Retired US Intelligence Agent Lobbying for USG Protections from Foreign Courts for US Intel Agents

SOURCE http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/aug/31/edward-roche-hackers-expose-the-intelligence-commu/ When the intelligence community is exposed The U.S. must protect its employees from foreign lawsuits Illustration on the threats of foreign legal prosecution of exposed U.S. intelligence personnel by Alexander Hunter/The Washington Times By Edward M. Roche - - Monday, August 31, 2015 Hacking is today’s growth industry. The numbers are staggering. Thirty-two million users of the Ashley Madison sex-sharing website were exposed. Home Depot lost 56 million accounts; Anthem, 80 million; JP Morgan Chase, 76 million; eBay, 145 million; Sony PlayStation Network, 77 million; and TJ Maxx, 94 million records. All of these hacks have caused massive disruption to the targeted organization, legal liability for cyber-negligence, and anguish to consumers. The U.S. government also is under siege, and along with it the intelligence community (IC), which is a priority target. The recent hacking of the Office of Personnel Management likely exposed the identities of some current and former IC employees. That data breach alone is unlikely to have compromised all IC employees. But when face recognition methods, sophisticated big-data techniques and cross-indexing of multiple data bases such as consumer, insurance or state records, are woven together, it is reasonable to expect most former and even current IC employees eventually will be identified. And when that happens, their identities undoubtedly will be published on the Internet for everyone in the world to see. Then what? As the information leaks out, the standing army of hostile intelligence community watchers overseas and in the United States will be ready to file lawsuits against individual IC employees or retirees for every type of criminal act and tort they can dream up, no matter how misguided. At the individual level, principles of national jurisdiction guarantee that practically all espionage activities are a violation of the national law where they take place. Generally, there is no immunity for secret agents, although on occasion the acts of an agent have been equated with the national acts of his sovereign and considered sufficient grounds for quietly dropping the suit. But the Internet is making espionage more visible. Counter-espionage, in a sense, has been crowd-sourced to a self-organizing network of watchers worldwide. Indictment of intelligence officials is not new. Once espionage is uncovered, it is difficult for a prosecutor to resist public outrage by refusing to take action. Prosecution of U.S. intelligence community members is rising in foreign courts. In June, 13 CIA officers were indicted in Italy, and convicted in absentia in July. After all, extraordinary rendition is a casus belli and violation by a nation-state of international law. Now these IC officers no longer can travel to any country that has an extradition treaty with Italy. In February 2007, Italy indicted another 25 supposed CIA agents. In January 2007, Germany issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA operatives. A German citizen, Khaled el-Masri, attempted to sue the United States and Spain over his arrest by American intelligence, but in 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the case on national security grounds. What about suing individual U.S. intelligence agents, not in a U.S. court, but in a foreign court? Using standard investigative procedures, in 2005 the Spanish police identified the three American pilots who handled Mr. el-Masri’s flight, and were even able to peel away their false names. For some reason, the German prosecutor held back, and the potential case quickly was escalated up to a matter of diplomacy between the United States and Germany. Nothing happened. This time. But what about the future? As thousands of intelligence community employee identities are revealed, as they will be, it is reasonable to expect the number of cases against individual IC members will proliferate. Not all can be the subject of bilateral nation-state negotiations. Not all will be in jurisdictions that are close allies with the United States. IC retirees will be faced with mounting headaches, legal bills and seizure of overseas assets. When intelligence community employees put their lives on the line to serve their country, they knowingly take great personal risks. Their anonymity or false names might help them. But when the curtain is thrown back, and they are exposed, then does the U.S. government owe them protection? Or does the U.S. have a de facto policy that leaves retirees hanging out to dry? This would be neither honorable or just, and undoubtedly is not intended. Time is short. Sources confirm China’s Ministry of State Security likely has been cross-indexing insurance, airlines and Office of Personnel Management security clearance files. One support network for the IC already has been compromised, and there are more to come. This problem needs to be studied in greater detail. A legal fund must be established to support the litigation needed to protect exposed agents. U.S. extradition laws might be reviewed. Within the intelligence community, the legal departments that manage accountability need to be funded so they can expand and take on these new challenges. It is bad enough that IC employees no longer can assume their identities will be securely protected by the government, but they should be able to count on robust support if they are attacked in foreign courts. • Edward M. Roche is a member of the American Society of International Law and the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- EXTRACT European court of human rights finds against CIA abuse of Khaled el-Masri America must now apologise to the German citizen, a victim of mistaken identity who was kidnapped and beaten by the CIA The much-maligned European court of human rights has this week shown itself at its very best: standing up for the rights of an individual who has been denied justice for almost nine years since he was abducted, secretly detained, and tortured under the CIA's rendition program. Khaled El-Masri, a German national, was seized by Macedonian security officers on 31 December 2003, at a border crossing, because he had been mistaken for an al-Qaida suspect. He was held incommunicado and abused in Macedonian custody for 23 days, after which he was handcuffed, blindfolded, and driven to Skopje airport, where he was handed over to the CIA and severely beaten. The CIA stripped, hooded, shackled, and sodomized