What's happening in Greece right now

[Magda Hassan]

BUSTED - Tsipras' Side By Side With T.Miller & D. Speckhard - What The Greek Media Purposely Ignored

The following article is based on an article that was published in the Parapolitika newspaper, but we have added quite a bit to it so that you can have a better understanding of what is going on. THIS IS A MUST READ.

"Public banks are not here to rescue friends and the former ambassador to the US from politicians who organize meals at Zappeion." It has been a while since we heard SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras rant and rave with statements such as the above against figures such as Evangelos Venizelos, (who heard this when he was the Finance Minister under the George Papandreou government in regards to the Proton Bank scandal). At the time, Tsipras pointed to Lavrentis Lavrentiadis (who today is at the Korydallos prison on charges of the creation and management of an organized criminal organization, money-laundering, fraud and embezzlement) as well as to the former Ambassador and Chairman of the bank Daniel Speckhard (yes the same man who was once the US Ambassador to Athens and who sent a multitude of controversial letters to Washington as indicated by various Wikileaks cables).

Apparently, the 38 year old leader of SYRIZA came to the realization after his trip to the US that all of the above scandalous controversy is passe and far too boring. Today Tsipras is too busy with other more serious matters and rather ignores things that deal with corruption, money-laundering and embezzlement. In fact his main focus today is simply to cultivate his international profile!

Don't kid yourselves, this is a tough job!

One of the highlights of Tsipras tour in the US is his visit on January 22 to the famous American-Hellenic Institute. It was an event that journalists strangely avoided and only subtly mentioned.

Now why is that?

The event should not have been of any interest, but oh boy was the press wrong! It was more than interesting since two former (and very controversial) US Ambassadors to Greece were also present, or specifically, Mr. Daniel Speckhard and Mr. Thomas Miller and they even took the time to take their picture taken with Tsipras who was really loving the moment (as seen in the photo).


Who are these two controversial ambassadors, and why all the fuss about the photo?

The best thing to do is to start from the beginning.

On August 3, 2001, Thomas Miller was appointed by former US President George W. Bush to be Ambassador to Greece. He took up the position on October 8, 2001, and held it until he left the post on December 23, 2004. On the other hand, Daniel Speckhard was sworn in as US Ambassador to Greece on November 7, 2007 and arrived in Athens on November 15, 2007, where he served until 2010.


Thomas Miller

Thomas Miller served on the same Board of Directors at Lampsa SA -which owns the Grande Bretagne Hotel in Athens- with none other than Nikos Papandreou, or the brother of the former President of PASOK, George Papandreou. The Lampsa company is owned by the Laskaridis family.

According to Antinews, Niko joined the Board in July 2003 but he suddenly (and mysteriously) decided to quit in October 2009 when his brother George Papandreou came to power.

A little while later Miller left as well but the friendship has always remained. Miller currently serves as Director of the Washington, DC office of Independent Diplomat which is a non-profit organization founded in 2004 by former British diplomat Carne Ross to give advice and assistance in diplomatic strategy and technique to governments and political groups - such as providing 'freelance' diplomats to unrecognized governments (i.e. governments of seceded or proto-states that do not (yet) have international recognition, and usually have little experience in dealing with international bureaucracy). Its projects have included: helping Kosovo achieve recognition as a new state, the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, etc., and the Turkish occupied section of Northern Cyprus. - Wikipedia

Over the years, Miller often visited the Balkans, especially Albania and his activities there, according to Parapolitika, are a complete mystery. Nonetheless, rumors claim that he was very interested in the casino industry (something that Mr. Laskaridis is also active in).

According to kourdistoportocali, Thomas Miller climbed the ladder of success in Washington when his immediate boss, Richard Holbrooke, when, acting as charge d'affaires at the Embassy in Athens (in September 1995 due to the absence of the then Ambassador Thomas Niles), was active in the consultations that led to the signing of the Interim Agreement between Greece and FYROM (13.09.1995).

