♪ [ Terrence Parker - “Candyman” (TP’s sweet vocal mix) ] ♪
(Pearse) OK, everybody,
and welcome back to another episode
of Porkins Great Game.
I am Pearse Redmond,
and joining me as always to discuss the geopolitics
of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Global War on Terror
is Boiling Frogs Post contributor
and author of The New Great Game Round-up
Christoph Germann.
Christoph, how are you?
(Christoph) Thanks, Pearse, I'm fine. Great to be here.
Excellent. And just a quick reminder:
you can find this podcast and all the other podcasts
by going to PorkinsPolicyReview.WordPress.com,
and you can also find it on Christoph's site,
which is of course ChristophGermann.BlogSpot.com.
Well, we've got quite a bit of stuff to cover on this episode,
and so I guess we'll just jump right into it.
And I think perhaps we'll start with something
that happened, literally, after we ended recording last month,
there was quite a bit of new stuff,
but the most new thing that happened just after that, of course,
was the changing of the guard at NATO.
And we no longer have Anders Fogh Rasmussen to point our rage at,
and instead we have a new person,
and this is, of course, Jens Stoltenberg,
who is a former Prime Minister of Norway.
He was Prime Minister, first, in 2000-2001,
and then later from 2005-2013.
And this is important to focus on, obviously,
anytime we have somebody new coming in
to such a powerful position.
And Jens Stoltenberg, for anyone who doesn't know,
is a pretty big globalist insider.
He was the leader of the Labor Party in Norway
from 2002 to 2013.
He was also Finance Minister from '96 to '97,
Minister of Industry and Energy from '93 to '96,
and was also the leader of the Workers' Youth League from '85 to '89.
And Stoltenberg, like I said, has been around for a while.
He was very instrumental in the 2008 financial crash.
He's a big fan of Bill Gates and his vaccine program,
climate change at the UN,
things such as that.
And he's also noted as being pretty hawkish
in terms of defense spending and the defense of Norway,
and he has been instrumental in increasing expenditures,
in terms of defense spending,
within all of the NATO countries.
Norway is now one of the top defense spenders.
But anyway, Christoph, who is Jens Stoltenberg?
How will this be changing NATO?
I know that when he was first appointed,
back on October 1st of this year,
he was... there was this idea that he would be
more conciliatory or friendly towards Russia.
But I'd like to see your take on this.
(Christoph) Yes, he is a very interesting character.
As you mentioned, he was portrayed as some kind of (xx)
when he was appointed in March.
He's probably best known for his response
to the terrorist attacks in 2011 in Norway,
when the right-wing extremist Anders Breivik
killed 77 people and wounded more than 300.
At a memorial service for the victims,
Stoltenberg pledged to combat the atrocity
with more democracy, more openness, and more humanity;
and he shot to prominence on the international stage after this statement.
That's not exactly the words you would expect
from a man who went on to become Secretary-General of NATO
and replaced the warmonger Rasmussen.
But statements like this, and his youth as an anti-war activist,
were picked up by the media
to portray him as a more conciliatory Secretary-General.
His ties with Russia were also highlighted in this regard.
During his time in office,
Stoltenberg managed to negotiate a deal with Russia
that ended a four-decade dispute
over the Arctic marine border of the two countries,
and he built a personal friendship with then-President Medvedev during the time.
And after his appointment as Secretary-General
became public in March of this year,
rumors about his KGB past began to surface in the press.
The Norwegian intelligence officials commenting on these rumors
even admitted that there had been some attempts by KGB
to recruit Stoltenberg in the early 1990s,
but that the attempts had failed.
And despite all the talk about Stoltenberg's close Russia ties
and his mediating skills,
one of his first actions as Secretary-General
was to declare that NATO could deploy its forces wherever it wants,
and that NATO's plans to beef up its military presence in Eastern Europe
with this new Rapid Reaction Force
don't violate the 1997 NATO-Russian Founding Act,
which prohibits NATO from basing large numbers of troops in Eastern Europe.
Some NATO members,
in particular (xx) Poland and the Baltic states,
have recently been pushing to abolish
the NATO-Russian Founding Act altogether,
and Germany and a few other countries
are opposing this vehemently.
Russia wasn't happy about Stoltenberg's first statement
as Secretary-General,
and said that these comments caused no optimism.
But the Russians knew, of course, what they had to expect:
just because a new Secretary-General arrives,
NATO won't change its policies.
And I think it's also important to keep in mind
that the Secretary-General is just the public face of NATO.
(Pearse) Yes.
(Christoph) He's the one traveling around the globe,
and representing the military alliance in the media,
and therefore he's always...
the Secretary-General is always European
to create a false impression
that NATO is a European organization
led by Europeans.
Recently we had, for example, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer from The Netherlands,
followed by Rasmussen from Denmark,
and now Stoltenberg from Norway.
But although the Secretary-General gets most of the attention,
the person really in charge of NATO
is the Supreme Allied Commander, SACEUR;
and this post is always filled by an American
to ensure that NATO serves its true purpose, which is,
as the first Secretary-General of NATO once famously said,
"To keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down."
(laughs)
And the current SACEUR of NATO is, of course, Phillip Breedlove.
He and Rasmusen made a perfect team:
both warmongering; both very good warmongers.
And Breedlove showed, during the Ukraine crisis,
time and time again that he is trying to create a confrontation with Russia.
He has been hyping the Russian threat
and talking about an imminent Russian invasion.
And it's going to be interesting to see
if Stoltenberg picks up where Rasmussen left off
and follows in his footsteps and joins Breedlove,
or if he actually tries to mediate.
But I don't think that we can expect anything like that from him.
