THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2019

Volume 6, Number 36

EIR Daily Alert Service

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

• Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping Show Why the British Fear Them and Why Trump is Right to Be Friends
• President Xi Tells Chang’-4 Workers, Space Exploration is the ‘Common Dream of All Mankind’
• Putin Addresses Federal Assembly: Russia Has Been and Will Be ‘A Sovereign and Independent State’
• Green New Deal Creating Guide To Become Perplexed: ‘What in the Heck Is This?’
• Trump Preparing Executive Committee To Take on Climate Change
• Amidst Venezuelan-U.S. Standoff, Provocations Abound
• U.S. Marines Training To Fight ‘Big Wars’
• Russia Will Seek To Prosecute White Helmets for Supporting Terrorism
• UN Envoy Griffiths Tells Security Council, Agreement on Yemen Demilitarization Is Progressing
• Mohammed bin Salman Looks for Development in League with Russia, China, India, and the U.S.
• Ethiopia Brought in Two Chinese Firms To Speed Up the Completion of Nile Dam
• Anti-Brexit Blair Followers and Tories Try To Stop Labour Party Leader Corbyn

EDITORIAL

Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping Show Why the British Fear Them, and Why Trump Is Right To Be Friends

Feb. 20 (EIRNS)—The urgency of convening LaRouche’s “Four Powers”—Russia, China, India, and the U.S.—to implement a New Bretton Woods reform of the bankrupt Western financial system, and finally put an end to the geopolitics of the British Empire, was demonstrated today by major speeches by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. The speech by Putin—his annual state of the union to the Federal Assembly—and by Xi—a speech to the scientists and engineers who placed the Chang’e 4 on the far side of the Moon—conveyed an optimism and a vision for the future of Mankind which reflected the ideas and the passion of Lyndon LaRouche over these past fifty years. Both speeches are excerpted below. If not for the frantic British coup attempt against President Donald Trump, his stated commitment to such optimism and scientific progress would be lifting the U.S. out of the Western morass, to join Russia and China in the New Silk Road, in cooperation in space, and in building a new global financial system to replace the broken gambling casinos in London and on Wall Street.

Trump is so far sticking to his intention to pull the U.S. out of the colonial wars in Syria and Afghanistan. With Asia and the Mideast moving towards peace through development within the geometry of the New Silk Road, the British are throwing their full weight behind dragging Trump into a contrived war in the Americas. While Russia and others are sending aid to Venezuela, neo-con fanatic Sen. Marco Rubio is in Colombia, trying to provoke regime change, and perhaps even all-out war. As of now, Trump has been echoing the regime-change line, but he must be freed from the British Empire operations and urged to follow the kind of approach exemplified by the Singapore Model that is working so well with North Korea.

Plans for a Memorial for Lyndon LaRouche are in preparation. Greek Prof. George Tsobanoglou, a long-time friend of LaRouche and the Schiller Institute, today issued his condolences to Helga Zepp-LaRouche, adding: “If I may suggest, there is a need for an International Conference in a key European Capital to articulate the work of Lyndon H. LaRouche and the principles he devoted his life for. This I believe will be a Mnemosynon [memorial], as his ideas will be in dialogue with the Future, which is already here.”

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

President Xi Tells Chang’e-4 Workers, Space Exploration Is the ‘Common Dream of All Mankind’

Feb. 20 (EIRNS)—This afternoon, China’s President Xi Jinping congratulated some 400 of the scientists and engineers who worked on the Chang’e-4 lunar mission, at a meeting in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

He emphasized, in paraphrase, that space exploration is endless, and that China’s vast number of scientific and technological workers and space workers must advance their overall goal of the lunar exploration project, continue to work hard to promote the development of the world’s space industry, and contribute more Chinese wisdom to the building of a shared community of human destiny.

President Xi congratulated everyone who contributed to the development of China’s space industry, and to all those who participated in the outstanding achievements of the Chang’e-4 mission, realizing the first spacecraft to explore the far side of the Moon. With that, China took the lead in engraving a Chinese footprint on the back of the Moon.

