The Military Industrial Economic Complex & It’s Implications in Mali & Algeria

Mali, Algeria, Somalia, Libya, Congo, Egypt – Africa burns as The West launches yet another war for the control of natural resources and political domination.

It comes with a dreaded irony that fifty two years ago this week, President Dwight D. Eisenhower used his farewell speech to the nation to warn the country against the rise of what he called the military-industrial complex.

Sadly, his words, though they became iconic and well-remembered, were not heeded and his warning is now more relevant and critical than ever.

It is the coming together of vested interests across the military, politics and multinational corporate giants that dictate war is a booming business, especially in a time of western economic crisis.

Mohammed Ansar pointed out:

“Tribalism and religion has always been exploited as a pretext to economic and imperial ambitions. We have always known this but how quick we are to forget”

Yamin Zakaria’s piece, titled “The Massacre of Muslim Civilians is always: ‘Self-Defence’ but never Terrorism” explores the nuances of who the media frame as terrorists. Although written about recent events in Gaza, you can easily replace “Palestine/Gaza” with so called “Militants/Islamists” that are the bogey terms in Mali & Algeria.

Former British soldier and now staunch opponent of the governments imperialist agenda, Joe Glenton was quick to point out the critical role of China in Mali.

Perhaps we should remember the role of Margaret Thatchers son, Mark “Scratcher” in the failed coup d’état attempt in Equatorial Guinea, along with his Etonian old boys, amongst them former British Army officer and mercenary Simon Francis Mann.

And as I sat here writing this, with the Channel 4 News playing in the background, Krish Guru Murthy, happens to mention in passing that “British mercenaries, the Stirling Group – are the on ground in Algeria offering advice & assistance”, of course it was mentioned in passing, as if it were purely irrelevant.

The Stirling Group’s website makes for interesting reading.

You can read more about the Stirling Group and how they were established in a brilliant expose by documentary maker Adam Curtis on his blog.

Or if you have time, I’d recommend you watch the documentary “The Mayfair Set” below:

The ever consistent Glenn Greenwald put it simply:

As French war planes bomb Mali, there is one simple statistic that provides the key context: this west African nation of 15 million people is the eighth country in which western powers – over the last four years alone – have bombed and killed Muslims – after Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and the Philippines.

The Financial Times made the economic case even simpler:

“across the countries which directly border Mali, there are sizeable assets at stake in the form of mines and gas fields….Niger supplies 7.5 per cent of the world’s uranium according to the World Nuclear Association, much of it to France”

Is it little wonder that President Hollande’s economic crisis back home in France is causing “French utility companies to cut costs and sell assets to shore up their balance sheets hit by high debt”

In fact, France are actually so broke that the French foreign minister Laurent Fabius has been going cap in hand to gain funding for their war, from non other than……“Rich Arab Gulf states in The Emirates”

Nafeez Ahmed also drew the conclusions between military and economic interests over lapping:

“NATO’s strategic interests in North Africa, described in 2007 by State Department adviser J. Peter Pham as “protecting access to hydrocarbons and other strategic resources… a task which includes ensuring against the vulnerability of those natural riches and ensuring that no other interested third parties, such as China, India, Japan, or Russia, obtain monopolies or preferential treatment”

While our politicians crow about no “boots on the ground” we judge by their past form, and boy do they have it, after all, what were the SAS doing in Libya less than a year ago?

Recently, documents were submitted to a French high court judge that showed:

“Gaddafi approving an ‘agreement in principle to support the campaign for the candidate for the presidential elections, Nicolas Sarkozy, for a sum equivalent to 50 million euros (£40 million)”

It has also been claimed that:

The man that put the bullet into Gaddafi’s head was French secret service, sent by French President at the time Nicolas Sarkozy.

Why?

To ensure Gaddafi would never make it to an open court and start talking about his cosy relation with western leaders.

Other former western leaders, including ex British Prime Minister Tony Blair, were also extremely close to Gaddafi, visiting him regularly and helping to facilitate multi-million pounds business deals.

Maybe Gaddafi’s overthrow broke all kinds of local ethnic, tribal and commercial bargains and power-broking arrangements that the experts at the FCO never understood?

Not that the politicians will ever admit that their disastrous actions in Mali have had anything to do with Algeria, even if Kofi Annan says it does.

At the heart of the issue is a simple underlying factor.

Money and the energy needed to create it, as I wrote in a recent post:

“It’s the way money works that has locked us into an inevitable collision of two mutually exclusive operating principles. A manmade requirement for infinite growth that collides with a man-sustaining and unyielding finite planet resources”

The lands that are portrayed as “The Third World” are heavily rich in natural resources. What they lack is the technology owned by the western nations to extract and commodify the abundance of mineral wealth that lies a few metres below their feet.

