Not good

Close to Hungary and Viktor Orban.  Hitler was Austrian.  Just saying.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Where's your relief check?

Perhaps in Austria. With somebody else's name on it.

Hundreds of Austrians have received U.S. coronavirus stimulus checks despite being ineligible, according to The Washington Post.

Several of the recipients were puzzled to get the checks, including pensioner Manfred Barnreiter, 73, who said he believed he was the victim of a scam at first.

“We quietly went to the bank … where we were told they’ll see if it’s real,” Barnreiter told Austrian public broadcaster ORF. “Three days later, we had the money in our bank account.”

Barnreiter, who briefly worked in the U.S. in the 1960s, received the full $1,200, as did his wife. Neither are citizens of the U.S. or live there, which are required to be eligible for the checks.

 [...]

Three Austrian bank branches said that as of Wednesday, they had cashed approximately 200 American stimulus checks. None of the banks could say how many were cashed by people ineligible for the payments.

Barnreiter told ORF he would likely spend the money in the U.S. once travel restrictions imposed due to the pandemic are relaxed.

“Initially, I felt bad, thinking, ‘Those poor Americans, maybe they need the money more urgently than we do here in Europe,” he said. ”But in the grand scheme of things," he said, “it’s peanuts.”

  The Hill

Jesus Christ, asshole! You're keeping it???

Great job, Mnuchin.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The Vienna connection - Part 2

Wherein we learn what was waiting for Parnas and Fruman (and Giuliani before those two were busted) in Vienna.

In their effort to discredit President Donald Trump’s perceived enemies, close allies of the President have received key documents and information from a Ukrainian oligarch wanted in the U.S. on corruption charges [...] .

The information came from the legal team of Dmitry Firtash, a wealthy industrialist with assets across Europe, who has spent the last five years in Vienna fighting extradition to the U.S. on bribery and racketeering charges. The U.S. Department of Justice said in 2017 he was among the “upper echelon associates of Russian organized crime”—something Firtash vigorously denies, along with all charges against him.

[...]

In his frequent appearances on cable news, Giuliani has presented some of these documents to the American public as evidence for his claims of wrongdoing by Mueller and Biden. The key document is an affidavit from a former Ukrainian prosecutor who accuses Biden of corruption. “The witness I’m relying on,” Giuliani told Fox News on Oct. 6, was the prosecutor Viktor Shokin. “That’s the affidavit I put out,” Giuliani added. He did not mention that the affidavit was obtained by the Firtash legal team.

[...]

Over the last two months, a TIME investigation has traced some of Giuliani’s claims about Biden and Mueller to a troubling relationship, one in which a foreigner wanted by the U.S. government on corruption charges has taken steps, as part of his own legal strategy, that are helping the American President attack his most prominent critics.

This alignment of interests has taken shape at the same time, and with many of the same goals and actors, as the parallel effort by Trump and Giuliani to pressure Ukraine into investigating Biden’s family.

[...]

Firtash has established close ties to the former mayor of New York City in part by recruiting several of Giuliani’s associates. In July the oligarch hired two lawyers who have been helping Giuliani in his campaign to discredit Trump’s critics: Victoria Toensing and Joseph DiGenova, a married couple Trump considered hiring in 2018 as part of his private legal team. Best known as diehard defenders of Trump on Fox News, the couple has combed through the oligarch’s case files and used some of them in the effort to defend Trump on television and in the press.

Toensing and DiGenova then hired another Giuliani associate, Lev Parnas, to serve as their interpreter in communications with Firtash in Vienna [...] . The indictment against him alleges that Parnas and his business partners secretly channeled money from an unidentified Russian donor to various political causes and candidates.

[...]

In acting for Firtash, Toensing and DiGenova’s stated aim has been to prevent their client’s extradition to the U.S.

  Time

Criminal attorneys.

They claimed that one of Mueller’s top deputies in the special counsel investigation, Andrew Weissmann, offered to drop the bribery case against Firtash in 2017 in exchange for testimony that could be damaging to President Trump. This, they claimed, would amount to suborning perjury.

Not unless they knew what he would say would be a lie. Otherwise, it's simply a flipping ploy, which is not illegal.

