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Duckbox posted:I think it's about money. Hariri's company holds huge stakes in Saudi oil at a time when the kingdom is apparently strapped for cash. There's a massive Aramco ipo slated for next year and the Kingdom has lowered petro taxes in an apparent attempt to make it more enticing. I'm not a finance guy, so I wasn't following the ins and outs, but many of the people snared in the "corruption" probe were Saudi oil billionaires. Hariri's multi-billion-dollar business entanglements in Saudi make him dangerous to them, but also provide a lot of leverage over him. like you'd want to say "lol watch MBS turn the house of Saud into a steppe kleptocracy" but let's be real the whole dynasty has put the loving Aliyevs to shame.
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Nov 11, 2017 06:32
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In more Turkey news: Ex-Trump aide Mike Flynn 'offered $15m by Turkey for Gulen' That Russian probe thing is the best stupid political point ever in term of collateral damage.
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Nov 11, 2017 09:59
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Squalid posted:This whole Hariri business has me really stumped. I'm not convinced Israel will do anything, and I'm convinced even the most incompetent Saudi strategist couldn't come up with a reason to attack Hezbollah militarily. Whether Hariri was forced or bribed into resigning, there has to be some kind of political strategy at play. What it is I can't figure out, possibly it makes no sense anyway. Maybe the idea was to pressure Hariri into attacking Hezbollah with either his faction or the Lebanese Army? Kick off another civil war in Lebanon. Lebanese do the dying while the Saudi's, Israel and US provide weapons and airstrikes. Trying to take down Hezbollah on the cheap maybe.
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Nov 11, 2017 10:15
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https://twitter.com/wburema/status/929277376684584960
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Nov 11, 2017 11:11
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I actually was in a situation once in which I was six feet away from him for a few seconds, he is as every bit as terrible a person and just a loving malevolent 'Presence' about him as he gives off on television. holy poo poo what a twat that guy was.
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Nov 11, 2017 11:37
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 When will this morally decrepit gently caress keel over and die already
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Nov 11, 2017 11:55
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Tony Blair is probably a lich.
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Nov 11, 2017 14:18
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When I think "societies believing in tolerance", I think "birthplace of salafism", yes. Raif Badawi blogged a good article on Saudi tolerance. Or at least, he would have, I'm sure.
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Nov 11, 2017 15:00
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Digging through the new OPCW reports on Sarin use in Syria turned up something interesting. They state the presence of one chemical, PF6, aka HFP, aka I'm not writing out it's full name, is a chemical marker linking it to Assad's stockpiles, and indicates a sophisticated, industrial, production process. Turns out HFP was also detected in samples from the August 21st 2013 Sarin attacks in Damascus. Russia and Syria both claimed homemade/kitchen Sarin was used (as did Seymour Hersh), but this shows they were lying. Russia also said the Sarin used on August 21st was the same type used in Khan al-Assal, so it looks more and more likely the Syrian government also were responsible for Khan al-Assal: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/men...-sarin-attacks/
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Nov 11, 2017 17:12
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Where in The World is Saad Hariri
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Nov 12, 2017 11:35
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Rigged Death Trap posted:
Seriously, he's making GWB appear sympathetic in comparison
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Nov 12, 2017 18:25
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Wow. Not even an ounce of humanity can be observed from this war criminal.
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Nov 12, 2017 19:34
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What are Blair's war crimes anyway? I was a bit too young to remember him when he was PM.
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Nov 12, 2017 20:40
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Hariri is now on TV saying that he's a free man in Riyadh and that he'll be returning to Lebanon in 2/3 days https://twitter.com/bbcworld/status/929784451508391938 So what the gently caress was all this drama meant to accomplish exactly?!?!
