Greek diet needs more ingredients

A final decision on the long awaited second lifeline for Greece has been put off till next week. Eurozone finance ministers are asking for an extra €325 million of savings in 2012. This has caused concern to investors and driven down Russian indices.
Both the RTS and the MICEX finished Friday’s session in the red, down 2.13% and 1.07% respectively. Germany’s DAX also lost 1.5%, with American indices going down an average of 1%.
That’s after Jean-Claude Juncker, the chairman of the Eurogroup said they wouldn’t give out more money to Greece till its MPs pass the package of cuts and reforms on Sunday, as well as guarantee they’ll back the measures after the elections, which are scheduled for April. The country also needs to provide an additional €325 million in “structural expenditure reductions” by Wednesday, Juncker added. If those conditions are met, Eurozone finance ministers could give the green light to a bond-swap deal with private creditors to cut Greece's debt by some €100 billion at their next meeting on Wednesday, he added.

Anti-ACTA day: Angry crowds take action

The world has witnessed an unprecedented day of protests against ACTA. Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in dozens of cities around the globe to protect what is left of the freedom of expression on the internet.
­Protesters from over 200 European cities consolidated their efforts to hold rallies across Europe. The controversial ACTA treaty was signed by the majority of European countries and now there is a battle to dissuade parliaments from ratifying the agreement.
Massive strikes took place in Germany with organizers saying that a total of some 100,000 people have gathered in many cities across the country, including Berlin, Hanover, Hamburg, and Cologne. Just the previous day Germany put on hold its joining the ACTA treaty after its Justice Ministry decided to wait until the issue is discussed in the European parliament.

Anonymous took down cia.gov

Traditionally known as F*ckFBIFriday, this weekend's eve turned into F*ckCIAFriday, as hacktivists downed the official website for the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States cia.gov.
­At approximately 3:10 p.m. Eastern time one of twitter accounts related to the hackers' group announced "cia.gov DOWN. #UMAD?#Anonymous." 
The CIA website became the latest victim in a series of attacks conducted by the elusive group of hackers against US law enforcement agencies and copyright holders. As RT reported earlier, Anonymous took credit for crashing the websites of the US Department of Homeland Security, which was quickly revived, and the FBI.
The CIA seems to be less prepared for fighting Anonymous than other agencies. If the work of dhs.gov was revived in mere minutes, the CIA's site was still down even hours after the attack. One of the twitter accounts affiliated with Anonymous explained the reasons of the attack: "We do it for the lulz," referring to the popular online abbreviation "for laughs."

Syrian Muslim Brotherhood Secretary General Rejects Iran And Doesn’t Trust Hezbollah

The Syrian issue entered a critical juncture after the Syrian government refused the solution offered by the Arab League in order to put an end to the killing machine and stop the situation from moving further toward a full scale war.

This development came along with the regional and international efforts to convince Russia to change its position on Syria after the failure of all previous initiatives to contain the situation under the Arab League umbrella.

In Turkey, the foreign minister of which stated “Should the Syrian regime continue to kill its people and refuse all the Arab solutions, the door to intervention by the United Nations will certainly open, which Turkey will then not hesitate to support,” USAK expert Ali Hussein Bakeer conducted an interview with the Secretary General of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Riad al-Shaqfa, who is currently staying in Istanbul.

Shabaab formally joins al Qaeda

Shabaab and al Qaeda have announced their formal merger, according to a video disseminated online today and translated by the SITE Intelligence group. In the video, Mukhtar Abu al Zubayr (a.k.a. Ahmed Abdi Aw Mohamed or Godane), the emir and cofounder of Shabaab, pledges his organization's allegiance to al Qaeda, and Ayman al Zawahiri, the emir of al Qaeda, accepts.
"O our beloved Emir, on behalf of my brothers in al Shabaab al Mujahideen Movement, commanders and soldiers, I say: We give allegiance to you to follow the Book of Allah and the Sunnah [traditions] of His Messenger, to listen and obey in good and bad, to have altruism and not dispute with people in their fields except when we see clear unbelief that is proven in the revelation from Allah as much as we can," Zubayr says in his address to Zawahiri, according to SITE's translation."Lead us on the path of martyrdom and jihad, on the steps drawn by our martyred Imam Usama [bin Laden]," Zubayr adds.

Moscow and the formation of The New World System

Some bet, as it used to be, that a change in the Russian stance towards the Arab Region will occur and will be similar to what had taken place concerning the Iraqi or Libyan affair. However, a insightful analysis of the Russian stance will rule out such a notion for the following considerations:

The Russian regression is not possible in the world of today given that Moscow sees in current events, and in confronting the West; the Europeans and Americans, an opportunity for the crystallization of a new world order that surpasses the world order (which cannot be considered an order) that prevailed in the Post-Cold War and Collapse of the Soviet Union; an order represented by the unipolarity and shifted towards non-polarity after the 2006 Lebanon war.

The Syrian Dictatorship Prepares for Chemical Warfare

The civil war in Syria escalates almost every week as rebel forces grow stronger and Bashar Assad and his Iranian-backed thugs grow in ruthlessness. And now, chemical weapons have been reportedly delivered near the rebel stronghold of Homs and the regime’s forces in the area are putting on gas masks.

 

The Assad regime is not deterred by international condemnation resulting from the bloody images out of Syria, where over 7,000 citizens have been murdered. This is a regime that deliberately targets children, systematically tortures prisoners in ways fit for a horror movie and returns the battered corpses of 13-year old boys with missing fingernails and genitals.

Greek Police Union Seeks Arrest Warrants for EU, ECB Officials

The Greek police officers’ union called for arrest warrants to be issued for European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund officials negotiating austerity measures for a national debt bailout.
The Greek Federation of Police Officers said in a published letter it will ask for arrest warrants for former European Commission representative Servaas Deroose, the IMF’s Poul Thomsen and the ECB’s Klaus Masuch. Under Greek law, arrest warrants must be issued by an appellate court prosecutor, a police spokesman in Athens said today, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with official regulations.
“We warn you that we will demand, as legal representatives of the Greek police according to Greek law, that warrants for your arrest are immediately issued,” according to the letter published on the union’s website.
The police union accuses officials of the so-called troika -- which is negotiating austerity measures in Greece in exchange for a second bailout -- of extortion, promoting the elimination of Greece’s democracy and national sovereignty and insulting the country.

Cyberwar

15,000 elite Iranian special-ops 'head' to Syria

Financial holocaust looms as Germany storms Greece

Good Guns, Bad Guns? US arms in reach of Syria rebels

Eurozone Sets New Conditions for Greek Bailout

Eurozone finance ministers on Thursday night agreed to attach additional conditions to Greece’s 130-billion-euro bailout deal and postponed the final decision until next Wednesday, the meeting’s chairman said on Friday.

Finance ministers from the 17 euro countries met on Thursday night in Brussels for discussions on the bailout package for Greece, which is teetering on the brink of financial collapse.

“We did not have all the elements necessary for making decisions on the table today,” Jean-Claude Juncker, who chaired the meeting, said.

He named three requirements for Greece to secure the bailout: firstly, Greece needs additional 325 million euro ($432 million) in savings for 2012, secondly, the Greek parliament will have to pass the package of cuts and reforms and thirdly, Greek political forces should guarantee that the austerity measures will continue to be implemented regardless of the outcome of April’s elections.

Syria: On the Brink of War?

The Syrian situation appears to be moving to the new qualitative stage – the brink of war. Those who plan attacking Iran see the Basar Assad’s overthrow as a preliminary step. The vеtо imposed by Russia and China on the UN Security Council’s draft resolution opening a way to intervention in Syria gave rise to a storm of intimidations by the USA and its allies against Moscow. It’s imperative to meet the assault with rapid and tough response because the intervention threat is not gone. Countries rather exotic for the world politics arena like Qatar, for instance, followed the example of the USA and Germany intimidating Russia. 

