MONDAY, MAY 20, 2019 Volume 6, Number 98 EIR Daily Alert Service P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390

• ‘Russiagate’ Big Lie: NSA and CIA Experts Will Show Congress How All ‘Secret Intelligence’ Was False
• A ‘Gulf of Tonkin Incident’ May Be Looming on Capitol Hill
• Sen. Rand Paul Warns, ‘Bolton Is a Malign Influence’
• China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi Has Telephone Conversation With Pompeo
• China To Build New Megaport in Peru as ‘Continental Hub’
• Brazil Vice President Heads to China With Belt and Road on Agenda
• Intense Diplomatic Activity Occurring Around Venezuelan Situation
• ISIS Announces Launching a ‘Pakistan Province,’ Separatists Target China, Belt and Road
• Italian Prosecutors Seek Jail for Deutsche Bank, Nomura and Monte dei Paschi Banksters
• NASA Video Reveals Moon Is the Source and ‘Checkpoint for All That Lies Beyond’
• Will the House Make Trump’s Lunar Program a Partisan Issue?
• Stephen Roach Counters ‘America’s False Narrative on China’

EDITORIAL

‘Russiagate’ Big Lie: NSA and CIA Experts Will Show Congress How All ‘Secret Intelligence’ Was False

May 19 (EIRNS)—With manipulation of “secret intelligence” putting the United States under threat of an Iran war despite President Donald Trump’s intentions, it is time to expose, finally and thoroughly, the British Empire’s faked intelligence which for three years has driven the “Russiagate” attempted coup against the President.

In a joint interview on LaRouchePAC’s Friday webcast May 17, very senior experts from the National Security Agency (NSA) and CIA said they were ready to tell Congressional committees exactly how the intelligence which launched the sordid “Russiagate” affair was manufactured, and by whom; and prepared to tell President Trump what he can do immediately to complete the exposé.

The results could also shock some Democrats and Republicans in Congress into more productive political action than crying for war and confrontation with Russia and China.

William Binney, who was the NSA’s Technical Director until 2002 and designed the codes for its surveillance capacities, has determined by testing methods and can prove, that the Democratic National Committee correspondence provided to WikiLeaks in 2016 was not hacked by Russia. Binney told LaRouchePAC: “[T]he DNC data that was posted by WikiLeaks … clearly showed evidence of a property called a FAT format file. That’s the file allocation table format, … software used to read data to a storage device, either a thumb drive or a CD-ROM.”  He said the property found on the files received and disclosed by WikiLeaks was so conclusive, that the chances that the files were not transferred to a storage device by someone with physical access to the DNC server, were essentially zero. In addition, Binney’s team found that the speeds at which the files were extracted from the DNC server cannot be achieved, or even approximated, by a hack over the Internet. The team tested this from locations in Eastern and Central Europe. “That said to us, that it wasn’t a hack from Russia, it was an inside job, or somebody close in, that downloaded the data to a storage device and then took it physically.”

It is known that the DNC server in question has never been examined by the FBI, or any agency except the private computer security firm CrowdStrike, headed by anti-Russian activists.

LaRouchePAC’s lead investigator on this matter, Barbara Boyd, who cohosted the broadcast, asked Binney if there were one question President Trump could ask the NSA, to show him that the DNC files were, or were not hacked from Russia. “I would ask them for the trace routes of the packets from the DNC to Russia,” Binney said, explaining that the NSA traces packets of data from “every device in the world” traversing the Internet. “I would ask them, very simply, ‘Where are the trace route packets, showing the packets going to the Russians?’ And then again, where are the trace route programs showing the packets going from the Russians to WikiLeaks?”

Binney stated that the NSA never, through the entire “Russiagate” furor, expressed more than “moderate confidence” in the Russian hack story. “That tells me that they have nothing” and were just accepting CIA and FBI assessments, he concluded.

Veteran CIA and State Department counter-terror analyst Larry Johnson said of the President, “The first thing he needs to do is identify all of the [Trump/Russiagate] intelligence that was collected and disseminated within the U.S. government, within classified channels—most of it was probably top secret, some of it was likely special access program—and identify who originated that intelligence? … Did it originate with the British? Or did it originate with an NSA collection directive; or did it come from a CIA directive? And then identify the individuals that were involved with working on those reports, putting them out, and who their chain of command and supervisors were? He needs to demand that the FBI identify all human assets and informants, that were working on political campaigns—not just against Trump, but against other campaigns. And to ask for the declassification of all what are called the FD 1023 reports: the reports where the FBI meets with the confidential human source and writes up what they talked about and what directions they were given for future action.”

