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310 thoughts on “The Quest for Somali Oil”

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  • ingo

    http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/02/201222618624894299.html

    Contrast the story on Al Jazeera with that of the BBC coverage.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-17152620

    Not a word about it in the Guardian, I syuppose they have to confrom these days. Thanks for relaying this excellent news Mary, does this mean the CFI are being rejuvenated with somebody else, someone more compliant.
    Adam werrity must be in Somalia if he’s not here, dealing with the UK’s next frantic steal and most likely seeling arms to both factions.

  • Mary

    Her replacement Dermot Kehoe, ex BBC, Home Office etc, was the partner of late David Cairns MP, chair of Labour Friends of Israel and Scottish Minister. He succeeded George Foulkes, also fervent Friend of Israel. What with declared Zionist loving Bliar and Brown, quite a nest of vipers up there in Bonny Scotland.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cairns_(politician)
    .
    Kehoe – {http://www.publicaffairsnews.com/no_cache/home/uk-news/news-detail/newsarticle/bicom-names-kehoe-as-director-of-media-and-public-affairs/2/?tx_ttnews%5Bpointer%5D=5&cHash=c3a809b8e8}

    .
    PS Another Costa ship in trouble. Adrift off the Seychelles after a fire. What next for Mr Mickey Arison of Carnival.

  • havantaclu

    The Somalis don’t deserve or need any of the sort of help that they are likely to get from the western governments.

  • PhilW

    Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar at Asia Times on present echoes of Alexander Burnes times:

    http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/NB28Df02.html

    “No doubt, the ground beneath the American feet in the Hindu Kush is shifting dangerously. The British, too, were unprepared for the insurrection in Kabul in November 1841. They failed to grasp the significance when the mob encircled the villa of Sir Alexander Burnes in Kabul. The British diplomat tried to offer money to the crowd but the residence was overrun and he and his brother were killed.

    The British finally understood it was time to leave Afghanistan when their cantonment in Kabul was encircled a month later. By that time, in the event, even an orderly retreat became problematic.”

  • Michael Stephenson

    So today Wikileaks makes allegations that worthless Guardian Hack David Leigh who was given the US Diplomatic cables passed the cables on, against a contract signed with wikileaks, to Haaretz Hack Yossi Melman who in turn handed them over to the Israeli government.
    (One wonders how much of a kick back Leigh got for that)
    .
    http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2012/02/wikileaks-releasing-think-tank-emails.html
    .
    Then Leigh posts this on twitter:
    .
    “I’m told #Assange now says I’m a Mossad agent, along with top journo Yossi Melman. Same old conspiracy theories at #wilkileaks, then”
    .
    Hardly an accurate representation of a not exactly far fetched charge on Assange’s part.
    Especially since he has the Stratfor emails to show Yossi passed on the cables, and Leigh is one of only a few possible sources.
    .
    Leigh is a cheap hack with no integrity.
    .
    First he conspired to hand over the cables to a foreign government, then through his ineptitude forced the cables to be released unredacted all over the internet. Lock him up in Guantanmo I say!

  • ingo

    Thanks for that timely snippet PhilW., this will open up the old wounds between Tajiks and pashtuns, because the burning of the quoran has filled the barrel to the brim, noughs enough, one feels as if the thumb of history is turning downwards and the middle finger rising towards washington.

    This latest wiki release a diversion of attention? how could I possibly be so cynical.:)

    Now which hotel do we reckon Craig will be staying at in Berlin? Unter den Linden or the Kempinski?
    And has he heard the rumour that A. Werritty has been spotted in kreuzberg, eating some excellent Turkish food, I hope this will get him into hot waters with his mate Mathew Gould.;)

  • ingo

    Craig, this report from Ron Bailey and Lotte Blair is damning to say the least.
    Parliament was misled about our energy demands and needs, the HoC has been hodwinked into furthering our dependency on french nuclear power.
    Please spread this report and get in touch with your MP’s over this, s/he might respond with some startling reply.

