EDITORIAL
Expose and Crush the British Attack on the U.S.
April 20 (EIRNS)—As you read this, the British are moving to exploit a loophole in European peacekeeping agreements, to try again to lure President Trump into making a dangerous mistake—this one likely fatal—like his missile attack against Syria on April 6, which was based on forged British evidence of a Syrian government chemical-warfare attack.
Remember that the Obama Administration sponsored actual Nazis to take over Ukraine in early 2014. These Nazis would already have plunged Europe and the world into war long ago, but for the four-power “Normandy” talks between the top leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine, which have kept the conflict from spiralling out of control so far—despite all the weaknesses of the French and Germans.
The last telephone conference of the Normandy Four was on April 18, just two days ago. But now, the French Presidential election will create a delay of at least a month—the next French President is expected to be inaugurated about ten days after the second-round election scheduled for May 7. The British have rushed into this gap, in an obvious extension of their attack against the United States—which must be crushed on that basis. They brought Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko to Britain on April 18 for two days of closed-door talks and highly provocative public speeches—apparently preparing for another sudden, false-flag attack, or something like it. Another dirty trick is in the offing! Last night, Bloomberg News sent out a fraudulent story titled, “Putin Quietly Detaches Ukraine’s Rebel Zones as U.S. Waffles,” using faked quotes from Russian officials.
EIR Founding Editor Lyndon LaRouche has pointed to the role of German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen as a crucial surrogate for the British system, who is launching actual military operations to support that British system and its forced march into war with Russia. She must be exposed and removed, he said.
On the British lies about Syrian chemical warfare which fooled and entrapped President Trump two weeks ago, the latest installment of MIT Professor Ted Postol’s exposé, proves beyond question that the sarin gas attack alleged in the “White House Report of April 11” did not happen. He also gives a clue—the unique, findable location of groups of victims on the ground—which can readily be used to unravel the whole made-up charade and prove exactly how it was done!
Americans must act jointly and closely with allies in Europe and across the world to expose and denounce the British traps, and shut them down for good!
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Will British Use Pause in Normandy Four Discussions To Stir Up War In Europe?
April 20 (EIRNS)—After the Normandy Four leaders—Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, French President François Hollande, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel—spoke by phone on April 18, Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that another discussion of the four leaders won’t be possible until after the French elections scheduled for April 23, though the likelihood of a May 7 second round means no discussion before about May 17 at the earliest. This means a hiatus in the only process that is keeping the Nazi gangs in Ukraine, and thus the threat of a European war, in check, a hiatus that London is working to take advantage of.
In fact, immediately after the Normandy Four phone call, which of course does not include Britain or the United States, Poroshenko was on his way to London, where he met with Prime Minister Theresa May, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, other British officials, delivered a speech at Chatham House/RIIA and gave an interview to Sky News. In a statement published on the Ukrainian Presidency website, Poroshenko thanked May for Britain’s strong and reliable position in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. “I think that firm position of Great Britain, as signatory country to the Budapest Memorandum, provides guarantees of our sovereignty and territorial integrity, and demonstrates an extremely reliable position as regards our strategic partnership,” he said in May’s presence. For her part, May “was clear that the U.K. recognizes the threat posed by Russia through the illegal annexation of Crimea and the ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine, and noted that the U.K. continues to offer support to counter this threat.” Furthermore, “They agreed on the importance of maintaining sanctions until the Minsk agreement is fully implemented, and of looking at how we work together to enhance our bilateral security and defense co-operation.”
