Note To Iran - Debunking Netanyahu Requires Some Care
On Thursday September 27 the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahoo held a speech in front of the UN General Assembly. As usual he brought some props to continue his 30 years of false claims about a 'nuclear Iran'. Netanyahoo's claim in front of this year's UNGA was not entirely false but highly misleading. Unfortunately he is helped by some rather hapless Iranian responses to it.
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Netanyahoo said:
In May we exposed the site of Iran’s secret atomic archive. It’s right here in the Shuabad Distrcit of Tehran. Today I’m revealing the site of a second facility: Iran’s secret atomic warehouse. It’s right here, in the Turkuzahbad Distrcit of Tehran. Just three miles away. Let me show you exactly what the secret atomic warehouse looks like. Here it is. You see, like the atomic archive it’s another innocent-looking compound. Now for those of you at home using Google Earth, this no longer secret atomic warehouse. You have the coordinates, you can try to get there. And for those of you who try to get there: It’s 100 meters from the rug-cleaning operation. By the way, i hear they do a fantastic job of cleaning rugs there. But by now they may be radioactive rags. This is the second secret site. Now countries with satellite capabilities may notice some increased activity on the alley in the days and weeks ahead.
Netanyahoo added the obviously false claim that Iran removed radioactive material from the warehouse and spread it over Tehran.
But just like back in May, when Netanyahoo presented old material that was long known to the IAEA and relevant governments, no one came out in support of his exaggerated claims. Yes, the 'atomic warehouse' in Tehran exists. But it is neither secret, nor does it hold anything radioactive or of current relevance:
A US intelligence official has said that the speech delivered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday at the UN General Assembly about the existence of a second secret atomic facility in Iran was “somewhat misleading.”
...
According to the US intelligence official, knowledge of the facility is nothing new to the Americans.“First, we have known about this facility for some time, and it’s full of file cabinets and paper, not aluminum tubes for centrifuges, and second, so far as anyone knows, there is nothing in it that would allow Iran to break out of the JCPOA any faster than it otherwise could,” the official said.
Another US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States is aware of the facility Netanyahu announced and described it as a “warehouse” used to store “records and archives” from Iran’s nuclear program.
I am told that the IAEA also knows of the archive and its harmless content. The old material Netanyahoo presented back in May was most likely copied from the IAEA in Vienna. The IAEA is also the most likely source from where Israeli spies gained knowledge about the 'secret atomic warehouse'.
Netanyahoo again made misleading claims about Iran. That's nothing new. The case is closed.
But unfortunately some some Iranian people put the foot in their mouth by trying to debunk even those parts of Netanyahoo's claims that are correct:
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The first picture in Meysam Yaghoubi's tweet is indeed the gate to the compound Netanyahoo showed. The other pictures though, which show a carpet cleaning facility, were taken inside a compound on the other side of the street of the archive compound. They were not taken inside the compound that Netanyahoo pointed out. This can be easily discerned by comparing the second picture in the tweet above with a satellite view of the place.
The notable gate structure of the archive compound visible at the upper left is not the gate of the compound where the picture was taken, but on the other side of the road.
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The archive compound is marked, the carpet cleaning compound where the interior pictures were taken is south of it.
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The Iranian Students News Agency ISNA provided the carpet cleaning pictures within a mocking piece (Persian, Machine translation) that tried to debunk Netanyahoo by visiting the marked building. The headline and intro of the report make it seem as if the compound Netanyahoo pointed out is a carpet cleaning facility. But the reporter and the photographer never entered that building. They only entered the compound opposite of it:
Netanyahu confused a simple carpet with atomic storage!...
At that place, Mr. Rezaei and his partner, who were the owners of the workshop opposite the atomic bomb of the prime minister of the Zionist regime, stood in front of their workshop, and at the very beginning of seeing the photographer, they were jokingly told us that you were late; before you, other reporter too come here to see the bombs! Mr. Rezaei and his partner are the owners of the "Yekta" carpet workshop, ...
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Mr. Rezaei counted the number of reporters who arrived in front of his workshop on Friday morning, whose partner invited us to the workshop to explore it. Together with the carpet owners and the photographer, we entered the workshop showing us the partner of Mr. Reza'i, and said jokingly that there is the secret storehouse there; we went ahead and saw that there was a number of rug and carpet in Anbar's unique workshop.
This ISNA piece and the attached pictures unintentionally confirm exactly what Netanyahoo said about the location of the archive building: "It’s 100 meters from the rug-cleaning operation."