(Pearse) Yeah, I would not hold your breath on that.
This seems simply like a cosmetic change,
to reintroduce somebody that's not quite as abrasive as Rasmussen was.
who certainly was very hawkish;
very, very... like you said, a big warmonger.
And before we completely leave this,
I think it's interesting with some of these appointments by NATO.
And like you said, obviously, the real power
lies with the Supreme Allied Commander,
who is, of course, American.
And the real power within NATO, to some degree
is the American power.
And it's interesting that Rasmussen was such a big cheerleader
for George W. Bush's invasion of Afghanistan
and his Global War on Terror
And it was seen by many that Rasmussen's appointment
was sort of a "thank you" for all of his work.
And of course, the terrorist attack that Breivik was involved in Utøya island
was... he was attacking the Youth League of the party
that Jens Stoltenberg is a member of.
And of course, I think there is a much larger story
behind what actually transpired in July in 2011.
And of course, as you said,
Stoltenberg played an integral part in that,
at least in the media representation of what was going on.
So it's interesting:
perhaps this was a sort of "thank you" for all of that.
I don't really think were gonna see much of a change.
NATO seems pretty locked into some sort of confrontation with Russia,
and of course Stoltenberg is kind of a figurehead.
But there was also some other big news,
and something which I think we should really
be paying much more attention to.
And this was something that happened
just a few days after Stoltenberg
was appointed the new head of NATO,
and that was on October 5th,
when a suicide bomber in Grozny,
which is the capital of Chechnya in Russia,
a suicide bomber exploded a vest
and killed five police officers
at the Grozny Day celebrations,
which also coincided this year
with the leader of Chechnya, Kadyrov's, birthday.
Now, as I said, this is pretty shocking,
because Chechnya, for better or worse,
has had a very relative-calm security situation going on there,
Especially within recent years.
And while other areas near it such as Dagestan
and some of the other small areas
have seen a spike in violence,
Grozny and Chechnya have not, really.
So this is a pretty big deal.
Now, the suspect, allegedly
is a man called Apti Mudarov,
who is 19 years old, who
-- according to Russian news services --
disappeared about two months ago
and then went on to implement this bombing.
And I read an interesting article in Radio Free Europe
which was called "Who Was Behind the Grozny Suicide Bombing?"
And we'll, of course, link up to this.
And in this, they sort of made mention of the fact
that the new leader of the Chechen militant movement,
I believe his name is Kebekov,
has come out against suicide bombings;
which is not really, exactly...
if you read what he actually said,
that's not really true.
He said that they can be negative in terms of tactics,
not in terms of morality,
because you're losing a fighter.
But the Radio Free Europe article
had a very interesting take-away at the end
where they said that there are two possibilities
for what transpired in Grozny
the first being that this was a lone wolf
-- which we love: every terrorist seems to be just a lone wolf --
but of course, then, they pose the question:
where did he get the bomb?
Interesting.
But the second possibility,
which might be a wink and a nod to the type of people
that read Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty
was that he was the "unwitting victim of a false-flag recruitment"
"by somebody out to spoil Kadyrov's birthday."
Now, very interesting:
first off, using the term false-flag;
and of course, they're not saying who would have done this.
And in the days following this,
there was a lot of conjecture
over who this person was,
who was helping him.
There is another individual who was later shot.
I know that there were some reports that JMWA
-- which is the Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar,
which is a Chechen terrorist group which operates in Syria --
had taken credit for this.
But Christoph, maybe you can break down what happened in Grozny
and, perhaps, contextualize it.
Because it is a very...
I spent like an hour and a half
just going through all of these different articles.
And at the end of the day, you can't really make heads or tails
over what's going on.
So, what is your take on the Grozny bombing,
and how should we really be viewing this
in terms of the conflict going on in the Caucasus?
(Christoph) Yes, as you mentioned, it's a very important event,
and it sends a very strong message
to the Chechen and the Russian authorities
because the date and the place, I think, are very significant.
On October 5th, police who were manning metal detectors
at the entrance hall of the local concert hall in Grozny
noticed a suspicious young man,
and when they attempted to search him,
the man detonated an explosive device,
killing himself and five policemen,
and wounding twelve others.
Given that the incident happened ahead of a concert dedicated to Grozny Day,
the police most likely prevented a far more devastating attack.
And since the attack took place, not only on Kadyrov's birthday and Grozny Day,
but also on Eid Al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice,
which is one of the most important celebrations in the Muslim calendar,
I think that the date was not coincidental.
And that it took place in Grozny
is, of course, also a strong message,
because, as you mentioned,
most people still think of (xx) and jihadist gangs and terrorist attacks
when they hear the word "Chechnya,"
but this isn't the case anymore.
By 2000, the republic was completely in ruins.
Many Chechens had been killed
and Grozny was completely destroyed.
Even plans to abandon the city
and build a new capital elsewhere
were made at the time.
But now, 14 years later,
both the Chechen capital and the Chechen republic
are almost unrecognizable.
Traditional Islam has completely replaced Wahhabism and (xx)
and Chechen terrorists have been eliminated one by one.
The Chechens are now increasingly seen
as tough and reliable allies of Russia,
and it can be argued that Chechnya
is the single most important factor of stability
in the entire Caucasus region,
while the insurgency has moved on
to neighboring Dagestan.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic,
blamed the North Caucasus insurgency for the attack,
and as you mentioned,
Radio Free Europe has tried to suggest
that the leader of the group of the Caucasus Emirate,
-- the leading group of the North Caucasus insurgency --
had nothing to do with the attack.
And it's still not entirely clear who perpetrated it.
The only group which allegedly claimed responsibility
was JMWA, the Syria-based group of Chechen mercenaries.
