World Politics

[Beech Mtn]

Despite being one of the poorest nations in the world, Afghanistan may be sitting on one of the richest troves of minerals in the world, valued at nearly $1 trillion, according to U.S. scientists.

Afghanistan, a country nearly the size of Texas, is loaded with minerals deposited by the violent collision of the Indian subcontinent with Asia. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began inspecting what mineral resources Afghanistan had after U.S.-led forces drove the Taliban from power in the country in 2004. As it turns out, the Afghanistan Geological Survey staff had kept Soviet geological maps and reports up to 50 years old or more that hinted at a geological gold mine.

In 2006, U.S. researchers flew airborne missions to conduct magnetic, gravity and hyperspectral surveys over Afghanistan. The magnetic surveys probed for iron-bearing minerals up to 6 miles (10 kilometers) below the surface, while the gravity surveys tried to identify sediment-filled basins potentially rich in oil and gas. The hyperspectral survey looked at the spectrum of light reflected off rocks to identify the light signatures unique to each mineral. More than 70 percent of the country was mapped in just two months.

The surveys verified all the major Soviet finds. Afghanistan may hold 60 million tons of copper, 2.2 billion tons of iron ore, 1.4 million tons of rare earth elements such as lanthanum, cerium and neodymium, and lodes of aluminum, gold, silver, zinc, mercury and lithium. For instance, the Khanneshin carbonatite deposit in Afghanistan's Helmand province is valued at $89 billion, full as it is with rare earth elements.

"Afghanistan is a country that is very, very rich in mineral resources," Jack Medlin, a geologist and program manager of the U.S. Geological Survey's Afghanistan project, told Live Science. "We've identified the potential for at least 24 world-class mineral deposits." The scientists' work was detailed in the Aug. 15 issue of the journal Science.

In 2010, the USGS data attracted the attention of the U.S. Department of Defense's Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO), which is entrusted with rebuilding Afghanistan. The task force valued Afghanistan's mineral resources at $908 billion, while the Afghan government's estimate is $3 trillion

Source....

 

[blutto]

Ever heard of that guy Stalin? The Holodomor was as horrendous. Or that other one further southeast, Mao Zedong.

...or the Khmer Rouge...

Cheers

 

[Amsterhammer]

Some interesting insight about the true numbers of Russians active in Ukraine, and about their casualties. You'll need to understand German though.

Perhaps some Russian or Ukrainian speaker could enlighten us about the commentary with the two embedded films?

http://www.nzz.ch/international/nur-zehn-haben-ueberlebt-1.18376359

 

[blutto]

Ok who for example? On the same scale as what Z-Germans done?

...here is a wee bit of something to peruse....a sort of a good start on that scale thing....and then you add up the odd millions here the odd millions there and pretty soon you're doing like real World class top of the heap scale....

....................................................................................................

" AlterNet / By Fred Branfman
America Keeps Honoring One of Its Worst Mass Murderers: Henry Kissinger
Including ten quotes that illustrate his megalomania and indifference to the deaths of untold numbers of civilians.

Henry Kissinger's quote recently released by Wikileaks," the illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer", likely brought a smile to his legions of elite media, government, corporate and high society admirers. Oh that Henry! That rapier wit! That trademark insouciance! That naughtiness! It is unlikely, however, that the descendants of his more than 6 million victims in Indochina, and Americans of conscience appalled by his murder of non-Americans, will share in the amusement. For his illegal and unconstitutional actions had real-world consequences: the ruined lives of millions of Indochinese innocents in a new form of secret, automated, amoral U.S. Executive warfare which haunts the world until today.

And his conduct raises even more fundamental questions: to what extent can leaders who act secretly ,illegally and unconstitutionally, lying to their citizenry and legislature as a matter of course, legitimately claim to represent their people? How much allegiance do citizens owe such leaders? And what does it say about America’s elites that they have honored a man with so much innocent blood on his hands for the past 40 years?

Mr. Kissinger's most significant historical act was executing Richard Nixon's orders to conduct the most massive bombing campaign, largely of civilian targets, in world history. He dropped 3.7 million tons of bombs** between January 1969 and January 1973 - nearly twice the two million dropped on all of Europe and the Pacific in World War II. He secretly and illegally devastated villages throughout areas of Cambodia inhabited by a U.S. Embassy-estimated two million people; quadrupled the bombing of Laos and laid waste to the 700-year old civilization on the Plain of Jars; and struck civilian targets throughout North Vietnam - Haiphong harbor, dikes, cities, Bach Mai Hospital - which even Lyndon Johnson had avoided. His aerial slaughter helped kill, wound or make homeless an officially-estimated six million human beings**, mostly civilians who posed no threat whatsoever to U.S. national security and had committed no offense against it.

