EDITORIAL
‘Grassley’ Memo Exposes More on Anti-Trump Coup; Stakes Are War or New Paradigm Development
Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—This morning, yet more damaging revelations came out on the attempted coup against the U.S. Presidency, from the release of an eight-page memorandum by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the FBI. Though highly redacted, this document, covering the 2016 Presidential election period, reports that the Clinton campaign shopped anti-Trump charges from an unknown foreign source, into the Obama State Department, from which the charges were then shopped to “ex”-British spy Christopher Steele, who then got them to the media and the FBI. Steele produced a dossier, dated Oct. 19, 2016—different from the known “dodgy dossier”—which so far has not been made public.
Grassley’s memo was originally written Jan. 4 when he, joined by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) provided it to the relevant Justice Department and FBI authorities, demanding a criminal investigation of Steele. The memo states, “It is troubling enough that the Clinton Campaign funded Mr. Steele’s work, but that these Clinton associates were contemporaneously feeding Mr. Steele allegations raises additional concerns about his credibility.” Grassley has called for criminal charges to be brought against Steele and all others implicated in this dirty operation.
Today’s developments open a “Phase Two,” coming after the release of the “Nunes” memo on Feb. 2 by Devin Nunes (R-CA), Chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence. The Nunes memo focusses on the wrongful use of the FISA surveillance authorization process by top anti-Trump FBI and Justice Department figures, and Steele. In the new Grassley memo, the State Department is implicated. More “phases” of revelations are coming. This can blow open the lid on those responsible in London and Washington for what happened in Ukraine, to impose a Nazi regime change through the Maidan color revolution in 2013-14. No wonder that Victoria Nuland yesterday tried to distance herself from Christopher Steele, on CBS News. Nuland, a former Obama State Department official, and Steele et al., directly promoted the Maidan coup.
The impetus for the stream of revelations and prospect of jail for the guilty, is the LaRouchePAC Special Investigative Report, “Robert Mueller Is an Amoral Legal Assassin: He Will Do His Job If You Let Him,” first issued in September 2017.
The stakes in all this are not simply truth in the abstract, but whether there will be war, or a New Paradigm of development—the New Silk Road. The Old Paradigm of monetarism and geopolitics is dead, but still dangerous. Those backing it are prepared to trigger war. An expression of this is the cover of The Economist of London for Jan. 27, declaring, “The Next War: The Growing Danger of Great-Power Conflict.”
The only winning anti-war drive is the mobilization for a New Paradigm, especially in the trans-Atlantic, for the emergency measures laid out in the LaRouche Four Laws and the link-up to the Belt and Road Initiative.
President Donald Trump again expressed his support of restoring manufacturing and jobs in the United States, in his speech today at a factor near Cincinnati, Ohio. His banner stated, “U.S.A.—Open for Business.” It was a profound irony, when announcers broke in breathlessly to interrupt the live TV coverage of his speech, to report that the Dow Index had just plunged 1600 points!
The world reality is, that the New Paradigm of the New Silk Road is underway. It is the model that works. It is the LaRouches’ decades-long agenda in action. For humanity, the future is ours.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
‘Grassley’ Memo Seeks Criminal Action on Steele; Implicates State Department, Clinton Campaign
Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—This morning Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) a subcommittee chairman, released an eight-page memorandum, which they had provided to authorities back on Jan. 4, backing up their call for criminal action against “ex” MI6 spy Christopher Steele, for illegal anti-Trump activity during the 2016 Presidential election period, and implicating the State Department and the Clinton campaign.
There were weeks of delay in getting the FBI and Justice Department to perform the redactions they insisted on.
A facsimile of the document is on Senator Grassley’s Senate website, plus related correspondence with Justice Department and FBI figures.
The Memo’s eight pages are highly redacted, but the essential point becomes clear: A Clinton campaign associate shopped anti-Trump information, from an unnamed foreign source, to a State Department figure. This State Department individual shopped the information to Christopher Steele, who then produced a dossier (dated Oct. 19, 2016, and not so far released), and who spread it to media and the FBI. (N.B.: This Steele dossier in question is not the infamous dodgy dossier against Trump that was revealed in January 2017.)
