EIR Daily Alert Service, FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 2018

FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 2018
Volume 5, Number 4
EIR Daily Alert Service
P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390
Zepp-LaRouche: Abandon Geopolitics, and 2018 Can See ‘Positive Change in the History of Mankind’
Encouraging News from Korea
Efforts Gear Up To Invoke 25th Amendment, Claiming Trump Unfit To Serve
FBI, Deputy Attorney General Promise All Documents and Witnesses to House Intelligence
Senate Judiciary Chairman Grassley: Former FBI Chief Comey Likely Leaked Classified Memos
West Virginians Want Chinese Investment ‘Quickly’
Attorney General Sessions Rescinds Obama’s Pro-Pot Policy, Leaves Drug Lobby Screaming
Former German Ambassador Tells Europeans, Drop Geopolitics, Join China’s New Silk Road
China-Zimbabwe Relations To Benefit from Rejuvenation of CPC and Zanu-PF Parties
To Discredit South Africa’s President Zuma and Damage BRICS, British Plan University Unrest

EDITORIAL
Zepp-LaRouche: Abandon Geopolitics, and 2018 Can See ‘Positive Change in the History of Mankind’
Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—In her weekly international webcast today, Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche predicted that 2018 could see “a very, very positive change in the history of mankind,” if geopolitical confrontations are left behind, replaced by “a concert of nations working for the common good.” The solutions “are in sight,” she underscored, and there is therefore tremendous reason to be optimistic, despite dangers that exist, such as the situation in Iran, and the looming financial crash which even Western bankers admit is almost inevitable, and will be worse than 2008 when it hits.
Many people may think it is completely idealistic to be optimistic, but, Zepp-LaRouche said, “look at what China is doing: China is going global” with incredible speed. “And it’s happening on all levels and there’s no reason to feel threatened by it, because if countries like Germany or the United States would go back to their best traditions, like the United States going back to the Kennedy Apollo idea, or going back to the New Deal of Roosevelt, there is nothing which the United States and China cannot do together; or Germany and China, and other countries working together.”
The key, Zepp-LaRouche underscored, is that people “have to change their thinking! It’s not a zero-sum game. It’s the idea, can we define goals for humanity, can we do what was discussed in the Federalist Papers already in the young America? Can we find a self-rule which is for the long-term survivability of our society? And I think we can. I think the human species is capable of reason, I think we are even capable of love—and people think love has nothing to do with politics, but that’s not true! The outcome of the Thirty Years’ War was a terrible destruction in Europe but out of that came the Peace of Westphalia. And if you look at the principles of the Peace of Westphalia, the two most important features were for the sake of peace—forget every evil which was done by the one or the other side, and concentrate on joint development; and the second principle was, for the sake of peace, foreign policy from now on has to be based on ‘the interest of the other in love.’ ”
This is precisely what China is doing, she stressed. “It’s consistent with the idea of a harmonious development of all nations, and that was the policy of John Quincy Adams, so it’s not alien to American history. It was also associated with humanism in Europe, with the idea of [Gottfried] Leibniz, of [Nicholas of] Cusa, of many other great people who were thinking in terms of development as the goal of history.”
In this context, Zepp-LaRouche pointed to the rapidly-changing situation in the United States. The Russiagate scandal is falling apart, and Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes are really zeroing in on the real “collusion”—that of the FBI and the Justice Department with British intelligence to destroy the Trump Presidency—and have been relentless in demanding the FBI/DOJ documents that expose this scheme. If Trump “can be freed of Russiagate,” of the populism associated with the disgraceful Steve Bannon, and freed also from the Wall Street agents who surround him in his cabinet and will block the credit policies needed to rebuild infrastructure, then “the field is totally open,” Zepp-LaRouche stated.
The LaRouchePAC Jan. 5 town hall in New York City at 7:00 p.m., (“End the Coup, Stop the Next War and Build the World Land-Bridge”) featuring William Binney and Ray McGovern from the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), and EIR’s Barbara Boyd, author of EIR exposé of Robert Mueller, will provide further ammunition to defeat the witch-hunt against Trump.
In discussion with associates today, Zepp-LaRouche warned that in this very fluid and dramatic situation, it will be crucial to “address Trump’s soul.” Unlike the New York Times, he has a soul. He said yesterday that he had been elected by the “forgotten men and women” of America—not by Steve Bannon. But if he is to fulfill his promises to those forgotten men and women, and accept Xi Jinping’s invitation to join the New Silk Road, Trump needs the Four Laws outlined by statesman Lyndon LaRouche—Glass-Steagall, a Hamiltonian credit system, national banking and a fusion power science-driver. The LaRouche organization has already begun mass-distributing the pamphlet on this, “LaRouche’s Four Laws and America’s Future on the Silk Road,” to federal and state legislatures, and to broader layers of the population. In the three weeks before Trump’s State of the Union address, this mobilization will be intensified to reach those who, as Zepp-LaRouche described it, “have an inkling of what is going on—skilled labor, engineers, aerospace, among them—and understand that there are solutions to the current crisis.”