They declined to provide documents to back up those claims.

Because they don't have any.

In a piece published on July 22, John Solomon, a columnist for the Hill, cited documents from the Firtash legal team to suggest that Weissmann’s attempts to turn Firtash were “wrapped with complexity and intrigue far beyond the normal federal case.”

There is nothing normal about having to investigate a president for conspiracy against the United States.

Documents from the Firtash case have become even more useful to Giuliani and Trump as they roll out their response to the impeachment inquiry. At the center of Giuliani’s counterattack so far is the affidavit signed by Shokin, Ukraine’s former prosecutor general, which alleges that Biden caused Shokin’s dismissal in order to stop a corruption probe into Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company. Biden’s son Hunter sat on the board of that company for about five years, reportedly earning $50,000 a month.

“I was forced to leave office, under direct and intense pressure from Joe Biden and the U.S. Administration,” in order to stop that investigation, Shokin said in the affidavit, which was notarized in Kiev on Sept. 4.

These claims have not stood up to scrutiny. Officials in the U.S. and Ukraine, as well as independent experts and investigative journalists, have said Shokin was fired because of his lax approach to fighting corruption.

[...]

But Giuliani’s defense of Trump amid the impeachment inquiry has relied heavily on the statement that Firtash’s legal team obtained from Shokin.

[...]

By the time the Department of Justice publicly referred to him in 2017 as a senior associate of the Russian mob, Firtash had been under investigation in the U.S. for more than a decade, according to interviews with his investigators.

His alleged ties to the Russian mafia go back to the early 2000s, when his work in the gas trade brought him into contact with Semyon Mogilevich, one of the most notorious leaders in the world of Russian organized crime.

[...]

By the mid-2000s, Firtash had established himself as a partner to the Kremlin in the European gas trade. With the approval of Russian President Vladimir Putin, his company had won exclusive rights to buy natural gas from Russia and resell it in Ukraine. Firtash owned about half of the company, while Gazprom, the Russian state gas monopoly, owned the other half. The arrangement made Firtash a billionaire.

[...]

Firtash then bought up factories across Ukraine, especially in the chemicals and fertilizer industries, which helped make him an important powerbroker. In the presidential elections of 2010, he backed the Kremlin’s preferred candidate, Viktor Yanukovych [...] .

[...]

Working alongside Firtash in that campaign was the American political operative Paul Manafort, who helped engineer the Yanukovych victory. As the elections approached, Firtash and Manafort also pursued some business deals on the side.

[...]

But [Firtash's] luck began to run out in February 2014, when violent street protests forced President Yanukovych to flee to Russia.

A month later, Firtash was arrested near his mansion in Vienna on an arrest warrant issued by the FBI. The warrant accused him of organizing a scheme to bribe officials in India for the right to mine titanium. Because some of the metal was to be sold to a Chicago-based company, the District Attorney in that city claimed jurisdiction in the case under a law known as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

[...]

Since he was released on bail in Vienna in 2014–after paying a bond of $174 million–Firtash hired a formidable team of lawyers to stop his extradition from Vienna to Chicago. Among them is Michael Chertoff, the former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, as well as a former Austrian Justice Minister. Perhaps the most outspoken member of the legal team has been Lanny Davis, the former counsel to President Bill Clinton.

Sarah Kendzior is right...the world is run by a global crime syndicate masquerading as distinct governments.

Over the last five years, this team managed to slow the extradition process, but could not stop it. The case appeared to come to a head in early June, when Firtash’s chief attorney in Chicago, Dan Webb, filed a motion warning that his client could be extradited in a matter of weeks.

Firtash’s lawyers [...] told TIME in June that the extradition looked imminent, and they were preparing to defend Firtash before a jury in Chicago. They also said, however, that they were ready to produce evidence that would embarrass officials from the Obama Administration. “This will be very tough against the previous Administration,” one of Firtash’s lawyers said at the end of June. “With the current Administration, I think they will like it.”

Just blowing smoke? Otherwise, I'd think Trump's DOJ butt buddy, Bill Barr, would have put a priority on getting Firtash back here.

Since 2017, Toensing and DiGenova have been among Trump’s most avid defenders on cable news in the fight against the Mueller investigation and other probes.

