Waiting for the Endgame in Libya by * Franklin Lamb

The Libyan government, which is keeping statistics on NATO-caused civilian deaths, may not even be able to present its facts to the UN meeting next month. The reason is because Secretary of State Clinton has refused to grant Libya’s UN ambassador a visa.

Since this observer is not privy to any secrets around here and would not share them if he were, it’s fair enough to engage in frank discussions with former colleagues in Congress and new cyber acquaintances who work on the Hill.

I got an ear full this week from sources familiar with John Kerry’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee activities about President Obama’s semi-private views on what is happening in Libya and the President's  doubts about NATO’s role in bombing this unlucky country.

Contrary to some Washington speculation that Obama’s new Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta (some Congressional staffers who know  him well good naturedly refer to his as  “Leon the Lite”)  is in charge of overseeing NATO while Obama faces a slew of political and economic problems, the reality is different.  President Obama said to be “hands on” and is closely following NATO’s use of “all necessary measures to protect civilians.” NATO bombing here, including this morning’s 5 a.m. seven bomb drop near my hotel, has become a cruel hoax for the people of Libya and all whom reject  the claimed right of NATO to” destroy as a necessity to save & protect.”

Unlike his two predecessors in the Oval office and also “VP Joe,” Obama disapproves of officials using colorful language that might offend voters. But he did reportedly tell his friend who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently that “We have stepped into a pot of s— and we need to get out of it!”
Part of Obama’s growing concern is said to be about his prospects for re-election. The Democratic National Committee sent Senator Kerry and the White House a “for your eyes only” memo on the President’s re-election prospects amid approval ratings which continue to slide amidst economic uncertainties and doubts about the Obama stewardship generally.

According to Congressional sources working on the Libya crisis, some Obama advisors see Libya as becoming another Iraq if NATO continues forbidding its rebels from negotiating with the Gaddafi government or if “the leader” is killed.

Assassinating Gaddafi  is widely believed here to be the only reason NATO continues to re-bomb, some as many as five times,   the so-called “command  and  control  center“ sites that these days could be just about anywhere in Tripoli.

Yesterday, at precisely noon, this observer was meeting with two officials at the Foreign Ministry. One is in charge of the American Bureau, and we were discussing a range of subjects.  Suddenly within a five minute period four NATO bombs exploded very loudly and close to the Foreign Ministry. I eyed the massively thick conference table we were sitting at and even considered scrambling under it—just in case — as my interlocutors quickly exited the room —without even saying ‘goodbye.’  They seemed surprised, maybe amused also, when they returned to continue the meeting and I was still sitting at the table reading my notes. “Have we all become NATO targets?” one asked, “private homes, our universities, hospitals all are legitimate targets now according to NATO?”

Obama and some of his advisors like Senator John Kerry are said to be wondering the same thing that some Libyan officials are.  One staffer volunteered to me this week:

“Both the CIA and Pentagon told  our committee that green lighting NATO to bomb Libya would be really quick and not even very dirty.  Now it’s become a potentially endless nightmare.”

NATO insiders have advised Congressional staffers recently that the apparent eternal US armed “coalition of the willing” cannot afford another humiliation from its point of view, given Iraq and Afghanistan, so NATO has no plans to stop the bombing until one of three events occur.  Those three in order of NATO preference are: Gaddafi is killed, Gaddafi “surrenders” or Gaddafi flees Libya.

President Obama is being advised by some members of the Foreign Relations Committee among others to “just pull NATO’s god-damned plug and get this mess behind us!”

The much disparaged NATO weekly “Carman and Roland show” live from Brussels and Naples, billed as “NATO’s Media Conferences to inform the public” adds to the concerns of some in Washington. In a long overdue turnaround from last February, when the main stream media here parroted those who for years had been working on toppling Gaddafi about his alleged killing Libyans, CNN just this morning aired a downright balanced report about how NATO’s claims that it is protecting Libyan civilians are dubious and in fact the main cause of  civilians being slaughtered here in NATO sorties, now nearly 20,000 with more than 8,000 bombing sites.

It appears from talking with many people here, including the media, that virtually no one but the script writers for the “Carman & Roland show” believe NATO bombings have anything to do with fulfilling the original objectives of UN Security Council resolutions 1970 and 1973.

