Tuesday, 1 October 2013

The European Union Times

Syria researcher dismissed for falsifying credentials hired by Senator McCain

Posted: 29 Sep 2013 03:35 PM PDT

The Washington scholar who was cited by US leaders calling for a military strike on Syria, only to lose her job for fabricating her academic credentials, has been hired by the office of US Senator John McCain, Foreign Policy magazine reports.
Elizabeth O’Bagy was formerly employed by the Institute for the Study of War, where she quickly became a respected voice on the ongoing conflict between Syrian President Bashar Assad and opposition forces. McCain and US Secretary of State John Kerry once read from an editorial O’Bagy wrote in the Wall Street Journal when advocating for a military strike in front of Congress.
O’Bagy was fired from the Washington, DC based think-tank shortly thereafter, when it was revealed that she did not have a combined masters/PhD from Georgetown University as she had claimed.
“Elizabeth is a talented researcher, and I have been very impressed by her knowledge and analysis in multiple briefings over the last year,” McCain told Foreign Policy in a statement. “I look forward to her joining my office.”
The article McCain and Kerry referenced argued the US should send arms to Syrian rebels, claiming that “contrary to many media accounts, the war in Syria is not being waged entirely, or even predominantly, by dangerous Islamists and Al-Qaeda die-hards.”
Kerry said it was a “very interesting article” and that he was impressed by O’Bagy’s “enormous” experience.
O’Bagy, 26, also spent time as the political director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, which she failed to disclose to the Wall Street Journal before her opinion piece was published. The Syrian Emergency Task Force is an advocacy group that lobbies on behalf of Syrian rebels in Washington. The newspaper was later criticized for what some journalists said was a delayed reaction in disclosing that affiliation alongside O’Bagy’s column.
O’Bagy has said she was not employed by the group, only working as a contractor, and was not affiliated with any lobbying efforts. She later acknowledged facilitating a meeting between the group and with commanders from the Free Syrian Army.
While she was fired from the Institute for the Study of War for stretching her credentials, Kimberly Kagan, the group’s founder, refused to discount any of O’Bagy’s work.
“Everything I’ve looked at is rock solid,” Kagan told Politico at the time. “Every thread that we have pulled upon has been verified by multiple sources.”
Source

Germany’s Siemens to slash 15,000 jobs over next year

Posted: 29 Sep 2013 03:22 PM PDT

A Siemens employee works on a rotor of a gas turbine in a plant in Berlin

The German powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineering, Siemens AG, is planning to axe 15,000 jobs over the next year as the economic crisis in Europe continues to worsen.
“The ongoing and planned workforce adjustments in the context of Siemens 2014 are about 15,000 positions worldwide, of which about 5,000 are in Germany,” the Munich-based company said in a statement on Sunday.
The decision is part of a six-billion-euro (USD 8.1 billion) cost cutting program, the statement said, adding, “We are sticking to the rule: first we speak with the employees, then we go public.”
This came after Europe’s largest engineering company fired its former chief executive, Peter Loescher, due to declining profitability earlier this year.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has insisted that the country is experiencing good economic performance as well as low unemployment rates.
However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has halved its 2013 economic growth forecast for Germany to 0.3 percent.
In addition, a recent report by the German Federal Labor Agency showed the country’s unemployment level rose by 7,000 to 2.943 million in August despite forecasts by economists of a drop of 5,000 claims.
Europe plunged into financial crisis in early 2008. Insolvency now threatens heavily debt-ridden countries such as Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain.
The worsening debt crisis has forced EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms, which have triggered incidents of social unrest and massive protests in many European countries.
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Russia is infected with genetically modified seeds

