EUROPE

PETROFILM.COM EUROPE

A not for profit web portal.

Oslo, July 2022 

EMPATHY RESPECT DIGNITY

ANALYSIS, INFORMATIONS FROM A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

 אמפתיה כבוד כבוד 

 ניתוח, מידע עם פרספקטיבה אירופית 

طلاعات تجزیه و تحلیل از یک چشم انداز اروپایی

عزت احترام به همدلی یکپارچه سازی

تجزیه و تحلیل ، اطلاعات از یک چشم انداز اروپایی



EMPATÍA RESPETO DIGNIDAD

ANÁLISIS, INFORMACIONES CON PERSPECTIVA DE EUROPA



EMPATHIE RESPECTEER WAARDIGHEID

ANALYSE, INFORMATIE VANUIT EEN EUROPEES PERSPECTIEF



EMPATHIE RESPECT DIGNITÉ

АНАЛИЗ ИНФОРМАЦИИ С ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ ИЗ ЕВРОПЫ

  誠信尊重尊嚴

  分析，來自歐洲的信息

Welcome to

 PETROFILM.COM EUROPE

Herzlich willkommen! Bienvenido! добро пожаловать!

ようこそ!  Bienvenue!  歡迎   أهلا بك 

The Grand European Plain

stretches from the Pyrenees Mountains and the French coast of

the Bay of Biscay in the West to the Russian Ural Mountains in the East.

EUROPE ЕВРОПА

603.8 Million people - 603,8 миллиона человек - 6.038億人

Helmut Kohl

CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY'S UNITY AND THE EURO

  Click picture Play video

Helmut Kohl was the Chancellor who voted for the Euro, created dialogue and common ground with Russa and united Germany together with Mikhail Gorbachev. Kohl was a German statesman who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and as the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998. From 1969 to 1976, Kohl was minister president of the state Rhineland-Palatinate. Kohl chaired the Group of Seven in 1985 and again in 1992.

EUROPE

CLICK EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

PLAY THE EUROPEAN UNION ANTHEM

The European Union: 445 Million



CLICK EFTA LOGO FOR VIDEO

The European Free Trade Association EFTA: 13.6 Million

CLICK FLAG FOR BREXIT VIDEO

The United Kingdom: 66.6  Million

CLICK FLAG FOR RUSSIAN FEDERTION/BELARUS

The Russian Federation West of Ural: 101.6 Million



PETROFILM.COM

EUROPE  ЕВРОПА

Helmut Kohl

CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY'S UNITY AND THE EURO

  Click picture Play video

Helmut Kohl was the Chancellor who voted for the Euro, created dialogue and common ground with Russa and united Germany together with Mikhail Gorbachev. Kohl was a German statesman who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and as the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998. From 1969 to 1976, Kohl was minister president of the state Rhineland-Palatinate. Kohl chaired the Group of Seven in 1985 and again in 1992.

ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION FROM A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

PETROFILM.COM

Institute for Empathic Dialogue Creation and Conflict Resolution

Harald Dahle-Sladek

Founder and Editor-in-chief

Основатель и главный редактор

بنیانگذار و مدیرمسئول

創始人兼主編

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke Delivers Remarks Announcing the Justice Department and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Agreement with Trident Mortgage Company to Resolve Lending Discrimination Claims.

Kirsten Clarke

Washington, DC

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Good morning. My name is Kristen Clarke, and I am the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. I am joined today by Josh Shapiro, the Attorney General of Pennsylvania; Rohit Chopra, the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Jacqueline Romero, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; Lyndsay Ruotolo, the First Assistant Attorney General of New Jersey; and Kathy Jennings, the Attorney General of Delaware.

I’m pleased to be standing with you all today at Malcolm X Park in West Philadelphia to announce that the Justice Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have secured an agreement with Trident Mortgage Company to resolve our claims of redlining discrimination in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, including communities in Camden, New Jersey, and Wilmington, Delaware. In addition, our state partners in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware have reached agreements with Trident and its affiliate company, Fox and Roach.

Our complaint, filed in federal court today, alleges that Trident violated the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Specifically, our complaint alleges that Trident’s office locations were concentrated in majority-white neighborhoods, that Trident’s loan officers were not directed to serve – and did not serve – the credit needs of neighborhoods of color and that Trident’s outreach and marketing avoided those neighborhoods. The complaint also alleges that Trident employees exchanged emails where they referred to neighborhoods of color as “ghetto” and made racists jokes; there’s even a photo of a senior Trident manager posing in front of a Confederate flag. Our complaint was filed along with a proposed consent order outlining the relief that we have secured.

Today’s agreement is historic for two reasons. First, this is the first redlining agreement that the Justice Department has secured with a mortgage company. Mortgage companies like Trident issue over 50% of the mortgage loans in the United States, so they are important players in the credit market and their lending practices have a significant effect on the availability of credit. Other non-depository lenders should be on notice that the Justice Department will continue to enforce federal housing laws to ensure equal opportunity to access credit.

Our agreement with Trident is also the Justice Department’s second largest agreement in history. Under this agreement, Trident must invest over $20 million dollars in impacted communities of color in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. The funds will be used to provide credit opportunities in areas that were redlined by Trident, including neighborhoods around this park. This infusion of lending resources into neighborhoods of color, including here in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, will help redress the harm caused by Trident’s unlawful activity.

West Philadelphia has long been the home of strong and vibrant Black and Latino communities. Unfortunately, it also been the home of prolonged residential racial segregation, just like so many other communities across the country. Even with the passage of the Fair Housing Act more than 50 years ago, banks and mortgage companies, like Trident, continue to find new ways to alter their lending practices in ways that cause harm to communities of color. These discriminatory practices exacerbate wealth disparities and promote economic injustice.

And we know that the current wealth disparities between Black and white families are staggering. Today, the median wealth of a Black family is approximately $24,000. The median wealth of a white family is approximately $188,000. A white family is 30% more likely to own a home than a Black family, meaning the homeownership gap is larger today than it was in 1960, before the passage of the Fair Housing Act.

Despite these grim statistics, the Justice Department is committed to aggressively enforcing our nation’s civil rights laws to ensure equal opportunity and economic justice for all Americans. Today’s agreement demonstrates that commitment.

Our enforcement action against Trident is part of the Justice Department’s Combatting Redlining Initiative. The initiative is drawing on the strengths of the department’s partnerships with the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, CFPB, other financial regulatory agencies, as well as State Attorneys General. Together, we are sending a strong message to banks, mortgage companies and other lenders that they will be held accountable for engaging in unlawful, modern-day redlining.

I want to thank our team inside the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department for their work on this matter. I also want to commend our partners at CFPB, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Eastern Pennsylvania and the State Attorneys General for Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey for their work on this case. Together, we mark a significant step forward in our collective efforts to ensure all people have equal opportunity to access the American dream.

 

SPIRITUALITY IN EUROPE ON A SHARP DECLINE

 Norway as a non-piety State.

The decline of Spirituality in the West in general, the weakening and the right-out abolishment of the Christian faith in many places today, and the materialization and dehumanization process reflected in the general coldness between people, gives reason for great concern.

Norway's King Haakon IV, "What happened to spirituality in Norway?"

In the Norwegian society of today, Man is undoubtedly being reduced to the weight of his own body. The newspapers write about losing and gaining weight every, single day. "It's all about meat, meat and more meat," says Harald Dahle, "and nothing about Man as a Spiritual being in God. In their educations Norwegians learn nothing about Spirituality, but every-thing about fiscal policies and fancy theories." He reflects on the Norwegian's Laissez-faire type mantra "to Enjoy.“ With the full blessing and encouragement of an authoritative and non-spiritual State, off course! You know, the Norwegians does not really have anything of spiritual value, and this is why they so desperately try the become what they are not and can never be, canonized.

The decline of Spirituality in the West in general, the weakening and the right out abolishment of the Christian faith in many places today, and the materialization and dehumanization process reflected in the general coldness between people, gives reason for great concern; in Norway, however, this is "business as usual", a stroke of death before the curtain fall. Before we as less civilized and empathic people criticize religion and spirituality in the Islamic Republic of Iran today one should first explain and understand the collapse of Christianity as a main factor in the western societies of today. In the Age of conspicuous consumption, oil and gas, sexual "freedom" and decline of conservative values the Norwegian society is identified with an overwhelming absence of piety in combination with a cold, disdained and superfluous inter-human relations almost devoid of human dignity. Just as it was in the last days before the fall of the decadent, Roman Empire!

On the streets of Oslo, the Norwegians bow their small and worried heads down towards their large, active-matrix organic light-emitting diode screens on their cell phones. And that they do all day! And it is the only time ever when the Norwegians bow their heads! On the walls of the houses in capital Oslo, there are not the minutest sign of spirituality. No, al-fresco paintings of the apostles, the Blessed Virgin Mary, a cross, some ornaments pointing towards a cultural connection with continental Europe. Nothing! The capital is chemically, organically, and spiritually devoid of any sign of a higher and dignified purpose in life. Alongside country roads leading through walleyes and over plains, through small towns and barren fields there is not a single cross, no memory built for an ancient, Christian pilgrim who shall have walked and died there. Not a signpost pointing towards a time when Norway was a country belonging together in spirit with the other Christian nations on the grand mainland of Europe.

THE SLIPPERY SLIDE TO HUMAN CATASTROPHE “In my work dealing with people and dialogue, “says Harald Dahle, “I have come to learn that many of us are not capable if viewing another human being right in front of ourselves with warmth, empathy and humanness. I believe this defect to be one of several primary causes for disharmony, conflict and war!" This phenomena bears special relevance to the people of Norway who actually live on an "island" - with the North Sea on one side and the forest and mountains bordering to Sweden and Russia on the other - and can do as they damn well please without having to take into account the more aristocratic and refined continental European culture further south. "I was in Munich already in 1956 and was raised in Sissach in Canton Basel Land in Switzerland," says Dahle whose father became a Swiss citizen. Harald Dahle, it sets the Norwegian cold and minimalistic Lutheran Church, controlled by the Department of Church -and Culture, in a certain perspective!

"The German philosopher, sociologist and composer Teodor Ludwig Wiesengrund Adorno, left picture, has also had opinions about the "coldness between people phenomena: “Without the chilly and disdained behavior between people, the extermination of the Jews would not have taken place in Germany” he warned. Adorno was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, whose work has come to be associated with thinkers such as Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer and Herbert Marcuse , for whom the works of Freud, Marx and Hegel were essential to a critique of modern society. He is widely regarded as one of the 20th century's foremost thinkers on aesthetics and philosophy, as well as one of its pre-eminent essayists. As a critic of both fascism and what he called the cultural industry, his writings - such as Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947), Minima Moralia (1951) and Negative Dialectic (1966) - strongly influenced the European New Left.



Picture of the day

Russians meet Norwegians sheltering in a mine in Finmark

 The underdogs crawl out of the cave!



A NUCLEAR WAR FOR TALLINN?

Hello friends!

In a September 2014 speech in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, President Barack Obama articulated and strongly affirmed that com-mitment:

We will defend our NATO Allies, and that means every Ally. And we will defend the territorial integrity of every single Ally. Because the defense of Tallinn and Riga and Vilnius is just as important as the defense of Berlin and Paris and London.

This view is good, in theory, but is it wise to risk a global nuclear melt down because of Tallinn and Riga? We don't think so!

The newly published RAND Report underlines that despite President Obama’s bold words in Tallinn, a series of RAND wargames clearly indicates that, NATO’s current posture is inadequate to defend the Baltic States from a plausible Russian conventional attack.The games employed Russian forces from the Western MD and the Kaliningrad oblast, a chunk of sovereign Russian territory that sits on the northeastern border of Poland, along the Baltic Sea coast, totaling 27 maneuver battalions in a short-warning attack to occupy either Estonia and Latvia or both and present NATO with a rapid fait accompli.

In a September 2014 speech in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, President Barack Obama articulated and strongly affirmed that commitment: We will defend our NATO Allies, and that means every Ally. And we will defend the territorial integrity of every single Ally. Because the defense of Tallinn and Riga and Vilnius is just as important as the defense of Berlin and Paris and London. This view is good, in theory! But is it wise to risk a global nuclear meltdown because of Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius? I don't think so! And I think I have Germany with me on this.



The continuous eastward expansion of NATO towards the borders of Russia, despite the guarantees given by the West to Gorbachev in 1989 that this would not happen;The deployment of the Aegis anti-missile defense system in Romania, Poland, Turkey and Spain. These weapons, equipped with MK41 launchers, can be used for defensive missions (air, land, sea), but also for offensive attacks with nuclear weapons.

The planned permanent rotational deployment in the Baltic States, Poland and Romania, of four battalions of 1,000 troops each, and heavy military equipment; The creation of a “Nordic Front” against Russia, comprised of an alliance of NATO members Denmark, Iceland and Norway, and of NATO's “Partnership for Peace” (Sweden and Finland); The modernization of nuclear weapons, in particular the B61-12 bomb and the Long Range Standoff (LRSO) Cruise Missiles, based in Germany. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein said of these weapons: "The so-called improvements to this weapon seemed to be designed... to make it more usable, to help us fight and win a limited nuclear war."

To escape the current countdown to nuclear war, we also call on our government to create without delay the conditions for a new global peace and security architecture, based on the win-win cooperation proposed by the BRICS, cooperation which Europe and the United States, in their own interests, should join in. The vast efforts we deployed in the 20^th Century for war, must be mobilized today for peace and mutual development! The German Bundeswehr is planning to deploy its soldiers in Lithuania as part of NATOs mission aimed at containing possible Russian aggression

ЯДЕРНАЯ ВОЙНА ДЛЯ ТАЛЛИННА?

Здравствуйте друзья!

В своем выступлении в сентябре 2014 года в эстонской столице Таллинне президент Барак Обама сформулировал и решительно подтвердил это обязательство:

мы будем защищать наших союзников по НАТО, а это означает каждого союзника. И мы будем защищать территориальную целостность каждого союзника. Потому что защита Таллинна, Риги и Вильнюса так же важна, как и защита Берлина, Парижа и Лондона.

Эта точка зрения хороша в теории, но разумно ли рисковать глобальным расплавлением атомной энергии из-за Таллинна и Риги? Я так не думаю.

В недавно опубликованном Отчете RAND подчеркивается, что, несмотря на смелые слова президента Обамы в Таллине, серия военных игр RAND ясно указывает на то, что нынешняя позиция НАТО недостаточна для защиты стран Балтии от правдоподобного нападения российских войск. В играх использовались российские войска из Запада MD и Калининградская область, часть суверенной российской территории, которая находится на северо-восточной границе Польши, вдоль побережья Балтийского моря, в общей сложности 27 батальонов маневров в атаке с коротким предупреждением, чтобы оккупировать либо Эстонию и Латвию, либо обоих, и представить НАТО быстрый свершившийся факт

В своем выступлении в сентябре 2014 года в столице Эстонии Таллине президент Барак Обама четко сформулировал и твердо подтвердил это обязательство: мы будем защищать наших союзников по НАТО, а это означает каждого союзника. И мы будем защищать территориальную целостность каждого союзника. Потому что защита Таллинна, Риги и Вильнюса так же важна, как и защита Берлина, Парижа и Лондона. Это мнение хорошо, в теории! Но стоит ли рисковать глобальным ядерным кризисом из-за Таллинна, Риги и Вильнюса? Я так не думаю! И я думаю, что у меня есть Германия со мной на этом.

Непрерывное расширение НАТО на восток к границам России, несмотря на гарантии, данные Западом Горбачеву в 1989 году, что этого не произойдет, развертывание системы противоракетной обороны Aegis в Румынии, Польше, Турции и Испании. Это оружие, оснащенное пусковыми установками MK41, может быть использовано для оборонительных задач (воздушных, наземных, морских), а также для наступательных атак с применением ядерного оружия.

Запланированное постоянное ротационное развертывание в Прибалтике, Польше и Румынии из четырех батальонов по 1000 военнослужащих и тяжелой военной техники; Создание «Северного фронта» против России, состоящего из альянса членов НАТО Дании, Исландии и Норвегии и «Партнерства ради мира» НАТО (Швеция и Финляндия); Модернизация ядерного оружия, в частности бомбы B61-12 и крылатых ракет дальнего радиуса действия (LRSO), базирующихся в Германии. Сенатор США Дайан Файнштейн сказала об этом оружии: «Казалось, что так называемые усовершенствования этого оружия были разработаны ... чтобы сделать его более пригодным для использования, чтобы помочь нам сражаться и выиграть ограниченную ядерную войну».

Чтобы избежать нынешнего обратного отсчета времени до ядерной войны, мы также призываем наше правительство незамедлительно создать условия для новой глобальной системы мира и безопасности, основанной на взаимовыгодном сотрудничестве, предложенном БРИКС, сотрудничестве, которое Европа и Соединенные Штаты, в их собственных интересах, должны присоединиться. Обширные усилия, которые мы развернули в 20-м веке для войны, должны быть мобилизованы сегодня для мира и взаимного развития! Немецкий бундесвер планирует разместить своих солдат в Литве в рамках миссии НАТО, направленной на сдерживание возможной российской агрессии

IRAN

Harald Dahle-Sladek Founder and Editor-in-chief Petrofilm.com Europe and His Excellency Mehdi Mirmoezi Deputy Minister of Petroleum, President of National Iranian Oil Company NIOC (NIOC Headquarter Tehran 2002)

Editor-in-chief Harald Dahle-Sladek and President of NIOC Mehdi Mirmoezi

Seal of the Foreign Ministry

Seyed Mohammad Hossein Adeli PhD

Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs

 Ambassador to England, Canada and Japan.

  Governor of the Central Bank of Iran.

INTERVIEWED IN THE FOREIGN MINISTRY TEHRAN

APRIL 2002 AND MAY 2003

To the left Dr. Adeli: Great disappointment. To the right Editor-in-chief of Petrofilm.com Europe Mr. Dahle: Frustration was high!

IRAN-US-AFGANISTAN RELATIONS

THE SUCCESS OF

THE UNITED STATES

IN AFGHANISTAN  ALSO CAME AS THE ACTIVE SUPPORT FROM IRAN

Revolutionary icon Khomeini, Leader Khamenei



A GOLDEN OPORTUNITY

for Washington to better its relations with Teheran

went out of the window!

Seal of the Foreign Ministry Tehran

 CLICK PICTURE PLAY VIDEO

Dr. Adeli explains Iran's view regarding Iran-US-Afghanistan relations

Dr. Adeli: "Great disappointment!"



