FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 2019 Volume 6, Number 112 EIR Daily Alert Service P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390

• One Single Human Mission
• Pentagon’s ‘Indo-Pacific Strategy Report’ Makes Another Call To ‘Win’ Over China
• Japan’s Abe Plans To Visit Iran; Will He Mediate Between Tehran and Washington?
• Some Progress Cited as U.S.-Mexico Talks Continue, But No Change in Tariff Deadline
• Lopez Obrador Convenes Citizens for Rally To ‘Defend Mexico’s Dignity’ and Express ‘Friendship for U.S.’
• House Hearings on Corporate Debt Bubble of Leveraged Lending Decried Risk, But Only Seeks Study
• More Than 2 Million Somalis Are Threatened With Starvation From Drought, Warns UN’s Lowcock
• Washington’s Sanctions Have Begun To Pinch New Delhi
• Huawei Signed a Deal in Russia To Develop 5G Network, During Xi Jinping-Putin Summit
• Inaugural China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo Set for June 27-29 in Changsha-Hunan Province
• China Carries Out Its First Satellite Launch From a Platform on the Sea
• Russia to Supply Nuclear Fuel For Six Slovakian Nuclear Power Plants

EDITORIAL

One Single Human Mission

June 6 (EIRNS)—Today is the 75th anniversary of the Normandy Landing which led to the final victory over fascism in World War II. A Memorial for Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., who expired Feb. 12, follows soon. Then, on July 20, will be the 50th anniversary of the first manned landing on the Moon—an anniversary which is suddenly sacred not because it is the 50th, but because it is the first anniversary since mankind has determined to return to the Moon to stay, and to prepare there for the Mars mission.

Call it coincidence, but the resonance between the Normandy invasion and the Moon landing evokes in an extraordinary way the life and achievement of Lyndon LaRouche, of his “mission to mortality” as he once put it.  In this way, it forces us to confront the question: Where would mankind be today if this one man had not lived and fought as unrelentingly as he did, decade after decade? Would the present potentials for advancement exist, or would we be at a dead end?

President Donald Trump captured the spirit of the World War II generation throughout his remarks in Normandy today, when he said, “The GIs who boarded the landing craft that morning knew that they carried on their shoulders not just the pack of a soldier, but the fate of the world.  Col. George Taylor, whose 16th Infantry Regiment would join in the first wave, was asked: ‘What would happen if the Germans stopped then right then and there, cold on the beach—just stopped them?  What would happen?’ This great American replied: ‘Why, the 18th Infantry is coming in right behind us. The 26th Infantry will come on too. Then there is the 2nd Infantry Division already afloat.  And the 9th Division. And the 2nd Armored.  And the 3rd Armored.  And all the rest.  Maybe the 16th won’t make it, but someone will.’ ”

Lyndon LaRouche was one of the few of that generation who kept and deepened his commitment to the war aims of Franklin Roosevelt through the months and years after the war, while most of his fellows turned aside to try to make up for the relative material deprivation their families had experienced in wartime. Later, under Trumanism-McCarthyism, they gave up all right to independent thinking, while LaRouche would never yield an inch to McCarthy.

Lyndon LaRouche is no longer with us in the flesh, but he is very much with us.  Now, immediately after his passing, he has become the vital link between the World War II Generation, and the “Artemis Generation” which NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine discussed in his May 23 address at Florida Tech—where he stressed, as LaRouche had done more than 30 years earlier, the need to rebuild our culture around the Moon-Mars mission.  Like the World War II Generation, but unlike the Gen-X’ers and Millennials in between, the Artemis Generation gets its name from its mission, rather than the year in which it was born.

Lyndon LaRouche saw, as we must now see, the mission of the Four Powers (the U.S., China, Russia and India) to establish a new international credit system and bury the British Empire forever—he saw this mission as one and the same as the Moon-Mars mission which he also worked tirelessly to develop and propagate. LaRouche put this all together vividly in a short videotape address to a Dec. 3-4, 2009 Moscow meeting on the occasion of a Russia-China economic development agreement, which will be reprinted in EIR’s June 15 issue from that of Dec. 11, 2009. There he said:

“The future of mankind, even though it’s some generations distant, now, depends upon the development of the colonization of the Moon, as a manufacturing center for building pieces of equipment which will convey man to the colonization of Mars. This will be a fundamental change in the character of the apparent human destiny, over this period of time. And this program, which is now agreed upon, so far, by Russia and China, will be the starting point.

