TBR News April 22, 2016

Apr 22 2016

The Voice of the White House

Washington, D.C. April 22, 2016:”One of America’s intelligence agencies has bugged the Israeli Embassy in Washington. Incoming, outgoing phone calls, faxes, computer messaging, cell phone conversations, and even conversations are captured and recorded. Here is an interesting conversation that is typical. And when Fat Bibi was in the Embassy once, he referred to President Obama as a ‘South Side Nigger’ and this, when reported, did not please the President

Transcription of telephone conversation on August 3, 2006

from

Israeli Embassy, Washington D.C. Telephone Number (202) 364-5582.

to

unidentified individual at AIPAC, Washington D.C., Telephone Number (202) 639-5201

Commenced 1821 hrs, concluded 1826 hrs.

Speaker A: Reuven Azar – Counselor for Political Affairs, Embassy of Israel

Speaker B: Unidentified individual located at AIPAC headquarters

  1. Well, things are going as well as expected, better perhaps than expected. There is military progress there (Lebanon) and we have wonderful cooperation here.
  2. For sure, but don’t forget the dangers in having too much cooperation. All right for this moment but in the long run, this can certainly backfire on us. You know, we are seen as being too much influential with the Bush people.
  3. I wouldn’t worry too much about that. The media is certainly not to worry about and most Americans really do not care about things there (Lebanon) The main point is that by the time the U.S. makes itself felt at the UN, we will have accomplished our goals and established the buffer we need.
  4. Absolutely but…there is still the future to think about.
  5. Who cares? Once we establish the buffer, the rest is just shit. It will all be hidden soon in the coming press reports of Arab ‘attacks’ on the U.S. This is for the voting in November. You know, ‘many Arab groups will for sure attack American targets.’ They (the U.S. Government) will choose so-called target areas where they need the most support. We don’t need to worry about Miami, Skokie or Beverly Hills after all. (Laughter) and this is a little crude but the public here is terribly stupid and the warning color days worked before, didn’t they?
  6. Yes, but there are second thoughts on all of that. If you go to the well too often, there are problems. People lose interest.
  7. The British are being such swine about this, aren’t they? They are causing trouble about the bombs these days.
  8. Just a few troublemakers. The press here does not cover that and who reads the foreign media? Most Americans can’t read anyway. But there is danger that the U.N. might be motivated to move a peace keeping force into Lebanon and this might negate our purposes. Hesbollah must be utterly wiped out and Syria must be made to realize…with force if necessary…that it cannot supply the terrorists with more Iranian rockets. Maybe an accidental airstrike on Syrian military units could say to them to mind their own business. We have done this before.
  9. It is too bad that we cannot teach Tehran a lesson. The ultimate goal would be to have America attack Iran but I am afraid the American military is dead set against this…
  10. They are all Jew-haters up there.
  11. For sure but we know that Americans can bomb the shit out of Tehran and hopefully kill off a number of the militants, probably disrupt their atomic program and teach all of the area that the U.S. means business. We support them, they support us. But they cannot send in ground troops and if we did that, our losses would not be borne at home. As it is, there are the usual malcontents bleating about the Lebanon business.
  12. They are just afraid they will get a rocket on their house and there are the same ones here. The Lieberman business is not that good, after all. Yes, of course he is a liberal Democrat but his support of us is too obvious. He could be a little critical too. We see the Bush people doing this, just to keep the people quiet. Yes, they say, see, we too are actually critical of Israel….
  13. But not too critical, right?
  14. No, never that. Too many pictures of dead jerks for example. We need to see more pictures of grieving Israelis, mourning lost sons and children. Can’t we get more of those? Fuck the Arabs.
  15. I feel sorry for the American media. Their instincts are to defend dead Arab children…
  16. But nits make lice, don’t they? Who mourns dead Israeli children?
  17. I’m sure there would be more on this but not enough children are dead.
  18. Not yet, anyway. But if they rocket Tel Aviv…
  19. Well, then, for sure.
  20. We should have pictures all ready if that happens. Do you think it will?
  21. Tehran directs that part of the business. We don’t have as much inside gen on them there…
  22. The fucking Russians are on their side.
  23. We have always had trouble with those Slavic pricks. First weapons…
  24. The Chinese assholes also do this, don’t forget.
  25. No one around here will forget that, be assured. The time will come when we get them too. Say we cut off their oil from the Gulf? What then? They will dance to our tunes then, not Tehran’s.
  26. If we had oil…
  27. But we do not. The filthy Putin has the oil. They should get rid of him while they are at it. Our people almost had it but he forced them out.
  28. They can always come back. The people here would really support this. We put our people back in after we get rid of Putin and then a guaranteed flow of oil to America.
  29. And Russia is off the chessboard too.
  30. They all want that badly here, too. Cheney is the strongest supporter of cutting the nuts off of Russia. The military here are against fishing in troubled waters.
  31. They can’t be replaced, Bush can’t sack them all.
  32. Set an example. Sack a few more of the assholes and the rest will shut up. They always do. So, send me your latest list and I’ll see what I can do here.

A .Send someone to pick it up. The mail here is awful. It will take a week if some black doesn’t  steal    it, throw it away or wipe his ass with it.

  1. Tomorrow for sure.
  2. OK. And one other matter. We feel very strongly that if the current people get kicked out in November, as it looks like they might, we owe them to help them stay right where they are. It has taken a long time and much money to get all the ducks lined up and we don’t want to have to start in again. We can generally rely on sympathy from the Democrats but they will not support any more military ventures over there. That’s for sure.
  3. Then what do you suggest?
  4. The terrorism card works wonders. We were going to release a statement that Arabs were going to attack an El Al plane on takeoff, with rockets….
  5. Probably leftovers from the CIA businesses in Afghanistan.
  6. Let’s not get into that now. But this scare would only affect flights to Israel and we don’t think it would have any impact on the election.
  7. Well then, why not have these attacks aimed at American aircraft? Where would they attack from?
  8. Say at the perimeter fence lines at airports. Or better still, why not a plan cooked up to smuggle explosives on board transatlantic flights to or from America? Something clever that will catch the public imagination….
  9. That stupid bomb in the shoe routine?
  10. Don’t knock it. It worked, didn’t it? We can always find some suckers with a bent to this we can fill up with real enthusiasm and then turn them in, complete with plans. They actually believe they are going to paradise and fuck virgins and we have another propaganda coup. Let’s give this some effort. You know, a terrified public will not want to change horses in mid stream. So far, the Rove people have a good line: If you’re against the Republicans, you’re encouraging the evil terrorists sthick.
  11. Well, they did that with the alert warnings and it worked…more or less.
  12. Face it, they aren’t too bright here. They ran it into the ground, had to fire Ridge and Ashcroft, one of our very best friends ever, and put those things on ice. They need to discover a huge plot but in America. You know, as you said, infiltrate a group of crazies, plant things on them, call the FBI…
  13. Oh, they do that themselves. That business in Florida was pathetic…
  14. But it worked, didn’t it?
  15. For about ten minutes at six o’clock for about three days.
  16. Well, think about it and get back to me.
  17. Right.
  18. What’s the situation with your two people? Are they going to be tried or not?
  19. Probably not, as far as the Bush people are concerned. But it is up to the courts and we are very careful not to fuck with them. They are expected to have the charges thrown out soon…
  20. Well, I’ll pray for them. I have to go now so I’ll get back to you later. Don’t forget to send someone for the list
  21. OK.