That’s why the Chinese will build President Obiang a vast metropolis in Equatorial Guinea in return for the rights to the countries natural resources.

This is why our Government has allowed dozens of multinational companies a full and access privileged access to the heart of our so called democratic process.

The minister for trade Lord Green launched the “strategic relations” initiative in July 2011, giving 38 companies, including oil, telecoms and pharmaceutical giants, a direct line to ministers and officials.

Companies such as Google, Vodafone & Starbucks are paying little or no UK tax and making “sweetheart” deals with tax authorities. Why is it that Petro giant Shell has met with high ranking ministers within the Business, Culture, Energy and Climate Change departments, with at least 56 official meetings in the last 18 months?

The often crowed myth of us being a representative democracy is a lie. We are not a democracy, we are a plutocracy.

A plutocracy in which we see the coming together of military and economic interests to gain what they crave the most – money.

Add into this devilish mix of self interest is the media. In the run up to the Iraq invasion, Rupert Murdoch and his 175 newspaper editors worldwide all backed Bush’s policies in the Middle East, and were prominent in whipping up a frenzy to go to war.

So next time you switch on your television and are watching government propaganda on the BBC, and you see a group of Africans burning your flag, ask yourself this one simple question:

Why do they really hate us?

Who said imperialism was dead?

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As usual – I welcome your comments below or you can reach me via Twitter @HotterThanCurry

The Power of the Israeli Lobby in the USA

Israel’s presence in the United States is far from simple, but remains a necessary aspect of the US’s continual economic and governmental stronghold. However, disengaging from Israel’s clutches will become an insurmountable task for the US, as its economy continues to plummet in the face of massive debt.

As of January 2011, US debt is currently $14 trillion dollars and according to The Washington Times:

“[Obama’s government] will run a deficit of $1.645 trillion this year, topping 2009’s previous record by more than $230 billion.”

In previous years, despite the insistence of American taxpayers, the government continually exceeded records upon records and this sight of a new record remains insignificant. As Congress increases the debt ceiling, an incredible pressure will overcome the US as its status of being the reserve currency falls to complete halt–jeopardizing the entire American infrastructure.

What does this have to do with Israel?

It’s quite clear, with the federal and governmental loans being provided to Israel at an alarming rate, it is no doubt that this money can be used to further increase America’s standard of living. While the American standard of living is nothing short of 3rd world nations, it’s quite clear that the responsiveness and a functioning democracy must be revised in order to reshape America all together. Of course, this is purely a fantastical outlook because, these betterments will not come unless the US stops its aid to Israel.

While I’ve said that the US should stop Israeli aid, this is simply not possible because both Israel and the US would head towards complete bankruptcy. Despite mounting debt and the threat to the US’s currency reserve status, will the US continue to provide Israel a significant portion of its funding? The only way for the US to break out of this with conscious and life-sustaining determination is to cease Israeli funding.

The extent of Israeli funding is incredible, that the average American will be appalled to know that the primary reason for the poor quality of life is simply due to American (specifically taxpayer dollars) being funnelled callously into the hands of a vicious tyrant. According to the Congressional Research Service (2010), “Since 1985, the United States has provided nearly $3 billion in grants to Israel”. More alarmingly is what the CRS reported here:

“In August 2007, the Bush Administration announced that it would increase U.S. military assistance to Israel by $6 billion over the next decade. The agreement calls for incremental annual increases in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) to Israel, reaching $3 billion a year by FY2011.”

The reason why the Americans continually increase Israeli funding is primarily to Israel’s powerful elite of “soldiers” deeply inside all significant areas of American economy, financing, and government in the form of what Petras (2009) called a “collective”. The power of the Jewish Lobby (“Lobby”) in the United States comprises of a massive and powerful network system connecting every Jewish person to the next with the single purpose of pure Israel support, even if it means supporting politicians in the United States to achieve their goal. According to Petras (2009), 65% of funding for the Democratic Party of the US comes from the Lobby, 30% for the Republicans (the Republicans don’t need as much persuasion). When Obama wishes to come out of Israel’s influence, he’s talking about saving American’s international image, because actually doing that is impossible.

Kofi Annan, the former United Nations Secretary General, once said:

”The whole world is demanding that Israel withdraw [from occupied Palestinian territories]. I don’t think the whole world … can be wrong”

(Source: Quoted in Forward (New York City), April 19, 2002, p. 11. 2.).

