TBR News February 16, 2016
The Voice of the White House
Washington, D.C. February 16, 2016: “Modern society is sinking into a quicksand bog of political correctness. Any comment that might smack of elitism is considered to be awful and must never be used in polite society. That there is no polite society extant escapes the notice of the pontificators. The shirll cries proclaiming that all of us are the same and any suggestion that one person, or group, might be more intelligent or industrious than another is forbidden. Ugly and stupid people claim that they are just as good as the handsome and intelligent. That they are not is never mentioned anywhere because these are “Naughty-Naughty-No-No” subjects. According to this idiotic concept, a throughbred horse is just the same as a three-legged donkey and to comment on the discrepencies is cruel and vicious. But the more social equalizers bleat, the more they create future situations that, to them, will be nightmares of social elitism.”
Conversations with the Crow
On October 8th, 2000, Robert Trumbull Crowley, once a leader of the CIA’s Clandestine Operations Division, died in a Washington hospital of heart failure and the end effects of Alzheimer’s Disease. Before the late Assistant Director Crowley was cold, Joseph Trento, a writer of light-weight books on the CIA, descended on Crowley’s widow at her town house on Cathedral Hill Drive in Washington and hauled away over fifty boxes of Crowley’s CIA files.
Once Trento had his new find secure in his house in Front Royal , Virginia, he called a well-known Washington fix lawyer with the news of his success in securing what the CIA had always considered to be a potential major embarrassment. Three months before, July 20th of that year, retired Marine Corps colonel William R. Corson, and an associate of Crowley, died of emphysema and lung cancer at a hospital in Bethesda, Md. After Corson’s death, Trento and his Washington lawyer went to Corson’s bank, got into his safe deposit box and removed a manuscript entitled ‘Zipper.’ This manuscript, which dealt with Crowley’s involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, vanished into a CIA burn-bag and the matter was considered to be closed forever
After Crowley’s death and Trento’s raid on the Crowley files, huge gaps were subsequently discovered by horrified CIA officials and when Crowley’s friends mentioned Gregory Douglas, it was discovered that Crowley’s son had shipped two large boxes to Douglas. No one knew their contents but because Douglas was viewed as an uncontrollable loose cannon who had done considerable damage to the CIA’s reputation by his on-going publication of the history of Gestapo-Mueller, they bent every effort both to identify the missing files and make some effort to retrieve them before Douglas made any use of them.
Douglas had been in close contact with Crowley and had long phone conversatins with him. He found this so interesting and informative that he taped and later transcribed them.
These conversations have been published in a book: ‘Conversations with the Crow” and this is an excerpt.
Conversation No. 30
Date: Tuesday, August 6, 1996
Commenced: 11:10 AM CST
Concluded: 11:47 AM CST
GD: Ah, good morning to you, Robert. How is life treating you today?
RTC: Good morning, Gregory. There are good days and bad days. I’m not sure about today.
GD: Certainty is illusion, Robert. I was talking to an old friend of mine last night. He’s down at Norfolk. Was Navy but retired. I went to school with him. King’s Point and then the NSG.
RTC: King’s Point is Merchant Marine.
GD: I know. They have a reserve commission and they can activate it if they want to. He did. Nuclear vessels surface and then the NSG. He was the Naval Attaché in the Dominican Republic. Worked on the Trujillo assassination. But that’s not the issue now. We got to talking about AIDS and since he had quite a bit of sherry, he told me quite a story about how that originated. I thought you might have some input on that. Want me to go on?
RTC: Why not?
GD: Well, according to him, the Navy had an experimental medical station down in Haiti. They were down there because there was a huge pool of very poor locals they could use as subjects in tests. He said that they were developing something that would lower a person’s resistance to the point where a common cold would put them out of action for weeks.
RTC: Go on. What then?
GD: Well, they hit on a virus that does this, experimented with the locals and when they were sure it actually worked, somehow they got this into local whores whom the Cuban government then shipped over to Angola to service their volunteers fighting there.
RTC: I’ve heard stories about that.
GD: But somehow, the virus mutated into something far more serious. The HIV thing. And they didn’t care if all the Cubans died, or the whores either, but it seems that some the younger Haitians got this and when American gays made excursions down there for some cheap black cock, they got it, too, and you can see where that went. Then, my friend said, after they found out what had gone wrong, the Navy shut down its facility, disposed of their volunteer locals by taking them out on boats and dumping them into the water. Anyway, that’s what he said, and I believe him. That’s what I wanted to ask you about.
RTC: There is something to that. Your friend had best be very quiet or he’ll end up taking a one-way boat trip. And I would be careful not to put any of that into one of your books. If you take my drift.
GD: No, it wouldn’t fit in with the Mueller material. It is true, then?
RTC: Basically it is. Take note that it didn’t start out to kill off all the homos, although the Christians thought it was a wonderful thing, but your friend was right when he said it mutated. I was never in that part of the agency but one hears things or talks to colleagues. I mean there was only the intention to interfere with the combat capabilities of enemy troops, not liquidate social outcasts. When we learned about this, the burn bags were used overtime at Langley.
GD: Were your people part of it?
RTC: In a sense. The Navy supplied the tactical, and we supplied the strategic. They produced the weapon and we, the targets. We were planning to use this on the Russians.
GD: Well, I know something about that aspect. You know about General Ishi? 1
RTC: Oh yes, I do indeed.