Iran's foreign ministry is also somewhat hapless when it describes Netanyahoo's speech as "false, meaningless and unnecessary". Why can't Tehran simply say: "Decades old administrative records of our legitimate nuclear energy program are archived in a warehouse that is well known to all relevant entities. There is nothing secret nor nefarious about it."
Hapless attempts to debunk Netanyahoo even where he is right will be used by his propagandists to claim that "Iran lies". Tehran, and its news agencies, must up their game.
Posted by b on September 29, 2018 at 14:33 UTC | Permalink
I saw that post by Reza Nasri...apparently according to commonly used idiomatic Farsi, the second facility is in a place called “watchamadonkus” just east of “doohickey.” Iranians can use the comic relief no doubt.
Posted by: Garrison Martin | Sep 29 2018 15:22 utc | 2
When the corruption trial against BooBoo and his wife coming into full gear? Why so long? What’s the delay?
Posted by: Jose Garcia | Sep 29 2018 15:27 utc | 3
What led to the current hostility between Iran and Israel? Israel and Iran had friendly relations until the Islamic revolution in 1979. According to Wikipedia:
“.…….In the immediate aftermath of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which witnessed the establishment of the Islamic Republic, Iran cut off all official relations; official statements, state institutes, events and sanctioned initiatives adopted a sharp anti-Zionist stance. Following the break-off of diplomatic relations on 18 February,[28] the Israeli Embassy in Tehran was closed and handed over to the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.[29]…….”
In addition, Iran created, funded and directed Hezbollah and funded Islamic Jihad and Hamas - all sworn enemies of Israel and pledged to its destruction. Iran was implicated in the bombing of the Israel embassy and the attack of the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires. Iran’s nuclear weapons program was exposed internationally in 2002. Rhetoric reached a fever pitch under Ahmadinejad to “destroy” the Zionist entity. In every respect, the Iranian regime sought to use the IP conflict as propaganda to gain Arab support. Despite this, Israel supplied critical support for the Iranian regime fighting in the Iraq war.
The fault for the poor relations belongs entirely with Iran.
Posted by: craigsummers | Sep 29 2018 16:08 utc | 4
Here's what I would I have done were I advising the Iranian government on public relations. First, take a live camera feed through the building to challenge Israel's untruths in front of the world--use transparency to simultaneously overturn the perception in the west that Iran is secretive and nefarious and show that Netanyahu's assertions are patently untrue. Second, cut immediately to a presentation on Israel's decades long nuclear program citing western sources and documentation on how many nuclear bombs Israel has, where nuclear material is stored, that Israel is one of five countries who have not ratified the NPT on nuclear weapons while Iran is fully compliant with the IAEA, what Israel does to nuclear whistleblowers, etc.
Lies need to be confronted. Waiting for the world to see reason will see your skeleton turn to dust before any results are achieved.
Posted by: worldblee | Sep 29 2018 16:08 utc | 5
The 'notable' gate isn't that notable. There are several other compounds with similar gates at the entrance. Presumbaly the design gives gate keepers / delivery drivers some protection from the sun whilst standard company bureaucratic process are handled at the gate.
The secrets of Iran's aluminum tubes:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DoLp-t2X0AA02hH.jpg
Iranians disposing of many kg of radioactive waste in the wugs of mass destwuction.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DoMoHGUVAAAPaz1.jpg
Posted by: Yonatan | Sep 29 2018 16:15 utc | 6
Shorter Craigsummers: The Zionists became hostile toward Iran when the Iranian people overthrew the Zionists' good buddy the Shah, the brutal kleptocrat. (Jimmy Carter also had a bizarre adoration for the Shah.)
Jose Garcia @3
Good question? Maybe the investigators keep finding horses heads in their beds?
Craigsummers @4
BS about Iran and Hamas. Hamas was created by Israel to counter the Palestinian Authority via the classic divide and conquer strategy. And the 'poor defenseless Israel' schtick is well past its sell-by date.
Posted by: Yonatan | Sep 29 2018 16:21 utc | 8
Israel has also been a nuclear weapons proliferator, in secret programs with South Africa in the 1980s.
Posted by: jayc | Sep 29 2018 16:26 utc | 9
"This ISNA piece and the attached pictures unintentionally confirm exactly what Netanyahoo said about the location of the archive building: "It’s 100 meters from the rug-cleaning operation."
The whole area seems to be devoted largely to rug cleaning and drying. There are 7 or so large open air drying areas each with varying numbers of rugs within a short distance to the gate. As for the compund opposite, it may be a drying area for the business in question. Some of the photos do show small rugs, possibly rolled up after drying. The corporate like could be resolved one way or the other by looking at Iranian company business records (not by firing up the geo-location canpon). Or maybe asking the locals.
