A grand opening celebration was held today for the first retail E85 station in the state of Louisiana. Motorists traveling along the busy I-10 corridor in Southwestern Louisiana can fill up their tank with the cleaner, home grown fuel. The Pumpelly Oil station is located at 1890 Swisco Rd. in Sulphur.
“Southwest Louisiana is positioned to be a leader in developing new, clean, and efficient fuels, and I am proud that our state’s first E85 ethanol station is located in Sulphur,” said U.S. Representative Charles W. Boustany, Jr. “This station represents the first of many more to come.”
This E85 fueling facility is a partnership between CleanFUEL Distribution, a joint venture between CleanFUEL USA and Protec Fuel Management, and Pumpelly Oil. CleanFUEL USA manufactured the dispenser, CleanFUEL Distribution is providing the fuel, and Pumpelly Oil owns the station offering the service.
“This is something that’s good for the environment and promotes cleaner air for our state,” said Glenn Pumpelly, president of Pumpelly Oil. “We look forward to continued work with CleanFUEL USA and CleanFUEL Distribution to be a solution provider for people who want to use not only ethanol but also biodiesel and propane.”
Ethanol feedstocks are currently comprised primarily of Midwestern corn. An increasing amount of corn and sugar cane produced by our farming community will be a source for local ethanol production. “Louisiana indigenous coastal grasses and forest products can also provide a cellulosic derived supply for the increasing demand for ethanol. This station and others to follow can be supplied by ethanol produced by our local farmers that will in turn power the increasing number of vehicles operating in our state,” says Rick Richard, chairman of CleanFUEL USA.
CleanFUEL Distribution will also work to create a reliable, affordable distribution network for ethanol and other alternative fuels throughout the state of Louisiana by supplying other fueling stations and fleets such alternative fuels as E10, biodiesel and propane.
“Our country must become less dependent on foreign oil,” said Rick Richard. “We know this partnership will make the local economy more robust by creating jobs and offering people the option to make better environmental choices. We also look forward to expanding this service beyond Southwestern Louisiana to other parts of the state.”
Louisiana fleets and retailers will now have access to CleanFUEL Distribution’s complete turnkey services for station design, site development, equipment specifications and marketing services to increase alternative-fuel sales volumes at their fueling sites.
“We are pleased to finally see E85 in the state of Louisiana,” stated Phil Lampert, executive director of the NEVC. “We commend the collaborative efforts of our members CleanFUEL USA and Protec Fuel Management for their great achievement.”
There are only nine remaining U.S. states without a publicly accessible E85 station. For a complete listing of all E85 stations across the U.S. go to www.e85refueling.com.
An Iranian military official claims the United States is attempting to wage a psychological war against the Islamic Republic, Fars News Agency said Thursday.
Mohammad Ali Rahmani, the head of the ideological and political department of the Law Enforcement Police made the remarks in reference to U.S. efforts to declare the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.
“This accusation shows the glory and grandeur of Iran’s Corps and we announce that the Islamic Republic’s power and might is increasingly growing due to the preparedness of armed forces,” Rahmani said in Tehran Thursday.
He added that such efforts indicate enemies fear the Islamic Republic’s might, saying the entire world recognizes Iran as a powerful state.
China’s coming on strong while our leaders chase the terrorists across the globe.
Recently much international press fanfare was generated acknowledging that China had replaced Great Britain as the world’s fourth largest economy.
Nobody argues nowadays that China has the highest growth rate of industrialized economics posting annual growth rates in excess of 8.5 percent according to The International Monetary Fund. The World Bank predicted recently that China’s economy will grow 10.4 percent this year and 9.3 percent in 2007.
In contrast, the United States is in the 2 to 3 percent range.
What’s not been said by our less than candid leaders is that China is already the second largest global economy and has held that spot for sometime and catching the U.S. very quickly. The Chinese economy is already 72 percent the size of the U.S. economy.
One only need reference the 2006 CIA World Factbook. There it is for the whole world to see.
A country’s economic output is measured, and compared to other countries, by a standard known as GDP, or Gross Domestic Product, which is measured in two ways, one by international exchanges rates and by purchase power parity.
Exchange rates are the norm used by most private and public international agencies. But more recently experts have suggested that international exchanges rates distort the true picture.