The issue of what Bill Binney would tell President Trump is not theoretical: The President ordered then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo to meet with Binney “to get the facts” on precisely this question. That meeting occurred in August 2017, and Pompeo failed to follow through in any way, even after asking Binney if he were prepared to meet with FBI and NSA officials. Pompeo essentially buried this crucial matter, and neither Binney nor Johnson has ever been called to testify in any of the endless Congressional hearings on “Russiagate.”

Senators from the Intelligence, Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees have been asked in writing to call Binney, immediately, for this crucial testimony; they have not responded thus far. That situation has to be changed by citizens who want to save, not only the Presidency, but the nation from wars and ruinous great-power confrontations driven by false intelligence.

Constituents can transmit the video interview with Binney and Johnson from the LaRouche PAC website, to Congressional offices.EIR is planning a major story in the next issue based on the interview transcript, as well.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

A ‘Gulf of Tonkin Incident’ May Be Looming on Capitol Hill

May 19 (EIRNS)—On May 21 the House and Senate will be briefed separately and secretly on “Iran threat intelligence” by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan, CIA Director Gina Haspel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, reports the Wall Street Journal from “two sources familiar with the issue.” Despite President Trump’s statement May 16 that he wants negotiations with Iran and not war, war provocations may be embedded in the “secret intelligence,” being shepherded by National Security Adviser John Bolton and Pompeo to suggest Iran may attack.

A classified briefing already given to the Congressional party leaders and Intelligence Committee co-chairs on May 16, produced dark mutterings from Democrats like Sen. Mark Warner (“It’s very important that more Members hear this story”) and threats from Republican Senate Whip John Thune and Sen. Marco Rubio (“But if we are attacked by Iran’s proxies, we are going to respond against those proxies and hold Iran responsible. And they’re going to pay a price for that as well. Who could disagree with the notion that if we are attacked, we have a right to defend ourselves and respond?”).

For now, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi echoed Sen. Rand Paul’s statements, saying “I hope that the President’s advisers recognize that they have no authorization to go forward in any way.” But unlike Paul and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Pelosi is not challenging the drive for confrontation with Russia, which really drives threats of war with Iran.

Gabbard on “Face the Nation” Sunday, May 19, warned of nuclear war resulting: “The needless escalation of tensions with nuclear-armed powers like Russia and China—and it’s come from the Administration but also from the Democratic Party—has brought the country closer to nuclear war now than in many years…. I will de-escalate those tensions, and seek cooperation rather than conflict with other great powers.”

This “secret intelligence” process began May 10 with an unusual and unexplained visit to the CIA, and meeting with CIA analysts, by Bolton, who has been demanding war with Iran since at least 2004. Vice President Dick Cheney made several such visits to CIA analysts when the Iraq “weapons of mass destruction” secret intelligence was being manufactured. For several days after May 10, Pompeo scurried to Brussels, to Iraq and to London about “secret intelligence” on Iran, before being restrained by President Trump and directed to Moscow for discussions of cooperation to preserve peace in the world. The “secret intelligence” process continues unabated this coming week.

This is occurring after three years of an attempted coup to remove President Trump from office, continually fed by leaks of such “classified intelligence” originating from British intelligence and “Five Eyes” networks. Those networks wanted war confrontation with Russia and China; Trump wanted cooperation with the other great powers. It is evident from the dramas now unfolding around “secret intelligence” about Iranian actions, that the monster of fakedintelligence—driving elected officials before it like lemmings over a cliff—still has to be slain.

Sen. Rand Paul Warns, Bolton Is a ‘Malign Influence’

May 18 (EIRNS)—Sen. Rand Paul told a conference call with reporters on May 16, that he fears that John Bolton is “a malignancy, a malignant influence on the administration,” when asked about John Bolton’s role in the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group and an Air Force bomber task force to the Persian Gulf, The Hill reported.

Paul is concerned about the intelligence reports coming in, including the New York Times report that the White House escalated its warnings about a potential attack from Iran or Iranian-backed forces, based on photographs of missiles being transported on small boats in the Persian Gulf. “My concern is that there are people that will overreact to this intelligence and somehow get us involved in a military conflict from which there’s no turning back,” Paul said.

“The question is, that’s being done in reaction to our increased presence there and our naming all of the Revolutionary Guards as terrorists—is this a reaction to our policy or is it simply an aggressive policy saying we’re going to start war? Iran knows you don’t start a war with the United States.”

He further said that he is worried that the U.S. military build-up could increase the chances of a confrontation spiralling out of control.

