NASRALLAH AND LEBANON

After reading the following excellent analysis about Nasrallah if one pursues it to the comment section below, you will see a running thread/discussion on Lebanon into which I became involved and some comments of mine to follow, "Travesty":

www.arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2008/01/travesty.html

From the previous section beneath Layla's wonderful blog, the anonymous author is correct that Lebanon's offshore waters may contain oil.
For this, see the following two entries:

www.mbendi.co.za/indy/oilg/as/ln/p0005.htm

And:

www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnm30828.htm

But, this is NOT new information.
In the following link, look for article #9 (can't seem to make a direct link to the article work), "Peace Dividend: New offshore Oil Drilling for East Med Coast," no date given, but, one can surmise an approximate date from the content.
It doesn't really matter, because, as you will see, it's discussing information from years back:

www.archives.obs-us.com/obs/english/books/mem/toc.htm

The preceding is but one of many articles on the subject.
In previous blogs (from August 27, 2005 and others) I discussed a bogus theory being advanced "Peak Oil versus Deep Oil" and an abiotic, non-biotic theory of oil and gas.
Since my previous blog gets blocked on and off, I'll use just one link from it regarding the aboitic origins of oil/gas, a process of regeneration from sources deep beneath the earth's surface:

www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/030573.html

Thus, no surprise to find oil and gas almost everywhere.
Just as another example, in Israel:

www.petromed.ca/Pages/companynews.html

But, accessing deep oil/gas drilling is more expensive and technologically challenging than the stuff which percolates up easily from the ground.
Second, this makes an overabundance of oil/gas supplies in terms of marketing, pricing, profit, competition.
Third, it is/was not accessed previously because these areas and economies were not privatized.
They were state owned/controlled/nationalized.
Now, they've been "liberalized" and "liberated," thus, the incentive to expand market share, supply, and increase profitability.
So, for example, factors involved in Lebanon are not in geographical isolation, pertaining to one and only that one country, Lebanon, alone.
Thus, the following is important, too, in this picture.
Altho not stated specifically, keep in mind, Russia's Gazprom and it's exports in relation to Syria and Iran:

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=view
Article&code=CHO20060726&articleId=2824

Blocking Gazprom is a key ingredient to understanding context.

In the openly blatant and continuing international wheeling and dealing in the GCC about which everybody appears to be in total and complete denial, abundant articles exist about the happy relationship now between Kuwait and, to add to a long, growing list, Ukraine as well.
Ukraine, of course, in turmoil and a NATO candidate.
Here's one:

www.muslimstoday.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/kuwait-energy-company-buys-ukrainian-gas-fields/

(Much more information on the preceding website).

Then, a happy coincidence between Islamic finance and Islamic fundamentalism, Iran in Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey's Islamic AKP and elsewhere.
From the plethora of Islamic finance conferences here's a few more to add to many others:

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080129055000

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080129134337

Meanwhile, in Turkey, as part of this "Islamic" AKP takeover, another interesting development:

www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid
=94845

Those, here, in the US, who cannot manage to find "Islamists" in high places, in high finance or in Iraq, in addition, also, congruently gave absolutely NO support or recognition to Turkey's opposition when they previously held the largest, ongoing demonstrations in Turkish history against the AKP.
Not one single word of recognition or support ever emanated from their mouths.
Not one.
Barely a story.
A virtual news blackout.
And, finally, the latest in another area of resistance and international support in Pakistan I've been following:

http://www.ptudc.org/content/view/140/1

Do not expect anything similar to be forthcoming from the US.

NATO SUMMIT , UAE, THE HOUSE THAT ATATURK, HUSSEIN, NASSER BUILT

In the last few days, January 24, 2008, NATO's Secretary General visited the UAE for the first time ever.
Amongst subjects discussed, naturally, GCC and NATO expansion, then, NATO'S upcoming NATO Summit in April, 2008 in Bucharest, Romania.
At this Bucharest summit, apparently, Kosovo and Afghanistan will be on the agenda and NATO expansion to the following, amongst any others not mentioned, Croatia, Albania, Macedonia, Georgia and Ukraine.
"Darfur" and the African Union also come up, according to reports I've read.
For anyone looking for "change" on ANY of the above from ANY current US politicians in the presidential farce, you are a total and complete moron.
Just the opposite.
Furthermore, expect an Armenian "genocide" resolution to be passed by Congress after the Presidential election.
In the following, reviewed, once again, the BG/Palestine/Israel Gas Deal.
I'm delighted to see others deciphering this story.
However, important pieces of information are missing in the following synopsis, pieces required to get a more accurate casual picture of events:

http://www.uruknet.info?p=40528

In my previous blogs of June 3 and June 20, 2007 I linked to numerous articles with information regarding competing Palestine Authority and Egypt's EMG/BG/Israel offshore Gas deal.
Since my previous blogspot appears on and off, (try it ocassionally and look for the above dates) I will include just one significant direct link regarding EMG from those previous entries.
I draw your attention in the following to one critical remark in the "Comment" section underneath, below, the following article:

www.arabist.net/archives/2005/07/22/what-the-mubaraks-own

However, I wholeheartedly disagree with the reason the author in the comment section gives for US "interest" in the deal.
Following from the preceding, more current news, regarding EMG and Ampal:

www.ampal.com/pages/news_room/window/press.php?id=251845

Additionally, as I pointed out, their/our newly expanded Dana Gas empire now explores for gas in Egypt.
And multibillionaire Sam Zell recently acquired a controlling interest in EMG, along with the "institutional investors" referred to above.
Then, there are/were plans by Khashoggi, Nimrodi and "other investors" to develop Gaza into a gambling, casino playground.
See my previous blog entry, January 24, 2008, below, "Our A-rabs," on this subject.
As for the progressive, secular, nationalist, socialist House(s) that Ataturk, Hussein and Nasser built, they are being deconstructed and torn down by all the above.
But, it is NOT a done deal, it is not complete.
Resistance is everywhere, except, of course, in the politically neutered US.
With the collaboration and support of ALL the above, together, and global support, it can be reversed, including the House that Lenin built, and others.

