Bahrain bans protests and gatherings citing security threats

Πηγή: FP
By Mary Casey
Oct 31 2012

Bahrain's Interior Minister, Sheikh Rashid al Khalifah, has banned all demonstrations and rallies citing "repeated abuses" of the rights to freedom of expression by protest organizers. 

Khalifah has accused the organizers of inciting riots and attacks, as well as calling for the overthrow of "leading national figures." Additionally, he said that participants have failed to adhere to legal regulations. 

Government spokesman Fahad al-Binali said that the ban would be temporary and mainly intended to "calm things down." 

Recent clashes between protesters and police officers outside the capital of Manama resulted in the deaths of two policemen. 

The interior minister said rallies and gatherings would be allowed when security is sufficient to "protect national unity and social fabric to fight extremism." 

Bahrain's protest movement started in February 2011 after prodemocracy rallies in the since demolished Pearl Roundabout sparked clashes that killed at least 35 people and injured hundreds. 

A government crackdown followed shortly afterward, and thousands of activists were arrested. 

While the government has made some efforts toward reform, human rights groups claim abuses have continued, mainly the detainment of peaceful protesters. 

Sayed Hadi al-Mosawi, a representative from the opposition group Al-Wefaq, said, "They don't want people to express their opinions, their anger." 

He continued, "This will not take the country to stability." Amnesty International demanded that the ban be immediately lifted saying it violated the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

Cyprus Picks Novatek for Offshore Gas Exploration

Neoklis Sylikiotis

Πηγή: RIANOVOSTI
Oct 31 2012

Cyprus has picked Russia’s largest independent gas producer Novatek to explore the island’s offshore oil and gas deposits, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Neoklis Sylikiotis said late on Tuesday.

Novatek, which is pursuing the goal of doubling its gas output by 2020 from the current 50 billion cubic meters of gas, took part in a licensing round in Cyprus for three hydrocarbon blocks in Cyprus’s exclusive economic area along with Italy’s Eni, France’s Total, Malaysia’s Petronas, Korea’s Kogas and other companies.

The Cypriot Cabinet of Ministers decided on Tuesday to start talks with a consortium of Novatek and Total to grant them a license for exploratory drilling at one of the blocks. Another block will be explored by Total independently and the third block will be operated by Eni and Kogas, the minister said.

All the three blocks are located close to Block 12 where US-based Noble Energy discovered a large offshore gas field with reserves estimated at 250 billion cubic meters, the minister said.

Greece gave birth to democracy. Now it has been cast out by a powerful elite

'The then minister of finance, George Papaconstantinou, was handed a list of Greeks who held bank accounts abroad. This list was never investigated.' 

Πηγή: The Guardian
By Kostas Vaxevanis
Oct 31 2012

"The more laws a country has, the more corrupt it is," the Roman historian Tacitus used to say. Greece has quite a few laws. So many, in fact, that corruption can feel quite safe. An exclusive club of powerful people engages in illegal practices, then pushes through necessary laws to legalise these practices, granting itself an amnesty, and in the end, there are no media to uncover what really happened.

As I write, the adventures of an independent magazine in Greece, Hot Doc, which I edit, are being discussed worldwide. Our publication of a list of alleged Swiss bank account holders, and my subsequent arrest, has provoked a storm. But not in the Greek media. A few months ago, Reuters and the British press uncovered scandals involving Greek banks. The Greek media didn't write anything then either. The space that should have been granted to reports about these scandals was occupied by paid advertisements sponsored by the very people who caused the Greek banks to go under.

The "Lagarde" case in Greece is merely an extreme expression of this situation. In 2010, Lagarde handed to the then minister of finance, George Papaconstantinou, a list of Greeks who held bank accounts abroad. Some of this was "black money" – money that may not have been taxed or needed to be laundered. In a convuloted train of events, Papaconstinou admitted to losing the original data, but was able to pass another copy to his successor Evangelos Venizelos, who eventually admitted to having held it but has failed to produce it so far. The list has still never been properly investigated.

For the past two years, the issue of naming people who are assumed to hold bank accounts in Switzerland has poisoned political life in Greece, with political and financial blackmail taking place in the dark rooms of corrupt power. It's in this context that Hot Doc published 2,059 names of Greeks alleged to have Swiss bank accounts, without specifying the amount of their deposits or any other personal information.

And then, with utmost hypocrisy the powers that be remembered what they were about. The Athens prosecutor made a move ex officio and ordered my immediate arrest. The law on personal data was invoked as a basis for indictment. In reality, though, there was no personal data involved – only the fact that certain individuals held an account in a certain bank. We did not even allege that these individuals were guilty, only called for an investigation.

Dealings with banks are carried out in public, not in secrecy. The existence of a bank account is therefore not personal data. Personal data would be the amount and type of transactions. In Greece, banks send envelopes with their logos, in which they enclose transaction details; in other words, they declare their relationship with customers. Nevertheless, the publication of a plain list of names and a demand to investigate was defined as exposing personal data.

In Ancient Greek mythology, justice is presented as blind. In modern Greece, it is merely winking and nodding. A study of the Lagarde list is highly revealing. Publishers, businessmen, shipowners, the entire system of power is shown to have transferred money abroad. And this is information from only one bank. Meanwhile in Greece, people are going through dumpsters for food.

The crisis in Greece wasn't caused by everyone. And not everyone is paying for the crisis. The exclusive, corrupt club of power tries to save itself by pretending to make efforts to save Greece. In reality, it is exacerbating Greece's contradictions, while Greece is teetering on the edge of a cliff.

If in the Bible, sinners "strain out the gnat and swallow the camel", in Greece the sinful powers that be strain out pensions and swallow lists – in order, of course, to make them disappear. These are the lists of their friends, acquaintances, favourites and mess mates.

In the country that, as we like to remind ourselves, gave birth to democracy, democracy has become a strange new breed. Those in charge make sure that the right to vote come across as democracy, while negating democracy in the way they abuse the rights voters give them. And justice remains in thrall to politics.

Why Does the SEC Protect Banks’ Dirty Secrets?

Illustration by Pete Gamlen

Πηγή: Bloomberg
By William D. Cohan
Oct 28 2012

Remember Richard Bowen?

He is the former senior executive at Citigroup Inc. (C) who in November 2007 issued a clarion call to his colleagues and Citi’s board that a major credit-quality problem loomed for the bank.

About William D Cohan

William D. Cohan is the author of the recently released "Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World" and the New York Times bestsellers "House of Cards" and "The Last Tycoons."More about William D Cohan

Bowen was the chief underwriter in the business unit that bought some $50 billion annually in home mortgages from third parties that were then bundled up and sold as securities to investors the world over. On Nov. 3 he sent an “urgent” e-mail to executives including Robert Rubin, the former U.S. Treasury secretary who was then chairman of the bank’s executive committee, and Gary Crittenden, the chief financial officer, raising concerns about “breakdowns in internal controls and resulting significant but possibly unrecognized financial losses existing within our organization.”

Bowen wrote that he had been “agonizing for some time” about the problem, especially since his direct superiors at the bank, whom he had warned repeatedly since he first discovered the problem in mid-2006, had done little or nothing to remedy it. What he had discovered was that 60 percent of the home mortgages that Citigroup had bought from third parties, or $30 billion, were “defective,” meaning that they didn’t meet Citigroup’s underwriting criteria. Nevertheless, they were still packaged up -- defects and all -- and sold as securities.

Almost Nothing

You know where this is going. The Citigroup executives did next to nothing. Rubin, who left the company in January 2009, told the federal Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission on April 8, 2010, that “either I or somebody else sent it to the appropriate people, and I do know factually that that was acted on promptly and actions taken in response to it.” Commission Chairman Phil Angelides asked Rubin to follow up with his commission and explain precisely what actions Citigroup took in response to Bowen’s e-mail. A few months later, Rubin’s attorneys sent a letterstating that the “e-mail was subsequently passed on to the appropriate personnel at Citigroup” and that “Citigroup should be able to provide a description of its response to Mr. Bowen’s concerns.” A Nixonian response if ever there was one.