[...]

The pair have also worked closely with Giuliani in recent months. In early May, Toensing was due to join Giuliani on a trip to Kiev, where the two lawyers intended to pressure the new government in Ukraine to investigate the Biden family, according to a May 9, 2019, report in the New York Times. But the reporting about their plans caused such an uproar among Congressional Democrats that the two decided to cancel their trip.

On July 24, Firtash’s lawyers in Vienna informed TIME of a dramatic change in his legal team: Davis, the former counsel to President Clinton, would no longer be working for Firtash.

[...]

One of the reasons for his departure, according to two people close to Firtash, was that Davis had been representing Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, since July 2018. That relationship had made Davis an enemy of Trump.

[...]

It would have been difficult after that for Davis to get along with Firtash’s new lawyers, Toensing and DiGenova, who joined the legal team in late July [...] .

[...]

Alongside Toensing and DiGenova, another long-time Republican operative began representing Firtash in July: Mark Corallo, the former spokesman for Trump’s private defense team during the Mueller investigation.

Sounds to me like Trump's team of dirty lawyers are making sure Firtash stays in Vienna.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:



UPDATE:

UPDATE: 9/11/21

Igor Fruman found guilty in Trump campaign charge

The Vienna connection

[W]hen Rudy Giuliani told me he couldn’t get together for an interview, his reason made sense: As with many nights of late, he was due to appear on Hannity. When I suggested [the] evening instead, his response was a bit more curious. We would have to aim for lunch, Giuliani told me, because he was planning to fly to Vienna, Austria, at night. He didn’t offer any details beyond that.

Giuliani called me at 6:22 p.m. [...] —around the same time that two of his associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested at Dulles Airport while waiting to board an international flight with one-way tickets. As The Wall Street Journal reported [...] , the two men were bound for Vienna. The Florida businessmen, who are reported to have assisted Giuliani in his alleged efforts to investigate Joe Biden and his family ahead of the 2020 election, were charged with campaign-finance violations, with prosecutors alleging that they had conspired to funnel money from a Russian donor into Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

But Giuliani, when confirming [...] that Parnas and Fruman were heading to Vienna on matters “related to their business,” told the Journal that he himself only had plans to meet with them when they returned to Washington. By this logic, Giuliani was also planning to fly to Vienna within roughly 24 hours of his business associates, but do no business with them while all three were there.

[...]

Why were Parnas and Fruman bound for Vienna? Why was Giuliani—if what he told me was true—planning to be in the same city a day later?

Giuliani finally sent me a text message at 4:18 p.m. ET: “I can’t comment on it at this time.”

Parnas and Fruman, both Soviet-born, have been instrumental in helping Giuliani develop Ukrainian contacts in his quest to prove that Biden, while vice president, tried to curtail an investigation into a Ukrainian gas company for which his son Hunter Biden served on the board. Parnas told NPR, for example, that he was the one who had arranged a Skype call between Giuliani and former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin to discuss their corruption theory. Parnas was also present at meetings in New York and Warsaw earlier this year with Giuliani and Yuriy Lutsenko, another former prosecutor general for Ukraine.

[...]

Along with allegedly using a shell company to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and a pro-Trump super PAC, Parnas and Fruman were also accused by federal prosectors of meddling in American political activities on behalf of one or more Ukrainian officials. In the 21-page indictment, prosecutors allege that Parnas and Fruman lobbied for the removal of the U.S. ambassador in Kiev, Marie Yovanovitch—something Giuliani sought as well, arguing that she was biased against the president. In May, Trump ordered Yovanovitch’s removal.

[...]

Jay Sekulow, Trump’s personal lawyer alongside Giuliani, told reporters that neither Trump nor his campaign has “anything to do with the scheme these guys were involved in.”

  The Atlantic

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  Oligarch in exile, Dmitry Firtash, is in Vienna, avoiding extradition to the US.

UPDATE: 9/11/21

Igor Fruman found guilty in Trump campaign charge

Slightly different takes

Trump met with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.  Here (via Alex Wayne Twitter) are the White House readout and the Chancellor's view of the meeting:





...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

We're having to redo the 30's

And this time, it looks like America will be on the side of the Nazis.



