Sacraficing The Will Of The People On The Altar of The Euro

Testosterone Pit

The Eurozone debt crisis is exacting its toll. Convoluted undemocratic taxpayer-funded bailouts of bondholders and banks designed to keep the Eurozone together can’t kick the can down the road far enough. But the price has been huge, and people have expressed their anger in massive protests. Now, these efforts are also tearing up the fabric of the 27-member European Union: the first one out may be the UK.

If offered a referendum, 56% of the British would vote for a UK exit from the EU (with 34% definitely and 22% probably). Only 30% would vote to keep the UK in the EU. It wouldn’t even be close! It would be a landslide. Thus, if it came to a referendum today, the UK, a cornerstone of the EU, would bail out.

The EU has little patience with the will of the people. In most member states, decisions such as ratification of EU treaties, scrapping one’s own currency, or bailing out holders of sovereign bonds are made by parliamentary vote. But in instances, when people were finally given a vote, they had a nasty tendency to surprise the elite—the politicians, bankers, and unelected bureaucrats that run the show.

The Lisbon Treaty, the chef d’œuvre of the EU’s political elite, was supposed to repeal existing treaties and replace them with a European Constitution that would transfer significant national sovereignty to unelected EU bureaucrats and their institutions. Negotiations started in 2001, and by 2005, a majority of member states had ratified it by parliamentary vote.

But in France, the people got an opportunity to ratify it by referendum—after parliament had passed it with 93% of the votes. What should have been a cakewalk turned into an epic battle that split the Socialist Party in two. And the people, who loved their sovereignty and wanted to hang on to it, “unexpectedly” killed the thing by a margin of 55% to 45%. In the Netherlands, a similar scenario played out. 2005 was the year that referendum became a dreadful word in the European political lexicon.

The lesson was unforgettable: don’t let the riffraff decide. Such matters should be handled by politicians, bankers, and unelected bureaucrats. And so they did damage control. Many of the measures in the failed constitution were revived as reforms in a watered-down treaty. That was in 2008. As a precaution, the uppity people in France and the Netherlands weren’t allowed to vote on it. Irish voters were, however. And they killed it. They too wanted to hang on to their sovereignty.

But then the financial crisis hit. The Irish got scared. Their banks were in trouble. The economy was going south. So the referendum was re-run after the Irish government had negotiated some concessions, and the people changed their mind (the treaty became effective December 1, 2009).

Eurozone slumps back into recession after austerity cuts

Output drops across single currency bloc as economists warn of no early end to crisis

The Independent
Ben Chu

The eurozone has double-dipped back into its second recession in three years, official figures confirmed yesterday – and analysts warned economic pain across the single currency will continue well into 2013.

Output across the 17-member bloc fell by 0.1 per cent over the third quarter of 2012, following a 0.2 per cent decline in the second quarter, according to Eurostat.

The picture across the Continent was uneven with France and Germany both eking out 0.2 per cent growth between July and September, while The Netherlands and Austria showed declines. Meanwhile, the crisis-hit states of Spain, Italy and Portugal, which have been in recession all year, shrank once again. Protesters in all three countries took part in anti-austerity demonstrations on Wednesday.

Economists predict weakness among the currency bloc's southern states to drag Germany and France into recession too in the coming months, with most expecting Europe's dominant economy to register negative growth in the fourth quarter of the year.

The European Commission has forecast that the bloc will shrink by 0.4 per cent over the course of 2012 and expand just 0.1 per cent in 2013.

The slowdown is making it more difficult for eurozone member states to hit their targets under the Fiscal Compact, which compels them to bring deficits down to 3 per cent of GDP.

The European Commission, which polices the Compact, showed some signs of flexibility on deficit reduction this week when the EU economic commissioner, Olli Rehn, said that Spain would not be required to make more cuts this year to compensate for being thrown off course by recession. But he added that Brussels would "look at every country case by case".

Paul De Grauwe of the London School of Economics said that the latest downturn had been brought on by the drastic spending cuts already enacted in southern Europe.

"We are getting into a double-dip recession which is entirely self-made," he said. "It is a result of excessive austerity in southern countries and unwillingness in the north to do anything else."

Steen Jakobsen, the chief economist at Saxo Bank, agreed, saying: "This was totally expected because of austerity policies combined with world growth slowing down and a fall in activity in Germany and the Netherlands."

Separate figures this week showed the Greek economy shrank at an annual rate of 7.2 per cent in the third quarter, up from 6.3 per cent in the previous three months. The International Monetary Fund yesterday reiterated its call for the European Central Bank and the European Union to write off more of the country's debt.

"The IMF has done what it needs to do in the context of its framework," the fund's spokesman William Murraysaid. "Clearly there has to be other actions taken to reach debt sustainability."

Athens' public debt is expected to hit 190 per cent of GDP next year. Greece is facing a sixth-successive year of contraction in 2013.

There was, however, a flicker of good news for Ireland yesterday as the Fitch credit rating agency upgraded its outlook for the country's BBB sovereign bonds, citing its success in cutting the deficit and return to capital markets.

US criticises Europe over 'failure' to label Hezbollah a terrorist organisation

The Independent
KAREN DEYOUNG

White House counterterrorism chief John O. Brennan said Friday that European failure to join the United States in designating the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah a terrorist organization is undermining international counterterrorism efforts.