el-Masri with a suppository – in CIA parlance, subjected him to "capture shock" – as Macedonian officials stood by. The CIA drugged him and flew him to Kabul to be locked up in a secret prison known as the "Salt Pit", where he was slammed into walls, kicked, beaten, and subjected to other forms of abuse. Held at the Salt Pit for four months, el-Masri was never charged, brought before a judge, or given access to his family or German government representatives. The CIA ultimately realised that it had mistaken el-Masri for an al-Qaida suspect with a similar name. But  it held on to him for weeks after that. It was not until 24 May 2004, that he was flown, blindfolded, earmuffed, and chained to his seat, to Albania, where he was dumped on the side of the road without explanation. This is the first court to comprehensively and specifically find that the CIA's rendition techniques amounted to torture. The decision stands in sharp contrast to the abject failure of US courts to deliver justice to victims of US torture and rendition. Both the United States and Macedonia must now issue el-Masri a full-scale public apology and appropriate compensation. [...]  The European court's decision in the el-Masri case is a clarion call for accountability for the flagrantly illegal CIA rendition program. [ ... ] FULL STORY AT SOURCE http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/13/european-court-human-rights-cia-abuse-khaled-elmasri ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Now Can Torture Survivor Khaled El-Masri Have His Apology? By Steven M. Watt, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Human Rights Program December 15, 2014 | 2:33 PM EXTRACTS [ ... ] It took the intervention of the National Security Council to settle the dispute and secure Khaled's repatriation to [Albania, where he was dumped on the side of the road] Germany in May 2005. That would confirm that, despite her claim to the contrary, Condoleezza Rice, a member of the council then and later secretary of state, would have known that mistakes had been made resulting in Khaled's wrongful rendition and detention when she visited Germany in December 2005. [...] Despite all this, the Obama administration has so far declined to acknowledge Khaled's wrongful detention and abuse, and State Department lawyers have yet to respond to his petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, filed over six years ago. Protecting legitimate state secrets wasn't the CIA's primary interest. It invoked secrecy to cover up its embarrassing mistakes – which included egregious human rights violations – and to avoid accountability. Now that the CIA's mistakes and atrocities are a matter of public record, the government should take responsibility for them and make amends. As an important first step, the United States should provide Khaled – and other victims of CIA torture – with a full, official, and public accounting of what the CIA did to him, and grant him an apology, compensation, and counseling for rehabilitation. FULL AT SOURCE https://www.aclu.org/blog/speakeasy/now-can-torture-survivor-khaled-el-masri-have-his-apology ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Added following above, because it is an important detail: [Albania, where he was dumped on the side of the road] If the National Security Council settled a dispute regarding el-Masri's 'repatriation to Germany', why was he subsequently dumped, mafia style, by the side of the road in Albania? The CIA's El-Masri Abduction: Cables Show Germany Caved to Pressure from Washington By Matthias Gebauer and John Goetz December 09, 2010 – 07:49 PM  The American diplomatic cables provide new details about the case of Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen abducted by the CIA in 2003. The reports confirm just how much pressure the US put on Germany to not pursue 13 agents believed to have been involved. But they also reveal how cooperative and responsive German officials were in light of American worries. [ ... ] Just a few days ago, WikiLeaks published a cable recounting the details of a meeting that then-Deputy US Ambassador John M. Koenig had in the German Chancellery, the official office of Chancellor Angela Merkel. During the conversation, Koenig asked the Germans to "weigh carefully at every step of the way the implications for relations with the US" that investigations into the CIA-organized abduction would have. In another embassy cable, the Americans reported that Berlin had been informed of the "potential negative implications for our bilateral relationship" in the longer term. A previously unknown cable from the US Embassy in Berlin, dated Feb. 1, 2007, throws light on how the Germans behaved during this back-room horse-trading. A day earlier, German prosecutors in Munich had issued arrest warrants for 13 suspected CIA operatives believed to have been involved in the abduction of el-Masri in Macedonia in late 2003 as well as in his being taken via Baghdad to a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan on Jan. 23, 2004. There, el-Masri was detained and interrogated until finally being released without charges and brought back to Germany at the end of May that year. [ ...] The details that have recently emerged illustrate that Germany was engaged in a bit of double-dealing when it came to the el-Masri case. In public, the German government continued to call for an investigation. But neither the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel nor the Justice Ministry would have touched the hot issue of illegal CIA kidnappings if it hadn't have been for the pressure exerted upon them by the media. Behind closed doors, German officials agreed that el-Masri was apparently merely the unfortunate victim of mistaken identity because of his name. But nobody wanted to have investigations into the CIA, which would surely cause even more damage to already tattered German-American relations. [ ...] ...  In 2007, then-Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries decided not to further pursue the 13 CIA agents. Though their names were still on an Interpol wanted persons list, the United States stated that it would not recognize its validity. Zypries explained that the Americans had made clear to her that they would neither arrest nor hand over the 13 CIA agents. In the end, she concluded that, given the slim chances of success, it made no sense to even try to get them extradited. FULL AT SOURCE http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-cia-s-el-masri-abduction-cables-show-germany-caved-to-pressure-from-washington-a-733860.html ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- ꕤ

