EDITORIAL
China Engages UN Institutions in the Belt and Road; Obama Tries To Provoke a War with Russia
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—China today signed its first agreement with an international institution, the UN Development Program (UNDP), to cooperate in promoting and implementing the Belt and Road Initiative, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Helen Clark, the Administrator of the UNDP, said: “The Belt and Road Initiative represents a powerful platform for economic growth and regional co-operation, involving more than 4 billion people, many of whom live in developing countries. It can serve as an important catalyst and accelerator for the sustainable development goals.” Clearly, China’s concept of “sustainable development” is winning the day at the UN.
But it has not won the United States, as evidenced today in a raving display of psychosis by President Obama in his UN General Assembly speech. While the audience sat quietly, without applause, Obama ignored the new paradigm that has come into being under China’s direction over the past weeks, and instead claimed that his leadership, and his wars of aggression (described as “protecting the vulnerable”), and his sponsorship of color revolutions (described as defending human rights and democracy, as in Ukraine and the Mideast), had created a world “less violent and more prosperous than ever before.” Twice he attacked Russia, describing it as an imperial power “attempting to recover lost glory through force.” It is surprising that the assembled world leaders did not act to have him removed, either to jail or to an insane asylum.
Obama’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, meanwhile, has come very close to admitting that the U.S. bombed the Syrian Army intentionally last Saturday—and that they may do it again. “Maybe before we start going on a path of ‘what went wrong,’ let’s do an investigation and actually ensure that something did go wrong,” he told reporters traveling with him. “It may be that … when you do the investigation, the facts would tell you that we would have done what we did again.”
The second atrocity in Syria this week—the destruction of a UN/Red Crescent aid convoy—was immediately blamed on Russia by State Department officials, whose spokesman said the U.S. would “reassess future prospects for cooperation with Russia.” This is the intent of the war party in the White House and the Pentagon—to prevent any U.S.-Russia cooperation.
But the evidence on the aid convoy attack is quite different. The Russian Ministry of Defense declared that there had been no Russian or Syrian air deployments in the area, but that al-Nusra had launched an offensive aimed in that direction. In fact, the trucks were destroyed by a fire sparked by artillery shelling, not by bombs, the video of the scene shows.
Will Obama succeed in launching a war with Russia, and by extension with China? It can be stopped. Today, a demonstration and a press conference by the families of 9/11 victims rallied at the White House to demand Obama not carry out his intention to veto the JASTA bill, which will allow the victims to sue the Saudis for their role in the 9/11 attack on America. And, the Senate leaders confirmed that they have the votes and the will to override Obama’s promised veto.
In the aftermath of the British Chilcot Commission report, indicting George Bush and Tony Blair for their war of aggression in Iraq that launched the current Hell on Earth, and the Parliamentary report that indicted Cameron and Obama for the war of aggression on Libya, which extended that Hell and created the refugee disaster now tearing Europe apart, why have the U.S. people and their representatives not moved to impeach and imprison the mass killer in the White House? If the Congress shows the same courage they did in unanimously passing the JASTA bill to also hold hearings into Obama’s complicity with the Saudis and the British in supporting terrorists, and would pass Glass-Steagall (over Obama’s certain veto), then the global dark age now facing mankind can be replaced with the new paradigm of peace through development, which is now spreading out from China and Russia.
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
UN Development Program and China Sign Memo of Understanding To Promote Belt and Road Initiative
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—China today signed its first agreement with an international institution, the United Nations Development Program, to promote the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The Memorandum of Understanding, signed by Ms. Helen Clark, Administrator of the UNDP, and Mr. Xu Shaoshi, Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), is a strategic cooperation framework that aims to enhance collaboration between the UNDP and the Chinese government for the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
“The Belt and Road Initiative represents a powerful platform for economic growth and regional co-operation, involving more than 4 billion people, many of whom live in developing countries,” said Ms. Clark. “It can serve as an important catalyst and accelerator for the sustainable development goals.”
“This is the first MOU signed between the Government of China and an international organization on promoting the BRI,” said Xu Shaoshi. “Engaging an international organization is a new and innovative development in the BRI,” he said. “We look forward to working with China to mobilize and facilitate co-ordination among all stakeholders involved to create an environment which will promote poverty eradication, environmental sustainability, and inclusive social development,” said Clark.
