“A century ago, oil was just an obscure commodity; today it is almost as vital to human existence as water.” – James Buchanan
There are countless factors that contribute to the geopolitical reality of today’s world. None are more influential than the issue of energy which lies at the heart of some of the most complex and difficult issues facing nations all over the world. By examining the core issues related to energy – exploration, delivery infrastructure, environmental impacts – one begins to get a clearer picture of just how power operates and the degree to which nations (and empires) are in perpetual competition over resources and influence. What is at stake is not merely the resources themselves, but rather control of the flow of those resources to the competitor and to the world market. Wars, alliances, and large-scale investment are all predicated on the politics of energy, making it a fundamental part of geopolitical balance of power
To the residents of Baluchistan it must be puzzling that this remote, sparsely populated region in Pakistan’s southwest is increasingly gaining the attention of far-flung corners of the globe, from Beijing to Moscow to Tel Aviv to Washington. A rugged, arid region dominated by the ethnic minority Baluch tribes, Baluchistan straddles parts of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Its rugged, mountainous landscape has historically sheltered it from the various imperial, regional and national powers that have claimed authority over it, from the Persians and Indo-Parthians thousands of years ago to Iran and Pakistan in more recent times. Now, however, the region is suddenly gaining attention on the geopolitical stage as a strategic area in one of the most hotly-contested regions of the globe. Along with this newfound attention has come the sudden attention of human rights groups and even Congressmen who now claim to be deeply concerned with the struggle for independence of the Baluch peoples.
This is our EyeOpener Report by James Corbett, presenting Baluchistan, Minerals, Pipelines and terrorists in the Imperial Great Game of think tanks, policy “experts,” human rights groups and Washington insiders calling for support of terror groups in the region.
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The Words in Obama’s Coming Victory Declaration: “Freedom” & “Democracy”, but certainly not “Pipeline”
By William Blum
With the US war in Iraq supposedly having reached a good conclusion (or halfway decent … or better than nothing … or let’s get the hell out of here while some of us are still in one piece and there are some Iraqis we haven’t yet killed), the best and the brightest in our government and media turn their thoughts to what to do about Afghanistan. It appears that no one seems to remember, if they ever knew, that Afghanistan was not really about 9-11 or fighting terrorists (except the many the US has created by its invasion and occupation), but was about pipelines.
President Obama declared in August 2009: “But we must never forget this is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans.” Read more
What’s in the Store for the 5th Largest Supplier of Oil to the United States?
By William Engdahl
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and its largest oil producer, is from all evidence being systematically thrown into chaos and a state of civil war. The recent surprise decision by the government of Goodluck Jonathan to abruptly lift subsidies on imported gasoline and other fuel has a far more sinister background than mere corruption and the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) is playing a key role. China appears to be the likely loser along with Nigeria’s population.
The recent strikes protesting the government’s abrupt elimination of gasoline and other fuel subsidies, that brought Nigeria briefly to a standstill, came as a surprise to most in the country. Months earlier President Jonathan had promised the major trade union organizations that he would conduct a gradual four-stage lifting of the subsidy to ease the economic burden. Instead, without warning he announced an immediate full removal of subsidies effective January 1, 2012. It was “shock therapy” to put it mildly. Read more
The Shady National Endowment for Democracy &The Prime Agenda of ‘Whoever’ is Next US President
By F. William Engdahl
Washington clearly wants ‘finito’ with Russia’s Putin as in basta! Or as they said in Egypt last spring, Kefaya–enough! Hillary Clinton and friends have apparently decided Russia’s prospective next president, Vladimir Putin, is a major obstacle to their plans. Few however understand why. Russia today, in tandem with China and to a significant degree Iran, form the spine, however shaky, of the only effective global axis of resistance to a world dominated by one sole superpower.