GD: His Japanese military units had a BW lab up in Manchuria and they used to develop the plague and God knows what else. Poisoned thousands of Chinese, wanted to loose the plague against their Russian neighbors and used Allied POW’s as lab specimens. Most of them died of plague and other nasty things.
RTC: Ah, the redoubtable Dr. Ishi. After we took over Japan, he was caught along with his staff and they were planning to try him for very ugly war crimes but MacArthur, acting on specific orders from the Pentagon, rescued him, set him with a big lab in Tokyo and back they went to developing the bubonic plague. I guess they were going to use it on the Russians if all else failed.
GD: That I know all about. Not the Japanese but using the plague against the Russians. There was a German Army doctor, a Dr. Walter Schreiber, who was a specialist in communicable diseases. He developed a form of the plague and the military used it to clean out the overcrowded Russian POW cages. Cost too much to feed and guard them. The rationale was that they never used them in the West. Roosevelt, as you might know, was planning to use mustard gas against the Germans in Russia until the Bari raid blew up a boat-full of mustard gas, and when Hitler learned of this, he threatened to let nerve gas loose on London and Washington. Amazing how quickly FDR backed off.
RTC: You do your homework, don’t you?
GD: Oh yes. Schreiber came over to us in Berlin after the war and we vetted him and sent him to San Antonio to set up a lab there to cultivate the plague. Again, we planned to use it against the Russians. I don’t what the Russians did to infuriate our sacred leaders, but I don’t think they would have deserved that. Schreiber got outed and had to be shipped back to Germany.
RTC: Drew Pearson was the man who did that.
GD: Whatever. Well, the Brits practiced BW when they gave the Indians smallpox-laced blankets back in the eighteenth century, but Mueller and I were discussing Schreiber’s project. Mueller was very angry when he heard this and rounded Schreiber up. Had to let him go. Orders from on high. Mueller said that there were no Customs agents at the borders to stop the spread of such filthiness right back from whence it came. But he told me about a CIA plan to ruin the Asian rice crop. That failed but only barely. It would have spread and ruined everyone’s rice crop. He said that creatures that dabbled in such things should be shot out of hand or they would destroy everyone, good or bad. I suppose the definition of good or bad depends on your politics, but the whole thing should be forbidden by law.
RTC: I believe it is, but only in theory.
GD: But they put the story out that AIDS came from monkeys in Africa and other funny stories.
RTC: Well, now it’s raging in Africa and they estimate that in ten years, everyone there will be infected. Of course, there is something to be said about depopulating Africa. They’re a bunch of incompetents who are sitting on very valuable natural resources, such as gold and uranium and when they all die, the treasures are there for the finding.
GD: That’s a bit cynical but true. But what about the American homosexuals?
RTC: The Christians and the far right would be in favor of exterminating them all. However, that having been said, we would lose so many really valuable public servants, not to mention all the florists and interior decorators.
GD: Thank God I’m not a Christian. They’re such filthy bigots. If they ever get into power here, I’ll move to some cleaner place.
RTC: I don’t see that happening, Gregory.
GD: I have no problems with the mainline faiths but the extremists are flat-out nuts and we don’t need that rampant and fanatical bigotry.
RTC: But it could be useful.
GD: But you can’t really control it. I’ve known a few Jesus freaks and, believe me, they are as nutty as they come. Most of them try to hide it from us sane ones but once in a while, it leaks out. It would be entertaining if the head of the Navy’s medical branch caught AIDS from his cousin or how about the DCI?
RTC: Now, now, Gregory, you must realize that accidents happen. Try not to be too judgmental about such things.
GD: It’s bloody difficult not to.
RTC: Look, Africa is full of people who are only a generation or two out of the jungle. They ran out the white people, who set up the business structure, and now they are running around with spears, eating each other. Why be concerned if they pass away and give the civilized part of the world access to their unused natural resources? After all, that’s why we killed off the head of the UN. He was interfering with the uranium business in the Congo so we had a little aircraft accident. We basically shot him out of the air. And that put an end to his meddling in important matters. Uranium, I don’t need to remind you, is vital for our weapons programs. Balance that against one meddling Swede and I don’t think there’s much of a problem.
GD: Well, for him…
RTC: Against the common good? You need to consider the practical priorities, Gregory. Believe me, we had no intention of causing AIDS. Our goal was to render a battlefield enemy incapable of combat, that’s all. These things sometimes happen and there is no reason at all to dwell on unexpected and certainly not planned consequences.
GD: Ah, remember that Lenin once said you can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Of course, it didn’t originate with him and I know it won’t end there but you take the point because you articulate it. But I have to agree with Mueller when he tore into such projects. And if you know the Bible, remember that he who lives by the sword shall perish by the sword. Wars once were conducted by gentlemen with a certain amount of civility but those days are gone. Democracy, not kings, now rules and civility is dead.
RTC: You sound like a monarchist, Gregory.
GD: In many ways I am, Robert. I recall my German grandfather saying that democracy was government of the mentally misfit by the mentally mediocre and tempered by the saving grace of snobbery. Grandfather was usually right I remember once at one of his formal family dinners when one of my idiot aunts was going on about her constant attendance at the local Methodist church and her choir practices. My grandfather turned to me and told me, so the whole table could hear, that I ought to take a lesson in piety from my aunt. I recall saying, and I am not being funny here, that it seemed to me that there was considerable madness in aunt’s Methodism.
RTC: Did you actually say that, Gregory?
GD: Yes, and I was only ten, Robert.
RTC: Your family must have loved you.
