Why The Saudis Hold the Cards Right Now

(OilandGasInvestmentBulletin) – Current OPEC spare capacity would suggest a lower world oil price, but the distribution of this spare capacity could be one reason why oil prices are higher than many experts think it should be.

Usually the more spare capacity (supply) in a market there is the lower the price – simple economics. But the reality is that Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world with significant spare capacity to produce more oil in the world and influence prices. And they currently favour a $70-$80 barrel oil price.

In 2003, OPEC had 2 million barrels a day LESS spare capacity it has now, and oil was under $40/barrel – but spare capacity was more evenly spread out among the 11 member states.

If everybody has spare capacity, the potential for cheating on production quotas is greatly increased and that carries a higher downside risk for prices. Should the world economy grow more quickly, only the Saudis have the ability to increase production enough to meet demand and influence prices. Read entire article

World War

(KurtNimmo) – Def. Sec. Gates Exaggerates Iranian Missile Capacity as Attack Looms

Bush era Secretary of Defense retread Robert Gates said on Friday Iran has the capacity to “shower” Europe with nuclear missiles. “One of the elements of the intelligence that contributed to the decision on the phased adaptive array (approach) was the realization that if Iran were actually to launch a missile attack on Europe, it wouldn’t be just one or two missiles, or a handful,” Gates told a Senate committee hearing. “It would more likely be a salvo kind of attack, where you would be dealing potentially with scores or even hundreds of missiles.”

Gates said the supposed Iranian threat can be averted by “upgraded missile interceptors” that “would give us the ability to protect our troops, our bases, our facilities and our allies in Europe.” Read More Here

(AlterNet) – Sorry, Trillions in Unmined Mineral Wealth Is Not a Reason to Keep Occupying Afghanistan

Our leaders are now boldly selling wars as commendable instruments of such profit-focused imperialism. Read More Here

(WarIsACrime) – Unrest in Pakistan: Moving Beyond “the U.S. National Interest”

“The military is the muscle that protects the ruling elite from the wrath of the people,” says Pakistani political analyst Dr. Mubashir Hassan. “Right now, people are out on the street; blocking roads, attacking railway stations, etc. If you read the papers, it seems as though a general uprising has started all over Pakistan.” Read More Here

(VeteransToday) – GORDON DUFF: Israel Planned Iran Attack From Caucasus Base

A week ago, Israel leaked to the press that they had permission from Saudi Arabia to use their air space to attack Iran. The Saudi’s quickly denied this. The effort on Israel’s part was a ruse to cover their real plans, to attack from the Republic of Georgia, close to Iran’s northern border. However, the breakdown in relations with Turkey after miscalculating the response to their Flotilla raid on a Turkish ship in international waters may have ended this operation. Read More Here

(Salon) – The Strange and Consequential Case of Bradley Manning, Adrian Lamo and WikiLeaks – Glenn Greenwald – Read More Here

(KabulPress) – American Military Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan Now Exceed 500,000 (Part 1 of 2) – Read More Here

(IsraelNationalNews) – US, Israel Warships in Suez May Be Prelude to Faceoff with Iran – Read More Here

(AlterNet) – The U.S. War Addiction: Funding Enemies to Maintain Trillion Dollar Racket

A few recent news items help expose the true drivers of current wars around the world.

#1) Wherever there is a war, look for CIA/IMF/private military war profiteers covertly funding and supporting BOTH sides in order to keep the wars raging and the profits rolling in. As former CIA Station Chief John Stockwell explained: “Enemies are necessary for the wheels of the US military machine to turn.” Read More Here

Gaza News

(IMEMC) – Israel Closes Gaza Trade Crossings

Despite Israel’s Thursday decision to “ease restrictions on Gaza”, the Israeli Authorities closed all trade crossings leading to the coastal region. The closure, unless extended, will last until Sunday. Read More Here

(DailyKos) – Three Gates Blocked to Israeli Ship NOW @ Oakland Docks; Live Webcam Updates

Just left the Oakland Docks where 300 people are blocking the entrances to two gates into the berth where the Israeli Zim cargo ship is to be unloaded. The action started this morning at 5:30am PST. The longshore workers are scheduled to start their shift at 7:00 and 8:00 am this morning. Read More Here

(DesertPeace) – ISRAELI FORCES ATTACK PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATORS

Israeli occupation forces today in Beit Jala engaged in beatings, burning of fields, and attacking peaceful demonstrators, bystanders, and reporters. Read More Here

(Uruknet) – Stop the bullets! A call to end the use of live ammunition against unarmed civilians in the Gaza ‘buffer zone’

The catastrophic Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which left 9 dead, has rightly horrified the international community. However, lethal force by the Israeli military is nothing new to Palestinians. In the Gaza ‘buffer zone’, live ammunition is routinely used against unarmed demonstrators and farmers. Read More Here.

