TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2019 Volume 6, Number 204 EIR Daily Alert Service P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390

• An Historical Sea Change Has Been Launched by President Trump
• The ‘Ted Cruz Jacobin Brigade’ Again Unleashed To Trash and Vandalize Hong Kong
• Syria Reestablishing Its Sovereignty Over Its Northeast, Thanks to Trump and Putin
• Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in Tehran Asserts, We Don’t Want Conflict in the Region
• China Addresses Violent Youth: The Devilin Your Smart Phone
• President Putin Cites Saudi Arabia in Potential Positive Syria Settlement
• Carney Threatens World Financial Collapse, as Extinction Rebellion Sends the Same Message
• Federal Reserve Held Emergency Meeting Oct. 4 To Start ‘Not-QE4’
• Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari Makes Link Between 2007-08 Crash and Today

EDITORIAL

An Historical Sea Change Has Been Launched by President Trump

Oct. 14 (EIRNS)—The extraordinary transformation taking place in Syria today reflects a global phase shift which was launched over the past weeks by President Donald Trump, in coordination with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi, Pakistan’s Imran Khan, and several leaders in the Middle East.

Although the situation on the ground in northern Syria is very much in flux, there can be no question but that the potential for ending the war in Syria, and beginning to resolve other historical “hot spots” in East Asia and Southwest Asia, all created by the British Empire, is well under way. President Trump has, in the past few weeks, declared political warfare on the decrepit and corrupt U.S. establishment, including both political parties, the entire corporate press, and the financial institutions behind the “military-industrial complex,” which he attacked by name.

Trump has acted upon his campaign commitment to “end these endless wars.” When he declared the pullback, and eventual pullout, of U.S. forces in Syria. He also made public the ugly fact that the war-mongering leaders of both political parties had aligned the United States with terrorists—the Syrian branch of the terrorist PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party in Turkey) as well as the al-Qaeda networks in Libya—in order to carry out their criminal “regime change” wars on behalf of the British Empire.

At the same time, President Putin, with whom Trump has coordinated the military operations against ISIS in Syria, is visiting Saudi Arabia, offering fulsome praise to the Saudis for their role in bringing the war in Syria to an end. The Saudi leaders expressed their intent to maintain close friendships with both the U.S. and the Russians—another blow to the British imperial division of the world into enemy “blocs.”

Also at the same time, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is in Iran, and from there will visit Saudi Arabia. Khan expressed his explicit intent to facilitate bringing the historical conflict between Shi’a Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia to an end, an effort which is being welcomed by both sides. Recall that President Trump earlier asked Prime Minister Khan to mediate a resolution to the U.S.-Iran conflict, which Khan also discussed with President Hassan Rouhani.

This all comes within days of the partial trade agreement between the U.S. and China, as well as the historic “informal” visit of Xi Jinping to India, where the two leaders discussed a 100-year perspective for cooperation between the world’s oldest and largest nations. And recall that when Prime Minister Modi visited the United States in September, President Trump joined him on stage before 50,000 adoring Indians and Indian-Americans.

This diplomatic and cultural offensive has placed the leaders of the “Four Powers,” as Lyndon LaRouche described them—Russia, China, India and the U.S.—as well as other world leaders, on a common historical mission, with the potential to end the British Empire and the imperial divide of the world into “them” and “us,” once and for all.

And yet, if one’s only access to the news of world events were the corporate press in the U.S. and Europe, one would know none of this. Instead, one would read diatribes about the evil Russian leader and the murderous dictatorship in China. Even Fox News, which has played a positive role in exposing the Russiagate hoax against President Trump, has barely reported Trump’s significant breakthrough with China, while filling their schedule with vile, lying diatribes against China, and accusing Trump of “selling out” to Putin in Syria. Trump has correctly identified the majority of the Congress, from both parties, as war-mongers who are beholden to the military-industrial complex.

The media are equally silent about the fact that the U.S. Federal Reserve has, over the past month, been frantically pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the banking system, trying to prevent a repeat of 2008, this time on a far grander scale. On Thursday, Oct. 15, the Fed is reviving QE—pumping $60 billion per month, and perhaps much more, into the banks through at least the second quarter of 2020. The view of the media to this virtual acknowledgment that the system is beginning to crack? “I’m all right, Jack.”

