To bankers and politicians: Another world is possible

The 15M Movement Burst Into The Politicians´ Agenda In Europe There Is Always A Plan B, Usually Behind The Capitalist Media Agenda

By Concha Mateos, Project Censored
Madrid- June 29, 2011

They say ´No´, we say ´Yes´.
Greece had to decide. But, what Greece? The Parliament, the lawmakers, the government, the street, Syntagma Square… what Greece?

The corporate media language uses to talk about Greece as if it has a single will, an unique and uniform one. But it doesn’t exist.
The ones who are invited to vote today (June 29th) in Parliament are the ones who have been pressed by the financial power. The free Greece voted months ago, has been voting, and is voting every day in the streets and at Syntagma Square saying “Your Plan A is not the only one possible”. But that Greece is today forbidden to be consider in the Greek Parliament: all the approach roads to the building are blocked by the police.

European and International Monetary Fund officials put that austerity package (Plan A) as a necessary step. Greece (Parliament) has to say ´Yes` or `Yes´. Those are the options according to FMI. The indignad@s (the Outraged) hold: Yes, there is a Plan B, beyond the financial greed of the corporations.

The Spanish mainstream media have taken one month in reporting 15M movement’s proposals. One month describing our camps, our marches, our assemblies, our anger, our look, our attire. One month talking about who we are, but nothing about what we think. (Perhaps they think that we can not think).

The 15M Movement’s agenda has finally burst into the media agenda in spite of the hard resistance the media have put on. Why have they finally reported the Plan B that we represent? Because their polls are confirming that important percentages of the populations agree with “the Outraged´s” demands. Between 75 and 80 per cent of the population, according to even the most conservative press support us.

Because the protests are being supported by more and more people.

Because the revolt is not only a Spanish revolt is involves Iceland, Greece, France, Arab countries as well. It is a global and deep sense of discomfort growing up and prevailing against the capitalist empire.

And especially because Spanish parliament has started feeling the 15M breath on the back of its neck. Politicians have started pronouncing the 15M name in their debates at parliament and they have agreed they will have to call 15M spokespersons to consider their suggestions.

That has not happened yet and it does not mean even that 15M will accept it if it happens.

Hördur Torfason, one of the leaders of the Icelandic revolution –they caused the government fall in January 2009, visited Spain last 19J to cooperate with 15M. He said: “Don’t talk with politicians, they always use your words to change the meaning and mislead the people.”

Torfason started the protest with 50 friends sitting in front of the Parliament one afternoon. They returned the day after and every day thereafter for five months. In January 2009 the government fell in Iceland: all the members resigned together.

So, yes, mainstream media are facing up to the 15M proposals now in Spain, but it doesn’t mean good news for 15M movement. Most of the mainstream media are covering the 15M list of demands trying desperately to take apart the 15M´s arguments. They are very busy.

Anyway, the debate has conquered new territory. That is one essential step in whatever social movement route to reach structural changes:
1. Identify and name the problem: the reasons and the persons responsible.
2. Draw up the experts´ and academics´ argument: craft the solutions.
3. Inject the debate into the public sphere.
4. Bring about the structural (legal, economic, cultural…) change.

The movement is merely the tool to manage all that.

This is the Plan A for Greece required by FMI and the international lenders, the same that has been imposed on Portugal or Spain. Always the same doctrine: more taxes, mass terminations, increase the levels of unemployment -150,000 publics jobs will be cut, reduce the sources of the public budget privatizing public power and transportation companies: $70 billion…

Once again the same program they tried a year ago. They called it “the rescue plan”. It didn’t work. But they come back with the same prescription. The economy has gone on contracting but now they are going to strangle it completely.

They have not let the people know Plan B, but we will in a next article.
That is the mainstream media general trap: mountains of “news” to hide the alternative, the Plan B. Perhaps they have cooled the red numbers of the economy by the moment, but they have sowed the misery for the future, the anger for more protests. The streets are burning.

Another world is possible. We say `Yes´.

(Concha Mateos has a PhD in Social Communication and is on the faculty at a public University in Madrid. She has been actively involved with Project Censored since 2009 and La acampada in the square Puerta del Sol in Madrid, and the ongoing 15M movement.)

