EDITORIAL
Neocons, Media, and Liberal Democrats Are Not Strange Bedfellows, but Fellow British Assets
March 6 (EIRNS)—Two important documents were released on March 4 on the extreme danger of war being instigated by the hysterical and absurd demonization of any U.S. contacts with Russian diplomats and officials. One document is by retired Ambassador Jack Matlock, the Ambassador to Soviet Union from 1987-91, one of America’s leading scholars and diplomats. The other is by Robert Parry, the investigative journalist, most famous for his exposure of the Iran-Contra operation and the CIA-Contra cocaine trafficking in the U.S. in the 1980s.
Ambassador Matlock writes that the current presumption of guilt in the U.S. media and political circles constitutes “the attitude of a police state.” He warns that “nuclear weapons are an existential threat to our nation,” and that improving relations with Russia must be “praised, not scapegoated.”
Parry details the coming together of three apparently disparate forces: the neocons (McCain et al.); the liberal Democrats (the Obama/Hillary/Soros networks); and the mainstream media, all aimed at preventing President Trump’s efforts to improve relations with Russia. Parry warns that these actions “could push the two countries into a war that could truly be the war to end all wars—along with ending human civilization. But Democrats, liberals and the mainstream news media seem to hate Trump so much they will take that risk.”
What is missing from this analysis—and what is fundamental and crucial to defeating the threat—is that these aligned forces are not “strange bedfellows” as they may seem, but rather, they jointly function as the tools of Empire and the City of London.
The British Empire is still very much alive, although it has used the United States as a “dumb giant” over the past 16 years of the Bush and Obama presidencies in fighting its colonial wars. The Empire can not survive if its “divide and conquer” division of the world between East and West were to be destroyed. This is precisely what is threatened by President Trump’s publicly announced intention to establish cooperative relations with Russia, as well as with China’s “win-win” approach to developing the entire world through the New Silk Road—the One Belt, One Road. In the eyes of the British financial oligarchy and the British Monarchy, this must be stopped, by any means necessary, up to and including thermonuclear war.
The world was on the brink of just such an existential disaster under Obama and his clone Hillary Clinton. Although that immediate danger has been avoided by the electoral defeat of Hillary Clinton, both Matlock and Parry correctly warn that the danger is being restored and aggravated by the new McCarthyite witch hunt against any and all discussions with Russia.
As Lyndon LaRouche said today: “The British are the media, with the intention to ruin nations. It’s been done before, and is being attempted again. Watch out.” The role of the British, he said, must be highlighted. “We can screw them up by doing that.”
The reality of the total bankruptcy of the Western banking system (a major cause of the urgency in the eyes of the Empire to get a war started quickly) was driven home today by the announcement by Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan that the 17 month effort to restore the bankrupt institution to stability has failed. The bank lost another $1.5 billion in 2016, mostly in derivatives trading, and they face billions in fines from the U.S. for their crimes during the sub-prime mortgage bubble leading into the 2008 bust. Cryan’s new plan for Germany’s biggest bank includes raising $8.5 billion through a new, discounted stock issuance, and to focus on industrial lending, cutting back on trading, and speculation in asset management.
This sounds reasonable, but LaRouche noted that they are merely “screwing around,” and they must “settle accounts with reality, not tricks.” In July 2016, when Deutsche Bank nearly collapsed, LaRouche called for a one-time recapitalization of the bank, but on condition that it return to the tradition of its martyred Chairman Alfred Herrhausen, a tradition of banking for industrial and human development, not speculation. Herrhausen was assassinated at the time the Berlin Wall came down in November 1989, precisely because of his vision.
But LaRouche’s proposal was not followed. The EU and the German government tried to patch over the $55 trillion derivative holdings at Deutsche Bank with tricks, and are now trying yet another trick. The “reality” LaRouche is referring to is that there is no means to escape the inevitable collapse of the nearly $2 quadrillion in derivative contracts sucking the life out of the productive economies of the trans-Atlantic financial system, other than an FDR-style Glass-Steagall reorganization—writing off the worthless speculative bubble, and directing new credit into productive activity.
