2/25/12

evidence of something

Updated again, 2/29/12:

Your typical expert with all her expert credentials, writing articles to helpfully shape public opinion, and getting paid handsomely no doubt for her expertise. So you can go over and read the article and ask yourself what is more likely: that the expert is NOT AWARE that the investigation, as detailed below in this post, found no evidence against Hezbollah and Iran, in which case she is not much of an expert; or that the expert is well aware but simply ignoring that information, and instead PIMPING THE NARRATIVE, in which case she is a mercenary.

http://tinyurl.com/76syv2n

"In March 1992, a pickup truck loaded with explosives was driven by a suicide bomber—presumed to be a Hezbollah member—into the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires. The blast destroyed the embassy, a Catholic church and a nearby school. Four Israelis died, but the attack claimed 29 lives and wounded 242 people, most of whom were Argentine civilians and many of whom were children.

In July 1994, attackers also presumed to be members of Hezbollah parked a van filled with 610 pounds of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil in front of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. The location of the explosive was designed to collapse the building, and it succeeded, killing 85 people and injuring more than 300."

So, despite her experty expert-ness and military / intelligence credentials up the ass, or is it because of those characteristics, she has somehow failed to mention the thorough investigation that turned up NO EVIDENCE of suicide bombers, and vans, and Hezbollah, and Iran; but in fact found with 99% certainty that the explosives were INSIDE the Jewish controlled buildings, as detailed in the rest of this post. Instead she perpetuates the narrative that has been going on for TWENTY YEARS, to pin the "Argentine 911" on Hezbollah, "PRESUMABLY (wink wink wink)," and this is all directed at Americans who are too lazy and ignorant and bigoted to look anything up on their own on the Goddamned internets, domain of kooks don't you know. And if you handed the truth to them on a silver fucking platter, their fucking heads would explode anyway because it's the complete opposite of all their installed programming. Better to stick to experts and trusted news sources, shit yeah.

This is the preferred audience of such experts, who bask in the adoration of the ignorant.



^^^^^^^

Updated at the bottom.

Well, we guess it's one more time around the block with this Hezbollah narrative. It's not that we want to keep writing about it but certain people like at the Hudson Institute, and this time Alan Dershowitz writing an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, keep bringing up the Argentine bombings in the early 1990s as EVIDENCE of Iran and Hezbollah's criminality.

In fact, those bombings are evidence of something, but not what A. Dershowitz claims.

 the silence of the lambs

The WSJ piece is behind a firewall, but you can read the whole thing here: http://tinyurl.com/7bf6xn4

According to A. Dershowitz, the Iranian government has made it "crystal clear" that they are at war with Jewish communities throughout the world.

Evidence of that? He cites an "Iranian News Agency" headline stating "Israeli people must be annihilated."

 the silence of the lambs


The site, Alef, allegedly has close ties to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But Pepe Escobar in the Asia Times tells us that Khamenei is not popular in Iran, and he is likely worried about being overthrown.

A recurrent theme among the lively Iranian global diaspora is that the Supreme Leader is the perfect US/Israel asset - as he incarnates Iran (although in many cases less than President Mahmud Ahmadinejad) as "the enemy"; in parallel, the military dictatorship of the mullahtariat in Tehran also needs "the enemy" - as in the Great Satan and the Zionists - to justify its monopoly of power....At the same time, informed Iranian - and Western - critics of Empire swear that the belligerent Likud-majority government of Israel is in fact the perfect Iran asset. This is because Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu and former Moldova bouncer turned Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's non-stop warmongering has only worked to rally Iranians of all persuasions - always proudly nationalistic - behind the regime.
...So what the "Path of the Imam" coalition is essentially saying is that Khamenei is a traitor of the principles of the revolution; they accuse him of trying to become a sort of Shi'ite caliph - an absolute ruler. This message is increasingly getting public resonance among millions of Iranians who believe in a true "Islamic", but most of all "republic" state. And that leads us to the Supreme Leader's supreme fear; that a coalition of Islamic republic purists - including powerful Qom clerics and powerful IRGC commanders or former commanders - may eventually rise up, get rid of him, and finally implement their dream of a true Islamic republic. Only this is certain; the one thing they won't get rid of is Iran's civilian nuclear program. 

This news agency, which does not represent the Iranian government, plus other "recent threats," unspecified by A. Dershowitz, have led all the proper authorities to BELIEVE that Iran is preparing attacks against Jewish targets worldwide. Sure.

the silence of the lambs

And IF this were to happen, A. Dershowitz claims it would not be the first time, since Iranian agents have done this sort of thing before. Yes, in Argentina, in the early 1990s. We notice some people NEVER TIRE of bringing this up.

"Back in 1992, Iranian agents blew up the Israeli Embassy and a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing and injuring hundreds of civilians, many of whom were children. The Argentine government conducted a thorough criminal investigation and indicted several Iranian officials, but those officials were well beyond the reach of Argentine legal authorities and remain at liberty." A. Dershowitz, February 2012

Recycling those Argentine bombings yet again.
http://twelfthbough.blogspot.com/2010/07/violence-around-world.html


What happened to the investigation? "The Argentine government conducted a thorough criminal investigation and indicted several Iranian officials, but those officials were well beyond the reach of Argentine legal authorities and remain at liberty."...?

Because there was NO EVIDENCE.

And THEREFORE, he reasons, because of those Argentine bombings as evidence, should such a thing happen again, the US government should deem any attack against any Jewish targets, particularly an embassy, as an attack on the US, and respond militarily. And by the way an attack on a synagogue is the same as the attack against the WTC. He's already got it all figured out, all the legal arguments to JUSTIFY bombing Iran.

 the silence of the lambs


THUS, all we need to do now is wait for an attack on a Jewish target, just like those Argentine bombings in the early 1990s, and then it can be blamed on Iran and off we go to WW III....?

