John McCain: Founding Father of the Terrorist Emirate of Benghazi

Source: Land Destroyer Report
Tony Cartalucci

Benghazi declares autonomy, raises Al-Qaeda flag. McCain seeks to spread terrorist empire to Syria.  

"I have met with these brave fighters, and they are not Al-Qaeda. To the contrary: They are Libyan patriots who want to liberate their nation. We should help them do it." - Senator John McCain in Benghazi, Libya April 22, 2011.

Image: And yet, the very courthouse McCain uttered his lies in front of is now flying the flag of Al Qaeda, while crowds have been photographed in the streets of Benghazi carrying it aloft since the fall of Qaddafi. Clearly, the senator from Arizona was "mistaken." (click images to enlarge)

....

Even as McCain deceived the world with his comments in pursuit of overthrowing and destroying the sovereign nation-state of Libya, it was already a matter of record, according to America's own West Point Combating Terrorism Center, that Benghazi, and much of eastern Libya known as Cyrenaica, served as an epicenter for global Al Qaeda recruitment. Militants hailing from the eastern region's Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) would end up in both Afghanistan and Iraq fighting Western troops and participating in sectarian violence.

CNN Botches Effort to Refute 'Syrian Danny' Propaganda Scandal

Source: Infowars
Paul Joseph Watson

CNN’s attempt to refute claims that dubious activist Danny Dayem, known as ‘Syria Danny’, was caught staging sounds of gunfire during a recent interview with the network only resulted in further embarrassment, when Dayem admitted that the suspect video “should have been deleted,” presumably to hide the evidence of his propaganda stunt.

Following our exposé yesterday morning, which documented how Dayem, who has become the establishment media’s poster child for a military invasion of Syria, had ordered staged gunfire sounds to be made off camera during an interview, CNN’s Anderson Cooper invited him to engage in damage control during last night’s show.

During the interview with Cooper, Dayem only succeeds in virtually admitting the fact that the video is suspect. Asked how the footage was leaked, Dayem starts to say ‘we should have deleted it’ before hastily stating, “this has all been deleted.”

“I don’t know how they got it, this is all private, we should have, this has all been deleted, we have to delete all this stuff,” said Dayem.

Why Dayem is so insistent that the footage should be deleted, unless it contains something incriminating, is not explained. The interview from the footage has already been broadcast globally by CNN, so why the need to delete the rest of the footage? Perhaps because Dayem finds it hard to explain why he tells someone off camera during the clip, “Did you tell him to get the gunfire ready?”

This quote is not even addressed during Dayem’s interview with Cooper.

Furthermore, on his official Twitter feed, Dayem claims a different excuse to explain away him being rumbled as staging the gunfire.

“This was camera tricks by the Assad regime helped by Russians,” claims Dayem, citing no actual evidence.

In addition, in the original CNN interview with Cooper, Dayem claims he recovered dead bodies from civilians who had been killed “400 meters” away from his location, yet in last night’s interview he claims the shelling was taking place 15 kilometers away in a different city.

Curing Statism with Stefan Molyneux

Source: Corbett Report
James Corbett

Stefan Molyneux of FreedomainRadio.com joins us for a wide-ranging discussion of the philosophy behind anarchism. We cover the typical arguments against freedom that statists generally raise, imagine what a free society would look like and how it would function, and debate the underlying causes of the problems we face as a society.

The "Twitter Revolution" Myth

Source: Boiling Frogs Post

TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES:

As anyone who has logged on to the internet in the last five years is all too aware, social media websites have exploded in popularity to the point where they are virtually impossible to avoid.

Facebook is expected to hit one billion users later this year. Twitter handles almost 300 million tweets per day. Every second, one hour of video footage is uploaded to YouTube.

With this rise in popularity of social media has come an attendant rise in another trend: the dinosaur media’s attempts to portray these websites as revolutionary tools for freedom loving people around the world.

The Role Ex-Nazis Played in Early West Germany

Source: Spiegel
Ralf Beste, Georg Bönisch, Thomas Darnstaedt, Jan Friedmann, Michael Fröhlingsdorf and Klaus Wiegrefe

After World War II, West Germany rapidly made the transition from murderous dictatorship to model democracy. Or did it? New documents reveal just how many officials from the Nazi regime found new jobs in Bonn. A surprising number were chosen for senior government positions.

