by Peter Koenig for The Saker Blog
Spain’s President, socialist Pedro Sanchez, canceled a week ago the sale of 400 laser-guided missiles to the Saudis for humanitarian reasons (value of the missile contract € 9.2 million –US$ 10.7 million). A couple of days ago, he reversed that noble decision, reinstating the sale, because the Saudis threatened cancelling their contract for 5 “Corvette” warships to be built by Navantia over the next few years, for a value of € 1.8 billion (US$ 2.1 billion), providing work for some 6000 shipyard workers in one of the economically worst hit areas of Spain, Cadiz Province of Andalusia.
So, to safe jobs, Sanchez decided to sell the bombs after all – the very bombs that will further decimate the Yemeni population – kill masses of children and increase the untold, unfathomable misery for this poor country, strategically located on the Gulf of Aden.
The war ships, Spain is producing for the Saudis, are certainly not going to bring peace to the world either; they bring perhaps work to Spanish shipyard workers, but, Dear Mr. Sanchez, where are your ethics, where is your sense of Human Rights?
Would it not be more ethical to help Spanish workers find alternative jobs, or while they are looking, pay them unemployment at a decent level? Perhaps exceptional unemployment, because the reason for the unemployment in this case is ‘exceptional’ and ethical to the point that the workers would probably understand – a sense of integrity and conscience they may proudly pass on to their children.
To top it all off – Spain’s Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, pretends that the Saudis have to guarantee that the missiles will not be used against Yemenis. Whom does she think she is fooling? – Would the Spanish people be so blind to reality to believe this lie? – I don’t think so. The Spaniards, having gone themselves through ten years of foreign imposed economic austerity hardship, an economic warfare of sorts, are more awake than believing dishonesties that serve the capitalist, profit-seeking war industry.
The Spanish bombs may substantially contribute to the killing of tens of thousands of Yemenis and among them countless defenseless children and women. The delivery of these missiles would be a tacit recognition and acceptance that the Saudis, supported by the US, the UK and France, block vital food and medical supplies from entering Yemen, thereby starving literally millions to death. And most likely the Spanish warships are creating in Yemen or elsewhere even worse human suffering.
Instead, Mr. Sanchez – why not showing your heart and compassion for these innocent victims of western aggression, overriding your Minister of Defense, and block the sale of the 400 deadly missiles and the 5 killer Corvettes?
—
According to Mint Press News (10 September, 2018), the UN estimates that nearly 20 million Yemenis could die from starvation this year. That’s about 70% of the entire population, and that horrific number includes more than 2 million children. Two to three generations wiped out by the world’s most criminal monster nations, the Saudis, supported by the US, UK, France specifically, and more generally, by NATO. About 500,000 of these children already show severe signs of malnutrition, which, if it lasts over an extended period of time, may cause severe brain damage and stunting, effects that might even be passed on to future generations.
Since the onset of the war which typically and conveniently is called by the west a ‘civil war’ which it is of course not – the US has supported the confrontation with over US$ 200 billion of war planes and weapons, and the UK with missiles and bombs. This war of aggression by the US and western puppet allies, aiming foremost at dominating the country’s geographic and geostrategic location, overlooking the Gulf of Aden and further to the east, the Arabian Sea, leading to the Persian Gulf, has created the worst humanitarian crisis in modern history.
Under international pressure and a UN appeal, the Saudis have offered US$ 300 million worth of humanitarian aid – food and medication – with deadly strings attached. They have weaponizing this humanitarian aid, by closing the main ports of entry, especially the one of Hodeida, so the aid could not reach the population in need. Yemen relies for 80% of her food supply on maritime imports, 90% of which normally enters through the Red Sea port of Hodeida.
The Saudis – always with the explicit support of Washington – targeted on purpose key survival installations, like water supply and sewerage systems, agricultural fields, market places, food storage sites, power generation and electricity grids, hospitals, schools, basic transportation infrastructure – all to create the most abject scenario for starvation and disease, especially intestinal diseases, dysentery, cholera, from lack of drinking water and sewage pollution. With a currency that loses every day more of its value and skyrocketing food prices, three quarters of the population depends on humanitarian aid – most of which is blocked at the points of entry.
The last remaining lifeline for about 18 million Yemenis is the port of Hodeida. In fact, the assault on the port city of Hodeida is led by another U.S. Gulf coalition ally, the United Arab Emirates. The deadly operation to capture Hodeida is dubbed “Golden Victory”, putting up to a million people into an open prison of sexual torture, rape, starvation and uncountable other war crimes. According to UN estimates, a quarter-million men, women, and children could die from the military assault alone should the US-backed coalition continue its invasion of Hodeida. Saudi warplanes have already bombed school buses with children and buses of refugees fleeing the airstrikes, killing hundreds.
Mr. President Sanchez, you must be aware of this abysmal situation and crime that your 400 guided missiles would worsen – more bloodshed, more suffering, more children killed? – Aren’t you?
And if you are, Mr. President, don’t you think that the humanitarian gesture that you first intended, not selling these bombs to the Saudis – would by far outweigh the unemployment of 6000 shipyard workers? – An unemployment that your government could easily resolve, if not on a regular, then on an exceptional basis for the exceptional cause of avoiding more killing and more suffering, or what the UN describes as an outright genocide.
But there may be more at stake than meets the eye. Despite some fierce opposition, the US Congress has again voted for unquestioned support for Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen. Foreign Secretary Pompeo has made it clear that he expects allied nations, especially NATO nations, of which Spain is one, to follow the US lead in supporting the Saudi-led hostility against a nation already eviscerated, for all practical purposes.
Was this perhaps understood as a threat of US sanctions, in case you disobey this tacit order, Mr. President?
Dear Mr. Sanchez, you would have a brilliant and simple legal reason for NOT selling these deadly and destructive weapons, missiles and warships, to the Saudis. The Spanish Constitution, like the Constitutions of most European countries, prohibits selling weapons to countries “when there are indications that these weapons could be used against inherent human dignity”. In addition, the common position of the EU recommends and insists that her members refrain from selling arms when there is a risk that they are used to violate Human Rights.
