Oct 29

Today’s News 29th October 2019

  • Dio Mio! 'Corruption-Fighting' Italian PM Linked To Rogue Vatican Fund
    Dio Mio! ‘Corruption-Fighting’ Italian PM Linked To Rogue Vatican Fund

     

    Italy is hardly a stranger to financial horrorshows. Whether it’s fiscal mismanagement, blundering centuries-old banks loaded down with bad loans, a federal government too deep in the red, fears of a populist-backed parallel currency or the shadowy tendrils of the mafia tainting the country’s agri-export business.

    And now, what appears to be serious financial corruption scandal has found a direct line to the Quirinal Palace.

    So, what exactly is going on? Well, yesterday, the FT reported that a Vatican-backed investment fund that is under investigation by the Vatican authorities had hired Italian PM Giuseppe Conte to negotiate a deal.

    Just weeks before Conte took office (for the first time), Conte,  then a  little-known Florence-based academic, was hired in May 2018 to provide a legal opinion in favour of Fiber 4.0, a shareholder group involved in a fight for control of Retelit, an Italian telecoms company.

    The biggest investor in Fiber 4.0 was the Athena Global Opportunities Fund, which was constituted entirely by $200 million from the Vatican Secretariat. The Fund was owned and operated by Raffaele Mincione, an Italian financier.

    The news of Conte’s involvement will likely attract more scrutiny of the Fiber 4 deal from the Vatican police. In fact, Conte’s involvement wasn’t widely known until the police raided the all-powerful Vatican’s Secretariat of State, the Church’s most powerful centralized bureaucracy and the source of all the financing for the Fiber 4.0 deal.

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    Conte

    The Secretariat is currently under investigation over its involvement in several suspicious transactions, allegedly including this property deal, which inspired the initial raid mentioned above, according to the FT on Mondy.

    In the property deal the Secretariat invested in a $143 million building deal in London’s Chelsea with money it held away from central Papal State funds in several Swiss bank accounts. The deal has raised concerns from Vatican investigators that the Secretariat may have been misusing hundreds of millions of dollars under its control, which have been donated to the poor by Catholics around the world.

    Now, investigators that Conte, either unwillingly or willingly, helped paper over something similar.

    In Conte’s deal, the fund was part of a consortium (Fiber 4.0) hoping to win control of a small Italian telecoms company called Retelit. Fiber 4.0 hired Conte in May 2018 as a “freelance legal expert” after the consortium lost a vote in April over a proposal to take over Retelit. It lost the vote to a rival company controlled by German and Libyan interests, which Conte apparently believed gave the, an opening.

    Conte argued in the memo that the Italian government could step in and annul the vote using rules intended to protest “strategically important assets” (not dissimilar to the CFIUS deal review board in the board).

    Once he finally took office, in June 2018, he did just that. However, a few months later, his maneuverings were reversed and he was fined for his conduct.

    Conte is now trying his hardest to distance himself from that deal.

    “Regarding the new facts reported by the Financial Times, it should be noted that Mr Conte only gave a legal opinion and was not aware of, and was not required to know, the fact that some investors were connected to an investment fund supported by the Vatican and now at the centre of an investigation,” Conte’s office told the FT.

    This would be a most delicious irony: For Conte, whose reputation as an honest politician helped save his career when the Five Star-League coalition collapsed, to instead be felled by suspicions surrounding a possibly corrupt act mostly committed while he was still a civilian.


    Tyler Durden

    Tue, 10/29/2019 – 02:45

    Tags
    Business Finance

  • Italy: Mass Legalization Of Migrants Is Suicidal
    Italy: Mass Legalization Of Migrants Is Suicidal

    Authored by Giulio Meotti via The Gatestone Institute,

    Describing Italy, Gerard Baker, former editor in chief of the Wall Street Journal, recently wrote:

    “In much of the country… depopulation is advancing. Moving into the empty spaces have been waves of immigrants, many from North Africa and the Middle East. The migrants have filled vital gaps in the labor force, but the transformation of Italian towns has left increasing numbers of citizens resentful, fearful for their identity.”

    He went on to call this transformation, “a kind of pioneer of Western decline”. Already, the effects of mass migration are becoming dramatically visible in many of Italy’s elementary schools. In just the last few days, examples from two large cities have surfaced.

    The first was in Turin, Italy’s fourth largest city, where there are now elementary school classes with not even one Italian child:

    “In all classes, school principal Aurelia Provenza explained, the percentage of foreigners is very high, equal to 60% of the total number of pupils”.

    The second example comes from Bologna. “In my son’s kindergarten there is a serious integration problem, I have to take him away,” says Mohamed, a 34-year-old of Moroccan origin who arrived in Italy when he was 4 years old.

