On Wednesday the Greek parliament had a chance to finally expose Evangelos Venizelos for what he really is, but again, the conservatives were too weak and folded -as usual-. With the help of the DIMAR party, half of the Greek parliament voted against the proposal for a probe into the dirty dealings of several submarine contracts that were signed under the George Papandreou government by none other than Evangelos Venizelos and George Papakonstantinou.
SYRIZA president Alexis Tsipras and the president of PASOK Evangelos Venizelos had an all-out war in Parliament on Wednesday when the discussion for the formation of a Committee to investigate the submarine scandal, began early in the morning.
It pains us here at HellasFrappe but Venizelos managed to get the backing of New Democracy and obviously from his PASOK compatriots - K. Skandalidis, P. Koukoulopoulos, F. Sahinidis, P. Rigas and K. Triantafyllos.
Many within New Democracy’s Parliamentary Group are frustrated by this case, since they did not wish to support Venizelos because it directly contradicts the party’s scathing criticism of how the submarine scandal had been handled, but it looks like they helped him to wiggle out of this mess. Prior to the vote, some MPs such as Michelakis, Meimarakis and Tasoulas were particularly vocal in their criticism but again, they forgot everything on Wednesday and helped Venizelos to clean his slate.
Venizelos raised the tone of the discussion, since he was convinced that the inquiry is a “contract for a political assassination or injury”, which he attributes to “interests that have been harmed by my politics”. In fact Venizelos claims that Mr. Tsipras is supporting these particular interests.
However... Venizelos does not say, and never once has said, whether the allegations are true or not.
Prior to the discussion, SYRIZA said that if PASOK had any evidence to suggest that they were serving some type of “interests”, then they Venizelos' party should go public with the information. Further more, they claim that there are no personal differences between the two leaders and that the purpose of the inquiry is to unveil “the timeless political responsibilities” of those who handled the submarine case and are part of the “vicious two-party system”.
Prior to the discussion in Parliament, the Independent Greek Party announced that it intended to support SYRIZA’s proposal on the inquiry. Let us not forget that the party's leader Panos Kammenos has been campaigning this issue since 1998.
Similarly, the Communist party KKE had expressed its support of SYRIZA’s inquiry proposal, but noted that such a move is pointless.
But former government partners DIMAR said they would vote against the proposal on the grounds that it incited an artificial polarization and led to the criminalization of political debate, which is taken advantage by the enemies of parliamentarism.
(Oh brother....)
HellasFrappe has never politically supported SYRIZA, but we applaud them for their proposal to set up this parliamentary committee. This huge scandal, -which directly hits the "heart" PASOK-, and which has been featured on HellasFrappe on numerous occasions, could of buried Venizelos and totally exposed him for all his dirty dealings, but unfortunately he was able to once again worm his way out of trouble. He was once again saved by the weak conservative government of Antonis Samaras (which is very, very shameful) and DIMAR which was expected. Nonetheless, he cannot shake off the tarnish and the questions that have risen because of these shady deals.
So what are these deals about?
Well the case involves several contracts that were made under the PASOK government of George Papandreou (specifically the contracts that were signed by Evangelos Venizelos and George Papakostantinou). Specifically they concern the revision of Neptune II submarine contracts, which were signed in September 2010 and concerned the purchase of two additional submarines Type 214 class PAPANIKOLIS.
It should be reiterated that Greece has dished out at least 132 million Euros for two additional submarines, and yet our country has not even received a nut a bolt yet!
SYRIZA did its homework really well, and it identified the main points of the scandal which the military news site defencenet had featured two years ago and which was then translated here on HellasFrappe.
The following six charges -and/or questions- were raised as a result. (and yes... they do indeed raise some eyebrows about the contracts signed by Mr. Evangelos the Large):
1. How much did the letters of guarantee cost -meaning those from German banks- that Evangelos Venizelos and George Papakonstantinou returned following the enactment of Law 3885/2010? What is the total amount in the letters of guarantee that is now in the hands of the Greek government and that calls for the implementation of this program?
2. What is the share capital worth of Mr. Iskandar Safa's company which Evangelos Venizelos transferred to the Skaramanga Shipyards? Is this amount enough to secure the requirements set forth by the Greek State?
3. What is the credit value of the offsets that were owned by the Germans of HDW and that were easily deleted by Evangelos Venizelos after endorsing the enactment of Law 3885/2010? What is the credit value of the offsets that were received in return?
4. How does Venizelos explain the fact that the "investor" (or Mr. Iskandar Safa ) never invested a single (1) Euro in equipment and/or expertise, but he somehow received over 400 million Euros, and the ENAE company a further 2 billion, from the George Papandreou administration for submarines that were later abandoned and left unattended to?
5. Can Venizelos talk about the front payments, that (quite suspiciously) do not involve the progress of work, but were nonetheless paid to a company that never provided any satisfactory guarantees that it would maintain the partnerships that were needed to complete the project active?
