Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
December 16, 2015
Who Will End The Saudi’s Salman Embarrassment?

Muslim nations form coalition to fight terror, call Islamic extremism 'disease'

Calling Islamic extremism a disease, Saudi Arabia has announced the formation of a coalition of 34 predominately Muslim nations to fight terrorism.

"This announcement comes from the Islamic world's vigilance in fighting this disease so it can be a partner, as a group of countries, in the fight against this disease," Saudi Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman said.

The coalition's joint operations center will be based in Riyadh.

In addition to Saudi Arabia, the coalition will include Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Turkey, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Djibouti, Senegal, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Gabon, Guinea, the Palestinians, Comoros, Qatar, Cote d'Ivoire, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Maldives, Mali, Malaysia, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Yemen.

This seems to be the "Arab army" the two amigos, Lindsey Graham and John McCain, announced earlier:

Defense One: How are you planning on getting the Arab countries to put up 90 percent of the ground forces you’re calling for if we can’t even get them to put up in the air coalition?

Graham: Well, they’re not —

McCain: — If Bashar Assad is also the target, that’s the key to it … they fear Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by the Iranians, as much as they do ISIS.

Defense One: Sen. Graham, so if we promise them they can also target Assad, they’ll get in?

McCain: We would also target Assad. Assad right now is killing the people we armed and trained and equipped.

Graham: I can only tell you what they tell us. I’m not joking. The king of Saudi Arabia’s chief advisor said, ‘You can have our army.’ The emir of Qatar says, ‘I’ll pay for the war.’ They want to do two things: they want to stop ISIL before they come in and take their countries over or disrupt their way of life, and they also want to make sure Damascus doesn’t fall into the hands of the Iranians. I’m down for both.

It may well be that Mohammed bin Salman, as well as McCain and Graham, drank too much fermented camel milk.  Neither the Saudis nor the Qataris nor any "coalition member" will send their armies to fight in Syria or Iraq.

The reactions from some "members" of the just announced Saudi "coalition" make that obvious.

The Deputy Crown Prince launched a war on Yemen that goes on without any gain at all but with serious Saudi losses:

Gen. Sharaf Ghaleb Luqman, a military spokesman for the Houthi rebels, said in a telephone interview Monday that 146 "enemy soldiers and mercenaries in Bab al Mandab, including foreigners," were killed when a Houthi rocket struck the "enemy operations command" in Taizz province.

The slain troops included 23 Saudis, nine Emiratis and 12 Moroccan officers, according to Houthi news outlets. There was no independent confirmation of the death toll.

The dead included Saudi Col. Abdullah Sahyan, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

Parts of three Saudi provinces are now occupied by forces troops. Four special regiments from the Saudi  Interior Ministry were just called up to clear the areas the Saudi regular army, under Mohammed bin Salman's command, can not hold.

Another embarrassment for the Salman clan is the hajj stampede in Mecca which the Saudi insists killed only 769 while news agencies find that at least 2,411 were killed.

When will the other members of the wider Saudi family dump these dupes? Is there someone else who could do this?

Comments

@98 noirette
What’s up with Ukraine, Russia Harden Bond Stance as IMF Rules Debt Official

The IMF’s executive board, which represents the fund’s 188 member nations, decided that the bond should be treated as official debt, rather than a commercial bond, the fund said in an e-mailed statement late Wednesday in Washington.

… does that affect The IMF forgives Ukraine’s Debt to Russia?

Ukraine has refused to pay not only private-sector bondholders, but the Russian Government as well.
This should have blocked Ukraine from receiving further IMF aid.
In the end, the IMF simply lent Ukraine the money.
By doing so, it announced its new policy: “We only enforce debts owed in US dollars to US allies.”

Along the line of who is going to ‘end Salman’s embarrassment’ … Turkey Has Plans to Station 1000s of Troops at New Military Base in Qatar

“Turkey and Qatar face common problems and we are both very concerned about developments in the region and uncertain policies of other countries…We confront common enemies,” Ahmet Demirok, Turkey’s ambassador to Qatar, said on Wednesday, according to Reuters. “At this critical time for the Middle East cooperation between us is vital.”