Will they have to wear patches on their jackets?

Russia Sanctions: Europe Is Not Amused

The new anti-Russian sanctions are outlined in an amendment to a bill imposing sanctions against Iran. It was approved by the US Senate on Thursday by a majority of 98 to 2, but still needs to pass the House of Representatives and be signed by the US president to become law.

The anti-Russian measures in the amendment involve imposing penalties on enterprises that cooperate with Russian oil and gas companies. A number of European companies are doing just that, participating for example in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.

“Europe's energy supply is a matter for Europe, and not the United States of America!” said [a] joint statement by German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, published on Thursday.

“We cannot accept threatening European companies that contribute to the development of the European energy supply [system] with extraterritorial sanctions that violate the international law.”

[...]

It adds that “threatening German, Austrian and other European enterprises, which take part in the gas supply projects such as the Nord Stream II together with Russia or finance them, with penalties on the US market would add an absolutely new and highly negative aspect in relations between the US and Europe.”

[...]

The Nord Stream II project will give Russia’s Gazprom additional capacity in supplying Europe with gas through a pipeline that would go under the Baltic Sea to Germany.

[...]

They also accused the US of attempts to interfere in Europe’s internal affairs and impose its will on its allies by undermining the principle of “open and fair market competition.”

  RT

We seem to be maneuvering ourselves to a place between a rock and a hard place.

The amendment on anti-Russian sanctions stipulates “broad new sanctions on key sectors of Russia’s economy, including mining, metals, shipping and railways”

[...]

The amendment states that the goal of US policy in this particular case is to “oppose the Nord Stream II pipeline given its detrimental impacts on the European Union's energy security… and energy reforms in Ukraine.”

Apparently the European Union doesn't see the Nord Stream pipeline that way.

US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert refused to comment on the criticism voiced by Austria and Germany that the bill’s real beneficiary is the US energy sector. Instead she said that Washington “welcomes” the first US shipment of the liquefied natural gas to Poland (LNG) that arrived in the Polish port of Swinoujscie last week.

She argued that such shipments provide an alternative to the Russian gas supplies as they come from the countries “that are perhaps more stable.”

“Russia has the ability to turn off the natural gas and it puts the Polish people in a very difficult situation,” Nauert said.

And the US doesn't???

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said that Russia has been historically living under some form of sanctions from the West, which are used as a tool of economic competition as well as a means of containment.

“If there were no situation with Crimea and other problems, they would have invented something else to contain Russia,” he said.

I'm afraid I have to agree with Vlad on that one.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Want a Smaller Government?

Elect a Republican. Right?

President-elect Donald Trump announced the establishment of the White House National Trade Council, to be headed by Peter Navarro, a hard-line critic of China.

The announcement on Wednesday called Navarro a “visionary economist” who will develop policies to shrink the US trade deficit, expand growth and stop the jobs from going overseas.

  RT

Is he a billionaire?

The National Trade Council will also be in charge of the “Buy America, Hire America” program that will apply to government spending ranging from infrastructure to national defense.

But will not be applied to Trump's business interests.

I'm not sure a "hard-line" critic of China, which by all measures seems to be putting it mildly, is a good idea for a trade relations director.  China holds a shitload of our debt.  What if China (the other largest economy in the world) decides to start trading in Euros instead of dollars?  Or, say, the yuan?

he U.S. debt to China is $1.157 trillion, as of September 2016. That's 30 percent of the $3.901 trillion in Treasury bills, notes, and bonds held by foreign countries.

[...]

It reduced its holdings to allow its currency, the yuan, to rise. It's loosening its peg to the dollar. That will make the yuan more attractive to forex traders in global markets. Long-term, China wants the yuan to replace the U.S. dollar as the world's global currency. [...] For more, see Currency Wars.

  The Balance

The PBOC [People's Bank of China] now has the freedom to allow the yuan to slowly evolve toward a floating exchange rate. That will give the bank more flexibility with monetary policy. It's another step toward promoting the yuan to replace the dollar as the world's global reserve currency.