Oil war in South Atlantic: Great Britain vs. Latin America

Buenos-Aires and other cities of Argentina have many monuments dedicated to the officers and men, who died on the Malvinas Islands. Hundreds of shields along the Argentinean roads carry a single line: Las Malvinas son Argentinas (Las Malvinas belong to Argentina). All the participants of that war of a long ago are regarded as national heroes… 

At present a new escalation of tension between Argentina and Great Britain is being intensively discussed in the media. Does it mean that Las Malvinas (the Folkland Islands for Great Britain) may become the theater of war again? In the current situation a new war may become even fiercer – the reserves of the oil and gas fields which were discovered on the shelf of the archipelago are comparable with the reserves of the oil fields in the North Sea. The British experts, who estimate the reserves at 60 billion barrels, are probably lowering the real figure in order not to tease Argentine people.

Checkbook Diplomacy Doesn’t Apply to the United States

The United States, Australia, and New Zealand and their ally in Tbilisi, Mikheil Saakashvili, are upset that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently visited Fiji. The fear from Washington, Canberra, Wellington, and Tbilisi was that Lavrov was going to offer Fiji lucrative financial assistance in return for the South Pacific nation’s recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The two countries broke away from Georgia, triggering a war between Georgia and Russia in 2008.

While the Obama administration is cautioning Fiji about recognizing the independence of the two secessionist republics in return for economic aid from Moscow, something Washington calls Taiwan-style “checkbook diplomacy,” it is more than happy to reward other countries with special incentives if they recognize the independence of America’s creation in the Balkans that was severed from Serbia, Kosovo.

Muslim Brotherhood Demands Military Cede Power in Egypt

The Muslim Brotherhood demanded Thursday that Egypt’s military rulers cede control of the government, stepping closer to a long-anticipated confrontation between the ruling generals and the Islamist-dominated Parliament. In a statement on its Web site and a television interview with one of its senior leaders, the Brotherhood called for the military to allow the replacement of the current prime minister and cabinet with a new coalition government formed by Parliament, which would amount to an immediate handover of power.

The Brotherhood, the formerly outlawed Islamist group that now dominates Parliament, had previously said it was content to wait for the June deadline by which the generals had pledged to turn over power, which they seized with the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak last year. And signs were accumulating of a general accord between the military and the Brotherhood over the terms of a new constitution expected to be ratified before the handover. The Brotherhood’s shift comes on the eve of the Feb. 11 anniversary of Mr. Mubarak’s downfall, when other activists around the country have called for a general strike to demand the end of military rule — a call the Brotherhood has previously resisted.

US admits Israel is arming and training terrorist groups in Iran

Zetas Extort Guatemalans via Long Distance Calls

The Zetas have been blamed for a wave of extortions committed against Guatemalans from Mexico, which, if true, could illustrate the drug gang's deepening interest in the Central American country. Authorities in Guatemala are concerned about a recent series of extortion schemes involving families with relatives visiting or working in Mexico. Guatemala’s Prensa Libre reports that victims claim the culprits are members of the Zetas, although the paper does not provide any corroborating evidence for this claim.

Shining Path Political Party Opens Old Wounds in Peru

A movement linked to the Shining Path guerrillas has been blocked from registering as a political party in Peru, stirring up old resentments decades after the end of the civil conflict. Some 20 years after the capture of Shining Path leader Abimael Guzman, whose Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) guerrillas were responsible for tens of thousands of murders in the 1980s and 1990s, a political movement linked to the group is trying to enter mainstream politics. On January 20, Peru’s electoral council blocked the Movement for Amnesty and Fundamental Rights (Movadef) from becoming a registered political party. The council cited various shortcomings in the application, including doubts about the validity of signatures collected, and said that the group was not committed to democracy.

What Jalisco's Constellation of Gangs Shows about Mexico

As Excelsior reported, General Genaro Fausto Lozano pointed to six gangs fighting for control of Jalisco: the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (CJNG, for its initials in Spanish), the Resistance, the Caballeros Templarios, the Familia Michoacana, and the Beltran Leyva Organization.

The absence of the Zetas from this list is striking. If Lozano is correct in excluding them, this would mark a sudden shift in the local landscape, but logic suggests it was simply an oversight by the military commander. Last fall, the Zetas were blamed for the massacre of dozens of youths, whose bodies were left inside a truck parked in the middle of Guadalajara. In October, an Excelsior reporter rode along with a military detachment as they searched for Zetas (and other gangs) along the Zacatecas-Jalisco border region. And last year, an article by two government officials, one of whom was Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire, detailed the incursion of the Zetas into the region as far back as 2010.

Blood Brothers: The alliance between Mexican cartels and U.S. gangs may be the most serious threat to our national security

Like the unwanted dandelions that sprout in lawns, cartel and gang partners continue to adapt and survive. Whatever code of conduct that may have restrained them in the past has disappeared. Their terrible acts of violence and cruelty continue to escalate. The systematic corruption of our police, courts and political system is their goal. Those who they cannot corrupt, they murder. Journalists, police, judges, soldiers, religious leaders, women and children are all potential victims. When they work together, the cartel-gang alliance is a serious threat to our national security.

U.S. street and prison gangs have done business with Mexican drug traffickers since the 1920s. No one gang or Mexican cartel had exclusive agreements with one another. It was basically a free market, but some of the larger more powerful gangs began forming alliances in Mexico.

In the 1970s, California's Mexican Mafia prison gang members such as Joe "Pegleg" Morgan cultivated friendships with Mexican nationals while serving time with them in state and federal prisons. One such connection was Jesus "Chuy" Arajo, a trafficker with connections to Mexican suppliers.

Disaster in the making: IMF recipe leads Greeks to starvation

Greek politicians' last minute agreement on fresh austerity plans hasn't exactly been greeted with open arms. A 48-hour strike has been called by the country's two major labour unions. And Eurozone member states say they will put even more conditions on Greece before handing over a second bailout. The journalist Stylianos Chrysostomidis says the situation in the country is deteriorating and the consequences could be dangerous.
Robert Oulds - chair of the London based think-tank Bruges Group, believes that it's the European currency itself pushing Greece to the edge.

Argentina Appeals To UN Over British Military Buildup In South Atlantic

On February 7 Argentine President Cristina Fernandez accused Britain of militarizing the South Atlantic Ocean by deploying a cutting-edge warship and a nuclear-powered submarine off the coast of the Falklands Islands, known to Argentina and the rest of Latin America as Las Malvinas. She pledged to seek assistance at the United Nations to remove British military forces from the region, warning that the heightened British military presence risks a potential clash between the two countries. London recently announced that it was dispatching the HMS Dauntless, a Type 45 destroyer, Britain's newest and most advanced warship, to the Falklands as well as a Trafalgar class nuclear-powered submarine equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles and Spearfish torpedoes. Another Type 45 destroyer, HMS Daring, was recently deployed to the Persian Gulf where two U.S. aircraft carriers, USS Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln, and their strike groups are also deployed, with the USS Enterprise carrier strike group to join them. The British destroyer and submarine will reinforce Typhoon warplanes of the sort used against Libya last year, an air base with radar, a patrol frigate and a garrison of 1,700 soldiers, the latter almost the number of civilian inhabitants of the Falklands. The deployment of Prince William on a military mission to the islands late last week further antagonized Argentina, with President Fernandez describing the royal scion as being garbed in the "uniform of a conquistador."

New Military Coalitions directed against Syria and Iran: Leading U.S. Officials Flock To Bulgaria Amid Mideast War Threats

U.S. Secretary of State visited Bulgaria on February 5 to discuss that nation's contribution to NATO's war effort in Afghanistan, the intensification of joint military training and exercises, pressuring the host country into dropping Russian-made arms in favor of Western ones and the further sabotaging of energy deals - natural gas and nuclear - between Bulgaria and Russia.

The topic of ongoing developments in the Middle East was also discussed. In 2006 Clinton's predecessor Condoleezza Rice secured the use of several military bases in the nation, including the Graf Ignatievo and Bezmer air bases. A year earlier a similar arrangement was reached with neighboring Romania for the use of the Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base near Constanta on the Black Sea. The latter was employed by the Pentagon for the 2003 invasion of Iraq and since for the war in Afghanistan.

Vladimir Putin and Russia's "White Revolution"

All the meticulous plotting to avoid Ukraine’s Orange Revolution resulted in -- Russia’s very own coloured one. But Russia is not Ukraine... 

