may as well put it here for ref
Facts not politics, learn the truth about Libertas “Libertas is a Eurosceptic organisation”Libertas is not a Eurosceptic organisation.
Libertasis passionately pro-European. We believe that the European Union is one
of the most worthwhile, and laudable political projects in history,
and we are proud to be able to make some contribution to its future
success.
We believe that the growth in Euroscepticism over the
past decade threatens the future of the European project. We believe
that the widespread and justified concerns about the lack of democracy
in the European Union must be addressed now, at this moment, if the
project is to sustain the widespread support of the people of Europe,
as it should.
Our vision is of a united Europe, which recognises
and respects the right of citizens and nations to choose their own
destinies, but which encourages all Europeans to reach across the
borders of nationality, language, and culture to participate in and
invigorate a Union which equips us to meet the challenges of this next
phase of European History.
We do not see this ambition in
Brussels today. Instead we see an unaccountable elite determined to
bulldoze over the expressed will of the people of France, The
Netherlands, Ireland and all the peoples of Europe. We see an out of
touch clique that is unwilling to acknowledge that they are fuelling
Euroscepticism by their unwillingness to listen, and change.
Libertasis not nor will ever be Eurosceptic, but we will listen to Eurosceptics
and all other opinion groups with the utmost respect. We will not
dismiss the concerns of voters and citizens, we will hear, respond and
act upon them. Only by that road can the Europe we envision be created.
“Libertas shares the values of American Neo-Conservatives”We absolutely do not.
Libertas believes in an international order based on respect and co-operation between the free peoples of the world.
“Declan Ganley made his money through the sale and supply of arms”This is a poisonous lie. Declan
Ganleyis not, and never has been, involved in the arms trade. His career
spans almost 20 years, starting in the early 1990’s building business
in the former Soviet Union’s forestry and export sectors. His
broadband telecommunications company, Broadnet, acquired wireless
broadband licences in ten European countries in the 1990’s. His current
venture, Rivada Networks, is a specialist broadband emergency
telecommunications provider which provides vital communications for
front line emergency response workers, particularly in disaster
scenarios such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and other emergency
situations where police, fire, medical and military units need to
communicate efficiently in order to save lives. Declan
Ganleywas awarded The Louisiana Distinguished Service Medal for his company’s
response to Hurricane Katrina. The medal citation credits his actions
with saving lives in the aftermath of that natural disaster.
“Mr. Ganley has significant contracts with the US military” Declan
Ganley’s
company, Rivada Networks, provides highly specialised communications
technology to emergency services. In the United States, some of these
contracts are with the Department of Homeland Security, whose
responsibility it is to protect American citizens against the effects
of natural disasters, terrorist attacks, or other emergencies. Rivada
also has contracts with police departments and state emergency
services. It is when the National Guard and other branches of the
military provide ‘aid to the civil power’ that Rivada has a role with
them. Rivada’s systems and services are not, nor ever have been, used
in a war or conflict situation.
Rivada provides interoperable
and integrated communications for multi-emergency responder
collaboration - even where normal communications are disabled or
destroyed.
“Mr. Ganley profited from the Invasion of Iraq”This is not true. Declan
Ganley did not profit from the invasion of Iraq. Like many European business leaders, Declan
Ganleydid look at a number of potential projects in Iraq in the
telecommunications re-building sector. He formed a consortium that
submitted a proposal for one of several mobile network build contracts
but the consortium was not awarded a contract. Later he also worked on
a project that considered options to build a police and emergency
communications network but decided not to proceed with that effort.
These projects were about the re-building of civil infrastructure in
that country and were not in any way ‘war’ related.
“Libertas is a front for American Interests; it is funded by the CIA”This is an outright lie and political slur. Neither Declan
Ganley nor
Libertas has ever had any connection with the CIA. Neither Declan
Ganley,
Libertas or any associate of
Libertashave ever received any funding, support or contact of any kind from the
CIA or any other similar entity. This rumour began when it was first
raised in the form of a baseless ‘question’ by a limited number of
unprincipled politicians on the ‘Yes’ side during the Irish referendum
campaign. It was later added to in an irresponsible comment by Alain
Juppé, the deputy French Foreign Minister, and subsequently by the
leader of the Greens, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, and even the President of the
European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering.
