Germans Should Be Nervous

The German Chancellor spent last month being beastly to the Poles, on the assumption that Poland needs the EE and Germany more than vice-versa. Now Poland is the only buffer between Putin’s tank armies and Germany, that  doesn’t seem so smart.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has sent a chilling message of defiance to the West, effectively tearing up a vital Cold War treaty designed to guarantee peace in Europe…

Mr Putin signed a decree suspending Moscow’s participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, a move that will allow Russia to mass tanks on Europe’s border for the first time in 15 years.

A Russian invasion of Western Europe won’t happen anytime soon.

But history is often driven by capabilities not intentions, and the Russian army will now position itself on Poland’s frontier.

Poland is quite poor, so not worth having. But Germany would be a real plumb for Russia – 80 million very competent, obedient and defenseless Germans would provide a great basis for the Russian economy when the oil runs out.

And now a disgruntled Poland is all that stands between Russia’s tank divisions and Germany.

Go Mossad, Go!

Readers will be shocked to hear that the new French president, while making nice to Israel, is giving aid and comfort to its enemies.

French intelligence fears that the Israeli Mossad will try to kidnap or assassinate senior Hizbullah officials who are participating in an inter-factional conference in Paris meant to resolve the political crisis in Lebanon, Kuwait’s Al-Siyassah newspaper reported on Saturday.

According to the report, senior members of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government contacted associates of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and warned that such an action on French soil would lead to a deterioration in French-Israeli relations.

In fact whacking or kidnapping a few “senior Hizbullah officials” would be a highly productive contribution to solving the crisis in Lebanon, since Hezbollah and its backers Iran and Syria are the sole cause of that crisis.

Federal Follies

The feds want visitors to give 2 days notice of flying to the US. That’s in addition to taking their credit card, address, and other personal data and holding them for 15 years. You can’t run a business that way, so that’ll just undermine the US economy.

The latest:

American plans that could force Europeans to give two-days’ notice before flying to the US would hinder last-minute business travel, the EU’s security chief has warned.

Under the proposals, European travellers would give passport and other details to the US authorities electronically, either personally or through travel agents.

A green light would rapidly confirm visa-free travel was permitted, while a yellow light would require the traveller to attend interviews at a US consulate. Frequent business flyers might enjoy an extended green- light permit.

But US authorities have so far failed to assuage European concerns that processing this information will in practice mean 48-hours’ notice could be required.

I once saved a US subsidiary from going bust by taking a London to NYC Concorde flight at 6 hours notice to close a crucial deal (I flew back coach). Now I wouldn’t bother – with a US subsidiary, that is.

Incidentally, an American recently mailed me here in Europe at an old address that’s only held by the IRS and SSA. He admits he used an “investigator”, who found my Social Security number and used that to get into one or the other of these two databases.

The SSA and IRS are supposed to have two of the most secure databases in the world, but clearly that’s not true.

So even if the 2 day rule gets dropped, European travelers to the US will suffer identity theft.

After a few such incidents, they’ll just stop coming.

Still Lord Black

Seems Lord B will stay a Lord in spite of being convicted for fraud. That’s fair – life peerages are granted for political services, some less than pure, and the hereditary lords get their titles from ancestors who did a King or Queen a favor, again often of an extra-judicial nature. So he’ll be in like company

The jury did a good job, tossing out 9 of the prosecution’s 13 charges, including racketeering. But they did right to convict him for paying himself a non-compete from a subsidiary.

However, the prosecution is tainted by the use of a bribed partner-in-crime:

One of those who benefited was David Radler, Black’s right-hand man for most of his meteoric rise up the corporate ladder. But Radler turned against him and gave evidence for the prosecution in a deal under which he pleaded guilty in exchange for up to 29 months in jail.

Mark Steyn says the bribee will be out in 6 months.

Still, if Black survives jail, he’ll still be able to use the House of Lords as his club (if it isn’t a mosque by then):

Although there were calls for Black to be stripped of his peerage, there is no provision for this. The Government once proposed such a law after Jeffrey Archer was jailed for perjury but it was never introduced.

I doubt this government will pass a special law to strip Black of his peerage – his financial manipulations are chicken feed compared with Brown’s accounting for state pension liabilities.

And the last thing the future Lord Brown wants is a precedent that can be used to bust him.