Twosret, last pharaoh of XIXth Dynasty

Episode 30 The Decline of Dynasty XIX

The History of Ancient Egypt

Professor Robert Brier

Film Review

Ramesses II (1279-1213 BC) was the last great Egyptian pharaoh, and Egypt began a long steady decline after his death at age 88. His mummy indicates he suffered from arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and a jaw infection. He had 52 sons.

His successors:

• Hemeptah (1213-1202 BC) – son of Ramesses II’s great wife Nefertiti . After making war on the Israelites in Palestine (see Egyptian Evidence for the Exodus: Did It Happen?) in the fifth year of his reign, he also led his troops through the western the desert in a successful campaign against the Libyans. He counted the number slain by collecting uncircumcised penises.* The great palace he built in Memphis reflects the wealth (derived mainly from his military campaigns of his regime.
• Amanmesses (1202-1199) son of one of of Ramesses II’s concubines.
• Seti II (1199-1193) his younger brother.
• Akhenre Setepenre Siptah or Merneptah Siptah (1193-1186) father unknown, assumed throne as a child.
• Twosret, also spelled Tawosret or Tausret (1186-1185BC) a woman of unknown genealogy, the last pharaoh of the XIXth dynasty.

*The Egyptians were circumcised at puberty.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/1492791/1492866

HART

In June 2021, Dr. Sam White, a general practitioner, released a video calling out harmful covid policy. From a scientific perspective every word he said was entirely defensible. Moreover it is clear that he was speaking from an ethical position of wanting to protect his patients from harm. He pulled no punches in addressing the most prominent issues that were causing harm – lack of treatment for the frail, inappropriate gene therapies and masking. In interviews, in 2022, he called the situation a war between good and evil. In doing so he unleashed a torrent of anger among those in a position of power over him, which, three years on, continues to harm him.

He had already resigned from his GP partnership in protest at their vaccination policy in February 2021. His conscience had been keeping him awake at night because he did not want to be a part of the vaccine rollout. Consequently, after resigning he was signed off with stress rather than having to work his notice. NHS England still saw fit to suspend him with an emergency order in June. Dr White managed to record a conversation with an NHS senior clinical adviser who implied that he was mentally unwell. Dr White believes that possession of that recording led the NHS to revoke their suspension. However, by then the NHS had referred him for a GMC investigation and an automatic GMC suspension.

The GMC overturned the suspension in August 2021 but imposed restrictions on him including a ban on mentioning covid on social media and requiring the removal of his previous posts. The legal position is that doctors have a right to free speech but if the GMC could prove Dr White’s speech was a threat to the health of the public or undermined trust in the profession then he could be sanctioned.

Dr White looked to his indemnity provider for support to fund his legal case but they washed their hands of him saying it was a “conduct issue”. With the help of crowd funding support, Dr White took the case to the High Court in November 2021. The verdict was published in December 2021, overruling the GMC and saying they had not followed due process in their actions. The High Court documentation was removed from the judiciary’s website in September 2022 such that other doctors in a similar position will be unable to refer to it in their defence. It is available on the Wayback Machine.

Dr White has asked to be removed from the register, as he is no longer practising conventional medicine, but the GMC have refused and are continuing to persecute him. Every interview he has undertaken has been transcribed and put forward as evidence that he is undermining public health policy and causing the public to lose trust in the profession. The next tribunal hearing is scheduled to last three weeks in August and September 2024. This ongoing investigation, three years later, indicates a relentless effort to discredit and punish Dr. White for his dissenting views.

If that sounds bad, wait until you hear about the NHS’s role.

The same day as the High Court hearing, unbeknown to Dr White or his lawyers, NHSE had a meeting where they decided to refer Dr White for a health assessment, despite the fact he no longer worked in the NHS. This was an opportunity to reopen the investigation into him. They have repeatedly asked if he had returned to NHS work and said he must tell them if he did. What was their intent here? Were they planning to ask any future employer to suspend him all over again?

NHS England has a list of “approved providers”. Any doctor not on their list cannot work for the primary employer of doctors in the country. In 2023, NHS England removed Dr White from their list, effectively barring him from practising within the NHS. He had already shifted his practice to private healthcare with a holistic focus, but this further punishment leaves him with no other options.

