Middle East
Oil Bubble’s Loud “Pop” Heard ‘Round The World
Using Oil (Natural Gas) Weapon Act Of War?
Oil prices have fallen to their lowest levels in the last 14 months, and analysts say prices will continue to fall, because the global economy is in a slowdown. This is good news for most but bad news for oil exporting countries. Russia for instance. The Russian budget is based on oil prices of $95 per barrel, and the leading crude producers’ investment plans were formed on the assumption that oil prices will exceed $100. Russia’s proposed 23% increase is military spending is being pulled back until and unless its natural gas cartel with Qatar and Iran can inflate natural gas prices to compensate. Those three counties export 40% of the world’s natural gas.
The current worldwide economic slowdown was forecast about two years ago, when economists predicting that when oil cost $70 per barrel the global economy would be unable to function with such high oil prices. It was generally disbelieved and oil prices spiraled upward.
Their enthusiasm was fed by the nearly mystical belief in the unstoppable growth of the global economy, which would need a growing amount of resources almost at any cost.
Raw materials providers had nothing to worry about in that scenario. Also, speculative demand was spurred by the rapidly developing Chinese and Indian economies, which needed ever increasing hydrocarbon imports. Some hotheaded experts even predicted that oil prices would soar to $200 per barrel before the end of this year. Oil ministers in places like Russia, Venezuela and elsewhere were simply unrealistic as they planned for sky high revenues and waged what has been tantamount to an act of economic warfare.
The financial crunch is an abstract disaster for the majority of Russians, but everyone will hear the loud pop of the oil bubble. Hydrocarbons are Russia’s and Venezuela’s main export, providing more than half of boths export income and the bulk of the budget revenues.
Most are saying OPEC will have to cut production by at least 2 million barrels day to even slow the slide in oil prices and few think such a cut can be enforced and that cheating will be inevitable.
There is a quiet glee among those declared enemies by Russia and its new Venezuelan hand maiden as they hear the loud pop of the oil bubble.
This article includes views by Vlad Grinkevich an RIA Novosti economic analyst. United Press International’s “Outside View” commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. CIA Factbook and Rand Corporation.
China Benefiting From Downturn, Politics, And US-Russo Rift
China Has Trillion Dollar Influence In U. S.
President Hu Jintao says the American domination over the world is about to be over.
His optimism is buoyed by the fact that China sits on foreign exchange hoards of more than $2 trillion, including $500 billion in U. S. treasury bills (its largest holding) and $300 billion in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and is rumored to be ready to buy $200 billion more in T-bills. That means China will play a sizable role in the U. S. economy. China sees an increasingly self-absorbed America with isolationist tendency and policies bordering on socialistic and an impending Presidential election it sees as very favorable to it. Beijing- is elated over these and other developments that it says shows up the “sole superpower’s” feet of clay.
In August, Beijing- indicated its disapproval of the secession of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia - as well as Moscow’s backing of the separatist movements. However, the CCP leadership was ecstatic over the fact that Washington and NATO’s failure to intervene in Georgia signaled in effect, the end of the “global cop” role of the U.S., at least across vast swathes of the world. With Russia’s economy tipping over along with the U. S. and Europe and increasing tensions between Russia and the U. S. as being in its best interests. A Rand commentary appearing in the Providence Journal on October 6th refined the consequence of the U. S. - Russo rift that truncated missile defense and nuclear weapons talks.
A Pentagon and Energy Department report on October 10th titled “National Security and Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century, states that the United States does not view Moscow as an adversary. recently sounded the alarm about Russia’s expanding strategic nuclear forces funded by profits from its energy resources.”However, despite diligent U.S. efforts to improve relations with Moscow, Russia’s transition to a more democratic state with a less confrontational, more cooperative foreign policy has seen recent setbacks,” the report said. This turmoil plays into China’s ambitions.
Story adapted, edited and expanded in part from an October 13, 2008 World Tribune article.
Middle East Miscellany
Israel - Iran - Syria - Hezbollah - Saudi Cleric - Russia
Israeli surgeons are trying to save a 12-year-old Iranian boy’s life after failed brain surgery in Tehran, and a referral from a Turkish hospital.. “When a child’s life is at stake, religion and origin play no part,” said Israel Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit. “If we can help, we are more than willing to do so.” (Ynet News)
Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan, a Muslim cleric in Saudi Arabia, has called on women to wear a full veil that reveals only one eye. He told the Muslim satellite channel al-Majd that showing both eyes encouraged women to use eye make-up to look seductive.
