EIR Daily Alert Service
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MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 2017 Volume 4, Number 5 EIR Daily Alert Service P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390
EDITORIALCorrupt Intelligence Officials behind Obama Exposed as Liars; U.S. Must Unite with Russia and ChinaJan. 8 (EIRNS)—One day after President-elect Donald Trump met with the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA chief John Brennan, and National Security Agency, Adm. Michael Rogers, who were intent on convincing him that Russia, and Putin personally, are out to destroy the American democratic system, President-elect Trump issued a statement which truthfully identified the problem facing America and the American population, and offered a concrete step towards the solution: “Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only ‘stupid’ people, or fools, would think that it is bad! We have enough problems around the world without yet another one. When I am President, Russia will respect us far more than they do now, and both countries will, perhaps, work together to solve some of the many great and pressing problems and issues of the world.” This truth was expressed through action by the Schiller Institute on Saturday, Jan. 7, in a beautiful demonstration of the true friendship of the American and Russian people which can and must be reestablished immediately. A wreath-laying ceremony was held at the Tear-Drop Memorial in Bayonne, New Jersey—the memorial contributed by the Russian government in honor of those killed in the terrorist attacks on the United States (see “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism”). The ceremony featured the Schiller Institute Chorus singing the national anthems of both Russia and the United States, together with presentations by the New York Police Department Ceremonial Unit; the First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations; the Chairwoman of the 9-11 Families United for Justice against Terror; the Bayonne Fire Department, and the Schiller Institute. The event was to honor those killed in the crash of the Russian Tu-154 on Christmas Day, and especially the 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble (known as the Red Army Chorus) who perished on their way to Syria to share their music and dedication to culture with the Syrian people. The Schiller Institute has produced a complete 24-minute video of the wreath-laying ceremony. The killing machine under Obama is also using its final days in office to undermine Trump’s commitment to ending the criminal “regime change” wars which have turned the past 16 years under Bush and Obama into an era of evil and bloody carnage unprecedented in American history, while attempting to box in the new administration through military confrontations with both Russia and China. While deploying huge numbers of tanks, helicopters, and other military equipment to the Russian border in Europe over the weekend, Obama has also deployed the USS Carl Vinson nuclear aircraft carrier group to the Pacific, timed to arrive in Asian waters near China on the day of Trump’s inauguration. In South Korea, Obama has obtained authorization from the government of President Park Geun-hye—itself facing an impeachment trial which could end its administration in a number of days—to allow the U.S. to set up a “kill squad” of 1,000-2,000 strong which is “tasked with eliminating Pyongyang’s wartime command, including Kim Jong-un, and paralyzing its functions,” according to Yonhap. Such provocation must be both exposed and ended immediately. The world faces only two options—economic collapse and world war under the London/Wall Street imperial nexus which controlled both Bush and Obama, or a revolutionary change reflecting America’s Hamiltonian roots, allowing the U.S. to join with Russia and China in their joint efforts to crush terrorism, while building modern nation-states through the New Silk Road process launched by China. The LaRouche organization is fully focussed on the urgent task facing the new Congress and the new President: implement Glass-Steagall now, crushing the Wall Street gambling bubble and reviving the American commitment to the frontiers of science, raising the productive and cultural platform for all Americans. A petition now being circulated by LaRouche PAC calls on Donald Trump to live up to his campaign pledge to implement Glass-Steagall, calling on him to announce this in his Inauguration address and State of the Union (see “President-Elect Trump: Commit to Glass-Steagall by the State of the Union”). This is the unique moment in history in which this transformation is possible, and necessary, for the human race as a whole. STRATEGIC WAR DANGERU.S. Tanks and Troops Arrive in Germany in New Provocation against RussiaJan. 