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Fantasia Pastoral Symphony Centaurettes Concept Drawing Animation Art (Walt Disney, 1940)....Click the image to load the highest resolution version.
DescriptionFantasia Pastoral Symphony Centaurettes Concept Drawing Animation Art (Walt Disney, 1940). Delightful delineation of a group of lovely centaurettes from the "Pastoral Symphony" sequence of Fantasia. Rendered in graphite on 12" x 10" sheet of animation paper. There is paper aging and light soiling, mostly outside of the image area; otherwise the art is in Very Good condition. Includes a Courvoisier label indicating this drawing was from a limited number of 28 made available for purchase.
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Pulling Threads: Dries Van Noten Keeps Embroiderers Working
Sometimes, it's the little things that are most telling. Among the clothing hanging on the racks in his wholesale show room were soft cotton blouses. The fabric in the front included a simple detail: a lacy strip of open weave less than a half center wide that ran down and then horizontally.
It is there, Mr. Van Noten said, because he wanted to keep his embroidery factory in India working during a season when he didn't plan to use embroidery.
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An amazing Malecon, dotted with statues, and bike lanes so we felt safe riding our bikes. Very picturesque with lots of great eating places.
About Malecon
1 - 10 of 708 reviews
An amazing Malecon, dotted with statues, and bike lanes so we felt safe riding our bikes. Very picturesque with lots of great eating places.
Three miles of sites, sounds, restaurants, sculptures, the best ice cream in town! Lots of tourists, but mostly from the area. A great contrast to the insanity of Cabo. Next time we're going to rent bikes and go all the way up and down it.
It's very nice to walk over there mainly at sunset. Several restaurants and gift shops across the Malecon.
so much fun...enjoy in the evening when all the locals are out strolling and watching the sunset. many interesting sculptures and art work along the way also
Great way to soak up Mexican seaside resort culture. Note 90% of people on Malecon are Mexican, so this is a refreshing change for anyone seeking antidote to the Cabo Resort experience. Quiet by day, busy at night - even on weekdays. Lots of nice...More
The Malecon is a nice level walkway along the Beach in La Paz. It's great for bikes,wheelchairs and scooters. Not much shade though. It's across the street from lots of different restaurants.
Nice place for a stroll, was not too busy which was great. Lots of restaurants and a few souvenir shops
It's a nice walk along the Malecon. You'll see lots of shorebirds like pelicans, ibis, herons in the morning and if you are interested in art you'll find more than 10 interesting sculptures. Also very good for morning jogging - you'll even find some fitness...More
La Paz did it right. No highrise hotels blocking the beaches from view. It was a delightful change from Cabo,and San Jose del Cabo where most of the beaches are blocked from view.
We stayed in La Paz for 1week . Every morning we went for a run. It was so great to see so many lo calls out enjoying this place. Sunday night it was more festive with families and others out walking, enjoying the entertainment and...More


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Who is Concerned About Adventure Vacations for Couples and Why You Should Be Paying Attention
You might need to be sure that you have all the options set up so you can make majority of the holiday season apart from deciding on the length of the vacation. From this, you will soon be able position to track down the ideal winter vacation spot. So that you know what holidays you will be able to manage and all those that you simply are able to do check using the financing. Investing a fast vacation at your farm-house would be.
What About Adventure Vacations for Couples?
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Choosing Adventure Vacations for Couples Is Simple
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The Hidden Gem of Adventure Vacations for Couples
There's a lot. Seeing a specialist guide is essential. You may ask your friend due to his area to get two or each day when probable. All that you have to do is to plan your pleasure weekend getaways in such a manner which you will have a lot of time and energy to spend with your family members.
Adventure Vacations for Couples Can Be Fun for Everyone
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Want to Know More About Adventure Vacations for Couples?
That you watch the slopes from sun december adventure holidays rise to the sunset every single room involves a remodeled kitchen area in addition to a balcony. If it's really a family trekking trip it really is more vital to make positive all hikers are outfitted clothing and accommodations, gear provisions like hiking boots are all suitable for all. Whether you 're merely hiking for several of miles or doing exactly the Pacific Crest Trail that is entire, you are going to require to find yourself a set of hiking boots that are very good quality. As you want make certain you're very well equipped for non temperatures.
Gossip, Lies and Adventure Vacations for Couples
In selecting your hiking excursion seasonal factors perform a critical role. It's possible to find cruise trips which have been made especially to inspect the life, which is well suited for partners that would like to get out more regarding their fresh atmosphere also love creatures. You are sure to possess time in one's life however you have to make certain also the stability of one's sweetheart for a experience adventure adventure along with your safety.
Adventure traveling businesses are in a position to assist you become with the characteristics of each place in touch through programs of guides and experiences who is able to support you. When you select the adventure game search for the places in which you'll discover a opportunity. Using a adventure traveling excursion you are ready to discover a sense of the entire state and meet with folks in that civilization who are interested in identical hobbies. From the existing circumstance, adventure traveling has turned thinking about several and changing lives.
Top Adventure Vacations for Couples Secrets
The real means the family members is likely to take benefit of the vacation is when each member is having a good time. You will find a lot it is likely to see, thereby permitting you to appreciate your time and effort. Some couples discover that it's immensely favorable to plan a escape by couples that are various as it really is more fun, and a means to devote time together with males and women that you really don't find. There are a amazing deal of cruise packages which appeal to households with kiddies and take you.
Adventure Vacations for Couples Help!
Or your dream beach date contains looking in a gorgeous sunset while you like a seaside picnic. You should also strategy that the vacation becomes refreshing and memorable. My section of the van tour has been that the many different water falls. Get the most out of the playground bargain if you're likely to visit both motif parks.
When you should be searching for adventure holidays for partners, another condition you ought to look at is Arizona. Yet another thought is arranging a camp with the family yourself. Mid-week and off-season, if it's possible to bypass a day or two of school and perform, is the best! It's comforting to be careful of exactly to what amount your vacation will cost just before going, notably after you've got additional kid issues and also picky eaters to look at.
Such trips help make memories for your whole household. California is an immense nation, in reality, it's the largest in the world. Mini-vacations are a chance for parents and kids to unwind and unwind.


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This Week in Linux: ROSA, Magiea, Mint, Gentoo
Things have been a bit busy in the Linux world this week. Besides openSUSE 12.3 Milestone 2 being released, ROSA Desktop.Fresh 2012 rolled off the assembly line, if not your tongue. Mageia released their lastest version 3 developmental ISO, better late than never. Linux Mint saw yet another spin release, this time the Xfce version and Gentoo marked the end of the world today.
ROSA Desktop.Fresh 2012
Ok, who named this? Actually, the announcement said, "ROSA Desktop.Fresh 2012 is a new name for a line of non-commercial desktop operating systems developed by ROSA. The name underlines the fact that the system contains "fresh" versions of user software and system components (compared to enterprise editions of ROSA)."
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Openwashing Apple and Microsoft Proprietary Frameworks/Services
Viperr Linux Keeps Crunchbang Alive with a Fedora Flair
Do you remember Crunchbang Linux? Crunchbang (often referred to as #!) was a fan-favorite, Debian-based distribution that focused on using a bare minimum of resources. This was accomplished by discarding the standard desktop environment and using a modified version of the Openbox Window Manager. For some, Crunchbang was a lightweight Linux dream come true. It was lightning fast, easy to use, and hearkened back to the Linux of old.
Openwashing Cars
today's leftovers


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In the latest attack on a popular internet personality that steps outside of leftist dogma, Twitter has suspended both of comedian Owen Benjamin's Twitter accounts. For months Benjamin has been pushing the envelope on Twitter, seeing just how far he take jokes. But that's all they are: jokes.
For those in Silicon Valley, though, words are violence. That means that any joke that offends them shouldn't be told.
Benjamin has been laser focused on free speech and has held nothing back in criticizing the authoritarian nature of big tech companies. Everyday he took to Twitter to rail on social justice warriors and this new trend that ostracizes and silences any voice that goes against leftist ideology.
Trending: EXCLUSIVE: Hillary's Deleted Emails Have Been Found, Court Orders Them RELEASED
It's quite ironic that the loudest voices for free speech keep being silenced by Big Brother Tech.
Just last week Benjamin's popular YouTube channel was taken off the site briefly in what appeared to be a widespread "glitch," but a lot of the effected accounts run in the same circles including Stephen Crowder's channel. Many have speculated that the widespread "glitch" was actually a test by YouTube's censors.
