EDITORIAL
Schiller Institute Leads ‘Living Memorial’ to Victims of 9/11
September 11, 2016 (EIRNS)—On the 15th Anniversary of the terror attack on New York City and Washington, D.C., the Schiller Institute, founded by Lyndon and Helga LaRouche, intervened across the five Boroughs of New York to lift the remembrance of that tragic day to a higher level, a “Living Memorial,” through the use of great art to lift the minds and souls of all men and women away from fear and thoughts of vengeance to that of creativity and the future of Mankind.
Three performances of the great Requiem Mass by Amadeus Mozart were performed in New York City by the Schiller Institute New York Community Chorus, with full orchestra, sponsored by the Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture, on September 9, 10 and 11, in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Brooklyn. A fourth performance will be held Monday night in Morristown, New Jersey, the home of many of the families who lost loved ones on 9/11.
The invitation to the concerts, and to a conference sponsored by the Schiller Institute in Manhattan on the afternoon of September 10, read: “This September, as the United Nations opens, let all those who abhor violence and war, drop their differences and come together in a solemn recognition of what is human in all of us. Let Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart speak in the language of music to our hearts, and to what Abraham Lincoln called ‘the better angels of our nature.’ ”
Printed on the invitation was a picture of the “Tear Drop Memorial,” a powerful ten-story sculpture built in Bayonne, New Jersey, overlooking Ground Zero across the Hudson River. Dedicated “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism,” the memorial was a gift to the U.S. and the world from Russia after 9/11. The groundbreaking ceremony, on September 16, 2005, was attended by President Vladimir Putin.
The event on September 11 itself will live in history. Every year since 9/11, the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Brooklyn has sponsored a march from Ground Zero, across the Brooklyn Bridge to their beautiful Cathedral for a Mass honoring those who died and those who were otherwise affected. Many of the hundreds of firemen who gave their lives to save others as first responders at the World Trade Center were based in Brooklyn. This year, for the first time, the Bishop invited the Schiller Institute to actually join in the Mass itself, through the performance of the Requiem. The powerful and moving performance was broadcast live on the Diocesan TV network.
Most strikingly, just days before this historic event, on Friday September 9, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill which has been the subject of a long fight led by many of the same families of 9/11 victims, the LaRouche organization, and a few courageous Members of Congress—the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA). This act will allow the families of the 9/11 victims to bring suit against Saudi Arabia for its role in the 9/11 attack. The Saudi Royal Family funding and support for the 9/11 terrorists was publicly exposed when the government was forced to release the “28 pages” of the Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 on the funding of the attack, which had been classified by Presidents Bush and Obama for 13 years, despite Obama’s promise to the families to release them when he was campaigning for office.
Obama’s role, like Bush, in supporting the terrorist organizations created and funded by the Saudis, in order to achieve the goal of regime change against countries considered outside of U.S. and British control, stands exposed. His support for the Wall Street and City of London looting of the real economy stands equally exposed, but the Congress has yet to show the same courage in regard to the urgent need to pass the Glass-Steagall legislation now before both houses of Congress.
The world-changing events in China last week, at the G20 Summit, created the core of a new world order, composed of nearly all the world’s nations other that the U.S. and Europe, based on development for all through the New Silk Road process, and a new global financial system to replace the bankrupt casino system in the West. The inspiration coming from New York City today provides the direction—mobilizing the population through beauty and reason to bring America and Europe into cooperation with China, Russia and the common aims of mankind.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Obama Is Hated for Threat To Veto JASTA and Betray 9/11 Families
Sept. 10 (EIRNS)—Obama is not only isolated internationally, but also here in the U.S., over his threat to protect the Saudi terrorist sponsors and veto the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) that passed the Senate and in the House unanimously on Sept. 9. The JASTA bill allows families of the victims of the 9/11 terror attack on the U.S. to sue Saudi Arabia in court for their role in financing and supporting the 9/11 terrorists, as exposed in the recently released “28 pages” of the Congressional investigation of the attack. The U.S. media is full of headlines and references to the fact that Congress has votes to override Obama’s veto.