Of course, any EU law or regulation is easily overruled by the Masters from Washington. That’s why it takes guts – and a more – for a President, a socialist and humanitarian at heart, one who in his first 100 days in office has already done a lot of good at home, by undoing some of the disastrous social laws of his conservative predecessor, who was forced out of office in the midst of modern Spain’s scandal of worst corruption – hence, for you Mr. President, to resist the pressure form outside as well as from within – would be sending an important message of moral and ethics to the world.
Mr. Sanchez, you would be a hero, not only for Spain and the Spanish shipyard workers, who would most certainly applaud you, but for the entire world. You would demonstrate that your ethics cannot be compromised by money or political pressure. This would, indeed, be a novelty for our neoliberal western world.
And your personal benefit, Mr. Sanchez: You could again sleep at night.
Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world in the fields of environment and water. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research; ICH; RT; Sputnik; PressTV; The 21st Century; TeleSUR; The Vineyard of The Saker Blog, the New Eastern Outlook (NEO); and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance.
The Spanish people are antiwar, more so than other euro countries, but their corrupt government is identical to other corrupt governments that ignore the wishes of the people.
Indeed. Spain was only brought into NATO because of the traitorous government of Felipe Gonzalez during the 1980s…
Here from Spain, my name is David, I am Galician, from Galicia, to the North of Spain. I hope the translator translates well and without too many mistakes. I studied welding and could have worked at Navantia, building ships in Vigo. But something in my body told me not to do it, not to work there. They did place an order for a warship or a military patrol ship. I preferred to have a conscience and humanity and not to have my hands stained with blood. I’ve been following the Saker for a long time, I read the articles and I didn’t read the comments. When I read them, demons how much culture, logic and intelligence, now I don’t miss the comments.
I never intended to comment on anything, I can’t say anything about Russia, why I’m not Russian and I don’t know much about Russia. It is preferable to talk about what is known and known and not to talk and comment without any sense or logic.
But now it’s different, I’m Spanish and I know a lot about the subject. In Spain there are enough scandals about false doctorates, theses or plagiarized academic studies. All the other political parties ask for the resignation of the fraudster, but they don’t give coherence and now they are going under the stones, in all the parties, they ask for the resignation of all, all except those that belong to their party; yes even the wife of the President is ‘plugged in’, that is to say put by her husband and not to have experience nor studies.
The doctorate of President Sanchez is being questioned; for those who do not know the subject, the President was always someone very deceitful, even in the same sentence. He says he wants to build a hospital, and then deny that there is no money; if there is no money for what is it said that you are going to build it?
The current President came to power with a coup d’état, it may seem that it was not a coup d’état, but it was. And he doesn’t want early elections that could legitimize his position, not even that.
First the source in Spanish and then the translation. Just in case someone knows Spanish, in case the translator’s translation could harm your understanding.
http://www.elespiadigital.com/index.php/tribuna-libre/22379-las-claves-ocultas-de-la-politica-espanola-
The hidden keys of Spanish politics
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Joan Arnau
Spanish politics has become a hieroglyph. There have been unexpected changes, and security has given way to periodic shocks.
If we look only at the disputes between parties, we will not leave the confusion. The changes in Spanish politics are determined by a battle where the real opponents remain hidden. In it intervenes on the one hand the progress of a project of looting and degradation imposed on the blows that come from abroad, from the IMF or the European Commission, and on the other the resistance, especially from the social perspective faced with the cuts and that has acquired a decisive political representation.
This is the framework in which he is deciding the new version of a new political model.
As of 2010, the bipartisan model guaranteed by the War of the Nations for almost four decades begins to crack. The wave of cuts executed by Zapatero plunged the PSOE to historic minimums. Subsequently, the new attacks by the governments of Rajoy eroded social support for the PP. In response to the attacks, there has been a qualitative leap in the political representation of the majority of the people who face the cuts. If in 2008 it grouped 2.5 million votes, in 2016 it was 14.9, two out of three. Determining changes first in the municipal and autonomous governments, and then in the central government.
These two phenomena have shaped a new political map. It is no longer possible for a single one sufficient to govern to participate together. It is essential to take into account the electoral progress of the progressive majority. That is why it has been necessary to “open up” the political model, integrating at its highest levels as we can or Citizens.
The old bipartisan model can no longer be executed as before and a new one is being configured but it is not closed.
This is not a “dispute between politicians”. It affects everyone directly. The political model establishes the concrete form through which the country is governed, at the service of some or other interests.
What can not be discussed
Four political forces are presented as the pillars of a new political model: PP, PSOE, Podemos and Ciudadanos. The weight is usually put on the differences between them, which evidently exists. Little has to do Podemos, whose birth is linked to the opposition to the cuts, with the PP, which has executed them without much consideration.
But almost never done. All the people agree in accepting as an inescapable framework the limits that they can not discuss: the greater participation in the US military structure, through NATO; the main mandates of the EU; the greater degree of penetration and plundering of foreign capital; the bulk of the profits of the oligarchy, especially those of the banking and the main monopolies.
You can attack the Crown, but nobody, neither the “old” nor the “new” politician, has raised its voice against our participation in the NATO mission in the Baltic countries, despite the fact that a Spanish eurofighter is known It has fired a missile in Estonia. The inks are charged against corrupt as Bárcenas, but not a single word is said against the systematic plundering of foreign capital over national riches.
None of these four political functions are monolithic. It would be a mistake to value them for only one aspect. PSOE, and especially Podemos, we have, in their base of voters but also affiliates and registered, an important part of the majority of the social people who have positioned themselves against the cuts. It can be seen in each of the popular struggles, in which they participate prominently.
Even the PP, and especially Citizens, along with their more conservative features have a patriotic component, acting as a wall of contention against fragmentation attempts, especially in Catalonia.
But it is necessary to emphasize that there are some “rules of the game” that everyone must accept, from PP and PSOE to Ciudadanos y Podemos, in order to be admitted to the table of high politics.
A “controlled” reform … by whom?
In the last months, there have been extremely changes. Rajoy no longer resides in Moncloa, while Pedro Sánchez has gone from being defended by the PSOE apparatus to becoming president of the Government.
Everything is changing in Spanish politics, but under controlled forms and rhythms. Here the hecatomb of the old bipartisanship that has happened in Greece has not occurred. And it is not coincidence.