There's no word on when if ever, Benjamin's Twitter account will be restored. A we've seen with many right-wing personalities, the ban could easily be permanent and the tech companies rarely if ever publicly comment on why the suspension was laid down.
For now, Benjamin is asking for his fans to support him via Patreon, but there's no telling when they will decide to target him and delete his account.
Both twitter accounts suspended and now my ability to make an income has been revoked. Please become a Patreon.com/wdtl…
Posted by Owen Benjamin on Thursday, April 5, 2018
This is a huge blow for free speech advocates, but an even bigger blow to those to enjoy hilarious comedy.
Big League Politics will update you as we learn more information about Benjamin's suspension.


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I have a starforce 3 game and I cant copy it... can anyone. (no i dont want to use emmulation)
The game is Cossacks II.
If so Can you tell me how.
Thanks Much
Without emulation... No
well thats just GAY lol
Well so am I. Joking - i'm not really gay, anyone here who has spoken to me on IRC will tell you


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Destination India Summer Holidays
Free delivery worldwide
Dispatched from the UK in 3 business days
When will my order arrive?
The book helps you to plan a hassle free summer holidays in India. It helps and guides you to top Places to go for Summer Holiday in India. Our collection of places to visit in India in summer offer you the widest possible choice of places to pleasant and sun soaked places across Indian subcontinent. The places like Kashmir, Ladakh, etc.
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Product details
- Paperback | 32 pages
- 215.9 x 279.4 x 2.03mm | 127.01g
- 06 Jun 2015
- Createspace
- United States
- English
- Large type / large print
- Large Print
- colour illustrations
- 1514252252
- 9781514252253


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Just when you thought US-China relations were about to worsen yet again, something rather unexpected seems to have happened. Major attacks by Chinese hackers seem to be slowing. At least that's what several cyber security executives told Reuters on Monday. The reason? Well, it could well be President Xi's upcoming visit to Washington, during which cyber espionage is likely to be a major focus of discussions.
But given all that we know about the motives behind Beijing's long-running targeted attack campaign against foreign organisations, is this really the start of cyber détente?
Reasons to be cheerful
On the face of it, the experts the newswire spoke to certainly know their stuff. Kevin Mandia is founder of Mandiant – an intelligence and forensics firm which has benefitted more than most from the spate of major 'Chinese' cyber-attacks which have hit the likes of Sony Pictures, Target and healthcare firm Anthem. He told Reuters, "The pace of new breaches feels like it's tempering," adding: "in my gut, I feel like the Chinese and the US over the next couple of years are going to figure this out."
Given that information security professionals are not prone to optimism, this is a surprising statement from Mandia. Yet it was backed up by Cylance CEO Stuart McClure who also claimed a drop-off in attacks thought to have come from China over the past six months. Trend Micro's chief cybersecurity officer, Tom Kellermann, was more cautious, however, claiming merely that "there's been a consolidation in activity coming out of China."
I'd be similarly cautious. If we're talking specifically about cyber-attacks focused mainly on private US companies with an economic focus – for that is where the Obama administration wants to concentrate its time – then nothing much has changed. There has been talk of sanctions, but that's unlikely to faze China. There may have been an executive decision to moderate attack activity until the negotiations and Xi's trip to the US are over, but I'm not sure it will change a great deal in the long run.
After the US indicted five PLA soldiers last year for their obtaining "information for the purpose of commercial advantage and private financial gain", cyber-attacks from their unit slowed for a few months – but soon picked up where they left off. After a separate group, APT 12, was exposed by Mandiant in early 2013 for attacks on the New York Times, it too went off grid. But it was back six months later with new and improved malware versions and new techniques to stay hidden.
State-backed tech transfer
In fact, if a new report is to be believed, China's economic espionage campaign against US firms could cost as much as $5 trillion a year in terms of the value of the IP stolen. The story, by – admittedly anti-Chinese communist party paper – Epoch Times, quotes from reputable cybersecurity firms and official government documents to make its case. Most interesting is the allegation that Beijing invests huge sums of money not only in economic espionage but in tech transfer centres designed to first earmark for theft and then process stolen IP for the economic and military betterment of the Middle Kingdom.
The process of reverse engineering alone as described in the report would take years if, as alleged, China sends students to study in the target industries first, before beginning the process of building what amounts to counterfeit products. The report describes an institutionalised, large-scale IP theft and tech transfer programme which any nation state would be unlikely to pull the plug on – if it ain't broke…
Whether the US and China can come to some sort of an agreement on limiting that activity, however, remains to be seen. Despite its attempts to differentiate between military/intelligence based spying and IP theft for economic gain, Washington's negotiating position has been hugely damaged by the Edward Snowden revelations – especially over the NSA targeting foreign organisations.
With concrete attribution always problematic in cyber space, it's likely Beijing will continue to play the plausible deniability card that's served it so well thus far. Any 'agreements' that come out of these upcoming talks are unlikely to mean an end to cyber espionage … for either side.
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Our in-house analyst and editorial team create a range of insights for the global marketing community. These look at IT buying preferences, the latest soclal media trends and other zeitgeist topics.


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Additional ideas on the new role played by OSCE
Germany, especially through his Minister for Foreign Affairs Steinmeier, has long been saying to the Atlantic Alliance that a change of strategy towards the Russian Federation is needed. On June 18 last, The German Minister for Foreign Affairs warned NATO not to "inflame" the relations with Russia so as to avoid tensions which would also lead to open warfare. Vladimir Bokovsky, the dissident who was exchanged for the leader of the Communist Party of Chile, Luis Corvalan, in Zurich in 1976, said that "the Russians' great power of endurance is their true secret weapon."
Better not to corner Russia which, on the contrary, would be an ideal partner in the Mediterranean, in Central Asia and in the Middle East. Our truly global danger is the sword jihad, not the Russian desire to regain a global role.
Furthermore, the German military decision-makers are now considering a stand-alone doctrine towards Europe and, above all, towards the Eurasian project typical of the China-Russia pair.
Last August Minister Steinmeier stated he perceived a new version – although in new ways and with new tools – of the Cold War between the West and the Russian Federation, a project which would see Germany as first war victim and main war theatre, as in the old Cold War model.
It is also worth recalling that Minister Frank-Walther Steinmeier is the OSCE current Chairman-in-office.
The new "Cold War" would mark the end of the recent German reunification, as well as the end of Germany's wellbeing and stability – a country which lives also on exports, especially to the East, and therefore intends to expand its own presence in Eurasia.
Even though on July 18 last Russia arrested the Ukrainian OSCE observer who monitored the ceasefire in Eastern Ukraine, on charges of espionage, the current OSCE Presidency invited also the Russian experts to monitor the forthcoming presidential elections in the United States.
Moreover Russia officially invited OSCE to monitor the next Russian parliamentary elections scheduled for September 18 next.
Hence, while NATO is focusing on the project of a new "Cold War" to curb the Russian Federation's expansion and relegate it to the role of a "medium power", the European States are experiencing the gap between their strategic interests and the Atlantic Alliance's. Hence a new forum for taking international decisions shall be envisaged, such as OSCE, which can temporarily put aside the North Atlantic Treaty and resume the thread of a Eurasian project from which Western Europe cannot remain alien.
Moreover, the NATO idea of compressing and relegating Russia in what Raymond Aron called "the great European plain" and of remotely controlling the People's Republic of China in Central Asia is being accomplished in a phase in which the United States are de facto leaving the European Union to its fate, especially after Brexit.
The United States have decided to quadruple their military budget in Eastern Europe as early as March 2016 – and this has taken place out of the Atlantic Alliance's framework and with a clear anti-Russian intention, even though masked by military projection onto the Persian Gulf and Iran, in particular.
The new Atlantic Alliance will be more asymmetrical than usual: there will be important countries, such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania, as well as less important countries, such as Italy, France, Spain and Germany itself, which will witness a reduction of NATO strategic commitment and shall necessarily think to defend themselves on their own.
As the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, explicitly stated, if he wins the US presidential elections, the United States will not accept the automatic mechanism of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty on the Alliance's integrated defence.
Conversely, if Hillary Clinton becomes the new US President, she will increase the unfortunate and often irrational operations against the "tyrants" in the Middle East, by trying to involve the EU allies, although with mixed results.
