FreeWestRadio.com

by Finian Cunningham, GR

The scheduled start of drilling this month by China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) in Iran’s South Pars gas field could be both a harbinger and explanation of much wider geopolitical developments.

First of all, the $5 billion project – signed last year after years of foot dragging by western energy giants Total and Shell under the shadow of US-led sanctions – reveals the main arterial system for future world energy supply and demand.

Critics have long suspected that the real reason for US and other western military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan is to control the Central Asian energy corridor. So far, the focus seems to be mainly on oil. For example, there have been claims that a planned oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea via Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea is the main prize behind the US’s seemingly futile military campaign in those countries.

But what the CNPC-Iranian partnership shows is that natural gas is the bigger prize that will be pivotal to the world economy, and specifically the dual flow of this fuel westwards and eastwards from Central Asia to Europe and China.

Michael Economides, editor of the Huston-based Energy Tribune, is one of a growing number of industry observers who is convinced that natural gas will supplant oil as the primary energy source, not only in the coming decades but over the next several centuries.

He points to the recent forecast by the International Energy Agency (IEA), based in Paris, which has dramatically revised its estimates of recoverable global natural gas reserves by 100 per cent. Economides ascribes this huge upgrade to rapid technological improvements in tapping hitherto inaccessible gas fields. He says that the IEA estimates of natural gas amount to 300 years of supply at current world demand. “If one only just fantasises any future contributions from the orders-of-magnitude larger resource in the form of natural gas hydrates, it is easy to see how natural gas is almost certainly to evolve into the premier fuel of the world economy,” he adds.

The rising importance of natural gas as an energy source has been steady and inexorable over many years. Between 1973 and 2007, oil’s contribution to world energy supply dropped from 46.1 per cent to 34.0 per cent, with the increasing use of natural gas accounting for that decline, according to the IEA. Other sources, such as the US-based Energy Information Administration (EIA), predict that global natural gas consumption will treble between 1980 and 2030, by which date it will mostly likely become the primary energy source of choice for industrial and public needs.

There are sound scientific reasons why natural gas (methane) is becoming the kingpin of fossil fuels. Firstly, it has a much greater calorific value than either oil or coal. That is, more heat is produced per unit of fuel. Secondly, it is a cleaner fuel, emitting 30 per cent less carbon dioxide when burned compared with oil and 45 per cent less compared with coal. Thirdly, gas is more efficient for transport, both as a raw material in compressed form along land-based pipelines, and as a fuel to drive transport.

All energy industry agencies recognize that far and above the premier sources of future natural gas are the Middle East and Eurasia, including Russia. The US-based EIA puts the natural gas reserves in these regions as nine and seven times those of North America’s total – the latter itself being one of the world’s top sources for that fuel.

Within the Middle East, Iran is the undisputed top holder of gas reserves. Its South Pars gas field is the world’s largest. If converted to barrel-of-oil equivalents, Iran’s South Pars would dwarf the reserves of Saudi Arabia’s giant Ghawar oilfield. The latter is the world’s largest oilfield and since it came into operation in 1948, Ghawar has effectively been the world’s beating heart for raw energy supply. In the soon-to-come era of natural gas dominance over oil, Iran will oust Saudi Arabia as the world’s beating heart for energy.

Both Europe and China stand to be arterial routes for Iranian and Central Asian gas generally. Already, the infrastructure is shaping up to reflect this. The Nabucco pipeline is planned to supply gas from Iran (and Azerbaijan) via Turkey and Bulgaria all the way to Western Europe (signaling an end to Russian dominance). Iran also exports gas via pipelines separately to Turkey and Armenia and it is also following up export deals with other Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Another major arterial route is the so-called peace pipeline from Iran to Pakistan and on to India, through which Iran will export this fuel to two of the region’s most populous countries. But perhaps the most tantalizing prospect for Iran is the 1,865-kilometre pipeline that supplies natural gas from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan into China and is due to operate at full capacity in 2012. Turkmenistan shares a 300-kilometre border with Iran to its south and already has a gas export deal with Tehran. If the Iranian-Chinese South Pars gas field development can be incorporated into the above transnational pipelines that would confirm Iran as the beating heart of a world economy in which gas is the primary energy source. This is amplified further by rapidly growing demand for gas by China which the EIA predicts could be dependent on imports for over a third of its natural gas consumption by 2030.

