Eurasia: A Geo-political re-alignment

[Magda Hassan]

This bodes well Paul. A refreshing read.

[Paul Rigby]

Establishment is Afraid of End The Fed Movement in Germany

[video=youtube_share;lIjYjkJt2us]http://youtu.be/lIjYjkJt2us[/video]

[Lauren Johnson]

And the End the Fed movement is being labeled as a nazi movement by their MSM.

[Magda Hassan]

And the End the Fed movement is being labeled as a nazi movement by their MSM.

By creating a taboo in associating mention of the banks and its processes with anti-Semitism. Though none of the protestors that I saw made any mention of religion just the undesired impacts of corporate capitalism on all people of all nations and any and no religion.

[Lauren Johnson]

Introduction: A global shift in US strategy is currently underway, with America transitioning from the world policeman' to the Lead From Behind mastermind. This fundamental shift essentially entails the US moving from a majority forward-operating military to a defensive stay-behind force. Part of this transformation is the reduction of the conventional military and its replacement with special forces and intelligence recruits. Private military companies (PMCs) are also occupying a higher role in the US' grand strategy. Of course, it is not to say that the US no longer has the capability or will to forward advance not at all but that the evolving US strategy prefers more indirect and nefarious approaches towards projecting power besides massive invasions and bombing runs. In this manner, it is following the advice of Sun Tzu who wrote that "supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting." The outcome is a mixture of Color Revolutions, unconventional warfare, and mercenary interventions that avoids the direct use of US combat troops while relying heavily on regional allies' proxy involvement. This results in the promotion of American policy via oblique methods and the retention of relative plausible deniability. Importantly, the absence of conventional forces is thought to reduce the risk of a direct confrontation between the US and Russia, China, and Iran, the primary targets of these proxy wars.

The Eurasian-wide plan of strategic destabilization and state fracturing owes its genesis to Zbigniew Brzezinski and his Eurasian Balkans concept. The US is flexible in practicing this concept, and it does not meet a dead end if the destabilization encounters an obstacle and cannot be advanced. Should this occur, as it has in Ukraine, Syria and Iraq, and possibly soon in the South China Sea, the stratagem evolves into maximizing the chaos within the launch pad states that are positioned on the doorsteps of the Eurasian Powers. The idea is to create black holes' of absolute disorder in which Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran are "damned if they do, damned if they don't" intervene. Ideally, the US prefers that its intended targets are sucked into a quagmire that bleeds them dry and destabilizes them at home, per the example of the Soviet-Afghan War which Brzezinski conspired over 30 years ago. Moving away from the expansive Eurasian Balkans and reverting to the roots of Afghan anarchy' is the nature of the Reverse Brzezinski, and it poses the ultimate dilemma-like trap for the Eurasian Powers.

The Afghan Prototype:

The US' experience in training and arming the Mujahideen to bring about and manage the Soviet-Afghan War can be seen as the first foray into the Lead From Behind strategy. The US worked hand-in-hand with Pakistan and other Muslim states to sow the seeds of chaos in Afghanistan (including the creation of the international mercenary organization Al Qaeda), thus creating a strategic destabilization so tempting that the Soviet Union could not resist the urge to intervene. This was the goal all along and it was a resounding success. It also the pinnacle of Cold War-era proxy warfare that meshed perfectly with the international balance of power at the time. It was so successful that it is credited as one of the contributing factors to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. This altered the global power balance and resulted in the US' unipolar moment. During this period of time, the Afghan Lead From Behind prototype was no longer seen as necessary because the US now had the power, will, and opportunity to project power directly and forcefully all across the world.

The Unipolar Moment of Shock and Awe:

Drunk with power after emerging victorious from the Cold War, the US began a spate of military interventions beginning with the First Gulf War. Although marketed as a multilateral operation, the US was the primary participant in the warring coalition. Within a few years, the US was then bombing Serbian positions in Bosnia before initiating a unilateral NATO war in Serbia's Kosovo province. It was the bombing of Serbia that awakened Russian decision makers to the need to defend their country from future threats, thus beginning a commitment towards modernizing its defense industry in order to deter a direct American/NATO attack against Russian interests. Nonetheless, this did not result in an immediate change, and in the meantime, the US' power had yet to climax.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the US undertook military operations and a subsequent occupation of Afghanistan, a country situated halfway across the world and near the Heartland of Eurasia. This massive expansion of American military might and reach inside the continent was unprecedented, yet even that did not mark the highlight of the post-Cold War era. The epitome of the unipolar moment was actually the 2003 Shock and Awe campaign in Iraq. During that time, the US massively bombarded Iraq in a show of force definitely made to remind the rest of the world of the US' sole superpower status. It also deployed incredible amounts of troops and weaponry into the Mideast. Ironically enough, the subsequent financial and opportunity costs of the war and occupation would play a strong role in decreasing American power and allowing other countries such as Russia and China to catch up in challenging and defending against the US within their own spheres of interest.
Map of the Eurasian Balkans "war on terrorism" from the book The Grand Chessboard by Brzezinski. page 124. 1997

The Eurasian Balkans:

It was at the middle of the unipolar moment in 1997 that Brzezinski authored "The Grand Chessboard" in which he laid out the US' geostrategic priorities for Eurasia and how to best achieve them. He postulated that it was imperative for the US to retain a commanding influence over Eurasia, and that one of the best ways to do this was to prevent collusion between Russia and China. The strategic Balkanizing' of societies across the Eurasian landmass is a pivotal means of destabilizing the entire continent. If taken to its logical end, it is envisioned to create a tidal wave of ethnic, religious, and political anarchy that can crash into and dismember the diverse civilizations of Russia, China, and Iran. In some aspects, the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and their chaotic aftermath can be seen as following the philosophic dictates of this principle. The US has also historically undertaken regime change operations as a method of advancing continental destabilization and pushing Western power deeper into Eurasia.

Regime Change:

Regime change has always been a characteristic of American foreign policy, owing back to the covert overthrow of the Syrian government in 1949. Since then, it has been estimated that the CIA has overthrown or attempted to overthrow over 50 governments, although it has only admitted to 7 of them. Regime change can be either direct or indirect. Pertaining to the former, one can look at the examples of Panama in 1989 or Iraq in 2003, whereas the latter can be witnessed by the 1953 Iranian coup or the trail of Color Revolutions.

As can be evidenced from the recent Ukrainian coup, regime change today can be as cheap as only $5 billion, a fraction of the cost that it would have taken to directly overthrow Yanukovich and invade the country. Additionally, owing to international circumstances and the resurgence of Russian military might and will, it may not have been possible for the US to do so without risking a major war. Therefore, covert regime change operations are seen as preferable when the interests of other Great Powers are at stake. It is very important for the new leadership to have perceived legitimacy within the international community following the coup. Seeing as how Western democracy is viewed as a legitimate governing standard, pro-Western Color Revolutions are the optimal method of regime change among targeted states not currently practicing this form of government.

Color Revolutions:

Color Revolutions are outside-supported pro-Western coups. They specifically use the tools of social media and NGOs to infiltrate societies, increase their ranks, and expand their efficiency after the regime change operation has been commenced. Because they typically manipulate large groups of people, they create the illusion of a broad grassroots movement of disaffected masses rising up against a tyrannical dictatorship. This misleading perception enables the coup attempt to gain wide support and acceptance among the Western community, and it also denigrates the legitimate authorities that are trying to put down the illegal overthrow. The manipulation-prone masses are drawn to the street movements largely as a result of Gene Sharp's tactics, which adroitly seek to amplify social protest movements to their maximum possible extent.

This new method of warfare is extremely effective because it presents a startling dilemma for the affected state does the leadership use force against the civilian protesters (de-facto human shields unaware that they are being politically manipulated) in order to strike at the militant Right Sektor-esque core? And with the eyes of the Western media following the developments, can the government afford to be isolated from that community of nations if it legally defends itself? Thus, Color Revolutions present a strategic Catch-22 for the targeted government, and it is therefore not difficult to see why they had been deployed all across the post-Soviet space and beyond. They have replaced traditional' CIA coup action and have become the modus operandi of covert regime change.


To be continued…
Andrew Korybko is the American political correspondent of Voice of Russia who currently lives and studies in Moscow, exclusively for ORIENTAL REVIEW.

