EDITORIAL

The Target of the Kavanaugh Hearings Was You

Sept. 30 (EIRNS)—On Tuesday, Sept. 25, President Trump declared war on the institutions of the British Empire, starting with “globalization.” This was a delight for many national leaders from around the world who have suffered the loss of sovereignty (or never truly gained real sovereignty when granted formal independence from their colonial masters), who have been forced to accept “free trade” policies, preventing any protection from London and Wall Street banks and the IMF. Those leaders who put up any resistance to the virtual enslavement of their nation are subjected to the imperial “Star Chamber” known as the International Criminal Court, which Trump rightly denounced for “violating all principles of justice, fairness, and due process.” They heard Trump declare that the only solution to the horror of entire nations being controlled by drug gangs and people-traffickers was real development—“Make their countries great again,” he declared.

Can Trump carry through on this call to arms? Can he act to abolish the British Imperial institutions which have destroyed the principles established by the Peace of Westphalia, the principle of sovereign nations united by the concept of “the benefit of the other?” This is up to us. Trump was elected as the Republican Party candidate, to the shock of most of the Republican Party leaders, and then as President, to the shock of the entire establishment, precisely because he was willing to denounce the British Imperial policies which have destroyed our Republic—permanent warfare, legalized drugs, post-industrial degeneration, and cultural decay. It is not yet clear if he can succeed, but he has proven to be a fighter, driving the British to fits of hysteria and a desperate campaign to remove him from power through the Russiagate scam. That scam is now crumbling, as the corrupt intelligence operatives from the Bush and Obama era, who were serving the British Empire, are now fully exposed for their crimes, while the British orchestration can no longer be concealed.

Thus, the Kavanaugh hearings, in which the Empire tried to change the subject, creating a disgusting circus, whose target was not Kavanaugh, and not even Trump, but you. LaRouche PAC’s Barbara Boyd, whose remarks to a Michigan audience on Saturday are now posted for the nation, compared the hearings to the bloody Roman Circus, sucking the population into blood lust in gladiator games, to destroy their powers of reason. “Tell me,” Boyd asked, “does anyone even remember or know what kind of Judge Brett Kavanaugh is, what his judicial philosophy is? Think about that, as the Coliseum crowd, our national news media, demands that you opine about things they say he allegedly did at the ripe old age of 17.  Thumbs up, thumps down. In the new Roman world we have inhabited since the 2016 election, it’s all you have to do to claim your title as citizen.”

But being a citizen today requires far more. Percy Shelley wrote, in his “In Defense of Poetry,” that in revolutionary times, as we are surely in today, “there is an accumulation of the power of communicating and receiving intense and impassioned conceptions respecting man and nature.”

The old paradigm has broken down, and not only in the United States. Europe is in turmoil, as the governments of Germany and the United Kingdom could fall at virtually any minute. Other nations, led by the new Italian government, are mobilizing themselves and others to reject the anti-Russian and anti-China insanity, and joining joyfully in the new paradigm represented by China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the greatest international development program in the history of mankind.

The immediate task for every American is to crush the British attempt to overthrow the government of our nation. Regardless of party affiliation, the fact that the Democratic Party has been captured by British tyranny, aiming to impeach a President whom they admit has committed no crime, on behalf of a foreign power, means that their candidates must be defeated in the Nov. 6 election.

The means to achieve that is to convey far and wide the urgency of the LaRouche PAC Campaign To Secure the Future, and recruit candidates for office to support it, as Republican Jeff Jones has done in his Congressional race in Michigan.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

The Trump Administration Is Maneuvering To Disable the WTO Appellate Body

Sept. 29 (EIRNS)—The U.S. does not have veto power over the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization’s Dispute Settlement Body, but it apparently does have the power to veto appointments to the group of judges who hear the cases. According to Forbes today (and other press accounts), the Trump Administration is using that power to weaken or even collapse the Appellate Body.

There are seven judges on the Appellate Body, and there must be three of those judges hearing every case. However, there are three vacancies in the group, reportedly because the U.S. will not approve any appointees or extensions, and a fourth spot will be vacated on Monday, Oct. 1, due to forced retirement. With only three people left, if a case necessitates a recusal by any of the three, the body will not be able to hear the case. Two more judges end their terms in December 2019.

Forbes quotes Dennis Shea, the U.S. Ambassador to the WTO, who said in May that the Appellate Body had become a “rogue organization” that routinely breaks the rules under which it is supposed to operate. “Rules that we, as WTO members, negotiated and approved domestically,” Shea said, “stipulate that the Appellate Body must render its decisions within 90 days—there are no exceptions given.  And yet the AB now almost never meets that deadline.” He also complained that the WTO allows judges to finish cases they were working on when their term ends.

