FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2016
Volume 3, Number 28
EIR Daily Alert Service
P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390
• Now, Pass Glass-Steagall!
• State Department’s Kirby Issues Threats and Ultimata against Russia
• Terrorist Attacks on Russia Sept. 30 Not Ruled Out
• Russia Sending Its Own Messages With Military Exercises
• India Carried Out ‘Surgical Strikes’ against Terrorists in the Pakistan-Administered Part of Kashmir
• JASTA Campaign Remains on the Offensive
• Glass-Steagall Is in the Air on Capitol Hill
• ECB President Mario Draghi and IMF’s Christine Lagarde Discuss Deutsche Bank: What Me Worry?
• U.S. Sues China at the World Trade Organization for Backing Its Farmers To Grow More Grain
• AIIB and ADB To Finance Infrastructure Projects in South Asia
• China Interested in Investing in India’s Nuclear Power Development
EDITORIAL
Now, Pass Glass-Steagall!
Sept. 29 (EIRNS)—Five days ago, EIR Founding Editor Lyndon LaRouche issued marching orders for the urgent tasks immediately facing the United States: “Override the JASTA (Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act) Veto; Oust Obama; Pass Glass-Steagall.” We reported at the time that “the next 72 hours are decisive for JASTA and Obama’s fate, and with it the fate of the United States and the planet.”
LaRouche was right. With yesterday’s humiliating defeat of Obama in the Senate and House votes to override his veto of the JASTA bill, the LaRouche forces achieved their first objective. “This looks good; this was a very good move!” Lyndon LaRouche commented today, adding, “This is now a closed item which cannot be reversed. It happened; it was right; and it is going to stick.”
This victory is already creating a fundamental strategic shift in the U.S. and internationally, one that the American population is only beginning to sense, and which is not displayed in the current Presidential election circus.
Pressing forward, the U.S. Congress must be organized to pass Glass-Steagall immediately, as the first step towards overall economic reorganization, before the entire trans-Atlantic system blows apart, and there is little time left to act: Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank, is sinking like a stone and is facing a massive speculative “shorting” assault by vulture funds and the likes of George Soros, who are betting that the German government can be forced to bail out the bank—i.e., the speculators holding short positions—to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. And Deutsche Bank is only the tip of the iceberg of the entire, derivatives-sodden trans-Atlantic banking system.
As for Obama and the fate that awaits him, LaRouche today forcefully reminded people to never forget Obama’s responsibility, not only for covering up and defending (like Bush before him) the British/Saudi terrorists who launched 9/11, but for the numbers of American citizens and others he executed during his Tuesday killing sprees—the secret meetings in the White House where he personally decided who would be killed by American drone strikes. These killings are characteristic of Obama, LaRouche stated, who is a butcher in the likeness of his step-father. Obama is a mass murderer in every scale; and yet people bowed down to him and admired his as an authority.
“Obama is really evil,” LaRouche said, and he has to be removed from office immediately. Obama represents a deep font of evil, who simply murdered many American citizens and others, and there was no significant response to oppose those crimes, LaRouche stated. Now, with what has begun with the JASTA override, this murderer of American citizens and others can be gotten rid of. “Those are the facts,” LaRouche insisted.
The politically-bloodied Obama has likewise decided to escalate his confrontation with Russia and China to the snapping point. Yesterday, State Department spokesman John Kirby threatened to unleash terrorism inside Russia, if Putin does not bow to Obama’s alliance with terrorists inside Syria. The Russian response to the threat was prompt, unflinching, and accurate: “We can’t consider it anything else but de facto support of terrorists by the U.S.,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stated.
Now that the American people, and their representatives in Washington, have a taste of how Obama’s evil policies can be stopped at a moment’s notice, it’s time to send him packing—and pass Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Glass-Steagall bill immediately.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
State Department’s Kirby Issues Threats and Ultimata against Russia
Sept. 29 (EIRNS)—State Department spokesman, retired Adm. John Kirby was in a froth yesterday over the failure of the Russians to do what the U.S. tells them to do in Syria, so much so, that he actually issued what can only be interpreted as threats and ultimata.
After explaining Secretary of State John Kerry’s warning earlier yesterday morning to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, that the U.S. was considering suspending U.S.-Russia dialogue on Syria, Kirby was asked what the consequences for Russia would be if it did not do as they were told.
“The consequences are that the civil war will continue in Syria, that extremists and extremist groups will continue to exploit the vacuums that are there in Syria to expand their operations, which will include, no question, attacks against Russian interests, perhaps even Russian cities, and Russia will continue to send troops home in body bags, and they will continue to lose resources—even, perhaps, more aircraft. The stability that they claim they seek in Syria will be ever more elusive….”