At Chatham House, Poroshenko portrayed Ukraine’s army and the EU sanctions as the only bulwark stopping Russia from digging deeper into Europe. “Many think: once Russia is fed—it won’t be a threat any more. I have to disagree. Russia doesn’t have a hunger problem. It has an attitude problem,” he claimed, according to the summary posted on the Ukrainian Presidential website. “It doesn’t believe in things like democracy and human rights. It believes in things like ‘world domination’ and ‘zones of influence.’ ” He then went on, according to British media reports: “Don’t believe those who think that sanctions bring nothing. It is the only mechanism to keep Russia at the negotiating table. If it was not for sanctions and a newly born Ukrainian army, Russian tanks would be standing much deeper in Europe. Putin started his campaign in Ukraine with a sense of impunity. Because of sanctions he has a sense of hesitation.”
First Russia-U.S. Experts Group Expected To Be Formed Soon
April 20 (EIRNS)—As reported by TASS, in an interview with Kommersant Daily published April 19, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov discussed the proposed expert group on improving U.S. Russian relations which was agreed to in the talks between U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “Some sort of a mechanism will be set up in all likelihood,” he said. “This won’t be a momentous structure involving specialists from a multitude of organizations. This will be an entity with much flexibility that will be able to alter its configuration depending on the specific issues. However, we haven’t gotten as far as formalization of this work, or making an official announcement about who will chair this mechanism on both sides,” Ryabkov said.
This is due, he said, to “the absence of appointments on the U.S. side. On the whole, the process of filling vacant positions is rather slow but we treat this slow pace with understanding.”
Nonetheless, he said, both sides are committed to forming this group. “The presumption is this group will be functioning without excessive rhetoric or allusions to the past (although it’s scarcely possible to avoid them altogether), and that its members will focus on concrete issues. I think they will be offering proposals and ideas that would help their leaders to clear up the mudslides generated by the previous U.S. Administration.
Ryabkov reported that if he is entrusted with the work of the experts group, from the Russian side, he would see dealing with humanitarian problems as an urgent priority. “First and foremost the problems that have stuck in our relations like painful splinters,” he explained. Among problems to be addressed, he said, is “the plight of pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko” a Russian pilot now serving a 20-year sentence in a U.S. prison, allegedly for conspiring to smuggle drugs into the country. There is also the issue of “arbitrary detentions of Russian citizens in third countries on American warrants without due notifications of the Russian side.” There is a range of other serious problems requiring “all-round analysis and political solutions at the highest state level,” Ryabkov underscored, pointing to the restrictions that Russian citizens and legal entities must confront when making transactions in U.S. dollars. “This is because the U.S. banking system is pegged to the supervisory agencies, in which the sanctions saga created during the Barack Obama Presidency is permanently in the air.”
U.S. ECONOMIC & POLITICAL
Senator Warren Reiterates: We Need Glass-Steagall Now!
April 20 (EIRNS)—In the context of the release of her new book This Fight Is Our Fight—The Battle to Save America’s Middle Class, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) again made a very strong case for an immediate restoration of Glass-Steagall, speaking last night on the Charlie Rose Show TV broadcast.
Warren, at one point, said that Glass-Steagall had to be passed, and that President Trump has stated his support for it. She has introduced legislation for three years now, she said. “Let’s do it. We should do it, you bet.” She recounted the recent White House meeting with bankers, and how she asked Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn about Glass-Steagall, and he responded positively.
She said it’s time to come to the table over Glass-Steagall. “I mean the real one.” Later in the discussion, she reiterated her point: “Glass-Steagall must be restored and Gary Cohn has stated support for it.”
Dr. Postol Exposes Fraud of White House Report on Alleged Syrian Sarin Gas Attack
April 20 (EIRNS)—In the fourth in a series of devastating exposés, Ted Postol, MIT Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology and International Security, proves beyond any doubt that the sarin gas attack that allegedly occurred in Khan Sheikhoun on April 4 could not possibly have occurred as claimed in the White House Intelligence Report (WHR) of April 11, or in the doctored videos provided as evidence.
Dr. Postol provides two significant pieces of evidence.
First, the only location that could have been affected by the alleged nerve agent release is a small hamlet, about 300 meters to the east-southeast of the crater which the WHR claims was the sarin dispersal site.
