Is Germany losing the latest world war?

© REUTERS/ Guido Bergman/Bundesregierung/Handout via Reuters

    

The harsh rhetoric of Merkel at the Moscow press conference on May 10th, as well as her very sour face after talking to Putin, may have very real and important reasons. Germany is looking more and more like the main loser in the geopolitical schemes of both Russia and USA. Well, if we don't count Ukraine, which is the main battlefield.

It's no secret that Russia's most important foreign policy objective has long been fostering closer ties with Europe, especially Germany. This is not only about Russia's traditional goal off "Westernization", or the fact that President Putin's previous work in Germany has impacted his strategic views, but also about elementary lessons of history. Russia and Germany ended up on opposing sides in two world wars, and took immense losses, while USA and Britain reaped most of the spoils. So, attempting to break this pattern is only natural. Unfortunately, each of our countries looks out for its own geopolitical interests first and foremost, and those are often opposed to each other. And, like twice before, Germany is about to fall prey to its short-term interests going against its long-term strategic position.

We could talk about Germany not being fully sovereign and all of this happening due to United States influence, but this is only partly true. In the last three decades, Germany has made enormous progress towards restoring its geopolitical standing. It became the leading power in the EU - virtually all other European countries are dependent on German loans and already severely in German debt. The process has gone so far that many talk about the new "EuroReich", as EU is essentially economically controlled by Germany.

Another cornerstone of the German resurgence was great international relations, with Russia in particular.

But the Ukrainian conflict changed all of that overnight. Traditionally, USA are blamed for orchestrating the February 2014 violent overthrow of the elected Ukrainian government, but that is also only partially true.

Dragging Ukraine kicking and screaming into the European sphere of influence was initially an EU project, just like extending European Union influence to Eastern Europe before that. There was, in fact, an informal sharing of responsibilities, where EU handled the political and economic aspects of takeovers, whereas USA handled the secret services and military aspects, up to direct military action (e.g. in Yugoslavia). And by saying EU, we mean Germany - it's no accident that all the Maidan leaders were constantly visiting Berlin during the "active phase" of the overthrow. Russia swallowed the aggressive EU expansion in East Europe, albeit with some grumbling. But the attempts of invading over post-Soviet space were instantly met with hostility.

So, we can say that US pretty much used Ukraine to lure EU, and Germany in particular, into a trap which has no easy way out [Russia is caught in the same trap, of course]. But there's another point that's even more interesting: officially, USA is currently not involved in the conflict (all the negotiations during and after the takeover were handled by Europeans), it's not involved in the Minsk "de-escalation", and can pretty much leave everyone to their own devices anytime they want to, regardless of the situation. They don't much care whether Putin forces the rebel republics to submit to Kiev, or does a 180 degree turn and occupies the whole country with his troops. In the first scenario, America can claim victory, in the second scenario, they can claim their militaristic paranoia was justified and their worldwide protection racket needs more arms sales. The current "de-escalation through negotiations" is the least favorable scenario for the US, but overall it also suits them because the continued instability and turmoil are negatively affecting European and Russian economies, so investment capital flees to US.

For Europe and specifically Germany, the situation is much worse. Not only are they stuck politically supporting a regime that is, objectively, quite far from European values [of personal freedom, not burning protesters alive, not suspending the declaration of human rights, not glorifying Holocaust perpetrators, or not murdering political opponents in the streets], but they will likely also have to pay the lion's share of the costs - both supporting this regime and repairing the damage in the future.

There are two more aspects of the problem that negatively affect Germany in particular:

First off, USA are wholeheartedly opposed to Germany reclaiming the debts other EU members owe it, making these debts into liabilities instead of leverage. Any attempts to buy out the insolvent country's assets are blocked. Even the worst offender, Greece, only smiles in response to talks about selling islands in order to pay off state debts. The longer this goes on, the weaker Germany looks, as a debtor incapable of recovering the money loaned.