WikiLeaks - Hacking Team Leak - Release Verified as Legitimate / Singapore Surveillance

Singapore is using spyware, and its citizens can’t complain By Gabey GohAug 03, 2015 Behind the surveillance curtain Meanwhile, Goh Su Gim (pic), the security advisor at cybersecurity firm F-Secure in Asia, has examined the Hacking Team documents that have been leaked online, and said he believes them to be legitimate. “Especially the source code and their Galileo product architecture – it is exactly how security researchers have expected it to be,” he told DNA. “Many have compiled the source code and replicated what products Hacking Team has been selling to the [Singapore] Government,” he added. The leaked Hacking Team information also includes email threads that point to other Singaporean agencies showing an interest in the Italian company’s spyware, according to Goh. These agencies include the Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies (CSIT), part of the Ministry of Defence; and the Infocomm Technology Division (ICTD) of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) back in 2013. Goh noted that an Israeli company, Nice Systems which specialises in telephone voice recording, data security and surveillance, serves as a partner working with Hacking Team to sell to CSIT and MHA. “Interestingly, the MHA was interested in its IPA device (Injection Proxy Appliance),” he said. “This is a networking device, typically installed alongside an Internet service provider’s servers, that can hijack targets’ Internet traffic without their knowing, and surreptitiously deliver malware to their device or computer. “Tricking a target into opening a file or going to a phishing site may be not be as easy, and this is the perfect appliance to intercept Internet activity on the fly – for example, if a target wants to watch a video or download a new app, the IPA could intercept and prompt the target to install a booby-trapped version of Adobe Flash with the spyware. “It is also interesting to note at the end of the [leaked] email, [there is the statement]: ‘(As always, but especially in this country, confidentiality is a must. Thanks.)’,” he added. Why the IDA? There were no further documents available to show whether discussions with the CSIT and MHA panned out and were converted to sales, Goh conceded. He said that the F-Secure team was also unable to independently confirm whether the IDA and other agencies in South-East Asia, besides the publicly published list of clients available on the Internet, were or are Hacking Team customers. However, Goh noted that given what Hacking Team offers, it may seem more relevant for CSIT and MHA to purchase such tools in the name of homeland security. “But the IDA is a statutory board of the Singapore Government, under the Ministry of Communications and Information, whose mission is to develop information technology and telecommunications within Singapore – with a view to servicing citizens of all ages and companies of all sizes. “With that said, since it is not an enforcement agency – there is no use for a surveillance tool, unless it is used for research purposes,” he said. The IDA did not respond to DNA’s repeated requests for comment. https://www.digitalnewsasia.com/digital-economy/singapore-is-using-spyware-and-its-citizens-cant-complain?page=0%2C1 -------- -------- -------- COMMENT Thought this a cool article, as the WikiLeaks publication of the Hacking Team data has been independently verified as legitimate. Israeli involvement is interesting. The rest (surveillance capabilities) just freaks me out.  LOL More re:  SINGAPORE SURVEILLANCE

