EDITORIAL
Obama, and the U.S. Economy, Are Crumbling—Will Obama Take the World Down With Him?
Oct. 11 (EIRNS)—The American people have recently shown an unusual and most welcome courage and optimism in crushing Obama’s open support for the sponsors of terrorism, overturning his veto of the JASTA bill, so that now legal suits can proceed against the Saudis for their role in the 9/11 assault on the U.S. Now, there is a concerted effort to crush that optimism and courage, by Obama and by the British, using their spokesmen and the whorish press to terrify the population into accepting a war on Russia and China. That effort can and must be exposed and defeated.
A mad dash for war has been launched since the JASTA victory, from Defense Secretary Ash Carter calling for a $1 trillion modernization of the U.S. nuclear stockpile to prepare to combat “Russian aggression,” from the British Defense Secretary and members of the House of Commons ranting that we must begin shooting down Russian planes in Syria now, to Obama personally pulling the rug out from under the Kerry-Lavrov ceasefire plan in Syria.
But Obama is finished, exposed as a failure in every way —the collapse of Obamacare, the collapse of productive employment, the exposure of his support for Saudi-sponsored terrorism, his role as a mass killer through his illegal “regime change” wars and his drone assassinations of men, women and children. Will he now take us to nuclear war, or will the American people regain their courage and optimism to remove him from office?
Russian and Chinese military leaders, meeting today at the 7th Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, sent out a bone-chilling warning that the Obama Administration is far advanced in preparing its forces for a first strike nuclear war against both nations. Naming the operative U.S. war doctrine, Prompt Global Strike, and pointing especially at the deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems along both the Russian and Chinese borders, Lt. Gen. Viktor Poznikhir of the Russian General Staff said: “Russia’s military experts say that the U.S. hopes to get a chance, due to possessing it [the missile defense system], to deliver a surprise missile-nuclear strike in any region of the world, including Russia and China, with no punishment.” Prompt Global Strike, he explained, is based on the fantasy that the new missile systems can take out the opponent’s capacity to respond to a first strike, by imposing disarming strikes on their nuclear forces.
At the same forum, Chinese Maj. Gen. Cai Jun of the Central Military Commission Joint Staff, said: “The implementation of the plans for developing the missile shield is destroying the strategic balance and stability, and also aggravating the situation in the sphere of global security. At present, the United States has powerful forces of general designation and also has considerable qualitative supremacy in the sphere of strategic nuclear forces. In aggregate, these components comprise modern armed forces, making it possible to implement the concept of a ‘Prompt Global Strike.’ ”
General Poznikhir added: “Russia is forced to take adequate response measures in order to prevent the U.S. and its allies from influencing the existing balance of forces in the sphere of strategic weapons. As far as we understand, our Chinese partners are acting in the same way.”
Is Obama such a narcissist that he believes he can demand that nuclear-armed Russia and China must back down to his war threats and his ongoing regime-change crimes across the globe?
Only the British could match Obama in war-mongering hysteria. The British House of Commons today held a special session on Syria, with Blairites and Tories alike demanding a war on Russia over Syria, comparing Russia’s war on terrorists in Syria to be the equivalent of the Nazi Holocaust.
Waiting for the imminent financial collapse before implementing Glass-Steagall is equally insane. The ongoing demise of the Western banking system is now the front-page story in every Western financial newspaper, to the point that leading “econo-quacks” such as Ken Rogoff of Harvard, are proposing negative 6% interest rates, looting the depositors and destroying what is left of honest commercial bankers. Such madness would succeed in fulfilling the IMF’s proposal over the past weekend to simply shut down all small and medium-size banks, letting the too-big-to-fail investment bankers run roughshod over the nation and the Western world.
Lyndon LaRouche identified this strategic and economic insanity as a concerted effort to confuse and demoralize the American population, which has recently acted with courage and pride in overriding Obama’s veto on the JASTA bill.
Add to that the “induced degeneracy,” as LaRouche called it, being foisted on the population through the filth of the presidential election. Even China’s official news agency Xinhua is shocked at the degeneracy of the campaign, writing in an editorial that the last debate “reflects the decay of U.S. politics and a deeply divided society.” Referencing the preoccupation with the Trump sex tapes and the parading of Bill Clinton’s sexual conquests during the debate, Xinhua concludes that the “energy of U.S. politics is being consumed by some drama and entertainment, and cannot be used to deal with core issues.”
Obama’s chosen successor Hillary Clinton was exposed today, for stating the obvious as early as 2014—that the Saudis and Qatar were “providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups.” And yet she, like Obama, continues to call for war on Russia and Syria—not the nations which support terrorism, but those being attacked by terrorists.
