by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
March 30, 2014
The US is prepared to plunge Europe into a war with Russia in order for Washington to preserve its hegemony over the transatlantic axis.
Europe
The West Hell Bent On Starting World War III, Part 2 by Felicity Arbuthnot
by Felicity Arbuthnot
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London, England
March 30, 2014
“One of the delightful things about America is that they have absolutely no historical memory.” (Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, 1898-1976)
More verbiage, Russia has taken a “dark path”; Vice President Joe Biden said in Poland last week that those who rely on “aggression and fear” are bound to fail. Indeed, think Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, the overthrow of a democratically elected government in Iran, the gradual current slinking from Afghanistan after approaching a thirteen year reign of terror; creeping from Iraq in the dead of night after eight years of murder, decimation, torture and infanticide, followed by enjoining the destruction of Libya and, as Iraq, murder of the country’s leader.
Banking Union Time Bomb: Eurocrats Authorize Bailouts AND Bail-Ins by Ellen Brown
by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
March 29, 2014
“As things stand, the banks are the permanent government of the country, whichever party is in power.”
– Lord Skidelsky, House of Lords, UK Parliament, 31 March 2011)
On March 20, 2014, European Union officials reached an historic agreement to create a single agency to handle failing banks. Media attention has focused on the agreement involving the single resolution mechanism (SRM), a uniform system for closing failed banks. But the real story for taxpayers and depositors is the heightened threat to their pocketbooks of a deal that now authorizes both bailouts and “bail-ins” – the confiscation of depositor funds. The deal involves multiple concessions to different countries and may be illegal under the rules of the EU Parliament; but it is being rushed through to lock taxpayer and depositor liability into place before the dire state of Eurozone banks is exposed. Continue reading
Fact Sheet: U.S. Efforts in Support of NATO Allies and Partners
Propaganda Alert!
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
March 26, 2014
The United States has a solemn commitment to the collective defense of all NATO allies. As has been true since we signed the Washington Treaty in 1949, we will respond if the security or territorial integrity of our allies is violated. We also have built constructive security and defense cooperation with Ukraine and other members of NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP) over the past two decades to help build a Europe that is whole, free, and at peace.
Western Unity Against Russia a Masterpiece of Illusion by Finian Cunningham
by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from Strategic Culture Foundation
March 27, 2014
Image by Tom Jutte via Flickr
When US President Barack Obama opened his tour of Europe this week it had the unmistakable choreography of a scripted set piece: lights, camera, action etc. The storyline is a familiar trope. America, the shining beacon of democracy and human rights, comes to the rescue of European damsels in distress just before they are ravaged by bestial European recidivism for war.
US Policy of Isolating Russia and Expanding NATO Is a Dismal Failure by Rodrigue Tremblay
by Rodrigue Tremblay
The Code for Global Ethics, March 4, 2014
March 7, 2014
“Every state is condemned to follow a policy dictated by its geography.” — Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
[NATO’s goal is] “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.” — Lord Ismay, first NATO Secretary-General
“Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.” — James Madison (1751-1836), fourth American President
State of Europe: How the European Round Table of Industrialists Came to Wage Class War on Europe by Andrew Gavin Marshall
by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Writer, Dandelion Salad
andrewgavinmarshall.com
Originally posted at the Transnational Institute, 21 January 2014
February 26, 2014
In its third annual ‘State of Power’ report, TNI uses vibrant infographics and penetrating essays to expose and analyse the principal power-brokers that have caused financial, economic, social and ecological crises worldwide.
In my contribution to the ‘State of Power’ report (and in cooperation with Occupy.com), “State of Europe: How the European Round Table of Industrialists Came to Wage Class War on Europe,” I examine the role of a major corporate interest group in shaping the policies of the European Union.
Africa’s Bad Omen of World War by Finian Cunningham
by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
January 22, 2014
Image by S. Phelps/UNHCR Photo Download via Flickr
This week the world rewound more than a century – with the announcement that the European Union is to send troops to Central Africa.
This development has ominous resonance with how imperial rivalry historically played out in Africa and which eventually led to world war.
The Strategic Importance and Location of the Ukraine Makes it a Prime Assault Path on Russia by Finian Cunningham
by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from Strategic Culture Foundation
December 16, 2013
Picture this: top aides of Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with Chinese and Iranian leaders Xi Xiping and Hassan Rouhani, are dispatched from their respective countries to join with anti-austerity protesters in New York, London, Paris or Brussels. These foreign dignitaries then go on to make public statements endorsing the violent occupation of government buildings on Washington’s Capitol Hill and the other Western capitals.