...

None of this information is new. It isn't just since the 1968 student revolts that critical citizens, intellectuals and the media have broadcast new details on the contemporary relevance of Germany's dark past. For years, the notion that partisans of the Nazi regimes were able to manipulate their way into the top levels of government in the young federal republic, and that former Nazi Party members set the tone in a country governed by the postwar constitution in the 1950s and 60s has been a subject for historians.

But six decades after the Nuremberg Trials against the leaders of the Nazi regime, a new attempt -- the first official one, at that -- to come to terms with postwar Germany's Nazi past is now underway. Now everything has to come out. Throughout the former West Germany, investigations are digging deep, extending all the way down to the foundations, seeking to answer a fundamental question: Just how brown -- the color most associated with the Nazis -- were the first years of postwar West Germany?

The government's 85-page response to the Left Party's inquiry about old Nazis in the halls of power is nothing more than an interim summary of research being undertaken in the archives of many ministries and federal agencies. As part of the effort, historians are reviewing enormous stacks of personnel files on behalf of the government.

No one has ever dug this deeply. The highly controversial study on Nazi involvement at the Foreign Ministry, marketed last year as a bestseller, was only the beginning. Historians are now studying old files at the Finance Ministry, in the judiciary and the Economics Ministry and, in particular, in the police and intelligence services. How many Nazis took part in the rebuilding of the government after World War II? How much influence did the surviving supporters of the Nazi dictatorship have on the establishment and operation of Germany's first functioning democracy?

Read Full Article
 

China Votes Against an Excuse for War

Source: China.org.cn
Qu Xing - President of the China Institute of International Studies

In February, China voted twice against a UN draft resolution which strongly condemned the Syrian President Bashar Assad's cruel crackdown on domestic uprising and calls for his resignation.

This action is a comprehensive judgment that considers the basic principles of the Charter of the United Nations, basic guidelines of contemporary international relations, China's national interests, and bilateral relations between China and the related countries.

In fact, China appreciates the Arab League's peace efforts; the reason why China voted against the draft resolution is related to its certain sections: they would provide a foundation for Western countries to launch a future Syrian war.

For example, the draft resolution agreed to solve the issue according to the schedule of the Arab League, and reserved the right to take further action if the draft cannot be carried out. But that hides acquiescence for free interpretation which would be nothing less than starting the vicious dominoes of foreign armed intervention in the Syrian conflict.

Libya has served a good example in this regard, where the Security Council resolutions had been overstepped and the Security Council authorization had been abused.

During the six-month war in Libya, at least 25,000 civilians lost their lives, and no one can tell the exact number of the people injured. If the Libyan model is applied to the case of Syria, a similar disaster will undoubtedly occur, and the wounds of war will be difficult to heal.

Obama Administration Moves to Aid Syrian Opposition

Source: Cryptogon

In the piece below, we read that this, “Stops short of providing any direct military assistance to the armed opposition.”

If you want to read detailed, voluminous accounts of how the U.S. covertly and illegally provides weapons to any state or group it pleases, see, Spider’s Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq by Alan Friedman and, Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA by Terry Reed.

In other words, planeloads of weapons are going to be given to Al Qaeda (See: Syria: Clinton Admits U.S. On Same Side As Al Qaeda).

Via: Foreign Policy:

The Obama administration is moving to provide direct assistance to the internal opposition in Syria for the first time, marking a shift in U.S. policy toward a more aggressive plan to help oust President Bashar al-Assad.

Last week, a group of senior Obama administration officials met to finalize a package of options for aiding both the internal and external Syrian opposition, to include providing direct humanitarian and communications assistance to the Syrian opposition, two administration officials confirmed to The Cable. This meeting of what’s known as the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council set forth a new and assertive strategy for expanding U.S. engagement with Syrian activists and providing them with the means to organize themselves, but stops short of providing any direct military assistance to the armed opposition.

Mossad, CIA and Blackwater operate in Syria - report

Source: RT

A security operation in Homs reveals Mossad, CIA and Blackwater are involved in the military violence in this part of Syria, as over 700 Arab and Western gunmen and Israeli, American and European-made weapons were detained in Baba Amr district. 

­Syrian security forces got yet further proof of Western powers’ military involvement in Syria’s internal conflict, reports Al-Manar, a news agency, affiliated with Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militant group and political party.

