Golden Dawn MP Thrown Out Of Parl't for Allegedly Cursing (VIDEO)

Golden Dawn party MP Panayiotis Iliopoulos, was apparently ejected (or thrown out) from a parliamentary session on Friday after using derogatory language to revile fellow MPs.

SYRIZA MP Yiannis Dragasakis, who was chairing the session, and who obviously cannot stand the GD party, actually asked security guards to remove Iliopoulos after he said that "Mr Alexis is preparing a souped-up question for the prime minister."

This infuriated Dragasakis, and he asked that Iliopoulos retract the statement, but the GD deputy didn't and instead added that Tsipras was "sleeping the sleep of the just" and dreaming of waking up as prime minister.

Iliopoulos went further, condemning fellow MPs as "wretched sell-outs" and "goats." He then left the Parliamentary building, accompanied by the remaining Golden Dawn MPs who had been in attendance.

Trans Adriatic Pipeline To Bring Greece Leading Role in European Energy

The Foreign Ministry’s Secretary General for International Economic Relations and Development Cooperation, Peter Mihalos, noted in his welcome speech this morning, at a scientific conference on the “Trans Adriatic Pipeline Energy Project,” the geopolitical and economic significance for Greece of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). The conference took place at the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s “Hermes” hall, and was co-organized by Panteion University’s Institute of International Relations (IDIS) and the Foundation for Economic & Industrial Research (IOBE).

Mr. Mihalos underscored that, given that the implementation of the project will serve diversification of natural gas sources for the European Union, with imports from the Caspian region, Greece will go from being a destination country of secondary importance to being a pan-European energy hub, concurrently returning with a leading role to the international investment scene, given that the project will be one of the largest Foreign Direct Investments every carried out in Greece, with an influx of an estimated €1.5 billion in investment capital.

Referring in particular to the project’s economic dimension, Mr. Mihalos stressed that it will ensure energy sufficiency – a prerequisite for the growth that creates added value in the economy – create 2,000 jobs directly and another 10,000 indirectly, upgrade infrastructure, and strengthen competitiveness to the benefit of the Greek consumer.

Mr. Mihalos also underscored that the TAP creates a strong framework for cooperation between Greece, Italy and Albania, as well as the countries of the Western Balkans that link up to the pipeline.

Mr. Mihalos noted the diplomatic marathon being run by Prime Minister Samaras and the political leadership of the Foreign Ministry to resolve pending issues, promote the advantages of the TAP and exhaust all avenues of support for the project up until the end of June, when the Shah Deniz II consortium, which has the natural gas deposits, will decide between the two proposed projects. Finally, he noted that today “we are making final adjustments to and are in the final stage of the signing of the Host Country Agreement.”

MUST READ - Kennedy, The Lobby And the Bomb

Exactly fifty years ago a crucial episode took place in the history of “U.S. democracy”; an epic struggle whose outcome would influence the future of the entire world. Guyénot Laurent revisits those events and reminds us of what was at stake in that fateful era.

by Laurent Guyénot
Translation Gaia Edwards
Voltaire Network  

Kennedy and the AIPAC

In May 1963, the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations opened an investigation into the covert activities of foreign agents on U.S. soil, focusing in particular on the American Zionist Council and the Jewish Agency for Israel. [1] The investigation was prompted by a report from the Chairman of that standing Committee, Senator J. William Fulbright, written in March 1961 (declassified in 2010), stating: "In recent years there has been an increasing number of incidents involving attempts by foreign governments, or their agents, to influence the conduct of American foreign policy by techniques outside normal diplomatic channels." By covert activities, including "within the United States and elsewhere," Fulbright was referring to the 1953 "Lavon Affair" [2], where a group of Egyptian Jews was recruited by Israel to carry out bomb attacks against British targets, which were to be blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood so as to discredit Nasser in the eyes of the British and Americans.

The Senate investigation brought to light a money laundering racket through which the Jewish Agency (indivisible from the State of Israel and a precursor to the Israeli Government) was channelling tens of millions of dollars to the American Zionist Council, the main Israeli lobby in the United States. Following this investigation, the Department of Justice, under the authority of Attorney General Robert Kennedy, ordered the American Zionist Council to register as "agents of a foreign government," subject to the requirements of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, involving the close monitoring of its activities.

This attempt to counter Israel’s growing interference in U.S. politics undoubtedly enjoyed the support of the President. At the time when he was still a young journalist covering the United Nations inaugural conference, John Kennedy was troubled by Israel’s ability to buy politicians, up to and including the President himself. By recognizing the State of Israel on May 15, 1948, (just ten minutes after its official proclamation) despite the unanimous disapproval of his government, President Harry Truman not only gained a place in biblical history ("Truman’s historic act of recognition will remain forever inscribed in golden letters in the 4000-year history of the Jewish people”, declared the Israeli ambassador), he also pocketed two million dollars to revitalize his re-election campaign. "That’s why our recognition of Israel was rushed through so fast,” Kennedy told his friend novelist and essayist Gore Vidal [3].

