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#SaveDonbassPeople #ISIS #NO2ISIS #Pipeline Patrol Pepe Escobar

Pipeline Patrol
I share this pdf in case you are like me, and need to listen as you're reading.
The second article is an earlier one, and, I think contradicts Escobar's even earlier pieces. Many valid
points, but IMO the conclusion he reaches is way off base.
ONE
Energy ballet-2: Syria, Ukraine &
'Pipelineistan'
Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT
and TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from
the US to East Asia.
Get short URL
Published time: August 26, 2014 09:57
AFP Photo/ Andrey Sinitsin
Tags
Big deal, EU, Energy, Middle East, Nuclear, Russia, USA
As much as Iran, Russia, the US and the EU are involved in a sophisticated
nuclear/energy ballet, Syria and Ukraine are also two key power play vectors bound to
determine much of what happens next in the New Great Game in Eurasia.
And both Syria and Ukraine also happen to be energy wars.
The Obama administrations Syria master plan was Assad must go; regime change
would yield a US-supported Muslim Brotherhood entity, and a key plank of
Pipelineistan - the $10 billion Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline - would be forever ditched.
Also read: Energy ballet: Iran, Russia and 'Pipelineistan'
The Emir of Qatar himself had taken the road to Damascus in 2009 to negotiate a Qatar-
Syria-Turkey gas pipeline. Bashar al-Assad though, said no; his excuse was his
unwillingness to jeopardize Syrias energy deals with Russia.
And yet, in 2001, an agreement went ahead for a rival Iran-Iraq-Syria project. So the
writing was on the wall or on the (steel) pipes arriving one day in the Eastern
Mediterranean. The gas for prospective European customers would in fact come from
Irans South Pars field, contiguous to Qatars North Dome; together, they form the
largest gas field on the planet.
Not only for Qatar and Turkey, but especially for His Masters Voice, this was
unacceptable; the official US isolate Iran policy would be in tatters. Worse: the
possibility was open for the EU to soon become the privileged customer of both Russia
and Iran for no less than 45 percent of its gas supply. Full energy/trade integration of
Eurasia in this key case involving most of the EU, Russia and Iran - is absolute
anathema for the Empire of Chaos.
Thus the key economic rationale for the whole Assad must go disaster; a war OF terror
largely financed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, with logistical support from Turkey, with
Ankara, the CIA and the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) gang running a secret
weaponizing airlift of so-called good jihadists using Saudi, Qatari and Jordanian
military cargo planes since 2012.
Reuters / Khaled al-Hariri
The least one can say is that the blowback was spectacular. Assad must go didnt go.
And nothing less than IS (Islamic State), formerly ISIS, led by Caliph Ibrahim, reared its
ugly head. Even US Special Forces are drooling at their fighting power.
The Caliphate engulfing parts of Syria and Iraq is now making a fortune selling irony
of ironies - cut-rate oil and gas in the black market. It amounts to at least $38 million a
month: $8 million from a captured Syrian gas field and $30 million from at least six
captured Iraqi oil fields.
The Houses of Saud and Thani now ostensibly profess to be horrified by the Caliph and
his beheaders, including the so-called Beatles jihadists. And yet private Saudi and Qatari
donors, as well as other GCC notables, continue to shower the Caliphate with cash and
weapons. President Erdogan in Turkey is now also officially horrified. And yet the
Turkish-Syria border remains a free for all for traveling jihadists.
As things stand in Pipelineistan, the possibility for the Qatar-Syria-Turkey gas project
taking off is zero. And the prospect is not much better for Iran-Iraq-Syria, considering
two of these nations are raked by civil war with no endgame in sight.
Have Grad, will frack
In the Ukraine scenario, the villain is Russia instead of Iran. And theres a much wider
implication of direct US interests.
What really matters in eastern Ukraine is to clear off a large area for fracking via a
Grad missile offensive, leading to a mass exodus of refugees.
