12/9/08

Pitchforks

Greek rioters have been focused on attacking wealth and prestige: banks, cars, buildings. Did I mention banks? The situation there is pretty grim, and strangely familiar...

New Democracy made lofty promises of reform to win re-election after the Greek wildfires in 2007, but voters have only seen scandal after scandal with hundreds of millions of taxpayer euros being wasted, an increase in violent crime, and a system of law and order that makes it impossible to get justice. It is a maladministration that allows convicted parliamentarians, terrorists, rapists and murderers to go unpunished for years and decades, yet sanctions police to raid and close down Stanleybet UK in a mere seven days for daring to compete with a €7bn monopoly in which the Greek state holds a 34.4% share. It is a government that does not protect, serve or even respect its people. This is a government out for itself, and the people respond accordingly by dodging taxes, refusing to pay social insurance, polluting the environment, flouting the law, paying bribes, coveting public sector jobs, and doing what they please without punishment.

Government and media are quick to label anyone daring to take to the streets in angry protest as "far-left, self-styled anarchists", although these youths are more likely thugs, hoodlums and bored rich kids who subscribe to the same mob mentality found at football games and wouldn't know the definition of anarchy. And when things get out of hand or an innocent dies, the government is quick to pass on blame to subordinates – in this case, two police officers who serve it. A minister tenders resignation, but no one implements real measures or takes ultimate responsibility for the discontent and hopelessness that sparked these and other violent riots in the first place. In short, the Greek state is incapable of controlling rioters with the same corrupt policies and lax enforcement that created them.

Irish Bulletin reports further on the common thread of banking:
Torching banks? Clashes near Parliament? Attacking diplomatic vehicles? Yesterday, I heard that ten banks had been attacked, and it seems strange that all of this is happening solely over last Saturday's shooting. Indeed, it is a perfect pretext for the Greek authorities and the media - not to mention their counterparts over here - who fear that their cosy relationship with the international clique of banking criminals may result in them hanging from shiny lamp-posts from Washington to Dublin to Sydney.
Oh. Indeed. Long story, but it has recently come to light that some very huge quantities of stolen money has been parked in Greece for the past two years.
ROBERT RUBIN RAN THE MONEY – AND THE DIVERSIONS
This diversion had been orchestrated by the corrupt former President Clinton’s main mole inside Citibank/Citigroup, one Robert Rubin, the former US Treasury Secretary, who authored a prominent article published in the Wall Street Journal dated 29th November, the theme of which was ‘It’s not my fault’. [The Editor calls the habit that these people routinely adopt of protesting too much when cornered, ‘Blankfeinism’, after the display of supreme arrogance by Paulson’s successor as CEO at Goldman Sachs, Mr Blankfein, who boasted in the summer of 2007 about how well his institution had been doing, when of course it had been engaged in dodgy financial manipulations as exposed inter alia by this service].

Confirmation that the original $4.5 trillion funds were diverted by Robert Rubin from Citibank to an account or accounts located in Athens, and that the funds had been so diverted for perhaps two + years, was obtained by this service between 11.30pm and midnight on Wednesday 26th November 2008. For their part, certain Greek parties could not understand what on earth was going on, with some concluding that the Americans had gone completely mad. Whether the transactions were in any way facilitated by John Negroponte, of Greek Jewish extraction, and /or by Olga Sarantopoulos, is not known at this juncture.

It may also be recalled that in the late fall of 2007, the Treasurer of the United States, Ms. Anna Escobedo Cabral, held a meeting with Robert Rubin at Citibank, which she was reported to have left in a seriously discontented frame of mind. It was even rumoured that Ms. Cabral had indicated that she would not stand for this endless corruption any longer, would do her best to procure the Settlements, and would then resign. What the US Treasurer is believed to have found out during that meeting was that certain missing funds had been diverted to Athens.

Reverberations from this and related scandals were still roiling Citibank/Citigroup, one of the CIA’s favoured 'helpful' institutions, as late as mid-November 2008. On the 13th November, the institution issued the following brief statement:

‘The Board of Directors of Citigroup Inc. today reiterated its full support for the company’s chairman, Sir Win Bischoff, and said it looks forward to its continued leadership. This morning’s Wall Street Journal report to the contrary is completely erroneous’.

The ‘erroneous’ report had referenced allegations that senior Citigroup staff members had been unhappy with Sir Win’s oversight of Chief Executive Vikram Pandit and his management team, and had suggested that Dick Parsons, the bank’s senior independent director, was possibly being lined up to replace Sir Win Bischoff, who was parachuted into Citibank in part to serve inter alia as the guardian of The Queen’s loan funds with the bank.

But in translation, it can be seen that the pressure on Robert Rubin will have been intense, and that a belated rearguard action may have been mounted to ‘rid the bank’ of HM The Queen’s de facto representative and of the influence of MI6 in procuring the necessary overdue resolution of the Settlements dimension of this vast crisis, without collapsing Citibank and causing thereby a worldwide depression (the ‘ace’ that Robert Rubin has of course been cynically playing). On 21st November, Rubin was STILL reported, as noted, to have tried hard to block the Settlements.
People rioting in the streets, disgusted with greedy and corrupt officials who have wasted their money and brought nothing but scandal after scandal? You don't say. Maybe that's why Hank Paulson looks like a hunted, beady eyed rodent out in public. He probably expects someone to rush him with a pitchfork at any moment, or maybe have a bolt of lightning come down and turn him into stubble.


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