Posted by: Yonatan | Sep 29 2018 16:48 utc | 10
There are errors made in the InfoWars, Propaganda exchanges by most nations' spokesman and leaders.
Iran, from most efforts I have observed, tends toward grandiosity. It leaves unfulfilled "promises" that make it seem weak.
Maybe this time, they will learn from the analysis of their most recent effort.
Russian tends toward understatement, and it too leads an observer to see it as weak.
The success of "Highly Likely" shows the masters of Propaganda clearly reside in London and DC.
Posted by: Red Ryder | Sep 29 2018 16:55 utc | 11
The stupid Iranian (probably a 35 year exiled MEK garbage) who gave this line to Israeli regime did not understand persian well. Dorghoozabad for iranians is equivalent of timbuktu for english, that's why Araghchi and zarif are laughing and saying someone must have fooled the Nutyaboo. How Araghchi is saying it is very funny.
Posted by: kooshy | Sep 29 2018 17:14 utc | 12
Borderline on-topic, I want to mention a recent book that touches on the motivations underlying the Iraq war, but is largely about rebuilding Iraq's oil infrastructure. The author is a West Point graduate and former Exxon executive brought in shortly before the start of the conflict. While he wasn't present at the discussions leading up to the war, he did have access to materials prepared by the Pentagon before the war on post war priorities and he did have some direct interactions with senior Pentagon officials. Highly recommended, especially given the lack of recent material on this topic.
https://www.amazon.com/Iraq-Politics-Oil-Insiders-Perspective/dp/0700625062
Posted by: Schmoe | Sep 29 2018 17:16 utc | 13
>>>> craigsummers | Sep 29, 2018 12:08:35 PM | 4
Hezbollah was formed in 1985 as a response to Israel's 1982 invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon in support of the State of Free Lebanon and Israel's backing of the Lebanese Christian militia, the South Lebanon Army as their Quisling occupation force.
As usual, Israel through hubris, arrogance, ignorance and stupidity managed to comprehensively fuck itself. LOL. Israel probably thought that if they stayed long enough they could annex southern Lebanon and the imperative water resource that is the Litani River but Hezbollah demonstrated the Israel lacked the testicular fortitude to do it.
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Sep 29 2018 18:02 utc | 14
b - good point, if the whole story is clear.. not sure if @1 lozions comment changes it any...
what i am mystified by is how israel has nuclear weapons while acting like a regular lunatic in the middle east..they project onto iran constantly, and as you note have been on this same topic for over 30 years.. israel clearly should not have nukes, as their leaders reflect a trait of fear and fearmongering that is over the top..
so who is trying to destroy who here?? basing it off the way israel treats it's neighbours, the palestinians in particular, the answer is very clear...
Posted by: james | Sep 29 2018 18:18 utc | 15
This ISNA piece and the attached pictures unintentionally confirm exactly what Netanyahoo said about the location of the archive building: "It’s 100 meters from the rug-cleaning operation."
Oh my god! SO WHAT??
It's a bunch of young students making a mockery of Nuttybahoo's idiocy. It is a perfectly legitimate and proportionate response.
Hapless attempts to debunk Netanyahoo even where he is right will be used by his propagandists to claim that "Iran lies". Tehran, and its news agencies, must up their game.
Your criticism is merely "false, meaningless and unnecessary". You are giving the Nutter's allegations more weight than they merit. The best way of dealing with such vacuous allegations is to ridicule them (as here), together with factual refutations.
Posted by: BM | Sep 29 2018 18:52 utc | 16
It seems interesting to me that Israel has, as its head politico, someone who is as much a serial liar, grifter and outright crook as the US.
Is that a feature or a bug?
I want to believe commenter Lozion that what may seem hapless to us western folk is snark or derisive humor in another culture.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 29 2018 19:39 utc | 17
@4: BS. The creation of Hezbollah was the logical result of the occupation of southern Lebanon by Israel and the assistance for the Phalangists that caused the massacres at Sabra & Shatila. According to Israel's own report, it was Sharon (together with CoS Eitan) on September 14, 1982, who ordered the Phalangists to enter the compound. It was Israel's support during the operation that made the massacres possible. Ammunition, flares, bulldozers, lorries, and according to Robert Fisk, an eye witness, Israeli interrogation officers were key factors. As Henry Cattan writes:
"As to the decision for the entry of the Lebanese militiamen into the Sabra and Chatila camps, it appears from the testimony of Rafael Eitan, Israel's Chief of Staff, before the Israeli Commission of Inquiry that it was taken by him and by Defence Minister Ariel Sharon on 14 September 1982. This was followed by meetings between these two military chiefs and Phalangist commanders to coordinate the operation of the militiamen's entry into the camps. The decision to allow the militiamen's entry into the camps was approved by the Israeli Cabinet on 16 September after it began to be put into execution." ("The Palestine Question", p. 172.)
