EDITORIAL
A Lesson For Us All
March 24 (EIRNS)—Lyndon LaRouche yesterday addressed the horror of the dramatic spike in suicides in the United States, and the profound issue of how Americans respond—or do not respond—to this tragedy, as not solely an “American” issue, but a crucial strategic factor, which must be understood and faced by the world as a whole.
“Few Americans are untouched by the suicides of our fellow-citizens, especially those who should be our most productive workers,” LaRouche said. “Whether suicides per se or through drugs or alcohol. You have to understand these kinds of things; you cannot put them at a distance; you have to get the full blast of what happened…. The seriousness of human life is something that has to be fully appreciated, otherwise you lose something of yourself. Otherwise you lose the ability to make good judgments.”
He warned that this crisis can not be addressed as a collection of individual tragedies; it is the result of the failure of leadership and the moral decay of the population. “There’s no simple solution as long as Obama and people like him exist as dominant forces in government, that’s going to continue. Just think of the death-rate which is being imposed upon people who were actually formerly professionally employed. And they were just destroyed, or driven into suicide. That’s what the characteristics of the United States are now, that kind of behavior, and nothing much is being done about it,” he said.
The question is, “what means do we have to actually do something to make this effective?”
Kesha Rogers of Texas, the LaRouche associate who has been leading a national battle to stop Obama’s destruction of NASA and revive the United States’ once world-inspiring space program, posed an answer to LaRouche’s question: “The purpose of the space program is to give a purpose and a mission to society. Right now, people are in effect being forced to take their own lives, because the society has taken their life from them. We see this in healthcare…. The real focus must be: What is the purpose and meaning of life after the person is dead? So that you’re changing society to have a different conception, of a love for human beings, rather than saying, ‘Oh, that person is gone now.’ The space program is not a question of a small program for a few people. The achievements of the space program impact all of humanity for all time, as Neil Armstrong understood when he stepped onto the lunar surface, and said ‘One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.’ ”
LaRouche pointed again to the Obama factor: “We have to get mankind, himself, to understand: What’s wrong with Obama? Well, Obama is Satanic. That’s not an exaggeration; his character is Satanic.” But while Obama goes around running Satanic operations, he said, “people will say, ‘Oh, it’s too bad that people are suffering like this,’ but they’re not going to do anything about it. That’s where the problem lies. Because if you can’t get a people that will muster themselves up to accomplish things that are necessary for themselves, then it doesn’t work…. We have to bring forth a sense of concern, of serious concern for mankind.”
LaRouche pointed to the history of Franklin Roosevelt’s policy and practice as a lesson of how inspiring people with optimism, a growing optimism, transforms a nation. “We have to change the law to bring back the Franklin Roosevelt tradition. And therefore we are going to move joyously into doing things which mankind has not done for a long time. And that’s what builds morality, what we should really call morality. A devotion to the progress and success of mankind.”
To make that shift “would take relatively little effort,” LaRouche said. “All you have to do is get the thing started, and others will respond…. When people get ignited with the fact that they have rights, rights that they thought they had lost, that’s when you get the kind of ignition we need now in the United States.
“The main thing is to try to get the idea of an organization which is committed to victory, like a military organization, which gets out there and gets the job done.”
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
EIR Seminar in Germany on New Silk Road for Mideast and Africa Sparks Movement for Development
FRANKFURT, March 23 (EIRNS)—In opening her keynote speech toEIR’s seminar today, “Solving the Economic and Refugee Crises with the New Silk Road!” organized in cooperation with the Consulate General of Ethiopia in Frankfurt, Helga Zepp-LaRouche stressed that this was not to be an academic seminar, but rather a discussion about the fact, that in this existential crisis of mankind, with its refugee crisis, terrorism, wars and financial crash, solutions are within reach and must be realized now.
In the presentations and discussion which followed, a spirited commitment emerged, to create the mass movement for development required to set fire to the behinds of the policymakers so that this world is fundamentally changed.
