2013 - What's in Store? (Op-Ed)

 

By: Adrian Salbuchi

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/2013-global-politics-trends-150/

World Government stepping onto sovereign Nation-States, puppet politicians unable to cope with social challenges, chaos in the Middle East and ever increasing global crises – all this awaits us in 2013. Is it time for ‘We the People’ to wake up?

More violence in the Middle East; increased protests and commotion on the streets of Europe and America; a banking/debt crisis spinning faster and faster out of control with panicky governments running to save the bankers and kill the workers. That’s 2012’s legacy, so… thank God it’s (almost) over!

But – barring the Mayan Prophecies coming true, which is most unlikely – regrettably 2013 threatens us with even darker clouds on its horizon.

­We’re not into “predictions” or futurism, however understanding what really makes this world tick allows rational projections of tendencies on the basis of concrete facts. That can serve to give us an idea of what’s in store for 2013, so we can better prepare for what’s coming our way.

Let’s look at half a dozen Key Issues:

Where’s the pilot?

Glaringly visible on today’s global political stage is that leaders in just about every country are unable to tackle and solve the overwhelming swarm of growing crises and challenges affecting society; at least not in the West. Whether it’s political, social or military conflict; increasing ecological threats; on-going financial and economic collapse; mass cultural and intellectual dumbing-down; or obscene government corruption, everywhere you look things seem to be taking a turn for the worse.

Even the leaders of powerful countries as the United States, Britain and the European Union fail dismally when addressing these crises highlighting their mediocrity, lack of vision and creativity. This becomes more obvious when comparing today’s leaders with those of yesteryear.

Take France, for instance: having given the world a true statesman like Charles de Gaulle, today they’re run by political midgets like Hollande and Sarkozy. Worse still is the US, which had a great president like John F Kennedy but today is misgoverned by puppets like Bush junior and Obama. Even Britain, Italy and Germany once led by inspirational figures like Churchill, De Gaspari and Adenauer, today can only muster grey mediocrities like Blair, Cameron, Berlusconi, Monti or Merkel.

Is it all just coincidence, or does it reflect a monolithic political system that ensures that not the best and brightest, but the worst and dimmest rise to become presidents and prime ministers?

Is this the result of the Global Power Masters’ preferred system of control over entire nations through “money-powered democracy”? This is in stark contrast with what “We the People” are clamouring for in every country. In fact, “We the People” have instinct and are neither stupid nor cowardly. Unfortunately though, their political leaders for the most part are.

Is there a “superior will” making sure that growing national problems remain unresolved, and get worse and worse as presidents and prime ministers come and go?

Is it just “bad financial judgment” that’s made all national debts with the Mega-banker Over-world balloon way out of control? Just bad luck that pension funds are massively broke and health systems are in shambles?

Just bad luck that; Orwell-like, peace-making has turned into warmongering?

Is it just bad luck that basic human decency, ethics and solidarity are scorned by that moral cesspool known as the “entertainment industry”, which is the prime driver or the dumbing-down of populations everywhere?

We don’t think so…

Is all of this a way of telling the world in no uncertain terms just who’s really in charge, by “proving” that Sovereign Nation-States can no longer cope, and “a thing of the past” to be thrown into the dustbin of history? That certainly ties in with the Global Power Masters’ fundamental long-term objective geared on dissolving the nations of the world so their power can be sucked up into the coming World Government organisations?

But look again: it’s not Nation-States that are failing, but rather the “democratically elected” politicians who run them! Let’s not thrown the baby away with the bath water…!

World Government needs to do away with sovereign Nation-States because they’re the only social institution that can hold the Global Corporate and Mega-banker Over-world in check. In fact, the Sovereign Nation-State is the Over-world’s Public Enemy No. 1!

Back in 1974, the Elite think-tank Council on Foreign Relation’s journal “Foreign Affairs” suggested that “the house of world order will have to be built from the bottom up… It will look like a great "booming, buzzing confusion," …but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault.” That was written over 38 years ago… Now that’s what I call long-range planning!

So, get ready: 2013 will bring ever increasing crises as all Nation-States are weakened more and more. In Orwellian newspeak, this is “democracy”. However, “We the People” are waking up to the fact that such a “democracy” is nothing but a prison of the mind.

In 2013 more people will be asking themselves “Where’s the pilot?” They will want to know who’s really running this ghastly global show. You can bet your bottom dollar that “the pilot” is definitely not in the White House, or the Palais d'Elysee, or 10 Downing Street. Clearly, we need new pilots!

United States of America

Had Republican candidate Mitt Romney won November’s presidential elections, today we’d be in global doldrums on a range of important issues. The Global Power Masters would have had to wait until Romney is inaugurated in late January 2013, and then give him the privileged “100 days’ honeymoon” as new White House tenant, before they actually began pressing and coaxing him to do their bidding. That would have given the world four, maybe five, months’ respite.

However, Romney lost the elections, and Barack Obama will be president four more years. No waiting; no honeymoon.

