May 16 (EIRNS)—Over the past weeks, as the 68-year Korea crisis moves towards a peaceful settlement, the British asset in Israel, Bibi Netanyahu, has launched 50 missile attacks on Syria, then opened fire on Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza. Gaza is now faced with starvation, with little or no medical supplies to treat the thousands of people who have been wounded, with more casualties every week.

Recall that Netanyahu follows in his father’s footsteps. Benzion Netanyahu, who served as the personal secretary to Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Order of the British Empire, founder of the terrorist movement Irgun, whom David Ben-Gurion famously denounced as “Vladimir Hitler,” warning his associates not to “underrate the severity of the Hitleristic peril in the Jewish, Zionist street.”

Netanyahu is very close to being sent to prison for multiple corruption cases against the people of Israel, which gives him ample reason to start a “lovely little war,” as the British are wont to say. But it is his controllers who make such decisions, controllers who reside in the City of London and Whitehall, who are panicked at the fact that their effort to bring down the Trump Administration through “Russiagate” is collapsing, and the MI6 controllers of that coup attempt are exposed before the American public, by the LaRouche movement and a few courageous members of Congress. They see that Trump has worked closely with Xi Jinping to find a solution in Korea, and are terrified that Trump will break through the coup-plotters and hold a summit meeting with Vladimir Putin, as he has openly expressed his intent to do. Such a meeting could well be the only means to stop the British effort to start a war in Southwest Asia, one which could spark a world conflagration and destroy civilization as we know it.

Within the U.S., Sen. Rand Paul has advanced the public identification of British intelligence as the force behind the coup plotters within the Obama intelligence community. In a letter to Gina Haspel, who is likely to be approved by the Senate to head the CIA after Pompeo’s move to be Secretary of State, Senator Paul called for her to identify all CIA spying on the presidential candidates in the 2016 presidential election (including himself), when John Brennan was CIA chief, and in particular asks: “Have you, or anyone else at the CIA, ever cooperated with any foreign intelligence services to surveil, monitor or collect any information on candidate Trump…?” In an interview on NBC he was more explicit: “It is supposed to be illegal,” he said, “for the CIA to spy on Americans—so the question is, did John Brennan ask the British intelligence to spy on Americans for him? Did he ask them to spy on President Trump’s campaign?” Paul continued: “The president is very concerned about this.” He also referred to the visit by Robert Hannigan, then-head of the British intelligence service GCHQ, to Washington to brief Brennan on the fake dossier compiled by MI6 agent Christopher Steele, which launched the coup attempt against Trump.

Geopolitics, the fundamental doctrine of the British Empire, which poses international relations as a Darwinian, Hobbesian war of one against all, as if human beings were mere beasts, must be destroyed, once and for all, if war is to be prevented and the new paradigm represented by the New Silk Road can be established internationally. Those who believe this to be impossible are blind to what is being accomplished in Asia and around the world through the Belt and Road Initiative, and are themselves succumbing to the bestial view of Mankind. A global Renaissance is both possible and necessary, and, as Schiller said, it is in recognizing the beauty of such a better world that freedom and necessity come together through the human creative process.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Sen. Paul Insists Haspel Reveal CIA Surveillance of Trump, Cites British Intel Role

May 16 (EIRNS)—In a May 15 letter to Acting CIA Director Gina Haspel, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) demanded to know whether the CIA conducted surveillance during the 2016 presidential campaign of any of the candidates, including himself, and, obviously, Donald Trump.

Paul wants to know the circumstances under which the CIA would “trail, monitor, or otherwise conduct information on the communications and movements of U.S. presidential candidates,” both domestically or during travel outside the U.S. More specifically, he asks whether “you or anyone else at the CIA ever cooperated with any foreign intelligence services” to surveil, monitor or collect communications information about Donald Trump over the past five years, during his travels to Europe and, particularly, during his November 2016 trip to Great Britain.