[ Thanks, Eric! ]

Mobile phone derived electromagnetic fields can disturb learning

High frequency non-ionizing radiation, emitted by mobile phones, is redundantly matter of discussions. The effects of high frequency electromagnetic fields derived from mobile phones have been discussed since the 1950s. Neuroscientists from Germany were now able to elucidate this question. For the first time, they provide proof that extremely high-powered electromagnetic fields indeed influence learning processes on the synaptic level within the brain, independent from other factors like stress.

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Australia: International bribery charges laid in Securency scandal

Nick Mackenzie and Richard Baker report for the Sydney Morning Herald:

Australia's first foreign bribery prosecution will accuse two Reserve Bank currency firms and six of their former senior managers of funnelling multi-million-dollar bribes to high-ranking government officials in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam to win bank-note deals.

Police in Australia, Asia and Europe expect to lay further criminal charges and expose corrupt foreign politicians after yesterday charging with bribery Securency and Note Printing Australia, plastic-banknote design and printing firms that are respectively half and fully owned and overseen by the Reserve.

An international corruption taskforce led by the federal police is still working to uncover up to $25 million more in suspected bribes paid by the Reserve firms in Asia and Africa since 1999 and as recently as 18 months ago. The federal police inquiry began after a report in the Herald in May 2009 revealed Securency's multimillion-dollar payments to shady middlemen.

The Greens leader, Bob Brown, has called for the corporate watchdog to examine the conduct of the former boards of both companies - including former Reserve bosses and several corporate heavyweights - and Austrade, the federal trade agency, is likely to come under scrutiny over its involvement.

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Military Defectors Support Protesters in Yemen

Meanwhile, in Syria protesters were attacked and tank-led assault continues

Syrian security forces caught on video using ambulances to transport arrested protesters:

The global uprising has spread to Chile:

Hundreds of Thousands Greek and British Workers Stage Strikes

Democracy NOW! DN! - More than 750,000 British public sector workers staged a 24-hour strike Thursday in a stand-off with the government's plans to reform public sector pensions. The reforms come as the government tries to trim its deficit and would require public workers to work longer, pay more toward their pension and receive less upon retirement. Meanwhile in Greece, thousands of workers staged a 48-hour strike and many took to the streets after the Greek Parliament approved a raft of austerity measures that include spending cuts, tax increases and privatizations as a condition for a massive bailout to avert the Eurozone's first default. "There is a common theme to the protests that are taking place across Europe, and that is not just the public sector workers defending their pension rights, but also a generation of young people for whom quite a stark picture is being painted of their future," says our guest Paul Mason.

We all Greek....from Portugal...

Yesterday portuguese went to the Greek embassy to protest against the violence against Greek people. An estimated 500 civilians were injured in the violence, with many suffering serious respiratory problems after police, firing volleys of teargas, released dangerously high levels of toxic chemicals into the air. The widespread use of the gas was crticised by Amnesty International. Doctors who set up an emergency hospital said they were attacked by police as they tried to administer aid. In another incident, police were also seen appearing to throw broken bits of masonry at protesters when tear gas supplies dried up. A public prosecutor has ordered an investigation into alleged police brutality against Greeks protesting against austerity measures amid an outcry over the excessive use of force and teargas to control crowds in Athens this week. As municipal employees worked furiously to clean up the capital in the wake of street battles that left its central square resembling a war zone, the socialist government faced growing criticism of the controversial methods employed by riot police to disperse demonstrators.

"What took place in the centre of Athens these past few days is a complete violation of democratic law."

Democracy - Greece - June 2011

Anonymous #OpGreece - No IMF

Politicians, media, police and banksters of Greece. This is a message to all of you.

We have been watching as you demolish any last sign of democracy in your country. We have been watching as you were signing the outrageous loan agreements with the IMF, as you sold out your peoples souls to keep your friends happy, as you deployed para-state troops to act as provocateurs in the peaceful protests. 

We have been watching as you attack protesters with teargas, rocks and all around violence, leaving at least 500 injured, including pensioners and women.

For centuries your country has been the proud cradle of democracy and civilization, but now you have turned your own country into a playground for lobbyists so they can test how they will make their economic Reich work. 