"OUR" A-RABS

Regarding a recent exodus of Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt, I characterize this a very expedient form of what we label in the US, urban "renewal."
Otherwise known as urban "removal."
Mother Nature, Hurricane Rita, accomplished in New Orleans something similar as that now occurring in Gaza.
In a previous blog, from August 13, 2005, I reprinted excerpts from a WSJ article from over ten years ago, February 4, 1994, entitled,
"Guns & Butter: Khashoggi is Back Angling For a Profit From Mideast Peace Plans."
It had specific, detailed information regarding Khashoggi, Nimrodi and various "other backers," and his/their plans for Israel exiting Gaza and turning Gaza into one big casino playground development.
According to the article, he/they, the various backers, planned to invest $20 Billion in 1989 into this project.
IF the following link to my previous blog works, you will be able to read it.
If the link does not work, try again, another time, OR, IF someone out there in cyberspace is able to access the WSJ article from their electronic archives, PLEASE, I would be greatly appreciative IF you/they could e-mail the link to me and I will insert it into the story:

www.karlmarxwasright.blogspot.com/2005/08/khashoggi-and-gaza.html

(As a little footnote to this story, since Murdoch purchased the WSJ, I have stopped reading it. It's become crap, like everything else.)

Returning to ongoing GCC party, everybody who is anybody participates.
I do not wish to imply the Gulf is a US lake.
That would be neither fair nor accurate.
And, I do detest un-truths, partial truths, etc.
So, here, for example, a high powered Russian delegation representing private interests, of course, "Russian Deputy PM Visits Jebel Ali Port and Free Zone," regarding Dubai World, visits:

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080124121026

As I repeat, Putin's Russia compromised by the private interests he/they now represent.

Then, regarding China and Dubai, a 2006 article, Victor Chu, First Eastern Investment Group, and the DIFC (Dubai International Financial Center):

www.ameinfo.com/95320.html

In case you've forgotten the wonders of what the DIFC offers, here's a little reminder from their own website:

www.difc.ae/about_difc/index.html

This is similar to the wonders offered by the KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government) as well.
The list could go on indefinitely.
However, I can not resist adding two more ironic tidbits.
Iran's Ahmadimidget scheduled to visit Baghdad, soon, date unspecified as yet.
And, ConocoPhillips, a Lukoil PARTNER, says they would invest BOTH in Iraq and Iran.
As for my above blog heading, "Our" A-rabs--it is because the above are owned, purchased, bought, lock, stock and barrel by private, international, capital interests.
They serve their private capital masters well or they would cease to exist.
They are the "good" Arabs, paid well for their services.
Then, there are those other pesky A-rabs, the Pan-Arab nationalist and socialist movement, headed formerly by Egypt's Nasser and then Iraq's Hussein and the Arab Baath Socialist Party. They must be eliminated for they stand in the way of "progress," as defined above.
In this project, they are aided, helped, abetted by those purporting to be in opposition here and elsewhere.
For a note on those pesky "bad" A-rabs, here's the following--before you read, one comment--how about making the flag red, white and blue?:

www.arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2008/01/look-what-theyve-done-ma.html

As for Palestinians, they just happened to have the misfortune of location in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Location, location, location" being everything to quote the vernacular used by real estate agents and speculators, alike.
Land, housing, people, labor, life, medical care, water, air, food, education, transportation, natural resources, everything commodified in "this best of all possible [commodified] worlds," making a minor adaptation to a Dr. Pangloss song.
You can sing the above refrain, also, if you wish, a tune from Leonard Bernstein's marvelous musical production, "Candide":

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFD1ARQWwW0

And, a small explanatory note on Bernstein's Candide for anyone interested and unfamiliar with it:

www.leonardbernstein.com/studio/element.asp?FeatID=9&AssetID=24

SUCKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!! NABUCCO & GCC SPECULATIVE BUBBLE

Dana Gas empire now investing in West Africa:

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080122093401

Adding insult to injury and ironic hypocrisy, our Western, anti-non-Communist, Fascist, American backed, International Labor Organization working WITH the UAE for "better labor conditions," according to one unofficial commentary I read.
It's similar to our new American union, the SEIU led by Andy Stern that broke with the AFL-CIO (CIA), recently.
The new union calls itself "Change to Win."
Win what?
Precisely which/what changes are we to expect?
Not specified.
Some generalized rhetoric.
They are as bad if not worse than the AFL-CIO from which they recently split.
I can't keep up with the acronyms and groups popping up everywhere--like those emerging in Iraq.
Everybody, including our so-called US Presidential candidates seem to use two words change and/or win in their names/slogans.
For example, another group appeared recently calling itself, Win Without War.
Win what without war??
What is it we are "winning?"
Apologists, obscurantists, historical revisionists and doublespeak is a growth industry throughout the globe.
Meanwhile, John Helmer reports the Fat Lady has sung, meaning death of the US sponsored Nabucco gas pipeline versus Russia's South Stream pipeline and its ENI, Italy, Bulgaria partnership:

www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page38?oid=44858&sn=Detail