  The Balance

Even if China wished to “call in” its loans, the use of credit as a coercive measure is complicated and often heavily constrained. A creditor can only dictate terms for the debtor country if that debtor has no other options. In the case of the United States, American debt is a widely held and an extremely desirable asset in the global economy. Whatever debt China does sell is simply purchased by other countries.

[...]

China’s large U.S. Treasury holdings say as much about U.S. power in the global economy as any particularity of the Chinese economy. Broadly speaking, U.S. debt is an in-demand asset. It is safe and convenient. As the world’s reserve currency, the U.S. dollar is extensively used in international transactions. Trade goods are priced in dollars and due to its high demand, the dollar can easily be cashed in. Furthermore, the U.S. government has never defaulted on its debt.

  China Power

That was before Trump became president.

"Whatever debt China does sell is simply purchased by other countries."

If they're sure of our future stability.  And if they have any money.

Sadly, I don't know enough about finance to make any sound prophecies. The Guardian has no such restriction. Who knows if their economic analyses are correct, but here they are:

[US growth] will almost surely accelerate above the 2.2% average annual rate during Barack Obama’s second term. This is because the Republican aversion to public spending and debt applies only when a Democrat like Obama occupies the White House. With a Republican president, the party has always been glad to boost public spending and relax debt limits, as it was under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W Bush. Thus, Trump will be able to implement the Keynesian fiscal stimulus that Obama often proposed but was unable to deliver.

[...]

[G]rowth and inflation will both increase. As the US economy runs into the limits of full employment, additional growth will push inflation higher, but that bad news can wait until 2018 and beyond.

  Guardian

Well, that'll be swell, won't it?

The Republicans’ hegemony will enable easy agreement on tax cuts financed mainly by higher public borrowing, rather than by facing down special interest lobbies’ resistance to the elimination of exemptions and loopholes. These tax reforms will create even bigger budget deficits, which in turn will stimulate more growth and inflation.

Something tells me the knobs who voted for Trump are not going to see inflation as their friend.

A third boost to economic growth will come from deregulation. While battles over energy and environmental laws may dominate the headlines, the biggest economic impact will come from reversing bank regulations. As banks are encouraged to loosen lending standards, especially for middle-income households, an upswing in residential construction and debt-financed consumption should add further growth impetus. Excessive deregulation could cause a re-run of the 2007 financial crisis, but that, too, is a risk for 2018 and beyond.

Oh, swell.

Will banks really loosen their lending standards for middle-income households? The TARP money was supposed to do that, and look where that went: the pockets of the banksters.

Trump’s election could force Americans to recognise flaws in their own democracy, even as they abandon global “democracy promotion.”

Well that's a laugh. Besides, Americans are not going to acknowledge any flaws even if they do recognize them.

Now for the bad news.

Yes. That was the good news.

For the first time since the 1930s, the US has a president who views trade as a zero-sum game.

[...]

US global leadership is therefore bound to shift away from free trade, globalisation, and open markets. Nobody can predict the full effects of the biggest regime change in global economic management since the 1980s; but they will surely be negative for emerging economies and multinational companies, whose development models and business strategies have assumed free trade and open capital flows.

A second, more immediate, threat stems from enacting large tax cuts and boosting public spending in an economy already nearing full employment, which implies accelerating inflation, higher interest rates, or probably some combination of the two.

Wait a minute. We're approaching full employment? That's going to come as news to a lot of people. And, in what area are we approaching this wonderful point? Fast food service?

With the US economy growing faster than expected and long-term interest rates rising, excessive strengthening of the dollar is a third major risk.

[...]

[T]he combination of a dollar squeeze and protectionism spells big trouble for developing countries, with the possible exception of some relatively closed economies such as Brazil, Russia, and India, whose development strategies are less reliant on free trade and foreign financing.

[...]

Just as Britain’s referendum proved uncannily predictive of Trump’s win, Trump looks like a leading indicator of populist upheavals in Europe, which could trigger another euro crisis and threaten the breakup of the European Union. The next anti-establishment victories, according to opinion polls, will be in Italy’s constitutional referendum and Austria’s presidential election.

Well, the Guardian was wrong about Austria. They rejected the far-right candidate. They haven't forgotten WWII. In fact, the Green Party candidate won that election.