Russia’s electoral scene has been transformed in the past two months, without a doubt inspired by the political winds from the Middle East and the earlier colour revolutions in Russia’s “near abroad”. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s casual return to the presidential scene was greeted as an effrontery by an electorate who want to move on from Russia’s political strongman tradition, and to inject the electoral process with ballot-box accountability. 

SYRIA: CIA-MI6 Intel Ops and Sabotage

“In order to facilitate the action of liberative (sic) forces, ...a special effort should be made to eliminate certain key individuals. ...[to] be accomplished early in the course of the uprising and intervention, ...

Once a political decision has been reached to proceed with internal disturbances in Syria, CIA is prepared, and SIS (MI6) will attempt to mount minor sabotage and coup de main (sic) incidents within Syria, working through contacts with individuals. ...Incidents should not be concentrated in Damascus …

Further : a “necessary degree of fear .. frontier incidents and (staged) border clashes”, would “provide a pretext for intervention... the CIA and SIS [MI6 should use … capabilitites in both psychological and action fields to augment tension.” (Joint US-UK leaked Intelligence Document, London and Washington, 1957)

“'The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history." (George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair, 1903-1950.)

For anyone in two minds about what is really going on in Syria, and whether President Assad, hailed a decade ago as “A Modern Day Attaturk”, has become the latest megalomaniacal despot, to whose people a US-led posse of nations, must deliver “freedom”, with weapons of mass, home, people, nation and livelihood destruction, here is a salutary tale from modern history.

Tunisia: Decision to Expel Syrian Ambassador Sparks Heated Debate

On February 1, 2012, Tunisia, the birthplace of the so-called Arab Spring, has started procedures to expel the Syrian Ambassador in Tunis, and to withdraw recognition of the Syrian regime. That move followed the deadly assault launched on the city of Homs on Friday night, and which resulted in hundreds of deaths according to the Syrian National Council.
The Presidency of the Republic of Tunisia, said in an official statement published on its Facebook page [ar]:

تونس التي تدين إدانة مطلقة كل الجرائم التي يرتكبها النظام السوري في حق الشعب السوري الشقيق منذ أزيد من تسعة أشهر،.. معتقدة أن هذه المأساة لن تعرف طريقها إلى الحل إلا بتنحي نظام بشار الأسد عن الحكم في دمشق وفسح المجال لانتقال ديمقراطي للسلطة يحقق للشعب السوري الشقيق … كما تعلن تونس عن الشروع في الإجراءات العملية والترتيبية لطرد السفير السوري من تونس وسحب أي اعتراف بالنظام الحاكم في دمشق.

Tunisia, which has been condemning the the crimes committed by the Syrian regime in the right of the brotherly people of Syria for over nine months…believes that this tragedy will not end unless Bashar Al Assad's regime gives up power to pave the way for a democratic transition that ensures security for the brotherly Syrian people…Besides, Tunisia announces the launch of procedures for the expulsion of the Syrian ambassador in Tunisia and the withdrawal of all recognition of the regime in power in Damascus

Hungary: Goodbye, Malév!

Malév, Hungary's state airline since 1946, ceased operation on February 3, 2012, due to bankruptcy. According to news reports, even the airline's employees were informed about the shutdown just an hour or so in advance. Some passengers learned the news when they tried to check in at the Budapest Liszt Ferenc Airport. Hungarian citizens were shocked by the news, because even though the national carrier’s bad financial situation was well-known, Malév's rescue plans were being negotiated during the past few weeks. Many claimed the cause of the company's ill fate was bad financial management. In January, even the 2007-2010 state financial aid to the airline was deemed illegal by the European Commission. Eventually, business partners lost their trust in the company, and this tipped the balance on Friday when Dublin and Tel Aviv airports refused to give take-off permissions to Malév flights.

Is US-China Collision Inevitable?

With China determined to uphold its ‘core’ national interests, and the US and others equally committed to, for instance, freedom of navigation through the South China Sea, it only needs a spark to ignite a prairie fire.
Even as Iran has come centre-stage of another likely military conflict in the Middle East with the US and its western allies determined to force it to forgo its nuclear programme, the Asia-Pacific region is emerging as another potential trouble spot pitting China against the US. With the US now disengaged from Iraq, and in the process of military withdrawal from Afghanistan by 2014, it has dawned on Washington that China has strengthened its role in the Asia-Pacific and is slowly, but steadily, working to push it out of the region. China regards the Asia-Pacific as its strategic space and the US as an external power. The US has decided to hit back by declaring that it is not going anywhere and, indeed, will beef up its military presence in the region. Straddling both the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, the US considers itself a legitimate Pacific country.

Proxy Wars: Is US Supporting Al-Qaeda-Like Groups In Syria?

For the second time in several months, Russia and China have vetoed a UNSC resolution concerning Syria. The double veto last Saturday especially irritated the U.S. and European leaders because they thought that the Arab League’s proposal had been revised several times to meet Russia’s demands. Russia argued that the Western states had rushed the vote, despite its request to wait until after its diplomatic envoys visit Damascus on Tuesday. Both the West and Russia have reasons to maintain this bizarre diplomatic faceoff, but the true reasons are not necessarily the stated ones.
Russia’s hardline position must be understood in the context of its internal and regional politics. The same can be said about the Arab League’s proposal, which called on Assad to step down. Recent history, too, plays a major role in this clash between Russia and the U.S., a replay of the Cold War Era rhetoric.
Importantly, the Russian leadership may face unrest this March if the elections there return Putin to the presidency and his opposition rejects those results. The U.S. has already gone on record supporting Russian protesters. Russia does not want the Arab Spring exported to its streets, and they believe that saving the Syrian regime will be a test of their ability to manage similar crises.

Yemen: Players Who Could Throw Upcoming Elections Off-Track

After a year of mass demonstrations and street battles which brought the country to the brink of civil war, Yemen is preparing for presidential elections on 21 February; the sole candidate, Vice-President Abdu Rabo Mansour Hadi, kicked off his campaign yesterday. While some observers argue that the election is a mere change of guard, others suggest it is the only way to save Yemen from collapse – ending President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule in accordance with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-brokered agreement signed in November 2011. The GCC deal aimed to end a year of fighting that led to a deepening humanitarian crisis. But the election is being held under difficult circumstances.

Going Beyond India’s Public Statement On Iranian Oil

Speaking to reporters in Chicago, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was defiant and categorical: it is not possible for India to reduce oil imports from Iran. Coming within days after the European Union decided to stop such imports from July, this indicated India’s refusal to join the western chorus against Tehran. At another level, it also marked a definite clarity in India’s Iran policy that was on a rollercoaster ride since early 2005. This public statement however is merely an expression of intention of the government. Can India pull this off?
For long, India had ignored or paid insufficient attention to the public warnings of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her March 2005 visit. This was true of the establishment as well as mainstream intelligentsia. While some chose to ignore, others adopted a defiant tone. Sovereignty, independent foreign policy and anti-Americanism were the order of the day. Not many asked about, let alone factored in, the cost of such an indifferent if not defiant posture.

Europe: Facing The Extreme

Amidst a profound economic and financial crisis, Europe’s leaders must not ignore the rising popularity of extreme right-wing parties and radical anti-immigrant movements, and the threat they pose to multi-culturalism.
“Extremists and populist movements are exploiting people’s fear of those who are not like us. We can see the consequences in the form of terrorism and racially motivated violence” – Kjell Magne Bondevik
The EU is slowly approaching the end of the integration process which started in the aftermath of World War Two. A significant number of member states are facing a damaging financial crisis, which is destabilizing and fragmenting the EU as a whole. With Italy, Spain and even Portugal all facing a fate similar to that of Greece, the future of the European idea is at stake. As the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, pointed out, Europe is threatened with its gravest modern crisis and the EU’s future is uncertain. There is, however, a greater challenge to the idea of a democratic, open and multicultural Europe; namely, the emergence of extremist political parties and movements across the continent.

