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October 3, 2013

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SPECIAL REPORT - The Geopolitical & Economic Factors Behind Golden Dawn's Fate


Friends, the events that unfolded in Greece over the last few days may have occurred after a brutal murder was committed but one has to really look at the broader reasons why these arrests may have been made, and the timing. Firstly everything was done quickly, and swiftly, and anyone who has ever lived in Greece knows very well that the Greek public sector, and especially the judicial system, has never  acted quickly or swiftly on any given subject. We here at HellasFrappe are convinced that there is more to this case than meets the eye, and we feel that this is not about defending the purposes of law and order, and/or to elevate the government's popularity, but could possibly concern (upcoming) geopolitical reasons.

Signed
Marina Spanos

The decision to jail the leader of Golden Dawn, Nikolaos Michaloliakos is already regarded as giving the coalition government a breath of air, because on Tuesday it came under harsh criticism from foreign forces who have not hidden their desire to eradicate Greece of the far-right party. Even if Michaloliakos was released, he would not know where to run and hide, because the messages that Athens was receiving from all around the globe after the other GD officials were released were just too overwhelming. They also spoke about a laughable handling of the whole case against the far-right Greek party and of course ridiculed the ND party.

Domestically, the situation caught most media outlets by surprise, and almost instantly they began pointing the finger at the Minister of Order Mr. Dendias, as well as the head of Justice Mr. Athanasiou. In fact, some PASOK and leftist-backed sites went a step further and said that Evangelos -the Large- Venizelos (or as we here at HellasFrappe insist is the voice of the Troika in Athens (Troika equalling to the establishment) even threatened Prime Minister Antonis Samaras that he would abandon the coalition government and force the country to go to national elections. (Check out the story in Greek - PASOK To Abandon Coalition - Venizelos Asks For Resignation of Dendias!)

In fact senior members at various institutions in Brussels are very upset on how the whole case was handled by the Samaras government (notice they do not condemn Evangelos, only Samaras). In a PASOK-ruled state, this does not surprise us, because we have often said that Samaras may be prime minister, but everything else in this country -or specifically every other state department- is ruled by PASOK (especially the union of Greek journalists).

And while all this was going, a report on defencenet said that President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz were stunned at the prosecution's decision to release the first few GD MPs. In fact they were completely dumbfounded when they discovered the news. There was also word in the Greek press that throughout their discussions on Wednesday, they were extremely critical of the Greek government noting that it did not handle the case well, and that the case was too impromptu (proving HellasFrappe's analysis on Tuesday which noted that the evidence against Golden Dawn was not only weak, it was also ridiculous).

We also noticed that even the New York Times said the same thing, going a step further and noting -as we did several days ago here on HellasFrappe- that this whole case will turn around and boomerang on the whole establishment.

On the aforementioned defencenet article we also discovered that Berlin was demanding that Greek officials do away with this party "here and now" and arrest party leader Nikos Michaloliakos immediately. (Excuse us... is this a command?)

Interestingly, PASOK, who has literally led the campaign against Golden Dawn (even more so than GD's arch rival SYRIZA), was totally shocked with the Greek justice system's decision on Tuesday and word has it that at Harilaou Trikoupi (home of PASOK party headquarters) most officials were totally numb when they heard the news. Read more about this on ProtoThema

This was also stated in an article in the TA NEA newspaper on Wednesday, which notes that the green socialists were very disappointed with the Greek justice system. So much so in fact that while calling on all institutions to stand up to the challenge (or basically you are either with us, or you are against us), Venizelos expressed his disappointment against justice officials, and even questioned their independence and credibility. Believe it or not he had the audacity to say that this independence should be based on the integrity of democracy and the rule of law (but what he really meant was that it should be based on his law and his interpretation of what democracy should be).

This direct intervention by Venizelos against Greek justice officials (because they decided to release his political opponents) can be viewed as an indirect threat to the magistrates and prosecution that are investigating the case, but on a broader scale it can also be viewed as a direct threat to our democracy. (Let us not forget who Mr. The Large represents.)

But PASOK's attacks on GD, and the decision by the justice system to release the other GD officials did not stop with Venizelos. Most PASOK officials at Harilaou Trikoupi also heavily criticized the head of Justice Mr. Athanasiosl, who they said, "had created the impression that all the evidence (against GD) was tied".

Another report on defencenet said that after PASOK's political council meeting, it was decided that they will not comment on the case until the justice system decided what to do with GD member Christos Papas. (In other words, if the Greek justice system decides to release Papas then is it safe to assume that they will come out with vicious attacks against the justice system again, threaten to pull their MPs from the coalition government, and/or ask for the resignations of both the head of the Police Department and the Minister of Order?)

Is this PASOK's (= establishment's) view of an independent Greek justice system that respects the integrity of democracy and the rule of law? The obvious answer is a loud NO.

Some may ask, why such a menace by Venizelos against GD. Good question. Let us not forget who Venizelos represents and what position he holds in the government. Currently he is Minister of Foreign Affairs and this alone says a lot. This Ministry obviously handles geopolitical issues, and there are many national issues brewing at the moment in our corner of the world under his command. (Which should not allow many Greeks to sleep easy at nights).