This interview was conducted in Dr. Hussein Adeli's office in the Foreign Ministry in Tehran. It was the first of two meetings that Harald Dahle had with Dr. Adeli. The first was in April 2002, and the second meeting was held in May 2003.

During this interview, which was made in April of 2002,  it became quite clear to the Editor-in-Chief that the rejection of the United States to appreciate what Iran had done for the superpower in Afghanistan, neither did not sit well with the upper echelon of the Islamic Republic, nor was it well received by the Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs His Excellency Hossein Adeli. This would have been a Golden Opportunity for the United States to better its relations with Iran, but in wain. Washington was not ready to hand Tehran a firm handshake!

Dahle: -Tehran has sent an invitation to Washington for a meeting and better the relations between the two sides. I understand that the United States has rejected this initiative. How do you view the current relations with the U.S. after this disappointment?

Adeli: -Well, actually our relations with the West in general has improved a lot during the last, may be four, five years.

Dahle: -Yes.

Adeli: -Specially with the policies that have been followed by President Khatami, Dialogue among Civilization, the Rule of Law, the Principles of Civil Society, the elimination of tensions between Iran or other countries, the elimination of misunderstanding. All of these policies have been seriously followed by Iran in its Foreign Policy and has contributed to the relations with all countries except the United States. And with the West in general we have been able to exchange delegations on the level of Foreign Minister and head of Governments.

Dahle: -Aren't the operations of the United States in Afghanistan very much based on the early assistance from Iran?

Adeli: -But with the United States, it is unfortunately to see that even developments in Afghanistan, which owes a lot to understanding and effective assistance from Iran, has not, I believe, been able to penetrate into the hearts or the minds of decision makers in the United States.

Dahle: -Without the help from Iran in Afghanistan, you say that the United States would not have been where they are now?

Adeli: -I think that there is no doubt, even in the American eyes, that what we now see in the situation in Afghanistan owes a lot to Iranian assistance, Iranian understanding. The military success of the United States owes a lot to understanding and appreciation from Iran, and also the political process in Afghanistan owes the same thing. 

-And may be that was a very unique opportunity for the United States to reciprocate these kinds of understanding, and to seize and stop those kinds of policies that are pursued by them, in the past couple of decades. But apparently there is still not a very strong sign from that side!

Dahle: -Iran has friendly relations with many countries in the world, so why not also with the United States?

Adeli: -Off course, the general policy of Iran is to have friendly relations with every country in the world, including the United States, provided that this kind of relationship would be based on an equal footing, on a mutual beneficial sort of relationship. So, this is why I think that, as the policies of the United States, which are normally a unilateral policy, we hope that one time they would join the other countries of the West and devel-oping countries, and would join that kind of understanding of Iran; that the developments in the region would open their eyes, and that they would adopt a new policy towards our country!

Dahle: -Thank you Dr. Adeli.

THE WEST AND IRAN

IRAN

The case of the Islamic Republic in our Time is a test-bed for Human Dignity in the Western Culture. 



ISOLATIONISM LEADS TO WAR

Creating dialogue and common ground with the pariah of the West, the Islamic republic of Iran. To the left his excellency Seyed Hossein Adeli Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs, Governor of the Central Bank, Ambassador to London, Ottawa and Tokyo receiving Harald Dahle-Sladek editor-in-Chief Petrofilm.com in the Foreign Ministry Tehran April 2002 (and in May 2003). Dahle, ”Isolating Iran and dehumanizing its population might trigger another Hiroshima, and we cannot afford that.”

Did the United States Lifting of Sanctions between 2016 and 2018 really take Place?

Dear readers and friends. Although, one can argue that the so-called lifting of US Sanctions between 2016 and 2018 really took place, there is reason to believe that when the Office of Foreign Assets Control OFAC takes a sharp and unpleasant look at foreign individuals having done business with Iran and Iranian assets in that same period, it will arrive at the conclusion that the phrase “lifting of sanctions" does not mean a thing.

If your intentions are to knowingly circumvent US politics with Iran we think that is a very bad idea and it will have consequences. So, stop hiding behind phrases like "lifting of sanctions" and "the US opens up for trade with the Islamic Republic of Iran." Because it never happened!

President Donald J Trump signed sanctions towards Iran into law.

WHITE COLLAR CRIME

The new Global Geo Services GGS

Keeper of the Iran multi-client PC2000 Seismic Survey Data

Mr. Bjørn Ursin-Holm President: "US Sanction did not apply!"

In violation of US Sanctions and Article 25 of the International Criminal Court, Individual criminal responsibility, and in violation of Office of Foreign Assets Control OFAC under the Department of Treasury, GGS owner and CEO Mr. Ursin-Holm sold PC2000 seismic survey data in 2014 for NOK 50 million, USD 5.481.000.- to one undisclosed foreign oil company. In a phone conversation with Mr. Ursin-Holm in May 2019, Mr. Ursin-Holm revealed to Petrofilm.com that, “We are going to open a bank in England…”



The PC2000 Seismic Survey

and the PC2000 Seismic Survey Data Library.

THE PC 2000 SURVEY DATA WERE PROCESSED AT IMPERIAL COLLEGE

The Persian Gulf is located in the region with the largest petroleum potential in the world.  The PC-2000 (Persian Carpet) is one of the largest Multi Client 2D surveys ever undertaken.  PC 2000 covers the entire offshore Iran in the Persian Gulf and the Oman Sea.  The PC 2000 has been collected in exclusive partnership with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), and the data has so far been licensed to 18 oil and gas companies.

   The PC 2000 seismic database covers the entire Iranian offshore with a 2x2 km seismic grid.  These data will serve as the main tool in all future exploration offshore Iran.  The library consists of a total of 90,700 line kilometers (LKm) of standard offshore library, 11,700 Lkm of shallow water as well as 3,600 Lkm of Transition Zone.  In addition the library consists of 3,250 sq.km of 3D (Pseudo 3D) data. The Pseudo-3D projects was completed over structures with a very high potential i.e. the F and G structures located less than 100 km to the Northwest of South Pars, -the world’s largest gas/condensate field.

   GGS has collected gravity data which covers substantial parts of the PC 2000 grid.  The coverage is especially good for the Oman Sea, the strait of Hormuz, the Lavan Area, and in the shallow water parts of the Northwestern Gulf.

All gravity data has been collected using a-state-of-the-art “Chekan-am” gravity-meter.  In addition to raw datasets, the following maps are supplied:  bathymetry, Bouguer anomaly, high pass Bouguer anomaly with 100 km & 50 km cut off, and also free air anomaly. Many of the wells in the Persian Gulf are located in areas with steeply dipping strata.  Additional seismic lines become especially important in tying such wells to the PC 2000 grid.  GGS has collected 10 km well ties over most wells in the Persian Gulf.

The Jewel in the Crown Seismic Data

Onboard the seismic survey vessel Bin Hi 504 North of the Persian Gulf. Chris Farlow explains the newly prosessed survey data showing promising signs of oil deposits under the beach of Transistion Zone One at Hendijan. Video by Harald Dahle-Sladek.

GGS offers high quality interpretation of all PC 2000 data at low cost.  Most of the data has been interpreted by senior staff at Robertson Research , with long experience in the Middle-East.  The interpretation is supplied in digital format, easily imported into any interpretation software as well as maps at a 1:250.000 scale. GGS has used considerable resources in pointing out different play types in the PC 2000 area.  The Atlas is considered a valuable, supplementary tool in offshore exploration.  The atlas is presented on an area by area basis.

   As a service to its clients GGS has compiled general well data into 6 separate databases.  Key information includes: main tops in depth (time) + some logs when available. In co-operation with Enres International, GGS has done high resolution, high quality well correlation of wells offshore Iran using state-of-the-art digital techniques, analyzing and recognizing astronomically driven cyclicity.

In co-operation with Exploration Geosciences (UK), GGS has prepared a geological study of the Oman Sea based on the first 1900 km collected in the Oman Sea.  As well as addressing the hydrocarbon potential of the Oman Sea, this study places the region in a global geological framework. Examples include “Stratigraphic Columns around the Gulf of Oman Area”, “Hydrocarbon Maturity windows”, “Gas Hydrates and DHI’s and Accretionary Margins (Analogues or One-offs)” and“Seismic Examples Montage”.

   Together with  Nigel Press Associates (UK) GGS has developed a satellite-based study of the surface of the Oman Sea, revealing hydrocarbon seeps not related to ship spill.  Such seeps can contribute in identifying hydrocarbon generating strata on a regular basis and are valuable indicators that new or underexplored parts of offshore basins contain a mature source and hence help risk reduction at an early stage. Numerous undrilled structures and stratigraphic prospects have been found from preliminary interpretation of the PC 2000 seismic data.

Bushehr Iran January 2000: Harald Dahle-Sladek points in the direction of the PC 2000 Seismic Survey where he had monitored the progress of six seismic vessels over three years, before heading back to Dubai the same day.

Intel, UAE, and Iran!

Seeking a glimpse of an intelligence battlefield of the future, one need looks no further than the tiny Persian Gulf mini-state of Dubai, which is one of the principalities that comprise the United Arab Emirates.

 Only about 17 percent of Dubai’s 2.2 million inhabitants are Emiratis. The rest come from India, Pakistan, the Philippines, and over two dozen other nations; among them are several thousand American expatriates, all of whom have flocked to Dubai because of the emirate’s massive wealth.

From an intelligence standpoint, Dubai is critically important because it has become a global financial powerhouse, replacing Beirut as the banking center and tax shelter of choice for the rich and powerful of the Middle East. If there is a major business transaction taking place anywhere in the Middle East or Near East, whether a sale on the world petroleum market or a major construction project, chances are very good that a bank or investment house in Dubai is financing the deal.

From left: Harald Dahle-Sladek Editor-in-chief of PTEROFILM.COM at an exhibition and seminar regarding Irans Free Trade Industrial Zone Islands in the Persian Gulf held at the University of Kish on Kish Island, seen here together with Iranian business men representing industry and trade. Picture by Reza Shaeri MJF. April 2000.

Over the past decade, Dubai and the other principalities comprising the United Arab Emirates have become the principal source of financing for Mullah Omar’s Taliban guerrillas and all of the Afghan drug kingpins. According to a leaked September 2009 State Department cable, “It comes as no surprise that Taliban financing originates in and transits the UAE to Afghanistan and third countries. Afghan drug proceeds, including laundered funds, both transit the UAE and are invested here. Cash couriers are believed to carry the majority of illicit funds to and from Afghanistan.” The cable went on to note that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration believed that “over $2 billion in drug proceeds has transited through the UAE over the last three years.”

Dubai’s position as the leading banking center in the Middle East has made it a mecca for spies from around the world. According to senior U.S. intelligence sources, Dubai is today the principal listening post for monitoring what is taking place across the Persian Gulf inside America’s arch-nemesis in the region, the Islamic Republic of Iran, led by an aging conservative religious autocracy that derives its strength from feeding its people with the notion that they are beset on all sides by enemies.

The Iranian government’s aggressive, some would say confron-tational, attitude toward the United States over the past thirty years, its sponsorship of international terrorist groups, its work on building a nuclear weapon, and its development of long-range ballistic missiles capable of hitting Israel and perhaps even the United States have kept the country near the top of the list of the U.S. intelligence community’s most important targets for almost three decades.

The CIA has had no station inside Iran since Washington broke diplomatic relations with the regime after Iranian militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, and took sixty-six embassy staff members hostage, including the entire CIA station headed by Thomas L. Ahern Jr. This has forced the agency to improvise. In the 1980s and 1990s, the CIA’s “Iran station” was situated inside the I. G. Farben Building in downtown Frankfurt, Germany, from where the agency directed its global efforts to recruit and run agent networks inside Iran. But try as it might, the agency’s efforts to penetrate Iran during this time period were marked by one failure after another, with the single greatest loss occurring in April 1989, when Iranian security forces rolled up virtually the entire CIA network of agents inside Iran.

For the last two decades, the agency’s “Iran station” has been hidden away inside the U.S. consulate in Dubai because of its close proximity to Iran, which is only one hundred miles to the north across the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian presence in Dubai is massive. Not only does Iran maintain a sizable embassy in Dubai, complete with a large complement of intelligence officers, but according to a leaked State Department cable, banks in Dubai currently hold about $12 billion of Iranian government money, which the Tehran regime secretly uses to finance terrorist groups, its overseas weapons purchases, and its clandestine acquisition of nuclear technology.

By monitoring the flow of money in and out of Iranian government bank accounts in Dubai, the U.S. intelligence community has determined that despite strict United Nations economic sanctions, a number of major Europe an oil companies have continued to covertly purchase large amounts of Iranian oil and natural gas on the international petroleum market, knowing full well that the Iranian government uses the proceeds from these sales to finance its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. According to an American intelligence official, as long as Iran can continue to freely sell its oil and natural gas on overseas markets, “traditional diplomacy and economic sanctions are unlikely to ever work.”

As valuable as Dubai may be to the CIA as a base from which to spy on Iran, it does not come close to compensating for the agency’s lack of a presence on the ground in Tehran. In theory, the CIA should not have to be content with watching Iran from the relative comfort of the skyscrapers of Dubai. Compared to North Korea, where a siege mentality and acute paranoia are the norm, Iran is far more open. Thousands of Americans visit Iran every year, many of whom are Iranian expatriates who have settled in the sunny climes of Southern California and are now American citizens. They just can’t do any business there, which would violate the economic sanctions that are currently in place to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

There is also an enormous reservoir of residual friendship toward the United States among young Iranians born since the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, who now comprise 50 percent of Iran’s population. Thanks to modern technology, like satellite television, cell phones, and the Internet, Iran’s under-thirty set are well versed in Western culture and, unlike their parents, generally well disposed toward improved relations with the West, including the United States. Walk down any street in downtown Tehran and you will find yourself surrounded by teenagers and twenty-something college students who want to talk about America and their desire for better relations with the West.

The Editor-in-chief with the English pilot at the Creek in Dubai after flying to the inland mountain-range and back.

An American television film crew filming a documentary about Iran in 2009 was taken aback by the eagerness of young Iranians to criticize their government on camera, even with a team of glum Iranian plainclothes secret police standing just off to the side. One young Iranian man even went so far as to walk past the plainclothesmen flaunting a copy of Newsweek that the Americans had given him, which contained an article highly critical of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In another time, their earnest candor would have gotten the youths arrested and perhaps even a stiff prison sentence for, as one of the wittier of the students put it, “revealing state secrets.” This time, the Iranian plainclothes security men observing the affair, perhaps having teenagers of their own at home, decided that the prudent thing to do was nothing and hope that it would not end up on the nightly news.

In this more permissive environment, America’s clandestine intelligence collectors should thrive. But because there is no CIA station inside the country, it is very difficult for the agency to recruit agents or gather firsthand intelligence information. Unable to operate from inside Iran, the CIA has been forced to try to recruit and run agent networks inside Iran from outside the country, which as any intelligence professional will tell you is an extremely difficult proposition, especially given the effectiveness of the Iranian security services in rooting out spies.

The CIA’s Baghdad and Kabul stations have been infiltrating Iranian-born agents into Iran since 2003 with marginal success. The agency has been forced to largely depend to some degree on the intelligence services of a number of friendly European and Middle Eastern governments with embassies in Tehran to provide it with much of what it knows about what is going on inside Iran.

The CIA is not the only branch of the U.S. intelligence community actively spying inside Iran. The National Reconnaissance Office’s fleet of spy satellites keeps very close tabs on Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Qom and on the Iranian missile test ranges at Semnan, Shahrud, and Garmsar. American spy satellites are currently maintaining a constant vigil on a new missile launch facility fast approaching completion with the help of North Korean technicians at Semnan east of Tehran.

According to Michael Elleman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, who is the author of a new study of the Iranian missile program, this new facility will be used to launch a spy satellite into space on top of a large new booster rocket called the Simorgh, which many analysts believe is the prototype of an Iranian intercontinental ballistic missile. According to Elleman, “The launch, if it occurs as scheduled, will set off a fire-storm, especially by proponents of missile defense” in the United States who want to build a massive new defense system designed to shoot down these missiles before they can strike the United States.

The Eitor-in-chief at the French TOTAL supply base on the island of Kish.

The National Security Agency also devotes a significant amount of its SIGINT intercept resources to listening to Iranian military and internal security communications networks every day of the week. For example, NSA and its British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), keep a sizable number of Farsi linguists at the huge NSA listening post at Menwith Hill in northern England listening around the clock to Iranian communications. U.S. Navy and Air Force reconnaissance aircraft based in the Persian Gulf States of Bahrain and Qatar, and Air Force U-2 spy planes and Global Hawk high altitude reconnaissance drones based at Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, fly daily SIGINT and imagery collection missions along Iran’s borders with Iraq and Afghanistan and along Iran’s Persian Gulf coastline. Without live sources on the ground inside Iran, however, these technical intelligence sources are limited in terms of what they can tell us about what the Iranian regime is up to.

The need to know what the Iranian government’s intentions have never been greater, as the U.S. intelligence community has become increasingly concerned about the direction that Iran is headed. Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Iran has rapidly become a regional political and military power whose influence is seen to be on the rise. According to three Middle Eastern intelligence officials interviewed in 2009 and 2010, Iran, as a matter of national policy, is exporting instability throughout the Middle East, the Near East, and South Asia through coercive tactics, such as its continuing lavish support of terrorist groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. According to Lt. General Ronald L. Burgess Jr., the director of the DIA, “Iran uses terrorism to pressure or intimidate other countries and more broadly to serve as a strategic deterrent.”

Iran is also continuing to provide clandestine support to a number of extremist Shiite groups in Iraq. The U.S. intelligence community has a substantial volume of reliable intelligence showing that not only are the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and Iran’s covert intelligence organization, the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, running massive intelligence-gathering operations inside Iraq, but, according to leaked State Department cables, Iran is also providing weapons and money to extremist Shiite political and militia groups in Iraq opposed to the continuing U.S. military presence in that country.

Shahram Amiri, the Iranian nuclear scientist who returned to Tehran left behind some $5 million he was promised by the CIA as part of "benefits package" offered by the CIA's National Resettlement Operations Center, US officials told ABC News. "Anything he got is now beyond his reach, thanks to the sanctions against Iran," one US official said. "We've got his information and the Iranians have him." When Amiri defected, the CIA offered him $5 million for information about the Iranian nuclear weapons program. Typically, the CIA places these kinds of funds in escrow so that an informant is only paid bit by bit, at the agency's discretion.