Carmen told reporters following her and Roland’s 8/16/11 briefing show that NATO expects no problem with an expected un extension next month when NATO’s June renewal expires. She may know what she is talking about because NATO has reportedly been intensively lobbying the White House to bar Gaddafi’s government from the coming UN debate.  The Libyan government, which is keeping statistics on NATO-caused civilian deaths, may not even be able to present its facts to the UN meeting next month.  The reason is because Secretary of State Clinton has refused to grant Libya’s UN ambassador a visa.  Clinton, according to committee staffers mentioned above, plans to arrange at the last minute for the National Transitional Council to represent the views of those being bombed by NATO.

Kerry’s committee staff is fairly confident that the rebels will not oppose an extension of NATO bombing of their country.  Indeed their political and financial futures depend on NATO doing just that.

Yet, the White House has been advised by Committee staffers that NATO has become the main danger to civilians in Libya and that a political solution can be reached if Obama orders a ceasefire.

The President is said to be thinking about doing just that.

Tripoli

*Franklin Lamb, suddenly all over the place.

US Learns No Lesson by *Sajjad Shaukat

Faced with a prolonged war against terrorism on global level, its defeat in Afghanistan, showing determination to withdraw forces from that country in wake of financial crisis and other related problems, the United States seeks to fight covert wars in some Islamic countries, which will especially include Pakistan.

Recently, after a long debate, the US debt crisis to avoid the default has been resolved. The solution included $ 2.4 trillion cuts over the next decade and the rise of the $14.3 trillion debt limit. Now, the default seems further away on temporary basis. Financial experts opine that the US would miss payments on its bonds and default, which will result in dire consequences, particularly for America including other countries. US has also ignored the interests of creditors. Besides other most developed countries, the US could be in serious trouble, if China does not extend more loans by buying US treasury securities. America currently owes 800 billion dollars to China.

Meanwhile, on August 4, the US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned of dire consequences, if the Pentagon is forced to make cuts to its defence budget. Notably, defense spending represents about half of the federal government’s discretionary spending, while the military’s budget has increased by more than 70 percent since 2001.

Russian Prime Minister Putin stated on August 2, that the US and its people “are living beyond their means like a parasite.”

In fact, America has suffered due to an endless war against terrorism. Since 9/11, the total cost of global war against terrorism is more than 7 trillion dollars.

On July 7, 2011, a writer, David DeGraw wrote, “When Obama launched his re-election propaganda campaign to trick the public…that he intends to end the Af-Pak War, he disclosed that the war on terror has cost $1 trillion over the past decade.” But a recent study by the Eisenhower Research Project revealed that the cost of the war on terror is greater than Obama has claimed.” US was spending $12 billion a month in Iraq and is spending over $10 billion per month in Afghanistan. However, the total cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed $6 trillion—apart from other related expenditures at home and abroad. In this regard, the war on terror is a war against the American people. As President Eisenhower had remarked, “Every dollar spent on war is a dollar not spent on education, food, health care etc.”

It is mentionable that the Muslim militant organisations, fighting against the US-led imperialist powers through ambush rocket attacks and suicide bombers have broken the myth of old model of power. In this respect, most of the western defence analysts have admitted that new brand of Islamic radicalism cannot be eliminated by military forces, equipped with sophisticated weaponry which has badly failed. Since 9/11, various suicide attacks in various countries show that the Muslim activists are giving a greater setback to world economy which protects the interests of the US-led western countries.

On the other side, despite various steps taken by the US in connection with the Islamic militants since 9/11 such as heavy aerial bombardment, ground shelling, arrests and detentions—technical intelligence, US intelligence agencies, especially CIA failed in destroying Al Qaeda’s terrorist network in the Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Uzbekistan, Nigeria etc. because American enemy is invisible. It proves that Al Qadea has franchised as a perennial different war in the concerned countries indicates.

Notably, on July 22 this year, Al Qaeda-type, the twin terror-attacks in Oslo which killed 92 persons were arranged by a Norwegian right-wing fundamentalist Christian who called for a Christian war to defend Europe against the threat of Muslim domination. In this respect, Western media pointed out the existence of Christian extremists.