A series of private-sector strikes has forced the Iranian government to suspend the implementation of a new sales tax, marking a setback for President Ahmadinejad. Angry shopkeepers in the central bazaar in the city of Esfahan refused Wednesday for the second straight day to open stores, and the strike spread to Tehran, Mashad and Tabriz. Inflation rose in September to 29.4%, according to Iran’s Central Bank. (Washington Post)
Hezbollah’s arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, who was blown to smithereens in a car bombing in Damascus 8-months ago, has been succeeded by a senior Iranian intelligence official, an Italian newspaper reported Thursday, indicating an Iranian determination to consolidate its control over the Lebanese group. A report in Italy’s Corriere della Sera, Hezoullah’s new chief military commander is Muhammad Riza Zahdi, aka Hassan Mahdawi, who in the late 1980s served in the Iranian Embassy in Beirut.
Zahdi will be in charge of coordinating weapons smuggling to Hizbullah from Syria as well as the construction of military positions in southern Lebanon, and will likely have a lot of trouble getting life insurance.
The 1983 bombings of the U.S. embassy and the Marine barracks in Beirut were the first time Islamic suicide bombers had attacked significant American targets. 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 Navy personnel and three Army soldiers were killed when 12,000 pounds of explosives were packed into a Mercedes Benz trusk and detonated. Sixty more Americans were injured.
Our timid response created an aura of impunity that the Islamic extremists sensed and pursued all the way to the 9/11 attacks, which finally awakened America.
The U.S. intelligence community compiled an all-sources damage assessment after the Marine barracks bombing. They studied signals, overhead, and human intelligence and concluded the evidence was overpowering that Iran had been behind it. In August 2005, Mustafa Mohammad-Najjar was named the new defense minister of Iran. Najjar’s previous assignment as senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps earned him a reputation of ruthlessness and ideological loyalty. In 1983, he commanded the 1,500-man expeditionary force sent to Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. This Iranian unit provided security, planning, training, and operational support for the truck bombings on 23 October 1983.
Asked if Russia had promised Israel prime minister Ehud Olmert not to deliver S-300 systems to Iran, the foreign ministry spokesman in Moscow said Thursday, Oct. 9: “We have already repeatedly stated at the very highest political levels that we do not intend to deliver those types of arms to countries which are located in troubled regions.” He carefully avoided mentioning Iran or Syria.
There is increasing speculation that delivery of the S-300 anti-aircraft, anti-cruise missile radar system could provoke an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities before Russia’s system becomes fully effective.
Russia Increases Spying On Israel Giving Intelligence to Iran and Syria.
Russia believes America is about to be propelled into an extraordinary shift toward socialism-isolationism ideas it can exploit.
Russia has intensified its spying on Israel and transferring that intelligence on Israel’s strategic capabilities to Iran and Syria. “(I)f the Russians help the Syrians get information, and the Syrians constantly pass it on to Hezbollah, it is a reasonable supposition that the information gathered by the Russians also reaches Hezbollah’s hands,” Col. Ram Dor, chief of information security in the Israeli military, said.
Russia has been monitoring Israel’s military and vital facilities via land, air and sea assets Russian warships are now routinely basing and staging out of Syrian’s Mediterranean naval base at Tartus that has now been converted 
to a permanent Russian naval base.
Officials said Russia has increased espionage operations inside Israel. They said Russian agents have been directed to identify and target young officers in the Israeli military and intelligence community. That is particularly insidious because there are more than 1 million Russian speakers linked to the former Soviet Union in Israel. Officials said Russian intelligence tracks emigrants who work in the Israeli military and defense industry and traces family inside Russia the purpose is to bludgeon their support by threatening family members still inside Russia.
The Russian intelligence on Israel is being relayed to the Lebanese-based Hezbollah militia via Damascus. The Syrians share the intelligence that they gather with Hezbollah, and the other way around,” Dor said. “This we know, because we know how to build a mirror-image that shows us what enemy intelligence knows about us.”
