Gazette -082713

Tuesday August 27th 2013

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US 'ready' to launch Syria strike

American forces are "ready" to launch strikes on Syria if President Barack Obama chooses to order an attack, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel says.

"We have moved assets in place to be able to fulfil and comply with whatever option the president wishes to take," Mr Hagel told the BBC.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has said there is "undeniable" proof that Syria used chemical weapons.
The UK Parliament is to be recalled on Thursday to discuss possible responses.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who has cut short his holiday and returned to London, said MPs would vote on a "clear motion".

The crisis follows last Wednesday's suspected chemical attack which reportedly killed more than 300 people.

French President Francois Hollande said France was "ready to punish" whoever was behind the attack.
Meanwhile the Arab League said it held Syrian President Bashar al-Assad responsible for the attacks and called for UN action.
Syrian opposition sources have said they have been told to expect a Western intervention in the conflict imminently.
"There is no precise timing... but one can speak of an imminent international intervention against the regime. It's a question of days and not weeks," AFP news agency quoted Syrian National Coalition official Ahmad Ramadan as saying.
"There have been meetings between the Coalition, the [rebel] Free Syrian Army and allied countries during which possible targets have been discussed."

Arab League accuses Syria of chemical attack

The Arab League has blamed the Syrian government for last week's alleged chemical weapons attack near Damascus that killed hundreds, calling for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

In an emergency meeting held Tuesday, the Arab League also called on members of the U.N. Security Council to overcome their differences and agree on "deterrent" measures against those who committed "this heinous crime." The League said it will convene a meeting at the ministerial level next week to follow up on the situation in Syria.
The Syrian government has denied it was behind the attack. The U.S said it is ready for military action if evidence is conclusive that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons.

Taliban Kill 12 Afghan Civilians, Aid Workers

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan officials say insurgents have shot and killed 12 civilians, including six aid workers working on government projects, in two separate incidents.
Jamel Danish, media adviser for the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation, says the bodies of six people were found on Tuesday in the Gulran district of western Herat province.
He says the six were kidnapped on Sunday by the Taliban and killed after negotiations failed. Danish says five worked for an international non-governmental organization and one worked for the ministry.
The ministry has programs that seek to improve the lives of Afghans from remote regions.
Rohullah Samon, spokesman for eastern Paktia province, said six unidentified civilians were found Tuesday by a roadside. He had no other details.
The Taliban regularly target government employees.

Maduro Assassination Plot Foiled, Venezuela Says 

Venezuela said it derailed a plot to kill President Nicolas Maduro, arresting two hitmen it said wanted to assassinate the leftist leader on orders from a Colombian conservative ex-president.
Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez said at a briefing that Caracas arrested the alleged hitmen, two Colombians, on August 13.
The pair, Victor Johan Guache Mosquera and Erick Leonardo Huertas Rios, were part of "a group of 10 men who were coming to carry out the murder of the president," working with former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, Rodriguez charged.
Maduro himself called on US President Barack Obama to say if he ordered or knew of the alleged assassination plan.
Maduro said that besides Colombia, it was hatched by far-right Venezuelan opposition figures in Miami. Maduro is a frequent and fiery critic of Washington, as was his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.
"Is President Obama so weak that decisions are made for him in the United States to kill a Latin American head of state without his knowing it?" Maduro said to reporters.
The pair detained were part of a support team for a "highly experienced hitman" identified by the alias David, whom they reported to directly and who was to personally carry out the assassination, the minister said.

Saudis offer Russia secret oil deal if it drops Syria

Saudi Arabia has secretly offered Russia a sweeping deal to control the global oil market and safeguard Russia’s gas contracts, if the Kremlin backs away from the Assad regime in Syria.
The revelations come amid high tension in the Middle East, with US, British, and French warships poised for missile strikes against Syria, and Iran threatening to retaliate. The strategic jitters pushed Brent crude prices to a five-month high of $US112 a barrel.
‘‘We are only one incident away from a serious oil spike. The market is a lot tighter than people think,’’ said Chris Skrebowski, editor of Petroleum Review.
Leaked transcripts of a behind closed doors meeting between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan shed an extraordinary light on the hard-nosed Realpolitik of the two sides.

