Tag Archives: Syrian crises

Mar 18 2017

CONGRESS SCRAMBLES TO PROTECT THE CIA


The CIA has overstepped tn bounds and needs to be brought back under control.

Mar 17 2017

How Mexico treats its own illegal immigrants from South America


Do as I say not as I do … lol

Mar 17 2017

EURUSD Tumbles As Le Pen Support Jumps


Tyler Durden's picture
by Tyler Durden
Re-Posted From ZERO HEDGE Mar 17, 2017 8:09 AM

Given the collapse of European VIX to record lows, one could be forgiven for thinking that there’s nothing to worry about. However, a one point jump in first-round support for French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has sparked a notable drop in EURUSD this morning.

European FX investors look anything but comfortable…

 

Overall however, according to the polls, Le Pen is unlikely to win…

But then again – Brexit and Trump proved that mea

Mar 14 2017

More Evidence Surfaces – NSA Director Mike Rogers Did Not Aid Obama’s Surveillance Scheme…


Source: More Evidence Surfaces – NSA Director Mike Rogers Did Not Aid Obama’s Surveillance Scheme…

 

Mar 14 2017
Gallery

Kim Jong-un threatens ‘MERCILESS’ attack on America in retaliation for South Korea drills

This gallery contains 2 photos.


Kim Jong Un is either a total idiot or totally crazy or I guess both!.

Mar 13 2017

US deploys drones in South Korea capable of striking North Korean targets


Trump is not Obama!

Mar 13 2017

“The Biggest Show Of Force Since World War II”: Japan To Send Its Largest Warship To South China Sea


Tyler Durden's picture
by Tyler Durden
Re-Posted From ZERO HEDGE Mar 13, 2017 9:24 AM

The tension over the disputed territory in the South China Sea is about to escalate to another level: according to a Reuters report, Japan is preparing to to dispatch its largest warship on a three-month tour through the South China Sea beginning in May, in “its biggest show of naval force in the region since World War Two.”

Japan Maritime Self Defense Force’s helicopter carrier Izumo

The 249 meter-long (816.93 ft) Izumo is as large as Japan’s World War Two-era carriers and can operate up to nine helicopters. It resembles the amphibious assault carriers used by U.S. Marines, but lacks their well deck for launching landing craft and other vessels.

While China claims almost all the disputed waters despite the regular complaints of other nations in the region, and its growing military presence has fueled concern in Japan and the West, with the United States holding regular air and naval patrols to ensure freedom of navigation, so far Japan’s territorial claims have involved the Senkaku island chain in the East China Sea; that however appears to be changing as Japan seeks to stake a military presence in the contested region.

The Izumo helicopter carrier, commissioned only two years ago, will make stops in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka before joining the Malabar joint naval exercise with Indian and U.S. naval vessels in the Indian Ocean in July, before returning to Japan in August.

Why create another point of Chinese antagonism over the region? “The aim is to test the capability of the Izumo by sending it out on an extended mission,” said one of the sources who have knowledge of the plan. “It will train with the U.S. Navy in the South China Sea,” he added, asking not to be identified because he is not authorized to talk to the media. A spokesman for Japan’s Maritime Self Defense Force declined to comment.

  Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Brunei also claim parts of the sea which has rich fishing grounds, oil and gas deposits and through which around $5 trillion of global sea-borne trade passes each year. Japan does not have any claim to the waters, but has a separate maritime dispute with China in the East China Sea.

 Japan wants to invite Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has pushed ties with China in recent months as he has criticized the old alliance with the United States, to visit the Izumo when it visits Subic Bay, about 100 km (62 miles) west of Manila, another of the sources said. Asked during a news conference about his view on the warship visit, Duterte said, without elaborating, “I have invited all of them.”

He added: “It is international passage, the South China Sea is not our territory, but it is part of our entitlement.” On whether he would visit the warship at Subic Bay, Duterte said: “If I have time.”

Japan’s unexpected flag-flying operation comes as the United States is conflicted between taking a tougher line with China and making concessions ahead of Xi’s visit to Trump next month. Washington has criticized China’s construction of man-made islands and a build-up of military facilities that it worries could be used to restrict free movement. Beijing responded in January said it had “irrefutable” sovereignty over the disputed islands after the White House vowed to defend “international territories”.

As Reuters notes, Japan in recent years, particularly under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has been stretching the limits of its post-war, pacifist constitution and has been making aggressive pushes for a return to militarism. It has designated the Izumo as a destroyer because the constitution forbids the acquisition of offensive weapons. The vessel, nonetheless, allows Japan to project military power well beyond its territory. Based in Yokosuka, near to Tokyo, which is also home to the U.S. Seventh Fleet’s carrier, the Ronald Reagan, the Izumo’s primary mission is anti-submarine warfare.