The keys to this controlled and “top-down” political reform were set in 2013. Then the response to the wave of cuts reached its zenith of mobilization, threatening to overflow. It was at that moment when an article entitled “Confidential Report to Ambassador Salomon” was published. Alan Salomon was then the American ambassador in Madrid. It affirmed that the US “can not allow a key military piece for North Africa like Spain to enter a period of uncontrolled political, social and economic destabilization.” And it was called that “as happened in the 70s with the transition”, the great imperialist powers with interests in Spain had to join together to “help and control the Spanish situation”, or “if necessary pilot this second transition in favor of: save and redirect the current partitocratic regime, or influence the reform of the Constitution (…) with or without the monarchy, in view of how events are decanting “. Warning about the absence of new leaders “not contaminated with the regime today failed”, but ensuring that, “when the time comes, the new protagonists of the reform will appear.”
We can read the later events from here. A powerful popular wind has broken out and imposed important changes. But we have also seen how the great centers of power, international and national, not only have not been left out of the changes but have taken the initiative to pilot them at the service of their interests.
The “old policy” bipartisan not only has not disappeared but in the last general continued to concentrate 55.69% of the vote, and all government alternatives pass either by the PSOE, or by the PP.
There has been a complete renewal of the “political caste”, extendable to the elites of the State. But it has been done “from above”. It was the Crown who initiated the process, with the arrival to the throne of Felipe VI. He was followed by a replacement of all the leaders of the main parties, left and now right, who already belong to the “post-transition” generation.
What is beginning to be drawn is a new political model where, in exchange for some concessions (greater transparency, limitation of corruption …), the political dominance of the great centers of power not only does not go bad but is strengthened.
In the first place, imposing permanent political instability and fragility. No possibility of a strong government, and with the main institutions of the State permanently questioned. Generating a weakness that facilitates intervention by the most powerful.
Second, by establishing a political model that subordinates even more Spain to Washington. Allowing a greater penetration of American capital in the national economy, or shielding our involvement in the Yankee military machine.
Third, trying to channel, eliminate or minimize the political and social influence of the popular organization. Attacking and marginalizing from unions to uncomfortable parties and revolutionary organizations.
It is not the first time this happens. It already happened in the transition, where the change to a democratic regime evidently brought more freedoms, which benefited all, but culminated in an “iron” political model where the power of the oligarchy or American hegemony became stronger.
There is nothing decided. We live in a particularly mobile political situation. The advance of the popular movement generates problems to the North American hegemonism and the Spanish oligarchy to definitively close the political model in the terms that they intend to establish.
This is the real political battle, beyond the disputes between parties, which is being decided today. And its final result is going to directly influence our lives.
Source: deverdaddigital.com
http://www.elespiadigital.com/index.php/noticias/historico-de-noticias/22485-economistas-2004-el-lobby-de-amigos-socialistas-en-el-que-se-cocino-el-doctorado-de-sanchez
Economistas 2004: the lobby of socialist friends in which Sánchez’s doctorate was ‘cooked’
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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2018 10:34 PrintPDF
It was a time of effervescence: in the mid-2000s, with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in Moncloa, a group of kids, young people, socialists, with briefcases in the institutions but without major responsibilities, met, talked, thinking about renewing the left. They shared little, except for two medals on their lapels: everyone was hungry politically and a degree in Economics.
They are the Economists 2004: graduates who directly influenced the economic policy of Spain and articulated, with their outputs, their parties, their laughter and ideas, much of the PSOE we know today. And Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, a kid from Madrid who all emphasized his good predisposition, was one of them.
There, between beers and confidences, the current president of the Government felt the call of the doctorate. Also that of landing some day in the race of the Jerónimos and, perhaps, in Moncloa. But if something was clear was how to get it. Or, at least, from whose hand.
Puppies of the old guard
The Economists 2004 were the puppies of the old socialist economic guard. Young people orbiting around one of the great gurus of the golden age of the PSOE, the government of Felipe González. All came from the same, the teams of ministers and secretaries of State, as they have related to EL ESPAÑOL sources close to the Executive of the time. Miguel Sebastián -who would be president of the Economic Office of Zapatero and Minister of Industry-, Soledad Núñez -exdirectora del Tesoro-, David Vergara -secretary of State of Economy-, Inmaculada Rodríguez-Piñero -secretary of Economic Policy and Employment in the PSOE – David Taguas – director of the Economic Office of Zapatero – and Javier Vallés – who would also accede to this last position – are just some of them: well-trained economists, who, for the most part, agreed to a privileged education at the University of Minnesota thanks to grants from the Bank of Spain. They were all friends, everyone took care of themselves.
They were divided between the University, private companies and Banking. Most worked in the study centers or the Bank of Spain or the BBVA. They wanted to modernize the left and managed to articulate much of Zapatero’s economic policy. His ideas were the baby check, for example, or the removal of the Heritage Tax.
When Sánchez was studying, in 2006, he came to Economists 2004. He was a colleague of several of them. I knew them, they got along well. They left, they entered, they shared time. Especially Carlos Mulas and Jesus Caldera, in the end, respectively, general director of the IDEAS Foundation, one, and Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, another.
Sánchez chooses side: always with Sebastián
Sanchez liked it. As a result of going out with them, he began to climb in the match. And he positioned himself: against the side of Pedro Solbes -with David Vergara and José Carlos Díez hand in hand-, the current president of the Government opted to take refuge with Miguel Sebastián. It would be the right decision for his interests: Sebastian enjoyed the absolute confidence of Zapatero and would auparía to the Ministry of Industry, after directing the Economic Office of the Presidency of the Government.
There, in Industry and Economists 2004, he also met Carlos Ocaña Orbis, known as Cocana, the co-author of his book The New Spanish Economic Diplomacy, which reflected his now-defunct doctoral thesis. He was Sebastian’s right hand in the Economic Office of the President of the Government; then he would go to Paradores and, finally, to the Industry portfolio as CEO. Ocaña himself, as he advanced this newspaper yesterday, claimed to know Sanchez only from this stage, when he had already finished the thesis. However, his co-authorship in the manual, as well as the gratitude of the socialist in the prologue, is there. “[My gratitude] to those who accompany me with their advice and the writing of the book, professors Francisco Aldecoa, Miguel Sebastián and Carlos Ocaña.”