It is surprisingly mentionable that while learning no lesson from the flawed policies of the ex-President Bush, President Obama has been acting upon the similar strategy so as to eliminate the Muslim radicals. Setting aside the US defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Obama administration which already continues with its agenda of secret war in Pakistan through bomb blasts, suicide attacks, targeted killings etc. as arranged by the CIA, Indian RAW, and Israeli Mossad collectively, it has planned a covert war against Pakistan which will include Karachi, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where these secret agencies are assisting the insurgents and their agents with money and weapons. The course of drone attacks will further be extended to other regions beyond Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Unveiled on June 29, President Obama’s counterterrorism strategy is focused on what poses the “most direct and significant threat to the US–Al-Qaeda and its affiliates…America’s best offense would not always be deploying large armies abroad, but delivering targeted surgical pressure against these groups.” In this context, a report had confirmed on July 16 that the coming CIA chief Gen. David Petraeus will implement the covert war in Pakistan. Besides similar threats and pressure of the US other high officials, on August 1, Admiral Mike Mullen stated, “Unless they (Pakistan) move against terrorists like the Haqqani network, it could affect relations between Washington and Islamabad.”

As regards the Haqqani network, Pakistan has already made it clear that army is engaged in other tribal areas, so it cannot attack the militants of North Waziristan.

The contradictory statements of the US high officials which still continue, shows American duplicity with Islamabad. In this connection, a deliberate campaign regarding the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear assets, location of terrorists’ safe-havens in the country, blame game against Pak Army and its intelligence agency, ISI, cross-border terrorism in Afghanistan keeps on going. While, in the recent past, aerial and ground shelling by the US-supported NATO forces inside Pakistan’s border, cross-border attacks by heavily- armed militants who entered Pakistan from Afghanistan and targetted the infrastructure of our country’s various regions have continued intermittently.

Under the pretext of Talibanisation of Pakistan and unrest in the country, which has collevtively been created by the CIA, RAW and Mossad, US India and Israel have been destabilising Pakistan to ‘denculearise’ the latter. For this purpose, the US seeks to shift Afghan war to Pakistan after the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

On August 6, NBC TV channel disclosed that the “US has a contingency plan to seize Pakistan’s nuclear weapons…if it fears they are about to fall into the wrong hands.”

Knowing the US real intentions, Pakistan’s civil and military leadership has flatly refused to act upon American undue demands. And Islamabad sent home 120 US military trainers. In response, on July 10, America withheld $800 million in military assistance to Pakistan. Islamabad has rejected American pressure to do more against the militancy without bothering for public backlash in wake of the strained relations with Washington.

If US continues its covert war in Pakistan and in some other Islamic countries, both Iran and Pakistan might stand together to thwart the US strategic designs. In that worse scenario, a vast region from Pakistan to Somalia and Nigeria to Iraq will further be radicalised, bringing about more terrorism, directed against the Americans. In such adverse circumstances, American worldwide interests are likely to be jeopardised in these countries including whole of the Middle East where the US has already failed in coping with the Islamic militants directly or indirectly—and where anti-American resentment is running high in wake of the violent protests against the pro-American rulers. Besides, instability in Pakistan will also envelop India by which the United States wants to counterbalance a peace-loving country like China.

These negative developments will further reduce the US bargaining leverage on hostile small countries like Iran, North Korea, Venezuela etc.

Although at present, other NATO allies supported America for attack on Libya, yet in case of targeting Pakistan, most of the US allies could leave the US war against terrorism, and a greater rift will be created between the US and other NATO members in wake of the competing debt crises, while people of other European states held the US responsible for the global financial crisis.

Nonetheless, if after fighting the different war for ten years, America has leant no lesson, its internal problems will give a greater blow to the US economy vis-à-vis other most developed countries, besides making it vulnerable to other external setbacks, ultimately reducing the US role as sole superpower.

Defeating Zionism! by *Alan Hart

That was the headline over a recent post by David Hearst for The Guardian’s Comment Is Free space. It began: “There is an Arabic word you come across a lot when Palestinians talk about their future. Sumud means steadfastness, and it has turned into a strategy: when the imbalance of power is so pronounced, the most important thing to do is to stay put. Staying put against overwhelming odds is regarded as a victory.”

Hearst didn’t offer any substantial explanation of why Palestinian steadfastness is a victory, so I will.

