Tag Archives: US

US Changes Tune On Ukrainian BioWar Labs

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The Russians have frequently alleged the existence of Ukrainian bioweapons labs. Now on March 7, Lt. Gen. Kirillov has stated publicly that they hold exhaustive documentary proof that the stock of pathogens in them was destroyed urgently on the eve of the Russian special operation/invasion.

Until now the Russian claim has been drowned in a tsunami of denials, counter narratives, and counter allegations by the US.

A google search for “Ukraine biolabs” would turn up dozens of sites, from Snopes [a left liberal propaganda site masquerading as a propaganda buster] to Euvsdisinfo.eu, the European version of the same] all denying that there were US biowar labs in Ukraine and all claiming that the facilities there were only fighting disease or monitoring the population’s health and were run by the Ukrainians themselves.

But it looks like the documentary evidence laid out by the Russian army yesterday was too convincing for simple denial.  Then there is the pending investigation of Igor Kolomoisky, President Zelenksy’s sugar daddy, a mafiosi Ukrainian billionaire who financed the ethnic cleansing  of Donbas Russians. Viruses specifically targeting ethnic Russians [Slavs], as the RF army chiefs have claimed, would be of immense help thee. With the Fed’s investigation tightening, Kolomoisky has moved closer to the Russians and may perhaps be in a position to confirm the biolab revelations.

Indeed, today, the US narrative has shifted. 

Now, US officials admit that there were indeed bioweapons research labs….

The new spin is that the biolabs need to be seized by the US before the Russians get to them, the same Russians whom they accused until today of being liars and propagandists for identifying innocent sanitation outposts as biowarfare facilities.

To wit.,

On Tuesday, the US government’s Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland testified before a Senate Foreign Relation Committee hearing on Ukraine in Washington, DC, and said that the United States was working with Ukraine to prevent invading Russian forces from seizing biological research material. The State Department also stated that it was concerned that Russian forces are trying to gain control of biological research facilities within Ukraine. The committee was set to examine Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the worldwide response.

At the hearing, State Department official Victoria Nuland was asked whether Ukraine has bioweapons. “Ukraine has biological research facilities, which in fact we are now quite concerned Russian troops, Russian forces, may be seeking to gain control of”, she stated to the US lawmakers on March 8.

Mays Fired From Their Jobs

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The NY Times reports:

“Two U.S. State Department employees in India have been removed from their posts for writing racist Facebook comments about their host country.

Wayne May, head of the security team for the U.S. embassy in New Delhi, and his wife Alicia Muller May, the embassy’s community liaison officer, posted messages during their three years in India about how “bizarre” the country was and in one instance joked about “vegetarians that are doing the raping” in response to the gruesome wave of violence in the country.

Well, the Mays should go, but not for being racists.  For being dumb. They can feel anyway they want to about India or Indians. However, as long as they represent this country to India, they ought to keep their feelings to themselves. The Mays could also have been posted elsewhere, where they would have felt comfortable.

Of course, the Mays are also welcome to comment in future at my blog, since I love outrageous commentary, and, as you can see from the way I engage with the underworld of American blogging, I am very gentle with the confused and intellectually-challenged..

Let’s be clear, the Mays were fall guys in all this.

There is no way a caper that had Bharara, the US State Dpt, the US Marshals, some Delhi police, the entire NGO world, and the major media all lined up together on one side, could have taken place without anything but the full sanction of some big bosses.

Please note the pecking order.

Notice that when the NGOs and the State Dpt. and the Human Rights folk were lined up with the maid, Devyani Khobragade couldn’t get a fair shake in the mainstream papers. You couldn’t open a page without hearing a lecture about the “slavery” routinely practiced by Indian barbarians.

We already knew about the Mays by then, but no one thought to fire them for having circumvented the judiciary of a sovereign nation.

But, as soon as Mr. May and his wife, who executed what was probably conceived at higher levels, got caught by social media in unpleasant remarks – oh, then, and only then, do the moral arbiters of the universe become outraged.

In other words, fire the guy for dumb remarks his wife made on social media, probably not intended to be seen.

[Sorry, correction: they were posting OPENLY on Facebook, which, in the circumstances, is really stupid.  Also, the FB pages were not hacked. Nor were they doctored in any way.  That’s just damage-control spin being put out by the army of intelligence hacks employed to keep public perceptions thoroughly spun.]

So, this is how it goes – fire May for comments made by his wife on FB, but don’t fire May for his part in circumventing/obstructing the Indian judiciary, enabling visa fraud ( T3 visa to Sangeeta Richard, when she she was already facing criminal charges in India); or for concocting either a trumped-up or badly exaggerated case that led to custodial rape of a senior married female diplomat; or for committing various crimes in India (tax-fraud and smuggling).