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Prince Bandar, head of Saudi intelligence, allegedly confronted the Kremlin with a mix of inducements and threats in a bid to break the deadlock over Syria.
‘‘Let us examine how to put together a unified Russian-Saudi strategy on the subject of oil. The aim is to agree on the price of oil and production quantities that keep the price stable in global oil markets,’’ he is claimed to have said at the four-hour meeting with Mr Putin.
‘‘We understand Russia’s great interest in the oil and gas in the Mediterranean from Israel to Cyprus. And we understand the importance of the Russian gas pipeline to Europe. We are not interested in competing with that. We can cooperate in this area,’’ he said, purporting to speak with the full backing of the US.
The talks appear to offer an alliance between the OPEC cartel and Russia, which together produce more than 40 million barrels a day of oil, 45 per cent of global output. Such a move would alter the strategic landscape.

Netanyahu warns Israel will respond 'fiercely' if it sees any attempt of a Syrian attack 

With the US poised for military action against Syria, and amid concern Damascus may respond by lashing out at Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held urgent security consultations in Tel Aviv Tuesday afternoon.

Following the meeting he reiterated that Israel was "prepared for any eventuality." While stressing that Israel was not involved in the Syrian Civil War, Netanyahu said that if Israel discerns any attempt at all to attack it, "we will respond, and we will respond fiercely."
On Monday, International Minister Yuval Steinitz said that the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons against its own people is a stark reminder of just how dangerous non-conventional weapons are in the hands of totalitarian regimes.
While calling on the world to stop Assad, Steinitz said Israel would not interfere in the turmoil roiling the Arab world.
“We are not going to interfere in the turmoil and internal conflicts around us,” he said. “We want to stay out of the conflicts in the Arab world and in the Arab countries. I think this is a very reasonable and responsible policy.”
Asked, however, if Jerusalem was not concerned about Syrian retaliation against Israel in case of an American attack, Steinitz said, “I think it will be insane for somebody to try to provoke Israel, but of course we are prepared for any scenario.” 

Saudi Arabia to have 16 nuclear reactors by 2030

DUBAI: Oil-rich Saudi Arabia plans to become a leader in renewable energy by building 16 nuclear reactors by 2030 at an estimated cost of USD 100 billion and with a combined capacity of 22 gigawatts.

The nuclear capacity will be about half of the country's current electricity output and the first two reactors would be ready within 10 years, Arab News quoted Abdul Ghani bin Melaibari, coordinator of scientific collaboration at King Abdullah city for Atomic and Renewable Energy, as saying.

Power demand in Saudi Arabia is estimated to grow seven to eight per cent during the next 10 years.

The cost building nuclear reactors in the country would be comparatively higher because of its extreme hot climate, Melaibari pointed out, besides stressing the need to train Saudis to operate and maintain such plants.

"The cost of building and operating nuclear plants in France, Russia, South Korea and Japan differs from one country to another, depending on the technology they adopt, infrastructure facilities in place and the availability of cheap manpower," he said.

"After 10 years, we will have the first two reactors. After that, every year we will establish two, until we have 16 by 2030. We would like to cover 20 per cent of electricity needs using nuclear energy," Melaibari said.

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe threatens British, U.S. firms over Western sanctions

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe threatened “tit-for-tat” retaliation against companies from Britain and the United States on Sunday if the Western nations persisted in pressuring his government with sanctions and what he called “harassment”.
Mugabe’s latest verbal broadside against his main Western critics followed their questioning of his re-election in a July 31 vote that his rival Morgan Tsvangirai denounced as a “coup by ballot” which he said involved widespread vote-rigging.
Mugabe, who at 89 is Africa’s oldest leader, has rejected the fraud allegations and was sworn in on Thursday for a new five-year term in the southern African nation that he has ruled since its independence from Britain in 1980.
“They should not continue to harass us, the British and Americans,” he told supporters at the funeral of an air force officer.
“We have not done anything to their companies here, the British have several companies in this country, and we have not imposed any controls, any sanctions against them, but time will come when we will say well, tit-for-tat, you hit me I hit you.”
British companies in Zimbabwe include banking groups Standard Chartered Plc and Barclays Plc. These are already the target of a so-called “indigenisation” policy that requires they cede a majority stake to black Zimbabweans.
The policy has also been applied to foreign mining houses in the mineral-rich country including those owned by South African companies such as Impala Platinum.
The United States has a far more limited corporate presence in Zimbabwe than Britain.

Snowden's Moscow stay an accident, Russian paper reports

American secrets-leaker Edward Snowden ended up in Moscow accidentally, after Cuba, under U.S. pressure, blocked entry to the former National Security Agency analyst, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported, citing unnamed Russian and Western government sources.