Consider this, Jews barely consist of 2% of the American population but are 40% of American billionaires, 25% are elite Journalists and publishers, 17% are the leaders of public interest organizations, and over 15% are top US civil servants (source) What is this supposed to mean to you? Simply put, quoted from Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Prize winner in 1984:

“The Israeli government is placed on a pedestal [in the US], and to criticize it is to be immediately dubbed anti-Semitic. People are scared in this country, to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful — very powerful”

(Source: D. Tutu, “Apartheid in the Holy Land,” The Guardian (Britain), April 29, 2002. 3)

Breaking away from the clutches of Israel is, as I said above, an insurmountable and nearing impossible task. With Jewish funding coordinated primarily by these influential ethnic groups and their equally right-wing zionist fanatics, it’s quite clear that America is headed into a place of no return, a debt ceiling which will continue to strangle the American population, as all the countries money gets funnelled away from hard-earning taxpayers into the greedy hands of a violent, terrorist Israel state. All in all, Americans are screwed and for them, it’s totally alright.

Author:

Sufi M and his staff operate The Glaring Facts, one of the leading and densely populated websites involving psychology, media-related material, history of science, and money management. We are certain you will find something that will fascinate you.

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Run to your doomsday bunker! The apocalypse is coming

Vodpod videos no longer available.

A devastating earthquake strikes Japan. A massive tsunami kills thousands. Fears of a nuclear meltdown run rampant. Bloodshed and violence escalate in Libya.

And U.S. companies selling doomsday bunkers are seeing sales skyrocket anywhere from 20% to 1,000%.

You could be living large in your own doomsday bunker, only if you have a spare $20 million down the back of your sofa.

Only thing is, you don’t want people knowing you have one, imagine spending 20 years underground with a bunch of people you can’t stand.

Americans are a gullible bunch, they’ve been paranoid enough to be building these since the cold war era, and were fooled into believing the Y2K bug would destroy the planet, know it’s all about the Mayan prophecy.

If you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything.

O.I.L. – Operation Invade Libya – Oil for Weapons?

Whenever their is western intervention in a Muslim country, the first conclusion we jump to is “they’re after the oil”. Within a week of meeting in London, Lloyds list reports the first tanker is docking at rebel held Tobruk to take load of one million barrels of oil, or about 130,000 tonnes of oil, over $100 million (70.5 million euros) worth of crude.

The tanker is owned by VITOL one of the big three “Big Oil” crude traders in the world.

Last week I stated why Turkey had been so outspoken over the Libyan situation.

Platts have stated;

“In a related development, the National Transitional Council in Benghazi announced Sunday the establishment of a crisis team to manage affairs in an interim cap city while battles raged between the rebel forces and the heavily armed Qadhafi loyalists determined to seize oil terminals and ports west of Benghazi.

The eight-member Crisis Management Team will be headed by Mahmoud Jibril, chairman of the rebel interim administration, with Ali Sayeed El-Barghathi as its secretary. Ali El Essawi will handle international affairs and Ali Tarhouni economics and finance with Bougaighis and Ahmed Shareef of the Benghazi central bank reporting to him.”

The opening up of the Oil supply will have two effects.

Firstly, it legitimises the opposition as the above crisis management team shows. Under whose directives they are operating seems unclear.

It has been widely acknowledged that U.S. President Barack Obama has signed secret orders, allowing CIA teams to enter Libya to gather intelligence and set up links with rebels.

Secondly, the west, does not want another expensive war to fund and to see itself bogged down in another Muslim country, but it is prepared to arm the opposition.

“US should not hesitate to arm Libyan rebels” Bill Clinton

While Robert Fisk reported on America’s secret plan to arm Libya’s rebels hinged on Obama asking the Saudis to airlift weapons into Benghazi.

The situation in Libya now looks like being a long drawn out one.

If the west are to benefit by effectively swapping oil for weapons, then there is a conflict of interest.

Why would you want the ensuing civil war to end if you are getting access to oil without having to fight for it, you can sell your inferior, out of date military hardware to the rebels and make a huge chunk of change in the meanwhile, with the added bonus of Muslims killing Muslims, heck, what’s not to like?

For further reading into the geopolitical and battle for natural resources, The Akh would recommend reading an article titled GENOCIDE IN LIBYA? NATO INVASION UNDER WAY. ITS NOT ONLY THE OIL, STUPID.

We’re not in this together, as MP’s give themselves £5,000 pay rise

While all the media attention was on the protests to demand an end to the cuts, our elected members of parliament decided to award themselves a pay rise of some £4 million, working out to be £5,000 per MP.

To say this has been under reported in the mass media would be an understatement.

To see the utter bullshit that came out of Ed Milbands mouth shows the utter contempt in which these careerist parliamentarians hold us the general public in.