Second, Germany is the most affected by Russia's new pivot to China. Their economic alliance, among other things, directly threatens Germany's position in the world economy. While Russia was friendly to Germany and the EU, there was an informal agreement that Russia will not help China catch up to Germany in areas crucial to German economy - mostly metallurgy and higher chemistry.

In most other areas, Germany is now directly competing with China and slowly losing its market share, but in areas that involve complicated metallic alloys and special plastics used in industrial manufacture, instruments, and aerospace, Germany's technological advantage over China was indisputable - which gave the country a relatively large and profitable niche in the world market. But in the case of a full scale alliance between Russia and China, this can change radically. Although Russia's own metallurgical and chemical industries have gone through decline, it still has the scientific and technological know-how to give a boost to these industries in China, nullifying Germany's strategic advantages. Today, when German tools serve several times longer than Chinese ones and only cost 2 - 3 times as much, China cannot compete. Once quality becomes comparable, and China's prices are still lower by at least 30%, Germany would lose the market, and its geopolitical standing would plummet accordingly.

Some may say that Russia acting this way, breaking our promise to the Germans, would be dishonest and ungentlemanly. But one can not always keep his word in the world where everybody else doesn't stick to theirs.

In conclusion: Germany has subtly, under threat on all possible fronts. Losing face supporting the morally and financially bankrupt regime they brought to power in Ukraine, losing their debt leverage over other European countries - which could bring about the end of the EuroReich, losing their unique niche in the world market. And this is without mentioning smaller issues, such as losing the Russian market due to the "sanction war", and other direct consequences of the conflict.

Moreover, it is likely that Germany would have to cope with all of this alone. France is mired in internal problems, although Merkel always tows their president along to pretend that the negotiation process involves all of EU.

USA is in the midst of yet another election cycle, so, as always, the current government needs to either fix all the messes they've created, or at least convince the voters that they are not responsible for them. The opposition, on the other hand, needs to blame the ruling party for all of the problems, as well as fix as many of them as possible to show their own competence. This logic would cause the US to try to finish the Ukrainian conflict by whatever means necessary, up to and including handing Kiev over to Russia. If that doesn't work (Russia has no desire for be responsible for taking care of such a "generous" gift), at least distance themselves from the problem as much as humanly possible.

Overall, BundesKanzlerin Merkel is in a very tight spot.

Read More

Massive rainfalls have devastated more than half of Texas state parks

© Unknown
Flood waters inundate the Birch Creek Unit of Lake Somerville State Park. The park is one of more than two-dozen state parks wholly or partly closed because of damage from recent rains.

    

More than a dozen Texas state parks, including some of the most visited sites in the 95-unit system, are closed to the public as a result of damage caused by a month of heavy rains capped by torrential downpours over the Memorial Day weekend.

Portions of a dozen or so other state parks are closed to visitors, with most of the closures tied to flooding from rivers and reservoirs swelled with runoff from rains that have soaked much of the state over the past weeks.

More than half of Texas' state parks have suffered weather-related damage during the past month or so. A handful of those parks, including Blanco State Park, which was devastated by a record-setting surge of the Blanco River, could be wholly or partially closed for weeks as damage is repaired or, in the case of several parks on the shores of swollen reservoirs, flood water continues covering campgrounds and other facilities.

Many of the closures will be temporary, with parks reopening when floods recede, damage is addressed and park visitors' safety can be assured, said Steve Lightfoot, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesman. But other closures could be imposed if additional rains cause more flooding.

"It's a constantly changing situation right now," Lightfoot said Wednesday. "A lot depends on what the weather does."

Tragedy averted

© Picasa
A rain-softened dam crumbled to send a wall of water across Bastrop State Park, which was still recovering from a massive wildfire in 2011.

    

Threat of flooding along the lower Brazos River triggered park officials on Wednesday to add Brazos Bend State Park in Fort Bend County and Stephen F. Austin State Park in Austin County to the list of parks temporarily closed to visitors. Brazos Bend is one of the most popular parks in a state park system that annually attracts more than 8 million visitors, generates more than $744 million in economic activity, and pumps more than $202 million into household incomes of Texans.

