Revelations that Britain's heir to the throne has used a 'veto' power on certain government bills have placed him at the center of yet another controversy amid concerns that the monarchy could be back to a “princes and paupers” culture.
While the British monarchy claims to be a democracy where royals' power is limited by the law, the new revelations show Charles has overridden the British policy wherever he has seen fit for his purpose.
Ministers from six government departments have been forced to seek his approval to their bills for at least a dozen times since 2005 due to a constitutional requirement that allows the prince to veto all government bills that clash with his interests.
The areas where he has intervened included regulations on road safety, gambling and even the 2012 London Olympics.
Constitutional lawyers said the prince's ability to veto government bills effectively give him a royal “nuclear deterrent” over public policy.
The nature of amendments to the bills that may have taken place on Charles' request is not clear and neither the government nor Clarence House would comment on the details of the issue.
However, details obtained based on the freedom of information regulations from the House of Commons show the government has sought the Prince of Wales's permission on a number of bills related to economic development and construction, housing and regeneration and energy among others.
The disclosures have raised concerns that the claims of formidable royal power in Britain being a formality are mere falsifications to cover up the fact that the royals have absolute power to overrule the will of the whole nation and their representatives despite Britain's claims to democracy.
Such an issue has major implications for Britons as the Queen should give her consent to each and every policy area the government pursues and can veto every move by the government, at least at a matter of formality. Following the revelation, members of the houses of the parliaments are urging the government to publish the details of Charles's interventions in government policies.
"If princes and paupers are to live as equals in a modern Britain, anyone who enjoys exceptional influence or veto should exercise it with complete transparency," said Andrew George, Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives in Cornwall.
"The duchy [of Cornwall] asserts that it is merely a private estate. Most people will be astonished to learn that it appears to have effective powers of veto over the government."Reports PressTV Additional: The heir to the British throne says he is related to Vlad the Impaler, the cruel 15th-Century Romanian warlord who helped inspire Bram Stoker's 1897 vampire novelDracula.
Prince Charles claims Vlad the Impaler as ancestor
He makes the comments on an upcoming TV show to promote his interest in protecting the forests of Romania's Transylvania region.
Charles says genealogy shows that he is related to Vlad, giving him a stake in the future of Romania. The prince has long worked to conserve the forests and has bought a home in the region.
On a visit to Romania earlier this year, he called Transylvania a national treasure because of its unspoiled landscape and centuries-old rural farming traditions. Claims USA TODAY
Additional 1/11/11: JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel decided Tuesday to accelerate Jewish settlement building and withhold Palestinian Authority funds, moves likely to further hold up international efforts to revive peace talks.
Israel's move came a day after UNESCO awarded the Palestinians full membership of the U.N. cultural agency, a diplomatic victory for the Palestinian Authority in its push for recognition as a state at the United Nations. Source
WilliamBanzai7 Once upon a midnight dreary, while insolvent weak and weary, Over a balance sheet covered in a cloud of debts galore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. `'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door - Only this, and nothing more.' Ah, distinctly I remember it was bleak as Lehman's September, And each despicable creditor wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I sought more to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the abundant days of yore - And the rare and hidden debts of toxic bailout whores - Nameless here for evermore. And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each indentured debt just Thrilled me - thrilled me with fantastic plastic Sino-crap never bought before; So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating 'Tis some banksta entreating entrance at my chamber door - My late payments entreating his entrance at my chamber door; - This it is, and nothing more,' Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, `Sir,' said I, `or Madam, truly your debt forgiveness I implore; But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, That I scarce was sure I heard you' - here I opened wide the door; - Darkness there, and nothing more. Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no debt bloated mortal ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Debts No More!' This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Debts No More!' Merely this and nothing more. Back into the chamber turning, my bankrupt soul within me burning, Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before. `Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice; Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore - Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; - 'Tis the wind of regretted debts and nothing more!' Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly solvent days of yore. Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he; But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door - Perched upon a bust of Subprime Croesus just above my chamber door - Perched, and sat, and nothing more. Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, By the grave and stern decorum of the counterclaim it wore, `Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no Wall Street schemer. Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering in my open chamber - Tell me what unlordly crime now comes from those Wall Street whores!' Quoth the raven, `Debts No More!' Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, Though its answer little meaning - little relevancy bore; For we cannot help agreeing that no insolvent human being Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door - Bird or beast above the sculptured bust above his chamber door, With such name as `Debts No More.' But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only, Those simple words, as if his soul in that one phrase he did outpour. Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered - Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have drowned in debt before - On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.' Then again the bird said, `Debts No More.' Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken, `Doubtless,' said I, `what it utters is its only stock and store, Caught from some unhappy master whom financial disaster Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore - Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore Of "Debts No More."' But the raven still beguiling all my bankrupt soul to smiling, Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door; Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore - What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore Meant in croaking `Debts No More.' Thus I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bankrupt core; This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er, But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er, He shall press, ah, Debts No More! Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer Swung by the House of Greenspans's sacred liens whose foot-falls tinkled on the subprime floor. `Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has sent thee Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy proposition of Debts No More! Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this silliness of Debts No More!' Quoth the raven, `Debts No More.' `Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! - Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore, Desolate yet all undaunted, on this debt spoiled land all fraudclosure haunted - On this subprime home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore - Is there - is there a cancer in the Bernanks brain? - tell me - tell me, I implore!' Quoth the raven, `Debts No More.' `Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore - Tell this lost soul with unpaid debts laden if, within the distant Eden, It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Debts No More - Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Debts No More?' Quoth the raven, `Debts No More.' `Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting - `Get thee back into the tempest and the usurious shore! Leave fraudclosure doom as a token of the words thy soul hath spoken! Leave my credit score unbroken! - quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my wallet, and take thy form from off my door!' Quoth the raven, `Debts No More.' And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Subprime Croesus just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is screaming, And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my net worth from out that debtless shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted, nevermore!
The most violent clash between OWS supporters and the police so far has erupted in Denver, as the authorities attempted to dismantle an Occupy camp. The Internet is swamped with hundreds of angry messages and pictures of rubber bullet wounds.
Denver police took their best shot at dismantling the OWS camp over the weekend. To disperse the crowd they used tear gas, batons, and rubber bullets, which are considered to be a “safe deterrent. But the pictures and videos that have been published all over the Internet prove the contrary. reports rt.com
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Tel-Aviv and across Israel to protest against economic injustice. The protest’s organizers are demanding that the Knesset rewrite the 2012 budget "taking into account the demands of the people."
The latest rally comes after a wave of social protests swept Israel over the summer and culminated in September, when half a million Israelis came out onto the streets. But since then, the movement has slowly died out as protesters returned to their daily lives.
Israeli police say more than 30,000 people marched in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, and thousands more protested in Jerusalem.
As RT’s Paula Slier reports, many protesters are concerned that their story of social protest will be missed by the international community and media, which is now focused on unfolding events in Gaza. Source
If it works, Rossi's perpetual motion machine would have a major impact on society. Keep abreast of developments at Pure Energy Systems and New EnergyTimes.
Want To Defeat The Banks? Stop Participating In The System!
In Franz Kafka’s most popular work “The Trial”, his characters relate a short parable which has fascinated and confused curious readers for generations. That parable is entitled “Before The Law”, and its message has been interpreted, reinterpreted, and agonized over by the labyrinthine contrariness of academia, producing numerous conflicting views:
Existentialists, of course, automatically jump to the conclusion that “Before The Law” is a message of the absurd nature of man’s search for reason and structure in a universe of random coincidence. That “the law”, as it were, is a superficial concept that humanity uses to make life more bearable. That we seek to create artificial social constructs in order to keep ourselves afloat in a sea of chaos. This is partly true. The law is, indeed, an abstraction conjured by men. However, the source of the most fundamental laws, being inherent conscience, is far from abstract. In fact, it is one of the few aspects of our existence that is undeniably tangible and universal. It is proof that all is NOT random, and that there is a meaning and a purpose to what we do here and now.
I see “The Trial” and “Before The Law” not as treatise on the futility of man’s search for justice, but as a warning on the foolishness of man’s dependency on systems not rooted in conscience. That is to say, we have a tendency to linger about idly while others make our decisions for us. We expect the system we live in to provide answers, to provide nurturance, to provide fairness, and to provide change where necessary. This expectation is a dangerous one.
Most social and political systems today are designed around collectivist methodologies. Their primary tool is centralization of power, and the removal of choice from the public consciousness. We are made to believe that the establishment is necessary for our survival, and that to abandon it would mean certain destruction. We are taught that the individual is subservient and inconsequential in the face of the state.This is simply not so. Like the traveler in “Before The Law”, we have been defeated by our own expectations of how the law (or justice) works. We sit and wait for permission, when we should be charging through the gates and taking what is rightfully ours.
