EDITORIAL
Every Tree in the Forest Will Fall
July 26 (EIRNS)—We are at a point where we can sink the entire Trump/Russia-gate fraud on both sides of the Atlantic, and shift the strategic dynamic from the defensive to the offensive, Helga Zepp-LaRouche asserted today. That offensive means burying Wall Street and the City of London’s murderous speculative system, and bringing the United States and Europe into full cooperation with the China-Russia Belt and Road Initiative.
The explosive revelations which can be used to sink the Russia-gate farce, have been provided in the open memo sent to President Trump by the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), which reports on professional forensics performed on the so-called “Russian hacking” of DNC computers during the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. Those forensics demonstrate that the operation was not a “hacking” job, but an insider “leak”— i.e., that it could not possibly have been carried out by Russia.
As word begins to get out on that VIPS memo—led by LaRouche movement organizers and publications around the world, and in such places as the Russian broadcaster RT and in Zero Hedge website—Ray McGovern, a retired CIA analyst and VIPS leader, has escalated the affair by pointing the finger directly at former FBI Director James Comey, among others. In a video interview with RT, published on their website today, McGovern was asked why he thought the FBI had failed to examine the DNC computers or do any forensics.
“The answer to that is something that Congress and the President should pursue. It is laughable that James Comey, former director of the FBI, would say, ‘Oooh, the Democratic National Committee didn’t let us check out their computers.’ We’re talking about an act of war? Right? … That is malfeasance! … Was he in on this little operation, that was enabled by the CIA capability to ‘obfuscate?’ I don’t know the answer to that, but President Trump should be able to find the answer out to that.”
President Trump must do precisely that. He must determine who is responsible; bring them to justice; and make sure that “every tree in the forest will fall,” and dismantle the British Empire’s entire stable of assets inside the U.S. intelligence community—and those ensconced inside his own cabinet, who are counseling him to not fulfill his campaign promise of reinstating Glass-Steagall, and to not fully join in with the Belt and Road Initiative.
The British gambit is to make sure that, when the trans-Atlantic system disintegrates—which could be at any moment— there are no stable, functional governments that are open to adopting the necessary policies, especially if pressured sufficiently by their constituencies to do so. That is why the British are destabilizing numerous governments across Europe, and why they are trying to carry out a coup d’état against the Trump administration in the United States. And that is also why we must ensure that they fail.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Trump Is Gunning for the Intelligence Community Leakers
July 26 (EIRNS)—At the center of President Trump’s very public criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is Trump’s insistence that those in the intelligence community implicated in felonious leaking of classified government information have to be investigated, identified, and tried. In an Oval Office interview with the Wall Street Journal on July 25, Trump stated:
“I’m disappointed in Jeff Sessions, yes…. They should go after the leakers in intelligence. I don’t mean the White House stuff, where they’re fighting over who loves me the most, OK? (Laughter.) It’s just stupid people doing that … and Anthony [Scaramucci] will handle that … I’m talking about intelligence leaks.”
Trump kept hammering on the point in a couple of tweets this morning: “Why didn’t A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wife’s political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp!”
According to media accounts, Sessions will finally be announcing some investigations of leakers in the next few days.
Trump also took the opportunity of the Wall Street Journalinterview to again denounce all the Russia-gate accusations as pure fabrication: “I see the way they go after us on a witch hunt, you know? The Russian—the Russian story is all an excuse for the Democrats losing. In fact, if you read the book, Shattered, they have a whole chapter where they sat the day after the election and they said: Yeah, Russia. It was Russia. And, you know, Trump was involved. OK, the one thing interesting, you never heard me even associated with anybody. But, no, that’s a total witch hunt, the whole Russia story. It’s a hoax. It’s a hoax. We had no collusion with Russia. We never dealt with Russia.”
VIPS’ McGovern Asks, Was James Comey In On the ‘Russia Hack’ Email Lie?
July 26 (EIRNS)—Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, a well-known leader of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) patriots, upped the ante today in the war against the British operation to overthrow President Trump. In an interview with RT, McGovern called on the U.S. Congress and President Trump to specifically investigate FBI Director James Comey’s role in setting up the “Russians hacked the DNC email” fraud.
