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Germany cools talks about a possible third bailout for Greece


RT.com
Thu, 22 Aug 2013 04:49 UTC
Wolfgang Schaeuble
© (Reuters / Grigory Dukor)Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble
German officials have played down their finance minister's admission that Greece needed a third bailout, saying no exact decision has been taken. In pre-election campaign Schaeuble words were unpopular, as German voters are skeptical about more tranches.

"There is no new situation. Nothing has changed," Schaeuble's spokesman Martin Kotthaus said. "Our position remains that we will assess where Greece stands in 2014 and whether additional measures may be needed," as Reuters quotes spokesmen for German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and his boss Angela Merkel.

In the meantime, the European Central Bank came to Athens on Wednesday to check up on the country's success in meeting its international bailout obligation.

The clarification comes shortly after Schaeuble unexpectedly admitted on Tuesday that Greece would need more financial help, because the $328 billion pledged so far won't be enough to save Athens from bankruptcy.
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Bell

Miranda's rights: how Europe can learn from Latin America's independence

Mark Weisbrot
The Guardian
Tue, 20 Aug 2013 23:04 UTC
Kerry and Patriota
© Evaristo SA/AFPUS Secretary of State John Kerry and his Brazilian counterpart, Antonio Patriota, meeting this month in Brazil. Patriota told Kerry that the NSA must 'stop practices that violate sovereignty'.
Brazil's action over the detention of Glenn Greenwald's partner shows South American nations no longer toe Washington's line

With a few exceptions, most of Europe hasn't had an independent foreign policy for the past 70 years, and the UK stands out as a prime example of this. I remember discussing British foreign policy with a UK member of Parliament a few years ago, and he said to me:
Do you want to know what the Foreign Office is going to do? Just ask the [US] State Department.
The British government proved its first loyalty once again by detaining Glenn Greenwald's Brazilian partner, David Miranda, under the UK's Terrorism Act 2000 as he passed through London's Heathrow airport on Sunday. He was interrogated for the maximum of 9 hours, and his laptop, cell phone, and other stores of digital information were seized.

It is clear that Miranda was not suspected of any connection to terrorism. To detain and rob Miranda on this pretext is no more legal than to have done so on trumped-up allegations that he was transporting cocaine. The White House has admitted that Washington had advance knowledge of the crime, and so we can infer approval - if not active collaboration.
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Stormtrooper

Scotland Yard call their abuse of power and David Miranda's bullying 'legally sound'


BBC News
Tue, 20 Aug 2013 22:29 UTC
greenward & miranda
Glenn Greenwald greeted Mr Miranda when he arrived in Brazil on Monday
Using the Terrorism Act to detain the partner of a Guardian reporter who covered US and UK security services was "legally sound", Scotland Yard says.

It was responding to claims it misused its powers by holding David Miranda for nine hours at Heathrow on Sunday.

The UK's reviewer of terror laws has said the length of detention was "unusual" and will meet police later.

Meanwhile, the Guardian's editor claims leaked information it held was destroyed following government demands.

Government sources told the BBC in response to the editor, Alan Rusbridger's claims that the official approach had not been "heavy-handed".

No-one had been arrested, no injunctions sought and the newspaper still continued to print stories based on the leaked material, the sources said.
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Laptop

NSA gathered thousands of Americans' e-mails before court struck down program

Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post
Wed, 21 Aug 2013 22:05 UTC
Video: Barton Gellman, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, first reported for the The Washington Post on the National Security Agency's extensive surveillance programs. Nia-Malika Henderson sat down with Gellman for On Background about reporting on the controversial activities.


For several years, the National Security Agency unlawfully gathered tens of thousands of e-mails and other electronic communications between Americans as part of a now-revised collection method, according to a 2011 secret court opinion.

The redacted 85-page opinion, which was declassified by U.S. intelligence officials on Wednesday, states that, based on NSA estimates, the spy agency may have been collecting as many as 56,000 "wholly domestic" communications each year.
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Arrow Down

Tyranny for profit

Eric Peters
Eric Peters Auto
Wed, 21 Aug 2013 22:10 UTC
Tyranny seems to be as much about getting rich as it is about getting power. There is the example of Michael Chertoff, ex-Oberstgruppenfuhrer of the Heimatsicherheitsdeinst - who made millions via the TSA porno scanners which are now part of the Submission Training every American who wishes to fly must endure. The maker of the porno scanners - Rapiscan - was a client of The Chertoff Group. At least $118 million of your dollars have gone to Rapiscan (and to Chertoff, personally) to facilitate your degradation at the airport of your choice.

But, he's a big fish.

Smaller fish are just as hungry for your money - and your liberty.
Allan Marx
© Eric Peters Auto
For instance, there is Allan Marx. He is an Ordnungspolizei Obersturmfuhrer (police lieutenant, pictured above) in Sebastian County, Arkansas who is pushing hard for OralTox test swabs (see here) to be used upon motorists at Fourth Amendment-free "sobriety" checkpoints. It just happens that Marx is also a distributor for the product - and thus, stands to profit handsomely at the expense of his fellow citizens' liberty.
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Vader

Flashback Best of the Web: U.S. 'planned to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame it on Assad'

Louise Boyle
Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 29 Jan 2013 10:51 UTC
  • Image
    Terrorism: Made in the USA (see UK, Israel and France for regional offices)
    Leaked emails from defense contractor refers to chemical weapons saying 'the idea is approved by Washington'
  • Obama issued warning to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last month that use of chemical warfare was 'totally unacceptable'
Leaked emails have allegedly proved that the White House gave the green light to a chemical weapons attack in Syria that could be blamed on Assad's regime and in turn, spur international military action in the devastated country.