Citigroup’s attorneys, in turn, wrote to the commission in November 2010 that the bank had responded to Bowen’s e-mail by firing “the head of the group” responsible for evaluating the credit quality of the purchased mortgages -- actually, Bowen had done that already -- and by putting in place a bunch of new “processes.” Yet according to a July 2012 article in Bloomberg Markets magazine by Bob Ivry about Sherry Hunt, who worked for Bowen, “There were no noticeable changes in the mortgage machinery as a result of Bowen’s warning.”

By the time of Rubin’s FCIC testimony, of course, Citigroup had been bailed out with $45 billion in cash from the American people, along with another $306 billion in guarantees from the federal government for a pot of the very same toxic home mortgages that Bowen had warned about. Rubin pocketed $126 million in his 10 or so years at the company. Bowen, who was stripped of his responsibilities at Citigroup soon after writing the infamous e-mail, left the company two weeks after Rubin. He now teaches accounting at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Warning Ignored

As horrific as it was for Rubin, Crittenden and others to ignore Bowen’s explicit warning, that’s not the end of the story. As part of blowing the whistle on Citigroup’s bad behavior, Bowen also alerted the Securities and Exchange Commission, the bank’s main regulator, hoping it would thoroughly investigate the “breakdowns of internal controls” and take legal action against those responsible. Before the bailout of Citigroup, he gave the SEC two long depositions and 1,000 or so pages of documents, some of which were taken from the Internet, detailing the extent of Citigroup’s problems and Bowen’s attempts to rectify them. Importantly, he said he also gave his permission for the SEC to release to the public his depositions and the revealing documents.

Naturally, the SEC did nothing to pursue Bowen’s claims before billions of taxpayer dollars were used to rescue Citigroup. But it must abide by the Freedom of Information Act, which allows the public to gain access to documents such as those Bowen provided. It has a horrendous track record of fulfilling FOIA requests in anything like a timely manner. My experience has been that the agency begrudgingly gives out the bare minimum long after I really needed it.

Earlier this year, Bloomberg’s Ivry filed a FOIA request with the SEC to get copies of Bowen’s two depositions and the 1,000 pages of documents. Ivry wanted to know just what Bowen had discovered about Citigroup’s bad behavior in the years leading up to its bailout. Initially, the SEC stonewalled, claiming that the Bowen cache amounted to Citigroup “trade secrets.”

When Ivry finally got his FOIA documents back from the SEC, he was underwhelmed. “It was a discussion about nothing and it was heavily redacted, including Bowen’s name,” Ivry told me via e-mail. Needless to say, he was unable to get any additional insight into what Bowen had uncovered and was unable to inform the rest of us.
Unreleased Documents

When I told Bowen, earlier this week, that the SEC had failed to release his documents and his testimony about Citigroup to Ivry, he was flabbergasted. For legal reasons, Bowen said, he can’t share the information directly, but he fully expected the SEC to make it available to journalists and the public. He also expected the SEC to investigate the wrongdoing.

“I’m outraged, quite frankly,” Bowen told me. “I had been told that once the investigations were concluded that my material would be available to the public via FOIA. And to hear now that the SEC has made the decision that no, it cannot be available, I know nothing about the legal side of this, but quite frankly, I’m totally outraged.”

Last week, I filed my own FOIA request for Bowen’s documents and testimony. On Oct. 22, I received an acknowledgement letter from the agency. My tracking number is 13-00937-FOIA. Trust me, I’ll let you know if the SEC gives me anything more than it gave Ivry. But I won’t be counting on it.

Nine more banks added to Libor probe

Πηγή: FT
By Shahien Nasiripour
Oct 26 2012

Nine of the world’s biggest banks are facing increased scrutiny from US state prosecutors probing alleged attempts to manipulate the lending gauge known as Libor.

Eric Schneiderman, New York attorney-general, and George Jepsen, Connecticut attorney-general, have sent subpoenas to Bank of America, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, Credit Suisse, Lloyds Banking Group, Rabobank, Royal Bank of Canada, Société Générale, Norinchukin Bank and West LB as they investigate whether the banks participated in any schemes to rig the London interbank offered rate, a person familiar with the matter said.

The financial groups join Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, HSBC and UBS to increase the number of banks under examination by the two state prosecutors to 16.

The banks have either declined to comment, could not be reached for comment or have not responded to requests for comment. Several have disclosed various Libor-related investigations to investors and have said they are co-operating with government probes.

The civil investigative demands for documents and records of communications started this summer. The state legal officers want to examine whether the banks colluded to fix interest rates determined by Libor, damaging the states’ borrowers and investors as a result.

Their investigation follows separate probes by prosecutors and regulators in countries across three continents including the UK, Canada, Japan and the US, who are examining possible collusion by large financial groups to manipulate benchmark lending rates.

The most popular of the rates, known as Libor, is based on self-reported borrowing costs for unsecured loans between banks and is used to price hundreds of trillions of dollars’ of financial instruments including home mortgages and derivatives. Authorities are investigating whether the financial institutions were attempting to manipulate Libor from 2005 to 2009, officials have said.

In June Barclays agreed to pay US and UK authorities roughly $450m to settle allegations it had attempted to manipulate Libor. Since then targeted traders have been suspended or fired as banks have acknowledged receiving demands for further documents and lawyers representing aggrieved homeowners, local governments and other financial groups have prepared or launched lawsuits aimed at recovering alleged losses.

UK authorities have suggested reforming Libor. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has questioned the accuracy of Libor and its chairman, Gary Gensler, told the European parliament that data collected by his agency suggested that the rate continues to be flawed and needs reform or should be scrapped entirely.

Unlike US federal prosecutors, Mr Schneiderman is armed with his state’s Martin Act, a 1921 New York law considered one of the country’s most powerful prosecutorial tools. The law allows Mr Schneiderman to investigate anyone doing business in New York and to bring cases without having to show that the accused intended to commit fraud. It also allows him to operate across state lines, essentially acting on behalf of investors across the US.

Most of the world’s major financial groups conduct business in Manhattan, home to Wall Street. The city’s role as a global financial centre has given state regulators added power in targeting banks. Mr Schneiderman has sued large banks for alleged mortgage-related misdeeds. The state’s Department of Financial Services in August used its clout to secure a $340m fine against New York-licensed Standard Chartered, despite federal authorities cautioning against the move.

Gazprom set to bid for Greek energy firm

Πηγή: EurActiv
Oct 24 2012

Gazprom has expressed the strongest interest of all prospective bidders eyeing the privatisation of Greek gas firm Depa, two Greek energy sources said yesterday (23 October). The deal could undermine EU efforts to reduce Russian involvement in Europe's energy markets.

The sources said the Russian firm has lobbied across media, industry and government ahead of a sale decision which is due in January.

Both sources shied away from touting Gazprom as the likely tender winner, however, stressing that the outcome remains wide open.

Depa plays a key role in integrating south-east European energy markets with interconnectors.

Greece could also become a vital link in bringing vast East Mediterranean and Caspian Sea gas resources to western Europe.

Commission ‘not happy’

"Gazprom has expressed the strongest interest in Depa and [oil refiner] Hellenic Petroleum ... although the European Commission [is] not so happy about this," a source familiar with the situation said.

Greek sales of energy assets have been imposed by lenders including the EU to help Athens repay debt. But they could also contradict wider EU energy goals if Gazprom beats rivals to buy the regionally strategic gas company, the source said.

Gazprom's pursuit of Depa clashes with EU efforts to diversify gas supplies away from Russia, which provides about a quarter of Europe's gas demand, by bankrolling new import corridors from the Caspian Sea via Azerbaijan and Turkey.

The EU has also launched a probe into Gazprom amid allegations that it is hindering the free flow of gas across the continent and overcharging customers.

"Gazprom as well as all other potentially interested investors should be treated equally as long as compliance with third [energy] package [regulations] and merger rules are guaranteed," said an EU official, who wished to remain anonymous.

Gazprom is also pursuing other interests in the region, including a stake in Israel's Leviathan gas field, the source with knowledge of DEPA said.

As an acquisition target, Depa offers Gazprom a chance to head off competition from new suppliers in the East Mediterranean.