    “I don’t want to be seen as a racist myself as I am Moroccan, but the municipality must know that there is no integration by putting more than 20 foreign children into classes”.

    At the time of enrollment, Mohamed explained, they had seen drawings with flags of all nationalities in the school, but, “when we arrived at school the first day, we found ourselves in a class with all foreign children. The teachers are even struggling to pronounce the children’s names.”

    We have now reached a paradox: immigrants are taking their children out from classes where, under multiculturalism, segregation is surging. “School performance falls when classes exceed 30% foreigners; it is a crucial threshold that should be avoided or otherwise monitored”, said Costanzo Ranci, professor of Economic Sociology, and author of a recent report.

    Both of the above cases have been the subject of much public debate. In Italy, last month, the number of migrants arriving from Africa surged, after having declined for most of the last two years. The migrant reception center on the island of Lampedusa, the front line of Italy’s migration crisis, is now in a state of “collapse” due to the rapidly rising number of arrivals. The entire south of Italy is now trying to deal with migrants.

    According to projections from the UN Population Division, the population of sub-Saharan Africa will double in 30 years, adding an additional 1 billion people and accounting for more than half the global population growth between now and 2050. Italy, which already has the third-largest population of migrants in Europe, is undergoing an “unbearable” crisis, and now faces the real risk of an “Africanisation“, as Stephen Smith called it in his book, The Scramble for Europe.

    There are many voices of concern. Cardinal Robert Sarah, author of a new book, The Day Is Now Far Spent, about the crisis of the West, compares the current influx of migrants to the invasions of barbarians that brought down the Roman Empire. If Europe’s policies toward migrants do not change, Sarah warns, Europe will be “invaded by foreigners, just as Rome was invaded by barbarians.”

    “If Europe disappears, and with it the priceless values of the Old Continent, Islam will invade the world and we will completely change our culture, anthropology and moral vision”.

    An Italian think-tank, Fondazione Fare Futuro, also just predicted that due to mass migration and the different birthrates of Christians and Muslims, by the end of the century half of the population of Italy could be Muslim. In just ten years, the number of migrants in Italy has surged by 419%.

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    The native Italian population is already shrinking rapidly. Without the foreigners, every year native Italians would die (615,000) at twice the rate of births (380,000). Eurostat, the European official statistics office, calculates that by 2080, one-fifth of Italians will come from migration background (11 million of Italy’s 53 million).

    A recent report by the Italian national statistics office noted that the country is in a “demographic recession” not seen since the World War I, and 250,000 young Italians have fled the country. “Italy exports young graduates and imports migrants”, wrote Il Giornale. Italy is expected to lose 17% of its population by 2050, and — even without immigration — half by the end of the century.

    A Caritas-Migrantes report recently documented that since 2014, the decrease in the number of Italians is equivalent to the population of a large Italian city, say, Palermo (677,000). The dramatic decrease, however, has so far been offset by migrants.

    Immigration is once again becoming a political question. Just weeks after forming a government with the Five Star Movement, the Democratic Party is advancing the so-called “birthright citizenship” — a pledge to reverse the stringent migration policy of former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. In Latin this right to citizenship is called ius culturae. The new law would allow foreign minors under the age of 12 to become citizens after just five years at school in Italy. The bill is being advanced by Laura Boldrini, a former president of Italy’s Parliament, who famously said:

    “The lifestyle of the migrants will be ours”.

    Will Italians, as in those elementary schools, integrate into the new culture of the migrants?

    The current government knows perfectly well what is at stake. “From now to 2050 and 2060, we will have to face an epochal question from 50 to 60 million people who will arrive in the Mediterranean world”, MP Nicola Morra, MP in the governmental majority, recently said.

    The government is literally gambling with Italy’s future.

    Italy is the European country most exposed to migration pressure from Africa. With a native population already shrinking, if Italy is open to the mass legalization of migrants, we should be at least be aware that it will be culturally suicidal.


    Tyler Durden

    Tue, 10/29/2019 – 02:00

    Tags
    Social Issues
    Politics

  • Air Force's Secretive X-37B Spaceplane Lands After 780-Day "Classified Mission"
    Air Force’s Secretive X-37B Spaceplane Lands After 780-Day “Classified Mission”

    The U.S. Air Force’s secretive X-37B, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, is a robotic spacecraft, landed Sunday morning after 780 days in orbit, beating its previous record of 718 days, reported Space.com. 

