Mid-East News II

Mr. Conspiracy · Jun 4, 2012

mak9 said: ↑

lol.........So what's US and co. going to do now.....Put sanctions on 1 billion + people?

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Who knows what will happen. I am sure it will impact some trade that the US has with India.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-15/u-s-may-sanction-india-over-level-of-iran-oil-imports.html

A decision to levy penalties under a new U.S. law restricting payments for Iranian oil could come as early as June 28, according to several U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
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http://zeenews.india.com/news/natio...t-india-s-trade-with-iran-krishna_778994.html

New Delhi: India on Thursday made it clear that the US pressure to reduce oil imports from Iran will not impact its "legitimate" trade ties with the "key country" for meeting its energy needs.

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, after talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, said while India abided by the UNSC resolutions on Iran, unilateral or regional sanctions tend to impact on the market in a globalised world.
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http://www.indianexpress.com/news/indias-april-iran-oil-imports-plunge-34-pct-vs-marchtrade/947218/
Interesting, say one thing do another?

India may be wilting under US pressure after all, despite the sound bytes to the contrary by the govt.
India's crude oil imports from Iran declined by about 34 percent in April compared with March, deeper than expected and the first evidence of New Delhi implementing cuts in supplies from the sanctions-hit nation under annual deals that began last month.
State-run buyers are at the forefront of reductions, leaving privately-owned Essar the biggest Indian client of Iran, tanker discharge data showed, just as the U.S. praised steps taken by India's refiners to back Washington's pressure on Tehran.
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http://www.indianexpress.com/news/india-obeys-us-on-iran-cuts-oil-imports/946821/

In the last four years, India has significantly reduced its imports of Iranian oil by volume from 16 per cent in 2008 to 10 per cent now, a US Congressional report has said.
"Since 2008, India has reduced its imports of Iranian oil by volume and as a percentage of India's total oil imports.
Iran now only supplies about 10 per cent of India's oil imports, down from over 16 per cent in 2008," said the latest report of the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
The 80-page report by CRS - an independent research wing of the US Congress - said that Indian leaders have agreed to further reduce dependence on Iranian oil.
Iran is India's second-largest oil supplier. India purchases about 12 percent of its total consumption from Iran.
"Publicly, Indian leaders have not pledged further significant reductions but press and industry accounts say that India plans further reductions along the lines of those negotiated in early 2012 by Japan," the report said.
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Mr. Conspiracy · Jun 4, 2012

mak9 said: ↑

Firstly, do you actually believe that they have the capability to get satellite image anywhere in the world within a minutes notice of the attack happening? Secondly how do we know these images are not images of the army doing their training?

This reminds me of the fake babies in incubator story that happened in 1990:

We can't jump to conclusions right away just cause the media said so. Again why would syrian soldiers just go kill children......were they on drugs? Even in major wars in those regions, children and women were always hands off-- it's human nature.

This is why I think it's a group backed by NATo that is trying to instigate civil war.......
and I've mentioned why several times before, ... to distract everyone with a world war as the USD and other western currencies collapse
and also to give the west an edge in conquering the oil fields of ME and thereby obtaining a near monopoly on the global oil supply -- to continue enslaving developing nations with fraudulent trade agreements

it's the same thing with why the MB being pushed to become the leaders of egypt--- most egyptians don't want them because of their questionable history...and where is MB getting it's funding from?
this is not by accident
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There isn't a single shred of evidence produced anywhere to show any involvement by NATO in syria let alone them sending in troops or people to commit atrocities. Yet there is evidence to show these artillery attacks being conducted by syrian armed forces against their own towns as has happened since the start of the uprising against assad. And has been shown by BBC among other news outlets that the shabiha have been committing acts of terror and war crimes against civilians, women and children and they have been id'ed by survivors of these attacks.

Mr. Conspiracy · Jun 4, 2012

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/wor...ld-of-assads-death-squads-20120603-1zq1v.html

THE door to Dr Mousab Azzawi's clinic, on the Mediterranean coast of Syria, was always open to anyone who needed help. But, operating in the heartland of the feared Shabiha militia, there were some patients he would have preferred not to treat.
''They were like monsters,'' said Dr Azzawi, who worked in Latakia. ''They had huge muscles, big bellies, big beards. They were all very tall and frightening, and took steroids to pump up their bodies.
''I had to talk to them like children, because the Shabiha likes people with low intelligence. But that is what makes them so terrifying - the combination of brute strength and blind allegiance to the regime.''

