December 31, 2008

Private firm may track all email and calls
'Hellhouse' of personal data will be created, warns former DPP
The private sector will be asked to manage and run a communications database that will keep track of everyone's calls, emails, texts and internet use under a key option contained in a consultation paper to be published next month by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary. A cabinet decision to put the management of the multibillion pound database of all UK communications traffic into private hands would be accompanied by tougher legal safeguards to guarantee against leaks and accidental data losses. But in his strongest criticism yet of the superdatabase, Sir Ken Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, who has firsthand experience of working with intelligence and law enforcement agencies, told the Guardian such assurances would prove worthless in the long run and warned it would prove a "hellhouse" of personal private information.
Read article in the Guardian (UK)
Comment: Disturbing though it is that a private firm may be asked to run such a database, this is not the main issue here. Instead, the real question raised by this story is not who should run the database, but rather whether UK citizens even need it in the first place. In considering this question, we note that as personal privacy increasingly becomes a thing of the past, more and more people around the world are beginning to ask themselves how much further things have to go before they wake up to find they’re living under a global dictatorship. As such, if this latest development in the UK is anything to go by, the answer seems clear: “Not much.”

December 19, 2008

Sale puts atomic weapons plant in US hands
The UK Atomic Weapons Establishment, which makes and maintains the warheads for Britain ’s nuclear missiles, has come under the control of US companies after the government sold its one-third stake. Ministers were accused Thursday night of trying to conceal the change in ownership after failing to make an announcement to parliament.
Read article in the Financial Times (UK)

December 19, 2008

Czech PM raises new Lisbon hurdle
The Czech government is unwilling to ratify the EU's stalled Lisbon Treaty unless MPs back a US plan to site a radar base in the Czech Republic.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)

December 8, 2008

And now for a world government
I have never believed that there is a secret United Nations plot to take over the US . I have never seen black helicopters hovering in the sky above Montana. But, for the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible. A “world government” would involve much more than co-operation between nations. It would be an entity with state-like characteristics, backed by a body of laws. The European Union has already set up a continental government for 27 countries, which could be a model. The EU has a supreme court, a currency, thousands of pages of law, a large civil service and the ability to deploy military force. So could the European model go global? There are three reasons for thinking that it might.
Read article in the Financial Times (UK)
Comment: Democracy in the European Union has now been almost completely subverted by corporate interests. As such, exporting the European model of government to the rest of the world would effectively turn the planet’s system of governance into a global dictatorship.

November 21, 2008

EU developing 'militarised' space policy which could trigger 'arms race'
The European Union is developing a military space policy which has the "potential for an arms race", a report has claimed. The European Space Agency is accused of developing technology to dominate the "high ground" of space, including a multimillion pound EU Satellite Centre in Spain. The Transnational Institute, a Dutch think-tank, said: "EU-financed communication and spy satellites are slowly becoming reality and in the long term the inclusion of space-based missile defence and other more offensive uses of space are real options for an increasingly ambitious EU military space policy."
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

November 21, 2008

EU Will Be Globally Weak 'Hobbled Giant' by 2025: Report
A new Global Trends report by the National Intelligence Council (NIC), Washington's main intelligence body, paints a bleak picture of the EU in 2025 with internal bickering, economic pressure and crime hobbling the bloc.
Read article in Deutsche Welle (Germany)
Comment: According to the report, the European Union will be a "hobbled giant" crippled by internal bickering and a euroskeptic citizenry by 2025.

November 18, 2008

Iraq war 'violated rule of law'
Legal advice given to Tony Blair by the attorney general prior to the Iraq war was fundamentally "flawed," a former law lord has claimed. Lord Bingham said Lord Goldsmith had given Mr Blair "no hard evidence" that Iraq had defied UN resolutions "in a manner justifying resort to force". Therefore, the action by the UK and US was "a serious violation of international law," Lord Bingham added.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)

November 15, 2008

Now the European Union's own anti-fraud watchdog Olaf is under investigation
The EU's own anti-fraud watchdog is itself under investigation over suspect procedures, it has emerged.
Olaf, the European Commission's which is responsible for stamping out misuse of EU money and conflicts of interest among Eurocrats, is itself subject to an investigation over its staff nomination procedures. The probe follows the appointment to Olaf's staff selection board of a woman was was herself already under investigation by Olaf in a fraud case. The woman, who has not been named, was due to advise the head of Olaf on the appointment of new directors. Following a complaint by Dutch Euro MP Paul van Buitenen, who sits as an independent, the woman was removed from the selection board and the commission launched an inquiry into procedures at its own fraud arm.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

November 10, 2008

EU paid-out £4.9bn in error last year
The European Union distributed at least £4.9bn in error last year, auditors said, even as they signed off the Commission's accounts for the first time in 14 years. As much as 92 per cent of Brussels budgets, worth £93bn in 2007, continued to be tainted by "too high levels of illegality and irregularity", accounts showed. A report published by the European Court of Auditors on Monday once again identified extensive shortcomings in the administration of funds.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

October 30, 2008

Denmark currency crisis prompts euro re-think
The country's Prime Minister said that a referendum on swapping the Danish krone for the euro could be held in 2011
Denmark made its clearest commitment to a currency u-turn as it became the latest country to clamour for the euro as a result of the financial crisis. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Prime Minister, said that a referendum on swapping the Danish krone for the euro could be held in 2011, leaving the UK and Sweden as the only ‘old’ EU member states outside the eurozone.
Read article in The Times (UK)

October 30, 2008

EU parliament discriminating against anti-Strasbourg MEPs
MEPs campaigning against the European parliament’s twin-seat arrangement are facing “unjust treatment” from the assembly’s bosses, according to British MEP Glenis Willmott. Writing in the latest issue of the Parliament Magazine, Willmott accuses parliament’s authorities of undermining MEPs’ efforts to promote a debate on the controversial monthly jaunt to Strasbourg. Willmot writes that she has been “dismayed by what not only appears to be the unjust treatment of those of us campaigning for a one-seat solution, but also a lack of respect for those one and a quarter million EU citizens who have so far signed the petition at www.oneseat.eu for parliament to have a single seat in Brussels”.
Read article at theparliament.com

October 30, 2008

Finnish MEP laments EU move on access to documents
Finnish MEP and former prime minister Anneli Jäätteenmäki has tackled the commission over a revised regulation on access to EU documents. She told the Parliament Magazine that the EU executive is trying to roll back freedoms given to citizens under a 2001 law. Because the new regulation redefines the term ‘document’, she says that citizens will actually be restricted in what information they can apply to see.
Read article at theparliament.com

October 26, 2008

Tebbit demands EU exit referendum
David Cameron must promise a referendum on whether the UK should leave the European Union, former Tory chairman Lord Tebbit is expected to say. In a speech on Monday, he will call on the Conservative leader to show "Thatcherite courage" on the issue. This should happen "within two years" of a Tory election win, he will add.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)

October 26, 2008

Europe's secret plan to boost GM crop production
Gordon Brown and other EU leaders in campaign to promote modified foods
Gordon Brown and other European leaders are secretly preparing an unprecedented campaign to spread GM crops and foods in Britain and throughout the continent, confidential documents obtained by The Independent on Sunday reveal. The documents – minutes of a series of private meetings of representatives of 27 governments – disclose plans to "speed up" the introduction of the modified crops and foods and to "deal with" public resistance to them. And they show that the leaders want "agricultural representatives" and "industry" – presumably including giant biotech firms such as Monsanto – to be more vocal to counteract the "vested interests" of environmentalists.
Read article in The Independent (UK)

