THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2019

Volume 6, Number 96

EIR Daily Alert Service

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

Devin Nunes Dubs the Steele Dossier Glenn Simpson’s Perverted Fantasy—It’s All Made Up

Pompeo in Sochi Made Clear He Was President Trump’s Envoy, in Seeking Better Relations

Barr Appoints John Durham To Go after Intelligence Community Malfeasance in Russiagate

Comey vs. Brennan and Clapper, and Steele Dossier Consciously Described as ‘Crown Material’

Trump Executive Order Bans Companies’ Use of Foreign Technology Deemed a ‘Security’ Threat

Iranian Presidential Aide Warns Trump, If You Listen to ‘Mustache’ Bolton, ‘You’ll Get a War’

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EDITORIAL

Trump Deploys Pompeo for Peace, Cooperation with Russia and the World, as Bolton Stumps for War

May 15 (EIRNS)—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in his press conference with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov following his meetings with Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin, said: “President Trump has made clear that his expectation is that we will have an improved relationship between our two countries. This will benefit each of our peoples, and I think that our talks here today were a good step in that direction.”  He further stated in his remarks to President Putin: “President Trump wants to do everything we can—I think there are truly overlapping interests that we can build on, and most importantly, President Trump very much wants to do that.”

Pompeo was making clear that he represents the President, not himself, in these negotiations.

That has not always been true of Mike Pompeo, and certainly not of John Bolton. In fact, a growing chorus of voices, from the so-called “right” and the so-called “left” are demanding that Bolton be fired, especially as it comes to the threat of war with Iran. “Right-wing” Fox News host Tucker Carlson said Tuesday night, May 14: “More than anything in the world, National Security Adviser John Bolton would love to have a war with Iran. It will be like Christmas, Thanksgiving, his birthday—wrapped into one. Mercifully, John Bolton does not control the military, President Trump does. The question is, just how influential is Bolton in the White House?” Carlson recalls the 2015New York Times op-ed by Bolton titled: “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.”

But “left-wing” CNN host Peter Bergen’s message is essentially the same: “John Bolton, President Trump’s National Security Adviser, seemingly hasn’t met a war he doesn’t love. Bolton was a prominent proponent of the Iraq War and he has never evinced any doubt about the wisdom of that decision…. By contrast, last year President Trump said the Iraq War was ‘the single worst decision ever made.’ Just before he was installed a little over a year ago as Trump’s National Security Adviser, Bolton advocated for a preemptive war against North Korea in the Wall Street Journal.”

With Trump now publicly committed to meeting with both Putin and Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the June 28-29 G20 Summit in Osaka, the British Empire and its assets in the U.S. are increasingly panicked that they will lose their carefully structured division of the world into warring blocs, East versus West. Further terrifying for these Lords of war and chaos is the incredible “Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations” taking place today in Beijing. In addition to the 47 Asian nations attending, another 50 countries from around the world are participating, in what could better be called a “celebration of the New Paradigm,” by those willing to participate. Xi, in his opening speech, affirmed that “there would be no clash of civilizations as long as people were able to appreciate the beauty of all civilizations.”

Indeed, that is precisely what is taking place under the auspices of the New Silk Road, a concept launched by Lyndon and Helga LaRouche after the fall of the Soviet Union, a “peace through development” policy embracing the common aims of mankind.

In a lengthy video interview on May 10 with GBTimes, a Chinese media based in Europe and the Mideast, Helga Zepp-LaRouche concluded:

“I think we are probably the generation on whom later generations will look back to, and say, ‘Oh! This was really a fascinating time, because it was a change from one epoch to another one.’ I have an image of that, which is: This change that we are experiencing right now, is probably going to be bigger than the change in Europe between the Middle Ages and modern times.  In the Middle Ages you had people believing in a whole bunch of axioms, the scholastics, Aristotelianism, witchcraft—all kinds of strange beliefs—and then, because of the influx of such thinkers as Nicholas of Cusa, and the Italian Renaissance, the modern image of man, of science and technology, of the sovereign nation-state, all these changes happened, and they created a completely different view of the image of man and of nature, and the universe, and everything we call ‘modern society’ was the result of this change.

