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Competing Gas Pipelines Are Fueling The Syrian War & Migrant Crisis

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Mnar Muhawesh via MintPressNews.com,

Don’t let anyone fool you: As we have detailed since 2013, sectarian strife in Syria has been engineered to provide cover for a war for access to oil and gas, and the power and money that come along with it.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect recent Wikileaks revelations of US State Department leaks that show plans to destabilize Syria and overthrow the Syrian government as early as 2006.  The leaks reveal that these plans were given to the US directly from the Israeli government and would be formalized through instigating civil strife and sectarianism through partnership with nations like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and even Egypt to break down the power structue in Syria to essentially to weaken Iran and Hezbolla. The leaks also reveal Israeli plans to use this crisis to expand it’s occupation of the Golan Heights for additional oil exploration and military expansion.

* * *

Images of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy who washed up dead on Mediterranean shores in his family’s attempt to flee war-torn Syria, have grabbed the attention of people around the world, sparking outrage about the true costs of war.

The heart-wrenching refugee crisis unfolding across the Middle East and at European borders has ignited a much needed conversation on the ongoing strife and instability that’s driving people from their homes in countries like Syria, Libya and Iraq. It’s brought international attention to the inhumane treatment these refugees are receiving if — and it is a major “if” — they arrive at Europe’s door.

In Syria, for example, foreign powers have sunk the nation into a nightmare combination of civil war, foreign invasion and terrorism. Syrians are in the impossible position of having to choose between living in a warzone, being targeted by groups like ISIS and the Syrian government’s brutal crackdown, or faring dangerous waters with minimal safety equipment only to be denied food, water and safety by European governments if they reach shore.

Other Syrians fleeing the chaos at home have turned to neighboring Arab Muslim countries. Jordan alone has absorbed over half a million Syrian refugees; Lebanon has accepted nearly 1.5 million; and Iraq and Egypt have taken in several hundred thousand.

Although it’s not an Arab nation or even part of the Middle East, Iran sent 150 tons of humanitarian goods, including 3,000 tents and 10,000 blankets, to the Red Crescents of Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon via land routes to be distributed among the Syrian refugees residing in the three countries last year.

Turkey has taken in nearly 2 million refugees to date. Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan made international headlines for opening his nation’s arms to migrants, positioning himself as a kind of savior in the process.

A paramilitary police officer carries the lifeless body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi after he drowned when the boat he and his family members were in capsized near the Turkish resort of Bodrum early Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. (Photo: Nilüfer Demir/DHA)

A paramilitary police officer carries the lifeless body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi after he drowned when the
boat he and his family members were in capsized near the Turkish resort of Bodrum early Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015.
(Photo: Nilüfer Demir/DHA)

Meanwhile, Gulf Arab nations like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have provided refuge to zero Syrian refugees.

While there’s certainly a conversation taking place about refugees — who they are, where they’re going, who’s helping them, and who isn’t — what’s absent is a discussion on how to prevent these wars from starting in the first place. Media outlets and political talking heads have found many opportunities to point fingers in the blame game, but not one media organization has accurately broken down what’s driving the chaos: control over gas, oil and resources.

Indeed, it’s worth asking: How did demonstrations held by “hundreds” of protesters demanding economic change in Syria four years ago devolve into a deadly sectarian civil war, fanning the flames of extremism haunting the world today and creating the world’s second largest refugee crisis?

While the media points its finger to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s barrel bombs and political analysts call for more airstrikes against ISIS and harsher sanctions against Syria, we’re four years into the crisis and most people have no idea how this war even got started.

 

This “civil war” is not about religion

Citing a lack of access on the ground, the United Nations stopped regularly updating its numbers of casualties in the Syrian civil war in January 2014. Estimates put the death toll between 140,200 and 330,380, with as many as 6 million Syrians displaced, according to the U.N.

While there is no question that the Syrian government is responsible for many of the casualties resulting from its brutal crackdown, this is not just a Syrian problem.

Foreign meddling in Syria began several years before the Syrian revolt erupted.  Wikieaks released leaked US State Department cables from 2006 revealing US plans to overthrow the Syrian government through instigating civil strife, and receiving these very orders straight from Tel Aviv.  The leaks reveal the United State’s partnership with nations like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and even Egypt to use sectarianism to divide Syria through the Sunni and Shiite divide to destabilize the nation to weaken Iran and Hezbolla.  Israel is also revealed to attempt to use this crisis to expand it’s occupation of the Golan Heights for additional oil exploration.

According to major media outlets like the BBC and the Associated Press, the demonstrations that supposedly swept Syria were comprised of only hundreds of people, but additional Wikileaks cables reveal CIA involvement on the ground in Syria to instigate these very demonstrations as early as March 2011.

FILE - In this Monday, Dec. 19, 2011 file photo, Syrians hold a large poster depicting Syria's President Bashar Assad during a rally in Damascus, Syria. Some activists expressed regret that one year later their "revolution" against President Bashar Assad's rule had become mired in violence. (AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman, File)

FILE – In this Monday, Dec. 19, 2011 file photo, Syrians hold a large poster depicting Syria’s President Bashar
Assad during a rally in Damascus, Syria. Some activists expressed regret that one year later their “revolution”
against President Bashar Assad’s rule had become mired in violence. (AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman, File)

Just a few months into the demonstrations which now consisted of hundreds of armed protesters with CIA ties, demonstrations grew larger, armed non-Syrian rebel groups swarmed into Syria, and a severe government crackdown swept through the country to deter this foreign meddling. It became evident that the United States, United Kingdom, France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey would be jumping on the opportunity to organize, arm and finance rebels to form the Free Syrian Army as outlined in the State Department plans to destabilize Syria. (Just a few months ago, WikiLeaks confirmed this when it released Saudi intelligence that revealed Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia had been working hand in hand to arm and finance rebels to overthrow the Syrian government since 2012.)