It is widely reported that the key figures referred to in this chain of anti-Trump collusion with the British operative, are: Jonathan Winer at the State Department; and Cory Shearer, an associate of the Clintons.
Here is the exact language from the “Grassley” memo:
“One memorandum by Mr. Steele that was not published by BuzzFeed is dated October 19, 2016. The report alleges BLANK, as well as BLANK. Mr. Steele’s memorandum states that his company ‘received this report from U.S. State Department,’ that the report was the second in a series, and that the report was information that came from a foreign sub-source ‘who is in touch with BLANK, a contact of BLANK, a friend of the Clintons, who passed it to BLANK.’ It is troubling enough that the Clinton Campaign funded Mr. Steele’s work, but that these Clinton associates were contemporaneously feeding Mr. Steele allegations raises additional concerns about his credibility.”
Senator Grassley has repeatedly pointed to the glaring “discrepancies” in what Steele has told a court in London over the past year, and what he has told authorities here in the U.S.
Jonathan Winer has had a career at the State Department spanning time as Obama’s Special Envoy for Libya (2013-2016), Senior Advisor for MEK [Mujahideen e-Khalq] matters (resettling, protection, out of Iraq); Deputy Assistant Secretary of State (1990s) for law enforcement, including cross-border money, drugs and financial matters. He served when Madeleine Albright was Secretary of State, under which the Wall Street deal with Colombian FARC narco-terrorists was struck in June 1999, featuring the “Grasso Abrazo”—embrace of Richard Grasso, president of the New York Stock Exchange, with Colombian FARC financial matters leader Raul Reyes.
Cody Shearer is a shadowy figure, who has done operations in Bosnia and other conflict zones. He is described as a “fixer” for Bill and Hillary Clinton; and a partner of Clinton associate Sidney Blumenthal.
On the Memo’s delay, in brief: The memorandum was first provided Jan. 4 by Grassley and Graham to Justice Department and FBI authorities, as support for a separate letter from the Senators demanding a criminal investigation of Christopher Steele. Release of the memo has been held up for weeks.
On Feb. 2, the day the “Nunes” memo was released, after it was approved by the House Select Committee on Intelligence, chaired by Devin Nunes (R-CA), and approved for public issuance by President Donald Trump that day, then Senator Grassley fired off a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, that they must finish what was necessary to approve the memo in question for release by Feb. 6. This Feb. 2 letter is available on Chuck Grassley’s Senate website.
He also posted a statement this morning, headlined, “FBI Required Redactions of Unclassified Material; Grassley Seeks Full Declassification Review.” In the statement Grassley says, “The government should not be blotting out information that it admits isn’t secret, and it should not take dramatic steps by Congress and the White House to get answers that the American people are demanding…. That means declassifying as much of the underlying documents as possible….”
Maidan Nazi Coup-Promoter Victoria Nuland Claims Innocence in Steele Skullduggery against Trump
Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—Victoria Nuland, the Obama State Department official who connived to impose a Nazi regime in Ukraine in 2014, is now trying to backpedal away from complicity with British “ex”-spy Christopher Steele in Trumpgate. Nuland, as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs in the Obama Administration, worked with Britain and Steele, who had headed the MI6 “Russia Station” from 2004-09, closely in the Maidan government-toppling process. She appeared on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Feb. 4, two days after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes spoke of how the Obama State Department stood to be investigated, along with the FBI, for wrongdoing in Trumpgate. Nuland was asked about what she knew of the 2016 Steele dodgy dossier on Trump.
Nuland replied that in July 2016, Steele came to her at the State Department, with information on Trump. She said, “He [Steele] passed two to four pages of short points of what he was finding, and our immediate reaction to that was, ‘This is not in our purview.’ ” She continued, “ ‘This needs to go to the FBI, if there is any concern here that one candidate or the election as a whole might be influenced by the Russian Federation. That’s something for the FBI to investigate.’ ” She said that State referred the information to the FBI.
Nuland dilated in her answer, “our reaction when we saw this [was], it’s not our—we can’t evaluate this. And frankly, if every member of the campaign who the Russians tried to approach and tried to influence had gone to the FBI as well in real time, we might not be in the mess we’re in today.”