And with long and dangerous destabilization in key areas, which would be detrimental especially for the EU Member States and the NATO European Pillar.
It is also worth adding that the very recent Italian project of a Unified Military Force between Italy, Germany and France – initially proposed by General Camporini – results from the rational assessment of a post-Brexit British indifference towards the European Continent and the awareness of a NATO ever more distant from the European interests and closer – more than usual – to the US projects.
Furthermore, in all likelihood, the new Tripartite Force will have a more rational posture towards the Russian Federation and the Mediterranean.
A project that is bound to be interesting also for Israel, which will be in a position to redesign its foreign and defence policy, thus becoming a Mediterranean player.
Hence Israel will later discover, in the Mare Nostrum, the security bulwark which can defend its territorial position, in the context of the new tensions generated by the Caliphate's jihad and its upcoming end.
It is worth recalling that OSCE was created with another name by the Helsinki Final Act of 1975.
The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which was held in the Finnish capital, was a success of the USSR – which saw the inviolability of national borders accepted – but also a success of the United States and the other Atlantic Alliance's Member States, which saw the inviolability of human rights and democratic freedoms recognized in the Final Act.
Currently OSCE deals mainly with the monitoring of the election regularity and is mostly known for this activity.
However it must also check many other functions relating to the international balance of power, such as control over the spreading of tactical and strategic weapons, by maintaining ten missions in "hot spots" (Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Moldova, Serbia, Skopje, Tajikistan, Ashgabat, Ukraine and Uzbekistan).
The OSCE additional functions include the fight against terrorism and the trafficking in human beings; the prevention and resolution of conflicts; the economic activities; the activities for environmental protection, for the protection of human rights and for guaranteeing the freedom of the press and of the other media; cooperation in the security sector and the rules against discrimination.
A sequence of tasks and functions mostly comparable to those carried out by NATO, which is also an organization coordinating military structures that are and will remain national.
Hence if we want to draw a comparison with the Atlantic Alliance, we can see that OSCE is present in ten hotbeds of crisis, namely those previously mentioned, while NATO is currently active in six strategic regions and particularly in Afghanistan, where it led the International Security Assistance Force (ASAF) from 2003 to 2014 joining as many as 51 NATO and non-NATO members – the longest operation ever conducted by the Atlantic Alliance.
Furthermore the Atlantic Alliance is also operating in Afghanistan with Resolute Support, active since January 1, 2015.
The effects of these two Atlantic Alliance's operations are there for all to see: the Taliban, the "students" politically born in the Pakistani madrasahs, are still masters of the Afghan soil, while the "new Qaedists" keep on infiltrating from Syria, Tajikistan and even from the Chinese Islamist Xinjiang.
Currently the training of the Afghan security forces is certainly not an effective and rational military goal: the Kabul government is strongly linked to drug trafficking, as indeed many of the Taliban factions.
In Kosovo, the pseudo-State recognized by the United States one day after the declaration of independence of the Albanian statelet from Serbia, on February 17, 2009, things are no better.
Today, it is mainly a hub for the Daesh-Isis foreign fighters.
Kosovo has provided to Isis as many as 125 foreign fighters for every million inhabitants; hence it is the State most "rich" – so to speak – in Caliphate's foreign fighters in the world.
A further Atlantic Alliance's operation is Active Endeavour, which controls and protects the Mediterranean against terrorism.
Said NATO action will soon be transformed into the wider Operation Sea Guardian, which will see the contribution of countries not belonging to the Alliance.
In 2015 terrorism hit in over 100 countries, as compared to 59 in 2013. As stated by NATO itself, it is not particularly present in the Mediterranean region but, as is well-known, it operates in some Middle East countries and, with Isis, in continental Europe with the terrible attacks we all know.
The latest statistics indicate a toll in the West of 229 deaths for acts of terrorism, especially jihadist terrorism, including 49 in the United States, 44 in Turkey and even 292 in Iraq.
Indeed, if we want to be clear, "terrorism" does not exist. There rather exists the sword jihad, which is governed and evolves according to its own specific strategic doctrine, which is alien to the Clausewitzian Western universe.
The acts of terror are parts of this sequence of Islamist military operations; they are neither the jihad goal nor its primary combat technique.
Not surprisingly, so far the best fight against jihadism has been China's, which has a military doctrine still ranging from Sun Tzu to the "36 Stratagems". The same holds true for Russia, which has used a mix of traditional warfare and new "hybrid warfare" strategies to fight against its Chechen territorial jihad, and for Israel, which has always pursued an original mix of intelligence, preventive war and outright military action.
Therefore, according to NATO analysts, the Mediterranean is a means of terrorism, not a region marked by the presence of a homogeneous jihad based on coast-to-coast maritime operations.
Another NATO mission is active in Kosovo where there is the Atlantic Alliance's operation which, in 1999, was initially called KFOR, until the Normalization Agreement between Serbia, Kosovo and the EU was signed in 2003.
An additional important operation is the anti-piracy one known as Ocean Shield, organized by the Atlantic Alliance in the Gulf of Aden, the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean – an activity which was officially started in 2008.
As scheduled, it will end in December 2016, although maintaining some early warning mechanisms in that region.
With a view to supporting the African Union (AU), since 2005 NATO has been operating with this organization, which has 54 members all belonging to the Black Continent.
Nevertheless the Atlantic Alliance's primary goal is to support AMISOM (the AU Mission in Somalia) which heads the African Standby Force, always with the support of non-NATO countries.
Basically, the dangerous mix of "peace missions", "interposition missions" and peace enforcement ones enables NATO to freeze problems, but not to solve them.
When the Atlantic Alliance mission goes away, the conflict starts again as before or, as happened in Kosovo, the local Albanians' ethnicist nationalism is replaced by the jihad.
Something else would be needed, but the higher the number of countries from Africa or other crisis areas which participate in the Atlantic Alliance's operations, the less likely a political solution is – as well as a real stabilization of the strategic areas in which each regional player continues to exert its hegemonic role.
These are the NATO operations currently in place.
And what about OSCE's? In addition to the OSCE actions already mentioned, there is for example the Forum on Security Cooperation, which regulates the exchange of military intelligence between the Member States and tries to keep the proliferation of "small weapons" under control. It also monitors the spreading of weapon of mass destruction and checks the implementation of multilateral reports and decisions among the 57 OSCE Member States.
Therefore the real problem is that also the Russian Federation – which had resumed its post-Soviet foreign policy with the NATO-Russia Council created in 2002 – is an OSCE member.
In the aftermath of the Soviet regime's collapse, Russia joined the North Atlantic Cooperation Council in 1999 after having joined the Partnership for Peace program a few years earlier, in 1994.
Today, the Georgian issue of August 2008 (which is considered by NATO a "disproportionate reaction") and, above all, the Russian action in Ukraine of April 2014 have blocked any kind of relationship between the Atlantic Alliance and Russia.
A serious mistake: Russia has always considered both Georgia, where Stalin was born, and Ukraine (where Khrushchev was born) autonomous areas, although still subject to the Russian strategic design.
What would happen if an alliance close to NATO conquered Iran, a Russian traditional ally? Or if Moscow sent troops to Sicily?
Hence the Russian Federation operated against the US-led "orange revolutions" in the two Caucasian countries particularly with a view to protecting its own sovereignty and the autonomy of the oil and gas pipelines.
Georgia finally signed the Association Agreement with the EU on July 1, 2016, but Russia promptly diversified its oil and gas supply lines to the EU with the creation of the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP) in mid-March this year – a transfer line which will bring also the Azerbaijani gas to European markets.
The TANAP gas will arrive in Turkey in 2018 and will be then distributed to Europe, while the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) starts from Kipoi, on the border between Greece and Turkey, transits through Greece and Albania and will connect to TANAP in Turkey.
For TANAP, Azerbaijan and Turkey will also open to Turkmenistan.
Hence, reacting to this geoeconomic project only with the "orange revolutions" seems, in principle, tantamount to taking a mallet to crack a peanut.
In fact, there is no possible counteraction of the Atlantic Alliance to this project of pro-Russian natural gas transfer lines – a project which can be controlled only by indirect strategic activities, particularly with the "hybrid warfare" techniques put in its place precisely by the Russian Federation.
It is worth recalling that, as early as 2011, Vladimir Putin has repeatedly expressed his intention of getting out of the dollar area used for energy transactions and creating a "parallel market" based on the rouble only.