(Conversation terminated)

 

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 conversations 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. 107

Date: Sunday, October 19, 1997

Commenced: 3:30 PM CST

Concluded: 3:50 PM CST

 

RTC: How are you this fine day, Gregory? Up and at ‘em?

GD: Trying to catch up on some of your documents. This Afghan business is interesting. One of the most consistently volatile areas on earth. Full of savage, very competent guerrilla warriors.

RTC: Oh yes, I give you that. When we decided to enter the lists there in ’79, we were well aware of the makeup of the country. Utter, backward savages but very, very effective guerrilla warriors. We felt at the time that if we could lock the Soviets in to a drawn out war, they would lose it, take terrible personnel losses and hemorrhage money the way we did in ‘Nam. It worked like a charm. We got the Saudis in this with us and they did a wonderful job. They trained the locals, armed them with weapons we sent them and did everything they could to help us field a good response to Ivan.

GD: Well, I was reading about the Russian copters and how you gave the rag heads the small missiles to knock them down. Up to that point, those choppers were a deadly weapon for the Russians.

RTC: Well, we did our best and we won, we won there and they lost. We avenged ‘Nam if you want to look at it that way.

GD: But they did the fighting.

RTC: So much better for us, don’t you think?

GD: But the Russians must have known what they were getting into. They had a long history with the rag heads down there. Why invade a totally hostile area?

RTC: Well, something to do but also because of the opium down there. Outside of our dear friends the Turks, Afghanistan is the world’s largest grower of opium. Immense money to be made there, my boy.

GD: I can imagine. And do we?

RTC: Of course we do. Started out in the golden triangle under my direction and just spread out. We set them up there, gave them pep talks, money and guns. No, they are on our side…or were.

GD: ‘Were’ is a good word. You can’t trust tribal people like that. Give them guns to kill you enemy and when he’s dead, they’ll turn on you.

RTC: Much too pessimistic, Gregory, much too pessimistic. Although I haven’t been in harness for some time, I keep in touch. No, those people love us, make book on it.

GD: I don’t trust the Saudis, either. They hate us, Robert. I went to college with one of their royal family and he gave me quite an insight. The royal family came from generations of camel thieves and I wouldn’t trust one of them to the corner for a pound of butter. We buy their oil and they smile and give us gold pen sets, just like you do to the boobies who help you for free. There is a large body of well-trained terrorists or freedom fighters as you will, looking for more exciting work. And the Saudis do not want them looking at their country.

RTC: Well, the Saudis do hate us, quietly, but they own the Afghans and their people run them there. Most of the leaders of the so-called activist movements in Afghanistan are Saudis. Of course to a stupid American, all Arabs look the same. Agreed they dislike the infidels in the west but they sell their oil for American dollars, don’t they?

GD: Oh subtle one, oh serpent, as the line went. As I said, the Saudi leadership, their royal family, descend directly from brigands and camel thieves so don’t be astounded if they sic the other ones onto us. What would they gain? Getting us out of the Middle East for one thing. I mean getting our military people out of there. And because they hate Israel with a passion, our ass kissing of those Mongol assholes will get us into real trouble.

RTC: And what do you propose, Gregory?

GD: Me? I know nothing but if it were up to me, I would get my pink ass out of that area and deal with everyone equally. When the Jews saw we were no longer their bigger brother, believe me, they would settle up with the Arabs in jig time. Oh, do excuse the awful racial remark there. Anyway, I think your people opened a Pandora Box giving weapons to those people. And they did terrible things to captured Russians. Tortured and killed them.

RTC: Yes, one of the more enjoyable aspects of the whole business. A dead Russian whose head is being used as a soccer ball can’t fight us, can he?

GD: As ye sow, Robert, so shall ye reap.

RTC: My God, don’t drag the Bible into this. We did terrible damage to the Soviets, who, by the way, were our enemies at the time. They supported North Korea, didn’t they? Yes, I can tell you they did. So, what’s wrong with our supporting the Afghanistanis?

GD: Well, it isn’t something I would have done but then I am not the shield and buckler of the nation.

RTC: Ah, well now there you go! Right on the old nail head, Gregory. If it weren’t for the CIA, where would we be? Probably an occupied country.

GD: Can we forget the little question of the opium? On the one hand, this has become a nation of drug addicts and most of the drug, other than the glue-sniffers, get their drugs from the Mexicans, who get it from the Columbians, who, in turn, get the raw opium from Afghanistan courtesy of Air America. Crime rates soar, jails are packed, billions are spent on this but I suppose someone in Washington, or Langley, lives in a nice place, has a boat, a summer house on Long Island and another one in Bermuda. Well, so much for pragmatic sanctions.

RTC: What?

GD: An historical joke, Robert. Anyway, knowing you, I doubt if you made a dime from the drug business.

RTC: Of course not. We got the political benefit in my department and at my level and others lower down, got the money.. You can’t make an omelet, Gregory, without breaking a few eggs.

GD: A favorite phrase of Ulanov.

RTC: Lenin, of course. At certain elevated levels, it’s all just a game.

GD: Unless your grandson overdoses, Robert.

(Concluded at 3:50 PM CST)

 

http://www.amazon.com/Conversations-Crow-Gregory-Douglas-ebook/dp/B00GHMAQ5E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450147193&sr=8-1&keywords=conversations+with+the+crow#sthash.jWpLL7Wr.dpuf

 

SECRECY NEWS

From the FAS Project on Government Secrecy

Volume 2016, Issue No. 37

April 22, 2016

DOD DIRECTS “EQUAL ATTENTION” TO SECRECY, DECLASSIFICATION

Declassification of national security information should be pursued on a par with classification, according to a Department of Defense directive that was reissued yesterday.

“Declassification of information will receive equal attention as the classification of information so that information remains classified only as long as required by national security considerations,” said DoD Instruction 5200.01, dated April 21 and signed by Marcel Lettre, the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.

This seems commendable as an aspirational goal, but it is hard to consider it an accurate description of existing DoD policy. (The “equal attention” language has been in force since 2008, when it appeared in a prior iteration of the Instruction.)

Nor is it clear what DoD means by “equal attention” in this context. Equal resources devoted to classification- and declassification-related activities? Surely not. Equal numbers of personnel engaged in classification and declassification? No. Equivalent quantities of records being classified and declassified? Also no.

Still, in a rules-based bureaucracy like the Pentagon, a directive from the Under Secretary of Defense has some intrinsic weight and cannot be entirely dismissed.

It is also noteworthy that the Instruction goes beyond requiring some sort of equilibrium between classification and declassification and calls for an actual reduction in the amount of classified material: “The volume of classified national security information and CUI [controlled unclassified information], in whatever format or media, will be reduced to the minimum necessary to meet operational requirements.”

In a new provision, the Instruction emphasizes the need to address unauthorized disclosures of classified information:

“Commanders and supervisors at all levels must consider and, at their discretion, take appropriate administrative, judicial, contractual, or other corrective/disciplinary action to address negligent discharges of classified information commensurate with the seriousness of the security violation.”