In Russia, Kirby’s statement is being seen very clearly as a threat against the Russian military and against Russia itself. “Once again we declare that we are fully prepared to continue the dialogue with the American side and carry on with the joint actions to combat terrorists in Syria,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said today. “However, even the slightest hints of a threat to our soldiers and Russian citizens must be excluded from this dialogue. The matter of safety of Russian citizens, wherever they may be, is not up for bargaining. It is our main and unconditional priority.” Konashenkov also issued a threat of his own. Regarding Kirby’s “threat of potential losses” to Russia in Syria, Konashenkov pointed out that Moscow is well aware of the whereabouts of American “experts involved in operational planning and supervision of the militants’ actions.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also hit back very hard at Kirby’s threat. “Don’t you think that such ventriloquism about ‘body bags,’ ‘terrorist attacks in Russian cities’ and ‘loss of aircraft,’ sounds more like a ‘get them’ command, rather than a diplomatic comment?” she asked on her Facebook page.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov was also uncompromising in his response to Kirby. There will be no more seven-day truces—because they allow the jihadis to regroup and rearm—and the failure of the diplomatic track “is going on due to Washington’s inability to fulfill its obligations and promises,” and is therefore on the conscience of decisions made by the U.S.
“We are outraged at the ultimatum-like tone of the signals that we are getting. Sometimes we even hear cynical threats against us and those who are really fighting terrorists in Syria. We can’t consider it anything else but de facto support of terrorists by the U.S.,” he said. Ryabkov called Washington’s threats “an emotional breakdown amid the inability of the Obama administration to implement its part of the agreements” on Syria. “The U.S. is in fact bringing grist to the terrorists’ mill providing them with undisguised support,” he stressed.
Terrorist Attacks on Russia Sept. 30 Not Ruled Out
Sept. 29 (EIRNS)—According to the Russian news agency TASS, the Russian Foreign Ministry does not rule out the possibility of terrorist attacks on Russian territory on Friday, Sept. 30. On that day, various Islamic organizations have called for a World Day of Rage Protests against Russian anti-terror efforts in Aleppo, Syria. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on Washington to share any information it has about the risk of terrorist attacks on Russia, in light of threats against Russia issued today by State Department spokesman John Kirby.
Russia Sending Its Own Messages With Military Exercises
Sept. 29 (EIRNS)—While the Obama Administration is issuing unveiled threats against Russia, the Russian military isn’t sitting around doing nothing. Central Military District air defense units, equipped with the S-400 Triumph air defense system, carried out live fire exercises in Buryatia this week, as part of a larger air defense and air force exercise. According to a Defense Ministry press release, they hit high-speed targets traveling at 1,200 meters per second (about 2,600 mph) at an altitude of 45 km, with six missiles. It should be noted that a unit of the S-400 system remains deployed at the Russian air base in Latakia, Syria.
At nearly the same time, tactical missile units in Russia’s Eastern Military District were carrying out exercises with their Iskander M short-range ballistic missiles, successfully engaging targets with two of them at the Kasputin Yar range in Astrakhan.
Really making the point, however, was the most recent test launch, also this week, of the Bulava submarine launched ballistic missile, when the Borei-class submarine Yuri Dolgorukiy salvo-launched two of them from the White Sea.
India Carried Out ‘Surgical Strikes’ against Terrorists in the Pakistan-Administered Part of Kashmir
Sept. 29 (EIRNS)—Retaliating against a terrorist attack on an Indian military base, Uri, located close to the Line of Control (LoC) that separates the Indian part of Jammu and Kashmir from the one Pakistan administers, Indian military carried out a surgical strike across the LoC on what India claims as the terrorist launch pads. The attack on Uri by terrorists, who came over from the Pakistani side, India said, killed 18 Indian soldiers and had put an enormous pressure on the Modi government in New Delhi.
The Indian Defense Ministry reported that “India conducted surgical strikes last night across the LoC to safeguard our nation. Significant casualties have been caused to terrorists and those trying to shield them. We don’t have a plan to further conduct such strikes. India has spoken to Pakistan,” Express News Service (ENS) reported. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attacks, saying “our desire for peace should not be interpreted as our weakness,” ANI news agency reported. The whole state of Jammu and Kashmir is claimed by both India and Pakistan, but it remains partially occupied by each nation.
While it is unlikely that the situation will be allowed to escalate in the short term, it is clear that the Modi government is effectively abandoning its earlier efforts to develop a friendly and mutually-beneficial relationship with Pakistan, opting instead for isolating that country.
India has already announced it will not attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), an organization set up in 1985 almost single-handedly by Rajiv Gandhi, and New Delhi has organized three other member-nations not to participate. It’s likely that the November SAARC Summit will be canceled, greatly weakening that organization. India has invited, not SAARC, but all members of the BIMSTEC nations (Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal, Sri Lanka) to attend the BRICS Summit scheduled to be held at Goa on Oct. 15-16.
