Volume 5, Number 84

EIR Daily Alert Service

P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390

• ‘The Future Is in Asia’—The Door Is Wide Open for the Trans-Atlantic
• Xi and Modi To Address ‘Issues of Bilateral and Global Importance’ in Informal India-China Summit
• Moon and Kim Will Discuss Denuclearization, Peace for Korean Peninsula
• This Inter-Korean Summit Is ‘Fundamentally Different’ from ‘Sunshine Policy’ Era
• Russia and Syria, at OPCW, Prove Douma Incident Was Staged, Warn of Nuclear War Threat
• Trump Slams FBI Refusal To Inspect ‘Russian-Hacked’ Democratic National Committee Server
• Former Pollster Mark Penn: Mueller Investigation ‘Irretrievably Tainted,’ Close It Down
• China’s Space Station Is Designed To Support Scientific Experiments
• Port Officials from Germany and Russia Meet on New Silk Road Harbor Cooperation
• Claudio Celani Gives Truth on Transaqua Lake Chad Project to Congo-Based Journal

EDITORIAL

‘The Future Is in Asia’—The Door Is Wide Open for the Trans-Atlantic

April 26 (EIRNS)—On April 27 two very important meetings will take place, within waves of motion in Asia. In China, President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi begin meeting for a two-day, informal summit. These leaders, representing 40% of the world’s population, will confer directly, without pressure of formal statements, or media pressure. In South Korea, D.P.R.K. leader Kim Jong-un will be the first leader of North Korea to personally cross the border since 1953; he will meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. These meetings are part of the dynamic towards a new future of development, in contrast to the geopolitical strife and impoverishment of the old paradigm of empire, which we see in the recent plots and schemes centered in London, against Russia and China, all the while keeping the United States and Europe down.

In that regard, still more evidence came out today at The Hague, at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), on how the claim that the Syrian government had gassed its people in Douma on April 7, was an MI6 White Helmets fraud. Several witnesses from Douma, present at the alleged chemical weapons incident, testified in person, that it was a staged ruse for video.

In reviewing the recent happenings, Helga Zepp-LaRouche said today on her weekly Schiller Institute webcast, that the Xi-Modi meeting, and the Korean leaders’ meeting, are developments “going in a very, very good direction. And it shows you one thing very clearly:  That the future of civilization is in Asia, and any country of the West that wants to be part of that future, should find a good relation to this new dynamic, because this is the forward-looking one, and not the old paradigm as represented by some of these European powers that just think in terms of the past.”

She said that the dynamic which is taking place in Asia right now “will shape history for the better. I’m absolutely convinced that what is happening between China and Africa, China and Latin America, China and Eurasia, many European nations are already completely onboard the New Silk Road development in terms of infrastructure: The Eastern European, the Central European countries, the Balkans, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland—all of these countries—even Belgium and Holland, the Scandinavian countries, they all have recognized the great potential in the infrastructure cooperation of the New Silk Road. And I think right now, the biggest problem in some countries, like Germany and the United States, is the fact that the mass media have not given justice to what is actually happening: You have the largest infrastructure program in history which is already—people debate whether it’s 12 times or 20 times the size of the Marshall Plan, but it’s open ended! It’s a complete transformation of the planet, where obviously, our vision, ‘The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge,’ is being realized by the majority of nations, absolutely, with a fast speed.

“And people are trying to sit on that and play the old geopolitical games, by saying this is just an effort by China to take over the world—I mean, that is just—first of all, it’s not true, and why would all these countries, would they not be happy to overcome poverty, underdevelopment, and so naturally they go for this.

“And right now, the biggest problem is that the average people in Europe and in the United States just do not know this scope of the changes taking place in the world.” She called for reaching out “to more countries and more layers in the countries of the West, to understand what this New Silk Road Spirit is all about.”