Xi Jinping emphasized that great undertakings start with dreams. Dreams are the source of energy. The Chinese nation is a nation that dares to chase dreams. The implementation of the lunar exploration project is the dream of the Chinese nation’s self-improvement. Every bold idea and successful implementation of the lunar exploration program is a full demonstration of the human ability to recognize and utilize the planet.

Xi Jinping pointed out that “practice tells us that great undertakings are based on innovation. Innovation determines the future. Building a world of science and technology is not a smooth road. Only innovation can seize the opportunities. This Chang’e-4 task has achieved a number of innovations, filling a series of international and domestic gaps…. We must … strive to achieve major breakthroughs in key core technologies, and upgrade the national innovation system … and strive to occupy an important place in the world’s high-tech fields.

“Exploring the vast universe is the common dream of all mankind,” he said. “China aerospace actively promotes international cooperation and has carried out fruitful cooperation with many countries and international organizations. The success of the Chang’e-4 mission has included the contributions of many participating countries. We are willing to work with other countries in the world to adhere to joint construction and sharing, to strengthen international exchanges in basic scientific research, promote the construction of large-scale scientific plans, projects and centers, expand open cooperation in innovation capabilities, and promote the development of human science.”

Putin Addresses Federal Assembly: Russia Has Been and Will Be ‘A Sovereign and Independent State’

Feb. 20 (EIRNS)—In his annual address to the Federal Assembly today, President Vladimir Putin defined the major goals of both his domestic and foreign policy, with a heavy emphasis, in domestic policy, on the development of science and technology, which, he stated, is directly correlated with how Russia develops economically and how successful it is in defending the welfare of its people—restoring population growth and creating the conditions in which individuals, families, children, professionals, and businesses can flourish.

He especially emphasized the importance of educating young people, telling them that “your talents, energy and creative abilities are among Russia’s strongest competitive advantages. We understand and greatly value this.” Passion for a future career and creativity “is formed at a young age,” he said.

Russia faces great challenges, he explained, but there can be no delay in working to overcome them. The objectives are challenging, but lowering the requirements or watering them down “is not an option.” There can be no business as usual. Forget thinking that some things are impossible, too difficult, or will not work. “With such an attitude you had better stay away.” You cannot fool people; they’re not interested in red tape or bureaucracy. They want to see what has an impact on their lives, “and not sometime in the future, but now … we have to change the situation for the better now.”

He reminded his audience: “People are at the core of the national projects, which are designed to bring about a new quality of life for all generations. This can only be achieved by generating momentum in Russia’s development.” The only way to reduce poverty is through greater economic growth, he said. By 2021, it should be over 3%.

What follows are highlights of his nationally televised 1.5-hour speech, which the Kremlin has translated in full.

Putin itemized the priority measures he said must be implemented to improve the lives of Russia’s population. Increasing wages, strengthening the social safety net, increasing access to healthcare and education for all Russians, making housing affordable are all necessary to defend the general welfare. The factors which caused Russia’s demographic growth to collapse in the 1990s in particular, are well known, Putin said. But by 2023-2024, it is expected that Russia’s natural population growth rate would be restored. It is crucial that families be protected, he continued; having children should never throw families into poverty. These measures he outlined must be carried out, he insisted, because “our future is at stake.”

Foreign and Defense Policy: He discussed relations with the United States, with particular attention paid to the U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty, which he acknowledged was outdated. But rather than making “far-fetched accusations against Russia to justify their unilateral withdrawal from the Treaty,” the U.S. should have just pulled out, as it did in 2002 when it walked away from the ABM Treaty.

