Corruption, Fraud and Thuggery by an Out of Control Montreal STM

Is the Montreal Transit Authority’s Claim of “OPUS Card Fraud” a Fraud itself and a Pretext to More Draconian Legislation in the Near Future? A look at Montreal’s STM (RFID) OPUS Cards, Fraud Claims, STM Security, and What Comes Next.

By: Stewart Brennan

World United News

In 2008, the Montreal Transit Commission (STM) adopted a new system for their monthly bus passes and single fare ticketing from European corporation “Calypso Networks Association” (C.N.A.) with, the integration corporation “Spirtech” assisting in the implementation and engineering of C.N.A. software. 

Montreal had jumped into the RFID OPUS technology for monthly bus passes while also using a magnetic strip card reader for single transit fares. We were told then that the reason they were moving to this new $219 Million dollar system was to prevent Bus pass fraud in the old system.

On the surface it seemed that there wouldn’t be too many problems associated with this new technology, with the exception of the STM’S South Shore “Longueuil Metro Station” which did not, and still does not accept STM Magnetic cards bought anywhere else but in the Longueuil metro station. Not good if you prepaid all your STM trips somewhere else and do not have any money left to pay for an additional one…which did happen to me the first time I used the system going home from the South Shore. It was a very frustrating experience that I wont get into here.

The STM, Fraud, & OPUS Cards

Since 2009, Michele Labrecque has been the chairman and the primary representative of the STM. He oversees the performance and execution of the STM’s functions and powers…and, in agreement with other board members, sets corporate orientations. He also chairs the Board’s public meetings and approves the agenda in collaboration with the STM’s Chief executive officer and is the Transit Users’ Representative…

Recently, Michele Labrecque estimated that the STM saves $12 million a year on fraud by using the OPUS Card technology but did not give any details on how they do this exactly. His statement raised a lot of unanswered questions to say the least.

When you invest 219 million dollars of taxpayers money into a NEW system that is supposed to be Fraud proof and a benefit to the citizens, you certainly wouldn’t want to skip out on purchasing the Fraud Detection Option when purchasing this system…especially when stopping Fraud is the reason they bought the system in the first place. So it is very strange and disturbing to see more and more STM Security Inspectors harassing passengers for their tickets and bus passes in the name of Fraud.

These STM directives and security actions clearly state that either the system they bought is totally useless in detecting Fraud, that someone grossly incompetent is responsible for not acquiring the proper equipment and programming, or there is corruption happening inside the STM.

Regardless of the answer, the people of Montreal and the surrounding communities should not have to be shoulder the Orwellian directives by Government & Corporate decisions that harass the public, especially when the STM are to blame in the first place.

“Spirtech” an OPUS Technology engineering firm and partner with Calypso Networks claims that their system is virtually Fraud proof. Who am I to believe? (http://www.spirtech.com/products/fraud-detector)

If Fraud is not a problem with this new technology, then why do we need STM Security checking everyone’s Monthly OPUS Bus passes and Magnetic Strip single fare tickets?

If indeed the STM has reduced Fraud by 12 million dollars as per MICHEL LABRECQUE, why is the STM giving themselves huge pay raises as stated in an article by the Montreal Gazette on July 25^th, 2013 to the tune of millions of dollars? And WHY have they hired an army of bus pass inspectors?

Does this 12 million dollar savings at the STM mean that STM management get to pocket this money? Are the STM Security Army, who also received big raises, becoming the cash cow tool of the STM’s corporate management? (See Gazette Report for security personnel salaries)

Court Orders STM to pay $123,000.00 in back pay to STM Security Officers

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Court+orders+back+security+officers/7840875/story.html

Failure to show these STM Inspectors your ticket will land you a huge fine and in the hospital if you refuse to budge, as was the case with me on August 03^rd, 2013. One might look at it as strong-armed tactics by the STM to ensure every passenger obays whatever they are told by STM Security or face being roughed up and fined without any recourse to challenge them…because the STM Board of Directors, who are also municipal legislators, passed a municipal law that grants this corporation police powers.

As stated in the Montreal Gazette on July 25^th, 2013 the STM gave themselves big pay raises. I wonder where they got the money to inflate their already massive salaries?

STM Got Big Pay Raises

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/managers+raises/8703628/story.html

When the size of your STM Salary is dependent on growth and there are no other means to create that growth how exactly does one create growth and give themselves large pay increases?  All the pay increases of the STM payroll have to come from somewhere…and a job needs to be a benefit to the corporation for profitability. So I wonder why they have hired more people in the STM Security department?

The STM’s Michel Labrecque also stated that they want a 40% increase in rider-ship by 2020…in my opinion, harassing and beating up their customers is certainly not the way to go. If they keep up their current pace by treating everyone as a potential criminal, more people will stop using their system.

Coming to Montreal by 2015 OPUS 2.0

During his opening remarks for AQTR’s conference on Urban mobility in the age of electronic payment (Feb 25, 2012), the president of the STM’S governing board Michel Labrecque stated, “We transport millions of people…soon we will get to know who they are.” What Mr. Lebreque was referring to was the implementation of OPUS 2.0 and having access to all your personal information in the future on the Montreal Transit Bus Pass. Security related? Fraud free?