But this was later denied,
and the only connection to the 19-year-old Mudarov
who perpetrated the attack
was another insurgent who was later killed.
Interestingly enough, Kadyrov,
who usually boasts about any such things
-- for example, Syria connections to terror attacks in Chechnya,
or when some important terrorists are killed --
has mentioned neither of those things.
And it's very interesting that JMWA came up
in regard to the attack,
because it's, of course...
it was led by our friend Tarkhan Batirashvili
until he joined ISIS,
and Batirashvili and Kadyrov
have their own little personal battle going on.
Bloomberg reported, for example, a few weeks ago
that Batirashvili had called his father in Georgia
after ISIS had taken Mosul,
and he told his father that Russia would be next.
He reportedly said,
"I have many thousands following me now,"
"and I'll have more."
"We'll have our revenge against Russia."
He's apparently driven by an intense hatred of Russia,
which reminds me somewhat of Greg MacPherson,
the Gladio B operative in Sibel's new novel, The Lone Gladio.
(Pearse) Yes.
(Christoph) Perhaps it's not the only parallel
between those two characters.
As I mentioned earlier,
Moscow cannot count on a reliable ally in the Northern Caucasus
to deal with ISIS,
and when ISIS released a video
threatening to liberate Chechnya and the whole Caucasus,
Chechen president Kadyrov responded
by posting a photo of himself in a Putin t-shirt to Instagram
with a lengthy caption calling the fighter's words a "childish threat,"
and accusing the Islamic State of being bandits,
trained and armed by the United States and the West,
to destroy strong and resourceful Islamic countries.
And this prompted ISIS commander Batirashvili
to put a $5 million bounty on Kadyrov's head.
And last week, the battle entered the next round,
and Kadyrov claimed that he was trying to hunt down
the leader of ISIS, of the ISIS bandits, as he called them,
saying, "My people are looking for Abu Bhakar al-Baghdadi"
"but he's nowhere to be found."
And Kadyrov also offered an explanation for that:
the support of Western intelligence agencies.
And he urged al-Baghdadi to take off his mask
and admit that he's a CIA agent.
And much to the dismay of the CIA and ISIS,
most Chechens actually share Kadyrov's opinion.
A recent survey of Chechens
by the Caucasus-based news outlet Caucasian Knot
found that most respondents believed
that ISIS fighters and other so-called Syrian rebels
are just fighting for Western influence,
and they are opposed to the ongoing conflict in Syria.
(Pearse) Mm. And I know... when I was looking at this story,
instantly you're trying to figure out
who could possibly be behind this.
And of course, the first knee-jerk reaction
is that this must be NATO
and this type of Gladio operations that we see all over.
But then, of course, certain things don't really add up.
Again, like you said, where could these people
have gotten the materials to do this?
Who... everybody is dead:
of course there's no one to question anymore.
And then, like you mentioned,
Kadyrov is quite quiet about this,
which is sort of strange.
At the same time, though, it seems like
outlets like Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty,
other people...
I was reading an article in the Caucasian Knot
where they quoted two people,
one of whom works at the Russian Academy of Sciences,
and the other is a board member of the Moscow Carnegie Center,
so take that with a grain of salt.
But both of them are skeptical
of JMWA's involvement in any of this.
And of course, now, we're seeing police raids all over the region,
in (xx) and Dagestan and elsewhere.
And so, if this is just some sort of lone wolf attack,
what does that mean for the region?
But could this be the beginning of a new type of insurgency movement there?
Or are we just seeing a blip on the radar?
Because it does seem to be happening
at a time when you can't turn on the news
or go to a website
without hearing about ISIS this, ISIS that,
the Islamic State is gonna come and implement sharia law everywhere.
So, what is it?
Is this just the beginning of something,
or is this another hype tactic?
(Christoph) Yes, you're of course right to point out
that the Russian authorities and Kadyrov
have been using the ISIS hype
to implement harsh anti-terror measures, for example.
But we also have to take into account
that there has been a lot of military and political activity
in the South Caucasus in recent months.
For example, Georgia's alleged offer
to host a training camp for Syrian rebels.
And this caused a great stir in Russia,
and some elements are now saying
that a second Russian front is now being created
in the South Caucasus.
And as Sibel Edmonds has pointed out
during her recent interviews,
we are probably going to see
more operations and activities in this area
in the not-too-distant future,
with Abkhazia again, now, also hitting the headlines.
(Pearse) Well, and maybe with that,
we can move to Abkhazia.
That was another topic that we were going to discuss today.
And in my...
maybe, in my opinion,
this seems to be the actual, kind of,
ramping up of tensions in the Caucasus right now.
I mean, the Grozny bombing is one thing,
but what's going on in Abkhazia right now
we have a new treaty between Abkhazia and this breakaway region,
and for anyone who doesn't know,
Abkhazia is a small strip
of what was once Georgian territory
in the northwest.
They fought a very brutal, brutal, nasty war
in the mid-early 1990s
with, I mean, just slaughter on both sides,
claims of ethnic cleansing going on.
But essentially, the Abkhaz people,
with the tacit support of Russia,
expelled the Georgian people
and essentially created a de facto state
within this former region within Georgia.
Now, since the '90s,
Abkhazia has been backed by Russia
both militarily and economically.
And they've just recently signed this new treaty.
And essentially, the treaty is just more of the same old stuff.
They're talking about integrating the region more into Russia.
There will be more regulations in terms of tax and customs,
getting them closer to the Eurasian Customs Union,
which is a grouping of several former Soviet satellite states.
But there was such a hubbub about this
when the story first broke
about the actual text of this draft.