Ze'ev Maoz, who trained IDF officers at the military college, portrays Hezbollah as a liberation movement, and not as a terrorist group:
"The assassination of Mussawi led to escalation of the conflict between Israel and the Hizballah. The Hizballah increased targeting of IDF positions in Lebanon and renewed shelling of Israeli towns. The irony was that the key purpose of the security zone — prevention of shelling of Israeli targets — was defeated by Israel’s own actions. The Hizballah developed a simple decision regime (Kuperman 1999): firing on targets inside Israel in retaliation for the killing of Lebanese civilians by the IDF. In all other cases, the IDF contingent in the security zone, as well as the SLA militiamen, were the key targets. This strategy should have suggested to the IDF intelligence that the key objective of the organization was to end IDF occupation in Lebanon. Its extremist rhetoric calling for the destruction of Israel notwithstanding, the Hizballah’s goal was liberation of Lebanon." ("Defending the Holy Land. A Critical Analysis of Israel's Security & Foreign Policy", p. 213.)
Posted by: Klaus Weiß | Sep 29 2018 19:49 utc | 18
@craigsummers Shalom, shalom. Maybe you could spare your pathetic Hasbara propaganda for other place. Nobody here believes this jooshit.
Posted by: hestroy | Sep 29 2018 20:24 utc | 19
@18 klaus, thanks for taking one of the many ignorant comments from craig summers apart.. it is an endless task with this whackjob so most here just ignore him..
Posted by: james | Sep 29 2018 20:28 utc | 20
Craigsummers is to lying what carpet bombing is to throwing stones.
His lies on Hezbollah have already been dealt with. It is hardly worth pointing out that Hamas was actually set up by Israel not Iran.
As to this:
"Iran was implicated in the bombing of the Israel embassy and the attack of the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires. Iran’s nuclear weapons program was exposed internationally in 2002..."
This is a complete falsehood. Not a shred of evidence has ever been advanced to sustain this rather stupid allegation which is on a par with the anti-Corbyn campaign in that the Argentine government was being accused of anti-semitism because it had criticised Israeli war crimes.
Some lies have been so often and so comprehensively refuted that generations of readers have grown up without being aware that they are the lowest kind of sordid fabrications.
Take this for example:
"Iran’s nuclear weapons program was exposed internationally in 2002. Rhetoric reached a fever pitch under Ahmadinejad to “destroy” the Zionist entity. "
The Iranian President at the time said nothing of the sort. What he said was that Zionist Israel would not last long, because it was morally unsustainable. Israel's propagandists distorted his message into a threat of genocide.
The object was to soften up international opinion to facilitate the establishment of a zionist puppet regime in Iran. A regime intended to be like the zionist puppet regimes imperialism was to establish in Baghdad, Damascus, Tripoli and Beirut.
Posted by: bevin | Sep 29 2018 21:01 utc | 21
Unit 77½
Craig autumn when the leaves are falling.
Craig winter when the sleigh bells are calling.
Craig spring when life's on a roll.
Craig summers when you just want to troll.
Posted by: Willie Wobblestick | Sep 29 2018 21:17 utc | 22
@craigsummers troll... What a joke. Israel backs the US regime change operation to overthrow a democratically elected government that wanted to nationalize its oil resources. The Shah runs an absolutely brutal dictatorship including torturing Iranian citizens so The USA and Great Britain can continue to steal Iranian resources while keeping Iran weak and powerless. Israeli and Sunni domination of the region is established during this time. You cite Israel backing the Shah as a reason for why the Iranian people should love Israel? You have got to be kidding me. As for Hezbollah... Once again. They didn't even exist until the 1982 invasion of Southern Lebanon. The road blocks and curfews went up and the local Shia community who was initially happy (as they PLO and refugees were prone to stealing and making a nuisance of themselves) suddenly realize there were to be the next Palestinians! They either had to take up arms and defend their homes to the death or risk their own version of the Nakba. "When we entered Lebanon, there was no Hizballah. We were accepted by perfumed rice and flowers by the Shi'a in the south," Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak once noted. "It was our presence there that created Hizballah.
