Saudi Arabia And Israel Setting Preconditions For War Against Hezbollah, Iran

Saudi Arabia And Israel Setting Preconditions For War Against Hezbollah, Iran

ANWAR AMRO (AFP/File)

The crisis in the Middle East and in Saudi Arabia in particular leads to further escalation in the region. Anticipating the collapse of ISIS, the participants in the conflict act with intensity.

Since our October 8 report on the issue entitled “The Saudi Purge: The Middle East Is On The Verge Of New War“, the situation has deteorated further in the region.

In Saudi Arabia, the purge continues. The Middle East Eye reports that senior Saudi figures were tortured and beaten in the purge under the banner of an anti-corruption movement, conducted by current Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He has overseen arrests of hundreds of people, including senior royals, ministers and tycoons, with some of them reportedly being tortured so badly during their arrest or subsequent interrogations that they required hospital treatment. Even Prince Bandar bin Sultan — Saudi Arabia’s most famous arms dealer, longtime former ambassador to the US, and recent head of Saudi intelligence — was reported to be among those detained as part of the purge. If confirmed, this will be the most significant and high profile case of this purge, even above that of high profile billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, considering Bandar’s closeness to multiple US administrations.

This comes amidst rumors that King Salman was set to make his son king. Speculation peaked when Al-Arabiya tweeted, then quickly deleted, details of the allegedly imminent Mohammed bin Salman’s  ascension ceremony. The transfer of power from the King to the Prince would be merely a formality at this point, as Prince Mohammed already plays a key role in decision making at almost all levers of government.

The Crown Prince also accused Tehran of delivering missiles to Yemen’s rebels for use against the kingdom that he described as “direct military aggression”. The United States also chimed in and accused Iran of supplying the rebels with missiles. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri is still in Saudi Arabia, with his movements reportedly controlled by the Saudis.

Meanwhile, an oil pipeline between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain exploded, with Bahrain accusing Iran of blowing it up. Israel is beyond itself with Iran and Hezbollah increasing their influence in the region and in Syria. The Israeli media even claimed that the US and Russia have reached an agreement, which would push Iranian-backed forces from an area close to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. However, these rumors have little with the real situation on the ground. In reality, it is highly likely that Iran is building a permanent military base in Syria. The only real solution which Israel has to limit the Iranian influence is a military action. The big question is how much this will cost?

The Arab League will hold an extraordinary meeting on November 18 at the request of Saudi Arabia to discuss “violations” committed by Iran in the region, with Saudi Arabia rumored to mobilize fighter jets.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah accused Saudi Arabia of encouraging Israel to attack Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, Mohsen Rezaei, said that the US, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel are planning a war against Lebanon.

Lacking a clear strategy for their involvement in the Middle East, Washington is forced to play second fiddle to its “allies”. Trump’s administration’s bold claims against the 2015 Iran nuclear accords and Iran in general only stir up the anti-Iranian block in the region. The conflict is developing in its own way, with the conflicting sides immersed so deep that it proves more and more difficult for them to stop even if they wanted to. Now, the sides are finalizing the coalition, which may participate in the expected conflict. No side can allow to show weakness, because showing weakness would be tantamount to admitting defeat.

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Simon Gould

Saudi Arabia couldn’t win an argument, let alone a war with Iran. Likewise, for Israel, the calculus has changed irrevocably – there are thousands of Hezbollah rockets trained on their nuclear facilities and chemical plants.

Floyd Hazzard

America is a waning power. Israel and Saudi Arabia are scared $#!+£€$$ of the true New World Order where new powers are emerging and their benefactor is much more limited. There is no war on Hezbollah and Iran that doesn’t see Israel under continued missile bombardment. They will have to go nuclear which might invite chemical and biological responses. The best thing they can do is settle for an uncomfortable status quo where they continue to lose influence and superiority of weapons.

Joe

The big question is if the entire group attack Lebanon, will Iran officially join in or do it covertly like they are doing in Yemen and let Hez fight alone. The latter way we call it cowardice.

Surely Syria will join in as Hez has joined in to save Syria .