The world is learning just how bloodthirsty the Shabiha can be. Inside Syria, their capacity for hideous brutality has long been known.
A survivor of the Houla massacre said he knew they were Shabiha because the men were wearing white runners and not black military boots. The white running shoes have become a terrifying sight for the people of Syria, who fear the Shabiha almost more than the army.
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Iranian Monitor · Jun 4, 2012

Based on the past record of Saudi affiliated groups, and their heinous and disgusting crimes in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan and even in Baluchistan, I have virtually no doubt that massacre in Houla was their work, carried out in a manner to blame pro regime militia in Syria. The pro regime militia would gain nothing from behavior that Assad himself has described as "monstrous" but those who are tying to undermine his regime do have such incentive.

I hope those who perpetuated the crime, and their patrons, receive their just and due punishment.

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_new...ia-faces-real-war-waged-from-the-outside?lite

Assad: Syria faces 'real war waged from the outside'

Syrian President Bashar Assad has said that his country is engaged in a "real war" with outside forces and denied any role in the Houla massacre, which he said was carried by “monsters”.
...
"What happened in Houla...and what we described as ugly and abominable massacres, or true monstrosities - even monsters do not perpetrate what we have seen," Assad said.
He said his country was facing a war waged from outside and that terrorism was escalating despite political steps including last month's election for parliament, whose new members Assad was addressing.
"We are not facing a political problem because if we were this party would put forth a political programme. What we are facing is (an attempt) to sow sectarian strife and the tool of this is terrorism," Assad said.
"The issue is terrorism. We are facing a real war waged from the outside," Assad said.
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mak9 · Jun 4, 2012

IM you and I've talked about currencies and British involvement, so I've recently read this passage in this book that I think you and many others here would be interested in.

This is how UK/US destroyed Iran's wealth in the early 1900s:

What the money managers had overlooked is that while silver
might be dethroned as a medium of payment or standard of
reckoning, it retained a vast importance in Asia as a store of
value. Among these poverty stricken millions, a piece of honest
silver saved from the day's or week's earnings was the beginning
of financial security, independence, and contentment. When the
colonial and other sovereignties began to substitute paper money
and debased silver for good silver coinage they opened the flood
gates to political discontent and revolution.

The experience of Iran is of interest. In 1294 A.D., Kai Khatu,
the Mongol ruler of Persia, on the advice of his vizier and in
imitation of his brother monarch, Kublai Khan in China, introduced
paper money into his realm. This action aroused such
resentment among the merchants that a riot ensued. The vizier
was seized by the mob, torn to pieces, and thrown to the dogs.
The edict establishing paper money was withdrawn and no
Persian monarch until the twentieth century dared impose paper
money upon his subjects.

The standard of value and the common medium of exchange
continued to be silver of high purity. Paper money was an alien
device until 1931, when the modern-minded Reza Shah introduced
a national bank of issue and gradually withdrew and
melted down the silver coinage in circulation.

It is of interest to record that Reza Shah lost his throne just
ten years later, and while the one event was not the cause of the
other, it nevertheless facilitated the execution of the other.
When the Soviet and British governments concerted in 1941
on the occupation of Iran, the Shah's forces were able to offer
only feeble resistance, and the Shah was compelled to abdicate.
The two powers, however, affirmed the juridical independence
of the country and forswore any interference with the internal
administration.

By these declarations they excluded the prerogative of a conqueror, of levying taxes, and they were consequently
compelled to find means of financing their occupation.
Twenty years earlier, during World War I, when Great Britain
sent an expeditionary force into Persia, the unfamiliarity of
the people with notes and exchange compelled the commander
to carry quantities of British gold sovereigns; with these, however,
he had been able to buy supplies, recruit workers to clear
the passes of snow, and even to organize a guerrilla force.

Now, a simpler and less expensive procedure was available.
It was to set the printing presses to rolling. The occupying powers
coerced the supine Iranian government into financial agreements
by which the Iranian national bank was compelled to provide
unlimited quantities of rials in exchange for sterling and dollar
exchange at a fixed rate. Subsequently the British government
agreed to convert 40 per cent of the sterling credits into gold at
the official parity, stipulating, however, that the gold be kept
either in Canada or South Africa.