    The X-37B touched down at the Shuttle Landing Facility of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, early Sunday morning. The classified mission, which initially began in September 2017, started on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

    “This program continues to push the envelope as the world’s only reusable space vehicle. With a successful landing today, the X-37B completed its longest flight to date and successfully completed all mission objectives,” Randy Walden, director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, said in a statement. “This mission successfully hosted Air Force Research Laboratory experiments, among others, as well as providing a ride for small satellites.”

    X-37B’s real mission in low Earth Orbit (LEO) is classified. But a 2017 Air Force press release detailed the plane is a “host platform for experimental payloads.” 

    “This mission carries small satellite ride shares and will demonstrate greater opportunities for rapid space access and on-orbit testing of emerging space technologies. Building upon the fourth mission and previous collaboration with experiment partners, this mission will host the Air Force Research Laboratory Advanced Structurally Embedded Thermal Spreader payload to test experimental electronics and oscillating heat pipe technologies in the long-duration space environment,” the Air Force said back in 2017. 

    In July, we reported how an amateur space enthusiast captured the X-37B orbiting Earth on camera. 

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    The X-37B resembles a smaller version of NASA’s retired Space Shuttle orbiter. It measures 29 feet long, 9.5 feet high, and has a wingspan of only 15 feet. The payload bay is about 7 feet long by 4 feet wide. 

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    Ground-based infrared sensors captured the moment the X-37B landed on Sunday morning. 

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    More footage shows ground crews in spacesuits working on the plane after it landed.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Here’s another view of the spaceplane.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    As for the exact mission, we’ll never know what the X-37B did for 780-days while orbiting the Earth.


    Tyler Durden

    Tue, 10/29/2019 – 01:00

    Tags
    Technology Internet

  • Russian Defense Minister Publishes Evidence Of US Oil Smuggling From Syria
    Russian Defense Minister Publishes Evidence Of US Oil Smuggling From Syria

    Via The Saker blog,

    Translated by Leo, bold and italics added for emphasis.

    Source: https://ria.ru/20191026/1560247607.html

    MOSCOW, October 26, 2019 – RIA Novosti – The Russian Ministry of Defense has published satellite intelligence images, showing American oil smuggling from Syria.

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    Image 1: Situation in the Syrian Arab Republic as of October 26, 2019.

    According to the ministry, the photos confirm that “Syrian oil, both before and after the routing defeat of the Islamic State terrorists in land beyond the Euphrates river, under the reliable protection by US military servicemen, oil was actively being extracted and then the fuel trucks were massively being sent for processing outside of Syria.”

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    Image 2: Daman oil gathering station, Syria, Deir ez-Zor province, 42 km east of Deir ez-Zor, August 23, 2019.

    Here, in a picture of the Daman oil gathering station (42 kilometers east of the Deir-ez-Zor province), taken on August 23, a large amount of trucks were spotted. “There were 90 automotive vehicles, including 23 fuel trucks,” the caption to the image said.

    In addition, on September 5, there were 25 vehicles in the Al-Hasakah province, including 22 fuel trucks. Three days later, on September 8, in the vicinity of Der Ez-Zor, 36 more vehicles were recorded (32 of them were fuel trucks). On the same day, 41 vehicles, including 34 fuel trucks, were in the Mayadin onshore area.

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    Image 3: Gathering of vehicles in Syria, Al-Hasakah province, 8 km west of Al-Shaddadi, September 5, 2019.

    As the official representative of the Defense Ministry Igor Konashenkov noted, the Americans are extracting oil in Syria with the help of equipment, bypassing their own sanctions.

    Igor Konashenkov:

     “Under the protection of American military servicemen and employees of American PMCs, fuel trucks from the oil fields of Eastern Syria are smuggling to other states. In the event of any attack on such a caravan, special operations forces and US military aircraft are immediately called in to protect it,” he said.

    According to Konashenkov, the US-controlled company Sadcab, established under the so-called Autonomous Administration of Eastern Syria, is engaged in the export of oil, and the income of smuggling goes to the personal accounts of US PMCs and special forces.

    The Major General added that as of right now, a barrel of smuggled Syrian oil is valued at $38, therefore the monthly revenue of US governmental agencies exceeds $30 million.

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    Image 4: Gathering of vehicles in Syria, Deir ez-Zor province, 10 km east of Mayadin, September 8, 2019.

    “For such a continuous financial flow, free from control and taxes of the American government, the leadership of the Pentagon and Langley will be ready to guard and defend oil fields in Syria from the mythical ‘hidden IS cells’ endlessly,” he said.

    According to Konashenkov, Washington, by holding oil fields in eastern Syria, is engaged in international state banditry.

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    Image 5: Gathering of vehicles in Syria, Deir ez-Zor province, 14 km east of Mayadin, September 8, 2019.