These foreign nations created a pact in 2012 called “The Group of Friends of the Syrian People,” a name that couldn’t be further from the truth. Their agenda was to divide and conquer in order to wreak havoc across Syria in view of overthrowing Syrian President Bashar Assad.

A Free Syrian Army soldier carries his weapon at the northern town of Sarmada, in Idlib province, Syria, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012. (AP Photo)

A Free Syrian Army soldier carries his weapon at the northern town of Sarmada, in Idlib province, Syria,
Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012. (AP Photo)

The true agenda to hijack Syria’s revolt quickly became evident, with talking heads inserting Syria’s alliance with Iran as a threat to the security and interests of the United States and its allies in the region. It’s no secret that Syria’s government is a major arms, oil and gas, and weapons ally of Iran and Lebanon’s resistance political group Hezbollah.

But it’s important to note the timing: This coalition and meddling in Syria came about immediately on the heels of discussions of an Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline that was to be built between 2014 and 2016 from Iran’s giant South Pars field through Iraq and Syria. With a possible extension to Lebanon, it would eventually reach Europe, the target export market.

Perhaps the most accurate description of the current crisis over gas, oil and pipelines that is raging in Syria has been described by Dmitry Minin, writing for the Strategic Cultural Foundation in May 2013:

“A battle is raging over whether pipelines will go toward Europe from east to west, from Iran and Iraq to the Mediterranean coast of Syria, or take a more northbound route from Qatar and Saudi Arabia via Syria and Turkey. Having realized that the stalled Nabucco pipeline, and indeed the entire Southern Corridor, are backed up only by Azerbaijan’s reserves and can never equal Russian supplies to Europe or thwart the construction of the South Stream, the West is in a hurry to replace them with resources from the Persian Gulf. Syria ends up being a key link in this chain, and it leans in favor of Iran and Russia; thus it was decided in the Western capitals that its regime needs to change.

 

It’s the oil, gas and pipelines, stupid!

Indeed, tensions were building between Russia, the U.S. and the European Union amid concerns that the European gas market would be held hostage to Russian gas giant Gazprom. The proposed Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline would be essential to diversifying Europe’s energy supplies away from Russia.

Turkey is Gazprom’s second-largest customer. The entire Turkish energy security structure relies on gas from Russia and Iran. Plus, Turkey was harboring Ottoman-like ambitions of becoming a strategic crossroads for the export of Russian, Caspian-Central Asian, Iraqi and Iranian oil and even gas to Europe.

The Guardian reported in August 2013:

“Assad refused to sign a proposed agreement with Qatar and Turkey that would run a pipeline from the latter’s North field, contiguous with Iran’s South Pars field, through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and on to Turkey, with a view to supply European markets – albeit crucially bypassing Russia. Assad’s rationale was ‘to protect the interests of [his] Russian ally, which is Europe’s top supplier of natural gas.’”

Note the purple line which traces the proposed Qatar-Turkey natural gas pipeline and note that all of the countries highlighted in red are part of a new coalition hastily put together after Turkey finally (in exchange for NATO’s acquiescence on Erdogan’s politically-motivated war with the PKK) agreed to allow the US to fly combat missions against ISIS targets from Incirlik. Now note which country along the purple line is not highlighted in red. That’s because Bashar al-Assad didn’t support the pipeline and now we’re seeing what happens when you’re a Mid-East strongman and you decide not to support something the US and Saudi Arabia want to get done.

Note the purple line which traces the proposed Qatar-Turkey natural gas pipeline and note that all of the
countries highlighted in red are part of a new coalition hastily put together after Turkey finally (in exchange for
NATO’s acquiescence on Erdogan’s politically-motivated war with the PKK) agreed to allow the US to fly combat
missions against ISIS targets from Incirlik. Now note which country along the purple line is not highlighted in red.
That’s because Bashar al-Assad didn’t support the pipeline and now we’re seeing what happens when you’re a
Mid-East strongman and you decide not to support something the US and Saudi Arabia want to get done.
(Map: ZeroHedge.com)

Knowing Syria was a critical piece in its energy strategy, Turkey attempted to persuade Syrian President Bashar Assad to reform this Iranian pipeline and to work with the proposed Qatar-Turkey pipeline, which would ultimately satisfy Turkey and the Gulf Arab nations’ quest for dominance over gas supplies. But after Assad refused Turkey’s proposal, Turkey and its allies became the major architects of Syria’s “civil war.”

 

Much of the strategy currently at play was described back in a 2008 U.S. Army-funded RAND report, “Unfolding the Future of the Long War”:

“The geographic area of proven oil reserves coincides with the power base of much of the Salafi-jihadist network. This creates a linkage between oil supplies and the long war that is not easily broken or simply characterized. … For the foreseeable future, world oil production growth and total output will be dominated by Persian Gulf resources. … The region will therefore remain a strategic priority, and this priority will interact strongly with that of prosecuting the long war.”

In this context, the report identifies the divide and conquer strategy while exploiting the Sunni-Shiite divide to protect Gulf oil and gas supplies while maintaining a Gulf Arab state dominance over oil markets.

“Divide and Rule focuses on exploiting fault lines between the various Salafi-jihadist groups to turn them against each other and dissipate their energy on internal conflicts. This strategy relies heavily on covert action, information operations (IO), unconventional warfare, and support to indigenous security forces. … the United States and its local allies could use the nationalist jihadists to launch proxy IO campaigns to discredit the transnational jihadists in the eyes of the local populace. … U.S. leaders could also choose to capitalize on the ‘Sustained Shia-Sunni Conflict’ trajectory by taking the side of the conservative Sunni regimes against Shiite empowerment movements in the Muslim world…. possibly supporting authoritative Sunni governments against a continuingly hostile Iran.”

The report notes that another option would be “to take sides in the conflict, possibly supporting authoritative Sunni governments against a continuingly hostile Iran.”

This framework crafted an interesting axis: Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, U.S., Britain and France vs. Syria, Iran and Russia.

