Butler Shaffer LewRockwell.com
May 13, 2011
I got into a discussion with a friend today over the bin Laden
assassination. She opined that it was good that he was taken out so
summarily, given all the plans he had for more attacks on Americans.
“How do you know this is so?,” I asked. “They found his diary in his
house, detailing what he had in mind,” she replied. “And do you believe this
to be true? Do you simply accept the government’s assertions on this
point?” “But this was contained in his diary,” my friend insisted. “And
do you know whether bin Laden — or, perhaps, someone else — actually
wrote this? Don’t you recall the forged documents, lies, faked
photographs, etc., used by the Bush administration to try to convince us
that Saddam Hussein had ‘weapons of mass destruction’ — which he
intended to use — in order to justify a war against Iraq? Do you think
the Obama administration is above using similar deceitful tactics?” My
friend just stared at me.
When will we begin to take seriously the words of George Carlin, who said “I never believe anything the government tells me”?
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer
–
Thu May 12, 3:12 pm ET
NEW YORK – The White House said it is ending its
long-running practice of having presidents re-enact televised speeches
for news photographers following major addresses to the country, a
little-known arrangement that fed suggestions of fakery when Barack
Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden.
After Obama's live, late-evening address from the
East Room of the White House on May 1, five photographers were ushered
in to shoot pictures as the president stood at the podium and re-read a
few lines of his speech — a practice that news organizations have
protested for years.
Even though The Associated Press and other news
outlets said in captions to the photos that they were taken after the
president delivered his address, many people who saw them may have
assumed they depicted the speech itself. That raised questions of
whether news organizations were staging an event.
The issue also drew attention when Jason Reed of
Reuters, one of the photographers who took part, blogged about the
assignment, saying the president "re-enacted the walkout and first 30
seconds of the statement for us."
This week, the White House stepped in.
"We have concluded that this arrangement is a bad
idea," Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said late Wednesday. He said the
administration is open to working out some new arrangement with
photographers.
The practice of re-enactments has a long history.
Washington veterans say President Harry Truman would deliver speeches
over radio and then repeat them for newsreel cameras. Doug Mills, a
photographer for The New York Times who was on duty May 1, said he has
seen every president from Ronald Reagan to Obama take time after a
speech so still photographers could get their shots.
Photographers know that for these major televised
addresses, delivered from the White House without an audience,
newspapers and websites expect to illustrate their stories with a
picture of the president speaking. News organizations disdain White
House handout photos, preferring to take the pictures themselves. They
consider "screen grabs" from television to be of poor quality.
Yet the presence of still photographers with cameras
that make noise can be a distraction to a president, particularly in
cramped settings such as the Oval Office, and perhaps to viewers of the
speech.
"All it takes is for some photographer to drop
something and the president react to it, and it looks terrible on
television," Mills said.
The AP, in the photo captions transmitted with
pictures shot by Pablo Martinez Monsivais, said: "President Barack Obama
reads his statement to photographers after making a televised
statement" on bin Laden's death. Despite that, a survey by the
journalism think tank Poynter Institute found that 30 of 50 newspaper
front pages that used an Obama photo from the speech "implied or
strongly suggested it was an image of the live address."
Santiago Lyon, director of photography for the AP,
said the news service "would welcome real-time access to these sort of
addresses in a way that maintains our journalistic independence."
The White House usually has an official photographer
on duty, and the administration's Pete Souza took pictures of the
president's real speech that night. But news organizations generally
resist using handouts unless necessary — as was the case with the
official photos of the White House Situation Room during the mission
that killed bin Laden.
Also, the role of the official White House
photographer is to show presidents in a good light. For example, if a
president were to shed a tear or get visibly angry during a speech, it
might make a great news photo, but probably not one the White House
staff would want to circulate.
Don Winslow, editor of News Photographer magazine for
the National Press Photographers Association, said the White House
offered a pool arrangement for national addresses, where one
photographer would be chosen and would agree to distribute a photo to
colleagues, but news organizations rejected it.
David Ake, assistant AP bureau chief for photography
in Washington, said the White House has not approached the AP with the
idea. But he said single-photographer pools allow only one point of
view.
