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American Political Science Association calls on Turkey to respect academic freedom in letter to Erdoğan

The American Political Science Association (APSA) has written a letter to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, expressing its deepest concern over recent crackdown on a group of academics for their criticism of the government policies in the Southeast, urging the Turkish government to take all steps to fulfill its duties to protect free expression and academic freedom.

“On behalf of the American Political Science Association, we write to express our alarm and deepest concern regarding reports of punitive measures, including detentions and criminal investigations, launched against Turkish academics who signed a petition addressing Turkish government policies in southeastern Turkey.  We urge you to end these measures against the petition’s signatories, to ensure the safety and well-being of scholars in Turkey, and to ensure academic freedom remains a component of Turkey’s commitment to higher education,” the letter said.

Defining APSA as a scholarly association that represents more than 13,000 US and internationally based professors and students of political science, the letter said the organization’s membership also includes scholars within Turkey and scholars of Turkish politics.

On Jan. 11, a declaration signed by 1,128 academics from 89 universities in Turkey called on the government to end the ongoing fighting between security forces and militants of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has inflicted devastation in some residential areas of several predominantly Kurdish-populated towns.

After Erdoğan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and pro-government figures harshly criticized the signatories of the declaration, accusing them of "treason," "disseminating terrorist propaganda," for favoring a non-military resolution in the predominantly Kurdish Southeast via their declaration, Turkey's Higher Education Board (YÖK) launched administrative investigations into dozens of academics as many others have faced legal action by a number of prosecutors.

“Without any further (or contradictory) information, these measures appear to be punishment for protected expression, including expression related to signatories’ professional competence as scholars,” the APSA letter said. “Dismissals, detentions, and criminal investigations for such comments therefore suggests retaliation against scholars for nonviolent exercise of academic freedom and free expression, both recognized under international standards including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, both of which Turkey has ratified, similarly require the government to uphold citizens’ freedom of expression, as does Turkey’s own Constitution,” it added.

The scholars urged the government of Turkey to take all steps to fulfill its duties to protect free expression and academic freedom by ending all measures to penalize signatories of the petition. “We also urge the Government to ensure signatories are protected against public threats of bodily harm that have been made against them,” they added.

UK sold £1bn of arms to Saudi Arabia despite human rights violations in Yemen

Britain sold over £1 billion worth of missiles, rockets and bombs to Saudi Arabia last summer despite solid evidence of serious human rights violations committed by the Saudi-led coalition in its military campaign in Yemen.

The extraordinary increase in UK arms sales occurred between July and September under five government-backed licenses, documents from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills show. 

The government documents also reveal that in the three months leading up to July, UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia for the same type of munitions amounted to £9 million (US$12.75 million).

'Deeply worrying'

The dramatic surge in UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia has been decried by Amnesty International (AI) UK, which warns of grave human rights violations in Yemen.

“These figures are deeply worrying, showing that the UK continued to dispatch huge amounts of weaponry to Saudi Arabia despite overwhelming evidence that the Saudi war machine was laying waste to Yemeni homes, schools and hospitals,” the group’s head of policy and government affairs Allan Hogarth said.

“As officials were signing off these sales, hundreds – possibly thousands – of Yemeni civilians were dying in a terrifying barrage of indiscriminate Saudi airstrikes in the country.”

Hogarth said the law is unequivocal in the context of the Saudi-led airstrikes.

“Any Saudi attack, whether deliberate or not, that fails to adequately protect civilians is a violation of international law,” he said.

“And our obligations are equally clear – as a major supplier of Saudi Arabia’s weaponry, the UK is legally obliged to suspend arms exports.”

Hogarth dismissed government rhetoric on the UK’s arms trade with Saudi Arabia as “evasive,” and warned that Britain is flogging weapons to the Gulf state in full knowledge that they will be deployed to kill Yemeni civilians.

He called upon the British government to face up to the reality of Saudi Arabia’s conduct in Yemen, “immediately suspend export licenses” for further UK arms sales to the Gulf state, and preside over a full inquiry into allegations of grave violations of international humanitarian law in Yemen.

Violations of humanitarian international law

Conflict resolution group Saferworld also condemned the spike in sales, stressing that Saudi-led airstrikes had hit civilian-populated areas in Yemen.

“The day after the prime minister [David Cameron] claimed to be ‘trying to encourage a political process in Yemen’ and declared ‘there is no military solution in Yemen’, official figures reveal that in just the three months July to September, the government approved the sale of over £1 billion worth of bombs for the use of the Royal Saudi Air Force,” a spokesperson for the group told the Guardian.

“This is the same air force that has bombed hospitals, schools, markets, grain warehouses, ports and a displaced persons camp and helped to turn Yemen into a living nightmare.”

In December, legal analysis commissioned by Amnesty and Saferworld revealed that the British government is breaching domestic, EU and international law by continuing to supply arms to Saudi Arabia.