Among the hundreds of videos posted on YouTube and Twitter as evidence, “there seems to be no more than 50 to 60 seconds of actual original scenes,” Postol notes. “The vast majority of time in the videos contains the same repeated sequences of the same dead and injured infants and adults, that could all be collected into less than a couple of minutes of independent scenes…. Almost none of the scenes contains any different information from the others.”
Yet these videos purporting to show mass casualties, and dead and dying men, women and children, “clearly could not have been at the location of the hamlet, as one can see that the walls surrounding the area are carved out of rock. Thus, this scene could not possibly have been at this hamlet,” Dr. Postol asserts.
EIR adds that in fact, if you look at the photographs, these “walls carved of rock” are highly unique and unusual. When the actual location where these videos were really made is determined, it will probably become pretty obvious exactly how this entire atrocity was faked.
It is remarkable, Postol continues, that none of the many video journalists who reported from the crater area, referred in any way to the mass casualties that “could have occurred 300 meters away if the attack had been executed from this crater.”
Moreover, those “health workers” at the alleged sarin dispersal site, the crater, are wearing no protective gear. Had this been a sarin attack, they would have died or suffered severe injuries.
Dr. Postol concludes that his abbreviated summary of the facts demonstrates, “without doubt, that the sarin dispersal site alleged as the source of the April 4, 2017 sarin attack in Khan Sheikhoun was not a nerve agent attack site. It also shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that the only mass casualty site that could have resulted from this mass attack, is not in any way related to the sites that are shown in video following a poisoning event of some kind at Khan Sheikhoun.” Hence, “the allegedly high-confidence White House intelligence assessment issued on April 11, that led to the conclusion that the Syrian government was responsible for the attack is not correct. For such a report to be so egregiously in error, it could not possibly have followed the most simple and proven intelligence methodologies to determine the veracity of its findings.”
Anti-Soros Watchdog, Judicial Watch, Sues U.S. State Department
April 20 (EIRNS)—Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on April 19 seeking records concerning the funding activities of the State Department in relation to George Soros’s Open Society Foundation and its affiliates in Macedonia. Earlier, it was successful in forcing the Obama administration to publish Hillary Clinton’s work-related emails. Between 2012 and 2016, the Open Society Foundation-Macedonia (FOSM) and related local affiliates, spent almost $5 million through a USAID program called Civil Society Project. According to William Marshall of Judicial Watch, the funding was extended to 2021 to the tune of $9.5 million.
“The FOSM-affiliated sub-entities receiving U.S. tax dollars through USAID’s Civil Society Project are also closely tied to the main opposition political party in Macedonia, the country’s former Communists, now called SDSM,” Marshall wrote. Macedonia is a former republic of Yugoslavia, which was ruled by the Communist Party until the breakup of communism in Europe in 1990-91. In January, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) sent a letter to then-Ambassador Jess Baily, asking him to explain the State Department’s relationship with FOSM. In February, several congressmen requested an audit of the State Department and USAID activities in Macedonia.
Last month, six Republican senators, also led by Sen. Mike Lee, sent an open letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, urging him to review the State Department’s practice of channeling taxpayer funds to organizations that promote “left-leaning parties” and the “progressive agenda” in foreign countries. They cited Albania and Macedonia as the two most recent examples, but added that they had also received complaints from South American and African governments.
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Famine Threatens Millions in Drought-Ravaged Somalia
April 20 (EIRNS)—According to the latest report from the international aid group, Save the Children, Somalia is on the verge of a massive famine. In its latest survey, the group warned that “life-threatening malnutrition rates are rising sharply. We are on the brink of a massive catastrophe in Somalia with the death of three-quarters of the country’s livestock, a rapid increase of children suffering severe malnutrition, and the depletion of water stores in dozens of communities,” said Hassan Saadi Noor, Save the Children’s Somalia country director, who said “he fears seeing children dying in significant numbers,” Associated Press reported.
