EDITORIAL

Obama Openly Backs Al-Qaeda Takeover in Syria

Aug. 8 (EIRNS)—In the decisive fight over Aleppo, it has become clear and public that Barack Obama’s White House, Defense Department and State Department—and UN Ambassador—support al-Qaeda’s taking over Syria’s largest city, the likely “platform” for its destroying Syria’s government and taking over.

Obama is demanding the Syrian government lift the siege of al-Nusra/as-Qaeda in East Aleppo, which could effectively end the threat of a terrorist “Caliphate” across the Mideast. Obama, and Hillary Clinton’s press supporters, are calling the encirclement of al-Qaeda an attack on the civilian population of Aleppo, and cheering for the jihadis to break it; Obama’s UN Ambassador Samantha Power is publicly demanding that civilians not take the opportunity to leave East Aleppo, but rather stay there with their “defenders” al-Qaeda, while the United States demands Russia agree to get the siege lifted.

Once again the “anti-terror” policy of Obama and Hillary Clinton is a war-making fraud. Their war policies spawn and even openly support more terrorism, and back “allies” Saudi Arabia and “Londonistan” in sponsoring terrorism. UN Ambassador Power is a completely discredited advocate of Obama’s right to overthrow any government in the world by war, for his own “humanitarian” purposes.

His actual “humanitarian purposes” are to confront and provoke Putin’s Russia, and China, even to the point of global war.  Obama’s entire presidency is a fraud. And Hillary Clinton should be ashamed of herself for what she has become while working for Obama.

The Obama White House is taking this latest, most despicable and potentially fatal step, while the trans-Atlantic financial system is crashing once again. Germany’s huge Deutsche Bank is merely the one nearest the bottom of a whirlpool of collapsing speculative debts drawing down all the big banks of Europe and the United States. More money-printing and “easing” by the central banks at this point only accelerates the whirlpool.

It cannot be that the only “solution” is to make the powers of Eurasia pay the penalty of global war, for continuing to grow and increase their productivity.

A new paradigm is needed by which nations cooperate in growth, productivity for their workforces, and scientific progress for mankind. A new Presidency committed to that paradigm is needed for the United States.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s Schiller Institute, which has organized scores of conferences around the world for this new paradigm, today publishes its June 25-26 Berlin “New Paradigm” conference in pamphlet form.

Give this the broadest possible circulation immediately. As Zepp-LaRouche noted on Sunday, regarding a leading German economist’s call for emergency nationalization of Deutsche Bank, “This system is doomed. Don’t be complacent about it. The timing is, really, ‘at any moment.’ ”

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Leading German Economist Says Emergency Deutsche Bank Takeover Needed Now

Aug. 7 (EIRNS)—For the fourth consecutive Sunday, Germany’s leading financial newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has run an analysis of the perilous and declining state of its largest bank, Deutsche Bank. This Sunday, the FAZ interviewed a very prominent German economist who says, “Nationalize Deutsche Bank on an emergency basis! It is in worse crisis than in 2008” in the global bank panic.

That Martin Hellwig of the Max Planck Institute in Bonn would make this call—in a country where nationalizations were neverdiscussed even at the depth of the 2007-09 panic and collapse—indicates that Deutsche Bank is nearing a real implosion unless it is “saved.” And the IMF has already formally found it to be the one giant bank which “radiates more risk” to other banks and banking systems, than any other in the world. Its implosion will signal a general economic crash, which will exacerbate the confrontations being pushed by the Obama Administration and NATO against Russia and China.

Schiller Institute founder and BüSo party chairwoman Helga Zepp-LaRouche only weeks ago issued a public call that “Deutsche Bank Must Be Saved for the Sake of World Peace.” She and Lyndon LaRouche said the bank’s investment policies must be completely redirected in the process to industrial and infrastructure development, the policies of its CEO Alfred Herrhausen who was assassinated on Nov. 30, 1989.

Hellwig declares to FAZ that “investment banks have sucked out Deutsche Bank” for more than a decade, so that its terminal crisis does not even stem from the 2008 global panic. It must be nationalized, Hellwig says, because any attempt to “wind it down”—i.e., to “resolve” the megabank by bailing in bondholders, etc.—would radiate that risk out to the whole banking system. The same thing, he notes, is true of France’s BNP Paribas. When asked if Deutsche Bank has an internal plan to avert implosion, Hellwig says the bank’s plans are insider trading, speculation, mergers and acquisitions, etc.

Finally, asked whether he himself could step in and run a nationalized Deutsche Bank, Hellwig demurs that he is not fit for the job because he takes time to think through decisions and for Deutsche Bank, there is no time.