Moreover OSCE is the only international forum in which all Member States are treated equally – hence it is the ideal organization to reopen the strategic dialogue with the Russian Federation,
Considering that the OSCE strength is also to monitor and manage regional conflicts, its already active 57 members should cooperate also with Israel, where the tension with the Palestinian Authority – which is bound to be a failed State – can be kept under control and limited precisely by using the full panoply of techniques, skilled staff and political authority the Organization has shown so far.
Hence reducing the OSCE role only to the monitoring of the election regularity is extremely simplistic, even though objectively necessary.
The German Foreign Minister and current OSCE Chairman-in-office suggested that OSCE must also deal with the monitoring and verification of conventional weapons, which are and will be the weapons actually used in future wars.
The nuclear balance is eminently political and strategic. Those "weapons are made for being never used", as said many years ago by a NATO Secretary General, the British Lord Ismay.
In addition, OSCE could combine its environmental protection efforts with economic and "development" cooperation – a new function which could operate in a decisive context for the world's future, namely the one uniting the Partnership for the Mediterranean with the wide Asian and Eurasian region.
While NATO is closing eastwards, thus repeating the conditioned reflex for which it was created, we now need effective and inclusive organizations, which open to the strategic, economic and military "new world" Asia will be, where the EU will regain its true geopolitical mission and the Mediterranean, but especially Israel, will be in a position to ensure their multilateral security.
It is worth recalling that Italy will chair the OSCE Mediterranean Dialogue throughout 2017 and it will be good not to reduce this opportunity to a sort of "European Semester", full of conferences but which we hope will be soon over.
Italy as a means and instrument of the new OSCE life but, more importantly, as the country enlarging the Organization to Eurasia and, simultaneously, to the Mediterranean.
ISIS and the Continuing Threat of Islamist Jihad: The Need for the Centrality of PSYOP
Defining the Problem
The National Security Strategy of the United States (NSS) calls for direct military action against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the disruption of terror plots, the destruction of terrorist safe havens and sources of finance, a shared responsibility with allies in confronting the threat and combating radicalization to counter ISIS ideology. The Trump Administration's NSS accurately identifies the ISIS end goal as creation of the global Islamic caliphate and notes its totalitarian vision. This strategy further acknowledges the threat posed by ISIS will remain after its territorial defeat in Iraq and Syria. While the Trump Administration put forth a series of wide ranging efforts spanning the instruments of power for insurgent warfare, the President is nearing a moment of critical decision regarding US involvement in Syria and Iraq. Early withdrawal risks abandoning the area to a reemergence of the regional caliphate as well as to Iranian and Russian influence. Declaring victory too soon could blind the US to the continued global threat of Islamist jihad. Therefore, US actions must secure the ways and means of meeting the Administration's end goal – that of destruction of the ISIS threat and overall stability of the region — through a campaign heavily targeted on Islamist ideology and centered upon psychological operations.
This Islamic State evolved out of Al Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni Islamist terror organization. ISIS represents a politico-religious ideology based on the 7th century Islamic Caliphate that is antithetical to Western values and ideals and opposes all Muslims who do not share its view of Islam. The organization's infrastructure or Dawa seeks the conversion of non-Muslims and to instill Islamist views in all Muslims. ISIS is a global insurgency promoting subversion from within in which Sharia law replaces political institutions. It utilizes social media to incite global support for operations and mujahideen recruitment. By 2014, at least 60 militant Islamist groups had pledged allegiance to or support for the Islamic State. Since that time, a series of attacks throughout Europe, Southeast Asia, and the United States demonstrated ISIS's global reach as well as its ability to attract a worldwide flow of recruits. Unlike Al Qaeda, which primarily stressed a global virtual network and the spectacular terror attack, ISIS initially captured and held territory in Iraq and Syria, functioning as a state as well as an Islamist terror network. In June 15, 2014, Operation Inherent Resolve began military intervention against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. In 2018, the regional caliphate in Iraq and Syria is all but destroyed by the United States and coalition partners.
ISIS's success at establishing its transnational organization came by demonstrating an ability to acquire and hold territory while simultaneously spreading the concept of the global caliphate. It undermined competitors, attracted sympathizers, and grew in regions that were ungovernable by states. These areas include not only Iraq and Syria but also Yemen, regions of Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Nigeria, where Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and renamed itself the Islamic State's West African Province. In 2016, terrorism specialist Rohan Gunaratna maintained that as ISIS loses territory in Iraq and Syria, it will continue to expand in Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, and SE Asia and will eventually attempt a spectacular terror act utilizing its foreign fighters. The 2015 Paris attacks demonstrated the ISIS/local nexus and the capability to carry out such an attack.
Similarly, US Director of National Intelligence Dan R Coats maintains with the loss of territory, the ISIS threat in 2018is that the organization will regroup in a long-term insurgency to reestablish itself in the region while giving priority to transnational terror attacks and global interconnection. This threat includes home country attacks carried out by ISIS sympathizers. Since 2016, ISIS has published 13 magazines in languages including English, German, French, and Arabic and released videos promoting jihad. The August 2017 attack in Spain was detailed in the ISIS magazine Rumiyah, which also called for "all-out war" against the West. EUROPOL also recognizes the long-term security challenge from the increased threat of attack in European states as foreign fighters return home or infiltrate states as territory is lost in Iraq and Syria.
Proposed Resolutions
The 2017 NSS highlights a successful ground campaign in Syria and Iraq in which much of the territory captured by ISIS had been retaken and the physical caliphate had been destroyed. According to the former Deputy Assistant to President Trump, Sebastian Gorka, moving from the Obama strategy of attrition to the Trump strategy of annihilation resulted in military success on the ground. This involved the setting of grand strategy and policy at the NSC and DOD levels while leaving theatre operations to the commanders in the fields as well as calling for a Muslim/Arab partnership with the US to meet the ongoing threat. Still, others see the Trump strategy as merely an amplification of the Obama strategy. Analyst Phillip Lohaus testified before Congress that despite successes certain elements of the Trump strategy remain similar to Obama's strategy, including special forces direct action missions, airstrikes, and the use of drones. The problem remains that there is still no plan for a post-Islamic State in either Iraq or Syria: if American involvement is reduced too soon the Islamic State could reemerge.
In rightfully focusing on ideology, Ayaan Hirsi Ali argues that Obama's policy of "countering violent extremism" failed to address the underlying threat that produces the violence. She is correct, as focusing on the tactic ignores the strategical underpinnings inherent in the threat, namely that of radical Islamism. She argues that the Trump Administration took a solid step by identifying the enemy. However, the focus of US strategy must not be exclusively on violence but must go straight to targeting the spread of ideology. Trump's promise to be a friend to moderate Muslim reformers and to screen those entering the US for radical Islamist ideology is a start, but a full policy must be developed that targets how Islamist ideology is spread. This will require a careful balance between rights and security in a democratic Republic. It will also involve an understanding of the psychology surrounding the Islamist movement and those who seek to join it.
Similarly, in moving beyond the focus on violence, Gunaratna called for a full engagement of a four-dimensional threat composed of the ISIS core in Syria and Iraq, the ISIS branches, the global ISIS infiltration, and ISIS online.In short, ISIS loss of territory does not equate to victory against ISIS due to the ability of the organization to effectively move from one style of conflict to another: from a territorial-based operation to a decentralized global mode of recruitment and attack. It is because of the nature of the threat posed by ISIS that analyst Michael Pregent testified before Congress that from a tactical and operational standpoint what is needed beyond the taking of ISIS territory is for US forces to partner with local Sunni forces that can hold territory while US Special Operations Forces conduct kill and capture operations. Strategically, the US must work toward reconciliation in Iraq and Syria as well as the dismantling of the militia. However, Pregent fears this will not occur due to Russian and Iranian actions in the area. Thus, ISIS activity will remain a recurring problem.
New Recommendations
Countering the Islamic State requires at its center a psychological campaign targeting Iraq and Syria and ISIS threats to the United States and Europe and regions throughout the world.The concern about the creation of a power vacuum by premature withdrawal of US forces is a legitimate issue. President Trump recently indicated the United States would pull out of Syria "soon" and is considering his options, although the recent Syrian chemical attack in Douma will render that prospect moot in the short term. Whether Trump's statements are part of diplomatic maneuvering to pressure other countries in the region and in Europe to take on more of the burden remains to be seen. However, the United States vacating the area is not a viable option, as the Islamic State will attempt to reestablish the regional caliphate and Iran will likely try to seek a permanent military base in Syria, potentially backed by the Russians. The political integrity of Iraq is necessary to counter Iran and its Shia form of Islamist militancy.