"Let me be clear," Brennan said in a speech in Dublin, European resistance "makes it harder to defend our countries and protect our citizens."

Brennan listed Hezbollah at the top of a list of joint U.S. and European security challenges. In addition to its alliance with terrorist activities by Iran, he said, "we have seen Hezbollah training militants in Yemen and Syria."

The Obama administration has previously accused Hezbollah of training Syrian government forces fighting an armed uprising in that country. Early this year, it also charged Hezbollah with facilitating Iranian arms shipments to Shiite separatists in Yemen, although it did not say there was on-the-ground training there.

The United States first designated Hezbollah a "global terrorist" organization in 1995, seizing U.S. assets and prohibiting anyone in this country from providing it with material or financial support. While some countries in the European Union, including Britain and the Netherlands, have argued that the Europeans should follow suit, the E.U. and individual governments have argued that there is no tangible evidence the group has undertaken terrorist acts in Europe.

Led by France, some Europeans have said that their influence and relations with Lebanon — where Hezbollah provides extensive social services and its political wing holds government power — would be damaged by the designation.

But the administration, along with Israel and many U.S. lawmakers, has recently stepped up a years-long effort to pressure Europe, saying that money flows from there to support terrorist activities by Hezbollah and Iran.

In addition, Brennan said in prepared remarks for a speech to Dublin's Institute of International and European Affairs, countries that have arrested Hezbollah suspects for plotting in Europe have been unable to prosecute them on terrorism charges.

Brennan cited kidnapping for ransom, by both terrorist groups and pirates, as another challenge, and indirectly criticized European governments and individuals for encouraging such activities by paying ransom. Pressure on al-Qaida's ability to "raise, move and use funds," he said, had led that group and its affiliates, particularly in Africa, to "increasingly turn to kidnapping operations and efforts to extract large ransoms from governments, private companies and other governmental organizations."

He said al-Qaida and allied groups had "reaped at least $120 million in ransom payments" since 2004, while pirates operating off the coast of Somalia had received $140 million just in 2011.

Ransom payments, he said, "many of which come from Europe," create a "vicious circle — fueling the very criminality, violence and terrorism that we seek to stop."

"From President Obama on down, we continue to urge our allies and partners to resist the temptation to pay," Brennan said.

Syria: Turning Back the Clock on the Arab Spring

Global Research
Ahmad Barqawi

Whatever genuine grievances and demands for political reform the Syrian people might have had a year and half ago were trodden underfoot by this stampeding sectarian drive that the Syrian opposition itself worked so hard to foster among its own supporters.

Perhaps one of the most inglorious accomplishments of the western-backed/Gulf-funded Syrian opposition is that it has – and over the course of mere months - managed to inflict such a colossal, irreparable damage to the Syrian people’s future prospects of having a real, homegrown and genuine uprising to bring about positive change in their own country.

Thanks to the devious Syrian National Council and the crazed Free Syrian Army; the term ‘revolution’ has sadly lost its worth and lustre for a sizable portion of the Syrian populace and in the Arab world in general, as it has become marred by abhorrent stigmas of sectarianism, religious fanaticism, succumbing to foreign agendas, subjugation of national integrity and social disintegration. We must concede to the SNC, the FSA and their western patrons their unrivalled ability in transforming what was essentially a flicker of hope into an entire landscape of desolation and ruin.

In the blink of an eye, the home country in which all Syrians coexisted peacefully and harmoniously together for decades became a place they do not even recognize; reciprocal kidnappings between rival tribes, sects, ethnicities and neighbourhoods have become the order of the day; makeshift illegal checkpoints manned by pundits and warring militias have popped up all over Syrian cities; where ID cards could easily get unfortunate passersby killed on the spot, the country’s normally amicable population has been driven headfirst into a horrible cycle of killings and reprisal killings, torture and summary executions, and Mount Kassioun, a once picturesque and vibrant touristic site that overlooks Damascus has become a strategic vantagepoint for rocket launchers and artillery barrage.

Most of those dire consequences trace straight back to the Syrian National Council’s doorstep; by handing the fate of the Syrian uprising lock stock and barrel over to the unreliable hands of Hillary Clinton and her deep-pocketed coterie of Gulf despots; they have nearly completely nullified whatever credibility the rebellion might have enjoyed when it was born on the streets of Dera’a. It ceased to be a matter of local dissent against a brute dictatorship any more; it quickly morphed into this disastrous foreign-induced coup d'état – complete with mad covert and overt military operations and intelligence work.

Not only did the Syrian opposition manage to effectively kill the Syrian revolution in the womb by alienating vast sectors of the public from joining the uprising; but they have willingly chosen to systematically sectarianise Syrian society by sowing the seeds of intolerance and confessional discord. Right from the word go; the entire Alawite population was criminalized outright and deemed guilty by “sectarian association” to president Bashar Al-Assad. Mass branding them as “Shabiha” (pro government guns-for-hire) was nothing more than a cheap albeit racist ploy to justify the prosecution of entire Alawite communities and soften the sting of any possible criticism that might arise in response to the FSA’s criminal practices against innocent civilians.

