SPECIAL REPORT - A "Bug" by Secret Services ... Stings SYRIZA & Heats Up New Political Crisis

As we all know the theory of the two extremes in Greece is not just rhetoric because every one knows that all political forces whether they be left and/or right -anywhere in the world- always have always had radical components within them. The Republicans in the US have the Tea Party, the Political science terms this as the horseshoe theory, and the earliest use of this term appears to be from Jean-Pierre Faye's book Le Siècle des idéologies. In fact Faye argues that rather than the far left and the far right being at opposite and opposing ends of a linear political continuum, they in fact closely resemble one another, much like the ends of a horseshoe. Specifically, the two ends share an authoritarian element.

Example: In extreme left political systems (such as communism) the government takes control of the economic resources. In extreme right political systems (such as fascism) the government also takes control of the economic life, creating a central planning. With both extremes, this theory asserts, the power elite are opposed to genuine clean elections, genuinely free media and speech, and similar democratic institutions that characterise the political center.

In Greece, and for many years, the Right has/had the far-Right hardliners Golden Dawn, while the Left has -and still does- the radical ANTARSYA group, as well as other radical leftist elements.

In the aftermath of the recent arrests of Golden Dawn members, a new debate has started in Greece.

Specifically, last Friday, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras sent an indirect message to SYRIZA by launching an attack on opposition parties that fail to categorically denounce violent acts, and he was particularly strict with his words on those parties that maintain that there is good and bad sort of violence.

While addressing New Democracy’s political committee, and while referring to the arson attack on the Skouries gold mine earlier this year, Samaras said that it is unacceptable for Greek citizens to differentiate between good and bad violence adding that illegal activity and criminal behavior should never be viewed as good, praiseworthy and moral.

(So far so good, we totally agree. Violence does not have a pretty or ugly side, it is still violence!)

But his statements did not sit well with the main opposition SYRIZA party which responded by characterizing Samaras as the “high priest of political division and the theory of the two extremes.” In fact SYRIZA MP Dimitris Papadimoulis said that the theory that draws parallels between his party as well as the far-right Golden Dawn party only damages the country and democracy.
   
Obviously after these statements, the issue dominated most of the headlines over the weekend which escalated on Sunday when a shocking report sparked a new heated debate.

Specifically, an article by the Athens daily ProtoThema titled "A bug has stung him" concerns the allegations from SYRIZA which claim that the telephones of their MPs were being tapped into by Greek intelligence officials and at the same time opens a debate about the theory of the two extremes.

The issue, which has sparked fierce political confrontation between the government and the main opposition SYRIZA party, and is being viewed by some political analysts as a prologue to a new political crisis.

According to what was suggested in the article, the debate about whether or not SYRIZA engaged in violent acts -or other such operations- involves five cases, which the paper suggested may soon be closer investigated by the Greek judicial system.

* The first case involves the arson attack at the Skouries gold mine in Halkidiki. Those involved in this attack apparently contacted a SYRIZA MP of the area.

* The second case involves the fatal arson attack and at the Marfin bank on Stadiou Street several years ago, which resulted in the death of three people (and an unborn child), with rumors that claim thare there are two people involved here that have been identified to be components of SYRIZA.

* The third case -according to ProtoThema- involves a regional member of SYRIZA of some Aegean island who is shockingly associated -and/or involved with- the Turkish secret service MIT (this according to the surveillance that has been conducted from the National Intelligence Service -EYP- and to the information cited by the newspaper).

* The fourth case concerns another SYRIZA member which the newspaper notes has contact with organizations engaged FYROManian propaganda in Northern Greece.

* The fifth case involves the night of the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos. According to the paper, Greek intelligence has evidence that in the first two hours after the incident a former component of SYRIZA sent out 55,000 text messages from her phone to students with content that can be considered as encouraging them to take part in a violent uprising. (December 2008 riots against the government of Costas Karamanlis).

With such strong allegations, the newspaper probably has -and/or is basing its information- on evidence that Greek intelligence has.

And if all the above information is true, then SYRIZA has a lot of explaining to do.

Exactly for whom and for what purpose has SYRIZA been working for because with such crimes they have not only betrayed the Greek state, this country's foreign policy, as well as caused massive destruction for tens of hundreds of shops and store owners in Athens and other areas of the country, but they have also threatened lives and may be covering up the murder of three innocent people (including an unborn child).

If authorities have such evidence in their hands, or basically material that implicates members to any of the above cases, then we are dealing with an extremely dangerous situation here, and it should be cleared up by the justice system as quickly as possible.

We have often slammed SYRIZA from HellasFrappe for being too Turk friendly, or too FYROM friendly, for but we would have never imagined that its members would betray this country's foreign policy by siding with the other side.

When the article was published, SYRIZA came out with a very harsh statement, and an unprecedented war of words began between the newspaper and the main opposition party. In a statement, SYRIZA outwardely exposed various cases with which the shareholders and publishers of ProtoThema are apparently implicated in.

SYRIZA may complain but in its Thursday edition of its own party newspaper Avgi  claimed that the government was preparing a campaign of "political provocation" aimed at "social movements, the left and mainly Syriza by mobilising parastate elements but also state organs". (All this ofcourse one day before Samaras' speech against the two extremes).

In an article titled "they're setting up a provocation", the unsigned Avgi article claimed that a small group within Samaras' circle was preparing a campaign to "target the violence of the left". The team included the prime minister, his advisers, PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos, and the ministers of public order and justice.

The campaign, said Avgi, would have three elements:

• Firstly, a media campaign would be launched against "leftwing violence".
• Then this would be accompanied by the systematic surveillance of SYRIZA figures in order to establish direct links between the opposition and violence. 
• A third element would involve the mobilisation of the judiciary to crack down on social movements associated with the left using the laws against criminal organisations that were utilised against Golden Dawn.

Avgi also noted that the campaign would be underpinned by the so-called theory of the two extremes, which seeks to portray the left and Golden Dawn as two sides of the one coin.

And while all this was going on, New Democracy MP and former minister, Aris Spiliotopoulos tabled a parliamentary question seeking to know when EYP's wiretapping of Golden Dawn MPs began and whether a prosecutor had authorised them to begin with. Spiliotopoulos also requested to learn how EYP ensured that only the criminal, and not the political, activities of the party were monitored, given that confidential reports from the Greek intelligence unit were leaked to the press that contained, among others, information relating to the sexual preferences of one of the indicted Golden Dawn MPs.

The obvious conclusion is that if they did this without Golden Dawn's knowledge, then we can accept that this may have also been done against SYRIZA.

In a nutshell: If we characterize Golden Dawn as a vile group then we can also safely assume that SYRIZA contains Maoist and other nasty anti-democratic elements within its party and it too must immediately relieve itself from these extremist and anarchic elements. Maoist elements do not sound as frightening and as offensive as the word "Nazi" does, but if one reads up about this then they will discover that it really does not differ that much. In fact its followers, known as Maoists, consider it as an anti-Revisionist form of Marxism-Leninism. Maoist organizations draw upon Mao's ideology of the People's War, mobilizing large parts of rural populations to revolt against established institutions by engaging in guerrilla warfare.

This from Wikipedia: Maoism has fallen out of favour within the Communist Party of China, beginning with Deng Xiaoping's reforms in 1978. Deng believed that Maoism showed the dangers of "ultra-leftism", manifested in the harm perpetrated by the various mass movements that characterized the Maoist era.
The implementation of Maoist thought in China may have been responsible for over 70 million deaths during peacetime, with the Cultural Revolution, Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957-58, and the Great Leap Forward. Because of Mao's land reforms during the Great Leap Forward, which resulted in famines, thirty million perished between 1958 and 1961. By the end of 1961 the birth rate was nearly cut in half because of malnutrition. Active campaigns, including party purges and "reeducation" resulted in imprisonment and/or the execution of those deemed contrary to the implementation of Maoist ideals. The incidents of destruction of cultural heritage, religion, and art remain controversial. For more discussion of this period, see the article Cultural Revolution.