During the US invasion of Iraq and as ambassador to Athens Miller intervened by asking Greek American community members, to make representations to Athens, to stop the anti-war and anti-Americanism movements (and/or protests). But after the war, and the dismantling of the notorious November 17 terrorist organization -as well as the successful Athens 2004 Olympic Games - he was quoted in interviews as saying that anti-war movements, or protests, were not a manifestation of Antiamericanism.

When Mr. Miller's diplomatic run ended, he undertook projects on behalf of the Turkish occupied area of Cyprus, and was apparently involved in handling the sinful C4i case.

According to reports, when he was US Ambassador to Athens, Mr. Miller -who opened the doors to ministerial offices with ease- promoted American companies such as Lockheed Martin, as well as Motorola (allied friends with Socrates Kokkalis' Intracom company). He also became involved with a security system which was not only costly to the Greek state, but wasn't ever completed nor delivered on time to serve as the center of security for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. But idiotic Greek tax payers paid for it anyway.

Finally a fresh article from kourdistoportocali claims that Thomas Miller is also the man who is up to his neck in the wiretapping scandal (against Costas Karamanlis) which cost the life of former Network Planning Manager for Vodafone Costas Tsalikidis.

Who is Tsakalidis? Keep on reading...

"On March 9, Kostas Tsalikidis, was found dead in an apparent suicide. According to several experts questioned by the Greek press, Tsalikidis was a key witness in the investigation of responsibility of the wiretaps. Family and friends believe there are strong indications he was the person who first discovered that highly sophisticated software had been secretly inserted into the Vodafone network. Tsalikidis had been planning for a while to quit his Vodafone job but told his fiancée not long before he died that it had become "a matter of life or death" that he leave, says the family's lawyer, Themis Sofos. There is speculation that either he committed suicide because of his involvement in the tapping of the phones, or he was murdered because he had discovered, or was about to discover, who the perpetrators were. After a four-month investigation of his death, a Supreme Court prosecutor Dimitris Linos said that the death of Tsalikidis was directly linked to the scandal. "If there had not been the phone tapping, there would not have been a suicide," he said." Reference (Greek Watergate Scandal- US Embassy behind phone-tapping of Karamanlis)

Daniel Speckhard

According to Parapolitika, following his run as Ambassador to Athens, Daniel Speckhard became the non-executive chairman of the Greek Proton Bank - between the period February 1, 2011 until August 19, 2011. He assumed this position at a time when Lavrentis Lavrentiadis was having trouble with his second largest shareholder Mr. Ant. Athanasoglou.

Apart from being a managing partner at WEM Global Investment Inc, Speckhard is also a non-resident Senior Fellow, for the US and Europe at the famous Brookings Institute. Yes... The same institute where Tsipras gave his speech. During the speech, which was broadcasted live on C-SPAN, the official channel of Capitol Hill, and according to reports many prominent businessmen apparently attended. The same corporate community also (mysteriously) attended his speech at Columbia University a few days later as well.

The report on Parapolitika also notes that some rumors even claim that Speckhard played a major role in unlocking the doors for Tsipras, especially at the CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies), which is considered to be one of the top think tanks in the US.

The aforementioned institution is well known in Greece, since Mr. Lavrentiadis, who apparently funded one of its divisions (or the unit of Southeast European Studies), had organized an event at the Astir Palace in Vouligmenni where characters such as Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski were also present.

Who is Brzezinski? Here is where it gets really interesting. Although the article in "Parapolitka" did not go into details about this man (assuming that the reader already knows what and why) we here at HellasFrappe decided to google his name and we discovered that Brzezinski is a Polish American political scientist, geostrategist, and statesman who served as United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981.

