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But that's not all: as reported yesterday, the US dispatched the USS San Antonio, an amphibious ship with 300 Marines and extensive communications equipment on board, to join five US destroyers already in proximity to Syria, diverting it from a previously scheduled mission that would have taken it farther west. It could serve as an afloat forward staging base, which could provide a temporary base for special operations forces, if they were needed.

Today we learn that yet another amphibious assault ship, the USS Kearsage, with yet more marines is joining in the supposedly demilitarized fray:

The USS Kearsarge, a large-deck amphibious ship that is part of a readiness group with the San Antonio, is also on the way toward the Red Sea after a port call in the United Arab Emirates, officials said. No further specific orders had been issued to the ship, they said.
So to sum up: since last week, when the entire world expected the US to attack Syria imminently, and when there were "only" 5 destroyers within striking distance, now that the sentiment is that war is far less probable, the US has an additional 4 destroyers from the Nimitz group, two marine ships, and an aircraft carrier.

De-escalation? Not really.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-01/nimitz-rerouted-syria-more-destroyers-arrive-saudis-drum-support-syrian-strikes

Saudi Arabia and the other oil-rich Persian Gulf monarchies on Sunday stepped up their efforts to drum up support for Western airstrikes against Syria.

With the Arab League meeting on Sunday evening for a second time to discuss responses to the Syrian crisis, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, broke the kingdom’s public silence on the subject at a news conference in Cairo on Sunday afternoon, urging other Arab nations to back the Syrian rebels with military action against the government of President Bashar al-Assad after a suspected chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds.

Saudi Arabia, its Gulf allies and Jordan have all pushed hard behind the scenes for Washington to lead strikes against Mr. Assad, whom they consider the most important regional ally of their greatest enemy, Iran. That pressure continued on Sunday, but until now the monarchies have refrained from publicly endorsing Western military action, presumably because the idea of Western intervention is overwhelmingly unpopular across the Arab world.

Several analysts said Sunday that President Obama had badly damaged American credibility in the Arab world by appearing to back down from airstrikes just hours before many Arab government expected them to begin.

“He is seen as feckless and weak, and this will give further rise to conspiracy theories that Obama doesn’t really want Assad out and it is all a big game,” said Salman Shaikh of the Brookings Doha Center. “Many Arab leaders already think that Obama’s word cannot be trusted — I am talking about his friends and allies — and I am afraid this will reinforce that belief.”

Vladimir Putin has dismissed as "nonsense" claims that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons and demanded that the United States provide proof.

The Russian President told journalists that if Barack Obama had evidence Bashar al-Assad's forces had the chemical weapons and launched the attack, Washington should present it to the UN weapons inspectors and the Security Council.

Speaking after the US released its intelligence report, Mr Putin said: "I am convinced that it (the chemical attack) is nothing more than a provocation by those who want to drag other countries into the Syrian conflict, and who want to win the support of powerful members of the international arena, especially the United States."

Vladimir Putin has dismissed as "nonsense" claims that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons and demanded that the United States provide proof.

The Russian President told journalists that if Barack Obama had evidence Bashar al-Assad's forces had the chemical weapons and launched the attack, Washington should present it to the UN weapons inspectors and the Security Council.

Speaking after the US released its intelligence report, Mr Putin said: "I am convinced that it (the chemical attack) is nothing more than a provocation by those who want to drag other countries into the Syrian conflict, and who want to win the support of powerful members of the international arena, especially the United States."

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-30/dont-show-obama-report-about-who-really-behind-syrian-chemical-attacks


The five destroyers are each carrying an estimated three dozen or more Tomahawk missiles for a combined total of about 200 missiles, according to defense officials.

Byron Callan, analyst with Capital Alpha Partners, projected that a limited Syrian strike would use about 200 to 300 Tomahawk missiles, compared to about 221 used in the Libya operation.

WASHINGTON - A sixth U.S. warship is now operating in the eastern Mediterranean, near five U.S. destroyers armed with cruise missiles that could soon be directed against Syria as part of a "limited, precise" strike, defense officials said late on Friday.