These certainly sound like technical complaints, but the objection from Trump is not technical. As with the defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the WTO court has jurisdiction over sovereign states (although the TPP court was to be even more powerful), and Trump is demanding a restoration of sovereignty over globalization “world government” institutions.

Senators Say Feinstein, Her Staff, and Ford’s Lawyers Will Be Investigated

Sept. 30 (EIRNS)—Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) told CBS News’ Meet the Press today that in their handling of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, “the Democrats have turned the advise and consent process into a search and destroy mission” and “have disgraced this process and the United States Senate.”  He said that witness Christine Blasey Ford’s lawyers “are going to face a D.C. bar investigation into their misconduct,” and that “[Senator] Dianne Feinstein and her staff are going to face an investigation for why they leaked” the accusation letter that Blasey Ford had sent them in confidence.

Cotton explained that the Senate Judiciary Committee had a “well-established process of confidentiality,” and that Feinstein and other Democrats, rather than follow that process to satisfy Blasey Ford’s request for confidentiality, acted to create the circus the nation witnessed on Thursday, Sept. 27. Rather than arrange for a discreet investigation of the charges contained in the letter, they leaked it to the news media. That done, they recommended lawyers to Blasey Ford who, as Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) explained during the hearing, failed to inform Ford that the committee would be willing to send representatives to California to interview her so she could avoid the public spectacle that emerged.  That fraud against their client is the basis for the D.C. bar investigation Cotton referred to.

The CBS anchor John Dickerson demonstrated the character of the “crush Kavanaugh” campaign by repeatedly cutting off Senator Cotton with the accusation that his failure to automatically accept Blasey Ford’s unsubstantiated charges was discouraging all victims of abuse from coming forward with their complaints.

Also today, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures that he would ask Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley “to get to the bottom of how this hearing process was hijacked.”  He read from notes on a discussion with Blasey Ford in which she said, “I just appreciate that you did offer that [being interviewed in California].  I wasn’t clear on what the offer was.”  He then read from correspondence between the committee and Ford’s lawyers in which the offer was clearly made, and the lawyer’s response, “Dr. Ford has asked me to let you know that she appreciates the various offers made.”  He also was concerned about Ford’s statement during the hearings that Senator Feinstein had recommended attorney Debra Katz to Ford, because it is improper for a senator to recommend an attorney to a constituent.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Jihadis in Idlib Will Not Be Allowed Free Passage out of Syria, Lavrov Confirms

Sept. 29 (EIRNS)—Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov vowed yesterday that there will be no safe passage for the jihadis to Afghanistan or anywhere else. “There is talk that they will be sent off to other hotspots, for example Afghanistan,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference at UN headquarters following his address to the UN General Assembly. “This is unacceptable. They have to be eliminated or there has to be a judicial process,” he said. Lavrov said Turkey faced “not a simple task” in Idlib, noting that the United States had also promised to persuade moderate fighters to split from the jihadist groups but failed to deliver.

The “not simple task” that Turkey faces in Idlib is the disarming and disbanding of jihadi groups like Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) and the Turkestan Islamic Party, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they met in Sochi, Russia on Sept. 14.

Lavrov also reported that deliveries of the S-300 air defense system to Syria have begun. This measure has been taken in order to ensure “100% safety of Russian servicemen in Syria,” he said. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al Muallem, when asked in New York if he thought the S-300 might close Syrian airspace to Israel, replied, “I hope so.”

U.S. Intelligence Official Shoots Down Netanyahu’s Nuclear Provocation against Iran

Sept. 28 (EIRNS)—In his United Nations General Assembly speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented his “show and tell” of a secret nuclear facility in Iran. His allegation was disputed by an unnamed U.S. intelligence official cited by Israel’s Ynetnews and by Reuters. Netanyahu told the UNGA, that “What I’m about to say has not been shown publicly before…. Today I’m revealing the site of a second facility, Iran’s secret atomic warehouse.”

Unimpressed, the U.S. official countered: “First, we have known about this facility for some time, and it’s full of file cabinets and paper, not aluminum tubes for centrifuges, and second, so far as anyone knows, there is nothing in it that would allow Iran to break out of the JCPOA [2015 nuclear deal] any faster than it otherwise could.”

Another U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said the United States is aware of this facility and described it as a “warehouse” used to store “records and archives” from Iran’s nuclear program.

Netanyahu claimed the site had 15 kg of radioactive material that has since been moved. Netanyahu insisted the UN International Atomic Energy Agency inspect the location immediately with Geiger counters.