Al Jazeera (especially the more vulgar Arabic branch of the Qatari-funded news network) was - and still is - a major instrument in furthering this deadly stereotype; the channel that once championed (or so it seemed anyway) pan-Arab national causes such as the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation and the Iraqi resistance to the Coalition invasion, is now openly and notoriously championing what amounts to prima facie ethnic cleansing of Alawites in Syria. This was glaringly evident in the channel’s knee-jerk attempts at justifying the latest mass murder of several members of the Berri family in Aleppo; insisting that the victims were plain-clothed paramilitary thugs “armed to the teeth” fighting alongside government forces prior to their capture and swift execution by the “good guys”. This multi million-dollar media mammoth has been reduced to nothing more than a mere sleazy PR office for the crooked Free Syrian Army.

Of course this blatant bigotry was not limited to the Alawites but extended to the Shiites as well. In a bizarre reshuffle of political cards; Syria has become a safe haven for a slew of CIA, MI6 and even Mossad operatives to roam in and out of rebel-held areas to their hearts’ content, but not for Lebanese Shiite families and Iranian civilians - who have become the target of a vicious witch-hunting spree as various gangs and factions of the Free Syrian Army compete for the honour of “hosting” (a callous euphemism for “kidnapping”, used by the kidnappers and repeated shamelessly by Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya news channels) and humiliating these people on live television.

Case in point; on May 22, 2012, a busload of Shiite pilgrims (including women) was intercepted at gunpoint by gangs of the FSA near Aleppo while they were returning home to Lebanon from a religious trip to Iran. Later, the women were released but till this very day the fate of the remaining 11 male hostages remains uncertain (despite a handful of badly choreographed, self-promotional televised theatrical appearances of the kidnapper on Lebanese channels).

The British Siege of the Ecuadorian Embassy: Déjà Vu: Anglo-American disregard for International Law

Global Research
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya

When Iranian student activists occupied the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 as a result of the Iranian Revolution, the US and Britain condemned the Iranian provisional government of Prime Minister Bazargan even though it was not responsible. The US, UK, and their allies ranted and raved about the sanctity of foreign diplomatic missions, calling the activists “terrorists” and “anarchists.” Today, however, they endorse the storming of embassies and consulates themselves. It is also important to note that Anglo-American disregard for diplomatic sanctity is conducted at the official level while the taking of the US Embassy in Tehran was not an official act executed or sanctioned by the Iranian government.

In regard to British threats to storm the Ecuadorian Embassy to the United Kingdom in London, the focus should not be on Julian Assange, the controversial founder of WikiLeaks. The real focus of the British government’s threats should be on something much bigger and more important than one man. The real issue at hand is the total disregard for international law that has clearly emerged in the world after the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War.

The United States and Soviet Union never violated the diplomatic sanctity and extraterritoriality of one another’s diplomatic missions by storming them with their state security forces, even during the tensest periods of the Cold War. Embassies were consistently and securely used to relocate spies, defectors, and dissidents around the world. Many ruthless regimes and dictators during the Cold War even observed the international laws that protected the diplomatic sanctity of the diplomatic missions of other countries, even if their own dissidents sought refuge in the embassies and consulates of other countries.

The world is divided into two: those that are part of a system of empire and those that are not. The warning that British Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats has issued to the government of Ecuador that it will assault Quito’s diplomatic mission in London if Assange is not turned over to the British government is in total disregard for international law and signifies a feeling of impunity felt within the system of empire that includes the UK. Cameron’s government is making threats to ignore and breach international law at the behest of Washington, DC. The Ecuadorian government, with the support of all Latin America, has responded by telling Britain that it is not a “British colony.” Quito should have re-worded its comments and said it is not an “American colony or dependency like the UK.”

International Law, Diplomatic Immunity Mean Nothing to the US Empire

It should be clear to all by now that international law is only selectively applied and that double-standards are in exercise. There are two standards in the world too. One set of standards is for those that have to follow the law and the other is for those that are above the law. Some countries see international laws as tools to be manipulated in their favour and cited only when it suits them. The governments of these countries pick and choose when to follow international law and when to apply it. These countries include the United Kingdom, France, Israel, and, first and foremost, the United States of America. These nations act as if it is acceptable and natural for them to have weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), illegally invade other countries, commit crimes against international peace, kill foreign nationals with impunity, and interfere in the affairs of other countries.

Diplomatic immunity and international law means nothing to the individual’s controlling the American Empire. When Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng sought political asylum in the US Embassy to China, the Chinese government did not threaten to violate Washington’s diplomatic immunity. The behaviour of the Chinese government has been in stark contrast to that of the British government’s threats to storm the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

London’s Threats are a Repeat of Washington’s Actions: A Look Back at 2007

No one should be surprised about the US role in the threats to violate the diplomatic immunity of the Ecuadorian Embassy to the United Kingdom. The UK is merely following in the footsteps of the US in violating the extraterritoriality of diplomatic missions. In fact, the US raided an Iranian Consulate in Iraq on January 11, 2007.

The Iranian diplomatic mission that the US stormed was in Arbil (Hewler), the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and had been representing Tehran’s interests in Iraqi Kurdistan since 1992. US forces arrested and detain five Iranian diplomats without charges and ransacked the Iranian mission taking all the Iranian diplomatic files they could get their hands on, including the office computers. Aside from the Iranians, KRG officials have also acknowledged that US forces stole the mission’s files. The US government claimed it was acting on behalf of Iraq, but both the Iraqi federal government and KRG rejected this outright.

