Beyond The Fringe

The learned Sun Tzu wrote in “The Art of War” more than 2,000 years ago:

One who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be in danger in a hundred battles.

One who does not know the enemy but knows himself will sometimes win, sometimes lose.

One who does not know the enemy and does not know himself will be in danger in every battle.

Over recent years, there has been considerable confusion in the West about what university qualifications Osama Bin Laden actually possesses. A firm knowledge of his various expertises would seem to be of great import if his adversaries wished to benefit from Sun Tzu’s dictums.

In this interview with Robert Fisk in 1996, he says “I am a construction engineer and agriculturalist.” At that time, indeed he was. The interview does not, however, mention his educational qualifications.

Wikipedia is currently ambiguous.

Bin Laden may have studied economics and business administration[16] at the Management and Economics School of King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. Some reports suggest bin Laden earned a degree in civil engineering in 1979,[17] or a degree in public administration in 1981.[18]

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At a two day summit in Riyadh aimed at pushing the Arab peace plan for Israhell and Palestine, in a significant about face, the Sauds have rounded on the incompetent Coalition of the Gobbling warmongers.

Saudi King Abdullah, whose country is a close US ally, slammed Wednesday the “illegitimate foreign occupation” of Iraq in an opening speech to the annual Arab summit in Riyadh.

“In beloved Iraq, blood is being shed among brothers in the shadow of an illegitimate foreign occupation, and ugly sectarianism threatens civil war,” Abdullah said.

He also said that Arab nations, which are planning to revive a five-year-old Middle East peace plan at the summit, would not allow any foreign force to decide the future of the region.

What will be the reaction of the United Stupids to such impudence? The original neocon plan called for the transformation of the middle east using Saudia as a pivot to democratise the region, with Egypt the eventual prize. Saudia is thus throwing a big spanner in the works by projecting its power and biting the hand that feeds it.

Saudi leaders are keen to promote the beleaguered Sunni cause in Iraq, which is presently endangered by overwhelming Shite power, including within the Shite dominated and United Stupids’ backed puppet Iraqi government. The summit is expected to adopt a resolution calling for more power sharing with the former Sunni elite.

The Iraqi government has immediately dug in its heels, telling the Sauds they

did not need a “diktat” from the Arabs on how to amend its constitution and boost national reconciliation.

The Arab League wants to resume negotiations with Israhell, offering normalisation for acceptance of terms including withdrawal of all land occupied in 1967, the creation of a Palestinian state and return of Palestinian refugees.

Despite mutterings from Israeli officials about the Arab plan being a “starting point”, it is likely that rightwing Israhelli zealots who, with the support of Doodoo bush and the Israhelli first lobby, will insist on retaining lands they have stolen through warfare. Acceptance of the right of return of refugees driven from their land in the Nakba catastrophe in 1948 is seen by the Israhelli rightwing, religious nuts and fanatical settler movement as tantamount to destruction of their pariah apartheid state, despite the clear legal basis for such return under international law.

At the summit, Hamas is calling for an end to the western boycott of Palestine and is seeking financial support from the Arab states to the tune of $2.7b.

Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud Al Faisal projected firmness, warning Israhell

not to expect any further diplomatic overtures, telling a British newspaper: “What we have the power to do in the Arab world, we think we have done.”

“If Israel refuses [the plan], that means it doesn’t want peace and it places everything back in the hands of fate. They will be putting their future not in the hands of the peacemakers, but in the hands of the lords of war.”

And that, my friends, will suit the Netanyahooites and religious zealots down to the ground, to the detriment of Israhell’s future security and prosperity.

While IAEA director general,Mohamed ElBaradei, urges concern and caution, warning that an attack of Iran would be catastrophic, the Israhelli warmongers hustle for support for bombing hell out of it. They should be had up for inciting violence, yet get away with their belligerence as usual. The Israhelli lobby is sufficiently strong enough that Republicans crawl to it to woo the Jewish and neotard vote.

In the words of the Prince of Darkness himself:

“Richard Perle, former head of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board and a vocal advocate for military action to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, said voters should expect to hear a lot of hawkish foreign policy speeches from presidential contenders.”They’ll all sound like Romney,” said Perle, now at the American Enterprise Institute. “They’ll all talk tough about Iran.”

