EDITORIAL
FBI Coup Plotters Escalate With the Race Card—Trump Being Set Up for Riots and Assassination.
Aug. 16 (EIRNS)—The coup plotters and their FBI attack dogs have chosen to use the race card to escalate the drive to eliminate Donald Trump—either politically or physically. While the McCarthyite witchhunt against Trump’s “collusion” with Russia proceeds under former FBI chief Robert Mueller, (keep in mind that Mueller cut his teeth as head of the “Get LaRouche Task Force” in the 1980s), the FBI-controlled storm troopers on both the right and the left were deployed into the staged bloody confrontation in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12. Now the mainstream media are filled, 24 hours a day, with hysterical diatribes denouncing Trump as a racist and white supremacist, all because he said what was plainly visible on all the videos of the Charlottesville violence—that the “antifa” anarchists were also armed with clubs and were also beating people bloody. Classic gang-countergang counter-insurgency methods on display—not to overthrow an uncooperative regime somewhere else this time, which the American people have been indoctrinated to accept, but to overthrow the elected government of the United States.
Those who are screaming that anything is justified against the KKK, and denouncing Trump for not pardoning the violence of the antifa anarchists, are the same people who supported and cheered the swastika-waving Nazis in Ukraine in 2014 as they threw Molotov cocktails at police and burned government supporters to death—apparently they believed these were “good Nazis” helping the Obama Administration overthrow an elected government.
The Washington Post, while spewing lies about the FBI’s staged riot in Charlottesville, again showed its colors as the nation’s leading voice of the British Empire (perhaps sharing that dubious honor with the New York Times). The Post unleashed a frontal assault on The Nation magazine, the preeminent liberal-progressive journal in the U.S., for refusing to fully support the “color revolution” against President Trump and the hysterical war-mongering against Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
As EIR has documented, the publication in The Nation of the Patrick Lawrence article on Aug. 9, carefully documenting the exposure by the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) of the “Russia interfered in the election” scam, has gone viral. The mainstream media, however, have totally blacked out the VIPS’ proof that the Obama intelligence circles fabricated the entire story, to the purpose of preventing Trump from joining with Russia and China in ending the British/Bush/Obama permanent warfare policies and their “post-industrial society” destruction of the Western economies.
The Washington Post attack, attempting to force The Nationpublisher Katrina vanden Heuvel to retract or denounce the Lawrence article, is not only about the article itself, but about the fact that The Nation has dared to publish warnings from several of the nation’s actual experts on Russia, including vanden Heuvel’s husband Stephen Cohen, warning that the anti-Russian hysteria was taking the world rapidly towards nuclear Armageddon based on lies and fear-mongering. (Interestingly, Washington Post journalist Dave Weigel had tweeted on Aug. 14: “Unfortunately for The Nation, it got scooped on the DNC conspiracy story by LaRouchePAC,” and linked to the LaRouchePAC interview with Ray McGovern of the VIPS—see https://larouchepac.com/20170729/interview-ray-mcgovern-there-was-no-russian-hack ).
But the cat cannot be put back in the bag. The Russiagate operation is exposed and is ready to collapse. This is why the operation has switched into high gear to stir up the darkest and ugliest passions against Trump. The irony here is that the only true statement about race in the Tuesday press conference with President Trump was from Trump: “It is jobs. What people want now, they want jobs. They want great jobs with good pay. And when they have that, you watch how race relations will be.”
The solution lies only in rallying the American people to reject the war cries, and to grasp the potential for the U.S. to join in the New Silk Road paradigm being led by China. Trump must be defended on his commitment to breaking the British imperial division of the world, to carry out his effort to align the U.S. with Russia and China in ending terrorism, and preventing its recurrence through great development projects, lifting the world’s population out of poverty and backwardness. This is adamantly true for the U.S. itself—the manipulated division of the nation can only be resolved through a massive infrastructure development process and re-industrialization. This is the intention of LaRouche’s Four Laws, which must be implemented. (see http://action.larouchepac.com/know_the_full_story).
