EDITORIAL

The Karlov Assassination—Obama’s Swan Song for War

Dec. 21 (EIRNS)—Faced with direct accusations that he has carried out his public threat to retaliate against Russia for its supposed subversion of the U.S. election, “at a time and place of our own choosing,” President Barack Obama has not only been completely silent about the murder of Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov in Turkey, but actually took the opportunity to further vilify Russia, just as he brags about his serial extrajudicial killings by drones and other means around the world.

“Some of [the retaliation] may be explicit and publicized; some of it may not be,” Obama told National Public Radio last Thursday, in asserting that he has the right to respond militarily to the mere accusation that Russia has conducted cyber warfare. He has refused to allow his intelligence officials to testify before the Congress, even in closed session, about his alleged evidence of Russian cyber attacks. Does he imagine that the world has forgotten what Edward Snowden revealed about the universal cyber warfare conducted by the NSA?

Today, while civilized nations sent condolences to Russia and Turkey, and swore to cooperate in defeating terrorism, Obama took time from his golf game to pile on new sanctions against Russian businesses and businessmen. President-elect Donald Trump sent condolences and swore that the United States under his presidency would work with Russia, and any nation, which is dedicated to clearing the world of the terrorist scourge.

Perhaps Obama called on the New York Daily News to express his feelings, through their headline: “Assassination of Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov was not terrorism, but retribution for Vladimir Putin’s war crimes.” As has long been documented, including by Trump’s choice for National Security Advisor, Gen. Michael Flynn, this would be entirely in keeping with Obama’s consistent support for al-Qaeda and related terrorist organizations in pursuing his criminal mania for “regime change” against secular, anti-terrorist governments which have committed no offense against the United States.

The intent of the Karlov assassination is clear—Russia, Turkey, and Iran have supplanted the murderous Obama administration in Southwest Asia, demonstrating that the terrorist movements backed by the Saudis, the British, and the U.S. can, in fact, be defeated through cooperation with the sovereign governments of the region. Even worse, in the eyes of Obama’s controllers in London and Wall Street, is that these nations are a major part of the “new paradigm” centered on China’s New Silk Road process of global development, undermining the capacity of the bankrupt Western financial system to loot the nations of Asia, Africa, and Ibero-America.

At this very moment, the oldest bank in the world, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, is collapsing, threatening to hasten the inevitable collapse of the European and American too-big-to-fail banks. A national bailout by the Italian government is in the works, according to the Financial Times, despite EU rules that failing banks must henceforth be “bailed in”—i.e., seizure of the funds of bond holders, and even depositors, to pay off the derivative speculators. Apparently there is a recognition that a bail-in of the third-largest Italian bank would likely cause a contagion which could bring down the entire teetering Western financial system. However, yet another bail-out is simply pushing the crisis off for a few more moments.

The intense pressure for war from Obama and his British masters demonstrates the insanity of this dying breed of oligarchs. America is in a cultural and economic morass—increasing death rates for the first time in its history, 1 in 15 U.S. residents addicted to opiates or their equivalents, the highest number of working-age people pushed out of the workforce in history. It was learned today, that President-elect Trump had invited opera tenor Andrea Bocelli to sing at the inauguration, but that he was “getting too much heat” from social media and had to drop out. Popular opinion apparently prefers the ugliness of a rock singer lip-syncing, to any expression of beauty.

America expressed its disgust with this decadence by rejecting the Obama/Hillary Clinton war and austerity agenda, just as the British and Italians rejected the EU, as the Philippines rejected U.S. imperial dictates, and similar revolutionary ferment is sweeping the Western world.

The solution to the nightmare is at hand. Joining China and Russia in the New Silk Road process would not only put the U.S. back in the business of building nations rather than destroying them, but would also allow the rebuilding of the America’s decimated industry and decrepit infrastructure. Helga Zepp- LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, said today that nothing short of a global renaissance can address the quality of mind of a population degraded by such “popular culture” and economic depravity. Joining the Schiller Institute should be the first step for all those who wish to be part of this fight for human dignity and classical culture.

