EIR Daily Alert Service

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MONDAY, APRIL 10, 2017

Volume 4, Number 70

EIR Daily Alert Service

P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390

EDITORIAL

LaRouche Calls for Immediate Trump-Putin Summit: To Stop British Drive for World War III

April 9 (EIRNS)—Lyndon LaRouche today warned that there is a British-run coup d’état in process against the Trump administration in the United States, which threatens to parlay the stupid and dangerous April 6 air strike against Syria, into a full-fledged thermonuclear confrontation with Russia and China.

It’s the British bastards who duped President Trump into attacking Syria, with their lies and false intelligence, LaRouche charged. We have to destroy the British system and all their interests in the U.S., he stated. We have to rally the U.S. to get back on the trajectory that Trump had begun to chart for the U.S., of cooperation with Russia and China around American System economic policies, including a return to FDR’s 1933 Glass-Steagall principle.

Trump and Putin should immediately hold a summit meeting to address the crisis, LaRouche said, and thereby short-circuit the whole British operation. LaRouche strongly endorsed the comments this weekend by veteran German statesman Willy Wimmer, former Secretary of State of the German Defense Ministry, who warned that “People are afraid of a global war, a Third World War,” and argued that “the current dramatic situation offers an opportunity for the Russian and U.S. heads of state to meet as soon as possible.”

There can be no doubt that the British are behind last week’s shocking about-face of Trump’s policy. Top British officials are crowing openly over their achievement to date. For example, British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon published an op-ed in the April 9 Sunday Times of London, bragging that “the British and American governments have been in close contact at all levels before and after the strikes…. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis called me to share their assessment of the regime’s culpability. Together we reviewed the options they were considering.”

On April 8, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also claimed that he was coordinating everything with his American counterpart, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, including Johnson’s theatrical cancellation of his scheduled trip to Moscow. “I discussed these plans in detail with Secretary Tillerson,” Johnson boasted. “He will visit Moscow as planned and, following the G7 meeting [in Lucca, Italy on April 10-11], will be able to deliver that clear and coordinated message to the Russians.”

Today’s Sunday Times elaborated, in an article accompanying the Fallon op-ed, what that message would be: “Britain and America will this week directly accuse Russia of complicity in war crimes in Syria and demand that Vladimir Putin pull the rug from Bashar al-Assad’s blood-soaked regime.” Fallon further wrote: “By proxy, Russia is responsible for every civilian death last week,” adding that Putin must now get with the program, by agreeing to the overthrow of the Assad government.

The chances of Putin going along with this British demand are zero. The chances of the situation spiraling into a thermonuclear confrontation—either in the Middle East, or around the Korean Peninsula—are significantly greater than zero, so long as the British are calling the shots.

Having induced Trump to attack Syria based upon their lies, the British are now also orchestrating a storm of opposition to President Trump in the Obama wing of the Democratic Party, calling for Trump’s impeachment because of the Syria bombing. Trump’s actions this week have also weakened him politically among his own base of supporters, both in the U.S. and internationally, who are shocked and dismayed at what he did—which adds grist to the British mill.

The current situation is extremely dangerous, LaRouche emphasized, and can lead to war in the short term. And, it is being brought about entirely by the British, and nothing else. We must destroy that British imperial system. The citizens of the United States must rally themselves against this British coup. No intelligent person will accept what the British are up to; the only people inside the United States who will back the British, LaRouche said, are brain-drained people who are traitors to the U.S.

We have to come down like a hammer on this, in order to stop the British coup to take over the Trump administration, and the related drive to war. The Schiller Institute’s two-day conference on April 13-14 in New York, on “U.S.-China Cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative and Corresponding Ideas in Chinese and Western Philosophy,” will present the policy alternative which is capable of destroying the British Empire, permanently.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

LaRouche’s Political Action Statement on U.S. Bombing of Syria

April 7 (EIRNS)—Lyndon LaRouche’s Political Action Committee issued a statement Friday on the U.S. bombing of Syria, titled “Fraud against the Nation; Fraud against Syria”:

“In reviewing the Syria bombing ordered by President Donald J. Trump yesterday, Lyndon and Helga LaRouche condemned it in the strongest terms possible,” the statement opened, and asserted “President Trump received a fraudulent briefing on the event itself, asserting that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for a chemical weapons attack on his own population, despite the fact that U.S. military forces on the ground in Syria knew that the chemicals came from an Al-Qaeda base, as stated by Russia and Syria. President Trump was lied to by individuals in his national security/intelligence chain of command.

