{"id":141277,"date":"2014-10-29T09:18:53","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T09:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=141277"},"modified":"2014-10-30T18:48:37","modified_gmt":"2014-10-30T18:48:37","slug":"whats-behind-lower-gas-prices-bombings-syria-southeastern-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/whats-behind-lower-gas-prices-bombings-syria-southeastern-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s Behind Lower Gas-Prices and the Bombings of Syria and of Southeastern Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obama Represents U.S. & Arabic Aristocracies, Against Those of Russia & Iran.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eric Zuesse<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

INTRODUCTION:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why is the Ukrainian Government, which the U.S. supports, bombing the pro-Russian residents who live in Ukraine\u2019s own southeast<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Why is the American Government, which aims to oust Syria\u2019s leader Bashar al-Assad, bombing his main enemy, ISIS?<\/p>\n

This report will document that both bombings are different parts of the same Obama-initiated business-operation, in which the American aristocracy, Saudi aristocracy, and Qatari aristocracy, work together, to grab dominance over supplying energy to the world\u2019s biggest energy-market, Europe, away from Russia, which currently is by far Europe\u2019s largest energy-supplier.<\/p>\n

Here are the actual percentage-figures on that: Russia supplies 38% of it, 2 Norway (the only European nation among the top 15) supplies 18%, and all other countries collectively supply a grand total of 44%.<\/a> That\u2019s it; that\u2019s all — in the world\u2019s largest energy-market, Russia is the lone giant. But U.S. President Obama\u2019s team are working hard to change that, to do a huge favor for the royals of Saudi Arabia and of Qatar, and yank that business for them. (Unfortunately, the residents in southeastern Ukraine are being bombed and driven out to become refugees in Russia<\/a>, as an essential part of this operation to choke off Russia\u2019s gas-supply into Europe and transfer that business mainly to those royals. This objective against Russia and for those royals is considered to be far more important than its many thousands of victims are, and no one in the Obama Administration has provided any indication — at least publicly — that tears have been shed there for the residents in southeast Ukraine who have been mass-murdered and for the roughly million of them who have fled to refuge and safety in Russia to escape being bombed by the America\u2019s new client-state, the Ukrainian Government.)<\/p>\n

Obama has initiated, and is leading, this international aristocratic team, consisting of the U.S. aristocracy and mainly two Sunni Moslem aristocracies — the Saudi and the Qatari royal families — to choke off Russia\u2019s economic lifeblood from those European energy sales, and to transfer lots of this business, via new oil\u00a0and gas pipeline contracts and new international trade-deals, over to the royal families of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Those royals, in turn, are assisting Obama in the overthrow of the key Russia-allied leader of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, who has performed an indispensable role for Russia in blocking any such massive expansion of Saudi and Qatari energy-traffic into Europe, and who has thus been a vital protector of Russia\u2019s dominance in the European energy-market.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s aristocracy would be benefited in many ways from this changeover to Europe\u2019s increasing dependence upon those Sunni Moslem nations, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which have long been allied with U.S. oil companies, and away from the Shiite Moslem nation of Iran, and from Iran\u2019s key backer, Russia.<\/p>\n

The most important way that America\u2019s aristocrats would benefit from the deal would be the continuance, for the indefinite future, of the U.S. dollar\u2019s role as the international reserve currency, in which energy and energy-futures are traded. The Sunni nations are committed to continued dominance of the dollar, and Wall Street depends on that continuance. It\u2019s also one of the reasons the U.S. Treasury\u2019s sales of U.S. Federal debt around the world have been as successful as they have been. This also provides essential support to the U.S. Federal Reserve, and especially to the six Wall Street banks that do virtually all of the derivatives trading.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Obama\u2019s effort to force the European Union to weaken their anti-global-warming standards so as to allow European imports of oil from the exceptionally carbon-gas-generating Athabasca Canada tar sands — which are approximately 40% owned by America\u2019s Koch brothers, the rest owned by other U.S. and allied oil companies — would likewise reduce Europe\u2019s current dependency upon Russian energy sources, at the same time as it would directly benefit U.S. energy-producers. Obama has been working hard for those oil companies to become enabled to sell such oil into Europe, turning the screws on Europe to weaken those standards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And, finally, the extension of U.S. fracking technology into Ukraine, and perhaps ultimately even into some EU nations, where it has been strongly resisted by the residents, might likewise boost American oil firms and reduce the enormous flow of European cash into Russian Government coffers to pay for Russian gas (which doesn\u2019t even require fracking).<\/p>\n

In other words, the wars in both Syria and Ukraine are being fought basically in order to grab the European energy market, away from Russia, somewhat in the same way (though far more violently) as Iran\u2019s share of that market was previously grabbed away by means of the U.S.-led sanctions against Iran. The current bombing campaigns in both Syria and Ukraine are directed specifically against Iran\u2019s chief ally, Russia.<\/p>\n