The seminar featured presentations by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and chairwoman of the Schiller Institute; Hussein Askary, EIRArabic Editor; Mehreteab Mulugeta Haile, Consul General of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in Frankfurt; Marcello Vicchi, former Director, Foreign Department Bonifica company, author of the Transaqua concept for Lake Chad; Andrea Mangano, Vice President, Italian Association of Water Engineers and contributor to the Transaqua outline. The speakers were joined by Mohammed Bila, Lake Chad Basin Commission, and Ulf Sandmark, Schiller Institute Stockholm and Swedish-Syrian Committee for Democracy, for an expanded panel in the second part of the seminar.
Zepp-LaRouche was forceful: Either Europe works with Russia, China, India, Iran, Egypt, and other nations to launch a Marshall Plan for Syria and Africa, or its bankrupt economies will crash into the wall. I call it a Marshall Plan, she added, “to remind people in Europe that you can reconstruct countries which have been destroyed by war, with economic development.”
Askary, just back from a week in Egypt to present the newly published Arabic edition of EIR’s “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge” Special Report, emphasized that the idea of the New Silk Road is more than just building a few roads and railroads; it is a concept of development corridors improving the life of some 450 million people in the Southwest Asian region, with Syria being at the center. This involves mega-projects of rapid development, financed by national development banks free of the obligation of paying the debt as demanded by the Western monetarist institutions, he said. Like Egypt, Syria will focus on industrial zones, transport corridors and agricultural development, with China showing the way with its massive infrastructure engagement, for instance, in East Africa.
The Ethiopian Consul-General reported on his nation’s economic strategy to transform itself from a primary-products exporter, to a nation with high-value production and infrastructure, through policies that have greatly improved the per-capita income, literacy rate, and public health care since the 1990s. He noted that cooperation with Russia, China, India, and Brazil in rail projects is important in this context.
The Transaqua Project to transfer water from the giant Congo River as the only viable option for refilling the disappearing Lake Chad, was addressed by three speakers. Transaqua had largely met with disinterest or pessimism as to its chance of realization, over the 35 years since it was designed in the mid-1980s, Marcello Vicchi noted, but recent refugee streams have made Europe rethink its views. Transaqua, which has always been more than just water for Chad, but rather the broader framework for the development of all of Central Africa, is the only option that can attract the young generation of the African labor force not to become refugees, he emphasized.
Mangano and Mohammed Bila addressed different aspects of the Lake Chad problem. Mangano emphasized that refilling the lake will be done with infrastructure construction that will give the entirety of Central Africa hydropower, irrigation for agriculture, and waterway transport, and relieve the region from its present land-locked situation. Bila, in the discussion period, captured the spirit of the whole seminar, when he declared that the Lake Chad project is not about the lake, but the development of all of Central Africa, and all of humanity.
Chinese Premier at Boao Forum, Stresses Asia’s ‘Bright Future’ Through Dialogue and Cooperation
March 24 (EIRNS)—In an hour-long address today at the inaugural session of the Boao Forum for Asia, whose theme is “Asia’s New Future: New Dynamics and New Vision,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivered an upbeat message. While not downplaying the real challenges China’s economy faces, or the uneven development among Asia nations, he emphasized that Asia is an important force for world peace and development, and an important engine for economic growth as well as an important contributor to the progress of the world’s civilizations.
“We will overcome temporary difficulties and embrace a bright future,” he said. The “golden key,” is dialogue and cooperation—friendly relations among all nations. In this context he invited every country in the region to join in a dialogue among Asian civilizations. “Openness and inclusiveness are the roots of Asian culture. Countries should experience friendly tradition and wisdom through common pursuits, especially at times when regional development is less than smooth.”
Li emphasized that China is committed to spurring regional growth and cooperation through its “One Belt, One Road” initiative, which has been met with enthusiasm by its Asian partners, Xinhua reported today. Also notable is that the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) held a panel discussion on the sidelines of the Boao Forum, on the importance of the China-Russia bilateral relationship.