Agent Orange Maker Monsanto Seeks Return to Vietnam for GMO Crops

Vietnam here we come! At least that is what biotech giant Monsanto is saying. The multinational agricultural corporation most known for creating the hazardous chemical Agent Orange, which led to thousands of deaths and birth defects due to its widespread use within the country, is now attempting to begin providing Vietnam with their genetically modified foods.

Symantec hacker: ‘We tricked them into offering us $50K bribe to humiliate them’

Protracted extortion negotiations with a hacker threatening to release stolen source code for several Symantec products ended yesterday with the code for pcAnywhere surfacing on The Pirate Bay. While Symantec has claimed it never had any intention of paying the $50,000 fee, and that the negotiations were part of a law-enforcement operation, the hacker in question has now told Reuters that he was always going to release the code. “We tricked them into offering us a bribe so we could humiliate them,” said YumaTough, thought to be part of the Anonymous-affiliated Lords of Dharamaja group. According to the report, Symantec is already expecting the source code for additional programs to be released by the group as well — Norton AntiVirus was one application mentioned in email exchanges between YumaTough and a law-enforcement official posing as a Symantec employee — but the company again reiterated that any such leaks wouldn’t put their customers in danger. “As we have already stated publicly, this is old code,” company spokesperson Cris Paden said, “and Symantec and Norton customers will not be at an increased risk as a result of any disclosure.” The code was originally stolen in a network breach in 2006, but Symantec claims all current versions of its software will be immune to any attacks based upon vulnerabilities discovered in the 2006 versions.

t the Pentagon and in Israel, plans show the difficulties of an Iran strike

If you are not prepared to go to war, you cannot threaten that “nothing is off the table” as you search for diplomatic solutions. Thus there are completed plans, updated daily, at Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv and at the Pentagon for carrying out attacks on Iranian facilities in a last-ditch effort to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.Israel has a plan to go it alone. So does the United States. And there may even be a plan for the two countries to collaborate. On Dec. 20, the Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Martin Dempsey, told CNN: “We are examining a range of options” and “I am satisfied that the options that we are developing are evolving to a point that they would be executable if necessary.” In any event, the plans exist, and they illustrate the difficulties in carrying out what some people think would be a simple operation.

Venezuela refuerza su capacidad de producción petrolera para atender demanda mundial

Ante las estimaciones de que la demanda mundial de petróleo superará los 100 millones de barriles, Venezuela adelanta un proceso de aumento en su capacidad de producción de crudo para atender las necesidades del mercado en el futuro, informó este jueves el ministro para Petróleo y Minería, Rafael Ramírez. Con base en dichas estimaciones este plan prevé elevar la producción petrolera actual de tres millones de barriles a cuatro millones en 2014 y seis millones en 2019.

10 Things That Every American Should Know About The Federal Reserve

What would happen if the Federal Reserve was shut down permanently?  That is a question that CNBC asked recently, but unfortunately most Americans don't really think about the Fed much. Most Americans are content with believing that the Federal Reserve is just another stuffy government agency that sets our interest rates and that is watching out for the best interests of the American people.  But that is not the case at all.  The truth is that the Federal Reserve is a private banking cartel that has been designed to systematically destroy the value of our currency, drain the wealth of the American public and enslave the federal government to perpetually expanding debt.  During this election year, the economy is the number one issue that voters are concerned about.  But instead of endlessly blaming both political parties, the truth is that most of the blame should be placed at the feet of the Federal Reserve.  The Federal Reserve has more power over the performance of the U.S. economy than anyone else does.  The Federal Reserve controls the money supply, the Federal Reserve sets the interest rates and the Federal Reserve hands out bailouts to the big banks that absolutely dwarf anything that Congress ever did.  If the American people are ever going to learn what is really going on with our economy, then it is absolutely imperative that they get educated about the Federal Reserve.
The following are 10 things that every American should know about the Federal Reserve....

Rousseff Strengthens Caribbean Ties

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s recent visit to Havana could easily have been a tense one.  On Thursday, January 19^th, jailed Cuban dissident Wilman Villar died in a prison hospital under murky circumstances, while Brazil recently granted a visa to well-known online journalist and longtime Castro critic Yoani Sanchez to leave her native Cuba and attend a documentary film premier in Brasília.  Rousseff avoided publicly criticizing the Castro administration when pressed by reporters on what the Cuban opposition calls human rights abuses, instead referencing the human rights record of the United States in regard to the Guantanamo Bay military prison.  However, she seemed perfectly happy to discuss Cuba and Brazil’s burgeoning economic partnership, which has grown significantly in recent years.

Mexico's Presidential Election: Drugwar Security Plan of Each Candidate

The following will give a loose overview of each candidate's stance on tackling the drugwar and its violence.  I do not agree with the last paragraph as polls have reflected a majority support of Calderon's attempt to secure violent regions, such as the use of the  military.

The front runner and PRI candidate Enrique Peña Nieto has vacillated in his stance of withdrawal of forces.  He has stated very little regarding his plan of action but has stated he considers the presence of forces culpable in the escalation of violence. 

PAN party's nomination of the respected and popular Josefina Vazquez Mota, if successful in her bid to the presidency would be the nations first woman president. 

In election terms, there is ample amount of time to make it a horse race, and though Peña maintains a wide margin lead, that lead has tightened with a drop of over 10 points in the polls.  Following the Insight article I have posted information on each of the candidates.

Mexican Fugitive’s Kin Donated to Obama Campaign

The brothers of a Mexican casino magnate who fled the United States in 1994 to avoid fraud and drug charges raised and contributed money for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, The New York Times reported.

The Obama campaign, however, said it will return the roughly $200,000 collected by brothers Carlos and Alberto Rojas Cardona.

“On the basis of the questions that have been raised, we will return the contributions from these individuals and from any other donors they brought to the campaign,” campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt told The Times.

Juan Jose “Pepe” Rojas Cardona jumped bail in Iowa in 1994 and since then has been linked to violence and corruption in Mexico, where he owns casinos. A 2009 State Department cable revealed by WikiLeaks notes that Pepe was suspected of orchestrating the murder of a business rival and making illegal donations to Mexican political campaigns.

UNASUR y la transparencia del Gasto Militar

Una nueva buena noticia se genera desde la Unión de Naciones Suramericanas (UNASUR), después de que se informara que ya hay 6 países integrantes que han entregado información oficial de sus gastos militares, con el objetivo de avanzar en las medidas de confianza mutua y dando cumplimiento a un acuerdo de noviembre de 2011, en el marco de una reunión extraordinaria del Consejo de Defensa Suramericano realizado en Lima, como producto de un trabajo colegiado entre Chile, Perú y Ecuador que desde hace tres años vienen estudiando una proposición de metodología común para producir esta información y que a su vez ya había sido experimentada entre Argentina y Chile, con el mismo objetivo de consolidar sus pasos integracionistas y despejar obstáculos propios del secretismo militar.
Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay y Uruguay son los primeros en cumplir con la información que abarca el período 2006-2010, y según el comunicado oficial de UNASUR, se espera que el resto de países lo haga más adelante. Es indudable que este hecho es de gran relevancia, porque demuestra varias cosas.

Greece: Nothing Left to Cut

Austerity implementations have led to a record high unemployment rate amongst Greece citizens; an astonishing 18.2 percent are now unemployed as the country delves deeply into a seemingly endless abyss of a recession.

Quite simply put, Greece has run out of options. If they cut another job or reduce another salary, the teeming hordes could descend into civil war.

“That's enough, we can't take it anymore!” 

This was one of the popular chants taking place in Athens yesterday as protesters came together in another 24-hour strike against Greece's recent austerity actions.

In further attempts to keep the economy going, Greee continually seeks new ways to cut spending and instigate further reductions.

Overnight, an additional 15,000 job cuts were officially announced. Protesters responded in rage, as police resorted to tear gas and clubbing strikers to control the frenzied mob.

Spy sues intelligence agency over dismissal for leaking info

A former intelligence agent dismissed over leaking confidential information on North Korea has filed a lawsuit to challenge the main spy agency’s decision to fire him. According to the Seoul Administrative Court, the former official of the National Intelligence Service, only identified as Choi, filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the spy agency, claiming that his actions were nothing more than a routine intelligence activity.
He was dismissed from the service in June last year on charges of having leaked eight security secrets to his contacts in Japan from October 2009 to February 2011. Some of the leaked information eventually ended up in the hands of North Korea’s agents, the intelligence agency said after a probe.