GD: I don’t actually think so. When Grandfather said at some other occasion that my aunt and uncle were going to Lower Asbury Avenue, I said that they certainly would if they lived there long enough.
RTC: (Laughter) You must have been a most unpleasant child, Gregory.
GD: I do not suffer fools gladly, Robert. Lincoln has been misquoted. He said, or is supposed to have said, that God must love the common people because he made so many of them. What he actually said was that God must love fools because he had made so many of them.
RTC: Now you can see why our organization is so necessary. Imagine leaving state policy in the hands of idiots.
GD: Point of view here, Robert. Whose ox is gored? Destroying the Asian rice crop? Thousands or millions dead of starvation?
GTC: But consider the common good. These are Communists, Gregory, and they want to destroy our system.
GD: Another point of view once more, Robert. Yes, abstract Communism is utopian nonsense, just like abstract Christianity is. No one wants to work to help others, but they will help themselves. But that still does not justify slaughtering millions, does it?
RTC: But that is a very extreme and certainly tainted view, Gregory.
GD: Again, it’s the gored ox. But civilized people can disagree with each other and still remain civilized, Robert. Right?
RTC: I assume so but let’s try to be a bit more objective. You need to view the larger picture.
GD: Mueller said it so well to me once, just before one of my nice French dinners. He said that morals and ethics were excellent norms but hardly effective techniques.
RTC: Those sentiments I can agree with.
GD: A difference without much a distinction. Well, enough moralizing here. I’m glad to see that my naval friend was not just engaging in drunken babble.
RTC: I would strongly urge you not to take this issue any further. I would be concerned about your safety if you did.
GD: A point well taken. As a cross between a social Darwinist and a monarchist, even I can see the perils of contemplating moral issues from a neutral point of view.
RTC: And if you felt like giving me your talkative friend’s name and address, it might be appreciated. He ought to be spoken to.
GD: I doubt that I would want to do that, Robert. After all, I have never discussed our conversations with anyone else.
RTC: Point taken.
(Concluded 11:47 AM CST)
Not out of Africa
by Harry von Johnston, PhD
The Cro-Magnon were the first early modern humans (early Homo sapiens sapiens) of the European Upper Paleolithic. The earliest known remains of Cro-Magnon-like humans are radiometrically dated to 35,000 years before present.
Cro-Magnons were robustly built and powerful. The body was generally heavy and solid with a strong musculature. The forehead was straight, with slight browridges and a tall forehead. Cro-Magnons were the first humans (genus Homo) to have a prominent chin. The brain capacity was about 1,600 cc (100 cubic inches), larger than the average for modern humans.The Cro-Magnons were long limbed and adult males would often reach 6 feet 3 inches (190 cm).
The original Cro-Magnon find was discovered in a rock shelter at Les Eyzies, Dordogne, France. The type specimen from this find is Cro-Magnon 1, carbon dated to about 28,000 14C years old. (27,680 ± 270 BP). Compared to neanderthals, the skeletons showed the same high forehead, upright posture and slender (gracile) skeleton as modern humans.
It was formerly thought by paleontologists that Neanderthal morphed into Cro-Magnon, and that Cro-Magnon was the progenitor of human beings as we know them today. However, aside from the problems of the Eve Hypothesis, there are serious problems with the assumptions about when modern human types actually appeared on Earth.
Even if we take the evolving scientific view of the present day, we find that Cro-Magnon man was something altogether different from other anatomically modern humans.
The fact is, the Cro-Magnon man was, compared to the other “anatomically modern humans” around him, practically a superman. They were skilled hunters, toolmakers and artists famous for the cave art at places such as Lascaux, Chauvet, and Altamira. They had a high cranium, a broad and upright face, and cranial capacity “about the same as modern humans” (can we say larger?), but less than that of Neanderthals. The males were as tall as 6 feet.
They appeared in Europe in the upper Pleistocene, about 40,000 years ago and “their geographic origin is still unknown”.
Their skeletal remains show a “few small differences from modern humans”. Of course, the “out of Africa” theory advocates suggest that Cro-Magnon came from Sub Saharan Africa and a temperate climate and that, “they would eventually adapt to all extremes of heat and cold”. In this way, the “slight differences” between Cro-Magnon and other forms of anatomically modern humans can be explained away as an adaptation to cold.
Cro-Magnon people lived in tents and other man-made shelters in groups of several families. They were nomadic hunter-gatherers and had elaborate rituals for hunting, birth and death. Multiple burials are common in the areas where they were found. What is most interesting is that from 35 to 10 thousand years ago, there was no differentiation by sex or age in burials.
They included special grave goods, as opposed to everyday, utilitarian objects, suggesting a very increased ritualization of death and burial..
They were the first confirmed to have domesticated animals, starting by about 15 thousand years ago .
They were the first to leave extensive works of art, such as cave paintings and carved figures of animals and pregnant women. Huge caves lavishly decorated with murals depicting animals of the time were at first rejected as fake for being too sophisticated. Then they were dismissed as being primitive, categorized as hunting, fertility or other types of sympathetic magic.
Re-evaluations have put these great works of art in a more prominent place in art history.
They show evidence of motifs, of following their own stylistic tradition, of “impressionist” like style, perspective, and innovative use of the natural relief in the caves. Also possible, considering the new concepts of time reckoning practiced by Cro-Magnon, are abstract representations of the passage of time, such as spring plants in bloom, or pregnant bison that might represent summer.
