EDITORIAL
The World Has Changed—Anything Can Now Happen, but Obama Must Be Ousted
Sept. 12 (EIRNS)—There were spectacular developments in Asia over the past week, where the vast majority of the world’s nations united behind a new world paradigm centered on “Great Development” programs through the New Silk Road and the new financing institutions created by China, the BRICS, and others. This same spirit was also seen in New York City over the past weekend, in the Schiller Institute’s “Living Memorial” for the victims of 9/11 and those of the perpetual warfare unleashed since then by the Bush and Obama Administrations. The beauty of Mozart’s Requiem, with over 3,000 people participating in the four Schiller Institute concerts in the New York City area, created the same spirit of freedom as the New Paradigm created in Asia.
Indeed, the events demonstrate Friedrich Schiller’s insight that the path to freedom is through beauty.
But there is still the stench of evil and ugliness in the U.S., as the wars continue; the economic degeneration accelerates; drugs take their unprecedented toll, and pessimism is pervasive—especially over an election campaign in which the population despises both candidates, with good reason. There is no capable candidate precisely because the American citizenry has failed to denounce the existing President as the mass murderer that he is—that he in fact takes pride in being.
But the world has changed in these past days. Lyndon LaRouche said today that absolutely anything is possible in this moment of phase change in human history. Taking note of the increasing evidence of the serious health problems of Hillary Clinton, LaRouche said that the world must look deeper into the problem:
Hillary Clinton’s health began to decline when she capitulated to Obama during and after the 2008 election, foolishly agreeing to serve as his Secretary of State. The evil she did in that position was induced by Obama, the killer, who learned to embrace killing from his murderous step-father in Indonesia. Her mistakes and failures are all due to Obama. Obama is the issue. He destroyed her. Her character changed. She degenerated, as an instrument of Obama. Behind Obama, the blame goes to the British Monarchy, whom he loves and obeys, together with their genocidal Saudi creation, who have caused the current suffering of mankind.
Obama must be removed now—there is no other plausible solution. Hillary would go down with him, and the election process would be transformed, as new candidates would have to be determined.
Not practical? Revolutions are not created through practical steps, but by creative discoveries and interventions into the course of history, as with the New Silk Road, and as with the American Founding Fathers, and as reflected in the works of Franklin Roosevelt and Jack Kennedy. Something new and better is required today, or civilizational collapse and thermonuclear war will be the result. The alternative is no longer only an idea to be grasped in the mind, but is now under construction in Asia, and in the extraordinary events in New York City this past weekend.
The developments to take place in the months of September and October are unpredictable, but it is certain there will be major, dramatic changes. We must be ahead of the curve, and act before chaos descends upon us. The Congress is invigorated by its action taken against the Saudis with the unanimous passage of the JASTA bill, which Obama has pledged to veto—but which veto can be overridden. The Congress must also be forced to act with courage and swiftness on the Glass-Steagall bills now before both chambers, to shut down Wall Street before its uncontrolled collapse takes the nation and the world down with it. Now is a time for optimism and action.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
China: U.S. Is Responsible for North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons
Sept. 12 (EIRNS)—China’s Foreign Ministry today directly exposed the fact that the entire nuclear weapons crisis in North Korea is the direct result of Obama’s policy towards the Hermit Kingdom. China was responding to a statement by U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter following North Korea’s nuclear test Sept. 9, which said that China bears “responsibility” for solving the problem.
“The essence of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue is the conflict between the D.P.R.K. and the United States,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a press conference, Xinhua. “As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a close neighbor of the D.P.R.K., China has made unremitting efforts to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and safeguard the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.”
Xinhua referred to a statement released by the North Korean Foreign Ministry Sunday, which said the United States compelled the D.P.R.K. to develop nuclear warheads, and the nuclear threat it has constantly posed to the D.P.R.K. for decades is the engine that has pushed the D.P.R.K. to this point.
Hua added: “Blindly increasing the pressure and the resulting bounce-back will only make the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula a firm knot,” and called for responsibility from all relevant parties. “We have seen the twists and turns in the situation on the Korean Peninsula since the six-party talks have stalled,” Hua said, saying that it proves that simple sanctions cannot solve the issue.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said much the same thing on Saturday: “Moscow condemns the D.P.R.K.’s nuclear tests but there should be more creative ways of responding to Pyongyang’s activities than simply sanctions,” and that ways could be found to resume the six-party talks.
France’s Hollande: U.S. Response to 9/11 Expanded, Not Eliminated, Terrorist Threat
Sept. 12 (EIRNS)—On the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, French President François Hollande asserted that the Bush administration’s response to that event—the invasion of Iraq—led to the expansion of the terrorist threat, rather than its eradication. France has suffered the consequences of the U.S. action.
