"Since they tried to bankrupt BP I won't trust them to worry about what they do to their allies they are only out for themselves from what I can see. Any excuse to strip money from foreign countries seems to be the way the US is working these days."

I couldn't help thinking when reading the BBC story, particularly when it said about the alleged offences being from 2001 - 200(?), that it's almost as though they turn a blind eye when the going is good, then when the US need money to plug massive government borrowings and get their economy moving again, then they seem to really go all out to cash in on everything they've turned a blind eye to, to extract as much money as they possibly can from 'outside these shores' (to borrow a phrase from Obama).

It seems like this is the new way of getting out of economic trouble. A replacement strategy instead of using inflation. Simply force money in from foreign countries in the form of fines, and the threat of being expelled from the US market.

As for US allies, the other day I was watching the opening ceremony for the olympics on YouTube and clicked a related video of a major US network's coverage of the opening. The number of times the reporter referred to the British empire and colonialisation was quite frankly astounding - wasn't all that far off Robert Mugabe in terms of his obsession with it. It was rather concerning, though, that this (I believe) was a major US network (with number of views to match) and not just some small scale youtube loon.

- venice2001.