Netanyahu also attacked what he said was Iran’s ballistic missile activity, identifying three locations near Beirut airport, where he said Lebanon’s Hezbollah was converting missiles. “In Lebanon, Iran is directing Hezbollah to build secret sites to convert inaccurate projectiles into precision-guided missiles, missiles that can target deep inside Israel within an accuracy of 10 meters,” he said. “Israel knows what you’re doing and Israel knows where you are doing it,” he warned. “What Iran hides, Israel will find.’

Since it has become difficult for Israel to attack Syria, Netanyahu’s statement might be seen as a threat to attack Lebanon. Since Netanyahu identified the alleged Hezbollah site as being next to Beirut’s international airport, it makes the airport an obvious target that could put civilians in serious danger.

ECONOMY

Savona Considers Italy’s Budget Decision Means ‘Now It Will Be War with Old Europe’

Sept. 29 (EIRNS)—Paolo Savona, a senior member of the Italian government, yesterday told a think tank that Italy’s sovereign decision on the budget means war with the EU. “Without a strong political will we could not have done anything. We threw the down gauntlet to the Old Europe. Now we must win the war, because it will be war.”

The deficit planned for 2018 allows for spending up to €40 billion, which the government aims to invest mostly in alleviating poverty and partly for the creation of jobs. The minimum pension will be raised to €780 and a system similar to Germany’s Hartz IV will be introduced for the unemployed starting in April 2019. Furthermore, the fund for compensation of small bank bondholders will be increased to €15 billion.

A tax cut for small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and a tax amnesty for up to €500,000 is also aimed at favoring SMEs. It is not clear how much will go to direct investments in infrastructure, although Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini spoke about a program for roads and bridges.

Reactions in media elsewhere in Europe seem to confirm Savona: “Italy, a Debt Party” (Süddeutsche Zeitung); “An Open Insult” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung); “Italy—A Gamblers’ Budget” (Süddeutsche Zeitung); “Italy Provokes Europe and the Markets” (Die Presse); “Italy’s Not the New Greece. It’s the New Argentina” (Politico); “Italy’s Budget Plan Set for Collision Course with Brussels” (Daily Telegraph).

Malaysia’s Dr. Mahathir Exposed Lies about ‘China Debt Trap,’ at Asia Society in New York

Sept. 30 (EIRNS)—On Sept. 27, Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad spoke at the Asia Society in New York City, in conversation with former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, president of the Asia Society Policy Institute. With much humor, the 93-year-old statesman thoroughly debunked the “China debt trap” lies and continued his attack against the international currency traders who orchestrated the Asian Tigers crisis in 1997.

In his opening statement, he said that Malaysia has postponed the two China-led rail projects “not because of China’s mistake or fault, but because of our (previous) government who started projects which we cannot afford.” He further elaborated that the last administration’s total borrowing amounted to more than $1 trillion. This totally refutes the claim found in all the Western attacks on the Belt and Road, which always identify Mahathir’s postponement of the projects as alleged proof of resistance to China’s “imperial” Belt and Road Initiative.

He also praised China’s President Xi Jinping highly: “More than any other Chinese leaders since Mao Zedong, Xi Jinping has stronger belief in nationalism; in making China a great country.” And, as a few world leaders who have met both Xi and Deng Xiaoping, Mahathir even stated that “Xi is far more dedicated than Deng Xiaoping.”

Mahathir’s friendship with Xi goes back some years. In October 2013, right after Xi’s announcement in Indonesia of the Maritime Silk Road, Xi stopped in Malaysia where he met with Mahathir, who was not then in office. The two men formed the Cheng Ho Association (named for China’s 15th-century explorer, Admiral Zheng He) to promote China-Malaysia friendship. It is from his deep appreciation of Chinese-Malaysia relationship that Mahathir, whenever prompted to comment on the South China Sea conflict, emphasizes that Malaysia has lived with China for more than 2,000 years, and that China “has never tried to conquer us,” as he also did in the Asia Society address.

Asked to comment on the ongoing currency wars against Argentina and Turkey, Mahathir took the opportunity to sharply warn against currency trading. “The Asian financial crisis of 1997 to 1998 was created by the currency traders who can buy and trade currencies that they don’t even own! And devalue the currency.”

Pointing out that such practice is “morally wrong,” Mahathir declared: “Currency is not a commodity; you cannot eat it! So currencies should not be traded like commodities.”

