http://www.businessinsider.com/r-germany-arrests-suspected-double-agent-spying-for-us-two-german-politicians-2014-04
German authorities have arrested a German man employed by the domestic intelligence agency (BND) on suspicion of spying for the United States, two politicians with knowledge of the affair told Reuters on Friday.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-02/emerging-german-russian-axis
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/02/2014 17:05 -0400
and....
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-02/brics-are-morphing-anti-dollar-alliance
( Regarding the Russian led Axis against the US and USD - follow the actions of the BRICS..)
Submitted by Tyler Durdenon 07/02/2014 22:29 -0400
.jpg "Germany is Russia's most important partner in enhancing peace in Ukraine - Putin")
Germany Arrested A Suspected 'US Spy' Who Admitted Ties To An Investigation On Snowden
REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
German chancellor Angela Merkel is pointing fingers at the U.S.
The German Federal Prosecutor's office said in a statement that a 31-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of being a foreign spy, but it gave no further details.
The affair risks further straining ties with Washington which were damaged by revelations last year of mass surveillance of German citizens by the U.S. National Security Agency, which included monitoring Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.
The man has admitted passing to an American contact details about a special German parliamentary committee set up to investigate the spying revelations made by former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, the politicians said.
Both lawmakers are members of the nine-person parliamentary control committee, whose meetings are confidential, and which is in charge of monitoring German intelligence.
The parliamentary committee investigating the NSA affair also holds some confidential meetings.
"This was a man who had no direct contact with the investigative committee... He was not a top agent," said one of the politicians, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The suspect had offered his services to the United States voluntarily, the source said.
The United States embassy in Berlin declined to comment.
Germany is particularly sensitive about surveillance because of abuses by the East German Stasi secret police and the Nazis. Berlin has demanded that Washington agree to a "no-spy" with its close ally, but the United States has been unwilling.
Bild newspaper said in an advance copy of an article to be published on Saturday that the man had worked for two years as a double agent and had stolen 218 confidential documents.
He sold the documents, three of which related to the work of the committee in the Bundestag, for 25,000 euros ($34,100), Bild said, citing security sources.($1 = 0.7331 Euros)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-02/emerging-german-russian-axis
The Emerging German-Russian Axis
Submitted by Charles Gave via Gavekal Dragonomics,
This weekend has seen the European Union do a stitch-up deal so that arch-federalist Jean-Claude Juncker became Commission president. To be honest, who gets to play eurocrat in chief is of no great interest to me, but the manner of the appointment tells us lots about the changing nature of power in Europe. Governments from Stockholm to Rome reportedly opposed Juncker, but ultimately none would defy Berlin. Also this weekend, it is worth noting some ostensibly bland comments by Vladimir Putin at a German-Russian official function: “We value the accumulated potential of Russian-German relations and the high level of trade and economic cooperation. Germany, one of the European Union leaders, is our most important partner in enhancing peace, global and regional security.”
I would contend that we are seeing a decisive shift in the political character of Eurasia. History tells us that long wars have tended to be fought between maritime empires and continental empires. Think of Athens vs. Sparta, Carthage vs. Rome or Britain vs. Napoleonic France. The last big fight was between the US and the Soviet Union ended in favor of the maritime empire. As a result, since 1989 we have lived in an order ultimately run by the US military. But after some unpleasantness playing the role of global policeman, that maritime empire is in retreat.
The consequence of this move toward isolation is that a bunch of ‘continental empires’ are starting to challenge the monopoly of “legal” international violence that the US has exercised for the last 25 years. The most obvious challengers can be seen in the shape of Sunni Muslims across the Middle East, or in East Asia where a more confident and assertive China is stating its case for preeminence. Such struggles have the potential to become major regional problems, but what worries me more is the emerging continental alliance between Russia and Germany. Preventing such a partnership has for centuries been an idée fixe for French diplomacy, and for good reason. A combination of German industrial might and Russian raw materials and military strength would instantly create a colossus. The Poles, who have been perennial victims of engagements between Germany and Russia, are already visibly panicking, as they should be.
Historically, Paris has tended to ally with the Russians, not because it liked them but to prevent Germany from doing the same. The problem is that France has nothing to offer Russia (save some nice holiday homes and mooring berths for tycoons on its Mediterranean coast) and is, in any case, more focused on perfecting its own political and economic suicide.
This leaves the UK as the only shield against an alliance in the east. But this weekend we saw a clear statement of where Berlin sees its interests. Soothing words of “don’t go” may have been offered to London after the Juncker vote, but the incident has confirmed that the landscape has shifted from a European Germany to a German Europe.
The UK now seems set on a path to leave the EU within four years. The chances of London achieving the kind of root-and-branch treaty change that would keep it in the EU must rank as being close to nil. And as Winston Churchill said: “England does not belong to Europe, it belongs to the seas.” As was the case in the mid-20th century, theUK is unlikely to join a continental empire as a junior member and, when decision time arrives, it will stay allied with the US-led maritime empire.