France’s AFP news service reported that Hollande wrote on his Facebook page, “[T]he response that the American administration gave to these attacks … far from eradicating the threat, expanded it over a wider area; namely, to Iraq. And even though France, through [then-President] Jacques Chirac, rightly refused to join the intervention [in Iraq], which it condemned, it has nonetheless been a victim of the consequences of the chaos it caused.” Several other French analysts quoted by AFP had the same message: that Bush’s “shock and awe” campaign led to the expansion of the Islamic State, jihadis, etc.
Also speaking yesterday, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned that the country is under a continuous terrorist threat, adding that as many as 15,000 people are in the process of being radicalized, and 1,350 are under direct investigation, Britain’s Independent reported. “Every day, attacks are foiled … (including) as we speak,” he stated. Interviewed on Europe 1 radio yesterday, Valls said that the terror threat “is at a maximum, and we are a target…. There will be new attacks; there will be innocent victims,” adding that two attacks were foiled in the past two weeks, and that every day, “[I]ntelligence services and police thwart attacks, dismantle networks, track terrorists.” Currently, there are 700 French jihadists and residents fighting in Iraq and Syria, he said, including 275 women and “dozens of children.”
China and France: U.S. ‘War on Terror’ Is Creator of Terror
Sept. 12 (EIRNS)—On the same day, Sept. 11, that French President François Hollande blamed the U.S. wars on Iraq and Libya as the force behind the mass terrorist scourge which has now spread chaos to Europe, China’s official party paper Global Times published an editorial saying much the same thing. Both Hollande and the Chinese editorial also reflect a point made repeatedly by President Putin—the world must unite to defeat terrorism.
The Global Times editorial states, “More people of insight have begun to reflect on why counter-terrorism leads to more terror,” and points out it is the United States that needs to rectify its anti-terror policy and its diplomatic policies.
“First of all, war has never been a way to root out terrorism,” Global Times writes. “On the contrary, it may lead to the creation of breeding grounds for terrorism.”
Referencing the Bush and Obama wars on Iraq and Libya, which had secular governments which strongly opposed terrorism, it adds that the “war on terror actually led to more terrorism, and its European allies had to bear the brunt of its missteps,” with the refugee crisis and terror attacks across Europe.
It concludes that “the United States needs to abandon its Cold War mentality and its double-standard anti-terror policy, and pursue multilateral cooperation,” including “eliminating its roots in conflict or poverty; enhancing social integration, and promoting inter-civilization dialogue.”
Syrian Rebels to U.S.: We Want Al-Nusra To Stay
Sept. 12 (EIRNS)—As the ceasefire worked out by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry went into effect at dusk today, Reuters reports that it has obtained a copy of a letter sent to the Obama Administration from “nationalist rebel groups, including factions backed by Assad’s foreign enemies”—presumably the Saudis and the U.S.—which pleads with Obama to let Al-Nusra, under its new name, be removed from the terror list so that they can continue working together against Syrian President Assad.
The letter expresses “deep concerns over the truce,” which they say favors Assad.
Reuters writes: “It also said Jabhat Fatah al-Sham [Al-Nusra] should be included in the truce, as the group had not carried out attacks outside Syria despite its previous ties to al-Qaeda. Jabhat Fatah al-Sham said the deal aimed to weaken the ‘effective’ anti-Assad forces, and to ‘bury’ the revolution.”
Meanwhile, in the real world, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said a new round of talks between the Syrian government and opposition may be held in early October, reported RIA news agency. “I think that probably at the very beginning of October [UN Syria envoy Staffan] de Mistura should invite all the parties,” Bogdanov was quoted as saying.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Philippines President Duterte: U.S. Military Must Leave Mindanao
Sept. 12 (EIRNS)—Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte took a huge step forward in freeing his country from Washington’s neo-colonial control today, by announcing that the U.S. Special Forces, which have operated in the southern island of Mindanao since 2002, have got to get out.
“The U.S. Special Forces, they have to go,” he said, according to the Philippines Inquirer. “They have to (leave) Mindanao. There are many (Americans) there,” the President said in a speech at the oath-taking ceremony of the new government appointees in Malacañang, the Presidential palace.
“I just could not say it” at the ASEAN summit in Laos, he continued, “because I don’t want a rift with America. The situation there [in Mindanao] will be more volatile. If they are seen there, they will really be killed,” he added.
