According to a Russian friend, Russian news is reporting that the conflict in the Caucasus was instigated by Georgia with material support, in the form of weapons, from the U.S. The motive was to benefit McCain by highlighting the need for foreign policy experience. The fact that the attack took place while Obama was on vacation, resulting in footage of him elegantly relaxing while bombs exploded in an allied country, lends some credence to this theory. The friend also commented on the fact that the American-educated President Sakashvili conducts his press conferences in English.
It's worth noting that two reported attacks on oil pipelines which are of vital importance to Europe have been suppressed in the major media. Still no mention here of the Kurdish attack on the BPC pipeline. And this morning comes this headline: BP Not Aware of Bombing on Baku-Supsa Pipeline. This, despite the fact that BP is the largest sharefholder. Whether or not the attack actually took place, the mere rumor surely merits investigation.
Later: Baku-Supsa Pipeline Shut Down
Gorbachev Op-Ed
On the home front:
FDIC Strained: May Lose 17%
FBI Says it Obtained Reporters' Phone Records
J.O.
Russians move Medium Range Ballistic Missile Launchers into South Ossetia
ReplyDeletehttp://blacklistednews.com/?news_id=1056
Col. Sam Gardiner notes, in an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, Russia has deployed tactical nuclear weapons to South Ossetia. The SS-21 Missile launchers are relatively small compared to bombs that have already been used against Georgia by the Russian air force. However, this move does indicate Russia is potentially upping the game from a conventional weapons war to a tactical nuclear weapons war. Gardiner notes that at a news conference on Sunday, the US Deputy National Security advisor has noted these weapons arriving in South Ossetia.
Iran War: Armada of US and allied naval battle groups head for the Persian Gulf
ReplyDeletehttp://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20080812&articleId=9815
The report comes after DEBKAfiles claimed on Monday that the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the USS Ronald Reagan, and the USS Iwo Jima are sailing toward the Persian Gulf to reinforce the US strike forces in the region.
The US naval force is accompanied by a British Royal Navy carrier battle group and a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine.
The deployment is believed to be the largest naval task force assembled by the United States and its allies in the region since the Persian Gulf war in 1991.
The move comes nearly a week after Operation Brimstone, which saw more than a dozen warships from US, British and French naval forces conduct war games in the Atlantic Ocean in preparation for a possible confrontation with Iran.
Kuwait, located on the coast of Persian Gulf, has placed its military on 'war alert' to avoid being caught off-guard by any possible conflict in the region.
"Kuwait was caught by surprise last time, when Iraqi troops invaded the small emirate and routed the Kuwaiti army in just a few hours," a former US diplomat to Kuwait told the Middle East Times.
Washington and allies accuse Iran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), of pursuing a military nuclear program and have threatened to launch military strikes on Iran should the country continue its uranium enrichment.
The UN nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency, has confirmed that Iran's uranium enrichment does not exceed 3 percent and is therefore within the limits of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The military build-up in the Persian Gulf comes amid speculation that Israel is lobbying to push the Bush administration to launch a joint attack on Iran before President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.
I lost respect for global research as a news source long ago. They flip flop on climate change and peak oil, post many stories by right wing think tanks financed by oil companies, and, as in the article about the "armada", are conspicuously short on sources. They have reported armadas sailing for the Persian Gulf many times in the past - whenever convenient. Don't know what their game is, and don't care. I just ignore them.
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