To the consternation of the occupying authorities, the rial,
which was theoretically the most heavily insured currency in the
world, began a precipitate depreciation that carried with it—
since they were tied by the exchange agreement—the pound
sterling and the United States dollar. * Chaos spread in the market,
goods disappeared into hoarding, including precious wheat
and copper, and famine gnawed at the country.
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pg. 269

http://mises.org/books/money.pdf

So given our history, why is the IRI continuing the status quo with the fictitious rial currency?

If they are so opposed to US power, why don't they revert back to the currency we've used for 2000 years?

And I hope some of the idiot shah supporters understand what reza shah did to our country in 1931.

mak9 · Jun 4, 2012

Putin meeting AN in China:

http://my.news.yahoo.com/putin-meet-irans-ahmadinejad-china-123121248.html

Tentions are getting heated...

and as I predicted a few months ago

I expect July to be the month where full out war starts. It'll be the month the EU sanctions go into effect. EU market right now is a ticking timebomb and US market will be the next to get noticed on the world stage. So the possibility of a falseflag to start war--is very high in the month of July.

Mr. Conspiracy · Jun 4, 2012

Iranian Monitor said: ↑

Based on the past record of Saudi affiliated groups, and their heinous and disgusting crimes in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan and even in Baluchistan, I have virtually no doubt that massacre in Houla was their work, carried out in a manner to blame pro regime militia in Syria. The pro regime militia would gain nothing from behavior that Assad himself has described as "monstrous" but those who are tying to undermine his regime do have such incentive.

I hope those who perpetuated the crime, and their patrons, receive their just and due punishment.

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_new...ia-faces-real-war-waged-from-the-outside?lite
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Typical response from assad, blame outside forces yet have evidence whatsoever to back up his claims. Meanwhile I hav e posted video of assad forces committing crimes and have posted articles showing evidence of syrian artillery bombing houla and eyewitness accounts of survivors of the crimes committed by these thugs. But hey wy let simple things like evidence and facts get in the wya of propaganda.

And the real bitch of it is that I don't want wahabist scum to ake over

Mr. Conspiracy · Jun 4, 2012

They are a bigger threat to world peace. It is a lose lose for the syrian people. Stay with a homocidal, genocidal lunatic. Or end up with a different terrorist leading group of wahabists.

Mr. Conspiracy · Jun 4, 2012

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/04/syrian-opposition-new-coalition_n_1568410.html

ISTANBUL -- Syrian activists on Monday announced a new rebel coalition that aims to overcome deep divisions within the opposition in its fight against the forces of President Bashar Assad.
The group, the Syrian Rebels Front, declared its formation in a news conference in Turkey that had the hallmarks of a public relations event, including a banner, video presentations and a simultaneous translation service. But it was uncertain how the new organization would coordinate with other sectors of the Syrian opposition, whose failure to unite has hobbled its campaign to topple Assad despite a nationwide uprising that has lasted more than one year.
Khaled al-Okla, one of the organizers, said the fledgling group will coordinate with the Free Syrian Army, a loose coalition of rebel units whose nominal leaders are based on the Turkish side of the border with Syria. Members of the Free Syrian Army acknowledge its commanders have limited or no operational control over rebel units inside Syria, but they say the label has given a public face to the lightly armed factions, who are under heavy pressure from government forces with tanks and artillery.
The rebel statement cited the killings of more than 100 people, many of them small children, in Houla last week as the height of the Syrian regime's cruelty. The opposition and the government have exchanged accusations over the Houla killings, each blaming the other for the house-to-house killings. U.N. investigators have said there are strong suspicions that pro-regime gunmen are responsible for at least some of the killings.

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Mr. Conspiracy · Jun 5, 2012

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/05/world/meast/syria-unrest/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Syria announced Tuesday that it is expelling some diplomats from 11 countries, a week after those nations expelled Syrian officials in a coordinated response to a massacre and the government's violent crackdown on the opposition

Residents of Houla, the town that suffered the recent massacre, sent out a plea via Skype, saying they are without basic necessities
"For more than 10 days now, the criminal regime forces have cut off basic food items from entering Houla area," said the statement from the opposition Houla Media Center.

"They stopped flour, gas and medicine from coming in, and they continue to cut off electricity because the main supplying plant was hit by the sporadic shelling. ... We call on relief and human rights organizations to help us and open humanitarian corridors for basic items so you do not become collaborators in the (regime's) massacres."

