EIR Daily Alert Service, Friday, September 8, 2017
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2017
Volume 4, Number 179
EIR Daily Alert Service
P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390
LaRouche: Don’t Discuss It—Just Do It!
Putin Urges Eastern Economic Forum Plenary To Involve North Korea in Economic Projects, To Start Talks
Russia, South Korea, North Korea Support Trilateral Development Projects
Irma Devastates Caribbean, Aims at Florida; Trump Invokes ‘Can Do’ American Spirit in Disaster Response
Trump on Infrastructure and Aid Funding; Hillary Clinton on Democrats’ Nerves
Moon Jae-in Has Good Intentions, but Economic Policies May Undermine Them
Islamic State Terrorists On Their Last Legs in Both Iraq and Syria
Russia ‘Hopes To Cooperate’ with the U.S. in Deep Space Exploration
At Rail Summit, China Rail Officials Seek for Arab States To Help Build New Silk Road
A Sublime Moment in Houston
EDITORIAL
LaRouche: Don’t Discuss It—Just Do It!
Sept. 7 (EIRNS)—All of a sudden it has become blindingly obvious that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin—just like his spiritual ancestor, France’s “Spider King” Louis XI—has been weaving and reweaving a web of potential close economic cooperation between North and South Korea and Russia—and with China and other partners as well. This was the original “LaRouche Plan” for peace in the Korean Peninsula, which worked until the day in 2002 that it was sabotaged through “outside forces” working with then-Vice President Dick Cheney, and afterwards President Barack Obama. Putin has been weaving this web with indispensable support from China—but also, it appears, from certain forces in Washington.
When this was brought to the attention of Lyndon LaRouche today, he said, “Don’t discuss it. Don’t rehash the details. Don’t waste any time—just do it! And by doing it—now!—you will force the hand of those forces in Washington who oppose it. They will be exposed, ready to be neutralized.”
At just the same moment, the worst Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, with 180 mph winds peaking at over 200 mph, has been moving through the Caribbean, leaving some of the British colonial islands in ruins unimaginable for the 21st Century. The Prime Minister of Barbuda, for example, said that 95% of its buildings had been destroyed and 60% of its population was homeless. The British masters had done absolutely nothing to prepare for the deluge—but why would they?
But the U.S. government, led by President Trump, is aware, on top of the situation, and mobilizing the appropriate resources for Florida and other threatened areas—and this in turn will permit the population, both the first-responders and citizen-volunteers, to show the heroism they showed so magnificently in Houston. We will respond as required. We will rebuild as rapidly as can be done. Everything has changed since Katrina and Sandy.
In the Caribbean, the United States must offer the full-bore Army Corps of Engineers reconstruction program which Lyndon LaRouche and former President Bill Clinton proposed for Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. Monster-President Obama shot that plan down, so that Haiti, still in ruins today, is now working with China towards rebuilding the country.
But our urgent and necessary rebuilding must be only the springboard for a full national infrastructure program, beginning now with masses of Federal credit and in cooperation with China. Not only will we limit the scope of such storm-related disasters in the future, but we will transform our entire economy from the disaster we inherited from Bush and Obama, into the great agro-industrial power which the world and all Americans need now.
On this, Lyndon LaRouche said again, “Don’t waste time discussing it. Just do it! And we will see who tries to prevent it—it will be obvious!”
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Putin Urges Eastern Economic Forum Plenary To Involve North Korea in Economic Projects, To Start Talks
Sept. 7 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin made crucial points at the Eastern Economic Forum, during the EEF plenary and the subsequent Q&A that bear directly on resolving the crisis on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia. Putin said he saw a willingness on the part of the Trump Administration to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, saying, “We can see the current [U.S.] administration’s willingness to ease the situation.”
“I believe we need to see how the situation develops,” he said. “There can be only a diplomatic solution to the issue. This is an uneasy and slow way to resolve the issue but it is the only possible one.” In Putin’s view, there is a need to launch talks and convince Seoul that it is the best way to settle the situation.