[Lauren Johnson]

Towards the Lead From Behind Strategy and Its Official Acceptance:

Conventional (forceful) regime change strategies (Panama, Afghanistan, Iraq) were possible in a unipolar world, but with the unipolar moment fading, the US has been compelled to revive the Lead From Behind template first flirted with during the Soviet-Afghan War. The first official indication that the US was moving towards this strategy was its behavior during the 2011 Libyan War, the first-ever use of the Lead From Behind moniker. This was followed by then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' final speech that summer, in which he implored NATO allies to do more to assist the US in tackling global challenges. It thus became clear that the US was no longer as enthusiastic about "going it alone" as it had been before, nor does it seem willing to pose the ultimatum of "you are either with us or against us."

The indication that American power is relatively slipping vis-à-vis the other Great Powers was formally seconded by the National Intelligence Council in late 2012. In its "Global Trends 2030" publication, it writes about how the US will be "first among equals" because "the unipolar moment' is over, and Pax Americana' the era of American ascendancy in international politics that began in 1945 is fast winding down." Clearly, under such a competitive environment, aggressive unilateralism will be more difficult to deploy without risking collateral consequences. This further gave an added impulse to the Lead Form Behind strategy's implementation into mainstream American military planning.

Finally, President Obama institutionalized the Lead From Behind template when he spoke at West Point at the end of May. In his speech, he notable said that "America must lead on the world stage… but U.S. military action cannot be the only or even primary component of our leadership in every instance. Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail." This has been interpreted as the US formally abandoning the unilateral go it alone' doctrine except under exceptional circumstances. At this point, it is evident that the US has definitively displayed its intention to trade the world policeman post for the Lead From Behind mastermind mantle. Further illustrating this point, the theater-wide social and political transformation that the US envisioned with the Arab Spring could not have succeeded with unilateral action. Therefore, the year 2011 represents the official end of the unipolar moment and the beginning of the Lead From Behind era, which is in and of itself the US military's adaptation to a multipolar world.

The Syrian and Ukrainian Improvisations:

Both Syria and Ukraine represent tactical improvisations of the Lead From Behind and Eurasian Balkans strategies. The resultant hybrid presents the first indication of what the US' new approach to warfare looks like.

Beginning with Syria, the US covert war there is part of its Arab Spring designs in transforming the region. Unlike Tunisia, Egypt, or Yemen, the Syrian authorities steadfastly resisted the Color Revolution attempt owing to remarkable popular support and legitimacy among the population. This presented a hurdle in implementing the exact Lead From Behind model that had just been rolled out in Libya (Color Revolutionaries aided by Western airstrikes). Whereas in Libya large segments of society were delicately held together by the personality and governing style of a single individual, in Syria the situation was altogether different. Syria has a civilizational identity, whereas Libya solely has a national identity (although Gaddafi was attempting to evolve this into a continental African-wide identity before he was overthrown and murdered). Nevertheless, because strong popular support made it extremely difficult to Balkanize' Syria in the same manner as it had Libya, the US had to improvise its strategy and adapt to this obstacle.

The US thus opted to Lead From Behind in an indirect way, helping to recruit, train, arm, and deploy Islamic-affiliated mercenaries into Syria. It uses Turkey as the regional delegate to Lead From Behind out of mutual self-interest. Ankara has ambitions of restoring the Ottoman Empire albeit in a refashioned form, and thus, it has been the US' most active ally in destabilizing Syria. When the Color Revolution/Lead Form Behind hybrid was evidently not enough to topple the Syrian government, the US then ramped up its unconventional warfare strategy there. Therefore, the contribution of the Syrian experience to the US' new war strategy has been that Western-trained mercenary groups are given an increased role in advancing on-the-ground objectives.

This principle has been applied with mixed success in Ukraine following the coup against Yanukovich. Prior to that, the US had once more rolled out its Color Revolution/Lead From Behind hybrid, except in this case, Poland replaced Turkey as the regional hegemon destabilizing its neighbor. Regardless, there were many structural similarities, but unlike Assad who bravely resisted the external war being waged against him, Yanukovich quickly capitulated and was rapidly overthrown. At this point, the people of Crimea and Donbass resisted the coup-installed authorities and began to assert their human rights. While Crimea was successful in quickly reuniting with the Russian Federation (owing to its unique historical circumstances and demographics), Donbass has had to wage a lengthy struggle of self-determination. It is through this struggle that the US imported its Syrian strategy for deployment in Ukraine. Western mercenaries, CIA and FBI agents, military advisors, and over $50 million in funding was sent to the junta to aid in putting down the eastern rebellion. The fact that the improvisations learned during the Syrian destabilization are being repeated in another theater confirms that the US has now developed a new patterned approach to warfare.