McGovern was interviewed on the VIPS’ explosive memo released Monday. He walked listeners through the forensic evidence documenting that the DNC emails released in July 2016 could not have been hacked, but had to have been leaked—and that the emails were “adulterated” to superimpose Russian format onto them. There are politicians calling the alleged Russian computer hacking “an act of war,” he exclaimed, yet it takes a “strange credulity” to say that Russian intelligence services are so professional that they did this job, but those “professionals” left tell-tale signs like Cyrillic characters in material released.
Although the VIPS don’t know, it “could be that the DNC has some inside help of some quite professional people,” said McGovern.
The VIPS memo itself suggests that the FBI role should be examined, and says that, “we do not know who or what the murky Guccifer 2.0 is. You may wish to ask the FBI.” Asked by RT why he thought the FBI failed to examine the DNC computers or carry out any forensics, McGovern singled out Comey by name. “The answer to that, is something that Congress and the President should pursue,” he said. “It is laughable that James Comey, former director of the FBI, would say, ‘Oooh, the Democratic National Committee didn’t let us check out their computers.’ We’re talking about an act of war? Right? And here’s the FBI saying ‘Oooh, we don’t want to do forensics. We’ll depend on the firm the DNC is paying to do the forensics.’ …
“That is malfeasance! And begs the question of: Why was it? Did James Comey know that his investigators might find out something that he didn’t want them to find out? Was he in on this little operation, that was enabled by the CIA capability to ‘obfuscate’? I don’t know the answer to that, but President Trump should be able to find the answer out to that,” McGovern concluded.
Ohio Akron Beacon Journal Takes Note of LaRouche Presence at Trump Youngstown Rally
July 26 (EIRNS)—At the very end of its lengthy article on President Donald Trump’s July 25 rally in Youngtown, Ohio, the Akron Beacon Journal reported, albeit with its own spin, that the LaRouche movement was organizing people at the rally. “Closer to the convention center, the controversial Lyndon LaRouche movement passed out flyers to Trump supporters waiting in line. The anti-capitalist, pro-labor group sees a friend in Trump, who has said he would consider reviving the Glass-Steagall Act to break up banks and not go to war for the sake of nation building,” the Journal wrote.
“ ‘We did everything we could to defeat Hillary,’ said Joe Billington, a Cleveland native who worked on LaRouche’s eight Presidential campaigns, each a long shot. On second thought, Billington though, Trump’s hiring of a former hedge fund manager from Wall Street to run the U.S. Treasury ‘is concerning.’ ”
The revolt in Ohio against the Washington, D.C., establishment is being scrutinized by others. British news service Reuters published a profile today on the gigantic brawl within the Democratic Party of Ohio, led by insurgents furious at the national leadership. Reuters interviewed over three dozen Democrats for the story, it says, and got a hold of a memo prepared by a group of political consultants which was circulated to every member of the state party’s executive committee in December. According to Reuters, the memo roasted the party leadership for the its across-the-board electoral losses in the 2016 election, argued that “the status quo cannot stand,” and called for “new messages—and more effective strategies for delivering them”—but failed to spell out what those messages should be.
Rep. Wasserman Shultz Back in the Spotlight, after Her IT Chief Attempts To Flee U.S.
July 26 (EIRNS)—Hillary Clinton sidekick Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz, former head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), is in the center of a rapidly escalating scandal, with the arrest of her IT chief for the past 12 years, Imran Awan, on July 24 at Dulles International Airport, as he tried to flee to his native Pakistan. Awan has been arraigned on one count of bank fraud (for defrauding the Congressional Federal Credit Union by misrepresentation to get a loan), and released with a GPS monitor and other restrictions.
The mainstream press is focused on Awan’s sleazy mortgage deals, his getting four family members (including brothers and wife) onto the Congressional payroll for years, and, in the case of Fox News, suggestions that his being a Muslim with ties to Pakistan raises questions of possible links to terrorism. Awan was known to be the subject of a Capitol Police criminal investigation going back to February 2017, reportedly for double-charging the House for IT equipment and possibly exposing House information online. The FBI is reported to have joined the investigation recently, seizing computer hard drives that Awan had tried to smash.
Awan also was situated to access Democratic Party-related emails. According to the Daily Caller, he had access to the password for Wasserman Shultz’s iPad that she used by for DNC business before she resigned as chairwoman in July 2016, as well as to the emails and files of more than two dozen House Democrats for whom he or his family were IT techs. In a May 21 article, the Daily Caller suggested Awan was blackmailing some or all of them.