The analysis was conducted by prominent international law experts Philippe Sands QC, Professor Andrew Clapham and Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh. The lawyers, who work for London-based law firm Matrix Chambers, concluded that the UK government is violating its duty under Britain’s Consolidated Criteria on arms exports, the EU Common Position on Arms Exports and the global Arms Trade Treaty by allowing transfers of weapons and other military wares to Saudi Arabia that could be used in Yemen.

Prime Minister David Cameron defended Britain’s arms trade with the Saudis on Monday, arguing the UK has the most robust export controls on weapons in the world.

“In terms of our arms exports I think we have some of the most stringent controls anywhere in the world and I’ll always make sure they’re properly operated,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today program.

“We’re trying to do everything we can to make sure that the work done by Saudi Arabia is properly targeted and it’s right that we should do that. We’re working with them and others on behalf of the legitimate government on Yemen.”

'Suspend UK licenses' 

However, Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn called for increased scrutiny of Britain’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday as the humanitarian situation in Yemen continues to worsen.

Benn wrote to the foreign affairs, defense, development and business committees, calling for the re-establishment of the House of Commons committee on arms export controls.
The watchdog was previously responsible for monitoring Britain’s arms sales, but became dormant in May 2015 after its chair stepped down.

“Given the growing number of reports and public concern, I believe the case for a full and detailed assessment of whether there is a clear risk that British weapons might be used in violation of international humanitarian law in Yemen is now overwhelming,” Benn said.

“I hope therefore that the new committee will urgently consider examining the government’s approach to these licences.”

RT asked the government whether it plans to suspend further licenses authorizing the sale of UK arms to Saudi Arabia amid allegations that the Saudi-led coalition’s aerial bombing of Yemen is violating international humanitarian law. 

A spokesperson for the government declined to specify and went on to defended the Tories' oversight of UK arms sales.

“We operate one of the most rigorous and transparent arms export control regimes in the world with each licence application assessed on a case by case basis, taking account of all relevant information, to ensure compliance with our legal obligations. No licence is issued if it does not meet these requirement," the spokesperson said. 

“We regularly raise with Saudi Arabian-led coalition and the Houthis, the need to comply with international humanitarian law (IHL) in Yemen. We monitor the situation carefully and have offered the Saudi authorities advice and training in this area."

Amnesty accuses Turkey of 'collective punishment' in Kurdish southeast

Turkey security forces are subjecting residents of Kurdish-dominated southeastern Turkey to "collective punishment" with military operations backed by curfews, Amnesty International said on Thursday, accusing the army of "recklessly" using excessive force.

Turkey has imposed successive curfews over the last months in towns in the southeast to back military operations aiming to crush militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Curfews remain in place in Cizre in Sirnak province and the Sur district of Diyarbakir city, which were imposed on December 14 and December 2 respectively. A curfew in place since December 14 in Silopi, also in Sirnak, was partially lifted on Tuesday.

The army says hundreds of militants have been killed in an "anti-terror" operation but Kurdish groups have long raised alarm over the civilian toll.

"The operations currently being conducted under round-the-clock curfews are putting the lives of tens of thousands of people at risk and are beginning to resemble collective punishment," said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's Europe and Central Asia Programme Director.

Amnesty International called on the Turkish government to end the indefinite curfews, saying residents had been left without access to emergency health care, food, water and electricity for extended periods.

"Operations by police and the military in these areas have been characterised by abusive use of force, including firing heavy weaponry in residential neighbourhoods," the group said in a report.

"There is little doubt that the Turkish authorities are putting lives at risk by using lethal force excessively and recklessly," it added.

The military operations are particularly aimed at the PKK's youth branch the Patriotic Revolutionist Youth Movement (YDG-H) which the government says has dug trenches and erected barricades in urban areas.

"Security measures, including those aimed at arresting suspected members of YDG-H, must adhere to Turkey's obligations under international human rights law," said Amnesty.

It quoted data from the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV) saying that 162 people have been killed during the curfews since operations were launched in August 2015, including 29 women, 32 children and 24 people over 60.

With Turkey part of the US-led coalition against jihadists in Syria and a key player in the EU refugee crisis, Dalhuisen said the Turkish authorities had faced "very little" criticism from the international community.

"Strategic considerations... must not overshadow allegations of gross human rights violations. The international community must not look the other way," he said.

White House: Attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan underscore threat to region

 The White House on Wednesday condemned attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, saying they underscore the ongoing threat that militants pose to the region.

"We offer our deepest condolences to the victims of the attacks and to their families, and we stand with the people of the region against all forms of extremism and terrorism," National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

Armed militants killed at least 20 people at a university in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday. In Afghanistan, a Taliban suicide car bomber targeted a minibus carrying journalists working for a private Afghan television channel, killing seven employees in Kabul. 

Farooq Abdullah Asks Pakistan To Wake Up After Peshawar University Attack

In the wake of Peshawar University attack, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah today said Pakistan should wake up and forge friendship with India to defeat terror forces even as he observed that there are elements in both countries who do not want peace between them.