Socialist sources consulted by this newspaper tell that “they are all that are being seen. The same nucleus of people. ” The influences flew; Favors due, too.
A thesis in the heat of the group
Sanchez’s doctoral thesis has always been hidden until this week. The President of the Government has tried, by active and passive, to clear the ball without showing the work, but his tactics have not taken effect. It always turns to the same core. Always to the same suspicions.
A little over a year ago, Vozpópuli published a version that would explain the prolonged silence of the socialist leader on his doctoral thesis. In April of 2017, this newspaper reported that one of Sánchez’s first mentors, Miguel Sebastián, Minister of Industry between 2008 and 2011, would have confessed in a private forum that the bulk of the book in which the thesis of the current President of the Government stands It would have been done with papers from that government department.
“90% of the book was done in the Ministry (of Industry),” Sebastian said in that meeting, but later, from the outside, he decried himself. Yes it is true one thing: that the content of the thesis is full of all kinds of references to those stages of government of the first decade of the 2000s, especially the phase of the presidency of Rodríguez Zapatero. And that the guard of Sebastián and de Economistas 2004 accompanied Sánchez in the presentation of those books and in his landing in the Administration a couple of months ago, too.
Source: Spanish
According to published La Tribuna de España, Sánchez Guitián would be the author of the Thesis of Pedro Sánchez
The Tribune of Spain publishes this article: José Miguel Sánchez Guitián, author of the book “Marca país, España una marca liquida” is the author of the Doctoral Thesis of Pedro Sánchez.
Much is being written about the authorship of Pedro Sánchez’s Doctoral thesis.
The Tribune of Spain has had knowledge -from sources of absolute solvency- that the real author of the doctoral thesis of President Sánchez would be José Miguel Sánchez Guitián, advisor to the Cabinet of the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Commerce, being – as we stated yesterday – Minister Miguel Sebastian.
Also, it’s quite a coincidence! Sánchez Guitián was responsible for the Image of Spain project.
This is the name that from the Executive of the PSOE and from La Moncloa is tried not to come to light: José Miguel Sánchez Guitián, who is currently a professor of Marketing and Communication at ESIC and the Master in Sports Management at Real Madrid at the European University of Madrid.
Precisely, Nieves Sánchez Guitián has risen to the Executive Secretariat of Entrepreneurship, Science and Innovation of the PSOE in the hands of Pedro Sánchez.
During the stage of Miguel Sebastián at the head of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce, José Miguel Sánchez Guitián was one of the strong men.
According to our sources, in just over six months the real author of the doctoral thesis of Pedro Sánchez would have completed a work that, if we read the bibliographic reviews of his book, is a true specialist. Pedro Sánchez had lost his seat as a deputy and needed a doctorate to be able to teach at the University.
Analysis: Dr. Sánchez, against the ropes
Jesus Cacho
“In my community, where we share property with the Sánchez-Gómez couple, we have created a whatsaap group to play paddle tennis, and I have just written to my classmates this boutade,” a resident of Pozuelo de Alarcón, Prado de Somosaguas, told me yesterday. , Tramontana street, floors above 700,000 euros: “Put Peter in the group immediately; I think it’s back by Saturday. ” The pozueleño certainly sins of optimism, although the situation of his notorious convecino is certainly rushed. Pedro Sanchez is today literally against the ropes, like those boxers who have received a right hook in the temple and seek, the lost look, the corner of his coach imploring the saving gong as soon as possible. The President of the Government who claimed to come to regenerate political life has lied to the Spaniards, and has done so twice, three times or four times with the famous theodore thesis that he promised yesterday, forcefully hang, make available to anyone who wants to consult it. after having kept it for years under seven keys.
The session in the Congress of September 12, 2018 will pass to the annals of our parliamentarism as that which served to unmask an imposter. Albert Rivera hit where it hurts the most when he sensed the bare flank of the defender of the title, and he accused the blow losing the papers. He revealed the body language, that rictus that tenses his jaw to turn his teeth into stones, and that threatening finger of “you’re going to find out”, the colt of a gunman about to pull the trigger, who remembers so many other gestures The Carrera de San Jerónimo in dramatic historical times today happily surpassed. You are going to find out. As yesterday revealed ABC with evidence, Sanchez plagiarized in 2012 a good part of his doctoral thesis. In the 342 pages of the same, “there are dozens of demonstrative short-tapes” and “full paragraphs of works and articles by other authors published a few years before, plus full official reports without quotation marks, including a computer presentation by the Ministry of Industry when its holder was the socialist Miguel Sebastián “.
“Sanchez incurred literal plagiarism, plagiarism mosaic-a puzzle of various publications to which only altered a few words, and autoplagios, a practice that is further aggravated because he literally copied old articles signed with a second person to which, without However, do not quote. With this method, Sanchez completed entire pages of his thesis, to the point that the vast majority could have been an immense quoted “(…)” Ethically, the thesis is a fraud and a bore without any academic value, than in other countries it implies the resignation of its author. It is incomprehensible that he had the highest rating. ” Indeed, in a country with a greater democratic tradition than ours, this man should have gone home just yesterday, because someone who is capable of plotting this fraud can not be president of the Government of Spain. It lacks credibility at all. The cases are numerous. In March 2011, the German Defense Minister, Karl T. Zu Guttenberg, 39, was forced to leave office after the Süddeutsche Zeitung published the evidence of partial plagiarism of his doctoral thesis in Law. A hard blow for the Executive of Angela Merkel.
The rennet of our character (“I am a clean politician”, February 24, 2015) took him on Wednesday, saddle on pack, to lie in parliament to hold, in the world of Google, that his thesis was available in the Teseo database, when any Spaniard could verify that what was there was just the tab of it. The gentleman who has forced to resign a minister of the pile for a take me a master of Juan Carlos I, can not continue at the head of the Government after having lied about his doctoral thesis, issue more relevant as it empowers for university education, through a work that, for the most part, he did not write and that, in addition, plagiarized. “The question is if you are going to assume your responsibilities and if you are going to resign. The question is whether this democracy can afford the luxury of being two years more chained to the corruption of the PP. I do not think so”. This is how Sanchez told Rajoy on the memorable day of May 30 last. Change the corruption of the PP, for that of the PSOE and, more specifically, for the personal and non-transferable of Pedro Sánchez Castejón. This was the one who came to regenerate democratic life and call elections. Neither one nor the other.
