RE: TIRESAIS
.... (first 3 solved by post above?)
4. There is IMV nothing benign about Chinese economic activity in Africa, so I'm a bit hesitant to compare the "generosity" of foreign actor intervention on the continent (caveat: although the Korean approach needs further assessment). It's amusing that you single out the US, and make no mention of the more penetrative "engagements" of European nations.
The EU have a terrible legacy, France especially. French activities in France were an affront to dignity in a number of instances so you're right to pull me up on that. Britain and France continue this to date, and Italian companies have also been involved in a couple dodgy deals. Rather than launch a huge post on the failings of the EU, I'll just stick with the US [Why?]
It was responsive to to #1 only. What you posted did not address the budget contention. Also, regarding the masked men ... the assertion wasn't whether the men were Russian assets (was there any doubt?). Not fully responsive to what I raised.
Why? I've got a deadline and can't spend too long, just focusing on the US to avoid branching the discussion out. The budget contention is moot - the fact is that the US national security services are far above the level of others in the world in terms of funding. The CIA have clearly been acting - i don't accept your assertion that VP is somehow more willing to use the FSB on the evidence I've posed previously - US Presidents have extensively used the CIA and the CIA have acted without authorisation on a number of occasions. The CIA are more effective, better funded, and are involved more broadly across the world imo. The nature of these organisations prevents any conclusive position, so we might have to disagree
On the boarder guards - I think you're being a little cheeky here. When we were talking about the FSB I was clearly not including boarder guards and I don't think you were either - clearly boarder guards standing outside military installations is a different proposition to highly-trained secret agents.
Please post link to the African Bank report.
They did a bunch, this website sums it up generally;
http://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/article/new-afdb-study-takes-in-depth-look-at-china-africa-partnership-8377/ the one I was specifically talking about was by Brautigam, titled "China, Africa and the International Aid Architecture", which was an African Development Bank working paper.
There are also two IMF Working papers of interest - google "FDI from BRICS to LICs" and "BRIC's philosophies for development". DfID also funded a paper about development assistance in Africa "How China delivers development assistance to Africa", whilst the OECD did a working paper on "Prudent versus Imprudent Lending to Africa: From Debt Relief to Emerging Lenders" in which it had both recommendations and reservations on China's lending strategies in the region.
In short - China often packages loans at agreeable rates, partially backed by commodities, whilst also offering concessionary loans and grants for projects for which it doesn't expect teh government to earn money off (for example, football stadiums, hospitals). Private American capital generally does nothing for the communities outside the trickle down benefits and employment opportunities (and even these are limited by some Export Processing Zone policies).
It's a really interesting topic, and one that's being murdered in popular media. The threat of 'other' is something maybe more noticeable if you live in a country that has perpetrated racism in its past, it's just a type of racism from ignorance. The deals on offer, as I said, are no worse than American hegemony has offered, except they're done by China, which automatically makes them worse for some segments of the media and explains such negative press.
My issues with it stem from my issues with foreign ownership of national assets and FDI, as I am partial to resource nationalism. The country who does it is irrelevant to me per se, it's the policies that matter.
Why this preoccupation with US intelligence and no expressed interest in your nation's intelligence apparatus?
Simply time-constraints. People are misinterpreting my comments - I know MI6 are a bag of dicks as well, I simply believe the CIA are possibly the worst culprits (possibly Mossad are worse). This is not to minimise the evil taht MI6, the FSB and MSS carry out.
Finally, hopefully upon a second reading you'll locate the issues with what you wrote here:
The FSB and MSS act in exactly the way we might expect - their motives are clear, and they're not as competent at assassinations (Castro aside) as the CIA, whom have shown a penchant for assassinating democratically elected leaders whom they fear (at least they were told to murder him by the president?).
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As I mentioned before my issue with the CIA comes from two prongs;
1) they betray their own mission statement and objectives, undermining the democratic institutions of the country they are incorporated and charged to protect
2) they're more prevalent than MI6, and more competent than the rest.
The FSB are a secret service organisation under the command of an oligarch charged with defending the interests of the élite, and make no pretence to protect things such as privacy and individual rights. I hold them to a lower standard - they're not "murky", they're exactly what you expect.