Volume 4, Number 149

EIR Daily Alert Service

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

• LaRouchePAC Exposes the Rotten Lie at the Heart of Russia-Gate
• President Trump Kept His Promise on Peace
• Congressman Duncan Opposes Russia Sanctions
• Zepp-LaRouche Greets Gabriel’s Call for New Détente, Insists He Tell the Truth about Ukraine Coup
• Germans and Austrians Denounce Congressional Sanctions
• China Creates New Asian Financial Regulatory Watchdog
• BRICS Holds Meetings on Security, Labor and Employment in Beijing
• President Xi Announces China Enters New Development Stage
• German Economic Advisor Warns Interest Hike Could Provoke Banking Crisis
• UNICEF-WHO-WFP Statement: Yemen in Midst of ‘Worst Cholera Outbreak in the World’
• Test Runs Completed, Ethiopia-Djibouti Rail Is Ready for Commercial Operations
• Tajikistan Starts Construction of Line D Gas Pipeline
• Submarine Sale Scandal Shockwaves Could Torpedo Netanyahu

EDITORIAL

LaRouchePAC Exposes the Rotten Lie at the Heart of Russia-Gate

July 27 (EIRNS)—The lie that the Russian government intervened in the U.S. elections to favor Donald Trump, is at the heart of the attempt to mount a coup against him now—like the 2014 “color revolution” in Ukraine—to overthrow the President and the Constitutional government of the United States. Statesman Lyndon LaRouche has said that if this coup against Donald Trump were to succeed, the result would be nuclear war in the very short term.

This coup attempt hasn’t yet succeeded in overthrowing the government, but it has created chaos; hamstrung the political process; decorticated the Democratic Party; and helped block the President from fulfilling campaign promises essential to economic recovery—especially restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act, and rebuilding America’s infrastructure.

The LaRouchePAC Friday Webcast of July 28 will lay bare the lie of “Russia-gate.” Everyone must watch it.  Here are a few words to prepare you for what you will see.

Go back about one year, to the origins of this charge of Russian interference. Now most Americans may not know this—or more likely, may no longer remember it, because they’ve been so thoroughly brainwashed—but at the bottom of the accusation of Russian interference, is the charge that the Russian government—using an online persona called “Guccifer 2.0”—hacked into Democratic National Committee email files over the Internet, and gave them to Julian Assange’s organization WikiLeaks. (Parenthetically: Recall that WikiLeaks began publishing DNC emails online on July 27, 2016. It’s worth noting that the accuracy of these files has never been disputed, and that their proof of DNC intervention into the primary process on behalf of Hillary Clinton, and against Bernie Sanders, was so strong that DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced to resign.)

But what’s been deliberately obfuscated in mass-media coverage, and in the mislabeled so-called “Intelligence Community Assessment” of Russian interference in the election—is that there were two separate cases in which private DNC files were made public, not one. One was through Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks organization, which insists that the files it obtained were “leaked” by an insider with legitimate access to them, not “hacked” over the Internet.  The second, and different case, is that associated with the “Guccifer 2.0” persona, who insists that he “hacked,” i.e. pilfered, the files over the Internet—but insists falsely, as it now turns out!

The Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) has appealed repeatedly for any evidence linking “Guccifer” and Assange’s WikiLeaks, but none has ever been provided!

The beginning of the chronology (as reported by http://g-2.space/) is that on June 12, 2016, Julian Assange said in a mass-circulation interview on Britain’s ITV that “we have emails related to Hillary Clinton which are awaiting publication.”  Then, on June 14, 2016, the DNC released a statement that they’d discovered their servers were hacked.  On June 15, someone calling himself “Guccifer 2.0” claimed responsibility for the hack, and claimed to be a source for WikiLeaks.  The first five documents he posted were tainted with Russian fingerprints.

Now, the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) July 24, 2017 Memorandum for the President, “Was the ‘Russia Hack’ an Inside Job?” cites forensic evidence to show that:

“From the information available, we conclude that the same inside-DNC, copy/leak process was used at two different times, by two different entities, for two distinctly different purposes:

“(1) an inside leak to WikiLeaks before Julian Assange announced on June 12, 2016, that he had DNC documents and planned to publish them (which he did on July 22)—the presumed objective being to expose strong DNC bias toward the Clinton candidacy; and

“(2) a separate leak on July 5, 2016, to pre-emptively taint anything WikiLeaks might later publish by showing it came from a Russian hack.”  The latter leak was associated with the “Guccifer 2.0” persona.

