EIR Daily Alert Service

FRIDAY, MAY 26, 2017

Volume 4, Number 104

EIR Daily Alert Service

P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390

EDITORIAL

The Economic ‘Platform’

May 25 (EIRNS)—Always informing our view of what some call just “infrastructure,” must be statesman and physical economist Lyndon LaRouche’s concept of what is actually involved in such a notion. It reflects the only truth about mankind and his history, which is one in which mankind reinvents himself, creating, as it were, a new and better human species, through his innate human creativity. This is the truth of infrastructure, the truth of economics, and the truth of human nature itself—all really aspects of one and the same thing, which stares out at us once we begin to grasp it.

Ben Deniston of the LaRouchePAC Scientific Research Team was able to bring this idea to bear in an inspiring fashion on April 13 in short remarks to the Schiller Institute Manhattan Conference.

Deniston’s title was “From the New Silk Road to Space: LaRouche’s Economic Platform Concept.”  And indeed, now, after the conclusion of the Beijing Belt and Road Forum of May 14-15 one month later, Lyndon LaRouche has emphasized that the new, international space program is now the next necessary step for humanity.

The earliest known such “platform” was that of the prehistoric trans-oceanic maritime culture which was already navigating the world ocean during the last glacial period, the Ice Age. Deniston characterized its “platform” as the star-map which navigators used to find their way over the trackless ocean. Man’s knowledge of the starry sky was the first science, and is in a sense the continuing core of all true science, as Lyndon LaRouche elaborated this whole subject in depth in 1984, in his paper, “On the Subject of B.G. Tilak’s Thesis: The Present Scientific Implications of Vedic Calendars from the Standpoint of Kepler and Circles of Gauss,” reprinted in the April 28 EIR.

LaRouche’s use of the term “platform” in this sense, is to indicate a true scientific, cultural and economic revolution which qualitatively transforms mankind, with his environment, his activities, his beliefs and morality—in effect making him a new, different and a better species.

It is the mind of man which first grasped the plan of the stars. It is the mind of man which began the human conquest of the interiors of the continents, from Charlemagne’s great canals, through Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s works, and America’s canals and railroads, and into its culmination in the Eurasian Land-Bridge conceived by Lyndon and Helga LaRouche, or the Belt and Road.

The brightest side of the 20th century, integrally with Lyndon LaRouche and his work in that century, will always be the launching of the space program, even if it was largely aborted at that time. Any examination of the history and personalities of the space program, confirms one in the conviction that this was itself a qualitatively higher phase of human civilization: The very people themselves, the scientists, the astronauts, and the hundreds of thousands who did everything possible and impossible to support the effort—they were better people, superior people. Idealistic people.  It’s patently obvious; and equally true of the Soviet as the American space program.

Lyndon and Helga LaRouche’s friend Krafft Ehricke is the outstanding exemplar.

As Lyndon LaRouche’s cited paper implies, it is an open secret that the space pioneers of today and tomorrow, hearken back to the scientists and explorers of the Ice Age.  The very names we call them: “astronauts,” “cosmonauts,” “taikonauts,” correctly identify them all as “mariners,” from the Greek “naútēs.”  So they are.

U.S. ECONOMIC & POLITICAL

President Trump Makes ISIS the Issue at NATO Summit

May 25 (EIRNS)—In what can only be described as a brawl, President Trump stood his ground on Russia, both explicitly with EU Council President Donald Tusk, as well as at the NATO summit.

According to Bloomberg News, EU Council Donald Tusk “said talks with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday revealed no ‘common position’ on Russia.”

Instead, President Trump insisted at the NATO meeting that its mission, first and foremost, is to defeat terrorism. In the wake of his interventions into the Middle East, President Trump has insisted that ISIS is the issue.

To confirm this position, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg indicated that NATO will increase its participation in the anti-terrorism war against ISIS in Syria, and will not ask to boost its military presence on Russia’s borders, a sharp contrast to NATO’s recent policies.

Brennan-Obama Nailed: FISA Court Finds ‘Routine’ Violations

May 25 (EIRNS)—Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) has announced that Congress will not reauthorize certain surveillance programs until questions about the unmasking of American identities under the previous Obama administration were answered, Breitbart News reports.

At the same time, in a court order released earlier this month by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC/FISA) stated that intelligence agencies under then-President Barack Obama “routinely violated privacy rights, conducted illegal searches and gathered information on U.S. citizens. Their conduct very seriously violated the Fourth Amendment.”  The court order is linked at the RT among other news agencies and websites.