If you are wondering how the "establishment" operated under PASOK's rule, then you can either go back in time and begin reading some headlines between 1996-2004 or you can also watch the video below -at about 27 minutes into the show-, where veteran journalist George Trangas reveals how he was persecuted by the Greek justice system for exposing a series of strategies from Turkey, and the West (US and/or Germany) full of anti-Hellenic actions that are against Greece's national interests. These two strategies, he claims, were presented to him by Antonis Samaras in the late 90s. Keep in mind that Venizelos is Simitis' protege and as we noted before the eyes and ears of the Troika in Greece. What Trangas reveals at this point in the video only proves our theory that the persecution of Golden Dawn has more dimensions than those presented in this article, as well as by the poor arguments made on the mainstream media.

So what are the geopolitical factors involved currently?

We discovered a small analysis on this on the defence-point website. For one, is it a coincidence that the arrests of the Golden Dawn MPs occurred during the time when Evangelos -The Large- Venizelos was in the United States? More importantly isn't it strange that the arrests occurred on the day that Antonis Samaras was flying out to the US to meet with Venizelos who had prepared the groundwork -with very prominent organizations in the US- on how to "sell Greece" better and make it more appealing?

Basically Venizelos' groundwork centers around the convening of a High Level Cooperation Council (or the joint meeting of the Cabinet of Greece and Israel) which is due in a couple of days. For this, Samaras will pay an official visit to Israel on October 8 where he is due to meet with President of Israel Shimon Peres and the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos and then go on to Tel Aviv where he is expected to seal this strategical and geopolitical alliance between Athens and Tel Aviv, Let us not forget that Israel has a decisive stance on Greek (and Cypriot) geopolitical and energy issues (and let us also remember that the banking system runs on money from energy. It is starting to make sense now isn't it?).

But before all this happens, Samaras had to sell Greece to these influential people. That is why it is no surprise why he held a series of meetings with the American Jewish lobby as well as with various prominent American policy makers (who have not really hidden their negativity against the GD party) because we all know that these are the most influential groups world wide for investment and most importantly matters of energy. Greece is getting ready to delineate its EEZ and the timing of these meetings, the sealing of the Greece, Cyprus and Israel alliance comes at the right moment.

Meanwhile, many Greek reports claim that one of the reasons the State decided to crackdown on Golden Dawn -at this particular time- may have something to do with the requests by various Jewish lobbies that have been pressuring Samaras to do away with the Greek far-party.

This is not as far-fetched as it sounds. Just a few days before Samaras went to New York, the Executive Director of the American Jewish Lobby urged Greece to take action against Golden Dawn. We discovered this article from GreekReporter:
     "David Harris, Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the largest Jewish organization in the U.S., said he believes that the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party “is a clear threat to Greece”. The announcement of the American Jewish organization was released after an online article from extremists claimed that the Central Board of the Jewish Organizations in Greece created the recent anti-national hysteria against Golden Dawn, which warned the group to stay out of the affairs of Greece. The threats of Golden Dawn against the Jewish organizations began as a response in a press release issued by the Central Board of Jewish Organizations in Greece in which they asked all political parties in the country to work together to pass a “strong and effective bill that will face the problems of racism, bigotry and anti-Semitism” while requesting the legislative action to ban the political parties that promote Nazi ideology." - Source USA-GreekReporter
Harris apparently held a meeting with Samaras in New York on Monday. And following the arrests of GD officials we also discovered this story from the New Observer:
     "The arrests of all the democratically-elected Golden Dawn parliamentarians followed demands by Greece’s Jewish lobby that action be taken against what they called “racists” - even though the Jewish state is the most overtly racist country in the world and even checks the DNA of potential immigrants in order to make sure their own gene pool remains purely Jewish." Source - New Observer
While in New York, Samaras gave a speech to the American Jewish Committee, where he said that he would do whatever was necessary to “completely eradicate” the Golden Dawn from Greek political life. Ronald Lauder, the head of the World Jewish Congress, called for Golden Dawn to be destroyed five days prior to the detention of GD’s leaders. An article on the World Jewish Congress’s website candidly outlines Lauder’s role in this:
     "Words of condemnation, although important, won’t suffice. Greece’s leaders need to take action against those who create a climate of fear and who pose a threat to many of their fellow citizens. Greece’s democratic forces have a moral obligation to unite against Golden Dawn leaders”, especially those who publicly incite to crimes, preach hate against minorities, deny and belittle the Holocaust, or viciously assault people based on the color of their skin, their ethnic background, or their political views,” declared Lauder. He lamented that, despite assurances given to him and others by Prime Minister Samaras and members of his government, no concrete bill has been adopted by the Greek governing coalition due to internal disagreements.
      “There can be no legitimate place in the Greek parliament for parties whose public statements and actions are racist or anti-Semitic and who operate in many ways like the Nazis did seventy years ago. If legislation is insufficient to deal with such organizations and individuals, it ought to be strengthened, because the people of Greece deserve to be protected from the forces that seek to destroy liberal democracy and reject even basic civil rights,” said the WJC president.
     "In March 2013, the WJC held a meeting of its Executive Committee in Thessaloniki. In a resolution, leaders urged the Greek authorities “to take serious and concerted actions against Holocaust denial, anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia; implement all relevant European laws in that domain; and unite all democratic forces against the enemies of democracy, so as not to allow society to drift into the darkness of racial hatred and anti-Semitism" Source - Source World Jewish Congress website
But it wasn't only this lobby that urged the Greek government to take action against the Golden Dawn party, it was also the European Jewish Congress as well. We discovered this story on the Canadian CBC:
     "On Sunday, the Brussels-based European Jewish Congress welcomed the crackdown on Golden Dawn, calling it a long overdue move which will hopefully send a very strong message to neo-Nazis in Greece and across Europe. In a statement, congress President Moshe Kantor, said: We congratulate Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on the crackdown … and hope that the Greek leadership will make this a central part of the European Union presidency, which they will assume in January 2014." Source CBC
And finally we discovered this article on the Jerusalem Post (which upset us, because the individuals who made these comments influence the Greek banking sector):
     "As Jews, we are very happy” about the arrests, Benjamin Albalas, head of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS), told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. 'This group, I don't call them a party, is a neo-Nazi group and I think that the government will go until the end.'
     David Saltiel, former president of the KIS, told the Post that he didn’t see a blanket ban of the party in the offing, but did encourage the removal of the party’s leadership. Golden Dawn is 'not a political party, but a gang,' he said, echoing his successor. 'The Jewish community always said that the Golden Dawn was a Nazi party and that the government has to be aware. Either they will ban Golden Dawn, or dismantle it – one way or the other – but Golden Dawn as we knew it is over for good,' he said. Source - Jerusalem Post
Meanwhile, in Europe, Angela Merkel's designs of a Europe -built on a German prototype- is currently in the air. Word has it that Italy's Sylvio Berluscconi -or the bad boy of Europe- had warned that if the government of Leta (which is the Troika's voice in Italy) insisted on increasing the Value Added Tax (VAT) against the will of the Italian people then he would pull out his MPs from government, and he did! The center-leftist Leta -and the Troika- ignored his warning and as a result, five prominent Italian MPs pulled out of government, but their resignations were not accepted by Leta. Obviously this rocky situation in Italy is giving Merkel a migraine, and so it is more than obvious that another political crisis in Greece would only add to her pain and would only weaken her almighty Euro and further endanger the Eurozone.