There is some circumstantial evidence that Iran has covertly become involved in the war in Afghanistan. In September 2007, British forces in Afghanistan captured a shipment of Iranian-made advanced IEDs destined for Taliban fighters in Helmand Province. The British intelligence community’s evaluation of the matter, according to a leaked State Department cable, was that it demonstrated that Iranian intelligence operators belonging to the Quds Force were now engaged in the same sort of mischief in Afghanistan that they had exported to Iraq for years. But the British report left open the question of whether the Iranian government knew what the Quds Force operatives were up to, quoting a senior British official as saying that the Quds Force “may have attempted to conceal its activities from other branches of the Iranian government.”

The best that the U.S. intelligence community could conclude at the time, according to a DNI briefing, was that it was “likely” that the Iranian intelligence services were supporting the Taliban because they were the “enemy of my enemy,” that is to say, the United States. Now the U.S. intelligence community believes that the Iranians were just being prudent, supporting both sides in the conflict to ensure that they have a seat at the table regardless of who wins the war in Afghanistan. As a matter of policy, Iran has consistently opposed the Taliban, whom Tehran clearly views as an equal threat to its security as the American military presence in Afghanistan, if not a greater one.

According to a little-noticed presentation to Congress made by DNI Denny Blair in February 2009, “Iran has opposed Afghan reconciliation talks with the Taliban as risking an increase in the group’s influence and legitimacy. Iran distrusts the Taliban and opposes its return to power but uses the provision of lethal aid [to the Taliban] as a way to pressure Western forces, gather intelligence, and build ties that could protect Iran’s interests if the Taliban regain control of the country.”

The Iranian government has gone out of its way to maintain friendly relations with Afghan president Hamid Karzai and his closest advisers. According to U.S. intelligence sources, CIA surveillance of the activities of senior Iranian diplomats and intelligence officers in Kabul has revealed not only that the Iranian ambassador in Kabul, Feda Hussein Maliki, is a frequent visitor to Karzai’s presidential palace but also that the ambassador has for years been giving Karzai’s chief of staff, Mohammad Daudzai, a plastic bag filled with cash once a month. The sums involved have never been specified, but according to the New York Times, the payments over the years have totaled in the millions of dollars.

Senior U.S. intelligence officials believe that Tehran’s motive in making these large cash payments to Karzai is to drive a wedge between Washington and the Afghan government. According to these officials, Tehran has also been making comparable payments to two other members of Karzai’s kitchen cabinet, Information and Culture Minister Abdul Karim Khoram, and Education Minister Farooq Wardak, who are infamous in Kabul diplomatic circles for their attempts to use their positions of influence to push Karzai away from his alliance with the United States. According to a leaked State Department cable, these three men “provide [Karzai] misleading advice and conspire to isolate Karzai from more pragmatic (and pro-Western) advisors in a purposeful effort to antagonize Western countries, especially the United States.”

But it has been Iran’s extremely controversial nuclear weapons development program that has dominated the U.S. intelligence community’s interest in Iran since it began working on the project back in 1985. The CIA’s “Iran station” in Dubai has covertly tried to disrupt Tehran’s nuclear program for more than a decade by tracking Iranian clandestine purchases of nuclear related technology from countries such as the People’s Republic of China and North Korea using money held in Iranian government bank accounts in Dubai. Thanks to cooperation from the UAE intelligence services, the U.S. intelligence community has been able to interdict some of these clandestine nuclear shipments, but American officials admit that most of these shipments have managed to get through despite their best efforts.

Information provided by an Iranian dissident group in 2002 led to the discovery of a secret underground uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, located halfway between the cities of Isfahan and Kashan in central Iran. According to U.S. intelligence sources, the discovery of Natanz led the CIA in 2004 and 2005 to use its Predator unmanned drones to conduct secret reconnaissance overflight missions over the facility and the deployment sites for Iran’s long- range ballistic missile units. Some of these drone missions were conducted from Balad Air Base in Iraq; others were launched from Karshi-Khanabad Air Base in Uzbekistan. The Iranians formally protested these overflights, but the U.S. government refused to confirm or deny that it was behind these secret flights.

Five years later in 2007, intelligence information provided by the NSA revealed that a team of Iranian engineers, led by a shadowy figure named Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, had been diligently working on designs for a nuclear weapon to be carried by one of Iran’s new generation of long- range ballistic missiles, but that this work had been ordered halted in 2003 shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. This new information formed the basis for a controversial November 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on the Iranian nuclear program, which concluded, “We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.”

But two years later, according to senior American intelligence sources, the intelligence community had to reverse many of its 2007 findings after an Iranian nuclear physicist named Shahram Amiri defected in May 2009 while making the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Sources confirm that Amiri’s defection was entirely voluntary, facilitated by the cooperation the CIA received from the Saudi General Intelligence Directorate.

The information Amiri brought with him was deemed so important that the CIA offered him a $5 million cash reward. The CIA leaked his name to the press in March 2010, describing his defection as “an intelligence coup.”

But in July 2010, Amiri returned to Iran without the $5 million in cash that the CIA had given him, claiming that he had been kidnapped by CIA officers in Saudi Arabia. The CIA formally denied the allegation, claiming that Amiri had been a willing defector whose information had significantly enhanced the U.S. intelligence community’s knowledge of the Iranian nuclear program.

In the U.S. intelligence community, the Amiri re-defection was a huge embarrassment, the latest in a string of high-level defectors dating back to the 1970s who later chose to return home. In the eyes of some intelligence officials, Amiri’s re-defection was a stark reminder of the peril innate in placing one’s faith in human agents with all their foibles.

Despite doubts about Amiri’s reliability, the U.S. intelligence community stuck by the information he provided. Based in part on the information provided by Amiri, as well as information provided by the Mossad, on September 27, 2009, President Obama and the leaders of Great Britain and France publicly accused Iran of building a secret underground uranium enrichment facility one hundred miles south of Tehran on the grounds of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base at Fordow, located outside the holy city of Qom. At the time of the announcement, the Qom site was far from complete, but the analysts believed that at the rate construction was going it would be ready by 2010.

The discovery of the secret uranium enrichment facility outside Qom dramatically changed how the U.S. intelligence community assessed the Iranian nuclear program. What it boiled down to was this: All of the intelligence indicated that the Iranians were not being truthful when they said that their nuclear program was intended solely for civilian purposes. Rather, the intelligence indicated that the Iranians had built just enough centrifuges at Natanz and Qom to process enriched uranium for use in a nuclear weapon, but not anywhere near enough for a civilian nuclear power reactor.

In August 2010, the National Intelligence Council issued a draft National Intelligence Estimate that essentially reversed most of the conclusions of the November 2007 estimate on the Iranian nuclear program. Based in part on information provided by Amiri, the 2010 intelligence estimate concluded that Iran was indeed developing nuclear weapons components and secretly enriching nuclear material that could be used in a nuclear weapon. But the estimate added that it was not known whether the Iranian government had made the decision to go one step further and actually build a nuclear weapon.

According to a 2011 interview with Michael Eisenstadt, the director of military and security studies at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the Iranians currently have enough enriched uranium for three to four nuclear weapons, but they would probably like to have a stockpile of uranium sufficient for about one hundred bombs, even if they do not actually move ahead and build the weapons themselves. Just having the raw materials on hand along with a viable bomb design would be as sufficient a deterrent as having the bombs themselves.

Deep differences remain within the U.S. intelligence community as to whether Iran has resumed work on building an atomic bomb. When asked in late 2010 for his opinion as to whether Iran was actively working on a nuclear weapon, one senior American intelligence official could only shrug his shoulders and say, “Your guess is as good as mine.”

GCHQ's beyond top secret Middle Eastern internet spy base

Exclusive Above-top-secret details of Britain’s covert surveillance programme - including the location of a clandestine British base tapping undersea cables in the Middle East - have so far remained secret. Government pressure has meant that some media organi-zations have declined to reveal them

The Seeb spy base on Northern side of Oman

The secret British spy base is part of a programme codenamed “CIRCUIT” and also referred to as Overseas Processing Centre 1 (OPC-1). It is located at Seeb, on the northern coast of Oman, where it taps in to various undersea cables passing through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian/Arabian Gulf. Seeb is one of a three site GCHQ network in Oman, at locations codenamed “TIMPANI”, “GUITAR” and “CLARINET”. TIMPANI, near the Strait of Hormuz, can monitor Iraqi communications. CLARINET, in the south of Oman, is strategically close to Yemen.

British national telco BT, referred to within GCHQ and the American NSA under the ultra-classified codename “REMEDY”, and Vodafone Cable (which owns the former Cable & Wireless company, aka “GERONTIC”) are the two top earners of secret GCHQ payments running into tens of millions of pounds annually.

The actual locations of such codenamed “access points” into the worldwide cable backbone are classified 3 levels above Top Secret and labelled “Strap 3”.The true identities of the companies hidden behind codenames such as “REMEDY”, “GERONTIC”, “STREETCAR” or “PINNAGE” are classified one level below this, at “Strap 2”.

After these details were withheld, the government opted not to move against the Guardian newspaper last year for publishing above-top-secret information at the lower level designated “Strap 1”. This included details of the billion-pound interception storage system, Project TEMPORA, which were revealed in 2013 and which have triggered Parliamentary enquiries in Britain and Europe, and cases at the European Court of Human Rights. The Guardian was forced to destroy hard drives of leaked information to prevent political embarrassment over extensive commercial arrangements with these and other telecommunications companies who have secretly agreed to tap their own and their customers’ or partners’ overseas cables for the intelligence agency GCHQ. Intelligence chiefs also wished to conceal the identities of countries helping GCHQ and its US partner the NSA by sharing information or providing facilities.

According to documents revealed by Edward Snowden to journalists including Glenn Greenwald among others, the intelligence agency annually pays selected companies tens of millions of pounds to run secret teams which install hidden connections which copy customers' data and messages to the spooks’ processing centres. The GCHQ-contracted companies also install optical fibre taps or “probes” into equipment belonging to other companies without their knowledge or consent. Within GCHQ, each company has a special section called a “Sensitive Relationship Team” or SRT.

BT and Vodafone/C&W also operate extensive long distance optical fibre communications networks throughout the UK, installed and paid for by GCHQ, NSA, or by a third and little known UK intelligence support organization called the National Technical Assistance Centre (NTAC).

The leaks reveal that every time GCHQ wanted to tap a new international optical fibre cable, engineers from “REMEDY” (BT) would usually be called in to plan where the taps or “probe” would physically be connected to incoming optical fibre cables, and to agree how much BT should be paid. The spooks' secret UK access network feeds Internet data from more than 18 submarine cables coming into different parts of Britain either direct to GCHQ in Cheltenham or to its remote processing station at Bude in Cornwall.

Among the cables specifically identified in one document as currently being intercepted or “on cover” are an Irish connection, Hibernia Atlantic, landing in Southport, and three European connections landing at Yarmouth, Dover, and Brighton.



جنگ ایران و عراق آزادسازی خرمشهر 

CLICK AND PLAY

THE LIBERATION OF KHORRAMSHAHR 

Petrofilm.com travel along the border Between Iran and Iraq and Reports from the Liberation of Khorramshahr

Editor-in-chief Harald Dahle-Sladek, left, has arived in Abadan close to the border of Iraq in the southern province of Khuzestan.

Dahle's frame grabs from the car: We are on the Iranian side. To the right can be seen the high voltage electricity lines shot in half by Sadam's Scud Missiles. To the left are the new constructed electricity lines. Iraq is 1600ft to the right from the war-ridden electricity masts. From Abadan International Airport in direction of the Persian Gulf. Sixty-five kilometers to Mahshahr, Moon City, and two hundred and fifteen to Ahvaz. Frame grab from video by Harald Dahle-Sladek. North of the Persian Gulf in Iranian waters: From the bridge of seismec survey vessel Bin Hain 504: We spot a myserious oil tanker with lanterns shut off waiting to sneak out of the Gulf after sunset. Frame grab by Harald Dahle-Sladek.

CLICK PLAY PETROFILM.COM VISION OF IRAN VIDEO

PETROFILM.COM

 ANALYSIS INFORMATION FROM A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

Click and Play John Snow News at 10 Reporting from Khorramshahr

Khorramshahr was liberated street-by-street.

CLICK AND PLAY STREET FIGHTS IN KHORRAMSHAHR

Iraqi soldiers taken prisoners by Iran.

THE UNITED STATES AND IRAN

A Question of Dignity in our Time.

An open letter to the President of the United States of America Joseph Biden.

As we speak, we are sitting on a wreck in the middle of a turbu-lent river moving this way or the other in the direction of total annihilation. Five hundred million people in the Persian Gulf and nearby regions will be drawn into this conflict; five hundred million dead and those who will envy death. And that is just the very beginning.

Prime minister Neville Chamberlain walked that road when he proudly came back from Munich with the signatures of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and pulled the world into global mayhem. That will be as thin tea in comparison to this conflict. The Iran, China, Russia axis will guarantee that.

This conflict is not about twenty percent enrichment or twenty one percent enrichment. Neither is it about a small state in the middle East in conflict with a large state in the middle East. We are way beyond that.

The people of the United States – or America as we said when I grew up – tend to reach out to their God every time this great nation is mentioned, “God bless America” they say with near-fanaticism in their voices. The world is not interested in that. What we are concerned about is what deeds does America do.

Wars instigated on false premises, such as the war in Iraq where millions of people are uprooted, wars in North Africa where more millions are uprooted; the creation and support of the Islamic state of Iraq and Levant, the terror organization ISIS, the Vietnam war, the denial to reciprocate the Islamic republic’s assistance to the United States engagement in Afghanistan; are these mediocre and dehuma-nizing and politically embarrassing achievements also being blessed by their God?

There was once a Man who said, “If you read my words and adhere to my teachings, you will be like branches in me that bear fruit. An My Father will see to that you will produce more fruits. I give you (spiritual) Joy, so that your (spiritual) joy may be complete.” Is the United States adhering to these words and live after them, so that it’s deeds – it’s fruits – will be good and permanent?

This scenario is not about percentages of refined Uranium. It is about Dignity. When I was a young boy at eleven, I admired America. I used to look at beautiful advertisements in color of beautiful, American cars surrounded by beautiful admiring people. And my friends did too!

Will the next generations of children in the world continue to admire America the way we did when I grew up? That is what this conflict is about. Because, what are we as human beings when our Dignity is gone, and only the raw, cognitive, hyper rational embodiment in all its ugliness shine through in a seductive, but evil and degrading manner. Yes, I ask, “What are we?” Nothing.

As the United States is lost for solution to the ongoing dilemma with the Islamic republic, I advise President Joseph Biden to comprise dignity and to lift all present sanctions on Iran. Thereby securing the position of an esteemed United States – put spirituality in the words of the leaders and adhere to the teachings of the “God” that it so dearly and often does in public. Restore our confidence in the “Beacon of Hope and Democracy”.

This, Mr. President, is what is needed to solve the deadlock: Rise above mediocracy, restore human Dignity and guarantee that the next generations of kids will continue to admire America.

The Stealthy Civil War OF

  the United States

 Polarization of the American society became more evident under President Donald J. Trump.

Dear friends and readers!

We have become aware of the violent culture underpinning American politics of today, even though such incidents are usually not acknow-ledged or reported, but often repressed and denied. The outcome of the first American civil war fought from 1861 to 1865 decided who should be included in the winner’s club and steer the new nation into the future.

The second American civil war, which is fought in our own time by stealth, is deciding who shall not be included in the winner’s club. It is against these two contradictory scenarios that many of the violent political deaths that has occurred in the United States speak more clearly to us, stand out in a way we have not realized before and warn us. Stay vigilant folks. Help fight terrorism, domestic and foreign. Report suspicious incidents to the authorities. Have a blessed day, cheers!



THE DIGNITY OF HUMAN VALUES

In the past months or so I have published articles and information that I have written concerning Iran one way or the other. I have done this to emphasize the importance of not isolating Iran. Isolating Iran in a coherent, hyper-rational and near genocidal way runs contrary to dignity of human values, as well as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court ICC. The United States does not recog-nize the ICC. Of good reason, because it knows very well that many of its former and present leaders would be indicted regarding war crimes and crimes against humanity. But USA aside; the ongoing, dehumanizing, and genocidal attitude towards an entire population, it’s leadership, the people of Iran, and denying them lifesaving medical assistance is equal to genocide.

PROPAGANDA FOR A DEADLY SCENARIO

It is our solemn duty to warn against what is happening, regardless which country it might be.  The use of nuclear pre-emptive strike against a people and nation is a crime against humanity. The case of the Islamic Republic in our time is a test-bed for human dignity in the Western culture.

A culture which has proven again and again that it is capable of extermination of civilizations such as the Jews in Europe between 1941 and 1945; the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945;  the overkill terror bombing of the civil population of the German cities of Dresden and Hamburg by the American and British Air Forces on February 13, 1945. And in our time denying the people of Iran medical supplies among other highly needed goods. These examples are connected. Hiroshima has happened once, and it can happen again. We have no guarantee that it will not happen again.

The ongoing media propaganda from United Against Nuclear Iran UANI plays right into the hands of the instigators of this pre-war and deadly scenario.

EUROPE

Muhammad Cartoon Drawings in the Last days of a Waning Christian Faith.

Muslims must find other ways than killing people in Europe to express their frustration over Muhammad cartoon drawings. It is not acceptable. However! The Europeans must show dignity and piety towards non-Christian religions and beliefs. History has shown, that in Europe, this is an illusion.



This is not a cartoon drawing.

Prophet Muhammad, the Messenger of God

The fanaticism of European right-wing politics intertwined with Christian beliefs, supported both on the Catholic as well as on the Protestant side proves this correct. The Vatican’s support of the Independent Ustaše State of Croatia, Nezavisna Država Hrvatska NDH, between 1941 and 1945. Pope Pius XII betrayed the Jews, collaboration with the Nazi Party to withdraw the Catholic Center Party which paved the way for Adolf Hitler to become Chancellor.

European anti-Muslim feelings go back to the Middle Ages and earlier. Military Christian orders like Knights Templars, the Knights Hospitaller, Order of St James, Order of Calatrava, Sovereign Military Order of Malta and order of St John are Catholic and Protestant successors of the Nights Hospitaller. In 1053, for the Battle of Civitate, the Knights of Saint Peter was founded as a militia by Pope Leo IX to counter the Normans. In response to the Islamic conquests of the former Byzantine Empire, numerous Catholic military orders were set up following the First Crusade.

