Luxembourg reverse-reverses its Middle East Policies

 

Luxembourg reverse-reverses its Middle East Policies

Luxembourg’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, in his job for nearly 2 decades, is known to be a welcome guest in Tehran. He was even seen in 2014 attending the commemoration of the 25^th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Khomeini. FARS News even reported that “Luxembourg is against the US led unilateral sanctions against Iran.” Asselborn has also been known to support Hamas, the Party of God, and Hezbollah, the Islamic Resistance Movement, both labeled by the US and the EU as terrorist organizations. And according to Asselborn, the 2020 Peace Treaty between the UAE and Israel isselling out the Palestinian cause. A treason of sorts among Arabs according to him. That’s the same position that Palestinians, Iran, and Turkey took.

For some unexplained reasons Asselborn now supports the same UAE after an attack by Houthi terrorists supported by Iran.  This is how we learn the news about a 180 degrees swing in Asselborn's language, as reported by WAM, the Emirates News Agency:

“ABU DHABI, 21st January, 2022 (WAM) -- Luxembourg has condemned the terrorist attack by the terrorist Houthi militia on civil areas and facilities in the UAE.

This came in a phone call between H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Foreign Minister of Luxembourg, Jean Asselborn, who affirmed his condemnation and denunciation of the terrorist attack, stressing his country's full support for the measures taken by the UAE to ensure the safety and security of its people and its territorial integrity.

The top diplomat extended his condolences to the families of the victims of the terrorist attack, wishing speedy recovery to the injured.

WAM/Hatem Mohamed”

Luxembourg’s Pornhub: Porn Laundering is the New Frontier

Luxembourg’s Pornhub: Porn Laundering is the New Frontier

In “XXX-Files: WhoTorched the Pornhub Palace?” Adam Gollner in Vanity Fair has the pornographers speaking in this January 18^th edition.

He explores the beginnings, the many iterations of the business idea, some shady characters, and the newest effort to try distancing the “industry” from criminal activity, rape, slavery. We are witnessing an effort to go mainstream, and to combat opponents as religious zealots who harm the industry. A sort of Porn laundering and the attempt to making it mainstream.

Of course none of those stories goes without telling Luxembourg’s role, and so does Adam Gollner in his article: “Pornhub and MindGeek, though physically based in Montreal, are actually headquartered in the hoary tax haven of Luxembourg, …..”

With 170 million visitors a day, which is 62,050,000,000 a year (read out loud 62 billion or 8X the world population), LuXXXembourg is the lone leader for virtual porn tourism. Some Luxembourg financial institutions, some law firms and professionals don’t want that to change. Maybe even the Luxembourg tax man likes the Eros, sorry, Euros? 

 

Tom Barrett new US Ambassador to Luxembourg

 

Tom Barrett new US Ambassador to Luxembourg

Yesterday the US Senate confirmed the nomination of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett as the new U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg. Here the Senate information:

“The Senate Cloak Room:

Confirmed by voice vote: Executive Calendar #622 Thomas Barrett to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.”

Tom Barrett has served as Mayor of Milwaukee, the largest city in Wisconsin, since 2004. Not absent from his nomination is the fact that Luxembourg has special ties to Wisconsin: it has without any doubt the largest share of descendants of Luxembourg immigrants dating back to the 19^th century. It is also the home of the Luxembourg Cultural Society’s headquarters and Museum.

 

Population wise Milwaukee has about the same number of residents than the whole Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is known for its beer production. But testimony to Luxembourg’s excellent salesmanship is that BBBB is exporting its beer from Luxembourg to Wisconsin. Which is the equivalent of selling fridges in the Arctic.

 

Sadly, Milwaukee is also known for its murder rate. Close to 200 murders in a year. Milwaukee’s Mayor will be safer in Luxembourg. He’ll also have a bunch of marines watching the doors. At an equivalent population number, Luxembourg only makes it to 4 or 5 violent deaths annually. Or about 2 % of Milwaukee’s numbers. I’m sure he will ask about the numbers of white-collar crimes in Luxembourg. As a diplomat he wants some reciprocity in the numbers. He has already mentioned concern about money laundering and other financial crimes.