Time is of the essence and Big Brother Bwana is already shouting orders at Boy Obama demanding him to move… and fast! The Big Bosses in AIPAC, Wall Street, Tel-Aviv, Goldman Sachs, the FED, JPMorganChase, and the Lodges have lots of plans for the US… Obama had been dragging his feet on certain issues: Time to act!

But one may even wonder whether Obama’s staying “at the helm” might be so he oversees “Mission Transformation”: the controlled collapse of the US. Will Obama turn out to be America’s Mikhail Gorbachev?

Over a decade ago, Russian Ministry of Foreign Relations academic Igor Panarin pointed to the coming dismemberment of the US due to growing internal political, social and cultural centrifugal forces, overcoming the increasingly weak centripetal forces holding America together.

Right now, we see secessionist movements in just about every state in the US. Texas, North & South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma and Ohio have gathered the 25,000 petition signatures needed to make it mandatory for the Federal Government to address their request.

By the end of the 1980’s, the 'Powers That Be' decided it was time for “Globalisation” to go into full gear: a chaotic, horizontal, transitory and transitional process that has greatly weakened national sovereignties. But they needed to liquidate the then formidable Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that was getting in their way. That was Mikhail Gorbachev’s job and he certainly played his role magnificently even if power brokers in New York and London like him far more than citizens in Moscow or St Petersburg.

Now the Global Power Masters are wrapping up “Globalisation” and moving on towards something far more ambitious: outright World Government which, contrary to globalisation, will be vertical, authoritarian, disciplined and highly centralised. To achieve this new stage, they now need for the other superpower nation-state to go into the waste bin of history. Soon they won’t need a powerful America.

In fact, a powerful US is a potential danger to them because, whilst so far their trillions have ensured the White House always stays in "friendly hands” – Reagan, Bush Senior, Clinton, Bush junior, Obama – can you imagine what would happen if a True Patriot were to make it to the Oval Office? Someone who would say “Enough with the FED!”, “Enough with unrestricted and irrational support for Israel!”, “Enough engineering chaos in Libya, Afghanistan, Mali, Syria, Egypt, Latin America!”

So – yes! – Perhaps our American Gorbachev’s true mission is to kick-off the controlled demise of the US.

War and more war in the Middle East

From the Global Master’s viewpoint, the more chaos the better. The more Libya’s and Syria’s, the better; and the more Egypt-style social chaos, the better; all massively fed by their multimedia PsyWar. Why? Because, irrespective of whether things turn out “well” or “not so well” for them in Palestine, Syria, Iran or Egypt, they always make headway on one permanent overriding objective: weakening Nation-States. In addition, this all ties in with a key Fundamentalist Zionism goal in the region: the destruction of Iran.

In addition, all this “experience” renders useful lessons, knowledge, “case studies” and rules of engagement for designing future “Springs” in Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe, even the US.

Stay tuned: this may be coming in 2013 to a country near you.

Israel’s bad temper

As we all know when Israel gets up in a bad mood, they cheer up by going into Palestinian-bashing mode, knowing Big Brother Homer will look the other way. That just occurred in Gaza, as it did in 2009; as it did in Southern Lebanon in 2006.

Now we’ll see a lull as Benjamin Netanyahu campaigns for re-election in January 2013, which may be why he’s pushed aside his embarrassing extreme right-wing ally and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. This may be linked to trying to accommodate – not Obama – but the American military, which is growing increasingly weary of America’s imperial overdrive and resource stretch, as a consequence of fighting too many of Israel’s proxy wars.

John Kerry and Chuck Nagel will probably become Obama´s new secretaries of State and Defence. Both are friendly towards Israel, however not irrationally fanatic, which is what Israel and AIPAC demand. This explains the Jerusalem Post’s 17th December article pointing out that both are “hardly Israel’s preferred choices”.

Fiscal cliff

Like the naked Emperor that no one dared to point that interesting fact out to him, the truth is that the American Emperor is nakedly broke, as is the UK. Now, when weak countries like Argentina, México, Thailand or Iceland collapse, they painfully discover that their local currencies (or lack thereof in the cases of Greece, Spain, Italy and Ireland) are backed by nothing. That’s when chaos marches in and the locals suffer all sorts of dreadful economic and social hardship, as seen on TV decade after decade.

When the US, UK or EU go broke, however, they still have an ace up their sleeves: their currencies – Dollar, Pound or Euro – are backed by their formidable, powerful and hugely expensive military forces. In practice, those currencies are backed by supersonic stealth bombers, drones, aircraft carriers, Tomahawks, Blackhawks and public (and private!) armies of highly trained and vicious troops.

But if worse comes to worse, they can always tap into their “Final Solution”; their “Samson Option” so to speak: unleash World War Three in which case who’ll care about the collapse of the Dollar, or the banks, or social upheavals even in New York or London.

World War Three means forcefully fleeing forwards. The Global Power Masters know this only too well: “we pulled this off with the first and second world wars… and it worked!” they seem to say.

Might this be one of 2013’s wild cards?

Watch out with Russia and China

Particularly now that Vladimir Putin is really back in town, Russia is clearly showing that it’s not for turning its back on traditional ally Syria; even less on Iran.
Not so much out of principle, but for defence and survival. If Syria and Iran fall to the US/UK/Israeli hegemon, who do you think is next? And those NATO missiles in Poland, what are they there for?