In 1960, John Kennedy himself received a financial aid offer from the Israeli lobby for his presidential campaign. He decoded Abraham Feinberg’s proposal for his journalist friend Charles Bartlett in the following terms: "We know your campaign is in trouble. We’re willing to pay your bills if you’ll let us have control of your Middle East policy." Bartlett recalls Kennedy’s promise that "if he ever did get to be President, he was going to do something about it [4]." Between 1962 and 1963, he submitted seven campaign finance reform bills but all were defeated by the influential groups they sought to restrain.

All government efforts to stymie the corruption of American democracy by Israeli agents were stopped short by Kennedy’s assassination and his brother’s replacement at the Department of Justice by Nicholas Katzenbach. The American Zionist Council evaded foreign agent status by dissolving and renaming itself American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Ten years later (April 15, 1973), Fulbright commented on CBS: "Israel controls the U.S. Senate. [...] The great majority of the Senate of the U.S. – somewhere around 80 percent – are completely in support of Israel; anything Israel wants Israel gets." AIPAC continued the same practices, dodging any sanction even when its members were caught red-handed in acts of espionage and high treason. In 2005, two AIPAC officials, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, were acquitted after having received from a member of the Pentagon Office of Special Plans, Larry Franklin, documents classified as Secret-Defense which they transmitted to a senior Israeli official.

In 2007, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt demonstrated in their book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy that AIPAC and less prominent pro-Israel lobbies were the main cause of the war in Iraq and, more broadly, the determining factor in the foreign policy of the U.S. in the Middle East. Considering that nothing has changed, there is no reason to believe that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu will not also obtain from the United States the destruction of Iran that it consistently clamors for.

Kennedy, the bomb and Dimona

Had Kennedy lived, Israel’s influence would most certainly have been curbed on yet another front, that of nuclear weapons. By the early 1950s, David Ben Gurion, who combined the functions of prime minister and defense minister, had engaged his country in the secret manufacturing of nuclear weapons, diverting the Atoms for Peace cooperation program, naively launched by Eisenhower, from its intended goals. Briefed by the CIA about the real purpose of the Dimona facility as soon as he moved into the White House, Kennedy put heavy pressure on the Israelis not to pursue it. He demanded that Ben Gurion open up Dimona for regular inspections, at first in person in New York in 1961, then through formal and increasingly insistent letters. In the last one, dated June 15, 1963, Kennedy urged that a first visit should take place immediately, followed by regular visits every six months, otherwise "This Government’s commitment to and support of Israel could be seriously jeopardized [5]." The reaction to this message was astonishing: Ben Gurion resigned on June 16, thus avoiding receipt of the letter. As soon as the new Prime Minister Levi Eshkol took office, Kennedy sent him a similar letter, dated July 5, 1963.

Kennedy’s intention was not to deprive Israel of a power which was reserved to the United States and its NATO allies. The President’s approach was part of a much more ambitious project, which he had announced on September 25, 1961, nine months after taking office, before the General Assembly of the United Nations: "Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be inhabitable. Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us. [...] It is therefore our intention to challenge the Soviet Union, not to an arms race, but to a peace race - to advance together step by step, stage by stage, until general and complete disarmament has been achieved [6]." The message was well received by Nikita Khrushchev, who responded favorably in a 26-page confidential letter dated September 29, 1961, delivered through secret channels. After the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the nuclear war that was narrowly avoided thanks to their composure brought the two heads of State even closer to the awareness of their shared responsibility to liberate humanity from the nuclear threat. Khrushchev sent Kennedy a second private letter in which he expressed the hope that at the end of Kennedy’s eight years of presidency, "we could create good conditions for peaceful coexistence on earth and this would be highly appreciated by the peoples of our country as well as by all other peoples [7]." Despite other crises, Kennedy and Khrushchev continued this secret correspondence, now declassified, comprising a total of 21 letters in which the intention to abolish nuclear weapons was a prominent concern.

In 1963, negotiations led to the first limited test ban treaty prohibiting nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, outer space and underwater, which was signed on August 5, 1963, by the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom. Six weeks later, on September 20, 1963, Kennedy manifested his pride and hope before the United Nations: "Two years ago I told this body that the United States had proposed and was willing to sign a limited test ban treaty. Today that treaty has been signed. It will not put an end to war. It will not remove basic conflicts. It will not secure freedom for all. But it can be a lever, and Archimedes, in explaining the principles of the lever, was said to have declared to his friends: ’Give me a place where I can stand and I shall move the world.’ My fellow inhabitants of this planet, let us take our stand here in this Assembly of nations. And let us see if, in our own time, we can move the world to a just and lasting peace [8]." In his last letter to Kennedy, handed to U.S. Ambassador Roy Kohler but which was never forwarded to the addressee, Khrushchev also took pride in this first historic treaty that "has injected a fresh spirit into the international atmosphere." He formulated other proposals, borrowing Kennedy’s words: "Their implementation would clear the road to general and complete disarmament and, consequently, to the delivering of the peoples from the threat of war [9].”