So, Christoph, what is actually in this treaty,
and is it really all that different
from what we've already seen,
vis-a-vis the relationship
between Abkhazia and Russia?
(Christoph) Yes, the treaty is very significant,
and they haven't signed it yet.
They are still talking about it,
and I would have to go back a few months
and mention, first, that this summer
there was a small revolution in Abkhazia,
where one pro-Russian leader replaced another one
and a new Abkhaz President
-- Raul Khajimba is his name --
he's a former KGB agent
and also a sharp opponent of unification with Georgia.
Georgia hopes to regain control
over its lost territories eventually
but the people in Abkhazia
and also in South Ossetia,
oppose this vehemently.
And a few weeks ago, Khajimba stated
that he wants to eliminate all crossing points but one
into Georgian-controlled territory.
Currently there are about five crossing points,
but Khajimba said that there should be only one
for reasons of national security.
And predictably, this was criticized by Georgian government,
which was afraid of losing the breakaway region once and for all.
And shortly thereafter, Russia offered this treaty that you mentioned,
which proposes a merger of military forces,
(xx) national police in alignment with the customs...
with the Eurasian Economic Union.
And despite already being heavily dependent on Russia,
Abkhazia is actually serious
about its claim to independence.
And some people are now concerned
that signing the treaty would lead to a loss of sovereignty.
The cornerstone of the treaty
is the formation of a collective military force,
which is supposed to repel any attempt by Georgia
to retake the territory.
And many Abkhaz believe that the Ukraine crisis
has increased the likelihood of such an attack,
but they don't want to curtail
the powers of their own army,
which many Abkhaz regard
as one of the pillars of national identity.
And given that there are also objections
to several other points in the draft treaty,
it's unlikely that Abkhazia will sign the proposed treaty
as it's currently, now, being discussed.
It's still a matter of debate,
but even Abkhaz leader Khajimba,
who had already called for the signing of exactly such a treaty
before he came to power in summer of this year,
has admitted that he, too disagrees
with some articles of the draft treaty.
Georgia didn't really notice the differences
between Russia and Abkhazia
and is completely freaking out over the treaty
and has condemned this as an attempt
to annex occupied Abkhazia.
And at the same time, of course, not mentioning
the NATO military build-up in Georgia
is pretty funny.
(Pearse) And I think that that's a great way
to introduce that whole idea.
Because, like you said, the response from Georgia
was just very angry.
The Defense Minister was quoted as saying,
that very aggressive foreign policy steps
were going to have to be taken.
Both the Presidents and Prime Ministers of Georgia
have been completely livid about all of this,
while all the time ignoring the fact
that Georgia, for all intents and purposes,
is no longer a sovereign nation,
when you think about how much NATO
controls everything related to Georgia.
And of course, Phillip Breedlove,
who we mentioned earlier in the podcast,
recently spoke in Tbilisi,
and talked about how Georgia was going
to be more integrated within NATO for future warfare.
Who knows what that means?
And as you said again,
Georgia will be hosting a new NATO training base.
We spoke last month on the idea
that Georgia might even be training these Syrian rebels.
And all along, every time that this happens,
Russia has been very up-front about...
that, the more Georgia becomes integrated with NATO,
the more issues we're going to see in that region:
in South Ossetia, in North Ossetia:
that type of border.
So of course, I find it kind of ridiculous,
because, again, for all intents and purposes,
Abkhazia would not exist without Russian backing.
If Russia left, Georgia could probably march in.
And on the same token,
Georgia talking about this as being occupied territory
is a little silly,
because they have no power over anything that goes there.
The government-in-exile, as they call them,
just sits in Tbilisi.
They have no power over what goes on in Abkhazia.
But I know that you wrote recently in The New Great Game
that we were really seeing the situation in the Caucasus is heating up.
And... yeah: how should we be interpreting
what's going on in Abkhazia
say, in the near future?
How is this going to change the situation there?
(Christoph) That's difficult to say.
I don't think Abkhazia and Russia will sign this treaty anytime soon.
And so there's really no reason
for Georgia to be freaking out
and to make a fuss about it.
But they will probably use this as a pretext
to push the integration with NATO
and to conduct a more aggressive foreign policy.
As you mentioned, Defense Minister Janelidze
has already threatened Russia to do this,
which makes you wonder how Janelidze
would describe Georgia's foreign policy so far.
Yes. (laughs)
But I think that the United States and its allies
are planning to up the pressure on Russia
in the Caucasus region,
and that Abkhazia could be a point
where they're trying to stage some kind of provocation.
(Pearse) Hmm, yeah.
And I think that's how we should be viewing what's going on,
both in Abkhazia, and perhaps even what's going on in Grozny.
We're starting to see the build-up to something.
And you were mentioning before...
-- and Sibel has said this several times --
but yes, that region,
particularly Georgia, and also Dagestan
-- we've got the Boston Bombing connection there --
we're going to see that resurface again.
And I think it's very important
to pick up on these issues
because it's very easy for them to disappear.
And as you mention, the Caucasus
and all of these little tiny regions within Russia,
it's very difficult.
But, again, we need to keep looking at this.
So I think maybe now we can move on
to two extremely important and mysterious vehicular deaths
which took place days apart from one another...
-- I believe, actually, it was just one day.
Now, one of these received wall-to-wall coverage,
while the other was just a little tiny blurb
in the Western media.
And I am, of course, talking about the deaths
of the CEO of French oil giant Total,
Christophe de Margerie,
and the death of Press TV journalist Serena Shim.
Now, we wanted to talk about these,
because in many ways they are intimately related to what is going on
both in the Caucasus and Central Asia
as well as in this greater conflict that we're seeing going on
in Syria right now,
which, of course, again, is intimately related
with the type of Gladio network that is operating in the region
that you write about, Christoph.