The sleazy Olmert, under investigation for corruption and rapidly becoming very unpopular with his electorate, ramps up the idea that Israhell will use any means at its disposal to defend itself against nuclear threat from Iran. Not that there is a existing threat. This is the Iraq WMD propaganda all over again.

Zionism, a noxious, racist form of political tribalism, sucks just as much as the tyrannical Saud oligarchy.

Arab League secretary, Amr Moussa added to IEAE concerns in Davos:

“There is a 50/50 chance the United States will attack Iran and any such strike would risk spreading sectarian violence through the Middle East. It’s a 50/50 proposition, and we hope that it won’t happen. Attacking Iran would be counterproductive.”

Yet if sectarian violence engulfs the Middle East, the Israhelli hawks won’t care - divide and conquer will suit them nicely as while others, further stereotyped as terrorists, battle, the Israhellis will use the cover to grab more land. But the United Stupids will pay for this - oil prices will skyrocket. And their blood will be further spilled to protect the apartheidist land thieves.

One point of view in the above article and another in the Australian was interesting … the Sauds may cooperate with the United Stupids to put a squeeze on the oil price to crash the Iranian economy which is largely dependent on oil. This would also further Saud fundo Sunni schemes to maintain their political control of the region. Thus, if the oil price drops radically, we will know the chances of Iran being attacked have increased.

Of course, when one is also aware that the Saudi dictators have been buying up gold bigtime lately, the story all starts to hang together. It’ll suit them just fine to drive the POO down - gold will follow. Will the United Stupids’ finances be presented in a rosy enough light to enable this in the week to come?

COMMENTS FROM THE OLD HC BLOG:

Fringe:

Here’s the Australian article:

http://tinyurl.com/3xzl5y

A senior British military source said yesterday that the Israelis were serious about the use of military force to stop Iran, and were now engaged in preparing public opinion for such a prospect. “They’re watering the turf. The Iranians are not under enough pressure,” the source said.

Israeli officials who spoke to the Independent this week refused to go into details about the possible catastrophic regional fallout from military strikes, although one source said that if they were restricted to Iran’s Natanz facility where its centrifuges are known to be enriching uranium, “there would be headlines in the papers for two days.”

But any military campaign would provoke retaliation by Iran which is expected to reactivate its Hezbollah allies on the border with Israel, who according to officials here have been rearming with missiles since the end of the summer campaign. The 140,000 American troops inside Iraq could be significant targets of the Iranians. Syria could also be drawn into a wider war, although the Israelis believe that both Syria and Russia would remain on the sidelines.

Other questions concern the Bush administration’s appetite for another war, already bogged down in Iraq and facing calls from the Democrat-led Congress for a phased withdrawal.

And the strength of the Israeli armed forces would be further tested after their flawed campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon. “The IDF are not as good as they think they are,” said the British source. “It’s an army of conscripts, commanded by reserve officers. Do you want to send conscripts into a war for the national interest?”

Some analysts say that in any case, miitary strikes would be counter-productive as they would only delay, and not stop, Iran’s nuclear programme.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2183872.ece

Another thought about the oil price … if the United Stupids are going to double their strategic reserve, it would suit them nicely for the Saud tyrants to drive the POO down to help their disgusting buddies out. The topping up starts in 2 months - coinciding interestingly with the usual dip in POG every year.

The ghastly Woolsey goes even further:

“Woolsey also warned that the United States, Israel, and their allies could face an empowered threat if various extremist factions in the region align. “The Wahhabis, al-Qaida, the Vilayat Faqih in Teheran, although often lethally competitive with one another in the way the Nazis and communists were in the 1930s, are capable of unification,” Woolsey said, according to The Jerusalem Post.”

http://washtimes.com/upi/20070123-020613-4695r.htm

This little snippet in the crazy ape’s SOTU speech has eluded the notice of many, but we think it may put the POG and POO into orbit.

“And so as we continue to diversify our fuel supply, we must step up domestic oil production in environmentally sensitive ways. And to further protect America against severe disruptions to our oil supply, I ask Congress to double the current capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.”