When the Palestine file was closed by Israel’s victory on the battlefield in 1948, it was not supposed to have been re-opened. There was not supposed to have been a regeneration of Palestinian nationalism. The Palestinians were supposed to accept their lot as the sacrificial lamb on the altar of political expediency.

And the whole truth includes this fact. Behind closed doors, and despite their rhetoric to the contrary, the Arab regimes shared the same hope as Zionism and the major powers – that the Palestine file would never be re-opened. They knew that if it was, there would one day have to be a confrontation with Israel and its big power supporters, the U.S. in particular, and they didn’t want that.

They, the Arab regimes, also feared that a Palestinian state, if it was ever established, would be more or less democratic and provide a model of government which all Arabs would want. Palestinian nationalism was therefore perceived by Arab autocrats as a potentially subversive force. (It’s because my book Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews tells these and related truths that it can’t be published in the Arab world. The regimes of an impotent, corrupt and repressive Arab Order order were and still are every bit as determined as Zionism to suppress the truth of history as it relates to the making and sustaining of the conflict in and over Palestine that became the Zionist not Jewish state of Israel).

For their part Israel’s leaders were aware that if they failed to keep the Palestine file closed, a regeneration of Palestinian nationalism would cause the legitimacy of Zionism’s colonial-like enterprise (not to mention its crimes only starting with the first ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians) to be called into question.

After its occupation in 1967 of the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, Israel’s leaders became more and more aware that Palestinian Sumud is a very powerful weapon. (Actually it’s the only weapon the Palestinians had and have). In essence Israel’s strategy for dealing with it was, and still is, humiliating the occupied Palestinians and making life hell for them, in the hope that they will give up their struggle for an acceptable amount of justice and accept crumbs from Zionism’s table or, better still, abandon their homeland and seek a new life elsewhere.

To date Palestinian Sumud has proved to be stronger than Zionism’s ability to destroy it but… Does it necessarily follow that at some point in the future it will defeat Zionism? It depends on the answer to another question. How will the demographic time-bomb created by Israeli occupation be defused?
In theory are three possibilities.

1. Israel ends its occupation completely (subject to minor and mutually agreed border modifications) to make the space for a viable Palestinian state with Jerusalem an open, undivided city and the capital of two states. In this scenario provision would have to be made for appropriate compensation to be paid to those Palestinian refugees wishing to return but for whom there was no the space in the Palestinian mini state. In reality this won’t happen because Zionism was and remains a project for taking for keeps the maximum amount of land with the minimum number of Arabs on it. Also true is that Zionist colonization of the West Bank has gone much too far to be reversed without a Jewish civil war; and as Shimon Peres  once said to me (quoted in my book), no Israeli prime minister is going down in history as the one who triggered it.

2. As the Zionist state becomes more and more isolated in the world, enough Israelis come to their senses and demand that their government goes for the One State solution in order to best protect their own interests. One of my Jewish friends said it could be called Palestein! If it happened this would be the end of Zionism and complete victory for Palestinian steadfastness. (My own take on the One State solution is well known but bears repeating. The Jews, generally speaking, are the intellectual elite of the Western world. The Palestinians are by far the intellectual elite of the Arab world. Together in peace and partnership in One State with equal human and political rights for all, they could play the leading role in changing the region for the better and by doing so give new hope and inspiration to the whole world).

3. Zionism’s in-Israel leaders create a pretext (possibly involving Mossad agents dressed as Arabs planting bombs) to go for a final round of ethnic cleansing – to drive the Palestinians off the West Bank and into Jordan or wherever.

It’s because I believe a Zionist Final Solution (as in 3 above) is a real possibility in a foreseeable future that I think a way should be found for the major powers, led by America, to put Israel on public notice that if it did resort to a final round of ethnic cleansing, it would be universally condemned as a criminal state and subjected to sanctions of every kind, universally applied.

*Alan Hart, a researcher and author

Another smoking gun: Breivik link to Israel by *Wayne Madsen

One question is not being asked: Why is a correspondent who supports Breivik’s thoughts on Muslims and non-whites in a kibbutz in Israel and not answering questions in a police station in Sweden?

Although the mainstream corporate media and even a few “alternative news” websites are ignoring the proven links between Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik and Israel, yet another “smoking gun” connection between the pro-Zionist mass murderer and Israel has emerged.