Zepp-LaRouche stressed how rare any proposal for nationalization is in Germany, and that it signals that, in fact, there is no time. LaRouche’s proposal to save the megabank, but to make it effectively a development bank, must be carried out. “This system is doomed. Don’t kid yourself and don’t become complacent; it could blow out at any moment,” she said.

LaRouche Advises on Mustering Action for the ‘Four Laws’

Aug. 5 (EIRNS)—Lyndon LaRouche had words of advice, when briefed today on certain actions and potentials now in the United States, for Glass-Steagall, and his “Four Laws.” Among the state-level initiatives reported to him, was that of the Illinois state senator, who in recent months saw to the Illinois Senate passing a support resolution for the Four Laws. Speaking in committee, and on the floor of the Senate, the legislator motivated its necessity, in terms, she said, of a “return to the policies of FDR, and of Lincoln.”

Commenting on this, LaRouche spoke of bringing to the attention of the people of the United States, that they are acting for “several generations ahead,” and on what, otherwise, will be a loss. He advised, you must act in a way that “reveals the conscience” of the person. What you do determines the cause of “changes of action and reaction in what has to be done.”

He said, “Throw in the real reason about the Four Laws—what I developed was based on ideas of the original system of the United States.”

Elizabeth Warren: Glass-Steagall—‘Support for It All Around the Country’

Aug. 5 (EIRNS)—Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), in an interview conducted by Newsweek Aug. 4, said, “I think most Americans get this one: that there’s plain old basic banking—checking, savings accounts—and then there’s more speculative, high-risk banking. And those two should not be joined together. That’s what Glass-Steagall is principally about, and that’s why I think we’re seeing so much support for it all around the country…. It’s really hard to miss the Glass-Steagall issue. I get up and talk to people who are not very politically connected, and I say, ‘Glass-Steagall’ and get a big cheer. I think that’s because it’s not a distant, technical issue; it’s something that people can feel and understand.” It’s in both parties’ platforms, she noted. “John McCain and I have submitted a Glass-Steagall bill.”

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Saudi Hand in Recent German Terrorist Incidents Investigated

Aug. 6 (EIRNS)—Both Germany’s Deutschlandfunk (DLF) as well as the national TV channel ARD news program “Tagesschau” have broadcast reports that the Islamic State coordinated the recent Ansbach and Würzburg terror attacks from Saudi Arabia, and both broadcasters made the connection to information contained in the “28 pages” on the Saudi financing of the 9/11 attacks reported in the Joint Congressional Inquiry.  Those 28 pages were classified until last month to protect the Saudis.

The website and radio broadcast began with the headline: “Riyadh’s Opaque Game with Terror,” and then, “The Assassins from Würzburg and Ansbach reportedly had contact with Saudi Arabia, and according to media reports, the government in Riyadh is to help the investigations. But doubt is advisable: Saudi Arabia is under suspicion for supporting Islamic terrorists.”

The author of the report comes from Westdeutscher Rundfunk, WDR, the state public broadcaster of North Rhine Westphalia, which conducted the June 2 “Monitor” interview with former Sen. Bob Graham who co-chaired the 2002 inquiry that produced the 28 pages.

The 17-year-old Afghan refugee responsible for the July 18 train attack in Würzburg, named as Riaz Khan Ahmadzai, reportedly discussed the best method for carrying out an attack with his ISIS handler; they settled on a knife attack onboard a train, in which several people were seriously injured before Ahmadzai was shot dead by police.

Six days later, on July 24, Syrian refugee Mohamed Daleel (27) detonated a suicide bomb near a music festival in Ansbach, injuring several people. According to the report, ISIS did not want Daleel to explode a suicide bomb. Instead they told him to detonate the bomb and film the aftermath, sending the footage to them. The communications suggest that they planned for Daleel to carry out further attacks.

In both cases, a police check of the two suspects’ cellphones showed that before the attacks, they had been in communication with cellphones registered in Saudi Arabia.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Obama’s Drone War Strategy Document Forced into View

Aug. 7 (EIRNS)—A New York Federal court order with a deadline of Aug. 5 has finally forced out Obama’s “Presidential Policy Guidance” for drone killings, pursuant to a long-running ACLU lawsuit; the strategy document was created in 2013. The Justice Department declassified the document without notice and posted it on a website late Friday afternoon, Aug. 5.

The document confirms what has long been suspected: “President Obama must [personally] approve operational plans to target overseas terrorist suspects with drones.” While purporting to contain many limitations on targets for drone killings, the document in fact allows Obama to take exceptions to these limits, and in it “the government has essentially invented its own set of standards” of law, said ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer.