 

With Tom Barrett Luxembourg gains an expert to advise the City of Luxembourg about the rampant insecurity in the surroundings of the Central Railway Station.

 

On a more personal note, Tom Barrett’s claim to fame goes back to President Obama’s election: a real President needs a dog. Tom Barrett advised that it should be a Portuguese Water Dog. His dog Bailey is a Portuguese Water Dog, 

Mission Accomplished

Mission Accomplished: The Marietta Daily Journal in Georgia reports about the adventures that US Ambassadors go through, when in foreign Lands.Ambassador Evans got his share of adventures in Luxembourg. We learn how he summoned the Luxembourg Prime Minister to a meeting, and trapped him to confront the press, and either persist in front of the journalists to ignore the overdue reparations to holocaust survivors or commit to those reparations. Mr Bettel complied with the obvious. Every living holocaust survivor got 1 million. And on the side, the Ambassador played the key role of putting Luxembourg on the space map.

LuXXXembourg's Mindgeek headed for trouble in the US

LuXXXembourg's Mindgeek headed for trouble in the US 

This sad episode has been brewing for some time. This blog has repeatedly attracted attention to the inherent risks to the kind of product, some clearly very problematic to tolerate within the bounderies of the Luxembourg jurisdiction, without intervention on the part of the Justice Department. It is true that this business is quite lucrative, and helps the government pay some bills. Not to mention the well to do family fathers and mothers who earn a golden nose by having Mindgeek as a client. CBS reported. 

An excerpt of the complaint filed in the US: 

45. Defendant MindGeek S.a.r.l. is a foreign entity organized and existing under the laws of Luxembourg. MindGeek S.A.R.L. conducts business in the United States, including in this District. MindGeek S.a.r.l., formerly known as Manwin owns and operates over 100 pornographic websites, production companies, and brands including Pornhub, RedTube, Tube8, YouPorn, PornIQ, gaytube, Thumbzilla, Peeperz, PornMD, Xtube, Brazzers, Babes.com, Reality Kings, Digital Playground, Twistys, Men.com, Mofos, MyDirtyHobby, SexTube, and Webcams. MindGeek also manages websites including Wicked Pictures, lesbea.com, and Playboy. MindGeek S.a.r.l. owns and/or controls the majority of the pornography on the Internet, much of which it distributes for free, to any person with a web connection, regardless of age. Although incorporated in Luxembourg, MindGeek S.a.r.l. operates out of Montreal, Canada, and has satellite offices in, among other places, Los Angeles, California. 

This will be resolved at a cost of hundreds of millions of USD. The complete complaint filed by the US law firm Brown Rudnick is here.

Luxembourg’s Huge Diplomatic Success in the US. No, I will not share the glory with Jang.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Luxembourg’s Huge Diplomatic Success in the US. 

No, I will not share the glory with Jang.

In 1989, years before AJ (Anno Johannes also called Asselborn Jang) the Luxembourg Government, in its broad wisdom sent me to New York as Consul General of Luxembourg. I was of course well aware of the challenge as expectations were high to do at least as well as Peter Sellers in “The Mouse that Roared”. For more information please go to Netflix.

In Europe you might think you know everything about the US? Sorry you mostly get fake news. One important skill I had to acquire was to really dig deep into the meanings of the commonly accepted politically correct language, among others on the phone. If you have any questions about politically correct ways to express yourself, the Hallmark card section at your pharmacy gives you hundreds of politically correct ways to express joy, sorrow, pride, congratulations with finely crafted messages for your spouse/parents/children/uncles/grandparents/stepmothers. Read those while you wait for your medications to be filled.

Ugly words you can use in an argument are: you discriminate against me or also you singled me out! Then you win the argument. There is worse language but getting blocked on Facebook is a risk I’m not ready to take.