The GMC is far from perfect but at least it has due process and a system of appeal for where there might be an injustice. NHS England can unilaterally destroy a career, with no legal recourse.

In some ways, the most disturbing aspect of the whole affair was revealed in the communications between the GMC and NHS England. Firstly, the derogatory terms used about the doctor to justify their behaviour are shocking and reveal a lack of professionalism and intolerance for differing opinions within the medical establishment. Moreover, this language served as a means to rationalise their harsh and unjust actions towards him. Secondly, they appeared to be acting in cahoots. The GMC’s apparent open and fair processes have been bypassed by direct communication with NHS England, stripping Dr White of a right to employment.

Dr. Sam White’s case is a stark example of systemic injustice and the erosion of professional rights within the NHS and the GMC. His ongoing persecution for voicing dissenting views underscores a troubling intolerance for ethical and scientific debate, reminiscent of a Kafkaesque nightmare where rationality and justice are subordinated to bureaucratic oppression.

[…]

Via https://www.hartgroup.org/kafka-nhs/

New Zealand peace activist Owen Wilkes speaking at a protest at U.S. air base at Christchurch Airport (Harewood), 1973. Wilkes was a target of surveillance by the New Zealand Intelligence Services and CIA. [Source: newsroom.co.nz]

By Jeremy Kuzmarov

Legendary Peace Researcher Owen Wilkes Was a Target

Owen Wilkes (1940-2005) was a legendary New Zealand peace researcher and activist who devoted a considerable portion of his life to fighting against the creeping and corrupt presence of the U.S. military around the globe.

Not surprisingly, Wilkes found himself in the crosshairs of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Services (NZSIS) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) which collaborated together to spy on him.

CovertAction Magazine (CAM) contributor Murray Horton, a founder in the 1970s with Wilkes of the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA), a New Zealand anti-base peace group, has reviewed declassified SIS documents and found a cache of memos between their agents and the CIA.

The first of these memos referred to Wilkes as “the main organiser and activist in both CAFMANZ and CAFCINZ [other anti-base groups that were precursors to CAFCA].”^[1]

These groups were considered at the time to be subversive because of their opposition to the U.S.’s use of New Zealand for strategic military facilities, including signals intelligence facilities that helped coordinate worldwide U.S. surveillance and military operations.^[2]

The declassified intelligence documents indicate that the SIS kept an eye on any contacts that Wilkes had with Communists and groups such as the Progressive Youth Movement, which was considered to be a front for the Communist Party.

Considering his pronouncements as anti-American, a visit to the Soviet Embassy was noted. There was speculation that the Communist Party sought to recruit him, although his friends said that Wilkes never lined up with any “ism.”^[3]

The SIS claims today that it needs to withhold many documents whose release would somehow be “likely to prejudice the security or defence of New Zealand or the international relations of the Government of New Zealand.”

In May 2023 current SIS Director Andrew Hampton wrote a letter to Wilkes’ ex-wife stating that, “as a high-profile peace activist during a period when the USSR sought to use the legitimate peace movement to further its own geo-political objectives, Owen Wilkes came to NZSIS attention (as did you, purely by association). Mr. Wilkes was never, however, considered to be a threat to security.”

These comments are remarkable in acknowledging at once that Wilkes was never a threat to New Zealand’s national security, while at the same time implying guilt by association with the USSR—an old tactic of J. Edgar Hoover and conservative cold warriors whose purpose was to smear and discredit peace activists.

CIA Skullduggery in New Zealand

CAM has previously documented how the CIA concocted a scheme in the 1980s to undermine New Zealand’s labor government of David Lange, which adopted a nuclear-free policy and excluded U.S. warships from New Zealand’s ports

The scheme involved the floating of a fraudulent loan to Māori members of the government in order to trigger white rage against them. Several of the businessmen who floated the loan worked for a CIA-front company called Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong (BBRDW)—which acted on the instructions of Honolulu CIA Station Chief Eugene Welch.

Among them were Robert Coleman Allen and James Haina, who were likely used by the U.S. government to create the Māori loans scandal and facilitate racial tension and a rift between the Māori and Labour Government which had traditionally been closely associated.

