Saturday Email Bag -- Iran Has Hustled Obama

It's Saturday Email Bag time (join at casey.popshots@yahoo.com) and this week there was only one topic -- the Iran nuclear deal. Is it good...bad...a danger to Israel...likely to break up the normal Middle East American alliance with Arab states and Israel. ~~~~~ President Obama is pressing for acceptance of his Iran nuclear deal in various ways. He had his own disastrous news conference, in which his timid words suggested that the US was the junior member at the table, tiptoeing so as not to anger a big bad Iran. ~~~~~ Obama has also sent National Security Advisor Susan Rice to talk to the media in the same way he sent her to Sunday political shows to talk about Benghazi. Rice spun tales about a video causing the Benghazi attack and death of Ambassador Chris Stevens -- spin that proved to be untrue, casting doubt on the truthfulness of Rice, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Obama. Rice must have learned some sort of lesson from the Benghazi farce, because she seems to be brutally frank in her comments about the Iran deal -- leaving behind her a swath of negative impressions about the ability of the Obama/Kerry team to negotiate any terms that protect the US, the EU, sunni Arab states or Israel from Iran's nuclear-terrorist intentions. In Rice's long interview with Reuters, she said the only goal of the Iran deal was to prevent its having a nuclear bomb. Yesterday, Rice talked to CNN's Wolf Blitzer, telling him that the US will not be part of Iran inspection teams. Blitzer was clearly astounded by Rice's admission. Here is the key segment of their conversation. **BLITZER: “Let’s clarify a few points as far as the nuclear deal with Iran is concerned. I take it that all of the IAEA inspection teams all inspectors who go in will have to be from countries that have formal, full diplomatic relations with Iran. As a result, no Americans will directly be involved in any on the ground inspections in Iran -- is that right?” **RICE: “Wolf, yes. The IAEA, which is a highly respected international organization, will field an international team of inspectors. And those inspectors will in all likelihood come from IAEA member-states, most of whom have diplomatic relationships with Iran. We of course are a rare exception.” **BLITZER: “No Americans - I want to be precise on this. Sorry for interrupting. No Americans will be on the ground in Iran actually inspecting?” **RICE: “No Americans will be part of the IAEA inspection teams.” **BLITZER: “Will Americans be outside? ” **RICE: “There are Americans in Iran on a daily basis, Wolf. I’m not sure what you are asking.” **BLITZER: “American government officials or military officials who could be inspecting?” **RICE: “There are not going to be independent American inspectors separate from the IAEA. The IAEA will do the inspections on behalf of the United States and the rest of the international community.” **BLITZER: “I know there are American tourists and Americans who go visit family members in Iran. I’m talking US government-sent people, diplomats or others to go in there and see what is going on. I take it they will not be doing that?” **RICE: “I don’t anticipate that, no.” ~~~~~ Friday, Secretary of State Kerry appeared on MSNBC to defend the 24-day delay in the "managed" inspections between the time the IAEA asks for an inspection and Iran grants it. The deal allows IAEA inspectors to visit suspect Iranian facilities, but the inspections may only take place 24 days after a request. American allies, especially Israel and Saudi Arabia, see this as a major flaw and a loophole for concealing forbidden nuclear work. But Kerry insisted that UN inspectors will have plenty of time to detect any Iranian bid to cheat : “I can assure you our intelligence community is completely comfortable that 24 days is not enough time for them to be able to evade our technical means, our capacity to observe." Susan Rice had already 'explained' it in her Reuters interview, saying the deal would not give Iran any room to oppose inspections if Washington or others had information believed to reveal a secret site. They would take their information to the IAEA for review, according to Rice : "If the Iranians said, 'No, you can't see that site,' whether it's a military site or not, the IAEA, if it deems the site suspicious, can ask for access to it. If Iran refuses access but five of the eight international signatories to the deal demand an investigation under a newly created joint commission, Iran must comply. It's