GlobalPossibilities.org: 5 Reasons Natural Gas Won't Be

an environmental and economic savior. If you're hoping the natural gas boom means we've solved our environmental and economic woes, you're going to be disappointed. While natural gas produces less nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide, when burned, compared to coal or oil, the end product is only part of the story. The natural gas boom in recent years has been fueled by extreme extraction methods like fracking, that are posing a new slurry of environmental problems before the gas even makes it to consumers. If you look at the complete picture of how we extract natural gas today, you begin to realize pretty quickly that we aren't going to be able to drill our way out of the climate crisis, without creating an even bigger mess in the process. The list of impacts from fracking is huge, but here are five to kick off the conversation: 1. Methane: Natural gas may release less pollution when burned, but it still may be a significant contributor to global warming pollution after all, because we must take into account what happens during extraction too. "Scientists are once again reporting alarmingly high methane emissions from an oil and gas field, underscoring questions about the environmental benefits of the boom in natural gas production that is transforming the US energy system," writes Jeff Toliefson for Nature. He explains: The researchers, who hold joint appointments with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the toxic soup of hundreds of chemicals, including carcinogens and volatile organic compounds like benzene, toluene, ethyl-benzene and xylene. Companies aren't required to disclose what chemicals they are using either, so it makes it difficult to test for leaks and spills, and for people to be treated for health problems that may arise from exposure. University of Colorado in Boulder, first sparked concern in February 2012, with a study suggesting that up to 4% of the methane produced at a field near Denver was escaping into the atmosphere. If methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is leaking from fields across the country at similar rates, it could be offsetting much of the climate benefit of the ongoing shift from coal to gas fired plants for electricity generation. Industry officials and some scientists contested the claim, but at an American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in San Francisco, California last month, the research team reported new Colorado data that supported the earlier work, as well as preliminary results from a field study in the Uinta Basin of Utah, suggesting even higher rates of methane leakage, an eye popping 9% of the total production. That figure is nearly double the cumulative loss rates estimated from industry data, which are already higher in Utah than in Colorado. Oh yeah, and fracking is exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act, thanks to Dick Cheney! 

James Gundun: New Boss at the CIA: Brennan's Legal Framework for Drone Killings.

As the majority of Washington's political and media establishments concentrate their firepower on Senator Chuck Hagel's nomination for US Defense Secretary, John Brennan is doing what he does best, and slipping through the shadows. Rumored since President Barack Obama secured his second term in office, Brennan has finally received a formal nomination to replace the scandalized David Petraeus, and advanced his work at the CIA. Disturbingly but not surprisingly, many American pundits have welcomed Brennan's promotion as a logical choice for the CIA's Directorship, and expect a smooth confirmation. They generally avoid real discussions over the areas of operations affected and afflicted by US counter terrorism,, instead of preferring the glamorous statistics of high profile kills, and Brennan's alleged construction of a "legal framework" for drones, as recently claimed by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). Brennan's positives are easy to list: "More al Qaeda leaders and commanders have been removed from the battlefield than at any time since 9/11."He has applied his extensive influence to literally building" and leading the National Counter-terrorism Center, which entailed the coordination of various military, intelligence and civilian departments across the globe. In the process Brennan has become one of Obama's most trusted advisers, so close that, I don't think we have had a disagreement. "For the last four years," Obama announced from the East Room, "As my Adviser for Counter-terrorism and Homeland Security, John developed and has overseen our comprehensive counter terrorism strategy, a collaborative effort across the government, including intelligence and defense and homeland security,and law enforcement agencies." However this fantasy hits a steel wall in Yemen, where Brennan's promotion has been overwhelmingly negative for good reason, as he reinforces the single mindedness and unaccountability, that drives an assortment of US counter terrorism platforms being constructed around the nation. Brennan now inherits Petraeus's secret agreement with Yemen's former dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and was even deployed to Sana'a on multiple occasions during the country's ongoing revolution. He would assist Feierstein in facilitating the Gulf Cooperation Council's (GCC) unpopular power sharing agreement, when a drone strike didn't require overseeing.        

Jim W. Dean: Uri Avnery Likes Chuck Hagel, A Fellow Combat Vet!

Will the Jewish Bullies Intimidate Congress and Humiliate America Again? I had been expecting a Uri piece on Hagel. All the usual components were there, like a chance to expose the American Israeli Lobby for the disloyal Americans they are. Oh, you think that is nasty? Ask the state department to give you the statistics of young Jews who serve in the American military, versus those that go into the IDF. Ask Jewish parents which they would prefer, but call me first to make a bet, so we can arrange a third party to hold the money. The traditional Lobby is losing steam. Endless years of calling everybody from the milkman to the pool boy anti Semites has worn a little thin. Their bullying is not even done with finesse anymore. It is delivered Russian mob style, bluntly. I spotted the continuing shift initially, when Abe Foxman was quoted with his very measured and prepared words, that Hagel would not have been his first choices, but he respected the President's perogative to pick his cabinet. Billy Cristol had led the charge, but that is what Israeli media Intel assets are supposed to do. It's their job. I expected to see some of the older ones in attack mode, those with careers over, established safety nets, and expecting to be gone away soon with the grim reaper. Elliot Abrams seems to have drawn the short stick. Abrams has a very shady reputation in the Intel community, despite his Council of Foreign Relations cover. It's a very incestuous organization, which most all of our CIA directors and Pentagon chiefs enjoy their rites of passage along side Israel's most up and coming penetration choices. They often end up serving side by side. Elliot Abrams, American, Jewish Council, Heritage. Foundation, Hudson Institute, Project for a New American Century. Abrams claim to fame was the Iran Contra scandal, where we were selling Tow missiles to Iran, after Rumsfeld had given Saddam chemical weapons to field test on Iranians. During the post Iran invasion period, some of these chemical weapons were found buried, and created a buzz that the WMD had finally been found, until the American manufacturer markings were reported to be on them. They were quietly removed and disposed of. John McCain and South Carolina's Lindsey Graham were the first and most eager to bend over and grab a fence rail, to once again show their loyalty to Israel. The Intelligence community, which is well aware of the deep penetrations of Israeli Intel into capital hill, just cringes at this overt willingness to put their allegiance to Israel on display. But AIPAC demands prostration, to put on a show to get the dough. All of them, each and every political hooker that serves Israel, is not fit to spend another day here, but alas they have their hooks in deep, and it will take a hell of a lot of work to get rid of them!      

Tom Dispatch: How Zero Dark Thirty Brought Back the Bush Administration!

We got Osama bin Laden, and now, for millions of Americans, we'll get him again on screen as Zero Dark Thirty hits your neighborhood multiplex. Lauded and criticized, the film's the talk of the town, but it's hardly the only real life CIA film that needed to be made. Here, for the record, are five prospective films, all potentially suspenseful, all involving CIA daring do, and all with plenty of opportunities for blood and torture, that are unlikely to make it into those same multiplexes in your lifetime. Let's start with the CIA's 1953 coup against Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, whose democratically elected government had nationalized the country's oil industry. What a story! It couldn't be oilier, involving BP in an earlier incarnation, the CIA, British intelligence, bribery, secretly funded street demonstrations, and lest you think there would be no torture in the film, the installation of an autocratic regime, that would create a fearsome secret police, and torture opponents for decades to come. All of this was done in the name of what used to be called "the Free World." That "successful" coup was the point of origin for just about every disaster and bit of "blowback", a term first used in the CIA's secret history of the coup, in US Iranian relations to this day. Many of the documents have been released, and what a story it turned out to be! Hollywood, where are you? Or here is another superb candidate: the CIA's Phoenix Program in Vietnam. Boy, if you want a little torture porn, try that baby. Meant to wipe out the Vietcong's political infrastructure, it managed to knock off an estimated 20,000 Vietnamese, remarkably few of whom were classified as "senior NLF cadres." Reportedly, the program was regularly used by locals to settle grudges. It was knee, maybe waist deep in blood, torture, assassination, and death. It's the Agency we have come to know and love. But hold your breath waiting for Good Evening, Vietnam. For a change of pace, how about a CIA inspired comedy? We are talking about the rollicking secret kidnapping of a radical Muslim cleric off the streets of Milan in early 2003, his transport via US airbases in Italy and Germany to Egypt, and there, evidently with the CIA station chief for Italy riding shotgun, directly into the hands of Egyptian torturers. What makes this an enticing barrel of laughs, was the way the CIA types involved in the covert operation rang up almost $150,000 in five star hotel bills as they gallivanted around Italy, ate at five star restaurants, vacationed in Venice after the kidnapping, ran up impressive tabs on forged credit cards for their fake identities, and were such bunglers that they were identified and charged for the abduction in "absentia" by the Italian government. 

