Posts From The Saker
(thanks for F. for pointing out this article to me!) Peter Dale Scott for Japan Focus Twice in the last two decades, significant cuts in U.S. and western military spending were foreseen: first after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and then in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. But both times military spending soon increased, and among the factors contributing to the increase were America’s interventions in new
Interesting piece on the BBC website today. First, we are told that the folks who killed General Abdel Fattah Younes are Islamists of the Obaida Ibn Jarrah Brigade. Then we are told that NATO bombed three satellite transmission dishes of the Libyan state TV. Now the killing of a former Gaddafi regime bonze like Abdel Fattah Younes hardly breaks my heart, but I am amazed at two things: first, how
Praise be to Allah the Lord of the world. Peace be on our Master and Prophet Abi Al Qassem Mohammad and on his chaste Household, chosen companions and on all prophets and messengers. Peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings. Allah Al Mighty says in His Holy Book: “Call to mind when ye were a small band, despised through the land, and afraid that men might despoil and
I currently have a job as an over-the-phone translator (from home), which pays pennies, but which has some perks: the dress code (none, I am at home), the commute (roughly 1 foot), the hours (flexible) and, on some days, some free time between calls. Like this morning. So I decided to kill some time having fun with Google. Here is what I did: I began entering some queries to see
by Grey Falcon For a long time now, the Empire has worked on a way to stamp out the last vestiges of Serb freedom in the occupied province of Kosovo (declared “independent” by its Albanian government in February 2008, with Imperial support). They put the plan into effect this week.The pathetic quisling regime in Serbia – which has been doing everything in its power to implicitly recognize the “Kosovian” government
By Professor Lawrence Davidson for Information Clearing House Death On 23 July 2011 it was announced that Dariush Rezai-Nejad was shot to death in Tehran by two men on motorbikes. The shooters also chased after his wife and shot her too. According to Al Jazeera Rezai-Nejad was doing research in the field of electronics and had connections to the Iranian Department of Defense. It is not known if he was
On July 9th, the famous Georgian politician Nino Burdzhanadze gave a 45min long interview to the Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy in which she made quite a few interesting revelations. Among other things she revealed that Putin had specifically told the Georgian leaders that should they attack the Russian peacekeepers in Ossetia Russia would launch a rescue operation and send more troops into Ossetia. He also warned that if Georgia
(-: thanks to L. for this little jewel of candid reporting :-) By Ron Kampeas for JTA Pro-Israel leaders in the United States, Britain and Australia are warily watching the unfolding of the phone-hacking scandal that is threatening to engulf the media empire of Rupert Murdoch, founder of News Corp. Murdoch’s sudden massive reversal of fortune — with 10 top former staffers and executives under arrest in Britain for hacking
NICOSIA, Cyprus – Dr. Ibrahim Kalin, the chief adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, emphasized Wednesday in a conversation with Haaretz that Turkey intends to normalize its relations with Israel across the board. “From the return of the ambassador, the renewal of joint military maneuvers, military and civilian cooperation, ministerial visits, and to all other areas, relations will return to how they were before the flotilla incident” of
By Anshel Pfeffer and Amira Hass for Ha’aretz IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz ordered the Israel Navy on Tuesday to intercept the French yacht Dignite-Al Karame after it had refused to stop heading toward the Gaza shore. Elite troops from Shayetet 13, a naval commando unit, boarded the vessel minutes after the IDF chief issued the order, and took it over quickly with no resistance on the part of
For Immediate Release Dignité on the last leg of voyage to Gaza: Small French ship carrying message that cannot be silenced [ ATHENS] The Steering Committee of Freedom Flotilla II: Stay Human can confirm, that after anchoring in international waters overnight, the French-flagged ship Dignité / Karama has commenced the last leg of its voyage to Gaza. We wish all on board well and remind Israel to refrain from interfering
16 July 2011 For Immediate Release French boat Dignité of Freedom Flotilla II leaves Greece The French boat “Dignité/Karama” (Dignity) left the Greek island Kastellorizo around 8:30PM local time on Saturday July 16, 2011, heading south. The ten passengers onboard view themselves as representatives of the whole Freedom Flotilla II – Stay Human. The rest of the Flotilla’s ships have been detained in different Greek ports, through bureaucratic obstruction, sabotage,
(Thanks to I. for this interesting article which features an overall interesting analysis, along with some typical western clichés – for example, there never was such a thing as a “Warsaw Pact school of grand maneuvers and heavy brigades” – The Saker) By Alastair Crooke for the Asia Times Can Syria properly be understood as an example of a “pure” Arab popular revolution, an uprising of non-violent, liberal protest against
There is much angst among people of conscience over the fate of Freedom Flotilla II, but by effectively scuttling it, Israel is really just hammering more nails in its own coffin, says Eric Walberg The efforts by Israel to prevent Freedom Flotilla II from leaving Greece have been largely successful. Of the original 10 ships, only the French ship Al-Karama (dignity) with 10 activists including French politicians, which sailed from
Gulf News reports: The organisers of the Gaza aid flotilla are not ruling out the possibility of the fleet sailing from Egyptian ports should their efforts to sail from Greece fail to materialise. Pro-Palestinian activists in Egypt have taken up the flotilla’s cause, inviting organisers to launch the fleet from Egypt after Greece made it clear that it would not allow the Freedom Flotilla 2 to launch from its ports.
(Thanks to I. for drawing my attention to this excellent article! VS) Crescent International reports: Colonel Muammar Qaddafi is an easy figure to hate. Given his eccentric behaviour, he is the butt of many jokes that are easily conflated into hate against the man and his policies. Qaddafi need not be our favourite tyrant but the West’s attack on his regime as well as the country’s infrastructure is not motivated
First, I sincerely want to thank you all for your comments in response to my “cage rattling”. I have to tell you that with time I have learned to greatly respect your insights into many topics and since Libya was one country about which I knew the least, your inputs helped me a great deal to make sense of what is going on. Let me repeat here that I never
After trying more elegant methods, today I have decided to rattle “you’all’s cages” as they say in Florida. This goes against my best judgment, and I am probably going to alienate some of you. Which is too bad, because it is from precisely those of you would might be most displeased by this post which I would like to hear a reaction. Considering all this, I am going to introduce
