A historical background to the Greek criisis

Greek "crisis" about political ideology and psychopathology, not finance

Corey Schink

Sott.net,

3 July, 2015

<sub>With recent news of Greek bank closures and something called "capital controls", ignorant hysteria is spreading, virus-like, through the mainstream media over the "inevitable contagion" that threatens to do away with the EU and, (ultimately no doubt) leave us vulnerable to the unsavory predilections of the jihadi hoard on the doorstep. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, so to speak. 

The major problem, we are told, is the greed of the Greeks, the irrationality of their government and the distasteful besmirching of the heretofore wonderful experiment thatwas is the European Union. 

The truth, as usual, is exactly the opposite. Examining this complex situation, and its history, proves that the Greek people are feisty, courageous, and are recovering from years of a long, drawn out beat-down from Western "financial warfare". They're mad as hell and they're not taking it anymore. But tread carefully Greece, your opponents are a gang of psychopathic Dr. Strangeloves bent on world domination. 

Greece - playground of CIA-backed dictators

Following World War II, Greece was, and remains today, critical in the 'containment-arc' created by NATO to keep the Russians 'in their place'. For this reason, a left-leaning - i.e. citizen-welfare-focused - government was always out of the question as far as Western political hegemons were concerned.</sub> 


During World War II, the Greek resistance or National Liberation Front (EAM in Greek) (with some help from the British) fought valiantly against the Nazis who eventually retreated in 1944. With the Nazis gone, the Greek resistance half-heartedly accepted the official arrival of the British army and agreed to place resistance members under the command of the British CO Lt. General Scobie. 

_{Having made enormous sacrifices in their struggle for freedom from the Nazis (7% of the Greek population were killed) the Greek people wanted a state ruled by the people for the people. The British however, had other ideas.} 

Psychopath par excellence: Churchill gets of HMS Ajax to attend a meeting in Athens Dec. 1944

Captain Cuthbert: "I hope, Sir, that while you are with us we shan't have to open fire...if we are asked to give supporting fire I must do so."

Winston Churchill: "Pray remember, Captain, that I came here as a cooing dove of peace, bearing a sprig of mistletoe in my beak but far be it from me to stand in the way of military necessity."

On August 17th 1944, Churchill wrote a "Personal and Top Secret" memo to US president Franklin Roosevelt where he voiced his concerns that the resistance might "seize" Athens "before organised government can be set up". The idea of the Greek people "seizing" their own capital city and forming a government after ejecting the Nazis was, apparently, unthinkable to the British and American empire builders who wanted to re-install the corrupt Greek monarchy. To prevent such a "disaster", the British demanded that the resistance disarm and, to make matters worse, began to rehabilitate and arm 12,000 former Nazi collaborators as policemen and soldiers as a bulwark against the resistance and their unreasonable demands of genuine democracy. 


A memo from the British Special Operations Executive (SEO), set up during WWII to assist resistance movements against the Nazis, urged that "Her Majesty's Government must not appear to be connected with this scheme". When 200,00 Greeks took to the streets of Athens on December 3rd, 1944 in protest at the British policies, the British and their Nazi collaborator allies shot dead 28 civilians. When the resistance responded by attacking British tanks and troops, General Scobie imposed martial law and ordered the aerial bombing of the working-class Metz quarter of Athens, killing dozens of civilians. 


A golden opportunity to kill Churchill was missed when he arrived in Athens on December 25th in a cynical effort to appear as a 'cooing dove of peace'. The resistance had wired the hotel Grand Bretagne (British military HQ at the time) with more than 1 ton of dynamite in a plan to kill General Scobie. But with Churchill's surprise visit to the hotel, the resistance's naive faith in that war criminal's basic humanity led them to abandon the plot. Doh! 


Indeed, the British plan for dealing with the Greeks had only just begun. 1945 saw the British fund and direct a "civil war" under the guise of "fighting communism" where British proxy forces made up of Nazi collaborators and right-wing mercenaries (aka the "Greek army") killed thousands of innocent Greeks and anyone who sympathized with the resistance, even those who had supported them against the Nazis. While the Nazis had not established prison camps in Greece, the British eagerly did so. 

