Transatlantic Union: Scandals, Scoundrels and Global Trade Partners?

By Shawn Helton
21st Century Wire

For the past two weeks we’ve seen the Obama administration embroiled in controversy, as three separate scandals continue to grow and attach themselves to the White House.

While this is major news, and does have the power to topple this U.S. President, there are other far-reaching actions unfolding under his watch…

In a bizarre move, President Obama, held two joint press conferences last week, one with U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and another with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Perhaps the dual Presidential podiums were a subliminal touch to what seemed to blur the line between world leaders, in a sense, becoming rule by global council. This strange observation may well be significant to understanding the kind of dark partnerships that are developing world-wide.

Rightly, most of the media will focus on the obvious take down of an empire, as they try to uncover the truth about Benghazi, IRS, and the DOJ. However, on the global chess board of finance and war, more stark revelations have come to light involving the U.S. President. During the press conference with Prime Minister Cameron, President Obama, made vague sweeping statements about a Transatlantic Partnership with the E.U. A partnership that many fear will lead to a Transatlantic Union which will impose more globalized standards and regulations, potentially derailing individual free trade.

This was made clear by The New American earlier this year:

“The “Transatlantic Partnership,” of course, is just one of the major sovereignty-threatening international schemes being pursued by the Obama administration simultaneously — closer North American Integration and the so-called “Trans-Pacific Partnership” are two of the most prominent efforts. The latest plot, though, has far-reaching, global implications that critics argue represent a serious threat to America and freedom. If the U.S.-EU deal ends up becoming reality, the regulatory regime governing the new bloc, which accounts for about half of global GDP, would become the de-facto standard-setting entity for the entire planet.”

Obama-CameronObama had this to say during the Cameron press conference:

“With respect to the relationship between the U.K. and the EU, we have a special relationship with the United Kingdom. And we believe that our capacity to partner with a United Kingdom that is active, robust, outward-looking and engaged with the world is hugely important to our own interests as well as the world. And I think the U.K.’s participation in the EU is an expression of its influence and its role in the world, as well as obviously a very important economic partnership”.

Obama echoed the same rhetoric at the Erdogan press conference adding: “Today, we focused on three areas that I want to highlight. First, we agreed to keep expanding trade and investment. Over the past four years, our trade has surged and U.S. exports to Turkey have more than doubled. As the United States pursues a new trade and investment partnership with the EU, I want to make sure that we also keep deepening our economic ties with Turkey. So we’re creating a new high-level committee that will focus on increasing trade and investment between our two countries and will help fuel Turkish innovation. And the progress that Turkey’s economy has made over the last several years I think has been remarkable and the Prime Minister deserves much credit for some of the reforms that are already taking place.”

It seems that more and more we’re faced with a manufactured reality, one in which international institutions will have dictatorial power over trade and the economy world-wide. Breaking away from sovereign entities controlling their own destiny.

Is the transatlantic partnership a sleeping giant for the global economy? What other partnerships are being harbored in regards to U.S., Britain and Turkey? How does this tie into the situation in Syria?



Writer Patrick Henningsen delves further into this in a recent op-ed for Russia Today news: “On Wednesday Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul(R) weighed in on the Benghazi debacle, in a direct challenge to the President and Hillary Clinton, inferring that the Sept. 11, 2012 attack unfolded as a result of a secret arms trade, and rubbishing the previous government line put forward by Susan Rice and the US Intelligence community that the attack was a result of a YouTube film, “The Innocence of Muslims”. During a recent CNN interview Paul explains:

“I’ve actually always suspected that, although I have no evidence, that maybe we were facilitating arms leaving Libya going through Turkey into Syria,” he said. “Were they trying to obscure that there was an arms operation going on at the CIA annex?”

One can only conclude that those in the world who are making economic reforms aligned to a socialist “pay your fair share” tax scheme, can also control the narrative on world events. Creating a new kind of “strategy of tension” by forcing countries to be complicit in illegal activities, via their trade partnerships. Is the new growing economic partnership, a partnership in conflict and consolidation?




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Israel, US and the West are Humanity’s Greatest Terror Threat

JLJason Liosatos
21st Century Wire

“The principle & which is quite true in itself & that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily.”

- From Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, attributed to Joseph Goebbels

Those in the higher echelons of governments waging the so called ‘war on terror’ are ironically the biggest terrorists of all, and the biggest threat to peace and stability on our planet.

We only need to look what they have done just in the last thirty years to see what killing and misery they have caused. The only real terror is them, and other terror threats are generally in retaliation to them. Barack Obama said ‘the future of Syria must be determined by its people’, but it is being determined by Israel twinned and in bed with the US military might and NATO ‘peacekeepers’, with the usual promise of freedom and democracy, and brought about by bloodshed and destruction in the usual hugely profitably way they always do it, by destruct and rebuild, like Libya, Iraq and others places.

