EDITORIAL
Trump Shows Leadership, Mobilizes Americans for Recovery and Infrastructure
Sept. 11 (EIRNS)—On the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the United States, the U.S. has been struck with devastation from two different hurricanes, with a third on the way. Unlike George Bush’s response to 9/11, who immediately set up police-state institutions within the U.S. and began the process of “permanent warfare”—mostly against nations which had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11—Trump is responding to the current disasters with true leadership. On Sunday, after receiving a comprehensive briefing on the devastation across Florida from Hurricane Irma, Trump directed all federal agencies to give full backing to FEMA, and to “continue supporting state and local efforts to save lives, promote shelter efforts, and expedite requested assistance to affected areas.” The various military branches are mobilized to provide rescue and emergency food, water, and other necessities to the millions of displaced persons. He personally called the governors of the states in Irma’s path to assure them of full support from the federal government.
Trump also reached out to the Democratic Party leadership to pass a bipartisan bill to direct $15 billion in federal money to begin the recovery process in Texas, and will need much more to begin the recovery from Irma.
Of course, a few billion dollars will not even begin to repair the damage of the recent hurricanes, let alone begin the process of restoring the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, to prevent the next round of natural disasters from again catching the nation unprepared to defend itself. To achieve that requires the launching of Hamiltonian national credit mechanisms, to generate the several trillions of dollars required to make the United States a productive nation again, as outlined in LaRouche’s Four Laws. Trump is also leaning towards ending the so-called “debt limit” policy—which would be a step towards making possible a capital budget for building infrastructure through national credit, which by its nature generates its own repayment by lifting the productive platform of the nation as a whole.
Trump’s mobilization is creating the conditions for this far larger undertaking to be realized. The American population is disgusted with the Bush and Obama governments’ pumping trillions of dollars into bailing out the gambling debts of the Wall Street and City of London institutions, while waging perpetual warfare abroad and imposing austerity at home.
Look around the world. Just last week, the BRICS conference in Xiamen and the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok brought representatives of the majority of the world’s nations and peoples together, to expand the New Silk Road process led by China and Russia, building modern nations in the former colonized world, and opening up one of the world’s last “new frontiers” in the Russian Far East, through international cooperation. Today in Bangkok, political and business leaders from Thailand, Japan, China, Europe, Malaysia, Singapore and others met to push forward the building of a canal across the Kra Isthmus in southern Thailand, one of the Great Projects promoted by LaRouche for over 30 years, since he keynoted a similar conference in Bangkok in 1984.
The difference now is the existence of the Belt and Road Initiative—also first promoted by LaRouche, who coined the term “New Silk Road” after the collapse of the Soviet Union, as a means of uniting the world through cooperative development. The Great Projects vision, blocked by the British geopolitical system which has dominated the U.S. since the death of Franklin Roosevelt and Jack Kennedy, is now being implemented, at an amazing pace, under the new paradigm of the New Silk Road.
President Trump has made clear that the U.S. should be part of this process, working with Russia and China to make America great again, just as China is making China great again through cooperative development, and Russia is making Russia great again in the same way. This is not a zero-sum, geopolitical contest, but a call for humanity to end its childish ways, and to create a cooperative world worthy of the dignity of Man.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Military Assets Move into South Florida in Wake of Hurricane Irma with Trump’s Personal Support
Sept. 11 (EIRNS)—Now that Hurricane Irma has passed through Florida, the Department of Defense is moving into the state to begin rescue and recovery operations. Most significant, however, are President Donald Trump’s personal involvement and concern, and his direction to make available to the states all federal resources that they need, not losing focus on southeast Texas, devastated at the end of August by floods stemming from Hurricane Harvey.
Trump received a “comprehensive update” on Hurricane Irma on Sept. 10, in a meeting at Camp David with Vice President Mike Pence, several cabinet members, and other officials who participated by phone. Pence said afterwards that Trump has been tracking the storm “24/7.” The White House said Trump’s briefing included an update on Irma’s status, its forecast path, evacuations, and preparations for response and recovery. According to news reports, Trump encouraged officials to also stay focused on recovery efforts in southeast Texas, and he spoke with the governors of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee, four more states that are forecast to be inundated by Irma. Trump directed all federal agencies to back the Federal Emergency Management Agency to “continue supporting state and local efforts to save lives, promote shelter efforts, and expedite requested assistance to affected areas,” the White House said.
