Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Saturday 6 February 2016

The European Union Times


Posted: 06 Feb 2016 07:36 AM PST

An internal strategic report prepared by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) circulating in the Kremlin within the last hour states that the historic peace talks begun earlier today in the Pakistani capital city of Islamabad between the United States, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Taliban signals that for the first time the American’s have acknowledged their total defeat in the Afghan War—and who are now, stunningly, “re-walking” the exact same path the former Soviet Union took in 1989 when it too finally acknowledged its defeat there.
According to this report, the 1979-1989 Soviet-Afghan War lead to the death of 14,453 Russian soldiers and the wounding of 53,753 more—and that by the time this war was ended, due to the disastrous economic costs of this conflict, the “death knell” of the former Soviet Union was “sounded” leading to its collapse two years later in 1991.
Knowing that their war in Afghanistan was unwinnable and that the cost of it was bankrupting their nation, this report continues, the Soviets began implementing their “exit strategy” in 1985 that began with training Afghan government forces to operate on their own, disengaging Soviet troops from combat, gradually drawing down troop levels, beginning peace talks, and, by 1989, completely withdrawing all military forces from the country.
The near “mirror like” US war in Afghanistan (2001-2014 and 2015-present), this report notes, has killed 31,458 US coalition forces and wounded 22,773 more and has cost the staggering amount (to January 2015) of between $4 trillion and $6 trillion—and which the Americans, just like the Soviets did, have failed to pay for instead just adding this “impossible to ever pay back” amount to their national debt which now stands at $19 trillion.
As the Americans financed their Afghan war like the Soviets did theirs too by hiding it in un-payable debt, this report continues, they have, likewise as the Soviets did, begun implementing their exit strategy that includes training Afghan government forces to operate on their own, withdrawing their own troops, entering into peace talks, and ending all combat against Taliban forces—which was confirmed this past week when US Army General John Campbell in testifying before the House Armed Services Committee announced that he no longer had authority to attack the Taliban and declared that American troops had ceased their combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014.
At the exact same time that the American’s are in peace talks after their losing their Afghan War, this report further states, Russian forces are nearing a “complete strategic” victory over Islamic terrorist forces in Syria who are now reported to be “losing ground by the minute”, if not the entire war itself.
With the US news magazine Newsweek this past week decrying the West’s lack of will to fight in Syria due to the belief that there is not a military solution to this conflict, this report says, they further noted that Russia is trying unashamedly to achieve it—which has terrified the West to such an extent that London’s Guardian newspaper warned this week that a Russian military victory in Syria would shape Europe’s future for generations to come.
But with Syrian government forces, and their Iranian allies, continuing to liberate towns, villages and cities occupied by Islamic terrorist fighters while under the protective cover of Russian air power, this report continues, MoD experts are now warning that Saudi Arabia appears to be providing cover for NATO member Turkey to enter into this conflict too—and which the MoD warned about this past week by stating that Turkey is preparing to invade Syria, which could very well ignite World War III.
With Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov having already warned NATO that Russia will fire upon and down any Turkish warplanes over Syria, this report grimly states, the head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, Mohammad, Ali Jafari, has, likewise, issued a blunt warning to Saudi Arabia should it decide to enter this conflict too stating that the Saudi’s lacked the courage to go through with a plan to send ground troops to Syria, and, also, warned they would be wiped out if they went in.
And should NATO member Turkey invade Syria, along with Saudi Arabia, provoking a Russian war with the West, this report concludes, the truest cause for this happening should not be lost upon anyone as the West has always used war to cover up their massive economic crimes against their own citizens—and with one of the world’s largest banks, Citibank, having just warned that the entire world’s economy is now in a “death spiral”, the gigantic war companies in America are at this very minute preparing for their massive profits to roll in again like they have always done.
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Posted: 06 Feb 2016 05:33 AM PST

In the Iowa Democratic party’s chaotic attempt to report caucus results on Monday night, the results in at least one precinct were unilaterally changed by the party as it attempted to deal with the culmination of a rushed and imperfect process overseeing the first-in-the-nation nominating contest.
In Grinnell Ward 1, the precinct where elite liberal arts college Grinnell College is located, 19 delegates were awarded to Bernie Sanders and seven were awarded to Hillary Clinton on caucus night. However, the 19 delegates were awarded to Bernie Sanders and seven were awarded to Hillary Clinton on caucus night on the night and did not notify precinct secretary J Pablo Silva that they had done so. Silva only discovered that this happened the next day, when checking the precinct results in other parts of the county.
The shift of one delegate at a county convention level would not have significantly affected the ultimate outcome of the caucus, but rather, it raises questions about the Iowa Democratic party’s management of caucus night.
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Posted: 06 Feb 2016 05:16 AM PST

