Syria: new markets for Qatari gas without Al Assad, analyst

(ansa mediterranean Oct 1, 2012)

http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/nations/turkey/2012/10/01/Syria-new-markets-Qatari-gas-Al-Assad-analyst_7560833.html

Why would Qatar want to become involved in Syria where they have very few investments? This is the question the analist Felix Imonti poses in an article recently published by specialized website 'Oilprice.com' and by Joshua Landis' Siria Comment.

The kingdom, Imonti explains, is a geographic prisoner in a small enclave on the Persian Gulf coast. It relies upon the export of LNG, because it is restricted by Saudi Arabia from building pipelines to distant markets. In 2009, the proposal of a pipeline to Europe through Saudi Arabia and Turkey to the Nabucco pipeline was considered, but Saudi Arabia that is angered by its smaller and much louder brother has blocked any overland expansion.

Already the largest Lng producer, Qatar will not increase the production of LNG - Imonti continues -. The market is becoming glutted with eight new facilities in Australia coming online between 2014 and 2020. A saturated North American gas market and a far more competitive Asian market leaves only Europe. The discovery in 2009 of a new gas field near Israel, Lebanon, Cyprus, and Syria opened new possibilities to bypass the Saudi Barrier and to secure a new source of income. ''Pipelines are in place already in Turkey to receive the gas. Only Al-Assad is in the way. Qatar along with the Turks would like to remove Al-Assad and install the Syrian chapter of the Moslim Brotherhood. It is the best organized political movement in the chaotic society and can block Saudi Arabia's efforts to install a more fanatical Wahhabi based regime. Once the Brotherhood is in power, the Emir's broad connections with Brotherhood groups throughout the region should make it easy for him to find a friendly ear and an open hand in Damascus.

The fighting is likely to continue for many more months, but Qatar is in for the long term. At the end, there will be contracts for the massive reconstruction and there will be the development of the gas fields. In any case, Al-Assad must go. There is nothing personal; it is strictly business to preserve the future tranquility and well-being of Qatar, Imonti concludes.

Qatar Turkey Pipeline (wiki)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar%E2%80%93Turkey_pipeline

When did [No_Name] visit Syria?

Would the [Hussain] administration want to help "allies" Qatar and Turkey even if it meant helping the Muslm Brotherhood in Syria?

Peter Schweizer: Hunter Biden Helped China Buy Our ‘National Security’ Assets

(by Robert Kraychik Aug 19 2019; interview audio in article)

https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2019/08/19/peter-schweizer-hunter-biden-helped-china-buy-our-national-security-assets/

Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s second son, helped facilitate China’s acquisition of Henniges Automotive explained Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and senior contributor at Breitbart News, in a Friday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour and special guest host Rick Manning.

He called the Senate Finance Committee’s decision to probe the Obama administration’s 2015 approval of the sale of Henniges Automotive as a “wonderful development.”

Schweizer examined China’s acquisition of Henniges Automotive — a formerly America-based company developing “dual-use” technologies with military applications — by Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), a Chinese state-run military contractor. AVIC acquired Henniges in 2015 with a 51 percent stake purchase. The remaining 49 percent was purchased by Bohai Harvest RST (BHR), a private equity firm founded by Hunter Biden and funded with $1.5 billion from the Chinese government via the Bank of China.

“The Chinese government works to gain political allies in the United States by striking commercial deals with the family members of powerful politicians,” explained Schweizer, “and exhibit A in that — it’s not even close when you look at the amount of money and the volume of deals that took place — is with Hunter Biden, with Joe Biden’s son, while he was vice president.”

Schweizer added, “Clearly this was a Chinese effort to curry favor with the Bidens by helping make Joe Biden’s son rich.”

“[BHR] was buying companies that were involved in America’s high-tech sector, and companies that had dual-use technologies [with both] civilian applications and military applications,” Schweizer noted. “Henniges produces precision-tuned anti-vibration technologies.”

The Chinese government’s acquisition of Henniges “required the approval of the Obama administration” and “Hunter Biden’s help,” added Schweizer, “and lo and behold, the Obama administration gave them exactly that approval.”

Schweizer addressed the Obama administration’s approval of China’s acquisition of Henniges Automotive via the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which he described as an opaque governmental body broadly exempted from public transparency measures.

“CFIUS … is a very secretive body,” said Schweizer.”They don’t release any documents, generally. You can’t even obtain [documents pertaining to] everything they do through the Freedom of Information Act, and the rationale is, ‘Well, we’re talking about company secrets and technologies, so we do’t want to give away any of those trade secrets.’ That may apply in some cases, but generally, I think that’s just a ridiculous excuse that allows them to not be accountable for the decisions that they make. The problem is this deal is that there’s no question that this purchase of Henniges had military application.”

Schweizer summarized, “The Obama administration approved a deal where the son of the then-sitting vice president, in partnership with a Chinese government investment firm and a Chinese military contractor, purchased an American technology machine tool parts company that had military application.”