    The reason for this activity, he believes, “lies far from the ideals of freedom proclaimed by Washington and their slogans on the fight against terrorism.”

    Igor Konashenkov: 

    “Neither in international law, nor in American legislation itself – there is not and cannot be a single legal task for the American troops to protect and defend the hydrocarbon deposits of Syria from Syria itself and its own people,” the representative of the Defense Ministry concluded.

    A day earlier, the Pentagon’s head, Mark Esper declared that the United States is studying the situation in the Deir ez-Zor region and intends to strengthen its positions there in the near future “to ensure the safety of oil fields.”


    Tyler Durden

    Tue, 10/29/2019 – 00:00

    Tags
    Politics

  • Texas Could Be The Epicenter Of The Next Subprime Auto Crisis
    Texas Could Be The Epicenter Of The Next Subprime Auto Crisis

    In a recent report, we outlined how the largest subprime auto lender, Santander, is currently experiencing one of the most significant accelerations in subprime auto loan delinquencies, not seen since the dark days of 2008. Now, in a separate report via the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, there is new evidence that the epicenter of the next auto loan meltdown could start in Texas.  

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    The Texas auto subprime market began experiencing a troughing event in serious auto delinquencies in 2015, with a rapid turn up in 2016. By the end of 2018, the serious auto delinquency rate was at 16.7%, approaching 2010 levels of 18.2%. Despite the “greatest economy ever,” the Dallas Fed admits rising wealth inequality could be responsible for the growing delinquencies in Texas. 

    “It’s clear something is going on,” said Emily Ryder Perlmeter, an adviser for the Dallas Fed and one of the report’s authors. “The economy may not be working as well for everyone.”

    Michael Carroll, an economist at the University of North Texas, suggests the report is a clear indication that consumers in easy money times took on too much auto debt. Carroll also said consumer distress in Texas could be a bellwether for the broader economy and a warning sign that the consumer is weakening. 

    Perlmeter said rising auto loan delinquencies across the country is a severe problem, but the meltdown unfolding in Texas is much worse than any other major metropolitan area. 

    The Dallas Morning News noted the average auto loan in the state is $23,500 as of late 2018.

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    “The reality is we have too many low-paying jobs,” said Woody Widrow, executive director of Raise Texas, a nonprofit group that lobbies for anti-poverty policies. “Just because we have a low unemployment rate doesn’t mean that people have enough money to pay for the things they need.”

    For all of 2017, nearly one-third of the jobs in the state paid less than $24,300 per year, which is about the poverty line for a family of four.

    Average auto loans have been extended past 69 months to make it more affordable for the lower-income part of the population.

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    But what happens when the economy falters, and the oil and gas industry in Texas plunges? Consumers lose their jobs, develop a credit crunch, and are unable to service their insurmountable debts. 

    About 21% of Texans in 2018 had one credit account that was 90 days past due, said Prosperity Now. That was a one percentage point increase from 2017 and is the highest level among large states. 

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    Rising auto loan delinquencies in Texas stem from the 2015/16 oil bust, Perlmeter said. 

    Many Texans have insurmountable debts (auto loans, credit cards, student debts, and mortgages), depressing incomes, no savings, and are working in the gig economy, can barely make ends meet in an economy that is rapidly slowing. So when the next recession strikes, could be as early as next year, consumers in Texas could be very screwed. 

    Residents in El Paso will likely be the most screwed in the next economic downturn. Already, the county’s delinquency rate on auto loans doubled from 2014 to 2018 and broke to new highs not seen since the last financial crisis. Other counties have also seen a meteoric rise in auto delinquencies since the oil bust. 

    “Of the Texas counties in this report, El Paso County experienced a particularly steep rise in serious auto debt delinquencies, with its rate nearly doubling from 2014 to 2018. Unlike other counties and the state at large, El Paso’s serious delinquency rate is currently past its peak during the Great Recession. A few possible factors are at play. First, the average car loan carried in El Paso County is higher than the other four counties, despite El Paso’s relatively low median household income. Secondly, since mid-2017, the performance of auto debt for prime borrowers in El Paso has worsened, while prime performance in other counties has remained relatively stable,” Dallas Fed wrote. 

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    Consumer credit trends in Texas are an eye-opener of what’s to come for the broad consumer in the US. The next recession will especially leave the millennial, which is currently strapped with insurmountable debts, financially paralyzed for a generation to come.


    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 10/28/2019 – 23:40

    Tags
    Business Finance

  • Pepe Escobar On Caliph Closure: "He Died Like A Dog!"
    Pepe Escobar On Caliph Closure: “He Died Like A Dog!”

    Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Saker blog,

    Trump’s victory-lap movie version buries the embarrassing story of deploying tanks to ‘protect’ Syrian oilfields…

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    What remained of the attack site. Photo: AFP

    “He died like a dog.” President Trump could not have scripted a better one-liner as he got ready for his Obama bin Laden close-up in front of the whole world.

    Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, fake caliph, ISIS/Daesh leader, the most wanted man on the planet, was “brought to justice” under Trump’s watch. The dead dog caliph is now positioned as the ultimate foreign policy winning trophy ahead of 2020 reelection.

    The climatic scenes of the inevitable-as-death-and-taxes movie or Netflix series to come are already written. (Trump: I “watched it like a movie.”) Cowardly uber-terrorist cornered in a dead-end tunnel, eight helicopter gunships hovering above, dogs barking in the darkness, three terrified children taken as hostages, coward detonates a suicide vest, tunnel collapses over himself and the children.

    A crack forensic team carrying samples of the fake caliph’s DNA apparently does its job in record time. The remains of the self-exploded target – then sealed in plastic bags – confirm it: it’s Baghdadi. In the dead of night, it’s time for the commando unit to go back to Irbil, a 70-minute flight over northeast Syria and northwest Iraq. Cut to Trump’s presser. Mission accomplished. Roll credits.

    This all happened at a compound only 300 meters away from the village of Barisha, in Idlib, rural northwest Syria, only 5km from the Syria-Turkish border. The compound is no more:  it was turned to rubble so it would not become a (Syrian) shrine for a renegade Iraqi.

    The caliph was already on the run, and arrived at this rural back of beyond only 48 hours before the raid, according to Turkish intelligence. A serious question is what he was doing in northwest Syria, in Idlib – a de facto cauldron-like Donbass in 2014 – which the Syrian army and Russian airpower are just waiting for the right moment to extinguish.

    There are virtually no ISIS/Daesh jihadis in Irbil, but lots of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, as in al-Qaeda in Syria, known inside the Beltway as “moderate rebels,” including hardcore Turkmen brigades previously weaponized by Turkish intel. The only rational explanation is that the Caliph might have identified this Idlib backwater near Barisha, away from the war zone, as the ideal under-the-radar passport to cross to Turkey.

    Russians knew?

    The plot thickens when we examine Trump’s long list of “thank yous” for the successful raid. Russia came first, followed by Syria – presumably Syrian Kurds, not Damascus – Turkey and Iraq. In fact, Syrian Kurds were only credited with “certain support,” in Trump’s words. Their commander Mazloum Abdi, though, preferred to extol the raid as a “historic operation” with essential Syrian Kurd intel input.

    In Trump’s press conference, expanding somewhat on the thank yous, Russia again came first (“great” collaboration) and Iraq was “excellent”: the Iraqi National Intelligence Service later commented on the break it had gotten, via a Syrian who had smuggled the wives of two of Baghdadi’s brothers, Ahmad and Jumah, to Idlib via Turkey.

    There’s no way US Special Forces could have pulled this off without complex, combined Turkish, Iraqi and Syrian Kurd intel. Additionally, President Erdogan accomplishes one more tactical masterpiece, juggling between performing the role of dutiful, major NATO ally while still allowing al-Qaeda remnants their safe haven in Idlib under the watchful eye of the Turkish military.

    Significantly, Trump said, about Moscow:

    “We told them, ‘We’re coming in’ … and they said, ‘Thank you for telling us.’” But, “they did not know the mission.”

    They definitely didn’t. In fact, the Russian Defense Ministry, via spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov, said it had “no reliable information about US servicemen conducting an operation to ‘yet another’ elimination of the former Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the Turkish-controlled part of the Idlib de-escalation zone.”

    And on Trump’s “we told them,” the Russian Defense Ministry was emphatic: “We know nothing about any assistance to the flight of US aircraft to the Idlib de-escalation zone’s airspace in the course of this operation.”

    According to ground sources in Syria, a prevalent rumor in Idlib is that the “dead dog” in Barisha could be Abu Mohammad Salama, the leader of Haras al-Din, a minor sub-group of al-Qaeda in Syria. Haras al-Din has not issued any statement about it.

    ISIS/Daesh anyway has already named a successor: Abdullah Qardash, aka Hajji Abdullah al-Afari, also Iraqi and also a former Saddam Hussein military officer. There’s a strong possibility that ISIS/Daesh and myriad subgroups and variations of al-Qaeda in Syria will now re-merge, after their split in 2014.

    Who gets the oil?