At Lascaux, France, are the famous caves of upper Paleolithic cave art, dated to 17 thousand years ago, and even older, in some cases, by many thousands of years!
What the archaeological record seems to show is that in Europe, after millennia of almost no progress at all, even in the few areas where modern man has been found, suddenly human culture seems to take off like an explosion with the appearance of Cro-Magnon man.
Not only does culture explode, but also new ways of doing things, new styles and innovations that were utterly unknown in the period immediately preceding them, suddenly appear, only to disappear again like an outdated fad. From Spain to the Urals, sites list the developments of sewing needles, barbed projectiles, fishhooks, ropes, meat drying racks, temperature controlled hearths, and complex dwellings.
This brings us to another curious thing about Neanderthal man: he never seemed to go anywhere. He always made his tools out of what was locally available, and he never seemed to travel at all. What was made where it was made, stayed there. Nobody traded or shared among the Neanderthal groups.
But it seems that right from the beginning, Cro-Magnon man was traveling and sharing and exchanging not only goods, but technology.
If there was a better form of stone somewhere else, the word seemed to get around, and everybody had some of it. Distinctive flints from southern Poland are found at Dolni Vestonice, a hundred miles to the south. Slovakian radiolarite of red, yellow and olive is found a hundred miles to the east. Later in the Upper Paleolithic period, the famous “chocolate flint” of southern Poland is found over a radius of two hundred and fifty miles.
Naturally, these rocks didn’t walk around on their own. Human legs carried them. And that leads us to our next little problem with Cro-Magnon man: You see, his legs were too long.
One of the sacred laws of evolutionary biology is called “Allen’s Rule”.
This rule posits that legs, arms, ears, and other body extremities should be shorter in mammals that live in cold climates, and longer in mammals of the same period who live where it is hot. This is because having short arms and legs conserves heat. This is supposed to explain why Eskimos and Laplanders have short legs. It also is supposed to explain why Bantu people are leaner, and the Maasai are extremely long and lean in their tropical open country.
The only people who seem to be mocking Allen’s rule are Cro-Magnon.
They just refused to adapt. They all have much longer legs than they ought to. Of course, this is pounced upon as proof that they came from Africa. The only problem with this is that it is hard to imagine people from a warm climate migrating to a cold one by choice. Then, on top of that, to remain long-limbed for over a thousand generations? Keep in mind that, during that time, the thermometer kept going down and, at the glacial maximum, 18,000 years ago, it was like the North Pole in northern Europe!
So how come they didn’t adapt?
By whatever means they arrived in Europe, we ought to take note of the fact that their presence there may be related to the fact that Europe and other nearby locations are literally blanketed with megaliths. Indeed, it may be so that the megaliths came long after the appearance of Cro-Magnon man, but the connection ought not to be discarded without some consideration.
We have still another problem here, and it has to do with dating. Analyzing mitochondrial DNA data to reconstruct the demographic prehistory of Homo Sapiens reveals statistical evidence of explosive growth around 50,000 to 60,000 years ago. Is there a connection between this DNA evidence and the appearance of Cro-Magnon man?
If so, it would mean that the DNA is dated to twice the age that archaeology confirms.
Instead of assuming that the archaeological dates are correct, perhaps we ought to ask the question: could something be wrong with the dating? From a morphological point of view as well as judging by their industry and art, these highly evolved humans who coexisted with Neanderthal man represent a mutation so enormous and sudden as to be absurd in the context of evolutionary theory.
Further, we might wish to make note of the range of this culture that suddenly dropped in on Europe: from Spain (and a small region of North Africa) to the Ural Mountains that are at the border of Central Asia.
The steppes of Central Asia, just north of Turkmenia, are a difficult environment for agriculture. Goats and sheep and cattle bones are found there that date to about 4000 BC. Later, the camel and horse came into use. These cultures spoke Indo-European languages and their members are believed to have been Caucasoid.
There have been many theories that the Caucasoid nomads of the Central Asian steppes migrated to Europe.
But, as we have seen, the initial migration may have been from West to East. The archaeological record is uncertain, and therefore the migrations of the Indo-Europeans (for so we may most assuredly call them) from the Asian steppes are no longer as clear in the minds of scholars as they once were. The migrations into India and Pakistan, however, do seem to have some firmer foundation.
These incursions were most likely from the Andronovo and Srubnaya cultures as the culture described in the oldest Aryan texts is very similar to that of the steppe nomads.
As we have noted, it was formerly thought by paleontologists that Neanderthal morphed into Cro-Magnon, and that Cro-Magnon was the progenitor of human beings as we know them today. However, aside from the problems of the Eve Hypothesis, there are serious problems with the assumptions about when modern human types actually appeared on Earth.
Even if we take the evolving scientific view of the present day, we find that Cro-Magnon man was something altogether different from other anatomically modern humans.
Over and over again we read in scientific studies that Cro-Magnon man was just an “anatomically modern human”.
The experts will say:
“The Cro-Magnons lived in Europe between 35,000 and 10,000 years ago. They are virtually identical to modern man, being tall and muscular and slightly more robust than most modern humans.”
But, as we will see, this idea doesn’t hold water.
Cro-Magnon’s tools are described as the Aurignacian technology, characterized by bone and antler tools, such as spear tips (the first) and harpoons. They also used animal traps, and bow and arrow. They invented shafts and handles for their knives, securing their blades with bitumen, a kind of tar, as long as 40 thousand years ago. Other improvements included the invention of the atlatl, a large bone or piece of wood with a hooked groove used for adding distance and speed to spears.