October 25, 2008

Nicolas Sarkozy under attack after EU president proposal
Nicolas Sarkozy has been accused of making a power grab to install himself as president of the European Union, a post that no longer exists after the Irish rejected the Lisbon Treaty in June. The French president, who holds the EU's rotating six month presidency until the end of December, has dominated the international stage following the Russian invasion of Georgia in August and the global financial crisis in recent weeks. But he has dismayed Brussels diplomats and angered the Czech Republic, which takes over the EU presidency in January, by suggesting that countries belonging to the euro, with an invitation extended to Britain, should form an emergency "economic government" with President Sarkozy at its head.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

October 22, 2008

Russia says media reports on possible Arctic conflict 'alarmist'
Russia's Foreign Ministry believes media speculation about the possibility of a war over the Arctic are ungrounded and "alarmist," an ambassador at large said Wednesday. "Media assessments of possible aggression in the Arctic, even a third world war, are seen as extremely alarmist and provocative. In my opinion, there are no grounds for such alarmism," Anton Vasilyev, who is also a high-ranking official on the Arctic Council, said. "We are following the situation in the region, this also includes the military activity of other countries, but we hope cooperation will be the main feature," he said.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

October 21, 2008

EU opens the door to Iceland
Iceland could "quickly" join the EU if it decided to apply for membership, the bloc's Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said yesterday (20 October 2008), as the country reconsiders its opposition to accession in view of the financial crisis, which has brought the island to the brink of bankruptcy.
Read article at euractiv.com

October 14, 2008

European Consumer Organizations and Political Parties demand that EU Heads of State Summit accepts outcome of Irish referendum
An alliance of seven non-governmental organizations and political parties, collectively representing citizens from all 27 European Union (EU) countries, is demanding that tomorrow’s EU Heads of State Summit accepts the outcome of the recent Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Expressing their deep concern over reports that the EU is planning to ignore the Irish “no” vote and press ahead with massive spending increases to implement the treaty’s provisions, they argue that “no” should mean “no.” Unless the treaty is abandoned and the interests of the European Union’s citizens come before those of multinational corporations, they say that public trust in the European Union and its institutions will be irreparably undermined.
Read press release at eu-referendum.org

October 8, 2008

The all-seeing state is about to end privacy as we know it
Plans for a vast central database of our emails, phone calls and texts will see everyone monitored as a potential suspect
You might suppose that the economic tornado hitting Britain would cause the government to focus its energy and resources very tightly on the political projects that are of undoubted value. This is not, after all, the moment to be wasting either political or financial capital. But you would be wrong. Faced with a crisis that it patently can't control, the government is instead seeking to exert power where it still can: over us. The state's latest plan to watch us makes every other imminent intrusion seem limited. Next month's Queen's speech will contain a brief reference to an innocuous-sounding communications data bill. But what this means is the development of a centralised database that will track, in real time, every call we make, every website we visit, and every text and email we send. That information will then be stored and analysed - perhaps for decades. It will mean the end of privacy as we know it.
Read article in the Guardian (UK)

October 7, 2008

EU elections could be pan-European by 2014
Citizens in one member state could be allowed to vote for a candidate in another country in European elections under a new plan put forward by UK deputy Andrew Duff. He also proposes the creation of “semi-open” lists that would give parliament the power to verify the credentials of candidates. Duff, parliament’s rapporteur on electoral reform, outlined his ideas at a news conference on Monday. He said, “These are radical measures but they are badly needed to address the profound democratic deficit facing the EU.”
Read article at theparliament.com

October 5, 2008

The EU's role in our financial crisis
As the Western world's banking system teeters on the edge of collapse, one crucial factor in this unprecedented crisis has gone almost entirely unnoticed - although David Cameron made a veiled reference to it on Tuesday. At the heart of this catastrophe lies a drastic change made last year to banking regulations, which has led to the current freezing of the money markets. Without it, most of the banks that have collapsed, such as Lehman Brothers, might have survived. Last December, a leading City economist, Professor Peter Spencer of Ernst & Young's Item Club, warned that unless something was done urgently to modify the new rules, the resulting paralysis of the banking system would "make 1929 look like a walk in the park".
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

September 26, 2008

Medvedev orders upgrade of Russia's nuclear deterrent by 2020
President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday that Russia must upgrade its nuclear deterrent and fully supply the Armed Forces with modern weaponry by 2020. He said Russia would make the modernization of its nuclear deterrent and Armed Forces a priority in light of the recent military conflict with Georgia.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

September 19, 2008

Russia wants cooperation with U.S., will rise above its rhetoric
Russia wants to maintain cooperation with the United States and will not succumb to its rhetoric and enter a new spiral of confrontation, the Foreign Ministry said Friday. Responding to the U.S. top diplomat's speech on the Russia-Georgia conflict, the ministry said Russia was "prepared to deal with the American side in all formats" but would not "succumb to its rhetoric and get drawn into confrontation, either verbal or any other."
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

September 15, 2008

Fears over privacy as police expand surveillance project
Database to hold details of millions of journeys for five years
The police are to expand a car surveillance operation that will allow them to record and store details of millions of daily journeys for up to five years, the Guardian has learned. A national network of roadside cameras will be able to "read" 50m licence plates a day, enabling officers to reconstruct the journeys of motorists. Police have been encouraged to "fully and strategically exploit" the database, which is already recording the whereabouts of 10 million drivers a day, during investigations ranging from counter-terrorism to low-level crime. But it has raised concerns from civil rights campaigners, who question whether the details should be kept for so long, and want clearer guidance on who might have access to the material.
Read article in the Guardian (UK)
Comment: The UK, already one of the most watched nations on earth and believed to have 20 per cent of the world’s CCTV cameras, is moving ever closer towards a ‘Big Brother’ style surveillance society. If you live in Europe, and would like to know what you can do to help protect the right to health; the right to life; the right to natural food; the right to a healthy environment; respect for human dignity and the protection of social values, click here.

September 8, 2008

Gorbachev says NATO growth aimed at isolating Russia
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has said that calls from the U.S. and other Western powers to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO are purely aimed at isolating Russia. "Why does NATO need these countries? To fight against Iran? This is just ridiculous," Gorbachev told Spanish agency EFE.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

September 8, 2008

Russia confirms sending warships to the Atlantic, Caribbean
A Russian naval task force from the Northern Fleet will go on a tour of duty in the Atlantic Ocean and participate in joint naval drills with the Venezuelan navy in November, a Navy spokesman said on Monday. "In line with the 2008 training program and in order to expand military cooperation with foreign navies Russia will send in November a naval task force from the Northern Fleet, comprising nuclear-powered missile cruiser Pyotr Velikiy and support ships, to the Atlantic Ocean," Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

August 28, 2008

Putin Suggests U.S. Provocation in Georgia Clash
MOSCOW — As Russia struggled to rally international support for its military action in Georgia, Vladimir V. Putin, the country’s paramount leader, lashed out at the United States on Thursday, contending that the White House may have orchestrated the conflict to benefit one of the candidates in the American presidential election. Mr. Putin’s comments in a television interview, his most extensive to date on Russia’s decision to send troops into Georgia earlier this month, sought to present the military operation as a response to brazen, cold war-style provocations by the United States. In tones that seemed alternately angry and mischievous, he suggested that the Bush administration may have tried to create a crisis that would influence American voters in the choice of a successor to President Bush. “The suspicion would arise that someone in the United States created this conflict on purpose to stir up the situation and to create an advantage for one of the candidates in the competitive race for the presidency in the United States,” Mr. Putin said in an interview with CNN. He added, “They needed a small victorious war.” Mr. Putin did not specify which candidate he had in mind, but there was no doubt that he was referring to Senator John McCain, the Republican.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)