"There are examples every day of the variety of
pictures made when several photographers are present for a news event,"
Ake said. "Single-photographer pools stifle the creativity created by
competition among several photographers to make the best storytelling
image."
There are conflicting accounts on whether technology
exists to take photographs without distracting the president. One idea
could be using mirrors so photographers could do their jobs out of the
president's sight line, the White House's Earnest said.
"We're optimistic that we can work out another arrangement with the still photographers," he said.
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
May 13, 2011
You have to wonder what on earth the Obama administration hopes to
achieve by continually insulting the intelligence of the American
people, after the official narrative behind the alleged Bin Laden raid
was changed yet again, presumably in a desperate effort to counter the revelation that the White House “situation room” photos were staged.
After first claiming that Navy SEALS recorded the entire 40 minute
raid of the alleged Bin Laden compound live on their head cameras, CIA
Director Leon Panetta subsequently backtracked, saying the video feed
was cut off when the SEALS entered the building, but now the official
narrative has been reversed yet again with the claim that SEALS did in
fact record the whole episode. According to a CBS News report,
“The 40 minutes it took to kill bin Laden and scoop his archives into
garbage bags were all recorded by tiny helmet cameras worn by each of
the 25 SEALs.”
This mirrors the first version of the narrative which preceded the
release of “situation room” photos that purported to show Barack Obama,
Hillary Clinton and White House security staff watching the raid
unfold live. In one photo, Clinton is show with her hand over her mouth
as if anxiously reacting in shock to what she is witnessing.
At the time, the corporate media reported that these images represented the moment when “The leader of the free world saw the terror chief shot in the left eye.”
However, CIA Director Leon Panetta subsequently revealed that there was a 25 minute blackout when the live feed was cut,
and that Obama and Clinton saw nothing of the raid after the SEALS
had entered the compound. This led to accusations that the “situation room” photos were staged, which prompted Hillary Clinton to claim that the dramatic ‘hand over mouth’ image was in fact merely her coughing.
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
But now the story has flipped yet again, into its third incarnation,
going back to the first claim that there was no blackout of the video
feed. Presumably in a few days the story will be changed a fourth time
when the White House is presented with a new anomaly that it can’t
properly explain.
This is ridiculous. The narrative behind the raid has flip-flopped
so many times that it makes you wonder if the White House is
deliberately attempting to convolute the story to generate cognitive
dissonance in the minds of the American people as part of some kind of
psychological warfare tactic.
The official narrative of how the raid unfolded completely collapsed
within days of its announcement. First there had been a 40 minute
shootout, then there was no shootout and just one man was armed, first
Bin Laden was armed then he was not, first Bin Laden used his wife as a
human shield and then he did not. First the compound was described as
a “$1 million dollar mansion” then it turned out to be a
rubbish-strewn dilapidated compound that was worth less than a quarter
of that. Almost every single aspect of the official narrative has
changed since Obama first described the raid last Sunday as the White
House struggles to keep its story straight.
The CBS story also highlights the implausible notion that Bin Laden
would just leave “what amounts to the keys to his terrorist kingdom
just lying around his compound in plain sight,” with video tapes and
dastardly terror plans readily available.
The fact that the White House instantly broadcast these tapes and
divulged the sordid details of Bin Laden’s alleged personal diary,
emails and terror plots to terrify the American people into accepting
more police state measures is proof itself that the information was part
of the larger fable carefully crafted for public consumption. Stock up with Fresh Food that lasts with eFoodsDirect (Ad)
If the US government had genuinely found information that could lead
them to capture Al-Qaeda terrorists, they wouldn’t broadcast it to
the world and give those terrorists ample opportunity to change their
locations and plans – unless it was all just part of a faked
psychological assault on the American people. As we have documented,
the inconsistencies, paradoxes and lies concerning the raid are
almost overwhelming, which is why the White House keeps having to
flip-flop the story in a transparently desperate attempt to get all its
ducks in order.
— Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show.
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
May 23, 2011
The head of the National Transitional Council’s executive bureau,
Mahmoud Jebril, met with Tom Donilon, Obama’s national security adviser,
and other senior officials, the White House said in a statement, Reuters reports today.
So-called “Arab Spring” is a false flag and Libya the ultimate target, researcher claims.