The founding of such orders suited the Catholic church's plan of channeling the devotion of the European nobility toward achieving the Church's temporal goals, and it also complemented the Peace and Truce of God. The foundation of the Knights Templar in 1118 provided the first in a series of tightly organized military forces for the purpose of opposing Islamic conquests in the Holy Land and in the Iberian Peninsula as well as Islamic invaders and pagan tribes in Eastern Europe which were perceived as threats to the Church's supremacy.

In Europe, Freedom of expression, Article 19 in UN’s Charter, is hyped up as basis for a collective European downgrading  of Prophet Muhammad. But, as the Europeans twist and bend their argumen-tation for making the Prophet look hilarious and even get the support of State leaders, empathy, respect, and dignity among Western cultures is waning like fog on an October, cold morning.

The Knights Order have been replaced by the Military Western Alliance, the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Denmark, Norway, and Spain. Hyped-up illegal wars under the pretext of weapons of mass destruction have erased Islamic cultures from North Africa till Iraq and Afghanistan. Such is the lack of respect for Prophet Muhammad in the West, that a war on Iran will seem “justifiable”, “in our interest” and blessed by the Christian supre-macies. Muhammad cartoon drawings in the last days of a waning Christian European faith is a serious warning sign of wars to come!

IRAN

 MANOUCHEHR MOTTAKI

FOREIGN MINISTER IN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD AMEDINEJAD'S GOVERNMENT

    From U.S. Dollars to

A Basket of Currencies!

Manouchehr Mottaki interviewed by Harald Dahle

Dahle: - Your Excellency Mottaki, Iran is shying away from trading in US Dollars. Why is that? 

Mottaki: - Central Bank Governor Valiollah Seif said last week that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had welcomed his suggestion of replacing the dollar with the euro in foreign trade, as the “dollar has no place in our transactions today”. I believe this has been a good decition by the Central Bank Governor.

Dahle: -I understand that Iran is relying on a basket of currencies, such as the Euro and the Yen.

Mottaki: -Tehran has been trying for years to move away from the dollar, although much of the country’s international trade is still conducted in dollars and ordinary Iranians use them for travel and savings.

Dahle: -I understand. Bank transactions involving the dollar are already difficult for Iran because legal risks make U.S. banks unwilling to do business with Tehran. Foreign firms can be exposed to sanctions if they do Iranian deals in dollars, even if the operations involve non-U.S. branches.

Mottaki: -France will start offering euro-denominated credits to Iranian buyers of its goods later this year to keep its trade out of reach of U.S. sanctions, the head of state-owned French investment bank Bpi-France said in February. The threat of U.S. sanctions has destabilized Iran’s foreign exchange market in recent month

Dahle: -Khamenei on Wednesday blamed foreign enemies for the “recent issues in the currency market” and asked Iran’s intelligence services to defuse the plots against the Islamic Republic. Police spokesman Saeed Montazer al-Mahdi was also quoted by ISNA saying that 39 currency exchangers have been arrested “for disrupting the market” and 80 unlicensed currency exchange shops have been shut down in recent days.

SEAL OF THE FOREIGN MINISTRY

 THE FOREIGN MINISTRY

AMBASSADOR ALI AHANI

"NORWAY WAS ONE OF THE LAST COUNTRIES IN EUROPE  TO ESTABLISH GOOD AND SUSTAINABLE TIES WITH THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN"

Ambassador to Europe and America, the present Ambassador to Paris, the sencond time, His Excellency Ali Ahani and Harald Dahle-Sladek in Dr. Ahani's office in the Foreign Ministry Tehran, April 2002.

Picture below from the video during the interview. From Left the translator, Ambassador Ali Ahani and Editor-in-Chief Harald Dahle-Sladek. (C)2002 Harald Dahle Oslo.

In 2000 Norway finally entered the Islamic Republic of Iran. Then, the Foreign Department in Tehran had waited for twenty years or more wondering why Norway, with its specialized deep-water technologies, had not come and helped Iran to build the South Pars project, and other offshore and onshore projects.

When I arrived the Foreign Department in Tehran in April 2002 the mood was somber, to say the least. Ambassador Ali Ahani was angry. The Norwegian Foreign Department had for years played on both sides of the street cultivating contacts with opposition groups to Iran, like the Mujahidin Kalk MEK. The attitude from the Norwegians had been cordial, but stiff, and had not reflected the greatness in the Iranian culture and its people. Tehran was very hurt.

Dahle-Sladek: -With regards to Norway and Iran relations Ambassador Ahani, I notice some slight irritation on your part, why is that?

Ali-Ahani: -In fact, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Norway have many opportunities. In addition to the economic and industrial cooperation we have oil and gas. I would like to emphasize the importance for us to finalize the oil and gas projects in the South along the Persian Gulf, as well as in the Caspian Sea. Norway and Iran are two important oil producing countries and can cooperate and coordination in the world oil market and stabilize oil prices, which would be in the interest of both oil producers and oil consumers.

Dahle-Sladek: -You mentioned that the Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Pettersen's visit to Tehran was a kind of watershed. Could you please explain that?

Ali-Ahani: In fact, in the past years, our relations lacked the sufficient momentum to further expand our relations. And in fact, compared to other countries in Europe, our relations with Norway were lagging behind. The visit of your Foreign Minister to Tehran show the firm determination of your country for the expansion of the relations with Iran. And certainly, there is such a political will and enthusiasm on the part of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran!

Dahle-Sladek: -Thank you Dr. Ahani.

Picture below: Foreign Ministry Tehran. From left, interpretor. At center, His Excellency Ambassador Ali Ahani; today Ambassador to Paris; to the right Editor-in-Chief Harald Dahle-Sladek from Petrofilm.com

THE STATE OF THE WORLD AS LIED TO IN THE MEDIA

1938 REVISITED?

One mistake, and the world as we know it is gone. One slightest error, and the civilization that we so proudly and arrogantly cling to will dissolve into fine dust encircling our desolated planet.

But, that fact does not seem to bother anyone. Wrapped in hyper-logic exasperations of the most desolated sort, mankind is rapidly drifting towards its own disintegration; proclaimed by rational world leaders as “a sustainable future” with “zero emission”. It is all a lie! There is no “sustainable future” and “zero emission” is a fantasy product presented, while death and destruction are filling our lungs.

And I am not referring to the ongoing pandemic. Not at all. That, after all, is a minor incident in the Grand drama. In 1993 I went with the Norwegian-owned buoy-tanker Anna Knutsen from Antwerp in the Netherlands to the Statfjord C buoy on the Norwegian side. We collected 200.000tons of crude and brought it back to Teesside in England. There are twenty and more tankers shuttling up to Norway every month collecting crude. Each of these giants evaporate enough carbon-gas to destroy life in a small town. Multiply that with 2000, because that is the daily gift of poisonous vapor which Norway, in all it’s green, self-proclaimed hype, gives back to mankind. Just a thought.

Here is another one. In 2003 I visited Fushun in North-East China. What’s so interesting about Fushun, you might ask? Fushun is the place of the Ping Ding Massacre. The one that Japan committed towards the local, Chinese population there. But, again, that is a minor incident in the Grand drama. For centuries Fushun’s West Pit has been the largest open-pit coal mine in Asia. It contributed greatly to China’s new prosperity, before it was shut down in 2019.

 We will accept any solution – and I underline “any” – to advance the economy. We will even burn down the Rain Forrest in Brazil. The common longue of renewable oxygen in the world. While lame European Union and the United States watch by and do nothing.

 We are on the edge of an unfathomable deep abyss. From where there is no hope of survival. Just as it was in 1938 in the German Reich. They believed in the cause and failed. We believe in our cause, and we are failing. Again. These days as we are living are the days of 1938 revisited. Our leaders are not qualified to bring mankind safely forward. Covid-19 has proved that. We are going down on a first-class ticket with no possibility of return. Amused? Have a wonderful day!



Monuments Carved in Granite on Barren Fields

A warning sign for our time.

When one talks about Life, it is pertinent to ask, what life does one mean? The entire life, or just selected parts of it? The parts that we like and prefer and leave the rest not to be mentioned? The person who says she “loves me”, but ignore everything that I have achieved after I came out of the hospital?

The people who will walk a mile with me, but say “no thank you” to carry my burden and walk another mile? The ones who never invited me for a cup of tea, but proclaim seriously that I am a “friend”? The ones who admire their own achievements highly, but never had time to visit me once? What life are they adhering to? The one in parts, or the one in totality?

I want to be seen in totality; I do not want that my life be selectively butchered and twisted into something it is not. My articles are monuments in stone in a barren landscape devoid of humanism. They are there to warn and to encourage, but not to be neglected.

In today’s vain world, where it has become so increasingly popular to talk IN a mobile phone, instead of empathizing WITH and showing human DIGNITY; where one is accustomed to appreciating media hype, political lies, lack  of responsibilities leading to mass starvations and mass death; in such a world and coldness between people, the abnormal has become the trend, and sadly this is what we adhere to.

In such an inter human setting, the message is clear, why bother to respect the other person right in front of ourselves. It is so much easier to babble because the spoken word carries no longer any commitment, it is free, it does not cost anything to say this or the other. Life is easy when one is free not to engage in another person’s life-and-death experiences, when it is so much more convenient to look at a movie.

People who ignore monuments carved out in granite on barren fields are confirming themselves to the believes of death and destruction. We who write and warn have the humanistic right to say this. It is our task in life. Not to be kind to death and destruction, but to admire and encourage Life. We expect the same from others as we expect from ourselves. And if “the other” fail, we must go forward alone, and warn. That is our destiny.

HONG KONG: THERE IS ONLY ONE MOTHERLAND

We must build dialogue and common ground with the People's Republic of China. China must not be isolated. That will lead to war.

我們必須與中華人民共和國建立對

話和共同點。中國絕不能孤立。那會導致戰 爭

香港 中國的法律權利

親愛的朋友和讀者們。 治安是中國的基石。 祖國擁有在其自己的領土後院香港實施法律和秩序的合法權利。 無需徵得任何其他國家的許可。 在西方，這既不是很好理解也不是很受歡迎。 西方天真的從“民主”和“權利”的角度講是政治上的壓迫，是宣傳。 香港是祖國； 只有一個。 美國在製裁世界“每個其他”國家之前，應照顧好自己的人權和黑人公民問題。 祝你有美好的一天，乾杯

CHINA’S LEGAL RIGHT

Law and order are the corner stone of China. The Motherland has legal right to impose law and order in it’s own territorial backyard, Hong Kong. Without having to ask any other country of permission. In the West, this is neither not very well understood nor liked. Western naivete spun in terms of democracy and “rights” are often presented as political oppression and used as propaganda. Hong Kong is the Motherland; and there is only one. 

HONG KONG



THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

Happy 4th of July!

Monuments Carved in Stone on Barren Fields!

When one talks about Life, it is pertinent to ask, what life does one mean? The entire life, or just selected parts of it? The parts that we like and prefer and leave the rest not to be mentioned? The person who says she “loves me”, but ignore everything that I have achieved?

The people who will walk a mile with me, but say “no thank you” to carry my burden and walk another mile? The ones who never invited me for a cup of tea, but proclaim seriously that I am a “friend”? The ones who admire their own achievements highly, but never had time to visit me once? What life are they adhering to? The one in parts, or the one in totality?

Stonehenge: A warning sign for our time.



I want to be seen in totality; I do not want that my life be selectively butchered and twisted into something it is not. My articles are monuments in stone in a barren landscape devoid of humanism. They are there to warn and to encourage, but not to be neglected.

In today’s vain world, where it has become so increasingly popular to talk IN a mobile phone, instead of empathizing WITH and showing human DIGNITY; where one is accustomed to appreciating media hype, political lies, lack  of responsibilities leading to mass starvations and mass death; in such a world and coldness between people, the abnormal has become the trend, and sadly this is what we adhere to.

In such an inter human setting, the message is clear, why bother to respect the other person right in front of ourselves. It is so much easier to babble because the spoken word carries no longer any commitment, it is free, it does not cost anything to say this or the other. Life is easy when one is free not to engage in another person’s life-and-death experiences, when it is so much more convenient to look at a movie.

People who ignore monuments carved out in granite on barren fields are confirming themselves to the believes of death and destruction. We who write and warn have the humanistic right to say this. It is our task in life. Not to be kind to death and destruction, but to admire and encourage Life. We expect the same from others as we expect from ourselves. And if “the other” fail, we must go forward alone, and warn. That is our destiny.



 CLICK TEXT PLAY JUSTICE GLENCORE VIDEO

Swiss-Based Firm Agrees to Pay Over $1.1 Billion

Glencore Entered Guilty Pleas to Foreign Bribery and Market Manipulation Schemes

UKRAINE WAR CRIMES

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Visits Ukraine, Reaffirms U.S. Commitment to Help Identify, Apprehend, and Prosecute Individuals Involved in War Crimes and Atrocities

Garland meets with Ukrainian Prosecutor General; Announces Counselor for War Crimes Accounta-bility

“There is no hiding place for war criminals. The U.S. Justice Department will pursue every avenue of accountability for those who commit war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine.”

In a meeting with Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland commended the efforts of the Ukrainian people to defend democracy and uphold the rule of law, and announced additional U.S. actions to help Ukraine identify, apprehend, and prosecute those individuals involved in war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine.

“The United States stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine in the face of Russia’s continued aggression and assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said Attorney General Garland. “America – and the world – has seen the many horrific images and read the heart-wrenching accounts of brutality and death that have resulted from Russia’s unjust invasion of Ukraine.”

Specifically, Attorney General Garland announced the launch of a War Crimes Accountability Team to centralize and strengthen the Justice Department’s ongoing work to hold accountable those who have committed war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine. This initiative will bring together the Department’s leading experts in investigations involving human rights abuses and war crimes and other atrocities; and provide wide-ranging technical assistance, including operational assistance and advice regarding criminal prosecutions, evidence collection, forensics, and relevant legal analysis. The team will also play an integral role in the Department’s ongoing investigation of potential war crimes over which the U.S. possesses jurisdiction, such as the killing and wounding of U.S. journalists covering the unprovoked Russian aggression in Ukraine.

“There is no hiding place for war criminals. The U.S. Justice Department will pursue every avenue of accountability for those who commit war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine,” said Attorney General Garland. “Working alongside our domestic and international partners, the Justice Department will be relentless in our efforts to hold accountable every person complicit in the commission of war crimes, torture, and other grave violations during the unprovoked conflict in Ukraine.”

To lead this effort, the Attorney General has tapped Eli Rosenbaum to serve as Counselor for War Crimes Accountability. Rosenbaum is a 36-year veteran of the Justice Department who previously served as Director of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), which was primarily responsible for identifying, denaturalizing, and deporting Nazi war criminals. In his role as Counselor for War Crimes Accountability, Rosenbaum will coordinate efforts across the Justice Department and the federal government to hold accountable those responsible for war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine. Rosenbaum will be joined in his work by other prosecutors from the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP), including Acting Section Chief Hope Olds and prosecutors Christian Levesque, Christina Giffin, and Courtney Urschel.

In addition, the Justice Department will provide additional personnel to expand its work with Ukraine and other partners to counter Russian illicit finance and sanctions evasion. Among other things, the Department will provide Ukraine an expert Justice Department prosecutor to advise on fighting kleptocracy, corruption, and money laundering. In addition, it plans to deploy two expert attorneys from the Office of International Affairs (OIA) – one to a U.S. Embassy in Europe, and another to a U.S. Embassy in the Middle East – in support of the Department’s KleptoCapture Task Force. These senior attorneys will work closely with their counterparts in EU member states and Middle Eastern countries to facilitate mutual legal assistance and extraditions relating to Russian illicit finance and sanctions evasion, including with respect to designated Russian oligarchs who have supported the Russian regime and its efforts to undermine Ukrainian sovereignty.

Attorney General Garland announced the KleptoCapture Task Force in March to further leverage the Department’s tools and authorities against efforts to evade or undermine the economic actions taken by the U.S. Government in response to Russian military aggression. Since then, the task force has facilitated the seizure of superyachts of two sanctioned individuals with close ties to the Russian regime; dismantled Russian criminal networks; and enforced sanctions violations, among other actions.



LITHUANIA

RUSSIAN FAIT ACCOMPLI CONFRONTS NATO WITH UNPALATABLE CHOICES.

 Russian forces knocking on the gates of Riga and Tallinn in two or three days would present NATO leaders with a set of highly unattractive options. The leaders and people of the Baltic states, who would need to decide whether to defend their capitals, would confront the first quandary.

Quality light forces, like the U.S. airborne infantry that the NATO players typically deployed into Riga and Tallinn, can put up stout resistance when dug into urban terrain. But the cost of mounting such a defense to the city and its residents is typically very high, as the residents of Grozny learned at the hands of the Russian Army in 1999–2000.

Furthermore, these forces likely could not be resupplied or relieved before being over- whelmed. Whether Estonia’s or Latvia’s leaders would choose to turn their biggest cities into battlefields—indeed, whether they should—is, of course, uncertain. The second and larger conundrum would be one for the U.S. President and the leaders of the other 27 NATO countries.

Under the best of circumstances, this would require a fairly prolonged buildup that could stress the cohesion of the alliance and allow Russia opportunities to seek a political reso- lution that left it in possession of its conquests. Even a successful counteroffensive would almost certainly be bloody and costly and would have political consequences that are unforeseeable in advance but could prove dramatic. Any counteroffensive would also be fraught with severe escalatory risks. If the Crimea experience can be taken as a precedent, Moscow could move rapidly to formally annex the occupied territories to Russia.

NATO clearly would not recognize the legitimacy of such a gambit, but from Russia’s per- spective it would at least nominally bring them under Moscow’s nuclear umbrella. By turning a NATO counterattack aimed at liberating the Baltic republics into an “invasion” of “Russia,” Moscow could generate unpredictable but clearly dangerous escalatory dynamics.

On a tactical level, a counteroffensive campaign into the Baltics would likely entail the desire, and perhaps even the necessity, of striking targets, such as long-range surface-to-air defenses and surface-to-surface fires systems, in territory that even NATO would agree constitutes “Russia.” Under Russian doctrine, it is unclear what kinds or magnitudes of conventional attacks into Russian territory might trigger a response in kind (or worse), but there would certainly be concern in Washington and other NATO capitals about possible escalatory implications.

 Finally, it is also unclear how Russia would react to a successful NATO counteroffensive that threatened to decimate the bulk of its armed forces along its western frontier; at what point would tactical defeat in the theater begin to appear like a strategic threat to Russia herself?