Obama could be removed now by a conscientious Congress, which would also transform the degenerate election process. The question is, will the failure to do so allow him to take the world down with him.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
House of Commons Holds Emergency Debate on Syria, as Tory MP Promotes War on Russia
Oct. 11 (EIRNS)—At the initiative of Tory Member of Parliament Andrew Mitchell, the British House of Commons today staged an “Emergency Parliamentary Debate,” allegedly on Syria, in which Mitchell and others used the venue to promote war with Russia.
An article published by Mitchell in today’s Daily Mirror, “Vladimir Putin’s Russia Acting Like Nazi Regime with Syria Hospital Air Strike,” set the histrionic tone of the “debate.” Today’s Guardian(U.K.) reported that Mitchell is being “advised” by former British military officials and by former CIA director Gen. David Petraeus (ret.), who have developed a proposal to track Russian jets from U.K. warships off the coast of Syria, and who call for a complete no-fly zone for Syrian helicopters over civilian areas. Mitchell himself told BBC Radio 4: “No one wants to see a firefight with Russia, no one wants to shoot down a Russian plane, but what we do say is that the international community has an avowed responsibility to protect and … if that means confronting Russian air power defensively … then we should do that.”
The Commons debate was quite a show. The 43 MPs from various parties who spoke were speaking to each other; the rest of the seats were empty. The scene was dominated by wild diatribes against Russia, and calls for the House of Commons to make up for its “mistake” of 2013, when it voted against military strikes on Syria, by imposing a no-fly zone (NFZ) now.
A notorious Blairite assured that many colleagues on these benches would support a motion for a NFZ. Others endorsed the proposal of a leader of the All-Party Friends of Syria group that Syrian and Russian military facilities be bombed every time they were alleged to have struck a civilian target.
At the conclusion, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson rose to respond. He expressed his pleasure that the debate today expressed a different resolution than in 2013. He spoke of “rebel-held areas” of Aleppo being viciously attacked by Russia, Syria, and the Hezbollah, and said that the Theresa May government does think there are advantages to bringing Russia before the International Criminal Court for war crimes.
Johnson agreed that Russia poses a general threat to “our international order,” and heatedly endorsed one MP’s call for demonstrations to be held outside of the Russian Embassy in London and others around the world. But he cautioned, that an NFZ requires shooting down planes and helicopters, and that must be worked through with the U.K. allies before it could be adopted—thus alluding to the target of the entire show: these insane British interests cannot bring about the global, thermonuclear war they are thirsting for without lining up the United States behind their insanity.
Russian Defense Officials in China: U.S. Global Missile Defense Scheme Is Preparation for War
Oct. 11 (EIRNS)—The Russians who spoke at the 7th Xiangshan Forum (see below) in Beijing today, reiterated their criticism of U.S. global missile defense plans, which, they say, are aimed not only at Russia, but at China, too. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told the conference that while Russia does not accept North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, it is equally concerned about the U.S. THAAD deployment to South Korea.
“[W]e are concerned about attempts of some countries to use the uneasy situation on the Korean Peninsula to boost their military presence in Northeast Asia, to deploy new and clearly excessive types of weapons in the sub-region,” Antonov said. Washington’s decision to deploy THAAD in South Korea “may lead to escalation of regional tensions, creation of additional hurdles for settlement of the whole range of problems on the Korean Peninsula,” he said. “Deployment of U.S. missile defense systems in South Korea clearly goes beyond the tasks of deterring ‘the North Korean threat.’ We do not have any doubts that U.S., with support of their allies, will continue to build up the potential of the Asia Pacific segment of their global missile system, which will inevitably lead to disruption of established strategic balances both in the Asia Pacific and beyond.”
First Deputy Head of the Main Operations Department at the Russian General Staff Viktor Poznikhir also spoke of this to the conference. He said, “The U.S. decision to create a global echeloned missile shield system is not linked with a response to missile threats from Iran and North Korea. It is conditioned primarily by the desire to achieve military supremacy over Russia and China.” He said, “Russia is forced to take adequate response measures in order to prevent the U.S. and its allies from influencing the existing balance of forces in the sphere of strategic weapons. As far as we understand, our Chinese partners are acting in the same way.”
Poznikhir charged that the U.S. BMD installation in Europe is a violation of the INF Treaty, because the Mk41 launchers installed in Romania, and to be installed in Poland, are capable of firing Tomahawk missiles. He brushed aside U.S. protests that the launchers don’t have the hardware or the software for Tomahawks, saying that the missing components could easily be re-installed.