Let us remember the nauseating sight of the smiling faces of David Cameron, Nicolas Sarkozy, William Hague and Mahmoud Jibril - all holding hands aloft triumphantly in Libya gloating at the destruction they had caused,  after orchestrating the beginning of a genocide and chaos too dreadful to explain. They are spreading like a rampant cancer through the Middle East and are beginning to look like a modern day version of Adolf Hitler.

They are directly responsible for mass murder, by giving the thumbs up to the rebels, who became their armed henchmen and assassins to kill for them on a wholesale basis. The rebels were like wild killing machines, like young boys given guns and bullets who are having a wonderful time playing out their war games for real, seemingly using anyone as target practice, reveling in the new found power bestowed on them, but not realizing they are building their own prison, with the white man from the west the jail keeper as usual. The rebels are awakening from the chloroform but not sufficiently to realize they are being tricked and used like pawns, and the inevitable bloodbath has ensued, with not a splash of blood on the crisp dark suits of the comptrollers of the massacre. As I have already mentioned it’s easy to murder mass amounts of people by hiring others to do it, as has happened in Libya and now in Syria.

The US gives roughly $3 billion dollars in military aid to Israel a year for weapons, that is a staggering and unbelievable $6 million a day, but wait for this, in the form of vouchers, so they can only buy the weapons from the US arms industry. None of the donated money goes to Israeli society. The chaos in the region is ideal for US arms sales.

The Germans have sold submarines to Israel with capabilities of destroying Iran with a nuclear weapon, at the bargain price of $500 million dollars for two; it is looking very ominous, and very suspicious, as those same submarines now lurk under the water just off Iran. It seems that Israel may be used to destroy Iran for the western government gangsters. So the gullible public won’t think it’s them as usual doing the slaughtering. It’s horribly predictable: I hope the sick plan doesn’t reach fruition. It’s unbelievable to watch the grisly stage being set. And of course Iran wants nuclear weapons, so would you or I if we saw the US military taking over most of the Middle East with bloodshed and insanity, with its sights set on us via the barrel of Israel’s guns.

And why do they seem to side with Israel and veto the Palestinians? Is it just a coincidence that there are a lot of Jews in the US Government and the US is so vehemently against Palestinian freedom. It is also cause for concern that the US Administration is so ruthlessly taking over the Middle East, I hope it’s just a coincidence, but as I have already talked about there is no such thing, as things take place by a coinciding of events by planned decisions. They talk of creating peace and stability, but consistently do the complete opposite, and are actually the usurpers of peace on this planet. They use any opportunity to intervene in countries. They come as saviors using the excuse that the government they are liberating the people from cannot use force on their own people who are protesting against them.

Each intervention simply furthers their own interests, and is masked in the form of moral, ethical standards and protection for the people they are supposedly liberating, as their saviors to achieve freedom and democracy. Understandably the majority of the people with often very little to lose, who have been suppressed for many years are delighted at being saved from their ruling oppressors, with the hope of something better, not realizing that they are being used as pawns for the scheming western governments plans, and are simply being taken over by new oppressors with new promises.

Their discontent and anger is just cunningly used by the western governments as an excuse to jump on board the train to ousting their leaders with the protestors help. They also don’t realize that the democracy that their saviors are promising is not a democracy at all, but will just be a new gang of oligarchs with different labels, carefully positioned by the US bringers of democracy, often colluding with corrupt gangs and leaders already there. 

Writer Jason Liosatos is an author of The Emergency Transformation of Human Beings and the host of Global Peace Radio and based in the UK.

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Why is Britain now spending millions ‘training’ Palestinian security forces?

Patrick Henningsen
21st Century Wire


They were the inventors of the modern “protectorate” system of overseas colonial government. Now it seems that Britain is repositioning itself to play a more central role in the future of Middle East affairs – as the masters of ‘divide and rule’ are currently digging their heals into Israel’s occupied Palestinian territory. 

Even with austerity at home, there seems to be room for funding the British training of the Palestinian Security Forces – a job formerly taken on by the US – but to what end?

Political arguments are spinning on both sides of this story. Much is made in some media circles (see article posted below) of allegations that the Palestinian Security Forces (many of them unarmed, and all of them under-resourced compared to any normal police force) are torturing their rival Hamas detainees and other “pro-democracy activists” – an interesting scenario to note, but even if it is true, it would certainly pale in comparison to the state-run epidemic which we know exists on the other side of the wall.

