EDITORIAL

The Obama/Hillary War Policy Can Be Defeated

Nov. 3 (EIRNS)—A revolution is taking place in the world today. It started in Asia, where it is already far advanced, as China, Russia, India, and increasingly also Japan, are working together to achieve a development process for the world as a whole, based on science, innovative technologies, vast regional infrastructure projects, leaps forward in space exploration, and real development of the impoverished nations of Africa, Ibero-America and Asia. As indicated in the reports below, this day, like nearly every day in this new paradigm, has seen an incredible level of new collaborative projects launched by these Eurasian nations, among themselves and reaching out through joint development projects in the developing sector.

The impact of this revolution is now, finally, reaching into the United States, after making significant breakthroughs in Europe through the New Silk Road projects coming from China, reaching into both Eastern and Western Europe. This shift taking place in the U.S. can be traced directly to the work of statesman Lyndon LaRouche.

As the presidential election campaign developed over the past year, everything that Barack Obama had touched began to crumble. Obamacare—his disastrous Affordable Care Act— was exposed as the disaster LaRouche had warned it would be. The Nobel Peace Prize recipient has been exposed as a mass killer aligned with terrorist forces across Southwest Asia to overthrow sovereign governments. The President who was going to clean up the mess on Wall Street left by George W. Bush is exposed as having refused to prosecute a single banker, even as the crimes of Wells Fargo, the drug money-laundering of HSBC, and the return of a speculative derivative bubble at JPMorgan Chase and all the other too-big-to-fail banks stand clearly before the public eye. The President who pledged to bring “Hope and Change” has created the biggest drug epidemic in the nation’s history, to a youth generation which has lost hope for a future, and to millions of working people who have lost hope, choosing drugs or suicide or both.

Hillary Clinton chose to campaign on that record, adding to it her desire to start a military confrontation with Russia, which is obvious to all but the blind to be a rush to global nuclear annihilation.

But things have changed over the past weeks. Many people questioned LaRouche’s refusal to choose sides in this election, but rather to insist that his supporters work instead to introduce serious policies into a campaign that was almost entirely a disgusting, pornographic cat fight. This had to begin with Glass-Steagall, he insisted, to shut down the Wall Street casino economy and restore Hamiltonian credit policies to the nation. This meant directing federal credit, through a restored National Bank of the United States to replace the bankrupt Federal Reserve system, to fund a science-driven economic transformation of the nation, centered on the revival of NASA’s space exploration, fusion power development, and a vast hard and soft infrastructure program—what he calls his Four Laws.

Now Donald Trump has called for adoption of the 21st Century Glass-Steagall act, denouncing Hillary’s (and Obama’s) subservience to Wall Street. He has gone beyond proposing cooperation with Russia to crush ISIS, which was notable but inadequate, to sound the warning that electing Hillary will mean a nuclear war.

Both these issues are identified internationally with Lyndon LaRouche. His effort to introduce reality into the campaign has had an impact, which can and must prevent war and begin the reform of the collapsing trans-Atlantic economies.

LaRouche today addressed this new potential, but warned that this is not a time to “let our voices drift downward,” to fall for tailing after a candidate, but to escalate the fight for a revolutionary policy shift in America, and to be ready to act on Nov. 9, no matter who wins the election, to implement Glass-Steagall and the Four Laws.

At a moment like this, when the world will change dramatically for better or for ill in the immediate period ahead, there is no room for pessimism or pragmatism, and no reason to allow fear to deter us. The new paradigm is spreading across the world. America, in restoring its founding principles, can also end the British imperial “unipolar world” mentality that has taken hold in the United States, and join in building a world of sovereign nations working together for the common aims of mankind.

U.S. ECONOMIC & POLITICAL

Hillary Clinton Is More Dangerous with the Nuclear Button than Trump

Nov. 3 (EIRNS)—Christopher Layne, University Distinguished Professor of International Affairs and Robert M. Gates Chair in National Security at Texas A&M University, makes the case, in an Oct. 31 article in The National Interest, that, in reality, Hillary Clinton’s views on nuclear weapons policy are at least as dangerous (if not more so—ed.) as Donald Trump’s. Layne, in effect, argues that while Trump may not know what he’s talking about, Clinton is fully committed to the policies that have already brought us to the brink.

Layne starts out his argument by delving into the history of “direct deterrence,” that is, using nuclear weapons to deter an attack on the homeland, and “extended deterrence,” using nuclear weapons to prevent an attack on allies. Extended deterrence is much more problematic, because it is, in effect, a promise to commit suicide to protect an ally, which no one has ever really believed the U.S. would do. As French President Charles de Gaulle famously told U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1961, Europe could never believe that the United States really would risk the destruction of New York in order to save Paris. Layne clearly demonstrates that it makes no sense for the U.S. to go to war to protect allies that might, because of the U.S. nuclear umbrella, behave in a way that provokes attack by Russia or China.