• Editor’s Note:  EIR Daily Alert will skip the Monday issues for Dec. 26 and Jan. 2, 2017.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

British Empire’s Nightmare Becomes Reality, as Turkey, Russia and Iran Solidify Relations

Dec. 21 (EIRNS)—For more than 200 years, the British Empire has endeavored to prevent an alliance among Russia, Iran, and Turkey.  Now that policy has thoroughly failed. The assassination of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, the first in 187 years (Russia’s ambassador to Tehran was assassinated in 1829), has only solidified the commitment of the three nations to cooperate to prevent the destruction of Southwest Asia.

The solidarity of the three is reflected in an editorial by Turkish daily Yeni Safak’s chief editor, Ibrahim Karagül, who functions as a mouthpiece for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He wrote that the July 15 coup attempt was part of a plan to “pull apart” Turkey, to pit it “against Russia and Iran; pushing the region into a calamity; and then starting a world war from this calamity. The international atmosphere has never been this harsh since World War II. Countries have never come so close to war … and the world had never been divided into East and West camps so sharply. The main powers and the medium-scaled countries had never been dragged into such a multifaceted war before.”

He continued, “A conspiracy against an ambassador is a part of multinational scenarios. It is directed at the region and the countries of the region. It is a part of regional scenarios. It is directed at continuing the war in Syria and dividing the region through Syria. It is directed at sabotaging the affiliation between Turkey and Russia, and the possible negotiation between Turkey-Russia-Iran on the Syria issue….

“We know Turkey is under multinational attacks. We also know that it is trying to be [sic] dragged into civil war, that someone at the least wants to push it into war with a few countries so it becomes exhausted, and that someone wants the maps of Syria and Iraq to be redrawn through Turkey. The two attacks were aimed at this. The other is aimed at obviating regional rapprochement, defense, and stopping the attempts to close the doors to greater conflict.

“Which means, Russia, too, is an open target. This attack aims to annihilate the rapprochement between Turkey and Russia that Turkey started after July 15. It aims to end the possibility of Turkey, Russia and Iran ending the war in Syria.”

He goes on, that had July 15 coup been successful, that “would have actually been the date the New World War would have started. … We need to see that the threat comes from the Atlantic, that terror attacks are planned here and that these organizations are administered from here. We have to know that they want to ruin Russia just as much as they want to ruin Turkey and that Russia might be facing open attacks, too. We have to realize that the matter isn’t just Turkey and that the scenario is on a global scale. We have to realize that the world is being dragged into a scary future; thus, the leaders of all the countries, especially those who will be affected the greatest, must come together and make attempts to disappoint this tendency.”

Kremlin Says Almost All Russia-U.S. Dialogue ‘Frozen’

Dec. 21 (EIRNS)—The Kremlin said today that nearly all communication channels between Moscow and Washington were frozen, RIA Novosti reported: “ ‘Practically all levels of dialogue with the United States are frozen.’ ” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Mir TV: “ ‘We don’t communicate with one another. Or we do so minimally.’ ”

Obama administration spokesman John Kirby responded, “That we have significant differences with Moscow on some of these issues is well known, but there hasn’t been a break in dialogue,” noting that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had spoken by phone yesterday about Syria.

Iran Calls for Mobilization of All Forces To Eradicate Terrorism

Dec. 21 (EIRNS)—In the wake of yesterday’s meeting in Moscow of the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Turkey and Iran, following the assassination of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov, Sputnik Iran spoke to Hossein Sheikholeslam, an advisor to Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.

Sheikholeslam told Sputnik that the assassination should be thoroughly investigated, and pointed to “those who spread terrorism, including monarchs of a number of Arab states,” and said that outside terrorist forces are “a threat to all of us. We should give each other a helping hand, and we will welcome only constructive initiatives on the matter. The Syrian refugees should return to their homes. And it is the Syrian people who should decide the fate of their country, not some presidents of some countries at some meetings,” he said.

