EDITORIAL
The One, Unique Link in the Chain
July 14 (EIRNS)—Forty-eight hours ago, the LaRouche organization changed everything in its entire approach globally, but many missed it. Think! It’s no use complaining about the immediate danger of a panic-collapse of the world economic system into deadly chaos. And mere warnings against a war of thermonuclear annihilation will not prevent it from happening anyway—any more than mere warnings ever prevented war in the past!
What EIR Founding Editor Lyndon LaRouche has just done is to point to the one, unique link in the chain, which, if grabbed now and pulled, may just then barely be able to pull Europe back from the precipice, and, at the last possible moment, turn aside the mindless, automaton-like march of history over the abyss.
Put that off to think it over tomorrow, and it will be too late. There will be no tomorrow—for anyone.
All these considerations are laid out in Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s statement of July 12, “Deutsche Bank Must Be Rescued, for the Sake of World Peace.” But many have not taken that statement to heart, and undertaken the immediate turnabout which is required.
Zepp-LaRouche’s statement must be studied and restudied in detail. But to recap some points for our purposes here: France, Italy, and the other European states are wholly bankrupt; Europe is heading for a blowout within days, which under present circumstances will lead to war. Germany’s derivatives-laden Deutsche Bank may likely be the trigger-point for that European-wide blowout. But, paradoxically, it is precisely Germany which still has the potential economic productivity which could lead Europe back towards safety. And Deutsche Bank, if it were saved from collapse and immediately turned back towards the policies of its late chairman Alfred Herrhausen, who was assassinated in 1989, would be the lead agency in organizing such a German upsurge.
Lyndon LaRouche called for a government augmentation of Deutsche Bank’s capital base, accompanied by an immediate reversal of its policies back to the Hamiltonian policies of Herrhausen. Simultaneously, a management committee must be appointed to sift through and reorganize the bank’s assets.
During the past two days, many of our friends have exploded in rage at this life-saving proposal of Lyndon and Helga LaRouche, sputtering that the big banks are the enemy, and that bailouts are bad. But as Diane Sare of the LaRouche PAC Policy Committee pointed out yesterday, it’s really easy to recite a list of correct “positions.” But what does that get you, other than a passport to Trotskyite Heaven? Far harder to understand and to seize the one last chance offered by history, as must be done now.
Those who murdered Herrhausen created an ongoing atrocity which has never ended to this day; those who did it have to be removed, or there is no solution. Sooner or later, something you hadn’t done will come back to hit you.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Kerry in Moscow To Talk Cooperation while Saboteurs Run Rampant in Washington
July 14 (EIRNS)—U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Moscow today, for two days of talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Syria, Ukraine, and other issues. (Putin also received Kerry today.) A major topic of discussion on their agenda is reportedly proposals for U.S.-Russian military cooperation against terrorist groups in Syria. Back in Washington, there’s a huge policy fight going on within the Obama Administration over overtures of cooperation with Russia in the military realm; opponents of such policies are attempting to sabotage them by means of leaks to the news media.
The most prominent recipient of these leaks is the Washington Post’s Josh Rogin, who published, late yesterday, an eight-page document titled “Approach for Practical Russian-American Efforts against Daesh and Jabhat al-Nusra and Strengthening the Cessation of Hostilities,” which proposes the establishment of a Joint Implementation Group in Amman, Jordan for carrying out coordinated military action against Jabhat al-Nusra. This new document “would open the way for deep cooperation between U.S. and Russian military and intelligence agencies and coordinated air attacks by American and Russian planes on Syrian rebels deemed to be terrorists,” Rogin reports. “What hasn’t been previously reported” about the plan “is that the United States is suggesting a new military command-and-control headquarters to coordinate the air campaign that would house U.S. and Russian military officers, intelligence officials and subject-matter experts.”
The document, while still maintaining many of the Obama administration’s axioms about Syria and its President, Bashar al-Assad, nonetheless represents a major shift from the policies of the recent past. Rogin’s publication of the leak is “a signal to all the enemies of this sort of thing to get going and stop it,” as New York University Professor Stephen Cohen told radio host John Batchelor on July 12. Cohen was actually describing an earlier leak by Rogin on White House consideration of executive actions on nuclear policy, but his description holds true in this case, too, as Rogin himself clearly indicates. “Even in the best-case scenario, where Russia and Syria hold up their end of the bargain, the result could be major advances for the Assad regime,” Rogin concludes. “While Jabhat al-Nusra is a problem, teaming up with the Russian air force might not be the best solution.”