When the plenary moderator, Ronnie Chi-chung Chan, who was an American, asked about relations between North Korea and the United States, Putin turned the question around and asked him why he did not forward the question to the leaders of the U.S. allies in the region, Japan and South Korea, who were present on the panel. “I will ask them later,” the moderator answered.
President Putin argued for North Korea to be involved in joint projects, saying: “North Korea needs to be gradually involved in regional cooperation, Russia has some specific proposals that everyone knows about, which include building a joint railway connecting the Trans-Siberian Railway and Korean railways through North Korea, as well as the development of pipeline transport and North Korea’s ports to name a few.”
Putin also spoke of building a railway to Sakhalin Island. “We are closely considering the possibility of building a railway to Sakhalin,” he said. He further described that along with the development of the Northern Sea Route, modernization of the Baikal-Amur Mainline and the Trans-Siberian Railway, and the implementation of other projects, it would “help turn the Far East into one of the most important global logistics hubs.” Putin stressed, “as far as ambitious projects are concerned, the Far East provides unique opportunities and competitive advantages.”
Most of the plenary session translation is posted to the President’s Kremlin website.
Russia, South Korea, North Korea Support Trilateral Development Projects
Sept. 7 (EIRNS)—Russian Far East Development Minister Aleksandr Galushka told TASS that at a meeting yesterday, a delegation from North Korea, led by its Minister of Foreign Economic Relations Kim Young-jae, came with their own proposals for possible areas of cooperation with Russia. These will be studied by Russia, Galushka said. He said the cooperative projects would have to be within the framework of the restrictions imposed by the UN.
President Putin said yesterday, after his meeting in Vladivostok with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, that Russia was ready to develop trilateral ties with both Koreas, that might include “piping Russian gas to Korea, and integration of the electric grids and railway systems, of Russia, South and North Korea.”
South Korean President Moon, following the meeting of the two Presidents, said although previous projects between Russia and South Korea had not been elaborated, “we decided to develop the projects that may be implemented in the near future, primarily the projects in the Far East.” These “will not only contribute to the prosperity of the two states but also to changes in North Korea, which will become a basis for trilateral relations.”
Speaking at the Sept. 7 plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum, President Moon was specific: “I propose to build ‘nine bridges’ between Korea and Russia for simultaneous and multilateral cooperation,” TASS reported. “Nine bridges mean the bridge of gas, railway, the Northern Sea Route, shipbuilding, the creation of working groups, agriculture, and other types of cooperation.” Moon also said he agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin to establish a forum for inter-regional cooperation. And that “South Korea is interested in the early signing of a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union” (EAEU).
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Irma Devastates Caribbean, Aims at Florida; Trump Invokes ‘Can Do’ American Spirit in Disaster Response
Sept. 7 (EIRNS)—The biggest Atlantic hurricane in recorded history, with 185-200 mph winds, barreled throughout the Caribbean yesterday, leaving unprecedented destruction in its wake and 11 known dead, with that figure likely to rise. In the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbuda, and also the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla are flattened, with 95% of their structures destroyed and 60% of the population homeless. Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Brown told BBC that “the island is literally under water, and barely habitable.” One resident of Anguilla said the island had experienced “nuclear bomb devastation,” and slammed the British government for a preparedness plan and response that was “sorely lacking.”
Lyndon LaRouche noted today that the same emergency approach he proposed for Haiti in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, must now be applied to the current crisis. President Trump has the inclination to do that. Speaking to the press today, he provided a detailed briefing on the emergency response, and invoked the “can do” American spirit, which comes to the fore in emergency situations such as the present. “The people of our country have reacted under this tremendous pressure, under these horrible things we call hurricanes,” he said. We have “tremendously brave and tremendously talented people” to deal with this crisis.
As for what Florida may face, Trump continued, “I think we are as well prepared as you can possibly be for something like this.” The President’s leadership contrasts sharply with British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon’s defensive remarks today regarding Anguilla, as he tried to justify his government’s delayed response. The French military, unlike the British, were already on the ground in St. Martin, which is part of France, and responded quickly to the enormous devastation there.
