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Putin eyes up Obama's Iran file
 As even Fox News says Vladimir Putin deserves a Nobel prize for the "deft diplomatic maneuvers" that handed his struggling American counterpart a Kremlin-embossed way out of the Syrian crisis, the Russian president has set his sights on a move that would up the ante for a gong: taking another dog-eared file out of Barack Obama's hands and turning it into a Moscow-backed peace plan for Iran.
- M K Bhadrakumar
(Sep 13, '13)
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THE ROVING EYE
China stitches up
the (SCO) Silk Rd
Oh, to eavesrop at the weekend meeting of presidents Xi, Putin, and Rouhani as they craft a new multipolar international order. Before the private meeting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, China's Xi Jinping's lyrical praise has highlighted the strategic importance to the new order of Central Asian silk roads. Beneath the shine, Beijing is busy building a multifaceted network that is the stuff of threadbare American dreams.
- Pepe Escobar
(Sep 13, '13)
Cambodian deadlock at crucial juncture
Protests are to be staged in Phnom Penh following the official declaration that Prime Minister Hun Sen and his party are indeed winners of the July 28 general election, throwing out strong claims to the contrary by opposition leader Sam Rainsy's party. King Norodom Sihamoni's ''intervention" may result in a compromise before tensions reach a violent breaking point. - Sebastian Strangio
(Sep 13, '13)
Paving the way for the Road to Damascus
What Syria is really about involves water rights, pipelines, nation-state reconfigurations, militarized economies ... and on, and on. Somewhere well down the list are chemical weapons (perhaps), but these suit war-waging, propaganda-propounding elites. In the face of their criminal and deadly simplifications, it's high time we restored fear-mongering in America to its rightful place as a privilege that must be earned.
- Norman Ball
(Sep 13, '13)
And then there
was one
Even if global economic power has become, thanks to a rising China, more "multipolar", no actual state seriously contests the United States' role on the planet. It's taken a couple of decades since the Soviet Union collapsed even to be able to consider what that really means: delusional thinking of the first order as, from 9/11 to the Syrian crisis, Washington re-imagines the world. - Tom Engelhardt
(Sep 13, '13)
Ramallah and Gaza drift further apart
The cultural and economic distance between the geographically close Palestinian cities of Gaza and Ramallah underlines a fragmentation of national identity that has deepened since the Oslo accords. While the same issues affect Palestinians today as they did 20 years ago - from illegal settlements to US backing of Israel - unity around the cause is absent.
- Ramzy Baroud
(Sep 13, '13)
Russia's 'outsourced' jihadis come home
The prospect of battle-hardened fighters  coming home from Syria to join the intensifying insurgency in the Northern Caucasus is spurring Russian authorities to change tack. Where once the Kremlin turned a blind eye to the southern exodus, calls by "Caucasus Emirates" leader Dokku Umarov for jihadis to return cannot be ignored.
- Dmitry Shlapentokh
(Sep 13, '13)
 BOOK REVIEW
How oil poisoned
Gulf governance
Collaborative Colonialism: The Political Economy of Oil in the Persian Gulf by Hossein Askari
Given the "collaborative colonialism" relationship between Western powers and Arab countries, with callous, often corrupt, regimes backed militarily in return for secure oil supplies, Askari sees little motivation for Gulf countries to improve governance despite increasingly restive populations. His suggestion of intergenerational oil funds as an alternative reflects a compassion for the region that runs throughout the book.
- Robert E Looney
(Sep 13, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
Philippines under the neo-colonial boot
The Philippines "national security state" has effectively criminalized activism against the neo-colonial order at a time Manila and Washington plan to significantly boost their strategic ties, including through more US military boots on Philippine soil. As in the past, state-sponsored violations hide behind US-promoted false concepts of free markets, democracy and justice.
- E San Juan Jr
(Sep 13, '13)
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New nadir for China-Philippine ties
As the Philippines prepares for a new defense agreement to enable an expanded US "rotational" military presence on its soil, bilateral relations with China have taken a turn for the worse, with an angry response to Beijing's rescinding of an invitation to President Benigno Aquino to visit China. - Richard Javad Heydarian
(Sep 12, '13)
JOHN PILGER
Enemy whose name we dare not speak
Regardless of diplomatic attempts to delay  an attack on Syria, the United States' objective has nothing to do with chemical weapons and everything to do with wiping out the last independent states in the Middle East. Barack Obama accepted the war crimes of the Pentagon of his predecessor, George W Bush, and militarism camouflaged as democracy.