In this context of a major realignment in the world’s energy economy – one where there will be a continuing diminished role for the US – Washington’s blustering rhetoric about democracy and peace and war on terror or alleged Iranian nuclear weapons can be seen as a desperate attempt to conceal its fear that it stands to be a big loser. Encircling Iran with wars and threatening gas supplies to possibly the world’s top future gas customer – China – is the real deal. US actions are more accurately seen as putting a knife to the energy arteries of a world economy that it will no longer be able to dominate.

A further twist in this tale is the position of Russia. With its own vast reserves of natural gas, it can be seen as a competitor to Iran. Arguably less well positioned than Iran to supply both Europe and China, Russia is nevertheless a major player and has been assiduously courting China with an export deal since 2006. However, as Economides observes, “negotiations between the two countries have been on and off and, especially, the pipeline construction has been painfully slow”.

But Russia’s ambitions to expand its natural gas exports may explain why it has shown itself to be such a mercurial ally to Iran. Moscow’s ambivalent position towards US-led sanctions against Iran, suggests that Russia has its own agenda for hampering the Islamic republic as a regional energy rival.

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by Idious Buguise, In These Times

Back then. way before all this bloodshed and carnage and butchery. When there were no sirens and riots and bombs, and the lipsticked, powdered, mascaraed and coiffed women sauntered down pavements on bright red stilettos and the men came up to me, grabbed my elbow and demanded to escort me across busy intersections, I wandered the avenues and alleys and cul de sacs and shopped in the souk and ate late cream- and sugar-heavy breakfasts with the civil servants in brightly lit, music-booming cafes and sat by the Tigris and watched young Iraqis flying kites and old Iraqis reading newspapers and discussing the local and national politics and listened to the “English TV News for Foreigners.”

Back then. Way before rape and kidnap and sniping were commonplace. Back in 1977 and the world was full of disco and Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Amnesty International won the Nobel Peace Prize and Jimmy Carter pardoned draft evaders and Anwar Sadat visited Jerusalem. It was different.

Read the rest at this link.

by Keith Johnson, RotP

Without regard for the severe economic devastation and loss of life that a war with Iran would create, Israel’s agents in the United States continue toaggressively stoke the fires of anti-Iranian rhetoric and mobilize their minions on the floor of the House.  The Brzezinski-Soros machine failed in their attempt to effect regime change in Iran by way of a “color revolution” in the summer of 2009.  This has only emboldened the Israeli lobby to pursue more drastic measures. There is only one card left for them to play before provoking conflicts that will most certainly catapult the United States into direct military action against the Islamic state.

Tuesday, the American Israeli Political Action Committee gave their marching orders to their congressional War Hawks.  The message was short, concise and clear.  Here is the text of the letter AIPAC sent to members of Congress:

Dear Congressman XXXX,

We are writing to every member of Congress to express outrage at the U.S. government’s continuing relationship with dozens of companies doing business with Iran. These ongoing financial dealings undermine longstanding American efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.

As the New York Times reported on Sunday, the federal government during the past decade has awarded $107 billion in contracts and grants to more than 70 companies that are doing business in Iran. More than two-thirds of these contracts have gone to companies involved in Iran’s energy industry despite American law to discourage such involvement.

The time has long since passed this policy to change. Unfortunately, as the Times points out, three successive American administrations have failed to enforce the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996, which mandates U.S. sanctions on firms investing more than $20 million in Iran’s energy sector. While Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama may have discouraged some investment in Iran through their rhetoric, the United States has sent the American and international business community a contradictory message by failing to enforce the law.

Despite publicly acknowledged investments by several companies of hundreds of millions of dollars in Iran’s energy sector, the U.S. Government has inexplicably failed to make even one determination of an investment of $20 million during the course of the past decade. Yet, throughout this entire time, Iran has pursued a nuclear weapons capability, flouting its international obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and presenting the international community with a growing, and now urgent, threat.