Qatar oughta be a pushover for Erdogan, right? Then just 500km west lies Riyadh. His son can run the Oil Bidness. Tayyeep Bin Ardogan will run the pipelines his own self. Ya gotta hand it to Erdogan … he don’t think small.

Posted by: jfl | Dec 17 2015 22:08 utc | 101

Russia Calls Saudi Bluff, Plans $40 Oil For Seven Years (AEP)
~~~
Saudi Arabia is trapped by a fixed exchange peg, forcing it to bleed foreign reserves to cover a budget deficit running at 20pc of GDP. Russia claims to have the strategic depth to sit out a long siege. It is pursuing an import-substitution policy to revive its industrial and engineering core. It can ultimately feed itself. The Gulf Opec states are one-trick ponies by comparison.

Posted by: okie farmer | Dec 17 2015 22:50 utc | 102

IMF seems ready to pay Russia after all.
https://www.rt.com/business/326167-imf-ukraine-debt-russia-sovereign/
~~~
The executive board of the IMF has recognized Ukraine’s $3 billion debt to Russia as official and sovereign – a status Kiev has been attempting to contest. Russia is to sue Ukraine if it fails to pay by the December 20 deadline. “In the case of the Eurobond, the Russian authorities have represented that this claim is official. The information available regarding the history of the claim supports this representation,” the IMF said in a statement. Russia asked the IMF for clarification on this issue after Kiev attempted to proclaim the debt was commercial and refused to accept Moscow’s terms for the debt’s restructuring.

Posted by: okie farmer | Dec 17 2015 23:09 utc | 104

“The king of Saudi Arabia’s chief advisor said, ‘You can have our army.’ The emir of Qatar says, ‘I’ll pay for the war.’”
God, it sounds just like “they’l greet us as liberators” and “Iraqi oil will pay for the entire war”. What could possibly go wrong when you get this combination of elderly insanity and closet homosexuality going at full tilt?
Incompetent criminality at its most dangerous and expensive! Exceptional? Fuck yeah!

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 17 2015 23:41 utc | 105

This sounds to me like the Saudis are desperate and their rule is about to go tits up. If this “coalition” has any sense at all, they’ll let the Saudi’s pay to get their forces to the vicinity, and then occupy Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, hang every last royal, and commandeer the oil fields to be used for the benefit of Muslims everywhere, as opposed to it being used to build the Royal Family temporary elevators on French beaches.
Which do you think Allah is more likely to smile on?

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 17 2015 23:46 utc | 106

A new UNSC Resolution aimed at those financing or supporting Daesh in any manner was passed under UN’s Article 7, which is why I believe Saudi formed its “coalition.” Here’s the resolution’s text, http://www.scribd.com/doc/293552696/Resolution-on-cutting-off-Daesh-financing
Given the amount of publicly available information as to Daesh’s supporters, lots of countries and individuals ought to be squirming–US, Turkish, Saudi and Qatari primarily. Israel’s buying of contraband oil ought to land it in very hot water, as should Turkey and the Barzani Kurdish Mafia whence it comes. Lots of arms shipments were announced publicly by Saudi, Ukraine, USA, and other states and their officials–McCain, Ash, Graham, Petraeus, and several Republican presidential candidates come to mind.
Interesting that Article 7 is now in play.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 18 2015 0:04 utc | 107

The Royal Saudi Air Force will be deployed to combat terrorism by dropping tightly-bound, extra-heavy bundles of currency on suspected ISIS locations.

Posted by: metni | Dec 18 2015 0:39 utc | 108

@107
Little chance of any of the countries you mention facing justice. Perhaps something towards Turkey from Russia but I can’t see anything else happening.
Meanwhile, US spec ops are in Libya
“They were there, [local commanders] said they were on a training mission,” said one source in the nearby mountain town of Zintan. “Nobody knows details. They are gone now.”
Of course they were on a training mission. They always are.

Posted by: Bill | Dec 18 2015 1:29 utc | 109

WHAT THE…
Israel and Turkey reach deal to normalise ties: Report
Why would they announce this in public, and why NOW? Stolen oil… Sarin… Fake Kurdistan… MEK terrorists… Golan expansion… Attacking Iran…
Doesn’t anyone notice this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!