"Iran's ongoing support for Hezbollah and Hamas, coupled with its direct participation in the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, constitute sufficient casus belli to justify a reactive Israeli military strike against the Iranian nuclear program." A. Dershowitz in the WSJ, February 2012

the silence of the lambs

^^^^^^^

Let's go directly to History Commons then, one more time.

March 17, 1992: Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires is bombed, Hezbollah and Iran accused despite lack of evidence

Twenty-nine people are killed in the bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The bombing levels the three-story building. Argentina, the US, and Israel will later accuse Hezbollah and its backer Iran, but provide little evidence. According to most media accounts and the US State Department’s annual report on terrorism, the bombing was the work of a Hezbollah suicide bomber who drove a truck into the building. [Los Angeles Times, 5/8/1992; Patterns of Global Terrorism, 4/30/1993; Fox News, 10/5/2007] However, a technical report ordered by Argentina’s Supreme Court will find that the bomb was placed inside the building: “Court official Guillermo Lopez said that the investigation had ascertained that the explosives had been located on the first floor of the diplomatic headquarters. ‘The engineers established, with 99 percent certainty, the exact location where the explosives were and the quantity that was used.’” That conclusion is angrily rejected by Israel. [NotiSur, 8/16/1996] The case remains unsolved. [Ha'aretz, 3/17/2008]

 the silence of the lambs

July 18, 1994: Anti-Jewish bombings in Buenos Aires is blamed on Hezbollah and Iran despite lack of proof

A Jewish community center called AMIA in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is destroyed in a blast. The seven-story building is reduced to rubble and eighty-five people are killed. [BBC, 8/25/2003] Argentinean authorities, as well as the United States and Israel, are quick to blame Hezbollah and its backer, Iran. They accuse an Iranian diplomat of having provided a van packed with explosives to a Hezbollah suicide bomber.
Problems with Investigation - But the investigation becomes the subject of intense controversy. Argentine President Nestor Kirchner will later call it “a national disgrace.” In 2003, it will be revealed that the investigative judge offered an apparent bribe to the man accused of selling the van used in the attack in exchange for his testimony against local police officers charged with complicity in the bombing. That judge will later be impeached and removed from office and the case will collapse. [BBC, 12/3/2003; BBC, 8/3/2005]
Forensic Evidence - Critics will also argue that the forensic evidence suggests that the bomb exploded inside the building, rather than in the street. This will be the conclusion reached by Charles Hunter, an explosives expert with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) who was part of the investigation. Hunter will quickly identify “major discrepancies” between the car-bomb thesis and the blast pattern recorded in photos
. A report drafted two weeks later will note that, in the wake of the bombing, merchandise in a store immediately to the right of AMIA was tightly packed against its front windows and merchandise in another shop had been blown out onto the street—suggesting that the blast came from inside rather than outside. Hunter will also say he does not understand how the building across the street could still be standing if the bomb had exploded in front of AMIA. Investigators will find no conclusive evidence against any Iranian diplomat. The US ambassador to Argentina at the time, James Cheek, will comment in a 2008 article: “To my knowledge, there was never any real evidence of [Iranian responsibility]. They never came up with anything.” [Nation, 1/18/2008] Nevertheless, in November 2007, Argentina, with strong support from the US and Israel, will successfully persuade Interpol to issue arrest warrants against several Iranian officials and one Lebanese Hezbollah militant. [Wall Street Journal, 1/15/2008]

 the silence of the lambs

Some of those links may be broken, but here's a 2008 Gareth Porter piece that was published in The Nation, and it sheds more light on the details.

After spending several months interviewing officials at the US Embassy in Buenos Aires familiar with the Argentine investigation, the head of the FBI team that assisted it and the most knowledgeable independent Argentine investigator of the case, I found that no real evidence has ever been found to implicate Iran in the bombing. Based on these interviews and the documentary record of the investigation, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the case against Iran over the AMIA bombing has been driven from the beginning by US enmity toward Iran, not by a desire to find the real perpetrators. 
A "wall of assumptions" guided the US approach to the case.

 the silence of the lambs

You can read all about the LACK OF EVIDENCE at that link. This information was published in The Nation in 2008, to be clear, not in the bowels of the internets, on conspiracy websites. The people interviewed included high level diplomats, ambassadors, and FBI office chiefs; and they all told Gareth Porter there was no evidence to link Iran or Hezbollah to the bombings. And here we are, four years after Gareth Porter did this work, and twenty years after the first bombing, and we are STILL hearing about those Argentine bombings done by Iran and Hezbollah.

Despite a case against Iran that lacked credible forensic or eyewitness evidence and relied heavily on dubious intelligence and a discredited defector's testimony, Nisman and Burgos drafted their indictment against six former Iranian officials in 2006. However, the government of NĂ©stor Kirchner displayed doubts about going forward with a legal case. According to the Forward newspaper, when American Jewish groups pressed Kirchner's wife, Christina, about the indictments at a UN General Assembly in New York in September 2006, she indicated that there was no firm date for any further judicial action against Iran. Yet the indictment was released the following month.
Both the main lawyer representing the AMIA, Miguel Bronfman, and Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral, who later issued the arrest warrants for the Iranians, told the BBC last May that pressure from Washington was instrumental in the sudden decision to issue the indictments the following month. Corral indicated that he had no doubt that the Argentine authorities had been urged to "join in international attempts to isolate the regime in Tehran."
A senior White House official just called the AMIA case a "very clear definition of what Iranian state sponsorship of terrorism means." In fact, the US insistence on pinning that crime on Iran in order to isolate the Tehran regime, even though it had no evidence to support that accusation, is a perfect definition of cynical creation of an accusation in the service of power interests.
 the silence of the lambs

And they are still using this giant cock-up today, twenty years later, as EVIDENCE of Iran and Hezbollah's murderous intentions, and justification for attacking Iran, even pre-emptively.