OPUS Background Info

The OPUS card uses RFID(Radio-frequency identification) technology which can be read by anyone with an RFID transmitter / receiver. The OPUS card technology is owned by “Calypso Networks Association”; this European company’s primary goal is to use this technology on all digital transactions worldwide and to eventually replace the worlds currencies to become the Global technology and system for all monetary transactions. We are already seeing this technology being used by the Banks through Debit Cards, and Credit Cards, but we are also seeing this technology on Medicare cards, Drivers Licenses, passports, and soon there will be an upgrade to the Transit Authority’s OPUS 2 Cards.

Is there OPUS Card Fraud in Montreal?

So if this OPUS card fraud is real then what makes the Bankcards safe and the Bus Pass not safe? The bigger question is, of course, why are we allowing our governments to bully us into this RFID technology if it isn’t reliable? On a larger scale, We are talking about a massive corporation merger interconnected with many national governments, banks, and powerful shareholders that have the potential to end all national sovereignty by economic merger when financial controls of this technology are in place. “Spirtech” is the company being used to help engineer the OPUS RFID technology merger between corporations, banks, and governments. So their claim to be a safe system certainly needs to be proven since it conflicts with the STM’s assessment…but then it’s all about control, money and security isn’t it; but security for who?

Is it really necessary for Montreal’s STM Security to harass transit passengers because THEY SAY there is fraud in the OPUS system? If the answer is yes, then what about debit cards, credit cards, and Medicare Cards? Are these same technology cards at risk of fraud as well? And if so are we to expect a future where security people threaten debit and credit card holders to show ID and threaten us with arrest if we do not show them what they want?

As far as “Spirtech” is concerned, programming is all that is required to secure the cards…If that is so, why is Montreal’s STM spending Millions of Taxpayers dollars to hire an army of security inspectors to harass the public, instead of fixing the system?

The South Shore Transit System (RTL)

The South Shore of Montreal has a different Transit System (RTL), which also adopted the OPUS card and has a combination OPUS card with the STM for passengers requiring both transportation systems. However the RTL did not choose to adopt the single transit fare magnetic strip cards, so there is no proof of payments or transfers for single use. Even still there doesn’t seem to be a breach of security with their OPUS cards nor do they employ an army of security people to harass their passengers.

The RTL does have an OPUS card for occasional RTL riders who can’t purchase a monthly rechargeable OPUS card. The commuter can choose to load 6, 12, 18 or 24 RTL trips on a Solo card at the regular rate ($3.25 each x number of trips). Valid on all RTL buses, where a transfer is automatically issued on the Solo card. But they do not have a single fare proof of purchase to issue a passenger when they pay $3.25 on the bus.

Although the Quebec Government represents both transit systems (RTL & STM) together for a better price when approaching corporations for retrofits or Spare Parts such as implementing the new OPUS technology, the “South Shore Transit Commission” (RTL), chose not to use the exact same system as the STM. The only difference is the magnetic strip single fare cards…and the number of security personnel hired…

RTL & Municipal Governments

I’ve learned that at the municipal council level of government on the South Shore there are Paid RTL representatives that receive a minimum $15,000.00 just for being an RTL corporate representative. In my opinion there is a huge conflict of interest here since the money comes from the citizen’s taxes to pay them this bonus over and above the salary they receive for being on the council. Those chosen to represent the RTL are usually favoured by the Mayor of the specific community, if, of course, they do not claim the bonus for themselves.

This got me to thinking, “Does the STM also Pay the City Councillors in Montreal and the West Island a Bonus”?

If we take a look at who is on the STM Corporate Board of Directors and the STM Committees the answer is “YES”. The same people are on both Corporate and government posts. My question is how much are these municipal government reps being paid just to rubber stamp their STM corporate directives? Am I wrong to think this is corruption?

STM – Members of the Board of Directors

https://www2.stm.info/English/en-bref/a-ca_membres.htm

Attacked By STM Security Agents

On Saturday August 3^rd, 2013, STM Security attacked me for not showing them the magnetic strip bus pass I received after paying for a single fare on Bus #204 in the West Island of Montreal. They put me in the hospital. The incident is an ongoing nightmare for me now because I will not take public transport for fear of a repeat performance by the STM Security. It also stops me from visiting my 87-year-old mother on the South Shore who needs help because of her complications from dementia. I don’t have a car nor do I know anyone here that can take me to the South Shore once a week so I will need to find a way to rectify this. I will not bow to this authoritarian minded corporation, nor will I allow my dignity as a human being to be trampled on.