Then there is a possibility of a big war …

My bet those battle hardened forces of Hez and allies will win hands down

as

I don’t see why the entire gulf coalition want in on hotter war than that of Syria. They may offers political support and some limited covert action but direct military involvement ? Maybe not.
But certainly isn’t impossible.

ruca

I think Iran would simply fire missiles across the gulf. They are already being blamed by everyone that wants war. Nothing much to lose.

Rafik Chauhan

war on Hezbollah will invite iran army on Israeli border withing the rank of other paramilitry like from Iraq and afgan etc . there will be mix army fighiting guerilla war in Golan height. and also may be FRee Syrian army or HTS will take advantage either they will attack Israeli or SAA.. Then there is GAza who is waiting for the rigth moment this will bring hell on Israel. and Saudi will be dealt with yemen Ansharullah bcuz iran will defently this time will help yemen with weopeon and men

ruca

Family attacking Israel? Belly laugh.

Joe

I kind of agree if Saudis is to join with Israel to attack Hezbollah in Lebanon , all their allies from Iran, Syria, and Hamas will join in the fight not defensively but offensively right into Israel .

That’s the only place Israel can’t use nukes

It’s very unlike the last sudden Lebanon 2006 where everyone was surprised. Now this time they are fighting side by side and it is strange or cowardly not to join in

Jesus

This is a mere vocal drama on part of the losers in Syria. KSA is a joke militarily, their rants are not different than a couple years ago when they “claimed” they were going to send ground troops in Syria. Israel will have to deal with a much stronger Hezzbolah that can use combined arms operations and has tens of thousands of rockets that can easily saturate the iron dome and inflict some heavy civilian casualties.

Joe

I don’t think He’s will fight alone while the rest just watch.

They have been fighting as a team and they will in Lebanon and even invade any invader. Hez next war will be an offensive one and defensively to wait for the wimps and fancies of their enemies to wage war on them.

That Guy

Looks like there will be a massive blood flood in the middle east.

ruca

Unfortunately it is shaping up to be like this.

Richard M

There isn’t already?

ruca

Good point

Ishyrion Av

If Saudi Arabia attacks Iran, the Iranian Army will not stop until Mecca and Medina.

BPGSJLBDLSE

The Saudis (or rather their mercenaries) can’t beat the Houthis who are armed with nothing more than what they can carry. Tactical flip-flops, disdashas and sports jackets FTW.

Richard M

Hopefully it is all saber rattling. If not, look for $11 a gallon gas.

ruca

This is a lot more important than expensive gas.

Dr. Ronald Cutburth

All of those countries are in financial trouble. They must keep pumping oil.

Real Anti-Racist Action

Hez and their Yemen allies and Iran and Syria cannot afford a war against Saudi Arabia and Israel for at least another 2-3 years.
Yemen does not have hardly enough missiles to fire 1-2 a week at Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia has been equipped not to shoot those down with AA upgrades.
Yemen needs to be developed in terms of missile power 50 fold.
Only then can the big show take place.

You can call me Al

Agreed – or the attack can come from Bahrain – easier to forget some technology, rockets etc. !!

Omega

The Eurotrash Talmudic Zionist vermin have it easy against unarmed children, women and man in Palestine.

But against a disciplined and organized militias like Hezbollah, they had their no-so-kosher filthy asses handed to them twice. Once in 2000, after a lengthy illegal invasion/occupation (Israeli military officials called it a “humiliating defeat) and once more in 2006 when IsraHell’s IAF, IDF and 15K+ of its army reserve troops could not disclose Hezbollah militarily (confirmed by Mossad).

I am not going to bother discussing the 150K+ dumb Saudis troops and their aerial arsenal against the barefoot Houthi farmed arms dwith AK-47s.

Attrition47

“Conditions”, not pre-conditions…..

Fleecing Rabbi

Zionists are cowards and afraid of a sustained asymmetrical war which is sure to follow their next aggression on either Lebanon or Syria. They may be too loudmouth like Trump and overreaching their arrogance based on western largesse.

Nod

And we are not the same kind of cowards?