"Iran's ongoing support for Hezbollah and Hamas, coupled with its direct participation in the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, constitute sufficient casus belli to justify a reactive Israeli military strike against the Iranian nuclear program." A. Dershowitz in the WSJ, February 2012


Well sorry professor but there is NO EVIDENCE of Iran's "direct participation in the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires," so it does not follow that, "coupled with" Iran's ongoing support for Hezbollah and Hamas," that anything whatsoever constitutes "sufficient casus belli to justify a reactive Israeli military strike against the Iranian nuclear program."

Let's correct the legal framework he's trying to build here.
 "Iran's ongoing support for Hezbollah and Hamas, coupled with its direct participation in the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, constitute sufficient casus belli to justify a reactive Israeli military strike against the Iranian nuclear program." A. Dershowitz in the WSJ, February 2012
Oh look, there's no more legal framework for attacking Iran, at least not one based on EVIDENCE.  

the silence of the lambs

Not to say there won't be some incident. We expect something soon. However, it's going to be a false flag as usual, and when we see well-paid experts on teevee LYING about the evidence, and LYING about who is responsible, and JUSTIFYING starting WW III, and referencing the Argentine bombings as proof, and killing God knows how many people, yet again...

How does it all happen? It's all done completely in the open. No one of consequence says a fucking thing to stop it.

EVIL. You know it when you see it.

http://www.judeofascism.com/2011/12/celebrity-lawyer-alan-dershowitzs.html

^^^^^^^

Addendum...

SEE: List of Israeli false flag operations.

Research before denying.
"Finally, regarding the author’s false allegations about Iran’s role in a bombing in Argentina in 1992, suffice it to say that the real target was Argentina’s bilateral relations with Iran. Given Israel’s notoriety in using so-called “false flag operations,” the real value of Mr. Dershowitz’s article is that it should send a warning to the people and American policy makers to beware of not falling into yet another Israeli trap." ~ Tehran Times, political desk, 2/24/12

 building housing the Israeli Consulate in Miami
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2011/07/possible_bomb_threat_to_israel.php


PHOENIX, ARIZONA

Middle East terror group cited as reason to put armed volunteer militia on Arizona-Mexico border
http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2012/02/14/middle-east-terror-group-cited-as-reason-to-put-armed-volunteer-unit-on-arizona-mexico-border/

2/19/12

controlling water world

 oil tanker
http://www.arabianoilandgas.com/article-8379-oil-climbs-to-100-on-suez-vlcc-shipping-fears/


China and India have been battling for influence over the Maldives for at least the past decade. Who would the globalists want to have more influence over the Maldives? China, the new economic engine for the world economy? Or India, the strategically located ally in Southern Asia?

Then again, does it really matter? The more we look at these situations, the more it seems that whatever happens, the globalists find a way to benefit. They benefit from war and chaos and fighting and division. Will the Maldives be torn in pieces? Do the globalists really care as long as they can continue to vacation at some of the most beautiful, exclusive, resorts in the world, on private atolls far from the capital?


Have mega-yacht, will travel...


As reported in December 2011: China opens an embassy in the capital, Male.

With fewer than 400,000 people, the Maldives ranks just 179th in the world for GDP. But the Chinese love it. For a variety of reasons.The Chinese now makeup the biggest segment of tourists in the Maldives, where almost 30% of the economy depends on tourism. But the country’s beautiful beaches aren’t the only draw for the Chinese.”
The opening of the Chinese Embassy came just two days before the Maldives hosted a gathering of the eight South Asian leaders last month.
For the next year, Nasheed will head SAARC – short for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

...India wants to create a buffer against rising Chinese influence in the region.

...Prime Minister Singh promised a $ 100 million line of credit. The two countries also signed a security pact. It’s a possible dig at other countries in the region, like Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which have taken significant Chinese loans, especially for the building of new ports.
Saravanamuttu said India suspects China of investing their way into the region in an attempt to envelop India, economically and maybe more.
“The worst Indian fears are the Chinese are trying to establish a military presence in South Asia and using these ports as military ports in all of the countries which will constitute a string of pearls to contain India. So it is a new balance of power emerging with India and the U.S. on one side and china on the other.”
Two sides then? That always keeps things interesting.

The globalists have their tentacles in both India and China, so any setting up of sides is -- AS USUAL -- a construct that allows for conflict and chaos. No matter what happens, the globalists win. Any collateral damage is "regrettable."

The Maldives has long been an elite tourist destination, for 30 years under the control of Gayoom until 2008, when Nasheed was elected to great expectations. Now Nasheed has been overturned in a coup, and Gayoom is reportedly pleased with the results.

Gayoom, former dictator, has powerful friends. Gayoom was acceptable, for 30 years, right up until he wasn't. Gaddafi was acceptable, for 40 years, right up until he wasn't. Mubarak was acceptable, for 30 years, right up until he wasn't. And Nasheed was acceptable, for 4 years, right up until he wasn't.

See Aangirfan: US coup in the Maldives?


 http://www.indiatalkies.com/2011/08/chinese-aircraft-carrier-serve-south-china-sea.html

Nasheed, who came into power with the help of USAID and NGOs also has powerful friends.