"For God's sake, wake up and start friendship with India and only together we will be able to fight these elements," he said in a message to Pakistan while referring to the Peshawar attack.

"It is a big tragedy in Peshawar, this being the second attack. I think Pakistan realises that terrorism is on the rise and therefore I request that country to wake up and start friendship with India. Otherwise these elements will destroy democracy here and as well as democracy there. We should not wait any longer," he said while talking to reporters in Jammu.

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said "these attacks will take place unless we get together to fight them because they need to be fought will all power at our command".

He said there are anti-people elements in two countries who do not want good relation between India and Pakistan.

"There are elements. I had made it clear. There are elements in Pakistan and even in our country who do not want peace between two countries, because they are making money for it. They are becoming richer and richer. So, why should they have peace. But for the larger population, this is a menace," Mr Abdullah said.

He said "for the interest of the people and the government of the two sides, we need to get together and fight this menace with all the power that we have."

Pakistan university assault: A warning for Turkey as Islamists turn on their old allies in Peshawar

Robert Fisk

Like Pakistan, like Turkey. If the university massacre outside the old North West Frontier city of Peshawar was a further sign that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is still far from “conquering terrorism”, it is a portent of things to come for Turkey’s far more arrogant President, Recep Tayip Erdogan. For after allowing its borders to be used as a conduit for foreign fighters and smugglers into Syria – just as Pakistan did into Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion of 1979 – Turkey is now experiencing almost as many violent attacks on its people as Pakistan.

Erdogan’s government has increasingly emphasised its Islamic credentials, just as President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq did in Pakistan in the 1970s. And Turkey now finds that the Isis “caliphate” with which it was prepared to treat – allowing it to control part of Syria’s border with Turkey, facilitating Western Muslims wishing to cross in the opposite direction, permitting oil smugglers to bring their produce from Isis-held territory – is assaulting Ankara and Istanbul.

The powerful Pakistani intelligence forces – the infamous Inter-Services Intelligence – sent weapons to the anti-Soviet mujahedin and afterwards co-operated with the Taliban. Indeed, the Taliban managed to infiltrate the Pakistani military and intelligence institutions; and Isis now appears to have some infiltrators within the Turkish state apparatus. In Pakistan’s case, its war with the Taliban is even more complicated, since its own Islamist enemies appear to have several faces. Thus while one “Taliban” group claimed the mass murder at Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, another condemned the attacks as “un-Islamic”.

But like the assault on the school for Pakistani army officers’ children in Peshawar in 2014, which killed more than 140, the slaughter at Charsadda was a massacre of the innocents. It is easy to explain such bloodbaths as a response to the secular education which Islamist groups despise. But in Pakistan’s case, it was almost certainly a response to further military operations against the Taliban. The Bacha Khan University was named after Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the “frontier Ghandi”, and its Sufi-inspired Islam and Ghandian non-violence made it an obvious target for the Taliban.    David Gosling, who was headmaster of Edwardes College in Peshawar, says that the attacks on education targets “drive a coach and horses” through Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan’s conviction that the government must negotiate with the Taliban. Pakistan’s dilemma, Gosling says, is “aggravated by its legacy of an earlier commitment to the extended cold war and the likelihood of future Taliban gains in Afghanistan”.

Nawaz Sharif is left repeating his old mantra – that Pakistan is united in the battle to destroy “the menace of terrorism”. As for Turkey, it is now involved in its own “cold war” between Russia and America over Syria and is playing with the same dangerous cards as Pakistan. The Turks have the Kurds as joker in the pack – and claim that their “menace” of terrorism includes both Isis and the Kurds. It’s a rash decision to take on two armed groups at the same time. But it’s the same cold war inheritance.

#CharsadaAttack - Pakistan - University attack

ONCE again Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is reeling; in fact, Pakistan itself is under attack. The savagery at Bacha Khan University yesterday makes the heart sink and evokes deep despair. Monstrous as the Taliban are and have been, the determination with which they kill children and young adults comes as a shock each time.

The carnage in Charsadda may not be on the scale of the Army Public School attack, but the intentions were the same — to deliberately, monstrously and wretchedly strike at the most vulnerable and to spread anger and fear far and wide.

They must not be allowed to win. A greater resolve exists — that of the Pakistani people and the state that represents them — and it will prevail against the banned TTP. But there should be no illusions.

This is a long war. It will not be won in a month or a year. It will be many years before Pakistan can truly be rid of the militant curse. But that reality does not mean immediate steps cannot be taken.

Quite simply, the time has come for Pakistan to stop merely talking about better border management and demanding the eradication of militant safe havens in Afghanistan, and get serious work done on both fronts.

Fifteen years since a new war came to Afghanistan and Fata is a long enough period to force some change. The border between Pakistan and Afghanistan has always been porous. But must it remain so?