Gowdy in particular pinned Obama’s former CIA Director John Brennan with lack of any evidence of collusion between President Trump and any Russians. Gowdy has persisted on getting at who was responsible for unmasking Americans using so-called FISA warrants.

Bob Woodward: Trump Is Not a Provisional President, He’s Here to Stay

May 25 (EIRNS)—During a May 24 interview with Axios before a live audience, veteran investigative reporter and Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward, called out the media for its smugness about President Donald Trump and pointed to their “hyperventilating” about his Presidency.

As Breitbart News reported the video interview, Woodward said: “I think there are so many people that are treating the Trump presidency as if it’s a tryout—as if it’s provisional. I was reading a column this morning that said Trump half-won the Presidency because he did not get the popular vote. He is President! Odds are he is probably going to be President for a full term, four years and maybe even more. There is hyperventilation. There is this kind of sense of too many people writing things like—when is the impeachment coming, how long will it last, will he make it through the summer, and so forth. No, there may be stuff that comes out, but it has to be hard evidence. I worry for the [news] business and I worry for the perception of the business by people, not to just Trump supporters, but people that see that kind of smugness that they are talking about. You know, he was elected—the Constitution says he gets a full term.”

Obama Active in German Chancellor Merkel’s Election Campaign

May 25 (EIRNS)—Today’s open-air event at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, featuring a debate between Barack Obama and Angela Merkel on “shaping democracy,” apparently is going back to an initiative by Obama himself: Invited to attend the Lutheran-Evangelical Church Convention as a speaker this year, Obama had his Obama Foundation insist that such an event be arranged with Chancellor Merkel taking part. This is seen by many as Obama’s support for Merkel’s ongoing campaign for reelection as Chancellor. Germany’s national elections are scheduled for September.

The invitation to Obama is ominous in any case, as it was done on his ostensible reputation as an “anti-war” and pro-ecology President.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Manchester Bomber Is Son of al-Qaeda-Linked Assassin Deployed by MI6 To Kill Qaddafi

May 25 (EIRNS)—The terror attack in Manchester, U.K. on May 22 was reportedly carried out by Salman Abedi, whose father Ramadan Abedi has been identified as a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) headed by Abdelhakim Belhadj. In the 1990s the LIFG was deployed by Britain’s MI6 to assassinate Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qaddafi. When that effort failed, Ramadan Abedi, like a number of other members of the LIFG, fled to the United Kingdom.

Following the failed attempt on Qaddafi in the 1990s, the leadership of the LIFG fled to Afghanistan where they fought with Al Qaeda, and later on November 3, 2007, senior members of the LIFG announced that LIFG had officially joined Al Qaeda. As a result, the LIFG was placed on the list of terrorist organizations by the United States, the United Nations and the United Kingdom Office.

Nevertheless, when the decision was made in 2011 by then British Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. President Barack Obama and then French President Nicolas Sarkozy to overthrow and eventually assassinate Qaddafi, this time successfully, the LIFG was redeployed to Libya from exile in the U.K. and was backed by the U.K., the U.S. and France. In preparation for its new assignment, the LIFG renamed itself Libyan Islamic Movement for Change.

Salman Abedi’s younger brother Hashim Abedi, and their father were arrested on May 24 in Tripoli, Libya. Hashim Abedi confessed that both brothers are members of ISIS and that he was planning to carry out a terrorist attack in Tripoli. Hashim Abedi had previously been apprehended, but later released in a round-up of alleged Benghazi Revolutionary Shura Council sympathizers. The latter organization includes Libya Shield and former members of the February 17th Brigade.

Abdullah Al-Thinni, the Prime Minister of the government of the House of Representatives of Libya based in Tobruk, Libya issued a statement following the Manchester terror attack, as reported by the Libya Herald, in which he stated that his government had warned the British government that London was harboring Libyan terrorists, but the U.K. had continued to offer a safe haven to the members of the Libyan Islamic Fight Group and the Muslim Brotherhood.

The statement said the Manchester attack stemmed from the presence for decades of terrorist groups in the U.K. This included the LIFG “which has been recruiting Libyan and Muslim youth in the U.K. and Europe and sending them to Libya and other countries to deliver terrorism and death.”

The statement continued that despite its consistent warnings, successive U.K. governments and British ambassadors had “insisted that we share power in Libya with these terrorist organizations and their militias, the LIFG and the Muslim Brotherhood.”

