VIDEO - Sweden a voluntary vassal state of US

From Assange to NATO, Sweden a voluntary vassal state of US SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=085JbHikPyk [ Uploaded on 13 Feb 2011 ]  RT's Anissa Naouai interviews: Dr Brian Palmer "Dr Brian Palmer, a social anthropologist from Uppsala University, believes that Julian Assange is safer in the UK than in Sweden.  RT has asked him about why Sweden wants the WikiLeaks founder so badly and his fate if he were to be extradited." [ ... Introduction ... see particulars above ] Reporter Sweden has been in the spotlight quite a bit lately, with the WikiLeaks scandal and the spy and sex probes into Julian Assange.  Why does Sweden want Julian Assange to be extradited?  Is it just for - to be questioned, rather, for the sex crimes alleged against him? Dr Brian Palmer It's hard to say.  Certainly, sexual misconduct is taken seriously in Sweden, but few cases get anywhere near the kind of judicial energy behind them as this had.  So there seems to also be other factors at play.  It may be partly the prosecutors and lawyers involved, and issues of their careers.  It may also be that there's some pressure from the foreign policy establishment in Sweden and even from the United States that's played a role. Reporter Do you think that eventually Assange will, in fact, be extradited to Sweden? Dr Brian Palmer It wouldn't surprise me if he is in the end, but I would say that he and his lawyers have a fighting chance of keeping him there and suggesting that whatever questioning of him the Swedish prosecutors want to do can easily be done by video link. Reporter Many critics say that once, and if, Assange is extradited to Sweden that it would be very easy for the US to get him into custody.  Do you agree with that? Dr Brian Palmer I think that's quite right; that it would be easier to get him to the US from Sweden than from Britain.  The Swedish government has shown itself to be more pliant than the British, surprisingly, given the so-called special relationship of trust between Britain and the USA, and the Swedish press has been - and Swedish public intellectuals - have been less vocal in defending WikiLeaks than many people and many papers in Britain, so I think he's safer there. Reporter Why do you think that the media has been reluctant to - am I understanding correctly - openly cover WikiLeaks or cover it in a way that looks like Assange has a fair chance? Dr Brian Palmer There's been a lot of coverage of WikiLeaks and Assange in Sweden, but he doesn't have that many high profile champions.  It's partly because allegations of sexual misconduct weigh so heavily here, that it is a country where feminist ideals are maybe stronger than anywhere else on Earth and, one wishes that no-one would be judged in a case until they had been tried, but there's some hesitation to come to his defence on those grounds; and then, so much of our media in Sweden is owned by a few conservative leaning media houses, particularly Bonniers, a media group that's right leaning and has every interest in not raising these questions, and they're the largest player in the media market in Sweden. Reporter You wrote a biography of the Swedish Prime Minister [Fredrik Reinfeldt] and it's no secret you wrote about this:  that the Prime Minister has been - or is being advised - by US republican strategist Karl Rove.  Why one of America's most notorious neocons and the man, of course, most credited with getting Bush into the White House? Dr Brian Palmer It's an interesting question, because the conservative party (called the Moderates) have plenty of Machiavellian strategists of their own - plenty of Karl Roves of their own - but Rove has a long-term relationship with the Moderates.  Already in the 1980s he came to Sweden to advise them and then he's been back before the election in 2006 and even more recently.  He himself has some Swedish roots, and I think it may be partly initiative from his side that he wants to be involved in politics here.  And then what the Moderates accomplished before the 2006 election had something in common with Bush's electoral victory in 2000.  The problem for both George Bush and Fredrik Reinfeldt was to win the votes of groups who wouldn't necessarily benefit from having a right-wing, tax cutting regime in power.  Bush succeeded so well in wooing working-class votes that in the ... 2004 election, Bush won the white working-class by a 23% margin.  So working-class voters were really the backbone of his victory.  