not a request. It's a requirement. Iran would be bound to grant that access." Rice has clearly never heard of Iran's suspected military nuclear facilities that the IAEA has been trying to get access to for ten years. ~~~~~ Obama is also sending Defense Secretary Ash Carter to Saudi Arabia to convince skeptical allies about the benefits of the Iran nuclear deal. Carter's trip next week, which the White House had announced, will now include a stop in Israel this weekend. Carter will, according to Rice, also look at ways to deepen US security cooperation with Israel : "We will...be looking forward, if the Israelis are interested and willing, they haven't said so yet, to discuss with them how we might further deepen and strengthen our security and intelligence cooperation," Rice said. Really! We might wonder whether Susan Rice sees Israel as an ally or a fly in the Iran ointment. ~~~~~ ~~~~~ Listening to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, we might also wonder whether he sees America as a fly in the P5+1 deal ointment. Today, he withheld his verdict on the nuclear deal, and in a defiant address vowed enduring opposition to America and its Middle East policies, saying Washington sought Iran's 'surrender.' Speaking at a Tehran mosque, Khamenei joined in the crowd's chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel." Khamenei said he would not allow the disruption of Iran's revolutionary principles or defensive abilities : "Whether the deal is approved or disapproved, we will never stop supporting our friends in the region and the people of Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain and Lebanon. Even after this deal, our policy toward the arrogant US will not change." Khamenei's remarks reflect a broad mistrust of US intentions, as he declared that if war broke out, America would come off worst, nursing "a broken head." He said the slogans of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" show what Iranians think. "We have repeatedly said we don't negotiate with the US on regional or international affairs; not even on bilateral issues. There are some exceptions like the nuclear program that we negotiated with Americans to serve our interests." He said US policies in the region were "180 degrees" opposed to Iran’s policies. ~~~~~ And finally, last Friday in Teheran, just as the P5+1 were in Vienna wrapping up their deal with the Iranians, on the streets of Iran crowds were celebrating "Al-Quds Day," the day -- inaugurated by the late Ayatollah Khomeini and named for the foreign component of the Revolutionary Guard -- when anti-Israel and anti-American activity is highlighted even more than usual. Tens of thousands of Iranians march in the streets calling for the end of Israel and "Death to America." Israeli and American flags were burned. "Moderate" Iranian President Hassan Rouhani appeared at one of the parades to see the Israeli and American flags being burned. Did he intervene? Did he explain to the crowd that they were behind the curve? No. ~~~~~ Dear readers, we are up to our waists in alligators. An uninformed, anti-history White House team led by a naive, timid President has been hustled by Iran's experts at diplomatic sleight of hand. Obama is not Steve McQueen coming back to beat the Hustler another day. This is Obama winding up like the Sundance Kid...driven off a cliff by outlaw militia who pretend to be legitimate. There is no tomorrow. In the P5+1, Germany and Britain will buckle. The UN joined the Hustlers long ago. Russia and China have always been Hustlers. Obama, Kerry and Rice are fighting to save not the world but the Hustlers -- in the name of "Legacy," a word that should be stricken from presidential vocabularies. I have called for a real Middle East coalition to save themselves because Obama will not save them. The frightening truth is that Obama will not save the West or America, either. For reasons buried too deep inside him to be adequately analyzed, Barack Obama has joined the Iranian Hustlers. America and Europe must now look to Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan to save them. With sufficient voter pressure, Congress may stand tall, but nothing is less sure. A new Republican President in 2017 will still have a chance to reverse this suicidal trend, but not just any GOP President -- it must be the person who both undersrands the depth of the crisis and has the backbone to face it down. Chamberlain proved it once. Obama has proved it twice. Appeasement does not work. Where is our Churchill?