There is a word for the aerial mass murder that Henry Kissinger committed in Indochina, and that word is “evil”. The figure most identified with this word today is Adolph Hitler, and his evil was so unspeakable that the term is by now identified with him. But that is precisely why it is important to understand the new face of evil and moral depravity that Henry Kissinger represents. For evil not only comes in the form of madmen dreaming of 1000 year Reichs. In fact, in our day, it is more likely to be committed by sane, genial and ordinary careerists waging invisible automated war in far-off lands against people whose screams we never hear, whose faces we never see, and whose deaths go unrecorded and unnoticed. It is critical to understand this new face of evil, for it threatens not only countless foreigners but Americans in coming years. And no one has embodied it more than Henry Kissinger.

more... http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-po...-one-its-worst-mass-murderers-henry-kissinger

Cheers

 

[python]

Supporters of Scottish independence take narrow poll lead for first time
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014...H10PD20140906?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

if scotland indeed votes for independence, not that i see any good reasons for such, it will change europe within one generation towards what it should be and always was - a collection of sovereign nations as opposed to a dysfunctional 28 headed behemoth.

 

[RetroActive]

...here is a wee bit of something to peruse....a sort of a good start on that scale thing....and then you add up the odd millions here the odd millions there and pretty soon you're doing like real World class top of the heap scale....

....................................................................................................

" AlterNet / By Fred Branfman
America Keeps Honoring One of Its Worst Mass Murderers: Henry Kissinger
Including ten quotes that illustrate his megalomania and indifference to the deaths of untold numbers of civilians.

Henry Kissinger's quote recently released by Wikileaks," the illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer", likely brought a smile to his legions of elite media, government, corporate and high society admirers. Oh that Henry! That rapier wit! That trademark insouciance! That naughtiness! It is unlikely, however, that the descendants of his more than 6 million victims in Indochina, and Americans of conscience appalled by his murder of non-Americans, will share in the amusement. For his illegal and unconstitutional actions had real-world consequences: the ruined lives of millions of Indochinese innocents in a new form of secret, automated, amoral U.S. Executive warfare which haunts the world until today.

And his conduct raises even more fundamental questions: to what extent can leaders who act secretly ,illegally and unconstitutionally, lying to their citizenry and legislature as a matter of course, legitimately claim to represent their people? How much allegiance do citizens owe such leaders? And what does it say about America’s elites that they have honored a man with so much innocent blood on his hands for the past 40 years?

Mr. Kissinger's most significant historical act was executing Richard Nixon's orders to conduct the most massive bombing campaign, largely of civilian targets, in world history. He dropped 3.7 million tons of bombs** between January 1969 and January 1973 - nearly twice the two million dropped on all of Europe and the Pacific in World War II. He secretly and illegally devastated villages throughout areas of Cambodia inhabited by a U.S. Embassy-estimated two million people; quadrupled the bombing of Laos and laid waste to the 700-year old civilization on the Plain of Jars; and struck civilian targets throughout North Vietnam - Haiphong harbor, dikes, cities, Bach Mai Hospital - which even Lyndon Johnson had avoided. His aerial slaughter helped kill, wound or make homeless an officially-estimated six million human beings**, mostly civilians who posed no threat whatsoever to U.S. national security and had committed no offense against it.

There is a word for the aerial mass murder that Henry Kissinger committed in Indochina, and that word is “evil”. The figure most identified with this word today is Adolph Hitler, and his evil was so unspeakable that the term is by now identified with him. But that is precisely why it is important to understand the new face of evil and moral depravity that Henry Kissinger represents. For evil not only comes in the form of madmen dreaming of 1000 year Reichs. In fact, in our day, it is more likely to be committed by sane, genial and ordinary careerists waging invisible automated war in far-off lands against people whose screams we never hear, whose faces we never see, and whose deaths go unrecorded and unnoticed. It is critical to understand this new face of evil, for it threatens not only countless foreigners but Americans in coming years. And no one has embodied it more than Henry Kissinger.

more... http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-po...-one-its-worst-mass-murderers-henry-kissinger

Cheers

Kissinger, among others, made a mistake. Haven't you made a mistake before?

Our Cold War With Russia Could Turn Hot
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2014/09/02/our-cold-war-with-russia-could-turn-hot/

Don't worry so much; mistakes happen. Our leaders have our best interests at heart - honest.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

They aren't.