On December 8 several days after election results for Russia’s parliamentary elections were announced, showing a sharp drop in popularity for Prime Minister Putin’s United Russia party, Putin accused the United States and specifically Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of fuelling the Russian opposition protesters and their election protests. Putin stated, “The (US) Secretary of State was quick to evaluate the elections, saying that they are unfair and unjust even before she received materials from the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (the OSCE international election monitors-w.e.) observers.”[1]
Putin went on to claim that Clinton’s premature comments were the necessary signal to the waiting opposition groups that the US Government would back their protests. Clinton’s comments, the seasoned Russian intelligence pro stated, became a “signal for our activists who began active work with the US Department of State.” [2]
Major western media chose either to downplay the Putin statement or to focus almost entirely on the claims of an emerging Russian opposition movement. A little research shows that, if anything, Putin was downplaying the degree of brazen US Government interference into the political processes of his country. In this case the country is not Tunisia or Yemen or even Egypt. It is the world’s second nuclear superpower, even if it might still be an economic lesser power. Hillary is playing with thermonuclear fire.Read more
The Manas Air Base, situated near the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, has played a key role in the increasingly important Central Asian region since its inception. First opened in December 2001 to support the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, the Manas Air Base plays host to the US Ninth Air Force and serves primarily as a transit point for US goods and personnel coming and going from Afghanistan. As part of the so-called Northern Distribution Network, a key supply route for NATO troops in Afghanistan that bypasses the now-blockaded Pakistani borders, Manas continues to be a strategically vital asset for the US. At the same time, the base has also been a point of contention with the locals for years, and the controversy doesn’t seem likely to die down any time soon.
As important as the base is to the Kyrgyz people, the true nature of Manas remains an open question. For years, it has been at the centre of a string of allegations revolving around drug-running, terrorism and stage-managed revolutions.
This is our EyeOpener Report by James Corbett, presenting Kyrgyzstan’s Manas Air Base, and exploring its reported position as a center where the US conducts covert meetings and operations with various militant Islamic groups such as Pakistani Jundullah, its importance as a major transit point for Western controlled and routed Afghan heroin, the true nature of the Tulip Revolution, the incoming Kyrgyz president’s latest threats to close the base, and the nation’s position on a fault line in the tectonics of geopolitics.
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This is Part 6 of our interview series on the New World Order. You can listen to the previous interviews in this series here: Part I, Part II, Part III , Part IV, and Part 5.
Investigative journalist and NATO expert Rick Rozoff joins us to discuss the eighteen-year-old project of Zbigniew Brzezinski, Paul Wolfowitz and their cabal to destroy the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States and create a chain of buffer states around Russia, enclosing it with NATO member states and partners. He provides us with analyses and implications of the invasion of Afghanistan by the U.S. and NATO, and the duo’s expansion into Central Asia where Russian, Chinese and Iranian interests converge. Mr. Rozoff talks about the Central Asia chessboard and how the region may be transformed into a battleground of conflicting 21st century geopolitical interests, the role of Islamic extremism and how it is used by the West on this grand chess board, Mujahideen and Al Qaeda’s partnership with US-NATO in the Balkans, Caucasus and Central Asia operations, the real mission of Afghanistan’s NATO-trained 7,000 troops as guardians of the oil and gas pipeline connecting Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India- the TAPI pipeline & more!
Rick Rozoff is an investigative journalist based in Chicago and has been an active opponent of war, militarism and intervention for over 40 years. He manages the Stop NATO e-mail list , and is the editor of Stop NATO, a website on the threat of international militarization, especially on the globalization of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Mr. Rozoff has a graduate degree in European literature.
The large, sparsely-populated nation of Kazakhstan has become in recent years the poster child of a new type of geopolitics: celebrating only its 20th year since declaring independence from the Soviet Union, with a population of just 16 million, this unlikely Central Asian state is gradually becoming a dominant player in the region for its rich oil and gas reserves and its strategic position as a key land bridge between Europe and Asia.
Part of the so-called “New Silk Road” countries facilitating trade between East Asia and Western Europe, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are assuming a new role in international relations as they become more important in trans-continental trade and as their energy resources are opened up to foreign business interests. Chief amongst these emerging lynchpin countries is Kazakhstan, a nation whose international star is rising as it adds its recent chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the world’s largest regional security pact, to its growing list of organizational affiliations, including its seat at the UN, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as well as its partnership action plan with NATO.