Again referencing the meeting of the three Foreign Ministers, Sheikholeslam said, “The most important issue of this meeting was the mobilization of forces for the liberation of the whole of Syria [from terrorists]. Now that Aleppo has been liberated, there is hope and opportunity that this goal may be achieved. And if someone once made a mistake, then now is the right time to recognize mistakes and not repeat them.” He continued, “We will accept any political player, whether he is major or minor, and we will support him. We will fight all those who are only interested in destruction, because we all need peace, security, friendship, and stability, as well as the prosperity of our peoples,” he concluded.

U.S. ECONOMIC & POLITICAL

Paul Craig Roberts Warns of CIA Assassination Threat to Trump

Dec. 21 (EIRNS)—Under the title “As the Coup against Trump Fails, the Threat against His Life Rises,” Paul Craig Roberts, former Undersecretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration and a fierce enemy of the neocons, warns that the CIA is likely gunning for Donald Trump.

Efforts to stop him from getting the nomination, then the election, then a vote recount, then the electoral college, all fell flat, writes Roberts, “But the effort continues. The CIA report on Russia’s alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election ordered by Obama is in process. Faked evidence is a hallmark of CIA operations.”

The demonstrations by the greenies and others against Trump are “of little consequence,” he writes, “but chaos presents opportunity for assassination.”

He continues: “As there is evidence of CIA complicity in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy…, Trump, who is clearly seen as a threat by the military/security complex, is not being paranoid” by using private security. He points to a newly released book by Douglas Valentine, The CIA As Organized Crime, adding that if it “is even half true, Trump’s life is certainly at risk.”

Roberts concludes: “The military/security complex has been entrenched since NATO’s formation on April 4, 1949, a provocation that preceded by six years the formation of the Warsaw Pact on May 14, 1955. Any president willing to confront this entrenched deep state superpower deserves the support of all of us.”

Italian Journalist Blondet Covers LaRouche Forecast of Growing Obama Menace to Russia

Dec. 21 (EIRNS)—Italian journalist Maurizio Blondet has reported Lyndon LaRouche’s warning on Obama’s intention to kill, issued after Obama made his threat against Russia on Dec. 15, aired Dec. 16 on National Public Radio.

“No later than Dec. 16,” Blondet wrote, “Obama had threatened Russia because of the (false) story of hacker-manipulated elections.” Blondet quotes Obama’s threats and then continues that Lyndon LaRouche had immediately interpreted these as “ ‘a threat of assassination. Those words in his mouth are a threat of assassination against important personalities,’ recalling how in recent years Obama has killed with drones, personally choosing victims from intelligence lists.”

In his article, Blondet also exposes neocon advisor to Angela Merkel, Christoph Heusgen, who is currently in Washington meeting with Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s appointee for National Security Advisor. Heusgen is the author of the EU security policy, Blondet correctly reports, and was made Merkel’s advisor for security and foreign policy in order to reverse the pro-Russia policy of the previous, SPD-led government of Gerhard Schröder.

Obama Salutes Fascist Environmentalism on His Way Out

Dec. 21 (EIRNS)—On his way to his overdue departure from office, a vindictive President Obama, whose policies Americans rejected in electing Donald Trump, yesterday announced a permanent ban on offshore oil and gas drilling along wide areas of the Arctic and the Atlantic Seaboard.

Obama invoked an obscure provision of a 1953 law, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the New York Times reports, which he claims gives him the authority to act unilaterally. The Times explains that “while some presidents have invoked this law to temporarily protect smaller portions of Federal waters,” Obama’s “declaration of a permanent drilling ban on portions of the ocean floor from Virginia to Maine and along much of Alaska’s coast is breaking new ground, and will ‘almost certainly’ be decided by the Federal Courts….”