Ninety minutes before Breivik was reported to have detonated a huge fertilizer-fuel bomb in the government district of downtown Oslo and then proceeding to Utoya island dressed as a uniformed police officer to massacre scores of youth attending a Norwegian Labor Party jamboree, he sent an email containing a 1500-page rambling manifesto to Isak Nygren, a member of the far-right, anti-Islamic and Roma (gypsy), and pro-Zionist Sweden Democrats (SD) political party. Among Breivik’s writings is this quote: “So let us fight together with Israel, with our Zionist brothers against all anti-Zionists, against all cultural Marxists/multiculturalists.”

Who is Isak Nygren?

One will not see any mention of him in the English-language corporate media. Nygren is a pro-Israeli SD activist who is only 21 years old but has already run for municipal-level political office in his native province of Sodermanland and municipality of Katrineholm, Sweden. It is also noteworthy that Nygren was not in Sweden when he received Breivik’s e-mail but, according to the July 24 edition of Sweden’s Nyheter newspaper, was in Israel living on a kibbutz. The location of the kibbutz was not reported. There are other reports on Internet websites that Nygren is Jewish.

The only English-language media that reported Breivik’s connection to Nygren is Die Presse of Vienna, Eskiltuna-Kurinen of Sweden,Sveriges Radio, Expo magazine of Sweden, the Berliner Zeitung of Germany, and Kurier of Austria. To its credit, Nyheter is the only media outlet that officially reported on Breivik’s connections to Nygren, in addition to Nygren’s current presence in Israel.

The media blackout of Breivik’s Israeli connections is largely the result of marching orders sent out from the Israel and Zionist lobby. The orders are clear: there will be no mention of Breivik’s pro-Israeli stance nor his connections to individuals like Nygren. Attention to Breivik’s Israeli and Jewish connections would expose Mossad’s infiltration of neo-Nazi groups and political parties to turn them away from anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial and into anti-Islamic and pro-Israeli pressure movements.

Nygren has stated that he is pro-Israel. However, he is also a member of the neo-Nazi Nordic Alliance, which has branches in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. There are now reports that last year Breivik attended a rally of the English Defense League (EDL) in London to hear Dutch Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders, an ardent anti-Muslim and supporter of Israel, to address the gathering. There are other reports that Breivik met with the leadership of the EDL and Wilders. The EDL’s Swedish offshoot is the Swedish Defense League, which counts Nygren as one of its activists. In September 2010, the Danish leftist newspaper Arbejder pointed to possible links between Nygren and the xenophobic far-right Danish People’s Party of Pia Kaersgaard, which provides parliamentary support for the current center-right Danish government.

Nygren’s blog states that he has no connections with Breivik. However, in response to a request from a reporter for Austria’s ORF television network about Breivik’s use of .at domains to send e-mail to an entity called the “Vienna School,” Nygren, from Israel, refused to cooperate. The reporter pointed out that in Austria, most e-mail addresses do not use the .at country domain for Austria but addresses like gmx.mail and other commercial addresses.

Nygren was interviewed by Sweden’s English-language publication, Expo, and said he is opposed to mixed marriages between European women and “niggers, Asians, etc.” Nygren also opposes adoption by Swedish parents of non-white children from abroad. Nygren has advocated for the expulsion of Roma (gypsies) from Sweden and the mandatory “re-eduction” of Swedish Muslims. Last February, Nygren, according to the SVT Swedish television network, said, “As long as you do not live in Sweden so I do not care. I’m not attracted to the Negroes.”

The EDL, SD, Wilders, Nygren, and Zionists in the United States like Pam Geller, who Breivik admires, are all attempting to distance themselves from the Norwegian mass murderer. The “lone wolf” appellation being conferred on Breivik by his Zionist and neo-Nazi friends, as well as the English-speaking corporate media, is now neing undermined by reports of law enforcement investigations of Breivik’s network, including the two additional operating cells he mentioned in an Oslo court room on July 25. The police investigations extend beyond Norway to France, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Austria, Poland, and other countries.

However, the corporate media is still insisting that Breivik is a deranged single actor. Although, he is clearly deranged, even some alternate news outlets, while believing Breivik could not have acted alone, are continuing to ignore Breivik’s connections to Israel and Zionist groups, pushing fanciful notions of involvement by NATO, Freemasons, and the Illuminati in Breivik’s massacre.