They also invented more sophisticated spear points, such as those that detach after striking and cause greater damage to prey.The Cro-Magnon type man was also the “originator” of such abstract concepts as “time”. They marked time by lunar phases, recording them with marks on a piece of bone, antler or stone. Some of these “calendars” contained a record of as many as 24 lunations.
In the relatively recent past, tool industries diversified.
The Gravettian industry (25 to 15 thousand years ago), characterized by ivory tools such as backed blades, is associated with mammoth hunters. One type of brief industry was Solutrean, occurring from 18 to 15 thousand years ago and limited to Southwest France and Spain. It is characterized by unique and finely crafted “laurel leaf” blades, made with a pressure technique requiring a great skill.
The industry is associated with horse hunters. The tool industry of the Clovis Culture in North America (11 to 8 thousand years ago) is notable for its remarkable similarity to Solutrean. Some suggest that the Solutrean culture migrated to North America around twelve thousand years ago.
If Cro-Magnon evolved in Africa, why isn’t there a continuous record of incremental developments?
By the same reasoning, if he evolved only after crossing the Mediterranean to Europe, why isn’t there a continuous record of incremental developments?
The most effective and popular way that science deals with this sociological crisis is to ignore it, to deny it, or to seek to twist the facts to fit the theory.
Saudis and Russia agree to oil output freeze, Iran still an obstacle
February 16, 2016
by Rania el Gamal and Tom Finn
Reuters
Dona-Top oil exporters Russia and Saudi Arabia agreed on Tuesday to freeze output levels but said the deal was contingent on other producers joining in – a major sticking point with Iran absent from the talks and determined to raise production.
The Saudi, Russian, Qatari and Venezuelan oil ministers announced the proposal after a previously undisclosed meeting in Doha. It could become the first joint OPEC and non-OPEC deal in 15 years, aimed at tackling a growing oversupply of crude and helping prices recover from their lowest in over a decade.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said freezing production at January levels – near record highs – was an adequate measure and he hoped other producers would adopt the plan. Venezuelan Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino said more talks would take place with Iran and Iraq on Wednesday in Tehran.
“The reason we agreed to a potential freeze of production is simple: it is the beginning of a process which we will assess in the next few months and decide if we need other steps to stabilize and improve the market,” Naimi told reporters.
“We don’t want significant gyrations in prices, we don’t want reduction in supply, we want to meet demand, we want a stable oil price. We have to take a step at a time,” he said.
Oil prices LCOc1 jumped to $35.55 per barrel after the news about the secret meeting but later pared gains to trade below $34 on concerns that Iran may reject the deal.
OPEC member Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional arch rival, has pledged to steeply increase output in the coming months as it looks to regain market share lost after years of international sanctions, which were lifted in January following a deal with world powers over its nuclear program.
“Our situation is totally different to those countries that have been producing at high levels for the past few years,” a senior source familiar with Iran’s thinking told Reuters.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh also indicated Tehran would not agree to freezing its output at January levels, saying the country would not give up its appropriate share of the global oil market.
The fact that output from OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC Russia – the world’s two top producers and exporters – is near record highs complicates any agreement since Iran is producing at least 1 million barrels per day below its capacity and pre-sanctions levels.
However, two non-Iranian sources told Reuters Iran may be offered special terms as part of the output freeze deal. “Iran is returning to the market and needs to be given a special chance but it also needs to make some calculations,” said one.
RIVALRY
“The agreement (if successful) should support oil prices but there are reasons to be cautious. Not all OPEC members have signed up to the deal – notably Iran and Iraq. History would also suggest that compliance may be an issue,” said Capital Economics’ analyst Jason Tuvey.
OPEC has been quarrelling for decades over output levels and Russia, which last agreed to cooperate with OPEC back in 2001, never followed through on its pledge and raised exports instead.
Also complicating any potential agreement is the geo-political rivalry in the Middle East between Sunni Muslim power Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are fighting proxy conflicts with Russia and Iran in the region, including in Syria and Yemen.
In Syria’s five-year-old civil war, Riyadh politically and financially backs some rebel groups battling President Bashar al-Assad’s government, which has gained the upper hand with the help of Russian warplanes and Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias.
The Doha meeting came after more than 18 months of declining oil prices, knocking crude below $30 a barrel for the first time in over a decade from as high as $115 a barrel in mid-2014.
The slump was triggered by booming U.S. shale oil output and a decision by Saudi Arabia and its OPEC Gulf allies to raise production to fight for market share and drive higher-cost production out of the market.
But although U.S. output has begun to decline and global demand has been robust it has still not been enough to offset booming global production which has led to oil stockpiles rising to record levels.
Saudi Arabia has long insisted it would reduce supply only if other OPEC and non-OPEC members agreed, but Russia – the world’s biggest oil producer and No.2 exporter – has said it would not join in as its Siberian fields were different from those of OPEC.
The mood began to change in January as oil prices fell below $30 percent barrel.
While Venezuela has been the hardest-hit producer, current oil prices are a fraction of what Russia needs to balance its budget as it heads towards parliamentary elections this year. Saudi finances are also suffering badly, running a $98 billion budget deficit last year, which it seeks to trim this year.
But while talking about potential cooperation with OPEC, Russia raised its output to a new record high in January. For a table on OPEC and Russian output, click here
“Even if they do freeze production at January levels, you have still got global inventory builds which are going to weigh on prices. So whilst it’s a positive step, I don’t think it will have a huge impact on supply/demand balances, simply because we were oversupplied in January anyway,” said Energy Aspects’ analyst Dominic Haywood.
