Volume 4, Number 142

EIR Daily Alert Service

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

• Restoring American Manufacturing and General Welfare Depends on Restoring the American System
• Neocons Set Up Another Trans-Atlantic Anti-Russia Hit-Squad in D.C.
• Russia-U.S. High-Level Meeting in Washington
• Tillerson Recertifies Iran’s Compliance to Nuclear Agreement
• Macron-Trump-Putin Meetings Could Lead West To Make Decisive Shifts in Syria Policy
• Schiller Institute Featured at Belgrade New Silk Road Conference
• Putin Opens Air Show, Urges Infrastructure Must Unite ‘Every Corner’ of Russia
• China’s ‘Potato Guru’ Advises Jordanian Farmers
• China Poses Belt and Road Solution for Korea and Northeast Asia
• U.S. Nuclear Industry Reviving, Establishes Center for Advanced Nuclear Manufacturing

EDITORIAL

Restoring American Manufacturing and General Welfare Depends on Restoring the American System

July 18 (EIRNS)—Developments in the U.S. today give further evidence that the intentions of President Donald Trump to rebuild the American economy and reverse the collapse of the American standard of living, while well intentioned, can not possibly be realized without resolving the onrushing collapse of the western financial system. A recovery is impossible without the creation of a modern form of the Hamiltonian credit system, to generate the massive quantities of credit needed to even budge the wounded colossus of the American economy. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that nearly $5 trillion is needed over the next eight years just to restore the decayed infrastructure to a decent standard, while the China Investment Corporation, a sovereign wealth fund looking to invest billions in the U.S. (if the necessary financial structures can be created), estimates the infrastructure shortfall at $8 trillion.

So where does that leave the Trump proposal for a $1 trillion infrastructure fund? Or, for that matter, where will the credit come from to fix the broken U.S. health care system, or restore our down-sized manufacturing capacities, or our research and development in frontier fields such as nuclear fusion power and the exploration of space?

Trump on declared Monday to be “Made in America Day,” honoring leading manufacturers at the White House and pledging to restore America’s manufacturing excellence of yore. But he made no mention of his pledge to restore Glass-Steagall, to end the gambling casino on Wall Street which has now built up a derivative pool of worthless speculative paper nearly twice as big as that which led to the 2008 crash. Without that first step of Glass-Steagall, to facilitate state-directed credit policies, the other measures mentioned by Trump—cutting regulations and ending unfair trade policies—will not even begin to reverse the collapse.

Or look at the health care fiasco. The most recent effort to take down the Obamacare disaster and replace it with something just as bad, has fallen apart, as neither Republicans nor Democrats could stand the stench. Trump responded that now Obamacare will proceed to collapse on its own accord, and that this may open up the ability to work with Democrats to create a workable solution.

But there is no workable solution as long as Wall Street runs the health care system through the insurance conglomerates, driven only by the maximization of stockholder value, to extract wealth from the system. The problem here again is a lack of credit to address the collapse of the health care delivery system—it is not an insurance problem, but a breakdown of the physical delivery system.

One of the Republican Senators who turned against the GOP plan today, Jerry Moran, is from Kansas, a state where the years of cutbacks in health care has left their rural communities with literally no access to emergency health care, as is true in many of the inner cities in the once-booming industrial heartland. The Hill-Burton policy initiated by Franklin Roosevelt did not address insurance, but delivery. Every citizen was mandated to have access to hospitals and medical professionals to a given standard—if the private sector provided that to a community, fine and good, but if not, the local and national governments were required to do so. It is this physical reality which must be addressed, and can only be addressed through Glass-Steagall and the revival of national credit systems as created under the Hamiltonian American System. The near death of that American System, especially since the assassination of Jack Kennedy, can and must be reversed in the coming weeks and months.