Reinfeldt acknowledged that he was impressed by Bush's campaign and his struggle was also to get working-class voters to support his party (which they hadn't done in the past), and so it's logical that he would have wanted to bring in some of the people from Bush's campaign to help with that - and, not least, Karl Rove. Reporter You've said that the method is linguistic innovations, media manipulation and the art of bringing smear campaigns.  Is that what Sweden wants to take from a strategist like Karl Rove? Dr Brian Palmer The Moderates won the past two elections very much because of the negative image of Fredrik Reinfeldt's opponent in both elections.  It was very much the weakness of the opponent the people were voting against, rather than attraction to Reinfeldt.  And how to accomplish that through different kinds of negative campaigning, in the broad meaning of campaigning that focuses on the deficits of the other candidate, was something that Rove has been very good at, so he would be a relevant adviser there.  Another thing that Rove has been something of a genius at is finding peripheral issues that will mobilise the right voter groups to support the Republicans, and that strategy has also been somewhat effective in Sweden. Reporter Is it normal for Karl Rove to be doing this kind of international advising? Dr Brian Palmer No.  On his own website he notes that Sweden is his only international assignment.  The Moderate party in Sweden is the only foreign party that he's worked for; so, as far a I know, he's a pretty US-focused person.  But then again, as mentioned, he himself has Swedish roots and he may feel a particular obligation to be involved here - or interest to be involved here. Reporter How much influence do you think the US, on a whole - from Assange to NATO to asylum seekers being taken into custody - have on Sweden? Dr Brian Palmer Enormous influence and, in a way, almost puzzlingly so at this historical moment that Sweden should be so eager to host NATO military exercises in the north, to share intelligence information at a very high level with the US and NATO that Fredrik Reinfeldt was so very eager to visit Bush, it was one of his first major international visits after he became Prime Minister in 2006.  All of that is a bit puzzling when the US is no longer so central to Sweden's exports, for example, as it has been at certain periods, when European relations ought to be more central to Sweden in certain ways, and all of this is a far cry from the Sweden of the 1970s and early 80s when Olof Palme was Prime Minister and when the most important relations were often with developing nations - with the South African freedom movement; with India, with the Non-Aligned Movement - the once very progressive Sweden has become something of a voluntary apprentice state, some would say vassal state, of the USA. Reporter And why do you think Sweden took those kind of policy moves Dr Brian Palmer I think a lot of it is admiration for the United States among the foreign policy elite in Sweden,  many of whose members have studied at top universities in the US and had spent time there, and have a good network of personal friendships in the US, and now with the conservative governments in 2006 those ties have become even stronger.  The motto of one of the young people's divisions of the conservative party over many years was we would like things to be like in the USA - vi vill har du som USA, in Swedish - so an open wish to see a more Americanised Sweden, which is exactly what we're seeing. Reporter Thank you very much for being with us. Dr Brian Palmer My pleasure. COMMENT NOTE I don't speak Swedish, so 'Vi vill har du som USA' (referred to above) is just a best guess at what Palmer has said in Swedish. The transcription could do with one more check of audio against text, but I need to switch tasks because my brain's just about crawled to a stop.  LOL Will have to come back to check and comment. Before I split, I'll link an article that I also found interesting. Bush, Rove Tied to Effort to Dismantle Sweden’s Social Welfare Program Tuesday, December 9, 2008 http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/9/bush_rove_tied_to_effort_to And one more ...      Partner At Firm Counseling Assange’s Accusers Helped In CIA Torture Rendition January 12, 2011 By Andrew Kreig http://ctwatchdog.com/govt/how-much-did-lawyer-for-wikileaks-accusers-help-cia-in-torture-rendition That's it.  I'm done for now.

