Pakistan Defies US Over Iran Gas Deal

Source: Press TV

Pakistan says it will press ahead with its Iran gas pipeline deal despite a strong opposition by the United States, Press TV reports.

Pakistan's Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Friday that Islamabad will not accept any dictation regarding its internal affairs from any foreign country, adding that exporting gas from Iran is in the country's best interest.

The remarks came as a reaction to earlier pleas by Washington's Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter that the Pakistani government abort its multi-billion dollar gas pipeline project with Iran.

“Pak-Iran gas pipeline is not a good idea….However, the plan to get gas from Turkmenistan is a better idea,” Press TV correspondent quoted Munter as saying on Friday.

The USD 7.6 billion gas pipeline deal, which was signed in June 2010, aims to export a daily amount of 21.5 million cubic meters (or 8.7 billion cubic meters per year) of Iranian natural gas to Pakistan.

Last month, Pakistan's Minister of Oil and Natural Resources Asim Hussain said the Iran-Pakistan natural gas pipeline would be inaugurated before the end of 2013, one year ahead of the original schedule. Maximum daily gas transfer capacity of the 56-inch pipeline, which runs over 900 km of Iran's soil from Asalouyeh in Bushehr Province to the city of Iranshahr in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, has been given at 110 million cubic meters.

Iran and Pakistan finalized the details of the deal during bilateral talks held in Tehran in October 2007. The deal comes in the face of Washington's efforts to isolate Iran economically through UN Security Council sanctions and its own unilateral penalties over Tehran's nuclear programs.

Iran ranks second in the world in natural gas resources after Russia with available gas reserves estimated at over 33 trillion cubic meters.

In addition to exporting gas to Turkey, Armenia, and Pakistan, the country is currently negotiating gas exports to Iraq.

Bankers have seized Europe: Goldman Sachs Has Taken Over

Source: Global Research
Paul Craig Roberts

On November 25, two days after a failed German government bond auction in which Germany was unable to sell 35% of its offerings of 10-year bonds, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble said that Germany might retreat from its demands that the private banks that hold the troubled sovereign debt from Greece, Italy, and Spain must accept part of the cost of their bailout by writing off some of the debt. The private banks want to avoid any losses either by forcing the Greek, Italian, and Spanish governments to make good on the bonds by imposing extreme austerity on their citizens, or by having the European Central Bank print euros with which to buy the sovereign debt from the private banks. Printing money to make good on debt is contrary to the ECB’s charter and especially frightens Germans, because of the Weimar experience with hyperinflation. 

 

Obviously, the German government got the message from the orchestrated failed bond auction. As I wrote at the time, there is no reason for Germany, with its relatively low debt to GDP ratio compared to the troubled countries, not to be able to sell its bonds.

If Germany’s creditworthiness is in doubt, how can Germany be expected to bail out other countries?  Evidence that Germany’s failed bond auction was orchestrated is provided by troubled Italy’s successful bond auction two days later.

Strange, isn’t it. Italy, the largest EU country that requires a bailout of its debt, can still sell its bonds, but Germany, which requires no bailout and which is expected to bear a disproportionate cost of Italy’s, Greece’s and Spain’s bailout, could not sell its bonds.

In my opinion, the failed German bond auction was orchestrated by the US Treasury, by the European Central Bank and EU authorities, and by the private banks that own the troubled sovereign debt. 

My opinion is based on the following facts. Goldman Sachs and US banks have guaranteed perhaps one trillion dollars or more of European sovereign debt by selling swaps or insurance against which they have not reserved. The fees the US banks received for guaranteeing the values of European sovereign debt instruments simply went into profits and executive bonuses. This, of course, is what ruined the American insurance giant, AIG, leading to the TARP bailout at US taxpayer expense and Goldman Sachs’ enormous profits.

Media Monarchy - Episode 240

Source: Media Monarchy
James Evan Pilato

"won't start revolutions, but we're giving it a whirl" on the 240th episode of media monarchy w/ back to black friday & the pepper spray nation - anniversaries, revolutions & the buy nothing coup - lone wolf requiem, world pressure & the new clear nightmare newspurge + food stamp thanksgiving on food world order - penn state updates on holy hexes - virtual flag & utility hacks in cyber/space\war + holiday hymns by the go! team, m83, perry como, fishbone, fitz & the tantrums and much, much more...

Corbett Report Interviews F. William Engdahl

Source: Corbett Report
James Corbett
  

Today The Corbett Report is joined from Germany by F. William Engdahl, a political analyst, writer and researcher who has authored such books as A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order and Gods of Money: Wall Street and the Death of the American Century. We discuss the Anglo-American involvement in triggering the ongoing Eurozone collapse, the rise of China and Russia as growing threats to American hegemony, and the growing importance of Eurasia as the key geostrategic region of the 21st century.