The Reverse Brzezinski and the Eurasian Snares:

The covert wars being waged by the US in Syria and Ukraine are part and parcel of the larger Eurasian Balkans strategy. Ideally, the backroom logic was that the destabilizations would spread like wildfire in a parched forest and come to engulf Iran (from Syria and its mercenary spillover into Iraq) and Russia (from Ukraine). This wishful thinking was quickly derailed when Syria and the people of Crimea and Donbass resisted. By extension, Iran and Russia also worked to hedge their interests in their respective spheres, understanding that a success for US foreign policy there could pose an existential threat to their being. Thus, with the destabilization being relatively contained, the Reverse Brzezinski strategy was ushered in.

The US sought to capitalize off of the chaos present in Syria and Ukraine in order to create black holes' to suck in Iran and Russia. Scientifically speaking, a black hole is formed from a collapsed star, so the metaphor can quickly be transplanted to geopolitics when one looks at Balkanized chaos being formed from a collapsed state (or portions thereof). Syria has not collapsed, but parts of the country remain beyond the control of the legitimate government. It is Iraq that is approaching near-failed state status and whose problems can pose a dangerous threat to Iran. Likewise, Ukraine itself is a pseudo-failed state, and the events that have transpired there are of significant danger to Russia. In both cases, what has occurred is that black holes are forming in parts of Syria, most of Iraq, and Ukraine, and the gravitational pull of the destabilization and chaos there can quite easily suck in Iran and Russia. After all, Iran and Russia have legitimate national security interests that are endangered by the US-managed events going on nearby and the temptation may be too great for them to abstain from involvement there. This makes the situations in Syria/Iraq and Ukraine Eurasian snares meant to entrap Iran and Russia.

Russia and Iran were first targeted for the Reverse Brzezinski because the US already has significant infrastructure and influence in their neighborhoods (NATO and the Gulf bases). This makes it easier to manage such large-scale covert operations. A similar structure is not yet in place in Southeast Asia, but it may soon appear following the US' Pivot to Asia. The US does have such infrastructure and influence in Northeast Asia, but it is Southeast Asia which represents Beijing's soft underbelly of vulnerability. In the future, the US may use the lessons from Syria/Iraq and Ukraine to construct an even more alluring snare to entrap China, or it may be that if it succeeds in knocking Russia and Iran out of the game', an accommodation could potentially be made with China in order to cement it in a subservient position. Similarly, if the US can succeed in a large-scale destabilization of Central Asia following the Afghan withdrawal, then a mega-regional black hole may develop which would simultaneously suck in Russia, China, and Iran. This would be the coup de grace of American Eurasian planning and would represent the fulfilment of The Grand Chessboard's strategic objective.

Concluding Thoughts:

Bringing everything full circle, Brzezinski has gone back to his basics of luring America's adversaries into strategic entanglements from which they cannot retreat. His history of instigating the Soviet-Afghan War by having the CIA train and arm the Mujahideen before the Soviet intervention must never be forgotten. The concept of the Eurasian Balkans has largely overshadowed this chapter of Brzezinski's past, but it does not mean that it is no less important for America's contemporary strategic doctrine. As the US' unipolar moment approaches dusk, the dawn of the multipolar era is around the corner. This necessitates a fundamental shift in the US' previous pattern of offensive advancement into Eurasia, hence the revival of the Lead From Behind strategy.

To accentuate the fact that this strategy is currently being employed by American decision makers, one must look no further than the case studies of Syria and Ukraine. These are the two battlegrounds that are at the forefront of this strategy's official coming out', and they also represent real-time testing grounds for this idea to become perfected. Recent statements illustrate that the US' primary goal is to lure Russia and Iran into the Eurasian snares of Ukraine and Syria/Iraq. Brzezinski himself has advised that the US directly arm the powers in Kiev in order to bunker down any invading' Russian forces that he is convinced are on hair's edge to storm across the border. Likewise, the US is now talking about cooperating' with Iran to defeat the Western-backed ISIL in Iraq. The thinking goes that American airstrikes would provide cover for Iranian Revolutionary Guard offensives (in coordination with the Iraqi Army), but in reality, what this amounts to is the US conditionally choosing when and where to insert itself in the battle (from afar) while the Iranians and Iraqi troops are used as cannon fodder on the ground. The offers of cooperation are nothing more than a feint to trick the Iranians into getting caught up in mission creep in Iraq. The "Iranian Reset" is just as fake as the US-Russian Reset a deceptive trick to buy valuable time for setting up a strategic betrayal.