But the Greek firm is also in talks with Texas-based Noble Energy and Israel's Delek Group to combine gas exports from Leviathan via a pipeline to Europe,

Other companies bidding for Depa (see background), include Azeri state-run energy firm Socar, Italy's Eni and Edison, Spain's Gas Natural and Algeria's Sonatrach. Non-binding offers and business plans are due by 6 November.

The East Mediterranean has emerged as a significant gas province on Europe's doorstep in recent years following a string of discoveries in Israeli, Greek-Cypriot and Lebanese waters that companies are now racing to develop.

Currently, Russia supplies Greece with a majority of its gas under a 20-year deal set to expire in 2016.

Political instability

In the meantime, a concession from Greece's lenders on Tuesday failed to win over two junior parties in the ruling coalition who blocked agreement on a vital austerity package because they oppose labour reforms.

Hopes that a final deal on the austerity cuts was near had grown after inspectors from the lenders left Athens last week saying the two sides had agreed on most reforms and austerity cuts needed to unlock the country's next tranche of aid.

Still, Greece's government first has to overcome internal divisions before it can strike a comprehensive deal on the cuts.

The Democratic Left and PASOK Socialist parties in Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's conservative-led coalition have long opposed unpopular proposals from EU and International Monetary Fund lenders to cut wages, reduce severance payments and scrap automatic pay rises.

"I won't accept or vote for the labour reforms the troika demands, and neither will the deputies of the Democratic Left," Fotis Kouvelis, the party's leader, told reporters after a meeting of the three leaders in Samaras's coalition.

Evangelos Venizelos, head of the PASOK Socialists, also reiterated his opposition to the reforms and urged Samaras to convince his European counterparts to back down on the proposals.

The continued refusal of the junior coalition parties to approve the package threatens a political impasse that could jeopardise Athens' efforts to obtain aid before cash runs out next month.

Greek debt to badly miss target - euro zone official

Greece's Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras (C) listens to reporters' questions as he leaves the Prime Minister's office in Athens October 25, 2012.

Πηγή: Reuters
By Jan Strupczewski
Oct 26 2012

Greek debt will be above the target of 120 percent of GDP in 2020, a preliminary report by the IMF showed on Thursday, and Athens will need more reforms before emergency credit from international lenders can start flowing again.

"It is clear that Greece is off track and there is no chance they will cut the debt to 120 percent of GDP in 2020 as envisaged. It will be rather 136 percent, and this would be under a positive scenario of a primary budget surplus, a return to economic growth, and privatisation," a euro zone official, who insisted on anonymity, said.

"New prior actions will be needed, on top of the existing 89," the official said, referring to a list of already agreed reforms that need to be in place before any new tranches of euro zone and IMF emergency loans to Greece can be paid.

Apart from the debt projections, representatives of the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank - known as the troika - have been calculating how much more money Athens will need if it is given until 2016 rather than 2014 to reach a primary surplus of 4.5 percent, as agreed in February.

A primary surplus or deficit is the budget balance before the government services its debt. In Greece's case, it would mean government tax revenues exceeding spending, meaning Athens is beginning to get on top of its budget-deficit problems.

The two extra years would give the fast-contracting Greek economy some welcome respite, allowing it to return to growth sooner and therefore increasing the chances the country would eventually be able to make its debt sustainable.

"Additional financing needs for Greece are now seen at around 30 billion euros (24 billion pounds)," the official said after the EWG meeting. Estimates from various officials since July varied from 13 billion to 30 billion and on Thursday another official estimated the financing needs at 16-20 billion euros.

The critical question is where the additional money would come from.

"The IMF is pushing for OSI (Official Sector Involvement) in Greece, Germany is strictly against. And they are not the only ones," the euro zone official said.

The IMF has long advocated that the euro zone should restructure the loans that euro zone governments extended to Greece, in what is called OSI, to reduce the debt servicing costs for Athens.

The restructuring could take the form of a further reduction of the interest rate on existing loans to Greece and an extension of their maturities, but while that would reduce financing costs, alone it would not fill the funding gap.

Another option is to bring forward some payments from the IMF that would be granted to Greece at a later date, thereby bridging its immediate funding gap, but again that is not be fully sufficient.

Also under consideration to reduce the Greek debt pile, and its servicing cost, is a debt buy back, taking advantage of the deep discount Greek debt is currently trading at.

But more direct funding for Greece from euro zone member states looks inevitable.

Any new money would have to come from the euro zone's permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, and is likely to face opposition from countries such as Finland, the Netherlands and Germany.

ECB ASSISTANCE NEEDED

The euro zone official said that further assistance from the ECB, in the form of new liquidity support to Greek banks, would be needed. Greece will be further discussed at the next EWG meeting on Monday.

Apart from the funding issue, talks on granting Athens the two-year extension on its primary surplus target are hindered by the opposition of some parties in the ruling Greek coalition on labour market reforms, seen as necessary by the Troika.

Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras told parliament on Wednesday that Greece had already been granted the two-year extension, but several top euro zone officials, including European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and German Finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, said they were not aware of that.

If an agreement with Athens is reached in time, a decision on the extra money could be taken at the next meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Brussels on November 12.

Despite disagreements over how it will be done, it has become clear in recent days that a two-year extension will be granted and therefore some way will be found to finance it.

Asian economies turn to yuan

Πηγή: China Daily
Oct 24 2012

A "renminbi bloc" has been formed in East Asia, as nations in the region abandon the US dollarand peg their currency to the Chinese yuan — a major signal of China's successful bid to internationalize its currency, a research report has said.

The Peterson Institute for International Economics, or PIIE, said in its latest research that Chinahas moved closer to its long-term goal for the renminbi to become a global reserve currency.

Since the global financial crisis, the report said, more and more nations, especially emerging economies, see the yuan as the main reference currency when setting their exchange rate.

And now seven out of 10 economies in the region — including South Korea, Indonesia,Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand — track the renminbi more closely than they do the USdollar. Only three economies in the group — Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Mongolia — still have currencies following the dollar more closely than the renminbi, said the report, posted on theinstitute's website.

The South Korean won, for example, has appreciated in sync with the renminbi against thedollar since mid-2010.

China has long vowed to raise its currency's global sway, along with the rise of its economy,which became the world's second-biggest last year.

The goal has seen significant development in recent years as the country promotes renminbi-denominated cross-border trade and gradually loosens control over its capital accounts.

As a result, Hong Kong has quickly risen to be the world's biggest offshore renminbi trading center, with about 600 billion yuan ($95 billion) in deposits.

According to the latest report by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, renminbi-denominated trade accounted for 10 percent ofChina's total foreign trade in July. The figure was zero just two years ago.

From July 1 to Aug 31, global payments in the renminbi rose 15.6 percent, according to SWIFT,as payments in other currencies fell 0.9 percent on average.

The renminbi had a market share of 0.53 percent in August and has overtaken the Danishkrone to become the 14th-highest global payment currency, the member-owned cooperativesaid.

Cross-border trade settled in renminbi will triple to 6.5 trillion yuan ($1.03 trillion) within three years as relations with the world's second-largest economy grow, Royal Bank of ScotlandGroup PLC was quoted as saying by Bloomberg on Oct 9.

Settlements will grow 12 to 20 percent this year, reaching $1.03 trillion in two years, up from$330.8 billion in 2011, said Janet Ming, head of the China desk for RBS in Europe, Middle Eastand Africa.

"We're seeing a lot more customers starting to practice in renminbi," Ming was quoted assaying by Bloomberg. "For most companies and banks, China and India is where the growth is.If you're dealing with China, ignoring renminbi is not the right thing to do."

Wang Jianhui, chief economist with Southwest Securities Co Ltd, agreed. "Investors are looking for new reserve currencies at a time when both the dollar and euro are under pressure. This isa good opportunity for the yuan," he said.

The Royal Bank of Scotland predicted in a report on Monday that renminbi will become a fully convertible currency in 2015.

The PIIE said that renminbi could rise to the status of an international currency in 10 to 15 years if the country can reform its financial market and allow greater access for foreigners viacapital account liberalization.

Forming the new renminbi bloc is the result of China's rise as the main trading partner in theregion. China's share in East Asian countries' manufacturing trade has risen from 2 percent in1991 to about 22 percent this year, according to the PIIE report.