This frontier should not be turned into another India-Pakistan border — virtually sealed and the source of potentially deadly tensions. Yet, this country’s borders with Iran and especially China offer other possibilities for managing the flow of people while acting against criminal and violent elements.

The Afghanistan-Pakistan border is an anachronism, a colonial inheritance that has been both a buffer against and a base for projecting power into Afghanistan. Now, with more than 150,000 troops spread out across Fata for years, the border has become perhaps the single-most immediate danger to this country’s stability. That must change.

Second, the militant safe havens in Afghanistan from where attacks against Pakistan are plotted and executed need to be eliminated. Be it via the quadrilateral coordination group, directly between Pakistan and Afghanistan or with US support, serious action inside Afghanistan must be taken against the safe havens.

Excuses will not suffice. The Afghan security forces are engaged in a war of survival with the militants in many parts of the country. It is also known that the mission of US forces in Afghanistan has changed after 2014 and military engagement has become more restrictive. But as the Kunduz example demonstrated, where there’s a will there is almost certainly a way.

Further, while Afghan demands for similar actions inside Pakistan against anti-Afghan militants are legitimate, there is the reality that Kabul is also seeking to restart peace talks with the Afghan Taliban. When it comes to the TTP and its various factions, there is no possibility of dialogue being sought by Pakistan.

Third, a difficult question needs to be asked. What really have military courts and the reinstatement of the death penalty achieved?

The APS attack triggered a violent reaction that ought to have been resisted. What separates the militants from the state, what makes the two so fundamentally different and the latter worth defending, is the rule of law and individual rights.

The 21st Amendment is a blot on this nation’s constitutional history, passed by a democratically elected parliament, but on a par with the other violations of the Constitution in the past. Moreover, what was clear even then is incontrovertible now.

The death penalty does not deter terrorism. In fact, it can act as a propaganda tool for the militants as a contested claim of the responsibility for the Charsadda attack attests. Finally, the Bacha Khan University and the day of the attack do not appear to have been selected randomly.

The tolerant, compassionate, inclusive politics of Abdul Ghaffar Khan is what Pakistan ought to embody, and what the militant extremists are seeking to destroy. They must not win. Essential as it is to physically eliminate militancy, the very idea of the Taliban needs to be defeated too by making Pakistan a peaceful, democratic and constitutional land.

Pakistan - SHIKARPUR SEMINARIES HAVE BECOME SAFE-HAVEN FOR DEOBANDI TERRORISTS

By Eye Ali

Now Deobandi terrorists of outlawed Taliban, ASWJ, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, etc., need no tension to think of shelter in hideouts in Pakistan’s mountainous Federally-Administered Tribal Area (FATA) on borders with Afghanistan because fanatic seminaries in Shikarpur District of Sindh province welcome them wholeheartedly.

Shikarpur-based Sindhi-speakers says that they never thought of North Waziristan or Wana-like situation in their homeland but Wahhabis-allied Deobandi fanatic clerics have turned this land of great Islamic saints into a safe-haven for anti-humanity and anti-Islam terrorists.

Terrorist hideouts are situated in the Deobandi seminaries where they trained for massacre of human beings. In Chak area of Shikarpur, Maulvi Abdul Hameed Maher’s seminary is situated near Hamiah Goth. Another seminary belongs to Deobandi cleric Molvi Soomro and is located in Lakhi Ghulam Shah’s Mehmoodabad area. Abdul Bari Pahorh’s seminary in Jarwar Pahorh was raided many a times and Abdul Bari is said to have been taken into custody for involvement in terrorism and fanaticism. Takfiri Deobandi cleric Molvi Abdullah patronized him and his seminary. Deobandi fanatics trained here how to make bombs.

Cleric Abdul Bari is maternal nephew of cleric Abdullah Pahorh. He was caught red-handed with 2 suicide-bombing jackets and 15 kg of Uranium. He was sentenced and got 14 years (behind the bars) rigorous imprisonment.

A student of Pahorh seminary hailing from Brohi clan became suicide bomber and bombed Ashura Day mourning procession of Shia Muslims in Shikarpur. Sunni Muslims also join Shiites in all over Sindh during azadari of Moharram. To prepare for the suicidal attack on Shia mourners and allied-Sunnis, Deobandis held a meeting in a hamlet near Jaggan and also collected charity amounting to millions of rupees for Deobandi militant attacks on Sunni Bralevis and Shia Muslims. Rupees 2.4 million from that money were given to the heirs of the suicide bomber after Ashura Day suicidal attack.