But let's take a look, first,
at Christophe de Margerie,
and let's talk a little bit about why this is important,
and how this relates to what we're talking about.
And for anyone who doesn't know,
de Margerie, as I said, was the CEO of Total,
which is one of the six... what they call "super-major" oil companies
the others being BP, Chevron,
Exxon-Mobil, Dutch Royal Shell, and Conaco-Phillips.
So you can see how big this company is.
He was extremely close with Russia.
Lots of investment and business there.
And I guess I should mention, if I haven't already,
but he died on October 20th,
when his plane flew into a snowplow
or the snowplow crashed into the plane.
There is a little bit of conjecture
about what actually went on there.
But anyway, de Margerie and three other passengers on the plane all died.
And the man driving the plow lived.
And as I was saying before,
de Margerie was very close with Russia.
Putin remarked on his death
that they had lost "a true friend of our country."
And de Margerie was also a very big outspoken opponent
of sanctions against Russia.
So, well, Christoph,
what's your take on this?
Because I know a lot of people in the alt-media
sort of jumped on this
as, "Oh, he was assassinated,"
or that there was foul play involved.
And I am very willing to go down that route,
and indeed, there are some strange circumstances
surrounding who was in the air traffic control unit,
who was this snowplow operator.
But how should we view the death
of Christophe de Margerie
in this larger picture of The New Great Game?
(Christoph) Yes, the accident was very weird.
As you mentioned, a snowplow...
the plane hitting the snowplow,
and the driver has been blamed for the incident.
He was, reportedly, drunk.
His name is Vladimir Martinenko.
He was detained,
and his lawyer dismissed accusations
that his client had been drunk
as groundless.
But according to a Moscow court,
Martinenko had a blood alcohol content of 0.06 percent,
and Interfax news agency reported
that he had admitted drinking coffee with liquor.
he is now being kept in custody,
and some airport employees
who were accused of criminal negligence
were also detained.
A few top airport officials have resigned,
and it's safe to say that more heads will roll for this.
Apparently, the runway had been clear
when the Total plane was given clearance to take off,
but after the plane started moving,
the crew noticed an object
identified by them as a car crossing the road.
And shortly thereafter,
they collided with the snowplow.
Interestingly enough,
the incident will be investigated by Mikhail Gurevich,
the same man who led a probe
into the 2010 plane crash of top Polish officials,
including then-President Lech Kaczyński, in Russia.
(Pearse) Mm.
(Cristoph) For more information on this crash,
I would refer people to James Corbett's "Crashes of Convenience,"
(xx) also very interesting accident.
But, in contrast to Kaczynski's plane crash,
which was convenient for many different players for different reasons,
the plane crash of de Margerie
was only convenient for Russia's adversaries.
As you mentioned, he was one
of Russia's most important allies in the West,
and just hours before the deadly crash,
he was said to have met with Medvedev
to discuss new investments in Russia.
In a speech shortly before he boarded the plane,
he once again stressed that the sanctions against Russia
were unfair and unproductive,
and that the opposed efforts
to render Russia isolated
from the major global economic and political process.
Of course, economic interests played
a major role in this regard.
Under his leadership, Total expanded
its activities in Russia,
and teamed up with Russian companies
such as the country's second-largest gas producer Novatek.
In 2013, Russia became Total's biggest source of production,
aside from Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates, and Norway.
Lately, de Margerie was doing everything
to keep his signature Russian project on track,
the 27 billion Yamal LNG project,
which is supposed to export liquified natural gas to China.
Yamal is developed by Novatek, China's CNPC, and Total.
The project was, therefore, targeted by the sanctions,
and US sanctions barred the project from receiving loans in dollars,
which prompted de Margerie to say that Total and its partners
would turn to Chinese banks.
Especially, de Margerie's comments
regarding the role of the dollar in oil purchases
have attracted a lot of attention in the aftermath of his death,
as many people on Twitter pointed out.
Bloomberg published an article in July
with the title, "Total's de Margerie Sees No Need for Dollars in Oil Purchases."
Thereby, de Margerie committed the mortal sin
by arguing that there's no reason
for oil purchases to be made in dollars.
He was quoted as saying,
"Nothing prevents anyone from paying for oil in Euros."
(Pearse) Yes.
(Christoph ) But he made a statement, of course,
in response to the $9 million fine
for the French bank BNP Paribas,
which caused a great stir in France at the time.
The fine was seen as an attempt
to pressure the French government
to cancel the Mistral deal with Russia.
And Putin accused the US, even,
of seeking to blackmail France at the time.
And France's political and business establishment
hit out against the hegemony of the dollar
in international transactions,
and the French Finance Minister
even called for a re-balancing of the currencies.
And I think de Margerie's comments
have to be seen in this context.
(Pearse) Yes.
(Christoph) And not necessarily as a way of saying
that they are going to abandon the dollar
But regardless of whether he was serious
about dropping the dollar or not,
I think he was a thorn in Washington's side,
and a plane crash was definitely convenient for the United States
but it remains to be seen if there was some foul play involved,
and so far I haven't seen any evidence for this.
(Pearse) Yeah, and I think that's something important,
because I know a lot of people will jump on stories like this
and nitpick every little detail.
I will say: I found interesting
that you mentioned the snowplow driver Martinenko.
His lawyers are now claiming
that pro-Kremlin media
have stonewalled them for press conferences,
and no one will show up to report
on what they have to say.
And they have been saying
that Martinenko was not drunk,
that he was forced to sign a confession.
And it seems like this might be
nothing more than just complete negligence
on behalf of the Russian airline administration.