 

Divide and conquer: A path to regime change

With the U.S., France, Britain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — aka, the new “Friends of Syria” coalition — publicly calling for the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad between  2011 and 2012 after Assad’s refusal to sign onto the gas pipeline, the funds and arms flowing into Syria to feed the so-called “moderate” rebels were pushing Syria into a humanitarian crisis. Rebel groups were being organized left and right, many of which featured foreign fighters and many of which had allied with al-Qaida.

Saudi Arabia's permanent representative to the League of Arab States Ahmad al-Qattan, center, attends the Arab League summit in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, March, 29, 2012. The annual Arab summit meeting opened in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Thursday with only 10 of the leaders of the 22-member Arab League in attendance and amid a growing rift between Arab countries over how far they should go to end the one-year conflict in Syria. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Saudi Arabia’s permanent representative to the League of Arab States Ahmad al-Qattan, center, attends the Arab
League summit in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, March, 29, 2012. (AP Photo)

The Syrian government responded with a heavy hand, targeting rebel held areas and killing civilians in the process.

Since Syria is religiously diverse, the so-called “Friends of Syria” pushed sectarianism as their official “divide and conquer” strategy to oust Assad. Claiming that Alawites ruled over a majority Sunni nation, the call by the “moderate” U.S.-backed rebels became one about Sunni liberation.

Although the war is being sold to the public as a Sunni-Shiite conflict, so-called Sunni groups like ISIS,  the Syrian al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra (the Nusra Front) and even the “moderate” Free Syrian Army have indiscriminately targeted Syria’s Sunnis, Shiites, Christians and Jews. At the same time, these same foreign nations supported and even armed the Bahraini government, which claims to be Sunni, in its violent crackdown on the majority Shiite pro-democracy demonstrations that swept the nation.

The Syrian government army itself is over 80 percent Sunni, which indicates that the true agenda has been politically — not religiously — motivated.

In addition to this, the Assad family is Alawite, an Islamic sect that the media has clumped in with Shiites, though most Shiites would agree that the two are unrelated. Further, the Assad family is described as secular and running a secular nation. Counting Alawites as Shiites was simply another way to push a sectarian framework for the conflict: It allowed for the premise that the Syria-Iran alliance was based on religion, when, in fact, it was an economic relationship.

This framework carefully crafted the Syrian conflict as a Sunni revolution to liberate itself from Shiite influence that Iran was supposedly spreading to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

But the truth is, Syria’s Sunni community is divided, and many defected to join groups like the Free Syrian Army, ISIS and al-Qaida. And as mentioned earlier, over 80 percent of Assad’s military is Sunni.

As early as 2012, additional rebels armed and financed by Arab Gulf nations and Turkey like al-Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood, declared all-out war against Shiites. They even threatened to attack Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraq’s government after they had overthrown the Assad government.

Soon after, the majority of the Muslim Brotherhood rebels became part of al-Qaida-affiliated groups. Together, they announced that they would destroy all shrines — not just those ones which hold particular importance to Shiites.

Hezbollah entered the scene in 2012 and allied itself with the Syrian government to fight al-Nusra and ISIS, which were officially being armed and financed by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. And all the arms were actively being sold to these nations by the United States. Thus, US arms were falling into the hands of the same terror group the US claims to be fighting in its broader War on Terror.

Hezbollah fighters carry the coffin of Hezbollah member Mohammad Issa who was killed in an airstrike that killed six members of the Lebanese militant group and an Iranian general in Syria, during his funeral procession, in the southern village of Arab Salim, Lebanon, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015. Hezbollah has accused Israel of carrying out Sunday's airstrike, which occurred on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. Issa was the highest-ranking among the group, and was among the senior cadres who headed the group's operations in Syria against the Sunni-led rebellion. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Hezbollah fighters carry the coffin of Hezbollah member Mohammad Issa who was killed in an airstrike that
killed six members of the Lebanese militant group and an Iranian general in Syria, during his funeral procession,
in the southern village of Arab Salim, Lebanon, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015. Hezbollah has accused Israel of carrying
out Sunday’s airstrike, which occurred on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. Issa was the highest-ranking among
the group, and was among the senior cadres who headed the group’s operations in Syria against the Sunni-led
rebellion. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

According to reports, Hezbollah was and has been been active in preventing rebel penetration from Syria to Lebanon, being one of the most active forces in the Syrian civil war spillover in Lebanon. Despite this, the U.S. sanctioned both the Syrian government and Hezbollah in 2012.

Also that year, Russia and Iran sent military advisers to assist the Syrian government in quelling the terror groups, but Iranian troops were not on the ground fighting during this time.

What was once a secular, diverse and peaceful nation, was looking more like it was on its way to becoming the next Afghanistan; its people living under Taliban-style rule as jihadists took over more land and conquered more cities.

 

Effects of foreign meddling outweigh self-determination

If you think that was hard to follow, you’re certainly not alone.

Most sectarian civil wars are purposely crafted to pit sides against one another to allow for a “divide and conquer” approach that breaks larger concentrations of power into smaller factions that have more difficulty linking up. It’s a colonial doctrine that the British Empire famously used, and what we see taking place in Syria is no different.

So, let’s get one thing straight: This is not about religion. It might be convenient to say that Arabs or Muslims kill each other, and it’s easy to frame these conflicts as sectarian to paint the region and its people as barbaric. But this Orientalist, overly simplistic view of conflict in the Middle East dehumanizes the victims of these wars to justify direct and indirect military action.

If the truth was presented to the public from the perspective that these wars are about economic interests, most people would not support any covert funding and arming of rebels or direct intervention. In fact, the majority of the public would protest against war. But when something is presented to the public as a matter of good versus evil, we are naturally inclined to side with the “good” and justify war to fight off the supposed “evil.”