Around 700 gunmen were recently arrested in the former rebel stronghold of Babar Amr.

“The captured gunmen held Arab nationalities, including Gulf, Iraqi, and Lebanese. Among them were also Qatari intelligence agents and non-Arab fighters from Afghanistan, Turkey, and some European countries like France,” the agency quotes Syrian expert in strategic affairs Salim Harba as saying.

Harba also confirmed to the agency that “a coordination office was established in Qatar under American-Gulf sponsorship. The office includes American, French, and Gulf – specifically from Qatar and Saudi Arabia – intelligence agents, as well as CIA, Mossad, and Blackwater agents and members of the Syrian Transitional Council.”

The Syrian expert also added the security forces have also seized Israeli-, European- and American-made weapons.

Syria: Game Over for Western Propaganda

Source: Land Destroyer Report
Tony Cartalucci

Syrian Activists Caught Lying, Syrian Rebels Caught Committing Atrocities.

Why should the West intervene in Syria when it turns out "activists" giving daily body counts, the sole source of "evidence" for the UN's ever climbing grand total, are caught not only lying, but staging entire interviews complete with fake gunfire directed "off stage?" Why should the US, UK, EU, or the West's stable of Arab proxy-regimes be allowed to arm Syrian rebels admittedly carrying out their own horrific atrocities? Clearly Syria's opposition have turned out, just as they have in Libya, to be craven, murderous, and ultimately deceitful extremists - making any further contact with them by the West a direct violation of their own national and international laws.

Video: Classic war propaganda - complete with staged-gunfire off camera and the intrepid actor "Danny" relaxed and joking before getting into character to give a hysterical "casualty report" to his co-star, CNN's Anderson Cooper - just one of many he regularly gives to Western media networks.

The omnipresent "Danny" from Syria has been recently exposed in a video showing him relaxed, joking, and preparing off-camera staged-gunfire, before getting into character for a hysterical "casualty report" given to CNN's Anderson Cooper. "Danny" isn't the first fraud caught being used by a duplicitous Western media to sell military intervention in Syria, there was also "Gay Girl in Damascus" who turned out to be a 40 year-old American man based in the UK. It is exactly "activist-based" reports like this, that the UN and corporate media have used shamelessly to advocate Wall Street and London's mandates.

Image: Pictured is "Gay Girl in Damascus." Far from an editorial oversight, "Gay Girl in Damascus" was in reality a 40 year-old American man living in the UK. The Western media shamelessly exploited his narrative until it unraveled, and simply moved on to other actors, like "Danny" who directs fake gunfire off-camera while giving casualty reports to CNN.

Holder: Executive Branch Reviews Of Targeted Killings Count As ‘Due Process’

Source: TPM
Ryan J. Reilly

The Obama administration believes that executive branch reviews of evidence against suspected al-Qaeda leaders before they are targeted for killing meet the constitution’s “due process” requirement and that American citizenship alone doesn’t protect individuals from being killed, Attorney General Eric Holder said in a speech Monday. 

“Due process and judicial process are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security,” Holder said. “The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process.”

Broadly outlining the guidelines the Obama administration has used to conduct lethal drone stikes overseas, Holder said the U.S. government could legally target a senior operational al Qaeda leader who is actively engaged in planning to kill Americans if the individual (1) posed an imminent threat of violence; (2) could not feasibly be captured; and (3) if the operation was conducted in line with war principles. 

Such a use of lethal force against that type of individual, Holder said, wouldn’t violate the executive order banning assassinations or criminal statues because such an act would be in “self defense.” In remarks delivered at Northwestern University Law School in Chicago, Holder also said that targeted killings are not “assassinations,” adding that the “use of that loaded term is misplaced” because assassinations are “unlawful killings” while targeted strikes are conducted lawfully.

The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) has so far refused to release a copy of a legal memorandum justifying the targeted killing of the U.S. born Anwar al-Awlaki, who allegedly inspired several attacks or attempted attacks on the U.S. 

While not mentioning Anwar al-Awlaki by name — Holder said he “cannot discuss or confirm any particular program or operation” — he arguably referenced his killing by using the example of a U.S. born al Qaeda leader. Holder said that “citizenship alone does not make such individuals immune from being targeted.”

