TRADE: Russia Joining, Joining…

After years of negotiations on joining the WTO, Russia is still far from meeting the requirements set forth by the organisation.

Russia has been negotiating entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) the global trade institution that regulates trade, for more than 15 years. Following another round of talks in Geneva May 25-29, WTO officials say they would like to see Russia join the organisation as soon as possible, but acknowledge that problems still exist.

"For Russia there are some problems in both the bilateral and multilateral negotiating arenas," WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell told IPS on email. "Bilaterally there is some political opposition - Georgia has concerns about its relations with Russia - but there are also other countries with some commercial concerns related to energy services, textiles and some other products. Multilaterally there remain many problems." 

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Iran official blames U.S. in deadly mosque bombing

An Iranian official accused the United States on Friday of involvement in a mosque bombing that killed more than 20 people in volatile southeastern Iran, two weeks before a presidential election.
Washington denied the allegation, and strongly condemned the deadly attack.
Jalal Sayyah, of the governor's office in Sistan-Baluchestan province, said three people had been arrested in connection with the blast on Thursday in a crowded Shi'ite mosque in the city of Zahedan, in a region where many of Iran's minority Sunnis live.

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Israel 'loyalty law' rejected

An Israeli government committee has rejected a draft bill that would have required Israelis to take an oath of loyalty.
The legislation committee on Sunday scrapped the bill, which had been tabled by the Yisrael Beitenu party, led by Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's foreign minister.
The bill was rejected by a vote of eight to three, an official was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

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World War III has started

One needs to be deaf, blind, and an idiot at this time in order not to understand that the nuclear bomb tested in North Korea two days ago also exploded in the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.


The North Koreans blatantly disregarded the Americans and publically presented them as a meaningless power, yet officials in Jerusalem are still reciting the “Road Map” and making note of the evacuation of some minor West Bank outpost. The world is changing before our eyes, yet here we see Knesset members earnestly explaining that the Americans will agree that we stay in Judea and Samaria if we only evacuate some tin shacks.

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Russia breaks "wall" into U.S. nuclear market

Russia signed a landmark deal to supply nuclear fuel directly to U.S. companies on Tuesday, setting itself up to control 20 percent of the U.S. uranium market and extending its global reach in the nuclear sector.
At a ceremony in the Russian capital, U.S. electricity firms PG&E, Ameren Corp and Luminant signed deals to get more than $1 billion in uranium supplies from Russia's state nuclear fuel exporter Tenex between 2014 and 2020.
"This is a revolutionary breakthrough," Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia's state atomic energy firm, Rosatom, which controls Tenex, told reporters.

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North Korea Threatens Military Strikes on South

North Korea escalated its vitriol against South Korea and the United States on Wednesday with warnings of a “powerful military strike” if any North Korean ships were stopped or searched as part of an American-led operation to intercept vessels suspected of carrying unconventional weapons. South Korea agreed to join the operation after North Korea tested a nuclear device on Monday, its second nuclear test in three years. The North had earlier warned the South not to participate in the operation, known as the Proliferation Security Initiative.

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Netanyahu: If Israel doesn't take out Iranian threat, no one will

If Israel does not eliminate the Iranian threat, no one will, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.

"Israel is not like other countries," Netanyahu told his Likud faction in a meeting which came one week after his meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House. "We are faced with security challenges that no other country faces, and our need to provide a response to these is critical, and we are answering the call." 

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10 things Americans should know about World War II

The first thing to know about World War II is that it was a big war, a war that lasted 2,174 days and claimed an average of 27,600 lives every day, or 1,150 an hour, or 19 a minute, or one death every three seconds. One, two, three, snap. One, two, three, snap.
In an effort to get our arms around this greatest calamity in human history, let's examine 10 things every American ought to know about the role of the U.S. Army in WWII.
1) The U.S. Army was a weakling when the European war began in earnest on Sept. 1, 1939, with the German invasion of Poland. The U.S. Army ranked 17th among armies in size and combat power, just behind Romania. It numbered 190,000 soldiers. It would grow to nearly 8.5 million by 1945.