6. Can Venizelos explain how the contract -which he himself signed and negotiated- allows this businessman to (now) claim that there is not enough ($$$) to complete the submarines?
Now some may be asking what business did Papakostantinou have with these contracts:
Well the Type 214 submarine scandal took on a whole new dimension, when the name Andrea Rossoni was discovered. Former Finance Minister George Papakostaninou and A.Rossoni are related (as discovered via the controversial Lagarde list since the latter is married to Papakostantinou's relative).
So who is this mystery man (Mr. Rossonis)?
Rossoni is the man who apparently helped to take the Hellenic navy forward and who belongs to a group that promoted the revision of the Neptune II defense contract. He is a very successful defence systems dealer (middleman) who supplied parts for the armament programs of the Hellenic Navy. (And he did this through the law that was enacted by Evangelos Venizelos in September 2010 while amending the Convention Neptune II contract).
Because of Rossini's lobbying, the Germans, who were apparently obligated to pay hundreds of millions of Euros in dues, received a further order for two more submarines via Rossini's pal Iskandar Safa.
In other words, Greece had signed the Memorandum, and all contracts of this nature should have logically been frozen, or at least placed on the back burner, but the German ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems Company convinced Greek officials to accept two submarines so that the failed -and from what some describe scandalous- Neptune II program can close quickly. When this occurred G.Papakonstantinou approved an additional 500 million Euros which was then paid to the German company and to Iskandar Safa!
So from what it known until today Papakostantinou signed the transfer of the Skaramanga Shipyards to his friend A.Rossonis and to I.Safa.
From what has been presented so far Papakostantinou signed the transfer of the Skaramanga Shipyards to his friend A.Rossonis and to I.Safa.
Recap- Rossonis is a relative (implicated on the controversial Lagarde List). Coincidence? Or is it? Apparently not because a separate report on defencenet months ago had clearly stated that Papakonstantinou sent a message to Evangelos The Large telling him that he might of approved the disbursement amount and the transfer of shipyards, but in all reality it was him (Evangelos) who made the request and signed the law that allowed Safa to become a richer man, and at the same time left the Hellenic Navy without any submarines.
Believe it or not folks, he could be telling the truth. We never thought we would say that here on HellasFrappe, because we personally do not like this man, but Papakostantinou is not lying.
Here is the story behind the story: KruppThyssen is a straight company as far as one can tell. On December 8th, 2011 – following numerous graft charges being thrown at Ferrostaal by judges throughout Germany– Der Spiegel reported that Krupp was pulling out of MFI, effective immediately. The publication observed "ThyssenKrupp’s planned withdrawal is believed to be linked to a corruption scandal involving Ferrostaal. The Munich public prosecutor’s office has accused Ferrostaal of paying millions of euros in bribes to Greece related to the purchase of 214-class submarines."
The man in charge of the Defense portfolio in Greece at the time, or from 2009-2011, was none other than Evangelos Venizelos. The very same man who authored the law to make all Greek Government ministers immune from corruption prosecutions. Read more by clicking here - http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.com/2012/03/venizelos-overflowing-bank-account-and.html
The New Democracy party should have distanced itself from this issue, and not allow Venizelos to throw his weight around. A couple of weeks ago, after SYRIZA made the proposal, National Defence Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos left it to be understood that he was not going to cover-up and/or back up Venizelos on the issue of revising the Neptune II contracts (which as we said earlier call for the modernization of the Type 209/1200 ton submarines which were replaced via the supply of two newer submarines Type 214 class PAPANIKOLIS.
He also left it to be understood that past "sinful procurement contracts and offsets that functioned as a conduit suspicious payments" existed, and when analyzing the revision contract he said that "the contract in 2010 attempted to put an end to them."
But they saved his sorry b**tt.
The New Democracy party did not place its signature on this fiasco-law, unlike the LAOS party of Mr. Flip-Flop (Kolotoumba) George Karatzaferis, who we all know was very, very, VERY close to PASOK, but because they are so terrified of SYRIZA coming in to government -and giving away everything that George Papandreou did not have a chance to give- that they voted to save Evang. the "Large".
Avramopoulos forgot that he had said that the government of Antonis Samaras is not intimidated and/or afraid of allowing such a probing committee to be set up, because the actions adopted by this government so far have been transparent and crystal clear. Well are they?
And he also forgets that he said that: If certain people had not worked underground with this issue then there would be nothing to examine in the first place.
But again... these were just words!
He also forgets that he torpedoed the contract signed by Venizelos by saying that "payments for submarines to the enactment of the law amounted to 2.33 billion Euros after the enactment - May 2011 - an additional 362 million paid (Meaning: The 132 million Euros concerned the submarines that WOULD be constructed, and Greece has yet -till this very day- to receive anything from these contracts, not even a small little nut and bolt).
And finally he also forgets that he said:
"When we (the New Democracy party) rose to power all payments were stopped. This issue was inherited. The state may continue, but governments do not have to".On his part SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras had said that that there are "huge political responsibilities" (involved in this case) because in 2010 the contract did not allow Greece to ignore future payments.