For example, the guidelines in this document emphasize the importance of “verifying” the identity of high-value targets, but allows Obama to waive such criteria to take advantage of a “fleeting opportunity” to kill a person. It gives criteria and claimed “legality” for killing others who are not identified at all. It does not limit “signature strikes” which target observed patterns of activity without knowing who the people involved are. It allows Obama to approve proposals to target and kill an individual who poses no threat to the United States or its forces, but rather poses a continuing, imminent threat to another country’s persons.” The Washington Post report notes that “What appears to be a description of information to be included in the profile of an individual target is blacked out.” And so forth.

“Numerous international law experts have said that the administration’s overall terminology and justification for lethal strikes are novel and without precedent,” says the Post report.

Not only is the document a statement of Obama’s extrajudicial and unconstitutional license to kill anyone outside the United States by drone; Obama has recently said he wants it to be adopted by the next and future Presidents. Obama said, “My hope is, is that by the time I leave office, there is not only an internal structure in place that governs these standards that we’ve set, but there is also an institutionalized process.” And in stressing this again on Aug. 6, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said Obama believes the drone kill guidelines should also be followed by the leaders of other nations!

Thus in Obama’s view, his “legacy” is such that Hillary Clinton should also have “Tuesday kill meetings,” or perhaps choose another day of the week—and so should leaders of other countries which currently view his drone killing practices with abhorrence.

NEW WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER

Argentine Government Threatens Security of Former President Fernández de Kirchner

Aug. 7 (EIRNS)—Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner accused both Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich and the Macri government which employs Bullrich, of endangering the former President’s life, and those of her children and grandchildren, in what is clearly a security-stripping operation, in a scathing public letter issued Aug. 2 to Argentine Security Minister Bullrich.

Fernández was responding to a report that Bullrich leaked to the daily pro-government Clarín—a detailed profile of her personal security, including the numbers of agents protecting her, their schedules, vehicles used, movement of personnel, shift changes, etc. “This is not only a violation of the law, but a serious threat to our security,” she charged, warning “I hold you and your government responsible not only for my safety, and that of my children and grandchildren, but also for the nefarious consequences for the majority of Argentines of your bad practices as Security Minister.”

Fernández also accused the “inept” Bullrich, who comes from one of Argentina’s leading oligarchic families, of trying to cover up the country’s growing social unrest by authorizing media spectacles aimed at members of the Kirchner family, threatening their safety “in violation of the most elementary security protocols.”

Bullrich’s pedigree is worth noting. A member of the terrorist Montoneros during the 1976-83 dictatorship, she later emerged as a loud advocate of “democracy,” collaborating with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) which has financed color revolutions around the globe.

Leader of Brazil’s Nuclear Program Given 43-Year Prison Sentence

Aug. 7 (EIRNS)—On Aug. 4, Brazilian Judge Marcelo da Costa Bretas issued a preposterous 43-year prison sentence against Vice Adm. Othon Luiz Pinheiro da Silva, the 76-year-old military scientist who initiated and oversaw the development of Brazil’s cutting-edge scientific and technological nuclear programs since the late 1970s. This is a second move to keep Ibero-America in line by “making an example” of any leader who fights for national development, as with former Argentine President Kirchner.

Admiral Pinheiro was serving as Executive Director of the state nuclear company Eletronuclear, when first arrested in July 2015, on charges stemming from the 16th phase of the British-Obama “Lava Jato” bankers’ attack on the Brazilian nation, called “Operation Radioactivity,” because it was directed at the nuclear industry. While others among the accused capitulated to the judicial witchhunt, the admiral denied the charges and refused to accept a plea bargain.

In two years, “Lava Jato” has driven Brazil’s legitimate President Dilma Rousseff out of office, paralyzed and nearly bankrupted the national oil company Petrobras, and every significant private construction and engineering company in the country, and jailed many of its top leaders, civilian and military alike, on the pretext of “fighting corruption.” But the sentence against Admiral Pinheiro is decades longer than any yet meted out to the victims of Lava Jato. And his daughter, who worked with him in the nuclear industry, was given a sentence of 14 years and 10 months in prison on the same alleged “corruption charges.”

There will be a backlash. Prominent nationalist journalist Mauro Santayana wrote on Aug. 4 in Jornal do Brasil that the same “foreign power” which did that, is behind the judges of Lava Jato. But he warned that the judgment of history will have its day, and stated: “Like a majority of patriots, nationalists, legal scholars, constitutionalists, the Brazilian military has tolerated in dignified silence … the threats which, like vultures, hover over the numerous defense projects begun in the last decade, and against the companies responsible for them … in the name of a hypocritical pseudo-battle against corruption.”

South Africa Elections Show Zuma’s Great Strength—and Weakness

Aug. 7 (EIRNS)—The outcome of South Africa’s just-concluded local elections indicates that the British-centered imperial forces—working against President Jacob Zuma’s pro-BRICS and pro-nuclear faction of the ruling African National Congress (ANC)—have gained some ground. At the same time, the elections also show Zuma’s great strength.