It was reported that Obama signed a presidential “finding” approving covert aid in the last two or three weeks, according to officials.
Jibril is the U.S. educated, self-proclaimed prime minister of the
Libyan Republic, one of two artificial entities claiming to represent
the people of Libya. His government has been recognized as the “sole
legitimate representative” of Libya by France, Portugal,The United
Kingdom and Qatar, but, at the current time, recognition has not been
given by the great majority of United Nations member states. Jibril
shares the NATO backed Libyan opposition with CIA asset Khalifa Hifter.
Another rebel leader, Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, admitted in March his faction is associated with al-Qaeda. Mr. al-Hasidi told the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore
his fighters “are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists,” but added
that the “members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting
against the invader.”
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
Al-Hasidid was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or
LIFG, which killed dozens of Libyan troops in guerrilla attacks around
Derna and Benghazi in 1995 and 1996.He also fought in the CIA’s war in
Afghanistan.
During the course of 2007, writes Webster Tarpley,
the LIFG declared itself an official subsidiary of al-Qaeda, later
assuming the name of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. As a result of
this 2007 merger, an increased number of guerrilla fighters arrived in
Iraq from Libya. In 2008, Ayman al-Zawahiri claimed that the Libyan
Islamic Fighting Group had joined al-Qaeda.
Jibril argued that the U.S. should give his group around $180 million
in funds stolen from Muammar Gaddafi when it arranged to invade the
country under humanitarian cover.
The meeting follows one held in London between Mustafa Abdel Jalil
and British Prime Minister David Cameron. Jalil served as Gaddafi’s
justice minister. In addition to pledging funds, Cameron said Britain
would boost its presence in the rebel stronghold carved out of Benghazi,
where British diplomats are now based. Stock up with Fresh Food that lasts with eFoodsDirect (Ad)
Cash from the United States and Britain will ensure that the
so-called Libyan opposition remains in the clutches of the West and the
carved out entities in Libya function as puppet states.
Earlier today, NATO bombed Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli for a second time in a week. The attack came hours after a defiant Gaddafi appeared on state television.
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
May 13, 2011
According to ABC News, the U.S. discovered a plot to kill Obama in the million or so pages supposedly taken from Osama’s mansion in Pakistan.
“U.S. officials are analyzing one million pages of data from the
trove found in Osama bin Laden’s compound during the raid that killed
him, and say they have learned more in the past ten days than in the
past 10 years,” ABC claims.
In order to portray the terror group named after a Mujahideen database as ruthless, the U.S. also claims al-Qaeda wants to murder Obama’s 88 year old Kenyan step-grandmother, Sarah Obama.
“There is no doubt that when it comes to the American people,” said
Obama, “that after having killed bin Laden there may be a desire on some
al Qaeda members to exact revenge and that’s something that we have to
be vigilant about and we’re monitoring all these situations.”
Obama and the government have yet to provide evidence they
assassinated Osama bin Laden. Like the claim by the government that
Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction – a claim that later
turned out to be cynical war propaganda with no basis in fact – the assertion that Navy SEALs and the CIA targeted and killed the al-Qaeda leader who died in late 2001 has no basis in fact.
One of the reactors at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant likely suffered a substantial meltdown of its core, operator Tokyo Electric Power
Co. said Thursday, offering a fresh assessment of the reactor that
suggests it came closer than the operator had previously revealed to a
catastrophic meltdown.
Japan agrees to bail out Tepco as news
develops that a nuclear reactor suffered a partial meltdown in the
Fukushima plant. And in the latest effort to rein in inflation, China
orders banks to raise reserve ratios. WSJ's Jake Lee and Peter Stein
discuss.
It is likely that the fuel rods that form the
core of Reactor No. 1 had more than half melted in March, Tepco
spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said Thursday. That assessment came after
Tepco this week determined that both of the vessels that surround the
reactor core may be damaged, leaking water that is supposed to be
keeping the core cool.
The reactor core is still contained inside
those vessels, Mr. Matsumoto said, and the temperature is stable. That
indicates the accident didn't reach the most severe level, where fuel
rods melt through those vessels and release massive amounts of
radioactive material to the outside.