3 of 28 Greek civilians shot dead by British forces for demanding democracy in Athens, Dec. 3rd 1944

In the Kifissia prison in Athens for example, children were beaten with wires and socks filled with concrete, and raped. After a severe beating, one female prisoner was forced to stand in the square of Kastoria holding the recently severed heads of her uncle and brother-in-law. Through the use of overwhelming firepower and brutality, the British eventually defeated the resistance and their demands for democracy in 1949. The British government's war on the Greek people and the direct involvement of the CIA in Greek political and military affairs in the post civil war period, led directly to the US-supported military coup in 1967 that ushered in 7 years of brutal dictatorship. 


The chaos persisted until 1974 when the Junta initiated a coup in Cyprus that prompted Turkey to invade the north of Cyprus and lay waste to the area. The junta was discredited as a result and former Prime Minister Constantine Karamanlis returned to Greece to provide a veneer of a more 'democratic' government favorable to the "morals" of the European Community. The remnants of the Gladio-aligned oligarchy still permeated Greek politics. 

Greece and the EU - a match made in hell 

The oligarchs' greed continued to bleed Greece for the following decades. Inefficient institutions, corruption, favoritism, and a general disregard for public welfare ran rampant in Greece, even as production rose decade after decade. Things only got worse when the euro was adopted and Greece lost much of what indigenous production it had to multi-national corporations. 


Fast forward to today, and we find that "if history does not repeat, it certainly rhymes". The European Union is not 'by and for the people'. It is by and for the oligarchs. The economic crises it has engendered, through the adoption of a single currency are being used to consolidate power to a number of different psychopathic networks. This is corroborated by several leaked memo. 


First, there's the leaked 2011 memo "The Future of the EU: Required Integration Policy Improvements for the Creation of a Stability Union":

A leaked internal German government memo entitled "The Future of the EU: Required Integration Policy Improvements for the Creation of a Stability Union" actually proposes the creation of a "European Monetary Fund" which would be given the power to run the economies of troubled European nations. This "stability union" would be quickly followed by the creation of a full-fledged "political union". Essentially, this leaked memo proposes the creation of a "European Superstate" which will be crammed down the throats of the rest of Europe whether they like it or not. National sovereignty would be a thing of the past and European bureaucrats would run everything. Of course this will never be accepted by the people of Europe until they feel the bitter pain of the coming financial collapse, but we are starting to see that there is already a clear plan for what the Germans wish to implement in the aftermath of the coming crisis.

A lot of people have just assumed that if there is a massive financial collapse in Europe and the euro crashes that it will mean the end of the euro and potentially the breakup of the EU. But that is not what the Germans have planned at all.

The European Central Bank, situated in Germany, certainly could be said to "play favorites". A "one-size-fits-all" monetary policy geared towards all of Europe is actually geared towards Germany. No wonder, then, that for so many European countries the euro was a disaster, while Germany flourished. This arrangement has essentially been the Trans-Pacific Partnership for Germany and the rest of Europe, allowing Germany to call all the shots, and giving Merkel control over the bloc, with Washington hoping they can control her, and apparently doing a pretty good job of it, partly via blackmail. 


Before Greece adopted the Euro in 2001, Greek production had risen 600% from 1960 until 2001. Then Greek production dropped 26%, while Germany's rose 20%. Other countries have seen similar results after adopting the euro: 

© Unknown

Second, there's the memo on Washington's role in the development of the European Monetary union:

"A memo from the European section, dated June 11, 1965, advises the vice-president of the European Economic Community, Robert Marjolin, to pursue monetary union by stealth. It recommends suppressing debate until the point at which "adoption of such proposals would become virtually inescapable".'

And of course Washington has been determined to make Europe little more than a quisling 'superstate', subordinate to NATO's (aka the US military's) agenda to prevent Russia from taking its rightful place as a major world power.


