Greece and Iran: The Dark Side of the Relationship

As you can glean from the article, there’s a lot more to the EU than business as usual. Some things will never see the light of day, but here we have a glimpse into the darker inner workings and depth of corruption within the Greek system. Greece is an extremely sick nation.

Greek problems aren’t limited to a constant economic and political hammering by Germany. The wounds are many, and bone deep.

It makes you wonder where you would even start to get your nation out of this mess if you were an honest Greek.

 

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras meets with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, on February 8, 2016. (Image source: Office of the Supreme Leader)

 

• The Iranian government, with these two cases (Kabis and Noor 1), seems to hold in its hands a bomb that can blow up the Greek economic and political system. If Greek authorities seriously investigate these cases, they will trigger a domino-effect of disclosures that could well destabilize Greece’s government.
• Iran can blackmail and manipulate its political influence inside Greece, or Iran can use its ability to destabilize a member of NATO and Eurozone, Greece, to strengthen its international position.

As Sunnis and Shiites are fighting for regional hegemony in the Middle East — Syria, Yemen — Greece, as geographical gate for Europe and the Balkans, is a trophy country for the Iranian regime. In recent years, the Iranians have been exploiting the corrupt establishment’s thirst for money. Through drug dealing and oil smuggling, Iran seems to be trying to buy political influence and access to the Greek media. Well-informed diplomatic sources say that the Iranian Embassy in Athens is extremely active in Greece’s political and economic life behind the scenes.

Chief NSA Scandal Investigator in Germany Reports Phone Compromised

The head of the German inquiry into NSA spying had his phone tampered with after sending it off to be inspected for suspected hacking. When the phone arrived at its destination, its packaging had already been opened.

Patrick Sensburg, a member of the German parliament (the Bundestag) from the Christian Democratic Union party, sent his phone to the Federal Office of IT Security (BSI) in Bonn to be inspected for possible hacking after he noticed problems with it in February. Though the phone was sent in a lead-lined container to block any wireless signals, the package was sent by normal DHL post and by the time it arrived at the BSI, the secure container had been opened.

A Cyberattack Has Caused Confirmed Physical Damage for the Second Time Ever

Amid all the noise the Sony hack generated over the holidays, a far more troubling cyber attack was largely lost in the chaos. Unless you follow security news closely, you likely missed it.

I’m referring to the revelation, in a German report released just before Christmas (.pdf), that hackers had struck an unnamed steel mill in Germany. They did so by manipulating and disrupting control systems to such a degree that a blast furnace could not be properly shut down, resulting in “massive”—though unspecified—damage.

NSA Spying in Germany: How Much Did the Chancellor Know?

What everyday people don’t understand is that countries spy on other countries on a routine basis, even allies. Matter of fact, in the real geopolitical world there is no such thing as an ally, only ‘interests’ — especially to the United States. England has regularly spied on the US, and vice-versa. Much like the NSA/CIA/FBI, Interpol (European CIA equivalent) has even been given nearly full authority (with immunity) to act as they please on American soil, by this very same US administration.

In addition, the NSA spying had to have been known long ago and approved by these same foreign governments complaining and making a scandal out of it. In summary, this is only being turned into a ‘scandal’ to make sure the politicians don’t lose popularity among their respective voters. This is not to whitewash what’s going on, but to point out that the real scandal is that the politicians in such countries as France and Germany allowed it to happen, have been caught red-handed and are only putting on a show for public consumption.

While the Chancellery appears to be outraged by the NSA’s spying tactics in Germany, the opposition doubts the revelations came as a surprise to Angela Merkel. Just how much could she have known?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will have to be pretty clear with US President Barack Obama the next time she has him on the line. At least that’s a reasonable assumption, based on the anger she has expressed about American spying operations in the European Union and Germany.