Sweden's Competing Political Agendas

GATESTONE INSTITUTE Sweden's Christmas Present: New Laws Curbing Free Speech by Timon Dias December 22, 2014 at 4:00 am http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4972/sweden-free-speech     The problem is that within the extremely politically correct culture of Sweden, questions, insults and criticism are often viewed as one and the same.     "Swedes who disagree... risk being labeled racist, fascist, even Nazi." — Mikael Jalving, Author of Absolute Sweden.     One might well ask how Swedes would react if other countries decided to determine their borders.     Furthermore, no one seems to have asked what kind of place this new state of Palestine might be: a free, democratic and transparent society like Sweden, or another rogue state, or eventually even another Islamist state.     Apart from South Africa, Sweden now has the highest number of rapes (that are reported); based on unofficial accounts from policemen and social workers, about 75% of them are committed by Muslims. Sweden, during its September 2014 parliamentary election, voted in a new government. But whom exactly did the people of Sweden elect to run their new government? In a recent (albeit un-sourced) blog, Ilya Meyer, the deputy chair of the Sweden-Israel Friendship Association, shed some light on the backgrounds and motivations of some of Sweden's new cabinet ministers. A few individuals stand out. The Minister for Housing and Urban Development is the Turkish Swede Mehmet Kaplan, who was aboard the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara, of the Turkish extremist Humanitarian Relief Foundation, when it tried to break through the legal Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza coastline. Israel had established the naval blockade in 2007 in response to the smuggling of weapons into Gaza to arm the terrorist group Hamas, which is outspokenly dedicated to exterminating Israel. Kaplan has also stated that young European Muslims who are joining the "Islamic State" [IS] in Syria and Iraq are nothing to worry about, and are just similar to Swedish fighters who joined the Finns in WW2 to fight the Soviet Union. He has also claimed at the same time that the main reason young European Muslims are joining the Islamic State is "Western Islamophobia." Sweden's Minister of Education, Gustav Fridolin, was arrested in Israel in 2003 for allegedly blocking the construction of Israel's security barrier in the West Bank, where he has engaged in protests alongside the International Solidarity Movement – an organization that "recognizes armed struggle as the right of Palestinian Arabs." Sweden's Minister of Interior, Ardalan Shekarabi, who is also responsible for Domestic Law and Order, is a former illegal immigrant from Iran who defied a Swedish deportation order in 1989 by going into hiding. Shekarabi is also known for embezzling state funds for an integration project to aid in his reelection as leader of the Social-Democratic Youth Party. Sweden's Minister for Culture and Democracy, Alice Bah Kuhnke is a hard-line feminist known for threatening to cut off funds to organizations that oppose honor killings if any of those funds went to men working against honor killings. As a feminist, it seems as if she wants only women to receive these funds. These are not merely parliamentarians, these are ministers. Not surprisingly, one of the first actions of this new government was the recognition of the Palestinian State, a move considered as illegal as it was odd: the Palestinians do not yet meet the requirements for statehood, and seem not even to have agreed on even what the borders of their state should be. Furthermore, no one seems to have asked what kind of place this new state would be: a free, democratic and transparent society like Sweden, or one that might, in fact, be another rogue state, or eventually even another Islamist state. Nonetheless, Swedish MP Hillevi Larsson, as opposed to the Palestinians themselves, seems to have no doubt about what the borders of "Palestine" should be. One might well ask how Swedes would react if other countries decided to determine their borders. In just two months, this government fell — new elections take place this March — but not before bestowing on the people of Sweden a second measure, far less publicized, and that will come into effect this Christmas. The new measure is designed to make it easier to prosecute those who offend immigrants, immigration policies, LGBT people and politicians online. As Swedish MP Andreas Norlén, initiator and driving force behind the law, stated: "I do not think it takes very many prosecutions before a signal is transmitted in the community that the