WESTERN EUROPEAN NEWS DIGEST
Cheney Collects Discrediting Data on Past German Arms Deals with Iraq
According to the Berlin daily Tageszeitung Dec. 17, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney is collecting discrediting information on past German arms deals with Iraq, to blackmail the German government into supporting war on Iraq.
As the Berlin daily revealed, passages in the (allegedly secret) Iraqi dossier on armaments contain names of 80 German companies that have exported dual-use technology to Iraq, in some cases even into the year 2001.
"According to information from the circle immediately around Vice President Dick Cheney, the Bush Administration is presently trying to gather additional data with which it can document the military-technological cooperation between Germany and Iraq that is said to allegedly last to this day," the Taz wrote.
"A longtime high-ranking member of the Iraqi regime, whose name is known to the Taz, has signalled his commitment to the Bush Administration, to supply data on the cooperation with Germany, in exchange for a moderate treatment after an overthrow of the regime. As is said, the Bush Administration plans to use such data, to blackmail Germany into a favorable attitude at the UN Security Council," the report said.
Meanwhile, Richard Perle told Germany's Axel Springer press chain the same day (Dec. 17) that if Germany does not support a war on Iraq, it will be viewed as supporting Saddam Hussein. Perle told the Springer press chain that, insofar as Germany is leading the camp of critics of an Iraq war, "it thereby helps Saddam Hussein. If the Chancellor"German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder"even refuses to support a UN-mandated operation, one can only read that as de facto support for Saddam Hussein."
"We, however, never asked Gerhard Schroeder for his support," Perle continued. "He said he's not going to that party? He hasn't even got an invitation. The situation would be different if German support were crucial. It isn't. It is not of great importance to us."
If Germany, which will become a rotating member of the UN Security Council next February, voted against an Iraq intervention, "it would be a catastrophe for the German-American relations... it would be very serious. It would be such a severe disappointment, that I would be surprised if it would pass without a controversy," Perle said.
In a move that is certainly not unrelated, Jeffrey Gedmin, director of the Berlin branch of the Aspen Institute, attacked Germany and the European Union for their policy of dialogue with Iran, in an exclusive interview with IRNA, the Iranian news agency.
Finally, a report in the New York Times Dec. 16 drew great attention from the German media: namely, a story saying that some people at the Pentagon are considering using select foreign media and journalists, to get their home countries to support U.S. policies around the war on terrorism and other matters. The Times reports that the propaganda scenario is highly controversial, and that some at the Pentagon oppose it.
Blackmail Pressure on Blairs over 'Cheriegate' Grows
The blackmail pressure is growing against British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie over "Cheriegate," while Rupert Murdoch rushes to their defense.
The London Guardian Dec. 18, citing the Mirror, reported the explosive news that the Blairs had dinner with David Yelland, editor of the leading Murdoch Sun tabloid, the evening before the Sun published transcripts of discussions between fraudster Peter Foster and his mother. The Sun has admitted the dinner took place, but insists that no discussion took place about these transcripts. The Guardian wrote that Blair's 10 Downing Street is saying that it is "absurd" to allege that "Downing Street would be involved in what may have been an illegal phone tap."
Last week, as we reported, a London insider told EIR that Blair may face "criminal action" at some point, for having done exactly that, authorizing an illegal phone tap.
The Guardian concludes: "The Sun has been broadly sympathetic to Mr. Blair, since Rupert Murdoch decided to back him, in 1997. Last Wednesday, on the morning of the Downing Street [Blair-Yelland] dinner, an editorial in the Sun lambasted the Mirror and the Daily Mail."
At issue in Cheriegate is the fact that Cherie Blair apparently used convicted con-man Peter Forster as her go-between in advantageous real-estate deals, and then lied about it.
Meanwhile, the latest Mail on Sunday, the paper which launched "Cheriegate," has published statements from a convicted drug-dealer in Foster's native Australia, that Foster's early career was built on the basis of money from drug-money-related money-laundering, and that this must have been known to the secret services before Foster got anywhere near Cherie Blair.