One question is not being asked: Why is a correspondent who supports Breivik’s thoughts on Muslims and non-whites in a kibbutz in Israel and not answering questions in a police station in Sweden?

*Wayne Madsen, is a Washington, D.C.-based author, columnist , and self-described investigative journalist.

A Reminder-President Shimon Peres at UN: “Gaza Has Become a Terrorist State”

President Shimon Peres held a working meeting yesterday with Ambassadors from countries currently serving in the UN Security Council as well as other countries from the Middle East.  Ambassadors from the following countries attended: Russia, France, Britain, India, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Norway, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Portugal and the Palestinian Observer to the UN.

President Shimon Peres received the news about a rocket striking a bus carrying children in the Shaar Hanegev regional council during the meeting with the Ambassadors. The President, who was discussing the security threats from Gaza immediately updated the Ambassadors and said:  “I was just informed that an Israeli bus carrying schoolchildren home from school was hit with a mortar fired from Gaza.  There are reports of injured.  This is a real life example that Gaza has become a terrorist state.  Can the United Nations guarantee that terror attacks will not happen again?  None of you would give up on the safety and security of your citizens just as Israel will stand in its own defense.”  The President pointed out to the Ambassadors that “hundreds of thousands of mothers and their children in Southern Israel cannot sleep at night as a result of the rocket attacks from Gaza.”

The President also commented on the proliferation of flotillas traveling to Gaza and said: “Behind every flotilla is a provocation and a desire for newspaper headlines.  Whoever wants to help Gaza should insist that Gazans stop firing on Israel.”

Regarding the Iranian situation, President Peres told the Ambassadors:  “Israel is not willing to accept that there is a member in the United Nations, Iran, headed by a President who threatens to destroy another member nation of the UN, Israel.  Why do you permit him to do this while allowing him to continue to be a member?  He appears here and calls for destruction and hate.  There is a double standard when it comes to Iran.”
President Peres continued and referred to the Goldstone Report: “It is the same thing with the Goldstone Report –   Israel conducted an investigation into Cast Lead.  We investigated ourselves – not because we were accused of something but rather because the Israeli army is not just based on guns but values as well.  The investigative committee checked 400 incidents and in three cases there was suspicion of wrong doing.  Those soldiers in those three cases stood trial.  Everyone who fights terror – and it makes no difference if he is American, Russian or French knows how complicated it is.”  He added: “I read that Goldstone expressed regret about the report he wrote. Unfortunately fictions exist longer than denials.”

With respect to Israel’s position in the United Nations President Peres said: “We see ourselves as a responsible member of the UN and we want to be a contributing nation but we don’t want to be a victim in the UN because we are a minority.  We can never benefit from a majority.  The blocs in the UN are based on being anti-Israel and we don’t have an opportunity for justice.  In spite of this we will continue to struggle for our defense and fight for peace.  Today, the top priority is the desire to achieve a responsible peace with the Palestinians so that that can achieve independence and we can have security.  If you want to help the Middle East, put an end to conflict as soon as possible.”

Later this morning, Friday, April 8, President Peres plans to meet the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon.   The President will discuss in detail the Goldstone Report, the apologetic op-ed of Judge Goldstone, and the President’s demand to retract and repudiate the report.  The two will also discuss the situation in Gaza, weapons smuggling in the region, and ways to advance the peace process between Israel and its neighbors.

Israel Politik

A New Epoch Has Begun in the History of the Euro by *SPIEGEL staff

Prior to Thursday evening's euro-zone agreement on a second aid package for Greece, the demands for action had become deafening. Some were insisting that Athens was doomed if Europe didn't undertake a significant restructuring of the country's debt. Others said such a move would be disastrous, and would result in riots on the streets of the Greek capital.

In the end, euro-zone leaders gathered in Brussels opted to split the difference. Greece gets €109 billion in aid, allowing it to remain solvent through 2014 -- but private creditors are to have a significant role to play in helping Athens find its way out of the debt predicament in which it finds itself. By 2014, private involvement is to be worth fully €50 billion -- much higher than expected.

In addition, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) will be granted the authority to buy bonds of debt-stricken euro-zone countries as a way of extending them a pre-emptive credit line. The move puts the EFSF on the path to becoming a kind of European Monetary Fund on the model of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund.