“Now, I think we are in front, or the middle of such an epochal change, where the next era of mankind will be much, much more creative than the present one, and that’s something to look forward to, because we can actually shape it, and we can bring our own creative input into it.  And there are not many periods in history when that is the case:  So we are actually lucky!”

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Devin Nunes Dubs the Steele Dossier Glenn Simpson’s Perverted Fantasy—It’s All Made Up

May 15 (EIRNS)—Appearing on Fox News’ Hannity show on May 15, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), now the ranking member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, again stated that the Christopher Steele dossier is a complete fabrication, putting into question the entire line mouthed by stupid Republicans (and Hannity) about its being deliberate Russian disinformation.

Nunes made three points in the wake of Attorney General Barr’s appointment of U.S. Attorney John Durham to investigate the origin of the Russiagate probe:

(1) exculpatory information regarding George Papadopoulos which exists in the Department of Justice should be immediately declassified;

(2) the “insurance policy” famously discussed by the FBI’s Peter Strzok and Lisa Page was the FISA warrant on Carter Page, which allowed for two-hop spying on the entire Trump Campaign through the election and transition, and that the other classified sections of the FISA warrant application are even worse than the Steele dossier as being fake alleged intelligence information; and

(3) Nunes repeated twice that, for three years, Americans were bombarded with the perverted fantasies of Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS, not just about the so-called pee tapes.  He said that Christopher Steele had a small role in formulating his so-called dossier and that the majority was composed by Fusion GPS working with the FBI.

Pompeo in Sochi Made Clear He Was President Trump’s Envoy, in Seeking Better Relations

May 15 (EIRNS)—In his publicized remarks yesterday, in talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeatedly stressed that he was speaking for President Donald Trump—not himself—and that Trump’s desire is to seek improved relations and find the basis on which they can cooperate more fully.

President Trump “asked me to travel here and communicate that,” Pompeo explained. In later remarks to the media, he stressed that it’s not just a matter of “moving forward” after everything that’s happened since the 2016 elections, but “keeping the relationship on the high ground … I strove to do that today,” he said, in talks with both Lavrov and Putin.

In his meeting with Putin, Pompeo emphasized that the issue is how the two nations can move forward together. “It’s not about personalities. It’s not about people. It’s about how do you take the interests of our two countries.” His talk with Putin was “good,” he said, describing him as “fully engaged. He obviously knows these issues, very, very well, so we were able to … quickly get down into the context and concrete components of the various elements in the relationship.”

In that sense, he said, “it was really, really very productive.” Pompeo made a point of saying that, “Our two nations share proud histories and respect for one another’s cultures. We seek a better relationship with Russia and we urge that it work alongside us to change the trajectory of the relationship, which will benefit each of our peoples.”

In the joint press conference with Lavrov and Pompeo, Lavrov said there is an “untapped” potential for mutually beneficial cooperation, and that both have agreed to rebuild channels of communication. These channels have, until recently, been “frozen,” Lavrov said, “largely due to the aftermath of baseless accusations against us in attempts to influence American elections, and certain collusion of high-ranking officials of the [previous Obama] administration, and it’s clear that such insinuations are absolutely fake.”

Lavrov suggested creation of a non-governmental, bilateral expert council of political analysts, ex-military and diplomats, who could “help us decide how to overcome the accumulated mistrust, so as to have the right interpretations of each other’s actions in the military sphere and to prevent an arms race….” He also proposed creating a bilateral business advisory council, including representatives of both countries’ major businesses to draft recommendations on how the two governments can create the conditions for productive economic cooperation.

