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Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein releases pro-gay marriage PSA

EU Times — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:57:51 +0000

Advocating: Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, appeared in a commercial supporting same-sex marriage for the Human Rights Campaign

Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, one of Wall Street’s most powerful figures, has become the first major business leader to join a national media campaign in support of same-sex marriage.

Gay rights advocacy group Human Rights Campaign published a video on Sunday in which Mr Blankfein, who has headed investment bank Goldman Sachs since 2006, asks viewers to join a ‘majority of Americans who support marriage equality.’

‘America’s corporations learned long ago that equality is just good business and it’s the right thing to do,’ Mr Blankfein, 57, said in the video, which was posted on popular video website YouTube.

Mr Blankfein, who is married to Laura Jacobs Blankfein and has three children, had already made his views on the issue known.

Last year he was one of the financial industry executives to sign an open letter calling on New York state lawmakers to legalize same-sex marriage.

‘Our campaign is all about recruiting unexpected spokespeople so Americans can connect the dots and realize that on an issue like this there can be agreement,’ Human Rights Campaign spokesman Fred Sainz said.

Besides Mr Blankfein, the Americans for Marriage Equality campaign has attracted a dozen personalities on similar videos, including Senator Al Franken, Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita and Oscar-winning actress Mo’Nique.

‘The fact that we have Mo’Nique and Lloyd Blankfein campaigning on this should show that we can have commonality on the issue,’ Mr Sainz said.

‘We approached Lloyd Blankfein and literally within hours he had said yes, he would do it.’

Gay marriage remains outlawed in more than 40 of the 50 U.S. states and the issue promises to surface in the 2012 presidential election even as economic woes seem to take priority in the minds of voters.

President Barack Obama has supported rights for same sex couples but has stopped short of endorsing marriage, while most of the Republicans seeking to challenge him in November have come out against it.

Mr Blankfein has long been a supporter of the Democratic party, and before Mr Obama was elected to office, he contributed to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Clearly the two have overcome their differences as Mr Blankfein has made at least 10 visits to the Obama White House, a number of which were to discuss possible solutions to the country’s economic crisis.

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US closes embassy in Syria, UK recalls ambassador

EU Times — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:15:24 +0000

UK foreign secretary William Hague speaking in Parliament on Monday

The United States has shut down its embassy in Syria. The announcement comes amid mounting reports of lethal government attacks. The UK has followed the suit, summoning their ambassador from Damascus.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague says the British ambassador has been recalled from Syria for consultations. The Secretary has also summoned Syria’s representative in London to the Foreign Office so that he could express his “abhorrence” at the violence in the Arab country.

Hague accused China and Russia of “betraying the Syrian people,” saying their blocking a UN resolution on Syria was a “grave error.” The UK Foreign Secretary pledged to increase pressure on the Syrian government through the UN and other bodies.

“This is a doomed regime as well as a murdering regime,” Hague told British lawmakers on Monday. “There is no way it can recover its credibility internationally.”

Russia says the West is overreacting to the veto Moscow and Beijing used in the UN to block the resolution on Syria, which the two countries perceive as unbalanced. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called such remarks “almost hysterical.”

Earlier, officials said US Ambassador Robert Ford and other diplomats had left Syria on Monday. However, their departure did not come out of the blue. In January, Washington warned it might close its embassy in Damascus, citing concerns over staff safety.

On Monday, the Syrian opposition reported new assaults from government forces, claiming 50 had been killed in Homs city alone. The government, however, denies the accusations, saying the attacks were staged.

US President Barack Obama has said the ongoing conflict in Syria should be resolved without foreign military interference.

Obama said he believed a solution for Syria could be found through negotiations, adding that not every situation allows for the type of military action taken in Libya.

This weekend an American-backed UN Security Council resolution on Syria was vetoed by Russia and China, with both countries citing its unbalanced approach to the Syrian government and the opposition. Russia’s envoy to the UN also said that the draft did not reflect Russia’s proposals on Syria.

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Mitt Romney’s remark on poor sparks controversy

EU Times — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:49:17 +0000

It was on a live television morning show where the GOP frontrunner made this comment.

After which it took little time for Americans to react. Message boards were flooded with criticism about the Republican candidates’ remark.

Romney initially was making his victory rounds after winning the GOP Florida primary just the day before, now he is spending time clarifying his statement, which he says his words are being taken out of context.

Meanwhile, Romney’s opponents immediately took advantage of his live mishap. Today conservatives and liberals are criticizing the frontrunner all while Romney is back on the campaign trail hoping to put it all behind.

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Sarkozy attacks UK in fresh outburst

EU Times — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:16:16 +0000

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has ridiculed Britain once again by saying that “the United Kingdom has no industry any more”, media reports said.

The recent spat was made during a prime time national TV broadcast, in which Sarkozy was trying to defend his decision to introduce an increase in the Value Added Tax (VAT) in an attempt to boost France’s failing economy.

By enforcing the 1.6 percent VAT rise, ordinary people will have to pay for social charges too.

The French President, who has admitted for the first time that he may lose upcoming elections in the Spring, also admitted that he was borrowing the measure from Germany, arguing that it had ‘helped to boost German competitiveness’ and had not led to a rise in prices.

But, when a journalist noted that Britain had experienced a rise in prices after increasing its VAT contributions, Sarkozy spat out the words: ‘The United Kingdom has no industry any more’.