This is exactly what the euro was designed to do:

As Mundell [Father of the euro] explained it, the euro is the way in which congresses and parliaments can be stripped of all power over monetary and fiscal policy. Bothersome democracy is removed from the economic system. "Without fiscal policy," Mundell told me, "the only way nations can keep jobs is by the competitive reduction of rules on business."

Another recently leaked memo from JP Morgan points out the need for the use of increasingly dictatorial powers against the people of Europe:

Towards the end of the document, the authors explain what they mean by "political reform." They write: "In the early days of the crisis it was thought that these national legacy problems were largely economic," but "it has become apparent that there are deep-seated political problems in the periphery, which, in our view, need to change if EMU (the European Monetary Union) is to function in the long run."

The paper then details problems in the political systems of the peripheral countries of the European Union - Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy - that have been at the center of the European debt crisis.

The authors write: "The political systems in the periphery were established in the aftermath of dictatorship, and were defined by that experience. Constitutions tend to show a strong socialist influence, reflecting the political strength that left-wing parties gained after the defeat of fascism.

And of course these mega-banks want countries to "open up" their markets, privatize, accept austerity, pay their debts, and not complain. They have to, because they service a "black hole of debt" that cannot be paid off. They just throw people in, individuals, families, nations at a time to keep this black hole happy. It's the foundation of our debt-based economy, and no one gets to debate it. If someone chooses differently, they're murdered (like Gaddafi). 


With these three memos we see three different groups, probably working at cross-purposes, but each using the tools of the "European Union" to advance their psychopathic agendas. There is no 'democracy' there. And yes, there is plenty of conspiracy, because that's the reality of politics. Each group is pathologically oriented towards advancing their own power at any and all costs. 


So the psychopaths all go along to get along. Washington gets a solid bloc that helps prevent Eurasian integration. Germany gets an economic model that suits her growth and arms her with control over Europe. The banksters get the tools necessary to crush dissent against their austerity programs. 
It's in this context that Greece, under a Greek government that is the political and ideological heir to the Greek resistance, descends into a contrived "crisis". 

2009 and "Contagion" 

© Keystone

This is getting closer to the people really responsible for economic contagion

From 2001 to 2008 Greece saw low interest rates and a borrowing frenzy, stimulating growth in consumer and housing spending. Times were great! By 2009 the US subprime loan crisis had transformed into a eurozone crisis, and Greek officials let it slip that times were good because they had "Enronized" their economy. They were able to mask their debts through the techniques dreamed up by the likes of JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. 


Well hey, everyone was doing it, right? Where would they get such an idea? 
But the world has still not dealt with this derivatives crisis, and manipulation of the markets has only worsened. It has been argued that, since the derivatives market (nearly 505 trillion dollars) is secured by stable interest rates, and Greece's exit from the Eurozone could cause investors to realize that Europe is no longer a safe place to store money, interest rates could fly all over the place, and the derivatives powder keg might blow. 


However, even if such a situation comes about, it should be noted that it would not be Greece's fault. This is just re-writing history before it even happens. 
Blaming the victim is what psychopaths do, and it certainly helps their long-term goals for ever more control. As Brandon Smith points out, once everything hits the fan, "they will assert that the EU was actually not centralized ENOUGH. They will claim that, in order for a supranational economy and currency to work, we must also have supranational governance. In other words, the system failed because it needs to be stabilized by global government." 


In other words, if a 'Grexit' does create a domino effect, and we start to see reality shape along the lines that has been planned for decades, it's not Greek greed, it's the shock doctrine, pure and simple. 


The EU will collapse because they followed an imperial mandate, and have become pawns of a bizarre economic, proxy and secretive empire that is over-stretched and bloated with psychopathic greed. The real "contagion" is ponerization, and the effects this has had on the EU militarily, economically, politically and socially. There is no getting around it - let psychopaths call the shots and sooner or later you'll wake up to find everything falling apart. 
The elite know this. And they plan on taking advantage of it. Greece has been through a collapse, and we're beginning to see what it takes to restore their country, in real time. 