At the same time it was disclosed that Syrian President Bashar Assad has ordered the formation of an Iranian-trained praetorian guard to protect him from assassination which would unravel the Syria-Iranian-Russian triumvirate.
Russia’s expansionist agenda is driven by Putin’s Czarist-like personal ambitions funded by surging oil and natural gas income enabling a 23% increase in military spending, and accelerated by his view that America is about to be propelled into an extraordinary shift toward socialist-isolationist ideas that Russia can exploit.
17 Planes Airlift Anti-missile Radar for Installation Near Beersheba, Israel
Seventeen huge US Air Force C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster III transports have ferried the high-powered FBX-T anti-missile radar to Israel’s Nevatim Air Base south of Beersheba it was announced Saturday, September 27, 2008. Military sources report that the transportable radar surveillance/forward-based X-band radar was accompanied by some 120 American European Command personnel. The area of its deployment at the Negev base has been fenced off and made off-limits to non-American personnel.
The radars can detect, track and provide command and control for anti-missile interceptors with a very high probability of destroying the missiles before they strike their targets. The systems are said to already be operating. Or soon will be.
In 2006 an earlier version of the system was installed in Japan and has operated there since. Fixed site radars are cited in Greenland, Massachusetts and Florida and interceptors are also sited in Alaska and California, and seaborne versions are operated in the Pacific from an Alaskan base. It is this system of radars and interceptors that Poland and the Czech Republic have agreed to emplace systems to the chagrin of Russia.
Beersheba (Hebrew: בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע, Be’er Sheva, Arabic: بئر السبع, is located on the northern edge of the Negev desert 115 kilometres (71 mi) south-east of Tel Aviv and 120 kilometres (75 mi) south-west of Jerusalem. Obviously it is remotely cited because it is a strategic target that would likely be attacked in any missile exchange.
Beersheba is an ancient site, occupied sine the 4th millennium BC it is mentioned in the Book of Genesis in connection with Abraham the Patriarch and his pact with Abimelech. Isaac built an altar in Beersheba (Genesis 26:23-33). Jacob had his dream about a stairway to heaven in the area of Beersheba. (Genesis 28:10-15 and 46:1-7). The prophet Elijah took refuge in Beersheba when Jezebel ordered him killed (I Kings 19:3).
In contemporary history it is famous on October 31, 1917, when 800 soldiers of the Australian 4th and Light Horse Brigade charged the Turkish trenches, overran them on horseback with sabers and captured the wells of Beersheba. It was the last successful cavalry charge in British military history. In 1948, during the Israeli War of Independence it was the site of a fierce battle when Egy[tian forces were surrounded and forced to surrender. Now it is the site of the spearpoint of Israel’s defense against missile attack.
IAEA AWAKENS FROM LONG SLUMBER
Tehran could reach weapons capacity in as little as six months
Mohamed El-Baradei, head of the Vienna, Austria-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was quoted in the Friday edition of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily as saying that that Iran is one of several countries on the “path” to possessing the ingredients for making a nuclear weapon.
He also said there is “a whole list of countries that posses the ingredients to assemble an atomic weapon in a matter of a few months, that possess fissile material or the technical means to create it.”
Israel says the Islamic Republic could have enough nuclear material to make its first bomb within a year. The U.S. estimates Tehran is at least two years away from that stage.
But David Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security closely tracks suspect secret proliferators has said Tehran could reach weapons capacity in as little as six months through uranium enrichment.
Albright thinks Iran has produced nearly 1,000 pounds of low-enriched uranium, said the report _ close to what Albright says is the 1,500-pound minimum needed to produce the 45-60 pounds needed for a simple nuclear bomb under optimal conditions.
Splinter Christian Coalition To Honor Ahmadinejad Amid Protest
Democrat give Ahmadinejad a huge gift by sabotaging a major bipartisan anti-Iran rally.
The American Friends Service Committee; Mennonite Central Committee; Quaker United Nations Office; Religions for Peace, and World Council of Churches - United Nations Liaison Office joined together Thursday night to “honor” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in what they bill as “bridge building.”