(continued)

>>8492722

Peter Schweizer: Hunter Biden Helped China Buy Our ‘National Security’ Assets

(continued)

He added, “What’s truly shocking about the Hunter Biden deal with the Chinese is not just that the Chinese were helping the son of the sitting vice president get rich, it’s the fact that the vice president’s son was involved in this Henniges deal which ended up helping the Chinese military. He was involved in another deal called CGN — Chinese General Nuclear — which is a Chinese nuclear company that was implicated in spying — stealing nuclear secrets from the United States — by the FBI. Executives from that company have been arrested. These are firms that Hunter Biden’s investment firm is involved in, and Hunter Biden sits on the board of directors of this Chinese government-funded investment company. It’s truly shocking. It’s not just your run-of-the-mill cronyism and a guy getting rich because of who his dad is. These are very serious national security issues and the Bidens just, frankly looked the other way and were glad to take the money.”

“One of the basic questions we need [answered] is, was there pressure brought to bear?” asked Schweizer of CFIUS’s 2015 approval of China’s acquisition of Henniges Automotive. “Were there people connected to Biden that were involved in making that decision?'”

“All we know is that there apparently were no objections [at CFIUS],” said Schweizer. “If the deal would have been stopped temporarily because of a concern and had gone to the president, we would actually have public knowledge of that. That has happened a few times in the past, and I think since CFIUS was opened in 1975, I think I am correct in saying there has not been a single case of a president in effect saying, ‘Well, you object, but we’re going through with it,’ so usually if a government agency objects on some grounds, a deal is dead. There is no evidence that there were any objections in this case because there was no reporting as such.”

Schweizer went on, “It appears as if all the government agencies said, ‘We have no problem with this.’ What I think Senator Grassley wants to know is, was this just a case of nobody paying attention? In other words, people were either incompetent or just not engaged? Or was there something more nefarious? Was there public or political pressure brought to bear? Again, this is the son of the vice president. Vice President Biden was the point man on U.S. policy towards China, and his son was involved with this deal, so was there pressure brought to bear? Did the vice president [or] did people at White House reach out to people in CFIUS? That’s what I think Senator Grassley wants to know. Government agencies are all supposed to do internal reviews and issue reports [asking], ‘What are the national security implications if this deal goes through? What are the possible negative repercussions for the United States? Does that warrant stopping this deal?'”

Mansour recalled, “Hunter Biden had zero background in private equity [and] zero background in China. There was absolutely no reason to give this little boutique firm that nobody had ever heard of this kind of lucrative deal if it weren’t for the fact that his last name is Biden.”

“Hunter Biden and the Biden family have lied about this deal from the beginning. When Secret Empires came out last year, it was a number one New York Times bestseller. They poo-pooed it and said, ‘No, it’s not true.’ We finally got some of the mainstream media to ask them questions about this, and ABC news did exactly that, and the Bidens did was lie about it. They said it wasn’t really that big of a deal. … They continue to lie and deceive about the nature of this relationship, and frankly, if you have to lie about it that much, it indicates to me that you’re trying to cover things up, that you’re embarrassed about it, [and] you know that this is a problem.”

Mansour highlighted China’s use of private equity firms for the purpose of foreign acquisitions, reading from a 2017 U.S. Chamber of Commerce report titled, “Made in China 2025: Global Ambitions Built on Local Protections”:

(continued)

>>8492730

Peter Schweizer: Hunter Biden Helped China Buy Our ‘National Security’ Assets

(continued)

In Several MIC 2025 sectors, the technological gap between domestic and foreign competitors is significant, and closing that gap would require extended timelines and high levels of financial commitment that could stress budgets. To accelerate the learning process, the state appears to be supporting acquisition strategies of Chinese state-owned and state-supported companies tied to MIC 2025 priority sectors.

China is also injecting state funds into private equity to fund foreign acquisitions. … Elements of China’s outbound investment strategy that are tied to industrial policy are contributing to growing global concern about Chinese acquisitions of foreign technology.

“One of the reasons why our manufacturing sector has been cannibalized is because of what our financial sector has been doing,” added Mansour. She shared the following excerpt from an article entitled, “Why Private Equity Should Not Exist”: “When I reported on the problem of financialization destroying our national security capacity, one of the manufacturers I talked to told me about how the ‘LBO boys’ – or Leveraged Buy Out Boys – took apart factories in the midwest and shipped them to China.”

China politically sanitizes its foreign acquisitions by involving family members of American politicians in its deals, explained Schweizer.

“If you’re somebody working in the bowels of the Chinese government [and] you want to buy high-technology military-sensitive companies in the United States, one of the first things you’re going to do is, you’re going to wrap those deals in a package that includes the family members of American politicians, and the reason for that is, it puts a friendly gloss on it,” he remarked. “So when this deal comes up before CIFIUS review in Washington, D.C, does anybody doubt that it is at least going to be whispered that the son of the vice president is involved in some of these companies? Does anybody doubt that that is put there to make it more friendly and more benign? Does anybody doubt that you’re going to involve the family members of politicians because you want them to buy in and to gain from this strategy that you’re carrying out? That’s precisely the reason you get it.”