Most of the closed or partially closed parks are in north-central and central Texas, the regions hardest hit by recent rains.

At Blanco State Park, action by park staff during unprecedented flooding this past Saturday night averted what could have been tragedy. Park staff, concerned about the potential for flooding, moved to get campers out of harm's way. By the time campers began evacuation of the campground, the rising river had cut off exit routes. Park staff moved the 70 or so campers to the park superintendent's home, which sat on high ground out of the reach of the wall of water that plunged down the Blanco River, sweeping away everything in its path.

"The park's staff did a tremendous job," Lightfoot said. None of the people in the park were injured. The park did, however, see significant damage to areas near the river and will remain closed for an undetermined period, Lightfoot said.

Bastrop State Park also remains closed after heavy rains caused the earthen dam creating a seven-acre lake in the park to fail, sending a wall of water through the park. Bastrop State Park, slowly recovering from a massive wildfire that incinerated much of the park in 2011, will remain closed until damage is assessed and clean-up accomplished.

Flooding on the Guadalupe River has closed two parks: Guadalupe River State Park, upstream from Canyon Lake (which is more than 15 feet above it's full mark) and Palmetto State Park near Gonzales.

In East Texas, flooding along Village Creek has Village Creek State Park closed until further notice.

Flooded roads or damage to roads leading to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area and Colorado Bend State Park have those sites closed, although they could reopen by the weekend.

All or part of several state parks adjacent to reservoirs are closed. At Lake Somerville State Park, where the reservoir is more than 17 feet above its full level, the Nail's Creek and Birch Creek units of the park are closed.

On Lake Ray Roberts, which is almost 11 feet above full, all units of the Ray Roberts Lake State Park are closed.

Most of Eisenhower State Park , adjacent to Lake Texoma, is closed. Texoma, on the flooding Red River, is more than 26 feet above its normal level.

The same situation - partial closure - applies at Cedar Hill State Park. Cedar Hill, near Dallas and one of the most visited parks in the state system, sits on the shore of Joe Pool Reservoir, which is almost 13 feet higher than normal.

High cost

TPWD officials said the agency doesn't have an estimate of how much it will cost to address damage caused by the recent storms and associated runoff and flooding. The agency is fielding an assessment team for that purpose, Lightfoot said. But repair costs are certain to run into the millions, he said. That cost will be compounded by the loss of revenue generated through park entrance and use fees - revenue used to fund park operations.

Texas state parks see their highest visitation - as much as 80 percent of annual visitation - between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Read More

Arizona State Hikes Tuition Dramatically, Yet Pays the Clintons $500,000 to Make an Appearance

Just last week, I published an article highlighting how UCLA tried to negotiate a reduced rate on a Hillary Clinton speech only to be rebuffed by her representatives in the post, How UCLA Tried to Negotiate a Lower Speaking Fee, but Hillary Clinton Refused and Demanded $300,000. Here’s an excerpt:

Before Hillary Clinton spoke at the University of California at Los Angeles in March, her representatives had a few specifications to negotiate with school officials.

And of course, there was the matter of Clinton’s $300,000 speaking fee. When officials asked for a price reduction on behalf of the public university, Clinton’s representatives didn’t budge, saying $300,000 was already the “special university rate”…

Hillary’s greed, cronyism and phoniness is so incredibly shameless, genuine progressives such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders can’t help but call her out despite the fact that, other than Rand Paul, pretty much every other Republican running for President is an overt fascist. That’s how bad Hillary really is.

Although her entire career in politics has consisted of pandering to financial oligarchs and other powerful interests, she continues to successfully dazzle the ignorant with empty, disingenuous class warfare rhetoric. Nevertheless, when it comes to the choice between her getting paid and the public interest, guess what she chooses every time?

