Western European News Digest

British Site Hits Malloch-Brown with EIR Charge

March 14 (EIRNS)—The British newspaper UK Column, a 50,000-circulation bi-monthly paper with updates on its website, published an attack on Lord Mark Malloch-Brown by John Morton, linking to EIR's documentation of Malloch-Brown's role as Prime Minister Gordon Brown's hit man to demand an agreement for world bankers' dictatorship at the G20 meeting in London April 2. Another link is provided to the entire 50-page section of the Feb. 22 EIR on Dope, Inc. Titled "Dirty Brown Laundry," the article provoked a heated exchange on the website over the role of Lyndon LaRouche, the Bilderberg Society, and drugs, with some libertarian types crawling out of the woodwork, only to be crushed by Morton as conscious or unconscious agents of the continuing British Opium Wars.

IMF and ECB Impose Fascist Wage Slashing

PARIS, March 8 (EIRNS)—"State Employees: Europe Breaks Taboo on Wages," a front-page article in Le Monde today, reports on how the International Monetary Fund is demanding wage cuts. While some Swedish trade unions have negotiated up to 20% wage reductions on a voluntary basis, in the tradition of Vichy France's Pierre Laval, several governments of Europe—notably Latvia, Hungary, Romania, and Ireland—increasingly under IMF dictatorship, are slashing the wages of state sector workers by up to 15%.

Obama Threatened on British 'Special Relationship'

March 9 (EIRNS)—"The special relationship is a joke, and it isn't funny; Barack Obama should be careful how he treats the British—one day he'll need us," begins a piece by Daily Telegraph columnist Iain Martin. The Americans know that the "special relationship" has become a joke, Martin continues, adding that "we know it and I suspect that they know we know it. Hillary Clinton could not disguise a knowing smirk when she used the words."

For all of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's talk of the need for a global solution to the economic crisis, there is no shared American and British mission, says the pro-Tory Martin. The big issue is the economy. "The first few months of Obama's Presidency are turning into a car crash.... Consequently, his primary concerns are national, rather than international, his time too scarce for Brown's grand visions of global new deals and reformed regulatory structures. And anyway, when he does need to look abroad for economic partners, why would it be to Britain?" Martin suggests that Obama will regard China as more important than London. And beyond that, Brown won't be around that much longer.

French Judge Calls for Investigating Dope, Inc.

PARIS, March 14 (EIRNS)—Philippe Courroye, a French judge and prosecutor of the Nanterre Court, said drug trafficking should be fought by attacking its financial circuits. Since 2000, Courroye has been the prosecutor of "Angolagate," a trial that went after mafia figures such as Charles Pasqua, Jean-Charles Marchiani, and Jean-Christophe Mitterrand for arms sales in Africa.

On March 5, in a TV documentary film on France5 network, Courroye said, "What is interesting is to follow the money circuit, without forgetting that in [French] law there exists the offense of 'non-justification' of financial resources, which allow bringing charges against someone on the basis of a discrepancy between his declared income and his level of lifestyle, if he's in regular contact with people involved in drug trade. There also exists the 'money laundering' aspect, which of course is very important.... Attacking the cash flow is also a way to reach traffickers from an angle they don't expect."

U.K. Scientist: Charles Promotes 'Quackery'

March 10 (EIRNS)—A top British scientist charged today that Prince Charles—currently giving Chicken Little speeches across South America, warning of planetary catastrophe if the human race insists on growing and developing—is promoting "outright quackery." Charles and his advisors appear to be deliberately ignoring science, preferring "to rely on 'make-believe' and superstition, ... financially exploiting the gullible at this time of financial hardship" with "implausible, unproven, and dangerous" arguments, Prof. Edzard Ernst stated.

Ernst, the Peninsula Medical School's professor of complementary medicine, was referring to the Prince's his organic food and plant business, Duchy Originals, which sells a pricey artichoke and dandelion tincture as an aid "to the body's natural elimination processes." (For more on Charles' trip to South America, see this week's EIR, "Charles, Malloch-Brown Out To Hijack G20 Summit for Global Warming Genocide.")

Obama-Sarkozy To Meet at 'Obama Beach'?

PARIS, March 9 (EIRNS)—Advance security teams have arrived in France to prepare a meeting between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S. President Barack Obama. The meeting could take place on April 3, the day before the NATO summit in Strasbourg, France and the neighboring city of Kehl, Germany.

Sarkozy and Obama could hold their first meeting at the Normandy D-Day beaches, and visit a nearby U.S. cemetery, whose land France donated to the United States after the war. The French Foreign Ministry has already nicknamed the meeting "Obama Beach," a pun on Omaha Beach, where American troops landed on June 6, 1944, to free Europe from fascism.