They stressed that the USS San Antonio, an amphibious ship with several hundred U.S. Marines on board, was in the region for a different reason and there were no plans to put Marines on the ground as part of any military action against Syria.

"It's been kept there as a precaution," said one of the officials, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

The San Antonio transited through the Suez Canal on Thursday from the Red Sea, and received new orders on Friday to remain in the eastern Mediterranean, near the destroyers, according to defense officials.

It is one of three ships that are carrying 2,200 Marines who have been on a six-month deployment in the region around the Arabian peninsula.

Putin’s extraordinary “war order” against Saudi Arabia came after he became “enraged” after his early August meeting with Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan who warned that if Russia did not accept the defeat of Syria, Saudi Arabia would unleash Chechen terrorists under their control to cause mass death and chaos during the Winter Olympics scheduled to be held 7-23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia.

Prince Bandar went on to say that Chechens operating in Syria were a pressure tool that could be switched on an off. “These groups do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will have no role in Syria’s political future.”

Putin replied to Prince Bandar by saying “Our stance on Assad will never change. We believe that the Syrian regime is the best speaker on behalf of the Syrian people, and not those liver eaters” [Putin said referring to footage showing a Jihadist rebel eating the heart and liver of a Syrian soldier HERE], and which Prince Bandar in turn warned that there can be “no escape from the military option” if Russia declines the olive branch.

Though not being told to the American people by the Obama regime (or their propaganda mainstream media), this GRU report says, the unraveling of British support for the Obama regimes planned war against Syria came after new reports from the Associated Press News Service revealed that the chemical weapons attack being investigated by the United Nations were, indeed from Saudi Arabia.

“Syrian rebels in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta have admitted to Associated Press journalist Dale Gavlak that they were responsible for last week’s chemical weapons incident which western powers have blamed on Bashar Al-Assad’s forces, revealing that the casualties were the result of an accident caused by rebels mishandling chemical weapons provided to them by Saudi Arabia.

“From numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families….many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for carrying out the (deadly) gas attack,” writes Gavlak.


Rebels told Gavlak that they were not properly trained on how to handle the chemical weapons or even told what they were. It appears as though the weapons were initially supposed to be given to the Al-Qaeda offshoot Jabhat al-Nusra.

“Addressing a Press conference on Thursday, JAH Vice President Allama Zubair Ahmad Zaheer said that his party would hold demonstrations in all major cities to express solidarity with Saudi Arabia, and to condemn Russian president for his wild and unscrupulous threats.

He warned Putin that he would invite wrath from entire Muslim world if he dared to attempt harm Saudi Arabia.

He demanded Islamabad to sever ties with Moscow since Putin’s threat was not meant for Saudi Arabia alone but was a threat to entire Muslim Ummah.

He said Russian president’s threat would be treated as a declaration of war against Islam and a strong Jihad would be waged against Russia from all over the world.”

http://www.eutimes.net/2013/08/saudis-go-on-full-alert-as-putin-war-threat-stuns-muslim-world/

The Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) is reporting today that President Putin’s orders this week to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for a “massive military strike” against Saudi Arabia in the event that the West attacks Syria has “stunned” the Sunni Muslim world and forced the Saudis to go on “full war alert.”

The Arabic Al-Ahd News Service confirmed the Saudis war alert by further stating:
“The Saudi Army is on full alert since today due to the increased possibility of a military attack by the U.S. military against Syria.

The ground force operations command of the Saudi Army has ordered all the military units in Saudi Arabia to stand at a level 2 alert and fears were bolstered by recent statements by the Russian President Vladimir Putin in terms of a possible military strike against Saudi Arabia by Moscow.”

The GRU is also reporting today that Pakistan’s largest religious-political party Jamiat Ahle Hadith (JAH) is now threatening Russia too over Putin’s “war order” against Saudi Arabia, and as we can read as reported by The International News Service:

I would like to help you get it straight, but I can't write that much here. BRIC; Brazil just raised their Bank Rate to 9%; India is passing out State Dollar reserves to Indian Oil Companies; "for the indefinite future", to buy crude oil with; to keep the country alive. There is a real possibility of devaluation of the Renimbi; this will have large psychological consequences throughout the western world. Does this help?