The findings raise a host of questions
about the chain of events that led to the damage and have implications
for future plant regulation in Japan and beyond. It also suggests that
radioactive water has leaked into the reactor's basement in
greater-than-believed quantities, likely dealing additional delays to
the stricken plant's cleanup.
Tepco's assessment came after workers entered the reactor building
this week and fixed a faulty water-level gauge. They determined that the
reactor's pressure vessel—the cylindrical steel container that houses
the fuel rods—had only about half the level of cooling water as
previously thought.
That suggested Reactor No. 1 is likely more severely damaged than
Tepco believed and could be leaking large amounts of highly radioactive
water. It also shows that the area enclosing the fuel rods wasn't mostly
submerged in cooling water, as Tepco had thought, but was instead high
and dry.
The finding spurred experts to ask whether leaks or holes could have
been caused by the 9-magnitude earthquake that struck Japan's
northeastern coast on March 11. Tepco has said the damage at Fukushima
Daiichi resulted from the subsequent tsunami, which cut power to the
plant's cooling systems, causing reactor temperatures and pressure to
rise to damaging levels.
If it turns out that Reactor No. 1's vessels were in fact damaged by
the quake, that would lead to a wholesale review of earthquake standards
for nuclear plants, warned Ken Nakajima, a professor of nuclear
engineering at the Research Reactor Institute, Kyoto University.
In the U.S., 23 reactors have designs similar
to the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi site. Findings about possible
damage caused by the earthquake, independent of the tsunami, will be
incorporated into an analysis of seismic hazards in the eastern and
central U.S. being conducted by NRC, said Scott Burnell, spokesman for
the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Some U.S. experts said Tepco simply has acknowledged what U.S.
nuclear experts already believed was the case—that severe core damage
has occurred which allowed radioactive material to migrate outside the
thick steel walls of the pressure vessel. One indication of this
breakdown in normal protective barriers has been the high radiation
readings in the containment area and reactor building.
Previously, Tepco officials had said they believed there had been
"damage" to the fuel rods but didn't specify what that meant. On
Thursday, for the first time, officials conceded that the fuel rods
likely had "melted," crumbled or changed shape, and that the fuel had
probably fallen from its casings.
The nuclear industry lacks a technical definition for a full
meltdown, but the term is generally understood to mean that radioactive
fuel has breached containment measures, resulting in a massive release
of fuel.
Tepco engineers estimate that 90% of the fuel is still in the inner
pressure vessel and that there are no cracks or obvious ruptures to the
outer containment vessel, where Mr. Matsumoto said the rest of the fuel
is likely contained. So the risk of a large radioactive release of fuel
is minimal, he said.
Tepco workers checked a
water-level indicator Tuesday at Fukushima Daiichi's Reactor No. 1, in a
photo released by the company Thursday.
The operator of Japan's stricken nuclear plant
is using remote-controlled robots inside reactor buildings damaged by a
hydrogen explosions to gauge radiation and temperature levels. Video
courtesy of AFP and image courtesy of Associated Press.
In response to a question about whether the
situation could be described as a "meltdown," Mr. Matsumoto said that if
the definition is that the fuel rods melt and lose their shape, "that
is fine."
Soon after the March 11 quake and tsunami knocked out the plant's
cooling systems, temperatures in the No. 1 reactor likely rose to more
than 2,000 degrees Celsius, experts have said, well above the point at
which the metal casings of the fuel rods would begin to melt. The fuel
pellets inside would start melting at 2,800 degrees, potentially fusing
into a dangerous large mass. Tepco estimates the fuel rods in the No. 1
reactor have been 55% destroyed, making it the worst-damaged of the
plant's six reactors.
The temperature in the pressure vessel now hovers around 100 to 120
degrees Celsius, indicating progress in the cooling effort, Mr.
Matsumoto said.
The tops of the four-meter-long fuel rods reach a little more than
nine meters from the bottom of the pressure vessel; past data suggested
the water was eight meters deep, enough to mostly submerge them. When
workers entered the reactor building this week and corrected the water
gauge, it told them the depth was just four meters.
If the rods were intact, that would leave them dry. But Mr. Matsumoto
said he believes that some of the fuel slid down and is likely sitting
in water.