Sounds harmless enough, but googling his name a little bit more, we also discovered an article on opednews which more or less presents him as being the equivalent of Henry Kissinger. Here is a small portion of the article which should be read by all:

Only three appointed high government officials have run sixty years of war on small vulnerable nations, that were previously plundered under military occupation by colonial powers for centuries?
Three spooks, John Foster Dulles (aided by his equally corrupt brother Allen, head of the CIA), Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, chosen by David Rockefeller to oversee the deaths of tens of millions of men, women and children, murdered in their own small beloved countries, as often as not in their own towns, villages and homes - millions more dying in violent aftermaths of US crimes against Congo, Guatemala, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Indonesia, Libya and many other places. (Congo alone accounts for from between six and fifteen million dead since the US led Belgians and other Europeans in destroying it as a nation.
In every single case of US mayhem (that's if totaled up reaches many multi-holocaust proportions), civil war, fomented by the US itself, has been used as a pretext for unlawful barbaric criminal intervention by US Armed Forces, most often prepared by a corporate business dutiful CIA using its far flung network of banks, media, double agents and cooperating NGOs.
Civil wars! Capitalist empires of Europe had been stimulating them under the axiom "Divide and Conquer' since the first Portuguese armed merchant ships set sail, funded by enterprising investors in the fifteenth century.
From the earliest days of investor managed crimes of savage European forces (and later those of the US) falling upon ancient civilizations and cultures, there have been many famous devilishly clever lead investors cleverly creating wars of assured investment profitability. The most infamous in modern history were David's grandfather John Rockefeller and J. P. Morgan. Check the article at OpedNews -

Read on, the article only gets better.


The Unknown Trip to San Fransisco

During his trip to the US, Alexis Tsipras did not formally meet with representatives of the Greek Diaspora, since he chose not to adhere to protocol which calls for a prior meeting with the Archbishop of America. Instead the leader of SYRIZA preferred to come into contact with other influential characters who he knew could open other doors for him.

On his first day in the US he chose to make a quick (and hush hush) ten-hour trip to San Francisco, where he met known businessman Angelo Tsakopoulos (Phil Angelides, who has served as chairman of the Democratic Party of California and responsible for public property of the state was also present at this meeting). Angelo Tsakopoulos (born 1936) is a prominent real estate developer in Sacramento, California and the founder and owner of AKT Development.

Mr. Tsakopoulis is one of the main backers of the Democratic party and a proud supporter of Barack Obama. He is also a personal friend of Bill Clinton and Constantine Mitsotakis, and the current Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras. His family donated millions of dollars to charity the most notable of which was his donation to the University of Stanford to create the office of Greek Studies titled "Constantine Mitsotakis."

The inauguration took place in the presence of the Mitsotakis family in 2007. The ART Group, is now operated by his children, Helen and Kyriakos, and his son, Marko Kounalakis.

It should be reminded that Mr. Kounalakis was also a member of the same Institute with Andreas Papandreou, or the other brother of George Papandreou. In fact Andreas had organized a conference on Climate Change and Energy Security (i4cense) in late October 2010. The event was co-organized by the Kyriakos Grivas' C&C company, which specializes in public relations. Grivas is a businessman known for his connections to the New Democracy party, the "Financial Times", and the European Investment Bank. Note that the i4cence institute was noted by the president of the Independent Greek party, Mr. Panos Kammenos, for being involved in the case of controversial CDS.


The Discreet Support of Gianna Angelopoulou-Daskalaki

During Tsipras' visit, Gianna Angelopoulou-Daskalakis' circle of friends also made their presence. Besides, Angelopoulou was apparently discreetly opening the doors for Tsipras' on the other side of the Atlantic. Thus, it can not be considered a coincidence that the president of the Greek-American Institute (AHI), Nick Larigakis also played a significant role in Tsipras's trip to the US. Also, another central figure who was also present at the AHI event was to honor Tsipras was none other than Mr. George Mermelas, the alleged owner of the well known lobbying and public relations institution/company "Greek Dream".

Mr. Mermelas was a close friend to PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos, when he was Minister of Culture (under the Simitis government). During the '90s the present leader of PASOK had handsomely funded Mr. Mermelas through the Ministry of Culture to promote Greece at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Mrs. Gianna Angelopoulou-Daskalaki did the same thing during the Athens games. In fact she continues to fund Mermelas' institution. The institution has even held a special event in the US in her honor.


The Bottom Line

The bottom line is, that once upon a time Tsipras was accusing these elites in the Greek Parliament and today he is being photographed next to them.

