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Petrodollar further analysis
by Zenaan Harkness 26 Feb '16

26 Feb '16

Another factoid here in this well presented analysis - not only Saddam but also Gaddafi attempted to jump off the USD onto the Euro, then to a gold-backed local currency (dinar) - well well well, the bully keeps demanding others' lunch money. Now Iran seems to be able to survive the jump, due to Russia's backing. And it certainly seems clear to me why Russia is so demonized - they are leading the charge, and giving others the courage (like Iran and India exchanging oil for Rupees). With USGovMil reaching a thundering self-caused clusterfuck of dead end in Syria, it looks pretty certain now that 'we' will be able to realise a multi-polar world rather than a uni-polar USA hegemony, going forward. Don't think anyone would disagree that's the lesser of those two evils... Gold currencies here we come. Enjoy ---- http://journal-neo.org/2015/02/02/rus-dedollarizatsiya-i-ssha/ 02.02.2015 Author: Vladimir Odintsov The Global De-dollarization and the US Policies Column: Economics Region: USA in the World 34234234In its quest for world domination, which the White House has been pursuing for more than a century, it relied on two primary tools: the US dollar and military might. In order to prevent Washington from establishing complete global hegemony, certain countries have recently been revising their positions towards these two elements by developing alternative military alliances and by breaking with their dependence on the US dollar. Until the mid-twentieth century, the gold standard was the dominant monetary system, based on a fixed quantity of gold reserves stocked in national banks, which limited lending. At that time, the United States managed to become the owner of 70% of world’s gold reserves (excluding the USSR), therefore it pushed its weakened competitor, the UK, aside resulting to the creation of the Bretton Woods financial system in 1944. That’s how the US dollar became the predominant currency for international payments. But a quarter century later this system had proven ineffective due to its inability to contain the economic growth of Germany and Japan, along with the reluctance of the US to adjust its economic policies to maintain the dollar-gold balance. At that time, the dollar experienced a dramatic decline but it was saved by the support of rich oil exporters, especially once Saudi Arabia began to exchange its black gold for US weapons and support in talks with Richard Nixon. As a result, President Richard Nixon in 1971 unilaterally ordered the cancellation of the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold, and instead he established the Jamaican currency system in which oil has become the foundation of the US dollar system. Therefore, it’s no coincidence that from that moment on the control over oil trade has become the number one priority of Washington’s foreign policy. In the aftermath of the so-called Nixon Shock the number of US military engagements in the Middle East and other oil producing regions saw a sharp increase. Once this system was supported by OPEC members, the global demand for US petrodollars hit an all time high. Petrodollars became the basis for America domination over the global financial system which resulted in countries being forced to buy dollars in order to get oil on the international market. Analysts believe that the share of the United States in today’s world gross domestic product shouldn’t exceed 22%. However, 80% of international payments are made with US dollars. As a result, the value of the US dollar is exceedingly high in comparison with other currencies, that’s why consumers in the United States receive imported goods at extremely low prices. It provides the United States with significant financial profit, while high demand for dollars in the world allows the US government to refinance its debt at very low interest rates. Under these circumstances, those heding against the dollar are considered a direct threat to US economic hegemony and the high living standards of its citizens, and therefore political and business circles in Washington attempt by all means to resist this process.This resistance manifested itself in the overthrow and the brutal murder of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who decided to switch to Euros for oil payments, before introducing a gold dinar to replace the European currency. However, in recent years, despite Washington’s desire to use whatever means to sustain its position within the international arena, US policies are increasingly faced with opposition. As a result, a growing number of countries are trying to move from the US dollar along with its dependence on the United States, by pursuing a policy of de-dollarization. Three states that are