In the sixties, nuclear disarmament was a realistic goal. Only four countries had a nuclear weapon. There was a historic opportunity to be seized, and Kennedy was determined not to pass it up. "I am haunted by the feeling that by 1970, unless we are successful, there may be ten nuclear powers instead of four, and by 1975, fifteen or twenty [11]," he uttered prophetically during his press conference of March 21, 1963. While all NATO member states and countries of the communist bloc were following the example of the USA and the USSR and taking a first step towards nuclear disarmament, Israel was acting secretly on its own, and Kennedy was determined to prevent it.

Kennedy’s death a few months later eased the pressure on Israel. Johnson chose to turn a blind eye on the activities at Dimona. John McCone, the CIA director appointed by Kennedy, resigned in 1965, complaining of Johnson’s lack of interest in the subject. Israel acquired its first bomb around 1967, without ever admitting it. Nixon was just as unconcerned as Johnson, while his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger privately expressed his satisfaction at the idea of having friendly Israel as a nuclear ally. Nixon, who ushered the “deep state” into the White House so to speak, played a double game: at the same time as he publicly supported the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (which was not a U.S. initiative), he sent a contradictory top-secret National Security Decision Memorandum (NSDM-6) saying: "There should be no efforts by the United States government to pressure other nations [...] to follow suit. The government, in its public posture, should reflect a tone of optimism that other countries will sign or ratify, while clearly disassociating from any plan to bring pressure on these countries to sign or ratify [12]."

According to 2011 figures from SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute), there are today across the world about 20,000 nuclear bombs with an average power 30 times that of Hiroshima, which equals 600,000 times Hiroshima. Of these, 1,800 nuclear warheads are on alert, i.e. ready to be launched in only a few minutes. With less than 8 million people, Israel is the world’s sixth nuclear power.

Johnson and the USS Liberty

Kennedy would not be remembered in Tel Aviv as a friend of Israel. In addition to his attacks against the outrageous lobbying activities of Israel and its nuclear power ambitions, Kennedy defended the right of return of the 800,000 Palestinian refugees expelled from their neighborhoods and villages in 1947-48. On November 20, 1963, his delegation to the United Nations called for the implementation of Resolution 194 crafted for this purpose. Kennedy probably never got the chance to read Israel’s hysterical reactions in the newspapers: two days later, he was dead. Johnson’s rise to power was greeted with relief in Israel: "There is no doubt that, with the accession of Lyndon Johnson, we shall have more opportunity to approach the President directly if we should feel that U.S. policy militates against our vital interests," considered Israeli newspaper Yedio Ahoronot. Far from reproaching Israel for its ethnic cleansing, Johnson fully embraced the myth of "a land without people for a people without a land", even going so far as to compare in front of a Jewish audience, "Jewish pioneers building a house the desert" with his own ancestors colonizing the New World - which, in fact, unintentionally underscored the equivalence between Israel’s denial of its ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and the denial by the Americans of their own genocide history.

While Kennedy had cut down aid to Israel, Johnson increased it from 40 million to 71 million and to 130 million the following year. While the Kennedy administration had authorized the sale of a limited number of defensive missile batteries to Israel, under Johnson more than 70% of the aid was earmarked for military equipment, including 250 tanks and 48 Sykhawk offensive aircraft. Military aid to Israel reached 92 million in 1966, more than the total of all previous years combined. Conversely, by denying them U.S. aid, Johnson forced Egypt and Algeria to turn to the Soviet Union to maintain and upgrade their defense systems. In June 1967, Johnson gave Israel a "yellow light" for its so-called "preventive" war against Egypt, by a letter dated 3 June, when he assured Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol of his determination to "protect the territorial integrity of Israel [...] and provide as effective American support as possible to preserve the peace and freedom of your nation and the area."

Kennedy’s death deeply affected the Arab world, where his portrait graced many homes. "Now, De Gaulle is the only Western head of state on whose friendship the Arabs can rely," said Gamal Abdul Nasser. While reducing aid to Israel, Kennedy had generously provided grain to Egypt as part of the Food for Peace program. For that country, the short-lived presidency of John F. Kennedy will have been an enchanted interlude, a dream shattered all too soon. In 1954, under Eisenhower, Egypt had been the target of false flag terrorist acts perpetrated by Israel in order to "break the West’s confidence in the existing Egyptian regime [and] to prevent economic and military aim from the West to Egypt [14]," according to the very words of the head of military Intelligence (Aman) Benjamin Givli in a secret, today declassified, telegram. The accidental ignition of an explosive device led to the exposure of the conspiracy, sparking the scandal which became known as the “Lavon Affair" after defense minister Pinhas Lavon, a scandal which was quickly stifled by Israel and the United States. Prime Minister Moshe Sharett, who advocated a moderate brand of Zionism, respectful of international rules, acknowledged at that time (but only in private) the irresistible rise of extremists, among which he included future President Shimon Peres, who "wants to frighten the West into supporting Israel’s aims"and that "raises terrorism to the level of a sacred principle [15].”