    We do not need nuclear but this coalition has given the go ahead, thats why windpower is stalling, as if the conservatives are taking a chainsaw to their new green tree logo.
    Hope this helps, somewhere.

    http://www.ukace.org/publications/ACE%20Campaigns%20%282012-01%29%20-%20Corruption%20of%20Governance%20-%20Jan%202012

  • Mark Golding - Children of Iraq

    2012 – The Year of Armageddon
    .
    Extending the tenure of the Bush dynasty was a masterpiece of political manipulation, probably the output of thousands of ‘what if’s’ that plugged Barack Obama into the ‘long war’ machine. Obama would consolidate the drone role and plug in the last node of US Corporatistan. Uncle Sam’s big guns now surround Iran with military bases in the Gulf, in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, in Turkey, in Central Asia, in Iraq, in Cyprus, not to mention Israel, a naval base in Oman close to the hyper-strategic Strait of Hormuz and not forgetting the Indian Ocean, in Diego Garcia.
    .
    A recent US Global Strike plan shows us that it will take a mere twelve hours to simultaneously unload mini-nukes, defensive weapons, smart bombs and Israel’s BLU 109 bunker busters on 10,000 strategic targets; a deadlier remix of Shock & Awe, destroying the bulk of the political, military, economic and transport infrastructure of Iran.
    .
    For this mini-armageddon, support spews from neocon ‘Friends of Bush,’ Pentagon armchair warriors, MSM and the ‘British Taliban’ who derive outstanding business profits from globilisation and war. In the Middle East the economic interests of the US military-industrial complex merge with the geopolitical interests of ‘Eretz Israel’ proponents.
    .
    Against this catatrophic precursor to WWIII is virtually all of the world’s public opinion, including Big Oil, the rational Middle England, the US beleaguered middle class and essentially those ‘disgusting’ and ‘outrageous’ BRICS members, Russia and China who caused a ‘travesty’ by a double veto that blocked a UNSC resolution imposing regime change in Syria that upped the $15 trillion US debt by another $millions spent on weapons, training and logistics (plus the odd bribe here and there).
    .
    This mini-armaggedon is the climax of a ‘war on war’ costing $trillions; from the planning of the collapse of the ‘twin towers’ to the ‘fake’ war in Afghanistan and the smashing of Iraq, fulfilling the dreams of the supremacist ‘road map’ concocted by PNAC.
    .
    But will the bribes hold with Russia? Will China, the sleeping giant awake? Will the mini-armageddon become a race for the firing buttons resulting in the mother of all fires?
    .
    I believe it will.

  • Mary

    I do hope you are wrong Mark. Your piece brought back to mind Nevil Shute’s novel On The Beach which haunted my teenage years. My father often referred to Armageddon.
    .
    ‘On the Beach is a post-apocalyptic, end-of-the-world novel written by British-Australian author Nevil Shute after he emigrated to Australia. It was published in 1957.

    .
    The book takes its name from the T. S. Eliot poem The Hollow Men, which includes the line “Gathered on this beach of the tumid river.” Some editions of the novel, including the 1990 publication by Mandarin Paperbacks, include extracts from the poem, such as its concluding lines:

    This is the way the world ends
    Not with a bang but a whimper. ‘
    .
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(novel)

  • ingo

    @fedup. Love to see him on the Kreuz, covered in Tiramisu and with a hala chicken sticking out of his every orifices.

    Sorry, I fibbed it 🙁 just trying to keep his name popular, up in the googly ranks, despite not a single media outlet making anything of his sudden demise, he is being talked about…

  • TFS

    Off Topic: 9/11

    Just YouTube Susan Lindaeur on YouTube and look for the series 1-8, and be very sickened that the media has not brought this up. WTF is going on?

  • Jay

    “This is just another of our wretched imports of right-wing American philosophy.”

    Please! Our governments foreign policies are not of the Right, or the left, wing of politics, they are the policies of infidels. A true right winger is a Christian and they would not behave in that manner. Period.

    A Christian would be trying to make peace and would be looking for mutual understanding, building bridges, sharing common, concerns.

    They are not right wing please.

    War mongering and global imperialism is a concept fot the globalists whether on the left or right they are globalists.
    Big Business and international finance.