A “negligent discharge” sounds like something that is frowned upon in the Book of Leviticus. But it is actually an officially-sanctioned DoD term for certain types of unauthorized disclosures. An August 14, 2014 memorandum from the Deputy Secretary of Defense explains its origin:

“A negligent spillage or unauthorized disclosure of classified information is categorized as a Negligent Discharge of Classified Information (NDCI), which is based on the familiar firearms term ‘Negligent Discharge,’ to connote its seriousness.”

BORDER SECURITY DOESN’T YIELD CONSISTENT RESULTS (CRS)

Border security to prevent unauthorized migration along the U.S-Mexico border is a dynamic and challenging problem that has not consistently been mitigated by allocating increased resources, such as fencing and surveillance, says a newly updated report from the Congressional Research Service.

“Robust investments at the border were not associated with reduced unauthorized inflows during the 1980s and 1990s, but a range of evidence suggests a substantial drop in unauthorized inflows from 2007 to 2011, followed by a rise from 2012 to 2014 and a decrease in 2015,” CRS said. See Border Security: Immigration Enforcement Between Ports of Entry, updated April 19, 2016.Other new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has withheld from online public distribution include the following.

DHS Appropriations FY2016: Protection, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery, updated April 18, 2016

Escalating Violence in El Salvador, CRS Insight, updated April 20, 2016

Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy, updated April 15, 2016

Ukraine: Current Issues and U.S. Policy, updated April 18, 2016

What’s on Television? The Intersection of Communications and Copyright Policies, April 20, 2016

Funding for Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CSS) at DOE: In Brief, April 19, 2016

The National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP): Issues in Brief, updated April 19, 2016

Arms Sales: Congressional Review Process, updated April 19, 2016

The Islamic State’s Acolytes and the Challenges They Pose to U.S. Law Enforcement, April 19, 2016

 

 

‘Document 17′: Declassified US govt memo suspects multiple Saudi links to 9/11 attacks

April 21, 2016

RT

New questions have been raised about Saudi Arabia’s role in the 9/11 attacks after it was revealed that an envelope from the Saudi embassy in Washington was found containing the flight certificate of an Al-Qaeda operative.

The flying certificate for Ghassan al-Sharbi, who reportedly took lessons alongside some of the 9/11 hijackers, was included in a cache of documents hidden by the operative in Pakistan. The certificate was kept inside an envelope from the Saudi embassy in Washington, DC.

The certificate and other documents buried by al-Sharbi were found when he was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and subsequently sent to Guantanamo Bay.

The discovery of the certificate was disclosed in a 47-page work report which was compiled for the FBI in 2003. It was written by two US investigators, Dana Lesemann and Michael Jacobson, examining the possible roles of foreign governments in the attacks

“Why did Ghassan Al-Sharbi bury a cache of documents near where he was staying in Pakistan, including an envelope from the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC, containing his flight certificate from Embry Riddle University in Phoenix?” the investigators wrote in the report.

Although the report was declassified by the US government in July 2015, it was only after activist Brian McGlinchey discovered the document and published its details online this week that it was brought to the public’s attention, The Mirror reported. McGlinchey dubbed it as ‘Document 17’.

“The envelope points to the fundamental question hanging over us today: to what extent was the 9/11 plot facilitated by individuals at the highest levels of the Saudi government?” McGlinchey said after discovering the report.

This and other questions were included into the section ‘Key Questions Regarding Possible Saudi Government and Royal Family Connections to the September 11 Hijackers and Other Terrorists and Terrorist Groups.’

Other parties mentioned include Abdullah Bin Laden, Osama Bin Laden’s half-brother, who had been assigned to the Saudi embassy in Washington as an administrative officer; Hamah Alotaibi, who was assigned to the Saudi embassy’s military division in Washington and was possibly visited by a 9/11 hijacker; Mohammed Fakihi, a Saudi diplomat assigned to the country’s embassy in Berlin, whose business card was found in the possession of an associate of the 9/11 hijackers; and Mohammed al-Qudhaeein and Hamdan al-Shalawi, both Saudi students suspected of participating in a ‘dry run’ for the 9/11 attacks in 1999.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama is facing calls to release a redacted 28-page portion of a joint congressional report on the 9/11 attacks, which is thought to link senior Saudi figures to the terror attacks. Obama said on Tuesday that the pages which do not “compromise major national security interests” will “hopefully” be released soon.

The president also expressed his disapproval with a proposed bill which would allow Saudi Arabia to be sued if that country’s government did, in fact, have a role in the 9/11 attacks. The Saudi government has threatened to withdraw US$753 billion in US Treasury securities and other assets if Congress passes the bill.

Obama visited Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, meeting with King Salman to seek joint action on security threats including Iran and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). The two leaders also spoke about regional conflicts where the allies disagree, and explored US concerns about Saudi human rights issues, according to the White House.

 

Arctic sea ice set for record summer low

Satellite data indicates the Arctic is facing a decline in sea ice that could equal or even beat the negative record of 2012.

April 21, 2016

DW

Sea ice physicists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), anticipate that the sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean this summer may shrink to the record low of 2012.

The scientists evaluated current satellite data on the thickness of the ice cover. The data shows that the Arctic sea ice was already extraordinarily thin in the summer of 2015 and comparably little new ice had formed during the past winter.

Speaking at the annual General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union meeting 2016 in Vienna, AWI sea ice physicist Marcel Nicolaus said data collected by the CryoSat-2 satellite revealed large amounts of thin ice that are unlikely to survive the summer.

Hard to forecast

Predicting the summer extent of the Arctic sea ice several months in advance still poses a major challenge. Until the end of the melting season, the fate of the ice is ultimately determined by the wind conditions and air and water temperatures during the summer months. However, conditions during the preceding winter lay the foundations.

The AWI scientists say this spring, conditions are as “disheartening as they were in 2012,” when the sea ice surface of the Arctic went on to reach a record low of 3.4 million square kilometers in September.

At the end of March, the Arctic sea ice was at a record low winter maximum extent for the second straight year, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and NASA. Air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean for the months of December, January and February were 2 to 6 degrees Celsius (4 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit) above average in nearly every region.

This year’s maximum winter extent was 1.12 million square kilometers (431,000 square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 average of 15.64 million square kilometers (6.04 million square miles) and 13,000 square kilometers (5,000 square miles) below the previous lowest maximum that occurred last year.

Ice extent, the area of ocean where there is sea ice, increases through autumn and winter, and the maximum typically occurs in mid-March. Sea ice then retreats through spring and summer and shrinks to its smallest or minimum extent typically by mid-September.

The September Arctic minimum began drawing attention in 2005 when it first shrank to a record low extent over the period of satellite observations. It broke the record again in 2007, and then again in 2012. The March Arctic maximum tended to attract less attention until last year, when it was the lowest ever recorded by satellite.

Ice conditions “catastrophic”

Larissa Beumer was one of a team of Arctic experts on board the Greenpeace ship the Arctic Sunrise, which has been checking the ice conditions in the Arctic archipelago of Spitsbergen. From the ship, she told DW the ice conditions were “catastrophic and way outside of normal variations.” She reported hardly any of the fjords on the west coast were frozen over and there was generally less ice on the east coast.

“On the east coast, there is no solid, stable ice, frozen through like it normally is. The ice there is moving a lot, it has often broken apart and been blown together again by the wind, so it’s not reliable.”

She said local residents were experiencing transport problems, with many of the usual routes inaccessible by dog sled or snow mobile.