They stand up on the podium and say one thing, whilst in reality they do another – it’s called being a hypocrite.

Many MPs’ seem to think that we’ve all forgotten about their greed over expenses, perhaps forgetting and carrying on is the British way?

Well what else can you put it down to when these plans to relax the rules on MPs’ expenses seem to have been met without any protest what so ever.

With local elections and the alternative vote referendum looming – not to mention war in Libya and turmoil in Portugal – it’s probably a safe bet that the politicians get away with this act – but let’s keep it real.

WE are not in this together.

While YOU make the cuts to public services and give yourself a pay rise in the process, WE are the ones that are having to shoulder all the fallout.

There’s only so much the people can take before heads will inevitably have to roll.

Creating The Terror Threat: ‘Fake’ bomb UPS flight from UK to Turkey investigated

How does a bomb complete with timer, wires and a detonator work it’s way undetected from the UK to Turkey via airfreight through the UPS freight company.

Those of you with a memory will recollect that UPS were the freight carrier who delivered “printer bombs” from Yemen to the USA in 2010.

Media outlets are reporting that:

“Police stressed the incident was not terrorist-related.”

BBC News

“It wasn’t a real bomb. It wasn’t sent by Al Qaeda and it wasn’t on a passenger plane.”

ITV News

Anytime someone comes close to farting near a plane, it’s Al-CIAda & the media kicking up an almighty fuss of how close we came to armageddon.

So why are the media downplaying this?

What I do know is this.

UPS are one of the few freight carriers in the world that do not have third party checks on the freight it carries, meaning it is deemed trustworthy and competent enough not to need extra security checks.

Has that made it complacent or does that mean it has been infiltrated by the military industrial complex as a conduit to launch false flag operations?

Back in December 2010, I wrote about how the intelligence agencies had been targeting UK airports with dummy explosives to “test” security measures.

Why Turkey?

The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is an outspoken opponent of a British & French led military campaign against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Erdogan said:

“I wish that those who only see oil, gold mines and underground treasures when they look in [Libya’s] direction, would see the region through glasses of conscience from now on.”

President Gül reinforced the Turkish view that France and others were being driven primarily by economic interests:

“The aim [of the air campaign] is not the liberation of the Libyan people, there are hidden agendas and different interests.”

Turkey was the only country that stressed that Nato should be given “sole command”, of the Libyan mission.

Turkey is Nato’s second biggest army after the US and its only Muslim member.

France & Germany do not want Turkey, a Muslim country to join the EU.

More than 40 countries and organisations met yesterday in London to discuss the Libyan situation.

The one thing they did agree upon was:

“Qatar had also agreed to facilitate the sale of Libyan oil”

Libya runs it’s oil & gas industry along nationalised lines.

What are the chances that the price Libya will have to pay for western intervention is the opening up of it’s industry to foreign owners – privatisation – and flight of capital into foreign hands?

For further reading on the geo political situation the mainstream media will not discuss, The Akh would recommend reading an article written by Keith Harmon Snow entitled GENOCIDE IN LIBYA? NATO INVASION UNDER WAY. ITS NOT ONLY THE OIL, STUPID.

City Bankers Provide More Than Half of Conservative Party Funding

Despite what they may have once said in opposition, the Conservatives have done next to nothing to prevent huge bonuses for bankers working for publicly bailed out banks. It is worth noting the party’s increasing financial dependence on the City.

New research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals that donations from the Square Mile have doubled under David Cameron and now account for more than half of all Conservative funding. As the graph below shows, City donations rose from 24.67 per cent of donations in 2005 (£2.7m) to 50.79 per cent (£11.4m) in 2010.

So why is this important?

Take the cases of Stanley Fink & George Magan the former runs a hedge fund, the latter is a banker and investor.

Both men have contributed big money to the conservative party.

Fink now serves as the party’s co-treasurer & Magan was a former treasurer and they were both awarded peerages in 2010.

If you are still failing to connect the dots, then let me help you out.

Individuals such as these can buy power and influence over politicians and political parties, as I mentioned in yesterdays post “British Political Cross Party Collusion & Corruption”

Their cash entitles them to membership of the Conservative Leader’s Group.

Membership of this group allows numerous opportunities to meet “David Cameron and other senior figures from the Conservative Party at dinners, post-PMQ lunches, drinks receptions, election result events and important campaign launches.”

In effect it’s the ultimate return on a loyalty card, you shop with us and in return the points accumulated will get you into the House of Lords.

Can you honestly believe that there will be any sort of reform to the banking system, when bankers control the purse strings of the government?