Do you see any difference between Hilter and the era of Maoist thought?

We think not..

Conclusion: We agree with Samaras on the theory of the two extremes, and we noted this in our intro paragraph, but the political establishment is certainly not in a position to come across as the guarantor of democracy and stability in this country when we all know that they created this crisis to begin with. Our advice to them -and to all the forces in parliament who talk democracy but only define it by numbers that are friendly to the pocket and not in practice- would be to come to terms with all of their arrogant and malevolent hypocrisy and actions through the years, correct their mistakes and then begin cracking down on extreme left and extreme right elements.

We think this crackdown on both the radical left and the radical right is not about a balance of democracy, but is rather about a further penetration of control from the EU. And this is because radical right-wing and radical left-wing parties have consistently opposed the project of European integration and have succeeded not only in distinguishing themselves from mainstream parties on this dimension, but have also managed to mobilise voters in European Parliament (EP) elections and win consider-able support. This obviously scares the establishment which is trying to keep its control on the masses.

If the EU respects democracy, then it should respect all political ideologies. Condemning one party because of the actions of a few is not democratic. Because if we take this argument to heart, and with the information presented in ProtoThema, SYRIZA must too be penalized for its actions just like Golden Dawn was.


Now its too late...

Signed
Marina Spanos

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BUSTED - Kassidiaris' Lawyer Calls On Supreme Court To Investigate False Press Reports About GD Case (VIDEO)

The face of ANT1 news show host George Papadakis was in disarray on Wednesday morning, when well-known criminal lawyer Paul Sarakis, who undertook the defense of Golden Dawn party spokesman, and MP, Ilias Kassidiaris, totally exposed the mainstream media when he revealed that the information that is being leaked in the news about the actions of Golden Dawn (such as that they want to bust into the Greek Parliament with tanks, or that they would used firecrackers on people) has no relation whatsoever with this case and is all false! Sarakis revealed that a major Athens news paper has been spreading this information to select reporters around the country, but the information has no relation whatsoever to the case and the so-called evidence presented by all these witnesses, is nothing but a pack of lies. He said he has been briefed by court officials that the information in the Greek press is false, and this is why he decided that it was mandatory to call on the Supreme Court of Greece to intervene immediately.

     "How is it that a specific newspaper (which belongs to a well known media giant) has depositions in its hands (or court documents) when the defence lawyers in this case do not?"
     "My formal complaint comes after the briefing I received from judicial authorities themselves."

He said that the evidence presented in the Greek press has no relation whatsoever with the case, nor have any of these depositions -and/or testimonies- been recorded by judicial authorities.

     "I repeat, classified judicial information is being circulated to specific journalists, and a specific newspaper and/or prosecution material. Are we living under a regime? Who is leading this action (referring to the falsified testimonies which have been published by specific press giants)? Who is intervening (in the work of the judicial system)? Who is making premature announcements (on evidence and testimonies that do not even exist)? These kind of actions do not occur in a democracy and in a republic that respects law and order."

In a play to defend his mainstream buddies, George Papadakis attempted to excuse the actions of his peers by insisting that the Golden Dawn party's ideologies are offensive but Sarakis quickly put him in his place by reminding him that the Greek democracy -and justice system- does not demonize people because of beliefs and ideologies, but only of criminal behavior.

Greg Palast Analyzes Golden Dawn Case, Warns SYRIΖΑ That It Is Next!

credit www.GregPalast.com

The following article is an incredible analysis from former BBC reporter Greg Palast on the recent arrests of several Golden Dawn party members and the Greek economic crisis. HellasFrappe is quite impressed with his views -and nose for news- on both these issues, and we want to applaud him because he is 100 percent spot on! We just want to remind him that Pavlos Fyssas was an active member of the ANTARSYA far-left party, and the man that murdered him was a self-proclaimed member of Golden Dawn who was a veteran supporter of the Greek Communist Party of Greece. Nonetheless, we want to commend him for telling it like it is! This is a MUST READ Frappers. Enjoy!

The Golden Dawn Murder Case
Larry Summers and the New Fascism

Monday, October 7, 2013 - On September 18, hip-hop artist Pavlos Fyssas, a.k.a. Killah P, was stabbed outside a bar in Keratsini, Greece. Larry Summers has an air-tight alibi.  But I don't believe it. Larry didn’t hold the knife: The confessed killer is some twisted member of Golden Dawn, a political party made up of skin-head freaks, anti-immigrant fear-mongers, anti-Muslim/ anti-Semitic/ anti-Albanian sociopaths and ultra-patriot fruitcakes. Think of it as the Tea Party goes Greek.

By Greg Palast for Truthout
www.GregPalast.com

Following Fyssas’ killing, other groups of dangerous psychopathic misfits, namely the European Union and Greece’s governing coalition, moved to ban Golden Dawn.

Over the weekend, Greece’s rulers arrested six members of Parliament who belong to Golden Dawn.  Apparently, Greece’s political leaders prefer democracy as defined by Egypt’s General Sisi to the precepts of Aristotle and Thomas Jefferson.

To my friends on the Greek Left:  It’s sickening to watch you cheer the arrest of Golden Dawn parliamentarians.

Mark my words:  You are next.

Listen up:

My investigation reveals that behind the banning of Golden Dawn, besides the usual European distaste for democracy, is something far more sinister:  the ruling parties are distracting the public from their own involvement in the crime.

The rise in violence and hate-crimes is no surprise. The official unemployment rate in Greece is 28%, and over 60% among young men.  No wonder desperate youths are wrapping batons in Greek flags and beating immigrants: When people are pressed to the wall, they hunt for their tormentors –– and too often find their fellow victims to blame.

Economic devastation breeds fascism.  In the 1930s, the hungry and angry sought relief in hyper-patriotism, racism and pogroms.  In the 1980s Reagan Recession in the USA, when factories shut down in the Midwest, the hopeless unemployed joined right-wing skinhead cults and went on a killing rampage –– beginning with the murder of Jewish journalist Alan Berg and ending with the bombing of a government building in Oklahoma, killing 168 people.


Vultures Over Athens

Golden Dawn is a symptom of the nation's illness, not its cause.  Unfortunately, the Brown-shirts go after easy targets –– Pakistanis, Gypsies, Africans, whoever is different and easy to whack.  It's a lot easier to stab a hip-hop rapper than it is to go after a hedge-fund shark.

The real culprits behind the suffering are well camouflaged.  So let me name some:  In Greece, we begin with billionaires Kenneth Dart and Paul “The Vulture” Singer.

Dart and Singer bought up Greek government bonds for pennies on the dollar.  While the holders of 97% of Greek bonds agreed to accept a loss of 75% of their value, Dart and Singer demanded several hundred percent more than they paid.  Then Dart and Singer threatened the dead-broke Greek government. If Greece did not pay this ransom, Dart and Singer would declare Greek bonds in default.  Every bank in Europe holding these government debts as reserve funds would face technical bankruptcy; the value of government bonds worldwide would implode in value and the entire hemisphere would face a new financial collapse.

It was financial terrorism, and the Greek government gave in.  It paid the full ransom demanded.  Dart grabbed over half a billion dollars ($513 million) from the Greek treasury –– and only the gods know how much Singer has pocketed.    [Get the full story on Singer the Vulture, read Billionaires & Ballot Bandits and Vultures' Picnic.]

How was this vulture food paid for?  With “austerity” — tightening a belt that’s already not much bigger than its buckle.  To pay Singer and Dart, the Greek government announced it would fire 15,000 workers.