“We sailed north along the west coast, then east along the north coast to the Hinlopen strait, and we didn’t encounter any large stretches of ice masses anywhere on route. Normally, there is so much ice up there in winter that the route is only navigable from June or July.”

Beumer said most of the ice is fresh, one-year ice, with open water in between and a lot of breaks in it.

On thin ice

AWI scientist Marcel Nicolaus says new ice only formed very slowly in many regions of the Arctic, on account of the particularly warm winter.

“If we compare the ice thickness map of the previous winter with that of 2012, we can see that the current ice conditions are similar to those of the spring of 2012 – in some places, the ice is even thinner,” he told journalists at the Vienna Geosciences meeting.

Nicolaus and his colleague Stefan Hendricks evaluated the sea ice thickness measurements taken over the past five winters by the CryoSat-2 satellite for their sea ice projection. They also used data from seven autonomous snow buoys, which they placed on ice floes last autumn. These measure the thickness of the snow cover on top of the sea ice, the air temperature and air pressure. A comparison of their temperature data with AWI long-term measurements taken on Spitsbergen has shown that the temperature in the central Arctic in February 2016 exceeded average temperatures by up to 8 degrees Celsius.

Breaking ice records

In previously ice-rich areas such as the Beaufort Gyre off the Alaskan coast or the region south of Spitsbergen, the sea ice is considerably thinner now than it normally is during the spring. “While the land- fast ice north of Alaska usually has a thickness of 1.5 meters, our US colleagues are currently reporting measurements of less than one meter. Such thin ice will not survive the summer sun for long,” Stefan Hendricks said.

The scientists say all the available evidence suggests that the overall volume of the Arctic sea ice will decrease considerably over the course of the coming summer. They suspect the extent of the ice loss could be great enough to undo all growth recorded over the relatively cold winters of 2013 and 2014. “If the weather conditions turn out to be unfavorable, we might even be facing a new record low,” Hendricks concluded.

 

Senator Says He May Back Bill Exposing Saudis to 9/11 Lawsuits

April 19, 2016

by Mark Mazzetti and Jennifer Steinhauer

New York Times

WASHINGTON — A bill opposed by the Obama administration that would expose Saudi Arabia to legal jeopardy for any role in the Sept. 11 attacks appeared to gain momentum on Tuesday when the senator holding it up said he would be open to supporting it.

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said in an interview on Tuesday that he would drop his opposition to the bill — predicting it could pass the Senate next week — if the sponsors of the legislation agreed to changes that he believed were important to protect American interests abroad. He did not specify what changes he was requesting.

“The goal is to bring people to justice who have been involved in terrorism,” Mr. Graham said. But he added, “I don’t want Americans to be held liable because of one bad actor in some embassy somewhere.”

Mr. Graham was an original co-sponsor of the bill, but has tried to block the legislation in recent days as his concerns grew about possible unintended consequences.

Obama administration officials have been vigorously lobbying against the Sept. 11 bill, which has broad bipartisan support, arguing that Americans overseas could be put in legal jeopardy if other nations were to retaliate and strip them of immunity in foreign courts. But the measure is gaining support in Congress at a time when many lawmakers are demanding greater scrutiny of Washington’s alliance with the kingdom, which for decades has been a cornerstone of American foreign policy in the Middle East and once the subject of little examination on Capitol Hill.

“Very bluntly, they no longer have us in an energy straight jacket,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, referring to growing domestic oil production that has made the United States less reliant on the Saudis. He added that the American government now knows more about Saudi Arabia’s historical funding of extremist groups and that “Americans are also increasingly concerned about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.”

President Obama arrives in Riyadh on Wednesday for meetings with King Salman and other top Saudi officials. It is not known whether the legislation will be discussed during those talks. The president has said he will veto the bill in its current form.

In an interview with CBS News on Monday, he said, “If we open up the possibility that individuals and the United States can routinely start suing other governments, then we are also opening up the United States to being continually sued by individuals in other countries.”

In an unusual alliance, some Republicans, even those fiercely critical of the administration’s policies in the Middle East, seemed to agree with the White House on the legislation. On Tuesday, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, declined to give his full support of the bill, saying he would need to study the measure more carefully.

“The pushback on that is coming from the Republicans,” said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the minority leader.

But support from other Republicans and many Democrats seems to be giving the bill momentum.

“Certainly they have been a partner in many ways and that has been longstanding,” said Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “On the other hand we understand that the whole Wahhabi effort emanated from there and that alone is an issue,” he said, referring to the radical strain of Islam practiced in the kingdom.

But prospects for the bill are more uncertain in the House. In a news conference on Tuesday, Speaker Paul D. Ryan, who recently visited Saudi Arabia, said he would review the bill but needed to make sure “we’re not making mistakes with our allies.”

The Saudi government, which has long denied any involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks, has warned that it might liquidate hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets if the bill becomes law. Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, told lawmakers and Obama administration officials during a visit to Washington last month that such a move could be necessary to avoid the assets being frozen in court cases brought by families of Sept. 11 victims.

Those cases, some of which have tried to hold members of the Saudi royal family and Saudi charities liable for what the plaintiffs allege was financial support for terrorism, have been largely stymied because of a 1976 law that gives foreign nations broad immunity from American lawsuits. The current legislation would amend the law, allowing for nations to be sued in American courts if they are found to have played any role in terrorist attacks that killed Americans on home soil.

There is little question that relations with Saudi Arabia have frayed in recent years, in part because of a perception in Riyadh that the Obama administration has abandoned its traditional allies in the Middle East. But some experts said that the irony of the growing anti-Saudi sentiment in Congress is that the Saudi government in recent years has scaled back its support for extremist groups in the Middle East.

Ilan Goldenberg, a fellow at the Center for New American Security and a former State Department official, said that in Syria in particular the Saudis have been more disciplined than other nations — most notably Qatar and Turkey — about giving arms to militant rebel groups like the Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.

Still, Mr. Goldenberg said, Wahhabism is a bedrock of Saudi society and the kingdom is never likely to abandon it. “It’s like trying to get Pakistan to change its position on India,” he said. “No amount of American scrutiny is going to change that.”

Emmarie Huetteman contributed reporting.

 

In riposte to Riyadh, Russia says ready to ramp up oil output

April 20, 2016

by Olesya Astakhova, Denis Pinchuk and Dmitry Zhdannikov

Reuters

MOSCOW-Russia said on Wednesday it was prepared to push oil production to historic highs, just days after a global deal to freeze output levels collapsed and Saudi Arabia threatened to flood markets with more crude.

Venezuela predicted prices could crash in the next few weeks if producers failed to resume dialogue and urged that non-OPEC participants be observers at a June OPEC meeting, as the specter of oversupply loomed once more.

OPEC member Venezuela and top non-OPEC producer Russia had been the main proponents of the output freeze deal, in the making since February, until it collapsed on Sunday in Doha after Riyadh said it would not sign unless Iran took part.

The deal had been meant to help the market rebalance by removing a large chunk of oversupply and a stockpile glut.

But Saudi Arabia said it could jack up output instead – by as much as 2 million barrels a day to over 12 million, which would allow it to overtake Russia as the world’s largest producer.

“They (Saudis) have the ability to raise output significantly. But so do we,” Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told journalists on the sidelines of an international energy conference in Moscow.