“Those in the United States who know their history, who know their strategic history, realize this is a fundamental change. The world is now going to have a trans-Pacific orientation, as opposed to a trans-Atlantic orientation. And that will be for a long time to come. Because combining the populations, which are numerous, but underdeveloped, with a process of development of the raw-materials areas of Siberia and related places, is the solution for the present world problem. And we should look at these things in that way.

“We also have to look ahead to Mars, the Mars colonization, which this will help to make possible. It will be several generations distant, before we do that. There are numerous problems, scientific problems, that have to be overcome, not so much in getting to Mars—we already know how to get to Mars—but to get men and women safely to Mars, and back, there are some problems that have to be worked out, on that one.

“So, therefore, this will be the character of the coming period of history, provided we get through the present crisis.

“But, there are certain parts of the world, which are not willing to accept this. The British Empire, for example…. But, in general, you’re going to have opposition from what we call the British Empire, which is not the empire of the British people; it’s an empire which is based on London and the British interests, which is international. It’s the international monetarist system.

“And what we’re going into, with this reform, with the Russia-China agreement, is the inception of an alternative to a monetarist system: a shift to a credit system. That is, instead of having an international currency, which exerts imperial power, authority over the power of nation-states, and over their economy; instead of a globalized system, we’ll have a system of sovereign nation-states, in cooperation through their credit systems in the development of the planet. That’s the direction we should be going in. That’s what my purpose is in this.

“However, in order to meet that mission—the mission not merely of starting this development, which the Russia-China cooperation begins, including Russia-China-India and other countries—we have to develop the science and technology which goes together with a Mars orientation.”

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Pentagon’s ‘Indo-Pacific Strategy Report’ Makes Another Call To ‘Win’ over China

June 6 (EIRNS)—The Pentagon released on June 1 an “Indo-Pacific Strategy Report: Preparedness, Partnerships, and Promoting a Networked Region,” premised on confrontation between the United States and Russia and China, combined. Leaving nothing to the imagination, page 1 of the report is a message from Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, stating the following:

“Inter-state strategic competition, defined by geopolitical rivalry between free and repressive world order visions, is the primary concern for U.S. national security. In particular, the People’s Republic of China, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, seeks to reorder the region to its advantage by leveraging military modernization, influence operations, and predatory economics to coerce other nations.

“In contrast, the Department of Defense supports choices that promote long-term peace and prosperity for all in the Indo-Pacific. We will not accept policies or actions that threaten or undermine the rules-based international order—an order that benefits all nations. We are committed to defending and enhancing these shared values.

“The National Security Strategy and the National Defense Strategy articulate our vision to compete, deter, and win in this environment.”

Three relevant chapter-titles are:

2.1. The People’s Republic of China as a Revisionist Power

2.2. Russia as a Revitalized Malign Actor

2.3. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as a Rogue State

EIR will have more to say about this.

Japan’s Abe Plans To Visit Iran; Will He Mediate Between Tehran and Washington?

June 6 (EIRNS)—Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Iran in the near future, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said, without mentioning the dates or other details of the trip, at a press briefing on June 6 in Tokyo. A government official told AFP that Tokyo was “still arranging details, including whom our prime minister will meet there,” but local media have said Abe will hold talks with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani.

There is wide-ranging speculation in international media that Abe, who has developed close relations with the U.S. President Donald Trump, will act as a mediator to cool off the U.S.-Iran confrontation. In a state visit to Japan on May 26-28, in which President Trump was the first head of state to visit since the enthronement of Japan’s new Emperor Naruhito, the President appeared to endorse a mission in which Abe would serve as an intermediary between Iran and the United States. Trump stated that Japan and Abe have a “very good relationship with Iran,” amid Japanese media reports that the Prime Minister was considering a trip there. “I do believe that Iran would like to talk.  And if they’d like to talk, we’d like to talk also…. But I know for a fact that the Prime Minister is very close with the leadership of Iran, and we’ll see what happens. That would be fine. Nobody wants to see terrible things happen, especially me,” Trump replied during their press conference.