Internet is not a lawless country — the sheriff is back in town." A multitude of online sources reported on this new law as one that "criminalizes online criticism of immigrants," and as such, the news went viral on European immigration critical websites. But is this a correct assessment of this new law? According to the Swedish parliament, the new law will effectively abolish existing barriers that prevented people from pressing charges if their alleged defamation occurred online instead of in real life. It will facilitate and improve Sweden's ability to participate in international legal cooperation on matters covered by the Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech, and it enables people to avoid having to pay for the other party's legal costs. On paper, this might sound reasonable, and there is a chance the practical results will remain reasonable as well. The problem is that within the extremely politically correct culture of Sweden, questions, insults and criticism are often viewed as one and the same. Mikael Jalving, the Danish journalist and author of the book "Absolute Sweden" stated: "Sweden's leftist establishment and media believe a cornerstone of their perfect society is multiculturalism — large-scale immigration from some of the poorest, most backward nations on Earth — and Swedes who disagree with that plan risk being labeled racist, fascist, even Nazi." Even the immigrants themselves do not seem to be allowed to challenge immigration policy or immigrant culture. Last year, a Somali-born female journalist, critical of immigrant culture, was intimidated to such an extent by the Swedish journalistic establishment that she decided Mogadishu was a safer place for her than Sweden. The ambivalence of Swedish courts toward free speech already became apparent when in 2002 a district court sentenced the white native Swedish neo-Nazi Fredrik Sandberg to six months in prison for publishing a Nazi pamphlet, "The Jewish Question." Four years later, however, the same official who initiated the case against Sandberg — Chancellor of Justice Göran Lambertz — chose to discontinue an investigation into the Stockholm Central Mosque, after it distributed audiotapes that encouraged Muslims to kill Jews, described in them as "brothers of apes and pigs." He justified the discrepancy by saying that the distribution of the tapes should be judged in a geo-political context. Swedish society seems to be increasingly known for its bias in wanting to criminalize supposed racism by native Swedes against immigrants, while wanting to rationalize Muslim racism against native Swedes, and Jews in particular. Sweden's third largest newspaper, Expressen, has used hackers affiliated with the left-wing extremist Anti-Fascist-Action group to obtain the addresses of individuals commenting on websites critical of mass immigration. The newspaper then visited their homes and in some instances, published their pictures and addresses. The Swedish TV station TV3 announced that the TV-show "troll-hunters," would visit online commentators in their homes — in a sort of 21st century televised witch-hunt. The Swedish newspaper Expressen hacked databases of website commenters, targeted critics of immigration, and confronted them at home. The above screenshot is taken from a video on the Expressen website, published under the headline "Jim Olsson writes on hate sites." This new law has the potential to carry that witch-hunt to the next level. Not only is the political-journalistic establishment intimidating critics of online immigration by knocking on their front doors and shaming them, but under this new law, they could even charge a perceived critic with committing a crime. Economist Dr. Jan Tullburg published a book in which he states that annually, immigration costs Sweden 7% of its GDP. Sweden is also home to sizeable Muslim enclaves that have become off-limits to Swedish police. The multitude of violent riots that erupt in these enclaves not only cost millions of Krona but are undermining the fabric of Swedish society. Sweden apparently enjoys tolerating the intolerable. In the meantime, apart from South Africa, Sweden now has the highest number of rapes (that are reported) in the world per capita (see UN "Statistics on Crime, Sexual Violence"). However, this number should be nuanced, as the term "rape" in Sweden is defined broadly and includes more than just forced, non-consensual intercourse. There are, however, rapes that are not being reported to the police at all. A significant percentage of these "rapes" are apparently committed by immigrants from a Muslim background. The Swedish government has refused to keep track of these numbers, which by definition cannot be