The individual cited in various press accounts as reporting that Ramadan Abedi was a member of the LIFG, is Abdul Basit Haroun. He should know—Haroun is himself believed to be a member of the LIFG. He also was exiled from Libya and resided in Manchester for two decades. Back in Libya he joined the February 17th Brigade and became the commander of the Abu Salem Martyrs Brigade. The February 17th Brigade, which provided security for the U.S. mission in Benghazi, was complicit in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi and the assassination of visiting Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Haroun later gave an interview to the New York Times, Reuters, and Foreign Policy, in which he confessed that he was running guns from Benghazi to Syria.

What Is London Covering Up about the Manchester Terror Attack?

May 25 (EIRNS)—On May 24, the Manchester, U.K. police ceased any exchange of intelligence with U.S. law enforcement agencies, on the pretext that such an exchange would produce leaks that “endanger the investigation.” The basis for the allegations is a photograph of materials of the Manchester bomb published by the New York Times.

Although the Manchester police, according to a BBC report, made their decision totally independent of U.K. authorities, British government sources fully backed them, saying “We are furious. This is totally unacceptable,” and Prime Minister Theresa May let it be known that she would complain to Donald Trump at the NATO meeting.

British explanations are ridiculous, especially in view of the quite different attitude British media and political circles have had on media leaks whenever they would damage U.S. President Donald Trump. The question to be raised is: What do the British want to cover up, by preventing U.S. intelligence agencies from looking into the intelligence about the Manchester terror attack?

Indeed, there are already several inconsistencies in the narrative offered by British investigators.

1. The alleged suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, was conveniently provided with a bank card, through which he could be identified.

2. He had apparently been pointed out five times to the police as a potential terrorist, but he was never arrested.

3. His father, Ramadan Abedi, was arrested together with his younger son, Hashim Abedi, who is accused by British authorities to be planning a follow-up attack. Both were arrested in Tripoli, where they currently live, by a local militia. Thus, suddenly, in a country such as Libya, where there is no effective government and anarchy reigns, an international arrest warrant is executed within 24 hours. Either a miracle, or the British are the real government.

4. Ramadan Abedi was a security officer under Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, until he turned to the British and worked for MI6 in the overthrow of Qaddafi in 2011. According to a witness report in the Guardian, “three-quarters of the fighters at the beginning of the revolution were from Manchester—the rest came from London, Sheffield, China and Japan. From everywhere.”

U.K. Refuses To ‘Drain the Swamp Where the Fish Swim’

May 25 (EIRNS)—Italian law enforcement officials with experience in the fight against terrorism and the Mafia, point to the absurdity of the situation in Britain, where some 3,000 individuals are known to be potential terrorists but police seem to be impotent to contain the threat.

In such a situation, special rules are needed, they say. Italy was able to exterminate terrorism in the 1980s thanks to laws that went to the brink of unconstitutionality. The same goes for the Mafia, where people were arrested merely on evidence that they were members of a criminal organization, even if they had not committed any crime yet.

NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Global Times: Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, and Moon Jae-in Working To Solve Korea Crisis

May 25 (EIRNS)—An excellent op-ed in the Global Times by Jilin University Prof. Wang Sheng poses that the combination of Xi Jinping, Donald Trump, and Moon Jae-in are moving to correct the dangerous policies of Bush and Obama, which nearly took us to war.

Against all the Western lies that U.S. President Donald Trump is provoking war over Korea, Wang writes: “When we look back at the evolution of the North Korean nuclear issue, we will see that there were two important turning points in history,” pointing to Bill Clinton’s “Agreed Framework” in 1994, which “prevented the first nuclear crisis from escalating and even offered a slim hope for the improvement of Washington-Pyongyang ties.” This was sabotaged by G.W. Bush, he says, who “believed that Pyongyang’s regime would soon collapse under the tough sanctions of the international community. Therefore, it abandoned the North Korea policy adopted by the Clinton administration in its latter stage.”

The second turning point was China’s organizing the Six Party Talks, leading to the “Joint Statement,” an “important guideline to solve the North Korean nuclear issue.” Then, he writes, Obama adopted the Pivot to confront China, and “strategic patience” toward Pyongyang. Obama, he says, “used the nuclear issue as an excuse to contain China, which in turn gave room for North Korea to boost its nuclear and missile capabilities.” He does not quite acknowledge that this was the intent of the Bush and Obama policies—to allow North Korea to have nuclear weapons as a fake justification for building up a military force surrounding China.

“Only after Donald Trump came into power,” Wang writes, “did the U.S. realize that the North Korean nuclear issue has come to a critical point. The meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Trump at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida can be seen as the third opportunity to solve the nuclear crisis. China and the U.S. have reached unprecedented consensus on cooperating to contain Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities.”