Nasheed took on as his close adviser and communications assistant Paul Roberts, a British national. In what alienated his Salafist supporters, Nasheed also opened diplomatic relations with Israel, invited Israeli surgeons to Maldives amid fears they would begin harvesting human organs for Israeli clients, met with Israeli government officials, agreed to allow direct air links between Israel and Maldives, invited Israeli trainers into Maldives to advise Maldivian security forces, and failed to ensure that Maldives voted for Palestine’s full admission to the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) during the organization’s general assembly meeting in Paris on October 31, 2011. Maldives was absent from the vote.
 ...Faced with the opposition and police/military uprising, Nasheed resigned the presidency on February 7. Later, Nasheed and his British adviser Roberts claimed that Nasheed was ousted in a coup d’etat. The U.S. State Department demanded that Vice President Mohammed Waheed Hassan, who assumed the presidency and opposed the arrest order of the Chief Justice, form a government of national unity with Nasheed’s supporters. Hassan refused and India, which, in the past, has intervened militarily in Maldives to put down attempted coups, remained silent. The Soros/NED global glitterati, including the Soros-funded “Democracy Now” program hosted by Amy Goodman and partly-funded by Soros, featured Roberts on an interview in which Gayoom was described as a thug and who was trying to re-assume power. Of course, the Soros propaganda program made no mention of Nasheed’s repeated violations of the Maldivian constitution.
As with the destabilization of Iraq, Egypt, and Libya, the first target for alleged Islamist radicals after the ouster of Nasheed was the destruction of priceless museum artifacts. Unknown men broke into the Chinese-built Maldives National Museum in Male, the capital, and smashed the delicate coral and limestone pre--Islamic Maldivian Buddhist statues on display.  [The Washington Post reported that a "mob of suspected religious extremists" smashed 35 exhibits of pre-Islamic culture housed in the Maldives national museum. Ninety-nine percent of the museum's pre-Islamic artifacts were destroyed by the "mob of suspected Muslim extremists," and while investigations continue, no one has been arrested. (source) - Ed.]

The rise of Salafists and Muslim Brotherhood adherents in the new Maldivian government parallels what occurred in Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Tunisia after their themed revolutions.
The Maldives were destabilized by the West at the same time that the Egyptian government charged 43 CIA-linked NGO personnel, including Americans, Britons, Serbs, and others working for IRI, NDI, and NED, with possessing a secret plan, including maps, to divide Egypt into an Israeli-dominated Sinai state, a Coptic state extending from Alexandria in the north to Asyut in the South, a Berber-dominated Islamic state based in Cairo, and a black African Nubian state in the south. 
There now may be an attempt by the West to split up Maldives. In 1957, the British established the Gan airbase on the southernmost atoll of Addu and insisted on 100-year base rights on Seenu Atoll. After Maldives Prime Minister and President Ibrahim Nasir adopted a nationalist foreign policy, the British backed a secessionist movement in the southern atolls where the British bases were located that declared the short-lived United Suvadive Republic in 1959. After the collapse of the secessionist republic in 1965, the British bought the southernmost atoll in the Chagos-Laccadive chain of atolls from Mauritius and established the British Indian Ocean Territory. The inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago island of Diego Garcia were forcibly removed to Mauritius and other Chagos islands and the United States established its strategic military base on the island of Diego Garcia. Maldives never recognized Mauritian claims over the Chagos atolls or the British Indian Ocean Territory. With neo-con interference in Maldives now coming to fruition, secessionist movements in the southern atolls may, once again, gain ground to ensure unfettered U.S. and British control over Diego Garcia and expansion of U.S. and British military facilities to the Addu atoll and, perhaps, further north in the Maldives chain.




Nasheed, the globalist, now blames wealthy resort owners for orchestrating the coup, because he was being too hard on them.

Mohamed Nasheed said some owners of beach resorts on the Maldives financed the coup because they resented competition for contracts and fixed direct taxes.
He claimed that his own intelligence officers confirmed their involvement in the coup in a marriage of convenience with Muslim extremists.
The Islamists led street protests against the government's decision to allow massage and health spas to proliferate.
Since he came to power in 2008, advised by a team of Conservative Party campaigners, Mr Nasheed has privatised the country's main airport, introduced compulsory private health insurance, and imposed a tax system to make the country self – reliant.
"The coup was financed by resort owners … not just one but many," he said.

...He disclosed that an intervention by William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, had been crucial in turning international opinion in his party's favour after he was forced to resign on Tuesday.
"William Hague's statement in Parliament was the first to signal there was a coup here," he said.
A court order for Mr Nasheed's arrest appears to have been quietly shelved after international protests led by Britain. Mr Nasheed and his party have long-standing relationships with David Cameron, Mr Hague and other senior Tory figures.
The MDP was formed under the tutelage of the Conservatives through the Westminster Foundation for Democracy....Salafists, Islamic fundamentalists who share al – Qaeda's philosophy, had dominated the street protests against his government because they opposed the rise of spas and massage services, he said.
So it's the wealthy and corrupt resort owners opposed to Nasheed, in cahoots with the Salafists (CIA + Mossad stooges) VERSUS the wealthy and corrupt Zionists who support Nasheed?

Win win win.


See Aangirfan: US coup in the Maldives?

Is Nasheed supported or opposed by the USA?

Are his 'Islamic' opponents supported or opposed by the USA?
...Usually, both the Islamists, and their opponents, work for the CIA and Mossad.


Mubarak was said to be a friend of Israel and the USA, but he got toppled by the CIA and Mossad.

And so it goes.