Further, Serbia made a deal with Gazprom:

www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=55610

However, in MY opinion, "news of Nabuccos death is premature."
All of the above premised upon status quo.
Counter strategies are being worked on as I write.
Georgia, Ukraine, Baltics, Caucasus and Russia, itself, to name just a few more.
And, here's one more very interesting one, the kicker, regarding Rafsanjani and Iran's "possible" involvement to supply gas to Nabucco:

www.en.rian.ru/world/20080122/97553366.html

Additionally, anyone can see the interests involved in Kosovo's independence, the role of the Albanian mob, their relationship to Kuwait and its impact on Russia's South Stream project.
Also, like it or not, Putin's government, by adopting "market principals" now necessary to export their gas to Europe checkmated to tacitly support Iran's present Fascist government in Iraq, ethnic cleansing, death squads, Iraq's dismemberment and Iraq's privatization.
Turkey's army plays a more principled role at the moment.
Of course, the exact same gas initially supplied to Europe from the former Soviet Union, Russia, was both ALOT less expensive, more reliable, rationalized, both internally and externally, when no "free market forces" existed, no contradictory economic interests and profit motives.
So, suckers of the world--pay up--pay double, triple, more than you did before!
I guess peak oil or peak gas or scarcity will be "pushed" again as a theory to explain high prices.
Speaking of suckers, what goes down, will go up, i.e., the stock market, AFTER the folks investing in the GCC buy stocks at bargain basement prices.
Those with capital and financial resources that helped push the bubble in the first place, knowing full well it will crash, come back in and the bubble inflates, once again.
A cyclical system for those manipulating capital markets.
And, suckers are always around, willfully and voluntarily participating in the get rich quick scheme.
They refuse to realize the entire system is rigged against them, like that of the gambling casinos.
"Ours is not to reason why, ours is to do and die..."

AMERICAN PORNOGRAPHY

I decided to offer one minor, personal reflection, a little retrospective, today, in addition to my usual material.

I labelled this American pornography.

At the moment, the American Presidential primaries dominate almost all TV screens and newspapers, reporting, commentary, talking heads, pundits, analysis, etc., no matter what station one watches, including C-Span. 
It's unavoidable, inescapable, ubiquitous. 
Everywhere.

When I "look" at my TV screen, and I do mean look, because I turn off the sound, put on music, and simply observe and monitor the talking heads, the faces, the pictures, deconstructing the "banality of evil" (Hannah Arendt's phrase) and hypocrisy.

As I watched the TV screen the last day or so with its screaming idiots at primary rallies, reminiscent of all Fascist events, a backdrop of different pictures, faces, images came to mind juxtaposed simultaneously with my TV screen.

First, the image and face of Saddam Hussein's lynching.

Then, the very sweet, kind faces of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and their barbaric execution in 1953.

To me, a direct historical trajectory exists between those two events and my TV screen, of course, with all too many other images interspersed, scattered in between.

ONLY for those completely unaware of the infamous Rosenberg execution, I will include one or two random links from amongst many thousands.
First:

www.socialistworker.org/2003-2/458/458_06_Rosenbergs.shtml

The preceding link has some serious historical flaws, amongst many others, such as, for example, their reference to the Venona files, repudiated by the Rosenberg's sons, the Meeropols:

www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/meeropol-on-rosenbergs.html

But, as I said, the preceding link is meant only as a thumbnail sketch for anyone completely oblivious of the case.
For more, do your own research.
Coincidentally, self-exiled American chess master Bobby Fischer died this week. 
Bobby Fischer said it all.
So did Alan Ginsberg in his famous book of poems, "Howl," in 1956, published shortly after the Rosenberg's barbaric execution.
Again, for those unfamiliar with Ginsburg's poems, "Howl," here's the famous first line of his work, the one most often quoted, 
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness...":

www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/293.html


For more Ginsburg, do your own research.
So, from the realities above to the present is not a difficult stretch. 
Anyone with alittle historical perspective will recognize easily the similarities of the Nazi/Fascist propaganda campaigns, disinformation, ethnic cleansing programs in WWII and that which is being described in the following link.

When you are done reading the following blog, note, in particular, the very astute analysis and commentary in the comment section by Amre El-Abyad, who, in turn, has his own blog, the "Iraqist," Bluegum and others, a sort of running and perceptive dialogue:

www.arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2008/01/bits-pieces-from-iraqi-coffin.html

The Fascist propaganda machine represented above grinds forward inexorably, helped by our collaborative, cooperative, corporate, foundation and state supported opposition, as well as general stupidity, self-serving, economic self-interest, etc. 