The reality, he said, is that the U.S. flagrantly violated the treaty. Russia, he said, does not intend to deploy medium-range missiles in Europe, but if the U.S. does, “it will dramatically exacerbate the international security situation, and create a serious threat to Russia, because some of these missiles can reach Moscow in just 10-12 minutes. This is a very serious threat to us.” If this happens, he warned, “we will be forced to respond with mirror or asymmetric actions…. Russia will be forced to create and deploy weapons that can be used not only in the areas we are directly threatened from, but also in areas that contain decision-making centers for the missile systems threatening us … these weapons will fully correspond to the threats directed against Russia in their technical specifications, including flight times to these decision-making centers.” This, as is to be expected from Western press, is all they covered from Putin’s powerful and comprehensive speech—and it was covered as “Putin Threatens the West.”

“Our American colleagues,” he continued, “have already tried to gain absolute military superiority with their global missile defense project. They need to stop deluding themselves.” Putin reported that the work on advanced defense systems on which he spoke in his address a year ago, is “continuing as scheduled and without disruptions,” and went on to name each type of weapon and missile system, submarines, hypersonic missiles, etc. “We are ready to engage in disarmament talks, but we will not knock on a locked door anymore. We will wait until our partners are ready and become aware of the need for dialogue on this matter.”

Russia, Putin said, wants to have “sound, equal and friendly relations with the U.S.A.” It threatens no one. “We are not interested in confrontation,” especially not with a global power like the United States. “However, it seems that our partners fail to notice the depth and pace of change around the world and where it is headed. They continue with their destructive and clearly misguided policy. This hardly meets the interests of the U.S.A. itself. But this is not for us to decide.”

The Russian President emphasized that “we need peace for sustainable long-term development. Our efforts to enhance our defense capability are for one purpose: To ensure the security of this country, and our citizens so that nobody would even consider pressuring us or launching an aggression against us.” Nota bene, he said, “Russia has been and always will be a sovereign and independent state. This is a given. It will either be that or will simply cease to exist. We must clearly understand this. Without sovereignty, Russia cannot be a state. Some countries can do this, but not Russia.”

He expressed the hope that the European Union would take real steps to restore normal political and economic relations with Moscow. He also said that Russia pays great attention to boosting relations with India and China. Building relations with Moscow means “finding joint solutions to the most difficult issues, and not trying to dictate terms.”

Science and Technology: Scientific and technological breakthroughs have become one of Russia’s key national priorities, he said. “I’m confident that we can make it by uniting efforts of the state, businesses, scientific and educational society, and widening freedom for initiative and creativity of our people.” He pointed to the importance of Russia having made high-tech breakthroughs in defense, which was difficult, but succeeded in breaking new ground. He underscored the role of very young engineers and workers who “grew up in these projects.” This work in the area of defense also influenced the “consolidation of our scientific potential and the development of unique technological assets.”

He emphasized that work done in the defense sector or in aerospace, can and must also have civilian applications. Now a priority will be the “development of an advanced scientific infrastructure.”

Green New Deal Creating Guide To Become Perplexed: ‘What in the Heck Is This?’

Feb. 20 (EIRNS)—It appears that the Green New Deal Dark Age has a few people perplexed.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Morning Joe today, senior Democratic leader Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) was asked what he thought about the Green New Deal. His reply is instructive: “At this point, I would be—I can’t tell ya, to be honest with you. I’ve read it, and I’ve reread it. And I asked [sponsor Massachusetts Senator] Ed Markey what in the, what in the heck is this? He says it is an aspiration, you know, it’s a resolution aspiration.” Resolution aspiration?

Senator Durbin said he’s all for combatting climate change, but the Green New Deal left him in the dark.

Meanwhile, former Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank (D) told CNBC yesterday that the Green New Deal would be “a loser” for Democrats in the 2020 presidential race. “There’s an argument that you don’t destabilize a society by doing too much change at once,” he lectured. It won’t resonate with voters, he argued, saying, the best option would be to introduce the plan in pieces to show how it worked, he said, and then build on that to go to the next stage.

