This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
What's up in Cyprus? War?
I’ve been following events in Cyprus for the past few months. I wrote about this on 8/1. In that piece I concluded that an EU led bailout of Cyprus was right around the corner. As it turns out, I was way off the mark. There has been a series of developments. It's an interesting tale.
.
Two years ago Iran was exporting munitions to Syria.
The weapons were in containers on the Monchesgorsk.
The USS San Antonio interdicted the Manchesgorsk at high sea.
The cargo of high explosives was delivered to a naval base on the Island of Cyprus.
The explosives were stored in a tent.
(A tent? What were they thinking of?)
Then there was a brush fire.
(July 11th)
Followed by a big blast as the TNT went up.
It blew up the naval base and nearby power station.
The Central bank had this to say:
There is an imminent threat of Cyprus joining the European Union Support Mechanism, with everything bad that this entails.
The situation looked bleak.
But then a great White Knight appeared:
Russia would provide the cash that Cyprus needed
Does Russia have an ulterior motive? Could it be gas?
The Cyprus gas story is connected to the big find in Israeli waters last year.
Nobel Energy found the gas in Israel. Guess who's drilling in Cyprus for gas today?
No gas has been found as of yet. But a "dispute" started right away.
Some dispute, the talk is war.
The Russians have sent subs. They seem to be taking things seriously.
The EU is begging for restraint.
The Americans are sending Drones. Surprised?
Is there any bad blood on the USA side of the Cyprus - Russia story? Of course there is! From a year ago:
From the UK Guardian:
A man believed to be one of Russia's most capable agents, arrested in Cyprus this week as a suspect in the spy ring, has almost certainly fled the island, the justice minister, Loucas Louca, said.
.
Less
than 72 hours after he was last seen on Cyprus, speculation is
mounting that Christopher Metsos, the alleged paymaster of a Russian
network operating under deep cover in the US, was allowed to "disappear" by a government which caved in to pressure from Russia.
This is a nutty story. It shows what a complex world we live in. It also
confirms how unstable the middle east is these days. It shows that the
big powers are still butting heads. This is a stupid issue for drones
and submarines to be getting involved. Especially when they're Russian
and US equipment.
This map shows that Cyprus is geographically right in the middle of some dangerous territory. We don't need another reminder that the Middle East and hydrocarbons keep getting us in trouble. Do we?
.
»
- advertisements -
any idiot whose definiton of a 'grand' solution is blaming a single ethnic group for all the worlds problems is an 'anti---(insert race lable here)'.
all peoples have the right to exist. it is their individual behavior that defines them. while group behavior may conform to steoretypes, the protection of certain rights inalienable to man allow people to freely belong to ethnic groups without having to fear violent reprisals by other individuals , groups, majorities, or government, by sheer virtue of belonging to said group.
the u.s is arguably one of the best countries in the world because of the many historical forces and present cultural values that have allowed its citizens to operate a govenrment that supports freedom of identity and protections for ethnic minorities to be who they are.
it is an ideal to strive for and this ideal exists in relation to the existing REALITY of the international political framework.
the liberal parrot will argue israel is a racist state because it favors jews and thus should not exist without also rendering his arguments foolish by virtue of absurdity when ignorantly failing to point out that many african and middle eastern nations, iran, and others, are literally and officially ruled by islamic clerics. of course defensive zionists will then point out that israeli arabs and muslims are treated far better by the israeli government who protects minority rights at least partially, than are the jewish chrisitan and other non-muslim or non governing muslim ( non-shia in iran, shia in most arabic countries) minorities.
however being defensive is stupid, because the liberal will come back and argue that there is a just double standard that applies to 'modern' or western countries and that israel should be held to a higher standard than all these other countries since we should simply accept them as the way they are. the defensive zionist will point to the history of the persecution of the jews in europe , as well as the persistent denial of this history by other groups , as jsutifiation and the historical reason for israel's existance. that a double standard could not be applied in a simple fashion because israel is not simply another european country, but rather a derivative of western behavior unveiled post world war ii. the defensive zionist THINKS that somehow he can persuade people to abandon baseless uncompromising hatred for a group of people by offering him reasons to see things a bit differently and if not too then abandon his hostility, at least to moderate it with understanding.
the defensive zionist frequently feels guilt about accepting that he, and the jewish people, are not universally liked and that it is their duty to persuade others to change their inclination, rather than simply accept that the world is fueled in part by senseless baseless hatred and to move on.