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Xi and Modi To Address ‘Issues of Bilateral and Global Importance’ in Informal India-China Summit

April 26 (EIRNS)—The two-day informal summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi starts tomorrow in Beijing. Modi has tweeted, “President Xi and I will exchange views on a range of issues of bilateral and global importance. We will discuss our respective visions and priorities for national development, particularly in the context of the current and future international situation. We will also review the developments in India-China relations from a strategic and long-term perspective.”

Speaking to reporters on April 23, former Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar described the surprise meeting, the first such informal summit since 1954, as a “bold step.” It will have no stated goals or set agenda. Conversations, suggested Jaishankar, will be “personal and interactive.” Times of India reports that there will be no communiqué and no press conferences.

Rudroneel Ghosh reports in his Times of India blog “Talking Turkey”: According to reports, Modi and Xi will mainly engage in one-on-one discussions with just their interpreters. The setting is supposed to allow for heart-to-heart conversations on all issues, including long-term strategic ones.

Thereafter, Xi and Modi will meet again at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Qingdao over June 9-10, and there are expectations that they will hold a second summit there.

Moon and Kim Will Discuss Denuclearization, Peace for Korean Peninsula

April 26 (EIRNS)—Tomorrow, April 27, will be the third summit between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (D.P.R.K.) and the Republic of Korea (R.O.K.) in the border village of Panmunjom, where Kim Jong-un will become the first D.P.R.K. leader to set foot on R.O.K. soil since the Korean War ended in armistice in 1953. Kim will be greeted by R.O.K. President Moon Jae-in, according to the schedule released by the Seoul’s Cheong Wa Dae, known in English as the Blue House.

The Blue House has been preparing for the summit under the slogan of “Peace, a New Start.” Moon said at a summit preparation meeting, “Let’s make a new history of peace beyond division and confrontation.”

Meanwhile, a Chinese study of North Korea’s sixth nuclear test on Sept. 3, which allegedly triggered four earthquakes over the subsequent weeks revealed a collapse of the nuclear test site.

According to the scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China, the first of those seismic events was detected eight and a half minutes after the device went off and was “an onsite collapse toward the nuclear test center.”

“In view of the research findings that the North Korean nuclear test site at Mantapsan has collapsed, it is necessary to continue to monitor any leakage of radioactive materials that may have been caused by the collapse,” the authors of the University of Science and Technology China paper wrote as reported by Sputnik International.

Chinese authorities have stated that they found no radiation risk from the samples collected along the border, Associated Press reported.

This Inter-Korean Summit Is ‘Fundamentally Different’ from ‘Sunshine Policy’ Era

April 26 (EIRNS)—Speaking to the Korea Herald today, Im Jong-seok, Chief of Staff to South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in, said “At this point in time, when North Korea’s nuclear and ICBM technologies are highly advanced, reaching a denuclearization agreement is a matter that is fundamentally different from agreements reached in the early 1990s and 2000s. This is what makes this summit difficult.” Im also serves as the chief of the preparation committee for the summit between Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in.

Im further said that as the issue of denuclearization involves more than the two Koreas, if President Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are able to reach a clear understanding on denuclearization, that would constitute a success for the summit.

“If (North Korea’s) will to denuclearize can be stipulated, and (agreement on the issue) means complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, I think this summit would be very successful regarding denuclearization,” Im said. Such an agreement “will be an excellent guide to lead into the U.S.-North Korea summit.”

While remaining cautious about the summit’s results, Im said that the composition of Kim Jong-un’s delegation hints at the importance Pyongyang is placing on the meeting. Kim Jong-un’s entourage “includes core military and diplomatic officials, which was not expected,” said Im. “(Seoul) takes the move as a sign that the North is not considering just the inter-Korean summit, but looking ahead to the U.S.-North Korea talks, and the international cooperation that will follow.”

Another Korean expert is Park Jie-won, a former chief of staff to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who held the first ever inter-Korean summit in 2000 in Pyongyang. Now an elected legislator, Park Jie-won is also a member of the presidential elder advisory group. Xinhua interviewed him today, and characterized some of his views as follows.