When
Libertas became a campaigning organisation for the Irish referendum, Mr
Ganleyprovided an initial loan facility to the organisation of €200,000 to
enable it to begin a fundraising campaign. Loans for organisations
such as
Libertas are fully permissible under Irish law. Many Irish political parties have established loan arrangements in the past.
Libertas will step up and continue to raise money across Europe from supporters in accordance with national and other relevant laws.
Libertas needs your help to fight the smears against our campaign.
“Mr. Ganley’s involvement in Albania left many thousands impoverished”This story is the result of false rumours and originates from unreliable Albanian web sites. In 1996, Declan
Ganleywas involved in the creation of the Anglo-Adriatic Investment fund. The
fund’s role was to help Albanian Citizens benefit from the
privatisation of Albanian state assets during the transition period
from Communism.
The Anglo-Adriatic Investment Fund was never
involved in the fraud associated with so-called pyramid banks or
pyramid schemes. Indeed it actively campaigned against such pyramid
schemes and called for them to be shut down.
Anglo-Adriatic was
established as the only licensed ‘privatisation voucher’ fund-holding
entity. The Albanian government were to identify a number of
state-owned assets of appropriate value that were to be privatised by
way of a voucher privatisation process. A limited number of vouchers
were issued to almost every household in Albania and the concept was
that the vouchers should be exchanged for a share of the assets to be
privatised by the Albanian government.
The objective of the
Anglo-Adriatic fund, as provided for in government legislation, was to
pool privatisation vouchers owned by Albanian voucher holders and to
enter into discussions with potential foreign investors who would bring
cash, expertise and other assets. The result was intended to be
privatised assets derived from the voucher holders’ shares that had the
benefit of external investment and know how to create added value for
all shareholders.
Albanian voucher holders who took the option
of pooling vouchers with Anglo Adriatic deposited their vouchers in the
Savings Bank of Albania (the appointed custodian bank for Anglo
Adriatic). This was part of the licensing conditions for Anglo
Adriatic. That is to say, Anglo Adriatic could never actually
physically hold those vouchers. Every single voucher placed into the
fund in this manner is still in physical existence today in the bank
vaults controlled by the Albanian Central Bank. Not one single voucher
investor has ‘lost’ their holding as the holding exists and is secured
in a vault belonging to Raiffeisen Bank under the control of the
Albanian Central Bank. Anglo-Adriatic has made multiple attempts to
have subsequent governments of Albania offer assets of appropriate
value in exchange for those vouchers.
Unfortunately, the
Albanian government has not done this to date. In deference to the
Albanian government, there have been some mitigating circumstances. In
1997, the collapse of the aforementioned pyramid schemes led to massive
civil unrest and a state of near civil war. This break down in civil
law and order resulted in a mass evacuation of foreign nationals
carried out by NATO forces including Italian, British, US, French and
other forces. Anglo-Adriatic staff were airlifted by the US Marine
Corps (who were responsible for securing the sector of Tirana where
Anglo Adriatic’s office was located) and flown to safety on the USS
Nassau which was stationed in the Adriatic. It is hoped and
anticipated that the Albanian government will eventually find an
appropriate mechanism to honour and redeem the Anglo Adriatic related
vouchers and thus provide those voucher holders with appropriate value
for their holdings.
The Competition Department of Albania submitted the following comments to the OECD global forum on competition in 2004.