The emerging markets "story" has once again been exposed as a pyramid of piffle. The EM edifice has come crashing down as their underlying balance of payments weaknesses have been exposed first by the yen’s slide and then by the threat of Fed tightening.

China has flipflopped from berating Bernanke for too much QE in 2010 to warning about the negative impact of tapering on emerging markets! It is a mystery to me why anyone, apart from the activists that seem to inhabit western central banks, thinks QE could be the solution to the problems of the global economy.

But in temporarily papering over the cracks, they have allowed those cracks to become immeasurably deep crevasses. At the risk of being called a crackpot again, I repeat my forecasts of 450 for the S&P, sub-1% US 10y yields and gold above $10,000.

New rate at close of business today

The foreign ministry has advised any Chinese citizens in Syria to leave as soon as possible, and recent media reports from China's First Financial Daily have revealed that Chinese entrepreneurs and businessmen working in Syria have begun pulling out of the country.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Syria surnamed Feng told First Financial Daily reporters that major Chinese-funded enterprises remaining in Syria were few, and most would "soon withdaw or reduce staff".


So with the unscheduled early pullout of UN inspectors from Syria on Saturday morning as was reported earlier, we know the who, we know the how, and just may have learned the when.

The foreign ministry has advised any Chinese citizens in Syria to leave as soon as possible, and recent media reports from China's First Financial Daily have revealed that Chinese entrepreneurs and businessmen working in Syria have begun pulling out of the country.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Syria surnamed Feng told First Financial Daily reporters that major Chinese-funded enterprises remaining in Syria were few, and most would "soon withdaw or reduce staff".

So with the unscheduled early pullout of UN inspectors from Syria on Saturday morning as was reported earlier, we know the who, we know the how, and just may have learned the when.


MOD front page!!

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-29/russia-dispatches-sub-cruiser-uk-sends-6-jets-cyprus-china-repeats-dire-consequences


Russian news service Interfax is citing military sources as saying Moscow is dispatching an anti-submarine ship and a cruiser to the Mediterranean. Interfax says the moves are being made due to the "well-known situation" there -- referring to the Syria crisis. But a Russian government news service, Rianovosti, says the reassignments are part of a planned rotation and aren't linked with the situation in Syria.

This comes as the US decided to postpone the pullout of its Nimitz aircraft carrier which is near the Straits of Hormuz currently, and which was supposed to return home. The Navy has ordered the Nimitz, which is in the Indian Ocean, to stay for now.

Finally, keeping things exciting, China reiterated that the West should stay the hell out. SCMP reports:
Chinese state media warned the West against strikes on Syria on Thursday as momentum mounted for President Bashar al-Assad’s regime to be punished over an alleged chemical weapons attack.

In an editorial headed “No excuse for strikes”, the state-run China Daily said the US and its Western allies were “acting as judge, jury and executioner”.

“Any military intervention into Syria would have dire consequences for regional security and violate the norms governing international relations,” it said, adding such a move “will only exacerbate the crisis and could have unforeseen and unwelcome consequences”.

Making a comparison with the war in Iraq, it said the international community should not allow “itself to be led by the nose by US intelligence, which after all was responsible for claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction”.

It gets worse everyday. Convert your savings now to Dollars before it loses value in Naira. Change money and keep in a Domiciliary Account ASAP

Breaking News: Obama backs down, sends Kerry to talk to Russia

http://app.debka.com/p/article/23230/Obama-says-no-decision-yet-on-strike-on-Syria-DEBKA-He-stalls-for-deal-with-Putin-on-softened-strike

At the same time, the White House suddenly appeared Wednesday night to be engaging in maneuvers for buying time and holding up military action against Syria, after the armies of the Middle East and half of Europe were already standing ready after completing massive war preparations.
One such maneuver was a leak from White House sources about a delay in releasing to America and the world the promised evidence of Assad’s culpability in the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people. It was postponed because “the report was not yet ready.”