7 (EIRNS)—The tanks of the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division that Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook promised the day before, began arriving in Bremerhaven, Germany yesterday. According to Reuters, two ships arrived and were unloaded, with a third ship expected in the next few days. The equipment being unloaded includes 87 Abrams M1A1 tanks, 20 Paladin 155mm artillery vehicles, and 136 Bradley fighting vehicles for the 4,000 troops. On top of that, the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade with about 50 Black Hawk and 10 CH-47 Chinook helicopters and 1,800 personnel, as well as an attack helicopter battalion with 24 Apache gunships and another 400 troops will also deploying. The total deployment, therefore, amounts to over 6,000 troops. As for their schedule, Reuters reports that they will participate in a large “massing” exercise in Poland at the end of January, and then beginning in February, they’ll fan out across Poland, the Baltic states, Bulgaria, Romania, and Germany for training, exercises, and maintenance. Reuters treats this deployment as if the troops really are needed there to prevent a Russian invasion. “The best way to maintain the peace is through preparation,” Maj. Gen. Timothy McGuire told reporters when asked if the large deployment was meant to send a message to Russia. “This is just showing the strength and cohesion of the [Western] Alliance and the U.S. commitment to maintain the peace on the continent,” he said. Brandenburg Minister President Dietmar Woidke (SPD), who is also the German government coordinator for Poland policy, attacked the decision in his New Year’s speech at the Cottbus Chamber of Commerce. “It does not help us if tanks move up and down on both sides of the border,” he said. “I think that despite all difficulties, we should seek dialogue with Russia.” He warned against worsening relationships with Moscow, saying, “I hope that everyone keeps a cool head.” Obama Deploys Aircraft Carrier to Asia, To Arrive on Inauguration Day, January 20!Jan. 8 (EIRNS)—Barack Obama has deployed the USS Carl Vinson, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Asia, expected to arrive in the area of China around Jan. 20, Inauguration Day in the U.S. This clearly is aimed at boxing Donald Trump into the Obama policy of war with China and Russia. Global Times quotes a Chinese military expert, Lin Zhiyuan, who warned that “the visit of the USS Carl Vinson is set to destabilize the current peace as the Pentagon attempts to disrupt potential talks between China and other countries in the region. This has raised the risk of a Sino-U.S. conflict in the region.” Statesman Lyndon LaRouche responded today: “Obama cooked this up, with the support of the British. We must take preemptive action against this. Obama is once again using the British system as a means of provoking war.” U.S. Sets Up South Korean Kill Unit before Park Geun-hye Government Gets Thrown OutJan. 8 (EIRNS)—Two has-been governments, Barack Obama’s and Park Geun-hye’s, are setting up a special operation force modeled on those of U.S. special forces, designed to raid the North and kill Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un “in the event of war,” Yonhap news agency reports today. “ ‘The South Korean military will form a special brigade based on that of the U.S. sometime later this year,’ said a high-ranking government official on the condition of anonymity,” Yonhap wrote. The current government of President Park could be forced out within weeks, or even days, if the Constitutional Court approves the impeachment voted by the National Assembly. A new election would then possibly bring in the opposition, which opposes the THAAD deployment and would likely oppose such a provocative “kill unit” set up by the U.S. The unit 1,000-2,000 strong “is tasked with eliminating Pyongyang’s wartime command, including Kim Jong-un, and paralyzing its functions,” Yonhap reported. Yonhap writes that the U.S. has been granted “new authorities” to act in Korea by the lame-duck Park regime: “Strategic Digest 2016, a publication by the USFK J5 Strategic Communication Division, said: ‘SOCKOR [Special Operations Command Korea] secured new authorities and agreements, enhanced U.S. SOF force posture and mission command on the Peninsula, and redefined its R.O.K. partner engagements.’ It continued: “The ability to leverage a crisis response capability with operational Special Operations Forces or employ unique combined special operations capabilities provides U.S. military and national leaders with strategic options to deter or defeat North Korean asymmetric threats.” Schiller Institute chairwoman Helga Zepp-LaRouche responded to this overt provocation as another threat of war on China, and said Obama must be forced to return his Nobel Peace Prize. U.S. ECONOMIC & POLITICALWho Are the Cowards Who Say You Can’t Attack the Intelligence Community?Jan. 6 (EIRNS)—Vice President Joe Biden thinks it’s “absolutely mindless” to dare question the “intelligence community”—i.e., the same criminals who lied that they weren’t spying on the U.S. population, and who have spent the last eight years financing and arming terrorists. Asked to fall on his sword for assassin Obama, Biden asserted Jan. 5 that “for a President not to have confidence in, not to be prepared to listen to, the myriad intelligence agencies … is absolutely mindless. The idea that you may know more than the intelligence community knows—it’s like saying I know more about physics than my professor. I didn’t read the book, I just know I know