^^^^^^^


http://newpacificinstitute.org/jsw/?p=8301
http://www.sinodefence.com/navy/sub/type094jin.asp


China: base strategy: China acquires a base in the Maldives against India with some help from Pakistan, MAY 2005

We learn:

1. The Maldives are of strategic relevance to India due to the sea lanes.
2. Gayoom agreed to let the Chinese establish a base on Marao, 40km south of Male, in 2001, after two years of negotiations.
3. In this deal, allowing the Chinese leased access to Marao for 25 years, nuclear submarines were to be deployed on Marao.
4. High level Indian military personnel also had extensive negotiations with the Maldives around the same time, but no agreements were finalized.
5. At the time of publication, the Marao based was expected to be operational by 2010.
"But once Marao comes up, China's power projection in the Indian Ocean will stabilise. It will also set China on the course followed in the earlier superpower, Cold War rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union. Both states built a series of naval bases throughout the world for emergency counter-offensive measures. China is embarked on doing the same."
6. These developments concerned the US and drew the US and India closer to try to contain China.
"While the US base in Diego Garcia can launch surprise offensives, the US wants to restrict Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean because of its strategic value.

According to one survey, some $260 billion worth of oil and gas will be shipped through the Indian Ocean by year 2004. The oil route stretching from the Strait of Malacca to the Strait of Hormuz will be at the mercy of any power that dominates the sealanes. A Chinese base in Marao islands puts it in a direct position to influence oil commerce. It is a prospect that daunts India, scares Southeast Asia, and alarms the US."
7. China engaged two US companies and three European companies to survey Marao under the pretext of monitoring the weather and magnetic response of the seabed.

WHO are these companies, we wonder? Profiting from aiding the enemy, harming our national security? SURELY the authorities would know who is on the short list, because these companies would be known to the Pentagon? And yet, is anything done to stop this? We seriously doubt it. It is all part of the dialectic to build up both sides of the conflict. A good sturdy China threat keeps India nice and compliant to the globalist wishes, and whether the threat is real or not, constant references keep everyone on edge.

Maldives, tiny islands, big intrigue, April 2006 - Asia Times
China's naval strategy, implications for India, March 2009 - IPCS
China-India rivalry in the Maldives, June 2011 - Jakarta Post
China moves in Maldives worry India, October 2011 - Economic Times
China and India jockey for influence in the Maldives, December 2011 - Public Radio International

China VS India in the Maldives? Yes. That's the point, over and over again. 

It's no accident.


Bad China (wink wink)....?

(Many thanks to James for the links.)


click to enlarge
more maps HERE



2/16/12

poster child for paradise

The Maldives is the tiniest Muslim nation on the whole earth, and it's in the middle of the ocean, a tropical paradise.... or something else....?


http://www.diving-world.com/imagescompressed/maldives/MaldiveMap.jpg

You can see from the following map that the Maldives are strategically located roughly equidistant from the Strait of Hormuz in Iran and the Strait of Malacca in Indonesia.


CLICK TO ENLARGE
http://caqijeq.host56.com/arabian-sea-gulf.php


The Maldives are also north of Diego Garcia, an island whose native population was completely displaced, by the UK, to make room for the US military.



Unlike Diego Garcia, however, the Maldives straddle many profitable shipping routes.


http://www.shiplink.lk/srilanka-maps.html
LOOK AT ALL THAT TRAFFIC.


We are talking a small country of little islands, with a population of about 300,000 and another 80,000 expat workers, according to the US State Department. A country with a tourism economy catering to the rich and famous. A country of islands straddling some of the most profitable and important shipping routes on the planet. It's not exactly off the beaten path, but it is very exclusive. You need a lot of money to vacation there.

Naomi Campbell, Vladislav Doronin and friends in the Maldives
http://www.zimbio.com/Vladislav+Doronin/articles/14/Naomi+Campbell+Russian+Hunk+Maldives


Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes on their honeymoon in the Maldives
http://maldivescomplete.com/blogs/maldivescomplete/archive/2009/02/05/best-of-the-maldives-celebrity-watching-reethi-rah.aspx


Just last October various celebrities traveled to the Maldives for a "Slow Life Symposium," where they discussed climate change and carbon footprints.

"[He said]...it was easier to educate a few billionaires than the entire population of a country such as the US, distracted from the issue by Xboxes and cable TV. “Billionaires have a vested interest in keeping the [planet sustainable], because they have enough money enjoy the planet,” he suggested." ~ UK environmentalist Jonathan Porritt 

Just for context, Mr. Porritt advises Prince Charles and believes that there are way too many humans. We guess he is fine with the idea that the planet should be kept nice for the billionaires.

The president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, seemed totally on board with the whole climate change program. He was at the meeting too.

“For us, this is not just an environmental issue. We need to become carbon neutral even if there was no such thing as climate change, simply because it is more economically viable. We spend more than 14 percent of our GDP on fossil fuel energy, which is more than our education and health budget combined.”
The most important adaptation measure, Nasheed said, “is democracy. You have to have a responsive government to discuss this issue. When I do something people do not believe in, they shout at me. But they are not doing this on this issue.”
The government had reformed its economic system and introduced new taxes “so we can fend for ourselves. We cannot endlessly rely on the international community.”

Even if there was no such thing as climate change, Nasheed supports carbon neutrality, ie: carbon tax credits, ie: a globalist agenda. But Nasheed, elected in 2008, faced a parliament stacked with the opposition. Gridlock ensued, and he not been able to accomplish much. Which is a shame because evidently, the Maldives might be one of the most important places in the world to the globalists, a poster child for paradise.