What’s sick is that the ruling coalition (or misruling coalition) does not say this is to cover the payoffs to the vultures.  Rather, the government says it is the just punishment Greeks deserve for their "laziness and greed." The victims’ punishment is called, “austerity.”


The Austerity Fairy Tale

My children often ask me, “Daddy, where does ‘austerity’ come from?”  And I tell them:

Once upon a time, there was a good fairy named John Maynard Keynes. He wanted to stop depressions, financial crises and suffering, so he conceived of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.  He said, When a nation’s foreign exchange earnings drop (say, if the price of oil rises or Greek tourism falls because its currency is over-valued), the countries taking the poor nations’ money, rich countries like Germany and the USA, would lend it back via the IMF.

By this rule, the rich lending to the poor, the world prospered and lived happily ever after … until the 1980s, when a wicked witch, known as the Iron Lady, and America’s gaga grandpa, Reagan of the Rich, insisted that the IMF and the World Bank beat poor nations with a stick called, “structural adjustment.”

Nations facing destitution because of higher oil costs, currency imbalance or predatory interest rate demands were “structurally adjusted.”  Structural adjustment is a cruel and debilitating potion of mass firings of public employees, cheap sell-offs of national assets and deregulation of corporate profiteering.  This ripping the wings off the better angels of government is called, “austerity.”

The good fairy Keynes had warned about this evil potion, this snake oil called “austerity.”  Cutting government spending during a recession, he said, will only make things worse.

And that’s what happened:  In every single case, the “adjusted” nations’ economies were devastated.

Structural adjustment reached its cruel apotheosis in the early 1990s under the guidance of the World Bank’s Chief Economist, one Larry Summers.

But then, in 1997, Summers’ post was taken by Prof. Joseph Stiglitz.

In 2001, I met Stiglitz whom I’d heard was quietly expressing grave doubts about austerity and structural adjustment à la Summers.  He agreed to go public.  Over several hours of discussion, which I recorded for BBC TV, Stiglitz charged that IMF-imposed austerity was “ a little like the Middle Ages, when the patient died they would say well, we stopped the bloodletting too soon, he still had a little blood in him.”

Stiglitz detailed for me the ill effects of the “structural adjustment” demands, including “free” trade, which he likened to the Opium Wars; bank deregulation, which he found ludicrously dangerous; privatization, which Stiglitz called “briberization”; and budget-cutting austerity.

The budget cuts and free-market nostrums, Stiglitz told me, were as cruel as they were stupid.  And he said of those who profited off these IMF diktats, “They don’t care if people live or die.”

Stiglitz went on to win the Nobel Prize in economics for his skepticism of Markets über Alles.

So how, a decade after austerity, briberization and all their cruelties exposed and discredited, did Greece (and Spain and Portugal and too many others) end up under austerity’s bloody grip?

To begin with, in 2000, Larry Summers, as US Treasury Secretary, successfully demanded the World Bank fire Stiglitz and purged the Bank and IMF of austerity apostasy.

Why?  Austerity may fail the public, but it’s damn profitable for those on the inside.

All you need is a riot and a few dead bodies.


The IMF Riots

Among Stiglitz’ stunning revelations to me was his description of “the IMF riot.”  I showed him confidential World Bank and IMF plans for the nation of Ecuador. These included what seemed to be a warning to that nation’s finance minister that austerity could lead to violence in the streets, “social unrest” — which the World Bank recommended be crushed with “resolve”. In Ecuador, “resolve” meant tanks.

Did the IMF really write the riots into the plans?

Yes, Stiglitz said, matter-of-factly. “We had a name for it ‘The IMF Riot’”.

When a nation is “down and out, [the IMF] takes advantage and squeezes the last pound of blood out of them. They turn up the heat until, finally, the whole caldron blows up”.

And that’s what we’re seeing in Greece.  It began in May 2010, when some sick, misguided berserker set fire to a bank in Athens and killed four bank employees.  The killings did the trick:  the Left’s protests against insane austerity and banker gangsterism came to a halt.

Still, people could see that the austerity medicine was making Greece ill. So, they put their hopes in a new party, Syriza, which, from nowhere, became the second highest vote-getter in Greece by promising to oppose austerity.  Once in parliament, the faux-Left Syriza completely sold out its positions.

That leaves Golden Dawn, although diseased by racism and violently bent, it is the only one of Greece’s top four parties to stand firm against rabid austerity and the economy being chained like a beaten dog to Germany’s currency.

In 2010, the bank burning was used to discredit protests by the Left.  Today, once again, the Greek government, dancing on its hind legs, begging for a biscuit from German bankers, has used a murder as an excuse to outlaw the only major party dissenting from the austerity suicide pact.

I wish I could say that the reason Golden Dawn is being banned is because of the violent bend of its racist followers.  But that’s just not what’s going on here.

Dimitris Kazakis, the leader of Greece’s true progressive party, the United People’s Front (EPAM), has spoken out against Golden Dawn’s racist violence — and the greater danger of the bogus charges created to arrest members of Parliament.  He scolds Greeks, reminding them that this is how the military dictatorship seized power in 1967.


So, who are the real Fascists?

Fascism, as defined since the days of Il Duce, is the official combine of government and big business.  By that definition, Golden Dawn is the only non-Fascist party among Greece’s top four.  And that is why Golden Dawn has been targeted for elimination.

I hope my fellow progressives will excuse me for not applauding.

According to Wikipedia, Greg Palast is a New York Times-bestselling author and a freelance journalist for the BBC as well as the British newspaper The Observer. His work frequently focuses on corporate malfeasance but has also been known to work with labor unions and consumer advocacy groups. He has uncovered evidence that Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, and Florida Elections Unit Chief Clay Roberts, along with the ChoicePoint corporation, rigged the ballots during the US Presidential Election of 2000 and again in 2004 when, he argued, the problems and machinations from 2000 continued, and that challenger John Kerry actually would have won if not for disproportional "spoilage" of Democratic votes. Starting in 2007 Palast published a series of investigations on what aid groups and investors call "vulture funds". Vulture funds are a private equity or hedge funds where companies or people buy the debt of poor countries and sue in courts to recover the funds, often at the expense of aid and debt relief. Prime Minister Gordon Brown commented on the practices saying "We particularly condemn the perversity where Vulture Funds purchase debt at a reduced price and make a profit from suing the debtor country to recover the full amount owed - a morally outrageous outcome".

Greek Privatisation Chief Dismissed After Newspaper Exposes His Love For Holiday Jet Setting

Greece dismissed the chairman of its privatisation agency on Sunday after a newspaper exposed how he used the private plane of a businessman who had just bought a state company to go on holiday. According to a report on Reuters which was later published on capital, Stelios Stavridis is the second head of HRADF to leave in less than six months, reigniting controversy around Greece΄s ailing privatisation programme which is a central requirement of its international bailout.

Delays and privatisation receipt shortfalls are a constant headache for the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which bankroll Greece΄s 240-billion-euro rescue.

The lenders said last month that they would review the way HRADF was operating, after it emerged that the agency would miss its 2013 revenue target by about 1 billion euros.

     "Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras asked today for the resignation of HRADF chairman Stelios Stavridis," the Finance Ministry said in a brief statement.

A ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters Stavridis was dismissed for "ethical reasons" after Proto Thema reported on Saturday that he travelled last week on the private plane of shipowner Dimitris Melissanidis, a major shareholder of a Czech-Greek consortium which in May agreed to buy a 33 percent stake in state gambling firm OPAP.

Stavridis took the flight immediately after the signing of an agreement to finalise the 652-million euro ($869 million) OPAP deal, Proto Thema said. The newspaper also published a photograph showing Stavridis in the plane, smiling next to a female flight attendant.

Stavridis said Melissanidis dropped him off at the Greek island of Cephalonia, which the shipowner would have passed anyway on his way to France.