Philippine Journalist Refutes the ‘Debt Trap’ Story

Sept. 30 (EIRNS)—A Philippine journalist (long in touch with the LaRouche movement) issued a stinging rebuke to the “debt trap” story flooding the Western press—and also in the Philippines—by the anti-China conspirators. Zaida Reyes begins her article of Sept. 26 in the Daily Tribune: “For the past few years we have been reading incessant accusations from Western media and academic circles, then echoed in social media, about China’s alleged debt trap diplomacy. Here in the Philippines we are also bombarded with propaganda that the Philippines-China agreement is leading the country into a debt trap with Beijing.”

The facts, however, show that the nation’s foreign debt, which is $72.2 billion, under Duterte has been reduced by nearly $1 billion. Less than 1% of that debt is from China. Reyes quotes from Duterte’s Finance Secretary Carlos Sonny Dominguez who told a Senate hearing in July: “ ‘When the Americans bombed Manila (in 1945), then gave us little money to fix it up, they extracted from us….’ ” She continues, “Clearly, the Philippines has been chained to a debt trap since the 1950s under IMF structural conditionalities.”

Reyes also points to the repeated forced devaluations and “structural adjustments” forced on the country: “i.e., ‘decontrol’ trade, devalue the peso and liberalize capital flows causing the peso to slip,” multiplying the foreign debt through currency manipulation, with nothing being built by this false debt.

She explains: “The Philippines has been chained to the IMF, World Bank and ADB [Asia Development Bank] debt trap since the 1960s, yet Amboys (American boys) in the country such as Magdalo’s Rep. Gary Alejano, Amboy think tanks like the Albert del Rosario Institute and its stable of writers and talking heads such as Richard Heydarian [a Filipino who is the darling of the CFR and the CSIS—ed.], behave as if this fact did not exist and instead point an accusing finger at the Duterte administration’s financial dealings with China constituting such a minuscule amount today as the ‘debt trap’ problem.”

She further states that “much of China’s financial commitment so far has come in the form of grants,” while the large loans for big infrastructure projects are at about 2%, and will dramatically improve the productivity of the nation with roads, railways, water control and more. President Xi Jinping will be visiting the Philippines in December, where several major projects will be officially signed. “Yet, even before this mega government-to-government project is being signed,” Reyes continues, “privately led Chinese investments have already been arriving by the droves.”

She concludes: “So let’s get it straight, the ‘debt trap’ has been the legacy of the Western Powers working through their multilateral financial institutions—the IMF, World Bank and the Japanese-led ADB.”

Argentina Announces New IMF Package During Banker Lovefest in New York

Sept. 28 (EIRNS)—Sitting next to IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, Argentine Finance Minister Nicolas Dujovne on Sept. 26 announced a revised bailout deal by which the Fund will add $7 billion to the $50 billion agreement signed only last June, and provide all disbursements of what was a three-year program, by the end of 2019—just in time for presidential elections. This ostensibly will ensure that Argentina won’t default on its debt—not at all guaranteed—and comes in exchange for more brutal austerity. What is guaranteed is a social explosion.

The new package, announced after neo-liberal President Mauricio Macri and Dujovne spent several days slavishly courting Manhattan’s investment bankers and hedge funds, stipulates that the peso will now float between two bands (instead of “floating freely”) with a range of between 34 and 44 to the dollar. The Central Bank will also have more flexibility to intervene in the exchange markets, using foreign reserves to prop up the currency which collapsed from 17 to the dollar to 42, just in the past year.

Today, while the peso continued its downward spiral, dropping by 3%, the Central Bank raised interest rates from 60% to 65%. In a speech yesterday explaining the new package, Macri blamed the recent economic debacle on “external” factors, and proclaimed that the just-announced poverty rate of 27.3%—up two points from a few months ago—is unfortunate, but will slowly go down. “Not my fault,” was his line.

Reflecting a generalized sentiment in the country, the daily Ambito Financiero commented today that, “Whereas no one in the developing world wants to be seen in a photo with IMF officials, since [the Fund] is considered to be a real executioner, Argentine officials not only appear anxious to be in photos and videos with IMF officials, but they also blatantly declare that the country must ‘fall in love’ with Christine Lagarde,” as Macri did in gushing public comments in Manhattan this past week. “The rest of the world observes with amazement the way in which Argentina, almost desperately, places almost all its economic policy in the hands of this international agency.”

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Austria’s Chancellor Kurz To Join President Putin in Opening Hermitage Exhibit in St. Petersburg

Sept. 29 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz will hold talks in St. Petersburg on Oct. 3, Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov told TASS yesterday. Kurz and Putin will be unveiling a joint exhibition, “Imperial Capitals: St. Petersburg-Vienna” at the Hermitage Museum.  The exhibition, which opens officially on Oct. 5, has been organized by the State Hermitage in collaboration with the Kunsthistorisches Museum, art history museum of Vienna. Works to be displayed from both museums, originally in the monarchical collections, include master artists Sandro Botticelli, Jacopo Tintoretto, Hans Holbein, Frans Hals, Rembrandt van Rijn, Nicolas Poussin, and Antoine Watteau.