Murdering muslims women and children with drones, in order to steal from them.

goingbrokes

It seems that all resistance to this proposed war – whoever it is against – are being beaten to line up behind the effort. This is because any reasonable person can tell that it will break the saudis and their power, so naturally many resist. Personally I hope they do go to war, because when they fall they will take the US dollar scam and a huge proportion of the global elite with them.

Nod

reason that please.

One country falling will NOT end the FIAT banking scam, nor the petro dollar. American bombs say so.

Just ask Qaddafi and Sadamm. Just ask the American presidents who got whacked cause they tried.

goingbrokes

That’s easy. It is because it is the deal between the Saudis and the US that created the petro-dollar after Bretton-Woods and US ending the gold-backed dollar. It is so tightly linked that if the Saudis go down the deal ends and the so-called petro-dollar becomes history. The dollar will not be backed by the Saudi oil, and many of the elites rely on this. The banking scam won’t end, just the petro-dollar (world reserve currency). Saudis are not just another country, they are the lynchpin of the system.

Nod

“It is so tightly linked that if the Saudis go down the deal ends and the so-called petro-dollar becomes history. “

Not so easy,. This is an opinion, based on an opinion that suffers a lack of evidence and a lack of reason. Logically, given past behaviors, the globalists would stomp, like they have done every other time the petro dollar was threatened. SA only exists militarily because of American weapons.
================================
“if the Saudis go down the deal ends and the so-called petro-dollar becomes history. “

opinion only.
================================

“that if the Saudis go` down“

speculation , and then followed by speculation to conclusion based on this speculation..

===========================

“The dollar will not be backed by the Saudi oil, a“

another opinion. based on the thought that if the Saudis go down “
Speculation, isn’t evidence m8. and IT IS CONTRARY TO EVIDENCE OF fact THAT WE HAVE PROVING WHAT THE GLOBALISTS DO TO NATIONS WHO THREATEN THE PETRO DOLLAR, DONT WE. ….

================================

Here is a fact that you ignore, in your opinion.

If the american printing press stops printing, then american dollar falls to crap almost immediately when no one has to buy it, for buying oil. People will not buy that useless dollar.

And without their printing press, there is no more MIC, no more ability for Americans to print money to sustain the 900 bases all over the planet. The muscle, for the imperialism would end. So globalism would end.

If you think for a second, that losing SA cooperation would finish the globalist empire from doing their dirty deeds, you have not been paying attention to what happens when the globalists plan is threatened. They stomp.( see libya and Iraq) Affect regime change. ( See Ukraine and south america.)

Sure the petro dollar is gonna end. And there is no way to know what will happen, how, or when, given the thousands of variables.

While OPEC is more than SA m8.

As of May 2017, OPEC’s members are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (the de facto leader), United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela, while Indonesia is a former member.

goingbrokes

You are entitled to your opinion m8. Your opinion might have been relevant 30 years ago m8. You are clutching at straws m8. OPEC? Puhleez. But you are entitled to think what you wish, even if it is a fantasy, m8.

Nod

I didn’t expect much more. Thanks for coming out. Here is a mirror.

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

☛ Newsweek: “A Cult of Ignorance” by Isaac Asimov, January 21, 1980, p.

AlexanderAmproz

It’s the same, but worst in the Philippines
US NeoColony.
70% of the Schools textbooks are intentionally
fake or viciously inappropriate…

Filipinos History textbooks teach,
“Egypt excepted, there is none Civilisations in Asia”,
and so on…
These textbooks were written in Washington
on purpose to destroy any logic and inborn
commonsense in their former Colony !

Nod

“former”? :p

We are all currently colonies to the banks…Are we not. We are taxed with Usury and the hidden and insidious inflation tax.

wHAT i FIND AMAZING IS THE ABILITY OF OUR OWNERS TO MANIPULATE THE GRANDEST INFORMATION TOOL HUMANS HAVE EVER HAD. oNE WOULD THINK THAT THE INTERNET WOULD FREE US FROM IGNORANCE, WHEN IN FACT, MOST ARE HOODWINKED WITH THE INTERNET, AND SOLELY USE IT TO PROMOTE THE IGNORANCE.