 The second option would be for NATO to turn the escalatory tables, taking a page from its Cold War doctrine of “massive retaliation,” and threaten Moscow with a nuclear response if it did not withdraw from the territory it had occupied. This option was a core element of the Alliance’s strategy against the Warsaw Pact for the duration of the latter’s existence and could certainly be called on once again in these circumstances.

The deterrent impact of such a threat draws power from the implicit risk of igniting an escalatory spiral that swiftly reaches the level of nuclear exchanges between the Russian and U.S. homelands. Unfortunately, once deterrence has failed—which would clearly be the case once Russia had crossed the Rubicon of attacking NATO member states—that same risk would tend to greatly undermine its credibility, since it may seem highly unlikely to Moscow that the United States would be willing to exchange New York for Riga.

 Coupled with the general direction of U.S. defense policy, which has been to de-emphasize the value of nuclear weapons, and the likely unwillingness of NATO’s European members, especially the Baltic states themselves, to see their continent or countries turned into a nuclear battlefield, this lack of believability makes this alternative both unlikely and unpal- atable.

 The third possibility would be to concede, at least for the near to medium term, Russian control of the territory they had occupied. Under this scenario, the best outcome would likely be a new cold war, with the 21st century’s version of the old “inner German border” drawn somewhere across Lithuania or Latvia. The worst be would be the collapse of NATO itself and the crumbling of the cornerstone of Western security for more than seventy years. 

Is Norway a Country

the United States can Trust?

By the Editor-iin-chief

Follow this Link play video

My deep and accurate examination of the European peace movement and its protest against the deployment of the American neutron bomb in Europe between 1977 and 1983 convinced me that high up in the Norwegian bureaucracy were people who were apparently protectors of Western defense interests, but who in reality had a completely different agenda.

It was my view at the time - something I expressed in the newspaper Morgenbladet - that the surveillance did a bad job and to divert attention from this, the same surveillance chose to unfold and enlarge, put the light on and highlight insignificance. I became such an insignificant one eagerly chose to prioritize.

It is still my conviction today - forty-five years after the neutron bomb - that high up in the Norwegian political power structure are individuals who purposefully work for a different and defined agenda. Kongsberg / Toshiba, Norsk Data and Berg support this.

How can one trust an intelligence and a police force that travels land and beach around Europe and on other continents and willingly unfolds their "invisible" and well-preserved working methods, routines, people and materials and behaves like a bunch of spoiled, knowledgeable , naughty, lying and drug addicted teens?

Norway is a haven for extremist, foreign political organizations. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is therefore forced to strike a balance between bilateral issues and the interests of integrated terrorist organizations. Is this what former State Secretary Pål Lønseth in the political section of the Ministry of Justice referred to when he in connection with the revelations of US interception in Europe through PRISM, freshly and freely stated that, "The relationship between Norway and the US is close and good"?

The question is: Is Norway a country the United States can trust? In Washington people have long been sitting and biting nails And they are now becoming very short!

American Woman Who Led ISIS Battalion Pleads Guilty

Allison Fluke-Ekren Admits

to Providing Military Training to Over 100 Women and Young Girls in Syria on Behalf of ISIS and Numerous Other Terrorist Acts

A U.S. citizen pleaded guilty today in the Eastern District of Virginia to organizing and leading an all-female military battalion in Syria on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization.

According to court documents, Allison Fluke-Ekren, aka Allison Ekren, aka Umm Mohammed al-Amriki and aka Umm Mohammed, 42, a former resident of Kansas, traveled overseas and from in or about September 2011 through in or about May 2019, engaged in terrorism-related activities in multiple countries, including Syria, Libya and Iraq. Fluke-Ekren ultimately served as the leader and organizer of an ISIS military battalion, known as the Khatiba Nusaybah, where she trained women on the use of automatic firing AK-47 assault rifles, grenades and suicide belts. Over 100 women and young girls, including as young as 10 or 11-years-old, received military training from Fluke-Ekren in Syria on behalf of ISIS.

In or around 2008, Fluke-Ekren departed the United States and moved to Egypt with her second husband, a now-deceased former member of the terrorist organization Ansar al-Sharia. Fluke-Ekren resided in Egypt until in or around 2011, at which point she moved to Libya. Near the end of 2011, Fluke-Ekren resided with her second husband, among others, in Benghazi, Libya. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack on the U.S. Special Mission and CIA Annex in Benghazi, Fluke-Ekren’s second husband claimed that he removed at least one box of documents and at least one electronic device from the U.S. compound in Benghazi. He brought the items to the residence where he resided with Fluke-Ekren and others at that time. Fluke-Ekren assisted her second husband with reviewing and summarizing the contents of the stolen U.S. government documents. The stolen documents and electronic device, along with the summaries that Fluke-Ekren helped prepare, were provided to the leadership of Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi.

In or around late 2012, Fluke-Ekren, her second husband and others traveled from Libya to Turkey. Shortly thereafter, they traveled from Turkey to Syria. After approximately six weeks, Fluke-Ekren returned to Turkey while her second husband remained in Syria. Fluke-Ekren’s second husband ascended through the ranks of ISIS and ultimately became the “emir” (leader) of ISIS snipers in Syria. In or around mid-2014, Fluke-Ekren and others were smuggled back into Syria. While residing in Syria, Fluke-Ekren told a witness about her desire to conduct an attack in the United States. To conduct the attack, Fluke-Ekren explained that she could go to a shopping mall in the United States, park a vehicle full of explosives in the basement or parking garage level of the structure, and detonate the explosives in the vehicle with a cell phone triggering device. Fluke-Ekren also spoke about learning how to make bombs and explosives. Fluke-Ekren further said that she considered any attack that did not kill a large number of individuals to be a waste of resources. Fluke-Ekren would hear about external attacks taking place in countries outside the United States and would comment that she wished the attack had occurred on U.S. soil instead.

In 2014, ISIS officials sent a female member of ISIS, who traveled from Central America, to Ablah, Syria, where she resided in an adjoining residence to Fluke-Ekren for approximately 18 days. This witness visited Fluke-Ekren at her residence in Syria on multiple occasions. During those visits, Fluke-Ekren discussed ideas for an attack involving the use of explosives on the campus of a U.S.-based college in the Midwest.

In or around 2015, Fluke-Ekren, her second husband, and others moved from Syria to Mosul, Iraq, where they temporarily resided inside an ISIS-controlled compound within the University of Mosul. When Fluke-Ekren arrived in Mosul, she met with ISIS personnel who were in charge of homes for widowed women whose husbands died while fighting for ISIS. Fluke-Ekren assisted the ISIS personnel by providing ideas for how the homes should function and operate.

In or around mid-2016, Fluke-Ekren led and organized an effort to establish a Women’s Center in Raqqa, Syria. Fluke-Ekren obtained authorization from the “Wali”, the ISIS-appointed mayor of Raqqa, in order to establish the center. There, Fluke-Ekren and others provided medical services, educational services about the Islamic State, childcare, and various training to women and young girls. As the center’s leader, Fluke-Ekren also provided and assisted other female ISIS members in providing training to numerous women and young girls on the use of automatic firing AK-47 assault rifles, grenades and explosive suicide belts.

In or around late 2016, the ISIS “Wali” of Raqqa approved the creation of the “Khatiba Nusaybah” – a military battalion to be comprised solely of female ISIS members. The Khatiba Nusaybah began operations on behalf of the terrorist organization in or around February 2017. Fluke-Ekren’s main objective as the leader and organizer of the Khatiba Nusaybah battalion was to teach female ISIS members how to defend themselves against ISIS’s enemies, including helping male fighters defend ISIS-controlled Raqqa. Fluke-Ekren sought to motivate her trainees by explaining how female fighters can ensure the Islamic State is kept alive by “helping ISIS expand and to remain” through the use of weapons, including automatic firing AK-47 assault rifles, grenades, and suicide belts packed with explosives. In addition, witnesses with first-hand knowledge stated that the Khatiba Nusaybah also provided certain members with instruction on physical training ­including martial arts, medical training, VBIED driving courses, ISIS religious classes, and how to pack and prep a “go bag” with rifles and other military supplies.

In 2018, Fluke-Ekren informed another witness that she had instructed an individual in Syria to send a message to one of her family members stating that Fluke-Ekren was dead so that the U.S. government would not attempt to locate her. Fluke-Ekren informed this same witness that it was important to kill the “kuffar” (disbelievers) and die as martyrs on behalf of ISIS in Syria. Fluke-Ekren was located outside the United States since on or about Jan.  8, 2011, until she was transferred in custody to the Eastern District of Virginia on Jan. 28.    

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia and Assistant Director in Charge Steven M. D’Antuono of the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema accepted the plea.

Fluke-Ekren pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization and is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 25. She faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh and Assistant U.S. Attorney John Gibbs for the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case, with assistance from the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.



RUSSIAN OLIGARCHS

United States Obtains Warrant for Seizure of Two Airplanes of Russian Oligarch Roman Abramovich

Worth Over $400 Million.

Picture by Dailymail.co.uk  The billionaire and Russian model Daria Zhukova.

The United States of America has been authorized to seize a Boeing 787-8 aircraft and a Gulfstream G650ER aircraft owned and controlled by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, pursuant to a seizure warrant from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which found that the airplanes are subject to seizure and forfeiture based on probable cause of violations of the Export Control Reform Act (ECRA) and the recent sanctions issued against Russia.

According to the seizure warrant and affidavit unsealed today:

In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued various sanctions against Russia that impose export controls and license requirements to protect U.S. national security and foreign policy interests. These Russia sanctions include expanded prohibitions on the export, reexport, or in-country transfer of U.S.-manufactured aircraft and aircraft parts and components to or within Russia without a BIS license, and eliminate the availability of any license exception for aircraft owned or controlled, or under charter or lease, by Russia or a Russian national.

The Boeing and the Gulfstream each were reexported to Russia (i.e., flown from a foreign country to Russia) in violation of the ECRA and regulations issued thereunder, including the recent Russia sanctions. The Boeing was flown to Russia on March 4, 2022 without a BIS license, and is now in the United Arab Emirates. The Gulfstream was flown to Russia on March 12 and 15, 2022 without a BIS license, and remains in Russia. The Boeing and Gulfstream are owned and controlled by Roman Abramovich, a Russia national, through a series of shell companies in Cyprus, Jersey, and the British Virgin Islands.

The Boeing (pictured below), bearing tail number P4-BDL and serial number 37306, is believed to be worth approximately $350 million.

A side profile of the Boeing, bearing tail number P4-BDL and serial number 37306, parked on the ground.

The Gulfstream (pictured below), bearing tail number LX-RAY and serial number 6417, is believed to be worth approximately $60 million.

A side profile of the Gulfstream, believed to be worth approximately $60 million.

Task Force KleptoCapture Director Andrew C. Adams, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York, Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Driscoll of the FBI’s New York Field Office, and Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew S. Axelrod of the Department of Commerce made the announcement.

U.S. Attorney Williams praised the outstanding work of the FBI and BIS. In a charging letter that separately issued today, BIS initiated administrative proceedings against Roman Abramovich, seeking penalties of up to twice the value of the Boeing and the Gulfstream.  U.S. Attorney. Williams further thanked the Justice Department’s National Security Division and Office of International Affairs, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, and Her Majesty’s Attorney General for the Bailiwick of Jersey for their assistance in this investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joshua A. Naftalis, Anden Chow, Michael D. Lockard, and Kaylan E. Lasky for the Southern District of New York are investigating the case.

The investigation was coordinated through the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency law enforcement task force dedicated to enforcing the sweeping sanctions, export controls, and economic countermeasures that the United States, along with its foreign allies and partners, has imposed in response to Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine.  Announced by the Attorney General on March 2 and run out of the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the task force will continue to leverage all of the Department’s tools and authorities to combat efforts to evade or undermine the collective actions taken by the U.S. government in response to Russian military aggression.



IRAN

FULL INTERVIEW WITH

Mohammad Hussein Adeli PhD.

 CLICK PICTURE OR TEXT AND PLAY INTERVIEW

Ambassador to Japan 1987-1989

Ambassador to Canada 1995-1999

Ambassador to the United Kingdom 2004-2005

Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs

At the age of 36 he was appointed Governor of the Central Bank

 Founder of the Ravand Institute for Economic and International Studies.

THE UNITED STATES

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland

Delivers Commencement Address to the Harvard Classes of 2020 and 2021

Cambridge, MA

Sunday, May 29, 2022

Thank you, President Bacow, for this extraordinary honor. And for your kind, but overly generous introduction.

And thank you to my wife, Lynn, Harvard Class of 1982 (Applause), for listening to President Bacow’s introduction without laughing out loud at the overly generous parts.

It truly is an honor to be here today to offer my own “welcome back” to the patient and indomitable Classes of 2020 and 2021.

And it is an honor to be here with your families and loved ones to celebrate with you.

I know it must be a little strange to be back here: not as soon-to-be graduates anxious about the future, but as actual graduates – anxious about the future. (Laughter.)

It does relieve the pressure on me, though, knowing that today I am speaking at your 10-year reunion instead of your graduation. Yes, 2020 through 2021 was a long decade for all of us. (Laughter and Applause.)

And it is a great comfort to see all of you in your robes. You look like little judges. I feel right at home. (Laughter.)

I know that because of the pandemic, your experience was not entirely what you had expected. Life does not always turn out the way you expect. Trust me on that. (Laughter.)

But it is a great honor to recognize the extraordinary resilience you have shown. We are all very, very proud of you.

I also want to acknowledge an additional, impossible kind of resilience that your generation has been asked to weather.

As we gather today to celebrate this milestone in your life, we are also holding onto an enormous amount of grief because of yet another mass shooting at another school in our country.

An unspeakable act of violence has devastated families and an entire community in Uvalde, Texas. I know I speak for all of us here that our hearts are broken.

Before that horrific attack – and before the horrific attack in Laguna Woods and the horrific attack in Buffalo – I had decided I wanted to make this speech about public service. About what each of us owes to each other, and about what we all owe as residents of a democracy.

I still want to talk about public service today because these tragedies only underscore how urgent the call to public service for your generation truly is. And because of a promise I made when I first came to Harvard.

Standing on this stage today would have been a great surprise to the 17-year-old me who first set foot on this campus. In my mind, I am still the scholarship kid whose parents drove him all the way to Cambridge from Illinois in a car bulging with suitcases and excitement.

I had no idea what a Final Club was. (Laughter.) I assumed it was a group of students who got together to study for final exams. (Laughter.)

When I arrived at Harvard, I hoped to become a doctor because I saw it as the best way to help people directly.

I had a pre-med scholarship provided by a company in my hometown, which the University generously supplemented.

But despite many personal tutorials by my roommate and best friend, it eventually became clear that the pre-med prerequisites were not my forte. (Laughter.)

So, I went to my scholarship advisor to say I was switching fields and would have to give up the scholarship. I was sorry I had let him down, I said. Sorry that I did not know how I would be able to continue without the financial support.

And even sorrier that my goal of a career in service had been thwarted.

To my astonishment, he said I could keep the scholarship. There are lots of ways to serve the public, he explained. And you should choose the way that you are best at.

There was only one requirement, he said. I would have to promise to devote some part of my life to public service.

I have tried to keep that promise.

And in doing so, I have also tried to repay a debt that I feel I owe.

Before World War I, this country gave my family a refuge from religious persecution that allowed them to survive the Holocaust when World War II arrived. (Applause.)

My grandmother was one of five children born in what is now Belarus. Four of the siblings tried to come to the United States. Three made it. The fourth was turned back at Ellis Island. And the fifth did not try.

The two who stayed behind died in the Holocaust.

So, for me, public service is a way to repay the debt my family owes to this country for our very lives. (Applause.)

I know that you all worked very hard to get here. So did I. But for different reasons, the fact that we are all here today makes us lucky. So I hope you will make a promise similar to the one that I made: to devote some part of your life to public service.

As my advisor said, there are many ways to serve the public.

Some of you will decide to devote your entire lives to providing service to others.

And on this Memorial Day weekend, I particularly want to recognize those among you who have served, or will be serving, or are serving our country in uniform. We all owe you our gratitude.

I also want to recognize those of you who are preparing already to begin your service in fields as wide ranging as working in government or NGOs, teaching, running for office, and dozens of others.

And to those of you who found chemistry easier than I did, I am in awe. (Laughter.) As we worry about the possibility of future pandemics, we need people to devote their lives to medicine and scientific research. (Applause.)

Fulfilling this promise can also mean devoting parts of your career to service, depending on the other obligations you incur as you go through life.

Or it can mean serving others directly by volunteering to provide one-on-one services to those who need them. And here, I want to give a shoutout to the students at Harvard Law School and other area law schools whom I met with yesterday. You and other students answered my call to provide legal representation for families threatened by eviction during the pandemic. (Applause.) Your work kept those families safe. I am grateful for your service.

Earlier in my career, I spent weeks in Oklahoma City investigating the bombing of a federal building, as the president said. I saw – and I felt – how consequential an outpouring of volunteer services could be. Oklahomans lined up to offer care and comfort to those who were hurting – survivors and first responders, neighbors and strangers alike.

But it should not take a tragedy to prompt us to look for ways, that day in and day out, we can help those who need our help.

And from my personal experience, I can tell you that public service benefits not just those you serve, but you as well. When you are facing life’s unanticipated twists and turns – and I assure you, they will come – it can be a great solace to get outside of yourself. To focus on helping someone else.

So, don’t let your generation be defined by the pandemic. Let it be defined by public service. (Applause.)

There is one particular reason that makes my call to public service especially urgent for your generation. It is an urgency that should move each of you, regardless of the career you choose. It is the urgent need to defend democracy. (Applause.)

Both at home and abroad, we are seeing the many ways in which democracy is under threat.

I want to start with democracy abroad, as I am well aware of the international students in this audience. Harvard has come a long way since my day – when you were counted as geographically diverse if you came from the Midwest. (Laughter.)

When I was graduating from college, there were many things to worry about in the outside world, including the threat of another land war in Europe. But with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, that threat seemed to recede from the possible to the improbable.

Now that land war is upon us. Russia’s unprovoked and unjust invasion of Ukraine this February has been accompanied by heart-breaking atrocities: murders of civilians, the shelling of hospitals, the bombing of a theater in Mariupol where hundreds had sought shelter, the demolished residential apartment buildings of Bucha and other cities.

There are, and there will be, many lessons to draw from the current conflict.