     "He was kind enough to get me from Athens to Cephalonia ... I have nothing to answer for about that," Stavridis told Vima FM radio, adding the outcry about his trip was "hypocritical".

Stavridis, a Swiss-trained engineer and outspoken economic liberal who founded Greece΄s biggest swimming pool company, was earning 2,940 euros ($3,900) a month as HRADF chief.

Greece΄s privatisation programme would not suffer from his resignation, said HRADF΄s chief executive Yannis Emiris, who is keeping his post.

    "There will be absolutely no delays to the programme," Emiris said, rejecting any suggestion the OPAP deal might be reversed as a result of Stavridis΄s resignation.

The Finance Ministry official confirmed the OPAP deal would not be affected.

Stavridis΄s predecessor, Takis Athanasopoulos, stepped down after he was charged by a prosecutor with breach of duty over his former role as chairman of a state utility.

capital

DEMETRIADES - Cyprus could have sought aid earlier to avoid pain

The head of Cyprus΄s central bank said on Tuesday the upheaval of an international bailout in March could have been avoided if the island nation had petitioned for aid earlier. Panicos Demetriades also chided bankers for accumulating large amounts of Greek government bonds, whose EU-approved restructuring in late 2011 proved to be deeply harmful for Cyprus, Reuters reported.

Cyprus took the unprecedented step of winding down a major bank and forcing losses on large depositors at a second bank to qualify for 10 billion euros in aid earlier this year.

The banks had been heavily exposed to Greek sovereign debt and suffered huge losses on holdings when that country΄s debt was restructured in another rescue package by the EU and IMF.

Demetriades, who took over the helm at the Cypriot central bank in May 2012, said Cyprus could have petitioned for aid just after Greece΄s debt write down was agreed by EU leaders in late 2011.

     "If we had gone (for aid), possibly immediately after the Greek public sector involvement, we could have got better terms," Demetriades told a judicial inquiry in response to a question.

Demetriades, who also sits on the ECB΄s Governing Council, said a preliminary memorandum of understanding with lenders in late 2012 had earmarked a bailout amount which would have taken into account recapitalization needs of the two banks, Laiki and Bank of Cyprus. Instead, he said, there was a rapid deterioration with the banking sector bleeding deposits, and the sector came under sudden scrutiny on allegations of money laundering - a charge Cyprus has consistently denied.

     "Nobody expected it, what happened was unprecedented, particularly with regard to deposits. Nor did we expect the assault against our banking sector from the media, in one country in particular," he said. Concerns about money laundering in its banking network first appeared in German media.

Demetriades said Cyprus had been experiencing the financial strain from its banking sector΄s exposure to Greece for some time, as well as a rapid expansion abroad and a "huge" investment in Greek government bonds.

Read more - capital

C'MON LADIES WAKE UP - Women Know Less About Politics Than Men Do

Women living in the world's most advanced democracies and under the most progressive gender equality regimes still know less about politics than men. Indeed, an unmistakable gender gap in political knowledge seems to be a global phenomenon, according to a ten-nation study of media systems and national political knowledge funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Women know less about politics than men regardless of how advanced a country is in terms of gender equality, says researcher Professor James Curran, Director of the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre at University of London.

     "Our finding that the gap between men and women's knowledge of politics is greater in Norway – a country ranked globally as one of the very highest in terms of gender equality – than in South Korea – a country with a much lower equality rating – is particularly striking," Professor Curran points out.

The study also discovered that gender gaps in political knowledge tend to be even wider in so called 'advanced' economies such as the United Kingdom and United States than in less advanced economies such as Colombia.

Professor Curran says:

     "The fact that throughout the whole world women know less about politics than men and that this is as true for people in Norway as it is in Colombia is really very surprising".

In this study, researchers surveyed men and women's knowledge of domestic and international news as well as current affairs in Australia, Canada, Colombia, Greece, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, the UK and the US. Exploring the reasons for the gender gap researchers examined both the content of news and the supply of news in all ten nations. Findings reveal:

News coverage is heavily weighted toward male sources even in countries such as the UK and Australia where gender equality ratings are relatively high. Overall, women are only interviewed or cited in 30 per cent of TV news stories in the ten nations.

In all ten countries, female sources tend only to appear in longer news items or articles and are preferred for soft news topics such as family, lifestyle and culture.

     "Such under-representation and topical bias of women in news media may curb women's motivation to acquire political knowledge actively, and discourage them from political participation, and even prevent women from engaging in citizens in a democratic society," suggests co-researcher Professor Kaori Hayashi.

In terms of the supply of news, findings reveal that:

The more national populations watch TV news, particularly news provided by Public Service Broadcasters as opposed to commercial providers, the better informed on politics people tend to be

News watching/reading/listening is very much a male activity. In Canada, Norway and the UK, men claim to be exposed to TV and newspaper news significantly more than women.

These are also the countries where political knowledge gaps between men and women are especially large

     "It seems that gaps in exposure to media are related to the gaps of knowledge between men and women," says Professor Hayashi.

The reasons why women watch less TV, read fewer newspapers and listen to less radio programmes in many countries than men could include the discouragingly male bias of much media content, less leisure time because of the greater unpaid work undertaken by women in the home and persistent social norms and expectations inherited from the past.

     "Whatever the reasons, our research shows that globally in the 21st century those who are most likely to be knowledgeable about politics and current affairs are older men in advanced industrial nations," Professor Curran concludes.

OPINION - Winners and losers in Snowden fiasco

Everyone knows the competition between China and the US is  key to 21st century international relations. But China’s strength  still lags far behind that of the US. As China’s comprehensive  strategic partner, Russia took the initiative in the Snowden case  and came to the forefront of the rivalry with the US, which  shows multipolar flexibility in global geopolitics. Russia’s action  deserves respect from China.

US President Barack Obama has announced he will attend the  G20 summit in St. Petersburg this September. A meeting  between Russian and US defense and foreign ministers will  also be scheduled for later this week in Washington. Although  Obama canceled his Moscow summit last week with Russian  President Vladimir Putin ahead of the G20 summit, it is a  relatively insignificant change. The US has apparently accepted  the fact that Russia granted one-year asylum to National  Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. Russia has  impressed the world, which views the Kremlin as the “winner”  and the White House as the “loser.”

This judgment is correct. In the Snowden case, all the other  countries involved have become winners while the US is the  sole loser. Washington put on a show of bravado, but failed to  extradite Snowden in the end. By contrast, Moscow displayed  its national characteristics of decisiveness and boldness and  kept Washington at bay.

Many Chinese netizens believe China should have done so, but  China only showed hesitation and weakness.

If China had Snowden in its care, a big change in its attitude  toward Sino-US relations would have been brought and China  would have had to undertake risks associated with such a  change.

Yet China ostensibly chose to not interfere. Now, the decision  seems to have generated better results. Some of the US’  hypocritical national policies were exposed, and Snowden was  not extradited to the US. International opinion is scathing of the  US in information security issues. At the same time, Sino-US  relations have not been greatly affected.

Moscow has consolidated its tough diplomatic attitude toward  Washington and drawn closer in diplomatic status when a gap  still exists in terms of the actual strength of the two. Moscow is  willing to take the lead in the Snowden case and has experience  in doing so. This perfectly fits Beijing’s interests.

Everyone knows the competition between China and the US is  key to 21st century international relations. But China’s strength  still lags far behind that of the US. As China’s comprehensive  strategic partner, Russia took the initiative in the Snowden case  and came to the forefront of the rivalry with the US, which  shows multipolar flexibility in global geopolitics. Russia’s action  deserves respect from China.

China is not willing to engage in a head-on confrontation with  the US, but it has already had the ability to unite with those who  can restrict the US’ abuses of power. We did not confront the  US directly, and this serves the long-term interests of China’s  diplomacy.