go read some history, take a xanax , a few deep breaths and then try taking a step back and realizing you know a lot less about 'everything' than you need to in order to possess sufficient certainy of judgement about how this part of the world to wield the self righteous anger other people recognize in yourself to be anti-semitic in appearance.
that's a long sentence, so read it a few times and drift onto some higher plains of self doubt when youre done.
by the way--------------i would ask you , would you support my proposal for a u.n. partition palestine state giving the palestinians ALL land they want without giving them the right of return they claim to possess, despite having fought on behalf of transjordan syria egypt and lebanon to destroy israel the very day it was established by u.n. mandate?
and if so, would you be willing to back up such a partition with a commitment of 30,000 international peacekeepers housed and operating within the borders of a new palestinian state to ensure a peaceful border with israel?
if the u.n. is going to do what they did in 48' to isreal, which is ...create a nation and then lt fight a war, then are they going to condemn the palestinians to the same fate as the jewish israeli's in 1948? will the u.n. simply sanction the initiation of another war? or should it participate in stabilizing any new partitions that it helps establish?
i'm curious what your thoughts are on that specific issue, as a solution. becuase if you simply think isreal should not exist, and you think the jews should not have a homeland, a small one at that because the arabs have a claim to the entire middle east at the expense of all the various jewish ethnicities that have gathered in modern day israel. then there is not much serious discussion to be had, only more fighting, because according to you, regardless of your rationalizations for arabs having the right to control the land , you are encouragin outright war of total destruction. and in that scenario, everyone loses, and both sides will be forced into a might-makes right set of behaviors.
use your brain brother man.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Made me laugh. You must have used yours a lot to write the following:
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
all peoples have the right to exist. it is their individual behavior that defines them. while group behavior may conform to steoretypes, the protection of certain rights inalienable to man allow people to freely belong to ethnic groups without having to fear violent reprisals by other individuals , groups, majorities, or government, by sheer virtue of belonging to said group.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Best cheap propaganda production for the week.
All peoples have a right to exist. It is the individual behaviour of peoples that defines them.
To freely belong to ethnic groups..
Incredible shit...
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
the u.s is arguably one of the best countries in the world because of the many historical forces and present cultural values that have allowed its citizens to operate a govenrment that supports freedom of identity and protections for ethnic minorities to be who they are.
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Cant US citizens see how cheap propaganda is and how insulting it can be? How do they want to keep insulting people to antagonize them?
You're a dickhead AND an anti-semite, concise enough for you Sparky?
i bet you have a small pee pee, doncha?
And there, folks, is a classic a case of Jew-hate. Hey dip-shiat: Israel is composed of millions of individuals, some are crooks, most are not. It is not one person you are able to demonize as a "crook", but I'll forgive you in light of your obvious post-lobotomy handicaps.
hey mom. they are here now.........
roy tov, former idf soldier and now soldier for Christ discusses his days in israhole and what is happening to him these days.....
http://www.roytov.com/refugee/bollyn.htm
If you are going to raise the concept of Illegal Occupation of Lands
anyone (not of Native American descent) living in the United States is a illegal occupier of Native American soil.
If you want to drag out that concept, then let's just rewind the last 5000 years of human history and get to the bottom of who occupied who, at what point in time and just figure out what belongs to who?
Ready for that exercise Grasshopper?
anyone (not of Native American descent) living in the United States is a illegal occupier of Native American soil.
If you want to drag out that concept, then let's just rewind the last 5000 years of human history and get to the bottom of who occupied who, at what point in time and just figure out what belongs to who?
..............................................................................
Typical US behaviour. US citizens always try to dilute their actions through the alledged actions of others.
So here we go: currently, we do have undubiously illegal occupiers of land. It can not be disputed, the evidences are clear against them. US citizens are among them.
But as US citizens do not want to accomplish what their own creed should force them to, that is returning the land to the legal owners, they side track by claiming that no indigenous people do exist in the world.
A futile exercize though as providing evidences that some people are indigenous to the places they are living on for as long one can produce evidences of it (onto this point, the evidences showing that US citizens are illegal occupiers are of a total different metal from what US citizens can cast about most people they do not think are indigenous to their places)
So even when playing the game that one has to prove indigenousness to a place and not an illegal occupier, it is a futile exercize because US citizens wont acknowledge the very fact they are illegal occupiers and act consequently.
It matters most.
We all know that US citizens claim to support innocent until proven guilty but hey, they love their guilty until proven innocent.
So lets try this: anyone who belong to an illegal occupier population who does not manage to prove that euskali is peopled by indigenous population will immediately pack up and move back to the country of his/her ancestors.