But if anything can pull us together as a country and as an international community – and make clear the stake we all have in the success of democracy both at home and abroad – this heinous invasion by an authoritarian government is it. (Applause.)

At home, we are also facing threats to democracy – different in kind, but threats, nonetheless.

We see them in efforts to undermine the right to vote.

We see them in the violence and threats of violence that are directed at people because of who they are or how they serve the public.

We saw them when a violent mob stormed the United States Capitol in an attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

First, I want to talk to you about the right to vote.

Shortly before I started high school, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, thanks to the persistent calls to action of the Civil Rights Movement. That Act gave the Justice Department important tools to protect the cornerstone of our democracy – the right of all eligible citizens to vote.

But while many of you were in high school, the Supreme Court significantly weakened those protections. And while you were in college or graduate school, court decisions weakened them even further.

Following those decisions, there has been a dramatic increase in legislative efforts that make it harder for millions of eligible voters to vote and to elect representatives of their own choice.

Those efforts threaten the foundation of our system of government. And there may be worse to come.

Some have even suggested giving state legislatures the power to set aside the choice of the voters themselves.

That is not the way a representative democracy is supposed to work.

As I said before, when I was sitting where you are sitting today, there were many things to worry about. But it never occurred to me that the right to vote would again be threatened in this country.

At the same time that we are witnessing efforts to undermine the right to vote, we are also witnessing violence and threats of violence that undermine the rule of law upon which our democracy is based. 

We have all seen the violence and threats of violence that have been directed at people solely because of who they are, where they are from, what they look like, whom they love, how they worship, or what they believe.

Just weeks ago, we witnessed the horrific attack that took the lives of 10 Black Americans, and injured three others, in Buffalo, New York. The Justice Department is investigating that act as a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism. (Applause.)

We have also seen the violence and threats of violence directed against Americans who serve and interact with the public at every level — many of whom make our democracy work every day.

These are our fellow citizens — who administer our elections, ensure our safe travel, treat the sick, teach the children, report the news, represent their constituents, ensure the rule of law, and keep our communities safe.

These threats and acts of violence are permeating so many parts of our national life that they are becoming normalized and routine.

This is deeply dangerous for our democracy.

In a democracy, people vote, argue, and debate – often loudly – in order to achieve the policy outcome they desire.

But the promise of democracy is that people will not employ violence to affect that outcome.

And yet, we saw that promise tested on January 6, 2021.

On that day, as the United States Congress was meeting to certify the vote count of the Electoral College, a large crowd violently forced entry into the Capitol.

We all watched as police officers were punched, dragged, tased, and beaten.

We saw journalists targeted, assaulted, tackled, and harassed.

Members of Congress had to be evacuated.

And proceedings were disrupted for hours — interfering with a fundamental element of American democracy: the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next.

Like the threat to voting rights, this kind of direct attack on an American institution is something I never worried about as I was graduating from college. There had been such attacks on foreign capitals in foreign lands. But a storming of the U.S. Capitol itself had not taken place since the War of 1812.

Our country’s institutions – like the Department I lead – are central to the effort to defend our democracy.

The Justice Department was founded for exactly that purpose in the midst of Reconstruction following the Civil War. Its first principal task was to battle with white supremacists – particularly the Ku Klux Klan – who violently sought to prevent Black Americans from exercising their constitutional rights.

Defending democracy remains our urgent charge today.

Today, we are assisting international efforts to identify and hold accountable those responsible for the atrocities in Ukraine.

And we have launched a task force to freeze and seize the assets of those who enable the Russian government to continue its unjust war.

Here at home, we are undertaking one of the largest investigations in our history to hold accountable everyone who was criminally responsible for the January 6 assault on our democracy. (Applause.) We will follow the facts wherever they lead.

We are doing everything within our power to stop the hate crimes that terrorize entire communities.

We will hold accountable those who direct violence and illegal threats of violence against those who serve the public.

And we will continue to use every tool we have left to protect the right to vote. At the same time, we will continue to ask Congress to pass legislation to ensure that every eligible voter can cast a vote that counts. (Applause.)

We will never stop working to fulfill our founding purpose to defend democracy.

But we cannot do this work alone. We need you. The responsibility to preserve democracy, and to maintain faith in its legitimacy, lies with all of us.

And that brings me back to the promise I made here at Harvard many years ago, and to what I am asking of you today – to devote some part of your lives to service.

Those who will spend all or parts of your career in public service can build and rebuild the institutions upon which a functioning democracy depends.

Those of you who will dedicate a part of your lives to community service can stitch back together the fabric of our civil society. You can overcome the polarization that is tearing us apart.

And all of us must take care in the way we treat each other. We must persuade our neighbors and our communities to reject the idea that violence or threats of violence are acceptable. We must work to dissipate the hatred that fuels such violence.

A democracy cannot survive if its citizens forsake the rule of law in favor of violence or threats of violence. We are all in this together. We must protect each other. (Applause.)

Finally, the preservation of democracy requires our willingness to tell the truth. Together, we must ensure that the magnitude of an event like January 6th is not downplayed or understated. The commitment to the peaceful transfer of power must be respected by every American. Our democracy depends upon it. (Applause.)

In an editorial published shortly after his death, the great civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis recalled an important lesson taught by Dr. Martin Luther King: “Democracy is not a state….It is an act. And each generation must do its part ….” (Applause.)

Now you are that generation.

You are the next generation that must devote part of your lives to public service.

You are the next generation that must devote yourselves to preserving our democracy and helping others protect theirs.

And although what I am asking of you is daunting, I know that you are the next generation that will fulfill the promise this country represents.

I know that our democracy will be stronger by the time it is your turn to pass the baton.

Now go out there and use your hard-earned degrees to make the world a better place. After a raucous – but of course legal – celebration. (Laughter and Applause.)

Congratulations, again, Classes of 2020 and 2021. (Applause.)

Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen Delivers Remarks at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence

Tallinn, Estonia, AE

Thursday, June 2, 2022

Good afternoon. I’m Matt Olsen and I am the Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the United States Department of Justice.

I’m very pleased to be here at CyCon. Thank you to Lucas for moderating this panel, to my esteemed fellow panelists, and to the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence for hosting this important conference.

This is a crucially important moment for us to gather together, as NATO allies and our partners beyond the alliance. I know for all of us the crisis in Ukraine is front of mind, in particular the inspiring bravery of the Ukrainian people who are fighting to defend their families, their homes, and their democracy.

It is a profound reminder of our shared values and commitments, as we discuss difficult and important legal and policy questions over the course of this conference.

I will begin with a brief background about the U.S. Justice Department and our role in the law enforcement and intelligence communities, focusing on cybersecurity. I will then talk about the cyber threat landscape from our perspective, and how the U.S. is responding.

As many of you know, the Department of Justice is the primary agency responsible for enforcing federal laws in the United States.

There are different parts to the Department of Justice. There is Main Justice in Washington, D.C., where I work, along with the Attorney General and department leadership. We also have 94 United States Attorneys’ Offices throughout the country, which are responsible for prosecuting cases within their districts. DOJ includes our leading investigative agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well.

Within DOJ, I am the head of the National Security Division. NSD was created in 2006 to lead and integrate DOJ’s core mission of combatting terrorism, espionage, and other threats to U.S. national security.

We play a key role in bridging the federal law enforcement and intelligence communities.

Today, many of our gravest national security threats manifest in cyberspace. The National Security Division is responsible for going after malicious cyber activity by nation-state actors and their proxies. This is an area where we have seen a dramatic increase in the complexity and intensity of threats.

I’ll talk a little bit about what we are seeing in terms of the threat landscape.

It will not come as a surprise to this audience that we see nation-states and their proxies increasingly use cyber-enabled means in ways that threaten our democratic and economic institutions. These include efforts:

    To steal technology, trade secrets and intellectual property,

    To amass personal information about U.S. citizens,

    To exert malign and covert influence over our democratic processes, and

    To hold our critical infrastructure at risk to destructive or disruptive attacks.

We face threats from multiple adversaries, including China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.

Here are just a few examples:

Last year, the government of China engaged in a malicious cyber campaign exploiting vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Exchange Server in order to compromise victims in a massive operation that resulted in significant remediation costs for its mostly private sector victims.

Iranian government actors have interfered with the systems of a broad range of victims in critical infrastructure sectors.

And North Korean actors have robbed cryptocurrency exchanges and central banks alike, stealing hundreds of millions of dollars and evading international sanctions designed to limit their weapons programs.

At DOJ, we’re particularly focused right now on the cyber threat from Russia.

Take the recent cyberattack on satellite internet systems in Europe.

As Russian troops moved into Ukraine during the early hours of February 24, satellite internet connections were suddenly disrupted.

Russia’s cyberattack against the satellite’s ground infrastructure plunged tens of thousands of people in Europe into internet darkness. According to public reports, this hit part of Ukrainian defenses.

A month later, thousands of people in Europe were reportedly still offline, and this includes 2,000 wind turbines in Germany.

In the U.S., the FBI issued a warning that — given the geopolitical situation — satellite communications providers should take steps to increase their cyber defenses.

That’s just one of numerous recent examples. Russia’s Solar Winds attack last year compromised tens of thousands of networks globally, including those of U.S. federal, state, and local governments.

And we are bracing for the possibility of more attacks. The White House recently reiterated the warning of the potential for Russia “to conduct malicious cyber activity against the United States, including as a response to the unprecedented economic costs we’ve imposed on Russia alongside our allies and partners.”

The Department of Justice is working with law enforcement partners and the private sector to prevent and respond to threats. We are determined to hold accountable those who target and attempt to destroy the computer systems that support our critical infrastructure.

Our strategy is to use all the legal tools and authorities we have available.

One of our core authorities is the enforcement of U.S. criminal laws and we continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute individuals for malicious cyber activity.

We do this because it is essential to hold these individuals accountable, and because it is one way we can inform the public about the nature of the threats we face.

In March, we announced charges against four Russian nationals who worked for the Russian government for their involvement in two campaigns targeting critical infrastructure in the energy sector between 2012 and 2018.

One case charges a Russian national and member of a Russian military research institute with a multi-year effort to hack into the industrial control systems of companies overseas and in the United States.  The goal was to physically damage the safety functions of these systems.

In the other case, the US charged three Russian intelligence officers with targeting software and hardware control systems of companies in the energy sector to gain surreptitious and persistent access.

This is the kind of activity that vividly demonstrates the intent and capability of the Russian government — it has global reach and ambition.

So that is one benefit of these indictments. It isn’t the only one. Just because we haven’t arrested anyone to date, doesn’t mean we won’t. We have very long memories at DOJ and the FBI, and we can be patient when necessary.

But we know that prosecutions are only part of what the DOJ can contribute and that we must utilize all our law enforcement tools to disrupt and deter cyber threats.

This is why even where arrest is unlikely, the department prioritizes the disruption of criminal activity that poses a threat to national security through other legal tools like search and seizure.

Recently, DOJ has taken more proactive steps to disrupt nation-state cyber threats before a significant attack or intrusion can occur and using tools beyond traditional criminal charges.

For example, I mentioned earlier the exploitation of the Microsoft Exchange Server zero-day vulnerabilities by a Chinese government hacking group known as Hafnium. That happened in March of last year.

Through the vulnerabilities, Hafnium actors were able to place web shells on mail servers, which allowed for access to the content of the mail servers as well as the ability to place further malicious files.

While private sector mitigation efforts had some success, nearly a month after the vulnerabilities were disclosed, hundreds of web shells remained on certain U.S.-based computers running Microsoft Exchange Server software.

So, in April 2021, the Justice Department obtained authorization from a federal court to conduct an operation to remove Hafnium’s remaining web shells, which could have been used to maintain and escalate persistent, unauthorized access to U.S. networks.

And a few weeks ago, we carried out a significant court-authorized operation to disrupt a global botnet that had infected thousands of computers.

We had identified malware connected to the Russian military intelligence organization, the GRU — malware known as Cyclops Blink.

We then obtained legal authorization to remove the malware from the command-and-control (C2) level infected devices and change their firewall rules to prevent remote access to manage the devices. This prevented the malicious actors from accessing the C2 devices which, in turn, prevented them from managing and using the bot level devices.

This technique did not involve any communications with the bot level devices, although it disrupted the malicious actors’ ability to communicate with them.

This operation is a very good example of how we are leveraging our existing legal authorities in new ways to empower operational activity with real impact.

Those are examples of how we seize criminal instrumentalities as part of our all-tools approach. We also rely on civil forfeiture authorities and targeted sharing of unclassified threat intelligence gathered as a result of our investigations.

We also recognize that law enforcement tools are only one part of a government-wide response. We see a force multiplier effect when we use DOJ’s unique authorities in conjunction with the specific tools of partner agencies – for example, pairing DOJ criminal charges with Treasury Department sanctions.

Similarly, the U.S. government response is most impactful when we coordinate our actions with the private sector and foreign partners to empower technical operations, leverage sanctions and trade remedies, and join in diplomatic efforts with like-minded countries.

Those examples really only scratch the surface of the work of the Justice Department in this space, and I would be happy to talk more about our approach later.

Thank you again for the opportunity to be here with you all. I’m looking forward to hearing from the other panelists and to the rest of the conversation this afternoon.

 Monuments Carved in Stone on Barren Fields

By Harald Dahle-Sladek

When one talks about Life, it is pertinent to ask, what life does one mean? The entire life, or just selected parts of it? The parts that we like and prefer and leave the rest not to be mentioned? The person who says she “loves me”, but ignore everything that I have achieved after I came out of the hospital?

The people who will walk a mile with me, but say “no thank you” to carry my burden and walk another mile? The ones who never invited me for a cup of tea, but proclaim seriously that I am a “friend”? The ones who admire their own achievements highly, but never had time to visit me once? What life are they adhering to? The one in parts, or the one in totality?

Stonehenge: A warning sign for our time.



I want to be seen in totality; I do not want that my life be selectively butchered and twisted into something it is not. My articles are monuments in stone in a barren landscape devoid of humanism. They are there to warn and to encourage, but not to be neglected.

In today’s vain world, where it has become so increasingly popular to talk IN a mobile phone, instead of empathizing WITH and showing human DIGNITY; where one is accustomed to appreciating media hype, political lies, lack  of responsibilities leading to mass starvations and mass death; in such a world and coldness between people, the abnormal has become the trend, and sadly this is what we adhere to.

In such an inter human setting, the message is clear, why bother to respect the other person right in front of ourselves. It is so much easier to babble because the spoken word carries no longer any commitment, it is free, it does not cost anything to say this or the other. Life is easy when one is free not to engage in another person’s life-and-death experiences, when it is so much more convenient to look at a movie.

People who ignore monuments carved out in granite on barren fields are confirming themselves to the believes of death and destruction. We who write and warn have the humanistic right to say this. It is our task in life. Not to be kind to death and destruction, but to admire and encourage Life. We expect the same from others as we expect from ourselves. And if “the other” fail, we must go forward alone, and warn. That is our destiny.

VIDEO CLIK TEXT LINK

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland

Announces Enforcement Actions to Disrupt and Prosecute Russian Criminal Activity

TEXT LINK TO VIDEO

Glencore Entered Guilty Pleas

to Foreign Bribery and Market Manipulation Schemes

Swiss-Based Firm Agrees to Pay Over $1.1 Billion

Glencore International A.G. (Glencore) and Glencore Ltd., both part of a multi-national commodity trading and mining firm headquartered in Switzerland, each pleaded guilty today and agreed to pay over $1.1 billion to resolve the government’s investigations into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and a commodity price manipulation scheme.

These guilty pleas are part of coordinated resolutions with criminal and civil authorities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Brazil.

“The rule of law requires that there not be one rule for the powerful and another for the powerless; one rule for the rich and another for the poor,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The Justice Department will continue to bring to bear its resources on these types of cases, no matter the company and no matter the individual.”

The charges in the FCPA matter arise out of a decade-long scheme by Glencore and its subsidiaries to make and conceal corrupt payments and bribes through intermediaries for the benefit of foreign officials across multiple countries. Pursuant to a plea agreement, Glencore has agreed to a criminal fine of more than $428 million and to criminal forfeiture and disgorgement of more than $272 million. Glencore has also agreed to retain an independent compliance monitor for three years. The department has agreed to credit nearly $256 million in payments that Glencore makes to resolve related parallel investigations by other domestic and foreign authorities.

Separately, Glencore Ltd. admitted to engaging in a multi-year scheme to manipulate fuel oil prices at two of the busiest commercial shipping ports in the U.S. As part of the plea agreement, Glencore Ltd. agreed to pay a criminal fine of over $341 million, pay forfeiture of over $144 million, and retain an independent compliance monitor for three years. The department has agreed to credit up to one-half of the criminal fine and forfeiture against penalties Glencore Ltd. pays to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in a related, parallel civil proceeding.

Sentencing has been scheduled in the market manipulation case for June 24, and a control date for sentencing in the FCPA case has been set for Oct. 3.

“Glencore’s guilty pleas demonstrate the Department’s commitment to holding accountable those who profit by manipulating our financial markets and engaging in corrupt schemes around the world,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “In the foreign bribery case, Glencore International A.G. and its subsidiaries bribed corrupt intermediaries and foreign officials in seven countries for over a decade. In the commodity price manipulation scheme, Glencore Ltd. undermined public confidence by creating the false appearance of supply and demand to manipulate oil prices.”

VIDEO LINK

Glencore CEO Glasenberg on the New Commodity Economy

Glencore copper mine.

“The scope of this criminal bribery scheme is staggering,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York. “Glencore paid bribes to secure oil contracts. Glencore paid bribes to avoid government audits. Glencore bribed judges to make lawsuits disappear. At bottom, Glencore paid bribes to make money – hundreds of millions of dollars. And it did so with the approval, and even encouragement, of its top executives. The criminal charges filed against Glencore in the Southern District of New York are another step in making clear that no one – not even multinational corporations – is above the law.”

“Glencore’s market price manipulation threatened not just financial harm, but undermined participants’ faith in the commodities markets’ fair and efficient function that we all rely on,” said U.S. Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery of the District of Connecticut. “This guilty plea, and the substantial financial penalty incurred, is an appropriate consequence for Glencore’s criminal conduct, and we are pleased that Glencore has agreed to cooperate in any ongoing investigations and prosecutions relating to their misconduct, and to strengthen its compliance program company-wide.  I thank both our partners at the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for their hard work and dedication in investigating this sophisticated set of facts and unraveling this scheme, and the Fraud Section, with whom we look forward to continuing our fruitful partnership of prosecuting complex financial and corporate criminal cases.”