Deobandi seminaries also masterminded the suicidal attack on Dr. Ibrahim Jatoi, a former minister and son in law of former caretaker Prime Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi. Deobandi cleric Molvi Ali Sher Brohi taught Abdul Razzaq Khoso for 3 years at his seminary on Rustam Road and Khoso also got education from a seminary of cleric Ghulam Qadir Pahwar in Rahim Yar Khan that is hometown of Malik Ishaq. He abetted another Khoso who became suicide bomber to ambush Shikarpur-based Ibrahim Jatoi, an influential Shia politician who survived the attack but police cops and his guards were martyred. Cleric Ali Sher Brohi’s son-in-law provided motorcycle for that attack and Abdul Razzak fitted the explosive materials that were bought from Sukkur. Suicide bomber Khoso was resident of Jhatt Patt area of Dera Allah Yar in Balochistan province and an activist of proscribed ASWJ aka Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

JUIF backs Deobandi takfiri terrorists and masterminds

Cleric Ali Sher Brohi is son-in-law of JUIF District Chapter’s President who enjoys full support from Fazl Ur Rehman’s JUIF.

Shia Friday prayer leader Allama Shafqat Hussain Mutahri was martyred in a Deobandi terrorist attack and his targeted assassination was plotted at a meeting held in the Deobandi seminary of cleric Ghulam Qadir Brohi. Akram Muavia Arain was one of the main abettors but he has not been arrested for that murder. Abdullah Jan Brohi of Khanpur, Ghulam Mustafa of Goth Khandu, a teacher namely Asghar Arain, Abdul Rehman and Abdullah are also notorious Deobandi terrorists involved in the targeted murder of Shia Friday prayer leader.

Role of Deobandi Cleric Zakaria in Shikarpur Shia Mosque

Zakaria Pahorh is brother of another Deobandi cleric Bakhtullah who was named in case for arsonist attack on NATO tankers. Zakaria Pahorh, his gunman Mansoor Ahmed Shaikh alias Osama are involved in weapons-smuggling and they were also named in the FIR. Zakaria is involved in suicide bombing attack on Shia Muslims during Friday prayer in Karbala-e-Moalla Masjid and Imam Bargah Lakhi Dar area of Shikarpur on January 30, 2015. Allama Shafqat Mutahri was also prayer leader of said mosque but he was earlier assassinated.

Cleric Bakhtullah is a government employee and a clerk by designation. Interestingly, this low-paid government employee had Rs. 470 million in his accounts. Bakhtullah network is led by Zakaria Pahorh who runs 2 seminaries: one at Kandhkot Road and another near Wapda office. Reports had it he is also a paid prayer leader at WAPDA mosque.

Role of Shikarpur seminaries in Afghanistan

Deobandi seminaries of Shikarpur dispatched hundreds of militants for civil war and terrorist attacks in Afghanistan. 52 of Shikarpur seminaries students were killed in Afghanistan.

Must Read Points:

One should not forget that Shikarpur is not far from Balochistan and Punjab provinces. It is situated in the immediate neighbouring of Districts Kashmore and Jacobabad that makes borders with Balochistan province and Sukkur-Ghotki, with latter makes borders with Punjab province with Rahim Yar Khan, the first Punjab district on the other side of inter-provincial borders.

Rahim Yar Khan is home district of co-founder of outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and now vice president of proscribed ASWJ that is also known as Sipah-e-Sahaba or ASS (Anjuman Sipah-e-Sahaba).

Balochistan is home province of Ramzan Mengal, notorious provincial chapter head of proscribed ASWJ Balochistan chapter. Mengal clan’s language is Brahvi and in Sindh province Brahvi-speaking people are known as Brohi. So, the tribal and seminary connections of the Deobandis enjoying the backing from 20 Deobandi groups including the JUI-F and JUI-S and ASWJ (ASS), enabled them to turn Shikarpur District of Sindh province a safe-haven for the Wahhabis-allied Deobandi fugitives. Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of the JUIF from Balochistan, also a Brohi, and JUIF Secretary General or second top leader after Fazl Ur Rehman has become Deputy Chairman of Senate, upper house of Pakistan’s bicameral Parliament. And PPP that rules Sindh province plays key role for his election. Hence, no chance to end terrorism in Sindh’s Shikarpur, let alone entire Pakistan.

http://www.shiitenews.org/index.php/pakistan/item/14606-shikarpur-seminaries-have-become-safe-haven-for-deobandi-terrorists/14606-shikarpur-seminaries-have-become-safe-haven-for-deobandi-terrorists#at_pco=smlrebh-1.0&at_tot=4&at_ab=per-13&at_pos=1&at_si=56a021d5cb44ffc3

The End of Saudi Arabia?

By Mike Konrad 

A more detestable regime than Saudi Arabia could not be found.  Arguably the most repressive regime on earth.  An absolute monarchy.  A Wahhabist theocratic nightmare that arms ISIS.  Only North Korea may be worse, and North Korea does not put women in burqas or have any areas where female genital mutilation (FGM) is practiced.  It is a close call.  At least North Korea does not ban alcohol.

Make no mistake about it: Shi'a Iran, as bad as it is, is nowhere near as oppressive as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).  There are churches in Iran, albeit persecuted.  There are none in the KSA.  Not even a façade of tolerance.  If Iran and the Shi'a-led Hezb'allah are the world's chief exporters of terror, it is because they are more competent than Sunnis, not because their tyranny is darker than the KSA's Wahhabism. 