Global Power Project: The Group of Thirty, Architects of Austerity by Andrew Gavin Marshall
by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Writer, Dandelion Salad
andrewgavinmarshall.com
Originally published on Occupy.com
December 11, 2013
The Group of Thirty, a preeminent think tank that brings together dozens of the world’s most influential policy makers, central bankers, financiers and academics, has been the focus of two recent reports for Occupy.com’s Global Power Project. In studying this group, I compiled CVs of the G30′s current and senior members: a total of 34 individuals. The first report looked at the origins of the G30, while the second examined some of the current projects and reports emanating from the group. In this installment, I take a look at some specific members of the G30 and their roles in justifying and implementing austerity measures.
Genetically Modified Politicians by Lesley Docksey
by Lesley Docksey
Writer, Dandelion Salad
England
Originally published by The Ecologist, Nov. 24, 2013
November 27, 2013
Image by Malachy Shields Photography via Flickr
The official UK government policy on genetically modified (GM) crops is “precautionary, evidence-based and sensitive to public concerns”. Who are they kidding?
My heart always sinks when, listening to the BBC’s Today programme, someone from the Department for International Development starts talking about the “international food crisis”, and the starving people in all those poor undeveloped countries (the ones we helped to pauper with our empire building).
Global Power Project: Central Bankers and the Institute of International Finance, Part 3, by Andrew Gavin Marshall
by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Writer, Dandelion Salad
andrewgavinmarshall.com
Originally published on Occupy.com
October 30, 2013
In Part 1 of the Global Power Project exposé on the Institute of International Finance, I examined the origins and evolution of an organization representing the interests of global banks. In Part 2, I looked at the role played by the IIF and its leadership during the European debt crisis. In this third and final part in the series, I examine the relationship between the IIF and global central bankers.
Since the early 1990s, the IIF has been heavily involved working with central bankers, particularly through the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland, where private bankers have been granted a powerful position determining their own regulations in international financial markets. Continue reading
Secret Trade Agenda Threatens Shift Toward Sustainable Food System by Karen Hansen-Kuhn + Promises and Perils of the #TTIP
Image by campact via Flickr
by Karen Hansen-Kuhn
www.iatp.org
October 24, 2013
After being delayed by the U.S. government shutdown, talks for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are quietly gearing up again. Tariff barriers between the U.S. and EU are already low, so these negotiations are focused squarely on achieving “regulatory coherence.” Continue reading
Global Power Project: Connecting Josef Ackermann, the Institute of International Finance and the Euro Debt Crisis, Part 2, by Andrew Gavin Marshall
by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Writer, Dandelion Salad
andrewgavinmarshall.com
Originally published on Occupy.com
October 24, 2013
In Part 1 of a Global Power Project exposé on the Institute of International Finance (IIF), I examined the founding the institute as a response by leading world banks to organize and manage their interests in relation to the 1980s debt crisis. When the European debt crisis hit headlines in 2010, the IIF was again on the scene and playing a major part. At the center was the CEO of Deutsche Bank, Josef Ackermann.
Josef Ackermann served as CEO of Deutsche Bank from 2002 to 2012, and over the same period served as Chairman of the IIF. Ackermann was also, and still remains, a member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group and continues to serve on the IIF’s Group of Trustees, a board which includes a number of prominent central bankers including Christian Noyer, the Governor of the Bank of France and Chairman of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS); Jamie Caruana, the General Manager of the BIS; and Jean-Claude Trichet, who was the president of the European Central Bank from 2003 to 2011.
Trade Secrets – Draft EU Documents Reveal Trade Agenda With U.S. by Karen Hansen-Kuhn (TTIP)
Image by campact via Flickr
by Karen Hansen-Kuhn
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
July 3, 2013
Transparency and trade negotiations don’t seem to go together these days. Recent revelations in Spiegel disclosed that the U.S. government had been spying on its EU “partners” connected to negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP, probably better stated as the Trans Atlantic Free Trade agreement, or TAFTA, which very much rhymes with NAFTA). The French and German governments are outraged, with some parliamentarians calling for a suspension of the talks, slated to start next week in Washington, D.C.
Dandelion Salad 