Greece's dark night of the soul 

© Getty

After EU demands for greater austerity, as Greece debt has deepened despite multi-billion bailouts, Greek social spending has been cut by nine per cent while military budgets have risen, by as much as 18 per cent

Following the official concession of 'Enronizing' their economy, Merkel decided the IMF should be in charge of distributing a tremendous debt of170 billion euros to the people of Greece. Did the people see the money? Of course not. The money was sent directly to bail out the banks. But the people were the ones who had to pay it off. The "too big to fail" banks were undoubtedly very happy with the fact that the newly poor had to pay them back for the crimes they and other officials committed. As Rob Urie pointed out, "'Loaning' the Greek state money to replenish bank coffers emptied by looting, to support a trade imbalance that has benefited Germany and that under no configuration of circumstance can be repaid, is economic warfare." 


The effects of this economic warfare? Without a single shot fired, the number of people who committed suicide in Greece jumped 40% from 2010-2011. The people were put on a Gaza-style diet by the EU leaders, and they had to adapt by growing potatoes in order to survive (why does this sound so familiar?). The Greek economy shrank by 5% each year from 2009 to 2011, and yet consumer prices rose 3.7%. In two years, from 2010-2012, the number of cars on Greek roads dropped 40%. In 2012 European economic authorities transferred 18 billion to the four largest Greek private banks, while the next day the National Agency for Health announced it was unable to pay the pharmacists for prescription drugs. 
The Greek people were promised that, once the IMF and other banks had finished looting them, they would return to an era of prosperity. But instead they began to abandon money altogether, resorted to bartering, and made attempts at self-sufficiency. Greece, as they knew it, had collapsed. 


By 2011 the people were becoming increasingly violent in their protests against the noose that had been strung around their necks. A situation of absolute lawlessness was taking hold, where a sense of "anything goes" was contributing to mass hysteria. Of course a democratic remedy for the situation was out of the question, since the Armageddon Looting Machine really doesn't care much about democracy. With every attempt to end the suffering proving futile, violence grew. 
Golden Dawn (the heirs of the Nazi collaborators) was catapulted into power and found itself with 18 MPs in the Greek parliament in 2012, and11.5% support from the general population. The party was led by Nikolaos Michaloliakos, protege of Nazi collaborator, Gladio operator and CIA asset Georgios Papadopoulos, the man who initiated the Greek Civil War and the age of the Colonels:

© (AFP Photo/Louisa Gouliamaki)
Leader of the Golden Dawn Nikolaos Mihaloliakos

 Like the neo-Nazi thugs in Ukraine, Golden Dawn was another tool for the oligarchs. While these neo-Nazis traumatized the Greek people, the oligarchs could safely abscond with the wealth of a nation and pursue their vicious goals. 
Evidence emerged that the Greek police were colluding with Golden Dawn. A Greek office commented that the Greek state was "fully aware" of Golden Dawn's activities, and that the National Intelligence were monitoring them closely. Why didn't they do anything to stop the rise of a violent, criminal hate group? Because the Golden Dawn members "could be used against the Greek left, which has led popular street protests". This was Gladio 2.0. 


This shouldn't have come as a surprise. As a Gladio throwback, Golden Dawn was simply another useful idiot for the oligarchs on their "shock doctrine" mission. And what the oligarchs always want, when they're stripping a nation of their wealth and natural resources, is for people to know that "resistance is futile". 
And Golden Dawn had plenty of material to work with. With a massive immigration crisis caused by NATO's reckless and brutal destruction of Africa and the Middle East, Greece was seeing 80% of immigrants pass through on their search for safety. In a time of massive destabilization and utter powerlessness, prejudice is bound to rear its ugly head. This made the immigrants a prime target for Golden Dawn, who assaulted 300 of them in the first 3 years of the Greek crisis. They paraded through Athens chanting racist slogans and sparking conflict with the Syriza party. 


But the party's ravenous, blood-thirsty nature (just as twisted and evil as those that Washington and the EU installed in Ukraine) led to its temporary downfall when they murdered a popular Greek musician. A sea change occurred in Greek public opinion, and investigations revealed that Golden Dawn was intimately connected with the other political parties. Three security officials initiated a crackdown on the neo-Nazi party and soon many found themselves in prison. 