U.S. POLITICAL & ECONOMIC
Encouraging News from Korea
Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—The U.S. and South Korea agreed today to postpone the annual U.S.-South Korean military exercises Foal Eagle and Key Resolve, which usually take place in the February-March timeframe, until after the Winter Olympics and the Paralympics, which conclude on March 18. If North Korea responds by suspending military tests, then the “dual suspension” will be in effect, which Russia and China—and Lyndon and Helga LaRouche—say is required to move to negotiations for a durable settlement.
It is noteworthy that EIR Asia specialist Michael Billington had said just one week ago that such breakthroughs were on the way in Korea, not because of any local factors, but due to the global paradigm shift for which the LaRouche movement has been fighting.
Today’s announcement came after a telephone conversation between U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in this morning, U.S. Eastern Time. According to the South Korean Presidential Blue House, the two leaders agreed to collaborate in ensuring the success of the games, and to delay planned drills to enable the two nations’ militaries to focus on safeguarding security in the region during the games, reported the Korea Herald. Moon also reportedly stressed the importance of inter-Korean talks. “(Seoul) will work closely with the U.S. in the process of inter-Korean talks, and we (South Korea) firmly believe that inter-Korean talks are helpful to establishing an atmosphere of dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea,” Moon was quoted by the Blue House.
Afterwards, Trump took credit for the opening of the possibility of North-South talks that emerged this week. “Does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasn’t firm, strong and willing to commit our total ‘might’ against the North,” Trump tweeted, adding that “talks are a good thing!”
The breakthrough on the military exercises came after Pyongyang reopened the North-South communications line through the Panmunjom truce village. The South Korean government immediately responded with an offer of high-level talks for Jan. 8. North Korea has yet to respond to the South Korean proposal, leaving some uncertainty as to the agenda and the venue of the talks. “Factors such as the time, location and agenda of the talks are open for now. (The ministry) will monitor the North’s responses with regards to what kind of talks will be held,” an official of South Korea’s Unification Ministry said earlier today. As for the agenda, the announcement by Ri Son-gwon, the North’s top official for inter-Korean relations, on Wednesday appeared to hint that it will focus on North Korea’s participation in the Olympics. However, the Korea Herald writes, Ri’s announcement left open the possibility of discussions on a wider range of issues, including U.S.-South Korean military relations.
Efforts Gear Up To Invoke 25th Amendment, Claiming Trump Unfit To Serve
Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—As Trump advisor Roger Stone warned earlier this week, with Russiagate falling apart, efforts are gearing up to invoke the 25th Amendment, with the argument that Donald Trump is too mentally unbalanced to serve as President. Witness statements this morning from MSNBC talk-show host Joe Scarborough, who argued that Trump is in the “early stages of dementia,” citing ostensible “top people” in the presidential campaign who thought this was the case.
According to Politico Jan. 3, Yale University psychiatrist and “violence expert” Dr. Bandy X. Lee, was brought to Capitol Hill Dec. 5-6, to brief a group of largely Democratic lawmakers (one Republican Senator was in the group of a dozen or so) on how Trump “is going to unravel, and we are seeing the signs.” Her proof was that he is “going back to conspiracy theories, denying things he has admitted before, his being drawn to violent videos. We feel the rush of tweeting is an indication of his falling apart under stress. Trump is going to get worse and will become uncontainable with the pressures of the Presidency.”
Lee is the author of the book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, published last October, which includes testimonials from 27 psychiatrists and mental health experts who assessed the President’s “dangerousness.” Last night, Lee and two other medical professionals issued a statement warning that Trump’s recent tweets on North Korea reflect “psychological aberrations,” and recommended elected officials to take “urgent steps to restrain his behavior,” lest it lead to a nuclear catastrophe. Neocon Bill Kristol, Politico reports, has tweeted Vice President Mike Pence, expressing the hope that Pence has asked his Counsel to prepare a “draft document transferring power in accord with Sec. 4 of the 25th Amendment in case it’s suddenly needed.”
Civil liberties lawyer Alan Dershowitz, offered the appropriate response to this talk. Invoking the 25th Amendment would require a “major psychotic break” on Trump’s part. “This is hope, over reality. If we don’t like someone’s politics, we rail against them, we campaign against him; we don’t use the psychiatric system against him. That’s just dangerous.”