particularly active in this domain are China, Russia and Iran. These countries are trying to achieve de-dollarization at a record pace, along with some European banks and energy companies that are operating within their borders. The Russian government held a meeting on de-dollarization in spring of 2014, where the Ministry of Finance announced the plan to increase the share of ruble-denominated contracts and the consequent abandonment of dollar exchange. Last May at the Shanghai summit, the Russian delegation manged to sign the so-called “deal of the century” which implies that over the next 30 years China will buy $ 400 billion worth of Russia’s natural gas, while paying in rubles and yuans. In addition, in August 2014 a subsidiary company of Gazprom announced its readiness to accept payment for 80,000 tons of oil from Arctic deposits in rubles that were to be shipped to Europe, while the payment for the supply of oil through the “Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean” pipeline can be transferred in yuans. Last August while visiting the Crimea, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin announced that “the petrodollar system should become history” while “Russia is discussing the use of national currencies in mutual settlements with a number of countries.” These steps recently taken by Russia are the real reasons behind the West’s sanction policy. In recent months, China has also become an active member of this “anti-dollar” campaign, since it has signed agreements with Canada and Qatar on national currencies exchange, which resulted in Canada becoming the first offshore hub for the yuan in North America. This fact alone can potentially double or even triple the volume of trade between the two countries since the volume of the swap agreement signed between China and Canada is estimated to be a total of 200 billion yuans. China’s agreement with Qatar on direct currency swaps between the two countries are the equivalent of $ 5.7 billion and has cast a heavy blow to the petrodollar becoming the basis for the usage of the yuan in Middle East markets. It is no secret that the oil-producing countries of the Middle Eastern region have little trust in the US dollar due to the export of inflation, so one should expect other OPEC countries to sign agreements with China. As for the Southeast Asia region, the establishment of a clearing center in Kuala Lumpur, which will promote greater use of the yuan locally, has become yet another major step that was made by China in the region. This event occurred in less than a month after the leading financial center of Asia – Singapore – became a center of the yuan exchange in Southeast Asia after establishing direct dialogue regarding the Singapore dollar and the yuan. The Islamic Republic of Iran has recently announced its reluctance to use US dollars in its foreign trade. Additionally, the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has recently tasked the National Bank with the de-dollarization of the national economy. All across the world, the calls for the creation of a new international monetary system are getting louder with each passing day. In this context it should be noted that the UK government plans to release debts denominated in yuans while the European Central Bank is discussing the possibility of including the yuan in its official reserves. Those trends are to be seen everywhere, but in the midst of anti-Russian propaganda, Western newsmakers prefer to keep quiet about these facts, in particular, when inflation is skyrocketing in the United States. In recent months, the proportion of US Treasury bonds in the Russian foreign exchange reserves has been shrinking rapidly, being sold at a record pace, while this same tactic has been used by a number of different states. To make matters worse for the US, many countries seek to export their gold reserves from the United States, which are deposited in vaults at the Federal Reserve Bank. After a scandal of 2013, when the US Federal Reserve refused to return German gold reserves to its respective owner, the Netherlands have joined the list of countries that are trying to retrieve their gold from the US. Should it be successful the list of countries seeking the return of gold reserves will double which may result in a major crisis for Washington. The above stated facts indicate that the world does not want to rely on US dollars anymore. In these circumstances, Washington relies on the policy of deepening regional destabilization, which, according to the White House strategy, must lead to a considerable weakening of any potential US rivals. But there’s little to no hope for the United States to survive its own wave of chaos it has unleashed across the world. Vladimir Odintsov, political commentator, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”