Why Are So Many People Gathering to Hear David Icke?

Source: Activist Post
Heather Callaghan

What can you expect to hear if you listen to David Icke? Everything!

He also empowers and motivates us to reclaim our personal freedom. You can be fearless in the midst of a seemingly cruel and crazy world. There is a method to the madness for all that's irrational today, although it comes from an artificial reality, keeping us from our own natural consciousness.

It takes an amazing brilliancy and energy to take everyone through a personal prison break, speaking a mile a minute for nearly 11 hours straight! That's what he did recently in Cleveland, Ohio and a few days ago in New York, connecting dots and pinpointing the sources for today's confusion.

Asleep, we meander in a routinized, hazy, yet invisible prison. A world where we are made to feel shame even for every breath, as though we are so small and unworthy that we should receive punishment for filling the atmosphere with our sighs. We might feel confused, fearful, depressed, trapped, exhausted, deflated until it seems like our existence is squeezed into the size of a postage stamp.

But why should that be so! One of his book titles makes for a better description: Infinite Love is the Only Truth, Everything Else is Only Illusion. Always researching, he covers much: metaphysics, technology, co-opted revolutions, top-level power and world banks, fluoride, modern medicine, food politics, vibrational and electromagnetic frequencies, radiation, the left-brain 5-sense prison, the rise of child abuse, Zionism (more than meets the eye), world economy and debt, smart meters, narcissistic cops – trained to lack empathy, greater social consciousness, and tapping into our awareness.

Libyan Rebels Fought the Globalists' War

Source: Land Destroyer
Tony Cartalucci

Editor's Note: This is an update from an April 20, 2011 article titled, "Libyan Rebels Fighting the Globalists' War: How the Devil Pays."
November 25, 2011 - In April 2011, it was written:

"After rebel leader Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi [aka Hakim Belhaj] admitted to being trained in Afghanistan and subsequently fighting American troops there, and admitting many of the rebel fighters now joining him in Libya had similarly returned from Afghanistan as well as Iraq, it must strike them as tremendous irony that the same Americans they were filling pine boxes with overseas, are now protecting their lives and handing them an entire country to rule over.

Of course in life, nothing is quite that simple. The rebels seem to forget that just months ago Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi was also the recipient of similarly ironic support from the West. In the end, it appears it was merely a ploy to disarm and infiltrate Qaddafi's regime ahead of a US funded, armed, and supported militant uprising. The betrayal does not end there, with the militant rebels in tanks and fighter jets, brandishing newly procured weaponry flowing over the Egyptian border with Washington's full knowledge and in direct violation of UNSC r.1973, the corporate owned media has continuously branded these militants as Libyan "civilians" and Qaddafi's attempts to restore order in his country as an inhumane "massacre."

The intent is to fully justify any means necessary to remove Qaddafi from power, and so the rebels think, hand the country and its riches over to the green shoots of democracy led by the valiant Al Qaeda-linked militants that toppled a tyrant. What woeful ignorance."

It seems that in due time, the folly of Libya's rebels has been completely realized. After it was revealed that the newly unelected "PM" of Libya, Abdurrahim el-Keib, is in fact a long time servant of Western powers, in particular, oil giants British Petroleum (BP), Shell, France's Total, the Japan Oil Development Company, and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, it is now revealed that his government is moving swiftly to exclude the most vicious fighters involved in his NATO-backed ascension to power. The Guardian has reported this week that Al-Qaeda/LIFG commander Hakim Bilhaj has been excluded as defense minister from el-Keib's cabinet in favor of Osama al-Juwali, chief of the Zintan military council.

The Guardian's article is literally titled, "Libyan PM snubs Islamists with cabinet to please western backers," and could provide no better bookend for April 2011's analysis as to the true nature of Western power projection and the betrayal that awaits all who help propel it along. Belhaj's well-being is now related directly proportional to the resistance he puts up to his predetermined fate. Should he decide to hang up his hat as a mass-murdering terrorist and quietly disappear, he may live a long, uneventful life. Should he attempt to contest his betrayal, the same fate met by those he helped remove from power will be his own.

El-Keib's days are also numbered should he stray from the path laid before him by Wall Street and London. Knowing this would give those like Belhaj and others seeking power the perfect opportunity to test his resolve in executing the West's directives in the face of a mobilized Libyan opposition. Should el-Keib heed the anger of his people, he will be the next one hiding in Tripoli's tunnels from NATO bombs. Conversely, should he decide to crush the will of the Libyan people and those being shunted out of power, NATO's ground troops may still make landfall to provide "stabilization" while el-Keib carries out his treacherous work.