Kennedy’s death gave free rein to this Machiavellian terrorism which Israel has developed into an art form. Two days before the end of the Six Day War, the Israeli army launched against the USS Liberty the most famous and disastrous of its false flag attacks. On the sunny day of June 8, 1967, three unmarked Mirage bombers and three torpedo boats flying an Israeli flag bombed, strafed and torpedoed for 75 minutes this NSA (National Security Agency) ship -unarmed, floating in international waters and easily recognizable - with the obvious intention of leaving no survivors, machine-gunning even the lifeboats. They only stopped at the approach of a Soviet ship, after killing 34 crew members, mostly engineers, technicians and translators. It is assumed that if they had succeeded in sinking the ship without witnesses, the Israelis would have attributed the crime to Egypt, so as to drag the United States into war on the side of Israel.

According to Peter Hounam, author of Operation Cyanide: Why the Bombing of the USS Liberty Nearly Caused World War III (2003), the attack on the Liberty was secretly authorized by the White House as part of the project labeled Frontlet 615, "a secret political arrangement in 1966 by which Israel and the U.S. had vowed to destroy (Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser)." The orders issued by the White House that day, which delayed the rescue mission by several hours, suggest that Johnson not only covered up the Israelis post-facto, but also conspired with them. Oliver Kirby, the NSA Director for Operations at the time, reported to journalist John Crewdson of the Chicago Tribune (October 2, 2007) that the communications transcripts from the Israeli planes intercepted by the NSA and sent to Washington immediately, left no doubt as to the identity of the attackers, and about the fact that they were aware it was a U.S. target before the attack: "I’m willing to swear on a stack of Bibles that we knew they knew [that it was a U.S. ship]." Unmasked, Israel claimed it was a case of mistaken identity and offered its apology, which Lyndon Johnson meekly accepted on the grounds that "I will not embarrass our ally." When, in January 1968, Johnson received Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol to Washington and then invited him to his Texas ranch, relations were cozy.

Israel will have drawn a lesson of impunity whose influence on its future behavior should not be underestimated: the price for failure in a false-flag operation against the United States is zero. In fact, failure is impossible, since the Americans will themselves step in to cover up Israel’s crimes. Better yet, Johnson rewarded Israel by lifting any restriction on military equipment: weapons and U.S. aircraft immediately flocked to Tel Aviv, soon turning Israel into the top customer of the U.S. military industry.

Author - Laurent Guyénot Ingénieur (Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées, 1982) et médiéviste (docteur en Études Médiévales à Paris IV-Sorbonne, 2009). Il a publié La mort féerique: Anthropologie médiévale du merveilleux (XIIe-XVe siècle) chez Gallimard et La Lance qui saigne - Métatextes et hypertextes du "Conte du Graal" de Chrétien de Troyes chez Champion. Il se consacre depuis trois ans à l’histoire profonde des États-Unis, où il a vécu cinq ans.

Sources

• 1] The Senate Foreign Relations Committee Investigates the Israel Lobby.
• [2] Declassified Preliminary Report: Senate Investigates Foreign Agents – 1961 – 1963.
• [3] Quoted by Gore Vidal in his foreword to Israel Shahak’s book Jewish History, Jewish Religion,1994.
• [4] Quoted by Seymour M. Hersh in The Samson Option.
• [5] Quoted by Seymour M. Hersh, op.cit.
• [6] Quoted by James Douglass in JFK and the Unspeakable.
• [7] Quoted by James Douglass, op.cit.
• [8] Quoted by James Douglass, op.cit.
• [9] Quoted by James Douglass, op.cit.
• [10] Quoted by James Douglass, op.cit.
• [11] Quoted by James Douglass, op.cit.
• [12] Quoted by Seymour M. Hersh, op.cit.
• [13] Quoted by Anthony Summers in The Arrogance of Power.
• [14] Quoted by Livia Rokach, Israel’s Sacred Terrorism, 1980.
• [15] Quoted by Livia Rokach, op.cit.

More & More Drug Addicts in Greece Turn To The New "Poor Man's Cocaine" Shisha (VIDEO)

There is growing popularity of the "poor man's cocaine" in Athens, otherwise known as Shisha. If you talk to anyone on the street they will tell you that they are not quite clear on what came first, the economic crisis or Shisha.

     "Addicts in the city center, faced with the climbing costs of heroin and benzodiazepines, suddenly switched to a drug they had never tried before: crystal meth. They call it Shisha, the same name the Turks use for the tobacco they smoke in Hookahs. Patsi said Eastern Europeans had introduced the drug to the streets. At five euros per fix, it cost half the price of heroin. “People were dying because they were shooting it and not smoking it, like they shoot heroin,” Patsi said. When the price went up, she added, they stopped using it. They also “got scared,” she said, when people started OD’ing.

