EDITORIAL
Truth Oozes Out on Russiagate Fraud; Escalate To Defeat the British Coup
Jan. 24 (EIRNS)—The truth is oozing out on the Russiagate fraud, and that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was put in to be a “legal assassin.” New revelations verify this almost every day now, opening the possibility of escalating to defeat the whole British coup operation, as the danger increases of economic blow-out and neo-con driven war.
Among the latest confirmations of the coup modus operandi, is former top National Security Agency (NSA) official Bill Binney’s evaluation that the FBI claim to be “missing” five months of text messages between two top FBI anti-Trump operatives, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, “smells to high heaven.” In several interviews this week, Binney explained the NSA capabilities involved, to capture, retain and trace communications.
One of the Strzok-Page texts actually publicly produced, from the day after the Nov. 8, 2016 election, makes reference to their intent to resort to a “secret society” meeting, now that Trump won. Yesterday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said he has an informant who knows such “secret society” confabs did then take place, at sites outside the FBI. He and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, sent a letter yesterday to the Justice Department Inspector General, demanding by Jan. 29 to know everything about the “missing” texts, including why the Department of Justice/FBI prevaricated on them to Congress.
On Robert Mueller himself, revelations of his crimes related to 9/11 are now getting wider publicity, as the Jan. 18 Florida Bulldog report that Mueller, as a top FBI official, signed off on the FBI cover-up of Saudi Arabians in Sarasota, connected to the 9/11 attacks, is being picked up by more media.
The demand is growing to get these crimes and every other lie and cover-up out in the open, and put an end to them all. Today, Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) issued a statement supporting the release of the new memorandum from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) on 2016 FBI/FISA complicity. Jones used historical terms: “I have always been a strong supporter of transparency and open government. I led the successful initiatives to declassify the 28 pages of the 9-11 report, and to declassify the previously unreleased federal files on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy….”
Today, Senator Grassley reiterated his request to the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation of “ex”-British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. Grassley, as well as Nunes, has a memorandum he is pressing to declassify and make public.
Just as Russiagate sags, a push for outright war is escalating, instigated by the same British coup crowd, through neo-conservative/neo-liberal assets. In the latest expression, a new multi-nation entity was formed in Paris Jan. 23, used as a platform to bash Russia: the “International Partnership Against Impunity for the Use of Chemical Weapons.” The Syrian government is accused of using chlorine gas this week. Unfortunately, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson got in on the act of false accusations, saying that Russia is “ultimately responsible” for chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Moreover, he said “Russia’s failure to resolve the chemical weapons issue in Syria calls into question its relevance to the resolution of the overall crisis.”
It is noteworthy that Tillerson came to Paris direct from London, where last weekend, he met with the inner circles of geopolitics. You see the British hand in the White House over Syria; and in the record of the infamous Christopher Steele-British intelligence operative involvement in Ukraine, and later, in Russiagate.
The backdrop to all this is the impending doom of the monetarist financial system, which well-known BIS and OECD economist William White identified this week as a “Catch-22,” where the QE (“quantitative easing”) policy cannot continue, without a blow-out; but, stopping it, means a blow-out.
Rising above all this were the reports given at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, today on the panel, “Belt and Road Impact” on the world. Top economist for President Xi Jinping, Liu He, spoke about what China is doing domestically and internationally, for shared development. Concretely, there is new momentum for this in the Western Hemisphere, where plans were laid this week for the Belt and Road Initiative in South and Central America, and Mexico, by China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
By breaking the British coup, the hold-out, the United States, can be freed to participate in the New Silk Road throughout the Americas, and beyond, for the good of the world.
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
China Issues Challenge to World Community To Fix the Financial System
Jan. 25 (EIRNS)—While Chinese President Xi Jinping was not present at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, much of the focus of the event was nevertheless very much on China. The Chinese delegation, which consisted both of Chinese officials and a large business delegation, was headed up by economist Liu He, who, though not very well known, has been the chief economic advisor to President Xi for a good number of years, but was only this year elected to the Political Bureau, the highest body of the Chinese Communist Party. It is generally understood that the major changes in China over the last five years have, to a certain extent, been due to Liu’s advice. A leading economist, he has written extensively on the 2008 crisis and its aftermath. In his speech at Davos, he issued what can only be considered the biggest challenge facing the world community, making fundamental changes in the present world financial system.
