More War Preparations: Russia Sending More Warships To Syria

The build-up to war continues by both Russia and the U.S., as we also see yet more articles 'looking behind the curtain'. At the same time, the increase in big earthquakes is alarmingly noteworthy right now:

Russia Sends Missile Cruiser 'Moskva', Destroyer And Frigate To Syria

It was just yesterday, when we reported on the build up of Russian naval forces in the Meditteranean, in this case two new marine-carrying amphibious assault ships, that we made a simple forecast: "Our prediction: the next ship to be dispatched in direction Syria will be the missile cruiser Moskva, the "flag ship of the Black Sea fleet" and more of its affiliated warships... That, and a whole lot of submarines." We were right.

• RUSSIA SENDS MISSILE CRUISER MOSKVA TO EAST MEDITERRANEAN: IFX
• RUSSIA SENDS DESTROYER, FRIGATE TO EAST MEDITERRANEAN: IFX
• RUSSIA HAS WARSHIPS, SPY VESSELS MONITORING MEDITERRANEAN: IFX
• RUSSIA PREPARED TO ADJUST SIZE OF MEDITERRANEAN BUILDUP: IFX

Because while the Mediterranean build up is inevitable (and can be tracked here), the next step will be the arrival of Russian air and land-based support in Syria. Oh, and China. Let's not forget China.

Russia is sending a missile cruiser to the east Mediterranean to take over the navy's operations in the region, state agency Interfax quoted a military source as saying on Wednesday, as the United States prepares for a possible military strike in Syria.

President Barack Obama has won backing from key figures in the U.S. Congress in his call for limited U.S. strikes on Syria to punish President Bashar al-Assad for his suspected use of chemical weapons against civilians.

The ship, Moskva, will take over operations from a naval unit in the region that Moscow says is needed to protect national interests. It will be joined by a destroyer from Russia's Baltic Fleet and a frigate from the Black Sea Fleet.

Carrier Nimitz Moved To Red Sea

The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68), its escort of three Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyers and one Ticonderoga guided missile cruiser have been tasked to the Red Sea ahead of an expected U.S. strike on Syria, several news services reported on Monday.

USS William P. Lawrence (DDG-100), USS Stockdale (DDG-106), USS Shoup (DDG-86) and USS Princeton (CG-59), along with Nimitz, puts “that strike group in a position to respond to a variety of contingencies,” said a U.S. defense official was quoted by Reuters.

The Nimitz strike group was scheduled to return to its homeport at Naval Station Everett, Wash. after a U.S Central Command deployment but was ordered to linger in the region after being relieved by USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75).

On Saturday U.S. President Barrack Obama said the U.S. would delay a limited strike on Syria until Congress was able to cast a vote for military action.

Currently five U.S. guided missile destroyers and amphibious warship USS San Antonio (LPD-17) are in the Eastern Mediterranean in advance of the planned U.S. strike.

Senate Resolution Sets Deadline, Bars Ground Forces In Syria

[Sadly, we have to assume that any resolution passed by congress will be ignored]

A Senate resolution authorizing President Barack Obama to use military force against Syria would bar American ground troops from combat operations and set a deadline for any action.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the draft resolution that the Foreign Relations Committee will vote on Wednesday.

The measure would set a time limit of 60 days for any mission, and it says the president can extend that for 30 days more unless Congress has a vote of disapproval.

Meanwhile, a few hundred miles away, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged caution. He said any punitive action against Syria could unleash more turmoil and bloodshed, and he advised that such strikes would be legal only in self-defense under the UN Charter or if approved by the organization’s Security Council. Russia and China have repeatedly used their veto power in the council to block action against Assad.

Welcome To The 'United States Of Al-Qaeda'

Look out Free World: Here Comes the USA—the newly minted ‘United States of al-Qaeda’.

The ‘United States of al-Qaeda’ is the first hard evidence of President Barack Obama’s Fundamental Transformation of America, which in effect throws all U.S. citizens in with the terrorists known as al-AQaeda; a new kind of military of which no one can be proud.