Britain says it rejects a UN panel ruling that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is the victim of arbitrary detention at the Ecuadorian embassy in London and insists he will still be extradited to Sweden if arrested in the UK.
“This changes nothing,” a British government spokesman responded to the UN decision, adding that London will formally contest the ruling.
The UK insists that Assange is voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest by staying at the Ecuadorian mission in the British capital and Whitehall is “deeply frustrated that this unacceptable situation is still being allowed to continue.”
“An allegation of rape is still outstanding and a European Arrest Warrant in place, so the UK continues to have a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden. As the UK is not a party to the Caracas Convention, we do not recognize ‘diplomatic asylum’,” the statement said in reference to a 1954 treaty between Latin American countries, under which Ecuador gave Assange diplomatic asylum at its embassy.
The Swedish government expressed its own disagreement with the UN decision and questioned its legal competence to consider “issues related to fugitives’ self-confinement, such as asylum and extradition.”
It added that it has no power to interfere with a criminal investigation against Assange and that Sweden has legal safeguards in place that ensure he would “not face a risk of refoulement contrary to international human rights obligations to the United States from Sweden.”
Earlier UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) said that Assange’s stay at the embassy and his previous experience with the Swedish and British legal systems amounted to arbitrary detention by Britain and Sweden.
It said that Assange was entitled to freedom of travel and a compensation for his detention and called on the UK and Sweden to act accordingly.
WGAS opinions are binding, but the UN relies on the goodwill of member states to enforce its decisions, Christophe Peschoux from the Office of the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, which oversees the working group, said on Friday. This leaves the question of what would happen to Assange if he chooses to leave the embassy as he said he would.
“We have no way of knowing what will happen, but given the heavy surveillance he is subjected to and the international arrest warrant, which is still valid, he is likely to be arrested,” the UN official said.
The opinion was a rare case of split vote rather than a consensus vote, Peschoux said. Four of the five members voted, as Leigh Toomey of Australia didn’t participate in the case because she shares nationality with Assange. The Ukrainian representative Vladimir Tochilovsky dissented from the majority opinion.
Assange has been living at the Ecuadorian embassy since 2012 under constant surveillance by British law enforcement. He was granted asylum after arguing that his extradition to Sweden would result in his eventual extradition to the US, where he is wanted on espionage charges related to his work for WikiLeaks. He insists that the website was defending human rights and exposing illegal actions by revealing classified material to public scrutiny.
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Posted: 06 Feb 2016 05:04 AM PST

Congressmen, President Barack Obama and faith leaders from around the country met for the annual prayer breakfast in Washington, D.C. Thursday. At the breakfast, House Minority Leader Democrat Nancy Pelosi took the opportunity to invoke “the prophet Muhammad.”
Before reading from the Gospel of John, Pelosi talked about the similarity of Islam, Judaism and Christianity.
“In the Gospel of John we see the golden rule that stands at the heart of the gospel, and as we hear these words from John 13, 15, and 17, we know that this message, this command of love is not confined to the New Testament,” Pelosi said. “The same message stands at the center of the Torah and the teachings of the prophet Muhammad too. In the Torah it says, ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ and from Muhammad, ‘none of you has faith until he loves for his neighbor or brother what he loves for himself.’”
Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, creators of the movie “Son of God” and the television show “The Bible,” both shared the podium at the breakfast. Immigrants from Ireland and England, the Downeys told their story of living the American dream.
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Posted: 06 Feb 2016 04:31 AM PST


Japan’s Sakurajima volcano, situated about 50km from the Sendai nuclear station, has erupted with the country’s meteorological agency issuing an orange warning not to approach it.
Residents in the area were evacuated in August last year after an alert for the volcano was raised to its second highest level. When Sakurajima erupted in 1914, it was Japan’s most powerful of the 20th century. The lava flows filled the strait separating the island from the mainland, turning the area into a peninsula.
The Sendai nuclear plant which is located some 50 kms from the volcano, was the first to be restarted after 2011’s Fukushima disaster following the implementation of new safety rules. It’s built to withstand a tsunami of 15 meters, well below 2011’s peak tsunami height of 40 meters.
Tremors have been felt in the area since December 2015 with warnings in place. The government’s nuclear agency had previously dismissed volcanic risks over Sendai’s lifetime as “negligible.”
Memories of the Fukushima nuclear disaster caused by a powerful quake in March 2011 are still fresh in Japan.
It was the second after Chernobyl to measure Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
The tragedy caused the complete shutdown of the Japanese nuclear facilities in 2011, despite 30 percent of electricity previously coming from nuclear power.
The authorities are still trying to clean up and contain contamination after the Fukushima crisis.
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Posted: 06 Feb 2016 03:48 AM PST

Ted Cruz isn’t a free-market libertarian, Ron Paul warned his son’s former supporters on Friday.
“You take a guy like Cruz, people are liking the Cruz — they think he’s for the free market, and [in reality] he’s owned by Goldman Sachs,” he said of the Texas senator on Fox Business’ Varney & Company. “I mean, he and Hillary have more in common than we would have with Cruz and Trump or any of them so I just don’t think there is much picking.”
“It’s hard to find anybody — since Rand is out of it — anybody that would take a libertarian position, hardcore libertarian position on privacy, on the war issue and on economic policy.”
Paul also warned that Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders wasn’t much better during a Mises Institute conference on Jan. 30.
“[Socialists] will not listen to the argument that there’s a difference between somebody getting bailed out by the Federal Reserve… versus somebody who produces a good product and we [the People] vote them their money [because] they haven’t cheated, stolen or given us a bad product,” he said. “I think it’s sort of an envy and resentment and I’ve talked to them but I have to tell you, I haven’t converted many die-hard progressives.”
“Some progressives, if you watch them on the Internet, will have really close agreements and might be talk about the same issues, but boy they don’t want you to even introduce the notion that libertarians are with them on this because they’re terrified we might encroach on their power to redistribute wealth [by force].”

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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 19:44