One of my fears is based on being singled out by STM security personnel with the Security software programs the STM have installed with all of the security cameras throughout the transit system. “Facial Recognition Technology” allows the STM Security Inspectors to profile passengers at will and is reason enough for me to stay away from ever taking the bus again simply because I feel I will be targeted and because my plea for justice has fallen on deaf ears by the STM, Municipal Governments, Gazette, CBC, CTV and other mainstream media. The NEWS mediums simply have not done their jobs in investigating and bringing the public’s attention to the ongoing conflicts of interest, corruption, and unjust laws that enable thuggery by the STM and its security apparatus.

According to Calypso Network Association, the creators of the OPUS technology and the engineering group Spirtech that works with C.N.A., there is no Fraud with their system…but the STM hires security to run around all day long harassing passengers by insisting on checking everyone’s OPUS cards and magnetic strip single fare cards…In my opinion, the STM, which is a merger of government and corporation is a completely corrupt organization operating as a parasite on the tax payers of Montreal and the citizens of the surrounding service area’s. The STM and all it’s Board members need to be investigated through a public inquiry including a forensic audit investigation of their books. The Harassment by STM Security on the population using public transit has to stop!  

My Personal Request to the STM

I want an apology from the STM for their security personnel roughing me up and putting me in the hospital because I wouldn’t show them the ticket I had just paid for. I want a complete stop to the STM security’s harassment of the public. I want the $333.00 fine they imposed on me for not showing them my ticket to be dropped, and I want the STM to pay for the damages inflicted on me by their security personnel.

Stewart Brennan

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

Links:

Calypso Networks Association

http://www.calypsonet-asso.org/
Spirtech
http://www.spirtech.com/spirtech-consulting/calypso-networks-association
OPUS 2.0 Urban Mobility in the Age of Electronic Payment
http://spacing.ca/montreal/2012/02/23/opus-2-0-urban-mobility-in-the-age-of-electronic-payment/
Court Orders STM to pay $123,000.00 in back pay to STM Security Officiers
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Court+orders+back+security+officers/7840875/story.html
STM Got Big Pay Raises
http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/managers+raises/8703628/story.html
STM – Members of the Board of Directors
https://www2.stm.info/English/en-bref/a-ca_membres.htm
Calypso Networks Association & STM – (PDF File)
http://www.calypsonet-asso.org/downloads/open_session_2012/2012%2011%20STM.pdf
NOVA Bus
http://www.novabus.com/transit-solutions/service.html
RFID
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_identification
Metro Security think they are Policemen
http://archemdis.com/2010/04/08/montreal-metro-security-thinks-they-are-policemen/
Woman Fined $219.00 for not paying bus fare with exact change
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2013/08/02/montreal-stm-verdun-pauline-tantost-fine.html
Montreal’s STM Transit Security is Violently Out of Control
http://worldunitednews.blogspot.ca/2013/08/montreals-stm-transit-security-are.html

 

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Psychopathy, Politics and The New World Order

 
Photo By: Stewart Brennan - http://sfbrennanart.blogspot.ca/

By: Colin Todhunter

Source: Global Research

http://www.globalresearch.ca/psychopathy-politics-and-the-new-world-order/5334458

When attempting to analyse what is happening in the world, it is important to appreciate past economic, social and political processes that led us to where we are today. Understanding the tectonic plates of history that led certain countries towards fascism, communism or capitalist liberal democracy, for example, is essential (1) (2).

At the same time, however, it can become easy for us to push aside the individual as we focus on theoretical perspectives that refer to the ‘underlying logic of capitalism’ or some other notion that draws heavily on theory. It can get to the point where individual motive or intent (agency) is airbrushed from the narrative because human action is deemed to have been shaped by the dead weight of history or forces beyond our control.

While not wishing to understate the role that such constraints have on human action, I wish to draw attention to researcher Stefan Verstappen who provides valuable insight into how individual agency has shaped and continues to shape society (3).

While Machiavellianism has long been associated with politics and public conduct, Verstappen shifts focus somewhat by arguing that people with psychopathic personalities have for thousands of years tended to grasp power and impose their views and deeds on the rest of us. In order to get power, he concludes that people cheat, kill or lie their way to the top. Whether it has been due to the butchery or lies of royalty, religious leaders, politicians or corporate oligarchs, nice guys have tended to finish last.

What leads him to conclude this?

Psychopathy is a personality disorder identified by characteristics such as a lack of empathy and remorse, criminality, anti-social behaviour, egocentricity, superficial charm, manipulativeness, irresponsibility, impulsivity and a parasitic lifestyle (4).

With that definition in mind, look around: the criminal, parasitic activities by bankers that have plunged millions into poverty; the destruction, war and death brought to countries in order that corporations profit by stealing resources; the dropping of atom bombs on innocent civilians in 1945 or the use of depleted uranium which again impacts innocent civilians; and the many other acts, from the use of death squads to false flag terror, that have brought untold misery to countless others just because powerholders wanted to hold onto power or to gain more power, or the wealthy wanted to hold onto their wealth or gain even more.

Based on these terrible deeds, it becomes easy to argue that the people ultimately responsible for them do not adhere to the same values as ordinary people. It may be even easier to conclude that it’s not the cream that rises to the top, but, in many cases, the scum.