“The sources utilized to claim Syrian culpability for the attack are exclusively British, the same people who are coordinating the international attack on Trump’s Presidency, in an effort to destroy any positive potential for relationships with Russia and China to rebuild the U.S. and world economy. This was a violation of international law. Trump was set up. ‘The British set this in motion against the entire human race,’ Lyndon LaRouche emphasized.

“LaRouche said that Trump must immediately seek out those responsible for the fraud and fire them. A United Nations investigation of the incident must occur immediately. Following both, a war crimes prosecution would be appropriate. The President should never listen to the British. It is not accidental that this setup occurred right when the President was meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping—a meeting which has the British and their Wall Street allies completely apoplectic—a meeting which could portend a new and peaceful paradigm for economic and scientific progress.

“LaRouche PAC is coordinating a national mobilization against this fraud, telling Trump to fire those responsible, and demanding that the United Nations immediately investigate.

“Numerous intelligence community sources and active duty U.S. forces on the ground in Syria knew that this was not a Syrian government chemical attack (see below). The Syrians hit an Al-Qaeda base which was storing chemical weapons used by the terrorists. U.S. forces on the ground reported that it was not a Syrian chemical weapons attack up the chain of command. The United States had been notified of the Syrian mission before it took place and knew about the Syrian targeting.  Someone either deliberately lied to the President about this information or kept it from him.

“The on-the-ground intelligence purporting to document a chemical weapons attack by the Syrian Air Force came from the White Helmets group, created by the British, financed by the British Defense Ministry, and totally penetrated by and supporting ISIS and Al Nusra terrorists. The other cited ‘proof’ comes from the Syrian Human Rights Observatory which consists of a single individual, residing in London, who is notorious for widely disseminating inaccurate information.”

The statement concluded, “LaRouche PAC has urged calls to the White House at 202-456-1111 (the comment line), or direct calls at 202-456-1414. Messages can be sent to the White House directly at this link, or by twitter message to the President.”

Experts Quick To Expose Fraud behind Trump’s Air Strike on Syria

April 8 (EIRNS)—Numbers of qualified U.S. intelligence and military experts are calling out the fraud asserted to justify the April 6 bombing of Syria by the United States. Though the questions stand open, as to who did or did not brief President Donald Trump, and why he then authorized the air strike, the facts of the fraud are undeniable, and now coming forward. Recent postings:

1. “Donald Trump Is an International Law Breaker,” by Publius Tacitus. April 7, 2017. On the website, “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” of Col. Pat Lang (ret.).

“Donald Trump’s decision to launch cruise missile strikes on a Syrian Air Force Base was based on a lie. In the coming days, the American people will learn that the Intelligence Community knew that Syria did not drop a military chemical weapon on innocent civilians in Idlib. Here is what happened…” a chronology proceeds.

2. “Trump’s ‘Wag the Dog’ Moment,” by Robert Parry. April 7, 2017. Consortiumnews.

“Parry, investigative journalist, quotes Phil Giraldi, former military intelligence, and counter-terrorism official (CIA), ‘The intelligence confirms pretty much the account that the Russians have been giving…which is that they hit a warehouse where the rebels—now … connected with Al Qaeda—where the rebels were storing chemicals of their own, and it basically caused an explosion that resulted in the casualties. Apparently the intelligence on this is very clear.’ Giraldi said the anger within the intelligence community over the distortion of intelligence to justify Trump’s military retaliation was so great that some covert officers were considering going public.

“ ‘People in both the agency [the CIA] and in the military who are aware of the intelligence, are freaking out about this, because essentially Trump completely misrepresented what he already should have known—but maybe he didn’t—and they’re afraid that this is moving toward a situation that could easily turn into an armed conflict,’ Giraldi said before Thursday night’s missile strike. They are astonished by how this is being played by the administration and by the U.S. media.”

3. “Poodle Trump Runs with Dogs of War,” by Finian Cunningham. April 7, 2017. In Sputnik International.

“It is not clear whether Trump or his ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley are merely gullible or something more sinister, such as willing accomplices in a charade.”

Russian Defense Ministry: U.S. Provided No Evidence of Chemical Weapons at Syrian Airfield

April 8 (EIRNS)—There is no evidence that the Syrian military has stockpiled chemical weapons at the Shairat airbase that the U.S. hit with a cruise missile strike on April 6, nor have the U.S. State and Defense Departments provided any, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said today, reported Sputnik. “After 24 hours after the U.S. Navy warships launched a massive strike by cruise missile on the Shairat [airfield in Syria], neither the Pentagon, nor the U.S. State Department have presented proof of the presence of chemical weapons there,” he said.

