EDITORIAL
Theresa May’s Anti-Russia Crusade Is Nothing but the U.K.’s War on Trump, Continued
March 26 (EIRNS)—Lyndon and Helga LaRouche have played a major part in shaping relations among nations for the better over the past 35 years: through LaRouche’s concept for President Reagan’s 1983 Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and the “LaRouche Doctrine” for great-power relations that accompanied it; and through their 1989 “Eurasian Land-Bridge” campaign which contributed finally to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, now developing many nations worldwide. Throughout, the enemy of those moves toward a new paradigm of development was the City of London financial empire and British geopolitics.
This previously often-concealed reality has suddenly become dramatically clear. British Prime Minister Theresa May and Foreign Minister Boris “Boorish” Johnson have bullied the United States and 14 European nations into an escalating confrontation with Russia which is aimed to wreck great-power collaboration for progress through the great Belt and Road projects, and which can lead fast toward world war.
Helga LaRouche emphasized yesterday that London has done this in reaction to the discrediting of the British intelligence-driven “Russiagate” coup attempt against President Donald Trump. She blasted the unevidenced “Russian nerve agent case” as nothing but Russiagate continued, reinvented and revived. Its success so far, after “Russiagate” against Trump had failed, is extremely dangerous, she said. Both China and Russia will react to this changed trans-Atlantic agenda.
China through its President Xi Jinping and its party organs such as Global Times has recognized that China’s peaceful rise, facing a rampage of British geopolitical and economic warfare, may not be allowed to be easy or peaceful.
But China has unleashed a development dynamic raising productivity and living standards of many nations as well as its own, using a new concept LaRouche called “the World Land-Bridge development” 30 years ago. Its Belt and Road Initiative is now drawing in nations even in Western Europe. Its leadership will not be stopped by tariff war or investment embargo; rather, it applies that new paradigm to stop them.
As Helga LaRouche put it, China is finally sweeping aside London’s centuries of Malthusianism and zero-sum geopolitics; and replacing it with a New Paradigm of mutual benefit of nations, poverty eradication, scientific progress, “a community of shared destiny.” Lyndon LaRouche has insisted for 50 years on the necessity of that replacement. His movement put out the ammunition to defeat the attacks on President Trump coming from British intelligence, and the economic policy actions to bring about America’s future on the “New Silk Road.”
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
U.S. Expels 60 Russian Diplomats on Skripal Hoax; EU Follows Suit
March 26 (EIRNS)—In an early morning phone call to reporters, the White House announced today that it was expelling 60 Russian “intelligence officers” from the United States. In addition, senior Administration officials briefing the press said the U.S. was also closing the Russian Consulate in Seattle, Washington. This was being done, a senior Administration official said, because of the Russian “attack on our most important ally,” referring to the British allegations of Russian involvement in the Skripal attack. “We stand in solidarity with the closest U.S. ally,” one briefer said.
Two of the briefers said that there was still a possibility for better relations with Russia, but that Russia should cease its aggressive activities. The other briefer said that relations with Russia could improve, but if they first admit that they were behind the poisoning of Skripal! The actions taken, one briefer insisted, “will help curtail Russia’s aggressive intelligence activity.” Seattle was targeted, they said, because of its vicinity to important military and naval installations. But when asked, they said that they had no information on any specific Russian activity with regard to any particular naval facility in the area.
EIR asked if the U.S., itself, had analyzed the material used to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, and if they had done anything to heed the Russian request to see that Moscow also receive a sample of the material for their analysis. The briefer responded that the U.S. had been in agreement with the British not hand over any samples, but indicated that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) would be brought into the investigation. “Providing Russia with the material, wouldn’t provide further clarification. Russia would only conduct further obfuscation,” he said.
The briefers said that they had notified the Russian Ambassador this morning about the expulsions and that they would brief Congress during the course of the day. They were also clear that there had been intense international calls over the matter during the course of the week, with the British government and with U.S. allies. Trump had reportedly also spoken with Theresa May on the issue. “Had the President been in touch with President Putin on the matter?” they were asked. Trump had not spoken on the phone with President Putin since last Tuesday, the briefer said.
In apparent coordinated reaction to, and immediately following, the U.S. action, half of the European Union members—14 nations including Germany, France, The Netherlands, Poland and Italy—also expelled Russian diplomats to support the U.K.’s unproven charges regarding the attack on the Skripals.
Expose British for U.S. Election Interference, Violating U.S. Law
March 26 (EIRNS)—The British firm Cambridge Analytica assigned dozens of non-U.S. citizens to formulate campaign strategy and advice for Republican candidates in 2014—in blatant violation of U.S. election law, the Washington Post’s Craig Timberg and Tom Hamburger reported today.