Despite their diplomatic immunity, the Iranian diplomats from Arbil would be illegally held until July 9, 2009. To justify its breach of international law, the US would claim that the Iranian diplomatic mission was only a liaison office that was in the process of becoming recognized as a diplomatic consulate. Both Iran and Iraq rejected this. In reality, the Iranian mission in Arbil had not only been operational since the Gulf War ended, but had been given recognition by the new political establishment in Iraq after the ouster of President Saddam Hussein and the Baathist government in Baghdad.

More Anglo-American Double-Standards and Breaches of International Law in 2007

On March 23, in the same year that the US military stormed the Iranian consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan, members of the British military ventured into Iranian territorial waters and were subsequently arrested by the Iranian military for trespassing. Instead of quietly obtaining their freedom, the British government politicized the issue and openly mislead the British public into thinking that the Britons were kidnapped by Iran and had never entered Iranian territory. What happened to the Iranians was illegal, but what happened to the British military personnel was legal under international law.

The treatment of the British “detainees” and “kidnapped” Iranian diplomats was not the same either. While Tehran did use the opportunity to taunt the British government, it eventually freed the captured Britons as an “Easter gift” and sign of Iranian good will. The British press seemed to have a memory lapse that the Britons were prisoners when it saw that the British military personnel showed no signs of duress or stress and that they were well treated by the Iranians (see Annex). Instead the British press began to focus on Iranian political opportunism and began to mock the badly fitted grey civilian dress suits that the Iranians had given the British prisoners as gifts.

Parallel to the arrest of the British military personnel, the Iranian diplomat Jalal Sharafi was kidnapped in Baghdad by a US-controlled group of Iraqi commandos who handed him over to the CIA on January 6, just a few days before the US raid on the Iranian consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan. Both the raid on the Iranian mission in Arbil and Sharafi’s kidnapping in Baghdad are not isolated incidents; the US government had initiated a campaign to blame Iran and Syria for Anglo-American failures in Iraq when the events happened. As a diplomat, Sharafi was illegally captured. Moreover, the Iranian diplomat was intensely tortured by the CIA through such acts as the piercing of his feet with electric drills (see Annex). In contrast the British detainees were given proper quarters and treated as guests in Tehran. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) also acknowledged that Sharafi, who would be freed on April 3, was badly tortured. Two different standards were clearly applied.

America Trying to Impose it Domestic Laws on the Rest of the World

Utter disrespect for any equally applied international standards or law is at play. We see that it is not countries like China and Iran that breach international law regularly, but countries like the US and UK. The matter also goes further, because the United States tries to impose its laws on the rest of the world.

Both the governments of the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation, amongst others, have condemned the government of the United States for trying to repeatedly impose its domestic laws on the rest of the world. US domestic laws that are imposed internationally are what the enforcement of the US sanction regimes against countries like Iran and Cuba are in essence. The US is even trying to impose the verdicts and rulings of its domestic courts on the rest of the world.

No country has the right to impose its domestic laws on other countries. This is a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of other countries. It an act of arrogance that implies that the rest of the world is part of a single country’s realm. In short this is how an empire acts. This behaviour, however, is also a sign of desperation as the American Empire tries exerting itself with greater force to hide the fact that it is crumbling.
ANNEX: Photographs of the British Military Prisoners of Iran and the Kidnapped Iranian Diplomat

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya is an award-winning author, sociologist, and geopolitical analyst. He is the author of The Globalization of NATO (Clarity Press) and a forthcoming book The War on Libya and the Re-Colonization of Africa. He has also contributed to several other books ranging from cultural critique to international relations. He is a Research Associate at the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), a contributor at the Strategic Culture Foundation (SCF) in Moscow, and a member of the Scientific Committee of Geopolitica in Italy. He has also addressed the Middle East and international relations issues on several news networks including Al Jazeera, teleSUR, and Russia Today. His writings have been translated into more than twenty languages. In 2011 he was awarded the First National Prize of the Mexican Press Club for his work in international journalism.

The Globalization of NATO (Clarity Press) by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya.
Foreword by Denis J. Halliday.

CIA Arming Syrian Insurgents

War Is a Crime
Stephen Lendman

Homs Massacre

On June 21, The New York Times headlined "CIA Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition," saying:

Operating covertly from southern Turkey, CIA operatives are "decid(ing) which Syrian opposition fighters across the border will receive arms to fight the Syrian government, according to American officials and Arab intelligence officers."

Weapons supplied include "automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition, (and) antitank weapons...."

They're smuggled across Turkey's border through "a shadowy network of intermediaries...."

They're also entering through Lebanon.

Muslim Brotherhood officials are involved. So are Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, other Gulf States, Jordan and Israel.

Obama denies what other US officials confirm.

A knowledgeable unnamed Arab intelligence operative said:

"CIA officers are there and they are trying to make new sources and recruit people" to help topple Assad.

Turkish army vehicles are used to transport weapons and munitions to border areas. From there they're smuggled into Syria.

Turkish officials deny what confirmed evidence shows they're doing.

The New York Times article failed to explain what's been ongoing since violence erupted early last year.

Throughout the conflict, NATO's been waging covert war. Washington directs everything. Israel, France and Britain are directly involved. So are Gulf States, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon's March 14 alliance, and other Arab League countries.

