A war against China

Alongside the war against the People of Alkebulan (Africa), the "Trilateral Axis" composed of the USA, the British (Empire) Commonwealth, and Israel, is organizing to limit the influence of rivals over the United Nation Governments stewarding the resources contained in Africa, especially against the "Shanghei Axis" of China [link].



"Old Game, New Obsession, New Enemy: Now it's China"
2013-10-11 by John Pilger from "Truthout" [http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/19349-old-game-new-obsession-new-enemy-now-its-china]:
Countries are "pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a great game for the domination of the world," wrote Lord Curzon, viceroy of India, in 1898. Nothing has changed. The shopping mall massacre in Nairobi was a bloody façade behind which a full-scale invasion of Africa and a war in Asia are the great game.   
The al-Shabab shopping mall killers came from Somalia. If any country is an imperial metaphor, it is Somalia. Sharing a common language and religion, Somalis have been divided between the British, French, Italians and Ethiopians. Tens of thousands of people have been handed from one power to another. "When they are made to hate each other," wrote a British colonial official, "good governance is assured."   
Today, Somalia is a theme park of brutal, artificial divisions, long impoverished by World Bank and IMF "structural adjustment" programs and saturated with modern weapons, notably President Obama's personal favorite, the drone. The one stable Somali government, the Islamic Courts, was "well received by the people in the areas it controlled," reported the US Congressional Research Service, "[but] received negative press coverage, especially in the West." Obama crushed it. And in January, Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, presented her man to the world. "Somalia will remain grateful to the unwavering support from the United States government," effused President Hassan Mohamud. "Thank you, America."   
The shopping mall atrocity was a response to this - just as the attack on the Twin Towers and the London bombings were explicit reactions to invasion and injustice. Once of little consequence, jihadism now marches in lockstep with the return of unfettered imperialism.   
Since NATO reduced modern Libya to a Hobbesian state in 2011, the last obstacles to Africa have fallen. "Scrambles for energy, minerals and fertile land are likely to occur with increasingly intensity," Ministry of Defence planners report. They predict "high numbers of civilian casualties"; therefore "perceptions of moral legitimacy will be important for success." Sensitive to the PR problem of invading a continent, the arms mammoth BAE Systems, together with Barclay Capital and BP, warn that "the government should define its international mission as managing risks on behalf of British citizens." The cynicism is lethal. British governments repeatedly are warned, not least by the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, that foreign adventures beckon retaliation at home.   
With minimal media interest, the US African Command (Africom) has deployed troops to 35 African countries, establishing a familiar network of authoritarian supplicants eager for bribes and armaments. In war games, a "soldier to soldier" doctrine embeds US officers at every level of command, from general to warrant officer. The British did the same in India. It is as if Africa's proud history of liberation, from Patrice Lumumba to Nelson Mandela, is consigned to oblivion by a new master's black colonial elite whose "historic mission," warned Frantz Fanon half a century ago, is the subjugation of their own people in the cause of "a capitalism rampant though camouflaged." The reference also fits the Son of Africa in the White House.   
For Obama, there is a more pressing cause - China. Africa is China's success story. Where the Americans bring drones, the Chinese build roads, bridges and dams. What the Chinese want is resources, especially fossel fuels. NATO's bombing of Libya drove out 30,000 Chinese oil industry workers. More than jihadism or Iran, China is now Washington's obsession in Africa and beyond. This is a "policy" known as the "pivot to Asia," whose threat of world war may be as great as any in the modern era.   
This week's meeting in Tokyo of US Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, with their Japanese counterparts, accelerated the prospect of war with the new imperial rival. Sixty percent of US forces are to be based in Asia by 2020, aimed at China. Japan is re-arming rapidly under the right-wing government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who came to power in December with a pledge to build a "new, strong military" and circumvent the "peace constitution." A US-Japanese anti-ballistic-missile system near Kyoto is directed at China. Using long-range Global Hawk drones, the US has increased its provocations sharply in the East China and South China seas, where Japan and China dispute the ownership of the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands. Advanced vertical-takeoff aircraft are deployed in Japan; their purpose is blitzkrieg.   
On the Pacific island of Guam, from which B-52s attacked Vietnam, the biggest military buildup since the Indochina wars includes 9,000 US Marines. In Australia this week, an arms fair and military jamboree that diverted much of Sydney is in keeping with a government propaganda campaign to justify an unprecedented US military buildup from Perth to Darwin, aimed at China. The vast US base at Pine Gap near Alice Springs is, as Edward Snowden disclosed, a hub of US spying in the region and beyond; it also is critical to Obama's worldwide assassinations by drone.   
"We have to inform the British to keep them on side," McGeorge Bundy, an assistant US secretary of state, once said. "You in Australia are with us, come what may." Australian forces have long played a mercenary role for Washington. However, there is a hitch. China is Australia's biggest trading partner and is largely responsible for its evasion of the 2008 recession. Without China, there would be no minerals boom, no weekly mining return of up to $1 billion.   
The dangers this presents rarely are debated publicly in Australia, where Prime Minister Tony Abbott's patron, Rupert Murdoch, controls 70 percent of the press. Occasionally, anxiety is expressed over the "choice" that the US wants Australia to make. A report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute warns that any US plan to strike at China would involve "blinding" Chinese surveillance, intelligence and command systems. This would "consequently increase the chances of Chinese nuclear pre-emption ... and a series of miscalculations on both sides if Beijing perceives conventional attacks on its homeland as an attempt to disarm its nuclear capability."   
In his address to the nation last month, Obama said, "What makes America different, what makes us exceptional is that we are dedicated to act."