The data which had been leaked on July 5 were posted on Sept. 13, allegedly by “Guccifer 2.0.”  Elements had been added to implicate Russia, including the first and middle names of the founder of the Soviet secret police—written in the Cyrillic alphabet—and the name “Ernesto Che,” for Ernesto “Che” Guevara (1928-67), an Argentine-Cuban Marxist revolutionary.

Note for clarity that the “forensic analysis” referred to by the VIPS, was an analysis of data retrieved from the files posted to the Internet on Sept. 13—not an analysis conducted on the DNC’s computers.  The DNC has not given anyone but their own contractors access to their computers. Fired FBI Director James Comey says the DNC denied access to the FBI, so that Comey was in the unusual position of supposedly solving the crime of the century—that is, Russian interference in the election—without being allowed access to the scene of the crime.  He was probably afraid that some of his agents might learn too much.

Watch the LaRouchePAC Friday July 28 webcast.  We are in the process of overturning this massive fraud.  Congress must investigate it. Nothing will ever be the same again.

U.S. POLITICAL & ECONOMIC

President Trump Kept His Promise on Peace

July 27 (EIRNS)—Columnist Paul Mulshine wrote an excellent op-ed in the Newark Star-Ledger July 23, entitled, “Donald Trump Just Kept His Most Important Promise on the Mideast.”  He writes,

“My fellow members of the mainstream media spent last week turning the Trump presidency into a soap opera. Tune in each day and see how the Donald turns.

“Overlooked in all the fun was what may well be the most significant foreign-policy development since 9/11: The president moved to keep his campaign promise to drop the policy of regime change.

“On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that President Trump ‘has decided to end the CIA’s covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels battling the government of Bashar al-Assad.’

“This clears the way for what is looking like a negotiated settlement in the Syrian civil war between Russia and the U.S. that will likely permit Assad to stick around for a while.

“It looks like the post-9/11 policy of imposing regime change on the Mideast at gunpoint is ending not with a bang but with a whimper.”  Mulshine interviewed former Defense Intelligence Agency officer Pat Lang to underline the point.

Congressman Duncan Opposes Russia Sanctions

July 27 (EIRNS)—One of the three Congressman who voted against the new sanctions bill, Rep. John Duncan (R-TN) told RIA Novosti that the sanctions should be rejected because Russia is cooperating with the United States in the battle against the Islamic State terror group, and assisting in maintaining a ceasefire in Syria. “I recently voted against a bill to increase the sanctions already in place against Russia and Iran,” Duncan said on July 26. “The increased sanctions against Russia were based on alleged meddling in our presidential election. However, if they did, it was totally ineffective, and Russia has aided us recently in the fight against ISIS and reaching a cease fire in Syria.”

As for Iran, he said it was unwise to expand sanctions against Tehran after the U.S. State Department twice verified that the Islamic Republic has complied with the terms of an international nuclear agreement. “I just did not think we should slap them in the face when they are doing what we wanted them to do,” Duncan said. He also thought sanctions against North Korea would do nothing to hurt the ruling elite in Pyongyang but will only further hurt the impoverished North Koreans.

“Overall, though I think we should stop trying to rule the whole world. We are $20 trillion in debt, and we have enough problems at home,” Duncan said.

The other two Congressmen who voted against the bill, both Republicans, are Justin Amash of Michigan and Tom Massie of Kentucky. Massie had worked closely with Walter Jones (R-NC) and Stephen Lynch (D-MA) and the 9/11 families in the fight to pass the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, JASTA, which passed in 2016 in an override of Obama’s veto.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Zepp-LaRouche Greets Gabriel’s Call for New Détente, Insists He Tell the Truth about Ukraine Coup

July 27 (EIRNS)—In an apparent policy shift, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) called for a “new détente” policy in an interview with Focus magazine of July 16.