China, in turn, just named Xi Jinping as new Communist Party Secretary General and soon-to be President. Depending on a wide array of interests and goals, China shrewdly works together with Russia, Iran, India, Latin America or Africa; even with historical foe, Japan.

The Chinese know what they want and need in the medium and long terms. Maybe that’s why they seem paradoxical and difficult to fathom to us short-term thinking Westerners.

Long terms planners at the Pentagon and Western think-tanks, however, know this and they’re preparing for war. So, 2013 will see Russia, China, Iran, India, Pakistan, Brazil, South Africa move closer together to tackle common goals and confront common threats.

As the Western geopolitical serpent tries to tighten its hold on planet Earth, time is not on their side: key Castles and Bishops will move on the Global Grand Chessboard. Watch China and Russia….

Adrian Salbuchi for RT

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The International Banking Cartel

Source: Press TV (YouTube)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OU9AGUv4lk

A look at the International Banking Cartel led by the Bank for International Settlement (in Basel, Switzerland) known as the bank of central banks (58 central banks) and The US Federal reserve System. Also a look at banking tycoons: from the Rothschild family in Europe to JP Morgan and others in the US. How banks not only control governments but also appoint politicians through huge campaign donations. Governments at the service of the major banks, the best example: the Obama administration and the history's biggest bail out of the same institutions that caused the Great Recession.

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EU citizens and private banks in a power struggle for survival

Source: Press TV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATi0OEptaFk

There is a power struggle between the EU citizens and the private banks. The EU is also struggling to use the crisis to destroy the sovereignty of individual member states. There is also a struggle between Germany and the EU member states.

The European Union needs to do something more dramatic than just saying that they'll have one super-bank which will regulate all the banks. This is not looking at the problem fundamentally. The UK has one of the worst banking systems.

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EU Censors Alternative News in Bid to Dominate US NATO War Narrative

Image: European Union is a Prison with no Free Speech

 

By: Tony Cartalucci

Source: Global Research
http://www.globalresearch.ca/eu-censors-alternative-news-in-bid-to-dominate-us-nato-war-narrative/5308461

Western media quietly attempts to censor growing global opposition, begins with Iranian media.

Iran’s Press TV reported in their article, “Press TV viewers slam EU move to ban Iran channels as illegal, hypocritical,” that “Press TV viewers have condemned as illegal and hypocritical the ban imposed by the European officials on the broadcast of several Iranian satellite channels.” Nearly no mention is made in the Western media regarding the blatant act of censorship – an act that runs contra to all perceived notions of “Western values,” and an act that directly undermines the narratives of the West supporting “freedom” and “democracy” around the globe

 

Image: The West has spent billions trying to leverage “freedom of speech” and “human rights” as a means to undermine, destabilize, overthrow, and replace governments around the world, from the US-engineered Eastern European “color-revolutions” after the fall of the Soviet Union, to the latest US-engineered “Arab Spring,” and all across Southeast Asia. Now with the West pursuing its own campaign of censorship, it is clear that these “values” were merely selectively and opportunistically manipulated.

….

The news has been buried under reports regarding a new round of sanctions passed by the EU which was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize even while pursuing multiple wars across the globe, including continuing operations in Libya, the subversion of Syria, and a decade long occupation of Afghanistan which sees weekly civilian massacres by NATO air strikes on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border. In fact, the most recent NATO atrocity occurred not even a week ago, killing 3 children in the Helmand province. Of course this was absent in Western headlines, but it did make headlines in Iran’s Press TV, and indicates a more realistic explanation to the EU’s decision to ban the Iranian news service.

Clearly the EU has no qualms over endangering civilian lives – its concerns over “human rights” are a selectively applied value it uses against its enemies with demonstrably no intention of holding itself to similar standards. Now, the EU has applied this same selective application of supposed “Western values” to “freedom of speech,” curtailing it when that speech endangers its own interests, and pursuing “freedom” when it advances their agenda. And it is this hypocrisy that the increasingly popular Press TV news service has been illustrating, as a counterweight to the uniformly biased and compromised Western press.

It was US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who stated that censorship incurred “long-term economic and social costs,” with oppression leading to “civil unrest and not security.” Many Western politicians executing corporate-financier driven policyhave stated that a regime’s pursuit of censorship was a sign of weakness and fear – an indicator that its opposition was gaining ground and that more overt, visible, even desperate measures needed to be implemented. Censorship, according to the West’s own narrative, is part of a self-defeating cycle where legitimacy and the mandate to lead increasingly is fading.

With that consideration in mind, the censorship of Iran’s Press TV should be a sign that Iran’s efforts to balance global public perception skewed by the vast resources of Wall Street and London are succeeding. Along with Russia Today (RT), Press TV has provided nations who aspire to live in a mulipolar world where the primacy of the nation-state prevails, a model to follow in combating the unwarranted power and influence of Western media houses.