From all the narcotics which are trafficked, bought and sold on city streets, certainly this new drug is the the worst. Shisha is either inhaled or injected and can be produced in home laboratories.

Helena Smith's report in The Guardian on the rise of Shisha the "cocaine of the poor," in Greece places a spotlight on the horrid realities of austerity. The reports say that the addict who consumes it feels a burning sensation, becomes very aggressive and he or she totally loses control of all his senses. Sounds quite alarming and certainly dangerous, but try explaining this to someone who has a serious addiction, and who is attracted to this drug because it is cheap and very easy to find.

So much so, that some describe it to be the new drug of choice for thousands of homeless Greeks who over the last three years have been forced into poverty and despair because of a deep economic crisis.

This new synthetic drug is not just dangerous, it is also a health hazard. It contains methamphetamine, (battery acid, motor oil and even shampoo) and can literally send users into a state of senseless brutal violence. Depression couple with an excessive abuse of drugs and alcohol, has increased significantly over the last few years and let us not even analyze how high crime has skyrocketed.

      "Its basic components are car battery liquids, bleach and a type of crystalline methamphetamine, making it extremely dangerous."

Even more horrifying is the fact that it is easily obtainable, and certainly all those involved in the trafficking of narcotics are pushing it on the streets in order to rake in the big bucks. Some reports claim that many of the addicts who have already consumed it have committed atrocious crimes.

Young women are turning to prostitution because it is the easiest way to finance their addiction to Shisha, and according to some reports they are not even using protection (because the money is always more generous without a condom). This obviously puts them at a high risk of many sexual diseases one of which is the HIV epidemic. Also, once consumed the user does not think very clearly, and therefore many unwanted pregnancies are being recorded (with newborns who are born addicts).

     "As reported by the Greek Monitoring Centre for Drugs ((EKTEPN), Shisha users smoke and, more often, shoot up the drug, which might be the reason for the 8 times higher HIV cases since 2011, as mentioned by the Head of Research Department of KETHEA."

While Greece is probably the most extreme example of the devastation wrought by governments trying to cut their way out of recession, other nations have also faced similar public health problems brought on by the failure of neoliberal economics. For example, middle-aged American men, particularly those with poor economic prospects, have seen their suicide rates increase as they become alienated from the social fabric.

Recently, the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that for the period 1999-2010, the U.S. saw a 28.4 percent increase in suicide for all Americans aged 35-64 and as psychologist Bruce Levine points out, the cause for the increase was likely economic hardship.

All of this is eerily similar to the stories that came out of Russia and the other post-communist societies in the 1990s. As David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu argue in the The New York Times, those countries that adopted the "shock therapy" approach of economists such as Jeffrey D. Sachs and Lawrence H. Summers saw the health of their people decline as poverty exploded following the abrupt dismantling of the central planning system.

Stuckler and Basu also refer to other historical case studies of failed austerity. For example, during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Thailand and Indonesia adopted harsh austerity policies that caused mass hunger and death from infectious disease.

Sources

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/16/greek-addicts-sisha-drug-crisis
• http://www.thefix.com/content/greek-austerity-addiction-HIV-prostitution8605?page=all
• http://www.behance.net/gallery/Athens-2012-The-living-dead/6513335
• http://economicsisfordonkeys.blogspot.gr/2013/05/breaking-eggs-to-make-omelet.html

Samaras in China - Greek & Chinese Officials Sign Series of Agreements (VIDEO)

Chinese companies desire involvement in Greece's infrastructure sector, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Thursday after talks with visiting Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. The two premiers discussed all aspects of Greek Greek-Chinese relations during their meeting, especially economic cooperation and long-range strategic plans. Following their talks, a number of agreements and protocols were signed by the Greek side and the Chinese government.

Samaras is on an official visit to China until May 19, accompanied by a delegation of some 60-plus Greek business leaders, after which he will fly to Azerbaijan for a one-day visit.

"We are global shipping powers and we can cooperate in many areas. Since 2010 there has been heightened cooperation, while Chinese companies desire to become active in the infrastructure sectors. We will take action to boost commercial transactions, with the target of increasing the volume of transactions to eight billion euros in 2015," the Chinese premier said during a dinner for the Greek mission.

Referring to geopolitical issues, Li noted that China is Greece's ally in the Cyprus issue and asked for Athens' help in improving China's relations with the European Union, especially in light of Greece's upcoming stint in the EU presidency in the first half of 2014.font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;mso-ansi-language:

He also asked Athens to reduce bureaucracy and simplify the process for issuing visas.

Responding, Samaras noted that the new investment law made provision for fast-track procedures that will make Chinese investment easier, adding that the Greek government "is here to look at everything, step by step, and facilitate our cooperation."