British (Empire) Commonwealth in the Alkebulan

2013-10-07 "Africa's most biodiverse area endangered by UK oil firm: WWF"
from "AFP" newswire:
Paris -
Environmental campaigners WWF filed a complaint on Monday against a British oil company accused of intimidating the local population and endangering wildlife in the oldest nature reserve in Africa.
The wildlife charity claims that Soco International's oil exploration activities in and around Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo put "people, animals and habitats at risk" and violate international guidelines issued by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in a complaint to that organisation.
"The only way for Soco to come into compliance with the OECD guidelines is for the company to end all exploration in Virunga for good," said Lasse Gustavsson, executive director of conservation at WWF International.
"We urge the company to stop its activities immediately," he said.
Organisations can refer to OECD guidelines on ethical corporate behaviour as a way of piling pressure on companies or even governments.
Soco dismissed the claims as "baseless" on its website, adding it had not yet begun any operational activity and would not do so until impact studies had been completed.
Virunga is one of the world's oldest UN World Heritage sites and is the most environmentally diverse area on the African continent, home to thousands of rhinos and 200 endangered mountain gorillas.
Soco's own assessment of its exploration of the park warns of potential pollution and damage to the fragile animal habitats in Virunga.
The WWF alleges that Soco has used state security to intimidate opponents to its business and says the organisation failed to disclose the true impact of development during consultations with local villagers.
Soco's contract with the Congolese government effectively exempts it from further regulation, the WWF says, calling on the company to also consider the health and livelihoods of 50,000 local residents.
The UK is a founding member of the OECD and the organisation's guidelines have previously been used to put political pressure on the British government.
Anthony Field, a campaigner at WWF-UK, told AFP: "OECD guidelines are the most well-respected standards of good practice for businesses, and are internationally recognised by 45 countries including the UK."
OECD complaints could be "incredibly effective", Field said, giving the example of a 2009 case when mining firm Vedanta Resources was condemned by London for failing to respect the rights of an indigenous group when planning a bauxite mine in the Indian state of Orissa.
Soco said its first environmental impact studies were conducted in "close collaboration" with the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation, which manages the park.

