Revelations by Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) progamme Foreign Correspondent on 12 February, 2013 have fired up Australian onliners. The mysterious Prisoner X who allegedly committed suicide in an Israeli gaol in 2010 was not only a dual citizen of Australia and Israel, but also a Mossad agent.

He was proud of his time in the military, despite our endless teasing about the wound we never asked to see.

I remember passionately debating the finer points of the Israel-Palestine conflict with Ben, who was obviously deeply engaged with the issue.

BY MICHAEL ROSS

I also served as a deep-cover combatant in the Mossad, and though I never knew Zygier, I think I have some insight as to what happened.

„He had everything to live for and that‘s why the death being noted as suicide comes as a great surprise to us all,“ he said.

„He would be the last person on earth that I would guess would take his own life, especially being in a high security prison where there‘s nothing to hang from.“

The committee also chose the members of its subcommittee on the secret services: Lieberman himself, who is suspected of obtaining confidential information from an ambassador; Aryeh Deri (Shas), whose conviction on corruption charges would deny him a security classification, but is absolved of this requirement as an elected parliamentarian; Naftali Bennett (Habayit Hayehudi); Zeev Elkin (Likud Yisrael Beiteinu); and Benjamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor).

Without naming Mr Zygier or identifying him as an Australian, the statement said: “For security reasons, the prisoner was held under a pseudonym, but his family was notified of the arrest immediately. The prisoner was held by proxy of an arrest warrant issued by the court. The proceedings were overseen by senior officials in the Justice Ministry“

„The issue must be looked into. It is not within the jurisdiction of the Justice Ministry and I don’t have any answers on the matter.“

https://t.co/r3YJ36iM

The firm was founded in 1972 by three prominent lawyers:

– Chaim Herzog, later to become Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, member of the Israeli Knesset and finally the sixth President of the State of Israel;

– Michael Fox, who established a successful London law firm before immigrating to Israel,[4] known for his corporate work and his legal contributions to the development of the infrastructure, energy and natural resources of Israel;

– Dr. Ya‘akov Ne’eman, author of numerous publications on tax law and respected tax advisor to the government and major local and foreign corporations, later serving as Israeli Minister of Finance and Minister of Justice.

In another curious wrinkle in the case, Israeli TV reported that Zygier had worked as a clerk in the international business department of 1 of Israel‘s most prestigious law firms, Herzog Fox & Neeman. The firm is partially owned by Israel‘s Justice Minister, Yaakov Neeman.

Also Israeli TV, suggesting ‚co-incidence,‘ has reported he had worked in the international business departments of the law firm, Herzog, Fox & Neeman, a firm partially owned by Israel‘s Justice Minister, Yaakov Neeman.

In an unusual twist to the case, Israeli TV reported Zygier had worked for Israel’s Justice Minister, Yaakov Neeman’s law firm, Herzog, Fox & Neeman.

During his years in Israel, Zygier, a lawyer by profession, also worked at the Herzog, Fox, Neeman law firm of Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, Channel 2 reported.

„The Mossad liaison I was in touch with informed me that, unfortunately, my client was no longer alive,“ Feldman told Kol Barama Radio. Israel has neither denied nor confirmed that „Prisoner X“ was a Mossad officer.

Republicans will need to rally forces against the Obama national-security and foreign-policy agendas again. Big outside groups and big outside money won’t like going this far on Hagel only to back down on the biggest fight.

Complicating the situation still further was Reid’s announcement that the current holder of the job, Leon Panetta, would clock out later today.

“We do not have, at 12 o’clock today, a secretary of Defense,” Reid said.

They’ve threatened to “hold” the nomination – a practice Mr. Reid said he wouldn’t honor – and filibuster it. In light of those threats, Mr. Reid filed cloture on Wednesday, a procedural move that heads off a filibuster and means Mr. Hagel will need 60 votes to win confirmation instead of a simple majority.

Sollten die Konservativen weiter keine reguläre Abstimmung zulassen, kann der 66-Jährige nicht mit einer einfachen Mehrheit gewählt werden. Die Demokraten bräuchten dann 60 der 100 Senatorenstimmen, um die Blockade zu überwinden. Da sie nur über 55 Stimmen verfügen, müssten fünf Republikaner für Hagel votieren. Diese „erzwungene“ Wahl könnte frühestens Freitag stattfinden.

Cuts can be made in so many areas:

– grouping together of municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants (immediately)
– modernisation and computerisation of the machinery of central government with a 30% cut in costs (in 5 years)
– put an end to every foreign peace mission, that in fact is a true military mission (immediately)
– elimination of Provinces (immediately)
– put a stop to the construction of useless infrastructure like the TAV in the Val di Susa, the Gronda in Genoa, the Pedemontana motorway in Lombardy (immediately)
– elimination of public financing of the publishing industry (immediately)
…

Die Kritik der Freimaurer ist bemerkenswert, weil sie ihrerseits in den Skandal um die Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) verstrickt sein könnten. Der gefeuerte Chef der Bank, Giuseppe Mussari, soll selbst Logenmitglied sein, wie der Vorsitzende der Loge Großer demokratischer Orient, Gioele Magaldi, der Tageszeitung Il Fatto Quotidiano erklärte. Logen haben in der Toskana eine lange Tradition. Zahlreiche Sozialisten gehören der Vereiningung an.