In the case of Estonia, Layne reports that several years ago at a conference in Sweden, an Estonian diplomat was asked whether or not his government was worried that its treatment of its Russian minority might provoke a military intervention by Moscow. He said his government didn’t worry about either a Russian intervention or about changing its policies, because the U.S. would protect it, regardless.

The situation regarding the China-Japan dispute over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands is even more dangerous, not because these islands have any intrinsic value to U.S. interests—they don’t—but because of the U.S. security alliance with Japan. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said more than once, the United States was obligated to go to the defense of Japan if war were to break out between the two countries over what Layne describes as “a bunch of piss ant rock piles in the East China Sea.” It would be “the height of folly to commit the United States to risk a possible nuclear war to defend them. The fact that Hillary Clinton has done so raises troubling questions about her foreign policy judgment.”

“Extended nuclear deterrence is an old-think approach to American grand strategy that fails to acknowledge that today’s world is one of profound geopolitical change. The halcyon days of unipolarity and American primacy are over,” Layne concludes.

Wall Street Journal Reveals Open Warfare between the FBI and the Justice Department

Nov. 3 (EIRNS)—A front-page Wall Street Journal article today, picked up in press everywhere, reports that recorded conversations from yet another investigation about deals between the Clinton Foundation and contributors, giving favors from Hillary Clinton’s State Department in return for large donations, provoked an investigation from the Brooklyn FBI office.

In February, a meeting was held in Washington, D.C. among the FBI agents involved in the investigation, the Justice Department’s (DOJ) public-integrity prosecutors, and the head of the DOJ’s criminal division Leslie Caldwell. The public-integrity people did not agree that the evidence was sufficient for an investigation, and DOJ ordered the FBI to “stand down,” with a message to all offices involved, according to an unnamed source. The FBI believed it had good evidence, beyond the material from Peter Schweizer of Breitbart, author of the video documentary “Clinton Cash,” saying it had at least two informants.

On Aug. 12, a “senior DOJ official called the FBI deputy director, Mr. McCabe, to say the agents in New York seemed to be disregarding or disobeying their instructions,” writes the Journal. McCabe asked: “Are you telling me that I need to shut down a validly predicated investigation?” The DOJ official said, “Of course not.”

Several sources in the intelligence community report that FBI Director James Comey made the renewed investigation of Hillary Clinton public, in part because of the rage within the FBI over his dropping the investigation of her emails last July.

Productivity Continues Dropping in Obama’s ‘Recovered’ Economy

Nov. 3 (EIRNS)—Hidden by the celebration of the “roaring” 2.9% annual rate of GDP growth in the third quarter, labor productivity in the U.S. economy has dropped outright for two consecutive years through that quarter. During the Obama Administration from 2010-2016, productivity growth has averaged just one-quarter of 1% per year, easily the slowest ever recorded for a five-year period, according to the report from the St. Louis Federal Reserve. This again underlines the failed—perhaps intentionally failed—character of Obama’s 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment (“Stimulus”) Act. The tax cuts and pothole fixes under that act, which were given the fake term “infrastructure investments,” had zero effect in advancing productivity in the economy.

Associated with this has been the lack of business capital investment—the Commerce Department’s fixed capital investment fell 1.4% in the year end, Sept. 30, a measure which in China’s latest reports grew 10.4% in the past year. The U.S. economy is exhibiting declining capital per worker. Multifactor productivity growth has been negative since 2013 for both durable goods and non-durable goods production, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). For the latter (production of non-durables, such as food, clothes, chemicals, plastics, paper products) multifactor productivity has dropped by a very large amount, falling 8% since 2009.

Another indication of this falling capital investment was the Commerce Department report that core durable goods orders were down in September (relative to one year earlier) for the 21st consecutive month. This category, minus defense and aircraft orders, which is considered to reflect business capital investment directly, was down 3.6% from September 2015. Nationally, capital investment by both business and governments, is about 3% of GDP, very close to an all-time low.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Retired General: U.S. Must Reopen Channels of Communication With Moscow

Nov. 3 (EIRNS)—In an opinion piece published by CNN Oct. 28, Peter Zwack, a retired brigadier general who is now the Senior Russia-Eurasia Fellow for the National Defense University’s Institute for National Security Studies, called for reopening the dialogue between Washington and Moscow that existed during the Cold War. The military tension between the U.S. and Russia “is taking place against the backdrop of the withering of long-standing arms control regimens,” Zwack reports, pointing out that the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program and the ABM Treaty have already been cancelled—though he fails to note that the ABM Treaty was cancelled by the U.S.—and that several other arms control treaties are being questioned.

