EDITORIAL

Schiller Institute Conference Puts Four-Power Alliance for a ‘New Paradigm’ of Development on Table

Sept. 13 (EIRNS)—On the eve of this year’s United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 18, the Schiller Institute convoked a conference today in New York City to mobilize American and international forces to jointly defeat the threat of global war, so the now-emerging new era of humanity dedicated to beauty and progress can triumph. Concretely: Can a core combination of nations can be assembled which is powerful enough to replace the British Empire system with a New Bretton Woods system like that intended by FDR, which would develop the developing countries, with 21st-century methods now, by allowing these countries to leapfrog to a level of complete development? Increasing their productivity, living standards, longevity and allow them to participate in the fruits of science and technology on the highest level?

That was the question posed by Schiller Institute founder and President Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her keynote address to the conference on “The End of Colonialism: A New Shared Future for Humanity.” As befits the tense historical moment, the dialogue among the speakers and the full house of over a hundred people gathered in the mid-Manhattan hotel was intense and engaged, with stopping the war drive on everyone’s minds.

Joining Zepp-LaRouche in addressing the conference over the course of its two panels were Dmitry Polyanskiy, First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations; Dr. Xu Wenhong, Senior Research Fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ One Belt, One Road Center (by pre-recorded video); former U.S. diplomat James George Jatras (by pre-recorded video); Virginia State Sen. Richard Black (by live video); Republican Party political strategist from the Trump faction Roger Stone (also by live video); and Jason Ross, co-author of the Schiller Institute’s Special Report, “Extending the New Silk Road to West Asia and Africa: A Vision of an Economic Renaissance.”

“We need to be conscious about the historical moment in which we find ourselves,” Zepp-LaRouche stated at the outset. “I don’t think I’m exaggerating it when I’m saying that from the standpoint of what [German poet] Friedrich Schiller would call universal history having arrived at what he calls in the drama, a ‘punctum saliens.’ What he means by that, is that the development of an entire universal history, or in the drama the plot, comes to the point where all the options up to that point are exhausted. It’s a dramatic moment where it depends entirely on the moral character of the main actor or the main figure on stage, whether the drama acts as a tragedy or if it has the potential to lead to a better period.

“And I think from the standpoint of universal history, if you take the entire many millions of years, but especially the last 10,000-20,000 years, the last 100 years, I think we are reaching such a point in history, where as my husband Lyndon LaRouche has said many times, the outcome of this historical period is entirely due to the moral character of the people. Where the question is posed: Does mankind have the moral fitness to survive or not?”

Certain leading forces are in a position to implement solutions which do exist, she continued, in setting the stage for the discussion. The question is, will the people of America, the people of Europe, the people of other continents give the support needed to these leaders to implement the solutions?

Zepp-LaRouche then proceeded to detail the elements deployed in today’s pre-war scenario: the preparations to blame Syria in a false flag chemical attack, the unending Skripal lie, the attempt to lure President Donald Trump into a full-fledged attack against Syria and Russia by the same forces desperately deployed to drive him out of office, one way or another. The dangers of an imminent financial breakdown and the chaos that could ensue. And the contrasting new world which is coming together with dramatic speed around the Belt and Road Initiative. The breakthroughs as “Africa is becoming the new China, but the new China with African characteristics,” and the “gigantic, strategic realignment in the direction of development” which just occurred around the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. She pointed out that what was discussed there “is that the Far East of Russia, in Siberia, will become the new frontier of the east. Remember that this is one of the untapped resources of the world, because in the Far East of Russia, you have all the elements of the Mendeleyev table in large quantities. So if you have joint investment from North and South Korea, from Japan, from Russia and from others to develop this regions—which the United States could easily participate in via the Bering Strait, and connect to this trans-Eurasian network—this means a lot of prosperity for many people on the planet for the next decades….