August 27, 2008

Russian analyst points to link between Georgian attack and Iran
A senior Russian military analyst said on Wednesday that the U.S. and NATO by arming Tbilisi used the conflict in Georgia as a dress rehearsal for a future military operation in Iran. Col. Gen Leonid Ivashov, president of the Academy of Geopolitical Studies, told a news conference at RIA Novosti, "We are close to a serious conflict - U.S. and NATO preparations on a strategic scale are ongoing. In the operation the West conducted on Georgian soil against Russia - South Ossetians were the victims or hostages of it - we can see a rehearsal for an attack on Iran. There is a great deal of "new features" that today are being fine tuned in the theater of military operations." He said the likelihood of a war against Iran was growing with each passing day, "As a result, the situation in the region will become destabilized," and added "causing chaos and instability" was becoming Washington's official policy line.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

August 27, 2008

Russia to respond militarily to U.S. missile shield
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said Russia will have to respond militarily to the deployment of elements of a U.S. missile shield in Central Europe. The deal to place 10 interceptor missiles in Poland was reached in mid-August, and followed the signing of an agreement on July 8 by the U.S. and Czech foreign ministries to place a U.S. radar in the Czech Republic. "These missiles are close to our borders and constitute a threat to us," Medvedev said in an interview with Al-Jazeera television on Tuesday. "This will create additional tension and we will have to respond to it in some way, naturally using military means."
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

August 26, 2008

Russia not seeking new Cold War, but not afraid - Medvedev
Russia does not want a new Cold War but is not afraid of one should it occur, the Russian president told the Russia Today international news channel on Tuesday.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

August 26, 2008

Russia recognizes Georgia's breakaway republics
Russia's president signed decrees on Tuesday recognizing Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states despite warnings by Western leaders not to do so.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

August 25, 2008

Roof collapse prompts renewed calls for one EU parliament
MEPs are again calling for an end to the European parliament’s "travelling circus" to Strasbourg after the recent collapse of part of the parliament building's ceiling. The hemicycle ceiling partly collapsed on August 7, and has forced parliament's first post-recess plenary session to be held in Brussels.
Read article at theparliament.com
Comment: Although the European Parliament meets mostly in Brussels, a treaty agreed by all 27 EU governments states they are required to meet 12 times a year in Strasbourg — a procedure said to cost in excess of £120million annually. As such, if put to a referendum, we have little doubt that a large majority of European citizens would vote against this as an absurd waste of money.

August 15, 2008

Gorbachev blames Georgia for provoking war, West for backing it
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has blamed Georgia for provoking hostilities in its breakaway region of South Ossetia and criticized Western states for backing Tbilisi. Appearing on CNN's "Larry King Live" on Thursday, Gorbachev said Russia had moved additional forces into South Ossetia in response to the "devastation" in the South Ossetia capital of Tskhinvali. "This was the use of sophisticated weapons against a small town, against a sleeping people. This was a barbaric assault," Gorbachev told CNN.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)
Comment: In an article published in the Washington Post newspaper on August 12, Gorbachev - the last president of the Soviet Union and who was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1990 - stated that “[w]hat happened on the night of August 7 is beyond comprehension. The Georgian military attacked the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali with multiple rocket launchers designed to devastate large areas. Russia had to respond.” He added that “[t]he Georgian leadership could do this only with the perceived support and encouragement of a much more powerful force. Georgian armed forces were trained by hundreds of US instructors, and its sophisticated military equipment was bought in a number of countries. This, coupled with the promise of Nato membership, emboldened Georgian leaders.”

August 15, 2008

Russia: Poland risks attack because of US missiles
MOSCOW (AP) — A top Russian general said Friday that Poland's agreement to accept a U.S. missile interceptor base exposes the ex-communist nation to attack, possibly by nuclear weapons, the Interfax news agency reported.
Read Associated Press news story at google.com

August 15, 2008

Venezuela blames US for Georgia-Russia conflict
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is accusing the United States of masterminding the current conflict between Georgia and Russia. A statement from Chavez's government alleges the conflict was "planned, prepared and ordered" by Washington in an "incitement of violence."
Read Associated Press news story at google.com

August 15, 2008

US, Poland agree to anti-missile defense deal
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland and the United States struck a deal Thursday that will strengthen military ties and put an American missile interceptor base in Poland, a plan that has infuriated Moscow and sparked fears in Europe of a new arms race.
Read Associated Press news story at google.com

August 13, 2008

'Snooper's charter' to check texts and emails
· Hundreds of public bodies to access personal details
· Home Office measure driven by EU directive
Local councils, health authorities and hundreds of other public bodies are to be given the power to access details of everyone's personal text, emails and internet use under Home Office proposals published yesterday. Ministers want to make it mandatory for telephone and internet companies to keep details of all personal internet traffic for at least 12 months so it can be accessed for investigations into crime or other threats to public safety. The Home Office last night admitted that the measure will mean companies have to store "a billion incidents of data exchange a day". As the measure is the result of an EU directive, the data will be made available to public investigators across Europe.
Read article in the Guardian (UK)
Comment: Disturbing though this development is, the list of organizations that have access to personal information of this type in the UK is already of serious concern as it includes the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Worse still, when the UK’s Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act was discussed in the British House of Lords in 2000, it emerged that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain is considered to be a public authority and that it uses “covert surveillance”.

August 3, 2008

Inquiry into television shows funded by ministers
Ministers are at the centre of a row over the use of taxpayers' money to fund television documentaries.
The Government has spent almost £2 million to fund programmes that are all but indistinguishable from regular shows, The Sunday Telegraph has established. But unlike normal documentaries, the programmes are commissioned by ministers with the purpose of showing their policies or activities in a sympathetic light. The media watchdog Ofcom has disclosed that it had opened an investigation into one of the programmes, Beat: Life on the Street - about the Government's controversial Police Community Support Officers, to see whether it breached its broadcasting code. Media freedom campaigners, broadcasters and opposition politicians expressed alarm over the Government-funded documentaries.
Read article in the Sunday Telegraph (UK)
Comment: To those of us who already know that journalists are sometimes put under pressure to back studies claiming that vitamin supplements may shorten life expectancy, and that shadowy intelligence agencies are pumping out black propaganda to manipulate public opinion - and that the media simply swallow it wholesale, the news that the British government has been funding television documentary series, and monitoring the content before it is broadcast, is anything but surprising.

July 31, 2008

'Major discovery' from MIT primed to unleash solar revolution
Scientists mimic essence of plants' energy storage system
In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine.
Read article on the MIT website (USA)
Comment: Liberation from the tyranny of the oil cartel continues to draw closer.

