Open Thread - 27 April, 2014

A photograph of a Catholic school in Aleppo, Syria in Ottoman times.   This was the College of the Holy Land in Aleppo. That is St. Anthony's statue in the center. The Ottoman sultan/caliph was a financial supporter of the school. The sultan's "tughra" (stylized signature) can be seen in the foreground of the picture. The school was run by the ever present Franciscans. In the background on an escutcheon you can see the insignia of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher, another supporter of the school. pl

Comments

[Valissa]

I imagine the various Russian intelligence agencies are happy to hear this.
MI5’s hiring: British Secret Service is looking for intel experts on Russia http://rt.com/news/155200-mi5-hiring-russian-experts/

When even many US based CEO’s aren’t supporting sanctions, this is no surprise.
US failing to push economic sanctions against Russia through EU allies http://rt.com/news/155168-us-eu-sanctions-russia/

Found this interesting piece on Putin the other day…
RUSSIA REPORT: PUTIN http://www.russiaotherpointsofview.com/2014/04/russia-report-putin-.html

[Thomas]

To Our German Friends,

Why does Merkel willingly follow the Primrose Path on the Ukrainian Issue set by the Foreign Policy Fools here in the US?

[walrus]

The simplest explanation for the behaviour of people is that they are financially rewarded for it.

The question then becomes who is paying the likes of Slaughter, Merkel, Blair, Cameron, Nuland, et al.

[Valissa]

Thomas, although I am not German, my theory is that Merkel is being blackmailed by the US. Recall that there was a brouhaha about the NSA spying on Merkel a while back. I remember thinking at the time, that of course all these governments spy on each other so what's the fuss really about.

[Bandolero]

Thomas

I don't think she does. While many people don't like it and the German industry has strong ties with Russia and China, the Neocon/US/Israeli lobby in Germany is quite strong, so Merkel has to balance this somehow and find a compromise.

My understanding: Merkel's way is usually to give the Neocon/US/Israeli lobby in Germany a lot of lip service, while she does hard policy decisions ususally in the opposite direction.

[nick b]

Yesterday (4/26), I had the pleasure of fishing in a bass tournament on Mattawoman creek, a tributary of the Potomac river on the Maryland side. As part of my due diligence for the tournament, I spent some time researching areas around the creek and the Potomac that might hold fish. One area I read about was Mallows bay, MD. It lies across the Potomac and a touch south of Quantico, VA. It is about 30 miles south of Washington, DC:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Mallows+Bay,+Nanjemoy,+MD&hl=en&sll=41.117935,-77.604698&sspn=6.015816,11.634521&oq=mallows&t=h&hnear=Mallows+Bay&z=16&iwloc=A

I thought particularly of TTG and his enjoyment of sailing, and everyone heres' enjoyment of history. According to the Maryland Dept of Natural Resources, Mallows bay is home to the largest shipwreck fleet in the Western hemisphere. The story begins in 1917. It's a neat little bit of history about the Potomac and the USA. The Maryland DNR website tells the story much better than I can. For your reading pleasure:

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/naturalresource/winter2001/ghostship.html

For anyone interested, I wasn't competitive in the tournament, but the gentleman I fished with placed 2nd.

[Bandolero]

@The military folks here

I'ld like to ask for your opinion about the Iranian efforts to increase their air defense capabilities. As I read the news I see that the Iranians make immense efforts to increase their air defense capabilities, eg here:

http://tehrantimes.com/politics/115354-iran-equips-s-200-air-defense-system-with-new-missiles-

Do you think these Irianian efforts are somehow successful, and if so, in which way or to what extent?

[MartinJ]

It is sickening to realise that this war marks the end of a near 2000 year presence of Christians in Syria. The forces of economic depravation and America's embrace led to substantial emigration in the last 20 years. But this is eclipsed by the forces of darkness that have been stirred up by the Gulfies and encouraged by Israel and the NeoCons. The Syrian Christians know that the writing is on the wall for them. I am appalled.

[The Twisted Genius]

nick b,

I read about Mallows Bay last year. I guess it's also a remarkable wildlife habitat. My younger son and I plan on kayaking over there from Quantico later this Spring. We're just a little leery of the likkered up speed boaters that sometimes fly up and down the river.

Hey Nick b, catch any snakeheads?

I'd also like to share something I found on the Small Craft Advisor forum. It's a tribute to a violin maker who wanted to build and sail a boat before he died from terminal cancer. He built his boat as his health deteriorated. He left hospice to finally sail his SCAMP sailboat in Port Townsend, Washington. He died on the water in his boat. To my mind, that's not a bad way to go.

http://smallcraftadvisor.com/message-board2/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=933

[nick b]

TTG,

That's a very poignant story about the passing of Mr. Halpin. As a cancer survivor, I always feel badly to hear of those who were not so fortunate as I.
No, I have never caught a snakehead, but I have caught it's cousin the bowfin. A true fossil, the bowfin dates back some 150mm years. Unlike the snakehead, it is native to north America.
I didn't have a particularly good outing Saturday. I only caught one bass, which was below the MD state keeper limit (15" in the beginning of the season). This is called a 'dink' in the parlance. I had always considered myself a good fisherman until I joined the local tournament circuit. It has been an enjoyable but very humbling experience. I will be back to the Potomac later in the season. Hopefully I will spend less time admiring the scenery and more time catching bass.

[nick b]

TTG,

FWIW, everyone I encountered on the Mattawoman seemed very well behaved. No drinking I could see. But folks do move quickly. For a more pastoral and quiet kayak trip have you considered the Nanticoke in DE/MD? It's very beautiful, and there's not so much room for knuckleheads to run so fast in their boats.