First, will be discussed here the bombing-campaign against Iran\u2019s and Russia\u2019s ally Assad in Syria; then against the residents of the ethnic-Russian areas of Ukraine, where Western oil companies want to frack.<\/p>\n

SYRIA:<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the articles that are headlined below document, there has been proposed, in order to promote<\/em> even more Russian gas flowing into Europe, an eastbound Iran-Iraq-Syria-Turkey-Europe gas pipeline (but sanctions against Iran already stopped that plan); and there was also proposed, in order to undercut<\/em> the existing Russian gas flowing into Europe, a northbound Qatar-Saudi-Jordan-Syria-Turkey-Europe gas pipeline — those being two different and competing new routes of supplying gas into Europe.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s ally Syria is crucial to both<\/em> proposed pipelines, which means that Assad has needed to be overthrown in order for the northbound pipeline from Qatar through Syria to be constructed and so to compete against Russia\u2019s existing gas-supplies to Europe.<\/p>\n

There have also been some differences between the Saudi and Qatari royal families as regards their motives for removing the Shiite Assad from leading Syria. Qatar\u2019s royals (and also Turkey\u2019s aristocrats<\/a>) want him to be replaced by an anti-Iranian, Sunni Moslem Brotherhood leader (the type of person that Obama\u00a0euphemistically calls by such terms as \u2018moderate Moslems\u2019 though they were hardly that in Egypt once they gained power there<\/a>). Qatar\u2019s royals have protected themselves from being overthrown by fundamentalist Moslems; they\u2019ve done it especially by supporting the Moslem Brotherhood as a means of displaying their own loyalty to Moslem clerics. (The public trusts the clerics, but doesn\u2019t trust the aristocrats; and, like everywhere, aristocrats obtain their perceived \u2018legitimacy\u2019 from the local clergy, whom aristocrats buy-off with special favors.) The Moslem Brotherhood want to control Syria, and would love to approve a gas pipeline from Qatar through Syria to Europe, to reward their chief benefactor, Qatar\u2019s royals. As for the Saudi royals, they want Assad to be replaced by an anti-Iranian, Sunni ISIS leader, who will represent the Sauds\u2019 Wahhabist sect in Islam, which provides Saudi royals their<\/em> \u2018legitimacy.\u2019 (Saudi royals say they don\u2019t like Al Qaeda and ISIS, but that\u2019s said mainly for public consumption in the West, chiefly in order to help American presidents sell such deals to their public. Almost all of the 9\/11 hijackers were funded actually with Saudi money.) Right now, Saudi Arabia supplies less than 5% of Europe\u2019s energy, which is a mere one-eighth of what Russia does.<\/a> So: each of these two royal families relies primarily upon a different category of Islamists. Obama prefers the \u2018moderate\u2019 Muslim Brotherhood to the extremist ISIS, but Saudi royals accept the American President\u2019s having that preference, because any way to weaken Iran and its backer Russia is fine with them, especially since it would open wide the enormous European market for their oil.<\/p>\n

Other internal conflicts also exist within Obama\u2019s team. For example, an expert on these matters, Felix Imonti, explained to me in a personal communication, that, \u201cQatar … abandoned the [pipeline] plan in 2010 for a very simple reason. Saudi Arabia will not permit a pipeline to be constructed across its territory. Qatar is interested along with Turkey in installing a MB [Muslim Brotherhood] government in Syria. … The Saudi objective is to drive out the Iranians from Syria.\u201d The Saudis\u2019 \u201cobjective was to establish a Wahhabi based [fundamentalist Islamic] state that would include western Iraq with Syria,\u201d which, of course, is what ISIS is all about. Imonti also says: \u201cEgypt [except for the brief time when it was controlled by the \u2018MB\u2019] is a bought puppet of Saudi Arabia. The Egyptians are bombing Qatari groups in Libya.\u201d That Egyptian bombing is indirectly a Saudi attack against the Qatari royals\u2019 own support-base. These issues between the two royal families are like squabbles within a family: more is shared in common among them than splits them apart. The American President\u2019s decisions are often determinative on such matters.<\/p>\n

So, America\u2019s aristocracy supports both the Saudi and the Qatari aristocracies, despite their disagreements, in order to defeat the aristocracies in Russia, China, and the other \u201cBRIC\u201d countries, and so to retain the American Empire as being an empire, not just a country; and, in fact, as being the only<\/em> Empire.<\/p>\n