According to a Pentagon release issued today, the DOD “is well postured with naval, air, and ground assets to initiate response operations in Florida today and will continue response operations throughout the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico (VIPR) region.” This includes completing the evacuation of U.S. citizens from the island of St. Martin and coordinating with British authorities on the evacuation of U.S. citizens from the British Virgin Islands, as well as providing humanitarian assistance (water, sanitation, logistics support, movement of disaster relief personnel, humanitarian commodities movement) in response to State Department requests. The National Guard is deploying upwards of 10,000 troops in response to Irma, in Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In addition, three U.S. Navy ships, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln with 24 helicopters, are arriving off the Florida Keys to assist with rescue and recovery operations.
During the overnight hours of Sept. 9-10, the U.S. Air Force flew 300 doctors and other medical specialists to Orlando, Florida. They are part of the Department of Health and Human Services’ National Disaster Medical System, “which provides response capabilities to augment existing healthcare systems in affected areas,” Maj. Korry Leverett, a spokesman for Air Mobility Command, said in the release. “Additionally, there are about 20,000 pounds of medical equipment and supplies pre-positioned at Scott [Air Force Base] to provide assistance when called upon,” AMC spokesman Col. Chris Karns told Military.com.
The Air Force also said it would be using Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, and Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, as the staging areas for roughly 800 trucks, and various support facilities to include lodging and dining facilities, airfield operations, security, and latrine services.
Coup Plotter Robert Mueller Singled Out for Covering Up Saudi Role in 9/11 Massacre
Sept. 11 (EIRNS)—On the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the United States, we are reminded that the FBI and intelligence agencies leading the coup attempt today against President Trump, are the same people and agencies responsible for allowing the 9/11 attack to take place, and doing everything in their power to cover up the role of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the attack.
“Think about this for a moment: the man now in charge of investigating the President of these United States for collusion with Russia and possible obstruction of justice, himself obstructed a congressional investigation into the 9/11 terrorist attacks,” Antiwar.com Editorial Director Justin Raimondo wrote today.
There is a great deal the American people still do not know about how the attack occurred, but after much agitation, we do know that Saudi Arabia played a key role in the attack, but, “we wouldn’t know anything about this part of the 9/11 plot if Robert Mueller—then FBI director … had had his way,” Raimondo wrote.
On that, he cites Andrew Cockburn’s explosive report on Mueller’s personal efforts to block the Congressional Inquiry, included in Cockburn’s lengthy review of the fight to bring out the truth, published by Harper’s today.
Cockburn recounts the story of how former FBI lawyer and counterterrorism analyst Michael Jacobson, working for the 2002 Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11, came across a reference to an FBI informant in San Diego who knew one of the hijackers. Then Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL), head of the Senate Intelligence Committee and co-chair of Joint Inquiry, “told me recently that Robert Mueller, then the FBI director … made the strongest objections to Jacobson and his colleagues visiting San Diego” to follow up the lead, Cockburn reports.
“Graham and his team defied Mueller’s efforts, and Jacobson flew west,” Cockburn continued. They uncovered the “damning details,” now well-known, of the two Saudi hijackers’ close relationship with Saudi agent Omar al-Bayoumi, as well as FBI informant, Abdussattar Shaikh.
“Understandably, the investigators had a lot of questions for this man. Nevertheless, Mueller adamantly refused their demands to interview him, even when backed by a Congressional subpoena, and removed Shaikh to an undisclosed location for his own safety. Today, Graham believes that Mueller was acting under orders from the White House….”
Citing Cockburn’s account, Raimondo goes for the jugular:
“So many lies! So much official obstruction! Now, however, the truth is finally coming out. With the passage of legislation stripping the Saudis of their sovereign immunity—over President Obama’s veto—the class action suit against the Saudis is moving forward. Armed with thousands of pages of documents showing how Riyadh and its global network of Islamic extremists have succored, aided, and directed al-Qaeda and allied organizations in terrorist attacks against U.S. citizens and interests, the families of those killed, wounded, and traumatized on September 11, 2001, are about to get their day in court.
“And what is bound to come out is the complicity of U.S. officials in the cover-up. It looks to me like Robert Mueller’s time in the spotlight is about to get a lot more interesting.”
9/11 Families’ Lawsuit Keeps Attention on Saudi Role in That Crime
Sept. 11 (EIRNS)—An amended complaint filed by the 9/11 families in their lawsuit against Saudi Arabia, that appendage of the British Empire, provides new details on the “pattern of both financial and operational support” provided by the Saudi government to the 9/11 attackers, including an earlier “dry run” for the attack, Paul Sperry reported in a New York Post article which has caused a stir since its publication two days ago.