A report released on Monday contains an email exchange between two senior officials at British-based contractor Britam Defence where a scheme 'approved by Washington' is outlined explaining that Qatar would fund rebel forces in Syria to use chemical weapons.

Barack Obama made it clear to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last month that the U.S. would not tolerate Syria using chemical weapons against its own people.

Comment: And now we see today, 21 August 2013, that they appear to have 'gone for the jugular' with this propaganda trick, claiming that over 1,300 people have been killed in a gas/chemical attack perpetrated by Assad's troops in Damascus.

In the meantime, SANA, the Syrian national news agency has refuted these ludicrous lies:
Allegations of armed forces using toxic gas in Damascus countryside untrue

An official spokesman at the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry said that the cooperation agreement between Syria and the international committee for investigating the use of weapons of mass destruction in some areas in Syria didn't please the terrorists and the countries supporting them, which is why they came up with new false allegations that the Armed Forces used toxic gas in Damascus Countryside.

The spokesman said that the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry affirms that these allegations are false and untrue, and that the Ministry would like to point out that Syria has repeatedly announced that it will never use any weapons of mass destruction against its own people, if such weapons exist.

The spokesman said that these lies and allegations have become well-known to the Syrian government and people, and that the allegations constitute an attempt to prevent the international investigation committee from carrying outs its task and to influence the committee's report.


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Sherlock

Best of the Web: Syria gas attack story has whiff of Saudi-U.S. war propaganda

William Engdahl
RT.com
Wed, 21 Aug 2013 15:15 UTC
Syria Gas attack
© (Reuters / Ammar Dar)A man, affected by what activists say is nerve gas, breathes through an oxygen mask in the Damascus suburbs of Jesreen August 21, 2013.
The reports of massive chemical attacks in Syria might become the "red line" for the US for active military intervention. But even rudimentary analysis of the story shows it is too early to believe its credibility.

The Middle Eastern newspaper, Al Arabiya, reports that "At least 1,300 people have been killed in a nerve gas attack on Syria's Ghouta region, leading opposition figure George Sabra said on Wednesday..." The paper went on to claim that the Government of President Bashar al Assad was responsible for the attacks. If confirmed it could be the "red line" that US President Obama previously stated would tip the US into active military intervention in Syria, using No Fly Zones and active military steps to depose Assad.

That in turn could erupt into a conflagration across the Middle East and a Super Power confrontation with Russia and China and Iran on one side, and the USA, UK, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar on the opposite side. Not a happy prospect for world peace at all.
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USA

Manning to ask Obama for pardon, will pay 'high price' if not granted


RT.com
Wed, 21 Aug 2013 13:39 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo / Mark WilsonUS Army Private First Class Bradley Manning is escorted out of a military court facility during the sentencing phase of his trial in Fort Meade, Maryland.
Bradley Manning's defense team will file a pardon request to US president Barack Obama early next week, or will ask to commute the Private's sentence.

"Early next week I will file a request to the President for the pardon of Private Manning, or at least [ask to] commute his sentence," Manning's lead attorney, David Coombs, said during a Wednesday news conference.

Coombs read a statement from Manning, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking US intelligence to WikiLeaks.

In the letter, Manning says that he leaked the information out of love for his country, and that if the President denies him a pardon "he will serve [his] time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a high price."

In the statement voiced by the counsel, Manning quoted American historian and social activist Howard Zinn, saying, "there is not a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."

"We did everything to make sure he got a fair trial, but I don't think the public is going to perceive it as such," added Manning's attorney.
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Bad Guys

Haiti "Reconstruction": Luxury Hotels, Sweat Shops and Deregulation for the Foreign Corporate Elite

Julie Lévesque
Global Research
Fri, 16 Aug 2013 11:04 UTC
Displacement camp, Haiti
© REUTERS, Swoan ParkerPicture: Girl in a displacement camp, January 2013.
"The international community is so screwed up they're letting Haitians run Haiti." - Luigi R. Einaudi, US career diplomat, member of the Council on Foreign Relations and former Assistant Secretary General at the Organization of American States

Haitian author and human rights attorney Ezili Dantò heard Luigi R. Einaudi make this shocking comment in 2004, as Haiti was about to celebrate its 200 years of independence with its first democratically elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Apart from his efforts to raise the minimum wage and other social measures for the majority of Haitians living in extreme poverty, Aristide planned to nationalize his country's resources, a move which meant more money for Haitians and less for multinationals. One month later, in the name of the "international community", Aristide was overthrown in a coup d'état orchestrated by the U.S., France and Canada.

Today, the "international community" is running Haiti again, colonial style.

One can easily tell by comparing the very slow construction of shelters and basic infrastructure for the Haitian majority with the rapid rise of luxury hotels for foreigners, sometimes with the help of aid funds which, we were told, were going to provide Haitians with basic necessities.
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Key

Travesty of justice: WikiLeaks soldier Manning sentenced to 35 years in prison

Ian Simpson and Medina Roshan
Reuters
Wed, 21 Aug 2013 10:43 UTC
Bradley Manning
© InconnuBradley Manning
Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier convicted of the biggest breach of classified data in the nation's history by providing files to WikiLeaks, was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday.

Judge Colonel Denise Lind, who last month found Manning guilty of 20 charges including espionage and theft, could have sentenced him to as many as 90 years in prison. Prosecutors had asked for 60 years.

Manning, 25, will be dishonorably discharged from the U.S. military and forfeit some pay, Lind said. His rank will be reduced to private from private first class.

Manning would be eligible for parole after serving one-third of his sentence, which will be reduced by the time he has already served in prison plus 112 days.
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