EDITORIAL
Macron in Xi’an: China Has ‘Accomplished a Dream!’ The World Must Join In
Jan. 8 (EIRNS)—French President Emmanuel Macron began his three-day state visit to China today, in Xi’an, gateway city on the ancient Silk Road, where he praised today’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), saying that China “has accomplished a dream.” Speaking of the ancient Silk Road as a treasure of civilization, he lauded China for reinventing it. China has reactivated the realm of the imagination, he said. France and China both have to work together on the future; and Europe should do the same.
In terms of economics, Macron said that, in the midst of the crisis of the unipolar capitalist world, China and France should work together. He spoke of how China has lifted 700 million people out of poverty, and now, China can come to Europe to help do the same there.
Macron’s stance puts pressure all across the trans-Atlantic, home to the expiring, deadly Wall Street/City of London control-operation of monetarism and geopolitics. Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche observed that Macron’s action today puts the German government in a bind; the anti-China, anti-BRI position of Berlin and Brussels is more and more isolated. Look at the realignments underway to seek win-win development with China and the BRI: Switzerland, the Balkans, East Europe, the Mediterranean, and now France. Localities are lining up, vying to be the hub of the New Silk Road, from Valencia, Spain, to Minsk, Belarus, with many candidate cities in between.
On Jan. 11, Macron will be in Rome, en route back home from China, for a two-day summit of the “Med-Seven,” a group of Mediterranean Basin nations, which all have growing relations with China and BRI development projects—Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta.
Remember, Macron stressed, the BRI works both ways: “The ancient Silk Roads were never only Chinese. By definition, these roads can only be shared. If they are roads, they cannot be ‘one way.’ ”
Macron put special emphasis on the commitment of France to work with China in Africa, on BRI projects of railways, ports, and other infrastructure, connecting with Europe and Asia.
This Silk Road outlook is urgently needed in the United States, where the President, committed to the “forgotten man,” as he repeated today to the Farm Bureau convention in Tennessee, continues to applaud the stock market bubble, all the while that trains wreck, bridges collapse, and life expectancy itself falls. But this is not a hopeless pit of despair; it’s a void that can be filled by the knowledge and spirit of “what to do,” as laid out in the new LaRouchePAC report, “LaRouche’s Four Laws: The Physical Economic Principles for the Recovery of the United States—America’s Future on the New Silk Road.” Teams are lined up to deliver a copy of this report in Washington, D.C. this week, to all 435 offices of the House of Representatives, which went back into session today. State legislatures are opening, and other points of intervention are in full swing for 2018. It’s three weeks until President Trump gives his State of the Union address to the nation.
Macron’s message will send shock waves throughout the world on many fronts, Zepp-LaRouche stressed today. It’s a reversal of policy. Use this to shake up the system, and put a new one into place.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Much Positive Diplomacy Around Upcoming Inter-Korean Meeting
Jan. 8 (EIRNS)—There is much positive diplomacy ongoing around Tuesday’s meeting between North and South Korean representatives at the Panmunjom Truce Village. While the meeting itself is expected to be limited to North Korea’s participation in the upcoming Winter Olympics, and perhaps some inter-Korean matters aimed at reducing tensions along the border, there is clearly the hope that it will lead to breakthroughs in larger matters, up to and including de-nuclearization.
Lee Do-hoon, special South Korean representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, and Japanese Foreign Ministry Director for Asian and Oceanian Affairs Kenji Kanasugi, met today, and agreed to step up cooperation on efforts to turn the emerging “peace momentum” on the Korean Peninsula into a peaceful resolution of North Korea’s nuclear stalemate, reports Yonhap. “Both sides agreed to intensify diplomatic efforts to make the recent peace momentum being created on the Korean Peninsula by such developments as the Jan. 9 high-ranking inter-Korean talks to discuss the North’s possible participation in the PyeongChang Olympics translate into a peaceful resolution of the nuclear problem,” the South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a press release. Lee and Kanasugi also agreed to closely maintain bilateral communication and coordination on that matter, while at the same time making efforts to bring North Korea out for “meaningful” negotiations going forward, the ministry stated.
On Jan. 10, Lee is to visit the United States, stated the South Korean ministry. He will make a three-day trip, during which he plans to meet with U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Korea and Japan Joseph Yun, who is also Special Representative for North Korean Policy, for discussion on the results of the inter-Korean talks and possible follow-up measures.