It was in 2008 when running for the presidency, that Barack Obamadeclared he would someday soon lead a civilian army of his very own: “We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we set.  We gotta’ have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.” (Barack Obama, July 2, 2008).

To a majority of the American population, it may no longer be “our military” but Obama’s ‘United States of al-Qaeda’.

At yesterday’s hourlong meeting at the White House, Obama gave general support to doing more for the Syrian rebels—the Syrian rebels being al-Qaeda.

John (Allahu Akbar) McCain said later in an interview that “Mr. Obama did not say specifically what weapons might be provided to the opposition or discuss in detail what Syrian targets might be attacked”.
“There was no concrete agreement. ‘O.K., we got a deal,’” Mr. McCain said.  “Like a lot of things, the devil is in the details”. (The New York Times, Sept. 2, 2013).

Is that devil in the details Obama’s personal army, the one “that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as the one the world has seen to date?

Is it possible that the 50 CIA-trained ‘soldiers’ sneaking across the Syrian border today are members of Obama’s Civilian National Security Force in military disguise?

With only 29.5 percent of American population approval, would any sincerely patriotic soldier now in the US Military follow the orders of a commander in chief who would send them to fight side-by-side with al-Qaeda?

How America could go from fighting off al-Qaeda to fighting beside al-Qaeda in the 12 years since September 11, 2001 is mind boggling.

Have the Valerie Jarrett-led unelected Obama czars been working these past five years grooming a civilian national security force for him while Obama has been MIA golfing and holidaying?
Meanwhile, the big question on Syria should not be why America is going into Syria, but who America is sending into Syria.

Is The United States Going To War With Syria Over A Natural Gas Pipeline?

Why has the little nation of Qatar spent 3 billion dollars to support the rebels in Syria?  Could it be because Qatar is the largest exporter of liquid natural gas in the world and Assad won't let them build a natural gas pipeline through Syria?  Of course.  Qatar wants to install a puppet regime in Syria that will allow them to build a pipeline which will enable them to sell lots and lots of natural gas to Europe.  

Why is Saudi Arabia spending huge amounts of money to help the rebels and why has Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan been "jetting from covert command centers near the Syrian front lines to the Élysée Palace in Paris and the Kremlin in Moscow, seeking to undermine the Assad regime"?  Well, it turns out that Saudi Arabia intends to install their own puppet government in Syria which will allow the Saudis to control the flow of energy through the region.  On the other side, Russia very much prefers the Assad regime for a whole bunch of reasons.  

One of those reasons is that Assad is helping to block the flow of natural gas out of the Persian Gulf into Europe, thus ensuring higher profits for Gazprom.  Now the United States is getting directly involved in the conflict.  If the U.S. is successful in getting rid of the Assad regime, it will be good for either the Saudis or Qatar (and possibly for both), and it will be really bad for Russia.  This is a strategic geopolitical conflict about natural resources, religion and money, and it really has nothing to do with chemical weapons at all.

It has been common knowledge that Qatar has desperately wanted to construct a natural gas pipeline that will enable it to get natural gas to Europe for a very long time.

If Qatar is able to get natural gas flowing into Europe, that will be a significant blow to Russia.  So the conflict in Syria is actually much more about a pipeline than it is about the future of the Syrian people.  In a recent article, Paul McGuire summarized things quite nicely...

The US plays into this in that it has vast wells of natural gas, in fact the largest known supply in the world. There is a reason why natural gas prices have been suppressed for so long in the US. This is to set the stage for US involvement in the Natural Gas market in Europe while smashing the monopoly that the Russians have enjoyed for so long. What appears to be a conflict with Syria is really a conflict between the U.S. and Russia!