July 24, 2008

Russia could place bombers in Latin America, N.Africa - paper
Russian strategic bombers may soon be deployed at airbases in Cuba, Venezuela and Algeria as a response to the U.S. missile shield in Europe and NATO's expansion, Russian daily Izvestia said on Thursday. Moscow has strongly opposed the possible deployment by the U.S. of 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and an accompanying tracking radar in the Czech Republic as a threat to its national security. Washington says the defenses are needed to deter a possible strike from Iran, or other "rogue" states. Moscow has also expressed concern over NATO's expansion to Russia's borders and pledged to take "appropriate measures" to counter the U.S. and NATO moves.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

July 23, 2008

Moscow must answer U.S. shield with Cuban 'spy' site - analyst
Russia should respond to U.S. missile defense plans for Central Europe by reopening a 'spy' facility in Cuba to gather intelligence on the United States, a Russian analyst said on Wednesday. The electronic monitoring and surveillance facility near Havana at Torrens, also known as the Lourdes facility, the largest Russian Sigint site abroad, was shut down in October 2001 by then- president Vladimir Putin. "Cuba is a unique place to gather intelligence on the United States. I believe that the reopening of this station is both possible and necessary amid the threat that the Americans are creating for Russia," Alexander Pikayev, head of the disarmament and conflict resolution department at the Russian Academy of Sciences' World Economics and International Relations Institute, told a news conference at RIA Novosti.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

July 16, 2008

Italy plans to extend ID scheme
Italy's government has sought to defuse a row over its move to fingerprint Roma people by proposing that everyone living in Italy is fingerprinted. Under the plan, fingerprints would feature from 2010 on the identity cards Italian citizens and residents carry. The fingerprinting of Roma, including children, as part of a crime crackdown had been criticised as discriminatory. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi argued it was needed to ensure Roma children went to school and were integrated.
Read article at BBC News (UK)
Comment: To learn more about Prime Minister Berlusconi and his friends, click here.

July 15, 2008

EU parliament 'failed to comply' with law on MEP expenses
European ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros has criticised parliament for failing to comply with transparency laws for MEPs' expenses. It follows a complaint from a Maltese journalist, whose request for details of his country's five MEPs' allowances was rejected by the assembly on the grounds of data protection. The journalist had lodged a complaint with Diamandouros, arguing that taxpayers have a right to know how MEPs spend public money.
Read article at theparliament.com

July 10, 2008

Many troops 'feel like quitting'
Almost half of UK military personnel are ready to leave the forces, a Ministry of Defence survey suggests.
Read article at BBC News (UK)
Comment: With the likes of George Bush and Nicolas Sarkozy now openly telling us to prepare for war and discussing WWIII, and the latest reports now suggesting that US members of Congress have voiced support for a pre-emptive nuclear strike on Iran, is anybody really surprised by the results of this survey?

July 9, 2008

European Parliament bars Euro-sceptic Groups
MEPs took yet another step towards arbitrary rule this afternoon, adopting new rules designed explicitly to prevent Euro-sceptics from forming a Group.
Read Daniel Hannan's blog on the Daily Telegraph website (UK)

July 4, 2008

Judge orders Google to give YouTube user data to Viacom
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - A US judge has ordered Google to expose to Viacom the video-viewing habits of everyone who has ever used YouTube in a decision condemned by the Internet giant and privacy advocates.
Read AFP news story at google.com
Comment: The ruling, which could have serious privacy implications for internet users worldwide, orders Google to turn over every record of every video watched by YouTube users, including users' names and IP addresses.

July 2, 2008

U.S. hopes for missile defense deal with Poland soon
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States expects to reach a deal soon on basing 10 missile interceptors in Poland as part of its European missile defense project, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
Read news report at reuters.com

July 2, 2008

Are you being heard? Eavesdropping and wiretapping in Europe and the USA
The Swedes, through a narrow parliamentary majority, voted through last month one of the most severe invasions on privacy, the signal surveillance or wiretapping law. The Germans have been up in arms over data retention policies that came in on the back of a 2006 EU Directive. This also has a remit that is meant to protect Germans from crime and terrorism - but it also hands over data that can be used by the government for numerous other purposes! Meanwhile, the US government, and the Department of Homeland Security in particular, is doing its darndest to finalise a US-European pact to give it the right to access private data of European citizens.
Read article by the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) analyzing the latest attacks on personal privacy in Europe and the USA

July 1, 2008

Accord Could Give U.S. Government Access to Private Data on EU Citizens
Treaty could redraw privacy climate on both sides of the Atlantic
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may soon have access to private data on European citizens, thanks to a new transatlantic treaty nearing the long road towards ratification. Brokered by "high-level contact groups" between U.S. and European security officials, the data-sharing pact could give DHS officials access to credit card, travel and even internet browsing histories of EU citizens for antiterrorism purposes, such as screening airline manifests for suspicious passengers. An internal report seen by the New York Times says that the treaty was drawn up due to the stark differences in privacy laws between the United States and EU member nations. Strict data-sharing regulations in Europe make it difficult for American investigators to hunt for suspicious activity, creating heady disputes that "frayed" diplomatic relations and "required difficult negotiations to resolve."
Read article at dailytech.com

June 26, 2008

EU Constitution author says referendums can be ignored
Future referendums will be ignored whether they are held in Ireland or elsewhere, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the architect of the European Union Constitution said. The former President of France drafted the old Constitution that was rejected by French and Dutch voters three years ago before being resurrected as the Lisbon EU Treaty, itself shunned by the Irish two weeks ago. Mr Giscard d'Estaing told the Irish Times that Ireland's referendum rejection would not kill the Treaty, despite a legal requirement of unanimity from all the EU's 27 member states. "We are evolving towards majority voting because if we stay with unanimity, we will do nothing," he said.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
Comment: Giscard d'Estaing's comments here show that the EU remains intent upon ruling by dictatorship - despite the democratic rejection of these plans in referendums by French and Dutch voters on the EU Constitution, and now Irish voters in a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

June 21, 2008

Campaigners blast EU lobby register plans
Transparency campaigners have slammed as "fundamentally flawed" Brussels' plans to introduce a voluntary register for EU lobbyists. Speaking at a press conference on Monday ahead of the launch of the register by EU administrative affairs commissioner Siim Kallas, Jorgo Riis, member of the alliance for lobbying transparency, Alter EU, questioned whether the new lobby register had "any value at all". Riis, also Greenpeace European director, said, "The end product is proof that commercial lobbyists have effective influence in Brussels. Why has the Barroso commission not pushed further on transparency?"
Read article at theparliament.com
Comment: According to Alter EU, individual lobbyists will not be named, meaning there will be no exposure of scandals, no trace of revolving doors (where former EU staff land lucrative jobs with lobbyists), no information on possible conflicts of interest and continued confusion over the number of lobbyists active in Brussels.

June 20, 2008

EU to lift sanctions against Cuba
The European Union is to lift sanctions imposed on Cuba in 2003 in protest at the imprisonment of more than 70 Cuban dissidents by the Castro government.
Read article at BBC News (UK)

June 19, 2008

Sweden adopts law allowing official eavesdropping
Sweden's Parliament narrowly approved a law Wednesday that gives authorities sweeping powers to eavesdrop on all e-mail and telephone traffic that crosses the Nordic nation's borders. Critics have slammed the law as an invasion of privacy and an infringement on civil liberties. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside Parliament Wednesday, some handing out copies of George Orwell's novel "1984," about a fictional futuristic police state. The right-leaning government's slim majority helped secure 143-138 approval, despite strong opposition from left-leaning parties led by Social Democrats.
Read Associated Press news story at google.com

June 17, 2008

Law School to Plan Bush War Crimes Prosecution
A conference to plan the prosecution of President Bush and other high administration officials for war crimes will be held September 13-14 at the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover. "This is not intended to be a mere discussion of violations of law that have occurred," said convener Lawrence Velvel, dean and cofounder of the school. "It is, rather, intended to be a planning conference at which plans will be laid and necessary organizational structures set up, to pursue the guilty as long as necessary and, if need be, to the ends of the Earth."
Read Massachusetts School Of Law press release at informationclearinghouse.info

June 17, 2008

Italian PM defends trials freeze
Italy's prime minister has defended plans by his government to suspend certain long-running trials for a year. The move, which would freeze Silvio Berlusconi's corruption trial currently under way in Milan, sparked criticism from opposition parties.
Read article at BBC News (UK)
Comment: To learn more about Mr Berlusconi and his friends, click here.

