The European Commission, which handles trade matters for the 28-country EU, “expects to conclude the relevant procedure in coordination with member states before the end of June,” said European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic (AFP Photo/John MACDOUGALL)
Brussels (AFP) – The EU on Wednesday said a raft of retaliatory tariffs, including on whiskey and motorcycles, against painful metals duties imposed by the US would be ready as early as July.
The European Commission, which handles trade matters for the 28-country bloc, “expects to conclude the relevant procedure in coordination with member states before the end of June,” said European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic at a news briefing. Continue reading →
So much for NATO-alliance members working for the common good.
In a move that has angered the U.S. for obvious reason, Turkey’s state-run news agency Anadolu Agency has leaked the precise locations of U.S. bases in northern Syria. The move – which exposes the exact locations of American soldiers on the front lines in the war-torn nation – has sent the ongoing feud between the two NATO allies to new lows. As Bloomberg details, in reports published in both Turkish and English on Tuesday, Anadolu provided detailed information about 10 U.S. bases in northern Syria, including troop counts and a map of the U.S. force presence in the Turkish version. Continue reading →
China may continue to ratchet up its retaliation against South Korea over Seoul’s decision to allow the deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery here, analysts said Monday.
In what was likely a retaliatory maneuver last week, Beijing abruptly banned South Korean airlines from operating chartered flights between the two countries beginning this month. Chinese airlines also withdrew their plan to run chartered flights to Korea. Continue reading →
As Russia detained eight commercial ships under Turkish flags in the Black Sea since the jet crisis had erupted between the two countries, Turkey has detained 27 Russian vessels in a retaliatory move, Russian Dozhd TV channel reported with reference to Turkish daily newspaper Habertürk.
According to unconfirmed information from the Turkish sources, the port inspectors deliberately disabled the equipment on board of one of the detained cargo vessels, MAHMUT SAKA, to create an objective reason for the detention. Continue reading →
Echoes of 1934 are thundering with increasing intensity.
In 1934, United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt outlawed the private ownership of gold. After confiscating billions in bullion, Roosevelt shocked the world by revaluing it. The cost for an ounce of gold, previously set at $20.67, was suddenly $35. Overnight, Roosevelt devalued the dollar by 69 percent.
The president told the country that it was a radical effort to stimulate America’s economy. A cheaper dollar would make America’s exports less expensive and help American companies sell more products to the rest of the world, he said. More money would flow into America, and more jobs would be created.
It did those things. And it also marched the world another giant step closer to war. Continue reading →
A former CIA agent and top U.S. defence expert has warned that the world is more dangerous than it has ever been due to the rise of heavily armed and well funded terrorist groups.
Although the 21st century has not yet been subjected to the mass carnage and industrial scale slaughter caused by the global conflicts between superpowers in the 20th century, the increased threat of worldwide terrorism ensures that no nation can consider itself truly safe.
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan called late last month for black Americans to “rise up” and “kill those who kill us” if the federal government fails to “intercede in our affairs.”
The call for violence came during a July 30 speech the radical leader delivered at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Miami. Continue reading →
A top Iranian official said on Monday that his country still has the right to avenge itself against Israel for an apparent IDF strike in Syria that killed an Iranian army general, despite a Hezbollah retaliatory attack last week that took the lives of two Israeli soldiers.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, who chairs the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said in an interview with the Al-Manar television channel that Iran reserves the right to respond to the January 18 attack on a convoy near Quneitra on the Syrian Golan Heights. Continue reading →
Switzerland had just abandoned its peg of the Swiss Franc to the Euro. The result was mayhem with an immediate 30% drop in the value of the Euro against the Franc, and billions of dollars of trading losses by banks and investors around the world.Several foreign exchange brokers went bankrupt because their customers could not settle their losing trades. The Swiss operated in total secrecy.
Currency wars resemble real wars in the sense that they do not involve continuous fighting all the time. At certain times, there are intense battles, followed by lulls, followed by more intense battles. Continue reading →
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Whistle-blower Donna Busche, who raised safety concerns at the nation’s most polluted nuclear weapons production site, was fired Tuesday from her job at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
Busche’s complaints are part of a string of whistle-blower and other claims related to the design and safety of an unfinished waste treatment plant at Hanford.
Busche, 50, said she was called into the office Tuesday morning and told she was being fired for cause.
“I turned in my key and turned in my badge and left the building,” Busche told the Associated Press in a telephone interview from Richland. Continue reading →
Senior Assad army officer tells Iranian news agency ‘Israel will also be set on fire’ if war waged against Syria
“If Damascus is attacked, Tel Aviv will become a target and a full-scale war against Syria will essentially justify an attack against Israel,” a senior Syrian army official told Iranian news agency Fars on Tuesday.