Even amidst recent and increasingly prevalent protest actions on the part of Occupy Wall Street groups, there are still some within these movements who believe the answer to fighting back against the corruption of banking cartels and puppet politicians is to hand even MORE power over to the state, and to collectivize our culture still further. The ignorance of this mentality is no less than astonishing.
The only practical strategy for combating the tyranny of centralized systems has been and always will be decentralization. Individuals must stop relying on the rules of a rigged game to see them through to the truth. This means that while mass protests are certainly a powerful tactic for voicing concerns on an international stage, they accomplish little to nothing in the way of meaningful change in the long run unless they are backed by individual actions to break away from dependency upon a poisoned political and economic framework.
The common assumption amongst Americans is that nothing can be done without mass action resulting in “compromise” from leadership. That the healing of our cultural dynamic is a “top down” process. That one person alone has little at his disposal for bettering the world. In fact, it is always self aware and self sustaining individuals who build better societies, not angry mobs without understanding or direction.Individuals blaze the path that the rest of the world eventually follows, and they do this through one very simple and effective act; walking away.
By walking away from the corrupt system, and building our own, we make the establishment obsolete. This philosophy could be summed up as follows:
Provide for yourself and others those necessities which the corrupt system cannot or will not, and the masses (even if they are unaware) will naturally gravitate towards this new and better way.Offer freedom where there was once restriction, and you put the controlling establishment on guard. Eventually, they will either have to conform to you, attack you, or fade away completely. In each case, you win. Even in the event of attack, the system is forced to expose its tyranny and its true colors openly, making your cause stronger.
The obvious question now is; how can each one of us use this strategy in our daily lives? Here are just a few easy applications:
1) Focus On The Federal Reserve
If you as an activist or the movement you support are not fully aware of the private Federal Reserve Bank and its primary role in the destruction of our economy, our currency, and our political dynamic, then your protests are a waste of time, and your movement will end in failure. Uneducated mass actions are easily manipulated, and can even end up serving the purposes of those oligarchs they seek to dethrone. G. Edward Griffin’s full analysis on the history of the Federal Reserve “The Creature From Jekyll Island” and similar materials should be handed to every OWS protester before it is too late.
2) Take Back Your Savings
Do you have a bank account with one of the so called “too big to fails”? Is the culmination of your savings currently in the hands of financial monstrosities like Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, etc?Well, take your money back! This has been done by a few protestors and the response from banks has been outlandishly oppressive, including new guidelines attempting to obstruct customer access to savings, and even calling the police! This tells me that they are afraid. Afraid of Americans catching wind of the idea that the money they place in the accounts of bad banks is still theirs to do with as they will. If you don’t like how these institutions operate, don’t let them have your money. It’s as simple as that. Not only is this an act of defiance that truly hurts the banking system, it also protects your hard earned wealth (at least initially) from the inevitable collapse of these fiscally insolvent blood leaching leviathans (watch Bank of America closely, folks!).
3) Use Alternative Currencies
After you take your savings away from the banks, you still aren’t quite free of their influence. You are now holding fiat dollars, which the Federal Reserve, the foundation of all banking fraud, is currently devaluing. The idea of walking away from the dollar sounds ridiculous or even frightening to those trapped in the centralization mindset, but it is a highly effective method for combating the system itself. The dollar is a sham, and has been since its future was handed over to the Fed in 1913. Alternatives exist, and they must be utilized. Communities across the country use various scripts as a means to diminish reliance on the dollar, but ultimately, the best currencies are those that cannot be created out of thin air unhindered. This means gold and silver.
Central banking proponents have been railing against even the concept of a return to gold and silver currencies for years, and the Department Of Justice has labeled the use of such alternatives in place of dollars as a form of “domestic terrorism”. This should tell you, quite clearly, that they are deathly afraid of activists organizing to drop the dollar to pursue metals. If the system is willing to use the law as a weapon to keep us from having sound money, then we should be rubbing their nose in it daily by trading without dollars. They should be forced to react, and in the process, forced to expose their true intentions for our economic futures.