“Look at the changes in the world: You have Russia and China in a strategic alliance and at this Vladivostok summit, they will deepen their regional cooperation, according to the Volga-Yangtze mechanism. At the same time, Russia has, together with China, the largest [military] maneuvers in the Far East. So you see the two potentials: It’s very clear Russia and China are building a new world, but they’re also making very clear, they’re not going to be pushed over. They’re not going to start a war, but they also make very clear, they know how to defend themselves.”

She drove the point home in conclusion:

“I think people in the West have to make up their minds:

“Either we in the West, the United States and Europe, we join the new paradigm, or we go in the direction of confrontation, which if it would escalate, in all likelihood would mean the annihilation of civilization. And that is really the issue in the [U.S.] midterm elections. It’s not what people think—this or that—it is this, and I fully agree with [former German Deputy Defense Secretary] Willy Wimmer, that what stands between World War III and all of us, is Donald Trump. If he is driven out of office, one way or another, I would not give two pennies’ worth for world peace….

“We should think of today as us, in the present, from the standpoint of Schiller’s universal history: How would we like to be looked at from the standpoint of our grandchildren and great-grandchildren? Are we that force, that generation which initiated and contributed to the transformation of the world into a new paradigm, which ended colonization, and which got mankind’s history into the idea of the one humanity?

“Coming back to the idea of the punctum saliens in history, that jumping point, that point of decision where all the moral potential is called forth, to change this fact, to not end up in a tragedy, but to create a new, more beautiful period of human civilization, this is what is presently our situation. So let’s in this sense, work from the standpoint of a New Silk Road Spirit, to become truly human, and let that, in the sense of Percy Shelley, become the true ‘spirit of the age.’ ”

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Russian Defense Ministry Exposes That Chemical Provocations Were Filmed in Syria on Sept. 11

Sept. 13 (EIRNS)—The Reconciliation Center under the Russian Defense Ministry released details yesterday on the British/terrorist staging and filming of fraudulent “chemical attacks” in Idlib on Sept. 11, TASS reported yesterday.

“Militants have selected 22 children with their parents from the communities of Zitan, Zerbeh and Birnah in the Aleppo Governorate, for participation in staged chemical attacks. One more group of orphans abducted from refugee camps and intended for the filming of lethal scenes is being kept in a cell in the al-Iqab prison, controlled by the terror group Jabhat al-Nusra.” A total of nine faked episodes depicting the alleged use of “chemical warfare agents” by Syrian government troops have been filmed in Idlib with the participation of the White Helmets, the Center said. “Irrefutable information at our disposal says that yesterday, on Sept. 11, the camera crews of a number of Middle East-based TV channels and a regional affiliate of a U.S. channel, filmed nine sham scenes alleging the use of chemical warfare agents by Syrian troops against civilians,” the Center went on, not naming the television networks involved. But only two of these sham scenes were of sufficient quality to be broadcast. The rest will be spread through social media.

Some of the participants won’t just be acting. “White Helmets and terrorists are preparing for the real use of chlorine-based toxic agents against the civilian footage participants, in order to later accuse the Syrian army of the attack,” the Center said in its briefing.

Britain’s Alleged ‘GRU Killers’ Tell Interviewer They Were Tourists in U.K.

Sept. 13 (EIRNS)—Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT multimedia news broadcaster, has videotaped a full interview with two Russians who have been charged by Britain with the attempted murder of turncoat GRU Col. Sergei Skripal by “novichok” in Salisbury, England on March 4. The British claim the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are pseudonyms for killers with Russia’s military intelligence, GRU, but these men insist that they are civilian businessmen and those are their real names. Although they seemed nervous in the interview and would not produce identity papers—they have been charged with attempted murder, of course—no one has questioned the fact that they look just like the two “suspects” the British captured on multiple cable TV videos shown around the world.

They say they came to Salisbury on March 3 to see its famous clock tower, and Stonehenge, and the ancient Old Sarum settlement. But they left quickly because the city was covered in slush, and returned from London the next day to pursue their sightseeing. (The British had characterized the first visit as casing the area, and said they planted the poison when they returned the next day.)