Posted by: PavewayIV | Dec 18 2015 6:40 utc | 110

Posted by: PavewayIV | Dec 18, 2015 1:40:54 AM | 110
They seem to have given up on their Islamist ME proxies. That does not mean they will not find a place for them to hibernate.
It is also possible that Erdogan tries to placate the US via Israel.
Russia is full attack on Turkish business – Russia’s drug control service has data Afghan heroin trafficked by IS through Turkey to EU
Putin seems to have said that IS is a criminal scheme created to smuggle oil. This might also include heroin and refugees. It is quite likely that he can prove what he says and can name who is involved. Their nationality will not be Turkish only.

Posted by: somebody | Dec 18 2015 12:22 utc | 111

in re 87 —
BH Freedman was an all-around anti-communist whack job. So say the folks at Red State. He was a Holocaust denier as well.
Here’s a debunk of his Balfour fantasy. His “documentation” seems to have been in his own mind.
Here’s an account of of the proposed peace talks of 1916. As Germany never responded to Wilson’s request for negotiating positions, it’s considered non-serious. While still occupying French and Belgian territory and pressing east against the Russians, Germany was running into resource and manpower limitations and foreseeing eventual defeat. It sought to secure by diplomacy what it was bound to loose by force of arms. The French and English stated their requirements; they effectively wanted a return to status quo ante that the Reich could not accept.
From what I can see of the man and his career, he seems less a disenchanted Zionist insider and more a handy front for assorted anti-semitic fantasies.
Interestingly, Christian Zionism dates to the Protestant reformation, the Puritans pioneered it, says Wiki on Christian Zionism. But this reflected theological concerns; Zionism as a form of nationalism is an invention of the later 1800’s.

Posted by: rufus magister | Dec 18 2015 12:51 utc | 112

@111 – “criminal scheme to …”
Exactly!
This all about usurping state infrastructure and governance for organized crime on an almost global scale in full day light.
ISIS is just one manifestation of this infestation — one well tuned to the pre-programed bias and fears of the western electorates.
It is a “Criminal Industrial Complex” verging on formally merging with the “Congressional” as well — not even a cigarette paper’s separation.

Posted by: doveman | Dec 18 2015 14:51 utc | 113

@ ProPeace #100 “The real story behind the unprecedented colossal geopolitical shift…..”
And a tectonic plate shift it is ….. A poster named “Dark Daze” at zerohedge summarized it this way:

I’m not sure this is that much of a stunner. Let’s review what Putin got, and what he needed to get. 1. The US has pulled their F-15’s out of Incirlik. 2. The IMF declared the Ukraining debt sovereign (after claiming it wasn’t). 3. The US told Turkey to get its troops out and when they refused, ISIS was directed to attack them, giving them extra impetus. 4. Kerry declared, on behalf of the Obama administration that Assad stays. 5. One of the rats behind the rogue insurrection in the Pentagon was outed. 6. The Germans are re-establishing diplomatic relatins (of course BILD is going to portray it as counter their interests when in fact it is pro their interests). 7. Putin told Erdogan that the game is over now. He can either leave of his own free will over be overthrown. 8. The special forces the US tried to insert into Libya were told to go home, and they did. 9. Gold is being allowed to rise again after the failed Fed intervention

Posted by: Sun Tzu | Dec 18 2015 17:47 utc | 114

Maybe the German residents can chime in. German intelligence stated that they will not be turning a blind eye to Saudi sponsored acts of terrorism going forward. Then Germany Intelligence is speaking of re establishing diplomatic contacts with Syria and opening a liaison office in Damascus. This is just after Frau Merkel offered 3 billion for Turkey to keep refugees in Turkey camps. This is also not long after Frau Merkel had stated that Assad must go. This is after Germany announced sending a warship to guard the French carrier and six warplanes to Syria. But Germany had stated that it would not coordinate battleplans with Syria or Russia. Can anyone make some sense of these apparent contradictions, reversals, bipolarism?

Posted by: Sun Tzu | Dec 18 2015 18:00 utc | 115

#115
It happens when you try to guess US foreign policy. Ask Turkey.