He said Russia was “in theory” able to raise production to 12 million or even 13 million bpd from current record levels of close to 11 million bpd.

Russian oil output has repeatedly surprised on the upside over the past decade, rising from as low as 6 million bpd at the turn of the millennium. Oil experts have repeatedly predicted an unavoidable decline but it has yet to happen.

Oil prices crashed to below $30 per barrel in January from as high as $115 in mid-2014 after Saudi Arabia decided to raise output to drive higher-cost producers such as the United States out of the market.

The kingdom, OPEC’s de facto leader and the world’s top exporter, has been pumping unprecedented volumes above 10 million bpd for a year.

Saudi Arabia says it has enough spare capacity to push output to more than 12 million bpd. It has never tested such levels, however, hence the market has little insight about its ability to do so.

“Of course they (Saudis) can increase output. They have been steeply raising drilling volumes recently,” said Lukoil Chief Executive Vagit Alekperov, whose firm has been drilling for gas in Saudi Arabia.

Adding to the glut, Iran said it was determined to raise output to regain market share after the lifting of Western sanctions on the Islamic Republic in January.

NEW PRICE CRASH

Alekperov said Russia’s government needed to approve new legislation to ease the tax burden on mature fields in Western Siberia and encourage exploration of other regions, otherwise raising production would be impossible.

“Our industry is at a very mature stage of development. We haven’t launched a single new oil province since the end of the Soviet Union except for Northern Caspian,” Alekperov told a panel with Novak.

Saudi Arabia has one of the lowest costs of oil extraction and its oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, has long argued that Russian output would soon fall because of ageing fields.

Alekperov said he believed oil prices had bottomed and should hover at around $50 a barrel this year, rising from 2017, because of a looming deficit as investment in crude production had fallen too steeply and too fast.

But Venezuelan Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino said prices could crash and that discussions needed to restart.

The country’s proposal “for now” is that non-OPEC producers who participated in the Doha meeting attend a June OPEC meeting as observers.

“And we can renew discussions,” Del Pino told Reuters. “I anticipate that, without a deal, prices from now to OPEC will drop and it’s not the same to sit down at the table with Brent at $43 per barrel as it is when it’s below $30.”

“We are close to 90 percent of inventory levels already. … We could see a steep fall in oil prices in the next few weeks,” Del Pino told the same panel with Novak.

With global supply still exceeding demand by 1.5 million to 2 million bpd, producers in and outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have no other option but to resume dialogue, Del Pino said.

Novak said he was unsure whether OPEC could reach a consensus before its next meeting in about six weeks’ time. “This is a hard task which the countries undertook – to agree by June”.

(Additional reporting by Alexandra Ulmer in Caracas; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Dale Hudson and Peter Cooney)

 

The Armenian Holocaust: the deportation and murder of Armenians by the Young Turks government in 1915-1916.

by Harry Brunser

 

From 1915 to 1920, more than a million Armenians died as the result of Turkish executions, massacres, starvation, and other repressive measures officially instituted by the Turkish government, and many fled to the United States and other countries.

The most recent move by the Turkish government concerning this enormous holocaust, was for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the head of the main opposition party Deniz Baykal to hold a press conference in March 2005 inviting Armenian historians to meet with historians from Turkey to find out what happened, and called on Armenia to open its archives. This was met with a response from the Armenian Foreign minister that the world already knew what happened, and that Armenia’s archives were always open.

Turkey has never established diplomatic relations with Armenia and has closed its land borders with Armenia. Armenia has declared repeatedly it is ready for relations and an open border without preconditions but denied to withdraw its own troops from occupied Azerbeidzan. Turkey claims that it would support the occupation of Nagorno-Karabagh by opening his borders.

Before World War I, the Ottoman Empire came under the Young Turks government. At first some Armenian political organizations supported the Young Turks in hopes that there would be a real change from Abdul Hamid‘s policies towards the Armenian population. There were Armenians elected to the Ottoman Parliament, where some remained throughout the ensuing world war. However they were later to be disappointed. Other parliamentarians such as Muradyan and Garo would go on to lead Armenian rebels in ethnic cleansing campaigns against Muslim and Jewish Ottoman villagers. The Young Turks feared the Armenian community, which they had believed was more sympathetic to allied powers (specifically Russia) than to the Ottoman Empire.

In 1914 Ottomans passed a new law that required all adult males up to age 45, to either be recruited in the Ottoman army or pay special fees in order to be excluded from service. Most of the Armenian recruits were later turned into road laborers and the executed. Those who escaped joined the Russians on the east.

In early 1915, simultaneously with a disastrous Ottoman defeat at the hands of Russia at Sarikamish, with the loss of over 80% of a huge military force, battalions of Russian Armenians organized the recruiting of Turkish Armenians from behind the Turkish lines. In response the Young Turk government executed 300 Armenian nationalist intellectuals, although a partisan source as Peter Balakian’s “The Burning Tigris” tells us most were imprisoned and there were even survivors. The fact that most Armenian men were also butchered in the army and many influential figures arrested and killed, places a question mark over certain arguments that Armenians organized revolts and that there was a civil war, given that Armenians were outnumbered, outmanned and outgunned. On the other hand, there were articles in the New York Times as early as November 7, 1914, days after Russia had declared war, attesting to Armenian uprisings (“ARMENIANS FIGHTING TURKS — Besieging Van—Others operating in Turkish Army’s Rear”), and accounts from Armenians themselves, such as Boghos Nubar’s 1919 letter in the Times of London stressing Armenian belligerence. In addition, there is evidence of Russian financial support, testimony from even those such as Ambassador Henry Morgenthau to the effect of “…In the early part of 1915… every Turkish city contained thousands of Armenians who had been trained as soldiers and who were supplied with rifles, pistols, and other weapons of defense,” and even accounts from Armenian newspapers hailing the rebellion. Chronology here is important and not incontestably established.

After the recruitment of most men and the arrests of certain intellectuals, widespread massacres were taking place throughout Ottoman Empire. In desperate attempts at survival, upon hearing of massacres of nearby villages, Armenians in Musa Dagh and Van organized their self-defense. In Van, they handed over control of the city to advancing Russians.

After waves of massacres and counter massacres, the Ottoman government ordered the deportation of over 1 million Armenians living in Anatolia to Syria and Mesopotamia though this figure has not been conclusively established. Indeed, there is another consensus this number did not exceed 700,000, and Arnold Toynbee reported in his Wellington House (British propaganda division) report of “The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire” that 500,000 were alive in 1916.

Although the word deportation seems pretty innocent (some would prefer the word “relocation,” as the former means banishment outside a country’s borders; Japanese-Americans, for example, were not “deported” during WWII), things were not, because the deportations themselves were a silent method of mass execution that led to the death of many of the Armenian population, by forcing them to march endlessly through desert, without food or water or enough protection from local Kurdish or Turkish bandits.

In the process several hundred thousand died in the resulting death marches from starvation, dehydration, disease or exhaustion. Several hundred thousands more were massacred by Kurdish militia and Ottoman gendarmes (while other gendarmes gave up their lives defending the Armenians), giving an estimated total under certain counts of 1,500,000 Armenians dead.

Then again, the Armenians contend one million survived, and even the Patriarch Ormanian provided a pre-war population figure of 1,579,000.