The possibility that Kerry might be bringing some sort of proposal to the Kremlin has already been circulating for days, and the word in Moscow is “be cautious.” “We know that in such issues ‘the devil is in the details.’ The U.S. State Department spokesperson says that our positions on Syria are not that ‘far apart,’ but he doesn’t specify where exactly we do stand ‘far apart’ and where we stand closer to each other,” Andranik Migranyan, Russian political analyst and professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) told Radio Sputnik. “Thus we should treat such comments with cautious optimism. We should wait and see exactly what suggestions John Kerry will bring to Moscow, then we’ll be able to understand how close we have come to each other on the Syrian issue,” he said.
China Foreign Ministry Blasts U.S. Statement over ‘Illegal and Invalid’ Hague Ruling
July 14 (EIRNS)—China’s Foreign Ministry blasted a statement issued by the U.S. State Department which strongly endorsed the July 12 ruling at The Hague Arbitration Court against China’s sovereignty in the South China Sea. The State Department claimed that China is legally bound to obey it. China also filed a note of protest with the U.S. government over the statement.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang released a statement July 13 saying, “We are strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to this statement, and have lodged solemn representations with the U.S. side.” He referred to the earlier Foreign Ministry statement reiterating China’s position on the issues and on the illegality of the Arbitration Court, and continued: “I want to stress again that the arbitration unilaterally filed by the [Philippines] Aquino III government, which violated international law, is a political farce under the cloak of law. What the arbitral tribunal did and ruled, severely deviated from the common practice of international arbitration. The ruling is null and void with no binding force. It will in no way affect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea. We oppose and refuse to accept any proposal or action based on the ruling. China will continue to safeguard territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea, and endeavor to peacefully resolve relevant disputes in the South China Sea with parties directly concerned through negotiation and consultation on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with international law.
“The U.S. statement turned a blind eye to the facts and endorsed a ruling that is illegal and invalid. Such acts went against the spirit of the rule of law, international law, basic norms governing international relations, and [the U.S.’s] declaration of not taking sides on issues concerning territorial disputes, obstructing efforts by relevant parties to properly manage and control maritime situation and peacefully resolve the disputes.
“The U.S. is always selective when it comes to the application of international law: citing international law when it sees fit and discarding international law when it sees otherwise. It keeps urging others to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) while refusing to ratify the Convention to this day. What makes the U.S. think that it is in a position to make all these irresponsible remarks against others? We urge the U.S. to think over its words and deeds, stop advertising the illegal arbitration and meddling with the South China Sea issue, and cease undermining China’s sovereignty and security interests and escalating regional tensions.”
German-Russian Petersburg Dialogue: West Needs Courage, Rather Than Dubious Show of Strength
July 14 (EIRNS)—As the German-Russian “Petersburg Dialogue” reconvened this afternoon after a hiatus of almost three years, Matthias Platzeck, chairman of the German-Russian Forum, who participated among about 250 industrialists, politicians, experts, and representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), reiterated his criticism of the NATO build-up on Russia’s borders. What the West really needs, rather than this dubious show of strength, is the real courage to try détente with Russia, Platzeck said, recalling the progress made through détente and dialogue during the “Ostpolitik” period with the Soviet Union 45 years ago. He added that the enormous peace dividend contributed by the Russians despite their brutal suffering during the world war, is not honored in the West today, but it should be.
Not having too many expectations for the first session of the Dialogue, Platzeck said that it is a first, long-overdue step in the right direction. Vladislav Belov, director of the German Studies Center at the Russian Academy of Sciences, echoed this, saying that rather than focusing on the things that separate Germany and Russia at present, “we should find out what we can do together.”
What neither addressed directly, however, is the urgency of both sides beginning a serious discussion on how to jointly develop Eurasia, lifting sanctions so that the productivity of German industry can be brought to bear for the benefit of all. An approximation of that will occur, though, in the German-Russian Raw Materials Forum, which is a high-powered industrial-scientific working group attached to the Dialogue, which will hold a separate conference in Germany in November.
This is the first almost full-format meeting of the Petersburg Dialogue since November 2013, but it is fraught with problems caused by some on the German side, even while they pay plenty of lip service to the “commitment to dialogue.” German co-chairman Ronald Pofalla is pursuing a strategy to beat back the influence of anti-sanctions circles, such as the German-Russian Forum, by increasing the role of NGOs within the Dialogue. German President Joachim Gauck is boycotting; Chancellor Merkel, who is in Ulan Bator for the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit today, will at least have a message read at the event; Bundestag President Norbert Lammert called off his attendance, so that the Russian side felt compelled to cancel a planned keynote by State Duma President Sergey Naryshkin, whose name is still on the EU sanctions list.