Schweizer continued, “Hunter Biden got this deal with the Chinese government to set up this investment fund. They didn’t give it to Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan or anyone else that had far more experience. it’s because they didn’t need experience. What they needed was political cover, and Hunter Biden was apparently prepared to give them that cover. … This is a bipartisan problem, and you’re going to have political figures and their family members who are going to be all too glad to essentially sell out the national security interests to the United States if they can make a killing with an investment.”

“There are very powerful commercial interests in Washington, D.C. that want things kind of moving along the way that they always have, and they don’t want the boat rocked, because there’s a lot of money to be made in these deals, and there’s certainly going to be pressure from those individuals for this information not to be turned over to Senator Grassley and his committee,” he warned.

Schweizer concluded, “A guy like Joe Biden who’s been in public life for more than 30 years in government office … has to disclose a $500 campaign contribution. He has to disclose a $200 campaign contribution. He has to disclose that he owns like a $1000 in GE stock, and we have these rules because we need to know what entanglements or what relationships or connections there are between a politician like Joe Biden and his donors, so he needs to disclose that. And isn’t this good that we have this transparency? But a billion-dollar-plus deal that his adult son does with a foreign government — the Chinese government, that is our chief rival — there’s no disclosure requirement for that. None. Zip. Nada. That shows you how crazy the situation has become.”

(darn miss my old ID f9c533)

Noble Energy and EastMed Pipeline-Levant Natural Gas Basin Bun

QResearch General posts noted:

>>8948120 Bun

Papadopoulos worked for Noble Energy

John Kerry Noble Energy stock sale

Noble Energy is a significant player in gas exploration in the Levant Basin off Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean. In January, Greece, Cyprus and Israel signed an agreement to begin design and construction of a natural gas pipeline from the offshore Levant Basin to Greece and tie in to the European gas distribution pipeline. Turkey has repeatedly violated Cyprus waters during gas exploration and the Turkish naval vessels and drones have escorted the Turkish exploration vessels. No recent false flags, but…

Turkey was negotiating with Qatar in 2009-2013 to build a gas pipeline connecting Qatar with the European natural gas markets. The problem was the route would require agreement from Assad in Syria which was unlikely. (When did [NoName] visit Syria by the way?)

Article posts that include US-based Noble Energy:

>>8166378 Israel extended its second East Med gas licensing bid round to mid-July

>>8166405 ID: f9c533 notes as Dig Summary for “Energy, Levant, Cyprus”

>>8166389 ExxonMobil, Qatar Petroleum sign Cyprus gas deal

>>8167365 Cyprus: Turkey's new gas drilling bid 'severe escalation’

>>8198934, >>8198942, >>8198950 Offshore Cyprus: navigating geopolitical issues in the Levant basin

Additional article posts on the Levant Basin natural gas, EastMed Pipeline and players Greece/Cyprus/Israel and Turkey/Qatar:

>>8147576 Greece, Israel, Cyprus sign EastMed gas pipeline deal

>>8149911, >>8149917, >>8149924, >>8149928 Comprehensive history and details of the Israel-Cyprus-Greece pipeline.

>>8149965 Main Gas Fields of the Eastern Mediterranean maps

>>8160018 Joint Statement on the Ministerial Meeting of the United States, Greece, Republic of Cyprus, and Israel Regarding Cooperation in the Field of Energy

>>8160073, >>8160076 Remarks With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President of the Republic of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades, and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras

>>8160350 Turkish Drilling in Cypriot Claimed Waters

>>8166317. >>8166325 Steinitz's EastMed gas pipeline stirring up regional conflict

>>8166332 Armed drones deployed in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus to escort drilling vessels

>>8166341, >>8166350 The Mad Geopolitics of Israel’s EastMed Gas Pipeline

>>8166360 EU to fund planning of pipeline from Leviathan to Europe

>>8166365 Energean company expects the results of “North Thekah offshore” exploratory well in a few weeks

>>8166381 EU earmarks bill for East Med Pipeline

>>8166411, >>8166420 EastMed Pipeline Details IGI Poseidon

>>8167355 EU Agrees To Sanction Turkey For Drilling In Cypriot Waters

>>8167370 Turkey Deploys Drillship to Waters Off Southern Cyprus

>>8198714 Delek Group – offshore exploration company

>>8198846, >>8198852 The EastMed Pipeline Could Be a Giant Step Towards Enhancing Regional Security

>>8241732 Syria: new markets for Qatari gas without Al Assad, analyst

Additional articles may be posted at later date as f9c533 / 018afb sort and organize, primarily on Turkey-Qatar and any recent updates on EastMed or Noble Energy.

Natural Gas Discoveries in the Eastern

Mediterranean

August 15, 2016

Congressional Research Service

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/R44591.pdf

Israel’s Offshore Natural Gas Discoveries

Enhance Its Economic and Energy Outlook

January 31 2011

Congressional Research Service

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/R41618.pdf