Supposedly, it was a 24-year-old trainee, who...
this was one of her first days, really, on the job
in the air traffic control unit,
and she was the one who was overseeing
de Margerie's plane taking off.
So yeah, I mean, perhaps
not everything is necessarily orchestated.
But of course, as you were right to point out,
de Margerie really was a thorn in the side of the West
and really was seen as a big friend of Russia,
and was very against these sanctions.
He was quoted as saying,
"Can we live without Russian gas? Not at all."
(laughter)
But there was...
as I said at the beginning of this segment,
there was another death.
And I think that this one
is, perhaps, a bit more important
and is a big more clear-cut
as to this not being an accident.
And as I said, this is Serena Shim,
who is a Lebanese-American, US citizen,
who worked for Press TV.
And she was killed in a very, very mysterious car crash.
And this came after...
I mean, she has been in Turkey
and reporting on the conflict within Syria
for a little while now;
and she has done a lot of reporting
talking about Turkish intelligence
and their involvement in what is going on
in the conflict in Syria.
And she was just recently
in the town of Suruç in Turkey,
which is just north of Kobani,
where, of course, every day,
you can hear more and more about ISIS.
Now, Shim was on Press TV
just, I think, about a day or two
before this car crash that killed her,
where she was reporting on two very important facts:
One, that ISIS was using NGO trucks,
including World Food Organization trucks,
to actually enter into Syria.
And she allegedly even had
some sort of photographic or video evidence of this.
The other thing, an important note here,
is that she said that Turkish intelligence
-- the MIT --
was looking for her,
and that they had accused her of being a spy.
Now, for who, they never make mention of;
but nonetheless, she said that she was nervous and scared about this.
She pointed out the correct fact
that Turkey is perhaps one of the most dangerous places on the planet
for a journalist to be operating in.
And as I said, just a few days after this,
she was driving back to her hotel
with her camerawoman Judy Irish
when they collided with a cement mixer.
Now, Shim was killed instantly;
Irish was taken to a hospital.
And the driver, whose last...
Şükrü Salan
was either detained briefly
or left the scene entirely.
There are conflicting reports about that,
and perhaps we'll get into those.
But this is a really huge story,
and I was actually kind of disappointed
that more people weren't really focusing on this.
Obviously the mainstream media
is not going to pick up on a story
where a journalist from an Iranian news broadcaster
is talking about the connections between Turkey
and ISIS militants;
but I was surprised that more people
weren't really picking up on this story.
And Christoph, maybe you can kind of take it from there,
and we can explore, first, the actual death
and what happened with this individual
who was supposedly driving the cement mixer.
And then, let's move on
to what Shim was actually saying.
(Christoph) Yes. Very, very, suspicious death.
Serena Shim had already done a few very good investigative reports
highlighting Turkey's role in supporting
the so-called Syrian rebels.
And I think she only returned recently to Turkey,
which she mentioned in her last broadcast, if I remember correctly,
and that the Turkish authorities...
that she thought that the Turkish authorities
are now getting worried
because of her recent work,
and they didn't know what they had to expect this time,
because she had already done such good investigative work.
And they had, of course,
a very good reason to be worried.
As you mentioned, she has reportedly
received images of insurgents
being smuggled across the border into Syria
in World Food Organization and other NGO trucks.
And Vijay Prashad wrote a very good piece
on the death of Serena Shim,
where she pointed out that Barzan Iso,
a Syrian-Kurdish journalist
had already reported that Qatari charities
have been using the Jarabulus crossing
to get into the Islamic State,
but nobody has mentioned so far
the trucks with logos from international organizations
are being used for this purpose as well.
And Prashad likened Serena Shim's death to the murder
of his friend and Asia Times colleague Saleem Shahzad,
who had uncovered collusion between
al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Navy.
And there are a few interesting parallels
between Turkey and Pakistan,
and Prashad also cited one Kurdish commander
as saying that the Islamic State is to Turkey
as the Taliban is to Pakistan.
(Pearse) Yes.
And I think that's a very apt comparison.
The Turkish city of Gaziantep
is increasingly resembling Peshawar in the 1980s
during Operation Cyclone.
And some journalists have been warning
of Turkey's Pakistanization.
Without Turkey's strong support,
ISIS and other terrorist groups in the region
wouldn't last very long.
And Turkish NGOs play a central role in this regard,
and it's important to highlight this work.
And if Serena Shim had, really, evidence
of NGO trucks and World Food Organization trucks,
-- I think she was meaning the World Food Programme when she mentioned it --
(Pearse) Right.
That's, of course, a very strong motive
to get rid of her.
We have, for example, seen the role
of the humanitarian relief organizations exposed
in supporting the so-called Syrian rebels.
Already, last year, the Iranians reported
that the humanitarian relief organization IHAH
has recruited and transferred
hundreds of Albanians to Syria,
and at the beginning of this (xx)
was again being exposed
by the Gülen movement, interestingly enough.
(Pearse) Yes.
(Christoph) With the power struggle between Erdoğan really escalating,
Gülen's men and the police
stopped trucks carrying weapons
on their way to Syria.
Officially, the trucks were carrying aid
to Turkmens in Syria,
and the initial reports said that they had been hired
by the Humanitarian Relief Foundation.
The Gülen Movement used its influence
in the police and media
to expose that the trucks were actually
carrying all kinds of weapons to the Syrian rebels,
as part of an operation by Turkish intelligence.
And Turkish intelligence has been using NGOs
such as the Humanitarian Relief Organization,
or İMKANDER, to organize terror operations for years.
İMKANDER, for example, has supported the Chechen terrorists,
and the Humanitarian Relief Foundation
is now heavily involved in Syria.
