Category: Aggregated

It should not be surprising that the hysteria against Moscow for its alleged transgressions in Ukraine is really coming from London. It began last week, when British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon claimed that the Baltic countries were Russia’s next target. He was followed by General Sir Adrian Bradshaw a day later, who warned that Russian irregular warfare could undermine NATO decision making. Then, yesterday, US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in London to meet with British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond. With Hammond by his side, Kerry threatened further sanctions against Russia. Former Defense Secretary Liam Fox, in a Feb. 21 op-ed in the Daily Telegraph, called for providing weapons to the Kiev regime—”the capabilities they most require in order to defend themselves against the military superiority of the pro-Russian separatists and their Kremlin allies.”

Now, Prime Minister David Cameron has joined the chorus, saying yesterday in Glasgow:

“What we need to do now is to deliver the strongest possible message to Putin and to Russia that what has happened is unacceptable, that the ceasefires need to hold and if they don’t there will be more consequences, more sanctions, more measures. The truth here is that we have to be clear that we’re prepared to do this for the long term and that Russia should not make the mistake of thinking in any way that America, Britain, France or Germany will be divided or will be weak. We won’t. We’ll be staunch, we’ll be strong, we’ll be resolute, and in the end, we’ll prevail.”

The prevailing defense policy of the Cameron government, however, ever since the 2010 Strategic Defense and Security Review, has been to cut the hide out of the military budget, something for which Cameron himself has been under increasing criticism. The flight, last week, of two Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers around Cornwall has served to put the spotlight on the shrinking capabilities of the Royal Air Force, particularly its lack of surveillance and intelligence-gathering aircraft. In the midst of that hysteria, the Telegraph opines that the decision to cut Britain’s military “now looks like a big mistake,” in hindsight. “No one can predict the nature of future threats,” the Telegraph editorial concludes. “Hence, let us be prepared for anything.” The problem, of course, is that the shrinkage of Britain’s armed forces has done nothing to slow the Empire’s drive for World War III, something that the Telegraph neglects to acknowledge.

The only sign of sanity in all of this comes from former Foreign Secretary William Hague who ruled out the possibility of the UK sending arms to the Kiev regime. “We are not planning, as the UK, to send arms to Ukraine. It has not been our approach in any of the conflicts in recent years to send arms into those conflicts,” Hague told the BBC, adding that one has “to think very, very carefully” before sending additional weapons to a conflict zone.

It should not be surprising that the hysteria against Moscow for its alleged transgressions in Ukraine is really coming from London. It began last week, when British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon claimed that the Baltic countries were Russia’s next target. He was followed by General Sir Adrian Bradshaw a day later, who warned that Russian irregular warfare could undermine NATO decision making. Then, yesterday, US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in London to meet with British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond. With Hammond by his side, Kerry threatened further sanctions against Russia. Former Defense Secretary Liam Fox, in a Feb. 21 op-ed in the Daily Telegraph, called for providing weapons to the Kiev regime—”the capabilities they most require in order to defend themselves against the military superiority of the pro-Russian separatists and their Kremlin allies.”

Now, Prime Minister David Cameron has joined the chorus, saying yesterday in Glasgow:

“What we need to do now is to deliver the strongest possible message to Putin and to Russia that what has happened is unacceptable, that the ceasefires need to hold and if they don’t there will be more consequences, more sanctions, more measures. The truth here is that we have to be clear that we’re prepared to do this for the long term and that Russia should not make the mistake of thinking in any way that America, Britain, France or Germany will be divided or will be weak. We won’t. We’ll be staunch, we’ll be strong, we’ll be resolute, and in the end, we’ll prevail.”

The prevailing defense policy of the Cameron government, however, ever since the 2010 Strategic Defense and Security Review, has been to cut the hide out of the military budget, something for which Cameron himself has been under increasing criticism. The flight, last week, of two Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers around Cornwall has served to put the spotlight on the shrinking capabilities of the Royal Air Force, particularly its lack of surveillance and intelligence-gathering aircraft. In the midst of that hysteria, the Telegraph opines that the decision to cut Britain’s military “now looks like a big mistake,” in hindsight. “No one can predict the nature of future threats,” the Telegraph editorial concludes. “Hence, let us be prepared for anything.” The problem, of course, is that the shrinkage of Britain’s armed forces has done nothing to slow the Empire’s drive for World War III, something that the Telegraph neglects to acknowledge.

The only sign of sanity in all of this comes from former Foreign Secretary William Hague who ruled out the possibility of the UK sending arms to the Kiev regime. “We are not planning, as the UK, to send arms to Ukraine. It has not been our approach in any of the conflicts in recent years to send arms into those conflicts,” Hague told the BBC, adding that one has “to think very, very carefully” before sending additional weapons to a conflict zone.

The British and Swiss governments are moving ahead with investigations into allegations of HSBC’s global tax evasion conspiracy, centered in its private bank in Geneva, but, according to Reuters, the bank executives’ biggest fear is that the US Department of Justice will be forced to reopen its investigation and reopen the 2012 deferred prosecution agreement that let HSBC and its top officials off the hook, in exchange for a $1.9 billion fine.

This week, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has scheduled a Feb. 26 vote on the nomination of Loretta Lynch to be the next Attorney General. However, she has been given nine questions about her involvement in the HSBC deferred prosecution deal, in her capacity as US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and the answers may determine whether her nomination survives or sinks.

This week, HSBC is due to release its annual financials for 2014, and the bank will declare $21 billion in pre-tax profits. While that figure is down 7 percent from 2013, the release of that data is likely to put a renewed spotlight on the bank’s global criminal operations.

