EDITORIAL

The Two Paradigms in Stark Contrast

Oct. 18 (EIRNS)—Intense meetings of European and American political and military leaders are taking place across Europe this week, discussing and planning wars—wars in Syria, in Iraq, in Yemen, in Ukraine. And underlying all these talks are Obama’s and London’s frantic efforts to get support for a war on Russia and China. Increasingly, European governments and/or leading institutions are resisting that madness, but provocations are being planned by Obama and his Defense Secretary Ash Carter that could kick-start an irreversible process towards war, threatening civilization itself with a nuclear holocaust.

Yet, the vast majority of the world is looking to China, Russia and India, who met last weekend with their BRICS partners Brazil and South Africa in Goa, India, kick-starting not war, but global development, with high-speed rail projects connecting nations through a World Land-Bridge; signing agreements for nuclear power construction and other infrastructure, collaboration in space exploration; and lifting the millions of poverty-stricken people in Asia, Africa and South America up to human standards of living, just as China has lifted 700 million souls out of poverty.

Which paradigm will determine the future of mankind? To a great extent, that will be determined in the United States. As the war party mobilizes its forces, and as the irreversible collapse of Deutsche Bank’s derivative-saturated assets spreads panic through the Western financial system, the wreckage of the Obama administration, and the hatred of the population for Obama and his clone Hillary Clinton, is only partially suppressed by the pornographic clown show being performed by the Presidential candidates and the sick media that are promoting it.

Elections, as envisioned by America’s Founding Fathers, were about more than choosing political representatives—they were a time for intelligent people to address and educate the citizenry on fundamental principles of natural law, and on the mission of the nation for the world’s future. That is the reason that Lyndon LaRouche’s campaigns for President over three decades had a deep and lasting impact on the nation, despite relatively few votes, and despite constant attacks from the government and from the media.

Never in the nation’s history have candidates been so reviled by the population as in the current election, although in many cases neither major candidate was qualified for the position. The population has only one choice—vote for principle, mobilize the citizenry for LaRouche’s ideas, his Four Laws, based on Alexander Hamilton’s profound discoveries, and a restoration of classical music and culture.

As Friedrich Schiller said, we must all be, at the same time, patriots of our nations and citizens of the world. In that way citizens of all nations can assist in the awesome task of reversing America’s descent into British Imperial Hell, and bring this once great nation into alignment with the paradigm of human progress.

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

German Banks, Now Leaders in Derivatives Trading, Should Return to Their Roots

Oct. 18 (EIRNS)—A report on worldwide trading of derivatives, from the German website Wallstreet:Online, titled, “Here Is Where the German Banks Are the World Leaders—Unfortunately,” shows the immediate necessity of a return to Glass-Steagall and implementation LaRouche’s Four Laws.

A bar graph of the bank-owned derivatives traded worldwide shows the derivatives trading of the top five nations:

• Germany: $881 billion
• U.K.: $713 billion
• Switzerland: $478 billion
• U.S.: $380 billion
• France: $174 billion
  (www.themotleyfool.com)

Most of the German derivatives are traded in London, not Germany’s financial capital in Frankfurt.

The German authors write, “German banks have a long history as a supporter of the real economy. Many large industrial companies have good relations with the most important banks, and can hope for capital allocations for their growth plans. For a long time this was the strength of the German financial sector.

“However, they wanted to emulate the big investment banks in New York and London, with results which are just about to concern us again.”

Wells Fargo’s New Chair Says No Change in Policies—Not if LaRouche Forces Have Their Way

Oct. 18 (EIRNS)—Disgraced Wells Fargo’s new CEO, Tim Sloan, told the American Banker in a June 2016 interview that Wells Fargo’s aggressive sales culture and “cross-selling” to customers was completely appropriate, and “is not going to change,” David Dayen reports today in The Intercept.

Sloan’s obtuseness to the fleecing of Wells Fargo’s customers, years after top bank executives knew that thousands of employees responded to the sales targets by generating fake accounts, shows that nothing but a mass movement for Glass-Steagall and LaRouche’s Four Laws will work.

Once again, the “Obama”/Justice Department script has been followed to the letter: Wells Fargo has been fined only $185 million; “investigations” from the Justice and Labor Departments, known for light treatment of bankers, are scheduled in the future—and Tim Sloan, who oversaw and defended these practices in June, was just appointed and remains CEO.