more.” Speaking on the PBS News Hour Jan. 5, Biden insisted there is “overwhelming consensus in the [intelligence] community and overwhelming evidence supplied by the community, that Russia did engage in an effort to impact the elections.” To anyone who dares question this—such as, President-elect Donald Trump—Biden argued: “The idea that Russians were not involved in an effort to engage in our electoral process is simply not able to be sustained. They were.” Consensus, yes. Evidence? None. Biden’s cowardice is similar Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s who also said Jan. 5, that President-elect Trump was “dumb” to attack the heads of U.S. intelligence agencies because “they’ll get back at you.” Don’t challenge the Bush-Cheney-Obama killing machine is the message—you may end up dead. Former CIA Analyst Exposes Fraud of DNI Report on ‘Russian Hacking’Jan. 7 (EIRNS)—Larry Johnson, a former career CIA and State Department analyst, and a member of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), issued a scathing exposé of the fraudulent report issued by the inveterate liar, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper, published in RT today. Johnson told the multimedia broadcaster: “I don’t think they’re hiding anything because they don’t have anything. These are intelligence estimates, as opposed to an intelligence analysis based on fact. There’s no fact underlying this. There are analytical assumptions,” Johnson said. “You can tell that because whenever they use the language like ‘we assess that’ or ‘we believe that’ or ‘it’s likely that,’ that means they don’t know, because if you knew, you could say in public ‘according to multiple sources we know that….’ “This thing, it’s a joke. If I’m a Russian intelligence analyst, with one of your intelligence services, I would be suspicious and think, ‘What are the Americans up to? They really can’t be this stupid.’ And let me just reassure the folks on your side of the ledger—yeah, they actually are.” Johnson said that even in the report itself, “It was only CIA and FBI that strongly agree, but the National Security Agency (NSA), who’s the only one in that group that would actually have the physical evidence of the hacking, if that existed, took a middle-of-the-road position.” The NSA said it had only “moderate” confidence in the asserted so-called facts. Senator Corker Believes that Trump Will Uphold and Enforce the Iran Nuclear AccordJan. 8 (EIRNS)—Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, speaking Jan. 6 at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, stated that he believes that as President, Donald Trump will uphold and enforce the Iran nuclear deal. During the 2016 campaign, Trump had characterized the nuclear accord, as the “worst deal ever negotiated,” and had indicated he would tear it up. Corker himself had been a strong opponent of that deal, when debated in the Senate. But now, Corker believes, enforcing the accord is the best option. The agreement was brokered and supported by Russia, the United States, China, France, Britain and Germany, the UN Permanent 5+1. Corker stated: “The Iran deal, from my perspective was flawed. At the same time, because so much was given up on the front end, you’ve got a choice. You can come in and figuratively tear it up, and you can create a crisis on the front end by doing so. Or, you can understand that we have lots of challenges to deal with around the world, and what you can do instead is begin to radically ensure that it’s being implemented properly.” Corker conceded that despite the flaws he perceives in the agreement, nothing bad is going to happen relative to nuclear development in Iran over the next few years, according to the Jan. 6 edition of the Huffington Post. Who do Americans Believe? WikiLeaks or U.S. Intelligence Agencies?Jan. 6 (EIRNS)—Zero Hedge reports on its website today: “CNBC political reporter, friend of Hillary, and Democratic Party sycophant John Harwood took to Twitter last night to ask: ‘Who do you believe, America? WikiLeaks, or U.S. Intel Officials?’ The response is yet another slap in the face for the establishment’s perspective … 70% WikiLeaks; 30% U.S. Intel officials.” COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEMSpeculative U.S. Housing Bubble Surges Back in Full ForceJan. 7 (EIRNS)—Years of Federal Reserve quantitative easing, with the U.S. federal funds rate today still at less than 1%, have deliberately reproduced the Wall Street U.S. housing bubble, complete with all its key features, that dominated from 2000 to 2007, until its failure helped trigger the derivatives crash of 2007-09, which melted down the world economy. Home flipping, in which speculators buy a home at foreclosure or at a low price, do some fixing up, and then resell it a substantial mark-up, is surging ahead. According to the Dec. 28 Wall Street Journal article, “As Home Prices Rise, Flippers Make a Comeback,” speculators are making on average of about $61,000 on each home flip sale. Wall Street firms, even though technically restricted from directly lending to home-flippers by the Dodd-Frank law, have had no problem circumventing that purposely ineffective law: they extend loans to companies that