EDITORIAL
Good Prospects Lie Ahead; Blast Apart What’s in the Way!
March 12 (EIRNS)—There are security and economic developments right now which pose dramatically good prospects for the world, while at the same time, anti-humanity operations persist, whether due to evil intent or craven ignorance. It’s time to blast apart whatever is in the way.
There continues to be progress with North Korea. Today and tomorrow, top South Korean envoys are visiting China, Japan and Russia, with firsthand briefings from their meeting in Pyongyang 10 days ago, and from their meeting with President Donald Trump on March 8, when he announced his agreement to meet with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un. Today in Beijing, President Xi Jinping met with Chung Eui-yong, South Korea National Security Office Director. Xi expressed thanks for the work of South Korea and the international community, and for their future efforts. Tomorrow, Chung will be in Moscow for briefings; and in Tokyo, the South Korea National Intelligence Director Suh Hoon will brief Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in said today, “We now have a very precious chance to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, establish a permanent peace regime and build a path of joint prosperity for South and North Korea. Should we succeed, there will be dramatic changes in world history, and the Republic of Korea will have played the leading role.”
The economic context for this initiative for peace in East Asia and worldwide, was laid out over the weekend in Beijing, at the “Two Sessions” of the People’s Congress, and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, by Commerce Minister Zhong Shan, in his Work Report and press conference. He spoke of the enormous impact of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), to which 140 countries have responded, and especially, of prospects for Africa. Among specific points presented by Zhong, was that the BRI is fostering a new, world infrastructure platform. This will be enhanced by the first ever China International Import Exposition (CIIE) in Shanghai, in November. Zhong also spoke of how new innovation centers will be established under the BRI, like “shining pearls” on the Silk Road string of pearls.
In Africa, the BRI will seek alignment with the Africa Union and regional multinational programs, contributing to Africa’s capacity for self-fueling growth. In the meantime, there will be coordination among national government ministries, plus private and public third party sources for resources to create jobs and reduce poverty. Specific Chinese projects include “Happy Home,” the “Anti-Poverty Projects,” and the “Health Recovery Projects.”
This all comes at a time when Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has called for discussions for a new security architecture. The new strategic weaponry he announced March 1 represents leaps in science and technology for development, as well as kill-power that makes geopolitical “limited war” impossible.
It’s a new era. Who could oppose security talks, economic collaboration and peace? Only the most depraved, sub-human being. An example is those 68 Obama Administration has-beens who formed their “National Security Action” group last month, to push for ousting Trump, bashing China and Russia, and perpetuating warfare and destruction in the name of democracy.
“Ridicule” is what they deserve, recommended Helga Zepp-LaRouche today, who also called for blasting all the Democrats who commit warmongering, untruthfulness, and plain incompetence. “We are at a remarkable turning point,” Zepp-LaRouche said, “and these people are either not reacting, or trying to cover it up.” Same goes for their counterpart, neo-con Republicans. LaRouchePAC Policy Committee member Diane Sare put it, “They made the Kool-Aid; then they drank it themselves.”
It’s long past due for Mueller’s operation to stop, and for Trump to be released to do the job the President was elected to do. There is no security without economic agreement, and we can have this with the LaRouche Four Laws, and the Trans-Atlantic finally joining the New Silk Road.
FLASH: A British Crown activation is underway of a nerve gas accusation against Russia, with implications to bust up the Trump Presidency, and threaten war. See: “U.K. Alleges ‘Spy Poisoning’; Desperate Attempt at U.S.-Russia War,” below.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
U.K. Alleges ‘Spy Poisoning’; Desperate Attempt at U.S.-Russia War
March 12 (EIRNS)—Prime Minister Theresa May announced to the House of Commons this afternoon that Her Majesty’s government has determined that it is “highly likely” that Russia was responsible for the March 4 poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence turned MI6 agent, and his daughter, Yulia, and therefore had delivered an ultimatum to the Russian government to answer the charge by Tuesday evening, March 13. In terms formulated for invoking NATO’s Article 5 (an attack on one member is an attack on all) down the line, May told Parliament that “should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom.”