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Why the banks oppose a 1% transaction tax
by Zenaan Harkness 26 Feb '16

26 Feb '16

Those who advocate for a 1% "transaction" tax, e.g. 1% paid on every deposit, or else on every withdrawal, have been labelled conspiracy nuts. The real reason for the opposition may just happen to be that the banks, and other major multi-national entities, structure their selfish selves so that they pay tax of about 3 orders of magnitude LESS than 1% tax, and so they don't want a 1000 fold increase to the taxes they pay. Setting aside for a moment of course that the constitutional monopoly on "money power" which is supposed to be held by the government was taken from "we the people" at gunpoint (at least I am aware this is the case in both USA and Australia). And setting aside the criminal nature of modern demoncratic so-called "representative" governments. And setting aside all sorts of other problems. http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160121/1033512218/goldman-sachs-backs-brexi… extract: "The banks paid little or no tax in the country despite reporting billions of dollars in sales and profits, it was revealed through a Reuters investigation. Combined, the banks with a total workforce of 33,000, earned revenues of US$31bn (£20.9bn, €28.4bn) and raked US$5.3bn in profits from the UK in 2014. However, the total corporation tax they paid for the period was a meagre US$31m or 0.001% of their revenues. "

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Cpunks censorship?
by juan 26 Feb '16

26 Feb '16

Begin forwarded message: Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2016 23:01:59 +0000 From: Zenaan Harkness <zenaan(a)gmail.com> To: jim bell <jdb10987(a)yahoo.com>, afalex169(a)gmail.com, juan.g71(a)gmail.com Cc: coderman(a)gmail.com, Steve Kinney <admin(a)pilobilus.net> Subject: from Zenaan - was Fwd: Delivery Status Notification (Failure) OK, new threads by me are definitely getting rejected, and instantaneously too... Due to a separate rejection, I take it that cross-posting has also been banned for my email address. I will not do any run around of creating (or using) an alternate email address especially for cp@. That's just an arms race and as I've always said: - it has been and remains my intention to respect the intentions of the founders/ creators of this mailing list So whoever is running/ administrating this list has decided they want to clip my wings. In principle that's fair enough, BUT: - no one ever emailed me offlist or onlist saying that they are an administrator of the list and that they wanted me to post less, or to meet some other conditions - such behaviour is cowardly, like a stab in the back - such behaviour provides no opportunity for me to respect the administrator(s) of the list - since they never owned up to being an administrator, and never admitted to me their requirements about posting less or in some other way, they are being cowardly and providing no opportunity to me, to meet their requirements - I do not accept cowardly behaviour from list administrators - I thought cp@ was not a list of cowards, or for cowards I am not interested in participating in half a mailing list (one where I can only receive emails and reply to other people, but not post new threads and not cross-post). I am not interested in participating in a mailing list where temporary (or permanent) restrictions are put in place without notice to the person being restricted. I will not accept such cowardly behaviour. SO, short of the cypherpunks list administrator(s) apologising to me for their cowardliness, and reinstating my posting privileges for my primary email address, and stating clearly their requirements for posting to the list, and doing this publicly on the list so other people know the requirements for posting to the list, then I shall remove myself from this so-called "community" and find some other place where who I am is respected, and where cowards are told to grow the fuck up! Some place where children are not pretending they're adults with their cowardly behaviour. Alex, Juan, Jim, coderman and Steve, in one way or another you have eached gained my respect. Thank you each for being who you are. If any of you have a suggestion for an alternate mailing list, I would certainly consider joining. I am still not in a stable enough living environment nor with any ADSL internet access, so I am still not in a position to set up an email server myself - but I am confident that this situation will change within about 1 year. Best regards, Zen PS, if anyone wants to post this email publicly, I certainly consent to you doing so. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Mail Delivery Subsystem <mailer-daemon(a)googlemail.com> Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2016 22:38:22 +0000 Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure) To: zenaan(a)gmail.com Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently: cyphercypherpunks(a)cpunks.org Technical details of permanent failure: Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the server for the recipient domain cpunks.org by mail.jfet.org. [209.141.47.85]. The error that the other server returned was: 550 5.1.1 <cyphercypherpunks(a)cpunks.org>... User unknown ----- Original message ----- DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject :from:to:content-type; bh=HTwElgxrr/XkjYUfGVqhcjP320J6MHEbke6eOismL/I=; b=OryopE3gJFsd/caCZuD8w1+IDk09WC0poE5hGpLdKz0PcleP2Fb4gISlOFiDMoA3yI ATBy5Fycqg7yclQpt20kzkfZlrCxBjW/ZycH5NHzx6y95XCziQqg+axWtPEmv0KKFC45 Js6Y+Ixg60h2h5kw40efPheUILIf4Jo1c3oT1gjR2zAK1NoIWKVbsT/j71vFHRioAcyh mSvEmJwCAeAbgrvB6sOm1RLRavRK+kf8smc1r9XrVYfhmc5AW9ImVgBfuW/NFVu3dC/G FfpvhSbiEqnubkZO4SA7lv2L6NvVzSCUQEp18lcOtvsFQNWJ9Ynb9rKWuiwAyHkukLO0 R9oA== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20130820; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:date :message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=HTwElgxrr/XkjYUfGVqhcjP320J6MHEbke6eOismL/I=; b=m0iSFBE5X6LXASFuLy3LtbH87fh29RwudGRyAY+fCs5Zf9ycQjszLti6G2v/ZyLYs4 dzz5xfGGdRxQ9nP8BwKUStgkKEx3+sDeAxhGEGaXTV31nkJCkkM/zU6S58Q9BFqnuglv qxMmQ9b0t6y6HYV6KFbzbExNm1eZGyhUATvmQuJin4xSqMccTg5yCmaFMZCWNVQvi97o fkvjLhNdXGlFa7LZF64+bSZo3DaQ3A4Lie5PzMIHwJ45fiYGmEQ9k19FA3coKXLgBbJt iYP1ru7+NgHxOj3kYN4b1c5e7Mk0XL1YMtpXXOu/FGPAnnHrwF9cQdx02cHBxcKK9AEh 1hMQ== X-Gm-Message-State: AG10YOQkeCLfQTlTygaAo2pvfPPTrKtT4dHj+741KUByO3hji+2FOcqAJ1QD4HYl9thETnU47zL4LNVBBwIieg== MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Received: by 10.140.93.166 with SMTP id d35mr58532521qge.29.1456439895793; Thu, 25 Feb 2016 14:38:15 -0800 (PST) Sender: zenaan(a)gmail.com Received: by 10.55.64.68 with HTTP; Thu, 25 Feb 2016 14:38:15 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <CAOsGNSQG=0z3uT0WaTWQvK8th3v2B6p3fd9u7+6ML_Txhib_OQ(a)mail.gmail.com> References: <CAOsGNSQG=0z3uT0WaTWQvK8th3v2B6p3fd9u7+6ML_Txhib_OQ(a)mail.gmail.com> Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2016 22:38:15 +0000 X-Google-Sender-Auth: CnxMVt6WvC7DvbEQhsq0PMLZarg Message-ID: <CAOsGNSQRsHDjaBqo_5b1K8jPknD2yN6LR1A6ruHoKs7N44r=rA(a)mail.gmail.com> Subject: Re: A sane platform for president - what is your fundamentals for Eben Moglen? From: Zenaan Harkness <zen(a)freedbms.net> To: cyphercypherpunks(a)cpunks.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 I've had an offlist comment that the following is a great start, so I'll try sending it again. Good luck little email... On 2/25/16, Zenaan Harkness <zen(a)freedbms.net> wrote: > So Eben is going to run for president. > > Let's make his job easy - write a first draft of his platform. > > There is the detailed version, for the geeks 'round these parts, and > the simple version, for the footy tribe. > > 0. Constitutional basis - executive orders affirming each and every > (??) clause of the Constitution of the United States of America. > > 1. Eliminate all non-court ordered (by a human judge, and with no > order covering more than two target individuals at a time) monitoring > (monitoring of all forms). > > 2. Eliminate the CIA. Eliminate Machiavellian military "exploration" > and all state-sponsored and any other coups and regime changes. > > 3. ??? >