Barr Appoints John Durham To Go after Intelligence Community Malfeasance in Russiagate

May 15 (EIRNS)—Attorney General William Barr has appointed a top investigative lawyer, John Durham, currently U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, to carry out an investigation into the origins of the fraudulent accusation of Russian collusion with the Trump Campaign during the 2016 presidential election. Durham is a hard-nosed investigator, who was supported by both Democratic Senators during his confirmation hearing as U.S. Attorney in 2017.

According to Harper, a regular contributor to the highly credible “Sic Semper Tyrannis” blog of Col. Pat Lang (ret.), “Barr rejected the idea of appointing a new special prosecutor…. Durham, who has been quietly conducting his probe for weeks, is not restricted by the limited mandates of a special prosecutor. Barr has solicited and gotten cooperation from DNI Coats and CIA Director Haspel to extend the probe into involvement of intelligence officials (Brennan, Clapper and their key aides) in the foisting of the Trump-Russia saga and the obtaining of tainted ‘evidence’ to secure FISA warrants.”

Durham has a long history of investigating wrongdoing in the intelligence and law enforcement community. In the late 1999 he successfully exposed the FBI frame-up of four men in Boston for multiple murders they did not commit, in an operation to protect organized-crime boss and FBI informant Whitey Bulger, who had the FBI agents on his payroll. The convictions of the four men were overturned, but two had died in prison; the other two were released and the FBI man responsible sentenced to 10 years in prison. The U.S. Attorney in Boston who sent the four innocent men up? Robert Swan Mueller.

Durham successfully investigated other mafia operations, and also headed the investigations into the CIA destruction of videotapes of CIA torture at Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison, and later of the CIA “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

Connecticut Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthal, one of the most fanatic of the “Russian collusion” wackos in the Congress, was furious at the appointment of Durham, even though he had supported his appointment as U.S. Attorney. He accused Trump and Barr of pushing a “conspiracy theory” against Obama’s intelligence team by calling on Durham to do an “unprofessional and unbecoming job.” He said Durham risked sullying his record as a “straight shooter,” and to “degrade the career professions who devote their lives to law enforcement.” Perhaps the good Senator is worried that he may also be exposed with malfeasance in the investigation.

Comey vs. Brennan and Clapper, and Steele Dossier Consciously Described as ‘Crown Material’

May 15 (EIRNS)—With John Durham’s appointment by Attorney General William Barr, important revelations about DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s probe of the Justice Department’s Russiagate investigation, and the simultaneous leak that Barr has secured the agreement of DNI Coats and CIA Director Gina Haspel to fully investigate the origins of Russiagate, a circular firing squad has emerged among various implicated Obama Administration intelligence chiefs.  For now, the action concerns former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan.

Former Rep. Trey Gowdy has been all over the press for the last few days saying that an investigation should start with an email chain between Comey and Brennan concerning whether the Steele dossier should be included verbatim in the Intelligence Community Agencies (ICA) assessment published by the Obama Administration of Jan. 6, 2017 and asserting that Russian state cyber activities were conducted in 2016 with the intention of throwing the election to Donald Trump.  According to Fox News, the email chain refers to the Steele dossier as “Crown Material.” Comey says that Brennan was responsible for pushing for inclusion.  In their statement to Fox News through a former CIA official, Brennan and Clapper assert that it was Comey alone who pushed this and it was Comey alone who decided to brief Trump about it.

According to Gowdy, classified documents he has reviewed show that Comey “has the better argument.”  Not to be discounted as this feud emerges is Congressman Jim Jordan’s announcement that he met with DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, and Horowitz is making criminal referrals with respect to his investigation of the Russiagate FISA warrants and the Steele dossier.

The issue? Well, imagine, if the crazy Steele report had been backed publicly by the entire U.S. intelligence community as Donald Trump prepared for inauguration. The President, the Steele report says, is a Russian agent.  Put that into context of the Women’s March, the Clinton/Obama attempt to alter the result through the Electoral College, and everything else we know about the real attempted putsch by the British Empire and the Obama White House.