In January 2012, British media confirmed that MI6 and CIA operatives were training Syrian insurgents. US, British, French, and Qatari special forces are involved.

They're recruiting, funding, equipping, arming, training, and directing insurgents. They're choosing targets. They're responsible for recent massacres and terrorist bomb attacks.

Last February, Mossad-connected DEBKAfile said:

"British and Qatari special operations units are operating with rebel forces under cover in the Syrian city of Homs just 162 kilometers from Damascus, according to debkafile’s exclusive military and intelligence sources."

They're "tactical advisers." They're "manag(ing) rebel communications lines." They're involved in supplying "arms, ammo, fighters and logistical aid."

They're operating from Homs, Bab Derib, Rastan, and Bab Amro. 

Toulouse gunman was informant of French intelligence?

Russia Today

An undated and non-datelined frame grab from
a video broadcast March 21, 2012 by French national
television station France 2 who they claim to
show Mohamed Merah

Mohamed Merah, the notorious killer shot in a stand-off with police a week ago in Toulouse, is still stirring controversy in France. An ex-chief of the French spy agency says Merah might have acted as an informant to the local equivalent of the FBI.

­The speculation comes as Yves Bonnet, a former intelligence chief, says Merah might have passed information onto the DCRI, a French domestic intelligence agency.

“He was known to the DCRI, not especially because he was an Islamist, but because he had a correspondent in domestic intelligence,” Bonnet told La Dépêce newspaper on Monday.

“When you have a correspondent, it’s not completely innocent,” he remarked.

On Tuesday the assumption, worthy of a huge scandal, was rebuffed by DCRI head Bernard Squarcini.

Merah was indeed interviewed by a local intelligence agent in November 2011, Squarcini said, but this was because the agency “wanted to receive explanations about his trip to Afghanistan.”

As Merah stated he went to Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011 as a tourist, he was let go but placed on a watch list. Merah “did not serve as an informant to the DCRI or any other French intelligence service,” stressed the DCRI head.

Previously, French officials said “no evidence” indicated that Merah was linked to terror groups or that the shooting spree, which took the lives of seven people in Toulouse earlier this month, was ordered by al-Qaeda.

Toulouse Fallout 'Plays Into Sarkozy's Hands'

Der Spiegel

Following the death of the Toulouse terror suspect on Thursday, attention is now turning to what his crimes will mean for France's future. With a presidential election just weeks away, candidates managed a dignified sense of national unity during the crisis. But German commentators say that could quickly change.

It took just days for French police to track down Mohamed Merah, the 23-year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent responsible for killing seven people in southern France over the past week, including three children at a Jewish school.

Conservative French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been struggling against his Socialist Party contender in the presidential election, has been praised for the quick success in detecting and stopping Merah as well as the statesmen-like behavior he has shown so far -- with his appearances at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse, at the coffins of the victims before they were transferred to Israel, at the hospital beds of injured police and at the memorial ceremony for the murdered soldiers. Observers say that, instead of the biting and hyperactive Sarkozy many had experienced during the election campaign, in recent days they have seen a dignified man worthy of the country's highest office.

Sarkozy's success culminated on Thursday, when police ended the siege at the apartment where Merah had been holed up for 30 hours. With his death, many are asking what impact the attacks by an apparent homegrown terrorist will have on the presidential election, with the first round of voting just one month away. Will Sarkozy get a bump in the polls for his swift response? Will Socialist Party candidate François Hollande suffer because he was unable to present himself in the same role that Sarkozy could as president? Or will far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, who has run a campaign filled with anti-Muslim sentiment, get a boost from the terrible crimes?

Initially, Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front, had remained silent over the attacks, but on Thursday the candidate lashed out at Sarkozy, saying it had been a "luxury" for police to wait 30 hours before storming Merah's apartment. Le Pen also criticized the fact that the authorities had failed to stop Merah before he acted, given that he had already been prosecuted several times.

Europe 'No evidence' of Mohamed Merah terror link, says French official

The Independent

 There is no evidence that gunman Mohamed Merah had links with al-Qa'ida or other terror groups, a French official says.

The official, who is close to the investigation into Merah's killing spree, said there is no sign he had "trained or been in contact with organised groups or jihadists".

Merah had travelled to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and prosecutors said Merah had claimed he had been in contact with al-Qa'ida.

A little-known group claimed responsibility for the killings but the official said the claim appeared opportunistic.

Merah was killed in a gunfight with police yesterday after a 32-hour siege at his apartment in Toulouse.

The official said Merah might have made the claim because al-Qa'ida is a well-known "brand." Authorities have "absolutely no element allowing us to believe that he was commissioned by al-Qa'ida to carry out these attacks".

Investigators looking for possible accomplices decided to keep Merah's older brother, his mother and the brother's girlfriend in custody for another day for further questioning, the Paris prosecutor's office said.

Health Canada Admits Studies on Cell Phones Convincing Enough to Promote Limited Use

Food Consumer
Dr. Mercola

Health Canada is proposing to adopt a precautionary approach and guidelines for limited cell phone use.

Canadians are being encouraged to limit cell phone call length and to text message or use a hands-free device whenever possible.

Other countries have already adopted this precautionary approach.

Russian officials have issued the recommendation that all children under the age of 18 should avoid using cell phones entirely.

