Saladin, so are you saying that if it were not for the US all the Afgan factions would have gotten along all hunky-doory after the russians were defeated. I think not. I liked the Iraq scenero. So the US supplied Iraq with weapons to fight Iran (By the way the US also supplied Iran with some weapons "Iran-contra").So then a couple years later in order to have thoes same weapons destroyed the US provoked Sadam into invading Kuwait (of corse a guy like Sadam, whos profession before ruthless Dictator was assassin, would need a lot of provoking, because he is not the type of guy who would use chemical weapons on his own people, oh wait never mind about that last part) in order to destroy the Iraq war machine. So using this same logic should the US have provoked Iran into some war so the US could destroy the weapons the US gave them? You speak of "inhumane sanctions" against Afganastan. What specific sanctions are you talking about?

Guns Versus Butter: A NATO Aspirant Reconsiders
1840 GMT, 000503
For years, NATO has offered membership in the alliance as a tantalizing and often unachievable goal for countries once under communist control. But in the Baltics, the world’s most successful military alliance appears to be headed for a political surprise as a popular new party gains momentum and argues for slashing defense spending.

Lithuania’s parliament will consider a proposal to cut the country’s defense spending, although the country has pledged to increase spending in a bid to join the NATO alliance. The country’s increasingly popular New Union Party is backing the bill.

With only a single seat in the legislature, the party can’t push the bill through parliament now. But it is poised to gain control in an election scheduled for October, and that foreshadows a shift in the tiny Baltic republic’s foreign policy. Instead of striving for an unlikely invitation to join the NATO military alliance, the tiny Baltic nation may aim instead for membership economic federation of the European Union.

The New Union Party has presented the government with a ballot signed by over 80,000 Lithuanians supporting defense cuts, reported the Baltic News Service on April 27.

The plan suggests that $36.9 million – about one fifth of the military budget – be spent instead on education. Implementing the plan would cut the size of the army by more than 25 percent, force the military to pull out of scheduled exercises and scale back reserve forces. All imply outright indifference to NATO membership.

Membership in the Western military alliance has, at least until now, been the one goal that enjoyed unanimous support throughout the country. In early February, Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius promised a delegation of NATO commanders that Lithuania would increase military spending to 2 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to meet initial requirements for membership. And until now, his ruling coalition of Conservatives and Christian Democrats has seemed secure.

But in the March 19 local elections, the coalition received a rude shock: losing in a landslide to the upstart New Union Party. In the weeks since, Conservatives and Christian Democrats have been consumed by blame and riddled with desertion, while the New Union has steadily gained support. If the fall elections were held now, the New Union would garner over 20 percent of the vote, while the ruling Conservatives would barely make the 5 percent hurdle, according to a poll by Lithuanian daily Lietuvos Rytas.

In the abstract, joining NATO is a popular idea for most Lithuanians, particularly after just breaking free of decades of Russian domination. But the price tag – $300 million in 2001 – is high. And many Lithuanians know that the alliance may suggest that membership is possible, when in reality it is a remote prospect. The Western military alliance is having a hard enough time integrating the armies of much larger countries such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

If the New Union indeed gains control, the country will probably begin to ease away from NATO membership. Lithuania’s dream – and the alliance’s encouragement – has been optimistic at best. Only beachheads in case of a crisis with Russia, the Baltics are virtually indefensible. They offer NATO no strategic advantage significant enough to make them a worthwhile investment. The New Union seems to understand this dynamic and believes that the country should put its money into things that it can improve like education.

If this popular new party can manage to hold on to support until the October elections, the alliance may wake up to find itself rebuffed. And Lithuania may take a more achievable foreign policy goal – like gearing up an early bid for membership in the European Union

Kazakstan Begins Ousting Western Firms
2343 GMT, 000502

Summary

Kazakstan pressured the Belgian energy firm Tractebel to sell its holdings to a government-owned front company. Kazakstan’s desire to assert control over its energy industry will endanger the investments of Western energy firms involved in the Central Asian state. Tractebel’s departure, whether forced or voluntary, will increase Moscow’s economic hold on its former colony.

Analysis

Kazak Prime Minister Kazymzhomart Tokayev announced the Belgian energy firm Tractebel would withdraw from the Kazak market on May 2. Tokayev said, “the government has succeeded in retaining control over the gas pipelines in Kazakstan,” as part of a greater effort to restore control over “gas pipelines, oil pipelines and the electricity network”, reported Russia's Interfax news agency. However, Kazakstan lacks the means to operate its energy industry by itself. It will be forced to watch its new investments degrade or look to Russia to fill the void.

