Jordan Shilton & Chris Marsden

EU officials insist on installing an economic dictatorship over the Cypriot economy.

The Cypriot government and the European Union (EU) arrived at an agreement early yesterday morning to secure a bailout of Cypriot banks and avert state bankruptcy in Cyprus.

The terms set by the bailout amount to the economic devastation of the island country in the interests of Europe’s financial elite. Cyprus’s financial sector, accounting for around half of economic output, will immediately be reduced by up to half. Laiki bank, the second largest, is to be wound up with its debts to the ECB taken on by the Bank of Cyprus. Further losses are inevitable, as banking done in Cyprus is shifted to other euro zone countries’ banks.

The dictates of the EU and the criminal financial practices of Cyprus’s ruling elite alike have paved the way for massive attacks on working people. With unemployment at more than 14 percent, there will inevitably be thousands of job losses in banking, Cyprus’s main employer, and from restructured companies and privatised services.

The bailout, which is massively opposed by the Cypriot population, is to be imposed without a vote in the Cypriot parliament. To this end, the original proposal to impose a levy on bank deposits, which had been rejected by the Cypriot parliament, was removed from the final agreement. The new plan provides for the freezing of all deposits over €100,000 to cover the bailout. Depositors and shareholders in Laiki will see their assets transferred to a “bad bank” and could lose everything.

These measures, together with a privatisation programme and tax increases, are projected to raise the €7 billion Cyprus has been ask to contribute to the €17 billion bailout from the EU, ECB and International Monetary Fund.

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Stephen Lendman

Steve Lendman: Grand Theft Cyprus: Part II (Part I)

Cyprus is tiny. Its population numbers about a million. Its GDP is miniscule by Western standards. It's 0.2% of Europe's economy. It's entrapped under Eurozone straightjacket rules. They impose financial tyranny. Dissimilar countries surrender monetary and fiscal control. Doing so abandons effective ways to combat recessions.

They can't devalue their currencies to make exports more competitive. They can't print money freely. They can't spend, spend, spend. Euro policy expert Bernard Connolly is considered the foremost European economic, monetary, and political integration expert. In his 1995 book titled, "The Rotten Heart of Europe: The Dirty War for Europe's Money" he explained and said the euro system a harebrained idea. It's doomed to fail.

Before the euro's 1998 introduction, he said one or more of Europe's weakest countries would face rising budget deficits, troubled economies, and a "downward spiral from which there is no escape unaided." "When that happens, the country concerned will be faced with a risk of sovereign default."

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William Blum

The "Big Three" at the Yalta Conference: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin

From the Congress of Vienna of 1815 to the Congress of Berlin in 1878 to the "Allies" invasion of Russia in 1918 to the formation of what became the European Union in the 1950s, the great powers of Europe and the world have gotten together in grand meeting halls and on the field of battle to set the ground rules for imperialist exploitation of Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Australasia, to Christianize and 'civilize', to remake the maps, and to suppress revolutions and other threats to great-power hegemony. They have been deadly serious. In 1918, for example, some 13 nations, including France, Great Britain, Rumania, Italy, Serbia, Greece, Japan, and the United States, combined in a military invasion of Russia to "strangle at its birth" the nascent Bolshevik state, as Winston Churchill so charmingly put it.

And following World War 2, without any concern about who had fought and died to win that war, the Western powers, sans the Soviet Union, moved to create the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO, along with the European Union, then joined the United States in carrying out the Cold War and preventing the Communists and their allies from coming to power legally through elections in France and Italy. That partnership continued after the formal end of the Cold War. The United States, the European Union, and NATO are each superpowers, with extensive military, as well as foreign policy integration — almost all EU members are also members of NATO; almost all NATO members in Europe are in the EU; almost all NATO members have had a military contingent serving under NATO and/or the US in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans and elsewhere.

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Paul Craig Roberts

With its power declining, Washington was not able any longer to keep Russia out of the World Trade Organization. Congress showed its spite over its impotence by hooking the normalizing of trade with Russia to what is called the “Magnitsky rule.”

Sergei Magnitsky was a Russian attorney who represented a British investment firm accused of tax evasion and fraud in Russia. Apparently, the UK firm supplied information to media alleging government misconduct and participation in corruption inside state-owned Russian companies.

