EDITORIAL
The Situation Is Deadly Serious; Bust Up the Coup Scenarios with the VIPS Report
Aug. 14 (EIRNS)—The world situation is very serious. You could say there are currently three scenarios spinning, each with the same purpose of ousting the elected President of the United State. In order of their appearance, they assert, Donald Trump should be out of office: 1) because he colluded with Russia to undercut U.S. elections; 2) because he is unhinged, and will foment nuclear war over North Korea; or 3) because he is a racist. In other words, “Russiagate,” “finger on the nuclear button,” and now, “Charlottesville.”
Thus, the LaRouchePAC-initiated mobilization to make known the July report, “Was the ‘Russian Hack’ an Inside Job?” by the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) is not at all a simple move to “set the record straight” about a filthy operation, but a drive to bust up the whole treasonous coup operation against the United States, and defeat the neo-British Empire gang behind it.
Why are they doing these things? Because the potential is so great for the ever-strengthening New Silk Road drive to involve the United States—along with the Americas and all others—and finally and fully displace the rotting monetarist system. Trump has expressed pleasure at working with the leaders of this new paradigm—Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. Trump is on the record for favoring the key economic measures involved, Glass-Steagall and infrastructure. Lyndon LaRouche’s “Four Laws” is out there to provide the guidance.
But the moment is dangerous. There is now blatant talk of assassination in the anti-Trump scenarios, as a plausible contingency. A recent instance comes directly from London.
On Aug. 9 and 11, the Guardian of London carried postings by its correspondent Jonathan Freedland, the first one titled, “Trump Has Taken Us to the Brink of Nuclear War. Can He Be Stopped?” The author asserts that you should not entertain any hope that the “Deep State will depose an unhinged American President before all-out war with North Korea” starts, nor should you rely on Trump’s “three generals—Mattis, Kelly and McMaster,” to be able to “contain” Trump. Freedland implies, you better hope Bob Mueller can nail Trump. Or else.
The article’s unnamed recourse is “assassination,” but Freedland spells that out explicitly in his new book, To Kill a President, released just a month ago (under a nom de plume, Sam Bourne). In the story-line, an assassination plot is hatched against a deranged President—to stop him from starting nuclear war over North Korea—by his Defense Secretary and Chief of Staff, after the two conclude that it won’t work fast enough to use the 25th Amendment nor impeachment to oust the President.
This is a re-hash, as a fictional “political thriller,” of the London Spectator’s murder statement, a day after Trump’s inauguration, in its Jan. 21 article headlined, “Will Donald Trump Be Assassinated, Ousted in a Coup, or Just Impeached?”
This must be stopped. There is no time for a pause, given the rate of the unravelling of the trans-Atlantic-centered financial system, which means chaos, without the right emergency measures. A new alarm about financial bubbles being at the bursting point, was sounded Aug. 13 in Italy, by Giulio Tremonti, former Economy Minister, in an interview with Corriere della Sera. Tremonti said, “Since 2007, the causes of the crisis are all still here. The excess liquidity that caused the crisis 10 years ago is today exponentially higher. Finance is undergoing a frightening genetic mutation. All the elements producing the famous bubbles are all there.” People are not facing reality. He cited the Tulip Bubble, the Louisiana Bubble, and the French Revolution—when people lost their heads, for not facing reality.
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Tremonti Warns of Another Crash
Aug. 14 (EIRNS)—Former Italian Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti warned about a coming bust of the global financial bubble in an interview with Corriere della Sera. (See http://www.corriere.it/economia/17_agosto_14/tremonti-dieci-anni-crisi-cause-problemi-sono-ancora-li-ddab09ae-8055-11e7-a3cb-7ec6cdeeea93.shtml)
Tremonti has just come back from a series of conferences in the United States.
“Since 2007, the causes of the crisis are all still there,” he says. “The excess liquidity that caused the crisis ten years ago is today exponentially higher. Finance is undergoing a frightening genetic mutation. All the elements producing the famous bubbles are all there.”
People are going on holiday in an atmosphere of relaxation, but, “a minimum of reflection on the current situation should take place.” He continued, “Facing the Bastille, Louis XVI asked whether there was a rebellion; they told him it is a revolution, but he kept thinking it was a revolt, and we know how that ended….
“Today’s central bankers remind me of the French generals looking self-confident and satisfied with the Maginot Line, ignoring the political power of the combustion engine. From the Tulip crisis to the Louisiana crisis, history teaches us that bubbles and disorder emerge when reality is ignored or invented.”
Will it end up like in 2009?