Documents Reveal Rockefeller Foundation Actively Engaged in Mass Mind-Control

Source: Infowars
Jurriaan Maessen

From archive material from the 1940s onward, it has become apparent that the Rockefeller Foundation has for decades now fanatically nurtured research into fear-inducing brainwashing techniques for the masses.  

In a series of generous grants in the 1940s- and 50s, extended to Professor Carl I. Hovland of Yale University, the Foundation actively funded research into “the psychological mechanisms through which communications exert their influence.” Main research subject deals with the question of “how the individual deals with the welter of conflicting ideas with which he is constantly bombarded; how "wishful thinking" and emotional bias affect judgment; and whether the judgment process is transferred from one situation to another are among the problems to be studied”, we read in the 1954 Rockefeller yearly report. 

Hovland, besides conducting research into behavioral and attitude-changes of groups, was also part of the Rockefeller Foundation’s social science staff. In addition to that, the professor was heavily involved in other branches of the Anglo-American establishment. In the study Origins of mass communications research during the American cold war by Timothy Glander, the author explains: 

“(…) Hovland held key positions on several major national boards, including the Air Force’s Human Resources Research Institute, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Office of Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, and he doubtlessly had input in determining the research agendas that these organizations pursued.” 

Already in 1948 the Foundation was directing cash toward Hovland and his team. In the 1948 report the authors outlined the reasons behind the grants given: 

“An understanding of communication and attitude change is important to our educational system, to those who lead great organizations, and to those who are concerned with political opinion and behavior. More dependable knowledge of how effective communication may be achieved in the area of attitude and opinion is essential (…).”

In the days of the Cold War, propaganda was often so blatantly obvious to the accustomed-to-freedom westerner that it was more easily identifiable as such. The Rockefeller Foundation understood that the American people needed to be subjected to more sophisticated forms of manipulation if the gradual push for global government was to be effectively sold in the decades to come. The 1954 report explains: 

Escobar: Putin Not Part of NWO, Labelled Evil by Elites

Source: RT

It's official - Vladimir Putin has won the presidential race to become Russia's leader for a third term. Official results have given him almost 64 per cent of the vote. Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar in Thailand says that despite the Russian people making their choice clear, the U.S. is still on a mission to vilify the country.

The US Strategy to Control Middle Eastern Oil

Source: Boiling Frogs Post
Andrew Gavin Marshall

“One of the Greatest Material Prizes in World History”

 

In the midst of World War II, Saudi Arabia secured a position of enormous significance to the rising world power, America. With its oil reserves essentially untapped, the House of Saud became a strategic ally of immense importance, “a matter of national security, nourishing U.S. military might and enhancing the potentiality of postwar American hegemony.” Saudi Arabia welcomed the American interest as it sought to distance itself from its former imperial master, Britain, which it viewed with suspicion as the British established Hashemite kingdoms in the Middle East – the old rivals of the Saudis – in Jordan and Iraq.[1]

The Saudi monarch, Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman al Saud had to contend not only with the reality of Arab nationalism spreading across the Arab world (something which he would have to rhetorically support to legitimate his rule, but strategically maneuver through in order to maintain his rule), but he would also play off the United States and Great Britain against one another to try to ensure a better deal for ‘the Kingdom’, and ensure that his rivals – the Hashemites – in Jordan and Iraq did not spread their influence across the region. Amir (King) Abdullah of Transjordan – the primary rival to the Saudi king – sought to establish a “Greater Syria” following World War II, which would include Transjordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, and not to mention, the Hejaz province in Saudi Arabia. The image and potential of a “Greater Syria” was central in the mind of King Abdul Aziz. The means through which the House of Saud would seek to prevent such a maneuver and protect the ‘Kingdom’ was to seek Western protection. As the United States had extensive oil interests in the Kingdom, it seemed a natural corollary that the United States government should become the ‘protector’ of Saudi Arabia, especially since the British, long the primary imperial hegemon of the region (with France a close second), had put in place the Hashemites in Transjordan and Iraq.[2] For the Saudis, the British could not be trusted.

