Mohamed Morsi Is a Scandal Bigger than Benghazi
First, the Obama administration can’t avoid the obvious about Syria: it is an insoluble mess, as I have been arguing for a year. Syria’s Sunni majority is infested with jihadi extremists, and Syria’s minorities (including its small Christian community) are clinging to the Assad regime, despite its atrocious behavior. The New York Times spelled it out in a feature by Anne Barnard today.
Second, Morsi has about as much hope of stabilizing Egypt’s economy as the Syrian Sunnis have of governing Syria, which is to say none at all. Egypt is on the verge of bankruptcy, as opposition leader and Nobel laureate Mohamed al-Baradei said recently. The Gulf states (including radical Qatar) aren’t going to throw Morsi a rope; Qatar’s $2.5 billion loan has been spent in defense of the sagging Egyptian pound. (Qatar appears to be forcing Egypt to pay the money back by purchasing gas at above-market prices, as I explained here).
The Obama administration and the foreign-policy establishment have got their neckties caught in the wringer. The better part of valor is to blame somebody else, and Morsi is handy.
The Obama administration’s handling of Egypt, starting with the unceremonious dismissal of our longstanding ally Hosni Mubarak, is a scandal a hundred times bigger than Benghazi. In the latter we lost four of our people; in Egypt, we lost an ally of thirty-five years’ standing.
How can the administration defend its decision to give Egypt 20 updated F-16s and 200 Abrams tanks?
Article says the EU will “loan” Egypt $5 billion.
http://tavernkeepers.com/eu-offers-muslim-brotherhood-5-billion/
Im REALLY disappointed. With all these last minute donors coming through, it seems like that country will never burn to ground! Too bad!
But I say sell them the planes and tanks. But SELL not GIVE! Just put a little self destruct switch on them all! Just like Putin has for the missiles he will sell Iran and the nuclear power plant they r “working on”
No, Egypt really will collapse. $5 billion is not enough to keep it afloat. Also, that $5 billion from the EU is probably the only free money they will get. The Arab countries like Qatar use various means to get paid back, like forcing the Egyptians to pay above market price for Qatar oil. I don’t think there will be that many last minute donors. Of course we all know the EU Mandarins are foolish.
And how will repay the “loan”?
I’m curious whether there some significant documentary evidence of these famous “self-destruct” switches, etc., that the U.S. and Russia supposedly put on the advanced military equipment which they export? I can’t imagine that the discovery of such a switch would do much for the arms export business of the seller. My sense is that the capability of such exported weapons systems is reduced by limiting the electronics and avionics provided and also by the inherent difficulty of third world countries operating complex systems w/o first world logistics (the M1 is not going far w/o a lot of fuel), maintenance and C3I assistance.
On the other hand, I did see Capt Kirk take down Khan’s deflector shields by exploiting just such a system in “The Wraith of Khan”.
What I’ve read has nothing to do with self-destruct switches. Reportedly, Putin suggested that such arms as he was providing Syria and Iran were of no consequence because “The Israelis would take them out”. If true, that’s a rather bold suggestion, putting other countries at risk just so you (Russia) can extend your influence and advance your military industry.
I don’t agree that Morsi was elected fairly and democratically – one need only look to the recent fiasco with respect to Mr. Morsi’s treatment of Egypt’s judiciary and constitution. Mr. Morsi garnered widespread support for his declarations via muslim brotherhood complicity and not inclusion of Egypt’s citizens – much like any despot. Ironically the majority of Egytians viewed the military as the last bastion of integrity prior to the ascension of Mr. Morsi et al. Egypt is again on the verge of complete bankruptcy due to the current kleptocracy, fundamental financial incompetence at the highest levels and a zealous ideological desire to digress to the seventh century whose warlike rhetoric is buoyed only by the surreptious assistance of the current friendly american government by way of tanks and aircraft ostensibly to crush peaceful democratic-minded Egyptians.
Well that is the Israeli-Russian quid pro quo that dare not speak its name in D.C., lest the Economist/Guardian/WaPost crowd need vapors that deals are being cut behind America’s back. Yes it doesn’t take a genius to figure out Russian scientists gave the Israelis an off switch to the S-300 system that was guarding Syria’s nuclear reactor back in 2007 AND that some of the Russian scientists at Bushehr and the periodic Russia-Iran disputes over funding that facility may have been covers for Iranians suspecting that the Russians on site were eyes and ears of Mossad, either directly or via cutouts.
It may not “take a genius” to figure some things out, but it’s also nice to also have a bit of evidence.
I question whether a state such as Russia, which relies on arms exports for influence and income, would be anxious to place “destruct switches” on exported weapons or to disseminate information on same to third parties … it’s bad for business.
If all the major arms makers do it, it’s not necessarily bad for business — especially if they can do it in such a way as to be undetectable by buyers. If all the makers do it, where else can the buyers go? It need not be an off switch. It could be merely a disabling “switch,” a vulnerability in the hardware or software.
Concur … disparities in weapons capability and military training can in and of themselves be effective “destruct switches”.
If you notice Marc, while hard evidence in said areas is lacking due to the ‘those who talk don’t know, and those who know don’t talk’ maxim, that Russia’s S-300 sales have not exactly been booming since the Syria business in 2007?
Perhaps … I have not seen a detailed OS (or any other sort) analysis of recent purchases of SAM systems.