Pedro’s thesis and the remains of Franco
If the guy were smart, in addition to being honest, he would go right now dissolving the Houses and calling elections, with the objective of minimizing electoral damages for his party. But we are facing a survivor, a hustler, a psychopath of power who is not going to get out of office for anything in the world. A cold and manipulative guy, too, who will try to resist muddy the field-on Wednesday, Rivera punishes his chin in the morning and in the afternoon he returns the cake to a married man who passed by and walks through Spanish politics with A hand tied behind his back for what we all know. Embarking the field and endorsing the Spaniards cup and media of populism via historical memory and others. The scandal of the thesis ruined yesterday the great agitprop operation of the Executive, the approval by Congress of the decree for the exhumation of the remains of Franco. It is understood the cabreo of Carmen Calvo, Carmen the one of Goat, the one of “the public money is not of anybody”, that portento, screaming by the corridors of the Camera, “the thesis of Pedro, the thesis of Pedro, as if in this country there would be no more important things than Pedro’s thesis, when we have just approved the most important law of democracy …! ”
His stubbornness, his obstinacy, could make the PSOE pay a high price in electoral terms. The honeymoon is over. The truth of a government of very low level, forced to disprove continuously, came to light. There are those who already speak at the PSOE to forget May, because it is probably necessary to coincide with Andalusian generals this November. Surveys have been dramatically turned around. And it would be nice if the electorate gave a new lesson to a party whose militancy has been able to elevate, behind Zapatero, a much more dangerous guy than Zapatero, a guy who has been portrayed full-length on an issue, if they hurry me , minor, a chuminada to the Capone, being so that the great culprit of the scandal that occupies us is a University, the Spanish one, that vitiated, inbreeding and at odds with excellence, continues to be a separate body, a strange entity far from worries of the Spaniards for the future. Arde Sánchez burned at the stake of his plagiarized thesis, while the holy company of a country besieged by very serious problems-pensions, public debt, unemployment, spending reform, territorial organization, Catalan nationalism and its torches-continues parading between the general indifference. Things of Spain.
Source: Vozpopuli
http://www.institutodeestrategia.com/articulo/politica/pasado-presente-bases-militares-americanas/20170906100559005742.html
Institute of Strategy S.L.P.
What happened to the American bases in Spain?
A US destroyer at the Rota naval base.
A US destroyer at the Rota naval base.
The United States founded NATO in 1948 for two purposes. The first is to prevent European countries, weakened after the 2nd GG, from falling under the political influence of the USSR. The second is to provide military bases for a possible open confrontation and spearheads for its expansion in Europe.
UNITED STATES GEOPOLITICS SPAIN MILITARY BASES
Institute of Strategy S.L.P.REDACCIÓN10: 05 06/09/17
The Spain-USA defensive agreement of 26/9/53 (article HA), signed by Alberto Martín Artajo, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and the US ambassador, James Clement Dunn, is one of the three agreements framed in the so-called Pact from Madrid. By the same USA they manage to install military bases in Spain and close the clamp on the Mediterranean. The agreement is presented by the fascist regime as a model of mutual aid, military and economic, between “both powers”, courageous propaganda. Secret clauses reserved to the USA the initiative and unilateral use. The USA began to invest and build military bases and installations. It maintained the sovereignty of the bases and, in spite of participating personnel of both countries, they were governed by the American laws. The repercussions of the accords conferred on Spain the status of vassalage and the possibility of going to war automatically if the USA did.
In 1963, with the signing of the Joint Declaration, the bases became Spanish sovereignty. It has resulted in the recognition of Spain as a strategic ally, confirmed by the construction of NASA’s satellite tracking center and Robledo de Chavela espionage center, Madrid, and the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Zorita, Guadalajara. In spite of this, the American jurisdiction remains. The American plans for Spain were great judging by the investment.
Since 1973, with the arrival of satellite technology, most bases and surveillance posts are obsolete and are gradually being transferred to the Spanish army.
In 1986, despite decades of joint maneuvers, Spain enters NATO. The novelty of the pact is that the NATO organization controls the bases, not the United States. But if the United States controls NATO, the change is not substantial. We translated, USA no longer had to maintain personnel or facilities because the subcontractor Spain did it for her. They came out cheaper.
Of all are known American military bases of NATO in Spain, Torrejón de Ardoz, now of civilian use with some services to NASA, Zaragoza base now Spanish that gives support to the American needs and Rota and Morón of the border as military bases NATO permanent But what about those other minor facilities that the USA also uses?
AMERICAN MILITARY BASES AND INSTALLATIONS
San Pablo (Seville), air base. In 1957, the Seville airport was included in the Hispano-American Agreement to install a supply base there. A track was used, which was left out of the civil service. Works were carried out in the terminal and control tower. It was dedicated to training and military tests, hence it had a large military hospital, built around 63. The military airport was converted into a civilian in the 90s and continues to operate until today. CIVIL USE.
Ferrol, A Coruña. Shipyard dedicated since its inauguration to the construction of warships. Through the cooperation contract in 53, the Spanish government begins the construction of ships with American technology, so it has some access to it. Due to the low cost of labor and its good strategic position for transatlantic travel had to expand, modernize their facilities and train their workers, of which some traveled to the USA to start new technologies. Currently managed by the company NAVANTIA, of the IZAR group, it manufactures ships for military purposes. US MILITARY.
Cartagena (Murcia) base of technical and recreational stopovers of US ships operating in the Mediterranean, the VI Fleet. In 1944, the United States donated a forty-bed Campaign Hospital that functioned in the San Pedro Claver Bastion in Cartagena, which was then named the Naval War Hospital, where it operated until March 1, 1980. without undergoing any modification. CIVIL AND MILITARY USE.