Michael Hudson has neatly summarized it: Now, just imagine in this country if
President Obama and Vice-President Biden were to send troops into upstate New York,
which has opposed oil/gas drilling, and bombed Rochester, bombed Buffalo, and began
just bombing the cities and shooting the opponents of the fracking. Thats exactly whats
happening in the [sic] Ukraine. And theyre doing this supported by the World Bank.
Royal Dutch Shell happens to be the top shale gas explorers/exploiters in eastern
Ukraine; a $10 billion deal was signed in January.
And then theres the Exxon as well as the Burisma Holdings connection. Dual Israeli-
Ukraine citizen and appointed governor of Dnepropetrovsk, shady billionaire Igor
Kolomoisky who also deploys his own private militia - is in bed with no less than VP
Biden. Joe Bidens son was appointed a director of oil and gas concern Burisma
Holdings, the largest fracking company in Ukraine.
Moreover, parliament in Kiev passed a law that will allow US and EU investors to lease
up - on a joint venture basis up to 49 percent of Ukraines transit pipelines and
underground gas storage facilities.
Kievs spin is predictable; the joint venture will bring in much-needed investment and
shelve for good another key Pipelineistan plank; the 2,446-kilometer long South Stream
pipeline, which is planned to bring Gazproms blue gold under the Black Sea, entering
the EU in Bulgaria, and thus totally bypassing transit through Ukraine. Translation:
Kievs already wobbly budget will shrink even further with more meager transit fees.
Reuters / Gleb Garanich
The EU imports almost 30 percent of the gas it needs from Russia. Half, at the moment,
transits via Ukraine. But for the near future the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic
Sea will be boosted, and South Stream is a near certainty once the Ukraine mess is
finally sorted out. Bypassing Ukraine is an increasingly sound option.
Compare it to Kievs wet dream, boosted by Washington, to control the flow of gas
from Gazprom to the EU and on top of it secure all trade in US dollars. Once again
were back to prime Empire of Chaos policy preventing further energy/economic
integration between Russia and the EU.
Washingtons short-term priority thus is to sabotage South Stream; no wonder the
pipeline is temporarily on hold, with the European Commission (EC) duly obeying His
Masters Voice. Yet this also means that for the moment large swathes of the EU remain
hostage to Ukraine.
It's under this light that we should examine the recent intervention by Irans deputy oil
minister Ali Mejidi, when he enthusiastically affirmed the perennially troubled Nabucco,
a Pipelineistan opera if there ever was one, was back in play.
Nabuccos idea was to bring gas to the EU via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and
Austria. Bur where from? Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan were finally ruled out. It could
be Azerbaijani gas, but that requires a fortune in extra investment. The Iraqi industry
wont be ready anytime soon. And Iran will be finally in play only if a nuclear deal is
clinched till the end of 2014, and sanctions lifted in 2015 (all this a major if).
So in Ukraine, just like in Syria, were back to square one in energy terms. The country
is an economic basket case now being hurled inside the hellish disaster capitalism pit.
The details are here. In the end, Gazprom is likely to emerge the winner.
Confused by Syria and Ukraine? Dont worry: just follow the energy wars.
Source: http://rt.com/op-edge/182816-energy-wars-ukraine-syria/
TWO
ROVING EYE
The killer on the (Saudi) king's highway
By Pepe Escobar
There's danger on the edge of town
Ride the king's highway, baby
Weird scenes inside the gold mine
Ride the highway west, baby
The Doors, The End The killer awoke before dawn. He put his American desert boots
on. He took a knife from the ancient gallery. And he walked on down the hall - bathed in
desert sunlight.
The killer spoke with a British accent (London's East End?) Father (Saud), I want to kill
you. Mother (Langley?) I want to...
yeeeaaahh, c'mon!
Then the sartorially composed Man in Black beheaded American photojournalist James
Foley.
This is not the end, beautiful friend. It's just a new beginning in the never-ending Global
War on Terror. Now starring Papa Saud's brand new bag - The Caliph and his goons.
This is the way Shock and Awe morphs into "Assad must go" morphs into Islamic State
of Iraq and Syria, morphs into The Caliph's Black Britannia goon responding to
"humanitarian" bombing. I'm my own baby now. Watch me work. Bring it on.