If the world chooses to wait it out, it will create not only a financial crisis beyond anyone’s imagination, but also a global war. Now is the time to act.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Former Ambassador Matlock Warns of U.S. Police State
March 6 (EIRNS)—Former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Jack Matlock, also a leading scholar on Russia, warned Saturday in a post on his website, that the U.S. is threatened with becoming a “police state.” After a long review of the falseness of the assumption by the media and many politicians that contact with Russian Ambassador to Washington Sergey Kislyak and other Russian diplomats is questionable or even illegal, he writes: “I have been taught that in a democracy with the rule of law, the accused are entitled to a presumption of innocence until convicted. But we have leaks that imply that any conversation with a Russian Embassy official is suspect. That is the attitude of a police state, and leaking such allegations violates every normal rule regarding FBI investigations.”
Matlock writes: “As one who spent a 35-year diplomatic career working to open up the Soviet Union and to make communication between our diplomats and ordinary citizens a normal practice, I find the attitude of much of our political establishment and of some of our once-respected media outlets quite incomprehensible. What in the world is wrong with consulting a foreign embassy about ways to improve relations? Anyone who aspires to advise an American President should do just that.”
Matlock also endorses Trump’s accusation that we are experiencing a witch hunt: “The whole brou-ha-ha over contacts with Russian diplomats has taken on all the earmarks of a witch hunt. President Trump is right to make that charge,” he writes.
He concludes: “Finding a way to improve relations with Russia is in the vital interest of the United States. Nuclear weapons constitute an existential threat to our nation, and indeed to humanity. We are on the brink of another nuclear arms race which would be not only dangerous in itself, but would make cooperation with Russia on many other important issues virtually impossible. Those who are trying to find a way to improve relations with Russia should be praised, not scapegoated.”
Robert Parry: ‘Russia-gate’ Hysteria Threatens To Push Trump into Nuclear War
March 6 (EIRNS)—In a piece posted March 4, Robert Parry warns that Washington’s “hysteria” over Trump’s alleged transgressions regarding Russian contacts has reached such extreme levels that a cornered Trump could easily “make a miscalculation” that could escalate into a nuclear confrontation. “But,” Parry writes, “Democrats, liberals and the mainstream news media seem to hate Trump so much they will take that risk.” For emphasis, Parry quotes Thomas Friedman’s ranting piece in the New York Times, in which Friedman compared the alleged Russian hacking to both Pearl Harbor and 9/11 attacks, two events which, Parry notes, “led the United States into violent warfare.”
Parry further turns around Friedman’s wild claim—that Russia’s alleged election interference “goes to the very core of our democracy”—stating, rather, that it “is the failure to deal with this issue … with the sobriety and the seriousness that should accompany a question of war or peace” which is the real threat to our nation.
First of all, Parry says, the U.S. intelligence community “should lay its cards on the table.” After all, they had plenty of time to spread their “evidence” of Russian hacking of Democrats’ e-mails around—even overseas—but “they never told the American people what the evidence is,” while their two “laughably short” reports essentially amount to saying: “trust us.” Not only has WikiLeaks declared that the e-mails it published did not come from the Russians, he notes, “but nothing that WikiLeaks published was false.” In other words, there was no “fake news” here!
Therefore, Parry writes, “even if the Russians did reveal this information to the American people, how does knowing relevant facts regarding a presidential campaign translate into an attack on ‘the core of our democracy’?” In an indictment of the media, he continues: “Usually, journalists believe that getting the truth out, even if it embarrasses some politician or some political party, is healthy for a democracy. … Frankly, I found the WikiLeaks material far more appropriate for an American political debate than the scurrilous rumors that the Clinton campaign was circulating about Trump supposedly getting urinated on by Russian prostitutes in a five-star Moscow hotel, claims for which no evidence has been presented.”