The present disinformation narrative presents President Bush as a potent person seeking to isolate Iran and the supposed threats between them. 
The entire narrative is, of course, just the opposite.
It's purpose? 
Perhaps, diversion on all sides. 
While this fiction gets repeated, opposite events grind forward inexorably in the GCC. 
Just a few out of many, many highlights, too many to name. Some might recall in many previous blogs, I have been astutely following the rise of Egypt's EFG-Hermes, Dana Gas, Citigroup, Abraaj, the Israel-Egypt Gas Deal connection, etc.
Here's the latest on this one, "EFG-Hermes is rated Top Broker in UAE in 2007" (anybody surprised?):

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/0080121090949sidZAWYA2

And, regarding another star studded cast of characters, "President and CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce Commends Jordan for Achieving Economic Reforms," and the MEFTA, Middle East Free Trade Agreement:

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080121085036


Additionally, a Jordan Investment Board exists in the UAE, a free trade agreement between the GCC and the EU is being scheduled, and, the GCC plans to be a major investor in African energy. 
But, are these developments, these facts, important to anybody? 
Apparently not. 
Most people are too busy defending Iran from an American bomb attack! 
Instead, Iraq IS presently being bombed by the US. 
Maybe they simply got one letter wrong in the name--Iraq, not Iran, a "q" at the end of the name. 
Or, perhaps, they meant to say, do not bomb Iran while Iran is IN Iraq, since Iran IS IN Iraq.
But, another military action is occurring, also, about which little is being said. 
150,000 Turkish troops are amassing on the Kurdistan border. 
May Turkish troops liberate all of us, including their own country, being sold off and down the drain by the Islamist AKP.
As I have said repeatedly in previous blogs, Turkey will overturn the apple cart. Turkey has already overturned the applecart.

BREAD AND CIRCUSES: THE GREAT US ELECTION & OTHER NOTES

I wonder if our striking writers union employees are moonlighting by scripting our current US Presidential primaries.
US Presidential primaries and elections do qualify as comedy, farce.
Entertainment, diversion.
Bread and circuses.
By the time US Presidential elections actually takes place in November, 2008, all Presidential candidates will have been thoroughly exposed for the garbage they are and represent.
But, it matters not.
One or the other of the pimps and prostitutes will win a sliver of the population still bothering to vote, even if it's an Independent, multi-billionaire candidate like NYC's present Mayor Bloomberg.
Why doesn't it matter?
Here are some of the reasons, continuing from my previous running commentary on America's Fascist unions, why no Left exists, no ORGANIZED American resistance, no partisan, opposition support, etc.:
"Western Pension Funds Eye MENA [MidEastNorthAfrica] Equity":

www.business24-7.ae/cs/article_show_mainh1_story.aspx?HeadlineID=1076

In my previous blog, from September 21, 2005:

www.karlmarxwasright.blogspot.com/2005/09/why-theres-no-left-in-us-and-other.html

I had linked to the glossy cover of the AFT (American Federation of Teachers) publication glorifying their covert role overturning Communism in Eastern Europe,
"Story of Polish Solidarity and How the AFL-CIO (CIA) Aided Its Victory."
Since my initial blog, above, gets blocked periodically (I wonder why?), I will repeat the link to the article above, altho I had further background and comments in my previous blog entry IF you can access the above, (keep trying):

www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/summer2005/puddington.htm

My belated New Year's eve wish/resolution:
May ALL of the above reap the benefits of that which they have sown--ALL of those who contributed in this glorious effort.
May they lose their homes, their jobs, their pensions, their health care, their children to wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Caucasus, Balkans, Asia, the Pacific, the Atlantic, Gulf, Mediterranean and elsewhere.
I wish them all well in this area--ALL of them who participated in the above enterprise, encompassing everyone, from American unions above to the "intellectuals/scholars," academics, media, culture warriors, pimps and prostitutes for freedom and so on.
They all know who they were and still are, continuing their dirty work for "freedom and democracy."
No historical mystery exists as to why no organized opposition and resistance exists in the US.
It has a clear explanation.
Following on from the above and my previous blogs on GCC conferences, the following link is a radio broadcast I have NOT heard, yet.
However, the description speaks for itself, and, at some point alittle later on, hopefully, I will listen to it.
But, others have the option of hearing it before me.
"Yawl" should listen, you know, for YOUR MASTER SPEAKS.
So, the following radio broadcast, Dana Gas Executive, Jafar, discusses Iran deal, Iraq, Egypt, sukuk, possible (probable) Western securities market listing, etc.:

www.zawya.com/radiomailstory.cfm?storyid
=DE080116080723417850&l=160120080807

Meanwhile, another note on the obvious regarding Iraq:

www.arablinks.blogspot.com/2008/01/al-quds-cfr-report-says-says-saudis.html

Of course, in official and unofficial US circles, a mythological narrative of Iraq, a fictional version of a Sunnis and Shia civil war, repeats, ad nauseum, with Al-Queda thrown in for good measure.
As well, the mythological Iran narrative.
Obviously, it suits the above purposes.
In my previous blog entry, Tuesday, January 15, 2008, see below, I had reported on the ongoing financial negotiations between one mafia/criminal government and the other, Kuwait and Albania, and, of course, their related criminal/mafia organization, the Kosovo separatists.
(Mineral resources in Kosovo, gas and oil in northwestern Albania, Manas Petroleum, etc.
See Tuesday's blog, Jan 15 for details on that.)
Well, guess what?
Surprise, surprise!
Serbia cancels Iraq's debt obligations!
Imagine the coincidence!!??
Be sure to note in the following link, which is why I included it, the few sentences commenting on the relationship between Milosevic, Milosevic's Yugoslavia and Hussein and Iraq:

www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/26238

US PRESIDENT ELECTION, BLOOMBERG & ALBANIA/KOSOVO

The next stage in the farce known as US Presidential elections and Fascist/bourgeois democracy will, in MY opinion, be a POSSIBLE announcement of NYC's multi-billionaire Mayor Micheal Bloomberg's Independent candidacy.
Being a multi-billionaire Bloomberg can fund his own campaign and thus not "compromise" with "competing" interests within his own party.
In addition, he can say he has NO voting record on any national issues in the last few years.
Tabla rosa.
And so on.
Bloomberg will "save the system" from its own crisis at the moment. Destabilization everywhere.
Endemic.
Further, more money from the wealthy, propertied class will poor into his campaign, over and above what he can provide himself.
And, so, HE, too, can then say, "I AM the candidate of CHANGE" to add to the chorus of others announcing themselves THE candidate of "Change."
At the same time, the Green Party will announce their candidate, soon.
Thus, the Presidential race will become a four way one.
Both the Democrats and Republicans will go out of existence.
The Green Party has an historic opportunity to become the party of opposition.
To do so, it must have a clear, sharp, distinct, class analysis and solutions.
If it does anything less, if it take a Social Democrat position, it will have no future and it too will be irrelevant.
Elsewhere, but, in other related parts of the world, in Russia, for the first time in 17 years, "Tanks Return to Red Square May 9":

www.kommersant.com/p-11933/Red_Square_tanks

It's nice to see those tanks.
But, those tanks need to do alot more than just parade down Red Square.
Those tanks need to become a part of the Red Army and finish off the job on the Russian oligarchs and private land speculation.
And, elsewhere, too.
In addition, confrontation around Kosovo's independence is building up, being hotly and actively pursued by US/EU interests.
As I have previously mentioned, Albanian/Kosovo separatists are being actively supported by investment and financial relationships to/with Kuwait and the GCC states, their Western conduits.
Here's but one article, for example, in this ongoing relationship regarding tax laws between Kuwait and Albania:

www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1875165&Language=en

Additionally, a company name Manas Petroleum, based in Switzerland, claims it has "found" huge gas and oil reserves/deposits in northwestern Albania:

www.albanian.com/community/vbl/showthread.php?p=359805

For some very interesting background on Manas see the following and note, especially, the information on their executives background under the subheading in dark, bold, type, "Management" (be patient, the link takes about 30 seconds to one minute to fully appear):

www.equityresearch.li/portfolio.php#19

And, so, they and we go marching, marching, marching into the historical abyss, deepening economic contradictions, systemic crises, military confrontation in order to fortify the already and ever destabilizing, reactionary and contradictory gains of private and personal aggrandizement, de-nationalization and counter-revolution.
This being just the beginning.

DANA GAS GROWS & THE "LAST CHANCE CONFERENCE"

Assuming one has been following all my previous blog entries on the Dana Gas empire, saga, now, the latest, not unexpectedly,"Former Head of KOC [Kuwait Oil Co] Joins Dana Gas Executive Team":

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080114135125

In addition, your "last chance" for this exciting upcoming Middle East Private Equity Conference, January 15, including Abraaj, amongst others, (see my previous blogs on the Abraaj/Dana Gas/Crescent Oil/Pakistan connection).
I hope I did not notify "yawl" too late:

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080114090258

But, in case you miss this one, do not despair.
Here's a bonus around the same time regarding Turkey and Dubai:

www.ameinfo.com/143667.html

Remember Turkey's Islamic AKP government, the one busy privatizing everything on which they can lay their greedy, grubby little hands.
The above, and more, of course, occurs simultaneous against a backdrop of renewed, sustained, increased, intense aerial bombing on the body corpse of what is, supposedly, a now pacified Iraqi state, (reminiscent of Vietnam), Turkish troops pounding northern Kurdistan, while the media and others talk about Iraq national reconciliation with a de-Baathified Baath Party AND the following, IN A NUTSHELL explains WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT, "Saddam's Words to Go From Iraq Flag":

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=40050

Of course, bringing back a sanitized Arab Baath Party, minus its socialist character, reminiscent to the role of a purged, non-Communist, Communist party globally.
In Iraq's case, in particular, a sanitized Baath Arab Party gives an Arab patina to the face of Iraq's government, instead of it's present Iranian/Persian character.
The situation above is ubiquitous, although, in Iraq it took the largest military force on the globe, a genocidal policy and death squads to destroy the Baath Arab Socialist Party, in spite of which, their resistance is far from finished.
"News of their death is premature" and "He who laughts last, laughs best."
In the UK, for example, it is expressed in the following, but, this could be written almost anywhere on the globe in varying degrees, depending upon historical levels of nationalization and political sophistication in the first place:

www.londoncommunists.blogspot.com/2008/01/happy-new-year.html

A few, small, non-sequiturs, additions, to the above.
The internet is full of lots of blathering idiots and garbage.
About almost everything and anything, from Iran to Iraq to the US and so on.
So, I'm going to take this opportunity to make just one comment about US Presidential electoral primaries.
I'm noting the parrot like repetition and SPECULATION about "voting irregularities" regarding Hillary Clinton's recent "victory" over Obama in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary.
The implication above being Hillary's win was illegitimate, a result of fraud and vote tampering.
The EQUAL assumption/assertion, however, NOT being replicated everywhere, is that Republicans and Independents were sent into the Iowa Democratic Caucus to vote for Obama.
I cannot stand either of them.
They both make me vomit.
But, I happen to like truth and fact.
Many wrongs do not a right make.
Fact is fact.
If one of you reading this happens to ask why would the Republicans prefer Obama, that is alittle more difficult to explain, but, it has to do with THEIR ideas of national "electability."
And, it ALL involves very dirty politics.
One other point, regarding dirty politics and the internet.
With abounding analysis about Pakistan and Bhutto's death, I have yet to see background explanations that include the infamous TAP pipeline.
Why was Bhutto previously deposed and sent off to the GCC?
She and/or her husband were corrupt, but, so what?
What, if anything, had her previous removal to do with Bin Laden, the Taliban, Pakistan's ISI and TAP pipeline project?
Bhutto did NOT support Unocal's consortium for the TAP pipeline.
She supported their competitor, an Argentine firm, Bridas, instead.
Unocal group offered $100 million for transit fees to Bin Laden and his Taliban, but, apparently, they/he wanted more, $1 Billion, not a few piddling millions, more perks and control, in addition.
Both Bhutto and Bin Laden/Taliban preferred Bridas.
Here's alittle snapshot reminder on the timeline surrounding Afghan's TAP Pipeline project.
The pertinent, succinct timeline begins in the middle of Page 2 of the following:

www.justiceraped.org/index2.php?option=com_
content&do_pdf=1&id=127

I am well aware the pipeline project has more geostrategic aspects to it than this simple, little snapshot.
But, I offer a causal relationship between the pipeline project, the competition between Bridas and Unocal, and both Bhutto and Bin Laden's subsequent removal.

REVIVING THE TRANSATLANTIC PARTNHERSHIP & OTHER NOTES

The following talk/subject and link, "Reviving the Transatlantic Partnership," reaffirms and reiterates future and present policies at one of our customary think tanks.
At the following, one can access the discussion EITHER via written transcript and/or video, which is why I used this link, depending on one's preference.
The information is not new, but, I thought I would feature its theme, venue and participants to recapitulate the meaning of our previous November mid-term s-election/Coup and its continuum in our present Presidential primary garbage.
This division of major global responsibilities represents a continuum of that presented by the former "Pentagon's New Map," outlined previously by Thomas P.M. Barnett.
See his website for more information:

http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/

The American military remains basically a mercenary army for global capital, something well expressed a long time ago by Smedley Butler in the 1930s.
A little snippet following about Butler for the uninitiated. In the following link, if you do not want to read it all, just skip down to the subheadings, "Claims of the Business Plot," and "Speaking and Writing Career" for the choice information:

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler

Nothing has changed since then, including names, altho the world of elite global capital expanded to include a few more new, different names, in addition to the old ones, above.
So, global capital in Europe and elsewhere, according to both Barnett and the above conference, can reap the benefits and sustain their mutual interests through shared financing and strategic support. It's politically expedient.
Now, to the link:

www.csis.org/component/option,com_csis_events/task,view/id,1468/

As for our idiotic Presidential primaries, a few developments may ensue, since the parties are in so much disarray.
No matter what happens, however, the above program is the one that will be rescued, at all costs.
Present NYC Mayor, multi-billionaire Michael Bloomberg, MAY enter the Presidential elections as an Independent.
Why not?
After all, might as well get rid of the front men/women and simply go directly to who owns and runs the US.
In addition, on the opposite side, the Green Party will announce a candidate in a few months.
There is a possibility, in my humble opinion, that both the Democratic and Republican parties may go the way of the dinosaurs in alittle while.
No loss.
Meanwhile, the GCC, Islamic Finance saga about which I've been writing so much, continues.
I am finding more places in which it is followed, but, not by the idiots who cannot find ANY facts, whatsoever, on the internet.
The following website, for example, links to a number of categories and articles (see both left and right hand columns/articles), altho, by far, it is NOT comprehensive and it appears to possess a questionable bias in its selections and commentaries.
It is ironic that it is they, nonetheless, who even bother to notice and comment on these developments.
Again, note the links on both left and right hand columns:

http://www.shariahfinancewatch.wordpress.com/

For example, let's highlight one of the many developments not above in which Kuwait, by design, obviously, and not by accident, extends it's economic relationship, investment, support to/with the notorious criminal and terrorist gang called the Albanian government and Kosovo separatists.

Meanwhile, since Iran is in the news, again, Bahrain's bank, Ahli United Bank and Iran's bank Melli and Saderat are getting together to form a new bank in another notorious free trade zone of Iran's Kish Island:

www.islamonline.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=77286

More on Bahrain's Ahli United Bank:

www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3715/is_200605/ai_n17174302

Some might recall my original blog from August 3, 2005, regarding an "explosive story" of Iran's Oriental Oil Kish, its' owner/founder and Iran's chief nuke negotiator, Cyrus(Sirius) Nasseri and its ties to/with Halliburton.
Nobody expressed interested in that story then or now.
Since my other blog works on and off, I'll link to the article in that previous link for reference purposes:

www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3040

"SEEING GREEN" & THE US PRIMARIES: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

The above heading comes from ongoing developments in the GCC and a previous article from June 2007 on Islamic finance, referring, of course, to the color of the American dollar,
"Seeing Green":

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20070606122628

One more about foreign funds flowing into the UAE:

www.business24-7.ae/cs/article_show_mainh1_story.aspx?HeadlineID=844

Where will this speculative GCC hot money "bubble" be invested?
Obviously, into a transformed, de-nationalized, privatized Middle East, ranging from Turkey to Pakistan the Caucasus and further, including US, stock exchanges, Europe and so on.
That's why this "transformative," reactionary, "greater middle east project" is so important.
Once again, THE story which nobody manages to discover, although right in front of their eyes.
I could provide hundreds, if not thousands, of links.
The GCC being THE the financial, economic, military, strategic hub, coordinating center, "front group."
The GCC plans to invest about $4 billion into Jordan, according to their own reports.
One more irresistible highlight on the luxurious romping in the posh GCC states regarding attendance at another upcoming "Summit of Iraq Defence" in Dubai, (where else?), February, 2008:

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080108131150

As part of this ongoing story our functionally illiterate moron known as the American President will honor the UAE shortly with his inarticulate ramblings.
Hopefully, he will stay in the UAE and never return.
They deserve one another.
I thought it might be interesting to see how this upcoming event at the GCC/UAE is presented by one of our "prestigious" think tanks.
Following is a transcript of a January 3 Press Conference, a video also available at the same website, if you prefer it,
"Upcoming Presidential Visit to the Middle East":

www.csis.org/media/csis/events/080103_press_conference.pdf

In previous blogs I asked, repeatedly, paraphrasing the following question to the tune of a well known song, "where have all the historians and theorists gone, gone everywhere..." who are not bothering to find, comment or analyze any of the above and note the absurdity and contradictions of what is labelled "religious, ethical, Islamic, Sharia compliant finance," nor the events transpiring in the GCC and their profound implications.
No cause and effect??
As far as I know, no professional scholars and historians have appeared on the scene, except for my lonely little blog.
This information, after all, is NOT a covert operation.
As for American primaries, about which much hoopla, I generally make no comment, because, it is a continuum from the above.
The solution, suggestion, remedy, antidote, in the following is more indicative of the pathetic state of of the non-resistance resistance in American politics and understanding in this country:

www.democracynow.org/2008/1/3/vote_for_change_atrocity_linked_us

So much for touted "change" by everyone in the American Presidential primary elections.
Obviously, the only changes either at home or abroad are/will be cosmetic ones, no different from the sorts of "change" we got in the previously much touted November American mid-term elections and engineered Coup.
More of the same.
Same corporate sponsors, same Parties, same strategists, etc.
Different face, age and color, different packaging but not substance.
That's why I say, much ado about nothing.
Slap a young, black face onto it, rather than an older, white one, use a little insipid rhetoric and call it "change."
But, for those taking bets on the American Presidential horse race, I would not give odds at this moment.
Many, many dirty and covert tactics are involved in the American partisan electoral politics, reflecting the entire system.
The final outcome in this horse race may take some unexpected twists and turns as the mudslinging continues and intensifies.

AN UPCOMING CAIRO CONFERENCE

There's no particular mystery surrounding the following comments regarding an upcoming Cairo Conference.
It follows perfectly from all past entries on my preceding blog, the one blocked on and off, regarding financial interconnections between GCC states, Egypt, Dana Gas, Abraaj, Egypt's Hermes, etc., and, the necessity to find an Arab face to the Iraq "national reconciliation process," a non-resistance resistance to Iraq's privatization and federalism with whom they can negotiate:

www.arablinks.blogspot.com/2008/01/latest-news-on-condis-cairo-process.html

At this point, I think it helpful, in retrospect, to post a previous, official Baath Party statement from May, 2004 about oil and the Iraq resistance to contrast and compare it with anything being presented currently as a position of either the Iraq resistance and/or the Baath Party, the "Arab face," with whom "they" supposedly negotiate:

www.uruknet.info/?colonna=m&p=2860

Further, it would be nice if somebody could PROVE the Baath Party's official leader, Al-Douri, for whom everybody is searching, either is alive or dead, and, if dead, PROVE when, where and how did he died?
A videotape of Al-Douri speaking about recent events presented either on the internet or Al-Jazzeera would suffice.
If they can get tapes of Bin Laden, they can certainly get tapes from Al-Douri.
Meanwhile, again, the financial Party in the GCC states to which everyone appears to be deaf, dumb and blind, continues.
Here's one amongst many other articles one can follow which happens to highlight, reiterate some of the important connections I've been naming continuously, throughout my blogs, Dubai, Citigroup, Abraaj and, in addition, HSBC:

www.business24-7.ae/cs/article_show_mainh1_story.aspx?HeadlineID=703

Depending on where one reads, Kuwait stocks project a 30% return on investment.
That's pretty good, altho, not as high as that in Pakistan, which, according to a previous article and post I did, had an 800% return!

(See my other blog entry from May 27, 2006, IF IT WORKS: www.karlmarxwasright.blogspot.com/2006/05/pakistan-market-up-800-crescent-oil.html )

Maybe it's this which has caused my previous blog to be blocked.
This and the names of US government officials, including Pakistan's ISI chief, Mahmoud Ahmad, meeting on the week of September 11, 2001 in Washington.
(Most people tend to overlook Senator Biden was ALSO one of the "principals" meeting with Pak's ISI chief that week).

See the following links for reference on this matter:

www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO206A.html

http://www.madcowprod.com/

On September 10, 2001, one day before the WTC events, Senator Joe Biden gave a presentation at the National Press Club concerning US Foreign Policy, Missile Defense and, at that event, to paraphrase Biden, he mentioned/warned threats may come in the form of some other kind of terrorism, from a plane, etc.
He proudly boasts about his prescient warning.
He was not "clairvoyant," says he.
It is/was just obvious.
Here's the entire speech, if you are interested.
The paragraph/sentence specifically mentioning planes, now often quoted, comes AFTER his speech, at the end, when the world "applause" appears in the text and, then, if you count down to the 16th paragraph underneath the first "applause" at the end of his speech, you will see the specific paragraph mentioning planes, etc.:

www.biden.senate.gov/newsroom/details.cfm?id=227895

There's much more history to be said about all this.
However, this is only a blog.
For example, a plan/bill for Homeland Security was introduced in Congress way before the events of 9/11, something to which I had previously TRIED to draw people's attention, to no avail, whatsoever.
I and it was simply dismissed.
And, Joe Biden of the Congressional Foreign Relations Committee, of course, has a long background.
He is intimately connected to the bombing, war, partition plans of Yugoslavia, and, now Iraq, and so on and on.