In
our view point, the absence of competition culture in Albania
constitutes the root cause of impediments to competition. After the
approval of the law no. 8044 (7 December 1995) “On Competition”, the
competition structure has been established within the Ministry of
Economic Co-operation and Trade. But from year 1995 to 2001, there has
been no consistency in maintaining this structure in charge of
enforcing the competition law. The very specific weaknesses of this
competition structure include: lack of an appropriate legal framework,
lack of an independent institution, lack of sufficient and qualified
staff and lack of financial resources in conducting surveys for market
data collection.
http://www.rekabet.gov.tr/word/uluslararasi/CD/OECD2008/Reports/GlobalForum-February2004.pdfWho is Kosta Trebicka?Kosta
Trebicka died tragically on 9th September 2008 while driving his
off-road vehicle over mountainous terrain in Eastern Bulgaria.
Mr.Trebicka had come to public attention because he admirably ‘blew the
whistle’ on alleged public corruption and arms dealing in Albania. He
was a key witness in an important legal proceedings and his death was
reported by the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/13/world/europe/13briefs-WHISTLEBLOWE_BRF.html?ref=world.
Put
briefly, Mr. Trebicka revealed that old Chinese ammunition was supplied
to the Afghan army by the US, using a company called AEY of Florida and
an off-shore shell company. It was alleged that the ammunition was
being sourced corruptly in an Albanian arms dump. See
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/world/asia/27ammo.html?_r=3&ref=washington&pagewanted=allAt
about the same time (March 2008) an Albanian arms depot blew up near
the village of Gerdec. This appalling disaster left 26 dead and 350
wounded. Some parts of the Albanian Press made a connection between
the quality and storage conditions of the Albanian munitions at Gerdec
and the stocks in the Afghan army supply scandal.
After the Irish referendum result and for reasons unknown to
Libertas or Declan
Ganley,
a number of untrue stories began to appear that falsely claimed that an
ongoing association existed between Mr. Trebicka and Declan
Ganley. For example, on 10 August 2008, a web site called the Albanian Canadian League Information Service declared that
Mr. Trebicka and Mr. Kushi have been for a long time in constant contact with the President of
Ganley Group, Declan
Ganley, and still maintain a regular relationship with the manager of the fund Anglo-Adriatic", Declan
Ganley”. Mr. Trebicka is quoted as saying: "Yes, I have often meetings with Declan
Ganley and his brother, talking often”
http://www.albca.com/aclis/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1469In fact, Mr. Trebicka never had a personal relationship with Declan
Ganley nor did Declan
Ganley,
to his knowledge, ever meet with Mr. Trebicka. It has even been
claimed that Mr. Trebicka had a ‘senior position’ in Anglo Adriatic and
that he was a director of Anglo Adriatic. All of these claims are
untrue.
Libertas has conducted an inquiry into the
factsbehind these false claims. We have established that Mr. Trebicka was
for some period of time in 1996 or 1997 an employee or consultant for
the Albanian Savings Bank. In 1996, the Albanian Savings Bank had the
largest branch network in the country and was contracted by
Anglo-Adriatic to be the custodian of privatisation vouchers as
required by law. As part of that role, the Savings bank collected and
processed vouchers throughout their branch network. It seems most
likely that Mr Trebicka worked for the savings bank in some sort of
voucher processing role. Declan
Ganley has no recollection of ever meeting Mr. Trebicka.
Libertas does not know why considerable effort has been expended on fabricating the appearance of a link between Declan
Ganley and the late Mr. Trebicka. We presume it is to negatively affect
Libertas efforts in campaigning for democracy and accountability at the heart of the Brussels establishment.
Conspiracy TheoriesThe concerns of the Brussels elite regarding
Libertas can be seen in their true light in a piece called “Get
Ganley!” written my Mark Mardell. See
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markmardell/2008/10/get_ganley.htmlRecently,
Libertashas learned from reliable sources from within the European Parliament
that a senior staff member of the Parliament has been fanning the
flames of false news stories about Declan
Ganley,
circulating the resulting press-cuttings to select members who then
treat the file contents as ‘new evidence’ of negative activities .
Libertasbelieves that people who live in the real world will see through the
smears and attempted distraction and will listen to the arguments.
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