Moving along, it appears the UCLA student body got a great “deal” compared to the sucker serfs at Arizona State University. In what amounts to one of the more egregious slaps in the face to indebted millennials by a status quo that has handed them one of the worst economies in American history, we learn from USA Today that:

Arizona State University has nearly doubled its tuition over the last decade. Its trustees recently took out a full page ad bemoaning the dilapidated state of state funding to Arizona’s universities. Next year, it’s attaching a $320 surcharge to its already exorbitant tuition.

Meanwhile, the school was flush enough to hand over half a million dollars last year to the Clinton Foundation.

ASU says the $500,000 wasn’t a donation but a payment for the privilege of hosting the Clintons at ASU.

I really hope that’s sarcasm.

Meanwhile, this is how university spokesman Mark Johnson justified the absurd expense:

Johnson went on to explain that ASU “co-invested in this educational and promotional opportunity, which was co-produced for our students, and for students from around the world. No state funds were used for this purpose.”

Have you ever read a bigger bunch of bullshit in your life?

Me? I’m thinking we’d be better off co-investing in something other than a chance to underwrite the Clintons spring vacation in Arizona.By my calculation, the school spent $455 per student for the 1,100 students around the world who tuned in to CGIU.

If the universities are hurting as badly as their leaders have claimed, surely they could have come up with a better use for $500,000 than further enriching the Clintons.

ASU should disclose where the money came from for this boondoggle.

Just another hit from the Clinton highlight reel. Here are some more:

Introducing “WJC, LLC” – Bill Clinton’s Little Known Pass-Through Entity Used to Channel Consulting Fees

How Donations to the Clinton Foundation Led to Tens of Billions in Weapons Sales to Autocratic Regimes

How UCLA Tried to Negotiate a Lower Speaking Fee, but Hillary Clinton Refused and Demanded $300,000

What Difference Does it Make? 1,100 Foreign Donors to Clinton Foundation Never Disclosed and Remain Secret

Senior Fellow at Sunlight Foundation Calls the Clinton Foundation “A Slush Fund”

More Clinton Foundation Cronyism – The Deal to Sell Uranium Interests to Russia While Hillary was Secretary of State

More Hillary Cronyism Revealed – How Cisco Used Clinton Foundation Donations to Cover-up Human Rights Abuse in China

This is How Hillary Does Business – An Oil Company, Human Rights Abuses in Colombia and the Clinton Foundation

Clinton Foundation’s Deep Financial Ties to Ukrainian Oligarch Who Pushed for Closer Ties to EU Revealed 

Read More

Dept. Of Justice Flying Secret Airplane Fleet Over American Cities

MINNEAPOLIS — When a friend happened to spot a surveillance flight over his neighborhood, it led Sam Richards, an independent journalist, to uncover a fleet of secret airplanes registered to fake corporations apparently created by the Department of Justice.

While their purpose remains unknown, Richards has uncovered 100 of the aircraft and traced regular flights over major American cities.

Richards, who writes under the nom de plume Sam Renegade, first published his findings on his Twitter account, @MinneapoliSam, before gathering them into a report on Medium. In his report, published on Monday, he outlines how each of the planes is registered to a fake corporation with a three-letter acronym for a name, such as “OBR Leasing,” which doesn’t seem to otherwise exist as a viable business from Internet or public records searches. Richards reveals that dozens of these aircraft, from front corporations like “FVX Research” and “KQM Aviation,” are registered at the same Bristow, Virginia, post office boxes used for planes which are openly registered to the DOJ.

Using flight tracking websites, Richards tracked these airplanes’ flights over several major cities, including Minneapolis, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle and Baltimore. Almost all of the aircraft are common models of small planes manufactured by Cessna. The flight patterns, in which the airplanes repeatedly circle part of a city, suggest surveillance activities.

 During and after the recent Baltimore uprising, similar Cessna surveillance flights were spotted over the city, leading the ACLU to seek answers from the DOJ. According to the Washington Post, the FBI has confirmed it loaned planes to the Baltimore Police Department. Renegade’s report remains the first to link all these planes together, however.