This is our EyeOpener Report by James Corbett, presenting Kazakhstan, its vast untapped oil, gas and mineral reserves resources, the fierce competition between the US, China and Russia for access to its resources and transportation corridors, the tug-of-war of sorts that is happening as the country positions itself in an emerging power struggle between the East and West, and the role of Islamic radicalism as a proxy strike force to be funded, armed, trained, and used by the West for terrorizing the country should they stray too far from Washington’s agenda.
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The West’s Active Funding, Training & Protection of the Caucasus’ Terrorists
Turkish claims earlier this year that three Chechen militants who were gunned down in Istanbul were in fact killed by Russian agents hardly made a ripple in the mainstream western media. Seen as a minor footnote to the ongoing Russian edition of the so-called Global War on Terrorism, it seemed like an interesting but isolated incident. Far from being unusual, however, what this incident points to is only the latest data point on a graph that demonstrates protection of Chechen terrorists from the capital of Turkey right into the heart of Europe.
What this case and many others points to is the fundamental hypocrisy underlying the US-led, NATO-enforced, Western-backed “war on terror” paradigm; just as the self-same Afghan mujahedeen could be called “freedom fighters” by one American president and “evildoers” by another, so, too, authorities can use the “freedom fighter” excuse to justify looking the other way when Islamic extremists from the Northern Caucasus set up bases in Europe. Upon closer examination, however, the West has not been involved in merely tacit support of the terrorists in the Caucasus, but in active funding, training and protection of these terrorists.
This is our EyeOpener Report by James Corbett presenting the West’s continuous support and funding of terrorists in the Caucasus, Moscow’s evident conviction that the Chechen terror organizations are being protected and supported by the West, and exploring the likely reasons behind the puzzling relative silence from the Kremlin on these still-hidden realities and facts behind the terror in the Caucasus.
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Covert Military Tension & the Ultimate Endgame of Western Interests in Eurasia
Pipeline politics have entered the North American consciousness over the last several months, with the proposed Keystone Pipeline connecting the Alberta Oil Sands to the United States becoming a contentious political issue sparking a storm of protest from a concerned population.
Much less in the North American consciousness, however, are a series of pipeline projects both proposed and under construction that are set to change the face of Central Asia, and to rewire the political relations of Eurasia as a whole. The political implications of these project are enormous, if underappreciated, and the potential economic rewards for the players involved are enormous, a fact certainly not lost on the players involved.
This is our EyeOpener Report by James Corbett, joined by our distinguished guests Pepe Escobar and William Engdahl, presenting the West’s scramble to secure pipeline concessions in the highly strategic Caspian basin region, the likely destabilization game in these key states in a campaign of terror that will be blamed on Islamic fundamentalists or other shadowy terror groups, and how this destabilization would benefit the very NATO countries with an interest in gaining control in the region.
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“A century ago, oil was just an obscure commodity; today it is almost as vital to human existence as water.” – James Buchanan
To the residents of Baluchistan it must be puzzling that this remote, sparsely populated region in Pakistan’s southwest is increasingly gaining the attention of far-flung corners of the globe, from Beijing to Moscow to Tel Aviv to Washington. A rugged, arid region dominated by the ethnic minority Baluch tribes, Baluchistan straddles parts of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Its rugged, mountainous landscape has historically sheltered it from the various imperial, regional and national powers that have claimed authority over it, from the Persians and Indo-Parthians thousands of years ago to Iran and Pakistan in more recent times. Now, however, the region is suddenly gaining attention on the geopolitical stage as a strategic area in one of the most hotly-contested regions of the globe. Along with this newfound attention has come the sudden attention of human rights groups and even Congressmen who now claim to be deeply concerned with the struggle for independence of the Baluch peoples.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and its largest oil producer, is from all evidence being systematically thrown into chaos and a state of civil war. The recent surprise decision by the government of Goodluck Jonathan to abruptly lift subsidies on imported gasoline and other fuel has a far more sinister background than mere corruption and the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) is playing a key role. China appears to be the likely loser along with Nigeria’s population.