The Iran Deal - Lord, Defend Me from My Friend Obama

Today's Middle East News.~~~~~ Israeli aircraft hit militant targets in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip early yesterday after a rocket from Gaza landed in southern Israel, the Israeli military said. A passerby was lightly hurt in Gaza, according to residents. No damage or injuries were reported in Israel, where warning sirens sounded and the rocket struck open ground near the city of Ashkelon before dawn. Rocket launchings have become an almost weekly occurrence from Gaza recently but no militant group has taken responsibility for the attack. "The repeated rocket fire at Israel...is a deliberate decision to target civilians. No person should live under the threat of terrorism," Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said in a statement. ~~~~~ Egypt's ISIS affiliate 'Sinai Province' said yesterday it fired a rocket at an Egyptian naval vessel in the Mediterranean near the coast of Israel and the Gaza Strip. 'Sinai Province' has focused on attacking Egyptian soldiers and police in the Sinai peninsula, killing hundreds since the army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule. Photos put online by the group appear to show a rocket heading toward a ship and setting it on fire at impact. Reuters, which reported the story, could not verify Sinai Province's version of events. The Egyptian military said in a statement that a coast guard launch had exchanged shots with "terrorist elements," causing the vessel to catch fire. It said there was no loss of life. Egypt is battling an increasingly brazen Islamist onslaught in the Sinai and recently engaged in a confrontation that killed 100 militants and 17 Egyptian military. ~~~~~ Russia plans to supply Syria with 200,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) per year via the Crimean port of Kerch, according to two Reuters trading sources involved in the deal. The plans are another sign of cooperation between Russia and Syria, despite western hopes that Russia would stop protecting President Bashar al-Assad. Moscow had been shipping significantly lower volumes of LPG to Syria via Kerch before Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014. The United States and the European Union, which say the seizure of Crimea violates international law, have imposed sanctions on individuals and businesses in Crimea, which include restrictions on use of the Kerch port. Russia is a staunch ally of Syria and exports arms to the al-Assad regime. ~~~~~ With nearly half the length of Syria's border with Turkey now in Kurdish hands, Ankara fears that the creation of an autonomous Kurdish region in northern Syria could raise separatist sentiment among Turkey's own Kurdish population. Turkey accuses Kurdish fighters in Syria of having links to the PKK militant group that has waged an insurgency against Turkey for 30 years. Some Kurds say fear among refugees is being whipped up by Turkey to discredit them. Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat, a member of the Turkish parliament from the pro-Kurdish opposition HDP says : “This is a psychological war waged against Kurds. The (Turkish) government said that it doesn’t want the (Kurdish) cantons to be united, and when it happened they are now trying to create negative public opinion because they are angry. They’re playing a dangerous game by igniting nationalistic feelings." ~~~~~ Iraq is closing its main border crossing with Jordan on Thursday for an indefinite period, days after security forces and shiite militias launched an offensive to reclaim the western province of Anbar from ISIS militants. An Iraqi army officer who saw a copy of an Interior Ministry letter sent to his brigade told Reuters that authorities closed the Tureibil crossing to deprive ISIS of funds raised from truck drivers forced to pay a tax on each cargo coming in from Jordan. ISIS claimed responsibility for an April triple suicide bombing at the Tureibil crossing. ISIS controls most of Anbar and large tracts of northern Iraq, captured in a rapid offensive last summer. On Monday, Iraq's shiite-led government announced the start of operations to "liberate Anbar," the province west of Baghdad whose sunni cities and towns along the Euphrates have become ISIS strongholds. Sunnis living in Falluja, which Iraqi government shiite forces are preparing to retake from ISIS, say they are terrified, trapped between ISIS and shiite military, both of whom they fear. ~~~~~ While Saudi security officers were manning one of the security checkpoints on Ha'er Road in Riyadh yesterday, they directed the driver of a suspected car to stop. The driver initiated an explosion which led to his death," the ministry said in a statement. The road runs south from Riyadh to Ha'er prison that holds 1,375 largely militant detainees. The Ekhbariya state TV station, citing unidentified sources, said the 18-year-old driver had killed his uncle that afternoon, and then ran off with his car. The driver tried to bypass the checkpoint, then set off the explosive as security forces tried to surround him. The detention of thousands of Saudi sunni Islamists accused or convicted of militancy over the past decade has angered many conservative sunnis who launched a series of protests from 2011 to 2013. The two Saudis involved in the Kuwait mosque bombing last month participated in those protests, according to Saudi officials. ~~~~~ Today's White House News.