In fact, trade is also propelling the rise of the renminbi outside East Asia. The currencies ofIndia, Chile, Israel, South Africa and Turkey all now follow the renminbi closely, in some cases,more so than the dollar. The renminbi would be more attractive if the country could further liberalize its financial and currency markets, the report said.

Some fear that China might follow Japan's rise and fall over the past decades, but the institute thinks otherwise.

"They should take note that even during the heady days of the Japanese miracle, the yen never came close to rivaling the dollar as a reference currency. There was never anything close to a yen bloc in East Asia," the report said.

America's Historical Amnesia Over Libya

Libyan security forces gesture as they head to a compound which had been taken over by an armed group in Tripoli September 23, 2012. 

Πηγή: The Nation
By Clara Gutteridge
Oct 24 2012

When Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed in Benghazi on September 11, he became the victim of a stray bullet from the past fired by an enemy the United States helped create. Today’s debate over what levels of security might have prevented the tragedy is a distraction from the real story of how American meddling in Libya set the stage for the assassination. This historical amnesia was on full display during the second presidential debate, in which the candidates clashed over a question even less relevant than the security issue: how many days it took Obama to label the attack an “act of terror.” Even by the low standards of America’s diminished political attention span, the controversy over the embassy attack playing out in the media is remarkable for its total lack of historical context.

To understand the roots of the crisis in Libya, after all, would mean examining how, for years, the United States helped Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and other Arab leaders hold on to power and terrorize their opponents anywhere in the world, in the name of the “war on terror.” It would mean exposing successive administrations’ rendition and torture policies, and their collusion with despotic Arab regimes to carry them out. Though many Arabs targeted by the United States remained focused exclusively on challenging the regimes in their home countries—and refused to harm civilians to achieve their aims—some came to regard the United States, its assets and civilians as legitimate targets in some circumstances.

Among these appear to be some members of the Benghazi-based group Ansar al-Sharia. A leading member, Ahmed Abu Khattala, was identified on October 17 as the prime suspect behind the killing of Ambassador Stevens. Khattala was imprisoned under Qaddafi at the notorious Abu Salim prison in Tripoli, where a piece of the history linking the United States and Libya is visible as an observation scrawled on the wall of a ruined cell: “Life [imprisonment] in Guantánamo is not even a day in Abu Salim.” The comparison is apt. These two facilities—one run by the US military, the other by Qaddafi’s men—essentially became a part of the same network of secret prisons. The US rendition program that used these prisons grew out of long-term collaborations between the United States and its partners in ousted Arab regimes. It began under President Clinton as an arrangement with Egypt, whereby the CIA would capture exiled opponents of the Mubarak regime and render them back to Egypt for detention, torture and often death. After 9/11, the program was dramatically expanded by George W. Bush to include a network of extraterritorial US-run prisons and proxy detention sites around the world.

In Libya, reams of documents uncovered by the revolution have revealed just how closely the Bush administration and Qadaffi’s regime were cooperating in the rendition and secret detention of Libyans. Many were members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which was unconnected to Al Qaeda and whose sole aim was to oust Qaddafi. Abu Salim prison held many members of the LIFG, captured by the United States and rendered to Libya via a series of secret US torture centers.

The most famous of Abu Salim’s prisoners, at least to those outside Libya, was Ali Mohammed al-Fakheri, otherwise known as Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi. Captured in Pakistan in November 2001 and rendered to Egypt, he was tortured into claiming that Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein were collaborating to develop chemical weapons—statements that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq. But, as was clear, al-Libi was not a member of Al Qaeda, and his information was false. Neither were other Libyan rendition victims handed over to Qaddafi allied with Al Qaeda: most were members of the LIFG—and many have played a central role in the US-supported Libyan revolution and reconstruction.

Al-Libi was found dead in his cell in 2009. Libyan authorities claimed suicide; others believe he was murdered. Had he lived to see today’s Libya, we could have learned the details of his detention and torture in Egypt. He might also have reminded us why he and his compatriots in Afghanistan—Arabs opposed to the regimes in their various home states—settled there in the first place. It was largely because throughout the 1980s and early ’90s, America financed and trained the mujahedeen in Afghanistan, mainly composed of exiled Arabs, to fight the Soviets. After the Soviets retreated, many couldn’t go home because the dictatorial regimes in their countries would not tolerate them, especially now that they had combat training.

And thus began the blowback: after Afghanistan, some of the mujahedeen turned their new skills toward ousting their home regimes. It was essentially in an effort to contain this unintended consequence of building up the mujahedeen in Afghanistan that the first US rendition program was born. The Obama administration has continued some of these practices and emphatically failed to address past abuses.

Most Libyans are clearly grateful for the role the United States chose to play in their revolution. But that, unfortunately, is not enough. Unaddressed, such constant, contradictory meddling in foreign affairs has long-term consequences that cannot be undone overnight. It helps create power vacuums, in which over time new enemies flourish—people who refuse to play the game and recognize even a temporary confluence of interest with this or that capricious superpower. The death of Ambassador Stevens is testament to this.

Cyprus Extends East Med Gas Role with Egyptian Deal

Πηγή: Forbes
By Christopher Coats
Oct 24 2012

Building on its new role as the Eastern Mediterranean’s natural gas anchor, Cyprus announced a new working partnership with Egypt meant to promote the sharing of expertise and experience between the two countries. According to comments from Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Ossama Kamal, Cyprus made an appeal for guidance on how best to approach the island-nation’s new-found oil and gas claims in the region. A Cypriot technical delegation is scheduled to travel to Egypt next month, according to the Egypt Daily News.

Recently, Cyprus has emerged as one of the most active actors in the push to exploit the Eastern Mediterranean’s newfound energy potential. The country’s European backing and apparent willingness to explore production partnerships with just about anyone have allowed them to etch out a reliable middle ground in the often-contentious energy environment. As Israel, Lebanon and Turkey deal with conflicting claims over the regional find and maritime, Cyprus appears content to extend an olive branch to all in the region.

To be sure, leaders in Nicosia have encountered some blowback for their efforts, most notably in the form of Turkish naval ships sent to express the country’s strong feelings about Northern Cyprus being left out of the energy boom. But even then, Cyprus responded with an open-arms approach, suggesting that gas revenues from local exploration could be used to fund reunification talks between the island’s two halves.

For their part, Egypt may view this new partnership with Nicosia as a potential path into a regional energy boom they’ve been locked out of until now – the Levant Basin. Situated in waters between Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus, the Levant Basin boasted an estimated 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, offering a path to energy independence for much of the region. However, located at deep and precarious depths, the gas remains a costly investment. Only Cyprus and Israel have made real progress towards exploiting the reserves and even now, the cost of securing operations in such a highly contentious environment could prove challenging for Tel Aviv. Turkey has announced plans to begin exploration efforts of the coast of North Cyprus, but progress remains uncertain.

This environment has left Cyprus as the willing middleman between the region’s many interested parties.

“The strategic position of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea, in conjunction with the recent gas discoveries in the region and plans for their export, could prove an alternative and fully flexible gas storage hub for the European Union and the rest of the world”, Industry and Tourism Neoklis Sylikiotis recently said during a speech to the European Oil & Gas Summit, according to a government release.

In addition to the new agreement with Egypt, Cyprus has established ties with Israel, including exploring the possibility of hosting refining, transport and Liquefied Natural Gas facilities that the Israeli government would rather not have around.

For its own part, the Levant offers Cyprus access to an estimated 5.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas within the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone. According to Reuters, the country’s Industry and Tourism minister Neoclis Sylikiotis suggested they would be able to meet domestic needs with local natural gas by 2017 and earn export revenue by 2019. Having reported the natural gas find just this past December, Cyprus moved quickly to exploit the claim by asking for bids in May. The response from foreign firms, including Total and Italy’s Eni, amounted to 15 bids across 9 blocks. Russian firms also chimed in with support, reflecting urgency on the part of the country to support Cyprus through its current economic crisis. According to Bloomberg, Russians make up a large percentage of the non-residents in Cyprus who hold one of every two euros deposited in the country’s banks.

