Discredited German defence minister appointed special EU advisor

From Case about Bird Flu

By Jane Burgermeister

The comic potential is huge: Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has been appointed special advisor to the EU Commission on internet freedom.
Die Welt was quick to seize the delightful moment when Guttenberg and the EU Commission finally buried their reputation under 20 metres of concrete.
http://www.welt.de/satire/article13766817/EU-Kommission-fuer-deutschen-Comedypreis-nominiert.html

Guttenberg was axed from his position as Defence Minister because internet activists in February 2011 documented that most of his doctorate was plagiarised.
To give this man the job of protecting the freedom of the internet is to propel the EU Commission into the wild realms of farce.
“High-class plagarist als internetsheriff” mocks Austria’s Der Standard.
http://derstandard.at/1323222841776/Pressefreiheits-Watchdog-Plagiator-als-Internetsheriff

Both Guttenberg and his wife have been at the forefront of a push for censoring the internet under the pretext of controlling paedophilia.
Germany’s Hamburger Abendblatt calls the decision to hire Guttenberg as a special advisor on internet freedom grostesque.
http://www.abendblatt.de/hamburg/article2126056/Die-Guttenberg-Geschichte-ist-grotesk.html

Many Germans have been brainwashed by mainstream media propaganda into thinking that the EU Commission is a solid organisation defending freedom. To see the most discredited and fraudulent politician appointed a special advisor to the EU Commission in an area for which he is least qualified will change their minds very fast. It also underlines the way the EU Commission has become the haunt of the failed Global Elite.
It was only a couple of weeks ago, after all, that Guttenberg entertained us all with his hilarious interview book  “Vorest gescheitert” or “For now, have failed.”
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/politische-buecher/guttenberg-vorerst-gescheitert-vollkommen-unveraendert-11545387.html

The book showed an astonishing capacity to deny the obvious. In page after page, Guttenberg insists he was not aware that he was engaging in plagiarism when about 80% of his doctorate is verifiably lifted from other sources. He lashes out at a professor in Bayreuth University who called him a “fraud.”
Profiling himself as a Europhile, a man of the people and a moralist, he accuses his own party of being out of touch and floats the idea of founding his own party. Some of the staff working for Bild newspaper may well sign up. But how many others are going to join Guttenberg in his new proletarian army marching to the tune of the bankster Global elite?
The criticism in the German mainstream media of Guttenberg’s book was so fierce, it made blogs like this seem tame.
“A dangerous man” wrote FAZ.
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/guttenberg-ein-gefaehrlicher-mann-11542304.html

The farcical twist was that this book was supposed to restore his credibility  and smoothe his return to politics in Germany next year after a brief exile in the USA working for a globalist think tank. It did the opposite. Barely had the state prosecutor in Hof announced no criminal charges were to be filed against Guttenberg, than he made an explosive return, finally burning all his bridges to a political position in Germany as long as there is a smudgen of representative democracy left.

What does a disgraced German politician do who desperately needs to get hold of the levers of power  to push the agenda of his clique? He goes to the EU Commission.
In spite of having absolutely no qualifications, the Bilderberg network has given him a position.
EU Commissioner for the internet and Bilderberg  member Neelie Kroes said it was her idea to appoint Guttenberg during the interview. In the same interview, she admitted she had made many big mistakes during her career. Appointing Guttenberg was another big mistake. The amazing thing is that EU Commission doesn’t even seem to realise it can no longer afford to be patrons of Guttenberg now that polls show Germany increasingly turning against the puppet masters in Brussels.
http://www.mmnews.de/index.php/politik/9067-guttenberg-auferstehung-dank-bilderberger

Investigating the Pentagon’s African Holocaust

By Gearóid Ó Colmáin | Dissident Voice | December 14th, 2011

On November 29th investigative journalist and genocide expert Keith Harmon Snow testified before Spain’s Highest Court (Audencia Nacional) to support the indictments against 40 Rwandan officials for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity during the western-backed invasions of Rwanda and Congo/Zaire by Rwandan president Paul Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) and Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni’s Ugandan People’s Defense Forces (UPDF).

In 2005, the relatives of nine Spanish nationals killed in Rwanda and the Congo in 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2000, filed a lawsuit against the government of Rwanda resulting in the issuing of Interpol international arrest warrants for 40 Rwandan officials of Kagame’s régime.

