EDITORIAL
The British Have Shown Their Hand
Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—The British Foreign Office on Monday intervened in a London High Court hearing in the case of former MI6 official Christopher Steele. Steele’s lawyer is attempting to quash an earlier court order for Steele to submit himself to a deposition regarding one of the many lies in the now-famous dossier he prepared in order to bring down the President of the United States. The case was brought by Russian citizen Aleksej Gubarev, whom Steele falsely accused of hacking into the computers of the Democratic Party in the U.S. (which, as former NSA technical expert Bill Binney has shown, never happened). The details can be read below—but what is critical is the fact that the Foreign Office, which supervises MI6, sent a lawyer to the court “in case the government felt it necessary to request any testimony by Steele was limited to protect official secrets,” as BBC reported.
Why are the British so intent on preventing the truth to come out about Steele’s role, and the British role generally, in the attempted coup against President Trump? The fact is, the entire “Russiagate” case against Trump is melting down, while Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Devin Nunes have focused in on the primary role of British intelligence agent Steele as the key criminal conspirator. The desperate British effort to regain control over their former colony is in grave danger.
And this is not an isolated development. The world has entered a conjunctural crisis, which can not be sustained for many more months, or even days. The financial system is bloated beyond repair, with fictitious debt issuances designed to cover over the speculative bubble with more speculative paper. The demands from the lords of Wall Street and the City of London for the nations of the world to accept austerity, and to follow IMF dictates, are now falling on deaf ears, as nearly the entire developing world is joining in the new paradigm offered by China through the New Silk Road, bringing railroads, water projects, industry and hope to the former colonial nations of the world.
And in the United States, President Trump has stood up to the corrupted Obama intelligence chiefs, denounced the witchhunt, and even invited the Russian intelligence chiefs to Washington (to the absolute horror of the regime change crowd), to cooperate in the urgent business of solving real world problems.
This is a propitious moment for the President. In the last two weeks alone, he not only arranged for the visit of the Russian intelligence chiefs, despite the Congressional sanctions which had been imposed on them, but he also rejected the Congressional demand to impose new sanctions on Russia. He approved the release of the “Nunes memo” exposing Steele and the Obama-era FBI/DOJ crimes. He gave a State of the Union address which garnered 70% or more support from the American people, precisely because he inspired hope in a recovery of the decayed U.S. economy, an end to the epidemic of opiates and other drugs, and the restoration of America’s former greatness.
Thus, President Trump is relatively well situated to meet the impending collapse of the financial bubble in the stock and bond markets. There is only one way to save the Western economies from this inevitable breakdown—a process which has a precedent in the policies of Franklin Roosevelt’s in the 1930s, which saved the U.S. from the Depression and saved the world from fascism. The fictitious capital must be eliminated, through a Glass-Steagall reform of the banking system, so that the federal government can use the power vested in it by the U.S. Constitution to establish a national bank, to issue credit directed into the real economy, and unleash a massive scientific research and development process to shape an optimistic future for mankind.
This is what LaRouche has called his Four Laws. Resolutions supporting the Four Laws are now being introduced into the legislative branches in states across the country. President Trump, who in the past has openly called for this Hamiltonian “American System” economic policy, is now situated to implement them, despite the fact that he is surrounded by Wall Street operatives who oppose it, and who demand the nation’s subservience to the worthless speculative debt, even if it means economic chaos and global war. The current instability in the stock market is but a hint of the pending crash of the bubble.
But, if the good people of the United States and Europe mobilize themselves and others to join with LaRouche in implementing the Four Laws, and joining the New Silk Road, as LaRouche has formulated and promoted over these past fifty years, then the vision of a New Paradigm for Mankind is within our grasp.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
London’s Office Threatens To Shut Down Steele Deposition To ‘Protect Official Secrets’
Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—The British Foreign Office sent a lawyer to London’s High Court Monday, where the lawyer for “former” MI6 agent Christopher Steele, Gavin Millar, was arguing to reverse the Court’s decision in November that Steele must submit to a deposition in the cases brought against him and BuzzFeed by the Russian Aleksej Gubarev. Gubarev was accused in Steele’s dossier of hacking the Democrats, supposedly on behalf of the Kremlin.
Millar argued that the deposition would potentially “require the disclosure of sensitive intelligence information which would endanger U.K. national security interests and personnel.”
But it is not just Steele’s lawyer. The British Foreign Office is clearly not taking any chances that the entire British coup attempt—to regain its lost colony across the sea—would be jeopardized by such an exposure of Steele’s role. Reuters reports today: “Millar said a lawyer for Britain’s Foreign Office, which supervises Britain’s foreign intelligence agency where Steele worked until 2009, was attending Monday’s hearing in case the government felt it necessary to request any testimony by Steele was limited to protect official secrets. However, the government lawyer said he was not going to raise any specific concerns at this stage of the hearing.”