Lets see if US citizens can put their mouths where their words are or something like.
So ready for that exercise?
i hate to break it down to you but indo european man was here before the indians that you speak of. point of techicality...also it was the yiddish traders in rhode island that were handing out the small pox blankets for the indians to take home doncha know. now why would they do such a thing? uh, oh.......
ah the anti-semite, finally showing both his complete ignorance, and complete bind hatred for that particular minority of people called jews. blech.
you and your ilch are not welcome.
Jews have a home in Israel. Took them 2000 years to get it. How come they are not all there? How come they are all in Wallstreet, Georgetown and Hollywood?
Followup Question: How come all Jewish 'geniuses' are constantly being debunked? Freud, Boaz, Marx, And what about bad artists like Rothko, bad comedians like Silverman, or bad musicians like Dylan? How come they are all famous if they are wrong and bad?
Could it be due to monolithic usury? Discuss.
summoned by megaphone......correct?
More like the smell of foul dung coming from your direction.
I read that Asians came over to North America, probably in 3 waves, about 13,000 years ago. Came through Alaska near the end of an Ice Age, when you could still get across on foot. Then spread all the way to Chile. Archaeologists tracked them lots of places by spearpoint types. Sure, explorers on boats might have come before that, or might have come several times since then, and those explorers might have come, mostly, from either Africa or South Pacific islands (as they came to Hawaii, for instance). But the point was that the Native Americans have been in America since way before Babylon. Anyway, that's what I read.
And Kennewick Man ? Or did Clinton have him cremated ?
come on man. we can't talk about that dude. court orders doncha know...
Proof?
Links?
Scientifically peer-reviewed papers?
Nope. Bullshit.
That's the point that all these people don't get. Over time things change, and morality is one of them. What was morality OK in the year 1400, is not what is morality OK today. We can add to that. What is moral today, will not be tomorrow. Just look at the history of abortion in the USA.
HPD,
Illegal Occupation of Arab Lands?
Except for the US,most victors keep the spoils....................esp when they did not start it to begin with.
Is the gas not off the coast of the NATION of Israel?.
Illegal immigration -- the same thing Americans cry about the Mexicans.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CDwQFjAD&url=http%3A...
The "NATION of Israel" that is currently claimed by the Israelis is largely an illegal occupation according to the UN.
while being a tad on the eccentric side, there can be no doubt. however, uncle miltie, love him or hate him, breaks it down real easy for the uninitiated....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLfPggjI4xM
Off the coast of the nation of ???? Israel and or Palestine. The Israelis are Jews, do the math.
that imprisoned island...needs to reunify
and the arab israeli conflict needs an end.
Well organized
and as for Drones
they are being deployed far and wide
The Obama administration is assembling a constellation of secret drone bases for counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula as part of a newly aggressive campaign to attack al-Qaeda affiliates in Somalia and Yemen, U.S. officials said.
http://www.sudantribune.com/US-to-build-drone-base-in-Ethiopia,40239
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/secret-dr...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-building-secret...
and you can imagine the surprise for some of these folks
The United States has launched a series of attacks by unmanned drones on the Somali Islamist group al-Shabab, local residents say
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15052484
___________
Off Topic
seems that Big Oil, Big Food etc that have used military to advance their commercial interests are now joined by Big Carbon?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15052484
http://www.newforests.net/index.php/our-people/board-of-directors
The drones must go wherever liberty is threatened. They must now be sent to DC.
drones are a clear and present danger to liberty here for sure. they would be deployed in a heartbeat against any revoultionary militia here in the states, that is for sure. it is one thing to be bombed by jets. its another to be hounded by helicopters. but these drones are off the charts dangerous....
dangerous?
these things are pussy cats compared to what's ahead 10 years down the rabbit hole
current
http://defense-update.com/products/p/predatorB.htm
http://www.raytheon.com/newsroom/feature/ads_03-08/
future is anyone's guess, here is a starting point:
http://csulb.edu/~tphung/Robotics-Group-Paper.pdf
Abstract only
The Biological Weapons Convention and the Democratization of Mass Violence
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1758-5899.2011.00083.x/abst...
Look for that "active denial" technology, coming soon to a street battle near you.
Big Oil, Big Food, Big Freakin' Deal. What the F is Big Tobacco doing. Huh? Answer that question, smart guy.
):
excellent and enjoyable - good work putting the pieces together.
Nice work Bruce. Is a Bible map the only one you could find that shows Cyprus?
I would guess that it dates from the era of Alexander the Great. Note the presence of Phoenicia.