In laying out the overall perspective of where Chinese policy is heading following the 19th Party Congress, Liu identified one major requirement, one main task, and three major battles. The major requirement is transforming the economy from high-speed growth to high-quality development, moving, as Liu said, from an economy of “is it enough?” to one based on “is it good enough?” The short-term goal is to move from a per-capita income of $8,000 to $10,000 and higher by 2020. The main task is to apply supply-side economic reform to the economy. This includes cutting excess capacity, reducing inventory in housing, and bringing down the debt leverage ratio. The three battles are preventing risks, particularly financial risks, reducing poverty, and eliminating pollution.
The purpose, he said, is “to bring the financial system into better conformity, prevent financial risks, and make the financial system more adaptable in order to better serve the real economy.” Liu observed that the international community was closely following the Chinese efforts.
Liu then drew the connections to the world financial system:
“In addition, strengthening risk awareness and changing market expectations, and implicit assurances with regard to moral hazard, have created important psychological conditions for us to prevent and control financial risk. I would like to highlight that the build-up of China’s financial risks and our response to them are closely related to the changing global market. That is why we welcome the participation and cooperation of the international community in China’s endeavor to address financial risk as it is part and parcel of global efforts to maintain economic stability.”
He reiterated the significance of the Belt and Road Initiative, and that is open to all nations, and then returned to the financial crisis. While referring to the first signs of recovery last year and the possibility of a cyclical upswing, he also issued a warning: “At such a critical moment we must focus on the spillovers of the monetary policy of the world’s major economies and on changes in the debt, equity, and commodity markets in the short term. In the medium term we need to pay attention to the question of labor productivity and to the changing savings rates in the large economies…. Meanwhile, deep-seated problems in the world economy have yet to be fixed. Multiple risks and considerable uncertainties come in the form of high debt, asset bubbles, protectionism, and the escalation of global and regional hot-spots. To turn cyclical recovery into sustainable growth, we need concerted global efforts.”
Other important China statistics to be noted in his speech: the contribution of consumption to economic growth has now reached 58%, an increase of 4% over the previous five years; the proportion of service industry to GDP has reached 60%; and over the past five years, 80 million people have moved to urban areas, with urbanization now at 58.52%.
Liu referred to President Xi’s appeal last year to a community of shared future for mankind—which was praised several times by Karl Schwab, the president of the World Economic Forum, who introduced Liu He and who moderated the discussion which followed his speech. Liu concluded: “As long as we firmly establish the awareness of the community of human destiny and work together to help each other and overcome difficulties, we will certainly be able to make the world a better place.”
Foreign Minister Wang Yi Conducted Intensive Bilateral Diplomacy at the China-CELAC Forum
Jan. 24 (EIRNS)—In the two days prior to the official Jan. 22 plenary session of the China-CELAC Forum (CELAC is the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a series of bilateral meetings with foreign ministers from member countries, for more in-depth discussion about expanding economic, trade, investment cooperation and other ties, in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Wang Yi met with the Foreign Ministers of Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, Caribbean nations which have diplomatic relations Venezuela, Cuba, as well as the current Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and incoming President Sebastian Pinera. Foreign Ministers of member countries that don’t currently have diplomatic relations with China, such as El Salvador, the current president pro tempore of CELAC, were extremely enthusiastic about the prospects of collaborating with China on the Belt and Road.
In meeting with Wang and a group of his aides, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray praised the China-CELAC Forum for advancing issues about which Mexico cares deeply and underscored China’s importance to the nations of the region. He asked Wang to deliver a personal message to President Xi Jinping in the name of the Mexican government and President Enrique Peña Nieto, expressing gratitude to China for promoting the region’s economic development.
Following his discussions with Wang Yi, an enthusiastic Costa Rican Foreign Minister Alejandro Solano told Xinhua that the Belt and Road Initiative is the “guiding star” to which “many of our countries that have a comprehensive cooperative relationship with China are looking.” The BRI, he said, offers an “important window of cooperation in multiple areas,” and Xi Jinping’s letter of congratulations to the Forum meeting, “establishes new possibilities of working with [the BRI] which, unlike the ancient Silk Road, can be accessible to Latin American and Caribbean nations.”