The UK, Israel, Belgium, Germany, India and Finland also urge citizens to err on the side of caution with respect to their children's use of cell phones.

Last year, France set the following recommendations:

1) All cell phones must be sold with a device limiting head exposure to EMF.

2) Any advertising campaign promoting the use of cell phones by children below 14 years is banned.

3) Providing radio equipments designed for children under 6 may be banned by ministerial order.

4) In kindergarten, primary school and junior high, the use of cell phones is banned for kids during all teaching activities in locations listed in School rules.

5) For all cell phones sold on the French territory the SAR must be indicated clearly and in French.

Possible risks resulting from excessive use must also be mentioned.

Cell Phone Radiation Classified as 'Possibly Carcinogenic to Humans'

As the use of cell phones and other wireless technologies have exponentially exploded over the past couple of decades, concerns about the health effects of such technology has increased as well. Today, we're at a point of no turning back, as cell phone subscriptions are now estimated at 5 billion globally—that's the majority of people on the planet!
A growing body of researchers has spoken out against the technology, warning that it may have serious biological side effects. On May 31 this year, the World Health Organization (WHO)/International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) issued a report admitting cell phones might indeed cause cancer, classifying radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" (Class 2B). The classification came in part in response to research showing wireless telephones increase the risk for brain cancer.

According to the press release:

"Dr Jonathan Samet (University of Southern California, USA), overall Chairman of the Working Group, indicated that "the evidence, while still accumulating, is strong enough to support a conclusion and the 2B classification. The conclusion means that there could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cell phones and cancer risk."

"Given the potential consequences for public health of this classification and findings," said IARC Director Christopher Wild, "it is important that additional research be conducted into the long?term, heavy use of mobile phones. Pending the availability of such information, it is important to take pragmatic measures to reduce exposure such as hands?free devices or texting. "

Israeli torture traders exhibit in Paris

Hand held body shield inflicts
50,000 Volts on anyone who comes
in contact with it.

Signs of the Times

An Israeli company selling instruments of torture and repression has been given refuge at a Paris arms fair, six years after it was expelled from a similar event in London.

Electroshock shields were one of the items offered by TAR Ideal Concepts at the Milipol exhibition in the French capital earlier this month, a source who attended this bazaar informed me. Those shields are explicitly designed to inflict pain on people who come into contact with them.

TAR's participation went unnoticed by the mainstream media. That was in contrast to the 2005 UK Defense System and Equipment International (DSEI) exhibition. On that occasion, the Israeli firm was instructed to pack up its stand because its brochures solicited orders for stun guns, batons and leg cuffs. TAR founder Tomer Avnon complained at the time that it was hypocritical to single out his firm. "Don't forget we were among booths offering everything from sniper rifles to silencers, cluster bombs and all sorts of nasty stuff," he told The Jerusalem Post.

Legal loopholes

Avnon has been able to avail of loopholes in European Union rules that came into effect in 2006, curbing the trade in goods intended for use during torture or the death penalty. Although the law is an important advance for human rights as it is the first of its kind in the world, it does not stop companies from outside the Union coming here to advertise tools of repression.

Reporters with IsraëlValley, a website promoting business ties between France and Israel, were evidently aroused by some of the other stalls at Milipol. According to the website, the weapons-maker Rafael was one of the Israeli companies to "shine" at the fair. Rafael displayed a new protection system for armored vehicles called Me'il Rou'ah (a Hebrew word for raincoat) and brought along a model of the Merkava IV tank to demonstrate how the system works.

The Murder of Muammar Gaddafi - GRTV Backgrounder

One Million Viewers See Bob McIlvaine, Building 7 on France 3

9/11 Blogger
Justin Keogh



Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOaJZr83RJg

Remember Building 7 continues to educate millions of people on both sides of the Atlantic. France’s second largest public channel did the campaign justice in one of the most unbiased pieces ever done by a mainstream news outlet.

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Libya's vacuum of power

IMF chief faces French probe over deal

Al Jazeera

A French court has ordered that Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund chief, be investigated for the role that she played in a financial settlement paid to a friend of President Nicolas Sarkozy during her tenure as finance minister.

Lagarde is accused of misconduct for overruling objections from advisers to approve a $407m arbitration payout to Bernard Tapie in 2008. Tapie had a long-running legal dispute with Credit Lyonnais, a former state-owned bank.

He claimed that the bank defrauded him when it sold his stake in Adidas sports clothing group in 1993.
Critics argue that the legal battle should not have gone to private arbitration, as it involved a state-owned bank.

Thursday's order came as no surprise to Lagarde.

Her lawyer, Yves Repiquet, said that Lagarde had been relieved to hear the news - as it ended months of speculation over whether a complaint submitted by opposition groups would result in a probe.
In an emailed statement, Repiquet said: "This procedure is in no way incompatible with the current functions of the managing director of the IMF."

Lagarde was appointed head of the IMF last month after her predecessor, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was charged with sexually assaulting a New York hotel maid and quit.

UNBELIEVABLE AMOUNT OF FORCE USED TO STOP 10 ACTIVISTS FROM REACHING GAZA

Desert Peace
Amira Haas

As an Israeli and a journalist, I was taken aside and released after my passport was stamped. The Karame’s other 15 passengers were arrested and were not allowed to see their lawyers.

*

Sailing on a bucket, surrounded by commandos

Haaretz writer returns to Israel after 26 days with Gaza-bound pro-Palestinian activists.