“Today’s guilty pleas by Glencore entities show that there is no place for corruption and fraud in international markets,” said Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “Glencore engaged in long-running bribery and price manipulation conspiracies, ultimately costing the company over a billion dollars in fines. The FBI and our law enforcement partners will continue to investigate criminal financial activities and work to restore the public’s trust in the marketplace.”

“The idea of fair and honest trade is at the bedrock of American commerce. It is insult to our shared traditions and values when individuals and corporations use their power, wealth, and influence to stack the deck unfairly in their own favor,” said Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. “The resulting guilty plea by Glencore Limited demonstrates the tenacity of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and its law enforcement partners in holding criminals accountable who try to enrich themselves by undermining the forces of supply and demand.”

The FCPA Case

According to admissions and court documents filed in the Southern District of New York, Glencore, acting through its employees and agents, engaged in a scheme for over a decade to pay more than $100 million to third-party intermediaries, while intending that a significant portion of these payments would be used to pay bribes to officials in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Brazil, Venezuela, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Between approximately 2007 and 2018, Glencore and its subsidiaries caused approximately $79.6 million in payments to be made to intermediary companies in order to secure improper advantages to obtain and retain business with state-owned and state-controlled entities in the West African countries of Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, and Equatorial Guinea. Glencore concealed the bribe payments by entering into sham consulting agreements, paying inflated invoices, and using intermediary companies to make corrupt payments to foreign officials. For example, in Nigeria, Glencore and Glencore’s U.K. subsidiaries entered into multiple agreements to purchase crude oil and refined petroleum products from Nigeria’s state-owned and state-controlled oil company. Glencore and its subsidiaries engaged two intermediaries to pursue business opportunities and other improper business advantages, including the award of crude oil contracts, while knowing that the intermediaries would make bribe payments to Nigerian government officials to obtain such business. In Nigeria alone, Glencore and its subsidiaries paid more than $52 million to the intermediaries, intending that those funds be used, at least in part, to pay bribes to Nigerian officials.

In the DRC, Glencore admitted that it conspired to and did corruptly offer and pay approximately $27.5 million to third parties, while intending for a portion of the payments to be used as bribes to DRC officials, in order to secure improper business advantages. Glencore also admitted to the bribery of officials in Brazil and Venezuela. In Brazil, the company caused approximately $147,202 to be used, at least in part, as corrupt payments for Brazilian officials. In Venezuela, Glencore admitted to conspiring to secure and securing improper business advantages by paying over $1.2 million to an intermediary company that made corrupt payments for the benefit of a Venezuelan official.

In July 2021, a former senior trader in charge of Glencore’s West Africa desk for the crude oil business pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, which remains subject to court approval, Glencore pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA, agreed to a criminal fine of $428,521,173, and agreed to criminal forfeiture and disgorgement in the amount of $272,185,792. Glencore also had charges brought against it by the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and reached separate parallel resolutions with the Brazilian Ministério Público Federal (MPF) and the CFTC. Under the terms of the plea agreement, the department has agreed to credit nearly $256 million in payments that the company makes to the CFTC, to the court in the U.K., as well as to authorities in Switzerland, in the event that the company reaches a resolution with Swiss authorities within one year.

The department reached its agreement with Glencore based on a number of factors, including the nature, seriousness, and pervasiveness of the offense conduct, which spanned over a 10-year period, in numerous countries, and involved high-level employees and agents of the company; the company’s failure to voluntarily and timely disclose the conduct to the department; the state of Glencore’s compliance program and the progress of its remediation; the company’s resolutions with other domestic and foreign authorities; and the company’s continued cooperation with the department’s ongoing investigation. Glencore did not receive full credit for cooperation and remediation, because it did not consistently demonstrate a commitment to full cooperation, it was delayed in producing relevant evidence, and it did not timely and appropriately remediate with respect to disciplining certain employees involved in the misconduct. Although Glencore has taken remedial measures, some of the compliance enhancements are new and have not been fully implemented or tested to demonstrate that they would prevent and detect similar misconduct in the future, necessitating the imposition of an independent compliance monitor for a term of three years.

The Commodity Price Manipulation Case

According to admissions and court documents filed in the District of Connecticut, Glencore Ltd. operated a global commodity trading business, which included trading in fuel oil. Between approximately January 2011 and August 2019, Glencore Ltd. employees (including those who worked at Chemoil Corporation, which was majority-owned by Glencore Ltd.’s parent company and then fully-acquired in 2014) conspired to manipulate two benchmark price assessments published by S&P Global Platts (Platts) for fuel oil products, specifically, intermediate fuel oil 380 CST at the Port of Los Angeles (Los Angeles 380 CST Bunker Fuel) and RMG 380 fuel oil at the Port of Houston (U.S. Gulf Coast High-Sulfur Fuel Oil). The Port of Los Angeles is the busiest shipping port in the U.S. by container volume. The Port of Houston is the largest U.S. port on the Gulf Coast and the busiest port in the United States by foreign waterborne tonnage.

As part of the conspiracy, Glencore Ltd. employees sought to unlawfully enrich themselves and Glencore Ltd. itself, by increasing profits and reducing costs on contracts to buy and sell physical fuel oil, as well as certain derivative positions that Glencore Ltd. held. The price terms of the physical contracts and derivative positions were set by reference to daily benchmark price assessments published by Platts — either Los Angeles 380 CST Bunker Fuel or U.S. Gulf Coast High-Sulfur Fuel Oil — on a certain day or days plus or minus a fixed premium. On these pricing days, Glencore Ltd. employees submitted orders to buy and sell (bids and offers) to Platts during the daily trading “window” for the Platts price assessments with the intent to artificially push the price assessment up or down.

For example, if Glencore Ltd. had a contract to buy fuel oil, Glencore Ltd. employees submitted offers during the Platts “window” for the express purpose of pushing down the price assessment and hence the price of the fuel oil that Glencore Ltd. purchased. The bids and offers were not submitted to Platts for any legitimate economic reason by Glencore Ltd. employees, but rather for the purpose of artificially affecting the relevant Platts price assessment so that the benchmark price, and hence the price of fuel oil that Glencore Ltd. bought from, and sold to, another party, did not reflect legitimate forces of supply and demand.

Between approximately September 2012 and August 2016, Glencore Ltd. employees conspired to and did manipulate the price of fuel oil bought from, and sold to, a particular counterparty, Company A, through private, bilateral contracts, by manipulating the Platts price assessment for Los Angeles 380 CST Bunker Fuel. Between approximately January 2014 and February 2016, Glencore Ltd. employees also undertook a “joint venture” with Company A, which involved buying fuel oil from Company A at prices artificially depressed by Glencore Ltd.’s manipulation of the Platts Los Angeles 380 CST Bunker Fuel benchmark. Finally, between approximately January 2011 and August 2019, Glencore Ltd. employees conspired to and did manipulate the price of fuel oil bought and sold through private, bilateral contracts, as well as derivative positions, by manipulating the Platts price assessment for U.S. Gulf Coast High-Sulfur Fuel Oil.

A former Glencore Ltd. senior fuel oil trader, Emilio Jose Heredia Collado, of Lafayette, California, pleaded guilty in March 2021 to one count of conspiracy to engage in commodities price manipulation in connection with his trading activity related to the Platts Los Angeles 380 CST Bunker Fuel price assessment. Heredia’s sentencing is scheduled for June 17, 2022.

Glencore Ltd. pleaded guilty, pursuant to a plea agreement, to one count of conspiracy to engage in commodity price manipulation. Under the terms of Glencore Ltd.’s plea agreement regarding the commodity price manipulation conspiracy, which remains subject to court approval, Glencore Ltd. will pay a criminal fine of $341,221,682 and criminal forfeiture of $144,417,203. Under the terms of the plea agreement, the department will credit over $242 million in payments that the company makes to the CFTC. Glencore Ltd. also agreed to, among other things, continue to cooperate with the department in any ongoing investigations and prosecutions relating to the underlying misconduct, to modify its compliance program where necessary and appropriate, and to retain an independent compliance monitor for a period of three years.

A number of relevant considerations contributed to the department’s plea agreement with Glencore Ltd., including the nature and seriousness of the offense, Glencore Ltd.’s failure to fully and voluntarily self‑disclose the offense conduct to the department, Glencore Ltd.’s cooperation with the department’s investigation, and the state of Glencore Ltd.’s compliance program and the progress of its remediation.

Additionally, the CFTC today announced a separate settlement with Glencore and its affiliated companies in connection with its investigation into FCPA and market manipulation conduct in a related, parallel proceeding. Under the terms of the CFTC resolution, Glencore agreed to pay over $1.1 billion, which includes a civil monetary penalty of over $865 million, as well as disgorgement totaling over $320 million.

The FCPA case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Leila Babaeva and James Mandolfo of the Justice Department’s Fraud Section, Trial Attorney Michael Khoo of the Justice Department’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael McGinnis and Juliana Murray of the Southern District of New York. The case is being investigated by the FBI.

The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance in this case. The department also expresses its appreciation for the assistance provided by law enforcement authorities in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Cyprus, and Luxembourg

The commodity price manipulation case is being prosecuted by Deputy Chief Avi Perry and Trial Attorneys Matthew F. Sullivan and John J. Liolos of the Justice Department’s Fraud Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Francis of the District of Connecticut. The case is being investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

The Fraud Section is responsible for investigating and prosecuting FCPA matters. Additional information about the Justice Department’s FCPA enforcement efforts can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/foreign-corrupt-practices-act.

The Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative is led by a team of dedicated prosecutors in the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, in partnership with federal law enforcement agencies, and often with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, to forfeit the proceeds of foreign official corruption and, where appropriate, to use those recovered assets to benefit the people harmed by these acts of corruption and abuse of office.

Want a larger picture? Press Ctrl + scroll wheel.

Хотите большую картинку? Нажмите Ctrl + колесо прокрутки.

想要更大的圖片？按 Ctrl + 滾輪

Seyed Mohammad Hossein Adeli PhD

Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs

Governor of the Central Bank - Ambassador to Tokyo and Ottawa

Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countriers Forum

INTERVIEWED APRIL 2002 IN THE FOREIGN MINISTRY TEHRAN

THE SUCCESS OF

THE UNITED STATES

IN AFGHANISTAN  ALSO COMES AS THE ACTIVE SUPPORT FROM IRAN

Revolutionary icon Khomeini, Leader Khamenei



A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY

For Washington to better its relations with Tehran

Went out of the window!

Seal of the Foreign Ministry Tehran

 CLICK PICTURE PLAY VIDEO

Dr. Adeli explains Iran's view regarding Afghanistand and the U.S.

Dr. Adeli: "Great disappointment!"



This interview was conducted in Dr. Hussein Adeli's office in the Foreign Ministry in Tehran. It was the first of two meetings that Harald Dahle had with Dr. Adeli. The first was in April 2002, and the second meeting was held in May 2003.

During the interview made in April of 2002  it became quite clear to the Editor-in-Chief, that the rejection of the United Sates to appreciate what Iran had done for the country in Afghanistan, neither did not sit well with the upper echelon of the Islamic Republic of Iran, nor was it well received by the Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs. This would have been a Golden Opportunity for the United States to better the relations with Iran, but in wain. Washington was not ready to hand Tehran a firm handshake.

Dahle: -Tehran has sent an invitation to Washington for a meeting and better the relations between the two sides. I understand that the United States has rejected this initiative. How do you view the current relations with the U.S. after this disappointment?

Adeli: -Well, actually our relations with the West in general has improved a lot during the last, may be four, five years.

Dahle: -Yes.

Adeli: -Specially with the policies that have been followed by President Khatami, Dialogue among Civilization, the Rule of Law, the Principles of Civil Society, the elimination of tensions between Iran or other countries, the elimination of misunderstanding. All of these policies have been seriously followed by Iran in its Foreign Policy and has contributed to the relations with all countries except the United States. And with the West in general we have been able to exchange delegations on the level of Foreign Minister and head of Governments.

Dahle: -Aren't the operations of the United States in Afghanistan very much based on the early assistance from Iran?

Adeli: -But with the United States, it is unfortunately to see, that even developments in Afghanistan, which owes a lot to understanding and effective assistance from Iran, has not, I believe, been able to penetrate into the hearts or the minds of decision makers in the United States.

Dahle: -Without the help from Iran in Afghanistan, you say that the United States would not have been where they are now?

Adeli: -I think that there is no doubt, even in the American eyes, that what we now see in the situation in Afghanistan owes a lot to Iranian assistance, Iranian understanding. The military success of the United States owes a lot to understanding and appreciation from Iran, and also the political process in Afghanistan owes the same thing. 

Adeli: -And may be that was a very unique opportunity for the United Sates to reciprocate these kinds of understanding, and to seize and stop those kinds of policies that are pursued by them, in the past couple of decades. But apparently there is still not a very strong sign from that side.

Dahle: -Iran has friendly relations with many countries in the world, so why not also with the United States?

Adeli: -Off course, the general policy of Iran is to have friendly relations with every country in the world, including the United States, provided that this kind of relationship would be based on an equal footing, on a mutual beneficial sort of relationship. So, this is why I think that, as the policies of the United States, which are normally a unilateral policy, we hope that one time they would join the other countries of the West and developing countries, and would join that kind of understanding of Iran. That the developments in the region would open their eyes, and that they would adopt a new policy towards our country!

Dahle: -Thank you Dr. Adeli.

 TEHERAN

The Ravand Institute for Economic

  and International Studies

   CLICK PICTURE PLAY VIDEO

Dubbed by the media as the Davos of Iran, Ravand Conference is an international forum, held annually, where Iranian and international officials, corporate and business executives, international organi-zations, NGOs, the media, and academics are invited to participate and interact and to debate on a diversity of political and economic subjects with a view to contributing to the shaping of policies. The conference is also an opportune setting for networking and for meeting potential partners.

Notable people who attended Ravand conference are:

Mohammad Reza Bahonar, Iranian MP and Vice Speaker in

Islamic Consultative Assembly;

Adel Abdul Mahdi, Iraqi Vice President;

Gholam Hossein Nozari, Managing Director, National Iranian Oil Company; 

Mohammadreza Nematzadeh, Deputy Minister of Oil and president of National Iranian Oil Company;

Rosemary Hollis, Director of Research in Royal Institute of

International Affairs, Chatham House;

Ali Shamkhani, Centre for Strategic Defense Research;

Mohammad Nahavandian, Head of National Globalization Center;

Vera de Ladoucette, Senior Vice President in Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA).

Конференция Раванд, названная СМИ Иранским Давосом, является ежегодным международным форумом, на котором иранские и международные официальные лица, руководители корпораций и бизнеса, международные организации, НПО, СМИ и ученые приглашаются для участия, взаимодействия и обсуждения. по разнообразию политических и экономических вопросов с целью содействия формированию политики. Конференция также является подходящей площадкой для нетворкинга и встречи с потенциальными партнерами.

拉萬德會議被媒體稱為伊朗的達沃斯會議，每年舉行一次國際論壇，邀請伊朗和國際官員，企業和商業主管，國際組織，非政府組織，媒體和學者參加，並與他們進行互動和辯論。涉及各種政治和經濟主題，以促進政策制定。這次會議也是建立社交網絡和與潛在合作夥伴會面的契機。

 INTERNATIONAL ENERGY FORUM, IEF

Dr. Seyed Mohammad Hossein Adeli

  CLICK PICTURE PLAY VIDEO

Qatar

GAS EXPORTING COUNTRIES FORUM

   CLICK PICTURE PLAY VIDEO

H.E. Hossein Adeli PhD

Secretary General

 2nd International Gas Seminar | 5th GECF Summit Keynote: H.E. Dr. Seyed Mohammed Hossein Adeli 

  CLICK PICTURE PLAY VIDEO

Gas and Alternative Fuels: Present and Future Shares and Challenges | H.E. Seyed Hossein Adeli

  CLICK PICTURE PLAY VIDEO

H.E. Seyed Hossein Adeli PhD

Crans Montana Forum Brussels 2018

   CLICK PICTURE PLAY VIDEO

H.E. Seyed Hossein Adeli PhD

Crans Montana Forum Vienna 2016

   CLICK PICTURE PLAY VIDEO



Explaining Iran’s Nuclear Position:

An Interview With Iranian Ambassador

to the United Nations

Majid Takht Ravanchi

In May 2018, the Trump administration announced the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and reimposed U.S. sanctions waived by the deal. One year later, Iran announced it would begin reducing its compliance with the JCPOA in response. This August, the Trump administration sought more stringent sanctions against Iran, and Iran agreed to enable International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors access to two controversial sites.

As the sanctions debate was unfolding at the United Nations and the IAEA Director General prepared to travel to Tehran, Arms Control Today discussed these and other nuclear issues on August 6 with Majid Takht Ravanchi, Iran’s permanent representative to the UN since April 2019. Prior to that, he served as deputy chief of staff for political affairs in the Iranian Office of the President beginning in 2017, and as deputy foreign minister for European and American affairs from 2013 to 2017. While serving as deputy foreign minister, Ravanchi participated in the multilateral negotiations on the JCPOA.

Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi speaks to the media at UN headquarters in New York in June 2019. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Arms Control Today: Iran announced in May 2019 that it would begin reducing compliance with limits imposed by the JCPOA in response to the deal’s failure to deliver on sanctions relief envisioned by the nuclear agreement after the United States. withdrew and re-imposed sanctions. In January 2020, Tehran announced that its nuclear program would no longer be subject to any limits. Does Iran intend to take any additional steps to breach its JCPOA obligations in the next several months? If so, what would be the intended purpose of those moves?

Amb. Majid Takht Ravanchi: The United States withdrew from the JCPOA in May 2018 in contravention of its obligations under international law because the JCPOA is part of Resolution 2231. It is an annex to the resolution. The resolution has endorsed the JCPOA, and Resolution 2231 was adopted unanimously by the whole Security Council. So that shows that the whole international community was behind Resolution 2231.

The U.S. move was against international law and against the international obligations of the United States. After the U.S. withdrew from the JCPOA Iran waited for almost a year to see what the other members of the JCPOA could do in order to give Iran the benefits of the JCPOA. We were told by some members of the JCPOA that Iran would be compensated for the losses that it has received as a result of the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA. But unfortunately, after a year we did not receive any tangible benefits from implementing our obligations under the JCPOA. Then at that time in 2019, after a year, we were left with no other option but to reduce our commitments. This is in line with Articles 26 and 36 of the JCPOA, so our action is totally in line with our commitments in the JCPOA.