“His choice of itinerary and his request for help were an absolute surprise for us. We did not invite him,” a Russian official told the newspaper.
However, Western countries suspect that the Russians asked Snowden to come to their consulate in Hong Kong, where he was hiding from U.S. authorities after leaking information about the NSA’s widespread spying. The Russians sent an invitation through the Chinese, “who were glad to get rid of him,” a Western source told Kommersant.
While Snowden contacted the Russian government in Hong Kong before getting on the Aeroflot flight to Moscow, Moscow was not his planned final destination, Russian government sources told the newspaper.
Snowden was supposed to fly to Havana after a 22-hour layover in Moscow, and connect to either Bolivia or Ecuador. However, he did not board the flight, to the chagrin of nearly the entire Moscow press corps who found his reserved seat 17A empty.
The United States pressured Cuba to prohibit the flight from landing if Snowden was on board, several sources told the newspaper. Cuba was one of the countries that the United States threatened with “unfavorable consequences” if it accepted Snowden, a source close to the State Department was quoted as saying by Kommersant.
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 US to reach debt ceiling in October

The US government will reach its debt limit by mid-October unless Congress acts quickly, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has warned.

The debt ceiling was last raised in January. The government can no longer borrow if it is reached.
Mr Lew said that in such a case it will be unable to meet obligations such as pensions, military salaries and Medicare payments.
The country's borrowing limit is currently capped at $16.7tn (£10.7tn).
"Extraordinary measures are projected to be exhausted in the middle of October," Mr Lew said in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and other lawmakers.
"At that point, the US will have reached the limit of its borrowing authority, and Treasury would be left to fund the government with only the cash we have on hand on any given day," he said.
The cash balance at that time is forecast to be about $50bn, which Mr Lew said, would be "insufficient to cover net expenditures for an extended period".

Keystone decision likely delayed until 2014

WASHINGTON –  The State Department confirmed Monday that its final report on the Keystone XL Pipeline will not be finished until 2014 but said the projected completion date is not based on the agency awaiting a separate inspector general’s report on possible conflicts of interest.
“The Department is currently working towards a Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, incorporating the requisite analysis and considering more than 1.2 million public comments received,” a State official told Fox News in a statement.
“The Final SEIS will be released after additional analysis and the issues identified in the public comments have been incorporated.”
Separately, the Office of Inspector General is looking into complaints that Environmental Resources Management, the contractor that prepared the most recent environmental impact statement on Keystone, failed to disclose possible conflicts of interest.
ERM had previously done work for TransCanada, the company which wants to build the pipeline along with other oil companies that could benefit from the project. The previous ties the companies had with each other prompted environmental groups to call for an independent investigation into the project.
“We continue to cooperate fully with OIG,” the State official said. “The Department is committed to a rigorous, transparent, and efficient federal review of the Keystone XL application.”

Obama weighing two-day military strike against Syria

President Obama is considering a "limited" two-day military strike against Syria using cruise missiles or possibly long-range bombers to punish that country for using chemical weapons, the Washington Post reported Monday.
According to the Post, the strike would focus on military targets not directly related to Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal and would be dependent on three factors: completion of an intelligence report assessing Syrian government culpability in last week’s alleged attack; ongoing consultation with allies and Congress; and determination of a justification under international law.
“We’re actively looking at the various legal angles that would inform a decision,” one official said.
Newsmax reported Tuesday that experts were finally able to cross the front lines on Monday to see survivors despite being shot at by snipers. A second visit has been put off until Wednesday.
U.S. officials say Obama has little doubt that Assad is to blame for the attack, but others have a different opinion.

You Won't Believe How Much 'Civil Rights' Group Pays Rev. Al Sharpton 

ON Monday night’s “O’Reilly Factor,” Bill O’Reilly once again exposed Al Sharpton and his political action organization – The National Action Network – for profiting off the good reverend’s “civil rights” activities.
According to The Free Beacon, in 2011, Sharpton was paid $241,000 – plus expenses – for race-hustling working tirelessly for civil rights.
Jesse Jackson unavailable for comment.

Canada senator Mac Harb quits over expenses

A Canadian senator embroiled in a row over improperly claimed expenses has stepped down from the chamber.

Ex-Liberal Senator Mac Harb said he could no longer serve effectively and would drop his dispute of an order to pay back improperly claimed expenses.
Mr Harb has repaid 231,000 Canadian dollars ($220,000; £141,000) in expense reimbursements deemed improper.
Three other senators have also faced audits over their claims for living and travel expenses.
In addition to Mr Harb, an internal Senate panel has demanded repayment of large sums by Senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin, who have resigned from the Conservative caucus though not from the chamber, and Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau, who is on a leave of absence over a separate criminal complaint of assault and sexual assault.
The audits have been referred to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and Canadian media report that several investigations are underway.
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