The "Shanghai Axis"

Unlike the "Trilateral Axis" (composed of the alliance of the USA, the British "Empire" Commonwealth and Israel) and it's use of military methods to consolidate a monopolized economic hold against the People of Alkebulan, the "Shanghai Axis" is using government funded aid programs and not military conquest. While there are no "good guys" while the indigenous nations of Alkebulan are oppressed, it is a contrast to see the difference between the methods used by the competitors of the "Trilateral Axis" and the "Shanghai Axis", especially the Trilaterist war against China [link].
This page provides examples of how China, the core government of the "Shanghai Axis", conducts it's conquest of Alkebulan.

** China's diplomacy program for Africa is $2 billion over 10 years (2014-05) [link]
** Nigeria signs $1.3 bn power plant deal with China [link]
** China wins $2 billion oil deal in Uganda [link]

China's government is consolidating access to resources for the homeland, and indications show that the personalities guiding the government of China are desperate to keep "economic growth" stabilized and yielding profits. 
"China's GDP figures wrong by $610 billion: Report"
2013-10-30 from "AFP" [http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-10-30/news/43528904_1_gdp-growth-rate-yuan-economic-information-daily]:
BEIJING: China's economy would be at least 3.7 trillion yuan ($610 billion) bigger than Beijing thinks if the country's local government statistics were to be believed, state media reported Wednesday.
The Economic Information Daily tallied up gross domestic product (GDP) data from 28 of mainland China's 31 provincial-level authorities, totalling 42.4 trillion yuan for the first nine months of the year.
But the figure for the whole country, already announced by Beijing, is 3.7 trillion yuan lower.
 The discrepancy -- which has been in place for more than two decades -- has been widening rapidly in recent years, the Economic Information Daily said.
 The reliability of Chinese economic data has long been in doubt as local officials tend to massage the figures upwards in pursuit of promotion and the newspaper, which is run by the official Xinhua news agency, pointed to the same problem.
 "Some regions may have inflated the statistics due to their distorted perception of achievements given the fact that the performance assessment of local governments is often linked with GDP growth," the report quoted an unnamed National Bureau of Statistics official as saying.
 China's Premier Li Keqiang said in 2007, when he was the governor of Liaoning province, that some Chinese data was "man-made", according to a confidential memo released by the WikiLeaks website in 2010.
 He told US diplomats that he focused on only three figures -- electricity consumption, rail cargo volume, and the amount of loans issued -- to evaluate his region's economy, the leaked document showed.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said in June that officials' performance evaluations must not be based "simply on GDP growth rate" but take into account factors such as the environment and improving people's well-being.

USA AFRICOM clandestinely includes African allies who recruit child soldiers

"Obama Quietly Okays Military Aid to Countries That Use Child SoldiersOverrides law banning such aid; critics charge 'Obama becoming an expert at waiving human rights laws'"
2013-10-02 by Sarah Lazare from "Common Dreams" [www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/10/02-5]:
Amid the hoopla of the government shutdown, the White House quietly passed a bill Monday that overrides a law banning military aid to countries that use child soldiers.
The Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 prohibits the U.S. government from providing military assistance to countries that directly use, or support the use of, child soldiers. Built into the law is an option allowing the U.S. president to override the ban if he/she deems it necessary.
On Monday, President Obama issued complete waivers to Yemen, Chad, and South Sudan, opening up those countries to U.S. military aid despite their known use of child soldiers, declaring in a written memorandum it is "in the national interest of the United States" to override the ban.
Obama also granted partial waivers to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia to allow "International Military Education and Training" and "nonlethal" defense for both countries and "provision of assistance under the Peacekeeping Operations authority for logistical support and troop stipends" in Somalia. According to Think Progress writer Hayes Brown [http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/10/01/2704611/child-soldier-waivers/], these waivers open the door for military aid for ongoing "peacekeeping" operations in both these countries.
"Obama is becoming an expert at waiving human rights laws," writes Ken Hanly in Digital Journal [http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/359480]. "He waived part of a law last month that banned the US from supplying lethal aid to terrorist groups so he could send aid to Syrian rebels. In the case of Egypt, Obama has refused to call the coup by the armed forces a coup and by doing so does not run afoul of a law that would ban aid to a country where there had been a military coup."
"Human rights are to be promoted but only insofar as they do not conflict with US national interest as understood by the president," he added.Meanwhile, the U.S. government has come under criticism for filling its own military ranks with hundreds of thousands of teenagers, including 17-year-olds who can enlist with parental consent [http://inthesetimes.com/article/3199/americas_child_soldier_problem].

Nigeria signs $1.3 bn power plant deal with China

2013-09-30 from "AFP" newswire [http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/Nigeria_signs_13_bn_power_plant_deal_with_China_999.html]:
Abuja -
Nigeria has announced two major initiatives aimed at improving its woeful electricity supply, entering a $1.3 billion (960 million euros) power plant deal with China and on Monday handing over state power assets to private investors.
 The privatisation of most of state electricity firm PHCN has long been in the works in Africa's most populous nation, where blackouts occur multiple times daily despite the country's status as the continent's largest oil producer.
 Those taking over assets include Seoul-based Korea Electric Power Corporation as well as local investors.
 Separately, the deal with the Chinese government involves construction of a hydroelectric plant expected to add 700 megawatts to the national grid.
 A loan from China's Export-Import Bank will pay for 75 percent of the plant while the Nigerian government will cover 25 percent of the cost, a statement by the finance ministry said.
 It is not clear if the new plant will remain in state hands or if it too will be privatised.
 Hundreds of PHCN workers and retirees on Monday staged protests in several parts of the country against the take-over of the company when the government has not paid all of them their severance financial benefits.
 Some of them chanting slogans and carrying placards told AIT private television that they would not allow the investors to enter PHCN premises until the monies have been paid.
 "We are ready to be sleeping here until they pay us," one of the protesters, Ganiyu Adegboye, told the television.
 They locked up the entrances to PHCN's two main offices in Lagos, AIT footage showed.
 Nigeria has portrayed the privatisation of electricity generation and distribution as a reform capable of finally bringing steady power supplies to the country, where businesses are forced to rely on diesel generators to cope.
 President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday handed over operating licences to investors for most of the companies created from the splitting up of the former Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
 Jonathan, at a brief ceremony also attended by top government officials, ceded ownership of four of the six generation companies and 10 of the 11 distribution firms after raking in about $2.5 billion from their bids.
 A power generation firm not part of PHCN was also handed over, while various issues are yet to be resolved for the two other generation firms and one distribution firm.
 Nigeria will retain ownership of the national grid, but privatise its management. Canada's Manitoba Hydro International was named its manager for three years in 2012 "Today, therefore, not only concludes legal transactions, it is a day of hope, a day of promise and a new beginning for one of the most vital sectors of our national economy," Jonathan said.
 "We do not expect the sector to be revitalised overnight but we can all look forward to a better time very soon as we have seen in the telecommunications and banking sectors."
 Government said that only about 2,000 of the 47,000 PHCN workers were yet to be paid their terminal allowances.
 The privatisation of telecommunications in Nigeria is generally credited with bringing improved service and accessibility to the country.
 However, critics have expressed concerns that many of the bidders for power assets have been politically connected barons in Nigeria and questioned whether the assets will be properly managed.

China wins $2 billion oil deal in Uganda

2013-09-27 by Staff Writers (AFP) [http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/China_wins_2_billion_oil_deal_in_Uganda_999.html]:
Kampala -
China's state-owned CNOOC has secured a $2-billion deal to develop a petroleum field in Uganda and help propel the east African nation into the club of oil-producing countries, an official said Friday.   
"This is a major breakthrough as a country," Uganda's junior energy minister Peter Lokeris told AFP, confirming that a deal had been reached earlier this month with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation.    
"It is a milestone towards making us self-sustaining as far as oil and gas production is concerned," he added.    
"The contractor among other responsibilities will be responsible for developing the Kingfisher oil field which should become operational in the next four years from now," the minister added.    
Uganda has oil reserves estimated at 3.5 billion barrels but the path to production has been a bumpy one since deposits were discovered in 2006 near its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.    
Such reserves have the potential to radically alter Uganda's economy and could eventually as much as double the national income.    
Lokeris said he expected the initial output of the new Chinese-run field to be modest.    
"We expect to produce about 40,000 barrels of oil per day once the Kingfisher well is fully developed and operational," he said.    
China has invested heavily in Africa's oil sector to feed its energy-hungry economy.

USA & Israel in Kenya targeting militants

The Alliance of the USA, the British (Empire) Commonwealth, and Israel created al-Qaeda during the 1970s, to be used against governments they didn't like, with funding and weapons going to al-Qaeda affiliated militias during the wars against Iraq and Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Russia during the 2000s, and Syria during 2013.
In the USA, the al-Qaeda threat is used by security companies and agencies to advocate for increased surveillance and harassment of ALL political dissidents, and for the increase in militerization funding for police.
In the following examples, a violent incident by an al-Qaeda affiliate at a shopping mall in eastern Alkebulan (Africa) is being used as an excuse for Israel and USA military attacks in the region, with increased surveillance and security at shopping malls worldwide.

"Israeli forces enter Nairobi mall: Kenyan security officials"
2013-09-22 from "Press TV" [http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/22/325379/israeli-forces-enter-nairobi-mall/]: A Kenyan security official says Israeli forces have entered a shopping mall in the capital, Nairobi, where Somali militants have already killed dozens of people and an unknown number of hostages are still being held.      
Local security officials say the Israeli forces have joined Kenyans to end the deadly mall siege on Sunday. The Kenyan troops backed by Israeli forces are now battling against gunmen holding dozens of people hostage inside the shopping mall for the second day.    
"The Israelis have just entered and they are rescuing the hostages and the injured," media outlets quoted an unnamed senior Kenyan security source as saying.    
Kenyan military spokesman noted that a large number of well-equipped forces are fighting the assailants that attacked the mall, killing nearly 60 people and injuring some 200 more.    
"We are still battling with the attackers and our forces have managed to maroon the attackers on one of the floors," said Colonel Cyrus Oguna, adding, "We hope to bring this to an end today."   
There are reports of sporadic gunfire inside the mall as Kenyan forces try to kill or capture the remaining 10 to 15 gunmen who are holding about 70 people hostage.    
The carnage on Saturday started when gunmen stormed the Westgate Mall in an upscale neighborhood, throwing hand grenades and indiscriminately firing at people.    
Somalia’s al-Shabab fighters have claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in retaliation for Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia.    
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta says he has lost family members in the deadly attack. He also vowed to bring perpetrators and attackers to justice for targeting innocent civilians    
"Let me make it clear. We shall hunt down the perpetrators wherever they run to. We shall get them. We shall punish them for this heinous crime,” Kenyatta said in a televised address to the nation late Saturday.   
The attack was the worst in Nairobi since an al-Qaeda bombing at the US Embassy killed over 200 people in 1998.


"Report: US military to hit targets in Kenya, other African states"
2013-09-23 from "Press TV" [http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/22/325470/us-military-to-hit-targets-in-kenya/]: The United States is reportedly preparing a list of targets for possible military strikes in Kenya and some other African countries.      
Former US general Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli said the strikes are aimed at targeting militants involved in Sunday's deadly attack on a shopping mall in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi.    
Somalia’s Al-Shabab fighters have reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it is in retaliation for Kenya’s military actions inside Somalia.    
"They're developing targets . . . and refining target lists, trying to fill in any gaps that we possibly have," the former four-star general said during an interview with ABC's This Week on Sunday.    
"Intelligence has been gathered and will continue to be gathered to fill in any holes that we have about what happened in this particular attack and what could happen in the future," Gen. Chiarelli added.    
Chiarelli described the situation as “very chaotic” and added that US military officials are doing everything they can to gather information.    
He, however, refused to elaborate how and with what means the US forces or their allies will target the group’s hideouts in Kenya.    
This as Kenyan security sources in Nairobi revealed that Israel has sent its special forces to Kenya to fight with the militants at Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall, according to an AFP report.    
The report added that Israeli commandoes were airlifted to the east African country just after the start of the attack.