Specifically, they discussed expanding the activity of the Chinese container company Cosco at the main port of Greece, Piraeus, and the possibility of Chinese investment in Greek railroads and regional airports and ports.

The agreements signed by the two sides included:font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;mso-ansi-language:

- A Cooperation Protocol with China Development Bank, signed by Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) President Stelios Stavridis and aiming to promote the Greek Privatizations Programme and the active participation of Chinese companies. Government officials hailed the interest expressed by the leading financial organization as a sign that the Chinese have confidence in Greece's prospects for economic growth.

-A cooperation agreement between China Development Bank and Invest in Greece, signed by Invest in Greece Managing Director Stefanos Isaias, to promote economic cooperation in priority sectors, such as tourism, real estate, telecommunications, transport, energy and investment financing. Based on this, China Development Bank will promote Invest in Greece's plans for investments involving Chinese companies and finance their implementation after an assessment. The Greek government's intention to establish an Institute for Growth aimed at boosting the Greek economy was warmly welcomed by the China Development Bank, which will consider participating in the international cooperation.

- A Cooperation Memorandum with the Chinese company Huawei, signed by Greek Development, Competitiveness, Infrastructure, Transport and Networks Minister Costis Hatzidakis. In the next three years, the company will create a logistics hub in Greece and a center for research and innovation, in cooperation with leading Greek research centres and Greek technological companies. Also, Huawei is willing to cooperate with Greek universities and Research Centres and offer training to students and young graduates.

- A Cooperation Memorandum with the Chinese company ZTE - again signed by Hatzidakis - which will undertake to turn the port of Piraeus into a transit and logistics hub for ZTE products in Europe and the greater Mediterranean region. ZTE is among the five leading manufacturers of telecommunications equipment worldwide. Its clients include more than 500 telecommunications providers worldwide and it has a presence in over 140 countries, including Greece. (AMNA - NET)

Is Angelina Jolie Part of A Clever Scheme to Protect Billions in BRCA Gene Patents?

Angelina Jolie’s announcement of undergoing a double mastectomy (surgically removing both breasts) even though she had no breast cancer is not the innocent, spontaneous, “heroic choice” that has been portrayed in the mainstream media. Natural News has learned it all coincides with a well-timed for-profit corporate P.R. campaignthat has been planned for months and just happens to coincide with the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision on the viability of the BRCA1 patent.

Mike Adams
Natural News via Infowars.com

This is the investigation the mainstream media refuses to touch. Here, I explain the corporate financial ties, investors, mergers, human gene patents, lawsuits, medical fear mongering and the trillionsof dollars that are at stake here. If you pull back the curtain on this one, you find far more than an innocent looking woman exercising a “choice.” This is about protecting trillions in profits through the deployment of carefully-crafted public relations campaigns designed to manipulate the public opinion of women.

The signs were all there from the beginning of the scheme: Angelina Jolie’s highly polished and obviously corporate-written op-ed piece at the New York Times, the carefully-crafted talking points invoking “choice” as a politically-charged keyword, and the obvious coaching of even her husband Brad Pitt who carefully describes the entire experience using words like “stronger” and “pride” and “family.”

But the smoking gun is the fact that Angelina Jolie’s seemingly spontaneous announcement magically appeared on the cover of People Magazine this week — a magazine that is usually finalized for publication three weeksbefore it appears on newsstands. That cover, not surprisingly, uses the same language found in the NYT op-ed piece: “HER BRAVE CHOICE” and “This was the right thing to do.” The flowery, pro-choice language is not a coincidence.

What this proves is that Angelina’s Jolie’s announcement was a well-planned corporate P.R. campaignwith carefully-crafted messages designed to influence public opinion. But what could Jolie be seeking to influence?

…how about trillions of dollars in corporate profits?

Upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision to rule on patent viability for BRCA1 gene

Angelina Jolie’s announcement and all its carefully-crafted language had four notable immediate impacts:

1) It caused women everywhere to be terrified of breast cancer through the publishing of false statistics that drove fear into the hearts of anyone with breasts. (See below for explanation.)

2) It caused women to rush out and seek BRCA1 gene testing procedures. These tests just happen to be patented by a for-profit corporationcalled “Myriad Genetics.” Because of this patent, BRCA1 tests can cost $3,000 – $4,000 each. The testing alone is a multi-billion-dollar market, but only if the patent is upheld in an upcoming Supreme Court decision (see below).

3) It caused the stock price of Myriad Genetics (MYGN) to skyrocket to a 52-week high. “Myriad’s stock closed up 3% Tuesday, following the publication of the New York Times op-ed,” wrote Marketwatch.com.

4) It drove public opinion to influence the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision to rule in favor of corporate ownership of human genes (see more below).