I think that would be a complex analytical determination. It is not my field, but I would expect that one would, at a minimum, have to identify several cases where Russia offered a proposal to provide SAM systems to another state and lost out for inexplicable reasons.
You don’t really have to put in the self-destruct switches. Just spread the rumor and the guys they have who pass for techs will go crazy trying to find them. They’ll destroy the weapons searching. So the self-destruct lie works as a self-destruct mechanism.
Weapons export Obama style: remember the US drone the Iranians captured several months ago? and someone at the Pentagon said later “oh, we are sorry, the self-destruct mechanism did not work…”
“How can the administration defend its decision to give Egypt 20 updated F-16′s and 200 Abrams tanks?”
Because it is just continuation of current policy. Egypt never wanted peace with Israel. They wanted the Sinai and Carter wanted them out of the Soviet sphere so we bought them with tanks and planes and have been doing so ever since.
The threat is that if we don’t pay up they will tear up the treaty. They will do that anyway I think but are not ready yet.
I expect this dumb thinking from Obama but where is Congress?
Israel is stuck now. They need the F-35s but they are not ready, if they ever will be. They have done all they can with the planes they have but they are getting older. The stealth capabilities of the F-35s would give them the qualitative edge they need.
Kind of ironic. With a statement like Morsi made he is clearly a violent threat with homocidal tendancies and extremist racist political views. The exact kind of person Obama wants to keep from purchasing a handgun.
Great line. Someone should ask Obama whether under his proposed guidelines Morsi would be able to buy a gun in the US.
+1…but it’s impossible to separate Benghazigate from the total failure of our hug the Muslim Brotherhood policy in Egypt. The Brotherhood after all was crucial in running Fast and Furious po Arabski out of eastern Libya to the Syria jihadis. It’s telling that the WH doesn’t even really try to rebut those claims of Lt. Col. Anthony Schaffer and others (like it’s tried to rebut the claim that it wants all of our guns and targeted ‘talk radio hosts’ in particular for spreading ‘fears of tyranny’ in O’s own words).
“How can the administration defend its decision”?
An Administration that’s just recommended Hagel, Kerry and Brennan to top level posts is either too obtuse to recognize what a botch they’ve made in their foreign policy, or too embarrassed to admit it. Thus they’ve elected to double-down in the faint hope that it’ll work out in the end if they just keep doing what they’ve been doing. It’s a fool’s strategy. They may also fear that if Egypt collapses, Europe and the US will be flooded with refugees.
As to the F-35, the word “botch” also seems appropriate. After generations that saw the creation not just of whole families of aircraft but of planes so remarkable there’s a question if they could even be developed today. But the F-35 is now the only game in town, so expensive there are no other planes in development. That puts not just US forces but Israel in a bind, given how dependent they’ve become on US fighters. Could they rely on European suppliers not to embargo them, as they’ve done in the past? Could they rely on Russia, which continues selling advanced weaponry to Israel’s enemies? Or India with its large Muslim population? Nor can they go it alone. Like Canada after the Avro Arrow, Israel after the Lavi abandoned development of an independent design. (And even the Lavi required a US engine.)
I read somewhere that John Brennan is the architect of Obama’s Kill List aka, The Disposition Matrix. If that is a fact then I don’t imagine Mr. Brennan would have too many qualms about domestic Predator Drone use of the UAV permissions in the FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2011. From the pictures I have seen of Mr. Brennan, he appears to be the sort of fellow that you wouldn’t care to meet in broad daylight let alone empower to employ deadly force wherever & whenever he deems appropriate.
The F-35 will turn out to be an Edsel. The Israelis should consider reviving the Lavi. The engine issue might be evaded by using a russian engine or designing a new one. If push comes to shove, we have seen countries ignore patents when it is in their interests.
The Lavi is a 1980s era design…though Chinese are currently operating their copy of it as the Jiangxi Hongzhai J-10…with Sukhoi Su-27 engines. Lavi looks remarkably similar to Eurofighter and Rafale, the latter of which probably had some inspiration given longstanding Israel-Dassault ties that began during the De Gaulle era when Israel went nuclear.
It’s interesting to note that one Russophobic blowhard who hails from the University of Houston was tweeting the other day about how pathetic and uncompetitive Russian weaponry is…but failed to mention that India just announced a big order of Sukhoi SU-30 jets over the F/A-18 Super Hornet and the French Rafale. That Indian buy was a big part in making 2012 one of the biggest years for Russian arms sales since the USSR collapsed, if not the biggest.
Viewed in a long-term perspective, I consider current trends in the middle-east to be positive. After hearing about Islamism for the past 30 years, they are now getting in charge of Egypt and other places in the middle-east. This means they inherit responsibility for the social-economic messes of these places, of which they offer no realistic solutions for. They are now in the position to put up or shut up. And as we have seen with Iran, Islamism seems to increase rather than decrease vice and social decay (drug addiction and prostitution). This pattern will certainly repeat itself in Egypt and other places the Islamists take over. Given that they offer no realistic solutions to the problems of the region, these societies will collapse, along with the fantasies of Islamist cultural rejuvenation.
I think Islamism will be as thoroughly discredited in the next 20 years as Maoism was as a result of the great leap into nowhere and the cultural devolution in China.
When it fails, they will simply blame the Jews, and the US.