Value distortions exist between the currencies of the trading nations, in particular, when currencies are something less than free-floating in the open market.
The Chinese Yuan is mostly a fixed-rate currency pegged to the value of the U.S. Dollar. The exchange value is only changed by Chinese government, a little at a time generally to appease the U.S. Congress. Therefore GDP figures between the two nations are distorted.
Countries with free trading currencies can safely use exchange rates as a measure of comparison between their respective GDP’s. In the absence of free trading, purchase power parity is used as the standard of comparison.
Purchasing power parity equalizes the purchasing power of different currencies in their home countries for a given basket of goods. This is often used by global economists, and our CIA, to compare the economic output countries.
The difference in an exchange rate and purchase power parity analysis of the China GDP is nothing less than astonishing and should be downright frightening to American leaders.
For example, on an exchange rate basis, the CIA World Factbook estimates China’s GDP to be $2.225 trillion. On a purchase power parity basis that figure is $8.859 trillion. In comparison the U.S. shows an economy of $12.49 trillion based on exchange rates and $12.36 trillion based on purchase power parity.
Based on exchange rates, China is the 4th largest economy in the world. But based on purchase power parity China is clearly number 2.
And the Factbook acknowledges, Measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis, China in 2005 stood as the second-largest economy in the world after the US….
Noted magazine, The Economist reported, By 2020, China will narrowly outstrip the United States in GDP.
China already exceeds the U.S. in production of many strategic minerals and metals. And its industrial base is now larger as well. According to the Factbook China’s industrial output now stands at 4.19 trillion dollars as compared to 2.52 Trillion for the United States. Chinese annual industrial growth is 29.5 percent but only 3.5 percent here in the U.S.
Propaganda works by appealing to our most base, animalistic instincts. It does not appeal to our better nature, although one of the purposes of it is to convince us it does. It pretends to appeal to our reason, when in fact it appeals to our most primitive emotions. There is good reason for this: perception travels through the emotional brain first, to the rational brain last.
Specifically, propaganda works by appealing to three things: emotionalism, tribalism and narcissism.
I just mentioned perception travels first to the emotional brain, then the rational brain. This happens to everyone, including people who con themselves they are the most rational and intelligent of intellectuals.
As for tribes, we share with every nearly every animal in the world the instinct to form tribes, arranged in a hierachy, with a leader. We are group animals. The fact we look to a leader to take care of us is one of the most firmly established principles in psychology (if you don’t remember anything else, remember that).
When anyone transgresses the taboos of a tribe, they can, and often are, ostracised or even expelled. An example? Say some people oppose a war. What happens? They are often called cowards and told to leave the country. Who hasn’t heard the insult, “You’re a coward! If you don’t like it here, get out!” People who say such things think they’re being patriotic; in reality they’re acting like animals. Emotional, irrational, herd animals, prone to the fear and flight activated by propaganda. Individuals think; groups do not, and cannot.
Narcissism is our inborn tendency to see everything as grandiose or devalued, good or bad, with nothing in-between. It’s why nearly every tribe in the world — and nations are just tribes writ large — called itself “the People,” “the Humans,” “the Chosen,” “the Motherland,” “the Fatherland,” or “the greatest nation on earth,” relegating everyone outside the tribe to a devalued non-people, non-human status (aka “collaterial damage”). No wonder it’s so easy to kill the outsiders — they’re just not quite human.
When you combine those three concepts, you have the basis for all propaganda. If a leader of a tribe tells the people their goodness is under attack by insane, evil people who want to destroy them, they will react just like animals and attack. The Nazi propagandist Herman Goering noticed all you had to do to get people to march off to war is for the leaders to tell them they were under attack, denounce protestors as traitors exposing the tribe to danger, and the people would slander, ostracize and expell the protestors, and then tramp straight off to be slaughtered. He said this technique worked in every country of the world.
The Bush administration used exactly this technique to start two wars. Essentially they told the public that our goodness was under attack by insane and evil people who wanted to destroy us. See how it works? Tribalism, emotionalism, and narcissism.
Supporter of the war responded by attacking protestors as traitors — trying to expell them from the tribe — and marching off to war. It’s altogether too simple, and too easy.