Journalist Demonstrates How to Successfully Resist Police Intimidation and Defend Your Rights

Source: 12160info

An intrepid journalist defends his first amendment rights against a series of attempts to intimidate him by NYPD officers.

Senator Lieberman Urges Google to Increase Censorship of Anti-West Blogs

Source: Activist Post
Eric Blair

U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman sent a letter (PDF) to Google this week urging them to censor anti-West, violent jihadist content on their Blogger platform.

The letter, formally from the Committee on Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs which Lieberman chairs, cited the blog of recent "lone wolf" terrorist patsy Jose Pimentel.

"Pimentel allegedly used the Internet to access instructions to make bombs and share his support for violent Islamic extremism," writes Lieberman. "Pimental's (sic) site is just one of the many examples of homegrown terrorists Google-hosted sites to propagate their violent ideology."

Lieberman, no stranger to promoting censorship of the Internet, sent a similar letter in 2008 to then CEO Eric Schmidt requesting that Google-owned YouTube remove videos that contained "offensive material" and "terrorist propaganda".

Lieberman also appeared on CNN in June 2010 praising China's draconian censorship of the Internet and claimed America should have the same ability to shut down Internet content that the U.S. deems dangerous.

In his recent attempt to outlaw information on the Internet, Lieberman applauded Google for complying with his previous request by adding a "flag" option to YouTube videos where anyone can vote the material as offensive or harmful.  Now, Lieberman is strongly urging Google to add the flagging option to all of their content platforms.

Iran Arrests 12 'CIA Spies' for Targeting Nuclear Plans

Source: BBC

Iran has arrested 12 spies of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the official IRNA news agency reports.

Parviz Sorouri, an influential lawmaker, said the agents were targeting Iran's military and its nuclear programme.

He said they were operating in co-ordination with Israel's Mossad and other regional agencies.

The United States and its allies suspect Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon program, a charge Tehran denies.

Mr Sorouri, a member of the powerful National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, did not give the nationality of the alleged agents, nor when they were arrested. 

"The US and Zionist regime's espionage apparatuses were trying to use regional intelligence services, both inside and outside Iran, in order to deal a strong blow to our country," he was quoted as saying.

"Fortunately, these steps failed due to the quick measures taken by Intelligence Ministry officials," Mr Sorouri said.

Ignorance Is Bliss When It Comes to Challenging Social Issues

Source: Science Daily

The less people know about important complex issues such as the economy, energy consumption and the environment, the more they want to avoid becoming well-informed, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

And the more urgent the issue, the more people want to remain unaware, according to a paper published online in APA's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

"These studies were designed to help understand the so-called 'ignorance is bliss' approach to social issues," said author Steven Shepherd, a graduate student with the University of Waterloo in Ontario. "The findings can assist educators in addressing significant barriers to getting people involved and engaged in social issues."

Through a series of five studies conducted in 2010 and 2011 with 511 adults in the United States and Canada, the researchers described "a chain reaction from ignorance about a subject to dependence on and trust in the government to deal with the issue."

In one study, participants who felt most affected by the economic recession avoided information challenging the government's ability to manage the economy. However, they did not avoid positive information, the study said. This study comprised 197 Americans with a mean age of 35 (111 women and 89 men), who had received complex information about the economy and had answered a question about how the economy is affecting them directly.

Next Propoganda Phase: UN Says Syria Tortures Children

Source: Prison Planet
Kurt Nimmo

In order to send in the bombers and introduce the sort of carnage in Syria the US and NATO inflicted on Libya, the propaganda war needs to be dialed up. Allegations of child abuse usually do the trick. Journalists call it “the hook.” 

Prior to the first invasion of Iraq in 1991, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus held a hearing on Capitol Hill showcasing Iraqi human rights abuses. The media event allowed a 15-year old Kuwaiti girl known as Nayirah to claim Saddam’s invaders threw babies out of incubators at the al-Addan hospital in Kuwait City. 

It turns out the girl was a member of the Kuwaiti Royal Family. Her father was Saud Nasir al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States. The testimony was a lie cooked up by Hill & Knowlton, a public relations group. Despite this, the lie was repeated over and over again. Bush Senior told the story. It was recited as fact in congressional testimony, on TV and radio talk shows, and at the UN Security Council. 

On Friday, a United Nations human rights panel “expressed alarm” at reports claiming Syrian security forces are torturing children. 