While the media are all too willing to give the FBI a free pass in Hillary’s loss—overlooking her obvious failures— “here we are with the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN and almost the entire mainstream media (along with leading liberals and Democrats) panting every time they discover that someone from Trump’s circle met with a Russian.” Parry reminds readers that Russia had long been “collaborating with the U.S. government,” naming the Afghanistan war, the Iranian nuclear deal, and the Syrian chemical weapons as examples.
Instead, Russian cooperation in exactly those two areas—Iran and Syria—has made Putin “a target for Washington’s powerful neoconservatives,” who, along with the Israelis and Saudis, “wanted ‘regime change’ in Tehran and Damascus.” Naming Victoria Nuland, John McCain, and National Endowment for Democracy President Carl Gershman, Parry says they took aim at Ukraine, and “Obama fell in line.”
Parry writes, “What’s actually happening here should be obvious. The Obama administration, the Democrats and the mainstream media were horrified at Trump’s election. … So these anti-Trump forces grabbed at the most potent weapon available, the suspicions that Trump had somehow colluded with Russia,” no matter the evidence, or lack thereof. Parry, who has seen his share of “political investigations,” notes that it is “power—much more than truth,” which usually determines the direction of these events.”
Grassley To Investigate FBI-British Intelligence Collusion against U.S. Government
March 6 (EIRNS)—Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today launched an investigation into the FBI’s collusion with British intelligence to bring down the government of the United States. The Hill reports today that Grassley sent a letter to FBI Director James Comey asked for records pertaining to any agreements the agency may have had with Christopher Steele, the “former” MI6 agent who authored the scurrilous dossier full of wild fabrications about Trump ties to Russia, which was then leaked to the press, despite the fact that Obama’s intelligence community admitted that the charges were unsubstantiated.
The Washington daily, The Hill wrote: “In late February the Washington Post reported that the FBI reached an agreement with Steele whereby the British spy would continue his investigation on behalf of the Bureau.”
Grassley wrote to Comey: “The idea that the FBI and associates of the Clinton campaign would pay Mr. Steele to investigate the Republican nominee for President in the run-up to the election raises further questions about the FBI’s independence from politics, as well as the Obama administration’s use of law enforcement and intelligence agencies for political ends. It is additionally troubling that the FBI reportedly agreed to such an arrangement given that, in January of 2017, then-Director Clapper issued a statement stating that ‘the [intelligence community] has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable, and we did not rely upon it in any way for our conclusions.’ ”
Grassley asks for all records regarding Steele’s investigation, details of the agreement between the FBI and Steele, the FBI’s policies for using outside investigators, and whether the bureau has relied on any of the information Steele has provided in seeking warrants, The Hill reports.
London Directs U.S. ‘Allies’ Intelligence Surveillance against United States, Trump
March 6 (EIRNS)—British direction of the intelligence operation to overthrow U.S. President Donald Trump for seeking normal relations with Russia, is an open secret. Three weeks ago, Newsweek published an article describing extensive coordination between U.S. purported “allies” in NATO in conducting intelligence surveillance against the President of the United States, and flatly asserted that said surveillance was initiated by Her Majesty’s Government of Great Britain.
Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald wrote on Feb. 15, that the intelligence collection has been conducted “out of concerns that Russia is seeking to manipulate its relationships with Trump administration officials as part of a long-term plan to destabilize the NATO alliance.” Eichenwald’s sources reported that surveillance ranges from intercepting telephone calls to gathering electronic and human source information. Communications intercepts by “at least one Western European ally” before the inauguration turned up discussions between Trump advisors and Russian government officials, including Gen. Michael Flynn, Newsweek was told.
“The Western European intelligence operations began in August, after the British government obtained information that people acting on behalf of Russia were in contact with members of the Trump campaign. Those details from the British were widely shared among the NATO allies in Europe,” Eichenwald wrote.