As Iran continues to reject U.S.-European engagement efforts and to defy U.N. Security Council resolutions requiring that it halt its illicit uranium enrichment efforts, the United States must take action now.

We call on Congress to:

1. Investigate why successive administrations have failed to implement the law by failing to determine what companies have invested in the Iranian energy sector;

2. Enact—without delay—the Iran sanctions legislation currently before Congress, which, inter alia, contains provisions barring federal contracts to companies which are investing in Iran’s energy sector or providing sensitive technology, and their parents or subsidiaries who are engaged in such activity;

3. Demand that the U.S. Government enforce existing sanctions law and impose crippling new sanctions on Iran.

In addition to these actions, we hope you will join with us in urging the administration to impose tough new multilateral sanctions with like-minded states without delay while continuing to pursue the widest possible sanctions through the U.N. Security Council.

Sincerely,

David Victor
President

Howard Kohr
Executive Director

These are pretty strong words coming from an organization which has stood in defiance of U.S. law that requires them to register as agents of a foreign power.  It proves once again that the “A” in AIPAC really should be removed from their acronym.  There is nothing “American” about them.  This is the Israeli lobby, plain and simple.  They represent Israel first and last.  The United States is nothing more than a host to their endless parasitism.   This letter should be an insult to anyone familiar with the State of Israel and it’s long history of refusing to comply with International laws and treaties.  It reeks of hypocrisy.  It’s an exercise in contempt.  There is no country on the face of this earth with less justification to level these charges or make such demands.

First of all, Iran has no nuclear weapons capability.  As recently as February 11, 2010, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responded to a claim by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Iran had produced the first stock of 20 percent enriched uranium.  Gibbs said, “The Iranian nuclear program has undergone a series of problems throughout the year.  We do not believe they have the capability to enrich to the degree to which they now say they are enriching.” The enriched uranium that Ahmadinejad was referring to was not for building a nuclear weapon but rather for medical isotopes used to treat cancer patients.  And even if they did have the capability of enriching to 20 percent, it still falls far short of the nearly 98% that is required for building a weapon of mass destruction.  As a signer of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has a legal right to enrich uranium in the manner that they are claiming.  On the other hand, Israel has refused to sign the NNPT and has no right to make demands of anyone pertaining to nuclear technology.

While the author of this letter points out that “the federal government has awarded $107 billion in contracts and grants to more than 70 companies that are doing business in Iran,” it fails to recognize that 14 of those companies have already pulled out and that 11 plan no future investment.  Of the 49 remaining, only 3 are suspected of being in violation of the “Iran Sanctions Act”.   Those three companies are Daelim (South Korea), Dutch Royal Shell (Netherlands) and Total (France).  Of the $174 million that Daelim received in contract money from the U.S.,  $111 million was used to build family housing towers for the U.S. Army.  Dutch Royal Shell received $11.2 billion in contracts and that investment was instrumental in supplying a significant amount of gasoline to the U.S. military.  Not one American company currently doing business and planning future investment in Iran is suspected of being in violation of the “Iran Sanctions Act”.

The author demands that Congress enact current legislation that bars companies from investing in Iran’s energy sector.  But this is in direct conflict with Article IV of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.  Iran is a signer of that treaty, and that obligates the United States to help them build power plants and other facilities for non-military purposes.

If anyone should be barred from receiving federal contracts or aid it is the State of Israel, who has refused to sign the NNPT and have illegally pursued a nuclear weapons program of their own.  The 1976 Symington Amendment to the Foreign Appropriations Bill of 1961 forbids the United States from giving foreign aid to any nation that is developing nuclear technology outside the NNPT.  Despite this, approximately 1/3 of the total foreign aid budget of the United States is annually sent to Israel even though they comprise less than .001 of the world’s population and has one of the world’s highest per capita incomes.  Former Congressman James Traficant rightly pointed out recently that between the direct foreign aid grants to Israel, along with all of the other benefits including trade compacts, economic and military assistance, “Israel gets approximately $15 billion a year from the American taxpayers. That $15 billion is $30,000 for every man, woman and child in Israel.”