You will not see a discreditation of Islamism.The people who adhere to it now are Muslims. Unless there is a mass abandonment of Islam you will not see the end of Islamism. The prolem here is that despite historical evidence that the tactic ultimately doesn’t work, the MB will start a war with Israel to deflect the anger of the people over their mismanagement of their country. Yes, Islamists will fail, but who will they bring down with them?
Israel could withstand the Islamist assault if the West weren’t on the side of the Islamists.
Anyway the big question is, like you said, even if Islamism is discredited in the end, how many people will it destroy before it happens? Communism was supposedly discredited, but until its collapse it managed to kill tens of millions of people and otherwise destroy the lives of even more millions. And in the end it’s not even all that discredited, but is rather whitewashed in American universities, American journos like Thomas Freidman extol the virtues of the tyrannical government of China, and Hollywood movie makers like Oliver Stoned create English speaking Soviet agitprop. Is that what’s going to happen with Islamism too?
What the hell is “Islamism”?
I keep seeing “Islamism” everywhere. It’s the cop-out version of simply saying “Islam”, which is what is really meant. But writers and talking heads just can’t bring themselves to say it. They’re too scraed to.
“Islamists” are not Islamic extremists. They are pious muslims doing nothing extreme as far as Islam is concerned. Just going about their normal, everyday permitted, Islamic business. And that means mayhem…
“Islam’ is the body of faith, ‘Islamism’ is the political agenda. It’s useful to have different terms. It aids precision in language…..
lzzrdgrrl,
In Islam, the “body of faith” and the “political movement” are not separate things. Muhammad nowhere says things like, “give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, to God the things that are God’s.” Muhammad does not say, “my kingdom is not of this world.” Muhammad in effect became Caesar. You are projecting Western and Christian assumptions onto Islam. “Islamism” is a weasel term people use so they don’t have to criticize Islam, because criticizing Islam publicly is dangerous from two sides: on the one side Muslims will give you death threats and possibly violence, and from the other side liberals and leftists will tar you as a bigot, and try to get you fired or sued, etc. And the two sides ally as well.
“It’s useful to have different terms”.
Only if one seeks to conduct dispassionate analysis. A single blanket term is sufficient, and actually helpful, if the goal is chest beating, increasing traffic and purging fears.
Actually, Spengler has some excellent critical essays discussing Islam, as opposed to Islamism.
The suggestion made is hopeful. I hope that the current power structure taking hold in Egypt, etc., will note rhat the economic situation is poor and that sensible economic steps should be taken, resulting is the “devolution” of Islamism. “Put up or shut up” is the key factor in the apparently coming “devolution”. Maybe? However, I note that a certain German leader in the 1930s subvented a positive economic development in Germany that led to his popularity and to the opinion of many abroad that he was in effect realizing a sort of devolution of his aggressive ideology. Alas, by 1939 German bonds, etc., were no longer sought in the international market. Economically Hitler stood before the results of deficit spending. In other words, Hitler had to “shut up” (i.e., initiate sensible economic policies exluding military expansion) or “put up” (i.e., make use of the military build-up developed with deficit financing). We all know that Hitler chose to “put up”. There is no doubt the the ideology of Hitler inclined him to make aggressive use of the military force available, but his economic situation did, indeed, put him in a “put up or shut up” situation. Hitler did not chose “devolution” of ideology for pragmatic solutions. The decisional factor was the aggressive nature of Hitler’s nazi-ISM.
Let us turn to Morsi: Is the man an adherent of a pragmatic theology, willing to bend or, indeed, to enact a “devolution”, particularly being economically in a “put up or shut up” situation? Is Morsi sort of a post-Mao Chinese leader that happens to speak Arabic? I wonder! Has not the Egyptian army, alreadey well armed by America, received recently from the American Chaimberlain, i.e., from appeasing Obama, yet more tanks and war planes? The theory of devolution has its plausiblity based in the notion that real economic needs will overcome any supposed ideological inclinations? This is where the nature of “Islam-ISM” enters the evaluative and predictive analysis.
What is “Islam-ISM”? This comment is no place even for a short response. I will only maintain that the “-ISM” of Islamism is as aggressive as the “-ISM” of National Social-ISM”. The well intended appeasement policies of Chaimberlain (just think of the millions dead due to WW I and one might catch a glimpse of the British desire to avoid war) misread Hitler. Indeed, Chamberlain held Hitler for a bid crude, certainly no British gentleman, but a pragmatic man with whom one can make a deal and who will live up to the deal. Listening to the WH’s pacifying reactions to the revelations of Morsi’s comments on Jews, I believe to be experiencing a repeat in the same appeasement logic that was used to play down Hitler, being economically as he was in a “shut up or put up” dilemma. Here in Germany I have not read or seen in the general press anything negative about the Brotherhood. About the Salafists, yes, the Brotherhood, no! And that scares me. So, I am left to wonder about effects of the apparent affirmation of the installation of Brotherhood-ISM in the Middle East. I fear that new Chaimberlains are popping up everywhere.
Yes, but what comes next? The Soviet joke was that the intermediate stage between socialism and communism was alcoholism. After Islamism, maybe cannibalism?
“Yes, but what comes next? The Soviet joke was that the intermediate stage between socialism and communism was alcoholism. After Islamism, maybe cannibalism?”