One man everyone should know is Edward L. Bernays, the American disciple and nephew of Sigmund Freud. He was for all practical purposes the founder of modern propaganda techniques.
Bernays despised most people and regarded them as his inferiors, especially because of intellectual or social claims. (See how it works? I just appealed to your emotions, and convinced you Bernays was attacking you. You fell for it, right?)
Bernays not only pretty much founded modern propaganda techniques, but was also the father of modern PR. Although, you could say they are same thing, and that there’s really no difference between them.
In his 1928 book, Propaganda, Bernays wrote, “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country…”
Remember that quote. Burn it into your memory. Bernays thought people should be ruled by an extremely small elite, who should manipulate them through propaganda. That means you. People who believe in the wonders of government, and that it is their friend, should think twice about it.
In another book, In Crystallizing Public Opinion, Bernays wrote how governments and advertisers can “regiment the mind like the military regiments the body.” This can be imposed, he said, because of “the natural inherent flexibility of individual human nature,” and suggested the “average citizen is the world’s most efficient censor. His own mind is the greatest barrier between him and the facts. His own ‘logic-proof compartments,’ his own absolutism are the obstacles which prevent him from seeing in terms of experience and thought rather than in terms of group reaction.”
Bernays also thought “physical loneliness is a real terror to the gregarious animal, and that association with the herd causes a feeling of security. In man this fear of loneliness creates a desire for identification with the herd in matters of opinion.”
Bernays claimed that “the group mind does not think in the strict sense of the word…In making up its mind, its first impulse is usually to follow the example of a trusted leader. This is one of the most firmly established principles in mass psychology.” What Bernays called the “regimentation of the mind” is accomplished by taking advantage of the human tendency to self-deception [logic-proof compartments], gregariousness [the herd instinct], individualism [exalting their vanity] and the seductive power of a strong leader.
Bernays also expressed the opinion people “have to take sides…[they] must step out of the audience onto the stage and wrestle as the hero for the victory of good over evil.” This also means appealing to our narcissism, our inborn tendency to see everything as either good or bad, with little or nothing in-between.
He also noted the need for people to feel as if they belong to something larger than themselves. Again, this also means appealing to our narcissism, such as people claiming they belong to “the greatest nation on earth.”
When people consider themselves as part of the Humans (by whatever name they call themselves), they exalt themselves. Still again, those outside the tribe are non-people, “collateral damage.”
“Mental habits create stereotypes just as physical habits create certain definite reflex actionism,” Bernays wrote. “…these stereotypes or clichés are not necessarily truthful pictures of what they are supposed to portray.” Perception is everything, the truth matters little or not at all.
Now, let’s boil all this down and see what we have:
Mass Man, the herd, cannot think, and is instead ruled by its feelings. The herd will look to a leader to save it. The best way to accomplish this is for the herd to feel it is under attack. The herd will draw together, expell those who see the truth and protest, and then march off to war.
The full quote from Hermann Goering? “Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
Tell the herd they are the Humans, or the People, or best of all, have God on their side. Paint their enemies as insane and evil. Again, this is appealing to people’s narcissism, the tendency to see everything as either good (us) or evil (them). Evoke paranoia and hysteria in them by convincing them the insane evil ones want to conquer and destroy them. What will happen? You can get them to march off to war by the millions, just as Goering noticed. The truth doesn’t matter, only the manipulation of perception.
Stop the NYC Madrassa – article by Daniel Pipes — A group of radicals have been promoting an alleged Islamist school in NYC paid for by the taxpayers and run by an apparent Israel-hater. How this got this far in the first place is an interesting study in craziness. The undoing of the principal was a series of coincidences involving a T-shirt. The NYC funded Madrassa/school is still scheduled to open on time.
Unrelenting efforts by the coalition eventually led to the development in early August that caused Almontaser to resign. One of its leaders, Pamela Hall, photographed T-shirts bearing the words “Intifada NYC,” which were sold by an organization, Arab Women Active in Art and Media, that shares office space in Brooklyn with the Saba Association of American Yemenis. Ms. Almontaser, it turns out, is both a board member and the spokeswoman for the Saba Association.