Today’s South Korean-Japanese envoy meeting followed one between Lee and China’s Assistant Foreign Minister and Special Representative of the Chinese Government on the Korean Peninsular Affairs Kong Xuanyou, on Jan. 5, after the U.S. and South Korea had announced that annual U.S.-South Korean military exercises would be postponed. Kong said at that time, “This is actually a freeze-for-freeze and will have a positive impact on the situation in the Korean Peninsula, while steering [developments] in a safe direction.” He was referring to the proposal issued by both China and Russia that the U.S. suspend military exercises in return for North Korea suspending missile and nuclear tests.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
DiGenova Cites Obama Treason Against Trump; Predicts Indictments
Jan. 8 (EIRNS)—Former Washington, D.C., U.S. Attorney Joseph DiGenova outlined an FBI and DOJ conspiracy to frame President Trump in a drive-time interview on Washington radio station WMAL Monday morning. DiGenova is a highly partisan Republican and is married to Victoria Toensing, who played a major role in the LaRouche prosecution while at the Department of Justice. Nonetheless, DiGenova’s explosive claims represent, at the very least, what is being discussed widely in conservative legal and governmental circles in Washington, D.C. He called the efforts against Trump treason and predicted that there would soon be criminal prosecutions of those involved. That will push the Michael Wolff nonsense into the trash heap. He said that Comey was now dead meat and that John Brennan would be known as the most corrupt and politicized CIA Director in U.S. history.
Among his highly specific contentions:
1) Adm. Mike Rogers of the National Security Agency (NSA) discovered illegal Section 702, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) wiretaps by the Obama Administration in early 2016, ordered an internal NSA investigation, and reported these illegalities to the FISA court. That was the reason that Brennan and Clapper tried to fire Rogers from the NSA.
2) On Nov. 17, 2016, Admiral Rogers told Donald Trump that Trump Tower was wiretapped, and this resulted in Trump moving the transition operation to Bedminster Country Club in New Jersey.
3) The Steele dossier was the basis for wiretap applications to the FISA Court, and the Justice Department did not disclose to the court that its applications were based on a dossier originated by the British, paid for by the DNC and Clinton, and never verified by the FBI.
4) John Carlin, the head of the Justice Department National Security Council, resigned prior to the election for reasons involving illegal DOJ and FBI activities.
5) Judge Rudolph Contreras presided over Michael Flynn’s guilty plea but then recused himself from the case. According to DiGenova this occurred because Contreras reviewed FISA warrants regarding Flynn. This poses the obvious question regarding why Contreras did not recuse himself prior to hearing Flynn’s plea.
6) The pending Inspector General investigation in the Justice Department regarding the handling of the Clinton email investigation will result in criminal referrals and the impaneling of grand juries regarding the actions of the FBI and the Justice Department National Security Division under Loretta Lynch.
7) DiGenova has a letter from 43 former FBI agents regarding the conduct of the FBI during the counterintelligence investigation of Donald Trump.
8) All of this, and the role of Susan Rice and others in illegal surveillance of the Trump transition, are known to the House Intelligence Committee and will be a part of their report.
House Intelligence Committee Holds Justice Department Feet to the Fire
Jan. 8 (EIRNS)—After receiving assurances from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, on Jan. 3, that the Department of Justice and FBI would finally comply with subpoenas issued by the House Intelligence Committee more than four months before, Committee Chairman Devin Nunes thought it intelligent to “memorialize” their agreement, in a letter issued on Jan. 4.
In the letter, published by Breitbart News today, Nunes spelled out what requested documents were to be made available to the Committee investigators and staff, both Republican and Ranking, by when, and that eight named FBI and DOJ officials (Bruce Ohr, Peter Strzok, James Baker, Lisa Page, Sally Moyer, Greg Brower, Bill Priestap, and James Rybicki) would be made available for interviews during the month of January.
The deadlines included: providing access on Jan. 5 to all FBI Form FD-102s and all remaining FBI Form FD-302s responsive to the Committee’s August 24, 2017 subpoenas, except one, which for national security reasons FBI Director Wray would show separately to Nunes and his senior investigators sometime this week. Rosenstein “confirmed” to Nunes that no other documents existed related to the case, but Nunes took care to stipulate that “if somehow, ‘new’ or ‘other’ responsive documents” of whatever form and title, “are discovered, as discussed, you will notify me immediately and give my senior investigators access to them shortly thereafter.”