~~~~~ Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice said in an interview yesterday : "I also want to make sure people understand that this deal was never about trying to prevent Iran from using proxies in the region, or destabilizing the region. This was always about our principle and primary concern as shared by the government of Israel and their neighbors in the region...that an Iran with a nuclear weapon is an existential threat. We are addressing that threat directly and effectively in this deal. But we understand that Iran has played a very destabilizing role in the region, it continues to foment unrest and to have supported terrorism, so we want to do what we can to bolster the capacity of our allies and partners in the region to resist that." ~~~~~ President Obama at a news conference yesterday to support his Iran deal said : “And my hope is that building on this deal, we can continue to have conversations with Iran that incentivize them to behave differently in the region, to be less aggressive, less hostile, more cooperative, to operate the way we expect nations in the international community to behave. But we’re not counting on it.” ~~~~~ Dear readers, every news story in today's blog has a common thread : Iran-supported proxies - or Russia, Iran's protector - terrorizing sunnis or Israelis. Juxtapose these Iran-backed terrorist acts with the bizarre comment of Susan Rice -- it's laughable that she is called Obama's National Security Advisor -- admitting that the only goal of the US in the Iran negotiations was to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon, although she knew that Iran "has played a very destabilizing role in the region," that it continues to foment unrest and to have supported terrorism, so "we want to do what we can to bolster the capacity of our allies and partners in the region to resist that." This sounds like an ostrich whose head is very deep in the sand, sending a message to traditional Middle East allies : 'don't call us -- Iran terrorism is your problem.' Even worse, President Obama admitted that he sees no prospect of Iran changing its terrorist behavior. Yet, he has agreed to a deal that promises Iranian nuclear weapons development and that frees up more than $100 billion so that Iran can rachet up its terrorist network to destroy sunni Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf Emirates -- and destroy Israel as well -- all the while talking about how the Obama administration will protect Israel from every enemy and preserve the sunni Arab states in the Middle East. In reality, Obama is giving an aggressive regime access to conventional arms, billions of dollars and a nuclear infrastructure that has traumatized and alienated American Middle East allies. But, Americans were also thrown under the bus along with Arabs and Jews. Obama said he deliberately didn't raise the issue of four Americans held as political hostages by Iran for fear it would make Iran think it could get more "concessions from the Americans." Besides, Obama said : “it’s not the job of the President of the United States to solve every problem in the Middle East,” adding that he couldn’t end the Syrian civil war without “buy in” from Russia and Iran. He acknowledged that the nuclear deal might mean more money for Hezbollah, but said, “Is that more important than preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon? No.” A Washington Post headline blared out yesterday : "The Obama News Conference Was a Case for American Weakness." We should all pray with Voltaire : "May God defend me from my friends: I can defend myself from my enemies."

After the Iran Deal, the World Needs a Real Middle East Coalition

The Iran deal is opposed by most Middle East Arab powers and Israel. Let's examine in detail Middle East reactions to the deal. ~~~~~ First, Iran. President Hassan Rouhani told a cabinet meeting shown on state television that the nuclear deal with the P5+1 world powers is a political victory for Iran : "No one can say Iran surrendered...The deal is a legal, technical and political victory for Iran. It's an achievement that Iran won’t be called a world threat any more....No deal is perfect. There should be always compromise....It was really difficult to preserve some of our red lines. There was a time we doubted there could be a deal. It’s a historic deal and Iranians will be proud of it for generations to come." Iran's "red lines" were a refusal to accept a long freeze on nuclear R&D and a demand for a rapid lifting of sanctions. ~~~~~ In an action that speaks volumes about Iran's expectation that the US Congress will be unable to stop the accord, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has