Add to that the election in South Korea of Moon Jae-in, who is restoring the Sunshine Policy, and we have reached a “turning point from the current deadlock on the nuclear issue,” Wang concludes. Now, “all stakeholders are expected to engage in cooperation. North Korea should also respond in a positive manner. It is time that all sides show their sincerity and determination to eliminate the security threat in Northeast Asia.”

U.S. Industry Is Ready To Join the New Silk Road

May 25 (EIRNS)—U.S. industry is gearing up to be part of the potential in China’s “knowledge-based” economic growth and New Silk Road infrastructure projects. General Motors executives said on May 23 that they expect their China Science Lab to play a considerable role in the company’s developments, in a period that will see more advances in the next five years than in the previous half-century combined, reported the Dayton-based automotive magazine TheNewsWheel. Since its establishment in 2009, the GM China Science Lab has applied for more than 200 patents. The Lab has two groups: Manufacturing Process Research Group, and the Advanced Material Research Group. Projects include laser welding, and third-generation steel and aluminum materials. These will be used first in GM products, and then will be applied on a broader industry scale.

Industry giant General Electric is partnering with Chinese companies, for building infrastructure and most notably, the power industry. “GE has already had operating teams and business networks in 63 of the 65 countries along the route” of the New Silk Road, said Rachel Duan Xiaoying, chief executive of GE’s China business, speaking to South China Morning Post on May 19. “The partnership with Chinese companies via the Belt and Road Initiative will certainly be elevated to an international level,” she said. As an example, GE is partnering with state-owned Power Construction Corporation of China, looking toward building power plants and electric grids in African nations, such as Nigeria and Kenya. “Worldwide, since 1 billion people have no access to electric power yet, the scale of business is huge,” Duan said. Profits would be shared between the two companies.

China’s Premier Li Keqiang Meets German Vice Chancellor Gabriel

May 25 (EIRNS)—Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on May 24 met with German Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel in Beijing. Li will be travelling to Germany next week for an annual meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel, followed by attendance at the 19th China-EU leaders’ meeting in Belgium.

Li told Gabriel that it is important for both Europe and the world for China and Germany to maintain a stable and healthy bilateral relationship, reported Global Times today.

Gabriel is in Beijing to attend the first meeting of the China-Germany people-to-people exchange dialogue, which he reported as successful in contributing to a “stable bilateral relationship” which is “worth cherishing,” said Global Times.

China Supports Resolution of Myanmar’s Internal Insurgencies

May 25 (EIRNS)—China helped organize a meeting of the “21st Century Panglong Peace Conference of Myanmar” today in the capital city, Nay Pyi Taw, nine months after the first meeting of the institution in August 2016. The five-day meeting could resolve the festering insurgencies by ethnic minorities within the country. Global Times reports that there are 15 armed ethnic organizations at the event, including eight signatories and seven non-signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Accord (NCA), which was signed in October 2015. The seven non-signatories are all from northern Myanmar, along the Chinese border. China has held meetings with them and helped convince them to attend this conference.

Some 1,400 representatives from the government, parliament, military, invited political parties, armed ethnic organizations, and civil society are participating in the meeting. Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi (the actual head of the country) called on the government, armed forces, ethnic armed groups, and political parties to “exercise patience and perseverance to reach a consensus on the path to national reconciliation.” She said the peace conference would open a new historic page of political dialogue which the people support.

Suu Kyi represented Myanmar at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation last week in Beijing. China is by far the leading investor in Myanmar.

Chinese Special Envoy for Asian Affairs Sun Guoxiang had met with the seven armed ethnic groups from the China-Myanmar border, Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV reported.

“Peace in Myanmar is also in China’s interests, and China can continue to play the role of ‘ice-breaker’ and ‘bridge’ for the ethnic armed forces and the government,” Xu Liping, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ National Institute of International Strategy, told the Global Times.

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

George Soros Betting on Trump’s Fall by End of This Year

May 25 (EIRNS)—As Germany’s mainstream media report, George Soros is expecting net profits of several billion dollars, from a short-sale speculation on the coming fall of Trump, in which he has invested $764 million. Soros is betting here on bigger drops in the two market indexes S&P 500 and Russell 2000, caused by Trump stepping down by no later than the end of the year over the affair involving Obama’s FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired. Soros is furthermore betting on share gains in the technology branch, notably Snapchat and Facebook, in the same context.

 

 

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