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Nov 12, 2017 20:41
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Al-Saqr posted:Hariri is now on TV saying that he's a free man in Riyadh and that he'll be returning to Lebanon in 2/3 days
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Nov 12, 2017 20:42
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Grouchio posted:What are Blair's war crimes anyway? I was a bit too young to remember him when he was PM. Did you forget when he decided to invade a country and kill hundreds of thousands of people without cause and the behalf of the british petroleum corporation
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Nov 12, 2017 21:12
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Grouchio posted:What are Blair's war crimes anyway? I was a bit too young to remember him when he was PM. Invaded Iraq under false pretences basically. The consequences are still felt to this day, most notably the rise and fall of ISIS
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Nov 12, 2017 21:27
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Loool holy poo poo https://twitter.com/yasminwaqahwa/status/929818190955384832
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Nov 12, 2017 22:24
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there was just an earthquake apparently https://twitter.com/seismo_steve/status/929785771216834561
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Nov 12, 2017 22:27
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He looks and acts like there is a guy with a rifle pointing at him offscreen
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Nov 12, 2017 22:27
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FlamingLiberal posted:He looks and acts like there is a guy with a rifle pointing at him offscreen well. Al-Saqr posted:Loool holy poo poo judging from this, it seems likely.
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Nov 12, 2017 22:52
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Zedsdeadbaby posted:Invaded Iraq under false pretences basically. The consequences are still felt to this day, most notably the rise and fall of ISIS But he was innocent, he was just following God's orders.
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Nov 12, 2017 22:55
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So the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has just kidnaped a foreign head of state and forced him to appear on TV and pretend nothing happened like some kind of Austin Powers skit. This is a thing now.
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Nov 12, 2017 23:06
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Not to go full Godwin here, but the whole kidnapping a head of state thing reminds me of Emil Hácha.
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Nov 12, 2017 23:45
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Throatwarbler posted:So the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has just kidnaped a foreign head of state and forced him to appear on TV and pretend nothing happened like some kind of Austin Powers skit. This is a thing now. I'm still leaning toward blackmail/extortion personally.
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Nov 12, 2017 23:51
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Monty Python makes a surprise return with a dramatic live action presentation of the Milkman sketch, starring Saad Hariri and the boys locked in that closet except theres gaddafi and mubarak and mossadeghs bones
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Nov 13, 2017 00:44
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Dapper_Swindler posted:well. I watched it twice to make sure his eyes weren't just trained on the interviewer - and sure enough he's looking to her right at the dude who appeared. It's hard to not see that he's in distress, regardless, even if the dude is just someone in the production crew. e: Throatwarbler posted:So the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has just kidnaped a foreign head of state and forced him to appear on TV and pretend nothing happened like some kind of Austin Powers skit. This is a thing now. And besides some French claims about sovereignty, I don't think any western powers have said fuckall. I wonder if this had to do with the Israeli embassies lobbying for KSA to have other nations look the other way. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/israel-instructs-diplomats-support-saudis-cable-171110134749905.html Not that I'm surprised but I'm pretty disappointed in Europe/EU. guidoanselmi fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Nov 13, 2017 |
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Nov 13, 2017 00:49
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Dapper_Swindler posted:well. His mannerisms remind me very much of Taliban/ISIS hostage statement videos.
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Nov 13, 2017 01:58
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Bip Roberts posted:Did you forget when he decided to invade a country and kill hundreds of thousands of people without cause and the behalf of the british petroleum corporation
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Nov 13, 2017 03:11
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Between Tony Blair's comments and The Atlantic publishing this article blaming Al-Qaeda on Iran, I'm starting to feel like the ramp up to war with Iran is happening faster and faster, and that our benevolent liberal foreign policy elite might actually be dumb and malevolent enough to start another war to try to keep from losing too much more influence to them https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/11/al-qaeda-iran-cia/545576/
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Nov 13, 2017 03:18
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Grouchio posted:I only ever heard what bullshit Bush was doing. It was a Bush - Blair team. Although the USA did most of the heavy lifting in the war, Britain made a sizable contribution. The US also used Britain to make the international case for war. The US could pretend it had a coalition.