Or, as President Obama’s speech at West Point, on 28 May 2014<\/a>, propagandized for this view on the part of America\u2019s aristocracy: “Russia’s aggression toward former Soviet states unnerves capitals in Europe, while China’s economic rise and military\u00a0reach worries its neighbors. From Brazil to India, rising middle classes compete with us.\u201d So, Obama made clear to the graduating West Point cadets that the BRIC countries are the enemy, from the standpoint of America\u2019s aristocracy, whom they serve. Ours want to crush the aristocrats in Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Though it\u2019s alright for those other countries to produce more, that\u2019s true only if American aristocrats control the local ones there, like in any other international empire — not<\/em> if the local nation\u2019s aristocrats do. Similarly, for example, the British Empire didn\u2019t wish for local aristocrats in India to be in control, but only for those client aristocrats to be of use<\/em>. That\u2019s what it means to be a client nation. Obama in his speech added, placing a clear hyper-nationalistic coloration on his promotion of America\u2019s empire: \u201cThe United States is and remains the one indispensable nation.\u201d He promised to keep it that way: \u201cThat has been true for the century passed [sp.: past [[somebody at the White House didn\u2019t know the difference between \u2018past\u2019 and \u2018passed\u2019]] and it will be true for the century to come.\u201d (At least he wasn\u2019t predicting a Thousand-Year Reich.)<\/p>\n

An important asset of the American aristocracy happens to be shale-gas-fracking technology, which is overwhelmingly owned by America\u2019s aristocrats<\/a>. Though Qatar is a major gas-producer, it has no need for fracking, and so is merely a gas-competitor in that regard, but they do share America\u2019s pro-Sunni, anti-Assad goal, and also America\u2019s anti-Russian goal. Although Qatar ships most of its gas into Asia, they\u2019d like to have some way to pipe it more nearby, into Europe, to undercut Russia\u2019s Gazprom, the major source of income to the Russian Government. (Gazprom is over 50% owned by the Russian Government.<\/a>) And that\u2019s why the U.S. is working with Qatar to bump Assad from Syria.<\/p>\n

The Saudis are actually doing the most of all to defeat Russia, by driving oil prices down so low as to upset Russia\u2019s economic-development plans, which have been based upon minimum $100\/barrel projections. We\u2019re already around 10% below that. As Imonti writes, \u201cThe Saudis can sustain these lower prices for seven or eight years while drawing on their foreign reserves to cover the deficits. They could very well be trying to break the fracking business in the U.S. that has high production costs. [Of course, America\u2019s gas aristocrats won\u2019t like that, nor will they like the low gas and oil prices, but Obama has to balance multiple sub-constituencies, including Qatar\u2019s and Saudi royals.] They might also be directing the target towards Russia that supports Assad and Iran. They could be doing all of the above with one action.\u201d If the Sauds actually do keep this up \u201cfor seven or eight years,\u201d then Russia will be hit a lot harder by these low oil and gas prices than Russia is being hit, or is likely ever to be hit, by any economic sanctions.<\/p>\n

Qatar has been the main funder of the overthrow-Assad movement, for the Moslem Brotherhood; and Saudi Arabia has been the main funder of the overthrow-Assad movement, for ISIS. Both are Sunni organizations. However, Qatar has also funded ISIS. Obama, when he decided to bomb ISIS, was acting on behalf of America\u2019s aristocrats, but Saudi and Qatari aristocrats might have felt differently about it. He possessed the freedom to do this, which those Arabic aristocrats don\u2019t have, because everyone in the Islamic world knows that Obama is no Moslem; everyone understands that America is in a permanent state of war against fundamentalist Islam of all sorts. Only Moslem aristocrats need the approval of Islamic fundamentalists. In America, aristocrats don\u2019t even need the approval of Christian fundamentalists, the type of fundamentalists that might be able to threaten their authority in the West (since the West is predominantly Christian, not Moslem). And the same is true regarding Jewish aristocrats in Israel: aristocrats fear only their local majority<\/em> clergy. That\u2019s basic survival-knowledge for aristocrats, anywhere, in order to be able to get the public to accept the rightfulness of the aristocracy itself there. (A rising and recently much promoted ideology to extend this belief within America is libertarianism, which holds faith in the rightness of the market itself — irrespective of any belief in God — and which repudiates government, no matter how democratic it may be, the underlying assumption there being that an economy can exist without a government, and that the economy is not itself necessarily an extension of the very system of laws, and enforcement of those laws, which determine who owns what: it\u2019s just another aristocratic scam.)<\/p>\n