(Sabbah) – Flotilla Check: Facts and Israeli Lies – Read More Here

Video: Israeli occupation forces today in Beit Jala engaged in beatings, burning of fields, and attacking peaceful demonstrators, bystanders, and reporters – Video Link Here

(DesertPeace) – VOLUNTARY ETHNIC CLEANSING?

An Israeli that goes abroad and stays there for a period of two to six years can return to Israel with the full ‘rights’ of a new immigrant. This includes the tax free purchases of home essentials, an automobile, and a good rate on a mortgage.

A Palestinian from Jerusalem that goes abroad for purposes of education or work CANNOT RETURN TO HIS HOME… Read More Here

World War

(PTINews) – Russian strategic bombers on 23-hour record mission

Two Russian Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers have carried out a record 23-hour patrol covering a distance of 18,000 kilometres without touching the ground. Read More Here

(Spiegel) – German-Jewish Boat to Challenge Israeli Blockade – Read More Here

(NYTimes) – McCain Urges Obama to Back Regime Change in Iran

Senator John McCain called on the United States on Thursday to support regime change in Iran, saying that the latest United Nations sanctions are “inadequate” and that it is unrealistic to expect the current government in Tehran to stop pursuing nuclear weapons, supporting terrorism and cracking down on its own people. Read More Here

(Debka) – Iran’s Gaza-bound ships ready for clash with Israel – Ahmadinejad – Read More Here

(MSNBC) – Suicide blast slays 40 at Afghan wedding party – Read More Here

(RUVR) – Russia, Iran to boost energy and space cooperation – Read More Here

(InfoClearingHouse) – Video: Israeli Commandos Execute American Citizen

Israeli soldiers allegedly killing Furkan Dogan 19 years

See also: American, 19, Among Gaza Flotilla Dead: Furkan Dogan Was Shot Five Times, Including Four Times in Head Video Link Here

(ABCNews) – White House Official: UN Sanctions Alone “Not Be Sufficient” to Change Iran’s Behavior — Much More to Come

Senior White House officials acknowledged Wednesday afternoon that the new regime of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran “would not be sufficient” in and of itself to change the behavior of the Iranian government and convince its leaders to stop its nuclear weapons program. Read More Here

(McClatchy) – Gaza Blockade: Economic Warfare Against Palestinian People

As Israel ordered a slight easing of its blockade of the Gaza Strip Wednesday, McClatchy obtained an Israeli government document that describes the blockade not as a security measure but as “economic warfare” against the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory. Read More Here

(Neithercorp) – Flashpoints For Global War

As the economic collapse progresses through 2010 and its fiscal consequences become more certain, the field of view reaching towards our social and political future has become more vague and unclear. Every analyst or researcher of the New World Order and the global elite now seems to have a different insight into how our situation will develop once the financial implosion peaks, and people actually start to react to the obviously severe circumstances. Read More Here

(TheIntelHub) – USNORTHCOM Gears Up For Potential Attack On U.S. Soil

USNORTHCOM has admitted that they are preparing military operations within the United States. This is the first time in history this has been done and they will be working with DHS, state and local law enforcement on U.S. soil. Read More Here

(RawStory) – Kucinich: ‘We may be funding our own killers in Afghanistan’

On June 7, the day Afghanistan became America’s longest-ever war, the New York Times reported on an ongoing investigation poised to prove that private security companies “are using American money to bribe the Taliban” to fuel combat and thus enhance demand for their services. The news follows a “series of events last month that suggested all-out collusion with the insurgents,” the Times said. Read More Here

(PressTV) – Blair ‘100 percent on Israel’s side’

As the world presses Israel to heed calls for an international probe into its deadly Flotilla attack, former British Premier Tony Blair echoes Tel Aviv’s alleged security concerns. Read More Here

(PressTV) – UNSC slaps new sanctions on Iran

The UN Security Council (UNSC) has voted in favor of imposing a fourth round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. Read More Here

(PressTV) – Prince warns S. Arabia of apocalypse

In a letter published by Wagze news agency on Tuesday, the Cairo-based prince warned Saudi Arabia’s ruling family of a fate similar to that of Iraq’s executed dictator Saddam Hussein and the ousted Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, calling on them to escape before people “cut off our heads in streets.” Read More Here

(PressTV) – Video: Israel Admits It Doctored Flotilla Audio Tapes

The IDF admitted today in a press release that it doctored audio footage from its exchanges with the Gaza flotilla in order to paint the flotilla passengers as anti-Semites.

Russia Proves ‘Peak Oil’ Is A Misleading Scam

FLASHBACK – (Rense) – In 1970, the Russians started drilling Kola SG-3, an exploration well which finally reached a staggering world record depth of 40,230 feet. Since then, Russian oil majors including Yukos have quietly drilled more than 310 successful super-deep oil wells, and put them into production. Last Year Russia overtook Saudi Arabia as the world’s biggest single oil producer, and is now set to completely dominate global oil production and sales for the next century.