This little tet-a-tet, claims the news site "Parapolitika" apparently was not received with the same enthusiasm from his fellow party members, in fact it manifested a "mini" mutiny, since both the "Avgi" newspaper (which is SYRIZA's newspaper) as well as the radio station which political backs SYRIZA chose not to cover this encounter at all. In fact it totally ignored the subject altogether and even disputed the photos. And all this for good reason, because the presence of these two particular former senior US diplomats at the event is connected with a series of obviously "shady" and "controversial" scenarios that occurred in Greece over the years and which either cost the lives of several people or destroyed the lives of millions.


"POWER" is just around the corner

Indeed Tsipras' trip to the US stirred up problems within the SYRIZA party and the wider political fora, but abroad, Tsipras showed that he was ready to take a step back on all the allegations he once made against Greece's corrupt elite. Today it is more than obvious that if he ever was to seize power, he would certainly be faced with handling extremely difficult situations, and certainly that is why he made such a dramatic shift in his political strategy. Because let us face it, the US doesn't do anyone favors and not expect a back rub in return.

Of course for all this to happen he has to make some radical changes in his party, but this cannot occur without repercussions, especially from the so-called powerful and radical left. Many will disagree, and some others may even detach themselves from SYRIZA, but to Tsipras this is a small price to pay since he now wants to conquer the country's leadership.

Of course mum is the word -as far as the photo is concerned- from Greece's mainstream media, only "Parapolitika" and "Kourdistoportocali" reported the news, as well as a series of other news sites and blogs.

Folks... Greece is definitely heading down a dark and shady road. It is obvious that the Americans are promoting Tsipras and will probably help him in any way they can. They did the same for George Papandreou and there were rumors in Athens before he assumed office in 2009 that a team was here working closely with him on how to improve his image. Just the thought of Tsipras assuming Greece's leadership has been a frightening thought by itself because we know what his stance is on our national issues and what type of foreign policy he plans to follow. What is even more shocking is that Panos Kammenos (the leader of the Independent Greeks Party) actually wants to side with Tsipras and overthrow the government. How can Kammenos do that knowing that Tsipras is 100 percent against everything he has been preaching about?

Yup. Greece is headed for a storm cloud.

Stay tuned frappers.

References

• http://www.opednews.com/articles/Demonic...6-942.html
  
• http://www.parapolitika.gr/ArticleDetail...chart.aspx
  
• http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.com/2011/08...bassy.html
  
• http://www.antinews.gr/2012/01/22/144001/
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Diplomat
  

http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.com.au/2013...-with.html

Tsipras.

turncoat  [turn-koht]

Definition: traitor

Synonyms: Benedict Arnold, Judas, apostate, back-stabber, betrayer, conspirator, deceiver, defector, deserter, double-crosser, fink, informer, quisling, rat, rebel, renegade, snake*, sneak*, snitch, spy, squealer, stool pigeon, tattletale, tergiversator, treasonist, two-timer,

Tsipras.

turncoat  [turn-koht]

Definition: traitor

Synonyms: Benedict Arnold, Judas, apostate, back-stabber, betrayer, conspirator, deceiver, defector, deserter, double-crosser, fink, informer, quisling, rat, rebel, renegade, snake*, sneak*, snitch, spy, squealer, stool pigeon, tattletale, tergiversator, treasonist, two-timer,

Looks that way. Or maybe he has had an offer he can't refuse....

While I have strong reservation about Tsipras and Syriza because of the above it does look like they will be winning the coming Greek election and there is much panic in the corridors of power there. I have no reservations about Samaras. He is workig for the banksters. How this will work for the EU will be interesting to watch. I hope Greece doesn't have Diebold machines.