Newly declassified documents detail the CIA’s concerns that Lange’s anti-nuclear policy could spread throughout the Pacific.

The CIA favored Sir Robert Muldoon, New Zealand’s conservative prime minister from 1975 to 1984, who was described in a CIA analysis as “second to none in his high regard for the U.S.,” who believed “more than his predecessors” that New Zealand needed the U.S. for security.

Walking Encyclopedia with Technical Expertise

Wilkes was a target of joint CIA-NZSIS surveillance because of his influence in raising public awareness about New Zealand’s tight integration into the American overseas network of military bases and empire.

Described as a “walking encyclopedia,” he was a highly knowledgeable technical expert on foreign military bases and facilities, especially including communications and signals intelligence facilities which the CIA and other intelligence services wanted to keep hidden.

As a researcher, Wilkes would spend hours poring through microfilmed U.S. government documents, and read the latest issue of Aviation and Space Technology. The SIS acknowledged that Wilkes had “a well-developed flair for ferreting out, from obscure but unclassified sources, what would appear to constitute classified information.”^[4] Wilkes would also trek into remote areas to try to uncover the existence of secret military facilities. When he observed the facility or photographs of it, he had the capacity to interpret what they were used for.^[5]

Wilkes got on the CIA’s radar after he exposed a network of signals intelligence stations that had been set up at the initiative of the U.S. in Norway with U.S. funding and included U.S. intelligence staff.^[6]

Wilkes also exposed a secret U.S. spy base in Mindanao, Philippines. The information that Wilkes shared with the Philippines Senate led to a historic vote to remove all U.S. military bases from the Philippines in 1991 ending 470 years of foreign military bases in the country.^[7]

“Most Important Foreign Base”

In the early 1980s, Wilkes wrote an exposé on a secret radio eavesdropping station in the Manawatu region known as Tangimoana, which Wilkes called “Our Most Important Foreign Base.” Despite official proclamations to the contrary, Wilkes was emphatic that the facility was really a foreign military base, built to U.S. specifications and run according to U.S. instructions.

Wilkes had become familiar with similar electronic eavesdropping facilities from his time as a researcher with the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) in the late 1970s and had no doubt that the spider web-like Tangimoana antenna was part of the network.

He believed that the facility was probably cooperating with similar bases in Australia and contributing precise information about vessel movements—including Soviet ships across the Pacific—to the U.S. Naval Ocean Surveillance Information System (NOSIS).^[8]

Wilkes warned in an article in Peacelink magazine that the project of which the eavesdropping facility was associated “integrates us much more closely into U.S. war fighting strategies than does mere membership in ANZUS or our hosting of nuclear warships. Day after day we are feeding intelligence data to the U.S., where we have little or no control how it is used, either in peacetime or in war…Do we want to provide intelligence data which helps give the U.S. the confidence that it can start, fight and win a nuclear war?”^[9]

According to Wilkes, the agreement under which New Zealand played its part in collecting signals intelligence was secret—almost nobody knew about a post-World War II pact that formalized the cooperation of the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand in the Five Eyes, let alone what it was for.

Wilkes wrote that the significance of the 1984 Tangimoana exposé—in which the government revealed for the first time the existence of a foreign military facility on New Zealand’s soil—cannot be overestimated: It was the opening salvo in the critical campaign to reveal New Zealand’s secret intelligence links and raise the challenge they posed to our sovereignty.”^[10]

In a mocking gesture during protests against the Tangimoana facility, Wilkes wore a red cap inscribed “KGB agent.”^[11] This sent a message of defiance to government authorities who were as blinded by the narrow-minded political dogma of the Cold War as their heirs are today.

Trying to Prevent New Zealand from Becoming an Expendable Portion of the U.S. Military Empire

Wilkes’ involvement in peace activism dated back to 1968 when he was part of protests supported by three future prime ministers that helped block the U.S. Navy’s construction of a transmitter station in New Zealand under Operation Omega.