A campaign targeting ISIS infiltration into the United States as well as other host countries is also required. Expect an expansion of regional and global ISIS operations as operatives attempt to infiltrate communities to carry out attacks and inspire home-grown terrorist sympathizers. The non-radical Muslim communities of all countries should be targeted as allies against potential attack from extremist ideology.
Instead of Syrian withdrawal, military operations of seizing and holding territory should continue and a no-fly zone should be established. Operation Inherent Resolve must shift its primary focus to one of psychological operations. The combined Joint Inter Agency Task Force with US military command and operational control over all assets is critical because it allows for organizational control and the mixing of elements from CIA, State Department, and the military. Special operations forces in Syria and Iraq include Special Forces (Delta and Seal Team 6), Psychological Operations, and Civil Affairs units. The Psychological Operations focus will be on countering ISIS propaganda while Civil Affairs engages in national assistance to improve living conditions for the people on the ground so that they are willing to work with Special Forces and are susceptible to PSYOP. In general, there are three groups of Muslims present for target operations: the Islamists loyal to ISIS who must be isolated and destroyed, the Reformers who should be backed by US and coalition partners, and the vast majority of Muslims who are not Islamists and whose "hearts and minds" the coalition seeks to win over.
The Hearts and Minds of the Persuadable
The psychological component within the United States and Europe against ISIS remains the centerpiece of operations utilizing assets across the board. In the US, the department of Homeland Security becomes the lead agency with important agencies such as FBI and ATF working as part of the Joint Terrorism Task Force. As psychological operations are illegal within the US, the focus within the US is on public information. In Europe, the State Department will be the primary player in negotiation with host countries, with the National Security Council managing the effort. CIA is available for clandestine operations as needed. Specifically, in either the US or Europe, group identities will be either undermined or reinforced in those hostile and friendly groups respectively.
Host country populations will be mobilized to support Muslim reformist groups and the moderate majority, establishing intergroup linkages for possible assimilation into the population. Group and social identities of Muslims will be targeted, reinforcing those identities which bolster reformist Muslims and isolating those which reinforce radical Islamism. Given that Middle Eastern cultural and religious identity is a crucial component of worldview and that ISIS is a political religious ideology, targeting those social bonds that are vulnerable to ISIS propaganda and recruitment is a key operational element. The goal is assimilation of the moderate majority who are persuadable away from radicalization and to break potential group fusion with radical Islamists before it occurs. Preventing the radicalization of moderate Muslims by Islamists is the preferred route, as de-fusion from a group is a difficult process, and will provide a possible foundation for better future engagement with Western powers.
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The GMO case in the interpretation of the School of Economic Warfare
In 1983 laboratory experimentation on genetic mutation seemed to pave the way for a future technological revolution. Entrepreneurs heavily invested in research and development of bio-technologies applied for agricultural purposes. In this regard, businessmen sealed a number of deals concerning new varieties of plants created through transgenic processes. European farmers were particularly concerned about this fast-paced development and aggressive propaganda in favor of transgenic products, especially because the agro-chemical sector had confirmed their resistance to pesticides and herbicides.
The development of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) raised some concerns about their impact on human health and on the ecosystem. At the same time, the European agricultural business sector feared that the development of GMOs would have created a dependency on U.S. multinational agro-chemical corporations.
The European public opinion – whose trust had already been broken after the scandals of BSE (mad cow disease) and dioxin in chicken – has so far been caution and vigil towards this new form of agriculture and demanded specific labeling for all GMO products (officially approved in February 2000).
American consumers instead, relied on quality controls provided by the federal agencies like FOOD & DRUG ADMINISTRATION and EPA , which were considered reliable watchdogs for public health and environmental safety. Since their approval is automatically considered as a guarantee for consumers' safety, the GMO labeling procedure appears as superfluous. Free market regulations prescribe that every country intending to reject the import of a given product, must provide a proof of its health risks. The transatlantic debate on this topic mostly focused on food safety and environmental protection preserving biodiversity in the long run and promoting a healthy diet. The failure of Cartagena Convention to draft a protocol on biotechnological risks occurred during a phase in which European consumers demanded their governments to make clearer decisions. When in December 1996 the EU Commission authorized the placing on the market of transgenic corn (that benefited the company Novartis), many EU countries expressed their concerns. In February 1997, Austria and Luxembourg prohibited the import of that specific type of corn; similarly, in September 1998, Greece and the United Kingdom banned the rapeseed produced and distributed by Agrevo. Over the course of the same year, Denmark banned all kinds of GMOs and France suspended the farming of transgenic corn in accordance with the decision made by the Council of State on September 25th, 1998. Public opinion was also very worried and reluctant towards GMOs products. Fearing that governments would have not protected the interests of consumers, many associations and environmental movements vocally campaigned against GMOs and showed civil society's response to the economic dominance of the United States. In January 1999, the Organization for Biological Certification Soil Association condemned the company Monsanto for the insufficient protective measures against the pollination of surrounding plantations. Soil Association revealed the risks of cross-contamination operated by winds and insects moving the pollen of transgenic plants for long distances. At the same time, a poll conducted by the French NGO Friends of the Earth revealed that numerous fast food chains had already eliminated – or were about to do so – all GMO based food.
The environmental experts of the scientific community were concerned about the impact of the extensive use of chemicals on the crops whose genes were resistant to herbicides; they hypothesized that in response to this, insects might develop a gene mutation as well. The British Medical Association demanded the creation of a health agency and the ban of antibiotic-resistant marker genes in transgenic food. They basically asked for a moratorium.
Already in August 1998, the British researcher Arpad Pusztai pointed out some health risks caused by GMO potatoes and a few days later he lost his job at the Rowett Research Institute. This episode – that had received extensive media coverage – reinforced the stances of the GMOs critics as it was perceived as an attempt to bury a certain kind of scientific research in order not to spread fear. For their part, consumers were already shocked by the BSE scandal and started reducing significantly the purchase of transgenic products. Pushed by public opinion, the British government – that had previously welcome GMO biotechnologies – recognized the importance of a moratorium. Therefore, it commissioned two studies on the impact of GMOs on health, agriculture and environment. Large retailers were therefore forced to yield to the will of consumers. Sainsbury – second largest grocery store in the UK – together with Body and Mark and Spencer announced the withdrawal of all GMO products and some other big European groups followed their example: Carrefour (France), Esselunga (Italy), Migros (Switzerland), Superquinn (Ireland), Delhaize (Belgium). These latter issued a press release in which they committed to addressing the requests of consumers and only sell GMO free products, in agreement with agricultural and raw materials industries.
They appointed Law Laboratories Ltd, an independent research lab, for quality controls in cultivated fields and in food-production chains in order to detect the potential presence of GMOs. Some GDO companies offered consumers the choice between transgenic products and a GMO-free alternative of their own production. Paradoxically, the campaign against GMOs turned into a marketing strategy that favored national brands over the big industrial chains. On April 27th 1999, Tesco, leader in the UK food distribution, decided to collaborate with Greenpeace in order to identify suppliers that guaranteed GMO free products. Tesco's commitment in the distribution of biological products resulted in both great enthusiasm of environmentalist groups and in Greenpeace's success in the countries where Tesco was present (Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland).
On April 28 of the same year, Unilever, the first grocery store that introduced GMOs on the UK food market, decided to stop distributing these products; so did Nestlé – the Swiss titanic food industry- and H. McCain, world leader in the frozen food distribution, that withdrew the sale of transgenic potatoes as consumers had requested. The actions taken by the European agro industrial sector led many foreign companies to adjust their policies. In the United States, for example, Gerber – company specialized in food for children – decided to utilize only organic corn. As a result, most American farmers realized that transgenic seeds were the reason of the drop in exports (60% drop in 1998). The reports issued by the federal agencies USDA and EPA clearly showed that the amount of insecticides used for a transgenic sowing was exactly the same used for traditional sowing. Besides, and that certain types of insect were resistant to the toxins present in transgenic plants.