Above all, it should be noted that a key contributing factor to Press TV and RT’s success is the growing alternative media – media by the people and for the people – whose legitimacy and reputation is measured in accuracy, consistency, and objectivity, not slick graphics, expensive suits, and million-dollar studios. The alternative media has provided content for growing national news agencies seeking to challenge the West’s hegemony over information, and while national news agencies ultimately pursue national agendas, the content they are drawing on generally come from people simply seeking the truth.

The EU’s act of censorship against Press TV is in turn a strike against the alternative media. Instead of being seen as a setback, it should be seen as a success and a signal to redouble our efforts as individuals to assert our own will and vision for the future over that of the miniscule global elite who have so far gone unchallenged in their designs and aspirations. The alternative media should be only the first in a series of people-driven alternativessystematically undermining and replacing existing corporate-financier dominated paradigms.

Ways to watch Press TV in Europe

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/18/267357/how-to-watch-press-tv-in-europe/

You can find more by Tony Cartalucci here:

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/

NOTE:

Press TV is a voice that speaks for billions of people and should be allowed to express the views of others on air or we descend into another dark period when freedom of speech was not allowed in Europe.

Please sign the petition to maintain freedom of speech in Europe

http://www.change.org/petitions/press-tv-viewers-save-press-tv-in-europe

 

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Press TV ban tantamount to human rights violation

 

By: Dr. Ismail Salami

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/16/267054/press-tv-ban-human-rights-violation/

The recent EU move to take Press TV off the air is to be seen as part of a continued process of media violation against this alternative channel.

On Monday, UK-based Eutelsat, which is run by Michel de Rosen, a Zionist Israeli-French, stopped carrying Press TV and some 18 other channels from Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), a move which Gary Follows, Arqiva Head of Public Relations, says is a “result of reinforced EU Council sanctions and repeated requests by France's broadcasting authority for the permanent switch-off of the Iranian channels.” UK-based Arqiva is the service supplier which held the IRIB contract.

The first attempts to deprive ever-increasing European audience of accessing Press TV started in the UK when British office of communication (Ofcom) initiated a shrewd ruse to get of rid of the channel and technically put an end to an alternative critical voice once and for all. To this end, they needed a political tool. And who could be a better choice than Maziar Bahari who had already filed a lawsuit against the channel for airing a 10-second sound bite, which was part of an interview with him in 2009.

In October 2011, Ofcom said Press TV had violated its broadcasting codes by airing the interview. The ruling led to the imposition of a 100,000-pound fine on the channels and its subsequent removal from the Sky platform. This was while in a number of future interviews with other media outlets, Bahari had readily confirmed what he had said in the 10-second sound bite, i.e. he was the person who had sent the footage.

Besides, Ofcom had come under intense criticism on the part of the British Royal family who had taken umbrage at Press TV for reporting and criticizing them for their extravagant lifestyle and support for the regional autocratic regimes. The office of the Royal Family had even sent letters to Press TV office on several occasions and urged them to stop criticizing the Queen. Therefore, the wound was an old one and far from healing and they had to prick their deadly venom into those whom they considered thorns in their sides.

On the other hand, Ofcom later claimed that the move was largely motivated by ministers. However, a Wikileaks cable reveals how the Foreign Office told an American diplomat in 2010 that the government was "exploring ways to limit the operations of … Press TV".

At the time, the department warned the US that, "UK law sets a very high standard for denying licenses to broadcasters. Licenses can only be denied in cases where national security is threatened, or if granting a license would be contrary to Britain's obligations under international law. Currently neither of these standards can be met with respect to Press TV, but if further sanctions are imposed on Iran in the coming months a case may be able to be made on the second criterion."

At all events, Germany followed suit and a court in Germany ordered the removal of the channel off a satellite platform despite two previous rulings issued in favor of the alternative channel.

So, the Munich media regulatory body, BLM, took Press TV off the satellite platform in April.

And third came French media regulator, the Conseil Superieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA) which kept repeating calls for removing the channel.

Press TV says, “This is not the first time that the West is trying to silence the alternative media and stop Iranian broadcasters from commenting on what is going on truly across the world. But this time what is most surprising is that the latest instance of media crackdown comes from the new Nobel Peace laureate.”

Sanctions against the Islamic Republic and exerting brutal pressures on people are per se illegal in the light of international laws. However, muzzling a media outlet and justifying this act in the name of sanctions is a source of shame for the EU. In fact, the EU’s incoherent perception and poor handling of truth is a move enormously to be deplored.

Needless to say, this is an egregious instance of the violation of human rights which the West moralizes about so vehemently. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights clearly states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” It is long since the intelligent international community has come to discern the paradoxical attitude of the West in defining the concept of freedom of speech and they have figured out for themselves how tolerant the West may be when the sanctities of the Muslims are shamelessly violated and how intolerant they can be when the truth is daringly thrown into their faces.

Only recently the West kept silent on the anti-Islam movie and caricatures and even justified the blasphemy in the light of freedom of speech but when it came to Press TV, they were not only intolerant towards the alternative channel but they also put all their efforts into a seemingly long-entertained plot to silence the voice.

