EDITORIAL

Best of Times, Worst of Times

Dec. 13 (EIRNS)—Friedrich Schiller spoke of those who seek the truth through beauty. Shelley spoke of those revolutionary moments in history when average people become capable of comprehending profound truths about man and nature.

We are now at such a time. Terrorism is on the run; the Chinese and the Russians are building great projects around the world, and the populations in the West are demonstrating through elections, one after another, that they will no longer tolerate the economic decay, nor the perpetual “regime change” warfare.

And yet the discredited leadership of the old paradigm, pretending that they still have their lost power, are desperately trying to provoke a world war. The level of pure hysteria is truly astonishing. If one were to believe Obama, or Angela Merkel, or the British leadership, defeating al-Qaeda in Aleppo is a genocidal disaster; the U.S. election was stolen from Obama’s clone Hillary Clinton by Vladimir Putin; Putin is now moving to steal the German election; and global warming is going to destroy the world unless we stop human progress.

Recall that EIR reported in June that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the press, “A severe cyber attack may be classified as a case for the Alliance. Then NATO can and must react. How, that will depend on the severity of the attack”—i.e., NATO may respond to a hacking attack with conventional weapons, or nuclear weapons, under NATO Article V.

In hearing the swan songs of these neocon imperial lords, recall the “Big Lie” of Joseph Goebbels: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.”

We have been told a million times that it is “known” that the Russians hacked Western computers in order to undermine Western “democracy” and elect Donald Trump. Trump is absolutely correct to ask how anyone can believe such nonsense after the same corrupted elements of the intelligence community assured us of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, launching the genocidal Hell of the past 13 years in the Mideast; and also assured the U.S. Congress that the National Security Agency carried out no mass surveillance of the U.S. citizenry, as James Clapper did before the Snowden revelations—the same James Clapper whom Obama has called upon to “investigate” Russian “subversion” of the U.S. electoral process.

There is no question that a growing number of people across the Western world—both political leaders and average citizens—are recognizing the evil of the old paradigm, and are choosing to do good in the face of evil. The world is being renewed by the New Silk Road process launched by China, working with the Eurasian Economic Union, ASEAN, the BRICS, the SCO,—over 100 nations across Eurasia, Africa, and Ibero-America who want to create a future for their nations and for the world as a whole. America and the EU are not excluded from the process—they are intentionally isolating themselves; denying their own populations the right to take part in this revolutionary new paradigm for the development of our planet and our universe.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Veteran Intelligence Professionals: Emails Were ‘Leaked,’ Not ‘Hacked’

Dec. 13 (EIRNS)—The claims of the CIA and others who charge that Russian President Vladimir Putin and others “hacked” the U.S. election with the goal of defeating Hillary Clinton, are “evidence free,” the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) show in a memorandum “U.S. Intel Vets Dispute Russia Hacking Claims,” released today.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence also stated publicly today that it does not support the CIA’s claimed conclusions.

The VIPS memo states: “We draw on decades of senior-level experience—with emphasis on cyber-intelligence and security—to cut through uninformed, largely partisan fog. We have gone through the various claims about hacking. For us, it is child’s play to dismiss them. The email disclosures in question are the result of a leak, not a hack.

“All signs point to leaking, not hacking. If hacking were involved, the National Security Agency would know it—and know both the sender and the recipient. In short, leaking requires physically removing data—on a thumb drive, for example—the only way such data can be copied and removed, with no electronic trace of what has left the server via a physical storage device.”

When hacking is involved, “the NSA is able to identify both the sender and the recipient involved.” Because of the Snowden releases, the VIPS “can provide a full picture of NSA’s extensive domestic data-collection network … which include at least 30 companies in the U.S. operating the fiber networks that carry Public Switched Telephone Network as well as the World Wide Web. This gives NSA unparalleled access to data flowing within the U.S. and data going out to the rest of the world, as well as data transiting the U.S.

“In other words, any data that is passed from the servers of the Democratic National Committee or of Hillary Rodham Clinton—or any other server in the U.S.—is collected by the NSA. These data transfers are broken down into smaller segments called ‘packets,’ which enable the transfer to be traced and followed through the network….

“These collection resources are extensive; they include hundreds of trace route programs that trace the path of packets going across the network and tens of thousands of hardware and software implants in switches and servers that manage the network. The bottom line is that the NSA would know where and how any ‘hacked’ emails from the DNC, HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton] or any other servers were routed through the network….”