The function of creating a Palestinian torture narrative is first to deflect from the fact that Palestine is still occupied by Israel (some American and European voters are still not aware of this fact) and then discredit the Palestinians as being unable to ever attain the necessary “international standards” worthy of a bid for statehood, and secondly, to provide a convenient smokescreen for Israel’s own every expanding wrap sheet of torturing political detainees, including child prisoner offenses outlined by Britain’s own fact-finding team as recently as last summer 2012.

By contrast, the US, Britain and of course, Israel – routinely employ torture as standard practice – all very well documented, as are standard torture by the UK allies in the region – starting with Bahrain. These sort of ethical breaches have proved to be meaningless however, in a 21st century where what is either moral and legal have become nibble concepts for the West and their strategic allies.

No one is asking whether or not the US, or British, have actually been training the Palestinian Security forces in torture techniques – this being more likely a realistic scenario because the US and UK have both the knowledge and the means to do so – and will do so if they can parlay this to theirs, or Israel’s own advantage. One can never be sure these days. It’s so hard to tell because torture by Western countries is now done offshore - and in secret.

Britain is now a player in the region

Britain’s role alongside the US in the Middle East is now on the increase – with troops currently stationed in Jordan, providing support for jihadist rebels in Syria, lucrative BAE Systems arms sales to the Gulf States monarchies, a permanent army barracks in Bahrain, another military outpost on the cards in the UAE – all alongside the UK army’s recent  announcement of plans to build up a strong “shadow presence” in the Gulf.

Why would the UK spend so much of its money on a project in Palestine - what do they expect to receive in return?

If millions are being invested in training any overseas force, the colonial objective will normally be to deliberately disconnect that foreign military force from its political leadership, thus making it easier to influence and control from the outside. Perhaps this is what Britain is doing, but like the efforts of the British fugitive Middle East envoy Tony Blair, all these millions of dollars have done very little to actually help the condition of the Palestinian people – especially those entrapped in Gaza. Despite all of the road maps and peace talks, illegal Israeli settlements are still on the increase and the Palestinian situation is as dire as ever.

Helped by the City’s supply of cheap money, and the Gulf states’ petrol and gas dollars, the UK’s arms suppliers are cashing in on the war-time economy once again – but why are they investing in the Palestinian Security forces? Will the remnants of Palestine be turned back over to British control in future – with Qatar as its chief operating partner for that project? Better yet, are the British planning to extract a new breed of jihadist fighters out of Palestine to fight in Syria and other locations, or facilitate the transfer of Palestinian suicide bombers to help the other British-supported foreign variety already in Syria – or even preparing for a coming border clash/crisis with Egypt?

Recent history should teach us that when it comes to western intervention in Middle Eastern geopolitics - anything is possible, and that no Western power intervenes for altruistic reasons. We can only guess what is Britain’s game at this point – and one can be sure that it’s not all about “helping those poor Palestinians’.

Britain are historically the brains of the geopolitical chessboard and employ others like the US to do the heavy lifting. Let’s wait and see what this is leading up to, but one thing is sure – things are already taking shape…
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Britain spending millions to train Palestinian security forces despite rights concerns

World Tribune

LONDON — Britain, despite allegations of torture, has been playing a major role in training and financing Palestinian security forces in the West Bank.


Officials acknowledged that the government of British Prime Minister David Cameron was pumping tens of millions of euros to maintain PA intelligence and security agencies.

The officials said Britain has been training and advising virtually every major PA security force, often in coordination with the United States.

Officials said Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence agency has repeatedly urged PA security commanders to stop torture. But they acknowledged that torture and abuse continued in PA detention facilities against Hamas suspects and pro-democracy activists.

The International Development Department said the government would spend 2.2 million pounds [$3.4 million] to increase oversight of PA security forces. A statement by the department said Britain was also seeking to develop a Palestinian judiciary in the West Bank. 

“Through DFID’s Supporting Stability and Promoting Democracy Program we will endeavor to help the Palestinian Authority to become more open and accountable,” International Development Minister Alan Duncan said. 

In an address on April 10 in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Duncan said the aid was meant to help the PA establish a Palestinian state. He said the PA has “proved its capability to deliver services and security.”

Officials said MI6 was helping PA intelligence and security agencies. They said MI6, with an office in Jerusalem, was overseeing the training of mid-level and senior officers from the General Intelligence Service and the Preventive Security Apparatus. 

The British Daily Mail said London’s aid to the PA security forces comes amid renewed testimony of widespread torture. On March 30, the Mail quoted a former PA security official who outlined the tools of torture used by investigators against Palestinians. “If you are not sure of the case, I assure you, torture is not going to be used,” the former official, who did not want to be identified, said. “But if you feel you’re not getting what you want — well, then the decision will depend on the investigator’s patience and the importance of the information he needs.” 

“Our funding is channeled through a World Bank Trust Fund and is linked to a program of government reforms,” Duncan, who did not discuss the torture issue, said. “This on-going commitment allows the PA to maintain autonomy over its finances which is a sign of our continuing trust in the Palestinian Authority.”