You have rejected agreements that would save you in no time with Arab countries, Russia and China. You failed to stand up to the situation and demand your world war 2 money back from the Germans. You have failed in every possible aspect of protecting your citizens interests against a monstrous economy that represents nothing but air, building more and more wealth for the wealthy, and leaving the middle and lower classes poorer and poorer. Instead you have gone into austerity measures that even force you to keep buying weapons.

The media have demonized the protests.

The bank executives still bathe in gold.

You gave the final blow to your economy by accepting another loan despite the disagreement of your people.

Congratulations, you have earned our undivided attention and are now a target on our war on your rotten system.

We are Anonymous, we are Legion.
We do not forgive, we do not forget.
Expect us.

Athens Riots: 'It was a war on people by cops & govt'

Greece has voted on a second bill in the final step towards implementing the next wave of austerity measures. Its the last hurdle that Athens has to jump to qualify for a new stack of European bailout funds. The plan's met heavy public resistance with two days of rioting that's left more than 300 people injured. Activist Kiriakos Tobras in Syntagma square says Greeks simply don't want to pay for the mistakes of banks and politicians.

Musical Innerlube: Mojo Nixon - Burn Down the Malls

Mojo tells it like it is. You must watch this video. And by the way the jumpiness and imperfect lipsync are on purpose, not a poor up/down load.

CIA asset: 'Libyan opposition is al-Qaeda'

With bin Laden's elimination, the US announced a withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. Now President Obama has revealed a new national strategy for counterterrorism. The focus is al-Qaeda and it's affiliates, as well as Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas on the list of enemies. Susan Lindauer, former CIA asset who covered Libya for nearly 10 years, is speaking to RT on what that exactly means.

RealDemocracyNOW! Greece: Declaration of Support from ICELAND

The Civic Movement Iceland expresses a deep concern about the way European political leaders manipulate the state of Greek economy and the reason for its collapse.

It is our firm belief that the Greek public is not to blame for the economic meltdown in the world, and even though, Greek banks are now on the brink of collapse, they should not be saved at any cost. Other and more important issues have to be addressed first.

The majority of the so-called Greek debts are private debts, debts of private banks operating in Greece. These privately owned banks owe other privately owned banks, mainly in Germany, France and the UK. Therefore the Greek public should not be forced to underwrite these debts.

The world economy has been proven un-economic and furthermore, it has been proven disastrous for the common public.

This system of imbalance with its disastrous effects, has to come to a halt.

A society will easily function with out this system but this system will never function with out a proper and sound society. And since the society is now being torn apart for the purpose of rebuilding an unsustainable financial system, it is inevitable that both will collapse.

The Civic Movement Iceland calls for action among the leaders of the world. Viable solutions have to emerge. A sustainable and just society must prevail.

That is our debt, and that particular debt is the only debt we are willing to pay.

We owe it to our children to come.

 

G.Andri Skulason

Spokesman, The Civic Movement Iceland

gandri@xo.is

---

The Civic Movement is a political party in Iceland, founded by a number of grassroots movements in the lead up to the 2009 election during the Global Recession, which hit Iceland particularly hard.

In the election, the Civic Movement won 4 out of 63 seats in Althingi, the Icelandic Parliament.

The Civic Movement is no longer represented in the Althingi and is now collaborating with the Icelandic Association of Debtors and the Open Civic Forum all of whom have been working towards a reformed system and a better society, with great results.

Together we can change the world...

Gandri Skulason tel. +354 6151522
Iceland Association of Debtors
gandri@lanthegar.is

Gunnar Sigurdsson tel. +354 8977694
Open Civic Forum
gus@mmedia.is

Islandia...

The Tentacles of Megas: Reaching from the Government to the Emasculated Watchdogs

From Sibel Edmonds' Boiling Frogs:

Who Controls Who with What

The mega billionaires of the mega corporations directly influence and control the mega public servants – think from presidents down to presidents’ appointees. Some aptly refer to these ‘megas’ collectively as the shadow government. The mega billionaires of the mega corporations set up mega foundations to channel, centralize and control grassroots dissent and activism in order to shield and protect their mega interests. The little watchdogs turned lapdogs and activists turned puppets run the nitty gritty errands, and do their dirty work under the pretense of activism and watchdog-ism for their mega masters while they dream of becoming mega NGOs. If we get past the illusions, all that pretense, and the entire smoke and mirrors settings, we see a mega country ruled and run by these mega elites and their errand boys making mega profits and with every passing day becoming even more mega. But that is a big ‘if.’ Because the mega tentacles of these megas have also wrapped themselves tightly around educational channels and media outlets – coercing them into producing mega lies and more illusions.