“I think the most important thing is to put the administration on notice that they do not have congressional permission to go to war with Iran, and we need to make sure we’re not involved in anything that is provocative enough to encourage a skirmish that leads to a bigger war.”

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi Has Telephone Conversation with Pompeo

May 19 (EIRNS)—Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, during a phone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo May 18, urged the United States not to go too far in its damaging moves against Chinese interests. Stating that “the U.S. side has recently made remarks and taken actions that are harmful to Chinese interests in various fields, including cracking down on Chinese enterprises’ normal operations through political measures, Wang said China strongly opposes such actions,” Xinhua reported.

Wang stressed that China has stated its firm opposition to the United States’ recent negative words and acts related to Taiwan, and urged the United States to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. Joint Communiqués, “and prudently and properly handle Taiwan-related issues.” Wang emphasized that China, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, is committed to the denuclearization, peace and stability of the Middle East. “We hope that all parties will exercise restraint and act with caution, so as to avoid escalating tensions,” he said.

Wang reiterated the principled stand against the “long-arm jurisdiction” imposed by the United States.

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

China To Build New Megaport in Peru as ‘Continental Hub’

May 18 (EIRNS)—Peru’s signing an MOU joining the Belt and Road Initiative during the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation April 25-27 has set into motion huge economic development projects which China has been offering.

Peru’s Volcan mining company and China’s port and shipping giant COSCO signed an agreement on May 13 to construct a megaport in Chancay, 50 km north of Lima. Chancay is a natural deep-water harbor (maximum water-depth of 16 meters), capable of handling today’s largest ships, but currently with no commercial port capacity. Now it is to be developed into the biggest port on South America’s Pacific Coast, and serve as a “continental hub” for cargo between South America and China, with two specialized terminals able to handle container, bulk, roll-on/roll-off and general cargo. Projected completion is in 28 months, with an estimated 9,000 jobs (1,500 direct and 7,500 indirect) created in the process.

The signing ceremony was attended by Peru’s President Martin Vizcarra and Transportation Minister Maria Jara, and COSCO’s Chairman Captain Xu Lirong and Managing Director Zhang Wei, and received great national media coverage.

“COSCO Shipping will jointly cooperate with Peru to develop the Port of Chancay into an important hub port in Latin America near the Pacific Coast, which will promote regional economic development. It will become the new link and bridge for trade and economic exchanges between China and Peru,” Captain Xu said at the signing.

President Vizcarra called the signing “a milestone. Based on mutual connectivity of the Belt and Road Initiative, the companies from China and Peru jointly invested and developed the Chancay Project, which lays a solid foundation for Peruvian economic development,” he said. “The construction of the Port of Chancay will contribute to regional development, and we expect to develop the Port of Chancay into one of the most important ‘hub’ ports in South America, and a logistics center near the Pacific Coast, which will promote regional trade and trade between China and the Latin America.”

This new “regional hub” begs the question of the continental rail network which has yet to be built. Not surprisingly, President Vizcarra raised the bioceanic part of that rail network, in an interview with Reuters yesterday. Vizcarra suggested that China—among others—could be a natural partner to help finance and build the bioceanic railroad, because it would be purchasing its products. He referred to the Central Route, connecting Brazil and Peru through Bolivia.

Brazil Vice President Heads to China with Belt and Road on Agenda

May 18 (EIRNS)—Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourão is interested in hearing China’s proposals for Brazil joining the Belt and Road when he is in China, he told the press on May 14. That decision will be made by President Jair Bolsonaro, however, when he visits China in the second half of the year, he said.

Mourão will visit Shanghai and Beijing from May 19-24. China is rolling out the red carpet to receive him, with meetings scheduled with President Xi Jinping, Vice President Wang Qishan, and Chairman of the People’s Political Consultative Conference Wang Yang. On May 23, he will co-preside over the first meeting since 2015 of the Sino-Brazilian High-Level Commission (COSBAN). The COSBAN has been the principal government-to-government format between the two countries since 2004, when it was established, but when then-President Dilma Rousseff was overthrown in 2016, no COSBAN meetings were held because it is led by the Vice Presidents of both countries, and Brazil had none once VP Michel Temer grabbed the Presidency!

Mourão is credited with resetting relations with China, after Bolsonaro nearly upended them with his rabidly anti-China rhetoric during his election campaign, which included a well-publicized visit to Taiwan. China being Brazil’s number-one trading partner, giving Brazil a trade surplus for nine years running (and to the tune of $30 billion in Brazil’s favor in 2018), as well as a large foreign investor, Bolsonaro has been forced by saner Brazilians to face reality.