The political rhetoric has been carefully crafted to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable. Ultimately, no matter the agendas, the alliances or instability brought on by foreign meddling, the calls for freedom, democracy and equality that erupted in 2011 were real then and they’re real today. And let’s not forget that the lack of freedom, democracy and equality have been brought on more by foreign meddling to prop up brutal dictators and arm terror groups than by self-determination.

Migrant men help a fellow migrant man holding a boy as they are stuck between Macedonian riot police officers and migrants during a clash near the border train station of Idomeni, northern Greece, as they wait to be allowed by the Macedonian police to cross the border from Greece to Macedonia, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. Macedonian special police forces have fired stun grenades to disperse thousands of migrants stuck on a no-man's land with Greece, a day after Macedonia declared a state of emergency on its borders to deal with a massive influx of migrants heading north to Europe. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Refugee’s assist a fellow Refugee holding a boy as they are stuck between Macedonian riot police officers and
refugees during a clash near the border train station of Idomeni, northern Greece, as they wait to be allowed by
the Macedonian police to cross the border from Greece to Macedonia, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. Macedonian special
police forces have fired stun grenades to disperse thousands of refugees stuck on a no-man’s land with Greece, a
day after Macedonia declared a state of emergency on its borders to deal with a massive influx of refugees heading
north to Europe. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

The people in the Middle East once stood united and strong together against foreign meddling, exploitation and colonialism no matter their religious or cultural background. But today, the Middle East is being torn to shreds by manipulative plans to gain oil and gas access by pitting people against one another based on religion. The ensuing chaos provides ample cover to install a new regime that’s more amenable to opening up oil pipelines and ensuring favorable routes for the highest bidders.

And in this push for energy, it’s the people who suffer most. In Syria, they are fleeing en masse. They’re waking up, putting sneakers on their little boys and girls, and hopping on boats without life jackets, hoping just to make it to another shore. They’re risking their lives, knowing full well that they may never reach that other shore, because the hope of somewhere else is better than the reality at home.

 

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Thu, 09/10/2015 - 14:49 | 6532220 headhunt
headhunt's picture

Wesley Clark is a whining liberal  - dismiss everything this person says.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 14:52 | 6532233 general ambivalent
general ambivalent's picture

The liberal cries out as she cries out.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 14:56 | 6532249 Eirik Magnus Larssen
Eirik Magnus Larssen's picture

I don't think people like you have any idea what immigrant mothers go through. They give up their home, their family, their entire lives to move across the globe to a country that treats them like dirt because they're not able to properly pronounce a word, just so their children can have a better life, a better education.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:03 | 6532276 Beam Me Up Scotty
Beam Me Up Scotty's picture

Just another day on the way to WW3.  Actually WW3 is underway already.  Its just not official yet.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:10 | 6532293 Latina Lover
Latina Lover's picture

Since when did the USSA ever care about human rights! Just ask the Iraqi's, Afgani's, Libyans, Nicaraguans, Vietnamese etc etc how imposition of American Democracy (tm) has worked out for the average person.

 

All wars are bankster wars!

Quoting Smedly Butler, General USMC:

War is a racket. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. War is just a racket... I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights.

 

 

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:25 | 6532346 Latina Lover
Latina Lover's picture

Lest anyone forget, pipeline wars are key to the Ukrainian conflict. 

In addition to controlling the current Brotherhood pipeline, moving the majority of Russian gas supplies to Europe, the Whitestream pipeline was planned to connect into the Ukie gas network

Starting from the Caspian, through to Georgia, then across the Black Sea to Crimea, and then through Crimea until it connected with the Ukie mainland, Whitestream was meant to connect into the Brotherhood pipeline, kicking out most of Gazprom's product. Soro's was a key player behind Whitestream and would have made Billions and Billions upon completion

 

Instead Putin stuck a stick into Soro's eye, and blocked Whitestream by reclaiming Crimea for Russia.  This is one of the key reasons why the Neocons are so angry with Putin, as insiders they expected to profit in the billions. Instead, without Crimea and the Donbass, they are stuck with the worst parts of the Ukraine.

 

 

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:53 | 6532571 MalteseFalcon
MalteseFalcon's picture

The Arab pipeline does not need to be routed through Syria.

 

Try again.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 17:23 | 6533134 Hans-Zandvliet
Hans-Zandvliet's picture

It does!

Do you need glases to look at a map?

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 19:05 | 6533542 MalteseFalcon
MalteseFalcon's picture

No.  I don't.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 21:55 | 6534152 Latina Lover
Latina Lover's picture

Study a topographical map and it will make greater sense. Moreover, the Israel's want to connect to the proposed Quatari pipeline, and this can only happen economically via Syria.

Fri, 09/11/2015 - 07:02 | 6534970 MalteseFalcon
MalteseFalcon's picture

The pipeline could go straight to Israel instead.

I know.  That would be telling....

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:21 | 6532366 HowdyDoody
HowdyDoody's picture

There's a humanitarian crisis? Israel medical assistance will be apearing any moment now. They always like to be first in helping out in humanitarian crises.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:17 | 6532309 Paveway IV
Paveway IV's picture

That's a damn good article. ZH should use MintPress stuff more - it's kind of a temporary antidote for the usual MSM spew.

Although I will have to bust Mnar Muhawesh for using the ZH map with the Iran - Iraq - Syria pipeline labeled "Islamic Pipeline". They actualy called it "Frendship Pipeline". I wouldn't object to ZH renaming it on their map as long as they did the same for NABUCCO (the EU PetroGiant Gazprom Killer) or the Qatar - Turkey one (the Qatari Gas Mafia Express). The missing Mosel-Haifa pipeline has already been renamed the Blood-for-Oil Pipeline. I think that suits it well.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:46 | 6532521 HowdyDoody
HowdyDoody's picture

Agreed, a useful addition to the list of sites to watch.

The key to the ME troubles is illustrated by the pipeline map.