AlexanderAmproz

Maybe you will like this
====================
http://www.voltairenet.org/article173281.html

Uganda: the hidden agenda behind “Kony 2012” video

by F. William Engdahl

While few would criticize putting indicted Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony in prison, the motives and timing of the viral video campaign launched by an NGO with an angelic sounding name are less clear. Invisible Children has blurred the line between charity and politics, advocating direct military action. What is clear to this author is that “Kony2012” is ’manipulative propaganda being used to advance an AFRICOM military presence in the richest mineral region in the world’ before China stakes a claim to it. The battle for Africa has only just begun.

According to their website, the American NGO, Invisible Children, claims now to have had over 80 million viewers to their YouTube video, “Kony2012,” since its release on a few weeks ago. For anyone with the patience to sit through the entire video, it is questionable how truthful the figure of 80 million viewers is. Eighty million is unprecedented in YouTube history by all accounts.

The video features such prominent Hollywood personalities as Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Lady GaGa, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs and other notables. It’s a slick, sentimental story directed by Jason Russell, a 33-year-old now-hospitalized American filmmaker who apparently just underwent a bizarre mental disconnect on the streets of San Diego. [1] The YouTube video depicts a young Ugandan, Jacob Acaye, whom Russell claims he befriended some ten years earlier after Acaye escaped conscription into Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) as an 11-year-old killer. The film portrays Kony as the world’s worst beast and terrorist, in effect, Africa’s Osama bin Laden. [2]

The Invisible Children NGO is itself opaque. It reportedly rakes in millions from sales of such things as buttons, Invisible Children T-shirts, bracelets and posters priced from $30-$250, but it ranks low on transparency regarding other donors. The group, which employs around 100 people, is expected to raise millions of dollars from their “Kony2012” video, but so far it refuses to say how much has been donated or how it will spend the money.

Founders of Invisible Children — Bobby Bailey, Laren Poole, and Jason Russell — alongside members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).

The founders of the group, who advocate direct US military intervention in response to the LRA, had been previously criticized for posing with guns alongside members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in 2008, an organization widely accused of rape and looting. The group issued a statement in response: “We thought it would be funny to bring back to our friends and family a joke photo. You know, ‘Haha – they have bazookas in their hands but they’re actually fighting for peace’.” [3] HaHa…

According to the London Guardian, Invisible Children’s “accounts show it is a cash-rich operation, which more than tripled its income in 2011” to nearly $9 million, mainly from personal donations. Of this, nearly 25% was spent on travel and film-making. Most of the money raised has been spent in the US, not for Africa’s “invisible children” or even visible ones. According to information obtained by the Guardian, “the accounts show $1.7million went to US employee salaries, $850,000 in film production costs, $244,000 in ‘professional services’ – thought to be Washington lobbyists – and $1.07 million in travel expenses. Nearly $400,000 was spent on office rent in San Diego.” Charity Navigator, a US charity evaluator, gave the organization only two stars for “accountability and transparency.” [4] The USAID, a State Department agency which coordinates its foreign interventions with the Pentagon and CIA, openly states on its website that it has funded Invisible Children Inc. in the past. [5]

Joseph Kony

The bizarre thing about “Kony2012” is that Joseph Kony either fled Uganda or was killed fleeing more than six years ago. It is claimed he fled to the wilds of Congo or Central Africa, hence he makes a perfect echo of the elusive Osama bin Laden, justifying US military action across the rich terrain of central Africa from Uganda to the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Uganda and beyond. [6] Like Joseph Kony, Osama bin Laden was reliably reported to have died in Afghanistan years before his staged murder by Navy Seals a year ago. But his legend was kept alive to justify spreading the US War on Terror; so now, with the legend of Joseph Kony propagated by Invisible Children Inc. in San Diego. The issue is not whether Kony had committed atrocities; that is beyond dispute. The issue is whether “Kony2012” is being falsely promoted to justify US military intervention where it is unwanted by all parties.