These revelations produced some troubles in the agro-chemical sector that controlled 2/3 of the global market of pesticides and one quarter of the seeds one and the whole market of transgenic plants. Multinational corporations like Monsanto (USA), Du Punt de Nemours (USA), Novartis (Switzerland), Aventis (France and Germany) and Zenecca (United Kingdom) had made huge investments in order to reach the global control of pesticide market. They engaged in the significant challenge of setting the regulations of a new market (norms, rules, financing) to secure their absolute primacy in the biotechnological field. These companies also initiated a communication campaign on global food security with slogans like: "Acting in harmony with Nature" (Novartis); "You have the right to know what you are eating. Especially if it's the best" (Monsanto). Since June 1999, Monsanto Director-General, Robert Shapiro, launched a massive advertising campaign involving the most important news outlets in the UK and in Europe in response to the protests. The leitmotiv of this campaign was the idea of improving people's diet and health while protecting the environment. In an open letter addressed to the President of Rockefeller Foundation, Gordon Conway (that had previously discredited this technologies and highlighted the disadvantage of developing countries), Shapiro announced Monsanto's intention to use biotechnologies to produce sterile seeds. Later, on October 6th, 1999 Shapiro intervened in a conference-call during the debate in London with Greenpeace. Loaded by the criticism of environmentalist and consumers, Monsanto tried to regain some credit. Since it was aware of the fact that the opposition to GMOs was caused by its obstinate attempt to acquire the absolute primacy in seed production and distribution, Monsanto decided to change strategy. The political change of course was due to the necessity of meeting market and investor requests, that started to share their very low expectations of growth for the agrochemical food sector.
In December 1999, thanks to the fusion with the group Pharmacia-Upjohn, Monsanto sold 20% of its agricultural division and developed its pharmaceutical branch, whose outcomes were very positive thanks to the sales of Celebrex – an analgesic medicine used in the treatment of arthritis. Most likely, this strategy paved the way and favored the increase in production of medicated feed, also known as "pharma-food". These products that can be found on the counter of big food chains in the shape of candies for the sight-improvement or chewing gum for the cold. The core concept of the pharma-food is the focus on the advantages of a healthy diet and is one of the innovative challenges of the next century. This moment marked the beginning of a partnership between pharmaceutical laboratories and food industries on nutrigenetics, a new science that offered evidence for a healthy diet with healing properties. In recent years, about eight billion dollars invested in life sciences led to significant achievements in this new biotechnological branch. Nevertheless, the worldwide opposition of consumers and environmentalists made investor fear a sharp fall in sales and therefore the agro-chemical industry changed direction. The trade of transgenic products is a very important challenge for the U.S. government that traditionally supported the agrochemical industry. The United States never denied the favor towards the agrochemical industry and its ability to boost the production process, like in the case of the medicated feed. During the Cartagena conference in 1999, the opposition of a group from Miami led by the United States referred the matter to the World Trade Organization (Seattle, December 199) but no deal was reached anyways.
The US strongly supported the Montreal Conference (January 24 – 28th 2000) and managed to secure an important benefit. On the one hand, the act of the conference recognized the precautionary principle that granted the importer countries the right to ban GMO products; on the other hand, it was not very clear how these countries could claim this right in practice. The text of the agreement stated: "the exporters are only requested to inform about the possibility that a load may or not contain GMOs, without specifying the nature or ensure the presence of GMOs". This formulation allowed the US to buy time since there was no specific measure prescribing the creation of a separate production chain.
Congressional lobbies – agricultural professional organizations backed by scientists and academics – defended the GMO cause in front of the U.S. Senate and asked for the government's unconditional support and opposed the compulsory labeling procedure requested by the EU. The President of the National Organization of Corn Producer, Tim Hume, strongly criticized the European skepticism towards GMOs: in his opinion, European or American organization opposing GMOs only aim at increasing their profits through the exploitation of people's fears and concerns. According to several researchers, GMOs would be the only solution to fight world hunger and cure many diseases. According to John Oblorogge, Professor at the University of Michigan, the second generation of transgenic plants will allow to increase the nutritive content of the crops. Charles Arntzen, Emeritus Professor at Arizona State University and former President of the Research Institute Boyce Thompson, considered the labeling process as an unjustified scaremongering for consumers and concluded that "The microbiological contamination of food is a problem as much as the labeling".
Scientists therefore requested public funding to support university research on biotechnologies in order to avoid big corporation funding that usually represents an obstacle to independence and objectiveness.
In order for their strategy to be effective, GMOs critics needed to cast doubts on transgenic product and amplify it through local and regional press, TV channels, environmental associations websites, internet forums (that are often loaded with information). Besides, due to GMO critics' initial disadvantage, they had to identify the contradictions in GMOs supporters discourse and exploit them to their own benefit. On their side, businessmen in the agrochemical sector had to conduct a number of tests on their products in order to prove the absence of toxicity before putting them on the market. Entrepreneurs must anticipate the strategy and study the potential of the opponent in order to foresee its attacks towards their products or their company and be able to react rapidly. It is no more a matter of crisis management and substantial communication, but rather of managing the power during the attack and react accordingly, case by case.
Greenpeace has indeed contributed to boosting the campaign against multinational agricultural corporations Unilever and Nestlé, which were forced to withdraw their transgenic products from the United Kingdom. The analysis of Greenpeace French website reveals a manipulative communication strategy. The absence of transparency of the debate on GMOs is quite remarkable in the narrative employed in the brief introduction to the topic posted in the topical issues section: "Manipulators"; "Sorcerer's apprentices"; "disturbing lottery"; "inadequate and weak responses"; "the future of our health is at stake"; "environmental impact"; "risks for public health". This narrative reflects the clarity of the premises of Greenpeace as a protest movement: it portrays the duel between the weak (consumers) and the strong (agrochemical multinational corporations), and exploits the power of the general discontent linked to the primary need of nutrition that is common to each human being. Its technique consists in manipulating the consumers (both figuratively and tangibly) according to the following scheme from the INFO-CONSUMERS section on Greenpeace website, articulated in four simple concomitant steps:
- Spread the two lists of products with the producers' names: the white list of GMOs-free products for which it is possible to track the origin of the ingredients and additives; the black list of products that might contain GMOs and for which the supplier (highlighted in bold) does not oppose GMOs possible presence and cannot formally deny it.
- Questions to the suppliers through spamming the administration of the targeted company with petitions, fax, mail, phone calls in order to push it to take some measures in response, usually through a public statement. For this purpose, the website offers some pre-compiled letter templates that are filled with the address of the negligent industrial groups (Danone Unilever France and Nestlé France). In addition, Greenpeace shared a successful story of a company that, after having found its name on the black list and received a number of petitions, had publicly apologized for the presence of GMOs and issued a written statement declaring their withdrawal from its production.
- Forwarding the response of the company and the letters to at least 5 people.
- Keeping Greenpeace posted with updates on the activist participation and the recruiting of new activists.
This pressing strategy against agro-chemical industries turned out to be effective because it forced producers to report on their activities. Greenpeace has recently published other two lists containing all the GMOs introduced in the animal feed and asked consumers to make sure that poultry farmers used the organic ones. Activists are also asked to communicate the answers through updating the lists.
Whenever necessary, Greenpeace may also resort to disinformation. In its magazine, the organization reports that in 1998 the Council of States favored Greenpeace in revoking the authorization for the cultivation of GMOs corn that had been granted at the beginning of the year. Although on February 5th 1998, Greenpeace and other organizations had requested the annulment of a decree of the French Minister of Agriculture, the Council of State had simply decided on September 25th 1998 to suspend that decree and refer to the EU Court of Justice for the interpretation of the EU law. The activists did not actually win, but they have leveraged on a free interpretation of reality and deliberately spread misinformation across public opinion. In fact, what is important for Greenpeace is to push the intervention of national courts, no matter the result obtained. Greenpeace has also proved capable of considering all the nuances of a given issue, when it decided to admit a mistake and play the transparency card. In 1998, British researcher Arpad Pusztai was fired because he had proved that some test animals fed with transgenic potatoes presented some organic atrophies. In reality, the variety of potatoes that the researcher used in his experiments had been transformed with a gene of a toxin of a different species; therefore, these potatoes were not harmful because of the presence of GMOs, but because of this toxin that was harmful per se. In August 1998, Greenpeace had presented Pusztai as a renowned expert that had been unfairly fired after proving the toxicity of transgender plants. The following year, Greenpeace specified: "The conclusions of this research is still fragile, as some varieties of potatoes produce their own insecticide. Besides, similar vegetables are regularly sold in Canada". In this specific case, Greenpeace managed to appear as genuinely misguided by this research, and recognizing to have made a mistake just like anyone else.