Terry Strada, a 9/11 widow and one of the leaders of the 9/11 families that are suing Saudi Arabia, is telling Congress to stay in Washington and not allow Obama to “pocket veto” JASTA.
“This is more important than campaigning,” Mrs. Strada told the New York Times. “You can campaign after. You will never have a chance to pass [the bill] again. This is the priority.”
Obama knows that there would be deadly political blowback against his veto because of the national support for the 9/11 victims and the broadening anger against the Saudis for their role in supporting jihadi terrorism, including al-Qaeda and ISIS.
So the White House is frantically trying to resort to a “pocket veto,” a procedure that allows the President to have a bill be automatically vetoed after ten days—if the Congress adjourns before the 10-day period ends. White House lawyers are reportedly trying to claim that a “pro forma” session of Congress is actually an adjournment, in order to allow such a pocket veto.
The 9/11 families and the JASTA sponsors in Congress believe they have the votes to override Obama’s veto, and the press reflects that: “Obama Faces First Potential Veto Override of Presidency”: Politico; “Could Congress Override Obama’s Expected Veto?”: International Business Times; “House Unanimously Approves 9/11 Bill, Sets Up First Obama Veto Override”: Daily Caller. Even Bloomberg which took Obama’s official line against JASTA wrote “Obama in Diplomatic Jam…”
The Saudis, who threw a fit against JASTA back in April when the foreign minister threatened to dump the Kingdom’s supposed $750 billion in U.S. Treasury securities, have been silent.
Miners, Farmers Come to Washington, Appeal to Congress On Economic Disaster
Sept. 9 (EIRNS)—The opening days of Congress’s Fall session are already seeing Americans coming to Washington to appeal for relief from the economic collapse, which Obama boasts is “success.” At the end of his trip to China last week, he said, “My parting words to the G20 were … when you look back, over the course of eight years, actually, you find out that things have gotten better.”
On Sept. 8, some 10,000 mine workers demonstrated on Capitol Hill, appealing for action from Congress over the destruction of their livelihoods, pensions and health care, under the wipe-out of the U.S. coal sector—the policy of the Obama Administration, and the Presidential candidates. Mostly retired mine workers, the demonstrators represent a total contingent of over 120,000 retired mine workers, whose pensions and health care are threatened with drastic cuts or even elimination in the short term. The existing—and inadequate—social benefits for the workers are now being cut or eliminated, as the mining companies file for bankruptcy. The fallback—Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, is itself without the means. The mine workers are appealing for aid, through passage of the Mine Workers Protection Act.
This weekend, farmers from around the country came to Washington for the National Farmers Union fly-in (Sept. 11-14), which in past years was to lobby, but this year, is to appeal for emergency action for farm regions. Overall, farmers’ income is down by nearly half from three years ago. Their NFU talking points state, “As it stands now, the economic reality in rural America is a ticking time bomb. Congress must not stand by and watch an entire generation of farmers be wiped out as a result of rock-bottom commodity prices, rising input costs and an inability to access needed credit.” While farm revenues are dropping, production expenses are rising. “In fact, total farm production expenditures were 4% higher last year than in 2011, 2012, and 2013, while many commodity prices have fallen 40% or more since that same time period.”
New York Times Charged with Imposing New McCarthyism as Fellow-Traveller of New Cold War
Sept. 11 (EIRNS)—Investigative reporter Robert Parry charged Sept. 7 that the New York Times has transformed itself into a “neoconservative propaganda sheet eager for a New Cold War with Russia,” and is “imposing a New McCarthyism on public debate.” The first picture is of Senator Joseph McCarthy conferring with Roy Cohn. Parry said that the Washington Post is also “deeply inside the neocon camp.”