Tractebel entered the Kazak energy market in 1996. It provided power to major Kazak cities and maintained Kazakstan’s 9,000 km natural gas pipeline network. But the Kazak government has long argued with the Belgian firm over its investment and expansion policies, claiming that Tractebel’s decisions were not good for Kazakstan. For example, Kazakstan wanted Tractebel to build a new gas import pipeline bypassing third countries to increase Kazakstan’s energy independence. Tractebel refused. The Kazak government also claimed that Tractebel promised to invest more than $200 million in Kazakstan’s infrastructure. However, citing a net loss of $31.6 million in 1999, the company had only invested $65 million.

Kazakstan’s decision to edge Tractebel out of the country sets a poor precedent for companies seeking to invest in Kazakstan. Foreign investment in Kazakstan totaled a mere $1.5 billion in 1999, less than total foreign investment in Latvia. More than 80 percent of this investment targeted Kazakstan’s petroleum industry. Tokayev’s statements indicate a willingness to directly target energy companies when their goals are not to align with those of the government. While petroleum is Kazakstan’s economic lifeblood – the policy will make other Western companies involved in Kazakstan nervous.

The most significant project in Kazakstan is the massive $2.3 billion Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline. Upon completion the pipeline will triple Kazakstan’s export capability, transporting the bulk of Caspian oil. However, the project is so large that the Kazak government had to assemble a syndicate of international oil firms to fund the project – the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC).


Western firms agreed to shoulder the cost of construction in exchange for a future slice of the profits. Once the pipeline is completed next year – or at the latest in 2010 when the line reaches full capacity – the Western members of the consortium will have outlived their usefulness and be vulnerable to ejection.

But Kazakstan has neither the cash nor expertise to manage its gas and oil industries without outside assistance. Thus, it decided to seek foreign investment in the first place. The Kazak government will have two choices. It can either treat the new pipeline as a windfall and run it until it falls apart, or it can seek another source of expertise.

It will not need to look far. Pipelines do not require nearly as much cash or expertise to operate as they do to build. Russian firms have the technical capability to operate Kazakstan’s energy industry – after all their Soviet counterparts built them. Russia’s gas monopoly, Gazprom, is already involved in talks about assuming control over Tractebel’s assets, according to Interfax. As to oil, two of Russia’s largest oil firms – LUKoil and Rosneft – are already partners in the CPC. Both firms may be capital-shy, but once Tengiz-Novorossiysk is completed, oil sales will make up for the current lack of cash. A portion of the Western profits will be awarded to the LUKoil and Rosneft. Kazakstan will pocket the rest. And Moscow will again have a strong hand in the Kazak economy. Central Asia Shuns U.S. Hegemony

http://www.stratfor.com/CIS/commentary/0004281700.htm

Mary,
I think I read your warning about the AWE stock, but unfortunatly to many other people were telling me to buy. Now I haven't lost any money and if I lost it all I invested it wouldn't hurt me a bit. I make enough to throw some away here and there. Usaully I just dump it into mutual funds and forget em. I don't play the stock market it has really never interested me. The opportunity came up so I figured what the hell, to me it was just like throwing the cash on red or black on the roulette table.I'm just disapointed that it didn't jump up like Martha Stewart, WWF, or some other dumbass stock. I'm going to wait for to go back up a few bucks then dump it, then I'll probably just buy another toy.
Jake,
So that's what's up with all the questions you little prick, I don't think you can include welfare into your portfolio so what the hell do you know about capital gains tax. How long did it take you to look that? So go back to work scrubbing toilets you blue collar, trash dumping, union working, un-educated, scrawney little fuk...

BETTER"WELFARE"THAN YOU,


Poor little BEGGAR MAN!

(You are entertaining!)

Does not know that the Sephardic are one of the wealthiest Jewish communities on the face of the earth.

What I pay in Taxes probably equals what you and you and 10,000 of your fellow welfare recipients earn in a decade!

YOU ARE AN AMUSING LITTLE BEGGAR MAN
Then again capital gains can be deffered or even reduced with the right kind of strategy, wash sale rules excluded. Then again these are beyond the realm of LITTLE BEGGARS LIKE YOU AND IGOR.

Thanks for your post. I HAD A GREAT LAUGH.

Institutions like to dump post IPO stocks onto SUCKERS like you!