While the Eastern European and Mideast snares have already been deployed, the Asian version is still in development. The US must first complete its Pivot to Asia before it can comprehensively lay a trap for China, however, this doesn't mean that it hasn't already been testing various strategies. For example, the Vietnamese-Chinese South China Sea dispute continues to heat up, with accusations of aggressive behavior from both sides. The US is testing the waters over which Lead From Behind partner should be delegated the regional leader, and thus far, it appears as though Vietnam is at the forefront of successful anti-Chinese policy maneuvers. Nevertheless, because the Pivot to Asia is still in its infancy, this may change, and it is difficult to predict exactly how the Asian snare will look when it is finally deployed.

As a result of changing international circumstances, the US has conclusively moved away from its desire for large-scale military interventions in favor of covert paramilitary proxy wars. The appointment of Frank Archibald to head the CIA's National Clandestine Service (NCS) in 2013 is proof enough of the importance of paramilitary operations, regime change, and Color Revolutions in American strategy. Archibald was involved in the Bosnian Civil War and oversaw the first Color Revolution in Serbia in 2000. When an expert in paramilitary campaigns and Color Revolutions, incidentally the individual who carried out the first successful one in history, is elevated to the top of the NCS, then any and all Color Revolutionary movements should rightfully be suspected of being CIA operations, as should any paramilitary campaign that is detrimental to Russian, Chinese, or Iranian interests. With the US reducing its dependency on conventional conflict in order to follow Sun Tzu's advice of defeating an enemy without directly fighting them, America's new approach to warfare has become more nefarious.

The godfather of the Soviet-Afghan War has returned to his grand strategic roots, and his influential legacy has resulted in the creation of two tempting Eurasian snares for Russia and Iran. Both intended targets are being lured into bloody proxy conflicts just as the Soviet Union was lured into Afghanistan in 1979, and they are "damned if they do, damned if they don't" intervene. When it comes to Ukraine, humanitarian atrocities and war crimes are purposely being undertaken in order to anger the Russian leadership and provoke an emotional military reaction. Moscow is once more squaring off against the wily Brzezinski that had tricked it in the past, and Iran must deeply ponder what the consequences would be of re-entering the Iraqi warzone for the first time since the stalemated Iran-Iraq War. To channel Hillary Clinton's closing comment in her latest memoir, when it comes to Moscow and Tehran, "The time for another hard choice will come soon enough."

Andrew Korybko is the American political correspondent of Voice of Russia who currently lives and studies in Moscow, exclusively for ORIENTAL REVIEW.

[Lauren Johnson]

Strategic Cultural Foundation

«Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible». These are the words from «1984», George Orwell's fictional novel and eerily correct prognostication of future events from geopolitics to the loss of privacy and the rise of the surveillance state. Oceania fictionally represented the British Isles, North and South America, southern Africa, and Australasia. In Orwell's world, Eurasia was comprised of Russia and Europe while another power, Eastasia, included China, Korea, and Japan.

Today, a modified form of the dystopian future world map of Orwell is becoming reality as Russia and China increasingly cooperate economically, politically, and militarily to ensure that the forces of Oceania centered in Washington, London, Berlin, and Paris do not overrun Eurasia.

At last month's third annual International Security Conference in Moscow, a conclave sponsored by the Russian Defense Ministry, Chief of Staff of the Russian armed forces, General Valery Gerasimov stated that Western-financed and organized «color revolutions», such as those employed twice in Ukraine and once in Georgia, represent a form of irregular warfare against Eurasia. Gerasimov's statement about North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries, which resemble Orwell's Oceania, launching irregular warfare against Eurasia could have been torn from the pages of «1984». Gerasimov cited information warfare, economic sanctions, and support for «proxy criminal organizations» and extremist groups as part of the West's irregular warfare construct directed against Eurasia.