The T-shirts’ call for a Palestinian Arab-style uprising in the five boroughs, admittedly, had only the most tenuous connection to Ms. Almontaser. She could have maintained her months-old silence, which was serving her well. But the KGIA principal also has a long history of speaking out about politics, and apparently she could not resist the opportunity to defend the shirts…
While this one woman is out, the plans to go ahead with this school continues. I’ve seen these folks on TV and the claim is the school is to develop more Arabic speaking people who can work for like the CIA and other agencies and it has nothing to do with religion.
Ousted Principal who claims school is not about religion.
- A New York Police Department report warns that homegrown terrorists can pose more of a threat to U.S. security than al-Qaida.
U.S. citizens with no criminal records or “clean skins” are often recruited by radicals because they can operate under the radar of law enforcement, thus making them more dangerous than known terror suspects from abroad, The Washington Times said Thursday.
Homegrown terrorists are meeting up at cafes, cab stands, prisons, student associations, butcher shops and bookstores, as well as mosques.
“The Internet, with its thousands of extremist Web sites and chat-rooms, is a virtual incubator of its own. In fact, many of the extremists began their radical conversion while researching or just surfing in the cyber-world,” the report said.
People recruited for radicalization often look like “ordinary citizens.”
“In the United Kingdom, it is precisely those ‘ordinary’ middle class university students who are sought after by local extremists” the document said. “Most have never been arrested or involved in any kind of legal trouble.”
The challenge for law enforcement is how to identify and quash recruitment and the process of radicalization, The Times noted.
At a recent gathering in Omaha Warren Buffett told the crowd that Berkshire was involved in a single currency trade – but that the currency trade – but that the currency in question would not be revealed for several years time. The Yen has slid back down near its lows after the spikes with optimism equities going up, the “carry trade” is back in vogue where investors basically sell the Yen short to invest to invest in other markets.
Fears of a carry blow up have gone by the wayside.
he National Association of Muslim Lawyers, which isn’t among the organizations and charities named on the government’s co-conspirator list, wrote to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, objecting to the register and charging that its release breaches department guidelines and fails to serve any clear law enforcement purpose, The New York Times reported Thursday.
Also signed by the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, the letter said the list could increase the prejudice faced by U.S. Muslims since the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
In addition, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said it has asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas to toss the list.
“Most people don’t understand what an unindicted co-conspirator is,” Parvez Ahmed, CAIR’s board chairman told the Times. “They think that being related to a terrorism case means we are terrorists.”
The unindicted co-conspirators were named in the case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which is accused of funneling millions of charitable dollars to Hamas.
Sixty years into our independence, the canard is that military rule alone destroyed democracy, no one speaks about the bureaucracy’s role in initially bringing democracy to its knees, and then benefiting hugely by the facade of successive military rule.
The irony is that some bureaucrats, extremely close to all the military and bureaucrat rulers, have now become born-again democrats, and are leading the holier-than-thou charge against the military.
From Aug 1947 to Sep 1948, the Quaid was governor general (GG) of Pakistan and Liaquat Ali Khan was the prime minister (PM). The reins of power were firmly in the hands of those committed to democracy, and even after the Quaid’s death on Sep 11, 1948, when Khawaja Nazimuddin became GG, the dominance of democrats was maintained till Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated on Oct 16, 1951.
Senior bureaucrats persuaded Khawaja Nazimuddin that in order “to sustain the democratic traditions” he was required to be a powerful PM on the lines of Liaquat Shaheed, the GG’s post to remain largely ceremonial as it had become after the Quaid’s death.
This manipulation was engineered by another bureaucrat, Iskander Mirza, to make Ghulam Mohammad, a member of the Accounts Service, who had become finance minister in the first Cabinet, the GG. The first Indian graduate from the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, in 1920, Mirza belonged to the hated Mir Jafar family of Bengal, and was born and brought up in Bombay.
He served in the army for six years as a cavalry officer (Captain) before joining the Indian Political Service (IPS), becoming the defence secretary to the first cabinet in 1947.
After Liaquat’s death, democracy was in a twilight zone. Khawaja Nazimuddin fought a series of losing battles against the all-powerful bureaucracy, being finally removed as PM by Ghulam Mohammad. Democracy in Pakistan was actually murdered on April 17, 1953, but, unfortunately, the then chief justice, the Honourable Mohammad Munir, let the killers go free. Mohammad Ali Bogra was handpicked to replace him. Iskandar Mirza went to serve as “Pro-Consul” in a faraway Satrapy as Governor East Pakistan.