“It’s never been done before,” said Patrick Parenteau, a professor of environmental law at Vermont Law School. “There is no case law on this. It’s uncharted waters.”

Obama announced a second “legacy” act in this vein, on Dec. 19, imposing a punitive regulation against coal. Obama’s administration has been working on the “Stream Protection Rule” for six years. Supposedly about keeping streams clean, what it does is make coal too expensive to mine. In 2008, candidate Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle that while people would still be free to build coal-powered electricity plants, it would “bankrupt them” because of the costs of the regulations he would impose, today’s Wall Street Journal reports.

A third action by Obama on behalf of environmentalism reported in the Washington Free Beacon today, is the Administration’s attempt to fire Department of Energy scientist Dr. Noelle Metting for her findings on low-dose radiation, and another finding against climate change, which discredited Earth-destroying environmentalism—Obama’s real legacy. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, released a report exposing this fraud.

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Plunge in Monte dei Paschi Bank’s Bonds Threatens Depositors and Other Banks

Dec. 21 (EIRNS)—Financial media strongly suggested today that the months-long attempt to recapitalize Italy’s third-largest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), was failing this week, likely leading to the bank’s nationalization by the end of the week. This would mean the bailout fund of €20 billion just created by the Italian government would be used to buy up MPS’s bonds, and convert them to stock—the swap that most of the bondholders have been refusing.

When MPS announced this morning that its liquidity would only last, in its current judgment, 4 months rather than the 11 months it had previously claimed, the value of its bonds on the markets dropped even more sharply than its stock; some bonds reached a low of 40 cents on the dollar of face value.

Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said that his ministry would try “to minimize the impact on depositors” of a nationalization, pointing to a serious problem: At what value will Mario Draghi’s European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission in Brussels allow Italy to buy MPS bonds, some of them at only 40 cents/dollar on the bond markets, from savers? The ECB and EC “rules” insist that those retail savers who own MPS bonds must be “bailed in” and part of their savings confiscated. This is explosive, both politically and in terms of the financial system, and Italy apparently wants to bail the savers out.

As to the attempt at a private “voluntary” recapitalization, the bank believes that it needs €5.5 billion in new capital—that may be an underestimation. Large institutional investors have reportedly agreed to swap €1 billion in bonds for stock; small investors, €500 million—far below the target even under the pressure of the threat to lose everything. Thus the JPMorgan Chase-led “capital rescue,” according to the Financial Times report today, has failed.

SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTURE

Head of Russian Railways Proposes High-Speed Cargo Trains from Europe to China

Dec. 21 (EIRNS)—The president of Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov proposed a high-speed cargo railway connection between Europe and China, allowing transport of goods to take as little as two days. “We plan to reach China via Kazakhstan and to carry special, high-profit cargos to Europe via Russia, because a ship sails now 60 days, which is a long time. It sails round India and only then arrives to Europe. With a high-speed [railway] transport we will be able to deliver goods in two days, and to earn extra money for our country,” Belozerov told a United Russia party meeting.

In an earlier report, Russian Railways spoke of working on the concept of a cargo train capable of carrying from 300 to 600 tons of cargo at a speed up to 300 kph.

The cargo line will be part of the Moscow-Kazan high-speed railway, whose construction should begin in 2017, Belozerov said. With a distance of some 770 km, and a speed of 350-400 kph, the rail route will cut the time between the two cities to as little as 3-3.5 hours; the current time is 14 hours. The line could be commissioned before 2022-2023.

The $16.8 billion railway project could later be extended to China, connecting the two countries across Kazakhstan. The Moscow-Beijing railroad will be 7,769 km, with a travel time of 32.8 hours—four times faster than the current 130.4 hours. The average annual passenger traffic is estimated at 195 million people.

