George Zimmerman is GUILTY!

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal">Holaaaaaaa Bitches! Well we’re back full force here at the old IWS Radio website and I can feel the tension in the crowd. George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin and will be convicted and sent to jail. Everything is waiting for me to tell you WHY George Zimmerman is guilty. Well, I don’t know why. I just, I don’t know, had to go with either “Guilty” or “Innocent” and finally flipped a coin and it came up guilty. Which he is, you know. The Coin Gods said so.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSbNpkI4NKURfJZX2rebIs8j4syyndtHOfTTFDuR_Grxlx11akwACokb_5QMZItZscL4jqAn1p7v8G7icnQyrN_cdAV9moqbGG16Wf_J-nB1u2MCXPFQRYiStZGxqyDlaRIEXABwboOBA/s1600/George-Zimmerman-Nude-Hot-Sexy-Murderer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSbNpkI4NKURfJZX2rebIs8j4syyndtHOfTTFDuR_Grxlx11akwACokb_5QMZItZscL4jqAn1p7v8G7icnQyrN_cdAV9moqbGG16Wf_J-nB1u2MCXPFQRYiStZGxqyDlaRIEXABwboOBA/s320/George-Zimmerman-Nude-Hot-Sexy-Murderer.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Of course I haven’t watched a single minute of the trial, but I don’t have to. I know all the facts I need to know and can’t be bothered by silly things like the law, jury instructions, admissible evidence, witness testimony and all that boring shit. I flipped the coin and it came up heads for “Guilty” so that’s that.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Oh I would have watched the trial but dammit, I’m just not the legal experts you guys all are. I think the fact that you guys on Facebook and Twitter tend to disagree over legal definitions is probably further proof that you’re experts and really know your shit. Well, either that or you made up your minds long before the trial started and are only using the evidence presented to confirm your beliefs or be OUTRAGED at the lie the “other side” is telling in court. God forbid any of you people ever allow your beliefs to be challenged and consider the possibility that you’re wrong about something. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Anyhoodle, sometime over the next few days George Zimmerman will be convicted, acquitted or there will be a hung jury. Then there will be the required fake outrage, bullshit claims that people “read on the internet” and then we’ll all move on to the next big thing and forget all about George and the dead 17 year old kid “whatshisname.” <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Which reminds me … The funny thing about that whole “sanctity of life’ crowd is that they always seem to be on the side of the killer. Well, unless the killer is a woman having an abortion, then they get serious about saving that fetus because “all life is precious.” Unless two years after the kid is born and it’s accidentally killed by someone who was playing with an unsecured gun in the house. Then, the “sanctity of life” crowd who believes that “all life is precious” won’t be anywhere to be found. But, I digress. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I tell you one thing though, I sure as hell wouldn’t want my fate to be in the hands of an all-woman jury like old George’s is. Holy Hell! There’s no way THAT would end well. All the prosecution would have to do is read off a bunch of my old blog posts or some of the Babes of the Week from here and I would be toast. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLd3UGFEs4bacVvxm5-TlKX8lFSntmrUdBgXqmUwalmaqt2kp5yaqDY7rENwzcS7hS-bnSFC1mL_69czrou6EwryrBUbOyqPtecFpxLJce3yIlL1A6bC4kkvFfWCykzVyNq9VFMrs5LcI/s1600/elisabeth-hasselbeck-hot-boobs-o-face-angry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLd3UGFEs4bacVvxm5-TlKX8lFSntmrUdBgXqmUwalmaqt2kp5yaqDY7rENwzcS7hS-bnSFC1mL_69czrou6EwryrBUbOyqPtecFpxLJce3yIlL1A6bC4kkvFfWCykzVyNq9VFMrs5LcI/s320/elisabeth-hasselbeck-hot-boobs-o-face-angry.jpg" width="203" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><br /></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Besides, I don’t do that well with women. Oh sure, at first things seem to go okay but after a bit I eventually say something that makes them sit and think and next thing you know, they don’t want to be alone with me. So weird. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">You know what would be worst? An all-white woman jury! Oh God! Those angry Elisabeth Hasselbeck types would convict me on the basis of my hot Asian babes posts alone. Fucking racists! <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Uhhh … what was I talking about? Oh yeah, George Zimmerman is guilty according to the Coin Gods. The jury? *shrugs shoulders* who knows or cares? Their verdict probably won’t matter to all the experts out there on Social Media anyway. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:Jayman3768@gmail.com">Jayman3768@gmail.com</a><br /><a href="http://facebook.com/Jayman68" target="_blank">Facebook.com/Jayman68</a><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/jayman_iws" target="_blank">@Jayman_IWS </a><o:p></o:p></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div>

George Zimmerman is GUILTY!

Holaaaaaaa Bitches! Well we’re back full force here at the old IWS Radio website and I can feel the tension in the crowd. George Zimmerman k...

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Storytellers Mack & Joan Swift at Skyland Resort

Mack Swift was the football coach when I was in high school. Each summer, he and his wife can be found at Skyland Resort in Shenandoah National Park as storytellers extraordinaire.<br /><blockquote><b>Wednesdays – July 10, 17, 24 & 31</b><br /><br />In keeping with the tradition of “Stony Man Camp” founder George Pollock’s activities of entertaining his guests and telling stories, storytellers Mack & Joan Swift provide a lively 45-minute program of Jack Tales at Skyland Resort. Tales such as “Jack and the Three Sacks of Truth” are great for all ages. Held 8:00 to 8:45pm on the Skyland terrace, weather permitting. Check at front desk for location if inclement weather.</blockquote>This is one of many summer programs going on at Skyland and Big Meadows Lodges.