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
The War Party Goes To War on The Nation Magazine
Aug. 16 (EIRNS)—The Washington Post, the voice of the Empire in the nation’s capital, unleashed its guns today on the preeminent liberal-progressive magazine The Nation for breaching the controlled media on the Empire’s demand for war on Russia.
While the immediate cause of the war to destroy The Nation and its editor Katrina vanden Heuvel is ostensibly its decision to publish the powerful article by Patrick Lawrence on the VIPS exposure of the fraud underlying Russiagate, the Post does not hide its pent-up rage that The Nation has refused to fully accept the lies about Russia all along. Although the Post doesn’t mention that vanden Heuvel’s husband, Steven Cohen, is one of the leading Russian experts who has fought the lying hysteria against Russia and warned that it could lead to nuclear war, he is clearly an unnamed target. Cohen is a member of the American Committee for East-West Accord (as is vanden Heuvel’s father William vanden Heuvel), composed of former leading U.S. ambassadors to Russia and other nations, and scholars), which has campaigned to end Russiagate.
The Post reports that they and a group of The Nation contributors have forced vanden Heuvel to conduct a review of the Lawrence article. They write, “Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation’s editor and publisher (and the writer of a weekly online column for the Post), tells the Erik Wemple Blog that Lawrence’s piece is undergoing a post-publication editorial review. ‘We’re doing the review as we speak, and I don’t want to rush to say anything,’ said vanden Heuvel. Part of that review is an assessment of the technical feasibility of the points in Lawrence’s article.” She said the review should conclude by week’s end.
This follows by one day a piece in Washington-based The Hillwhich interviewed several Wall Street-funded tech firms that question the scientific assessment in the VIPS report, that the stolen data could not have been hacked, but could only have been downloaded internally at the DNC.
The primary target is The Nation’s refusal to back Russiagate. On this vanden Heuvel defended her work: “I am proud of the work we’ve done in spurring debates about U.S.-Russia. The coverage of Russia has been, I think, in the spirit of The Nation—and I want to maintain that spirit and not let one article change that…. I’ve seen the danger for progressives when Cold War comes.”
The Post reports that in June, a group of Nation authors wrote to vanden Heuvel challenging her refusal to join in Russiagate and Trump-gate (although the weekly has opposed many of Trump’s policies). The letter repeats the “big lie” assumptions about Trump colluding with Russians, firing FBI chief Comey to stop the investigation, etc., and charging that this “raises serious questions about his competence.”
Then they write: “We understand that anxiety about foreign—especially Russian—influence is a familiar trope in American politics, and has been used in the past to suppress internal dissent. But to emphasize this particular angle in Nation coverage over the conduct of the Trump administration is a dereliction of our responsibility as progressive journalists. Last week, for example, the magazine ran a piece casting doubt on the motivation of the officials behind the White House leaks, one of several it has published in recent months that have implied the real threat to national security is not Trump’s conduct but rather the attacks on him. As longtime associates of The Nation, we are deeply concerned that by making these editorial emphases and by likening calls for investigations into the Russia connection to red baiting, the magazine is not only playing into the hands of the Trump administration, but doing a dishonor to its best traditions…. We believe The Nation occupies a unique position in the ecology of American journalism, and precisely because of this position, it’s all the more important that the magazine get on the right side [sic] of this story as it develops.”
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Minister Ryabkov: U.S. Anti-Russia Venom Is ‘Sledgehammer To Thwart Trump’s Presidency’
Aug. 16 (EIRNS)—In a broad-ranging interview with the Mezhdunarodnaya Zhizn (International Life) magazine, conducted Aug. 7, and posted to the Foreign Ministry’s website Aug. 15, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov took aim at the anti-Russia hysteria prevailing in the U.S. Congress, warning that it is used as “a sledgehammer to thwart Trump’s Presidency,” and “undermine the very possibility of building reasonable relations with us for years to come.”
Although Russia has “learned to live with sanctions” and take necessary defensive measures both economically and politically, those recently passed by both houses of Congress “are unprecedented in their political arrogance, limiting the U.S. Executive’s power to pursue an independent foreign policy.” And, he said, the provisions outlined for lifting the sanctions are such that any future U.S. President will have limited maneuvering room for any independent policy moves.