The President has nearly broken the back of the British Empire’s imperial division of the world into warring powers, by forming partnerships with Russia and China to fight terrorism and build the world through the New Silk Road. But the British have always run their Empire through control of the flow of credit, under the “private” banking system. Their hatred of Trump, and their launching of the color revolution now being waged to remove or assassinate him, is driven both by his rejection of the imperial division of the world, but even more by his threat to restore the American System of national credit, crushing the power of Wall Street and the City of London. Every American must act to implement that new paradigm in this moment of opportunity. It will not last long.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Neocons Set Up Another Trans-Atlantic Anti-Russia Hit-Squad in D.C.

July 18 (EIRNS)—They are calling themselves the “Alliance for Securing Democracy,” but it’s just another regrouping of the war-mongers of the Bush and Obama administrators, famously dubbed the “Children of Satan” by the LaRouche movement. Russia is the current enemy, and China comes next, of this bipartisan, trans-Atlantic hit-squad, which now operates out of the offices of the German Marshall Fund in Washington, D.C.

The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald yesterday called attention to this “Alliance,” founded on July 11, incensed at the role of leading establishment Democrats in rehabilitating “these war-loving neocons” who had been rightfully marginalized by the American people with the discrediting of the Bush administration.

It has two co-chairs: Democrat Laura Rosenberger, foreign policy advisor for “Hillary for America” in the 2016 election, and a former high-level Obama State Department and National Security Council staff member; and Republican Jamie Fly, former Marco Rubio advisor, Bush, Jr. Defense and NSC official, and erstwhile editor of the soon-to-close Foreign Policy Initiative founded by his buddy, the notorious Project for the New American Century’s Bill Kristol. (Among their exploits together, Fly and Kristol published a joint call for bombing Iran’s nuclear sites in 2012.)

Among others on the Alliance’s Advisory Council, are Kristol, Bush, Sr.’s Homeland Security Secretary Mike Chertoff, Obama CIA Director Michael Morell, the infamous former Ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul, Joe Biden national security advisor Jake Sullivan, and former NATO Adm. James Stavridis. Former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves is the sole European of the bunch.

“With upcoming elections in Germany and Italy, and the U.S. 2018 mid-term elections fast approaching, there is an urgent need for a deeper understanding of Russia’s tactics, how they are evolving, and how to defend against and deter them,” its German Marshall Fund hosts stated in announcing the Alliance’s “launch.”

The Alliance’s Mission Statement is rabid. “Finding out what happened in the United States in 2016 and the impact it had is important. But that is not enough…. Russia’s efforts are also ongoing across Europe—and we also need to prepare for other state actors to replicate Putin’s tactics….

“Meeting this challenge to our democracy demands that Republicans and Democrats in the United States unite with our democratic allies around the world to better understand Russia’s multifaceted aggression in order to defend ourselves and our democratic partners, and deter such activity in the future….

“The Alliance will forge partnerships across the Atlantic with political leaders, policymakers, like-minded institutions, and technical experts to address the urgent need to secure our democracies,” they promise.

Russia-U.S. High-Level Meeting in Washington

July 18 (EIRNS)—Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov met with Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon for two-and-a-half hours, yesterday, after a previously scheduled meeting between the two men had been canceled by the Russian side. Ryabkov told TASS that he had laid out to Shannon the conditions for improving U.S.-Russian relations, including but not limited to the return of the two diplomatic compounds that had been seized under orders from President Obama in December 2016. “We came up with a number of ideas on how to achieve a visible and tangible improvement in relations,” he said. “However, it would be an exaggeration to say that we are on the verge of finding a solution and resolving this situation.” According to Ryabkov, the meeting with Shannon “went off predictably.” “We expected great difficulties during the consultations with the Americans not only on the diplomatic property issue, but on most other issues as well, and so it happened,” he stated. He warned, however, that if the properties are not returned, retaliation will follow.

“The conversation was tough, forthright, and deliberate, reflecting both parties’ commitment to a resolution,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert reported in a statement this morning. “The talks reflected a spirit of goodwill, but it is clear that more work needs to be done.” Shannon and Ryabkov, the statement further reported, are “committed to holding future New START Bilateral Consultative Commission and Strategic Stability Talks and will exchange scheduling proposals in the near future.”

