Free Republic

“So finally Germany did what everyone thought they would have to do at the end of the day, they stepped up and they have created this new facility (European Financial Security Facility or ESFS). But they have given it (the facility) vast new powers...In Europe for over ten years you’ve had the European Central Bank, which is the equivalent of the Fed, but they did not have the equivalent of a Euro Treasury. So the best way to understand the ESFS, for the first time we have a European-wide Ministry of Finance. They don’t call it that, but that’s what...

Algeria has awarded four German companies the largest contract ($10 billion) for arms and military equipment ever signed by Algeria with a Western country. Algeria has been buying armaments and military equipment almost exclusively from Russia or former Soviet bloc countries. Authorities in Algeria are willing to pay up to get either a recognition or a simple statement of support for their Western Sahara Separatist group, Polisario. During a visit to Berlin last December, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has managed to convince German Chancellor Angela Merkel to make a small gesture to the Polisario, when she said, in a joint...

You — or your kids — will be assimilated: the "liberal" university prepares the totalitarian future.Much has been made of the “unholy alliance” between the imperial left and a triumphalist Islam in advancing the cause of the modern totalitarian project. The left wants to see a top-down socialist utopia supplant the international order as we know it and militant Islam is determined to impose a Shariate upon the world. Indeed, as Norwegian scholar Hege Storhaug documents in But the Greatest of These Is Freedom, there is a brisk migration “from left-wing totalitarianism to religio-political totalitarianism.” The totalitarian mind is identical...

In all the excitement, it was easy to miss the fact that there were two very high level visitors to Iran late last week and then over the weekend: Turkish President Gul and German Foreign Minister Westerwelle. The sequence was not accidental. Gul went first, and stayed for four days. The Turks and Iranians are constructing a very complex network of deals and schemes, from coordinating action against Israel, to making the two currencies interchangeable, to making commerce virtually unregulated, to building and maintaining oil and gas pipelines, enabling Turkey to buy Iranian product at bargain prices, and granting exploration...

When Americans see the bizarre responses of the mainstream media and the progressive politicians to tragedies such as the Tucson shootings — for instance, the proposal to ban rhetoric or symbols perceived to be violent — many wonder how the country has come to this strange place where elitists are moving to gain control at the expense of individual liberties. Perhaps one need not look past the Woodrow Wilson administration for the answer. Today’s politicians and progressives seem to have taken some notes right out of the works of Edward Bernays, President Wilson’s propaganda master. The author of books such...

The rebellion against the 1930s fiscal and monetary policies of the Euro-complex is gathering pace. Il Sole has published a letter by 100 Italian economists warning that the austerity strategy imposed by Brussels/Frankfurt risks tipping Europe into a self-feeding downward spiral. Far from holding the eurozone together, it will cause weaker countries to be catapulted out of EMU. Others will leave in order to restore sovereign control over their central banks and unemployment policies. At worst it will blow the EU apart, leading to the very acrimony that the European Project was supposed to prevent. For readers of Italian, it’s...

Turkey's growing hostility to Israel may have been partly caused by its effective rejection by the European Union, the US defence secretary says. Robert Gates said Turkey may have been "pushed by some in Europe" away from the EU and into closer partnerships with states like Iran. Turkey has been put on the path to EU membership, but countries like France and Germany are openly opposed. Turkey and Israel's once-close alliance has come under severe strain. Their relations were already deteriorating before Israeli troops stormed a ship carrying aid to Gaza last month, killing nine Turks. 'Matter of concern' Turkey's...

The EU has become lax in reiterating the three conditions Hamas has to meet before gaining international legitimacy, a top Foreign Ministry official said Monday, adding that he would not “bet his life” that some in the EU are not looking for a “back-channel” contact with Hamas. Naor Gilon, the Foreign Ministry’s deputy director-general for Western Europe, made his comments at a symposium in Jerusalem sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Gilon’s words come just days after Hamas officials said they wanted direct contact with the US administration, and a couple of weeks after...

Obama is actively recruiting the brightest minds and the most astute 'socially-conscious' entrepreneurs to help him with this venture into the Brave New World. Many of them are not U.S. citizens. They have no concept of nor regard for the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, human liberty, common-sense border control, or any other principle that sets us apart as Americans. Why is this information important and what has it got to do with you, the average citizen? Obama needs the brightest and best of the world in order to successfully pull off what he is seeking to accomplish. These...