Have you had enough mega? I have. I am sick and tired of fighting megas everywhere and feeling like Don Quixote day in and day out. Whether it is elected representatives being bought out by the megas, thus mainly representing the megas, or, mini megas down the ladder in the media pumping more smoke into the atmosphere already filled with smoke and mirrors, I am sick of megas. So let’s put  megas in general aside for a while and discuss a few specific examples. Since our series deals with self-proclaimed transparency and government whistleblowers NGOs funded primarily by a handful of megas, let’s talk about these megas, their tentacles in the government and wrapped around these NGOs. Let’s talk about Project on Government Oversight (POGO) and their mega masters: Soros, Carnegie, Rockefellers and Ford.

It is one thing to have big corporations set up foundations to help with…let’s say the homeless and with setting up soup kitchens to feed the poor or maybe even funding art projects. However, it is an entirely different ball game when the corporation foundations who are heavily entrenched in high-level governmental positions start funding, thus influencing and controlling, the NGOs’ that claim to be government watchdogs. I mean come on, you have a powerful billionaire X who finances elected officials and presidents big time, who places his J, K, L, M, N men and women in the government, and turns around, funds and controls government watchdog NGOs who are supposedly watching, investigating, and reporting on that same government that is financed and managed by their master, billionaire X.

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Young People Rising Up Against U.S Military Recruitment?

TubeTruthers.com Broadcast Your Truth! http://www.tubetruthers.com

Transcription Provided By: DeepestSleep of Youtube

"This is a reality that soldiers are faced with, that the people or Iraq and Afghanistan are faced with, that children are faced with, that the people who are living inside those houses are faced with every single day at the hands of my brothers and sisters.

What you can't see is the hundreds of civilians inside their homes, cowering under their tables, under their beds. What you can't see is the children, that after these troops leave, who can't sleep at night. What you can't see is the raw sewage flowing into the streets from where the tanks have run over the sewage lines.

This is real, and it is happening every single day. And this is but one example in the mountain of crimes that are being done in all of your names. That I was complicit in. That I am less of a man for having not resisted while I was in the Military on active duty.

A lot of people in this country feel that the US army is some place to go and make a man of yourself. I am less of a man today for having served in the US military.

These wars are racist. They are genocidal. The kind of training that soldiers are going through to be capable of these horrors are real, are systematic, well thought out, have been researched for well over two hundred years.

This is nothing new to the United States of America. This is nothing new. We have been doing this since our foundation. Everything we have, we have stolen.

Our soldiers are being trained as predators. And they are being set loose on civilian populations that never even attacked us in the first place.

I can't live with this. I can't live with it. I don't know how the people of this country live with it. I don't know how the Iraqi's and the Afghan's live with it every single day.

The mission statement of the US Army is to "Engage and Destroy". There is no Nation building, there is no humanitarian operations. The Mission statement of the US Army is to Engage and Destroy and that is what we are doing. And when you turn that force loose on a civilian population, as we have done on Iraq and Afghanistan, it is called Genocide, and it is a war crime.

You go to peace rallies and you see people holding up signs that say "support the troops". Can you really support the troops and not support the war? No, you cannot. And I say this to you as a former soldier. You know why the soldiers are over there doing this, beyond the fact they have been dehumanized to the point where they are capable of doing this? It is because they think you support them. That is all they hear from the American population.

This is a recipe for an endless war.

If the troops knew that they were not supported, they would stop deploying and committing war crimes. This is a message that takes a lot of courage to represent in our current society, but knowing the realities, we have a responsibility. Not just to the Iraq's and the Afghan's, but to the young men and women who are going to carry this out. They don't want to be there, war is not a fun place. It's horrible, it's hell. But they are doing it because they think people support them.

