Archive for February 6th, 2015

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06/02/2015

Troika Trojan Horse: Will Syriza Capitulate in Greece?

Human Wrongs Watch

By Pepe Escobar*

6 February 2015 (RT) — The 2015 Greek tragedy is a sorry (financial) remix of the Trojan War. But now the troika (ECB, EC, IMF) has replaced Greece, and Greece is the new Troy.

**Image: "Alexis Tsipras" by Lorenzo Gaudenzi - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

**”Alexis Tsipras” by Lorenzo Gaudenzi – Wikimedia Commons

It is now crystal clear the ECB will pull no punches to turn Greece into a European failed state. The rationale: others – from Spain to even, in the near future, France – must not entertain funny ideas. Toe the austerity line, or we’ll get medieval on you.

It was so predictable that the destiny of Athens – and in fact the euro – would ultimately rest in the hands of ECB Governor Mario ‘Master of the Universe’ Draghi, purveyor of the latest QE which in thesis will grant an austerity-ravaged Europe a little extra time to pursue ‘reforms’.

Some background is essential. The troika sold Greece an economic racket, but it’s the Greek people that are paying the price. Essentially, Greece’s public debt went from private to public hands when the ECB and the IMF ‘rescued’ private (German, French, Spanish) banks. The debt, of course, ballooned. The troika intervened, not to save Greece, but to save private banking.

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06/02/2015

Saudi Arabia, 9/11 and the “war on terror”

Human Wrongs Watch

By Patrick Martin*

6 February 2015 (WSWS) — More than 13 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, evidence in a federal lawsuit brought by relatives of the victims is a devastating exposure of events and relations long covered up and obscured by the media and political establishment: that Al Qaeda and the 9/11 hijackers were financed by the Saudi monarchy, a top US ally with extensive ties to US intelligence agencies.

**North face south tower after plane strike 9-11 | Author: Robert on Flickr | Wikimedia Commons

**North face south tower after plane strike 9-11 | Author: Robert on Flickr | Wikimedia Commons

Affidavits filed with Federal District Judge George P. Daniels substantiate claims that leading figures in the Saudi monarchy, including its longtime ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a nephew of the current Saudi monarch, King Salman, financially supported Al Qaeda.

The documents include a deposition from Zacarias Moussaoui, the only individual convicted of direct participation in the plot to hijack airplanes and fly them into the World Trade Center and other US targets on September 11, 2001.

Moussaoui testified that while working for Al Qaeda in Afghanistan in the 1990s he prepared a digital database of the group’s financial backers that included Prince Bandar and two other high-ranking Saudi princes: Prince Turki al-Faisal, the longtime head of Saudi intelligence, and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, chairman of the Kingdom Holding Company and the wealthiest member of the royal family.

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Posted in Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords | Leave a Comment »

06/02/2015

Sealing Borders ‘Will Continue to Fail on Massive Scale’ – UN Rights Expert Warns Europe

Human Wrongs Watch

Migrants will continue to arrive and stay in Europe “no matter what,” so the overall goal should be to ensure they use official channels to enter and stay, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants on 5 February 2015 said.

Migrants arriving on Italy’s Lampedusa Island after crossing the Mediterranean on a dilapidated boat. Photo: UNHCR/F. Noy

In 2014 more than 150,000 migrants and asylum seekers arrived in Europe by sea, compared with 80,000 in 2013, according to a press release issued today by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The Rapporteur, François Crépeau, at end of an official visit to Brussels to follow up on a study on the management of European Union (EU) external borders that was launched in 2012, warned: “Any attempt at sealing borders – as the nationalist populist discourse stridently calls for – will continue to fail on a massive scale.”

“Sealing international borders is impossible,” he said. “Migrants will continue arriving despite all efforts to stop them, at a terrible cost in lives and suffering if nothing else is put in place.”

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Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Middle East, The Peoples, War Lords | Leave a Comment »

06/02/2015

'World leaders too often choose to violate international law and set aside moral principles' – UN Rights Chief

Human Wrongs Watch

World leaders too often choose to violate international law and set aside moral principles, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on 5 February 2015 said, as he warned against “sinking into a state of paralysis” and called for a deeper form of education that equips people with moral courage to act toward one another with responsibility and care.*

High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein lights a candle in the Museum's Hall of Remembrance. Credit: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum | Photo: Miriam Lomaskin | UN

High Commissioner  lights a candle in the Museum’s Hall of Remembrance. Credit: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum | Photo: Miriam Lomaskin | Source: UN News Centre 

During his first visit to the United States in his capacity as the top UN human rights official, Zeid delivered a speech at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. – one week after the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz – emphasizing that education devoid of a strong universal human rights component can be next to worthless, especially in a crisis.

“What good was it to humanity that…eight out of 15 people who planned the Holocaust at Wannsee in 1942 held PhDs?” he asked. “In the years after the Holocaust, specific treaties were negotiated to cement into law obligations to protect human rights. Countries the world over accepted them – and now alas, all too frequently, they ignore them in practice.”

While it has been 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz extermination camp, some of the processes used by the Nazis to carry out humanity’s largest organized destruction are being implemented again today by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), explained Zeid.

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06/02/2015

Security Council Condemns 'in the Strongest Terms' Boko Haram Attacks along Chad-Cameroon border

Human Wrongs Watch

The United Nations Security Council 5 February 2015 condemned “in the strongest terms” the escalation of attacks perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists along the border between Cameroon and Nigeria, including back-to-back attacks this week that killed Chadian and Cameroonian troops, as well as “a sizeable number of civilians.”

Nigerian refugees fleeing attacks by insurgents on Baga town and surrounding villages, wait to be registered by UNHCR in Ngouboua, western Chad. Photo: Chadian Red Cross/Hachim Abdoulaye | Source: UN News Centre

The 15-member Security Council also urged countries in the region to enhance military operations and coordination to more effectively and immediately combat Boko Haram, which, after more than a year of large-scale deadly attacks in in northern Nigeria, has in recent weeks attacked villages in Cameroon, displacing thousands to neighboring countries and sparking fears that its insurgency was expanding beyond Nigeria.*

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