In 2014, its leadership roster included President Rebekah Mercer, Vice-President Steve Bannon, and CEO Alexander Nix, a British citizen who, according to the New York Times, specializes in dirty tricks.
It is no surprise that “The John Bolton SuperPAC” hired Cambridge Analytica for nearly $1.2 million in August 2014, to harvest data from Facebook to profile voters. This data was then provided to non-U.S. citizens working for Cambridge who were formulating strategy to win U.S. political campaigns.
Cambridge Analytica is a division of London-based SCL Group (formerly Strategic Communications Laboratories). London’s history of manipulating elections is legendary. U.S. regulations say foreign nationals must not “directly or indirectly” participate in the decision-making process of a political campaign, though they can be involved at lower levels. But, the Post reports, both Cambridge Analytica and SCL “were overwhelmingly staffed by non-U.S. citizens”—mainly Canadians, Britons, and other Europeans, who made decisions based on the mining of Facebook data.
Cambridge Analytica pioneered the collection of data from tens of millions of Facebook profiles under allegedly false pretenses, turning it over to campaigns to manipulate voters.
Facebook announced March 15 that it had suspended the account of “SCL/Cambridge Analytica” and two people involved in the data collection from Facebook.
Cambridge Analytica pioneered “Project Ripon” (named for the town where the Republican Party was founded) to use data to find “hidden Republicans,” the Post reports. Former research director Wylie said this initiative resembled previous SCL Group efforts used by international candidates in Kenya, Nigeria, and India—all former colonies, like the United States, which the British would like to rule again.
British MI6 Produced Indictments of Trump Campaign Advisors, Opening War on Trump
March 26 (EIRNS)—In the months leading up to the 2016 election, British intelligence made strenuous efforts to cultivate Trump advisors, and set up circumstances in which they could appear to have Russian connections, the Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross shows in a lengthy article today.
First in line is Prof. Stefan K. Halper, a foreign policy expert with ties to both the CIA and MI6, who invited Trump endorser George Papadopoulos to London in September 2016. There, Halper offered to pay Papadopoulos $3,000 to write a policy paper on Turkey, Cyprus, Israel, and the Leviathan natural gas field in the Mediterranean Sea.
Halper, 73, who is British, is a veteran of three Republican administrations (meddling in American politics is nothing new for him), and also met with two other Trump campaign advisors. Halper, Ross reports, is a close associate of Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, MI6.
When Papadopoulos arrived in London for their meeting, Halper asked him if he knew about “hacking the emails from Russia,” to which Papadopoulos replied he did not, Ross reports. Halper had offered him the $3,000 for the policy paper, with all expenses paid.
Halper also invited a second Trump campaign aide, foreign policy advisor Carter Page, to attend a July 2016 symposium at Cambridge University in Britain, regarding the upcoming U.S. election.
Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts he had with London-based Prof. Joseph Mifsud, who, Ross reports, told Papadopoulos in April 2016 that the Russians had possession of “thousands” of Clinton-related emails—a fact that later sparked the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. Presidential campaign.
“Former” MI6 agent Christopher Steele, in his dossier against Trump, alleges that Page met secretly with two Kremlin insiders as part of the Trump campaign’s collusion effort.
Halper told Papadopoulos that he was working on several in-progress papers on Turkey, Cyprus and Israel, but the papers never appeared in a public record. At the time of the Papadopoulos meeting, Halper was working on a project on China and Russia’s economic relations. Besides his close association with Sir Richard Dearlove of MI6, Halper, who has a residence in Virginia, also had his own connections to the CIA, through his late father-in-law, Ray Cline, a former director of the CIA’s bureau of intelligence and research.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Battle To Liberate Eastern Ghouta Almost Over
March 26 (EIRNS)—The battle for the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta is almost over. Over the past few days, the militant groups Ahrar al Sham and Faylaq al Rahman have both agreed to surrender and evacuate the two pockets that they occupied in what was left of the jihadi enclave—Faylaq in the southern pocket and Ahrar in the town of Harasta. Jaish al Islam holds the northern pocket of Douma. According to news reports, the militants who are refusing reconciliation with the government have been loading up on buses which are taking them and accompanying family members to Idlib province. Only Jaish al Islam is still holding out, though talks are reportedly underway between Jaish al Islam and the Russian military; so far, no agreement is reported. According to Al Jazeera, Jaish al Islam does not have good relations with the militant groups that dominate Idlib province. Nonetheless, the state Syrian Arab News Agency, or SANA, cites local sources reporting that Jaish al Islam militants are preparing to leave Douma.