Trump Preparing Executive Committee To Take on Climate Change

Feb 20 (EIRNS)—According to a report in today’s Washington Post, the Trump Administration is preparing to take on the heart of the Green beast, climate change. Under the headline “White House Prepares To Scrutinize Agency Findings that Climate Change Threatens National Security,” Juliet Eilperin and Missy Ryan report that Trump is soon to announce a Presidential Committee on Climate Change, which will be established through an Executive Order. The authors fret that their sources indicate that the committee chair is likely to be Princeton physicist Dr. William Happer, who (in their words) has argued that “carbon emissions linked to climate change should be viewed as an asset rather than a pollutant.”

During the 1980s, Dr. Happer was part of JASON, a federal program of university scholars connected with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he did extensive studies on the atmosphere under a program to, in his words, “help ameliorate the distortion of laser beams by atmospheric turbulence.” Happer was a contributor to one of the earliest books on “global warming,” a collection of papers on The Long-Term Impacts of Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Levels, edited by Gordon J. MacDonald, in 1982. Of this work, Happer later said that it “over-predicted the warming from more CO2 as badly as later establishment models.” As for the “anthropogenic” part of climate change, he was willing to admit in an interview with “The Best Schools,” that “Some small fraction of the 1°C warming during the past two centuries must have been due to increasing CO2, which is indeed a greenhouse gas.” However, he later confirms, “I don’t question that the Earth has warmed since the end of the Little Ice Age, but I am persuaded that most of the warming was due to natural causes, about which the governments can do nothing.”

The Post connects the formation of this committee as countering recent statements by people in the Trump Administration who undermined the President’s stance against the IPCC ideology. In February 2018, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, in written testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, warned of “abrupt” climate change, stating that, “The impacts of the long-term trends toward a warming climate … are likely to fuel economic and social discontent—and possibly upheaval—through 2018.”

Trump met with Happer in January 2017, soon after he entered the White House. Coats is now rumored to soon be out of a job.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Amidst Venezuelan-U.S. Standoff, Provocations Abound

Feb. 20 (EIRNS)—Attention is now being focused on Feb. 23, the date on which Venezuelan “interim president” Juan Guaidó has said humanitarian aid will begin to enter Venezuela, but no indication of how.

Tensions along the Colombian-Venezuelan border are running high. Neo-con Florida Sen. Marco Rubio showed up in the Colombian city of Cucuta, site of an international bridge into Venezuela, to loudly demand that aid, only for the self-declared acting president Guaidó, be allowed in. Aid is also being collected at Boa Vista and Pacaraima in Brazil, in preparation for Feb. 23. Octavio de Rego Barros, spokesman for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, told the BBC that aid collection is “being coordinated with the U.S.” Recall that the Brazilian military had expressed caution about getting involved in the aid effort at all.

President Nicolas Maduro announced yesterday that 300 tons of humanitarian aid from Russia would be delivered today at the Caracas airport and that additional aid would be arriving soon from “several countries,” with the aid of the United Nations.

Despite the fact that the situation is currently at a standoff, it would only take one act of violence, or a few dead bodies at the border, to blow the situation apart. That seems to be in the works. Colombia’s El Tiempo reported today that Adm. Craig Faller, head of the U.S. Southern Command, and Gen. Luis Navarro, head of the Colombian Armed Forces, met in Miami and issued a joint statement urging the Venezuelan military “to do the right thing” and let the U.S. humanitarian aid into the country on Feb. 23. General Navarro said that the duty of the Venezuelan military is to protect the country’s citizens, but added that Colombia’s military has logistics in place to deal with “any risk to the [Venezuelan] civilian population.” Asked what he would do were violence to occur on Feb. 23, he replied “we protect the civilian population.”

Provocations are also coming from Europe. On Feb. 18, five right-wing Members of the European Parliament from the European People’s Party Group (EPP, Christian Democrats), landed in Caracas at the invitation of the opposition-run National Assembly, but were prohibited from entering and had to leave. Venezuelan diplomats in Europe had told the five they wouldn’t be allowed into the country, as they were conspiring against the Maduro government, but they went anyway. Now, they are using their “expulsion” to demand further retaliatory actions against Maduro and are holed up in Colombia to lobby against Maduro and participate in whatever occurs on Feb. 23.