To be clear, any new energy role the island nation could take on is unlikely to help them out of their immediate fiscal ditch. Facing a enormous deficits and losses thanks to their exposure to Greek sovereign debt, Cyprus will most certainly need more than the $12.4 billion its creditors and potential lenders now believe they need. That’s going to take a while and by no means will it be pleasant.

While Cyprus’ open-armed approach has worked so far, their new partnership with Egypt could prove difficult to sustain alongside their cooperation with Israel, especially if Cairo expands their current offshore efforts towards already contested waters. In the months since the collapse of the government of Hosni Mubarak, ties between Egypt and Israel have been increasingly strained, due mostly to natural gas agreements. After Mubarak was removed from power, records emerged showing below market prices for a 20-year gas agreement with Israel and allegations of further corruption with the ousted president’s administration. This tension was accompanied by 15 attacks on pipelines from Egyptian fields to Israel, who looked west for 35 to 40 percent of their natural gas needs. The situation continued to sour until gas sales to Israel were finally cancelled.

Coca-Cola Exit May Speed Greece’s Cut to Emerging Market

Πηγή: Bloomberg
By Alexis Xydias
Oct 25 2012

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Co. SA (EEEK)’s decision to leave its home equity market in Athens for London increases the chance that Greece will be demoted to an emerging market next year, MSCI Inc. (MSCI) said.

The index provider put Greece’s stock market under review for downgrade from developed status on June 20 and will make a final decision as part of its annual reclassification in June next year. The MSCI Greece Index (MXGR) consists of just two companies, with the world’s second-largest Coca-Cola bottler accounting for 75 percent by weight.

Market size “is the main driver for us to make that proposal, but on top of that, one needs to admit that there are still some operational issues that have been present since the inclusion of MSCI Greece in developed markets back in 2001,” Sebastian Lieblich, global head of index management at MSCI in Geneva, said in a phone interview yesterday. Coca-Cola’s exit is “a very important development, and this is something we’d need to assess how investors see this move.”

Coca-Cola HBC’s departure will shave off about two-thirds of the increase in Greece’s market size since the end of June. The country’s largest company by market value is fleeing the epicenter of the euro-area sovereign-debt crisis, saying it wants a more stable economic and regulatory environment. The company will be based in Switzerland and will trade on the London Stock Exchange.

Lieblich said that MSCI’s decisions are based on consultations with investors.

Exceptional Decision

MSCI said it won’t discontinue the Greece index after Coca- Cola HBC’s exit. Any deletions from the gauge will be substituted by the largest constituents of the MSCI Greece Small Cap Index (MXGRSC), it said. There are currently 22 members in the small- cap measure, led by National Bank of Greece SA. (ETE)

MSCI will “exceptionally maintain at all times at least two constituents in the MSCI Greece Index until further communication,” it said in a statement yesterday. Opap SA (OPAP), Europe’s biggest listed gambling company, is the second stock in the MSCI Greece, accounting for 25 percent of the gauge’s weight.

Coca-Cola Hellenic makes up 21 percent of the benchmark Athens Stock Exchange Index (ASE), followed by National Bank, Hellenic Petroleum SA (ELPE), Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA and OPAP, with weights ranging from 8 percent to 5.6 percent.

Shrinking Market

The Greek market has lost about 85 percent of its value since peaking at $273 billion in November 2007 as surging borrowing costs forced the government to accept two European Union-led bailouts.

The market value of the MSCI Greece has risen to 7.9 billion euros ($10.2 billion) from 6.7 billion euros at the end of June, on optimism the nation will agree on a new financing package with the International Monetary Fund and European partners. The equity value is still down from 25.8 billion euros in June 2011.

The overall Greek equity market has climbed to 32.2 billion euros from 23.5 billion euros at the end of June this year. It would fall to about 26.1 billion euros once Coca-Cola Hellenic is removed.

MSCI said in June that restrictions on in-kind transfers, off-exchange transactions, stock lending and short-selling impeded Greece from having a fully functional trading place aligned with those of developed markets. The Greek authorities had not been receptive to repeated complaints from the international investment community, the company said.

“If at one point in time any market doesn’t provide enough stocks to clearly represent the investment-opportunity set, then we may be forced to consider it for demotion,” said Lieblich. “The current sovereign-debt issues that Greece is facing are not at all the trigger point for the reclassification of Greece. It is really the size combined with the operational issues which haven’t been solved over the past ten years which we see as a major concern.”

The World from Berlin: 'Euro-Zone Plans to Fix Greece Have Failed'

Greece might be getting two additional years to meet its austerity goals.

Πηγή: Spiegel

By Charles Hawley

Oct 25 2012

Greece says it has been granted an extra two years to meet austerity targets. The EU and IMF deny it. According to press reports, Athens needs an extra 20 billion euros in aid. It is difficult to determine exactly what might come next for the country, but commentators say it is clear that Europe is at a crossroads.

What is going on in the never-ending negotiations between Greece and its international creditors? That depends largely on who you ask. If you ask Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras, Athens on Wednesday was given an additional two years to reach its budgetary target of reducing new lending below the EU-mandated maximum of 3 percent. Instead of 2014, Greece would have a new deadline of 2016.

If you ask German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and other major creditors, however, such a delay has in no way been finalized. "I cannot confirm that," said Schäuble on Wednesday when asked about Stournaras' claim, delivered in a speech before the Greek parliament. He insisted, again, that no decisions would be made until the completion of a report currently being assembled by the troika, made up of the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

A spokesperson for the IMF also said that no final decision had been made on granting an extra two years to Athens for making necessary budget cuts.

The problem is, though, that it is becoming increasingly difficult to believe the denials. European newspapers on Wednesday were full of reports that a draft "Memorandum of Understanding" included the two-year delay. Furthermore, Germany's business daily Handelsblatt, citing an unnamed senior euro-zone source, reported that Greece would need an additional €16 billion to €20 billion in aid. The sum was consistent with previous reports, including one in SPIEGEL in late September, on how much a two-year delay might cost.

'Makes Sense for Greece'

To be sure, Chancellor Angela Merkel will not be looking forward to pushing an additional aid package for Greece through parliament in Berlin. The country has already been the beneficiary of two aid packages worth a total of €240 billion, and parliamentarians made it clear when the second one passed in March that no more charity would be forthcoming.

But Merkel and Schäuble have both lately seemed to be preparing the groundwork for a softer approach to Greece. Merkel visited Athens last week and pledged solidarity, while Schäuble said it seemed likely "that we can come to agreement on a policy that makes sense for Greece."

Stournaras' speech focused on the €13.5 billion cuts the Greek government agreed to on Wednesday, additional austerity measures necessary to trigger the release of a €31.5 billion aid tranche the country badly needs to retain liquidity through the end of the year. He said that, if Greece had not been granted an extension, then an austerity package of €18 billion would have been necessary.

Still, just what the final agreement with Greece will look like remains unclear. TheHandelsblatt also reports on Thursday that the country's creditors will once again cut the interest rate due on the tens of billions of euros the country has borrowed from its euro-zone partners and the IMF. The period of the emergency loans will also be extended; the paper quotes a senior euro-zone official as saying the goal was a "substantial" reduction in the country's debt load. That report has not been denied -- at least not yet.

German media commentators on Thursday also take a closer look at what is going on in Greece.

Center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"The government in Athens has shown that it is determined to help save the country by instituting reforms. Berlin and Brussels have recognized that. What the experts have preferred not to discuss openly, however, is that the two-year delay for Athens does not change the fact that Greece will need another debt haircut to make its debt load manageable. And this time, it is public creditors who will be forced to surrender a portion of their capital. That won't be cheap, but a Greek insolvency would be more expensive. And it is not just about euros and cents. It is about the social costs as well. Greece has become a kind of impoverished pariah state in Europe, something the European Union cannot afford. The consequences of five years of recession can already be seen: unemployment, poverty and political extremism."

Conservative daily Die Welt writes:

"Greece's credit conditions are once again being softened. The German government continues to insist that there is, as yet, no written agreement, but the Greek finance minister has already triumphantly announced that a deal has been reached allowing Athens an extra two years to achieve its budgetary targets. He speaks like someone who knows he cannot lose."