GREECE - Germany reasserts hegemony over the eurozone - Ryan Cooper Article

ARTICLE SOURCE http://theweek.com/articles/566079/how-germany-defeated-syriza--reasserted-hegemony-over-eurozone How Germany defeated Syriza — and reasserted its hegemony over the eurozone Ryan Cooper July 13, 2015 It looks like a deal between Greece and eurozone elites has finally been reached — and it is a horrendous one. Greece's Syriza government has utterly capitulated, agreeing to a tremendous new austerity package with no debt restructuring whatsoever; huge cuts to pensions and worker protections ("labor liberalization"); and selling off €50 billion in unspecified government assets to pay off debt. The deal doesn't even guarantee funding — only after these conditions are met can a new loan package be negotiated. The Financial Times calls it "the most intrusive economic supervision program ever mounted in the EU. " Even to a hardened cynic, the "bargain" is nothing short of staggering in its awfulness. The eyes of even the most sober market analysts are practically bugging out of their heads at the sheer viciousness of it. (To give you a small idea of how badly Syriza caved to Germany and other European powers: The Institution for Growth, which will apparently take possession of the Greek government assets, is part of a fund called KfW, whose chairman is none other than German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.) If the Greek parliament passes the proposal, Greece will have effectively ceded economic sovereignty to eurozone elites. None of the underlying economic issues have been improved — on the contrary, they will all be made much worse. This means the crisis is certain to recur at some point. The only silver lining is that the true nature of the eurozone has been revealed to all: It is an empire based on force, not the physical kind, but economic. Bend to Germany's will, or see your economy destroyed. It's worth taking a step back to remember how we got here. Before 2008, capital flowed from the eurozone core to the periphery, chasing higher yields. Normally this would be moderated by exchange rate adjustments and monetary policy, but in a common currency the first is impossible and the second was set for the core's needs only. Hot money flowed south, sparking inflationary overheating in the periphery and building up price imbalances. When the crisis came, the lack of exchange rate adjustments and monetary policy once again proved fateful, and cash-strapped nations could not finance fiscal stimulus. After the crisis, the eurozone should have stepped in with stimulus and debt restructuring to restore employment and growth, as the U.S. did with the Recovery Act of 2009. As Steve Randy Waldman writes, "What was required was a Europe-wide solution to a European problem." Instead, economic elites talked themselves into thinking the problem was one-sided, and demanded massive austerity in return for loans to avoid default. The result in many countries has been brutal recession, in some cases rivaling that of the Great Depression. Before the crisis, Greece was dishonest about its finances and made many bad decisions. But the roots of Greece's problems are inherent eurozone defects, not shady accounting. Spain is much more scrupulous and had almost no budget deficit before 2008, and has done nearly as bad as Greece has. Syriza was elected in January on a promise to end austerity, but the party has been totally outmaneuvered. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras apparently did not think euro exit was possible, and rumors are that his party made no contingency plans to introduce a replacement currency. In a riveting interview, former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis explains why. He says that eurozone elites were never negotiating in good faith. Instead they were stringing the Greeks along with pointless busywork (given this bargain, an easy thing to believe). He lost all faith in talks, and after the huge victory in the July 5 referendum, he proposed an aggressive scheme in line with what economist JW Mason has suggested: the introduction of euro-denominated IOUs to ease the liquidity crisis; a unilateral partial default; and greater autonomy for Greece's central bank from the European Central Bank. Unfortunately, it was untested policy territory, and Tsipras chickened out. Bereft of support, Varoufakis resigned. With no backup plan, Syriza had no leverage, and so had to take whatever German Chancellor Angela Merkel was dishing out — in this case, an economic shotgun to both kneecaps. It's an open question whether Tsipras will be able to get this turd through the Greek parliament, and odds are good it will shatter the majority coalition, requiring new elections. As Wolfgang Münchau points out, at least the deal brings some needed clarity to events. The eurozone is now openly "run in the interests of Germany, held together by the threat of absolute destitution for those who challenge the prevailing order." The lessons for those radicals who would challenge Germany, such as Spain's Podemos, are clear. Any nation that won't docilely submit to economic bleeding will receive no quarter. Self-serving claptrap about the rebels' fecklessness will be quickly constructed and propagated. Unemployment in Spain is 24 percent. In Portugal it is 13 percent. In Italy it is 12 percent — a country where there has been virtually no productivity growth since the introduction of the euro in 1999. Should a radical party want to break German hegemony, it would do well to learn from the failures of Syriza. It may sound foolish to risk everything on an aggressive grab for economic sovereignty — but if these countries want their problems fixed in years, rather than in decades, there may be no other option. SOURCE http://theweek.com/articles/566079/how-germany-defeated-syriza--reasserted-hegemony-over-eurozone --------------------- COMMENT Enjoyed this article.  Bit of a catch-up for me, as I haven't kept track of Greece.  Didn't expect to understand ins and outs of the economic dramas in Greece, so I haven't taken time to do reading on the subject. Sounds really bad.  How can they not have an exit plan?  That's just insane.  And it looks as though they're putting off the inevitable, having already put the public through an austerity regime, in the lead up to this.  And for what?  Greece, apparently, still doesn't have restructuring or guarantee of funding. [Weird all over the place highlighting & text colours are for myself.   Can't make up my mind how to highlight, as my browser shows highlights overlapping text when published.]

