EDITORIAL
Victory Over the Desperate British Empire Is Now Within Reach!
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—Among the several significant events over the past few days—from the Koreas, to the Russian-Turkish-Syrian collaboration over Idlib—the outstanding development portending a world-historic shift, is the Sept. 17 announcement by President Donald Trump, ordering the declassification of documents pertaining to the British origins of Russia-Gate. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, president of the Schiller Institute, stressed this today in her weekly webcast:
“I think this is the most important strategic development, because as we have said many times, while countries in the world are already moving toward a completely new set of international relations, around the New Silk Road and a win-win cooperation; it is also clear that it all depends on the United States.
“Depending how the internal situation in the United States develops, I think it’s a question of war and peace. And two weeks ago, I think we mentioned Willy Wimmer’s statement which I agree with, which is that the only thing standing between all of us and World War III is the person of Trump. And that is not a full endorsement of Trump, it’s just the reality that the people who have been engaged in a coup attempt against him, together with the British government and British intelligence, these are the war-mongers and these are the people who are pushing for complete confrontation with Russia and China.
“In this strategic context, it is super-important that less than seven weeks before the mid-term elections, President Trump did, indeed, declassify a lot of documents pertaining to the FISA Court warrants based all on the fraudulent circulation of the Steele dossier—a real intelligence operation, and also a lot of the emails, but also interviews with 70 individuals involved in this affair.
“While this is not yet public, it will be public, and it will now go to the Congress, and basically we have to wait until they process all of this information and it gets out. It is very clear, from the reaction of the culprits, that, really, Trump has hit the absolute raw nerve….”
Zepp-LaRouche cited the hysterical reactions, from Congressional Democratic figures, to former heads of intelligence, who are demanding that the declassification not take place. The point is, she said, “All these crimes will come out in the open, and the role of British intelligence will be absolutely crystal clear: That there was no Russia collusion, but there was, indeed, criminal collusion between the Democratic Party apparatus, the heads of intelligence from the Obama Administration, and a foreign power, namely, Great Britain.”
Add to this picture, the new details provided by George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign associate, on how he was set up for the Russiagate ploy by British intelligence networks. Zepp-LaRouche spoke of the impact of all this coming out before the public. “If this continues to happen, I think we are going to see more things, and that all the congressmen who did look into all of this, they said, if the American people would just know the extent of this crime, they would get really upset. And I think this could be the big catharsis in American history.”
What it can mean, is freeing the President and nation from this British coup-assault, breaking open the opportunity for the United States to engage in collaboration with the Chinese, the Russians, the Indians, the Japanese and others into a whole new world development system. Beneficial economic relations can be worked out in the course of friendship diplomacy, ending the resort to geopolitical clashes. Even the tariff/trade conflicts can be superseded with beneficial new arrangements.
Zepp-LaRouche addressed the new escalation of the U.S.-China tariff attacks. She said, “If you get into this kind of dynamic, it is really bad. And I think this has absolutely nothing to do with the American System of economics. I think Trump means well, that he wants to bring industries back to the United States; but since we have said many times, that in order to pull the world out of the danger of this new financial crash, much worse than that of 2008, you need a New Bretton Woods system; and this can only be done if the four most important powers—and maybe more than four, but this is the core group which is absolutely necessary—namely the United States, Russia, China, and India, and possibly such countries as Japan. And you cannot make them enemies when you want to have a New Bretton Woods system! I think that is really the wrong way to go.
“I think the future lies with the New Paradigm, the participation of the United States in the New Silk Road, which would allow American companies to invest in all the countries of the Belt and Road Initiative, and also for Chinese investments inside the United States, for example, in the renewal of infrastructure, and also in technological increase of the productivity, such as joint cooperation for fusion power, joint space exploration, things which dramatically increase the productivity of the economy, and therefore making the cake bigger, and not by shrinking the cake and distributing the pieces of a smaller cake.”
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Pompeo Seeks for Immediate Talks with North Korea
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—South Korean President Moon Jae-In is coming to Washington Sept. 24, to brief President Trump on his talks with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un and bring the President a personal message from Kim, with whom President Trump intends to hold a second meeting.
At the same time, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, welcoming Kim Jong-un’s promise to dismantle a missile test site under the eyes of international inspectors, issued a statement saying “the United States is prepared to engage immediately in negotiations to transform U.S.-D.P.R.K. relations.”
Pompeo has invited North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho for talks in New York next week, during the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly. North Korean representatives were also invited to meet with the U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun in Vienna at the earliest opportunity, the State Department reported.