(Sep 12, '13)
Cheers and jeers greet Obama's bear hug
President Barack Obama's decision to embrace a Russian proposal to place Damascus' chemical-weapons arsenal under international control and delay a congressional vote on the use of military force against Syria has brought praise and condemnation from across the political spectrum. - Jim Lobe
(Sep 12, '13)
AFGHANISTAN
Freed Taliban may hold key to peace
 Hopes that former Taliban second-in-command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will win moderate Taliban over to President Hamid Karzai's grand plan have led many Afghans to view his release this week by Pakistan as presenting a unique opportunity for peace. Others feel Baradar can no longer muster enough influence among the insurgents. - Abubakar Siddique
(Sep 12, '13)
Trapped between terror and graft
Daily encounters with official corruption are increasing Afghans' mistrust of their government and generating the grassroots resentment that feeds into the continuing insurgency. The cycle of corruption and terror is being turned by vast inflows of aid and an empowerment of warlords who were included in the Western coalition's failed post-invasion reconstruction effort.
- Giuliano Battiston
(Sep 12, '13) |
Australia's Abbott faces Asia challenges
The Liberal-National Party government being formed in Australia by Tony Abbott will likely be proactive on a "Look West" element in foreign policy, especially in building bilateral ties with India. On Asian asylum seekers, however, the conservatives have a harsher outlook, as illustrated by a military solution adopted in June designed to "stop the boats" and "turn them back". - Sam Bateman
(Sep 12, '13)
Central banks and illusions of independence
The cult of personality around central bankers is encouraged by their not having a clear and enforceable mandate - certainly in the United States. That's one reason we hardly hear about Swiss politicians or central bankers: their unique direct democracy prevents them from pursuing drastic follies. - Reuven Brenner
(Sep 12, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Al-Qaeda's air force still on stand-by
It was 12 years ago today that, according to the official narrative, Arabs with minimal flying skills turned jets into missiles to attack the US homeland in the name of al-Qaeda. 9/11 elevated them to Ultimate Evil status. Twelve years on, the President of the United States wriggles on a Syrian hook, and the amorphous "al-CIAeda" eagerly awaits the US Air Force to clear the road to Damascus. - Pepe Escobar
(Sep 11, '13)
SYRIAN CHEMICAL WEAPONS
Putin lures Obama towards engagement
 Barack Obama has put the Syrian ball in the Russian court as Moscow fleshes out its detailed plan to neutralize Syria's chemical weapons. The shift from a war-footing offers the prospect of new cooperation extending to issues including Iran, and confirmation of Russian President Vladimir Putin's shrewd handling of the crisis. More immediately, the United States president can expect the hawks to pick him apart.
- M K Bhadrakumar
(Sep 11, '13)
US STRIKES ON SYRIA
Kerry becomes first war casualty
 The strain of defending an indefensible brief to push for a US military strike on Syria is beginning to show as US Secretary of State John Kerry performs taxing diplomatic acrobats. As gaffe piles upon gaffe, the United States is being forced to consider the merits of Russia's proposal for Syria to hand over chemical weapons. It's time for a contorting President Barack Obama to step up to the bar.
- M K Bhadrakumar
(Sep 10, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
The (farcical) emperor is naked
 The threatened US attack on Syria is not about "strong common sense", as the White House puts it. Is about farce built upon farce built upon farce, not least the "credibility" farce starring the Obama administration, caught in its own self-spun net woven of recklessly created "red lines". The pesky "world" is not buying it.
- Pepe Escobar
(Sep 9, '13) |
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Sechin called on to sort potash mesh
Russian potash giant Uralkili's decision backed by stakeholder Suleiman Kerimov to kill off its Belarus-linked cartel has hit global potash prices and led the Uralkili CEO to be arrested in Minsk. Step up former deputy prime minister and Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin to fix the mess - though he will need China's help to do so.
- John Helmer
9/11: Currency joins
insider trades claims
The US Stock Exchange Commission denies, in the face of strong evidence, that advance knowledge helped insider traders to benefit from the 9/11 terror attacks. Now currency anomalies for the same period point to similar advance knowledge. - Lars Schall
CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
Difficult decisions ahead
Syria is a frightening place in a tough and rapidly disintegrating region. Yet, outside of crude oil, global markets show minimal concern, focused on the monetary backdrop and blind to imminent far-reaching change.
Doug Noland looks at the previous week's events each Monday.
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Sheikhs eastbound
on business trips
I feel nostalgic for an old song on the US country music charts in the mid-seveties, East Bound and Down, written for the film Smokey and the Bandit. Just in case you’re be too busy for YouTube, let me put down a couple of lines... - M K Bhadrakumar
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That Tel Aviv and its black ops in the Mossad stand to benefit from a US intervention into yet another quagmire is beyond doubt.
Hardy Campbell
Texas
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