In Moscow, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement after the meeting saying that Russia is ready to revive a regular dialogue with the U.S. on strategic stability, but the matter depends on Washington. “Some current strategic stability issues have been touched upon,” the Russian ministry said. “The American partners’ attention was drawn to the fact that Russia stands for renewal of a regular dialogue on this problem that had been suspended by the former U.S. administration.”

“It’s up to Washington,” the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Tillerson Recertifies Iran’s Compliance to Nuclear Agreement

July 18 (EIRNS)—U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has certified to the Congress that Iran is fulfilling its obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action regarding its nuclear program, a U.S. senior official told reporters. But he also said the administration is considering imposing new sanctions on Iran in the future, including those related to Tehran’s missile program and human rights violations, according to Sputnik. “Secretary of State [Rex Tillerson] is in the process of certifying to the Congress that the conditions … have been met based on information available to the United States,” the official said. “However, the Secretary of State and the President intend to emphasize that Iran remains one of those dangerous threats.”

In New York Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was interviewed by Richard Haas yesterday before a live audience at the Council on Foreign Relations, saying, “There are no communications between myself and Secretary Tillerson.  It doesn’t mean that there can’t be possibilities for engagement with regard to nuclear deal—we have always been open.”

He also said that in the United Nations “Two weeks ago we voted for a resolution to legally ban nuclear weapons for all.” Zarif went on, “Unfortunately, the United States and other nuclear-weapon states did not even participate in the deliberations in the United Nations. … I think that’s the way to rid the world of these weapons of mass nightmare.”

Macron-Trump-Putin Meetings Could Lead West To Make Decisive Shifts in Syria Policy

July 18 (EIRNS)—In an interview with Sputnik, retired Canadian diplomat Patrick Armstrong said that French President Emmanuel Macron’s statements regarding Syria during his July 14 meeting with President Donald Trump signal the beginning of a decisive change in Western policy regarding Syria and could lead to a resolution of the conflict. “I think that we are possibly in the early days of important changes regarding the West and Syria,” Armstrong said July 17. “Hitherto Paris was one of the main centers of the ‘[Bashar] Assad must go’ cry. But Macron seems to have dropped the condition.”

Also the fact that he called for the five permanent members of the UN Security Council—U.S., Russia, China, France, U.K.—to be brought into the Syrian peace process is a sharp departure from previous Western policies. “The Western consensus used to be that the Syria question must be settled from outside. Settled by the Western powers, that is: not with Russian involvement, let alone Chinese and certainly never with the involvement of the Syrian government,” he recalled.

He said Macron’s new position conforms with that of Russia.

“Moscow has insisted, over and over again, that important issues can be only settled with the involvement of all parties and, in particular, the UN. And, however short the UN may have fallen from its lofty intentions, it cannot be denied that there isn’t anything any better,” Armstrong claimed.

“Therefore, there is a shred of hope that at last some movement away from further disaster may be possible. Clearly, the only possible settlement for Syria has to involve all the players, not just Washington and its flunkies’ notions of who they should be,” he said.

Expressing hope that Trump will back this shift, he said: “Trump was elected partly on a promise to stop the wars and Macron appears to have a similar thought. The West’s wars of the 21st century have been failures. Maybe something else will be tried.”

Armstrong suggested that Syria might now become a world-historical pivot to transform the global balance of power, giving such powers as Russia and China a much larger role.

A former specialist Canadian Department of National Defense focussing on the U.S.S.R./Russia, Armstrong spent part of his career in the Canadian foreign service, including as counsellor in the Canadian Embassy in Moscow, in 1993-96. He now has his own blog “Russia Observer.”