"It was a meeting at a difficult time and I am satisfied with the results," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "Developments have shown that we in Europe need to work together more closely and more flexibly."

Private sector involvement is to take the form of a debt swap, whereby private investors will be able to exchange their current Greek bonds for EFSF bonds during a brief time window this autumn. The move will likely be viewed by rating agencies as a selective default, making Greece the first euro-zone country to default.

Euro-zone leaders also lowered the interest rate Athens is required to pay on its rescue loans to 3.5 percent. "I think this is extremely important to ensure the debt sustainability of Greece," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

German commentators on Friday also take a closer look at the deal.

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"First of all, it is commendable that after the German-French disagreement in Brussels a tangible solution even came about. The chancellor can count the participation of private investors, something she had been pushing for months, as a success. Now one point of contention that was always cause for uncertainty has been resolved."

"The second piece of good news is that Greece will de facto be taken off the capital market for a decade. Figuratively speaking, that means the ailing country will be moved from the intensive care unit to a rehabilitation facility. The third plus is that the rescue fund EFSF may allocate pre-emptive credit lines, though naturally with the German caveat that certain conditions be imposed."

"But questions remain. Greece's debt problem will not be solved -- the high level of national debt is hardly reduced. The ongoing burden will only ease when the EU nations finally stop charging punitive interest on their loans."

"A primary problem, as experience shows, is that the markets react quickly and mercilessly. After summits investors always show relief until new pressures start building. The weakness of the deal is already apparent: The rescue fund will not be increased and it is doubtful whether or not €440 billion will be enough, because no solution was found for Italy in Brussels."

Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel writes:

"The 17 heads of state and the European Central Bank have obviously acknowledged the depth of the problem, and this was clearly an effort to overcome the self-imposed blockade and break a number of euro-zone taboos. This effort includes the buyback of Greek bonds, in part through the European rescue fund, the EFSF."

"It's also right that the Greeks (as well as the Irish and the Portuguese) should pay lower interest for EFSF loans. Rich nations don't need to profit from a crisis among the poorer member states. The idea of extending the terms of aid loans is also reasonable because the Greeks will need many years to free themselves from the current mess -- and they'll manage it only with help from their partners and friends in the EU, and in a currency union that has finally committed itself to a restructuring plan. This will all cost money."

"But is it all really necessary? Yes. The currency union is worth the sacrifice, above all for Germans, because we have the euro and its positive influence on our export markets to thank for our prosperity … Even the stability and growth pact never managed to replace the missing EU-level coordination in financial and economic policy that the euro requires. But that is the direction Europe needs to head. The Brussels summit represents the first real step."

Left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung writes:

"A new epoch has begun in the history of the euro. There were three remarkable developments at the EU summit in Brussels. First, the European Central Bank (ECB) was deprived of its power. Second, no more respect will be paid to the ratings agencies. Third, it is only a matter of time until euro bonds are used across the board. All three developments are worthy of embrace. They are also unavoidable if the euro is to survive."

"In the long term, this means that the euro zone is declaring independence from the financial markets. That is a historic step."

The business daily Handelsblatt writes:

"The bankers are not stupid. After the months of wrangling, it was entirely predictable (that private-sector creditors would be involved in the bailout). Many institutions have already reacted, by selling as many Greeks bonds as they can, buying credit default swaps and already partially writing down their exposure to Greek debt."

"In plain language, this means that the burden on the financial industry will generally be limited. In any case, the whole thing is voluntary for the banks -- even if no one really knows how the 'voluntary' participation will ultimately be divided up so that the total amount ... the private sector is supposed to provide, is reached."
"At the same time, the banks can be happy that the new rescue package also grants the EFSF more flexibility. In the future, it will be able to buy up bonds, which was not previously possible and which ultimately benefits banks and insurance companies. They will be able to dump any bonds there that they want to get rid of, on top of their voluntary contribution."

The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes:

"Contrary to expectations, the message of the crisis summit to save the euro turns out to be clear and European. The EFSF rescue funds now have significantly more duties and flexibility. With that Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy have helped a European monetary fund into being -- an apparatus that corrects the construction flaws of the monetary union, a common currency without political union. That is the sensation of the meeting, which also made Greece's debt more manageable."