The Democratic Alliance (DA), the leading British-steered party, has won control over two major metropolitan districts, and it came close to winning Johannesburg, where the ANC won, but without an absolute majority:

• Tshwane (includes Pretoria, the capital): DA, 43%; ANC, 41%
• Johannesburg (the industrial center): ANC, 45%; DA, 38%
• Nelson Mandela Bay (includes Port Elizabeth), DA, 47%; ANC 41%

The ANC won absolute majorities in the other metropolitan districts, except for Cape Town, where the DA was, and remains, the incumbent.

The British creation of the upstart Economic Freedom Fighters party (EFF), whose leader was recently anointed by the Royal Institute of International Affairs/Chatham House, played a role in the ANC’s losses by presenting a phony “left” alternative. The EFF obtained 12% of the Tshwane vote and 11% in Johannesburg.

When the election results are looked at from the standpoint of what Zuma must do next, they demonstrate the great strength on which he must build: The ANC will hold its party election for its next president in December 2017, and Zuma’s faction must prevail there, because the new president is then expected to be the ANC’s candidate for South African President in the 2019 election. When ANC members assess Zuma’s leadership of the country with an eye to next year’s party election, they will look at his strength in the provinces as a whole, not just in cities. The vote totals by province in the just-concluded local elections show absolute majorities for the ANC (58% to 71%) in seven of the nine provinces. The ANC’s national vote total was 54%.)

Thus, in spite of the relentless (and continuing) British imperial financial and propaganda warfare, and its regime-change manipulations of the past two years, Zuma stands strong. To build on this strength over the next 16 months, he must publicly name South Africa’s imperial enemy—the City of London and Wall Street—and rally South Africans around a vision for South Africa’s future that can be accomplished through the BRICS.

In speeches leading up to this election, Zuma identified that there is an (unnamed) foreign enemy that controls South Africa through controlling its economy (e.g., a speech in Gauteng, posted on YouTube May 13, 2016, especially the segment 45-48 minutes). Other leaders in his faction, like Water Affairs Minister Nomvula Mokonyane, have occasionally identified that this enemy seeks to destroy the BRICS of which South Africa is a part. But the battle cannot be won without more consistency; and above all, without a vision of South Africa’s future and how that vision will be accomplished.

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Fourth-Generation Nuclear Reactor Technology Will Be Developed in Indonesia by China

Aug. 5 (EIRNS)—Leading-edge 4th generation high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear energy technology will come to Indonesia, through an agreement with China to build reactors of up to 100 MW. They will be designed to bring electricity and industrial heat to Indonesian islands. The chairman of Indonesia’s National Atomic Energy (BATAN), Djarot Sulistio Wisnubroto, and China Nuclear Engineering Corp. chairman Wang Shoujun, signed the agreement on Aug. 1, World Nuclear News reported Aug. 4. Indonesia, which operates three small nuclear research reactors, and had set up BATAN in 1958 in the era of Atoms for Peace, has been trying to build a nuclear plant for decades. The effort has been sabotaged by regime-change operations, Asian financial crises, etc.

China is the only country that has developed the HTGR technology to a level where it is now building the world’s only demonstration reactor. Commercial operation of the Chinese demonstration reactor is scheduled for late 2017.

OTHER

Putin Aide Says Meeting with Erdogan Has a Broad Agenda

Aug. 7 (EIRNS)—The Aug. 9 meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in St. Petersburg, will not only restore bilateral relations, but could lead to “Russia gradually lifting special economic measures introduced against Turkey earlier, due to the downing of Russia’s Su-24 aircraft by Turkish air forces last November,” said Russian Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said on Aug. 5, Xinhua reported today, citing RIA Novosti.

The relations between Russia and Turkey deteriorated sharply after a Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jet downed a Russian Su-24M bomber in the sky over Syria on Nov. 24, 2015. The Russian bomber was participating in the anti-terror operation in Syria. However, the Turkish President apologized in a June letter to President Putin for shooting down the Russian bomber, and these steps, in subsequent telephone talks between the two leaders, made possible the Aug. 9 meeting in St. Petersburg “and, I hope, will lead to further normalization of the entire range of our relations with Turkey,” Ushakov said, reported TASS

Xinhua’s report, again citing RIA Novosti, continued that according to Ushakov “Putin and Erdogan would discuss a range of economic issues, ‘including the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey, as well as issues regarding the Turkish Stream and the participation of Turkish companies in construction projects in Russia.’ ”

Regarding a crucial aspect of the agenda, “Ushakov noted that military experts from both sides are also expected to join the two leaders on discussions of the Syrian crisis, ‘The Syrian crisis will be discussed in great detail, and we hope that the Turkish position will have a more constructive character in the given context,’ Ushakov said.”