The amended complaint cites FBI documents on how the Saudi government employed and financed two Saudi “students”—Mohammed al-Qudhaeein and Hamdan al-Shalawi—whose attempts to gain access to the cockpit of an America West flight from Phoenix to Washington, D.C., in November 1999, were so aggressive that the pilot made an emergency landing in Ohio, Sperry reports.
The two were arrested when the plane landed, questioned by the FBI, and let go. The FBI later “discovered” that the two had been trained in Afghanistan, had regular contacts with one of the Saudi hijacker-pilots and a senior al-Qaeda leader from Saudi Arabia now held in the Guantanamo prison, were employed by the Saudi government, and were in “frequent contact” with Saudi officials while in the U.S., including attending a symposium hosted by the Saudi Embassy and chaired by the Saudi Ambassador. And the Saudi Embassy paid for the pair’s tickets for the “dry-run” flight.
Sean Carter, lead lawyer for the 9/11 families’ suit, told Sperry that “that the allegations that the Saudi Embassy sponsored a pre-9/11 dry run—along with charges of other Saudi involvement in the 9/11 plot, from California to Florida—are based on ‘nearly 5,000 pages of evidence submitted of record and incorporated by reference into the complaint.’ ” Carter said that they used “ ‘every FBI report that we have been able to obtain,’ though hundreds of thousands of pages of government documents related to Saudi terror funding remain secret.”
Sperry also reports that the Saudi government filed a motion to dismiss the families’ suit in August, and the judge presiding over the case gave the plaintiffs and their lead law firm, Cozen O’Conner, until November to respond to that motion.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Alastair Crooke: Syria Has Crushed ‘Bush Doctrine’ and Saudis’ Wahhabi Ideology
Sept. 11 (EIRNS)—The fact that Syria has survived what has been thrown at it, is the “beginning of the end—not just of the political regime-change project, but also of the Sunni jihadi project which has been used as the coercive tool for bringing into being a New Middle East,” retired British diplomat and former MI6 official Alastair Crooke wrote in ConsortiumNews on Sept. 8. “Wahhabi-inspired Islam has taken a major hit. It is now widely discredited amongst Sunnis, and reviled by just about everyone else.”
Crooke writes his article as an obituary on the “Bush doctrine” of the neocons, referencing the roles of Paul Wolfowitz, David Wurmser, Richard Perle, the late Zbigniew Brzezinski, et al., in elaborating the infamous “Clean Break” policy strategy paper, David Wurmser’s 1996 “Coping with Crumbling States” paper, the 1997 Project for a New American Century (PNAC). And with it, the policy of using “fired up Sunni radicals … to counter Nasserism, Ba’athism, the U.S.S.R., Iranian influence, and latterly to try to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad in Syria…. Sunni jihadists’ long run as the tool of choice for re-making the Middle East is over.”
He credits the mostly Sunni Syrian Arab Army with breaking the back of this strategy, because “it was Syrian Sunnis who fought—and died—for their Levantine Islamic tradition … of a tolerant, more inwardly oriented, quasi-secular Islam.”
NATO Hysteria about Russia’s Zapad Exercise Reaches New Heights
Sept. 11 (EIRNS)—NATO’s hysteria over the Sept. 14-20 Russian-Belarusian Zapad 2017 exercise appears to be boundless, though no one has yet produced any evidence that Russia is, indeed, moving 100,000 troops (as claimed by NATO leaders) into Belarus, perhaps in preparation for an invasion of the Baltic states. The Washington Postmade its own contribution to the hysteria in a report posted yesterday, headlined “Fear and confidence in the face of Russian war games,” that dramatizes, if not military movements, then the psychological fears of Baltic political leaders who expect NATO to defend them at all costs.
Defense News acknowledges that Russia rejects NATO’s fear mongering.
“NATO officials keep on saying that these measures are not a provocation, but a ‘defensive reaction’ to changes in the security environment. But no matter how NATO members verbally camouflage their actions, the fact is that the forces and assets of the leading NATO countries (militarily speaking) have appeared where they have never been before,” Russia’s ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko said in an interview. “If NATO countries really are concerned about the unstable situation in the region, then what they need to do is to curtail their own military activities, which are groundless and don’t respond to real security challenges” (such as terrorism) Grushko said. “Russia is ready for such a dialogue and joint work on the basis of equality and mutual respect of interests.”