The VIPS point out that the statements of the anonymous intelligence agency spokesmen are “equivocating”—they say things like “our best guess” or “our opinion,” etc. This shows, they say, that the emails alleged to have been “hacked” cannot be traced across the network. “Given the NSA’s extensive trace capability, we conclude that the DNC and HRC servers … were not hacked…. We conclude that the emails were leaked by an insider—as was the case with Edward Snowden or Chelsea Manning. Such an insider could be anyone in a government department with access to NSA databases, or perhaps someone within the DNC.” [Emphasis in original.]

For the Steering Group, VIPS

William Binney, former Technical Director, World Geopolitical & Military Analysis, NSA; co-founder, SIGINT Automation Research Center (ret.)

Mike Gravel, former Adjutant, top secret control officer, Communications Intelligence Service; special agent of the Counter Intelligence Corps and former United States Senator

Larry Johnson, former CIA Intelligence Officer & former State Department Counter-Terrorism Official

Ray McGovern, former U.S. Army infantry/intelligence officer & CIA analyst (ret.)

Elizabeth Murray, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Middle East, CIA (ret.)

Kirk Wiebe, former Senior Analyst, SIGINT Automation Research Center, NSA (ret.)

Ex-FBI Agent Highlights Why Saudis Fear Justice Against Supporters of Terrorism Act (JASTA)

Dec. 13 (EIRNS)—On the Dec. 12, host Sean Stone  on RT broadcaster’s evening news show “Watching the Hawks” interviewed former FBI agent Mark Rossini, who was assigned to the CIA’s Bin Laden Task Force (“Alec Station”) prior to the 9/11 attacks. Rossini explained precisely why the Saudis and elements of the U.S. government are terrified of JASTA which was unanimously passed in September, and nearly unanimously sustained a veto override.

Rossini and another FBI agent, Doug Miller, were blocked from alerting the FBI to the arrival in the United States of two of the key hijackers, Al-Mihdhar and Al-Hazmi, who came to Los Angeles directly from the planning meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where the 9/11 plan was activated. FBI agent Miller, according to Rossini, wrote a memo about the pending arrival of the two known terrorists, but the memo was blocked from being passed to the FBI by the deputy chief of the Alec Station. Rossini insisted that, had the information been passed along to the FBI, the two terrorists would have been either arrested on their arrival at the Los Angeles airport, or they would have been placed under ‘round-the-clock surveillance to sweep up the larger network. In either case, Rossini told Stone, 9/11 would have been prevented.

Rossini emphasized that the 2002 Joint Congressional Inquiry and the 2004 9/11 Commission both failed to pursue the question of why the Doug Miller memo was suppressed. Rossini told Stone that he suspects that the Saudis and the CIA may have hoped to recruit the terrorists as informants, but whatever the motive, a full law suit before a Federal Judge, with full discovery, now made possible by the passage of JASTA, will, for the first time, open that question up. Rossini suggested that a lawsuit, brought under JASTA’s allowing suits against the Saudi government and Royals, could include the U.S. government as co-defendants. He suggested that every Central Intelligence Report filed from 1999 onward, asking for FBI surveillance and investigative support, could be subpoenaed.

Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil CEO Tapped To Be Secretary of State

Dec. 13 (EIRNS)—U.S. media and Senate anti-Russian hysteria rose a notch this morning as Trump officially named Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson to be his Secretary of State. As Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, Trump’s pick as Ambassador to China, is known as one of President Xi Jinping’s closest friends in the United States, Tillerson is reported as a “pal” of Putin and the Russians, which is tantamount to treason to some. Sen. John McCain told Fox News: “I don’t know what Mr. Tillerson’s relationship with Vladimir Putin was, but I’ll tell you it is a matter of concern to me…. Vladimir Putin is a thug, a bully and a murderer, and anybody else who describes him as anything else is lying.”

Republican Senators Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio and James Lankford also may oppose him. Rubio tweeted: “Being a ‘friend of Vladimir’ is not an attribute I am hoping for from a Secretary of State.” Rubio is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which must approve the nomination, and the GOP has only one more member on the Committee than the Democrats, leading the Washington Post to report hopefully that if the Democrats all oppose Tillerson, and Rubio opposes him, then his nomination could be stopped in committee.

Former Defense Secretary Bob Gates was the first to suggest Tillerson to Trump, the Post reports, and when Trump met with him they got along very well. Gates wrote that Tillerson “would bring to the position vast knowledge, experience and success in dealing with dozens of governments and leaders in every corner of the world.”

Tillerson said last year at Texas Tech that “One of the things I know about the Russian government: I’m very predictable. And they know if I say no it means no. And talking about it more isn’t going to change that. No is still going to be no. Over the years we’ve earned each other’s respect. Then when you say yes, you know we’ll follow through. It means something.”