For over a year, President Trump has steadfastly refused to put the United States on a war footing against Russia, which the British Empire and its neocon Obama instruments demand. Now comes this latest U.K. provocation, as desperate as it is dangerous. The timing of the “poisoning” incident—occurring on U.K. soil with fingers immediately pointed at Russia, three days after President Putin delivered his “Sputnik shock” speech—cannot be ignored.
The “proof” presented by May of Russian responsibility in the poisoning, is as preposterous as the now-discredited “Russia hacked the DNC” hoax and, subsequently, MI6 agent Christopher Steele’s “dossier” hoax. May said that Britain’s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory had identified the nerve agent used against the Skripals as one of a group of nerve agents known as Novichok, developed by “Russia” (actually, by the Soviet Union). May pronounced that “the government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal,” based on the identification of that nerve gas; “our knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent and would still be capable of doing so; Russia’s record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations; and our assessment that Russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations.”
Based on that unproven chain of not-so-“highly likely” assumptions, the U.K. government now asserts that “there are therefore only two plausible explanations for what happened…. Either this was a direct act by the Russian state against our country. Or the Russian government lost control of this potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others.” May reported that Russia has been given until Tuesday night to accept which of those two U.K. assertions is true! If no satisfactory answer is given, May will trot over to Parliament on Wednesday, and “set out the full range of measures that we will take in response.”
Are those the only two “plausible explanations”? Could not the “Novichok poisoning” evidence turn out to be phony fingerprints, like the crude planting of Cyrillic writing in the “Russian DNC hacking” case exposed by the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)? An article appearing in the Washington Examiner by one Tom Rogan after May’s parliamentary show, in cheering the “Russians did it” charge, reveals that “Britain and a few of its allies hold samples of the particular agent.”
To the fury of the warmongering establishment media, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders did not jump aboard that U.K. “Russians did it” campaign, despite their pressure, in Monday’s press briefing. The U.S. is monitoring the incident closely, takes it very seriously. She said, “I think [our U.K. ally is] still working through even some of the details of that.”
South Korea’s Moon Jae-in: We Have ‘A Precious Chance with North Korea’
March 12 (EIRNS)—South Korean President Moon Jae-in called for all-out efforts this morning to make the dialogue with Pyongyang a success. “We now have a very precious chance to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, establish a permanent peace regime, and build a path of joint prosperity for South and North Korea,” the President said in the weekly meeting with his aides, held at his office Cheong Wa Dae (the “Blue House”). “Should we succeed, there will be dramatic changes in world history, and the Republic of Korea will have played the leading role,” he said, according to Yonhap.
Moon’s envoys, who made the breakthroughs in Pyongyang and Washington, last week, were in Beijing and Tokyo today. In Beijing, South Korean National Security Office Director Chung Eui-yong met with President Xi Jinping. As reported by the South China Morning Post, Xi said in his meeting with Chung, that the North Korean nuclear crisis is at a crossroads, and that Washington and Pyongyang should hold direct talks as soon as possible.
“China has been calling for both South and North Korea to improve their relationship; push for reconciliation and cooperation, and support dialogue between North Korea and the United States,” Xi was quoted as saying. “We look forward to the smooth organization of the South-North leaders meeting and dialogue between North Korea and the U.S.” Chung also moved South Korean-Chinese relations forward by delivering an invitation from Moon to Xi to make a state visit to South Korea.
Chung also met with Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi, ahead of his meeting with Xi. Yang said, “China commits itself to the efforts of realizing denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula, and resolving things through dialogue and negotiations.” Further, “The dramatic developments unfolding on the Korean Peninsula seem to conform with efforts to bring the denuclearization drive for the Korean Peninsula back on track and also with the direction of the UN Security Council resolutions.”
On March 13 Chung will be in Moscow for meetings with Russian leaders; as well, Seoul’s National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Suh Hoon accompanied Chung to the United States last week. Today he met with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono.
Russian Defense Ministry Official Confirms, Our New Weapons Are Fact
March 12 (EIRNS)—Russian officials are following up President Vladimir Putin’s report of Russia’s new weapons systems during his State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly on March 1.
Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov told the Defense Ministry daily Krasnaya Zvezda (“Red Star”) today, that the army has laser weapons in service, reported TASS. “We can talk a lot about laser weapons, and movies were made about them a long time ago and fantastic books have been written, and everyone knows about this. But the fact that these systems have started entering service is indeed a today’s reality,” Borisov said. “Starting last year, laser systems have been entering service, which allows disarming a potential adversary and hitting those facilities, which are the targets.” He also said that Russian scientists have learned to focus the energy needed to hit the adversary’s armaments “within fractions of a second.”
Borisov also revealed that the Russian Defense Ministry has signed a contract for the production of the cutting-edge Avangard hypersonic strategic systems: “The Avangard system the President spoke about was well-tested. It was created not without difficulty, because the temperature on the surface of the warhead reaches 2,000 degrees. It actually flies amid plasma. The questions of controlling it and the protection issues were very acute, but the solutions were found. The system’s practical tests have confirmed the feasibility of the chosen approach. What’s more, we have a contract for the serial production of these systems. So, this is no bluff, this is something real,” Borisov said.
Borisov said further that the Russian armed forces will get the new generation intercontinental ballistic missile Sarmat: “There can be no doubts we will have the new missile Sarmat by the time Voevoda’s service life is over. It is expected that in contrast to its predecessors, this missile will be armed with hypersonic warheads, which will make it far harder for defense systems to intercept it.”
NEW WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER
Chinese Commerce Minister Presents Status Report on BRI to ‘Two Sessions’
March 12 (EIRNS)—Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan on March 11 spoke to the media at the “Two Sessions” of the 13th National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress (CPPCC), answering many questions, but featured the world impact of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and plans for development in Africa.
Overall, Zhong said that more than 140 countries have participated in or responded to the initiative since it was proposed five years ago, reported Xinhua. In 2017, trade volume between China and countries along the BRI amounted to 7.4 trillion yuan (about $1.2 trillion), surging 17.8% year on year, outpacing the 14.2% increase in China’s total foreign trade last year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Feb. 28. Zhong also reported that China’s outbound direct investment registered a sharp 29.4% drop to about $120 billion, because the government cracked down on speculative investments in property, sports and entertainment.
Zhong made five points about the Belt and Road:
1) It is a new, world infrastructure platform. Of special note, Shanghai will host in November the first-ever conference of the China International Import Expo, which has 150,000 business attendees registered; it is already 20% overbooked.
2) New innovation centers planned for the BRI will be “shining pearls” on the Silk Road string of pearls.
3) E-commerce will be furthered along the BRI corridors, involving big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.
4) Trade and investment will benefit by liberalization through the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).
5) Major foreign assistance measures, as President Xi Jinping has called for, will be conducted, such as the Happy Home Projects, the Anti-Poverty Projects, and Health Projects.
Zhong made three points about the Belt and Road and Africa:
1) The BRI will be aligned with the African Union and other multilateral, regional programs.
2) Africa’s ability to grow “by itself” will be furthered by projects for job creation and poverty alleviation.
3) Coordination will be enhanced between national ministries and third parties, to mobilize the resources for poverty alleviation.
On the question of developing China’s trading potential, he said, “We are big but not strong enough. We aim to stabilize our position as a big trading nation by 2020; transform into a strong trading country by 2035, and finally become an economic and trade giant by 2050.”
Sudan Will Go Nuclear with a Russian Floating Nuclear Plant
March 12 (EIRNS)—Russia’s Rosatom will supply Sudan with its first nuclear reactor—a floating nuclear power plant—that said Sudan’s Minister of Water Resources, Irrigation, and Electricity Muataz Musa, said on a March 10 talk show, broadcast by state-run radio. The minister said that it will take a year-and-a-half to deliver the plant after contract is signed, and that it is a first step for nuclear power in Sudan. Today, he left Khartoum for Moscow, state news agency SUNA reports, where he will meet with Rosatom. They will sign a “roadmap” agreement, leading to construction of a 5,000 MW, four-reactor power plant in the future.