"In the present situation, however, leniency might actually be the correct course of action. Greece lost valuable time in the spring because of the new elections and no matter how hard it tries, the country cannot achieve the goals it originally set for itself. And the delay was worth it; Greece now has a government that is more serious about austerity. That is an argument in favor of leniency. Another argument in favor is the fact that Greece's euro-zone partners have also made mistakes. At the beginning, they insisted to interest rates that were too high and they focused exclusively on austerity to the detriment of reforms that would stimulate economic growth. As such, some of the responsibility for the fact that Greece has made so little progress since the spring of 2010 can be shared by Berlin, Paris and Brussels."

Left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung writes:

"The two-year delay reveals the depth of Greece's misery, and the helplessness of its so-called saviors. Experts and creditors alike have reached a dead end; their plans to fix Greece have failed. Indeed, they need a two-year break at least as badly as does the increasingly fragile government in Athens. Germany in particular needs more time. One year is already reserved for the campaign and the general elections scheduled for next fall. In the run up to the vote, Merkel would like calm on the euro front."

"There are, after all, new facts that Merkel's government has thus far insisted upon ignoring. For one, the International Monetary Fund has recalculated and found that the austerity measures have had a much more detrimental effect on the country's real economy than had been previously thought. The deeper the cuts, the greater the collapse of both the economy and tax revenues -- essentially eliminating the benefits derived from the cuts. Most experts also now agree that Greece will never be able to get back on its feet without another significant slashing of debt. But Berlin has thus far been deaf to such concerns and will only confront reality after the election. How nice that we will now have two years of peace."

REPORT: Here's The German-Led Troika Austerity Reform Plan That Has Greece Furious

Πηγή: Business Insider
Oct 25 2012

There's been an uproar in Greece over labor reforms requested of the country by international troika lenders as part of a package of spending cuts in order to secure more bailout aid.

The FT's Peter Spiegel reports this morning based on a copy of a draft memorandum obtained by the newspaper that one part of the plan is particularly controversial – a proposal to delegate more control of implementation of the measures to the European Commission's Task Force for Greece, led by a German named Horst Reichenbach.

The document presenting the plan reads, "The trust account adopted at the Eurogroup Feb. 20 is strengthened to ensure that programme funds are used for debt service only."

In other words, the troika wants to make sure that all of the additional bailout money going to Greece is only being used to repay the troika its previous bailout loans. And the troika wants to facilitate the payment itself.

Here is Spiegel's description of the provisions:

Most intriguingly, however, it significantly ramps up an idea first broached in February: strengthening an escrow account to be used to service Greece’s outstanding debt. In February, that was termed a “segregated account”; in the new German proposal, it becomes a “trust account” run by “international management”, possibly the European Central Bank.

Under the new German plan, bailout aid would go directly into this account instead of to the Greek government, essentially stripping Athens of budgetary control over its own funding. But the German proposal goes even further, suggesting that when Greece finally reaches primary budget surplus (taking in more money than it spends, not counting interest payments on sovereign debt), a chunk of that surplus should automatically go into the account, too.

The FT also posted the full document on their website, a brief one-page executive summary with bullet points outlining the proposal.

Here are the key bullets, from the document:
Externally managed trust account: The trust account adopted at the Eurogroup of Feb. 20th is strengthened to ensure that programme funds are used for debt service only, secured by setting up an international management (by the ECB for instance). As agreed in February, debt is serviced directly from this trust account. EFSF and IMF disburse after implementation of the agreed structural and fiscal reforms directly to the trust account and the Greek contribution to debt service defined in the MoU would also be paid into the trust account.
Earmarking of revenues: A dedicated receipt (such as part of VAT income) in the volume of the requested GRC primary budget surplus could be transferred monthly to the trust account (as earmarking of revenue secure the delivery of the primary surplus and therefore the GRC contribution to the debt service. A GRC non-achievement of the required primary surplus would be balanced by a reduction in primary spending or increase of primary income. Should further budget gaps occur during the term of the programme GRC would fill the gap by its own means.

A "senior European official involved in the negotiations" told the FT, “It’s a tough proposal, but it is realistic.”

The FT also just posted two longer draft memorandums obtained by the paper that go into much more detail about the Greek bailout. Read more at the FT >

U.S. actively helping gas pipeline project to bypass Russia - Clinton

Πηγή: Interfax
Oct 19 2012

The United States supports the Southern Corridor project to weaken the monopoly on gas supplies to Europe, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

Giving a lecture on Energy Diplomacy in the 21st Century at Georgetown University on Thursday, Clinton said that one of the focuses "of our energy diplomacy is helping to promote competition and prevent monopolies."

"Consider what's been happening in Europe. For decades, many European nations received much of their natural gas via pipeline from one country: Russia," Clinton said.

"But that has now changed in part because of the increased production here in the United States, there's a lot more natural gas in the global market looking for a home. Plus, there's natural gas in the Caspian and in Central Asia. They'd like to sell it, and Europe would like to buy it. But first, they need to build pipelines. And that's the goal of a project called the Southern Corridor, which would stretch across the European continent. The United States has been an active partner to all those participants to help move this project to fruition," Clinton said.

The Southern Corridor project calls for building gas pipelines from the Caspian and Central Asia to Europe, bypassing Russia.

Clinton said the U.S. is helping to move this project along because "we want to see countries grow and have stronger economies, but also because energy monopolies create risks."

"Anywhere in the world, when one nation is overly dependent on another for its energy that can jeopardize its political and economic independence. It can make a country vulnerable to threats and coercion. And that's why NATO has identified energy security as a key security issue of our time. It's also why we created the U.S.-European Union Energy Council to deepen our cooperation on strategic energy issues. It's not just a matter of economic competition, as important as that is. It's also a matter of national and international security," Clinton said.

Stiglitz: Greece and Spain are ‘in depression’

Πηγή: The Raw Story
By AFP
Oct 17 2012

Greece and Spain are in “depression, not recession”, Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said on Wednesday, blaming tough austerity measures for their downward economic spiral.

Stiglitz also maintained that the International Monetary Fund was “a little too optimistic” in its forecast last week that the eurozone economy would shrink by 0.4 percent in 2012 and rise by 0.2 percent next year.

“I’m more pessimistic than they are (about growth)… I see significant risk of continuing turmoil,” he said in New Delhi on the sidelines of a conference held by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“Spain and Greece are in depression, not recession. That impact was brought about by austerity” with the countries now trapped in a vicious cycle of spending cuts and slumping growth, he said.

Stiglitz, who served as a senior advisor to former US president Bill Clinton, was speaking on the eve of a key two-day summit of EU leaders in Brussels that will seek to address the eurozone crisis.

“Austerity is bringing Europe down and diminishes chances of making things work — it is the wrong measure,” said the Nobel laureate, who is a professor at New York’s Columbia University.

Unemployment in nearly bankrupt Greece is at 25.1 percent as its economy contracts and it negotiates with lenders about more budget cuts.

In Spain, the jobless rate is 24.6 percent with the government unveiling new spending curbs as it seeks to fend off another bailout that would bring more foreign supervision of the Spanish budget.

Stiglitz expressed scepticism EU leaders will commit to proposals to implement a banking union involving safeguards for depositors’ savings — measures needed, he said, to avert a flight of capital.

“There’s no real evidence to suggest EU leaders are willing to do anything but temporise” about Europe’s debt woes, he told AFP, adding time is running out to address the situation.

“Things are unravelling in the banking system in Spain,” said Stiglitz, who was attending an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development conference on devising new statistical indicators to assess economic wellbeing.

Stiglitz, author of a recently published book, “The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future,” said widening unemployment in Western countries is increasing social divides.

“Those at the lower end of the income scale see wages driven down and because tax revenues decline, fiscal pressures weigh on public services — they get hammered in every way,” he said.

Turning to US problems, he added it was unlikely the latest round of US quantitative easing — aimed at spurring growth by lowering borrowing costs — would fuel inflation in the United States because its economy is so weak.

He warned it was essential that US Republicans and Democrats clinch a compromise on the so-called “fiscal cliff” facing the country — automatic budget cuts and higher taxes due to take effect in January.

“Going over the cliff,” he said, would “markedly slow down the US economy” from its current tepid growth.