(Additional reporting by Alex Lawler, Reem Shamseddine, Ahmad Ghaddar and Amanda Cooper; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Dale Hudson and Pravin Char)
Turkey shells Kurdish forces in Syria for 4th successive day
February 16, 2016
RT
Turkey has shelled Syrian Kurdish forces in northern Syria for the fourth day in a row as Ankara tries to stop the YPG from claiming the town of Azaz, which is just 8km from the Turkish border.
Turkish artillery units in the southeastern province of Kilis fired shells at Kurdish targets on Tuesday morning, in areas that were under the control of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), Today’s Zaman daily reports, citing the Dogan news agency.
The sound of shelling could be heard from Kilis city center, just kilometers from the Syrian border.
A Turkish official said on Tuesday that Ankara will ask its coalition partners, including the US, to take part in a joint ground operation in Syria. However, Turkey is adamant that it will not launch such an offensive on its own.
“Turkey is not going to have a unilateral ground operation. We are asking coalition partners that there should be a ground operation. We are discussing this with allies,” the official told reporters at a briefing in Istanbul, as cited by Reuters.
“We want a ground operation. If there is a consensus, Turkey will take part. Without a ground operation, it is impossible to stop this war.”
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu said on Monday Ankara will not allow the town of Azaz in northern Syria to fall to the YPG forces.
“YPG elements were forced away from around Azaz. If they approach again they will see the harshest reaction. We will not allow Azaz to fall,” Davutoglu told reporters on his plane bound for Ukraine, Reuters reported.
He said the Turkish military would render Syria’s Menagh airbase “unusable” if YPG forces do not retreat from the area, which they previously captured from Islamist militants. He warned the YPG not to move east of its Afrin region or west of the Euphrates River.
Turkey regards the YPG militia as a hostile insurgent force and is worried about the Syrian Kurds seizing more territory along the Turkish-Syrian border.
The United Nations Security Council will discuss Turkey’s shelling of Kurdish targets in Syria on Tuesday following a request from Russia. Moscow is backing the Kurdish militia fighters by offering them air support as they battle anti-government forces and Islamic State.
“It’s an absolutely unacceptable situation – what’s going on there on the Turkish-Syrian border. Syria complained to the Security Council, and provided all the materials on this issue. We will definitely support raising this issue in the Security Council,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told RT on Monday.
“The international community and the global media is so concerned about the humanitarian situation in Syria, about accusing Russia of doing this or that and they paid no attention to what’s going on just on the Turkish-Syrian border, what the Turks are doing and the humanitarian situation there – it’s a disaster.”
Washington and Paris have both called on Turkey to cease its massive artillery bombardment against Kurdish targets and de-escalate tensions on all sides.
“We are concerned about the situation north of Aleppo and are working to de-escalate tensions on all sides,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. “We have also seen reports of artillery fire from the Turkish side of the border and urged Turkey to cease such fire.”
Syria President Bashar al-Assad casts doubt on ceasefire
February 15, 2016
DW
The Syrian president has questioned whether any party involved in the conflict could force ‘terrorists’ to adhere to a ceasefire. He added that a ceasefire would not stop each side from using weapons.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday said it would be “difficult” to implement a ceasefire in a week, a proposal for a so-called “cessation of hostilities” was put forth by the US and Russia in Munich on Friday.
“They are saying they want a ceasefire in a week. Who is capable of gathering all the conditions and requirements in a week? No one,” Assad told lawyers during a televised speech at Syria’s Bar Association in Damascus.
“Who will talk to the terrorists? If a terrorist group refuses the ceasefire, who will hold them to account? Practically, talking (about a ceasefire) is difficult,” the Syrian president said.
On Friday, US State Secretary John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced an agreement for the “cessation of hostilities” within a week, billed as a “breakthrough” in the conflict.
However, Assad noted on Monday that the ceasefire would not stop both sides of the conflict from using weapons.
“Regarding a ceasefire, a halt to operations, if it happened, it doesn’t mean that each party will stop using weapons,” said Assad.
“A ceasefire must mean stopping terrorists from strengthening their positions. Moving weapons, equipment, terrorists or strengthening positions must all be forbidden,” the Syrian president added.
Since UN-backed talks aimed at bolstering a political solution to the conflict broke down early February, Syrian government forces have gained ground with the help of Russian airstrikes.
UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura, who described the ceasefire to DW as a “breakthrough,” arrived in Damascus late Monday to discuss the implementation of the ceasefire and renewing peace talks.
China uproots 9,000 people for huge telescope in search for aliens
Residents within 5km radius of Fast project in Guizhou province will be forced to leave their homes and offered £1,275 in compensation
February 16, 2016
by Tom Phillips
The Guardian
China is to relocate more than 9,000 people in the lead-up to the opening of the world’s largest radio telescope later this year – a move that Beijing hopes will boost the global hunt for extraterrestrial life.
Work on the 1.2bn yuan (£127m) Fast (Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope) project began in the south-western province of Guizhou in 2011 and is expected to be completed by September.
Before then 9,110 residents of Guizhou’s Pingtang and Luodian counties will be “evacuated” from their homes, the Xinhua news agency announced on Tuesday. Each will receive 12,000 yuan (£1,275) in compensation from the government’s eco-migration bureau, Xinhua added
Li Yuecheng, a senior Communist party official in Guizhou, said the relocations, from an area within a 5km radius of the project, would help “create a sound electromagnetic wave environment”.