Nunes gave the DOJ until close of business (COB) Thursday, Jan. 11, to both finish its search of “the remaining approximately 9,500 text messages between FBI Supervisory Special Agent Peter Strzok and his mistress, FBI Attorney Lisa Page,” and provide all relevant messages to the committee. The same deadline, COB Thursday, Jan. 11, was given for providing the committee with all records related to the April 2017 meeting of then DOJ Attorney Andrew Weissmann (now senior attorney to Robert Mueller) with the media.
Nunes reiterated, once again, that the Committee “is extremely concerned by indications that top U.S. Government officials who were investigating a presidential campaign relied on unverified information that was funded by the opposing political campaign and was based on Russian sources.” And, lest it be questioned, yes, the August 24, 2017, subpoenas remain in effect.
Trump Addresses Farm Bureau Convention, Announces New Report on Help for Rural America
Jan. 8 (EIRNS)—This afternoon in Nashville, Tennessee, President Donald Trump addressed the annual convention of the American Farm Bureau Federation. He announced the release of a report by his 2017 Interagency Task Force on Agriculture Rural Prosperity (established in April) and signed two Executive Orders to expand broadband in rural areas.
The Farm Bureau, founded in 1919, extends across the country. It tends to be Republican politically, and among its services to members, provides farm and market information, and offers insurance.
Trump began his remarks with lengthy praise of the new tax-cut law. However, the fastest and loudest standing ovation for remarks by Trump, was given in response to his pledge to retain Federal crop and commodity insurance. The spontaneous applause reflects the fact that in recent years, the insurance system has provided the means for farmers and ranchers to continue in operation while prices for their output have often sunk below costs of production. This situation has arisen under the Wall Street system of deregulation (no parity pricing, no supports, etc.) The Federal government pays Wall Street insurance companies to sell discount policies to farm operators, to compensate them for low prices, weather damage, etc.
Since 2013, net farm income in the U.S. has dropped by 50%, to an annual level in the range of $61 billion. The farm belt has the highest rate of suicides, drug abuse, and other horrors of despair. Farm counties are becoming depopulated.
Trump trod very lightly on NAFTA, since demoralized farmers have been conditioned to wrongly think NAFTA is vital for them to get income from foreign sales of their food output. Trump very briefly spoke of a “level playing field,” and other platitudes about renegotiating a “better deal,” for a “fair and reciprocal” NAFTA.
In fact, under a win-win trade approach—associated with the Belt and Road Initiative, the three North American nations could dump NAFTA (as Trump called for during the 2016 election campaign) and mutually reorient trade with each other and their major partners, especially China, in ways to restore and maintain the productivity of the North American farm sector. In this process, the destructive corn-ethanol and other bio-fuels can be closed out.
The 23-page new report, overseen by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, is an inter-agency product advocating various measures in rural areas, including providing broadband, innovation programs, and especially, cutting anti-production regulations from the over-reach of the EPA, FDA, and other agencies.
Also at today’s convention, the Farm Bureau and National Farmers Union announced their joint task force to fight the opioid scourge in the farm belt.
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Japan’s Shinzo Abe To Visit Six East European Nations
Jan. 8 (EIRNS)—From Jan. 12-17, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be on an East European tour which will take him to Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
“I will expand the borders of Japanese diplomacy while confirming our tight coordination over the North Korean problem and other urgent matters for the international community,” Abe said in a meeting between his cabinet and the ruling coalition, according to Romanian news agency Digi24.
Abe’s tour, of course, has an important economic dimension. It follows the conclusion two weeks ago of a free-trade agreement between Japan and the European Union which enters into force at the beginning of 2019. This will be an important subject in all the countries he is visiting, especially Bulgaria, which takes over the Presidency of the European Union Council at the beginning of 2018.
Although not mentioned in media coverage, the countries Abe will be visiting are members of the 16+1 group of 16 Central and Eastern European (CEEC) nations which are cooperating with China on economic development, especially infrastructure projects. Since the Japanese government announced it will be cooperating on joint projects with China in Africa, the intriguing question to ask, is whether such cooperation will also take place among the Central and Eastern European countries.