One American human rights worker in Uganda in a recent interview declared, “Invisible Children’s campaign is…an excuse that the US government has gladly adopted in order to help justify the expansion of their military presence in central Africa. Invisible Children are ‘useful idiots’, being used by those in the US government who seek to militarize Africa, to send more and more weapons and military aid, and to bolster the power of states who are US allies. The hunt for Joseph Kony is the perfect excuse for this strategy – how often does the US government find millions of young Americans pleading that they intervene militarily in a place rich in oil and other resources?” [7]

The “Kony2012” video is being credited with giving the US Congress the spur to demand US military forces be sent to not just Uganda, but to the entire region of central Africa where the elusive Kony and his child army warriors are allegedly terrorizing the land. Democrat Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Republican Ed Royce have just introduced a resolution in Congress calling on the Pentagon’s AFRICOM (Africa Command) to proceed with “expanding the number of regional forces in Africa to protect civilians and placing restrictions on individuals or governments found to be supporting Kony.” [8] Last year before the “viral” YouTube airing of “Kony2012”, McGovern and Royce also sponsored “The Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act.” The media attention to the YouTube makes their case easier for military intervention. After all, it’s “humanitarian”; it’s about children, isn’t it?

Even the politically correct Washington Post was moved to write critically, “The very viral campaign to capture Kony by the nonprofit Invisible Children has largely been a U.S. phenomenon. Ugandans say the LRA has not been active for years.” [9]

Already President Obama has sent 100 US elite special forces troops to Central Africa to serve as “advisers” in efforts to hunt down Kony. If it all has echoes of Vietnam in the early 1960’s it is not accidental. This is now the prelude to a huge Pentagon militarization of the entire region of central Africa, following the NATO destruction of order in Libya, and the chaos in Egypt and other Islamic states targeted by the US State Department’s “Arab Spring,” better termed these days as, “Arab Nightmare.”

“Kony2012” was produced by an apparently well-financed NGO headed by Russell called Invisible Children Inc. in San Diego. The video reeks of US State Department propaganda with its slick camera effects and repeated scenes of Russell’s small boy to make it appear credible. Rosebell Kagumire, an award-winning Ugandan journalist responded to the clamor over Invisible Children’s “Kony2012” video, accusing Invisible Children Inc. of “using old footage to cause hysteria.” [10] Kagumire adds:

Is it about the dollars or a false belief that unless Americans know about it, no solution comes our way? … the Juba Peace Talks 2006-2008, which restored stability and paved way for the end to abductions in northern Uganda, was not an American invention. It was local civil society and peace actors like the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiatives (ARLPI) who pushed for a negotiated solution. In fact the moment America got involved, we witnessed “Operation Lightening Thunder”- a military operation with disastrous effects as the LRA eluded air strikes, and scattered into DR Congo and the Central African Republic where they continue to commit atrocities in retaliation. [11]

The entire brouhaha over Joseph Kony appears to be a flank in a major AFRICOM and US State Department campaign especially to undermine Chinese influence in central Africa — now that they have successfully driven the Chinese oil companies out of Libya, and carved out a new “republic” of South Sudan containing much of the oil that fuels China’s economy. That splitting of South Sudan and its oil, for those who did not follow it closely, was a consequence of sending in US and NATO special forces to “stop genocide” in Darfur. George Clooney was also the poster boy for the Darfur action.

There is good reason for the apparent sudden interest of the Pentagon and politicized US NGOs to focus on action in central Africa. So long as the world largely ignored it, Washington policy was to let institutions such as the IMF bleed the countries like Congo and allow western mining companies to extract valuable mineral wealth for pennies on the dollar. A few years ago all that began to change when China turned its attention to Africa, and especially its Great Rift Belt.

Great Rift Belt

The red line on this map shows the eastern and western faults of the Great Rift Valley, which runs 4,500 miles from southern Africa, under the Red Sea, and into Syria in southwestern Asia. it is so huge a geological feature that it is prominently visible to lunar and space-shuttle astronauts.

The region in question, according to the filmmakers of “Kony2012”, includes not only Uganda where in recent years a giant oil field was discovered, but also some of the planet’s richest mineral lands — including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and the US-sponsored Republic of South Sudan. The area lies in the extraordinary geographical conjuncture called the Great Rift Belt or Valley stretching from Syria in the north, down through Sudan and Eritrea and the Red Sea, and deep into southern Africa across the eastern Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and into Mozambique.