Gerasimov also said that color revolutions were part and parcel of Western military strategy against Eurasia since the non-military tactics employed were often followed by military force to bring about regime change. This is now the case with the Ukrainian government's NATO-supported military offensive against federalists in eastern Ukraine, as well as in NATO support for Islamist rebels battling against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Military intervention, including air attacks, was also employed by NATO after the Islamist uprising in eastern Libya that eventually forced Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi from power.

Gerasimov's comments about color revolutions was supported by none other than Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a non-profit think tank that often reflects the views of the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. State Department. Cordesman said color revolutions sponsored by the West were a new form of warfare against Russia and China.

Belarusian Defense Minister Yury Zhadobin cited the «godfather» of George Soros- and CIA-financed themed uprisings and revolutions, Gene Sharp, the director of the Albert Einstein Institution in Boston as the prime motivator of the uprisings witnessed in Europe and the Middle East. The armed forces of Russia, China, and Belarus now consider the West's support for regime change through color revolutions as being part of the military doctrines of the United States and NATO. The military planners in Moscow, Beijing, and Minsk also view Western private military contractors mercenaries -- such as the former Blackwater, now Academi, as being part of the West's regime change scenario after the outbreak of color revolutions.

The reasons for the West's color revolution and regime change project for Eurasia are clear. With Russia and China at the forefront of developing new Eurasian energy schemes involving natural gas and new transportation routes evoking memories of the old Silk Road, the West feels threatened by the emergence in Eurasia of a dynamic new market that could not only rival but eclipse the European Union and Washington's proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The emergence of a new Eurasian identity has alarmed the political leaders of de facto Oceania. Eurasia places economic development and respect for traditions over what many in Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and other countries of the region see as a Western «culture» that emphasizes pop culture, homosexuality, destruction of social safety nets, disrespect for religion, destruction of the traditional family unit, and unbridled vulture capitalism that promotes draconian austerity.

The Moscow security conference met at about the same time that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping met at the fourth Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) held in Shanghai. There, Xi emphasized that Asia has entered the 21st century at that the Cold War mentality should be abandoned. Observers from Japan and the United States looked on as Asian delegates roundly rejected President Barack Obama's Cold War military «pivot to Asia» and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's revanchist imperial military buildup in east Asia. In many respects, the United States Pacific forces and Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea represent the militaristic «Eastasia» of «1984», an entity that was allied for a period of time with Oceania.

Not only was the «Power of Siberia» natural gas pipeline, which will begin pumping natural gas from Siberia to China in 2018, agreed upon in Shanghai but there are plans to restore the old Silk Road as a major trans-Eurasian highway that will link China to Europe via the trans-Siberian highway and Europe's E-30 highway. Eventually, an A-class motor highway will link Amsterdam with Beijing via the Asian Highway Network. This network of modern highways will restore the ancient Silk Road of Asia and move goods and passengers throughout Eurasia and, in the process, build new infrastructures in the remotest parts of the Eurasian heartland. This prospect has the banking houses of Europe and America concerned since they will be locked out of the financial sweepstakes.

Eurasia's leaders, from Putin and Xi, to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Afghan President Hamid Karzai are well aware that the color revolutions that have wracked Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan have been financed by George Soros's Open Society Institute and Foundation and that Soros's hedge fund empire is nothing more than a front for the international House of Rothschild banking cartel. NATO and the Obama administration, which represent the interests of Soros and the Rothschilds, will stop at nothing to destroy the Eurasian initiative. The «Euromaidan» overthrow of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who rejected a union with the European Union and appeared ready to forge ties with Eurasia, was part of the West's (or «Oceania's) first indirect military aggression against Eurasia.

Some Eurasian leaders are aware that the West is trying to derail the developing Eurasian Union. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed transforming CICA into a new Organization for Security and Development in Asia (OSDA), which would be the closest thing to a Eurasian counterpart to NATO. Stressing Eurasia's rejection of Western «values», Nazarbayev stressed that OSDA would be built upon Asian «tradition and values». Nazarbayev appeared to be speaking for a number of Eurasian leaders in rejecting the lewd permissiveness of Western culture as witnessed by «Pussy Riot's» and FEMEN's displays of vulgarity and gratuitous nudity in places of religious worship in Russia, Ukraine, and other countries.