Duterte has launched a major escalation in the war on terrorists, primarily against the Abu Sayyaf, originally spawned from the Afghansi fighters trained by the U.S. to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. The “Abus,” as they are called, now claim allegiance to ISIS. Duterte said the American presence will make it more difficult to win a real war on terrorism: “Americans, they will really kill them; they will try to kidnap them to get ransom.”
So far, Duterte has not given any hint that he will cancel the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Act (EDCA), the illegal deal that former President Noynoy Aquino rammed through without the Senate approval which the Constitution requires. The EDCA, which allows the U.S. to set up five bases across the country, is now being implemented, but the EDCA was put into effect as an “executive action,” based the devious pretext that it was only an extension of a 2002 agreement approved by the Senate, which allowed U.S. Special Forces trainers to go to Mindanao to help fight the terrorists. They have been there ever since.
So, if Duterte makes the U.S. forces leave Mindanao, the new bases in the rest of the country, intended to be the core of a war on China, could go with them. In fact, since Aquino illegally imposed EDCA as an “executive action,” Duterte can easily scrap it on the same basis.
Obama Deserves Impeachment Even Now, If He Vetoes JASTA Bill
Sept. 12 (EIRNS)—“The President does plan to veto this legislation,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest replied to a reporter’s question on Obama’s already-stated intention to veto JASTA (Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act), and thus defend his chosen British and Saudi “allies.” At today’s midday press briefing, Earnest announced, “That is still the plan. I do anticipate the President will veto the legislation when it is presented to him, [although] it hasn’t been presented yet.”
Such an action by the “lame duck” Obama would only seal his “legacy” as a defender of terrorist states.
A letter from 19 members of the 9/11 families group urging Obama to sign the JASTA bill was released yesterday, upping the pressure on Obama. Their letter says this 15th anniversary of 9/11 is more difficult than previous ones, precisely because Obama is leaving them hanging by threatening the veto.
Calling the bill the “missing piece of America’s anti-terrorism campaign,” they say that the right to sue Saudi Arabia, and other state sponsors of terrorism, “is important for our nation, because it will help to deter terrorism.”
“You have had your differences with us about JASTA. And we have been supportive of the reasonable efforts Congress has made to address your misgivings. But, now, Congress has acted, and … passed [this legislation] without a single dissenting voice.
“JASTA will be delivered to you soon, perhaps Monday. And, here lies the reason this anniversary is made even harder than past ones: We don’t know what you will do. We are left to wait, to hear remembrances and reassurances and regrets.”
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Tent Cities Expand in U.S. Cities, as Homelessness Soars
Sept. 12 (EIRNS)—Homeless encampments and tent cities are cropping up in most major U.S. cities, due to economic disintegration which leads to higher rates of poverty, unemployment and homelessness. According to the “Economic Collapse” blog, there are currently half a million homeless in the U.S., but the number is increasing on a daily basis.
The proliferation of tent cities in such major cities as Washington, D.C. (the U.S. capital), Seattle, and St. Louis reflects the worsening situation. In California, the homelessness rate is so high that the Los Angeles City Council has asked Gov. Jerry Brown to officially declare a state of emergency. Portland, Oregon has extended its “homeless emergency” for another year.
The creation of tent cities is “booming” in many locations, and local officials have no means to deal with the problem. Often, residents are ordered to take down their tents and leave—with nowhere else to go.
The Economic Collapse blog, citing its own archives, reported that since 2008, the number of homeless children has risen by 60%. “Poverty USA” adds that over the last year, 1.6 million children slept either in a homeless shelter or in some other form of emergency housing. Obama calls this a “recovery.”
In 27 major U.S. cities, large tent cities have become so well established that they have their own names—Camp Hope in Las Cruces, New Mexico; Camp Take Notice in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to name just a few. The Economic Collapse warns that “soon, there will be tent cities in nearly every community in America.”
NEW WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER
China-ASEAN Expo: 29 Countries, 2,500 Companies Build the Silk Road
Sept. 12 (EIRNS)—The 13th China-ASEAN Expo began today in Nanning, China, bringing together more than 2,500 companies from 29 countries, including the 10 ASEAN members: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, and many others along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road. The four-day Expo features 5,800 exhibition booths, highlighting industrial cooperation, trade, and investment.
Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli opened the Expo, pronouncing the theme as “Jointly Building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road; Forging an Even Closer China-ASEAN Community of Common Destiny.”
Alibaba’s Jack Ma told Xinhua that “The Belt and Road Initiative is the start of inclusive globalization.”