Then, the very next day, her self-serving statement was turned upside down, by the new “Grassley” memo out today from the Senate Judiciary Committee. It stated that it was a Clinton campaign source, who shopped anti-Trump material—from an uncited foreign source—into the State Department, which material was then given to Christopher Steele, who wrote another anti-Trump dossier. It was dated Oct. 19, 2016, and has not been made publicly available.
Robert Mueller’s Mudd Threatens President on Air, Again
Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—In a CNN outburst over the Feb. 3-4 weekend after the Nunes memo had been released, former CIA and FBI officer Phil “Rumpelstiltskin” Mudd spat out angrily that the FBI people “are ticked…. They’ll be saying of Trump, ‘You’ve been around for 13 months. We’ve been around since 1908. I know how this game is going to be played. We’re going to win.’ ”
This is the same Mudd who infamously declared on Jake Tapper’s CNN show last August, speaking of President Donald Trump, that “this government is going to kill this guy.”
All this, from the man who managed Iraq analysis at the CIA in the lead-up to war (1999 to 2001); was detailed from the CIA to serve as Director for Gulf Affairs on the National Security Council for the Bush-Cheney White House in early 2001; was deployed for “a short assignment as the CIA member of the small diplomatic team that helped piece together a new government for Afghanistan”; and then returned to the CIA’s National Counterterrorism Center, where he was deputy director of that center from 2003-05.
In 2005, then FBI Director Robert Mueller brought Mudd in to be Deputy Director of the FBI’s new National Security Division, tasked, PBS Frontline wrote, in introducing its October 2006 interview with Mudd, with “transforming the FBI into a domestic intelligence agency, more like Britain’s MI5.” LaRouche PAC’s “Amoral Assassin” Mueller dossier reports that “FBI agents referred to the Mudd-Mueller surveillance and entrapment tools” used against U.S. communities as “battlefield management.”
‘Snow Is Black’ Effect: Democratic Support for Bush, FBI and CIA Soaring
Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—“Support among rank-and-file Democrats for the FBI and CIA has grown since the transition from Obama to Trump,” McClatchy News took note today, citing a Gallup poll taken in mid-December, which “showed 69% of them thought the FBI was doing a ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ job in 2017, a nine-point jump from 2014. Approval of the CIA … jumped 10 points to 60%,” the McClatchy report said.
But there’s more: Democrats are now favorable not just to the FBI, but to George W. Bush, too, Irish journalist Danielle Ryan wrote in shock in a RT column on Feb. 3, citing a Huffington Post poll from Jan. 26-27 that showed three times as many Dems (30%) as Republicans (10%) had “a great deal” of trust in FBI. But on Jan. 23, CNN had released a poll which found that a majority of Democrats have a “favorable view of George W. Bush.” Whereas Bush, Jr.’s favorable rating among Democrats was only 11% in February 2009, the poll found it now to be a majority 54%.
All because the Dick Cheney President has criticized Donald Trump, a testimony to how partisan politics can drive you mad.
As Ryan put it, “The man who illegally launched the catastrophic Iraq War, and signed the Patriot Act—stripping Americans of their privacy in the name of fighting terrorism—is enjoying the rehabilitation of his image in the eyes of the party that so vehemently opposed him all those years he was in office…. When it comes to Bush, it isn’t just his military misadventures and war crimes Democrats seem to have forgotten either. What about his inefficient and arguably racist response to Hurricane Katrina? Or the CIA’s horrendous torture regime overseen by his administration?”
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
U.S. and Russian Statements Confirm Their Commitment to START Treaty
Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—Both the U.S. and Russia have issued statements reaffirming their commitment to the implementation of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). TASS points out that these statements are occurring at a time when the two countries are expected to reach the limits set by the treaty.
“The United States will continue to fully implement New START, which contributes to preserving strategic stability between the United States and Russia and is a critical component of global nuclear nonproliferation efforts,” a State Department official told TASS. The U.S. issued a statement last week.
The U.S. official, reported TASS, declined to comment on whether the U.S. will seek to extend the treaty for another five years or call for negotiations aimed at further reductions. He said, “We will consider the next steps related to the Treaty at the appropriate time,” and that “within the next month or so both countries will exchange data on their strategic nuclear arsenals, as we have done twice a year under the Treaty’s terms for the last seven years. Our focus in the near term is on that next data exchange, after which we hope each country will confirm the other’s compliance with the Treaty’s central limits as soon as possible.”
