Tag: iran

Ferguson, what ?

Furguson might be far away. But the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the place are present all over the world. Not one country is bereft of the two question beginners. If that can happen in a developed country and still be under-reported, there is every reason that the same can happen regularly in the developing world and is not reported at all. That is the reality. Reality is not always pleasant.

The  African American who was killed – was he guilty of something, was he an offender, did the police officer do justice ? These questions would be answered variously depending on the side of the racial and political divide you are located in. The truth of the matter might not even come out. We are still waiting to know who killed JFK and why, after 50 years. From drug lords to cold war Russia to Prez. Johnson – we have been given various whys and hows. 

The same would happen in this Ferguson case as well.

Prez Obama famously declared to shut down Guantanamo bay. His second term presidency is shutting down in a couple of years. Not an inch has progressed in the prison closure case. In Iran’s case, excepting Ahmedinejad, nothing else has changed. Iraq situation seems to invite the US back into its quagmire. Afghanistan conundrum is not fully over yet. Similarly Ferguson would be forgotten in the next political battle between the President and the Congress.

Whether it is Ferguson or Guantanamo or Economic Crisis, nothing matters. An emotional and well body-languaged speech by President Obama would wash over any dirty scar on the American political discourse. James Foley et al would disappear into the collective American amnesia when Apple introduces the next iPhone.

So wait for the next speech and prepare for the holiday season. Life goes on. Economic prosperity is just an invasion away.

Burn Israel, shall we ?

‘Burn Israel’ seems to be the most acceptable solution according to the world media.

Let us take a step back. 

How did this latest Israel-Palestine flare-up come about ?

Did Israel start the war ? Did they start the helicopter attack on Gaza?
Did Hamas not provoke the fight ? Did they not rain rockets on Tel Aviv? Are rockets fired to shower rose petals ? So, if they attack you , should you keep quiet and proclaim ‘Ahimsa paramo Dharmaha‘ Non-violence is the best virtue ?

Let us get our facts straight.

The obnoxious ISIS advances on Iraq, capturing its cities and destroying Shia mosques. There was no way of stopping them. With Saudi backing, they progressed. This is one part. 

In Palestine, the Hamas government couldn’t even pay salaries to its 40,000 employees. Its influence started to wane when it entered into a compromise with Fatah, its own opposition group in Palestine. Its main sponsor Saudi Arabia was beginning to back ISIS to capture Iraq. If that happens then Hamas would become obsolete.

Syria’s President  Bashar al-assad was the other main benefactor of Hamas. He fought with other Islamic rebels in his own country and that antagonized Hamas. So another funding source dried up.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood government supported Hamas. Now that Mohammad Morsi has been ousted, the military backed government of Egypt stopped support. Yet another funding source evaporated.

An unified Iraq and Syria under a caliphate would sound the death knell to all other sundry groups like Hamas and Hezhollah. Therefore, to remain relevant, Hamas has to act, a last desperate death defying action, and hence chose the common enemy-Israel. Hitting Israel would help galvanize the islamic world and at least help the temporary life sustaining fund from Saudi Arabia and other theocratic states. 

Israel would anyways respond in a heavy manner and thus would help Hamas achieve its fund target. More so, the month is also auspicious. So Hamas capitalizes on the charity of the islamic nations. Donating to charity is ordained in the religion and Hamas stooped so low to take advantage of the noble gesture. It even spoiled twice,the truce brokered by Egypt. Need to achieve target funding you see.

Can’t depend on old ally Iran as well. Ahmadinejad has since retired and the new leader wants to be friends with the US and therefore wouldn’t want to get into the wrong side of Israel.

So, with  Saudi, Syria and Egypt having been effectively antagonized, Iran having become impotent in so far as funding is concerned and Gaza’s borders with Egypt and Israel walled and no traffic of material and people possible, Hamas’s only way to relevance is to ‘fight’ Israel and thereby elicit concessions from the former countries.