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Nov 13, 2017 03:31
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icantfindaname posted:Between Tony Blair's comments and The Atlantic publishing this article blaming Al-Qaeda on Iran, I'm starting to feel like the ramp up to war with Iran is happening faster and faster, and that our benevolent liberal foreign policy elite might actually be dumb and malevolent enough to start another war to try to keep from losing too much more influence to them Seems a bunch like Saudi Arabia is going to rule a substantially larger chunk of the middle east p. soon from the Harari thing. I feel like it's all going to be carved up again
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Nov 13, 2017 03:51
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Surprise Giraffe posted:Seems a bunch like Saudi Arabia is going to rule a substantially larger chunk of the middle east p. soon from the Harari thing. I feel like it's all going to be carved up again They can’t take Yemen, their proxies lost in Iraq and Syria, and you think they will be more effective than the IDF against Lebanon and Hezbollah?
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Nov 13, 2017 04:24
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Bishounen Bonanza posted:It was a Bush - Blair team. Although the USA did most of the heavy lifting in the war, Britain made a sizable contribution. The US also used Britain to make the international case for war. The US could pretend it had a coalition. ... you forgot poland
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Nov 13, 2017 04:26
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Atlantic has been pretty hawkish on Iran on most pieces I've read there. Maybe that's just Jeff Goldberg.
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Nov 13, 2017 04:28
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David Frum is also a senior editor there. We have him to thank for the 'Axis of Evil' speech. It seems like this whole stupid thing is going to end with US airstrikes on Iran.
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Nov 13, 2017 04:36
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Surprise Giraffe posted:Seems a bunch like Saudi Arabia is going to rule a substantially larger chunk of the middle east p. soon from the Harari thing. I feel like it's all going to be carved up again I think the opposite may be happening. This newfound aggressiveness is really just desperation. Oil's been cheap for a while and it's running out. There's plans in the works to turn assets liquid, like privatizing Aramco and "Vision 2030". There's a lot of unemployed young men. The real world is seeping in on the Wahhabist oil utopia, and time is running out. They want to take on Iran now before they're too weak to be able to. Of course, it could just be random flailings of Mohammed "Top Gun" bin Salman, but probably not since he hasn't been assassinated yet.
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Nov 13, 2017 04:42
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The problem is that Saudi Foreign Policy was essentially spent killing every arab countries chances of advancing past fascism and into more representative countries for fear of their own supremacy in the region. they helped kill off and undermine every attempt Arabs had at paving a new future for themselves be it from the left or from the conservative non-salafist islamists, and now they're surprised that the dead corpses they've chained arent much help to them in the face of an actually intelligent rival in the region like Iran.
Al-Saqr fucked around with this message at 04:54 on Nov 13, 2017 |
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Nov 13, 2017 04:51
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Ego-bot posted:David Frum is also a senior editor there. We have him to thank for the 'Axis of Evil' speech. I think that is the hope by some parts of the establishment, but at the same time, I think there is a quiet fear that it is already too late and the Iranians air defenses may be too strong to ignore. This is the reason the Saudis are going to Yemen/Qatar and are now trying to bully Lebanon. As for the Saudis and oil, I think the problem is they realize that oil isn't going to be enough to beat the Iranians since Iranian exports have been steadily climbing while Iran overall has a more diversified economy. The Aramco sale was supposed to a be a way to jump-start diversification by was largely based on a valuation that was mostly fantasy.
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Nov 13, 2017 04:54
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Ego-bot posted:David Frum is also a senior editor there. We have him to thank for the 'Axis of Evil' speech. Ramrod Hotshot posted:I think the opposite may be happening. This newfound aggressiveness is really just desperation. Oil's been cheap for a while and it's running out. There's plans in the works to turn assets liquid, like privatizing Aramco and "Vision 2030". There's a lot of unemployed young men. The real world is seeping in on the Wahhabist oil utopia, and time is running out. They want to take on Iran now before they're too weak to be able to. I agree the window is rapidly closing, but that's what makes the situation dangerous. It's not very likely, but given the state of the world I have had a bad feeling that something like a quadruple whammy of a new Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Turkish invasion of Syrian Kurdistan, KSA doing more incomprehensible and ineffective flailing at its enemies, and US airstrikes on Iran all happening at the same time is much more likely than it should be
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Nov 13, 2017 05:07
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