 

The Saudi King rose to power and established the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1927 and made formal ties with the United States in 1931. An oil concession was soon granted to the Rockefeller-owned Standard Oil of California, and thereafter, large quantities of oil were discovered in the Kingdom, thus increasing the importance of the Saudi monarch. This was especially true during World War II, when access to and control over petroleum reserves were of the utmost importance in determining the course of the war. In 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt acknowledged as much when he signed Executive Order 8926, which stated that, “the defense of Saudi Arabia [is] vital to the defense of the United States.”[3] United States Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, several months earlier, suggested to President Roosevelt that the United States be more involved in organizing oil concessions in Saudi Arabia not only for the war effort, but “to counteract certain known activities of a foreign power which presently are jeopardizing American interests in Arabian oil reserves.” That “foreign power” was Great Britain. In fact, there was immense distrust of British intentions in the Middle East, and specifically in Saudi Arabia, on the part of the State Department’s Division of Near East Affairs (NEA). A great deal of this tension and antagonism, however, emerged from Saudi diplomacy which sought to play off the two great powers against one another in the hopes of securing for itself a better deal.[4]

Corbett Report Episode 220 - The Strange Case of Sirhan Sirhan

Source: Corbett Report
James Corbett

If a movie is based on a book that is based on a real experiment that later actually happens in real life, is it “real” or “fiction.” Join us today on The Corbett Report as we step through the looking glass in search of information about Sirhan Sirhan, the shooting of RFK, CIA mind control experiments, and the blurring of the line between real life and fantasy.

Documentation:

US to Attempt Overthrow of Putin Government

Source: Land Destroyer Report
Tony Cartalucci

  

Wall Street & London elite lay groundwork to justify large scale destabilization in Russia. 

As predicted - the Western media and US State Department-funded "opposition" inside Russia have called Vladimir Putin's landslide victory a "fraud." It was stated on Thursday March 1, that the Western media had "already determined how Russia's elections will unfold, creating the pretext in the minds of impressionable viewers to justify the unrest the US is undoubtedly planning."

Image: Despite every poll indicating well in advance an easy victory for Vladimir Putin, and his critics admitting mobs of anti-Putin protesters constitute but a minority, claims of "election fraud" are rife across Western media. Clearly a man sure to win is not going to taint his victory by needlessly cheating. Conversely, in Thailand, when convicted criminal Thaksin Shinawatra ran for office by proxy through his own sister, and squeaked by with a tenuous victory, the Western media hailed it as a triumph of democracy. The difference? Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand works for Wall Street, Vladimir Putin does not.

....

This is similar to what took place during the 2009 Iranian elections where US State Department-funded opposition groups also claimed the elections were "illegitimate" and took to the streets in an attempt to reverse the democratic process through ochlocratic means. In Egypt, directly before the US-engineered Arab Spring, elections that predictably overlooked the suspicious Mohamed ElBaradei were likewise called "fraudulent" and used as the rhetorical justification to execute destabilization long-planned by the US State Department since 2008.

Proceeding Thailand's July, 2011 elections, as explained in ""Stolen Elections" Battle Cry of the Color Revolution," Wall Street and London's operatives laid the groundwork to likewise call any result aside from their proxies' full installation to power "fraud," to then be used as impetus to justify street mobs, destabilization, and violence.

The New Mediterranean Oil and Gas Bonanza: Part II

Source: Boiling Frogs Post
F. William Engdahl

Rising Energy Tensions in the Aegean—Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria

 

The discovery in late 2010 of the huge natural gas bonanza off Israel’s Mediterranean shores triggered other neighboring countries to look more closely at their own waters. The results revealed that the entire eastern Mediterranean is swimming in huge untapped oil and gas reserves. That discovery is having enormous political, geopolitical as well as economic consequences. It well may have potential military consequences too.

Preliminary exploration has confirmed similarly impressive reserves of gas and oil in the waters off Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and potentially, Syria.

Greek ‘energy Sirtaki’

Not surprisingly, amid its disastrous financial crisis the Greek government began serious exploration for oil and gas. Since then the country has been in a curious kind of a dance with the IMF and EU governments, a kind of “energy Sirtaki” over who will control and ultimately benefit from the huge resource discoveries there. 