Now such a scenario might seem awful enough, but the people who tend to control the world, the ones responsible for these acts, try to impose their warped world view and twisted values on everyone else. Hollywood films, commercials and political ideology are all engaged in forwarding the belief that it’s a dog eat dog world, war and violence abroad is necessary, competition and not cooperative is what counts, aggression and not passivity is the key to ‘success’ and that success equates with amassing huge amounts of personal wealth and lavish displays of conspicuous consumption.

“A person with a psychopathic personality, which manifests as amoral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal relationships, extreme egocentricity, failure to learn from experience, etc.” - definition of a psychopath from Dictionary.com

Again, bearing this definition in mind too, the acts mentioned above are not those of properly functioning social beings that contribute to a sense of communality, altruism, love or morality; quite the opposite in fact.

Yet this is the type of stuff that is rammed down our throats as constituting normality every day. Whether it’s the ‘Big Brother’ TV show or ‘The Apprentice’ show, these values are promoted day and night. The ‘Big Brother’ winner is the one who can survive and outdo the competition in terms of the duplicity and backstabbing involved along the way. The winner of ‘The Apprentice’ must be more aggressive, more duplicitous, more devious and cunning and more willing to trample over everyone else. And the winner is judged as such by a multi-millionaire who himself was cunning and ruthless enough to have made it to the top of the pile and has amassed millions for his own personal benefit. These are the role models to be admired and emulated!

These are the measures of success, of sanity, of normality.

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti

Apprentice competitors are highly driven individuals: not driven by a need to help humanity, but by egocentricity and greed. And, ultimately, these are the values that many mainstream opinion leaders, senior politicians and their corporate masters hold dear.

These values of egocentricity, aggression, competitiveness, duplicity and greed are not confined to some TV show. There are part of a much more sinister process. They are inextricably linked to and underpin the actions that resulted in the killing of half a million children in Iraq for geo-political gain (5) and the sending in of military forces into the jungles of India to beat, rape and dispose of a nation’s poorest people because they stand in the way of profit and greed (6). From Congo and Libya to Syria and beyond, we witness the outcome of a terrifying mindset that is nurtured and encouraged throughout society.

Too many people have become “well adjusted to the values of a profoundly sick society,” whether residing in middle England, middle America or the gated communities of south Delhi or Mumbai. Humanity is being beaten down to be neurotic, vicious and to regard these traits as constituting normal, acceptable behaviour. Thanks to the media, this becomes engrained from an early age as comprising ‘common sense’, and those who question it are merely sneered at or ridiculed by a system that promotes a mass mindset immune to its own lies.

Whether this is all due to psychopathy, narcissism or ‘Machiavellian personalities’ is open to debate. Moreover, as implied at the outset, historical and sociological factors often compel usually decent people to act in terrible ways. The debate within academic sociology between structure and human agency is after all a very long one (7). Whatever the underlying reason, however, as a global community we are being force fed a diet of perverse values and destructive actions, all spuriously justified on the basis that ‘there is no alternative’ and ‘needs must’.

Corporate capitalism, consumerism, the new world order, a war on terror (or drugs or poverty, take your pick), neo-liberalism – call it what you will, but it’s all based on the filthy lie that those in control have wider humanity’s interests at heart. They don’t. By any means possible – war, murder, torture or propaganda, they seek to convince people otherwise. What price human life? None whatsoever for such people.

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

About the author:

Originally from the northwest of England, Colin Todhunter has spent many years in India. He has written extensively for the Bangalore-based Deccan Herald, New Indian Express and Morning Star (Britain). His articles have also appeared in many other newspapers, journals and books. His East by Northwest site is at: http://colintodhunter.blogspot.com/

Notes

1) Robert Brenner (1976), “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-industrial Europe”.Past and Present 70

2) Barrington Moore (1993) [First published 1966]. Social origins of dictatorship and democracy: lord and peasant in the making of the modern world (with a new foreword by Edward Friedman and James C. Scott ed.). Boston: Beacon Press.

3) Defense Against the Psychopath (2013): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQkDvO3hz1w

4) Polaschek, D. L. L., Patrick, C. J., Lilienfeld, S. O. (15 December 2011). “Psychopathic Personality: Bridging the Gap Between Scientific Evidence and Public Policy”. Psychological Science in the Public Interest 12 (3): 95–162.

5) Reuters report (2000), UN Says Sanctions Have Killed Some 500,000 Iraqi Children: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/072100-03.htm

6) BBC Newsnight interview with Arundhati Roy (2011): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrYQmRBdMPQ

7) Colin Hay (2001), What Place for Ideas in the Structure-Agency Debate? Globalisation as a ‘Process Without a Subject’: http://www.criticalrealism.com/archive/cshay_wpisad.html

 

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2013 - China Rises: The Seat of "The New World Order"

Source: World United News

Road to Endless War – The Final Chapter – Crash of the Western Empire (2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPPAr_S_q7U

China was chosen as the seat of power by the global banking cartel to run their New World Order.