With his close friend Gen Mohammad Ayub Khan (while remaining C-in-C) he joined the Bogra cabinet as interior minister and defence minister respectively. Challenging the GG’s despotic authority, Bogra was replaced by Ch Mohammad Ali. Making Ghulam Mohammad a mental case, Mirza became acting GG and removed him to become GG, promoting himself from Maj to the rank of Maj Gen.
In 1956, Pakistan became a republic, and Iskandar Mirza its first president. By 1958, he had installed and removed four PMs, Choudhry Mohd Ali, Husain Shahed Suhrawardy, II Chundrigar and Feroz Khan Noon. Since there was no way he was ever going to be elected in his own right, in the face of the deteriorating political and economic conditions, he declared martial law on Oct 7, 1958 and made the C-in-C Pakistan Army, Gen Ayub, the martial law Administrator (and the PM).
Democracy’s corpse, kept in an open casket for over 5 years, was finally buried. Conspiring to oust the very armed forces officers who had supported him, he was himself removed by the army on Oct 27, 1958.
In 1958 and 1959 there was martial law in Pakistan, thereafter Gen Ayub Khan ruled through a civilian cabinet with a few retired army generals. Bureaucracy again became all-powerful, a mixture of politicians and technocrats becoming part of the troika. Only East Pakistan continued to feel the domination of the army, the GOC 14 Division having far more authority in influencing civil affairs ther.
Between 1960 and 1968, bureaucracy was the dominant partner of the technocrats and politicians. A popular democratic movement, initially led by Air Marshal Asghar Khan and taken over by politicians in both East and West Pakistan, brought Ayub down in 1968. He handed over power to Gen Yahya Khan, the C-in-C Pakistan Army; the ranking bureaucrat, post-haste, issued a notification that “the CMLA would report to him,” Fida Hussain. This was short lived!
The tragedy is that having presided over the freest and fairest elections in Pakistan’s history, Yahya Khan was persuaded by the losing politicians and a coterie of bureaucrats not to hand over power. Gen Yahya Khan’s military rule ended three and a half years later, on Dec 20, 1971, after a violent civil war and the loss of the war with India, which divided Pakistan into two parts, West Pakistan keeping the name Pakistan and East Pakistan becoming Bangladesh.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto became Pakistan’s president and civilian Chief martial law Administrator (CMLA) on Dec 20, 1971. He remained president till Aug 14, 1973, and later, under the 1973 Constitution, he assumed the office of a powerful PM and Fazal Elahi Chaudhry became president. Bhutto must be given great credit for exhuming democracy from its grave and resuscitating it after 20 years.
Democracy’s downfall was nationalisation on Jan 1, 1974. This made bureaucrats all-powerful again, by proxy, heading most of the state-owned enterprises and the nationalised ones. On July 5, 1977, Gen Ziaul Haq seized power and became CMLA, relieving Fazal Elahi Chaudhry as president on September 16, 1978, and remaining so till his death in an aircraft crash on August 17, 1988.
An appointed Majlis in 1982 gave way to partyless elections in 1985; with Mohammad Ali Khan Junejo becoming PM. Zia removed Junejo in May 1988 and assumed day-to-day control. During the Zia period, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, a member of the NWFP civil service before it was merged into the civil services, became an absolute ruler. His source of strength was the nearly 100 or so state-run enterprises headed by bureaucrats, and only a handful of army officers were in civilian posts.
On Zia’s death, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who was made chairman of the Senate by Zia, became acting president, being elected president by the assemblies on Dec 13, 1988. From Dec 2, 1988, the born-again democracy was kept “under control” by the bureaucracy with active help from the army. As president till July 18, 1993, this bureaucrat sent two elected PMs home on flimsy grounds.
If the army had any illusions that they were the masters, Ishaq Khan dispelled them by retiring his active collaborator in keeping democracy in a straitjacket, COAS Pakistan army, Gen Aslam Beg. Ghulam Farooq Leghari, another bureaucrat-turned-politician, was elected president on Nov 14, 1993. Before being made to resign on Dec 2, 1997, he ousted his own party PM Ms Benazir, and was planning to send home another PM, Mian Nawaz Sharif who had become all-powerful.