Posted by: goldhoarder | Sep 29 2018 21:29 utc | 23
4
"It's the horse's fault it didn't pull our psyop cart faster. We whipped and whipped it!"
I was not surprised to discover that Isreal brokered the WMD pre-cursor sales to Iraq of UK, USA and German components prior to Saddam's US-UK sponsored attack on Iran, and then Mossad supplied the coordinates to blow the stockpiles up during Desert Storm, but only well after they were used on Iran to murder 200,000 of their sons. The Israel Institute for Biological Research, Ness Ziona, is their well-documented bio-chemical WMD facility.
I was also not surprised to hear that Israeli agents ran security at both the WTC and Fukushima, and it's shrouded in impossible physics, unless the structures were control-detonated. A reactor had been shut down, but magically blew the dome off the reactor!
Two planes flew into two building then three buildings fell straight down at freefall?!
I would also not be surprised to hear that after Tehran fell, the Isreali's brokered the theft of its fabulous gold and gems treasure to the Queen and Rothschild Bank of London, in much the same way that Modi looted all the gold heirlooms of the Indian population.
Where did the Iraq gold bullion disappear to? Where did the Libya gold bullion disappear to? Where did the Ukraine gold bullion disappear to? Where did the WTC gold disappear to?
No, my friends, never let the Isreali suzerainty get their nose under the tent flap!
Posted by: Anton Worter | Sep 29 2018 21:35 utc | 24
"I was also not surprised to hear that Israeli agents ran security at both the WTC and Fukushima..."
Anton Worter | Sep 29, 2018 5:35:37 PM | 25
Or that Israeli 'security' company (Verint Systems, a subsidiary of Israel's Comverse Technology) was in charge of the Madrid mass transit system when it was attacked (911 days after 9/11), and the same company was in charge of the virtually identical attack on the London tube on 7th July 2005 (7-7-7).
But then, I'm just a coincidence theorist.
Posted by: Ross | Sep 29 2018 23:16 utc | 25
"Netanyahoo's claim in front of this year's UNGA was not entirely false but highly misleading. Unfortunately he is helped by some rather hapless Iranian responses to it."
Couldn't agree more...
Trump is doing everything he can (at present) to blow the Jews and their cretinous bullshit clean out of the water. With his Jerusalem gambit Trump has tricked them into exposing themselves as pitiless, lying, murdering arseholes. And he's precipitated an extremely 'lively' debate about the validity of the irritating and unpopular Zio-US sanctions on Iran. He's also paid lip service to an ambiguous desire to meet with Iran's leaders.
The Iranians have got to stop taking themselves so seriously and get a sense of humour. They also have to take a leaf out of North Korea's book and get on the phone to Vlad and Xi and get some wise counsel from the craftiest diplomats (and warriors) on the planet.
The Russians & Chinese, if asked, can provide Iran with a few tips on developing something resembling a sense of humour too - not that there's anything funny, or even amusing, about "Israel".
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Sep 30 2018 3:43 utc | 26
Craig winters where the sun is always warm.
Craig falls back on that ol' hasbara charm.
Craig spings into action when he feels he's on a roll.
Craig summers, international troll.
Posted by: jmichael72 | Sep 30 2018 4:14 utc | 27
13
Well I'm also former oil patch, and your story doesn't hold water.
Let's recap. Desert Storm was the direct result of Oil Patch bringing their horizontal well drilling technology to Kuwait, to drill under the border and steal Iraqi oil. That explains the 'string of burning pearls' oil derricks along the length of the border, and is what originally set Saddam off, since the Kuwaitis are royalpussies, and flew off to France while US troops fought and died to save their little royal bootlegging operation.
The result was an EU-Iraq Oil for Food program, which drove the price of crude oil to an astounding $15 a barrel in the last days of Clinton, and boomed both US and EU economies like nobody's business! KSA officially announced $25 a bbl would be 'sufficient profit', clearly telegraphing to Saddam to get in line with OPEC. But US Oil Patch was crushed. Those years I was forced to leave the US to find oil exploration work in Kyrgyzstan.
Then Rumsfeld had a missing $Ts problem with Pentagon war profiteering and Cheney had a problem with Halliburton losing $Bs after buying WRGrace, and both wanted Continuity of Government (aka Deep State). So we got 9/11, that brought the price of oil up enough for the KSA, but not enough for Cheney to make up for his catastrophic purchase of WRGrace.