A top U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission official expressed concern
Thursday with potential structural problems at a stricken Japanese
nuclear plant. "The reliability of instrumentation complicates our
understanding of the exact plant conditions at any given time," said
Bill Borchardt, the commission's executive director of operations.
Thursday's news signals likely delays as Tepco figures out how to
deal with possible leaks. Tepco has injected 10.4 million liters of
cooling water into the Reactor No. 1 vessel so far, much of which the
company says it now suspects has been leaking from the pressure vessel
and the larger beaker-shaped containment vessel that surrounds it.
That water is likely accumulating in the basement of the reactor
building, where radiation levels are still too high for anyone to enter.
If so, Tepco would need another huge operation to collect and
decontaminate the water, similar to one already conducted at Reactor No.
2.
"The biggest challenge for us is how to repair damaged parts of the containment vessel," Mr. Matsumoto said.
Tepco and regulators have a six-to-nine-month road map to bring all
the reactors to a state of cold shutdown and end the continued release
of radiation that has forced mass evacuations from the area.
Since May 6, the company has tried to flood the No. 1 containment
vessel with enough water to submerge the pressure vessel and bring the
temperature of the fuel inside to a safe temperature. Tepco will have to
revise its plans to fill the reactor unit with water, since that
requires the containment vessel be whole.
Workers would have to fix any leaks in the containment vessel before
the pressure vessel could be submerged, Mr. Matsumoto said. That
presents problems too, since the area around the containment vessel is
highly radioactive, meaning that workers can't be there for long.
—Ryan Tracy in Washington contributed to this article.
Write to Phred Dvorak at phred.dvorak@wsj.com and Rebecca Smith at rebecca.smith@wsj.com
INDIANAPOLIS | Overturning a common law dating back to the
English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled
Thursday that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police
entry into their homes.
In a 3-2 decision, Justice Steven David writing for the court
said if a police officer wants to enter a home for any reason or no
reason at all, a homeowner cannot do anything to block the
officer's entry.
"We believe ... a right to resist an unlawful police entry into
a home is against public policy and is incompatible with modern
Fourth Amendment jurisprudence," David said. "We also find that
allowing resistance unnecessarily escalates the level of violence
and therefore the risk of injuries to all parties involved without
preventing the arrest."
David said a person arrested following an unlawful entry by
police still can be released on bail and has plenty of
opportunities to protest the illegal entry through the court
system.
The court's decision stems from a Vanderburgh County case in
which police were called to investigate a husband and wife arguing
outside their apartment.
When the couple went back inside their apartment, the husband
told police they were not needed and blocked the doorway so they
could not enter. When an officer entered anyway, the husband shoved
the officer against a wall. A second officer then used a stun gun
on the husband and arrested him.
Professor Ivan Bodensteiner, of Valparaiso University School of
Law, said the court's decision is consistent with the idea of
preventing violence.
"It's not surprising that they would say there's no right to
beat the hell out of the officer," Bodensteiner said. "(The court
is saying) we would rather opt on the side of saying if the police
act wrongfully in entering your house your remedy is under law, to
bring a civil action against the officer."
Justice Robert Rucker, a Gary native, and Justice Brent Dickson,
a Hobart native, dissented from the ruling, saying the court's
decision runs afoul of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution.
"In my view the majority sweeps with far too broad a brush by
essentially telling Indiana citizens that government agents may now
enter their homes illegally -- that is, without the necessity of a
warrant, consent or exigent circumstances," Rucker said. "I
disagree."
Rucker and Dickson suggested if the court had limited its
permission for police entry to domestic violence situations they
would have supported the ruling.
But Dickson said, "The wholesale abrogation of the historic
right of a person to reasonably resist unlawful police entry into
his dwelling is unwarranted and unnecessarily broad."
This is the second major Indiana Supreme Court ruling this
week involving police entry into a home.
On Tuesday, the court said police serving a warrant may enter a
home without knocking if officers decide circumstances justify
it. Prior to that ruling, police serving a warrant would have to
obtain a judge's permission to enter without knocking. Copyright 2011 nwitimes.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A TSA agent waits for passengers to pass through a magnetometer at
Los Angeles International Airport on November 22, 2010 in Los Angeles,
California. (credit: David McNew/Getty Images)
Updated: Thursday, 12 May 2011, 11:45 AM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 11 May 2011, 4:55 PM EDT
Matt Caron
ORANGE, Mass. (WWLP) - A civil rights
controversy is brewing at an elementary school in the Town of Orange,
and it all surrounds an11 year-old's drawing of the American Flag.