U.S. Marines Training To Fight ‘Big Wars’

Feb. 20 (EIRNS)—A slew of stories has appeared in both the general press and military-related news outlets in the past few years on how the U.S. military is retraining itself to fight big wars, again, meaning wars against Russia, first and foremost, against China, and against North Korea. The latest example of this comes from Gen. Robert Neller, commandant of the Marine Corps, who told reporters at the Feb. 13-15 WEST 2019 conference in San Diego, about how the Marines are getting ready to fight a war against a “near peer” adversary. That includes fighting in environments in which GPS is being denied by enemy electronic warfare and where the skies are controlled by enemy aviation. Neller said that Marine pre-deployment exercises will see more “red air,” that is aviation playing opposition forces, more electronic warfare and even the denial of communications.

The Marines are also training for winter fighting at a range in the Sierra Nevada mountains in northern California. The exercise is designed to train troops for the next war—one the U.S. believes will be against a more capable, high-tech enemy such as Russia, North Korea or China, reports the Associated Press. U.S. forces must be able to survive and fight while countering drones, sophisticated jamming equipment and other electronic and cyber warfare that can track them, disrupt communications and kill them—technology they didn’t routinely face over the last decade, and do it while knee deep in snow. The AP reports that the Sierra Nevada training range is at the same latitude as the DMZ in the Korean Peninsula and has a very similar climate.

Russia Will Seek To Prosecute White Helmets for Supporting Terrorism

Feb. 20 (EIRNS)—Ilya Rogachev, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s department of new challenges and threats, told TASS yesterday that Russia will press for putting the White Helmets on trial for crimes committed in Syria, including faked videos of chemical attacks which they then alleged were carried out against civilians by the Syrian government. “The leading Western countries have failed to place the struggle against terrorism above their own time-serving political interests. In the sphere of international counter-terrorist cooperation various selective approaches thrive. Terrorists are rated as ‘bad’ and ‘not very bad.’ Countries are being forced to agree with the concept of ‘resistance to violent extremism’ and its dangerous elements that create situations for ousting ‘disfavored’ governments,” Rogachev said. “We are determined to push ahead with and safeguard Russia’s foreign policy positions in order to ensure the White Helmets’ crimes in Syria and their attempts to mislead the international community by means of fake chemical weapons attacks attributed to the Syrian government forces, just as any other terrorist activity, should be thoroughly investigated and put on trial.”

UN Envoy Griffiths Tells Security Council, Agreement on Yemen Demilitarization Is Progressing

Feb. 20 (EIRNS)—UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths told the UN Security Council yesterday that progress is being made in implementation of the Stockholm agreement, particularly around Hodeidah. “Under the leadership of Lt. Gen. Michael Lollesgaard [the chief of the UN observer mission], the parties have agreed to redeploy from the ports of Saleef and Ras Isa in a first step, followed by a redeployment from Hodeidah port itself and critical parts of the city of Hodeidah associated with humanitarian facilities in Step 2,” he said. “This will facilitate humanitarian access to the Red Sea Mills, where as we know, a significant tonnage of grain is waiting to be distributed to the people of Yemen.” Griffiths was very positive about the cooperation he’s been getting from both the Hadi government in Riyadh and Abdul Malik al-Houthi and the rest of the Houthi leadership in Sana’a, praising them both for what he said was their genuine commitment to the ceasefire.

At the same briefing, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock told the Security Council that about 80% of Yemen’s population—24 million people—need humanitarian assistance, including nearly 10 million “just a step away from famine” and nearly 240,000 “facing catastrophic levels of hunger.” According to Associated Press, Lowcock told the UNSC that the figures “are considerably worse than last year,” stressing that aid agencies are running out of money, and facing restrictions on fuel deliveries, and that “the operating environment is becoming ever more restrictive in northern Yemen.” The UN is asking for $4 billion to aid 15 million people over the rest of this year at a donors’ conference to be held in Geneva next week. “We expect current resources to be used up by the end of March just six weeks from now,” Lowcock said. “Without adequate resources, the aid operation will grind to a halt at a time when more people need more help than ever before.”