World War

(KurtNimmo) – False Flag Imminent?

Infowars received the following forwarded email. It is dated Friday, March 19, 2010: Read More Here

(KurtNimmo) – Video: If Republicans Think Going Into Iraq Was a Mistake, Why Are We Still There?

Reps. Dana Rohrabacher,Tom McClintock and John Duncan, all Republicans, said during a Cato Institute panel that in retrospect invading Iraq was a mistake. They said all of their colleagues in the House Republican Caucus believe invading Iraq was a mistake. Rohrabacher went so far as to say he opposed going into Iraq before the invasion. Read More Here

(Haaretz) – Netanyahu to ask Obama for weapons to strike Iran

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will use a visit to Washington this week to press the U.S. to release advanced weapons needed for a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear sites, the Sunday Times reported. Read More Here

(ArutzSheva) – Saudi Arabia Seeks Strike on Iran

The German news magazine Der Spiegel has reported that Saudi Arabia is hoping Israel will strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, and is even prepared to open its skies to Israeli warplanes to allow such an operation to take place. Similar reports were published in 2009, and denied by both Israel and Saudi Arabia. Read More Here

(InformationClearingHouse) – Stumbling About In the Graveyard of Empires

If there was ever a decent justification visible for the American war in Afghanistan, there isn’t now. Read More Here

(PoliticsDaily) – Iraq War Triumphalism Ignores a Key Matter: Dead Civilians

Whenever there’s an election in Iraq, U.S. triumphalism follows. In a recent column, Peter Wehner, my PoliticsDaily.com colleague, touts George W. Bush’s war in Iraq and joins others in the it-hasn’t-turned-out-so-bad chorus. But these pronouncements serve as a reminder that it’s rather easy to be a freedom fighter with somebody else’s blood. Read More Here

(MailOnline) – How Criminals Profit From War – Blair’s Fight to Keep his Oil Cash Secret – Read More Here

(GlobalResearch) – Preparations for a Hit against Iran: Stopping Israel’s Next War

“A new war in the region is inevitable.” This is the pronouncement made by Mohammad Seyyed Selim, political scientist and professor at the universities of Cairo and Kuweit. Prof. Selim delivered his forecast on February 13, in a program on Nile TV’s “Cairo Watch,” in which I also participated. The moderator, Mohamed Abdel-Rahim, started off by asking what crisis situations in the region were most acute; Iran and the Arab-Israeli conflict were the obvious answers. Read More Here

(GlobalResearch) – The Most Barbaric Wars in Human History: The Political Relevance of Mahatma Gandhi

The world over these are apocalyptic times. We are witnessing the financial and economic collapse of regions which historically owed the most to capitalist development and simultaneously the most barbaric wars in human history, to re-colonize and to destroy independent nation states in all continents, to seize every nation’s budget and the entire economic space and markets of countries, directly targeting for elimination or mass displacement the civilian population considered rivals for the consumption and use of resources. Read More Here

(Ind) – British military intelligence ‘ran renegade torture unit in Iraq’

Fresh evidence has emerged that British military intelligence ran a secret operation in Iraq which authorised degrading and unlawful treatment of prisoners. Documents reveal that prisoners were kept hooded for long periods in intense heat and deprived of sleep by defence intelligence officers. They also reveal that officers running the operation claimed to be answerable only “directly to London”. Read More Here

(PressTV) – China won’t turn blind eye to possible US sanctions

The Chinese commerce minister says Beijing will respond to Washington should the US decide to impose sanctions on the Chinese currency, the Yuan. Read More Here

(PoliticalTheatrics) – US Plots Against Iran While Offering Dialogue

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei accused on Sunday the United States of “plotting” against the Islamic republic even as it offers talks. Read More Here

Video: Michael Springman on Alex Jones Tv – CIA Ordered Visas For 15 of The 19 9/11 Hijackers in Jeddah

(FLASHBACK) – J. Michael Springmann, formerly chief of the visa section at the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has testified that he rejected hundreds of suspicious visa applications by Saudi Arabian men similar to those named as the 9/11 Hijackers Patsies when we was head of the consular section of the US embassy in Jeddah, but C.I.A. officers repeatedly overruled him and ordered the visas to be issued.

US think tank seeks to connect Iran, Yemen, Qaeda

(PressTV) – A report says a high-profile neoconservative think tank in the United States is reportedly working to establish a link between Iran, the Yemeni opposition groups and al-Qaeda militants.