Tim Smit of the Eden Project also attended the Slow Life Symposium and said:

“The Maldives has captured the imagination, and the elected political elite are showing charisma and leadership on the issue [of climate change]. The danger is that we listen to too many middle aged white people, and miss the point. I see an incredible moment when the story of Maldives becomes the story of us all – but it needs to be delivered with a pirate grin that says f*** it, we’re going to do this thing. I hate idealists. I like unreasonable people who do things.”
There was, Smit said, a danger that the Maldives would lose sight of its goal, and “lose the moment when the Maldives could become the most important place in world. The goal is open but the moment will be gone, and suddenly the bright future is no longer there, just a job – and not a job in the spotlight.”
The Maldivian people needed to be given the independence to make their own decisions, such as installing solar, and given control so that they knew the impact of flipping the light switch.
“Trust in the people of the Maldives to get excited of a picture of the Maldives reborn,” Smit suggested.
But something happened, and president Mohamed Nasheed was just overthrown last week, in the Maldives, and various US State Department officials rushed to intervene. At first they expressed support for Nasheed's vice president, Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik, but then a day later the situation looked murky.

Poor Victoria Nuland, who found the vote to admit Palestine to UNESCO "regrettable," and "premature," had to walk back her support for the new Maldivian president after one day.

“I got myself in a place yesterday that was not borne out by the facts. We will work with the government of the Maldives, but believe that the circumstances surrounding the transfer of power need to be clarified. And we also suggest that all parties agree to an independent mechanism to do that.” 
Oh dear.

Top ten facts about the Maldives crisis.


^^^^^^^

The Maldives has a trafficking problem. All those islands make the nation porous. As many as 35% of the youth are hooked on drugs.

The Maldives has struggled to bring the use of narcotics among it’s youth under control. The narcotics trade is big business and the law enforcement authorities have few answers due to the easy and varied accessibility to the myriad of atolls. The number of youth using narcotics is deemed to be as high as thirty five percent. The Maldives attracts a near full complement of tourists at the high end but the small local population have not enjoyed the fruits of this boom though the blame cannot be laid at the feet of deposed President  Nasheed. It was Gayoom who set the trend to avoid the trickle down of  benefits from the tourism boom. The Maldives was the beneficiary of the lackadaisical attitude to tourism by Sri Lankan politicians of yesteryear.

Trafficking, as we know, indicates the presence of organized crime.

We have discussed before that traffickers use existing networks for multiple products. If the network has been set up for drugs, it can also be used for humans, for guns, for anything. By its nature the organized crime network is corrupt. The people involved don't care what they traffic as long as they continue to benefit ($$$). They have economies of scale.

If the Maldives has trafficking problems, and the Maldives is a hotspot for celebrities and wealthy people, and the Maldives is strategically located for the US military and many profitable shipping routes, we can put two and two and two together and infer that the Maldives may be a hub of organized crime? As such, it would need to be under the control of friendly leaders.

Was President Nasheed friendly to organized crime? How friendly?

Very friendly. Evidently he is a pet of the West.


Rehmat's World: Maldives: 'Pro-Israel President booted out'

Mohamed Nasheed, a secularist politician in a 100% Sunni Muslim population (400,000), is a darling of the West. In order to get the support of western anti-Muslim Zionists’ – Nasheed now claims that he was dumped on gunpoint by the pro-Islamist security forces for ordering the arrest of Chief Justice of Criminal Court, Abdullah Mohamed. Nasheed claims that Abdullah Mohamed had released one of Nasheed’s critics, Dr. Mohamed Jameel Ahmad. Dr. Jameel Ahmad was arrested for accusing Nasheed’s government being cahoot with the Zionist regime and that Israel tourists were corrupting country’s Islamic culture.

(Reminds us of Goa, India.)

Continuing, and worth reading in full, including the links:

The diplomatic relations between Maldives and the Zionist entity were established in 1965 – but severed by the president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom in 1980 who after deposing Sultan Mohamed Farid I, declared the Island nation as a republic. The links were re-established on September 25, 2009 by the new president Mohamed Nasheed. Israeli military officials were reinvited to train Maldives’ security agencies. In 2010, Islamic group protested against the arrival of Israeli surgeons to work at the government run Indhra Gandhi hospital. They claimed Israeli doctors are notorious in organ harvesting for Israel.
Nasheed who initially headed a colliation government, later turned into a civilian dictator. He awarded millions of dollars of contracts to his family members and close friends and wealthy supporters. Nasheed’s family has fleed the Island and country’s highest court has issued warrant for his arrest.

...Maldives opposition party, Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), has always criticized Nasheed’s ruling MDP for its relation with the Zionist entity. The leader of DRP’s religious wing asserts that it is “expressly forbidden” to give any assistance to Israel as “they forced Palestinians out of their homes and brutalised them only because they say ‘We are Muslims’.”

...The Zionist regime has issued travel warning to Jewish tourists against visiting Maldives which is turning into a battle-ground for the US-China domination of the Indian Ocean.





^^^^^^^

Nasheed was on board with climate change and carbon neutrality.

The Maldives also had a special role to play applying pressure on Iran.


In 2011 the UN appointed Ahmed Shaheed of the Maldives as special rapporteur on human rights to Iran. However, he has been denied access to the country. Source: Financial Times 2/12/12

Lack of access apparently did not prevent Ahmed Shaheed from releasing a report in October 2011 alleging that rights violations had increased in Iran. Iran denounced the report as full of lies. Source: Press TV 2/3/12

And the Maldives judiciary is of special concern to some people in London.

Just before the coup, MPs in the UK raised alarms about the judiciary in the Maldives:

02 February 2012, Male’; Members of Parliament in Britain have expressed their growing concern over the state of the judiciary in the Maldives, labelling sitting judges 'under qualified, often corrupt and hostile to the democratically elected regime'.