His comments came as earlier in 2009, Sarkozy actually attacked a VAT rise in Britain, saying it had ‘absolutely failed’ to stimulate the economy.

Earlier in December, tensions between Britain and France over the future of the EU intensified after Sarkozy accused Prime Minister David Cameron of behaving like “an obstinate kid” when he wielded the British veto at the European summit.

Adding salt to Sarkozy’s injuries, fresh polls suggest that he will be defeated if, as expected, he stands for re-election in the upcoming elections in the Spring this year.

Britain and France had been suffering from an age-old mix of distrust, affection, and antipathy, which was never going to be overcome so easily.

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Russia to hold US accountable for loss of Phobos Ground space probe

EU Times — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:21:44 +0000

Vladimir Popovkin, the head of Russia’s Federal Space Agency, named the main versions, which became the reasons for the failure of the nation’s Phobos Ground Mars exploration project. US officials stated that the US government was in no way connected with the breakdown of the spacecraft. However, the chairman of Roscosmos still believes that the Russian spacecraft could come out of order because of a US radar. At the same time, Popovkin does not remove responsibility from designers, engineers and other specialists, who were working on the creation and the launch of the spacecraft.

“The committee considers this version (the radar impact) as one of the reasons. The main ones are the mistakes that could be made during the making and the tests of the probe,” Popovkin said Thursday in an interview with Vesti FM.

Russia lost 1.2 billion rubles in the failed project. The works within the framework of the project cost nearly 4 billion rubles more.

“There is a version saying that they (the Americans) had a powerful radar working. The radiation could cause a malfunction for the equipment of the spacecraft,” Popovkin said. According to the official, if this information is confirmed at least partially, Russia will ask NASA specialists to take part in the investigation of the reasons of the breakdown.

It is not the first time when Russian specialists notice strange faults in the systems of domestic spacecraft when they fly above the Western hemisphere. Russian news agencies reported that Phobos Ground could fail because of the influence of the radar on the Marshall Islands.

Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin also promised to come to all necessary conclusions in case the information is confirmed. The committee, which investigates the reasons of the breakdown, is currently working on a special experiment. Specialists intend to check whether the US radar could show a considerable influence on the Russian space station. The equipment block, similar to that installed on the Phobos Ground will be exposed to the radiation, the power of which will be comparable to the radiation of US radars.

In case the US guilt is not established, Roscosmos will look into the problems in the Russian space industry thoroughly. “I am ready to take tough measures to optimize the industry. We should have the division of labor, for all enterprises are ready to make space vehicles now,” Mr. Popovkin stated.

The official set out his regret about the fact that the Russian space industry had been commercialized too much. “Some directors were dealing with commercial activities rather then their work duties. We will have to talk to them,” Popovkin added.

In the meantime, the US authorities reject any suspicion about their implication in the failure of the space probe. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Wednesday the US helped in efforts to re-establish contact with the spacecraft after it was stranded in Earth orbit. She said that although the recovery efforts were unsuccessful, the U.S. also helped monitor the final orbits of the Phobos-Ground probe and its uncontrolled entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, The Associated Press reports.

NASA officials stated that the radar on the Marshall Islands was not working during the launch of the Phobos Ground on November 9, 2011. They also said that if the radar could cause a malfunction on board the space probe, such incidents would have been plentiful. Satellites fly above the Marshall Islands regularly, NASA said.

The Russian spacecraft was staying at the altitude of 200 kilometers as it was flying above the territory. The radar would not have been able to affect the electronic equipment on board the probe, Martin Slade, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said.

Jean-Luc Margot, an astronomer with the University of California, calculated the amount of radiation that the Phobos Ground probe would have (hypothetically) experienced had it accidentally crossed through the most powerful radar beam in the world – the one emitted by the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, Space.com said.

“The amount of exposure is about 10,000 times less than the level that is considered safe for humans by the FCC,” Margot said.

The investigation of the failure of Russia’s first Martian mission in 15 years is in full swing, but Roscosmos already plans its next steps in exploring the red planet.

“We are conducting negotiations with the European Space Agency to fly to Mars again in 2016-2018,” Popovkin told Vesti FM.

Previously, Vitaly Davydov, deputy head of Roscosmos, said that the agency “was thinking to make the Moon the next step.” As for Mars, Russia was planning to explore the planet in cooperation with foreign partners. The Europeans, for example, have already offered Russia to participate in ExoMars project, which is being implemented together with NASA.

An orbital spacecraft is to be launched in 2016 within the scope of ExoMars project. The probe will be collecting the data about the sources of methane on Mars. Two Martian rovers are planned to be launched to Mars in 2018.

Before 2020, Russia plans to launch two automatic space vehicles to the Moon – Luna Glob and Luna Resurs. The further exploration of the Earth’s satellite will most likely be conducted in cooperation with foreign partners.

“We do not want to send another man to the Moon. We know that there is water on the Moon in the polar areas. We are talking about that with NASA and the European Space Agency. There are two variants about it. We can either build a base on the moon or make a station around the Moon,” Popovkin said.

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USA goes on rampage over Iran’s Latin American ambitions

EU Times — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:17:53 +0000

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (L) and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the Miraflores presidential palace, Caracas, January 9, 2012

Last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a week-long tour of Latin America. The Iranian leader visited Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador.