So, one of the first things you do when you arrive in the US, is to call police because someone stole the moving van. Some machine picks up your call and speaks English. Good I learnt some. They say: “For English, press one. Para español, oprima dos”. I waited for Luxembourgish, but they don’t have that. I complained about the discrimination against Luxembourgish ever since. I escalated the dispute to successive mayors, Koch, Giuliani, Bloomberg shaming them into admitting that the Irish were singled out and were allowed to have an annual parade on Fifth Avenue, but not Luxembourgers.

Then, when I started to understand climate, I took my battle to Florida. Friends, we won! The authorities have recognized their blatant violation of Luxembourgers’ human right to speak Luxembourgish. The County’s website for Voter Registration allows you to choose another language than English. But of course, it would be discriminating against voters who don’t speak English. So, I immediately jumped to “aha!”  Expecting to see only Chinese, Spanish and Farsi as the other options. I was ready to charge and furiouslyd requested “Luxembourgish”. Friends, we won! Here it is: 

Karachi, Paris, Luxembourg : l’affaire Karachi des sous-marins français se conclue sans faire de vagues.

Le soleil se couche sur les sous-marins

Karachi, Paris, Luxembourg : l’affaire Karachi des sous-marins français se conclue sans faire de vagues.

La presse internationale me semble en plongée profonde. Alors que l’affaire Karachi atteint son point d’ébullition, elle ne dit mot. Pourtant, l’étau s’est fermé sur le cercle des initiateurs et initiés de ce monument de corruption. Cette semaine, six acteurs dont un ancien ministre ont été condamnés à des peines de prison. Et l’affaire reste à suivre comme un long feuilleton en dernière saison.

On aura vu un trafic, pardon, une vente d’armes : des sous-marins construits en France. Des politiciens maîtres des mots et leur consiglieri recevoir et payer des pots de vin pour financer leurs intrigues. Ajoutons des services secrets, beaucoup de blanchiment d’argent, de la fraude, un attentat tuant 11 ingénieurs français à Karachi, le financement occulte des campagnes politiques et des plats qui se mangent froid. Je regarderai le film qui sera peut-être financé par l’office luxembourgeois pour la production cinématographique ? Ou par les deux sociétés créées à Luxembourg par les conspirateurs, Heine et Eurolux, moteurs de la machine à laver.

Très visible et avec le recul, presque amusante est cette composante luxembourgeoise dans l’affaire Karachi. La place financière était un outil du crime, et on revisite 25 années d’itérations autour du secret bancaire luxembourgeois. Le business plan luxembourgeois était génialement simple : nous recréons le secret suisse à Luxembourg. L’image de marque sera le secret bancaire absolu. Vous venez cacher votre argent chez nous. On ne dira rien. Et, bien-sûr, vous n’allez jamais faire pression sur nous pour éliminer ce secret.

Surprise ! En 2010 la justice luxembourgeoise a donné suite à une commission rogatoire française. Le rapport de la Police luxembourgeoise dévoile l’existence de deux entités utilisées pour divertir des fonds, pour les blanchir et redistribuer. C’est sans doute une importante pièce à conviction. Adieu le secret bancaire et bon débarras. recul, presque amusante est cette composante luxembourgeoise dans l’affaire Karachi. La place financière était un outil du crime, et on revisite 25 années d’itérations autour du secret bancaire luxembourgeois. Le business plan luxembourgeois était génialement simple : nous recréons le secret suisse à Luxembourg. L’image de marque sera le secret bancaire absolu. Vous venez cacher votre argent chez nous. On ne dira rien. Et, bien-sûr, vous n’allez jamais faire pression sur nous pour éliminer ce secret.

C’était beau de voir la coopération franco-luxembourgeoise dans la lutte contre le crime financier. Au fait les deux systèmes judiciaires opèrent aussi à la même vitesse.

https://www.france24.com/en/20200615-french-court-orders-jail-terms-for-six-in-karachigate-arms-deal-kickbacks-case