It began in 1971 when Henry Kissinger went to China ahead of Nixon to talk to Deng Xiaoping,the father of China’s Industrial revolution and former wealthy land-owner before the communist party took over. Coincidently the same year, Taiwan was removed as a permanent member of the UN Security Council (1971) and Mainland China took its place. Then US President Richard Nixon, the crook, changes the monetary system (1971) by removing the Gold standard and replacing it with worthless fiat money. Instantly this destabilizes the global monetary system and leads to crisis after crisis, in oil, and all things sold…inflation began to kick in. While China prepared to move from an agricultural society to an industrial society, the nations of the World began to go into an inflationary period…all synchronized and controlled by a rigged banking system that is centered on exponential growth.

In 1985 Free trade became the way in which companies could leave North America for cheaper costs in Mexico and then eventually move to China. From this point on, the western industrial capacity shrunk and relocated to China. I was in the packing Industry so I saw this first hand as China became a massive economy. In essence, while the Western economic balloon deflated, the Chinese Balloon inflated directly and by design.

Deng Xiaoping was the man that removed Chairman Mao. He had incredible power within the Communist Party and he is the reason that China is the economy it is today…but lets face facts…he had a lot of Western help. While the western companies were setting up shop in China, the Rothschild Gold Bullion Banking relocates to China (1994). In 1997 the UK govt hands over Hong Kong with its stock market running on all thrusters…China then plugs in and begins the run and expansion of their economy at a phenomenal growth rate. Meanwhile the EU prepares to take down Europe with their New Currency “The Euro”, the USA deregulates the housing industry by removing Glass Steagall and follows that up with an inside job on 911 which began the Road to Endless wars to bankrupt and finish off the USA economy completely…

Recently we have seen an escalation of war as the economies of the World print currencies that are locked in with the fiat based US reserve dollar, and the US printing presses have gone into overdrive. All the banking crimes are visible now, and silently in the background China has been plugged into all the Western oil supplies in places like Canada’s Tar sands, and war torn Iraq….China is also getting its oil from everywhere else as well.

China’s UN position to allow US led NATO to destroy Libya, was mind boggling, considering we were sold on a story that China needed African oil. No matter, they just walked over to Iraq with the US blessing and plugged into the oil there…then they did nothing to stop Syria from being destroyed…all the while our stores are filled with cheap Chinese trinkets…

Now that the EU & IMF have demanded that the Cyprus govt steal money out of the peoples accounts so that they can go further into debt with a loan from the ECB and IMF, everyone is expecting the obvious “Bank Runs” across the Euro Zone and indeed North America. They took 60% of peoples savings! Then, only a few days later, the BRICS set up a New Global Investment bank to compete against the World Bank, and the West does nothing…meanwhile, and as we go back to North Korea and the US led sanctions which China signed on to at the UN security council, we see North Korea, one of the last countries to hold out against the USA become the next target…all started and provoked by the USA with its rigid posture of sanctions and military presence and activity in South Korea since 1953! However what has changed is China’s position…this tells me that the war has arrived and will be used to crown China as the global victor and seat of power of the New World Order…and with the potential to put 600 million people into military service (In China military service is mandatory) no one will beat them in a conventional war, while no one wins a nuclear war. China can occupy every country in the World with millions of soldiers if it chose to…a brief war on the Korean peninsula would certainly crown China as the last superpower. If things get out of hand we will see it very soon.

However, even if there is no war, what becomes abundantly clear is that the economic model chosen by China and the BRICS remains the same and this model is based on exponential growth. We, the people of the Earth will not survive this direction in any way shape or form…its time to evolve away from the economic growth model to a one that takes care of everyone’s needs instead of taking care of the greed of an elite few…

Sustainability 101: Exponential Growth

Source Video:
Sustainability 101: Exponential Growth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0ghHia-M54

Important Info Links:

Last Man Out – 911 William Rodriguez
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDcYzF-AwU0
Canada Under Siege – (Part 1) – The Tar Sands, Free Trade, & Government
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpfOsf1f26I
Canada Under Siege – (Part 2) – The Economy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2K3x-Ci8O8

China:

Economic history of modern China
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_Modern_China
China's military power 2000-2010, A decade of Pentagon reports (URL links)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhu8vfvT1MY
Chinese Military 2000
http://www.defense.gov/news/Jun2000/china06222000.htm
Chinese Military 2010
http://www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/2010_CMPR_Final.pdf

People:

Deng Xiaoping

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deng_Xiaoping
Henry Kissinger
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Kissinger
Richard Nixon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon
Mikhail Gorbachev
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev

Peak Oil:

Peak Oil Explained Simply

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A06Jioj5zJQ
If You Don't Understand Peak Oil Or Think It Is Not For Real - See This Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omN1DIeskkA

Additional Links:

The History of NAFTA and the Council on Foreign Relations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CvtNiwtHSo
WTC7 in Freefall: No Longer Controversial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVCDpL4Ax7I
The Euro
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro
Greenspan Says I Still Don’t Fully Understand What Happened
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5lZPWNFizQ
Glass - Steagall Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Act
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union_collapse
Post War - New World Moral Order Map - 1942
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_the_Post-War_New_World_Map
The US China Governors Forum Leads to Disaster
http://www.jbs.org/the-john-birch-society/the-u-s-china-governors-forum-leads-to-disaster(No Longer Found!)