Also, Abe hosted Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in May. While in Tokyo, Zarif expressed hope that Japan and other U.S. allies will take “practical measures in order to maintain this valuable international agreement,” referring to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran’s nuclear program.

Despite cordial relations, Japan-Iran summits are rare: The two countries established relations in 1929. The last Japanese Prime Minister to visit Iran was Takeo Fukuda in 1978. In October 2000 Iranian President Mohammad Khatami visited Japan, the first visit by an Iranian President, and the first head of state from Iran to visit in 42 years, reported the Japanese Foreign Ministry website.

Shinzo Abe accompanied his father, Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe, to Iran in 1983, when Foreign Minister Abe attempted to mediate in the Iran-Iraq War.

NORTH AMERICAN POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Some Progress Cited as U.S.-Mexico Talks Continue, but No Change in Tariff Deadline

June 6 (EIRNS)—Talks between a visiting Mexican delegation, led by Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, and State Department officials ended this early this evening without an agreement, and are scheduled to continue tomorrow, Ebrard announced. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are traveling, so the State Department handled the talks today, which also included the White House counsel.

A senior White House official cited by the Wall Street Journalreported today that significant progress had been made in the negotiations, although apparently not enough to avert the imposition June 10 of a 5% tariff on Mexican exports to the U.S. This unnamed source said the Trump Administration is encouraged by steps Mexico has agreed to so far, but White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders issued a statement this afternoon saying that “the U.S. position has not changed and we are still moving forward with tariffs at this time.”

Speaking from Pennsylvania, Vice President Pence confirmed that message, Bloomberg reported. He also said he was encouraged by the talks, but that “more” had to be done to prevent the 5% tariff from being imposed next Monday.

Mexico reportedly presented a plan to intensify enforcement actions on its southern border with Guatemala, with increased troop deployments, as well as stronger drug-interdiction action. The López Obrador government is resisting U.S. pressure to be designated a “safe third country,” which means that immigrants entering Mexico from Honduras, El Salvador or Guatemala, would not be able to claim asylum in the U.S. Among other demands, the U.S. also wants tougher enforcement of the “remain in Mexico” policy, whereby migrants are encouraged to stay in that country, and take advantage of the government’s offer to provide jobs training, work permits, etc.

López Obrador Convenes Citizens for Rally To ‘Defend Mexico’s Dignity’ and Express ‘Friendship for U.S.’

June 6 (EIRNS)—In his morning press conference today, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced he is convening a great national demonstration of unity, to be held June 8 in Tijuana, on the U.S. border at 5:00 p.m. The purpose of the rally, he said, is to “defend Mexico’s dignity,” but to also express “our friendship with the people of the United States and our good neighborliness.”

Governors, legislators, religious groups, civil society—all citizens—are invited to attend. The Mexican President emphasized that the U.S. has responded in a good way to Mexico during current negotiations in Washington; it has not closed the door to dialogue, he said. Mexico will act with “great prudence,” he continued, but “with great firmness in defense of our sovereignty.”

López Obrador underscored that Mexico has no intention of provoking a break with the United States, as he expects that an agreement will be reached before June 10. Nonetheless, he stated, all options are being looked at. The priority is to, “above all, preserve our friendship with the American people … we are not going to confront each other,” but “we are analyzing everything,” including ways of diversifying markets.

According to El Sol de México, López Obrador met yesterday with state governors of the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party), to discuss a plan to protect the states in the event that President Donald Trump imposes 5% tariffs on Mexican exports to the U.S. on June 10. Alfredo del Mazo, governor of Mexico State, said discussion focused on the need for unity, how to protect state investments, sources of employment and the economy. He reported that an infrastructure plan for the states, to be financed with federal funds, will also be presented to the National Governors’ Conference.

The Mexican President has delivered a consistent message of hope that friendly relations can be maintained. Speaking from his home state of Tabasco, where he was inaugurating the work beginning on the Dos Bocas oil refinery on June 2, he departed from the text of his speech to reiterate that the “Mexican government is a friend to the government of the United States; the President of Mexico wants to continue being a friend to President Donald Trump.”