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USG v. Apple, Apple Motion to Vacate Decrypt Order
by John Young 26 Feb '16

26 Feb '16

USG v. Apple, Apple Motion to Vacate Decrypt Order <https://t.co/ZOvJXNs0Bx>https://cryptome.org/2016/02/usg-apple-016.pdf (415 pp, 19.5MB)

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Re: A sane platform for president - what is your fundamentals for Eben Moglen?
by coderman 26 Feb '16

26 Feb '16

On 2/26/16, Zenaan Harkness <zen(a)freedbms.net> wrote: > <brown paper bag> > > OK, got the address stuffed up twice - the first time, last night, I > started entering the cpunks address, then got distracted, then cut and > pasted the actual address. > > Then I read the "rejected" email, carefully I thought. > > Then, this morning, I replied to it, to try to send it again, > obviously with the wrong address again. > > Then, still in flux land computer wise (no mutt, just gmail), I cut > and pasted the wrong addy into my cross-post email from tor-talk. > > Talk about a cluster fsck of embarrassment! > > Thanks for understanding this flawed human, > Zen > > no worries; i'm always glad when bad events are instead my own sad mistakes, despite the egg on face... :)

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A sane platform for president - what is your fundamentals for Eben Moglen?
by Zenaan Harkness 25 Feb '16

25 Feb '16

So Eben is going to run for president. Let's make his job easy - write a first draft of his platform. I'm considering that "as president, I will end the United States Government" would probably not fly? There is the detailed version, for the geeks 'round these parts, and the simple version can be culled, for the footy tribe. 0. Constitutional basis - executive orders affirming each and every (??) clause of the Constitution of the United States of America. ? 1. Eliminate all non-court ordered (by a human judge, and with no order covering more than two target individuals at a time) monitoring (monitoring of all forms). ? 2. Eliminate the CIA. Eliminate Machiavellian military "exploration" and all state-sponsored and any other coups and regime changes. ? 3. Require all 'large' internet services to provide hidden service access to their services ? 4. ???

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Question about the FBI vs Apple case
by Anthony Papillion 25 Feb '16

25 Feb '16

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512 I've got a question about the FBI vs Apple case that I don't think has been discussed before here (or at least I haven't seen it). It pertains to reverse engineering and the FBI's seeming helplessness. Software is software and we reverse engineer software all the time. I'd assume that the government has some fairly competent programmers on staff so why don't they just figure out what they need to change in iOS that would allow them to disable the passcode entry count and just /do it/. Similar to what malware writers do all the time. I'd imagine that, somewhere in iOS code, there is a block of code similar to if(passwordEntryCount == 10){ destroyPhoneAndKey(); } Wouldn't this be trivial to spot in assembly code and get around it? Isn't this really just a game the FBI is playing to make us think they just can't get around Apple's 'oh so clever' schemes? Or am I missing something here? Thanks, Anthony - -- Anthony Papillion Phone: (918) 533-9699 PGP: 0x53B04B15 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQIcBAEBCgAGBQJWzgOUAAoJEAKK33RTsEsVxAMP/0wdsJF9+2e84Hy1uE8uu8dr y9iz1YG30VKU9b6CMDwWdoz2bX/kC3fn8lrbhdSqd9P37/mvYOcAmsE1DXV40JdF MlEzBGtk0HSCTYe1r/YtN6Ox13uuYhXyYUoaZVltBiuP4vs2rX/ywLetcg5MRwe6 ehQjXhq4wQ5JmQDNEmHY+xbhcaF1UCIx30R1mr7n+V/SciR3ssLNxzYUpNnoaWG/ gQ5+Yv8GGqp9IXrN5tYLyNlrjmPRGtQdwoBPv+bkHQgHMsZt9GXL7voZ6t61NPlg K4RSf5ZCJO1589t6k9vkvSI4jgiKtrtRs+AGhnk4A8unGNEfLkbWxyBjEAmR1fNl dKYCZIi264QvPf8jT0QE2Nz7UfZa3UaJ3FjfwpSu1BKShd7L7Mw2Qgs6VGgJpKrV vGhcIwCwQVlgJqIykL1+BKT2olrokmAjjuN1UXEUa0F3kTGUVGMWYqBVYdoJv3OO Vl9ynQyMjZis7JpoRC+U3jcfr88NtXvRTh23sHhjWg8s0xRpBdELIagjF2mtipGg StO3iW6QNHTQdJ2V1fVQHhdcp6DrJMlaB1RbaoBBvvcwSQLa/ec4CgzBsJ5R5ex4 Ws/6H8k6BQN2TZ1xmSkVeM3B+clLD1E6cQR7Cw30Q12yH7clNnVqtkd8DQE4mB4l ZUMLwO13Fplpe9yMYIba =iohF -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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US global genocidal policy - Julian Assange interview by RT - Eben Moglen states a position on standing for US President
by Zenaan Harkness 25 Feb '16