Mohammad Rafiq Tarar was elected president on Jan 01, 1998, remaining so till Jan 20, 2002. Instead of making democracy work, Mian Nawaz Sharif went off on a binge byff sacking all those he did not like, or making life so miserable for them that they had no option but to quit. When he tried this with the COAS, Musharraf and his close aides were waiting for him, they threw him out.
The first real involvement of the army in the governance of the country for an extended period of time came during Musharraf’s rule. Technically, there was no Martial Law, after 2002 an elected government took office.The glaring difference with previous military rules was the influx (a la bureaucracy) of nearly 700-800 armed forces officers into civilian posts.
Except for brief periods of Martial Law the army was always used as the facade behind which an unholy troika of bureaucrats, politicians and technocrats has been the real ruler of the country.
Can anyone explain why the nationalised industries, profitable when taken over in 1974, were almost all bankrupt (or nearly so even after being subsidised many times) when de-nationalised, and why there was (and is) no accountability thereof? Those who count still remain behind the scenes, very much in power!
ok for others contact you about other services, products or commercial interests : No
Cairo – As Iran, Russia, and China meet in Kyrgyzstan at a security conference with four formerly Soviet Central Asian countries, America’s spreading military power has been at the top of the agenda. It appears to be a matter on which the three powers are in agreement: America’s supposed military supremacy cannot go unchallenged.
In his speech Thursday to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinjad attacked US plans to deploy missile intercepting technology to Eastern Europe, saying the US plan could threaten much of Asia’s security, the Associated Press reports.
The U.S. says it wants to deploy missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic to deflect potential threats from Iran. But Russia has objected to the initiative as a threat to its own security and the balance of forces in Europe.
Ahmadinejad said “these intentions go beyond just one country. They are of concern for much of the continent, Asia and SCO members.”
Bloomberg reports that Russia and China are worried about the United States perceived sole superpower status. The two nations are willing to do business with Iran in order to change the balance of the world security order that they feel is badly out of whack. Another important subtext to the conference is that Russia and China are seeking to present themselves as potential developers of Central Asia’s vast oil and gas reserves without carrying the political package with them that doing business with the US sometimes brings.
China and Russia, which are competing with the West for access to Central Asia’s oil and gas reserves, are positioning the SCO as a counterweight to the U.S., said Andrew Kuchins of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Russia and China never tire of reiterating their commitment to a multipolar world and opposition to a unipolar one,” he said in a telephone interview. “The SCO is a manifestation of that in Eurasia.”
The SCO in 2005 called for a timetable to end the U.S. military presence in Central Asia. Within six months, Uzbekistan ordered out U.S. forces stationed at its Khanabad airbase. The U.S. has a remaining airbase in Kyrgyzstan, which is used to support operations in Afghanistan.
On Friday, the attendees at the conference will observe unprecedented war games between the participants’ militaries – the first on Russian soil involving cooperation with China, once a rival of the Soviet Union – that the country’s leaders hope will solidify their burgeoning military cooperation in the face of US concerns, reports the Agence France-Presse.
Speaking in a new conference centre built by Chinese contractors under the shining backdrop of the snow-covered Tien Shan mountains, Russia’s Putin described the SCO as a budding force.
“Year after year the SCO becomes a more significant factor in strengthening security and stability in the Central Asian region,” he said.
Many analysts see the SCO as an anti-Western club aiming to stem inroads by the United States and its allies, as well as the NATO military alliance, in an oil- and gas-rich region that China and Russia consider their backyard.
“We are convinced that… any attempts to resolve global and regional problems alone are useless,” (Russian President Vladimir) Putin said, in a barely disguised swipe at Washington.
Lionel Beehner, until recently a writer for the Council on Foreign Relations, argues on his blog at Huffingtonpost.com that the military efforts between the three powers so far look like a nascent attempt to build something like the Warsaw Pact for the modern world, but that Iran’s deepening involvement is in question.
… [I]s this a serious alliance bent on rivaling NATO, a neo-Warsaw Pact for the post-Cold War era?