COLLAPSING WESTERN SYSTEM

House Hearings on Corporate Debt Bubble of Leveraged Lending Decried Risk, But Only Seeks Study

June 5 (EIRNS)—The House Financial Services Committee Sub-Committee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions held a hearing on June 4 on the topic, “Emerging Threats to Stability; Considering the Systemic Risk of Leveraged Lending,” addressing the danger resulting from the leveraged loan market, said to be $1.2 trillion. Many speakers made reference to an impending financial “explosion,” but recommended action for more study. The sub-committee proposed three bills for monitoring the status of such risky lending, instead of considering intervention.

The hearing took testimony from four academics, and issued a seven-page memorandum on the topic. Subcommittee Chairman Gregory Meeks (D-NY), a longtime friend of Wall Street, expressed his personal fear before the hearing, telling a Reuters reporter, “It’s a question as to whether a bubble can build when you are lending to companies that are already deeply in debt; what happens if you have multiple Toys ‘R’ Us all at one time? That was the question I had about whether that would then create systemic risk,” referring to the major toy chain that went bankrupt in 2017.

The four graphics in the memo show non-financial corporate debt as a percentage of GDP, which as of Sept. 20, 2018, is at a record 46%. Of all the international issuance of leveraged loans each year, the U.S. accounts for more than 65%, among other dangerous features documented. The memo also provides warnings, e.g., in March “the Dallas Fed President raised concerns about the risks to the broader economy of the rapid growth in corporate debt, highlighting that most of the growth in new debt issued narrowly qualifies as investment grade (at least BBB rated), which poses a significant risk for an explosion of sub-investment grade debts in the event of downgrades in a slowing or contracting economy,” they wrote.

The June 4 memorandum is available from the House Financial Services’ website in pdf format.

More Than 2 Million Somalis Are Threatened with Starvation from Drought, Warns UN’s Lowcock

June 6 (EIRNS)—UN Undersecretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock warned today that more than 2 million men, women and children could die of starvation in Somalia in the next three months if international aid is not sent quickly.

A statement, “CERF allocates $45 million to stave of famine risks in Horn of Africa,” issued yesterday by the UN Central Emergency Response Fund reported that of Somalia’s 15 million people, “2.2 million people are projected to face acute food insecurity by September, over 40% more than in January this year. A further 3.2 million people are expected to struggle just to meet minimum food requirements over the same period.”

Lowcock reported that “what was forecast to be an average rainy season in Somalia is now one of the driest on record in over 35 years…. Communities that were already vulnerable due to past droughts are again facing severe hunger and water scarcity and are at risk from deadly communicable diseases.”

CERF’s statement said that “On 20 May, aid agencies launched a drought response plan seeking $710 million to urgently help 4.5 million people. Somalia’s overall Humanitarian Response Plan for 2019, requiring $1.08 billion, is only 22% funded. The Somalia Humanitarian Fund is currently depleted.”

The drought is creating a crisis across the Horn of Africa, CERF warned. The Somali region of Ethiopia “is experiencing a second consecutive drought season while still reeling from the effects of the prolonged drought in 2016 and 2017,” and “parts of the arid and semi-arid regions of Kenya are hard hit by drought following a delayed start to the March to May rains.”

Washington’s Sanctions Have Begun To Pinch New Delhi

June 6 (EIRNS)—Although not directly affected by Washington’s sanctions, New Delhi has run into difficulties carrying out business with some of its friends that have been subjected to such sanctions. Today, The Hindu Business Line reported that India Ports Global Ltd. has scrapped a tender it first issued in December 2017 “to select an Indian strategic partner to manage, operate and maintain the container and multi-purpose terminals at the Chabahar port in Iran.” India Ports Global is overseeing the Chahbahar Port development project.

“The participation of bidders gets reduced with the sword of sanctions hanging. So, we have deferred it for the time being. We have terminated the current tender and will come out with a fresh tender once we get more clarity on the issue,” a Shipping Ministry official said. As an interim measure, India Ports Global has hired a local Iranian firm Kaveh Port and Marine Services Co. to run the port, The Hindu Business Line wrote.