Choice scenery. Good sound and vision production values. Careful editing. No
unnecessary gore. No blood splattering. No Allahu Akbar shrieks. "A Message to
America", indeed - but most of all a message to the Ummah. As in we're the Men in
Black badasses. We run The Caliphate. We're no mere death cult; we're winners. And we
take no prisoners.
And why did Islamic State, formerly ISIS, become winners? Because the "West"
regimented, schooled, trained, logistically helped and weaponized most of IS's Takfiri
goons with a mission at hand: to destroy Syria. The "West" lauded them as "Syrian
rebels". Freedom fighters.
Washington even promoted Jabhat al-Nusra (the official al-Qaeda franchise in Syria, and
a "terrorist organization", according to the State Department) as "good" jihadis, as well
as the preferred Saudi combo, the Islamic Front.
No wonder after photojournalist James Foley was kidnapped in November 2012 the
Washington-sanctioned version was that he was being kept by "Assad must go" forces in
a prison near Damascus.
Slouching towards Mecca
The House of Saud, directly and indirectly, and the proverbial wealthy Gulf Cooperation
Council donors are the Mom and Dad of ISIS. All duly vetted/approved by the
industrial-military-Orwellian-Panopticon complex.
And yet "Assad must go" had other ideas for Syria. He didn't go. He and his army
resisted and counter-attacked. So the original mission in Syria morphed across the (non-
existent) desert border towards Iraq. ISIS kept expanding - via extortion, kidnapping,
captured oil fields, tribal smuggling networks.
The killer spoke with a British accent. Yet he may not be just a well-paid mercenary
(500 from Britain, 700 from France, 500 from Belgium ). He's most certainly a true
believer in the wider IS medievalist ideology as well as its no-holds-barred sectarian
methods.
How convenient that IS strategy is totally divide and rule. Totally balkanization of Iraq.
Totally mum on Israel's slow-motion ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Totally useful in wagging
the (beheading) dog to make the world forget about Gaza.
Moroever, IS/ISIS strategy, stripped to the bone, is Pentagon manual; clear, hold and
build - then expand (to an area larger than Great Britain). It's even Pentagon manual
redux - as in building "coalitions of the willing" (see the alliance with "remnants" -
Rummy talk - of the Saddam regime propelling their northern Iraq summer offensive.)
How convenient that the mighty Orwellian/Panopticon complex satellite maze could not
identify a long convoy of gleaming white Toyotas crossing the desert towards their
summer conquests. And how convenient that a Briton beheading an American - what a
"special relationship" plot twist! - fully sanctions the Return of Iraq Bombing ("for
months", in Obama's words); more strikes; more drones; perhaps more boots on the
ground; perhaps, in the near future, a Syria extension.
IS also took over Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam, in their summer adventure. Now
Baghdad's military are trying to take it back. IS welcomed them with minefields, booby-
trapped buildings, an array of snipers and hardcore mortar fire. How convenient that
Obama's "humanitarian" bombs are not involved in R2P ("responsibility to protect")
Saddam's birthplace. What really matters is the US consulate in Erbil, scores of CIA
operatives and vast Big Oil interests in Iraqi Kurdistan.
And then there's this ultimate plot twist; a pearl by a dissident Saudi researcher (in
Arabic). He argues, in detail, that IS is essentially a revival of "pure" Wahhabism; not
only that IS comes from outside the House of Saud's dominions - in Iraq and the Levant
- but tries hard to shatter the monarchy's legitimacy.
The House of Saud's counterpunch to the Arab Spring was (and remains) all about
destroying or at least isolating the Muslim Brotherhood as an alternative Islamic
rule/role model. Yet now comes IS - brimming with religious justification (however
warped); military know-how; and an army of true - and well paid - believers.
Ride the king's highway, baby. No staged/not staged beheading could possibly top the
ultimate blowback: the "West" nurturing the Beast who would slouch towards Mecca to
finally behead the House of Saud. And those killers shall also speak with a British
accent.
Pepe Escobar is the author.
Source: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-01-210814.html

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