The military shipyards of Cartagena are oriented towards the construction of special ships, such as submarines and cazaminas. NAVANTIA also has in this area a factory specialized in the production, sale and maintenance of diesel engines for different applications: ships, tanks, electric power plants, cogeneration plants and railway traction. MILITARY USE.
Puig Major (mallorca) military bases of the Air Force. Puig Major is the highest mountain in Mallorca, with a height of 1,445 m, and is the culminating peak of the Sierra de Tramuntana, with restricted access. Its radar gives an image of Gibraltar to Malta even though today’s satellites It has higher resolution. The building is located right at the top of the peak that gives it its name and is a military radar tower. Built and installed by the Americans in 1958. There are doubts about the nature of the military installations and whether the responsibility falls on the Spanish or American army. MILITARY USE PRESUMIBLY SPANISH.
Minorca. In 1825 the Americans managed to fix, in a stable way, the naval base of Mahón, the first base overseas that they created outside their borders. Although part of the installations has been granted for civilian use, its military use is maintained. The Americans have indicated that in the Balearic Islands there is one of the best submarine bases in the world “and you do not know how to take advantage of it”. MILITARY USE PRESUMIBLY SPANISH.
Guardamar de Segura, Alicante. In the Campo de Guardamar the American army installed in 1962 a radio antenna, “the tower of the Americans”, 370 meters high and 475 meters above the sea, and belonging to the Spanish Navy. Your transmitter is controlled from the base of Rota. After the first Gulf War the US Army stopped using these facilities whose ownership was transferred to the Spanish Navy, which called the base “Camp Santa Ana” and currently belongs to the Spanish Navy. Its main objective is to control the maritime traffic in the Mediterranean, especially that of the fleet of submarines, since they have their main base very close, in the Port of Cartagena. Nowadays it is located a few meters from homes and urbanizations. MILITARY USE.
In the Sierra de la Aitana, between the municipalities of Alcoleja and Confrides, Alicante, is the Aerial Surveillance Squadron EVA No. 5 with Radio Naval Station. Located at 1558 m, the highest mountain in the province. Its construction began in 1957 and ended in 1960. It was the result of the bilateral agreement between Spain and the US in 1953. In 1964, the base was definitively ceded by the United States, becoming property of the Navy. The Aitana radar guides the maritime and air navigation of NATO towards the Middle East and a large part of the Maghreb. In February 2007, it was published in the Diario Información, the intention of the Ministry of Defense to dismantle the military base of the Air Force of the Sierra de Aitana, in order to optimize resources. DEPRESSED
Sonseca, Toledo, is part of the global network of detectors of Soviet nuclear explosions warning of possible underground experiments. It is currently a seismological research laboratory. CIVIL USE.
Inoges in the municipality of El Frasno, Zaragoza. Air base. Its construction begins in 1955 and ends in 59. An aerial squadron of the USAF and a radar installation were deployed. In 1963, the American personnel moved, leaving a small group of USAF officers as advisors and moving to Spanish control. Even in 1986 the protests against the military installations occupied by the Yankees are maintained. The base remains operative. MILITARY USE.
Smoky Tropospheric station installed in the Santos de la Humosa, near Alcalá de Henares. It was and is a central part of the communications network coordination. In the 1980s its control functions go to Napoleols, the seat of Western defense in the Mediterranean. MILITARY USE.
Gorramendi (navarra) and El Frasno (Zaragoza) were sites of the old tropospheric communication network “486L, MEDCOM” of the USAF. There were also stations in Guardamar de Segura (Murcia), San Pablo (Seville) and Los Santos de la Humosa (Madrid). MILITARY USE.
Elizondo, navarra, Base of Alert and Control of the army of the air. Right now demolished and in ruins. DEPRESSED
Stake of Bars, naval base, galicia. This base was opened in 1962 to operate a LORAN (LOng Range Aid to Navigation) system. In 1978 it passes to the USAF. The base functioned as a communications station until 1991. Planned for its demolition for 2007 today, these facilities are in ruins. Almost since its inauguration it was the source of all kinds of myths and legends, and it was said that nuclear submarines were located there. DEPRESSED
L’Estarit, (Baix Empordà), naval base also belonging to the LORAN system. Located in the rocamaura mountain. The base was abandoned in 1994. The demolition of the antenna of the military base culminated in May 98 the dismantling of the military base. In recent years, only a system of orientation of ships by radio operated that the satellites left obsolete. the NATO bombers had a center of follow-up and coordination, between America, Europe and South Africa. There were other centers more camouflaged and of greater strategic interest, distributed throughout Europe. DEPRESSED
FRANCO OFFICIAL VISIT OF EISENHOWER IN 1959 PHOTO CIFRA GRAFICAEisenhower official visit to Spain in 1959.
CONCLUSIONS
In 1953 the regime gave in to the Americans. For a long time movements of approach between both regimes were observed. The bankruptcy of the Spanish state accelerates the process. Access to the installation of foreign forces in exchange for economic aid. In addition, foreign heavy industry starts to be installed thanks to the low cost of labor.
In 1963 the USA installed a nuclear plant in Spain, its strategic value is incalculable. Technology and operators were Americans. In 1968 Spain adheres to the treaty of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. This does not prevent the Americans from continuing with their own nuclear policy by making use of the bases installed. Nor does it extinguish the Spanish claims of having the capacity to build a nuclear bomb.
Inoges, Sóller, Estaca de Bares, Menorca, are points of support for the general telecommunications network serving the Hunosa base. The radar and antenna system was part of a flight tracking network for a possible nuclear war with Russia. In this war each country was a piece of the puzzle and whether they wanted it or not they had a place on the global map. USA had special interest in Spain for its privileged position in the Mediterranean: closing valve and first transatlantic scale.
At the end of the 70s the American military bases in Spain cease to be of interest due to the obsolete radar technology. 2 airports are now for civil use. The bases 2 of maritime tracking LORAN demolished, 2 bases of aerial surveillance, Elizondo and that of the Sierra de la Aitana demolished. The rest of the operative bases. The 2 Shipyards have been reconverted and part of their business goes to the private company, which also shows the interest of this in the military.
It is important to highlight the importance of the position of the Balearic Islands for the American Mediterranean development. It is not possible to determine if the bases installed have or do not part of American personnel.