Islamism’s inability to thrive in modernity is clear, but (as you’ve pointed out) the same is true for contemporary Western societies (with the post-2012 U.S. jumping onto that descending escalator) … they may not conduct suicide bombings but they also don’t reproduce. So, aside from Dati/Modern Orthodox Jews and Mormons, are there any other groups that have mastered modernity (i.e., produce both babies and aerospace engineers)? If not, it may be a loneley late 21st century.
I’d like to see more Spengler writing on China and East Asia. They may have a lot of teenage. I don’t get the sense that their popular culture celebrates educated parents having four or more children as in Provo or Beit Shemesh.
Dam — Blood
Tzfardeyah — Frogs
Kinim — Lice
Arov — Wild Beasts
Dever — Blight
Sh’hin — Boils
Barad — Hail
Arbeh — Locusts
Hosheh — Darkness
Makat B’horot — Slaying of the First-Born
Then things will get bad, there will be four horses:
A white horse, and its rider will have a bow and a crown.
A bright red horse, and its rider will have a great sword.
A black horse, and its rider will have a balance in his hand;
A pale horse, and its rider’s name will be Death, and Hell will follow him.
Rather than cannibalism, I think it will be a sudden necessity for universal female genital mutilation. They are not allowed to drink like the old Russian Communists, so ritually beating up some more on the women seems the natural thing to do.
“What is new is the fact that the Obama Administration and the New York Times are shocked–shocked–to discover the Morsi is a rabid Jew-hater.”
I think the NYT was shamed into reporting it by this Forbes article from a few days ago that criticized the Western mass media for not reporting this story and many many others like it. And after the story reached even the NYT Obama had no choice but to denounce Morsi’s expressions. Without the Forbes article I don’t think any of this would have happened. And I don’t think it has any meaning beyond it either. It won’t affect the American policy in any way. Come on, everyone in the media and politics know virulent and often genocidal anti-Semitism is rampant in the Middle East, but nobody cares. It doesn’t change anything.
Shame is an emotion the NYTimes does not feel. If they did, they would not be able to get out of bed in the morning, because they have destroyed the work of 6 generations of Timesmen by turning the “Newspaper of Record” into a partisan megaphone.
Ya figure Duranty could be shamed? From it’s beginnings the Times has been a partisan mouthpiece.
You’re correct that the NYT has, historically, been a “partisan mouthpiece,” but its partisan allegience to the Democrats only began with FDR and the New Deal. Before the Great Depression, the Times was undeviating in its loyalty to the GOP. H.L. Mencken routinely mocked it for promoting middle class Republican conformity and “right thinking.”
I agree the NY Times was shamed into reporting on the 2010 Morsi speech. However they did front-page it and now, if I understand correctly, we also saw an editorial condemnation from the Times. Maybe the truth will set us free.
O’Dismal is Islam’s man on the inside. The NYT, Brennan, Hillary etal are just useful idiots.
Our only hope is that in the lust for power, they turn all the armaments on each other.
The future does no belong to those who insult the Prophet of Islam.
“Islamism”? “Islamists”? Where am I? PC Central Coomand?
You’re at a blog that recognizes the analytical value of subtle distinctions.
You could always visit a blog with commentary featuring terms such as “Koran-imals”, “Prophet P*sshammed”, and other gems I’ve seen in the blogosphere’s sewers. I guess such writing makes people feel bold and also brings in traffic … it’s a free country.
“How can the administration defend its decision to give Egypt 20 updated F-16s and 200 Abrams tanks?”
They can’t but it doesn’t matter. In this day and time a Democrat can do no wrong no matter how wrong they are.
“Teaching children to hate and dehumanizing one’s adversaries is just the kind of twisted mentality that fuels the conflicts that torment the region.”
Sounds like what liberals do to Republicans in this country every day of the week. Ah well, liberals learned from the “best” when it comes to demonizing people. More and more, it sounds like all the statements coming out of the Muslim Brotherhood could have been written by Chuck Hagel or John Kerry. Strange how that works. I just wonder when the New York Times will be “shocked” to hear that both Hagel and Obama are such good friends because they’re such big anti-semites. People like Hagel and Obama have so very much in common with a pig like Morsi, so they should get along swell together. And when Iran finally does get its nuclear weapon, I’ll bet Obama and Hagel will have the Iranians over to the White House for dinner, showing them what “smart” power is all about. I find them all disgusting.
All of this continuing B.S. about the Muslims here, the Muslims there, Egypt, Syria, Mali…on and on and on…..so, here I’ll repeat my theme: Containment on our Cold War Soviet model of these Muslims. They’ll in time devour each other.
But, to help this along we’ll have to sever our oil imports from OPEC.
If we are indeed importIng only 17-18% of our oil from the Muslims, then why can’t we have a Manhattan Project and increase our own oil production to make up that difference?
This was all so predictable – what the hell is going on with this president?
I don’t agree that dumping Mubarak is a scandal worse than Benghazi — IMO, Benghazi is many, many times worse. Ambassadors are to be protected. The marines defending the compound who were hoping/expecting air support? The air support which never arrived, the military told to stand down — and that scurrilous scumbag who goes to sleep during the crisis, and then campaigns the next day in Las Vegas.? Yeah, priorities? I also suspect that this scandal has much more to it — the public has probably not heard the worst — thanks to our KGB style “media” who seem to think that the protection of Liar-in-Chief from the slightest criticism is their personal life’s mission. And to top it off — the scandal of going after that Coptic-American who produced a video, and blaming it all on a video?? Seriously, anyone other than Obama would be facing an impeachment hearing and removed from office.
