such a mess... and today, France being the shadow of herself, Germany is running again the continent and Angela Merkel is reigning on her own with the bankers who created the euro and design a continental austerity and the great replacement of our peoples. Hitler projects were obsessed too by such displacements of peoples, by autobahns and by a destruction of our landscapes and national and Christian roots. Now Brussels's Europe serves basically the same purpose.

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Twenty years ago, my friend John Laughland had described in his book "The Tainted Source" the undemocratic origins of European construction. While Europe unwillingly submits herself to the yoke of not so invisible banks, elites and agencies, it seems important to recall that the first designer and builder of that modern Europe was Hitler, for he dreamt of a unified and Russophobe continent driven by an iron fist and a somewhat erratic agenda. It is well-known that after the war ex-SS prince Bernhard created the Bilderbergs with Jesuit Rettinger and NATO agents in order to fulfil the European construction and the destruction of our nations. The purpose of the European Construction was to crush Marxist temptations, to submit our peoples to undemocratic agencies, to isolate the soviet bloc and to create a pure materialistic world: the world of the reign of quantity, to put it in René Guénon's words.

Reading the various books written about the fuehrer and his grandiose projects by world-famous historian David Irving, I find the following phrases (we are in 1936):

 

AT this Nuremberg rally Hitler announced a four-year plan for Germany. His grand plans on foreign policy came as no surprise Goebbels. After sitting in on one conference aboard Hitler's yacht Grille at Kiel in May 1936 he had noted down Hitler's prophetic vision of a United States of Europe under a German leadership.

In 1941 Hitler pronounces a speech in Berlin about Europe. Notes Irving:

In his speech he outlined his unifying role in Europe - how Italy, Hungary, the Nordic countries, and then Japan had come closer to Germany.

Berlin is again the capital of Europe. During the war declared by Britain (Hitler just wanted a clean sweep in the East), the German dictator argues for a destruction of the nations and their colonies: 

As for Europe: there is no justification for the existence of small nations, and they particularly have no right to big colonial possessions. In the age of air forces and armoured divisions small nations are lost.

Hitler was driven by a mad racism against Slavic peoples. He wanted to colonize the East and send Nordic colons from all northern Europe in Ukraine or Crimea; the program was both economical and demographical. A good British, Irving notes with scepticism the German dreams:

By mid-October, despite the foul weather, Hitler was still red with optimism. On the thirteenth he began laying the foundations for a Nazi version of a united Europe. Hewel wrote, 'Reich foreign minister visits the Fuehrer; first thoughts on a European manifesto, probably in the economic sphere first of all, and probably at the beginning of the winter.

While invading Russia, Hitler is surrounded too by economists and experts and he dreams of a new Europe no more based on obsolete notions:

Fuehrer is in very best and relaxed mood.' Over dinner he revealed that he had been thinking of calling together the economic experts of Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, and Finland. 'All those who have a feeling for Europe can join in this work,' he said, meaning the colonisation of the east.

The fact is that the Nordic peoples moved but to the South (nobody ever wanted to freeze in the East!), accelerating the decay of southern European economies. In a few years the euro has anyway destroyed their economies. The history of Nazi currency has been well studied by Milton Friedman (a frank admirer of Dr Schacht's wizardries) and his school.  German-European currency is just an extension of the domain of the fight.

Nobody felt at this gloomy times more European than Himmler and the SS:

It was Himmler who was most assiduously propagating the new 'European' spirit: in the SS panzer division 'Viking,' now fighting in the Caucasus, the young men of Scandinavia and the Netherlands were united with the finest German troops.

Here we come closer to the present situation. By the end of the war, as the strength of the Red Army begins to crush the idealistic and somewhat multicultural Nazi hordes, Hitler - an insatiable optimist like all the good Europeans - underlines the necessity of a unified Europe.

'But the British have got it all quite wrong! They declared war to preserve the "balance of power" in Europe. But now Russia has awakened and turned into a state of the highest technical and material calibre. . . This means that the onslaught from the east can in the future only be met by a united Europe under German leadership. That is in Britain's interest too.'

A united Europe under German leadership! Here we are! This doesn't mean that the fuehrer did not betray too the interests of his race: after all, he was responsible fort he blood and death of millions of Europeans in the name of a racist and lunatic agenda; after all he wanted the Japanese to attack Russia in the East and he awoke the Asian resistance against the British imperial interests. The fuehrer too was an antiracist who fought his own race. This is why I call his attitude erratic; as we consider today's European construction absurd, prejudicial and doomed.

Of course I am exaggerating! The goals are the same but not the means. So let us call Hitler - after Napoleon - the enfant terrible of European Construction; and read again Tolstoy's War and Peace to understand the confuse mind of westerners... 

By David Irving: Hitler's war; Goebbels, the mastermind of the Third Reich

Nicolas Bonnal