While there may be widely diverging views about what “sustainable development” means by the parties bandying the term about, it is clear that the Chinese approach is gaining headway among the nations of the world at this year’s General Assembly.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Rally at the White House, Senate—9/11 Fifteen Years Later: Justice! ‘Do The Right Thing!’
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—More than 150 activists rallied today on the Senate side of the Capitol Building to demand that the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) be passed into law in defiance of an Obama threatened veto; this after a similar rally in front of the White House mid-day. It was learned during that rally that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had announced today that the Senate would not adjourn until any veto of JASTA would be overridden. In fact, said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who originally introduced the bill, “What is he [Obama] waiting for?” The bill has “been on his desk since about a week ago. Why is he making these families wait even longer for justice? If he’s going to veto, he should veto it.” And then, the Senate will override Obama.
At the rally’s press conference today, Terry Strada, a leader of the families of victims of the 9/11 attack, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) made the unmistakable point that there is no argument against the enactment of the JASTA bill. Strada stressed that the bill was vetted for six years and passed both the Senate and the House of Representatives overwhelmingly. Blumenthal argued very concretely that JASTA covered a loophole in what is called “sovereign immunity.” In the Q&A, Blumenthal further elaborated the argument. There was no giving in on justice for the citizens who were murdered on 9/11.
Strada pointed out that if the Saudis had done nothing, they should be happy to exonerate themselves. Yet it was Kaitlyn Strada, Terry’s 19-year-old daughter, who was 4 at the time of the attack that took her father, who simply stated that even at her young age, her father had always told her, “Do the right thing.” Growing up she always remembered that: Do the right thing. For her it had originally meant, to be good to her brothers, then 7 years old and 4 days old. But now at 19 it meant that justice must be served.
Strada stated to the Capitol Hill rally, “We, the 9/11 community have suffered far too long at the hands of far too many that would prevent us from seeking accountability before a jury of our peers. Neither the President, nor Congress, nor the lobbyists for foreign kingdoms should be permitted to make us wait another day to pass JASTA.”
McConnell: Senate Will Override a JASTA Veto and Vote on Ending Arms Sales to Saudis
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—Following a Senate Republican lunch caucus meeting, Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told the press there were three issues to complete before a recess: passing a continuing resolution, overriding Obama’s expected veto of JASTA, and voting on a bill to stop arms sales to the Saudis.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn (R), who had introduced the JASTA bill, spoke after McConnell, telling Obama to stop stalling on the veto so they can get going on the override. Texasinsider.org reported that Cornyn spoke on the floor of the Senate today, pressing Obama to act. “In just a few minutes I’ll have the chance to meet with several of the families from 9/11, of the victims of 9/11. And these men and women, I have to tell you, have been a remarkable example of resilience and courage for all of us. They want and they deserve a path to justice, and I hope the President stops holding up Congress from voting to override the veto he promised on this legislation.”
McConnell made clear that the Senate would not recess until they override an Obama veto on JASTA. Obama could wait to Friday night for the veto, but McConnell said it was “safe to say” that the Senate would be in town next week.
Obama’s Clinical Insanity in Full View at UN General Assembly
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—In a speech which received no applause other than the polite response at the end, the mass killer Barack Obama focused his speech on his legacy—ranting about the great accomplishments of his eight years, describing himself as living up to Martin Luther King’s call on mankind to be “co-workers with God.”
The narcissist Obama said that since the end of the Cold War 25 years ago, the world is now “less violent and more prosperous than ever before.” He said that “the principles of open markets and accountable governance, of democracy and human rights and international law that we have forged remain the firmest foundation for human progress in this century,” then claiming that it is this globalization and the color revolution policies which are responsible for the fact that, “the number of people living in extreme poverty has been cut from nearly 40% of humanity to under 10%.” He made no reference to China bringing 700 million people out of poverty, nor to the Silk Road, the new financial institutions, or other aspects of the now operative new paradigm.
This puppet of the British Empire twice attacked Russia: “In a world that left the age of empire behind, we see Russia attempting to recover lost glory through force”; and, “If Russia continues to interfere in the affairs of its neighbors, it may be popular at home, it may fuel nationalist fervor for a time, but over time it is also going to diminish its stature and make its borders less secure.”