Undeterred, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) will soon be hosting a meeting for Dr. Lee in her home, and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has proposed a bill to set up a special commission to evaluate Trump’s fitness for office, which has 57 sponsors.
FBI, Deputy Attorney General Promise All Documents and Witnesses to House Intelligence
Jan 4 (EIRNS)—House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes’s Dec. 28 “end of the line” letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein gave him until Jan. 3, to produce the documents and witnesses which would finally lay bare the FBI’s full involvement with the dossier on Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele—along with the activities of Bruce Ohr, Peter Strzok, Strzok’s lover Lisa Page, former FBI General Counsel James Baker, and other FBI crooks scheming to bring down the President.
“Unfortunately, the DOJ/FBI’s intransigence with respect to the Aug. 24 subpoenas is part of a broader pattern of behavior that can no longer be tolerated,” Nunes wrote.  “As a result of the numerous delays and discrepancies that have hampered the process of subpoena compliance, the committee no longer credits the representations made by DOJ and/or the FBI regarding these matters…. At this point it seems the DOJ and FBI need to be investigating themselves.”
Yesterday evening, Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray met at their request with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI). Following that meeting, Rosenstein spoke with Nunes, who said, “After speaking to Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein this evening, I believe the House Intelligence Committee has reached an agreement with the Department of Justice that will provide the committee with access to all the documents and witnesses we have requested. The Committee looks forward to receiving access to the documents over the coming days.”
Senate Judiciary Chairman Grassley: Former FBI Chief Comey Likely Leaked Classified Memos
Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—Last night, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) wrote to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, setting a deadline of Jan. 17 by which he expects to receive specific information about the chain of custody for the memoranda that former FBI Director James Comey wrote (to himself) about his conversations with President Trump. Comey later shared some of those memoranda with Columbia University Law School Prof. Daniel Richman.
Richman later “read a portion of one of the memos to a New York Times reporter,” according to Grassley’s letter, after which Rosenstein named Robert Mueller as Special Counsel for the Russia investigation. Comey claimed that the only reason he gave the memoranda to Richman was to force the naming of a Special Counsel.
Senator Grassley in effect says that Comey did leak classified information. Of the seven memoranda that Comey wrote, four were classified as confidential or secret. Comey gave four memos to Richman, and as Senator Grassley points out, since four of the memos were classified, “it would appear that at least one memo the former FBI director gave Professor Richman contained classified information.” Richman claimed at the time that none of the documents Comey gave him had any classified markings, but, according to The Hill today, refused to provide Committee investigators with any of the memos in his possession.
(Note that even if the “classified” markings were written on the FBI copies of the documents after Comey gave copies to Richman, it would still mean that Comey had shared classified information.)
In his letter to Rosenstein, Senator Grassley reports that when he reviewed the memos at two secured facilities—one at FBI headquarters and one in the Senate Security office—FBI personnel refused to provide him with factual information about the chain of custody. In his letter, he posed several very specific questions that he wants answered, concluding with, “Please explain the method by which Mr. Comey transmitted the memoranda to Professor Richman.” He pointedly asks: “Have you initiated an investigation into the matter of whether Mr. Comey improperly disclosed classified information by providing these memoranda to Professor Richman?  If so, what is the status of the investigation? If not, why not?”
West Virginians Want Chinese Investment ‘Quickly’
Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—“Convince Chinese To Invest Quickly,” Wheeling, West Virginia’s newspaper, The Intelligencer headlined its Dec. 31 editorial. There are few details about, or a schedule known for the more than $83 billion in Chinese investments in the state contemplated by the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by President Donald Trump during his visit to China last November, the editors wrote. But “Gov. Jim Justice remains exceedingly optimistic, pointing out that representatives from China have visited the state to discuss their plan.”
“Opportunity is knocking very loudly in West Virginia. Let’s be certain the door is wide open and the welcome mat is out,” the editors urged. Because “of the obvious, that the state’s economy needs help right now, Justice, legislators and other state officials should do all in their power to accelerate the Chinese investment schedule.”
Whether that means making infrastructure improvements at sites under consideration for Chinese investment, offering targeted tax incentives, or working closely with officials of the government and Chinese businesses involved, “whatever it takes—within reason—should be done to get more of that $83 billion sooner than the Chinese had planned,” said the editorial.