“Russia’s military experts say that the U.S. hopes to get a chance due to possessing [the missile defense system] to deliver a surprise missile-nuclear strike in any region of the world, including Russia and China, with no punishment,” said Poznikhir. He explained that the means created as part of the Prompt Global Strike concept will allow carrying out disarming strikes on the nuclear forces.
Chinese Defense Officials Agree with Russia on War Threat from U.S. Global Missile Defense Scheme
Oct. 11 (EIRNS)—Chinese defense officials concurred with Russian leaders at the Xiangshan Forum this week that the U.S. global missile defense systems emplacement poses a war threat.
“The U.S. did not provide legally-binding guarantees that the missile defense system they are deploying in Europe would not be aimed against Russia. But at the same time it poses a real and direct threat to the Russian security,” said Maj. Gen. Cai Jun, the vice head of the China Central Military Commission Joint Staff Department’s warfare bureau, at the Forum in Beijing. “China and Russia have similar positions about strategic antiballistic missile systems and oppose attempts by any nation or group of nations to create such systems unilaterally at the expense of strategic international security.”
Cai Jun charged that U.S. missile defense plans are actually pushing some countries in the region closer to developing their own nuclear potentials. “The U.S. disregards the interests of the Asia-Pacific region’s countries in ensuring national security. In particular, by using the Korean Peninsula issue they accelerate the development of the missile defense system in the Asia-Pacific Region and comprehensively increase the possibilities of a defense system jointly with Japan,” he said. “The deployment of THAAD system in South Korea does not contribute to solving the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula. Still, the U.S. continues extending the scope of deploying missile systems that forces other countries to advance their missile-nuclear potential and increases the risk of regional conflicts.”
For the U.S., it’s all about global supremacy: “The implementation of the plans for developing the missile shield is destroying the strategic balance and stability and also aggravating the situation in the sphere of global security,” Cai went on. “At present, the United States has powerful forces of general designation and also has considerable qualitative supremacy in the sphere of strategic nuclear forces. In aggregate, these components comprise modern armed forces, making it possible to implement the concept of a ‘prompt global strike,’ ” Cai Jun said.
Putin Cancels Trip to Paris
Oct. 11 (EIRNS)—The Kremlin announced this morning that Russian President Vladimir Putin has cancelled his trip to Paris, which had been scheduled for Oct. 19. The cancellation followed comments by French President François Hollande, broadcast on Oct. 10, suggesting that he was considering refusing to meet with Putin because of Russian policy in Syria.
“The President has made a decision to cancel this visit” to Paris, Peskov told reporters at the Kremlin this morning, saying that it was due to the cancellation of cultural events that Putin was slated to attend in Paris as part of the trip. “From the very beginning of contacts with his French counterpart, President Putin noted that we would be ready to visit Paris at the time when this is suitable for Hollande. That’s why we wait till this suitable time comes, and the President [of Russia] will again consider the possibility of paying such a visit in case this issue is still on the agenda.”
The French are apparently putting an entirely different spin on the cancellation. France is furious at Moscow’s veto of the French resolution at the UN Security Council last weekend, calling for an immediate halt to Russian bombing of Aleppo, reports the Guardian.
Putin may still go to Berlin on Oct. 19, however, for a meeting of the Normandy Four—Russia, France, Germany, Ukraine—reports TASS. The possibility emerged, yesterday, when Yury Ushakov, an aide to Putin, said that such a meeting was being planned.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
New York Times Calls for End to U.S. Support of Saudis in Yemen
Oct. 11 (EIRNS)—The editorial board of the New York Times has found U.S. support of the Saudi genocide in Yemen too much to bear.
“Airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition that devastated a funeral in Yemen on Saturday make it clear that the United States must end its complicity in a civil war that has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in one of the world’s poorest countries and fueled extremism,” the Timessays in an editorial dated today. “It is within President Obama’s power to do so.”
“The administration insists its support for the coalition isn’t a ‘blank check.’ But so far it has offered only stern words in response to an ever widening list of coalition attacks on civilians and civilian facilities that under international law are not legitimate military targets,” the Times continues. “If the Saudis refuse to halt the carnage and resume negotiations on a political settlement, Mr. Obama should end military support. Otherwise, America could be implicated in war crimes and be dragged even deeper into the conflict.”
The Times editorial should be seen in the context of the anti-Saudi ferment building in the country over Saudi involvement in 9/11, from the exposure of the 28-page chapter of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 and the mobilization to override Obama’s veto of the JASTA bill.
Two Media Charge Obama as a War Criminal
Oct. 11 (EIRNS)—In two recent articles, Barack Obama has been charged as a war criminal. One is in the Indiana Daily Student by Lucas Robinson on Oct. 2, the other by Andrew Levine, a senior scholar from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), posted Oct. 7 onCounterPunch.
