Hundreds of foreign spies in Brussels, European diplomatic agency warns

 

According to Die Welt, the EEAS estimates that “approximately 250 Chinese and 200 Russian spies” are operating in Brussels. Most of these intelligence officers are allegedly embedded in their countries’ embassies, trade missions, cultural centers and other outreach facilities in the Belgian capital. There are also many intelligence operatives from Western agencies, including those of the United States, as well as from Iran, Turkey and Morocco, among other foreign nations. The report in Die Welt adds that the EEAS advised European Union diplomats to avoid certain establishments in the European Quarter of Brussels, which are believed to be heavily frequented by international spies. Among them are “a popular steakhouse and café” that are “within walking distance of the Berlaymont building” —the headquarters of the European Commission. The same building houses the offices of the EEAS.

Stocking Up for World War III

 

Nuclear nonproliferation efforts are ending. A new arms race has begun.

Since the United States and the Soviet Union backed away from the precipice of nuclear war in the 1980s, the world’s stocks of nuclear weapons have declined from an estimated 60,000 to an estimated 10,000.

According to a 2014 study by science journal Earth’s Future, however, it would take just 100 nuclear detonations to create a worldwide climate catastrophe causing massive famine and death.

Hammond’s threat to Europe: We’ll turn Britain into a TAX HAVEN if you try to ‘wound’ us in Brexit talks as he warns UK will do whatever it takes to ‘regain competitiveness’

Chancellor Philip Hammond said the UK would do whatever it takes to ‘regain competitiveness’ if it is denied a good trade deal

 

• Chancellor says UK will do anything needed to stay competitive post-Brexit
• Suggests corporation tax and red tape could be slashed to lure in business
• Comes as Theresa May prepares to deliver speech setting out Brexit approach
• Jeremy Corbyn accuses government of risking a ‘trade war’ with Europe

Philip Hammond has delivered a stark warning to the EU that Britain will slash taxes and battle for business if the bloc tries to ‘wound’ us in the looming Brexit talks.

The Chancellor said the UK would do whatever it takes to ‘regain competitiveness’ if it is denied a good trade deal.

The threat comes as Theresa May prepares to flesh out her plans for cutting ties with Brussels – making clear that she is ready to leave the European single market and customs union in order to regain control of immigration.

EU Banks Need $166 Billion, Deutsche Bank Economist Tells Welt

Let us not forget about the monstrous derivative exposure of Deutsche Bank: $72.8 trillion. They’re looking like the next Lehman Brothers.

Video available for viewing at website.

 

Europe urgently needs a 150 billion-euro ($166 billion) bailout fund to recapitalize its beleaguered banks, particularly those in Italy, Deutsche Bank AG’s chief economist said in an interview with Welt am Sonntag.

“Europe is extremely sick and must start dealing with its problems extremely quickly, or else there may be an accident,” Deutsche Bank’s David Folkerts-Landau said, according to the newspaper. “I’m no doomsday prophet, I am a realist.”

German spy chief warns ISIS wants to attack

The militant group released a video on Tuesday suggesting it may carry out further attacks in the West after the Brussels bombings and Paris attacks, naming London, Berlin and Rome as possible targets, according to Reuters.

Bundesbank President Says ECB Monetary Policy ‘Grave Decision’

The head of Germany’s central bank has said that quantitative easing will not solve the economic problems of the Eurozone.

MOSCOW, January 25 (Sputnik) – The president of the German central bank, Jens Weidmann, has expressed his disagreement with the ECB’s decision to implement quantitative easing in an interview with German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

“Bond-buying by the government is not a normal instrument of monetary policy,” Weidmann told the paper on Sunday. Such a policy, when carried out in a monetary union like the Eurozone, “is connected with particular drawbacks and risks,” Weidmann continued, adding that “there should be a high threshold for their use.”

North Korea tested Iranian warhead or “dirty bomb” in 2010 for $55m

German and Japanese intelligence sources Monday, March 5, confirmed – and qualified – to debkafile reports in the German Der Spiegel and Welt am Sonntag that Western intelligence had known for 11 months that at least one of North Korea’s covert nuclear tests in 2010 was carried out on an Iranian radioactive bomb or nuclear warhead.
Those sources report five facts are known for sure:

1. North Korea carried out two covert underground nuclear explosions in mid-April and around May 11 of 2010 equivalent to 50- 200 tonnes of TNT.

2. Two highly lethal heavy hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium,  typical of a nuclear fission explosion and producing long-term contamination of the atmosphere, were detected and analyzed by  Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBOTO) monitoring stations in South Korea, Japan and Russia.

3. The presence of tritium in one of the tests led several intelligence agencies watching North Korea’s nuclear program and its longstanding links with Iran and Syria to examine the possibility that Pyongyang had tested the internal mechanism of a nuclear warhead on Iran’s behalf.  This strongly indicated to German and Japanese intelligence that Iran had already developed the nuclear warhead’s outer shell and attained its weaponization.

4.  Another possibility examined was that North Korea had tested an Iranian “dirty bomb” – i.e. a conventionally detonated device containing nuclear substances. Tritium would boost its range, force and lethality.

This was one of the conclusions of atmospheric scientist Larsk-Erik De Geer of the Swedish Defense Research Agency in Stockholm, who spent a year studying the data collected by various CTBOTO stations tracking the North Korean explosions.

On February 3, De Greer published some of his findings and conclusions in Nature Magazine. His paper will appear in the April/May issue of the Science and Global Security Journal.

5. The Japanese and German sources found confirmation of their suspicions that North Korea had abetted Iran’s nuclear aspirations in three events:

Full article: North Korea tested Iranian warhead or “dirty bomb” in 2010 for $55m (DEBKAfile)