Mourão told “Brasil em Pauta” TV before heading to China that while Brazil has always been close to the United States, “on the other hand, we have sufficient pragmatism to understand the importance of China for Brazil’s economic development.” He reported that he will be bringing a letter from President Bolsonaro for Xi Jinping.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Intense Diplomatic Activity Occurring Around Venezuelan Situation

May 17 (EIRNS)—A flurry of diplomatic activity has been taking place around seeking some resolution to the Venezuelan crisis, as it’s become clear that the neocon regime-change strategy of National Security Adviser John Bolton et al. has been an abject failure. Yesterday, several days of talks between representatives of the Nicolas Maduro government and the opposition concluded in Oslo, Norway. Norway’s NRK radio network reported May 16 that this is the second time talks have taken place in Oslo, and that talks have also taken place in Cuba.

No specifics have emerged from the Oslo meetings, or whether there will be future meetings. What is clear is that Cuba is playing a role, seen in the fact that Cuba’s First Deputy Foreign Minister was in Oslo on May 14-15. And, while the media are giving Canada much credit for involving Cuba, a more important question is what role the Trump Administration may be playing—particularly given Donald Trump’s anger at Bolton’s war-mongering antics.

On May 7, the Miami Herald reported on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s “surprising” May 5 remarks on CBS’s Face the Nation that “we’re working with the Cubans to try and get an outcome” which would include the Cubans ceasing their support for Maduro, supporting new elections, etc. For the first time, Pompeo placed the Cuban presence in Venezuela at 2,300—a far cry from the 20,000 normally cited by Bolton. Pompeo’s remarks provoked so many questions that the State Department had to publicly explain that “we regularly engage with the Cuban government.” The period of May 3-6 saw meetings and phone conversations among President Trump, Vladimir Putin, Pompeo and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in which Venezuela was a prominent topic of conversation.

On May 3, the 14-member Lima Group, of which Canada is a member, issued a statement promising to “take the steps necessary for Cuba to participate in the search for a solution to the crisis in Venezuela.” Yesterday, Canadian Foreign Minister Christa Freeland met in Havana with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, after which the Canadian Foreign Ministry issued a statement stressing that “it is of critical importance that our two countries meet to discuss the economic, political and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela and the work we can undertake together to address it.”

ISIS Announces Launching a ‘Pakistan Province,’ Separatists Target China, Belt and Road

May 18 (EIRNS)—The terrorist Islamic State (ISIS) has announced the establishment of a “province” in Pakistan, only days after the group’s announcement of “Hind Province” in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir region. Both regions had in the past come under what ISIS called its “Khorasan Province” or ISKP.

The Belt and Road’s China Pakistan Economic Corridor, whose route is from west China through Balochistan, has come under attack by separatist terrorists, especially from the Balochistan Liberation Army that carried out four attacks in Balochistan in the last fortnight. The BLA has stated its aim is to attack Chinese targets. Its last attack was a hotel in Gwardar port, the terminus of CPEC, where 40 Chinese were guests; five Pakistanis were killed, but there were no casualties among the Chinese.

The ISIS mouthpiece Amaq News Agency announced the new province as the “Islamic State Pakistan Province.” Amaq also credited ISIS with killing a Pakistani policeman this week in Mastung district, and announced an attack by the outlawed Pakistani Taliban in Quetta, both in Balochistan province.

Whether ISIS actually has cadres of its own in the region is disputed. The Pakistan government maintains ISIS has no “organized” presence in the country and these terror attacks are being carried out by well-known regional groups such as BLA.

Pakistan’s Counter-Terrorism Department carried out a counter-terror operation in Mastung district May 15, killing nine terrorists, reports The Dawn. A huge cache of ammunition, explosives and weapons was also recovered; four police officers were injured in the operation.

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Italian Prosecutors Seek Jail for Deutsche Bank, Nomura and Monte dei Paschi Banksters

May 17 (EIRNS)—Prosecutors have asked for jail sentences of former bank executives in the two-and-a-half-year trial against Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), Deutsche Bank, and Nomura in Milan. Leading officials of the three banks are accused of fraud through derivative schemes. In addition to the jail sentences, prosecutors have asked for almost $1 billion to be seized from the foreign banks involved.

Jail sentences of five years and eight months have been asked should there be convictions for Deutsche Bank’s Michele Faissola, former head of global rates; for Michele Foresti, former head of structured trading; and Dario Schiraldi, former head of European sales. A six-year jail sentence has been asked for Sadeq Sayeed, former CEO of Nomura International.

Prosecutors are also seeking eight-year sentences for former Monte dei Paschi Chairman Giuseppe Mussari and ex-General Manager Antonio Vigni. They also seek the seizure of more than $492 million each from Deutsche Bank and Nomura.