In the old system, Europe was a kind of protectorate of the US maritime empire, a set-up that worked reasonably well. The challenge to the status quo comes from the east where Vladimir Putin has the clear goal of creating a new Russian/German alliance whose fief will run through Eastern Europe. If he succeeds, this will be a major loss for the maritime empire, especially if the UK has removed itself as an EU player.
There will be major political repercussions in the US from such a political carve up. The question will not only be how did “we” come to lose Asia and the Middle East, but also “our” most reliable and pliable ally—Europe.
and....
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-02/brics-are-morphing-anti-dollar-alliance
( Regarding the Russian led Axis against the US and USD - follow the actions of the BRICS..)
The BRICs Are Morphing Into An Anti-Dollar Alliance
- BRICs
- Central Banks
- China
- Creditors
- France
- Iraq
- People's Bank Of China
- Reserve Currency
- Ukraine
- Vladimir Putin
- Yuan
While numerous massively indebted administrations around the world hope to divert the attention of what's left of their struggling middle class away from its daily impoverished existence and distract it with flashing lights and glitzy animations showing another all time market high on a daily basis, a significantly more important shift taking place behind the scenes is appreciated by very few: the ongoing de-dollarization of the world. For the latest example of how increasingly more countries are setting the stage for the final currency war, we go again to Russia where VOR's Valentin Mândr??escu explains that slowly butsurely the BRICS - that proud Goldman acronym which was conceived to perpetuate the great American way of life by releasing trillions in US-denominated debt in heretofore untapped markets - are morphing into an anti-dollar alliance.
BRICS is morphing into an anti-dollar alliance, FromVOR
Before the crucial visit to Beijing next week, the governor of the Russian Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina met Vladimir Putin to report on the progress of the upcoming ruble-yuan swap deal with the People's Bank of China and Kremlin used the meeting to let the world know about the technical details of its international anti-dollar alliance.
On June 10th, Sergey Glaziev, Putin's economy advisor published an article outlining the need to establish an international alliance of countries willing to get rid of the dollar in international trade and refrain from using dollars in their currency reserves. The ultimate goal would be to break the Washington's money printing machine that is feeding its military-industrial complex and giving the US ample possibilities to spread chaos across the globe, fueling the civil wars in Libya, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine. Glaziev's critics believe that such an alliance would be difficult to establish and that creating a non-dollar-based global financial system would be extremely challenging from a technical point of view. However, in her discussion with Vladimir Putin, the head of the Russian central bank unveiled an elegant technical solution for this problem and left a clear hint regarding the members of the anti-dollar alliance that is being created by the efforts of Moscow and Beijing:
“We've done a lot of work on the ruble-yuan swap deal in order to facilitate trade financing. I have a meeting next week in Beijing”, she said casually and then dropped the bomb: “We are discussing with China and our BRICS parters the establishment of a system of multilateral swaps that will allow to transfer resources to one or another country, if needed. A part of the currency reserves can be directed to [the new system].” (Prime news agency)
It seems that Kremlin chose the all-in-one approach for establishing its anti-dollar alliance. Currency swaps between the BRICS central banks will facilitate trade financing while completely bypassing the dollar. At the same time, the new system will also act as a de facto replacement of the IMF, because it will allow the members of the alliance to direct resources to finance the weaker countries. As an important bonus, derived from this “quasi-IMF” system, the BRICS will use a part (most likely the “dollar part”) of their currency reserves to support it, thus drastically reducing the amount of dollar-based instruments bought by some of the biggest foreign creditors of the US.
Skeptics will surely claim that a BRICS-based anti-dollar alliance will not manage to deprive the dollar of its global reserve currency status. Instead of arguing against this line of thought, it is easier to point out that Washington is doing its best to enlarge the ranks of the enemies of the dollar. Asked by the Russia 24 channel to comment on Nabiullina statements, Sergey Kostin, the president of the state-owned VTB bank and one of the staunchest supporters of anti-dollar policies, offered an interesting perspective on the situation in Europe:
“I think the work on ruble-yuan swap line will finalized in the nearest future and the way for ruble-yuan settlement will be open. Moreover, we are not the only ones with such initiatives. We know about the statements made by Mr. Noyer, chairman of the Bank of France. As a retaliation for what Americans have done to BNP Paribas, he opined that the trade with China must be done in yuan or euro.”
If the current trend continues, soon the dollar will be abandoned by most of the significant global economies and it will be kicked out of the global trade finance. Washington's bullying will make even former American allies choose the anti-dollar alliance instead of the existing dollar-based monetary system. The point of no return for the dollar may be much closer than it is generally thought. In fact, the greenback may have already past its point of no return on its way to irrelevance.
DW......
Germany to mediate Ukraine conflict as US warns Russia
Germany is preparing to host mediation talks between Ukraine and Russia in Berlin. The US has warned Russia to stop backing pro-Moscow insurgents in eastern Ukraine.
Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is hoping to establish a new ceasefire between Kyiv and pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine, as he hosts Ukrainian, Russian, and French diplomats in Berlin on Wednesday.
A German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius had been invited to the afternoon meeting. Lavrov reportedly welcomed the initiative.
Ukrainian tanks and fighter bombers resumed their assault on pro-Russian insurgents on Tuesday after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko brushed off efforts to save a tenuous 10-day truce, which he accused the rebels of undermining.
Ukrainian forces struck pro-Russian separatist bases in eastern regions. Poroshenko announced he would not renew a ceasefire but go on the offensive to rid Ukraine of "parasites."
US warnings
Speaking on the phone to Lavrov on Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry "expressed strong concern about the refusal of Russian-supported separatists to take the necessary steps" to enable the extension of the shaky 10-day ceasefire, according to a US State Department statement.
Kerry "stressed the importance of taking steps to de-escalate," and reiterated Washington's support for Kyiv, the statement continued.
Washington wants Moscow to "call on separatists to lay down their arms, to return the border checkpoints they hold to Ukrainian government control, and to release all remaining hostages."
Kerry "also made clear that we and our European and international partners will continue to press Russia to end all support and weapons flowing to separatists."
The Kremlin denies claims that it is financing the rebels, but faces the threat of devastating sanctions against Russia's financial and energy sectors should Putin fail to demonstrate a clear desire to resolve the conflict.
And......
Germany is Russia's most important partner in enhancing peace in Ukraine - Putin
Vladimir Putin. Archive photo © Photo: RIA Novosti/Aleksey Nikolskyi
Germany is Russia's most important partner in enhancing peace, global and regional stability, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"We value the accumulated potential of Russian-German relations and the high level of trade and economic cooperation. Germany, one of the European Union leaders, is our most important partner in enhancing peace, global and regional security," Putin said at a ceremony for delivering credentials.
Russia supports further development of the entire range of the diversified bilateral ties, Putin said.
In particular, Russia attaches great importance to holding cross years of the Russian and German languages and literature in 2014-2015, the president said.
Some of Germany's largest companies urge Merkel not to support US sanctions against Russia - report
© Photo: Flickr.com/ World Economic Forum/cc-by-nc-sa 3.0
Some of Germany's largest companies urged Chancellor Angela Merkel not to support the US initiative to tighten sanctions against Russia, the Wall Street Journal wrote Friday. "The largest companies in Germany, including BASF SE, Siemens AG, Volkswagen AG, Adidas AG and Deutsche Bank AG, openly opposed broader economic sanctions against Russia," the statement said. The companies presented their opinions both privately and publicly, the newspaper stressed.
"If there's a single message we have as business leaders, then it's this: sit down at the negotiating table and resolve these matters peacefully," Wall Street Journal quoted Eckhard Cordes, the head of the Eastern Committee of the German Economy.
West refused to recognize the reunification of Russia and Crimea and therefore imposed sanctions against a number of Russian politicians and businessmen.
The US expanded the sanctions list April 28 in connection with the situation in Ukraine, freezing assets and banning entry for seven Russian citizens and 17 companies.
This list now consists of nearly 50 politicians and businessmen from Russia, including Crimea, as well as from Ukraine.
A The EU has also expanded the sanctions list, adding another 15 people to it.
A group of 19 US Republican senators introduced a bill April 30 to further expand sanctions against Russia.
Moscow has repeatedly warned that talking in the language of sanctions is "inappropriate and counterproductive" and warned its Western partners about the "boomerang effect" that sanctions would have.
Ukraine underwent a regime change on February 22.
The country's parliament ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, changed the constitution and scheduled early presidential elections for May 25.
Good morning,
ReplyDeleteI agree, the fact that Cryptome is "slow walking " the documents that are supposed to stop a war makes zero sense. Makes me suspicious.
Making a doomsday virus makes no sense to me either, does however remind me of The Stand, what a good book that was.
Putin cutting Germany from the herd? I wouldn't trust Merkel as far as I could throw her and would guess that the west is just dangling that carrot to delay and confuse Putin. Would be a huge power swing but I can't imagine it.
Have a great day
The only War I see has to involve Russia somewhere in the mix....advertising you have these super critical documents is an invitation to have someone try to stop their release , right ? Already apparently happened with Glenn Greenwald.
ReplyDeleteThe Stand was a very good book ( the first half was excellent - not to many people plow through thousand page books , so kudos to you ! I read it as well - read most of Stephen King's books .) Incurable virus + hordes of allegedly disease ridden immigrants dispersed all over the US by the Feds = what ?
Germany will do what German businesses want Germany to do . Although I agree Ms " Stazi- light " Merkel isn't a person to trust - David Cameron certainly would second that one after his experience with Ms Merkel over Juncker ! Of course an East German would be adroit a player a " double " game , right ? And East Germany was tight with what nation for many years......
Last day of the week - enjoy ! Rained like crazy last night , hurricane brewing I hear for NC !