Magnitsky represented the accused UK firm. He claimed that the firm had not committed fraud but had been a victim of fraud. In turn, Magnitsky was arrested. He developed serious illnesses in prison for which he apparently received inadequate medical care.

Whether he died of untreated illnesses, we cannot know. But the US Congress, acting on the unsubstantiated allegation that Magnitsky was tortured and murdered, attached to the trade normalization bill a provision that requires the US government to release a list of Russian government officials believed or imagined to have been involved with the violation of Magnitsky’s human rights and to freeze the assets of these members of the Russian government and to deny them visas to travel to the US. Considering Washington’s belief that its law is the universal law of humankind, Washington probably intends for every country to enforce its edict or to be sanctioned in turn.

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Paul Craig Roberts

The morons who rule the american sheeple are not only dumb and blind, they are deaf as well. The ears of the american “superpower” only work when the Israeli prime minister, the crazed Netanyahu, speaks. Then Washington hears everything and rushes to comply.

Israel is a tiny insignificant state, created by the careless British and the stupid americans. It has no power except what its american protector provides. Yet, despite Israel’s insignificance, it rules Washington.

When a resolution introduced by the Israel Lobby is delivered to Congress, it passes unanimously. If Israel wants war, Israel gets its wish. When Israel commits war crimes against Palestinians and Lebanon and is damned by the hundred plus UN resolutions passed against Israel’s criminal actions, the US bails Israel out of trouble with its veto.

The power that tiny Israel exercises over the “worlds’s only superpower” is unique in history. Tens of millions of “christians” bow down to this power, reinforcing it, moved by the exhortations of their “christian” ministers.

Netanyahu lusts for war against Iran. He strikes out against all who oppose his war lust. Recently, he called Israel’s top generals “pussies” for warning against a war with Iran. He regards former Israeli prime ministers and former heads of the Israeli intelligence service as traitors for opposing his determination to attack Iran. He has denounced america’s servile president Obama and america’s top military leader for being “soft on Iran.” The latest poll in Israel shows that a solid majority of the Israelis are opposed to an Israeli attack on Iran. But Netanyahu is uninterested in the opinion of Israeli citizens. He has Washington watching his back, so he is war mad. It is a mystery why Israelis put Netanyahu in public office instead of in an insane asylum.

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Stephen Lendman

Who exactly did this? - The Syrian government or CIA's rebel
groups? (Photo: Shaam News Network, via Reuters)

Washington orchestrates everything behind the scenes. Obama wants to replace Assad with a pro-Western puppet.

A previous article discussed scoundrel media anti-Iranian propaganda. They also target Syria. They march in lockstep with imperial lawlessness.

Readers and viewers deserve better than misinformation and betrayal. They need alternative sources to avoid it.

Washington has longstanding designs on Iran and Syria. Regime change is planned by any means. War threatens both countries. Obama, the peace candidate, can't wait to start another one. He's already guilty of war crimes multiples times over.

Media scoundrels back him. Peace, equity, justice, human and civil rights, other democratic values, and obeying rule of law principles don't matter. Political Washington abhors them. So do media scoundrels.

America unmasked is loathsome, dangerous and rapacious. Scoundrel media reality reveals rejection of fundamental journalistic principles.

The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) "is dedicated to the perpetuation of a free press as the cornerstone of our nation and our liberty."

Democratic freedom depends on keeping "the American people well informed....It is the role of journalists to provide this information in an accurate, comprehensive, timely and understandable manner."

SPJ's Code of Ethics affirms this responsibility. Scoundrel media members fall way short. Fiction substitutes for fact. News is carefully filtered. Dissent is marginalized, and support for wealth and power is policy.

Aggressive wars are called liberating ones. Civil liberties are suppressed for our own good, and patriotism means going along with government policy no matter how repugnant, lawless or destructive.

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Stephen Lendman

French, Greek voters say no to austerity (P. Le Segretain/Getty)

The morning after election Sunday, French and Greek voters have major issues unresolved. Austerity harmed people in both countries. Technocrats remain in charge. Odds remain long for change.

Europe's recession is deepening. Every stimulus attempt failed. Budget cutting during crisis conditions makes hard times worse. Throwing out bums for new ones assures similar ones.