This is how freedom of speech is defined for the benefits of a privileged few and how the tentacles of Zionist imperialism are by slow gradation spread over an entirety beyond which hope is desperately turned into but a flickering ray for those who wish to hear the truth.

BUT truth will prevail.

-----------------------------

About: Dr. Ismail Salami

AKA Ali Salami, Dr. Ismail Salami is an internationally published author of several books and hundreds of articles. In his articles, Salami examines the historical developments that impact national relations today, and the way western people view Iran. He holds a PhD in Shakespeare Studies and is the author of Human Rights in Islam and Iran, Cradle of Civilization. His writings have been translated into dozens of languages. More Press TV articles by Ismail Salami

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Zionists to blame for EU Press TV ban: American analyst

 

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/16/266962/eutelsat-is-not-european-it-is-israeli/

Iran is a controversial nation to some. To others, be they the 120 nations of the Non-Aligned Movement or nations that believe Iran is targeted for its failure to bow to the will of a very real worldwide conspiracy, Iran is an ancient empire that has reached for greatness under the most difficult of circumstances.

In a world of lies, and we are lied to, not just by the “pop culture press” but by armies of seemingly friendly faces who pour poison in our ears, today is a “big win” for many. Iran will be silenced to the people of Europe.

The choice, we are told, is one of a company, Eutelsat Communications. It claims that Iran, 19 news and information sources, some clearly among the best, most dependable and trustworthy in the world, will be silenced.

This is not all.

First of all, the reason given, that Eutelsat is following sanctions is a lie. There are no sanctions against Press TV or other news sources, no UN vote supports it and I would like to see the issue taken before the General Assembly.

Of course, it might be taken before the UN Security Council, five real members and five “keep quiet and don’t bother anyone” members, who make all decisions for the UN. Two members, Russia and China vetoed sanctions against Syria.

We ask them to support freedom of speech for Iran by voting sanctions against any nation that uses services from Eutelsat, a company that has decided to stop acting as a satellite provider and now decides who and what can be heard.

Thus far, Europe is silent; no one has said a word. Is Europe a continent of errant children who must be coddled? Of course it is, where nation after nation in the name of political correctness and “war guilt” have formed petty socialist police states in order to take care of populations long deemed incapable of discernment or any sign of self-realization and adulthood.

There are more lies.
Eutelsat is a person, not a company. Eutelsat says it is European, but it is actually Israeli. French sounding “Michel de Rosen” runs Eutelsat, an Israeli citizen, company with Israeli stockholders, a company long dictated to by extremist groups within Israel, the militant ultra-nationalists of the Likudist regime of Netanyahu.

Eutelsat is an intelligence operation as are most communications billing companies, mobile phone providers and the infamous “choke points” that make sure all communication, all progress, all privacy is subject to what is allowed. Most of such “chokepoints,” companies like “Google” for one, are Israeli owned. Call it a coincidence.

When Eutelsat chose to choke off Iran and end free speech in Europe, many spoke up but none pointed a finger at Israel and their desire to paint Iran with a “black brush.” The armies of “shills” were sent out to complain about violations of free speech.

One organization after another, all controlled opposition, part of Israel’s “game theory warfare,” rose in self-righteous anger and, as usual, pointed in the wrong direction.

Though you can tell the truth in America, the chances of doing it in the “pop culture press” or on the “mainstream media” are about as likely as meeting a dinosaur on Mars. This is a private joke with fellow writer and good friend Kevin Barrett.

Iran, however, lets me say things that aren’t always tame, aren’t always favorable but are true just the same. I am thanked for telling the truth.

Today, I saw a television show. American radio host, Mike Harris, former candidate for governor of Arizona, spoke out on the company, Eutelsat and its Israeli ownership and management. As soon as he mentioned Israel and began a factual presentation based on advanced research of corporate governance and the company’s previous history of silencing free speech in other nations, Harris was subjected to attack and disruption by a fellow guest.

I recognized the tactics employed by those tasked with ending free speech when they aren’t in a position to have those who tell the truth jailed or murdered. They simply babble, make fools of themselves, anything to take the focus off the real criminals.

However, though those who tell the truth may be killed by evil men, destroyed by the wealthy and powerful, the truth, at least today, isn’t illegal and censorship can’t be imposed without a whimper, without a whisper, unnoticed, unseen, the truth, the right to free speech hardly missed.

Know your enemy. Recognize him or her for their weapons. Know we are fighting a war of deception and many who claim to be a voice of freedom and justice are very much the opposite.

When information is twisted and withheld, by a hooting bigot or a Mossad thug in corporate attire, it is for one reason and one reason only, the spread of evil.

We resist.

About: Gordon Duff

Gordon Duff is a Marine Vietnam veteran, a combat infantryman, and Senior Editor at Veterans Today. His career has included extensive experience in international banking along with such diverse areas as consulting on counter insurgency, defense technologies or acting as diplomatic representative for UN humanitarian and economic development efforts. Gordon Duff has traveled to over 80 nations. His articles are published around the world and translated into a number of languages. He is regularly on TV and radio, a popular and sometimes controversial guest. More Press TV articles by Gordon Duff

 

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Press TV viewers slam EU move to ban Iran channels as illegal, hypocritical

 

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/16/266951/viewers-slam-eu-ban-on-iran-channels/

Press TV viewers have condemned as illegal and hypocritical the ban imposed by the European officials on the broadcast of several Iranian satellite channels, saying that the move throws into question the West’s freedom of speech claims.