When Awan and crew were banned from access to the Capitol IT network in March, his wife and children fled to Pakistan. Most House Democrats then fired Awan and crew, but Wasserman Schultz kept him on her payroll, renaming him as an “advisor.” She threatened the head of the Capitol Police with “consequences” at a late May hearing, unless the police returned to her an office laptop used by Awan which had been found in a vacant office and confiscated by the police, which she refused to give police authorization to access. Her lawyer is reportedly now negotiating access.
One wonders what might turn up there, and if it could shed some light on the DNC leak affair, which Hillary Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey, and others are falsely trying to lay at Russia’s doorstep.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Russian Diplomat Warns that New U.S. Sanctions May Destroy Prospect for Ties
July 26 (EIRNS)—Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov warned that new sanctions against Russia passed by the U.S. House of Representatives could destroy prospects for better relations between the U.S. and Russia.
“What is happening is beyond common sense,” TASS quoted Ryabkov as saying. “The authors and sponsors of this bill are taking a very serious step towards destruction of prospects for normalizing relations with Russia.”
“We’ve said many times that these actions would be retaliated,” the diplomat stressed. “I think that, despite today’s Washington unwillingness to listen and hear out anyone apart from themselves, we will eventually be heard.”
“We do not give in to emotions,” Ryabkov continued. “We will be working to find ways of moving forward and persistently and continuously searching for a compromise on issues that are important to Russia and, I think, to the U.S. as well: the fight against terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction. There are a lot of issues, and we are ready to cooperate.”
Reactions among Russian legislators echoed that of Ryabkov.
“No doubt, the expanded restrictions undermine the possibility of restoring Russian-U.S. ties and will complicate them even further in the foreseeable future. At the same time, the possibility of diplomatic maneuvers to untie this Gordian knot in the Russian-U.S. dialogue is being reduced almost to zero,” said Leonid Slutsky, the head of the Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, reports TASS. Chairman of the Federation Council International Affairs Committee Sen. Konstantin Kosachov is quoted saying that the Russian response must be “painful” for the U.S.; and the Federation Council’s First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Defense and Security Sen. Frants Klintsevich is reported as warning that the sanctions will make anti-terrorism cooperation much more difficult.
The president and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia Alexis Rodzianko told Sputnik that the new U.S. sanctions are not just a mistake, but are directed at President Donald Trump and his efforts to improve ties with Russia: “We always believed and believe that this is primarily a mistake. If you read U.S. newspapers, you will see that basically the motives given for the passage of this law are related to the President himself and less so to Russia.” .
Russian-Chinese Contacts Have Stepped Up to Strategic Partnership
July 26 (EIRNS)—Deputy Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Alexander Fomin told TASS yesterday that the Russian and Chinese Defense Ministries have stepped up contacts notably of late, and collaboration between the two countries has moved to a qualitatively new level—one of strategic partnership. “Russia and China have always acted together at times of trouble and harsh tests,” General Fomin said. “Prerequisites for success are found in a trustful dialogue at the highest political level. The visit to Moscow that China’s President Xi Jinping made earlier this month and the meaty talks between our countries’ leaders, set up the strategic guidelines for the deepening of our multifaceted cooperation.”
Meanwhile, the joint Russian-Chinese naval exercise in the Baltic Sea went through its live-fire phase yesterday. “China’s Hefeidestroyer and Yuncheng frigate and Russia’s Steregushchy and Boikycorvettes practiced artillery fire at sea and aerial targets in the Baltic Sea,” reported the Baltic Fleet’s official spokesman Roman Martov. Today the crews of Russian and Chinese warships are training to inspect suspicious vessels and rescue people overboard.
COLLAPSING WESTERN SYSTEM
ECB Zombifying Eurozone Economy
July 26 (EIRNS)—Germany’s Die Welt has noticed that European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s announcement three years ago that the ECB was ready to intervene with “whatever it takes” to keep the euro stable, has major side-effects. The Draghi strategy of supplying unlimited money at zero interest has blown the ECB debt up to €4.2 trillion—equal to 40% of the entire combined GDP of the Eurozone countries.
“With this therapy, Draghi has successfully numbed the symptoms, but not sufficiently treated the disease behind the symptoms … it increases the risk of bubbles,” Die Welt quotes Commerzbank chief economist Jörg Krämer as warning.
Die Welt continues that many other economists are really worried about the surge of “zombies,” that is, companies that are only surviving because they are kept alive by the ECB money pump. If Draghi increased interest rates again, it would bring a disaster for many of these “zombies.”
