Russia Special Counsel Mueller Worked with Radical Islamic Groups to Purge Anti-Terrorism Training Material Offensive to Muslims.

Russia Special Counsel Mueller Worked with Radical Islamic Groups to Purge Anti-Terrorism Training Material Offensive to Muslims. HT: JudicialWatch.

Now that Robert Mueller has been appointed special counsel to investigate if Russia influenced the 2016 presidential election it’s worth reiterating his misguided handiwork and collaboration with radical Islamic organizations as FBI director.

Judicial Watch exclusively obtained droves of records back in 2013 documenting how, under Mueller’s leadership, the FBI purged all anti-terrorism training material deemed “offensive” to Muslims after secret meetings between Islamic organizations and the FBI chief. Judicial Watch had to sue to get the records and published an in-depth report on the scandal in 2013 and a lengthier, updated follow-up in 2015.

As FBI director, Mueller bent over backwards to please radical Islamic groups and caved into their demands. The agency eliminated the valuable anti-terrorism training material and curricula after Mueller met with various Islamic organizations, including those with documented ties too terrorism. Among them were two organizations— Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)—named by the U.S. government as unindicted co-conspirators in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation terrorist financing case.

CAIR is a terrorist front group with extensive links to foreign and domestic Islamists. It was founded in 1994 by three Middle Eastern extremists (Omar Ahmad, Nihad Awad and Rafeeq Jaber) who ran the American propaganda wing of Hamas, known then as the Islamic Association for Palestine.

The records obtained as part of Judicial Watch’s lawsuit show that Mueller, who served 12 years as FBI chief, met with the Islamic organizations on February 8, 2012 to hear their demands. Shortly later the director assured the Muslim groups that he had ordered the removal of presentations and curricula on Islam from FBI offices nationwide.

The purge was part of a broader Islamist operation designed to influence the opinions and actions of persons, institutions, governments and the public at-large. The records obtained by Judicial Watch also show similar incidents of Islamic influence operations at the Departments of Justice and State, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Obama White House. Hmmm....The moment i saw Holder & Mueller and Janet Napolitano in the same picture i knew enough. Read the full story here.

Obama 'admin' sent taxpayer funds to Soros groups to foster leftist revolutions in foreign countries

Obama 'admin' sent taxpayer funds to Soros groups to foster leftist revolutions in foreign countries. (Freebeacon).

A group of leading senators is calling on newly installed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to immediately launch an investigation into efforts by the Obama administration to sway foreign elections by sending taxpayer funds to "extreme and sometimes violent political activists" that promote leftist causes, according to a copy of the letter.

The lawmakers disclosed multiple conversations with foreign diplomats who outlined active political meddling by the Obama administration's State Department, including the use of taxpayer funds to support leftist causes in Macedonia, Albania, Latin America, and Africa.

A portion of this State Department funding appears to have gone to organizations supported by the controversial liberal billionaire George Soros, according to the letter, which was authored by Republican Sens. Mike Lee (Utah), Jim Inhofe (Okla.), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Ted Cruz (Texas), David Perdue (Ga.), and Bill Cassidy (La.).

The senators are asking Tillerson to launch a full-scale investigation into these funding efforts in order to determine how exactly the Obama administration sought to promote left-leaning causes and political parties across the globe.

The latest disclosures of this activity mirror efforts by the Obama administration to send taxpayer funds to Israeli organizations that opposed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the country's last election.

Political leaders from a range of nations spent months informing the lawmakers about these activities.

"Over the past few months, elected officials and political leaders of foreign nations have been coming to me with disappointing news and reports of U.S. activity in their respective countries," Lee said in a statement. "This includes reports of diplomats playing political favorites, USAID funds supporting extreme and sometimes violent political activists, and the U.S. government working to marginalize the moderates and conservatives in leadership roles."

"This sort of political favoritism from our missions around the world is unacceptable and endangers our bilateral relationships," he said.

The lawmakers outline specific evidence of political meddling.

"We have received credible reports that, over the past few years, the U.S. Mission there has actively intervened in the party politics of Macedonia, as well as in the shaping of its media environment and civil society, often favoring left-leaning political groups over others," they wrote.

This activity was pushed by USAID and groups associated with Soros' Open Society Foundations, according to the lawmakers.

The organizations are said to have pushed a "progressive agenda" meant to "invigorate the political left" using taxpayer funds, according the letter.

"Respected leaders from Albania have made similar claims of U.S. diplomats and Soros-backed organizations pushing for certain political outcomes in their country," the lawmakers wrote.Read the full story here.

Video - 'Obama Was Soft on Iran, Trump Says Those Days Are Over' : Krauthammer.

Saudi Arabia ready to tolerate low oil prices to $ 10 a barrel for sake of market share.

Saudi Arabia ready to tolerate low oil prices to $ 10 a barrel for sake of market share. (Taz).

Saudi Arabia is ready to tolerate the low oil prices to preserve its market share and displace the US from the market, Talgat Mamyrayymov, the former head of the Real politik analytical service, independent political analyst from Kazakhstan, told Trend.

He said that oil prices are falling for objective reasons.

"First, Iran will soon enter the market,” he said. “Second, Saudi Arabia said that it is ready to tolerate a price of $10 per barrel. Saudi Arabia seeks to find its niche on the market and press the US shale oil suppliers."