Both the U.S. and British Virgin Islands suffered extensive damage. While Puerto Rico escaped the brunt of the storm, a third of its population is without power, with no estimate as to when it might be restored. Another 56,000 people are without water. Flash flooding remains a danger. The northern coastal regions of Haiti and the Dominican Republic were bracing for Irma late today. Widespread damage is expected, especially in Haiti, as it lacks infrastructure and equipment to handle yet another “natural” disaster. Irma is expected to move on to the Turks and Caicos and southeastern Bahamas before making landfall in Florida, on Sunday.
The Caribbean is also bracing for Hurricane José, which is recorded at a Category 3 major hurricane, with sustained winds of 120 mph.
Where Irma will make landfall in Florida cannot be said with certainty at this point, but Gov. Rick Scott is preparing for all contingencies and will activate 7,000 National Guardsmen by tomorrow morning. The governors of Georgia, and South and North Carolina have also declared states of emergency. In Florida, which is the number-two produce grower after California, Bloomberg reports, Irma threatens $1.2 billion worth of the state’s crops. Food price increases are expected in the event of major crop destruction. Cotton farmers in North and South Carolina fear their fields will suffer a fate similar to the cotton crops in Texas, where losses from Harvey totaled $150 million.
Trump on Infrastructure and Aid Funding; Hillary Clinton on Democrats’ Nerves
Sept. 7 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump engaged in his first “big project” meeting regarding infrastructure today, meeting with governors and legislators from New York and New Jersey about the “Gateway Project” involving new Hudson River crossings, which requires some $25-30 billion in funding and investment. It will be significant, whether Trump makes any kind of shift from the White House’s supposed “infrastructure plan” up to now, which has been to expect the major investments to come from states and private investors for such major projects.
The Gateway Project comprises multiple improvements to the Northeast Rail Corridor, including two new rail tunnels under the Hudson River to allow repair of those badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy, replacement of the Portal Bridge in New Jersey, and other potential investments in mass transportation in greater New York City. The meeting on it with Trump was to include Governors Chris Christie of New Jersey and Andrew Cuomo of New York, New York Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and some members of the House and also state lawmakers.
Meanwhile Senate Republican leaders have roughly doubled the Hurricane Harvey recovery aid “first down payment” which had been already passed in the House of Representatives, adding $7.4 billion in Community Development Block Grants to the $7.85 billion White House request the House passed Tuesday. The aid, combined with three months’ omnibus government funding and lifting of the debt ceiling, passed the Senate 80-17. When this $15.3 billion returns to the House for a final vote, it will test the agreement the President made Sept. 6 with Democratic and Republican leadership regarding raising the debt ceiling; but already this afternoon Trump tweeted that he and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are discussing a strategy to eliminate the debt ceiling altogether.
Meantime, there is the ugly “Hillary” factor still stirring. With at least some Democratic national leaders having acknowledged that Americans, including the majority of Democrats, are rejecting the George Soros/British intelligence “resist and impeach” strategy against the U.S. President, Hillary Clinton’s book tour is unwelcome. The book is apparently nothing but attacks on President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Sen. Bernie Sanders and other bogeymen Clinton blames for her failed campaign. Politico gathers quotes:
“ ‘I think she should just zip it, but she’s not going to,’ said one top Democratic donor who spoke with Clinton about the book this summer.”
“ ‘There is a collective groan whenever there’s another news cycle about this,’ ” said Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman of California.
Sen. Claire McCaskill pretended not to hear a reporter’s question about the book tour, and walked away when the question was repeated.
Sen. Ron Wyden replied to the same question: “I’ve always been a looking-forward kind of a guy. I think I’ll leave it at that.”