 

MintPress News spoke to Richards, who explained how he discovered this fleet of what may be surveillance planes. He says his interest in aviation goes back to his years working for various companies at the Minneapolis International Airport.

“My buddy the other day sent me a picture from his phone of an aircraft that was flying what we both seemed to think was surveillance over Minneapolis,” he said.

When Richards and his friend compared the registration of the plane they’d spotted to the ones known to have been surveilling Baltimore, they discovered they were registered to fake corporations which could be linked to a known DOJ P.O. box. From there, it became a matter of looking for other planes also registered to these front corporations. Flight tracking sites helped find more, or confirm that the planes are engaged in what appears to be surveillance.

Richards expressed surprise that the government hasn’t gone further to cover its tracks. He said, “It’s all public information. If they’re doing surveillance, you’d think they’d hide it better.”

His report on Medium initially suggested the secret fleet contained at least 62 aircraft, but within a day the number had risen to 100, including a handful of helicopters. Richards maintains a master list of the planes on Pastebin, but he believes more remain to be discovered. Even the current list reveals a staggering number of flights made over U.S. cities.

“They’ve almost all been used within the last month, so this is a huge operation,” said Richards.

The planes spend several days to a week circling a given city, then they’re rerouted to another site. Richards says his Twitter followers speculate that the planes could carry electronic surveillance equipment such as Stingrays, devices that mimic a wireless tower to allow widespread monitoring of smartphones, which areknown to be mounted on airplanes.

As he continues to search for more planes in the fleet, Richards plans to submit a Freedom of Information Act request demanding answers about the purpose of the aircraft. However, he remains skeptical about the government’s willingness to reveal the truth.

“Since they’ve been super secret about how they use the Stingray and all their other tools, I’m probably not going to get much back in that regard,” he said, “but we’ll see.” 

Read More

SOTT FOCUS: Is ISIS a creation of the US government? Do large hairy mammals relieve themselves in the woods?

Stick on some beards and... US-created 'Contra' rebels in Nicaragua

    

Over the course of the past 100 years, Eastwards from South America to South East Asia (and everywhere in between), official history records that US governments have repeatedly created and used terrorist groups to attack foreign governments and populations who foolishly refused to view the world through a stars and stripes-tinted lens.

Two examples among dozens include Nicaragua and Indonesia. At a 1985 hearing of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on US operations in Nicaragua, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) told then Secretary of State George P. Shultz: "There is a growing body of evidence that the contras have committed widespread violence against the civilian population. I am concerned that money from our government goes to an organization that commits atrocities. I have been given affidavits by victims of atrocities, terrible photographs."

Shultz was being rather coy here. The US government viewed the democratically-elected Sandinista government as a threat to the ability of American corporations to exploit Nicaraguan resources. Continuing in the tradition they had, by then, established in at least 5 other South American nations that rejected US corporate plunder of their nation, the US government decided to fund, arm and train a terrorist group known as the 'Contras' or 'counterrevolutionaries'.

For the next ten years, the Contras carried out widespread terror attacks against the civilian population that killed at least 45,000 people in the tiny central American nation. The CIA even produced a 'terror manual' for the Contras called Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare that advised on how to rationalize the killing of civilians. For almost ten years these CIA terrorists busied themselves by:

• targeting health care clinics and health care workers for assassination
• kidnapping civilians
• torturing civilians
• executing civilians, including children, who were captured in combat
• raping women

In his case study of the Nicaragua Vs United States dispute, Professor of military law at the University of Amsterdam, Terry Gill wrote: "The U.S. played a very large role in financing, training, arming, and advising the contras over a long period, and the contras only became capable of carrying out significant military operations as a result of this support."

In 1966 with the full backing of the Johnson government, Indonesian General Suharto staged a violent coup against the democratically-elected President Sukarno. According to senior CIA operations officer Ralph McGehee, the CIA forged a document purporting to reveal a Communist plot to murder Indonesian military leaders that Sukarno used to seize power. US and British-supplied weapons enabled Sukarno to begin a purge of alleged "communists". Up to 1 million people were murdered over the next two years.