Makes sense?

This plot wasn’t put together by some agent. It was choreographed by someone higher at the State Department.

Terror Camps Targeting Kashmir Excluded From Drone Strikes

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The New Indian Express cites the NY Times on a back room deal struck between the US and Pakistan to allow terrorist training camps that targeted Kashmir to be excluded from drone strikes:

“A New York Times report said back room bargains for covert drone wars began und­er George W Bush and was expanded by President Barack Obama. “Pakistani intelligence off­icials insisted they be allowed to approve each drone strike, giving them tight control over the list of targets. And they insis­ted that drones fly only in narrow parts of tribal areas — ensuring they would not venture where Islamabad did not want Americans goi­ng: Pakistan’s nuclear facilities and mountain camps where Kashmiri militants were being trained for attac­ks in India,” NYT reported, quoting excerpts from The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth.

The report said “the ISI and CIA agreed that all drone flights in Pakistan would operate under the CIA’s covert action authority — meaning the US would never acknowledge the missile strikes and Pakistan wo­uld either take credit for individual killings or remain silent”. The revelation came a day after a US Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center report that Lashkar-e-Toiba runs camps in Muzaffarabad for war against India.”

China Defies US And Sells Gasoline To Iran

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The Sino-US trade wars are heating up. On Friday, the US announced that it would impose stiff duties on Chinese-made oil country tubular goods, which are steel pipes used in the oil industry.

“According to US data, the OCTG trade case is the largest in US history against China imports valued at more than $2.6 billion in 2008 and about $1 billion last year.”

China responded on Tuesday with anti-dumping duties against the US and Russia:

“China has imposed anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on a U.S. specialty steel product, and also hit Russia with anti-dumping duties in the same case, its customs administration said.

U.S. producers will be assessed anti-dumping duties of up to 64.8 percent and anti-subsidy, or “countervailing,” duties of up to 44.6 percent on the grain-oriented electrical steel, it said on its website on Monday.

Grain-oriented electrical steel, also known as grain-oriented silicon steel, is used for the cores of high-efficiency transformers, electric motors and generators.

The state-backed China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters hailed the Ministry of Commerce’s April 10 ruling, which the Ministry has not yet publicly announced, state news agency Xinhua said.

“During the investigation the Ministry found that U.S. producers had received subsidies by the U.S. government, and their unfair competition hurt Chinese producers,” Xinhua said, quoting an unnamed person at the chamber of commerce.”

Meanwhile, China also announced its first trade deficit since May 2004

“According to the statistics from the General Administration of Customs, China’s exports were valued at US $112.11 billion in March, up by 24.3 percent year on year, while the imports were up by 66 percent to US $119.35 billion, trade deficit were US $ 7.24 billion. This is the first monthly trade deficit for China since May of 2004.”

What’s interesting is that this trade row with the US isn’t necessarily a sign of rising protectionism in China, as the media often reports. It seems to signal a move toward more trade with emerging markets in Asia and elsewhere. Thus at the recently concluded Boao Forum for Asia, (the Chinese Davos), the Chinese Vice-President called for open markets and not protectionism. Of course, this isn’t free trade, by any means, but state-driven mercantilism. It remains to be seen whether that is any better than state-driven protectionism.

Another example.

While some top oil-exporting countries have curbed their exports to Iran to avoid penalties from the US, state-owned Chinaoil has sold two cargoes of gasoline to Iran in defiance of the US, the first direct sales since January 2009.

As Russia has hardened its position and moved closer to the European and US stance, the Chinese move has become crucial for Iran. Iran continues to be the fifth largest exporter of crude in the world, but US sanctions have meant that its refineries have suffered from lack of foreign investment and it now relies on the world market for its gasoline needs.

The Great Missile…er…Engineering Gap…

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An article in the Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 20, 2005, suggests that data-manipulation abounds in tech rivalry between countries. Our geeks beat yours, is the 21st century version of saber-rattling:

“India provides the clearest example of how the numbers can be interpreted differently. The 350,000 engineers that it supposedly graduated last year is almost certainly false. After publishing that number in October, the National Academies revised it downward to 200,000 in a note issued last month. The Duke study pegs the number at 215,000, but it also points out that nearly half of those are three-year diplomas – not the four-year degrees counted in the US.

More four-year diplomas than India

Last year, the US awarded bachelor’s degrees to 72,893 engineering students, according to the American Society for Engineering Education. But using India’s more inclusive definition, the Duke study finds the US handed out 137,437 bachelor’s degrees last year, more than India’s 112,000. The US number is far more impressive in rela-tive terms, since India has more than three times as many people.