    There’s no plausible explanation whatsoever for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, for years, enjoying the freedom of shuttling back and forth between Syria and Iraq, always evading the formidable surveillance capabilities of the US government.

    Well, there’s also no plausible explanation for that famous convoy of 53 brand new, white Toyota Hi-Luxes crossing the desert from Syria to Iraq in 2014 crammed with flag-waving ISIS/Daesh jihadis on their way to capture Mosul, also evading the cornucopia of US satellites covering the Middle East 24/7.

    And there’s no way to bury the 2012 US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)  leaked memo that explicitly named “the West, Gulf monarchies, and Turkey” as seeking a “Salafist principality” in Syria (opposed, significantly, by Russia, China and Iran – the key poles of Eurasia integration).

    That was way before ISIS/Daesh’s irresistible ascension. The DIA memo was unmistakable: “If the situation unravels there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran).

    True, the fake caliph has been proclaimed definitely dead at least five times, starting in December 2016. Yet the timing, now, could not be more convenient.

    The facts on the ground, after the latest ground-breaking Russia-brokered deal between the Turks and the Syrian Kurds, graphically spell out the slow but sure restoration of Syria’s territorial integrity. There will be no balkanization of Syria. The last remaining pocket to be cleared of jihadis is Irbil.

    And then, there’s the oil question. The “died as a dog” movie literally buries – at least for now – an extremely embarrassing story: the Pentagon deploying tanks to “protect” Syrian oilfields. This is as illegal, by any possible interpretation of international law, as is, for that matter, the very presence in Syria of US troops, which were never invited by the government in Damascus.

    Persian Gulf traders told me that before 2011, Syria was producing 387,000 barrels of oil a day and selling 140,000 – the equivalent of 25.1% of Damascus’s income. Nowadays, the Omar, al-Shadaddi and Suwayda fields, in eastern Syria, would not be producing more than 60,000 barrels a day. Still, that’s essential for Damascus and for “the Syrian people” so admired within the Beltway – the legitimate owners of the oil.

    The mostly Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) did in fact take military control of Deir er-Zor when they were fighting ISIS/Daesh. Yet the majority of the local population is Sunni Arab. They will never tolerate any hint of a longtime Syrian Kurd domination – much less in tandem with a US occupation.

    Sooner or later the Syrian army will get there, with Russian air power support. The Deep State might, but Trump, in an electoral year, would never risk a hot war over a few, illegally occupied oilfields.

    In the end, the “died as a dog” movie can be interpreted as a victory lap, and the closure of a historical arc languishing since 2011. When he “abandoned” the Syrian Demoratic Forces Kurds, Trump effectively buried the Rojava question – as in an independent Syrian Kurdistan.

    Russia is in charge in Syria – on all fronts. Turkey got rid of its “terrorism” paranoia – always having to demonize the Syrian Kurd PYD and its armed wing YPG as a spin-off of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) separatists inside Turkey – and this may help to settle the Syrian refugee question. Syria is on the way to recover all its territory.

    The “died as a dog” movie can also be interpreted as the liquidation of a formerly useful asset that was a valued component of the gift that keeps on giving, the never-ending Global War on Terror. Other scarecrows, and other movies, await.


    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 10/28/2019 – 23:20

    Tags
    Politics

  • Meet Baghdadi's Alleged Terror Successor
    Meet Baghdadi’s Alleged Terror Successor

    A mere day after President Trump announced that ISIS terror leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died “like a dog” in a US raid in northwest Syria, and after spokesman for the group Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir was also taken out in a joint US-Kurdish SDF operation, the Islamic State is already reported to have named a successor. The now deceased al-Mhuhajir had also been widely reported as a potential Baghdadi successor. 

    Meet new ISIS chief Abdullah Qardash, according to Newsweek:

    Abdullah Qardash, sometimes spelled Kardesh and also known as Hajji Abdullah al-Afari, was said to have been nominated by Baghdadi in August to run the group’s “Muslim affairs” in a widely-circulated statement attributed to ISIS’ official Amaq news outlet, but never publicly endorsed by the group.

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    Abdullah Qardash (left) is the reported successor of Baghdadi. 

    Citing unnamed officials, the report describes “Baghdadi’s successor” as previously having been a high ranking military officer in Saddam Hussein’s Baathist Iraq:

    Though little is known about the former Iraqi military officer who once served under late leader Saddam Hussein, one regional intelligence official asking not to be identified by name or nation told Newsweek that Qardash would have taken over Baghdadi’s role — though it had lost much of its significance by the time of his demise.

    According to a number of reports, citing Middle East analysts, Baghdadi had been little more than a “figurehead” by the time of his death. 