Konashenkov pointed out that dozens of media representatives, local administration, firefighters, and military personnel have also visited the base since the attack, and they have found no evidence of chemical munitions. Moreover, no one is wearing gas masks or other protective gear which would be necessitated by the toxic threat that would have been created by the missile strike had such munitions been present.

“A question arises: What has again been demonstrated to the U.S. President as the alleged proof of the chemical weapons’ possession in a state disliked by Washington, and who did it [present the ‘evidence’]?” Konashenkov asked. “Thus, the only way to receive objective evidence of the alleged possession of chemical weapons at the Shairat and demonstrate it to the world is to send there a commission of experts,” he said. He noted that “the precursors left from the combat of poisonous substances cannot be hidden even after months and years after they had been stored [in a place].”

Are More American Strikes Coming in Syria?

April 9 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump sent a letter to Congress yesterday, informing them of the reasons for the April 6 American cruise missile attack in Syria, within the 48-hour time frame required by the War Powers Resolution. Besides repeating many of the same “R2P-style” formulations contained in his Thursday night announcement, about acting in the interest of “U.S. national security” in order to avert a “humanitarian catastrophe,” the Trump letter explicitly threatened further action: “The U.S. will take additional action, as necessary and appropriate, to further its important national interests.”

While much of the early official commentary right after the attack was that it was a “one-off” attack, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley had telegraphed that more could be coming, in her speech to the UN Security Council on April 7: “We are prepared to do more, but we hope that will not be necessary.” On today’s CBS News Sunday talk show “Face the Nation,” Haley was explicit: “Regime change is something that we think is going to happen because all of the parties are going to see that Assad is not the leader that needs to be taking place for Syria.”

Many intelligence professionals in the U.S. are also concerned that more American military action is imminent, possibly including no-fly zones, safe-zones, and even American and allied boots on the ground in Idlib province in Syria.

On the Russian side, similar warnings are being issued. TASS interviewed Igor Korotchenko, the editor-in-chief of the Moscow-based National Defense magazine, on April 8, who said: “America has unsealed Pandora’s box and has demonstrated once again it is thinking in the categories of a global policeman. This line of logic may prompt Trump to make new ill-conceived steps.” TASS commented that Korotchenko further “voiced the confidence that more strikes might follow,” and then reported on comments by another Russian expert, Viktor Murakhovsky, the editor-in-chief of the Arsenal of the Homeland magazine. “He also does not rule out a possibility of more missile strikes. The next volley of missiles will likely target the facilities where, according to U.S. surmising, the Syrians store chemical weapons.”

Murakhovsky explained that no Russians were present on the Syrian base when the U.S. missiles hit on April 6, because the U.S. had given two hours advance warning. “Now that we’ve suspended effectuation of the Russian-U.S. memorandum on prevention of dangerous incidents in Syrian airspace, we won’t be receiving any notifications from the Americans, and that’s a strong signal to them that they should behave reasonably,” he said.

Lavrov Tells Tillerson Air Strike Only Helped Terrorists

April 9 (EIRNS)—Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke by phone with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson yesterday, and told him that Washington’s claims that the Syrian military had used chemical weapons were “inaccurate and inconclusive,” the Russian Foreign Ministry reported. Lavrov called for a thorough and impartial investigation, including sending in international experts to Syria to conduct studies.

Lavrov also told Tillerson that the U.S. attack de facto helped the terrorists, by “playing into extremists hands and creating additional threats for regional and global security.” According to Sputnik, the two men agreed to continue their discussion about Syria when they meet next week, when Tillerson travels to Moscow. The British scenario for that meeting, is for Tillerson to read from the British script and threaten Russia that they must help bring about regime change against Assad in Syria, or face the consequences.

U.S. Navy Strike Group Moves Towards Korean Peninsula

April 9 (EIRNS)—The Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its associated Navy strike group were ordered into the Western Pacific region off the Korean Peninsula this weekend, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command. This was done “as a prudent measure to maintain readiness…. The number one threat in the region continues to be North Korea, due to its reckless, irresponsible and destabilizing program of missile tests and pursuit of nuclear weapons capability.”

President Trump yesterday spoke with South Korea’s acting president about the redeployment. The Vinson had previously been scheduled to make port visits to Australia.

The issue of North Korea has been on everyone’s lips in the wake of the American cruise missile strike against Syria, especially since the attack occurred precisely as President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China were meeting in Florida. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson contributed to the speculation that a unilateral U.S. strike against North Korea was under consideration, when he reported that, at their meeting, Trump had told Xi: “We would be happy to work with them, but we understand it creates unique problems for them and challenges, and that we would be, and are, prepared to chart our own course if this is something China is just unable to coordinate with us.”