Women all over the world are being duped into supporting Angeline Jolie, having no idea that what she’s really doing is selling out women to the for-profit cancer industry. But to fully understand what’s happening, you have to dig deeper…

Myriad Genetics sees stock price skyrocket thanks to Jolie, and Obamacare will funnel billions their way

      “Salt Lake City-based Myriad Genetics (MYGN) holds the patent on the test that determined the actress had an 87% chance of developing breast cancer, as well as the genes themselves,” wrote MarketWatch.com.

And that’s only the beginning. If the U.S. Supreme Court can be influenced to uphold Myriad’s patent, it could mean a trillion-dollar industryover just the next few years. Even more, Myriad Genetics is reportedly “ripe for mergers” according to the financial press, because it’s part of the super-hot human genome industry.

      “The world’s largest maker of DNA testing and analysis tools, Life Technologies Corp. said that it is set to be acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific for a record $13.6 billion,” writes MarketWatch.com. “A race that kicked into high gear more than 26 years ago is heating up, with foreign governments and corporations joining the U.S. in funding the quest to map all the human genomes. And even as the recent flurry of mergers and acquisitions in the genomics space has spurred returns, investors still have opportunities to profit from this multibillion-dollar industry.”

The higher Myriad’s stock price goes, the more profitable a merger becomes for its current owners. So Jolie’s P.R. stunt just happened to generate unknown millions of dollars in value for the very people who claim a patent monopoly over the breast cancer genes residing in the bodies of women. Coincidence? Hardly.

Obamacare mandates taxpayers pay for BRCA gene testing: yet another government handout to wealthy corporations. But here’s what’s even more crooked about all this: You know how Obama likes to talk “free market” but actually engages in so-called “crony capitalism” by handing out money to all his corporate buddies, Wall Street insiders and deep-pocketed campaign donors? Part of Obamacare — the “Affordable Care Act” — mandates that taxpayers pay for BRCA1 genetic testing!

Myriad Genetics, in other words, stands to receive a full-scale windfall of profits mandated by government and pushed into mainstream consciousness through a campaign of “medical terror” fronted by Angelina Jolie and the New York Times. Are you starting to see how this all fits together yet?

This is all one big coordinated corporate sellout of women, and it’s all being hidden by playing the “women’s power” card and using “choice” language to more easily manipulate women. Angelina Jolie, remember, is a key spokesperson for the United Nations, an organization already caught engaged in child sex slavery and drug running. Although Jolie obviously isn’t engage in that sort of behavior, her job is to covertly influence American womeninto supporting a carefully-planned, plotted and executed corporate profit campaign that turns women’s bodies into profits.

Here’s why the Supreme Court decision puts trillions of dollars at stake…

Details on the upcoming Supreme Court decision

The ACLU and the Public Patent Foundation filed a lawsuit in 2009, challenging the corporate ownership of human genes. Anyone who believes in women’s rights, human rights, civil rights or even the right to eat non-GMO foods should immediately agree that corporations should NOT be able to patent human genesand then use those patents to rake in billions of dollars in profits while stifling scientific research into those genes.

A question to all women reading this: Do you believe a corporation in Utah owns your body? If not, you should be opposed to corporate ownership of human genes. It also means you should oppose Angelina Jolie’s P.R. campaign because although she’s running a brilliant public relations campaign, behind the scenes her actions are feeding potentially trillions of dollars of profits directly into the for-profit human gene patenting industrythat denies human beings ownership over their own genetic code.

The ACLU explains the basics of its lawsuit against Myriad Genetics as follows:

On May 12, 2009, the ACLU and the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) filed a lawsuit charging that patents on two human genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer, BRCA1 and BRCA2, are unconstitutional and invalid. On November 30, 2012, the Supreme Court agreed to hear argument on the patentability of human genes. The ACLU argued the case before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 15, 2013. We expect a decision this summer.

On behalf of researchers, genetic counselors, women patients, cancer survivors, breast cancer and women’s health groups, and scientific associations representing 150,000 geneticists, pathologists, and laboratory professionals, we have argued that human genes cannot be patented because they are classic products of nature. The suit charges that the gene patents violate the First Amendment and stifle diagnostic testing and research that could lead to cures and that they limit women’s options regarding their medical care.

Got that? If the Supreme Court rules against Myriad Genetics, it will cause a multi-billion-dollar breast cancer genetic testing industry to collapse virtually overnight. This means a huge loss for not just Myriad, but also many other human gene corporations that wish to exploit the human body — including the bodies of women — for monopolistic profits. (All patents are government-granted monopolies.) Ultimately, trillions of dollars in corporate gene patents are at stake here.

Patenting human genes is huge business

Today, about 20 percent of your genes are already patentedby corporations and universities. As the ACLU explains, “A gene patent holder has the right to prevent anyone from studying, testing or even looking at a gene. As a result, scientific research and genetic testing has been delayed, limited or even shut down due to concerns about gene patents.”

