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+--- Thread: U.S. ambassador interferes in Romanian impeachment process (/thread-9562.html)
U.S. ambassador interferes in Romanian impeachment process - Ed Jewett - 13-07-2012
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[TD]July 6-8, 2012 -- U.S. ambassador interferes in Romanian impeachment process
The contrast could not be more stark. When the Paraguayan Congress impeached and tossed out left-wing President Fernando Lugo, the U.S. embassy in Asuncion did not raise any objections, and, in fact, is rumored to have backed the "institutional coup."
However, now that Romania's socialist-dominated parliament is working to impeach that nation's right-wing President Traian Basescu, the U.S. ambassador to Romania, Mark Gitenstein, a former U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbyist and major bundler of corporate campaign cash to the Democratic Party and Barack Obama, is running interference for Basescu.
The Romanian government of Prime Minister Victor Ponta has been accused of trying to pack the Constitutional Court in an effort to toss out Basescu. However, what has people like Gitenstein vexed is that Ponta and his government wants to scrap the terms of an International Monetary Fund deal that has brought austerity and all of its intended evils to Romania. The global bankers have retaliated against Ponta's government by driving down the value of the Romania currency, the leu. Such currency speculation has been honed into an art form over the decades by global hedge fund mogul George Soros, whose CIA-linked non-governmental organizations operate freely in Romania and support politicians like Basescu.
Ponta's Social Liberal Union accuses Basescu of overstepping his authority by ordering austerity cuts to the budget over the head of parliament.
Gitenstein has warned Ponta's government against impeaching Basescu, couching his language by stating the "independence of democratic institutions" must be respected. By "democratic institutions," Gitenstein means the Romanian presidency and the Constitutional Court, which are clearly in the hands of the bankers, the interests of which Gitenstein seeks to protect. Gitenstein represents a new breed of activist U.S. ambassadors who insert themselves into the domestic political affairs of the countries to which they are posted. Gitenstein's involvement in the Romanian impeachment process is akin to the then-Romanian ambassador in Washington coming to the defense of President Bill Clinton and openly criticizing the Congress over Clinton's impeachment.
Basescu stands accused of plagiarizing his doctoral thesis. What makes Gitenstein's defense of Basescu so ironic is that for many years Gitenstein was a top aide to then-Senator Joseph Biden. Gitenstein worked for Biden's Senate Judiciary Committee during the senator's aborted 1988 presidential run, during which it was discovered that Biden plagiarized a speech by British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock. Apparently, plagiarism is considered a virtue by Gitenstein since he has now come to the rescue of another plagiarist, Basescu.
Gitenstein, who was a member of the Obama-Biden transition team, was originally slated to head the Department of Justice's office of Legal Policy under Attorney General Eric Holder. However, Gitenstein's work for the Chamber of Commerce and work for the law firm Mayer Brown highlighted his ultimate intentions: to gut anti-corporate fraud federal laws, including the False Claims Act. Gitenstein's work for Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Boeing resulted in his desire to amend the False Claims Act to protect government contractors from heavy fines arising from contract fraud. The law had been in existence since the Lincoln administration.
Public opposition to Gitenstein resulted in his being denied the Justice Department position and, instead, he was nominated as ambassador to Romania.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20120706
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U.S. ambassador interferes in Romanian impeachment process - Peter Lemkin - 13-07-2012
Uncle Sam has always worked on the right for the ultra-right; despite their always being on the wrong side of law, morality, history and the will of the majority of the People.