Big Meadows Lodge Blue Ridge Mountains George Pollock Jack Tales Joan Swift Mack Swift Shenandoah National Park Skyland Resort Skyline Drive storytellers Storytellers Mack & Joan Swift at Skyland Resort

Mack Swift was the football coach when I was in high school. Each summer, he and his wife can be found at Skyland Resort in Shenandoah Natio...

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Liberty Building

The Liberty Insurance Building (formerly the Q Building) is the tallest building in Blanchardstown.<div><br></div><div>I generally dislike this building but in the sun today it looked quite good.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3fQp7fWAp5cF-i2pbw6V80-DRXeypwDbrcpj-VoLcYY7CY852TFyqTZIOM-nZFY1NRPAv5E289EOjQN6pBVacGZH2B71qJkgH9-JlBEFTGUkElIneDjdxyxrDwkfdYRUKB-W-tEPr_xYD/s640/blogger-image-990941837.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3fQp7fWAp5cF-i2pbw6V80-DRXeypwDbrcpj-VoLcYY7CY852TFyqTZIOM-nZFY1NRPAv5E289EOjQN6pBVacGZH2B71qJkgH9-JlBEFTGUkElIneDjdxyxrDwkfdYRUKB-W-tEPr_xYD/s640/blogger-image-990941837.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw3e749wcBRr0VJsax12YFIf4IaQ50fDCcFOuvcZSx-0vDNrq5rpkCwVVwJeH8uQpcQ5wFlYLn0Mzb-RPENEoWjsXnA3_k2I1eqNxmOq01m3BywjBsP1HtpZA14RUHRQuDGgy2N_91ksWn/s640/blogger-image-10502239.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw3e749wcBRr0VJsax12YFIf4IaQ50fDCcFOuvcZSx-0vDNrq5rpkCwVVwJeH8uQpcQ5wFlYLn0Mzb-RPENEoWjsXnA3_k2I1eqNxmOq01m3BywjBsP1HtpZA14RUHRQuDGgy2N_91ksWn/s640/blogger-image-10502239.jpg"></a></div><br></div><br></div>

Liberty Building

The Liberty Insurance Building (formerly the Q Building) is the tallest building in Blanchardstown. I generally dislike this building but in...

