6 June 2015 — Strategic Culture Foundation
Afghanistan: Militants Posing Imminent Threat to Central Asia (I)
06.06.2015 | 00:00 | Andrei AKULOV
The civil war in Yemen, the following intervention by Saudi Arabia to aggravate the stand-off with Iran, the capture of Iraqi Ramadi and Syrian Palmira by Islamic State (IS) – all these events hit radar screen today to distract attention from Afghanistan where the situation creep is gradually turning into a burning security problem to threaten many nations…
Trinity 70 Years On… the Nuclear Horror Still Haunts
06.06.2015 | 00:00 | Finian CUNNINGHAM
NSA makes medical intelligence operations a priority
05.06.2015 | 00:00 | Wayne MADSEN
In yet another worrying sign that the U.S. National Security Agency has completely gone off the rails, a June 2010 PowerPoint slide, titled «Medical Pattern of Life: Targeting High Value Individual ? 1», subtitled «SIGINT [signals intelligence] Enabling HUMINT [human intelligence]/Targeting», describes how NSA is using medical intelligence (MEDINT) to target medical patients. The PowerPoint presentation is classified TOP SECRET/COMINT [Communications Intelligence]. By misusing medical information and data to target patients for either surveillance or assassination, NSA is on shaky ground with regard to abiding by the privacy and data protection acts of dozens of nations, as well as international law on human rights and warfare…
Forget Sports: Geopolitics is Behind the FIFA Scandal As the War Against Russia Enters a New Front
05.06.2015 | 00:00 | Mahdi Darius NAZEMROAYA
…The whole FIFA scandal is not about corruption or dignity. The whole affair is about geopolitics and managing the world. Joseph Blatter was forced to step down because FIFA refused to cancel its decision to allow Russia to host World Cup 2018 and to reopen the bids for hosting World Cup 2018 and World Cup 2022.
Greece’s Creditors Take Tough Line: What Will it Lead to?
04.06.2015 | 00:00 | Valentin KATASONOV
…The lenders are going to impose Greece a program of reforms which is actually an ultimatum. The policy conditions in the creditors’ proposal – whose details remained under wraps but include fiscal austerity, privatizations, and overhauls of pensions and labor law—could prove extremely challenging for Mr. Tsipras to accept without sparking a rebellion within his ruling coalition. In not so distant future Greece will have to reduce the budget deficit to 3, 5%. This is the price for having the troika of major lenders – The International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission – unfreeze the 7, 5 billion euros tranche…
Serbia risks spending too long playing gas games
04.06.2015 | 00:00 | Pyotr ISKENDEROV
The regional competition between Central and Eastern European states to receive and transport Russian gas is entering a new phase. The outcome of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s visit to Slovakia has shown that his country, along with Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, is determined to implement a major regional project that will link up with the infrastructure of the Turkish-Russian Turkish Stream project… The preliminary route of Turkish Stream agreed by Russia and Turkey involves the construction of a gas pipeline with a capacity of 63 billion cubic metres per year…
Patriot Act Hung in Air: End of NSA Spying Activities?
03.06.2015 | 00:28 | Boris VOLKHONSKY
No matter how hard President Obama tried to push the Patriot Act through, Senate failed to avoid the expiration of its key provisions. Republican Senator Rand Paul, a presidential hopeful, achieved his goal. He filibustered the vote to upstage the administration and some Republican heavy weights who wanted the global spying on US citizens and foreigners to continue. One of the hawks, Republican John McCain, said bluntly that Rand Paul «obviously has a higher priority for his fundraising and political ambitions than for the security of the nation»…
Never Mind FIFA, How about a Crackdown on the Banksters?
03.06.2015 | 00:00 | Finian CUNNINGHAM
FIFA boss Sepp Blatter’s sudden resignation this week only days after being re-elected shows that the US campaign to bust the football federation over alleged financial corruption is probably going to intensify during the weeks and months ahead… Obviously, then, the self-righteous campaign to «root out fraud at FIFA is just so much pious nonsense. The astounding hypocrisy of US and British authorities leaves one with the unmistakable conclusion that the whole media-driven campaign against FIFA is nothing but a self-serving and cynical political agenda. And top of that agenda is to score geopolitical points against Russia.
Are the Albanians and the Americans now deciding the Macedonian Question?
02.06.2015 | 11:14 | Elena GUS’KOVA
…Which scenario is most likely in Macedonia? European and UN politicians will likely express concern about the status of democracy in Macedonia, condemn the actions of the Macedonian police in Kumanovo, and demand an «impartial» international investigation of «violations of citizens’ rights» (with no mention of terrorism). As long as the police are afraid to act, Albanian militants will fabricate a series of provocations and acts of terrorism in the country, accusing the government and the president of responsibility for the casualties. The Albanians in Tetovo, Kumanovo, and Skopje will form armed units and gain control of the territory. By threatening to block Macedonia’s entry into the EU, the European Union will urge Gruevski to make peace with the rebels and refrain from military action…
«Gratuitous Democracy» or «Banking Concentration Camp»
02.06.2015 | 01:01 | Valentin KATASONOV
The news I’m talking about was reported by media in May. Not a big thing at first glance, certainly not a thing to hit radar screen. But the devil is in the details. Some interesting events took place in Scandinavia. The Danish government proposed exempting certain shops from the obligation to accept cash payments in a move seen as pushing the country a step closer to a «cash-free» economy. Businesses such as clothing retailers, gas stations and restaurants will no longer be required to accept cash next year, the government of Denmark said on May 6. The move comes as part of a pre-election package of economic growth measures aimed at reducing costs and increasing productivity for businesses. Many stores in Sweden do not accept cash but only debit or credit cards. Now a buyer with full pockets of cash will leave a Swedish and Danish shop empty handed…
Wola Massacre and Polish Authorities: Another Case of Political Amnesia
01.06.2015 | 00:00 | Valéry VRUBLEVSKY
Poland is suffering political amnesia. The condition gets acute any time one mentions the mass crimes committed against Polish nationals. There is a plethora of examples to prove the case. The Volyn massacre is the most illustrative one. Ukrainian nationalists brutally tortured and killed dozens of thousands of old men, women and children. For all that, the Polish government supports the successors of Stepan Bandera who have seized power in Ukraine…
Rule By The Corporations: who needs governments?
01.06.2015 | 00:00 | Paul Craig ROBERTS
The Transatlantic and Transpacific Trade and Investment Partnerships have nothing to do with free trade. “Free trade” is used as a disguise to hide the power these agreements give to corporations to use law suits to overturn sovereign laws of nations that regulate pollution, food safety, GMOs, and minimum wages, and permit the use of generic medicines.
CIA and Chevron against President of Ecuador
31.05.2015 | 12:24 | Nil NIKANDROV
The President of Ecuador Rafael Correa praised the book The CIA Against Latin America –Special Case – Ecuador. Over 30,000 copies are in circulation. Written by Jaime Galarza Zavala and Francisco Herrera Aráuz the book tells a story about the dirty tricks the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was engaged in during the 1960s in Ecuador. The authors offer interviews with Phillip Agee recorded at different times. Agee was a retired CIA operative who turned against the Agency…
Decrepit US Resorts to the Viagra of Militarism
31.05.2015 | 00:00 | Finian CUNNINGHAM
The behaviour of the United States is the archetypal response of a tyrant whose days are numbered. Or an empire that is crumbling before its very eyes. In denial of demise, it wields a still formidable military power in a bid to compensate for impotence in all other spheres: culturally, morally, economically, politically, the once virile giant is but a shell of its former self.
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The New Dark Age 