The potential offered by the MOU has already spurred the interest of U.S. and overseas companies in acquiring vacant industrial properties in the state’s northern panhandle for the projected new industrial projects, WV News reported on Jan. 2. “The MOU has had an impact,” Bryce Custer, a local real estate figure, told the paper. “Optimistic isn’t even the right word,” he said. “Looking at the $83.7 billion MOU, if even a fraction of it comes to (fruition), if we get 5, 10% of that, it’s a game-changer for the state of West Virginia and surrounding states as well. So I’m extremely optimistic. We’re fortunate we got that MOU with China Energy. It really has put West Virginia on the map.”
Optimism in the state got another boost yesterday, when the U.S. Department of Energy gave its approval to proceed to the second phase of application for a $1.9 billion federal loan guarantee for establishing a regional natural gas storage hub, a long-standing plan whose prospects soared when it was included in the MOU with China Energy. In the evaluation of the American Chemistry Council, this storage hub “could attract up to $36 billion in new chemical and plastics industry investment and create 100,000 new area jobs,” local papers reported yesterday, in announcing the initial approval for the federal loan.
Attorney General Sessions Rescinds Obama’s Pro-Pot Policy, Leaves Drug Lobby Screaming
Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—In a memorandum issued today to U.S. Attorneys, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded four Obama administration memoranda that had advised against enforcement of federal anti-drug laws in states that had legalized marijuana consumption. Sessions did say that given the Justice Department’s limited resources and the seriousness of the crime, prosecutors should use their own discretion when it comes to prosecution.
The announcement has provoked howls from the George Soros-run drug lobby and its Congressional allies. Soros’s Drug Policy Alliance warned that the Attorney General’s “obsession with marijuana prohibition defies logic, threatens successful state-level reforms and flies in the face of widespread public support for legalization.” Gallup.com immediately reminded people of its October poll showing that 64% of those surveyed favor legalization. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) tweeted that the memorandum “directly contradicts the will of the voters in Colorado and in other states.”
According to a Justice Department press release, the memorandum announces “a return to the rule of law.” Attorney General Sessions “directs all U.S. Attorneys to enforce the laws enacted by Congress and to follow well-established principles when pursuing prosecutions related to marijuana activities.”
Sessions asserted that, “it is the mission of the Department of Justice to enforce the laws of the United States and the previous issuance of guidance” by the Obama Administration, “undermines the rule of law and the ability of our local, state, tribal and federal law enforcement partners to carry out this mission.” As NBC pointed out, Obama’s policies “had allowed the pot industry to flourish.” Sessions directs all U.S. Attorneys to use “previously established prosecutorial principles that provide them all the necessary tools to disrupt criminal organizations, tackle the growing drug crisis, and thwart violent crime across our country.”
The memorandum was issued just a few days after the legal, commercial sale of marijuana went into effect in California, which was greeted with much fanfare by much of the mainstream media.
NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Former German Ambassador Tells Europeans, Drop Geopolitics, Join China’s New Silk Road
Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—Former German Ambassador to China and current board chairman of the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, Michael Schaefer, argues for Europeans to accept China’s offer of partnership in the New Silk Road in an interview with Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten.
Schaefer blasts Europe’s reaction to the New Silk Road policy and accuses the Europeans of projecting their own thinking when they accuse China of having hegemonic intentions. Although not in explicit terms, he argues for rejecting the wrong geopolitical approach in favor of a win-win relationship.
“The geostrategic significance of the Silk Road cannot be underestimated. The Middle Kingdom has set itself to deploy its giant material resources for the expansion of the Chinese economy on the world market. China is carrying out this strategy in an intelligent way, not aggressively but by offering participation to all states—an offer that is slowly being accepted by the small Asian and Central Asian countries, whereas in Europe we have a mostly negative reaction, if not a rejection. Here they accuse China of hegemonic intentions—a projection of our own behavior in the last century?
“Many Europeans make the big mistake of looking at the relationship between the United States and China as a zero-sum game. But a close relationship with the United States does not in the least exclude an interest-based relationship with China. We should not see China as a rival, but rather as a partner in key sectors. I am convinced that China wants to be a partner of the West. At least, China does not pursue military dominance and a geostrategic hegemonic position, but it will defend what it believes are its legitimate interests, in particular its territorial interests, with energy, if necessary also through a projection of its military power.”
Schaefer has met Xi Jinping, China’s president since 2013, several times, and in 2009, he accompanied him on five-day visit in Germany. Schaefer describes Xi, saying he “radiates an impressive interior calm, fitting with his policy. He proceeds calmly, unagitated and strategically, making China fit for the challenges in the future. Don’t expect a rush job from him. He, like many Chinese, thinks in long terms. He is driven by the knowledge that China was the largest national economy in the world until the middle of the 19th century, and it will be so again in the future. For the Chinese it is not a matter of 10 or 20 years. During his visit to Germany, he showed interest in our development, especially in economic-technological but also in social areas, like no one else I have ever seen.”