Posted by: somebody | Dec 18 2015 18:34 utc | 116

@rufus #112
There is no way the statement of allied war aims can be reasonably construed as status quo ante. It appears to state, in very general terms, what they sought and attained at Versailles.
Germany was far from spent in late 1916. They were able to mount offensive efforts in 1917 and 1918 that might have made a difference had the US not entered the war. Their renewed unlimited U-boat campaign was highly effective. What they faced in 1916 was a war that might have still been winnable with the US standing aside, but at a cost that was extremely daunting. Their proposal to open peace talks seems to have been driven by a cost-benefit calculation on continued war, coupled with the knowledge that if the US entered the war they would most likely lose. The Anglo-French alliance knew that the US was moving towards war, which would give them the advantage that they sought, so they had no real incentive to negotiate.
Freedman was indeed a disenchanted Zionist who became useful to antisemitics, in much the same way that disenchanted ex-Communists became useful to cold warriors. In both cases their disenchantment was based on real experiences, but they went off into la-la land with the encouragement of certain hucksters.

Posted by: Thirdeye | Dec 19 2015 2:54 utc | 117

@Sun Tzu #115
I think the fallout from Friday the 13th, Putin’s expose’s at the G20 summit, and Turkey’s recent antics have changed some things.

Posted by: Thirdeye | Dec 19 2015 3:00 utc | 118

thirdeye at 117 —
What the Allies would have settled for in 1916 would have been off the table in 1918. Wilson’s Fourteen Points, which helped induce German surrender, differed substantially from Versailles. The brief analysis I cite above reports that Wilson’s note asking all to define their war aims was seen nearly as a declaration of war. Secretary of State Lansing said of it “The sending of this note will indicate the possibility of our being forced into the War.”
From the standpoint of production and finance, America was already in the war in 1916. It was the renewed submarine warfare that brought America into the conflict. To the degree it succeeded in limiting American supplies, it made the American entry inevitable. The peace feeler came in Dec. ’16, unlimited submarine warfare in Jan. ’17, and American entry in Apr. ’17.
Freedman may well have been a Zionist before turning Catholic, but in my look at his activities I found no evidence that he was any sort of well-placed insider that he intimates to have been. As you suggest, perhaps he was induced to exaggerate his claims.

Posted by: rufus magister | Dec 19 2015 5:56 utc | 119

Speaking of collapsing economies and overthrow of tyrants, Russian business associates describe witheringly rough life under USEU sanctions and RU import sanctions in return, together with the cascading collapse of the ruble and global oil prices. 2016 may be the breaking point, if the RU people have to go through a second winter of depravation, under withering sanctions from a possible 100% Republican American Wehrmacht, being executed by a mafia don with allegiance to the Israeli mob, who can then massively short RU in a Soros/Rothschildian rehash of ‘insider news from the front’, in the 24 hours before The Don announces new sanctions or new war plans in Levant. Sadly, we also already know The Hillary is Tel Aviv’s whore. Same shit, different day. Can Putin survive two winters of starvation and poverty, a win-less war against PNAC and agents provocateur-manipulated Maidanesque discontent? The entire country must be on security lockdown right now, the people reduced to turnips.

Posted by: Chipnik | Dec 19 2015 9:06 utc | 120

102
Clearly Okie, you’re not a farmer. RU imports of agricultural products peaked at nearly 10B euros by 2013, then collapsed in 2014 by -15% and who knows in 2015? Also Putin completely cut off agriculture imports from USA. Besides Belarus, where will RU find food during their winter? http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2006/september/tradoc_113440.pdf
After EUUS import sanctions by Putin went into place, Turkey became the main food supply, but that’s gone now too behind the Iron Wall of NATO.
I believe Panama->Riyadh is providing fresh fruit and vegetables for the oiligarchs, but certainly no ordinary Russian is eating Central American cold chain. They’re lucky to get a shank of old mutton trucked in from Azherbaijan, some home-made potato-peel vodka hootch and a loaf of rye.