June 17, 2008

The EU reveals its anti-democratic nature
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said in the Commons yesterday that Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty last week "must be respected". He also said that the rules of the EU are "clear" - that a treaty falls if it does not command the unanimous support of all 27 member states. And he insisted there could be no "bulldozing" of the Irish into changing their position. Admirable sentiments, all. Mr Miliband then stood all three statements on their head by making it clear that Ireland's courageous vote is not going to be accepted by Europe's ruling elites, that the Government will press on regardless with ratification of the treaty, and that it is up the Irish to sort this mess out - in other words, change its mind.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

June 16, 2008

Irish health group welcomes 'no' to Lisbon treaty
Ireland's rejection of the European Union Lisbon Treaty has strengthened the resolve of the country's independent health store retailers as well as food supplement manufacturers and wholesalers in their campaign against EU regulations. The Irish Association of Health Stores (IAHS) has for many years been campaigning against what it perceives as "highly restrictive" laws that have been implemented - or are in the process of being implemented - across the 27-member state bloc in regard to food supplement and functional foods.
Read article at nutraingredients.com
Comment: If you live in Europe, click here to sign the European Referendum Initiative petition demanding a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

June 14, 2008

EU referendum: What the European papers say
Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon treaty in Thursday's referendum was front page news across Europe, prompting mixed reaction in the morning newspapers.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

June 14, 2008

Irish voters sign death warrant for EU's Lisbon treaty
Irish voters tore up the European Union's blueprint for the future yesterday in a dramatic and decisive rejection of the Lisbon treaty. The result leaves Brussels' plans to streamline EU power - creating a president and foreign minister and reducing the influence for smaller countries such as Ireland - in tatters. The 53.4 per cent "no" vote should in theory sign the death warrant of the treaty, which has been eight years in the making, since it requires ratification by all 27 members. Gordon Brown faced immediate calls to scrap British ratification.
Read article in The Times (UK)

May 30, 2008

Corrs guitarist: 9/11 was an inside job
Corrs guitarist Jim Corr has claimed that there was overwhelming evidence that the 9/11 attacks in America were carried out by "rogue elements" of US President George Bush's "neo-con administration". In a rare intervention into the political arena, the male singer with The Corrs band also came out against the Lisbon Treaty claiming that it is "tip-toe totalitarianism in the West". In an interview with Matt Cooper on Ireland's Today FM's 'Last Word', Corr made the case for voting 'No' to Lisbon, claiming it could introduce the death penalty to Ireland and contribute to a "new world order".
Read article in the Belfast Telegraph (Northern Ireland)

May 29, 2008

Bolton dodges attempted 'war crimes' arrest
The environmental campaigner George Monbiot last night tried and failed to make a citizen's arrest of the former Bush administration official John Bolton over alleged "war crimes" committed during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. As Bolton, a former US ambassador to the UN, ended an hour-long discussion at the Hay festival, Monbiot, who had earlier challenged him for alleged breaches of the postwar Nuremberg Principles, defining war crimes, moved towards the stage waving a charge sheet. But security staff intervened and bundled Monbiot out of the tent as 20 supporters chanted "war criminal" and waved placards.
Read article in The Guardian (UK)
Comment: Monbiot's Charge Sheet for the attempted arrest of John Bolton specifically cites the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg's ruling that "to initiate a war of aggression … is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime".

May 29, 2008

The Battle to Save the Polish Countryside
Julian Rose exposes the scandal of EU's deliberate policy to get rid of family farms for the benefit of the corporations and gives a personal account of his battle with the GMO dragon that threatens to devastate rural Poland.
Read press release on the Institute of Science in Society website (ISIS) (UK)

May 19, 2008

Democracy and the Web
Users of the Internet take for granted their ability to access all Web sites on an equal basis. That could change, however, if Internet service providers started discriminating among content, to make more money or to suppress ideas they do not like. A new "net neutrality" bill has been introduced in the House, which would prohibit this sort of content discrimination. Congress has delayed on this important issue too long and should pass net neutrality legislation now.
Read editorial in the New York Times (USA)
Comment: To learn more about the need for net neutrality and internet freedom, click here.

May 7, 2008

Blair loses Sarkozy's backing for presidency
Tony Blair's hopes of becoming Europe's first president suffered a setback yesterday after President Nicolas Sarkozy of France indicted that he had withdrawn his support. Elysée sources confirmed that Mr Sarkozy was backing Jean Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg, as the "firm favourite", suggesting he had given up on Mr Blair after resistance from other countries.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

May 7, 2008

EU summit to open talks on president
European Union leaders are pencilling in a Brussels summit on June 19-20 for their first substantive discussions on who should become the bloc's first full-time president.
Read article in the Financial Times (UK)

April 25, 2008

Malaysia's ex-PM Mahathir wants Iraq war leaders on war crimes charges
LONDON (AFP) - Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has called for an international tribunal to try Western leaders with war crimes over the war in Iraq, a spokesman for the organisers said. In a speech at Imperial College, London, Mahathir called for a tribunal to try US President George W. Bush plus former prime ministers Tony Blair of Britain and John Howard of Australia for their part in the conflict, said a spokesman for the Muslim group the Ramadhan Foundation, which set up the event. Spokesman Mohammed Shafiq told AFP that Mahathir, who was in office from 1981 to 2003, wants to see the trio tried "in absence for war crimes committed in Iraq.
Read AFP news story at yahoo.com

April 24, 2008

On St George's Day, EU wipes England off map
England has been wiped off a map of Europe drawn up by Brussels bureaucrats as part of a scheme that the Tories claim threatens to undermine the country's national identity. The new European plan splits England into three zones that are joined with areas in other countries. The "Manche" region covers part of southern England and northern France while the Atlantic region includes western parts of England, Portugal, Spain and Wales. The North Sea region includes eastern England, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and parts of Germany. A copy of the map, which makes no reference to England or Britain, has even renamed the English Channel the "Channel Sea".
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

April 23, 2008

MEPs reject publication of expenses enquiry
MEPs have controversially voted against publication of a report by parliament's internal auditor which is said to contain evidence of widespread abuse of funds intended to be used to pay their staff.
Read article at theparliament.com

April 21, 2008

EU fraud office steps up investigation of MEP expenses
The EU anti-fraud office Olaf has increased the number of investigators probing claims of an expenses scam by MEPs, it has emerged. There are now four officials working almost full time on the case due to the "quantity of information" Olaf has been given. The revelation comes after the Dutch MEP Paul van Buitenen last week gave Olaf the names of two MEPs he believes have been involved in expenses fraud.
Read article at theparliament.com

April 20, 2008

Brown deal bars Blair from top EU job
Tony Blair's chances of becoming the first president of the EU have been dashed under a secret veto deal Gordon Brown has struck with France and Germany, it emerged last night. The former prime minister is said to be "interested" in the £200,000-a-year job if the terms are right. But the British, French and German governments have all privately agreed not to back a candidate if any one of them has objections to him or her, diplomats have revealed.
Read article in The Independent (UK)

April 16, 2008

Ireland's referendum - Leaked memo to British Government exposes Irish Government conniving with foreign governments to deceive the Irish electorate
The Government has hatched an elaborate plan to deceive voters over the forthcoming EU treaty referendum, the Irish Daily Mail can today reveal. A leaked email shows that ministers are planning a deliberate campaign of misinformation to ensure that the Lisbon Treaty vote is passed when it is put to the public as required by the Constitution. Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern has even been personally assured that the European Commission will "tone down or delay" any announcements from Brussels "that might be unhelpful". Alarmingly, the email says that ministers ruled out an October referendum, which would have been better procedurally, because they feared "unhelpful developments during the French presidency - particularly related to EU defence".
Read article from the Irish Daily Mail at free-europe.org

April 15, 2008

Italy returns Berlusconi to power
Centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi has warned of "difficult months ahead" after winning Italy's general election. Mr Berlusconi, who is due to return to Rome from his home in northern Italy on Tuesday, won control of both the senate and lower house of parliament. The decisive victory gives him a third term as prime minister.
Read article at BBC News (UK)
Comment: To learn more about Silvio Berlusconi, and the apparent intentions of he and his associates to turn Europe into a "Big Brother" society, click here.