The
family of Frankie Girard is claiming that their son's civil rights were
violated after a teacher allegedly told him that hanging his picture of
the American flag would offend another student.
The Butterfield
Elementary School is at the center of controversy for the incident on
Monday. According to Frankie Girard’s father, John, the boy was in art
class drawing a picture.
"He was denied hanging the flag up. And,
he asked if he could just even hang it on his desk, and he was told
no. He could take the picture that he drew and take it home and be
proud of it there,” Girard said.
So, that is where it is, among
the hundreds of other family pictures and military honors that adorn the
walls of the Girard family home.
According to his father, the
teacher told Frankie that his drawing of the American Flag would offend
one of his classmates. "We’re allowing him to display his civil rights
and be proud of who he is, but we’re denying Franklin those same
rights," Girard said.
22News tried to contact the Superintendent,
Dr. Paul Burnim. He refused to go on camera, but told 22News over the
phone that nobody ever told Franklin the drawing was offensive, and said
the only reason it wasn't hung was because Franklin was supposed to be
doing other work; not drawing a picture. In a statement he said: "Each
of our schools flies the American Flag every day. At the Butterfield
School, the Pledge of Allegiance is recited by students and staff. And
the other schools recite the Pledge of Allegiance at least once per
week."
The controversy is stirring heated debate within the Town
of Orange. "I served 15 years in the military so that we could hang the
flag wherever we wanted to, so I'm very offended," Faith Sullivan of
Orange said.
A Facebook group called “I support Frankie Girard and the U.S. Flag” already has about 700 likes in two days.
The
superintendent told 22News that Frankie's father is "going to extremes"
and that the school has always respected the American Flag.
Frankie's father told 22News that he is so outraged that he placed a call to the American Civil Liberties Union.
By Christiaan Hetzner and Dina Kyriakidou
–
Fri May 13, 6:18 am ET
FRANKFURT/ATHENS (Reuters) – Despite bailouts for
Greece, Ireland and Portugal, Europe's debt crisis may yet spread to
core euro zone countries and emerging Eastern Europe, the International
Monetary Fund said on Thursday.
The stark warning came as government sources in Athens said
international inspectors checking on Greece's compliance with its EU/IMF
rescue package had found problems and were pressing for deeper spending
cuts to cover a likely revenue shortfall.
"Contagion to the core euro area, and then onward to emerging Europe,
remains a tangible downside risk," the global lender's latest economic
report on Europe said.
A Reuters poll of investors and economists showed an overwhelmingly
majority believe Greece will restructure its debt, possibly as soon as
later this year. Most fund managers expect Athens to pay back less than
half of what it owes.
The IMF said it stood ready to provide more aid to Greece if requested,
but the country that triggered Europe's sovereign debt crisis in 2009
still had plenty of untapped potential to raise extra cash itself though
privatizations.
Finance ministers of the 17-country single currency area are set to
approve a 78 billion euro ($109 billion) rescue plan for Portugal next
Monday after Finland's prime minister-in-waiting clinched a deal to
ensure parliamentary approval of the package.
But markets are increasingly concerned that Greece will never be able to
repay its 327 billion euro debt and will have to restructure, forcing
losses on investors with severe consequences in the euro zone and
beyond.
Asked whether there could be new aid package to help Greece work through
its fiscal recovery program, Antonio Borges, the IMF's European
department director, said the fund was open to the possibility.
"The Greeks have to take the initiative, and so far they have not
approached us. The IMF stands ready (to provide additional support) as a
matter of policy," he told reporters.
The semiannual IMF report said peripheral members of the euro zone
needed to make "unrelenting" reform efforts to overcome the debt crisis
and prevent it spreading further.
It also urged the European Central Bank to tread carefully on further
rises in interest rates after last month's first increase since 2007,
saying euro zone monetary policy could "afford to remain relatively
accommodative."