Mr. Hovhannes Katchaznouni, first Prime Minister of the Independent Armenian Republic, describes this part of history as follows in his 1923 Manifesto: “At the beginning of the fall of 1914 when Turkey had not yet entered the war but already been making preparations, Armenian revolutionary bands began to be formed in Transcaucasia with great enthusiasm and especially with much uproar… The Armenian Revolutionary Federation had active participation in the formation of the bands and their future military action against Turkey… In the fall of 1914 Armenian volunteer band organized themselves and fought against the Turks because they could not refrain themselves from fighting. This was an inevitable result of psychology on which the Armenian people had nourished itself during an entire generation; that mentality should have found its expression and did so….The Winter of 1914 and spring of 1915 were the periods of greatest enthusiasm and hope for all Armenians in the Caucasus including of course the Dashnaktsutiun. We had no doubt the war would end with the complete victory of the Allies; Turkey would be defeated and dismembered and its Armenian population would be liberated. We had embraced Russia wholeheartedly without any compunction. Without any positive basis of fact we believed that the Tzarist government would grant us a more-or-less broad self-government in the Caucasus and in the Armenian vilayets liberated from Turkey as a reward for our loyalty, our efforts and assistance. ”

  • Statistics of the Second Massacre

In 1896 the Ottoman government recorded 1,144,000 Armenians living in Anatolia. Professor Justin McCarthy, U.S. historian and expert in Ottoman history, estimated that there were 1,500,000 Armenians in Anatolia in 1912. According to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, there were between 1,845,000 and 2,100,000 Armenians in Anatolia in 1914. Estimates range from 1,000,000 given by some Turkish sources to more than 3,500,000 given by some Armenian sources. Arnold J. Toynbee, who served as an intelligence officer during World War I, estimates there were 1,800,000 Armenians living in Anatolia in 1914. The Encyclopedia Britannica took 1,750,000 Armenians living in Anatolia as their estimate, in certain later editions. In 1911, the encyclopedia had figured 1.1 million, and Toynbee estimated less than one million in his 1915 book, “Nationalism and the War,” before his services were enlisted in Wellington House.

 

Primary Documents: Talaat Pasha’s Official Orders Regarding the Armenian Massacres, March 1915-January 1916 Updated – Saturday, 27 September, 2003

Reproduced below are official telegrams dispatched by Turkish Minister of the Interior, Talaat Pasha, authorizing ongoing massacres of Armenians from March 1915 onwards.  All were signed by Talaat himself other than the first.  The first telegram is signed by the “Djemiet”, i.e. the executive committee of the ‘Young Turk’ organization; given that Talaat was himself chairman of the organization the telegram was necessarily issued with his authorization.

 

Talaat Pasha’s Official Orders Regarding the Armenian Massacres, March 1915-January 1916

March 25th, 1915

To Djemal Bey, Delegate at Adana:

The duty of everyone is to effect on the broadest lines possible the realization of the noble project of wiping out of existence the well-known elements who for centuries have been the barrier to the empire’s progress in civilization.

We must, therefore, take upon ourselves the entire responsibility, pledging ourselves to this action no matter what happens, and always remembering how great is the sacrifice which the Government has made in entering the World War.  We must work so that the means used may lead to the desired end.

In our dispatch dated February 18th, we announced that the Djemiet has decided to uproot and annihilate the different forces which for centuries have been a hindrance; for this purpose it is forced to resort to very bloody methods.  Certainly the contemplation of these methods horrified us, but the Djemiet saw no other way of insuring the stability of its work.

Ali Riza [Note: the committee delegate at Aleppo] harshly criticized us and urged that we be merciful; such simplicity is nothing short of stupidity.  We will find a place for all those who will not cooperate with us, a place that will wring their delicate heartstrings.

Again let me remind you of the question of property left.  This is very important.  Watch its distribution with vigilance; always examine the accounts and the use made of the proceeds.

THE DJEMIET

September 3rd, 1915

To the Prefecture of Aleppo:

We advise that you include the woman and children also in the orders which have been previously prescribed as to be applied to the males of the intended persons.  Select employees of confidence for these duties.

Minister of the Interior,

TALAAT.

September 16th, 1915

To the Prefecture of Aleppo:

You have already been advised that the Government, by order of the Djemiet, has decided to destroy completely all the indicated persons [Armenians] living in Turkey.

All who oppose this decision and command cannot remain on the official staff of the empire.

Their existence must come to an end, however tragic the means may be; and no regard must be paid to either age or sex, or to conscientious scruples.

Minister of the Interior,

TALAAT.

November 18th, 1915

To the Prefecture of Aleppo:

It appears, from the interventions which have recently been made by the American Ambassador [Note: Mr. Morgenthau] at Constantinople on behalf of his Government, that the American Consuls are obtaining information by some secret means.  They remain unconvinced, despite our assurance that the deportations will be accomplished in safety and comfort.

Be careful that events which attract attention shall not occur in connection with those who are near cities and other centers.  In view of our present policy, it is most important that foreigners who are in those parts shall be convinced that the expulsion of the Armenians is in reality only deportation.

Therefore it is necessary that a show of gentle dealing shall be made for a while, and the usual measures be taken in suitable places.

All persons who have given information to the contrary shall be arrested and handed over to the military authorities for trial by court-martial.  This order is recommended as very important.

TALAAT.

December 11th, 1915

To the Prefecture of Aleppo:

We are informed that some correspondents of Armenian journals are acquiring photographs and letters which depict tragic events, and these they give to the American Consul at Aleppo.

Dangerous people of this kind must be arrested and suppressed.

Minister of the Interior, TALAAT.

December 29th, 1915

To the Prefecture of Aleppo:

We are informed that foreign officers are finding along the roads the corpses of the indicated persons, and are photographing them.

Have these corpses buried at once and do not allow them to be left near the roads.

This order is recommended as very important.

Minister of the Interior, TALAAT.

January 15th, 1916

To the Government of Aleppo:

We are informed that certain orphanages which have opened also admitted the children of the Armenians.

Should this be done through ignorance of our real purpose, or because of contempt of it, the Government will view the feeding of such children or any effort to prolong their lives as an act completely opposite to its purpose, since it regards the survival of these children as detrimental.

I recommend the orphanages not to receive such children; and no attempts are to be made to establish special orphanages for them.

Minister of the Interior, TALAAT.

(Undated.)

From the Ministry of the Interior to the Governor of Aleppo:

Only those orphans who cannot remember the terrors to which their parents have been subjected must be collected and kept.

Send the rest away with the caravans.

Minister of the Interior, TALAAT.

Source: Source Records of the Great War, Vol. III, ed. Charles F. Horne, National Alumni 1923

 

On April 24, 1915, Talaat Pasha issued an order to close all Armenian political organizations operating within the Ottoman Empire and arrest Armenians connected to them, justifying the action by stating that the organizations were controlled from outside the empire, were inciting upheavals behind the Ottoman lines, and were cooperating with Russian forces. This order resulted in the arrest on the night of 24/25 April 1915 of 235 to 270 Armenian community leaders in Istanbul, including politicians, clergymen, physicians, authors, journalists, lawyers, and teachers. Although the mass killings of Armenian civilians had begun in the Van vilayet several weeks earlier, these mass-arrests in Istanbul are considered by many commentators to be the start of the Armenian Genocide.