Speaking of stand down, what ever happened to that European Forces Commander (US) that was ordered to stand down and was arrested (detained) by his second in command? Cotter? Cotton? I don’t remember his name (no doubt the powers that be tried to bury it) but it seems that the word was that he retired to take care of sick wife? Is that right? Has he since reappeared in the public eye? Just curious.
I believe you are referring to General Carter Ham, Commander of U.S. Africa Command and relieved of duty on Oct. 18, 2012 by Leon Panetta. Rumors suggest that he wanted to disobey Panetta’s orders to stand down during the Benghazi attack. (Admiral Gaouette was also relieved of duty — and, most recently, U.S. Marine Corps General, James Mattis, has been fired by Obama. General Mattis was head of US Central Command). If the United Stares had a free press (as opposed to boot-licking lackeys), maybe the public would know more about these firings.
The Islamic Occupation of the Middle East, as Ayalon said in his PJTV interview, seems to be colliding with reality.
Hope the collapse does not take another 1400 years.
Even so, my bet is still that Egypt decides to re-occupy Cyrenaica, and it’s capital Benghazi, for the oil. And then a Water War with Ethiopia?
btw, someone should ask Brennan, at his CIA confirmation hearing, why this video of Morsi from 2010 somehow eluded America’s “intelligence community”.
I lost all confidence when I called the FBI after 9/11/2001 to report a sighting of someone the media was blaring about – he fit the description and was walking out of a Bronx apartment building full of Pakistani immigrants one block away from my building. The FBI person cut me off, and did not even want the address of the building.
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West, America, Europe, has decided to replace secular with Islamist in all ME
Silly idea being, this will somehow counter Iran take-over of all ME
Well, Arabs no Arabs used 2B .. things have changed
Erdogan’s Turkish soft Islam model same as half pregnant .. not gonno work
Iranian model only way to go .. KSA, Qatar, Bahrain and and next to follow
Iranians do not need to do anything, things fallin in place by default, thanks to America
Time against Israel .. World turning against Israel .. the secular Israeli moving out, the fanatic orthodox taking over, kiss of death
Israel should change horse .. BiBi should drop in Tehran, repent , and let Ahmadinejat fix a `Jewish homeland`.. if not, this one will be same as the last 2 Jewish homelands, will evaporate .. don`t 4get, Golden age of Israel was as Persian Satrap
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“Golden age of Israel was as Persian Satrap”
Ah yes, the Persians. We get drunk once a year in honor of a certain Persian king and his minister:
The Book of Esther:
3:8 And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the king’s laws: therefore it is not for the king’s profit to suffer them.
3:9 If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.
3:10 And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy
Thus it was and still is today. Your entreaties fall on deaf ears and your Iranian threats are hollow. You want Israel? Come get it. I am tired of all your talk. Nobody is listening anymore.
I noticed Iran sent a few of your old rust buckets to the Med this week on a sort of ego tour. They provide an interesting exercise for the Dolphin submarine crews to track. You guys should not put up with this kind of expensive waste of fuel and money. You need the cash now.
Egypt was a serious exporter of natural gas to both Israel and Jordan. Said exports were terminated because of chronic attacks upon the trans-Sinai pipeline.
So, how did Egypt, suddenly bereft of its major export market, run short on natural gas?
How does Qatar, or anybody, export natural gas to an unconnected nation?
If Qatar wants to get their monies back… wouldn’t they grab Suez revenue?
Isn’t Qatar very much into the ports authority business?
Did Cairo auction off a hunk of the Suez revenue to get that ‘hard money loan’ from Qatar?
Perhaps Qatar is now shipping, tariff free, through the Suez Canal.
blert , in ME mind, in ME terms, all those borders no real borders .. they British inventions to divide and rule, those borders on western map and not on ME maps that count
In that sense, no such thing as Qatar and no such thing as Qatar gas export .. all is Arabia .. in that sense, Egypt does not owe anything to anybody .. fact on the ground attest to this as billions is given to Hashemite Abdulah without even metering it
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Egypt is running out of gas because its using up its existing resevoirs faster than new gas finds are being uncovered. Simple as that. They are skewered – with an exponentially increasing population (its doubled in 40 years to over 90 million) they need all the gas they can get for heating, cooking, power stations. On the other hand, they are desperate for hard dollar currency so must sell as much gas as they can. Both of these things must happen when there is less gas to be had from the old resevoirs.
The gas to Israel was a deal done in Mubaraks time which had gas being sold at well below market prices. Hence the line being blown up 15 times.
Qatar will sell gas in LNG tankers. check it out on search engines – you do not need a pipeline to transport natural gas.
Mubarak did NOT sell gas to Israel at a discount — far from it.
It’s impossible to import LNG without a dedicated import terminal. Those aren’t cheap — and take years to build. It’s totally unlike oil because of that.
(It’s a highly inflammable gas that, as a liquid, is so cold that only special metals and materials can handle it. Consequently, only elite engineering firms touch it and they use expert contractors. The import terminals are always built in tandem with export terminals — and the ships that carry it. Japan’s link to Indonesia set the standard.)