MORE ON PAKISTAN AND OTHER NOTES

I will not regurgitate ALL the information available on numerous websites throughout the internet regarding Pakistan.
At the globalresearch website, for example, an informative article by Chossudovsky comparing Yugoslav and Pakistan dismemberment, but, in the following, he fails to make a parallel analysis and analogy with Iraq's dismemberment,"federalism" and the role of Iran in this process, and, in addition, the very important financial connections and empire I have been following in previous blogs regarding the UAE, Iran, Dana Gas, Crescent Oil, Abraaj, Pak privatization, development of the Baluch gas fields, port and Pak State energy company, the PPL, etc., "The Destabilization of Pakistan":

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7705

Regarding privatization of PPL, a major event to which he makes reference, here are some interests named from 2005:

www.dawn.com/2005/08/09/ebr2.htm

And, a reminder, also, from a previous blog about the unfolding Dana Gas/Crescent Oil/Abraaj empire and its plans to develop an LNG terminal at Port Qasim:

www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=29841

Meanwhile, the financial interconnections and party at the GCC states continue unabated.
Attempting to create an interlocking ownership of the worlds largest stock exchange, Bourse Dubai is purchasing a 20% stake in America's Nasdaq, a 28% in London's LSE; Nasdaq is a major investor in Scandinavia's OMX, which means Bourse Dubai, as well, and Armenia's stock exchange also involved.
Kuwait, also privatizing its state industries under large protests, just reduced its tax on foreign investment to 15%.
Turkey's stock exchange is now the 5th largest.
All this information, and so much more, is freely available, as I have said repeatedly, on numerous websites, as well as the Business Channel.
But, it seems, only these websites and my lonely little blog have been following these interlocking directorships of such gargantuan importance.
Perhaps, that's the reason why my previous blog,
http://www.karlmarxwasright.blogspot.com/
was blocked on and off.

To continue on Pakistan.
The following article elaborates on Pak rioting and the Pak privatization program,
"Bhutto Assassination Sparks Mass Protests":

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7700

And, of course, the website to which I've linked, previously, to which neither the US labor movement nor any other pseudo-Left grouping have given their unqualified support.
They're too busy investing their pension monies, instead into all these companies:

http://www.ptudc.org/

In addition, at a previous post, I had a link to an important copper/gold mine located in Balochistan, Reko-Diq, being developed by Barrick and Chilean Antofagasta:

www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page36?oid=39325&sn=Detail

And, of course, the as yet unbuilt TAP, Turkmen/Afghanistan/Pakistan pipeline.

And, importantly, the not often mentioned Russian as well as China factor in the political economy and militarism of the region.

The competing militias in Iraq are now considered an impediment to complete the economic "transformation" and integration of the Middle East, so, a "mopping up" process is taking place.
See this recent development regarding the demise of Maliki and the return of Allawi, something I had long ago predicted, that is, Allawi's return.
Allawi is very well connected to the financial world.
Maliki is not.
Allawi is far more preferable.
And, of course, Iraq's "federalism" and "internationalization" and phony reconciliation:

www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/25709

A somewhat similar situation exists regarding Pakistan/Afghanistan.
The last time I heard Bhutto at the Middle East Institute, ( a video of this event available on http://www.c-span.org/ from September 25, 2007) she made no secret, she articulated quite clearly what she considered a Faustian deal the Pakistan government/political process had made with the US to establish and support the ISI, the fundamentalists, to "fight Communism."
It was no longer a useful bargain.
It is/was THE deal that tore up what was the Afghanistan state and country, then, the Soviet Union, before they got to Iraq and Yugoslavia, and, now Pakistan, as well.
It is/was, equally, the same deal destroying the US.
Bhutto was certainly well aware of the dangers to her return.
The only question that remains why she knowingly put herself into this situation.
Her answers to questions at the Middle East Institute I think are worth hearing, for that reason.
While it's clear she is and was being used and both she and we know whose economic interests she was serving, the only answer to the question above seems to be her myopic belief she could somehow reclaim Pakistan from the Islamists, that, this time around, she was wiser and smarter, something she said.
It's in this sense, and, this sense only, not diminishing all and any of the other factors, I consider her death a suicidal tragedy.
Some people might characterize the Bhutto story as Shakespearean.
I don't know.
That's another subject.
But, as many say, in death she will accomplish, perhaps, that which she could not in life.
That her death triggered the recent events in Pakistan is related to all of the above.
It/she/the assassination is/was a catalyst.
Bhutto would have called for further NATO/US/"international" military intervention in Pakistan to help "clean up" the "instability" and contradictions they created in the first place.
So, clearly, her policies are/were a threat to the interests of those she was prepared to "clean up."
Meanwhile, one additional note regarding Gazprom, Serbia and Russia's South Stream pipeline:

www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=54642

And:

www.dawn.com/2007/12/30/ebr16.htm

So, stay tuned to this and my other on and off again blogspot for more and lets see if this blogspot gets blocked and if the other one re-opens and remains open to the public.