Western Talk of Russian ‘Expansionism’ Is ‘Complete Rubbish,’ Putin Tells Bloomberg
Sept. 12 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a wide-ranging interview to Bloomberg’s John Micklewaithe in Vladivostok on Sept. 1 posted Sept 8. It was a very confident Putin who fielded all of Micklewaithe’s often snide questions. When asked about the danger of a Russian invasion of the Baltic States a la Crimea. Putin replied, “Complete rubbish!” “Do you think we really want to start a war with NATO?” Putin asked. “NATO has a population of 600 million people and Russia has only 146 million people. Oh, of course, we are a big nuclear power. But do you really think we are about to start a nuclear war to conquer the Baltic countries? It’s total rubbish!” he reiterated.
“But the main point is somewhat different,” he continued. “You can’t do anything against the will of the people. In Crimea you had a population that was 70% Russian and the rest of the population were fluent Russian speakers. And they voted for independence. This is all a political game,” Putin said. “If you want assurances, I can say that we intend to pursue an absolutely peaceful foreign policy.” When asked about the presence of Russian troops in Crimea during the referendum, he replied, “I have already spoken about this. Russian soldiers preserved peace during the referendum. People would not come under the threat of a machine gun. The Crimean parliament voted for independence, a parliament which had been elected earlier. So we acted in accordance with international law and with the UN Charter, and on the basis of democratic principles.”
On Syria, Putin said that the difficult issue was being able to separate the terrorists from the other opposition groups. But on that point both Russia and the U.S. were in agreement that it had to be done. (The interview took place before the Syria agreement was reached.) Putin had high praise for Secretary Kerry. “Kerry has done a colossal job,” Putin said. “I was surprised by his patience and his determination. And I believe we are heading in the right direction.”
SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTURE
What Should South Africa Be Doing in Space?
Sept. 12 (EIRNS)—Dr. Sandile Malinga, CEO and founder of the South Africa National Space Agency (SANSA), expressed these thoughts upon leaving his position at the end of August, while reviewing SANSA’s accomplishments over the six years that he headed the agency, and challenging Africa’s leading space nation to enter a “new stage of growth to really develop our mandate.”
“We’re living in exciting times, in terms of space,” he said, South Africa’s Engineering News reports. “So much is moving so fast that it requires us, as a country, to step back and ask: What are we doing? What should we be doing? Is our strategy still current? Is there a chance for us to rethink what we’re doing?”
In order to answer those questions, Dr. Malinga explained, “Our board is working on a development plan for SANSA. What do we want it to achieve in the next five years … the next ten years? That is the kind of thinking taking place within the board…. We’ve been looking at various space agencies around the world.” Deciding on a future plan, “will take SANSA a notch upward and allow it to achieve more.”
In his comments, he described the agency’s impressive programs and accomplishments. “Our country has a rich heritage in space, both on the astronomy side and the space ground station work, originally for NASA, as well as a very rich history in space science.” That history, and the unwavering commitment of the government to drive South Africa’s future economic growth through its science and technology, is evidenced by its being chosen as the main host of the international Square Kilometer Array radio astronomy project. The SANSA Space Operation tracking, telemetry, and command center was set up by NASA to support the Apollo missions, and continues to provide an “eye to the sky” from the Southern Hemisphere, supporting science missions such as the Curiosity rover on Mars.
Russia Begins Work on Two New Iranian Nuclear Reactors, May Be Used for Desalination
Sept. 12 (EIRNS)—Russia’s Rosatom agency has begun work on two more nuclear reactors at Bushehr in Iran, to join the existing reactor in operation. Project Manager Mahmoud Jafari said that construction of the two 1,000 MW reactors, which is being carried out jointly by Rosatom and Iran’s Nuclear Power Production and Development Company, will take a decade, and cost up to $10 billion. Designated as Bushehr 2, some 8,000 workers will be employed in their construction, according to a report in Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News. “When these two units become operational, 11 million barrels of oil will be saved per year,” he said.
As he laid the project’s foundation stone, Rosatom Chief Sergei Kirienko said, “The construction of the first reactor proved that Russia always fulfills its obligations towards foreign partners, regardless of the changes in the world’s political climate.” The new reactors mark “a serious step towards strengthening Russia’s position in the international peaceful nuclear technology market,” he said.
Russia built the existing 1,000 MW reactor at Bushehr that came online in September 2011, and reached full capacity the following year. The current project was agreed and a “cooperation contract” signed in November 2014. Iran plans to build another 20 reactors in the future.
Russia’s RT points out that Iran is looking at several ways to spend the additional megawatts, including powering a water desalination plant in Bushehr province. “The plant would produce 200,000 cubic meters of fresh water per day, compared to the 50,000 to 60,000 cubic meters per day the province needs,” said Iranian Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi.