As Putin could tell you: natural gas prices are quite unhooked with OPEC pricing of crude oil. Instead, ALL major deals are negotiated long term contracts that take into account every manner of issue. The largest single factor is the pipeline (or LNG set-up) required to get the gas from well to usage.
This is often so great that the producer just gives up — and flares the gas into the sky. It’s not a rare event. Texas producers flared gas for d e c a d e s — until the Texas Railroad Commission prohibited it. On its own merits, methane was too expensive to gather and pipe.
OPEC nations were flaring natural gas right into the 1980s. So that’s just how valueless natural gas is — when it’s not near a market. Today, that flared gas is diverted into boiling sea water — distilling it for local taps. Anywhere else, that wouldn’t be done. But for the Arabs, water distillation is its highest and best use.
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What has happened is that Cairo simply wanted to reneg on the contract. Change in leadership, and all that.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/egypt/120427/egypt-gas-deal-israel-bad-business
There is a delightfully obtuse and mis-informed article in the Global Post.^^^^^
In all of the numbers tossed around it comes out that the gas export deal was a critical source of hard earnings – yet, nothing said about the outlay for the pipeline. That tremendous outlay was all part of the deal. Instead, the reader is given an apples and oranges comparison from alien markets in different lands.
Left unsaid: the Revolution has run off all of the technicians that would’ve kept Egypt’s natural gas discoveries – and recoveries rolling along. What had been a booming sector has stalled.
Engineered scarcity is what’s on the menu.
In England, they call that an ‘own goal.’
A scandal bigger than Benghazi? Mubarak (prior to the uprising) was slated to go anyway — he’s in his eighties (and it was succession difficulties and his attempt to put his son in power which caused the revolt). So Obama dumped him. Could it not be argued that far worse is the case of Libya? We now have unrest in libya, Mali, Algeria (more American hostages being murdered, etc). All due to engaging in a war against Libya for no other reason than to go to war (or perhaps to secure French oil needs?) — that’s war for war’s sake. Egypt pales by comparison.
I don’t think Benghazi and Egypt should even be compared.
I continue to be profoundly outraged at Benghazi, the history before the incident of a state department not responding to pleas to secure the installation, the on the ground debacle September 11, and the obvious administration lying and dissembling in the aftermath.
4 1/2 months later “the buck stops here” gal will finally ! be sitting in front of Congressional interlocutors, January 23. Big frickin’ deal.
Morsi ? Who didn’t see that coming ?
My comment was intended as a reflection on the title of “Spengler’s” article. There are many scandalous outrages of this administration — Obama dumping Mubarak was vile, and Obama backing the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood vicious and disgusting. But in terms of “scandal”? Well, I think it’s less obnoxious than the treacherous treatment of Gadaffi (after surrendering his nuclear components, Obama facilitates his murder? Yeah now that’s how Obama treats its allies, eh?) Also more scandalous (IMO) is Benghazi. Now that makes Watergate look tame.
Lest we forget:
The Duck of Death, de facto, declared War on France and England. He told all and every that Libya — under his reign — would no longer ship a drop of oil to either — no matter what.
THAT’S what triggered the bombing campaign. Nothing else.
It passes for common knowledge in Europe — particularly in finance and oil circles. It never made the headlines in America.
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Why was such a declaration a casus belli?
Because the importing nations were critically dependent upon Libyan crude. Period. Stop.
It’s a fact of refinery design that they can only handle certain grades of crude — for various technical and economic reasons. This is particularly true for smaller, older facilities that utterly lack the ability to tolerate heavy, sour crudes. It’s these undesirable grades that hang over the market — and make it appear that KSA and others have reserve capacities.
In the event, it was clearly demonstrated that KSA didn’t have ANY reserve capacity in the grades that count: sweet, Arabian light.
(That’s the grade, BTW, that is at issue when you read this or that tale/ account of OPEC pricing. It’s fallen down to becoming a minority of KSA exports.)
The crisis in sweet, light crude oil was so great that America had to sell off a piece of her Strategic Petroleum Reserve — at auction. One hundred percent of that oil went to European refineries. They’re addicted to it. That market segment was, and is, as tight as a drum.
Continued expansion of Canadian tar sand processing or American fracking will drastically affect that market segment. Fracked crude is, by definition, only light. Nothing else will flow in such tight strata. As it turns out, it’s also sweet, too.
Because of the process, the Canadians provide an intermediate synthetic crude that is also sweet and light.
(That’s subject to change. The Keystone Pipeline was to be designed for a much less processed intermediate that would be much heavier and sour. American importers wanted to perform the upgrading within their existing refineries — which are already built for heavy, sour crudes — a legacy of Venezuelan days. Building the same capacity yet again made no economic sense. It’s a very capital intensive and trade secret process. The latter is why you don’t see it done across the planet.)
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As for Britain — and BP — she had an in-kind deal with the Duck of Death: her investments in Libya were to be recompensed by oil — directly. The debt was OIL not money. It was huge. So huge that it would’ve bankrupted the company once the full import of the breach reached the City. BP had fronted ALL of the investment monies — which, without oil, would have to be instantly written off — like a bad debt. This would’ve been compounded on the distribution end by catastrophically expensive replacement buys to keep BP’s system ticking over.
As BP went under, so did Britain’s retirement system: this or that pension fund owned the lion’s share of BP. The Duck of Death was gutting retirees all across Britain.