In his list of demands, the author urges Congress to “pursue the widest possible sanctions through the U.N. Security Council.” This is the height of hypocrisy.  Neither the State of Israel nor its agents have any standing with the United Nations in this regard.  Since its inception, the State of Israel has been in violation of more UN resolutions than any other nation on earth.

Who else but a raving lunatic would even dare to write such a letter in light of the insurmountable evidence that contradicts each and every line of their text?  There is no other explanation;  a lunatic wrote this letter.  And if Congress acts in lock step to their demands, then it should be abundantly clear to all of us that the lunatics, have indeed, taken over the asylum.

by J. Speer-Williams, IW

From planned financial meltdowns, to engineered economic collapses, to increased taxes and inflation, to social upheavals, laboratory concocted viruses, deadly vaccines, state sponsored terrorist attacks, and more wars, the Controllers of the International Monetary/Banking Cartel are bringing their end-game to a climax, which is their imperious One-World Government.

We are all being herded into this one-world corral, by psychopaths, posing as the world’s elite, who by any human standards are the most insane among us; and yet, many people are largely unaware of this obvious phenomenon. Could there be something deeper than the Cartel’s controlled mass-media that is blinding so much of mankind to the geo/political realities of our world?

Why is the bulk of mankind in such a stupor? Are these questions to which we are not meant to know the answer? Can we just be satisfied with the words of Winston Churchill: “It’s a riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.”.

But still, I wanna know! Why can we not see the plainly obvious?

I know some fairly well educated people want a one-world government, as they naively believe such a universal institution would bring an end to the horrors of war. What these same people do not know, and seem incapable of understanding, is that the power structure that is whipping us into a one-world prison is the same tribe of psychopaths who have caused all the major wars of history.

Do we really want to be ruled by the arbitrary, ad hoc laws of the severely insane, rather than to be governed by laws which have the consent of the governed?

Do we really want to be ruled by the descendants of blood-lusting savages, who are themselves proven to be homicidal terrorists?

Today, however, too many Americans are largely so apathetic (and/or numb) to the deceit and treachery that routinely comes out of Washington, that they often pass it all off with, “Why inform myself about it as there’s nothing I can do about changing any of it anyway … you know what I mean?”

Yes, it means you are about as anti-intellectual as the dimwit who says, “Why study history, as there’s nothing I can do to change any of it anyway … you know what I mean?”

Worst yet, such anti-intellectuals, with their indifference and ignorance, become collaborators with the enemies of mankind, especially when voting for most democratic and republican political candidates, while thinking of themselves as being very patriotic by merely voting. Ignorance and arrogance are truly blood brothers.

Still, most Americans are simply so overwhelmed with their own problems, they have little time or energy to study the severe financial, economic, and political problems facing mankind, even if they could understand those problems.

But basically, what most Americans do not understand is that most of their problems have been artificially engendered, in part, so that the criminal activity in Washington can go on unabated.

Also, with the help of their mass media punditry, and from other coordinated efforts in education, the Cartel has created public apathy, by making the relatively simple subjects of finance, economics, and politics unnecessarily complex.

But perhaps most devastating of all are the feelings of isolation and helplessness big governments always form in individuals, until the affairs of their elected representatives seem like the happenings of another world. Under a one-world governance, the affairs of state will seem like those of another galaxy, creating total non-participation of citizens in the civic affairs of nations. What a perfect situation for those who would exercise draconian measures over mankind.

Back in Lincoln’s day, when there was a population of about one-tenth of what it is today, and individual states shared power equally with the federal government, there was keen interest in politics, finance, and economics amongst citizens, as they felt they could have some small voice in the direction of their state and national governments. A person will have an extremely difficult time making his voice heard against the din of over six billion people, and foreign bureaucrats who have names we can’t even pronounce.

There is a maxim we all would do well to learn and to remember: As governments grow, freedoms diminish.

Liberals support big government and large public debts, as they think they’ll be able to “get something for nothing,” the motto of the criminal. Conservatives support big government, as most want large armies and air forces, central intelligence, atomic weapons, war production boards, and the attendant large public debts that come with the centralization of power.

