Austria plunged into crisis of democracy by government assaults on free media

Bemused Austrians woke up last week to find themselves in the middle of a coup d’etat of the kind the Nazis would have been proud of. All that was missing were blood red Swastika flags hanging from every single street, market square and building as well as columns of German army military vehicles rolling in.

In an series of events without parallel in postwar Austrian history, the Justice Minister working with her counterparts in Munich, Germany, attempted to destroy nothing less than the remnants of a free and critical press, democracy and the rule of law in the country.

Hauling in the few journalists left reporting one of the biggest financial scandals in the country’s history — conducted with the help of high ranking politicians like Edmund Stoiber — for interrogations even though they had broken no law was bad enough.

Justice officials then demanded material from the state run ORF TV station in a pattern of harrassment that is becoming very alarming. Material was demanded  in spite of the fact that it is protected by laws on the confidentiality of sources, and handing such material over would set a precedent that would spell the end of whatever is left of any independent reporting in the country.

From that moment on, no journalist could be sure that their workplace is not raided and material seized and censored before they can publish it. A judge can issue any decree ordering any unspecified material to be handed over on any pretext.

The tame pussy cat which is usually civil society in Austria, however, roared like a lion.

Journalists, unions, politicians joined a chorus condemning the imminent loss of democracy and freedom of the press as soon as the  shocking news that the justice system is systematically engaged in break laws and destroying democracy on Thursay last week.

The roar was so defeaning that even Dr Bandion-Ortner had to hesistate with her whiplash exhortations to fall into line and accept the fait accompli and obey decrees, however, illegal.

Once more publicity has proved to be decisive in stopping a total breakdown of law and order by a government that has run amok.

New Proof Wall Street Knew Its Mortgage Securities Were Subpar: Clayton Execs Testif

Huffington Post

During a little-noticed hearing this week in Sacramento, Calif., a firm hired by Wall Street to analyze mortgages given to borrowers with poor credit, which were then packaged and sold to investors during the boom years, revealed that as much as 28 percent of those loans failed to meet basic underwriting standards — and Wall Street knew all along.

Worse, when the firm flagged those loans for potential issues, Wall Street banks ignored its recommendation nearly half the time and likely purchased those loans anyway — selling them to unwitting investors who were never told that the biggest home loan due diligence firm in the country had found potential defects in these mortgages.

The revelations give a better picture of what many have likely known for years: Wall Street firms knew they were buying lead yet passed it off as gold to investors who had no knowledge of the alchemy behind the scenes. But it also has real-world implications: the data released Thursday could bolster pension funds and other investors in their pursuit to force Wall Street banks to take back the bogus mortgages they peddled. An untold number of lawsuits have been filed in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis and subsequent housing market collapse. Thus far, Wall Street has been winning that battle.

Clayton Holdings, a Connecticut-based firm that analyzes home mortgages for banks, hedge funds, insurance companies and government agencies, provided its data Thursday to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a bipartisan panel created by Congress to investigate the roots of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The FCIC held its last public hearing in Sacramento, the home of the panel’s chairman, where two current and former top Clayton executives testified under oath about the firm’s role in the mortgage securitization chain.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/25/wall-street-subprime-crisis_n_739294.html

Austrian government rewarded state prosecutor responsible for illegal interrogation of investigative journalists with promotion: “Justice system run amok” says leading newspaper editor : European Arrest Warrant means risk of persecution now faced by non-Austrians too

The Austrian state prosecutor who ordered the illegal interrogation of Austrian journalists by police was promoted on September 1, 2010, it has emerged.

http://www.edikte.justiz.gv.at/planstellen/ausschreibungen.nsf/0/47C18304E99D83BBC1257782003D4532

Heike-Karin Heckl ordered the interrogation of journalists from the news magazines “Profil” and “News” as “guilty parties” in relation to their reports on the Hypo Alpe Adria scandal almost immediately after receiving an illegal request from German state prosecutors on August 2, 2010.

http://www.profil.at/articles/1038/560/278362/wie-staatsanwaltschaft-beschuldigte

The journalists had quoted from state prosecutor’s files in Munich – something that is considered a crime in Germany but that is  legal in Austria, and something the journalists have been doing without a problem for a year.