Events Leading to WWII List, Italian Colonialism in Africa & Current Events Libya

Gol (gol = river) Noticed the list of events leading to WWII while I was reading about the Russians fighting off the Japanese invaders of Soviet Russian/Mongolian territory. Came across the Khalkhin Gol battles while reading about Russia's Georgy Zhukov, who is said to have excelled at operational and strategic command (wikipedia). Was interested in him because I'd seen him in the WWII Germany footage. Source: Wikipedia Khalkhin Gol doesn't get a mention in the list, maybe because it was an undeclared war.  It would be part of Japan's expansionism attempts, which would have started with the invasion of Manchuria 1931 (above).  No, scratch that.  It looks like the Japanese were at it in 1918-22 when they invaded Siberia while Russia was in revolutionary turmoil (but maybe historians aren't counting Japanese expansionist attempts from there).  Scrap that as well.  The Japanese in Siberia scenario appears to have been spurred on by the West (British-US sending warships to Vladivostok) to counter the communist revolutionaries, and the Japanese wanted the action.  The 'international coalition' withdrew its forces but the amassed Japanese troops (and thousands of civilian settlers) moved inland and stayed on).  Looks the Japanese pulled out because (a) the Bolsheviks got the upper hand in Russia and (b) the occupation came at a high cost for Japan (over half the national budget for 2 years).  The following were also players in the Khalkhin Gol battles: Grigori Shtern (shot/executed after confessing under torture that he had been German spy).  Shtern was in charge of the front line & in command of Zhukov, if I understand correctly. Yakov Smushkevich (in charge of aviation, shot/executed 1941) Khorloogiin Choibalsan (Mongolian nationalist) source:  wikipedia Grigori Shtern (shot/executed 1941, left) and Georgy Zhukov (right). Khorloogiin Choibalsan (centre). Wikipedia on Smushkevich and Shtern indicates they were both executed and both subsequently 'rehabilitated' in the early 1950s, so I guess that means their honour was restored. Smushkevich's daughter recalled the arrest in an interview with Moscow News, concluding that maybe Nazi intelligence services had the Soviet Russians convinced that 'faithful fighters are enemies' (here). Finding the who's who hard to follow.  Problem with remembering the names.  Find it hard to keep the names straight.  Some of the histories are quite involved as well.   The list of WWII lead-up events will keep me busy with look-ups, but I'll only be skimming the surface.  Even though it's only surface information, the embarrassing part is I'll probably not take a great deal of this in.  But something's better than nothing (and it's interesting information), so I'll keep checking things out. Italian colonialism in Africa struck me as extremely brutal: Italian Somaliland Colony 1889-1936 from 1936 > = Italian East Africa colony ie Italian Somaliland + Italian Eritrea + Ethiopian Empire No probs killing monks & nuns at monastery, plus 30,000 Ethiopians in 3 days. [see wikipedia] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_East_Africa Right now the Italians are agitating for military intervention in Libya, so the guess is Italian industrialists have investments there and their politicians are pushing for intervention to protect Italian corporate interests.  So it's like colonialism has never ended. The push for intervention comes after an alleged ISIS execution of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya, which is quite a convenient event for the Western backed Tobruk government (yes, there's two Libya governments:  Tripoli (not recognised by West) and Tobruk), and convenient for those in the West that seek to intervene in the region. Having a hard time believing this event is genuine (rather than staged).  On the other hand, maybe it is genuine.  I don't know.  It's just weird that it plays into the hands of those who seek Western military intervention. The video is said to have come out of the Al Hayat Media Center (HMC), which is supposed to be Islamic State controlled.   Back in June 2014, Daily Mail reported that IS were publishing an English language propaganda magazine via "AlHayat Media Center - the propaganda wing of ISIS".   So maybe the Libya report is genuine.

Egypt - Owned by Foreign Oil Companies - $6 BILLION DEBT

EGYPT ----------------------------------------   WOW!!! >> #Germany #Canada #Italy, Tunisian & ors (?) -- oil & gas exploration deals @ $187m signed by #EGYPT >> http://goo.gl/I8pV39 >"Egypt has started repaying ... debt to foreign oil companies, which had reached more than $6 BILLION" -- So Egypt pays THEM! ----------------------------------------    COMMENT Found this snippet interesting. It looks like Egypt's paying the money out instead of the other way around, which I would have expected. Check out the debt to foreign oil companies!  Egypt sounds like it's owned. This info tells you who is particularly cosy with Egypt, I'm guessing.