In December 2010, as it seemed the Greek crisis might still be resolved without the by-now huge bailouts or privatizations, Greece’s Energy Ministry formed a special group of experts to research the prospects for oil and gas in Greek waters. Greece’s Energean Oil & Gas began increased investment into drilling in the offshore waters after a successful smaller oil discovery in 2009. Major geological surveys were made. Preliminary estimates now are that total offshore oil in Greek waters exceeds 22 billion barrels in the Ionian Sea off western Greece and some 4 billion barrels in the northern Aegean Sea.[1]

The southern Aegean Sea and Cretan Sea are yet to be explored, so the numbers could be significantly higher. An earlier Greek National Council for Energy Policy report stated that “Greece is one of the least explored countries in Europe regarding hydrocarbon (oil and gas-w.e.) potentials.”[2] According to one Greek analyst, Aristotle Vassilakis, “surveys already done that have measured the amount of natural gas estimate it to reach some nine trillion dollars.” [3] Even if only a fraction of that is available, it would transform the finances of Greece and the entire region.

Hunting the Psychopath - Mike Cross Interviewed on Freedomain Radio

Source: Freedomain Radio

The nature, coloring, stripes and habits of the most dangerous human predator... Also -- are there some among us born evil? More: http://www.hare.org Freedomain Radio is the largest and most popular philosophy show on the web - http://www.freedomainradio.com

Libyan Revolution Update: Enjoying "Freedom"

Source: Land Destroyer Report
Tony Cartalucci

Here we see Libyans enjoying their NATO-granted "freedom" - putting black men from the purged city of Tawergha in a zoo-like enclosure and feeding them green Libyan flags. The city of Tawergha was literally emptied out by Libya's NATO-backed "revolutionaries" who vowed never to allow its residents to return to their property, claiming they had forfeited it by supporting Qaddafi during the 2011 NATO operation. Refugee camps containing the tens of thousands of exiled residents have been regularly attacked (another report can be found here, in The Globe & Mail).

Defenders of the degenerate foreign-backed revolution are quick to accuse any persecuted, tortured, or imprisoned man with a dark countenance as being "hired mercenaries," but in the above video the men can be heard calling the imprisoned, humiliated men "Tawergian," as in residents of the Libyan city of Tawergha - not foreign mercenaries.

This video comes amid reports, including those from Amnesty International, that Libya's "freedom fighters" have predictably turned out to be the genocidal racists geopolitical analysts, including Dr. Webster Tarpley, had warned about since the onset of unrest in Libya over a year ago.

Geithner Arrested? 116 Major Bank Resignations? What the Finance is this?

Source: Activist Post
Carl Herman

Judge Napolitano testifies of Treasury Secretary and Federal Reserve-insider Timothy Geither’s arrest in this 4-minute corporate news show. American Kabuki lists the daily-increasing bank resignations. David Wilcock and Benjamin Fulford explain and document history and deceit at the top of US and global finance, leading to current and imminent arrests.

What does this mean?

Anyone with intellectual integrity and moral courage can affirm that the Federal Reserve system is guilty of financial fraud at its core. The “emperor has no clothes” reason is they lie in omission and commission with a fiduciary responsibility: they create debt for what we use as money, charge the 99% increasing aggregate interest, and then tell us this is responsible leadership for the public good.

I teach college-level economics; the facts of a debt-based “monetary system,” unpayable and increasing aggregate debt, and increasing per capita interest costs is conservative textbook information. If you want to understand, I’ll walk you through here.

There’s more to the charge of financial fraud at the top of US economic and financial policy, of course. I recommend the documentation of Matt Taibbi and David DeGraw to dive-into details of the crimes, and Ellen Brown and American Monetary Institute to explore solutions.

Huge Oil Field Discovered in Southern Iran

Source: PressTV

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has announced the discovery of a huge oil field with considerable crude reserves in southern Iran.

NIOC's Director for Exploration Seyyed Mahmoud Mohaddes said Saturday that an exploratory oil well has already been drilled in the area.

"The newly-discovered oil field must be considered among the biggest fields ever discovered in Iran," he said.

The Iranian official also added that initial tests have indicated the high quality of the oil in the new field.

Mohaddes went on to say that the details about two or three more oil fields will be announced in the near future.

A total of 18 heavy and extra heavy oilfields have so far been discovered in Iran, including Ferdowsi oil field in the Persian Gulf, which is one of the country's biggest heavy oil fields with proven reserves of more than 31 billion barrels.

Iran's total in-place oil reserves have been estimated at more than 560 billion barrels with about 140 billion barrels of extractable oil. Moreover, heavy and extra heavy varieties of crude oil account for roughly 70-100 billion barrels of the total reserves.

Iran is the second-largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia among the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).