In a recent debate in Parliament, John Glen, an MP from Prime Minister David Cameron's ruling Conservative Party, called on the Leader of the House to urgently make time for a debate on judicial reform in the Maldives.

It certainly seems to us an ODD CONCERN for UK MPs. What could be so urgent about judicial reform in the Maldives, so urgent to David Cameron's Conservative Party?
The latest protests in this Indian Ocean nation known for its lavish beach resorts erupted after Nasheed ordered the military to arrest Abdulla Mohamed, the chief judge of the Criminal Court. The judge had ordered the release of a government critic he said had been illegally detained. Source: Daily Mail, 2/8/12
The judge is allegedly close to former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled for 30 years until being defeated by Nasheed in 2008.

The judge ordered the release of a Mohamed Jameel Ahmed. 

Mr Jameel, who served in the cabinet of former President Gayoom, was arrested several times after issuing detailed pamphlets accusing Mr Nasheed of undermining Islam by conspiring with Christians and Jews.
There's a lot more to the story of the Maldives.

What exactly goes on there on those private islands with the rich tourists?



Nasheed was a star just last year, ready to save the planet.
 Now he's been thrown out on his ear?



The new unity government is now backed by the UN and the US, and Nasheed has been given four days to join.


Updates to follow.






2/5/12

one way around "the system"

Guest post by James at Winter Patriot Community Blog.

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The outlook for most people on this planet regarding economic, political and social freedom and expression is bleak, indeed. And getting bleaker. State militarism in foreign countries and domestically is increasingly being accepted as 'normal'. The only thing that is prospering is violence. Everything good seems to be in decay. But what else could we expect with psychopaths in charge of our institutions and through them our societies, our persons and livelihoods.

It seems impossible to change this because the corruption has got to the point that our institutions are now criminal organisations and are far beyond reforming. The appeals mechanisms (courts) and the reform processes (elections) are in the hands of the same criminals. But all is not what it seems. We have been taught to think in terms of the structure and organisation of our institutions and society as it has been provided for us. The ruling clique in our society rules through our acquiescence to this model (including its appeal processes) that has been provided for us. We have never been taught about providing our own model; our own institutions. This is what this essay is about.

We saw in my last article on economics how classic or laissez-faire economics led to chronic levels of high unemployment through a restricted supply of money needed to buy the full production of a working nation. We also saw how the answer to that problem, Keynesian economics with it's government deficit budgets, was brought to it's knees eventually by the compounding interest owed to privately owned banks charged on the loans that the governments took out to finance these deficit budgets. This crippling interest could have been avoided if the various governments around the world financed these deficit budgets through their own government owned banks. But they didn't because these governments were, and still are, captive to these same private banks. Our societies could have been economically free if we had access to an adequate supply of cost free and interest free money.

As it turns out, our communities have the ability to provide this cost free, interest free money in exactly the amount needed if people know how to go about providing it. Imagine our societies having well paid jobs for everyone and also access to housing and loans without interest for everyone. Just those two readily achievable things would transform our societies beyond recognition. The answers start with LETS systems.
LETS systems have been in operation in various forms over many years. They are a way for a community to provide its own credit to facilitate trade between people (members) without using government printed money or bank created credit, both of which are often kept in short supply regardless of the need. These LETS systems, though, are often seen as having limited success. There are three ingredients that are crucial to them having wide scale success; the sort of success that will bring about major social change.

They are –
One, the currency needs to be denominated in the nation's currency; to be exactly equivalent to it and to be exchanged for it under certain circumstances.
Two, the LETS system needs to be located in a geographical area and be supported by that area's municipal government. And,
Three, it needs the involvement of the personnel from the major community groups and charitable agencies in that area to get the municipal government onboard and also to provide the driving energy to promote and establish the LETS system and the spin-offs from it. It is no small task and it will need a lot of people but the costs are small compared to the cost of not doing anything to change the present situation.
LETS systems allow members to buy goods and services through offering the seller an IOU (which is what a cheque is). The seller then has a credit balance to use to purchase whatever they want from within the system. The buyer has a debit balance and is expected to trade their way out of that debt in time. The total of all the debit balances equals the total of all the credit balances. No interest is charged on debts nor is interest given on credit balances. People are expected to trade back and forth. The 'money' or credit is issued in exactly the right amount to cover the production created within the system. This money is created at the same time as an article or service (wealth) is sold. Therefore it cannot be inflationary.

It is necessary for this credit to be denominated in the nation's currency to make it easy for businesses to incorporate trading in the LETS system without having to run two sets of books. LETS units are treated exactly like ordinary currency for bookkeeping, management accounting and taxation purposes. There's no difference and this is exactly what we want; to expand the nation's money supply, legally! Money, in the form of credit, is legally created by the members of the system when they give IOU's to each other for goods or services. IOU's are entirely legal. IOU's are created, exchanged and cancelled in a multi-member double entry bookkeeping system just the same as happens with a bank. The result is added wealth production and trade for the community without the costs and control imposed by the banks.

LETS systems have operated in the past without the involvement of municipal governments but the horizons are so much wider with their involvement. A municipal government can give ultimate value and credit convertibility to the system. Ultimate value comes about through accepting LETS units as payment for municipal rates. With this option, LETS money will always be of value. A national government does the same thing for the national currency by accepting it exclusively as payment of taxes. So there is a perennial demand for it which equals perennial value.