Asked whether they had carried a fake Nina Ricci perfume bottle (allegedly filled with novichok), they said they had not, and asked why men would be carrying a bottle of ladies’ perfume. Customs would have asked them about it when they came into the country. They deny any connection with attempted murder or any knowledge of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who was also poisoned while visiting from Russia; two other individuals in Salisbury died in June, after supposedly picking up a discarded perfume bottle with novichok.

The interview has been widely broadcast in Russian, and RT has now posted a translation of the full transcript.

Britain’s Guardian writes that “British officials say Russia’s new denial was so ‘risible’ it left them speechless,” without giving any reason why it was “risible.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented drily on her Facebook page: “The Foreign Office says it is obfuscation and lies. Is it the same Foreign Office that claimed earlier that Petrov and Boshirov had passports in fake names? [U.K. Foreign Secretary] Boris Johnson seems to have left not a sinking ship but a leaky boat that Theresa May is steering.”

Human Rights Groups Demand ‘Justice for Yemen Means Justice for the World’

Sept. 13 (EIRNS)—As the 39th UN Human Rights Council Session in Geneva started (Sept. 10-28), the first of several side events organized by INSAN for Human Rights and Peace on Yemen, took place on Sept. 11th. Under the topic “Human Rights Violations and Crimes against Children in Yemen by the Saudi Coalition,” Aiman Al-Mansour, the President of INSAN; Abdusalam Aldhahebi, activist of INSAN in Sweden; Randi Nord, independent journalist and founder of Geopolitics Alert/U.S.A.); and Elke Fimmen of the German Schiller Institute, spoke at the first such event, which was moderated by Dr. Hassan Fartousi, researcher in International Law at the University of Geneva.

The meeting started off with an absolutely shocking video of happy children, who only minutes later were killed by a Saudi-coalition airstrike that hit their school bus on Aug. 9. In that attack, 40 boys, ages 6 to 11, were killed while on a school trip, and 11 adults with them also died. The weapon used was a laser-guided bomb made by Lockheed Martin, one of many thousands sold to Saudi Arabia as part of billions of dollars of weapons exports. Saudi Arabia is the biggest single customer for the U.S. and British arms industries, and both governments support the Saudi-led coalition with intelligence and refuelling their warplanes. On this topic, Randi Nord elaborated in her presentation.

Elke Fimmen opened the panel’s presentations with her speech “Justice for Yemen Means Justice for the World,” underlining that 9/11 began the series of disastrous, imperial geopolitical regime-change wars, which have brought civilization to the brink of thermonuclear confrontation of superpowers. Calling for full publication of classified documents on the Saudi networks behind 9/11 by the U.S. President, she spoke about the effort of the Schiller Institute for a Four-Power agreement for peace through development, and presented the Schiller Institute’s “Felix Yemen” Reconstruction plan, in the context of the New Silk Road dynamic. It will be only through such a complete shift in international relations, that civilization will have a chance, she stressed.

The UN Experts report on the humanitarian situation in Yemen, which was presented in August 2018, clearly documents that the horrendous situation in Yemen has been brought about as a result of Saudi-coalition airstrikes and blockades, Fimmen stated, and she called for wide circulation of the report and action on the level of the UN Security Council to stop this war now.

Aiman Al-Mansour presented more shocking facts about attacks on civilians and the situation of children from the UN Experts report. He contrasted the UN Convention for the Rights of Children with the present reality in Yemen in his speech “Children Under War in Yemen.”

Abdusalam Aldhahebi ended the panel by showing pictures of six individual children in Yemen in this war, appealing on everybody, to realize that we are not talking about numbers, when we speak about civilian victims, but about precious individuals, all of whom have their own personal history and their own story, and that every one of these children has a right to life and to a future.

Just before this meeting, on behalf of the Iraqi Development Organization, Abdusalam Aldhahebi had the opportunity to deliver a hard-hitting, one-minute statement to the ongoing plenary meeting of delegations, press and UN representatives, in which he called for a swift delivery of the new UN Eminent Experts report (“Situation of Human Rights in Yemen, Including Violations and Abuses Since September 2014,” published Aug. 17, 2018, A/HRC/39/43) to the members of the UN Security Council for immediate action to stop the war and the genocide caused by the Saudi-led coalition against civilians.