Shortly after 9-11, Cheney had confidential meetings with the heads of all the major oil / gas companies. Those details of those meetings have been kept secret. Initially they were thought to relate to the carving up of Iraqi resources. It would be very interesting to see what they really talked about. Did the talks extend to the implications of destroying '7 ME counties in 5 years' and the possibility of the proposed pipeline routes to destabilise Russia?

I suspect the Israelis are more interested in grabbing real estate along the east Mediterranean coast, from Egypt to Turkey than pipelines per se. This would allow them to claim dibs on all the reserves east of Cyprus. Of course, they wouldn't say no to a free pipleine route provided at someone else's expense.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 20:49 | 6533889 Kyddyl
Kyddyl's picture

The Russian part of the "Friendship" pipeline is operated by the oil company Transneft through its subsidiary OAO MN Druzhba. This is part of the worlds largest piplen complex and is also important to Iran.

Fri, 09/11/2015 - 01:53 | 6534708 Paveway IV
Paveway IV's picture

That's the existing Druzhba pipeline that runs from Russia through Belarus and Ukraine to the EU, also know'Friendship Pipeline'. The proposed Iran - Iraq - Syria pipeline's name (by the sponsors) is also Friendship Pipeline in arabic, but it has no connection to the Druzhba Friendship Pipeline.

Western governments and oil interests trying to cast the most negative light possible on their Iranian competition have labeled it the 'Islamic Pipeline' to capitalize on whatever religious bigotry and tenuous connections to terrorism they can muster. It's the same rationale the CIA used to try to get MSM to call ISIS 'the Islamic State'.

Guilt by word association - people are generally too lazy or stupid to realize how easily they're being played. That's why Israel loves to use this tactic in the MSM: it usually works.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:28 | 6532310 headhunt
headhunt's picture

They are running from an F'd up religion that believes females are nothing better than pets to be sold and abused. The ME is F'd up by them and theirs.

They do not want to integrate into the societies they run to, they destroy whole societies and demand the lands they invade integrate, pay a dhimmi tax or die.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 16:48 | 6532959 Paveway IV
Paveway IV's picture

You're certianly entitled to your muslim-hating opinions, headhunt. It's always worth a few up-arrows on ZH, but it still makes you look really damn ignorant and contributes nothing to the discussion. The exact same line of reasoning has been used against every religion and every immigrant group on earth since shaved apes have been riding tectonic plates.

Is announcing your 'discovery' that all muslims are the cause of all suffering and evil on earth suppose to evoke some kind of specific respone here? Like are you running a campaign to recruit new muslim-haters this month?

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 18:38 | 6533435 Kayman
Kayman's picture

Paveway IV

Let me know when Jesus or Ghandi are welcomed into any Muslim nation. They won't even welcome other Muslims- refugees.

Islam's reduction of all non-believers into infidels worthy only of killing, reduces it to another swinging-from-the-vines theocracy.

 

 


Thu, 09/10/2015 - 21:49 | 6534124 Paveway IV
Paveway IV's picture

"...Islam's reduction of all non-believers into infidels worthy only of killing..."

Have you informed the other 1.6 billion muslims that they are all Wahhabi adherents now - or do you know them all personally and they told you this themselves?

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:30 | 6532420 mastersnark
mastersnark's picture

If they weren't so lazy, disease-ridden, and criminal, you might have a point.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 16:18 | 6532775 Freddie
Freddie's picture

Why are you (fat shit) eating that white baby?

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 14:57 | 6532251 Tsar Pointless
Tsar Pointless's picture

Step asise, general, and let a Tsar tell it like it really is.

If Wesley Clark is a liberal, I'm Daffy Duck. Hint: I'm not a duck.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:07 | 6532292 headhunt
headhunt's picture

Daffy - Clark is a major general liberal.

Trust me if these oh so holy muslims were not killing each other over oil they would be killing each other over sand, or water, or which version of the koran to follow, or which females to rape, or which females to castrate, just like they have been for hundreds of years before oil was even a resource.

They are just F'd up.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 18:41 | 6533444 DanDaley
DanDaley's picture

Clark is a full (4 star) general...a major general is a 2-star.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:23 | 6532378 Jackagain
Jackagain's picture

If Clark wasn't a libtard he wouldn't be the military consultant for SeeBS News.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 16:19 | 6532787 Freddie
Freddie's picture

Clark is also a tribesman. 

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:07 | 6532297 Mr Pink
Mr Pink's picture

Haven't we all known this for at least 2 years?

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:15 | 6532336 angel_of_joy
angel_of_joy's picture

You can see now why the Americans are so outraged by the idea of Russians building AND defending military bases inside Syria... USAF meets S-300 (handled by somebody who knows what to do with it...). Care to guess who wins this out ?

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:56 | 6532430 headhunt
headhunt's picture

I hate Putin and his communist stink but I welcome any country who will fight a war and kill these ISIS and other islamic psycho F'ks

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 17:44 | 6533234 Max Steel
Max Steel's picture

welcome yourslef then for creating them dipshit .

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:11 | 6532311 falak pema
falak pema's picture

you sound like a sunnite talking about a shiite...

Its Gods word coming out of your mouth; some would say out of another place.

But then who knows how God works.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:22 | 6532369 headhunt
headhunt's picture

Just stating fact - Clark is a whining liberal, one of the worst kind - he got soldiers killed.

The muslims in the ME have been killing each other over imagined slights for 100's of years and they bring their hatred for anything non-muslim with them wherever they go.

Keep their religion, keep their hatred, keep their slavery in the countries they originate in.

Political correctness will only kill you.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 18:52 | 6533349 falak pema
falak pema's picture

So have the christians. Your understanding of "Christian" history is abysmal.

Charlemagne had ONE motto when he conquered pagan Saxony : Baptism or off with your head!