Thats just the line they sell to Americans to get them to accept lots of expense, lots of body bags with us flags on them, and lots and lots of dead foreign civilians (that us news networks don't report)

They usually have to couple it with a claim that the country they are destroying is a threat to the US. Get the domestic voters scared.

Don't worry, our UK governments had done exactly the same when they ave wanted to go and steal somebody else's oil.

Its (almost) never about principles.

Henry Kissinger

... and yet ToreBear & gang still defend the invaders from the evil empire... no not Russia, I mean the USA.
Their latest victims are inoocent Ukraine people. And then those people get called "rebels". It´s disgusting...

But the real grotesque thing is that those mass murderers (Obama, Kissinger) get throned as peace nobel prize winners. It´s just sick!

 

[Bustedknuckle]

Supporters of Scottish independence take narrow poll lead for first time
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014...H10PD20140906?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

if scotland indeed votes for independence, not that i see any good reasons for such, it will change europe within one generation towards what it should be and always was - a collection of sovereign nations as opposed to a dysfunctional 28 headed behemoth.

Will Scotland, if they become independent, join the EU? I think probably not.

 

[Bustedknuckle]

... and yet ToreBear & gang still defend the invaders from the evil empire... no not Russia, I mean the USA.
Their latest victims are inoocent Ukraine people. And then those people get called "rebels". It´s disgusting...

But the real grotesque thing is that those mass murderers (Obama, Kissinger) get throned as peace nobel prize winners. It´s just sick!

Ya forgot the number one in the hit parade..Bush II

 

[Amsterhammer]

Will Scotland, if they become independent, join the EU? I think probably not.

I believe that Spain has vowed to veto any Scottish request to join because of the precedent that might be set for Catalonia.

 

[python]

Will Scotland, if they become independent, join the EU? I think probably not.

there are different theories and opinions...i'd reason they would want to join the eurozone first (edit: i mean to adopt the euro wich apparently is possible without the eu/eurozone membership) since leaving the pound as their national currency would de facto tie their economy to the british one. something the pro independence supporters consider a liability. also, their eu membership desire may run contrary to the designs of some members like spain who would hate to see catalonia follow the scottish example. so, the eu membership could be not up to independent scotland.

either way, should the vote separate the 2, according to the agreement, it will be followed by extensive consultations on how to divorce as civilly as possible. perhaps scotland may be able to secure british agreement for a special eu status like for example norway's...

conversely, without scotland and given the current strength of english euro skeptics, the uk may opt for exiting the eu. then, it may be the beginning of the eu end.

that's what i meant by the eventual eu disintegration started by the scots.

of course, german elites and industrialists will oppose using everything in their power.

 

[Echoes]

The ultimate aim is to create a Europe "of regions". The member states are to be scrapped. So yes, Scotland will remain a part of the EU. It's very telling that Obama didn't care about the Scottish referendum while he radically opposed to the British referendum for independence.

Ever seen the map by the European Greens:

Also documentate about the Association of European Border Regions, directly working with the EU commission. Its President is Karl-Heinz Lambertz who is currently the President of the Parliament of the small German-speaking Belgian community.

Its aim being to create Euroregions astride on present-day borders between member states in order to transform present-day state borders into mere administrative borders. Example: Alsace/Baden-Württemberg or else Catalunya getting back its French territory.

It's all frightening.

 

[python]

just in...very curious.

Iran Detains Ukrainian Citizen Suspected of Sabotage at Bushehr NPP
http://world.einnews.com/article__detail/222472415?lcode=uNOZIafZxw4_4NKM385JsQ==

Iranian law enforcement agencies have detained a Ukrainian citizen, who is suspected of sabotage on the country's only nuclear power plant in Bushehr, the Associated Press reported Sunday. The so-called "Ukrainian expert" infiltrated Busher being affiliated with a Russian contractor. The report did not specify the time

to recall, bushehr is the only russian-built nuke that iran operates. an ukrainian suspected of a sabotage in iran has now joined only 2 other nations well known to sabotage iran's nuclear program - the us and israel.

was he working for america or israel ? or it was a plot to create trouble and blame on putin like hm-17 ?

 

[laurel1969]

With regards to Scottish independence, I think a yes vote would be bad for everybody. The Yes campaign are drumming up a campaign based on nationalism. Problem with that is that if successful nationalism won't put food in peoples mouths. There are serious questions about the likelihood of investment pulling out, the currency, the reliance on short term oil revenue that the nationalists are avoiding.