“It would be a miracle if there were no bubble. Churchill said that there were not two world wars, but only one with a long armistice in the middle. So, in my view, we are threatened by a similar situation today.”
On the bail-in: “In 2008, the banking system in Germany, France, U.K., was bankrupt, and for that reason government bail-outs were instantaneous. Those governments were not smarter than we [in Italy] are; our banks were in trouble but were not bankrupt and were hit by the crisis years later. Interventions were conditioned by absurd rules on state aid. Bail-in is born against bankers’ moral hazard, but instead of prohibiting moral hazard, or imposing a speed limit, they put on the brakes with capital requirements and replaced the insurance company. In case of damage, depositors pay instead of taxpayers.”
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
British Author of To Kill the President Escalates His Scenario for Trump’s Assassination
Aug. 14 (EIRNS)—A book favorably described by a reviewer in the Britain’s Guardian as a “political thriller,” presents a scenario for the assassination of President Donald Trump, attempted by members of his cabinet. The book, released on July 4, 2017 by HarperCollins, is titled To Kill the President, and authored by Sam Bourne, which is a pseudonym for Guardian correspondent Jonathan Freedland. Freedland was the Guardian’s Washington correspondent during the 2016 election, and now writes a weekly column, in addition to being a presenter on the BBC’s history series, “The Long View.” In the early 1990s, he had a stint as a reporter at the Washington Post.
The President in Freedland’s book is obviously modeled on the image of President Trump presented by the regime-change coup plotters: an impetuous, deranged, vulgar figure, described by the Guardian reviewer as one “who lives in the gray area between the sociopathic and the psychopathic,” manipulated by an evil controller, modeled on Steve Bannon. The two conspiring to kill him are the Defense Secretary, a retired general, and the White House Chief of Staff resembling Reince Priebus.
The book opens with a raging President ordering a nuclear strike on North Korea, which is only averted by deft maneuvers by the Defense Secretary and the Chief of Staff. The two soon conclude that the President is insane, but that it is not possible to remove him either by the 25th Amendment or impeachment—thus, they hatch an assassination plot, which is ultimately thwarted by a heroic holdover from the previous President (obviously modeled on Obama), who is now the Deputy Counsel to the President.
Freedland is now escalating, using his latest columns in the Guardian to further create the environment for an assassination against the U.S. President. Under the headline “Trump Has Taken Us To the Brink of Nuclear War. Can He Be Stopped?” in the Aug. 9 Guardian, he asserted that anxiety that Trump “was sufficiently reckless, impulsive and stupid to bring the world to the brink of nuclear war” has proven to be well-founded.
He followed this on Aug. 11, writing, “Anyone hoping that the Deep State will depose an unhinged American President before all-out war with North Korea needs to think again.” He says that the hope that the administration’s three generals—Mattis, Kelly, and McMaster—will contain Trump appears unlikely, meaning that the only real hope is Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
While in this article he stops short of promoting assassination as an option, that was the “solution” presented in his “novel.”
Trump Announces Justice Department Investigation into Charlottesville Violence
Aug. 14 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump issued a statement this afternoon, in which he again addressed the events that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend. He spoke from the White House. Having just met with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Trump announced that, “the Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly car attack that killed one innocent American and wounded 20 others. To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered.” (See https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/08/14/statement-president-trump)
After again condemning the racism, and the “egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence,” Trump additionally explicitly singled out “the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups,” calling them “repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”
“We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal,” Trump stated. “We are equal in the eyes of our Creator. We are equal under the law. And we are equal under our Constitution…. We will defend and protect the sacred rights of all Americans, and we will work together so that every citizen in this blessed land is free to follow their dreams in their hearts, and to express the love and joy in their souls.”
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Dunford in South Korea: U.S. Military Options for North Korea Are Only in Case Diplomacy Fails
Aug. 14 (EIRNS)—Gen. Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in earlier today. According to the South Korea Presidential office, Dunford told Moon that U.S. military options being prepared against North Korea would be for when diplomatic and economic sanctions failed. When Dunford landed at Osan Air Base yesterday, he told reporters that the focus remains on finding a diplomatic solution to the North Korea crisis.
“As a military leader, I have to make sure that the President does have viable military options in the event that the diplomatic and economic pressurization campaign fails,” he said. “Even as we develop those options, we are mindful of the consequences of executing those options, and that makes us have more of a sense of urgency to make sure that we’re doing everything we absolutely can to support Secretary Tillerson’s current path.”
Moon, for his part, called on both sides to calm the situation down.