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Schiller Institute Featured at Belgrade New Silk Road Conference

July 16 (EIRNS)—The Schiller Institute and the role of its founder, Helga Zepp-LaRouche were featured at the July 12-13 conference “Initiatives of the New Silk Road—Achievements and Challenges” in Belgrade, Serbia.  It was organized by the Institute of International Politics and Economics (IIPE) in Serbia, and the Institute of European Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) as a follow-up to the institutes’ first conference on the Danube last June, during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Opening the conference were Prof. Dr. Vladimir Popović, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Prof. Dr. Žarko Obradović, the President of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Serbian National Assembly, and China’s Ambassador to Belgrade Li Manchang, and Huang Ping, Director General of the Institute of European Studies of CASS and Secretary General of the 16+1 (16 Central and Eastern European countries plus China).  Reports were presented by Serbian officials, think tank networks, plus 50 other scholars from China, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, United States, and Germany. Ambassador Li described BRI as a house built by China with interiors designed by its occupants.

Early in the first session, conference organizer Duzsko Dimitrijevic introduced Elke Fimmen of the German Schiller Institute and EIR, who spoke on “The New Silk Road—Its Strategic Importance for World Peace.”  She highlighted Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s participation in the May 14-15 Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, and her description of it as a “very harmonious event,” exemplifying a new global paradigm of win-win cooperation superseding geopolitics. Fimmen illustrated her remarks displaying the world map from the newly released German-language translation of the famous EIR Special Report The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge.

Fimmen focussed on the upsurge in cooperation leading to the July 7-8 G20 summit in Hamburg, featuring the historic meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, and the continuing collaboration of those two with President Xi Jinping.  She said that the collaboration among these three opens the door to a new paradigm of peace and development that can consign hunger, displacement of populations, and the dangers of war and financial calamity to dusty history texts.

Blagoje Babic, of the Committee for Economic Science of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, spoke on “The New Silk Road—Response for the Challenges of Chinese Economy,” in which he talked proudly of following Mrs. LaRouche’s 26-year fight to establish the New Silk Road, as the global policy it has now become. Other speakers explained how the BRI opens up prosperity for all, and how this can expand as the Silk Road in space leads the human spirit beyond the confines of our Earth.

Putin Opens Air Show, Urges Infrastructure Must Unite ‘Every Corner’ of Russia

July 18 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin used the occasion of the first day today of MAKS-2017, Russia’s annual International Aviation and Space Show, to chair a meeting to discuss the development of Russia’s civil aircraft engineering and industry. In his remarks opening that meeting, Putin spoke first of the need to unite “the limitless expanses” of Russia through infrastructure, including aircraft:

“For such a vast country as Russia with its—let’s be honest—poorly developed infrastructure, which has proved difficult to improve even during all the previous years of its history, considering the limitless expanses of Eastern Siberia and the Far East. However, it is vital to use modern technology to consolidate the country and make every corner equally accessible to every person, regardless of his or her place of residence. People should be able to move easily and freely throughout the country, travel to our major industrial and cultural centers and return in the same easy and free way.”

He said that “for Russia, the construction of competitive aircraft is one of the key conditions for easing access to remote regions and making air travel more comfortable.”

Infrastructure endeavors isolated from a national economic drive do not work, Putin knows.  He reminded participants in the meeting that “it is also important in this context to increase the production of high-tech, science-intensive products and promote the development of the entire national economy.”

In the July 18-23 MAKS 2017, July 19-20 are business days; the show is open to the public July 21-23, when visitors can look for the spectacular aerobatics displays of jet planes and helicopters.

China’s ‘Potato Guru’ Advises Jordanian Farmers

July 18 (EIRNS)—Under the charming headline, “Mr. Potato Head’s Journey Along the Belt and Road,” Xinhua reported today that China’s top potato cultivation expert, Shi Fuxiang, is preparing to visit Jordan again, to provide more advice and technology transfer on growing potatoes. Shi spent five months in Jordan last year, studying local crops and techniques, and devising new techniques to increase the generally low potato yields in that country. That included instructing Jordanian farmers in such basic practices as crop-rotation and better weeding. Xinhua reports on the case of one skeptical farmer whom Shi convinced to try out these methods on a 20-hectare plot of his much-bigger farm, who was happily surprised to find yields in that area were 25% higher than elsewhere on his farm.