He laughed while saying that some people claimed that “the people of Ukraine” had taken to the streets “because of some plot imposed from abroad,” when the truth was that the people saw how prosperous Western Europeans were and wanted to join the EU (he failed to mention the current economic misery in Ukraine, let alone the $10 billion spent by the U.S. to forge an anti-Russia movement in league with neo-Nazis).
The Mideast, he admitted, was in a state of collapse, and he “explained” why—not, as the British Chilcot report and the House of Commons report on Libya have made clear, that the Bush/Obama criminal wars of aggression had driven them into the dark age, but rather because of their bad leaders, who were “persecuting political opposition, or demonizing other religious sects.”
And most outrageous, Obama described the U.S. not as the dying imperial power it is recognized to be around the world, but as “a rare superpower in human history insofar as it has been willing to think beyond narrow self-interest…. And as a consequence, I believe we have been a force for good.”
Obama Held UN Summit To Show Off His Fundraising for Millions of Refugees That He Created
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—This afternoon at the UN, President Obama presided over an event titled, “Leaders’ Summit on Refugees,” staged by the White House crowd for him to hold forth to decry the global refugee crisis—which his policies, and his remaining in office, are causing.
Representatives of various corporations and some 32 countries attended the event, co-hosted by Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, Jordan, Mexico, and Sweden. The media theme was for Obama to announce more money for aid to refugees. His star donor? The infamous George Soros. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed today, Soros said that he will invest $500 million for businesses—start-ups and expansions—by migrants and refugees.
Speakers at the dismal summit included European Council President Donald Tusk, who talked tough about ending “irregular migrants” in Europe; and David Miliband, CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and former British Foreign Secretary 2007-2010—serving during the time period when the British R2P warfare (“responsibility to protect”) was in full swing, displacing masses of people in Africa and Southwest Asia. Soros said he will work with Miliband’s IRC and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, to set an example for other investors in migrants.
Today’s event was concocted as a sick Obama legacy stunt, first announced in December 2015 by U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, one of the bloodiest R2P warriors in the Administration. Then in June, Susan Rice, Obama National Security Advisor, released details of the summit, saying that the goal would be to get a 30% increase in worldwide funding for migrants, and to double the rate of their permanent resettlement and right-to-work, etc. Funding pledges, besides that from Soros, have been announced this week from corporations, including Facebook, Twitter, Chobani (food), etc. A joint statement from the summit’s co-hosts lauded their own efforts, “We sought a $3 billion increase in global humanitarian financing and commitments to maintain funding in future years. Through our mutual efforts, over the course of 2016, the 32 donors participating today have contributed this year roughly $4.5 billion additional dollars to UN appeals … than in 2015.”
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
JSC Chairman General Dunford Practically Admits the U.S. Bombed the Syrian Army Intentionally
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, discussed the Sept. 17 U.S. bombing of the Syrian Army at Deir ez-Zor on Monday in a way which came very close to admitting that it was intentional—and said that the U.S. would do it again.
“Maybe before we start going on a path of ‘what went wrong,’ let’s do an investigation and actually ensure that something did go wrong,” he told reporters. Dunford said he would wait for the investigation to be completed to answer basic questions about what U.S. intelligence knew and did not know, noting that he wanted to learn things like what kind of uniforms the Syrians were using. In other words, maybe it was the Syrians’ fault: “It may be that … when you do the investigation, the facts would tell you that we would have done what we did again,” Dunford said, adding he would not have a clear picture without a proper investigation.
Journalist Danielle Ryan, writing in RT today, quotes former MI5 officer Annie Machon reminding us that former Deputy Director of the CIA Michael Morell, “had strongly advocated the U.S. kill both Russian and Syrian forces to scare Assad and Moscow. I’m wondering if there are elements within the U.S. power structure that are actually going ahead… [with] this sort of plan and bombing Assad’s military forces to scare him, to scare the Russians, to just try to make the point.”
Russia: No Sign of Russian or Syrian Bombs on the UN Aid Convoy, or of Al Nusra Offensive in Area
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—While the U.S. State Department simply declares that the Russians and/or the Syrians bombed the UN/Red Crescent aid convoy in Syria by air on Sept. 19, the evidence is quite otherwise. The official spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry Igor Konashenkov said today that “No airstrikes on the UN humanitarian convoy in the southwestern outskirt of Aleppo were carried out by the Russian or Syrian aviation.”