[ISL]

Bandolero:

Just my two cents, There is nothing that Iran can do that would substantially change an onslaught from the US. Sure, raise the cost a bit, but that changes what? if you want to win against the US it takes sacrifice on the ground.... If we had bombed and then left a few special forces around Afghanistan (funny - I recall that being proposed on SST), this secret would not have been demonstrated. Walk talk, carry a big stick and talk softly...

However, as they are at the limit of Israeli capabilities (Distance-wise), such improvements could make a big difference.

[Norbert M Salamon]

very interesting Crosstalk on RT.com:

Stephen Cohen [Historian] and John Mearsheimer
Enjoy!

[Tyler]

I grew up on the Nanticoke.

[mac]

Anyone notice that the controversy over Donald Sterling's remarks had an Israeli element to them?

No doubt this complicates the media management of the issue for his team and could bring some unwanted attention to the legion of Israel's U.S based apologists....

Mac

[The beaver]

It is OK to give business visas to spies working in Hollywood.
Now some want visa-waivers for Israeli citizens;
Open the gates for spooks, false flag purveyors, Mossad goons and covert agents.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/lawmakers-pushing-to-add-israel-to-visa-waiver-program/2014/04/26/4c99f2d8-ccbf-11e3-93eb-6c0037dde2ad_story.html

Once they will manage to finish building their web in the defense, intel and inside the beltway, it will be time to say :
"who is your daddy now" !!!

[William R. Cumming]

According to Margaret McMillan in her 2003 book PARIS 1919 all the allies opposed an independent Ukraine!

[Charles I]

If you need a new way to make your head explode with the same old news, CBC Radio is serving up a wee chance on Friday May 2.

On Friday May 2nd, I'm attending a Munk Debate in Toronto featuring the ever shameless Alan Dershowitz and compulsive liar Michael Hayden, for vs. great humanitarian/subversive miscreant Glenn Greenwald and reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, against the following proposition:

Be it resolved state surveillance is a legitimate defence of our freedoms…

http://www.munkdebates.com/debates/State-Surveillance#sthash.qssYXiUZ.dpuf

CBC Radio One's morning show "Q" 10a.m-12-a.m Eastern that day will offer a preview with host Jian Ghomeshi talking to Hayden and Greenwald.

http://www.cbc.ca/q/2014/05/02/fri-may-2/

[turcopolier]

All I lived in Izmir, Turkey once. The 19th Century Catholic cathedral had been paid for by the French government, citizens of Lyon and the Ottoman sultan. It was quite grand. When I lived there the cathedral had been leased to the USAF as a chapel.

[nick b]

Tyler,

Slower lower? I'd never seen the river until this year. It's beautiful there and still very undeveloped. I'm looking forward to returning.

[robt willmann]

Here are the new so-called sanctions against Russia announced today, 28 April, by the U.S. Treasury Department, "since Russia has refused to follow through with its Geneva commitments" --

http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20140428.aspx

And the press release by U.S. treasury secretary Jacob Lew--

http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl2368.aspx

What are these people smoking? Has president Obama organized a new Choom Gang and they are sitting around using drugs and making decisions?

General Evgeny Murov is now on the list. He is head of the Russian FSO, the federal protective service, which has Russia's "black box" of nuclear launch codes, a communications system for officials, and other things. It is quite a large organization and includes the Russian president's security detail, like the U.S. Secret Service, headed by Viktor Zolotov, who is not a shrinking violet.

Also on the list now is Igor Sechin, CEO of Rosneft, Russia's largest oil producer and refiner. Rosneft itself is not yet on the list.

A funny part is that Alexey Miller, the CEO of Gazprom, the natural gas producer and distributor which furnishes the gas to Ukraine and Europe, is not on the list. Neither is Gazprom itself, of course.

I wonder which alleged "psychologists" at the CIA recommended that the U.S. government try to mess with the minds of Putin's buddies? Do they not remember that the intercepted phone call of Victoria Nuland and the U.S. Amb. Pyatt in Ukraine was leaked to the world?

[Robert Kenneth Chatel]

Valissa,
Thank you for the link to the piece on Putin. I found it very insightful both in regard to Putin and to the thinking of those who knew him.

[The Twisted Genius]

nick b,

It's surprising that there are still undeveloped and beautiful rivers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. The Rappahannock is a marvelous river that is well managed. The Embrey Dam was removed a few years back making it the longest free flowing river in the East. Fredericksburg bought a buffer zone along a large stretch of the river to keep it pristine. Here's a video of a short stretch of the river from the I-95 bridges to just above Fredericksburg. Below the city, the river is tidal and still beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvnkemKEV4U

[David Habakkuk]

Valissa,

Some years ago I remarked to my brother-in-law’s stepdaughter, who comes from the West Ukraine, and spent her childhood years there in the period of complete chaos following the collapse of the Soviet Union, that there had been a basic problem with Western journalistic coverage of the post-Soviet space.

It was as though people had stumbled onto the set of ‘The Godfather’, but were determined to believe that they were on the set of ‘The Lord of the Rings.’

Being a bright girl, she found enjoyed the joke.

Perhaps ‘The Godfather’ was not the best analogy – the thrillers of Dashiell Hammett, and the ‘film noir’ based upon them, or stories like them, might be more helpful. I think of what has long seemed to me one of the greatest of ‘film noir’, which in your country was released under the title ‘Out of the Past’, and over here under the more graphic title ‘Build My Gallows High.’

I am not a great fan of Westerns – probably being too European – but many of the best of these also deal with worlds which actually have elements in common with those of the former Soviet space following the collapse of communism.

Why is it that Americans – and following them Europeans – have retreated into a kind of desiccated moralism, rather than attempting to come to some kind of reckoning with the extraordinary bizarreness – at once horrific and interesting – of what has been going on in these parts of the world?

[Medicine Man]

His journey continues.