The highest-ranking German politician will be Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz, giving a keynote, and from Russia, Vladimir region Governor Svetlana Orlova will do the same. Scholz said that he is proud to be in St. Petersburg for this event, since it is a sister city of Hamburg.
Philippines LaRouche Society Leader on China TV Exposes U.S. Imperial War Policy
July 14 (EIRNS)—Antonio “Butch” Valdes, the head of the Philippine LaRouche Society, was interviewed by China’s CCTV July 13, with extensive excerpts re-broadcast today.
CCTV reports that Valdes, a former Philippine Education Undersecretary, “has questioned the fairness of the arbitral award on the South China Sea. For Valdes, the arbitration is unreasonable,” as it occurred without consulting both parties.
Valdes explained: “Because it takes two parties to have the decision—if one party is not participating and you only have one party, what kind of decision will you be making? There is no decision. And you have not been recognized by the other party to have jurisdiction over the issue, which is correct. Arbitration is really useless and irrelevant.”
Valdes asserted that the Philippines “should have been negotiating with China before.” But previous President Aquino insisted on arbitration, “because he was following the U.S. The U.S. promised him two ships, that are not really warships.”
Valdes also pointed out to CCTV that the clearest example of the unfairness of the award, “is that it degraded Taiping Island to a ‘rock.’ The largest island of the Nansha Islands is now under Taiwan’s administration…. They have put an airstrip there. They have a hospital. They have other buildings there. It has its own water source. And yet the Court of Arbitration clearly says that this is not an island. Are they blind? Are they stupid?”
“The U.S. and Western press will use this to demonize China, and make China look bad,” Valdes warned. “That’s the way of the U.S. and Western press. They have done this to Iraq. They have done this to Libya. They are doing this to Syria. They are doing that to Russia. Taking over countries in different ways, demonizing them, making the world think somebody is bad when he is not, and then look for allies to support their attack against this person. They are going to do this, as we know, to China.”
Valdes also told CCTV he was concerned about regional tension stirred up by the U.S.
U.S ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL
Sen. Mike Gravel: Russia and U.S. Should Build Bering Strait Tunnel ‘To Benefit All Mankind’
July 14 (EIRNS)—Under the headline, “Former Alaska Senator: A Tunnel Connection between Russia and the U.S.A. Is Long Overdue,” the Russian news agency TASS today published an interview with former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, proposing that Russia and the United States join together in building a tunnel under the Bering Strait. “Instead of exchanging threats, what we need to work on is projects like this, which unite us,” Gravel told TASS.
“I am confident that in the 21st century,” he underscored, “this tunnel will come into being, and it will be connected to the New Silk Road. I think it may take from 30 to 50 years before the project will be fully implemented.”
Although published today, the interview was actually conducted last April by TASS correspondent Ivan Pilshchikov, who attended the Schiller Institute’s conference in New York on April 7, and subsequently favorably covered a LaRouche PAC anti-NATO rally in Times Square. At last count, at least 40 Russian media have picked up the TASS interview with Senator Gravel.
Gravel told TASS that building the Bering Strait tunnel is “absolutely doable … we should use the technological capabilities that are involved now in the military-industrial complex, and involve them in the implementation of such projects. They are for the benefit of all mankind.” He explained that eventually, the tunnel should become part of the “railway system carrying maglev trains travelling at 600 km per hour from Canada through Alaska to Russia, and farther on the New Silk Road, which the Russian Federation and China and working on.”
“This is what is needed for the benefit of people,” Gravel emphasized, “rather than the system that exists now, when big banks rob entire countries, and the different elements, including the American neo-conservatives and supporters of liberal interventionism, launch wars for the sake of their political views. What is happening is wrong.”
Noting Russia’s significant experience in this field, Gravel pointed out that Russia “has actively exploited and continues to exploit the resources of the Arctic and Siberia for the benefit of the people,” and “it is clear that by connecting two continents, we can also direct resources from Eurasia to the central regions of the Western Hemisphere.” It should also be understood, “that Russia continues to have a certain cultural presence in Alaska, and we have monuments related to this.” One of them, he explained, is a monument to Alexander Baranov, who oversaw Russian settlements in North America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. “We call him the Tsar of Alaska. The cultural relationship between us already exists, and it should be expanded and strengthened.”
Foreign Policy Expert: All Leading Powers, Including the U.S., Have Ignored Hague Rulings
July 14 (EIRNS)— Graham Allison, Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School, and most famous in recent years for his warning against the U.S. becoming caught in the Thucydides Trap (in which a declining nation goes to war against a rising nation simply because it is rising), issued a paper called “Of Course China, Like All Great Powers, Will Ignore an International Legal Verdict,” published by The Diplomat on July 11.