The US government and its European accomplices wasted no time in cashing in on the 'new opportunities' that Suharto's brutal regime provided

Thumbs up for genocide - Suharto with U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen

    

them. Even as the slaughter was ongoing in November 1967, Time-Life Corporation in Geneva held a 3 day conference at which most of the Western corporate giants were represented. The Freeport company got a mountain of copper in West Papua. A US/European consortium got the nickel. The giant Alcoa company got the biggest slice of Indonesia's bauxite. America, Japanese and French companies got the tropical forests of Sumatra.

Immediately after this US-backed genocide, the 1968 US government National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Indonesia (NIE) 55-68, December 31, 1968 stated that "the Suharto government provides Indonesia with a relatively moderate leadership". Over the next 25 years, Suharto presided over the slaughter of millions more in Indonesia and East Timor, again with the full backing of successive US administrations.

But the attitude of US and British government officials to this kind of wanton slaughter of civilians for profit is perhaps best exemplified by the comments of former junior British Defense Minister Alan Clark, the man responsible for ensuring a continuous supply of British weapons to the Suharto regime in the late 90s. Asked by Australian investigative journalist John Pilger if it bothered him personally that he was causing such massive human suffering, Clark responded:

"No, not in the slightest, it never entered my head."

Pilger continued: "I ask the question because I read you are a vegetarian and are seriously concerned with the way animals are killed. Doesn't that concern extend to humans?"

"Curiously not" Clark replied.

For her part, British PM Margaret Thatcher was so enamored with Suharto's blood lust that she described him as "one of our very best and most valuable friends".

Tried and tested tactics in Syria to contain Russia

With its vast oil reserves, the Middle East has always been very 'strategically important' for the 'national interests' of US empire. Every time those interests were threatened, like when a 'reformer' was democratically elected, or snuggled up to Russia, the Empire's strategy of choice was to 'stir things up'. Back in 1957 for example, when the Syrian government would not cooperate with Western "anticommunism", the US and British governments hatched a plot to create "provocations" in Syria that were to be used as justification for an invasion by the military of the then client government in Iraq. Details about this conspiracy were revealed by a "Working Group Report" uncovered in 2003 among the papers of British Defence Minister Duncan Sandys:

In order to facilitate the action of liberative [sic] forces [...] a special effort should be made to eliminate certain key individuals [and] to proceed with internal disturbances in Syria. CIA is prepared, and SIS (MI6) will attempt to mount minor sabotage and coup de main [sic] incidents within Syria, working through contacts with individuals [...] a necessary degree of fear [...] frontier and [staged] border clashes [will] provide a pretext for intervention [...] the CIA and SIS should use [...] capabilities in both psychological and action fields to augment tension. Syria would be "made to appear as the sponsor of plots, sabotage and violence directed against neighbouring governments"

In case you haven't figured it out yet, the situation in 1957 is almost a carbon copy of events today, except that rather than using the Iraqi military to invade Syria, the US government used its own invasion and occupation of Iraq to create a breeding ground for a proxy army called "ISIS" that has been used to invade Syria. A recently declassified secret US Defense Intelligence Agency document obtained by public interest law firm, Judicial Watch makes it clear that the US government and its intelligence agencies fully anticipated that this would occur. Admitting that their support for a group of psychopathic head choppers could "establish a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in Eastern Syria" they concluded that this was "exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition [the USA] want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime."

    

To reject the suggestion that the US empire was directly involved in the creation of the Islamic State requires a willful ignorance of official US history and an assiduous disregard for official US government documents, both of which point directly to ISIS being a creation of the US government in the same way the Contras and the Suharto regime were.