On 6 February 2008, the Spanish Investigative Judge Andreu Merelles issued an indictment charging 40 current or former high-ranking Rwandan military officials with serious crimes including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and terrorism, perpetrated over a period of 12 years, from 1990 to 2002, against the civilian population, and primarily against members of the Hutu ethnic group.

While the investigations were initially based on complaints from families of nine Spaniards who were killed, harmed or disappeared during the period at issue, the indictment was subsequently expanded to include crimes committed against Rwandan and Congolese victims, based on the universal jurisdiction doctrine. The indictment rules out the prosecution of Paul Kagame, arguing that he may not be prosecuted as long as he holds the position of President of Rwanda.

According to Spanish lawyer Jordi Palou Loverdos:

Spain’s Audencia Nacional was only met by silence when it duly and formally asked the U.N. to hand over the evidence of these crimes perpetrated against people in 1996 and 1997 or the evidence of the pillaging of valuable mineral resources conducted in these same years or earlier. The international media which had access to the UN report have made public the fact that the UN High Commissioner responsible for the report  keeps- separately from the latter- a confidential  data bank containing evidence that implicates individual Rwandan and Ugandan military officials.

In spite of threats and intimidation from agents linked to Western governments and from the United Nations, the Spanish High Court authorities are continuing to hear evidence against the Ugandan and Rwandan proxy forces of the United States in Africa.

Keith Harmon Snow has been researching the real facts of the tragedy known to the world as the “Rwandan genocide” (put in quotes?) since 1994, and has, along with many other experts, evidence to prove that the United States, Britain and Israel were responsible for the training, financing and covert military and logistic support of Kagame and Museveni’s forces.

On 6 April 1994, the UPDF/RPA proxy forces assassinated the Rwandan and Burundian presidents (Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira), their military chiefs of staff, and the French pilots of the plane they were flying on, thus provoking and participating in the extermination of hundreds of thousands of Hutus and Tutsis in one of the most violent civil wars in modern history.

Snow also presented detailed evidence of the war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity committed by Kagame and Museveni’s proxy forces, after they invaded the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1996, again backed by the Pentagon, Israel and NATO allies. The Congo/Zaire invasion was commanded by generals Paul Kagame and James Kabarebe, and they involved an officer attached to Kabarebe named Hyppolite Kanambe — alias Joseph Kabila, the strongman in Congo today.

The ongoing Rwandan occupation and plunder of eastern Congo has resulted in the deaths of some ten million people, making this the worst war since the Second World War. The Central African holocaust has been largely ignored by the global mass media corporations who are calling for “humanitarian intervention” in Syria, much as they did to justify invading Libya, by the same countries responsible for supporting mass carnage in Africa.

In spite of orders from Laurent Désire Kabila (Congo’s interim president of 1998-2001), to disengage from the Congo, the RPA and UPDF re-invaded the Congo in 1998, resulting in the Second Congolese War. Although the war is said to have ended in 2001, mass killing of the populations in the mineral rich Kivu provinces of Eastern Congo, under the leadership of these US-backed dictators, has continued to this day.

Contrary to its stated “peacekeeping” mission, the United Nations Observers Mission for the Congo (MONUC) and its follow on dependent, Monusco, has been deployed in the Congo since 2000 and has been involved in sexual violence and contraband activities. MONUC has provided cover for the Rwandan, Ugandan and Burundi forces, USAID, the Pentagon’s new Africa Command (AFRICOM), and scores of Western mining corporations who are plundering the Eastern Congo.

Snow gave detailed testimony to the Audencia Nacional of the American, British, Belgian, German, Israeli and Australian mining corporations who have profited from the Pentagon’s holocaust in the Congo.  Banro Corporation, Barrick Gold and many companies run by the Blattner dynasty have profited astronomically from the pillaging of the Congolese people’s resources, as domestic warlords and Western elites enrich themselves while the local people starve.

Snow alleges that these corporations have direct links to the criminal networks run by Paul Kagame, who are plundering the Kivu provinces of the Eastern Congo and massacring the Hutu Rwandan refugees there.
Though the majority of victims have been from the populations of Rwandan Hutus, Rwandan Tutsis and Twa have also been targeted, both in Congo and Rwanda, and many Congolese ethnic groups have been targeted in the Congo. The Kagame regime is determined to eliminate all possible opposition to its rule and to occupy and annex eastern Congo to create a “Republic of the Volcanoes” controlled by Rwanda and populated with satellite US military bases.