Germany supports the creation of a European army in the long term so that the EU can be a "global player," Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. "The long-term goal is the establishment of a European army under full parliamentary control. The European Union must live up to its political role as a global player. It must be able to manage crises independently. It must be able to respond quickly, flexibly and to take a united stand," he said. "We want strong European crisis management.

Stories appearing on several Ukrainian Web sites claim Israel has brought around some 25,000 Ukrainian children into the country over the past two years in order to harvest their organs. The claim, which was made by a Ukrainian philosophy professor and author at a pseudo-academic conference in Kiev five days ago, is the latest expression of a wave of anti-Semitism in the country. It comes a few months after a Swedish tabloid ran an article alleging that Israel Defense Forces soldiers have killed Palestinian civilians for their organs. Jews, Israel and anti-Semitism have become a major motif of the presidential...

The stolen body and coffin of a German billionaire, Friedrich Karl Flick, have been found in Hungary. The coffin and remains were handed over to Austrian authorities at the weekend, Austrian police say. Thieves stole the coffin in November 2008, after moving a slab of granite at the mausoleum in southern Austria where the industrialist was buried. Flick inherited German factories that employed slave labour during World War II. He died in 2006 at the age of 79. In December 2008 his widow Ingrid offered a 100,000-euro (£91,000) reward in an effort to recover the body. No ransom demand was...

The paper is aged and fragile, the typewritten letters slowly fading. But US Military Intelligence report EW-Pa 128 is as chilling now as the day it was written in November 1944. The document, also known as the Red House Report, is a detailed account of a secret meeting at the Maison Rouge Hotel in Strasbourg on August 10, 1944. There, Nazi officials ordered an elite group of German industrialists to plan for Germany's post-war recovery, prepare for the Nazis' return to power and work for a 'strong German empire'. In other words: the Fourth Reich. The three-page, closely typed report,...

“The EU shares Iran's concerns over the situation in the Middle East,” Gallach told the Mehr News Agency in an interview recently. She said the European bloc believes that a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be achieved through dialogue and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.... ...Gallach also said Iran and the West can “open a new chapter” in relations now that President Barack Obama has expressed his willingness to enter dialogue with Iran.

France and Germany are expected to give details this weekend of an agreement to station hundreds of German troops on French soil for the first time since the second world war, in a region the countries have squabbled over for centuries. The historic move for troops in either Alsace or Lorraine is part of a 20-year joint military project to encourage reconciliation between the two countries. Despite its symbolic significance for a country occupied by Nazi forces, the decision has so far prompted little more than curious and insouciant reaction from the French public. "The prospect of seeing German troops...

The head of the German Parliament Norbert Lammert met yesterday with the President of Kosovo Fatmir Sejdiu with whom he discussed about the further deepening of cooperation between the two countries. The head of the German Parliament on this occasion spoke about the engagement of his government in the process of recognitions for the independent state of Kosovo. He also expressed his displeasure with the manner in which the three German BND secret service agents were arrested. The focus of yesterday’s meeting between Lammert and Sejdiu were the interstate relations. President Sejdiu on this occasion thanked the head of German...

India protests submarine sale to Pak 12/29/2008 10:01:16 PM In what comes as clearly a fallout of the Mumbai terror attacks, India has protested to Germany about its plans to sell submarines to Pakistan. India has told Germany to call off the sale of 214 submarines manufactured by HDW to Pakistan over the next few years. The deal which is worth over one billion dollars is likely to be signed in the next few days. India maintains that the sale would be a problem for India as it would definitely be used for conducting strikes against India.

TRIESTE, Italy (AFP) – Germany and Italy will seek a joint approach to climate change and the environment, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday after meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. > "As Germany and Italy are the two main manufacturing countries of Europe, we do not want" new EU rules on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to "have too heavy an impact on our businesses," >

European Union foreign ministers say they will not support a military strike on Iran but want more talks to try to resolve worries Tehran might be developing nuclear weapons. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband says it is now up to Iran to respond to global powers and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana after talks in Geneva on Saturday.

The words were clear: "Europe has powerful enemies on the other side of the Atlantic, gifted with considerable financial means." The speaker was France's Europe Minister Jean-Pierre Jouyet, addressing a pro-European rally in Lyon at the weekend. He was putting the blame for the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty on some surprising shoulders: neoconservatives in the United States. "The role of the American neocons was very important in the victory of the 'no,'" he said. ... One of the most powerful groups campaigning against the treaty was Libertas... There has been much speculation about where exactly the Libertas funding...