The Committee Against Torture said it had received “numerous, consistent and substantiated reports” of widespread abuse in the country, MSNBC reports today. The chair of the panel, Claudio Grossman, told reporters in Geneva that the reports referring to the abuse of children were of “particular concern.” 

It was less of a concern when George W. Bush’s legal adviser, John Yoo, argued there is no law that could prevent the president from ordering the torture of a child. 

Syria’s neighbor, Israel, has detained and tortured Palestinian children at the infamous al-Jalame Interrogation and Detention Center near Haifa, but the United Nations is not talking about sanctions against the country. The Arab League is not issuing ultimatums and neocons and presidential candidates are not talking about attacking Israel. 

The United Nations report is a prized piece of propaganda released at precisely the right time. It will be mentioned repeatedly by the establishment media in the weeks ahead as the stage is set for an attack on Syria. Like the Nayirah and baby incubator lie, there will be little effort to find out if Syrian security forces are indeed torturing children.

Pepe Escobar: US Missiles Around Russia is Bay of Pigs all over again

Source: RT

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said that Russia may arm itself with missiles to counteract the US missile shield in Europe. In addition Medvedev said if the US continues to build up their missile shield Russia will withdraw from the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Pepe Escobar, a correspondent for the Asia Times, breaks down what is going on.

Climategate 2.0, Lone Wolves, Food Stamp Thanksgiving - New World Next Week

Source: Corbett Report and Media Monarchy
James Corbett and James Evan Pilato

Welcome to NewWorldNextWeek – the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in alternative news and open source intelligence.

This week:
Story #1: Fresh Round of Leaked Emails Called Climategate 2.0
http://ur1.ca/611g4
Related: Background and Context
http://ur1.ca/611g8
Related: New Batch of Emails Released in Climategate 2.0
http://ur1.ca/611gd
Related: More Emails Leaked From Climate Researchers
http://ur1.ca/611gj

Story #2: NYPD Says FBI Declined to Pursue ‘Lone Wolf’ NYC Bomb Plot
http://ur1.ca/611gl
Who Is Oscar Ortega-Hernandez and Why Did He Allegedly Try To Kill Obama?
http://ur1.ca/611gp
Related: In Search of Lee Harvey Oswald with Charles Ochelli
http://ur1.ca/611gu

Story #3: Oregon Tops Nation in Food Stamp Use
http://ur1.ca/611gz
Video: News Report from KEZI 9 in Eugene, Oregon
http://ur1.ca/611h6
Related: USDA Targets Stores in Food Stamp Trafficking
http://ur1.ca/611hb

Corbett Report Radio - In Search of Lee Harvey Oswald with Charles Ochelli

Source: Corbett Report
James Corbett

Communist? Attention seeker? Lone nut? Just who was Lee Harvey Oswald? Tonight on the 48th anniversary of the coup d’etat in America we talk to Charles Ochelli, aka “The Blind JFK Researcher,” to discuss the story behind the story of Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of JFK. Charles Ochelli’s work can be found at youtube.com/blindjfk 

BBC's Greg Palast: The Global Corporate Dictatorship

Source: Infowars

Alex talks with New York Times-bestselling author and a freelance journalist for the BBC, Greg Palast. Greg talks about the MF Global heist and the money filched from segregated client accounts, now totaling more than $1.2 billion. Palast is the author of Vultures' Picnic and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. He has also appeared in a number of films, including American Blackout and Bush Family Fortunes.

Bush and Blair Found Guilty of War Crimes

Source: Press TV

A War Crimes Tribunal in Malaysia has found former US President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair guilty of war crimes for their roles in the Iraq war, Press TV reports. 

 

The five-panel Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal decided that Bush and Blair committed genocide and crimes against humanity by leading the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a Press TV correspondent reported on Tuesday.

In 2003, the US and Britain invaded Iraq in blatant violation of international law and under the pretext of finding weapons of mass destruction allegedly stockpiled by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The Malaysian tribunal judges ruled that the decision to wage war against Iraq by the two former heads of government was a flagrant abuse of law and an act of aggression that led to large-scale massacres of the Iraqi people.

Bombings and other forms of violence became commonplace in Iraq shortly after the US-led invasion of the country.

In their ruling, the tribunal judges also stated that the US, under the leadership of Bush, fabricated documents to make it appear that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

However, the world later learned that the former Iraqi regime did not possess WMDs and that the US and British leaders knew this all along.

Over one million Iraqis were killed during the invasion, according to the California-based investigative organization Project Censored.