According to a story published by NBC, “Trump’s options for North Korea include placing nukes in South Korea.” They report that the National Security Council has drawn up a list of options for the President. They note, however, that even some hawks, including retired Adm. James Stavridis, are opposed to the idea. “I don’t think that is a good idea. I think that it will only inflame the view from Pyongyang,” Stavridis told NBC.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Tillerson Veers from British Line, Denies, Confirms Russia Is Not Complicit

April 9 (EIRNS)—In an interview aired on ABC News’ ”This Week” Sunday talk show, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was not fully in lockstep with what the Sunday Times of London had dictated must be his script, on the complicity of Russia in using chemical weapons in Idlib province, and for issuing demands for immediate regime change for Syria.

Tillerson toed the line of Russian “meddling” in U.S. and European elections; defended the U.S. military strike, and spoke of being “disappointed” by Russia’s alleged failure as a guarantor of the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons. But he startled interviewer George Stephanopoulos with his statement that “I’ve not seen any hard evidence that connects the Russians directly to the planning or execution of this particular chemical weapons attack. And, indeed, that’s why we’ve tried to be very clear that the Russians were never targeted in [Thursday night’s U.S. military] strike.”

Stephanopoulos was thrown off balance from the get-go, when Secretary Tillerson stated that Thursday’s strike would not be followed by a new strategy to remove Assad from power. The Trump administration’s priority is first the defeat of ISIS, he said; then to turn to a cease-fire, stating specifically that “in that regard, we are hopeful that we can work with Russia and use their influence to achieve areas of stabilization throughout Syria and create the conditions for a political process through Geneva in which we can engage all of the parties on a way forward.  And it is through that political process that we believe the Syrian people will lawfully be able to decide the fate of Bashar al-Assad.” Pressed on this point, Tillerson cited the lessons to be learned from today’s chaotic situation in Libya, and what goes wrong “when you choose that path of regime change.”

His remarks contrast notably with those of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, whose treasonous proclamation on the same day that “regime change” is now policy, follows the British-dictated line.

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Glass-Steagall vs. Bank Separation: Distinction Is Now Important

April 7 (EIRNS)—With bills to restore the Glass-Steagall Act now in both Houses of Congress and three Trump Administration representatives having proposed “some version” of it, it will be critical to distinguish what the original Act accomplished, from more recent proposals to “ring-fence” bank holding companies.

The four initiating Senate Glass-Steagall sponsors of S.881 yesterday (Sens. Elizabeth Warren, John McCain, Maria Cantwell and Angus King) rightly claimed broad support from American constituencies in both parties, and general support in the Trump Administration, including public nods to Glass-Steagall by the President. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn have both now supported some form of bank separation; and FDIC Vice-Chairman Thomas Hoenig has spelled out a tough and detailed version of “ring-fencing” as, essentially, the next best thing to Glass-Steagall. While more House Democrats have signed on to the Kaptur-Jones bill H.R.790 to restore Glass-Steagall (there are now 43 sponsors), many House Republicans have privately told EIR representatives they like Hoenig’s plan.

The difference is essentially that between creating a moat to separate big commercial banks from their thousands of securities units, with a bridge with barricades on either end and prominent “do not cross” signs; and allowing no bridge over the moat at all. Hoenig’s plan has strong barricades against deposit banks creating, supporting, or bailing out broker-dealer and derivatives units and vehicles. He proposes explicitly restoring enforcement of Sections 23A and 23B of the Federal Reserve Act of 2013—provisions only inserted into that act in 1933 by passage of Glass-Steagall. If the Wall Street megabank is divided into separately capitalized and managed “major” and “minor” holding companies; and only the major commercial bank holding company has access to Federal insurance; and only AAA-rated assets can move from the speculative units to the major holding company (Sections 23A and 23B); the speculative units appear to be on their own.

But these separations have been created before—including by the biggest banks themselves as they became impossibly complex after Glass-Steagall was destroyed. When the bank crisis exploded over 2007-08, and hundreds of speculative units lost their credit ratings and were failing, the barricades on the bridges were broken down. Those units were bailed out by the main bank holding companies—“taken back on their balance sheets”—and they were still doing it when Bank of America bailed out Merrill-Lynch’s entire $52 trillion derivatives book in 2012 after Merrill was downgraded. The Federal Reserve looked the other way. That mirrored BoA being ordered in 2008 to lose $14 billion buying and bailing out the failing Merrill, and BoA being bailed out in turn by the Treasury.