By August 22, a police chief had the instructions and he summoned the Profil journalists Michael Nikbakhsh  and Ulla Schmid on September 15^th and September 22 where they were asked about their income, their property and their financial affairs even though had violated no law.

Instead of being punished for misusing her authority to harass journalists who are reporting on one of the biggest fraud’s in the country’s history carried out by bankers and politicians, Heckl was actually promoted by her superiors on September 1^st – presumably as a reward for her willingness to misuse her authority for the benefit of the network of politicians and bankers who have stolen so much tax money in the engineered financial crisis in the first place.

Figures such as Bavaria’s Ex Minister Edmund Stoiber are implicated in the Hypo scandal.

The outrageous promotion for a state prosecutor caught authorising illegal interrogations of journalists underlines the extent of the destruction of law and justice in Austria currently underway.

Instead of fighting corruption, the judges and prosecutors are now overtly persecuting anyone who reports on the corruption and with total any impunity. Promotions in such a system evidently depend only on the extent to which state prosecutors have proved themselves to be willing to crush critics of crimes committed by a network of politicians and banks acting in collusion to rob tax payers of billions.

This is the same justice system that is planning such a radical new anti terrorism law that virtually any critic of the government can be arrested under it, prompting alarm among Austrian lawyer’s association head Gerhard Benn-Ibler.

In addition, the introduction of the European Arrest Warrant – a tool that Austrian Justice Minister Claudia Bandion Ortner worryingly said should be used more often during a conference in Berlin last week – will virtually allow anyone in Europe to be arrested and brought to Austria illegally or for  some vague “political” crime, for example, for visiting any websites “forbidden”  as terrorist by the government under  “mafia” paragraph 278.

PRESS FREEDOM IN DANGER – AUSTRIAN JOURNALISTS ISSUE UNPRECEDENTED WARNING

 

State prosecutors in Austria ordered journalists reporting on a financial scandal to be interrogated by police even though they had not broken any law, sparking unprecedented warnings from journalists and unions that the freedom of the press in Austria is under threat.

http://www.orf.at/stories/2016396/2016414/

The reporters from the weekly news magazines “Profil” and “News” printed extracts from files on an investigation into the scandal-hit bank Hypo Alpe Adria obtained from German state prosecutors, violating criminal laws in Germany that carry a prison sentence of up to one year.

However, in Austria printing extracts from state prosecutor’s files is allowed.

http://blog.profil.at/index.php/michaelnikbakhsh/hypo-alpe-adria-profil-journalisten-zielscheiben-der-justiz

Nevertheless, Vienna state prosecutors ordered the journalists Ulla Schmid and Michael Nikbakhsh from Profil as well as Kurt Kuch from News to be interrogated by police after receiving a request from their counterparts in Munich.

Franz C. Bauer, President of the Union of Journalists warned of „an attack without parallel on the press freedom in [Austria].”

“Politicians and officials paid for by taxes are clearly trying to apply foreign laws to Austria capriciously and so to restrict the freedom of expression,“ he said.

The scandal comes just as the ORF state television station was obliged to hand over film material to a court following an order breaching a law protecting confidentiality of journalistic source.

David Icke faces smear campaign by Globalists

 

By David Icke

I have been saying in articles and newsletters since last year that during 2010 there would be a long-planned campaign to discredit me with the aim of destroying my work in the wake of the publication of my new book. 

I knew it was coming and I knew who the source was planned to be because I was warned well in advance and I said that people would be surprised by who it was (though certainly not those who have had experience of this glove-puppet for the forces I have spent two decades exposing). 

That campaign has started behind the scenes and no doubt will ‘go public’ eventually. 

Read more at: http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/38699-its-destroy-david-icke-time-but-they-wont

Please support David Icke!

Swine flu virus victims have no symptoms, report doctors in India

http://www.mid-day.com/news/2010/sep/240910-Pune-H1N1-Patients-Dr-Meetings-swine-flu-ymptoms.htm

Swine flu virus changes colours

By: Alifiya Khan

Date:  2010-09-24

Doctors across hospitals and a state review meeting find H1N1 patients either showing symptoms of bacterial infection or no symptoms at all
 
Health officials have yet another reason to worry. Doctors across hospitals treating swine flu patients have reported that the symptoms of the flu have changed. Patients testing positive for the virus are either showing no symptoms at all and appear healthy or show symptoms that were not exhibited before causing much confusion.