specialize in lending to home-flippers, and these companies in turn, make the loans to home-flippers. The banks offer credit lines of from $5 to $150 million with interest rates of between 3% to 6% to the companies specializing in lending to home flippers, and these companies, such as 5 Arch, then make seven-month loans to the flippers at 7% to 12%. The big lenders in this market are Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase, the same banks that directed the 2000-07 bubble. The home flipping pushes up home prices, and can only survive if home prices keep rising. The SP Core Logic Case-Shiller index for prices for new homes, a composite index of prices in 20 large American cities, hit its highest level ever in October 2016. Prices rose 5.1% over October 2015, but prices in Seattle, Portland, and Denver rose by more than 8.7%. The average price of a new home in the U.S. was $359,000 in November 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which is above the 2007 peak. The volume of mortgage-backed securities is currently above $8.5 trillion, not far off from its 2007 level. These MBS derivatives involve all the mega banks, and provide the crucial liquidity to keep the bubble moving. Under quantitative easing, the U.S. Federal Reserve illegally purchased $1.2 trillion of these MBS to prop up the market. This speculative home bubble of the derivatives-laden Wall Street banks is unsustainable, in a setting in which families’ real income is falling. The bankers never learn. To stop a second housing bubble collapse and similar banker-produced devastation, Glass-Steagall and LaRouche’s Four Laws have to be implemented, and President-elect Trump must reiterate his commitment to Glass-Steagall in his State of the Union—as FDR said in his first inaugural: “This Nation asks for action, and action now!” Obama’s Last Year Another Non-Productive One for U.S. EconomyJan. 6 (EIRNS)—The Labor Department reported today that “goods-producing employment” in the U.S. economy—generally including manufacturing and industry, mining, and construction—had dropped by 61,000 during 2016. Manufacturing lost 63,000 jobs, mining (oil and gas) lost 102,000 and construction gained 106,000. Overall labor productivity (reported separately) had declined through the first three quarters of the year by approximately 0.6%; fourth quarter productivity data is not yet published. The average work week declined from 33.4 to 33.3 hours during 2016, and average weekly wages rose by just $20, or 2.4%, before taking rises in living costs into account. The Labor Department’s “headline” report was on employment changes in December, and at a 156,000 reported gain in employment—virtually all in services sectors—it was well below that “expected by economists.” For the year as a whole, total employment is reported to have increased by just over 2 million, a sharp slowdown from 2.7 million in 2015. During Barack Obama’s eight years in office, goods-producing employment has dropped by almost exactly 700,000 jobs. During the Bush-to-Obama decade from December 2006-December 2016, including the 2008 financial crash and so-called Obama recovery, what is called the “civilian non-institutionalized population”—that is, the part of the over-16 population from which the labor force can be drawn—grew by 24.6 million people, from 230.1 million to 254.7 million. But the labor force itself grew, during that decade, by just 6.3 million, from 152.6 million to 158.9 million. So in net effect, three-quarters of all those who became eligible to join the labor force during that decade, did not do so, or entered and then dropped out again. In the decade 2000-2010, that “labor force abstention” rate was 70%; and it stood out like a sore thumb from the two previous decades, when it had been approximately 40% (1980s) and 30% (1990s). But the decade since December 2006 has been even worse, with about 75% of those newly eligible, winding up out of the workforce. NEW WORLD ECONOMIC ORDERKyrgyzstan President on China Visit, Seeks Greater Economic and Security CooperationJan. 6 (EIRNS)—Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Atambayev, on a working visit to China, met with President Xi Jinping on Jan. 5 and said: “China is an important strategic partner of Kyrgyzstan and has provided huge support for the country’s prosperity and stability. Kyrgyzstan is willing to enhance cooperation with China in the areas of infrastructure, agriculture and the Belt and Road construction,” Xinhua reported. China is Kyrgyzstan’s number-one trading partner, and since 1992 China has provided Kyrgyzstan almost 2 billion yuan ($296 million) in outright grants and more than $2 billion in loans. An important part in these two countries’ interaction is the transportation link. China has already built a highway that links Urumqi, the capital of China’s western Xinjiang province, to the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. China is also partnering in building a North-South Road that would link the south of Kyrgyzstan to the north. In addition, China also helped Kyrgyzstan in building a high-voltage power transmission line. Kyrgyzstan, bordering China’s Xinjiang province, is a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and has been threatened by Saudi-funded armed terrorists from time to time. Some members of the East Turkmenistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), that has carried out terrorist operations in the cities of Xinjiang, often take shelter inside Kyrgyzstan along the borders. Following their meeting, both leaders focused on this problem and agreed to jointly combat “the ‘three evil forces’ of terrorism, separatism and extremism,” Xinhua reported. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi Invites Africa To Join Belt and RoadJan. 8 (EIRNS)—Speaking in Madagascar on the first leg of his trip to Africa, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi welcomed African countries to join the Belt and Road Initiative. “This proposal is the most important cooperative concept China has offered to the world, as well as the most widely welcomed international public good offered by China,” Wang Yi said. He emphasized that the African continent was part of the ancient Maritime Silk Road, adding that if African countries are willing to join Belt and Road construction, China surely welcomes that. Wang noted that cooperation was already well underway with several African countries especially on the eastern coast. With the deepening of cooperation, the African continent will get more development benefits from this cooperation, Wang said. The Foreign Ministry reported that Wang will pay an official visit to Madagascar, Zambia, Tanzania, Republic of Congo and Nigeria from Jan. 7-12. During his stay in Madagascar, Wang and his hosts discussed the possibility of Madagascar joining Belt and Road construction and reached important agreements, with the possibility of this island country off the east coast of Africa becoming an important bridge between the Belt and Road and the African continent. SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTUREThe African-American Women Scientists and Engineers Who Took Americans into SpaceJan. 6 (EIRNS)—The film “Hidden Figures” opened today in theaters across the country. It is the story of the brilliant African-American women “computers” in the NASA manned space program, who calculated the trajectories for spacecraft, from the first flight of Alan Shepard, through Mercury and Gemini, and the Apollo missions, into the Space Shuttle era. Although when you watch a launch, it appears that the rocket just goes up into space, a successful launch requires intricate mathematics, and the ability not to just see the moment, but to envision the future. When the human “computers” began to work in the space program at NASA Langley in segregated Virginia, in 1958, electronic computers were just being introduced at NASA. A now-famous vignette of the story is the request by John Glenn, before he got into his Friendship 7 capsule in 1962, that the ladies whom he trusted check the calculations of the electronic computer before he would take his life in his hands as the first American to orbit the Earth. Like all institutions in the South, the facilities at NASA Langley segregated bathrooms and all accommodations from African-American employees. But at the point that this was threatening the very possibility of NASA’s first manned missions, the film’s Langley Center Director declares: “At NASA, we all pee the same color,” and ends segregated facilities, to accomplish the mission. A similarly entrenched policy the “computers” had to deal with was that, regardless of color, there were no women in scientific or engineering positions in the space program. They took on this policy with determination, and a confidence to push forward that was based on their remarkable capabilities. NASA sponsored a round-table discussion with the three primary actresses in the film last month at Langley, where the director and cast described their close work with the NASA history office to recreate the early 1960s Mercury space program in detailed accuracy. But the most uplifting aspect of the discussion was the actresses’ description of what they had to learn about space exploration in order to make the film, about which they knew nothing beforehand, the admiration they now have for NASA, their excitement about exploring space, and their commitment to bring to all young girls, the inspiration of the contributions of these African-American women, who had to master the science to make those contributions, and had to wage a fight to become scientists, themselves. OTHERMozart No. 1 On the Top-Ten Charts for 2016Jan. 7 (EIRNS)—The Smithsonian magazine website reported Dec. 16 that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the leader in CD sales for 2016, outselling all the pop-stars (the headline is “How Mozart Outsold Beyonce in CD Sales in 2016”). The primary jump in sales came from the October release by Decca and Deutsche Gramophone, and the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation, of “Mozart 225,” a $500 compilation in 200 CDs including “every scrap of music Mozart ever wrote down.” They report that “The limited edition set sold 6,250 units in its first five weeks, which translates into 1.25 million CDs, putting it at the top of the charts.”
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