  • Mary

    contd.
    .
    An excerpt – Hammond is doing business with Karimov
    .
    The Defence Secretary hopes a “reverse transiting agreement” will result in Kazakhstan also providing permission for military equipment such as tanks and armoured personnel carriers to be carried by train on a 4,000-mile journey from northern Afghanistan to the Baltic, where they will then be shipped back to Britain.
    .

    On Tuesday he will be having talks in neighbouring Uzbekistan in the hope of agreeing similar transit rights. In addition Nick Harvey, the Armed Forces Minister, is travelling this week to Kyrgystan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan to explore the possibility of negotiating similar deals.
    .

    Slightly surreal writing this as Paxman drones on in the background at the start of his Empire series.

  • Yonatan

    With the Iranian pot bubbling to a the boil, Israel adds fuel to the flames. Israel has signed a $1.6 billion dollar arms deal with Azerbaijan which lies between Russia and Iran, bordering the Caspian Sea. The capital Baku is the origin of two major oil/gas(?) pipelines. One heads north into Russia, the other west to Tbilisi, Georgia then on the Ceyhan on the Turkish coast. Azerbaijan also seems to be a favorite spot for CIA/Mossad types wanting to spy on Iran.
    .
    http://news.yahoo.com/israel-inks-1-6-billion-arms-deal-azerbaijan-150647547.html
    .
    What will Israel get from this beyond the prima face deal? Use of airfields and airspace?
    .
    Israel tried something similar a while ago in Georgia. Will there be a repeat of what happened there? Azerbaijan also hosts a large Russian early warning radar site at Gabala. I suspect Russia won’t want to lose that. Interesting times!

  • Mark Golding - Children of Iraq

    Susan Lindauer
    .
    Her five year indictment on the Patriot Act ended without a Trial five days before President Obama’s inauguration.
    .
    She has been called Hallucinatory, Incompetent, a Storyteller and a Trickster.
    .
    Even her Wiki was modified to include a ‘hideously biased intelligence smear’ and her YouTube reference DELETED.
    .

  • Donald

    Yonatan, answering your query on the last thread, we used subscription on-line services including DIALOG and FT-Profile, and some others whose names now escape me. These services were multi-database collections that could be searched together or individually, ie in DIALOG I could search engineering and geology databases together, or separately. The main geology and exploration database I used was GEOREF, but you developed a ‘feel’ for what was in each one, just as you did with our internal reports database. Sadly, or not, all of this accumulated experience was lost when the Glasgow office was closed. Some articles in these databases would turn up in multiple locations, too.

  • Ben Franklin

    Glenn UK;

    ” can’t these people or their advisers try, just once in a while, to throw support behind a genuinely worthy case in which there is no vested interest? Just occasionally, for PR’s sake!”

    Economics is the basis for all diplomacy. You knew that, already. I just don’t understand, as you do not, why the sub-humans can’t see a capital return on benevolence. Yin Yang is a bitch, and she takes no prisoners.

  • Fedup

    MP assaulted for challenging racist behaviour on the train
    ,
    At around 10.30pm on Thursday, a group of three men were heard to make loud, racist comments on a traein from Lancaster to Barrow.

    Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock said he was set upon by two of the thugs on arrival at Barrow station, after he approached them about making offensive comments.
    ,
    All the preparations are in place to welcome the immigrants guests for the Olympics, sure as hell they will enjoy getting abused and getting a good kicking, when set upon for their troubles to dare to come here in the first place.
    ,
    BTW are arrangements made for Sir Andrew Green booking into a hospital for his probable blowing up a gasket at the figures of immigrants into UK this summer?

  • Anon

    28 February 2012 Last updated at 01:49

    St Paul’s protest: Occupy London camp eviction starts
    Occupy London camp eviction Bailiffs acting on a court order started to remove tents from
    Police and bailiffs have moved in to remove protesters from the Occupy London camp at St Paul’s Cathedral.

    Bailiffs have started to remove tents and other equipment from the site. There have been no reports of trouble.

    Occupy London was last week refused permission to appeal against a High Court decision to allow their eviction to proceed.