But Defense News can’t resist closing its article without quoting the spokesmen for the British Empire: “Russia has done more invading, occupying and colonizing of neighboring European countries than any other European power in history,” says Denis MacShane, a Europe minister under Tony Blair in the 1990s, part of whose job is clearly to distract attention from the bloody history of the British Empire, let alone Nazi Germany.
British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon was equally wild during an appearance, yesterday, on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show: “This is designed to provoke us, it’s designed to test our defenses, and that’s why we have to be strong,” he declared. “Russia is testing us and testing us now at every opportunity. We’re seeing a more aggressive Russia. We have to deal with that.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, appearing on the same show, was equally hysterical. “We have seen before that Russia has used big military exercises as a disguise or a precursor for aggressive military actions against their neighbors,” Stoltenberg said. This is supposedly what happened in Georgia in 2008 and Crimea in 2014, “So we call on Russia to be fully transparent.” Therefore, the logic runs, Russia must allow NATO monitors to fully observe its military exercises near Baltic states next week, to ensure that they are not being used as a disguise or precursor for aggressive action against neighbors.
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
South Australia’s German-Style Energy Exit Leads to Energy Collapse at Luxury Prices
Sept. 11 (EIRNS)—An example of which Germans should be taking notice, is Australia, which carried out its own German-style Energiewende energy exit, closing down thermal power stations and building solar and wind power generators, and now faces a collapse of its energy supply and dramatic increase in energy prices.
The previous government, under the Labor Party, through raising taxes for coal and other means, systematically forced the closure of one coal-fired power station after another as part of the radical climate-change policies. Australia is one of the largest coal producers in the world and enjoys low energy prices. Coal accounts for 73% of its energy supply. It has among the largest uranium reserves in the world and is a major exporter of the resource, but the government has banned building nuclear power stations. Not only have electricity prices increased radically, but Australia is now experiencing blackouts, with more to come with the oncoming summer.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) this month released its annual report, which forecasts blackouts, and increasing prices if nothing is done. AEMO writes that, because of the shutdown of coal-fired power stations, the grid loses “dispatchable” power that can be deployed at any time and faces instabilities.
“We face an increasing and unacceptable risk that there will be insufficient capability in the system,” the report said. “In turn, this exposes consumers to a heightened risk of involuntary and unacceptable load shedding.”
The government is desperately trying to create a 1,000-MW reserve by contracting with companies that have diesel generators—the most expensive form of electricity, and not exactly reliable.
Power Engineering International, which publishes industry newsletters, reports that the Australians are considering chartering a 250-MW ship-based power station as a solution to the crisis. This is a Turkish ship which has been deployed to countries such as Iraq, that have been devastated by wars or natural catastrophes.
According Adelaide Now, opposition politicians have slammed the government’s poor decision-making on power policy, which is responsible for the sky-high increase in residential electricity bills.
While the Conservative-led government of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been critical of the previous government’s energy policy, it has yet to announce a serious change.
Commenting on the AEMO report, well-known Australian climate-change critic Andrew Bolt wrote in the Herald Sun: “ ‘Unacceptable’ hardly begins to describe what we’ve done, driven by irrational superstitions and green scares. It was already ‘unacceptable’ that we banned nuclear power here…. But the ultimate act of idiocy was when governments helped to destroy our coal-fired stations without ensuring we’d still have enough power, cheap and steady.
“In South Australia, the Labor government forced shut its last two coal-fired stations with green policies making people use more wind power instead. The blowing up of the last station, Northern, was actually celebrated in a video distributed by a public relations company.
“Yes, proud to be nuts.”
Bolt should come to Germany to find out that Australia has no monopoly on nutty leaders and idiots.
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Kra Canal Conference in Bangkok a Great Success
Sept. 11 (EIRNS)—Early press accounts of the Kra Canal Conference held in Bangkok today show that it was a huge success, demonstrating the broad base of support, both within Thailand and internationally, to proceed with this project for a canal across Thailand’s Isthmus of Kra, which has had enthusiastic support from EIR and Lyndon LaRouche since the 1970s as part of the “Great Projects” approach to world peace and development.
Articles in the Japanese Nikkei and the Malaysia state news service Bernama report on the enthusiasm of the conference participants. A direct report from EIR’s associate Pakdee Tanapura, a leading organizer of the conference, will be forthcoming.