With Glass-Steagall, in that crisis, there is no bridge, and the commercial bank is prohibited from engaging in the speculative activities of securities units and derivatives traders at all. Those units can and will fail, without exploding the commercial banking system whose business is lending to the economy.

NEW WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER

Xi-Trump Summit Concludes in the Shadow of U.S. Missile Strike

April 9 (EIRNS)—The summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping was intended to provide the basis for a close relationship between these two major countries in resolving their differences and working together for the advancement of humanity.

While the Chinese delegation must have been totally taken aback by this major military operation in the midst of this important meeting, the meetings continued with the Chinese delegation Saturday morning and concluded as scheduled.

The leaders had already established a good rapport previously through their correspondence and phone calls. President Trump said that the two leaders had developed and “outstanding” relationship and that “lots of very potentially bad problems will be going away.” President Xi also was quite pleased with the reception of his delegation, which included four Politburo members. The summit, he said “held a uniquely important significance for the Sino-U.S. relationship…. President Trump made excellent preparation for our country’s representatives and gave us a warm reception,” Xi said. “We recently have had in-depth and lengthy communications to this end and arrived at many common understandings, the most important being deepening our friendship and building a kind of trust in keeping with the Sino-U.S. working relationship and friendship.”

President Trump also had most of his cabinet with him at the summit, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. President Xi also extended an invitation to President Trump to visit China this year, which President Trump readily accepted. President Xi also invited the U.S. President to join the Belt and Road Initiative.

The two Presidents established a new Cabinet-level framework for negotiations, the United States-China Comprehensive Dialogue, which they will oversee.  The previous U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue was criticized by the Trump people as being a “talk-shop” with no practical results.

The two Presidents discussed important trade issues, and decided to develop a 100-day action plan on trade with China which would have “way-stations of accomplishment along the way,” according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. There was also a discussion of eliminating the obstacles that remained in achieving a genuine bilateral investment treaty between the two countries. Secretary Tillerson indicated that a longer discussion on the North Korean nuclear program resulted in a renewed commitment by both sides to a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, and increased cooperation by both to convince North Korea to give up its program although there was no “package arrangement” on the topic. Secretary Tillerson said President Xi shared the U.S. view that the North Korean situation is very serious.

SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTURE

Space Cooperation Extends New Partnerships to BRICS and Others

April 8 (EIRNS)—New international initiatives for space development are realigning partnerships among the BRICS nations, bilaterally between Russia and China, and bringing in a new player, Japan. Yulong Tian, secretary general of China’s CNSA space agency told Sputnik on April 5 that the planned BRICS satellite remote sensing system, is “only the beginning” of their space cooperation. “That’s the foundation of cooperation that we established [as a] mechanism,” he said. “In the future, we want to expand to space science missions, to telecommunications, and even navigation system cooperation,” he explained. Russia, it is reported, will host a head of space agencies of BRICS members later this year.

Yulong also made the new proposal that there should be cooperation between Russia and China on their two new launch sites—Vostochny, which is near the Chinese border, and the new Chinese launch site on Hainan Island. He emphasized that the two countries have very good cooperation, not only on the government, but also the industry and commercial level.

Japan, which has historically had its closest space cooperation with the U.S., and more recently with Europe, has made an interesting proposal: to cooperate with Russia at its new east Vostochny launch complex, Roscosmos Deputy Director for International Cooperation Sergey Savelyev said in an interview with RIA Novosti April 7. He said Japan would be willing to launch its own commercial satellites from the new cosmodrome. This is strategically important, as Vostochny is a centerpiece of Russia’s plans for Eastern Siberian development, and has been short of funds, delayed, and suffered a variety of problems. The injection of cash from Japan to the center, through the use of its launch pads, would inject much needed funds. Japan may also invest in other Russian space projects.

OTHER

French Presidential Candidate Jacques Cheminade Meets with Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun

April 8 (EIRNS)—L’Orient le Jour, a leading French-language newspaper in Lebanon, covered the visit of Jacques Cheminade, a candidate for President of France, and a friend of Lyndon LaRouche, with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, in an article on President Aoun’s denunciation of the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by anyone.

At his press conference, the article notes, Cheminade said he was in Beirut in the spirit of support for a Free Lebanon over and above the political divisions. He said he hoped France would do more for the cause of Lebanon, and for the political and economic refugees coming in from Syria, and for the Lebanese people.

Cheminade, L’Orient le Jour reports, commented on the U.S. air strikes on Syria, stating that the air strikes do not help the peace process in the Middle East.

The first round of voting among the eleven candidates in the French Presidential election will be on Sunday, April 23.
 

Reach us at 1-800-278-3135 or www.larouchepub.com

 

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