Eichenwald also was told which “allied nations intercepted the communications and are gathering intelligence on Trump associates,” but only on condition those countries not be named, because the U.S. President just might object. (Eichenwald did, however, cite German electronic surveillance of Trump’s Azerbaijani business partner.)
Two days later, the U.K.-based edition of International Business Times featured the Newsweek story on how “U.S. allies in Europe are conducting intelligence operations against President Trump’s staff and business associations and intercepting communications between advisors in the White House and Russian government officials.” A senior research fellow at London’s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Ewan Lawson, tried to deflect the impact of this exposure of the British role, by telling International Business Times that, “it is entirely understandable that European intelligence agencies would be intercepting communications with Russian officials, and I would suggest that they are the target rather than the Trump administration.” thtp://www.newsweek.com/allies-intercept-russia-trump-adviser-communications-557283
Tony Blair Snooping around Trump Administration
March 6 (EIRNS)—Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the architect of the lies which launched the Iraq War and the destruction of Southwest Asia, has been snooping around the Trump Administration. More precisely, he was reportedly in Washington, D.C. last week, where he met “secretly” at the White House with Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and advisor on Middle East policy.
All major British dailies speculate that Blair is looking for employment with the new administration, but this is strongly denied by Blair’s spokesperson, who said such claims were an “invention,” and that any suggestions that Blair had been pitching for a job are “wrong.” A spokesman said: “Mr. Blair has made no such ‘pitch’ to be the President’s Middle East envoy. … Neither has he had any discussions about taking such a role or any role working for the new President.”
The spokesperson said that Blair, as former Middle East Peace Envoy for the defunct “Quartet” of the U.S., Russia, EU, and UN, continues to deal with Middle East issues “in a private capacity.”
Blair and Kushner had met last September and November, both times in New York. They first met at an event in Aspen, Colorado, to discuss political issues.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Russian General: The Syrian Army Has Tasted Victory and Will March On
March 6 (EIRNS)—Col. Gen. Andrei Kartapolov, the commander of Russian forces in Syria, briefed reporters yesterday, on the role of Russian forces in the liberation of Palmyra. Mostly he added details to what has already been reported about support provided by the Russian air contingent and special forces, but he stressed the impact of the Russian support on the Syrian army, too. “I think the most important thing now, is that Syrian soldiers and officers have taken confidence in themselves that they can win back all that has been lost. Now that they have felt the taste of victory, they will keep to this path,” Kartapolov said, according to a TASS report today.
Syria’s Brig. Gen. Fawaz Mustafa hailed the support that Russia provided to the Syrians. “Russian air force has played a decisive role in our victory. The area is mountainous and aviation was needed to help our troops recapture Palmyra,” he said.
Will U.S. Tactical Nuclear Weapons Be Going to South Korea?
March 6 (EIRNS)—The New York Times on March 4 published a long report on President Obama’s cyber war campaign against North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs that began in 2014. After going through, in some detail, the various measures, including a Stuxnet-like virus attack, that were included in the campaign, the Times takes up what options are available to Trump, including the THAAD anti-missile deployment, and further cyber war against North Korean nuclear launch systems.
Buried near the end, and stated in such a matter-of-fact way that it might not even register at first, is this statement: “Putting American tactical nuclear weapons back in South Korea—they were withdrawn a quarter-century ago—is also under consideration, even if that step could accelerate an arms race with the North.”
That statement, however, was noticed in South Korea, perhaps to the exclusion of almost everything else. The possibility of the United States re-deploying tactical nuclear weapons on South Korean soil to counter North Korea’s evolving military threat is expected to fuel a fresh debate on national defense, sources told Yonhap on March 5. This will be the first time that such a deployment will have been considered since U.S. nukes were withdrawn in 1991.
“With Washington seemingly raising the matter for review, it may be inevitable that some sort of discussion will take place going forward,” an unnamed official source told the news agency.