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Weapons and Wahhabism to Syria: iTalk FM’s Pippa Jones talks to Patrick Henningsen


21st Century Wire


Radio Jones host Pippa Jones speaks to guest Patrick Henningsen live from Beirut, discussing the legal and human implications of the recent weapons-running operation orchestrated by the US, UK, France and Croatia, and the potential EU and Middle East crisis which could result from this latest development…

Listen to interview:
 The Radio Jones Show 15 March 2013

RADJ

Hear Pippa Jones on air every week at i-Talk FM radio.

RELATED: Open War Crimes: US and British-Backed Weapons Airlift From Croatia to Terrorists in Syria

RELATED: As Britain and France Beg EU to Ship Arms, Their Proxy Rebels Establish Sharia Law in Parts of Syria

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Racism and Zionism Rule the BBC’s Failing News Agenda


21st Century Wire
says… It’s already well know how the BBC failed its public by covering up for the most horrific of criminals in our midst – pedophiles and child abusers. The Jimmy Savile internal cover-up and failure to terminate any of its own special inner circle, proved to the world that this public-funded cash cow no longer has any real credibility. Like any effective political propaganda outlet, its response to any failure is to continue on in its own bubble of self reverential reality.

So it only stands to reason that one failure would be followed by another.

To complement its traditional left-wing collectivist overtones, the BBC has now added institutionally racist and political right-wing (yes, it’s support of Israel is clearly a right-wing position) extremist ideologies to its news agenda, favouring the extremist Zionist agenda over social justice and reporting genuine human rights atrocities. In addition to the report on Palestinian hunger strikers detailed below, it’s also appropriate to point out here that this is not the first time the BBC has abided by the Israeli hard line of Palestinian human rights issues:

“There has been broad condemnation of the decision by the British public service broadcaster the BBC to refuse to show an appeal for humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza organised by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) of aid charities. The corporation is the only terrestrial broadcaster in the United Kingdom to refuse to air the appeal, which aims to raise funds to provide emergency relief to the thousands of Palestinians facing a humanitarian catastrophe in the war-torn Gaza Strip…”
1BBCThe BBC is clearly breaking its media charter here, again, by hiding the suffering of the indigenous Arab population in the Middle East in order to hide a brutal Israeli apartheid system and gulag from the wider public view. It’s a shameful institutional habit that is more suited for the monolithic 20th century, than in this century.

The BBC pretends to be a ‘public broadcaster’, but everyone can now see that it is in fact BICOM (Britain Israel Communications & Research Centre) who shapes the network’s highly politicised and narrow coverage of world events.

If you are in need of another reason not to pay the BBC’s extortionate TV license, then look no further…

Protest demands BBC lift reporting blackout on Palestinian hunger strikers

Monday 18th February 2013 was a day to demonstrate against the BBC’s blackout of news coverage of the plight of Palestinian hunger strikers. We held two protests outside the BBC in London and our friends in Bristol protested outside the BBC in Bristol. This report covers the London protest.

Both Ayman Sharawna and Samer Issawi are dying after have been on hunger stike over 6 months and yet when you search the BBC’s 21 million English articles there is not a single mentions of these hunger strikers, this contrasts sharply to the blanket coverage the BBC gave the Israeli soldier Gilat Shalit when is was imprisoned. Tate coverage continued even one year after his release with a special feature on the anniversary of his release, focusing on the difficulty he had coping with his new-found fame! Contast this to Palestinian prisoner Samer Issawi, a skeleton on a wheelchair, brutally beaten in the courtroom in front of cameras and an Israeli judge – his ribs being broken in the attack, is not considered news worthy by the BBC.


Previously, 5 weeks ago, on 11th January we protested outside BBC Broadcasting House at the BBC’s refusal to cover the plight of Palestinian hunger strikers. We delivered a letter to the BBC asking for an explanation and a change in policy, the letter (reproduced below) also included a passionate message from Um Ra’fat, the mother of Palestinian hunger striker Samer Al-Issawi.

Appeal letter to the BBC:

Tim DavieDirector General BBC

Dear Mr Tim Davie

Today is Palestinian political prisoner Samer Al-Issawi’s 169th day on hunger strike, and fellow prisoner Ayman Sharawna having been on hunger strike nearly 6 months before suspending his strike for a week is once again fasting for his freedom. Both prisoners are being held by Israel without charge or trial. According to the internationally brokered deal to release captured Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit both Sharawna and Issawi should be free men today but Israel reneged on its agreement and rearrested both men after Shalit had been released.

The BBC describes its mission as one to “inform” and “educate” and the news in particular is described as “providing trusted World and UK news..” so why have you not covered their story and those of fellow Palestinian hunger strikers?