Algérie : la CIA finance 4 associations "des droits de l’homme"

La secrétaire générale du parti des travailleurs algérien Louisa Hanoune a accusé l’agence des renseignements américains CIA de financer quatre associations des droits de l’homme. Selon le site en ligne du quotidien arabophone londonien « al Quds al Arabi », Hanoune a affirmé détenir des documents qui attestent ses accusations nommant parmi ces quatre organisations « l’Association Nationale pour la Défense des Droits de l’homme » et « SOS disparus ».

SUNLIGHT receives the third consecutive order from the German Navy

SYSTEMS SUNLIGHT S.A. signed a contract with German MOD authorities BWB for a supply of one complete ship set for the 212 class submarine of the German Navy. The submarine battery will be delivered in Summer 2012 and this is the third consecutive order related with the German Navy’s submarines during the last three years. This underlines the trust of the German Navy towards SUNLIGHT, as well as the high quality of its energy storage solutions. SUNLIGHT, one of the world’s top submarine batteries manufacturers, being equipped with robust knowhow and long-lasting experience in the energy storage and power supply sectors, offers customized solutions in the design and production of batteries for all types of conventional submarines (eastern and western type), utilizing all available lead-acid technologies. Based on its expertise, SUNLIGHT has already designed and developed 25 different cell types for submarines and has delivered more than 50 battery ship sets to navies worldwide. These batteries are being exclusively produced in SUNLIGHT’s state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Neo Olvio, Xanthi (Northern Greece), according to the strictest international specifications and standards.

EU to strengthen its cybersecurity watchdog

A push by European authorities to strengthen the European Union's cybersecurity watchdog has been given the green light. ENISA, the European Network and Information Security Agency, was set up in 2004 to ensure a "high and effective level of network information security" within the E.U. Its  mandate is due to expire in September 2013, but a vote in the European Parliament's Industry, Research and Energy Committee agreed to extend it until 2020. The new proposal would also require ENISA to help set up a full-scale European Union Computer Emergency Response Team (EU CERT), to counter cyberattacks against E.U. institutions, bodies and agencies, as well as providing support to member states in the event of incidents, attacks or disruptions on networks.

Symantec expects Anonymous to publish more stolen source code

Symantec today confirmed that the pcAnywhere source code published on the Web Monday by hackers who tried to extort $50,000 from the company was legitimate. A company spokesman also said that Symantec expects that the rest of the source code stolen from its network in 2006 will also be made public.
Symantec's acknowledgement followed the appearance late Monday of a 1.3GB file on various file-sharing websites, including Pirate Bay, that claimed to be the source code of the pcAnywhere remote-access software. Download activity for the BitTorrent file has been moderately brisk: As of mid-morning Tuesday, Pirate Bay identified 376 "seeders," the term for a computer that has a complete copy of the file -- and about 200 "leechers," or computers that have downloaded only part of the complete torrent. The Anonymous hacking group claimed responsibility for posting the pcAnywhere source code.

Anonymous claims to have released source code of Symantec's pcAnywhere

Hacker group Anonymous claimed late Monday that the source code of Symantec's pcAnywhere had been uploaded on The Pirate Bay site. Symantec could not immediately comment on whether the hackers had indeed released the source code of its product. "It happened so recently that we're still in the process of analyzing and won't be able to confirm until the morning," a spokesman said via email. Earlier on Monday, an email string posted on Pastebin referred to negotiations over payment for the source code between one Sam Thomas, purported to be a Symantec employee, but using a Gmail mail id, and a person named Yamatough. The name of the hacker is similar to the Twitter handle of YamaTough in Mumbai who is associated with the hacker group, Lords of Dharmaraja, that had earlier claimed it had access to the source code of some Symantec products.

Drug trafficking arrests 'dents neo-paramilitary alliance with guerrillas'

Colombian police said Tuesday they have dealt a blow to a major drug trafficking operation, which has been partly maintained through an alliance of neo-paramilitary and guerrilla groups. Police announced the arrest of 22 members of the Popular Liberation Army [EPL], a guerrilla group which largely disbanded in 1991, but the remnants of which are active in drug trafficking under the leadership of Victor Ramon Navarro Serrano, alias 'Megateo.'
The group has established an alliance with Colombia's two biggest guerrilla groups, the FARC and ELN, as well as with neo-paramilitaries in the northern border state of Norte de Santander. According to a police press release, the arrests were part of "Operation Catatumbo," an operation being undertaken by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation that focused on the central northern regions close to the Venezuelan border, where guerrilla and criminal groups are prevalent. Among the arrested was Milton Torres Sanchez, alias "Milton," who is thought to organize the exchange of drugs for weapons, upon which the alliance of the groups is built.
The Colombian government has previously offered a $1.1 million reward for information leading to the capture of Megateo, who remains at large.

According To A New DHS Report, If You Love “Individual Liberty” Of If You “Believe In Conspiracy Theories” You Are A Potential Terrorist

Hot Spots of Terrorism and Other Crimes in the United States, 1970 to 2008“, and it was produced by the “National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism” for the Department of Homeland Security.  As you will see detailed later on in this article, the most shocking part of this report is when it discusses the “ideological motivations” of potential terrorists.  The report shamelessly attempts to portray red-blooded Americans that love liberty and that love their country as the enemy.  Once upon a time, deeply patriotic Americans were considered to be the backbone of America, but today they are considered to be potential terrorists.
Do you love America?  Are you against a one world economy and a one world government?  Do you deeply love individual liberty?  Do you believe in conspiracy theories?  If you answered any of those questions affirmatively, then you are a potential terrorist according to a brand new Department of Homeland Security report that was just released in January 2012. The report is entitled “

Iran, al-Qaeda, and missing information

Late last month, Foreign Affairs magazine ran a rather surprising article from Seth Jones, the RAND political scientist and well-regarded scholar of American military tactics, titled simply “Al-Qaeda in Iran.” Surprising not for what the article reveals, but for what it fails to fully analyze, and what it misses entirely. For one thing, I have a hard time understanding the first two words of Jones’ piece, that the presence since 2001 of senior al-Qaeda members in Iran has gone “virtually unnoticed.” For one thing, the topic has been common knowledge and conversation fodder among counterterrorism specialists for years, some of whom, like Leah Farrall wrote publicly about Iran’s detention and harboring of al-Qaeda figures and historical fellow-travelers. But as Jones hints (and Josh Foust explicitly lays out), the U.S. government has in recent years taken increasing public action to draw attention to the connection; in the summer of 2009 the Treasury Department slapped sanctions on Osama bin Laden’s son Sa’ad, as well as three other suspected al-Qaeda members, stating clearly that Sa’ad and others were believed to be in Iran. And last summer Treasury stepped up the pressure (and rhetoric), designating six al-Qaeda figures for sanctions and publicly accusing Iran of having forged a “secret deal” with al-Qaeda, one that in the words of Treasury official David S. Cohen allowed the terror group to “funnel funds and operatives through [Iranian] territory.”

Iran to deploy 15,000 troops to help Syria’s Assad

Israeli news outlet Haaretz is reporting that Iran is aiding in Syria’s crackdown on opposition forces.The Al Arabiya news channel also reported  that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has deployed 15,000 armed troops to Syria recently in order to help Syrian President Bashar Assad in his fight against opposition forces. “(A) Prominent Syrian lawmaker says the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force has recently arrived in the country to help manage Assad’s regime brutal suppression of a 11-month-long popular unrest,” reports Haaretz. The official who made the claim, Kassam Salimani, is a top member of the National Syrian Council. Salimani claims that a commander of Iran’s Quds Force special forces unit arrived in Syria recently to help direct army maneuvers against rebel fighters.

Will Iran Be Attacked?