European governments fell like dominos. Since crisis conditions began, over a dozen regime changes followed. Thirteen Eurozone ones collapsed, were voted out of power, or were ordered out by banker diktats. Left or right made no difference.

The Dutch government resigned. No confidence votes toppled Romania and Czech Republic leaders. Minority governments lead Sweden and Bulgaria.

An unnamed European diplomat said we'll "have to get used to new faces and ideas all the time." Unity, leadership and vision are absent.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso wants EU sovereignty replaced by Commission leaders controlling economic decision-making to harden austerity harshness. Voters reject the idea. Throw the bums out followed before and will again.

Spain replaced socialists for conservatives. Both parties follow similar policies. Italy dumped pro-business elected prime minister Silvio Berlusconi for unelected Mario Monte. Greece followed suit. Unelected Lucas Papademos replaced elected George Papandreou.

Conservative David Cameron succeeded Labour's Gordon Brown. Portugal's Jose Socrates fell from grace. So did governments in Denmark and Finland. Germany's Angela Merkel faces reelection next year. Will she go next?

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Stephen Lendman

"Nonlethal" Aid? How do we know Ms. Hillary Clinton
is lying? - Her lips are moving, that's how.

On March 25, The New York Times headlined, "US and Turkey to Step Up 'Nonlethal' Aid to Rebels in Turkey," saying:

Other US allies were urged to do the same. Insisting no weapons will be sent belies heavy Western and Israeli ones delivered through porous borders for months.

They include powerful explosives, small arms, submachine guns, machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket and anti-tank grenade launchers, among others. They've been used to kill civilians and security forces, as well as destroy government facilities.

Russia repeatedly denounces Washington's one-sided support while claiming peaceful resolution intentions. Obama says aiding Assad's opposition furthers transitioning to a "legitimate government."

In other words, he wants independent Syria replaced by a client state America controls. Then on to the next target for the same purpose - Iran.

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Stephen Lendman

The so-called "Free Syrian Army". The lady on the right is CBS
correspondent Clarissa Ward. We would not be too surprised to
learn that she is working closely with the CIA as well.

For nearly a year, externally generated violence wracked Syria. Dirty Western hands planned and implemented it. Rogue regional despots were enlisted for support.

Replacing an independent regime with a pro-Western one and isolating Iran are planned. Russia and China thwarted two Security Council resolutions designed to facilitate intervention.

On February 16, a non-binding Arab League General Assembly resolution passed with similar language. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states backed it.

Pressure's building for escalated anti-Assad measures. Sooner or later expect intervention, perhaps war. At issue is isolating Iran, then targeting the Islamic Republic. Replicating 1953 in some form's coming, perhaps more war that may involve Russia and China defending their interests.

On February 24, a Friends of Syria coalition of the willing will meet in Tunisia. The State Department organized them outside the UN system. Hillary Clinton and key NATO counterparts will attend.

On February 13, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said "Moscow does not consider the US-backed 'Friends of Syria' legitimate."

It's similar to last year's orchestrated one against Gaddafi. France said it might supply weapons. In fact, heavy ones were provided since violence erupted last March. They're coming from Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon's opposition March 14 alliance, Gulf states and perhaps Washington, rogue NATO partners and Israel.

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Stephen Lendman
February 06, 2012

Lendman's "Russia and China Veto Syria Resolution" and "Security Council Showdown on Syria" have been included in this post. - Editor

Washington's longstanding policy is regime change in Iran and Syria. At issue is replacing independent regimes with client ones and securing unchallenged control of valued Middle East resources.

On February 4, Russia and China vetoed a largely one-sided anti-Assad resolution. A previous article called him more victim than villain. Yet he's falsely blamed for months of externally generated violence.

In fact, he confronted a Western-backed armed insurgency replicating the Libya model. By so doing he acted responsibly against a heavily armed insurrection.

Imagine a similar scenario in America. Local police, National Guard forces, and Pentagon troops would confront it violently. Combined, they'd way exceed Assad's response.

Mass killing would follow. Western media scoundrels would approve. In contrast, the New York Times calls Syria's self-defense state-sponsored "butchery."

Its position substitutes disinformation for truth and full disclosure. They're scrupulously avoided to misinform, misrepresent and betray readers. It's longstanding major media policy. The Times featured it longer than others.

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