Operation Enduring Freedom was all about the 'enduring freedom' of the US oil patch (and Halliburton) to maximize their oil profits. Cheney goosed crude up to $147 a bbl, the single greatest, fastest increase in strategic mineral prices in human history, and not a word has been written about that. "It just happened," ...and crushed the world economy.
Coincidentally, 2 billion people in the 3W were very, very close to being genocided by OEF, and only the grace of the Creator delivered two back-to-back global grain surpluses in those years otherwise we would have seen Sahale starvation photos from Africa to Asia.
Next time you get it into your head 'Red is bad' and 'Blue is good' or that 'Bush was bad' and 'Obama was good' or that the Pentagon exists to 'defend freedom and democracy', just remember The Miracle of the Two Planes and the Three Free-Falling Towers, and that Cheney almost genocided 2 billion 3W humans, (nevermind the millions of OEF war dead and maimed), just to pump up his deferred stock options at Halliburton! Which by the way, he then moved Halliburton's HQ to Qatar so he could take his profits untaxed.!
"We came, we saw, he died! HAWW, HAWW, HAWW!" These people are reptilian monsters!
Posted by: Anton Worter | Sep 30 2018 6:41 utc | 28
Syria a victim of wars fought in the name of oil – Austrian Foreign Minister
https://www.rt.com/news/439949-austria-syria-oil-war/
Posted by: Zanon | Sep 30 2018 8:13 utc | 29
I don't know if the US-war-for-oil argument is correct. I think it's a bit too simple. Saddam was willing to sell every drop of oil at the lowest price. Refineries, pipelines etc., i.e. the infrastructure, would have remained as they were. According to Stephen Sniegoski ("Transparent Cabal. The neoconservative agenda, war in the middle east, and the national interest of Israel") the US-oil industry even opposed sanctions against Iraq's oil and lobbied for a repeal of the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act. He cites a Fareed Mohamedi of PFC Energy:
"Big oil told the Cheney Task Force on Energy Policy in 2001 that they wanted the U.S. sanctions lifted on Libya and Iran so they could gain access to their oil supplies. As far back as 1990, they were even arguing that the United States should cut a deal with Saddam because he had given signals he was willing to let U.S. oil companies into Iraq." (p. 336.)
He also cites Damian Cave (Salon) writing in November 2001 that
"there is no clear evidence, right now, of oil company desires affecting current U.S. foreign policy. If anything, the terrorist attacks have reduced the energy industry’s influence." (Ibid.)
Moreover, Anthony Sampson wrote in December 2002 that
"oil companies have had little influence on U.S. policy-making. Most big American companies, including oil companies, do not see a war as good for business, as falling share prices indicate." (Ibid.)
I think it is the influence of the Israel lobby. A few years ago, Israel was resolved to become Europe's main energy supplier. This would also explain why they desperately cling to Gaza Marine 1 and 2 and to the Golan Heights.
Posted by: Klaus Weiß | Sep 30 2018 12:03 utc | 31
Now comes this economic analysis of the oil patch and related agriculture sector recessions of 2015-2016. This shows the close coordination among countries (China and the US mainly) required to keep the global financing apparatus optimally functional.
Nationalism is a sideshow meant to keep those who otherwise might wish the collapse of the globa system pre-occupied and distracted.
The bosses will never let it happen, except in a charade to fool the masses into their ongoing infotainment stupor and reliable voting patterns.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/29/upshot/mini-recession-2016-little-known-big-impact.html
We also discover the Fed closely coordinates ("unofficially" of course) its interest rate maneuvers with its Chinese counterparts.
Wake up people.
Posted by: donkeytale | Sep 30 2018 12:25 utc | 32
Posted by: Klaus Weiß | Sep 30, 2018 8:03:17 AM | 32
Oil/gas is not needed for profit but for power. Who controls the energy supply routes controls world economy.
Austria has got quite a character as Foreign Minister - she basically spells it out.
Oil is the real reason behind all conflicts in the Middle East while Syria is just the latest victim of this struggle, Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl told the UN General Assembly in a speech she started in Arabic.
Gorbachev did not put the borders of NATO in writing because he assumed that Europe would be Russia's anyway once the cold war ended. The pipelines were well in place, built even during the "Cold War"
This here is from 1982
The project is the planned 3,700-mile pipeline that will carry Soviet natural gas from Siberia to Western Europe -a Soviet order for as much as $15 billion worth of heavy machinery and largediameter steel pipe that the Europeans hope will ease their unemployment woes but that the Reagan Administration has sharply criticized.While there are now several pipelines that move Soviet gas to Western Europe, the new one is expected to substantially increase the flow. Behind arguments about just how vulnerable America's NATO allies would be to the Russians' control over the gas is the fact that this project would inject a stimulating dose of orders and jobs into the faltering European capital goods industry at a time of deepening recession.