The main cities of turmoil and conflict in Syria right now are Damascus, Homs, and Aleppo. These are the same cities that the proposed gas pipelines happen to run through. Qatar is the biggest financier of the Syrian uprising, having spent over $3 billion so far on the conflict. The other side of the story is Saudi Arabia, which finances anti-Assad groups in Syria. The Saudis do not want to be marginalized by Qatar; thus they too want to topple Assad and implant their own puppet government, one that would sign off on a pipeline deal and charge Qatar for running their pipes through to Nabucco.

Also see:

Senior PA Official: Peace Talks With Israel Are Going Nowhere

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are proving pointless and will not bear fruit without much greater pressure from Washington, a top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday.

In the most damning Palestinian assessment to date, Yasser Abed Rabbo said that the negotiations, which kicked off in late July after a three year hiatus, had made no progress.

S Korea Claim N Korea Can Deliver Nuclear Warhead On A Missile

North Korea can now deliver a nuclear warhead on a missile, the South Korean Defence Ministry claimed in a report, contradicting the US assessment that the country is years away from developing the technology.

"The security situation on the Korean peninsula has now worsened as the North's threat of nuclear missiles has become real," according to the report, which was presented to a parliamentary committee on national security yesterday and released by the office of lawmaker Kim Kwang Jin.

The new capability may embolden North Korea toward military provocation once the US relinquishes its wartime command of South Korean troops in 2015, the report said. That command was given to the US during the 1950-53 Korean war.

Endless Extermination Of Christians: Do We Care?

Not only is it fatally dangerous to be a Christian in Syria and Egypt, but “70 percent of Christians killed around the world in 2012 died in the African country of Nigeria, where the persecution continues today” (“Deadliest place to be a Christian: Nigeria,” Charlie Butts, OneNewsNow.com, May 31).

According to a Fox News report, in Iraq, which we invaded in 2003 to liberate its people from a vicious dictatorship, “the number of Christian houses of worship there has dwindled alarmingly in the decade since the U.S. invaded and ousted Saddam Hussein from power.

“There are just 57 Christian churches in the entire country, down from more than 300 as recently as 2003, Patriarch Louis Sako told Egyptian-based news agency MidEast Christian News. The churches that remain are frequent targets of Islamic extremists, who have driven nearly a million Christians out of the land, say human rights advocates” (“Christians, churches dwindling in Iraq since start of war 10 years ago,” Perry Chiaramonte, foxnews.com, March 21).

We hear a lot about Barack Obama’s targeted killing of Pakistan’s citizens, including innocent civilians, by drones, but you probably have not heard about this:

“The destruction a Christian neighborhood suffered on Saturday speaks volumes about growing religious intolerance in the country.

“An over 3,000-strong mob set ablaze more than 150 houses of Christians in Lahore’s Joseph Colony over alleged blasphemous remarks … by Sawan Masih, a 28-year-old Christian sanitation worker” (“Christians under siege: Mob rule in Lahore,” Rana Tanveer, The Express Tribune, March 10).

And dig this from Walid Shoebat, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood who is now a peace activist:

“Christians and other religious minorities are being falsely accused daily by those who use the Islamic blasphemy law as a method of intimidation. … The evidence of Islam’s hostility towards Christians is overwhelming, with very limited attention given to it in the international community. … Christians have become the most oppressed class in Pakistan. … 2012 also became one of the worst years of Christian persecution against the religious minorities in Pakistan, when hundreds of Christians and Hindu girls were abducted, raped and forcibly converted to Islam. …

“The targeting of Christian girls and women has become a twisted form of sexual bloodsport for fanatic Muslims. Christian girls are particularly vulnerable to these types of crimes. Christian girls and women normally don’t file any police reports against such crimes; they usually keep silent because of the fear of the fanatics.

Egypt's Sinai Emerges As New Theater For Jihad

15 Arrested As Palestinians, Police Clash On Temple Mount

Earthquakes:

Seismic Monitor

Earthgquake Report: Very Strong Quakes In Japan, New Guinea, Banda Sea, China

6.5 Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Southern Japan

6.1 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Off B.C. Coast