‘Sink two aircraft carriers’: Chinese Admiral’s chilling recipe to dominate the South China Sea

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman is silhouetted during a sunset. The ability of such ships to survive a modern battlefield is being questioned. Picture: USNSource: Supplied

 

Beijing has a devastating plan to force the world out of the East and South China Seas — and it could cost the US 10,000 lives.

They’re the pride of the US fleet: enormous 100,000 tonne, 333m long nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. But Beijing thinks they’re Washington’s achilles heel.

Rear Admiral Lou Yuan has told an audience in Shenzhen that the ongoing disputes over the ownership of the East and South China Seas could be resolved by sinking two US super carriers.

China’s Achilles Heel

Image credit: Poster Collection, US 3481, Hoover Institution Archives.

 

The best political commentary out of East Asia last week is the one published on December 15 by South Korea’s second largest newspaper, Dong-A Ilbo. The paper’s editors asked a question on the mind of the entire Korean nation after their president had been outrageously snubbed by the Chinese leadership during his four-day state visit to the communist country, and Korean reporters accompanying their president’s visit were savagely beaten by thuggish Chinese security guards: “China should reflect on this question: why is it that for such a big country, there is hardly any neighbor that can be described as China’s friend?”

America’s Cyber Vulnerabilities

ISTOCK.COM/MONSITJ

 

Cyber is the newest branch of warfare. Even in its baby stages, it has the potential to cripple the United States.

On the afternoon of Dec. 23, 2015, Ukrainian engineers from a Prykarpattya Oblenergo power station stared at a computer screen while the cursor progressed on its own across the monitor. The mouse on the table had not moved. But the cursor hovered over the station’s breakers, each one controlling power to thousands of Ukrainian citizens. Then, with one mouse click at a time, the hackers now in control of the power station began shutting off power to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians.

At the same time, Kyivoblenergo employees watched as dozens of substations shut down, one by one. In their case, there was no phantom mouse. A computer on their network that they could not locate was being used by someone to shut down the power—and there was nothing they could do.

If the Iran Nuclear Deal Collapses, Iranian Hackers Will Target These U.S. Companies

 

If the Iran nuclear deal fails, U.S. companies will suffer never-before-seen security breaches thanks to Tehran’s “hacker army.”

This particular cyber militia has been honing its skills and expanding since 2013. That’s when then-Iranian President Hassan Rouhani increased the country’s cybersecurity spending 12-fold, Business Insider reported in 2015. Rouhani allocated roughly $19.8 million to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Tehran’s military) to up its cyber capabilities.

Russia Breaking Wall St Oil Price Monopoly

Russia has just taken significant steps that will break the present Wall Street oil price monopoly, at least for a huge part of the world oil market. The move is part of a longer-term strategy of decoupling Russia’s economy and especially its very significant export of oil, from the US dollar, today the Achilles Heel of the Russian economy.

Later in November the Russian Energy Ministry has announced that it will begin test-trading of a new Russian oil benchmark. While this might sound like small beer to many, it’s huge. If successful, and there is no reason why it won’t be, the Russian crude oil benchmark futures contract traded on Russian exchanges, will price oil in rubles and no longer in US dollars. It is part of a de-dollarization move that Russia, China and a growing number of other countries have quietly begun.

America: In the Cybercrosshairs

There’s absolutely nothing more surreal than watching this live map of cyber attacks world wide, updated by the second in real-time.

It shows you who truly is the victim (United States) and who the aggressors are (Russia and China). You might even be surprised to see the amount of attacks originating in Germany.

You’re highly encouraged to click on the link and see for yourself how much of a barrage the United States is taking. As the article states, the only question remaining is how long America can hold on.

 

 

America’s utilities, refineries, military systems, water treatment plants and other facilities’ manual switches, gauges and knobs have been heavily replaced by digital switches, computer programs and monitors—all accessible via network. This makes it possible for foreign aggressors to enter U.S. infrastructure and wreak havoc. America’s great leap forward in innovation has also become one of its greatest weaknesses.The Trumpet and others have repeatedly warned of the danger of such dependence. But many people push the warnings aside due to the intangible nature of the threat. People normally can’t actually see enemies hacking into American facilities or business, so it remains out of mind.

A Tidal Wave of Gold Repatriations Could be Unleashed

 

 

A tidal wave of gold repatriations may have begun. As speculated in my last post, I raised a concern that should be shared with all western Central bankers…a widespread flood of countries demanding their gold back to their home soils.

This notion sounds logical to any sane individual, but to a central banker who is gold negative, this is their worst nightmare. To understand why, you need to step back and see the big picture, which shows the stark reality of how rare gold truly is and how little of it remains in western vaults, despite what the mainstream media would have you believe.

First it was Germany, then it was the Dutch. Soon it could be Switzerland depending on the results of their gold repatriation referendum, which central bankers are nervously awaiting the results. Now, there is France.

Iran’s Achilles Heel

Since the defeat of the UN Security Council Resolution on Syria, Berlin has been insisting on the overthrow of its long-term cooperation partner, Bashar al Assad. The German foreign minister declared in harmony with the other western powers that the Syrian president “no longer has a future.” This is a president, whose repression apparatus had used torture to prepare prisoners for interrogations by German officials and is currently held responsible for large-scale massacres. What remains uncertain is to what extent pro-western countries are furnishing weapons to the armed contingents of Syrian rebels, who, according to reports, are responsible for a massacre of dozens of Christians in the city of Homs. The civil war in Syria that seems inevitable falls in line with western geostrategic plans aimed at isolating Iran. This has been confirmed by reports from correspondents in Israel. The Syrian conflict provides a good example of how Berlin uses the issue of human rights arbitrarily, but very effectively. Even though the German government is posing as the protector of the Syrian opposition, whose oppression it had facilitated over the decades through its cooperation with the Syrian secret services, Berlin is still deporting Syrian refugees.

Full article: Iran’s Achilles Heel (German Foreign Policy)