In fact, Ryabkov continued, the sanctions law “strives to intimidate everyone as much as possible, if not to take the entire world hostage.”
The Russian official pointed out that the “anti-Russia genie … actually popped up from the depths of the Democratic Party…. It was unprecedented how the Democrats used Russia as the bogeyman.” But asked why Republicans have gone to war against their own President, Ryabkov averred that pinning labels has become “the alpha and omega of the political line of the U.S. Congress. To them, defending the wrongly-interpreted American values … is more important than the interests of their own country.” The behavior of those who push the anti-Russia fever “is obscene and unworthy of such as country as the United States…. They are harming themselves.” What has gone on in the Congress in the past few months, he warned, “is a very serious blow to the image, reputation, and prestige of the U.S. as a leading, and in many areas, the most influential country in the world…. The petty games of U.S. politicians are one of the most astounding phenomena of recent times.”
Ryabkov asserted that Russia’s actions must be guided “first and foremost … by national interests…. We cannot act in order to hurt someone else … this behavior is not right.” Rather, Russia must exercise restraint and patience, and have a two-pronged policy: First, deterrence in the face of U.S. aggression, and secondly, engagement in a dialogue, “but only on the issues that serve our interests.”
Investigative Reporter Parry on the Ugly Truth about Ukraine
Aug. 16 (EIRNS)—Defenders of the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev have been scrambling since the Aug. 14 report in the New York Times on evidence that North Korea may have acquired rocket engines from Ukraine. They include the U.S. State Department, anonymous U.S. intelligence sources and various other experts who maintain for any number of reasons that analyst Michael Elleman, the author of the report that is the subject of the Times article, is wrong.
Journalist and editor Robert Parry, however, is one of the few observers who is willing to say what the regime’s defenders refuse to acknowledge, that the reality is that the Kiev regime is populated with neo-Nazi followers of Stepan Bandera and that the region of southeastern Ukraine, where the Yuzhmash rocket plant which is the possible source of the rocket engines at issue is located, is dominated by the oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. “As the region’s governor, the thuggish Kolomoisky founded armed militias of Ukrainian extremists, including neo-Nazis, who spearheaded the violence against ethnic Russians in eastern provinces, which had voted heavily for Yanukovych and tried to resist his violent overthrow” in 2014, Parry wrote Aug. 15 in ConsortiumNews.
This is one of the ugly features of post-coup Ukraine that the neo-cons in Washington and Western media have largely ignored, Parry notes. “This inconvenient truth that neo-Nazis were central to Ukraine’s ‘self-defense forces’ would have disrupted the desired propaganda message about ‘Russian aggression,’ ” Parry writes. “After all, wouldn’t many Americans and Europeans understand why Russia, which suffered some 27 million dead in World War II, might be sensitive to neo-Nazis killing ethnic Russians on Russia’s border?” Between the criminal enterprises run by Kolomoisky and the extreme hatred of Russians expressed by the neo-Nazis, Parry concludes that “it would seem clear that corrupt Ukrainian officials, possibly in cahoots with financially pressed executives or employees of Yuzhmash, are the likeliest suspects in the smuggling of these rocket engines to North Korea.”
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin—who had actually toured the region, including the Yuzhmash plant, in December 2013 as part of an effort to set up a Ukrainian-Russian industrial cooperation working group after Yanukovych rejected the free trade deal with the EU (reported by EIR at the time)—commented in response to the New York Times story, that North Korea could not have merely “copied” the engines without help. “In order to make a ‘copy,’ one needs to have the engine’s original model or its detailed drawings, as well as the help of Ukrainian experts who can and are ready to develop production on an unfamiliar technological platform. One way or another, it is about smuggling by skirting all the existing extremely strict international bans,” he said in a Facebook post yesterday, reports TASS.