If you guys want to support the troops, you've got to tell them the truth. You've got to tell them they are involved in genocide, you got to tell them that you don't support what they are doing, and you got to tell them that you don't honor the warrior, and you don't honor the war. Be honest, offend people if you have to, because that's the only way to save them."

‘Some Will Call Me a Torturer’: CIA Man Reveals Secret Jail

Spencer Ackerman reports for Wired:

Admitting that “some will call me a torturer” is a surefire way to cut yourself off from anyone’s sympathy. But Glenn Carle, a former CIA operative, isn’t sure whether he’s the hero or the villain of his own story.

Distilled, that story, told in Carle’s new memoir The Interrogator, is this: In the months after 9/11, the CIA kidnaps a suspected senior member of al-Qaida and takes him to a Mideast country for interrogation. It assigns Carle — like nearly all his colleagues then, an inexperienced interrogator — to pry information out of him. Uneasy with the CIA’s new, relaxed rules for questioning, which allow him to torture, Carle instead tries to build a rapport with the man he calls CAPTUS.

But CAPTUS doesn’t divulge the al-Qaida plans the CIA suspects him of knowing. So the agency sends him to “Hotel California” — an unacknowledged prison, beyond the reach of the Red Cross or international law.

Carle goes with him. Though heavily censored by the CIA, Carle provides the first detailed description of a so-called “black site.” At an isolated “discretely guarded, unremarkable” facility in an undisclosed foreign country (though one where the Soviets once operated), hidden CIA interrogators work endless hours while heavy metal blasts captives’ eardrums and disrupts their sleep schedules.

Afterward, the operatives drive to a fortified compound to munch Oreos and drink somberly to Grand Funk Railroad at the “Jihadi Bar.” Any visitor to Guantanamo Bay’s Irish pub — O’Kellys, home of the fried pickle — will recognize the surreality.

But Carle — codename: REDEMPTOR — comes to believe CAPTUS is innocent.

“We had destroyed the man’s life based on an error,” he writes. But the black site is a bureaucratic hell: CAPTUS’ reluctance to tell CIA what it wants to hear makes the far-off agency headquarters more determined to torture him. Carle’s resistance, shared by some at Hotel California, makes him suspect. He leaves CAPTUS in the black site after 10 intense days, questioning whether his psychological manipulation of CAPTUS made him, ultimately, a torturer himself.

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Freed – Faces of Guantanamo by Alfonso Moral

Why Do Banks Make So Much Money?

http://www.positivemoney.org.uk

Banks make so much money because they can create money, effectively out of nothing, by lending. Every single pound in your bank account was created by a bank, not by your government.

Real Democracy NOW! Canada

From Canadian Real Democracy NOW! blog:

Whether you are a progressive, socialist, liberal, conservative, anarchist, environmentalist, activist, etc., we are calling on you to begin the process of democratic consensus building.  Currently the voice of the people remains fragmented and divided. We are told daily by the media and politicians what we value, what we think, and what we believe. But the voice of the people remains silent. Consequently, we are collectively devoid of any meaningful influence in the political process.

Many of us adhere to a political ideology, or belong to a political organization, while a great number of others consider themselves to be apolitical and disinterested.  We are all, however, affected by the political and economic reality that exists around us.

Real Democracy Now – Canada, is not a political party.  We do not follow a particular ideology, or adhere to any party line.  We exist to facilitate the establishment of a broad based federation of political groups and individuals capable of mobilizing for meaningful change.  We are inviting EVERY person to come together as citizens; to discuss, debate, and ultimately, to form a democratic consensus on the political issues that affect us all.  Only by doing this will we be able to overcome the fragmentation that has for so long left us paralysed, voiceless, and unable to develop a political force capable of challenging the current hegemonic political paradigm.

This is not a call for passive affiliation and collaboration between organizations.  This a call to commence debate, to open dialog, to utilize direct democracy in order to arrive at consensus, and finally, to take action based on the principles that are developed. We want to provide a platform for the coordination of groups for citizen mobilization. Participatory democracy is the model we will use to build our platform and organize our movement.

This message is addressed to EVERYONE; workers, students, the unemployed, teachers, lawyers, professors, activists; anyone who feels underrepresented by the current political order.  No longer can we allow the politicians and media to speak for us, it is time for us to discover what the true values and needs of Canadians are, and to mobilize and fight for what we believe in.