Altered: Swine flu symptoms have changed, causing confusion among doctors.

Speaking to MiD DAY, Dr.C A Kante, officer in charge of swine flu cell said the new symptoms or rather the lack of it was discussed at a state level review meeting as well.

“This is actually a viral infection, but now the symptoms being displayed are of a bacterial infection. Instead of showing typical symptoms such as cold, cough and fever; people are getting loose motions and vomitting,” said Kante.

“Earlier, the virus was affecting the upper respiratory tract and central nervous system but now it has started affecting the gastro-intestinal tract. All hospitals and doctors have been asked to stay on alert,” Kante said.
“It is true the symptoms have indeed changed. We get positive reports for children who have absolutely no symptoms at all.

Canadians To Be Vaccinated With Live H1N1 Virus with MSG For The 2010/11 Flu Season

 

From: http://preventdisease.com/news/10/092310_toxic_flumist_vaccine.shtml

The Public Health Agency of Canada has once again given their seal of approval for the injection of a dangerous cocktail of toxic chemicals they call a trivalent vaccine. The 2010/11 recipients of AstraZeneca’s FLUMIST will be exposed to several strains of live viruses including H1N1 and H3N2. The vaccine also contains MSG and other known neurotoxins and immunotoxins.

Similar to last year’s Arepanrix Vaccine, FLUMIST was approved without evaluating its safety and effectiveness on a single Canadian.

The vaccines are especially being promoted for children since the nasal spray vaccine can be marketed as less invasive due its intranasal delivery that does not require needles. Ontario’s chief medical officer of health said a non-injectable vaccine is an “attractive option.” The product has been on the U.S. market for the last seven years.
AstraZeneca Canada is currently ensuring that all Canadian pharmacies are making preparations to stock the vaccine this fall. The influenza vaccine will be one of several vaccines to be offered on the Canadian market.

GPs should give swine flu warning for seasonal jab, GMC says

Stephen Robinson, healthcarerepublic.com, 23 September 2010, 12:15am

 GPs should alert patients who refused last year’s swine flu vaccine that it is included in this year’s seasonal flu jab, the GMC has advised.

The GMC and the Medical Defence Union (MDU) advised GPs to explain this to patients who had previously refused the vaccine.

This year’s trivalent seasonal flu jab contains swine flu antigens because experts believe swine flu will circulate this winter. A DoH information leaflet has been produced to explain the contents of the vaccine.

GMC assistant director of standards Jane O’Brien told GP it would be wise to explain this to patients who previously rejected the vaccine.

‘If you know a patient has previously refused the single swine flu vaccine, it’s likely they would want to know this year’s seasonal vaccine includes the swine flu strain,’ she said. However, GPs must be careful not to put pressure on patients to accept advice.

Website on the anti-smoking vaccines

Check out a website giving information about the up coming anti smoking vaccines and potential ban:

http://www.raucherbewegung.eu/english-speaking-section-of-the-austrian-smokers-movements-site.html

EU Commissioner says has not apologised to France over Nazi comparison

RIGHTS Roma expulsions

Reding: I have not apologised to France

By Constant Brand

From: http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/reding-i-have-not-apologised-to-france-/68930.aspx

 23.09.2010 / 05:19 CET

The European commissioner for justice and fundamental rights denies having issued an apology to Nicolas Sarkozy.

Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for justice and fundamental rights, has rejected claims by French President Nicolas Sarkozy that she had apologised for her criticism of France’s deportation of Roma. 

Reding sparked a row on 14 September when she branded France’s actions a “disgrace” and warned that the Commission could launch legal action if an investigation concluded that France had breached EU law on free movement.

Sarkozy responded last Thursday (16 September) at a summit of EU leaders, accusing her of “insulting France” and claiming that she had apologised for her comments.

Sarkozy took particular exception to Reding’s statement that “this is a situation I had thought Europe would not have to witness again after the Second World War”.