As it was, Comey briefing Trump on the fake dossier, the Crown Material, was a J. Edgar Hoover blackmail attempt which provided the so-called news hook for BuzzFeed to publish the dirty dossier to the world a few weeks before Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Mounting Calls for Bolton’s Removal

May 15 (EIRNS)—A mounting number of calls for Trump to fire John Bolton, before he gets the U.S. into a war which would be a disaster and almost certainly ruin President Donald Trump’s chance for re-election, are coming in from the so-called left and the so-called right. The fact that Trump fits in neither of these British imperial boxes helps explain the growing “bilateral” consensus against the regime-change wars and in favor of Trump’s peace initiative with Russia and China.

Today’s contributions:

• Fox’s Tucker Carlson: “More than anything in the world, National Security Adviser John Bolton would love to have a war with Iran. It will be like Christmas, Thanksgiving, his birthday—wrapped into one. Mercifully, John Bolton does not control the military, President Trump does. The question is, just how influential is Bolton in the White House.” Carlson recalls the 2015 New York Times op-ed by Bolton, headlined, “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.”

• Irish journalist Finian Cunningham posted an op-ed on RT titled: “Trump Needs To Take Reins from Bolton & Pull World Back from Precipice of War.”

• CNN’s Peter Bergen wrote: “John Bolton, President Trump’s national security adviser, seemingly hasn’t met a war he doesn’t love. Bolton was a prominent proponent of the Iraq War and he has never evinced any doubt about the wisdom of that decision, telling the Washington Examiner four years ago, ‘I still think the decision to overthrow Saddam was correct.’ By contrast, last year President Trump said the Iraq War was ‘the single worst decision ever made.’ Just before he was installed a little over a year ago as Trump’s National Security Adviser, Bolton advocated for a pre-emptive war against North Korea in the Wall Street Journal.”

• On NBC News’ opinion page “Think,” Trita Parsi wrote an essay: “Trump’s Potential War With Iran Is All John Bolton’s Doing. But It Might Also Be His Undoing.” With the kicker, “The Iranian government knows the National Security Adviser wants a war, and is banking on the fact that the President doesn’t.”

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Trump Executive Order Bans Companies’ Use of Foreign Technology Deemed a ‘Security’ Threat

May 15 (EIRNS)—President Trump today signed an executive order to prevent U.S. companies from using telecom technology produced by foreign companies or countries considered to be a “national security” threat. Although the order doesn’t specifically name China’s Huawei, clearly it is the intended target.

It’s worth noting, as Reuters reports, that this order has been under discussion for over a year and has been repeatedly delayed.

The order invokes the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, allowing the President to regulate interstate commerce in the event of an “unusual and extraordinary threat … to the national security, foreign policy or economy of the United States” that originates “in whole or substantial part outside the United States.”

Asked about this in today’s Chinese Foreign Ministry press briefing, spokesman Geng Shuang charged that for some time now, the U.S. “has been abusing its national power to tarnish the image of, and crack down on specific Chinese companies, which is disgraceful and unjust. We urge the U.S. side to stop oppressing Chinese companies under the pretext of security concerns and provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for their normal investment and operation.”

According to Sputnik, on May 9, the major U.S. telecom carriers—Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile—agreed not to use Huawei on their 5G networks; the next day, the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to block China Mobile Ltd., Beijing’s largest telecom carrier, from accessing U.S. markets.

Amid pressures on governments to shun Huawei, the chairman of its board of directors, Liang Hua, announced he is willing to sign a “no spy” agreement with any governments that may be worried about the possibility of spying.