Both focus on Barack Obama’s violations of the Nuremberg statutes and the Geneva Convention. Both marvel at how Obama has been allowed to do this with impunity. Robinson focuses on (1) the Libya war and the murder so far of 100,000 civilians directly, the failed State, and the take-over of Libya by ISIS; (2) the failure of Obama to prosecute Bush-era criminals for Iraq; (3) the support of Obama for the war in Yemen by supplying unlimited weapons to Saudi Arabia, which is committing war crimes; (4) the weaponized drone program, which is characterized as Obama’s greatest crime.
Levine is more direct. In his article in CounterPunch, Levine marvels that Obama could get the Nobel Peace Prize. He characterizes Obama as “Steward in Chief of the American Empire.” He writes that Obama continued Bush’s Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and extended his “War On Terror into Pakistan, Libya, and Somalia, as well as Yemen, Syria, and elsewhere in the Middle East. He also became a terrorist himself and a serial killer—weaponized drones and special ops assassinations being the ‘weapons of choice.’ ”
Levine is focused on Hillary Clinton, who will carry on Obama’s war crimes. He points out that this time it will be against Russia and China! He opines that maybe not everybody would be onboard for World War III. His article is titled, “Needed Now: A Peace Movement against the Clinton Wars To Come.”
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Investing.com: Deutsche Bank Is Much Larger Than Lehman; Glass-Steagall Is ‘Imperative’
Oct. 11 (EIRNS)—A column today on Investing.com asserts that Deutsche Bank is much larger than Lehman Brothers, so Glass-Steagall is “imperative.” The article states, “To prevent additional DB-like issues, a return to Glass-Steagall regulation is imperative…. Soon after this legislation was repealed TBTF banks started emerging. With Glass-Steagall revived and the biggest banks divided into 10 smaller ones, the competition can once again return to the banking sector in a way not threatening the collapse of the system.”
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Xiangshan Forum on International Relations Urges that Only Development Can End the Chaos
Oct. 11 (EIRNS)—The 7th Xiangshan Forum in Beijing kicked off today, with its theme being “Build a New Type of International Relations through Security Dialogue and Cooperation”; it focused heavily on global security and terrorism. It is featured prominently on both Russian and Chinese English-language news sites. According to the forum’s organizers, there are over 400 people in attendance, including delegations from 59 countries, six international organizations, renowned politicians and experts.
Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan said in his opening remarks that the world today is going through unprecedented changes. He called for international cooperation for, “the creation of the new global security architecture.” He said, to reject the mindset of the new Cold War.
“On one hand, peace, development and win-win cooperation are the trend of the times, countries are more closely connected than ever before, and the rise of developing countries, especially emerging economies, is pushing the international power landscape toward equilibrium,” he said. “On the other hand, the global peace and development are faced with new threats and challenges, and we should keep close watch on some new tendencies in the international security situation.”
Chang linked security and development closely together. He said, “Wars, conflicts, terrorism and refugee crises can all find their roots in backward development, and the final solutions to those problems should also be sought through development.” In Chang’s opinion, the global strategic stability is under threat, evidenced by “certain countries enhancing military alliance in pursuit for absolute military dominance and seeking their own absolute security at the expense of other countries’ security.”
Russia Diversifies into the Yuan
Oct. 11 (EIRNS)—As of Oct. 1, the yuan was officially part of the basket of currencies comprising the reserve unit for SDRs, Special Drawing Rights, of the IMF. Russia in particular has seized on the yuan. The independent daily BRICS Post reports that the Russian branch of Bank of China has been seeing a growing number of customers, from corporate clients to Russian tourists and Chinese students.
The Bank of China launched yuan-denominated transactions in 2009. Since that time, the popularity and demand for the Chinese currency has been steadily increasing. On the one hand, the reason is that Russian companies need more yuan for payments. On the other hand, China’s stable economic growth is building up Russia’s confidence in the yuan.
“Today, we’re witnessing that yuan-denominated transactions are getting more and more popular in the Russian market,” Gao Yan, head of the Bank of China’s branch in Russia, told CCTV. Russia and China are also intensifying cooperation on payments in national currencies. For example, last year the sum of contracts including yuan at the Moscow Exchange topped 80 billion yuan. Over the past 20 years, the number of Chinese commercial banks operating in Russia reached four. In Russia, there are nearly 200 banks holding yuan-denominated correspondent accounts in Bank of China. Thus, the bank provides more services to Russian customers via its partners.