Last November a U.K. court ruled that Steele must submit to a deposition. Millar told the High Court Monday that “the case was almost unique” due to the huge impact that Steele’s dossier had had on U.S. politics, Reuters reports. He said the deposition would be a “mini public inquiry” and an “opportunistic fishing expedition” which could put Steele’s sources at increased risk. “It’s extremely worrying for someone in Mr. Steele’s position.”
Steele’s filing argues that, “The Order is likely to require Mr. Steele to answer questions in circumstances where his answers would … require the disclosure of sensitive intelligence information which would endanger U.K. national security interests and personnel.”
Gubarev’s lawyers have already agreed to limit the questions to Steele’s background and the 13 lines in the dossier which related to their client, “three very discreet topics.”
It is not clear when a decision will be made, but it is certain the Queen and her minions are watching closely and are ready to strike.
FBI Joins CNN, CIA Joins NBC—So Who Has ‘State Media’?
Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—After Obama’s CIA chief John Brennan took a job as an NBC analyst this past weekend, the FBI’s former assistant to James Comey, Josh Campbell, issued a flashy resignation letter in the form of an op-ed in the New York Times on Feb. 2, then immediately announced he’d been hired as an analyst at CNN. The “revolving door” has taken on new meaning.
Glenn Greenwald, who released the Snowden documents, tweeted: “Isn’t it a little strange to constantly rail about ‘state TV’ when it comes to RT & Fox and then hire CIA Directors & General as your ‘news analysts’?”
Josh Campbell, a “former supervisory special agent with the FBI who served as a counterterrorism investigator and special assistant to the bureau’s director,” as the Times identifies him, in the op-ed, “Why I Am Leaving the FBI,” whines that he is “leaving an organization I love. Why? So I can join the growing chorus of people who believe that the relentless attacks on the Bureau undermine not just America’s premier law enforcement agency but also the nation’s security.” No hiding anything—he wants to join the “chorus” of treason against the President. And what better place to do it than at CNN and the New York Times?
Campbell writes that the Bureau is threatened by “Scorched-earth attacks from politicians with partisan goals, raising corrosive doubts about the integrity of the FBI that could last for generations.” Ironically, he claims that the Bureau can be trusted because it is “subject to a robust system of checks and balances, including its internal affairs division, the Department of Justice inspector general, congressional committees and the courts. These watchdogs ensure that personal opinions regarding politics, causes and candidates do not affect investigations.” And yet he is resigning precisely because of that oversight, from the Congress doing its job for a change, and catching the FBI in serious crimes.
As for the Nunes memo about the FISA applications, Campbell says it could not be true, since “every statement of fact included in an affidavit for foreign intelligence collection must withstand the scrutiny of at least 10 people in the Department of Justice hierarchy before it is reviewed by an independent court.” I.e., trust us.
Not surprisingly, James Comey immediately tweeted his support for Campbell’s threat to join the witchhunt: “Special Agent Josh Campbell will be missed at the FBI, but his voice is an important addition to the national conversation.”
The Daily Caller makes the case that Campbell was already essentially working for CNN, even if they were not paying him at the time, by serving as one of their illegal leakers at the Bureau. They write that “Campbell’s decision to defend the FBI and all-but-attack President Donald Trump directly on a cable news network does not seem consistent with an individual who is worried about the politicization of the nation’s institutions.”
RT observed the fact that it was Brennan who lied to NBC News anchor Andrea Mitchell about the CIA spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into the agency’s use of torture, which, they say, “was apparently no deterrent to his appointment” by NBC.
Dr. King Biographer David Garrow Rips Democrats’ Backing of FBI Crimes
Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—David Garrow, author of Bearing the Cross—Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and an advisor for the 1987 PBS documentary series “Eyes on the Prize” on the history of the Civil Rights Movement, ripped into the Democrats who are currently sucking up to the FBI illegal operations. He makes an example of Rep. John Rooney, who headed the House committee which oversaw the FBI until 1974, and did anything J. Edgar Hoover wanted, including the dirty operations against King and others in the Civil Rights Movement. But when he left, says Garrow, the likes of Frank Church helped expose the “politically motivated misbehavior that had occurred when executive-branch controls and meaningful congressional oversight were absent.”