“Where is the freedom of speech and press in Europe? Hypocrites! When it is against Islam then it is freedom of the press and speech in Europe. Lift the ban now. Double hypocrites. This is the reason why God is punishing Europe with Economic crisis. It will NOT end soon until they acknowledge the truth,” a reader said.

Another viewer said, “Shame on the European Commission. They who have just been awarded the Nobel Price for peace are now suppressing freedom of speech and expression which are essential tools to report on breach of peace and the warmongers!”

“This European's illegal, illogical, uncivilized measure indicates its serious desperation and panic in facing the growing influence of Press TV across the world,” another comment read.

“Never there was freedom of expression in US or EU, only selective loose talk is branded as Freedom of Expression,” wrote a viewer.

European satellite provider Eutelsat SA has stopped the broadcast of several Iranian satellite channels, including Press TV, al-Alam, Jam-e-Jam 1 and 2, Sahar 1 and 2, Islamic Republic of Iran News Network, Quran TV, and the Arabic-language al-Kawthar following an order by the European Commission.

In a flagrant violation of the freedom of speech, the company ordered media services company, Arqiva, to take the Iranian satellite channels off one of its Hot Bird frequencies on Monday.

Following the move by the European company, Press TV launched a Facebook petition to protect the news channel across Europe.

The EU is claiming that the move is aimed at punishing Iran for violating human rights. However, experts believe that Press TV has raised the anger of certain European countries for covering thorny issues including anti-austerity protests.

The decision follows months of jamming of Iranian channels by European satellite companies.

Iranian news channels affected by the decision only sought to break the West’s monopoly on news broadcast by reflecting the voice of the oppressed people to the world.

The illegal move by Eutelsat SA, therefore, is a step to silence all alternative news outlets representing the voice of the voiceless.

Observers believe that the European Union does not respect freedom of speech, and spares no efforts to silence the voice of alternative media outlets.

Technical experts say the jamming was carried out by British technicians.

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EU bans import of Iranian gas to European countries – German FM

 

Nouri Petrochemical facilities of the South Pars gas field in the southern Iranian port of Assaluyeh (AFP Photo / Atta Kenare)

Source: Press TV

http://rt.com/news/eu-ban-iran-gas-479/

EU governments have agreed to one of the toughest sets of sanctions against Iran's nuclear program. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has announced the EU is banning the import of Iranian natural gas into European Union countries.

The set of sanctions also includes a ban on financial transactions between European and Iranian banks, with some exceptions for those involving humanitarian aid, food, and medicine purchases.

"The [EU] Council has agreed additional restrictive measures in the financial, trade, energy and transport sectors, as well as additional designations, notably of entities active in the oil and gas industry," a written statement issued by the European Union council said.

Further export restrictions were imposed on graphite, metals, and software for industrial processes. Restrictive measures were also made relating to Iran's ship building industry.

The move is aimed at putting pressure on Iran to cooperate in talks regarding its nuclear program.

Prior to Monday’s meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said new sanctions would be"a sign of our resolve in the European Union that we will step up the pressure."

The US and its allies have long accused Iran of using its nuclear program to develop atomic weapons, although Tehran says the program is solely for peaceful purposes.

 

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Euro collapse can ignite war in Europe

 

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/15/266753/euro-collapse-can-ignite-war-in-europe/

British Business Secretary Vince Cable says the collapse of the European single currency has the potential to plunge the continent into war.

The senior Liberal Democrat told an event at the Cheltenham Literature Festival entitled “Austerity, the euro and us”, there is no “automatic guarantee” that a military conflict will not break out in Europe as the consequences of the collapse of the euro are “incalculable.”

“I think we need to take stock that if the eurozone were to unravel in a way that destroyed the European project - and there is a risk that could happen - the consequences would be absolutely incalculable,” Cable warned.

He also pointed to the controversial awarding of this year’s Nobel peace Prize to the European Union last week saying the single currency was introduced to bring nations together against extreme nationalism and a subsequent conflict as was the case in the Second World War.

“We tend to forget, until we were reminded last week of that Nobel Prize, the European project was constructed in order to rescue Europe from extreme nationalism and conflict. There is no automatic guarantee that won’t return,” he said

 

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Eutelsat set to take Iran satellite channels off air

 

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/14/266660/eutelsat-sa-set-to-take-press-tv-off-air/

European satellite provider Eutelsat SA is set to pull the plug on several satellite channels and radio stations broadcast from Iran.

The company has ordered media services company, Arqiva, to take the Iranian satellite channels off one of its Hot Bird frequencies.

The Iranian channels being taken off the air include Press TV, al-Alam, Jam-e-Jam 1 and 2, Sahar 1 and 2, Islamic Republic of Iran News Network, Quran TV, and the Arabic-language al-Kawthar.