Omega was to function as part of the U.S.’s global navigation system (precursor to GPS) and would assist the U.S. Navy in carrying out submarine surveillance and warfare.^[12]

In an article for the New Zealand Methodist, Wilkes suggested that there be a referendum on Omega and if sufficient people wanted to shelter under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, then New Zealand should become like Hawai’i, an overseas state of the Union. That way “we would at least have voting rights and representation rather than being an ‘expendable portion of the United States military empire.’”^[13]

Building off the momentum from the Omega protests, Wilkes emerged as a key leader of annual protests which took place at New Zealand’s different bases in the South Island—Woodbourne (1971), the U.S. Air Force observatory atop Mt. John in McKenzie Country (1972) and the U.S. Navy and Air Force Transport base at Christchurch Airport (1973), which still exists.^[14]

More than a decade later, Wilkes and Murray Horton were arrested for protesting against the U.S. military transport base at Christchurch Airport, which was located near a military communications facility just outside the city.

Waihopai Spy Base

In the late 1980s, Wilkes was a key figure leading protests outside the Waihopai spy base—a satellite communications monitoring station in the Waihopei Valley near Bleinheim, whose construction was authorized by David Lange—in spite of Lange’s anti-nuclear policy.

Waihopai was identified as being part of ECHELON, a worldwide network of signals interception facilities run by the UKUSA consortium of intelligence agencies, which shares global electronic and signals intelligence among the intelligence agencies of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand—who are part of a pact known as The Five Eyes.

Wilkes wrote a definitive background paper on the spy base after its construction, warning that it would be spying on other countries’ ships, aircraft and submarines as well as spying on communications emanating from New Zealand’s Pacific neighbors.

Wilkes wrote that, “while Tangimoana implicates us in nuclear-war preparations, Waihopai implicates us in undermining the privacy, security, independence and sovereignty of our neighbors in the South Pacific.”^[15]

Peacemonger

A new book about Wilkes’ life entitled Peacemonger provides a tribute to Wilkes and his life-long commitment to peace research and activism.Born to small shopkeepers in the Christchurch suburb of Beckenham in 1940, Wilkes studied geology and archaeology at the University of Canterbury.

In the summer of 1962, he carried out fieldwork as an entomologist in Antarctica for a project supported by and indirectly benefiting the U.S. Navy. At this time, he came to see how Antarctica was being used as a giant military training ground in the Cold War.^[16]

Wilkes’ political radicalization was further fueled by his participation in an archaeological expedition in the sub-tropical Kermadec Islands that he discovered was part of a U.S. military germ warfare project.

By 1968, with the Vietnam War reaching its bloody apex, Wilkes became committed to researching and exposing the offshore facilities of the U.S. war machine in his own country, elsewhere in the Pacific and further afield.

He warned about the pervasiveness of militarism in the Pacific, even in its remotest corners, stating that the Big Powers used the region as “the backside of the globe, epitomised by tiny Johnson Atoll west of Hawaii where the U.S. military does “anything too unpopular, too dangerous and too secret to do elsewhere.”^[17]

[…]

Wilkes’ influence and skill as a peace researcher and activist ultimately made him a target for government intelligence agencies committed to upholding the American military base structure that has resulted in endless wars.

By the 1990s, Wilkes had burned out of the peace movement and retreated to private life before tragically committing suicide in 2005.

[…]

Via https://covertactionmagazine.com/2024/06/05/cia-collaborated-with-new-zealand-intelligence-service-to-spy-on-peace-activists-who-protested-expansion-of-u-s-military-base-network-in-new-zealand-in-the-1970s/

By Sarah Ewall-Wice, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Facebook post claims to know Trump would be found guilty before verdict.

It is not clear that the Facebook user who posted was related to any juror or had any prior knowledge of the verdict. It could also have been a random Facebook user looking to stir controversy or confusion.

The profile for Anderson claims to be a ‘professional s**t poster’ – another name for an internet troll.

Anderson’s Facebook profile has since been deleted and DailyMail.com was unable to contact him before it was taken down.

A photo of a cross-dressing, cigarette-smoking man grabbed from the profile before it was deleted was being touted as Anderson – but the man in the image is actually late punk rocker GG Allin, who died in 1993 aged 36.

The jury of seven men and five women at Manhattan Criminal Court deliberated for nearly 10 hours before convicting the former President of 34 charges of falsifying business records.

Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records to cover up the payment to porn star Stormy Daniels so she would stay quiet about a previous sexual encounter before the 2016 election.

It was the first time a former U.S. President has faced a criminal trial and came as Trump is running for a second term as president.

A post from the Facebook user Michael Anderson claiming to be the cousin of a juror

[…]

Via https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13507435/trump-judge-hush-money-case-notifies-lawyers-facebook-post.html

Israeli media discussed the dangers of expanding the war with Lebanon into a full-scale war, stressing it would “push Israel to the brink of the abyss, especially with the absence of international legitimacy and an exhausted army.”

Military affairs analyst Amos Harel, writing for Haaretz, emphasized, “A war with Hezbollah would present an unprecedented challenge to Israel’s home front, with the northern and central regions confronting a level of threat previously unseen.”

He added, “It is increasingly challenging to anticipate positive developments on the horizon, particularly as we approach the ninth month of war.”

Harel continued, citing “a series of discussions held over the past two weeks with officials in security and military circles,” which disclosed growing signs that “Israel is heading towards a multidimensional failure.”

In this context, he emphasized that “Israel” finds itself entangled in all fronts, with the most critical being “the arena of confrontation with Hezbollah in Lebanon,” facing the looming threat of a full-scale war. He warned that such a war would dwarf all previous events, asserting, “Everything that occurred before would pale in comparison.”

Ceasefire talks

He also highlighted that the negotiations concerning the captives-detainees deal with Hamas are “encountering another crisis,” “despite a brief moment where it appeared that US President Joe Biden’s speech might offer a breakthrough.”

He further emphasized that “the ongoing military operations in the Gaza Strip, particularly centered around Rafah and the central camps, are unlikely to yield a conclusive victory in the near future.”

Earlier on Thursday, Israeli media highlighted that the hits resulting from Hezbollah’s operation against an Israeli military gathering in Elkosh settlement were severe, deeming it the most serious incident in the northern front since the beginning of the confrontations due to its distance from the border with Lebanon and the extent of the inflicted losses.

The media called for an investigation into the Israeli Air Force’s failure to detect and intercept Hezbollah’s drones.

Touching on the Elkosh operation, the Israeli Channel 14 correspondent said it was “a well-planned and coordinated” operation by Hezbollah, adding that the Lebanese group appears to be escalating the level of its attacks.

[…]

Via https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/full-scale-war-in-lebanon-will-push–israel–into-abyss–isr

By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 07.06.2024

The Yemeni militia targeted the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Nimitz-class supercarrier in the Red Sea last week amid the continued intensification of American and British air and missile strikes inside Yemen, which have killed scores of civilians.

The Houthis will hit the American aircraft carrier parked in Yemen’s backyard harder next time around, militia leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi has vowed.

“The American aircraft carrier Eisenhower will remain a target for our Armed Forces whenever the opportunity arises,” al-Houthi said in his weekly address on Thursday.

“The facts will become clear no matter how much the Americans try to deny the targeting operations, and the upcoming strikes will be more effective,” al-Houthi added.

Offering new details on last week’s Houthi missile and drone barrage targeting the USS Eisenhower amid American denials that the operation did any damage to the supercarrier or its escorts, the Houthi leader emphasized that the attack was more successful than Washington is letting on.

“The operation targeting the aircraft carrier Eisenhower was successful, and overflights stopped for two days following the attack,” al-Houthi said, referring to American attacks over Yemeni airspace. The official added that while the US warship was situated about 400 km from Yemen before the Houthi attack, it was forced to sail 480 km northwest to safety in its aftermath. The operation was “one of the most notable and important operations to be carried out this week,” al-Houthi said.

“American warships flee and change their source when the operations are successful,” the militia leader said.

US Central Command on Friday vociferously denied Houthi claims that the USS Eisenhower was damaged in the Yemeni militia’s attacks.

“There is no truth to the Houthi claim of striking the USS Eisenhower or any US Navy vessel. This is an ongoing disinformation campaign that the Houthis have been conducting for months. While the Houthis intend to target our vessels, we can confirm that there has never been a successful attack on any US Navy vessel,” CENTCOM told Sputnik.