Snow told the Spanish court that details collected by the UN Panel of Experts report of 2001 to 2010, detailing the illegal occupation, plunder and war crimes in the Congo, have been watered down by special interest groups linked to Western governments, thus shielding Western corporations and governments from scrutiny by the International Criminal Court and the Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda.

Trained in the notorious Fort Levenworth, Kansas (USA) and advised by former British prime minister Tony Blair, Paul Kagame is without question one of the most evil dictators in modern history. The scale and intensity of his atrocities dwarf those of Pinochet, Suharto and Somoza combined.

In spite of expertise gained on the ground throughout Central Africa spanning 20 years, expert testimony to the US House of Representatives in 2001, extensive work as genocide consultant to the United Nations and numerous meticulously documented reports, Keith Harmon Snow’s work continues to be ignored by the corporate media and many outlets who claim to be ‘progressive’ and ‘independent’ .

According to  Snow:

U.S.-based groups fronted by the intelligence and defense establishment and pretending to be ‘grass roots non-government organizations’ — such as the ENOUGH project, Raise Hope for Congo, Resolve, STAND and Save Darfur — have co-opted the grass roots movement and are whitewashing the issues and controlling the media, academic and public spaces to prevent the true grass roots voices for Central Africa from being heard and to prevent the deeper issues from being understood.

In preparation for a documentary film to be released next year on the African holocaust, Keith Harmon Snow has just completed a series of interviews with distinguished scholars, investigative journalists and lawyers from France, Spain, Germany, Camaroun and Rwanda. The film, as yet untitled, is expected to be aired in film festivals throughout the world and will also be available online for mass viewing.

Rwanda and the Congo belong to the ninth circle of global capitalism’s Dantesque inferno. It is the circle of betrayal; betrayal of the high ideals of the United Nations to uphold the rule of law and work towards the goal of international peace and stability; betrayal of the trust ordinary citizens of the world have in media corporations to tell them what is really happening in the world, so that leaders and potentates can be held to account.

Uncovering the truth about the role of Western imperialism in the violence that has beset Central Africa since the fall of the USSR to the present day, is of vital importance, as the obscene and racist myth of an African genocide America “failed to prevent” constitutes the mendacious and  insane basis for the Orwellian “responsibility to protect” doctrine.

Western governments and their pro-Kagame lobbies in the mainstream media are quick to smear as ‘genocide deniers’ those who challenge the lies and distortions of the official genocide narrative of the current Rwandan régime by exposing the inconvenient and politically incorrect facts. In the case of Rwanda and the Congo, it should now be abundantly clear who those genocide-deniers are.

~

Gearóid Ó Colmáin was born in Cork, Ireland, and is currently based in Paris. He is a former bilingual columnist with Metro Eireann. His interests include geopolitcs, globalisation, philosophy and the arts. He is a member of SISA, the Italian-based ecology and education syndicate.

James Corbett Interviews Michel Chossudovsky

From The Corbett Report:

13
DEC
2011

Interview 433 – Michel Chossudovsky

Posted by Corbett

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Michel Chossudovsky of GlobalResearch.ca joins us to discuss the worrying steps toward a greater middle east conflict that threatens to gulf the entire region. From Syria to Iran to Pakistan to Palestine, each situation represents a potential spark that could ignite the powder keg that will lead to World War III. We discuss the implications of this situation and the lack of concern on the part of the public and the so-called anti-war movement.

City not shielded by Cameron's veto, EU insists

(the euromess is getting weirder and weirder on a daily basis):

European ministers have warned that the City of London is not shielded by David Cameron's veto of the Brussels summit proposals and have vowed to impose tough financial regulations on Britain anyway.

Amid chaotic confusion over the relevance of the Brussels summit, including Britain's veto, Olli Rehn, the EU's economic affairs commissioner said: "If [Britain's] move was intended to prevent bankers and financial corporations of the City from being regulated, that's not going to happen."

Nicolas Sarkozy said Britain's effort to protect its financial services sector would create a lasting rift. The French prime minister told Le Monde: "There are now clearly two Europes. One wants more solidarity between its members and more regulation. The other is attached only to the logic of the single market."  Read all

More (?): 

Britain 'resisting EU pressure' to contribute £30bn to IMF

Britain is resisting EU pressure to require it to contribute up to £30 billion in support for the eurozone through the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Downing Street has indicated.