Parry states that the recurring tirades of the New York Times against Russia, without evidence, have been taken to such an extreme that they would have embarrassed even McCarthy and the 1950s Red baiters. It has come to the point, Parry maintains, that if “someone suggests questioning a claim from the U.S. government or from the NATO alliance, that person is automatically a ‘Russian agent of influence.’ ”
Parry charges the New York Times and the Washington Post “are engaging in a breathtaking form of McCarthyism … to force a neoconservative ideological conformity on the American people in support of the New Cold War.”
Parry concludes that “this McCarthyistic investigative style” is already having “a chilling effect on public debate in the United States where dissident views on Russia, Syria, or other hot topics are quickly disparaged as enemy propaganda.”
He gives numerous examples of U.S. government or NATO statements, treated as fact by the New York Times, that were later demonstrated not to be true.
The McCarthyite style was typically demonstrated today by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, when he asked his guest on Sunday’s “This Week” in a reference to Russian President Putin: “Is it appropriate to praise a dictator who oppresses his own people?”
New Cold War: Ex-U.K. Ambassador Denied U.S. Entry To Honor CIA Torture Whistleblower
Sept. 11 (EIRNS)—A former U.K. ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, was denied entrance to the United States over the Sept. 4 weekend. He was slated to be the Master of Ceremonies at an award ceremony in honor of John Kiriakou, the first U.S. government official to confirm—in December 2007—that water-boarding was used to interrogate al-Qaeda prisoners, which he characterized as torture. He subsequently served 30 months in prison, while not a single torturer, nor those who ordered the torture, was ever jailed or even charged.
Kiriakou was later a founding member of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
Murray, a 30-year British diplomat, had earlier exposed how the Americans were using torture programs to produce false intelligence in the war on terror in Afghanistan.
The award to Kiriakou is given by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, a group of retired CIA officers that was established by Ray McGovern “to reward intelligence officials who demonstrated a commitment to truth and integrity, no matter the consequences.”
The group is named after Samuel A. Adams, a CIA whistleblower during the Vietnam War, who discovered in 1967 that the number of Vietcong under arms in Vietnam was twice the number that Generals Westmoreland and Abrams wanted to have revealed, since the report would expose their claims of “winning” as bogus.
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Wells Fargo Set Up Fictitious Accounts, Defrauded Customers; Agrees to Fines and Fires Thousands
Sept. 9 (EIRNS)—Wells Fargo & Co., ranked as the largest U.S. bank by market value, on Sept. 8 received an $185 million fine from federal authorities, for engaging in “illegal sales practices.” Its misconduct consisted in employees setting up fake deposit, credit and other accounts, and doing transactions such as moving clients’ money around without the clients’ knowledge, sometimes racking up fees for insufficient funds. Transactions, names, account codes were falsified, etc.
As reported in the Sept. 9 Wall Street Journal, “Staffers also allegedly created fake email addresses, such as ‘noname@wellsfargo.com,’ to enroll unknowing consumers, or people who don’t exist, in online banking services to hit sales goals, the Los Angeles Attorney’s office said.”
Wells Fargo has accepted the fine, issuing a statement that said their acquiescence is “consistent with our commitment to customers and in the interest of putting this matter behind us.” The bank ran a full-page advertisement today in the Journal headlined, “To Wells Fargo customers: Our commitment to you…” A bank spokesman said that firing of 5,300 have occurred over time, and implied they were insignificant given the bank’s total workforce of 268,000 this summer.
Wells Fargo, until now, has had the reputation of being the most well-managed of the Big Six.
Athens Meeting of EU Mediterranean Countries Reflects Reality of EU Split
Sept. 9 (EIRNS)—The first meeting ever of the heads of state and government of all EU Mediterranean countries in Athens today shows the deep split inside the European Union, which is now divided into three groups: the central-northern group around Germany, the Eastern group (the Visegrad countries) and now the Mediterranean group. The German business daily Handelsblatt described it as a front against Chancellor Angela Merkel. The meeting was aimed at building a common front in view of the Bratislava EU summit Sept. 16. De facto, the EU is splitting
On the eve of the summit, host Prime Minister Alexei Tsipras gave an interview to France’s Le Monde in which he called again for debt relief for Greece. Without debt relief, Tsipras said, it will not be possible to achieve the growth targets set in the so-called “bailout” deal. Greece is facing a second bailout review entailing an easing of labor laws in autumn. “The recovery is slow, in particular because we don’t see the necessary generosity from our partners on the issue of debt relief,” Tsipras said. “If they refuse to move forward on this issue, then it will be difficult for my country to return to growth.”