The traitorous twerp wants to double the size of the United Stupids Strategic Reserve - a cool $40b into Saudi dictator pockets. The Saud tyrants will be able to buy a heck of a lot of gold and other loot with that.

Glad we are holding lots of gold stocks - because we are about to hit paydirt bigtime if the idiot chimp gets its way. Will the Dems be blinded by promises on health care, climate change and education and allow this monstrosity to proceed?

US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said on Tuesday that the government “will acquire crude oil in a manner that does not adversely affect the market or raise gasoline prices.” The purchases will begin in about two months using funds from the sale of reserve oil after the hurricanes. The effect on the market will be reassessed a few months after that, he said. “At current market prices, we believe that we can purchase about 11 million barrels of oil over the course of a few months,” Bodman said.”

http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10008796.shtml

POO rose on the news then dropped - currently $54.60, with the USD at $84.60. Gold is climbing in London, but we think it will fall in New York later, led by the falling POO and rising USD. The mad monkey’s report on the economy is next week - maybe *then* the cookie will really start crumbling.

COMMENTS FROM THE OLD HC BLOG:

chimp666:

Oil Shortages & My Pet Unicorn.

http://www.elliottwave.com/ezine/preview_email.aspx?id=261

Fringe:

I agree that it’s mainly psychology driving the markets - if enough people *perceive* that doubling the United Stupids oil reserves is going to impact the POO, then the market will behave as if it actually does, regardless of the true state of supply and demand.

And if enough people *believe* that the United Stupids economy is in the toilet after next week’s figures are released, then they will run to gold.

The zookeepers have let Georgie the ape run rampant again. Instead of learning from his mistakes, the chimp is now compounding them, adding more troops to the raging civil war in Iraq.

And now he is raising the antes and threatening Iran and Syria, wrongly accusing them of fuelling the insurgency and terrorists. When one considers that Bush is supporting the Shiite dominated Iraqi parliament, does he think Iran (Shiites) would really be supplying Sunnis?

One can have no other conclusion except that the chimp is completely insane and this is his last ditch attempt to save his name in history. It won’t work - Iraqis want the United Stupids out.

The zookeepers - the despicable Christian/Zionist/Wahhabi neocons and corporate moguls who manipulate the chimp all have their own variously crazy, selfish greedy interests at heart and not the welfare of American or Middle East citizens.

Perpetual war suits the wealthy - and the Sauds, who have recently invested in much gold, will be most happy to see both their new acquisitions and the price of oil rise with the uncertainty that comes with imperial madness.

The United Stupids kidnapping Iranian diplomats at an Iraqi consulate is a clear provocation and act of war. No reaction much from the Iranians - they know the game being played. Juan Cole’s commentary is interesting.

As we predicted, following the madman’s rant, the POG and oil rose and the USD dropped, and resources rose markedly on Friday to match.

Fortunately we are already stoked to the brim with lovely, cheaply acquired preciouses which should thrive nicely in the coming week. This week we accumulated more THXO. THX is way overdue for an upgrade. Phil Crabbe exercised a stack of options at 47.5 leading us to think that he expects a large premium on that price within the near future. Additionally, THX is not going ahead with its U spinoff which means oppies will now be back in favour. We haven’t converted any of ours, though many may have.

We have also bought into a stunning little company, AWS, which has been refinanced by Westpac to expand with its water device stores across Australia. This could have very significant potential given the timing for water awareness, the company’s recently opened new stores and handsome increases in sales already experienced. A 2006 profit of $1m plus is forecast, which should lead the sp over 10c, making our investment a multibagger in a very short period.

We also acuumulated more of our dead cert, EVZ, which is due some news about more contracts with big companies, and more INL which sp should improve soon with news about zinc concentrate shipments and initial profitability estimates.

An exciting week to come! RRS still hasn’t announced its JV, but news on that should be very soon, with President Muse alluding to foreign mining investment the other day. We expect our holdings in NWR, NWRO, GAU, CTO, CQT, NAV, NAVO, SAU, TRF, TRFO and even BAR to soar.

We’ll take a profit from some of them and buy back later in a couple of months.

Whilst the intrigue of Litvinenko’s poisoning ti-tillates and frightens the British public, the Great Game continues quietly and malevolently elsewhere.