Greek PM Samaras forced into U-turn as Syriza closes in on election victory

With two weeks until Greece votes, Antonis Samaras needs a miracle to defeat Alexis Tsipras's radical left party, say pollsters




[URL="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/10/greece-election-u-turn-antonis-samaras-syriza#img-1"]

[/URL] Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, left, has a poll lead of up to 4% with a fortnight to go until the election. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters Helena Smith in Athens
Sunday 11 January 2015 09.33 AEST





With elections barely two weeks away and every poll against him, Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras began to sing from a different hymn sheet this weekend, focusing on his government's handling of the economy in a desperate bid to win round voters.
Unveiling a plan of national growth and reform in Athens on Saturday and dropping claims that a vote for the leftwing Syriza party would lead Greece into chaos, the premier sought to convince Greeks that only his conservative New Democracy party could guide the crisis-plagued country to economic recovery.
"The strategy of fear that the conservatives have campaigned on clearly hasn't worked," said Paschos Mandravelis, a prominent political commentator. "Greeks are not buying the theory that the opposition poses a danger, so now Samaras is altering course."
The change of tactics for the snap elections forced on the government by parliament's failure to elect a president, comes at a critical juncture. In every opinion survey, Syriza is in the lead. Last week, for the first time, pollsters began to speak of the impossibility of the lead being overturned. Less than three years after he took office at the helm of a coalition and at the height of Greece's economic crisis, it was going to take a miracle for Samaras, 63, to keep power.
"The difference is between a rough three and four percentage points and I don't see it closing," said professor Dimitris Keridis, who teaches political science at Athens's Panteion University. "Samaras is facing the inevitability of defeat," he told the Observer.
A Metron Analysis poll released late on Friday showed Syriza leading, with 27.1% against 23.8% for Samaras's New Democracy. Between 9 and 16% of voters are undecided.
But even if the conservatives drum up support among the undecided, few believe the radical leftists once on the fringe of Greek political life but now centre stage and determined to change economic debate in Europe will not emerge on top on 25 January. On the back of pledges to repudiate the onerous conditions of the EU- and IMF-sponsored bailout accords that have shored up the debt-stricken Greek economy but have brought ordinary Greeks to their knees, Syriza has seen its popularity soar. Its belief that Athens's unsustainable debt load should also be written off has won applause from other hard-left groups in Europe.
"The question is not if they win, but by how much," said Mandravelis.
Pinterest
Prime minister Antonis Samaras at an election rally in Halkida. He has crisscrossed the country, sometimes visiting several cities a day. Photograph: Angelos Christofilopoulos/Demotix/Corbis In stark contrast to Syriza's Alexis Tsipras, who at 40 is the country's youngest political leader and has waged a relaxed campaign, Samaras has frantically crisscrossed Greece, often visiting several cities on a single day. Until now, his rhetoric has been based solely on sounding the alarm. If Greeks vote for Tsipras and his "drachma lobby" party, Athens will face the danger of almost certain ejection from the eurozone and by extension the EU. "It will mean the loss of all the sacrifices Greeks have made since the crisis began and be a catastrophe for the economy," Samaras has maintained.
Senior figures in the EU have backed up that view, saying in no uncertain terms that a vote for Tsipras is a vote for danger, replete with uncertainty and risk.
But with more than 25% of Greeks out of work and close to three million facing poverty, the EU interventions have led increasingly to accusations of interference. Five years into their worst crisis in living memory, the vast majority no longer care about creditors' demands but rather their ability to survive.
"I am seriously thinking of voting for Syriza because I am sick of all the scaremongering from people who brought us to this place," said Elena Christodoulaki, a hairdresser in Athens, adding that at 64 she had never supported the alliance of Marxists, Maoists, Trotskyists and Greens. "It's not just that I want to see a change. With all this talk of leaving the euro it has been very difficult for them [the radical leftists] to have a say or [expound on their beliefs] which makes me mad."
On Friday, parties unveiled their campaign lists, with the conservatives announcing that a former talkshow host, a model and an actor would be running as candidates. Syriza's ticket includes academics based abroad including Costas Lapavitsas, an economics professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, who has become a prominent advocate of resolving Greece's woes within the eurozone.
"Europe has failed to have a constant voice in its approach to Syriza," said Keridis. "There have been a lot of contradictory statements regarding the threat the leftists represent for the eurozone," he added. "That has helped Tsipras dilute any fear that he is anti-European and allowed him to win support."

]