When we consider the 'essence' of ISIS or "al-qaeda" before them, what we see is a well-funded group whose goal is to wage both a physical and ideological war on moderate Islam while (largely psychologically) terrorizing Western populations. The physical war is pursued by militarily attacking moderate Muslim governments in an effort to over throw them (Iraq, Libya, Syria, Hizb'allah in Lebanon). The ideological war takes the form of blackening the image of Muslims by committing the most horrific crimes in the name of Islam that are then beamed directly into the brains of Western audiences by the Western media. In this way, the actions of ISIS and 'al-qaeda' dovetails with Western powers' long-standing Middle Eastern strategy of supporting the most extreme Islamic groups and governments against every secular, moderate pan-Arab movement. Strange coincidence.

The creation of ISIS is merely the latest, and arguably most desperate, attempt by the US empire to secure its faltering position of global hegemon - a position that has always been threatened by the possibility of a Eurasian alliance of Russia, China and Europe. The monstrosity of ISIS is therefore world war by other means, i.e. '4th generation war' or the use of proxy terror groups, dirty tricks, black propaganda and economic sanctions against all opponents, domestic and foreign. Of course, all of this is outrageous conspiracy theory. So outrageous, in fact, that even the 'Islamic State' itself doesn't believe it! As some CIA operative Jihadi wrote in the latest issue of 'Dabiq' ISIS' glossy magazine:

"According to these theorists, almost all the events of the world were somehow linked back to the kuffar, their intelligence agencies, research, technology, and co-conspirators! Conspiracy theories have thereby become an excuse to abandon jihad."

Of course, the truth is that there are no conspiracies, everything happens by coincidence, except of course when, all by themselves, a relatively small group of jihadi mercenaries are able to hold off the military forces of Syria, Iraq, Iran and Hizb'allah, annex land from two of those countries and establish their own caliphate. Then it's not a coincidence. It's a miracle.

By the way, if the spread of conspiracy theories is causing an exodus from ISIS' ranks, wouldn't it make sense for the US, Canadian, British and French governments to widely promote such theories as part of their existential war against the hated jihadis? And in the case that they do see the logic of such a strategy, could I apply for a job in the CIA?

I'll leave you with a somewhat rhetorical question; given that the US government has a track record of creating, funding and arming terror groups to carry out terror attacks against civilian populations, resulting in the deaths of millions of mostly innocent people over the last 60 years, who can say with any conviction that the same cabal of US empire builders did not have a hand in the 9/11 attacks that has been used to justify every US political and military action in the Middle East (and elsewhere) since that 'fateful' day?

"made to appear as the sponsor of plots [...] staged clashes provide a pretext for intervention [...] a necessary degree of fear".

    

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

Read More

France investigates Boeing 777's near crash into active African volcano

Close call for France Flight 953. Mt. Cameroon is the highest mountain in central Africa.

    

An investigation has been launched into a "serious incident" involving Air France Flight 953. It was revealed the plane with nearly 40 on board risked crashing into a giant volcano in Cameroon while trying to avoid a storm. France's BEA air accident agency is looking into what took place on May 2, when the Boeing 777 was en route to Paris.

Air France Flight 953 with 23 passengers, three pilots and 10 cabin crew were traveling from Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, to Douala, the largest city in Cameroon. An automatic 'pull up' alarm went off when the plane diverted north from its normal route "to avoid storms," accident investigators said.

The BEA stated in its report that the aircraft ascended quickly from 9,000 ft to 13,000 ft to avoid crashing.

© rt.com410 × 230
Remi Jouty, president of France's Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses BEA (Air Accident Investigator)

    

"The Boeing 777-200 F-GSPG was flying at cruising altitude between Malabo and Douala in stormy conditions. The route they took to avoid the storm took their trajectory close to Mount Cameroon," an Air France statement read.

The plane's proximity was detected by the plane's warning system, which then generated an alarm in the cockpit.

"This system generated an alarm in the cockpit to which the pilots responded immediately by applying the appropriate procedure," the statement said.

Air France has confirmed the maneuver was carried out in line with training and Boeing guidance. "Pilots receive regular training in this type of maneuver," it said.