The Russian Reconciliation Center reported, this morning, that 114,000 civilians have left the former jihadi-controlled enclave through the humanitarian corridors opened up by the Russian military, while somewhat more than 11,000 militants of both Faylaq and Ahrar have left the two southern pockets.
OTHER
Heads of Italy’s Parliament Elected Through Lega-M5S Agreement
March 26 (EIRNS)—The Italian Parliament has convened and elected the two presidents of the Parliament, thanks to an agreement between the Lega and the Five Star Movement (M5S). The new president of the Chamber of Deputies is Roberto Fico (M5S) and new president of the Senate is Maria Elisabetta Casellati (Forza Italia). Although Casellati was the candidate of the entire Center-Right coalition, she was chosen in direct negotiations between M5S Premier candidate Luigi di Maio and Lega head Matteo Salvini, after the M5S had rejected Silvio Berlusconi’s preferred choice, former Economic Development Minister Paolo Romani (Forza Italia).
The agreement has outlined a potential government alliance between the M5S and the Lega, which then would split from the other parties of the Center-Right coalition. Defeated candidate Romani, who is very close to Berlusconi, exposed the deal by saying, “I have the impression that the political geometry being outlined leads a consistent part of the Center-Right to make an agreement with the M5S. I do not share such a geometry.”
The coming days will tell whether Salvini and Di Maio outmaneuvered Berlusconi, or whether Di Maio outmaneuvered both. The Lega and the M5S have convergences in foreign policy, but they disagree on the substance of economic policy. The Lega is in favor of investments in infrastructure; the M5S is for a no-growth, green economy. They both have Glass-Steagall in their programs, but to introduce Glass-Steagall means to have a confrontation with Brussels. On this, there is a big question mark on the M5S. Judging from its record and election campaign, this is not going to happen.
Now the ball is in the court of State President Sergio Mattarella. He will consult all parliamentary faction leaders in order to find out whether there is a potential government majority in Parliament. On the basis of those consultations, he will give a mandate. As the history of government formation in Italy shows, there is no limit to creativity in finding a solution, which can be a long-term, a short-term, or a “technocratic” one.
Dr. Gilbert Doctorow, a member of the American Committee for East West Accord, in an interview with Sputnik yesterday, said of Italy’s post-election foreign policy: “This could lead to Italy adopting a veto on [EU anti-Russia] sanctions; and Italy is not Hungary—Italy is the fourth largest economy in the EU. It’s one of the founding countries of the EU, so if Italy should break with the ongoing policy of sanctions, then that will be the end.”
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Trump’s Trade Policy Became Its Opposite; China Premier Li Keqiang Tries To Correct It
March 26 (EIRNS)—The annual China Development Forum is being held in Beijing in the first days of this week, and was the forum for Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to give a brief corrective response to the U.S. threat of broad tariffs and investment restrictions against China.
“With regard to trade imbalances,” Li said, “China and the United States should adopt a pragmatic and rational attitude, promote balancing through expansion of trade, and stick to negotiations to resolve differences and friction” [emphasis added]. “Expansion of trade” is in fact the necessary context in which U.S. trade with China could become more balanced, through increased American high-technology exports to China (requiring a big increase in capital investment in the U.S. economy), and increased Chinese investment in producing goods in the United States. China’s Ambassador Cui Tiankai proposed exactly those two changes, at the same forum.
It is worth recalling that President Donald Trump came into office with a policy on trade very different from anti-China tariffs—the “border tax” idea. It was relentlessly opposed by GOP Congressional leaders and their Wall Street and biggest corporate donors, until it died, to be replaced eventually by the new punitive tariffs. The “border tax” idea combined a tax/export fee credit for exporters, with an equal new tax charge for importers. Its purpose, as Trump emphasized then, was to stimulate exports and to get firms exporting to America, to set up production facilities in America, both to increase U.S. supplies and to export to third countries. That idea is very close in spirit, to what China’s leaders are calling for new as counterproposals to the anti-China tariffs.
In earlier negotiations, then-State Councillor Yang Jiechi emphasized that balancing U.S.-China trade required “structural changes in the economies.” An American participant in the China Development Forum, economist and former Morgan Stanley executive Stephen Roach, said that without such (productive) changes on the American side, U.S. trade deficits will keep rising right through any number of tariffs imposed.
“When you don’t save,” Roach said in a CNBC interview from Beijing, “and yet you want to spend and grow, you import surplus savings from abroad and you run these massive balance of payments and trade deficits to attract the foreign capital. That’s the way it’s always worked…. [I]f anything, our trade deficits are going to get bigger in the years ahead, including the one probably with China.” Roach said the tax-cut package “is going to take debt-to-GDP ratios up by 1 to 2 percentage points a year, relative to what they otherwise would have been…. So, we’re going to have to keep importing the surplus savings and running these balance of payments deficits.”