The Houthi attack on the carrier followed a spate of joint US-UK attacks targeting Yemen in an attempt to degrade the militia’s fighting capabilities, with the militia saying last week that the most recent strikes had killed at least 16 people and wounded 42 others.

The Houthis reported Friday that US and UK forces had carried out four new air strikes targeting the airport in Hodeidah, and launched a separate attack on northwestern Yemeni seaport of Salif.

Houthis Go Hypersonic?

Al-Houthi’s comments Thursday came a day after the Yemeni militia released footage of a new “locally made” hypersonic missile called the Palestine being launched toward the embattled Israeli Red Sea port city of Eilat this week.

Israeli officials confirmed Monday that Eilat had been targeted, but indicated that there was no damage or injuries to report.

In the footage, the new Yemeni solid-fuel missile’s warhead was painted in a checkered pattern reminiscent of a keffiyeh scarf. Western observers spotted outward similarities to the Fattah – an Iranian hypersonic missile unveiled in 2023 which can travel up to 1,400 km at speeds up to Mach 15. The range and speed characteristics of the Houthi missile remain unknown, but the distance between Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and Eilat is closer to 1,700 km.

Iranian officials have repeatedly rejected claims by the US and its allies that it has provided arms to the Houthis. However, Iranian media recently confirmed that the country does give its anti-US and anti-Israeli Axis of Resistance allies “technical knowhow” enabling the homegrown production of sophisticated missiles. It remains unclear whether this applies to the new Palestine missile or not.

The Houthis have been teasing their fledgling hypersonic capabilities since the spring, with an informed source telling Sputnik in March that the new Houthi missile could accelerate to speeds of up to Mach 8 (nearly 10,000 km per hour) and had a solid fuel engine, which means reduced launch preparation time and improved ease of transport in Yemen’s difficult conditions.

“Yemen intends to begin manufacturing it for use during attacks in the Red and Arabian Seas and the Gulf of Aden, as well as against targets in Israel,” the source, who was not at liberty to speak publicly, said at the time.

Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi warned in March that the militia’s enemies, friends and Yemenis alike would soon “see a level of achievement of strategic importance which will place our country and its capabilities in the ranks of few countries in this world,” promising that Ansar Allah had “surprises” in store for the US and Israel which have yet to be revealed.

Russian military observer Alexei Leonkov told Sputnik in March that if the Yemeni militia really has managed to speed a missile up to Mach 8 or more, “that will mean that the ship-based air defense systems of the American naval group will be powerless.”

“The air defenses of the carrier strike group presently parked off the coast of the Arabian Peninsula and sporadically firing at the Houthis will not be able to intercept these missiles if they approach at Mach 8. And if the Houthis have managed to make them even a little maneuverable, that’s it, they won’t be possible to intercept. If the Houthis learn to accurately hit warships with these missiles, we will see America’s defeat,” Leonkov said.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin signed an order last week to extend the Eisenhower carrier group’s deployment in the Middle East for a second time, holding off the rotation of the supercarrier and its three missile destroyer and cruiser escorts out of the region, where they have been stationed since last October.

[…]

Via https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/houthis-vow-to-continue-targeting-us-carrier-group-after-unveiling-new-hypersonic-missile-1118852457.html

By Suat Delgen

While Turkiye is legally bound by international agreements to ensure uninterrupted oil flow to Israel through the multinational BTC pipeline, it can leverage provisional ICJ measures to halt oil, and consequently, Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza.

Israel receives 40 percent of its oil through the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, a critical energy route running from the Caspian Sea through Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkiye to the Turkish port of Ceyhan and onward, via tanker, to Israeli ports.

The pipeline primarily transports oil from Azerbaijan’s Azeri–Chirag–Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) field and condensate from the Shah Deniz field. British Petroleum (BP) operates the ACG field on behalf of the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC), a consortium of international oil companies.

Another consortium, including BP, SOCAR, MOL, Equinor, TPAO, Eni, TotalEnergies, ITOCHU, INPEX, ExxonMobil, and ONGC Videsh, operates the BTC pipeline and markets the oil globally. On 10 May, BP announced this consortium’s involvement in the pipeline’s management.

Way back in 1999, a Transit State Agreement and an Intergovernmental Agreement were signed between the consortium and Turkiye, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, ratified by the Turkish Grand National Assembly, and officially came into effect on 10 September 2000.

