CNBC CONSERVATION FWDE KLEARK

CNBC CONSERVATION FWDE KLEARK

Greek: Death of Democracy

ENB File Photo Tsipras Faymann talking.

Greek: Death of Democracy
by Andreas C. Chrysafis - Jul 16, 2015

After last week’s referendum euphoria, authorizing the Tsipras administration to negotiate with creditors on the premise not to accept additional Memoranda, I felt proud to be Greek! I truly believed that Greece would shine again and protect the people against a cleptocratic banking system that has ruined the nation and brought misery to millions. I also believed that the Greek Gods are finally back to govern Greece and show the world what Direct Democracy is all about.

This new democracy promised to clean out the stables of a plutocratic elite and change things for the better but also protect citizens from the new world order, namely the IMF/ECB/EU Troika, which does not recognize parliamentary decisions, referendums or even the principle of democracy!

How could I have been so wrong and so blind not to see that all those fancy words were simply a charade? The astounding election of the Tsipras administration brought back the dignity and pride of the Greek nation and offered them hope for a better future, but sadly, those dreams were shattered in one night.

Just as the president of Cyprus claimed “they put a gun on his head” and had to sign the death warrant of democracy, so did Tsipras. Mr. Tsipras behaved even worse; he received people’s trust with an overwhelming mandate in a referendum – that was amazing! The whole world believed that this is democracy in action against injustice. Today citizens feel betrayed; betrayed by political charlatans who promise one thing and do the opposite in order to maintain the status quo.

The excuse: there was no other choice. Rubbish! The Greeks of 1821 faced worse catastrophe and won the day; the EOKA fighters in Cyprus faced a formidable enemy but did not give up and fought for justice. Today no one seems to fight for justice but deviously fight to protect a plutocratic elite and a cozy relationship of a corrupt system at the expense of ordinary citizens and the country.

Greece, the land that gave democracy to the world, has now become the land that has buried democracy for good in exchange of money.

From this day on, the EU will operate as a new world order that does not recognize the principle of democracy and will not allow dissent or any opposition to its policies; policies dictated by unaccountable bankers, the Eurogroup and unelected Eurocrats.

Greece has now lost its sovereignty as a free nation. And just like Cyprus, those economic assassins would never let go. They have now dug their sharp claws deep into the very psyche of the Greek nation and, as of this morning, the EU – but especially Germany – and the IMF gleam with joy for making the biggest political and economic coup in history to subjugate a nation and bloat their coffers with profits at the expense and misery of the Greek people and the new Greek generations not born as yet.

Today I certainly do not feel a proud Greek…!

- See more at: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/07/16/death-of democracy/#sthash. 2hd8vxtK. dpuf

கிரேக்க அடைமானம்

மகிந்த மைத்திரி உண்மைச் சித்திரம்

Daily Mirror LK Cartoon 17-07-2015

மகிந்தவின் மறு பிறப்பு!

==================================

புதிய ஈழப்புரட்சியாளர்களின் முன் அநுமானம் 

ஏப்ரல் 2015

=============================================

2015 மே நாள் முள்ளிவாய்க்கால் போர்வீரம் நீடூழி வாழ்க!

                                          கட்டுரையில் இருந்து:

`` பக்சபாசிஸ்டுக்களின் மீள்வருகைக்கான புறநிலை வாய்ப்புகள்:

1) இலங்கை அரசு இன ஒடுக்குமுறையின் மீது கட்டப்பட்டது,

2) பெரும்பான்மைச் சிங்கள மக்கள், சிங்களப்பேரினவாத பெளத்தமதவாதத்துக்கு பலியாக்கப்பட்டவர்கள்.

3) ``முப்பது ஆண்டுகால புலிப்பயங்கரவாத்திடமிருந்து`` நாட்டை மீட்டவர் ராஜபக்ச!

4) ராஜபக்ச ஒக்ஸ்பேர்ட் பல்கலைகழகம் உற்பத்தி செய்த தரகன் அல்ல, அவன் உள்நாட்டுத் தரகன்.

5) இலங்கை அரசியலில் என்றும் தீர்மானகரமான பாத்திரம் ஆற்றும் பெளத்த நிறுவன சமூக சக்திகளின் பலத்த ஆதரவு கொண்டவன்.