Even the Moors of Spain his contemporaries allowed Christians to live as christians, pay a tax and enjoy their freedom of civil liberties (trade and artisan culture) under a moslem administration that did not impose conversion. Wars are never fought for God, wars are fought for wealth and power. God is just the icing on the cake, the legend not Man's truth. (We don't know what Intemporal truth even means, if it exists).

Ever heard of WW1 and WW2, Wars of Napoleon, wars of religion from 1520 to 1713?

And then wars of colonisation on all continents. If you move further back you have the Crusades--we were phucking around in their back yard for spices and silk, even then, like greedy pigs using Jerusalem as false flag--- and even further back the age of Caesars. No Slaves....? Lol ! Europe has been one permanent war zone.

As for modern slavery; the East cannot teach the West about a colonial model that abused slavery to subjugate Amerindia and lay the basis of the US economy of the cotton/tobacco South. Africa has been one big slave colony. And China, from the gunboat + Opium war days; as British India. And today we have the outsourced slavery of Foxconn and Apple or Microsoft in India.

Political blindness has already infected you. The Wahhabist culture is fundamentalist and has destroyed moslem multipluralism of Soufi type tolerance.  Its the US Saud alliance which has allowed this flowering. Since OIL was found and ALL to protect US hold on it via their allies of Saud dynasty.

It is REMARKABLE that only where Pax Americana has bitten deep into the flesh of the conquered in its imperial games has Moslem fundamentalist culture flowered; from Soeharto's Indonesia (after ousting Soekarno) to Paki, to Afghan, to Iran, to Levant, to Turkey, to Egypt (after whacking Nasser) , to Libya now (after whacking Q-daffy who was NOT fundamentalist), all the way to West Africa and Soudan. All surrogates of US rule and paid slaves for oil monopoly run by US allies Francafrique and Brit Nigerian whackamolia for 50 years. The US oligarchs, in their blind hubris for oil and monopoly MIC rule, with their TOTAL incomprehension of all knowledge of History, have created this unique mess in the anals of modern times.

Now Lehman's death under steroid fed fiat toxic mania and destruction of their own culture of capitalism. Bravo ! Talk about being Nero's sons!

You cannot short change History; its our collective culture and it teaches us what is right and what is wrong. Nemesis has an awesome bite that can maim a civilization for Millenia.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 18:42 | 6533447 Kayman
Kayman's picture

But does God have a sense of humor or irony ?

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:32 | 6532444 orez65
orez65's picture

This post chose to ignore the newly discovered gas fields off the Israeli coast. They are huge. But they need to sell it to Europe.

When you mix Israeli gas with Arab gas no one will be able to tell the difference.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 18:28 | 6533396 MSimon
MSimon's picture

Don't forget the gas discovered in Egypt. And Egyptian Israeli cooperation against Gaza/Iran.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 14:53 | 6532236 LasVegasDave
LasVegasDave's picture

You mean that Russia, USA and eurozone consider those illiterate, savage arab donkeys expendable?  

 

Who'd a thunk!

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:03 | 6532279 chunga
chunga's picture

This is something a moron like you will enjoy. Like clockwork...here comes hasbara.

Refugees may import anti-Semitism, Jewish critic says

http://www.timesofisrael.com/refugees-may-import-anti-semitism-jewish-cr...

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:10 | 6532308 LasVegasDave
LasVegasDave's picture

Schmuck; this is news?

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:50 | 6532550 chunga
chunga's picture

If ZH had a Pam Geller award you'd win it.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 14:56 | 6532247 RawPawg
RawPawg's picture

all this going on over stuff that trades at $45.00(give or take)? they must know sumptin we don't.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 14:56 | 6532248 Zero-Hegemon
Zero-Hegemon's picture

The spice will flow.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:06 | 6532255 firstdivision
firstdivision's picture

So all those Europeans that have made mad amounts of loot through the O&G industry should be housing the immigrants.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 14:59 | 6532264 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Holy crap I live next to Jewish folk too.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:03 | 6532274 copernicus
copernicus's picture

Growing calls for EU exit referendums in Eastern Europe... Not only will Western Europe turn into caliphate in 20 yrs but they are also set to lose the fastest growing part of Europe if they keep pushing these immigrant quotas.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:28 | 6532404 man of Wool
man of Wool's picture

Good news. Eastern Europe only provided cheap labour to the rest of the EU and they also ponce benefits for their families in their home countries. Get rid of E Europeans and the EU might work as an organisation.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 16:48 | 6532950 copernicus
copernicus's picture

You are right get rid of the most efficient workers $/output/quality on this planet and import muslims and blacks instead LOL... German and English GDP takes a 2% hit on the announcement and it only goes worse from there as those economies are freed up and all of the sudden everything can be bought at 30% off with the same quality. Icing on the cake is White Western Europeans asking for asylum in Eastern Europe in 20 years once they have a caliphate back home. 

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 17:09 | 6533067 123dobryden
123dobryden's picture

i dont see anything growing there except corruption

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:06 | 6532291 general ambivalent
general ambivalent's picture

If Obama had a war it'd look like a nation of tarred and feathered babies.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:11 | 6532307 cheka
cheka's picture

not this sh-t again.  please stop it with the pipeline b.s.  pipelines are not some scarce natural resource.  they are easily fabricated and installed.  anytime someone says 'because pipeline' they are full of sh-t.  from the same idiots that buy into and/or push globalist warming, peak water, they hate us for our freedoms...

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:14 | 6532326 Magooo
Magooo's picture

Finally, we get a proper explanation of what is going on

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:18 | 6532345 Thisisbullishright
Thisisbullishright's picture

CIA involvement??

I'm shocked....SHOCKED!!

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:24 | 6532382 PrimalScream
PrimalScream's picture

It's about money and energy.  And it certainly looks like Putin is willing to spend the blood of his own soldiers to make sure those pipelines are under Russian economic control. 

This will only get more messy and more bloody.

Syria was already a hell-hole because of the attempted overthrow.  What's below a "hell-hole".  If ISIS disappears and someone WORSE takes over ... what's below "barbaric" on the scale of Human Rights In The Bottomless Pit?