exact, but multiple reports, based on unofficial accounts from policemen and social workers, put the percentage at around 75%. It must be emphasized that these numbers come from unofficial sources and cannot be verified since there aren't any official Swedish numbers on what percentage of rapes are committed by Muslim immigrants. But, Mohammed, for example, a 27-year-old illegal immigrant from Syria, who arrived in Sweden in September, has thus far sexually molested 21 girls and women between the ages of 4 and 69. According to a police report in neighboring Norway, a country politically similar to Sweden, 100% of all rapes in Oslo over the last five years were committed by Muslim immigrants. [Oslo figure seems improbable, but the figure is said to come from a 'police report', so it is presumably correct?] It will be illuminating to see what impact this new law has on Sweden's citizenry and their free speech once it goes into effect this Christmas. http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4972/sweden-free-speech#.VSEc1TuZWUE.twitter ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Article grabbed my attention because of the reference to Expressen newspaper being involved in hacking databases of commenters, which is rather an unusual activity for a news outlet (I think?). By my estimation, from other material I'd looked at, Gatestone Institute is a pro Israel NGO.  So that's worthwhile bearing in mind when looking at the article.  On the other hand, it's all relative, I guess.  For the pro Israel supporters, the arrest for blocking construction of a security barrier in Israel would not be seen in a positive light.  For Palestinian supporters, this would be seen as a positive form of protest.   However, facts are facts and presumably Expressen was involved in hacking databases, or Gatestone would have been compelled not to disseminate this information. There's a number of hot issues and conflicting political forces in Sweden. Generalising from the contents of this article and from what I've read so far elsewhere:  there's a totalitarian quality to Sweden's liberalism, it would seem:  incursions into freedom of speech and media-led witch-hunts against those with opposing views; labelling of those with opposing views as extremists of one kind or another:  'nazi' or 'fascist'; a politically correct approach to crimes statistics gathering and, it would seem, a parallel justice system; physical no-go areas to police (which I found astounding); violence; and from what I've previously read, issues regarding cultural integration. Find this stuff fascinating, but I haven't read enough to get a handle on what's really going on.  Looks to be very interesting competing political interests in Sweden. Maybe I'm strange, but the most shocking thing for me was Expressen involved in hacking of databases.  I'm still spun out by that. Thought the bit about 'free', 'democratic' and 'transparent' Sweden was quite a giggle. But I guess even freedom etc is relative?  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ PS  Forgot to do a look-up regarding the Somali-born female journalist that was 'run out of town'.  Sounds an interesting story to check out, given this has occurred in 'feminist Sweden'. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Players mentioned by Gatestone currently in the following posts: Mehmet Kaplan (Green Party) Housing urban development and IT Minister. Sweden. Gustav Fridolin (Green Party) Minister for Education Ardalan Shekarabi (Swedish Social Democratic Party) Minister for Public Administration (resides Belfast, Ireland) Alice Bah Kuhnke (Green Party) Minister of Culture and Democracy Hillevi Larsson (Swedish Social Democratic Party) Riksdag member  since 2004, Pro Palestinian Andreas Norlén (Moderate Party) Riksdag member  since 2006,  * Norlén Initiator of online dissent silencing laws * Göran Lambertz Chancellor of Justice (Swedish: justitiekansler) Sweden 2001-2009 currently serving as a judge on the Supreme Court of Sweden TV3 (Sweden) owned by:  Viasat Broadcasts from:  London Markets:  Nordic and Baltic Countries Visat owned by:  Modern Times Group publicly traded Industry              Media Founded             1997 Headquarters     Stockholm, Sweden Key people                 David Chance (Chairman)                 Jorgen Madsen (President & CEO)                 Mathias Hermansson (CFO) Sweden is "one of the most capital-centralized countries in Europe" [Wikipedia]  Look-ups = Wikipedia

Sweden - Immigration