“This is important—and tragic—because besides reducing and regulating dangerous weapons and warheads, these treaties and conventions, built over decades of hard negotiation, were a key confidence-building measure during the Cold War and breakup of the Soviet Union,” Zwack writes. “Today, that confidence-building cushion is dangerously ‘bone-on-bone’ and must be rejuvenated before the whole process collapses and we enter an all-out arms race.”

Chilcot Testifies in Parliament on Blair’s Role in Taking the U.K. to War in Iraq

Nov. 3 (EIRNS)—Sir John Chilcot, author of the Chilcot Report that gave damning evidence of Tony Blair’s duplicity in bringing Great Britain into the war against Iraq in 2003, testified in Parliament for the first time since his report was released last July. Speaking to the Commons Liaison Committee, he was just as damning in his testimony as in the report.

He accused Blair’s cabinet of having been a “sofa government” which was under Blair’s “psychological dominance.” Furthermore Blair did not consult his “sofa government” ministers on crucial decisions. He added that on several occasions between 2002 and 2007, “things were decided without reference to cabinet,” including the legal basis on which the U.K. went to war in 2003 against Iraq.

One of the couch potatoes was apparently then-Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. Chilcot said when he asked Straw, why the cabinet had not “provided more of a challenge” to Blair or demanded more information, Straw replied, “The answer that came back was that Tony Blair had, as leader of the opposition and in government, rescued his party from a dire predicament. I had the sense from Straw’s answer that he had achieved a personal and political dominance, a sheer psychological dominance. He [Blair] had been right. Was he not right this time? That’s what I took from Mr. Straw’s evidence.”

Another point raised was a private note sent on July 28, 2002 in which Blair promised then U.S. President George W Bush: “I will be with you, whatever.” Chilcot said the cabinet was never told about the note which committed the government to “whatever.” Only Jonathan Powell—Blair’s chief of staff—and David Manning—the U.K.’s ambassador to the U.S.—were aware of its existence. “Both tried to persuade him [Blair] not to use those form of words. But he did,” Chilcot said. Straw found out about it only after it had been issued.

While saying that Saddam Hussein’s government was “barbaric and beyond any kind of defense,” Chilcot said “That didn’t amount either in international law or other grounds for the invasion of a sovereign country. We haven’t been in that business since 1945.” (Chilcot did not mention Egypt in 1956.)

While Chilcot absolved Blair of the charge that he had deliberately set out to “deceive Parliament and the public,” he asserted that Blair nonetheless was to blame in that he used his “very real powers of advocacy and persuasion” in support of a dubious case for war. Furthermore he said Blair “overestimated” his ability to influence U.S. decision-making on Iraq, and that it was clear by the end of 2002 that the military timetable had taken control of the diplomatic process.

Russia and China Are Elaborating a Deterrence Policy

Nov. 3 (EIRNS)—Russia and China have become factors of the world’s strategic stability, Director of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies of Russia’s Academy of Sciences Sergey Luzyanin said at a news conference on Nov. 2 in Moscow. He was elaborating on the Nov. 7 21st Regular Meeting between Chinese and Russian Prime Ministers to be attended by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in St. Petersburg.

Formally, the St. Petersburg conference is designed for the signing of agreements between the two countries to expand achievements in strategic areas such as energy, high-speed railways, and civil aviation development.

Answering a question from TASS, Luzyanin said: “The theme is not being discussed much nowadays. However, Russia and China are factors of the world’s strategic stability today. No one says openly that Moscow and Beijing are carrying out deterrence. Nonetheless, everybody realizes it and realizes that the deterrence is carried out in the name of stability, development, and peace.” The expert said that at the talks with Russia’s leaders, Li Keqiang “will raise the issues of the world’s stability along with development and strengthening of Russian-Chinese cooperation in defense technologies.”

In addition, Luzyanin said: “The Russian and Chinese prime ministers are expected to tackle cooperation in defense technologies at their detailed negotiations. Taking into regard the serious international situation and the West’s colossal pressure over the Ukraine and Syria crises, cooperation in defense technologies will be on the table at the talks,” Luzyanin said.

NEW WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER

Japanese and Chinese Companies To Collaborate on Third Country Projects

Nov. 3 (EIRNS)—In a meeting which indicates further moves by Japan to break out of the Obama confrontation with China, leaders from Japanese and Chinese companies met for two days in Beijing. A joint statement has been issued that says that they will further enhance collaboration on projects in third countries, including infrastructure development in Asia and the promotion of the One Belt, One Road policy, Japan’s Jiji news agency reported today. This meeting took place after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Xi Jinping had agreed in September that strong cooperation between the world’s second- and third-largest economies is vital not only for their prosperity but also for that of the rest of the world, the Japan Timesnoted.