Transgenic market represents a strategic field for the U.S. government. Since the early '80s, multinational chemical and pharmaceutical corporations have freely operated in the field of genetic engineering and allowed the US to establish their worldwide primacy. Nowadays a consistent part of EU and U.S. public opinion (consumers and farmers) strongly opposes these initiatives. On the other hand, US government criticized the European public opinion and attacked the EU weaknesses in response, without offering justifications for its own support for GMOs. According to Alan Larson (Undersecretary ad interim for Economic, Trade and Agricultural Affairs):"because of the EU, many U.S. corn producers are deprived of almost 200 million dollars in exports. (…)Some EU agencies specialized in food safety revealed to be easily influenced by politics and should take inspiration from the FDA. I had never witnessed such a level of scaremongering in Europe between consumers."
It is important to note that there is no independent health agency at the EU level. The only authorities that can effectively address this issue belong to Member States, that is the reason why it is legitimate to question their impartiality. According to James Murphy, U.S. adjunct representative for international trade:
"Our ability to sell these products goes beyond economic data. It is more a humanitarian, ecological and food safety issue. We are witnessing a strong opposition from Europe … with the lack of trust of public opinion towards science … the opposition group were able to exploit the anxiety of consumers that have consequently lobbied their political representatives."
David Sandalow, Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, that represented the US at the Montreal Conference in 2000, declared to the Washington File that
"Focusing on biodiversity and environmental protection can sometimes overshadow the debate on food safety. Negotiations…should not be focused on trade regulations…that could hinder international trade. The United States will not support it. According to many experts, the scaremongering in Europe towards GMOs, risks to let thousands of people die from hunger and millions of children of developing countries, if scientists and institutes financing researches refuse to apply modern biotechnologies. The safety and the quality of the food produced through modern biotechnological techniques are not different from traditional food".
The skepticism of the scientists and of the EU politicians is the proof of their incapacity to support research on GMOs and this delay is the cause of many deaths in developing countries. The defense strategies that the Department of Agriculture and the Federal Agencies put in place consisted in a discourse centered on accountability and justification: on November 1st1999, the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched its new internet website in order to inform consumers on the state of biotechnological research applied to the agricultural sector. The website was aimed at providing an answer to the most Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) and shed light on regulations and information on international trade related to agricultural products. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration organized three public conferences on the GMOs issue: Chicago – November 18th; Washington November 30th; Oakland – December 13th1999. These public debates allowed U.S. consumers to express their views on the policies of the FDA: many associations like Consumer Union demanded the labeling of transgenic product to ensure the respect of the right of choice.
During the Washington session, Joseph Levitt, Director of the Center of Food Safety at FDA declared: "Taken note of the controversy … we want to point out your recommendations in order to improve our verification of food safety strategies and optimize the sharing of information on the public level."
According to the Director of the Center for Biotechnologies for Agriculture and Environment of the University of Rutgers, the skepticism of European consumers towards GMOs was the result of ineffective norms that had been proved incapable of preventing the BSE diseases and the sale of animal feed containing dioxin. James Maryanski, FDA Coordinator of biotechnologies maintained that EU regulations focused on product, foods and additives rather than on the plants used in the production process. Today FDA is managing to adopt new regulations to apply when a product does not comply to certain safety standards. The only law controlling the food obtained from transgenic plants dates back to 1992 and essentially consists in the same safety measures foreseen for traditional food. This law was heavily criticized by an American author, because it allowed the commercialization of GMOs without any proof of safety or authorization. It seems that at the moment FDA is imposing the agrochemical industries to carry out preemptive checks in order to avoid any risk for the health. Multinational corporations like Monsanto and Du Pont de Nemours were forced to batten down the hatches and tried to adopt a new approach based on accountability and justification. On October 6th, 1999 during a debate with Greenpeace, Monsanto took the initiative and admitted its lack of listening and conciliation spirit. Similarly, Du Pont de Nemours, recognized that businessmen were incapable of addressing the concerns of public opinion and considered them as the result of ignorance. Between the counter-offensive techniques used by Monsanto, the use of advertising campaigns as communication weapons plays a prominent role: "The protests of farmers, consumers and businessmen forced Shapiro to publicly withdraw Terminator technology from the market".
This principle – an open letter addressed to a famous Foundation – allowed to orient the message towards the desired direction, limiting the competitor's operating space.
"(…) The decision has therefore taken into account the opinions that you have expressed and those of a huge number of experts and personalities, included the representatives of our important agricultural community. We have consulted many international experts in order to get to a deep and independent evaluation of the subject. We will continue to encourage a free and transparent debate".
This press release portrays Monsanto as a responsible company that pays attention to collective interests and partners up with farmers to help them improving their harvest, rather than a monopolistic corporation that exploits on its power.
The strong mobilization of GMOs detractors and its media echo provoked a sudden halt in the GMOs scientific progress. In fact, transgenic plants were created in order to improve agricultural output, but their long-term impact on people had not been considered. To this day, nobody is able to guarantee that GMOs are fully harmless. This is a key issue that is capable to persuade part of the U.S. population.
This year, the FDA has been subject to a legal action because of its politics on food biotechnologies that was considered too lightly regulated. This is the commercial reason why some U.S. retailers must obtain supplies of non-transgenic corn, so that they comply with the traceability designed at the EU level. The European campaign was not addressed to cope with the economic rivalry with the US on GMOs, but rather from a complete absence of clear information and from food safety issues (BSE and dioxin in chicken).
Agrochemical industries completely misinterpreted the balance of power and this precluded the chance of anticipating and foresee such a campaign. It was too late when they understood the necessity of changing communication strategies, since US farmers refused to buy their seeds.
When the protests broke out, companies showed their lack of global vision and knowledge of the fields, environment in general and of the other actors, so that the ignorance on competition principles dragged them into a crisis.
Managing information risks cannot be improvised but needs to be based on a substantial plan. This episode shows the power of information as offensive strategy and the limitations that companies go through when they have to reorganize their communication approach to attract consumers.
In a meeting, it is not so important to know the interlocutor, but rather having the ability of putting oneself in the other's shoes.
Strategy of U.S. Anti-Russia Sanctions Becomes Clearer
On Friday, April 6th, Reuters headlined "Russian businessmen, officials on new U.S. sanctions list", and opened: "The United States on Friday imposed major sanctions against 24 Russians, striking at allies of President Vladimir Putin over Moscow's alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and other 'malign activity'. Below are the most prominent businessmen targeted along with their main assets and connections as well as extracts from the U.S. Treasury statement."
As that Reuters list makes even clearer than before, U.S. economic sanctions against Russia are focused against mainly the following four categories of targets in Russia:
Russian competitors to America's largest international oil companies. These specific U.S. firms were listed, on March 27th, in an excellent article by Antonia Juhasz in Pacific Standard magazine, "INSIDE THE TAX BILL'S $25 BILLION OIL COMPANY BONANZA: A Pacific Standard analysis shows the oil and gas industry is among the tax bill's greatest financial beneficiaries." There, they were listed in rank order. For example: the largest such firm, Exxon/Mobil, was given $5.9 billion in "2017 Tax Act Savings," and the second-largest, Philipps 66, won $2.7 billion in it. The latest round of anti-Russia sanctions focuses clearly against these international U.S. oil firms' Russian competitors.
However, previous rounds of U.S. sanctions have especially focused against:
Russian competitors of Lockheed Martin and other international U.S. weapons-firms — Russian manufacturers that are selling, to foreign governments, military aircraft, missiles, and other military equipment, on the international markets: competing military products. The competitive purpose of these sanctions is to boost not U.S. international oil-firms, but U.S. international weapons-firms.
Russian banks that lend to those firms. Some of these banks have also other close ties to those firms.