April 14, 2008

Council spy cases hit 1,000 a month
More than 1,000 covert surveillance operations are being launched every month to investigate petty offences such as dog fouling, under-age smoking and breaches of planning regulations. Councils and other public bodies are using legislation designed to combat terrorism in order to spy on people, obtain their telephone records and find out who they are emailing. The full extent to which local authorities take advantage of new powers given to them by the Government came to light after a Dorset council admitted spying for more than two weeks on a family it suspected of lying on a school application form.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
Comment: Far from being used to fight terrorism, British Councils are increasingly using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (Ripa) to investigate literally anything that can be classed as a criminal offence. As such, the fact that the Act also enables the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain to monitor people's private communications and carry out surveillance proves that the "War on Terror" is not merely about fighting "terrorism" but is part of a deliberate long-term strategy by pharmaceutical investment groups to create a psychological "state of fear" and maintain global control.

April 14, 2008

'Palace, jet and personal staff of 22' for the new EU president
The proposed full-time president of the European Union is to be given a personal jet, a palatial official residence and a personal staff of up to 22, under plans being considered in Brussels.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

April 2, 2008

Ahern to resign as Irish premier
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has announced he is to resign in May. Mr Ahern, 56, has been taoiseach since June 1997 and has been a member of the Irish Parliament for 31 years. The announcement comes a day after Mr Ahern began a court challenge to limit the work of a public inquiry probing planning corruption in the 1990s.
Read article at BBC News (UK)
Comment: Fears amongst pro-Lisbon Treaty campaigners in Ireland have been growing of late that a 'No' vote in the upcoming Irish referendum would be guaranteed unless Ahern stood down. Our money's on him getting a top job in Brussels as his reward…

March 18, 2008

Belgium Forms Govt After 9-Month Crisis
Belgium 's political parties announced Tuesday they had reached a deal to form a new national government, ending a nine-month political stalemate that had threatened to split the country along linguistic lines. Prime Minister-designate Yves Leterme, whose Flemish Christian Democrats won elections last June, announced an accord after all-night talks. "I can confirm that the five parties ... have reached a government deal which includes a lot of concrete measures," Leterme told VRT radio. Leterme is expected to take over from interim Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt on Thursday after the five coalition parties and the parliament give their blessing to the government, officials said.
Read Associated Press news report at google.com

March 12, 2008

Review into ‘widespread fiddles’ by MEPs
A review of expenses rules for MEPs was ordered yesterday after a secret report detailed widespread fiddles in the European Parliament. MEPs may lose the right to manage their annual €190,000 (£145,000) staff budget after a number of scams were discovered, including paying large sums to political parties or to arm’s-length companies with no employees. The review was announced by senior MEPs only days after they rejected the EU Ombudsman’s call to publish full details of staff and travel expenses, arguing that this would breach privacy considerations.
Read article in The Times (UK)

Stances smoothed on U.S. missile shield, Polish leader says
WASHINGTON : Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland said Monday that President George W. Bush has removed key stumbling blocks in negotiations to allow U.S. missile defense interceptors on Polish soil. Negotiations had been slowed because of Poland's demand for help in upgrading its military in exchange for allowing the interceptors. U.S. negotiators wanted to deal with the Polish demands separately and leave promises vague. But Tusk said that Bush agreed during their meeting Monday that the missile defense program and the U.S.-aided modernization of the Polish military would be considered all in "one package."
Read article in the International Herald Tribune

March 10, 2008

EU citizens can 'no longer fathom' EU project
More than 50 years after the creation of the EU, the ‘aims and meaning’ of the European project remain unanswered, according to bishops from around Europe. They say that ratification of the reform treaty will still not solve these “crucial” questions. That was the keynote message to emerge from the plenary assembly of the commission of the bishops’ conference of the European community (COMECE).
Read article at theparliament.com

March 6, 2008

Clegg calls for US-style recall system for discredited MPs
Electorate could force vote on erring representatives
Lib Dem leader's plan follows Conway case
A US-style "recall" system should be introduced in Britain to force MPs who break House of Commons rules to face their electorate in an emergency byelection, the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, declared yesterday. In an eye-catching attempt to rejuvenate the British political system, which he warns is on a "life support system", Clegg said voters should be allowed to collect petitions in their constituency if an MP is expelled or suspended from the Commons.
Read article in The Guardian (UK)

March 5, 2008

MEP makes 'fraud' report public
Dutch MEP Paul van Buitenen has published a confidential internal report on abuse of staff allowances described by a colleague as "dynamite". The report highlights money paid for non-existent staff via a system of "service providers" or accountants.
Read article at BBC News (UK)
Comment: To read van Buitenen’s press release and download the report, click here.

European Parliament members face challenge over expenses
Members of the European Parliament could face a legal challenge over the decision to keep secret all details of how they spend £180 million in expenses each year. The Daily Telegraph has obtained details of a letter sent by a secretive "bureau" of senior MEPs that refuses to publish details of how individual members have benefited from publicly-funded allowances. The letter, sent to Nikiforos Diamandouros, the European Ombudsman, follows his ruling of "maladministration" over the issue. A journalist who filed the original petition to the ombudsman has vowed to challenge the parliament's response through the courts "as far as the law allows".
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

March 3, 2008

Ahern emerges as possible candidate for EU presidency
Bertie Ahern, the prime minister of Ireland , has emerged as a possible candidate for the Europe Union's first full-time president amid uncertainty over whether the bloc is seeking a global figure like Tony Blair or a lower-profile fixer.
Read article in the International Herald Tribune

Ex-EU parliament president calls for 'thorough' probe into alleged scam
A former president of parliament has demanded a “full and thorough” investigation into an alleged MEP expenses scam. The call, by Pat Cox, follows the furore over parliament’s refusal to publish a report by its internal auditor which is said to detail widespread abuse of the expenses regime. The report has been forwarded to Olaf, the EU’s anti-fraud office.
Read article at theparliament.com

February 27, 2008

Blair 'wrong man' for EU president
Tony Blair is the “wrong man” to become president of the EU, says one of Europe 's heavyweight political figures. Once the Lisbon treaty is fully ratified on 1 January, the post is to replace the EU’s current rotating presidency. Though he is yet to declare himself a candidate, Blair has been widely touted for the job, with notable backing from French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Jean-Claude Juncker, the veteran EU-friendly Luxembourg premier, is another possible candidate. However, Viscount Etienne Davignon, a former European commission vice president, said the former Labour party leader “lacks the legitimacy” for the prestigious post. He said: “There are very significant obstacles to Blair becoming EU president.
Read article at theparliament.com

MEPs vote to keep their expenses scams secret
Senior members of the European Parliament turned their fire on a whistle-blower for disclosing the existence of a confidential report into widespread misuse of expenses yesterday as they voted for it to stay secret. Chris Davies, a Liberal Democrat who broke ranks to reveal that an internal auditor had found a number of scams being operated by MEPs, was attacked for misusing private information and for rarely turning up to committee meetings. MEPs on the Budget Control Committee voted by 21 to 14 not to publish the report, with the support of the two main groups in Parliament, the European People’s Party, which includes the Conservatives, and the Socialists, including Labour.
Read article in The Times (UK)
Comment: This disgraceful development reflects everything that is wrong with the European Union and, as if one was even needed, is yet another reason to oppose the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.