The fact that the major banks and the eco-fascist mobs they are financing to enforce deindustrialization and depopulation under the fraud of anthropogenic climate change, is beginning to have the opposite effect than they had intended. There is a wave of reason sweeping through the U.S. population, including the youth, recognizing the insanity of the dark age being proposed, and responding to the signs of inspiration coming from the President, in the Moon-Mars program, and the end of the “endless wars,” as well as the discrediting of the lies about CO2. These are the issues Lyndon LaRouche fought for over the past 50 years, and the reason he was targetted and put in prison by the war party and the speculators, the same who are targetting Trump today. The exoneration of LaRouche today will free the minds of the population denied access to his ideas these past decades. This would be Trump’s best move of all.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

The ‘Ted Cruz Jacobin Brigade’ Again Unleashed To Trash and Vandalize Hong Kong

Oct. 14 (EIRNS)—Following Sen. Ted Cruz’s appearance in Hong Kong dressed in black, to “show solidarity” with the violent, psychotic gangs in Hong Kong, incited to wanton destruction of all signs of civilization across the city, the mobs again, on Sunday, laid waste to wide areas of the city. The city’s South China Morning Post runs video, mostly taken by the gangs themselves, smashing and burning banks, subway stations, and grocery stores. Bank of China, Huawei, and other mainland companies got the worst of it.

Under the headline, “Hong Kong Protestors Go On Yet Another Rampage, Attacking Police, Meting Out Mob Justice and Trashing Train Stations and Mainland China-Linked Businesses,” SCMP writes: “Anti-government protesters went on yet another violent rampage across Hong Kong on Sunday, attacking police officers, one of whom was slashed in the neck with a box cutter—meting out mob justice to people in their way, vandalizing shops with mainland Chinese business ties, and trashing metro stations. They blocked roads, trashed or firebombed Bank of China outlets, and attacked administrative buildings as well as offices of pro-establishment politicians…. A video circulating online showed a lone riot policeman being attacked by masked, black-clad radicals, one of whom drop-kicked the officer as he was trying to make an arrest in Mong Kok. Police said they had tried to snatch his rifle, which he managed to hold on to.” The two attacks on police officers are shown in the video.

Cruz is only the most public of the British and American sponsors of the mass violence and destruction, aimed openly at bringing down the government in Beijing, not only in Hong Kong. In an appearance on “Face the Nation” on CBS News Sunday morning, from Hong Kong, dressed in the anarchist black outfit, Cruz ranted: “It’s inspiring, 2 million people came to the streets to stand up for freedom and democracy and against the oppression of the Chinese Communist regime…. All of our allies are facing this increased aggressiveness from China.”

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Syria Reestablishing Its Sovereignty over Its Northeast, Thanks to Trump and Putin

Oct. 14 (EIRNS)—It seems that a paradigm shift—one to which the Russians have been pointing for months—is finally occurring in northern Syria. Syrian government troops are on the move towards the Syrian border with Turkey, and Syrian national flags are popping up all over Raqqa and Hasakah provinces. Syrian troops have entered Manbij and Ayn Issa and are heading for Kobani, on the Turkey border in the west of the region, and are in Tal Tamr in the east. Syrian troops have entered Raqqa city and have taken over the Taqba airbase a few kilometers to the west.

The official news agency, SANA, reported that celebrations broke out in Hasakah city and other locations upon the announcement of the agreement between the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and the Damascus government. The Syrian national flag went up over schools and other institutions, and Syrian troops, when they arrived in Hasakah, were welcomed by the population. The prospect is that the Syrian army has come into these areas to do what it should be doing—securing the border with Turkey and defending all Syrians, regardless of ethnic or sectarian identity.

At the end of the day, what’s clear is that Syrian sovereignty is now being re-established over the northeastern third of the country, which now makes possible the resolution of the unstable situation there. This was made possible by the recent actions of both President Donald Trump, in pulling back U.S. troops, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

As previously reported, the withdrawal of 1,000 U.S. troops from northern Syria was announced by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper during an appearance on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” yesterday, just before the deal between the Damascus government and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces was announced. Where those troops are going is not yet clear, and Esper would not give a time line as to how quickly they would leave, but it appears that it’s only going to take a few days. Esper, unlike former Secretary of Defense James Mattis, defended the withdrawal.

A top Kurdish official, Badran Jia Kurd, told Reuters that a “preliminary military” deal with Damascus had been reached for government forces to enter border areas from the town of Manbij in the west to Derik, 400 km away in the northeast. The deal, he said, is limited to the army’s deployment along the border, and the two sides will discuss political issues later. The deal will also allow the recapture of areas such as Afrin, which are currently controlled by Turkish-backed militant groups, says Reuters.