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:26 | 6532390 cheka
cheka's picture

because pipeline....lmao

then the US shouild be attacked for hoarding these precious rarities

just natgas - http://geology.com/articles/marcellus/natural-gas-pipeline-map.gif

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:29 | 6532409 Jameson18
Jameson18's picture

Nice piece but I didn't read anything about the pipeline the Israelis want in the port of Haifa or anything about the huge amount of natural gas off the coast of the Gaza strip that the Israelis have decided not the pay the Palestinians for.  Maybe next time you could be more truthful by including the elephant in the room.

Retired general and former Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark on Friday called for World War II-style internment camps to be revived for “disloyal Americans.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 16:34 | 6532871 Jethro
Jethro's picture

Well, it's gonna suck for whomever tries to implement that, because the vast majority of vets won't go softly into that good night.

Maybe they'll conscript some Dreamers for that?

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:36 | 6532464 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

All for some fucking pipelines, so some guys in suits in banks and on The Street can book some profits. Fucking insane! All these suits need to fucking die, we regular people need to "Fuck Them Up"!

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:51 | 6532553 Jackagain
Jackagain's picture

Remember what Rockefeller told Aaron Russo about their planned pipeline around 10 years ago? These elite scum care nothing for people...

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:54 | 6532576 headhunt
headhunt's picture

Very funny coming from Rockefeller

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 16:50 | 6532969 Freddie
Freddie's picture

Russo then died of cancer when he started speaking out about what the NWO has planned.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:37 | 6532467 SmittyinLA
SmittyinLA's picture

ya don't mention the Franklin Templeton folks funding (not fueling) the Ukraine war, lets talk about Syria while we run ads for the Ukraine war effort 'er China.

What is the FT short play? Is there one? OTT (other than Trump) BTW it appears FT is pushing China https://www.franklintempleton.com/retail/pages/generic_content/home/spla...

Yes invest in a Socialist Klepto state where they feed melemine to chinedren for an axtra .01% profit, invest in the GM of ASIA with a 1.1 Billion employee unfunded liability empty pension fund, buy now while you still can, if you don't buy now, Janet Yellen will.  

Lets not do war with nuclear armed and Capitalist Russia for the EU jerk-off Caliph, fuck the EU, they're circling the drain votin for MOAR, they're a virus that has exhausted it's host, let their euroscum Socialist culture die like the French revolution, in a river of blood by their own hand.

 

 

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:37 | 6532469 Chuck Knoblauch
Chuck Knoblauch's picture

ISIL still holding accounts in Switzerland.

This is a banker manufactured crisis (bmc).

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:45 | 6532517 roadhazard
roadhazard's picture

Proposed...

 

Give me a map and I'll propose some colored lines too.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 15:56 | 6532593 Infinite QE
Infinite QE's picture

Pipeline my arse. This has been and always has been the greater israel design madness. Cleanse the middle east so some schmoes with chopped dicks can play out some scenes from their satanic fairy tale.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 18:43 | 6533452 MSimon
MSimon's picture

In the Middle East they all have chopped dicks. So you have choices to make.

The bankers exploit greed. The NWO exploits hate.

Hating THEM  is their food. They feed on it. You are their perfect dupe. You think you are their enemy when in fact you are one of their foot soldiers in their false flag Army.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 16:00 | 6532619 Omega_Man
Omega_Man's picture

execute Nuland and friends, have them dragged by wild horses

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 16:39 | 6532908 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

I only skimmed that article, because its basic argument seemed too superficial to me. More important than the natural resources, or the means to access them, is the control over the monetary systems. Therefore, it is NOT about pipelines, nor what may be transported within those, but about WHO controls the "money" supplies that "pay" for all of that.

Overall, the deeper problems that civilization face are the excessive successfulness of those who made and maintained that civilization by being able to back up lies with violence, or ENFORCE FRAUDS. Sure, underneath that is the physical resources, and the physical access to those resources. HOWEVER, the mediations between human beings and that physical world are through symbols, with money being the most important form of how that works, since money is measurement backed by murder.

The deeper problems are due to "money" made out of nothing as debts being used to "pay" for strip-mining the planet's natural resources. It hardly matters who was the best at being dishonest and backing that up with violence, since the end results are the same. Sure, on a superficial level, it is about the access to natural resources, but on deeper levels it is about society being more and more totally dominated by systems of ENFORCING FRAUDS, whose excessive successfulness are organized crime becoming runaway criminal insanities.

There must necessarily be some death controls, to back up some debt controls. The ones that exist now were selected to become based on the maximum possible deceits and frauds. Such social successfulness became based upon the proportions to which the most socially successful people could operate as psychopaths, within a civilization that became increasingly psychotic.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 21:17 | 6533992 Faeriedust
Faeriedust's picture

Despite the prevalence of abstract resource symbols (MONEY), sometimes it really is about the Real Things that those symbols manipulate.

 

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 17:29 | 6533175 MSimon
MSimon's picture

Orders from Tel Aviv? How about orders from Saudi Arabia? Qatar? etc.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 18:04 | 6533318 bid the soldier...
bid the soldiers shoot's picture

Just you wait until Qatar starts selling bonds to build their 3 nation pipeline to Turkey.  Whether or not they sell out before construction is started makes no difference, because after a couple of miles of pipe are laid, Gazprom starts cutting the delivered price of their gas, on the way down to their break-even cost.

Interest on the bonds is derived from the transit fees collected by the pipeline owners and if Gazprom starts undercutting the price that Qatar was counting on earning per cubic meter, well....

I suppose Europe may not go for the lowest price gas.  Or they may be quite sympathetic to the Qatari Royal Family.

Or common sense will tell the Qatar to stop building their pipeline and sit tight on their gas until its the only gas left.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 18:35 | 6533421 MSimon
MSimon's picture

Yes. Of course Gazprom can cut the price. But for how long? The Russian economy is already hurting from the collapse of oil prices.