Germany’s top diplomat urged “everyone” to try to understand Moscow’s position on a range of international issues. “Putin is disappointed with the West,” he said, among other reasons because the EU held association talks with Ukraine without discussing the issue with Russia. In his view, however, before tensions between Russia and Germany can be reduced, the Ukrainian crisis must be resolved.

That led the Chairwoman of the Schiller Institute Helga Zepp-LaRouche to comment that, while Gabriel’s stated wish to improve relations with Russia and to gradually lift the sanctions was constructive, what is necessary is to publicly refute “the entire so-called ‘narrative’ of what led to the Ukraine crisis.”

That crisis was not caused by Russia’s alleged “annexation” of Crimea, she said, but was the result of a decades-long attempt to provoke “regime change,” that led to “a color revolution in Kiev.” The U.S. State Department alone had spent $5 billion by February 2014 on “promoting democracy” in Ukraine, as then-Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland publicly admitted at that time. The crisis became more acute, Zepp-LaRouche went on, when the EU rushed to bring Ukraine into an Association Agreement, “which would have flooded Russia with EU products, because of the customs agreements between Russia and Ukraine,” and would have given NATO, by extension, “access to the ports on the Black Sea.”

In reality, the “developments in Eastern Ukraine and the referendum in Crimea, which gave a majority to those favorable to joining Russia, were a reaction to the coup pulled off in Kiev by fascist, Banderista forces, supported by the West.” This “widespread narrative, which is the basis of the anti-Putin propaganda, must be replaced with the truth,” Zepp-LaRouche concluded.

Germans and Austrians Denounce Congressional Sanctions

July 27 (EIRNS)—Europeans continue to attack the U.S. Congress for passing new sanctions against Russia as an attack on the European economy. Charging that the sanctions directly undermine European energy policy, the managing director of the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (Ost-Ausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft) Michael Harms said that “Washington’s decisions on energy supplies in Europe are unacceptable,” and that the latest sanctions passed by U.S. lawmakers threaten “not only the construction of Nord Stream 2, but also other gas pipelines,” reported TASS.

“Sanctions remain a brake on cooperation,” Harms continued. He cited the European Commission and certain EU member states’ politicization of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project as unacceptable. “We are categorically against the politicization of Nord Stream 2 by the European Commission and some European countries,” Harms told reporters, noting that the pipeline would play a key role in ensuring Europe’s energy security.

In Austria, Chancellor Christian Kern, a longtime critic of the sanctions regime against Russia, wrote on his Facebook page: “I consider the U.S. sanctions against Russia absolutely unacceptable. Political interests should not be mixed up with the economical ones, to the detriment of employment in the European Union.” Kern said that the issue of EU energy supply “is a matter for Europe.”

NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

China Creates New Asian Financial Regulatory Watchdog

July 27 (EIRNS)—Shortly after China’s State Council made the decision to create a new overall financial regulatory body which would bring under its purview the diverse Chinese financial regulatory bodies for banking, insurance, and securities, it also took the initiative to launch an Asian Financial Cooperation Association (AFCA) which comprises 107 institutions from around the world covering banking, securities, insurance and other financial areas.

The idea for such an association was already proposed by President Xi Jinping at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in May. Today, Premier Li Keqiang sent a letter of congratulations on the occasion of the inauguration of the new organization. “The AFCA should gradually develop into a promoter of regional financial exchanges and cooperation, a leader of standard-setting bodies, a defender of security and stability, as well as a participant in global financial governance,” Prime Minister Li said. While the organization will serve to support the Belt and Road Initiative, it will also provide a mechanism for coordination in the face of a new world financial crisis, whose signs have not gone unnoticed by the Chinese leadership.

BRICS Holds Meetings on Security, Labor and Employment in Beijing

July 27 (EIRNS)—In preparation for the BRICS Summit, scheduled to be held in September in Xiamen, an unprecedented number of meetings are taking place involving representatives of the five-nation BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).

At the 2017 BRICS labor and employment ministers meeting that took place today in Beijing, China’s Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Yin Weimin said “progress in science and technology and changes in economic and demographic structure have brought new challenges to labor markets around the world, and the international community should find common ways of dealing with them,” Xinhua reported. Yin said China has made employment a priority and tried to improve the quality of employment through vocational training.