Washington has made tremendous preparations for a military assault on Iran. There is speculation that Washington has called off its two longest running wars–Iraq and Afghanistan–in order to deploy forces against Iran. Two of Washington’s fleets have been assigned to the Persian Gulf along with NATO warships. Missiles have been spread amongst Washington’s Oil Emirate and Middle Eastern puppet states. US troops have been deployed in Israel and Kuwait. Washington has presented Israel a gift from the hard-pressed american taxpayers of an expensive missile defense system, money spent for Israel when millions of unassisted americans have lost their homes. As no one expects Iran to attack Israel, except in retaliation for an Israeli attack on Iran, the purpose of the missile defense system is to protect Israel from an Iranian response to Israeli aggression against Iran.

Iran: A Manufactured Threat

Unrelated images of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with Venezuela's Chavez and Fidel Castro in Cuba were featured, saying these leaders "have little love for the US." Neither do growing millions worldwide, especially throughout the Middle East and Afghanistan where US policies and officials are reviled with good reason. Notably, since Iran's 1979 revolution and US hostage crisis, Washington's been spoiling for a fight. The Carter administration considered invading and seizing its oil fields. Reagan escalated Carter's policies short of committing US forces in combat. Saddam then got US backing. A decade of war followed. America pretended support for both sides, but mostly gave it to Iraq. US/Iranian relations remain tense. Washington's sought regime change for years. Various confrontational tactics include on and off saber rattling, sanctions, direct and covert meddling in Iran's internal affairs, cyberwar, subversion, targeted assassinations, other destabilization tactics, and vicious propaganda to incite fear and justice war. Yet major media scoundrels regurgitate it like fact instead of offering readers and viewers truth and full disclosure.

Globalist Campaign Calls for Abolishment of Constitution

The global elite will not rest until they have revoked the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. Over the last few years, they have engaged in a concerted attack on our founding documents and time-honored ideals. On Tuesday, the New York Times continued this trend with an article on the front page of its print edition.
Entitled ‘We the People’ Lose Appeal With People Around the World, the article by Adam Liptak argues that the Constitution is outdated, inflexible and no longer trendy. It cites an article published in June in The New York University Law Review that explains how America’s Constitution is “losing its appeal as a model for constitutional drafters elsewhere” as statists, bureaucrats and autocrats turn to examples presented by more malleable documents such as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and those produced by India, South Africa, New Zealand and the United Nations.

British Special Forces Enter Syria To Aid Rebels

British Special Forces are on the ground in Syria directing rebel fighters in a repeat of how Libyan rebels were aided in the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi, according to a report by Israeli intelligence outfit DebkaFile.

“British and Qatari special operations units are operating with rebel forces under cover in the Syrian city of Homs just 162 kilometers from Damascus, according to DEBKAfile’s exclusive military and intelligence sources,” states the report, adding that the foreign units are not engaging in direct combat but are acting in an advisory capacity, while also relaying requests for arms outside of the country. The report suggests that the situation in Syria is developing in an almost identical manner to how rebels in Libya were aided by British and French Special Forces.

Alba: Integración y nuevas relaciones para el siglo XXI

Ejecutivo Nacional busca fortalecer soberanía petrolera con alianzas estratégicas

La creación de una empresa mixta rusa-venezolana, que se dedicará a la exploración, exportación y distribución de crudo de la Faja Petrolífera del Orinoco -área geográfica de más 55 mil kilómetros cuadrados que abarca los estados Anzoátegui, Monagas y Guárico- “es una manera de liberarnos, de consolidar nuestra soberanía y apuntar hacia un mejor desarrollo para el país”, destacó el diputado Enzo Cavallo, integrante de la Comisión de Energía y Minas de la Asamblea Nacional. Durante una entrevista en el programa Toda Venezuela, que transmite Venezolana de Televisión, el diputado señaló que la compañía rusa Gazprom Bank Latin América Ventures B.V se unirá en este proyecto a Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa). Una de las garantías que mencionó de esta iniciativa es que Venezuela tendrá 60% de las acciones y el 40% restante corresponderá al Gobierno de la Federación Rusa.

Ces riches qui spéculent sur l’avenir du monde

Ils sont cinquante. Ils possèdent des compagnies pétrolières, des gazoducs, des mines, des aciéries et même des médias. Ils influencent gouvernements et institutions pour empêcher les réglementations trop contraignantes. Et figurent parmi les plus grandes fortunes mondiales. Mais qui sont ces multimilliardaires qui bâtissent leur fortune en hypothéquant l’avenir de la planète ? Enquête.

Ils sont 50. Cinquante milliardaires à être pointés du doigt pour leur responsabilité individuelle dans la dégradation du climat. Ils tirent leurs richesses d’activités très polluantes, et n’hésitent pas à dépenser des millions pour influencer gouvernements et opinions. Leurs fortunes cumulées représentent 613 milliards d’euros. À 50, ils pèsent financièrement davantage que le Fonds européen de stabilité, sensé défendre la zone euro – 17 pays – contre la spéculation. C’est dire la puissance qu’ils possèdent. C’est cette aberrante concentration de pouvoir que dénonce un rapport du Forum international de la globalisation (IFG), un institut indépendant installé à San Francisco, qui regroupe économistes et chercheurs, dont l’Indienne Vandana Shiva ou le Canadien Tony Clarke, connus pour leurs combats face aux abus des multinationales.

Une super mission US sur l’énergie en Afrique

Du 06 au 17 février 2012, le secrétaire d’Etat adjoint américain aux affaires africaines, Johnnie Carson, conduit une importante mission commerciale sur l’énergie dans cinq pays d’Afrique : le Mozambique, la Tanzanie, le Kenya, le Nigeria et le Ghana. Vu les enjeux et les stratégies en présence, le secteur énergétique est désormais un des champs prioritaires de l’intelligence économique en Afrique.

Durant cette mission, la délégation du gouvernement américain et des responsables du secteur privé vont rencontrer de hauts responsables gouvernementaux des pays hôtes pour discuter des défis de l’investissement du secteur privé américain dans les projets d’infrastructures énergétiques.

The Greeks have no idea what they’ve gotten themselves into

A few facts about Greece…

First off, demographics wise, Greece is a disaster.

Real Clear Markets shares the following facts.

• Greece’s fertility rate is 1.3 children per women. This is nearly a full child below the “replacement rate”: the number of children needed to maintain the current population.

• Greece’s population of 65 and over has soared from 11% in 1970 to 24% in 2010. It will hit 33% by 2050. Meanwhile, Greece’s working population will decline to 20% over the same time period.

• Because of this, Greece spends 12% of its GDP on pensions.

Monsanto Illegally Plants GM Corn In India

Ahead of a regulators’ meeting on February 8th 2012, and reacting to the confirmed reports of Monsanto’s illegal planting of Herbicide Tolerant (HT) maize in its GM maize trial, the Coalition for a GM-Free India demanded that Monsanto be blacklisted immediately.

The violation was revealed in a response of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee to an RTI application.

 “This agri-business corporation has been caught violating the law and norms repeatedly. The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has also been caught failing in its duties. GEAC, in spite of violations brought to its notice earlier also, has never taken up any deterrent and penal action against this MNC”, said the Coalition in a press statement issued in Delhi and a Press Conference held in Bengaluru.

This is how we roll: Syria rebels show off APC

Chabadniks in India deny espionage charge

Chabadniks in the southern Indian city of Kochi on Tuesday vehemently denied a report that appeared in local media earlier in the day accusing them of being part of an Israeli covert operation. Rabbi Shneor Zalman and Yaffa Shenoi told The Jerusalem Post they were stunned by a story run by the Times of India in which unnamed Indian security officials said they were secret Israeli agents that would soon be deported from the country.