China is committed to providing $6.5 billion as a credit for 20 years and $1.6 billion as a contribution to the charter capital of the special-project company. The German Initiative Consortium (includes Siemens, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Bahn, and other companies) is ready to allocate €2.7 billion to finance the construction of the high-speed railway line and to attract up to €800 million for the project.

Japan To Fund $8.5 Billion for Britain’s Wylfa Newydd Nuclear Power Station

Dec. 21 (EIRNS)—“Hitachi Ltd and the Japanese government have reached a deal worth around ¥1 trillion ($8.5 billion) to fund Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant project” on the Isle of Anglesey in the Irish Sea in north Wales, according to a government official cited by Reuters on Dec. 16. The Japan Bank for International Cooperation and the Development Bank of Japan will provide financing for the project, the official told Reuters. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan’s Hitachi Ltd., Horizon Nuclear Power, a U.K. energy company, will be developing the power station. Reports indicate that negotiations between the U.K. and Japan have not been concluded and that it is likely that the visit this week to Japan by Greg Clark, U.K. Business Secretary, could complete the deal.

Horizon’s website shows Bechtel having been selected, alongside joint venture partners Hitachi Nuclear Energy Europe, Ltd. and JGC Corporation (U.K.) Ltd., to help build the two-reactor nuclear plant in Wales for Horizon.

“The proposal, which could see the U.K. fund 25% of the project alongside significant loans from the Japanese government, is one of a number of options under consideration as the two countries seek to help Hitachi finance the plant. Chancellor [of the Exchequer] Philip Hammond, who met business leaders and Japanese officials in Tokyo on Dec. 15, said that Japanese government-related financing for the project could total £12 billion but that negotiations were still ongoing,” Reuters reported on Dec. 16.

The overall cost of the two-reactor Wylfa Newydd station is estimated to be close to $23 billion. Horizon pointed out that construction will create 8-10,000 jobs at peak periods and that the plant will employ around 850 permanent employees on the Isle of Anglesey.

Young Argentine Scientists Stage Nationwide Protest as Budget Cuts Put Science on Chopping Block

Dec. 21 (EIRNS)—On Dec. 19, young Argentine scientists and allied groups peacefully occupied the reception hall of the Science and Technology Ministry in Buenos Aires, and demonstrated in other major cities to protest brutal cuts to the 2017 science budget dictated by the London-owned President Mauricio Macri.

As a result of the 32% cut in the 2017 science budget, almost 500 young scientists who had been approved to receive grants from the state-run National Science and Technology Research Council (Conicet) for doctoral and post-doctoral study have been denied them, reducing the number of 2016 grantees by 60%, from 874 to 385 for the coming year. This is part of Macri’s broader policy of eliminating Argentina’s scientific and technological capabilities, as demanded by the City of London and Wall Street.

Conicet is the country’s premier state-run agency for training scientists. Those who apply there have already completed 7-10 years of research, and have met all requirements for advanced study. University of Buenos Aires researcher Dr. Ines Gordillo told Tiempo Argentino that the 500 people denied funding all belonged to research teams, so that not only “are they left without work and practically no future in the country, but in addition, their research is lost, as it will have no continuity.”

Science Minister Luis Barañao justifies the budget cuts arguing that a “country with a 30% poverty rate doesn’t have the luxury of increasing its number of scientists,” but insists that Conicet is getting plenty of money. The Threatened Young Scientists group is demanding that the government allocate an additional 200 million pesos to incorporate the 489 scientists denied funding. The protest is nationwide.

In an interview with Página 12 published today, Dr. Marcelo Rubinstein, a chemist and senior researcher at Conicet, responded to Barañao’s statement this way: “I think that if we don’t invest in science, the number of poor will increase. … Less science means fewer small businesses and less industrial development…. The scientific-technological system must be directly in sync with industrial growth, to put an end to the delusion that we’re the granary of the world.” Scientists, he said, cannot be separated from the “productive life” of the nation, but Macri’s anti-science policy aims to do just that.