The search engine Google has indexed over 21 million articles from the BBC website yet it returns no results from the BBC for Samer Issawi or Ayman Sharawna. Neither prisoner has ever been mentioned by the BBC – those 21 million articles.. empty of any reference to Palestinian hunger strikers Issawi and Sharawna, both nearing death after nearly six months without food.

If we do a quick search on Google for “Gilad Shalit” it brings back around 1,120 articles from the BBC which includes around 50 articles from 2012! Shalit was released over a year ago in October 2011 and yet he is still news worthy for the BBC. The last article on him by the BBC is from October 18th 2012 – a special on the anniversary of his release!

The Shalit release anniversary article reports of his “ordeal”, the “psychological effects”, “trying to come to terms with his fame” the ordeal of the media following “his first bicycle ride after he returned home.. [his] trip to Paris to visit President Nicholas Sarkozy and a meeting with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.. at a concert of the popular singer, Shlomo Artzi, who dedicated a song to him; at various sports events and on the set of the US television drama series, Homeland..” Contrast this ‘ordeal’, which is newsworthy for the BBC to report, to the ordeal Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike are going through TODAY.

Just two weeks ago Samer Al-Issawi, a wheelchair bound skeleton of a man barely breathing after 140 days without food, was brutally attacked by Israeli guards in the courthouse in front of an Israeli judge, who didn’t intervene, as guards punched the dying man in the head and chest resulting in broken ribs. They then attack his mother and sister, all this in front of the cameras – captured on video ready for any news channel to broadcast.. but not the BBC – your mission to ‘inform’ and ‘educate’ apparently doesn’t extend to Palestinians? An emaciated dog that has lost half its weight due to being abandoned is afforded an article by the BBC which includes a large colour photo, but not Samer Al-Issawi who after 169 days without food has lost more than half his body weight, not even one mention of his name. Why?

The BBC is principally funded by television licence fees – 82% in 2011 ( £3.6 billion). Such blatant bias by omission in its reporting is unacceptable and we as TV licence holders demand the BBC follow its remit to inform and educate by covering the issue of Palestinian hunger strikers.

We have received a message from Palestine, from the mother of Samer Al-Issawi to the BBC which we have included below.

A Mothers Message To The BBC

My son Samer Al-Issawi, 33, a Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail and been on a hunger strike for 169 days. His only demand is freedom after the Israeli occupation broke the deal that liberated him, and re-arrested him for no reason, without any charge.

Samer Issawi’s is in a very critical condition and has sustained fractures in his rib cage as a result of an assault against him a few days ago in the courtroom by Israeli soldiers only because he wanted to touch his mothers hand.

The reason for writing this letter is that we know that the role of the media especially the BBC & CNN is very important to highlight the plight of our son Samer.

Um Ra’fat, Mother of Palestinian Hunger Striker Samer Al-Issawi

             We would like a reply, thank you.Yours sincerely
..

After nearly 5 weeks we still did not received any reply from the BBC. Not only did they not replied, they did not even have the courtesy to sent us an acknowledgement of receipt of the letter. At the time the BBC had erected a barricade and checkpoint some 100 metres from its entrance especially to block us approaching the building and prevented us from entering the building to personally hand the letter to the Director General Tim Davie it had to be given to the Duty Facilities Manager of BBC Workplace who later confirmed to us via email that she had handed it to the Director Generals Office. A quick search on google also revealed the reporting blackout was still very much in place. So on 18th February we once again protested outside the BBC.

The action was part of the Palestinian Prisoners Campaign launched by Innovative Minds (inminds.com) and the Islamic Human Rights Commission (ihrc.org) which aims to raise awareness for the plight of Palestinian prisoners and build solidarity for their struggle and work towards their freedom.

The BBC journalists from the National Union of Journalists were on strike on 18th February over compulsory redundancies at the BBC, this gave us a great opportunity to talk to them on the picket line outside the BBC. It was decided that whilst the main protest as advertised was at 2pm in the afternoon, a few of us with our friends from “Haringey Justice For Palestinians” would visit the picket line early in the morning at 7am to talk directly with the picketers.

7am – Vigil outside BBC

As we arrived at BBC Broadcasting House in the early hours of the morning we were warmly greeted by about half a dozen picketers who were very sympathetic. We explained that we fully supported their strike and opposed the cuts but were disappointed with the bias in the BBC. We asked if they minded us standing with them with our banners, they told us that we belong there and they stood with us under our banner and we held their placards in solidarity.