Beijing sees its 500 metre-diameter telescope, which will dwarf the 300 metre-diameter Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, as the latest symbol of its growing technological prowess.
One of the scientists behind the project recently claimed that if the telescope was filled with wine, each of the world’s 7 billion inhabitants could fill about five bottles from it.
But the telescope is intended as a pioneering scientific endeavour, not a super-sized decanter. According to recent reports in Chinese state media, Fast is made up of 4,450 triangular-shaped panels. Once the telescope is fully functional, those movable panels will be used to reflect radio signals from distant parts of the universe towards a 30-tonne retina capable of gathering them, the China Daily newspaper reported during tests last November.
In an interview last year, Nan Rendong, a senior scientist on the project, said: “A radio telescope is like a sensitive ear, listening to tell meaningful radio messages from white noise in the universe. It is like identifying the sound of cicadas in a thunderstorm.”
Wu Xiangping, the director-general of the Chinese Astronomical Society, told Xinhua that Fast’s high level of sensitivity would help scientists to “search for intelligent life outside of the galaxy and explore the origins of the universe”.
Last year Shi Zhicheng, a Chinese astronomer, told the South China Morning Post that the telescope represented a giant leap in the hunt for alien life. “If intelligent aliens exist, the messages that they produced or left behind, if they are being transmitted through space, can be detected and received by Fast,” Shi said.
Chinese officials say the telescope’s location in Qiannan, an isolated region deep in Guizhou’s spectacular Karst mountains, is the ideal place to detect possible extraterrestrial messages.
Li Di, a scientist from the Chinese Academy Of Sciences, said Fast would allow Beijing to “explore deeper into space and look at asteroids and even Mars”. He told China’s state broadcaster CCTV last year: “It will give China an opportunity to conduct frontier research.”
In an editorial celebrating China’s scientific triumph last July, the South China Morning Post boasted: “If we are ever to make contact with aliens, China may play a key role … our eyes and ears are closing in on the possibility of life on another planet.”
Massive relocation projects have long been a Communist party speciality. Millions of Chinese citizens have been displaced in recent decades to make way for hydro-electric dams and other infrastructure projects or as part of “poverty alleviation” schemes. Those forced from their homes often complain of poor compensation.
Runaway Army Blimp Was Missing Batteries
February 15, 2016
by David Willman
Los Angeles Times
The blimp that broke loose from an Army facility in Maryland last fall, wreaking havoc with its mile-long tether, flew uncontrolled for hours because someone neglected to put batteries in its automatic-deflation device, Pentagon investigators have found.
The pilotless, radar-carrying blimp was part of the troubled JLENS missile-defense system, which has failed to perform as promised while costing the government more than $2.7 billion since 1998.
The runaway blimp episode was caused by a cascade of events spanning 13 hours, according to people familiar with the investigation, an overview provided to congressional staff members and a summary released by a military spokeswoman.
The six-sentence summary of the investigation said that “design, human, and procedural issues all contributed” to the mishap. Pentagon officials declined to release a copy of the investigative report.
The blimp was one of two moored at the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground. On Oct. 28, it was floating at an altitude of about 5,200 feet when its tether tore apart.
Fighter jets were scrambled to track the blimp as it wafted over Maryland and Pennsylvania, and commercial air traffic had to be diverted. The blimp’s tether damaged power lines, knocking out electricity to 35,000 rural Pennsylvania residents. The tattered blimp finally came to rest in high trees in rural Moreland Township, Pa.
The incident made JLENS a target of widespread ridicule and provoked fresh questions about the program.
JLENS — short for Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System — is designed to provide early warning of enemy cruise missiles, drones or other low-flying threats.
The blimps, also called aerostats, can float as high as 10,000 feet. At that altitude, their powerful radar can see 340 miles in any direction, farther than land- or sea-based radar, according to the system’s prime contractor, Raytheon Co.
The 7,000-pound aerostats are anchored to the ground by 1[-inch-thick Kevlar tethers, which also hold wiring for electricity.
The two blimps at Aberdeen were participating in an “operational exercise” intended to test the system’s ability to defend the Washington, D.C., area. The exercise was suspended after the accident.
The sequence of events that caused the blimp to break away began when a pitot tube, a narrow 18-inch-long device intended to measure air pressure within the blimp, malfunctioned. Ground personnel failed to detect or address the problem, investigators found.
Ordinarily, fans within the blimp would activate in response to a change in atmospheric conditions, such as increased winds. But because the pilot tube failed, the fans did not operate — and air pressure within the blimp started to drop.
The blimp turned so that it was perpendicular to the prevailing wind, instead of the desired parallel position. Gusts that reached 69 mph bent its vertical tail fins out of their normal shape.
This made the blimp unstable in the air, putting greater pressure on the mooring tether than it was designed to withstand, according to the investigative documents.
Still, the blimp was equipped with an automated device that should have caused it to deflate promptly and return to ground within two miles. The device failed to activate, because batteries had not been installed as a backup power source, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Michael Kucharek, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the US Northern Command, confirmed the lapse: “The lack of batteries prevented the automatic rapid deflation device from deploying.”
Military officials declined to say who was responsible for failing to load the batteries. The blimps were managed by Army and contractor personnel.