In a May 15 interview with Fox News’s Neil Cavuto, Senator Paul said that the fact that Haspel is a “close acolyte” of former CIA Director John Brennan, who reportedly cooperated with British intelligence to spy on the Trump campaign, and who is violently partisan against the President, “I think we should know what she knows about whether the Trump campaign was surveilled upon … and why was the CIA involved?” Haspel has even been called Brennan’s protege, Paul continued, so “I don’t want people running our intelligence agencies that have an axe to grind or have some sort of partisanship lurking beneath the surface.”

China-Bashing Harvard ‘Scholars’ Lie about Belt and Road ‘Debt Trap’

May 16 (EIRNS)—A report issued earlier this week by the Harvard Kennedy School of Policy Analysis warns the State Department of the dangers lurking behind the Belt and Road Initiative, and China’s alleged plans to trap unsuspecting Asian and Eurasian countries through its “debt book diplomacy,” according to Asia Times today. The report highlighted 16 countries in particular which it says have been targetted by China and are the most “vulnerable” to its insidious policies.

Immediately, an unnamed State Department official told CNN that the Trump Administration will “encourage China to promote and uphold internationally accepted best practices in funding. We need to ensure recipients have options that allow them to retain their sovereignty and future control of their economies.” Alex Wong, Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs had a similar line in addressing the hearing held by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific and International Cybersecurity Policy.

Of the 16 countries China is reportedly targetting, Pakistan, Djibouti and Sri Lanka are described as the most vulnerable. The report also points to such Pacific nations as Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Tonga, which “owe Beijing billions of dollars in loans,” and are “encircling” U.S. allies Australia and New Zealand.

The Chinese government has called the report “very irresponsible” and based on stereotypes. In a briefing earlier this week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang pointedly said that only the governments and people that are cooperating with China have the right to comment on the specific effect of that cooperation. China, he said, is abiding by “the principles” of consultation, contribution and shared benefits, China Daily reported.

One must always remember that before Hitler, there was Harvard.

North Korea’s Top Negotiator: The Problem Is Not Trump or Pompeo—It’s Bolton

May 16 (EIRNS)—The North Korean Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Kye-Gwan, who has been a leading negotiator for North Korean talks with the West since the 1990s, issued a scathing attack today on U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton, while clearly distinguishing the good will of both President Donald Trump and Secretary Mike Pompeo from Bolton’s threats to give North Korea the Libya treatment. Kim’s excerpted statement, issued by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reads:

“Kim Jong Un … made a strategic decision to put an end to the unpleasant history of the D.P.R.K.-U.S. relations and met Pompeo, U.S. secretary of state, for two times during his visit to our country and took very important and broad-minded steps for peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the world.

“In response to the noble intention of Chairman Kim Jong Un, President Trump stated his position for terminating the historically deep-rooted hostility and improving the relations between the D.P.R.K. and the U.S. I appreciated the position positively with an expectation that upcoming D.P.R.K.-U.S. summit would be a big step forward for catalyzing détente on the Korean peninsula and building a great future.

“But now prior to the D.P.R.K.-U.S. summit, unbridled remarks provoking the other side of dialogue are recklessly made in the U.S. and I am totally disappointed as these constitute extremely unjust behavior. High-ranking officials of the White House and the Department of State including Bolton, White House national security adviser, are letting loose the assertions of so-called Libya mode of nuclear abandonment, ‘complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization,’ ‘total decommissioning of nuclear weapons, missiles, biochemical weapons,’ etc., while talking about formula of ‘abandoning nuclear weapons first, compensating afterwards.’

“This is not an expression of intention to address the issue through dialogue. It is essentially a manifestation of awfully sinister move to impose on our dignified state the destiny of Libya or Iraq which had been collapsed due to yielding the whole of their countries to big powers.

“I cannot suppress indignation at such moves of the U.S., and harbor doubt about the U.S. sincerity for improved D.P.R.K.-U.S. relations through sound dialogue and negotiations.

“World knows too well that our country is neither Libya nor Iraq which have met miserable fate.

