Monday, February 27, 2012
Bill Clinton, Kohl, EU among 231 Nobel candidates
A total of 231 nominees are up for the Nobel Peace Prize this year, the Nobel Institute said Monday, with Bill Clinton, Helmut Kohl, the EU and US soldier and WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning known to be on the list.http://news.yahoo.com/bill-clinton-kohl-eu-among-231-nobel-candidates-101242673.html
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The reappearance of the Kohl name on the list is truly shocking. I am one of the victims of his re-unification machinations and my brother’s death was indirectly caused by the Kohl/Mitterrand axis which wangled the land parcels where the Minol gas-stations were to the French elf Aquitaine – without a share in the proceeds of course or any other compensation. Kohl was no honest broker; he was just like the communists who cannot distinguish between what’s yours and what’s mine.
ReplyDeleteThe exact steps in the events have never been fully unravelled. Before moving his office from Bonn to Berlin, Kohl had the files regarding the Leuna-Minol „sale“ shredded. Duplicates should have been in another Department, but surprise, surprise, they had evaporated. And this went on with tacit approval from the US, who worked closely with Mitterrand when Europe changed in the few years after 1989. Of course with such protection, this case never went to court in Germany, and what emerged from the investigations in Geneva (illicit CDU party money) and Paris (convictions of elf Aquitaine managers) could not be acted upon in Germany as they simply did not provide funds to translate the findings from French into German. German courts cannot act on findings in the French language. Protection through non-translation.
A clear breach of law by Kohl was, however, the so called donors affair. For many years now, Kohl considers himself above the law when he says he has given his word not to reveal the donors of several million Deutschmark. The law says otherwise but that does not apply to him, of course. Prosecutors in Germany are answerable to the politicians so they have a perfect system to prevent prosecutions of corruption in the political scene. Lately, thoughts have emerged that these donations might have come from the secret services of the US and/or France, which makes his law breaking a little more logical. Elf Aquitaine was a front company for the French secret service and they might well have had reasons to show their gratitude with kickbacks from the loot. Legally, the secret party donations are a clear breach of the law by Kohl, and I would hope that the Nobel organisation does not tarnish their prize by rewarding lawbreaker Kohl.
It may not matter to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee what Germans think of them but Kohl's reputation in Germany should not have escaped them. Do they not know that Berliners spat at his late wife Hannelore Kohl when his network and cesspool of corruption became known through the victims of their mafia-like dealings? When justice is as dysfunctional as it is in Germany, people resort to these kinds of methods. Since the passing of the Spiegel's founder Rudolf Augstein, Kohl's corrupt network has appeared less and less in the press. Editors help to dress the ruthlessness of 'System elf', as academia called it, in a coat of silence, so it might be forgotten and Kohl can pocket another million or so.
But occasionally newsworthy events happen and need to be mentioned. One such report is about the 2011 conviction of Kohl's close collaborateur Holger-Ludwig Pfahls. If the Nobel Prize Committee knows anyone who can read German, they should read the comments section of these reports, what Germans have to say about corruption during the Kohl regime. In his first trial Pfahls actually said it in court that the German government had been heavily corrupt, but he must have been threatened at the time when Kohl appeared as a witness in Augsburg because Pfahls withdrew this comment about his own experiences and deals.
It beggars belief that there is always someone who is ignorant or corrupt enough to nominate Helmut Kohl, whose German nickname is Kohleone.