When the two NUJ union officials, a man and a woman, arrived we approached them to give them a leaflet and explain why we were there. Unlike the picketers they were surprisingly cold to our approach. Initially they refused to even take our leaflet saying they weren’t allowed to. It took nearly 5 minutes of convincing before they finally took the leaflet.. only to fold it and put away without reading it! When asked about the reporting blackout the woman sidestepped the question saying she did not work in the news section so couldn’t comment, whilst the man refused to utter even one word during our whole encounter.

Having caught the BBC security off guard they tried but couldn’t prevent us from approaching the main entrance for some great photos next to the iconic BBC building logo and leafleting of BBC staff entering the building. The security told us that they were expecting us at 2pm, that we were “not meant to be here at this time”. It was also very interesting that the BBC security tried to separate us from the picketers demanding we stand away from them. We were not sure who directed them to go beyond their remit in this manner. We told them that if the picketers asked us to move we would respect their wishes but as it was we were all standing together, united against the cuts and the bias in the BBC. The security were not happy with this but were powerless to do anything.

Later we managed to speak to a couple of journalists from the BBC Arabic service. They told us, off record, that the BBC’s Arabic service, which is tasked with cultivating a following amongst the regions Arab population whilst having no impact on public opinion or politicians in the West and totally toothless to pressure Israel in any way what so ever, was [therefore] allowed to report on the subject of the Palestinian hunger strikers.

2pm Protest outside BBC

As we arrived for the 2pm protest the BBC security were waiting with a pen ready for us some 100 metres away from the entrance of broadcasting House on the other side of the street. Unlike last time when they had erected a security barrier with a checkpoint and only giving access to people with BBC IDs, this time there was no barrier because of the strike picket which needed free movement to the buildings entrance. We took advantage of this and ignored the pen, setting up near the picketers at the entrance of the building. The BBC security took exception to this, ordering us to move to the pens. We refused pointing out that the area has a public right of way, and their threats to call the police never materialised.

We had a fantastic turnout considering it was a working day. More impressive than the numbers was the diversity, so many different groups, a true cross section of the solidarity movement were represented. All united in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners. Apart from Innovative Minds and the Islamic Human Rights Commission, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Victory to the Intifada, Jews For Justice For Palestinians, Red Card Israeli Apartheid Campaign among other groups were represented.

A portable PA system was set up for short speeches. Speaker after speaker condemned BBC policy of not reporting the plight of Palestinian hunger strikers.

IHRC chair Massoud Shadjareh told the BBC it mustn’t yield to zionist bullying, that it is paid for by our taxes and has a duty to report the news.

Malcolm from Victory to the Intifada group pointed to a history of bias at the BBC – in 2009 the BBC refused to broadcast a Gaza charity plea for aid made jointly by 13 British charities to help the stricken people of Gaza rebuild their homes after Israel’s vicious attack on Gaza.. and now they are refusing to report on the hunger strikers.

John, a Camden UNISON member, made the comparison with Ireland, its hunger strikers – 10 of whom gave their lives to the cause, and the BBC’s refusal at the time to broadcast the voices of Irish patriots.

Glyn from Jews for Justice for Palestinians pointed to an even bleaker future at the BBC with its recent appointment of James Purnell, former chair of Zionist lobby Labour Friends of Israel, to the BBC’s top strategy job. In his new post at the BBC, he will be in charge of the corporation’s policy, strategy, digital services, public affairs, communications, marketing and audience research – in other words, pretty much everything that matters in the BBC!

Michael from the Jewish Anti-Zionist Network asked the National Union of Journalists , who were out on strike that day, to pass a motion to boycott Israel.

The BBC were invited to come and address the protesters to explain their policy, an offer they ignored. The NUJ members on the picket line were also invited to address the protest to talk both about their strike and also the BBC’s refusal to report on Palestinian hunger strikers. Lucy Bailey, a producer at BBC Word Service, who was on the picket line did agree to take the mic. Lucy Bailey has previously made a documentary on human rights for white farmers in Zimbabwe and a series on pursuing justice under pressure and the role of judges in which she interviewed Judge Richard Goldstone so we were expecting passionate words about the human rights of Palestinian prisoners and the failure of the BBC to cover their plight. We were to be disappointed. In fairness she did speak out against the cuts at the BBC, she had our full support on that. But that was it – nothing on the Palestinian hunger strikers!

In between the speeches, pro-Palestinian music was played, helping create a great atmosphere to engage the public. “Hungry” by Doc Jazz written specially for the Palestinian hunger strikers was a particular hit with the crowd:

“I’m not asking u to break me out, cuz I’m alright. 
Can spend a hundred more years putting up this fight. 
All I want you to do, is speak out for the truth….