So, ISIS gets money from\u00a0the aristocracies of Saud, and of Qatar (and also, more recently, of Kuwait)<\/a>\u00a0— whatever is needed, in order for those aristocrats to retain the loyalty of their local clerics, and thus their public. It\u2019s like aristocrats do in every country, getting \u201cGod\u2019s approval\u201d of their wealth, by throwing a few coins to the preacher, the local mouthpiece for \u201cGod,\u201d thus relying upon the public\u2019s trust in clergy. Even Mafia aristocrats do it. That has been the way of conservatism for millennia; it\u2019s the way conservatism works. In the past few centuries, a modified version of that trick has grown up, as liberalism, in which the aristocrats\u2019 validation comes instead from scholars, and so aristocrats throw a few coins to them, instead of to clerics. But it\u2019s no different — it\u2019s authoritarianism, equally in either case. It\u2019s purchased authority. Aristocrats don\u2019t really fear the clergy, nor the scholars (nor, certainly, the market): they actually fear the public, such as what happened during the French Revolution, and during the Russian Revolution. But that\u2019s another story altogether, going back millennia, actually; and aristocracies everywhere now seem to have those things under far more sophisticated control than before, via propaganda, which they get by owning the news-media and by selling access to it (by means of advertisements and otherwise) to other aristocrats, so as to control the public\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

The recent bombings in Syria, and in Ukraine, are a business-operation being carried out as a war (and also very profitable for U.S. armaments-makers, who likewise are controlled by America\u2019s aristocrats and so this is a double-whammy for America\u2019s aristocracy — and U.S. arms-makers have consequently been soaring on the stock market). It\u2019s basically a grab by U.S. and Sunni aristocrats, from Russian and Shiite aristocrats, of the vast market to supply oil and gas into Europe. And it provides other advantages, too, for U.S. aristocrats.<\/p>\n

Natural gas, especially of the non-fracked variety, is generally regarded as the bridge-fuel to get our planet to being able to survive long-term while fusion and renewable forms of energy come online as cost-competitive. Fracking is, as has been mentioned, an American technology, but it\u2019s widely resisted even within American-allied nations. The U.S. Government can impose it upon the American people, because they are trusting in \u2018free enterprise,\u2019 but other governments are having a hard time trying to impose it on theirs. That public resistance in Europe is giving protection to the gas-import markets there; and this has benefited Russia, their major existing gas-supplier.<\/p>\n

Russia actually has\u00a0the world’s largest proven reserves of natural gas<\/a>, and that\u2019s without their even needing to use fracking-techniques in order to get at it. Number two Iran has 69% as much gas, and is allied with Russia, and it also doesn\u2019t frack. But sanctions close them out of Europe. Then number three\u00a0Qatar, at 47% of Russia, is allied with U.S. oil companies, but has no need to frack. Then number four\u00a0Turkmenistan, 37%, is itself allied with Russia, and also doesn\u2019t frack. Then number five U.S., 20%, is, of course, allied with U.S. oil companies, and only fracks. Then number six\u00a0Saudi Arabia, 17%, is also allied with U.S. oil companies, and it doesn\u2019t need to frack.<\/p>\n

The European Union nations effectively ban fracking (and wanted the EU to ban it but America\u2019s lap-dog Britain vetoed that EU-wide ban<\/a>), because they have environmentally-concerned publics. But U.S. and other Western corporate-owned oil companies want to frack gas in Europe, just as they do in America; and the new Ukrainian Government is desperate enough to want their own land to be fracked.<\/p>\n

UKRAINE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The main shale-gas (fracking) field in Ukraine is Yuzivska, right in the middle of the Donbass region, where the residents don\u2019t want fracking and don\u2019t want U.S. rule (which includes fracking). Furthermore, the people there reject the legitimacy of the\u00a0Obama coup in Ukraine this year in February<\/a>, and of its subsequent\u00a0rulers of Ukraine<\/a>, who have been\u00a0bombing them<\/a>, because\u00a090% of the voters in that region had voted for the pro-Russian President whom Obama had overthrown<\/a>, and because that new, anti-Russian, regime doesn\u2019t want those people to stay (or at least\u00a0to stay alive<\/a>) in Ukraine, because otherwise that post-coup regime would become ousted if any nationwide election would ever again be held throughout Ukraine. This tactic of killing unwanted voters is a more extreme form of what the Republican Party does in the U.S., simply trimming the voter-rolls in order to create a more-favorable \u201cvoting public.\u201d It\u2019s just being done in Ukraine by bombs and bullets<\/a>, rather than by limiting or restricting ballots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe West,\u201d or the allies of Sunni aristocrats, are now bombing intensively, both in Ukraine and in Syria; and, in both instances, the argument for the bombings is to spread \u201cdemocracy\u201d there. It\u2019s giving a bad name to \u2018democracy,\u2019 for anyone who misbelieves that this is it.<\/p>\n

BACK, AGAIN, TO SYRIA:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Below are the main sources that describe the Middle Eastern part of this Obama-Putin power-struggle, this being the part in Syria, instead of in Ukraine. It\u2019s is how international business is actually carried out — it\u2019s a perfect libertarian world, since there is no international government; this market is unregulated to so extreme an extent that even ethnic cleansings and mass-murders go unpunished — it\u2019s a pure free market, which is operating on an international scale (the only scale where libertarianism exists in even nearly<\/em> this pure a form); this libertarianism is an exemplar of the conservative ideal: pure liberty for aristocrats, total lack of accountability<\/a>. If anything, Barack Obama\u00a0might actually be even more of a conservative than was George W. Bush: under Obama, the IRS specifically allows blatantly illegal tax-evasion by the mega-rich to go uninvestigated and unpunished, and concentrates virtually all its resources on pursuing two-bit tax-cheats.<\/a> That\u2019s what \u2018democracy\u2019 has degenerated to in America. In America\u2019s client-states, such as in the Middle East and (since February) in Ukraine, it\u2019s even worse than that. After all, things do tend to be worse in the colonies than in the imperial center.<\/p>\n

The first two of these articles explain in more detail why the price of oil has been plunging, and who has been behind the price-decline:<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.boilingfrogspost.com\/2014\/10\/24\/the-secret-stupid-saudi-us-deal-on-syria\/<\/a><\/p>\n

“The Secret Stupid\u00a0Saudi-US Deal on\u00a0Syria”<\/strong><\/p>\n

WILLIAM ENGDAHL\u00a0|\u00a0OCTOBER 24, 20143 COMMENTS<\/p>\n

The Kerry-Abdullah Secret Deal\u00a0&\u00a0An Oil-Gas Pipeline War<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2014-10-10\/why-oil-plunging-other-part-secret-deal-between-us-and-saudi-arabia<\/a><\/p>\n

“Why Oil Is Plunging: The Other Part Of The\u00a0“Secret Deal” Between The US And Saudi\u00a0Arabia”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tyler Durden\u00a0on 10\/11\/2014 18:19 -0400<\/p>\n

\u2026 [Excerpt:] Today’s Brent closing price: $90. Russia’s\u00a0oil price\u00a0budget for the period 2015-2017?\u00a0$100. Which\u00a0means much more “forced Brent liquidation” is in the\u00a0cards in the coming weeks as America’s suddenly\u00a0once again very strategic ally, Saudi Arabia, does\u00a0everything in its power to break Putin. [Note: The Russian Government\u2019s fiscal projections were based on $100\/barrel, but the Saudi-forced-down price was now $89\/barrel. How long would Saudis and Qataris keep this up? And how long would Assad hold off ISIS? Big bets are being made on both.]<\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2014-09-25\/look-inside-secret-deal-saudi-arabia-unleashed-syrian-bombing<\/a><\/p>\n

“A Look Inside The Secret Deal With Saudi\u00a0Arabia That Unleashed The Syrian Bombing”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tyler Durden\u00a0on 09\/25\/2014 10:17 -0400<\/p>\n

\u2026 [Excerpt:] Said otherwise, the pound of flesh demanded by\u00a0Saudi Arabia to “bless” US airstrikes and make them\u00a0appear as an act of some coalition, is the removal of\u00a0the Assad regime. Why? So that,\u00a0as we also explained\u00a0last year, the holdings of the great Qatar natural gas\u00a0fields can finally make their way onward to Europe,\u00a0which incidentally is also America’s desire — what\u00a0better way to punish Putin for his recent actions than\u00a0by crushing the main leverage the Kremlin has over\u00a0Europe?<\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2013-08-27\/meet-saudi-arabias-bandar-bin-sultan-puppetmaster-behind-syrian-war<\/a><\/p>\n

“Meet Saudi Arabia’s Bandar bin Sultan: The\u00a0Puppetmaster Behind The Syrian War”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tyler Durden\u00a0on 08\/27\/2013 15:21 -0400<\/p>\n

\u2026 [Excerpt:] Of course, there is Syria:<\/p>\n

Regarding the Syrian issue, the Russian\u00a0president responded to Bandar, saying,\u00a0\u201cOur stance on Assad will never change.\u00a0We believe that the Syrian regime is the\u00a0best speaker on behalf of the Syrian\u00a0people,\u00a0and not those liver eaters.\u00a0During the Geneva I Conference, we\u00a0agreed with the Americans on a package\u00a0of understandings, and they agreed that\u00a0the Syrian regime will be part of any\u00a0settlement. Later on, they decided to\u00a0renege on Geneva I. In all meetings of\u00a0Russian and American experts, we\u00a0reiterated our position. In his upcoming\u00a0meeting with his American counterpart\u00a0John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister\u00a0Sergey Lavrov will stress the importance\u00a0of making every possible effort to\u00a0rapidly reach a political settlement to\u00a0the Syrian crisis so as to prevent further\u00a0bloodshed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Alas, that has failed.<\/em><\/p>\n

So what are some of the stunning disclosures by the\u00a0Saudis?<\/p>\n

Bandar told Putin, \u201cThere are many\u00a0common values and goals that bring\u00a0us together, most notably the fight\u00a0against terrorism\u00a0and extremism all over\u00a0the world. Russia, the US, the EU and the\u00a0Saudis agree on promoting and\u00a0consolidating international peace and\u00a0security. The terrorist threat is growing\u00a0in light of the phenomena spawned by\u00a0the Arab Spring. We have lost some\u00a0regimes. And what we got in return were\u00a0terrorist experiences, as evidenced by\u00a0the experience of the Muslim\u00a0Brotherhood in Egypt and the extremist\u00a0groups in Libya. … As an example, I can\u00a0give you a guarantee to protect the\u00a0Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on\u00a0the Black Sea next year.\u00a0The Chechen\u00a0groups that threaten the security of\u00a0the games are controlled by us, and\u00a0they will not move in the Syrian\u00a0territory\u2019s direction without\u00a0coordinating with us.\u00a0These groups do\u00a0not scare us. We use them in the face of\u00a0the Syrian regime but they will have no\u00a0role or influence in Syria\u2019s political\u00a0future.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2013-08-08\/putin-laughs-saudi-offer-betray-syria-exchange-huge-arms-deal<\/a><\/p>\n

“Putin Laughs At Saudi Offer To Betray Syria\u00a0In Exchange For \u2018Huge’ Arms Deal”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tyler Durden\u00a0on 08\/08\/2013 11:20 -0400<\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2013-05-16\/mystery-sponsor-weapons-and-money-syrian-rebels-revealed<\/a><\/p>\n

“Mystery Sponsor Of Weapons And Money\u00a0To Syrian Mercenary \u2018Rebels\u2019 Revealed”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tyler Durden\u00a0on 05\/16\/2013 19:12 -0400<\/p>\n

… [Excerpt:] So there you have it: Qatar doing everything it can to\u00a0promote bloodshed, death and destruction by using\u00a0not Syrian rebels, but mercenaries: professional\u00a0citizens who are paid handsomely to fight and kill\u00a0members of the elected regime (unpopular as it may\u00a0be), for what? So that the unimaginably rich emirs of\u00a0Qatar can get even richer. Although it is not as if\u00a0Russia is blameless: all it wants is to preserve its\u00a0own strategic leverage over Europe by being the\u00a0biggest external provider of natgas to the continent\u00a0through its own pipelines. Should Nabucco come\u00a0into existence, Gazpromia would be very, very angry\u00a0and make far less money!<\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

The final source here will be posted in full, because it goes closest and deepest to the reason for our bombing Syria:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/oilprice.com\/Energy\/Energy-General\/Qatar-Rich-and-Dangerous.html<\/a><\/p>\n

“Qatar: Rich and Dangerous”<\/strong><\/p>\n

17 September 2012, by Felix Imonti<\/p>\n

The first concern of the Emir of Qatar is the\u00a0prosperity and security of the tiny kingdom. To\u00a0achieve that, he knows no limits.<\/p>\n

Stuck between Iran and Saudi Arabia is Qatar with\u00a0the third largest natural gas deposit in the world.\u00a0The gas gives the nearly quarter of a million Qatari\u00a0citizens the highest per capita income on the planet\u00a0and provides 70 percent of government revenue.<\/p>\n

How does an extremely wealthy midget with two\u00a0potentially dangerous neighbors keep them from\u00a0making an unwelcomed visit? Naturally, you have\u00a0someone bigger and tougher to protect you.<\/p>\n

Of course, nothing is free. The price has been to\u00a0allow the United States to have two military bases in\u00a0a strategic location. \u00a0According to Wikileaks\u00a0diplomatic cables, the Qataris are even paying sixty\u00a0percent of the costs.<\/p>\n

Having tanks and bunker busting bombs nearby will\u00a0discourage military aggression, but it does nothing\u00a0to curb the social tumult that has been bubbling for\u00a0decades in the Middle Eastern societies. Eighty-four\u00a0years ago, the Moslem Brotherhood arose in Egypt\u00a0because of the presence of foreign domination by\u00a0Great Britain and the discontent of millions of the\u00a0teaming masses yearning to be free. Eighty-four\u00a0years later, the teaming masses are still yearning.<\/p>\n