Dayen reports that the Los Angeles Times was exposing Wells Fargo’s practices, and the Los Angeles City Attorney had already filed suit by the time American Banker interviewed Sloan. Sloan was president and chief operating officer. Sloan made $2 million in annual salary, $6.5 million in stock awards, and another $1.5 million in restricted shares that vest at a future date.

It is time the American people got up on their hind legs again, as they did in the fight for JASTA to defeat the Saudis and their U.S. bought-off stooges in September, to drive Congress to enact Glass-Steagall and make LaRouche’s Four Laws U.S. policy again, and stop their impotent venting.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Is Mosul Operation Intended To Send ISIS Fighters to Raqqa To Fight Assad?

Oct. 18 (EIRNS)—According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the U.S.-backed operation to liberate Mosul, Iraq from two years of occupation by ISIS has left a corridor out of the city open. “As far as I know, the city has not been encircled completely,” he said, this morning during a joint press conference with the foreign minister of Paraguay. “I don’t know the reason for this, but I hope they were just unable to do so rather than unwilling. At least, the remaining corridor creates the risks that ISIS will leave Mosul and Iraq for Syria. If this happens and additional ISIS contingents turn up in Syria, where our forces have been operating at the request of the legitimate government, we will assess the situation and adopt political and military decisions. I hope that the U.S.-led coalition, which is actively involved in the operation to seize Mosul, will focus on this, too.”

Lavrov is not alone in his suspicion that the U.S. may have plans for the ISIS militants in Mosul other than simply killing them there. The Independent’s Robert Fisk reports that the Syrian army suspects that the U.S. intention is to drive ISIS out of Mosul in order to swamp Syria with the hordes of ISIS fighters who will flee their Iraqi capital in favor of their “mini-capital” of Raqqa inside Syria itself. Fisk reports that Syrian intelligence has already heard of demands by ISIS in Syria’s eastern Hasaka province for new electricity and water supplies in towns that it controls there, in preparation for an influx of ISIS fighters in Mosul. The same thing had happened earlier this year when Fallujah fell to U.S.-backed Iraqi forces and many of the ISIS fighters there fled to Syria. “In other words, if Mosul falls, the entire ISIS caliphate army could be directed against the Assad government and its allies a scenario which might cause some satisfaction in Washington,” writes Fisk.

Normandy Four Summit To Take Place In Berlin

Oct. 18 (EIRNS)—The leaders of France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia will meet in Berlin, Oct. 19, to discuss the settlement of the Ukraine crisis. The Ukrainian presidential office issued a statement confirming the meeting following a three-way phone call between French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. “Tomorrow the President [Vladimir Putin] will go to Berlin where he will hold talks with Merkel, Hollande and Poroshenko,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters this morning. Peskov clarified that President Putin is not going to Berlin in response to the escalating fighting in the Donbass.

Putin is going, in fact, even though the expectations for the meeting are low, as Peskov indicated. “Take a look at the Ukrainian presidential website and you will read there that Poroshenko, Merkel and Hollande have agreed to hold a Normandy format meeting on Oct. 19 for the purpose of forcing Russia into compliance with the Minsk Accords,” Peskov said. “That this wording has been used on the Ukrainian presidential website merely indicates how complicated the situation is and to what degree Kiev is not ready to honor with its own obligations under the Minsk Accords.” Putin, he stressed is, nonetheless, ready to do everything possible to push implementation of the Minsk agreements.

Poroshenko’s statement stressed the security part of the Minsk agreement, but Poroshenko also blames Russia for the political failure in the Donbass as well. “I am quite optimistic about Ukraine’s future, but not very optimistic about tomorrow’s meeting,” he said yesterday, during a joint press conference with the Norwegian prime minister. He claimed, incredibly, that “there are no internal problems” in Ukraine. “The only thing we need is free local elections in Donbass, which will conform to OSCE standards,” he said, but maintained it is impossible to hold these elections “as long as there are foreign troops there,” likely referring to the phantom Russian army of 30,000 troops in Donbass that the regime in Kiev has repeatedly claimed exists, even though nobody, including the OSCE monitoring mission, has ever seen them.

Did the USS Mason Defend Itself against Missiles That Weren’t There?