Alternative News Links:

Russia Today

http://rt.com/
Russia Today on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/RussiaToday
Press TV
http://www.presstv.com/
Press TV - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/PressTVGlobalNews

Source Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TT016ORlxU

 

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America’s Takeover of the United Nations

By: Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya

Source: Global Research

http://www.globalresearch.ca/americas-takeover-of-the-united-nations/

The calls at the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran for reforming the United Nations and democratizing the Security Council were not exactly new. These calls for UN reform were embodied by the conference’s dictum of “lasting peace through joint global governance.” These demands have been made over and over again by various countries and groups throughout the years.

Nor was everyone present at the NAM gala in Tehran a friend of Iran or open to the Iranian proposals for reforming the United Nations. The visibly shaken Jeffrey Feltman, who was uncomfortably sitting with Iranian officials in Tehran alongside his new boss Ban Ki-moon, can testify to all this. Feltman is a clear symbol of how contaminated the United Nations has become by the imperialist interests of Washington.

The manipulation of the United Nations for imperialist interests, however, goes back a long way. From its inception, the United Nations was meant to facilitate the global influence of the US after the Second World War. The idea of the United Nations, which gets its name from the military coalition (called the United Nations) of the Allied countries that was formed against Germany and the Axis countries, was based on an agreement drafted by the US and the UK during the Second World War. This agreement, the Atlantic Charter, was written out while the US was officially neutral, but secretly supported the British war effort against Germany and its Axis allies by sending supplies to Britain through Canada. The US would later use the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a justification for entering the war and getting the other Allies to accept the Anglo-American Atlantic Charter during the war and then at the San Francisco Conference in 1945.

The United Nations Security Council

The membership of the UN grew from fifty-one to a hundred and fifty-nine members between 1945 and 1985, with most of the new member countries being former colonies. The UN was used as a tool to control most these former Western European and American colonies of the Third World. At first the US and its post-war allies maintained their domination over the newly formed UN and the former colonies through their numbers and then through a Western Bloc monopoly over the structures of the United Nations. Hereto this monopoly includes control over the agencies and permanent veto-wielding chairs of the fifteen-member Security Council of the United Nations.

The Security Council above all has been used by the US as a means of protecting its interests. The purpose of the Security Council veto is to reject any international resolutions and consensuses against the national interests (or more precisely the interests of the ruling elites) of the US and the other major post-World War II powers. Except for the rival Soviet Union, the US originally controlled or heavily influenced the other three permanent veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council. Britain and the US were essentially confederated and had integrated in 1941 with one another through the Anglo-American Atlantic Charter. France, as a declining power like the UK, was heavily dependent on the United States. The Chinese seat was also originally held by the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) which was a US client.

US General Albert C. Wedemeyer was the chief of staff to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of Kuomintang-ruled China before Kai-shek fled to Taiwan after the Communist Party of China took over the mainland. The US even envisioned a role for the Kuomintang in governing the former French colonies of Indo-China. Only in 1971 would Washington lose control over the Chinese seat at the UN Security Council when the People’s Republic of China was recognized as the legitimate representative of the Chinese people by the majority of the UN General Assembly and therefore handed over Taiwan’s permanent seat at the UN Security Council.

While the Soviet Union originally made the most vetoes at the UN Security Council, the situation began to change towards the second half of the Cold War and in the post-Cold War era when the US began to take the lead in making vetoes. Ironically, the US and its allies are saying that the international system is failing now due to the double vetoes of China and Russia preventing foreign intervention in Syria. No similar complaints have been made about the numerous vetoes cast by Washington in support of Israel.

Eventually the UN Security Council went beyond the function of protecting US interests after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It became a tool for projecting US interests globally as Washington began to push for unipolar post-Cold War hegemony. The Chinese and Russian double vetoes signal an end to both Pax Americana and the use of the UN Security Council to project US power.

The Secretariat of the United Nations

Besides the United Nations Security Council, the Secretariat of the United Nations has been predominately under the control of the US and its allies. At first this took place because the US and the Western Bloc had numerical superiority at the United Nations. Thus, the first two secretaries-general of the UN were from the Western European kingdoms of Norway, and Sweden. Prior to this Baron Hubert Gladwyn from the United Kingdom was the acting secretary-general of the UN. Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskjold would visibly serve US and Western Bloc interests to the point that the Soviets and others would demand he be removed from the UN Secretariat.

As the Western Bloc began to lose its numerical advantage, control over the Secretariat would be maintained through the Security Council. The UN Security Council does this by filtering all the candidates for the top UN post in the Secretariat. Secretaries-general of the UN are appointed by the UN General Assembly based on the recommendation of the UN Security Council. Thus, the US and other permanent members of the Security Council have vetoes that can eliminate any candidates that would be hostile to their interests.