SWEDEN Sweden became the first European country in 2013 to grant automatic residency to Syrian refugees and has since seen asylum requests rise to record levels, which are still expected to reach about 90,000 in 2015. [Sweden] receives the highest number of refugees per capita in the EU and is second only to Germany as a destination for Syrians fleeing the Middle Eastern country's civil war. One in three refugees were found to be receiving financial help from local authorities ten years after their arrival. http://www.thelocal.se/20150305/asylum-seeker-drop-in-sweden-as-denmark-numbers-plummet ........................................................  Segregation between ethnic Swedes and people from foreign backgrounds has widened in the past two decades in some of the biggest towns in Sweden, according to the Dagens Nyheter daily. The three most ethnically divided municipalities in 2013 were Botkyrka and Södertälje near Stockholm, and Kristianstad in the south of Sweden. According to Dagens Nyheter this is because the municipalities have invested in high-rise buildings where the number of people from a non-Swedish background is high, but also has large clusters of detached housing areas, largely occupied by well-off native Swedes. The segregation differential for the capital Stockholm in 1991 was 14 percentage units, compared to 22 percentage units today. In Gothenburg it has gone up from 14 to 25 and in Malmö in southern Sweden from 16 to 22 percentage units. Compared to 1991, segregation has risen the most in Kristianstad, and Örebro and Linköping in central Sweden. The former has seen an exceptional rise, from 6 percentage units in 1991 to 27 today. John Östh, researcher in cultural geography at Uppsala University, predicts the trend will continue. “Seen over a long period, the development could be unfortunate. You make segregation so much stronger. We have a strong influx of people, but don't build as many houses. We, perhaps, aren't even ready to integrate them in school. I am immensely positive to our immigration, but we do have integration problems. Segregation will continue to rise,” he told Dagens Nyheter. http://www.thelocal.se/20150310/segregation-on-the-rise-in-sweden-suggests-survey  COMMENT Despite a significant political movement towards support of limiting immigration, it doesn't look like mainstream Swedish political parties are changing immigration policy (which I believe is related to Sweden's foreign ambitions and foreign policy:  (a) EU membership priority, as well as (b) US foreign policy led priorities). Guess these towns are the immigration issues hot spots: Botkyrka Södertälje Kristianstad Stockholm Gothenburg Malmö Kristianstad Örebro Linköping Ylva Johansson is preparing a new law that would force all regions to take in asylum seekers http://www.thelocal.se/20150205/all-municipalities-should-take-in-refugees EXTRACTS: Sweden’s Social Democrat integration minister Ylva Johansson has announced that she is drafting a new law designed to make sure all regions take in asylum seekers and offer help with jobs and housing. “The distribution is unreasonable. We need to make changes in the law for everyone to take responsibility,” she told Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan on Thursday. She said that the bill’s core details were still being worked out, but that the main principle was achieving a “more even distribution” of refugees between Sweden’s 290 municipalities. “We need legislative changes to ensure that all local authorities take responsibility for refugee protection,” she added. [...]  The country’s opposition centre-right Alliance bloc, which formed the previous coalition government is also in favour of maintaining Sweden’s open borders and the four parties it includes are working on their own integration policies. On Thursday afternoon the leader of Sweden's biggest opposition party the Moderates, Anna Kinberg Batra, proposed strengthening the requirements for family stream immigrants in an interview with broadcaster SVT. In April 2010 Sweden became the first country in the EU to legislate income requirements for immigrants who want to bring their families to Sweden. But Kinberg Batra accused the law of being toothless.  [What?  It was the Moderate party's law.] The country’s nationalist party, the Sweden Democrats, which won 13 percent of the vote in the last general election in September 2014 is the only party in Sweden in favour of cutting immigration numbers. http://www.thelocal.se/20150205/all-municipalities-should-take-in-refugees ........................................................  It looks like 'family stream' immigrants are further incoming immigrants whose families are already residents. Voters opposed to immigration only have one party to vote for:  Sweden Democrats.  All others are in favour of maintaining the status quo.  Next general election in Sweden should be an interesting one.