In addition, the nations’ two leaders will also have talks on trade and investment, including on energy. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the press on Sept. 27 that Putin and Kurz had established “a rather constructive and intensive dialogue that will be continued,” and that Russian-Austrian relations are developing “on the line of ascent.” He also said that “the leaders take advantage of every meeting to exchange in detail opinions on hot-button issues. These are Ukraine, Syria, relations of Russia and the European Union, among other issues.”

North Korea and South Korea Determined To Begin Rail Inspection in October

Sept. 29 (EIRNS)—A few weeks ago, North and South Korea attempted to perform a joint testing of the existing rail lines across the border, to determine where reconstruction will be necessary, in time to meet their self-defined deadline for opening the lines by the end of the year. However, Gen. Vincent Brooks, head of the UN Command which controls the DMZ, refused to let the train pass through the DMZ, claiming it would break sanctions.

On Sept. 28, however, South Korean presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom announced from Cheong Wa Dae, the presidential residence, that the two Koreas would perform the rail testing before the end of October, saying only that “We are going to negotiate with the United Nations Command (UNC) over the plan by the two Koreas.”

“To hold a groundbreaking ceremony for inter-Korean railways and highways this year,” said Kim, “we need to kick off the field inspections at least within next month.” This would be necessary to “fulfill the recent agreement reached during the inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang, where President Moon Jae-in agreed on the plan with his northern counterpart Kim Jong-un,” said the Korea Times.

The Times reports that the plan is expected to go forward in light of the successful meeting between Presidents Moon and U.S. President Donald Trump in New York this past week. “A roadmap over the North Korean policy has been drawn during Moon’s U.S. visit when he delivered the speech and held a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump,” Kim Eui-kyeom said.

Lavrov at UN Blasts British Role—False Flag Gas Attacks; Chamberlain at Munich, Nazis in Ukraine

Sept. 30 (EIRNS)—Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, representing Russia at the UN General Assembly on Sept. 28, referenced the British use of the White Helmets staging fake chemical weapon attacks in Syria, aimed at provoking war, and the revival of Nazism in Ukraine.

“Some of our Western colleagues who want to assign blame,” he said, “are content to rely on assertions in the vein of the notorious ‘highly likely.’ We have already been through this. We remember well how many times false pretexts were used to justify interventions and wars, like in Yugoslavia in 1999, Iraq in 2003 and Libya in 2011.

“Now the same methods are being used against Syria. On April 14, it was subjected to missile strikes carried out under an absolutely falsified pretext, several hours before international inspectors were supposed to arrive at the site of the staged [gas attack] incident. Let the terrorists and their patrons be warned that any further provocations involving the use of chemical weapons would be unacceptable.

“This year is the 80th anniversary of the Munich conspiracy that crowned the criminal appeasement of the Third Reich and serves as a sad example of the disastrous consequences that can result from national egotism, disregard for international law and seeking solutions at the expense of others.

“Regrettably, today in many countries the anti-Nazi vaccine has not only weakened, there is a growing campaign to rewrite history and whitewash war criminals and their accomplices…. The growth of radical nationalism and neo-Nazism in Ukraine, where criminals who fought under SS banners are glorified as heroes, is one of the main factors of the protracted domestic conflict in Ukraine.”

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Roscosmos Outlines Russian Plans To Build Moon Base by 2030

Sept. 29 (EIRNS)—“I believe that Russia’s first inhabitable module on the surface of the Moon will emerge around 2030 or a little later,” said Igor Mitrofanov, the chief of the nuclear planetology department at the Russian Academy of Sciences Space Research Institute, speaking to TASS on Sept. 28. “Not a full-scale base yet, but a kind of guest house for visiting expeditions,” Mitrofanov said. He said he believes that Russia is capable of carrying out such a program on its own both technologically and financially.

On Sept. 24, Roscosmos said Russia had plans for building its own base for space crews on the surface of the Moon. The possibility of cooperation with NASA or other of the BRICS countries is being considered, the agency said. The first module of such a base will be equivalent in size to the module of the International Space Station, planted firmly on the Moon’s surface and covered with a one-meter thick layer of lunar soil, which would protect it even from the effects of strong solar flares, according to Roscosmos.

Mitrofanov said Russian cosmonauts will arrive in landing capsules, which are relatively small in size. The life support system on the module would use lunar resources, “including water ice, which might be used to make fresh water and oxygen and, in the longer term, hydrogen that might serve as propellant in space rockets.”