Conflicts of interest? Clinton Foundation top donors include Norway, Saudi Arabia, Gates Foundation

(BusinessWeek) – COMMENT: The original headline, ‘Clinton donor list doesn’t say who gave in ‘09′ reflects an earlier lack of reporting; the Foundation has now updated with greater disclosure. As the AP reports, “The foundation released a donor list Friday morning that didn’t identify who gave in 2009, but then updated it to provide that information.” Therefore, Business Week’s headline is no longer up-to-date while the report is still worthwhile.

Video: US Attack Kills 120 In Yemen

(RussiaToday) – On orders from President Barack Obama, the U.S. military launched cruise missiles early Thursday against two suspected al-Qaeda sites in Yemen, administration officials told ABC News in a report broadcast on ABC World News with Charles Gibson.

‘US fighter jets attack Yemeni fighters’

(PressTV) – Yemen’s Houthi fighters say the US fighter jets have launched 28 attacks on the northwestern province of Sa’ada.

Video: Saudi Arabia Calls for an Independent Investigation into Climategate

(RussiaToday) – Saudi Arabia called for an independent investigation into Climategate Monday, warning that the scandal over stolen e-mails threatened to undermine the global-warming negotiations beginning in Copenhagen. We believe this scandal — or what has been referred to as the climategate scandal — we think this is definitely going to affect the nature of what could be trusted in our deliberations, the Saudi Arabian negotiator said.

MSM: Saudis drop WTI oil contract

(FinancialTimes) – Saudi Arabia yesterday decided to drop the widely used West Texas Intermediate oil contract as the benchmark for pricing its oil, dealing a serious blow to the New York Mercantile Exchange.

MSM: Israeli military strike more likely after Iran misses nuclear deadline

(Telegraph) – The deal put forward in Vienna would not have ended Iran’s nuclear programme, even if Tehran had given a prompt “yes”.

Iran to completely drop dollar from foreign exchange

(PressTV) – Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization has announced a near future plan to completely exclude the US dollar from the country’s foreign revenues and reserves.

Video: David Icke on Alex Jones Tv – Center of The Spider-Web!

Part 1 of 3

Is the Dollar Heading Up Or Down?

Arguments for a Long-Term Devaluation of the Dollar
Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know that the dollar is losing its status as world reserve currency.

MSM: The demise of the dollar

(Independent) – In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading

Saudis will allow Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear site

Premier British intelligence agency, MI6 chief, has been told that Saudi Arabia will permit Israel to fly over the kingdom to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites.

MSM: Israelis shot Gaza civilians waving white flags – HRW

(Yahoo) – Israeli soldiers shot and killed 11 Palestinian civilians who were waving white flags, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday in a report on the Gaza war whose credibility Israel immediately questionned.

American apocalypse – 5 likeliest scenarios to topple the US

Which is your favorite apocalyptic scenario? If you really had to choose would it be the intergalactic stand-off? Zombie plague?

Obama Ignores Torture – Helen Thomas

Secrecy is endemic in all governments. It goes with the turf, especially if their leaders hope to hide illegal or immoral behavior, such as torture of foreign prisoners.

How the FBI and 9/11 Commission Suppressed Key Evidence about Hani Hanjour

The evidence was crucial because it undermined the official explanation that Hani Hanjour crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon at high speed after executing an extremely difficult top gun maneuver. But to understand how all of this played out, let us review the case in bite-size pieces…

MSM: Saudis give nod to Israeli raid on Iran

(Times) – The head of Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence service, has assured Benjamin Netanyahu, its prime minister, that Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets flying over the kingdom during any future raid on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Iran Had a Democracy Before We Took It Away

Iranians do not need or want us to teach them about liberty and representative government. They have long embodied this struggle. It is we who need to be taught. It was Washington that orchestrated the 1953 coup to topple Iran’s democratically elected government, the first in the Middle East, and install the compliant shah in power.

MSM: Crops under stress as temperatures fall

(Telegraph) – Our politicians haven’t noticed that the problem may be that the world is not warming but cooling, observes Christopher Booker.

Peak Soil Investment: This Quiet Land Grab is Just Beginning

According to the Economist, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and China have been “quietly” buying up more than $20 billion of this asset.

MSM: Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls Holocaust a “great deception”

(Telegraph) – Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the Holocaust a “great deception” on Wednesday, reiterating a view that has been denounced by moderate rivals in this month’s election.

MSM: World War III has started

(Ynet) – One needs to be deaf, blind, and an idiot at this time in order not to understand that the nuclear bomb tested in North Korea two days ago also exploded in the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.

MSM: Obama Announces First Nationwide Regulation of Greenhouse Gases

(W-Post) – President Obama today proposed tough standards for tailpipe emissions from new automobiles, establishing the first nationwide regulation for greenhouse gases.

Saudi files for ‘killer’ tracking chip patent

A Saudi Arabian inventor has filed for a patent on a potentially lethal science fiction-style human tracking microchip, the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) told The Local on Friday.