That report had been acknowledged by new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, in her opening presentation of the Council’s session, announcing further investigations and the holding to accountability for war crimes by those, which were identified by the report. Bachelet referenced the horrible school bus massacre, followed by other horrific series of airstrikes, leaving dozens of civilians and children killed and injured in Al Hudaydah. She also called the recent Saudi royal order practically providing a blanket pardon to members of the Saudi armed forces for actions taken in Yemen “very concerning.” Aldhahebi, while endorsing her statement, nevertheless insisted that there should be no further delay in stopping the war now and the start of political peace negotiations, instead of waiting for yet another series of reports and investigations, when the crimes have been sufficiently documented over and over again.

As this unspeakable, entirely man-made humanitarian crisis is happening in Yemen at this very moment, Western media and most politicians are neglecting the reality, and instead are constructing horror stories about an imagined “coming humanitarian crisis of unseen proportions in Idlib, Syria.” Such hypocrisy must stop and those responsible for planning and conducting genocide and those tolerating it, have be held to account!

Japan Prefers a ‘Free and Open’ Indo-Pacific Strategy

Sept. 13 (EIRNS)—Speaking at the two-day “Asia-Euro Policy Forum on Responding to Crises in East Asia,” which ended today in Japan, Adm. Yoji Koda (ret.), a former commander of the Japanese naval fleet, said Japan’s strategy was not meant to be exclusive. “Rather, it is a concept that all like-minded countries—including China—are more than welcome to join,” Singapore’s Straits Times reported. He pointed out that Japan and the United States have articulated their own vision of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy (FOIPS), but “the FOIPS is not an international organization, but it is a concept, and everybody should be welcome.”

Of late, Japan has been cautious about locating its strategy as a means of containing China. This comes as their formerly frosty ties are thawing, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe set to make a landmark visit to Beijing next month for a summit with President Xi Jinping, the article reported. (Although it is not yet officially announced.)

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono had said in an interview with the Straits Times last month, that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations “is at the heart of Japan’s FOIPS, which seeks to promote rule of law at sea and build high-quality infrastructure in areas across the Indian and Pacific oceans.”

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

More on Putin’s Plans at the Eastern Economic Forum

Sept. 13 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin’s address at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok which ended today, raises some interesting questions. The EEF was held on Russky Island, which had a population of just 5,360 in 2010. Russky Island is home to the Far Eastern Federal University and the southern span of the Russky Bridge, the world’s longest cable-stayed bridge, connecting the island to the mainland portion of Vladivostok. It is clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to repeat here a version of what he did in 2014 with the city of Sochi on the Black Sea, near the other end of Russia’s vast expense. Then, Russians were shocked that it had cost $50 billion to host the Olympics at that site, but Putin said that it would ultimately profit Sochi and Russia, and it has—as even the Washington Post has admitted. The investments have enabled Sochi to become a year-round resort, rather than just a summer retreat. The city had 6.5 million people visit there in 2017.

Putin intends to leverage the Eastern Economic Forum to make Vladivostok, and particularly Russky Island, into a major science and technology center for all of Northeast Asia. (Northeast Asian cooperation and co-development was a strong theme of the Chinese, South and North Korean and Japanese representatives at the Vladivostok forum.)

President Putin said in his plenary address: “We are meeting here on Russky Island at the Far Eastern Federal University, where we intend to start a world-class education and research center and develop it further. This includes, of course, construction of a technology park and a mega-science research installation that will allow solving completely new fundamental science and applied science tasks in pharmaceuticals, materials science and other spheres.

“I believe our major companies and corporations involved in Far Eastern projects, such as Rosneft, Gazprom, Rosatom and Roscosmos, aviation industry companies and others, should build their engineering facilities, research and development centers on Russky Island. The government and the top management of these corporations should consider this as direct instructions.”