The Chinese Premier was forthright in discussing China’s own economic problems, but was optimistic that the government had proactively developed the necessary tools to deal with them. “We have put in place a number of policies aimed at steady growth, restructuring and reform,” and these are being effective, he explained. One thing the economic downturn has proven, is that “traditional” economic drivers are losing momentum, such that both China and the region are seeking a “new driver.” The key lies in “our abundant human resources which can unleash potential and creativity. This is our strongest advantage.”
Productivity of the labor force must be raised through education and training, and investment in research and development increased, Li asserted. Platforms should be built for “innovative cooperation and encourage the sharing of best practices … to involve the general public and especially young people.” The Wall Street Journal reported that Li said that the government will marshal fiscal and monetary policies to foster new sources of growth, including high-tech industries, cutting-edge technologies, and more advanced manufacturing.
Li also proposed founding an Association of Asian Financial Cooperation, through which member nations would work to improve the financial market in Asia and avoid “large-scale financial turmoil” in the future. He said that China was also committed to completing talks on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) this year. This will be the largest regional trade mechanism in Asia.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Kerry and Lavrov Hold Productive Meeting in Moscow
March 24 (EIRNS)—U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow today. In remarks prior to the closed-door meeting, they both lauded the state of U.S.-Russian cooperation on Syria.
“Our joint efforts in Syria and persistence brought us success, because we worked, and will continue to work, together on an equal footing,” Lavrov said. “We found a balance not only between the interests of Moscow and Washington, but between all the involved parties, both inside and outside Syria. This was our key to success. I’m certain if we maintain the same approach in other international affairs and our bilateral relations, we can hope for a pretty good future.”
Kerry noted that the U.S. and Russia worked very closely in the International Syria Support Group, along with other members of the group, “and it is undeniable that the result of that work has produced some progress,” including a reduction in violence of about 85-90%. “It’s also true that the cessation in hostilities has produced the first significant flow of humanitarian assistance to people, some whom haven’t seen that assistance in several years,” he said. “But we both know that more needs to be done in terms of both a reduction of violence and the flow of humanitarian aid.”
Kerry also noted that there is a great deal of hope that “these meetings here in Moscow today have an ability to be able to further define and chart the road ahead so that we can bring this conflict in Syria to a close as fast as possible, and also so that we can find a way to cooperate on the other challenges of the region—Yemen, Libya, Middle East peace—and indeed, prove that two powerful nations that have been able to find cooperation in the past few years, despite differences, have an ability in the face of this urgency to do what is necessary to meet the challenge.”
After the meeting, Kerry posted on his Twitter blog, “Spoke at length today with FM Lavrov about Syria and Ukraine. Productive dialogue with important partner”—a sharp contrast to the “Russia is our enemy” chant of the British/Obama war party.
Kerry and Lavrov were to have met with Russian President Vladimir Putin after their bilateral meeting.
Russian Special Forces Operating in Syria
March 24 (EIRNS)—Col. Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, the commander of the Russian military contingent in Syria, told Rossiyskaya Gazeta, in an interview posted yesterday, that Russian special forces are operating in Syria, though he didn’t say how many. According to English-language reports in Sputnik and the Associated Press, Dvornikov said that those special forces troops provide additional reconnaissance for Russian airstrikes, carry out aircraft target-designation in remote areas, and carry out other special tasks.
Dvornikov said that the ongoing Syrian army offensive on the historic town of Palmyra will “cut the Islamic State group of forces in two and open the road to Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, and create conditions for reaching the border with Iraq and establishing control over it.” He named the Syrian advances around Aleppo, taking control of some major oil fields, and establishing firm control over key highways, among Damascus’ other military successes. Dvornikov said that along with air cover, Russia also provides the Syrian military with artillery systems, intelligence, and communications means and other gear, and deployed its military advisers to direct Syrian operations.