The breakaway was the most conspicuous of many setbacks for JLENS, detailed in a Los Angeles Times report published last September (available at latimes.com/missile-defense). In tests, the system has struggled to track flying objects and to distinguish friendly aircraft from threatening ones.
A 2012 report by the Pentagon’s Operational Test and Evaluation office faulted the system in four “critical performance areas” and rated its reliability as “poor.” A year later, in its most recent assessment, the agency again cited serious deficiencies and said JLENS had “low system reliability.”
A spokesman for Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said Carter “concurred” with a recommendation from military officials to resume the JLENS operational exercise.
“A thorough and complete test will allow us to determine if this technology will contribute to the overall homeland defense architecture here in the National Capital Region,” said the spokesman, Air Force Lt. Col. Tom Crosson.
Now it will be up to Congress to decide whether to provide the additional funds needed to return JLENS to the skies. In the last week, military officials have privately told congressional staff that they would like an additional $27 million to restart the operational exercise as of Oct. 1.
A spokesman for Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee and a supporter of JLENS, said the senator “is reviewing the findings of the investigation as Congress examines next steps in funding for the program.”
Army Major Beth R. Smith said that officials in charge of the operational exercise plan to “fix any issue identified” by the investigation and will follow recommendations to add personnel to JLENS and improve training and equipment.
U.S. admiral warns against Chinese fighter flights from South China Sea runways
February 15, 2016
by Rujun Shen
Reuters
Singapore-Any move by China to fly jet fighters from runways on its new man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea would be destabilizing and would not deter U.S. flights over the area, a senior U.S. naval officer said on Monday.
Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, the commander of the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet, also urged Beijing to be more open over its intentions in the South China Sea, saying it would relieve “some of the angst we are now seeing”.
“We are unsure where they are taking us,” Aucoin said of China’s recent moves during briefing with journalists in Singapore.
“So we are going to sail, fly, operate throughout these waters….like we have been doing for so long,” he said.
That, he added, included “flying over that airspace.”
Chinese and regional security analysts expect Beijing to start using its new runways in the disputed Spratlys archipelago for military operations in the next few months.
It last month tested for the first time the 3,000-metre runway built on a reclamation on Fiery Cross Reef by landing several civilian airliners from Hainan island. (Link to previous stories)
Aucoin said he could not give an estimate when he expected Chinese military jets to start operating in the Spratlys.
“It’s a destabilizing uncertainty,” he said when asked about the impact of possible Chinese jet fighter patrols. He said it would raise questions about the intentions.
China claims much of the South China Sea, while Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims.
International concern is growing over tensions in the waterway, which carries an estimated $5 trillion in trade every year, including oil used by northeast Asian nations.Since last October, two U.S. warships have sailed close to Chinese claimed features in the Spratly and Paracel archipelagoes in so-called freedom-of-navigation operations that Beijing has warned are provocative.
Chinese officials complained last December that a U.S. B-52 bomber flew close to one of Beijing’s artificial islands.
Other U.S. surveillance and transport planes routinely fly throughout the South China Sea.Chinese warships and civilian vessels routinely flank U.S. naval ships in the area, but Aucoin said engagement between the two navies would continue, saying the relationship was “positive”.
“(The) International Law of the Sea has helped (China) for so many years. We just want them to respect those rights so that we can all continue to prosper,” he said.
(Reporting by Rujun Shen in Singapore; writing by Greg Torode in Hong Kong; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
Excitement at new cancer treatment
February 16, 2016
by James Gallagher
BBC
A therapy that retrains the body’s immune system to fight cancer has provoked excitement after more than 90% of terminally ill patients reportedly went into remission.
White blood cells were taken from patients with leukaemia, modified in the lab and then put back.
But the data has not been published or reviewed and two patients are said to have died from an extreme immune response.
Experts said the trial was exciting, but still only a baby step.
The news bubbled out of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting in Washington DC.
The lead scientist, Prof Stanley Riddell from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer research Centre in Seattle, said all other treatments had failed in these patients and they had only two-to-five months to live.
He told the conference that: “The early data is unprecedented.”
Re-training
In the trial, cells from the immune system called killer t-cells were taken out of dozens of patients. The cells normally act like bombs destroying infected tissue.
The researchers genetically modified the t-cells to engineer a new targeting mechanism – with the technical name of chimeric antigen receptors – to target acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
Prof Riddell told the BBC: “Essentially what this process does is it genetically reprograms the T-cell to seek out and recognise and destroy the patient’s tumour cells.
“[The patients] were really at the end of the line in terms of treatment options and yet a single dose of this therapy put more than ninety percent of these patients in complete remission where we can’t detect any of these leukaemia cells.”
But one cancer expert told me they still felt in the dark on the full significance of the study as the data is not available.
Also seven of the patients developed cytokine release syndrome so severe that they required intensive care and a further two patients died.
While those odds may be acceptable if facing terminal cancer, the side-effects are much greater than conventional leukaemia treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy which work in the majority of patients.
There is also a big difference between using such approaches on a blood cancer like leukaemia and “solid” tumours such as breast cancer.
Dr Alan Worsley, from Cancer Research UK, said that while the field was incredibly exciting, “this is a baby step”.
He told the BBC: “We’ve been working for a while using this type of technology, genetically engineering cells. So far it’s really shown some promise in this type of blood cancer.
We should say that in most cases standard treatment for blood cancer is quite effective, so this is for those rare patients where that hasn’t worked.
“The real challenge now is how do we get this to work for other cancers, how do we get it to work for what’s known as solid cancers, cancers in the tissue?”