6) `ரணில்-சந்திரிக்கா-மைத்திரி-பொன்சேகா` கும்பல் அமெரிக்க இந்திய அந்நிய அரசுகளுடன் இணைந்து நடத்திய ஆட்சிக்கவிழ்ப்பு , `தேசபக்தன்` ராஜபக்சவுக்கு ஒரு பலமான தேர்தல் துரும்பாகும்.மகிந்த

ஒபாமாவைப்போல் எழுதியதைப் பேசும் கிளிப்பிள்ளையும்  அல்ல.

7) மைத்திரி கும்பலின் உலகமய இந்திய விரிவாதிக்க பொருளாதாராப் பாதை எவ்வகையிலும் பக்ச பாசிஸ்டுக்களின் பாதைக்கு மேலானது அல்ல.இதனால் ஒடுக்கப்படும் விவசாய உழைக்கும் மக்களை ராஜபக்ச தன் பக்கம் திரட்டிக்கொள்வான், நமது ஐக்கிய இலங்கை `இடது சாரிகள்` அதற்கு துணை நிற்பார்கள்.

8) ராஜபக்ச பலம் பெறும் போது மைத்திரியிடம் தாவிய `கொள்கைக் குன்றுகள்` மீண்டும் இரவோடு இரவாக பக்ச பாசிஸ்டுக்கள் பக்கம் தாவமாட்டார்கள் என்பதற்கு எந்த உத்தரவாதமும் இல்லை.

9) சிங்கள வாக்குகளின் அடிப்படையில் மகிந்த பெறத்தவறியது சிறு தொகை தான்.தமிழ் மக்களின் வாக்குகள் தான் மைத்திரியை ஜனாதிபதி ஆக்கியது, இதைத் தமிழ் மக்கள் மறக்க மாட்டார்கள்.

10) மைத்திரி வெற்றி பெற்றது ஜனாதிபதித்தேர்தலில், ஆனால் பொதுத் தேர்தலை சிறிலங்கா சுதந்திரக்கட்சி சந்தித்தாகவேண்டும்.

இவையெல்லாம் பொதுத்தேர்தலில் மகிந்த மீண்டெழுவதற்குள்ள புறவய வாய்ப்புகள் ஆகும்.

பக்ச பாசிஸ்டுக்கள் பலி கொள்ளப்படவில்லை, கிலி கொள்ள வைக்கப்பட்டிருக்கின்றார்கள், இதிலிருந்து அவர்களால் மீண்டெள முடியும், அதற்கான சமூக வேர்களும் புறச்சூழலும் உள்ளன! ``

2015 மே நாள் முள்ளிவாய்க்கால் போர்வீரம் நீடூழி வாழ்க!

German Chancellor Merkel on Deal: Greece Must Legislate Reforms by Wednesday

German Chancellor Merkel on Deal: Greece Must Legislate Reforms by Wednesday
by Philip Chrysopoulos - Jul 13, 2015

ENB:File Photo

Greece has to legislate in parliament the agreement text by Wednesday before it goes to other European parliaments for voting, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel coming out of a marathon summit of Eurozone leaders.

“Greece must pass the agreement text before the remaining parliaments. Greece must legislate prerequisites until Wednesday… We must be patient… Trust has been shaken recently… We have to go step by step with Greece… Confidence must be restored. Greeks have the responsibility for implementing what is decided. I have great faith in resuming negotiations. I think the pros outweigh the cons,” the German chancellor said on Monday morning after the meeting that started early in the evening on Sunday.

Greece has managed to get a prior agreement on a three-year bailout package worth over 80 billion euros.

- See more at: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/07/13/german-chancellor-merkel-on-deal-greece-must-legislate-reforms-by-wednesday/#sthash.wvcvchO5.dpuf

BREAKING: Greece Gets Bailout Deal at Euro Summit

BREAKING: Greece Gets Bailout Deal at Euro Summit
 Jul 13, 2015

After more than 15 hours of deliberation, the Eurozone’s leaders agreed to save Greece by keeping it in the Eurozone and offer the debt-ridden country a much needed bailout agreement.