4) Build Barter Networks
If a bunch of people can band together to huddle in parks with signs for weeks in cities across the nation, then they can band together to trade goods and services outside the establishment system as well.Barter networks grow spontaneously out of economic collapse regardless of what any group decides to do, but generally, they appear AFTER the worst has happened. Wouldn’t it be wiser to organize such markets now, before a full collapse takes place? By preempting disaster with a backup or failsafe free market barter economy in each town and city, we insulate ourselves from the effects of the crisis, and, we cut loose from our dependency on the controlled mainstream economy. Localized trade makes it possible to walk away from corporate chains and maintain the circulation of wealth within a community, while countering the increasingly higher taxes caused by austerity and inflation that we are likely to see in this country very soon. It really is a no-brainer.
5) Grow A Garden
I don’t know how to say this nicely; don’t be a jackass, learn to grow your own food. Don’t expect that our economy will continue to sustain you. Actually, you should have every expectation that it won’t! If every Wall Street or Fed protester had their own garden patch and some stored goods, we would all be much safer. Food dependence is the worst kind. It has been used by governments and despots for centuries to cull the masses and dissuade dissent.
Sharecropping should be common in every community. Neighborhood gardens should be standard. Every household should have a year’s worth of food. Period.
Imagine that you lose your job and every cent you have tomorrow. Imagine that mom and dad are broke and have no money to lend you. Imagine that food stamps are a thing of the past because the national debt has become so exponential that entitlement programs have been erased. Now, how do you live from day to day? Where do you get the nutrition required for you to continue holding up that sign or shouting that slogan? Think about it...
6) Start A Micro-Industry
If the U.S. economy is ever going to get on its feet again, it will be because average Americans bring it back through local industry. This means ending our community addictions to corporately produced goods and returning to specialized trade skills. It means coalitions of local farmers, craftsmen, and micro-industries providing goods and services with a city or county based market focus. Large manufacturers and business chains relying on the model of globalization will have absolutely no ability to rebuild mainstreet commerce, even if they wanted to, because their methods depend upon constant outsourcing and downsizing for survival. Private tradesmen will be the only people capable of filling the dark void these corporations leave behind.
7) Start An Activist Group
The establishment HATES when you do this. The spontaneous organizing of groups outside government or corporate purview has generated notoriously absurd responses from authorities, including accusations of “extremism”, infiltration, and wrongful arrest. If this sounds frightening, then I suggest you get over it quickly, because this is going to be the norm for many years to come. The evils of the world are not undone by apathetic naysayers anymore than they are undone by mindless mobs. Without the coordinated actions of aware individuals with a common focus, nothing is going to change.
This group could be something a simple as a local barter network or a political discussion forum, or, a complex national organization geared towards tangible political action. It doesn’t matter as long as it’s based on the promotion of Constitutional freedoms, and its leadership is decentralized. Just make it happen…
At bottom, if we want to fight back against a system we cannot take back through traditional means, then we must learn to walk away. If the system feeds us, clothes us, and shelters us at will, then ordinary protest is pointless. Our tender parts are in a rusty vice on the autocratic workbench and until we pull them out, no amount of screaming and pounding will improve our situation. Independence is won through the constant striving for self responsibility. Freedom is won through a position of personal strength, not weakness and self-enslavement.
Numbers alone do not make a movement, and the elites we currently work to supplant are not going to flinch at a few random protests. In all likelihood they will welcome these actions as a useful distraction.Tyrants don’t fear the torches and pitchforks anymore. What they do fear is balanced insight, self reliance, and exceptional force of will. A handful of men with these attributes are far more dangerous to a corrupt system than thousands of citizens driven only by insatiable anger. To overcome oppression, we must first overcome ourselves. The ability to step outside the paradigm, the ability to act without permission, and charge the gates without apprehension, is the key to toppling totalitarian systems and exposing the great lie of our age; that we cannot exist without the cage we were born into.
NATO ushers in the BRAVE NEW WORLD by murdering people. Keep the momentum, the coming insurrection will define the human species forever. cveitch.
I am only speculating but, does it not make you wonder when the BBC who we pay and the rest will come back over to the peoples side and do some actual reporting which is not a fraud designed to keep us in the dark while fake politicians and very real military industrial complexes backed by self-serving banksters rape every nation on earth having become crazed out of control juggernaut leviathans.