And she is not alone. Senior members of the European Commission said that the release of any GD officials, even under restrictive conditions, demolishes the assurances that Brussels had received from the Greek Government that the Greek state (and the EU) were "finished with the neo-Nazis." (Question: Who promised Brussels that they were finished with GD? Let us guess... Does it come in a Large size?)

In Greece, aside from the usual slandering and mud-slinging that has been going on from the Greek press against Golden Dawn we also discovered another whopper of a story!

A report on Olympia on Wednesday said that officials at Kathimerini and SKAI channel left it to be understood that the release of the GD officials, was because the Greek justice system was influenced by forces close to former leader of ND Costas Karamanlis.  As incredible as this sounds, it has a clearer meaning if you know how to read between the lines and if you look back on the history of Karamanlis' term in government -especially after the fires in the Peloponnese and just before the 2008 fires in central Athens-. He cracked down on the Greek media, and was criticized for it 24/7 and if you study his relationship with Brussels and the West during this period you will automatically realize that Karamanlis was not well-liked in Brussels, and he was especially not like by the Bush administration because he had made a decision to form energy alliance with Russia, had vetoed FYROM's entry to NATO and even had been against the dangerous Annan plan for Cyprus. What does this all mean? Simple: They (meaning officials at Kathimerini) are trying to show that the justice system was influenced by non-Western tones -via Karamanlis-. If this is so, is it safe then to assume that GD is being persecuted because of pro-Western tones? (Good one! :-) ) (Check out the story on olympia)

In short, the Greek State was and is under a lot of pressure to bump heads with Golden Dawn, or the same forces that it helped to create. Also, the timing for the arrests is too coincidental, but it remains to be seen how all this will sell with these foreign interests because whether we like it or not -and thanks to George Papandreou- we are bound hand and foot to all of them through the unconstitutional memorandums.

In conclusion, it may not matter at all whether or not the Golden Dawn is guilty of all the crimes it has been charged with, the establishment clearly wants them out of the way and if the establishment wants you out of the way for any given reason, they will raise hell on high water until they achieve this. They control our banks, our energy and the food on our tables, and they can make you disappear, discredit you and even send you sailing in a gutter at a flick of a wrist. Will the Greek justice system prevail, will it stand on its own and examine this case objectively and independently without allowing all these forces to intimidate it? No one knows. But seriously folks, let us be realistic, it is going to be very difficult, when we know that most of the banks, the rating agencies, the think tanks and the policy makers make up the so-called "establishment".

This is ofcourse unless GD compromises... The question is will they?

Stay tuned Frappers.




References in Greek
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