[NATION.PK] For two years Taliban kept his demise secret from the eyes of their own people as well as the international spies swarming Afghanistan, and have elected Mullah Akhtar Mansur, as his successor, later to be ratified by the Milli Shoora, which could not meet due to fear of an aerial attack. It was the peace process launched by Pakistan which compelled the Taliban to make Mullah Omar’s’ death public, because, his conditions for peace were violated. Mullah Omar’s unflinching demands are: “You are defeated, exit now and let Afghans form an Islamic Government according to their traditions.” Mullah Mansur’s decision was thus challenged by the die-hard Taliban, forcing him to announce: “The peace talks cannot be held unless Mullah Omar’s demands were met. War against foreign occupation, therefore, will continue unabated.” The emerging situation thus leaves many questions to be answered.
Taliban would take time to convene the Milli Shoora under the existing threat of the aerial attacks, which means that talks would be put-off for an indefinite period. War will continue, unabated by the Taliban, who control almost seventy percent of Afghan territory and have established a new support base in the eight provinces in the north, which were earlier areas of influence of Northern Alliance, where the Movement for Independence of Uzbekistan (MIU) has joined hands with them, threatening the security of Central Asian States and North-West China.
The issue of succession is no problem for Mullah Mansur because he took-over as earlier-on designated by the Milli Shoora’s ‘Order of Succession.’ Similarly Mullah Mansur now has designated two of his deputies, namely Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mullah Haibatullah, endorsed by Jalaluddin Haqqani, the most powerful Taliban leader. The opposition to Mansur is mainly against his decision to engage in peace talks. The matter of succession is being raised as a conspiracy.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
But the CIA says it knew about the death shortly after it happened. (And the CIA is such a believable outfit.) Accustomed to keeping secrets, they kept it a secret.
>From SMH via The Telegraph, London. Edited highlights - more at source. brilliant detail
If the oil futures market is correct, Saudi Arabia will start running into trouble within two years. It will be in existential crisis by the end of the decade.
The contract price of US crude oil for delivery in December 2020 is currently $US62.05, implying a drastic change in the economic landscape for the Middle East and the petro-rentier states.
OPEC now faces a permanent headwind. Each rise in price will be capped by a surge in US output. The only constraint is the scale of US reserves that can be extracted at mid-cost, and these may be bigger than originally supposed, not to mention the parallel possibilities in Argentina and Australia, or the possibility for "clean fracking" in China as plasma pulse technology cuts water needs.
Saudi Arabia is effectively beached. It relies on oil for 90 per cent of its budget revenues. There is no other industry to speak of, a full fifty years after the oil bonanza began. There is the industry of religion. It's back to the Bronze Age with you Optimist...
Citizens pay no tax on income, interest, or stock dividends. Subsidised petrol costs twelve cents a litre at the pump. Electricity is given away for 1.3 US cents a kilowatt-hour. Spending on patronage exploded after the Arab Spring as the kingdom sought to smother dissent. And around the world to export their lovely religion. Australian universities all have colonies of sunni theocrats. Could this be why halal certification is so important? setting up localised money streams as the international patronage money runs out?
The International Monetary Fund estimates that the budget deficit will reach 20 per cent of GDP this year, or roughly $US140 billion. The 'fiscal break-even price' is $US106. what can I say? sucked in.
Far from retrenching, King Salman is spraying money around, giving away $US32 billion in a coronation bonus for all workers and pensioners. when cousins marry and have 57 kids.... this is what you get
He has launched a costly war against the Houthis in Yemen look over there - a shia (don't join IS please don't join IS)
and is engaged in a massive military build-up - entirely reliant on imported weapons - that will propel Saudi Arabia to fifth place in the world defence ranking. now that is a worry
Money began to leak out of Saudi Arabia after the Arab Spring, with net capital outflows reaching 8 per cent of GDP annually even before the oil price crash. The country has since been burning through its foreign reserves at a vertiginous pace.