Pressure to half the oil flow to Israel 

On 2 May, in the face of growing domestic pressure to sever ties with Israel over its brutal war on Gaza, Turkiye announced a complete suspension of all import and export transactions to the occupation state until uninterrupted humanitarian aid was allowed into Gaza.

But what about the oil? With so many other states and global multinationals involved, can and has Turkiye stopped the oil being transported from Ceyhan to Israel?

Geopolitical importance of the BTC Pipeline 

The BTC pipeline emerged from the geopolitical shifts that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. As newly independent states in the Caspian region, particularly Azerbaijan, sought to develop their vast oil and gas reserves, they sought to export these resources to western markets without relying on Russian transit routes. Washington explicitly backed the BTC pipeline to reduce Moscow’s influence and create an alternative export route for Caspian energy.

For its part, Turkiye viewed the BTC project as a strategic opportunity to boost its significance as a key energy corridor. Despite initial doubts about the pipeline’s feasibility, political commitment from the US, Turkiye, and regional states, along with investment from major international oil companies like BP, gradually propelled the project forward.

This collaboration led to the creation of the BTC pipeline, marking a major shift in the region’s energy dynamics and geopolitics.

Today, the pipeline is a crucial route connecting the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean and can shift 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd). According to recent data from the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan, the volume of oil transported through the BTC pipeline increased by 1.6 percent in 2023, reaching 30.2 million tons.

Operated by BP, the BTC pipeline is the primary conduit for oil exports from the Azeri, Chirag, and Gunashli oil fields. Last year, Azerbaijan’s total oil transportation amounted to 39.7 million tons, with the pipeline accounting for 76 percent of this volume.

The pipeline also serves as a transit route for oil from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, with transit oil volumes rising from 5.1 million tons in 2022 to 5.2 million tons in 2023. Given the significant share of Kazakh and Azerbaijani oil in Israel’s crude oil supply, the BTC pipeline is pivotal in facilitating this energy trade.

A Bloomberg report from October 2023 highlights Tel Aviv’s heavy reliance on this pipeline for its oil supply, from which it received approximately 220,000 bpd of oil since mid-May 2023. Kazakhstan was the largest source, providing 92,500 bpd, followed by Azerbaijan with 44,000 bpd.

Data from the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan showed that Azerbaijan exported around 1,021,917 tons of crude oil and products to Israel in the first three months of 2024 – a value of $621 million. These figures underscore the critical role of the BTC pipeline in maintaining Israel’s energy security and the potential impact of any disruption to this supply route.

Legal constraints on halting oil flow

Despite Israel’s dependence on oil from the Port of Ceyhan, Turkiye lacks the authority to stop the oil flow except under force majeure conditions, according to the agreement signed with the BP-led consortium. The “Host Government Agreement” (HGA) and the “Intergovernmental Agreement” (IGA) that underpin the BTC Pipeline Project legally bind Ankara to ensure uninterrupted oil flow.

These agreements contain provisions that commit signatory states, including Turkiye, to obligations beyond typical international treaty law. Specifically, the agreements make signatory states unconditionally liable for any construction or oil transport delays, irrespective of the cause.

This gives the international consortium a privileged legal position over national states and requires states to relinquish some sovereign powers, such as legislation and adjudication rights. Thus, even if Turkiye wanted to suspend oil flow to Israel for political reasons, the strict liability clauses and other provisions in the BTC agreements would likely prevent it legally.

Thus, Turkiye is contractually obligated to ensure uninterrupted oil flow or face legal consequences, even for foreign policy reasons. While the BTC pipeline’s strategic importance justifies accepting restrictive terms, the agreements reflect an imbalance favoring corporate interests over state interests.

Potential legal justifications using ICJ measures

However, it is worth noting that South Africa’s proceedings against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last December – alleging its actions in Gaza constitute genocide – may have an impact on multiple business and state legal arrangements everywhere.

Officially known as “Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v Israel),” the ICJ has already issued several provisional measures that Israel must undertake to prevent further harm to civilians while the case is being adjudicated.

The ICJ measures are legally binding, and Israel has thus far largely ignored the court’s demands.

