April 11, 2012, Iran follows through on threat to cut off oil to Germany, now Italy is next.
Iran also announced sanctions against 100 European Union companies. Sasan Khodaei, Deputy President of Iran Trade Promotion Organization, said the companies will no longer be able to sell products to Iran.
One reason for the sanctions is that Iran is now able to make the products for themselves.
“Recently, China and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution draft on Syria. Some people accuse China and Russia of not being ‘cooperative’ or ‘responsible’. In my view, our decision was the responsible one. We should not forget the lesson in Libya.”-Le Yucheng, Assistant Foreign Minister of China
Chinese officials believe a U.S. led war on Syria would have the same results as in Libya. They compered the U.S. led war on Libya to “surgery that kills the patient”. Libya is now in a full on civil war.
China’s Assistant Foreign Minister blasted the United States: “China does not do things just to please certain countries. China never takes its cue from others or pays the bill without asking the price. Being responsible means saying ‘no’ to such ‘protection’. What we need is not just ‘the responsibility to protect’ but also ‘responsible protection’.”
April 10, 2012, Iran has officially halted oil exports to Spain and Greece.
The official government announcement comes after Iran canceled oil shipments to two Greek companies on April 5.
Back on March 16 Iran had named the next countries on its oil export ban list. Those countries are Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. This is in retaliation for the up coming European Union oil sanctions that go into effect on July 1.
Iran had already halted oil shipments to France and United Kingdom back in February.
According to an April 10 Reuters report, Iran is now considering halting oil exports to Germany as well.
“…an armed group fired more than three rocket propelled grenades on the pipeline, setting it on fire for the second time in less than two weeks.”-unnamed witness
For the second time this month, an oil pipeline, belonging to Saudi Nimir Petroleum Company, was blown up in Yemen. April 11, 2012, a pipeline carrying crude oil from Shabwa to the Bir Ali terminal on the Gulf of Aden was blown up. It was last attacked on April 2.
This latest attack on the pipeline came one day after anti-government Mujahideen launched a full blown attack against a U.S. supported Yemen army base. Officials, and local elders, say 60 soldiers were killed, and 54 Mujahideen were killed.
The Yemen Mujahideen also blew up a natural gas pipeline on March 30.
“We have already withdrawn some military forces from several Syrian provinces.”-Walid al-Moualem, Foreign Minister of Syria
The Foreign Minister of Syria made the announcement at the same time U.S. and European media were creating rumors to the contrary.
“The U.S. and other countries which have influence over the Syrian opposition had better stop pointing the finger at China and Russia all the time, but rather use their leverage to convince everyone to stop shooting.”-Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia
Russia says the Syrian government is justified in asking for written guarantees of ceasefire from the U.S./Israeli supported rebels.
The Syrian government has until midnight, April 10/11, to get troops out of cities under the United Nations ceasefire deal. The UN ceasefire plan actually is scheduled to begin on April 12.
“We have decided to identify a range of appropriate defense equipment for joint development and production….which contributes to both countries’ security and presents industrial opportunities.”-Japan-U.K. joint statement
Back on March 14, 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama stated, at a White House press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, that the U.S. and U.K. would be uniting their militaries, and military industries. I watched the conference live and not one reporter questioned him on that. Now Japan has announced they want to join in!
April 10, 2012, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, and British Prime Minister David Cameron, have agreed to study the possibility of Japan becoming a partner in joint defense and military research.
Japan has already been working on revising their constitution so their military industries can begin selling weapons to other countries.
This joint military talk comes as Obama issued an executive order, very quietly on March 16, that paves the way for Total War. The main stream media never reported it.
“When a suicide bomber tried to enter the district headquarters, he was stopped by the police but then he detonated his explosives, right at the gate. The explosion was so strong, there are casualties among police and civilians.”-Naser Ahmad Popul, inside the building at the time of the blast.
Big explosion in Herat Province on April 9, 2012. Afghan media reports 9 people killed, 22 wounded.
Afghan media said it was a suicide bomber using a Toyota 4×4, who blew himself up in front of a district office west of the city of Herat.
Another explosion took place in Helmand Province.
U.S. media reports four Afghan police were killed. Three people wearing explosive vests attacked a police station. Police shot and killed one, but the other two exploded themselves.
Interestingly the Afghan media is not mentioning the Helmand incident, so far. Also, the U.S. media says the “Taliban” have claimed responsibility for both attacks, yet Afghan media says no one is claiming responsibility.
April 9, 2012, in Baghlan Province an explosion left seven people wounded. Three are Afghan intelligence officers.
Officials say a bomb was placed in a culvert, and exploded as the vehicle carrying the intelligence officers drove over it. Four civilians are wounded as well.
And it has been revealed that despite yesterday’s “deal” signing, U.S. led forces will still conduct night raids, and other special operations.
The deal supposedly gave the Afghan military the lead role in special operations. Even Afghanistan’s Defense Minister said night raids would be done by Afghan forces: “From now on only Afghan forces can search the homes and private properties as part of night operations.”-Abdul Rahim Wardak
Yet the deal allows Afghan military leaders to request that U.S. led forces still carry out such operations “as required or requested”.
The U.S. state of South Carolina is sending 500 members of their state militia to
Afghanistan. The 169th Fighter Wing of South Carolina’s Air National Guard deployed on Easter Sunday.