"Nairobi attack may trigger tighter security at malls worldwide"
2013-09-22 by Ilaina Jonas and Mark Hosenball from "Reuters" newswire [http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/22/us-kenya-attack-mallsecurity-analysis-idUSBRE98L0LP20130922]: The deadly attack on a high-end Nairobi shopping mall on Saturday put the safety of malls around the world into the spotlight and could trigger moves to improve security and make it more visible.   
"They're obviously going to ramp up security," said Malachy Kavanagh, a spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers, a U.S.-based trade group of mall and shopping center owners, adding that he expected the U.S. government's Department of Homeland Security to reach out to the heads of corporate security for all American malls following the events in Kenya.   
Some of the changes that may be made include bringing in off-duty police officers into the mall, putting more non-uniformed security officers into uniform, and more closely coordinating with local police departments.   
Islamist militants were holding hostages on Sunday at a shopping mall in Nairobi, where at least 68 people were killed and 175 wounded in an attack by Somalia's al Shabaab group. Those killed included Kenyans, Dutch, British and Chinese citizens and diplomats from Canada and Ghana. Some U.S. citizens were wounded, though the final toll is still far from clear.   
The Westgate mall has several Israeli-owned outlets and is frequented by prosperous Kenyans and foreigners.   
"Shopping centers and retailers will have to spend more money on security," Irwin Barkan, CEO of African mall developer BGI LLC, said in a phone interview from Ghana where he is based. BGI, based in the U.S., is developing properties in West Africa.   
"I hope it doesn't get to the point where it is like getting into an airport," Barkan said ahead of a trip to Nairobi for the African Hotel Investment Forum this week.   
Kavanagh said that U.S. shoppers have indicated they do not want to go through this type of security line with metal detectors and other security machines.   
Following the attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001, the trade group surveyed mall shoppers about their views on such ideas. "Unless there was an immediate threat, by and large they said 'no'," he said.   

FEAR OF IMITATORS  -
U.S. counter-terrorism officials and experts have privately expressed worries for years - since even before the September 11, 2001 attacks - that U.S. shopping malls and other public spaces, including public transport systems, were vulnerable to attacks.   
Juan Zarate, a former White House counter-terrorism advisor and author of "Treasury's War", a new book on the subject, told Reuters that one of the major concerns for counter-terrorism officials is that there could be imitators of this type of "soft target" attack.   
"Like the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, terrorist cells are learning that they can have strategic impact with dramatic terror focused on soft targets having significant psychological and economic effects," Zarate said.    In November 2008, 10 gunmen went on a three-day killing spree in Mumbai, attacking two luxury hotels, a train station and a Jewish center, among other places in the Indian city.   
In the United States, a source at one of the biggest mall owners said that the company is constantly focused on safety and security, not just after events such as the one in Kenya. The source said that shoppers can see some elements of security, while others are not visible.   
Dan Jasper, a spokesman for Mall of America, a large private mall in Bloomington, Minnesota, said in a statement that "We constantly monitor events and adjust plans accordingly. The safety and security of our guests remains a top priority."   
Westfield America declined comment, saying that it does not comment on security. Australia's Westfield Group owns nearly 100 shopping centers in Australia, New Zealand, Britain and the United States. Simon Property Group, the largest owner of U.S. mall and outlet centers and owner of outlets in Canada, Malaysia, Japan, Korea and Mexico, also declined to comment.