According to UPI, the deal was the product of three days of negotiating between Damascus and the SDF, mediated by the Russians. Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed this morning that Moscow is also continuing to talk to the Turks.

“The Russian and Turkish authorities have maintained contacts [on the issue],” he said, reported TASS. He recalled that Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the two countries’ top diplomats had held phone calls recently. Later in the day, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar spoke by phone with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

“We discussed what needs to be done [in Syria] to coordinate activities and develop them appropriately,” Akar said afterwards, but he otherwise did not mention the Turkish operation, reported Anadolu Agency.

Turkish forces are continuing their offensive and have taken control of a section of the east-west M4 highway extending about 60 km west of Ras al Ayn. However, Al Masdar News, citing Sputnik Arabic, quotes Erdogan saying that he saw no problem with Syrian army forces entering Kobani. Erdogan also said his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation in northern Syria were “positive.” Despite some wailing in the Western corporate media, a clash is not expected between Syrian forces and the Turkish army, though Syrian army units are fighting against Turkish-backed militant groups in the Manbij area. These are part of the Free Syrian Army, originally armed and trained by the CIA, actions stopped by President Trump soon after he became President.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in Tehran Asserts, We Don’t Want Conflict in the Region

Oct. 14 (EIRNS)—Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was in Tehran on Oct. 13, where he met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and Foreign Minister Mohamad Javad Zarif. While there are many issues on the agenda in terms of bilateral and regional relations, Khan stressed that he was in Tehran as part of a mission to reduce tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran in order to prevent war.

“Mr. President, the main reason I came here with my delegation is that we don’t want conflict in the region. Pakistan suffered 70,000 casualties in the last 15 years in the ‘war on terror,’ Afghanistan is still suffering, [there is] terrible devastation in Syria—we don’t want another conflict in this part of the world,” Khan said, reported Islamabad daily The Dawn. “Mr. President, we have Iran as a neighbor, our ties with Iran go way back. Saudi Arabia has been one of our closest friends. Saudi Arabia has helped us when we have needed, when we have been in need, and so the reason for this trip was that we don’t want a conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

“We recognize that it is a complex issue, but we feel that it can be resolved through dialogue. What should never happen is a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, because this will not just affect this whole region—two brotherly countries will be affected—this will cause poverty in the world. Oil prices will go up.”

“There is vested interest behind this conflict,” Khan added, apparently without elaborating.

Khan’s visit to Tehran will be followed by a visit to Riyadh. He stressed that he was making these visits on Pakistan’s initiative, saying he felt encouraged after his meeting with Rouhani.

“I will go to Saudi Arabia with a positive mind. We would like to play the role of a facilitator and not mediator. We want to facilitate two brotherly Islamic countries,” he said. “It is a complex situation, but it can be resolved.”

As for the U.S.-Iran confrontation, Khan stated that he and Rouhani had discussed how the 2015 nuclear deal, which the U.S. dropped out of in May 2018, could be restored.

“When we were in New York, U.S. President Donald Trump asked us to facilitate some sort of dialogue with Iran and the U.S.,” he said, and stating that Pakistan was aware of the difficulties.

Khan’s intervention was welcomed by the Iranian side.

“I told Prime Minster Imran we welcome any gesture by Pakistan for peace in the region and appreciate his visit to our country,” said Rouhani. He stated that the two leaders had discussed, among other things, the war in Yemen and the sanctions by the United States on Iran. “Regional issues have to be resolved through regional means and dialogue. We also emphasized that any goodwill gesture will be responded to with a goodwill gesture and good words,” said the Iranian President. Rouhani said that both leaders agreed that the key to establishing peace in the region was to stop the war in Yemen. He added that discussions were also held on the U.S. sanctions and how the Iran nuclear deal could be returned to its previous position.

China Addresses Violent Youth: The Devil in Your Smart Phone

Oct. 14 (EIRNS)—Global Times Sunday addressed the fact that large portions of those arrested for violence and destruction in Hong Kong are children, pointing to the social and mental damage being done through the “internet age”—what Schiller Institute Chairwoman Helga Zepp-LaRouche addressed several years ago as the “Devil in Your Laptop.”  Shi Tian writes: “In the past four months of social unrest in Hong Kong, of 2,379 arrested so far, 750 were aged under 18 and 104 below 16,” which a Hong Kong official called “shocking” and “heartbreaking.”