Quickie Round-up

Been slack maintaining entries. Twitter is a much faster medium with a sense of immediacy.  Quite addictive.  Been like a heroin junkie on twitter lately. Twitter more suited to churning information, which I'm doing right now. Blogger's a snail in comparison but it's a wonderful medium for more involved discussion of information. So what's been happening: Middle East Iraq Kurds (with help of US bombing) have taken x3 Iraq towns.  Trouble up north.  From map someone sent me on Twitter the other day, they've to a long way to go.  The map was dotted with towns that Islamic State had taken. Iran Diplomatic meeting with Saudi Arabia. These two are competitors rather than allies, I understand. Iran is alleging industrial sabotage and claims to have apprehended x4 spies, who are being interrogated. Story of a shot down Israeli drone spying on nuclear is in the news, but I haven't checked it out yet.  How slack is that? From recollection, Fars News mentioned Iran has one of the world's largest gas resources.  A few countries are clamouring for business, by the sound of it. Iran will meet UN's Catherine Ashton on Sept 1 (from recollection) to further discuss the nuclear energy matter -- which has been an ongoing discussion for ages now b/c the west (and probably other interests) are trying to block Iran's bid for nuclear enrichment.  West fear of nuclear power / weapons potential, so want Iran to SCALE DOWN -- which is the OPPOSITE of what they want. Iran's been subject to sanctions.  If I understand correctly, it is not permitted to use/trade in US dollars (which is international currency), is not permitted to do electronic transfers and it would most likely be subject to trade restrictions (specifics of which I don't recall, if I've come across that in my travels).  Anyway, the US can make that kind of blockage when it comes to currency and trade because it has big representation (voting rights when it comes to IMF and is influential re WTO and actually controls the international currency and impacts international economy through its Federal Reserve).  So US tends to have an upper hand. But that may alter in the future b/c the Chinese economy is not that far off the US economy - 16 point something percent of global GDP versus US 19 point something.  However, at this point, US has the voting rights and representation advantage because China has a meagre representation compared to the US. Saudi Arabia Chopped off something like 19 heads since Aug. 4th.  Yet it is on the UN Human Rights Council. Saudi Arabia very close US ally and appears to be a close business partner.  Shell (while foreign owned / non-US 'owned') has an arm with it's head office based in Texas and it's HUGE. Saudi Arabia happens to be a 50% partner in projects. Saudi Arabia is hosting a 'Friends of Syria' pow-wow.  But it is actually friends of the Syrian *opposition*.  So it's kind of like a false advertising title, no? Attendees: Turkey, US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Egypt & Jordan. So that pretty much tells you who's with the US (who's against Syria -- well, against the current rulers, I gather) and it gives you a peak into part of the dynamics of control of this part of the world. Interesting that Italy's in the mix.  Wonder why Italy's involved.  Know it's EU/NATO involved ... what has it got to do with the Middle East? All of them:  imperialists.  History of imperialism.  And current imperialism in the form of big money corporations.  But Italy's broke, I think.  So what's it doing? Italy's maybe some kind of pawn?  Probably the immigration pawn.  Everyone's jumping 'ship' from North Africa and entering Europe through Italy (as well as Spain, I believe).  So maybe their role is something to do with immigration due to wars? Nope.  Syria is next to Israel.  The immigration is launching itself from Libya, where there's a people smuggling trade going on, I think.  It was referred to as 'human trafficking' but I'd say they mean 'people smuggling'.  Don't know for sure yet. Syria Assad government is probably struggling.  