Saudi Arabia (largest Sweden trading partner in ME) - Sweden Weapons Factory Deal

GOOGLE TRANSLATION Investor behind Saudi article It's Investor Chairman Jacob Wallenberg behind the famous debate article in Dagens Nyheter. It reveals SR echo that have taken part of a secret emails. Investors PR agency Kreab would not comment on whether they have been involved.     2015-03-06 17:30 This morning, an article in Dagens Nyheter signed by 31 directors, including Stefan Persson, Anders Nyrén, CEO of Industrivärden and Cristina Stenbeck, Chairman of Kinnevik. They argue that Sweden's credibility as a trading partner is at stake and wants the government to respect the criticized cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, which means that Sweden is building a weapons factory ate and in Saudi Arabia. The article has stirred up a lot of emotions and H & M went earlier in the day received the call and says that Stefan Persson signed debate article as a private person.- H & M has not written during debate article, we do not stand behind it, 'said Camilla Emilsson Falk, Press Manager at H & M, to SvD. [SvD = Svenska Dagbladet - Swedish daily newspaper] Several others who signed has also declined to comment. Now reveals echo that it's Investors Chairman Jacob Wallenberg underlying debate article in cooperation with Ericsson's chairman Leif Johansson. In an email sent Wednesday from his secretary to 40 businessmen, he urges them to sign the final text."We now need to make the business a strong signal about the importance of Sweden respect signed agreements" it says in the email that Echo has taken note of. Investor have long collaborated with PR firm Kreab. When Résumé reaches Peje Emilsson who is the founder and chairman of getting a comment about their possible role in the debate article will answer the standard:- We never comment on what we do or do not do, he says. Fredrik Thambert http://www.resume.se/nyheter/pr/2015/03/06/investor-bakom-saudi-artikeln/ COMMENT Looks like Jacob Wallenberg + Leif Johansson (Ericsson chairman) have been lobbying hard for Sweden to proceed with setting up a weapons factory in Saudi Arabia, despite opposition in Sweden. Svenska Dagbladet owner = Schibsted Media Group is a Norwegian, listed co Largest shareholder = Blommenholm industrier (26.1%) = Tinius Trust (Norway) Other owners include a number of American banks and financial services companies eg  J. P. Morgan, Northern Trust  & The Bank of New York Mellon Huge interests spread over many countries. Some Sweden media interests: Aftonbladet (91%) Svenska Dagbladet Metro (35%) *Believe Metro is a free paper (unless this 'Metro' refers to another type of business). Source - Wikipedia Maybe this type of thing explains why Iran is an official 'enemy' in the West. Saudi Arabia would see Iran as a regional competitor in a number of respects (incl. religious - ie Iran Shia v Saudi Sunni). If Western companies are so bound up in money (projects, investment, selling arms to Saudi Arabia (now world's largest arms importer)), they would probably be inclined to support Saudi Arabia's position, foreign policy, aims and so on. I'm just guessing here.  But that makes sense to me. Looks like there might be a bit of a history in relation to this weapons factory deal (unless there's been more than one controversy): Anger over Sweden's 'secret' Saudi arms plant Opposition condemns government after broadcaster reveals documents said to show links between Swedish firm and Riyadh. 07 Mar 2012 18:59 GMT | Politics, Europe, Saudi Arabia, Sweden Sten Tolgfors, left, the Swedish defence minister, says there is no record of any such deal [EPA] Sweden has been secretly helping Saudi Arabia plan the construction of an arms factory to produce anti-tank missiles, the Swedish national broadcaster has reported. The Swedish Defence Research Agency (known by its Swedish acronym FOI) has co-operated with Saudi Arabia since 2005, though construction on "Project Simoom" has yet to begin, Swedish Radio reported on Tuesday, citing hundreds of classified documents and interviews with key players. Denying the existence of the project, Jan-Olof Lind, the FOI director general, told the radio station: "We do not have a project agreement with that country." While Sweden has sold weapons to Saudi Arabia in the past, classified government documents show that the current project "pushes the boundaries of what is possible for a Swedish authority", the radio reported. "The fact that an authority such as FOI is involved in the planning of a weapons factory for a government in a dictatorship such as Saudi Arabia is quite unique," the radio said. Asked specifically if there has been a Project Simoom with Saudi Arabia, Lind replied: "No. And I do not wish to comment on discussions that may or may not have occurred between Sweden and Saudi Arabia. These discussions are classified." Several former FOI