Opponents of the honoring and the dinner itself include: Women United/Code Red, 911 Families, ACT for America, Alliance of Iranian Women, AMCHA, American Center for Law and Justice, American Coptic Union, American Maronite Union, Americans for a Safe Israel, Arabs for Israel, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, Center for Security Policy, Christian Solidarity, Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights, Committee on the Present Danger, Concerned Women for America, Council for a Democratic Iran, Family Security Matters, Foundation for Defense of Democracy, Glenn Richter, Founder Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, Guardian Angels, Institute for Freedom and Democracy, International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, International Christian Union, Aryeh Eldad, Israeli Knesset, Jewish Action Alliance, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, Log Cabin Republicans of New York City, Open Doors USA,
Phyllis Chesler, author, Rabbi Zev Friedman, Rambam Mesivta high school, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, StandWithUs, Stop Shariah Now, Sudan Freedom Walk, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, Traditional Values Coalition, and Women’s Freedom Movement of Pakistan.
They will protest the event. An article in the Jerusalem Post Thursday said Democrat activists this week gave Ahmadinejad a huge gift by sabotaging a major bipartisan anti-Iran rally in New York City this past week disinviting GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin.
Earlier this week speaking to the UN in New York City, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacked the U.S. again declaring the “American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road.” And accused “a few bullying powers” of trying to stop his country’s nuclear programs.
Also, as FOX News reported: “With major world leaders watching and just eight hours after President Bush’s final speech before the general assembly, Ahmadinejad used the U.N. platform to decry a “zionist regime” for what he called a persecution on Arab peoples around the globe.”
Iran Considering Preemptive Attacks On Gulf States And Israel
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been clamoring for a war option should Israel and the United States continue planning
Iran’s top leadership is at odds about whether or not to attack Israel between late 2008 and 2009. Western intelligence sources say Iran has been preparing militarily while debating the feasibility of an offensive against Israel and Gulf Cooperation Council states.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been clamoring for a war option should Israel and the United States continue preparations for a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
“Ahmadinejad has been arguing that Iran has never enjoyed such favorable conditions for an attack,” a senior intelligence source said according to a report from London. “The Iranian assessment is that the European Union is dependent on foreign energy notably Russia’s natural gas, the Arabs have retreated into submission, Iraq could be annexed, Turkey is paralyzed and Israel is weak. The only threat is [U.S. President George] Bush.”
Ahmadinejad is said to be opposed by a group led by former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani. The sources said Rafsanjani has warned that Iran must consider a suspension of its uranium enrichment program to prevent a massive Israeli and U.S. air strike.
“Rafsanjani has not argued for surrender,” another intelligence source said. “His argument is that Iran should conduct a tactical withdrawal until the United States pulls out from Iraq. Then, Iran could resume its nuclear weapons program and threaten the region.”
The sources said the Iranian leadership could resolve the debate in late 2008. They said Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei has been monitoring the nation’s combat readiness, tested in a series of massive military exercises.
“Over the next few weeks, the Iranian leadership could reach a determination whether Teheran would be ready for a total war,” the source said.
Yesterday Ahmadinejad said the U. S. is ruled by Zionist murderers, and again threatened Israel’s existence. The U. N. called his vile rhetoric as not helpful.
Israel Election Consequence Clear As Mud
Livni Must Form Coalition Government Or Call National Elections
Tzipy Livni has evidently has just become head of Israel’s Kadima party (pending finalization of the most narrow election results as voter refuted polling results) and has a chance, at least, to form a moderate government that will pursue the Palestinian peace process.
Tzipy Livni - Tzipora Malka “Tzipi” Livni (Hebrew: ציפורה מלכּה “ציפי” לבני) was born July 8,1958 in Tel Aviv, Israel. She served as a lieutenant in the IDF and worked for the Mossad intelligence organization for almost two years, acting as a “house sitter” for a safe house in Paris. She resigned in August 1983 to marry and finish her law studies. She graduated from the Bar Ilan University Faculty of Law, and practiced public and commercial law for ten years. She lives in Tel Aviv with her husband and their two children.
She was elected to the Knesset in 1999. After the Likud assumed power in 2001, Livni was appointed Minister of Regional Cooperation, and then was Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Minister of Immigrant Absorption and Minister of Housing and Construction. On October 1, 2005, she was appointed Minister of Justice after several months acting in that position and then served as Foreign Minister. On 4 May 2006, Livni became Deputy Prime Minister and retained the position of Foreign Minister, while resigning her post as Minister of Justice.