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CRISIS: QATAR’S TRANSITION

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font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";} </style><![endif]--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLySwL8Bzg1VmP_9pt9BxBziLMeUL7xV9kEi0xNJrl5MgKldHeVVvUMWt9BdAaQMgpFhNxcYMReTod-4stHpXUlAs7CHTCQWmOMkdV6qPvbUuPA8xR9iE5LfL8Gi5RyiITpMWG3xMUWy12/s1600/globe_qatar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLySwL8Bzg1VmP_9pt9BxBziLMeUL7xV9kEi0xNJrl5MgKldHeVVvUMWt9BdAaQMgpFhNxcYMReTod-4stHpXUlAs7CHTCQWmOMkdV6qPvbUuPA8xR9iE5LfL8Gi5RyiITpMWG3xMUWy12/s400/globe_qatar.jpg" width="400" /></a></b></div><b><br /></b><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">ACTS AS PIVOT FOR “CHANGE OF DIRECTION” FOR MIDDLE EAST</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Executive Summary: </span></b></span></div><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Impact from QATAR’S aggressive interventionist politics in SYRIA and LIBYA, under what has come to be known as the “QATARI foreign legion”</span></b></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">SAUDI ARABIA versus QATAR </span></b></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It’s all about energy</span></b></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Why QATAR and TURKEY are (were) in favor of toppling the Assad regime in SYRIA </span></b></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">QATAR’S failed foreign</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">intervention politics</b></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">USA urged QATAR and TURKEY to support the Muslim brotherhood in order to create political change in the region</span></b></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">BRITAIN’S backtracking regarding its SYRIAN stance <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">USA to “allow” IRAN to win, an option which both SAUDI ARABIA and the USA would be reluctant to embrace, given their commitment to Sunni Muslim dominance over IRAN and Shi’ism.</span></b></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">TURKEY under increasing pressure </span></b></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Transfer of power in QATAR a face-saving way of “re-shaping” QATAR’S adventurist foreign intervention politics</span></b></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Power transfer, an opportunity for USA to rethink its geostrategic policies in the region? </span></b></li></ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: x-small;">By Gregory R. Copley via Oilprice</span> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The change of leadership in QATAR served as a signal of a subtle, but profound, change of direction in the greater Middle East. Of significance, however, is that it indicated that the outgoing Emir of QATAR would spend more of his time and wealth managing — with his wife — his “international interests”, leaving the management of the State of QATAR to the incoming Emir, his son.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is, with this event and others, the start of a new era which was begun by the gradual decline in US influence in the region after 1979 (and particularly after 2008), and confirmed by the transitions in leaderships which took place in the so-called “Arab Spring” period, compounded by subsequent elections in PAKISTAN and IRAN. The changes are not yet complete.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani’s abdication as Emir of QATAR on June 25, 2013, had been quietly anticipated and QATAR’S allies were discreetly informed in advance. It was no surprise, and was believed to have been dictated largely because of health concerns by the 61-year-old monarch, but it was also dictated by the process of preparing Crown Prince Tamin bin Hamad al-Thani for the post. It also meant that the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, would have to retire, so close were he and Sheikh Hamad in the development of QATAR’S economic and strategic policies.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IMPACT FROM QATAR’S AGGRESSIVE INTERVENTIONIST POLITICS IN SYRIA AND LIBYA, UNDER WHAT HAS COME TO BE KNOWN AS THE “QATARI FOREIGN LEGION”</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">However, the transfer of power to Sheikh Tamin, 33, inevitably would mean a transformation in Qatar’s adventurist strategic policy, even though it was Sheikh Tamin and his mother — Sheikha Moza, the second wife of the outgoing Emir, Sheikh Hamad — who were the great proponents of the aggressive policy of support for radical Islamist combatants to help overthrow LIBYAN leader Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi and SYRIAN Pres. Bashar al-Assad. The question is, however, what that “transformation” will entail. It was, by late June 2013, by no means clear that Sheikh Tamin would be more moderate than his father.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In any event, it has been intimated that the now-former Emir, Sheikh Hamad, would be able, with Sheikha Moza, to devote more time to managing QATAR’S international activities, ranging from the discreet support of interventionist activities by what has come to be known as the “Qatari Foreign Legion” to international aid issues.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The support by QATAR for the anti-Qadhafi rebellion was not in itself surprising, but the manner of it seemed uncharacteristic of the moderate approach which Sheikh Hamad seemed to have taken in the years building up to that event. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">SAUDI ARABIA VERSUS QATAR </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">QATAR went in to the LIBYAN conflict by aggressively backing and arming a salafist and Ikhwani (Muslim Brothers) force which was antithetical to the traditionally moderate, pro-modernist Sanussiyah Muslims in the Cyrenaica province of LIBYA: the people who had begun the uprising against Qadhafi’s coup.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">They had acted against Qadhafi to restore the 1952 Constitution. And Sheikh Hamad was very much aware of that, given that his early encouragement into the development of QATAR’S gas fields — against the strenuous opposition of SAUDI ARABIA, which was “anti-gas/pro-petroleum” — came from LIBYAN then-exiled Prince Idris al-Senussi, who had briefed Sheikh Hamad and then-Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim extensively on the differences between Senussi and Saudi Wahhabi approaches to Islam.</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is true that Sheikh Hamad and Hamad bin Jassim ultimately fell out with Prince Idris after the money began accumulating in QATAR, transforming its position, and there was a reluctance to recognize Idris’s rôle in the gas revolution which QATAR began. But was that enough to cause QATAR to back such a radical, jihadist intervention in LIBYA when it could have just as easily supported the moderate, local Cyrenaican Senussiyahs who had initiated the revolt — the counter-coup — against Qadhafi? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ultimately, however, the QATARI “foreign legion” in LIBYA came under control, more or less (but not before its allies attacked the US Consulate-General in Benghazi, killing the US Ambassador and others on September 11, 2012), and the Senussiyah faction won control, electorally, of LIBYAN politics, and retained control of Cyrenaica.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Neither was the momentum of QATARI support continued after the LIBYA episode to the anti-Bashar jihadists in SYRIA explicable in relation to Sheikh Hamad’s long history of moderation.  True, Sheikh Tamin’s and Sheikha Moza’s ostensible passion for these causes may have played a rôle, but there was still much more to it than that.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IT’S ALL ABOUT ENERGY</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One contributory strand to the event was the plan, rejected by Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad on advice from his key ally, IRAN, by QATAR to build a gas pipeline across from QATAR and via SAUDI ARABIA and SYRIA, to reach the EUROPEAN market.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUng2_xiBbW3C9aq0Tr7uFvSEiRBQjwAeBDOjJqErRZbBdTPxDPInu8zBSJU3E47RojPx1a28-M-yQ11mL4dRWEwa-SVzy3rZ-W0DipUwbygfzeXJLYi3hslwejgCnWNCUzYN-N8t-vdDU/s1600/440px-Tapline.