“It is absolutely absurd to dare compare the D.P.R.K., a nuclear weapon state, to Libya which had been at the initial stage of nuclear development.

“We shed light on the quality of Bolton already in the past, and we do not hide our feeling of repugnance towards him….

“We have already stated our intention for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and made clear on several occasions that precondition for denuclearization is to put an end to anti-D.P.R.K. hostile policy and nuclear threats and blackmail of the United States.

“But now, the U.S. is miscalculating the magnanimity and broad-minded initiatives of the D.P.R.K. as signs of weakness and trying to embellish and advertise as if these are the product of its sanctions and pressure.

“The U.S. is trumpeting as if it would offer economic compensation and benefit in case we abandon nuke. But we have never had any expectation of U.S. support in carrying out our economic construction and will not at all make such a deal in future, either….

“If President Trump follows in the footsteps of his predecessors, he will be recorded as more tragic and unsuccessful president than his predecessors, far from his initial ambition to make unprecedented success.

“If the Trump administration takes an approach to the D.P.R.K.-U.S. summit with sincerity for improved D.P.R.K.-U.S. relations, it will receive a deserved response from us. However, if the U.S. is trying to drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear abandonment, we will no longer be interested in such dialogue and cannot but reconsider our proceeding to the D.P.R.K.-U.S. summit.”

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Ukrainians Raid RIA Novosti Offices; State Department Blames ‘Russian Propaganda’

May 16 (EIRNS)—Yesterday, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) raided the offices of RIA Novosti Ukraine news service in Kiev, and arrested its director Kirill Vyshinsky on charges of treason. Vyshinsky holds dual citizenship, and was arrested as a Ukrainian citizen.

The apartments of four other Novosti employees were also searched, one such search lasting 11 hours, Sputnik reported. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko charged that RIA Novosti, and Vyshinsky in particular, maintained an “anti-Ukrainian” editorial policy, and described the news agency as “the descendants of Goebbels … engaged in disinformation war.”

Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued two notes of protest and spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Ukraine’s actions represented the “suppression of dissent in the worst totalitarian tradition.” Internationally, the International Federation of Journalists, Human Rights Watch, and the Freedom of Media director of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), expressed grave concern over the SBU’s actions. Otherwise, with few exceptions, the silence from other international and mainstream media has been deafening.

And then, there is State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, who stands in a class of her own. RT reported her statement that “we understand that Ukraine, like a lot of other countries, has been concerned about the intense [Russian] propaganda…. Goodness, when we talk with a lot of our allies and partners overseas, they certainly have fallen victim, and understand, the influence and the reach of Russian propaganda. So we do understand Ukraine’s concerns about that.” As an afterthought, she said, that, of course, if there are searches of media outlets, they should be done “in accordance with the law.”

EU Sticks with Iran Nuclear Deal, Wants Also To Discuss Other Issues with Tehran

May 16 (EIRNS)—Following a meeting of the foreign ministers of Iran, Britain, France and Germany, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini reported that the group will propose measures in the next few weeks after tasking experts to find ways to protect European business in Iran. The group will meet again in Vienna next week at the level of deputy foreign ministers in a special format, within the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal at Iran’s request, without the United States.

Today, according to Mogherini, the European Commission was scheduled to discuss the EU’s 1990s-era sanctions-blocking regulations, which at that time was Europe’s response to U.S. threats to impose sanctions on nations doing business with Libya. The regulations were never used, but there is now discussion of updating them as a possible means of protecting European businesses from U.S. sanctions, now that Washington has withdrawn from the JCPOA.

“We are working on finding a practical solution … within a short period of time,” Mogherini told a news conference. “We are talking about solutions to keep the [JCPOA] deal alive,” she said, and continuing that measures would seek to allow Iran to keep exporting oil and for European banks to continue to operate. “We have a quite clear list of issues to address. We are operating in a very difficult context…. I cannot talk about legal or economic guarantees but I can talk about serious, determined, immediate work from the European side.” Mogherini further said that the present Iran deal provides a feasible basis also for talks with Iran on other issues, for instance the latter’s missile program and related regional matters.