25 Feb '16

Assange on ‘US Empire’, Assad Govt Overthrow Plans & New Book ‘The WikiLeaks Files’ http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/25/assange-on-us-empire-assad-govt-over… youtube-dl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3HWiydFlJc (~450MiB at highest quality) Sorry folks, USGovMil are the greatest evil on the planet today. There's no other way to cut it. And yes, that's terribly sad. But tell that to the over 250,000 Syrians who are now dead as a result of USA Government foreign policy and CIA and military actions, training, etc. And others all around the world. There seems no way to pull the pin on this evil entity called the United States government - but perhaps every little bit we do can speed the process, educate those who don't understand what is happening, and for citizens of the US of A, what is happening by their implicit authority by acquiescence. Eben Moglen (refer previous thread) has said he will not run for US president. That's not only a great shame, it's a disgrace! If someone is within distance to meet him face to face (I will not be travelling to America, but if you know he is to travel to Australia, I will meet him here face to face, but that will be too late for the current presidential 'race'), -please- meet him face to face and remind him that it is because good men and women with good hearts and intentions such as himself, that do NOT stand for positions of authority in the system within which they find themselves existing, that is, by their acquiescence, that the tyranny of the despots and sociopaths who DO stand prevails, prevails over them, and as regards America, prevails over much of the world. If Eben will not stand personally, then he has a duty of care to everyone and a duty of care to his own principles, to nominate someone whom he knows is of "good spirit" who is willing to stand! If Eben can find no such individual, then he has a DUTY to stand for president, and in this case if he does not stand, he is complicit to the evil of the United States of America - implicitly, but complicit none the less! Feel free to forward him this email, but I find it is always much better to speak with someone face to face. If you plan to do so, perhaps print this email out. Good men and women must stand. Perhaps you know the soccer mom living next door who has demonstrated consistent "ethics" and good intention, and ought be presented with this same position - stand, or be complicit in your acquiescence to the evil. It does not require a million dollar "slush fund", it requires a firm grasp of reality, and of our individual complicity with that reality, and a willingness to communicate the simplicity to others - we are in an age of unprecedented rapidity of communication, of "flash mobs" which are normally co-opted marketing crap, but this does not take away from the reality of what's possible today. We tech people talk far too much. Every part of our "Western" lives is pervaded by politics! We cannot escape this simple fact that while "good" men and women refuse to stand, since 'we' have lives to live, creativity to explore and express, parties and sports events to attend and families to raise, because of all these reasons and many besides, that despots and sociopaths are the only individuals to stand and therefore hold the positions of power! Over us! Over the world!

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Hope for Rojava
by Zenaan Harkness 25 Feb '16