The reserves peaked at $US737 billion in August of 2014. They dropped to $US672 billion in May. At current prices they are falling by at least $US12 billion a month. But the rich ones have bought shares in western companies and businesses like harrods, half of newsltd etc... they own us
Yet on the current course their reserves may be down to $US200 billion by the end of 2018. The markets will react long before this, seeing the writing on the wall. Capital flight will accelerate. if wishes were fishes
The government can slash investment spending for a while - as it did in the mid-1980s - but in the end it must face draconian austerity. It cannot afford to prop up Egypt and maintain an exorbitant political patronage machine across the Sunni world. to infinity and beyond
Social spending is the glue that holds together a medieval bronze age
Wahhabi regime at a time of fermenting unrest among the Shia minority of the Eastern Province, pin-prick terrorist attacks from ISIS, and blowback from the invasion of Yemen.
Diplomatic spending is what underpins the Saudi sphere of influence caught in a Middle East version of Europe's Thirty Year War, and still reeling from the after-shocks of a crushed democratic revolt. Serious problem. Much as I like to see them poor so they cannot export idiocy, this leaves a massive problem. Well-armed theocratic idiots with a sense of entitlement and no marketable skills. The entire area will be a hell hole but we will get the refugees, and they will be all the more virulent in theocratic fascism as they look to their golden age. We must ban sharia. And in the Western world - Muslims are welcome, sharia is not
#1
Methinks the title needs to be reworked or paraphrased better.
Again, the issue may prove to be a moot point iff our mighty OWG Govts-Perts can't agree on the merits ala "peak oil" andor "peak" anything-n-everything else.
Espec towards Year 2030-2050 + beyond.
THE ISLAMIC WORLD CONQUEST/GLOBAL JIHAD MARRIES "MAD MAX" + BEGETS "INTERSTELLAR", "TANK GIRL", + "DEMOLITION MAN".
#2
They don't make their munitions. They can't maintain their equipment. The first must be purchased abroad and the second hired from abroad. Which requires miney.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
08/07/2015 0:17 Comments ||
Top||
#3
They were warned about this a long time ago.
So be it.
No one in the Business world really has all that time for moslem shit.
It's a waste of Humans and Human Capital.
A net loss on any balance sheet.And they refused to stop it.
#6
The key here is the Saudis announcing that for the first time, they're going to offer to sell government bonds. Bonds (and stocks) are a way of selling off what you perceive as accumulated risk and spreading it around. It also creates a solid, greed based reason for people to support you.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/07/2015 7:29 Comments ||
Top||
#7
...Point of order: I thought bonds were supposed to pay interest....and interest is against sharia, IIRC.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/07/2015 7:37 Comments ||
Top||
#8
....IIRC the 'game' is that we'll sell you a $100 bond, but at a discount of $75 and will pay you face value in 'x' amount of time.
#9
....IIRC the 'game' is that we'll sell you a $100 bond, but at a discount of $75 and will could / should / might / won't pay you face value in 'x' amount of time.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/07/2015 8:48 Comments ||
Top||
#14
They will be happier when the oil is gone. Without oil Westerners will have nothing to do with the entire region and they can become the geo-strategic equivalent of Africa.
#15
^ then they'll finally have the time to contemplate and create all those Arab Nobel Science Winners NASA tells us are just waiting out there. STEM or Wudu?
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/07/2015 18:38 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Here's the deal. Obie actually regards foreign policy stuff as a distraction from his real job: turning the entire US into a re education prison college campus.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/07/2015 8:13 Comments ||
Top||
[DAWN] PARENTAL refusals continue to be a worrying factor in the drive against polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... in Pakistain. As reported in this paper yesterday, during the last vaccination campaign in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , parents of over 21,000 children refused to allow their offspring to be inoculated against the crippling disease. Of these, 21pc declined on religious grounds. This was pointed out during a meeting in Quetta that provincial health officials held with prominent intellectuals and Learned Elders of Islam. With a vaccination drive scheduled to start soon in Balochistan, the religious leaders were asked to play a proactive role, particularly in the high-risk Quetta block, which includes Quetta, Pishin and Killa Abdullah districts. Significantly, these areas were the most affected by polio last year in the province which recorded around 25 polio cases. The religious leaders present at the meeting reaffirmed their continued support for the polio eradication campaign.