In December 2017, President Omar al-Bashir told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he wanted to discuss nuclear power cooperation with Russia. In the current meeting, the two sides will sign several memorandums of understanding, including the plan to develop nuclear power stations.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Media Blackout of Four U.S. Senators’ Call for START Talks
March 12 (EIRNS)—Four leading U.S. Democratic Senators sent a letter to the State Department March 8, calling for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to begin arms control talks with Russia. They are Ed Markey (MA), Jeff Merkley (OR), Dianne Feinstein (CA), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT). While listing their customary charges against Moscow, they cite the seriousness of President Vladimir Putin’s March 1 speech, in which he detailed the country’s new weaponry. Russian media and officials have taken note of this overture, but U.S. major media have blacked it out.
The U.S. blackout was blasted in ConsortiumNews on March 10, which published the Senators’ letter in full, and further coverage in an article by Ray McGovern, a veteran intelligence analyst, and Gilbert Doctorow, a European-based political analyst. The two called the Senators’ initiative, a “genuine man bites dog” story (an unusual event that the media would leap to report), and the authors highlight that two of the signers—Feinstein and Sanders—had been, until now, “vociferous promoters” of the Russiagate lie and the Mueller probe.
Yet now, “They are openly calling upon the Secretary of State to send U.S. personnel to negotiate with Putin’s minions over our survival on this planet.” McGovern and Doctorow comment, “Wittingly or not, the Gang of Four (Senators) has just opened a breach in the wall of contempt and loathing for Putin and Russia that has been building in Washington for months, if not years now. The immediate task is for word of this development to go out to the broad public, and for the relics of our once formidable arms negotiations teams to be brought out of mothballs to face Russian counterparts who have been waiting keenly for this moment.”
In Russia, there are various responses to the Senators’ initiative, including in the upper house of Russia’s Federal Assembly. Sen. Konstantin Kosachev, chair of the Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee, immediately called the news “encouraging,” according to a translation of his Facebook post by Eurasia Daily news agency.
Senator Kosachev is quoted: “After months and even years of U.S. congressmen and senators’ severe rhetoric against Russia, including the demands to break off relations, there are signs of a ‘positive’ and not ‘negative’ parliamentary pressure on the U.S. President.” Kosachev continued, “I sincerely hope that this adequate understanding of Vladimir Putin’s address to the Federal Assembly [bicameral legislature] of Russia will be followed by the same adequate and reasonable modification of U.S. policy in the field of strategic stability and collective security. Still, the threats in our world today are common. Eventually, it is not Russia that threatens the United States and not the United States threatens Russia. But the latter will become true only when Washington recognizes the former.”
Federation Council Sen. Alexei Pushkov, who chairs the Information Policy and Mass Media Committee, simply tweeted, “U.S. Senators have called for discussions with Russia over nuclear weapons for the first time. Sometimes it’s helpful to communicate what weapons you have at your disposal. It sobers [people] up.”
SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTURE
Beijing Plans To Launch an Advanced International X-Ray Telescope Mission
March 12 (EIRNS)—In 2025, China plans to launch the enhanced X-Ray Timing and Polarimetry mission, (eXTP), which will be more advanced in capability than the array of X-ray telescopes previously launched by China and also by the U.S. and Europe. In the spirit of “opening up,” the mission plans collaboration of more than 200 scientists from dozens of institutions in 20 countries, so far, including a handful of U.S.-based scientists.
“For years, we have used data from U.S. and European missions,” explains mission manager Lu Fangjun. “We want to contribute [observational data] to the international community.” At a kick-off meeting the first week in March in Beijing, detailed studies of the satellite design were begun by China’s National Space Science Center.
As Science explains, both the European and Chinese space agencies were considering next-generation X-ray satellite missions, when they decided to “team up.” A European consortium will build two of the satellite’s four scientific instruments, and other hardware will be jointly built and shared.
Chinese scientists “are becoming leaders in the field of X-ray astrophysics,” said the mission’s international coordinator, Andrea Santangelo, from the University of Tübingen in Germany. “This powerful payload is absolutely unique,” he said. The eXTP is designed to collect more photons at a wider range of energy than previous telescopes, opening a window to objects with density and other characteristics not available before to observation. Says Santangelo, “The goal is to study fundamental physics in the most extreme conditions in terms of density of matter, magnetic fields and gravity that you cannot reproduce in labs.”