Oct. 18 (EIRNS)—Questions are arising as to whether missiles were ever actually fired at the guided missile destroyer USS Mason in the Bab al Mandab strait separating the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden off Yemen last week, particularly the third incident reported on Oct. 15. “There are still some aspects of this that we are trying to clarify for ourselves, given the threat to our—potential threat to our people.  And so this is still a situation we’re assessing closely,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters yesterday. “The way the systems work is that the Mason detects what it determines to be a threat to the ship itself.  In some instances, it may be that the—not able to determine the exact intent of that weapon or whoever fire—pulled the trigger on it.” The implication is that a malfunction may have occurred in the Mason’s Aegis combat system causing it to report threats that were not there.

This bares an eerie resemblance to the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, which President Lyndon Johnson used as the pretext to get the U.S. directly involved in the Vietnam War, even down to the same declaration of U.S. ships sailing in international waters to exercise “freedom of navigation” and the vow of retaliatory action should the threats continue. In at least one of the incidents in that case, the two U.S. ships involved came to the conclusion that they were firing at waves on the water during a stormy night, and not North Vietnamese patrol boats.

Russians Announce Bombing Pause In Aleppo

Oct. 18 (EIRNS)—Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced a new pause in air strikes against terrorist targets in Aleppo, this morning. The pause began at 10 a.m. Moscow time (07:00 UTC) and was to run for eight hours, ahead of a longer pause to begin on Oct. 20. Shoigu said that this morning’s pause will guarantee security of civilians leaving the city through six humanitarian corridors and to prepare casualty and medical evacuation from the eastern part of Aleppo. “We apply to the leadership of countries influencing on armed formations active in the eastern part of Aleppo with a proposal to convince their leaders to stop warfare and leave the city,” he said. Two additional corridors were to have been opened by Syrian troops for the withdrawal of armed insurgents to leave the city as well.

“We believe that the Russian initiative is to promote success of work held by military experts from different countries, which starts tomorrow in Geneva,” Shoigu said. The Russian Defense Ministry reported that the work in Geneva is mainly aimed at dividing terrorists from the “moderate opposition” and their withdrawal from the eastern part of Aleppo. A group of Russian military specialists have already arrived in Geneva.

Shoigu’s announcement of this morning, followed a briefing, yesterday by Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy, the chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff, who had announced, then, that the pause wouldn’t begin until Oct. 20. “We are prepared to cease fire and ensure the unhampered access of medical personnel to the city and ensure the evacuation of the injured and sick as soon as we get a request from humanitarian organizations,” he said, adding that Moscow is ready “to discuss any initiatives and proposals for a settlement in Aleppo.” Rudskoy stressed, however, that what the Russians were proposing was not a ceasefire, as that wouldn’t make any sense. Russian air strikes would still continue against efforts by the insurgents to break through to eastern Aleppo from their strongholds west of the city. He also charged that the insurgent groups are still receiving U.S.-made TOW anti-tank and other weapons from their backers.

Jan Egeland, advisor to UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura on humanitarian relief matters, told Sputnik, yesterday, that the UN is ready to move relief convoys, but he wasn’t sure if eight hours was enough time. “So as soon as all of the parties have agreed to it, it shouldn’t take us much time to start to evacuate wounded and give supplies to Aleppo,” he said. “We have prepared one [convoy] for this. And we do have supplies ready…. But there are many details that have to be sorted out because we will have to cross several front lines to do this operation.” UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said yesterday that “We will use whatever pause we have to do whatever we can. Obviously there is a need for a longer pause to get trucks in.”

The State Department responded with its usual cynicism. If the plan leads to “an eight-hour pause in the unremitting suffering of the people of Aleppo, that would be a good thing, but frankly it’s a bit too little, too late,” deputy spokesman Mark Toner said, yesterday.

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Is Abe Dropping His Re-Militarization Plan for Japan?

Oct. 18 (EIRNS)—The conservative Mainichi Shimbun reports today that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has decided not to submit the revised Constitution next year, as previously planned. The draft Constitution calls for changing Article 9—the article which forbids Japan from conducting war—so that Japan would be a “normal country,” as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe describes it. Abe has already declared a “reinterpretation” of the Constitution such that Japan could join the U.S. in a war on China, calling it an extension of “self-defense.”