It is, therefore, possible for Turkiye to use these ICJ provisional measures as a legal justification to prevent tankers from transporting oil to Israel until a ceasefire in Gaza is achieved.

Ankara could make the legal argument that, in line with the ICJ measures, the oil transported from Ceyhan is being used to continue military operations in Gaza and that, seeking to avoid complicity in a crime against humanity and assisting in implementing ICJ decisions, Turkiye cannot permit the use of its ports for this purpose.

Such a declaration by Turkiye could exert significant pressure on Israel and place the oil consortium on notice that genocide does trump business-as-usual.

While the complex and multifaceted nature of diplomatic and economic ties between Ankara and Tel Aviv make a complete severance of relations unlikely, Turkiye may now hold in its hand a unique legal opportunity to call the shots on oil supply to the occupation state.

[…]

Via https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/06/07/pipeline-v-genocide-how-turkiye-can-legally-block-oil-exports-to-israel/

By Brooke Singman
The former House Select Committee on Jan. 6 deleted more than 100 encrypted files from its probe just days before Republicans took over the majority in the House of Representatives, Fox News Digital has learned.

The House Administration Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee is leading an investigation into Jan. 6, 2021, led by Chairman Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga. The panel is investigating the security failures on that day, as well as the “actions” of the former select committee investigating the Capitol riot.

Loudermilk, last week, told Fox News Digital his investigation has entered a “new phase” with renewed support from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has committed additional resources to the panel’s investigation.

Sources familiar with Loudermilk’s investigation told Fox News Digital that, per House rules, the former select committee, which was chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., was required to turn over all documents from its investigation to the new, GOP-led panel, after Republicans secured the majority of the House of Representatives following the 2022 midterm elections.

Sources told Fox News Digital that Thompson had told Loudermilk that the select committee would turn over four terabytes of archived data, but that the new committee only received approximately two terabytes of data.

Fox News Digital has learned that Loudermilk’s committee hired a digital forensics team to scrape hard drives to determine what information they were not given.

The forensics team, according to sources familiar with their search, determined that 117 files were both deleted and encrypted. Sources said those files were deleted on Jan. 1, 2023 – just days before Thompson’s team was required to transfer the data to the new committee.

Fox News Digital has learned the forensics team has recovered all 117 deleted and encrypted files. Now, Loudermilk is demanding answers and passwords to access the data.

Fox News Digital exclusively obtained a letter Loudermilk sent to Thompson, requesting access to recovered digital files by his forensic team.

“As you acknowledged in your July 7, 2023 letter, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Select Committee) did not archive all Committee records as required by House Rules,” Loudermilk wrote. “You wrote that you sent specific transcribed interviews and depositions to the White House and Department of Homeland Security but did not archive them with the Clerk of the House.”

Loudermilk added that Thompson also “claimed that you turned over 4-terabytes of digital files, but the hard drives archived by the Select Committee with the Clerk of the House contain less than 3- terabytes of data.”

Loudermilk explained that after a forensic analysis of the data and archived hard drives, he was able to recover “numerous digital records from hard drives archived by the Select Committee.”

“One recovered file disclosed the identity of an individual whose testimony was not archived by the Select Committee,” Loudermilk wrote. “Further, we found that most of the recovered files are password-protected, preventing us from determining what they contain.”

Loudermilk asked that Thompson provide him “a list of passwords for all password-protected files created by the Select Committee” so that his committee can “access these files and ensure they are properly archived.”

Meanwhile, Loudermilk also penned letters to White House general counsel and the general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security, requesting “unedited and unredacted transcripts” of White House and DHS testimony to the former select committee.

Loudermilk’s committee knows the transcripts of these interviews exist, but said they were not turned over by the Thompson-led committee.

Loudermilk demanded the White House and DHS comply with his request by Jan. 24.

“It’s obvious that Pelosi’s Select Committee went to great lengths to prevent Americans from seeing certain documents produced in their investigation. It also appears that Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney intended to obstruct our Subcommittee by failing to preserve critical information and videos as required by House rules,” Loudermilk told Fox News Digital.

[…]

Via https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-committee-jan-6-deleted-encrypted-117-files-was-required-share-house-gop-sources