It's reportedly the biggest Turkish provider
of aid to Syria,
and I wouldn't be surprised if the trucks that Serena Shim mentioned,
that some of the trucks that Serena Shim mentioned,
actually belonged to this organization.
(Pearse) Yeah, and you had a really great article on Boiling Frogs Post
called "Turkish Power Struggle Impedes NATO Campaign in Syria,"
where you highlighted several of these instances
where the IHH was involved
in all sorts of bizarre things.
And you just mentioned İMKANDER,
which is another Turkish charity.
And they, surprisingly enough, sort of relate back to our original...
what we were talking about before, in the Caucasus.
And after Dokka Umarov, who was the Emir of the Islamic Caucaus, died,
supposedly of wounds he received during fighting,
there were multiple rallies
with hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of people
in Turkey, of all places,
organized by İMKANDER,
praising the deceased Emir.
And İMKANDER also celebrated,
in September of 2013,
a defeat of a Russian initiative
to ban the group within Russia.
So again, really interesting.
And I'd just like to point out
that this talk about NGOs operating in Syria from Turkey
this is not new.
I know that when this Serean Shim story broke,
a lot of people were talking:
"Oh my God! Oh my God!"
But again, Shim had been reporting this
even a couple of months back.
But at the very beginning of this conflict in Syria,
people might have forgotten this,
but there were multiple reports
about different aid groups and foundations
that were leaving from Turkey and going into Syria.
And in fact, I believe even IHH
was accused of some sort of mass slaughter
of Syrian civilians,
or that they were somehow helping
to orchestrate all of this.
So again, these things sort of
go into the Memory Hole,
and we forget about them.
And just for a little bit more evidence on this,
just around the same time that Shim was -- probably -- murdered,
there was an article in The Daily Beast
from a reporter called Jamie Dettmer,
who was in Gaziantep,
which is just west of the city of Suruç where Shim was killed.
And he was reporting that ISIS was controlling
all of the humanitarian aid that was going into Syria,
and he even quoted a bunch of aid workers
as saying that ISIS makes them appoint members,
sort of liaisons,
to these different NGOs.
And there was also a video
showing air-dropped weapons that were meant for Kurds
falling into the hands of ISIS.
So this is not something that is particularly new,
but this death is, as you say, very mysterious.
And I also find it interesting,
not that they're necessarily related,
but we also have the Susurluk scandal,
which involved aspects of the Turkish Deep State coming out,
and that also involved a mysterious car crash,
where... were they dead, were they not dead?
Who knows?
So, all very interesting.
But I don't know: I mean, Christoph,
do you have anything else to say on this?
Because I do think it's a really important story,
and IHH, as you've mentioned previously,
is very instrumental in the Deep State within Turkey.
(Christoph) Yes, as you mentioned, IHH was implicated
in a massacre on Syrian civilians,
I think in January, 2014,
and the organization is, of course, also the owner
of the Mavi Marmara,
which became famous for this very interesting incident
which is, also, a huge topic.
Not exactly how it's been portrayed in the media.
Yes, but the role of Turkish NGOs
used by (xx) charities
is very important,
and I think that's one thing to keep an eye on.
And the report that you mentioned by The Daily Beast
was also very interesting,
about US aid supporting ISIS
-- what a surprise! --
and actually bribing ISIS to take the aid.
And for all the talk about ISIS being self-financed
and independent of any state support,
they are actually getting a lot of aid
from the United States and its allies,
and Saudi Arabia and Qatar, of course.
(Pearse) Mm. And just to kind of briefly wrap up the Serena Shim story,
there is, as I said, some conjecture
about what actually happened
at the actual car crash incident.
Now, Press TV, of course, is reporting
that the alleged driver, Mr. Salan, of the cement mixer
is... just disappeared.
Now, Turkey is reporting that he was briefly detained
and then was released.
And this is all coming from one...
this is all coming from the Hürriyet Daily,
which is a daily newspaper
that I believe is the largest within Turkey.
And they're the only news source
reporting on any of this.
Now, as I said, they said the he was briefly detained and then was released,
and they released a crash report saying that Irish,
who was the camerawoman and driver of the car,
is the sole culprit,
and that she entered a junction too fast,
she was violating traffic rules by turning right and in the wrong lane,
blah-blah-blah.
So of course, they are trying
to wrap this story up very quickly.
And I would just like to note
that no one, when they're looking at this...
of course they look and say, "Oh, man: she was a spy."
They never allege who she was spying for...
-- I guess they're assuming, perhaps, the Iranians or whatnot --
but no one is trying to counter what she was actually saying.
So of course, Turkish intelligence is saying,
"Oh, well, she's a spy."
Well: let's, even, suppose that she was
-- which I don't believe she was at all:
If she was a spy, what about ISIS entering with NGO trucks?
So they're not...
That? "Oh, whatever." But, "Oh, she was a spy."
So, very interesting,
and again, I think that this story ties in
with so many different angles
in this Global War on Terror
which stretches from Syria to Afghanistan right now
and everywhere in between.
So yeah, something really to focus on and pick up on.
And I guess we're reaching the end of this conversation,
but I think we have time for one little thing.
And last podcast, we kind of mentioned
something which was tangentially related to all of this,
and we've got another little one,
and this one is sort of funny, in a way, perhaps.
But Graham Fuller -- who I hope everybody is somewhat familiar with --
he is a top Gladio B operative.
He is the man who helped get Fethullah Gülen
to come to the United States,
and, I guess, in many ways, recruited him
within the Company, the Agency.
He, lately, seems to have been attempting
to alter his public image.
Now, I think this is in part
to his very close connection to the Boston Bombers.
He is the father-in-law of Uncle Ruslan,
who I hope people will be familiar with.