Sixty-five percent of the people in the Middle East\u00a0are under twenty-nine years of age. It is this\u00a0desperate angry group that presents a danger that\u00a0armies cannot stop. The cry for their dignity, \u201cI am a\u00a0man,\u201d is the sound that sends terror through\u00a0governments. It is this overwhelming force that the\u00a0Emir of Qatar has been able to deflect.<\/p>\n

A year after he deposed his father in 1995, Sheikh\u00a0Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani established the Al-Jazeera television satellite news network. He invited\u00a0some of the radical Salafi preachers that had been\u00a0given sanctuary in Qatar to address the one and a\u00a0half billion Moslems around the world. They had\u00a0their electronic soapbox and the card to an ATM, but\u00a0there was a price.<\/p>\n

The price was silence. They could speak to the\u00a0world and arouse the fury in Egypt or Libya, but they\u00a0would have to leave their revolution outside of Qatar\u00a0or the microphone would be switched off and the\u00a0ATM would stop dispensing the good life.<\/p>\n

The Moslem Brotherhood, that is a major force\u00a0across the region, dissolved itself in Qatar in 1999.\u00a0Jasim Sultan, a member of the former organization,\u00a0explained that the kingdom was in compliance with\u00a0Islamic law. He heads the state funded Awaken\u00a0Project that publishes moderate political and\u00a0philosophical literature.<\/p>\n

How Qatar has benefited from networking with the\u00a0Salafis is illustrated by the connections with Tunisia\u00a0where Qatar is making a large investment in\u00a0telecommunications. Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafiq\u00a0Abdulsalaam was head of the Research and Studies\u00a0Division in the Al Jazeera Centre in Doha. His\u00a0father-in-law Al Ghanouchi is the head of the\u00a0Tunisian Moslem Brotherhood party.<\/p>\n

Over much of the time since he seized power, Sheikh\u00a0Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani has followed the policy\u00a0of personal networking, being proactive in business\u00a0and neutral on the international stage. The Emir is\u00a0generous with the grateful, the Qatar Sovereign\u00a0Wealth Fund bargains hard in the board room and\u00a0the kingdom makes available Qatar\u2019s Good Offices to\u00a0resolve disputes.<\/p>\n

Qatar\u2019s foreign policy made an abrupt shift when the\u00a0kingdom entered the war against Qaddafi. The\u00a0kingdom sent aircraft to join NATO forces. On the\u00a0ground, Qatari special forces armed, trained, and led\u00a0Libyans against Qaddafi\u2019s troops.<\/p>\n

The head of the National Transition Council Mustafa\u00a0Abdul Jalil attributed much of the success of the\u00a0revolution to the efforts of Qatar that he said had\u00a0spent two billion dollars. He commented, \u201cNobody\u00a0traveled to Qatar without being given a sum of\u00a0money by the\u00a0government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Qatar had ten billion dollars in investments in Libya\u00a0to protect. The Barwa Real Estate Company alone\u00a0had two billion committed to the construction of a\u00a0beach resort near Tripoli.<\/p>\n

While the bullets were still flying, Qatar signed eight\u00a0billion dollars in agreements with the NTC. Just in\u00a0case things with the NTC didn\u2019t work out, they\u00a0financed rivals Abdel Hakim Belhaj, leader of the\u00a0February 17 Martyr\u2019s Brigade, and Sheik Ali Salabi, a\u00a0radical cleric who had been exiled in Doha.<\/p>\n

If Qatar\u2019s investments of ten billion dollars seem\u00a0substantial, the future has far more to offer.\u00a0Reconstruction costs are estimated at seven hundred\u00a0billion dollars. The Chinese and Russians had left\u00a0behind between them thirty billion in incomplete\u00a0contracts and investments and all of it is there for\u00a0the taking for those who aided the revolution.<\/p>\n

No sooner had Qaddafi been caught and shot, Qatar\u00a0approached Bashar Al-Assad to establish a\u00a0transitional government with the Moslem\u00a0Brotherhood. As you would expect, relinquishing\u00a0power to the Brotherhood was an offer that he could\u00a0refuse. It didn\u2019t take long before he heard his\u00a0sentence pronounced in January 2012 on the CBS\u00a0television program, 60 Minutes by Sheikh Hamad bin\u00a0Khalifa\u00a0Al-Thani.<\/p>\n

The Emir declared that foreign troops should be sent\u00a0into Syria. \u00a0At the Friends of Syria conference in\u00a0February, Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani\u00a0said, “We should do whatever necessary to help [the\u00a0Syrian opposition], including giving them weapons to\u00a0defend\u00a0themselves.”<\/p>\n

Why would Qatar want to become involved in Syria\u00a0where they have little invested? A map reveals that\u00a0the kingdom is a geographic prisoner in a small\u00a0enclave on the Persian Gulf coast.<\/p>\n