However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... the clergy needs to do far more than mouthing platitudes and giving reassurances. It has considerable sway over societal attitudes to education and healthcare, particularly in the country's more conservative areas. Vaccination against polio is no exception. In fact, religious sentiment has been especially exploited on this issue by bully boyz to derail the anti-polio effort, render the work of vaccinators exceedingly dangerous and even justify the murder of around 70 polio workers and members of their security detail since 2012. Religious leaders can play a vital role to change the narrative and counter those peddling disinformation. However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... the endeavour must be sustained and relentless enough to develop critical mass. In 2013, hard-line holy man Maulana Samiul Haq ...the Godfather of the Taliban, leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as Mullah Sandwich for his habit of having two young boys at a time... issued a fatwa urging parents to have their children vaccinated against polio; he later appeared in a photo-op with PTI chief Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... who administered anti-polio drops to his grandson. Aside from dramatic visuals, such one-stop, flash-in-the-pan efforts achieve little of substance. Pakistain's clergy could look to the stunning success in polio eradication by India where Learned Elders of Islam committees -- including representatives of various Moslem sects as well as a doctor -- were formed to address parental reservations regarding vaccination, reportedly found most often among Moslem communities. The strategy is often cited as having played a definitive role in India's campaign. Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, Bart was wondering if fisticuffs would be appropriate at this point... although authorities in Pakistain have even jugged Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! parents/guardians for refusing to get their children inoculated against polio, they could perhaps -- as a somewhat less draconian sanction -- also consider linking the issuance or renewal of certain documents to parents allowing their children to be vaccinated.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2015 00:00 ||
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#5
Alas Babylon had almost as big an impact on me, although it was a positive impact this time. Hard to believe it was required reading for Florida 9th graders.
The idea of McCoy and McDill being nuked made me think.
Found this via The Zelman Partizans, which I am a member of.
[ArutzSheva] When we find out who they [anti-Israel agitators] are — we just put out the facts. But when they find out who we are — they literally want to kill us. Because that is what they are like.”
On February 17, 2015, a number of America’s most vituperative anti-Israel activists woke up to discover that they had been named and spotlighted by a mysterious new website called Canary Mission.
The site boldly aggregates the public statements, videos, and photographs of leading members of the organized movement against Israel in their most telling and often most demonstrative moments.
The profiled individuals span a gamut of track records ranging from those with leadership roles with such intensely anti-Israel groups as Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Student Association to unaffiliated campus agitators who regularly advocate for the destruction of Israel and even the murder of Jews. All its profiles are compiled from public Internet sources such as social media, You Tube, Twitter, press releases, news clips, and interviews.
In essence, Canary Mission took a card from the New Israel Fund, which some years ago helped finance the Coalition of Women for Peace that created the Who-Profits database that acted as a global compass of Israeli commercial activity for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions strategies. Canary Mission flipped the card and blacklisted the blacklisters.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?
Because Canary Mission works beneath a complete shroud of secrecy, it has been called “shadowy.” It is commonly labelled as McCarthy-like in its actions within the pages of leading Jewish and mainstream media, as well as political websites, even though its modus operendi is obviously the opposite of McCarthyism. Even as sources as tenuous as Wikipedia define McCarthyism as “the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence,” as was done during the anti-Communist scare of the 1950s.
Canary Mission relies on vetted, publicly visible pictures, protest placards, open statements, and video clips that speak for themselves and are primarily drawn from previously well-publicized activities. In other words, Canary Mission aggregates publicly verifiable information into a single place. It is not clear why media outlets have not made the historical distinction or provided context. More at the link
There is no memory hole, there is no privacy, and they gotcha, you nasty little maggots. Do enjoy the sunlight.
Yes, I had to get a little dirty but this way you don't have to. Vox, yes, that Vox, says that Obama doesn't have a clue in Syria. Obama wants "our" allies to fight ISIS, but "they" would rather fight Assad, whom Obama -- for reasons of his own -- won't touch.
So Obama is as good in the Syrian issue as he is in everything else...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/07/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
The only non-messy policy on ME is.
(1) Let the animals kill each other.
(2) Don't let them get any advanced weapons.
#7
See also LUCIANNE, BIGNEWSNETWORK > [Daily Beast] PENTAGON: OBAMA "TOO TIMID" ON PUTIN.
And SSSSSHHHH ... CCCCCCCC the ISIS/ISIL as well.
* SAME, TOPIX > US SEEKS TO ESTABLISH JOINT CHAMBER OF COMMERCE - IRAN.
Yokay, as said times before, TO BE A OWG GLOBALIST-DESIRED "US-STYLE", "US-PAR" CO-SUPERPOWER IRAN NEEDS A MODERN MILITARY-INDUSTRAIL COMPLEX BEFITTING ITS NEW STATUS.
