Σπίρου και (ολίγη από) Φαντάζιο

Οι Πετρόπουλος και Κακούσης, στη ραδιοφωνική τους εκπομπή στον Άλφα, αναφέρθηκαν στη νίκη της Χίλαρυ στο Νιου Χαμσάιρ. Και είχαν μια τηλεφωνική συνομιλία με τον κύριο Κρις Σπύρου. Ο οποίος είναι πρωην πρόεδρος των Δημοκρατικών στην πολιτεία, με ό,τι αυτό συνεπάγεται. Το συμπέρασμα που έβγαλα είναι πως περίπου χάρις σ' αυτόν η Χίλαρυ γλύτωσε από την καταστροφή.

Φαίνεται λοιπόν πως ο Σπύρου είναι όντως σημαντικός παράγοντας.

Στους Τάιμς του Λονδίνου έχουν δηλώσεις του πριν τις εκλογές.

Spirou added: “I don’t think there was any way for anyone to predict the generation of 100,000 new voters, independents and students who showed up in Iowa, as well as Republicans who crossed the line to vote [for Obama].”

He made it sound as though it was a bad thing. If so, the Clinton era is heading for extinction.

Ο "δικός μας" Μπρέιντι Κίσλινγκ γράφει στη Χίλαρυ για τον Σπύρου και δεν μπορώ να πω ότι είναι κατηγορηματικά αρνητικός

In happier times when public diplomacy seemed unnecessary, the U.S. government had divested itself of the Hellenic-American Union in Athens. Spirou recognized HAU as a gold mine thanks to its right to sell the English-language competency certificates Greeks need for a government job. Armed with photographs autographed by Bill Clinton, Spirou had himself appointed to the board of HAU. He engineered a takeover, ousted board members alert enough to question his management practices, and presided over HAU's transformation into a personal fiefdom.

Later, Spirou used the same photographs to persuade the late Slobodan Milosevic, the despot of Serbia, to appoint him his personal advisor at the Dayton talks. Back in Athens, he wrote articles in Greek newspapers sharply attacking America's Balkan policy from a Greek/Serbian nationalist perspective. Now, in an interview to leading Athens newspaper To Vima, (VMen, 12/9/07) Spirou's picture with you in Manchester is next to a picture of current President Bush with puppet strings added. Spirou claims personal credit for having "tied down" Presidential candidate Clinton on the Macedonian name issue in 1992. Is this true? Is it loyal?

Μετά βρήκα λεπτομέρειες για τον γιουγκοσλαβικό βίο του Σπύρου, με τον χαρακτηριστικό τίτλο "THE CLINTON-GORE-MILOSEVIC CONNECTION", αλλά συγκρατώ ότι ήταν σύμβουλος του ΠΑΣΟΚ στις εκλογές του 93

As a political consultant, Spirou's talents have been utilized not only by the Gore campaign, but also by the Socialist Party of Greece, whose 1993 candidate, Andreas Papandreou, faced the incumbent conservative Premier Constantine Mitsotakis. In this overseas battle of the American political consultants, Spirou found himself up against Paul Begala, James Carville, and Mary Matalin, who had hired themselves out to Mitsoakis, But quantity is not quality in the world of political consulting, and Spirou carried the day, moving on to effectively destroy the Bradley campaign in New Hampshire.

Έχω μείνει με ανοιχτό στόμα, αλλά όχι από τις μακιαβελικές δραστηριότητες του Σπύρου. Δεν είμαι κανένα αναίσθητο ζώο. Αλλά, διατί να το κρύψωμεν άλλωστε, έχω ένα ψιλο-crush με τη Βάλερι Πλέιμ. Που κολλάει αυτή η ξανθιά Μάτα Χάρι;

I have no access to the blacked out portions of Fair Game so I can only guess at what is missing. Regardless, I find it ludicrous that even Plame’s dates and posts of service and where and when she met her husband Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, IV were considered national security risks if, in fact, the information had been included in her original text which I suspect it was. That information was already part of the public record – as the book’s lengthy "Afterward" by journalist Laura Rozen points out.

Ironically, it was hunky-dory for Plame to write that she had studied a hard language in preparation for a junior officer embassy assignment in an unspecified southern European country in the late 1980s yet she couldn’t name the country. Give me a break. At that time there was only one southern European country that fit the criteria where a difficult language was spoken. There was also a nice photo of her at the Acropolis one wintry day in 1990 - not exactly tourist season – in the event you hadn’t already figured out her Greek posting.

Clearly Plame served her first tour at the US Embassy in Athens. So did I. In my case as a public diplomacy junior officer with the U.S. Information Service (1970-71). I served in Athens again from 1981-84 as Executive Director of the Hellenic American Union (HAU). For years this was America’s sole binational cultural center in Greece but in 1996 it was taken over in a “coup” that need not have happened. The HAU has subsequently become a cash cow English teacher language testing center while perched on land in Athen’s swankiest in-town neighborhood. The building and the land were purchased with US taxpayers’ money.

Plame loved Greece, a country about which she claimed that too many of her Embassy colleagues and particularly their nonworking spouses complained of the country’s idiosyncrasies like “impossible driving habits, bizarre store hours, corrupt and nearly nonfunctioning telephone service and . . . sullen shopkeepers” while finding solace at the Hamburger Hamlet on the now defunct US Airbase.

Well, yes. I heard this too when I served there. Too many Americans still seem to think that Greeks wear togas, spout Plato over lunch, eat grapes at any time or live like Zorba. Then they arrive in Athens to find their romanticized notions in shards and that only the grape eating survives. These Americans become quickly disenchanted with everyday life in a city with far too much traffic for its tiny, winding streets and, oh my gosh, stores that don’t stay open 24/7.

True, Greece is not the US, but speaking even some of the language changes “sullen” into “smiling” shopkeepers, learning shop opening and closing times does not take a degree in rocket science, and the country is best appreciated outside its major metropolis. Thankfully, most US military bases are long gone and Athens itself has been considerably spruced up since Plame served there.

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