Mar 13 2017

Sturgeon To Give May An “Ultimatum” As UK Preapres For Critical Vote Ahead Of Article 50


Tyler Durden's picture
by Tyler Durden
Re-Posted From ZERO HEDGE Mar 13, 2017 7:21 AM

Britain’s minister for leaving the European Union, David Davis, urged lawmakers not to hold back PM Theresa May’s ability to negotiate a Brexit deal in talks she could trigger as early as this week. Davis on Sunday called on lawmakers to vote to drop two amendments that were added to a bill authorizing the talks with the bloc’s other member states, saying May should be able to enter with no strings attached the WSJ reported.

On Monday the Brexit bill returns to the House of Commons, the U.K.’s lower house, for debate after the House of Lords said it wanted guarantees that EU citizens living in the U.K. could stay after Brexit and that Parliament could vote on the final terms. The final bill must be approved by both houses. Should the bill pass Monday, the government could invoke Article 50 as early as Tuesday according to weekend press reports, but negotiations in Parliament could last several days. The Brexit spokesman for the main opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, told Sky News he expects the government to trigger it on Wednesday or Thursday.

Even if the House of Commons votes in favor of the amendments, May is expected to keep her timetable of triggering by the end of the month. But it would underline how small her majority is in the lower house. Complicating matters is a tweet moments ago by BBG political editor Laura Kuenssberg, who reported that Scotland’s Nicola Sturgeon will give May an ultimatum: give Scotland a different Brexit deal or she’ll call for section 30, the indyref process.

On the topic of Brexit, Reuters reported on Sunday that David Davis is also drawing up “contingency plans” for Britain in the unlikely event it has to walk away from divorce talks with the European Union without a deal. Ahead of the start of Article 50 negotiations, which could be triggered as early as Tuesday, a committee of lawmakers warned it would be a serious dereliction of duty if the government failed to plan for the possibility of not reaching an exit deal. “I don’t think, firstly, that is remotely likely,” Davis told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, responding to the report. “It’s in absolutely everybody’s interest that we get a good outcome.”

Parliament’s Foreign Affairs committee warned that a breakdown in negotiations would be a “very destructive outcome,” causing economic harm to both sides as well as creating uncertainty and legal confusion for individuals and businesses.

 “The simple truth is we have been planning for the contingency – all the various outcomes, all the possible outcomes of the negotiations,” Davis said. “One of the reasons we don’t talk about the contingency plan too much is that we don’t want people to think ‘Oh, this is what we’re trying to do.'”

Asked when May would trigger talks, Davis declined to name a specific date. “Each date has different implications in terms of when it could be responded to by the (European) council … I’m not going to get into the details why, but there’s politics in terms of achieving success.”

Finally, for a frank, “on the ground” take on the current state of Brexit, here is an excerpt from Bill Blain’s latest Morning Porridge edition:

Mar 12 2017

Why Canada will come to regret its embrace of refugees


Seems like a good deal… lol

Mar 12 2017

Global Leaders Rattle Their Sabers As The World Marches Toward War


Tyler Durden's picture
by Tyler Durden
Re-Posted From ZERO HEDGE Mar 12, 2017 1:20 PM

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

Iran just conducted another provocative missile test, more U.S. troops are being sent to the Middle East, it was just announced that the U.S. military will be sending B-1 and B-52 bombers to South Korea in response to North Korea firing four missiles into the seas near Japan, and China is absolutely livid that a U.S. carrier group just sailed through contested waters in the South China Sea.  We have entered a season where leaders all over the globe feel a need to rattle their sabers, and many fear that this could be leading us to war.  In particular, Donald Trump is going to be under the microscope in the days ahead as other world leaders test his resolve.  Will Trump be able to show that he is tough without going over the edge and starting an actual conflict?

The Iranians made global headlines on Thursday when they conducted yet another ballistic missile test despite being warned by Trump on numerous occasions…

As tensions between the U.S. and Iran continue to mount, the semi-official news agency Tasnim is reporting that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has successfully conducted yet another ballistic missile test, this time from a navy vessel.  Called the Hormuz 2, these latest missiles are designed to destroy moving targets at sea at ranges up to 300 km (180 miles).

Reports on the latest test quotes Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC’s Aerospace Force, who confirmed that “the naval ballistic missile called Hormuz 2 successfully destroyed a target which was 250 km away.”