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUng2_xiBbW3C9aq0Tr7uFvSEiRBQjwAeBDOjJqErRZbBdTPxDPInu8zBSJU3E47RojPx1a28-M-yQ11mL4dRWEwa-SVzy3rZ-W0DipUwbygfzeXJLYi3hslwejgCnWNCUzYN-N8t-vdDU/s400/440px-Tapline.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: yellow; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: yellow;"></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></i> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Background Information</span></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">: </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">IRAN - IRAQ - SYRIA GAS PIPELINE AGREEMENT  A “WIN WIN” SITUATION, BUT NOT FOR QATAR AND TURKEY </span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/05/pipelineistan.html">http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/05/pipelineistan.html</a><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">IS THE TRANS ARABIAN PIPELINE “TAPLINE” THE ANSWER TO FOREIGN INTERVENTION IN THE SYRIAN UPRISING? At </span></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2011/12/syria-cause-and-effect.html">http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2011/12/syria-cause-and-effect.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: .5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">ENORMOUS GAS FINDINGS AND PROSPECTS OF OIL FINDINGS COMPLICATE TURKEYS STANCE IN THE REGION. </span>At </span></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2012/02/eastern-mediterranean-sea.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2012/02/eastern-mediterranean-sea.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">REGIME CHANGE IN SYRIA WOULD DIMINISH RUSSIA’S IMPORTANCE AS GAS EXPORTER AS WELL AS NAVAL PRESENCE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA</span></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <a href="http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2012/01/syrias-destiny-sealed.html">http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2012/01/syrias-destiny-sealed.html</a>and</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2012/01/strait-of-hormuz-and-syria.html">http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2012/01/strait-of-hormuz-and-syria.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">WHY QATAR AND TURKEY ARE (WERE) IN FAVOR OF TOPPLING THE ASSAD REGIME IN SYRIA </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IRAN wanted to develop its own pipeline through SYRIA and IRAQ to reach the same EUROPEAN market (when embargoes against IRAN are eventually lifted). Those familiar with this situation in Doha indicated that the QATARI leadership’s response to this rejection was to support the removal of Bashar, and in this they found a ready ally in TURKISH Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Background Information:</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring published an article from <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Oil Price, dated </span>February 2013 regarding QATAR’S competing gas pipeline project, connecting QATAR and TURKEY, versus the SYRIAN, IRAQI and IRANIAN gas pipeline project.<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixbO_LKOveMgAzWPkQw7yy6Gg6SyoVUE7WWpC0csFAKsyBYFxj2BCybRwdi1TZOgXeYWQo9UKDTWqZct2iM5hZ67118HqWiBVbRIgPKxXocdYvSEIOM4PAI4mvWkn-Xin1uXpUAx8OY9tT/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixbO_LKOveMgAzWPkQw7yy6Gg6SyoVUE7WWpC0csFAKsyBYFxj2BCybRwdi1TZOgXeYWQo9UKDTWqZct2iM5hZ67118HqWiBVbRIgPKxXocdYvSEIOM4PAI4mvWkn-Xin1uXpUAx8OY9tT/s320/images.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">IRAN-IRAQ: PIPELINE TO SYRIA UPS ANTE IN PROXY WAR WITH QATAR</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">I<b>RAQ’S agreement to allow IRAN to build a pipeline through its territory and on to SYRIA is in direct competition with QATAR’S similar designs for a SYRIA pipeline that would connect to TURKEY. This pipeline is another proxy in the SYRIAN conflict theater and Iran’s response to its loss of ground here. It is also a sign of IRAN’S growing foothold in IRAQ. QATAR will respond in kind. </b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><br /><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The IRAQI Cabinet green lighted IRAN’S $10 billion pipeline project, which will supply gas from the South Pars field (which is the largest in the world, and which, as mentioned above, it shares with QATAR) to SYRIA and beyond to other export markets. There is talk of extending the pipeline to LEBANON. </span><br /></b><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><b>The first part of the pipeline—some 225 kilometers—through IRAQ will reportedly be completed in June 2013. The pipeline will connect the southern IRANIAN port of Assolouyeh to IRAQ and then to SYRIA—for now. It will have a 110 million cubic meter/day capacity. The plan is to give IRAQ 20 million cubic meters/day of IRANIAN gas for its power plants, with 20-25 million cubic meters per day going to the SYRIAN port of </b><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tartus</b></span>. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Read entire analysis at: </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/02/syria-assad-winning-war.html">http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/02/syria-assad-winning-war.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></u></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Background Information</span></u></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">THE QATARI PROJECT</span></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">                                            </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2013/03/saudi-arabia-and-qatar.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2013/03/saudi-arabia-and-qatar.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">QATAR AT ODDS WITH RUSSIA, OVER ITS STANCE ON SYRIA? OR IS IT ABOUT DOMINATING THE GAS ENERGY MARKETS? </span></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/04/qatars-great-power-games.html">http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/04/qatars-great-power-games.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">DRAWING SYMPATHY FROM ARAB COUNTRIES</span></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2011/09/turkeys-middle-east-chess-game.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2011/09/turkeys-middle-east-chess-game.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But, again, there was more to it than this.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Why would QATAR so deliberately pick up the gauntlet and challenge the great power of the PERSIAN GULF, IRAN, by threatening to destabilize SYRIA? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Part of it lies in the competitiveness felt between QATAR and SAUDI ARABIA, and particularly between Qatari Emir Hamad and SAUDI national security chief Prince Bandar, (See<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;"> </span><a href="http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2012/07/saudi-arabian-intelligence-headquarters.html">http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2012/07/saudi-arabian-intelligence-headquarters.html</a>) even though the two share ownership in the al-Jazeera broadcasting service based in Doha. QATAR has large outstanding territorial claims against SAUDI ARABIA, because the creation of the Kingdom of SAUDI ARABIA subsumed substantial tracts of land, abutting the present SAUDI-QATARI border, occupied by QATARI tribes. As well, the now-departing Emir felt that SAUDI approaches to reclaiming some sense of strategic viability compared with Shi’a IRAN were weak, vacillating, and dangerous, and Sheikh Hamad felt the need to build a sense of unity among the Sunni Arabs to enable them to withstand IRAN.