Yet the Greek Supreme Court still allowed this criminal party to take part in elections. The danger is not gone yet, as Golden Dawn still came in third in the most recent elections, and of course the Deep State knows how to create dramatic changes conducive to the rule of psychopaths. Just look at Libya: what was once a beautiful, healthy nation was turned, over night, into a hellscape over-run by gun-toting, head choppers financed by Western political psychopaths. 



At this stage in the game, Greece chose Syriza to represent them against the "troika" - the combined corruption of the European Commission, the IMF and the European Central Bank. A country which had experienced a catastrophic collapse found a new voice, and following a period of great desperation they have found the courage to stand against the 'Establishment' that is directly responsible for their suffering. 


Syriza came to power through early elections and immediately their creditors began arranging their downfall:

"During the elections they wanted to bring Syriza to power for three to four months, conduct negotiations but not give money. They wanted to completely drain the economy, which was done, organize chaos, and then openly punish Greece with closed banks, and in total panic hold elections and throw out the left forever," the analyst said.

"Negotiations" 

© CNN
How does one negotiate with a psychopath? Greek protesters have found it out, after trial and error. 

After years of this needless suffering, Greece found itself with a fledgling government equipped with a clear understanding of what it stands for thrown into the ring with a devious gang of psychopaths eager to crush them. One of their first actions was to cancel a privatization program, and to seek to re-employ thousands of workers. However, after negotiations, they would capitulate and promise to re-instate the privatization program, causing many observers to question their integrity. 


But let's step back for a moment and look at what the two opposing parties, Syriza and the EU creditors, want. Syriza, it seems, truly wants freedom for the people of Greece. They know the suffering Greece has experienced, and they were elected to put an end to it. The Troika wants Greece's continued economic slavery or, if Greeks refuse, to make an example of them for anyone else who dares stand up to the "Masters of the Universe". Those are difficult starting points for negotiation. 

Syriza's goals 

Many people have been confused by Syriza's long drawn-out talks with the Troika - talks which seem to go around in circles and lead to apparent capitulation and then a backtrack. However, some analysts have pointed out that these extended talks have gained the average Greek citizen the necessary time to prepare for the inevitable:

Instead of selling out, Tsipras has given Greeks enough time to pull out their savings from the banks and convert them into euro notes (domestic circulation of which has risen by 13 billion euros), or into "hard" assets such as cars (or even boats) with a resale value.

Citizens have been taking their money out of the bank at a breath-taking pace since the beginning of 2015, and for obvious reasons. While financial experts have told the citizens to remain calm, no one wants to be unprepared should the "unthinkable" occur - an unprecedented collapse of the economy. The Greeks aren't stupid. People the world over should be following suit. To many Greeks, there is obviously something insidious, evil even, in the Troika that the Greek government is "negotiating" with. 


Dragging out the negotiations has not only given Greeks more time to prepare, it has also given Syriza the time necessary to figure out a game plan or figure out exactly where the psychopaths in the Troika are attempting to take them. The prognosis certainly doesn't look good on that score, and the opportunity for accepting help from Russia must have been very tempting to Syriza. But Tsipras et al chose not to take the Russian offerand instead stuck with their main talking point, that they wanted to stay in the EU. But why not just leave and side with Russia and BRICS? 


If Greece ditched the EU completely they would have called down the wrath of the psychopaths in Washington, the 'New World Order' types who seek complete domination of all and everything. Especially in the context of the ongoing Cold War 2.0 against Russia, the threat of a Ukraine or Libya option being used on Greek is very possible. "Terrorists" are already at work in Greece to pressure the fledgling government. 


At the same time, Syriza could not completely capitulate to the Troika and abandon the vital interests of the people because they would be swept out of power. A very delicate situation for sure. What they seem to have been doing seems really quite simple: they know that they cannot pay, so they simply say that they cannot pay, but they are willing to play along anyways like "good boys and girls" and try their best. If the Troika refuses to give them money, then they must default through no fault of their own. After all, who can blame them for wanting to safeguard the pensions and medical care of the Greek people? And anyway, this is all about democracy, right? 