Clearly, there is a huge crime being played out in front of our eyes by these characters against Greek taxpayers. The whole thing screams out SCANDAL and yet... Venizelos was saved!
What will it take for justice to prevail in this country? on't they realize that the contract signed in 2010 by Papakonstantinou and Venizelos is an agreement that has to be examined well for its feasibility?
Akis Tsochatzopoulos was not the only one that fiddled around with defence system contracts.
Our opinion here at HellasFrappe is that SYRIZA raised the anti against the PASOK party on this matter and especially its leader Evangelos Venizelos for all the obvious reasons -or to win more center-left voters-. The surprise was Dimtris Avramopoulos and his handling of the whole case, but as we all see, the conservatives -FOR YET ANOTHER TIME- could not bring down the sappy, corrupt Green House of PASOK.
(And this is indeed TRAGIC. Imagine how corrupt the public sector is, how GREEN it is, and how difficult it is to clean up house!)
Even though Avramopoulos had made it perfectly clear weeks ago that the New Democracy party would not cover-up the dirty dealings of Evangelos -The Large- again, they did! (And HellasFrappe is truly saddened by this. Shame on them!)
This whole case just proves that we are clueless as a society when it comes to matters of defence system contracts and we do not know how billions of euros change hands. This is our money! Why do we as a society ignore such issues?
We will give you an example as to how much money is involved here. In one of our previous posts we discovered that Greece was offered two free submarines for upgrading one contract, instead of modernizing another ongoing program, but the government at the time opted to pay almost three quarters of a billion euros following the signatures of PASOK and LAOS! (The cost of 209/1400 AIP was slightly lower, or about 70 million from the 214.)
This is almost a BILLION... Comprente?
In that same article we discovered that the German "gifts", (which were necessary because the upgrade to the Neptune II program of 209/1200 with AIP had failed on the OCEAN S118). And we also found out that the upgrading on the OCEAN never occurred, and this is one of the reasons that they kept on postponing the delivery of these systems from September 2009. Today, the cost of these systems is calculated at some 500 million Euros. Read more by clicking here - http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.com/2012/04/new-submarine-scandal-in-works-starring.html
And that is just a tiny example of how clueless we are!
And a few words about the media and the reports on today's war in parliament. We all know that the media -especially MEGA channel- loves Venizelos, so it did not come as a surprise to us here at HellasFrappe that they only focused on the probe committee and how SYRIZA lost its right to organize this committee, but they never once spoke (or have ever spoken) about the story behind the story. As you read above, there are too many grey areas in these deals, and it needs to be investigated. But the 1% once again, protected its own.
What a crying shame!
This was a perfect opportunity to finally expose Venizelos for what he truly is, because in our opinion some officials in PASOK do not have the dignity and/or the manhood to do so. But then again, when did they ever take responsibility for all their actions? NEVER!
Venizelos is not a saint and it is high time that he be exposed. It is high time that all these green socialists -who are suspiciously filthy rich- be exposed. Aside from the ridiculous immunity law which he devised to save his buddies in PASOK, one really has to question where he obtained all his wealth from. Back in November 2012 we had featured a letter from Mr. Vaxevanis to Venizelos titled "“Politics without morality is the morality of tyrants”. If you want to read more about the links between Greek politicians (especially in PASOK) with some pretty shady companies then this would be a good place to start, we have given a plethora of information there. Also... you will get a rude awakening as to who Venizelos really is. Please click here to read the relevant article. - http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.com/2012/11/skaramagas-vaxevanis-points-to-pasok.html
(Personal msg to New Democracy from HellasFrappe: SHAMEEEE! Following Papandreou, Pachtas, Stathakis, you also decided to save Evang. The Large's huge b**tt... We are certain that kickbacks probably took center stage to swing the vote in some particular way -either that, or you were threatened that you would not be included on the next electoral list- but we are also convinced that they did not sink into 130 accounts, so why the hell did you not use this opportunity to expose him for what he truly is? The bones of Ethnarchis are turning... Is this why you wanted his nephew Costas out of the way? So that Simitis, Venizelos and the Greek oligarchs can rule this nation again? Shame on all of you!)
For more about this we suggest reading:
NEW SUBMARINE SCANDAL In The Works Starring E.Venizelos
http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.gr/2012/04/new-submarine-scandal-in-works-starring.html
Venizelos, An Overflowing Bank Account and German Arms Bribery
http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.gr/2012/03/venizelos-overflowing-bank-account-and.html
References:
- http://www.skai.gr/news/politics/article/248268/venizelos-o-suriza-den-epithumei-ti-statherotita-kai-tin-exodo-apo-tin-krisi/
- http://www.newsbomb.gr/politikh/story/383647/venizelos-se-papadimoyliehete-parei-genosimagiati-den-sas-vlepo-kala
- http://www.capital.gr/News.asp?id=1927457
- http://www.imerisia.gr/article.asp?catid=26509&subid=2&pubid=113186743
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