Three missile ships and seven commando boats were sent to take over the tub known as the Dignite Al Karame yesterday, about 50 nautical miles from the shore.

At least 150 soldiers were sent to sea early in the morning to prevent the 10 civilian activists, the three crew members and the three journalists on the “freedom flotilla” from reaching Gaza’s port.

For an hour yesterday, the activists thought the navy might have given up its expensive mission to intercept them. They imagined a different, non-violent ending to their voyage, which began in Corsica on June 25, and continued into international waters on Saturday from the Greek island of Kastellorizo.

On Monday, the activists and the crew decided to drop anchor about 80 nautical miles from the shore so that if they were intercepted, it would be during the day.
On Tuesday morning, the ship weighed anchor and set off again.

Around 10 A.M., an Israeli navy vessel appeared to the north. The Karame’s radio began to crackle: “This is the Israeli navy. What is your destination?”

“Gaza port.”

Permission denied, the voice said.

Just then, communication was cut off. At about 1 P.M., a few commando boats sped toward the Karame from the west. From the south and north, three missile boats appeared.

We were all wearing our bright orange life jackets. The eight people below deck looked like cartoon characters.

But what approached was no joke. Two long, greenish missile boats with commandos on board, black masks hiding their faces, aiming all sorts of weapons at the orange-clad figures.

The commando boats came closer; alongside them were two gray inflatable rubber boats.

Later, three more appeared.

Israeli expatriate Dror Feiler, now a Swedish citizen, shouted in Hebrew: “Stop pointing your guns at us, we’re unarmed. He played a tune he had composed, with Jewish cantorial motifs, on his saxophone.

Just as he stopped playing, the commando boats began to slow down and pull back. The activists joked that the tune had done the job.

Around 2 P.M., seven commando boats came within a few meters of the yacht on both sides.

Israeli naval commandos board Gaza-bound ship

Amy Teibel
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military says commandos have boarded a French ship attempting to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.
They reported no resistance.

The military has said it will stop any attempt to break the sea blockade of Gaza, which Israel imposed four years ago in what it says is a measure to prevent arms smuggling.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

JERUSALEM (AP) – The Israeli navy surrounded a French ship attempting to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and threatened to board the vessel if it didn’t change course.

Israel Radio broadcast the military’s radio message to the ship, which notified activists on board that commandos would carry out a “very calm boarding” of the vessel. There appeared to be no radio response from the activists, who could not be contacted by phone.

Minutes later, the military said it had not yet boarded the ship.

French 'aid ship' sails towards Gaza

MWC News

A French yacht carrying pro-Palestinian activists which set sail from a Greek island at the weekend, is expected to reach the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, organisers said.

The Dignite Al Karama left the Greek island of Kastellorizo late on Saturday following a troubled stay in Greece after Athens imposed a ban on the departure of any ships planning to join an international aid flotilla heading for Gaza.

The flotilla had hoped to break an Israeli naval blockade on the Palestinian territory, despite warnings from the Israeli govenrment.

"The boat should be off the Gaza coast on Tuesday afternoon," Maxime Guimberteau, a spokesman, told AFP news agency by phone from Paris on Monday.

"It is travelling slowly, mainly to conserve fuel," he said.

At least 16 people are aboard the boat, including three crew members and journalists from Al Jazeera and Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper.

The crew and seven of the passengers are French nationals, while another three are representing boats which had been due to join the flotilla but were blocked from leaving Greece.

Officials in Athens say they imposed the ban for the "safety" of the activists on board in the wake of last year's deadly incident when Israeli commandos raided a six-ship flotilla in a confrontation that left nine Turkish activists dead.

"This 'little' boat symbolises the determination of the international solidarity movement to break the blockade on Gaza and express its support for the 1.6 million Palestinians imprisoned there since 2007," a statement from the boat said.

"The fact that the Dignite Al Karama is at sea is a setback for the Israeli government which by force or by pressure is trying to perpetuate an illegal and criminal blockade and to silence civil society movements around the world," it said.

Israel has vowed to prevent any attempt to reach Gaza by sea in defiance of its naval blockade which has been in place since 2006 and was tightened a year later when Hamas took over the coastal territory.

Knesset member suspended

Meanwhile, Israel's parliament suspended an Arab politician on Monday for sailing aboard last year's flotilla.

The Knesset's Ethics Committee voted to suspend Hanin Zoabi from most parliamentary debates until the summer recess early next month, while allowing her to take part in any votes held in the current session.

Zoabi was punished after three politicians filed complaints against her for travelling aboard the Mavi Marmara, the converted cruise ship stormed by commandos.

The ethics committee said in a statement that Zoabi had "participated in an action destined to threaten state security".

It accused her of co-operating with the Turkish charity IHH, which provided funds and volunteers for the Mavi Marmara mission and is outlawed in Israel because of its links to Hamas.

Zoabi, who has denied wrongdoing in the flotilla incident, says she tried to mediate between the activists and Israeli forces.

"An automatic right-wing majority should not be permitted to punish me for my political views," she told Israel's Army Radio.

Zoabi, 42, the only female member of parliament in a party representing Israel's 20 per cent Arab minority, is a critic of the Israeli government's Palestinian policies.

She was stripped of some of her diplomatic privileges by the Knesset last year.