French Foreign Ministry Blasts New U.S. Sanctions against Moscow as Contrary to International Law
PARIS, July 26 (EIRNS)—The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement against the new sanctions approved by the U.S. House of Representatives against Russia, Iran, and North Korea, reported Agence France-Press today.
Given the bill’s “extraterritorial” scope” said the Quai d’Orsaystatement, “If this bill is passed, it will make it possible to impose measures against European natural or legal persons due to situations that have no connection with the United States.
“Consequently, the extraterritorial scope of this text appears to be unlawful under international law. We have challenged similar texts that may have been adopted in the past.”
The communiqué declares that protective measures will be taken.
“In order to protect ourselves from the extraterritorial effects of U.S. legislation (and other legislation), we need to adapt our national mechanisms and update European mechanisms. During the previous legislature period, the National Assembly accomplished valuable work in that respect.
“In any event, this issue should be discussed with the institutions, especially the European Commission, and our EU partners.”
THE NEW GLOBAL PARADIGM
China’s Syrian Envoy in Turkey Says China Will Continue To Play Mediator Role
July 26 (EIRNS)—China’s special envoy for Syria Xie Xiaoyan was in Turkey on July 24, where he met with government officials. He said China encourages all sides in the Syrian crisis to establish “contact and dialogue.” Just prior to his arrival in Ankara, Xie had had talks with Iranian officials in Tehran over the weekend.
“We hope all parties will resolve their problems by increasing their communication,” Xie told journalists in response to whether China is facilitating communication between Ankara and Damascus. “Since I have been appointed as special envoy one year ago, I have been playing the role of a mediator and trying to maintain communication between the sides,” he said, but gave no details.
China “defends Syria’s sovereignty and preserves the country’s territorial integrity,” the envoy said. He stressed the importance of finding a solution under UN resolutions. As for the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Xie said that it is up to the people of Syria to decide. “Syrian people will decide on the future of Syria, because the issue is absolutely internal to the country. Nobody wants to see in Syria what happened in Iraq and Libya,” Xie said, according to Hurriyet Daily News.
Putin Hosts Iraq’s Vice President Maliki in St. Petersburg
July 26 (EIRNS)—Iraqi Vice President Nouri al Maliki concluded his working visit to Russia with a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg yesterday. The two leaders welcomed closer ties between Moscow and Baghdad, both as they are now and going forward. Putin reported that the two governments have formed a joint intergovernmental commission which is now “hard at work.” There are areas where work needs to be done, including in economic cooperation and military technical cooperation, he said. “Russia is proactive in this area, and Iraq benefits from its assistance,” he said, according to the Kremlin transcript.
Maliki was effusive in his praise of Russia and its assistance to Iraq, as well as its role in the Middle East more generally. Maliki said that this was his third visit to Russia, and, “With every visit, we take yet another step toward the common goal of further improving our relations….
“I am always eager to emphasize Russia’s immense contribution to preventing our region from falling apart, specifically in Syria and Iraq,” Maliki said. “You have our most sincere gratitude for that. If it were not for Russia’s contribution, the map of the region would have changed for the worse for us.” Maliki also talked about Iraqi efforts to overcome sectarian divisions of power which otherwise, he said, “could result in a new round of terrorist activity.”
The Russian provision of weapons to Iraq, particularly the sale of T-90 tanks, was apparently on the agenda of the Putin-Maliki meeting. The Russian news media have been speculating for about a week about the possible sale of T-90s to Iraq.
“This topic was raised, as was the entire current agenda,” the chief of Russia’s Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation, Dmitry Shugayev, told reporters afterwards, reported TASS, but he refused to comment further on it.
China Continues To Lead the World in Investment in Needed Infrastructure
July 26 (EIRNS)—As much as China has been investing in its domestic infrastructure, the size of its population and economy means it will continue to have the world’s greatest need for infrastructure investment, says a report provided to the official Global Timesyesterday. The study was carried out by Global Infrastructure Hub, under the G20 and Oxford Economics.
The report estimates that China will need about $28 trillion in infrastructure projects to 2040. The main areas will be roads and electricity. It estimates that global infrastructure requirements will be $97 trillion, and that China will continue to have the leading share. From 2007-2015, China accounted for almost 30% of all global infrastructure investment, and they see that continuing, in addition to China’s infrastructure investments abroad. Although the report does not appear to make the connection, this investment is the prerequisite to fulfilling China’s commitment to lift the remaining millions in the country out of poverty.