been ordered to increase production from all oilfields this year. At full capacity, Iran's pre-sanction output was 4 million barrels per day. "We want to reach to our pre-sanctions capacity. We tested a production increase in the main oilfields last year," the NIOC managing director told Iran's Shargh newspaper : "This year we have been ordered to increase production in all fields." ~~~~~ The Tehran Times reports that President Rouhani described the talks as “unprecedented” -- that they opened a new page in Iran’s history, that the deal has changed the public’s “wrong assumption” about Iran since the Islamic Revolution, and that the major powers reached the conclusion that sanctions were “useless” and that they had "no choice" other than negotiations. ~~~~~ Other Tehran Times stories give a flavor of Iran's euphoria and of rapid international moves to capitalize on Iranian business opportunities : *Bright days ahead are announced for Iran's tourism industry, one of the fields that will be most affected by the historic nuclear agreement. Tourism activists and experts are "happiest Iranians" after the deal was made. *A wave of congratulatory messages by Iranian film makers, writers and cultural figures was published on social networks and Persian news websites after the nuclear deal was announced. *The Swiss MSC shipping line is ready to resume operation at Iranian ports. MSC is the world’s second-largest shipping line in terms of container vessel capacity. *Britain hopes to re-open its Iran embassy by year-end, British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond said on Wednesday. *The nuclear deal will reignite Iran’s petrochemical sector growth, according to senior Iranian petrochemical officials. *French Foreign Secretary Laurent Fabius will visit Iran as France eyes trade with Iran. Fabius said Wednesday he had accepted an invitation to visit Iran after the historic deal. ~~~~~ Reuters reported yesterday that Iran's conservative-dominated parliament will invite Foreign Minister Zarif to brief it on the nuclear deal he negotiated. Parliament speaker Ali Larijani said MPs would study the accord's text and annexes from both legal and technical perspectives. But Larijani urged the MPs to study the nuclear deal technically and not politically -- not to act based on the “political remarks of others” which are expressed with different motivations. ~~~~~ Parliament's review will offer a reaction to the deal inside Iran's political establishment. A Khamenei advisor told the Fars news agency that any deal reached was preliminary, to be approved by the National Security Council and later by Khamenei. The parliament - along with elements of the judiciary, armed forces and clerical establishment - strongly oppose making any meaningful concessions and is expected to seize on any perceived abuses by UN inspectors or western powers in the coming months. The head of parliament's security committee said MPs would examine the deal for details about access to a military site at Parchin, saying there appeared to have been a "compromise." Fars news agency reported that the IAEA - the UN nuclear watchdog - has repeatedly asked for access to Parchin to investigate concerns that Iran has conducted experiments to assess how specific materials react under high pressure as in a nuclear blast. For months, Iran had been stalling a UN probe into the possible military aspects of its past nuclear activities, relating mostly to the period before 2003, saying IAEA's data was fabricated. Iran's nuclear chief told Iran's ISNA news agency on Tuesday that Iran's red lines had been respected with regard to international access to Parchin. The IAEA said on Tuesday it had agreed a roadmap with Iran to resolve all outstanding questions about its nuclear program by the end of the year. ~~~~~ Outside Iran, the Middle East is in turmoil about the Iran nuclear deal. Reuters reports that Saudi Arabian media attacked the deal on Wednesday, with cartoonists depicting it as an assault on Arab interests and columnists attacking its focus on Teheran's atomic plans instead of its backing for regional militias. The official Saudi reaction was a terse statement that welcomed any agreement that would ensure Iran could not develop a nuclear arsenal, but stressed the importance of tough inspections and the ability to reimpose sanctions quickly. In private, Saudi officials fear that an Iran freed from international pressure and economic sanctions will use sanctions money to back shiitecallies across the region. Reuters noted a cartoon in Asharq al-Awsat, a pan-Arab daily close to King Salman's branch of the ruling family, that shows a trampled body marked "Middle East," with a placard saying "nuclear deal" sticking from its head. The top-hatted and turbaned silhouettes of America's Uncle Sam and an Iranian cleric run across the body hand in hand -- portraying a widely voiced concern that Obama's quest for a deal means it has realigned with Iran at Arab expense. A Saudi official on Tuesday told Reuters he feared the agreement would make