Ahmadinejad does not have many friends in the world. All of them, except for Syria, are in Latin America. Suffice it to say that it was his fifth visit to the region since 2007. Iran’s friendship with ALBA states (the bloc incudes the above-mentioned countries) is based on common anti-American views and the fund of $200 billion, which was established to struggle against the American imperialism.

According to The Miami Herald, Ahmadinejad embarked on the Latin American tour to raise his authority inside the country against the background of the loss of the support from the spiritual leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The author of the article also said that Iranian reformers had become more active in Iran recently. It is not clear, though, where exactly the journalist found reformers in the totalitarian state.

As a matter of fact, the Iranian president enjoys high popularity in his country. It will be impossible for the Americans to find the fifth column there. The nuclear program has become the national idea of the country. The Iranians have a special holiday about it on their calendar. People come to the streets to express their protest against the United States. They all remember the Iranian-Iraqi war, when the USA supported Iraq and sold chemical weapons to it.

What was the point of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Latin America?

First and foremost, it goes about the pragmatic question. The Iranian leader toured Latin America to coordinate Iran’s actions with the OPEC (Venezuela, Ecuador and Iran are OPEC members) and look for closer cooperation in the energy industry. Perhaps, it does not go about only oil. Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba may supposedly produce uranium for Iranian nuclear research. The countries may also ship the nuclear fuel to Iran via third countries. The information about it appeared in a secret report prepared by Israeli Foreign Ministry.

The political motivation of the tour is a very intriguing subject too. According to publications in the Western media, Iran was looking for support in Latin America to avoid international isolation and find approval to its nuclear program there.

First and foremost, there is no isolation. Libya has taught a lesson to Russia and China. However, US President Barack Obama introduced sanctions against those, who wanted to do trade with Iran. Secondly, Iran does not have to look for support in Latin America just because the country already has it.

“The Iranians have a vision of themselves of being a global power, and they feel that they have the momentum,” says Roger Noriega, a Republican foreign policy hawk who headed the U.S. State Department’s Latin American affairs office during the George W. Bush presidency.

“They feel that they blocked the U.S. presence in Iraq, they are angling to undermine the U.S. agreement with Afghanistan, and they want to challenge us in our neighborhood,” he adds.

Indeed, there is a challenge: “You go to the Middle East, and we go to your backyard.”

The scale of the competition is incomparable, of course. However, the Americans are still concerned. U.S. House Foreign Relations Committee chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami labeled Ahmadinejad’s trip “the tour of tyrants.”

“The growing alliances between Iran and anti-American dictatorships in the Western Hemisphere pose a serious threat to democracy and stability in the region. The recent revelation that the Consul General at Venezuela’s Miami office was engaged in illicit activities with the Iranian regime shows that these ties are active and growing,” she said.

According to The Washington Post, Ahmadinejad tries to set up elite units of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards known as Al Quds. The newspaper refers to those troops as a “terrorist group” which would be capable of organizing another 9/11 in the USA in return to a possible attack against the nuclear objects of Iran. The publication claims that it was Iranian special services that organized the explosions at Jewish public organizations in Argentina in 1992.

The reasons for the anti-Iranian hysteria in the United States are easy to understand. Barack Obama signed a new defense strategy on December 31, 2011. The strategy names the Asian-Pacific region and the Middle East a priority strategy region of defense presence. Figuratively speaking, Ahmadinejad is like a dangerous wolf for the United States. He is not like Hugo Chavez, whom the US treats like a gnat.

As for Latin American publications, all of them pointed out one interesting detail about all this. The Iranian President did not visit Brazil. Indeed, not so long ago, Brazil was actively supporting Iran. The country even offered its own variant for solving the problems of the Iranian nuclear problem. However, all that was during the time when Lula da Silva was Brazil’s President.

His successor, Dilma Rousseff, takes a pragmatic position. Brazil’s Estadao newspaper wrote that the whole country took a breath of relief after it became known that Ahmadinejad was not going to visit the country during his trip. However, Brazil should not disregard Iran as a partner, who acts as an important exporter of Brazilian meat.

Brazil does not want to cooperate with Iran much. Brazil’s key trade partner is the USA, not Iran. In addition, Brazil would like not to annoy the US administration that has just lifted a duty for the import of Brazilian ethanol – an important constituent of Brazilian export. Other countries of Latin America prefer to mind their business for similar reasons.

As for the members of the ALBA bloc, they are not afraid of the USA. Foreign Minister of Ecuador, Ricardo Paltino, stated that Ecuador, being a sovereign state, would continue to support its ties with Iran depending on its own interests. Ecuador is not going to follow any instructions or recommendations from the US State Department.

ALBA leaders set out their certainty in the peaceful character of the Iranian nuclear program. They also pointed out the hypocrisy of the Western countries, who condemn Iran supporting the nuclear program of Israel.

The Cuban press said that Ahmadinejad’s visit was more of the economic, rather than of the political character. Most of the Iranian delegation consisted of businessmen and ministers for energy. Iran has been investing in various projects in Latin America during the recent years. In Venezuela, Iran participated in the construction of 14,000 buildings, 26 factories processing agricultural products, a car assembly work and a petrochemical plant.

Iran agreed to support Nicaragua in building small hydroelectric power plants. The country plans investments in the fishing industry, housing development, cement production, automotive production and in the agricultural sector. Cuba built the Middle East’s largest center for genetic engineering and biotechnologies in Teheran in 2001. The project was evaluated at $500, 000. Teheran opened a credit line for the country in the amount of $700 million.