Residents of the Hiffa area "have issued a call for help to the U.N. observers after the regime's shelling in the area, and are warning of an impending massacre with the entry of Shabiha to the city," the Local Coordination Committees said.
A U.N. official and the United States have blamed the Shabiha militia, acting on behalf of the government, for the recent massacre in Houla. Nearly half of the more than 100 victims were children
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teammellieIRANfan · Jun 5, 2012

The future does not look very bright for Syria.

Mr. Conspiracy · Jun 5, 2012

teammellieIRANfan said: ↑

The future does not look very bright for Syria.
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No it doesn't. They get either a homocidal dictator, or wahabi terrorists in charge. Who knows maybe the plan is to get syria, tunisa, egypt, turkey, sa, iraq, and others to be part of a new wahabi caliphate? Forgot to include pakistan in there as well.

teammellieIRANfan · Jun 5, 2012

Mr. Conspiracy said: ↑

No it doesn't. They get either a homocidal dictator, or wahabi terrorists in charge. Who knows maybe the plan is to get syria, tunisa, egypt, turkey, sa, iraq, and others to be part of a new wahabi caliphate? Forgot to include pakistan in there as well.
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Im predicting it will escalate to civil and tribal war. Who is in power at the end is very hard to say at this juncture. Everyone wants a hand in Syria.
But I have been wrong before.

Mr. Conspiracy · Jun 5, 2012

teammellieIRANfan said: ↑

Im predicting it will escalate to civil and tribal war. Who is in power at the end is very hard to say at this juncture. Everyone wants a hand in Syria.
But I have been wrong before.
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I think you are correct and that it already has become a civil/tribal war. There will be too many innocent deaths there.

teammellieIRANfan · Jun 5, 2012

Mr. Conspiracy said: ↑

I think you are correct and that it already has become a civil/tribal war. There will be too many innocent deaths there.
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I dont think it has quite gotten to that point yet, but it probably will. A scenario where not only the opposition is fighting the regime, but all sects/tribes going at each other. And we'll see nations like Russia, USA, Turkey and Iran supporting different factions that suit their own interest.
What a big clusterf*ck. But maybe Im a little too pessimistic.

Mr. Conspiracy · Jun 5, 2012

teammellieIRANfan said: ↑

I dont think it has quite gotten to that point yet, but it probably will. A scenario where not only the opposition is fighting the regime, but all sects/tribes going at each other. And we'll see nations like Russia, USA, Turkey and Iran supporting different factions that suit their own interest.
What a big clusterf*ck. But maybe Im a little too pessimistic.
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I think you are correct, and I can see a redux of Cold War type support for factions by the powers in the region. Syria will be a pawn of others in this war.

teammellieIRANfan · Jun 5, 2012

I forgot to mention the Arab league in that context, but yeah.

Mr. Conspiracy · Jun 5, 2012

teammellieIRANfan said: ↑

I forgot to mention the Arab league in that context, but yeah.
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I figured that is who you involving. I think we will see as syria falls deeper into war that Lebanon is likely to follow, or at least see major problems. I think the situation in syria needs to be brought under control before it becomes a catalyst for a bigger war.

Mr. Conspiracy · Jun 6, 2012

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-syria-crisisbre84s0p0-20120529,0,1844171.story

Syrian troops and militiamen loyal to President
Bashar al-Assad
stood accused by opponents on Thursday of a new massacre of scores of villagers hours before a divided
United Nations
Security Council convenes to review the crisis.

If confirmed, the killings of at least 78 people at Mazraat al-Qabeer, near Hama, will pile on pressure for world powers to act, but there is little sign they can overcome a paralysis born of sharp divisions between Western and Arab states on the one hand and Assad's defenders in
Russia
,
China
and
Iran
.

Several activists who monitor the 15-month-old revolt gave accounts to Reuters that women and children were among the dead when the village in central Syria came under artillery bombardment before fighters moved in on the ground and shot and stabbed dozens of people to death.
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Iranian Monitor · Jun 6, 2012

The surest way to end the bloodshed in Syria, and avoid causing even greater humanitarian, political and economic problems for that country, is for the US, EU, Turkey and the Arab league to stop their interference in Syria and cease their actions aimed at toppling the regime of Bashar Assad. The rest of the "plans" and rhetoric from the US et al is simply a means to weaken a regime they have decided to topple.