But it is not only Hong Kong—Shi Tian quotes from an article in Toronto’s Globe and Mail pointing to the fact that “the hooligan spirit is indeed being tapped,” and that “teenage protesters are commonplace in the U.S., U.K. and Germany. To some extent, young Hongkongers are learning from their Western peers.”

Why? “Growing up in the internet era, a great many adolescents observe the world through smart phones and computers,” Shi Tian writes. “They live more in a virtual world than a real one. Compared with older generations, young people have access to a broader world thanks to the internet, but they are sometimes confined to a narrower mentality.

“First, the internet tends to push teenagers to extremes. Information overload, as a result of the internet, makes it impossible for users to have an eye on all messages. Extreme ideas, under such circumstances, are more likely to catch people’s attention.”

Second, Shi writes, children spend hours playing video games, existential “one against all” conflicts in a private world. The op-ed goes on: “Some juveniles in Hong Kong don’t even understand what they are doing and only see protests as a real-life game and go to the streets for ‘fun.’ ”

Third, Shi points to the anti-social way in which youth make friends: “To link more closely with one another, members of many online groups tend to seek a common ‘enemy’ and fight against it side by side. Some young people are indulging in such a sense of belonging in the virtual world and wrecking their judgment in the real one. For instance, certain young Hongkongers see other protesters in the same camp and regard the mainland and Hong Kong police as their common ‘enemies,’ but ignore what is happening in reality.”

This is not a “Chinese” problem, Shi Tian concludes, as Europeans and Americans are well aware: Children are being brainwashed and driven out to the streets by the eco-fascists like Extinction Rebellion and FridaysForFuture. Shi Tian writes: “The internet’s adverse influence on adolescents is growing into a universal problem on a global scale.”

President Putin Cites Saudi Arabia in Potential Positive Syria Settlement

Oct. 14 (EIRNS)—On Oct. 13, one day before his visit to Saudi Arabia, Russian President Vladimir Putin posted his interview with Al Arabiya, Sky News Arabia, and RT Arabic, in both video and text on the Kremlin website. Among many things in the 40-minute interview, President Putin emphasized:

“Equally important are our joint efforts to resolve the regional crises. In this regard, I would like to emphasize the positive role Saudi Arabia has played in resolving the Syrian crisis. We are working especially closely with Turkey and Iran, as you all know. But I believe that without Saudi Arabia’s contribution towards a Syrian settlement, it would have been impossible to achieve a positive trend. Therefore, I would like to express our gratitude to both the King and the Crown Prince for this constructive approach. I am confident that my visit will help to build up the momentum both in developing bilateral relations and enhancing cooperation in international organizations.”

ECONOMY

Carney Threatens World Financial Collapse, as Extinction Rebellion Sends the Same Message

Oct. 14 (EIRNS)—Bank of England Governor Mark Carney threatened the world with sudden global financial collapse unless it adopts his insane green finance dictatorship. In an interview published Oct. 13 in the Guardian, he warned that companies and industries that do not adopt his zero-carbon emissions dictate will be cut off from investment and go bankrupt.

“There will be industries, sectors and firms that do very well during this process, because they will be part of the solution,” he said. “But there will also be ones that lag behind, and they will be punished.”

Carney was echoing what he told the Daily Mail in a July 31 interview: “Companies that don’t adapt, including companies in the financial system, will go bankrupt without question.”

Not only coal companies are at risk but banks as well.

“Just like in any other major structural change, those banks overexposed to the sunset sectors will suffer accordingly,” he told the Guardian on Sunday “Some [assets] will go up, many will go down. The question is whether the transition is smooth or is it something that is delayed and then happens very abruptly. That is an open question,” he said. “The longer the adjustment is delayed in the real economy, the greater the risk that there is a sharp adjustment.”

“There is a need for [action] to achieve net zero emissions, but actually it comes at a time when there is a need for a big increase in investment globally to accelerate the pace of global growth, to help get global interest rates up, to get us out of this low-growth, low-interest-rate trap we are in.”

Declaring that the City of London is positioned to become the green finance center of the world, Carney said, “Certainly the U.K. financial system is one of the most sophisticated at managing this risk. The U.K. can extend that lead, for the good of the U.K., for the good of the world. A number of the industrial solutions draw on the strengths of U.K. innovation, from the use of artificial intelligence in energy systems through to potentially advanced materials like graphene. There is a big upside for the U.K. economy.”