Abe’s first stop will be Romania, where, while Japan is only the 25th biggest foreign investor in Romania, Japanese investors held stakes in 348 Romanian companies worth some €180 million as of Nov. 30, 2017, according to Romania Insider website. Japanese investors are mainly active in the automotive sector. The Japanese company Calsonic Kansei will invest €30 million in a new plant in southern Romania to manufacture electronic components. Another Japanese company, IHI Infrastructure Systems, and Italy’s Astaldi will build a new bridge over the Danube near Braila. The cost will be €434 million and will be financed by EU funds. The bridge will facilitate commerce with Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. Japan is also contributing to the financing of the Bucharest subway extensions to the country’s main airport, which Japanese companies are also bidding to construct.
Abe will visit Estonia, the first to the country by a Japanese head of government, where the two will sign a bilateral cyber security cooperation agreement, reports Kyodo, which observes that Estonia is known for its developed IT sector.
Abe’s visit to Latvia follows an official visit to Tokyo by Latvian Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis in early December. Economic cooperation was at the top of the agenda in Tokyo and will be during Abe’s visit to Riga. During his visit to Tokyo, Kucinskis told Abe that, in addition to his country’s potential as a high-tech center, Latvia is prepared to cooperate in freight transit and logistics, since its ports handle the largest freight volumes in the Baltic countries, and Latvian ports may become the logistics and distribution center for Asian freight.
Chinese Ambassador to Brazil Raises Subject of Bioceanic Railroad
Jan. 8 (EIRNS)—Interviewed on Dec. 26 by Brazilian business daily Valor Econômico, China’s Ambassador to Brazil Li Jinzhang was pressed by Valor on whether China would start investing in new projects in Brazil in 2018, beyond its huge investments in existing Brazilian assets. This a hot topic in Brazil, in the lead-up to the late January announcement of the first allocations of the $20 billion “Brazil-China Fund for the Expansion of Productive Capacity,” set up in 2017, and is often cited by enemies of the Belt and Road Initiative to argue that China is just trying to “exploit Brazil,” like other countries have done.
China has cumulatively made $117 billion in direct investments in Brazil, 45% of them concentrated in the three areas of energy, mining, and agro-business, largely by purchasing already existing capabilities (including crucial infrastructure projects otherwise shut down because the corrupt “Lava Jato” operation prohibited the perfectly competent Brazilian companies carrying them out to complete them).
Ambassador Li used the opportunity to counter the nonsense about China’s intentions, and politely press Brazil on its stalling on the game-changing South American transcontinental rail project:
“Chinese companies have advantages in technology, experience and capital, and have a great interest in building infrastructure in Brazil,” he answered. “In 2015, we reached a consensus, with Brazil and Peru, on promoting the construction of the Bioceanic Railway. Chinese companies concluded, in two years, the basic feasibility study, and are ready to implement the project in stages and in a ‘sliced’ way. They also want to form consortiums, based on market rules, to participate in building railways, such as the FIOL,” the Ferrovia de Integração Oeste-Leste, or West-East Integration Railway.
COLLAPSING WESTERN SYSTEM
Brazil Could Explode Come Jan. 24
Jan. 8 (EIRNS)—That is the day that a federal appeals court is scheduled to decide whether to uphold the nine and a half-year sentence handed down earlier against former President Lula da Silva by the leading “Lava Jato” judge, Sergio Moro. Lula is currently the leading candidate for President in the 2018 national election, but if the sentence is upheld as expected, he would be stripped of his right to run for political office.
The conviction and sentence are blatantly political. In a July 19, 2017 speech in Washington, Kenneth Blanco, then U.S. Acting Assistant Attorney General of Justice Department Criminal Division, credited the DOJ with securing Lula’s conviction, together with the “Lava Jato” apparatus—a fact widely publicized in Brazil since EIRissued a release on the DOJ role in December 2017. Unable to find any real corruption, the DOJ-“Lava Jato” team convicted Lula of receiving $1.1 million in repairs on a middle-class vacation apartment which neither Lula nor his wife owned, in exchange for unproven political favors.
The Mayor of Porto Alegre, the city where the relevant appeals court is located, has requested that the Army deploy troops to ensure calm, since Lula remains overwhelmingly popular among Brazil’s poor and working class, and a popular explosion in support of him is a distinct possibility. The Defense Minister rejected the Mayor’s request—so far.