The missile test is the latest event in a long-running rivalry between Iran and the United States in and around the Strait of Hormuz, which guards the entrance to the Gulf. About 20% of the world’s oil passes through the waterway, which is less than 40 km wide at its narrowest point.

So how will Trump respond to this provocation?

Will he escalate the situation?  If he does nothing he will look weak, but if he goes too far he could risk open conflict.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, things are already escalating.  It is being reported that “several hundred Marines” are on the ground in Syria to support an assault on the city of Raqqa, and another 1,000 troops could be sent to Kuwait to join the fight against ISIS any day now.  The following comes from Zero Hedge…

While the Trump administration waits to decide if it will send 1,000 troops to Kuwait to fight ISIS, overnight the Washington Post reported that the US has sent several hundred Marines to Syria to support an allied local force aiming to capture the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa. Defence officials said they would establish an outpost from which they could fire artillery at IS positions some 32km (20 miles) away. US special forces are already on the ground, “advising” the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance according to the BBC.

The defence officials told the Washington Post that the Marines were from the San Diego-based 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, and that they had flown to northern Syria via Djibouti and Kuwait. They are to set up an artillery battery that could fire powerful 155mm shells from M777 howitzers, the officials said. Another marine expeditionary unit carried out a similar mission at the start of the Iraqi government’s operation to recapture the city of Mosul from IS last year.

Meanwhile, China is spitting mad for several reasons.  For one, the Chinese are absolutely furious that South Korea has allowed the U.S. to deploy the THAAD missile defense system on their soil…

China is lashing out at South Korea and Washington for the deployment of a powerful missile defense system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, deposited at the Osan Air Base in South Korea on Monday evening.

The deployment of THAAD follows several ballistic missile tests by North Korea in recent months, including the launch of four missiles on Monday, three of which landed in the sea off the coast of Japan. Though THAAD would help South Korea protect itself from a North Korean missile attack, China is vocally protesting the deployment of the system, claiming it upsets the “strategic equilibrium” in the region because its radar will allow the United States to detect and track missiles launched from China.

Of course the U.S. needed to do something, because the North Koreans keep rattling their sabers by firing off more ballistic missiles toward Japan.

But it is one thing to deploy a missile defense system, and it is another thing entirely to fly strategic nuclear bombers into the region.

So if the Chinese were upset when THAAD was deployed, how will they feel when B-1 and B-52 bombers start showing up in South Korea?…

Earlier this week, trigger-happy Kim pushed his luck once more when he fired off four ballistic missiles into the seas near Japan.

Now US military chiefs are reportedly planning to fly in B-1 and B-52 bombers – built to carry nuclear bombs – to show America has had enough.

South Korea and the US have also started their annual Foal Eagle military exercise sending a strong warning to North Korea over its actions.

A military official said 300,000 South Korean troops and 15,000 US personnel are taking part in the operation.

The Trump administration has openly stated that all options “are on the table” when it comes to North Korea, and that includes a military strike.

It has been more than 60 years since the Korean War ended, but many are concerned that we may be closer to a new Korean War than we have been at any point since that time.

And of course our relationship with China is tumbling precariously downhill as well.  Another reason why the Chinese are extremely upset with the Trump administration is because a U.S. Navy carrier battle group led by the USS Carl Vinson sailed past islands that China claims in the South China Sea just a few weeks ago.

In China, the media openly talks about the possibility of war with the United States over the South China Sea.  Most Americans are not even aware that the South China Sea is a very serious international issue, but over in China this is a major focus.

And the U.S. military has recently made several other moves in the region that have angered the Chinese…

Also in February, the U.S. sent a dozen F-22 Raptor stealth fighters to Tindal AB in northern Australia, the closest Australian military airbase to China, for coalition training and exercises. It’s the first deployment of that many F-22s in the Pacific.

And if that didn’t get the attention of the Chinese government, the U.S. just tested four Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missiles during a nuclear war exercise, sending the simulated weapons 4,200 miles from the coast of California into the mid-Pacific. It’s the first time in three years the U.S. has conducted tests in the Pacific, and the first four-missile salvo since the end of the Cold War.

I can understand the need to look tough, but eventually somebody is going to go too far.

If you are familiar with my work, then you know that I believe that war is coming.  Things in the Middle East continue to escalate, and it is only a matter of time before a great war erupts between Israel and her neighbors.  Meanwhile, U.S. relations with both Russia and China continue to deteriorate, and this is something that I have been warning about for a very long time.

We should hope for peace, but we should also not be blind to the signs of war that are starting to emerge all over the planet.  Relatively few people anticipated the outbreak of World War I and World War II in advance, and I have a feeling that the same thing will be true for World War III.