Attac study says where rescue funds for Greece end up

Πηγή: DW
June 17 2013

The anti-globalization pressure group Attac has published a study indicating that the bulk of the rescue funds made available for Greece have tended to go to help banks. Ordinary people haven't profited much, it said.

More than three quarters of all rescue funds for Greece went directly to banks and rich investors, German daily newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung" claimed Monday, quoting a fresh study by the anti-capitalist pressure alliance Attac.

The group said out of the 207 billion euros ($276 billion) earmarked so far by international creditors, 160 billion euros ended up with Greek lenders and investors.

"Political elites have not been trying to rescue the Greek population, but the finance sector," said Lisa Mittendrein from Attac Austria.

According to the calculations made by the pressure group, the government in Athens put 58 billion euros into the domestic bank's recapitalization program. Another 55 billion euros were used to pay back sovereign bonds and 11 billion euros more to buy back accumulated debt.

Berlin not amused

Attac maintained an additional 35 billion euros were spent with a view to sweeten the 2012 debt reduction scheme also known as the Greek haircut for affected insurance companies and investment funds.

The group also said that only a small proportion of the money that actually did reach the Greek state budget could be used do anything meaningful for the population, as 35 billion euros had to be spent on debt servicing for the holders of sovereign bond bills.

"The widespread belief supported by European politicians that the various rescue packages for Greece have helped ordinary people in the country is no longer tenable," Mittendrein commented. Instead, she argued, Greeks have been made to foot the bill in terms of harsh austerity measures with all the known drastic social consequences like record-high unemployment.

The German government rejected the conclusions made by Attac, arguing that Greeks have profited from the government in Athens having more time to implement reforms. Berlin also claimed that all Greeks had profited from saving lenders from bankruptcy.

German Intelligence Agency Looking Into Reports of Stolen Blueprints

Πηγή: New York Times

By NICHOLAS KULISH
Published: July 11, 2011

BERLIN — In a turn of events worthy of a spy novel, the German government said Monday that it had begun an investigation into reports that classified blueprints for its new billion-dollar foreign intelligence headquarters had been stolen.

A part of the site of Germany's new foreign intelligence headquarters in Berlin on Monday.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said the intelligence agency had established a commission working under “high pressure” to look into whether plans for its new headquarters in Berlin had been taken and, if so, how far-reaching the security breach had been.

“The government is keenly interested in clarifying the situation quickly,” Mr. Seibert said, adding that it took the matter “very seriously.”

The weekly news magazine Focus first reported that the classified building plans had been stolen, including those for the technical and logistics center that a former high-ranking official at the agency called the “beating heart” of the complex. According to the magazine, the plans included “the exact function of every single room, the thickness of each wall, the exact position of every toilet and every emergency exit and every security checkpoint.”

Wolfgang Bosbach, a leading member of Mrs. Merkel’s party, told the newspaper Saarbrücker Zeitung that it was “embarrassing to the highest degree that a secret service of all things would have secret documents stolen.” It is also an embarrassment for Mrs. Merkel’s government, which already was coping with severe criticism over the leaked news of a secret agreement to send 200 tanks to Saudi Arabia.

The German public television station ARD reported that the theft had taken place more than a year ago from the supposedly secure construction site and that the blueprints may have been taken on a USB stick. The core of the building may have to be redesigned as a result, ARD reported.

The government currently estimates the construction costs for the headquarters at $1.2 billion. With associated moving costs the total rises to about $2 billion. The building will be 2.8 million square feet and house 4,000 workers.

The newspaper Die Zeit had called it “the most expensive and secret building” in the country, though only the former remains a certainty at this point.

Since its creation in 1956, the headquarters of the foreign intelligence service, known by the initials BND, has been in Pullach, a small town near Munich.

The decision to move the headquarters was made in 2003, after the government re-evaluated its security priorities in light of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The construction site, near Berlin’s central train station, sits behind a nine-foot-tall fence. Signs warn against using cameras and cellphones and inform passers-by that they are being filmed.

Sabine Holder, who works in assisted-living apartments across Chausseestrasse from the site, called the reported theft “laughable.” The gigantic complex is “a symbol of strength when the money could be far better spent,” Ms. Holder said as she entered the subway.

It was another theft that preoccupied her, however, as the building blotted out her former view of the sky from work. “It stole our sunset,” she said.