Today’s summit of EU nations in Sofia, Bulgaria, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, was expected to discuss many “flashpoints,” including Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, trade tariffs, and North Korea, among them. Going into the meeting, European Council President Donald Tusk issued a scathing statement aimed at the U.S. for withdrawing from the JCPOA, and said that the summit will discuss how to respond to the U.S. in “an appropriate and proportionate manner…. With friends like these, who needs enemies?” he asked.

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Xi Jinping Welcomes D.P.R.K. Delegation; Cooperation, Development on the Agenda

May 16 (EIRNS)—A high-level North Korean delegation from the Workers Party of Korea (KWP), led by Pak Thae-song, vice-chairman of the KWP Central Committee, and including important provincial and municipal leaders, met with China’s President Xi Jinping today in Beijing, following two days visiting some of China’s key economic and agricultural development sites as well as scientific institutes and high-tech companies. The visit is clearly looking ahead to North Korea’s “reform and opening up” on the China model, as Kim Jong-un has declared to be official policy.

Xi conveyed his warm greetings to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, referencing their May 7-8 meeting in Dalian in which they had “an in-depth exchange of views on major issues of common concern, charting a clear course for the China-D.P.R.K. relations in the new era.” CCTV quoted Xi as saying that “we support the improvement of North-South (Korean) relations, the promotion of dialogue between North Korea and the United States, denuclearization on the peninsula and North Korea’s development of its economy.” On the latter point, Xi emphasized that China’s government supports the D.P.R.K. in developing its economy and Chairman Kim and his people in following “a development path suitable to its own national situation.”

China is urging Kim Jong-un not to cancel the June 12 summit with President Trump. In today’s Foreign Ministry briefing, spokesperson Lu Kang emphasized that the Singapore summit is the best way to “consolidate the alleviation of the situation and maintain peace and stability in the region.”

Pak Thae-song reported that he had been entrusted by Kim with consolidating recent agreements with Xi as well as to study China’s economic model of “reform and opening.” Xinhua quoted him as saying that “we will play an active role in carrying out our party’s new strategic line of prioritizing economic development.”

The daily Hankyoreh today reported that Pak Thae-song and Kim Su-gil, KWP committee chair for Pyongyang, were involved in discussing “a revolutionary transformation of scientific education programs,” which Kim Jong-un had emphasized at a recent Central Committee plenum, under the slogan of “advancing through science and guaranteeing the future through education.”

Other locations visited included the information center at the Chinese Academy of Sciences at Zhongguancun, known as China’s Silicon Valley, where more than 20,000 high-tech companies are located; the Institute of Cereal Science at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and an exhibition hall on agricultural technology. There was clear interest in the development of economic zones in North Korea.

Opening of Crimea Bridge Infuriates West; Psycho Reporter Urges Ukraine To Bomb It!

May 16 (EIRNS)—Russia’s completion and inauguration of the Kerch Strait Bridge which connects Crimea with mainland Russia, has driven the Western purveyors of geopolitics into a frenzy, the most extreme example of which was the proposal in today’s Washington Examiner by psychotic “journalist” Tom Rogan that Ukraine bomb the bridge—a clear incitement to terrorism.

Describing the bridge as “an outrageous affront to Ukraine’s very credibility as a nation,” Rogan suggests that Ukraine launch air strikes against the bridge as the most efficient way to “render it at least temporarily unusable.” The “moral urgency” of such action, is obvious, he says.

While not quite matching Rogan, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert issued a statement today condemning Russia’s “construction and partial opening of the Kerch Strait Bridge … which was done without the permission of the government of Ukraine … [and] is a reminder of Russia’s ongoing willingness to flout international law.” Nauert alleges that the bridge will impede navigation by limiting the size of ships that can transit the strait, and recalls that the U.S. has sanctioned numerous individuals involved in this project. Those and other Crimea-related sanctions, she intoned, “will remain in place until Russia returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine.”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said today that Russia has no fear of new sanctions, as these are “tantamount to teaching us to work more efficiently,” TASS reported.