I am glad Russia and China are showing enough spine to not let these countries rail road them into a course of conduct that is meant to merely advance a plan that reaches a fruition with complete US/Israeli hegemony over the Middle East. Regardless, however, after Hezbollah, Syria is Iran's closest ally in the Middle East. There is no way Syria will be allowed to be toppled by virtue of what amounts to nothing more than a bunch self-serving and hypocritical propaganda. Before trying to change a regime that polls show has support among the people in Syria, using Wahabi terrorist proxies and flooding that country with unearned money from Saudi Arabia, Qatar et al to buy a rebel army, and creating a safe haven for these terrorists in Turkey, all in the name of "democracy" and "human rights", the US should take some steps to acquaint its Saudi friends of these concepts. It should worry about regimes that have virtually zero popular base, such as the sunni monarchy in Bahrain, which has used foreign troops to violently quash an uprising that seeks legitimate political grievances.

The same way the US attempts to re-colonize Lebanon using the pretext of Hariri's assassination, and later through the war unleashed by Israel on that country, failed, this attempt against Syria will fail as well. The events in Syria are simply not in the genre of the other revolts and uprisings that shook the region this past year. Unlike those other revolts, this is no war of liberation. Syria is simply the counter-offensive for the US et al, to make their owns gains.

Iranian Monitor · Jun 6, 2012

At the moment, the so-called "diplomatic" fight is centering around a Russian proposal for Iran to be included in the meetings on Syria's future, an idea which the US, EU and the Arab sheiks oppose. Their opposition is, of course, not all that surprising: their real fight is with and against Iran, not Bashar Assad. Indeed, it has really nothing to do with any "humanitarian" concern. The entire turmoil in Syria is their own work!

For those who don't follow events in the region, for several years the US, the Arab league, and Turkey, worked hard to try to convince Bashar Assad to downgrade his relations with Iran. He was offered vague promises on the Golan in return; he was promised a lot of money by the Saudis as well, while the US was there to offer him the promise of so-called 're-integration' into the world economy etc. Implicitly, and explicitly, he was told that if he refused, he would regret that move. Assad, while negotiating the issue to gain as much as he could from the negotiations, ultimately refused. Which is what led this group to take the actions they took which has plunged Syria in the turmoil we have seen.

As the issue in Syria for these countries was never about human right or humanitarian concerns, but rather about Iran, it is not surprising that they would insist that Iran should be kept out of meetings regarding Syria. Otherwise, if humanitarian concerns played any role in the equation, they would definitely want the one country that has some influence with Bashar Assad included in the talks.

http://www.expatica.com/fr/news/fre...-meet-french-uk-foreign-ministers_232370.html

The French and British foreign ministers on Wednesday shot down a Russian proposal for a global conference on Syria that would include Iran together with other powers.
"Iran can in no case" be involved in talks "as it would firstly be contradictory with the aim of applying strong pressure on Syria and would also have an effect upon Tehran's nuclear programme, which is not desirable," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told AFP.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague echoed him, saying: "I think the inclusion of Iran in any such group would probably render it unworkable.
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Anthony · Jun 7, 2012

Am I a bad person for not really caring what happens in Syria? I mean, 10K have died, small change -- Assad's father killed twice that many in a week once. And as much as I would love to see Iran's ally fall and Assad swing from a rope, does it really matter in the end who runs Syria?

I just cannot be motivated to care.

Mr. Conspiracy · Jun 7, 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18352281

UN monitors in Syria say the army has been preventing them from reaching the village of Qubair, where 78 people are reported to have been massacred.
"They are being stopped at Syrian army checkpoints and in some cases turned back," the UN mission commander said.
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persianfootball · Jun 7, 2012

Anthony said: ↑

Am I a bad person for not really caring what happens in Syria? I mean, 10K have died, small change -- Assad's father killed twice that many in a week once. And as much as I would love to see Iran's ally fall and Assad swing from a rope, does it really matter in the end who runs Syria?

I just cannot be motivated to care.
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you think your economy built on slavery and practically slave labour will last forever? lol youre in for a big surprise. then you will care.

tomwilhelm · Jun 7, 2012

What does that even mean? And even if it means something non-delusional (i'm not holding my breath), WTF does it have to do with whether or not he cares about the specific situation in Syria?