“What the lawmaker sees as the most important in the denuclearization process is building trust between the D.P.R.K. and the United States. For the D.P.R.K.-U.S. trust-building, Park proposed a three-stage way of denuclearization.

“The first is to put a moratorium on the D.P.R.K.’s nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the U.S. halt of sanctions. The second is to freeze the D.P.R.K.’s nuclear program in return for its establishment of diplomatic ties with the United States and a peace treaty on the peninsula.

“During the freezing process in which the D.P.R.K. returns to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and is inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency, while the U.S. side lifts sanctions, Pyongyang and Washington can build trust and eventually lead to a complete denuclearization, said Park.”

The April 27 inter-Korean summit will be closely followed by a three-way summit of China, Japan and South Korea in Japan, at which Premier Li Keqiang will represent China—probably on May 9.

In Global Times, Ding Gang, a senior editor at People’s Daily and a senior fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, wrote a moving, in-depth look at the current China-Japan rapprochement which refers back to post-World War II France and Germany, on April 25.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Russia and Syria, at OPCW, Prove Douma Incident Was Staged, Warn of Nuclear War Threat

April 26 (EIRNS)—Technical experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) today interviewed 6 of the 17 Syrian eyewitnesses from Douma who came to The Hague to testify to the White Helmets’ staging of the April 7 fake chemical weapons attack in Douma, which was used as the pretext for the April 14 U.K., U.S., French bombing of Syria.

Afterwards, many of those eyewitnesses told their stories at the press briefing chaired by Russia’s representative to the OPCW, Ambassador Alexandr Shulgin. The witnesses were clearly ordinary Syrians: doctors, paramedics and lab workers from Douma’s only hospital, a resident who was in the emergency room at the time, and Hassan Diab, the 11-year-old boy dragged into the White Helmets’ staged incident, and Hassan’s father.

The medical personnel and the town resident all reported that there was no chemical smell and not one person displaying symptoms of a chemical attack, only some people suffering from mild or moderate asphyxiation, caused by smoke and dust. No one was even admitted to the hospital that night; after being treated, all patients were able to be sent home that night. They did report that a group of people stormed into the emergency department shouting “Civil Protection,” “chemical attack,” creating panic and pouring cold water on patients while a few filmed it on their phones.

Russian Maj. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who heads the Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Forces, presented footage from apartments into which chemical cylinders had allegedly been dropped from a Syrian government helicopter, showing that the cylinders were undamaged by the 2,000 meter fall.

The briefing was boycotted by the British, U.S., French and allied European representatives to the OPCW, who denounced it as a “stunt.” The press questions were hostile, even vile, but the briefing was broadcast live with English translation on Sputnik and RT, and is available to the world.

After the presentations, Ambassador Shulgin drove home the strategic threat. Russia is constantly accused of spreading “fake news” and “waging informational warfare”; now you see who is doing just that. The White Helmet terrorists who feed off U.K. and U.S. taxpayers have been caught in the act. But this fraud has far-reaching consequences! Probably not since the 1962 Cuba Missile Crisis has the world been so close to the threat of a Russia-U.S. conflict, Shulgin said. Now that threat seems to not be as acute, but the threat of military action is still around. God forbid this should lead to any kind of nuclear conflict!

The Russian representative charged that this Douma provocation brings to mind the 1939 Gleiwitz incident staged by Nazi SS units to make it look as though Poland had attacked Germany, thereby giving Germany the pretext to unleash World War II.

He movingly appealed to reason: Turn away from this path which is still rushing towards conflict! We cannot allow Cold War to become a hot war. We must work together on mutual interests, with mutual respect. Syria must see peace, so that many years from now, Hassan will grow up to be a doctor, a teacher, perhaps even a diplomat who will represent his country. We hope common sense will prevail, he concluded.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Trump Slams FBI Refusal To Inspect ‘Russian-Hacked’ Democratic National Committee Server

April 26 (EIRNS)—Going after the “witchhunt” being run against his Presidency in the fake Russiagate operation in his half-hour interview on “Fox and Friends” this morning, President Donald Trump zeroed in on the FBI’s notorious refusal to examine the Democratic National Committee computer server that they claimed had been hacked by Russians:

“The DNC wouldn’t even give their server to the FBI. So what kind of FBI is that? They break down doors for Paul Manafort’s house, early in the morning; his wife is in bed, like at 5 or 6 in the morning. They undo the locks for Michael Cohen. And yet the FBI walks into the DNC and they say ‘we’re not giving you the server,’ and they say, ‘OK. We’ll leave.’ That’s not the FBI; that’s a fix.”