Read more and see photos at www.inminds.co.uk

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Patrick Henningsen on UK Column Live Show

21st Century Wire

Mike Robinson and Brian Gerrish are joined by Patrick Henningsen from Beirut, including: a breakthrough for Robert Green as Operation Yewtree police speak to him about the Hollie Greig case, another member of staff leaves Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, UN peacekeepers kidnapped in Syria, Ed Milliband claims he is a Zionist, and did the Queen go to the (independent from the NHS) Royal Masonic Hospital for treatment because she knows how NHS hospitals treat the elderly?



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Prime Minister’s Special Command Officer Found Shot Dead in London Home

21st Century Wire says… You’d think this would be big news, and that BBC and others would be CURIOUS. Instead all we have so far is, “Move along, nothing to see here, carry on…”

Our first question is: What did he know that got him executed?

Why do authorities say that his death is not being treated as suspicious?

Who is asking these questions now? This is what the Mail say…
  • The 43-year-old was found dead at Camden address 
  • He worked for Specialist Protection Command
  • Death is not being treated as suspicious
  • Met Police would not confirm or deny if officer had access to police weapon
AMANDA WILLIAMS and ANTHONY BOND
Mail Online

A police special protection officer has been found shot dead at a house in London.

The 43 year old PC, from the Specialist Protection Command, was found at the address in Camden yesterday afternoon.

The unit covers protection duties for VIPs including the Prime Minister.

The Metropolitan Police said that the death is not being treated as suspicious. An investigation is now underway which will look at whether a police firearm was involved.

The Met Police would not confirm or deny this evening if the officer would have had access to a police weapon.

The officer, who has not been named, is thought to have moved with his girlfriend to the cobbled mews tucked away in Camden less than two years ago.

Neighbours said they arrived home from work to see the front door of the converted mews house smashed in and murder detectives stationed outside…

(…) 

The man was not under investigation as part of either the ‘plebgate’ probe or the inquiries into alleged phone hacking and corrupt payments to public officials.

Specialist Operations is divided into three sections which are known as commands. Within the three commands are several units which are used for protection.

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Austerity is a Scam: Crisis Legislation and Dodgy Debt Repayment Schemes

Promissory Notes to Government Bonds

Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
Global Research

Austerity is a sham. Debt is economics for the ‘little people’.  

If the people produce the wealth then why are they always poor and/or paying back debts? Because the national and international wealthy lend us back the money (with interest) they have taken out of society in the form of profits to fill in the gap they created in the first place. Thus we are triply exploited: We are taxed on wages, alienated from wealth created (profits) and we pay interest on the money borrowed from the wealthy to pay for the capital and current expenditure needed for the maintenance of society.

When there is an economic crisis caused by this constant draining of the wealth from the economy, the ‘experts’ then debate the best way to impose cutbacks to get us back on to ‘the road to recovery’. This would be funny if so many people were not caught up in the sea of unemployment and subsistence living.  Furthermore, any rejection of these ‘debts’ will not be countenanced by the elites who oversee the ‘debt repayments’ by the ‘little people’.

If one form of debt repayment (promissory notes) is seen to be dodgy and possibly unsustainable (due to legalities or public repugnance) then legislation is rushed in overnight to convert the ‘debt’ in to a more acceptable form – the government bond. That was the situation this week in Dublin. How did this come about?

“In 2010 the banks that were then Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide (now Irish Bank Resolution Corporation or IBRC) required around €30.06 billion in additional cash from the State because of their perilous state in the aftermath of the collapse of the property market.

Finance minister Brian Lenihan wrote a promissory note to the IBRC – basically saying “We owe you €31 billion” – which the bank used as collateral to borrow from the Cental Bank of Ireland’s emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) fund. Under the agreement, the State agreed to pay €3.06 billion every year to the IBRC until 2023 and smaller payments after that to satisfy the principal and the interest.

But creating cash or monetary financing is a no-no as far as the European Central Bank (ECB) is concerned. Its founding principles – the Maastricht Treaty – dictate that EU member states cannot finance their public deficits by printing money.

As Stephen Donnelly, who has been vehemently opposed to the promissory notes, points out: “[It] would certainly have run afoul of Europe’s two directives: That no European bank would fail and that the potential losses and lost profits of senior investors would be paid in full by the public.”

One of the options put on the table by Ireland has been to swap the notes for a long-term government bond – possibly sourced from the ESM – with the repayments spread over 40 years. What’s all this about? Well our dear Taoiseach Enda Kenny probably describes it best when he recently said it would be like switching “from a serious overdraft to a long-term, low-interest mortgage”.”