The Saud family came from the Arabian interior (the Najd) to overrun the west coast of the peninsula (the Hejaz – the historic center of Islam) in 1925.  The Najd had survived mostly immune from imperial expansion basically because it was a useless wasteland that no one thought worth conquering, a unique honor it shares only with Antarctica.

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire, followed by British meddling, eventually led to the Saudi takeover of the whole area from their chief rival, the Husseins of Mecca.

The present worldwide depression – let's call it what it is, not a recession – is partly the direct result of Saudi manipulations.

Fracking, particularly in the United States, was on the verge of making the USA independent of oil imports.  Europe, Latin America, Oceania, and China were all starting to frack.  As technology got cheaper, Saudi Arabia knew that, left unchecked, one day the world would break free of Muslim oil extortion, and their cash cow would be kaput.  The KSA, which produces little else, would be back to selling sand, and the Quranically approved as healthful camel urine – but since dromedaries are not unique to the peninsula, even that market would be lost to them.

The Saudis have been at this oil price manipulation game for over 40 years.

The OPEC nations, led by the KSA, created a worldwide recession with the oil embargo in 1973, to protest Israel's victory in the Yom Kippur War.  Afterward, the price of oil would double.  Nations that were on the verge of a middle-class breakthrough, like Brazil, were throttled back to poverty after the enormous price-gouging.  The USA became frozen as a net importing nation.  This set back Westernization, and the Industrial Revolution, for decades in the emerging world.

Initially, to keep oil prices up, the Saudis would drop production by 75%.

However, the artificially high cost of oil led to massive exploration.  North Sea oil came online.  The Saudis were starting to run budget deficits, and they blinked.  They decided to drop prices and sell more oil to break the competition.

The '80s price drop crushed the nascent shale industry for decades here in the USA.  American energy independence was forestalled, as the Saudis wanted.

The low price of oil eventually gave way to price increases as Chinese industrialization came online with massive demand.  By 2008, oil was at $145 a barrel.  Of course, the 2008 crash brought some relief to that.

At the same time, fracking was taking over and competing with Saudi crude.  There was serious talk of the USA becoming oil-independent.  The KSA was in a real fix, and everyone knew it.  Small nations, like Ireland, were pondering becoming oil-rich. Ojalá!  Even the detested Jews were swimming in oil.

In 2014, the Saudis decided to dump oil on the market at low prices again in order to drive foreign competitors out of business, as they had in the 1980s.  Once the American frackers were broke, once the cost of Israeli drilling became prohibitive, and after everyone else was shut down, the Saudis could ratchet up the price all over again.  This would also have the benefit of destroying the hated Shi'a mullahs of Iran, with their nuclear program that threatens the Sunni KSA.  A poorer Iran would mean no Iranian nukes to worry about.  No Iranian sponsorship of Syria's Assad.

Price-fixing at its worst.  Were this done inside a country, it would be illegal.  The Saudis get away with it because they are independent.

The price drop has had a massive effect on the market.  Some U.S. frackers went bust.  Brazil's Petrobras is selling assets on a fire sale.  Much of China's and Brazil's economies has collapsed.  Chinese oil firms took a massive hit.

The economic devastation you see all around, as markets collapse, is due in no small part to the KSA's manipulations – manipulations that have throttled progress for decades.

However, the Saudis have made a major blunder this time.  Technology is still making fracking cheaper.  So a considerable number of frackers are waiting out the storm.  Once the Saudis raise prices, American exploration will be back online quickly.  The KSA is fighting a losing battle.

Worse yet, any increase in prices will also help Iran's budget.  It seems the KSA is stuck at the bottom of the price graph, damned no matter what its monarch does.

In five years, the KSA's foreign reserves are expected to be emptied out.  Already, the KSA is dropping internal subsidies on electricity and domestic gasoline.  The local people are upset.  Upset Muslims means violent revolution.

For over forty years, this blight of a tribe has caused recessions, caused depressions, and damaged the planet's economy.  They got wealthy by re-impoverishing an emerging Third World, starting with the artificially created 1973 oil crisis.  They have used their oil wealth to sponsor terrorism (as has Iran).  Rather than investing wisely in industry to pick up market slack to become a modern diversified economy, they have invested instead in subsidizing mullahs, arming Salafist extremists in Syria, and exporting Islam around the world.

Now they have no options.  Any increase in prices will restart American, European, and Chinese frackers.  Failure to increase prices will bankrupt them.  As a further blessing, we Americans will no longer have to hear the caterwauling idiocies of environmentalist Chicken Littles screaming about "peak oil."

What the USA can do is protect its fracking industry by severely taxing any oil imports under $50 a barrel.  This may upset some free marketers, but the price of oil is rigged.  We should rig it in our favor, and insulate ourselves from Saudi manipulations.