Noor also pointed out that more than half of the population of Somalia, around 6.2 million people, needed immediate lifesaving assistance as a result of drought in the country, while a further 8.3 million living in countries like Kenya and Ethiopia, including those stranded in refugee camps, needed urgent help, according to a report by Iran’s PressTV.
In its report on the life-and-death crisis in Somalia, the Britain’s Guardian noted that in the villages around Baidoa, 180 miles northwest of the capital, Mogadishu, and “across the worst-hit areas of southern and central Somalia, the death toll is mounting. There are scattered deaths from lack of food, but illness is the main killer. Spend an hour with those pouring into the town … and you will find fathers who have buried four children in as many days, grandparents left to fade away in villages, and breastfeeding mothers who have carried twins for 70 miles under a searing sun in a last-ditch bid to find help.” Aid authorities “also admit that an official UN figure of about 550 deaths as a result of cholera and similar diseases in Somalia since the beginning of the year is grossly underreported. The true figure could be 10 times as many, or more,” the Guardian reported.
Sanctions Spurred Russia’s Agricultural Growth
April 20 (EIRNS)—Notwithstanding the doubting economists and others, Moscow’s measures to counter the Obama-imposed sanctions have done wonders for Russian agriculture. It has done so well, in fact, that last month, Russian Minister of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev proposed extending the food embargo for another decade. “The minister insisted that given a few more years, Russia can become a net exporter of food, and not only in grains,” Sputnik reported.
Russia initially imposed an embargo on some foodstuffs in August 2014 for one year, but as of June 2016 the countermeasures were extended to the end of this year.
Tkachev has a solid ground to make that claim. The Sputnik report stated that “the growth in the domestic production of pork and poultry products has already come to negate the need for imports. Fresh vegetable output grew 30% in 2016 compared to the year before, with the use of greenhouses allowing imports to decline dramatically even in winter, from 70% before the counter-sanctions took effect to 35% today. In a year’s time, the Russian Institute of Agricultural Marketing expects imports to fall to less than 20%.” RT reported today that last year, Russia became the world’s leading exporter of grain, shipping 34 million tons out of its record crop of 119 million tons. “The country also became a top producer of sugar beet with greenhouse vegetable output increasing 30% over the previous year,” RT explained.
Best of all, the boom is bringing down the agro-product prices in the markets, helping Russian consumers. According to Institute of Agricultural Marketing director Elena Turina, cited by Sputnik, domestic production has already helped to stabilize prices, and even bring some of them back down. “A similar situation is already being seen in the pork and poultry markets. The growth in production has led to stable prices, with prices even falling in some categories. We can expect the same thing to occur in the market of greenhouse-grown vegetables,” Turina said.
NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Italian Prime Minister in U.S. Calls for Mediterranean ‘New Peace of Westphalia’
April 20 (EIRNS)—Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni is on a three-day visit to the United States and Canada, where he will discuss issues concerning the coming G7 summit in Italy, and also especially the crisis in the Mediterranean region, with President Donald Trump.
In a speech at CSIS today, Gentiloni called for a new U.S.-Italian alliance for leadership in the Mediterranean, based on the spirit of a “sort of New Peace of Westphalia or Helsinki Agreements.”
Italy has three priorities in the Mediterranean, Gentiloni said: 1) controlling refugee flows, 2) stabilizing the situation and 3) defeating terrorism.
On refugee flows, “The figures are impressive” he said, speaking in English. “Around 500,000 migrants were saved from death at sea by the Italian Navy and Coast Guard and by European rescue teams over the last three years. This dramatic situation requires renewed efforts” both in the short and long term. “Indeed,” he said, “there is room for a more vigorous international engagement, based on a reinforced American and European (in particular, Italian) leadership, aimed at stabilizing the states of the Southern Mediterranean.