US-LED ANTI-US OWG-NWO + GLOBALISM = US IS HELPING ITS GEOPOL ENEMIES, RIVALS, WANNABES, ETC. BECOME STRONGER RELATIVE TO ITSELF.
Even iff the ARTIC isn't true + Tehran seemingly or allegedly "lied", ITS IN THE US-LED ANTI-US GLOBALIST AGENDA TO DO SO, most likely POST-OBAMA/JAN 2017.
* SPACE WAR > NUCLEAR PEACE: MANKIND'S MOST DANGEROUS BLUFF?
* GROONG, TOPIX > [ARMINFO] SARGIS HATSPANYAN: TENRAN'S ONLY "BREATHING HOLES" ARE US-MILITARY-BASE-FREE ARMENIA AND ARTASAKH [Armenia + Azerbaijan], TOPPLING OF SYRIA'S ASSAD WOULD TURN IRAN INTOA GEOPOLITICAL "ISLAND".
IIUC, IOW the US' OWG Co-Superpower sibling iran NEEDS "LEBENSTRAUM" = "LIVING SPACE" = "SPHERE(S) OF INFLUENCE", as does Iran's Sunni rival wannabe "NEO-OTTOMAN" TURKEY + OTHER IN THE ME = MUSLIM/ISLAMIC WORLD.
Deter, Protect, Expand, + Project MilPol Power + Trade.
VERSUS
The ISIS/ISIL threatening Mainstream/Honest Amerikans back home in CONUS-NORAM due to the Bammer's [intentionally?] messy FP???
* LUCIANNE > EMBOLDENED ISIS THREATENS AMERICAN MILITARY FAMILIES OUTSIDE THEIR HOMES.
The priority or focii is OWG + US-GLOBAL SOCIALIST GOVT-ORDER, NOT NATIONAL SECURITY.
NOT STOPPING THE ISIS OR QAEDA BOYZ, OR ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, ETC.
US-N-ONLY-THE-US STRATEGIC UNILATERAL = SELF "RETREAT/FALLBACK IS OWG + WORLD PEACE".
Dare OWG Amerika not be just "EURO-SOCIALIST", BUT MORE "EURO-SOVIET/COMMUNIST/STALINIST"???
D *** NG IT, TWAS THE USN BB USS OKLAHOMA THAT CAPSIZED/SANK AT PEARL HARBOR BACK IN 1941, NOT GUAM!
Guam's poor US-VS-CHINA-VS-NUCLEAR-ISLAM-VS-OWG besieged CAMEL ROCK - we hardly knew ye!
h/t Instapundit
A reader poses an interesting question:
Dr. Helen,
Do you ever think or worry (not that this is the right way to couch it) that where we are going with the feminizing of males, vs. the world at large, i.e. ISIS etc. what the long term implications are for America?
I spent 6 years in the military, enjoyed every minute of it and never a second thought would we ever be in a place where I was actually concerned about the country's ability to defend itself. I'm not so sure I'm there anymore. Being a male is not so easy.
#1
I thought with the removal of the ban on women in combat, that 200 years of 'disparate impact' upon males, it would be just females drafted the next time around. Your turn sweetheart to protect the oligarchs that gave you power and influence.
#2
War, like Econ + Conspiracy, IS A "COALITION" I.E. A COMBO = "PERFECT STORM"? OF FACTORS, INTERESTS, + AGENDAS, ETC.
So the Axioms or Adages SAY.
The desire to set up effective + permanent OWG-NWO + US-GLOBAL SOCIALIST ORDER = THE US-ALLIES CAN'T OR WON'T BE ALLOWED TO DEFEAT THE ISIS, AL-NUSRA, + ALIGNED HARD BOYZ JUST YET. In fact, US-WORLD OWG GLOBIES ARE ONLY NOT ALLOWING THE ISIS, ETAL. TO BE DEFEATED OR DESTROYED AT THIS TIME, BUT ARE DIRECTLY ANDOR INDIRECTLY HELPING THEM GET MILPOL STRONGER RELATIVE TO THE "WEAK/
DECLINING", EX-SOLE-SOON-TO-BE-ONE-OF-MANY CO-SUPERPOWERS USA ITSELF.
Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, + Mahan, etc. would argue the above is a recipe for MilPol/Geopol Self-Suicide + National, Geopol Catastrophe.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