Posted: 29 Sep 2013 02:54 PM PDT

The Russian Federation is going to tighten the legislation on GMOs. It was proposed to ban the import into Russia of products containing GMOs. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev instructed the relevant agencies to develop specific proposals on this issue by October 15. Pravda.Ru discussed the danger of GMOs and genetically modified products with experts.
Despite the criticism, Russia currently has relatively stringent legislation on GMOs (only the EU has stricter legislation, with the United States and Canada being the most liberal in this regard).
For example, in Russia producers are required to specify the information on GMOs on the labels. The import and use of GMO seeds on the territory of Russia is also prohibited. The issue of genetically modified seeds and the use of genetic engineering in agriculture is cornerstone and strategically important.
Despite the fact that the import of seeds of agricultural crops to Russia is prohibited, violators are finding loopholes in the Russian legislation on GMOs. Alexei Alekseyenko, the deputy of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, talked about it with Pravda.Ru.
“In Russia the import of genetically modified seeds is banned, but there is a danger of its illegal importation. There is a risk of GMOs spreading further into the Russian populations that are not genetically modified.
According to our information, recently quite a large batch of seeds of genetically modified crops was brought to Odessa, and there are attempts to smuggle these seeds into Russia in small batches. The seeds are registered as a food grain or as not genetically modified. That is, there is an urgent need to take very serious action on a national scale.
The seriousness of the problems with genetically engineered seeds was confirmed by head of the National Association for Genetic Security Elena Sharoikina: “Though sowing of genetically modified seeds is not allowed in Russia, no one ever checked agricultural fields, so no one knows for sure whether GMO seeds are planted. In this regard our association began agricultural GM-monitoring. These are independent control checks for the presence of GMOs in Russian fields. To date, we have managed to check the fields in the Belgorod region. GMO was not found, and we checked different varieties of corn and soybeans.”
There are some problems (and not only in Russia) with control not only of seeds for agriculture, but also the control of finished products that may contain GMO, as well as farm produce. To keep track of all of this, we need many special laboratories, professionals, and a robust control system. “There were cases, and quite numerous, when modified components were found in products that were supplied as non-genetically modified. First, there was a big scandal in New Zealand in the beginning of 2000s, when a large batch of allegedly hybrid corn was supplied there from the U.S. During tests, foreign gene constructs were found in the corn. It also has to do with the fact that there is a constant antigenic drift in nature, and genetic material of modified organisms penetrates the population of non-modified ones,” Alexei Alekseyenko told Pravda.Ru.
Despite the fact that in the minds of the majority a single image of GMOs has been formed, the picture is not that unambiguous. Experts even say that there are more dangerous and less dangerous GMOs (although the overall negative component is not denied. Many recent studies, including Russian ones, speak about the health dangers of GMOs):
“I’ll talk about vegetable products. Foreign genes are introduced into the genome so that the plant starts to produce certain substances that, for example, repel pests, or reduce their dependence on herbicides and so on. That is, gene structures vary greatly.
If a plant begins producing its own herbicide, it means that this herbicide will get into our body when we eat the plant. Other gene constructs are less dangerous to the consumer, and some are even more dangerous because they were injected genes to turn these crops into technical ones so they produce a substance that will show up during the production process. Such plants are not intended for consumption. But due to the horizontal drift of the genetic structure of genes other populations are also exposed to it,” Alekseyenko said.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of “Dymov” company Vadim Dymov agreed with this observation:
“GMOs have negative traits and also positive traits, but unfortunately, the public generally is aware of the negative side, and this might be right. GMO restricting will benefit both the economy and, most importantly, the consumer society, because the most important thing is the safety of consumer products, and not the interests of the industrial and financial groups, so I support the decision of the Russian authorities.
Genetic engineering is especially dangerous in agriculture. Soy that is often cited as an example of a plant with genetically modified code is nothing compared to some other examples. Potatoes with a scorpion gene are much more serious business.”
Source

Spaniards hold anti-monarchy protest

Posted: 29 Sep 2013 02:49 PM PDT

Thousands of Spaniards have taken to the streets of the capital to protest against the country’s monarchy.
The march was held on Saturday in Madrid, where people called for the abdication of King Juan Carlos, an end to the monarchy and an establishment of a republic.
Protesters walked with banners reading, “Checkmate to the King,” and chanted, “Tomorrow, Spain will be a Republic.”
Critics consider the monarchy to be illegal since it was appointed by General Francisco Franco.
Meanwhile, King Juan Carlos denied on September 20 rumors that he was planning to abdicate after announcing that he was to have his eighth operation in just over three years.
The royal family has also been hit with a number of scandals, leading to a noticeable drop in public confidence in the monarchy.
Outrage about the monarch’s lifestyle was triggered last year after King Juan broke his leg during an expensive elephant-hunting trip in Botswana while the recession-hit country was grappling with an unemployment rate of 26 percent.
The royal family drew further criticism when the king’s son-in-law Inaki Urdangarin appeared in court in February and was accused of embezzling millions of euros of public funds paid in contracts to a company he managed several years ago. His wife, Princess Cristina, was summoned to testify in a hearing over the corruption case.
Princess Cristina and her children moved to Switzerland in August following the corruption scandal in a bid to draw away attention from the royal family. However, it backfired after reports revealed the high cost of her living there.
The latest official census published by Spain’s Center for Sociological Research in May showed that the monarchy’s popularity had hit an unprecedented low level of 36.8 percent.
Source

Greenwald, Scahill vow to unmask NSA’s ‘US assassination program’

Posted: 29 Sep 2013 02:33 PM PDT

American investigative journalists Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald say they have teamed up to prepare a report on the National Security Agency’s role in what one of them described as the “US assassination program.”
“The connections between war and surveillance are clear. I don’t want to give too much away but Glenn and I are working on a project right now that has at its center how the National Security Agency plays a significant, central role in the US assassination program,” Scahill said in Rio de Janeiro, as cited by Associated Press.
Speaking to moviegoers at the Rio Film Festival, where an award-winning documentary based on his book was shown, Scahill said he will be working on the project with another journalist – Glenn Greenwald, who broke the story on the NSA leaker Edward Snowden in June.
The journalists – who were both present at the festival’s Q&A panel – were short on details for their new project and gave no evidence of the alleged US program.
“There are so many stories that are yet to be published that we hope will produce ‘actionable intelligence,’ or information that ordinary citizens across the world can use to try to fight for change, to try to confront those in power,” said Scahill, a contributor to The Nation magazine and the author of the bestseller ‘Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield’.
Speaking in Rio, both journalists welcomed Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff scolding speech at the United Nations General Assembly, where she slammed the US surveillance program, calling it a “breach of international law.” Earlier in September, she postponed a state visit to Washington in response to the US spying on her communications with top aides. Her decision followed a TV report to which Greenwald had contributed.
The journalists noted that American spying could be replaced by espionage by another government if care isn’t taken.
“The really important thing to realize is the desire for surveillance is not a uniquely American attribute,” said Greenwald. “America has just devoted way more money and way more resources than anyone else to spying on the world.”
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