Therefore, either explicitly or implicitly, many Americans will support the move to a one-world government, especially after the Cartel’s corporate media tells us how it’ll eliminate foreign threats, end terrorist attacks, recover our economy, get the homeless off our streets, and save our environment.

And crime? We’ll be told crime will be a thing of the past, and it will be … except for those who’ll be controlling us, and who have caused all of our foreign threats, terrorists attacks, failed economies, homeless in our streets; and, who have made almost every effort to destroy our environment.

Don’t believe the Cartel is covertly destroying our environment?

The Guardian of Great Britain reports that in 2008, alone, the world’s largest companies did $2.2 trillion worth of environmental damage. What the Guardian did not report was these corporations are all owned and controlled by the Monetary/Banking Cartel, leading us to believe each corporation to be an autonomous unit, not under any centralized control, independent of national governments.

Our environmental destruction is obscene, while these very same criminals still claim all we have nothing to worry about is their fictional “global warming.”

The Cartel’s buzz-word, “sustainable” translates to austere living conditions, with increased taxes, which will be enforced on us with the Cartel’s control of central governments.

The Establishment would have us believe our choice is between big centralized government or disasters. It’s an old Hegelian dialectic trick: a choice between a false thesis and a ridiculous antithesis, as if no other choices existed. And yet, many supposedly educated college graduates and pointy-headed professors of academe fall for this ruse, even in the raw face of outrageous hegemony and burgeoning despotism.

Western education truly robs one of any possibility of critical thought.

Argentine economic analyst Adrian Salbuchi somehow retained his ability to think critically, in spite of his advanced education, which is proven in his three part video, that can be seen on-line at www.YouTube.com. In the videos, Salbuchi tells us of twelve planned attacks leading from our current globalization to the ultimate Cartel end game – a one world government.

1.  Planned financial melt-down – needing a world currency and financial system.

2.  Economic collapse – requiring increased taxes and world economic authority.

3.  Social unrest – requiring international military to police.

4.  Virus pandemics – created in labs, requiring deadly vaccines, that secretly carry RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) chips.

5.  Environmental scares – needing immense austerity programs, resulting in greatly reduced standards of living.

6.  Mega-terror attack – false flag operation by black opts units from US/UK/Israeli intelligence.

7.  Major Middle East atomic war – demanded by Zionists.

8.  Nuclear “accident” –  requiring nuclear facilities and weapons to be turned over to world government.

9.  Assassination of world leader – resulting with a world government of faceless, unelected leaders.

10.  Total destruction of “rogue” nations – those “terrorist” states that resist one-world government.

The last two attacks, claimed by Salbuchi, are outside the box. See his videos and be surprised.

Is Salbuchi being unduly pessimistic with his above precludes to a one-world government of tyranny? Maybe.

But surely any, or all of the above, could come to pass if enough people do not become cognizant of the possibility of them happening. At this critical juncture of our world, it is vital that we drop some of our limiting and generally mindless pursuits in favor of enlightening ourselves and others, as our future well-being is of next to no importance to our so-called national leaders, who have sold their souls to the beast.

from PressTV

Former head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency Hamid Gol says the United States is seeking to create and train terrorist groups in the region.

In a Wednesday interview with Fars news agency, Gol said Washington had been making efforts to destabilize the region through supporting groups like the Pakistan-based Jundallah terrorist group.

Gol went on to say that such attempts by the US intelligence agencies were in particular directed at fomenting unrest in Iran.

“The US intelligence agencies pursued just one goal by forming Rigi’s group which was provoking unrests and instability in Iran,” Gol was quoted as saying.

He also accused Washington and its western allies of seeking to strain ties between Iran and Pakistan.

The remarks come days after Iranian security forces arrested Jundallah ringleader Abdolmalek Rigi while he was aboard a Kyrgyz airliner on a flight from the United Arab Emirates to Kyrgyzstan.

In his confession broadcast by Press TV in late February after his arrest, Rigi talked about offers of unlimited support by the US spy agency, the CIA, saying the Americans offered to “cooperate with us” and “promised to give us a base along the border with Afghanistan near Iran.”

Rigi’s group has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks in Iran. The group has carried out murder, armed robbery, kidnappings, acts of sabotage and bombings inside Iran.