GREECE YIELDS SOAR
Borges said the program of austerity measures and structural reforms
agreed a year ago was "probably the best thing that can happen" to
Greece, though there was always the question of whether it was too
ambitious.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde reiterated on Thursday that Greece would not need to restructure its debt.
"What I rule out is restructuring. There is no question about it," Lagarde told the BBC's Newsnight.
Speaking on the same program, British finance minister George Osborne
said Britain should not be involved in future discussions on a further
Greek bailout since it was not part of the original euro zone package
and is not a euro zone member.
The Socialist government has implemented harsh cuts in public spending,
public sector wages and pensions but struggled to raise revenue due to
deep recession and chronic tax evasion. A general strike in Greece on
Wednesday highlighted growing resistance to austerity.
Greek sovereign bond yields hit fresh euro-era highs on a belief that
euro zone finance ministers will not deliver fresh aid for Athens next
week. The yield on two-year Greek bonds rose to an eye-watering 27
percent.
By contrast, Portuguese and Irish yields eased after the Finnish deal on aid to Lisbon removed one political uncertainty.
The euroskeptical True Finns party, which scored big gains in last
month's general election by opposing a Portuguese bailout, said it would
not take part in talks to form the next Finnish government.
Reuters polls showed that among 28 mainly sell-side economists and 15
fund managers only three said a restructuring could be avoided.
Nearly 60 percent of fund managers expecting a restructuring said it
would eventually mean a "haircut," in which bondholders are forced to
take a loss. The median expectation was for a 55 percent cut in the face
value of bonds.
Among the economists -- who for the most part do not have to make buy or
sell decisions -- nearly half expected an eventual haircut, but by a
smaller 40 percent.
Officials from Greece, the European Commission and ECB have repeatedly rejected any talk of debt restructuring.
TROIKA DISQUIET
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told parliament in Berlin he
saw considerable concern about Greece and doubts about its ability to
return to capital markets.
Any fresh aid would have to be tied to clear conditions and could only
be considered after EU and IMF inspectors, now in Athens, report on
Greek compliance with its fiscal adjustment program, he said.
Signs of disquiet have begun to emerge from the EU/IMF/ECB troika mission, government sources in Athens said.
"They are forming an opinion that there are difficulties," said one
senior government official who requested anonymity. "They are concerned
there is a high risk revenue targets will not be met and are pressing
for more spending cuts."
The inspectors' assessment is vital to next month's decision on whether
Athens receives the next 12 billion euro ($17.27 billion) tranche of its
110 billion euro EU/IMF bailout. Without it, Greece could effectively
default.
Ireland and Greece are already dependent on 52.5 billion euros of IMF
aid while Portugal is awaiting a 26-billion-euro three-year lifeline
from the fund.
Banks in the troubled countries are being kept above water by unlimited
ECB liquidity, and the IMF said the central bank might need to extend
that system again beyond June 12.
($1=0.6948 Euro)
(Additional reporting by Jeremy Gaunt and Emilie Sithole-Matarise in
London, Annika Breidthardt in Berlin; writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by
Gary Crosse)
THE ROVING EYE Let's start by invoking a
Western cultural icon, Dante; "Abandon all hope ye
who enter here" - because international law as we
know it has just been delivered a stake through
its heart. The "new" sociopolitical Darwinism
entails humanitarian neo-colonialism, targeted
assassinations - extrajudicial executions - and
drone wars, all carried out in the name of a
revamped white man's burden.
In the
whirlwind of lies and hypocrisy engulfing the
Osama bin Laden hit job, the key justice-related
fact is how an unarmed man, codename "Geronimo",
was captured live then summarily
executed in front of one of
his daughters - after a lightning-quick invasion
of a theoretically "sovereign" country.
As
for the quagmire war waged by the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) against Libya, the fact
is that Western public opinion was fed a military
attack against a sovereign country that has
committed no violation of the United Nations
charter. Talk about a wolf - neo-colonialism - in
sheep's clothing - "humanitarian war".
At
the heart of the matter is the concept itself of
international law - adopted by all "civilized"
nations, as well as what constitutes a just war.
Yet for Western ruling elites this is just a
detail; there has been no high-level debate on the
implications of an United Nations-justified NATO
war whose ultimate - and always unstated -
objective is regime change.