When you have individuals from an elitist background, who are palpably their to serve their own interests above those of the people they are supposedly their to serve, then what kind of a democracy do we really have?

Europe protests Government cuts – Britain does nothing

People all across Europe have been protesting against Government cut backs – the people of Britain however seem content in being a nation of spineless naval gazers, the only things that matter to them are “strictly come dancing” and the “X factor”.

They stopped smashing plates and took to the streets in Greece.

They awoke from their siesta and took to the streets in Spain.

The French, well they’re always on strike, they love to burn a sheep or two, they took to the streets as well.

As a matter of fact demonstrations have been taking place in Belgium, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Cyprus, Romania, the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Serbia.

Why are all these people taking to the streets?

The ordinary workers have become the biggest victims of an economic crisis set off by bankers and traders, many of whom were rescued by massive government intervention.

Spanish unions held a general strike to oppose measures such wage cuts and tax increases put in place by the country’s socialist government, amid high unemployment – with the jobless rate more than doubling since 2007 hitting 20 per cent in July this year.

The unions said 10 million people, or more than half the workforce, were on strike.

Greece’s main unions, representing about 2.5 million workers, were protesting against measures prescribed by the EU and the IMF in return for bailing the country out. It raised the retirement age and curbed early pensions, a key element of an EU/IMF bailout.

Public sector wages were cut by an average 15 per cent in 2010 and will be frozen until 2014. Private sector wages were also frozen for this year and will only rise in line with euro area inflation in 2011 and 2012. The main VAT rate was increased by four percentage points to 23 per cent.

In Ireland, the Anglo Irish Bank, which was nationalised last year to save it from collapse, owes some $97bn to depositors worldwide, leaving Irish taxpayers with a mammoth bill at a time when people are suffering through high unemployment, tax hikes and heavy budget cuts.

France has said it will curb civil service spending, scrap tax breaks and otherwise count on accelerating economic expansion to replenish public coffers in 2011.

Portugal approved an austerity package in June to reduce the budget deficit. It ruled out drawing on the eurozone aid package but the draft 2011 budget is said to include significant spending cuts and additional measures on the revenue side.

In Slovenia, public service workers continued their open-ended strike to protest the government’s plan to freeze their salaries for two years – or until economy grows again at a rate of three per cent.

Germany agreed a package in June which will cut welfare spending by 30 billion euros over the period, reduce public sector payrolls by up to 15,000 by 2014 and raise new taxes on nuclear power plant operators and air travel.

You can see that Britain isn’t on the list of people taking to the streets to demonstrate against the actions of their government.

Want to know why?

The people have been sold a false construct of reality where the only things that matter to them are “strictly come dancing” and the “X factor”.

I honestly thought that the day would come when people would realise how badly they have been ripped off and there would be blood running in the streets.

Don’t worry – the good people of Britain will make sure that never happens as long as there’s something good on the telly to watch.

How To Make An Arab Ruler Happy?

Easy

Give him a tall building to boost his ego.

It reminds me of the authentic Bukhari hadith, one of the portents of the end of days will be when:

“you see poor, naked, barefoot shepherds of sheep and goats competing in making tall buildings”

I got to see this up close and personal recently, though I missed the opening of the Burj by a few days, I can appreciate the engineering that goes into it, and a nice sunny climate in the middle of December does a lot too help the ambience.

Dubai for me is nothing but a disneyworld for grown ups, every vice imaginable is serviced, and yet there is no sustainability about the entire project.

Yes I’ve heard it all before, “this place was a desert 50 years ago”, when you have to import everything from the labour to the food to deliver this project, ask yourself how long this can continue for?

The bubble has burst, there are many building projects that have laid down tools, due to no money being available.

Let’s consider just a few economic indicators:

The investment arm of the Dubai government, Dubai World, defaulted on $59 billion US in debt and asked lenders for a reprieve on repayment until May. In mid-December, neighbouring Abu Dhabi threw it a $10 billion US lifeline.

In November, Nakheel, Dubai’s property developer and part of the heavily-indebted Dubai World conglomerate, asked Nasdaq, the US stock exchange, to stop trading its bonds, falling 7.3 per cent over a 24 hour trading period to almost the 10 per cent maximum fall cap allowed.

In September, Istithmar World, the sovereign wealth fund of Dubai, scaled back it’s investments as it undertook an overhaul of its operations.

Earlier in 2009, droves of Dubai’s Slaves packed up and went home.

Even the expat community are getting jittery, one describing the scene in Dubai at the time of his departure a few weeks ago as:

“Like a war without the violence….people were fleeing the city en masse, terrified, leaving all of their belongings behind, unable to pay off many of the debts they incurred”