In addition, Prime Minister Modi will be meeting with his cabinet to discuss the possibility of withdrawing the Most Favored Nation status from Pakistan and also to discuss possible modification of the Indus Waters Treaty, signed in 1960, which allows Pakistan to receive about 80% of the Indus River water, from the Indus River Water Basin, based in India.
U.S. ECONOMIC & POLITICAL
JASTA Campaign Remains on the Offensive
Sept. 29 (EIRNS)—After the humiliating defeat delivered to President Obama yesterday, many of the principal activists in the JASTA campaign remained on the offensive, escalating the organizing for Saudi Arabia’s full role in 9/11 terrorism to be unmasked, and punished.
Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) told The Hill yesterday right after the vote, that he was “so excited” about the outcome because he, along with Reps. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) and others, had worked for four years to declassify the 28 pages of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11; and those pages clearly indicate that then-Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and his wife funneled money to some of the hijackers, Jones stated. Now, with the JASTA bill law, the families, who have been in pain for so long, will be able to sue in U.S. courts to discover the full truth—“and they should sue,” Jones said.
At the point yesterday when the vote in the House achieved the two-thirds majority needed to override Obama’s veto, Representative Jones, who was on the floor of the House, turned to where many members of the families of 9/11 victims were seated in the gallery and applauded them. A number of other Congressmen then joined Jones in a moving tribute to everything the families had done to achieve victory.
Former Democratic Sen. Bob Graham (FL) was interviewed by National Public Radio today, and he also emphasized that what is known so far about the Saudi role in 9/11 is just the tip of the iceberg. There are troves of information about Saudi activity in New Jersey, Virginia and Florida which have been suppressed by the Obama and Bush administrations, Graham charged, which now must be brought to light. Graham, who had co-chaired the Joint Congressional Inquiry, whose 800-page report included the 28-page final chapter implicating the Saudi involvement in 9/11, characterized Obama’s argument invoking “sovereign immunity” against JASTA, as “disingenuous,” and said that what Obama had actually done was to give the Saudis “impunity.”
Terry Strada, national leader of the 9/11 Families & Survivors United for Justice Against Terrorism, was also interviewed briefly on the National Public Radio’s Diane Rehm show, where she blasted Obama’s arguments for vetoing the JASTA bill.
The international media generally admit that Obama suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of the American people, and their representatives in Washington. “Obama suffered a unique political blow,” wrote the Guardian. “Obama humiliated,” said Zero Hedge. “Congress Thwarts Obama,” was the Washington Post’s lead headline.
Glass-Steagall Is in the Air on Capitol Hill
Sept. 29 (EIRNS)—Glass-Steagall is clearly in the air in the U.S. Congress. It came up at least once during a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee on Sept. 28, when chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors Janet Yellen testified on the Federal Reserve’s supervision and regulation of the financial system.
About two-and-a-half hours into the hearing, Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) noted that, despite the Dodd-Frank law, enacted in 2010 in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, “we continue to hear calls to reinstate Glass-Steagall.” When she asked Yellen if reinstating Glass-Steagall were something that Congress should look at, Yellen said: “We’re trying to make sure that this can, these combinations [of commercial banks and investment banks] can operate in a safe-and-sound manner. I would say that [the revocation of Glass-Steagall] is not what was really responsible, at least in my opinion, for the financial crisis. In fact, most of the … some of the most serious problems took place in stand-alone investment banks, like Lehman and Bear Stearns that weren’t part of holding companies at all and now they’re subject to consolidated supervision which arguably is a safer system.”
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
ECB President Mario Draghi and IMF’s Christine Lagarde Discuss Deutsche Bank: What Me Worry?
Sept. 29 (EIRNS)—Two of the world’s leading financial authorities—Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, and Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the IMF—made complete asses of themselves in public comments yesterday about the plight of bankrupt Deutsche Bank.
Draghi testified before the German Bundestag, and was full of implausible denials that Deutsche Bank was in serious trouble. Draghi was particularly concerned to state, for the record, that whatever happens isn’t his fault. “If a bank represents a systemic threat, it cannot be because of low interest rates” such as those Draghi has instituted across Europe. “It has to be for other reasons,” Draghi stated. After listening to his testimony, Hans Michelbach, a parliamentarian from Bavaria’s Christian Social Union, told the Financial Times that Draghi was “not credible.”
The IMF’s Lagarde meanwhile told CNBC that “Deutsche Bank is a systemic important player in the global financial system. But, it’s on a solid base currently, and we are not at a stage in which I see the need for a government intervention.”