You have to brush this a bit for it being objective but the basic facts are likely to be true.
All the recent wars, Georgia, Ukraine, Syria were about bringing cheap gas to Europe.
Assad signed off on the Iran plan in 2012 and it was due to be completed in 2016 but it was ultimately delayed because of the Arab Spring and the civil war.Many countries supporting or opposing the war against Assad have links to these pipeline plans.
Failed pipeline bidder Qatar is believed to have funded anti-Assad rebel groups by $3 billion between 2011 and 2013. Saudi Arabia has also been accused of funding the terrorist group.
In contrast Orenstein and Romer noted the successful pipeline bidder, Iran, was believed to be helping Assad by running the Syrian army, supplying it with weapons and even troops.
Major Rob Taylor, an instructor at the US Army’s Command and General Staff College wrote in the Armed Forces Journal last year that the rival pipelines could be influencing the conflict in Syria.
“Viewed through a geopolitical and economic lens, the conflict in Syria is not a civil war, but the result of larger international players positioning themselves on the geopolitical chessboard in preparation for the opening of the pipeline,” he noted.
...
As a hub, Turkey would benefit from transit fees and other energy-generated revenues.It could also insure, with US support, that all gas suppliers in the Middle East could freely export their product.
Qatar’s plans put Turkey at the centre of its plan.
As one of the countries relying on Russia for gas, freeing it from this dependence would be an added bonus.
But none of this can be realised if the pipeline bypasses Turkey and if Assad becomes instrumental in approving an alternative that does not involve it.
Now that Russia is stepping in to help the Assad regime in Syria — possibly to protect its own dominance in the gas market — Turkey is facing a formidable barrier to its aspirations.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 30 2018 12:57 utc | 33
Just checked. Brent Crude is more than 80 Dollars.
All is well for Russia.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 30 2018 13:00 utc | 34
Brexit, America First, Trump tariffs, terrorising of immigrants and closing borders, tax cuts, these are all moves which will inexorably lead to further erosion of the failing living standards of the masses while increasing the wealth and political clout of the plutocrats of all countries who are continually invested in the global financial system through its ups and (temporary) downs.
This group of villains pointedly also includes Russian plutocrats of whom Putin is a charter member and a leader in furthering plutocratic interests worldwide under the veneer of Russian nationalism and opposition to "empire". This explains why so many here who believe Russia to be the last line of defense antidote to the western empire are so often wrong and badly confused by Putin's (and China's) geopolitical actions which typically contradict the dogma until the dogma is forcibly revised back into sync with the crisis of the day from Russia's perpective.
The crisis of the day which never amounts to anything except on the outer tangents.
Meanwhile, the 1% continues its steady advance into becoming the .001% while the rest of us plebes suffer the consequences.
Posted by: donkeytale | Sep 30 2018 13:06 utc | 35
Colin Powell shaking a vial of ‘deadly’ anthrax set the tone for these kinds of displays at the UN.
Naturally, nobody in the audience(s) believes the various BS show(s).
Yet, all are obligated to bow down to the superior power, and can’t make fun of these gross silly displays, which are designed to function as hard-hitting, powerful, symbols.
To get through to even the most unaware lowly members gingerly perching in the back seats.
(Message => if you object, contest, you are toast. The symbols are used to make it super clear: otherwise some might not get the point.)
The second function is towards the larger public, who has been conditioned, propagandised, to see international relations as a Punch-and-Judy show, as narrow good-cop bad-cop plot, or more commonly as Evil must be Vanquished (with US arms.)
HOO - deadly germs - secret factory - ugly Iranians - etc.
Back to BBQ.. though that is wearing thin imho.
Posted by: Noirette | Sep 30 2018 13:23 utc | 36
add to 34
Gorbachev defeating a BBC reporter in 2014.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 30 2018 13:49 utc | 37
Misguided headline. Iran can say whatever they want, defend themselves as poorly as they wish. Truth is Truth in the end, there's no need to debunk every lie that comes along, it's a never ending, losing game anyway ...
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 30 2018 14:23 utc | 38
Wow, poetry readings as a way to treat alleged "trolls."
May I suggest wearing garlic around the neck in case that doesn't work?
And since when did expressing an unpopular opinion(to some) become the sole means to decide who is or isn't a troll?
Posted by: morongobill | Sep 30 2018 14:26 utc | 39
also add to 34
Syrian war rationale with a long fuse.