I looked for the "right" map for a good ten minutes. I chose this one for the colors. No religious overtones intended.
A good ten minutes, eh?
To think how long your little picture essay would have taken to assemble twenty years ago.
This has 22 pics. Very unusual for me. I wanted to see if I could tell a story with few words. This piece took 3Xs as long as just typing. Damn near drove the folks at ZH crazy adjusting for different formats.
10 years ago this would have been impossible. Amazing....
Excellent way of presenting Bruce. It may have took 3Xs longer but in my opinion it was 30Xs more effective. Your work is always top shelf but this method is very impressive and superior on so many levels for maximum impact!
Very interesting and complex situation indeed. It may seem trivial compared with all that's going on but one never knows.
Ship load of explosives in tent (LMAO) seems more than a trifle odd.....strange days indeed.
Bruce is gonna be famous...
Not kidding.
No problema with me. I like it. Smells like......History!
I think it's pretty vital to know that Cyprus is EXACTLY half way between Lycia and Phoenicia. Do the gas fields extend all the way I wonder.
Nice work Bruce. Is a Bible map the only one you could find that shows Cyprus?
WHO GIVES A RATS?
Bible map....ROTHFFLMFAO
good job hd
During the cold war almost everybody was expecting the nuclear war to break out anytime.
It didn't.
Today nobody expects a (large scale) war.
Guess what will happen.
When the lower class and middle class lose money, nothing happens. But when the fat cats start losing money, hell breaks lose.
Good work Bruce.
Cyprus releases a Russian spy for a loan? Not in the slightest does this remind me of the Brits releasing a Lockerbie bomber for a Libyan oil deal. No possible similarity here. Move along.
Europe with Russia, against the US and Israel.
Yes, at last.
The grapes of froth...hit Cyprus. With Greece going under ground, Turkey is in a good position to extend its old traditional ring as protector of moderate Islam. The US will be embarassed on this one. Turkey is NAto and Russia is not and now there is Cyprus with the Russian lollypop to suck... What about Israel?...Its friends to USA on this one as its about OIL/gas and to Russia on local Israeli russo-ethnic support front. Lots and lots of frothy bubbles in store, generated by $$$ + national interests. Does Turkey have claims to gas field on the Turkish portion of the Cyprus side...?
Big Turkey-Russian link on their vital pipeline deals. Whose side is Russia on..? Especially if there is USA-Russia friction on spy caper! Russia could support both Turkey and Cyprus to play as arbitrator. It could try and Isolate USA out of EU/Turkey ring. That would piss off USA/ISrael. Holy smoke, what is Cyprus getting itself into? Greece has no navy, does it, to patrol waters from Turkish presence? If not, who protects Greece-Cyprus's military interests? USA or Russia? or...Israel?
it's funny. i'm a big ass zionist and i've been seeing what's going on with israel and this natural gas. i even have distant family in israel involved.
israel is just like every where else, the richest people try and take the national wealth and if they cannot they do what they can to fuck everyone else over.
everyone KNOWS that turkey is after whatever money they can get over natural gas in the eastern medittereanean.
they are a natural ally of israel and yet all this recent bullshit tension-----which threatens to explode in israel's face,----about turkish support for gaza ....
it's JUST about the money. instead of enlightened policy, fucking stupid greedy bastard rich israeli natural gas operators wanted ALL THE MONEY FOR THEMSELVES. luckily the government woudln't let them totally loot the resources without paying serious royalties to the israeli goernment ---presumably to the israeli public in turn ( but thats anotehr story) .
but what the PEOPLE of israel need is friendship with turkey. and they can get it by simply GIFTING natural royalties (a portion therof) to the turks. the turks don't even need or want control, just money, ----and why shouldn't they , they have dominated, or threatened to dominate, the eastern medittereanean for HUNDREDS of years.
why the israeli's can't rise up and kill the richest oligarchs that are holding back the possiblity of a grand negotiation with the turks regarding royalities ( you must murder them because they will never stop insisting that nationalist pride must not be compromised on 'ownership' of the gas that was found----because they want MONEY. kill them, and make them understand that the israeli's need security and friendship with turkey) .
really, israel, russia, the arabs, -----the U.S.----all suffer under the greed based policies of the rich. and israeli is succumbing to greed.
if they would only give the turks some money. this IS appeasment. but guess what, you must APPEASE your friends sometimes. it's called reciprocal staggered alltruism. and if you don't do it, you will start having to decide if you want to APPEASE your former friends, who are now your enemies.
israel will literally not survive a true turning of turkish opinion. not in the long run. they are israel's most important long run ally regional ally, and if the U.S. meets some catastrophic political overturning in the future, they will be more important than the u.s. It saddens me to see the israeli's making seemingly bungled decisions, but then, sometimes i like to think that the information i lack....the secrets held by the intelligence community, are integral in explaining why they are taking the optimal set of choices . however, considering the well known lapses and failures of intelligence organizations of many different countries ------Im sticking with my guns here.
israel should join up with turkey to agree on royalties, but not control, over operations of gas wells resulting from their investment and exploration( 2 many cooks in the kitchen spoils the sauce )
Turkey "needs" money?