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s condemnations about the Secretariat of the United Nations, which helped remove nationalist leaders from power across Africa and the Third World, have a resonating truth to them. After a long streak of secretaries-general that were predominately favorable to the Western Bloc, the Non-Aligned Movement would push a NAM candidate into the UN Secretariat. The NAM’s position is the basis for the elevation of Egyptian diplomat Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s to the post of UN secretary-general in 1992.

Bourtos-Ghali was the closest thing to the last independent secretary-general of the United Nations. The world, however, rapidly changed since the end of the Cold War and Washington expected a far greater degree of subservience from the Secretariat of the UN. After the Cold War UN secretaries-general were expected to act as loyal US stewards. This would start with the Ghanaian UN career bureaucrat Kofi Annan.

Kofi Annan: An Enabler of “Responsibility to Protect”

To his credit Annan is a shrewd diplomatic figure that knows how to sit on the fence, but he has cunningly served the US while appearing circumvent. Aside from the public reports about the involvement of Annan and his son Kojo in the UN’s Iraq oil-for-food scandal, the former secretary-general has a history of legitimizing US interventionism and the occupation of other UN members. Career US diplomat Richard Holbrooke, who was one of the central figures involved in the balkanization of Yugoslavia, praised Annan as one of the most supportive figures for Washington’s foreign policy in the Balkans. This is why Boutros Boutros-Ghali was pushed aside from the secretary-generalship of the UN by Washington’s veto to make way for Annan.

Annan did Washington’s bidding in the French-speaking Caribbean island-republic of Haiti. He followed the script of George W. Bush Jr. and the neo-cons to a tee in Haiti and legitimized the US-led coup involving Canada and France that removed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He would criminally give Washington the cover of the United Nations in the occupation of Haiti.

Kofi Annan was also instrumental in helping to put together the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) doctrine with Canadian diplomats to justify foreign military intervention. Two years after the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq he would give his rubber stamp to R2P in 2005, which would merely become a reinvented term replacing NATO’s “humanitarian intervention.” Before Annan was appointed as the joint peace envoy of the Arab League and United Nations to resolve the Syria crisis he participated as a panelist in a discussion about R2P and interventionism on November 4, 2011. The event is important, because it gives an idea of where Annan stands.

The panel (Responsibility to Protect – 10 Years On: Reflections on its Past, Present and Future) was undeniably supportive of R2P and NATO. Annan’s comments were no exception. The former secretary-general and soon-to-be peace envoy told the audience that he held a sympathetic position towards military intervention by the US and NATO. He specifically told the audience that he supported NATO’s military intervention in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and he tacitly gave his support to a similar scenario in Syria. Two of the figures involved in the event, Allan Rock (president of the University of Ottawa and former Canadian ambassador to the UN) and Lloyd Axworthy (president of the University of Winnipeg and the former Canadian foreign minister), co-authored an article about R2P praising the war in Libya as a victory for R2P a week earlier in preparation for Annan’s arrival to Ottawa.

Ban Ki-moon: An Executioner of “Responsibility to Protect”

The South Korean diplomat Ban Ki-moon is even more of an Atlanticist steward than Annan. His record has been very abysmal. One of the first things he did in 2007 was to join the US in criticizing the nations of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva for “singling out Israel” for its human rights violations.

In 2008, Ban Ki-moon would secretly negotiate and sign a cooperation agreement with NATO. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would express shock and the Kremlin would be angered by Ban Ki-moon’s conniving. R2P would be central to the cooperation agreement between NATO and the UN Secretariat. NATO’s “humanitarian intervention” was shifted to a worldwide level through the cover of potential military intervention under the banner of the UN.

Moreover, this tool of intervention could only be harnessed and authorized by the undemocratic UN Security Council and its veto-wielding members. In parallel the under secretary-general posts for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief were handed over to British career diplomats, one of which is Valerie Amos who has sinisterly tried to bypass the Syrian government in establishing ties with Syrian non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

In 2011, Ban Ki-moon took steps to personally lobby and pressure all the countries of the Mediterranean Sea to support Israel and prevent any humanitarian aid from reaching the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by ship. Ban Ki-moon ignored Tel Aviv’s illegal military blockade of Gaza and its violation of international law. Instead in Orwellian terms he demanded for the enforcement of the illegal Israeli blockade, which he called the “legal channels of the Israeli government pertaining to the flow of goods and aid” to Gazans. In 2012, Ban Ki-moon also refused to meet the representatives of the families of Palestinian victims and captives inside Israel while he was visiting Gaza. Inversely, Ban Ki-moon made personal efforts to secure the release of the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. As a result of Ban Ki-moon’s bias many Palestinians hurled shoes and stones at his UN convoy as it entered the Gaza Strip.