This East African Rift System, as geologists term it, is “one of the geologic wonders of the world,” and also prospectively, one of the richest treasures of subsurface minerals, including clearly vast untapped reserves of oil and gas. [12]

Ever since British oil company, Tullow Oil, discovered an estimated 2 billion barrels of oil in Uganda in 2009 the geopolitical importance of the entire central African region suddenly underwent change. CNOOC Ltd., China’s biggest offshore oil explorer, is in a joint venture with Tullow Oil to develop three oil blocks in Uganda’s Lake Albert basin. [13]

According to geologists, “the East African Rift is suspected to be one of the last great oil and natural gas deposits on earth.” In a recent article, Time noted, “Seismic tests over the past 50 years have shown that countries up the coast of East Africa have natural gas in abundance. Early data compiled by industry consultants also suggest the presence of massive offshore oil deposits.” [14]

This region of central and east Africa is considered one of the hottest unexplored regions in the world for potential hydrocarbons—oil and gas. In 2010 Texas oil company Anadarko Petroleum discovered a giant reservoir of natural gas off the coast of Mozambique. Estimates are that Somalia holds perhaps 10 billion barrels of untapped oil. [15] The chronic political unrest and AFRICOM-backed tensions there—convenient for western oil majors seeking to maintain absurdly high oil prices by controlling supply—prevent the development of the oil. While West and North Africa have undergone tens of thousands of oil well drillings over the last decades, East and Central Africa, including Darfur and South Sudan, Chad, Central African Republic are all but terra incognita in terms of drilling.

This all runs smack up against the popular talk of “Peak Oil.” Far from exhausting the Earth’s resources of oil and gas, oil companies everywhere, from the eastern Mediterranean to offshore Brazil to the Gulf of Mexico and now the Great Rift Belt of eastern and central Africa, are discovering huge new potentials almost daily. We are, as oil economist Peter Odell once noted, not running out of oil, “We’re running into oil.”

Oil is one of the most highly politicized businesses on the planet, and secrecy in the industry among the four giant Anglo-American companies makes the CIA and MI6 look like amateurs. Since the publication in 1956 by Shell Oil geologist King Hubbert of his unproven thesis [16] that oil fields deplete like Gaussian Bell Curves, Big Oil has fostered the myth of looming oil scarcity. It serves an obvious aim of maintaining their grip on the prime energy source for the world economy. Oil and its control is a geopolitical foundation of the post-1945 American Century.

China alters African geopolitical calculus

So long as Africa was the “forgotten Continent” in terms of independent oil and gas explorations, Washington policy was to ignore it. As former South African President Thabo Mbeki recently put it, “Liberated from the obligation to secure the allegiance of independent Africa in the context of its global anti-Soviet struggle, the US had found that Africa was otherwise not of any importance in terms of its global strategic interests.” [17]

But as Mbeki pointed out, by 2007 that all began to change as China began making economic and diplomatic inroads all over Africa: “There was increasing international competition for access to Africa’s oil and other natural resources, including by China. China was becoming a ‘formidable competitor for both influence and lucrative contracts on the Continent.’” [18]

But Washington’s vision of so-called ‘globalization’ of the world economic system allows for no one who does not read from their sheet of music. Hillary Clinton put it clearly enough: “If you’ve got people who are choosing a different path, then you have to use all the tools of your suasion to try to convince them that the path that you wish to follow is also the one that is in their interest as well.” [19] George W. Bush put it more succinctly: “You’re either with us or you’re against us….”

The Third Ministerial Meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Beijing, November 3, 2006.