Germany’s Sigmar Gabriel Backs Russia and China’s ‘Double Freeze’ Plan for North Korea
Aug. 16 (EIRNS)—German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel announced that Germany supports China and Russia’s proposed “double freeze” plan of resolving tensions on the Korean Peninsula, according to a report by Sputnik. “Germany appreciates the important role played by China in resolving the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula. Germany understands and supports China-proposed double freeze initiative,” Gabriel said during the telephone conversation with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, wrote Sputnik, citing the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Gabriel was quoted by the news agency, “Berlin is ready to continue working with China and jointly promoting the peaceful solution of North Korea’s nuclear issue.”
The Foreign Ministry website wrote that Wang Yi said that under concerted efforts of all parties, the tensions on the Korean Peninsula have shown some signs of easing. However, he said, the “August crisis” has not ended yet and all parties should make joint efforts to resolve the issue. China insists on a peaceful solution to the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue. All parties should make a correct judgment and wise choice by taking a responsible attitude toward history and the people. China is willing to see Germany play an active role in this regard, said Wang.
U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chief Dunford Gets Tour of Military Base in Northeast China
Aug. 16 (EIRNS)— General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, was given the rare opportunity of a visit to a Chinese military base in Shenyang in northeastern China, 130 miles from the North Korean border. Dunford was able to view live-fire drills and lunched with the People’s Liberation Army troops. The PLA troops viewed by Dunford were part of a “combined arms brigade,” a new concept introduced into the PLA by President Xi Jinping in his wide-ranging military reforms.
Yesterday, Dunford had signed an agreement with chief of the PLA’s Joint Staff Department Gen. Fang Fenghui to formalize an increase in communication between the U.S. and Chinese militaries. General Dunford said he held “broad-stroke discussions” about a contingency in case of conflict with North Korea, and that he had stressed to his Chinese interlocutors the need for robust communication ties. He declined to provide details of how the Chinese side had responded.
U.S. officials hope U.S. and Chinese military counterparts could be connected at various levels. For example, U.S. military officials said that the American commander of U.S. Forces Korea, now Gen. Vincent Brooks, should be directly in touch with the commander of Chinese forces in their Northern Theater Command, which is responsible for China’s border with North Korea. “The time to have some initial conversations about what a contingency on the Korean Peninsula would look like would be before the contingency occurs,” General Dunford told reporters on his plane today. But it is not clear that the Chinese would agree to such an arrangement at that level.
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Nigeria Announces $41 billion Railway Network Expansion
Aug. 16 (EIRNS)—In an interview in Abuja, Nigeria’s Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi announced that the country is seeking to invest $41 billion to develop transport links throughout the country. “The plan we have now will go to every nook and corner,” Bloomberg quoted him as saying in an interview last week.
Bloomberg’s Dulue Mbachu reported that Nigeria is experiencing its worst economic slump in 25 years due to the low oil prices, which account for more than 90% of the nation’s foreign income and two-thirds of government revenue. Diversification of the country’s economy is urgent, said Amaechi. “There’s no economic development or growth without logistics, and for logistics to be efficient, you have to deal with the issue of railways,” he said.
Last March, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari had said that in order to boost agriculture and manufacturing, the country’s network transport and power infrastructure have to be expanded. The key railroad development projects include building a second railway line connecting Nigeria’s two biggest cities, Lagos, the commercial capital, and Kano in the north.
The 1,100 km line will carry freight and passengers. The government also wants to build a coastal railway connecting Lagos to Calabar in the east, Amaechi said. The two new railways are expected to cost $20 billion, with most of the funding coming from the Export-Import Bank of China, $5.9 billion of which has been released. China’s Civil Engineering and Construction Co. is building the two railways, which should be ready by the end of 2019.
While $5.2 billion has been allocated to complete the route between Abuja and oil hub of Warri and for rehabilitating Nigeria’s 3,505 km of century-old, narrow-gauge railways linking the coastal cities of Port Harcourt and Lagos with the north, $16 billion will be invested in new rail routes to connect all the country’s state capitals and extend across the northern border into neighboring Niger’s southern city of Maradi, the minister said.