More broadly, Putin said that Russia’s Far East, which has been a backwater, now has a “new role” as “the driving force of the national economy, innovations and culture,” which “will continue to expand in the years to come.” Improvements in the quality of life will enable a region which has been losing population, to stabilize and begin to grow.

Deals Worth $42.07 Billion Signed at Vladivostok Forum

Sept. 13 (EIRNS)—More than 6,000 delegates visited the Fourth Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, which featured 100 business events over Sept. 11-13. In addition, 175 agreements for a total of 2.9 trillion rubles, or $42.07 billion were signed, according to Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Yury Trutnev. “As of 9:00 a.m. [UTC+10], 175 agreements were signed for of 2.9 trillion rubles. If we recall the figures of the previous forums, at the first forum the figure reached 1.3 trillion rubles, the second, 1.8 trillion rubles; the third, 2.5 trillion rubles,” he said, reported TASS.

Trutnev cited as key projects the establishment of a mining and industrial enterprise based on the Baimsky ore area in Chukotka; Asian investment fund GenFund investing in the Far Eastern projects of the Russian agro holding Rusagro and the Nakhodka fertilizer plant; deliveries of 100 SSJ-100 Russian regional passenger jets to Aeroflot; and the construction of a terminal for Novatek LNG transshipment at Bechevinskaya Bay in Kamchatka.

“Within the framework of the forum, 100 business events were held with four main thematic sections: investor support tools, sectoral priorities of the Far East, global Far East international cooperation projects, and creating conditions for human lives … 6,002 delegates and 1,300 representatives of mass media participated in the conference,” he said.

Trutnev also told Sputnik that Russia is going to study the cost-effectiveness of the construction of a bridge between the Russian island of Sakhalin and Hokkaido, the northernmost of the Main Islands of Japan.

“Now we have different assessments of the cargo base. We will try to equalize the evaluations. It is difficult to forecast cost recovery of a big investment project. A difficult process is underway,” Trutnev said on the sidelines of the forum.

In July, President Putin had ordered the Russian government to study plans to construct a bridge from the Russian mainland to Sakhalin Island, which offers special difficulties. But these two bridges together would make Japan a continental state!

Speaking of Russia’s initiative toward a peace treaty with Japan, Trutnev remarked: “The peace creates the foundation in relations…. That is not a matter of exchange…. We are not assessing the economic effect here.”

China Invites Russia’s President Putin To Take Part in Second Belt and Road Forum in 2019

Sept. 13 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted Chinese President Xi Jinping’s invitation to take part in the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) in 2019, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported today.

The first Belt and Road Forum, which took place on May 14-15, 2017 in Beijing, marked a breakthrough in the political status of the China-launched effort, including participation of 29 heads of state and government, and 1,500 delegates. Among the major political leaders who spoke was the Schiller Institute’s Helga Zepp-LaRouche. Putin, in his address to the Eastern Economic Forum plenary, depicted the Belt and Road as “a civilization-wide project for the future of mankind.”

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Beijing Welcomes U.S.-Proposed New Round of Trade Talks

Sept. 13 (EIRNS)—China’s government has received an invitation from the United States for trade talks and welcomes it, the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Geng Shuang said in Beijing today, according to Reuters. According to a Wall Street Journal report, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has invited China’s Vice-Premier Liu He, President Xi Jinping’s top economic adviser, for negotiations in the coming weeks. No date or location for the talks has been made public yet.

Welcoming the offer to resume trade negotiations, a spokesman for China’s Commerce Ministry said at a weekly press conference today that it had received an invitation from the U.S. “Both sides are negotiating on some specific details. China believes the escalation of trade friction is not in the interest of either side,” the statement said.

Last month, China’s Ministry of Commerce had sent trade officials to Washington at the invitation of the United States, and talks between Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen and U.S. Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs David Malpass took place on Aug. 22-23. Those talks prepared the way for today’s announcements.