For the English and Welsh, a yes vote would mean the prospect of right wing governments for ever.

 

[Echoes]

Again you miss the point. I agree that a Yes would be bad but the motivation behind this is not nationalism. It's a red herring. Actually the SNP is anti-patriotic.

I have some nationalist tendencies, though I'd rather say patriotic or sovereigntist or independentist or whichever word in -ist. Well actually as François Asselineau put it "independence is not an option." You take it or leave it.

But the Scots are not fighting for independence they are just being asked whether or not they should emancipate ... from Britain. But as long as they remain in the EU (and in NATO) they won't be independent.

Again the context is broader than that too. You make it sound as if it was just a 100% British affair. But Catalans are also wishing "independence". So are Fleming (in Belgium we all also think our problems are uniquely ours). Last year the Alsacians have been asked whether or not they wanted to merge with neighbouring Baden-Württemberg. They said no but in 2005 French and Dutch also said no to the ECT and two years later it was still yes...

It's a whole context. The aim is to create a Europe of regions, in which the smaller regions will directly communicate with the EU commission and in which there will be no more room left for the "member states" as we know them today. And in such context blessed are those who were born in rich regions like Catalunya, Alsace or Flanders while the Andalucians, the Auvergnats or the Campanians, too bad for them.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

The ultimate aim is to create a Europe "of regions". The member states are to be scrapped. So yes, Scotland will remain a part of the EU. It's very telling that Obama didn't care about the Scottish referendum while he radically opposed to the British referendum for independence.

Ever seen the map by the European Greens:

Also documentate about the Association of European Border Regions, directly working with the EU commission. Its President is Karl-Heinz Lambertz who is currently the President of the Parliament of the small German-speaking Belgian community.

Its aim being to create Euroregions astride on present-day borders between member states in order to transform present-day state borders into mere administrative borders. Example: Alsace/Baden-Württemberg or else Catalunya getting back its French territory.

It's all frightening.

Apart from 50% of you posts being non correct; why is a Europe of Regions this frightening to you?

 

[blackcat]

ukraine
ex United States russian ambassor Jack Matlock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERj9kPjsDgc&list=UUzuqE7-t13O4NIDYJfakrhw

princeton russian history prof stephen cohen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnqWMZ6HSh8&list=UUzuqE7-t13O4NIDYJfakrhw

 

[blackcat]

For the English and Welsh, a yes vote would mean the prospect of right wing governments for ever.

nah, it would just change the equilibrium on the spectrum. Like the market theory, that the traditionally left politicians would be skewed further to centre-right, and the right would be given leeway to skew further to the right like America.

Effecively, the centre has moved to a centre-right, a position the Dems occupy in the US.

Labor will just need to further b@stardise their third way. lets call it the fourth way shall we? i hate that muppet tony blair. the great communicator my @rse. third way my @rse. New Britannia my @rse. Noel Gallahger my @rse.

 

[blutto]

....if the following is true the glorious revolution is in for some interesting times...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


WASHINGTON, September 07,/ITAR-TASS/. Fighters of Ukrainian volunteer battalions that were encircled outside the city of Ilovaisk in late August are accusing the Kiev government of not supporting them and threaten to change the regime, Foreign Policy magazine said in an article published on its website on Saturday. The magazine correspondent met some of the fighters.

“The army didn't come to help us we were in the corridor for two days and they didn't come to help us, and that’s the worst part”, said a fighter from the Donbass volunteer battalion.

“All the battalions brought to Ilovaisk think the government betrayed us to destroy the volunteer battalions. The government fears us and wants to control us”. “All the battalions brought to Ilovaisk think the government betrayed us to destroy the volunteer battalions. The government fears us and wants to control us,” he said

The defeat at Ilovaisk and a series of similar losses across eastern Ukraine in recent weeks are part of what pressured Ukraine to head to the bargaining table for a cease-fire and peace plan negotiated on Friday.

Fighters from Donbass said they first entered Ilovaisk on Aug. 18. The town, located outside Donetsk on a rail line leading to the Russian border, was seen as vital in the Ukrainian army's efforts to separate the two pro-Russian strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk.

“We asked for help in Ilovaisk, for the army to come and reinforce us,” said a female volunteer battalion fighter. “They didn't come and we were surrounded,” she added.

“We will close the border and then go to Kiev to change the regime,” said a fighter of the Donbass Battalion. “People died on Maidan, and no one answered for it. Now people are dying [in Ilovaisk] and nobody is answering for this. And we want to change this.” he added.