The past two days the Greek delegation faced resistance on its proposals, particularly from Germany. After Sunday’s Eurogroup meeting, which took place a short while before the Eurozone Summit,  Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem submitted a list of 12 reforms that the Greek parliament would have to officially adopt by Wednesday so that negotiations for a European Stability Mechanism bailout package could continue.

The Summit was interrupted more than 4 times so Greek Prime Minister Tsipras could meet privately with French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Council President Donald Tusk.

The four officials discussed whether the International Monetary Fund would be part of the deal, the privatisation of 50 billion dollars of public property to be transferred in a fund in Luxembourg, the issue of the Greek debt and finally the liquidity of the Greek banks. Reports say that there were conflicting views on these matters.

Details of the deal have not been announced yet, but it is expected that Greece will have to go through another round of harsh austerity measures and those measures would have to be voted this week at the Greek parliament.

Also, several other national parliaments will need to give their approval, including the Greek parliament, says President Tusk.

Prior to the summit, Merkel had expressed her concern over the situation and noted that Greece has lost it trustworthiness.

- See more at: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/07/13/breaking-greece-gets-bailout-deal-at-euro-summit/#sthash.S5OxhhHN.dpuf

Germany Can Write Off Greek Debt Like Greece Did for Germany in 1953

Germany Can Write Off Greek Debt Like Greece Did for Germany in 1953
by Philip Chrysopoulos - Jul 9, 2015

Greece’s finance minister Constantinos Karamanlis signs the agreement for the German debt write off 1953 In London

Alexis Tsipras’ speech in the European Parliament on Wednesday touched on an issue that Germany has treated as a taboo during the lengthy negotiations between Greece and international creditors.

After Germany’s Manfred Weber, a member of the conservative CSU party, trashed the Greek prime minister accusing him of bringing Greece to the brink of bankruptcy and destroying confidence in Europe, Tsipras replied bringing up the issue Germany is dreading: That of the generous write off of the German debt in 1953.

Six decades ago, the Western allies decided to erase more than half of postwar Germany’s debt. This helped the country recover from the ruins of war and foster a prolonged period of prosperity.

“When we talk about solidarity you should remember 1953, when Germany, after two world wars, was left devastated and indebted. At the time, Europeans agreed to write off the vast majority of its debt and to put a development clause on the remaining debt. That’s solidarity!” Tsipras told Weber.

In 1953, an international conference was held in London during which the allies decided to write off more than 50 percent of West Germany’s debt that was accumulated after two world wars. The United States persuaded European allies, including Greece, to erase part of the debt and relinquish reparations in order to build an economically stable and secure Western Europe. The deal was part of the Marshall Plan, the U.S. program to rebuild European economies after World War II.

At the time, Constantinos Karamanlis was finance minister of Greece and he was the one who signed on its behalf the German debt write off deal. When he became prime minister in 1955, Karamanlis was the politician who started the procedures for Greece entering the European Economic Community, as the European Union was called at the time. Karamanlis managed to finish Greece’s accession to the EEC in 1979, during his fourth term as Greece’s prime minister.

“Tsipras is right to remind Germans how well they were treated, with both debt relief and money from the Marshall Plan,” said in January Professor Stephany Griffith-Jones, an economist at Columbia University.

The similarities between West Germany’s debt at the time and today’s Greek debt are numerous and significant. The International Monetary Fund stated that the Greek debt is not sustainable. Also, the Greek bailout must have growth clauses in order for the economy to come out of the slump. Thirdly, the Greek economy must be supported by international investments, and finally, Greek exports must be heavily supported by European lenders so that they have the incentive to get their money back.

It is time then for Germany, Greece’s biggest lender and Europe’s strongest economy, to show the same generosity poor Greece had shown in 1953 and write off part of its debt.

That’s solidarity.