Another were grumbles from the president’s circle that President Obama had found himself jammed in an awkward timeline generated by his foreign travel schedule – he is due to take off next Wednesday, Sept. 4, for Sweden on his way to the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg of Sep. 5-6.
This left the optimal dates for his decision to go through with the attack as Friday night, early Saturday, Aug. 31 or after Labor Day, which falls on Sept. 2.

Although Obama appeared still to be standing by that decision, debkafile’s Washington and Moscow sources disclose he has applied the brakes on the momentum for its implemention to buy time for US Secretary of State John Kerry to wind up secret negotiations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and strike a deal: The US would soften its military action against the Assad regime and his army and reduce it to a token blow, after which the American and Russian presidents would announce the convening of Geneva-2 to hammer out a solution of the Syrian crisis and end the civil war.

Yet all we heard from Jackson Hole this time were dismissive comments that the emerging market rout is not the Fed's problem.

"Other countries simply have to take that as a reality and adjust to us," said Dennis Lockhart, the Atlanta Fed chief. Terrence Checki from the New York Fed said "there is no master stroke that will insulate countries from financial spillovers”.

The big risk is that Fed tapering will spark a rush for US dollars. That is when the Fed will stop being complacent," said Lars Christensen from Danske Bank.

"Central banks around the world think they have been doing something they shouldn't do with all this stimulus, and they want to unwind it as quickly as possible. But the danger is that they will go too far and trigger a relapse like 1937."

We are in entirely uncharted waters. Emerging markets were less than 15pc of global GDP in the early 1980s, when tightening by the Volcker Fed brought Latin America crashing down. That was an ugly episode for Western banks, but easily contained. China was then in autarky, shut off from the world. The Soviet Union and its satellites formed a closed system.

The picture was already very different by the mid-1990s, when ex-Communists had joined the party. By then emerging markets had grown to a third of global GDP, big enough to rock the boat, as Fed chair Alan Greenspan discovered after Russia's default in August 1998.

Mr Greenspan became worried enough to canvas Fed governors on the need for a response at the Jackson Hole conclave that month. The Fed cut rates in September but it was not enough to stop the crisis spinning out of control as currencies crashed across East Asia, and the pre-EMU "convergence play" in Europe reversed violently.

The New York Fed was forced to intervene in October 1998, rescuing the hedge fund Long Term Capital Management. The Fed cut rates again in October and November. Mr Greenspan said "the probability of systemic collapse was sufficiently large to make us very uncomfortable about doing nothing".

If the stakes were high then, they are higher now. Emerging markets are half the world economy, according to IMF data. The "power ratio" is no longer 1:2, it is 1:1. Those who fell in love with the BRICS and mini-BRICS in the boom were entirely right to claim that an economic revolution was taking place.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/10272285/Emerging-market-rout-is-too-big-for-the-Fed-to-ignore.html


The US Federal Reserve has told Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe to drop dead.

This has the makings of a grave policy error: a repeat of the dramatic events in the autumn of 1998 at best; a full-blown debacle and a slide into a second leg of the Long Slump at worst.

Emerging markets are now big enough to drag down the global economy.

As Indonesia, India, Ukraine, Brazil, Turkey, Venezuela, South Africa, Russia, Thailand and Kazakhstan try to shore up their currencies, the effect is ricocheting back into the advanced world in higher borrowing costs. Even

China felt compelled to sell $20bn of US Treasuries in July.

William Hague has played down the prospects of an imminent attack on Syria, saying talks about the crisis could go on at the United Nations "over the coming days".

Speaking after a meeting of Britain's National Security Council, the foreign secretary said the UN security council should "shoulder its responsibility" over Syria; if it failed to do so, however, Britain and and its allies would act on their own.

"This is the first use of chemical warfare in the 21st century," he said. "It has to be unacceptable. We have to confront something that is a war crime, something that is a crime against humanity."

Israel ordered the call-up of hundreds of army reservists today in preparation for possible Syrian retaliation should the US launch strikes against the Assad regime.