the Middle East more dangerous if it gives concessions to an Iranian government that Riyadh blames for turmoil in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, and that the deal would simply allow Teheran to back shiite Moslem militias and militants. Saudi Arabia sees Iranian involvement in Arab countries as feeding the sectarian conflict that allows ISIS to thrive. A cartoon in the Saudi daily al- Watan, owned by the ruling family, shows an Iranian cleric with a malignant facial expression turning the spigot on an oil pipeline marked "nuclear deal", from which dollar bills are pouring into the mouth of a masked militant labeled "terrorism." ~~~~~ In Israel, the Iran deal has left officials convinced that it will not curb Teheran's nuclear weapons goals and will leave Israel under an even greater threat. But, Israel has failed to influence the US, its closest ally. Netanyahu spoke to Obama on Tuesday evening and then issued a statement to explain that his rocky personal relationship with President Obama had nothing to do with the results in the Iran nuclear negotiations. The first Israeli opinion poll published since the deal was signed shows solid support for Netanyahu. The survey found that 69% object to the agreement with Iran and 10% back it, with the rest undecided. And 32% of Israelis think Israel should respond by attacking Iranian nuclear installations, while 40% oppose that idea and 28% have no view. Israel says the deal is full of holes, particularly concerning verification and Iran's "breakout" capability - the time it would theoretically take Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. Israel is also worried about Iran's access to $100 billion of frozen assets when the deal is implemented in six months. Here, Israel's alarm stems from Iran's backing for militant groups in the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, Hamas in Gaza and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Jewish democracy, while small, has a strong army and receives $3 billion a year in military-related support from the US. It is expected to increase following the Iran deal. Israel reserves the right to defend itself. Netanyahu's nuclear affairs cabinet member said Wednesday : "Israel's right of self-defense is non-negotiable....When...Iran is calling once again, even in the last few days, for Israel's destruction, Israel of course has the right, and also the duty, to defend itself by itself." ~~~~~ Dear readers, Obama and his 5+1 allies have created an historic mess by their determiation to work with Iran. Israel is allied with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Gulf states in expressing serious doubts about the deal. Only the US Congress can intervene. But given its past timidity, we can be forgiven for doubting that Congress will stand firm against Obama. It is time for a real Middle East Coalition.

The Greek Tragedy Continues

If you think the last two weeks on the EU vs Greece battle were brutal, "you ain't seen nothing yet," to quote Al Jolsen. ~~~~~ The EU leaders involved in last weekend's epic negotiations said on Monday morning as the third Greek bailout terns were announced that the worst crisis in the EU's history had been averted. Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the European Commission said the risk of Greece leaving the Eurozone had been averted. "There will not be a 'Grexit'," he said, referring to the widespread fear that if there had been no deal, Greece could have crashed out of the Eurozone. Juncker added : "In this compromise, there are no winners and no losers....I don't think the Greek people have been humiliated, nor that the other Europeans have lost face. It is a typical European arrangement." Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that after a "tough battle," Greece had secured a "growth package" and debt restructuring. Tsipras also said he had the "belief and the hope that...the possibility of 'Grexit' is in the past. The deal is difficult but we averted the pursuit to move state assets abroad. We averted the plan for a financial strangulation and for the collapse of the banking system." ~~~~~ But, Greece will now have to pass reforms demanded by the Eurozone by the end of the day today in order tor receive up to €86 billion of financing for Greece over three years. The reforns are carbon copies of the bailout deal the Eurozone and its troika - the EC, ECB and IMF - has been offering to Greece since Prime Minister Tsipras won the Greek election in January. The reform packages that the Greek Parliament must ratify before the end of today are : **VAT changes - top rate of 23% to extend to processed food, restaurants etc...13% to cover fresh food, energy bills, water and hotel stays, 6% for medicines and books. **VAT discount of 30% to be abolished on islands, but remotest islands to keep discount until next year. **Corporation tax raised from 26% to 29% for small companies. **Luxury tax for big cars, boats and swimming pools up from 10% to 13%. **Farmers' tax up from 13% to 26%. **Early retirement to end (phased