Both Greece and Turkey are backed by NATO.
BOTH GREECE AND TURKEY ARE IN AN ARMS RACE. (Even though they're both backed by NATO).
Turkey has mining and exports which makes them economically stronger than Greece. Turkey's mining is infact competition for companies such as Rio Tinto, a UK based corporation.
I'm sure they'll take the royalties over oil anyways. Isn't Cyprus split between Greece and Turkey? Correct me if I'm wrong.
Israel's relationship to it's "allies" is a false dichotomy. I'm looking at this as an outside observer but Israel seems like the narcissist in the area. Let's compare them to other international affairs, shall we?
When Japan had that Earthquake, South Korea-Japan's RIVALS went to Japan to provide aid. The US was at war with Iraq. We provided aid to Iraq. We were at war with Vietnam. Still we provided aid to the Vietnamese.
Now look at Israel. When Egypt defaulted and people were rioting over food prices (thanks to Wall Street speculators inflating global food prices on taxpayers dime, we hate them)... where was Israel? Through the turbulent global markets, Israel has maintained a strong economy for itself. They could've helped Egypt. Did they? If you want a friend, you need to act as a friend.
When Greece was at risk for default, they're getting cornered by Wall Street in the form of interest rate swaps. Where's Israel to help them? Oh wait! If Greece defaults, Israel can garble up Cyprus for cheep cheep cheep! What a deal!
What makes anybody think that Israel isn't behind Wall Streets' crime? Because some evangelical called them "The Chosen Ones"?
Wait. Israel and Houston based Noble Energy likes Cyprus's oil, a lot.
As bankers, Italians did much better (ref: AP Giannini) and even Spain-I don't believe that Israel/Jewish bankers pulled off the same results. Hopefully Russianns do better too, esp since they hide their money in Cyprus and they're negotiating a Eu2.5b five year loan from Russia to take care of its govt budgeting needs.
This makes me wonder:
1. Why Israel hasn't helped Americans lobby or push forth legislation for domestic drilling and alternatives while American neocons use Israel for political baiting?
2. Why Israel didn't step in to aid Greece in their time of need? Greece DOES have advanced medical research, Israel can benefit from Greece in more ways than just one. They are worth Israel's while.
For these reasons, I get the impression that Israel (the state, not individuals) is a seriously narcissistic state-and possibly parasitic.
In order to make friends, you need to be friends. Muslim leaders were polite enough to thank American taxpayers for aid. When Israel-a THRIVING economy gets $2.5 billion from the US in aid... they abuse our taxpayers even further and hijack the world markets for their own agenda?
After 9/11, American men and women sacrificed their lives, over this while the neocon parrots say that student loans are ruining the country's economy. Where are the Jewish American soldiers? Wait. They didn't enlist in the military, they enlisted to universitites to get advanced degrees and affluent connections in order to line their own pockets.
If the military is involved (like with the submarine deal between Goldman Sachs and Greece), the transactions can be kept secret as a "national security" thing.
This is the "National Security Concern" where the criminal bankers are not jailed or held accountable for massive fraud; but rather running free with an unlimited supply of OUR tax dollars without repercussion and democratic knowledge. It seems like just as long as they can help the military, they can hide the nature of the spending of OUR tax dollars. Especially during Quantitative Easing (see INFLATION and STAGFLATION), the weaker the US Dollar is, the more expensive OPEC oil will be. Which can put Americans into deeper financial troubles than we're already in. And we have a massive trade deficit. With OPEC.
So this war in Iraq wasn't about oil? Okay.
The ghosts of the Cold War reveal themselves.
This is way too coincidental.
If this makes me an "anti-semite", then the accuser needs to cut through their own strawmen, red herrings and ad hominems and address their own fears of being judged.
There's absolutely no good reason why American taxpayers need to be abused by Wall Street whatsoever.
Israel is going through a bit of civil disobedience these days, is the percentage of people really close to being split on the acts of the government?