There is a new competitor to America's version of Oceania now emerging in Orwell's Eurasia. Halford John Mackinder's «Heartland Theory», which was espoused in his book «The Geographical Pivot of History», postulated that the power that controlled Eurasia's heartland between the Volga and Yangtze and the Arctic Sea and Himalayas would control the destiny of the world. If the Eurasian Union becomes a successful political and economic union, the United States, Britain, Western Europe, and Japan will be confined to a economically anemic and socially decadent coastal «Rimland» where the few remaining assets will be fought over by the hungry jackals of the banking houses of Wall Street, City of London, and Frankfurt. The outbreak of wars in Syria, Ukraine, and Iraq are but the first shots of the impending war between «Oceania» and «Eurasia».

[Paul Rigby]

Guns and Butter

"End of the Unipolar World - The Battle for Europe" with Umberto Pascali

Historic $400 billion natural gas contract links Russia and China for thirty years; sunset of the dollar system; Iran, Libya & Iraq challenge the dollar; Wall Street & the City of London control of national governments; which way will Europe go?; history of NATO destabilization & occupation of western Europe; assassinations of European political & business leaders; reconfiguration of the world.

http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/103646

The "Battle for Europe" is Raging. How America Undermines Franco-Russian Relations

US Blackmailed France using the Banque Nationale de Paris as Hostage

By Umberto Pascali
Global Research, July 02, 2014

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-battle-...ns/5389467

On July 1st, during a meeting with all Russian ambassadors and permanent representatives, President Vladimir Putin revealed the details of a blatant blackmail against France. The US Administration used its unilateral (and de facto illegal) sanctions against Cuba, Iran and Sudan to punish France and in particular the Banque Nationale de Paris Paribas. The Bank was blackmailed in to paying $8.97 billion for not submitting to the malicious diktat of the power-drunk but weakening hegemon, even though the sanctions are not a decision agreed to by France.

In a development that has a direct impact on national sovereignty, Senior BNP executive Dominique Remy resigned in mid-May after New York state banking regulator Benjamin Lawsky (read Wall Street) named him as one of the 12 officials who should step down due to their roles in the "scandal".

Putin revealed publicly something even worse. The case against France's BNP was set up by Washington in order to blackmail France and force the country to refuse the delivery to Russia of two French-produced Mistral-class helicopter carriers for $1.6billion.

France and Russia, however, did not back down on the Mistral deal: at this very moment 400 Russian sailors are receiving training on the first Mistral in a French port.

Far from representing a demonstration of hegemonic power, the degrading blackmail is strengthening the links between Russia and the main countries of the European Union: namely France, Germany and Italy.

Putin told the Russian ambassadors:

"… What is being done to the French banks can cause nothing but indignation in Europe in general and here as well. We are aware of the pressure our American partners are putting on France to force it not to supply Mistrals to Russia. We even know that they hinted that if France does not deliver the Mistrals, the sanctions will be quietly lifted from their banks, or at least they will be significantly minimised.

What is this if not blackmail? Is this the right way to act on the international arena? Besides, when we speak of sanctions, we always assume that sanctions are applied pursuant to Article 7 of the UN Charter. Otherwise, these are not sanctions in the true legal sense of the word, but something different, some other unilateral policy instrument…." http://eng.kremlin.ru/transcripts/22586

The increasingly irrational and predatory US foreign policy has reached its climax, characterised by a vast gamma of tools of pressure and intimidation. Now the US bully policy of the "with me or against me" is pushing more and more countries to look at a rational alternative.

Putin's Russia, contrary to the desperate Wall Street media, is shining as a beacon of rationality and humanity, as the only adult and reliable person in the global saloon in which the drunk US cowboy is shooting his last bullets.

The Ukraine crisis, the creation of the grotesque ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the frantic pressure on Romania, Serbia, Italy and others to denounce the agreement with Russia for the South Stream gas pipeline and prevent Russia from exporting its raw materials these seems to be the last bullets shot in the air.

Italy, for one, answered with a clear-cut statement by the state secretary for European affairs Sandro Gozi:

"The South Stream project has always been and remains most important for Italy."

The interview was published on June 30, the day before Italy assumed the presidency of the Council of the European Union.

"As Italy takes over the European Union presidency, we give absolute priority to establishing political and economic integration with Kiev while resuming strategic partnership between the EU and Russia,… Relations with Moscow can be neither broken off nor suspended. On the contrary, we are convinced of the need to strengthen them further."