And France, too. She, and Italy, were also addicted to Libyan crude. Paris figured — quickly — that her biggest bankers would be finished as the crude embargo rippled through the French economy. They’d financed the trade — in every direction — and now those deals were blowing up.
All of this was happening because the Duck of Death had his feelings hurt by the Soft Power crowd that had grabbed the microphone — and spewed venom upon his dark character.
America and Italy were reluctant co-participants. America felt she HAD to stand by her NATO partners when they were at war. Further, her bankers were howling, too. As for Italy, it was impossible for Rome to stiff Paris, London and Washington at the same time. Just impossible. That’s why Italian air bases became available to her NATO partners.
Glad to clear that up.
As you say, we didn’t hear much (if anything) about the role of oil in the American attack on Libya and the demise of the Duck of Death, aka Q-Daffy.
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s scurrilous comments from nearly three years ago about Zionists and Jews, which just came to light…
I’d read those before.
Also, people should take a look at Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah whose filthy antisemitic screeds from a few years ago will make your hair curl.
That guy should be in jail, not enjoying prestige & prominence.
This vicious and irrational hatred is and has been for a very long time the fundamental truth of these prominent Islamist so called “leaders”, Islamic religious scholar (is that an oxymoron ?) al-Qaradawi chief among them.
The Times’ writers is just discovering this “sad truth” ?
While dopes like John Kerry, James Clapper & John Brennan just babble politically correct nonsense and hope no one notices how dumb they are.
The MB declared war on the US in October 2010. Take some time and read the declaration. I wonder why this is never mentioned?
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=190894
Why do people keep acting like America had any control over what happened to Mubarak one way or another? What were we going to do, threaten a million people in the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and Port Suez to withhold aid and military equipment? If violating martial law and going up against guns didn’t sway these people, how would America have done so?
The revolution in Egypt had absolutely nothing to do with America. Reporters reported, America watched – that was it. America had nothing to say about it.
Before memories decay to Etch-A-Sketch levels:
Reflect back upon the MASSIVE involvement in Google executives — particularly the lower ranks — in aiding and abetting the revolution — using the Internet.
This ‘Google Project’ was co-ordinated with Clinton’s State Department — and, obviously, the Pink House.
So, one must live in denial to think that the revolution would’ve proceeded without the Americans.
An astonishing amount of the co-ordination was orchestrated from New York City — by Liberal American Jews. (!)
Go figure.
The players were open, out and in the news; interviewed for TV, even.
The US State Department co-ordinating meetings occurred m o n t h s before the first public demonstrations.
So, your premise is entirely off base: the 0bomba maladministration was up past its eyeballs in the Egyptian turmoil.
So much so, that the Mubarak government finally kicked many Players out of the country — but too late.
This has had its echo: Putin and others have kicked out clones of the Google Kids from their countries, too.
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So 0bomba can say: “I’m like Ike: I don’t hesitate to overthrow sitting governments — at least in a deniable way.”
You’re right. Am I the only fellow that remembers the Google executive going missing in Cairo DURING the riots? I wonder how deep THAT involvement was by the “do no evil corporation”? It used to be the banana companies that fostered revolutions. Then it was ITT in Chile in the seventies. Of course big oil has been stirring these pots since the fifties. Is it now the turn of the data companies?
By the way please forgive the pun on bananas and fostered. It was unintentional. But cute.
Morsi was elected fairly and democratrically:
As bad as Morsi is, the majority of Egyptians freely voted for him. Mubarak was an aging, sickly dictator, grooming his corrupt son to “succeed” him as president for life.
Mubarak was originally supported by the corrupt army. But as Egypt became ever poorer (due to an islamic culture being unable to compete in a global economy), Mubarak’s allies kept a greater percentage of the diminishing wealth for themselves, leaving the poor masses to suffer even more.
The masses turned to islam as the only available alternative. The generals lost the support of the conscripts, and realized they would not fire on their own people.
And so, Egypt will soon be a totally failed state, like Sudan to its south, with no hope of recovery. It’s fun to blame Obama, but I don’t see any possible American policy which could have prevented this. Does anyone?
The Army could and would easily have put an end to the Arab Spring in Egypt except for Obama on the telephone to them threatening to cut off aid which is what brought in Morsi. In the earliest days of the uprising, Obama stated publicly that the voting should include “a religious element.” And the only religious group well organized was the Muslim Brotherhood. This was a personal Obama project which doubtlessly filled him with pride. In a just world, he would be impeached and banished to live in Egypt.
Fistel is pretty spot on; your reply is a fantasy.
His love of the MB goes at least as far back as his speech in Cairo.
He had a famous confab with Salafists (Edward Said and friends) in LA years earlier. They’re HIS crowd. The video of that event is buried by the LA Times.
No doubt all kinds of embarrassing pledges were made when he stepped to the podium that day.
At least as embarrassing as those of Morsi — in 2010 — which have finally broken through to the public. The MSM had buried those, too.
That LA speech would destroy his Liberal Jewish supporters, for Barry is a devout anti-Zionist — which was surely made crystal clear in front of that anti-Zionist crowd.
(It was the whole purpose of the confab, BTW.)
Knock it off with your Communist ‘masses turned to’ trope.
All of the decisions were made by the NON-masses: the college crowd, the Salafists of the MB and the junior officers of the Egyptian Army.
The masses, from start to finish, have had no say. Under Egyptian economics, they’re utterly dependent upon state largesse.