COLLAPSING WESTERN SYSTEM
Where Did the Idea of the EU-Turkey Refugee Deal Come From?
March 24 (EIRNS)—Generally, the scandalous EU-Turkey deal is attributed to an idea originating quite personally with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Indeed, she gave the thing her trademark label of a “European solution.” There have been hints, however, that the idea was cooked up somewhere else: key contributions came from the ill-named European Stability Initiative (ESI) in Brussels, a twin of the European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR) there. ESI chairman Gerald Knaus is said to have been one of the initiators of the ECFR, along with George Soros.
The ESI is linked to, and co-funded by, such entities as the Foundation To Promote Open Society, George Soros’s Open Society Institute, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the British Department for International Development, Wilton Park, the King Baudouin Foundation, and the German Marshall Fund of the United States—to name but a few.
Particularly on the said EU-Turkey refugee deal, the ESI has worked with Stiftung Mercator and Robert Bosch Stiftung on the “Schengen White List Project” for abolishing the visa requirement for Turkish passport holders to travel in all Western Balkan countries. A broader project of the ESI on EU-Turkey relations was supported by the EU Commission. Other work of the ESI on Turkey has been funded by the German Marshall Fund.
“With their generous financial support, all these institutions have enabled us to directly assist policymakers engaged in difficult decisions on complex issues,” the ESI states proudly, in respect to these and other projects.
Legality of the EU-Turkey Agreement on Refugees Questioned
March 24 (EIRNS)—The legality under international law of the refugees-for-cash deal between the European Union and Turkey, is being seriously questioned. The agreement is written in the typical ambiguous EU fashion, in which basic national and international laws are violated “between the lines,” so to speak.
The treaty calls for cases to be processed under the EU’s Asylum Procedures Directive, under which “Migrants not applying for asylum or whose application has been deemed unfounded or inadmissible in accordance with the said directive, will be returned to Turkey.” Since international law stipulates well-defined procedures before a migrant can be expelled, such a “directive” could become an invitation to mass expulsions. Technically the treaty stipulates that for every “illegal” refugee returned to Turkey, the EU will take a “legal” refugee.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said on March 24, “The declared aim to return all refugees and migrants contrasts with the assurances about individual assessments. If the safeguards are to be considered real, then the individual assessments must allow for the possibility that the persons in question will not in fact be returned. Otherwise it could still qualify as a collective expulsion.”
He added that there was a real risk the agreement will lead to overlooking human rights law obligations, which require states to examine arguments against return beyond those found in refugee law. Such needs could arise, for example, in the case of children; victims of violence, rape, trauma and torture; individuals with specific sexual orientation; persons with disabilities; and a range of others with legitimate individual protection needs.
The Greek daily Kathimerini is now also reporting that international aid groups are withdrawing from Greece, because the illegality of the treaty could violate their mandates. The UNHCR, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the International Rescue Committee, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and Save the Children, said they were pulling out, because they didn’t agree with this danger of mass expulsion of refugees. This leaves the entire burden of dealing with the refugees on Greece.
A member of Turkey’s opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Deputy Utku Cakirozer, told a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Tbilisi, Georgia, that he will take the migrant deal to the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe (no relation to the EU), on the grounds that it violates the European Convention on Human Rights.
“Human rights organizations in Turkey, in Europe and in the world oppose this agreement. It is in violation of EU values as well as the European Convention on Human Rights, one of the founding documents of the Council of Europe. We are demanding that the Council of Europe immediately address this agreement and announce its legal view on it,” Eskisehir said. He called the deal a “dirty bargain.”
He was seconded by Dutch Senator Tineke Strik, who pointed to previous verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights which had found that resettlement to countries not regarded as “safe,” is a violation of international law, and said the deal would be taken to the ECHR and other human rights organizations.