If Latest Labor Mediation Fails, Germany Will Face Huge Public-Sector Strike in January
If the latest labor mediation effort fails, Germany will face its biggest public-sector strike in 26 years, by mid-January. (For background, see ECONOMICS DIGEST.) If the mediators convene by the set deadline, Dec. 28 (which is not even certain) and work out a compromise acceptable to both sides in that labor conflict within 10 days, an agreement should be possible by Jan. 6.
If the mediation fails, also after those 10 days, the united services union "ver.di" will hold a strike vote Jan. 14-17, and nationwide strikes will be launched, as the union announced Dec. 20: first the cultural sector employees on Jan. 19 and then, from Jan. 20 on, urban sanitation workers, urban transport workers, health-sector employees, firemen, and so on.
Because the budget-cutting policy of the national government under Chancellor Schroederthe leading employer in the public sectoris at the center of the controversy, a strike would also have backing from other unions. Michael Sommer, national chairman of the German Labor Federation, has reiterated DGB's support for "ver.di" in this conflict.
On Dec. 17, labor strikes hammered Germany, bringing flights to a standstill as firemen's walkouts blocked takeoffs from Frankfurt AirportGermany's biggestas well as from Munich, Cologne, Duesseldorf, Berlin, Hamburg, and Hanover.
Although the protest action lasted only for between two and three hours, during which it was joined also by air controllers, hundreds of flights had to be called off. Landing aircraft were not hit by the strike.
In interviews, Frank Bsirske, national chairman of the 2.7-million-member public-sector labor union "ver.di," warned that if the deadline for a wage agreement expired due to the public-sector employers' refusal to discuss anything above a "zero increase," strikes would be massively increased, bringing a good part of the public sector in Germany to a standstill. Bsirske added that the public sector workers are fed up with reiterated government calls for solidarity with austerity policies at the expense of the lower-income sections of the population.
Germany's Banking Center Slides into Financial Crisis
Frankfurt, the banking center of Germany, has slid into a financial crisis in many ways as bad as that of Berlin, or even worse, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Dec. 21.
"Unexpected" drastic drops in tax revenues this year imply that in 2003, the city will be faced with an additional budget hole of 364 million euros. Even if the situation does not get worse, total additional budget deficits will amount to 1.8 billion euros over the next four years. It is the worst financial crisis in the city since the end of the war, in 1945.
Of 54,000 firms, only 8,000 still pay taxes, and their number is shrinking steadily, which shows up in the decline of revenues from the trade taxfrom 1.3 billion in 2000, to only 695 million expected in 2003. The city has sold public property, totalling about 4 billion euros over the past 10 years, but this has not prevented Frankfurt from running a per-capita public debt that can now compete with Berlin's.
The situation of Frankfurt, the biggest city in the state of Hesse, is a hot issue in the ongoing state election campaign, and the candidates on the Lyndon LaRouche-affiliated BueSo list will make that a prominent focus until Election Day, Feb. 2.
France Deploys More Forces into Ivory Coast, and Expands Rules of Engagement
Another 150 troops have joined the 1,000 French force already in the civil-war-torn Ivory Coast, manning checkpoints across its central belt. Their assignment was the protection of French citizens, and "monitoring" the poorly kept ceasefire between the government and the rebels in the north. A French Army spokesman said of the new rules: "We can shoot if we are directly set upon, or prevented from carrying out our mission, or if people carry out abuses in our presence."
There have been demonstrations in rebel-held areas against the French, accusing them of siding with the government, and of becoming an "imperial occupation force."
By the end of last week, according to Dec. 21 press coverage from AP and BBC, French troops had prevented the rebels' advance on Abidjan as the UN Security Council intervened to condemn the rebels' resort to arms.
The AP wire states, "With so much at stake for the region if Ivory Coast falls into chaos, the French decided to take up their largest military role in years in their former colonial empire."
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