“If Syria is attacked, Israel will also be set on fire and such an attack will, in turn, engage Syria’s neighbors,” the source added. Continue reading →
Assassination triggers third front in Syrian civil war
A key commander of the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army was killed recently by Syria’s al Qaeda rebels, a sign the opposition to the Bashar al-Assad regime is fracturing and Islamist rebels are on the rise.
Kamal Hamami, the FSA commander, was killed as he went to a meeting of al Qaeda-backed rebels to discuss joint operations against the Syrian army, a U.S. official said, confirming Middle East press reports. Continue reading →
War could literally break out at any moment. In a nutshell: A war between Israel against Iran or Syria means war against the other nation due to a mutual defense pact, which means a regional war. A regional war means U.S. involvement and the a high likelihood of the Strait of Hormuz being closed. Once this happens, global oil prices would skyrocket and have a dramatic effect on the world economy – possibly a global collapse. Other threats include China dumping the US Dollar in retaliation and collapsing the currency, which they’ve been itching to do for quite a long time now. They’ve only needed a good enough reason.
Yet another scenario is a chemical, biological, EMP or suitcase nuke attack within the United States homeland. There are already thousands of sleeper cells planted and waiting for the green light. Hopefully none of these come to pass, but Israel with its back against the wall and having to defend its existence opens Pandora’s Box.
Syria declared it was ready to launch a “surprise” retaliation attack against Israel yesterday as Bashar al-Assad’s allies Russia and Iran both condemned air strikes on a suspected weapons shipment near Damascus.
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Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Abdul-Karim Ali, said Damascus “has the option and the capacity to surprise in retaliation” and that it was up to the relevant authorities to prepare the time and place for action. Continue reading →
(CBS News) GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel bombarded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with nearly 200 airstrikes early Saturday, the military said, widening a blistering assault on Gaza rocket operations to include the prime minister’s headquarters, a police compound and a vast network of smuggling tunnels.
Correspondent Allen Pizzey reports that, despite vague talk of a cease-fire, Hamas managed to hit a southern Israeli city with four rockets, and retaliation continued unabated. Continue reading →
Out of all this, there is one thing that needs to be made crystal clear:
The supreme leader Ayatollah is the highest authority in Iran. He is second to no one. He gives the orders, the rest listen. Likewise with Ali al-Sistani in Iraq.
Having said this, what we can discern from his remarks is that we can be 99.9% certain when he says something, he means it.
The middle east exploding into a regional war and spilling into other countries was already a foregone conclusion and posted about here several times. Now we have a pretty solid timeframe.
Additionally, Iran already has hundreds, if not thousands of terror cells throughout the United States — through proxies such as Hezbollah, the IRGC, Fatah, so on and so forth, for example. Once they get the “green light”, that’s it. It will not be the usual “it’s happening in a far off land” scenario.
This is not to cause panic or ‘fear monger’ as some would call it, but America’s homeland and the public needs to wake up, brace for the worst and hope for the best should war really kick off. America has never had such a threat on the homeland before.
Here is the full article, and video:
On July 27, just before Friday prayers, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei summoned top Iranian military chiefs for what he called “their last war council.”
“We’ll be at war within weeks,” he told the gathering, debkafile’s exclusive Iranian and intelligence sources disclose.
Present were Defense Minister General Ahmad Vahidi, Khamenei’s military adviser General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, Armed Forces Chief Major General Seyed Hassan Firuzabadi, Revolutionary Guards Corps commander General Mohammad Ali Jafari and Al Qods Brigades chief General Qassem Soleimani. The commanders of the air force, the navy and ground forces were also there.
Each of the participants was tapped to report on the readiness of his branch or sector for shouldering its contingency mission.
While retaliation had been exhaustively drilled in regular military exercises in the past year, Khamenei ordered the biggest fortification project in Iran’s history to save its nuclear program from even the mightiest of America’s super-weapons. Rocks are being gathered from afar, piled on key nuclear installations, covered with many tons of poured concrete and finally plated with steel.
That same Friday, the US Air force unveiled its new Massive Ordnance Penetrators. Each bunker buster weighs 30 pounds and is able to penetrate 60 feet of reinforced concrete.
Turning to retaliation, the war council endorsed a battery of paybacks for potential US and/or Israeli pre-emptive strikes against its nuclear program. They would start by announcing enhanced uranium enrichment up to 60 percent – that is close to weapons grade.
Oft-tested ballistic missiles, Shehab-3, would be loosed against Israel, Saudi Arabia and American Middle East and Gulf military installations.
Hizballah in Lebanon and Hamas and Jihad Islami in Gaza stand ready to pitch in against Israel with attacks from the north and the southwest.
Saudi oil export terminals would be blown up and mines sown in the Strait of Hormuz to impede the export of one-fifth of the world’s oil.
Khamenei put before his war council a timeline of weeks for the coming conflict – September or October.
Global Geopolitics 