Washington ate the dirt this time, but it does not necessarily  mean it is really awed by Moscow. In the same manner,  Washington is unlikely to fear Beijing, and Beijing needn’t fear  Washington. What Beijing should care about most is how to  maximize its interests in its relations with Washington.

Snowden can do more in a country like Russia. The  performance that has disgraced the US is far from over.

rickrozoff

Exposed Gov't Criminals - Where Are They Today?

For the last several years former CIA officer Philip Giraldi has been fearlessly reporting and writing on two no-no topics for the US government and its extension- the US media: Espionage and Illegal Arms Trafficking by Israel and Turkey, facilitated by a group of treasonous US officials. Despite Giraldi’s credentials as a former CIA operative, his extensive first-hand knowledge and experience, and no matter the amount of documentation and numerous well-established cases he presents, these alarming facts and trends always go ignored or intentionally blacked-out by the mainstream and pseudo alternative media alike.

By Sibel Edmonds
Boiling Frogs Post

On August 1, 2013, Giraldi published another damning article in his long-running series involving espionage and arms trafficking by the two major US allies, facilitated by their extensions within the US government:

    Ten years ago, FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds revealed that the defense ministries of several major recipients of United States military hardware were being scrutinized because they had been falsifying end-user certificates, claiming that the equipment was intended for their own use while at the same time arranging to sell it to other militaries that were blocked from receiving the sensitive technology. In May 2006, I described in a Deep Background column for TAC how the two countries most heavily engaged in the practice—Israel and Turkey—also benefited from their connections with leading neoconservatives in Washington. Richard Perle and Doug Feith in particular benefited financially from their ties to defense industries in Israel while also serving as richly rewarded “consultants” for Turkish interests. Feith’s International Advisors Inc., a registered agent for Turkey in 1989-1994, was paid $600,000 a year by Turkish sources, while Richard Perle received $48,000 annually as a consultant. Feith has also long been associated with Northrop Grumman sales in the Middle East. While at the Pentagon in 1983, Perle was criticized for endorsing the U.S. Army’s purchase of an armaments system from an Israeli company that had paid him $50,000 in consulting fees one year before.

Here is an excerpt from Giraldi’s 2006 article mentioned above:

    Someone has to be in the middle to keep the happy affair going, so enter the neocons, intent on securing Israel against all comers and also keen to turn a dollar. In fact the neocons seem to have a deep and abiding interest in Turkey, which, under other circumstances, might be difficult to explain.

That’s right: “Someone” has to be in the middle and facilitate these criminal activities. Someone(s) with access, power, and influence. Someone(s) in a position as a US government official-whether appointed or elected.

Giraldi specifically mentions the following names directly connected to the high-level US players involved in these nefarious foreign lobbies and their related espionage and illegal arms trafficking: Douglas Feith, Richard Perle, Marc Grossman, Eric Edelman, Paul Wolfowitz, and Stephen Solarz.

And here is my infamous State Secrets Gallery released in 2005-2006 depicting the high-level US officials involved in my State Secrets Privilege case: Click Here . Do you recognize the pictures and names from Giraldi’s exposés?

You can read the entire article by Giraldi here. It has been over 10 years since these revelations – by me, Philip Giraldi, Sunday Times series, Vanity Fair exposé …, and yet the involved criminal fat cats are still in operation-one way or another, and have been getting fatter and fatter. Let me give you a few more examples from my States Secrets Gallery:

Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is now officially a Registered Foreign Agent with Turkey:

    Former Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert, R-Plano, is now lobbying for the Republic of Turkey, according to papers filed last week with the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act unit.
    Mr. Hastert and others at Dickstein Shapiro share a $35,000-per-month subcontract with the Gephardt Group, led by former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., Turkey’s principal lobbyist since last year, according to The Hill, a Washington, D.C.-based publication that first reported Mr. Hastert’s involvement.

So what if he was exposed by the Vanity Fair article?! The magazine’s readers in the millions were busy reading the parallel article on Jennifer Aniston. They couldn’t give a hoot about the scandals involving the United States Speaker of the House.

In 2005 Marc Grossman, the former third highest level person at the State Department- Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, joined Turkey’s Imam Fethullah Gulen related Ihlas Holding, a large and alleged shady Turkish company, which is also active in several Central Asian countries. Grossman is reported to receive $100,000 per month for his advisory position with Ihlas. You can read more on this here.

So who cares if he was exposed to millions by the Sunday Times’ Series in 2006-2007? Apparently no one.

How about another figure from the treason circle: Richard Armitage? Do you know where he is since he left his position only to indirectly continue his operations? Well, check it out:

    Now it is official. Former U.S. Secretary of State Richard Armitage is on his way to take over the Chairmanship of the American Turkish Council from Brent Scowcroft.

Not only that. As with the Perle and Feith marriage, other high-level criminal players also get together and form illicit marriages:

    In May 2010, DLA Piper, one of the world’s largest international lobby-law firms, hired Marc Grossman as their front man for their Turkish operations. The man in charge of one of DLA Piper major accounts-Turkey is none other than our good ole Dennis Hastert. That makes two former FBI criminal targets for one firm.

Last month Washington Post’s Style section ran an article on a few well-known government whistleblowers-profiling where they are today – years after blowing the whistle, court and congressional battles, persecution and prosecutions. Basically, the gist of the piece was “Where are they today?”

The media must similarly investigate and publish similar articles and profiles on those government criminals who were exposed and reported by government whistleblowers. They should. They must. Otherwise the picture will never be complete. Because the complete picture, the real story in-full, would clearly show  that the exposed US government criminals, whether NSA heads engaged in illegal wiretapping of all Americans and blackmailing US politicians, whether those responsible for torture and renditions, whether those operating as foreign spies or in illegal weapons or drug trafficking, always end up keeping their positions or actually getting promoted to higher levels, or, they operate from the outside – influencing those inside while filling their pockets with millions of illicit dollars channeled to them through intentional loopholes.

That is right. We have US public officials engaged in treason, espionage, torture, blackmail, kidnapping and rendition, illegal weapons trafficking and intelligence dealings-those who choose to betray the people and prostitute the people’s trust and their public positions. And, they stay in power and keep getting fatter and fatter.

Then of course we have the prosecution of Bradley Manning, the hunt for Edward Snowden, the imprisonment of John Kiriakou and … Those who chose to expose rather than betray- They chose integrity over treason. And, they are being made to pay.

So what is all this? Good O’l American government, politics and Justice? Systemic American ignorance and apathy? A morally and intellectually corrupt nation descending rapidly? What say you? What do all these realities and facts tell us? What kind of nation are we? What does all this make us, the people of the United States?

Sibel Edmonds is the Publisher & Editor of Boiling Frogs Post and the author of the Memoir Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story. She is the recipient of the 2006 PEN Newman’s Own First Amendment Award for her “commitment to preserving the free flow of information in the United States in a time of growing international isolation and increasing government secrecy” Ms. Edmonds has a MA in Public Policy and International Commerce from George Mason University, a BA in Criminal Justice and Psychology from George Washington University.

RON PAUL: Why Won’t The US Tell Us the Truth About NSA Spying?

In 2001, the Patriot Act opened the door to US government monitoring of Americans without a warrant. It was unconstitutional, but most in Congress over my strong objection were so determined to do something after the attacks of 9/11 that they did not seem to give it too much thought. Civil liberties groups were concerned, and some of us in Congress warned about giving up our liberties even in the post-9/11 panic. But at the time most Americans did not seem too worried about the intrusion.

This complacency has suddenly shifted given recent revelations of the extent of government spying on Americans. Politicians and bureaucrats are faced with serious backlash from Americans outraged that their most personal communications are intercepted and stored. They had been told that only the terrorists would be monitored. In response to this anger, defenders of the program have time and again resorted to spreading lies and distortions. But these untruths are now being exposed very quickly.