China’s numbers are more problematic because its government does not break them down. In its revised figures, the National Academies reduced the Chinese total from 600,000 to 500,000. The Duke study pegs the total at 644,106, as reported by the Chinese Ministry of Education. But the study also points out that, as with India, the Chinese total includes engineering graduates with so-called “short cycle degrees” that represent three years or less of college training.

“China includes in its count a lot of graduates – including auto mechanics – who would not be included as engineers in the US or many other nations,” says Gary Gereffi, a coauthor of the study and a professor of sociology who directs Duke’s Center on Globalization, Governance, and Competitiveness.

A press spokesman of the Chinese embassy in Washington declined comment, and its education office there did not respond.

China still graduated 351,537 engineers with four-year degrees. That’s 2-1/2 times the US total (although China has four times the US population).

For its part, the National Academies stands by its report, even after its revisions. “I don’t think we believe at all that these new numbers change the ultimate recommendations we have,” says Deborah Stine, of the National Academies. “The US is well behind other countries.”

Back toward 1986 graduation peak

The number of US engineering graduates peaked in 1986, fell back, then has slowly built back up since the late 1990s, says Daniel Bateson, of the Engineering Workforce Commission.

While US numbers don’t approach China’s, some experts say the quality of US graduates remains superior. A McKinsey Global Institute study last summer found that only 10 percent of Chinese engineers and 25 percent of Indian engineers were capable of competing for outsourced work.”

My Comment

We love the land of our birth dearly, but stereotypes have a reason for existing. My countrymen – and I know every variety of them — are not always as self-critical as they should be. Many call them arrogant…

Satyameva Jayate is the national motto: Truth Always Triumphs.

But Satyam (Truth) Computers found that with Big Four Accounting Firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) signing off on them, cooked books can also triumph…at least until the market collapses.

Indian cricket teams, in terms of sheer talent possibly the best in the world, are nonetheless notorious for snatching defeat out of the mouths of certain victory. They tend to rest on their duffs, when they  should keep their heads down and put their money in their shoes.

True, there is a strong professional and entrepreneurial class. But remember, this is a country of a billion and a third, where nearly a billion people live lives of bare subsistence.

There’s universal corruption. The Corruption Perception Index 2009 by Transparency International has ranked India as the 85th most corrupt country, among 180 countries in the world. It is 19th on the bribery index.

There’s mind-numbing bureaucracy  The Hong Kong-based political and economic risk consultancy group (PERC) reports that Indian civil servants are the least efficient among 12 Asian counterparts: Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Philippines, Indonesia and India.

India, Thailand, and Malaysia face the worst political and social risks, adds PERC.

In some states, the courts and police are feared worse than criminals.

Indian society is often sickeningly color and status-conscious.*

India is a good long-term bet for investment, if you’re careful and monitor your positions. But it’s a  sure-fire disaster for cocky, blind-folded speculation.

Update (March 17, 2010):

*I add a quote from an inter-racial couple:

“My partner is white and I am black, facts of which the Indian public reminds us daily. Bank associates have denied me chai, while falling over to please my white friend. Mall shop attendants have denied me attentiveness, while mobbing my partner. Who knows what else is more quietly denied?

“An African has come,” a guard announced over the intercom as I showed up. Whites are afforded the luxury of their own names, but this careful attention to my presence was not new. ATM guards stand and salute my white friend, while one guard actually asked me why I had come to the bank machine as if I might have said that I was taking over his shift.”

Flight AND Fight..

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My latest piece at Lew Rockwell, answers some questions readers had asked me about leaving the US:

“My last piece, “Time to Run,” provoked a lot of reaction, almost all of it positive, but some negative.

The readers who liked it wanted advice on where to run. That’s a tall order and I’ll come back to them in another piece.

Those who didn’t like it brandished a few arguments that ought to have a stake driven right through them immediately.

Here goes, point by point.

1. Running away doesn’t help

1. Actually, running away is often the best response to a bad situation.

Speaking practically, when a dump truck turns into your drive, mows down your rhododendrons and heads toward you, do you stand your ground yelling Sicilian imprecations at the driver until he rolls over you too? Or do you leap aside nimbly, take a photo, and call a lawyer? You have as much chance getting through to the poisonous shills in DC with constitutional arguments, as you have charming a rabid pit bull with Shakespeare.

Speaking theoretically, your body and brain are hardwired to either put up or shut up, a “fight or flight” response built into the structure of the autonomic nervous system. That is the physiological term for what you think of as your “lizard brain.” Fight or flight is the either/or response that helped your ancestors survive. It’s not the best way to tackle complex problems, but when it gets down to basic survival, it’s a handy guide.

And how do you know when your survival is at stake?

Check your gut response…..”

Read the rest at Lew Rockwell.

[I will be posting reader email on my blog  and will respond there, since my email is often compromised]