Pretending not to know any of these, the too generalistic media proclaims otherwise.

Now, shall we burn Israel ?

Stupidity and Idiocy

Stupidity is related to Idiocy.

Stupidity is defined as behaviour that shows a lack of good sense or judgement while Idiocy is explained as extremely stupid behaviour.

So I would define idiocy as being consistently stupid, each time more stupid than the previous time. No, I don’t mean Rahul Gandhi here. No use flogging a dead chameleon. There are better stupids this time.

Let us get into the Idiocy game.

ISIS attacks Iraq and Syria. Saudi Arabia finances ISIS. Iran is expected to retalliate in case ISIS advances further. That means Iran could get advantage in Iraq.

But Saudi Arabia cannot let Iran gain any advantage. So, what is the best way to halt Iran’s advance into Iraq ? Divert attention from Iraq and make people focus on a common enemy.

Who else other than Israel ? If Israel is dragged into some conflict with Palestine Iran would be forced to divert attention from Iraq. So, what happened ? Israel was lured into Palestine. A small attack started. Then Hamas, the henchman, got into action and fired rockets into Israel. And Israel prepared for a full-fledged attack. Hamas’s operator Iran is now forced to concentrate only on Israel via Hamas thus effectively looking away from Iraq.

And the ISIS continues its advance in Iraq with Saudi support.

What does this mean to America ? The global policeman gets a ‘legitimate’ reason to send in troops into Iraq and provide stability so that Saudi Arabia could mind its business of minting money by manipulating oil prices.

Coming back to Idiocy. Who are the stupids who exhibit Idiocy ?

The common man, me, you and others who need to do a day job to eat two square meals and pay Saudi Arabia for oil.

Of-course Palestinians join us in idiocy.

The Bankster(s)

Dacoity can be condoned even if it is committed by seemingly regular guys. More so when a bank does it. That too an ethic-insisting western bank.

Well, here is the story in short.

French bank BNP Paribas illegally transferred money from Sudan and Cuba. ‘Illegally’ because the countries are in the ‘sanctioned’ list – the countries that should not be either a source or a target of fund transfer using a banking channel. More so, if an American bank is involved.

You might ask, ‘BNP is not an US Bank. So what is the fuss?’.

BNP used a US bank for this purpose without disclosing the source of money.The US bank was JPMorgan Chase, the US behemoth.

Here is what BNP did.

Some satellite banks got funds from Sudan and Cuba. These satellite banks – legitimate banks related to BNP in a circuitous manner – transferred funds to JPMC which in them transferred these to BNP believing these to be genuine transactions. But JPMC got light of this when it detected some Cuba related ‘talk’ from back-office records from the satellite banks. And that ended the relationship with BNP for supposedly ‘Cuban’ accounts.

But BNP still continued with Sudan funds and later that was also found out by JPMC.

How did JPMC come into the picture ? BNP’s criminal mind was again behind this. Prior to JPMC, it used its own branch in New York for these transactions. But when the US increased surveillance, it took an US bank for its illicit fund operations. And JPMC was brought in.

As all movies end, the bad guy, BNP, was found out and fined $ 9 BN.

$ 9 Bn is too huge by any standards. Whose money is it anyways ? Stupid tax payers will finance a bail-out in case there is a need.

Wait a minute. Was JPMC so naive ? Probably it wants the regulators to believe it was naive for it had also been fined  $88.3 Mn in 2011 for its own Cuba, Iran funds.

That completes the story. Two villains make the best friends.

But why are Cuba, Iran and Sudan, ‘sanctioned’? Often cited reasons are that they finance terrorism.

Is Saudi Arabia any nobler ? Who finances the ISIS in Iraq ? Why no sanctions on Saudi ?

I need to sell arms to both Saudi Arabia and Israel at the same time while getting dead-cheap oil from the former and finance for the arms from the latter.

It’s the economy, stupid.

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