This means that when corporations own patents on human genes, it stifles scientific researchwhile granting that corporation a monopoly over the “intellectual property” encoded in your own DNA! (How criminal is that? You decide…)

What this means is that if the Supreme Court rules against Myriad, it would set a precedent that would dismantle the entire human gene patenting industry, affecting trillions of dollars in future profits.

This, I believe, is the real reason behind Angelina Jolie’s announcement. It seems designed to invoke women’s emotional reactions and create a groundswell of support for corporate-owned genes, thereby handing these corporations a Supreme Court precedent that will ensure trillions in future profits. It’s a for-profit PR stunt that tries to trick women into supporting a corporate system of patents and monopolies that claims, right now, to own portions of the bodies of every woman living today.

While most media outlets have no clue about the patent issues at stake here, the Detroit Free Presstook notice, saying:

     “The Hollywood star’s decision to get tested for a breast cancer gene mutation, undergo a double mastectomy and then write about it calls attention to a case now pending before the court. The justices have just weeks to decide if Myriad Genetics’ patent on the two genes that can identify an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer is legal. Critics complain that the company’s monopoly leaves them as the sole source of the $4,000 tests needed to determine each woman’s risk.”

Lying with statistics: Jolie’s 87% risk exaggeration

There’s more to this story than just the patents on BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Angelina Jolie is also using blatantly misleading statisticsto terrify women into thinking their breasts might kill them.

In the NYT op-ed piece, Jolie claims her doctor told her she has an “87% risk” of developing breast cancer. But what she didn’t tell you is that this number doesn’t apply to the entire population: it’s actually old dataderived almost exclusively from families that were previously documented to have very high risks of breast cancer to begin with.

A study published on the National Human Genome Research Institute website and conducted by scientists from the National Institutes of Health reveals that breast cancer risks associated with BRCA1 genes are significantly lowerthan what’s being hyped up by Jolie and the mainstream media.

In fact, in a large room of 600 women, only ONE will likely have a BRCA mutationin her genetic code. The actual incidence is 0.125 to 0.25 out of 100 women, or 1 in 400 to 1 in 800. I used 600 as the average of 400 and 800.

And out of that 1 in 600 women who has the mutation, her risk of breast cancer is only 56 percent, not 78 percent as claimed by Jolie. But 13 percent of women without the BRCA mutation get breast cancer anyway, according to this scientific research, so the increasedrisk is just 43 out of 100 women.

So what we’re really talking about here is 1 in 600 women having a BRCA gene mutation, then less than half of those getting cancer because of it. In other words, only about 1 in 1200 women will be affected by this

Yet thanks to people like Jolie and the fear-mongering mainstream media, women all across the nation have been terrified into believing their breasts might kill them and the best way to handle the problem is to cut them off!

This, my friends, is the essence of doomsday fear mongering. This issue affects less than one-tenth of one percent of women but is being riled up into a nationwide fear campaign that just happens to feed profits into the for-profit cancer diagnosis and treatment industry, not to mention the monopolistic human gene patenting cartels.

That’s the real story of what’s happening here. Don’t expect to read this in the New York Times.

Corporate media refuses to mention real prevention and treatment options

As part of the breast cancer fear mongering and treatment scam now being run across the mainstream media, nearly all media sources are prohibiting any mention of holistic or natural options for treatment or prevention.

Sure, the media talks about “options,” but all those options just happen to lead back to the for-profit cancer industry. As an example, read this story by ABC News, part of the lying mainstream media that misinforms women and pushes a corporate agenda:

If you do test positive for BRCA, you have options, and you don’t necessarily have to go the Jolie route. Some women choose not to have surgery. Instead, they increase cancer surveillance with imaging tests. These include regular mammograms to test for breast cancer, and regular pelvic sonograms and blood-tests to watch for ovarian cancer.

Nowhere in this article does ABC News mention ways to suppress the BRCA1 gene by, for example, eating raw cruciferous vegetables containing Indole-3-Carbinol (I3C), a potent anti-cancer nutrient that halts breast cancer in its tracks. Nowhere does ABC News mention vitamin D which prevents nearly 4 out of 5 cancersof all types, including breast cancer.

Nope, the “options” being pushed by mainstream media are nothing more than mammograms, surgery, radiation and chemotherapy — all owned and run by the for-profit cancer industry that feeds on women and exploits their bodies for profit.

Nor is their any discussion of the total scam of the “pink ribbons” cancer cure industry which is primarily focused on giving women cancer through “free mammograms.” As any scientist or physicist already knows, mammograms cause cancer because they emit ionizing radiation directly into the breast and heart tissues. Get enough mammograms done and sooner or later they will detect breast cancer because they caused it! To date, 1.3 million women have been harmed by mammography.

Thanks, Angelina, for keeping the wool pulled over the eyes of women everywhere while selling out to for-profit, monopolistic, corporate interests that incessantly seek to exploit women for profit.

Photo credit: PEOPLE Magazine cover, used under Fair Use for public commentary and education.

Mike Adams’ website is Natural News. This article was originally posted here.