Feroze Mithiborwala & Kishore Jagtap: Sabotaging Relations

between India and Pakistan. Target: India Pakistan Visa on arrival & the growing bonhomie between the two countries: The killings of the 2 Indian & 1 Pakistani soldier at the LOC, and the rising tensions & rhetoric need to be analyzed. The killings of the 3 soldiers have an agenda to target India Pakistan relations and that is obvious. On the 15th of January onwards India & Pakistan were going to start issuing "Visas on Arrival" for Senior Citizens. This was the first major path breaking step, that would finally lead to ordinary Indians & Pakistanis having an opportunity to meet each other, and this would definitely lead to a process of normalization of relations on either side of the border. There are clearly right wing religious fanatics on either side, both within the Military establishment and more important within the Intelligence establishment, (IB-RAW-India & Pakistan), both of which are closely intertwined with CIA-Mossad. There is also a pattern to these false flag terror attacks, targeting India Pakistan peace talks. Thus, the terror attacks in Jaipur of 13th May 2008 and the Pune German Bakery Terror attack on 11th February 2010, were both engineered 10-12 days before the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries were to undertake a process of dialogue, despite the prevailing unpopular sentiment. These terror attacks were obviously meant to ensure that the talks were sabotaged. There are very strong vested interests to ensure that the tensions continue, and both the nations continue to buy weapons and security equipment from the West. There is certainly no reason at all for the civilian government in Pakistan to engineer this incident, and even the Pakistani military leadership wants to reduce tensions on their eastern border, so as to deal with the threat from the western border, as well as the rampant jihadist militancy within, that threatens to destroy Pakistan in a veritable implosion along sectarian and ethnic lines. This is again there for all to see. Similarly, the Indian political class in general is pursuing a serious peace process with Pakistan, as there are numerous benefits for India, which again are obvious by all strategic and economic counts.    

Gordon Duff: US Israel Alliance and Nuclear Follies!

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu draws a red line on a graphic of a bomb, while discussing Iran during an address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 27, 2012 in New York City. "In fact, the actual origin of Israel's nuclear arsenal is, in fact, credited to stolen weapons grade uranium and plutonium from the United States, France, and Britain." "There is no record, in fact, of Israel ever buying one ounce of uranium ore for processing." Are the United States and Israel obsessed with accusing others of "nuclear violations" out of real concerns or out of a need to keep the mantra of the "blame game" going to hide their own crimes? Is the world really quaking in fear at the thought of an Iranian nuke? This month, the "Six Major Powers" are said to be scheduling "talks" with Iran, demanding "assurances" that Iran's nuclear energy program is peaceful. The radical difference between the mythology of news reports and history books, and what the intelligence community knows knows makes all discussions of "nuclear proliferation" beyond hypocrisy. History tells us that the only nuclear weapons that have been used, were by the United States during World War II, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is a total and absolute lie. The most undeniable use of a nuclear weapon in recent years was during the invasion of Iraq, the "Oil War of 2003." The United States used a "nuclear demolition device" against the Iraqi forces at Baghdad Airport in April 2003. The telltale signs, the huge flash, the cars burned blocks away, just like in Manhattan on 9/11/2001, were there for all to see. We will get back to 9/11 later. We have more business to discuss. Dr. Chris Busby has incontrovertibly proven that nuclear weapons were used in Fallujah a year later. The nuclear power lobby has criticized his study, which found not only weapons grade enriched uranium in the hair follicles of those living in the area, but also has more than proven a massive spike in birth defects in the area, that can only be attributed to nuclear weapons use. It took years to get permission to visit the Fallujah site. What is more frightening, however, is that newer generation nukes, those that are laser fired, a technology developed during the 1990's but "denied" by the weapons labs, leave behind no radiation after 72 hours. Hiding the use of nuclear weapons is now "Child's play."     

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya: The Syria Endgame,

Strategic Stage in the Pentagon's Covert War on Iran. Since the kindling of the conflict in Syria in 2011, it was recognized by friend and foe alike, that the events in that country were tied to a game plan that ultimately targets Iran, Syria's number one ally. De linking Syria from Iran and unhinging the Resistance Bloc that Damascus and Tehran have formed has been one of the objectives of the foreign supported anti government militia's inside Syria. Such a schism between Damascus and Tehran would change the Middle East's strategic balance in favor of the US and Israel. If this cannot be accomplished, however, then crippling Syria to effectively prevent it from providing Iran any form of diplomatic, political, economic, and military support in the face of common threats has been a primary objective. Preventing any continued cooperation between the two republics has been a strategic goal. This includes preventing the Iran Iraq Syria energy terminal from being built, and ending the military pact between the two partners. Regime change in Damascus is not the only or main way for the US and its allies to prevent Syria from standing with Iran. Destabilizing Syria, and neutralizing it as a failed and divided state is the key. Sectarian fighting is not a haphazard outcome of the instability in Syria, but an assisted project that the US and its allies have steadily fomented, with a clear intent to balkanise the Syrian Arab Republic. Regionally, Israel above all other states, has a major stake in securing the outcome. The Israelis actually have several publicly available documents, including the Yinon Plan, which outline that the destruction of Syria into a series of smaller sectarian states, is one of their strategic objectives. So do the American planners. Like Iraq next door, Syria does not need to be formally divided. For all intents and purposes, the country can be divided like Lebanon was alongside various fiefdoms, and stretches of territory controlled by different groups during the Lebanese Civil War. The goal is to disqualify Syria as an external player.