The Pentagon said it is continuing to back the State Department’s efforts on North Korea. “The Department of Defense remains in full support of our diplomats as they work to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of the D.P.R.K. as agreed to by Chairman Kim,” U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Christopher Logan said in an e-mailed statement to CNBC.
Indian and Pakistani Foreign Ministers To Meet on the Sidelines of UN General Assembly
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—Following a letter written Sept. 14 by Pakistan’s newly-installed Prime Minister Imran Khan to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking resumption of dialogue between the two neighbors, India has accepted an offer of talks on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting, which opened Tuesday. “We have decided that the meeting will be held between Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and her Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mehmood Qureshi,” said a spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, The Hindu reported today.
Khan’s letter is the first formal proposal for bilateral dialogue since he formed the government in Pakistan last month. “Referring to the PM as ‘Modi Sahab’ [Honorable Mr. Modi], he said Pakistan remains ready to discuss key issues ‘challenging the relationship’ including on terrorism and Kashmir,” reported CNN’s News18 in India. The Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria had met Khan in Islamabad last month.
China’s President Xi Jinping Speaks with Visiting Pakistani Army Chief
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—Visiting Pakistani Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa met with China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Sept. 19, and said that Pakistan understands the importance of peace, and has made many sacrifices to achieve it. “The BRI, with the CPEC [China Pakistan Economic Corridor] as its flagship, is destined to succeed despite all odds, and the Pakistan Army shall ensure the security of the CPEC at all costs,” he said, according to the Pakistani daily Express Tribune.
President Xi, appreciating the professionalism of Pakistan’s armed forces and acknowledging their role in regional peace and stability, said: “China shall continue to support Pakistan as a strategic partner. Those who oppose the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) or the CPEC shall never succeed, as this is an initiative of peace and development, not only for China but for the region and beyond.”
Bajwa started his three-day trip to Beijing on Sept. 19, making him the first senior Pakistani official to visit since the inauguration of a new government in Islamabad in August. Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Imran Khan has established a nine-member committee to evaluate the CPEC projects, and his commerce adviser Abdul Razak Dawood has questioned whether the deals worked to Pakistan’s advantage, the South China Morning Post reports.
Big Data Report Shows Rapid Rise in Trade Between China and Belt and Road Countries
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—According to the 2018 “Big Data Report on the BRI,” released at the 2018 Summer Davos Forum at Tianjin on Sept. 19, “the China-proposed Belt and Road initiative (BRI) has made solid progress in increasing connectivity among member countries and regions, and officials and experts noted that technological innovation will take the initiative to the next stage,” GBTimes media reported.
According to the report, the countries involved in the most cooperation projects with China under the BRI umbrella are Russia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, South Korea and Vietnam. Russia is ranked first for the third consecutive year. “In terms of policy exchanges, the top three countries are Russia, the Philippines and Cambodia. When it comes to trade, the volume between China and BRI countries has increased by 13.4% year-on-year—5.9% higher than China’s overall foreign trade growth rate,” wrote GBTimes.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Bruce Ohr’s Wife, Nellie Ohr, Reportedly Refusing To Give Testimony to House Investigative Panel
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—Nellie Ohr, the wife of former top DOJ official Bruce Ohr, since demoted, is refusing to give testimony to the Joint Panel of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee, according to Congressional sources, reported the Daily Caller, regarding a Sept. 21 scheduled appearance for a deposition.
Bruce Ohr, then Associate Deputy Attorney General, was acting as a back-channel into the FBI for British “ex” MI6 agent Christopher Steele, after the FBI had fired Steele as a confidential source. Nellie Ohr was working for Fusion GPS, the U.S. company that had hired Steele to produce the infamous dirty dossier on Donald Trump, for which the firm had been paid by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
‘We Seek a Treaty’ with Iran, State Department Official Tells Forum
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—Brian Hook, chief of the Iran Action Group in the State Department, told an audience at the Hudson Institute in Washington yesterday that the U.S. is seeking to negotiate a treaty with Iran. “The new deal that we hope to be able to sign with Iran—and it will not be a personal agreement between two governments like the last one—we seek a treaty,” Hook said, according to Reuters. Along with nuclear issues, it would address Iran’s ballistic missile program and its supposed regional behavior, particularly in Syria and Yemen.