These strategic concerns, motivated by fear of expanding Iranian influence, impacted Syria primarily in relation to pipeline geopolitics. In 2009 - the same year former French foreign minister Dumas alleges the British began planning operations in Syria - Assad refused to sign a proposed agreement with Qatar that would run a pipeline from the latter's North field, contiguous with Iran's South Pars field, through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and on to Turkey, with a view to supply European markets - albeit crucially bypassing Russia. An Agence France-Presse report claimed Assad's rationale was "to protect the interests of [his] Russian ally, which is Europe's top supplier of natural gas".Instead, the following year, Assad pursued negotiations for an alternative $10 billion pipeline plan with Iran, across Iraq to Syria, that would also potentially allow Iran to supply gas to Europe from its South Pars field shared with Qatar. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the project was signed in July 2012 - just as Syria's civil war was spreading to Damascus and Aleppo - and earlier this year Iraq signed a framework agreement for construction of the gas pipelines.
...
The Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline plan was a "direct slap in the face" to Qatar's plans. No wonder Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, in a failed attempt to bribe Russia to switch sides, told President Vladmir Putin that "whatever regime comes after" Assad, it will be "completely" in Saudi Arabia's hands and will "not sign any agreement allowing any Gulf country to transport its gas across Syria to Europe and compete with Russian gas exports", according to diplomatic sources. When Putin refused, the Prince vowed military action.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 30 2018 14:27 utc | 40
morongobill @ 41
That is an excellent question.
Why are people so afraid of words on a screen that they decide to become defacto "House trolls" policing threads for "non-conforming" comments? This is almost 2019 people, no longer 2005 Daily Kos. LOL
And who gets to decide what is a "non-conforming" comment beside the site owner? Hopefully, no one or I would already be banned.
Posted by: donkeytale | Sep 30 2018 14:48 utc | 41
morongobill @41
There are lots of ways to treat trolls.
Ignoring them is best, of course, but inevitably, some will feed the trolls - often because new comers/infrequent readers don't realize that they are trolls.
Next is refuting them so that others will recognize that they are trolls. In this way, trolls often help us to educate people that come to the blog to learn the truth of what is going on. (That's why the trolls are here - to muck up the education of others.)
Next is ridicule and contempt. Essentially, this is 'showing the door' to trolls that are not smart enough to see that their participation here is counter-productive to their mission. This can be also be quite fun.
We've seen lots of trolls at MoA. Their behavior can be surprising. For example, donkeytale has essentially outed himself as a paid troll. This exceptionalist neoliberal jackass is not one of the more annoying ones, but he is a troll because he's here to promote an anti-nationalist, anti-Russia agenda.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Sep 30 2018 15:04 utc | 42
JR @ 44- I posted a comment on the new open thread since I'm veering offtopic and I'm sure that is another cause of banning. LOL
Posted by: donkeytale | Sep 30 2018 15:47 utc | 43
Anton @29
What makes you think I disagree with most of your thoughts?
Posted by: Schmoe | Sep 30 2018 15:49 utc | 44
Do you perhaps block the Android version of Firefox, because I am always getting server errors, but can get this site for Opera Mini, and regular Firefox?
this is the twitter thread of reza nasri https://twitter.com/RezaNasri1/status/1045633746982981634
For Farsi speakers, "Turquzabad" is a term equivalent to "John Doe" or "Main Street" or "NoWhereLand" in English, which are terms that carry no real semantic information. Among Iranians, it is often used in a derisive way in a comical context.
This is why Iran deputy FM Dr. Araghchi and FM @JZarif are having fun over it at Netanyahu's expens
Many are inclined to believe that Iranian intelligence services probably manipulated their Israeli counterparts and #Netanyahu into using this term at this prestigious forum. What better way to have them ridicule themselves?
Imagine a prime minister accusing "John Doe" of conducting nuclear activities at a secret facility in "NoWhereLand", New York!
Posted by: occidentosis | Oct 1 2018 3:17 utc | 46
elijah j magnier on this same topic.. post is from oct 2nd..
Posted by: james | Oct 3 2018 2:54 utc | 47
The comments to this entry are closed.
B you are missing another piece of the story, namely that "turkuzabad" is used in Farsi to mean something similar to "watchamacallit". Its a double entendre joke to make a fool out of Bibi! See this thread here for more details and Javad Zarif's reaction during a radio interview, its priceless..
https://twitter.com/rezanasri1/status/1045633742620975106?s=21
Posted by: Lozion | Sep 29 2018 14:51 utc | 1