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Criminals at the top: It’s high time for accountability
by finn Tuesday, Oct 21 2008, 1:44am
international / social/political / opinion/analysis

In view of recent socio-economic and political history the title hardly requires elaboration. Nevertheless, prior to stating the obvious I would recount an experience from my student years.

During the course of a lively tutorial debate, someone stated, ‘it’s obvious’ – and ‘it’ was! However, the rigours of uni demanded proof, supporting evidence and references. I will never forget the response from the astute but unorthodox student; “to prove the ‘sky is blue’ is difficult, as it requires the challenger/sceptic to undertake certain actions to satisfy the challenge of ‘furnishing’ proof. In this instance I would simply ask the sceptic to lift his chin and take a good bloody look out the window at the blue sky!” The point being the onus is shared!

But to the current CRISES plaguing the world today.

After almost a decade of thorough incompetence and criminality, which has resulted in the first civilian holocaust of the new century, it is indeed high time to HOLD THE PERPETRATORS ACCOUNTABLE!

The crimes of the Bush, Blair, and Howard governments – the original coalition or willing criminals – must not go unanswered for obvious reasons, not the least being the fabric of civilised society has been severely compromised. The crimes committed by these characters equals in scale, horror and consequences, those of the most heinous villains in history. Today’s perpetrators, regardless of social ‘stature,’ simply cannot remain unpunished.

Millions of innocent civilians killed is mass murder; waterboarding is torture; violent secessionists in the Balkans and Central Asia are terrorists, the list goes on. However, ALL the major crimes of the new century are related and can be traced to Transnationals, Oil Companies, the Banker/Financier elites of Wall St. and the puppet regimes they control.

Referring again to the introduction, I would suggest that the onus of forcing corrupted State Institutions to once again serve the interests of the people be ACTIVELY SHARED BY ALL.

The same nefarious forces are currently engaged in subterfuge to draw attention away from the major crimes committed by them and their lackey governments. How many times have you heard the two contenders for the presidency, Obama and McCain, demand that the crimes of the previous regime be investigated and the guilty held to account? Not so much as a peep from either camp, for very good reason, they are both bought and supported by exactly the same forces that placed Bush & Co. in power; the same forces responsible for the first holocaust of the century and the current economic nightmare!

U.S. elections are a FRAUD, as are criminal Wall St elites and the Corporations that manage our ‘democracies’ – for fuck’s sake – if you require proof a wealth of information exists in the public domain including on this site, ‘lift your chin.’ BUT please remember the onus for action is SHARED and YOU must act in your own interests and in the interests of the broader community. The poisonous status quo has resulted in the current crisis and mayhem around the globe!

Would you fall prey to a FARCE yet again and support either Obama or McCain?

A few good men and women of integrity require your support; reject the charade of the Obama-McCain two party race; arrest known criminals and hold them ALL accountable. Restore the principles enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights; undo the despotic, totalitarian damage and remove the monuments of evil (Gitmo) and heal the nation!

Never forget that those who take most must return most in order to maintain equilibrium, equity and fairness; financial ‘blow-outs’ cannot occur in equitable environments!

The sky is blue after all!

Peace to you all.

We are One.

http://cleaves.zapto.org/news/story-1277.html

COMMENTS

Are Our Governments Making Matters Worse?
by Danny Schechter via fleet - Global Research Tuesday, Oct 21 2008, 9:36am

PARIS, FRANCE, OCTOBER 19: The word CRISE is plastered all over every magazine, newspaper and newsstand in Paris. It is big news and the French public seems to think that its government acted swiftly to stem it. Le Figaro reports a 60 percent approval rate for President Nicolas Sarkozy’s strategy of promptly injecting money into banks to make the “crise financiere” go away.

Sarkozy says, “there can be no freedom” without regulation and quickly huddled with George Bush at Camp David to try to coordinate strategies along with the president of the EU. The hapless Bush will now “host” (ie. serve refreshments) at a major Summit, like the one that led to the Bretton Woods agreement setting up the financial system in the aftermath of World War II. (It’s not clear why anyone even speaks to W because every time Bush speaks, markets go down). It’s also not clear why all the efforts to “stabilize” the economy seem to be making it more volatile.

Out in La Defense, an overdeveloped arrondisment known as the Wall Street of Paris, where the banks and insurance companies are based, I was filming interviews against the background of glass towers with the Arch d Triomphe visible on the far horizon. There, a German businessman assured me that the crisis will be “over by Monday” since his government is busily capitalizing, or is it recapitalizing, its engines of Capitalism. (While the German public makes a run on the bookstore for copies of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital).

One young man has no idea what I am taking about when we ask him if he is worried. He says he doesn’t really know what’s going on, and doubts it will affect him since he has a Debit Card, not a credit card. Another confides the worst that will happen is a “slow down.” We don’t have subprime loans in Europe I am assured. Yes, maybe, I respond, but your banks invested in these bogus products, made billions and now are writing it all down.

And then I followed my usual practice of interviewing people in “low places” who don’t feel the need to hype their companies. A grad student interning at a large bank that was taken over tells me that people who don’t follow finance have no clue about what’s going on and how serious it is. He adds that the companies and the media are not telling them either.

“This is a much deeper problem,” he says, suggesting it will “spill over” and affect everyone. He described the atmosphere of panic and uncertainty in the bank he works for where the new owner has yet to assert control and no one knows how long their jobs will last. He speaks of a climate of greed that led a small number of interconnected executives operating in their own bubble to accumulate millions for themselves with no apparent concern about how it affects others. This is the nature of financialization—rule by the credit and loan complex. The newspaper LIBERATION calculates that 1700 billion have been spent and guaranteed so far in Europe alone.

In a globalized world, despite national differences, customs and regulatory regimes, the same market logic drove decisions, the same greed, and may I add corruption. France is still reeling from the revelation that one young trader made and lost a $7 billion dollar bet with the bank’s money. His defense: we all do it, win some and lose some.

The crimes of the financial elite do not stay with the financial elite. What’s been a slow motion crisis so far is quickly gathering force like a hurricane building in strength. I made this point recently at a media conference in Gabon in Africa where journalists from the Continent heard my warnings and expressed some of their own fears about the deepening food crisis.

Faxts, a news service in Brisbane, Australia (not America,) picked up a release on my talk.

“Africa is at great risk,” he says, noting that the International Monetary Fund has warned of “severe consequences” including famines. It could worsen hunger and certainly delay development projects and millennium goals. African economists note the continent could experience considerable repercussions as lending and investment abilities tighten in the industrialized world.’

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10625