Talaat also issued the order for the Tehcir Law of 1 June 1915 to 8 February 1916 that allowed for the mass-deportation of Armenians, a principal vehicle of the Armenian Genocide.

Talaat, as minister of the interior, bears much of the responsibility for the deportation of the Armenians from the empire’s eastern provinces to Syria. Most historians blame him for the barbarity of the operation and the extermination of over a million Christian subjects of the Ottoman Empire, including Assyrians, Greeks and the Armenians. In 1915 in a conversation with German Embassy representative Dr. Mordtmann, he stated his aims of annihilating the Christians of Turkey under the cover of World War 1:

“Turkey is taking advantage of the war in order to thoroughly liquidate its internal foes, i.e., the indigenous Christians, without being thereby disturbed by foreign intervention.”

Although Talaat was the minister of the interior, many historians argue that Enver Pasha deserves equal blame for the extermination of the Armenians.

Talaat is reported to have said the following to Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Sr. as recorded in Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story

“I have accomplished more toward solving the Armenian problem in three months than Abdulhamid II accomplished in thirty years!”

Turkish feminist Halide Edip, writing in her memoirs, captured a defiant reaction from Talaat Pasha when she probed him on the deportations and extermination. He allegedly told her that he was of the conviction that as long as a nation does what’s best for its own interests and succeeds, the world admires it.

Assassination of Talaat Pasha, 1921

Before the 1921 assassination of Talaat Bey, the British intelligence services identified Talaat in Stockholm where he had gone for a few days. The British intelligence first planned to apprehend him in Berlin where he was planning to return, but then changed its mind because it feared the complications this would create in Germany.

Another view in British intelligence was that Talaat should be apprehended by the Royal Navy at sea while returning from Scandinavia by ship. In the end, it was decided to let him return to Berlin, find out what he was trying to accomplish with his activities abroad, and to establish direct contact with him before giving the final verdict. This was achieved with the help of Aubrey Herbert.

The British intelligence service established contact with its counterpart in the Soviet Union to evaluate the situation. Talaat Pasha’s plans made the Russian officials as anxious as the British. The two intelligence services collaborated and signed between them the ‘death warrant’ of Talaat. Information concerning his physical description and his whereabouts was forwarded to their men in Germany.

It was decided that Armenian revolutionaries carry out the verdict. Talaat was assassinated with a single shot on March 15, 1921 as he came out of his house in Hardenbergstrasse, Charlottenburg. His assassin was an Armenian Revolutionary Federation member from Erzurum named Soghomon Tehlirian. Soghomon Tehlirian admitted committing the shooting, but after a cursory two-day trial, he was found innocent by a German court on grounds of temporary insanity because of the traumatic experience he had gone through during the genocide.

Talaat Pasha and Enver Pasha are widely considered the main authors of the Armenian Genocide by historians.

Within modern Turkey, criticism has also focused on Talaat and the rest of the three Pashas for causing the Ottoman Empire’s entry into World War I and its subsequent partitioning by the Allies. Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk widely criticized Talaat Pasha and his colleagues for their policies during and immediately prior to the First World War.

Timeline for Murder

1914– beginning of 1915

The Armenian Patriarchate in Constantinople estimates the Armenian population in Turkey at 2,100,000. World War I begins July 1914. Loyally, the Armenians participate in the war effort. Mobilization of the entire population, including Armenians, is decreed and the Armenians of Turkey take part in the war on the Caucasian and Western fronts. Immediately preceding the war, the Armenian population is neutral because a number of Armenians in Russia is mobilized on the Russian side, and a natural desire to avoid a fratricidal war. Some Armenian presence in the Russian Army will become an argument used by the Turkish authorities in their attempt to justify the measures they took later to destroy the Armenian people.

1915         January: Enver is disastrously defeated in Sarikamish at the hands of Russian troops, marking a failure of his Pan-Turanian plans. The Turkish authorities decree the demobilization and disarmament of the Armenians. The Armenians are grouped into small work battalions used for garbage details and similar tasks. The Armenian soldiers in the Turkish army, under the pretext of work details, are marched and killed in cold blood or used for target practice

1915         January 13: A.F. Kerensky, a member of the National Council of Russia and later briefly to be the leader of Russia, in a report, describes the astounding plight of Armenian refugees. He declares that when the Turkish attacks on Russian territory began, rivers of Armenian refugees stretched to the North… “That was not an escape, it was the great demise of a whole nation”.

1915          February 26: War Minister Enver convenes 75 top ranking Ittihadists. This secret meeting finalizes the details of the plan to carry out a holocaust of the Armenians. Evidence indicates that the decision to carry out the holocaust was made some years earlier.

1915         April 8: The process of removing the Armenian population of Zeitun commences. Taking advantage of the defense staged by a group of young Armenians, the Turkish army invades Zeitun, with the assistance of local Turks, to re-establish control. The mass deportation and massacres of Armenian inhabitants of the entire region is immediately organized. This mountainous region had always preserved a quasi-autonomy.

1915         April 15: Talaat, Enver and Nazem send a secret order to the local governments for the removal and extermination of Armenians in Turkey.

1915         April 15-18 While the Armenian population of Van is fleeing to Russia because of the evacuation of the Russian army, the Turkish forces attack villages of the vilayet. They destroy 80 villages and slay 24,000 Armenians in the vilayet and city of Van. The Turks accuse the Armenians of collaboration with the Russian troops.

1915         April 20: At the news of the massacres, the mostly Armenian population of Van takes to the barricades. The Turkish authorities will also use this incident on the Caucasian front and the resistance of the Armenians as a pretext to justify the measures of deportation (and massacre) they are about to inflict.

1915         April 24: 800 Armenian leaders, writers and intellectuals are arrested in Constantinople and murdered. The barbaric Armenian holocaust begins. This is a most important date for all Armenians today. It represents the date for commemorating the Armenian Holocaust each year throughout the world.

1915         April 27-30: The forced removal and deportation of Dyurt Yol’s Armenian population begins.

1915         May 16: Law of May 16, 1915 is enacted with “instructions pertaining to property and real estate abandoned by the deported Armenians, consequences of the war and unusual political circumstances”. This law provides for the installation of Turkish refugees in the homes and on the lands belonging to the Armenians.

1915         May 24: The governments of England, France and Russia jointly warn the Turkish government publicly that “They will hold personally responsible… all members of the Ottoman government and those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres”. This is the first time in the international arena three large countries publicly characterize the Turkish actions against Armenians as crimes against “humanity and civilization” for which “personal responsibility is laid on every member of the Turkish government who participated in the carnages”. The communique of the Allied Powers of the Entente, published by the Havas news agency, accuses the Ottoman Turkish government directly for the massacres against the Armenian population.

1915         May 27: The law of May 27, 1915 is enacted concerning the “displacement of suspected persons.” This law empowers army officers to relocate populations upon the simple suspicion of treason or for military reasons

1915         June 1: 12,000 Armenian soldiers in the Turkish army are massacred in Balu, vilayet of Diarbekir.

1915         June 10: A supplementary law is enacted regarding reporting property of deportees. See entry under September 26 as to supplementary law adopted September 26, 1915.

1915         June 12 – July 3: Turkish armies slay or remove Armenians of Shapin Garahisar, who tried to defend themselves.