Feisty Brazilian President Denounces ‘Fascist Methods’ Behind Coup Attempt
March 24 (EIRNS)—A feisty Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff launched her own media offensive today, calling in reporters for six foreign dailies, to denounce the ongoing coup attempt against her, thinly disguised as the “Operation Car Wash” investigation into bribery and embezzlement involving the Petrobras oil firm.
On the same day that the City of London mouthpiece The Economist, published an editorial under the headline “Time To Go: A Tarnished President Must Resign,” Dilma told the journalists that there is no legal basis for an impeachment process against her, as she has committed no crime.
“Why do they want me to resign? Because I’m a weak woman? I’m not,” she was quoted as saying by Britain’s daily Guardian this afternoon. What her political rivals want, she said, is for her to resign “to avoid the difficulty of removing a legitimately elected President from power—unduly, illegally, and criminally.” Let’s be clear, Rousseff told reporters. “Fascist methods” are being used against her, and were she removed, with no legal justification, it would be a coup—not like the military coups of the past, but a rupture of the democratic order.
Rousseff’s use of the word “fascist” is well chosen, given the pedigree of the London-directed forces deployed against her. At the center of the coup effort, for example, stands British imperial hitman George Soros, eager to see the City of London’s fascist economic policies imposed on Brazil.
The role of Arminio Fraga, former Central Bank president and former director of Soros’s Quantum Fund, is key in this regard. Judge Gilmar Mendez, who issued an injunction on March 25 prohibiting Rousseff’s ally, former President Lula da Silva, from taking up the post as cabinet chief of staff, to which Rousseff had just named him, admitted that two days prior to his ruling, that he had met with two “opposition figures.” One of them was Fraga, who is otherwise actively maneuvering in the background, putting together a new government.
In a Feb. 16 interview published in Estadao, Fraga had complained that “no one seems to want to do anything bold, or involving sacrifice.” Asked about impeachment, he said, “I think it is legitimate, as long as it follows due process. If it happens, it’s because it has to happen, and I wouldn’t be afraid, were this the case.”
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Soros’s Dirty Hand Behind Plans for ‘Supervised Heroin Injection Site’ in New York and Elsewhere
March 24 (EIRNS)—Leaders in the city of Ithaca, New York, including its 29-year-old Mayor Svante Myrick, are promoting a plan that comes right out of the perverse mind of drug kingpin George Soros—“harm reduction” in the form of a supervised heroin-injection site, where addicts can come and inject themselves “safely,” and get treatment should they happen to overdose. The proposed center would violate state and federal law, but backers are seeking ways to get the center approved in the state legislature or by the Governor.
In the absence of available and affordable rehab and drug-treatment centers in the U.S., the “harm reduction” theory promoted by Soros’s Drug Policy Foundation and the numerous pro-drug NGOs he finances, pushes for addicts to be allowed to consume drugs, or exchange needles in “safe” environments, thereby reducing exposure to infection and diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C, while they lose their minds.
The underlying premise is that the drug trade can’t be stopped, so why not make it legal for people to consume where they can be supervised? In a demoralized, pessimistic U.S. population, whose livelihoods have been destroyed by Obama and George W. Bush before him, and where human life is increasingly devalued, Soros’s debased argument finds fertile ground. On March 23, the New York Times published an op-ed, titled “U.S. Should Follow Canada’s Lead on Heroin Treatment,” whose author touted the great success of a legal injection center in Vancouver, in existence since 2003.
In Hotchkiss, Colorado, the New York Times reported in a separate article on March 23, demoralized citizens who initially banned the use of recreational or medical marijuana after Colorado’s 2012 legalization, are now reconsidering. Once the coal industry collapsed in the region, resulting in a wave of bankruptcies and job losses, the local economy went downhill. Now, Hotchkiss and six other towns will vote next month to overturn their own bans. They need jobs and tax revenue, and think that marijuana may be their salvation, since cannabis sales are now nearly $1 billion in the state.