NATO reconverted the military sector, it was “sanitized”. It got rid of the bases of less value and strengthened those of greater. The Americans, thanks to the treaty, of which they contribute 25% of the budget, manage, on the one hand, to control allies. On the other hand control your enemies. Lastly, the countries where he has invested in facilities and equipment are paying for part of their wars, such as in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia or Libya.
Because of its ideological proximity, the United States “the country of freedom” does not find it difficult to ally and promote fascist regimes, as is the case of Franco’s Spain, Batista’s Cuba, Pinochet’s Chile, Somoza’s Nicaragua, the Iraq of Saddam Hussein and a long etcetera of dictatorships throughout the world. After 70 he realized that the military dictatorship model did not work, since he found too much resistance in the town, which prevented its exploitation. Little by little, the political model is changed to that of Representative Democracies; Banana Republics.
Spain has signed contracts for the sale of military weapons with the countries we are supposed to defend. Business is business.
The army, far from disappearing is strengthened. With each improvement your control capacity increases. In recent times it has transferred part of its power to the police forces, which have been militarized as equipment and tactics. There is no doubt that war is now on the streets.
https://www.farodevigo.es/sociedad/2018/09/06/global-hawk-mayor-dron-espia/1956983.html
A Global Hawk, the largest spy drone in the US, crashed off the Galician coast on June 26
The Pentagon has kept secret this accident of its largest unmanned military aircraft so far
Rafa López 06.09.2018 | 12:53
A Global Hawk, the largest unmanned aircraft in the United States, crashed off the Galician coast on June 26. The US Air Force had not provided information about the accident so far, when it has confirmed it through its security center. “The investigation into what happened is still under way,” Josh A. Aycock, head of public affairs at the US Air Force Security Center, confirmed. “It is the policy of the Department of Defense and Air Force not to discuss the analyzes.” , findings or recommendations of security investigations, in order to protect the investigation process. ”
Who has revealed this accident exclusively is the prestigious analyst Tyler Rogoway, director of The War Zone, a portal dependent on the publishing group of the magazine “Time”. According to this expert, the RQ-4 Global Hawk, whose cost is estimated at around 200 million euros per unit, crashed in waters west of Spain on June 26. A salvage operation recovered the unmanned aircraft from the seabed and packed what was left of the aircraft for transport back to the United States and for inspection through the US naval base in Rota (Cádiz). “Beyond these scattered and unconfirmed details, we really do not know what circumstances surrounded this setback,” Rogoway says.
The RQ-4 Global Hawk, built by the American company Northrop Grumman, is a drone that plays a role similar to the U-2 of Lockheed, the legendary spy plane that was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960 and that discovered the missiles Soviets in Cuba two years later. The Global Hawk has been in service for 20 years and carries out missions for the United States Air Force, for NATO and for NASA. It has been widely used in the airspace of Ukraine, the northern Black Sea and the eastern Mediterranean, near the coast of Syria. It measures 14.50 meters in length and almost 40 in span. It can fly at 65,000 feet (20,000 meters) in height.
A recent evolution of the RQ-4 Global Hawk is the MQ-4C Triton, in service since last May and specialized in maritime surveillance.
The quick rescue operation, carried out in total secrecy, is explained by the cutting edge technology of the Global Hawk, which the US military command wants to avoid falling into the hands of its enemies. For the Pentagon it is a great loss, in addition, because of its high cost. This accident occurred one year after the event occurred on June 21, 2017 near the peak of Mount Whitney, the second highest in the United States, in California.
The “Global Hawk” can supervise in a single day an area of 100,000 square kilometers, equivalent to that of Iceland. It has state-of-the-art radars and electro-optical / infrared sensors. His baptism of war, even as a prototype, was the conflict in Afghanistan, which began in 2001, as a consequence of 9/11.
Fantastic resource, Davidthegalician. Thank you very much for airing your thoughts and providing these articles.
Once again, the venality and sheer unadulterated horror of USA full-spectrum dominance is laid bare. It is interesting to compare the very different but also parallel tracks of the USA;s establishing and then cementing dominance over West Germany (thwarted over the whole by the Red Army’s speed), Italy (no resistance and very quickly turned into, both (i) a deep and clandestine centre of USA operations to solidify its military and geopolitical control over W/C Europe in the postwar decades, and (ii) on the surface, a phoney country with its heart ripped out and its culture diminished into Disney-Italy. Spain’s “neutrality” and dictatorship to some extent spared it the total ravaging of its culture postwar that Italy suffered, even whole the operations described in the above articles were being effected by the USA. The USA’s plans and patience continue unabated (and apparently invisible to some who ought to know better), with the 86-98 destruction and pillaging of the SU, the colonisation of the EE former Warsaw Pact countries, the perversion of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia (soon), Moldova (soon). The USA’s plan for Britain is going rather well too, and again virtually undetected by those who should know better..
They will all sleep just fine. Untill the final sleep that is and then they forget what rest even means
These so-called “socialist” sociopaths lose neither siesta sleep nor night sleep. Their only night terrors are what they visit on the hapless people of Yemen.
Better yet, write a letter to the Trade Union federation of Valencia and maybe the dockworker’s union that will load these weapons and the train worker’s union that will transport them. At least those are trees worth barking up because in the long run they are on the losing track to nowhere by supporting the globalist imperium.
A pro peace ,pro humanity gesture by an European ,NATO member country, could start sobering up and induce reflection and even hope on an European population,now deathly ill with fatalism ,with the idea and acceptance of it ,that WW III is inevitable ; with another idea.The idea that WE ,all Human Beings alive in these times are masters of our own destiny and can influence the Governments that supposedly represent US and protect US.
President Pedro Sanchez should ask the question to the Spanish public.
A noble article. However, it does not explain the reasons for the war in Yemen. The point is that Saudi oil reserves are becoming depleted. You cannot export huge amounts of oil and expect to have huge amounts remaining. According to one analyst, the Saudi Government has inflated it’s official figures on oil reserves by as much as 80 %. We thus have the war in Yemen. Yes, Yemen is poor, but it does possess huge amounts of untouched oil reserves, which both Saudi Arabia and the West want, free of charge of course. We thus have war and death.