Hook acknowledged that Iranian leaders have not been interested in talks, despite statements by President Trump this year that the administration was willing to meet. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani, and Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif “have all indicated they are not interested in talking,” Hook said. “We respect that, though that does not change our plans. We have a sanctions regime that is underway, [and] stronger measures are yet to come.”
Victoria Nuland-Run Think Tank Insists Washington Fight against China’s Belt and Road
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—The Center for a New American Security, a Washington Beltway think-tank headed by the notorious Victoria Nuland, who helped orchestrate the 2014 coup d’état by neo-Nazis in Ukraine, has just issued a belligerent and incompetent new report: “Power Play: Addressing China’s Belt and Road Strategy.” CNAS is heavy with Obama appointees and crackpot “counterinsurgency” specialists like John Nagl, and David Petraeus, who speaks at their events.
The CNAS press release, echoing the report’s executive summary, says:
“The United States and China are in a competition to shape the course of the 21st century. At stake is whether Beijing’s emerging vision—a world defined by great power spheres of influence, rigged economic interactions, and ascendant authoritarianism—will become the global reality.
“Central to Beijing’s ambition is its Belt and Road strategy, which seeks to bind together Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa, through a web of Chinese-funded physical and digital infrastructure.
“The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) is pleased to announce the release of a landmark new report, ‘Power Play: Addressing China’s Belt and Road Strategy,’ by CNAS experts Dr. Daniel Kliman and Abigail Grace. Drawing upon the authors’ experience serving in the Obama and Trump Administrations and extensive field research, the report concludes that the Belt and Road:
“•Cements China’s status as a global power;
“•Places the world economy at risk while strengthening China’s ability to compete;
“•Imperils democracy in some countries and promotes low-quality development.
“Kliman and Grace advance a number of bold and innovative recommendations for how the United States can compete with the Belt and Road, and offer positive alternatives in concert with America’s allies and partners. Key recommendations include:
“•Expand U.S. digital outreach, including establishing a digital development fund under the auspices of the OECD;
“•Develop and execute a counter-narrative to China’s Belt and Road strategy and prepare to capitalize on countries’ moments of disillusionment with Chinese investment;
“•Play defense and offense on military posture in the Indian Ocean;
“•Align strategic infrastructure investments by the United States, Japan, Australia, India, France, and the U.K.;
“•Promote regional connectivity plans, for example, by launching a new infrastructure initiative for the Middle East;
“•Foster political resiliency in countries that China targets for Belt and Road investment.
“Kliman and Grace conclude that, with a Belt and Road backlash already evident in some countries, the United States has a window of strategic opportunity….”
U.S. and Chinese Military Officials Organize Military Health Conference in Xi’an
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—A high-level meeting of the Asia Pacific Military Health Exchange was organized by the Chinese and U.S. militaries this week in Xi’an. The Sept. 17 conference was an opportunity to meet taken by both Chinese and U.S. military leaders.
Chinese Gen. Song Puxuan, head of China’s Central Military Commission’s Logistics Support Department, attended the opening of the conference, as did Terry Rauch, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. “This was the first exchange between the Chinese and U.S. militaries on military health for the Asia-Pacific and has attracted high attention from Asia-Pacific nations,” explained Chen Jingyuan, head of health at the Logistics Support Department. He said that the conference has improved relationships between doctors and militaries of different nations. All told the conference attracted some 600 participants from 28 countries in the region.
Rear Adm. Louis Tripoli, Command Surgeon of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, thanked the PLA for arranging the conference. “We hope that you feel how important it is for us to be here,” he said, according to Reuters.
The U.S. had withdrawn an invitation to China to attend the annual Rim of the Pacific exercise in May, which the Pentagon had said was in response to Beijing’s “militarization” of the South China Sea.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Turkish Expert Gives Reading on Putin-Erdogan Agreement for Idlib
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—Every day a little more evidence emerges, suggesting that the burden is on Turkey to make the agreement to peacefully liberate Syria’s Idlib province work, which was negotiated by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sept. 17. Metin Gurcan is a Turkish military advisor in Central Asia and Iraq, who subsequently became an Istanbul security analyst and earned a PhD studying the Turkish military. He wrote for Al Monitor website Sept. 19, that Erdogan has one month to implement the plan to disarm or otherwise remove Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), also known as Jabhat al Nusra (al-Qaeda), and like-minded jihadis from Idlib. Gurcan writes that, at the Astana guarantors summit of Putin, Erdogan, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran on Sept. 7, Putin objected to Erdogan’s demand for a ceasefire with HTS by saying: “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and other radicals aren’t at the [negotiating] table. We cannot give guarantees on their behalf.” So, now, “the most argued critical issue is, how can Ankara assure Moscow that Idlib radicals will agree to a demilitarized zone and removal of their heavy weapons?” Gurcan continues. “One likely answer is that Ankara will rely on its military power and its substantial influence on the armed opposition groups to convince them.”