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Ambitious Finnish Initiatives Will Link Arctic Ocean Railway to Germany
March 26 (EIRNS)—The Finnish government announced on March 9 its decision to plan for an Arctic Ocean Railway line to Norway’s easternmost city, Kirkenes, on the Barents Sea. This decision settled the route for this railway, for which several Norwegian harbors and the Russian harbor Murmansk were competing. The route from Kirkenes will open up a potentially very rich mining region in the north of Finland. It will go to Rovaniemi, which is linked by rail to the rest of Finland. The railway will bring all of Finland and Sweden in contact with the Northern Sea Route, as well as with the huge energy projects in the Arctic.
Finnish Minister of Transport and Communications Anne Berner is pushing for a series of projects linking the Northern Sea Route, through Finland, directly with Central Europe and Germany. She is actively pushing the tunnel project between the Finnish capital, Helsinki, and the Estonian capital, Tallinn. From there the project Rail Baltica exists as one of the dormant nine EU corridor projects (TEN-T) connecting all of Europe. Minister Berner is very actively establishing contact with the relevant institutions in Norway, Sweden, and the Baltic states, as well as with the domestic indigenous people in the area of the Arctic Ocean Railway. Berner was the representative of the Finnish government to the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on May 14-15, 2017.
Finland is also pushing for Sweden to create a Bothnian Corridor in both countries on both sides of the Baltic Sea. This horseshoe railway corridor, together with the Helsinki-Tallinn tunnel, Rail Baltica, and the railways in Denmark, Germany, and Poland will complete a Baltic Ring around the whole Baltic Sea.
In a report about the Arctic Ocean Railway, it is made clear that the intention is to work with China through the Arctic. A chapter called “The Arctic Ocean Railway as Part of the Global Transport System” is visionary: “On a broader scale, the Arctic Ocean Railway is also connected to the aforementioned projects, that is, Rail Baltica and the Helsinki-Tallinn Tunnel. The Arctic Ocean Railway should therefore be seen as part of the global transport system…. The Arctic Ocean Railway would connect the Arctic region and its vast natural resources to both Finland’s railway network and—via the Helsinki-Tallinn Tunnel and Rail Baltica—to Central Europe and beyond. The Arctic Ocean Railway would provide an alternative route for Finnish imports and exports. A connection to the Arctic Ocean’s deep, ice-free harbors would open up a connection to the Atlantic and Northeast Passage, and thereby significantly increase Finland’s transport capacity and improve its logistical position and accessibility. Thanks to these connections, Finland’s significance as a Northern European transport route would increase.”
The Finnish Transport Agency issued its Arctic Ocean Railway Report this year. Earlier, the importance of the Arctic Ocean Railway was described in a speech to the Schiller Institute conference in Berlin on Feb. 25-26, 2012 by EIR Stockholm correspondent Ulf Sandmark, “Man in the Arctic—But How?” published in EIR Vol. 39, No. 14, April 6, 2012.
SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
SDI Was Part of Trump’s 1999 Presidential Campaign
March 26 (EIRNS)—Promoting missile defense was a key plank in President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 1999 when he sought the nomination of the Reform Party. As reported in the March 22 briefing, Trump called for SDI on Nov. 28, 1999, in an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN. On Nov. 18, 1999, on “Hardball with Chris Matthews” on MSNBC, Trump made similar comments.
Trump was asked a question by an audience member, “What is your attitude towards current defense spending, and what do you see as the role of the U.S. military in the 21st century?”
Donald Trump: Well, I think that current defense spending is at a virtual all-time low. Our military is not ready. I believe in something that actually Ronald Reagan believed in, and that’s missile defense. I really believe they called it Star Wars.
Chris Matthews: SDI.
Trump: The fact is right now…
Matthews: Are you for it?
Trump: Right now I am totally for it. I think we have the technology now. And you know, it’s interesting with Ronald Reagan. They were laughing at him when he came up with the concept of Star Wars, actually now many years ago, it was brilliant concept. And he knew something a lot of people didn’t know. We really do have, now, the technology to do it.
Matthews: Do you want the total shield, or do you want point defense?
Trump: I want a shield. A shield…. You have some madman out there that’s going to say, let’s take out New York….
Matthews: But what do you do about cruise missiles? They come in right under the shield. You could go… you can defend against ballistic. How do you defend against cruise missiles?
Trump: I believe that you can have a shield that—you know what? If it works 100%, if it works 90%, or if it works 80%, that’s better than not having a shield at all, believe me. [DEA]