From those Caribbean ministers who met with Wang, Jamaica’s Foreign Minister said his country “very much welcomes the Belt and Road Initiative … we view it as a visionary plan, which could readily be combined with the natural development goals of countries within the region. We think the time is ripe.” Barbados’s Foreign Minister added that “the extension of the BRI is critical for Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole….” Barbados is in “an excellent location for a hub … we must recognize how we can function as a bridge and hub.”
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Tillerson Blames Russia as ‘Ultimately Responsible’ for Chemical Weapons Attacks in Syria
Jan. 24 (EIRNS)—Reflecting the confrontational stance against Russia which Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov decried on Jan. 22, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson yesterday accused Russia of being “ultimately responsible” for alleged Syrian government chemical attacks in East Ghouta on Monday, and charged that Russia had breached its commitment to the United States as a framework guarantor of the 2013 agreement by which both the U.S. and Russia would verify full elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.
Tillerson was speaking from Paris at the official launching of the new International Partnership Against Impunity for the Use of Chemical Weapons, an initiative of the French government. He complained that Russia had twice vetoed UN Security Council resolutions to enforce the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM)—an entity Russia has said is politically biased and corrupt—to continue its mandate.
Thus, Tillerson concluded, Russia’s failure to resolve the chemical weapons issue in Syria “calls into question its relevance to the resolution to the overall [Syria] crisis.” He demanded that Moscow stop vetoing, “or at least abstain,” from future UN Security Council votes on this issue.
Naturally, the U.S. UN Ambassador Nikki Haley had to deliver her rant against Russia and Syria from the UN, excoriating Russia for “killing” the JIM, which she said shows that Russia “thinks the use of chemical weapons is acceptable.”
Moscow’s response was immediate. As reported by TASS, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Tillerson’s remarks were “absolutely unacceptable” and that “on this basis, we cannot work with the United States.” He stated he hoped Washington would be able to “cool down,” and perhaps get used to accurately perceive “what is happening around it, including the proposals from the Russian side.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made statements today that “we categorically disagree with the approach employed by the Americans, who have actually swept under the rug any real probe into previous cases of chemical weapons use.”
Russia has repeatedly criticized the JIM for arriving at conclusions about chemical attacks in Syria without ever visiting the actual site of an attack, instead following its own pre-established political agenda. Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia reported on Tuesday that Russia is circulating a draft UN Security Council resolution proposing the creation of a new independent body—the United Nations Independent Mechanism of Investigation (UNIMI)—with a one-year mandate, to establish actual facts about incidents of chemical weapons use in Syria, which will operate “on the basis of scrupulous and incontestable evidence received by means of transparent and reliable methods.”
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Binney: Elimination of Texts, Other NSA Intelligence, Was ‘Deliberate,’ It ‘Smells to High Heaven’
Jan. 24 (EIRNS)—Referring to the “lost” Strzok/Page text messages, former NSA analyst turned whistleblower Bill Binney is speaking out in interviews this week.
On a drive-time program on the Sean Hannity Radio Show, which included fellow guest Philip Haney, a whistleblower formerly at the Department of Homeland Security, Binney replied to a question on whether lost texts could be still retrieved. Unless the National Security Agency destroyed them, they would be retrievable in NSA records, he answered emphatically. And if the NSA destroyed them, there would be a trace on that as well. Phone companies could be a source for the texts, also; otherwise, any NSA analyst’s computer could find the messages, including transcripts.
The whole operation “smells to high heaven,” Binney charged; this has happened repeatedly. The Attorney General must act and follow the law, he demanded.
Sputnik also reported Binney’s evaluation in a Jan. 23 article. Binney recalls that NSA was under court order to preserve information linked to warrantless wiretapping under G.W. Bush, and the FBI was told by Homeland Security and the House Government Affairs Committee to preserve texts between Strzok and Page. But this intelligence has now been lost.
“Could it be a coincidence that two of the U.S.’s most prominent security agencies somehow both managed to jettison intelligence they were told to keep?”
Binney charges that this information was “ ‘deliberately’ deleted since the hardware would also have to be tossed,” Sputnik reported. It only makes sense that this was done deliberately, he said. “Any judge that would buy that [it was an accident] is just a real sucker. Either they’re just outright stupid or they’re part of the cover-up.”