Greek Economy Implodes: Budget Revenues Tumble 7% In January On Expectation Of 9% Rise

While hardly surprising to anyone who actually paid attention over the past two months to events in Greece (instead of just reacting to headlines) where among those on strike were the very tax collectors tasked with "fixing the problem", we now get a first glimpse of the sheer collapse in the Greek economy, which also confirms why Germany is now dying for Greece to pull its own Eurozone plug (predicated by a naive belief that Greece is firewalled as was discussed before. As a reminder Hank Paulson thought that Lehman, too, was firewalled on September 15, 2008). And what a collapse it is: according to just released data from Kathimerini, budget revenues lagged projections by €1 billion in the very first month of the year. "Revenues posted a 7 percent decline compared with January 2011, while the target that had been set in the budget provided for an 8.9 percent annual increase. Worse still, value-added tax receipts posted an 18.7 percent decrease last month from January 2011 as the economy continues to tread the path of recession: VAT receipts only amounted to 1.85 billion euros in January compared to 2.29 billion in the same month last year." This it the point where any referee would throw in the towel. But no: for Europe's bankers there apparently are still some leftover organs in the corpse worth harvesting. Unfortunately, at this point we fail to see how this setup ends with anything but civil war, as the April elections will merely once again reinstate the existing bloodsucking regime. We hope we are wrong.
Epic collapse

Three Charts That Confirm Greece's Death Even After Restructuring

Perhaps after today's budget miss in the Hellenic Republic it is time that the focus shift from the reality of a pending #fail for the voluntary PSI (for all the reasons we have at length discussed no matter how many headlines the markets tries to rally on) to a post-restructuring real economy reality in Greece. Whether self-imposed by devaluation or Teutonia-imposed by Troika, austerity is in the cards but there is a much more deep-seated problem at the heart of Greece - a total and utter lack of innovation and entrepreneurship. As Goldman's Hugo Scott-Gall focuses on in his fortnightly report this week "the competitive advantage of innovation is one that developed markets need to keep" and in the case of European nations that desperately need to find a way to grow somehow, it is critical. Unfortunately, Greece, center of the universe for a post-restructuring phoenix-like recovery expectation, scores 0 for 3 on the innovation front. Lowest overall patent grant rate, lowest corporate birth rate, and highest cost of starting a new business hardly endear them to direct investment or an entrepreneurial dynamism that could 'slow' capital flight. Perhaps it is this reality, one of a Greek people perpetually circling the drain of dis-innovation and un-growth, that Merkel is starting to feel comfortable 'letting go of'. Maybe some navel-gazing after seeing these three doom-ridden charts will force a political class to open the economy a little more, cut the red tape (after a drastic restructuring of course) and shift focus from Ouzo, Olive Oil, and The Olympics. We also suggest the rest of the PIIGS not be too quick to comment 'we are not Greece' when they see where they rank for innovation.

Venezuela’s ONA Arrested Colombia's “Most Wanted” Drug Trafficker

Officers of the Venezuelan National Anti-Drugs Office (ONA) arrested a prominent Colombian drug dealer, Nelson Orlando Buitrago Parada, aka "Caballo," on Saturday. According to Venezuela’s minister for justice and internal affairs, Tareck El Aissami, Buitriago has been involved, together with his father and brother, "in several murders" and in "an important network of narco-paramilitarism" operating in Colombian plains. El Aissami made the announcement on Monday during an interview with a local radio station.

Pemex Needs $25.2 Billion in Annual Investment, Acquisitions

State-owned oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, will “require annual investment and acquisitions” for its operations “exceeding 320 billion pesos (nearly $25.2 billion)” over the next few years, CEO Juan Jose Suarez Coppel said Tuesday. The Pemex chief spoke during the opening session of a company-sponsored event in Mexico City that was also attended by Energy Secretary Jordy Herrera and other high-level officials. Pemex has implemented new and more modern contracting procedures since the 2008 energy industry reforms were implemented that “have already started to produce results that are being translated into substantial savings” for the company, giving it “greater agility and efficiency in purchasing,” Suarez Coppel said.

US Receiver in Ponzi Scheme Sues Venezuela PDVSA Manager for Return of $36 Million in Bribes

The court-appointed receiver responsible for unwinding the asset management companies at the center of a $500 million ponzi scheme that was responsible for Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA)'s pension funds in the US, has filed suit in US Federal Court in Connecticut against former PDVSA investment manager Juan S. Montes and Movilway, a phone-based banking company, for "the return of bribes totaling $35,744,651."

John J. Carney, the court-appointed receiver responsible for unwinding Francisco Illarramendi's Michael Kenwood and Highview Point -- the asset management companies at the center of a $500 million ponzi scheme that was responsible for Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA)'s pension funds in the US -- has filed suit in US Federal Court in Connecticut against former PDVSA investment manager Juan S. Montes and Movilway, a company that provides prepaid mobile telephone services to an array of countries in Latin and South America, as well as phone-based banking services, founded by Moris Beracha, who is named in the complaint. Carney "seeks the return of bribes and other fraudulent transfers totaling $35,744,651" on behalf of the funds, according to the complaint.

Supporters of Striking Brazilian Cops Confront Troops

The protesters, mostly relatives of the striking cops, tried to keep the military from completely cordoning off the Regional Legislative Assembly this morning, the Bahia state government said. Demonstrators supporting the policemen who have been on strike for six days in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia clashed briefly Monday with soldiers posted around the regional parliament in Salvador, which is occupied by disgruntled cops. The protesters, mostly relatives of the striking cops, tried to keep the military from completely cordoning off the Regional Legislative Assembly this morning, the Bahia state government said. The soldiers had to shoot rubber bullets in the air and push the demonstrators back in order to move forward.

Honduras Military Budget Leaves Out Anti-Drug Technology

Hardly any of Honduras' military budget for 2012 will be invested in military or police equipment, according to the Minister of Finance. Instead, the country appears set to rely on outside donor countries to fund the purchase of technology needed to fight drug trafficking.
According to Minister of Finance William Chong Wong, about a third of Honduras' military budget for 2012 will go towards supporting the Army Infantry, as reported by Infodefensa, a Spain-based website which monitors defense spending in the Americas.
That's $64 million out of the approximate total of $155 million bugeted for the armed forces. Another $16 million is budgeted towards supporting military operations carried out in conjunction with the police, with an additional $19 million allocated towards fighting "drug trafficking, terrorism, arms trafficking, and organized crime," the Minister of Finance said.

Parts of Colombia in 'security crisis': Conservatives

Colombia's Conservative Party on Tuesday admitted that parts of the country are suffering what a leading newspaper has called a security crisis, caused by an increase in FARC attacks and the growing strength of right-wing neo-paramilitary and drug gangs. In an interview with daily El Espectador, Conservative Party president Efrain Cepeda said that "One has to accept that we are having some problems with security in some parts of the country where, without a doubt, we have to act vehemently." "There has been an escalation of terrorism and we know it is hard to act," the Conservative added, while stressing that his party maintained its confidence in the security policy of the government of President Juan Manuel Santos. The Conservative Party is "optimistic that this will be an episode in which the armed forces retake control over the security in Colombia. (...) The Conservative Party asks for a reaction of the security forces," the politician was quoted as saying by the newspaper. Over the past few months, Colombia has seen a number of high-profile guerrilla attacks on towns, oil infrastructure and a radar station, while right-wing neo-paramilitary group "Los Urabeños" shut down all public transport and businesses in an area the size of Switzerland in response to the killing of one of their leaders.

Mexico Drug War: Narcos accept "papal truce" according to banners hung in Guanajuato

An alleged organized crime group put 11 narcomantas in seven municipalities in the state of Guanajuato which accepted the request made by Archbishop of Leon, José Guadalupe Martín Rábago for the visit of Pope Benedicto XVl, who is expected to arrive on March 23, 2012

LEON, Gto. February 7.Yesterday, an alleged organized crime group put 11 narcomantas in seven municipalities of Guanajuato, which accepted the request by Jose Guadalupe Martin Rabago on January 22 to , asked criminals to reduce violence during the visit of Benedict XVI Mexico, which will be March 23 - 26.

However, sources from the States Attorney said the truce prevents a rival cartel from operating in Guanajuato.

On January 22, Martin Rabago made his request to members of organized crime: " collaborate even allowing all these people to come to a totally respectable act. No advantage to do something that would lead to an experience of grief and death" he said.

This wasn't the first time the Mexican Catholic Church called for a truce with narcos. In December 2010, Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez, did it twice. Last August, Conference Esiscopado Mexicano asked them to allow the tour of the relics of John Paul II.