There's the US and everybody else against that government.  The west their M/E allies have tried to unseat him by supplying rebel militias with weapons and thus encouraging the bid to topple the Assad government. The opposition, I believe, is assorted militias rather than one political/military body attacking the government. Syria has asserted that there will be no air bombing in its territory without its prior consent -- ie re the bombing of Islamic State militias the US intends to do in Iraq (which it wants to extend or may wish to extend to Syria, where they are also dominant (I believe). The laugh is, US probably funded and armed these people in the first place.  I'm not entirely clear on that but it looks like they might have. In my travels, it was asserted that Assad is playing the rebel militias off against each other.  I don't know that.  That was just someone's opinion.  Not clear to me how this could be an advantage to him - ie this backing of rebels who are fighting his troops.  Doesn't make sense to me. Israel Bombing of Gaza resumed.  Something like 360 bombs dropped by Israel and deaths over 100 Palestinians since 19th, I believe. Stray mortars from Syria have landed Golan Heights.  Prior Syrian territory claimed by Israel during Six Day War 1967.  Now Israeli controlled.  Too rushed to double-check at the moment.  Anyway, deemed strays. Lebanon Massive strike of electric energy company.  Company not profitable.  Power blackouts.  Something like 2,000 workers are contract workers.  They want full-time employment.  Problem of state subsidy, lack profitability plus claims that workers clock on but don't perform -- ie take off.  Anyway, looks like worker are burning stuff outside the premises and blocking management from entering. Libya Tripoli taken over by rebel forces.  Finally got the airport.  Burned. Italy MASSIVE monthly spending on patrols: #EU - Italy picks up 3,500 refugees at sea this weekend!.. spends 9.5 mil euros ($13 mil) PER MONTH air/sea patrols>http://goo.gl/xCuNuw #Italy rescue 70,000 North African refugees since start Oct 2013 patrols> Libya launching point. 'Human trafficking'> http://goo.gl/E9QBhs Spain Doing it hard.  Unemployment at 25%.  Farmers cracking the shits over the EU sanctions (really US-EU-NATO when you consider the dynamics).  Costing them big time not being able to supply Russia. Poland Someone enterprising found a partial way around sanctions.  Investment in Belarus + intensive preservation + Belarus (& ors) being in 'Customs Union' (Eurasian), means side-stepping (to some degree) the anti-Russian sanctions and being able to unload produce to Russia. France Ooh, la la.  Big problems.  Government dissolution.  Economic minister badmouthed France policy and Hollande called for dissolution and new cabinet.  Eco min not happy that spending cuts are to finance tax cuts for corporations in bid to increase employment.  Eco minister pissed at tight fisted Germany not stimulating economy, I think. Eurozone Things are crap.  Economy stalling.  Will probably resort to QE. #EU - sounds like Eurozone *deflation* .. 'ailing bloc'... ECB quantitative easing? >>  http://goo.gl/Sw0JvX Described as a 'last resort' measure.  But this has been done before.   New to watching politics and economics, so I'm not up on exactly what it is apart from buying up 'assets' (in form of bonds, I think). UK, Japan and one other has done this before. Serbia Big problem with hazardous industrial waste -- accumulated, historic also.  Contamination fears. Elections in Republic of Serbia - part of B/H.  Serbia says will not interfere. Former diplomat to Turkey (and expert on Islamic affairs) claims neighbouring Turkey has an expansionist agenda. Two dairy companies will supply Russia, as Serbia will not bow to the EU anti-Russian sanctions.  Serbia is in negotiations to join EU and is not fully fledged member, so can do what it wants, I suppose. And that's the end of the round up because I could go on forever and not cover everything that's going on right now.  And while I'm summarising I'm hanging to check on latest news I'm missing out on! There's so much happening!!!