The flight continued on to its destination without any further incidents and landed 44 minutes after leaving Malabo.

Despite the fact that nobody was hurt and the passengers knew nothing about it, the BEA, under aviation protocols, regards this maneuver as a "serious incident" as it could have lead to a disaster.

The cockpit's Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System issues a staccato command for pilots to sweep up in case of getting too close to the ground except when landing. France made use of this system compulsory after an Air Inter Airbus crashed into Mont Sainte-Odile in France in 1992.

Read More

Putin Slams US Over FIFA Arrests: "Another Blatant Attempt By The US To Meddle Outside Its Jurisdiction"

Following yesterday's political intervention by the US in which 14 FIFA affiliates were perp-walked out of Zurich's swankiest hotel just days ahead of Sepp Blatter's re-election, one person was quite displeased with this latest US intervention on the international arena: Russian president Vladimir Putin who accused the United States of meddling outside its jurisdiction by arresting officials from FIFA, further hinting that it was part of an attempt to take the 2018 World Cup away from his country.

As a reminder, Russia won the right to stage the 2018 World Cup during 2010 under Blatter's governance. The award is now the subject of a Swiss criminal investigation.

As a further reminder, epic corruption at FIFA, as well as every other global institution, from the Clinton foundation to the global capital markets, to US Congress, has been firmly established and well known to everyone for years, if not decades. And yet, the rigged system has worked well enough that nobody dared to touch it.

That is until US AG Loretta Lynch decided it was time to take matters into American hands. This, in turn, raised Putin's blood pressure as the Russian understands what the true purpose of this latest US intervention was.

According to Putin, the DOJ indictment which led to the arrest of over a dozen individuals on massive corruption charges "is yet another blatant attempt [by the US] to extend its jurisdiction to other states."

Putin added that the arrests were a “clear attempt” to prevent the re-election of Sepp Blatter as Fifa president and that the Swiss had Russia’s backing.

Vladimir Putin, right, with Sepp Blatter.

"It looks very strange, the arrests are carried out on the request of the USA side,” he said. “They are accused of corruption – who is? International officials. I suppose that someone broke some rules, I don’t know. But definitely, it’s got nothing to do with the USA. Those officials are not US citizens. If something happened it was not in the US and it’s nothing to do with them."

“It’s another clear attempt by the USA to spread its jurisdiction to other states. And I have no doubt – it’s a clear attempt not to allow Mr Blatter to be re-elected as president of Fifa, which is a great violation of the operating principles of international organizations. The US prosecutor, as our media report, has already said that those Fifa officials have committed a crime. As if the prosecutor didn’t know about the principle of the presumption of innocence.”

What is just as ironic is that the one reason the US determined it has jurisdiction over the case is only because FIFA's corrupt officials had used US banks as intermediaries to funnel and otherwise launder bribes and other flows of funds. The same criminal banks which the Department of Justice busted just a week earlier for rigging the FX market.

How many people were arrested in the DOJ's crackdown on criminal US banks? 0.

How many people are arrested as part of the DOJ's crackdown on FIFA: 14.

One can start to sense an agenda in play.

Quoted by the Guardian, citing the former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden and the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, both of whom have evaded prosecution in the United States by hiding abroad, Putin questioned Washington’s right to request the Fifa officials’ extradition from Switzerland.

“Unfortunately, our American partners use such methods to achieve their selfish aims and illegally persecute people. I do not rule out that in the case of Fifa, it’s exactly the same,” Putin said.

What happens next? Sepp Blatter's reelection this coming Friday, which until yesterday had been guaranteed, is now virtually assured to fail as Putin's frontman at FIFA is shown the door.

What else likely happens? Following some dramatic procedural changes, Russia loses the hosting of the 2018 World Cup.

One thing that is certain not to happen: Qatar will keep the 2022 World Cup venue. Why? Because as we showed yesterday, the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee had donated between $250,001 and $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation. And that is all it takes to buy the silence of the US DO"J".

 

Read More