"(A European monetary fund) would be a bulwark against dangerous speculation attacks. It is the guarantee that the euro-zone countries stand together for the euro -- and thus indirectly for each other.
"Is that then the beginning of the transfer union so feared by the Germans? It is at least a step toward integration. Through the revaluation of the EFSF, chances of curtailing the crisis are good."

Sarkozy and the Saudis by *Wayne Madsen

In what may prove to be an old scandal but one that could come back to further tarnish his already poor image, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been heavily implicated in a bribery scandal from the 1990s involving an Airbus deal to supply Saudia Airlines with commercial passenger planes.

The French government, then led by Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, a political mentor of Sarkozy offered to pay a bribe to a major Saudi official in return for a $6 billion contract with the Saudi Ministry of Defense and Aviation (MODA) to re-supply Saudia with aircraft. WMR has learned from a source involved with the Saudi contract negotiations that Sarkozy, France's Budget Minister at the time, was Balladur's "right-hand man" in offering the bribe to the Saudi official, said to be a high-level prince in the Saudi government.

Balladur traveled to Saudi Arabia in January 1994 to personally lobby King Fahd for the contract with Airbus. However, President George H. W. Bush had sealed a deal with the Saudis in 1992 for McDonnell-Douglas to supply 72 F-15 fighter jets to the Saudis in a $4 billion deal, with $600 million to Pratt and Whitney for jet engines and an additional $1 billion in "commissions" paid to the same top Saudi prince through a MODA account maintained at Riggs Bank. George H. W. Bush's brother Jonathan Bush became the President of Riggs Investment after the bank bought his J. Bush & Co. in 1997.

In the McDonnell-Douglas "deal" with the Saudis, a package that totaled $5.6 billion, Bush believed he could deliver his promise of election year jobs to the people of St. Louis, where the planes would be built. Bush made the promise to McDonnell-Douglas workers and their families in a speech at Lambert Field on September 11, 1992. Missouri was a key battleground state between Bush and Bill Clinton. In the end, the bribe paid to the Saudi prince, a noted friend of the Bush family, had no impact on Missouri. Clinton won the state's 11 electoral votes.

In detailed information provided to WMR by an aviation industry top executive who was involved with the sensitive negotiations, we learned that the original jet fighter deal worked out between Bush and King Fahd had an additional sweetener: the Saudia commercial plane deal was to go to Boeing to the tune of $4 billion for Boeing, $1.2 billion for General Electric engines, $420 million for Pratt and Whitney/International Aero Engines (IAE) engines, $1.6 billion for McDonnell-Douglas to help it keep it from curtailing production at its Long Beach, California commercial aircraft plant. The total contract was worth $7.2 billion. In addition, our source reports that a "commission" (bribe) equaling $250 million, was paid to Saudi banker Khalid bin Mahfouz, the brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden and the owner of the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia. Bin Mahfouz, who died of a sudden heart attack in 2009, threatened to sue major publications who reported that he was the brother-in-law of Bin Laden, even after CIA director testified in 1998 that Bin Mahfouz was Bin Laden's brother-in-law. Woolsey and major publications, including the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, later retracted the report on the brother-in-law link between the two Saudis.

In 1997 Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas merged, strengthening the combined company's influence in Saudi Arabia.

In 1995, when the Saudia airline contract was being considered, Balladur had no way of knowing that the Clinton administration had been apprised of the Boeing deal with the Saudis and that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had intercepted communications between Balladur and his Budget Minister Sarkozy offering the Saudis bribes in return for Saudia awarding its contract for new planes to Airbus. In the end, the Saudis nixed the deal with Balladur and Sarkozy. Sarkozy's involvement with the Saudi bribery scandal mirrors similar allegations of receiving kickbacks in return for French defense contracts with Taiwan and Pakistan.

However, WMR has learned that the French bribery involvement with the Saudis pales in comparison with bribes and kickbacks involving top Saudis and U.S. politicians, particularly George H. W. and George W. Bush. WMR has learned that violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by U.S. corporations in deals with the Saudis have totaled $350 billion. $83 billion from U.S. bribes have been placed in special Saudi fund devoted to squelching civil dissent in Saudi Arabia. The CIA is fully supportive of the "arrangement."

*Wayne Madsen, is a Washington, D.C.-based author, columnist , and self-described investigative journalist.