Authored by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,
Trying to figure out what on earth is happening in the Middle East appears to have gotten a lot harder. Perhaps (because) it’s become more dangerous too. There are so many players, and connections between players, involved now that even making one of those schematic representations would never get it right. Too many unknown unknowns.
As we've said before, US accusations that countries like China and Russia run sophisticated hacking operations designed to infiltrate sensitive US networks are often hypocritical. After all, we do the exact same thing.
Today, the Daily Beast reported on newly unsealed documents that show the FBI blindly hacked into computers in Russia, China and Iran during a wide ranging investigation that lead to the bust of a global child pornography operation and the liberation of sexual abuse victims.
As the Daily Beast explains...
Authored by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,
As a candidate, Donald Trump used uncommonly harsh language to criticize Saudi Arabia—the world’s largest oil exporter.
He called the Saudi regime the world’s biggest funder of terrorism.
He also said the Saudi government uses “our petro dollars—our very own money—to fund the terrorists that seek to destroy our people, while the Saudis rely on us to protect them!”
By Chris at www.CapitalistExploits.at
...and it's only getting worse. Bin, by the way, means "son of" in Arabic.
This is why there are "Bins" here, there, and everywhere scattered across the Middle East. And some of them are having a rough week. In particular:
On Monday, Trump pressed Japan’s Prime Minister and business leaders to reduce the $69 billion trade deficit. A couple of badly made jokes, awkward moments and an unfair singling out of the auto industry later, we expressed our scepticism that the Japanese would do anything after he left (see “Trump Says Trade With Japan Is Not Fair And Not Open – Awkward Moments Ensue” here). Today Trump touched down in Beijing for two days of meetings, including eagerly awaited talks with China’s greatest leader since Mao, Xi Jinping.