 

And Russia imports food. Will it be further reducing its population by sending its hungry people west?

 

It is easy to see how all this started. - A technological change - fracking/horizontal drilling. How it will end is not at all clear. 

 

And Qatar the only gas left? Well there is Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel. That we know of. There may be more in the Mediterranean basin. 

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 20:18 | 6533791 bid the soldier...
bid the soldiers shoot's picture

The whole point is to stop the laying of competing pipe.

Egypt and Israel just demonstrated that there's probably a huge deposit of gas closer to the end user than your deposit is.

The world is teetering on another depression.  Pipelines are expensive.  Do you really want to make a huge investment to bring gas into Europe when it is coming from North Stream, Turkish Stream, Ukraine, North Sea, Tunisia, and soon, Israel and the supposed Monster, Egypt, a hop, skip and a jump away?

Pipelines are expensive and when the Qatari pipe is finished, who knows how many new deposits will be struck?  Maybe none.  Maybe a lot.  

It's your money.  Are there greater returns for it than a pipeline?

 

Russia knew their monopoly wasn't going to last forever. That they had to use it to their advantage while they were still able to.  

They want to sell to Europe at a profit all the Central Asian gas they can before they dedicate the rest of it to China.

Laying more pipe from their Western frontier East to Siberia to hook up with the pipeline there to China.

Then at a certain time in the future, reversing the flow to the East, and transiting excess European gas to its new buyers in China.  :o) 

 

 

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 19:14 | 6533572 highwaytoserfdom
highwaytoserfdom's picture

http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/     just re hash of AL-Cia-DUH     about oligarch and hegemony  of power..   Same as it has been for some time from the current fascist to Lincoln and Marks.... More  pavlov's dog response bending the truth.

 

 

"The Rothschilds, and that class of money-lenders of whom they are the representatives and agents -- men who never think of lending a shilling to their next-door neighbors, for purposes of honest industry, unless upon the most ample security, and at the highest rate of interest -- stand ready, at all times, to lend money in unlimited amounts to those robbers and murderers, who call themselves governments, to be expended in shooting down those who do not submit quietly to being robbed and enslaved." by: Lysander Spooner
(1808-1887) Political theorist, activist, abolitionist

 

 

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 19:34 | 6533635 hannah
hannah's picture

"Images of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy who washed up dead on Mediterranean shores in his family’s attempt to flee war-torn Syria,"

 

bull-fucking-shit....they were going to a country to get free dental car for the father. again...who writes and checks the facts on these articles?

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 21:14 | 6533974 Faeriedust
Faeriedust's picture

KURDI.  Does the name not ring a bell?  KURDS.  As in, the northern mountain people who are the ONLY Iraqis to have stood up and fought against ISIS.  The people the Turks are determined to destroy, and the U.S has given permission to do so in return for their support in Syria.  Syria, which is where that particular Kurdish family was living.  Before they had to run from ISIS and a dozen other armed gangs of thugs set loose, as this article makes clear, by American and Israeli design.

Sometimes my country makes me sick.

 

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 19:47 | 6533674 Hope Copy
Hope Copy's picture

And in the Ukraine it is a fight over the easiest purest titanium oxide in the world to get to and there is a trillion, yes trillion dollar pile that has been purified ready to be train-cared out, but...  and the fire at the end of Donetsk Airport last year, that burned for three days as bright as the sun and had beautifully white thick smoke, just west of Sparks..  what do you think that was, billions of dollars going up in smoke, titanium smoke.

Fri, 09/11/2015 - 03:26 | 6534787 MSimon
MSimon's picture

Titanium dioxide doesn't burn. Basic chemistry. Refined titanium would burn.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 20:27 | 6533822 Kyddyl
Kyddyl's picture

I hate to upset the trolls on here, I really do. However this is one very, very good article, one of  the very best I've seen on ZH. Too many people have read superficially and that's a habit that can also lead to unfortunate assumptions. It really IS about pipelines. Syria has next to no natural resources. The pipeleines were a source of income for the country, which does not enjoy as high as standard of living as much of Mexico. Before the violence started, in many families most persons had to have more than one job to make humble ends meet. Syria was a treasure trove for antiquities and was well worth a visit. It was known as a "Little Switzerland" because so many diverse religions, cultures and customs blended well and live fairly peacefully. In one place the original Aramaic is still spoken. And don't forget the Assads were legally and lawfully elected by the people and are still popular. These are a hospitable, kind people if you had been able to visit them before the bankers and the military industrial complexes got greedy. Now the devastation caused by power grabs is at the doorstep of the USA and Russia. Russia, more justifyably, has boots on the ground there now, so you know this is getting worse and worse. The US has overpaid mercenaries working for them, plus  corperate under whores working quite often on the US taxpayer dime under the heading of "defense".

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 20:58 | 6533924 Kyddyl
Kyddyl's picture

And as I understand it, The Russian part of the "Frienship" pipeline is operated by the oil company Transneft through its subsidiary OAO MN Druzhba. and it is a substantial part of the worlds largest pipleine complex. The Middle East has a very high birth rate in case anyone was wondering why so many pipelines. These pipleines are of great interest to Iran and certainly to all of Europe and Eurasia. Just why the US feels it needs to be front and center is all about making money with killing.

Fri, 09/11/2015 - 03:31 | 6534790 MSimon
MSimon's picture

The ME used to have a high birth rate. It is declining. Iran has a total fertility rate of 1.6 - replacement rate is 2.1.

Thu, 09/10/2015 - 22:46 | 6534345 highwaytoserfdom
highwaytoserfdom's picture

free trade and no entangling alliances.       Then of course the story is pipelines... Bull if it was about pipelines Saudi Arabia had the majority of box cutters terrorist 14 years ago. Then again depends on what the definition of IS IS....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_United_States_foreign_regime_change...

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