Double-edged Swords

Did Trump collude with the government of Saudi Arabia, specifically with the Saudi war criminal Mohammed bin Salman in his money-grabbing, so-called anti-corruption purge of wealthy (and corrupt) members of the Al Saud family and businessmen?

In August, Trump rolled back anti-corruption and bribery regulations in the energy industry, taking bribery (fees, baksheesh) for oil and energy contracts off the books.

It's a double-edged sword. MbS uses the fat fees previously garnered as a reason to grab the bank accounts of those who received them under negotiations with their U.S. and other foreign partners. Word is getting out of the names of his prey, some of the biggest Saudi players in the industry. It's terribly convenient for American companies -- who provided the "fees" to Al Saud family members and business people and will be exposed during this purge -- will escape the rule of law here.

Is the threat of a new refugee crisis in Europe a double-edged sword? If Israel, the U.S. and Mohammad bin Salman continue with the belligerent chatter about attacking Lebanon, then it appears to be so.

Anybody else notice that Bahrain is shaped like a dagger? 

It seems that Bahrain's dictator and his family are whoring for Bonesaw, kissing the forehead that ordered the bombs to drop on Yemen's poorest children in their schools and buses, bowing to Israel's greed for all of Palestinian land and resources and support by clown foreign minister for Israeli bombing of several fellow Arab countries on phony security grounds. 

Supposedly, Bahrain needs the money from the blood-soaked hands of two men, of Bonesaw and his brain in Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed. Why? Because the ancient unelected prime minister and all the "royal" women have socked away billions of unearned income and corruption is endemic. The island is poor. The rulers won't use their ill-gotten gains to improve the lot of the whole island.

It could be amusing in the Bahrain dagger could be used to cut that dirty, dirty connection, then bring back the assets abroad that aren't making income for the state and remake itself until global warming puts it under water.

#Bonesaw #Bahrain #SaudiArabia #MohammedbinSalman #MohammedbinZayed #Palestine #Bribery #Corruption #Baksheesh #Dagger #ComedianForeignMinisters #Lebanon #Yemen #Israel #PalestinePeacPlan #Kushner #Adelson #Trump #Refugees #WarForIsrael

Dunces, Dukes and Princes talk to Trump

what a great photo by Saudi Press Agency

Dunce hats on a few of the Persian Gulf autocrats.

Dunces. Dunces who managed to get U.S.dunces to kill a lot of Iraqis, Syrians and Yemenis, among others, on their behalf. Petrodollars buys killing to save their dunce necks.

photo copied from John Duke Anthony & Fahad Nazer piece:

http://ncusar.org/aa/2016/12/gcc-us-relations-under-trump-administration/

National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations - home of a lot of paid flacks including Anthony himself, disgraced-leaker-of-secrets Petraeus, three Saudi princes including neocon Sunni-terrorist fanboy Turki, professional apologist Nawaf Obaid, and at least one Al-Jubair not Adel, Jubeir spelled both ways, plus Michael Hudson, Raghida Dergham and others.

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I found the piece to be distasteful and shameful, let alone one-sided P.R. meant to sway the dunces without flags over their heads, namely, the uninformed. Well, it's paid. Those pundits get paid to do the shameful deeds, participate in repression of truth for money, spread false stories and propaganda for money. When the money sits in the same room with the pen, money talks. Money has the room as well as the floor.

1) Anthony wrote about anticipation that President-elect Trump will take seriously the GCC’s deep concerns about Iran’s policies in the Arab world. 

My question is logical and different and deserves to be asked. Will Trump take seriously Iran's deep concerns about GCC member's disturbing, sectarian war-mongering, terrorist-supporting policies in the Middle East, indeed, in the world?

 With Generals Flynn and Mattis each speaking into one of Trump's ears, he hears some anti-Iran this, anti-Iran that talk. He hears it's good for business. Yeah, yeah, the defense industry can continue to sell arms to Gulfies, billions and billions worth.

    But the Saudis can try to cut off the head of their own snake. Obama's Pentagon has assisted the Saudis and their lousy coalition in the disastrous Yemen war, and maybe Trump will continue to support bombing and starving people for Mo Salman to prove his manhood, for occasional swipes at Al Qaeda or ISIS, for military bases and pipelines from deserts to seas. It'll take guts to end the U.S. part in that dreadful war. Trump has a big mouth but I don't know if he's got any guts.

 Fortunately for Iran, Trump will also hear Rex Tillerson, with both ears, whether he gets the Sec. State post or not. He's already got a pipeline to Trump's ear and that's not going away. I have a strong feeling that Tillerson feels strongly about, say, the facilities at Ras Tanura and Jubail and thinks about where Iranian rockets could land That's the kind of money that I think will talk to Trump.      

2) Pity no dunce hat for JD Anthony who calls Iraqi PMUs non-state actors. They're under control of the Iraqi Prime Minister. Period. U.S. wasn't in favor of Iraqi parliament approval of placing the PMUs in with the regular armed forces for campaigns, but it's happened. PMUs are not going to be allowed to enter with some other Iraqi and Kurdish forces in some places specifically to avoid sectarianism and the appearance thereof. 

So far the reports even from U.S. general in major news media have been positive to the PMUs' effectiveness and speed. They've gone where they were ordered to go and not further. 

There's plenty more in the piece which runs counter to facts and would make lousy policy. Think-tankery public relations is going to be getting more publicity about its funders and the extreme views they propagate. The Saudis multi-million dollar handouts to those chaps aren't going to be enough to cover up their evil deeds. They deserve dunce hats. 