On one side of the argument, a weapons expert, also unnamed, claimed that such a deployment will allow Seoul to maintain nuclear parity with the North and can allow the country to engage in disarmament talks on a more equal basis. On the other side, however, there are quite a few in the country who are against any deployment. Those opposed, said any move in that direction could actually give legitimacy to North Korea’s nuclear program and make it that much harder to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions.
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Barenboim Opens Concert Hall in Berlin: Classical Music Is for Thinkers
March 6 (EIRNS)—Interviewed on the occasion of the official opening of his new concert hall in Berlin, pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim said that many people unfortunately see music from the standpoint of how it makes them feel, and many others see it as a means to even be taken away entirely.
But, he said, music is made to make both the artists and the audiences think: “It is a question of ideas. You have to think with your ears,” he said. This approach is also high on the agenda of the new musical academy which Barenboim has created along with the new music hall. The academy also has a special emphasis on training young musicians from the Middle East.
Barenboim is famous for, among other things, having created an orchestra composed of both Palestinian and Israeli artists, and performing on both sides of the divide.
SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Turkey Is Completing Its Creation of a Civilian Space Agency
March 6 (EIRNS)—According to Defense News, there is a draft bill in the Turkish Parliament, expected to pass without debate, to establish Turkey’s civilian space agency. The proposed agency will combine the activities of various ministries, including science, industry, and technology; development; defense; transport; and communications. The executive board will be chaired by the Turkish Prime Minister.
The focus of the agency will be to create an indigenous space industry which lessens Turkey’s dependence upon foreign contractors for the construction of its satellites. The recent Gokturk-1 high-resolution Earth observation satellite, operated by the Ministry of Defense, was launched on December 5, 2016. It was “20% Turkish,” thanks to the investment of $112 million to create a Space System Integration and Test Center. The target is to increase domestic manufacture. A civilian agency would also create the basis for international cooperation in space science and technology.
Sputnik reports that Turkey is also investigating creating its own launch facility and is looking at various potential sites.
OTHER
Argentine Workers Strike, Debunk President’s Claim that Economy Improving
March 6 (EIRNS)—Argentine workers replied sharply to neocon President Mauricio Macri’s March 1 claim to the Legislative Assembly that the nation’s economy is on the upswing and that the future looks bright.
Today, public and private-sector teachers began a 48-hour nationwide strike—preventing the opening of the school year for 12.5 million students—to protest budget cuts and demand a national collective bargaining process to negotiate a fair wage increase. Given the 40% annual inflation rate, the 18% offered by provincial governments is unacceptable.
Tomorrow, the CGT labor federation, in alliance with other social and political organizations, will hold a mass march to protest the dire state of the economy, the assault on worker rights, low wages, and constant utility rate hikes that workers can’t pay. It is expected that during tomorrow’s march, the CGT leadership will announce a 24-hour general strike for the end of March. Leaders of teachers’ unions have already threatened to hold another 48-hour strike soon if their demands aren’t met.
In February alone, Macri’s popularity rating dropped by eight points, giving him a low 38% approval rating. Fearful of the outcome of October’s legislative elections, Macri and his judicial allies are stepping up their vendetta against former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who remains very popular and may run for Senate in October. Today, Florencia Kirchner Fernández and Maximo Kirchner Fernández—the adult children of Fernández de Kirchner and her late husband Nestor Kirchner, who was also a popular President—had to appear in court in one of the multiple corruption cases launched against them and their mother, and rumors circulated that they might be jailed, or that Fernández de Kirchner may be jailed tomorrow when she appears in court in the same case.
The two younger Kirchners refused to answer questions, and charged instead that they’ve been dragged into court only because their last name is Kirchner, denouncing the unprecedented and illegal judicial harassment to which they, and their mother, have been subjected. Macri’s goal, they said, is to proscribe their mother to prevent her from participating in politics, or in an election she may win—Macri’s greatest fear.