ExxonMobil already has major investments in Sakhalin Island in the Pacific, and had huge deals pending in the Kara Sea in the Arctic, shale oil areas of West Siberia and sites in the Black Sea. Tillerson told analysts, according to the Post, that the Black Sea drilling would probably be the first to be restarted if sanctions are lifted.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on the Tillerson appointment, according to Interfax: “As to the allegations of whether his attitude to the Russian Federation is good or bad: being Secretary of State is very different from leading a company, even a very big one. Therefore, any, so to speak, sympathies become secondary. The only thing that remains here is readiness to demonstrate a constructive attitude and be professional. We are hoping that this is what will happen.” He also said that Tillerson “fulfills his duties very professionally.”

Leading Diplomats in U.S. Acknowledge Duterte’s War on Drugs in Philippines

Dec. 13 (EIRNS)—A group of very senior U.S. diplomats, both former and active, came together in a public forum in Washington on Monday, together with several anti-drug officials from the Philippines, for a very serious discussion of the deadly epidemic of drugs in both the United States and the Philippines. The entire program “Philippines 2016: Confronting the Drug Problem,” acknowledged problems, but focused on the solutions, starting from the urgency of stopping drugs. Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and the U.S.-Philippine Society were sponsors.

Speakers included John Negroponte, who once served as Ambassador to the Philippines, as well as to the UN, and as Director of National Intelligence. Also speaking was Bill Brownfield, former Ambassador to Colombia, Venezuela, and Chile, and currently the Assistant Secretary of State in charge of the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs—i.e., the top anti-drug official at State; and John Maisto, former Ambassador to the Organization of American States, who now heads the U.S.-Philippine Society.

None of the speakers retailed the degrading slanders against Duterte, but presented in some detail his government’s effort to provide rehabilitation to the approximately 800,000 drug users who have surrendered themselves since Duterte launched the campaign in July, and that they are considered victims, not criminals, unlike the pushers and producers. It was emphasized that the Philippines is sovereign, and that 80% of the population strongly supports Duterte, in great measure because of the war on drugs, which has lowered the crime rate and drug availability, relieving much of the fear in the population and giving hope for the next generation.

U.S. policy, despite Obama’s hostility to Duterte and his drug war, is shifting towards providing aid to the rehabilitation process, while continuing to help in interdiction. When EIR asked about Trump’s appointing several strongly anti-drug persons to his Cabinet, including Gen. John Kelly and Sen. Jeff Sessions, one spokesman pointed to two huge crises confronting the new administration—that huge quantities of heroin and other drugs are pouring over the Mexican border, much of it produced in Mexico; and that seven states in the U.S. have legalized marijuana, although it is still illegal under federal law.

It was also pointed out that the United States, in the 1980s and ’90s, had achieved significant success working with Colombia and other Ibero-American governments to crush many of the major drug operations—but that the apparatus has since been taken down, and the drug trafficking has returned with a vengeance. The implications were clear that the pro-drug policies under President Obama have created a threat.

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Belt and Road Can Deliver Wave of Prosperity, Caterpillar Says

Dec. 13 (EIRNS)—In a 28-page White Paper issued by Caterpillar, Nov. 30, the company lays out its rationale for becoming a major player in China’s One Belt, One Road project. “Twenty-five years ago,” Caterpillar CEO Douglas Oberhelman writes in the dedication, “you could just feel something big was starting in China. It felt as if the country was on a mission.”

The white paper says that “China has very successfully spent the better part of the last 20 years creating the trade, telecommunications, energy and transportation networks needed for a modern economy; the task now is to maximize the return, and productivity, of those assets through innovation in various spheres (technology, engineering, process, business model, governance, policy innovations)…. The Belt and Road is an innovative strategy that will be a cornerstone of this success. It is considered by many to be the “third opening-up of China,” after the establishment of special economic zones in the 1980s and China’s accession to the WTO in 2001. “In the spirit of the ancient Silk Road and maritime trade routes that brought unprecedented growth, and shared benefits across continents by linking China, with Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, the current  revival and upgrading of this integration, collaborations, and exchanges is expected to deliver another wave of prosperity for China and the rest of the world. Achieving this goal will require an enormous investment in human and natural capital, in a collaborative undertaking the scope and scale of which the world has in many ways never see.”

The white paper then continues with advice as to how firms should operate, using the experience of Caterpillar, in engaging in Belt and Road investment—the success of which,  depends on innovation, collaboration, sustainability, risk management and engaging local stockholder groups within the Belt and Road Initiative, such as governments, local communities, private businesses and other organizations. It then details some of Caterpillar’s own projects and experience in the Belt and Road countries.