Tsipras said that it could not wait until after Germany’s federal elections take place in September 2017. “We have 27 democratically-elected governments in Europe. Germany is not the only country with elections,” he said.
Although there was much anti-austerity rhetoric at the final press conference, and it looked like the leaders of Italy, France, Malta, Portugal, Spain, and Cyprus backed Tsipras, statements by Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem and EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici, from the meeting of the Eurogroup comprised of euro area finance ministers also taking place Sept. 9 in Bratislava, sound like a cold shower. Dijsselbloem said that countries were dissatisfied with Greece’s efforts in recent weeks to meet the targets of the so-called bailout deal.
“There’s no doubt that we have lost time,” said Dijsselbloem, adding that what was at stake was “trust from the outside world in Greece and the Greek economy.” Moscovici said that so far Athens had met only 2 out of 15 “milestones” needed to progress to the next stage of the bailout program and release the remaining €2.8 billion of Greece’s most recent aid tranche.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Lavrov, Kerry Announced Ceasefire Plans for Syria on Sept. 9, Set To Begin on Sept. 12
Sept. 9 (EIRNS)—At the close of their meeting Sept. 9 in Geneva, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced plans for a new ceasefire in Syria, in what Kerry called a comprehensive approach to Syrian reconciliation. In speaking to reporters afterward, a number of points were stressed, and reports from news agencies convey that both Lavrov and Kerry expressed misgivings, but are going ahead regardless. What stands out, is the process itself, occurring amidst other initiatives over recent days, including the phone call yesterday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the same matter.
The plans involve the United States and Russia calling on all sides to observe a nationwide stoppage of hostilities on Monday, Sept. 12, beginning at sundown. This applies to airstrikes, as well as all other kinds of attacks. The plan calls for unimpeded access for the supply of humanitarian aid to all areas, including in Aleppo. This requires all forces to pull back from the Castello Road. Lavrov said that once the ceasefire is in effect as of Sept. 12, it should last for at least a week.
Sputnik reported that Lavrov stressed that Russia and the United States will be working with all parties over the next 48 hours to make good on the ceasefire. Sputnik wrote, “Once that is done, a joint implementation center will be established. This will be used to track down terrorists and separate them from moderate opposition groups, after which joint aerial strikes will be carried out by both U.S. and Russian air forces against terrorist groups.” The center will be called the Russian-U.S. Joint Implementation Center (JIG).
RT reports that Kerry elaborated that the plan is to ensure that strikes do not take place where “moderate rebels” are present.
Filipino Senator Tells Duterte: Rescind Illegal Order Allowing U.S. Bases in the Philippines
Sept. 9 (EIRNS)—Former Philippine Senator Kit Tatad, in the context of reprimanding President Duterte for using foul language while defending Philippine sovereignty, makes the point that to actually end U.S. colonial power over the country he must rescind the EDCA (Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement), the illegal executive decree rammed through by former President Aquino on behalf of Obama in April 2014, which allows the U.S. to set up military bases all over the country. Tatad writes:
“Because EDCA is not a treaty but a mere executive agreement, DU30 [a nickname for Duterte] can revoke it anytime, if he wants to make a dramatic show of his political independence. However, there has been no hint of DU30 considering it. DU30’s desire to be seen as independent of any foreign power is admirable and deserves to succeed. But his words must be matched by deeds.”
Ending EDCA now, before Obama starts a war, is indeed urgent.