Since China hosted more than 40 African heads of state in 2006 in Beijing, and followed that with highest-level state visits across Africa — with Chinese oil companies and industry signing multi-billion deals with the “forgotten” Africa — Washington suddenly took notice. In 2008 President Bush authorized creation for the first time of a single Pentagon command, AFRICOM, for the African continent. As Daniel Volman, director of the African security Research Project in Washington stated, “a number of developments—especially the continent’s increasing importance as a source of energy supplies and other raw materials—have radically altered the picture. They have led to the growing economic and military involvement of China, India, and other emerging industrial powers in Africa and to the re-emergence of Russia as an economic and military power on the continent. In response the United States has dramatically increased its military presence in Africa and created a new military command—the Africa Command or AFRICOM—to protect what it has defined as its “strategic national interests” in Africa. This has ignited what has come to be known as the “new scramble for Africa” and is transforming the security architecture of Africa.” [20]

By 2012 China had become the second largest foreign investor in Uganda after Britain. It is the major investor in the oil resources of South Sudan. In July 2007, the China oil company CNOOC signed an agreement with the Somali government to search for oil in the Mudug region where some estimate that reserves could amount to five to ten billion barrels of oil. [21] The Chinese investments in this part of Africa also include the joint venture which CNOOC signed with Tullow Oil in 2011 for the Ugandan fields. [22]

What is clear is that “Kony2012” is not documentary fact but manipulative propaganda, which is being used to advance an AFRICOM military presence in the richest mineral region in the world before China and perhaps India and Russia preempt it. It hearkens back to the colonial resource wars of the 19th century, with the only difference being the presence of the Internet and YouTube to propagandize it at warp speed.

F. William Engdahl

[1] Agence France-Presse, “Kony 2012: Uganda PM launches online response,” March 17, 2012.

[2] Jason Russell, Kony 2012.

[3] Julian Borger, John Vidal, and Rosebell Kagumire, “Child abductee featured in Kony 2012 defends film’s maker against criticism,” guardian.co.uk, 8 March 2012.

[4] Ibid.

[5] USAID, USAID/OTI Uganda Quarterly Report, Washington, DC, January – March 2009.

[6] Mike Tuttle, “Kony: Ugandan Says He’s Already Dead—Is Movement a Sham?,” March 9, 2012.

[7] Adam Branch, “Dangerous ignorance: The hysteria of Kony 2012,” Al-Jazeera, March 12, 2012.

[8] Stephanie Condon, “Joseph Kony resolution introduced in House,” CBSNews, March 13, 2012.

[9] Elizabeth Flock, “Forget Joseph Kony. What Ugandan children fear is the ‘nodding disease’,” Washington Post, March 13, 2012.

[10] Rosebell Kagumire, “More perspective on Kony2012,” March 9, 2012.

[11] Ibid.

[12] James Wood and Alex Guth, “East Africa’s Great Rift Valley: A Complex Rift System.”

[13] Bloomberg News, “CNOOC in `Final Discussions’ With Tullow on Ugandan Oil Block Exploration,” July 8, 2010.

[14] Christian DeHaemer, “Cutting the Dark Continent,” 3 September 2010.

[15] Ibid.

[16] M. King Hubbert, “Nuclear Energy and the Fossil Fuels” (File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat), Presented before the Spring Meeting of the Southern District Division of Production, American Petroleum Institute, San Antonio, Texas, March 8, 1956. Publication No. 95. Houston: Shell Development Company, Exploration and Production Research Division, 1956.

[17] Thabo Mbeki, “Is Africa there for the taking?,” New African, London, March 2012.

[18] Ibid.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Daniel Volman, “The Security Implications of Africa’s New Status in Global Geopolitics,” Washington DC.

[21] Barney Jopson, “Somalia oil deal for China,” Financial Times, London, July 13, 2007.

[22] Xinhua, “China ranks second in investment in Uganda,” January 8, 2010.

Nod

Yes, I always like it when I read more logic and reason is speaking to the HOW AND WHY AND WHEN of imperialism.

thx

MH370

will the lebanese christian and lebanese sunni backstabbed hezb soon and putting hezb in exiled in syria or Iran? we will see

gustavo

Israel will kill two birds with a single stone. Saudi-Arabeia and Israel will destroy each other with a great benefit to Israel. I wonder whether or not Russia will allow for this to happen.

Nod

“”We’re going to take out seven countries in 5 years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran” –General Wesley Clark. Retired 4-star U.S. Army general, Supreme Allied Commander of NATO during the 1999 War on Yugoslavia .

Seems this plan has been more difficult than they thought it would be huh.