The municipal government can offer convertibility for members who may have a credit balance but need 'national' dollars to pay for urgent expenses outside the LETS system; hospital expenses or even taxes, for instance. With these two common objections to LETS systems eliminated (the lack of guaranteed value and the lack of convertibility), the system and the community can prosper

A municipal government can start to finance projects in the community using LETS dollars. This use of LETS money can provide services and infrastructure for the community and at no cost to the municipality. This LETS money which is spent into the community by the local council, then further stimulates demand for goods that can be bought with it. By effectively increasing the 'money supply', the community begins to expand economically beyond what it would otherwise.

However, municipal governments are not generally known for their enthusiasm for innovation, especially economic innovation. This is where the community groups and agencies come in. They are staffed in part by innovative people some of whom are very aware of the limits of finance that are placed on them. They know what is needed as far as services are concerned. Some of them, at least, have an interest in this area and are generally proactive people. As a group, they can make life easy or difficult for sitting council members. They can offer their support by campaigning for council members who are due for re-election if they commit to dropping any political party affiliations and support the LETS system. Alternatively, and probably better, community leaders and organisers can run for council themselves and bring the municipal council onboard that way.

Hugh McKay, an Australian sociologist and economic historian, has claimed that all national economies that have prospered after wars or prolonged economic hardship have done so by a government sponsored housing industry. It would make sense for community leaders to take special note of this and to sponsor local building. Materials should be sourced from within the municipality. If they are not available locally, studies could be done as to the feasibility of manufacturing whatever is needed. The aim is to vertically integrate the whole housing industry within the community.

This opens up business opportunities which could be funded through the LETS system either by outright loan funding or partial equity funding. Businesses would be encouraged to use the LETS system whenever dealing amongst themselves, of course. A Business Incubator could be established to identify opportunities and train business owners and to provide ongoing services such as accounting, taxation and legal services and, of course, finance. With increasing employment, military enlistment and the horrors that come from it would fall. The community wins again and is an active move against supporting war and killing people for profit.

Next, attention could be focussed on State and National politics. With a municipal council onboard with the LETS system and its offshoot business services, an increased understanding of economic and political realities will come to many, many people. This could be further enhanced with a public education campaign about the truth of banking and its subsequent control of economies and politics. The time then would be to have the council nominate from its own ranks, councillors to run for state and federal governments and represent the municipality through their council. These candidates would have the active support of not only the council but all the community and business leaders who are active in the LETS system come campaign time.

There are two big provisos, though. The elected members would not be able to vote freely. They would be required to vote according to the council vote as a whole and would be independent of any “two-party system” and its attendant corruption. It would be a collegiate system. The second proviso is that the elected members can only serve one term before being replaced; the position being rotated amongst the councillors. Again, this is a move to severely limit any corruption getting embedded. Yet a body of continuing knowledge would be built up by the council through these rotated members for the benefit of the newly nominated and elected member.

Centralised systems are tailor made for corruption and hidden, unaccountable control. The collegiate system with control at the lower levels rather than the upper levels becomes much harder to corrupt and control by outside parties.

With this proposed system, you have an elected member whose first loyalty is to those that elected her or him. With the 'two-party' system, the elected member owes their first loyalty to the party that endorses them and, secondly, to the people who provide the funds. These people generally have interests opposite to the electors. This is not representation. This is NOT democracy. No wonder it doesn't work for the electorate. The point is not to waste time trying to reform this 'two-party' undemocratic system; we just go around it and form our own system while remaining within the existing legal framework of the country.

In time, other municipalities will come to see the advantages and want to emulate the economic and political self control of our first municipality. It is not impossible that enough municipal council controlled members of parliament or government would eventually become a majority, at which point a truly representative state government could be formed. All sorts of meaningful reforms would be possible then including a state government owned and run bank resulting in an even more prosperous and humane environment. Who knows where it might end?

If the current system is to be replaced without violence and chaos, then it needs to be achieved by something that can grow alongside the existing corrupt system in relative harmony. The above is a thumbnail outline of one way to go about doing that.

I put this forward as an alternative to going along with the present system either as a supporter or a protester and as a way of doing something different. Complete change won't happen overnight with this system, but nothing else will achieve it quickly, either. Though the benefits will start to flow fairly early in the process. Thinking about the time involved, you might look back and ask yourself, “What if we got started 4, 8, 12 yrs ago?” The opportunity cost of being mesmerised by the 'two-party' scam and participating in it one way or
another over and over is bleakly evident.

My thinking and reading has extended beyond the minimal details provided in this overview, so questions are very welcome.

^^^^^^^

UPDATE - Some further reading for those interested-
James Taris at lets-linkup (h/t APea) expresses very well one way of approaching lets and social/economic interaction. It is similar to Timebanking. It points the way to how a humane society could work in the future. Indeed, the ultimate is a society that operates without money or any recording system at all and where peoples needs are simply organised and fulfilled. Ironically, this would, no doubt, ease pressure on our natural resources. As traditional native societies have shown, when everyone's material needs are met (without money!), people turn to spiritual and cultural pursuits.

But I don't think the system and thinking that James Taris advocates would work on our present society with its present thinking and organisations on a large enough scale to effect change at the level we are aiming for. There is a need to engage and interact with the existing business world and its (our) existing money system while enhancing the freedom for everyone to prosper. There is a need for a transition system. Something that can compliment what we already have and then move on to replacing the corrupt control of it together with some of its more nasty attributes.

Here is another resource for information and even turn-key systems with all the needed software if you want to start a Lets system tomorrow! -
Community Exchange System

Here is a site that specifically advocates using LETS units denominated in the national currency-
LETSystems

There are commercial bartering systems that are similar but charge fees and margins that a community run organisation doesn't need to-
Barter of America
Bartercard
Wikipedia on LETS



legal mumbo jumbo

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