Gentiloni emphasized that Libya is a top priority for Italy. Here, where the mistakes of “our past lack of vision” are evident, “the clearer should now be our common engagement.” Upholding joint Italian-U.S. leadership “is not only an opportunity,” Gentiloni said, “but a political must…. An inclusive political process could safeguard the unity of the country to the benefit of all Libyans, as well as of the entire region.”
Gentiloni concluded by emphasizing the need “to cooperate to contain conflicts and to better manage crises.” He added that at the same time, “we should start working on the definition of a new order for this region, that exerts such a profound influence on global order. Some sort of new Peace of Westphalia or some sort of a ‘Helsinki agreement for the Mediterranean’ have sometimes been suggested. The limits of tracing such ambitious historical parallelisms are evident. Nevertheless, I believe that the consciousness that should guide us in this process has very much in common with the spirit that led the way to ending the wars of religion in Europe and, during the last century, to overcoming the Cold War.”
During the Q&A period, Gentiloni paid lip service to EU-U.S. policies on sanctions and even on Trump’s bombing of Syria, but when he was asked what suggestion he has for the U.S., in view of Italy’s historically-good relations with Russia, he said: “Showing strength is necessary, but at the same time we have to engage Russia. To say that isolating Russia is productive is inaccurate. History shows that when Russia is attacked, it reacts with energy.” Gentiloni said we should study “the lesson of what happened in the ’80s, with Ronald Reagan.”
SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTURE
Tanzania Begins Building Its 300km Inland Railroad
April 20 (EIRNS)—On April 12, Tanzanian President John Magufuli laid the foundation stone for the project to build a 300 km-long standard-gauge railroad between the Indian Ocean port city of Dar es Salaam and the inland city of Morogoro, Global Construction Review (GCR) reported on April 19. The President said the project will create 600,000 employment opportunities, stimulate trade relations within Tanzania and with its neighbors, and improve the tourism sector and other economic sectors.
“This is an opportunity to grow and excel in our industrial revolution drive, which is the current national focus as we set our eyes to become a middle-income country,” President Magufuli was widely reported saying.
The Dar es Salaam-Morogoro line is the first leg of a large project. According to a news report in The Citizen daily, the next leg of the railway will connect Morogoro to the country’s capital, Dodoma, a distance of 336 km. In the subsequent phases of the project, Dodoma will get connected to the port cities of Kigoma in its west on Lake Tanganyika, and Mwanza in its northwest on Lake Victoria.
“This would encourage trade with landlocked neighbors Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” GCR wrote. The entire project involves building of around 2,200 km of railroad.
The Tanzanian President claimed that the government of Turkey is interested in funding the next leg of the railway, from Morogoro to Dodoma. President John Magufuli made the funding request to visiting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan during talks in Dar es Salaam.
“In recent years, Turkey has sought to deepen trade ties with Africa and moved to expand influence on a continent where China and more traditional donors such as Britain, France, and the European Union have a strong presence,” Reuters reported.
“Tanzania has chosen Turkish construction company Yapi Merkezi Insaat VE Sanayi As and Portuguese firm Mota-Engil to build the 160-km/h rail link which will transport 17 million tons of cargo instead of the current 5 million tons, Tanzania’s rail operator, Reli Asset Holding Company (Rahco) has said,” reported GCR.
Russian-U.S. Space Cooperation Continues with Latest Launch
April 20 (EIRNS)—The Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft blasted off atop the Soyuz-FG carrier rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today, sending the next expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). Expedition 51/52 crew members include NASA astronaut Jack Fischer and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin.
A Roscosmos representative told Sputnik that the upgraded Soyuz spacecraft is carrying 70 kg of food products for the ISS. The Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft has an upgraded navigation system, a new communications system and a modernized docking system. The spacecraft also has a larger solar cell area, which enables it to generate more energy. The launch of the Soyuz MS-04 to the ISS was initially scheduled for March 27, but was postponed to conduct more safety checks.