The German government continues to loudly proclaim that it won’t bail out Deutsche Bank, but it is now staring down the long barrel of the gun of a pack of speculators. Today’s New York Times reports that “Deutsche Bank Is the Darling of the Short-Sellers,” meaning that hedge funds and other international speculators are betting against Deutsche Bank, convinced that the German government will eventually have to bail it out to the tune of billions of dollars. The Times writes that “Deutsche Bank relies on volatile short-term loans to fund a risky portfolio of derivatives, securitized mortgages and other hard-to-sell assets.” It adds: “Traders say they believe that George Soros, known for his successful bet against the British pound in 1992, has the most money at stake in wagering that Deutsche Bank’s shares will continue to drop.”
If Deutsche Bank does blow out, would this be like the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy which unleashed the 2008 global financial meltdown?—RT asked British market analyst for CMC Markets, Michael Hewson. Not at all, Hewson responded. “Lehman Brothers wasn’t anywhere near as systemically important as Deutsche Bank is, which means there is no way to accurately measure what any ripple out effects might be, if investors lose confidence even more and Germany leaves the bank to its fate.”
U.S. Sues China at the World Trade Organization for Backing Its Farmers To Grow More Grain
Sept. 29 (EIRNS)—The Obama Administration on Sept. 13 launched an ugly trade penalty action against China in the World Trade Organization (WTO), charging China with the infraction of providing “excessive” government support to its farmers, so they will produce more rice, wheat and corn. U.S. officials are shrieking against China for exercising its sovereign right to feed its own people, instead of relying on “world markets”—WTO-lingo for trade dominated by the cartel wing of the London and Wall Street crowd.
In fact, the WTO itself is a lose-lose proposition for farmers and eaters everywhere. The WTO is long overdue for nullification. The reality is that right now, U.S. farmers themselves are in urgent need of government emergency intervention (floor prices, parity policy, debt moratoria) to stabilize their situation, but the Obama Administration is ignoring the crisis. Farmers are caught between low prices for their output, and high prices for inputs. Family-scale agriculture faces total destruction. Farmers have the highest suicide rate in the nation. The public’s food supply is at stake.
However, Obama officials—U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack—are hysterically blaming China for what is really a trans-Atlantic collapse.
NEW WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER
AIIB and ADB To Finance Infrastructure Projects in South Asia
Sept. 29 (EIRNS)—Bangladesh, Pakistan and Myanmar—all three South Asian nations with huge infrastructure deficits—have been identified by the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for transport and power projects.
Railway Gazette reported today that on Sept. 28, the ADB approved its largest ever railway investment and its biggest investment in Bangladesh— a $1.5 billion loan package to finance the construction of a 102 km line which will link the tourist town of Cox’s Bazar with the existing network at Dohazari. Construction of the 1676/1000 mm dual gauge line is expected to cost a total of $2 billion. Cox’s Bazar is located at the southeastern tip of Bangladesh on the Bay of Bengal and Dohazari is due north inland from Cox’s Bazar. The 1676/1000 mm dual gauge line will have 1000 mm (also known as the meter gauge) line within the wider 1676 mm railroad.
Reuters reported today that the AIIB has approved a $300 million package for expansion of a hydroelectric power plant in Pakistan and has approved $20 million for a power plant in Myanmar. Both these projects will be co-financed with other lenders. “With the approval of two new projects, we are well on our way to meeting our target to extend financing of $1.2 billion in 2016,” said AIIB President Jin Liqun.
SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTURE
China Interested in Investing in India’s Nuclear Power Development
Sept. 29 (EIRNS)—Prior to meeting at the Oct. 6-7 India-China Strategic Economic Dialogue forum, Beijing had shown interest in India’s nuclear power sector development. It was understood that nuclear power will dominate the two-day discussion, but the expressed interest by Beijing will not only benefit both countries in enhancing their efforts to develop clean energy, but could also act as a major confidence-building measure, Sputnik reported today.
The message was conveyed to India by China’s acting Ambassador to India, Liu Jinsong, who spoke at the Energy Research Centre of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
“Chinese companies have rich experience and safe technology in nuclear energy, and would like to take part in India’s civil nuclear energy projects… China understands India’s wish to develop clean energy, including nuclear energy, to adapt to climate change and contribute to global emission reduction,” Ambassador Liu said according to Indian media reports. He went on to say: “China and India are strategic partners. As we are building a closer developmental partnership, mutual political trust is crucial. Mutual political trust means not viewing each other as threats; it means better integrating each other’s development strategies, respecting and accommodating each other’s concerns, and constructively handling differences,” Sputnik quoted him as saying.
On June 12, the Deccan Herald had reported that New Delhi has indicated its willingness to start discussions with Beijing on the possibility of an inter-governmental agreement, which would provide a framework for India-China cooperation in the nuclear energy sector.
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