Shi is from the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, a major potato-producing region in China. China itself is now the world’s largest potato producer, accounting for 25% of global production.

Jordan is not the only Middle East nation to benefit from such efforts. Zhang Xinjun, deputy director of the China-Arab States Technology Transfer Center in Ningxia, told Xinhua that “Arab countries, including Jordan, highly need agricultural technology. Ningxia has offered expertise in irrigation and pesticides. The ultimate purpose of this technology transfer is to raise the quality and quantity of farm output in Arab countries. Of course. at the same time, Chinese companies also hope to expand their business. It is a win-win situation.”

Such efforts are part of China’s broader efforts to bring development to the Middle East through the Belt and Road. Vice President of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee Qiangba Puncog was in Jordan on July 14-17, his final stop in a tour of the region which began in Israel on July 12, followed by Palestine, and then Jordan. His talks in all three countries reportedly focused on the potentials around the Belt and Road.

China Poses Belt and Road Solution for Korea and Northeast Asia

July 18 (EIRNS)—A leading engineer professor in China has presented a powerful and optimistic proposal for solving the Korea crisis—through the New Silk Road. Called “Belt and Road Initiative Meshes with South Korea’s Northern Policy,” the op-ed in today’s Global Times is written by Ding Rongjun, Chairman of the Board of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor of diplomacy at Tongji University.

Ding notes that South Korean leaders since Park Chung-hee have promoted linking the country with Europe, but it is now both possible and urgent. The Belt and Road Initiative, he says, is “one way of achieving regional or even global peace, stability and cooperation among states.” China and South Korea have the ability to “dial down emerging regional tensions” by “increasing the connectivity of Eurasia via the passageway of Busan-Pyongyang-Russia’s Far East-Central Asia and Europe.”

He writes: “From China’s perspective, such a plan has four major benefits. First, cooperation with Seoul can unleash the potential of China’s three northeastern provinces which need external stimuli for growth. Second, the plan can push North Korea’s reform by providing economic incentives and transportation and energy infrastructure, thereby creating a peaceful environment conducive for BRI’s successful implementation. Third, it can link with Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union which is one of Putin’s key policies to develop its desolate Far East region, thereby alleviating Russia’s concerns over BRI. Fourth, cooperation with Seoul can reduce the risk of exacerbating security tensions on the Korean Peninsula, thereby altering the regional structure from a hostile balance of power to one of peace and order, where cooperation and non-competition become the norm. From South Korea’s standpoint, a trilateral framework with China and Russia toward North Korea’s opening and reform can be realized.

“Lastly, it is generally accepted in international politics that economic engagement and connectivity is conducive for peace. Creating momentum for such a spillover effect to take place on the Korean Peninsula is what China and South Korea can achieve via connecting the BRI and Northern Policy.”

It is of note that the BRI has not played a significant role in East Asia, largely due to the North Korea problem. Now, although Ding does not mention it, the potential for China, Russia, South Korea, and the United States under Trump to agree on a workable approach to the Korea problem now makes a BRI solution possible.

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

U.S. Nuclear Industry Reviving, Establishes Center for Advanced Nuclear Manufacturing

July 18 (EIRNS)—The U.S. nuclear industry is starting to rebuild and modernize the nearly-disappeared manufacturing supply chain, in order to be ready to supply factory-produced small modular reactors, that could be grouped together in series, up to perhaps a 600 MW facility (less than half the size of a conventional plant). The United States Nuclear Infrastructure Council, composed of almost 100 companies as a business consortium in the nuclear supply chain industry, has established the concept for a Center for Advanced Nuclear Manufacturing in Pennsylvania. The Center will hold an open house on Aug. 24 to cut the ribbon on the new facility in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

The Center will develop advanced manufacturing processes, to mass produce modules that are transported from the factory and assembled on site. The Center will develop designs for manufacturing analysis, and prototype new component designs, that can be produced assembly-line style.