The ban will also affect the satellite broadcast of several Iranian radio stations.

The move follows months of jamming of Iranian channels by European satellite companies. It also shows that the European Union does not respect freedom of speech, and spares no efforts to silence the voice of alternative media outlets.

Iranian news channels affected by the decision only aimed to break the West’s monopoly on news broadcast by reflecting the voice of the oppressed people to the world.

The illegal move by Eutelsat SA, therefore, is a step to mute all alternative news outlets representing the voice of the voiceless.

The Iranian channels, however, reserve the right to take legal action against Eutelsat’s decision in order to restore their rights and compensate for any material and spiritual damages thereof to the full extent possible under international law.

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As Popular Opposition Grows Austerity Budgets imposed across Europe

By: Alex Lantier

Source: Global Research

http://www.globalresearch.ca/as-popular-opposition-ggrows-austerity-budgets-imposed-across-europe/

The French, Spanish and Greek governments all announced multibillion-euro austerity plans yesterday in the face of massive popular opposition.

The French budget presented by the Socialist Party (PS) government of President François Hollande is the harshest since the austerity budgets of the early 1980s under PS President François Mitterrand. It calls for €30 billion (US$38.6 billion) in deficit cuts, including €20 billion in tax increases and €10 billion in spending cuts.

The Spanish budget calls for €13.4 billion in spending cuts in the fourth major package of austerity measures passed this year following the election of the conservative Popular Party (PP) last November. The ministries whose budgets will be most severely cut include Agriculture, Industry and Education.

Greece’s coalition government—which includes the right-wing New Democracy (ND), the social democratic PASOK, and the Democratic Left (DIMAR)—announced that it will unveil a plan Monday for €11.5 billion in spending cuts. Plans for these cuts were first announced in July, but the government initially failed to reach an agreement on how to distribute them.

In each country, the new austerity measures are being pushed through in defiance of public opinion. On Wednesday, millions of workers throughout Greece walked off the job and hundreds of thousands protested in a one-day national strike. On Tuesday, tens of thousands of protesters opposed to the cuts marched to the parliament in Madrid and were brutally attacked by riot police.

In France, Hollande’s popularity ratings have fallen to 43 percent as job losses and austerity measures antagonize voters who elected him in May.

These events demonstrate the impossibility of fighting social austerity in Europe by supporting the bourgeois “left” parties, the European Union (EU), or European capitalism. In a matter of months, the promises made by the official parties have proven worthless.

Hollande cynically promised that “austerity is not an unavoidable destiny.” The Greek coalition government received the tacit support of the bourgeois “left” SYRIZA party, which ran against it ostensibly on an anti-austerity platform, but then pledged to be a “responsible” opposition that would not call strikes and would continue to support the European Union.

As for the PP—elected on the basis of mass hostility to the austerity policies of the previous social democratic Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) government—its pretense that it would not pursue Greek-style austerity in exchange for an EU bailout of its banks is fast evaporating.

The PP’s cuts to pensions and social spending and its attacks on labor rights are the most severe since the collapse of the fascist Franco dictatorship. Reductions in national state spending of €16.5 billion, €27 billion and €65 billion passed in January, April and July—combined with deep cuts in regional government spending—are sinking Spain’s economy.

One quarter of Spanish workers and 52.9 percent of Spanish youth are unemployed, and despite pledges for bank bailouts the economy is contracting. The International Monetary Fund anticipates a 1.2 percent contraction of Spain’s economy, though the government’s cuts are based on apparently overoptimistic projections of a 0.5 percent contraction.

Spain now pays more to service its debt than it spends on unemployment benefits or the budgets of its national ministries. Since the global economic crisis began in 2008, its public debt has more than doubled, jumping from 35.5 percent to 75.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and the interest rate it pays on its debt has surged as a result of speculation against Spanish bonds by the banks and finance houses.

Spain’s banks are poised to request another €60 billion bailout as the Spanish real estate collapse continues to undermine their balance sheets.

The effect of such policies is most clearly seen in Greece, whose economy is now projected to plunge by 7 percent this year, instead of the previously projected 4.7 percent. Since the Greek debt crisis began in 2009, its economy has contracted by roughly one quarter.

Der Spiegel reported that, due to this continuing collapse, EU authorities expect Greece’s budget shortfall to reach €20 billion. They will then demand more cuts in Greece beyond the €11.5 billion Athens is currently proposing. As laid out in July, these include €5 billion in cuts to the Labor Ministry budget (mainly to pensions) and attacks on Greece’s devastated public hospitals.

These massive cuts—the corresponding amounts would be $802 billion in the United States, £82 billion in Britain and €136 billion in Germany—will ravage a society in which those workers who have managed to keep their jobs have already seen wage cuts of 30-50 percent.

The negotiation of the cuts will place take amid deepening conflict within Greece’s political elite. There is speculation that DIMAR might collapse, as at least three of its 17 parliamentarians have declared they plan to vote against the cuts.