At the conference, two major issues were addressed:  the necessity to improve China-Japan relations, and to promote strong collaboration between the Japan-led Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in developing infrastructure of third countries. On Nov. 2, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang and former Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Zeng Peiyan had addressed the assembled businessmen, during which Li said, “Frankly speaking, the foundation of China-Japan relations is not solid enough, although exchanges and cooperation in a range of fields have been on the rise…. It is necessary for both sides to make more and more efforts.” Addressing the same issue, Zeng told the meeting that “China-Japan relations are now in the middle of toiling up a mountain path. If not moving forward, they could come down, and they are at a crucial period,” Japan Times reported.

The meeting, attended by some 60 corporate executives, was arranged by the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), Japan’s largest business lobby, and the China Center for International Economic Exchanges. Among those who attended the conference were Canon Inc., Nomura Holdings Inc., Dongfeng Motor Corp., and Bank of China Ltd. Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda was also there. The delegation from Tokyo was headed by Sadayuki Sakakibara, chairman of the Keidanren business lobby, Japan Times reported.

SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTURE

Test Launch of China’s New and Largest Rocket a Success

Nov. 3 (EIRNS)—The test launch of China’s new Long March 5 rocket this evening was a complete success. Liftoff took place at 8:43 p.m. local time (12:43 UTC), and nine minutes later, the launcher’s first stage put the rocket, with its payload attached, into orbit. The rocket’s second stage adjusted its orbit, and a critical moment was the second ignition of the second stage engine, needed to raise the orbit. The last event of the sequence, was the ignition of the upper-stage engine attached to the payload to boost it into geosynchronous orbit, which it reached 20 minutes after the launch. Each step in the sequence went according to plan. The payload itself, the Shijian-17 satellite, is an ion-propulsion-technology experiment. For this test, the payload was experimental and only secondary; engineers would not risk the loss of a high-valued satellite on a test launch.

The live CCTV coverage included a discussion with top Chinese space professionals, who explained that this test was crucial, in order for China to move ahead with its space station and Chang’e-5 lunar sample return mission. Asked what the benefits of the mission are, the quick response was “colonization.” Prof. Yang Yuguang, of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp., mentioned the development of new alloys, more advanced welding techniques, and failure detection systems, which all have Earth applications.

Asked about future programs, they mentioned consideration of manned lunar missions, in addition to missions to asteroids and to the surface of Mars. Asked if the two astronauts currently on the Shenzhou-11 mission could see the launch, it was explained that they are in a much higher orbit, and probably not. The experts explained that there is “extreme caution” used in such a first test launch, with video taken so that any fault can be analyzed.

The Long March 5, one of the new generation of more advanced Chinese launchers, was in development for about 15 years, and had its problems along the way. But, as Western commentators note, the Chinese are not in any hurry, and launch when they are ready.

Reflecting the “science driver” aspect of the launch, Meng Fanxin, deputy general manager of the Tianjin branch of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., one of the designers of the Long March-5, told Global Times: “The rocket is a big step forward for not only China’s aerospace industry but will also boost the development of the country’s whole industrial system.”

OTHER

Greece Blocks EU Sanctions on Iran’s Largest Bank

Nov. 3 (EIRNS)—The Greek government has vetoed an attempt to keep the Iranian Bank Saderat on a European Union sanctions list, provoking rage among certain Anglo-American and French circles. Bank Sederat, Iran’s largest bank, was put on a sanctions list for allegedly financing terrorist organizations. The bank had taken the issue to the European Court of Justice on the grounds that the EU presented insufficient proof, and last April it won its case.

Nonetheless, both the British and French (and the U.S. in the background) pushed to keep sanctions on the bank until 2023 despite the court decision. In a vote that took place last month, Greece was the only country of the EU’s 27 members to veto this proposal. There is an EU court decision and it should be respected, a senior Greek Foreign Ministry official told the Wall Street Journal.

The background to this is the Obama Administration’s double-talk on Iran sanctions, despite Iran having reached an agreement over its nuclear program. While it has publicly encouraged European banks to start working again with Iranian firms, the U.S. still has not lifted its own sanctions that restrict American companies from doing business with Iran. It has also cooked up other reasons, including alleged terror financing, to put Iranian firms and banks on sanctions list.

This has frightened many European companies from dealing with Iran. But the Athens government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has made a big effort to promote economic relations with Iran as part of its policy of increasing ties to the BRICS and allied nations. Last February, Tsipras led a Greek delegation to Iran that included 50 representatives of some of the country’s top companies. At the end of September, as a follow-up to Tsipras’s visit to Iran, Central Bank of Iran Chief Valiollah Seif led a delegation to Athens where he met with Greek Vice President Yannis Dragasakis, who is overseeing the reconstruction of Greece’s fragile banking system.