Good riddance to the KSA – a corrupt, vicious regime!  May their next chief export be bottled camel urine.  I wish America had never gotten involved with them.

Mike Konrad is the pen name of an American who is neither Jewish, Latin, nor Arab. He runs a website, http://latinarabia.com, where he discusses the subculture of Arabs in Latin America. He wishes his Spanish were better.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/01/the_end_of_saudi_arabia.html#ixzz3xpNc2XyF
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Over 5 million jobs will be lost due to The Fourth Industrial Revolution, report says

By Yuan Can 

Disruptive labor market changes will result in a loss of more than 5.1 million jobs from 2015 to 2020, according to a latest report by World Economic Forum (WEF).

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, which includes developments in previously disjointedfields such as artificial intelligence and machine-learning, robotics, nanotechnology, 3-Dprinting, and genetics and biotechnology, will cause widespread disruption not only tobusiness models but also to labor markets over the next five years, according to the report,The Future of Jobs, published Monday by the WEF. 

This trend will lead to a loss of more than 5 million jobs in 15 major developed and emerging economies, said the report.

The report predicts that in the next five years there will be a total loss of 7.1 million jobs—two thirds of which are concentrated in routine white collar office functions, such asoffice and administrative roles—and a total gain of 2 million jobs, in computer andmathematical and Architecture and Engineering related fields.

"In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankindhas experienced before," wrote Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of WEFin his latest article called The Fourth Industrial Revolution: what it means, how torespond.

Compared with previous industrial revolutions, the Fourth is evolving at an exponentialrather than a linear pace, said Schwab. Moreover, it is disrupting almost every industry inevery country. And the breadth and depth of these changes herald the transformation ofentire systems of production, management, and governance.

According to a latest international survey, four out of 10 young people around the worldworry that robot will replace them in the future workforce due to rapid development oftechnology.

Commissioned by Indian business and software services firm Infosys, the study surveyedaround 1,000 16-to 25-year-olds in Australia, Brazil, Britain, China, France, Germany,India and the United States, as well as South Africa, where a smaller sample of 700 waspolled. Young people in developed economies are more worried about their future jobs.

Nearly 80 per cent of interviewees think that it is a must to keep learning in order to gaincompetitiveness ahead of rapid development of technology.

Globally, while almost two-thirds of those queried said they felt positive about their jobprospects, those in developing economies were far more optimistic than their peers indeveloped markets. In India, 60 per cent said they think they have the skills needed fortheir careers, just a quarter were similarly optimistic in France, the poll found.

The survey shows that nearly 50 per cent of interviewees from developed markets said thatthe education they received is not suitable for jobs.

According to Infosys Chief Executive Vishal Sikka, technologies have evolved far fasterthan what was thought possible even 10 years ago, while the educational system remainswedded to practices initially designed for agrarian societies 300 years ago.

"We must transition away from our past; shift the focus from learning what we alreadyknow to an education focused on exploring what hasn’t happened yet," said Sikka.

Life After Sanctions: Tehran Offers Moscow Tips on Surviving the Squeeze

Commenting on the lifting of Western sanctions against Iran, and the possible implications for the Russian-Iranian partnership, Syrian journalist Abbas Juma suggests that however events may unfold, the two countries have a rich history of relations to build on. Moreover, Tehran may yet teach Moscow a thing or two on how to deal with the West.

With Western countries dropping most of their sanctions against Iran in recent days, in accordance with the Iranian nuclear agreement reached last year, Juma, in his Sunday op-ed for the independent Russian newspaper Svobodnaya Pressa, suggested that now, Iran may very well become an OPEC leader, doubling its oil exports (to 2 million barrels per day).

Now, with an improvement in relations between Iran, Europe and the United States on the horizon, "Russians," the journalist suggests, "are anxious about the future of Russian-Iranian relations." However, in Juma's view, Moscow has little to worry about.

A History Stretching Centuries

"Speaking in modern language, Russia began cooperating with Iran even before it was the hip thing to do. Russian-Persian diplomatic relations were established over 400 years ago, under the Ruriks, when the two countries reached a new level of economic and political development." With both countries facing political unification and the formation of unified markets, "each had something to offer the other in various areas."

Still, urging against a rose-tinted view of history, Juma recalls that "in four centuries, Russian-Iranian relations have gone through a lot. There were Russian-Persian wars, and the tragic death of [Russian diplomat and poet] Alexander Griboyedov during the massacre in the Russian embassy in Tehran in 1829 (today the Iranian capital features a monument to the author of the verse comedy The Woes of Wit as a reminder of that terrible day)."

Moreover, "the Iranian Shiite clergy would christen the atheistic USSR the 'Little Satan' (which did not prevent Tehran from purchasing modern weaponry from the Soviet Union in the 80s). And for fairness' sake, it must be recalled that Russian soldiers too had repeatedly invaded Iranian territory, which did not cause enthusiasm among the locals, to put it mildly."