Note that if the Litvinenko affair is an attempt to discredit Putin and to restrict Russia’s power on both negotiations on supply of energy to Europe and sanctions on Iran, this would be an ideal time for Cheney to attempt his coup de grace. Cheney does have connections with Scaramella via the Environmental Crime Prevention Program (ECPP) cum black ops front Washington-based organisation which Scaramella heads.

Ugly it is, but quite credible considering the criminal machinations emanating in the past few years from the Cheney clique. Machiavelli has nothing on Cheney. Divide and conquer and perpetuate eternal war to bolster the only industry keeping the United Stupids afloat financially - armaments.

From : http://www.omidyar.net/group/community-general/news/445/703/

“A well-placed and highly reliable source has provided the following account of Vice President Dick Cheney’s Nov. 25, 2006 visit to Saudi Arabia. The report coincides with other evidence of a scheme to induce the United States to self-destruct. While the source may have missed some elements of the picture emerging from the Cheney visit, the essential details appear to be accurate.

1. The essential message delivered to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah by Vice President Cheney was that there is no basis for dialogue with Iran. The U.S. position in the region has been weakened, and therefore a new security architecture must be established, particularly in the Persian Gulf, to contain and counter Iran’s growing influence. Already, NATO has been in dialogue with Qatar and Kuwait, in pursuit of closer, upgraded cooperation. Cheney proposed to establish a new regional balance of power, through a Sunni Arab alliance with Israel, to confront the Iranian threat. Cheney argued that to negotiate with Iran at this time would be tantamount to surrender. A new military organization will be built, involving the Gulf Cooperation Council states, Egypt, and Jordan. NATO and the United States will be closely involved, and Israel will be a de facto participant. These moves led by Cheney obviously aim to preempt adoption by the Bush Administration of any recommendations from the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group, to initiate diplomatic talks with Iran.

2. Cheney took the lead in proposing this new security architecture. There is, at this point, a consensus inside the Bush Administration to pursue this policy. When President Bush arrives later this week in Amman, Jordan, to meet with Iraq’s Prime Minister Maliki, he may also hold secret talks with several senior Syrian officials. In that meeting, President Bush will bluntly offer Syria the opportunity to break its ties to Iran and join in the emerging Sunni Arab bloc.

3. The approach to Syria coincides with a major effort, within Lebanon, to force Michel Aoun to break his alliance with Hezbollah, in the wake of the assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel. Over the weekend, there was a meeting of leading Maronites, sponsored by Patriarch Sfeir, aimed at tightening the pressure on Aoun to break with Hezbollah, and join a Sunni Arab, Christian, Druze coalition to counter Hezbollah’s power. Were the Syrians to accept the Bush offer (highly unlikely), they would be expected to pressure Hezbollah to disarm, as a condition for negotiations to get the Golan Heights back from Israel.

4. Condi Rice’s planned meeting with Mahmoud Abbas and Ehud Olmert is aimed at kick-starting the Israeli-Palestinian talks. But the key to the Israeli policy will be to complete the construction of the wall, and to build similar walls of separation along the border with Lebanon. The argument is that both Hamas and Hezbollah represent extensions of Iran’s influence into the areas bordering on Israel, and they must be contained. The “peace” offer being put on the table will center on these walls of separation.

5. Iran is already aware of these Cheney-led initiatives. While Arab governments will assume that Iran will react and respond to the attempt to create this Sunni Arab-U.S.-Israel security architecture to confront Iran by playing for sectarian conflict in Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere, sources caution that Iran is taking a more sophisticated view. Recurring statements by President Ahmadinejad are calculated to instigate an Israeli attack on Iran’s purported nuclear weapons sites. Iran anticipates some kind of attack on these sites–either by the United States or Israel. Iran would prefer an Israeli attack for several reasons. First, the U.S. has far more significant military capabilities to strike Iran than Israel does. Second, any Israeli attack on a Muslim country would trigger a revolt on the Arab streets. Iran carefully studied the response of the population throughout the Persian Gulf and Arab world to the Israeli attacks on Lebanon this summer. They anticipate massive Arab support, across the sectarian Shi’ite-Sunni divide, for Iran, in the event of an Israeli strike.”