Euro Drops Under 1.3000 Following Record High Yield On Italian 5 Year Auction

The end of the EU

Yes, the Indefinite Detention Bill DOES Apply to American Citizens

From Washington's Blog, December 13, 2011

Even at this 11th hour – when all of our liberties and freedom are about to go down the drain – many people still don’t understand that the indefinite detention bill passed by Congress allows indefinite detention of Americans on American soil.
The bill is confusing. As Wired noted on December 1st:

It’s confusing, because two different sections of the bill seem to contradict each other, but in the judgment of the University of Texas’ Robert Chesney — a nonpartisan authority on military detention — "U.S. citizens are included in the grant of detention authority."

A retired admiral, Judge Advocate General and Dean Emeritus of the University of New Hampshire School of Law also says that it applies to American citizens on American soil.
The ACLU notes:

Don’t be confused by anyone claiming that the indefinite detention legislation does not apply to American citizens. It does. There is an exemption for American citizens from the mandatory detention requirement (section 1032 of the bill), but no exemption for American citizens from the authorization to use the military to indefinitely detain people without charge or trial (section 1031 of the bill). So, the result is that, under the bill, the military has the power to indefinitely imprison American citizens, but it does not have to use its power unless ordered to do so.
But you don’t have to believe us. Instead, read what one of the bill’s sponsors, Sen. Lindsey Graham said about it on the Senate floor: "1031, the statement of authority to detain, does apply to American citizens and it designates the world as the battlefield, including the homeland."

Another sponsor of the bill – Senator Levin – has also repeatedly said that the bill applies to American citizens on American soil, citing the Supreme Court case of Hamdi which ruled that American citizens can be treated as enemy combatants:

"The Supreme Court has recently ruled there is no bar to the United States holding one of its own citizens as an enemy combatant," said Levin. "This is the Supreme Court speaking."

Levin again stressed recently that the bill applies to American citizens, and said that it was president Obama who requested that it do so:






Under questioning from Rand Paul, another co-sponsor – John McCain – said that Americans suspected of terrorism could not only be indefinitely detained, but could be sent to Guantanamo:

U.S. Congressman Justin Amash states in a letter to Congress:

The Senate’s [bill] does not even distinguish between American citizens and non-citizens, or between persons caught domestically and abroad. The President’s power, in his discretion, to detain persons he determines have supported associated forces applies just as strongly to Americans seized on U.S. soil as it does to foreigners captured on a far away battlefield.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson – General Colin Powell’s chief of staff – says that the bill is a big step towards tyranny at home.  Congressman Ron Paul says that it will establish martial law in America.

Indeed, Amash accuses lawmakers of attempting to intentionally mislead the American people by writing a bill which appears at first glance to exclude U.S. citizens, when it actually includes us:

Pres. Obama and many Members of Congress believe the President ALREADY has the authority the bill grants him. Legally, of course, he does not. This language was inserted to keep proponents and opponents of the bill appeased, while permitting the President to assert that the improper power he has claimed all along is now in statute.
***
They will say that American citizens are specifically exempted under the following language in Sec. 1032: "The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States." Don’t be fooled. All this says is that the President is not REQUIRED to indefinitely detain American citizens without charge or trial. It still PERMITS him to do so

 _____________

Related:

Explaining to a 5-Year Old Why the Indefinite Detention Bill DOES Apply to U.S. Citizens on U.S. Soil

The US Becomes Just Another Military Dictatorship

Obama to approve indefinite detention and torture of Americans

Paul: Obama shoring up martial law

10 Ridiculous Things That Make You a Terror Suspect

Wow! China Gold Imports Spike 4,000% y-o-y

From Profitimes, December 14, 2011

UK-based International Business Times reports China’s gold imports spiking 50 percent in October from September, and soaring 4,000 percent from October of a year ago, to an all-time single-month record high of 85.7 tons.

Though India’s anticipated record gold imports of a 1,000 tons this year could slow due to signs of slowing jewelry demand from a recent 20.3 percent crash in the rupee, since August, investors can no doubt count on China to, not only take over the gold market slack, but soon-to-dominate the New York-London gold cartel

As a reminder to evolving drama in the gold market, WikiLeaks exposed China’s plan to break from its sadistic recycling of trade surpluses into U.S. Treasuries, a shift in strategy by Beijing that’s prompted other Asian nations to follow suit. See BER article, WikiLeaks Drops Bombshell on gold Market, GATA right again!