Nikkei writes: “European business leaders in Thailand have joined Chinese government advisers and influential Thais in urging the country’s military junta to construct a $28 billion ship canal through the narrow Isthmus of Kra to link the Indian and Pacific Oceans.” They report that Rolf-Dieter Daniel, president of the European Association for Business and Commerce, the umbrella group of European chambers of commerce in Thailand, strongly promoted the project. “We believe the project should have a very high priority for the government,” he told the conference. He said the Kra Canal (now being called the Thai Canal) “would be one of the most ambitious and transformational infrastructure projects ever contemplated in Asia.” He continued that “financially, this project shall not be a problem and will not burden the Thai taxpayer. Therefore, we can only recommend the Thai government to issue a current feasibility study as soon as possible.”
Nikkei reports that diplomats and officials from Japan, China, the U.S., Singapore, Malaysia, and the European Union, among others, attended the event, co-sponsored by the King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, the Thai Canal Association for Study and Development, and the Thai-Chinese Culture and Economy Association of Thailand.
Gen. Pongthep Thesprateep, a former army chief of staff who heads the Thai Canal Association, opened the conference with a call for the government to pick up the project as soon as possible. “Today marks a very important day in the history of Thailand,” Pongthep said. “I hope that the result of this conference will act as a catalyst for the Thai government to create a national committee for the complete feasibility study of the Thai Canal project. The study should provide answers to any doubts that may still exist.”
A former Supreme Commander of the armed forces, Gen. Saiyud Kerdphol, who was a speaker at Kra Canal conference in Bangkok in 1984 that featured Mr. LaRouche, sent a long message of support in which he called for the canal to be made a project of the Thai monarchy—“a King’s Project”—to avoid its becoming bogged down in politics, according to Nikkei. Prof. Zhou Dawei from Peking University, told the audience that “The Thai Canal, will make Thailand a true transport hub in the world.” He said: “We strongly believe that under the [Belt and Road] OBOR initiative, if we give more importance to the Kra Isthmus Canal project, we will definitely be part of a great change in humankind’s history.”
Prof. Jingsong Song from Shanghai Jiao Tong University said, “Thailand should take advantage of China’s position now and start the Kra Canal project. Don’t delay the project, now is the right time.” The Thai Canal, said Song, would not only propel Thailand’s economic ambition but also the Asian and the world’s economies, according to Bernama.
Ambassador Reports Mexican-U.S. Relations Are Improving
Sept. 11 (EIRNS)—Mexico’s Ambassador to the U.S. Geronimo Gutierrez told the Washington daily The Hill, that relations between his government and the Trump administration have improved substantially in the last few months.
“My own view is that we’re in a better shape now than when we started early this year…. It is no secret that we have had our share of differences with the Trump administration. Those differences are public; they are known. What both sides have strived for, is to find common ground within those differences…. One of the positive things about what has been built over the past six to eight months, is the fact that both sides believe the other guy is honestly trying to reach a deal on different aspects of the relationship,” the Ambassador said.
The two countries each have “very clear red lines…. One for us is clearly the issue of the wall, or paying for the wall. But once those red lines are clear, we understand better each other’s priorities. We do try to find common ground.”
SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
South Africa Will Manufacture Fuel for Pebble Bed High-Temperature Nuclear Reactors
Sept. 11 (EIRNS)— The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (NECSA) is reactivating the facility it had built to manufacture fuel elements for pebble-bed high-temperature nuclear reactors (PBMR), Creamer Media’s Engineering News reports today. South Africa had built the fuel manufacturing laboratory for use in its own PBMR program, but the entire project was cancelled in 2010. NECSA has not announced a plan to restart that reactor project, but it is planning to produce fuel to export to China, which is currently building a commercial demonstration pebble bed high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR), said NECSA CEO Phumzile Tshelane, at a media briefing on Sept. 8. Other nations, including the United States, are also developing HTGR projects, which would also be a market for South Africa’s nuclear fuel pebbles, which, one hopes, would prompt South Africa to restart its own reactor program.
The cancellation of the program was a tragedy, which cost losing the talent of 900 scientists and engineers, under pressure from the same forces that have tried relentlessly to get President Jacob Zuma to cancel the country’s plan to build a cluster of new nuclear plants. NECSA says that reactivating the laboratories should be finished by the second half of next year, and current staff are being reassigned for the work. This advanced nuclear technology project would be an excellent investment for the BRICS New Development Bank.
