Mountbatten A Different Perspective

Lord Mountbatten: a rogue’s history

Press TV 18^th August

Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, otherwise known as Lord Mountbatten, has been a key figure in securing the British royal family’s interests through successfully advancing divisive ploys in different countries in the mid-20th century.

Mountbatten was the second cousin to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and uncle of her husband Prince Philip.

He was the last Viceroy of India under British colonialist rule and the first Governor General of the country after its independence from Britain.

As such he oversaw the inevitable transition of India out of British rule but retained the Queen’s position in the country as the head of state - at least by 1950 when India announced itself a republic - and administered the partition of India.

Mountbatten, born on June 25, 1900, was a German aristocrat, born Prince Louis of Battenberg, but Britain’s Queen Victoria was his great grandmother and was as such a cousin to Queen Elizabeth II.

The Lord, known in the circle of family and close friends as Dickie, was appointed chief of the British War Office’s Combined Operations Headquarters in April 1942 and was later promoted to the position of Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia Command.

At that position, he oversaw the seizure of Myanmar (called Burma by the British government) from the Japanese forces during the World War II, hence earning the title 1St Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

His service to the Queen also earned him the position of the British imperialism’s Viceroy of India on February 12, 1947.

In that capacity, he showed the first Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru a “secret” British plan, named “Plan Balkan”, that proposed “devolved power to the [Indian] provinces” including the princely states.

Nehru condemned the plan as a trigger for “fragmentation and conflict and disorder”.

The plans also proposed “a continuing entity” as an Indian state, but opposed to a Muslim state, which came to be called Pakistan.

Contrary to the promoted liberal image of Mountbatten, he was the person to decide a united independent India was not achievable, effectively setting the stage for bloodshed and loss of life in several provinces especially Punjab and Bengal.

Still, he once more secured the Queen’s interests handing all Offshore Indian oil projects to British companies, where it goes without saying that British Petroleum was a giant with Queen as a major shareholder.

He ended his post in India on June 21, 1948 to return to the Royal Navy where he became commander of a new NATO Mediterranean command in 1953, Britain’s first sea lord in 1954 and finally the chief of British armed forces in 1959.

He was retired in 1965 but has now emerged a significant figure in the plots against Harold Wilson’s Labour government in the 1960’s.

He seems to have been the point of convergence of the different networks of anti-Wilson conspirators.

As chief of defence staff from 1959 to 1965 he had contacts with all sections of the military.

Lord William Waldergrave said on the BBC documentary Plot Against Harold Wilson back in 2006 that Mountbatten was at the center of a planned coup.

“There were people talking about coup d’états. Lord Mountbatten was going to become head of some sort of junta that was going to rescue us,” he said.

The documentary also said that Mountbatten was approached by different groups of British politicians including the then Earl of Cromartie and even formed a private army to stage a coup, in favor of a British pro-royal Conservative government.

The controversial figure was assassinated in a bombing by Northern Irish dissident group Irish Republican Army in the village of Mullaghmore in County Sligo on August 27, 1979 near his family holiday home at Classiebawn Castle.

Later IRA claimed responsibility for the bombing, which was carried out at the height of Northern Ireland Troubles and the republicans’ push for independence from Britain.

“What the IRA did to him is what Mountbatten had been doing all his life to other people; and with his war record I don't think he could have objected to dying in what was clearly a war situation,” the then Sinn Fein vice-president Gerry Adams said at the time.

In honor of his services to the Queen, both politically and financially, she avoided visiting Northern Ireland until 2012.

Sinn Féin Mountmellick – Serving The Community

Fianna Fail Spin & Bluster

The FF position is beneath contempt. The party that introduced, laid the road map for and drove austerity, has not suddenly found its conscience. FF have read the public, who are suffering from austerity fatigue, and because there is a plethora of ‘acceptable’ voices calling for an easing of austerity, FF is happy to seize the opportunity. Their budget submission last year was full of holes, uncosted and didn’t add up. They are a party trying to please everyone while committing to nothing. Not having to produce a budget with €3.1 billion in taxes and cuts suits them just fine this year. Nobody should be under any illusion - in Government, FF would complete the plan they introduced in 2010 with the Troika. They would not ease up on austerity. They will just say anything to get back into Government 

Padraig MacLochlainn TD

Sinn Fein’s Padraig MacLochlainn has said today’s Irish Times opinion piece from Fianna Fáil’s Michael McGrath is insulting to the Irish people.

Deputy MacLochlainn said:

“It is unbelievable of a Fianna Fail spokesperson to tell the government to ease up on austerity. In fact it is insulting to the intelligence of the Irish people.

“It was Fianna Fail who chose the road of austerity and defended it for years. Now, we are told they don’t believe it is the right course. They brought in the Troika and signed off on the surrender letter.

“It is equally confusing to hear Michael McGrath speak about the need for investment. He calls the government’s inaction ‘a disgrace’. This is the same Fianna Fáil that argued against progressive and realistic stimulus plans that have been put forward by Sinn Féin for years.

“Michael McGrath’s rhetoric is, as usual, short on specifics. Will he commit to scrapping the Family Home Tax like Sinn Féin has done? Struggling homeowners should not hold their breath.

“According to Deputy McGrath, a smaller adjustment could make all the difference indeed for our ‘austerity-weary citizens’ – it is a pity that Fianna Fáil didn’t feel this way when they introduced €15bn of cuts when they greedily hung to power after they had lost all credibility.

“Fianna Fail has every right to contribute to the budget debate but I call on them not to insult the Irish people’s intelligence by claiming to be against austerity.”

Sinn Féin Mountmellick – Serving The Community

IF THE CAP FITS WEAR IT

Can countries go bust? IMF created new form of modern mass slavery

Adrian Salbuchi is a political analyst, author, speaker and radio/TV commentator in Argentina(AFP

When Argentina sank into its worst financial, economic and social crisis in late 2001/2002 forcing it to default on its unsustainable Sovereign Public Debt, Anne Krueger - at the time the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) first deputy manager - was very straight-forward about the whole matter.  She proposed introducing the concept of bankruptcy of entire countries as a means to, above all, afford international creditors fullest protection. One can only wonder how horrific debt crises caused by artificially created unsustainable debt burdens could ever be resolved by taking on/imposing ever higher, heavier, long-term debt.

Chapter 11 Bankruptcy for Nation-States!

A Leading Case…

That revolutionary proposal ended up not being used on Argentina at the time, mainly because successive local caretaker governments ended up doing the global mega-bankers’ dirty work for them.  Today, with a new crisis looming for Argentina, it appears that the 'Chapter 11 for Nations' concept is back on the agenda. Will Argentina become a leading case in macro-managing such a process?

Those were stormy times for Argentina and its creditors.  But when President Néstor Kirchner took office in mid-2003, the global mega-bankers were able to quickly agree with him on a scheme whereby Argentina would come out of its debt default in an “orderly manner” (for the bankers, that is…).  Since then, the money began flowing again to mega-banker coffers big time!

In June 2005 a hodgepodge of more than 127 public debt bonds was replaced with just three new bonds that rolled over Sovereign Debt as far as 42 years into the future; the key bond series being adjustable by Cost of Living, which in Argentina means inflation.  This explains why the Kirchner government have tampered with official inflation statistics all but destroying the credibility of the local statistics office, INDEC.

At the time, however, around 20% of bondholders did not agree to play along.  They clumped together as a strongly leveraged group of so-called “hold-outs” – mostly vulture hedge-funds like the Elliott Management Group - suing Argentina repeatedly so that their original bonds’ capital and interest yields are paid to them.  Thanks to a series of Second District South Manhattan Court of Appeals sentences by Judge Thomas Griesa favouring Plaintiffs, these vulture funds now demand their pound of flesh.

What’s the idea?

In an article published in the CFR’s official journal “Foreign Affairs” over a decade ago (July/August 2002), former US government and Federal Reserve Bank officer Richard N. Cooper backed the country bankruptcy factor supporting Ms Krueger's “bold suggestion” whereby “under certain conditions a government's international debt repayments should be temporarily suspended while negotiations take place on restructuring that debt.” With her statement, the IMF officially endorsed the radical suggestion of introducing an international legal framework addressing country bankruptcy as a way of “improving the international financial architecture”.

In practice, as the IMF’s No. 2 officer, Krueger’s proposal was to introduce a sort of Chapter 11 mechanism permitting orderly management of the transition of countries defaulting on their sovereign debts, back into paying by steering their Nation-States into controlled national bankruptcy. 

The implicit objective is to ensure that Sovereign Bond creditors – hedge funds, vulture funds, giant megabanks like Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, CitiCorp, JPMorganChase, HSBC, and the IMF itself – can exert huge leverage taking priority in cashing in on the monies sucked out of a Nation’s taxpayers’ (workers’), central banks, mineral, oil & gas wealth, and other resources and reserFP Photo / 

In recent years, Néstor Kirchner’s ill-fated June 2005 Debt Mega-Swap began backfiring on Argentina creating all sorts of trouble for the country, that included the attachment of public assets abroad.  Notably, the high profile arrest for over two months of the Argentine Navy’s School Vessel – ironically named “Libertad”;  Liberty – in a port in Ghana with its full crew on board, heeding one of the New York Court’s attachment orders. 

A new showdown seems to be fast approaching as Argentina has been ordered to pay up or else.  This is making key global players fidget uncomfortably in their chairs.  Although the global banking elite would love to put Argentina up against the wall, they must however be cautious regarding the precedent this would create that could bring mischief to on-going debt restructures in other parts of the world, especially in the European Union. 

That explains why President Obama who had said he would support Argentina, then decided not to do so.  The IMF’s Christine Lagarde also said she would support Argentina, but then changed her mind… twice.  The French government who were not expected to make any friendly gestures, now speaks in support of the troubled South American country… 

So, what’s up?  Basically, that Anne Krueger’s concept of setting up the international legal framework that would allow bankruptcy procedures to be imposed on whole nations is again in the forefront. 

That would “legally” permit turning Argentina upside down so that it not only gives up every last Dollar but, more importantly, its immense natural resources, a most attractive prospect for the Global Power Elite, as long it does not wreak havoc or derails their long-term plan of the controlled deconstruction of sovereign nation-states – Arab and (coming) Latin American “Springs” included - as part of the coming World Government they are engineering

Argentina’s Pound of Flesh

Argentina pulled out of its 2001 default thanks to President Kirchner’s heeding of all global mega-banker demands, a fact eloquently symbolized when in January 2006 Mr Kirchner paid to the IMF the FULL amount allegedly owed to them by Argentina: almost U$S 10 billion in hard cash with no write-downs, in exchange for absolutely nothing! Sovereign debt indeed acts as a chronic infection that conditions everything in Argentina.

Alas! As with all chronic infections you can bring down the fever for a short while but as soon as you run out of addictive meds, or catch a new cold, you´re again running a full-fledged infectious fever.

Eight years later, this is Argentina’s sorry state: annual inflation topping 30%; growth slowing down dramatically; total government clampdown on the purchase of foreign currencies for imports, travel, tourism and other needs; government tampering with economic statistics; slumping popular support for Ms Kirchner’s… Add to that rampant corruption and public mismanagemenBut this was no accident, for Argentina’s chronic debt crises has made the country bite the dust under a Catch-22 trap for many decades. When in July 2000, a little over a year before the country’s collapse, a sector inside Argentina’s Catholic Church helped organize a “Jubilee Year” in Congress centering on the country’s ballooning public debt crisis.  This prompted Cardinal Héctor Aguer, Archbishop of La Plata (Argentina), to say that continuing on its present path could only lead to  Argentina’s demise as a sovereign nation, adding that “one can almost imagine the words that will be inscribed on Argentina’s tombstone: “She lived paying; she died owing”.  This echoed Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words, “They say the world is close to bankruptcy; that the world owes more than what the world can pay…”

Solve et coagula

Now the Global Power Masters appear to be keen on refloating the whole “Chapter 11 for countries” idea.  But they must do this with great caution lest they end up shooting themselves in the foot, because if Argentina is to be made an example of by a New York Court ordering Argentina to pay vulture funds who did not accept the 2005 Debt Mega-Swap, that example could  spill over not only into countries like Greece, Portugal and Cyprus, which mega-bankers could macro-manage, but also Spain and Italy – even France –  which is a totally different and more complex ball game that could even sound the untimely death-knell of the Euro earlier than what the global Elite want. 

Remember: the Elites pushing all nations towards World Government need to engineer the CONTROLLED demise of Sovereign Nation-States; and the CONTROLLED demise of municipal governments like Detroit, Los Angeles, Washington DC and 120 other US cities earmarked for bankruptcy, where they propose applying constructive Chapter 9 public bankruptcy conditions rather than Chapter 11 designed to “orderly” tear apart and gobble up private companies. 

The question is whether declaring nations, provinces, states and municipalities bankrupt and ripe for liquidation is the next Wave of Change that will erode traditional public structures, thus paving the way for that coming World Government.  A long-term process echoing the adage of the alchemists of old: “Solve et Coagula” – Dissolve and Re-build – which, by the way, ties in with the British Fabian Society’s idea of doing things gradually and unnoticed rather than suddenly and painfully. 

For one of history’s lessons from the failed Marxist revolutionary experiment of the 20th Century is that stable far-reaching change cannot be imposed overnight; better to drive change gradually, seducing people into accepting it.  Just like the proverbial frog which if thrown into boiling water will jump off and survive, but if placed in lukewarm water slowly heated up, will cook to death without realizing it.

Finally, the obvious question is: why does just about every country’s public sector – Argentina, UK, Italy, Mexico, US, France, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Thailand, Nigeria… - owe so, so very much money to the same supranational private sector banks: Goldman Sachs, CitiCorp, Lazards, Bank of America, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase? 

Gregg Easterbrook eloquently described the roots of the problem in an article published in Reuters on 7th July 2011: “Governments in Greece, Portugal, the United States and elsewhere are borrowing, and often wasting, money at a reckless pace. Why do banks and financial markets cooperate? Because there’s something in it for them.  They keep a little slice of the public money being borrowed or wasted. This is the ‘Sliver Strategy', and it underlies the ways many of the Western world’s wealthy institutions relate to government: Only a sliver. But the more that is borrowed, the larger the sliver becomes….” 

This begs the question “why did big banks underwrite the liars’ loans that caused the housing bubble? Because they took origination fees and other payments, then passed the toxic debt along to taxpayers.  The greater the loan volume the larger the sliver — and most of the slivers ended up in the pockets of the banks’ top management.”

So, ready or not, here comes the New Wave: Bankruptcy of “failed states…!” 

See you in Court…

Adrian Salbuchi for RT

RT  09/08/2013

Sinn Féin Mountmellick - Serving The Community

32nd National Hunger Strike Commemoration, August 4th Monaghan

National Hunger Strike Commemoration Baile Mhuineacháin 4 Lúnasa 2013 Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD

August 4th, 2013 - Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD

Cuirim fáilte romhaibh uile ó gach cearn den tír agus ó thar lear.

Tháinig sibh go Baile Mhuineacháin inniu chun omós a thabhairt do stailceoirí ocrais na hÉireann, iad siúd a fuair bás ar son saoirse na hÉireann.

Táimíd bródúil as an ócáid mór náisiúnta seo a bheith lonnaithe linn i Muineachán, Baile agus Contae agus Dáil-cheantair, le stair fada poblachtánach.

Ach ní stair amháin atá ann. Anseo tá Sinn Féin láidir agus ag éirí níos láidre agus is cuimhin linn i gcónaí gur sa bhliain 1981 a thosaigh an turas sin atá fós á thaisteal againn.

We are delighted to welcome you all here today to the town and county of Monaghan and we are very proud to host the National Hunger Strike Commemoration for the first time.

You are standing in a town and a county and a Dáil constituency where Sinn Féin and Irish republicanism are at their strongest in the 26 Counties.

For many gathered here today, their republican journey of activism and politicisation began 32 years ago in 1981 with the H-Block Hunger Strike and the selfless sacrifice of ten young Irish men.

For all of you this is a special event. However, for all the surviving H-Block and Armagh activists from right across the counties of Cavan and Monaghan, hosting this national event in our constituency is both a recognition and a great honour. Together, we all remember with sadness and with pride those who died for the freedom of the Irish people while enduring the prison protest fast.

We remember and are proud of all who died for Irish freedom and the hunger strikers, in a special way, stand out and are representative of them all.

For my generation of republicans 1981 was our Easter Week, our 1916.

Its impact and influence was every bit as profound for us as the Easter Rising was for the post-1916 generation.

Bobby Sands, in the very first entry in his prison hunger strike diary, linked 1916 and 1981 when he said:

I am dying not just to attempt to end the barbarity of H-Block, or to gain the rightful recognition of a political prisoner, but primarily because what is lost here is lost for the Republic’.

The Republic Bobby wrote about was not, of course, the 26-County state but the Irish Republic proclaimed in 1916 which successive generations of republicans have worked and fought and died to establish as the sovereign, independent state of our 32 Counties.

Bobby and his nine comrades did the Republic proud.

Their unequalled heroism and sacrifice not only broke Thatcher’s cruel and futile criminalisation policy; it saved and revived and renewed the republican ideal, republican politics and the Republican Movement.

Bobby was elected MP by the people of Fermanagh/South Tyrone.

Paddy Agnew was elected TD by the people of County Louth.

And we are as proud to say today as we were back then that Kieran Doherty was elected TD by the people of Cavan and Monaghan.

On the foundations of their tremendous courage we have built a stronger republican struggle.

Thanks to them, young republicans today do not have to face what they faced and we have before us a peaceful and democratic path towards a new Ireland.

Out of that tragic phase of struggle, new phases emerged.

And the new Ireland we are building today will be the lasting legacy of Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O’Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kieran Doherty, Kevin Lynch, Tom McElwee and Mickey Devine.

One of our themes for this National Commemoration is ‘Many Phases – One Struggle’. And so we recall here today not only the ten men who died in 1981 but all 22 Irish Republicans who died on hunger strike in the 20^th century.

We recall County Mayo’s Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg who died in English prisons in 1974 and 1976. Their story is a constant reminder of what was endured by Irish political prisoners in England.

The hunger strikers of the 1940s remind us of the reactionary regime that was Fianna Fáil under de Valera. On his watch Tony Darcy, Seán McNeela and Seán McCaughey died on hunger strike.

The Treaty and Civil War had been followed by the internment of thousands of republicans by the Free State government in 1923 and a mass hunger strike for release in which Denis Barry, Andy O’Sullivan and Joseph Whitty died.

Under the British regime that tried to suppress the Republic proclaimed in 1916 we saw the deaths on hunger strike of Thomas Ashe in 1917 and of Terence MacSwiney, Michael Fitzgerald and Joseph Murphy in 1920.

The form of protest itself, the hunger strike, had been pioneered in Ireland in the 20^th century by courageous women who were imprisoned for demanding the right to vote. In 1912 in Mountjoy Jail they fasted and were force fed.

This year we mark the Centenary of the Great Lockout of 1913 and during that struggle for workers’ rights James Connolly and Hanna Sheehy Skeffington went on hunger strike in Mountjoy and were released after a week.

We recall the many republicans down the decades who took part in prison fasts, some of whom died prematurely in later years as a result of the damage to their health. I want to acknowledge the presence in our number here today of comrades who participated in hunger strikes while imprisoned north and south of the border, including in the hell holes of Long Kesh in 1980 and 1981 and who have lived exemplary lives as Irish Republicans, giving real leadership in their communities and in our struggle. We salute you all here today.

Tugaimíd ómós dóibh go léir a fuair bás ar son na Poblachta. Beidh cuimhne orthu go deo.

Like Bobby Sands, Terence MacSwiney was an elected representative of the Irish people and a prolific writer. Today as we build bridges across divided communities and as we continue to construct a process of national reconciliation we recall MacSwiney’s words when he wrote of the prejudice that makes “hopelessly hostile divisions” among the people of Ireland. And he went on:

If Ireland is to be regenerated, we must have internal unity; if the world is to be regenerated we must have world-wide unity – not of government but of brotherhood….and we must turn to the common origin of the human race, the beauty of the world that is the heritage of all, our common hopes and fears and the mutual interests of the peoples of the earth.

Here we have, in the words of one of the 22 hunger strikers, a summing up of Irish republicanism that is as relevant as ever today – an end to all sectarianism, bigotry and racism, the building of Irish unity and independence, and international solidarity.

How far the ideals and selflessness of these heroes of Ireland are from the greed and selfishness and corruption that have dominated Irish politics for so long in our own time. Bobby Sands identified that and in his Diary he wrote:

There is no equality in a society that stands upon the political and economic bog of only the strongest make it good or survive. Compare the lives, comforts, habits, wealth of all those political conmen (who allegedly are concerned for us, the people) with that of the wretchedly deprived and oppressed.

Those were prophetic words from Bobby Sands. In the following years we saw corruption proliferate in Irish politics. And we have every right to ask a very important question:

Thousands of young Irish people since 1969 were imprisoned because they fought for Irish freedom. But how many of the privileged and the powerful and the wealthy in big business, in the banks, in the church and in politics were jailed for the corruption, the covering up of abuse, the bribery and the betrayal of public trust that we have seen exposed in tribunal after tribunal and report after report?

We know the answer too well.

They can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Just as the jailed members of the British crown forces who carried out killings in Ireland, or contracted them out to loyalist gangs, can be counted on the fingers of one hand also.

But one thing is certain. The wheels of truth and justice continue to turn and they will turn until justice is done and truth is told.

In the legacy of conflict in our country there must be no hierarchy of victims and the way forward that we have consistently advocated is the establishment of an Independent International Truth Commission.

Corruption in the 26 Counties led ultimately to the collapse of the economy and the surrender to the international Troika of what remained of economic sovereignty.

Fianna Fáil’s greed and stupidity collapsed the economy; their futile austerity policy deepened the recession; that futile policy is continued now by Fine Gael & Labour.

This Coalition Government may boast that the Troika will soon be gone. But the legacy is half a million unemployed on this island, and mass emigration from this island.

And of course we still have the Irish Troika, the three puppets of Irish politics – Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party.

Real and lasting change in Ireland cannot be based on the bankrupt strategy of these parties. A new way forward is needed.

We in Sinn Féin do not claim to have all the answers but we have a commitment, we have a record of work and struggle for people’s rights and we have a determination to build a New Republic. We ask everyone to join us on that journey. Bí linn i Sinn Féin.

The greatest enemy of change is apathy.

Many people in Ireland are apathetic, they see little hope of change.

But there is no shortage of inspiration in Irish history. There is no shortage of motivation in the political and social and economic injustice we see around us.

Today we marched through the pages of our history. We stood shoulder to shoulder with the Pike Men in 1798.

We stood shoulder to shoulder with the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army in 1916.

We stood shoulder to shoulder with the Irish Republican Army volunteers through Operation Harvest.

We stood shoulder to shoulder with the risen people in 1969 in the north of our country and through all the years of the resistance that followed.

We stood shoulder to shoulder with the Hunger Strikers and their families in 1981.

We stood shoulder to shoulder with the Republican Movement leadership when they proposed and developed a new strategy to move our struggle forward, a strategy based on peaceful and political activism.

But, my dear friends and comrades, as Irish Republican activists our task is not only to remember history but to make it.

So let us make history by ending the partition of Ireland.

Let us make history by reuniting our people and building a New Republic.

Let us make history by fulfilling the promise of the Proclamation and truly cherishing all the children of the Nation equally.

Today we have symbolically rekindled the flame of freedom. Let us rekindle that flame, that spirit within our hearts and go forward from this place united in our purpose. Let us go from here, together, determined to achieve our Republican goals.

Ar aghaidh linn le chéile chun Saoirse Mhuintir na hÉireann.  

SInn Féin Mountmellick – Serving The Community