Regarding whether Iran is going to move further from what we have done, as you know after taking the fifth steps, Iran said it would no longer take any action, and that has been our position since. As far as our future action is concerned, it depends very much on the way that the JCPOA and Resolution 2231 are going to be treated. Our actions will be corresponding to whatever happens with Resolution 2231 and the JCPOA.

ACT: Until recently, Iran still benefited from cooperative nuclear projects in the JCPOA. However, in July, U.S. sanctions waivers for several activities required by the JCPOA, including modifications of the Arak reactor, were terminated. What is the status of the Arak conversion project? What are Iran’s plans for the future of the reactor?

Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi speaks to the media at UN headquarters in New York in June 2019. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Ravanchi: The U.S. move a few months ago was another act in contravention of U.S. obligations, as they put sanctions on the nuclear cooperation between Iran and other countries. So that is the basis of the U.S. decision to withdraw from the JCPOA. And then they started violating their obligations in May 2018. They just put aside the nuclear cooperation with other countries, and now they put the final nail in the way the JCPOA is being treated. So that shows the real intention of the United States when it really does not want Iran to have advancement in high technology, and that shows that the U.S. is not interested in seeing the Iranian people enjoy the benefits of scientific achievements. As far as the Arak nuclear facility is concerned, we are in talks with our partners, and the talks are ongoing. At the same time, we have said that if we are faced with a situation when Iran cannot advance this part of its nuclear facilities, we will go back to the old design, which was something of our creation. So that is an option for Iran, and we will decide at the right time when to go back to the old design. This is a very good option for Iran.

ACT: In July, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif announced that Tehran triggered the JCPOA’s dispute resolution mechanism (DRM) to address what Iran views as a violation of the deal by the France, Germany and the United Kingdom. What specifically does Iran hope to achieve with this move?

Ravanchi: That was not the first time that we initiated the DRM. In fact, since 2016 we have invoked the DRM mechanism on different occasions that the JCPOA was violated. The last time that we invoked the DRM was in response to lack of commitments by the EU partners. So this is a mechanism that every member of the JCPOA can apply, and we have used our rights in accordance with the JCPOA to benefit from the dividends that are supposed to be given to Iran. Our main purpose is to show that we have a complaint and the Joint Commission of the JCPOA has to study this complaint. We have sent our letter to the head of the EU Commission, and we hope that our concerns and our complaints will be taken into account by the Joint Commission.

ACT: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued two reports in 2020 detailing its investigation into past, possible undeclared nuclear activities and materials and its unmet requests to inspect two facilities in Iran. After these reports were issued, the agency’s Board of Governors passed a resolution calling on Iran to cooperate with the agency’s inquiries. Iran told the agency in June it is “willing to satisfy the agency’s requests” but certain “legal ambiguities” must be addressed first. What are the specific legal ambiguities that Iran wants addressed and how?

U.S. President Donald Trump displays his order reinstating sanctions on Iran after he announced his decision to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in the Diplomatic Room at the White House on May 8, 2018. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Ravanchi: First of all, Iran has continuously cooperated with the IAEA. Just look at the figures the IAEA produces. In 2019 almost 20 percent of all inspections, all over the world, have been done in Iran. That figure shows by itself that Iran is cooperating with the IAEA, so inspectors can go and visit different places in Iran. To say Iran is called to cooperate is not really an interesting argument, because Iran is cooperating with the IAEA. As for those specific places that they wanted to see, we were discussing with IAEA people in Iran, in fact the deputy director-general was in Iran, and we were discussing the issue with him. And our talks were advancing, and all of a sudden we witnessed a move in the IAEA Board of Governors to issue a resolution against Iran. That was very counterproductive because we were about to resolve the issue of the visits.

We have said time and again that the IAEA is a technical body. It should not be politicized, but unfortunately some countries, headed by the United States, are politicizing this organization. We think that the best way to address the problem is to adhere to the technical nature of this body. We are in contact with the IAEA, we are in contact with members of the Board of Governors in Vienna, and we hope that we can resolve this issue.

There are certain principles that we need to adhere to. We cannot rely on fake information or fake intelligence to conduct the business of the IAEA. Information given to the agency by the Israeli regime cannot be relied on because they have been very adamant in providing fake information, particularly with regards to Iran. So that is something that needs to be considered by the agency. If the agency has its own evidence, it has to show its evidence to Iran, not just duplicating what it was given by others.

Another point is that we have already closed the “possible military dimensions” (PMD) file back in 2015. We cannot allow this file to open again because we have already closed that, and the agency has issued a resolution on this. The Board of Governors has already issued a resolution for the closure of PMD. And alleged activities going back to 17 years ago is not something that the Board of Governors should be spending time to issue a resolution on. So these are the politicized activities I was referring to. Therefore, we think that we should continue our talks with the agency and with the members of the Board of Governors so that we can find a solution to the problem.

ACT: As you know, the Trump administration is seeking to extend the UN restrictions on Iran’s conventional arms sale that are set to expire in October per Security Council Resolution 2231 and U.S. officials say they will use the snapback mechanism in that resolution if necessary. A number of countries, including those still party to the JCPOA, oppose U.S. efforts and disagree with the U.S. legal interpretation that it is still entitled to use snapback. How do you expect this debate will play out in the Security Council? How would Iran respond if the Council agrees to extend the arms embargo or if the United States tries and somehow succeeds in snapping back UN sanctions under UNSC 2231?

Ravanchi: First of all, any move by the security Council to impose sanctions, military sanctions against Iran, is illegal, is against Resolution 2231. So, there's no legal room for the adoption of any resolution by the security Council to impose sanctions on Iran. The second issue is that the U.S. attempt is going to fail because the members of the Security Council are not prepared to accept the violation of Resolution 2231. As I said before, 2231 was adopted by consensus, by unanimity, in the Security Council, and that is part of international law. So, members of the Security Council today should be the last ones to adopt something against international law.

U.S. President Donald Trump displays his order reinstating sanctions on Iran after he announced his decision to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in the Diplomatic Room at the White House on May 8, 2018. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

As far as the snap-back is concerned, it is really a very ridiculous proposition to consider the United States as a JCPOA participant because the U.S. is not a member. It has already said that it ceased its participation in the JCPOA, and it said this at the highest level. Just look at the announcement by the White House on May 8, 2018. It says the U.S. has ceased participation in the JCPOA. And high officials in the United States government have said that they are not going to refer to the JCPOA because they are not members of the JCPOA. At times the U.S. officials claimed that JCPOA and Resolution 2231 are two separate documents. While the U.S. has withdrawn from the JCPOA, it still claims to be a member of 2231. Apparently, they have not read resolution 2231. Resolution 2231 endorses the JCPOA, and the JCPOA is an annex to Resolution 2231. We are not talking about two separate documents. We are talking about one document and that is resolution 2231.

Resolution 2231 talks about JCPOA participants. It is not talking about 2231 participants, it talks about JCPOA participants. There are certain rights and certain obligations for JCPOA participants. Because the U.S. has withdrawn from the JCPOA, it cannot be considered a JCPOA participant. So, there is no legal basis for the U.S. claim to be a JCPOA participant. We believe that the United States cannot invoke the relevant provision in 2231 for bringing back the old resolutions. We have said very clearly that if arms embargoes are going to be back against Iran, Iran’s reaction will be harsh. We have different options available to us, and we do not rule out any political options that are available to Iran.

ACT: Iran maintains that it will return to compliance with the JCPOA, if other parties meet their obligations. Presidential candidate Joe Biden has said he would reenter the JCPOA. If Biden is elected, or if the Trump administration were to express interest in rejoining the JCPOA, how quickly could such a return to compliance be accomplished once and if both sides agree to such an approach? Would Iran be open to follow-on talks with Washington and other JCPOA parties regarding the future of Iran’s nuclear program and other issues of mutual concern? What is the range of issues would Iran be willing to discuss in such a scenario?

Ravanchi: First of all, we are not interested to involve ourselves in U.S. domestic politics, so it is for the American people to decide who the next president should be. What is important for Iran, and for other countries, is the respect for international agreements, international law, that should be provided for by the U.S. government. It doesn't matter if it’s a Republican government or a Democratic government in the White House, the U.S. obligations should be respected by all U.S. governments. So, Resolution 2231 is part of international law, and the U.S. government has a legal obligation to observe the provisions of Resolution 2231. If the next administration, whoever that might be, is going to accept Resolution 2231 and implement the provisions of the JCPOA in all honesty, I believe there is room for the United States to join the other members of the JCPOA within the context of the Joint Commission to talk about different issues related to the Iran deal. That is something that we have to wait and see whether the U.S. will take that decision or not.

Another point I also have to emphasize is that Iran has suffered a lot after the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA. In the last couple of years, we have suffered a lot in terms of losing precious Iranian lives as a result of the U.S. sanctions, even on food and medicine. We have lost a lot in terms of economic issues. So, there is a good argument by Iran to seek compensation from the United States. There are the things that have to be borne in mind when we were talking about future moves by the United States to join the JCPOA again.

Iranian workers stand at the heavy water production plant in Arak when it opened in August 2006. The plant was to provide heavy water for the site's research reactor, which was later modified by the terms of 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. (Photo: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images)

ACT: The rescheduled 10th review conference of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) is planned for early 2021 and many states believe that this is a key opportunity to reaffirm international support for the treaty and the full and timely implementation of its goals and objectives. Will Iran use this opportunity to reaffirm its commitment as an NPT state party to forswear nuclear weapons and to meet its NPT safeguards obligations?

Ravanchi: Iran was the first country back in 1974 to initiate a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly calling for the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East. Iran has also been observing its International obligations based on the NPT, so Iran is in good standing in terms of its respect for international law. We are going to have the opportunity in January 2021 to discuss different aspects of the NPT within the review mechanism. Definitely, Iran and other non-nuclear-weapon states will stress the fact that nuclear-weapon states have not been up to their obligations based on the relevant provision of the NPT.

Another point is in regard to the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone and free from other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. As you know for the last couple of years, the UN General Assembly has been seized of this matter. Last year we had the first conference on this important issue. But unfortunately, Israel, with a known stockpile of nuclear warheads, has not shown any interest to join the effort to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East. I believe the next NPT review conference is also a good opportunity for all member states to call on the Israeli regime to join others in putting all of their unsafeguarded nuclear facilities under the supervision of the IAEA.

Iranian workers stand at the heavy water production plant in Arak when it opened in August 2006. The plant was to provide heavy water for the site's research reactor, which was later modified by the terms of 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

ACT: Back to the question of Iran’s approach to the 10th NPT Review Conference, do you plan to use this particular conference—an important one, the 10th review, 50 years after the treaty’s entry into force—to reaffirm Iran’s commitment to the NPT and all of its goals and to Iran’s future safeguards obligations. And on the zone issue, there will also be another meeting on the UN conference in November convened by the secretary-general. What specifically do you believe could and should be achieved at that November meeting and at the NPT review conference in the context of the objective of advancing the discussions toward the zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East?

Ravanchi: On the first question, Iran’s position remains the same that there are certain obligations that nuclear-weapon-states have to honor. And the non-nuclear-weapon states are of the conviction that the nuclear-weapon-states have not observed their obligations. This is an important issue for non-nuclear-weapon states, and that issue will be brought up in the review conference. Regarding the nuclear-weapon-free zone, I believe that while we have a conference dealing specifically with this issue, we are of the opinion that the NPT review conference is also another avenue that should be considered to discuss this important issue because some countries were not eager to participate in or support the conference for the establishment of such a zone in the Middle East. Therefore, in the NPT review conference there is another opportunity for all members to discuss this important issue and try to support the establishment of such a zone and first and foremost to force the Israeli regime to accept joining others to discuss the establishment of such a zone in the Middle East.

ACT: Is it your expectation that the 10th review conference will still be taking place in January?

Ravanchi: It's too early to predict what exactly will happen in January. It depends on the situation at the time, because nobody can predict what the situation related to the pandemic is in January. If the situation is the same as what we had in March, I believe we can expect another postponement. But I suppose the way things are developing in New York City, I think and hope that the conference will convene as scheduled.

GASPROM

EUROPE'S DEPENDENCE ON RUSSIAN GAS



 FINLAND

FINLAND AND SWEDEN TO JOIN NATO. RUSSIA COUNTRES WITH PUTTING NUCLEAR MISSILES IN KALININGRAD. IS NATO REALY DEFENDING OUR FREEDOM OR JUST THINKING THAT IT IS?

Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is a fifth-generation, single-seat, twin-engine, all-weather stealth tactical fighter aircraft developed for the United States Air Force.

REINFORCING DETERRENCE ON NATO'S EASTERN FLANK 

Hello friends! The US think-tank RAND with close ties to the military, just completed a very important study with regards to NATO allies defence of the Baltic states Estonia and Latvia. And the result is pretty darn gloomy reading. For my own part I will also ad Norway.

NATO today is not able to defend it's most vulnerable states! Please read the report yourself and make up your own opinion. We must fight ISIS and terrorism in all it's uglyness. Keep your eyes and ears wide open and repport anything suspicious. Cheers!

A RAND CORPORATION STUDY

Russias's Planned Expansion Dwarfs NATO's

NATO CANNOT SUCCESSFULLY DEFEND THE TERRITORY OF ITS MOST EXPOSED MEMBERS

In a series of wargames conducted between summer 2014 and spring 2015, the RAND Corporation examined the shape and probable outcome of a near term Russian invasion of the Baltic states. The games’ findings are unambiguous.

As currently postured, NATO cannot successfully defend the territory of its most exposed members. Across multiple games using a wide range of expert participants in and out of uniform playing both sides, the longest it has taken Russian forces to reach the outskirts of the Estonian and/or Latvian capitals of Tallinn and Riga, respectively, is 60 hours.

THE SUWALKI GAP NATO'S NIGHTMARE

      DEFENDING THE BALTIC REPUBLICS          A STRATEGIC CHALLENGE FOR NATO

The outcome was, bluntly, a disaster for NATO. Across multiple plays of the game, Russian forces eliminated or bypassed all resistance and were at the gates of or actually entering Riga, Tallinn, or both, between 36 and 60 hours. 

NATO'S WAR GAMES ANACONDA 2016: PROTECTION OF THE BALTIC STATES

Vladimir Putin has now attacked neighboring countries three times, with his second invasion of Ukraine still unfolding. His pursuit of greater Russian influence along Moscow’s periphery has ended what was nearly a generation of post–Cold War peace and stability in Europe and revived legitimate fears of Moscow’s intentions among its neighbors.

 After eastern Ukraine, the next most likely targets for an attempted Russian coercion are the Baltic Republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Like Ukraine, all three spent many years as component republics of the Soviet Union, gaining independence only on its dissolution.

 The three are also contiguous to Russian territory. Also like Ukraine, Estonia and Latvia are home to sizable ethnic Russian populations that have been at best unevenly integrated into the two countries’ postindependence political and social mainstreams and that give Russia a self-justification for meddling in Estonian and Latvian affairs.

This storyline is disturbingly familiar. Unlike Ukraine, the Baltic states are members of NATO, which means that Russian aggression against them would trigger Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty —the collective defense provision according to which an at- tack against any signatory is considered to be an attack against all. This creates an obligation on the part of the United States and its alliance partners to be prepared to come to the assistance of the Baltic states, should Russia seek to actively and violently destabilize or out-and-out attack them.

In a September 2014 speech in the Estonian capital of  Tallinn, President Barack Obama articulated and strongly affirmed that commitment: [W]e will defend our NATO Allies, and that means every Ally. . . . And we will defend the territorial integrity of every single Ally. . . . Because the defense of Tallinn and Riga and Vilnius is just as important as the defense of Berlin and Paris and London. .

 Article 5 is crystal clear: An attack on one is an attack on all. . . . We’ll be here for  Estonia. We will be here for Latvia. We will be here for Lithuania. You lost your inde- pendence once before. With NATO, you will never lose it again.2 Unfortunately, nei- ther the United States nor its NATO allies are currently prepared to back up the Presi- dent’s forceful words.

 MILITARY GEOGRAPHY  FAVORS RUSSIA

During the Cold War, NATO positioned eight Allied corps along the border between West Germany and its Warsaw Pact neighbors to the east. More than 20 allied divisions were stationed to defend that frontier, with many more plan- ned to flow in as reinforcements before and during any conflict (see Figure 1). The borders that Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania share with Russia and Belarus are roughly the same length as the one that separated West Germany from the Warsaw Pact.

 They are, however, defended only by the indigenous forces of the three Baltic states, which muster the rough equivalent of a light infantry brigade each. Since Russia’s invasion of Crimea, other NATO countries, including the United States, have rotated forces through the Baltics, but these have typically been in battalion strength or smaller—hardly enough to defend the republics against a plausible Russian attack.

 The distances in the theater also favor Russia. From the border to Tallinn along the main highways is about 200 km; depend- ing on the route, the highway (versus crow-flight) distance to Riga is between about 210 and 275 km. From the Polish border to Riga, on the other hand, is about 325 km as the crow flies; to Tallinn, almost 600 km. And to get anywhere from Poland, NATO forces would have to transit the “Kaliningrad corridor,” a 110- to 150-km-wide stretch of territory between the Russian enclave and Belarus that could be subject to long-range artillery and flank attacks from both sides and would require a commitment of (scarce) NATO forces to secure.

 The terrain in the theater is a mix, with large open areas interspersed with forested regions; lakes; and, in some places, sizeable wetlands. Off-road mobility in parts of all three Baltic countries could be difficult, especially for wheeled vehicles. There is, however, a fairly rob- ust network of roads and highways throughout, and there are few large rivers to serve as natural defensive lines and barriers to move- ment.

 Our analysis sought to account for the effects on movement and combat of this variability in terrain. To be sure, Russia’s army is much smaller than its Soviet predecessor. Today, it can muster for operations in its Western Military District (MD)—the region adjacent to the Baltic states—about 22 battalions, roughly the same number of divi- sions forward deployed in the non-Soviet Warsaw Pact countries in 1990. These forces appear more than ade- quate, however, to overwhelm whatever defense the Baltic armies might be able to present.

 German Army

CURRENT NATO POSTURE CANNOT SUPPORT ALLIANCE COMMITMENTS

Despite President Obama’s bold words in Tallinn, a series of RAND wargames clearly indicates that NATO’s current posture is inadequate to defend the Baltic states from a plausible Russian conven- tional attack. The games employed Russian forces from the Western MD and the Kaliningrad oblast—a chunk of sovereign Russian territory that sits