in by 2022) with retirement age raised to 67. And no possibility of debt relief. ~~~~~ This reform deal has left many Greeks feeling humiliated and across the political spectrun there is talk of "surrender" -- especially because the Eurozone group included in the agreement a €50 billion Greece-based fund that will privatize or manage Greek public assets, including €25 billion to recapitalize banks. The assets will be in a trust fund beyond government reach, to be sold off by the EU primarily to pay down debt. In a gesture to Greece, €12.5 billion of the proceeds would go to investment in Greece, according to German Chancellor Merkel. This was seen by some Eurozone leaders as Germany trying to make Geeece "a German protectorate" because Germany had originally wanted its own national investment bank to manage the sequestered funds and assets in Germany. Merkel had insisted on this but finally ceded total control over the privatization fund. ~~~~~ And if these reforms and takeovers of Greek sovereignty over its own sovereign assets were not enough, Andreas Dombret, an executive committee member of the European Commission, said today that "bail-in" rules allowing losses from failing banks to be pushed onto bondholders and even large depositors should be introduced for Greek banks as soon as possible : "In my view, this instrument (bail-in) should be available as quickly as possible and not just from the mandatory introductory date of January 1 2016." This means that the EU is already thinking about treating Greek banks like it treated Cypriot banks -- by taking money from Greek citizens and others who have deposits in Greek banks to help pay for its loans to Greece. ~~~~~ Many members of the Tsipras coalition are angry and refusing to vote for what they see as blackmail by the EU. They see the Greek economy under increasing, terminal strain, with businesses closing and others struggling to pay suppliers. They see the ECB maintaining Greek banks at near-failure levels of liquidity. The terms imposed by lenders led by Germany forced Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to abandon promises of ending austerity and are now fracturing his government. "Clearly the Europe of austerity has won," Greece's Reform Minister George Katrougalos said."Either we are going to accept these draconian measures or it is the sudden death of our economy through the continuation of the closure of the banks. So it is an agreement that was practically forced on us." Labour Minister Panos Skourletis said the terms were not viable and would lead to new elections this year. ~~~~~ And now we learn that the IMF warned the EU that Greece's public debt was now "highly unsustainable" and urged debt relief on a scale "well beyond what has been under consideration to date." Late on Tuesday, the IMF made public its advice to the Eurogroup of finance ministers at the weekend. That advice included proposals to massively reduce Greece's enormous debt by a write off. The IMF study said that to avoid a write-off, EU countries would have to give Greece 30 years to repay all its European debt, including new loans, and a dramatic extension on the maturity of its debts. The split between the the IMF and Greece's European creditors is significant. One senior IMF official said the fund would only participate in a third bailout for Greece if EU creditors produce "a clear plan," saying the current deal "is by no means a comprehensive, detailed agreement." Further, the IMF gave the report to Eurozone leaders in advance, so they already knew how unhappy the IMF was when they did the deal last weekend. This brings into question the validity of the reform measures demanded by the Eurozone and endorses the kind of debt write-offs the Greek public have been arguing for. It also makes Tsipras's job close to impossible as he tries to hold his party together to pass the reform package. He will undoubtedly rely on moderate and conservative parliament member votes. This will likely lead to an early snap election to replace Tsipras. ~~~~~ So, dear readers, as Greek pharmacists and public workers strike and Alexis Tsipras sees several key members resign from his cabinet, the Greek Parliament is now in session and will decide tonight on Greece's future. Whatever the outcome, one thing is sure. Greece is in a worse position financially and fiscally to carry out Bailout 3 than it was to carry out Bailout 2 -- the EU has crippled Greece, led by Germany and its Chancellor, Angela Merkel. The Greek tragedy winds its way to an end that promises economic collapse, bank failure and bankruptcy. Merkel, Germany, northern Europe and the ECB know this. The IMF told them. What is the EU's game plan? To destroy the smallest, weakest Eurozone member state. Why? We have no idea. Unless it is pure hatred for an ancient culture that manages its society differently and that their recent northern souls cannot understand. They would do well to consider that Pericles led the Athenian democracy when northern European Germanic tribes were living in huts worshipping Druidic gods.