“In my meeting, the Iranian president was highly calm, unstressed and completely indifferent to the Yankees’ threats. He was certain of his nation’s capability to confront any aggression and Iran’s arms capability, weapons that most of them are produced by Iranians to give an unforgivable response to the aggressors,” Fidel Castro said after meeting Ahmadinejad.

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Romney and Obama Share Same Bankster Campaign Contributors

EU Times — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:46:16 +0000

Like Obama, Mitt Romney is a wind-up doll for Wall Street and the bankers. There is virtually no difference between them despite all the fetid air from the GOP propaganda machine.

This is revealed by a quick look at Romney’s top contributors. An Open Secrets page on top Romney contributors reads like a Who’s Who of Wall Street and the financial cartel. The top contributor is Goldman Sachs, followed by Credit Suisse Group, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, UBS, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Barclays – major players in the Wall Street and City of London bankster constellation.

Bain Capital is also on the list. It is a “financial services” and investment firm co-founded by Romney. Bain owns the establishment media propaganda conglomerate Clear Channel, which explains why “conservative” talk show hosts like Limbaugh, Hannity and Levin are supporting Romney, especially with the strong showing of Ron Paul in the primaries. Both Savage (real name Weiner) and Levin have gone so far as to call Paul a threat to the country.

In December, Mitt refused to release the identity of his “bundlers,” or people who gather contributions from many individuals in an organization or community and give the cash to the campaign.

In other words, the above list is only the tip of the iceberg. Romney’s lack of transparency about his bundlers indicates he is getting money from sources that want their identity concealed.

In November, it was reported that Jimmy Lee, a veteran Wall Street investment banker, and three other top executives at JPMorgan Chase & Co hosted a $2,500-per-person reception for Romney.

“I am committed to doing all that I can to help his campaign because I also believe he is the strongest challenger to President Obama,” Lee told Reuters. Lee said he has known Romney for almost all of his Wall Street career and that he made one of the first loans to Romney at Bain Capital.

It is not clear why Mr. Lee opposes Obama – his campaign contributors are almost a carbon copy of Mitt’s. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan (where Lee worked), Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, USB and many of the same players donated heavily to Obama’s campaign in 2008.

It should be obvious by now that the dog and pony show known as the “election cycle” in the United States is a musical chairs affair with the same gaggle of bankers and transnational corporations calling the shots.

Next time you hear Michael Savage, Mark Levin or some other bankster media whore rant and rave about the “communist” Obama and then declare their support for the “capitalist” Romney, you should realize they are selling the same poison designed to kill our republic.

There is virtually no difference between any of the establishment candidates – they are all onboard with the globalist agenda for war and the economic destruction of America as their masters and puppeteers move to consolidate their stranglehold over humanity and impose a dystopian one-world government and a high-tech control grid over the entire world.

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JP Morgan turns guns on Europe

EU Times — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:38:48 +0000

JP Morgan's Chief Executive Officer, Jamie Dimon

JP Morgan’s Chief Executive Officer, Jamie Dimon says Europe is the largest threat to the global economy, calling for a solution to the economic woes sourced from the continent.

“We urgently need a solution. The longer the problem drags on, the less likely it is we get off lightly,” the CEO of one of the largest banks in the United States said on Sunday.

“I thought Europe would muddle through. I still believe that… The longer the crisis drags on, the more intense the pressure from markets will get,” he added.

Dimon noted that European countries needed to implement more credible austerity measures to solve the crisis.

In addition, he said that the European Central Bank had to provide more liquidity support for countries such as Spain and Italy.

According to Dimon, JP Morgan had already reevaluated all the contracts it held with European partners.

New York-headquartered credit rating agency, Standard & Poor’s, recently cut the credit ratings for nine eurozone countries. France and Austria, the latest countries to be examined by the agency, saw their ratings drop from AAA to AA+ on Friday.

In December, the S&P sounded the ‘credit watch negative’ alarm regarding the ratings for fifteen eurozone nations, including France and Germany.

Europe plunged into deep financial crisis in 2008, which has continued to intensify over the recent months.

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France’s Marine Le Pen Would Leave Euro and Slash Immigration

EU Times — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:40:44 +0000

The charismatic Marine Le Pen has campaigned hard against free trade and the European Union, and has pushed the party’s traditional tough line on crime and immigration.

Marine Le Pen said she would balance France’s books if elected president by leaving the euro, slashing immigration, taxing imports and tapping the central bank for cheap loans instead of the debt markets.

The National Front leader, who ranks third in opinion polls, spelt out the financial planning behind her campaign promises just over three months before the first round of the presidential contest on April 22.

Exploiting discontent over globalization and the debt crisis in Europe, Le Pen has sought to lure voters by detailing her plan to knock the country’s bloated public deficit to zero by the end of 2017.

She said she would raise 200 billion euros ($260 billion) over five-years, in large part by restoring the autonomy of the French central bank and getting it to lend to the government at cheap rates in order to slash debt costs.

Her economic nationalism has seen her continue to closing the gap with incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. The Ifop poll for Paris Match showed that in the first round, to be held April 22, Socialist candidate Francois Hollande would finish first with 27 percent, followed by Sarkozy with 23.5 percent and National Front candidate Le Pen on 21.5 percent, the poll published today showed today. Another poll however found that Marine Le Pen is more popular than Nicolas Sarkozy which ranks Le Pen as second instead of third.