On the sidelines of the meeting of the security heads of the BRICS nations, China and Russia held their fourth meeting on institutional cooperation in law enforcement and security today. The meeting was co-chaired by Meng Jianzhu, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Xinhua reported.

Meng said, “China-Russia ties have a steady and healthy development guided by the two countries’ leaders,” and that “the two sides should implement the consensus reached by the two leaders, strengthen cooperation in law enforcement and security, and make efforts to work through security challenges.” Patrushev said, “Russia is ready to work closely with China to safeguard the two countries’ security interest,” Xinhua reported.

President Xi Announces China Enters New Development Stage

July 27 (EIRNS)—China’s development is standing at a new historical starting point, and socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new development stage, President Xi Jinping said.  Xi made his remarks at a workshop for provincial and ministerial officials held July 26-27 in preparation for the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

“The major achievements made in socialism with Chinese characteristics mean that the Chinese nation, which had experienced tribulations and hardships since modern times, has made a historic leap from standing-up to becoming better-off to getting stronger,” Xi said. “The great achievements also mean that socialism has taken on a strong vitality in China and kept opening up new development horizons.”

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

German Economic Advisor Warns Interest Hike Could Provoke Banking Crisis

July 27 (EIRNS)—Isabel Schnabel, one of the five members of the German Council of Economic Experts, warned today that an interest rate hike could provoke a new financial crisis because of the banks’ derivative bets on interest rates. Schnabel’s statements were published by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as part of German economists’ responses to Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen’s “no more financial crises in our lifetime” statement. All the economists interviewed: Clemens Fuest, Peter Bofinger, Jens Weidmann, Axel Weber, and Isabel Schnabel, challenged Yellen’s statement and listed what in their view is still a source of risk for the system, but only Schnabel puts her finger on the plague. The others blather about capital adequacy, government debt and the usual fiscal austerity dogmas.

“A danger for stability are the high risks of interest rate change, which for instance have been built up in bank balance sheets,” FAZ reports Schnabel’s view. “A sudden rate increase could threaten bank solvency,” Schnabel warns. Unfortunately, nobody, not even Schnabel, names what the solution is: Glass-Steagall separation of commercial banks from the speculative “investment” banks.

FAZ also has three articles on one page dedicated to “ten years after the IKB scandal,” that began on July 10, 2007, with a replay of the financial crisis. Norbert Kuls from New York mentions the report of the U.S. Angelides Commission listing deregulation among the causes of the crisis, but again carefully avoids mentioning the forbidden two words.

On July 25, the City of London’s Financial Times reported on another source of sleepless nights for European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, so-called “zombie companies,” whose survival depends on loose central bank money, and which there are more of today than in 2008. Merrill Lynch has conducted a survey of such zombie companies, by analyzing the so-called interest coverage ratio, which is the ratio between earnings before interest, taxes and amortization (EBITA) and interest payments. The research defines a zombie company as one with an interest coverage ratio “at or below 1 times” earnings. The rate of such companies today is 9%.

UNICEF-WHO-WFP Statement: Yemen in Midst of ‘Worst Cholera Outbreak in the World’

July 27 (EIRNS)—Devastated by the Saudi-launched war which began in 2015 and continues to this day, Yemen is facing the “world’s worst cholera outbreak,” the United Nations declared this month.

Following their recent visit to Yemen, the heads of three major UN agencies—UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund), the World Food Program (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO)—declared in a joint statement that, “This is the world’s worst cholera outbreak in the midst of the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.” In the last three months alone, 400,000 cases of suspected cholera and nearly 1,900 associated deaths have been recorded, and if the disaster is not reversed, the number of cholera cases could reach 600,000, they reported, according to Vatican Radio.

In their statement, the heads of the three agencies said, “Thousands are falling sick every day. Sustained efforts are required to stop the spread of disease. Nearly 80% of Yemen’s children need immediate humanitarian assistance,” with nearly 2 million Yemeni children suffering malnutrition.

“Speaking to Lydia Kane from Sana’a city, Communications Officer Reem Nada spoke about the current situation on the ground. The cholera outbreak is actually compounding a very complex situation in Yemen because already we have malnutrition, we have hunger,” over 60% of the population are suffering, “they don’t know where their next meal is coming from,” Vatican Radio reported today.