Liberia: Report Reveals Why Ellen Wants Africom in Liberia

Πηγή: All Africa
Oct 11 2012

Report gathered by this paper has revealed that Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's interest in hosting in Liberia a base for the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) appears to have had more to do with protecting the George Soros and Rothschild mining operations in West Africa than in championing stability and human rights.

George Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, philosopher and philanthropist. The 82- year-old is the chairman of Soros Fund Management, and also the chairman of the Open Society Institute.

HE IS THE NEW YORK HEDGE FUND MANAGER AND ONE OF THE MOS

Since the mid-1980s in particular, he has used his immense influence to help reconfigure the political landscapes of several countries around the world--in some cases playing a key role in toppling regimes that had held the reins of government for years, even decades. Vis à vis the United States, a strong case can be made for the claim that Soros today affects American politics and culture more profoundly than any other living person.

The report, which was published online nearly a year now, indicates that for the sole purpose of protecting the George Soros and Rothschild mining operations in West Africa, President Johnson-Sirleaf and her friend Leymah Gbowee received two Nobel gold medals to help the Rothschild/Soros team control all the gold metal," adding, "A little gold for all the gold."

The report divulges that: "As with so many international constructs that started out with good intentions, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, like the International Olympic Committee, has become contrivances for global corporations," adding that: "It is now clear that the decision by the Nobel committee to award the Nobel Peace Prize to two Liberian women, along with a female Yemeni human rights campaigner, was to engage in a bit of influence-peddling in mineral resource-rich West Africa while also attempting to recognize the "Arab Spring" democracy movement."

The report avers that, While the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Yemeni human rights activist seems appropriate, considering the work she has done to oust Yemen's brutal dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh from power, the awarding of the Peace Prize gold medals to Liberian President Johnson-Sirleaf and Liberian human rights activist Leymah Gbowee, just before the Liberian presidential election in 2011, appears to be a blatant act of trying to influence the outcome of the election and rewarding the Liberian leader for her support for the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).

"In addition to being Africa's first elected female head of state, the report adds, "Sirleaf also has the distinction of being the only African head of state to offer AFRICOM a base of operations and headquarters in Africa - Liberia."

According to the report, "Sirleaf's invitation to AFRICOM was unsettling to many Liberians who are cognizant of Liberia's past as a colony founded by freed slaves from the United States and run for decades by a series of American-Liberian dictators who acted as virtual proxies for Washington and the Firestone Rubber Corporation."

The report maintains that President Johnson-Sirleaf was implicated in supporting Liberia's brutal dictator, Charles Taylor, in a report issued in 2009 by the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), but she rejected the TRC report and also reneged on her promise to serve only one term as president.

Winston Tubman, the nephew of Liberia's long-serving President William Tubman and who ran against then candidate Johnson-Sirleaf, the report indicates, "questioned the timing of the Nobel Committee's awarding of the peace prize to his opponent, only a few days before the October 11 election," adding that "It is also noteworthy that after the announcement of this year's Nobel awards, Gbowee, the other Liberian peace prize awardee, endorsed Sirleaf's re-election."

"Sirleaf, a Harvard graduate, has long been a darling of George Soros's "human rights" and "civil society" contrivances, including the Open Society Institute and Foundation," says the report. The report states that: "On September 9, 2008, WMR reported: "Soros is a close friend of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a former Vice President of Equator Bank in Washington, DC. Equator was later bought by HSBC, which, not surprisingly is a financial partner of Soros."

"Soros has much more of an interest in Liberia and surrounding countries -- including Ivory Coast, which saw French troops fight troops loyal to ousted president Laurent Gbagbo to install a Rothschild/Soros-run World Bank veteran, Alassane Ouattara and his French Zionist wife, into power -- than promoting "civil society," the report adds.

The report unveils that: "Liberia is a nexus for gold mining and Soros's senior partner, Nathaniel Rothschild, is, according to WMR's sources, buying up all the world's gold mines in anticipation of the collapse of several world currencies, including the euro and the dollar."

"Rothschild and Soros, through Rothschild-controlled Newmont Mining Corporation, along with other Rothschild-controlled companies like Vallar and Glencore, are currently moving in to buy up gold mining companies and mining operations in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the United States, Peru, Ghana, Guinea, Canada, Namibia, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Ivory Coast, Mexico, Sierra Leone, and Liberia," the report among others stated.

When the 2nd Vice Presidential Press Secretary of President Johnson-Sirleaf, Mr. Christopher Sele was Monday 8 October 2012 contacted via cell phone for the Liberian leader's reaction to the report, an unidentified individual believed to be a staff member of the office of the Presidential Press Secretary, answered the call and stated that he [Mr. Sele] was upstairs, but promised that Mr. Sele would immediately return the call. However, neither did the unidentified staff nor Mr. Sele return the call up to press time.

Group: Libya militias 'executed' Gadhafi loyalists

In this file image made from amateur video provided by the Libya Youth Movement and filmed on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011, Moammar Gadhafi, center, is surrounded by Libyan fighters in Sirte, Libya. Libyan rebels appear to have "summarily executed" scores of fighters loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, and probably the dictator himself, when they overran his hometown a year ago, a human rights group said Wednesday Oct. 17, 2012. 

Πηγή: Huston Chronicle

By MAGGIE MICHAEL (AP)
Oct 17 2012

CAIRO — Libyan rebels appear to have "summarily executed" scores of fighters loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, and probably the dictator himself, when they overran his hometown a year ago, a human rights group said Wednesday.

The report by Human Rights Watch on alleged rebel abuses that followed the October 2011 capture of the city of Sirte in the final major battle of the eight-month civil war is one of the most detailed descriptions of what the group says were war crimes committed by the militias that toppled Gadhafi, and which still play a major role in Libyan politics today.

The 50-page report, titled "Death of a Dictator: Bloody Vengeance in Sirte," details the last hours of Gadhafi's life on Oct. 20, 2011, when he tried to flee the besieged city. The longtime leader's convoy was struck by NATO aircraft as it tried to escape and the survivors were attacked by militias from the city of Misrata, who captured and disarmed the dictator and his entourage.

Misrata was subjected to a brutal weeks-long siege by Gadhafi's forces that killed hundreds of residents, and fighters from the city became among the regime's most implacable foes. HRW says it seems the Misratans took revenge against their prisoners in Sirte.

"The evidence suggests that opposition militias summarily executed at least 66 captured members of Gadhafi's convoy in Sirte," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch.

The New York-based group's report says that new evidence unearthed in its investigation includes a mobile phone video clip taken by militiamen showing a large number of prisoners from Gadhafi's convoy being cursed and abused by rebels.

The remains of least 17 of the detainees in the phone video were later identified in a group of 66 bodies found at Sirte's Mahari hotel, some still with their hands tied behind their back. Human Rights Watch said it used hospital morgue photos to confirm the victims' identities.

The dictator himself was seen alive in a widely-circulated video made public shortly after the battle.

"Video footage shows that Moammar Gadhafi was captured alive but bleeding heavily from a head wound," the HRW report says. But footage showed that he was "severely beaten by opposition forces, stabbed with bayonet in his buttocks, causing more injuries, and bleeding. By the time he is filmed being loaded into an ambulance half-naked, he appears lifeless."

Bouckaert said the group's "findings call into question the assertion by Libyan authorities that Moammar Gadhafi was killed in crossfire and not after his capture."

Gadhafi's son Muatassim was also videotaped alive and in captivity, only to have his body turn up at a morgue in Misrata alongside his father's.

"In case after case we investigated, the individuals had been videotaped alive by the opposition fighters who held them and then found dead hours later," Bouckaert said. "Our strongest evidence for these executions comes from the footage filmed by the opposition forces and the physical evidence at the Mahari hotel where the 66 bodies were found."

Another victim cited by HRW as an example was 29-year-old Ahmed al-Gharyani, a navy recruit from the town of Tawergha. He was seen alive in the phone video as rebels beat him. His body was later found in the hotel and eventually identified by his family.

His hometown, Tawergha, was used as a staging ground by Gadhafi's forces to launch attacks on Misrata, but after rebels broke the siege on Misrata and overran Tawergha, the town's residents fled or were driven out by vengeful rebels.