Not yet. But that does not make it a benign organization to be brushed aside either. Indeed, the SCO is emerging as a powerful player in a region teeming with terrorists, drug pushers, and oil pipelines. Meanwhile, the orientation of the group’s members are increasingly aligning to project a more united front that is, if not hostile to, then outwardly suspicious of U.S. military, economic, geopolitical and — some might say — neo-imperialistic interests in the region
If enlarged to include the group’s four observer states — Mongolia, Iran, Pakistan, and India — currently under consideration, the SCO would dwarf NATO’s size and be home to large amounts of the world’s natural gas and nuclear ammo.
Yet Tehran is not expected to get its wish for full membership into the Shanghai club — at least not yet. For the moment, neither China nor Russia has indicated any interest in adding more members to the SCO’s rosters, particularly ones with unpredictable foreign policies like Iran.
Back in the Cold War era, NATO was often described as a way to keep the Germans down, the Americans in, and the Russians out. The SCO, it might be said, is meant to keep the Russians down, the Chinese in, and the Americans out. Throw the Iranians into that mix, and all bets are off.
Meanwhile the Ria Novosti Russian government-owned news agency reports that Moscow is interested in adding Turkmenistan to the Shanghai group’s roster and quoted a Russian deputy foreign minister praising the importance of Iran’s regional role.
“The SCO has an objective interest in Turkmenistan as a regional nation,” Andrei Denisov said in an interview with the Vremya Novostei popular daily. “In principle, Turkmenistan could apply for core membership in the organization.”
The SCO currently has a moratorium on its expansion. The Russian diplomat said this move was designed to consolidate ties within the organization and to decide on ways of cooperation with other interested
countries. Denisov said the moratorium was not politically motivated, “The SCO … remains open to cooperation with all interested countries and international organizations.”
When asked whether the alliance’s ties with Iran, which Western countries suspect of pursuing a secret nuclear program, compromised the SCO, Denisov said Iran was an equal and respected member of the international community. He also said the Islamic Republic was present in the region as an energy producer and a vital transportation hub.
China’s state-owned media has been typically reticent about digging into the significance of the event, sticking to platitudes, as the China Daily’s front page story on the conference illustrates.
[Chinese President Hu Jintao] said opening-up and deepening cooperation with other countries and international organizations will help SCO build a sound external environment conducive to its development.
We will stick to peaceful cooperation as well as multilateralism when concerns from other parts of the world towards SCO, especially towards Central Asia, are increasing,” Hu said.
“We will support all activities that benefit regional peace, stability and economic progress and will help preserve the solidarity and security of its member countries.”
ISLAMIST group Hamas today said it would ban unauthorised demonstrations in the Gaza Strip, which it has controlled for nearly two months.
“In the interest of the general public, to preserve security and with an eye to the law, all demonstrations are categorically forbidden without the official authorisation of the Executive Force,” said spokesman Saber al-Khalifa.
He was referring to the paramilitary that has acted as a police force since Hamas overran forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Gaza in mid-June.
“This measure aims to preserve security and will guarantee that gunshots will not be fired. Above all, it will permit us to protect these demonstrations with our patrols,” Mr Khalifa said.
The move marked the latest clampdown on dissent by the Islamists since they seized power in the impoverished territory on June 15 after days of fighting with the rival Fatah party.
Hamas has closed the pro-Fatah public television, radio station and news agency and currently controls all electronic media in Gaza, except for one radio station linked to the small Islamic Jihad group.
More than 200 hundred rockets were fired from south Lebanon into Israel on Friday and Saturday adding up to over 1,000 over the past two weeks. The latest news on Hezbollah launched rockets is the use of a Khaibar-1 rocket, which hit on Saturday an open field near the town of Afulla in the Valley of Izrael. Hezbollah propaganda named the rocket “Khaibar,” a historic-religious name deriving from the Battle of Khaibar in the Arabian Peninsula in the early years of Islam. The battle, was against a Jewish fortification, has become a symbol of resilience and of the superiority of Islam over Judaism. The Khaibar-1 is apparently one of the Iranian Fadjr family of artillery missiles.
Iranian 240mm Rocket Launcher M 1985
It is important to analyze the basic characteristics of these weapon systems. The main factor related to the present conflict regards the rocket’s maximum range and the type of warhead used. So far the Hezbollah have been using mainly short range rockets, fired either from a single launcher, often with an improvised timer enabling to aim the rocket towards a general direction and flight angle and then walk away from the launch site.