In a Senate hearing this March, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Senator Ron Wyden that the NSA did not collect phone records of millions of Americans. This was just three months before the revelations of an NSA leaker made it clear that Clapper was not telling the truth. Pressed on his false testimony before Congress, Clapper apologized for giving an “erroneous” answer but claimed it was just because he “simply didn’t think of Section 215 of the Patriot Act.” Wow.

As the story broke in June of the extent of warrantless NSA spying against Americans, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers assured us that the project was a strictly limited and not invasive. He described it as a “lockbox with only phone numbers, no names, no addresses in it, we’ve used it sparingly, it is absolutely overseen by the legislature, the judicial branch and the executive branch, has lots of protections built in...”

But we soon discovered that also was not true either. We learned in another Guardian newspaper article last week that the top secret “X-Keyscore” program allows even low-level analysts to “search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals.”

The keys to Rogers’ “lockbox” seem to have been handed out to everyone but the janitors! As Chairman of the Committee that is supposed to be most in the loop on these matters, it seems either the Intelligence Community misled him about their programs or he misled the rest of us. It sure would be nice to know which one it is.

Likewise, Rep. Rogers and many other defenders of the NSA spying program promised us that this dragnet scooping up the personal electronic communications of millions of Americans had already stopped “dozens” of terrorist plots against the United States. In June, NSA director General Keith Alexander claimed that the just-disclosed bulk collection of Americans’ phone and other electronic records had “foiled 50 terror plots.”

Opponents of the program were to be charged with being unconcerned with our security.

But none of it was true.

The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday heard dramatic testimony from NSA deputy director John C. Inglis. According to the Guardian:

    “The NSA has previously claimed that 54 terrorist plots had been disrupted ‘over the lifetime’ of the bulk phone records collection and the separate program collecting the internet habits and communications of people believed to be non-Americans. On Wednesday, Inglis said that at most one plot might have been disrupted by the bulk phone records collection alone.”

From dozens to “at most one”?

Supporters of these programs are now on the defensive, with several competing pieces of legislation in the House and Senate seeking to rein in an administration and intelligence apparatus that is clearly out of control. This is to be commended. What is even more important, though, is for more and more and more Americans to educate themselves about our precious liberties and to demand that their government abide by the Constitution. We do not have to accept being lied to – or spied on -- by our government.

the-free-foundation.org

Conspiracy or Truth - Switzerland Warns Against Obama Regime - Stuns Russia

CLICK ON BOLD LINKS TO CROSS REFERENCE ARTICLE WITH MAINSTREAM NEWS

The Russian Intelligence Directorate (GRU) said in a report at the weekend that Switzerland’s Federal Intelligence Service (NDB) is proposing that the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (EDA) issue an immediate “Situation: Grave, Do Not Travel” warning for the United States upgrading that North American nation from its current status as “Stable” and on par with a similar warning issued for the war torn Middle Eastern country of Syria.

According to this report, millions of data files on counter-terrorism operations from both MI6 and the CIA were stolen this past December (2012) by a senior computer technician of Swiss citizenship who planned to release them to Wikileaks.

These highly classified documents stored on NDB servers, this report continues, were stolen by what was described as a “very talented” still unnamed NDB technician senior enough to have “administrator rights,” giving him unrestricted access to most or all of the NDB's networks.

The December, 2012 theft of these top secret British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) files, GRU intelligence analysts in this report say, came on the heels of a similar theft barely two years prior when MI6 spy Daniel Houghton, also a highly trained computer technician with “administrator rights,” was arrested while attempting to, also, release to Wikileaks thousands of top-secret MI6, MI5 and CIA electronic files.

Raising the fears of the NDB, however, this report says, were US National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) documents obtained from Edward Snowden by the GRU which show a “conclusive and provable link” between the man now known as the United States most wanted person, the still unnamed NDB spy, MI6 spy Houghton and US Army Private Bradley Manning, all of whom constitute what Swiss intelligence analysts say are the “iceberg tip” behind the largest theft of Western top-secret documents in modern history.

To whom the power behind these Western computer spies with unlimited “administration rights” and top security clearances, who have been releasing and/or attempting to release to the world these most secretive of documents, this GRU report quotes from NDB documents, Swiss intelligence analysts point to what they describe as a “cabal” of US military officers “fully intent” upon destroying the Obama regime, even if it means war.

Important to note is that this past February (2013) the Federal Security Services (FSB) warned of the US military plan to assassinate Obama in what Russian intelligence analysts say will be a takeover of the United States similar to the coup currently being undertaken in Egypt; and the GRU had further warned this past November (2012) that the Obama regimes war against its own generals was, also, likely to end in a military coup after the Washington D.C. gun battle toppled the top US military leader, former Four-Star Army General and CIA director David Petraeus, of this planed takeover.

The “main tactic” being used by the Obama regime against its top military leaders, according to the NDB, has been the leaking of their private emails by the NSA/CSS as revealed by Snowden whose leaked documents prove that US intelligence operatives loyal to the Obama regime have been tapping everything done online by all Americans.

Of the greatest concern to the NDB, however, this GRU report says, was the Obama regimes targeting this past week of the renowned American statesman, retired four-star general in the United States Army, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the 65th United States Secretary of State, Colin Powell, whom the NSA/CSS has threatened with the release of his private emails alleging an affair with a Romanian diplomat, which is the same tactic used to destroy the reputation and career of General Petraeus.

Unlike General Petraeus, however, this report continues, the NDB in their report note that General Powell has secretly notified the Obama regime of his intention “not to go down without a fight” and which led to forces loyal to the Obama regime opening fire on and destroying two F-16 fighter jets nearing Washington D.C. airspace Thursday evening (23:00 hrs EDT 1 August) believed to be headed towards the White House.

As to if these F-16 fighter jets were indeed targeting Obama, this report says, it is not certain, but the reaction by the Obama regime to this event has been unprecedented in that within hours of them being shot down the US issued a world-wide travel alert to last until 31 August and ordered the closing of at least 17 of its overseas embassies.

The shock announcement on Friday that the US would be closing these embassies, this GRU report says the NDB has discovered, is due to the Obama regimes fears that more computer thefts of top-secret documents relating to the Obama regimes collusion with extreme Islamic terrorists groups are going to be released and will allow them time to purge all of their embassy servers of incriminating information, especially those files relating to the true events of the 2012 Benghazi Attack led by rogue CIA operatives whom US Congressman Trey Gowdy warned on Friday were being kept from testifying, being relocated and given new identities.

Unbeknownst to the American people about the Obama regime, this report says, has been its tens of millions of dollars in funding of al-Qaeda terrorists to create an Islamic Emirate in Syria and its over $8 billion in secret funding to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood radicals, both forces who are currently being defeated on the battlefield and in the streets.

Equally unknown to the American people is that Snowden, a “high-level member,” according to the NDB, of the US military cabal threatening the Obama regime, had offered to return to America to face the charges leveled against him knowing that if were able to survive the citizens of his country would learn the full horrors of the monsters ruling over them, an offer that was rejected by the US.

Snowden’s fears for his safety have, indeed proved valid since the Obama regimes assassinations of Michael Hastings, Aaron Swartz and Barnaby Jack and as reported on in a July 29 report revealing how the Russian military is currently preparing for all-out war.

And in one of the most shameful acts against the American people by their own mainstream press, their refusal to publish, let alone mention, Edward Snowden’s fathers open letter to Obama will stand forever as an indictment against those elites seeking to enslave these once great people forever, and as we can all read in its entirety:

July 26, 2013
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Re: Civil Disobedience, Edward J. Snowden, and the Constitution

Dear Mr. President:

You are acutely aware that the history of liberty is a history of civil disobedience to unjust laws or practices. As Edmund Burke sermonized, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

Civil disobedience is not the first, but the last option. Henry David Thoreau wrote with profound restraint in Civil Disobedience: “If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.”