As if to support Carney’s drive for a green financial dictatorship, the Extinction Rebellion—which pretends to be a Gandhian grassroots green outfit, but rakes in millions from billionaires—took to the City of London square mile. One hundred XR members demonstrated outside the Bank of England early this morning before the markets opened. Echoing Carney’s statements to the Guardian, XR released a statement declaring: “Extinction Rebellion this morning are disrupting the system bankrolling the environmental crisis. The day of disruption, which will target financial institutions, seeks to highlight the far greater disruption faced by those living in the environments systematically being destroyed by U.K.-backed companies. The ecological damage is global, and it is hitting the global south now.”

The XR demonstrators are quoting by the Guardian as saying they will focus on the financial institutions “funding environmental destruction.”

EIR cannot confirm the rumor that Carney is considering naming his proposed global central bankers’ currency the XR, using the XR symbol to represent it.

Federal Reserve Held Emergency Meeting Oct. 4 To Start ‘Not-QE4’

Oct. 14 (EIRNS)—Just one week elapsed between an “unscheduled”—meaning emergency—conference call of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) participants on Oct. 4, and the announcement of “not-QE4” on Oct. 11. The meeting was not secret, but was very unobtrusively reported a week later on Oct. 11 alongside the announcement of “permanent open market operations” (POMO), i.e., quantitative easing.

The Oct. 11 announcement read: “The FOMC met by videoconference on Friday, Oct. 4 to discuss issues related to the recent pressures in money markets and monetary policy implementation. There was broad agreement following that discussion on appropriate technical operations to address these issues. Specific plans were developed for review by the Committee this week. As noted in the announcement [of POMO], the final plans for these technical operations were approved by notation vote that was completed today [Oct. 11].”

And as why—as Chair Jerome Powell insists—this is “not QE,” the FOMC said: “The operations announced on Oct. 11 are purely technical measures aimed at maintaining an appropriate level of reserves in the banking system and have no material implications for the stance of monetary policy. In particular, purchases of Treasury bills likely will have little if any effect on longer-term interest rates, broader financial conditions, or the overall stance of monetary policy. As a result, these purchases should not have any meaningful effects on household and business spending decisions and the overall level of economic activity.” [emphasis added]

If not for any of those purposes, then what the heck is this sudden money-printing for? What remains? To prevent the eruption of a bubbling financial crisis.

Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari Makes Link Between 2007-08 Crash and Today

Oct. 14 (EIRNS)—Even as the media and the banks may deny that there is any relation between the ongoing economic-financial disintegration of today, and the breakdown crisis of 2007-09, Neel Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, gave an interview to Axios published today that indicates that he may see the relation. Were anyone positioned to see a relation, Kashkari would be such a person.

The Federal Reserve possesses a facility, the discount window, where eligible banks may borrow funds for one or several months’ duration directly from the Fed. This is much simpler than a bank borrowing once or several times a week through the repurchase market. Wouldn’t the discount window be easier? The hitch is that, if a bank such as J.P. Morgan or Deutsche Bank borrowed through the discount window, its name could be made public; so the banks seek the relative secrecy of the repurchase agreement market.

Kashkari stated, “[The banks] don’t like it because they think it makes them look weak. They don’t want to use it so the New York Fed should run to comfort them more quickly with a new facility … that’s called the height of entitlement if there ever was one.”

Kashkari added, “Banks are supposed to plan for their liquidity needs. They did not do that adequately. And now they’re complaining because they failed to plan.”

Kashkari is uniquely placed to know. As interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability from October 2008 to May 2009, he oversaw the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which dispensed trillions of dollars in bank bailouts.

Kashkari told Axios further in the interview, “Why did [Treasury] Secretary Paulson and [Fed Chairman] Bernanke bring the nine [biggest] bank CEOs into Treasury on a Sunday night and say, ‘You’re going to take TARP [money] at the same time?’ Because if any of them said no, they all say no [and the bailout would fail]. We have to work so hard to compensate for their own hubris and stupidity.”

This would seem to indicate that in thinking of the banking situation today, Kashkari’s mind ineluctably flows back to its nearest parallel, 2007-2008.

Reach us at eirdailyalert@larouchepub.com or call 1-571-293-0935