February 25, 2008

U.S. missile shield plan nearly final, Czechs say
PRAGUE : The Czech Republic expects to finalize details this week in Washington of a plan to play host to part of a U.S. missile defense shield, Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said Monday.
Read article in the International Herald Tribune

Clegg pushes 'in or out' EU vote
The time has come for a referendum on whether Britain should stay in the EU, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has said. Politicians had "all gone crazy" over ratifying the Lisbon Treaty, taking attention from the "big question" on continuing EU membership, he added. The Lib Dems are expected to table a House of Commons motion on Tuesday demanding a public vote on whether Britain stays in the EU.
Read article at BBC News (UK)
Comment: Despite this move, Clegg is not backing attempts to force the British Government to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and, according to the Daily Telegraph, apparently believes there is no need for one. Did he bother to consult his constituents before he came to this decision, one wonders…

February 24, 2008

Communist becomes Cypriot president
Demetris Christofias won the Cypriot presidential election Sunday after pledging to revive talks to reunite the Greek Cypriot south side of the island with the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north. Final results showed that Christofias had won 53.36 percent of the vote, becoming the island's first communist president, albeit a communist who accepts the country's market economy. His conservative rival, Ioannis Kassoulides, had 46.6 percent of the vote. Christofias supporters flooded onto the streets of Nicosia, waving Cypriot flags and banners of Che Guevara.
Read article in the International Herald Tribune

February 21, 2008

EU politicians accused of ‘massive’ fraud
The European Union’s anti-fraud agency is to investigate whether parliamentarians have been pocketing staff allowances after a damning internal audit. Olaf, the anti-fraud office, said on Wednesday it had asked for a copy of the confidential report, which exposes misuse of the €140m annual staff budget. “It is potentially of interest to us,” Olaf said. The report reveals cases of people claiming for staff they do not employ and routing payments through fake agencies. Shocked MEPs who read the report called in the financial watchdog. Its contents were “dynamite”, said Chris Davies, a British Liberal. “These allegations ... should lead to the imprisonment of a number of MEPs,” he said. “It is fraud and embezzlement on a massive scale.”
Read article in the Financial Times (UK)
Comment: In a sign of how paranoid the European Parliament is about this report getting out in advance of the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, it is currently being held in a locked room and only members of the budgetary control committee such as Mr Davies can enter to read it. Even then however, they are not allowed to take notes and must sign a confidentiality agreement.

February 20, 2008

The EU Reform Treaty: A Threat to the Transatlantic Alliance
After French President Nicolas Sarkozy's and Ger ­ man Chancellor Angela Merkel's successful visits to Washington, D.C., U.S. policymakers might be for ­ given for thinking that U.S. strategic interests are now in safe hands in continental Europe. However, this optimism discounts the enormous threat posed by the Reform Treaty, which was signed in Lisbon on December 13 and is little more than the European Constitution with a cosmetic makeover. Under Chancellor Merkel's personal leadership, the European Union breathed life back into the rejected European Constitution, recasting it as the Reform Treaty. It still contains the building blocks of a United States of Europe and will shift power from the member states of the EU to Brussels in crit ­ ical areas of policymaking, including defense, secu ­ rity, and energy--areas in which the United States finds more traction on a bilateral basis. The treaty is a blueprint for restricting the sovereign right of EU member states to determine their own foreign poli ­ cies, and it poses a unique threat to the British- American Special Relationship. Above all, the treaty underscores the EU's ambi ­ tions to become a global power and challenge Ameri ­ can leadership on the world stage.
Read study by Sally McNamara on the website of The Heritage Foundation (USA)
Comment: This study is particularly notable for the fact that it recommends the United States should support calls for the United Kingdom and other European Union member states to hold referenda on the Lisbon Treaty.

Stop Blair: ambition to lead Europe hits fierce opposition
EU track record and Iraq seen as obstacles to getting new post of president
Tony Blair's hopes of becoming Europe 's first president are running into mounting opposition across the EU, with Germany determined to stymie the former prime minister. A "Stop Blair" website run by pro-Europeans has launched a petition against him; a transnational, cross-party caucus in the European parliament is forming to campaign against a Blair presidency; senior officials in Brussels are privately dismissive about the new post going to a Briton; and senior diplomats in European capitals also doubt that Blair is the right person for the post being created under Europe's new reform treaty.
Read article in The Guardian (UK)

February 19, 2008

Iraq dossier 'based on spin doctors arguments'
The "dodgy dossier" on Iraq which the Government claimed gave the intelligence agencies' case for war bore a striking resemblance to a draft by a Government spin doctor, it emerged on Monday. The public was finally allowed to compare the two documents more than six years after they were drawn up after the release of a draft by John Williams, a former Foreign Office press officer. Opposition politicians said the report proved that the case for war had been based on the arguments and rhetoric of spin doctors rather than an impartial analysis by intelligence experts.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
Comment: During the buildup to the Iraq war, the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair claimed in parliament that Iraq was capable of launching weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes of the order being given. However, given that no weapons of mass destruction were ever found in Iraq, the entire world now knows that this was untrue. For details of what really lies behind the American and British-led military conflict in Iraq - and the related threats to Iran , North Korea and other Asian countries - click here.

February 14, 2008

Gordon Brown backs Blair's run for EU job
Tony Blair has received official Government backing to campaign for the post of the European Union's first permanent president after Gordon Brown's Europe minister said he would be "great" at the job. Jim Murphy, the Foreign Office minister in charge of EU policy, told The Spectator that he would give Mr Blair every assistance needed to make a successful campaign.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

Proposed shake up of EU security includes call for fingerprinting all visitors
A top EU official on Wednesday proposed fingerprinting and screening all visitors who cross the bloc's borders — and using a satellite system to keep out illegal immigrants — as part of a massive shake up of security at Europe's borders. The proposals, if approved by all 27 EU governments, would represent one of the largest security overhauls in the European Union and could cost billions of dollars. Critics said it would move Europe toward a "Big Brother" society, calling the proposed measures a violation of privacy rights.
Read article in the International Herald Tribune
Comment: Has the Mafia taken over in Brussels ? Click here to decide for yourself.

February 11, 2008

How the spooks took over the news
In his controversial new book, Nick Davies argues that shadowy intelligence agencies are pumping out black propaganda to manipulate public opinion – and that the media simply swallow it wholesale.
Read article in the Independent (UK)

Dutch refuse to sign off on EU accounts
The Netherlands is to refuse to sign off on the European Union's accounts, in an attempt to force national governments to take more responsibility for the European money they spend. Wouter Bos, Dutch finance minister, is set to be heavily outvoted at a meeting of his peers tomorrow to pass the 2006 budget of €107bn (£80bn, $155bn), in spite of huge errors found by auditors last year in the four-fifths of money that is spent nationally.
Read article in the Financial Times (UK)
Comment: In November 2007, the EU's auditors refused to sign off the bloc's financial accounts - for the 13th year in a row. The report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) criticised nearly every major area of the EU's expenditure. The auditors said there are weaknesses across the board and complain of neglect and presumed attempts at fraud.