- See more at: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/07/09/germany-can-write-off-greek-debt-like-greece-did-for-germany-in-1953/#sthash.Yq8ZQ2C6.dpuf

Greece : Max Keiser

Nuclear Talks: US Spin on Access to Iranian Sites Has Distorted the Issue

Photo: US Secretary of State John Kerry  is pictured during an Iran nuclear talks meeting with the Iranian Foreign Minister in Vienna. (AFP)

Nuclear Talks: US Spin on Access to Iranian Sites Has Distorted the Issue

By Gareth Porter
Global Research, July 06, 2015
Middle East Eye 5 July 2015

• AUSTRIA-IRAN-NUCLEAR-POLITICS
• Access to Iranian sites continues to be a thorny issue and the Americans may be playing a dirty game in the media

A public diplomacy campaign by the Obama administration to convince world opinion that Iran was reneging on the Lausanne framework agreement in April has seriously misrepresented the actual diplomacy of the Iran nuclear talks, as my interviews with Iranian officials here make clear.

President Barack Obama’s threat on Tuesday to walk out of the nuclear talks if Iranian negotiators didn’t return to the Lausanne framework – especially on the issue of IAEA access to Iranian sites — was the climax of that campaign.

But what has really been happening in nuclear talks is not that Iran has backed away from that agreement but that the United States and Iran have been carrying out tough negotiations – especially in the days before the Vienna round of talks began — on the details of how basic framework agreement will be implemented.

The US campaign began immediately upon the agreement in Lausanne 2 April.  The Obama administration said in its 2 April fact sheet that Iran “would be required” to grant IAEA inspectors access to “suspicious sites”.  Then Deputy Security Adviser Ben Rhodes declared that if the United States wanted access to an Iranian military base that the US considered “suspicious”, it could “go to the IAEA and get that inspection” because of the Additional Protocol and other “inspection measures that are in the deal”.

That statement touched a raw nerve in Iranian politics.  A few days later Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei insisted that Iran would not allow visits to its military bases as a signal that Iran would withdraw concessions it made in Lausanne. That reaction was portrayed in media as evidence that Iranian negotiators were being forced to retreat from the Lausanne agreement.

In fact it was nothing of the sort.  The idea that IAEA inspectors could go into Iranian military facilities at will, as Rhodes had suggested, was a crude oversimplification that was bound to upset Iranians.  The reason was more political than strategic.  “It is a matter of national dignity,” one Iranian official in Vienna explained to me.

The Iranian negotiators were still pushing back publicly against Rhodes’s rhetoric as the Vienna round began.  Iranian Deputy Foreign Miniser Abbas Aragchi appeared to threaten a reopening of the provisions of the Lausanne framework relating to the access issue in an interview with AFP Sunday. “[N]ow some of the solutions found in Lausanne no longer work,” Araghchi said, “because after Lausanne certain countries within the P5+1 made declarations.”

But despite Araghchi’s tough talk, Iran has not reversed course on the compromise reached in Lausanne on the access issue, and what was involved was a dispute resolution process on the issue of IAEA requests for inspections.  In interviews with me, two Iranian officials acknowledged that the final agreement will include a procedure that could override an Iranian rejection of an IAEA request to visit a site.

The procedure would allow the Joint Commission, which was first mentioned in the Joint Plan of Action of November 2013, to review a decision by Iran to reject an IAEA request for an inspection visit. The Joint Commission is made up of Iran, the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) and the European Union.

If this Joint Commission were to decide against an Iranian rejection, the IAEA could claim the right to access even to a military site, despite Iran’s opposition.

Such a procedure represents a major concession by Iran, which had assumed that the Additional Protocol to Iran’s “Safeguards” agreement with the IAEA would have governed IAEA access to sites in Iran.  Contrary to most media descriptions, that agreement limits IAEA inspection visits to undeclared sites to carrying out “location-specific environmental sampling.”  It also allows Iran to deny the request for access to the site, provided it makes “every effort to satisfy Agency requests without delay at adjacent locations or through other means.”

The dispute resolution process obviously goes well beyond the Additional Protocol. But the Obama administration’s statements suggesting that the IAEA will have authority to visit any site they consider “suspect” is a politically convenient oversimplification. Under the technical annex to the Lausanne agreement that is now under negotiation, Iran would have the right to receive the evidence on which the IAEA is basing its request, according to Iranian officials.  And since Iran has no intention of doing anything to give the IAEA valid reason to claim suspicious activities, Iranian officials believe they will be able to make a strong argument that the evidence in question is not credible.