Voting in Cairo is as corrupt as a Philadelphia urban ward. The sheeple are told what to mark –they’re illiterate.
and the 9/11 Cairo protest was also a planned event to demand the release of the “blind sheik” and had nothing to do w/ the video (why do i know that? b/c CNN interviewed the organizers before the protest)–Egypt’s government allowed the storming of our embassy-military aid should have been cut off on 9/12
All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players – and Shakespeare got roaring drunk to write our contemporary play in which America, perhaps out of guilt over slavery practiced by its predecessors, puts a black man into the White House whose background is totally unknown, even the place of his birth, who has magical powers with document falsification and voter fraud and is indecisive about being a Christian or Muslim and concurrently wants to save the world but also to turn America into some sort of Socialist entity; who consorts with America’s enemies such as Rev. Wright and Morsi. But when Shakespeare sobers up, he’ll put his pages aside because he expects that no one will believe all this. Even future historians may want to skip this era because it is so unbelievable.
Enlisting Shakespeare in your little orgy of paranoia and bigotry: this is quite charming. It’s also a novel way of uniting high culture with out-and-out philistinism, and so I wonder: does the John Birch Society now offer Chattaqua lectures on Renaissance theatre?
If so, then what next? Glenn Beck’s paleo-libertarian interpretation of John Updike’s novels? Limbaugh’s hermeneutical approach to the poetry of the English Romantics?
“How can the administration defend its decision to give Egypt 20 updated F-16s and 200 Abrams tanks?”
The same way my worthless conservative Republican Senator can:
“We must do what we can to ensure that as the government moves toward a new era of liberty, extremists do not take over, and Egypt continues to serve as a lynchpin for stability in the region.” Jeff Sessions
The public is never told the quid pro quo.
In deals of this kind, nothing is as it appears on the surface.
Those items are built in districts who’s vote counts large — for the Democrat Party.
Which is why those items were contracted for in those districts in the first place.
Egyptian F-16s are entirely uncompetitive with those of Israel. It’s their electronics.
In the meantime, such deals must surely have a gusher of graft vectored towards the Egyptian Army and Air Force. Perhaps enough to sate the needs of their top brass — who, consequently, will now stand down, and standby, as the Revolution proceeds.
Without a peek behind the curtain, who can say what the real deal is. The real players are known liars — and politicians — but, I repeat myself.
I first heard about Morsi’s antisemetic tirade over on Andrew Sullivan’s blog. Sullivan denounced it for the chauvinistic garbage it is, as any sane and morally sound person would. But I was amused by what Sullivan didn’t say– by what, in fact, he couldn’t say without coming off as a total fool: that were it not for the success of the “Arab Spring” which he fulsomely supported, this hateful thug would not be the head of government of one of the world’s largest countries.
Was Sullivan “shocked, shocked” to learn that Morisi was an anti-Semite?
all members in my congregation still can’t get it through their thick skulls that the brotherhood is poison
sometimes it’s as if they are more in line with israel’s enemies than anything else
they live in a dream world
it’s like it was in europe in the 1930s
they refuse to believe that their beloved obama is out to do us harm
Morsi will hold the Copts hostage and, as Egyptian society implodes, will keep them tenuously dangling above oblivion in an effort to extort money from the West. But, there is no more money. Another genocide is just around the corner.
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4get Morsi .. Egypt needs it’s own Khomeini .. Morsi no Khomeini
more pressing things happening at home
Is AIPAC Waging A Shadow War On Hagel ?
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/aipac-waging-shadow-war-hagel
[ AIPAC lost. Here is another sign. President Obama is now saying that Netanyahu’s conduct indicates that “ Israel doesn’t know what its best interests are.” It appears that Netanyahu and AIPAC are facing a nightmare: a second term Democratic president who isn’t afraid of the lobby. Stay strong, Mr. President. ]
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This is old hat. Anyone who has read the koran or spoken and lived with muslims know how much Jews are hated by them. It has nothing to do with Palestine or even the al aqsa mosque.It is painfully familiar to all those who have some familiarity with islam. If Obama or the NYT thought otherwise they are simpletons at best and obscurers of the real truth at worst which anyone in the middle east knows.
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Jews and Muslims lived 1000+ years in harmony and peace, in Arabia, in Andalusia, in Iran
Zionist trying to change the subject from usurping Palestine to fighting Islamism .. American Joe is fooled into that Zionist PR
Thanks G_D, fortunately, things lookin they changing
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2013/01/20/220423-israels-hidden-faces-a-long-days-night-for-us-all/
Lord, have mercy when that RedNeck hat it
Amen
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In reference to Morsi: I wrote to my Congress representatives that if my taxpayers money was going to be used for a loan to Egypt, such loan should have as a condition that Egypt has to reform their educational system and STOP THE INCITEMENT AGAINST COPTS, JEWS, ETC.
I hope you’all would join me with such a request and spread the word…….
Well I have the following theory about the infamous yearly loan to Egypt: “follow the trail of the money…..”. Righ? a VERY small % of the money will be used in Egypt for whatever purposes the military, merchants, etc decide. The rest will stay in the private bank accounts of such military and gov. officials in the USA…………….fattening the reserves of JPM, Bank of America, etc. The whole idea that the money is to mantain PEACE betweeen Israel and Egypt is the biggest piece of BS I ever heard………….