    As Crisis Group think tank senior analyst Sam Heller observed “Baghdadi’s personal centrality to the organization’s success is unclear,” given that “the group seems to have invested in systematizing and institutionalizing itself in a way that could mitigate the loss of any single leader, even at the very top.”

    Thus Qardash’s own role and level of command at the top of the terror group, even if confirmed, remains unclear. Given ISIS has by now largely been driven ‘underground’ – splintered into local cells confined to northeast Syria and western Iraq, any ISIS ‘leader’ position could remain symbolic at best. 

    Meanwhile, some analysts and prominent ISIS-watchers are hotly disputing the accuracy of Newsweek’s claim that Qardash has taken Islamic State’s helm, though admitting he does hold “prominence” in the organization.  

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    This after his name began circulating via jihadist terror media accounts in early August, and possibly even months prior as France 24 – which also contradicted the Newsweek report – relates:

    Speculation has abounded around a senior IS figure known as Abdullah Qardash – a former Iraqi military officer jailed with Baghdadi in the giant US-run Iraqi prison of Camp Bucca.

    A months-old statement attributed to IS propaganda arm Amaq but never officially adopted by the group said he was selected to replace Baghdadi even before Trump’s declared the self-proclaimed “caliph” dead.

    Abdullah Qardash’s prior role in the Iraqi military prior to 2003 is consistent with one dominant theory which has for years circulated among mainstream media pundits and academics — namely that ISIS’ prior rapid rise was due to its ranks being bolstered and led by Sunni former Iraqi intelligence and military officers, who after the US invasion fought coalition forces alongside al-Qaeda. 


    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 10/28/2019 – 23:00

    Tags
    Politics

  • OPCW Credibility Collapses As Even More Revelations Surface On Douma
    OPCW Credibility Collapses As Even More Revelations Surface On Douma

    Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,

    During a recent BBC radio interview, award-winning journalist Jonathan Steele said that he attended a briefing by a new whistleblower from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) investigation into an alleged 2018 chemical attack in Douma, Syria, who claimed that the OPCW suppressed his findings which contradicted the organization’s official conclusion that a chlorine gas attack had taken place. This according to Steele is a second whistleblower coming forward on the OPCW’s Douma investigation, the first being the leaker of an Engineering Assessment document which surfaced this past May contradicting the OPCW’s official ballistics report which the organization hid from the public.

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    I have archived an audio recording of Steele’s statement here for posterity, since the BBC removes its content after a month. I have also compiled a timeline of relevant events here so that people can properly appreciate the significance of these new revelations.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Steele made these comments unbidden by the show’s host Paul Henley. They read as follows (thanks to Tim Hayward of the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media for the transcript):

    Jonathan Steele: “I was in Brussels last week … I attended a briefing by a whistleblower from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. He was one of the inspectors who was sent out to Douma in Syria in April last year to check into the allegations by the rebels that Syrian aeroplanes had dropped two canisters of chlorine gas, killing up to 43 people. He claims he was in charge of picking up the samples in the affected areas, and in neutral areas, to check whether there were chlorine derivatives there …

    Paul Henley: And?

    JS: … and he found that there was no difference. So it rather suggested there was no chemical gas attack, because in the buildings where the people allegedly died there was no extra chlorinated organic chemicals than in the normal streets elsewhere. And I put this to the OPCW for comment, and they haven’t yet replied. But it rather suggests that a lot of this was propaganda…

    PH: Propaganda led by?

    JS: … led by the rebel side to try and bring in American planes, which in fact did happen. American, British and French planes bombed Damascus a few days after these reports. And actually this is the second whistle blower to come forward. A few months ago there was a leaked report by the person who looked into the ballistics, as to whether these cylinders had been dropped by planes, looking at the damage of the building and the damage on the side of the cylinders. And he decided, concluded, that the higher probability was that these cylinders were placed on the ground, rather than from planes.

    PH: This would be a major revelation…

    JS: … it would be a major revelation …

    PH: … given the number of people rubbishing the idea that these could have been fake videos at the time.

    JS: Well, these two scientists, I think they’re non-political — they wouldn’t have been sent to Douma, if they’d had strong political views, by the OPCW. They want to speak to the Conference of the Member States in November, next month, and give their views, and be allowed to come forward publicly with their concerns. Because they’ve tried to raise them internally and been — they say they’ve been — suppressed, their views have been suppressed.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Steele appears to be referring to a Courage Foundation panel meeting which convened in Brussels on October 15th, the findings of which were published the other day by the Courage Foundation and WikiLeaks, though it’s possible the briefing he refers to was a separate Brussels event around the same time. I’ve been unable to reach Steele for comment but will update with clarification if I can contact him.