Police officers in Oakland covered in riot gear ransacked through
occupiers belongings and trashed dozens of tents. Approximately 85
protesters were arrested early this morning. The protesters had been
occupying for two weeks and say the police were armed with flash
grenades and guns with rubber bullets. Josh Wolf, an independent
journalist, gives us a firsthand account of what happened.
Top comment: I never see one american been violent against the police, WTF! How can
that be? Police kick beat humiliate and NO ONE FIGHT BACK??? Have you
brain demage or what??? Where is your honor? How can you allow someone
kick you and do nothing? Look at greek people, they have nothing but
they fight and they don't allow to be treat as a street dog... what's
wrong with you americans?
Thousands staged demonstrations against the power of banks and for greater democracy in German cities on Saturday, while several thousand Spanish teachers and parents marched in the capital Madrid to protest against austerity measures. In Berlin the second edition of the so-called 'Occupy Berlin' protest against the financial system drew several hundred demonstrators to a march which ended at the Reichstag building, Germany's parliament, on Saturday afternoon. Protesters chanted slogans against banks as they walked past Berlin landmarks such as the Brandenburg Gate. After the massive turnout at anti-bank protests last weekend, Berlin police were out in force this Saturday but no serious incidents were reported. A similar demonstration was held in Frankfurt, where several thousand people protested against the power of the banks and for greater democracy. The demonstration was organised by 'Occupy Frankfurt' and the international pro-democracy, anti-globalisation movement 'attac'. The participants marched from the centre of Frankfurt to the European Central Bank building, and a rally was held in front of the Deutsche Bank building. Meanwhile in Spain, several thousand teachers marched in Madrid under banners reading: "Our hopes for the future were never so gloomy" and "For sale", referring to cuts in public education that they say will lead to fewer teachers being employed. Teachers went on strike in Madrid on Thursday, the sixth day of stoppages since classes began last month. The protests have been triggered by local authority orders requiring teachers to teach an extra two hours of class per week, a measure that will lead to fewer teachers being hired this year. Education is run at the regional level in Spain and the order was instigated by local governments controlled by the centre-right Popular Party.
(translated from German)The financial situation of Greece is much more dramatic than the euro finance ministers thought. Athens has at least 252 billion euros in emergency loans from the other euro-zone in order to avert bankruptcy, in the worst scenario, even 444 billion euros. Thus, the European emergency fund for weak euro countries at once empty.
The only alternative is to a large part of the Greek debt remission. The bill will arrive at the banks, pension funds and insurers to lie, that the Greek debt in their hands. In July, accepted the banks losses on their Greek bonds 21 percent, it should now be increased to at least 50 percent. special emergency meeting , the finance ministers meet today in a special emergency meeting of the continued explosive figures for Greece. Who are in "strictly confidential" report from the European Central Bank (ECB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Commission. The report shows that all the lights in Greece in deep red. The economy is shrinking faster than expected, the cuts are not out of the paint, the planned privatization either. As a result, threatens the national debt over the next two years increasing to 186 percent of the gross national product. In 2030, the debt is still 130 per cent, more than twice the maximum allowable standard for euro countries. Debt relief is the only way, according to the report, while the ECB will differ somewhat distancing. Without forgiveness, the other euro countries are much more on the table than 109 billion euros in July which they already decided. That amount is then at least doubled, possibly tripled. Extensive debt according to diplomats in Brussels, the report's minds prepared to receive a profound debt to Greece. "The question is not either, but how much of that debt mountain is," says one of them. Germany and the Netherlands and the IMF are here strong for some time. France stood on the brakes - many Greek debt is held by French banks - but now see that there is no other option. If selected for a write-down by 60 percentage points, the contribution of the euro countries is limited to the previously committed 109 billion euros. With a 50 percent devaluation of the countries 113.5 billion on the table. A solution of the Greek debt crisis is part of the comprehensive response to the crisis that the government euro agreement in principle on a Sunday night hoping to achieve. Other problems therein a strengthening of the European emergency fund for weak euro countries. Final decisions on the overall approach to the crisis are just one more summit on Wednesday
In the Chilean capital of Santiago protests have ignited. The demonstrations have turned violent and the people of Chile are calling for education reform and for the government to step in and put money into the educational system. Brittany Peterson, freelance multimedia journalist, gives us the latest from Chile.