You see, the appalling vista for the ECB would be the loss of control over the supply of money and the knock-on effect this would have on the markets if every government in the EU were to do the same.  Therefore, bonds-for-notes legislation was brought in overnight in Dublin to wind up the IBRC and put the repayments on a more stable, ‘normalised’ footing. The Taoiseach Enda Kenny told “the Dáil:

“The first principal payment on these bonds will be made in 25 years time, 2038, with the final payment being made in 2053. The average maturity of these bonds will be over 34 years rather than the 7 – 8 years on a promissory note.” The average interest rate on these bonds will be 3 per cent, compared to 8 per cent on the promissory notes.”
Sure the children and the grandchildren of the ‘little people’ can pay the ‘debt’ instead! This was confirmed by the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan who said that the deal on bank debt secured by the Government “eases the burden on everybody” (except their unsuspecting children).
The Anglo: Not Our Debt campaign spokesperson, Andy Storey, described the debt as “illegitimate – it was accrued to pay off the speculators who gambled their money on a dodgy bank now under criminal investigation, it is not the debt of ordinary people and should under no circumstances be reclassified as ‘sovereign’”.  He also stated that rushing  “emergency legislation through the Dáil and Seanad this evening on this basis, this would be “devious and undemocratic – instead of having a proper, informed debate about this hugely serious issue the government would be railroading through legislation that would see people living in Ireland take formal responsibility for debts that are not theirs to pay”.”

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Eurostat, the EU Commission’s data agency, has calculated the cost of the banking crisis in each EU country and according to Michael Taft, Ireland just edges “out Germany for the dubious title of spending the most on the banking crisis.  €41 billion to date according to the Eurostat accounting data (this doesn’t count the billions ploughed into the covered banks from our National Pension Reserve Fund as this was not counted as a ‘cost’ to the General Government budget). […]The European banking crisis to date has cost every individual in Ireland nearly €9,000 each.  The average throughout the EU is €192 per capita. […] The Irish people have paid 42 percent of the total cost of the European banking crisis.”

It’s no wonder Angela Merkel declared that Ireland was a “special case” for a bank debt deal.  To revise Churchill’s famous words – ‘Never was so much owed by so few to so many’.

Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin is a prominent Irish artist who has exhibited widely around Ireland. His work consists of paintings based on cityscapes of Dublin, Irish history and geopolitical themes (http://gaelart.net/). His blog of critical writing based on cinema, art and politics along with research on a database of Realist and Social Realist art from around the world can be viewed country by country at http://gaelart.blogspot.ie/.

RELATED: The Debt Crisis in the European Union: Austerity for Life…
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Henningsen on RT: ‘Iran in crosshairs’: UK may deploy more troops to Gulf

The United Arab Emirates is said to be close to ordering some 60 combat jets from the UK, and may be getting a contingent of British troops to sweeten the deal. British PM David Cameron told soldiers that they may be headed to the Gulf state as they pull out of Afghanistan. Rights groups though aren’t happy – saying dealing with the Emirates, which the EU called on to stop the mass torture of political dissidents, sends all the wrong messages. Geopolitical analyst Patrick Henningsen says there’s an ulterior motive behind the sale. ….facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterest

Cameron and Obama’s Hired Thugs Now Butchering Their Way Through Syria

These people only care about their own lucrative careers, and a life of priviledge on the taxpayers dime.

21st Century Wire Dec 7, 2012 What a lark. Directing a war from the comfort of a golf course, or over a warm Cognac at Chequers. While they wine and dine in DC and Westminster, their hired hands work overtime to make rivers of blood in Syria. Barak Obama and David Cameron, flanked by their ‘diplomats’ Hillary Clinton and William Hague, are all doing their bit to increase the bloodshed in Syria by backing the FSA rebel, al Qaida jihadist terrorists, who are presently working their way through the once stable country like termites eating through a once healthy home. Blood comes cheap, and with budgets tight at home, western leaders are happy with the current arrangement. Rebel terrorist fighters are being paid between $500 and $2000 per month, and arms are free of charge through various NATO proxies and Gulf States. Their job assignment is a blunt one – to intimidate loyal pro-Syrian citizens, and to butcher thousands of innocent civilians – all in all, inflicting a reign of terror much like that one engineered by Washington in Nicaragua during the 1980′s. This is who Washington, London and Paris are backing in their quest to finally bring Syria under their globalist umbrella. We have never have witnessed this level of open international criminality and hypocrisy by our puppet leaders in the West. At least with Iraq, Bush and Blair tried to be creative with their lying by making up unbelievable stories of ”mobile anthrax labs”. Nine years on, our well-paid elite political prostitutes don’t even bother with fish stories, they just put the weapons in the hands of terrorists, and pay these professional murderers to kill indiscriminately. All this will eventually bring shame to the citizens of western nations in the long run, much the same way that the Nazis brought shame to the German people (but no shame to the corporations, bankers and elites though – because you can only feel shame if you have a conscious to begin with). They will keep using the same tried and tested methods, unless they can be stopped by their own electorate. Here is a video promoting Obama and Cameron’s favoured operatives in Syria… Watch: ….facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterest