LOCAL PRESS

 

Ptassek: Germany supports Serbia's European integration (Tanjug)

Germany supports Serbia’s European integration and it will continue to support and assist the negotiation process, Deputy Director of the European Department of the German Federal Foreign Office Peter Ptassek said during a meeting with Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic.

They agreed that bilateral Serbia-Germany relations are good, and Dacic noted Serbia’s readiness to develop and enhance overall cooperation with Germany, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Dacic briefed Ptassek, who is on a two-day visit to Serbia, on the situation regarding the opening of negotiation Chapter 23, stressing the significance of continued progress in Serbia’s EU accession talks process and Germany’s support for the country’s European integration.

Ptassek also met with Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, commending Serbia for the way it handled the challenges brought about by the migrant crisis. Stefanovic and Ptassek discussed the migrant crisis and Serbia’s European integration, with particular emphasis on Chapters 23 and 24, according to a release from the Serbian Interior Ministry. Stefanovic said that the Interior Ministry was fully prepared for opening Chapter 24 (justice, freedom and security), adding that he expected it to happen in June, the release said.

 

Kozarev reacts to Tahiri’s statement (RTS)

Belgrade and Pristina would end the dialogue on normalization of relations in Brussels in mutual recognition, Minister for Dialogue in Kosovo Government Edita Tahiri said, Pristina-based media reported on Thursday. In reaction to Tahiri’s claims, deputy head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Dusan Kozarev said that “her chauvinistic and greater state dreams would never come through”. “There is no place in Europe for those who like to create division and establish new borders”, Kozarev said.

 

Raskovic Ivic: Referendum on Kosovo (RTS/Tanjug)

The leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) Sanda Raskovic Ivic has requested the authorities to stop being an accomplice in Serbia’s territorial disintegration and to organize a referendum on Serbia’s resumption of EU integration. She noted that the latest information indicates that the EU was treating Kosovo as an independent state and reaches international agreements with it. “The EU High Representative Federica Mogherini has stated that the Community of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo will be formed based on the Kosovo Constitution and laws, while European Parliament (EP) Vice-President and rapporteur for Kosovo Ulrike Lunacek said that she was certain that Serbia would not join the EU without recognizing Kosovo,” Raskovic Ivic said in a written statement to the media.

 

Lunacek: I am not enemy of Serbia’s, but Kosovo is condition (Tanjug)

European Parliament (EP) Vice-President and rapporteur for Kosovo Ulrike Lunacek told Tanjug that she was not an enemy of Serbia’s, but it was certain that Serbia would not join the EU without recognizing Kosovo, not because she said so, but rather because of the experience that the EU had with Cyprus. Speaking on the sidelines of the Civil Society Forum Belgrade, organized by the European Fund for the Balkans and Erste Foundation, Lunacek said she was not, as some saw it, an enemy of Serbia’s just because she was rapporteur for Kosovo at the EP. She said she was very fond of Serbia and its people and that she actually thought the country had made a lot of progress in EU accession. Lunacek pointed out that in its recent history, the EU had approved the accession of Cyprus, a country that had no clearly defined boundaries because of the Turkish occupation. That is why I am certain that there would be no Serbia's accession to the EU without recognizing Kosovo, Lunacek said. And it will be so not because of me, but rather because of the fact the EU only accepts countries that have clearly defined boundaries, said Lunacek.

 

Moro: Progress made in regional cooperation despite crises (Tanjug)

Progress has been made in cooperation among Western Balkan nations, as indicated by Friday’s Civil Society Forum in Belgrade, French Ambassador to Serbia Christine Moro said. An event such as this would have been unthinkable a few years ago, she told Tanjug during a break in the conference. Even though sometimes there are crises and difficulties, and even backward steps, I see progress in the region, Moro noted. Speaking about the July 4 Western Balkans summit in Paris, she said that it will address several important topics that all require complex cooperation within the region and in the host city. In the preparations for the summit, France is cooperating with Austria, which hosted the previous such conference, and EU institutions, Moro said.

Today we see that civil organisations are also taking part in that, which proves that civil society, too, will benefit from the decisions to be made at the summit, she said.

 

SDP deputies to join SNS, Ivanovic requests their mandates back (Politika)

Seven deputies of the Civil Initiative Serbia, Democracy, Justice (SDP) in the local assemblies of four municipalities in northern Kosovo joined Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), Belgrade media reported on Thursday the statement of SNS official Goran Rakic. Rakic said that counselors who joined SNS did not inform SDP central about it. The leader of SDP is Oliver Ivanovic who has been sentenced to nine years of imprisonment by the indictment for war crimes committed in 1999. In the letter from prison, where he waited for the sentence to become legally valid, Ivanovic stated that it would be “moral” if those who were leave SDP from “ideological” or other reasons would give their mandates back. He emphasized that it was improbable that “morality will decide”. Ivanovic reiterated that SDP gathered people whose goals were prettier and more arranged Northern Kosovska Mitrovica, as well as progress and economic development of all Serbian municipalities in Kosovo. He stressed that “selection for implementation of these plans was careful, but that there were also serious omissions”. “People who could not resist desire found themselves on our tickets and they have shown that their personal interests were more important than broad, collective interests and those, as a rule, would request strength, vision, moral firmness”, the letter stated.

 

Marko Bastac, DS, old-new president of the Stari Grad Municipality (Beta)

The new president of the Stari Grad Municipality in Belgrade is Marko Bastac from the Democratic Party (DS). Bastac says that 38 deputies from all electoral lists that entered the assembly had voted for him. Bastac told Beta that the voting was secret. The broad coalition will be composed of the DS, SPS, DSS-Dveri, SDS-LDP and SRS. The speaker of the municipal assembly is Mila Popovic, DS, the deputy speaker is Nenad Borovcanin, SPS, and deputy president is Avram Izrael from the SDS-LDP list. The DS list won 20 out of 56 seats in the local assembly. Stari Grad is one of the three city assemblies, along with Vracar and Novi Beograd, where the SNS didn’t win the majority. In the new convocation of the municipal assembly, the SNS has 14 mandates, Enough is Enough Movement has eight mandates, the SPS has four, the DSS-Dveri four mandates. The SDS-LDP has three mandates, as well as the SRS.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

RS will not be destabilized on 14 May (Srna)

Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik stated that no one will destabilize RS on Saturday, 14 May, when both the protest rally of the opposition and the rally of the ruling majority are scheduled for in Banja Luka, because the RS has strong security structures. “The security structures will take necessary measures and everything will pass peacefully. RS has the ability to keep the peace,” Dodik told reporters in Banja Luka. “With the statement that the extremists are going to come from Serbia, SDS Leader Mladen Bosic gives legitimacy to many claims from Sarajevo that threatening extremist groups are coming from Serbia only. It is necessary to appease all, and Bosic must deny these allegations, since there are no extremist groups in Serbia,” said Dodik, who noted that the Federation media were thrilled to hear such statement of Bosic’s. He has called on the citizens to attend the protest and the rally. “No need to set either Banja Luka or RS free, since it is free. I cannot believe that any serious politician could call on the citizens to set RS free, because if we were to set it free, then it should be setting it free from B&H,” said Dodik. He has recalled that not less than half of the measures related to the economy are passed at the state level. “They have done nothing in the field of economics for two years. RS, while we were in power at the state level, was the most important factor in this country, but today is not and who is the one to blame,” said Dodik.

 

Reactions to Patriarch call on politicians to cancel the mass gatherings on Saturday (Srna)

His Holiness the Patriarch of the Serbs, called on politicians in the RS to cancel mass gatherings on Saturday, 14 May, in Banja Luka, and fatherly asked them to seek solutions to all problems, disagreements and conflicts in brotherly talks in RS institutions. The President of the Alliance of Social Democrats (SNSD), Milorad Dodik, told Srna that he received a letter from his Holiness the Patriarch of the Serbs, Irinej, and that, understanding his message, he is ready to cancel a rally if the other side does the same. The SDS Vice-President Ognjen Tadic feels that a call by His Holiness to politicians in RS to cancel the announced gatherings in Banja Luka is welcome, but that one cannot forget “the Patriarch’s open participation in the election campaign of SNSD President Milorad Dodik in 2014.” The President of the Socialist Party (SP), Petar Djokic, told Srna that he understands fatherly concern of His Holiness the Patriarch Irinej, over events in the RS, and that he will commit to cancelling a rally on May 14 only in the event the opposition does the same. The PDP President Branislav Borenovic said that the protests will be peaceful and democratic, and that there won’t be any conflicts and tensions.

 

Scenario of overthrowing Dodik, in a manner similar to colored revolutions (Srna)

Miroslav Lazanski, a military-political analyst, has told Srna that the unrests in the RS are prepared by those who object to the presence of Russia in the Balkans and who believe that RS President Milorad Dodik is the biggest obstacle to abolish RS, stultify the Dayton Peace Agreement and create a unitary Bosnia and Herzegovina. Aleksandar Radic, an analyst, has said that a scenario of overthrowing Milorad Dodik, the president of RS, and his associates in a manner similar to colored revolutions, has been recognized for a long time. Dzevad Galijasevic, a security expert, has warned that the SDA Leader Bakir Izetbegovic, as a person who combines the interests of the Turkish and German intelligence communities, will attempt to create an incidental situation on Saturday, 14 May, in Banja Luka through the radical Bosniak groups.

 

Silence in B&H after Vucic’s statement (Patria)

Aleksandar Vucic said that the “Serbian Government has been informed about possible unrest on Saturday”. Vucic referred to an announced gathering of opposition and government of RS on 14 May. That was Vucic’s public confession that Serbia receives official security information from B&H. Interference with internal security facts of another country is the most brutal form of meddling with the interior issues of that country. The worst of all is that Vucic was the first to share that information with the public. Those facts were not shared by officials of B&H. Domestic security agencies kept silent and politically indolent. 24 hours later we still do not have any reaction of local government as to the planned gathering in Banja Luka after Vucic’s reaction and warning. Unfortunately, there isn’t any reaction to Vucic’s reaction. That itself speaks a great deal about security in this country.

 

FM: Croatia wants to be link between EU members and non-EU countries (Hina)

Croatian Foreign Minister Miro Kovac said on Thursday that Croatia would like to serve as a link between European Union member states and EU aspirants, and called for better connections between member-states of the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative, which is currently being chaired by Croatia. “In its capacity as the chair of the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative, Croatia has an ambition to serve as a link between the EU member states and those outside the Union,” Kovac told reporters in Dubrovnik where the 1st Forum of the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR), jointly organized by the European Commission and the Croatian government is taking place on 12 and 13 May. EUSAIR includes eight countries: four EU Member States -- Croatia, Greece, Italy, Slovenia -- and four non-EU countries: Albania, B&H, Montenegro, Serbia. Asked by the press what he expected of the Dubrovnik forum, the Croatian minister said that participants in the event wanted to make something positive for their citizens. B&H Foreign Minister Igor Crnadak said that his country took part in regional initiatives with full engagement. “We find our EU membership to be our main objective on the foreign affairs front and we cannot achieve this without good neighborly relations in the region,” Crnadak said. The foreign ministers and the national authorities responsible for EU funds of the States involved, as well as the EU Commissioner for Regional Policy will be among the speakers of the conference. EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR) is a macro-regional strategy adopted by the European Commission and endorsed by the European Council in 2014. The Strategy was jointly developed by the Commission, together with the Adriatic-Ionian Region countries and stakeholders, in order to address common challenges together. The Strategy aims at creating synergies and fostering coordination among all territories in the Adriatic-Ionian Region.

 

Balkans should be transformed from a powder keg to a secure region, says EC commissioner (Hina)

European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu said in Dubrovnik on Thursday that by being included in the European Union, the Balkans has an opportunity to transform from a powder keg to a secure region and called on countries within the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative to strengthen cooperation in an effort to achieve that aim. EU membership prospects make the Balkans securer so that it transforms from a powder keg to an advanced region, Cretu said addressing the 1st Forum of the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR) organized by the European Commission and Croatian government. Countries participating in the EUSAIR conference include Albania, B&H, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia, and Crete said that cooperation was vital particularly in resolving issues that cannot be overcome individually such as security, climate change and innovations. The current geopolitical situation is a test for EUSAIR, she underscored. Croatian Parliament Speaker Zeljko Reiner warned that Europe is faced with the greatest migrant crisis since World War II. “The European Union and other countries affected by the refugee issue have to be wary of possible new migrant routes and their movements and it is necessary to intensify the fight against people smuggling,” Reiner stressed. He underscored that 92 million people live in the eight countries of EUSAIR and there is huge potential to advance cooperation particularly as these countries have a very similar identity and similar cultures. “Because of the diversity, wealth and its 1,200 islands and the opportunities for cooperation it offers, the Adriatic is Croatia’s national priority,” he said. Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miro Kovac emphasized that the member states of the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative (AII) need to focus on the opportunities offered by aquaculture and that it was vital for those countries to modernize their fish farming. “We have to work on developing a low-carbon transport network not just along the coast but in the hinterland as well,” Kovac said, adding that the AII countries could advance cooperation for environment protection and developing sustainable tourism. A special panel discussion was organized in the afternoon with participants mostly reflecting on the migrant problem faced by these countries and Europe overall, advocating stronger cooperation to overcome the migrant crisis. Albanian Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati said that Kosovo and Macedonia should be included in the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative, while Serbia’s representative Jadranka Joksimovic advocated large infrastructure projects in the AII area. B&H’s Foreign Minister Igor Crnadak underscored that the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative was important for his country on its European Union path. “A recent survey among all three constituent peoples -- Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats -- indicated that 80% of respondents support the country's integration into the EU,” he said.

 

Mercep sentenced to 5 1/2 years for war crimes against Serb civilians (Hina)

Wartime assistant interior minister Tomislav Mercep on Thursday was found guilty of committing war crimes against Serb civilians in the early 1990s and sentenced to five and a half years in prison. Zagreb County Court judge Zdravko Majerovic said that Mercep was guilty because he failed to stop members of the unit under his command from committing crimes, thus giving them tacit permission to commit crimes while he was away. Mercep was initially charged with ordering the alleged crimes, but last July the indictment was amended so that he was charged only with failure to stop his subordinates from committing the crimes. The amended indictment also said that the members of the unit under Mercep’s command had not been instructed of their obligations arising from the international laws of war, whereby Mercep gave them tacit approval for such actions. His unit unlawfully arrested 52 persons in the Kutina, Pakrac and Zagreb areas, of whom 43 were killed, three are listed as missing and six survived torture and abuse. The verdict gave details of the forced detention and torture of civilians and described situations in which victims were dispossessed of their valuables, such as cars and money. The trial lasted four years.

 

The solution acceptable for Djukanovic: Popovic agriculture minister, Vujovic deputy Prime Minister (CDM)

After Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic rejected the proposal of SDP, Demos and URA to appoint Milorad Vujovic as the minister of agriculture, a compromise has been reached. The opposition “troika” suggested the PM appoint Vujovic as deputy prime minister and Milenko Popovic, the former candidate for the deputy PM, as the minister of agriculture. The solution is acceptable for Djukanovic. As CDM learns, the PM’s proposal for new ministries has already been submitted to the Parliament. The session at which the proposal will be discussed is scheduled for today at noon. Djukanovic also finds the rest of the candidates for the government members acceptable, i.e. he agrees to appoint Goran Danilovic as interior minister, Rasko Konjevic as finance minister and Boris Maric as the minister of labor and social welfare. Earlier yesterday, the Prime Minister sent a letter to SDP, URA and Demos rejecting their proposal to appoint Milorad Vujovic as the minister of agriculture and rural development, due to lack of expertise at a time when it is necessary in this department. After that, the opposition troika was deliberating for almost six hours, trying to find a compromise. After the meeting they announced their proposal to the PM in a press release. “As signatories to the agreement on free and fair elections, we inform you that we have no intention to give up our already proposed candidates for entering the interim government of electoral trust. We are convinced that the candidates are able to perform their duties in the best national interest of Montenegro, not only according to their human and moral qualities, but also in terms of their professional knowledge and technical competence. Having in mind the social significance of the agreement and recognizing the intention to obstruct the agreement at the very end of this process, representatives of opposition and non-party figures expressed their willingness to perform certain corrections in term of the positions they proposed candidates for”, they said in the statement.

 

IPSOS: 45% support for DPS, Djukanovic the most trusted politician (Pobjeda)

According to a poll conducted in April, the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) is by far the most popular party in Montenegro, with a 45% support among voters. Other parties have much lower favorability rating compared to DPS: the survey put Demos on 15%, the Democratic Front (DF) on 8%, the Democrats of Montenegro on 7%, the Socialist People's Party (SNP) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) on 6% and URA Civic Movement on 4%. Other parties are currently below the threshold, the director of IPSOS, Srdjan Bogosavljevic, told Pobjeda. When it comes to favorability rating of politicians, Bogosavljevic said that the president of DPS, Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, was by far the most popular politician. “Milo Djukanovic is the most trusted politician, with 20% citizens who trust him. Miodrag Lekic is the second ranked with 7%. He is followed by President Filip Vujanovic (6%). Compared to earlier surveys, support for Djukanovic is higher, whereas support for Vujanovic and Lekic fell,” Bogosavljevic pointed out, adding that the most of the citizens still do not believe Montenegrin politician.

 

Gruevski-Haindl: VMRO-DPMNE committed to finding solution to the crisis, restoring citizens’ safety (MIA/ Telegraf.mk)

Ruling VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski and Germany’s Envoy to Macedonia Johannes Haindl discussed Thursday in Skopje the current political situation, created political crisis, and the country’s strategic goals, including its aspirations to join the European Union and NATO.

Gruevski pointed out that VMRO-DPMNE was committed to finding solutions that would mean a swift way out of the political crisis and underlined the need for all stakeholders to demonstrate political will and sincere approach to that effect, the party said in a press release. “Surpassing of the crisis and returning to the road of progress and economic development is in the interest of the state and citizens. Citizens wish for solutions that will restore their safety and tranquility,” Gruevski said. Each solution, he added, should be based on the citizens’ desire, as the main driving power for building a democratic society. He also notified that all of his decisions were being based on the citizens’ interests and respect of their will with full consideration of the state interests. Gruevski reaffirmed Macedonia’s strategic objectives – the EU, NATO membership, saying that the country has been working regularly on the reform agenda.

Haindl has recently been appointed as the Special Envoy to Macedonia, by the German Foreign Minister, Frank Walter Steinmeier, and he will work along with the EU and USA to help resolve the crisis in Macedonia. “I have come to get familiar with the situation, and to listen, first and foremost. The process initiated by EU and USA should have results. I see my task as actively supporting these efforts. The development in the past several days has clearly shown that the time is short and all political parties need to make more efforts to carry out the reforms, and decisively continue down the road,” Haindl said. He is expected to have a difficult task ahead, taking into consideration the extremely opposite viewpoints of VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM. Haindl’s job is made more difficult with State Election Commission’s (SEC) claims that it is ready to organize elections on 5 June, and that the electoral roll has been revised. Haindl is continuing EU’s practice of sending mediators in Macedonia every time Macedonian political leaders cannot reach agreement for the issue they are facing.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Serbia’s Next Cabinet to Restart Reforms, Finance Minister Says (Bloomberg, by Lyubov Pronina, Gordana Filipovic, 12 May 2016)

Serbia’s next government will end a ban on bankruptcy procedures against large state-owned companies “very soon” and stop paying subsidies that drain hundreds of millions of dollars from the budget each year, Finance Minister Dusan Vujovic said. Premier Aleksandar Vucic, whose Progressive Party is poised to create a new government after winning April 24 snap elections, will resume an economic overhaul endorsed by the International Monetary Fund that includes selling state-owned companies and consolidating public finances, Vujovic said in an interview on Thursday. Still, the Balkan economy of 7.4 million people will grow by 2 percent this year, a pace that will accelerate to 2.5 percent in 2017, he said. “We have a new mandate,” Vujovic, 64, said on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London. Vucic, in his yet-to-be-formed administration, wants to speed up the process in the first three months of the new term and try to “close the gap with Europe,” Vujovic said. With their election win, Vucic’s Progressives restarted the clock by winning a new parliamentary majority and securing four more years to push through IMF-backed reforms that include ending budget support for unprofitable state companies, liberalizing markets, and pruning a bloated public-paid workforce. Vucic has pledged to help Serbia, which has unemployment exceeding 18 percent and average take-home salaries of $407 a month, to catch up with richer countries in the European Union, and he’s trying to prepare it to be ready to enter the bloc by 2020. The measures will probably hit his support in the short term but induce changes that the IMF sees as necessary to create jobs and improve living standards. Vujovic said that, while he hasn’t yet been invited to Vucic’s new cabinet, he has “at least a three year mandate that I sketched for myself when we entered” power in 2014, and a “huge agenda” still ahead. One of the new government’s first moves will be to eliminate bankruptcy protection for 11 big state companies that have been protected by the court from creditors, Vujovic said. He countered pessimistic comments on Thursday from the Fiscal Council, a three-member body appointed by parliament to supervise the government’s budget performance, which said that most of the companies now protected by the court will remain in state hands and continue to drain 200 million euros a year ($228 million) from state coffers. Some of the companies will be “successfully privatized, some of them will be brought out of bankruptcy, and some will disappear,” Vujovic said. “But we will definitely not have any more uncontrolled subsidies from the budget.”

Borrowing Needs

Vucic’s outgoing administration, in which he rules with the Socialists, almost halved the budget deficit last year to 3.7 percent of gross domestic product by cutting pensions and public wages. Government borrowing costs have fallen, with the yield on Serbian dollar bonds maturing in 2021 falling to a record low 4.254 percent on Thursday. The leaner deficit has also led to lower financing needs and has eliminated the need for issuing international for now, Vujovic said. While the government has planned a 1 billion euro note in the 2016 budget, Serbia last turned to foreign investors in November 2013 with a five-year $1 billion dollar bond with a 5.875 percent coupon. “We have been ready to go out with larger bond issue but we believe that we don’t need the Eurobond right now,” Vujovic said. “We are trying to optimize debt management and borrow when the time is right and the cost is right.”

 

The Upcoming Balkan Explosion (New Eastern Outlook, by Gordon Duff, 12 May 2016)

The Balkans have, for centuries, been a tinderbox. In August 1914, it was the Balkans and a cascade of happenstance events that sent the world to what was imagined then to be the most devastating war possible.

That war was the result of entangling alliances, Germany and Turkey in particular, aligned against Russia and Serbia. History is repeating itself, as to how much history, and how great a disaster, those who have forgotten history now open Pandora’s box. A few weeks ago, Turkey, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania signed a joint military “training and preparedness” agreement. Nobody noticed. Ukraine is spending $17bn of its debt pay-off cash from the IMF on weapons, buying everything they can whether it works or not, as long as bribes and payoffs accompany the purchases that are overloading the port of Odessa. Nobody notices this either. Turkish “grey wolves” and Tartar terrorists are running infiltration operations into Crimea while ISIS and al Qaeda, not just cells, but company sized fighting units, are setting up across Ukraine for what many see as the upcoming war there. Nobody is noticing this either. Nobody noticed when ISIS units in Azerbaijan joined the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on behalf of Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Then we had Orthodox Easter and church fires in New York, Australia and elsewhere, fires we are told were tied directly to Turkish intelligence. This was unreported also.

Then there is the destabilization war in Macedonia, an open war by Turkey against Christianity in the Balkans. Then again, there is that other alliance that isn’t reported, between Turkey and Albania, an alliance that includes Kosovo and ISIS and al Nusra and Saudi cash. You see, what has happened is that globalist “masterminds” intent on mischief have been very busy. Overthrowing governments gets to be a habit, color revolutions, spreading “freedom,” no matter how many disasters such as Iraq or Afghanistan or Libya or Syria or what will be happening next week in Egypt, no matter the suffering and mayhem, those who “can” will always “do.”

They don’t seem to ask why nor do they care nor can anyone identify who “they” are other than to throw names around like “Soros.” But there is a “they,” no question about it, and “they” are aiming at destabilizing Europe, using economic warfare, refugees and the idiocy “extreme” of Europe’s own bureaucratic monster. Toward this end, the wheels are long in motion. With collective memory rather short nowadays, we might well remind the reader that the refugee crisis of this year comes on the heels of five years of economic manipulation that crashed the economies of Spain and Greece, both “ground zero” for the refugee influx. Author Dr. Preston James has his own hypothesis for what is now happening, perhaps it is farfetched, perhaps it isn’t:

Below is the Globalist plan, as I see it, to import so many immigrants into Europe, intended to produce a new Pan-European fascist police state:

1. Destroy borders language and culture
2. Overwhelm the system (Cloward and Piven style)
3. Bring in embedded mercenaries and hard core criminals who will pray on the week and create huge crime, something well underway at this time
4. Use politicians who will issue public statements that will raise immigrant’s expectations to become dominated by entitlement, so they will riot over minor lack of fulfillment. They must gain expectations to be given everything free.
5. Use all the civic disorder and rioting as an excuse to build up a large internal fascist police state which is what many of the actual natural born citizens will want. These folks will want the new usurpers put down and beat down back into place. As the enforcement proceeds this will escalate the immigrants who feel oppressed
6. As things escalate the “natural borns” will demand order be established at any cost and will fully support a full blown fascist police state as was done in the US after 9/11

Since the end of World War II, the United States has exercised its global reach through surrogates, initially as part of what was perceived as an ideological war with world communism. However, with the fall of communism and the Soviet Union in 1991, we have to ask ourselves, was this a proper assessment of global politics or were things driven for other reasons, perhaps economic, or in service of something more primitive and sinister than the “freedom v. communism” dialectic? Were one to take the short-lived period of free trade and relative demilitarization during the Clinton presidency in light of historical context, we can now look on that era as an anecdotal “blip.”

Though there is no “Red Menace,” no “Axis of Evil,” as President Reagan so inaptly coined it those decades ago, the race for superweapons, the machinations of opposing empires continue, despite the painful fact that opposing empires simply don’t exist. There was no Iranian nuclear program to control, ISIS is no an Islamic phenomenon at all, 9/11 wasn’t perpetrated by terrorists and Russia and China are hardly joined together as a threat to anyone.

What we do have is manipulation of events by actors who are seemingly inadequate to the task, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel with or without minor states of the Persian Gulf. Backing them, if you can accept our misuse of the term, are European political leaders, Merkel always, Hollande and Cameron occasionally, but when batched together, hardly capable of world domination, or so it would seem if were to apply what we know, or what we knew, or what we thought we knew about the nature of power.

Have the rules changed?

The new “nuke” seems to be the malleable human, the religious believer, the refugee bereft of hope, the fearful European, a hundred million young Muslims who will never hope to enjoy a life with meaningful employment and a family, a mercenary army “on the cheap” beyond imagination.

Is the new globalist more social scientist and chaos theory mathematician and less the politician and general?

Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War that has worked on veterans and POW issues for decades and consulted with governments challenged by security issues. He’s a senior editor and chairman of the board of Veterans Today, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”