1915         June 15: 21 leaders of the Hnchukyan Party are hanged publicly in Constantinople.

1915         June 24: Massacres and deportations of the inhabitants of Shabin Karahissar begin.

1915         June 25: The removal and deportation of the Armenians of the city of Sivas begin.

1915         June 26: The removal of the Armenian population of Kharput and Trebizond vilayets are commenced by the Turkish army. Photocopy of the original deportation order (written in old Turkish with Arabic characters) is to be found in the Archives of the United States State Department in Washington, DC.

1915         June 27: Mass removals and deportations of Armenians begin in Samsun.

1915         July 1 Assyrians and Armenians are deported from Medzpin (Nisibe), Tel-Ermen (Hill of the Armenians), Bitlis, vilayet of Bitlis, Mardin and surrounding regions.

1915         July 3: The massacre begins of the Armenian population of Mush, Sassun and Bitlis vilayets begins.

1915         July 10: The Armenian population of Malatia is deported.

1915         July 13: Self-defense of Musa mountain begins. The heroic band of Armenians is later vividly depicted in the best-selling novel “Forty Days of Musa Dagh” by Franz Werfel.

1915         July 27: The Armenian population of Cilicia and Antioch is deported.

1915         July 28: The removal of the Armenian population of the Cilician cities, Aintab and Qilise, is carried out. In Great Britain’s House of Lords, in answer to Viscount James Bryce’s question concerning the slaughter of Christians in Armenia, the president of the Military Council, Lord Grew declares that the information received by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows that the Turkish crimes are increasing both in numbers and in violence. Lord Grew declares that “all those mass carnages and violent removals are engaged under the pretext of forced transmigration”.

1915         July 29: Deportations begin from Aintab and Kilisse, in Cilicia.

1915         July 30: Deportations begin from Suedia, in Cilicia.

1915         August 16: Deportations begin from Marash in Cilicia and Konia in western Asia Minor.

1915         August 10- 19: Removal and deportations begin of Armenians from Smyrna (Nikodemia), Brusa, Bartizak, Adabazar and surrounding areas.

1915         August 19: Removal and deportation begin of Armenian population of Urfa in Yedesia.

1915         September 15: Turkey’s Minister of Interior, Talaat Pasha, cables to the Aleppo Prefecture the confirmation of the previously transmitted order for removal of Armenians and their final elimination. The original of this cable is reproduced in the book of A. Andonian “The Memoirs of Naim Bey (The Holocaust of the Armenians by the Turks). With a New Preface by the Armenian Historical Association”, Documentary Series, Vol. I, Great Britain, Reprint 1964, 83 pp. Exhibit No. 3 at the trial of Soghomon Tehlirian, authenticated by the German Court. (At a trial before a Berlin court in 1921, following the assassination of Talaat by Tehlirian, Tehlirian was acquitted by the Court because of the circumstances.)

1915         September 15: Rashid, Governor of Diarbekir, sends cable to Talaat, the Minister of the Interior, announcing that the number of Armenians “expelled” from Diarbekir has reached 120,000.

1915         December 12: Talaat, Minister of the Interior, sends a telegram to the Prefecture of Aleppo. He states that in view of the rather compassionate attitude of certain valis with respect to orphans, the order is given that the orphans be sent away with the caravans, with the exception of the very young ones unable to remember the atrocities. The original cable is reproduced in said Andonian’s book “The Memoirs of Naim Bey (The Holocaust of the Armenians by the Turks)”.

1916         February 9: In the Russian Duma, Minister of Foreign Affairs S.D. Sazonov declares “I have mentioned before about the awful sufferings of that wretched race. Under the tacit assent of its ally, Germany, the Turks hoped to bring alive their desire to exterminate the entire Armenian race…”

1916         March 7: Talaat, Minister of the Interior, sends a cable to the Aleppo Prefecture, ordering the extermination of all children at military installations.

1916         August 19: Decree abolishes the national Armenian constitution of 1863, in violation of Article 61 of the Treaty of Berlin concerning religious freedom.

    • BIBLIOGRAPHY
  • Armenia 1914-1918: A Collection of Diplomatic Documents. Potsdam, Germany: Tempelverlag, n.d. 541 pp.
  • Armenian Holocaust Resource Guide. Washington, D.C.: Armenian Assembly of America, 1988. 56 pp.
  • Germany, Turkey, and Armenia: A Selection of Documentary Evidence Relating to the Armenian Atrocities from German and Other Sources. London: J.J. Keliher & Co., 1917. 128 pp.
  • Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States: 1915 Supplement: The World War. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1928.

 

 

America as a Terrorist Target

by Harry von Johnston PhD

 

When Syrian Palmyra was liberated from the fanatic Sunni Moslem ISIS people, a Russian GRU unit searched for, and found, a considerable number of ISIS documents that were most revealing and informative. One set of documents set forth a series of targets in the United States that ISIS is planning to attack. It is a long list so it is my intention to publish various segments of this particular document for the edification of the public.

Other documents cover European targets and will be published in their own good time.

One of the plans would be to release BW material near water reservoirs and another would be to put Claymore mines in suitcases on crowded bus, rail or airport locations. Their remote-controlled explosions would spray deadly shrapnel into the crowds.

Penetration of the United States would not be difficult. Both the Canadian and Mexican borders are very porous and the sea coasts are virtually without any observation or protection from small boats, fishing craft or commercial shipping.

  • In the state of Virginia we have Langley, the headquarters of the widely-diversified CIA. But at the same time there is the mid-state of Charlottesville that contains a number of intelligence agencies and an area slated to be occupied by top level US military personnel with the Washington-based Pentagon moves in toto to that area.
  • And in the state of Arizona we have the southern town of Sierra Vista and the neighboring Ft. Huachuca. The city is home to many American and foreign intelligence personnel and the Army base is the Southwest intelligence and radio interception center.
  • In Utah, a specific target is the Tabernacle Square in Salt Lake City, a Mormon religious center. Here, personnel bombs should, the documents say, be placed and detonated after Sunday services.
  • And in Skokie, Illinois, a target is Bnai Emunah Synagogue because Hillary Clinton’s Jewish family are members.

And also in Illinois, another target would be the main terminal at O’Hare International Airport, preferably during the major holiday seasons of Thanksgiving or Christmas. Again, personnel bombs are recommended for maximum damage.

  • In San Francisco, California, placing two bombs on a BART train headed for Oakland. These should be timed to explode when the train is under the San Francisco Bay, thus destroying the tunnel roof and flooding the system.
  • In Miami, Florida, putting a large quantity of plastic explosive in a trunk, purchasing a ticket on a large Caribbean-bound cruise ship and having the trunk placed below decks in storage. The bomb is timed to explode when the heavily-passengered ship is out to sea and at night so its sinking will drown many sleepers.
  • In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, destroying the iconic Liberty Bell. A second bomb, containing shrapnel, can be placed nearby and timed to explode when crowds come to the scene.
  • In Nevada, putting a quantity of BW material into Lake Mead. Las Vegas, usually packed with tourists, drink the water on a regular basis.
  • In Washington, D.C. an explosive device is place inside a tourist elevator in the Washington monument. Radio controlled, it could explode when a crowded elevator is ascending, killing all the occupants and possibly breaking the tower.
  • An atomic device placed in the hold of a Maryland crab boat can be remotely detonated when the boat docks close to the north shore of the Potomac River by Washington. Radioacitve water will cover the area.

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