Every nuance in Ban Ki-moon’s voice and every line in his statements serve Washington’s interests. Before the secretary-general even left to Tehran for the NAM summit, his spokesman Farhan Haq told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) that his boss was going to Tehran as part of his responsibilities and that the visit “does not confer legitimacy” on his Iranian hosts. Giving political evaluations of this type about the legitimacy of any government is a breach of the mandate of a UN secretary-general, who is supposed to be a neutral figure and moderator representing all the members of the UN. Moreover, Ban Ki-moon would go out of his way to defend Israel at the NAM summit. His speech would also be coordinated with the politicized report of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which was meant to tarnish Tehran’s image during the NAM summit.

In regards to both Libya and Syria, Ban Ki-moon has followed the US and NATO script for R2P and regime change. When a major propaganda effort was launched against Syria following the Houla Massacre, Ban Ki-moon and other UN officials quickly followed the US line and condemned Damascus at a special session of the UN General Assembly in New York City. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s June 8 condemnation was made even though it was widely documented that anti-government forces were responsible for the murders in Houla.

The top UN official would say that every passing day was bringing “new additions to the grim catalogue of atrocities: assaults against civilians, brutal human rights violations, mass arrests, torture, execution-style killings of whole families” in Syria. He would conclude that the Syrian government had “lost all legitimacy” and had to step aside. Again this was another violation of the neutral position that the secretary-general of the UN is mandated to espouse.

Jeffrey Feltman: The Real Secretary-General of the United Nations?

Ban Ki-moon’s appointment of the hollow and comical US career diplomat Jeffrey Feltman as the UN under secretary-general for political affairs is just one of his latest moves that serve US interests. Feltman, a shameless careerist who has done whatever he could to promote himself, has been exclusively in the service of justifying the unjustifiable and pretending to be an expert on the Middle East. As a top US diplomat in the Middle East, unlike his counterparts from other countries he failed to master any of the local languages in the region. Moreover, he was complicit in the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon and a US attaché to two foreign occupations.

Like Robert Gates, Feltman is a carryover to the Obama Administration from the Bush Jr. Administration. He was a special assistant to American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) heavyweight Martin Indyk in Israel and a representative in the US Consulate General in Jerusalem. Everything he knows about the Middle East is shaped and spoon-fed to him by the biased views of AIPAC. He was the representative of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Anglo-American occupied Iraq and later a central force for promoting sectarian hate and division in Lebanon as the US ambassador in Beirut before he was promoted to the job of US assistant-secretary of state responsible for the Middle East. The UN’s Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), a political circus that Washington has tried to use to indict and isolate first Syria and then later Hezbollah, is widely known to be his pet project.

Before Feltman even arrived in Tehran, one of the first things he did was to declare that Iran was sending weapons to Syria. This was immediately picked up by his friends (contacts) in the Israeli media who have favored him over the years as one of Israel’s most ardent supporters. Among others, the Israeli media also slyly tried to mention Feltman’s name as less as possible and instead attribute his statement to the entire United Nations as a means of hiding the bias source of the statements and giving his account further weight.

Feltman’s appointment by Ban Ki-moon shows just how much control Washington has over the UN Secretariat. His appointment as the individual responsible for “political affairs” says a lot about the political perspective that the UN Secretariat either has or will adopt. If Hillary Clinton had ordered US officials to spy on Ban Ki-moon as was reported in 2010, there should also be no doubt that Jeffery Feltman was monitoring Ban Ki-moon in Tehran for the US Department of State and that Feltman will brief Washington about the NAM summit. In essence Feltman was the informal representative of the US at the NAM summit. It is also a very legitimate question to ask whether Feltman or Ban Ki-moon is in charge of the UN Secretariat.

Iran had announced that it intended to propose a peace plan, with the support of Russia and China, to end the Syrian crisis on the sidelines of the NAM conference. America’s emissaries were at the summit too. The invitation of the Turks to the NAM summit and the presence of Feltman and the officials of the Arab countries that are part of the siege against Damascus, such as Qatar’s Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, are all very likely to have ties to negotiations over Syria. Same goes for the presence of Egypt’s Morsi. The US and its clients have realized that their plans in Syria have not gone through and this could secretly have brought them to the table in Tehran or elsewhere in the future.

A New Alternative to the UN is Needed

The “real” international community slapped the Obama Administration in the face from Tehran. The US and all the UN structures and agencies, including the IAEA, under Washington’s control were retorted when all of the NAM’s one hundred and twenty members unanimously supported the Iranian nuclear energy program and declared their opposition to the unilateral sanctions against Iran in their final communiqué. There is still, however, more that is needed. As long as the United Nations is not reformed these very same countries will be walking in the shadows of the US and its allies from NATOistan in the hallways of the United Nations.

The problems go beyond the Security Council. The Secretariat is also a part of the problem. Washington will turn to the UN Secretariat more and more as the Russians and Chinese begin to challenge the US and its allies at the Security Council.

The UN has become even more contaminated by Atlanticist projects to use it to legitimize and launch imperialist military campaigns to enforce a declining system of privilege and unjust global governance that Washington heads. The motivations behind the drafting and institutionalizing of R2P at the UN are aimed at helping to prevent this decline. This is why that either reform or an alternative to the United Nations is needed now more than ever.

 

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