French Ship Carries Freedom Flotilla's "Dignity" to Gaza

Uruknet
Begoña Astigarraga

ATHENS, July 12, 2011 (IPS) - The French vessel Dignité-Al Karama is the only boat from the Freedom Flotilla II actually sailing for Gaza in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade imposed in 2006. At the same time, six Spanish members of the humanitarian aid mission went on hunger strike in the Greek capital.

The hunger strikers, who have occupied the Spanish embassy in Athens since Jul. 5, were travelling on the Spanish ship Gernika (Guernica) that was part of the flotilla carrying 500 activists from 45 different countries, and 5,000 tonnes of aid, bound for the Gaza Strip.

Nearly all the ships have been confined to port in Greece for the last 10 days, except for the Dignité-Al Karama which sailed from the French island of Corsica Jun. 25, evaded the Greek blockade on more than one occasion and remains the only vessel of the flotilla still sailing freely.

With 10 representatives of several delegations of the humanitarian coalition on board, the Dignité received permission Jul. 9 to sail for the island of Rhodes, Manolis Plionis, a member of the Greek delegation of the Freedom Flotilla II - "Stay Human", confirmed to IPS.

From on board the Dignité, French Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Nicole Kiil-Nielsen told IPS that after having been stopped last week in Ormos Kouremenos, in Crete, they were taken to Sitia by the Greek coast guard and eventually allowed to sail from there.

"We had to stop in Crete to refuel, as we did not have enough fuel to reach Gaza," Kiil-Nielsen said. "Now, the Dignité is free and we are organising another group of passengers, probably international, to go on to Gaza."

Manuel Tapial, coordinator of Rumbo a Gaza (Sailing to Gaza) Spain, told IPS that "the Dignité-Al Karama is heading for Gaza on its own, representing the dignity of the flotilla, and carrying representatives of the international coalition delegations."

In addition to the crew and MEP Kiil-Nielsen, passengers include Vangelis Pissias, the coordinator of the Greek delegation, Swedish-Israeli musician Dror Feiler and actor Guillermo "Willy" Toledo, representing the Spanish delegation.

Meanwhile, six Rumbo a Gaza activists began a hunger strike at the Spanish embassy in Greece Monday Jul. 11, after medical checks. Two other members of the group participated in the protest from Madrid.

In a communiqué released Monday, the activists said they would fast until "the Spanish government shows some sign that it will intercede (with the Greek authorities) so that the Gernika may sail freely across the Mediterranean."

The six hunger strikers are among a score of activists who occupied the Spanish embassy in Athens with the declared intent of remaining there until their country's Foreign Ministry responded to their demands, and until their ship, held by the Greek authorities in Kolymbari, Crete, was released and allowed to go to a safe port or return to Spain.

However, the activists say they have only received an official statement from the Foreign Ministry announcing its decision "not to make any public commitment to the release of the Gernika," which prompted them to take stronger measures in pursuit of their demands.

In an open letter sent Monday, Tapial upbraided the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party's (PSOE) prime ministerial candidate Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba: "The government you represent has forsaken us, and our only remaining option is protest action to rescue the Gernika, by right and with dignity.

"Mister Rubalcaba, as leader and candidate of the PSOE, speak out and call for the release of the Gernika, a ship bought with the money of thousands of people throughout Spain who believe that a project like this one is necessary to show effective support for the besieged people of Gaza.

"Listen, commit yourself and take action," the Rumbo a Gaza coordinator demanded.

The US must end its illegal war in Libya now

Guardian
Dennis Kucinich

President Obama has ripped up the US constitution for Nato's ill-considered Libyan adventure. Congress must restore sense

This week, I am sponsoring legislation in the United States Congress that will end US military involvement in Libya for the following reasons:

First, the war is illegal under the United States constitution and our War Powers Act, because only the US Congress has the authority to declare war and the president has been unable to show that the US faced an imminent threat from Libya. The president even ignored his top legal advisers at the Pentagon and the department of justice who insisted he needed congressional approval before bombing Libya.

Second, the war has reached a stalemate and is unwinnable without the deployment of Nato ground troops, effectively an invasion of Libya. The whole operation was terribly ill-considered from the beginning. While Nato supports the Benghazi-based opposition (situated in the oil-rich north-east), there is little evidence that the opposition has support of the majority of Libyans. The leading opposition group, the National Front for the Salvation of Libya (which had reportedly been backed by the CIA in the 1980s), should never have launched an armed civil war against the government if they had no chance absent a massive Nato air campaign and the introduction of Nato troops. Their reckless actions, encouraged by western political, military and intelligence interests, created the humanitarian crisis that was then used to justify the Nato war campaign.

Third, the United States cannot afford it. The US cost of the mission is projected to soon reach more than $1bn, and we are already engaged in massive cutbacks of civil services for our own people.
It is not surprising that a majority of Republicans, Democrats and independents alike think the US should not be involved in Libya.

This war is misguided. An invasion would be a disaster. Nato already is out of control, using a UN mandate allowing for protection of civilians as the flimsy pretext for an unauthorised mission of regime change through massive violence. In a just world, the Nato commander would be held responsible for any violations of international law. As a means of continuing the civil war, Nato member France and coalition ally Qatar have both admitted shipping weapons to Libya, in open violation of the United Nations arms embargo.