Countering statements by Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko that the bridge was “illegal,” Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov pointed to the tremendous infrastructure development that has occurred in Crimea since it voted to rejoin Russia four years ago, with a “unique bridge, a modern airport, an energy bridge, a gas pipeline, new schools, … power stations, an autobahn, plus modernization of industry, energy, agriculture and social infrastructure,” Sputnik quoted him as saying.

Nigeria Signs Rail Project with China

May 16 (EIRNS)—Nigeria has awarded a $6.68 billion contract to the China Civil Engineering Construction Corp. (CCECC) for work on a major segment of a railway linking the country’s commercial hub Lagos, in the southwest, and Kano in the north, Xinhua reported May 15.  “The signing of the segment contract agreement today [May 15] concludes all outstanding segments of the Lagos-Kano rail line,” Xinhua quoted Nigeria’s Transport Ministry as saying.

The work is expected to take two or three years. CCECC, a subsidiary of China Railway Construction Corp., has been involved in other parts of the Lagos-Kano rail project, which started in 2006 and was broken into segments for implementation.

In 2016, Nigeria awarded work on a segment between the northern states of Kano and Kaduna with a contract sum of $1.685 billion. The railway line already receives funding from China Exim Bank which in April approved a $1.231 billion loan for network modernization programs. Nigeria is also negotiating with Russia, on projects within the ambitious national rail development program which requires investments totalling $46 billion.

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Kenya Is the Latest African Nation with Its Own Satellite

May 16 (EIRNS)—On May 12, Kenya joined Ghana, South Africa, and Nigeria as the newest African country to have had a homemade satellite successfully launched into orbit.

The tiny Kenyan cubesat, dubbed “Precursor Flight,” developed by the University of Nairobi, was launched into orbit from Japan’s Kibo module on the ISS. The Japanese government funded the project, to encourage students to study space science. It is the first cubesat developed under the KiboCUBE program, which is supported by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, and Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA. The launch was broadcast live at the University of Nairobi and on Kenyan television stations. JAXA astronaut Norishige Kansai sent a video message from the ISS, expressing his happiness at the development, and his hope to work together on future projects. Congratulations were also sent by the President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta the Japanese Ambassador, and the UN office supporting the program.

The Kenyan team was selected for the program in 2016, and for the second round, a cubesat will be designed by a team from the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala.

Russian Nuclear Agreements Prepare New Nations for Nuclear Power

May 16 (EIRNS)—Each year at Russia’s Atomexpo conference and exhibition Russia’s nuclear export company has signed multiple agreements and contracts to build new nuclear plants. The bulk of the contracts are with countries already operating nuclear power plants or other nuclear facilities, such as China, India, and nations in Eastern Europe. At this year’s Atomexpo, taking place this week in Sochi, agreements were signed with a number of nations that do not have nuclear facilities. Russia is making a longer-term commitment, to prepare nations for nuclear technology, with a focus on education and training, medical applications, and engineering, and creating government regulatory frameworks. World Nuclear News summarized the activity today.

Rosatom signed a Memorandum of Understanding, for example, with Chile’s Atomic Energy Commission, for education and personnel training. Cuba’s Ministry of Science, Technology, and Environment signed an MOU and a Strategic Partnership with Rosatom for the development and use of irradiation technologies, including development of a multi-purpose training center; radiation has applications in food preservation, and medical diagnosis and treatment.

Rusatom Healthcare and Shar Parto Iranian agreed to create a network of irradiation centers in Iran, equipped with electronic accelerators and gamma-ray units for the sterilization of pharmaceuticals, and medical and food products. Agreements with Saudi Arabia and Sudan are also indicative of laying the groundwork for nations to newly move into the nuclear age.