Suleiman al-Fortia, a member of the dissolved National Transitional Council from Misrata, denied that Gadhafi or his loyalists were executed. "We hoped to arrest Gadhafi alive (to try him). All the killings took place in a crossfire," he said.

But HRW said that "under the laws of war, the killing of captured combatants is a war crime, and Libyan civilian and military authorities have an obligation to investigate war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law."

The group released its report days before Libya celebrates "liberation day," the anniversary of Sirte's fall on Oct. 23. Since then, the country's new leaders have heavily depended on former rebel militias to secure cities and protect borders in the absence of a strong national army or other government security forces.

Calls for militias to be brought under the control of the defense or interior ministries have met resistance from some fighters.

Meanwhile, some groups have been implicated in revenge attacks and communal strife, while members of one Islamist militia have been accused of taking part in the attack on the U.S. Consulate in the eastern city Benghazi on Sept. 11 that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens.

In the aftermath of Stevens' death, popular resentment surged and thousands took to the streets of Benghazi demanding the dismantlement of the militias. The government has taken over some militia headquarters and appointed military officers to run the groups, and designated some "outlawed" and others "tolerated."

Corruption Continues Virtually Unchecked in Greece

While Athens waits for more aid from the European Union, the country continues to be administered in the same old careless manner. Corrupt politicians and the rich continue to help themselves to Greece's funds, and little is being done about it.

Πηγή: Spiegel
By Julia Amalia Heyer
Oct 16 2012

How can someone who has declared an annual income of €25,000 ($32,400) transfer €52 million abroad? What kind of supplementary income must an individual have who, according to his tax returns, earned €5,588 in 2010, yet still managed to move €19.8 million abroad? And how can it be that a Greek citizen sequesters €9.7 million abroad although he supposedly earned exactly zero euros?

These are the questions that tax fraud investigators will have to ask of a number of individuals whose identity has so far only been made public in the form of initials. For instance, a "G. D." stands at the top of a list with the names of 54,000 Greek citizens who relocated major assets abroad between 2009 and 2011. The list stems from the Greek central bank and is now in the hands of the Finance Ministry.

It is the longest of four lists that are currently circulating in Athens. Each contains the names of people whose financial circumstances -- bank balances and real estate holdings -- do not correspond at all with what they claimed on their tax returns. But hardly anything is being done about it. The Greek reality is sometimes paradoxical: While the governing coalition was busy squabbling with international creditors over how many hundreds of euros can still be trimmed from teachers' and nurses' paychecks, and Athens continued slashing employee pensions, wealthy Greeks moved billions abroad with relative impunity.

The odyssey of the "Lagarde list," as it's known, exemplifies the typically lax attitude toward tax criminals. For many months, it was thought to be lost, but then it resurfaced in early October. Now, the public prosecutor for financial crimes has a copy. It lists 1,991 Greek owners of Swiss bank accounts, and reportedly includes many prominent individuals from the realms of politics, business and culture.

List Goes Missing

The story of this list primarily illustrates the unwillingness of politicians to do anything to improve the situation. In the autumn of 2010, Christine Lagarde, who was still the French finance minister at the time, gave her Greek counterpart Giorgos Papakonstantinou a digitalized list of bank accounts with information on Greek customers at the HSBC Bank in Switzerland. The accounts contained a total of some €1.5 billion. While the French state was using this list to help collect half a billion euros from its own tax offenders, the Greeks showed little interest in attempting a similar initiative.

It wasn't until many months later, in June 2011, that Papakonstantinou finally relinquished only 10 names from the list to the head of Greece's Financial and Economic Crime Unit (SDOE). The former minister said a few days ago that he didn't pass on all of the information because he had "no confidence in the agency."

He was succeeded by Evangelos Venizelos, who is the leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, better known as PASOK, and thus part of the governing coalition. Venizelos served as finance minister for nine months. He negotiated the debt haircut and the second bailout package -- and vowed time and again to tackle the big problem of tax evasion.

Meanwhile, tucked away in a drawer of his secretary's desk, there was a USB stick with information that had already been gathered on Greek tax offenders -- the Lagarde list. The authorities merely needed to launch investigations. But Venizelos didn't instruct the SDOE to conduct inquiries, nor did he inform anyone of the existence of this information. Everyone else in the government thought that the list had disappeared. It was only when the current Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras heard about the lost information, and wanted to ask Paris for a copy, that Venizelos supposedly remembered the USB stick in the drawer. He sent it by express courier to Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. Venizelos maintains that he didn't know "that no one aside from me had a copy."

Both Venizelos and Papakonstantinou have had to justify their actions before an investigative parliamentary committee -- and both men have attempted to shift the blame on each other.

Allegations Ignored

There is yet another, shorter list, which despite its diminutive size is even more politically charged. Greek tax authorities are currently investigating the assets of some 60 politicians, and the probe apparently extends beyond suspicions of tax evasion alone. The speaker of the Greek Parliament, Evangelos Meimarakis -- a member of the governing conservative Nea Dimokratia, or New Democracy party -- recently stepped down due to corruption allegations, and he is not the only one implicated. A number of high-ranking former ministers are also suspected of involvement in sham transactions and money-laundering schemes.

Corruption allegations still don't necessarily interfere with a political career in Greece, as exemplified by the case of the former prefect of Thessaloniki, Panagiotis Psomiadis. He allegedly personally received nearly €1 million for public works projects that were never built. Psomiadis is also suspected of being connected with a mafia ring of loan sharks. None of this has apparently damaged him. In May, Prime Minister Samaras made him his election campaign organizer for northern Greece.

"We are very bad now as a society. We have become bad. We are greedy and asocial," says Costas Bakouris, 75, chairman of Transparency International Greece. Bakouris sounds very different than many European politicians who suddenly find that things are taking a turn for the better in Greece. Now that it's clear that the creditors will continue to pay, he says people are turning a blind eye to the inevitable.

In reality, says Bakouris, an incompetent political class continues to govern the country -- the same people, the same story. For decades, they have created a sick system that permeates all segments of society.

Indeed, it's not just former ministers and parliamentarians who have squirreled away millions of euros of dubious origin in their bank accounts. Investigators even discovered €2.8 million -- none of which had been declared -- in an account belonging to the deputy mayor of a town of only 14,000 inhabitants in the Thessaly region. The man receives a monthly salary of approximately €1,500.

Conditions Ripe for Corruption

Greece's largest social security organization, IKA, has been used by many in the country as their personal piggy bank. The fact that IKA coffers are actually empty hasn't stopped department heads or low-level employees from continuing to transfer money to friends and relatives who are not entitled to receive any payments whatsoever. But even everyday citizens take advantage of the system: Of the supposedly 700 blind people on the island of Zakynthos, for instance, in reality there are only 60 who truly cannot see.

Thanks to such commonplace tricks, an estimated 40 percent of Greece's annual gross domestic product (GDP) still generates no revenues for state coffers, says Athens-based corruption investigator Leandros Rakintzis.

According to Transparency International's Costa Bakouris, Greece has all the right conditions for corruption: plenty of bureaucracy, no functioning justice system, laws with numerous loopholes -- and economic pressure. Bakouris was himself an entrepreneur and lived for 20 years in Switzerland. He says Greeks like him, who have lived abroad for many years, have the clearest perception of the problems in their homeland. Bakouris also briefly worked for the state as the managing director of preparations for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. After two years, he "more or less fired" himself. He says that he refused to accept that all bids -- whether they were for major infrastructure projects or for the carpeting in the Olympic village -- should be roughly three times as high as they were in Sydney, which hosted the games in 2000.

Bakouris doesn't believe that all the information on the lists will actually be investigated. Only one top politician has been sitting in jail awaiting trial for the past six months: former Defense Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos. He allegedly accepted many millions of euros in kickbacks for defense projects. Tsochatzopoulos, who denies all of the allegations, was a political protégé of socialist Andreas Papandreou, the founder of PASOK and the father of former Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou.

The legacy of corruption goes back generations. In the days when Papandreou the elder governed the country, after the story broke that the head of the state electricity provider had lined his own pockets with some 1.5 million drachmas, the prime minister reacted with the following quip: "We all agree, of course, that we are allowed to give ourselves a little present from time to time. But please don't make it too large."

Translated from the German by Paul Cohen