Russian Government officials, and billionaires, who cooperate with Russia's elected President, Vladimir Putin. Putin refuses to allow suppliers to the Russian military to be controlled (such as are the military suppliers to America's Government) by private investors (and especially not by foreigners); he wants the weapons-manufacturers to represent the state, not the state to represent the weapons-manufacturers; i.e., he refuses to privatize Russia's weapons-producers, and he instead insists that all firms that supply Russia's military be controlled by Russia's elected Government, not by any private investors. (By contrast, The West relies almost entirely upon privately owned weapons-makers.) He also prohibits foreign interests from controlling Russia's natural resources such as oil firms, mining, and land-ownership, and this explicitly applies even to agricultural land. However, most important are Russia's Strategic Sectors Law (otherwise known as "Strategic Investment Law"), which defines as a "Strategic Entity" and thus subject strictly to control only by the Russian Government and citizenry, four categories: Defense, Natural Resources, Media, and Monopolies. Russia's refusal to allow U.S. billionaires to buy control over these — to buy control over the Government — is, to a large extent, being punished by the U.S. anti-Russia sanctions.
Focusing on the latest round: The Reuters article lists the specific main targets of the new sanctions. These targets are, as described by the U.S. Treasury Department, and as quoted by Reuters:
- "Oleg Deripaska is being designated … for operating in the energy sector of the Russian Federation economy."
- "Viktor Vekselberg is being designated for operating in the energy sector of the Russian Federation economy."
- "Kirill Shamalov is being designated for operating in the energy sector of the Russian Federation economy."
- "Andrei Skoch is being designated for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation."
- "Suleiman Kerimov is being designated for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation."
- "Vladimir Bogdanov is being designated for operating in the energy sector of the Russian Federation economy."
- "Igor Rotenberg is being designated for operating in the energy sector of the Russian Federation economy."
Those are the ones that the Reuters article specifically listed. In addition, there are:
Andrey Akimov, chairman of the board at Gazprombank
Andrey Kostin, president of VTB bank
*Alexey Miller, chief executive of Gazprom
Mikhail Fradkov, president of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies
Sergey Fursenko, member of the board of directors of Gazprom Neft
Oleg Govorun, head of the Presidential Directorate for Social and Economic Cooperation with the Commonwealth of Independent States Member Countries
Gazprom is Russia's oil-and-gas giant; and, likewise in accord with Putin's demand that national-security industry remain under state-control instead of control by private investors, its controlling investor is the Russian Government. However, a few individuals are listed who are simply Russian Government officials, presumably likewise more cooperative, with carrying out the intentions of the elected President, than the U.S. and its allied governments consider to be acceptable.
Clearly, the special focus of these sanctions is on supporting U.S. international oil firms competing against Russian international oil firms.
On January 26th, Reuters bannered "U.S. hits Russian deputy minister and energy firms with sanctions", and opened:
The United States added Russian officials and energy firms to a sanctions blacklist on Friday, days before details of further possible penalties against Moscow are due to be released.
A Treasury Department spokesperson said the department is "actively working" on reports required under the "Countering America's Adversaries Through Terrorism Act" and aimed to release them consistent with timelines in the legislation.
Trump or his Treasury Secretary were actually responding to pressure from "Democrats" and unnamed others; but, when the final statement from the Treasury was issued on January 29th (and largely ignored by the press), it turned out that no new sanctions were issued, against anyone. The billionaires' lobbyists had achieved nothing more than to provide (via the anti-Russia verbiage from members of Congress) to the American public, yet more anti-Russia indoctrination in support of America's war against Russia; but, this time, no real action was taken by the President against Russia.
On 28 December 2017, the 'private CIA' firm Stratfor, which does work for the CIA and for major U.S. corporations, had headlined, "Russia Won't Sit Still for Additional U.S. Sanctions", and summarized prior U.S. economic sanctions against Russia:
Since the Soviet period, the United States has targeted Russia with numerous sanctions. The primary ones currently in effect were instituted over human rights violations and the conflict in Ukraine. In late 2012, the United States expanded its Soviet-era sanctions over human rights and approved the Magnitsky Act to punish those deemed responsible for the death of Russian tax accountant Sergei Magnitsky, a whistleblower who investigated Kremlin abuses and a tax-fraud scheme. The act penalizes dozens of people believed to be involved in the case, but the measure has evolved into a platform for the United States and its allies to punish Russia for a much wider scope of human rights abuses.
The Ukraine sanctions imposed by the United States (and, to a lesser extent, by the European Union, Canada, Australia and Japan) stem from Russian involvement in the conflict there and includes the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Russian support of the previous government, the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and the annexation of Crimea. Those penalties include:
- Limits on debt issuance to Russia's six largest banks, four primary state oil firms and four state defense firms.
- Sanctions on Russia's energy industry, prohibiting U.S. firms from providing, exporting or re-exporting goods and technology related to deep-water, Arctic offshore and shale oil and natural gas projects in Russia.
- Bans on subjects receiving dual-use goods by Russia's primary state defense companies.
- Sanctions (travel and asset freezes) against hundreds of Russian entities and individuals.
That was a fair summary; but, because Stratfor derives some of its income from the CIA, it stated as being facts, instead of as being lies, that "Sergei Magnitsky [was] a whistleblower who investigated Kremlin abuses and a tax-fraud scheme," even though Magnitsky actually was never a "whistleblower," and he was, to the exact contrary, assisting an American hedge-fund operator to illegally avoid $230 million in taxes that were due to the Russian Government and which tax-fraud had been reported not by Magnitsky as any 'whistleblower' but instead by, essentially, a bookkeeper, who was afraid of being prosecuted if she didn't report to the police this tax-evasion that she was working on. Furthermore, Stratfor's "to punish those deemed responsible for the death of" Magnitsky also is a lie, because the only person who so "deemed" was the American tax-fraudster who had employed Magnitsky. That employer accused Russia's police of beating to death in prison this criminal suspect, Magnitsky, and he used, as 'documentation' for his charges, fake 'translations'
into English of the police documents, and these 'translations' were taken at face-value by U.S. and EU officials, who couldn't read Russian, and who wanted to cooperate with, instead of to resist, the U.S. Barack Obama Administration and the UK David Cameron Administration.
Furthermore, Stratfor, when it refers to "human rights violations and the conflict in Ukraine," is actually referring instead to "the most blatant coup in history", as the head of Stratfor put it when describing what the Obama regime referred to as the 'revolution' that in February 2014 had overthrown Ukraine's democratically elected Government and that then began an ethnic-cleansing campaign to get rid of the residents in the areas that had voted over 75% for the President whom the U.S.-run operation had overthrown. In fact, U.S. think-tanks criticized Obama for providing insufficient assistance to the newly installed Ukrainian regime's firebombings of the places where over 90% of the residents had voted for the now-ousted Ukrainian President. And that was entirely typical. This is a sort of 'philanthropy' that America's billionaires receive 'charitable' tax-writeoffs for funding (donating to). No matter how aggressive a U.S. President may be against Russia, America's aristocracy (through their 'philanthropies' etc.) complain that it's not aggressive enough — America's Government must do yet more, in order to 'support human rights' abroad.
So, that's what America's anti-Russian sanctions are all about: serving America's billionaires.
first published at strategic-culture.org
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text:
England (Midlands) Region
13 Apr 18
Sam Dodds bounced back from missing the cut at the PGA EuroPro Tour Q School to win the PGA Midlands Q School #1 at Whittington Heath.
Dodds (right), who is attached to Coventry Golf Club, took a liking to the two par fives on the Staffordshire course.
Having birdied the first, he followed up with another at the ninth to post a two-under-par 34 for the outward half.
A birdie at the par four tenth was immediately cancelled out at the 11th but par golf coupled with his closest challengers faltering on the back nine ensured he claimed the £250 winner's cheque.
While Dodds completed the remaining eight holes in regulation for a two-under-par return of 70, Jeremy Robinson, who finished two shots behind and level with Thomas Gould (Robert Rock Academy), was left to reflect on what might have been. As was Luke Aston.
Robinson, who represents BlackStar Sports, birdied the par-four 14th to go two-under but successive bogeys at 16 and 17 ruined his hopes of victory.
Meanwhile Aston (Beau Desert) reached the turn on two-under but three bogeys on the back nine proved costly.
As a result, he ended up tied fourth with Daniel Lowe (Sandwell Park), William Davies (Ramsdale Park) and PGA Assistants' Championship winner, Drayton Park's Matthew Fieldsend.
Bayliss registers convincing victory
17 Apr 18
Coventry pro sets the standard at Whittington Heath
13 Apr 18
Eagle, birdie, birdie blast tees-up victory
30 Mar 18