But without the constitutional change this is not official. According to Mainichi—but, significantly, not reported in the other major press—“the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has effectively shelved a controversial draft for a new Constitution that it drew up in 2012. The decision was outlined at a full meeting of the party’s Headquarters for the Promotion of Revision to the Constitution on Oct. 18. ‘We are not considering submitting the draft as is or with parts cut out to the commissions on the Constitution (at both houses of the Diet),’ said Okiharu Yasuoka, chairman of the headquarters,” as reported in Mainichi.

If confirmed, this is a huge step back from Abe’s long-standing drive to throw out the “no war” pledge in the Constitution which was drafted after the World War II, overseen by Douglas MacArthur.

Abe has bucked Obama on relations with Russia (Putin is visiting Abe’s hometown of Yamaguchi in December), and maintained extensive economic relations with China, but has been a junior partner to Obama on the threat of war on China, which has aggravated relations with China. The constitutional revision is strongly opposed by both the opposition parties and much of the LDP, but Abe has tried to ram it through, up to this point. If this shift is confirmed, it will mark another blow to Obama and his neo-con backers.

Mainichi reports that the LDP party headquarters “is preparing to engage in debate on proposals including a draft constitution produced in 2005 that was more restrained than the 2012 version.”

India To Invest $15 Billion More in Nigeria and Will Be Repaid in Crude Oil Sales

Oct. 18 (EIRNS)—Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Dr. Ibe Kachikwu has negotiated a $15 billion investment with India on Oct. 17 whereby the Indian government would make an upfront payment to Nigeria for crude oil purchases, according to Lagos daily This Daytoday. The Nigerian government will sign this deal as the country’s oil production is also expected to rise by 22% to 2.2 million barrels per day by the end of this year. Kachikwu is currently on a three-day visit to India, engaged in concluding talks on the investments in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector in a bilateral meeting with Indian Petroleum Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan. India’s investment in Nigeria as of now is close to $10 billion.

As India’s oil consumption has begun to grow at a rapid pace, the government of Narendra Modi is engaged in diversifying its sources. Beside the Gulf countries, India has increased oil imports from Venezuela and Iran, and is now in discussion with Moscow for building a direct pipeline to bring in Russian oil to India. In October 2015, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari undertook a four-day official visit to India for the Third Summit of the India-Africa Forum. During that visit, he also held talks with the Modi with the aim to boost economic cooperation between Nigeria and India.

Last month, an Indian business delegation led by Indian Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari visited Abuja and met with President Buhari. Following the visit, the Indian delegation reported Buhari saying Nigeria would continue to expand its relationship with India in the areas of health, education, agriculture, technology and trade. “Buhari said Nigeria had over the years benefitted from the cooperation of the Asian country in trade and investment, agriculture, technology and the fight against terrorism,” This Day reported on Sept 28.

South African Analyst Explains the Importance of BRICS’ Role in Africa

Oct. 18 (EIRNS)—In an interview on the sideline of the Oct. 15-16 BRICS Summit in Goa, India, director of the South African BRICS Think Tank based in Johannesburg, Prof. Godfrey Netswera, explained the growing importance of the BRICS globally and its role in Africa to China’s official party daily Global Times. He criticized the West’s supposed “skepticism” about the BRICS, saying, “We are not surprised. We expect that the West will have a very negative attitude toward this development. The BRICS is a group representing historically marginalized societies—the so-called Third World or the Global South. … The group has been able to achieve something which other multilateral organizations established in the past have not been able to do and that is the establishment of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB). Institutionalization within the BRICS group is a very important priority.”

In explaining the role of South Africa being a member-nation in the BRICS group, Netswera said, “South Africa plays a very strategic role in BRICS. It represents the African region. When the BRICS nations speak, they do not speak only for themselves. They speak for the region in which they belong. South Africa has good elemental of legitimacy within the African Union and within the continent to represent the region,” continuing that “the inclusion of South Africa into BRICS will definitely raise Africa’s voice in the world.”  In the context of South Africa’s having the smallest economy among the five BRICS member-nations, Netswera said “the economy is important, but it is not the only consideration.”

“When the BRICS grouping came together, there was unhappiness with the functionality of other multilateral forums like the UN and the World Bank and specifically how the South has historically been treated,” Netswera told Global Times.