Iranian 122mm-mrl-iran
Various types of electronic timers, often with a simple modified alarm clock, do the rest. These rockets are an Iranian version, called Haseb, of the Russian 107mm Katyusha with a range of up to nine kilometers. Another way to launch the rockets is by using multiple launchers to create a salvo effect. Such launchers can be towed or mounted on jeeps, trucks etc. The war head (explosives) weighs eight kilograms.
Iranian FADJR-2
Another artillery rocket type is the Arash 1 and 2, both based on Russian and Chinese models. This 122mm rocket has a range of 18 kilometers with a warhead weighing 18 kilograms. Here too the rocket can be launched from a single launch pad or in salvos from a multiple rocket launcher. Hezbollah uses this system mainly with a single launcher.
Iranian FADJR-5 missile
The second set of Iranian made rockets, believed to have been delivered to the Hezbollah in smaller numbers, is the Oghab, a 230mm rocket with a range of 45 kilometers and a warhead weighing 70 kilograms. Originally this rocket was designed to be carried and fired from special vehicles. However, they can also be fired from a single launching tube. In the same category is the Fadjr-3 230mm with a range of 45 kilometers and a warhead weighing 45 kilograms. It is believed that the simpler and lighter Fadjr-3 is the one used by the Hezbollah. It too can be mounted on a vehicle to be used as a multiple rocket launcher. The Oghab and the Fadjr-3 can cover northern Israel, including Haifa and Tiberias. To launch them the Hezbollah have to be as close as possible to the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Iranian MRLS. missile-rockets
The conflict will escalate if the Hezbollah have in their arsenal heavier rockets capable of covering a distance of 75 kilometers, carrying 190 kilograms of explosives; this rocket is the Fadjr-5 333mm. It is a larger rocket and therefore more difficult to move around. Originally it was designed for multiple rocket launchers. The last two heavy rockets are the Shahin-1 333mm with a range of 13 kilometers and a warhead of 190 kilograms and the Shahin-2 333mm with a 20-kilometer range and also a 190-kilogram warhead.
Experts on artillery rockets note that to launch the long range and heavier rockets the Hezbollah would need an elaborate technical and logistical capability. If these rockets are launched it will almost certainly mean Iranian experts and their equipment are active in Lebanon.
Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning – for the first time – that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress.
Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.
Described as China’s “nuclear option” in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic support levels.
It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping the economy into recession. It is estimated that China holds over $900bn in a mix of US bonds.
Xia Bin, finance chief at the Development Research Centre (which has cabinet rank), kicked off what now appears to be government policy with a comment last week that Beijing’s foreign reserves should be used as a “bargaining chip” in talks with the US.
“Of course, China doesn’t want any undesirable phenomenon in the global financial order,” he added.
He Fan, an official at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, went even further today, letting it be known that Beijing had the power to set off a dollar collapse if it choose to do so.
“China has accumulated a large sum of US dollars. Such a big sum, of which a considerable portion is in US treasury bonds, contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency. Russia, Switzerland, and several other countries have reduced the their dollar holdings.
“China is unlikely to follow suit as long as the yuan’s exchange rate is stable against the dollar. The Chinese central bank will be forced to sell dollars once the yuan appreciated dramatically, which might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar,” he told China Daily.
The threats play into the presidential electoral campaign of Hillary Clinton, who has called for restrictive legislation to prevent America being “held hostage to economic decicions being made in Beijing, Shanghai, or Tokyo”.
She said foreign control over 44pc of the US national debt had left America acutely vulnerable.
Simon Derrick, a currency strategist at the Bank of New York Mellon, said the comments were a message to the US Senate as Capitol Hill prepares legislation for the Autumn session.
“The words are alarming and unambiguous. This carries a clear political threat and could have very serious consequences at a time when the credit markets are already afraid of contagion from the subprime troubles,” he said.
A bill drafted by a group of US senators, and backed by the Senate Finance Committee, calls for trade tariffs against Chinese goods as retaliation for alleged currency manipulation.
The yuan has appreciated 9pc against the dollar over the last two years under a crawling peg but it has failed to halt the rise of China’s trade surplus, which reached $26.9bn in June.
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