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">FAILED FOREIGN</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">INTERVENTION POLITICS</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Significantly, incoming Emir Sheikh Tamin has become engaged in rebuilding SAUDI-QATARI relations, despite his apparent zeal for the LIBYA and SYRIA adventures. SAUDI ARABIA and QATAR have backed different factions of the opposition to Bashar in SYRIA, but both, by late June 2013, had to face the reality that they had failed in both SYRIA and LIBYA. The SYRIAN Administration of Bashar al-Assad had, to all intents, won the “civil war” that outside monies had triggered in SYRIA. Moreover, US Pres. Barack Obama had ventured too late in the SYRIAN conflict to propose US arming of SYRIAN opposition groups to overthrow Bashar, and it had been clear that the Government in Doha — the outgoing Emir and Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim — had very strong support (or urging) from Pres. Obama to undertake the courses they had taken on LIBYA and SYRIA.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">USA URGED QATAR AND TURKEY TO SUPPORT THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD IN ORDER TO CREATE POLITICAL CHANGE IN THE REGION</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqy3953-rLWRs947nt_mXUoxWJZPpCByQhzPDH7HabCzxnj_q4e3Js5YoaMwMK0O-n0ajdSNS7rnXPuU1EWgbTmKQofZltQEknwe5hlIY_wqn_JRHmTOok_nfLigzuN06HtYyneVDrLZXI/s1600/US-Adjusting-to-Egypts-Muslim-Brotherhood-600x337.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqy3953-rLWRs947nt_mXUoxWJZPpCByQhzPDH7HabCzxnj_q4e3Js5YoaMwMK0O-n0ajdSNS7rnXPuU1EWgbTmKQofZltQEknwe5hlIY_wqn_JRHmTOok_nfLigzuN06HtYyneVDrLZXI/s320/US-Adjusting-to-Egypts-Muslim-Brotherhood-600x337.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Pres. Obama had wanted his allies, QATAR and TURKEY, to support the Ikhwan (Muslim Brothers) as the main instruments of change in the region. Even SAUDI ARABIA, which supports neo-salafist and Wahhabist jihadists, was concerned that the White House was going too far, and even felt some common cause with ISRAEL to quietly resist the US President’s radical approach to ending the rule of Pres. Bashar. And, by late June 2013, it seemed that even Prime Minister Erdogan in TURKEY — suffering from impotence in his ability to overthrow Bashar, a conflict he had helped initiate — was now ready to begin quietly extracting himself from the SYRIA dispute. TURKEY, by late June 2013, was telling the US that it would no longer be able to act as a conduit territory for the shipment of arms to the SYRIAN rebels.</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">See also: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2012/08/saudi-arabias-proxy-war.html">http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2012/08/saudi-arabias-proxy-war.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">TURKEY had, since the overthrow of Qadhafi, worked very closely with the US Government — including US Ambassador to LIBYA J. Christopher Stevens, who had been killed on September 11, 2012 in Benghazi — to ship arms out of LIBYA to the SYRIAN rebels, discreetly embarking them on TURKISH-controlled ships out of Benghazi to SYRIA, either directly or via LEBANON or TURKEY. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">BRITAIN’S BACKTRACKING REGARDING SYRIA </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Yl2gvRn8PHtVOn4Zdq4_6kUA78m4wBcNkutSD3gPGwlQkRVUDay2raK7FXm3p55blbkxJIErvMPPj5vkELnicD9bhiFUIpD8iAfNDdMohxOwbyQTkes_GHPJOVmSPKk42AAQrVrLZE3L/s1600/Mediterranean-China-Pipeline.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Yl2gvRn8PHtVOn4Zdq4_6kUA78m4wBcNkutSD3gPGwlQkRVUDay2raK7FXm3p55blbkxJIErvMPPj5vkELnicD9bhiFUIpD8iAfNDdMohxOwbyQTkes_GHPJOVmSPKk42AAQrVrLZE3L/s320/Mediterranean-China-Pipeline.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In BRITAIN, Prime Minister David Cameron, who had keenly supported the Obama White House on “arming the SYRIAN rebels”, was apparently told by his Foreign Secretary, William Hague, that Parliament would not back him on this, and Mr Cameron had to back down. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Pres. Obama, then, was isolated on this, but still needed to demonstrate (for domestic US political purposes) a determined and successful MIDDLE EAST initiative to distract from mounting political difficulties at home, where a variety of scandals were damaging both his political standing and his ability to win the coming mid-term Congressional elections, where he had hoped to regain control of the House of Representatives.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">USA TO “ALLOW” IRAN TO WIN, AN OPTION WHICH BOTH SAUDI ARABIA AND THE USA WOULD BE RELUCTANT TO EMBRACE, GIVEN THEIR COMMITMENT TO SUNNI MUSLIM DOMINANCE OVER IRAN AND SHI’ISM.</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ISRAEL, SAUDI ARABIA, JORDAN, and other states were gradually backing away from the SYRIAN dispute. Now, QATAR’S new Emir, keen to rebuild relations with SAUDI ARABIA, also had the opportunity to scale back efforts in SYRIA. The question was, then, whether Pres. Obama — who had been counting on at least some signs of success and virility in the MIDDLE EAST to rebuild media support at home — would be able to let go of the SYRIAN war and “allow” IRAN to win. This is an option which both SAUDI ARABIA and Pres. Obama would be reluctant to embrace, given their commitment to Sunni Muslim dominance over IRAN and Shi’ism.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">TURKEY UNDER INCREASING PRESSURE </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Certainly, the politically embattled Islamist (Sunni) TURKISH Prime Minister, facing continuing domestic unrest and the now-unmasked threats from IRAN to stir up massive unrest in TURKEY (through the KURDS, Shi’a, ‘Alawites, and others) if TURKEY did not desist from attempting to destroy Bashar in SYRIA, knew he had to pull back from his full policy of support for the SYRIAN rebels. Ironically, the TURKISH- and QATARI-sponsored “civil war” in SYRIA had created a massive exodus of SYRIAN refugees into JORDAN, TURKEY, GREECE, and other states. The best that the US Obama Administration could do was to blame the humanitarian crisis on Pres. ASSAD of SYRIA.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">See also: <span style="color: blue;"><b>TURKISH LEADERSHIP DEMORALIZED</b></span>  <a href="http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/07/turkish-leadership-demoralized.html">http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/07/turkish-leadership-demoralized.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">TRANSFER OF POWER IN QATAR A FACE-SAVING WAY OF “RE-SHAPING” QATAR’S ADVENTURIST FOREIGN INTERVENTION POLITICS</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But at the end of the day, the transfer of power in QATAR to Sheikh Tamin — and the voluntary retirement, reportedly to London, of former Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim — was a face-saving way of “re-shaping” QATAR’S adventurism. Given the lack of responsiveness to Pres. Obama of EGYPT’S Ikhwani Administration of former Pres. Mohammad Morsi, it was becoming clear that the whole policy of supporting the Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood, Wahhabism) in EGYPT, TURKEY, LIBYA, and SYRIA, was running out of steam. Whether this message would resonate with an activist Sheikh Hamad in retirement, however, is still unclear.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Background Information</span></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AND EGYPT </span></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2011/11/middle-east.html">http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2011/11/middle-east.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">POWER TRANSFER, AN OPPORTUNITY FOR USA TO RETHINK ITS GEOSTRATEGIC POLICIES IN THE REGION?</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But this trend would enable the US finally be in a position where it could begin a meaningful dialog with IRAN, with the earlier (unsuccessful) policy of “carrot and stick” now being reduced to the state when the stick was seen to be ineffective? Certainly, it seems that former Emir Sheikh Hamad may attempt to counsel Pres. Obama against any rapprochement with IRAN. And IRAN itself may not yet be ready to negotiate with the White House. Why, indeed, should it do so when it has been strengthening its strategic position (albeit while the US-led economic embargo of IRAN is biting its citizens), and the US position in the region, along with that of its major ally, TURKEY, is weakening.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IRAN, too, had a new President — Hassan Rohani — who could be used as a perceived instrument of change to enable matters to move to a new form of stability.</span></div>

