Thursday, April 16, 2009
Dumping Dollars, China Invests in Copper
Is China aiming for a global, copper-backed currency system? Is copper the new gold?
Click here for the astonishing answers.
But be aware that Metal Miner accuses Energy & Resources of hyping the Chinese copper investment story.
The bottom line: take your copper news with a grain of salt.China Emerging as the World's Locomotive
Martin Walker's analysis for UPI is a must read. Click here to read how China is likely to overtake the United States as the world's economic engine and development model.Mitchell Pressed Israel to Accept Palestinian State
China Confidential has learned that the Obama administration's special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, warned Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday that "time was running out" for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem.
Mitchell signaled Washington's view that "Palestinian patience" with "moderate" leaders was nearing an end. The result, he suggested, could be a tidal wave of support for creation of a unitary state, encompassing present-day Israel.US Pushing for UN Sanctions Against North Korea
By David Gollust
The United States said Thursday that it is pushing for U.N. sanctions against North Korea for its long-range missile test and subsequent expulsion of international monitors from its Yongbyon nuclear reactor complex. U.S. officials want to curb North Korea's import of goods that could be used to advance its nuclear and missile programs.
Obama administration officials say their overriding aim still is to get North Korea to return to negotiations over its nuclear program. [China is pressing the U.S. to appease North Korea. Click here for the report.]
But they say Pyongyang has to face consequences for its missile test and expulsion of nuclear monitors, thus Washington is seeking new sanctions at the United Nations.
Under the statement it issued on Monday condemning the North Korean missile launch, the U.N. Security Council instructed the sanctions committee to reach agreement by next week on entities to be targeted.
At a news briefing, State Department Acting Spokesman Robert Wood said the United States on Wednesday presented the committee with a list of companies it wants to see penalized and cited categories of goods to which North Korea should be denied access.
"The committee met yesterday," Wood said. "There will be additional rounds of consultations. And then they will agree on a list of those goods and entities. And that will be made public as you know. And then member states will be required to prevent the north from getting access to these goods and entities from supplying the types of material that we don't want to see get to the north."
11 North Korean Companies
The U.S. list is understood to include 11 North Korean companies that already face American sanctions for involvement in the country's lucrative trade in weapons-of-mass destruction technology. Japan has also submitted a proposed list of 15 entities it would like to see penalized.
The U.N. Security Council's permanent members, including Russia and China, would have to agree to the sanctions. The two powers had resisted severe council action in response to the missile test. The State Department's Robert Wood said the United States has had "good conversations" with Russia and China on the latest developments and will continue to work with them on "a way forward" with regard to North Korea.
North Korea said that Monday's Security Council statement, condemning what North Korea depicts as a satellite launch, was an "unbearable insult" and prompted its decision to leave the Chinese-sponsored nuclear talks and expel international monitors from Yongbyon.
Asked whether U.N. sanctions might provoke another sharp reaction by Pyongyang, a senior State Department official said North Korea cannot be rewarded for bad behavior and that it will have to face the consequences.
The official said the United States has been in direct contact with North Korea in recent days through its mission to the United Nations. He also said the Obama administration's special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, might visit the region "when the time is right."
In comments a few days before the North Korean missile test, Bosworth said nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang, idle for the last several months, would probably resume after a cooling-off period.
EDITOR'S NOTE: American Thinker says President Obama flunked the "3 AM test." China Confidential analysts agree.Taliban 'Shock Troops' Took Pakistan's Swat Valley
China's Quest for Resources Spurs Military Buildup
While the United States worries about cutting its carbon footprint, rising China, as China Confidential reported yesterday, is boldly stepping into South America. Beijing views the global recession as a big buying opportunity--more specifically, a chance to lock up natural resources, including oil.
South America is awash in oil and other resources; and China aims to claim and keep its share for decades to come.
The drive for resources will spur China's alarming and opaque military buildup. China believes it needs both a blue water navy to keep sea lanes secure and space-based weapons to deter U.S. action or intervention in possible future crises or conflicts.
Politically, China will continue to sponsor and support North Korea. Beijing sees the nuclear-armed, missile-happy rogue state as a useful buffer and lever against the U.S., which China regards as a dying but still dangerous hegemon.
Dependent on China to finance its staggering debt, the U.S. has turned a blind eye to an obvious reality: China's energy and resource companies are arms of its ruling Communist Party and military.Iranian Proxy Planned Huge Attacks on Tel Aviv
Egypt has foiled a plot by Hezbollah, Iran's Lebanese Islamist proxy, to massacre Israeli civilians in Tel Aviv. Read about it here.
The Hezbollah cell assigned to carry out the terrorist operations was made up of members of the secular Fatah movement. The two groups have cooperated closely in the past.
Egypt, which has been plagued by Islamist terrorism and extremism for decades--dating to the Muslim Brotherhood's opposition to Nasser--is increasingly concerned about Iranian moves to dominate the Middle East through a mixture of sponsored terrorism (of both Shiite and Sunni Islamist organizations) and nuclear blackmail.
The United States does not share Egypt's level of concern. The Arab country's cooperation with Israel in Iran-related intelligence and security matters irritates the Obama administration, which has decided to make every effort possible to appease Iran, including finding a face-saving formula that will allow the mullahocracy to engage in supposedly small-scale uranium enrichment if it abandons its nuclear arms program, or at least stops short of actually producing nuclear weapons, or, at the very least, agrees to not declare itself a nuclear power.US Rules Out Military Action Against Iran
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates made it clear this week that the Obama administration has ruled out attacking Iran over its nuclear program and is strongly opposed to an Israeli attack. Click here for the story, which confirms China Confidential reporting and analysis: the United States is abandoning Israel.
The U.S. envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, who met with Israeli leaders today, denies this, naturally. Mitchell told the press that Washington remains committed to both protecting Israel's security and creating a Palestinian state alongside the Jewish State.
As Israelis say, words on ice. The commitment can melt away.
In fact, the melting is underway. China Confidential can confirm that Mitchell warned Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and President Shimon Peres against attacking Iran--as China Confidential yesterday predicted. Mitchell's warning was so strong that Peres was compelled to publicly speak out against the military option. Click here to read his comments.
The Obama administration is abandoning Israel in the hope of not only appeasing but actually striking a so-called grand bargain with nuclear-arming, Islamist Iran. Important administration members, including Gates, believe Iran can control Afghanistan and counter Pakistan if that country collapses.
In contrast with recent U.S. administrations, the Obama administration does not see Israel as a strategic ally. At best, Israel is viewed as a troublesome friend in need; at worst, a liability. Obama's close adviser, National Security Council member Samantha Power (who called Hillary Clinton a "monster" during the 2008 Presidential campaign) is in the Israel-is-a-liability camp. Echoing a left-wing, European viewpoint, she regards Israel's establishment as a mistake.
POSTSCRIPT: An enterprising reporter should ask Israeli Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Barak for his reaction to Gates' remarks. Last November 7, Barak, when he was Defense Minister in the previous Israeli government, publicly urged the U.S. not to rule out the military option regarding Iran.
“We don’t rule out any option. We recommend others don’t rule out any option either,” Barak told journalists after talks with the visiting US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.
“We are convinced that Iran continues to try to obtain a nuclear weapon and continues to cheat everybody by holding negotiations on the control of such weapons,” Barak said.
UPDATE: Obama's Pakistan policy is under fire from the left and from Pakistan itself. Clickhere for the story.
Friday, 17 April 2009
Flush with victory in the Swat Valley, the Taliban and their social justice "shock troops" are poised to take over all of nuclear-armed Pakistan. Read about it here.
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