Above is just a quickie (and not necessarily complete) round-up from memory of last day or so events/news.

Excuse typos.  In hurry.

ARGENTINA - $1 BILLION DEFAULT INSURANCE TRIGGERED ON BONDS

Argentina Default Triggers $1 Billion of Swaps After ISDA Ruling By Abigail Moses Aug 2, 2014 2:04 AM ET Argentina’s failure to pay interest on its bonds is a credit event that will trigger settlement of $1 billion of default insurance, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. ISDA’s determinations committee made the ruling in response to a question posed by Swiss bank UBS AG after the government missed a July 30 payment deadline on $539 million of interest. Argentina is the first nation to trigger default swaps since Greece restructured its debt in 2012. The ruling was seen by traders as complicated because Argentina made the required payment to the trustee for the bond, Bank of New York Mellon Corp. The bank said yesterday that a U.S. judge’s ruling bars it from passing the money to bondholders without a resolution of the nation’s dispute with hedge funds led by Elliott Management Corp., which sued the nation for $1.5 billion. “From the perspective of Argentina, you could argue they provided the payments and the transfer mechanism doesn’t work,” said Jochen Felsenheimer, the Munich-based founder of XAIA Investment GmbH, which manages 2.8 billion euros ($3.76 billion) in credit funds. “From the investor standpoint, you can argue they didn’t get the coupon.” ... Binding Decisions ISDA’s determinations committee was formed in 2009 and makes binding decisions for the market on whether contracts can be triggered. The 15-member group includes representatives from Bank of America Corp., Elliott Management, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase and Co. There were 2,652 contracts covering $1 billion of Argentina bonds as of July 25, according to the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. That compares with about $3 billion for Greek bonds when they were triggered in 2012 and $20 billion on Italy’s as of last week. ... EXTRACT ONLY ... FULL @... http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-01/argentina-default-triggers-1-billion-of-swaps-after-isda-ruling.htmll

Argentina made the payment.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp didn't make the transfer.

Judge's ruling bars the bank.

Perhaps the State should pay the insurance then, because the matter isn't resolved.
One would think there would be avenues of appeal?

ISDA (International Swaps and Derivatives Association) make binding decisions ...but is ISDA impartial?  Is it supposed to be?

Check out the $20 billion bonds associated with Italy!!  That looks an interesting story.