Iranian Presidential Aide Warns Trump, If You Listen to ‘Mustache’ Bolton, ‘You’ll Get a War’

May 15 (EIRNS)—Reflecting recognition that National Security Adviser John Bolton is behind the drive for war with Iran, Hesamoddin Ashena, an adviser to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned in a tweet of the consequences for President Donald Trump should he continue to listen to the “Mustache” John Bolton,

As reported by Fox News, he told the U.S. President: “@realDonaldTrump : You wanted a better deal with Iran. Looks like you are going to get a war instead. That’s what happens when you listen to the mustache. Good luck in 2020!”  Apparently similar remarks were made by Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran’s ambassador to the U.K., to Sky News. “Don’t test us,” he warned, as the Iranian military is “fully ready” for any conflict in the region. “While we have renounced any escalation in the region, I would assure you that Iranian armed forces are fully ready for any eventuality in the region, so they should not try to test the determination of Iran to confront any escalation in the region.”

However, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei later downplayed prospects for war, as did Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Iran’s state TV reported Khamenei saying that “this is not a military confrontation, because no war is going to happen,” and that “neither we nor they are seeking war; they know that it is not to their benefit.” While in Sochi, Russia yesterday, Pompeo stated that, “We’re looking for the regime to simply stop conducting assassination campaigns throughout Europe, to cease their support of Hizballah that threatens interests all across the Middle East, their support for the Houthis that are launching missiles into areas where there are Russians and Americans traveling.” “

Iran Officially Suspends Execution of Part of Its Obligations under JCPOA Nuclear Deal

May 15 (EIRNS)—Iran officially suspended the execution of part of its obligations under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on May 15, the Iranian Students’ News Agency reported today.

“The country has begun to stop implementing some of its obligations under the JCPOA as underlined in an [Supreme National Security Council] SNSC statement,” read the dispatch from ISNA.

“Stopping programs related to compliance with the ceiling for production of enriched uranium as well as the unlimited production of heavy water at the Arak facility are programs seriously pursued as stressed during the first 60-day period related to Iran’s first step in response to the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal,” the official said, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“In order to inform the public of the measures adopted, arrangements have been made for journalists and reporters to visit running installations at the nuclear facilities in Natanz and Arak.”

As TASS reported, the items concern the necessity to sell a surplus of uranium to other countries under the JPCOA, if its volume exceeds 300 kg and heavy water. Although this was meant to restrict Iran’s nuclear program, the U.S. sanctions forbid the sale!

ECONOMY

The EU Destruction of the Greek Standard of Living

May 15 (EIRNS)—Greece still has at least 20% unemployment. Nonetheless one in four Greeks earns less than €500 per month, according to a report by the Labor Institute of the General Confederation of Greek Labor. The report showed that between 2015 and 2018 there was an increase in the number of low-paid workers, especially those receiving less than €700 per month, most of whom work at flexible forms of labor.

Using figures from the Single Social Security Entity (EFKA) the report showed the number of people earning less than €250 per month almost quadrupled from 2010 to 2018, growing from 64,000 workers in 2010, to 251,020 in 2018. The number of workers earning no more than €500 tripled during the same period. Flexible forms of labor accounted for more than 50% of new jobs between 2014 to 2018.

Among young Greeks, in the 25- to 35-year-old range, more than half live with their parents, as compared with the average of 28.5% in European Union as a whole, according to a survey by the EU’s statistics service Eurostat.

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Xi Opens Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations: ‘Cultures Are Not Destined To Clash’

May 15 (EIRNS)—China’s President Xi Jinping opened the May 15 Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations, hosting 47 Asian nations and 50 other nations: “Various civilizations are not destined to clash,” he said. “Those who think their races or cultures are better, and try to change or replace other cultures, are wrong in their mindsets and are doomed to fail,” Xi said.

Xi said, “every civilization is rooted in its own soil of existence, which embodies the extraordinary wisdom and spiritual pursuit of a country and a nation owning its own value. There would be no clash of civilizations as long as people were able to appreciate the beauty of all civilizations.”

He cautioned, “If human civilizations are all in one tone and one mode, the world will be too monotonous and boring.”

Several other heads of state spoke at the conference, which was followed by a carnival on the theme “Celebration of Youth, Dream of Asia,” featuring musical and dance performances from participating nations, with up to 30,000 in attendance at the “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium in Beijing.