Singapore and Malaysia Agree on Inter-Link High-Speed Railroad

Dec. 13 (EIRNS)—Channel News Asia, based in Singapore, reported today the signing of “a legally binding bilateral agreement that paves the way for the implementation of the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur High-Speed Rail (HSR).” The project will involve construction of a new line with dedicated tracks, which will allow trains to reach a maximum speed in excess of 300 kph. Some 335 km of the track will be laid in Malaysia, with the Singapore stretch spanning 15 km.

“Singapore and Malaysia are to be linked by a bridge over the Straits of Johor with a height clearance of 25 meters above the water level,” the report said. The high-speed railroad will reduce the travel time to just 90 minutes, compared to the four to five hours needed to travel by road between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

According to the agreement, Singapore and Malaysia governments will be responsible for developing, constructing, and maintaining the civil infrastructure and stations within their own countries. “This will be undertaken by MyHSR Corporation in Malaysia and the Land Transport Authority in Singapore,” the report said. Speaking at a joint press conference with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said “there is a strong political will and focus from Singapore and Malaysia to ensure the HSR project is done right and is a success,” Channel News Asia reported.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Is Putin Preparing To Liberate Palmyra Again?

Dec. 13 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin convened a meeting of his security council today, where, according to the Kremlin readout, “Participants in the meeting exchanged views on the situation around Palmyra, as well as the advances made by the Syrian Army in Aleppo.”

Alexander Mercouris, writing in the Duran website, interprets this to mean that Putin is taking a personal interest in the re-liberation of Palmyra, and therefore, an operation to do just that will begin soon. Mercouris further notes that the photograph accompanying the readout only shows those government officials sitting on Putin’s right, among them Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The ones sitting on his left have been cropped out and are likely “the senior military and intelligence officials who are being given the task of retaking Palmyra.”

That operation may not be long in coming. Al Masdar News reports today that the Syrian Arab Army has already sent several units of reinforcements to the T-4 military base, about 60 km west of Palmyra, and expects to send another 2,500 troops there in the coming days.

Russia thinks the United States added to Palmyra’s loss.

“Over the past two days militants of the terrorist organization Islamic State launched several attacks on the positions of Syrian troops in the area of Palmyra. The terrorists were pushing ahead from the North, the East, and the South. The attackers numbered more than 5,000,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said, yesterday, and saying that there had not been a group that large near Palmyra until last Thursday, Dec. 8. “Apparently, the IS militants had gathered around Palmyra, being very certain that combat operations in Raqqa would not resume,” he said. Raqqa is the target of an offensive by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which has been reported to either have stalled or been suspended.

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Radical ‘Decarbonization’ Is Germany’s G20 Agenda

Dec. 13 (EIRNS)—Barbara Hendricks, German Environment Minister, and Johanna Wanka, Science and Technology Minister, teamed up with Hans Joachim “John” Schellnhuber and Dirk Messner of the WBGU (scientific advisory council for global environmental change) at a press conference in Berlin on Dec. 13. The German government, which has assumed the 2017 presidency of the G20, think they can now “decarbonize” the G20 country economies by 2050, under the guise of saving the planet from overheating from carbon emissions created by man’s burning fossil fuels.

This “great transformation” has to be initiated immediately, the trio said, because the “carbon dioxide budget” of Earth’s atmosphere will be used up in less than 20 years. There is “no doubt,” Schellnhuber said, that man was tweaking the climate. Therefore the production of automobiles that use fossil fuel engines has to be stopped by 2030, and human meat consumption has to be limited to one day per week.

In order to force this monstrosity, Germany’s public funds would have to be heavily invested. The problem is, the panel agreed, that many people had “lost their love for globalization.” Therefore, we would have to make a new offer to the people, or in the words of Messner, “create a new, more modern narrative”: it would have to be advertised as a jobs engine, a project of modernization, stability, justice and peace.

The ministerial representatives uttered not even a little resistance. The execution of the decarbonization will be a high priority on their policy agendas. Hendricks said Germany, at least, would exit coal, oil, and fossil gas. Schellnhuber wants to make saving humanity in the name of the climate a mandatory law. This brave new world scheme has to be fully swallowed and embraced by the G20. Messner said he has already had talks with the G20 sherpas recently. A new WBGU “special report” called “Development and Justice by Transformation” were handed out to journalists.

Schellnhuber, who was personally made a Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth in 2004, played a major role in attempting to get developing countries to forgo development—and cut their populations—to “stop global warming “ at the UN Copenhagen climate conference in December 2009. After the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, he convinced Angela Merkel to shut down Germany’s nuclear power, as a prelude to “decarbonizing” Germany; the program created more pollution and higher electricity prices.