Over $3 trillion of trade is conducted in the five BRICS countries. China and Russia are also the largest purchasers of gold in the world.
SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Galactic Cosmic Radiation Causes Cognitive Impairment in Rats; Humans to Mars?
Oct. 11 (EIRNS)—It has been recognized for many years that exposure to radiation is a threat to the health of space travelers. Time on the International Space Station for each astronaut, where they are actually somewhat protected under the magnetic field of the Earth, is limited by the amount of exposure to radiation. Most of the concern has been the possibility of an increased risk of cancer. There have also been indications of reduced immune responses.
But recent experiments on rats, subjecting them to exposure to high-energy particles that are similar to the galactic cosmic rays people will encounter in space, resulted in cognitive impairment, long-term neurological damage, and diminished judgment—not exactly a good place to be when you land on Mars. The study was done by the University of California, Irvine, and results were published in the Nature Research Journal, Scientific Reports.
The researchers report that six months after the exposure, there were still significant levels of brain inflammation, and damage to neurons still present. They likened the symptoms to dementia. The researchers think dementia-like effects would take months in space to occur in the brain, but with the crazy Mars scenarios being pushed from the White House, and zealots like Elon Musk and Bob Zubrin, who seem to have no care at all for the health of the crew, many months to years in deep space using chemical propulsion is just what is being proposed.
The results from this study mirror findings that oncologist Charles Limoli from UCI found in brain cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and irradiation.
Although NASA is researching what he describes as partial solutions, such as providing areas in spacecraft with increased radiation shielding, lead researcher Limoli says, “there is really no escaping” highly energetic charged particles. “This is not positive news for astronauts deployed on a two-to-three year round trip to Mars,” he said.
Do you really want to send people to Mars who will have dementia when they get there? Or, alternatively, develop thermonuclear fusion propulsion technologies that get crew there before they are exposed to the dangers of deep space flight?
OTHER
Obama Op-Ed: ‘America Will Take Giant Leap to Mars’; Kesha Rogers: ‘Is This a Joke, or What!”
Oct. 11 (EIRNS)—Is this a joke, or what? LaRouchePAC Policy Committee space policy leader Kesha Rogers asked, when reviewing the op-ed posted today on CNN, by Barack Obama, titled, “America Will Take the Giant Leap to Mars.” Rogers wrote:
“If one needed more proof that Obama is going off the deep end, and of his future destructive plans to our nation’s space program, check out these comments by Obama in his signed article on CNN today.
“ ‘That’s one of the reasons why, in my first address as President to the American people, I vowed to return science to its rightful place. In our first few months, my administration made the largest single investment in basic research in our history, and I went to the Kennedy Space Center to call for reimagining and reinvigorating our space program to explore more of our solar system and look deeper into the universe than ever.
“ ‘In the years since, we’ve revitalized technology innovation at NASA, extended the life of the International Space Station, and helped American companies create private-sector jobs by capitalizing on the untapped potential of the space industry.’ ”
“Yeah right, and he did this in the same way that he has brought America the greatest economic recovery of any president, including FDR!
“Obama goes on to announce that, ‘This week, we’ll convene some of America’s leading scientists, engineers, innovators, and students in Pittsburgh to dream up ways to build on our progress and find the next frontiers. Just five years ago, U.S. companies were shut out of the global commercial launch market. Today, thanks to groundwork laid by the men and women of NASA, they own more than a third of it. More than 1,000 companies across nearly all 50 states are working on private space initiatives.’
“We have not gotten to the good part yet. He makes a mockery of President Kennedy’s visionary Moon landing mission, defaming the legacy of Kennedy by asserting: ‘We have set a clear goal vital to the next chapter of America’s story in space: sending humans to Mars by the 2030s and returning them safely to Earth, with the ultimate ambition to one day remain there for an extended time.’ This is after rejecting all policies and aspirations by our U.S. space leaders to join the growing call in the international community for the exploration and development of the Moon, which must be done, if you ever even hope later to get to Mars. Obama instead said about the Moon, at the urging of Buzz Aldrin: ‘Been there, done that.’
“The deeper insanity of the Obama Mars initiative is the reliance on the private sector to take over the job of our nation’s space program. Space X will get us to Mars? Yeah right!
“ ‘Getting to Mars will require continued cooperation between government and private innovators, and we’re already well on our way. Within the next two years, private companies will for the first time send astronauts to the International Space Station,’ Obama crowed. Of course, all that would mean that the government actually has a space exploration program…
“ ‘The next step is to reach beyond the bounds of Earth’s orbit. I’m excited to announce that we are working with our commercial partners to build new habitats that can sustain and transport astronauts on long-duration missions in deep space