Mr Hollande is staking out his position as a more reliable, more caring reincarnation of the late President François Mitterrand – without the eloquence or, so far, any clear program.

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US warns Latin American states over Iran ties

EU Times — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:05:41 +0000

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland

The US has warned Latin American states against a further expansion of diplomatic and business ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“We are making absolutely clear to countries around the world that now is not the time to be deepening ties, not security ties, not economic ties, with Iran,” US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Friday.

The US State Department statement comes ahead of Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s planned visits to Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador next week.

Meanwhile, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen stated that the forthcoming Iranian president’s tour of Latin America is proof of Tehran’s expanding interest in the region.

“Ahmadinejad’s desire to strengthen ties with anti-American rulers and expand Iranian influence in the Western Hemisphere directly threatens US security interests,” she said in a statement.

“This is a threat which we cannot ignore,” Ros-Lehtinen noted.

She also pledged the Obama administration to hold hearings on the matter to discuss what Washington is doing to “counter Iranian outreach in the Western Hemisphere.”

This is while Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday criticized the United States for deliberately and recklessly raising tensions in the Persian Gulf.

“The Yankees are determined to provoke wars, provoke tensions,” Chavez said on television during a visit to the central state of Portuguesa.

President Ahmadinejad will kick off a four-nation trip to Latin America next week.

During his five-day trip, the Iranian president will discuss “bilateral ties and regional and international issues” with Latin American leaders.

President Ahmadinejad is also scheduled to attend the inauguration ceremony of the recently re-elected Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega. Stops in Cuba and Ecuador will round off the tour.

Leaders in all the four Latin American countries have in recent years built up diplomatic and trade ties with Iran, while their relations with the United States have become frosty as their people have been demanding an end to dependence on Washington.

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ACLU criticizes Obama over indefinite detention and torture act

EU Times — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 21:29:26 +0000

“He will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law.”

These harsh words come courtesy of the executive director of the ACLU, formerly a supporter of the president but also just one of the many dissenters who have since have grown disillusioned with an administration tarnished by unfulfilled campaign promises and continuous constitutional violations.

When he signed the National Defense Authorization Act on New Year’s Eve, President Barack Obama said that he had his reservations over the controversial legislation that will allow for the indefinite detention of Americans.

Now some of the president’s pals are expressing their agreement with Obama’s own hesitation but say that the commander-in-chief should have thought harder before signing away the civil liberties of Americans.

Under the bill, which approves all defense spending for the 2012 fiscal year, certain provisions allow for the military detainment and torture of US citizens, indefinitely, essentially allowing for Guantanamo Bay-style prisons to be a real possibility for every American. As the act floated around Congress, an underground outrage erupted and activists attempted to keep the bill from leaving the House and the Senate, although a lack of media coverage largely left the matter hidden to the public. Despite this campaign, the legislation made it out of the Capitol Building and into the Oval Office last month, prompting advocates against the act to petition for the president to veto it.

Initially the Obama administration said the president’s advisers would recommend a veto, but later rescinded the threat. Senator Carl Levin eventually revealed that President Obama had insisted on adding the wording that has made NDAA such a target among activists who are frightened of the civil liberty-stripping capabilities.

One week after the president did ink the legislation, some of Obama’s old pals are saying they are in disbelief over how a former constitutional law professor could agree to such provisions that crush the law of the land.

“President Obama’s action … is a blight on his legacy because he will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero says in a statement. Such a charge not only carries much clout because it comes courtesy of the head of such an integral and reputable advocacy group, but Romero himself was praising the president three years earlier after he won the 2008 election. Now that same administration is doing everything Romero thought it wouldn’t.

“I believe he knows what he needs to do to restore the America we believe in, to get us on back on track, to give us back our America, an America we never stopped believing in but have sorely missed for the past eight years,” Romero wrote in 2008 in an op-ed that encouraged the president to follow through on his campaign promise of closing Guantanamo Bay. “Call me naive, but I honestly believe he wants to do it. He promised us that on the campaign trail, and I believe it was more than an empty promise,” wrote Romero.

Three-quarters of the way through his presidency, Obama has now only left Gitmo remain open, but is going to be able to send his own citizens to its torture cells.

“We are incredibly disappointed that President Obama signed this new law even though his administration had already claimed overly broad detention authority in court,” adds Romero. “Any hope that the Obama administration would roll back the constitutional excesses of George Bush in the war on terror was extinguished today.”

Other groups who had previously offered their endorsement to the president are saying they are upset as well.

“It is deeply troubling that the NDAA became law with the detention provisions intact,” reads a statement from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. “We believe it is unconstitutional for our military to become a police force that would hold American citizens indefinitely without the right to trial or even to hear the charges brought against them.”

CAIR had long supported Obama for his protection of Muslim-American rights. Nearly one year ago Executive Director Nihad Awad told the media that the group welcomes Obama for his “decision to emphasize the fact that Muslims are contributing members of our society.” Only 12 months later, the group says they are now skeptical over how the president can now use his power to strip the rights of anyone.

“This ill-conceived and un-American legislation will forever be seen as a stain on our nation’s history – one that will ultimately be viewed with embarrassment and shame,” adds the advocacy group.

Although the powers of the act indeed offer the president the ability to indefinitely detain people, citizens or non, Obama said during signing that he would not interpret the legislation to mean as such.