Livni escaped virtually unscathed from the massive wave of public criticism that followed the Second Lebanon War, She had led the quest for a diplomatic solution, though UN Secuirty Council Resolution 1701, obtained about a month of fighting, was not much different from the offer made by the Lebanese in the first week of the war. Critics of the resolution, which has allowed massive rearming of the Hezbollah blame Livni for that.
Pre-election opinion surveys predicted that Livni enjoyed a safe lead over rival Transportation Minister and former Defense Minister and IDF Chief of Staff, Shaul Mofaz, and exit polls seemed to confirm a decisive victory. All those polls were wrong and Livni won by less than 1%. If Livni succeeds in forming a new government, she will be Israel’s second female Prime Minister, after Golda Meir (1898-1983).
Livni faces two choices: a.) try to form a coalition government or b.) go to national elections. She’ll likely at least try the former but it is uncertain she can accomplish it in a meaningful way. Embattled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he’ll resign if Livni can form a new government, and only if - Israeli’s are tired of Olmert’s legal troubles and that give Livni an edge. If an election is held the Likud party led by Benjamin Netanyahu and its potential right-wing coalition partners would likely win a majority based on opinion surveys.
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Persian: محمود احمدینژاد, mæhmu-d-e æhmædi-neʒɑd threw sand in the gears again saying that Israel would not survive. Next week Ahmadinejad will speak at the United Nation’s General Assembly in New York City while pro-Jewish forces protest. About the only thing Israeli’s agree on is that Iran can not be allowed to build nuclear bombs that it appears closer than ever to doing.
Last week it was revealed that Iran was modifying missiles to carry nuclear warheads. Those missiles are known to be able to reach Israel.
Middle East Shifts And Shuffles
Since World War II the region has leaned on the USA to ensure stability that has been tested by period Arab-Israeli outburst and gravely strained when President Carter allowing the Iranian theocracy to replace a pro-western Iran.
The UAE (United Arab Emirates) wants to buy $7 billion worth of American THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) anti-missile systems to protect itself against the growing arsenal of Iranian ballistic missiles. The UAE is a confederation of small Arab states at the southern end of the Persian Gulf. With a population of only 5.5 million, and large oil and gas deposits, the emirates have a per-capita income of $43,000. Thus the UAE has a lot to defend, and an increasingly belligerent neighbor just across the Gulf. The UAE controls one side the entrance to the Gulf (the Straits of Hormuz). Iran is on the other end, and both nations dispute ownership of some islands in the middle.
Elsewhere Kuwait, who has defacto been an American protectorate since 1990 has expressed concern over Iraqi interest in an advanced U.S. fighter-jet. Officials said Kuwait has sought clarification from the Bush administration over Iraqi consideration to procure the F-16 multi-role fighter. The officials said Kuwait, occupied by Iraq in 1990, has determined that Iraqi acquisition of the F-16 could change the balance of power with neighboring Gulf Cooperation Council states. Distrust of Iraq remains high especially as the U. S. is poised to withdrawal. “American plans to arm Iraq is a threat to regional security and raises questions about Washington’s policy in the region,” Kuwaiti parliamentarian Nasser Al Duwailah said.
Al Duwailah, believed to reflect the interests of the Kuwaiti government, said Kuwait and Saudi Arabia must maintain their military superiority over Iraq. The parliamentarian has appealed to Kuwaiti Prime Minister Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah to oppose U.S. plans to sell advanced weapons to Baghdad including main M1-A-1 battle tanks, attack helicopters, and other sophisticated weapons.
Ancient religious differences exist among Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and others who can at best form a grudging defense confederation against Iran and Syria. Heretofore, and since World War II the region has leaned on the USA to ensure stability that has been tested by period Arab-Israeli outburst and gravely strained when President Carter allowing the Iranian theocracy to replace a pro-western Iran.
Indian Navy To Join U. S. and Gulf Allies To Keep Straits Open.
Russia Announces expansion at Syria’s naval base at Tartus, along the Mediterranean Sea.
Saying “India, particularly because of its location, could become a leading factor in Gulf security” the Indian Navy is participating in major exercises in the Arabian Sea designed to ensure the Straits of Hormuz stay open allowing free flow into and out of the Persian Gulf. In addition to its involvement in a U.S.-led task force to secure the Gulf and Arabian Sea, India has has also conducted naval exercises with such GCC countries as Oman and Qatar and has trained officers from Saudi Arabia..
In October 2008, Indian and U.S. warships were scheduled to conduct a 10-day naval exercise in the Arabian Sea. The U.S. Navy plans to contribute several vessels, including the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Springfield nuclear submarine, to the maneuvers, expected to begin on Oct. 15.
The exercise would include a demonstration of air, surface and underwater skills. India would operate its Jaguar fighter-jets alongside the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18s.
“The naval wargames will be complex in nature involving anti-submarine warfare maneuvers, flying operations and cross-deck embarkations,” an Indian Navy official said.
At the same time Moscow has rejected a Syrian request for the Iskander-E long-range rocket. The rocket, with a range of 280 kilometers, was designed for accurate strikes on military ground targets. “Missiles and rockets will continue to be off-limits to Syria,” a Russian diplomat said.
It also said Assad also agreed to enlarge Russia’s naval presence in Syria. The sources said this would include the expansion of Syria’s naval base at Tartus, along the Mediterranean Sea.
Georgia to Host Israeli Attack Airraft Against Iran
As
reported by the Washington Times and repeated in Israel, Russian raids on two Georgian airfields may have had the aim of disrupting Israel’s coming attack on Iran. Second, the Russians hoped to and may have captured an Israeli unmannned reconnaissance deone full of super secret observation gear.
The use of Georgia would make sense as flying time would be diminished and there is already a considerable Israeli advisory force in Georgia. Of course the Russians would backwards engineer the equipment and pass the data to Iran and Syria.
Marshall Ivan thinks that this will accelerate, along with the fear of an Obama presidency, the attack necessary attack on Iran.
Saudis Approve of Russian Action in South Ossetia.
In a meeting with Putin reported by Russian State controlled “Izvestia”, prince Ben Abdul Aziz confirmed that the Saudi king approved of “the logic of Russian action in South Ossetia”. The prince went on to encourage “two sided expansion in relations” and an increase in future dealings with Roboronexport [Russian arms export]. He said that Saudi Arabia was “now realizing” the benefit of an earlier arms purchase agreement with Russia.
To Marshall Ivan , the Russian bear is looking for a warm water port in the south a la Peter The Great plus control of most of the world’s oil production. Soviet missile cruisers were in the meantime “visiting” Abkhazia.
It is interesting to note that as early as November Putin stated in an interview that he would not allow a NATO buildup in the Black Sea.
Strategic Independence
The Jerusalem Center For Strategic Affairs has written an outstanding analysis of Russia and the Georgian conflict. Frankly, it sounds like several of the old Marshall’s briefings starting months ago.
The phrase that resounds here at staff central is “strategic independence”. The Israelis and others have learned not to physically rely on US promises of aid. Even Mikhail Gorbachev warned a year ago not to rely on Us promises of aid.
The phrase will take corporeal existence soon, when Israel exercises its strategic independence and attacks Iran by itself.
I will include the link here : http://www.jcpa.org/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=1&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=442&PID=0&IID=2402&TTL=The_Russian-Georgian_War:_Implications_for_the_Middle_East
DESINFORMATSIA: Kremlin Jewish Leader Critical of Georgia
Israe
l’s Haaretz News reports that Boris Spiegel, self acclaimed friend of Putin and nominal spiritual leader is accusing the Georgians in the recent Russian power grab.
The word in Russian for this is an English cognate which truly covers the subject : DESINFORMATSIA. The other applicable phrase is “navesti nenavist’ na vraga”–which literally means “aim hatred at the enemy. If you have ever seen Soviet WW II posters, you will be struck by their effectiveness [cf. my post “Georgia : Stalin’s First Break” includes a good example with translation of the text
The integration of all sources in this affair clearly indicates premeditation. Watch out Azerbaijan, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and eventually Ukraine if Putin is allowed his Sudeten like treasure.
I have include the link to the Haaretz article, interpretation that of Marshall Risidin.