The Christian Science Monitor has published an article that tries to explain who and what the “Taliban” Mujahideen groups are, and shows that they are not the same as al Qaeda, and in fact it is the Mujahideen (not the United States) that have prevented al Qaeda from gaining a foothold in Afghanistan: “Such differences cause natural tensions between the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda has not been able to hijack the insurgency the way it did in Iraq.”– NATO intelligence officer
The Pashtuns (who make up the majority of Afghans) consider the Mujahideen “Taliban” to be their only legitimate political representatives: “One of the most important things to an Afghan, especially in the context of the last 30 years of open warfare, is personal security. The central government and to a degree NATO/Coalition forces have failed in this regard. The Taliban, in the view of ordinary Pashtuns, is the only entity able to impose law and order.”-Matthew DuPee, Afghan Affairs U.S. Naval Postgraduate School
According to Azerbaijani media, Iran’s Oil Ministry is confirming that their oil exports are dropping due to Western oil sanctions.
Iranian oil officials say Japan has made the biggest cut in oil purchases, despite recently getting an exemption from the United States. Japan cut Iranian oil imports by 28% from January to April 2012.
However, Iran’s oil exports have also gone down due to their own oil embargo of the European Union. The EU’s own oil sanctions go into effect on July 1.
Speaking of Japan, Tokyo Electric, the operator of the nuclear disaster reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, has been using oil to generate electricity, a lot more oil.
TEPCo reported that in March 2012 they used four times the amount of oil than in March 2011. They also used the most natural gas since August 2011, and August was a record for gas use by TEPCo; 2.079 million tons.
Regarding natural gas, the United States is so full of it, that there is no where left to store the stuff. Underground salt caverns, depleted oil fields and aquifers are being used but even they are rapidly filling.
The result is that drilling and pumping of the LNG will have to stop, natural gas prices are at ten year lows (we consumers like that). Maybe this will mean an end to fracking and man made earthquakes?
But that might be bad news for places like Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The town has seen an economic boom; their tax revenues have gone up more than 10% between 2006 and 2010, and 115 new business in and around Lycoming County have been created.
In Egypt, ever since the January 2011 Revolution their gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan keeps getting blown up. April 9, 2012, it got blown up again, for the 14th time since the Revolution.
In Libya, U.S. officials are investigating oil deals made with Italy’s Eni, and France’s Total. The companies are being investigated for their connections to Muammar Gaddafi.
Eni officials said certain payments made to Gaddafi might have violated the U.S. Foreign Corruption Practice Act. The U.S. is helping the new Libyan government investigate many oil companies, and could result in huge fines being levied in favor of the new government.
The Washington Post reporting that the United States did indeed spy on Iran using UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles, aka drones).
The report says the National Security Agency has at least three years worth of drone surveillance data on Iran. The program is being run by the Central Intelligence Agency’s Iran Operations Division (aka Persia House).
April 7, Yemen military officials say a U.S. drone strike killed 24 anti-government Mujahideen in two locations. They say some of those killed were foreign Arabs.
There are several anti-government groups in Yemen, two are called Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and Partisans of Sharia.
Reports this past week say that the continued use of drones in Yemen could draw the U.S. into a full blown civil war: ”The more the U.S. applies its current policy, the stronger Al Qaeda seems to get.”–Charles Schmitz, American Institute of Yemen Studies
“Drones are a weapon of terror in many ways, and the kind of hostility this is going to breed may not be worth the counter-terrorism gains.”-Barbara Bodine, former U.S. ambassador to Yemen
“Heavily armed American soldiers have begun appearing in large numbers at the Sheraton Hotel in the capital, Sana, a Yemeni official said.“-Los Angeles Times
Also on April 7, Israeli forces attacked Gaza Strip with drones. Israeli officials said they targeted two men on a motorcycle in the town of Rafah: “Aircraft thwarted a rocket launch in the southern Gaza Strip.”-IDF statement
Despite claiming to have “thwarted” a rocket launch by Palestinians, two rockets were launched at Israel the next morning, April 8.
April 6, “An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicle crashed in northern Afghanistan…”-ISAF statement
No further details were presented. Some reports also said a NATO helicopter crashed in the same area, but it might be witnesses confusing the rotary wing drone for a manned helicopter.
There are conflicting reports about drone operations ending in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Most reports say drone operations will end after 2014, but there is a report that says assassination drones (aka MQ 9 Reapers) will actually quadruple their terror activity until 2016!
The report says the Reapers will operate from Australia’s Cocos Islands: “But don’t expect the worldwide drone war now being waged in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen to wind down. To the contrary, an Air Force announcement posted online this week indicates the Pentagon anticipates more than quadrupling the size of the global drone war over the next four years.”-Salon, Air Force ramps up drone war
April 5, the U.S. puppet government of Somalia stated to the United Nations that they have given the U.S. permission to use drones against their own people.
“I’m not going to get into matters that relate to intelligence. I will say that the United States has been and remains extremely focused-as do all members of the international community-on combating the terrorist threat that Al Shabaab poses, as an active threat not only to Somali but to the people of the region and beyond, in particular, given its active affiliation with Al Qaeda.“-Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the UN
April 3, a U.S. drone crashed and exploded in Somalia. The drone went down near the town of El-Bur, which is considered a stronghold of the anti-Western government Mujahidden group called al-Shabaab. However, the residents of the town say al-Shabaab fighters left the town on March 24.