Furthermore, the video of the scene released by the militants indicates that the convoy was destroyed by fire rather than bombs, he said. “We carefully studied the video recordings of the so-called activists from the scene and found no signs that any munitions hit the convoy,” Konashenkov said, explaining that the vehicles manifest no destruction by the burst wave from an air-delivered munition. “Everything shown on the video is the direct consequence that the cargo caught fire and this began in a strange way, simultaneously with carrying out a massive offensive of militants in Aleppo,” he said.
Russia monitored the convoy by drone up until its delivery of its shipment, which was completed. “At about 13:40 Moscow time all cargoes were safely delivered to the final destination,” Konashenkov said. “After that the center for the reconciliation of warring factions in Syria stopped monitoring the convoy. The Russian side did not follow the convoy’s further movements. All information about the convoy’s whereabouts was known only to the militants who control these areas.”
The Syrian Arab Red Crescent said that the attack took place at their warehouse as the material was being unloaded.
The UN said it could not establish the circumstances of the incident now, but “various sources” confirm the fire was started from artillery weapons,” reported TASS.
Two senior State Department officials, however, declared that the perpetrator was either Russia or the Syria government, with no proof. State Department spokesman John Kirby went so far as to say that as a result, the U.S. “will reassess the future prospects for cooperation with Russia”—which is clearly the intent of those in the Administration who oppose any cooperation with Russia.
That would include Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, who said, “All the evidence we have points to the conclusion” that Russia and/or Syria committed the atrocity via air attack. With these headlines, the same CNN report then lets slip: “For now, there is no intelligence that specifically indicates Syrian aircraft or helicopters were in the area, though that type of information could later come to light, the official said.”
France’s Hollande Once Again Tries for Regime-Change Invasion into Syria
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—Failed French President François Hollande went before the UN General Assembly today to rant against the Syrian government, which he held responsible for all war and brutality occurring in that country. That included insisting on the lie that Damascus had used chemical weapons against civilians in Aleppo.
Hollande threatened that the Syrian government’s “foreign supporters”—i.e., Russia—must rein in Syria, or they would also bear responsibility for the divisions and fighting occurring.
Hollande said nothing about the U.S. coalition airstrike that killed over 60 Syrian soldiers last Saturday, but blamed the Syrian government for ending the ceasefire. France had protested as viciously as had Obama’s Samantha Power against Russia’s calling a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the U.S. coalition airstrike. Now Hollande demanded that the UNSC meet immediately on Syria, but not as “a theater for fools” evading responsibility; and not to protect a “regime” which is the cause of the problem, he pronounced.
The four points he insisted be adopted as policy there, come down to a barely-disguised repackaging of a proposal for an invasion of Syria: (1) a ceasefire must be imposed as the first precondition; (2) aid to Aleppo immediately delivered (i.e., no siege of the jihadis will be tolerated); (3) political negotiations resumed; and (4) those responsible for using chemical weapons—which he had just identified as the Syrian government—be punished.
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Italy’s Prime Minister Renzi Tells Bundesbank Chief To Fix Deutsche Bank
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi slammed Germany’s Bundesbank chief, Jens Weidmann, for telling Italy to cut its public debt, saying that instead Weidmann should fix the German banks, especially Deutsche Bank. Renzi told reporters in New York that Weidmann, “has an ungrateful job. I express my full solidarity, because he must face the big issue of German banks: we wish him to be successful. We give him a lovely hug for good work,” since “for a few dozens billion [in] non-performing loans in Italian banks, there are hundreds of billions of derivatives in German banks.”
Zero Hedge’s Tyler Durden seconded Renzi, writing yesterday that the potential $14 billion fine against Deutsche Bank, or the fact that it continues to be under-capitalized, or its potential failure to securitize $5.5 billion of corporate loans to off-load risk, are the least of its problems. The “elephant in the room,” of course, is its huge derivatives exposure, which, as Zero Hedge noted it had already revealed a few years ago, amounted to “$75 trillion at the time in gross notional derivatives, which, as we said then was about 20 times bigger than Germany’s GDP, and five times bigger than the entire economic output of the Eurozone.”