"But that's how the history flows," Juma writes. "Bright spots alternate with dark clouds, and the process repeats. Thus, while the collapse of the Soviet Union may have had many negative consequences for Russia, Russian-Iranian relations were not one of them. Tehran lost its fear of the 'Little Satan', and pragmatically realized that the resumption of close cooperation with Moscow would bring them great benefits. And that's how things turned out. In 1992, Russia and Iran signed an agreement on the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, and to date an agreement has been reached on the construction of Bushehr II."

"Since 2012," the journalist recalls, "against the backdrop of the crisis in the Middle East, relations between Moscow and Tehran warmed once again, becoming a key topic for discussion in the world. And similarly to how the West once feared the rise of Soviet influence over Tehran, today once again it is attempting to prevent the two rising powers from moving closer together. This is no accident; after all, now more than ever, the idea of a military-political alliance between Iran and Russia, as a counterweight to NATO, is taking shape."

"Consistent, multilateral dialogue with Iran has become one of the main foreign policy directions over the course of Vladimir Putin's presidency. One can only recall that March 2001 saw the signing of the Treaty on the Principles of Relations and Principles of Cooperation Between the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Today, in accordance with article 18 of the treaty, Moscow and Tehran are cooperating with one another in an attempt to solve major world problems – specifically the Syrian and Iraqi crises."

Russia Could Learn a Thing or Two From Iran

Today, as the West lifts its sanctions against Tehran, while prolonging and expanding them in relation to Moscow, the Russians, Juma suggests, might have a thing or two to learn from the Iranians on how to get back on their feet in spite of Western attempts to isolate them.

"Traditionally, the Western 'civilized world' treats countries which attempt to lift up their heads and declare their unwillingness to dance to the tune of others with contempt. It happened with Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution."

"Then," Juma recalls, "when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president in 2005, sanctions were imposed against Iran. Under his presidency, due to his country's alleged uranium enrichment program, Iran was subjected to the most severe sanctions pressure the US and its allies could muster."

"Nevertheless, Iran managed to become a leading regional power, which has now forced those who once sought to grind the country into dust to negotiate. Today, as sanctions against Tehran are removed, the Iranians stand before the world proud and independent."

"Their circumstances," the journalist notes, "taught them to be independent – to make everything with their own hands, from slippers to drones. Today, graduates of Iranian schools are becoming Nobel laureates and occupying leading positions in international high-tech centers. In medicine, the country is almost 100% self-sufficient, actively developing its pharmaceutical industry, carrying out difficult operations, and doing without imported equipment."

"Of course, the country has its problems; the banking sector is suffering under the pressure of sanctions, the economy cannot boast of major innovations, and is growing more slowly than we would like. But it's worth remembering the situation the country faced 40 years ago and compare it with the Iran of today. Russia would certainly benefit from studying the Iranian experience in the field of import substitution, given that the West's anti-Russian sanctions, experts confirm, won't be removed any time soon."

Economic, Energy, Political and Military Cooperation

Furthermore, Juma argues, "post-sanctions Iran may become a very good partner for Russia in various fields, something the Russian president is well aware of. In November, following talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Vladimir Putin expressed Moscow's readiness to provide Tehran $5 billion in credit. Following negotiations, the heads of state selected 35 priority projects [related to] energy, construction, ports and railroads."

At the same time, "the two countries agreed to cooperate in the oil and gas sectors. Thus, Mehdi Hosseini, the Chairman of the Oil Contract Restructuring Committee at the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum, announced in late November that Gazprom and Lukoil have good prospects for receiving access to fields in Iran. At the same time, Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh expressed his confidence that following the removal of anti-Russian sanctions, cooperation between Moscow and Tehran in the energy sector will continue with a renewed vigor."

"As for the military sphere," Juma recalled, "here, it seems likely that we will see new contracts worth billions of dollars, because given the unstable conditions in the Middle East, Iran needs to modernize its armed forces, which means that Tehran will be extremely interested in Russian weapons."

The Russian-Turkish scandal too, in Juma's view, is worth mentioning. "Moscow and Ankara had been connected by a multitude of contracts in various areas; therefore Moscow will now be looking for new partners to 'fill the gaps'. Given that Iran is becoming a significant exporter of agricultural products (mostly fruits and vegetables), Russia can easily start buying produce from the Islamic Republic, which, incidentally, is already being done."

Finally, the analyst suggests, "the simplification of the visa regime may also serve as a significant impetus for closer cooperation, and this is a path the two countries have already embarked upon. On November 23, 2015, during Putin's visit to Iran, the two countries signed an agreement on visa-free travel for certain categories of citizens."

In the final analysis, Juma suggests, as anti-Iranian sanctions are removed and relations with Western countries, particularly Europe, improve, Moscow and Tehran "have yet to determine in which areas and to what extent they can cooperate." Urging against an overoptimistic appraisal of the potential for cooperation, the journalist notes that nevertheless, in today's world, the prospects look good.