The war in Yemen is an example of drastic double standards by the West, and old policy. When the Skripal false flag was initiated in England, Russia got condemnation and sanctions. When it comes to the war in Yemen, the Saudi Government gets a heap of weapons for some more aggression, leading to the plunder of oil.
Well, there may be other reasons as well, such as Ramin [Peter Koenig is the author of this article. Mod] could write about, as there are Shia in Yemen, while the Sauds are Sunni, oppressing their Shia populations. Iran is a factor in the war. Also, Yemen is a geopolitical choke point. Saudis want so own it, or half of it.
Verdict: Social Democracy in a nutshell. Stalin’s brilliant assessment of it as being ”the moderate wing of fascism” rings truer than ever. Exports of armaments and raw material (such as iron ore) for the benefit of fascist reaction internationally and, as a minor bonus, reduced unemployment at home are the most salient features of Social Democracy in action, beautifully in lockstep with its flat refusal to lend any support — especially in military terms — to wars of liberation. Just look at the despicable stances taken by European Social Democracy with regard to Spain’s civil war and, most conspicuously, the anti-colonial struggles of the subjugated peoples outside Europe. Pedro Sánchez represents nothing new here whatsoever.
I usually don’t promote self-congratulatory tales about Sweden as the world’s ’moral superpower’, but the fact of the matter is that Olof Palme was the proverbial exception that proved the rule. He was held in considerably high esteem in much of the Third World; Latin America especially. He did speak up against US imperialism’s terror and lawlessness and offered armed support to the Vietnamese. Eventually, the burning hatred from Swedish Nazis and NATOists cost Olof Palme his life. Britain’s Corbyn seems to have learned the lesson accordingly.
he fought for nuclear disarmement, ending aparteid, and free palestine
he got killed.
”The Spaniards, having gone themselves through ten years of foreign imposed economic austerity hardship, an economic warfare of sorts, are more awake than believing dishonesties that serve the capitalist, profit-seeking war industry.”
Yes, it seems as if Western imperialism’s stunts tend to backfire in Spain. It was a truly stunning, highly perceptive answer coming from Spain’s anti-war movement right in the wake of the attack in 2004 on Madrid’s Atocha railway station, where the utter imbecile Aznar was trying to implicate Al Qaeda: ”Your war, our dead”. This forms an excellent template for the violent times Europe is facing.
I don’t really know what to think about this article…
AFAIK, Russia and China, presented in this blog and elsewhere as leaders of the struggle against the Evil Empire and their petrodollar recycling Saudi vassals routinely sell arms to Saudi Barbaria, Israel, etc. Now, the Spanish president at least tries to take a moral stance and this is a cause of criticism???
BTW, all mainstream Spanish politicians are sold and MSM are sold to the globalist, pro EU, pro Zionist, pro USA muppetmasters.
Peter – you left out Israel here –
“…wiped out by the world’s most criminal monster nations, the Saudis, supported by the US, UK, France specifically, and more generally, by NATO. ..”
Israel and Saudi Arabia are doing business like never before – in times past the Saudis also shunned Israel like the rest of the ME – but now they are like blood brothers.
Koenig knows what he is talking about. The dog/tail analogy is total codswallop and not only “the wrong way round” but Israel is not even an appendage of the evil hound of war, but merely a tiny turd dangling from the doggie-derriere that can and will be shaken off in time*. [*Incidentally, this is something the RF well understands.]
But the dog/tail analogy suits those with a certain agenda, who continually strive to divert attention away from the one-and-only true enemy of the world, the festering, pustulous boil at the far-west of the world map, which one day will need a hard thump where it hurts, like all bullies do.
Pedro Sanchez is prime minister not president. Spain is a kingdom
sorry, but you are wrong.
the name and function is “President of the Goverment”
it is similar to a prime minister, but there are some diferences.
Spain is a kingdom, yes but with a parliamentary constitutional Monarchy.
the king is head of state but has very few Powers.
Mr Sanchez don’t really give a damn for yemenis or spanish Workers… all that is “Pecata Minuta” (little sins) of no interest for him. he is much more concern with beng keep in his position as President (a presidency he obtained with the help of left extremist, catalan and vasco independentist, a his own party, in an incredible ideological tutti frutti with the sole objetive to oust the old President) at all costs.
He is the spanish president in history with the weakest position (his party runs only 80 seats in a parliament of 375) and is ignoring the call of the population for new elections (he promised that once the old president were ousted, and him in the presidency, he will call for new elections in less than 3 months) he has but forgot all the promises he made, lied, and just keep going… but who’s surprissed?
He is, after 100 days in the presidency, saying that he hopes to end the legislature time (2 more years, no matter that he have no help from his sympathizers, as the groups that help him have different agendas and ideologies, and none off curse from the now opposition parties) and trying to survive the scandal of his PH D (looks like he have a Ph D in economics that was “cooked” by the CJc university, very “Socialist friendly”) that it is full of irregularities, and it might cost him dearly .
The good thing is: if he stay two more years he is going to destroy his party in the process, leaving the socialist like France, as 4th or 5th party in the elections. and probably self preservation feeling from other Socialist is going to finish him… after all there are a lot of them in the Regional Governments that are risking their positions
because of his presidential lust.
So, Yemen is very far away, and there is almost no news about it in TV or newspapers… there is going to be a selling of the bombs and the corvettes. they say in spanish “ojos que no ven, corazon que no siente” (roughly translated as: “if you do not see it, you do not feel a damn about it”)
Hence why I support the independence of Catalan or of Scotland or the break up of the U.S. these Western countries are immoral and corrupt beyond all hope. Better for the world if Western countries where broken in to smaller, weaker and less dangerous political entities.
do you really believe that smaller countries are less corrupt?
that is a little bit naive, dont you think…
the hidden motives behind the Catalan independence movement it is that their “leaders” have been stealing big and are now scared to be taking into account. there is a motive the old unofficial name of the independentist party was “the 3% party” which have to be dissolved due to the judicial processes against them…
also old president Pujol family came with a fortune of 2 billions after 20 years in the presidency … taking into account that his father was a Taylor (or something like that) it is quite an ammount.