America’s Dumbest Move Yet: Hijacking A Foreign Bank

Has Quentin Tarentino been given a role in the US Government. Ten dark suited men strolled into the headquarters of FBME bank in Cyprus last Friday (18 July) afternoon and took it hostage. It must have looked like a scene from a Tarentino movie. And given the surrealism of how the east / west or to be precise USA / Russia conflict is escalating, maybe it was.

The Reservoir Dogs lookalikes were from the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC). And they took control of FBME because an obscure agency within the US government recently issued a report accusing the bank of laundering money. On what grounds? You might well ask. It just so happens that FBME, and Cyprus in general, is where a lot of wealthy Russians hold their vast fortunes.

Bear in mind, there has been no proof that any crime was committed by FBME nor have reasonable grounds for suspicion been demonstrated. There was no court hearing. It wasn’t even the government of Cyprus who accused them of anything. No charges were read, no evidence produced ( although the men in suits might have said, “The American government says you’re guilty and we have to believe them because they’re not Russian,” as they did in connection with another of last week’s big news stories.

There was just a generic report penned by some bureaucrat 10,000 miles away.

Funny thing—when HSBC got caught red-handed laundering funds for a Mexican drug cartel last year, the US government gave them a slap on the wrist. HSBC got off with a fine.

Yet when the US government merely hints that FBME could be laundering money, the bank gets taken over at gunpoint.

Welcome to warfare in the 21st century. It’s not about battleships and ground troops anymore but bank accounts and bond yields.

How big an error is this compared with all Obama’s other recent fuckups such as Syria, Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and the rest. Massive. By terrorizing Russian interests, the Obama administration is begging the rest of the world to reconsider their misplaced trust in the United States.

All these foreign countries really have to do if they want to retaliate is start dumping their US Treasuries (which they are doing). Or simply stop letting the debt roll over when the notes mature. That will cause catastrophic consequences in the United States. Interest rates will soar, inflation will kick in, and the government will be even closer to default than it already is.

Inexplicably, Emperor Obama is practically begging the world to do this by reiterating his attitude filled pledge, “I was elected, I can do what I like.” It’s gobsmackingly arrogant. The US Republican’s response is tremendously stupid, they seem to think letting Obama screw up will make them popular. They will learn they world has not forgotten the Bush administration.

What Obama is doing is like the economic warfare equivalent of Napoleon and Hitler pompously throwing their already overstretched forces into a third front in Russia.

And neither Napoleon nor Obama gave the slightest consideration to the big picture consequences.

Here’s a funny thing about this story. My link to Yahoo News (above) is reliable enough but the original news report published in Cyprus News of Nicosia has been taken off line.

Tags: America, bank, cyprus, economic, russia, satire, usa, warfare