Thoreau’s moral philosophy found expression during the Nuremburg trials in which “following orders” was rejected as a defense. Indeed, military law requires disobedience to clearly illegal orders.

A dark chapter in America’s World War II history would not have been written if the then United States Attorney General had resigned rather than participate in racist concentration camps imprisoning 120,000 Japanese American citizens and resident aliens.

Civil disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Act and Jim Crow laws provoked the end of slavery and the modern civil rights revolution.

We submit that Edward J. Snowden’s disclosures of dragnet surveillance of Americans under § 215 of the Patriot Act, § 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments, or otherwise were sanctioned by Thoreau’s time-honored moral philosophy and justifications for civil disobedience. Since 2005, Mr. Snowden had been employed by the intelligence community. He found himself complicit in secret, indiscriminate spying on millions of innocent citizens contrary to the spirit if not the letter of the First and Fourth Amendments and the transparency indispensable to self-government. Members of Congress entrusted with oversight remained silent or Delphic. Mr. Snowden confronted a choice between civic duty and passivity. He may have recalled the injunction of Martin Luther King, Jr.: “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.” Mr. Snowden chose duty. Your administration vindictively responded with a criminal complaint alleging violations of the Espionage Act.

From the commencement of your administration, your secrecy of the National Security Agency’s Orwellian surveillance programs had frustrated a national conversation over their legality, necessity, or morality. That secrecy (combined with congressional nonfeasance) provoked Edward’s disclosures, which sparked a national conversation which you have belatedly and cynically embraced. Legislation has been introduced in both the House of Representatives and Senate to curtail or terminate the NSA’s programs, and the American people are being educated to the public policy choices at hand. A commanding majority now voice concerns over the dragnet surveillance of Americans that Edward exposed and you concealed. It seems mystifying to us that you are prosecuting Edward for accomplishing what you have said urgently needed to be done!

The right to be left alone from government snooping–the most cherished right among civilized people—is the cornerstone of liberty. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson served as Chief Prosecutor at Nuremburg. He came to learn of the dynamics of the Third Reich that crushed a free society, and which have lessons for the United States today.

Writing in Brinegar v. United States, Justice Jackson elaborated:

The Fourth Amendment states: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

These, I protest, are not mere second-class rights but belong in the catalog of indispensable freedoms. Among deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart. Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the first and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government. And one need only briefly to have dwelt and worked among a people possessed of many admirable qualities but deprived of these rights to know that the human personality deteriorates and dignity and self-reliance disappear where homes, persons and possessions are subject at any hour to unheralded search and seizure by the police.

We thus find your administration’s zeal to punish Mr. Snowden’s discharge of civic duty to protect democratic processes and to safeguard liberty to be unconscionable and indefensible.

We are also appalled at your administration’s scorn for due process, the rule of law, fairness, and the presumption of innocence as regards Edward.

On June 27, 2013, Mr. Fein wrote a letter to the Attorney General stating that Edward’s father was substantially convinced that he would return to the United States to confront the charges that have been lodged against him if three cornerstones of due process were guaranteed. The letter was not an ultimatum, but an invitation to discuss fair trial imperatives. The Attorney General has sneered at the overture with studied silence.

We thus suspect your administration wishes to avoid a trial because of constitutional doubts about application of the Espionage Act in these circumstances, and obligations to disclose to the public potentially embarrassing classified information under the Classified Information Procedures Act.

Your decision to force down a civilian airliner carrying Bolivian President Eva Morales in hopes of kidnapping Edward also does not inspire confidence that you are committed to providing him a fair trial. Neither does your refusal to remind the American people and prominent Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate like House Speaker John Boehner, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann,and Senator Dianne Feinstein that Edward enjoys a presumption of innocence. He should not be convicted before trial. Yet Speaker Boehner has denounced Edward as a “traitor.”

Ms. Pelosi has pontificated that Edward “did violate the law in terms of releasing those documents.” Ms. Bachmann has pronounced that, “This was not the act of a patriot; this was an act of a traitor.” And Ms. Feinstein has decreed that Edward was guilty of “treason,” which is defined in Article III of the Constitution as “levying war” against the United States, “or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.”

You have let those quadruple affronts to due process pass unrebuked, while you have disparaged Edward as a “hacker” to cast aspersion on his motivations and talents. Have you forgotten the Supreme Court’s gospel in Berger v. United States that the interests of the government “in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done?”

We also find reprehensible your administration’s Espionage Act prosecution of Edward for disclosures indistinguishable from those which routinely find their way into the public domain via your high level appointees for partisan political advantage. Classified details of your predator drone protocols, for instance, were shared with the New York Times with impunity to bolster your national security credentials. Justice Jackson observed in Railway Express Agency, Inc. v. New York: “The framers of the Constitution knew, and we should not forget today, that there is no more effective practical guaranty against arbitrary and unreasonable government than to require that the principles of law which officials would impose upon a minority must be imposed generally.”

In light of the circumstances amplified above, we urge you to order the Attorney General to move to dismiss the outstanding criminal complaint against Edward, and to support legislation to remedy the NSA surveillance abuses he revealed. Such presidential directives would mark your finest constitutional and moral hour.

Sincerely,
Bruce Fein
Counsel for Lon Snowden
Lon Snowden

Sorcha Faal
WhatDoesItMean

EYE-OPENER - Darwinism: Then and Now - A Look At Why The Elite Loves "Social Darwinism"

This article was written by Erik G. Magro and first published on Aug. 16th, 2005. It is a SLAP to all of those who still believe that leftist ideologies and philysofical fluff will save the world. We urge all of our readers to read this article carefully. In our opinion this is a MUST READ.

The Victorian Age in England was a time of dramatic changes, new inventions, the Industrial Revolution, and an introduction to new ideologies, all of which would transform the way significant portions of society lived and thought of life forever. The overwhelming external changes in daily life during this period would match in intensity the nature of changes happening in the internal lives of the public.

Charles Darwin, as a naturalist, helped usher in this change after a long voyage to the South Seas where he observed several widely unknown species. In 1859, a year after his return, he presented his observations in a book, The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. In it he deduced from their widely diverse natures a common thread that linked all species to a single ancestor; the Theory of Evolution as he called the phenomenon soon became a household word and stirred up massive controversy and debate, still resounding today.

The implications of Darwin's theory created a deep divide in culture, a conflict of natural versus supernatural order. Not only did it offer an alternate account of the genesis of life from the Old Testament, but it also gave a sense of moral freedom from the divine Creator and His judgment; it became a cause unto itself in society among leaders in political and industrial circles, effecting science and academia.

Darwinism, as the collection of theories was called, changed the course of man's history forever.

In the immediate aftermath of unleashing the evolution theory to the public, the common man was faced with a choice of how to look at life and live it. Among those exposed to these choices were some of the most important men in the business community, men who could, with their influence of wealth and power, determine the lifestyles of the middle class population by means of their product prices, work policies, and wages in the factories they owned.

A staunch supporter of evolution, Herbert Spencer, developed the social application of Darwinism, which was highly influential on the practices of such powerful moguls. The ideology was known as Social Darwinism and made use of the models Darwin used to describe evolution in nature, namely, survival of the fittest and natural selection. These orders of development were the philosophical basis that publicly justified the methods factory owners were already applying in their businesses to stay competitive. As leaders of industry, they believed they had the right to impose whatever treatment they saw fit for those below them on the social ladder.