“I want to clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens,” added the president in a statement that accompanied the signing of NDAA. “My Administration will interpret section 1021 in a manner that ensures that any detention it authorizes complies with the Constitution, the laws of war, and all other applicable law.”

That memo does not, however, mean future heads of state will necessarily be excluded from following the orders authorized by Congress. In fact, the ACLU’s Romero tells The Atlantic, “The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield.”

“President Obama did pledge in a signing statement not to use this law to detain American citizens but this provides little comfort, as signing statements have no legal force and he has repeatedly failed to uphold similar promises in the face of political pressure — including his pledge to close Guantánamo within his first year in office,” adds the Center for Constitutional Rights in their own statement this week. “The law authorizes a future president, such as a President Romney, President Bachmann or President Perry, to use this authorization in the most aggressive manner available.

When he offered his John Hancock come signing time, the president acknowledged suspicious but went ahead with it anyway, noting, “The fact that I support this bill as a whole does not mean I agree with everything in it. In particular, I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists.”

“I guess promising that Americans wouldn’t be indefinitely detained, period, was too much of a stretch,” blogger Mary Wheeler adds.

Those very suspicions that Obama wrote of did not stop the president from following the plea of Congress though, less than a year until November elections make or break the legacy of the president.

If you ask many, though, that legacy has been tarnished by the NDAA.

“Our Founders were fearful of the military — and they purposely created a system of checks and balances to ensure we did not become a country under military rule,” Minnesota Senator Al Franken wrote of the bill on Huffington Post. Franken, a Democrat along with Obama, said he had agreed with parts of the bill but the controversial provisions alone were reason for him not to sign it.

“This bill undermines that core principle, which is why I could not support it.”

For Obama, that didn’t quite seem to matter as much.

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Obama just didn’t follow with the right thing

EU Times — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:20:51 +0000

One of the first promises made by President Obama when he first came to power back in 2008 was to close the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention centre. Four years later it is still operational.

The former chief prosecutor of the Gitmo military commissions, Colonel Morris Davis, who was thrilled when Obama took office, told RT of his huge disappointment in the US president.

“Candidate Obama said all the right things about justice and American values and closing Guantanamo and doing away with military commissions and applauding the rule of law,” he told RT’s Gayane Chichakyan. ”And then once he gets in office…. If he did just embrace the Bush’s policies, he kissed him on the lips and ran with them. And he advanced them further than President Bush ever did.”

“Like killing an American with a drone strike in Yemen. Which is just astounding that an American president can make the unilateral decision that the surveillance agency, the CIA, would go to another country and launch an offensive military operation, fire missile and killing an American and bystanders .I am not aware of any legal justification for that, I think it is called murder to kill another human being deliberately without legal justification,” he stated.

Commenting to RT on Guantanamo, which is still open despite US president’s pledge to shut it, Colonel Davis said Obama might have learnt the things he did not know before or he faced a bigger obstacle than he anticipated.

“The slogan “Close Guantanamo” sounds fairly simple. Actually following through and doing it is a much more difficult process,” he said. “Guantanamo is still open, the military commissions have resumed and in my view the president just didn’t have the balls to follow through with doing the right thing.”

Davis also gave his views on a drone weapon system which is currently in operation at the US military.

While saying he sees nothing wrong with the drones themselves, there is much more what concerns him.

“Drones are being used to avoid compliance with the law and giving people due process and their day in court and that’s a sad chapter in America’s history if that is what we are doing,” he said. “Our strength for 200 years was the law we are now turning out back at. There is a choice between kill and capture and the administration is choosing kill because it’s the easy rout. And it’s a sad commentary on America in 2011″.

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Russia exposes true colors of the West

EU Times — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:44:11 +0000

For the first time in many years, Russia’s Foreign Ministry published an extensive report about the state of affairs in the field of human rights in the United States of America, Canada, EU, NATO members and Georgia. The report from the ministry also touched upon Libya, where NATO’s incursion has led to the bloody change of power. The document is not flawless. However, it clearly shows that democracy in the West is not as perfect as it is painted.

For a long time the monopoly on the publication of such reports belonged to the United States. The Americans tend to present certain countries as outcasts. Year after year Russia is highlighted in the reports of the State Department. According to them, Russia has issues with the elections, freedom of speech and religious minorities. Something similar is published by the European Union. At one time, Chinese Foreign Ministry published a report on human rights in the United States.

Russian foreign policy was clearly defensive. Russia always had to justify itself, responding to attacks from the West. And then, finally, Russia published a nearly 100-page document describing human rights violations in the United States, Canada, EU and NATO, as well as allied Georgia. The actions of the West during the war in Libya have not been overlooked in the report either. Each region is assigned a separate section.

The largest section is devoted to the U.S. – the country which has declared itself “the standard of democracy.” “The situation there is far from the ideals proclaimed by Washington. The main unresolved issue is an odious prison at Guantanamo Bay … President Obama has legalized indefinite terms without trial… The current administration continues to use most of the methods of social control and interference with the privacy of Americans,” the document says.

“There are continued violations of international humanitarian law in armed conflict and during anti-terrorist operations. Chronic systemic problems in the American society are getting more acute, including racial discrimination, xenophobia, overcrowding in jails, unreasonable use of the death penalty … The U.S. has one of the weakest in the West security systems for workers’ rights for Collective Bargaining”, stated Russian diplomats.

