THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2019

Volume 6, Number 61

EIR Daily Alert Service

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

Rep. Devin Nunes To Make Criminal Referrals on FBI and DOJ ‘Dirty Cops’

Rhode Island House of Representatives Honors Lyndon LaRouche

The West Is Suddenly Worried About Neo-Nazis in Ukraine

Zakharova Demands U.S. Media Should Apologize for Lies about Russia

Lavrov Affirms Russia Seeking Better Business and Investment Ties with the U.S.

Djibouti Port Director Describes How BRI Greatly Expanded Africa’s Trade and Development

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EDITORIAL

Trump Escalates Moon-Mars Mission

March 27 (EIRNS)—Liberated from the shackles of Russiagate, President Donald Trump has already announced two initiatives—a “reckoning” with the criminals in the Bush/Obama intelligence community, in the Congress, and in the press, who served the foreign power which interfered in the 2016 election to stop Trump’s election, and, when that failed, conspired to drive him from office. Trump has already identified that foreign power as the historic enemy of the United States—the British Empire —whose “Great Game” provokes wars and subverts governments in order to sustain the power of the Empire.

Today, Trump launched a second initiative—to restore American excellence in space exploration. The White House outlined several new Space Policy Directives: “The Unites States will seek to land on the Moon’s South Pole by 2024 [the previous timetable was for 2028—ed.], establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon by 2028, and chart a future path for Mars exploration.” NASA, Trump announced, will “create a Moon-to-Mars Mission Directorate” to achieve this objective, and will “lead an innovative space program with commercial and international partners.”

It is good to recall the famous words of President Jack Kennedy to the Congress, on May 25, 1961: “Now it is time to take longer strides—time for a great new American enterprise—time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on Earth. I believe we possess all the resources and talents necessary. But the facts of the matter are that we have never made the national decisions or marshaled the national resources required for such leadership. We have never specified long-range goals on an urgent time schedule, or managed our resources and our time so as to insure their fulfillment…. We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share…. I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

Later, Kennedy said: “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.”

Lyndon LaRouche authored a 1985 article in EIR titled “Private Initiative for Colonizing the Moon and Mars,” issued a few weeks after the Krafft Ehricke Memorial Conference sponsored by the Schiller Institute and the Fusion Energy Foundation, which begins:

“It can be safely estimated, that during the coming fifty years or longer, all scientific and technological progress will be shaped primarily by the interrelationship among three presently well-defined frontiers of scientific research: 1) controlled thermonuclear fusion, 2) coherently directed electromagnetic impulses, and 3) optical biophysics…. Interplanetary colonization draws upon virtually all of the potentialities of these interrelated technologies, as no other foreseeable choice of application does so to approximately the same degree.” (See EIR, Vol. 12, #31, Aug. 9, 1985.)

International cooperation in such a project is not only necessary for its success, but also represents the foundation of the human condition—developments at the frontiers of human knowledge define in the most profound way the common reality for the future of all mankind.

With Russiagate exposed, dumped into the historical garbage heap, it is now both possible and necessary for President Trump to be liberated from the remnants of the British imperial mentality which surrounds him and fills the institutions of the Western nations. This means establishing friendly relations with Russia—as Russia is prepared to do as well. It means achieving the agreement with China, which Trump is confident is within reach, just as European nations are finally acknowledging that their future lies in cooperation with the Belt and Road Initiative.

Yet, the assets of the Empire are frantic to prevent this. The neo-cons are trying to drag the President into a regime-change war in Venezuela, while the remnants of the “Committee To Blow Up the World,” otherwise known as the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), on March 25 reconstituted themselves with the new name: CPD-China. China, they claim, is the new danger to America’s status as the “world’s only superpower”—an imagined status which is, in fact, an anti-American psychosis aimed at preventing Trump from ending the British “Great Game” of divide and conquer.

This is the moment for America to follow the wise words of Lyndon LaRouche—achieving his exoneration will bring that reality into the center of the now-unfolding fight for a new paradigm, for a community of a shared future for mankind.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Rep. Devin Nunes To Make Criminal Referrals on FBI and DOJ ‘Dirty Cops’

March 27 (EIRNS)—In several interviews with Fox News over this week, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, reported that he plans to make criminal referrals to the Attorney General’s office, as part of the investigation into “bias”—political corruption—in the FBI and Department of Justice. Those referrals are expected to be made by the end of next week, the Washington Examiner reported today.

“We are working on a criminal referral, so many of the dirty cops— people will find out who, actually, we believe those dirty cops are. We’ll be sending that to Attorney General Barr among other names I think people will be surprised at,” Nunes said. Time is running out, he asserted, for those “dirty cops” at the FBI and DOJ whom Nunes said were part of the “biggest political scandal in American history.” Targetted are those “people who lied to Congress, [committed] perjury, criminal conspiracy.”

Nunes also emphasized that he and his team will work to “make as much public as possible…. What needs to happen is, we need to have full transparency in this matter…. FBI and DOJ have claimed falsely that this investigation started in July 2016. That was a lie.” It will be crucial, he said, to collect information on “all the informants and everybody they were running into the Trump campaign, because what happened here is wrong. The FBI and Department of Justice should not be able to use counterintelligence capabilities that are used to target terrorists and other bad guys around the globe, against political parties.”

Nunes is also demanding to see the classified “scope memorandum,” the August 2017 document in which Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein laid out the parameters of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation—several months after he had appointed Mueller. Although a redacted version of that document was made available, Nunes is calling for the entire document to be released. “We need to see the origins of this investigation. We don’t even know what Robert Mueller was supposed to be looking at.”

Neo-Cons Reconstitute ‘Committee on the Present Danger—China’

March 27 (EIRNS)—At a press conference on March 25, a gaggle of neo-cons, led by former Reagan Administration defense official Frank Gaffney and chaired by Brian Kennedy (Claremont Institute and the American Strategy Group) revived the Cold War era “Committee on the Present Danger,” this time targeting China.

Also involved in the scheme is Steve Bannon. The purpose of this revival is to take aim at China as “an aggressive totalitarian foe.” The new organization will launch a campaign of “public education and advocacy against the full array of conventional and non-conventional dangers” posed by the Chinese Communist Party. The committee’s announcement included a host of alleged threats from China, including the litany of “strengthening military power, strengthening their nuclear capability, stealing U.S. technology, repressing religions, human rights and minority groups,” and then throwing in the ludicrous accusation of initiating “chemical warfare,” by being the alleged source of fentanyl in the United States.

“As with the Soviet Union in the past,” the committee announcement reads, “communist China represents an existential and ideological threat to the United States and to the idea of freedom—one that requires a new American consensus regarding the policies and priorities required to defeat this threat.” At this founding event, Gaffney presented the coven of neo-cons, including former Air Force Chief Thomas McInerny, former CIA chief Jim Woolsey; International Assessment and Strategy Center fellow Richard Fisher; former Special Forces lunatic and religious fanatic Gen. Jerry Boykin, among others. The speeches covered the gamut of the anti-China rant.

The immediate aim of the operation is to prevent President Donald Trump from establishing a solid working relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on all fronts. While Gaffney said he would support a trade deal with China, if it were possible, he underlined the fact that even then, the Committee would proceed with its work on all of the other fronts to combat the influence of China.

Rhode Island House of Representatives Honors Lyndon LaRouche

March 26 (EIRNS)—The Rhode Island House of Representatives voted unanimously on March 26 to express condolences for Lyndon LaRouche, the political prisoner who passed away on Feb. 12, 2019. Deputy Senior Majority Leader Rep. Justin Price told the lawmakers: “I have an adjournment for Mr. Lyndon LaRouche, who was basically a political prisoner that was jailed some 30-odd years ago, passed away Feb. 12.  Unfortunately for him, his vilification from the media and the political long arm [continued] until he perished. God rest his soul.”

Price then asked Cloret Carl-Ferguson to stand and be recognized, saying: “She’s from the Schiller Institute, representing the committee to exonerate Lyndon LaRouche. This young lady has been friends with Lyndon LaRouche for 47 years, and advocates for him still to this day, after his passing, even, in February. I would just like to acknowledge her being here, and just to really say thank you for your vigilance and what you’re doing. Thank you, Cloret.”

The Chairwoman thanked him and announced, “We have a House Resolution expressing condolences,” submitted by the House Majority Leader and seconded by the House Minority Leader, which received a unanimous vote by the standing House members.

The proceedings were recorded and live-streamed on RI Capitol TV.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

The West Is Suddenly Worried About Neo-Nazis in Ukraine

March 27 (EIRNS)—The U.S. and the European Union had no problem with wartime Nazi collaborators and neo-Nazi groups playing a leading role in the overthrow of the elected government of Ukraine in 2014, or with fighting “pro-Russian separatists” in the Donbas in the years following, but now that they want to present the appearance of a functioning democracy, the Nazis have become a problem.

“As Ukraine’s presidential election draws near, its ultranationalist groups are becoming increasingly visible, posing a dilemma for the West,” the Associated Press reported in a lengthy wire issued this morning. “On the one hand, the ultranationalists have played a key role in fighting Russia-backed separatist rebels in the east and are now challenging government corruption,” AP reports. “On the other, they are pushing with increasing boldness for changes that go against traditional democratic ideals.”

The fact that these are neo-Nazi groups, and have nothing to do with nationalism, is not mentioned by AP until near the end, where it quotes Miroslav Mares, an expert on right-wing extremist groups at Brno University, who reports that these groups have been successful in reaching out to similar groups elsewhere in Europe.

“They have good relations to some neo-Nazi groupings in Central and Eastern Europe,” Mares said. He added that, early in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, some members of Europe’s neo-Nazi groups trained and fought with the Azov Battalion, a Ukrainian ultra-right paramilitary group created by Andriy Biletsky that advocated white supremacist views. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in a Feb. 7, 2015, address to the Munich Security Conference, exposed Biletsky and other “activists” of the post-coup regime as demanding the ethnic cleansing of Ukraine, but whose statements failed to evoke any reaction in Western capitals. “I don’t think present day Europe can afford to neglect the danger of the spread of the neo-Nazi virus,” Lavrov warned at the time.

The AP wire appeared two days after a report in TASS, citing a former Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) officer telling reporters in Moscow that the Nazi and fascist ideologies have spread from the volunteer militia groups into the regular Ukrainian army. “While speaking about the crimes committed by the Ukrainian forces in Donbas, it is impossible not to mention that they largely became possible due to widespread Nazi and fascist beliefs,” said Vasily Prozorov, the former SBU officer. “I’m referring not just to the so-called voluntary battalions, where this ideology is commonplace. I saw for myself swastikas and SS insignias on their steel helmets and swastika tattoos in many other places, too. They greet each other with the Nazi salute by extending their right arm into the air. And in the barracks they keep flags with swastikas and symbols of SS divisions on the walls.

“I’m talking now about widespread Nazi notions in ordinary divisions of the Ukrainian armed forces and the National Guard operating in the field,” Prozorov continued. “Remember a 95th Brigade paratrooper wearing a uniform with the stripe of the SS Totenkopf division at a meeting with President Poroshenko? Or the commander of the 503th Marines battalion keeping a picture of SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny in his office. You will agree that all this speaks for itself.”

Zakharova Demands U.S. Media Should Apologize for Lies about Russia

March 27 (EIRNS)—In statements to Rossiya-1 TV broadcast “60 Minutes,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called out the U.S. media for the constant barrage of lies they had directed against Russia over the past two years, regarding the 2016 elections.

As reported by TASS, Zakharova said, “We are now referring to a team of propagandists … who style themselves as journalists—now they need to make their apologies. I’m not speaking about their feelings toward Donald Trump—the decision on whether they should apologize to him is their domestic matter. However, all this media ragtag, which has been at the forefront of anti-Russian news reporting in the United States, will need to apologize to the U.S. audience and, naturally, to the Russian [audience], to the whole country.”

Zakharova announced that Moscow will be carefully analyzing anti-Russian propaganda reports and footage from U.S. TV shows, in which the media tried mightily to persuade the U.S. audience of Trump’s ties with Russia. These, she said, will be forwarded to international organizations such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), for further analysis.

“Everything will be duly compiled and sent wherever needed … and will be made public for the general audience. I think the world should know its heroes.”

Regime-Change Neo-Cons Whip Up Anti-Russia Hysteria Around Venezuelan Crisis

March 27 (EIRNS)—The neo-con cabal in Washington dictating policy toward Venezuela is using the arrival of two Russian aircraft in Caracas on March 24 as the pretext for whipping up region-wide anti-Russia hysteria, and intensifying geopolitical tensions around the increasingly perilous Venezuelan situation.

The arrival of the Russian aircraft and about 100 military personnel is related to a long-standing bilateral military-technical agreement in effect since 2001. But on March 25, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton escalated the situation with bellicose accusations that Russians had come to prop up the Maduro government militarily. Then today, in hosting Fabiana Rosales, the wife of self-proclaimed “interim” President Juan Guaidó, Vice President Mike Pence charged that the arrival of Russian military planes was an “unwelcome provocation,” and demanded Moscow abandon its support of the Maduro “regime.”

Unfortunately tied into the neo-con straitjacket on the Venezuelan issue, of which Mike Pence is the chief architect, President Donald Trump today said during a brief meeting with Rosales that he backs the Venezuelan opposition “100 percent,” and warned that “Russia needs to get out of Venezuela.” If it doesn’t, he continued, “we’ll see. All options are open.” He also promised to step up military pressure against Venezuela.

In Colombia, a close U.S. ally, Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo decried what he called a Russian “military incursion” into Venezuela, which, he said, hadn’t been authorized by Venezuela’s National Assembly.

The 14-nation Lima Group, as well as the Organization of American States (OAS), have also weighed in. The March 26 Lima Group statement expressed alarm over the Russian presence and rejected “any provocation or military deployment that threatens peace and security in the region.” A March 25 statement by the OAS charged that it were “inadmissible for a foreign government to have military cooperation programs with a usurping regime that has been declared illegitimate by Inter-American resolutions and law, and thus threatens hemispheric peace and security.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova shot back, El Confidencial reported, that the OAS, a “technical organization,” isn’t qualified to tell a sovereign country with whom it can cooperate.

Brazilian Defense Minister Reiterates, No Military Intervention in Venezuela

March 27 (EIRNS)—Following a meeting yesterday with National Security Advisor John Bolton, Brazilian Defense Minister Gen. Fernando Azevedo (ret.), stated that the Brazilian government has no intention of getting involved in military intervention into neighboring Venezuela.

Prior to their meeting, Bolton had tweeted that the Western Hemisphere is united on resolving the Venezuelan issue, that Nicolas Maduro’s “days are numbered,” and, in a reference to Brazil, he said “looking forward to working together.”

Brazil, Azevedo said, is very concerned about the Venezuelan situation, and about the crisis on the two nations’ border, caused by an influx of Venezuelan refugees, O Globo reported. Moreover, there is still fluid contact between Venezuela and Brazil’s military leadership, he said, explaining, “We have always had good relations in terms of military diplomacy.”

Asked by a Pentagon reporter whether the use of military force against Venezuela might be appropriate, he was clear: “That’s not a hypothesis we’re considering. Brazil is looking forward to a peaceful and swift solution to the Venezuelan crisis.”

He also said that, during his meeting, there had been no discussion of Brazil providing “military action” or any kind of logistical support to the U.S. for military intervention in Venezuela.

ECONOMY

Lavrov Affirms Russia Seeking Better Business and Investment Ties with the U.S.

March 27 (EIRNS)—In remarks yesterday to the opening session of the meeting of the board of directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized that Russia very much seeks closer business and investment cooperation with the United States.

He stated that organizations such as the U.S.-Russia Business Council and the Russian-American Council for Business Cooperation are vehicles for promoting bilateral cooperation, which Russia would like to increase. It was for that reason that Presidents Putin and Trump agreed at their Helsinki meeting last year to establish a coordinating business council to include executives from 5-7 private companies from each side. However, he explained, when the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs submitted relevant proposals to their U.S. partners, they never got a reply.

Nonetheless, U.S.-Russia trade has been growing steadily, along with a steady increase in reciprocal investment, Lavrov said, and this shows that there is real interest from U.S. companies and Russian investors in the U.S. to continue this trend. Russia wants to facilitate the development of business ties and to attract foreign business, including from the U.S., he said.

In addition, Russia also looks forward to the traditional participation of U.S. business representatives in various Russian economic fora, such as June’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). In conclusion, Lavrov referenced Karl Marx’s maxim that economics shouldn’t be held hostage to politics, as Marx considered “economy to be the foundation of relations.” But, he then continued, “I know that they insist in Europe and America that business should proceed from the need to sacrifice the economy to politics.” This is abnormal, because “it contradicts the interests of business, and the need to create jobs. It harms the interests of those who lose revenue to sanctions. I hope common sense will eventually prevail. More voices, including those in the West, are advocating this approach.”

Djibouti Port Director Describes How BRI Greatly Expanded Africa’s Trade and Development

March 27 (EIRNS)—Aboubaker Omar Hadi, chairman of Djibouti Ports and Free Zone Authority, told Xinhua on the sidelines of the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, that “projects involving cooperation with China,” such as the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway and the Doraleh Multi-Purpose Port and international free trade zone—“are helping Djibouti promote trade in Africa as well as distribution across the East African region.” More than $40 billion in exports and imports has been recorded through Djibouti ports, “which couldn’t be achieved without developing proper infrastructure, such as sea ports and railway connections,” he said. “I am expecting more movements of goods, infrastructure development from the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation slated for April in Beijing, as well as stronger interconnection between Africa and the rest of the world,” he told Xinhua News.

Hadi also countered accusations against China by Western countries, that Africans’ cooperation with the BRI is letting some African countries fall into a debt trap, are “complete nonsense, as benefits generated from infrastructure construction will far exceed the investment.”

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Other European Countries Are Jealous of Italy Joining China’s Belt and Road, Reveals Geraci

March 27 (EIRNS)— Speaking at the Boao Forum for Asia in China’s southern Hainan province, Michele Geraci, head of Italy’s Task Force China and Undersecretary of State at the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, said Italy’s signing up to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative could be making some of other European nations “jealous,”South China Morning Post reported today.

“All the other countries will follow Italy and sign an MOU, and I can give you two names, but I won’t—they are in the pipeline,” Geraci said at the Boao Forum. “In reality, all European countries want to be part of the Belt and Road.”

“When we were criticized—me personally, also—for taking care of all of this over the last few months, it’s because we … want to lead, and leading means doing things first,” Geraci said. “The U.S. was not very happy” with Italy’s move, Geraci said. Rome had listened to the EU and U.S. and cooperated where it could, he explained, but ultimately it made its own decisions. “We did what we think is in the interest of our country,” he told the Hong Kong daily.

“If Italy wants to be the terminal of China’s Silk Road, of course that affects Hamburg, Rotterdam, Marseilles,” Geraci went on, listing major European port cities. China has become a big player in the port business as it builds its new Maritime Silk Road, connecting China to Europe via Southeast Asia and the Arabian Peninsula. “It’s a competition, so I understand their jealousy,” SCMP quoted him saying.

“Little by little, more countries will sign. Europe is united,” said Geraci, a fluent Chinese speaker who taught in China for about a decade. “They will be encouraged when they see this is positive and there is no risk. The Silk Road is already there. It’s in Germany with the train, and the Chinese have invested in many ports and companies, so what is it that divides us?” he asked, referring to a new freight train service from China’s Hebei province to Duisburg in Germany. “We can be a competitor with China, but we also can cooperate, because China has the size, and we have the know-how and quality,” he said.

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Baltimore Sun Op-Ed Warns Asteroid Collision Far Outstrips Climate Change as Threat to Humanity

March 27 (EIRNS)—In the March 22 Baltimore Sun, the most unlikely of locations, former White House and Pentagon space consultant Douglas MacKinnon makes clear that, despite the mass, manufactured hype around climate change, the reality is that the threat of an asteroid collision with Earth represents a far larger and more immediate threat to human existence. And he wonders aloud why the response to the greater danger has been so disproportionately small.

Last December, he relates, an asteroid too small to have been detected with existing sensory technology, exploded a mere 15 miles above the Earth with 10 times the force of the bomb detonated over Hiroshima. Correctly characterizing that proximity as “an astronomical hair,” he asserts: “In today’s increasingly toxic political climate, you either buy into the narrative that ‘humans are destroying the planet,’ or you very quickly end up on some group’s enemy list. No other world-killing disasters need apply.”

After duly noting the deafening silence on the asteroid threat coming from the climate scare-mongers in academia, the press, Hollywood, etc., MacKinnon concludes by demanding a mobilization to meet that challenge, lest “Tragically, … the global warming-climate change threat will continue to exhaust all available funding and attention, leaving the Earth and humanity doomed to its inevitable, but preventable, fate.”

OTHER

Theresa May Claims, I’ll Step Down If You Pass My Brexit Plan

March 27 (EIRNS)—The continuing saga of the disintegration of the British government today included Prime Minister Theresa May pledging to her recalcitrant Tories that she will step down if they would only, please, vote for my rotten Brexit deal. Then the House of Commons, which dramatically took the power over Brexit away from PM May yesterday, ran through eight different alternative policies, agreeing on none. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, since they were “indicative” votes, having no power or validity in fact.

Actually, May’s announcement was not public, but a private promise to some of the Conservatives opposing her plan.

“I have heard very clearly the mood of the parliamentary party,” she is reported to have told them. “I know there is a desire for a new approach, and new leadership, in the second phase of the Brexit negotiations, and I won’t stand in the way of that.”

And so it goes. Jacob Rees-Moog and Boris Johnson, two of the leading hold-outs to PM May’s fake Brexit, announced that getting rid of May was good enough for them, and said they would vote for her plan on March 29, although Rees-Moog added, “as long as Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists did,” which is unlikely. It is far from clear that her third try at getting her plan passed has enough votes, not to mention that the Speaker of the House said he would not allow a third vote!

Of course, there is also the question of whether May will actually resign even if it passes—or when. She has gone back on so many pledges already, that she has a bit of a credibility problem, especially within her own party.

As to Labour, Jeremy Corbyn declared in a tweet: “Theresa May’s pledge to Tory MPs to stand down if they vote for her deal shows once and for all that her chaotic Brexit negotiations have been about party management, not principles or the public interest. A change of government can’t be a Tory stitch-up, the people must decide.”

Heaven forbid. May resigning in no way requires an election, only that some other Tory is foolish enough to take the job. The Tories certainly would not allow a general election—they’d all lose their seats.

Got it?