The heads of the three United Nations agencies are now calling on the international community to redouble its support for the people of Yemen, said Vatican Radio.

SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTURE

Test Runs Completed, Ethiopia-Djibouti Rail Is Ready for Commercial Operations

July 27 (EIRNS)—Ethiopia’s Transport Minister Ahmed Shide told Xinhua on July 22 that the 756 km electrified railroad linking Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa to Djibouti on the Red Sea, will become operational for commercial purposes by October this year. “We hope the rail project will facilitate expansion of industrial manufacturing and boost Ethiopia’s competitiveness by significantly cutting time needed for Ethiopia’s exports to reach Djibouti port,” Ahmed Shide said.

The railway line was launched in October 2016 as part of efforts to open up Ethiopia to business, and a number of test runs have taken place since then. A total of 30 locomotives, 15 each for passengers and freight, were used for the test.

The Chinese-built project was aimed at creating new manufacturing industries, improving transport and further opening up landlocked Ethiopia. In December 2016 Ethiopian and Djibouti announced the formation of a joint company to manage the railway line, reported Africanews.

Tajikistan Starts Construction of Line D Gas Pipeline

July 27 (EIRNS)—Tajik Minister of Energy and Water Resources Usmonali Usmonzoda told a Dushanbe press conference that the China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) has started construction of the Tajik section of the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan-China gas pipeline project, also known as the Line D, Trend news agency reported today. Lines A, B, and C have been completed and are providing 55 billion cubic meters of gas to China per annum. Line D, when completed, will deliver 25-30 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan to China annually.

According to Usmonzoda, CNPC has started supplies of equipment and machinery for the construction of tunnels for the pipeline in the mountainous regions of Tajikistan. Tajik section of the pipeline of Turkmenistan-China pipeline will exceed 400 km. The implementation of this project will attract more than $3 billion of China’s direct investment in Tajikistan’s economy, Trend reported.

In September 2013, China signed inter-governmental agreements with Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan respectively on the Line D project. On March 4, 2014, CNPC’s subsidiary Trans-Asia Gas Pipeline Company Ltd. signed an agreement with Tajiktransgaz on jointly establishing a natural gas pipeline company to manage the construction of Line D. On Aug. 19, 2014 CNPC and Uzbekneftegaz signed an agreement on Line D of the Central Asia-China Gas Pipeline in Uzbekistan. Under the agreement, CNPC and Uzbekneftegaz would establish a joint venture company to construct and operate the Uzbekistan section of Line D.

OTHER

Submarine Sale Scandal Shockwaves Could Torpedo Netanyahu

July 27 (EIRNS)—The ongoing scandal and criminal investigation concerning alleged corruption in Israel’s attempt to purchase submarines and warships built by ThyssenKrupp appears to be getting closer to the real target, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Ynetnews claims that David Shimron, Netanyahu’s personal lawyer and confidant, is deeply involved in the case. Unnamed “inside sources” claim that Israeli businessman Miki Ganor, ThyssenKrupp’s former agent in Israel and now a state witness, alleges Shimron played a larger role than had earlier been revealed. “It could send off shockwaves on a national scale, the kind of which has never been seen in Israel,” one law enforcement source told Ynetnews, Israel’s largest media outlet.

Ganor has already pled guilty, for which he was given a one-year prison sentence and a heavy fine, and has now turned state witness. Shimron served as Ganor’s lawyer for the purchase of the warships but no details have been made public. Shimron was detained earlier this month for questioning about his involvement in the case, and has subsequently been released; he is now vacationing in the United States. According to Ynet’s unnamed sources, he will be detained on his return and confronted with the charges by Ganor.

According to Ynet, Shimron gave an interview to Israel’s Channel 2 News, denying these claims: “An ocean of nonsense is being reported, and I obviously can’t address each and every claim, because I don’t want to obstruct (the investigation) in any way, but the amount of baseless reports is enormous.” He also insisted Prime Minister Netanyahu did not know of his business ties with Ganor.

It is believed that the submarines are able to carry nuclear weapons, and the defense establishment was against the purchase of both the subs and the additional warship. Then-Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon resigned last year from Netanyahu’s government in opposition to their purchase.