Ukrainian Defence ministry officials told parliament in the aftermath that the catastrophe was due to the “leaking of information” - Ukraine’s military and security structures are allegedly rife with Russian informants and the “independence of the volunteer battalions and lack of exact coordination between them and the military,” Foreign Policy says, quoting a Ukrainian newspaper."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cheers

 

[del1962]

Supporters of Scottish independence take narrow poll lead for first time
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014...H10PD20140906?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

if scotland indeed votes for independence, not that i see any good reasons for such, it will change europe within one generation towards what it should be and always was - a collection of sovereign nations as opposed to a dysfunctional 28 headed behemoth.

If the Scots vote for independence they will want to join the EU.

Personally I would prefer if they didn't go independent (even though it will save the rest of the UK money), but it is their choice.

They will either have to join the Euro, just use an existing currency with no control over it (same as joining the Euro) or create their own new currency (if they want real independence)

 

[Echoes]

Apart from 50% of you posts being non correct;

You'll have to prove this, man!

 

[python]

ukraine
ex United States russian ambassor Jack Matlock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERj9kPjsDgc&list=UUzuqE7-t13O4NIDYJfakrhw

princeton russian history prof stephen cohen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnqWMZ6HSh8&list=UUzuqE7-t13O4NIDYJfakrhw

thnx, cat...both interesting pieces albeit from quite different angles - a front-line diplomat's and the academic's... the scholar cohen is probably the most prominent living expert on russia. thought i agree with most he said, historically speaking, he seemed to me less sincere, almost a mouthpiece, when scaring with nuclear war over ukraine...the matlock, otoh, as a former ambassador, helps to clarify the often muddled notion of the west promise to gorby not to expand eastward. he was there !

If the Scots vote for independence they will want to join the EU.

Personally I would prefer if they didn't go independent (even though it will save the rest of the UK money), but it is their choice.

They will either have to join the Euro, just use an existing currency with no control over it (same as joining the Euro) or create their own new currency (if they want real independence)

according to this level-headed and comprehensive article, three are not 3 but 4 currency choices. a currency union seems out of the question given the uncontrolled risk.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

You'll have to prove this, man!

OK, I will, if I find the time.
But I am really interested in why you find this so frightening, I am really curious, since this doesn't seem all this dangerous to me.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

OK, I'll go over this one by one, seems the easiest.

The ultimate aim is to create a Europe "of regions". The member states are to be scrapped.

The aim of whom? "the" Scottish? All of the pro-scottish independence politicians? One of the multiple pro-regional European fractions?
It might be an aim of many, but definitely not the ultimate aim of all

So yes, Scotland will remain a part of the EU.

To be clear: it won't. European law is very clear about this. Scotland would be a new state, and have to reapply for European membership. Van Rompuy repeated this very often

It's very telling that Obama didn't care about the Scottish referendum

There were press conferences with Obama & Cameron, where Obama made clear his support of an United UK, and his opposition to the Scottish independence

while he radically opposed to the British referendum for independence.

I have to be honest, I have never heard of this referendum, but I assume it is clear that there is a big difference between independence movement of small and often poorer parts of a country (Scotland, Kosovo) that often feel they are being oppressed, versus larger and/or richer parts of a country (Flanders, North of Italy, Bavaria) that press for independence since they feel the rest of the country "takes their money"

Ever seen the map by the European Greens:

Not a map by the European Greens. It's a map of the Greens/EFA, with EFA being the progressive (mostly left wing) regionalist fraction in the European Parliament.

Also documentate about the Association of European Border Regions, directly working with the EU commission. Its President is Karl-Heinz Lambertz who is currently the President of the Parliament of the small German-speaking Belgian community.

Its aim being to create Euroregions astride on present-day borders between member states in order to transform present-day state borders into mere administrative borders. Example: Alsace/Baden-Württemberg or else Catalunya getting back its French territory.

Didn't know it, but a quick internet search doesn't really support the image you sketch. It seems to me they don't want to create new regions, but merely promote in-region cooperation (also if this means cross border cooperation)

Cross border cooperation is the core idea of the EU, so I don't really see the problem.

It's all frightening.

I really don't see it. For me, it's mostly interesting.

 

[blutto]

Apart from 50% of you posts being non correct; why is a Europe of Regions this frightening to you?

...curious, are you using the ASTM Correctness Standard for your analysis or are you simply using the BS ( Buffalo Soldier ) Standard...?....

Cheers