It relies upon the export of LNG, because it is\u00a0restricted by Saudi Arabia from building pipelines to\u00a0distant markets. \u00a0In 2009, the proposal of a pipeline\u00a0to Europe through Saudi Arabia and Turkey to the\u00a0Nabucco pipeline was considered, but Saudi Arabia\u00a0that is angered by its smaller and much louder\u00a0brother has blocked any overland expansion.<\/p>\n

Already the largest LNG producer, Qatar will not\u00a0increase the production of LNG. The market is\u00a0becoming glutted with eight new facilities in\u00a0Australia coming online between 2014 and 2020.<\/p>\n

A saturated North American gas market and a far\u00a0more competitive Asian market leaves only Europe.\u00a0The discovery in 2009 of a new gas field near Israel,\u00a0Lebanon, Cyprus, and Syria opened new possibilities\u00a0to bypass the Saudi Barrier and to secure a new\u00a0source of income. Pipelines are in place already in\u00a0Turkey to receive the gas. Only Al-Assad is in the\u00a0way.<\/p>\n

Qatar along with the Turks would like to remove Al-Assad and install the Syrian chapter of the Moslem\u00a0Brotherhood. It is the best organized political\u00a0movement in the chaotic society and can block Saudi\u00a0Arabia\u2019s efforts to install a more fanatical Wahhabi\u00a0based regime. Once the Brotherhood is in power,\u00a0the Emir\u2019s broad connections with Brotherhood\u00a0groups throughout the region should make it easy\u00a0for him to find a friendly ear and an open hand in\u00a0Damascus.<\/p>\n

A control centre has been established in the Turkish\u00a0city of Adana near the Syrian border to direct the\u00a0rebels against Al-Assad. Saudi Deputy Foreign\u00a0Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Saud\u00a0asked to have the Turks establish a joint Turkish,\u00a0Saudi, Qatari operations center. \u201cThe Turks liked the\u00a0idea of having the base in Adana so that they could\u00a0supervise its operations\u201d a source in the Gulf told\u00a0Reuters.<\/p>\n

The fighting is likely to continue for many more\u00a0months, but Qatar is in for the long term. At the\u00a0end, there will be contracts for the massive\u00a0reconstruction and there will be the development of\u00a0the gas fields. In any case, Al-Assad must go.\u00a0There is nothing personal; it is strictly business to\u00a0preserve the future tranquility and well-being of\u00a0Qatar.<\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

I wish to express my appreciation to Mr. Imonti for his allowing me to publish here the entirety of that article.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Closing note from Eric Zuesse: The preceding article reconstructs U.S. President Barack Obama\u2019s foreign policy, on the basis of the linked and cited reliable news accounts of his Administration\u2019s actions, not of their mere words. This reconstruction is grounded in the linked-to news-sources, all of which I have investigated and verified — and some of which I myself researched and wrote. The ones that I produced are themselves sourced to the links within those reports, all of which I likewise have personally checked and verified. Consequently, the chain of verifications back to this reconstruction\u2019s primary sources is available here to any online reader. Every reader is encouraged to track back to its ultimate source any allegation in this report that might appear to be at all questionable. Not only will this exercise be helpful to that reader concerning this given point at question in the report, but that tracking back to original sources will open the reader to an associated world of yet deeper discovery, which I hope that this news-report and analysis will end up doing for many readers, and which is the reason that I wrote it: so as to share with others what I and many other careful and cautious researchers have discovered, though some of it might be starkly at variance with what our Government, and most of the aristocratically controlled press, have been more commonly presenting as \u2018truth\u2019 about these matters. At least, this exercise will provide an alternative frame of reference regarding these issues, an alternative possibility to consider, and one which the present writer has verified, from every root to every branch, in this tree of historical reconstruction of the events here recounted. <\/em><\/p>\n

———-<\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> and of \u00a0CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Obama Represents U.S. & Arabic Aristocracies, Against Those of Russia & Iran. Eric Zuesse   INTRODUCTION: Why is the Ukrainian Government, which the U.S. supports, bombing the pro-Russian residents who live in Ukraine\u2019s own southeast? Why is the American Government, which aims to oust Syria\u2019s leader Bashar al-Assad, bombing his main enemy, ISIS? This report […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":141286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461,1622],"tags":[806,807,808,809,810,48,32,74,96,535,55,523,49,76,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-141277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"category-featured","9":"tag-806","10":"tag-807","11":"tag-808","12":"tag-809","13":"tag-810","14":"tag-bbc","15":"tag-cia","16":"tag-climate-change","17":"tag-cover-up","18":"tag-global-news","19":"tag-uk-news","20":"tag-ukraine","21":"tag-usa-news","22":"tag-warfare","23":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}