CRISIS: QATAR’S TRANSITION

ACTS AS PIVOT FOR “CHANGE OF DIRECTION” FOR MIDDLE EAST Executive Summary: Impact from QATAR’S aggressive interventionist politics in ...

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Detroit's creditors won't view their mess

Detroit's emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, invited 25 of the city's creditors on a bus tour to actually see the disaster they created. He's hoping they'll forgive some of the debt.<br /><br />The bankers canceled. You can guess why -- they didn't want to have their pictures taken.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2013/07/emergency_manager_kevyn_orr_ca.html">Michigan Live</a> reports,<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr's office announced Tuesday afternoon that a bus tour of Detroit planned for 25 bankers who are being asked to forgive the city's debt has been cancelled. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">“Unfortunately, the Office of the Emergency Manager will not be sponsoring a city tour for creditors Wednesday,” Orr spokesman Bill Nowling said in a prepared statement. “The city's creditors informed our office that they would like to spend more time conducting due diligence research into the city's financial state while they are in Detroit. It became apparent Tuesday that postponing the tour was necessary."<br />Orr has been trying to get city creditors, who are owed billions, to accept massive concessions in order to prevent bankruptcy and steer city funds away from debt service and instead toward public safety and redevelopment.</blockquote>Chris Savage at <a href="http://www.eclectablog.com/2013/07/detroits-creditors-decline-to-witness-the-mess-they-helped-enable.html">eclectablog</a> wasn't impressed:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Although Orr’s office says they are hoping to reschedule the tour, it’s obviously not going to happen. You can just about guarantee that, as soon as the folks back at the corporate office heard about the tour, they pulled the plug immediately. These creditors, mainly bankers who do not live in Detroit, have no interest in the visuals of wealthy mostly-white, mostly-men in front of the desperation that Orr wanted them to see. </blockquote>Yup.

Detroit's creditors won't view their mess

Detroit's emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, invited 25 of the city's creditors on a bus tour to actually see the disaster they created. ...