Read more

_________

Related:

Silver Smashed Below $29, Gold to $1600

Blood is in the Streets- Time to Review the Fundamentals of Precious Metals

Is the Gold Bull Really Dead?

JESSE EXPLAINS GOLD PRICE PLUNGE

Gold Lease Rates Plunged to Record Low in Early December

Behind the Crash in Gold

The Bankers’ New Gold

JB Slear Weighs in on the PM Smash, $2,000 Gold

UPDATED: In a Criminally Corrupt System, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Silver, MF Global and the Time Line for Fiat Monetary Implosion

Capital Account: Gerald Celente on his Missing MF Global Money and the COMEX Gold Ponzi

From RT, December 13, 2011:


Today MF Global's former executives, the CFO and the COO, along with Jon Corzine, the former CEO, testified before the senate agriculture committee. They told the committee that they don't know how an estimated 1.2 billion dollars in customer funds went missing. Unfortunately, all three of them could not offer an explanation, with both Henri Steenkamp and Bradley Abelow saying that they have no idea where the money is. Jon Corzine, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, danced around the question. If you feel like you've heard this before, that's because you have. You heard it last week when former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine testified on the hill -- before the house agriculture committee. Remember, this is the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, the former governor of new jersey and a former united states senator. He was at the helm of MF Global when it disclosed a more than 6 billion dollar bet on european sovereign debt that was part of an entire portfolio that counter parties started to run from in droves as the firm headed towards illiquidity and bankruptcy. How does all this sit with MF Global customers? Well, we speak with one of those customers, Gerald Celente, who was stopped out of his gold futures positions because he was unlucky enough to be a customer with MF Global. He had a segregated account, but apparently, that was no viewed as sacrosanct by Jon Corzine et al. On Nobember 14th, Gerald Celente was on Capital Account with us to break the news that his account had been frozen, and that he couldn't get his money.

In other, more off-beat and off-cuff news, Jim Cramer of CNBC's Mad Money is now advising children and their parents on how and where to invest their money. He think its a good thing for children to learn how to invest at an early age and become accustomed to those stocks and companies. Maybe he should have taught them how to pump and dump stocks and "foment interest" by calling Pisani at CNBC and get people excited about a stock before he dumped it? We also cover secrete santa layaways and pawn shop regulations in Greece meant to safeguard the country's citizens from prying shop owners trying to take their gold and silver.

_____________

 Related:
Money flees the corruption of U.S. markets, Armstrong tells King World News

Internet piracy bill: A free speech 'kill switch'

From The Hill - 12/12/11

By Bill Wilson, Americans for Limited Government

What began as an attempt to restrain foreign piracy on the Internet has morphed into a domestic “kill switch” on First Amendment freedom in the fastest-growing corner of the marketplace of ideas.

Proposed federal legislation purporting to protect online intellectual property would also impose sweeping new government mandates on internet service providers – a positively Orwellian power grab that would permit the U.S. Justice Department to shut down any internet site it doesn’t like (and cut off its sources of income) on nothing more than a whim.

Under the so-called “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) the federal government – which is prohibited constitutionally from abridging free speech or depriving its citizens of their property without due process – would engage in both practices on an unprecedented scale. And in establishing the precursor to a taxpayer-funded “thought police,” it would dramatically curtail technology investment and innovation – wreaking havoc on our economy.

Consider this: Under the proposed legislation all that’s required for government to shutdown a specific website is the mere accusation that the site unlawfully featured copyrighted content.  Such an accusation need not be proven – or even accompanied by probable cause. All that an accuser (or competitor) needs to do in order to obtain injunctive relief is point the finger at a website.

Additionally, SOPA would grant regulators the ability to choke off revenue to the owners of these newly classified “rogue” websites by accusing their online advertisers and payment providers as co-conspirators in the alleged “piracy.” Again, no finding of fact would be required – the mere allegation of impropriety is all that’s needed to cut the website’s purse strings.

Who’s vulnerable to this legislation?

“Any website that features user-generated content or that enables cloud-based data storage could end up in its crosshairs,” writes David Sohn, senior policy council at the Center on Democracy and Technology. “(Internet Service Providers) would face new and open-ended obligations to monitor and police user behavior. Payment processors and ad networks would be required to cut off business with any website that rights-holders allege hasn't done enough to police infringement.”

Read all
___________

Related:

The Stop Online Piracy Act: Yet another stealth maneuver to control the Internet