Tuesday, September 28, 2010
EARLY WARNING: 'CREDIBLE' TERROR THREAT
OBAMA BLAMES FOX NEWS FOR FAILURES
Israel's Maverick Foreign Minister Gets it Right: Road to Mideast Peace Runs Through Iran, Not West Bank
Iran's IRGC Says it Has 'Flying Boat' Squadrons
Defending Democracy Against Radical Islam: An Urgent Appeal by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Daniel Huff
N. Korean Ship Searched for Syria-Bound Arms
On Obama Appeasement and Sudan Genocide
Gold Hits New Record High
Shame on Shell: Oil Giant Increases Iran Trade
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
"Sharp differences within the Israeli government over peace negotiations played out in ... the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman using the podium to say that peace with the Palestinians required an intermediate agreement lasting 'decades' and that the issue of Iranian belligerence should be addressed first."
"A (U.S.) Federal law is needed to cover threats against free-speech rights. Across media and geographies, Islamic extremists are increasingly using intimidation ... "
Authorities in Greece searched a cargo ship Tuesday that is suspected of carrying weapons from North Korea to Syria.
The ship is a French-owned, German-flagged cargo carrier. The inspection is taking place in the port of Piraeus (Europe's largest passenger port).
Syria appears to be the ship's destination, according to the vessel's bill of laden documents.
Following a tip from a third-party country, Greek Defense Ministry officials opened containers on the ship to search for missiles and materials that could have “dual use" or violate the UN arms embargo on North Korea. As of this writing, the inspection had turned up no weapons but dual-use materials were found in four containers, and the search was continuing.
The UN last June banned the export of all arms by North Korea, Iran's partner in nuclear and missile proliferation.
"His efforts to appease President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government in Khartoum have increased Mr. Bashir's perception of U.S. weakness and reinforced his inclination and willingness to use military force to suppress Sudanese opposition in the South, Darfur and elsewhere."
"Investor demand for gold as an alternative to currencies, stocks and bonds, where volatility has increased dramatically since the unfolding of the credit crisis three years ago, has been a driving force in gold's rise to record highs."
China Confidential continues to predict the price of gold will hit $1,400 an ounce before the end of this year, with the precious metal rising to $2,000 an ounce or higher before the end of 2011.
Crude Sanctions Busting Recalls Company's Pro-Nazi Past
Shame on Shell.
As reported here, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant increased orders from Iran while others halted trade in line with UN, US, and EU sanctions.
The dealings with nuclear-arming, Holocaust-denying, Islamist Iran recall Royal Dutch Shell's collaboration with Nazi Germany. Josh Marks on the "dirty truth" about Shell and the Third Reich:
The Anglo-Dutch petroleum company was created in 1907 from a merger between Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and the Shell Transport and Trading Company. The alliance would help compete with John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil.
The Nazi connection stems from Royal Dutch co-founder/chairman and later Royal Dutch/Shell chairman Sir Henri Deterding. Called the "Napoleon of Oil," Deterding admired Hitler and was a fervent supporter of the Nazi party. Here is an excerpt from the 1975 book "The Seven Sisters" by Anthony Sampson courtesy of the website Royal Dutch Shell PLC:
"His influence on the company was erratic and as one Shell veteran recalls: ‘Deterding’s interventions were like thunderstorms; suddenly flattening a field of wheat, while leaving other fields un-scathed.’ The stately managers of Shell began to have the worrying impression that their Director-General was going mad, and still worse, going pro-Nazi. His anti-Communism, spurred on by his Russian second wife, had already made him sympathetic to the Nazis. But in 1936, just after he had celebrated his seventieth birthday and his fortieth year with Shell, he married a third time, to a German girl, Charlotte Knaack, who had been his secretary. He was now convinced that the Nazis were the only solution to the Communist menace.
He died six months before the outbreak of war: memorial services were held in all Shell offices in Germany and Hitler and Goering both sent wreaths to the funeral on his estate."
And here is an excerpt from the website Shell News about the petro company's Nazi ties:
"Approximately 1,385 forced laborers worked at oil refineries and petrochemical plants owned and operated by the Royal/Dutch Shell Group during the Second World War. These workers, largely civilians from Eastern Europe and the Low Countries of Western Europe, were compelled to work on the grounds of Shell's German and Austrian subsidiaries, Rhenania GmbH and Shell Austria AG, respectively. At these locations, the forced laborers toiled long hours under the watchful (and often brutal) guard of Hitler's S.S. men. Deported from their home countries by force, these workers were housed in filthy barracks, and were denied freedom of movement and proper nutrition. For their work, which was contracted from the S.S., the laborers received no pay from Shell or the German Government.
Shell's ties with the Third Reich, however, were not limited to the use of forced labor. It was also a founding partner in Deutsche Gasoline (25%), the national German petroleum company explicitly crafted to give the Reich greater control over domestic gasoline production - for both military and civilian purposes. Shell additionally held the dubious distinction not only of having collaborated with the Nazi Regime to bring Deutsche Gasoline into fruition, but also of sharing control over the company with I.G. Farben Industrie - the infamous producer of Zyklon B poison gas."
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