Zero Hedge says it was ignored at the time, but now “Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, ‘went there’ and slammed Deutsche Bank as the true ‘derivative problem’ facing Europe…. Renzi once again broke with the fine European tradition of ignoring the massively over-leveraged elephant in the room, and said on Monday that Germany’s central bank chief Jens Weidmann should concentrate on fixing the problems of his own country’s banks … that Weidmann needed to solve the problem of German banks which had ‘hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of billions of euros of derivatives’ on their books…. And while Renzi may be wrong about almost everything else, he is right about Deutsche Bank’s ‘hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of billions of euros of derivatives.’ ”
Durden puts the figure of Deutsche Bank’s derivatives pile at €42 trillion “to be precise.” He concludes, “what happens when, not if, another crisis flares up and one or more counter-parties to the bank’s trillions in various derivatives suddenly is unable to post margin, as its obligation becomes a pre-petition claim, sticking DB with the entire gross notional derivative amount and forcing the German giant to foot the gross, not net.” He adds that in 2013 the “elephant” might have once again been ignored, but 2016 is not 2013. Now Europe is splintering and “more disenchanted political leaders (because the ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’) will join Renzi in admitting that Europe’s emperor—Germany—and its mega bank, is not only naked but one needs scientific notation to express just how big its financial problems truly are.”
Italy’s Renzi Slams EU for Failing To Deal with Refugees and Start Africa Development Plan
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi slammed the European Union for its failure to deal with the refugees. He particularly hit at the EU’s ignoring Italy’s proposal for a plan for Africa, itself, which will help stem the tide of refugees trying to flee to Europe.
Speaking to the press on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Renzi said that “you don’t deal with populism by facing problems day by day,” but “the organic design is the [Italian] plan for Africa.” On this, if the EU “currently organizes seminars and interviews” and makes no decisions, “it means that Italy will go alone, on the issue of immigration and jobs in the African [refugees’] countries of origin.” This is more “a lost occasion for Europe, rather than a huge problem for Italy.”
Beyond nice words, however, the Italian plan for Africa is not a grand plan. For instance, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni visited Nigeria recently, and brought EU10 million in aid. The money was given to the Lake Chad Basin Committee, according to Italian press reports, and will presumably be spent for emergency aid. According to recent figures, the highest quota of current African refugees to Italy come from northeastern Nigeria, the area around Lake Chad, whose existing depression was severely aggravated by Boko Haram, which destroyed crops while retreating in front of government troops.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria John Campbell told a Washington audience last week that the famine in northern Nigeria might be worse than anything we have seen anywhere. The World Food Program has appealed for food aid for 14 million people in southern Africa, including 4.5 million in Nigeria.
However, Nigeria has barely received Western support in its military effort against Boko Haram, and an “Africa Plan” to turn the situation around involves much more than Italy can do under EU financial constraints. A decision must be taken to finance the feasibility and the construction of the original Italian Transaqua plan for a central African water and power infrastructure to revitalize Lake Chad and to create jobs and development.
SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Transporting Freight Underground, Maglev Being Considered
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—Whereas similar concepts like the “CargoCap” have so far failed in Germany, the idea of shifting freight transport to rail, but putting the railway underground to relieve the surface from traffic jams, is still being debated in Switzerland. There, the A1 highway is always packed by car and truck traffic, so the idea is to build a grid of underground tunnels for freight transport. “Cargo sous terrain,” it is called, and an initiative chaired by Peter Sutterluetti is campaigning for it. The idea has won some support among traffic planners who envisage an increase of cargo by 45% by 2030—which can no longer be handled by the highway grid, least of all by the A1. Spiegel Online, interestingly, reports on the underground cargo railway, but also manages to omit the maglev aspect of this Swiss project, as well as of the “CargoCap” predecessor in Germany.
Transportation innovations like these also attract people in other countries: A maglev source in Germany told this news service that the original German Transrapid team, which is now idle because there is no project in Germany, was approached from India recently, where there is genuine interest in building underground cargo transport systems for the “100 Smart Cities” program, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi features in his national infrastructure development program. Transport systems like these will also be featured alongside the better-known maglev systems like the Shinkansen, on the agenda of an international maglev conference in Berlin, next week.