Social Darwinism reduced society to the rule of the jungle in a sense. Man became a commodity, a worker bee to be exploited by a stronger species - as opposed to a sacred being made in the image of God. Soon larger segments of society in Europe and America suffered brutal working conditions throughout most of the Industrial Revolution. Extremely long hours, puny wages, underage workers, little or no benefits, and broken spirits were the rule of the day.

The strong words of activist Annie Besant give testimony of the desperate frustration during this time:

     "Oh if we had but a people's Dante, to make a special circle in the Inferno for those who live on the misery, and suck wealth out of the starvation of helpless girls" (1717).

Once the tremendous hardships were no longer bearable, public attention eventually organized successfully to agitate reform in labor laws and would soon influence other industrialized countries around the world like America, Germany, and France, opening the door for further progress in the workplace effecting workers even today. Whether or not they were conscious of it, by the masses taking such actions they were in essence rejecting the precepts of Darwinism: a great instance of irony, as they were popular during this time.

Even as the materialism and dialectic principles were known and influential among the ruling and elite classes long before the Victorian Age, thinkers like Darwin, Malthus, and Spencer repackaged and updated them with new observations and analysis of the natural world and society, helping to popularize them among intellectual spheres and civilians.

Once these widely shared worldviews were politicized, new forms of government emerged employing many of the perceived scientific principles described by evolutionists. Two very important shapers of political thought during this time were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. They believed Social Darwinism provided a way to perfect mankind behaviorally and socially. Marx even offered to dedicate his first volume of Das Kapital to Darwin.

Darwin's book had given God's presence "the death-blow," he exulted to fellow socialist, Lassalle (Marx). By enhancing Socialism with Darwinism, Communism emerged as a powerful movement led by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Party, later wrenching control of Russia in the Revolution of 1917.

All land, materials, and biological (including human) resources became property of the state. Lenin implemented social programs and began starving and slaughtering whole societies whom he regarded as herds of animals. He was encouraged by the deaths of millions and believed people would lose faith in God and turn more to socialism. To survive the famine, many turned to cannibalism.

Lenin's ideology was inspired by Darwin's Origin of Species:

     "Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of higher animals, directly follows" (Darwin 1886).

As Darwinism spread throughout Europe, violence was legitimized under the "struggle for existence" theory.

As Austro-Hungarian chief of staff, Franz Baron Conrad von Hoetzendorff wrote in his post-war memoirs:

     "It is in accordance with this great principle that the catastrophe of the World War came about as the result of the motive forces in the lives of states and peoples--" (qtd. in Joll 164).

Following in Lenin's footsteps, Stalin took control of Soviet Russia. Earlier in life, right before Stalin became a priest he read Origin of Species, and his life quickly changed; he became atheist and joined the Bolsheviks. As dictator, he executed scientists who rejected evolution and the projects developed from it, like soaking seeds in cold water for long periods of time expecting them to adapt to the low temperatures in Russia. As a result, 9 million starved to death and cannibalism once again turned humans into wild savages.

During Stalin's reign, 40 million died at his hands, more than the 25 million that died fighting Nazi Germany. The system of Communism paved the way for other disciples of Marxist-Leninist-Darwinism to rise to power in Asia, such as Mao Zedong.

After Darwin's work was translated in 1895 into Chinese, many believed constant violence was how evolution occurred. Under Mao, 40 million starved in his Great Leap Forward social program, 78 million in general. Communism eventually spread into surrounding North Korea, North Vietnam, and Cambodia, dragging America into strung out bloody guerilla wars with the terrorist regimes.

Today, these ideologies still exist - effecting world politics in no small measure - and make Evolution mandatory learning in the education system, force families apart premised on views that humans as advanced apes do not need them, or religion and ethics, and instead must show loyalty only to the state as the highest authority.

Fascist forms of government indoctrinate the same concepts of Darwinism as Communist governments.

Mussolini and Hitler were great advocates of Darwin and Spencer's work. Hitler's National Socialist German Worker's (Nazi) Party combined their deep mystical beliefs with Darwinism to inspire a grandiose vision of world conquest, leading the globe into a new age of enlightenment. Anyone who did not conform to Hitler's ideas of the model citizen were rounded up and executed as inferior races that were holding back the rest of society from evolving.

Professor of modern European History, Richard Weikart reviewing his book, From Darwin to Hitler, says

     "Darwinism played a key role not only in the rise of eugenics, but also in euthanasia, infanticide, abortion, and racial extermination, all ultimately embraced by the Nazis" (Weikart).

Every major war and revolution from the Victorian Age onward has its catalyst rooted in the dialectical-materialism philosophy known as Evolution. Today these concepts are found in Communist regimes and the western world.

In the US, Communist activism broke out on the streets and college campuses during the 60s and 70s in war protests, and in general counter-culture movements under the cloak of various civil rights movements such as feminism and often with the radical motives of breaking up families.

In the 1950s, Senator Joe McCarthy exposed many high-level Communists working in various posts in Washington D.C. Many of the accusations were false, but many were supported, including the allegation that elements within the US were funding Mao's regime.

Professor Antony Sutton exposed the false dichotomy of Capitalism versus Communism by documenting how Wall Street and centralized banks created the Soviet superpower threat (Sutton).

Neoconservatives such as Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Rove fill key positions in the current US administration, and Irving Kristol, a disciple of Leon Trotsky (one of Lenin's top officers), founded Neoconservatism in the 1980s.

Kristol explains:

     "Ever since I can remember, I've been a neo-something: a neo-Marxist, a neo-Trotskyist, a neo-liberal, a neo-conservative;" ("New York").

On top of this, national archives in the US detail how Wall Street banker, senator, and grandfather of George W. Bush, Prescott Bush, underscored the Nazi war machine and several major US corporations were contracted to build it (Aris and Campbell).

Yale's secret society, Skull and Bones, was founded in 1832 by W. Russell, a member of a Germanic cult linked to the Thule Society, later morphing into the Nazi party (Sawyer).

From Prescott to George W., the Bushes have been members of S&B, a.k.a. the Death's Head - death as the means to advance man's evolution through "struggle for existence". The ideologies of Fascist-Communism, thus, Social Darwinism, grip the US establishment today.

The long-winding path of Darwinism has an unmistakable imprint on the course of history since the Victorian Age and affects the globe today. The conflict of the natural evolution versus the supernatural creation of man will continue as long as the ideas do.

Whether the world's remaining free peoples will abandon the laws of God and acquiesce under the mantras and slogans of socialist shills depends on the success of transnational corporations and the revolving door into the highest world councils that they co-opt. This global plutocracy via world banking and the IMF directs world governments, economies, mass media, education, resources, religion, and planetary conflict to push for the next step in man's evolution: a New World Order.

Works Cited

• Aris, Ben, and Campbell, Duncan. "How Bush's Grandfather Helped Hitler's Rise to Power." Guardian Unlimited 25 Sept. 2004. 18 Mar. 2005.
• Besant, Annie. "The 'White Slavery' of London Match Workers." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Seventh ed. Vol. 2. Eds. M. H. Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. 1715-17.
• Darwin, Charles. "From Origin of Species." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Seventh ed. Vol. 2. Eds. M. H. Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. 1679-86.
• Joll, James. Europe Since 1870: An International History. Middlesex, Lnd: Penguin Books, 1990.
• Marx, Karl. Letter. Marxist Internet Archive. 1942. International Publishers. 16 Mar. 2005.
• "New York Intellectuals." 1999. PBS Online. 18 Mar. 2005.
• Sawyer, Roy. "Skull and Bones, Bush's Nazi Link."
• thermag.com. 4 Jan. 2002. 18 Mar. 2005.
• Sutton, Antony. Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution. Cutchogue, NY: Buccaneer Books, 1974. 18 Mar. 2005.
• Weikart, Richard. "Dustjacket Blurb." From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany. 17 Dec. 2004. CSU. 16 Mar. 2005.

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