And I'll provide some links,
and including the first episode I did
of Porkins Policy Radio,
which dealt exclusively with the Boston Bombing,
and we did quite a bit on Graham Fuller.
But anyway, Graham Fuller has been writing
a couple of interesting articles,
including one in The Huffington Post
-- of all places --
which is entitled,
"Embracing Assad is a Better Strategy for the U.S."
"than Supporting the Least Bad Jihadis."
And we don't really... we're not gonna spend too much time on this,
but it is really interesting that this noted CIA agent,
close friend of Fethullah Gülen
and is alleged to be one of the masterminds
behind using radical Islam
is now saying that we need to support Assad,
and that he is better.
And Christoph, I'd just like to get your quick take on this.
(Christoph) Yes. If some other former CIA official had made this statement,
I wouldn't have wasted much thought on it,
but considering that it's coming from the man who was instrumental
in disseminating the idea of manipulating Muslims
to use them as jihadi mercenaries
against enemies of the United States,
it's very, very interesting.
As you mentioned, Graham Fuller is one of the main CIA handlers
of Fethullah Gülen,
besides Morton Abramowitz,
and he was target by the FBI Gladio B counterintelligence investigation,
which has earned him a place in Sibel's State Secrets Privilege Gallery.
So it's really noteworthy that he's coming out with this statement.
At this point, nobody can deny
that the strategy is failing in Syria,
but the CIA knew this, of course, from the beginning,
as The New York Times recently reported,
and the Syrian rebels, the so-called Syrian rebels
won't be able to topple Assad
unless NATO clears the way for them with tons of bombs
as they did in Libya.
But since this isn't an option right now,
I think Washington is going with Plan B,
which is to prolong the conflict in order to Balkanize Syria
and move step-by-step towards the implementation
of the (xx) Plan.
And so I'm wondering why Graham Fuller is now arguing
that the US should permit or even assist Assad
in ending the war,
which makes absolutely no sense
from Washington's point of view.
What's your take on this?
(Pearse) Well, I mean, I guess I just see this as...
he needs to, at this point, now, address the public.
Because I will freely admit,
I knew very little, if anything, about Graham Fuller.
I heard his name once before, I believe,
in an interview that Sibel Edmonds gave.
But it wasn't really until the Boston Bombing
when I started to hear about this guy
and his connections with the family,
with the Tsarnaev family.
And I just sort of read...
when I saw that he wrote an article,
I was kind of... my jaw dropped, initially.
Because this guy had been very, very quiet
about everything related to his life
and related to his connections
with international terrorism
and people like Fethullah Gülen.
So I think that right now, Graham Fuller
just doesn't want to have this sort of notoriety,
and I think he's probably Googled his own name
and seen quite a few pieces in the alternative media
pointing out who this character really is
and what he does in his spare time.
So this is really...
He has actually started his own blog.
-- Christoph: He has his own website... -- Really?
(Christoph) ...and he's gone to write his own blog, yeah.
-- Nothing interesting, --Pearse: No.
(Christoph) But he's, of course, trying to portray himself
as some kind of completely innocent former CIA official.
(Pearse) Yes.
Oh, yeah: and I just...
there was even... I think this was in the Fars News Agency in Iran recently:
they quoted Fuller as praising a new book by Gareth Porter,
which goes into how the United States
manipulated evidence and whatnot to punish the Iranians,
and there is no nuclear program.
So, again, for somebody who, as you've pointed out, was instrumental
in radicalizing Muslims around the world
into becoming terrorists,
this is very interesting,
and something that we should keep looking at.
Because these characters like Fuller
are probably still intimately involved
in Gladio B and the Deep State.
Even if... once you're in the CIA, you're always in the CIA.
But anyway, I think we're gonna leave it there for now.
And of course, there is so much else going on in the region.
We've got all sorts of things going on in Kyrgyzstan
with NGO crackdowns,
militants fighting in Syria,
al-Qaeda declaring war on China,
and lots of stuff going on in Tajikistan between...
in their border region with Afghanistan.
So, of course, if you want to explore some more of these topics,
then I would really suggest
that you go and check out Christoph's work.
And of course, The New Great Game Round-up
is published every week on BoilingFrogs Post.com,
and you can also find his website
on ChristophGermann.BlogSpot.com.
So, Christoph, is there anything else you want to point to us
that we should be looking out for in the near future?
Anything like that?
(Christoph) No, except a situation along the Afghan-Tajik border
and the Afghan-Turkmen border,
is, of course, very interesting,
with the Taliban making a comeback,
and even causing some trouble along the border.
So we have to keep a close eye on that,
as well as the situation in the Caucasus.
(Pearse) Mm. Excellent.
And I'd like to thank everybody so much for listening to this podcast.
We had a really great response on the first one,
and I hope that you guys enjoy this podcast as well.
And of course, if you want to hear this and more,
then please visit PorkinsPolicyReview.WordPress.com,
and please do follow both of us on Twitter.
You can follow me @porkinspolicy
and you can follow Christoph @newgreatgame.
And if you have any suggestions,
if you have story ideas,
if you have topics... anything:
articles that you'd like us to discuss,
then please tweet us at Twitter
using the hashtag #porkinsgreatgame .
So I think with... there we're gonna leave it,
and we will be talking to you in just about a month
with a whole new set of stories, and topics, and talking points,
and all sorts of things related
to the New Great Game itself.
So thank you so much,
and Christoph, thank you for joining me again.
(Christoph) Thanks, Pearse.
♪ [ Terrence Parker- “Something Here” (Cerky Cakes edit ) ] ♪
[Subtitled by "Adjuvant"] [CC-BY 4.0]