Over the past month, we have witnessed the Occupy protests grow to unbelievable strengths. 82 countries and 1000 cities are currently joining in the Occupy movement. Occupy Wall Street is currently heading into its 30th day of protest and is showing little signs of stopping.
This November the 5th, we invite you to join us, for Bank Transfer day.
We invite you to remove all funds from your bank account and transfer them to a not-for-profit credit union.
Together, we will show banks a day they will never forget.
They will remember, the 5th of November. We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.
Now that woman in Hackney she got it right. Tieffing from footlocker that aint right. But knocking off zombies in the middle of the night. I'll let you decide... But I think what she meant was, Stop a zombie banker man. Watch your money fade away forever and a day. Run him out of town today. On a permanent holiday. With a ticket that's one way. Stop a zombie bankerman Now it's time to leave OK. I hope you had a pleasant stay. Run him out of town today. On a permanent holiday. With a ticket that's one way. Get off your knees and say. No more no fucking way. Get a zombie off the beltway. Stop a zombie banker
During her unannounced visit to Libya, U.S. chief diplomat - Hillary Clinton - stated that Washington hopes to see ousted leader Colonel Gaddafi captured or killed. To discuss the situation in Libya and country's international relations RT's joined by Annie Machon, a former MI5 intelligence officer.
Police and protesters in Athens clash outside the parliament as the so-called “mother of all strikes” is underway in Greece. Over 125,000 people are taking part in the largest protest since financial turmoil began crippling the country.
"Thieves!" and "That's enough!" read the banners of the thousands-strong crowd assembled in front of the parliament building in Athens on Wednesday. The police estimated some 70,000 people gathered for a rally in the capital alone, while the protesters themselves put the figure at over 125,000.
The multiple riot police forces gathered in the city for the occasion tried to stun the demonstrators with flashbangs. But the only effect it produced was the demonsrators booing every time they went off, as RT's correspondent Sara Firth reports direct from the Greek capital.
Eventually, some protesters, heated up by the standoff and backed by masked and hooded anarchists, started throwing Molotov cocktails and stones at the law enforceres. The police responded with tear gas.
Nevertheless, the protesters managed to push up to the steps of the Parliament building itself, which has not been seen since the outbreak of the financial crisis in the country two years ago. A sentry box occupied by the ceremonial guards was put on fire, while huge litter piles were burning all over the capital. Source.
History seems to be repeating itself as the hawks who called for the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein are now rattling their sabres for war against Iran. But why are those who once called for a new American Century hopelessly stuck in a bygone era?
In a bellicose diatribe published in the latest edition of the Weekly Standard, senior editor William Kristol accuses Iran of having the blood of American soldiers on its hands. Claiming that “force” is the only language the regime understands, he proceeds to call on the US Congress to “consider authorizing the use of force against Iranian entities that facilitate attacks on our troops, against IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) and other regime elements that sponsor terror, and against the regime’s nuclear weapons program.”
In an October 17 Foreign Policy initiative (FPI) Bulletin, executive director Jamie Fly toes the same line, proclaiming:
“Until now, the president has chosen to be the hapless victim of Iran’s machinations. It is time for President Obama to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors and stand up to tyrants who kill Americans and threaten our interests.
It is time to take military action against the Iranian government elements that support terrorism and its nuclear program. More diplomacy is not an adequate response.” Source.
New York police officers are being investigated over allegations they have used excessive force against Occupy Wall Street protesters.
A video, taped last Friday, has given grounds for one of the inquiries. An officer, thought to be a deputy inspector, was filmed apparently grabbing an activist from behind and punching him in the face so hard that he fell to the ground.
An independent agency that deals with complaints against New York police says it is also looking into an officer using pepper spray on a peaceful female protester.
The anti-corporate campaign has been going on for more than a month now, and despite the police handling and the continuing arrests, the numbers of demonstrators are growing. Source
Washington is to send a hundred special operations troops to Uganda to help local forces fight the Lord's Resistance Army, widely considered a terrorist organization. The Ugandan government has been fighting this guerilla group for over two decades. But Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar says America has far-reaching plans for the region, that have little to do with protecting civilians.
Revelations that Britain's heir to the throne has used a 'veto' power on certain government bills have placed him at the center of yet another controversy amid concerns that the monarchy could be back to a “princes and paupers” culture.
Prince Charles claims Vlad the Impaler as ancestor