Iran has proposed that that the period between the original IAEA request and any inspection resulting from a Joint Committee decision should be 24 days.  But that number incensed critics of the Iran nuclear deal.  Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who is unhappy with the whole idea of turning the decisions on inspections over to a multilateral group that includes adversaries of the United States, has criticized the idea of allocating 24 days to the process of dispute resolution.

Under pressure from Corker and Senate Republican opponents of the nuclear deal, the US negotiating team has been demanding a shorter period, Iranian officials say.

The determining factor in how the verification system being negotiated would actually work, however, will be the political-diplomatic interests of the states and the EU who would be voting on the requests.  Those interests are the wild card in the negotiations, because it is well known among the negotiators here that there are deep divisions within the P5+1 group of states on the access issue.

There are divisions within the P5+1, especially over aspects of what the Security Council should be doing, on how sanctions would be lifted and on access [verification regime]. “We can say with authority that they have to spend more time negotiating among themselves than negotiating with us,” one Iranian official said.

Even as Obama was publicly accusing Iran of seeking to revise the basic Lausanne framework itself, US negotiators were apparently trying to revise that very same framework agreement itself.  A US official “declined to say if the United States might agree to adjust some elements of the Lausanne framework in return for new Iranian concessions,” according to a New York Times report.

The Americans may have been doing precisely what they were accusing the Iranians of doing.
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Gareth Porter is an independent investigative journalist and winner of the 2012 Gellhorn Prize for journalism. He is the author of the newly published Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye. 

- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/us-spin-access-iranian-sites-has-distorted-issue-1989199085#sthash.XHdm9Ygy.dpuf

Greek Referendum: Greece voters give a resounding No to creditors' austerity plans

யார் இந்தக் கிரேக்க கந்து வட்டியாளர்கள்!

Greek  creditors  who are they?

ENB Doc From Bloomberg 

Greek Referendum: Greece voters give a resounding No to creditors' austerity plans

By Joe Millis July 6, 2015 00:57 BST  Updated 4 hr ago 

Eurozone leaders have had to learn a new Greek word – Oxi, meaning "No" – after the country's voters delivered a resounding snub to its creditors' cash-for-reforms bailout proposals.

Asked: "Do you accept the outline of the agreement submitted by the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund at the Eurogroup of 25/06/15" – 61.31% of Greeks said No, while 38.69% responded in the affirmative.

As thousands of Greeks celebrated in Athens' central Syntagma Square, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who called the 5 July referendum, praised a "historic, brave choice" by Greek voters.

He added: "The mandate you've given me does not call for a break with Europe, but rather gives me greater negotiating strength.

"We know that there are no easy solutions but there are fair and viable solutions, as long as both sides have the will," he said. "We showed that even under the most difficult circumstances, democracy can't be blackmailed."

His Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, dressed a grey T-shirt, told the nation that the country's creditors had planned to humiliate Greeks and to close the country's banks.

Greek referendum 5 July
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis arrives to make a statement in Athens, Greece July 5, 2015. Greeks voted overwhelmingly "No" on Sunday in a historic bailout referendum, partial results showed, defying warnings from across Europe that rejecting new austerity terms for fresh financial aid would set their country on a path out of the euroReuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

"Today's 'no' is a big 'yes' to democratic Europe," he said. "The ultimatum has been returned to those who sent it," Varoufakis said. "Unfortunately over the past five months, creditors refused all substantial negotiations," he said.

"From tomorrow, with the brave 'No' that the Greek people gave us, we will offer a helping hand to our creditors, we will call on them one by one. From tomorrow, Europe, whose heart tonight beats in Greece, starts healing its wounds, our wounds," he added.

In response, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande called a special Eurozone summit for Tuesday 7 July to discuss the fallout and a future course of direction.

And European Council President Donald Tusk agreed, calling a eurozone summit. "I have called a euro summit Tuesday evening at 1800 [1700 BST] to discuss situation after referendum in Greece," Tusk tweeted.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will hold a conference call with Tusk, Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on the Greek situation on 6 July, the Commission said.