25 Feb '16

USA and the world's coalition of the dodgy opportunists, capitulate in 20 weeks in Syria. If it happens, a Kurdish "Rojava" mini state would be the best thing to happen for a real exploration or experiment in political 'anarchy'. My fingers and toes are all crossed in hope. --- http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/week-20-russias-syria-campaign-ceasef… Week 20 of Russia's Syria Campaign: The Ceasefire Deal Is a Huge Victory for Russia With it Russia has forced every single rebel faction to make a stark decision on whether it wants Al Nusra ties or not The Saker (The Unz Review) Diplomatic victory brought on by military victories Originally appeared at The Unz Review The recent agreement between the USA and Russia really solves nothing, it does not even end the war, and both sides are expressing a great deal of caution about its future implementation. And yet, this is a huge victory for Russia. While it is too early to say that “the Russians won in Syria”, I think that it is now fair to say that the Russian position on Syria has won. Here is why: First: nobody is suggesting anymore that Assad will be ousted or Damascus taken. That, in turn, means that everybody has now recognized that Syrian Arab Republic, backed by Russia, has successfully repelled the aggression of the huge coalition the AngloZionists built to overthrow Assad. Second: Russia has forced the UNSC and the USA to admit that the vast majority of those who fight Assad today are terrorists. Of course, this is not how this was declared, but if you look at the organizations which the UNSC has already declared as ‘terrorists’ then you already have an absolute majority of the anti-Assad forces. This means that the moral and legal legitimacy of the anti-Assad forces lies in tatters. Third: regardless of what Erdogan does actually try to do next, there are now clear signs that neither NATO, nor the EU nor even the Turkish high military command want a war with Russia. And that means that Erdogan’s gamble has not paid off and that his entire Syria policy is now comprehensively dead. Keep in mind that following the treacherous attack on the Russian Su-24 the Kremlin made it a policy goal to “Saakashvilize” Erdogan. This goal is now almost reached and Erdogan’s future looks very, very bleak: everybody ( except maybe the Saudis) is sick and tired of this maniac. The best thing which could happen to Turkey now would for the military to get rid of Erdogan and to replace him with somebody willing to repair all the damage he did. Fourth: all the threats to impose a no-fly zone or to occupy Syria have now been invalidated by an agreement which basically declares that anybody not respecting the cease-fire is a legitimate target for engagement and destruction. Fifth: the USA had to accept the humiliation of having to agree to all of the Russian terms for the current ceasefire. Yes, of course, the USA can, and probably will, try renege on part, or all, of this agreement, but the precedent has been set and it will be very hard, if not impossible, for the USA to openly return to the pre-2016 policies. Sixth: does anybody still remember the rhetoric of Hillary Clinton about Syria and Russia? Her position was crystal clear: Assad must go and those who support him “punished”. Even after the Russian military offensive began, the US refused to tell the Russians where the “good terrorists” were and where the “bad terrorists” were. No exchange of information with Russians was acceptable. Now the Americans had to agree to work with the Russians on a map of Syria designating where the participants of the ceasefire and where those who were not included in the ceasefire were deployed. In other words,the US will now have to share with Russia all the info it previously refused to share and work with the Russians on a daily basis. Seventh: Russia has basically co-opted the so-called “Free Syrian Army”. How? By basically forcing every single faction in Syria to chose between one of two possible statuses: being a ‘terrorist’ (and a fair target for destruction) or being a participant in a political process entirely designed by Russia. The Russians are now even opening a “Truce Center” at the Khmeimin airbase ( https://www.rt.com/news/333381-syria-reconciliation-russia-hotline/ ) near Latakia which will now “render assistance” to all the parties to the ceasefire. This, for the time being, is mainly a diplomatic victory, of course, but a Russian diplomatic victory made possible by a Russian military victory. A tiny Russian military contingent has basically completely neutralized the plans of an entire worldwide Empire. That, in itself, is an amazing achievement. The other big winner here are, in my opinion, the Kurds who, according to British officials ( http://www.rbc.ru/politics/23/02/2016/56cc4b5f9a7947b06c6fff7b ), appear to be coordinating their military operations with the Syrian army and the Russian Aerospace Forces and who now might well even achieve their dreams of joining the Iraqi and Syria regions of Kurdistan. Which is just about the worst nightmare for the Turks come true, hence the still remaining risk of a Turkish military operation ostensibly to create a ‘buffer zone’ but really to save face. That kind of intervention will remain a possibility for as long as the Turks can continue to hope to commit aggression against their neighbors under the protection of NATO and the USA. And that ain’t gonna change anytime in the future. And then there are the Saudis. They are very, very angry. They are angry to the point of making not so subtle threats about using nuclear weapons to deal with their adversaries. See for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXuJkVPRjNI Actually, since Pakistan got The Bomb, I would not dismiss any Saudi claims of having a number of nuclear devices. But what does that really mean? Absolutely nothing. It is quite possible that the Saudis have the know how for a nuclear device. And it is quite possible that they even got their hands on enough nuclear materials for a few bombs. They might even have succeeded in purchasing a few nuclear devices from the Pakistanis or Israelis. But even if that is true, the reality is that the Saudis don’t even have the military capability to deal with the poorest Arab country on the planet (Yemen) and that they most definitely don’t have the military capability to engage their nuclear devices in a way which would allow them to achieve any kind of military advantage. After all, what are we talking about here? Using nuclear weapons against the Syrian military? Against Iran? Against Russia? This is absolutely ridiculous. The reality is that whatever nuclear capabilities the Saudis might or might not have, the fact that they would make nuclear threats is just a sign of weakness and fear, not a sign of strength. This is why nobody is impressed by these statements, least of all the intended targets of such threats. While it is quite true that the latest agreement between the USA and Russia does not mark the end of the war in Syria, it is a turning point, a kind of a Minsk-2 Agreement which nobody really wants to comply with, but which seals the defeat of the AngloZionist plans in Syria as much as Minsk-2 meant the defeat of the Ukronazi dream. Time is now on the Russian/Syrian side. With each passing day the Russian task force in Syria will become more powerful, as will the Syrian Armed Forces. That, by itself, will not be enough to defeat Daesh, and we can expect a stiff resistance from the Takfiri crazies, but the writing is on the wall for all to see: the more the Russians and the Americans become directly and jointly involved, the less Turkey and Saudi Arabia will be able to determine the outcome of the war. In other words, while this is far from being the end of Daesh, it is the beginning of the end for Daesh in Syria. Yet again the nay-sayers and Putin-haters have been proven wrong. To be honest, so have I: I would never have guessed that the Russians could have achieved so much with so little and yet they did pull off this extremely dangerous gamble and they won. Only an extremely skillful combination of military, economic, diplomatic and political means could have yielded such a remarkable result but Putin, apparently, found this perfect mix. The path ahead remains extremely dangerous, for sure, but the outcome of the 20 week long Russian military intervention in Syria is nothing short of remarkable.