The Stench

So the Saudis host one of their favorite terrorist children, Ahrar Al-Sham, in Riyadh after telling the lousy Jordanian wimp not to put that group of terrorists on the so-called List of Arab Sunni Terrorist Groups he's supposedly compiling. Al Nusrah Front is deliberately kept off the list, too, as it's also preferred by the Saudis, Qataris, Turks, the Israelis and the warmonger and so-called R2P elements of the U.S. decision-making apparatus. The long-prevailing explanation to the low-information public is that ousting Assad is necessary to get rid of ISIS, ISIL, DAESH. The fact that the so-called coalition didn't have much success against the terrorists fed that notion. Then the Syrian state got some serious help from its friends against the Sunni Wahhabist goons and their various backers who want to destroy the state for their various and well-known reasons amongst those who pay attention.

No matter the aroma of Mo Nayef and Mo Salman, the stench of Bandar bin Sultan wafts widely.

Al Saud play Game of Frogs

Al Saud headmaster say to Al Khalifa frogs, "Jump!"

Al Khalifa frogs say, "How high?"

Al Saud say to convicted war criminal and well-paid mercenary frog leading Sudan, "Jump!"

Al Bashir says, "How high?"

Al Saud say to Al Nahyan, "Join us in demanding frogs jump."

Al Nahyan "Okay, but maybe it would be better if an older, more experienced crown prince operated in the shadows, pulling frog puppet strings."

Al Saud say to Al Sabah, "Join us in demanding frogs jump."

Al Sabah say, "We prefer to mediate frog jumping competition."

Al Saud say to Qatar's Al Thani, "Jump!"

Qataris say, "We ain't frogs."

Shaikh Nimr Al Nimr Will Get His Revenge, Posthumously

Sheikh Nimr Al Nimr, may he rest in peace, called for secession of the most-heavily Shia populated province of Saudi Arabia if there was no end to governmental discrimination, abuse, repression, jailing, torturing and murdering of its Shia citizens who live there and have lived there before the Al Sauds "unified" parts of Arabia. The fact that the province holds massive quantities of hydrocarbons by which the Al Sauds have enriched themselves and blackmailed the world is not unknown to its underprivileged residents.

Shaikh Nimr's martyrdom.

In the dark of night following the fireworks of New Year and by order of the murderous thug leading the Saudi regime, Shaikh Nimr was martyred by gory beheading for peacefully expressing his political views which may help bring about the breakup of the KSA in ways long sought by others.

2015 proved yet again that the Al Saud cannot competently manage the Hajj and the Holy Places. Calls have been loudly made since the two disasters last year for the administration to be removed from the Saudis, for an internationalized body instead.

Yemen would like three of its historical provinces returned to their sovereignty. Perhaps they might consider additional territory as part of the costs the Sauds must pay for the death, destruction and chaos they've wrought in the reckless Mohammed bin Salman "Bonesaw" and dirty war prince Mohammed bin Zayed's war and starvation campaign against the mostly innocent Yemenis.

(It's been reported that Mohammed bin Salman loves to play poker and gamble. One hopes he pays mightily for the gamble in Yemen, but so far it appears Bonesaw is using the country's funds and only mightily paying Trump, including the support of Kushner's plan to gift all of Palestine to Israel.)

The U.S. government and Big Oil had a well-developed contingency plan to break up KSA into five parts around the time in September 1980 when Saddam Hussein began the long war against Iran. U.S. Sec. Def. Brown's comments about it were in the press and I repeated them in a private conversation in Bahrain shortly thereafter with a senior government official who is now even more senior, the sel-appointed king. He laughed, but it was out the side of his face.

The Eastern Province is surely a candidate for separation, and more if there is justice. Adding a bridge and fast trains and some islands to which it is historically-related would help resolve a sectarian issue in three Persian Gulf countries on the Arab side, but that is down the road a bit.

Meanwhile, the energy companies who are happy to do business with Iran will be more than happy to do business with the Shia-dominated government of the new province just as they now do business with the Al Sauds. Green is green, isn't it?

Shaikh Nimr will not be forgotten. 

Al Sauds Don't Drain the Swamp, They Drain The People's Money

It's been reported widely this week that the IMF warned Saudi Arabia may run extremely low in financial assets in five years unless they sharply reduce their spending. It's also widely suggested that the funds being depleted so fast are due to low oil prices (nevermind the Saudis wanted them low and have kept them low for multiple reasons) and to costs related to regional wars.

Why isn't the reporting more accurate? Why can't the Independent or the Guardian or the lousy New York Times or the Washington Post reporters include just a couple more salient facts and less euphemism? "Regional wars?" Why not say the Saudis are spending massive funds in support of terrorists and terrorism in Syria and Iraq? Why not say that the Saudis spent billions to overthrow the democratically elected president of Egypt and keep that sissie in power? Why not say the Saudis are spending massive funds bombing the poorest nation in the Middle East to smithereens, hiring soldiers from other countries to do what they cannot do themselves on the ground, committing war crimes, patrolling the sea to stop enough food, water and medicine for the millions of people affected by the Young Hothead General's need to prove his manhood?

Why not say that the Al Saud family are the biggest thieves on earth, that their greed and corruption appears to know no bounds? Daily there are reports of the massive theft of public money and plots on how to get more of it at the highest levels of the Saudi dynasty. The 12 to 16 billion dollar Lockheed Martin deal announced this week? How many of those billions is baksheesh? How much is the share of Mohammad bin Salman in that baksheesh?

Even some reporters whose work I respect get a fail, and the royal lovers at SUSRIS get the cake.