“The extraterritorial application of the American law does the greatest harm in terms of US-Russian relations. It leads to a violation of fundamental rights and freedoms of Russian citizens, including arbitrary arrests and abductions from third countries (the most obvious examples are the cases of Viktor Bout and K. Yaroshenko),” says the report. The authors also note “a very acute problem of violence against adopted children from Russia in American families.”

Further the report lists such things as violation of the rights of prisoners in CIA prisons, the problems with freedom of expression and harassment of employees and the founder of the website WikiLeaks, the death of at least 111,000 Iraqis and 14 thousands of Afghans in the wars unleashed by the United States. There is racial discrimination of blacks and Hispanics, and religious discrimination against American Muslims.

Not everything is well in the U.S. with human rights, freedom of speech and racism, and especially with the wars. Of course, one can parry that in Russia the labor laws are less than perfect, and there are problems with the media, and national relationships are not perfect as well. However, Russia is not instructing the world how to live, and does not throw bombs on other countries. The presence of problems in Russia does not change the fact that the U.S. is far from ideal.

With regard to the European Union, the Russian Foreign Ministry has supported human rights criticism from Human Rights Watch on the rights of immigrants from Asia and Africa and the anti-Muslim rhetoric. “The main conclusion is the overall growth of xenophobia and intolerance in the EU, promotion of far-right rhetoric … European governments do not try to fight it, but, rather, vice versa, use the trend in domestic purposes,” the Russian diplomats said.

“According to the AOHR (EU Agency for Fundamental Human Rights – Ed.) in 2009 more than any others the following nationalities were discriminated at work: North Africans in Italy (30 percent), Roma in Greece (29 percent), Roma in the Czech Republic (27 percent), Africans in Malta (27 percent), Africans in Ireland (26 percent), Roma in Hungary (25 percent), Brazilians in Portugal (24 percent), Turks in Denmark (22 percent), Roma in Poland (22 percent),” the report says.

It is important that Russia described the problem that the EU remained silent about for years. They say that they do not have problems with the Muslims or Roma. They do have them, however, and last year they demonstrated it by the shooting in Norway or the influx of refugees from North Africa. Yet, there is another side to the issue: can Muslims or blacks demand the same rights as the indigenous people? Can they pointedly ignore laws and customs accepted in Europe? Would Roma themselves be willing to adapt to a normal society? Therefore, complaints to the authorities of European countries are still excessive.

Sections on Germany, France, Britain and Sweden, report on the growth of xenophobia and the issues of Muslims. Swedes, among other things, are accused of supporting the Chechen rebels. Finland is also mentioned in connection with the endless stories about taking children away from Russian mothers. In the case of Hungary there is a mention of an attempt to revise the results of the Second World War. Poland, Bulgaria and Romania “only” suffer from inadequate legislation.

A separate section is devoted to the Baltic. “The discriminatory policy of the authorities of the Baltic states against the Russian minority living there remains nearly unchanged. Of particular concern is the unresolved problem of mass statelessness in Latvia (nearly 330 thousand “aliens”) and Estonia (nearly 100 thousand “aliens”) and consequent violation of the rights of Russian-speaking minorities in these countries,” stated the Russian Foreign Ministry.

“Reduction of the Russian-language news and cultural and educational space, as well as the persecution of World War II veterans and law enforcement agencies of the former USSR is also observed in Lithuania. Of particular concern is the continuation of the trend to rewrite the history of the Second World War Baltic states,” Russian diplomat said.

Problems in Georgia were very clearly outlined in the report. There are a lot of cases when Russian citizens (including ethnic Georgians) fell victims of provocations of local security forces. Attention is drawn to the dispersal of the protests. Particularly highlighted is the largest violation of the rights of national minorities of the country – the Armenian and Azerbaijani.

“Armenian-populated region of Samtskhe-Javakheti (in Armenian Javakheti) is in dire socio-economic situation … Administrative positions in local government are occupied predominantly by Georgian. The Georgian authorities have deliberately carried out a discriminatory policy against Azerbaijanis. Resettlement of Azerbaijanis in neighboring Azerbaijan is becoming mass in nature,” the Russian diplomats stated.

The next section of the report is on Canada. The country was berated for the brutality against the demonstrators, for the oppression of Indians and Eskimos, and lack of security of Canadian citizens abroad. However, there is not a single word in the report about endless military exercises in the Arctic and threats of Canadian authorities to Russia.

The last section is devoted to NATO operations in Libya. “NATO leaders officially deny the facts of civilian deaths as a result of air strikes by coalition forces, indirect victims, which was the reason for the blockade of the western regions of Libya, the destruction of civilian infrastructure,” the diplomat said.

Then follows a list of deaths of civilians from NATO attacks and atrocities of Western-backed rebels. The highlights are “extrajudicial execution of the representatives of the former regime and its supporters with the tacit consent of NATO members,” numerous cases of “crimes of the former Libyan armed opposition.”

The document is not without drawbacks. Thus, it has no foreword or conclusion. Sections on the United States, the Baltic States, Georgia, Libya, and the largest countries in Europe are very detailed. However, the sections of the smaller European countries, as well as the entire EU and Canada raise questions and seem to be rather “raw”. The publication of the report seems untimely. During Christmas and New Year holidays even the politicians are not particularly into policy.