He said that oil prices continue falling and can reach up to $10-15 per barrel, adding that big oil players intend to leave the oil business and count on alternative energy sources.

"Thus, the games on the stock markets will not be in favor of the oil market because the major Western capital is beginning to leave it," he said.

According to the forecasts of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average price of North Sea Brent oil will reach $40 per barrel in 2016 and $50 per barrel - in 2017. The EIA forecasts the average price on the US WTI oil at $38.54 per barrel in 2016 and $47 per barrel - in 2017. Hmmm......What will happen to those countries selling low quality crude Oil?

OPEC waiting for US oil companies’ bankruptcy, then cut production and raise prices.

OPEC waiting for US oil companies’ bankruptcy, then cut production and raise prices. (Taz).

OPEC will cut crude production and export in order to raise oil prices, after the US companies extracting hydrocarbons go bankrupt due to the current low energy prices, said Alexander Razuvayev, economist and director of the analytical department at Russian company Alpari.

Alpari is one of the leading companies offering forex trading in Russia.

"The price war will end sooner or later,” he told Trend Jan. 11. “We can expect positive changes this year. As a result of falling oil prices, budgets are running out, shale companies go bankrupt. Those, who survive the crisis, will take the new position on the market at comfortable prices."

He said that none of the largest oil producers will be able to work at current low prices for a long time.

Razuvayev believes that the current conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran is unlikely to impact the world oil prices.

“There won’t be a massive clash between the parties,” Razuvayev said. “Iran has just been released from the sanctions. Saudi Arabia is weaker than Iran militarily. The sides do not need a war." Read the full story here.

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Oil prices will rise in case of Riyadh-Tehran conflict turns into a military confrontation.

Oil prices could rise in case of Saudi Arabia-Iran hot conflict. (Taz).

Supplies continue to exceed demands on the world hydrocarbon market, Valentyn Zemlyansky, the director of energy programs at the Center of World Economy and International Relations of Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences, told Trend Jan. 6.

“The oil price growth is not expected in the short term,” he said.

The expert said that the oil price can increase on the world market if Saudi Arabia-Iran conflict deteriorates.

He did not rule out the possibility that Riyadh-Tehran conflict can turn into a military confrontation.

"The world economy is in a serious crisis,” he said. “This is the first sign of a possible big conflict."

Iran produces 2.8 million barrels of oil per day and exports 1.1 million barrels of this volume per day.
Saudi Arabia produces more than 10 million barrels of oil daily and exports more than seven million barrels per day.

Relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran soured after execution of Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shia cleric, by the Kingdom along with other 46 people, which was followed by a strong protest from Iran.

Iranian Kharg Terminal is getting ready to receive big tankers, once the sanctions on Iran are lifted.
Right now nine tankers can simultaneously berth at Kharg Terminal, which is able to receive giant tankers with 360 barrels capacity, Qolamhossein Gerami, an official with Iran’s Oil Terminals Company said.

Referring to Kharg as the biggest oil terminal in Iran, he said the terminal is currently responsible for letting through 94 percent of Iran’s exported oil, Mehr news agency reported January 6.

Oil is pumped through five pipelines to the terminal and stored in reservoirs as big as one million barrels, he explained.

He said the terminal is able to store 28 million barrels of oil, both light and heavy.

At the eastern terminal, with a T pier, six tankers can birth at the same time and receive 67,500 barrels of oil per hour, the official further said.

The pier’s waterline is 21 meters and can serve tankers with capacities of 275 thousand metric tons, he noted.
According to the official, the western front can receive three tankers at a time and transfer 360 thousand barrels of oil in one hour.


The pier’s waterline is about 30 meters and is therefore able to serve the biggest tankers there is, he stated.

Any coordination within OPEC is highly unlikely amid the tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Sam Barden, the director of Wimpole International, an energy market development company believes.

“OPEC has no future what so ever. It does not fit the notion of a modern economy, and given current tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia the likely hope of any coordination is zero,” Barden told Trend.


Over the past few days, the relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia deteriorated following the kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr on Jan. 2.

And then there's this:

First of all, the prices may increase in reaction for the potential threat of failures in supply of raw materials via the Strait of Hormuz, which is of strategic importance to the world market, through which one-third of the world’s maritime oil supplies pass. The northern coast of the strait belongs to Iran, the southern – to the United Arab Emirates, which have lowered the rank of its embassy in Tehran as a result of the recent conflict.

For temporary diversification and security of oil supplies to the world market, Iran can potentially start transportation through Azerbaijan, which has an extensive network of oil pipelines. Technically, Iran can deliver its oil to Baku via the Caspian Sea or railway with a view to its subsequent export via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline with access to the Mediterranean Sea. However, the economy of such deliveries should be seriously studied, especially against the background of low global oil prices.

Thus, on one hand, a mess in the OPEC may lead to uncontrolled oil supplies to the global market, which would reduce oil prices to historic lows, 

on the other hand - the deliberate blocking or, at least, a threat of restrictions in the Strait of Hormuz with the further development of the conflict may cause an increase in oil futures prices.

Related:

On average, the “all-in,” breakeven cost for U.S. hydraulic shale is $65 per barrel, according to a study by Rystad Energy and Morgan Stanley Commodity Research.