Greece’s Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) recently released a list of thirty politicians, including former ministers and top parliamentarians of ND, PASOK and SYRIZA, who are suspected of tax evasion or other forms of fraud.

France’s austerity package cuts €10 billion from the national budget of €376 billion by imposing a wage and hiring freeze on public sector workers, imposing a 5 percent across-the-board cut in the ministries’ projected budgets, and cutting €2.7 billion in health care spending. The Defense, Finance and Ecology ministries are reportedly particularly hard hit, with losses respectively of 7,234, 2,353 and 1,276 jobs.

As for the €20 billion in tax increases, half are to be achieved by closing certain corporate loopholes, and half by increasing taxes on individual households.

The PS government and the media have trumpeted the fact that roughly half of the individual tax increases will be borne by “affluent” households. This is an attempt to obscure the anti-working class character of the Socialist Party’s policies. The tax rate for the top income tax bracket is to be raised to 45 percent, and yearly wage income over €1 million is to be taxed at 75 percent.

To seriously examine these measures, one must briefly enter the realm of French tax policy—which means confronting what Karl Marx, in The Class Struggle in France, called the “sheer swindling” that characterizes France’s financial affairs.

In 2010, the top 1 and 10 percent of the French population took in €181 billion and €515 billion, respectively. Nonetheless, the increase in the top tax bracket and the tax on wage income over €1 million combined will raise only €530 million nationwide. The total of €6 billion raised by increasing taxes on the affluent, including by closing some corporate loopholes, does not amount to a substantial portion of their income.

In part, this is because of a complex system of tax exemptions that Hollande’s measures do not seriously touch. These exemptions allowed billionaire Liliane Bettencourt to pay a 9 percent effective tax rate in 2010 on the hundreds of millions of euros she earned on her $24 billion fortune.

In part, also, it is because most income in the ruling class is interest income on capital holdings, not wages—which means that Hollande’s “75 percent tax” does not seriously impact most members of the financial aristocracy.

Nonetheless, the austerity budget was denounced by sections of the press, with Figaro Magazine titling its lead article “Enough is Enough.”

Sections of the bourgeoisie supporting the PS are arguing that the current austerity budget is only a down payment on deeper attacks on the working class being prepared by the PS government. These include proposals for labor market “reforms” to facilitate hiring, firing and forcing workers into short-time work, as well as for €30-50 billion in cuts to corporate funding of social security.

An editorial in Le Monde stressed the need for a “true ‘competitiveness shock’ in our country.” It stated: “The 2013 budget does not really contribute to it. Promised cuts in the labor market and the financing of social spending will be decisive in this regard. Today’s budget shock will only be meaningful if it is rapidly complemented by a powerful competitiveness shock to give France the electroshock therapy it needs.”

 

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Swiss banks to lose hundreds of billions of dollars after tax scandal

 

Reuters / Christian Charisius

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/business/news/ubs-secrecy-banking-clients-flee-305/

Swiss banks could see European clients withdraw "hundreds of billions of francs" as a result of bank measures to stop foreigners using secret accounts to evade taxes, says UBS.

­Switzerland's biggest bank alone could see up to $32 billion, or more than 10% of the total European assets under management flee from the bank, says Juerg Zeltner, head of UBS wealth management.

"As a consequence of the realignment of the financial center and the planned withholding tax, we assume that hundreds of billions of francs will flow out of Switzerland," he told the Schweizer Bank magazine. "In the offshore business with European customers, I assume we will have to live with significant outflows of wealth for quite a long time yet."

Swiss bank secrecy has helped the country build a $2 trillion offshore financial center dominated by UBS and Credit Suisse. However, in recent years they have been heavily criticized as cash-strapped governments elsewhere have sought to fight tax evasion.

The toughening of the disclosure policy follows the landmark tax-dodging case against UBS which saw a whistleblower win a record $104 million reward from US authorities. In 2009 the Swiss bank paid $780 million in fines, penalties, interest and restitution to settle charges that it helped 17,000 US clients hide $20 billion.

US authorities are still investigating other Swiss banks.

Zeltner's gloomy predictions come just days after Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second biggest bank, said it expected clients in Western Europe to withdraw up to $37 billion in the next few years due to pressure from the tax issue.
With their unique secrecy practices increasingly under attack, Swiss banks are looking for a new magnet to attract wealthy foreign clients.

"Banking secrecy is no longer there. That's gone. It is over," international wealth management consultant Osmond Plummer told a gathering of Swiss bankers in Geneva last week.

The banks' vow of silence was so attractive to rich foreigners eager to avoid taxation at home that they didn't mind that their accounts did not generate any income. “The income of the account goes to the bank. The client has no income," Plummer said.

In an attempt to win back wealthy clients Switzerland struck deals with Britain and Austria to tax their citizens’ accounts and are hoping for accords with Italy and Greece.

According to the agreements, foreigners with non-declared funds in Switzerland keep their anonymity, but their assets are taxed by Switzerland, which in turn transfers the revenues to their country of origin. However, the deal with the biggest market in Europe- Germany – is pending, as it faces opposition from Social Democrats who see it as too lenient on tax evaders.

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