The two foreign banks helped MPS to hide losses incurred through the leveraged purchase of Antonveneta bank from Santander in 2007, by selling MPS derivative schemes. Those contracts should have raised eyebrows by supervisors at the Bank of Italy, but the central bank, then under Mario Draghi, firmly closed both eyes, as it had done when it first authorized MPS to take over Antonveneta by cheating on the takeover costs, as the documentary “Death of a Banker” reveals.

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

NASA Video Reveals Moon Is the Source and ‘Checkpoint for All that Lies Beyond’

May 19 (EIRNS)—A new video, “We Are Going, produced by NASA shows the far greater challenge and potential of the “Moon by 2024” mission in comparison to the United States’ manned landings on the Moon a half-century ago. Presenting an array of new rocketry and manned capsules in action and under development, the NASA astronauts and engineers promise, “We’re going to the Moon this time to stay.” But more, the Moon is the launch pad, the new space coast, and the source of both fuel and supplies for missions to Mars and beyond; mankind will explore the Solar System from the Moon.

“In 2009 we learned that the Moon contains millions of tons of water ice,” the technicians say. “This ice can [make] water, oxygen for breathing, or hydrogen for rocket fuel. The Moon is uniquely suited to prepare us, and propel us to Mars and beyond…. This we can replicate throughout the Solar System.”

No suggestion is made of competition or conflict in space; rather “We go to the Moon and on to Mars to seek knowledge and understanding, and to share it with all.”

“We turn towards the Moon now, not as a conclusion, but as preparation,” says narrator William Shatner, “as a checkpoint toward all that lies beyond.”

The short video is available on NASA’s homepage.

Will the House Make Trump’s Lunar Program a Partisan Issue?

May 17 (EIRNS)—The House Appropriations subcommittee responsible for allocating funds for NASA was scheduled to mark up NASA’s FY 20 budget today, space media report, with an increase to $22.32 billion, which is $820 million more than NASA received for FY19. However, virtually none of the increase is for the $1.6 billion add-on funding for the Artemis Moon mission NASA requested. The bill increases NASA’s exploration account by only $100 million and restores the funding for the Pell education grants that the Office of Management and Budget had cut to pay for the Moon program.

Unfortunately, the Moon program is being opposed by many Democratic members, as part of a partisan fight, not on its merits. The argument has been raised that the members have to know what the whole five-year program will cost before they sign on to an increase for next year. Such a number would be a guess, at best.

The Republican-controlled Senate appropriators may go along with the NASA request, although there is also some Republican opposition to the program. If so, a compromise will have to be worked out between the two Houses, potentially crippling the ability to meet the President’s timetable.

OTHER

Stephen Roach Counters ‘America’s False Narrative on China’

May 17 (EIRNS)—Xinhua reports today on an article posted April 26 on Project Syndicate by Stephen Roach, a regular columnist for the site. Road, the former head of Morgan Stanley Asia, now at Yale has been one of the more honest bankers in regard to the crucial role of China in the world today.

Titled “America’s False Narrative on China,” Roach writes that the recent “fixation on China as an existential threat to the cherished American Dream” is both nonsense, and has potentially serious consequences. He is perhaps overly pessimistic, and lumps President Donald Trump together with his economic team as responsible for current tensions. He claims that an agreement on a trade deal will not end the China-bashing, and that “Sino-American trust is now in tatters.”

He takes up the attacks on China one by one:

• “Inputs made in other countries but assembled and shipped from China are estimated to overstate the U.S.-China trade imbalance by as much as 35-40%.”

• The claim of “forced” technology transfer between U.S. companies and their Chinese joint venture partners is a fraud, since there is no coercion, but the normal procedure in joint ventures.

• The claim that “China is stealing hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. intellectual property each year, driving a stake into the heart of America’s innovative prowess,” is also not true, and that even the U.S. Trade Representative’s  report which proffers this as the justification for imposing tariffs “actually admits in the Section 301 report (on page 19) that there is no hard evidence to confirm these ‘implicit practices.’ ”

• As for the attacks on Made in China 2025 and Artificial Intelligence 2030 as unacceptable “industrial policy,” Roach states that “comparable industrial policies have long been practiced by Japan, Germany, France, and even the U.S. In February, Trump issued an executive order announcing the establishment of an AI Initiative, complete with a framework to develop an AI action plan within 120 days.”

• On currency manipulation, he maintains that China’s “trade-weighted currency has risen over 50% in real terms since late 2004,” not declined to favor Chinese exports.

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