The START treaty came into force in 2011 and extends for seven years, at the end of which each party should have no more than a total of 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) and strategic bombers, as well as no more than 1,550 warheads on deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs and strategic bombers, and a total of 800 deployed and non-deployed missile launchers.
According to a U.S. State Department document issued on Sept. 1, 2017, Russia had 501 deployed nuclear delivery means and 1,561 deployed warheads, whereas the United States had 660 deployed nuclear delivery means and 1,393 deployed warheads.
The Russian Foreign Ministry published a statement on its website today, according to TASS, saying: “Russia confirms its commitment to the New START treaty. At the same time, Russia urges the United States to continue the meaningful search for mutually-acceptable solutions for issues related to the reequipment process and exclusion of nuclear arms from the calculations, as well as for any other issues the parties may face while implementing the treaty….
“Russia is in full compliance with its liabilities to reduce strategic offensive weapons. As of February 5, 2018 our aggregate potential is as follows: 527 operational intercontinental ballistic missiles, operational submarine-launched ballistic missiles and operational heavy bombers; 1,444 warheads on operational intercontinental ballistic missiles, operational submarine-launched ballistic missiles and operational heavy bombers; 779 operational and non-deployed ballistic missile launchers, operational and non-deployed submarine-based ballistic missile launchers and operational and non-deployed heavy bombers….”
As the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review showed, the MAD doctrine is still very much alive; therefore the discussion of renewing or expanding the START treaty would serve as an ideal opportunity to once again bring up the Strategic Defense Initiative.
Hundreds of Thousands Rally in Athens To Protest F.Y.R. Macedonia Name Change
Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—Hundreds of thousands of Greeks (the organizers claim 1.5 million) from all over the country held a massive demonstration against international pressure for Greece to accept the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (F.Y.R.O.M.) to change its name to become the Republic of Macedonia. This has been a longstanding conflict between the two countries and is now the subject of a negotiation, mediated by UN Envoy Matthew Nimetz.
The Athens rally was not organized by any of the political parties nor were members of any party among the speakers. The rally was sponsored by citizens group and endorsed by the Church. Among the keynote speakers were 93-year-old composer and freedom fighter Mikis Theodorakis and his close collaborator, the highly-respected professor of constitutional law George Kasimatis who is well into his eighties. Both have been leading a struggle against Greece’s creditors since 2010.
The demonstration was more than about a name. As Giorgos Christides, the Greece correspondent for Der Spiegel, wrote on his Twitter page, “Beyond patriotic fervor, there is real anger here at the Macedonia rally—against politicians, the elites, those ‘selling out the nation.’ Feelings last seen during the wave of anti-austerity protests….”
From a strategic standpoint, Greece is being pressured to compromise on this issue so F.Y.R.O.M. can be immediately bought into NATO and the EU, which would pave the way for Croatia, Slovenia, and Kosovo to also join, thereby isolating Serbia. Greece has exercised its veto in both NATO and the EU against F.Y.R.O.M’s membership. Likewise, there is also the issue of China: NATO and EU circles are claiming its influence must be curbed.
The name issue is part of the legacy of British balkanization of the region and the old ambitions of the late leader of Communist Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito who created the State of Macedonia as one of the five constituent states of Yugoslavia. He even had ambitions of extending this state to occupy Greek Macedonia. The story is a long, complicated one which cannot be summarized here. However, after eight years of EU destruction of their country, most Greeks see the name change as another threat.
Although there were other speakers, Greece’s semi-official news agency chose to quote only Theodorakis and Kasimatis. Theodorakis stated: “We are calling on deputies, who have the right to ask for a referendum, to raise the issue in Parliament and activate this issue of national importance.” Kasimatis is quoted: “There is a political decision to give our identity to strangers. Today, all Greece is here. All this happens when we have governments that have said ‘yes’ to slavery since 2010.”