China Pushing Rocket Engine Development for Manned Moon Missions
March 12 (EIRNS)—Chinese rocket experts are pushing to accelerate the development and testing of challenging new rocket engines, which will be needed for its manned missions to the Moon. Deputy of the National People’s Congress, and head of the Sixth Research Institute of the China Aerospace and Technology Corporation, Liu Zhirang, told the Global Times yesterday that the normal cycle of R&D for a new main rocket engine is about 10 to 15 years, but China should advance that development. Military expert Song Zhongping explained that while the engine development can take that long, the R&D of a new type of rocket requires less—about 5 to 10 years. So, if the rocket “involves a new type of engine, it would delay the launch.”
The Long March 9 rocket that will take astronauts to the Moon is a great challenge, because it cannot simply be scaled up from China’s current family of liquid-fueled rockets. One challenge is that China currently has no facilities to test an engine that size. Liu stated that “the current test and verification equipment cannot satisfy requirements” of the new engine. “As a result, only simulations and scaled-down tests can be done for some technology and hardware. This increases the degree of difficulty for the program.”
The new rocket will have an engine that can produce Four times the thrust of its largest, the Long March 5 rocket. The Saturn V-class Long March 9 will be able to take 140 tons of payload to low Earth orbit, (more than the Saturn V), and send 50 tons to the Moon, which amounts to six times the payload capability of the Long March 5.
Chinese R&D for the new engines continues, awaiting formal government approval for the manned missions to the Moon.
OTHER
Indian Critics Portray Winston Churchill as the Real Hitler
March 12 (EIRNS)—Two refreshing, truthful portrayals of the real Winston Churchill appeared in two separate commentaries, March 9 and 11, by Indian authors Shashi Tharoor and Shree Paradkar, reviewing on the 2017 film “Darkest Hour,” directed by Joe Wright and written by Anthony McCarten. Both pulverize the myth of Churchill as savior of Western civilization in World War II.
Shashi Tharoor, chairman of the Indian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote, “In Winston Churchill, Hollywood rewards a mass murderer,” which surprisingly appeared in the March 11 Sunday Washington Post. Tharoor, the author of Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India, often uses Churchill’s own words to indict him. His documentation of Churchill’s crimes begins in 1920, with Churchill’s suggestion that airplanes should use “machine-gun fire or bombs” against the Irish protesters. Tharoor reports Churchill’s 1921 statement that he was “strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against the uncivilized tribes” in Mesopotamia (mostly modern Iraq), certain that it would “spread a lively terror.” In Kenya, Churchill “oversaw, or was complicit” in, a forced relocation—including rape and torture—of 150,000 people herded into “concentration camps,” all to make room for white settlers on “fertile highlands” of the country.
This continued through World War II, Tharoor reports, with “Winnie” offering a public renunciation of the Atlantic Charter’s declaration that “all peoples” should be free to “choose the form of government under which they live,” declaring instead that this onlyreferred to the people of reconquered Europe, and not, as FDR intended, to all subjects of colonialist rule. In the shadow of this European carnage, in 1943 Churchill oversaw perhaps his worst crime: the forced starvation of 4 million Bengalis in a single year—denying them food, even when offered by other countries!
Shree Paradkar’s March 9 article, “When Will There Be a Film on Winston Churchill, the Barbaric Monster with the Blood of Millions on His Hands?” in the Toronto Star where she is a regular columnist, is just as powerful. “There are flawed heroes … men who inflicted injustices on individuals,” she states. “Then there are monsters. Powerful men who lacerate the world with tragedies. Adolf Hitler, certainly, but his nemesis Churchill, too.”
Paradkar directly indicts the fawning Anglophiles in Hollywood, quoting actor Gary Oldman’s statement as he received his “Best Actor” Oscar for portraying Churchill: “ ‘I would just like to salute Sir Winston Churchill, who has been marvelous company on what can be described as an incredible journey.’
“Salute. Sir. Marvellous. Incredible,” She mocks, recalling the Bengal genocide: “Oldman might as well have danced on 3 million dead bodies, many of whose loved ones were too weak to cremate or bury them. Such tributes for a heinous white supremacist who once declared that Aryan tribes were bound to triumph.”
Again, aptly equating Churchill to Hitler.