Posted by: Chipnik | Dec 19 2015 9:24 utc | 121

114
“Gilded tungsten is being allowed to rise again” is the sure sign of an inveterate goldbuggerer, who has lost almost HALF of their investment since the peak, and who first blamed the ‘London Fix!!’, then that was halted and PMs CRASHED, then blamed it on ‘Flash Crashers!!’, then that was halted and PMs CRASHED, then now are apparently blaming the Grey Aliens, while pretending that China is ‘massively increasing their bullion supply!!’, without admitting that China is the largest gold miner on Earth, or that India just successfully issued gold bonds that have cratered the external demand for gold imports, or that ‘bullion in private storage’ is hyper-rehypothecated 16x, or that the GLD/SLV fractional reserve bullion funds are a close imitation to Charmin toilet paper.
Yes, pay no attention to the goldbuggerer mad-stacking behind the curtain, gold is just another dead cat bounce or two away from crashing through $1000.

Posted by: Chipnik | Dec 19 2015 9:38 utc | 122

I read at SST a comment by annamaria, in reply to Matthew, that more evidence has surfaced on US AWACS logistical support to Turkey in the downing of the Su24. This may explain:
1) US Policy reversal on Assad must go plus IMF recognition of Ukraine debt to Russia as Sovereign 2) Removal of US F-15 from Incirlick 3) NATO “support” for Turkey’s air defenses

Posted by: Sun Tzu | Dec 19 2015 22:00 utc | 123

When Putin said: he hoped nuclear missiles would not be necessary for fighting against terrorism, many were confused. When he instructed his MoD to destroy any targets set to threaten RF forces in Syria “the die had been cast.” RF then moved S-400 SAM and selected armed forces into the Turkish-Armenia border. This moment in history is a deja vu or at par with the Cuban and Turkish nuclear missile deployment crisis. Kerry and Nuland went to Moscow this week to defuse the escalation.

Posted by: Sun Tzu | Dec 19 2015 22:58 utc | 124

My speculation: Turkey was about to be defanged a la 2006 Saakashvili Georgia and Washington DC got wind of it before it happened. The full U turn US Syria policy reversal plus the IMF declaring the Ukraine debt to Russia sovereign (high priority) after saying it wasn’t no more than a week ago served as a public apology. Same with removal of a dozen USAF F-15 from Turkey and for two more responsible NATO members, Denmark and Germany, to jointly patrol with AWACS the Turkey-Syria border. NATO member Turkey has been demoted to junior partner and a liability to the alliance.

Posted by: Sun Tzu | Dec 19 2015 23:20 utc | 125

@Rufus #119
Reparations from Germany and dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires are not within the realm of status quo ante. If Wilson’s Fourteen Points were at odds with the Versailles Settlement, they were at odds with the stated 1916 war aims as well.
Freedman claimed to have been an assistant to Bernard Baruch during Wilson’s 1912 presidential campaign (he would have been 22) and to have been present at meetings between Baruch and Wilson. His story is that his status as a flunky for various players in the Jewish power structure, including Rolla Wells and Henry Morgenthau Sr. of the Democratic National Committee, landed him at the Versailles conference with a delegation representing Zionist interests. Presumably there’s a record of who was at the Versailles conference, but in might not include every gofer and shoe shiner. One thing that does lend his story some credibility is the fact that he was draft-eligible per Selective Service records but undrafted. That tended to happen when young men had the right connections. The verification is sketchy but his story is plausible.
I agree that the US was already on the path to war by late 1916.
One interesting sidelight on the unlimited U-boat campaign of 1917 was that it was largely in response to the British Q-ships, heavily armed merchant hulls used as bait against merchant raiders and submarines. Under the pre-1917 protocol, the attacking vessel was supposed to surface and warn the crew to abandon ship before sinking it. The Q-ship would use that interval to launch a surprise attack, against which a submarine was extremely vulnerable. Some of the Q-ships flew neutral flags. Wilson was apparently not concerned about Britain’s blatant violations of international maritime law, but got in a tizzy when the U-boats operated under rules of engagement necessary for their own survival in the face of the Q-ship threat.