One of the first calls Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini made at the beginning of the six month of Italian Presidency was with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov announcing a visit to Moscow within the month of July.

Serbia itself, after an internal debate to evaluate the strength of the US threats, decided to go ahead with the South Stream. And, of course, so did Austria during the official visit of Putin in Vienna on June 24. As the German agency Deutsche Welle wrote, uncharacteristically allowing itself a hint of polemics:

"Austria defies US, EU over South Stream during Putin visit Austria's OMV and Russia's Gazprom have signed a deal for the Austrian section of the controversial South Stream gas pipeline that bypasses Ukraine. Austria's president, Heinz Fischer, has rejected US and EU criticism." http://www.dw.de/austria-defies-us-eu-ov...a-17734602

Germany is happily supplied with Russian gas through the North Stream.

Many in Europe expects now a new line from the European Union, despite the anti European policy the London's city controlled Brussels bureaucracy.

Behind the façade, the "Battle for Europe" is raging.

The ferocious and desperate ultimata coming from Washington appears increasingly impotent. And it is more and more clear why US-Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland in her infamous conversation with ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt in preparation for the coup d'etat in Kiev pronounced her immortal: "Fuck the EU!" The bloody destabilization of Ukraine was a means to an end: Keep Europe under control. It's not working.

[David Guyatt]

On the BNP affair and the Franco-Russian Mistral aircraft carrier deal, a former advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy had this to say:

"This affair is part of Washington's hegemonic ambition in law and commerce," said Jacques Myard, a lawmaker from Former President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP Party. "Washington has theannoying habit of trying to apply its laws outside its jurisdiction and use its strength for commercial ends."

From an interesting and well worth reading article by Zerohedge And another one HERE. And HERE is a backgrounder on the significance and importance for Europe of the South Stream Pipeline project.

The sense is that Europe is turning away from the US and towards Russia and China. The US trying to use ploys like blackmail to keep its dominance is, in my opinion, counter-productive, as this only gets people's back up and hardens their decision to turn away.

[Paul Rigby]

Germany arrests BND member on suspicion of spying for US

Media says alleged double agent may have been tasked with spying on committee investigating NSA's activities in Germany

Philip Oltermann in Berlin
theguardian.com, Friday 4 July 2014 16.50 BST

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/ju...e-agent-us

A new surveillance scandal is threatening to unsettle US-German relations after it emerged that an employee of the Germany's intelligence agency has been arrested under suspicion of acting as a double agent for the USA.

According to several reports in the German media, a 31-year-old member of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) administration department in Pullach was on Wednesday arrested by the country's federal prosecutor, originally under suspicion of passing on information to Russian intelligence services.

However, under questioning by the federal prosecutor the suspect said he had received money in exchange for passing on secret information to a US contact. If his claims turn out to be true, German papers say it would constitute the biggest scandal involving a US-German double agent in the post-war era.

Some newspapers are speculating whether the BND employee may have been specifically tasked with spying on the activities of the special Bundestag inquiry committee currently investigating the NSA's activities in Germany.

According to Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, the employee had been approached several times by the NSA, at least once with a specific request for information on the Bundestag's investigation into NSA surveillance.According to Der Spiegel, the BND staffer had collected between 200 and 300 secret documents from internal servers and saved them onto a USB stick.

They were sold on to the US intelligence services between 2012 and 2014, for price of several tens of thousands of euros, said the magazine. The employee had managed to establish contact with the NSA by the most obvious way imaginable by sending an email to the US embassy.On Friday, the investigative committee gathered for an emergency meeting in response to the arrest. Martina Renner, a Left party politician on the parliamentary committee, told Associated Press that the case indicated that anyone who examined Snowden's revelations in detail was subject to scrutiny by US intelligence agencies.

A spokesperson for Angela Merkel said that the chancellor had been informed of the arrest, and that allegations of espionage "weren't something that was taken lightly".

News of the double-spying allegations come less than a day after two former NSA employees spoke as witnesses to the Bundestag inquiry. William Binney, a former technical head, said the NSA had a "totalitarian mentality", claiming that it represented the "greatest threat" to American society since the civil war.

Thomas Drake, another former NSA staffer who worked at the agency between 2001 and 2008, accused Germany's BND of collaborating close with their American counterparts. The German intelligence agency's claims that they had been unaware of NSA surveillance activity in Germany were, he said, "beyond credibility".