One Israeli government official, who asked to remain anonymous, said after a meeting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet that intelligence assessments suggest there is only a “low chance” Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad will target Israel.

Independent Israeli specialists on Syria concurred, arguing that the Syrian leader is aware that opening a front with the vastly superior Israeli military could have devastating consequences for the survival of his regime.

“I think it’s unlikely he’ll decide to strike heavily against Israel, but I can’t rule it out,” said Moshe Maoz, emeritus professor of Middle East Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

A grim “urgent action memorandum” issued today from the office of President Putin to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is ordering a “massive military strike” against Saudi Arabia in the event that the West attacks Syria.

According to Kremlin sources familiar with this extraordinary “war order,” Putin became “enraged” after his early August meeting with Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan who warned that if Russia did not accept the defeat of Syria, Saudi Arabia would unleash Chechen terrorists under their control to cause mass death and chaos during the Winter Olympics scheduled to be held 7-23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia.

Lebanese newspaper As-Safir confirmed this amazing threat against Russia saying that Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord by stating: “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us.”

Prince Bandar went on to say that Chechens operating in Syria were a pressure tool that could be switched on an off. “These groups do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will have no role in Syria’s political future.”

London’s The Telegraph News Service further reported today that Saudi Arabia has secretly offered Russia a sweeping deal to control the global oil market and safeguard Russia’s gas contracts, if the Kremlin backs away from the Assad regime in Syria, an offer Putin replied to by saying “Our stance on Assad will never change. We believe that the Syrian regime is the best speaker on behalf of the Syrian people, and not those liver eaters” [Putin said referring to footage showing a Jihadist rebel eating the heart and liver of a Syrian soldier HERE], and which Prince Bandar in turn warned that there can be “no escape from the military option” if Russia declines the olive branch.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - People in Damascus stocked up on supplies on Wednesday and some left homes close to potential targets as U.S. officials described plans for multi-national strikes on Syria that could last for days.

United Nations chemical weapons experts completed a second field trip to rebel-held suburbs, looking for evidence of what - and who - caused an apparent poison gas attack that residents say killed hundreds of people a week ago.

But as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon appealed for unity among world powers and sought more time for the inspectors to complete their work, Washington and its European and Middle East allies said their minds were made up and that President Bashar al-Assad must face retribution for using banned weapons against his people.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSBRE97K0EL20130828?irpc=932

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-28/china-joins-russia-warning-syria-strike-would-have-catastrophic-consequences

Until now, the loudest and most material opponent to a Syrian invasion by the "liberating" powers was Russia. Moments ago, China joined the anti-western axis.

BBC reports: "Russia and China have stepped up their warnings against military intervention in Syria, with Moscow saying any such action would have "catastrophic consequences" for the region."

http://businessdayonline.com/2013/08/naira-falls-to-weakest-in-nine-weeks/

The naira fell to its weakest in nearly nine weeks on the interbank market on Wednesday, after the central bank chose not to supply the extra dollars many banks were hoping for.

The naira closed at 162.25 to the dollar, the weakest since June 28 when it closed at 162.60. The local currency closed at 162.05 to the dollar on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

Traders said the naira hovered around 161.95-162 earlier in the day on expectations that the central bank would sell dollars directly to banks, but when this failed to materialise the naira trended lower.

http://app.debka.com/n/article/23228/-Partial-Israeli-reserves-call-up-US-beefs-up-Qatar-air-base-Syria-moves-units-into-sheltered-sites

Barring last-minute hold-ups, debkafile’s military sources report the American operation is scheduled to start Friday night, early Saturday Aug. 30-31.

In the past 24 hours, the US Air Force finished a major buildup at the big US Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. B-1B bombers and F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets were brought over from other US Mid East air facilities on the Omani island of Masirah and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean

These squadrons were not assigned to the US military strike against Syria, say our military sources, but will stand ready to move in should unforeseen complications in the course of the US missile assault on Syria call for the introduction of extra assets from outside.

New rate

Oil price is rising now $117 per barrel. Another Oil boom like the Gulf Oil windfall.

Goodluck don hammer !!

Time to buy dollars and leave the stock market