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Between Genghis and Caesar

You may not have known it, but in terms of his biological progeny, Genghis Khan was the most successful man of all time. It is estimated that one in every 200 people is a descendant of the prolific 13th-century khan of the Mongol Empire. That means that his military strategy of killing and raping brought countless biological dividends for future generations.

But if we look a bit deeper into the fate of Genghis Khan’s empire and its legacy, this is another matter entirely.

You can divide empires into two basic types: those whose legacies live on after being conquered, and those that disappear completely. The Roman Empire shredded the Gauls, Brits and Dacians like heads of cabbage. Nonetheless, the British take great pleasure in showing tourists Hadrian’s Wall, built in the second century by Roman invaders in what is today northern England. 

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Two Speeches

It’s tempting to see last week’s speech-making duel between Barack Obama and Dick Cheney as a mismatch, with the eloquence of the admired incumbent set against the snarl of the discredited predecessor. Certainly, there was no contest in terms of political stagecraft. Obama appeared in the hushed rotunda of the National Archives, in front of the documents that embody the highest aspirations of American government, while Cheney found a secure location at a right-wing think tank, one of a handful of places in the country where he could be assured a friendly audience.

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North Korea's nuclear test: Here we go again

THE news that North Korea has conducted a second nuclear test, three years after its first, caused international consternation on Monday May 25th. America’s president, Barack Obama, issued a statement of concern, although he also noted that it was not too surprising to hear that North Korea is trying to whip up a commotion. On the same day the North Koreans launched a short-range missile. The events on Monday followed previous efforts that seemed designed to get the attention of America’s new-ish president, such as the launch in April of a rocket carrying a satellite.

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Click to download Report on Strategic Posture of the United States

Click the Link below to get a PDF copy of the The Final Report of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States.

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Final Report on America's Strategic Posture

The Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States has released its final report to Congress. It offers some encouraging news and recommendations about the continued development and viability of missile defense in theater, but also leaves much to be desired in its discussion of missile defense deployments, the possibility of an EMP attack, and the desirability of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The "on the one hand, on the other hand" style of the report seems to reflect a division of opinion over the proper approaches to strategic policy.

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Bosnia does not need new peace deal, Biden says

Bosnia is the Balkan country most at risk of new violence, but does not need to redo the peace deal that created an ethnically divided state, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on a tour that ended on Friday.
Biden traveled to Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo this week to signal renewed U.S. engagement in a region engulfed by war in the 1990s when Yugoslavia collapsed. In a speech to Bosnia's parliament, he warned continued ethnic divide could keep the country among Europe's poorest and could lead anew to fighting.

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The Spies Who Got Away

After five years of legal maneuvering and orchestrated protests from the Lobby’s amen corner, Israel’s point men in Washington have finally succeeded in their efforts to quash the prosecution of Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, who had been charged with committing espionage on behalf of Israel. It is a victory that not only signals the continuation of the Lobby’s dominance in Washington, in spite of growing popular revulsion against lobbyists in general, but also gives the Israelis a blank check to spy on their American patrons to their hearts’ content.

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Biden Does the Balkans

Even before he became Emperor, Barack Obama signaled the direction of his foreign policy by choosing Joseph Biden as his running mate. What Dick Cheney was for Bush the Lesser, Biden became to Barack the Exalted: a belligerent voice of the old establishment, their only distinction a different party tag. And just as Cheney brought to the regime of Bush II an obsession with Iraq from the days of Bush I, Biden has carried his copious Balkans baggage from the Clinton era into the Obama White House.

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North Korea warns ships near missile base: Japan

North Korea is warning ships to stay away from waters off an east coast missile base, a Japan Coast Guard spokesman said on Friday, suggesting it could be preparing for a short-range missile test.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a government source as saying that vehicles with mobile launch pads have been seen in that area, which could indicate preparations for a short-range missile launch.

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The Risk of Letting Ukraine into NATO

 During Soviet times, the Ukraine was the breadbasket of the nation and also housed important industries within its borders. In addition, the Ukraine has strong cultural ties to Russia.