Democrats who had supported Sanders, including elected officials and constituent leaders like National Nurses United head RoseAnn DeMoro said more strongly: “Sad…. Petty…. Pathetic.” They joke that some of the fees for Clinton’s book tour appearances are reminiscent of what Wall Street paid her for speeches.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Moon Jae-in Has Good Intentions, but Economic Policies May Undermine Them
Sept. 7 (EIRNS)—South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s meeting in Vladivostok with President Putin and other Russian officials this week presented an extremely promising approach to South Korean-Russian cooperation in the development of the Russian Far East. This emphatically includes in that process the revival of triangular cooperation with North Korea, reviving the effort to connect Russia and China with South Korea by rail through the North, as well as other economic and political means to assure North Korea of both its security and its economic development.
While this has strong support from the population in South Korea, a government official in a former administration in South Korea told EIR that the economic policies being adopted by Moon threaten to undermine the valuable approach of “peace through development.” Moon’s anti-nuclear policy has already shut down the nuclear plants that were under construction, and intends to prevent the renewal of licenses for all other plants when their initial licenses expire. Also, according to the source, Moon has a general prejudice against large development projects and infrastructure, and has cut the budgets for such funding.
Also, Moon has appointed Jang Ha-sung as his chief policy advisor. Jang is infamous as a hedge fund ally of the Wall Street hedge funds, especially Felix Rohatyn (Jang has a doctorate from the Wharton School of Business), who has led the “stock-holder values” campaign to break up the family-owned conglomerates—chaebol—which has been the means of forcing corporations to plow profits back to shareholders rather than into expansion, R&D, and similar productive investments. Jang was instrumental in the prosecution and jailing of Samsung head Lee Jae-yong last month. The source said that this could prove to be a blow to both Samsung and to South Korea, since “the current economy depends to a great extent on Samsung.”
On the danger of war on the Korean Peninsula, the source said that this is considered to be almost totally unreal in South Korea by all political factions, as it is clear that Kim Jong-un knows that starting a war would be the end of North Korea as a state. The source also said that it is understood by most political circles that hysteria around the “North Korea threat” within the U.S. is largely due to the “ulterior motive” of the neocons to militarily envelope China..
He did report that a rumor was being circulated (which he discounts) that on the Sept. 9 anniversary of the founding of North Korea, when all the North Korean leaders will be gathered for the event, and that the much-discussed “decapitation” which U.S. and South Korean military forces have practiced in their exercises, could take place on that date. However, he said that he and most people believe wiser minds in the U.S. would not allow any preemptive war on the North.
Islamic State Terrorists On Their Last Legs in Both Iraq and Syria
Sept. 7 (EIRNS)—The reality in Iraq and Syria today, is that the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS) is now on its last legs. In Iraq, ISIS has been driven out of the city of Mosul and, more recently Tal Afar. It remains mainly in western Iraq along the border with Syria. On the other side of that border, the Syrian Arab Army, with intense support from Russian warplanes based in Latakia, has broken the three-year siege of Deir Ezzor after a slow but inexorable advance up the highway from Palmyra.
Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy, the chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff, reported yesterday that during the course of that campaign the Syria Arab Army liberated “4,800 square kilometers of territory, and militants have been forced out of 59 settlements.” ISIS is still holding out in part of Raqqa, but its defeat there by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces is all but inevitable.
For all practical purposes, ISIS’ control has been reduced to a handful of villages along the Euphrates River, from just southeast of Deir Ezzor in Syria down to Al Qaim in Iraq. The military losses that ISIS has suffered in the course of the past several months of defeats from Mosul to central Syria, mean that it no longer has the military coherence to hold out much longer. ISIS is now no more than a shell of the Islamic State that ISIS leader Abubakr al Baghdadi proclaimed from the Al Nouri Mosque in Mosul as recently as July 2014.
SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Russia ‘Hopes To Cooperate’ with the U.S. in Deep Space Exploration
Sept. 7 (EIRNS)—During a session of the Vladivostok Eastern Economic Forum today, President Vladimir Putin dwelled upon development of the new Vostochny (“Eastern”) space port which has launched its first rockets. He said that the new launch center will support Russian missions where “we will be exploring deep space, launching manned flights, and so on and so forth. We hope to do this in cooperation with the United States, provided some ‘wise guys’ in various American establishments do not meddle,” he remarked.