However, the first attempt was pretty good. Russia has shown that it will not always have to justify its behavior after publication of the American and European reports. It can provide pre-emptive strikes in its foreign policy. Hopefully, such reports from the Foreign Ministry of Russia will become commonplace and improve with time.

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Michael Savage labels Ron Paul Hater and Lunatic

EU Times — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:07:22 +0000

On December 29, nationally syndicated talk radio show host Michael Weiner “Savage” trashed Ron Paul. He characterized him as a “lunatic” who supports Hamas and Hezbollah after Paul said the Gaza Strip is a concentration camp.

Savage joins the rest of the “conservative” punditry in the act of viciously trashing Ron Paul as the Iowa caucus approaches. His audience is well over 9 million people. The “Savage Nation” has now demonstrated that it is an important element in the effort to portray Ron Paul as not only a political fringe kook, but also a racist and – according to Weiner and his neocon fellow travelers – a Jew-hating antisemite who hates Israel and supports Hamas and Hezbollah.

Weiner said Paul is a threat to the survival of the United States. He said there is little difference between him and “the psychotic, progressive leftists” who support Obama. “If Obama’s team wanted to invent someone else on the other side to make Obama look mild and moderate and safe, they couldn’t have done better than inventing Ron Paul,” he said.

On the same day he trashed Ron Paul, Michael Savage gave his tacit support to Mitt Romney. “Of course Romney is a liberal Republican. Of course he is in the tradition of middle-of-the-roaders. Of course Romney is a milquetoast, and of course we would like someone more conservative,” Savage said.

“However, I am a pragmatist. Romney might be electable – although I’m not sure after Gingrich has gotten through with him – while Paul is unelectable, and Gingrich is so soiled with dirt that he is contemptible beyond being unelectable,” he said.

In October, Savage praised Ron Paul for his take on the illegality of the supposed al-Awlaki assassination. In August, he showered Paul with kudos for his principled stand on the federal budget and government spending.

However, now that Paul is a Republican front-runner poised to win in Iowa and possibly take the New Hampshire primary, Savage believes he is a “lunatic.”

Savage likes to portray himself as an independent who has contempt for both establishment political parties, but his sudden denouncement of Ron Paul reveals his true role as a ringmaster playing the false right-left paradigm game.

The threat of a Ron Paul in the White House has forced Savage’s hand. It has revealed him for the establishment operative that he obvious is.

Congressmen’s incomes triple while America gets poorer

EU Times — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 21:13:56 +0000

If you feel like Congress fat cats can’t relate to their fellow Americans anymore, the truth behind the matter might just be that they can’t.

While Americans have seen a recession ravage savings accounts, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have only gotten richer.

Between the US Senate and House of Representatives, the median net worth for a member of Congress is around $913,000, reports The New York Times. That man in the middle is Ed Pastor (Dem-AZ), and although he makes a pretty penny nowadays, his income today is gigantic when gauged with what he was worth when he first came to Washington. Twenty years earlier, Pastor pulled in enough to have only $100,000 saved up, a figure he has magnified nearly tenfold in the two decades since.

Comparing the mean in 2009 with the mean for lawmakers’ assets in 1984, the figure has tripled.

Off of the Hill, however, others aren’t so lucky. Taking into account all of America, the median net worth today is roughly $100,000 — what Congressman Pastor pulled in 20 years earlier. And while lawmakers have seen their wallets only fatted in recent times, the incomes of average Americans have dwindled as a recession and depression downturned the American economy.

Somehow, those effects managed to largely miss Washington.

While the US Census Bureau reports half of America as either impoverished or otherwise living in low-income conditions, 250 members of Congress — nearly half of the Hill — can say that they are legit millionaires. In Washington DC, one-in-ten residents live below half of the poverty line — but if you can track down Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) in his Capitol Hill chamber, you might be able to borrow a few bucks from the richest man in Congress — who holds onto $294.21 million in assets.

Rep. McCaul wasn’t always as lucky. Back in 2005, his worth was only at around $12 million. But with dozens of lawmakers worth more than just one or two millions, those that they represent think that perhaps their vote isn’t being cast by a voice that really represents the people.

“There’s always a concern that they can’t truly understand or relate to the hardships that their constituents feel — that rich people just don’t get it,” Representative Laura Richardson tells The New York Times. While Rep. Richardson might have an office on Capitol Hill, the Democrat from California is also in debt to the tune of $464,000. She is among the poorest members of Congress, but that group isn’t exactly a big one. Regardless, with 200-plus lawmakers pulling in the multi-millions, it’s easy to see why the so-called 99 percenters feel poorly represented in America today.

The National Defense Authorization Act that recently cleared Congress has become a hot topic for debate among average Americans who fear the provisions in the bill that will allow for the US to detain and torture citizens indefinitely. Despite petitions and pleas from coast-to-coast, the legislation passed overwhelmingly. As it turns out, many politicians may be representatives of the people, but their voices are ones bought by corporations. Senator Robert Portman (R-Ohio) not only voted in favor of the NDAA, he also received $272,853 from the special interest groups that backed the bill.

For others, incomes are subsidized in other ways. Rep. Pastor from Arizona, his income is also subsidized by Social Security. If that makes you angry tough, don’t worry — you’re not alone. A study conducted by CBS News in conjunction with The New York Times this October revealed that Americas’ job approval rating of Congress was at an all time low. A similar poll this summer courtesy of the Washington Post revealed that Americans were more into human cloning than Congress, too.

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