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Smithsonian workers strike over low wages

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRDChEPSgqClXg20VOunGoDVj4_oMJ2GAr4D0KrXCy9SJLOtetXEk7KflgtOjBzdcVmLjt_FwwGparH9gNFBtlHWotWwzOKt0D5ceyuX0JOVXwlbhB09icYterQAQCxBqwkeEu1l1uOErk/s1600/can't+survive.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRDChEPSgqClXg20VOunGoDVj4_oMJ2GAr4D0KrXCy9SJLOtetXEk7KflgtOjBzdcVmLjt_FwwGparH9gNFBtlHWotWwzOKt0D5ceyuX0JOVXwlbhB09icYterQAQCxBqwkeEu1l1uOErk/s320/can't+survive.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The revolt against poverty wages surged ahead in Washington, D.C., today as more low-wage Smithsonian workers walked off the job for a third time.<br /><br />And last night, the DC city council defied Walmart and approved a bill that would require big-box retailers to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-council-approves-living-wage-bill-over-wal-mart-ultimatum/2013/07/10/724aab6e-e96f-11e2-a301-ea5a8116d211_story.html">pay a living wage of $12.50 an hour</a>. Walmart threatened to scuttle its plans to build three stores in the city. (Don't let the door hit you on the way out.)<br /><br />Today's action continues a string of one-day strikes against poverty wages that began last fall and accelerated in the spring. Thousands of workers at fast-food restaurants and retail stores have walked off the job in cities around the country to demand better pay and the right to form a union. The government contract workers concentrated their protests in the nation's capital.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/07/11/low-wage-workers-to-strike-at-smithsonian-museums/">Washington Post</a> covered today's strike:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Low-wage workers connected with the nation’s marquee museum network held a strike on Thursday, continuing a string of recent demonstrations to promote better pay for employees at federal buildings. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/GoodJobsNation">Good Jobs Nation</a>, a group representing low-wage workers employed under federal concession agreements, organized protests throughout the morning in front of several Smithsonian museums. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">The events started with a press conference and a street-theater sketch near the Air and Space Museum, where actors playing Ronald McDonald and Uncle Sam climbed into bed together. That performance was meant to represent the relationship between private-sector CEOs and the federal government.</blockquote>In case you miseed it, the <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/05/federal-govt-has-more-low-wage-workers.html">U.S. government creates more poverty</a> than Walmart and McDonald's combined. Amy Traub at <a href="http://www.demos.org/blog/concession-workers-strike-smithsonian">Demos</a>, the group that uncovered that disturbing fact, commented today:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3OAhmSvRCoUpeiY70oEZKHM4fxtYkY9-BwMwy3FRgpMdA9apmbI08HhYZjjg0W2_l2-npsMw-Bx2MyjW39x5o-O6Q4FNOTp9OtMxQtsMyrgyaPAJVOWYFB9kt_vxhum3rjZvxuWE1QR3w/s1600/woody.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3OAhmSvRCoUpeiY70oEZKHM4fxtYkY9-BwMwy3FRgpMdA9apmbI08HhYZjjg0W2_l2-npsMw-Bx2MyjW39x5o-O6Q4FNOTp9OtMxQtsMyrgyaPAJVOWYFB9kt_vxhum3rjZvxuWE1QR3w/s200/woody.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><blockquote class="tr_bq">But while workers’ families are struggling, not everyone working for a federal contractor or concessionaire is poorly paid. Under current law, contractors can be reimbursed by taxpayers for as much as $763,029  in compensation for each top manager. This is one way our current model of federal outsourcing and contracting worsens the trends toward inequality already harming our economy. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">At the bottom of the Smithsonian’s website is an image honoring the centennial of Woody Guthrie. There’s little question where this balladeer of ordinary Americans and their strugglesincluding fights for better pay and union representation—would have stood in the current dispute between the Smithsonian and the workers who serve food to its patrons. Officials at the Smithsonian would do well to listen to any of Woody’s directly pro-worker and pro-union songs available for purchase from their own website.  But the most relevant message might come from the Dust Bowl classic, “Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad.”<br /><blockquote>My children need three square meals a day,<br />Now, my children need three square meals a day,<br />My children need three square meals a day, Lord,<br />And I ain't a-gonna be treated this way.</blockquote></blockquote><br />

low-wage workers strike Smithsonian workers strike over low wages

The revolt against poverty wages surged ahead in Washington, D.C., today as more low-wage Smithsonian workers walked off the job for a third...

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When Lyme Disease Lasts and Lasts - NYTimes.com