He further describes how the Bureau claims that they are now clean, “Yet anyone eager to embrace the belief that today’s FBI is a rigorously professional and politically unbiased agency is overlooking the facts.” The FBI “knowingly relied on the ‘Steele dossier’—third-hand, anonymous partisan gossip about Donald Trump, brokered by a paid operative—to obtain a top-secret court order for surveillance of former Trump advisor Carter Page, an American citizen. Yet so far as we know, Mr. Page is guilty of nothing more than pursuing unsuccessful business ties in Moscow while mouthing naive platitudes about Vladimir Putin.”
He names former FBI Director Comey, newly former FBI Deputy Director McCabe, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as signers of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants, as revealed by the Nunes memo. “To anyone who has studied how Hoover’s FBI worked, this continuing approval immediately calls to mind the Bureau’s never-ending surveillance of King’s closest advisor, Stanley Levison. Year after year, the wiretaps of Levison produced no evidence to support the FBI’s hypothesis that he was a Soviet agent. Still, successive attorneys general, including Bobby Kennedy, readily approved the FBI’s surveillance of Levison and his family.”
He concludes by denouncing “Democratic lawmakers’ eagerness to cover up, excuse and defend FBI behavior that their predecessors of the 1970s would have readily denounced. The ignominious irony is that judgment-blurring partisan hatred is leading many Democrats to ignore and forsake the lessons that the FBI’s history so richly teaches.”
Tillerson, Pence: Meeting with North Koreans Is Not Ruled Out
Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—Secretary of State Rex Tillerson refused to rule out yesterday that there could be a meeting between U.S. officials and the North Korean political leaders who are planning to attend the Winter Olympics in South Korea this week.
Kylie Atwood of CBS News asked Tillerson, who was visiting in in Lima, Peru: “You have continually pressed that diplomacy is the way to solve the North Korea threat. And there has been a period of relative calm in terms of North Korea nuclear tests and missile launches. Is the time when you would consider U.S.-North Korea talks getting closer? And would the Trump administration accept an invitation for North Korean officials to meet in South Korea this coming week?”
Tillerson replied: “Well, with respect to the Vice President’s trip to the Olympics and whether or not there would be an opportunity for any kind of a meeting with North Korea, I think we’ll just see. We’ll see what happens.”
Atwood interjected: “So it’s not a No. It’s, ‘We’ll see? It’s possible.’ ” Tillerson repeated: “Yeah, we’ll just have to—we’ll see. We’ll see what happens.”
Vice President Mike Pence is heading the U.S. government team to the Olympics in PyeongChang, while North Korea’s official head of state, Kim Yong-nam, is leading the North Korean delegation.
Today, before leaving for Asia, Pence stopped at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, where he answered questions from the press. Asked about any interactions with the North Korean delegation at the Olympics, Pence said: “I have not requested a meeting, but we’ll see what happens…. Well, let me say, President Trump has said he always believes in talking, but I haven’t suggested any meetings. But we’ll see what happens.”
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
UN’s Guterres Wants Next U.S.-Russian Steps in Disarmament; Russia Urges BMD Talks
Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—In the aftermath of the statements from both Washington and Moscow that the two signers to the New START Treaty have met the levels of nuclear warheads and launchers specified in the treaty, UN Secretary General António Guterres requested the U.S. and Russia to take the next steps towards further disarmament. “The Secretary-General calls on the United States and the Russian Federation to engage in the necessary dialogue that will lead to further arsenal reductions and to continue to display the historic leadership across the multilateral disarmament agenda that has proven so valuable to our collective security,” said UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric in a written statement yesterday, reports TASS. He stressed the necessity of further disarmament efforts, especially in the current situation “when global anxieties about nuclear weapons are higher than at any time since the Cold War.” “These endeavors can play significant roles in building trust and confidence, and preventing, mitigating and resolving conflicts,” Dujarric underscored.
Also, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said yesterday that now is the time for the U.S. and Russia to resume dialogue on ballistic missile defense (BMD). “I would like to emphasize the growing relevance of the missile defense topic. Let me remind you that an indestructible connection between strategic offensive arms and missile defense is noted in the preamble of the current Reduction of Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty. There has been no substantial dialogue with the Americans on this matter for a long time. Now is the moment when it should be resumed,” Ryabkov said in an interview with Russian daily Izvestia. “This agenda, in our opinion, includes issues of maintaining and ensuring of strategic stability. It also considers the work on regional crises as well as economic interaction,” Ryabkov stated.