    They are lying to us about what’s happening Syria. Shortly after the political/media class began blaring that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad had killed dozens of civilians with chemical weapons in April of last year, Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal wrote the following in an article for TruthDig:

    “In 2007, journalist James Bamford recalled how Americans had been subjected to ‘a long line of hyped and fraudulent stories that would eventually propel the U.S. into a war with Iraq — the first war based almost entirely on a covert propaganda campaign targeting the media.’ The dirty war on Syria represents an extension of that strategy, with the mainstream media operating hand in glove with insurgent-allied influence operations like the White Helmets to cultivate public support for another war of regime change.”

    Indeed, the narrative manipulation campaign against the Syrian government is historically unprecedented in its depth and scale. From bizarre narrative management operations posing as rescue services, to CNN staging a fake, scripted interview featuring a seven year-old Syrian girl blaming Assad for a chemical weapons attack, to the BBC’s manipulative and transparently bogus Saving Syria’s Children documentary, to the US-centralized empire’s increasingly evident influence over the OPCW, we’re seeing evidence of a campaign to distort the public understanding of what’s going on in a foreign nation the likes of which we’ve never before seen.

    Stay skeptical and remember Iraq. These new reports which keep surfacing on unacceptable practices by the OPCW are just one more piece on a mountain of evidence that whenever the political/media class and their hypnotized victims try to bully us into accepting the official narrative about a longtime target for regime change, we should stand firm and insist on an amount of proof which rises to the level required in a post-Iraq invasion world.

    The OPCW has a lot of questions to answer, especially since its findings have been cited as authoritative and conclusive in other high-profile events like the UK Skripal poisoning, as well as other incidents in Syria. Journalists like Steele and La Repubblica’s Stefania Maurizi have reported that the organization has been snubbing their requests for comment. Let’s hope the OPCW stops dodging journalists and moves toward bringing transparency and accountability to its processes.

    *  *  *

    Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my website, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, checking out my podcast on either Youtube, soundcloud, Apple podcasts or Spotify, following me on Steemit, throwing some money into my hat on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my new book Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone, or my previous book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish or use any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.

    Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2


    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 10/28/2019 – 22:40

    Tags
    Politics

  • HSBC CEO Vows To "Remodel" Bank After Profits Plunge 24%
    HSBC CEO Vows To “Remodel” Bank After Profits Plunge 24%

    With its largest and most important market, Hong Kong, in chaos, it’s hardly a surprise that HSBC, the nominally British lender which has its largest business footprint in Asia (particularly HK) reported a double-digit slump in pre-tax profits during Q3.

    The bank said net profit slumped 24% YoY to $3 billion, falling far short of what analysts had anticipated, according to the FT.

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    With few easy alternatives, and the situation in Hong Kong (particularly its housing market) looking increasingly uncertain, HSBC’s interim CEO Noel Quinn unveiled plans to “remodel” large parts of the bank, according to the FT.  Even amid fears that the HK unrest would hurt the bank, Quinn said its results in the region had been “resilient” in the face of these fears.

    Surprisingly (or maybe not), the weakness is coming from somewhere else: Europe.

    And so begins another restructuring initiative at another troubled European lender. Like Deutsche Bank, which is planning to shutter unprofitable businesses and re-focus resources, cutting what’s expected to be nearly 20,000 jobs in the process, HSBC will likely need to take drastic steps to truly reorient its business.

    <!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

    Though Quinn is only interim CEO, it looks like the bank means business with this initiative: The FT reported earlier this month that the bank’s plan to cut costs and divest businesses could lead to 10,000 job cuts.

    But on Monday, the bank took this a step further, and formally abandoned its main profitability target: to generate a return on tangible equity of more than 11% next year (it was 6.4% for Q32019).

    The bank blamed a “challenging” environment that meant “the outlook for revenue growth is softer.”

    In a video presentation posted to HSBC’s website, Quinn said “there are parts of our portfolio that are underperforming in terms of return. We need to urgently address that, move capital from those low-return portfolios and move it into the higher-return, higher-growth opportunities.”

    He added that the bank is still working on “detailed plans to make that happen.”

    We don’t know what those might be yet, but we’d venture a guess that thousands more European banking jobs will disappear before this is all over. And HSBC just might rethink its decision to remain domiciled in the UK.

    The bank’s HK-traded shares slumped more than 3% after its earnings report, adding to a double-digit decline over the past six months.

     

    191028 3q 2019 Earnings Release by Zerohedge on Scribd


    Tyler Durden

    Mon, 10/28/2019 – 22:20

    Tags
    Business Finance

Digest powered by RSS Digest