Posted by: Thirdeye | Dec 20 2015 5:08 utc | 126

@Sun Tzu
Escobar’s claim that US AWACS had to have been involved isn’t really well substantiated. It’s not really necessary, since under the operating protocols the three parties notified each other where their aircraft would be operating. His claim that F-16s couldn’t have located the Su-24 without AWACS doesn’t really apply if flight plans are known. Turkey could have taken routinely disseminated information and misused it.
I didn’t know that about the Russian deployment of troops and S-400s to Armenia. It looks like they were prepared for a pretty broad engagement against Turkey.
The withdrawal of the F-15s from Turkey on the same day Turkey was ordered by the US out of Mosul was nothing less than a public spanking, probably agreed to by Kerry at Moscow.
I wonder what the rules of engagement are for the German/Danish border patrols.

Posted by: Thirdeye | Dec 20 2015 5:37 utc | 127

Thirdeye at 126 —
Point taken about Turkey and to a lesser extent Austro-Hungary; status quo for East/West Front territories, but realization of war aims in the south.
The Ottomans get tagged as the “bloody tyranny of the Turks [and]… decidedly alien to Western civilization.” Definitely out of Europe, maybe the Arabs get something (so seems the implication). Italy was a late in the war and her promised war aims could not be forsworn (this problem ran into the ’20’s over Trieste). Serbia, as the aggrieved party (the attack on it being the formal trigger of the war), of course, had to have satisfaction as well.
The fragmentation of the Dual Monarchy into ethnic nation-states was something the two sides sought to either prevent or advance. The growing industrialization of the Monarchy promoted this as outcome, which it fought against as best it could. Even victory in The Great War would have merely slowed this process, it seems to me.
The war I think definitely intensified pressure on the Ottoman Empire, and more materially affected that outcome. I would guess that perhaps the Catholic Croats and Slovenes might have stuck with Austria in 1916 or gone out on their own and Serbia not recreated itself as the larger Yugoslavia. Had peace come in early 1917, perhaps the subsequent Greco-Turkish war would have been avoided.
Having invaded Belgium in violation of internationally-guaranteed neutrality, Germany made herself vulnerable to claims for reparations, so from the point of view of the Allies, some amount of compensation marked the return to prior conditions. I would think the terms would have been easier and the bill lower than it turned out to be, had the Germans thrown in the towel. A good opening counter-offer might have been “Drop dismembering our allies, maybe we can talk money.”
But they looked at the odds and elected to throw the dice. It crapped out on so many levels, though….

Posted by: rufus magister | Dec 20 2015 18:49 utc | 128

@ Thirdeye #127

Escobar’s claim that US AWACS had to have been involved isn’t really well substantiated. It’s not really necessary, since under the operating protocols the three parties notified each other where their aircraft would be operating. His claim that F-16s couldn’t have located the Su-24 without AWACS doesn’t really apply if flight plans are known. Turkey could have taken routinely disseminated information and misused it.

You are probably right but either way, Russia disclosed its flight plan, under deconfliction rules agreed to. Yet, a Russian plane was shot down and one pilot killed casting a cloud of suspicion over the USiAn AF ethics, protocols, SOPs and/or role in it. Russia interpreted this as a stab in the back. It wasn’t Russia disclosing flight information to Turkey but USiAns disclosing Russian flight information to Turkey. Thus, USA is responsible to keep Turkey on a leash if it needs to disclose classified info to its partners. The opening of the Su-24 black box in Russia, around the time Putin was meeting with Kerry, in the presence of impartial observers is telling. The confirmation that the Su-24 flight didn’t cross into Turkey’s air space is another nail in the coffin for Putin’s future relationship with Erdogan.

I didn’t know that about the Russian deployment of troops and S-400s to Armenia. It looks like they were prepared for a pretty broad engagement against Turkey.

It has been in the news since right after the S-24 was shot down. I think these forces are now pre-positioned in case Erdogan doubles down.

The withdrawal of the F-15s from Turkey on the same day Turkey was ordered by the US out of Mosul was nothing less than a public spanking, probably agreed to by Kerry at Moscow.

Agreed but the German & Danish border patrol with AWACS and naval assets is part and parcel of the same rebuke.

I wonder what the rules of engagement are for the German/Danish border patrols.

Probably the same as in the Baltics.

Posted by: Su Tzu | Dec 21 2015 13:16 utc | 129