Herve Falciani, the IT employee who delivered the evidence of the global tax evasion scheme to French prosecutors, and is now under French government protection against Swiss criminal theft charges, told the Italian newspaper La Stampa this week that the HSBC case is the tip of the iceberg, and that the entire offshore financial empire is one gigantic criminal enterprise, with all of the too-big-to-fail banks engaging in the same swindles.

This week, Executive Intelligence Review will be publishing an extensive report on the HSBC Royal crime syndicate, with detailed background on the LaRouche movement’s 35-year war against the Dope, Inc. apparatus, centered around HSBC.

The British and Swiss governments are moving ahead with investigations into allegations of HSBC’s global tax evasion conspiracy, centered in its private bank in Geneva, but, according to Reuters, the bank executives’ biggest fear is that the US Department of Justice will be forced to reopen its investigation and reopen the 2012 deferred prosecution agreement that let HSBC and its top officials off the hook, in exchange for a $1.9 billion fine.

This week, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has scheduled a Feb. 26 vote on the nomination of Loretta Lynch to be the next Attorney General. However, she has been given nine questions about her involvement in the HSBC deferred prosecution deal, in her capacity as US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and the answers may determine whether her nomination survives or sinks.

This week, HSBC is due to release its annual financials for 2014, and the bank will declare $21 billion in pre-tax profits. While that figure is down 7 percent from 2013, the release of that data is likely to put a renewed spotlight on the bank’s global criminal operations.

Herve Falciani, the IT employee who delivered the evidence of the global tax evasion scheme to French prosecutors, and is now under French government protection against Swiss criminal theft charges, told the Italian newspaper La Stampa this week that the HSBC case is the tip of the iceberg, and that the entire offshore financial empire is one gigantic criminal enterprise, with all of the too-big-to-fail banks engaging in the same swindles.

This week, Executive Intelligence Review will be publishing an extensive report on the HSBC Royal crime syndicate, with detailed background on the LaRouche movement’s 35-year war against the Dope, Inc. apparatus, centered around HSBC.

Liam Halligan, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, called for Greece to negotiate an orderly exit from the Euro. Beyond that sensible approach, Halligan went much further, equating the Troika deal with Greece with the 1919 Versailles Treaty, which imposed killer reparations payments on Germany, and led to world war. While Halligan noted that he doubted there would be a war in Europe as the direct result of the Troika looting of Greece, he concluded that the entire Euro system is doomed—and the major European powers are too stubborn and too blind to see the inevitable.

After quoting from John Maynard Keynes’ famous denunciation of Versailles, Halligan reviewed the stand-off at Friday’s meeting of Eurozone finance ministers, which put off a decision on Greece for four months:

“Without it, creditor payments would have seen Greece running out of cash as early as next month. That would have sparked default and bank-run across the systematically important, state-owned Greek banks, with the country crashing out of the eurozone. Contagion would then have spread, upending financial markets worldwide. That is why Mr Varoufakis has been so regularly on the phone to his US counterpart Jack Lew, providing updates.”

Halligan forecasted that ultimately, Germany would have to make concessions to the Greeks, but that this would, itself, trigger political instability throughout Europe, translating into political victories for anti-EMU parties in upcoming elections this year in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, and boost similar parties throughout Europe, including in Germany, creating a Europe-wide “anti-Brussels mandate.”

Halligan concluded:

“The best outcome of these negotiations, long term, would be for the two sides to agree to differ, acknowledging the single currency is a dangerous nonsense and make all efforts to secure for Greece, and whichever other countries want it, the closest we can get to an ‘orderly exit…’ The euro will eventually break up. But, before it does, we’ll see a lot more democratic transgressions as big countries, aided by the Brussels machine, impose their will on smaller neighbours… I’m not predicting war in Western Europe. But I am saying the eurozone will generate ever-rising tensions and spiralling financial instability until it finally implodes or is deliberately dismantled. Some of us predicted that years ago—and now it is coming to pass.”

Liam Halligan, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, called for Greece to negotiate an orderly exit from the Euro. Beyond that sensible approach, Halligan went much further, equating the Troika deal with Greece with the 1919 Versailles Treaty, which imposed killer reparations payments on Germany, and led to world war. While Halligan noted that he doubted there would be a war in Europe as the direct result of the Troika looting of Greece, he concluded that the entire Euro system is doomed—and the major European powers are too stubborn and too blind to see the inevitable.

After quoting from John Maynard Keynes’ famous denunciation of Versailles, Halligan reviewed the stand-off at Friday’s meeting of Eurozone finance ministers, which put off a decision on Greece for four months:

“Without it, creditor payments would have seen Greece running out of cash as early as next month. That would have sparked default and bank-run across the systematically important, state-owned Greek banks, with the country crashing out of the eurozone. Contagion would then have spread, upending financial markets worldwide. That is why Mr Varoufakis has been so regularly on the phone to his US counterpart Jack Lew, providing updates.”

Halligan forecasted that ultimately, Germany would have to make concessions to the Greeks, but that this would, itself, trigger political instability throughout Europe, translating into political victories for anti-EMU parties in upcoming elections this year in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, and boost similar parties throughout Europe, including in Germany, creating a Europe-wide “anti-Brussels mandate.”

Halligan concluded:

“The best outcome of these negotiations, long term, would be for the two sides to agree to differ, acknowledging the single currency is a dangerous nonsense and make all efforts to secure for Greece, and whichever other countries want it, the closest we can get to an ‘orderly exit…’ The euro will eventually break up. But, before it does, we’ll see a lot more democratic transgressions as big countries, aided by the Brussels machine, impose their will on smaller neighbours… I’m not predicting war in Western Europe. But I am saying the eurozone will generate ever-rising tensions and spiralling financial instability until it finally implodes or is deliberately dismantled. Some of us predicted that years ago—and now it is coming to pass.”