According to Binney, the NSA’s claims that it did not specifically target its own information is “an outright fabrication on their part…. These are all lies they’re feeding the court, hoping they’ll believe them because judges don’t know diddly squat about national security or data storage or any technology. They’re usually out there just saying, ‘Tell me what to do,’ ” Binney stated. The probability of text messages being accidentally junked “is next to zero…. The random probability is zero on all of it simply because not only did they delete the evidence in the FBI, they also, since it’s text messages going across the net, have to delete it in the NSA,” Binney told Sputnik. “They have to do both agencies and to do the same kind of similar data, in both cases that is data relevant to an investigation that kind [of mistake] is virtually impossible [to be a random act].”
In Binney’s opinion, the loss of data is just “a conspiracy to cover up the crimes [the NSA and FBI have] been committing.”
Grassley Reiterates Call for Justice Department To Start Criminal Investigation of Steele
Jan. 24 (EIRNS)—Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is reiterating his demand earlier this month, that the Department of Justice should start a criminal investigation of Christopher Steele, the “ex”-British intelligence agent, a principal in the anti-Trump, FBI operations, reported today’s The Hill
Early in January, Grassley and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) sent a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray, asking for the probe to start, citing “significant” variance in things Steele has attested to in London and to U.S. authorities.
Today, Grassley said, “Senator Graham of South Carolina and I came across some information that does not add up. We saw Mr. Steele swearing one thing in a public libel suit against him in London, England. Then we saw contradictory things in documents that I’m not going to talk about in an … open setting.”
In addition to the letter, Grassley supplied a classified memorandum to the Justice Department and FBI concerning Steele and related matters, which Grassley is impatient be made public. He is annoyed that the Justice Department is holding it up, which The Hillsays is because of a quibble over the rightness of just one fact remaining classified.
Grassley said, “It sure looks like a bureaucratic game of hide the ball, rather than a genuine concern about national security.”
The Washington Examiner reports Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) remarks that he had an “informant” who corroborated reports regarding the FBI’s “secret society,” which was working to undermine Trump. “What this is all about is further evidence of … corruption at the highest levels of the FBI,” Johnson told Fox News. Johnson, who chairs the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, calls for naming a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of inappropriate behavior at the FBI, because Mueller, who used to run the FBI, is “in no position to do an investigation over this kind of misconduct.”
At the same time, members of the House Intelligence Committee say they want to call former FBI Director James Comey back to testify about his handling of the Clinton email investigation in 2016. House Judiciary Committee member Rep. John Ratcliff (R-TX) warns that the FBI texts call into question the truthfulness of Comey’s original testimony.
SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
At Davos, South African Minister Calls Infrastructure Development a Key Driver for African Economies
Jan. 24 (EIRNS)—Infrastructure development is a key driver of South Africa’s growth prospects, with rail and water infrastructure being focal areas, Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel told the World Economic Forum in Davos, yesterday. “We are putting a lot of money into our infrastructure build program, it is averaging about R300 billion a year, and has seen us move out of an energy shortage into an energy surplus, but we still have very significant infrastructure investment we have to make, in rail, with the commuter story, freight logistics to move minerals more quickly, and water which is exacerbated by the drought.
“Water infrastructure is a key challenge we are going to have to deal with,” Patel said, pointing to Cape Town and Port Elizabeth as being among the key urban centers in South Africa “facing severe and imminent water shortages.”
Construction of New Units at Hungary’s Paks Nuclear Plant To Begin as Scheduled
Jan. 24 (EIRNS)—Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto reaffirmed that the construction of new units at the country’s Paks nuclear power plant will go ahead as scheduled. “Everything is still on track, the investment is still on track, according to the schedule. As you know, the government of Austria made an appeal because of the decision of the European Commission on the investment, but it has no impact on the schedule. Everything is according to the plans,” Szijjarto told TASS on the sidelines of the Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromso, Norway.
The Paks nuclear plant already accounts for about 43% of Hungary’s electricity consumption, according to Szijjarto. The Paks-2 project to build new units with a combined capacity of 2400MW will bring this figure to 65%. Russia’s Rosatom is building the new units.
Austria, with no nuclear power stations, is even more anti-nuclear than Merkel’s Germany. Austria’s Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism announced on Jan. 22 that it was planning to contest the European Commission approval for the construction of new units of the Hungarian nuclear power plants in the European Court, similar to the legal action it launched in 2015 against the European Commission when it backed Britain’s plans for an €18.15 billion development of the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is set to discuss the issue with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Jan. 30.