At Rail Summit, China Rail Officials Seek for Arab States To Help Build New Silk Road
Sept. 7 (EIRNS)—Top officials from China’s rail industry opened the China-Arab Rail Conference today in Yinchuan, China, which includes participants from the Arab League, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, as well as Afghanistan and Indonesia. There are more than 300 representatives from Chinese institutions, and the Vice General Manager of the giant China Railway Corp. Liu Zhenfang delivered the keynote speech.
Liu noted in his speech that Chinese leaders had called for joint efforts to build the Belt and Road in 2014. At the Arab League headquarters last year, Chinese leaders underlined China’s readiness to work with Arab states, and speed up the introduction of high-speed rail and other new high technologies.
Following the opening ceremony, there were speeches on specific topics, roundtable discussions, and consideration of models for cooperation, Singapore-based AsiaOne reported. The conference coincided with the three-day China High-Speed Rail Technology Exhibition, which featured China’s achievements in railway projects and international railway cooperation.
President Xi Jinping sent a letter of congratulations to the conference, noting that China and the Arab states are “good friends,” and had become important partners in the construction of the Belt and Road.
OTHER
A Sublime Moment in Houston
Sept. 7 (EIRNS)—Long-time LaRouche movement activist in Houston, Dan Leach, provided this report on Sept. 6, from the storm zone of Hurricane Harvey:
Those of us in the LaRouche movement in Houston were witness not only to a terrible tragedy over the last week, but also to the manifestation of a powerful and profound principle. Not only did literally thousands of first responders—police, firemen, National Guard, Coast Guard, etc.—from as far away as New York and Boston, pour in to help in the rescue operations, risking their lives repeatedly—but many more thousands of ordinary people came here from all over the country with boats, canoes, trucks, or anything that could float or get through high water, to help save the lives of people they had never met. One policeman and several civilians did, indeed, lose their lives while doing this.
It was deeply inspiring to see so many examples of selfless giving, cooperation, and downright heroism which the emergency brought out. Everyone, from news reporters to ordinary residents, sensed that, in that moment, there were no political, racial or religious differences—there were only human beings who were in danger or suffering and needed help. People who had just been evacuated, and who had lost their own homes, were back out there immediately helping to get others to safety. Perhaps the most poignant image was that of a “redneck”—maybe part of the famous so-called “Cajun Navy” who came over from Louisiana with their boats—with a big Confederate flag on the side of his boat, rescuing African-American and Hispanic families. Any notion one may have had less than a month ago, in the aftermath of the events in Charlottesville, that America was hopelessly divided and engulfed in hate and paranoia, seemed to vanish.
But the tragic deaths of Donald and Rochelle Rogers, the father and stepmother of LaRouche PAC Policy Committee member Kesha Rogers, in the aftermath of the storm [on Aug. 30], involve a deeper principle. Yes, their deaths were indeed tragic, because so unnecessary—if only we had lived up to the legacy of past generations and made the investments in the infrastructure projects which would have mitigated the effects of the flooding, they would never have died. And the fact that when they died, they were attempting to drive to a nearby town to help a relative whom they believed to be in danger, not only speaks to the beauty of their souls, but heightens the tragedy.
But there is a profound sense in everyone touched by this and the other stories of human loss, that we must commit ourselves to a future in which this never happens again. As in war, where there inevitably is suffering and death—if the peace is truly won, the sacrifice of those lives was not in vain. There is the palpable presence of a spirit in all of this, both of tremendous sadness and the frailty of human existence—but at the same time of the goodness and potential nobility in most people. It is the mission of true political leadership to evoke this and marshal it to achieve its great historical purpose. This is the mission for which our association, because we understand this, is so uniquely qualified and so needed.
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