What is going on is a disgrace, he said. “Everyone knows it’s a fix,” the President repeated several times. He said he is “very disappointed” with the Justice Department, but that he has taken the position of not getting involved with the DOJ. He then stated more than once on that, that “maybe I’ll change my mind.”

Former Pollster Mark Penn: Mueller Investigation ‘Irretrievably Tainted,’ Close It Down

April 26 (EIRNS)—Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, operating as a runaway “government within the government,” should be shut down on the grounds that it has been based on illegal evidence from the get-go, Bill Clinton’s long-time pollster and strategic advisor to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign, Mark Penn, argued in an op-ed published in The Hill today. The op-ed, “Mueller, Comey, and the Poisonous Tree,” which merits reading. Penn cites the judicial doctrine dubbed “fruits of a poisonous tree” by Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter in 1939, that evidence whose source is illegally obtained is inadmissible in court.

“The investigation was polluted from the beginning. Former British spy Christopher Steele was a government contractor when he illegally leaked the dossier to Yahoo and lied about it; Mueller team members and FBI officials Lisa Page and Peter Strzok operated with such open hatred for Trump that they were removed from the investigation after managing key parts of it; and the heads of the FBI and CIA participated in spreading and vouching for a Trump dossier they never verified and yet used to spy on Americans,” Penn argues.

Likewise, House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Devin Nunes now reports that the document used by the FBI to open the Russia investigation—shown to him only after “endless foot-dragging” by the FBI—contains no intelligence from official channels.

Penn’s report on the latest poll by Harvard CAPS/Harris on Mueller’s operation makes clear Americans are ready for action to be taken. According to Penn, the poll found that while nearly 70% said Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should not be fired, 72% said that “a second special prosecutor needs to be appointed and that the actions of Comey and fired former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe should be criminally investigated.”

In Penn’s view, the time has come to challenge the entire “irretrievably tainted” process in court, “with full discovery into whether its foundation was so corrupted—and the stonewalling actions so blatant—that the doctrine of the fruits of a poisonous tree can be invoked to stop this national distraction.”

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

China’s Space Station Is Designed To Support Scientific Experiments

April 26 (EIRNS)—As part of the China’s national Space Day celebrations today, Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China’s manned space program, disclosed more details of the space station that China will have operational in 2022. The core module will be put into orbit unmanned, and about four manned missions will be carried out to assemble the station. Two laboratories, Wentian, or “Quest for the Heavens,” and Mengtian, or “Dreaming of the Heavens,” will accommodate more than 10 tons of equipment for scientific experiments, Zhou said. There will be 26 cabinets, or lockers, for experiments, and 67 hatches to dock medium-sized external experiment payloads.

A space telescope with a viewing angle 200 times wider than the Hubble Space Telescope will orbit near the station, and dock with it for maintenance or refueling. Zhou also announced that the station will be open to commercial activities, to help foster China’s space economy.

China Daily writes that “In 2024, it is likely [the Chinese station] will become the world’s only space station if the U.S.-led International Space Station is retired that year as planned.”

Port Officials from Germany and Russia Meet on New Silk Road Harbor Cooperation

April 26 (EIRNS)—The Mayor of Lübeck, Germany Bernd Saxe, and Sebastian Jürgens, head of the Port of Lübeck-Gesellschaft mbH (LHG), spent three days last week in St. Petersburg, Russia, where they were joined by Dmytro Grybkov, the head of LHG subsidiary, OOO European Cargo Logistics Rus. The aim of the talks was to intensify the cooperation between the two ports, in which regard they met with the respective port operators and visited various port facilities.