The former Prime Minister said that his successor was “right” to promise a referendum as he became one of the first senior Conservative figures to set out how the debate should now be handled.

In a strongly pro-EU speech given at the Chatham House foreign policy think-tank in central London on Thursday afternoon, Sir John said that while the EU was far from perfect, to leave would be to „jump into a void“.

In der unendlichen Geschichte der Rettungen italienischer Privatbanken auf Kosten der arbeitenden Bevölkerung gibt es ein neues Kapitel, das sowohl den im Dezember zurückgetretenen Ministerpräsidenten Mario Monti, als auch den aussichtsreichsten Kandidaten für den Posten des Regierungschefs nach den nächsten Parlamentswahlen am 24. und 25. Februar, den Anführer des italienischen Linksbündnisses Pier Luigi Bersani und mit ihm seine ganze Demokratische Partei (PD) schwer belastet.

Die italienische Traditionsbank Monte dei Paschi kommt nicht zur Ruhe. In Mailand hat die Polizei jetzt den früheren Finanzchef der Bank festgenommen. Von Fluchtgefahr ist die Rede.

RAW VISION: Israeli ambassador Yuval Rotem refuses to answer questions about the arrest and death of Australian man Ben Zygier, known as Prisoner X.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr revealed on Thursday that ASIO informed the department in February 2010 that Israeli authorities were holding Mr Zygier because of “serious offences under Israeli national security legislation“.

“[Zygier] may well have been about to blow the whistle, but he never got the chance,“ an Australian security official with knowledge of the case told Fairfax Media yesterday.

Sources in Canberra are insistent that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) was not informed by its Israeli counterparts of the precise nature of the espionage allegations against Mr Zygier. However, it is understood that the former Melbourne law graduate had been in contact with Australian intelligence.

The former Fairfax Media reporter said at first he found Mr Zygier „very convincing“ but continued to interview him. „It seemed to me that he was doing some kind of intelligence gathering but I couldn‘t be more certain than that,“ he said on Thursday. He added that at the time, he thought it was possible his interactions with Mr Zygier were under Israeli surveillance.

European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn put a stop to Greece’s expectations of a revision of the austerity program due to IMF’s miscalculations of fiscal multipliers.

Wörtlich: Kasse für Verwertung privaten Vermögens des Staates = dem griechischen Finanzministerium unterstehender Privatisierungsfond für Nutzung und Verwerten privaten staatlichen Vermögens Griechenlands.

The sell-offs of gaming company OPAP and gas firms DEPA and DESFA should be completed by the end of April, according to the plans of the state privatization fund (TAIPED)

Unemployment in Greece broke all previous records

Negative growth for the sixth consecutive quarter

„Ja, man kann!“, lautet das Motto der spanischen Proteste gegen Wohnungszwangsräumungen. Und es stimmt.

Der Gesetzesentwurf, wider den verschiedene Bürgerinitiativen gegen Zwangsräumungen von Kreditschuldnern und die Gewerkschaften mehr als 1,4 Millionen Unterschriften gesammelt haben, sieht die sofortige Aussetzung aller Räumungsverfahren vor.

Die 17 Länder mit Gemeinschaftswährung rutschten damit noch tiefer in die Rezession, die im Frühjahr vergangenen Jahres eingesetzt hatte. Zu Jahresbeginn 2012 hatte die Wirtschaft noch stagniert. Im zweiten Vierteljahr war die Wirtschaftsleistung um 0,2 Prozent und im dritten Quartal um 0,1 Prozent gesunken. Ökonomen sprechen von einer Rezession, wenn das Bruttoinlandsprodukt im Vergleich zum Vorquartal zweimal in Folge sinkt.

Die Einzelhaft sei aus höchsten israelischen Justizkreisen angeordnet worden, heißt es im israelischen Militärradio. Zudem hätten sich drei Anwälte um die Belange des Mannes gekümmert. Feldmann sei jedoch nicht Teil dieser Gruppe gewesen. In welchem Verhältnis dieser zu dem Gefangenen stand, ist unklar.

Ein bekannter israelischer Rechtsanwalt berichtete nun, er habe den angeblichen Mossad-Agenten Ben Zygier einen Tag vor dessen Tod in einem israelischen Hochsicherheitsgefängnis getroffen. Avigdor Feldman sagte der israelischen Nachrichtenseite „ynet“: „Als ich ihn gesehen habe, gab es keinerlei Anzeichen dafür, dass er Selbstmord begehen könnte.“