Tomahawk
Darwinism
The dirty operation in northern
Africa reveals itself to be even nastier when it
has been proved that the war on Libya was
initially conceptualized by dubious French
interests; that Saudi Arabia delivered a fake Arab
League vote for the US because it wanted to get
rid of Muammar Gaddafi and at the same time have a
free hand in smashing pro-democracy protests in
Bahrain; that Libya offers the perfect possibility
for the Pentagon's Africom to have an African
base; that a dodgy bunch of "rebels" hijacked
legitimate protests, with Gaddafi defectors,
al-Qaeda-linked jihadis and exiles such as Central
Intelligence Agency asset General Khalifa Hifter,
who had lived for nearly 20 years in Virginia,
taking over.
The going got even nastier
when one learned that on March 19 the
Washington/London/Paris financial elites
authorized the Central Bank of Benghazi to have
its own - Western dictated - monetary policy,
unlike the state-owned, and fully independent,
Libyan national bank in Tripoli; Gaddafi wanted to
get rid of both the US dollar and the euro and
switch to the gold dinar as an African common
currency - and many governments were already on
board.
The war on Libya has been globally
sold under the slogan R2P - Responsibility to
Protect - a "new" humanitarian imperialist concept
that in Washington was brandished with relish by
three Amazon cheerleaders; US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, US ambassador to the UN Susan
Rice and presidential adviser Samantha Power.
Large swathes of the developing world -
the real "international community", not that
fiction in the pages of Western mainstream media -
saw it for what it is; the end of the concept of
national sovereignty, as in a clever "reframing"
completely blurring the original Article 2,
Section 1 of the UN Charter principle of sovereign
equality of states.
They saw that the
"deciders" on R2P were exclusively Washington and
a bunch of European capitals. They saw that Libya
was slapped with NATO bombing - but not Bahrain,
Yemen or Syria. They saw the "deciders" made no
effort whatsoever to negotiate a ceasefire inside
Libya - ignoring plans by Turkey and the African
Union (AU).
And power players Moscow and
Beijing of course could not fail to see that R2P
could be invoked in the case of unrest in Tibet
and Xinjiang - and the next step would be NATO
troops inside Chinese territory. Same to what
concerns Chechnya - with the additional Western
hypocritical factor that Chechens have for years
been armed by NATO via al-Qaeda-linked networks in
the Caucasus/Central Asia.
Even South
American players could not fail to see R2P invoked
in the long run for a "humanitarian" NATO
intervention in Venezuela or Bolivia.
So
this is the new meaning of "international law":
Washington - via Africom or NATO - intervenes
anyway, with or without a UN Security Council
resolution, in the name of R2P, and everyone keeps
silent on collateral damage, on bombing a regime
while denying the objective is regime change, on
not helping boatloads of refugees stranded in the
Mediterranean.
As for why Gaddafi gets the
boot while the al-Khalifas in Bahrain, Saleh in
Yemen and Bashar al-Assad in Syria get away with
it - that's simple; you're not an evil dictator if
you're one of "our" bastards - that is, play by
"our" rules. The destiny of "independents" such as
Gaddafi is to become toast. It helps if you
already have a key US military base in your
country - as with the al-Khalifas and the US 5th
Fleet.
If the al-Khalifas were not US
lackeys and there was no US military base,
Washington would have no problems selling an
intervention in favor of the peaceful, largely
Shi'ite pro-democracy protesters against a ghastly
Sunni tyranny which needs the House of Saud to
repress its own people.
Then there are the
legalese aspects. Imagine putting Gaddafi on
trial. Martial court or civil court? A kangaroo
court - a la Saddam Hussein – or offering him all
the "civilized" means to defend himself? And how
to prosecute crimes against humanity beyond
reasonable doubt? How to use testimonies obtained
under torture, sorry, "enhanced interrogation"?
And for how long? Years? How many witnesses?
Thousands?
It's much easier to solve it
all with a Tomahawk - or a bullet in the head -
and then call it "justice".
Butler Shaffer 
INDIANAPOLIS | Overturning a common law dating back to the
English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled
Thursday that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police
entry into their homes.
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