At a meeting with officials of the St. Petersburg city government, they discussed the important part the city plays along the “New Silk Road” through China via Russia to the economic centers of Western Europe. With infrastructure on the eastern side largely completed, it was now to be decided whether the goods from St. Petersburg should continue by rail or waterways. The Port of Lübeck can play an important role in this new connection.

They agreed to hold regular joint Harbor Days St. Petersburg-Lübeck, at which they can work over the development of port cooperation.

Lübeck Mayor Bernd Saxe commented on their meetings: “The implementation of the New Silk Road is already well advanced. We must now ask if we want to become a transit point between the huge country of China and economically powerful Western Europe.” Sebastian Jürgens for his part, said: “The LHG is ready to play a significant role in this new logistics concept. We will also further develop concepts for the future with the region of St. Petersburg.”

OTHER

Claudio Celani Gives Truth on Transaqua Lake Chad Project to Congo-Based Journal

April 26 (EIRNS)—The Democratic Republic of Congo-based francophone publication VivAfrik published an interview yesterday with EIR and Schiller Institute representative Claudio Celani, after the same publication had run a correction by Celani on April 11 to a previous article on Transaqua—which aims to replenish Lake Chad, diverting water from Congo River tributaries—that had distorted its nature.

This is a breakthrough, because it is the first time that a Congo-based publication has cut through the black propaganda against Transaqua, and shows that at least a faction in this country wants development. The interview was very well received in Rome.

In the introduction, the interviewer reports that “Claudio Celani, a journalist specializing in economic research, has taken the view contrary to some experts who believe that the implementation of the Transaqua project may lead to geopolitical upheavals on the African continent in the coming years.”

After having identified Celani as chief editor of the EIR strategic newsletter and as a collaborator of the Schiller Institute, the author brings up concerns that Transaqua is a conspiracy to steal Congo’s water.

Celani answered, “I think that if there is an international conspiracy, it is the one aimed at blocking the Transaqua project! In the 1990s, when the development on the part of Italian organizations was stopped, it was not possible to carry out a feasibility study both because of the high cost, and also because of the division of the world into East and West, which was reflected on the African situation.

“In the following years, thanks to the new technologies and the transformed international framework, it has become easier to conduct a feasibility study, but no one moved to promote it, despite the fact that billions have been spent, for example, by the European institutions, in so-called aid for Africa. When it was asked about Transaqua, the European Commission raised reservations of an ideological nature. A few years ago, Professor Romano Prodi was appointed by the United Nations to deal with the Sahel crisis and made many statements and loud pronouncements. When he was questioned publicly about the Transaqua project, he replied that ‘there is no money’ to build it. Not to mention the opposition today still found among some easily recognizable former European colonialist powers.

“If we look at who promoted the Transaqua project during all these years, we can see that this is either through the heroic actions of certain individuals, such as Dr. Vichi, or independent organizations, such as the Schiller Institute, often opposed by the so-called establishment. Opponents include powerful financial institutions, the colonialist powers, the European Commission, and certain economic interests that have helped keep Africa in a state of exploitation and underdevelopment.”

Celani further said, “the idea of Transaqua was born in the context of a new policy inaugurated by Italy after the Second World War towards Africa, characterized by cooperation for mutual benefit. The shining example of this new policy was the figure of Enrico Mattei, famous and still beloved today in many African countries, because for the first time he offered advantageous conditions for the exploitation of natural resources of the country. Italy was, in those years, the precursor of the win-win policy inaugurated by China a few years ago with the so-called ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative.”

In the rest of the interview, Celani reconstructs the genesis of the Transaqua plan and explains that the Lake Chad Basin Commission rejected the smaller project of water-transfer from the Ubangi River as insufficient to refill Lake Chad. To the inevitable question about “ecological threats,” Celani replies that only once it is demonstrated how much water it is possible to transfer from the Congo Basin, will the feasibility study analyze such threats.