<p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/lyme-disease-chronic-persistent/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" target="_blank" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Lyme disease - chronic persistent.">Chronic Lyme disease</a> is a highly controversial catch-all term for a host of long-lasting symptoms that may or may not stem from prior infection with the bacterium that causes acute <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/lyme-disease/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" target="_blank" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Lyme Disease.">Lyme disease</a>. Often misdiagnosed and mistreated, chronic Lyme disease leaves thousands of people physically and mentally debilitated and without a medically established recourse.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Mary Rasenberger, 51, a New York lawyer, experienced "a series of ailments going back 10 years." She was finally given a diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease last summer after having been told that she had <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/multiple-sclerosis/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" target="_blank" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Multiple sclerosis.">multiple sclerosis</a>.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Her long-term symptoms were "aching joints, headaches and indescribable fatigue" that made her miserable and unable to exercise. In the last few years, two additional symptoms developed: neuropathy in her limbs and face, and <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/symptoms/vision-problems/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" target="_blank" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Vision problems.">vision problems</a>. In an interview, she said she "woke up every day feeling sick"; if she became overheated, she felt as if she had <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/the-flu/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" target="_blank" title="In-depth reference and news articles about The flu.">the flu</a>.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Yet a test for Lyme disease came back negative. Desperate, she finally consulted a Lyme "specialist," one of a number of doctors who treat patients with symptoms like Ms. Rasenberger's with long-term <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/antibiotics/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" target="_blank" title="Recent and archival health news about antibiotics.">antibiotics</a>, despite the fact that such a regimen has shown no significant or lasting benefit in controlled clinical trials. These trials involved randomly assigning patients to the antibiotic Rocephin (often administered intravenously) or a placebo, with neither patients nor those evaluating their symptoms aware of who got what.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Still, after several months on antibiotics Ms. Rasenberger, like many similar patients, said she felt "completely healthy for the first time in years." Each time she tries to stop the medication, her debilitating symptoms return.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Reports like Ms. Rasenberger's are hardly unusual, and experts now realize that some people who get Lyme disease go on to develop a chronic illness even if their initial infection was promptly diagnosed and correctly treated. Approximately 10 percent to 15 percent of people who are treated for medically documented Lyme disease develop persistent or recurrent symptoms of fatigue, musculoskeletal pain and cognitive complaints.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The condition is known as <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/postLDS/" target="_blank">post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome</a>, or PTLDS. "It is a real disorder, although nobody really knows what's happening," Dr. John N. Aucott, an infectious disease specialist in Lutherville, Md., said in an interview.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; ">"A lot of patients have been told they're not really sick, just tired or depressed," he added. "But this is not normal fatigue, and it's not caused by <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/symptoms/depression/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" target="_blank" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Depression (Mental).">depression</a>" — although depression certainly can result from the patient's seriously diminished quality of life.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Antibiotic therapy for PTLDS is based on disputed reports that these patients may harbor hidden reservoirs of the spirochete causing Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, long after their initial treatment. But researchers who have studied the therapy have <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2430045/">found it of little or no benefit</a>, and many say the regimen is fraught with hazards that could be even worse than the illness.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Risks include the development of an antibiotic-resistant infection, intractable <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/symptoms/diarrhea/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" target="_blank" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Diarrhea.">diarrhea</a>, kidney or liver damage and, as happened to a 30-year-old woman treated with an antibiotic through a catheter, <a href="http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/31/4/1107.long" target="_blank">death from a systemic infection called sepsis</a>.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">People with PTLDS are not hypochondriacs seeking attention or sluggards wanting to avoid work or chores, Dr. Aucott said, though they may benefit from psychotherapy that helps them cope better with their symptoms.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"These are high-functioning people — couch potatoes don't get Lyme disease," he said. "They are not crazy, and the doctors who treat them are not evil. These are desperate people trying to get better, and well-intentioned doctors who are trying to help them."</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But until the causes of PTLDS are discerned, it will be difficult for researchers to find effective therapies. Among the possible causes of the syndrome are prolonged post-infection fatigue and an autoimmune reaction to the infecting organism, according to a recent book by Dr. Adriana Marques of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As for why some people with PTLDS seem to benefit from intensive antibiotic therapy, at least temporarily, Dr. Aucott suggested a few theories. The antibiotics may have an anti-inflammatory effect that relieves pain and swelling. Alternatively, patients may have a low-level, persistent infection that is temporarily suppressed by antibiotics — but not killed by them. Or it may be that some PTLDS patients experience a placebo effect, improving because they believe the treatment will help and because someone is finally taking their symptoms seriously.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Complicating the picture is the fact that some people with PTLDS symptoms apparently never had Lyme disease in the first place, Dr. Marques said in an interview. There are other infectious organisms — Epstein-Barr virus, for example — that can produce similar symptoms and may be the real culprits.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But experts cannot rule out Lyme spirochete as a cause, either. Many, if not most, people who are infected with it never know they have been bitten by the tiny deer tick that spreads the bacterium from animals to people. They may never develop or notice the red rash that can result. Even when a rash occurs, only one in five is the characteristic bull's-eye associated with Lyme disease. Most are solid red and round or oval.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Such people may never receive treatment for the infection in its early stages and end up weeks, months, even years later with the kinds of symptoms that have plagued Ms. Rasenberger. Symptoms may develop gradually, as they did in my dog, which had minimal effects from a Lyme-carrying tick until nine months later, when he collapsed, unable to eat or drink on his own.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Both Dr. Aucott and Dr. Marques said more research is desperately needed if people are to get the help they need. "This is a huge disease that's only going to get bigger, yet it receives only a tiny fraction of the N.I.H. budget," Dr. Aucott said, referring to the National Institutes of Health.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Given the uncertainties about chronic Lyme disease, prevention is more important than ever. Avoid walking through brush and high grass. When hiking in the woods, camping, gardening or mowing the lawn, wear long, light-colored clothing and tuck pant legs into tightfitting socks. Spray exposed skin with a 20-percent DEET insect repellent and clothing with permethrin. Remove clothes before coming back indoors, and wash and dry them separately.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; ">Shower as soon as possible after being outdoors, using a washcloth or loofah, and check your body carefully, especially in skin folds, for attached <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/poison/ticks/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" target="_blank" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Ticks.">ticks</a>. They should be carefully removed with a tweezer without crushing them by pulling gently and steadily near the mouth. Then apply an antiseptic to the site.</p><br><a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/08/when-lyme-disease-lasts-and-lasts/?pagewanted=print">http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/08/when-lyme-disease-lasts-and-lasts/?pagewanted=print</a>

When Lyme Disease Lasts and Lasts - NYTimes.com

Chronic Lyme disease  is a highly controversial catch-all term for a host of long-lasting symptoms that may or may not stem from prior infec...

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