Italy, however, did make the move to the right and toward the possibility of leaving the EU. Apparently, they HAVE forgotten the war.

The result was [...] lauded by one of Italy's leading right-wing politicians, Matteo Salvini, whose anti-immigrant party will seek to make gains in a general election.

The conservative leader of the Northern League is known to be a vocal supporter of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini.

  CNN

The EU hasn't stopped rocking.  The Big Short set off a huge shock wave.  And we may be fast approaching the aftershock.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

And Yes, It WAS the US Who Instigated the Offense Against Bolivia's President

Morales’ plane was forced out of European airspace and to make an unexpected landing in Austria after a US diplomat lied about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden being onboard, local media reported.

The plane had departed from Moscow on July 2, but was not allowed to fly over France, Spain, Portugal or Italy after those governments were told the plane was carrying Snowden aboard.

When the plane landed in Vienna to refuel, US Ambassador to Austria William Eacho phoned officials from the Austrian Foreign Ministry, the Austrian daily newspaper Die Presse reported. Eacho “claimed with great certainty that Edward Snowden was onboard” and referenced a “diplomatic note requesting Snowden’s extradition.”

The Thursday meeting of the Latin American bloc was attended by the leaders of Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador, Uruguay, Suriname and Bolivia with representatives of Brazil, Chile and Peru also in attendance.

Following the emergency summit, the bloc issued a statement which voiced support for Morales and expressed indignation at Tuesday's moves by France, Portugal, Italy and Spain to obstruct the Bolivian head of state’s aircraft from free passage.

The incident "set a dangerous precedent of violating international laws" in the world, the statement said.

  RT

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Okay, NOW You Can Call the French Cowards

Or at least the French government. And don't forget Portugal.  Or Italy. Or Spain.

It began as a seemingly offhand remark by the president of Bolivia, who suggested during a visit to Moscow that he might be happy to host Edward J. Snowden, the fugitive former security contractor who is desperate to find asylum. It escalated into a major diplomatic scramble in which the Bolivian president’s plane was rerouted on Tuesday, apparently because of suspicions that Mr. Snowden was aboard.

[...]

By day’s end, outraged Bolivian officials, insisting that Mr. Snowden was not on the plane, were accusing France and Portugal of acting under American pressure to rescind permission for President Evo Morales’s plane to traverse their airspace on the way back to Bolivia. Low on fuel, the plane’s crew won permission to land in Vienna.

[...]

Mr. Saavedra said that Italy had also refused to give permission for the plane to fly over its airspace. Later he said that France and Portugal had reversed course and offered to allow the plane to fly through their airspace after all.

[...]

The problems began even before Mr. Morales left Moscow, Mr. Choquehuanca said. On Monday, Portugal, without explanation, had withdrawn permission for Mr. Morales’s plane to stop in Lisbon to refuel, the foreign minister said. That required Bolivian officials to get permission from Spain to refuel in the Canary Islands.

The next day, after taking off from Moscow, Mr. Morales’s plane was just minutes from entering French airspace, according to Mr. Saavedra, when the French authorities informed the pilot that the plane could not fly over France.

[...]

In an interview with the television station Russia Today, Mr. Maduro said he would consider any request by Mr. Snowden. Then, ending the interview with a dash of humor, he said, “It’s time for me to go; Snowden is waiting for me.”

  NYT

We don't think that's funny.

“An act of aggression and violation of international law” is how Bolivia’s UN envoy described Austria’s decision to search the Bolivian presidential jet for NSA leaker Edward Snowden. The envoy has pledged to make an official complaint to the UN.

  RT

And this doesn’t make up for it.

France wants a temporary two week suspension of EU-US free trade talks in the light of the looming scandal over the US National Security Agency’s alleged spying on 38 embassies, including America’s NATO European allies. "It's not a question of halting the negotiations," French government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem noted, but “On the other hand, it would seem wise to us to suspend them for a couple of weeks to avoid any controversy and have the time to obtain the information we've asked for,” he said.

  RT

I have no doubt the US was behind it in one fashion or another.  But I hope it outrages all of South America, because this disrespect would not be given to "First World" or non-socialist presidents.