The Chinese system is one capable of learning, Schaefer says, explaining how it can react more quickly and better than Western systems in changing its economic model. Political stability in China will depend on whether the system delivers on its promises. “Basically, we must presume that even a communist single party will be accepted as long as it delivers stability and welfare. Chinese culture is strongly influenced by Confucianism. This is not religion, but a regulatory philosophy. One of its main features is respect. For instance, children’s respect for their parents, but also respect for higher entities. They pursue a harmonically functioning society where—in contrast to us—no excessive significance is attributed to individual self-realization.”
China-Zimbabwe Relations To Benefit from Rejuvenation of CPC and Zanu-PF Parties
Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—The new policy presented by the Chinese President Xi Jinping at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is serving as inspiration for the Zanu-PF, the ruling party of Zimbabwe. Grace Maingire, correspondent for the pro-government Harare Herald daily, writes that the “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” now enshrined in the CPC’s constitution, is as a model for rejuvenating the Zanu-PF, following Zimbabwe’s successful transition to the new Presidency of Emmerson Mnangagwa.
After a short review of the CPC Congress, the author points out how Xi has breathed new life into socialism, which could offer lessons for the Zanu-PF, which is also a socialist party. Both Xi and Mnangagwa are also committed to fighting corruption.
Pointing to the potential of China-Zimbabwe cooperation, she writes, “Surely with Zimbabwe’s Look East Policy, which focuses on China and other Asian countries, it will bring in success once technicalities of operation are smoothened out as Zimbabwe enters the new political dispensation. China and Zimbabwe have enjoyed good relations from the latter’s liberation war of the early 1970s.
“One of the common traits between the CPC and Zanu-PF is that both parties believe in socialism, an idea which may be criticized by some, but signals a caring leadership. President Xi Jinping’s ideas, which were adopted, breathe a new lease of life on socialism and every party which believes in the ideas can refer to the contemporary listing of new ideas.”
Maingire urges for developing joint projects with Chinese companies. An example that is already in place is a partnership between the Chinese mobile phone company Huawei, and Zimbabwean government-owned telecommunications networks operator TelOne. Not only is this enhancing development of the mobile network in Zimbabwe, but only last month the TelOne Centre for Learning was certified as a Huawei Learning Partner after it received certification from Huawei to train students in its courses and products.
“China and Zimbabwe have a lot of collaborative potential, [and] with the CPC Congress promising more interaction with countries at an economic level, the two sides’ future surely looks bright. With already signed deals to the tune of $1 billion, it is a matter of time before the bilateral economic decisions start bearing fruit in the not so distant future.”
OTHER
To Discredit South Africa’s President Zuma and Damage BRICS, British Plan University Unrest
Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—The British Empire has planned a confrontation for Jan. 5 on South African university campuses to further discredit President Jacob Zuma, and to reinforce the view that he must be removed immediately, instead of serving the last 15 months of his term. If removed, he will not be in place to chair the BRICS, to give it impetus during 2018 and host its 10th summit in Johannesburg, during South Africa’s rotating chairmanship. Instead, bankers’ boy Cyril Ramaphosa, or someone like him, would be interim President.
In mid-December, Zuma announced that his government would make tertiary education (education and training beyond high school) free for those poor and working class students who gained admission to one of the institutions. He did not promise instant implementation.
But British agent and Commander-in-Chief of the so-called Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Julius Malema—whose fire on this issue Zuma has just stolen—is attempting to set up confrontations on the campuses, demanding immediate implementation. Malema has instructed all poor and working class students with good matric results to arrive at the institution of their choice on Friday, Jan. 5, when registration begins, to seek admission. If they are turned away, the EFF has vowed to blockade all access to the campuses.
Nearly all universities, for their part, have clarified in the news media that admissions for 2018 were closed in 2017, and will not be reopened in response to Malema’s demands.
Today, Minister of Higher Education and Training Hlengiwe Mkhize clarified that the policy will be phased in over five years. On African News Network, Mukovhe Morris Masutha of the Center for Emerging Researchers, justified the new policy from a physical-economic standpoint, and pointed out that the unemployment rate among those with tertiary education and training is much lower than among those without.
Zuma’s policy for free education, long seen in the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party as a goal, is also an attack on the banks, which will lose a student loan market amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. The Banking Association of South Africa attacked the proposal, saying it is just “a way of fooling South Africans by adopting unaffordable populist policies in the name of the poor without the ability or even the political will to deliver.”

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