The judges also said the court findings should be provided to signatories to the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, and added that the names of Bush and Blair should be listed on a war crimes register.

The Media and Iran: Familiar Mindlessness

Source: Salon
Glenn Greenwald

The lesson supposedly learned by the U.S. establishment media from the Iraq debacle was the danger of relying on anonymous government sources to disseminate unverified fear-mongering accusations. Rather obviously, no such lesson has been learned, as this continues to be the primary reporting method for accusing the Supreme Hitlers of the Moment — Iran — of anything and everything the U.S. Government can dream up. The latest entry, and one of the most egregious yet, is this Washington Post screed appearing under this headline and hovering scary picture:

Here’s the crux of the story, by R. Jeffrey Smith, Joby Warrick and Colum Lynch:

The Obama administration is investigating whether Iran supplied the Libyan government of Moammar Gaddafi with hundreds of special artillery shells for chemical weapons that Libya kept secret for decades, U.S. officials said. . . .The discovery of the shells has prompted a probe, led by U.S. intelligence, into how the Libyans obtained them; several sources said early suspicion had fallen on Iran. “We are pretty sure we know” the shells were custom-designed and produced in Iran for Libya, said a senior U.S. official, one of several who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the accusation.

So it isn’t merely that the prior Hitler of the Moment — Moammar Gadaffi — had Weapons of Mass Destruction, but far more alarming: Iran likely manufactured and gave Gadaffi those WMDs! Is there no Evil behind which these Persian Monsters are not lurking? Here are all of the sources the Post reporters cite for this claim:

U.S. officials said . . .  several sources . . . A U.S. official with access to classified information . . . a third U.S. official said. . . .One U.S. official said . . . .another U.S. official said.

The Post‘s own Ombudsman has repeatedly bashed the paper for its excessive, ill-explained, reckless use of anonymous sources (which violates even the Post‘s own non-public anonymity rules), and has insisted that the paper’s “credibility” — to the extent such a thing can be said to exist — is being steadily eroded by this practice. Here, the Post screeches a sensationalized, highly consequential story (it even proudly notes these disclosures “may exacerbate international tensions over the country’s alleged pursuit of weapons of mass destruction”) based exclusively on anonymous U.S. official sources, and barely pretends to explain why anonymity is justified (that the accusations are “sensitive” is an added reason to ensure accountability, not protect the government accusers with anonymity).

Why does the U.S. want a total media blackout on long-term Afghan deal?

Source: End The Lie
Madison Ruppert

During a press conference yesterday, Safia Sediqi, loya jirga (which in the Pashto language means “grand council”) spokeswoman, said that Washington wants a complete media blackout over the conditions set forth in the new strategic long-term deal with Afghanistan, according to Press TV and BBC Persian.

Called by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the loya jirga began in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Wednesday and will run for four days.

The discussion will focus on the Afghan-American relationship, specifically the possibility of long-term American basis on Afghan soil after the U.S.-led coalition forces are supposedly going to withdraw in 2014.

Both political and religious figures in Afghanistan have been vocal in their opposition to American plans for long-lasting or very possibly permanent military bases on sovereign Afghan territory.

As I previously reported, the people of Afghanistan are increasingly seeing the foreign troops as occupying forces that are not protecting their security, which is reflected in the utter failure that the decade-long battle in Afghanistan has been.

As Press TV points out, the U.S. has not met its goals after 10 years and the security situation is abysmal despite nearly 150,000 U.S.-led foreign troops deployed around the nation.

The state-funded BBC Persian news network reports that the most common complaint amongst loya jirga participants is that they have not been provided with information about the terms and conditions of the long-term deal.

Sharifullah Sahak, an Afghan employee of The New York Times covering Kabul and provinces said via Twitter just four hours ago at the time of writing, “Loya Jirga members with different views saying government should sign the strategic pact for 10, 20, even for 50 years with US.”

Corbett Report Radio - Shooting the Messenger with Julia Davis

Source: Corbett Report
James Corbett

This evening Corbett Report Radio welcomes Julia Davis, a former Customs and Border Protection Officer who attempted to blow the whistle on serious weaknesses in America’s border security. As a result of her report, the Department of Homeland Security targeted her in a campaign of retribution that has altered the course of her career, her family and her life forever. Join us tonight as we go in search of the truth behind the DHS and the new “domestic terrorism” paradigm. Find out more about Julia Davis’ remarkable story at her documentary homepage, terrorwithindoc.com

Bush Drug Czar Can't Compete in Legalization Debate

Source: Janus Forum

Janus Forum - Should the US Legalize Drugs? from Brown University on Vimeo.