[[https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,580807,00.html] Der Spiegel on Declan Ganley:
^Ganley's company "Rivada" has its headquarters [in Tuam, Co, Galway], and founded by him and run a club called "Libertas". He only has a few members and, according to the statute, deals with "Europe's traditional values" such as "freedom, truth, justice, peace". In 2007, apparently nothing was going on, as the club has not taken a euro and spent a cent.
This year, however, it was completely different. Ganley and his "Libertas" club not only shocked the Irish government, but also hit Europe in a vulnerable spot. Because of the fact that on June 12, the majority of Irishmen surprisingly voted against the "Treaty of Lisbon", thereby blocking the reform of the EU, which has been painstakingly negotiated for years, Ganley and his club brothers played a decisive role.^
For "more than two million euros", as Ireland's European Minister Dick Roche estimates, thousands of placards were hung from street lamps and advertising pillars, newspaper ads and TV ads were broadcast and their message was hammered to the Irish: "Say no to the Lisbon Treaty" , Where did the losers of the referendum, the rulers in Dublin and the EU elite in Brussels, ask, did that bring a lot of money?
Bush consultant on the company board
Oh, says Ganley, only about 800,000 euros have been spent. Of this, 200,000 are a loan from him, the rest come from small donors. But many may not believe that anymore. In both Dublin and Brussels there is a suspicion that American security and military circles have sponsored the No campaign. If that proves true, green MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit proves, "there are forces in the US that make people pay to destabilize a strong and independent Europe."
Many of his colleagues think so. Therefore, a working group of the European Parliament, together with the competent Irish authorities, should now find out where the money came from. If necessary, a reconnaissance force should travel to Washington and ask for it in Congress.
The French Minister of European Affairs and current EU Council President Jean-Pierre Jouyet also called for "full transparency" in the finances of the Ganley campaign. But it will not be so easy to find. Because the activities of the alleged billionaire are under a gray haze. The only thing is clear: He has best relations with the military-industrial superclass of the United States.
His company Rivada Networks, for example, sells state-of-the-art technical equipment with which combatant frontline soldiers can communicate in the backcountry. In addition to Ganley, two US admirals and a close advisor to US President George W. Bush sit on the board. Just recently, according to Dublin government circles, Ganley received a new $ 200 million "military order" from Washington.
Good relations with the CIA
Even the beginnings of a successful entrepreneur career are in the dark. The son of Irish guest workers in England stung peat 18 hours a day at the age of 13, "90 truckloads in one summer," he told himself in a television interview. At the age of 19, he came up with the idea of launching Russian research satellites with Russian rockets into space and lucratively insuring the whole thing. In other versions, he was rich in aluminum from Siberia or earned $ 100 million in selling a massive wood empire. No one knows if anything is right. It is only clear that he became a multimillionaire at an early age.
He apparently met many important people from the administration in Washington, Don De Marino, for example. He was responsible for the economic relations between the US and Saudi Arabia with the then President Ronald Reagan. Later, under President George Bush Senior, he moved to the Ministry of Commerce, 2004, he came to the Defense Department. In between, he was a director at Ganley's company.
A Ganley investment fund, the "Anglo-Adriatic Investment Fund," resides in London on Mount Street 128, where the European representation of US investment fund Paladin Capital also happens to be. And the chairman of his advisory board is a close friend of Ganley's, James Woolsey, ex-chief of US intelligence CIA.
Declan Ganley is also well-respected among the neo-conservative intellectuals in Washington. For example, when he appeared on July 15 at the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom hosted by the extremely conservative political foundation The Heritage Foundation, hostess Sally MacNamara said he was more "modern" in his Irish "no" vote on the EU treaty Peacekeeper "cheered.
Cohn-Bendit: "Enormous potential for interference"
That many US military and neocons are not interested in a Europe that could rise as a competitor on the world stage is well known. That money has flowed, does not prove that all. At most, it shows that they might not have to flow at all.
That does not make the concerns of many EU politicians before Ganley's already announced next prank not smaller. He wants to make the elections to the European Parliament in early June next year a propagandist referendum on the Lisbon Treaty throughout Europe. "Its potential for interference," not only the Green Cohn Bendit fears, could be enormous. Because he can count on the support of EU critics from different political directions.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus has already offered his help. In France, the national conservative "Mouvement pour la France" is close to him. In Sweden, the "June Lists" sympathize with him, in England the anti-EU bloc of the conservative party. Groups such as the "No to EU" movement in Estonia exist in most of the 27 countries, sometimes far right, sometimes far left in the political spectrum.
Majorities will not get them. But they will make a powerful mood against the "Superstate of Europe" - the more successful, the more money they can put into their advertising campaigns. No matter from which sources this is bubbling.