Allison notes that the U.S., since it has not ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), has never been involved in a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) case under UNCLOS. But, he notes, “The closest analogue to the Philippines case involving the United States arose in the 1980s, when Nicaragua sued Washington for mining its harbors. Like China today, the United States argued at that time that the International Court of Justice did not have the authority to hear Nicaragua’s case. When the court rejected that claim, the United States not only refused to participate in subsequent proceedings, but also denied the Court’s jurisdiction on any future case involving the United States, unless Washington explicitly made an exception and asked the Court to hear a case….
“When the Court found in favor of Nicaragua and ordered the United States to pay reparations, the U.S. refused, and vetoed six UN Security Council resolutions ordering it to comply with the court’s ruling. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Jeane Kirkpatrick aptly summed up Washington’s view of the matter when she dismissed the court as a ‘semi-legal, semi-juridical, semi-political body, which nations sometimes accept and sometimes don’t.’ ”
Allison opens the article: “It may seem un-American to ask whether China should do as we say, or, by contrast, as we do. But suppose someone were bold enough to pose that question. The first thing they would discover is that no permanent member of the UN Security Council has ever complied with a ruling by the PCA on an issue involving the Law of the Sea. In fact, none of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council has ever accepted any international court’s ruling when (in their view) it infringed their sovereignty or national security interests.”
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Philippine President Duterte: ‘War Is Not an Option’; Deploys Former President Ramos to China for Talks
July 14 (EIRNS)—Speaking at a testimonial dinner in his honor in Manila today, the newly inaugurated President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, forcefully addressed for the first time The Hague Arbitration Court ruling against China. “War is not an option,” he said clearly. “So what’s the other side? Peaceful talks. I cannot give you the wherewithal now. I want to consult many people, including President Ramos. I would like to respectfully ask him to go to China and start the talks.”
Former President (and General) Fidel Ramos, who was in the audience, said he had to consider his age (88) and would discuss it with Duterte.
Although Ramos is infamous as the primary hitman for then Secretary of State George Shultz in the Washington-orchestrated coup against the last nationalist President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, in 1986, he is also a so-called “realist” who has opposed the anti-China hysteria in the Philippines. He has said that the Philippines was destroying itself economically, since China was the only source of real development support. Ramos was one of the founders of the Boao Forum for Asia (called “Davos East”) held in China every year.
Duterte also addressed the economic implications of the decision of The Hague court, which, although portrayed as pro-Philippines, is actually very damaging to Duterte’s effort to re-establish ties with China and integrate his nation into China’s win-win Maritime Silk Road development plans, including joint development in the South China Sea.
Duterte warned that the ruling could disrupt trade with China, “even the insurance of cargoes and boats and ships there. It will create another problem for our economy.”
SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Brazil’s Nuclear, Scientific Capabilities Under the Gun
July 14 (EIRNS)—The efforts to take down Brazil’s scientific and technological capabilities—a crucial component of the international bankers’ coup against Dilma Rousseff—are accelerating. On July 5, police arrested, for the second time, retired Adm. Othon Pinheiro da Silva, former head of the state-run Electronuclear firm and the father of Brazil’s nuclear program.
Arrested a year ago and placed in “preventive detention” in a military prison, the 77-year-old Pinheiro da Silva was targetted by Operation Car Wash (“Lava Jato”) for alleged fraud and bribery related to construction of the Angra-3 nuclear reactor. For reasons of his age and his ailing wife, he was released to house arrest last December, but has now been charged with obstructing Lava Jato’s investigation, and sent to a regular prison, where his life could be in danger. Global Construction Review reported July 7 that 18 others charged in the case were arrested the same day.
Angra-3, whose construction has been delayed for decades, was supposed to come online in 2018, but this has now been pushed back to 2023.
More broadly, Jailson de Andrade, who runs the Policy and Research programs at the Science Ministry, reports that the ministry’s budget has been reduced to 2001 levels. This slashing of funding is having devastating consequences for Brazil’s nuclear medicine industry. Jornal do Brasil reported July 7 that the São Paulo-based Energy and Nuclear Research Institute (Ipen), which is connected to the Science Ministry, and produces 85% of the radiopharmaceuticals used in nuclear medicine for treatment and diagnostic imaging, is threatened with shutdown in August, due to lack of funding.
Ipen’s annual budget of 150 million reais has been slashed by R$50 million, making it almost impossible for it to import the raw material it needs to produce the 38 products it sells for use in nuclear medicine. Jose Carlos Bressiani, Ipen’s director, warns that this crisis threatens the well-being of millions of cancer and heart patients around the country.