Let us join the millions around the world who are fighting to build a better future.

Divided we fall, united we stand.

Together we can change the world.

We will be peaceful, but we will be resolute.

If you or your organization are interested in participating in this great democratic endeavour, please contact us by sending an email to: realdemocracynowcanada@gmail.com. or leave us a comment here. Please let us know if your organization, platform, or association would like to endorse this initiative.

www.facebook.com/realdemocracynowcanada

FLOTILLA FAQ: 10 Myths De-bunked

Policy Director of Just Foreign Policy Robert Naiman is a passenger on the U.S. Boat to Gaza, and Just Foreign Policy has organized an integrated campaign around the flotilla--including media work, congressional advocacy, and organized action here in the United States--to end collective punishment on the Gaza Strip. (See JFP’s press release on Robert Naiman’s participation and congressional action on the U.S. Boat to Gaza here.)

On Friday, July 1, the Audacity of Hope attempted to sail to Greece. Passengers on board reported that after only 20 minutes, "heavily armed Greek forces with their firearms drawn forced a Gaza-bound ship to turn around and return to Greece, where the vessel is now being held in a military base". The U.S. Boat to Gaza is calling on everyone to contact the Greek embassy in D.C.: 202-939-1300 and asking that they allow that they allow the Audacity of Hope safe passage. For the latest updates on the flotilla, check out the U.S. Boat to Gaza website here, and follow Robert on Twitter 
and Just Foreign Policy on Facebook and Twitter. You can also sign up for JFP's email's here.

Below are some of the Frequently Asked Questions we’ve received regarding the Freedom Flotilla II and the U.S. Boat to Gaza.

1) What is the U.S. Boat to Gaza? What is the Freedom Flotilla II?

The U.S. Boat to Gaza, the Audacity of Hope, is the U.S.-flagged ship which is participating in a multi-ship flotilla bound for Gaza. The mission of the Freedom Flotilla II is to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. There are 36 passengers, 4 crewmembers, and 10 journalists on board the Audacity of Hope, including renowned author and civil rights activists Alice Walker, Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, retired Army Colonel and U.S. diplomat Ann Wright, former CIA officer Ray McGovern, former Israeli air force Captain Yonatan Shapira, and dozens of other peace activists on board.....in addition to our own Robert Naiman! (Check out their bios here.) A quarter of the passengers are Jewish and all are deeply committed to nonviolence. Their only cargo consists of letters of goodwill and support for the people of Gaza. Alice Walker has called the flotilla, "the freedom ride of this era".

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Afghanistan Bank Fraud: Kabul Target Of Massive Scheme

From the Huffington Post:

The top two officials of Kabul Bank used fake names, forged documents, fictitious companies and secret records as part of an elaborate ruse to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to shareholders and top Afghan officials, according to newly obtained documents and interviews.

Syntagma Square: The End Of Fear

Dedicated to those who braved the onslaught...

Το τέλος του φόβου... by magiconteam

Boarding of Panama Flagged Vessels

...by the global policeman. Courtesy of Wikileaks:

¶11.  (S/NF)  SBA also establishes a procedure by which the
USG can request from the GOP the right to board  Panamanian-flagged ships (one-third of all the ships in the  world are flagged in Panama) in international waters. If  drugs are found on-board, the GOP can cede jurisdiction of  the ship, drugs and crew to the USG, with the critical  exception of Panamanian citizens. To date all such requests  have been approved. While it is unclear whether Panama has  the legal right to cede jurisdiction over its citizens on the  open sea, the 2006 case of the M/V Perseus V, where eight  Panamanians were taken to the U.S. and tried and convicted  under SBA, has made it a political impossibility right now  (see Ref d). Also per Ref d, we have requested guidance from  the Department on how to respond to the GOP's Dip Note on the  status of the Panamanian sailors.  The importance of the  Panamanian fleet makes SBA invaluable in attempts to  interdict drugs on the high seas, and Post is concerned this  case may make it more difficult for the GOP to fully  implement it.    ¶12.  (S/NF)  Panama has also participated in the  Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a potentially  important tool in the bid to prevent WMD proliferation. To  date no request to board a Panamanian flagged ship has been  made under the PSI.