HAHAH AHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

BERNSWEIN if you have so much money why do you look like you do?You should get your ears fixed,and you should consider the same for your teeth.Spend your money on some psysciatric care, it may curb your desires for young kids you sick bastard with the puke stained shirt.Stop swilling that beer at the trailer park .By the way I saw your appearance on Springer,you were the guy who was banging your sister.

Bernswein said

SALADIN, you forgot to specify how soon "Brave Mujahideen" will destroy the Russian Army. I remember three-four months ago Basaev said that in about a months they would be advancing on Moscow. Hashish is bad, mmmkay?

IGOR THE FILTHY GOY WILL BE TAUGHT SUCH A LESSON THAT HE AND HIS BEGGAR WELFARE FAMILY WILL NEVER FORGET

WHAT IS YOU ADDRESS COWARD?

ARE ALL RUSSIANS SUCH WELFARE LOSERS AND COWARDS OR ARE YOU THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULE?

Russia braces for more wars

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, MAY 3. Several Russian news outlets have quoted intelligence and military sources as suggesting
the possibility of a new hotbed of war flaring up in Central Asia in the next few months.

``This coming summer Russia may get dragged into a new war against Islamists, this time in Central Asia,'' the
authoritative Kommersant-Vlast weekly magazine warned.

``A Russian-Afgan war can break out by the end of June,'' the Political News Agency, APN, reported citing
military sources, while the popular business weekly Expert headlined its story: ``Russia may have to fight again
in Afghanistan.''

A source in the Russian Defence Ministry told the APN news agency that intelligence information indicated
``with a high probability that Afghanistan's Taliban can invade Tajikistan to topple its President, Mr. Imomali
Rakhmonov, who relies on Russian bayonets to survive in power, and to capture parts of Tajikistan that are
rich in natural resources.''

According to another scenario, Afghanistan-based Uzbek Islamists may cross into the former Soviet Central
Asia this summer in an attempt to reach the Namangan province in Uzbekistan, where they hope to rally
popular support for their cause of setting up an Islamic fundamentalist state in Central Asia. Last year they
invaded Kyrghyzstan, but failed to break through to Uzbekistan and were pushed back after weeks of fighting.

In either scenario Russia is expected to help the legitimate governments of Central Asia to repulse Islamist
attacks. The secretary of Russia's Security Council, Mr. Sergei Ivanov, did not rule out even preventive
airstrikes against alleged terrorist training bases run by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

However, since militarily and economically Russia is not strong enough to fight on two fronts, it is argued,
Moscow will try to terminate its seven-month-old campaign against Islamic rebels in Chechnya as early as possible. The Russian military command has been rushing more troops to the Chechen mountains to hunt down rebels, but there is little chance of an early victory for Russia. Therefore Moscow is reported to be trying to
negotiate a ceasefire with the Chechen leader, Mr. Aslan Maskhadov.

Mr. Maskhadov told AFP on Wednesday that talks were under way to organise a meeting between him and
Russia's President-elect, Mr. Vladimir Putin. Russian spokesmen scoffed at the idea of such a meeting, but Mr.
Putin himself said recently he had received a peace plan from Mr. Maskhadov and sent it back with his own
amendments. Officially, the Kremlin has taken a tough line on contacts with Chechen rebels, saying peace talks
would be possible only if Mr. Maskhadov's fighters surrender, release hostages and turn over Chechen-trained
terrorists blamed for the deadly apartment blasts last autumn. But the threat of an Islamist attack in Central Asia
may indeed force Moscow to enter into at least a tactical deal with Mr. Maskhadov, long regarded as the most
reasonable and moderate Chechen leader, in order to isolate the destroy the more irreconcilable rebels led by
the notorious warlords, Shamil Basayev and Khattab.

Security officials in Uzbekistan have estimated that up to 4,000 militants fighting in Chechnya may find their way
to Central Asia to take part in the feared Islamist offensive in the region this summer.

Jake,
Hey you picked up new word "welfare" now you are using it on Igor. Come on guy can't you think of anything other than "cheap urine stained pants, and you filthy goy"? You are a retard... You mentioned the "deteriorating standards on this board, well dumbass 99% of these crappy postings are by you. The other 1% are people ripping on you. So what does that tell you dumbass? I live in Huntington Beach and can give you an exact address you little puss. But then I doubt very much that you would be man enough to even think about showing up. If that was a true picture of you posted by Igor then I have unine stained pants becaused I laughed so hard at your scrawny, wimpy,little ass. Come on man (oops sorry I forgot that you are a hermaphrodite) lets hook up, you can bring your sword too!