The name change issue is also creating a new anti-EU dynamic in Greece. According to the Greek website Zougla, the rally has opened a split in the opposition New Democracy party, between the neoliberal wing which now leads the party and the more populist wing associated with the old Konstantinos Karamanlis, from which the Independent Greeks, the junior party in the government coalition, emerged. Zougla also says the mass protest helps Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resist pressure to compromise against Greece’s interests.
NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
North Korean Head of State To Attend Opening of Winter Olympics; Possible Meeting with Moon Jae-in
Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—The North Korean government notified the South Korean government today that North Korea’s ceremonial head of state, Kim Yong-nam, will be visiting South Korea from Feb. 9-11 for the opening of the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. Kim, 90, is president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, and is said to have little influence over North Korea’s domestic politics, but as head of state fills a visible diplomatic role by receiving foreign heads of state and approving the credentials of ambassadors and represents North Korea abroad.
According to reports in the Korea Herald, South Korean President Moon Jae-in has welcomed the visit and has suggested that he might even meet with Kim. The most likely venue, so far, for any meeting would be at Olympic events that both will be attending. A one-on-one meeting is said to be a possibility, but has not been arranged, yet. “We believe [Kim’s visit] reflects North Korea’s determination to improve the South Korea-North Korea relationship and make the Olympic Games successful and that the North has shown sincere and earnest efforts toward such an end,” Cheong Wa Dae (Presidential residence) spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told a press briefing.
Further reports in the Korea Herald indicated that the significance of Kim’s visit to the South will depend on what other officials accompany him. Kim is not subject to sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, but other officials who could accompany him are.
The Presidential Blue House in Seoul, reported Reuters, said the visit by Kim, the most senior North Korean official to cross the border into the South since the Korean War ended with a truce in 1953, would create “various opportunities” for high-level talks. Also attending the Olympics opening ceremony will be U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, though there is no indication at this point of any discussion of a meeting between Kim and Pence.
President Moon told U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call on Feb. 2 that the momentum of improved North-South relations would continue and that Pence’s visit would be an “important prelude for that,” according to the Blue House.
OTHER
A Soros Hand in New Anti-China Propaganda Piece
Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—Today, the Berlin-based MERICS (Mercator Institute of China Studies) and the New York-based Global Public Policy Institute (GPPI) published a new book attacking European cooperation with China under the theme Authoritarian Advance: Responding to China’s Growing Political Influence in Europe.
It fits that a board member of the GPPI is the son of George Soros, running his Alexander Soros Foundation to campaign for environmentalism and human rights around the world. Alexander Soros proudly reports in that mid-June 2016 he had hosted Barack Obama in his New York home, and had spoken with him the week before.
“China’s rapidly increasing political influencing efforts in Europe and the self-confident promotion of its authoritarian ideals pose a significant challenge to liberal democracy as well as Europe’s values and interests,” the report warns. “While Beijing’s efforts have received much less scrutiny than the efforts of Putin’s Russia, Europe neglects China’s increasing influence at its own peril. Drawing on its economic strength and a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) [sic] apparatus that is geared towards strategically building stocks of influence across the globe, Beijing’s political influencing efforts in Europe are bound to be much more consequential in the medium- to long-term future than those of the Kremlin.
“…Political elites within the European Union (EU) and in the European neighborhood have started to embrace Chinese rhetoric and interests, including where they contradict national and/or European interests,” the report complains. “EU unity has suffered from Chinese divide-and-rule tactics, especially where the protection and projection of liberal values and human rights are concerned. Beijing also benefits from the ‘services’ of willing enablers among European political and professional classes who are happy to promote Chinese values and interests.”
The report claims that “from the perspective of liberal democracies, all areas of interaction with China are potentially problematic and deserve scrutiny. After all, China’s political model is based on an authoritarian regime intent on strengthening a deeply illiberal surveillance state at home while also exporting—or at least trying to popularize—its political and economic development model abroad. Thus, today, all areas of Europe’s interaction with China have strong political undertones.”
The report contains a clear “regime change” aspect, calling on the Europeans to keep contact with anti-CPC Chinese expats in Europe and to pro-liberal individuals in “Chinese media, universities and think tanks,” while drawing a strict line against China’s advances in Europe at the same time. More European integration would help to prevent things like China’s development of the 16+1 development projects with Central and Eastern European countries in the future, the report claims.