On Jan. 28, the representative of the pope in Mexico, Christopher Pierre, said that the church didn't ask for a truce: "What we asked is for a change in mentality"

Kick in the Teeth: Military U-turns Egyptian NGOs

Eurocratic dreams push Greece to agony

Thwarted Peace: 'Toppling regime path to bloodshed'

Guatemala Traffickers Exploit Legal Tool to Fight Extradition

A legal safeguard built into Guatemala's justice system is being used to stall the extraditions to the United States of some of the country's most notorious suspected drug traffickers. The writ of amparo -- which is something along the lines of an injunction in the United States, or "accion tutela" in Colombia -- provides widespread "relief" or "protection" for the appellate who feels that a statute, law or government action is violating his rights under the country's constitution. The amparo is a broad measure that can also be used to reclaim rights as well, such as the right to obtain government-generated documents (equivalent to the Freedom of Information Act in the United States). As such, it is a sacred legal tool. However, lawyers of some of Guatemala's most notorious suspected organized crime figures are repeatedly employing the amparo in what appears to be an effort to indefinitely delay the extradition of their clients. There at least nine high-profile suspects awaiting extradition who have used the measure.

Colombia's Last Paramilitary Warlord Captured in Venezuela

Venezuelan authorities have captured the last of Colombia's paramilitary chieftains, marking the end of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), which dominated the drug trade for over a decade and penetrated all facets of the state.Hector German Buitrago, better known by his alias of "Martin Llanos" was arrested along with his brother, Nelson Orlando Buitrago, alias "Caballo," in the Venezuelan state of Anzoategui. Martin Llanos headed the Self Defense Forces of Casanare (ACC), a powerful paramilitary faction with over 1,000 fighters in the Colombian provinces of Casanare, Meta and parts of Boyaca and Vichada. The group was founded in the 1980s by the men's father, Hector Jose Buitrago, as a response to guerrilla extortion and kidnapping in Casanare. Hector Jose was arrested in April 2010 in Colombia, while his sons left the country, living in Ecuador and Bolivia before moving to Venezuela. The ACC founder had previously been arrested in 1996, but was rescued from prison by his sons.

Anonymous hacks Oakland officials in retaliation for OWS crackdowns

Concerned with the continuous acts of police brutality perpetrated by law enforcement in Oakland, California, the online group Anonymous has published the personal details of some of the city’s leading officials. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, Police Chief Howard Johnson and several members of the City Council are targeted in the loose-knit collective’s latest release, which is being touted as retaliation for the ongoing unjust actions by way of the Oakland Police Department and the mayor herself directed at Occupy Oakland. Since its inception, the Occupy Wall Street offshoot in the city of Oakland has undergone intense police scrutiny and spawned several city-wide demonstrations, repeatedly marred by violence made possible by an overzealous police response that often involves the deployment of weaponry to disrupt peaceful protests.

Assad ready for talks, 'fully commits' to end violence

Syria’s President Assad has agreed to talks with the opposition and will follow the Arab League’s roadmap, increasing the number of observers in the country, even in the most hostile areas in Syria. This follows talks with the Russian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Russia’s Foreign Ministry has announced that President Assad has agreed to send a government delegation to Moscow to meet with representatives of the opposition.

Spook sued: Did ex-MI6 chief oversee prisoner renditions to Gaddafi?

Two Libyans are suing an ex-MI6 bureau chief, claiming he played a key role in their rendition to Gaddafi torturers. The plaintiffs say they were abducted, imprisoned and tortured for six years, all thanks to British Government help. Abdelhakim Belhaj, who became Tripoli's military commander after the Libyan leader was ousted in last year's revolution, and fellow Colonel Gaddafi opponent Sami al-Saadi claim the former head of Britain's MI6 spy agency, Sir Mark Allen, was complicit in their capture and subsequent torture back in 2004.

Ethiopia, Anti-Terrorism, and Human Rights

Recent and upcoming trials of journalists and dissidents in Ethiopia have focused attention  - and criticism – on the country’s anti-terrorism law. Critics, including Human Rights Watch and the United Nations, have raised concerns that the Ethiopian government uses the law to crack down not on terrorism, but on dissent.
Ethiopia is a country that plays a large role in the Horn of Africa; some in Washington consider Ethiopia an important ally in American efforts to stabilize the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is also one of the largest aid recipients in the world. The contrast between Ethiopia’s favored status in strategic and aid circles on the one hand, and the sharp criticisms its government draws from human rights groups on the other, raises important questions about how the rhetoric of “fighting terrorism” plays out at the local level.

Senegal: Abdoulaye Wade Likely to Win Presidential Elections

Senegal will hold the first round of its presidential elections on February 26. Africa for Investor Mouth predicts, “If the lights stay on for voting and the politically-important marabouts do not come out stronger against the president, Wade will win ugly in late February.” This is my strong sense as well. As Africa for Investor Mouth argues, Wade “remains strong in the face of a divided opposition because of many challengers’ big egos and historical baggage of serving in Wade’s administration.” The opposition’s inability to unite around one candidate who might serve as a focus of popular anger suggests that the country’s protest movement will have trouble translating its support in the streets of Dakar into triumph at the ballot box. Another factor in the mix is that rural support for incumbents has historically run high in Senegal, and Wade seems no exception to this rule.

Why Islamic Radicals Don't Last

A major problem with Islamic radicalism and terrorism is that it has been around for over a thousand years and is endemic to Moslem nations. This is because Islam is based on the belief that government, and the lives of all Moslems, should be ruled by Islamic law (sharia). Yet through most of its history (since Islam arrived 1,500 years ago) Moslems have been ruled by secular laws (or a combination of sharia and secular, with non-clerics having the final say). In other words, the concept of sharia never caught on in a big way. Yet all Moslem religious education stresses that living according to sharia is the ideal lifestyle for a Moslem. Moslem clerics continue to believe this, although many recognize the reality of secular rule and do not encourage rebellion. But it's easy for a Moslem cleric to go old-school and start preaching the primacy of sharia. 

Somalia: Kenya Advances To The Coast

The famine in Somalia is officially over as a large harvest matures and food is plentiful. But only for a few months and over a million people are still in refugee camps inside Somalia as well as Ethiopia and Kenya. These people need foreign food aid to survive, as do many more who live harvest-to-harvest. In the last eight months, over 100,000 famine refugees had fled to Kenya and Ethiopia. Many refuse to return to Somalia because of the continued fighting between al Shabaab and various opponents. These include Somali troops and militias as well as AU (African Union) peacekeepers and Ethiopian soldiers. 

Ukraine Rearms

The basic Ukrainian problem is that their military is still closely linked with the "Red Army" (the armed forces of the Russia.) Nearly all Ukrainian military equipment and weapons are Russian. Before, and after, 1991, a large portion of the Ukrainian export market was driven by factories that manufactured Russian designed weapons. Ironically, for the last 20 years, the Ukrainian weapons industry has prospered, even though the Ukrainian military could not afford to buy most of these newly built weapons. But export customers could.Ukraine is increasing its annual defense spending 30 percent this year. The $2 billion budget is 1.1 percent of GDP. It has been .8 percent of GDP for the past few years. The average for East European nations is about 1.3 percent. The Ukrainian armed forces are in need of updating, but a shortage of cash has delayed this process for two decades. Ukraine will be upgrading existing weapons and buying new warships and combat aircraft. Ukraine has sold over $2 billion worth of weapons to Iraq. Most of these were of Russian design, which many Iraqi military personnel are familiar with. Ukraine has, and still manufactures, lots of Russian designed weapons.

Abu Musab al Suri released from Syrian custody

The Syrian government has freed a dangerous al Qaeda leader and strategist who was captured in Pakistan in 2005, released to the US, and then transferred to Syria in 2006, according to Internet jihadists at a prominent al Qaeda-linked forum. A "prominent member of the jihadist forum community" claimed that earlier rumors of the release of Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, who is better known as Abu Musab al Suri, from a Syrian prison sometime last year are true, according to a translation of the message by the SITE Intelligence Group. The Internet jihadist's message was posted on the Shumukh al-Islam forum on Feb. 2, and was endorsed by the forum's administrators.