False-Flag Empire: Oil Tanker Attacks in The Gulf Have US Fingerprints All Over Them

Tommy Sheridan
Sputnik

It was the Spanish philosopher, poet and novelist, George Santayana (1863-1952), who warned us all:

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Watching the unfolding US promoted narrative in the Persian Gulf seas over this past few days and weeks those words should ring loudly in the ears of everyone who values peace and opposes the carnage, destruction and horrific waste of life delivered by war.

If you swallow the American propaganda plastered across newspaper front pages and dominating news bulletins on every Western TV news channel then you really are as bright as a dark night.

On the morning of Thursday, June 13th, two oil tankers were allegedly attacked in the Gulf of Oman, just off the coast of Iran. The US government immediately blamed Iran for the incident, without providing any evidence. 

The vessels happened to be en route to Japan at precisely the same time that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in Tehran. The first Japanese leader to visit Iran since its revolution 40 years ago, Abe was holding a historic meeting with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei when the incident took place.

What a great plan. It must have taken months of intense thought and deliberation amongst the smartest cookies at the very top of the Iranian government.

Let's get this Japanese dude over here for groundbreaking talks about peace and trade in the region and while he's here we should attack two oil tankers on their way to his country... It's ingenious. It will really endear us to Japanese hearts and show the world just how committed to peace we really are... Oh and while he is here we will take him to an Elvis Pressley concert and transport him around Tehran on a flying carpet.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton have honed their skills in deceit and downright lies over many years dedicated to promoting scenarios to justify wars and US Military interventions regardless of the truth and subsequent loss of lives.

Bolton was such a strong advocate of the US war in Vietnam that he supported it from afar in the safe confines of Yale Law School. He was also convinced Iraq had to be invaded to destroy their weapons of Mass Destruction no matter the cost in lives or the amount of blood spilt.

Pompeo and Bolton lie incessantly about Venezuela, Iran and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, North Korea and now the tanker incidents in The Gulf of Oman. They are as credible as Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men and their lying abilities make Pinocchio rage with jealousy.

Those with even a morsel of brain matter between their ears can see right through the two chancers selling wars like a second-hand car salesman would be punting cars with doctored miles and baldy tyres. The fact they are given media platforms and space to spout their horror fantasies makes them dangerous individuals. They are however only following the well-trodden US path of inventing incidents to justify wars. 

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See also:  Gulf of Oman Tanker attack: War Scripted By Washington

Provocations in the Gulf of Oman: Will John Bolton Get His War on Iran?

Michael Welch, Prof Michel Chossudovsky, Pepe Escobar, and Yves EnglerGlobal Research 

“America’s declared policy should be ending Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution before its 40th anniversary…Recognizing a new Iranian regime in 2019 would reverse the shame of once seeing our diplomats held hostage for 444 days.” – John Bolton (January 15, 2018) [1]

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Coincidentally or not, America’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against Iran began within a month of John Bolton’s installment as National Security Advisor. On May 8th of 2018, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. was backing out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), otherwise known as the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the U.S. under President Barrack Obama along with the other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Germany and the EU in July of 2015. Consequently, the sanctions imposed on Iran previous to the JCPOA were reinstated, and additional sanctions imposed by the end of the year.

In April of this year, the Trump Administration took the unprecedented step of declaring the Middle East country’s military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to be a terrorist organization.

Two weeks later, the Trump Administration ended the waivers it had extended to other countries which had to that point allowed them to escape sanctions for purchasing Iranian oil. The aim of this manoeuvre being to strangle the Iranian economy by preventing its ability to profit from the sale of its main source of revenue.

Two weeks after that, Bolton announced the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group and Air Force Bombers to the Middle East as part of an effort to “send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force.”

The following week, four tankers were attacked in the Persian Gulf. Bolton and Secretary of State Pompeo blamed Iran for the attacks.

America’s choke-hold on Iran’s economy continued to tighten with further sanctions on May 8th of this year, the anniversary of Trump’s JCPOA pull-out.

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See also: Gulf of Oman: Unconvinced EU foreign ministers call for independent investigation after US claim Iran is behind tanker attack

Trump's Neocons See Erdogan As Their Ticket To A Region-Wide MidEast War

Mike Whitney
The Unz review

Turkish troops and armored units are massed along Turkey’s southern border awaiting orders to invade northern Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to clear a ten mile-deep swath of land east of the Euphrates River in order to remove terrorist-linked militants (YPG) currently occupying the territory. The proposed offensive would put US Special Forces in the line of fire which significantly increases the likelihood of US casualties. If American troops are killed or wounded by the Turkish operation, Washington will respond in force leading to a potentially catastrophic face-off between the two NATO allies. The possibility of a violent clash between Turkey and the United States has never been greater than it is today.
 

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Turkey that any unilateral action in Syria would have “devastating consequences.” Pompeo’s comments were intended to intimidate Erdogan who stated on Tuesday that the military offensive would begin shortly after last weekend’s elections. If Erdogan proceeds with his plan, Pompeo will undoubtedly give the military the go-ahead for retaliatory attacks on the Turkish Army. This will either lead to a speedy retreat by Turkey or asymmetrical strikes on US strategic assets across the region. In any event, the fracas with Turkey is bound to widen the chasm between the two former allies forcing Erdogan to reconsider his commitment to the western alliance. Any further deterioration in relations between the US and Turkey could result in a dramatic shift in the global balance of power.

Washington’s problems with Erdogan began years before the current dust-up. The Turkish leader has always steered an independent foreign policy which has been a constant source of frustration for the White House. During the war in Iraq, Erdogan refused to allow the US to use Turkish air bases to conduct their operations. (Erdogan did not support the war.) Presently he is purchasing air defense systems from Russia (S-400), (which VP Mike Pence has strongly condemned), he has attended summits in Sochi with Moscow and Tehran in order to find a political settlement for the war in Syria, he has signed contracts with Gazprom that will make his country the energy hub of southern Europe, and he has been harshly critical of US support for the its Kurdish proxies in east Syria (the SDF) which is an offshoot of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), a group that is on the US State Department’s list of terrorist organizations.

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Bank of England refused to return $1.2bn in gold to Venezuela – reports

RT

Britain rejected Venezuela’s request to withdraw $1.2bn in gold stored in the UK, according to reports. It was enough for the self-declared and US-backed ‘president’, Juan Guaido, to support the alleged move.

The Bank of England blocked Venezuela’s attempts to retrieve $1.2 billion worth of gold stored as the nation’s foreign reserves in Britain, sources told Bloomberg on Friday.

According to the media outlet, officials in Caracas have for weeks been trying to withdraw the gold, with Calixto Ortega, the head of Venezuela’s central bank, traveling to London in mid-December to seek access to the nation’s assets.

The talks were “unsuccessful,” as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the national security advisor to President Donald Trump, John Bolton, pressured their British counterparts to freeze the Venezuelan assets, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

By some estimates, Venezuela holds more than $8 billion in foreign reserves. According to earlier reports, the amount of Venezuelan gold kept in the Bank of England doubled in recent months, growing from 14 to 31 tons.

The South American nation has reportedly experienced problems in extracting its own gold from the Bank of England in the past. Bankers in Britain were allegedly concerned that Venezuelan officials would sell the state-owned gold “for personal gain.”

The Bank of England, along with press officials for Pompeo and Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, declined to comment.

Despite the fact that the story was not confirmed, the alleged move of the British bank was swiftly praised by the self-proclaimed ‘interim president’ of Venezuela. “The process of protecting the assets of Venezuela has begun,” Juan Guaido tweeted.

“We will not allow more abuse and theft of money intended for food, medicine and the future of our children.”

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