“I urge North Korea to immediately stop all provocations and threats, and stop making the situation worse,” he said, and continued, “the national interest of the Republic of Korea is peace,” reported Yonhap. As for the U.S., he said, “I am confident the United States, too, will react calmly and responsibly to the ongoing situation under the same basic stance as ours. Peace on the Korean Peninsula will not come by force. Even if peace and negotiations require pain and patience, we must do so.”
After completing his meetings in Seoul, Dunford flew on to Beijing, where he is being hosted by Gen. Fang Fenghui, chief of the Joint Staff Department. In Beijing, Dunford said his primary objective will be to “continue to develop our military-to-military relationships, to mitigate the risk of miscalculation in the region, and to have cooperation where those opportunities exist.” Dunford will continue on to Tokyo for the final leg of his East Asia tour later this week.
Tillerson and Mattis: No U.S. Interest in Regime-Change or Accelerated Reunification of North Korea
Aug. 14 (EIRNS)—In an opinion commentary in the Wall Street Journal, released yesterday by the U.S. Department of State, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis restate that the “object if our peaceful pressure campaign is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The U.S. has no interest in regime change or accelerated reunification of Korea. We do not seek an excuse to garrison U.S. troops north of the Demilitarized Zone.” They continue that the diplomatic approach is “shared by many nations … including China, which has dominant economic leverage over Pyongyang….” They warn that “while diplomacy is our preferred means of changing North Korea’s course of action, it is backed by military options,” describing joint military exercises as “defensive,” as is the THAAD deployment.
Iran Responds to U.S. Congressional Sanctions
Aug. 14 (EIRNS)—The Iranian government took another step towards responding to the new sanctions imposed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Trump on Aug. 2, when the Majles, Iran’s legislative body, gave its initial approval, yesterday, to a bill to counter “U.S. terrorist and adventurous activities.”
The official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reports that the bill requires the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Intelligence, along with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC Quds Force, and the army, to devise a comprehensive strategic plan to counter the U.S. threats within six months of the ratification of the bill.
“The plan should be aimed at addressing the U.S. bullies and threats against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Washington’s hegemonic, terrorist and divisive policies, its illegal military and security interferences in the region, and the U.S. military and intelligence support of terrorism and extremism,” IRNA reports.
The new bill allocates about $5 billion to “reinforcing the country’s defensive power, half of which will go to the Staff of the Armed Forces in order to expand missile activities and the other half should be allocated to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, and Defense. In order to fight terrorism, the bill also allots $2.5 billion to the IRGC Quds Force.”
Majles Speaker Ali Larijani said yesterday, that parliamentary approval was only the first step, adding that if Washington proceeds with its anti-Tehran policies, the law will take effect. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that the bill is a “firm” response to U.S. animosity and crimes.
“This bill is part of the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 nuclear agreement] overseeing committee to counter the recent U.S. Congress approval, and is supported by the Foreign Ministry and the government,” Araqchi stated.
Indian and Chinese Navies To Participate in the Indian Ocean Exercise in November
Aug. 14 (EIRNS)—Despite continuing claims by the media that a conflict is ready to break out between China and India over the ongoing border dispute involving Bhutan, Bangladesh announced today that the Indian and Chinese navies will participate in the first-ever International Maritime Search and Rescue Exercise (IMMSAREX) scheduled for November and organized by the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS). While India will be participating as a member country, China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy has agreed to participate as an observer, Sputnik reported.
Bangladesh, the current chair, is scheduling an International Maritime Search and Rescue Exercise (IMMSAREX) in November in the Bay of Bengal, to be attended by ships and aircraft of the members and observers of the IONS, an official source said, according to The Hindu. IONS is represented by 23 Indian Ocean littoral member-states, which include India, and nine observers, which include China.
Rejecting Sputnik’s suggestion that the IMMSAREX is a confidence-building measure, Commodore Abhay Kumar Singh, a military analyst at India’s Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, said the Indian Navy in the past has engaged in multilateral exercises with the PLA Navy, for example, in the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief exercise in Indonesia, and the Australian Navy’s International Fleet Review.
At present, the Indian Navy is coordinating with other navies, including the PLA Navy, in the anti-piracy patrol in the Gulf of Aden through the Shared Awareness and De-confliction (SHADE) mechanism, notwithstanding the current standoff at the border between India and China.