Indicative of the mood in the country is the argument by José Policarpo Junior, a professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco, who wrote in a Jan. 5 column, that this decision will be a historical watershed for Brazil, comparable to the impact the Dreyfus case had for France, the first trials of Jews by the Nazis for Germany, and the Pinochet coup for Chile, among other cases cited.
Adding to the building fury against the U.S. DOJ-run fraudulent “anti-corruption” hoax, is the announcement last week that the state oil company, Petrobras, will pay $2.95 billion to its U.S. and U.K. stockholders, in compensation for their supposed “losses” incurred because of the effect of “corruption” on the Petrobras share price! Eletrobras, the state electrical company, which is slated for privatization, is reported to be considering seeking a similar settlement on the matching class-action suit filed against it.
Securing these payoffs was planned from the start of Lava Jato. Representatives of foreign hedge funds were present at the original meeting of Lava Jato prosecutors and top DOJ/FBI officials with the black-market money dealer who turned state’s witness in return for getting a whopping payoff of his own.
OTHER
Alexandrov Ensemble Memorial Ceremony in Bayonne, New Jersey, Advances Cause of Peace
Jan. 8 (EIRNS)—The Jan. 6 wreath-laying ceremony initiated by the Schiller Institute in honor of the memory of Russia’s historic Alexandrov Ensemble and all those who perished with them in TU-154 plane crash on Dec. 25th, 2016, received widespread coverage in major Russian-language media sites (TASS, RT, RIA Novosti, among them). At the time of the plane crash, the Alexandrov Ensemble, were en route from Russia to Syria to perform for Russia troops over the Christmas holiday and for the Syrian people; they were joined by journalists and humanitarian workers, especially the famous “Dr. Liza” Elizaveta Glinka.
The spirit of the coverage was captured in the remarks made to the Saturday ceremony by the First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN Petr Illiichev, available in full on the website of the Russian UN Mission, that Russians “are grateful to the Americans who showed solidarity during those trying times,” one year ago.
The wreath-laying ceremony, like the first held immediately after the crash on January 7, 2017, took place at the Teardrop Memorial in Bayonne, New Jersey, which had been created and donated by the Russian Federation to the United States in September 2006, in memory of those who died in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 and all victims of terrorism.
Capt. Don Haiber of the Bayonne Fire Department moderated the ceremony on the cold, windy day. Along with the laying of flowers on the monument, the New York City Police Department Color Guard and the Bayonne Fire Department Honor Guard presented their colors; the Russian and American national anthems were sung by the Schiller Institute New York City Chorus; brief remarks were made by Illiichev and the Deputy Permanent Representative of Syria to the UN Mounzer Mounzer; and a statement from Virginia State Senator, Col. Richard Black, was read on his behalf.
The Syrian representative spoke of the Alexandrov band, who “gave their lives while they were on their way to celebrate with the Syrian people the victory against terrorism…. The Syrian people will never forget … their sacrifice. They will remain forever living in our souls and in our conscience.”
Senator Black, in his message, wrote that “the Alexandrov Ensemble symbolized Russia’s commitment to preserving civilization from powerful forces of evil. Beautiful strains of classical music still haunt the ruins of Palmyra, recalling Russia’s and Syria’s recapture of the priceless ruins from terrorists sent by foreign powers to ruin, loot, and desecrate the archeological legacy of all mankind.” He expressed his “deepest gratitude to Russia and to President Vladimir Putin for rescuing Syria from terrorists sent by foreign powers to rape, behead, crucify and degrade every decent human in Syria. I thank you for sending your finest artists—the Alexandrov Ensemble—as a clear demonstration that Russia does not wish to bring war, but rather to bring peace, beauty and God’s blessings upon mankind.”
For his part, Captain Haiber spoke of how music moves the souls of all human beings. “Everyone here proves, I believe, that this small remembrance shows our humanity towards one another, and God knows we could use more of that…. It is at times like that we are neither Russians, Syrians, or Americans, but just human beings who feel loss, and genuinely wish peace and happiness towards one another.”
A musical tribute to the Alexandrov Ensemble was hosted by the Schiller Institute Chorus that afternoon, in Manhattan.