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Impressive US shamelessness
by Zenaan Harkness 24 Feb '16

24 Feb '16

No it's -not- a bash America list, it's a name the fucking shovel list. Since Syria is no longer "just a little CIA regime change op", the 'big guns' find it difficult to hide their true intentions (which, as we see from the very end of this article, are often times precise embedded as their accusations of others :) What a world we live in... --- http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/kerry-says-if-ceasefire-fails-he-may-… Kerry Says If Ceasefire Fails He May Partition Syria Because, you know, God made him the owner of Syria Mark Nicholas That's Western 'nation-building' and international law for you John Kerry is an incredible motivator! He has just told ( http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/23/john-kerry-partition-syria-pea… ) Syrian jihadi-controlled ( https://consortiumnews.com/2016/02/16/obamas-moderate-syrian-deception/ ) rebellion that all it has to do is sabotage the upcoming ceasefire he has agreed to with Moscow and he will reward them with a mini-state carved out from Syria. What better incentive to abide by the deal and cease hostilities could he possibly give them? John Kerry, the US secretary of state, has said he will move towards a plan B that could involve a partition of Syria if a planned ceasefire due to start in the next few days does not materialize, or if a genuine shift to a transitional government does not take place in the coming months. Oh yes, you may have thought that "partition" is a bad word, but that's only true when the Russians do it ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Poland_(1939%E2%80%9345) ). When Americans partition a foreign country (Korea, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Serbia, Sudan) that is actually a good thing. Which presents us with a problem since Kerry is apparently willing to invite Putin to help with the partition: Kerry suggested partition could form part of an eventual solution, saying “this can get a lot uglier and Russia has to be sitting there evaluating that too. It may be too late to keep it as a whole Syria if it is much longer”. It is the first time Kerry has spoken of partition, although some believe Putin would be content to see this happen. This creates a moral problem for us because while a unilateral partition of Syria by the virtuous US would be a good thing, a joint US-Russian partition would be tainted by the virtue of having evil Russian paws over it. Hopefully the Russian nation-breaking dictator will decline the offer of the nation-building Obama Administration official and avert the possibility of American-Russian collusion in breaking up a sovereign third country. PS. Wasn't it just a short few weeks ago that the West was accusing Moscow of plotting partition of Syria ( http://russia-insider.com/en/military/london-goes-full-retard-russia-syria-… ) ? How times change. kerry.jpg with quote

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