UN Agency Reports 600,000 Syrian Refugees Have Returned Home; Shoigu Seeks Aid to Returnees
Aug. 14 (EIRNS)—The International Organization for Migration, the UN Migration Agency, and other partner agencies have calculated that 602,759 Syrians displaced by the war returned to their homes between January and July of 2017. This compares to 685,662 in all of 2016. Of the returnees for 2017 so far, 84% had been internally displaced; 16% returned from outside the country, primarily from Turkey, with smaller numbers returning from Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. An estimated 67% of returnees returned to Aleppo Governorate, most of which is now under government control.
According to the IOM release, returnee access to food and household items is good, but access to water and health services is “dangerously low as the country’s infrastructure has been extremely damaged by the conflict.”
The IOM also notes that while returns are increasing, displacements due to the conflict remain high, an estimated total of 808,661 from January to July. More than 6 million people remain displaced inside Syria.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, in an interview broadcast on Rossiya 24 TV on Aug. 13, called on international aid agencies to provide aid to Syrian civilians. “Today we say: ‘Send [the aid] to the de-escalation zones, everything is open there. If you cannot transport, we shall transport for you.’ But we cannot be both the mother and the father. Thus, of course, there should be support from humanitarian organizations, from the United Nations Organization,” he said. Joint work of Russia and international humanitarian organizations will favor stabilizing of the situation with refugees, he continued. “Further on, refugees would return home, at first from inside Syria, what is happening already now, and then from other regions.”
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Xinhua on Poverty Alleviation—1 Million Cadre To Work in the Poor Villages
Aug. 14 (EIRNS)—Under the title “China Fights for Final Victory over Poverty,” a Xinhua editorial by editor Mengjie presents a view of the incredible project to alleviate poverty altogether in China by the year 2020. He reviews the process which lifted 700 million out of poverty over the past 30 years, and President Xi Jinping’s pledge to lift the final 43 million, about 3% of the population, primarily in 128,000 poor villages in difficult regions with poor infrastructure, by the year 2020. That means over 10 million per year, or nearly a million per month.
The poverty line in China is $344 (2300 yuan). In addition to direct aid and the national infrastructure projects reaching into difficult regions with transportation and power, nearly 1 million cadre from the Communist Party have been sent to needy villages so far, Mengjie reports. This includes 195,000 first secretaries and 775,000 cadre, living and working in the poor villages to introduce projects such as agriculture and basic infrastructure with the villagers, focusing on self-help but also providing resources from the government. About $12 billion (80 billion yuan) has been spent already this year on the projects in the poor villages.
Relocation is an important part. About 10 million more people (of the 43 million poor total) are expected to be relocated to one of 50 relocation areas where housing and employment are provided, by 2020, mostly from impoverished areas “locked” in mountains.
Xi Jinping insists that the mission to create a “moderately prosperous society” by 2020 will not be successful if poverty is not eliminated entirely.
OTHER
Argentina’s Macri Tries To Squelch Fernández de Kirchner Vote in Electoral Dirty Tricks
Aug. 14 (EIRNS)—Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced today that her Citizens United coalition had in fact “won the election,” despite the unprecedented electoral dirty tricks by Argentine President Mauricio Macri, who tried to portray her as the loser in her senatorial bid in yesterday’s primary elections to select candidates for the October midterm elections. Two out of three Argentines, she said, voted to reject Macri’s brutal austerity program, and no amount of electoral and media manipulation can change that.
Would-be oligarch Macri is desperate. His London- and Wall Street-dictated austerity policies have made him increasingly unpopular, and he has been unable to convince foreign investors that he has things under control. Foreign financial media outlets had fretted for weeks that Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is making a political comeback, raising fears of a return to the anti-Wall Street policies they label “populist.”
Macri could not allow her an impressive primary showing, without admitting to Wall Street that his control is waning. When the senatorial candidate of the ruling Cambiemos coalition, Esteban Bullrich, began to see his six-point lead over Cristina Fernández dropping steadily during the evening of the election, down to 0.01%, the official vote count suddenly stopped. This meant that votes from the first and third districts of Buenos Aires province, particularly, which were known to be heavily pro-Fernández, did not come in. Macri and his Cambiemos candidates then immediately staged a prime time media show, proclaiming their victory, going so far as to boast that Argentines really support Macri’s policies of “change”—austerity.
This will likely backfire. Even workers at the central election headquarters where votes were being counted have denounced the dirty tricks. In statements early this morning, Fernández said she never thought she’d have to apologize to her countrymen for the “embarrassing” and “shameful” elections overseen by the government which, she pointed out, isn’t just a national issue, but an international scandal as well.
Because of Argentine electoral rules, Fernández will be a candidate in October. The official results won’t be announced for another week, and are likely to show Fernández coming out ahead of Bullrich.