So the Greek people are going to decide on Sunday for themselves. If the people vote against more austerity from the Troika, and the Troika tramples on their democratic choice and tries to play hard ball and force Greek banks (and people) over the edge of the abyss, then maybe Syriza would make it clear that it is being forced into the arms of Russia and the BRICS countries by the EU itself! 


Russia and Greece have been in talks, and Russia knows how to play the game. Russia is now an expert on how to emerge from a collapse into a position of strength on a chessboard filled with psychopaths. One should hope that this experience is rubbing off on Syriza, and that they are using their apparent weakness as a strength, by playing the position of submission in order to prove to the world that the EU is composed of impossible, unforgiving tyrants who dance to Washington's tune. 


This would explain why Syriza apparently capitulated to the Troika as regards Russia, privatization and "desiring to stay in the EU" while simultaneously deploying the "nuclear option" of launching a referendum to allow citizens to vote on the 'debt crisis'.

For the past five months of tortuous negotiations between creditors and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, it was the cash drip of the Frankfurt-based ECB that has kept alive Greek banks and the state.

But since Saturday Greece has looked headed into the uncharted -- and likely turbulent - waters of the long dreaded "Plan B".

Everything changed after Tsipras stunned Europe with a surprise call for a July 5 referendum on the latest cash-for-reforms package and passionately advised voters against backing a deal that spells further "humiliation".

Europe rejects Greek bailout extension - referendum shoc

As Tsipiris pointed out, 'The government will fight for a viable deal until the end and within the euro. This will be the message of the No vote." 

But the message being spread by the psycho-Troika and their masters in Washington is being heard loud and clear, and many interested parties are surely watching this drama unfold with great interest.

Eurozone financial strategists made it clear that they wanted to make an example of Syriza as a warning to Spain's Potemos party, and anti-euro parties in Italy and France. The message was supposed to have been, "Avoid our austerity and we will cause chaos. Look at Greece."

But the rest of Europe is interpreting the message in just the opposite way: "Remain in the eurozone and we will only create money to strengthen the financial oligarchy, the 1%. We will insist on budget surpluses (or at least, no deficits) so as to starve the economy of money and credit, forcing it to rely on commercial banks at interest."

Greece has indeed become an example. But it is an example of the horror that the eurozone's monetarists seek to impose on one economy after another, using debt as a lever to force privatization selloffs at distress prices.

Conclusion 

Greece has become exactly what NATO didn't want in the 1940's or today - a country capable of, and willing to choose, its own path. A decades-long use of Gladio extremists, the European Union's snake-oil exploitation for Germany's benefit and financial warfare have all been used to keep Greece on her knees. But even as the media tells everyone to be afraid, and the banks shut down, thousands of Greeks are turning out to rally in support of a big fat "No!" at the referendum. 


In the short-term, the decision to exit the stranglehold of the psychopathic bureaucrats will likely be painful, perhaps for the entire European community. But the 'contagion' isn't in Greece - it's in the entire banking sector, and Greece is small potatoes compared to that. And in the long-term a Grexit is the only sure way for the Greek people to regain their self-respect and end the pointless suffering imposed on them. This is what the Greeks want - it's the reason Syriza was voted into power. It's the reason the Greek resistance fought Churchill's death squads. Is it realistic? With power relations between East and West in flux, this is definitely a time ripe for change. 


After years of humiliation, after decades of being Washington's little Ukraine-in-the-making, afters years of being starved, looted, and harassed by the pigs in Brussels, the Greek people have a choice. Let's hope the Greeks can tell the psychopaths in power exactly what they need to hear: NO! That's enough from you!

"As for this Commission, it deserves to disappear. I want no more of Hallstein. I want no more of Marjolin. I want no more to do with them. ... I want no more that the French government should have to do business with these types. ... The problem, it is this mafia of supranationalists, whether commissioners, deputies or bureaucrats. They are all enemies. They have been put there by our enemies." 
 

C'était de Gaulle, Alain Peyrefitte, Fayard, Éditions de Fallois, Tome II, pp.290-291.