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Italian Five-Star Candidate Goes to London for Some Jolly Good China-Bashing
Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—A closed-door meeting with investment funds in London on Jan. 31 showed that Italy’s Five Star Movement (M5S) party, which is leading in the polls for the March 4 Italian general elections, might be turned into a tool for the British Empire’s geopolitics. At that meeting, M5S candidate for Italian premier, Luigi Di Maio, warned against China’s alleged “expansionist strategy,” according to participants. Di Maio also promised to make a bank-friendly legal reform, to allow collateral attached to nonperforming loans to be easily liquidated. Di Maio’s visit was organized by a hard-core China- and Russia-hater, Francesco Galietti, who heads a Rome-based political risk consultancy called Policy Sonar and has published articles warning against Putin’s alleged influence on Italian parties, including on some M5S representatives who are against the anti-Russian sanctions.
Di Maio’s adoption of Galietti’s line, together with his bank-friendly proposals, demonstrate that he and his party are unreliable. Di Maio still claims he is pro-Glass-Steagall, but he has already dropped many of his “radical” positions in order to be accepted by pro-EU forces and could very well change on Glass-Steagall too.
Russia Is Europe’s Only Reliable Source for Gas, Analyst Tells Economic Journal
Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—In an interview with Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten published Feb. 4, Italian analyst Demostenes Floros insisted that German industry needs the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and that Russia is currently the only reliable source of gas supplies.
“I would suggest European and German elites to completely change their approach on the issue: not only can the Russian Federation not be replaced by other sources for gas supplies, but it is also the only ‘lung’ on which we can rely in terms of supplies and prices without any doubt. That was de facto the case between the Soviet Union and West Germany in the dramatic context of the Cold War; it has been so recently and it will be so in the future with the Russian Federation, despite all ‘color revolutions’ organized in the last 15 years, not accidentally in their legitimate areas of influence.” The second “lung,” according to Floros, is “diversification” of sources.
Floros is a professor of Italy-Russia International Relations at University of Bologna Alma Mater, and contributes to publications for ENI, the Italian oil and gas multinational, and for the Limes Italian Geopolitical Review.
SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Vaccines Could Prevent 36 Million Deaths and Save 24 Million from Falling into Poverty
Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—A study conducted by Harvard University and published in Health Affairs reports that vaccines could spare the lives of millions of people who are unnecessarily lost, as well as save them and their families from sudden health care expenses that push some 150 million people into poverty each year through “medical impoverishment.” The study, reported in Xinhua, assesses the impact that vaccines would have for 10 diseases in 41 developing countries. The most dramatic is measles, where the vaccine could prevent 22 million deaths of the 36 million total. Others that would see a dramatic decline include hepatitis B and meningitis. The study concludes that vaccines would have the greatest impact on reducing poverty that is caused by hepatitis B, helping an estimated 14 million people avert poverty.
A 2016 Johns Hopkins study, also co-authored by GAVI/Vaccine Alliance, and published in Health Affairs, found that for every dollar spent on immunization, $16 were saved in health care costs, and lost wages and productivity. The return on investment was $44 for every dollar spent, when all factors are considered.
“We now need to redouble our efforts to ensure every child, no matter where they’re born, has access to lifesaving vaccines,” said CEO Dr. Seth Berkley, from GAVI/Vaccine Alliance.
Irrational Vaccine Scare Will Kill Children in the Philippines
Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—More than 800,000 children were vaccinated against dengue in the Philippines in 2016-17; of these, 14 children who received the vaccine died. Fear and rumors spread that it was the vaccine that led to the children’s deaths. Frightened parents are refusing to have children vaccinated, with rates of immunization for some diseases down to 60%. Health authorities are now concerned about future epidemics.
The government conducted an investigation, and Philippine General Hospital forensic pathologists have determined that the deaths were not related to the vaccine. The company that developed vaccine said that over 10 years of clinical trials, there have been no deaths.
However, last year, there were 732 people died from dengue in the Philippines, which has one of the highest fatality rates in the world. Philippines Health Undersecretary Enrique Domingo characterized the campaign against vaccines as having a damaging psychological impact. More directly, it will have a genocidal impact, bringing back diseases that should no longer exist. The anti-vaccine campaign falls in the same genre as the fear of GMOs and food irradiation, which are also life-saving technologies.
China Conducted Its Third Successful Mid-Course Anti-Missile Test
Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—China’s Ministry of Defense announced today that its third test of the mid-course anti-missile system was successful. The previous two successful tests took place in 2010 and 2013. Every test has a different purpose, Chinese missile expert Yang Chengjun told Global Times, without further elaboration. (China’s tests can be juxtaposed to the U.S. anti-missile program, in which the virtually same test is necessarily done over and over, as half of the tests fail.) These “three successful mid-course interception tests show that China’s technology has matured,” Yang said.
Yang cautioned that it does not mean China should be overconfident. “In actual combat, much remains unknown,” he said.