In addition, India has run into United States in New Delhi’s plan to go ahead with the purchase of S-400 air defense systems from Russia. United States has been trying to convince India to abandon the deal. Today, however, an Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson told the daily briefing that India will go ahead with the deal with Russia. “I really cannot share how are we going to tackle the whole issue. We already have a contract which has been signed, and you already know that steps are being undertaken to implement the contract. We are engaged, and we have engaged with the U.S. administration, as well as the U.S. Congress on the issue of CAATSA,” Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, a 2017 law that gives Washington the right to impose economic restrictions on any state that decides to acquire military equipment from Russia.

Last October, India signed a $5.42 billion deal to buy five Russian S-400 air defense systems in New Delhi during a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Huawei Signed a Deal in Russia To Develop 5G Network, During Xi Jinping-Putin Summit

June 6 (EIRNS)—On the sidelines of the summit between the Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on June 5, Huawei has signed a deal with Russian telecom company MTS to develop a 5G network in the country over the next year. The deal will see “the development of 5G technologies and the pilot launch of fifth-generation networks in 2019-2020,” MTS said in a statement.  Huawei Deputy Chairman and Rotating Chairman Guo Ping said he was “very happy” with the agreement “in an area of strategic importance like 5G,” the Guardian reported. The signing ceremony coincided with the first international video call, using Russia’s 5G network, connecting St. Petersburg and the Finnish capital, Helsinki.

Today, China has granted licenses to three Chinese telecommunications network operators (China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom) and the China Broadcasting Network cable company, to run commercial 5G mobile services, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Clearly, China plans for Huawei Technologies to survive, despite U.S. economic warfare restricting its access to purchasing U.S. components and technology.

Inaugural China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo Set for June 27-29 in Changsha, Hunan Province

June 5 (EIRNS)—Hunan Province’s capital of Changsha will host the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo (CAFTE) on June 27-29, with representatives of 53 African nations attending. As described in Xinhua and other media this week, the conference will welcome more than 1,500 foreign guests, and 5,000 attendees from China, and more than 3,500 exhibitors and commercial participants. Hunan’s Deputy Governor He Baoxiang said at a press conference yesterday that cooperation projects have been lined up with 39 African countries. “A raft of investment and trade projects will be signed during the expo,” he said.

China has been the African continent’s largest trade partner for 10 years, Xinhua reports, with the value of 2018 trade reaching $204.2 billion, up 20% from the year before. The CAFTE was planned as a new mechanism within the framework of last September’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing, and intended to boost trade and economic relations even more. That FOCAC summit was characterized by South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa as the “golden age of China-Africa relations has begun.”

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

China Carries Out Its First Satellite Launch from a Platform on the Sea

June 5 (EIRNS)—China carried out its first launch of a rocket from a mobile launch platform in the Yellow Sea today. A Russia-led consortium, called Sea Launch, is the only other entity to launch commercial satellites from sea-based platforms. The Long March 11 solid propellant rocket carried two commercial satellites and two technology-development experiments into orbit.

There are a number of advantages to launching from the sea. The launch can take place closer to the Equator than the land-based launch sites that China has. Because the Earth rotates faster at its middle than at the poles, at the Equator a rocket gets a boost, gaining payload capability with the use of less energy.

Water launch introduces flexibility, by not having to be limited in time or direction of launch, since you don’t have to be concerned about dropping spent rocket stages on villagers. (Before making a land-based launch, the Chinese currently evacuate villages that are along the rocket’s flight path.)

As Xinhua explains, China expects an increase in demand for launch services. According to experts, this new, added launch capability will “help China provide launch services for countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.”

Russia To Supply Nuclear Fuel for Six Slovakian Nuclear Power Plants

June 6 (EIRNS)—In the presence of the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and visiting Slovakian Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, TVEL Fuel Company, a subsidiary of Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom, signed an agreement to supply Sl Slovenské elektrárne with fuel for Slovakia’s four existing nuclear power plants, and two others under construction, for the next five years, with the possibility of a contract extension to 2030, World Nuclear Newsreported.

Slovakia has 1940 MW of installed nuclear power capacity. The four operational units, commissioned between 1984 and 1999, annually produce about 15,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity, which is around 55% of total electricity generation in the country. This makes Slovakia the second major country in the world in terms of the share of nuclear generation in its energy mix, TVEL said, and the ratio will increase further after the commissioning of Mochovce units 3 & 4 “in the near future,” WNN reported.

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