employees, however, have confirmed the existence of the project to Swedish Radio, including Dick Straeng, who said he led the project until 2010. "If I were to contradict your claims I would have to say that the documents you are showing me are fakes, and they are not," he said when presented with the classified material. He said the Swedish government was fully aware of the plans. "Here is a document that the director general signed and sent to the ministry," he said. The defence ministry refused to comment on the radio's report because of the classified nature of the project. "I can't comment on the co-operation," Haakan Jevrell, the state secretary, told the radio. Shell company The radio station claimed that FOI set up a shell company in order to avoid any direct links between itself and the Saudi government. "FOI has, as far as the defence ministry knows, no collaboration with the company mentioned in the radio report," Sten Tolgfors, the Swedish defence minister, wrote on his blog. "There are no government decisions giving FOI a mandate to build a factory for weapons production," he added. Fredrick Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister, addressed the issue only briefly on Tuesday. "The government is responsible for ensuring that legislation and regulations are in place and followed, and I presume that the responsible authorities have respected the law," he told news agency TT. [How's that for sidestepping the issue & making this about merely govt administration and non-interference, while this is very much a government/public foreign policy matter.  As if govt is supposed to merely be a rubber stamp.  Or, that's how it sounds to me.] The co-operation deal with Saudi Arabia was struck in 2005 when the centre-left Social Democrats were in power, but was renewed in 2010 by the current government, the radio report said. [That's because all politicians work for the same masters.] Opposition uproar The co-head of Sweden's opposition Greens Party has demanded an investigation take place into the reported deal. Tolgfors, the defence minister, has been reported to the parliament's KU committee, which scrutinises ministers' handling of government affairs. "KU must examine whether the defence minister's actions are in line with Sweden's democratic ideals and international commitments," Gustav Fridolin said in a statement. He said a Swedish collaboration with Saudi Arabia would not be beneficial for democracy in the world or Swedish interests. "Sweden should not ruin its good reputation by supporting the militaries of dictatorships," he said. Another opposition party, the Left Party, has called for a special parliamentary debate. Deputy Prime Minister Jan Bjorklund, who is head of the second largest ruling party, the Liberals, in the centre-right coalition government, said he had been against the co-operation deal with Saudi Arabia under which such a plant would fall. "Sweden should be able to export military goods to democracies, not to dictatorships," he told reporters. Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, a member of the largest coalition party, the Moderates, told public radio that he supported continuing co-operation with Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is Sweden's largest trading partner in the Middle East. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/03/20123718144905918.html Assuming these are linked stories. This looks like another example of Sweden's politicians doing things on the quiet & playing innocent when their activities comes to light. Don't know which documents they're referring to. Not really sure what the big deal is, apart from maybe it makes better commercial sense to do the manufacture, sales and export than it does to set someone else up to make weapons. On the other hand, if Saudi Arabia are backers of Sunni extremists in the Middle East, a Saudi weapons factory probably isn't ideal for regional peace and stability. Greens Party & Left Party are in opposition by the sound of things, while the Moderate Party and the Social Democratic Party play for the same side.   * Also, Defence Research / FOI set up a shifty shell company for distancing.  And then it looks like everyone went about denying what came out in the classified documents release.  Only for it to become an issue again in 2015.  How shift are all these politicians? * Yeah, Project Simoom, looks like the same weapons factory deal. Criticism of possible Sweden arms trade laws breach & secretive nature of deal took place when the deal was exposed.  This is not an exception in Sweden.  Parliament and public being fooled and kept in the dark by politicians and intelligence staffers seems to be the way things are done over there.  So what does this say about the likelihood of a secret US-Sweden deal regarding US-Swedish  'Project Get-Assange'?  I'd wager it's much like this secret deal that everyone denied.