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Mohammed bin Salman Looks for Development in League with Russia, China, India, and the U.S.

Feb. 20 (EIRNS)—Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Pakistan on Feb. 18, then India today, and will be in China tomorrow. Before launching this trip, he held a long phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose Kremlin website reported that the two leaders “praised the high level of cooperation achieved, including in trade, economic and investment areas,” and expressed “mutual commitment to further strengthening multi-faceted Russian-Saudi ties.”

In Pakistan, MBS announced investments of $20 billion, including a refinery and a petrochemical plant in the port of Gwadar, which is being built as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Belt (CPEC). China’s Global Times noted that Saudi investment in Pakistan reflects the “inclusiveness” of the Belt and Road Initiative—that China welcomes other nations joining in the great development projects being initiated around the world, and that such projects are mutually supportive. Washington should listen carefully.

Today, MBS was in India, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke protocol to greet him at the airport. Five agreements were signed, including infrastructure and investment deals, while they agreed to the creation of a “strategic partnership council” to address the threat of terrorism. MBS offered to mediate the tension between India and Pakistan over the recently deadly terrorist attack which killed 44 Indian soldiers. MBS goes on to China next.

The British campaign to bring down MBS over the killing of Muslim Brotherhood agent Jamal Khashoggi is now confronted by the leaders of the four powers—Putin, Modi, Xi and Trump—offering win-win solutions. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi today hosted Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Beijing, demonstrating China’s effort to promote development as the necessary means of resolving conflicts such as that between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

In Yemen, the hideous war being waged as a surrogate war between Saudi Arabia and Iran took a major step towards resolution, as the withdrawal of forces from Hodeidah, agreed to in Sweden last December, finally began to be implemented, allowing the UN to gain access to the desperately needed food and medical aid for the population.

Ethiopia Brought in Two Chinese Firms To Speed Up the Completion of Nile Dam

Feb. 20 (EIRNS)— The Ethiopian Electric Power on Feb. 19 signed a $40 million contract with China Gezhouba Group Co. Ltd, which will handle the pre-commissioning activities at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Nile River. Meanwhile, a $113 million contract has also been signed with Voith Hydro Shanghai that includes the electrical, mechanical, and various civil/structural works required to complete the construction of the generating station and spillways of GERD, which is expected to be operational in 2020, the East Africa Monitor news site reported.

Last year, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed cancelled the contract of a state-run military conglomerate Metals and Engineering Corporation, which was responsible for building the dam’s turbines. Abiy Ahmed said that not a single turbine was operational, more than seven years after the company was awarded the contract.

OTHER

Anti-Brexit Blair Followers and Tories Try To Stop Labour Party Leader Corbyn

Feb. 20 (EIRNS)—While an eighth Labour Party member quit the party to join the so-called “Independent Group” launched by seven Tony Blair epigones from the Labour Party on Feb. 18, three anti-Brexit Tories also quit the Conservative Party today to join the effort to form a centrist party. The intent is to somehow stop the nearly inevitable victory of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn if a new election is forced by the growing political chaos in the U.K.

Blairite MP Joan Ryan, the new Labour member in the group, made it clear that it is Corbyn’s refusal to back Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians (which is considered to be “anti-Semitic”) which is behind the ploy. She told the press: “I cannot remain a member of the Labour Party while this requires me to suggest that I believe Jeremy Corbyn—a man who has presided over the culture of anti-Jewish racism and hatred of Israel that now afflicts my former party—is fit to be prime minister of this country. He is not.”

As for the three Tories, their joint resignation letter said that the “hard-line anti-EU awkward squad” had taken over the party. They want a new referendum on Brexit, which they apparently think will result in a vote to stay in the EU.

A Labour spokesman said the new group was “effectively an establishment coalition based on the failed and rejected policies of the past,” such as austerity, corporate tax cuts and privatization—i.e., the equivalent policies of former Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Tories, in league with the EU, which have destroyed the British economy.

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