Russia, China To Hold Naval Exercises in South China Sea Monday
Sept. 11 (EIRNS)—China and Russia will stage an eight-day navy drill in the South China Sea off Guangdong Province starting Sept. 12, a Chinese PLA Navy spokesperson told Xinhua today. PLA Navy spokesman Liang Yang said that the drill, “Joint Sea-2016,” will feature Navy surface ships, submarines, fixed-wing aircraft, ship-borne helicopters, marine corps, and amphibious armored equipment from both navies. It will include defense, rescue, and anti-submarine operations, in addition to joint island seizing and other activities, Liang said.
The marine corps, he said, will carry out live-fire drills, sea-crossing and island-landing operations, and island defense and offense exercises among others.
As is also the case with Russia’s involvement in Syria, the Russian Navy is holding exercises at the invitation of the host country, while the U.S. and Japan naval deployments in the South China Sea are uninvited and purely provocative.
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
China Exceeds 20,000 Kilometers of High-Speed Rail
Sept. 10 (EIRNS)—With today’s opening of a 360 km high-speed rail line between Zhengzhou in central China to Xuzhou in the east, China has now exceeded 20,000 km of high-speed rail routes in the country—a stunning achievement.
China has by far the largest high-speed rail network in the world (the #2 spot is held by Spain, with 3,100 km.). Moreover, China’s first 10,000 km took 11 years to build, according to the China Railway Corp., but the second 10,000 km took only three years. The network is expected to nearly double again by 2025 and reach 45,000 km in 2030. In 2015, China’s high-speed trains carried 961 million passengers, up 237 percent from the number in 2011, according to Xinhua.
The newest route will feature trains running at about 300 km per hour. But China also has super-high-speed trains: in mid-July, two trains travelling at 420 km per hour in opposite directions passed each other on parallel tracks, Xinhua reported Sept. 10, making it the fastest event of its kind—and one which surely would have delighted Albert Einstein. In the next few years, China will be inaugurating trains running at over 500 km per hour on the Beijing-Shenyang line.
The United States de facto has zero (0) km of high-speed rail lines. The Acela Express, which covers the 735 km from Boston to Washington, can technically reach high speeds, but since it shares the same track with slower passenger and cargo trains, its average speed over this distance is 105 km/hours (65 mph)—not exactly high-speed.
China Solidifies Development Ties with Laos, as Obama Refuses To Apologize for Indochina War
Sept. 10 (EIRNS)—Following the ASEAN Summits in Laos, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stayed for an official bilateral visit, meeting Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith and President Bounnhang Vorachit. The two nations signed 20 documents to enhance cooperation.
The Western geopoliticians behind Obama have been spinning a tale about the new Laos government (which came to power this year), claiming it was being successfully wooed away from China, supposedly through ties to Vietnam, which the anti-China crowd counts among their “allies” against China’s “aggression.” Once again the Obama team has been humiliated. Obama offered a few dollars to help find and destroy the estimated 90 million unexploded cluster bombs left over from the criminal Indochina war, which still cause hundreds of injuries every year across the country (and in Cambodia and Vietnam). But Obama nonetheless refused to apologize for that war, saying that the U.S. was “on the right side of history” in the Cold War.
In contrast, Li laid a wreath at Laos’ anonymous martyrs’ monument.
Li said that China is willing to align its 13th Five-Year Plan with Laos’ 8th Five-Year Plan to promote production capacity and investment cooperation and ensure the launch of the flagship project of a high-speed railway before the end of this year, according to Xinhua. Other agreements include construction of an economic cooperation zone at the Mohan-Boten border crossing point and a comprehensive development zone in Vientiane. Li emphasized that large projects should play a leading role in trade cooperation and regional inter-connectivity.
The Lao government’s national strategy is to transform the country from a “landlocked country” to a “land-linked country,” with China’s Silk Road process the primary input, especially the rail connection to China and south to Thailand, as part of the eventual Kunming-Singapore railway. The Laos rail project will cost $6 billion, with 70% coming from China, while 30% comes from Laos.