Right on Russia’s border, Ukraine’s admission to a hostile alliance could permanently cripple U.S. relations with Russia.
Although the Bush administration aggressively pushed its reluctant NATO allies to induct the Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance, France, Germany, and others — worried about an extremely hostile Russian reaction — put their entry on hold.

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The End of the Information Age

One of the repeated lessons I’ve learned over the three years since The Archdruid Report began appearing is the extent to which many people nowadays have trouble grasping some of the most fundamental facts about the crisis of our times. I had yet another reminder of that a few days back, when the comments on last week’s post started coming in.

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Arms Sent by U.S. May Be Falling Into Taliban Hands

Insurgents in Afghanistan, fighting from some of the poorest and most remote regions on earth, have managed for years to maintain an intensive guerrilla war against materially superior American and Afghan forces.

Arms and ordnance collected from dead insurgents hint at one possible reason: Of 30 rifle magazines recently taken from insurgents’ corpses, at least 17 contained cartridges, or rounds, identical to ammunition the United States had provided to Afghan government forces, according to an examination of ammunition markings by The New York Times and interviews with American officers and arms dealers.

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Car production down 55% in April

UK car production fell 55.3% in April, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

A total of 68,258 cars were made in April, with the total for the year to date about 251,268 cars.
In April, 56,267 cars were exported, a drop of 53.4%.
Overall vehicle production - including commercial vehicles - fell 56.5% to 75, 913 in April. Carmakers are cutting production as the recession takes hold.

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Nigeria’s Oil Production Drops to Half Total Capacity

Nigeria said its oil output has fallen to 1.6 million barrels a day, half the country’s total capacity, because of militant attacks in the main producing region over the past three years.

The West African nation has the capacity to pump 3.2 million barrels a day, Levi Ajuonuma, a spokesman for state oil company Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., said today, citing a statement from Petroleum Minister of State Odein Ajumogobia. Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s onshore fields are worst affected by the insecurity, he said.

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China's accidental empire is a growing danger

 A Victorian historian said that Britain “conquered... half the world in a fit of absence of mind”.
Chinese Communist Party leaders are not normally associated with absentmindedness, but rather with cool, calculated, long-term strategic thinking. Yet China might well now be building a mixture of influence and obligation - the modern version of an empire- in quite a British way, and one that promises to cause increasing tension with its giant neighbour and regional rival, India.

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Iraq, Not Georgia, Is What Doomed U.S.-Russia Relations

Ok, so the Bush administration has botched its relations with Russia and its former satellites. No big news flash there. But let's not forget why: the war in Iraq.
Let me explain. I'm not buying the Obama line that Iraq has distracted us from our other foreign policy commitments. Nobody would say that South Ossetia is a strategic priority -- I don't care how much oil gurgles beneath its mountains.
Nor did Iraq anger Moscow that much (although it showed the hypocrisy of our lecturing them about invading sovereign states).

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The Caucasian Energy Circle

Turkey and Armenia are getting closer, and that's great news. Washington has long wanted the two countries to get over their differences, open their closed border, and establish diplomatic ties. If all that happened, it would be wonderful news. But euphoria over Turkish-Armenian rapprochement should not, however, obfuscate the big, strategic picture in the Caucasian energy circle. The thaw in Turkish-Armenian relations should not come at the expense of the East-West energy corridor, i.e. cooperation over pipelines running from Azerbaijan to Turkey, a crucial strategic tool for Washington to decrease the West's dependence on Middle East oil and gas.

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Westernism is giving way to Orientalism in Moscow's outlook, if the past week's happenings are any guide. As Russia's ties with the West deteriorate, an upswing in its strategic partnership with China becomes almost inevitable.

The resumption of Russia-NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) dialogue has gone awry. And the nascent hopes regarding a "reset of the button" of the Russian-American relationship are belied. With Moscow under multiple pressures from the West, two top Chinese officials have arrived in the Russian capital to offer support - Defense Minister Liang Guanglie and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

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