However, despite the fact that Turkey has deployed somewhere around 1,300 troops into Idlib to man its 12 observation posts, and has provided them with heavy weapons, its military capabilities are limited by the fact that it cannot provide its own air cover, since the air space above Idlib is a no-fly zone for Turkish jets. “Russia’s monopoly [of the airspace] also means that, should clashes escalate around Idlib and Turkish troops are caught in the middle, Ankara will have to rely on Moscow for air evacuation and close-air support for those troops,” says Gurcan. “It will be interesting to see how Ankara tries to persuade Idlib radical groups—above all, HTS—to get on board with the Putin-Erdogan agreement.” The Turks are apparently offering them three choices: give up their weapons and demobilize, give up their guns and leave Idlib (where would they go?), or join the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army. “If there are groups that reject all options, Ankara will then be expected to provide Russia with intelligence and logistics to conduct targeted operations against them.”
Russia Discussing Evacuation of Rukban Refugee Camp in Syria with the U.S.
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—TASS reports this morning that the Russian Foreign Ministry is in discussion with its U.S. counterparts about the evacuation of the Rukban refugee camp, located within the U.S. military’s self-declared exclusion zone around the al-Tanf base near the Jordanian and Iraqi borders. “The U.S. side suggests settling the Rukban problem through evacuating the refugees to the territories controlled by the government of the Syrian Arab Republic. The details of a possible operation have not been discussed so far. We will continue closely working with the Americans to solve this issue,” said the ministry’s representative Nikolai Burtsev, at a meeting of Russian and Syrian refugee officials in Moscow. This is connected in some way to the eventual re-opening of the Nasib border crossing, through which the Jordanians expect that Syrian refugees in Jordan will return to Syria.
Germany To Lift Austerity Regime—To Boost Military Budget for NATO Aggression?
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger, chairman of the international Munich Security Conference, and throughout his career a hardline proponent of NATO and the trans-Atlantic system, has called on Germany to lift its strict austerity regime, the so-called “black zero”—to make extra funds available for boosting defense budgets! This is to protect Europe against Russia, naturally. Ischinger attacks Germany for not doing its job, leaving the hard work, such as dropping bombs on Syria to the Danes, while only committing itself to reconnaissance photography there. His is the same interventionist line as German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen—who is said to be Chancellor Angela Merkel’s candidate for next Secretary General of NATO.
Ischinger has previously called for a NATO intervention against Assad’s alleged chemical weapons arsenal, following the model of NATO’s military mission against Serbia in the Balkans wars of the 1990s. Since the Russian military intervention in Syria, Ischinger has complained, like the rest of the neo-cons, that the West has left the field to the Russians there—who were, after all, asked for aid by the duly elected government. He is, however, in favor of a dialogue with Moscow—but on NATO terms. The fact that there are no direct high-level contacts between NATO and Russia, poses, for Ischinger, the biggest war danger since the Cold War: Someone may press a button now, and there we go. It is also said that Ischinger belongs to the group which sees China as a greater threat to the trans-Atlantic West in the long run.
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
EU Wants To ‘Show the Flag,’ Even Moots EU Investment Funding, To Counter China
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—In Brussels yesterday, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini announced a European strategy against China, to be presented at the October Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit, claiming that in her travels and visits to 20 Asian states, she found them highly interested in the “European way of connectivity,” as opposed to the Chinese one. Governance, ecological sustainability, rejection of the “debt trap,” and “eye-level partnership” are trademarks of the EU approach, which as Mogherini said, is formulated “independently, without taking a dictate from either Beijing, Washington, Moscow, or Timbuktu.”
Apparently, a good part or even most of the new strategy has been worked out by the EU-Asia Centre in Brussels, which is hostile to China, charges the China with geopolitical patronizing, grabbing for owning infrastructure in other countries, and “distorting trade flows.”
Supposedly, the EU is going to pass a special budget of €123 billion for flag-showing investments against China in Europe’s south, southeast and east, in its next seven-year budget 2021-2027. Bart Broer, of the EU-Asia Centre, bragged that Mogherini’s remarks signals “that Europe is now a player in the global Great Game,” the British Empire’s term for geostrategic empire building.
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