Xi also opened the carnival, greeting the guests: “Tonight, the colorful flowers of Asian cultures will blossom in full. Arts will transcend the boundaries of nations, touch people right in the heart and connect their minds, showing to the world a radiant, dynamic, peaceful and progressive Asia.”

China’s national institutions, its symphony, its opera orchestra and chorus, and pianist Lang Lang, were involved throughout.

Spectacles from other Asian countries included cassocks from Russia, belly dancers from Turkey, an Indonesian drum troupe, from Tibet, the “Farmers Musicians,” three of whom were on handsome, prancing horses, which walked on treadmills on the stage!

‘Civilizations Thrive as They Learn from Each Other,’ Beijing Conference Affirms

May 15 (EIRNS)—In an insightful commentary published today in Xinhua, author Shi Xiaomeng points to some key historical aspects of the dialogue of civilizations, while emphasizing that the current Conference on the Dialogue of Asian Civilizations offers a “brand new platform for exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations…. [H]istory shows that civilizations thrive as they learn from each other. In the current world, dialogue among civilizations, especially on the Asian continent, carries unique significance.”

Look at the many examples of past dialogues among civilizations, Shi says, pointing to the Arab world’s Abbasid Caliphate which launched a movement to translate ancient classics from the Greeks and Romans. Echoing remarks by Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her April 27 class, Shi reports that, “the translation movement saved the old wisdom from perishing with the fall of the Roman Empire, and enabled the European cultures in later times to revive in the Renaissance.”

For Asian countries, exchanges among civilizations “can also help them rediscover their identity on the world stage in this new and changing era.” In recent decades, Asian nations have shed “the yoke of imperial colonialism, achieved independence, accumulated miraculous economic and social progress and inched back to the center stage of the international arena.” And now, Asia is capable of making larger contributions to human civilization and world prosperity.”

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Bridenstine Warns, Congress Must Support Lunar Landing Budgets, or It Can’t Be Done by 2024

May 15 (EIRNS)—In his presentation yesterday to the Humans to Mars Summit, and in testimony later in the day before the Senate space subcommittee of the Commerce Committee, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine stressed that President Donald Trump’s $1.6 billion FY 2020 add-on request was less than what will be requested for future years.

He warned: “If Congress comes in with a lower number, the probability of success goes down and the risk goes up. Can we do it? I don’t know.” There is the likelihood that come the October start of Fiscal 2020, there will be a continuing resolution (CR), as there was last year. This extends the funding level from FY19 into the next fiscal year. But last year, NASA was able to get a waiver from the cuts. “There are opportunities, even in a CR, to make sure NASA gets what it needs in order to achieve the end state,” Bridenstine, a former Congressman, stated. “I would encourage Members of Congress in a bipartisan way to think about that when they go forward.”

It would also do well for Members of Congress to recall the way President John F. Kennedy approached the question of support for multi-administration programs in his “Apollo speech” before Congress on May 25, 1961:

“Let it be clear—and this is a judgment which the Members of the Congress must finally make—let it be clear that I am asking the Congress and the country to accept a firm commitment to a new course of action, a course which will last for many years and carry very heavy cost…. If we are to go only half way, or reduce our sights in the face of difficulty, in my judgment it would be better not to go at all.”

Although President Donald Trump and the media have presented the 2024 target date for the manned Moon landing as dictated by Trump still being President, Bridenstine is looking at what he thinks are the lessons from the failure of past Moon-Mars presidential initiatives. The goals were too far in the future, he believes. If the program spans more than one administration, it runs the risk of being cancelled by the incoming administration, as with Obama’s deadly cancellation of Constellation.

But, in contrast, the Chinese lunar program has been a multi-decade program, which has gone forward regardless of changes in the leadership of the country. In China, the space program is not a stand-alone project, but comes under the umbrella of national economic policies. There, economic growth is based upon increases in productivity through investments in science and technology, in which space exploration plays an important part.

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