February 8, 2008

New poll shows deep pessimism about direction of U.S. and Europe
While Americans have been saying for more than four years that their country is headed in the wrong direction, a poll shows that people in five major European countries share that pessimism about their own countries. The poll, conducted by Harris Interactive for the International Herald Tribune and France 24, shows a broad range of discontent in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States, especially focused on the economy. "This poll reveals an overall deep crisis of confidence in Europe and the United States," Patrick van Bloeme, chief executive of Harris Interactive France, said.
Read article in the International Herald Tribune

February 5, 2008

Blair tests ground for EU presidency
Tony Blair is for the first time letting it be known that he is open to the idea of campaigning to become the European Union's first full-time president, a post that will be filled by EU member states later this year.
Read article in the Financial Times (UK)

February 4, 2008

Day trip to Auschwitz for pupils from every school
Two sixth-formers from every school in England are to visit Auschwitz to learn about the Holocaust, under a government-funded initiative to help to ensure that the lessons of the Nazi genocide live on with a new generation. Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, wants the teenagers who take part to educate their classmates and communities in turn by giving them their own accounts of the death camp in Poland where more than one million Jews, Roma, Sinti, gay, disabled and black people were put to death.
Read article in The Times (UK)
Comment: To visit the website that prompted the British government to turn this initiative into a permanently funded scheme, click here.

February 4, 2008

Poland Agrees to Host U.S. Shield
The United States and Poland reached "an agreement in principle" on missile defense Friday, prompting an angry reaction from Russia over the weekend. Poland agreed to let the U.S. military install missile interceptors on its territory after Washington consented to a demand by Warsaw's new center-right government to beef up the country's air defenses.
Read editorial in the Moscow Times (Russia)
Comment: Moscow has adamantly opposed the plans of U.S. President George W. Bush to install 10 interceptors in Poland and a radar installation in the Czech Republic, which Washington says are meant to protect against an attack by Iran or other "rogue states." The Kremlin - which believes the U.S. missile shield is directed against Russia - has threatened to target the Polish and Czech sites and to deploy missiles in the Kaliningrad region, which borders Poland.

January 31, 2008

Nazi-era comparison prompts row
A British Euro MP has been threatened with expulsion from the EPP group of MEPs after likening new powers with those given to Hitler in 1933. The European Parliament's German president Hans-Gert Poettering has been given extra powers to curb disruptions after protests by Eurosceptic MEPs.
Read article at BBC News (UK)
Comment: The vote that gave Mr Poetting his extra powers has quite rightly been branded a 'dark day for democracy', as, from now on, he effectively has arbitrary powers to interpret EU parliamentary rules as he sees fit. Clearly, the EU is increasingly moving towards dictatorship, rather than democracy. If you live in Europe, we urge you to sign the petition demanding that all European citizens are immediately given the opportunity to vote in referendums on the Lisbon Treaty, by clicking here.

January 29, 2008

Phones tapped at the rate of 1,000 a day
Britain is in danger of becoming a "surveillance state" as authorities including councils launch bugging operations against 1,000 people a day. Councils, police and intelligence services are tapping and intercepting the phone calls, emails and letters of hundreds of thousands of people every year, an official report said.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
Comment: The report, by Sir Paul Kennedy - the UK's Interception of Communications Commissioner and a senior judge - shows that in the last nine months of 2006, there were 253,557 applications to intercept private communications under the UK' surveillance laws. It is understood that most were approved. Disturbingly, therefore, a total of 653 public bodies and quangos in the UK now have the power to monitor people's private communications and carry out surveillance. Worse still, the fact that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain is included amongst them provides still further evidence that the "War on Terror" is not merely about fighting "terrorism" but is part of a deliberate long-term strategy by pharmaceutical investment groups to create a psychological "state of fear" and maintain global economic control.

January 24, 2008

Publish the secret document on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, ministers are told
Ministers were ordered yesterday to make public a secret document about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction that could shed light on the origins of the Government's claim that Saddam Hussein needed just 45 minutes to launch non-conventional warheads at British troops. The unpublished draft document was drawn up by John Williams, who in 2002, before the invasion of Iraq, was the head of information at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and one of the senior government spin-doctors. Yesterday the Information Tribunal ruled that the Williams report should be made public so that people could make their own judgment as to whether its contents could have influenced the official dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), including the 45-minute claim.
Read article in The Times (UK)
Comment: Given that no weapons of mass destruction were ever found in Iraq, the people of Asia and the world already know that the original reason given for the invasion of that country was a lie. However, the American and British-led military conflict in Iraq and the related threats to Iran, North Korea and other Asian countries are not primarily about fighting 'terrorism' or conquering oil fields. Instead, they are part of a deliberate long-term strategy by American and British-controlled pharmaceutical and petrochemical investment groups to escalate a major international crisis as a means of creating a psychological "state of fear" and maintaining global economic control.

January 22, 2008

Pre-emptive nuclear strike a key option, Nato told
The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the "imminent" spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists.
Read article in The Guardian (UK)
Comment: So long as the political stakeholders of the oil and drug cartel have direct access to nuclear arsenals, the world will continue to be in danger.

January 18, 2008

Tony Blair 'cannot be president of EU'
Tony Blair should not be president of Europe, two former French leaders have declared in response to the backing the former prime minister has been given by Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France. Valérie Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president and the father of the now defunct EU constitutional treaty, said that Europe's first president must have majority support from his home country, which should be a nation that "respects all its European commitments". Something that he claimed Britain did not do. "Tony Blair cannot be president of Europe," agreed Edouard Balladur, the former conservative French prime minister close to Mr Sarkozy, writing in yesterday's Le Monde newspaper.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

January 16, 2008

Warsaw ups ante for U.S. shield
The United States is headed for tough negotiations with Poland over a planned missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, with Warsaw now demanding that Washington pour hundreds of millions of dollars into improving its defense capabilities. The Bush administration considered the deal almost done under Poland's previous government, but the recently elected Prime Minister Donald Tusk has raised serious questions about the costs and benefits from the missile system for his country.
Read article in the Washington Times (USA)

January 11, 2008

US missile plan under threat as Poland demands guarantees
Poland and Russia engaged in their first talks over the Pentagon's plans to install missile defence systems in central Europe yesterday, amid signs that the project could unravel because of political shifts in the US, Poland, and the Czech Republic.
Read article in the Guardian (UK)
Comment: The Times, in London, reports that the new message from Poland is that it is going to extract a high price for agreeing to host the controversial US missile shield – and it may delay its decision until it knows the name of the next American president.

January 9, 2008

Sarkozy backs Blair for top EU post
Speculation is mounting over the likely frontrunners to become the EU's first fully-fledged president. Media reports suggest former UK prime minister Tony Blair is an early favourite for the post of president of the council of ministers. The job will carry a package worth about €266,000 and would make its occupant the most important figure in EU politics. A story in the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday says that French president Nicolas Sarkozy is actively promoting Blair for the role.
Read article at theparliament.com

January 9, 2008

Poland wants air defenses bolstered in return for missile shield
Adopting an increasingly assertive tone before meetings in Washington next week, Poland's new center-right government has warned that it would not accept a controversial U.S. antiballistic missile shield until the United States agreed to bolster Polish air defenses.
Read article in the International Herald Tribune

January 7, 2008

Poland Signals Doubts About Planned U.S. Missile-Defense Bases on Its Territory
Signaling a tougher position in negotiations with the United States on a European antiballistic-missile shield system, Poland's foreign minister says his country's new government is not prepared to accept American plans to deploy missile-defense bases in Poland until all costs and risks are considered.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)