    Live on BBC News right now – also live stream at http://www.occupylondonsos.org/livestream.htm

  • oddie

    still eyeing the prize of venezuelan oil:

    18 Feb: Haaretz: AP: Jewish group: Chavez presidential rival a target of
    anti-Semitism
    The Simon Wiesenthal Center condemned a column that described the Jewish
    ancestry of opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski and labeled him a
    secret follower of Zionism, which it called “the most rotten sentiments
    represented by humanity.” …
    Like the vast majority of Venezuelans, Capriles practices Roman Catholicism
    but his mother came from a family of Sephardic Jews who escaped Nazi
    persecution and sought safety on the Caribbean island of Curacao before
    settling in Venezuela.
    Oddly, the column also accused Carpiles of involvement in a group that
    promotes “the national Aryan race,” referring to a racial concept promoted
    by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. …
    http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-group-chavez-presidential-rival-a-target-of-anti-semitism-1.413308

    Capriles is a total media darling. BBC has him in the shantytowns, but with a “priveleged upbringing”, and forgiven for allegedly leading the failed coup against Chavez!

    13 Feb: BBC: Venezuela poll: Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles
    As the energetic governor of the state of Miranda, Mr Capriles, 39, likes to
    stay in touch with voters, visiting shantytowns, often on his motorbike, to
    supervise projects and play basketball with the locals.
    Dressed casually in baseball cap and jeans, he likes to be seen to be
    getting things done.
    He was photographed wading chest high in muddy flood waters when heavy rains
    brought landslides and chaos to Miranda in 2010…
    He had a privileged upbringing, studying law and going on to work in both
    the public and private sectors in Venezuela…
    Afterwards, Chavez supporters alleged that Mr Capriles led the siege.
    Capriles said he had helped to negotiate an end to the stand-off.
    He was charged and brought to trial, but eventually acquitted.
    The episode seemed to do nothing to dampen some voters’ enthusiasm for the
    political wunderkind…
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16811723

  • Mary

    NHS privatisation: Compilation of financial and vested interests.
    .
    This list represents the dire state of our democracy. The financial and vested interests of our MPs and Lords in private healthcare. Why are these people allowed to be in charge of our NHS, to vote on a bill that they clearly have something to gain from? Who cares that they have put it in the register of interests. This doesn’t excuse their interests, it merely highlights clearly why they should have no part in voting for the privatisation of the NHS. It is privatisation, despite the media’s continued use of the word ‘reforms’. The question must be asked. Are they public servants or corporate servants,

    .
    http://socialinvestigations.blogspot.com/2012/02/nhs-privatisation-compilation-of.html

    .
    Read also the later posts about Lord Chadlington, good friend of Cameron. He gave Cameron some land on the cheap to enlarge his garden.
    .
    ‘Incidentally, Lord Chadlington is the Prime Minister’s constituency party chairman. They know each other well. Lord Chadlington paid £715,000 for a house next to Mr Cameron’s last November; the home which Mr Cameron took out a £350,000 taxpayer-funded mortgage on. Lord Chadlington never moved in but sold David Cameron, a piece of the land at £137,000, which Cameron failed to declare.’
    .
    Vile bodies. Vile people. They are going to kill OUR NHS.

  • Smeggypants

    You’ve got to love this piece of British State propaganda Channel ( ZBC) propaganda
    .
    .
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15648166
    .
    .
    .
    halfway down the sub heading says:
    .
    .
    “How an implosion device could trigger a nuclear bomb”
    .
    .
    .
    and there’s a scary diagram.
    .
    .
    I note the deliberate use of the word ‘could’ – The ZBC seem to have forgotten that the implosion device was one of the two types tested in live condition using live subjects over Japan in 1945. Fat Man was designated to be test over Nagasaki
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Man
    .
    .
    So what about the usage of the word ‘could’ ??
    .
    .
    Well ‘could’ is a threat word isn’t it?

  • Passerby

    Smeggypants
    See how independent the zioBBC is? It even takes note and changes “Threat” to “Efficacy”, to begin with Iranian were a portrayed as a “threat” to the attacking Israeli jets (free jets from US, and ordnance, and bombs), now it is the condescending “Efficacy” ie how can they (Iranians) do jack shit in the face of “superior” technology. Just reading the crap makes anyone with a modicum of sense to cringe. This shit is supported by the license fee too.

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