MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2019

Volume 6, Number 238

EIR Daily Alert Service

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

• New Bombshells Could Stop Impeachment at the Judiciary Committee
• Expert Obliterates New York Times Claim That FBI Didn’t Stick Spies in Trump Campaign
• Barr To Visit Mexico To Coordinate Anti-Drug Strategy
• Bankers Fear Auto Sector Imploding Globally, With ‘Green’ Electric Cars Driving Into the Red
• Kotegawa Assesses, Cottarelli Pushing ESM Reform Means Deutsche Bank Is Going Under
• Washington Post Lets Wall Street Worries Dictate Coverage
• Presidents Putin and Xi To Attend Ceremony Starting Russian Gas to China
• Trump Assures Support to Cambodia Government
• European Parliament Proclaims ‘Climate Emergency’ in Europe, and Also the Globe
• Proffering Sane Talking Points Against Climate Hoax
• Iran Expanding Its Civil Nuclear Program With Russian Help
• China Continues Warning U.S. To Not Activate Hong Kong Democracy Act

EDITORIAL

New Bombshells Could Stop Impeachment at the Judiciary Committee

Dec. 1 (EIRNS)— The House of Representatives “legal” hearings on potential articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump take place this week and next, based on “fact hearings” in the Intelligence Committee which were actually policy attacks on the President for opposing perpetual war. Those hearings moved neither the American public nor the Senate toward supporting impeachment. As always when the coup against Trump is being rejected by a sane and patrioticmajority, new “revelations” and media-anointed “bombshells” are to be expected.

Now, however, real bombshells have hit, from the patriotic side. Scott Ritter’s “The ‘Whistleblower’ and the Politicization of Intelligence” in Consortium News Nov. 27 provides in-depth, exhaustive proof that top figures in the U.S. intelligence community under President Barack Obama are the ultimate source of the current “Ukraine” phase of the coup and the associated attempt to restart Ukraine-Russia warfighting.

Barbara Boyd’s LaRouche PAC lead on Nov. 29, “The Third Phase of the Coup: Treason in High Places, as the Fascist Ukraine Coup Comes Home to Roost in the U.S.,” based on her Nov. 27 “Fireside Chat” webcast with Bill Binney, locates the power of Ritter’s nailing the intelligence agencies for what Attorney General Barr has called “sedition.”

These weapons, if they are circulated everywhere, could actually stop the “impeachment” coup in its tracks over the coming weeks. They must be seized by every American who wants to tell Congress, “Stop this!” and do America’s business.

The Democrat-dominated House Judiciary Committee says it intends to hear testimony on the Constitutional grounds for impeaching President Trump from four legal scholars on Wednesday, Dec. 4, just one day after receiving the Intelligence Committee’s report on its own scandalous hearings. Inexplicably, three of the four scholars who were selected support impeaching President Trump. By the morning of Dec. 6, Republicans on the Judiciary Committee are told, they must list their other witnesses defending the President.

Republicans protest these “rules” as divergences from past procedure. For example, Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, has written a letter to Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), which states, “Historically, the committee has called upon a robust slate of academics—representing a spectrum of scholastic and political viewpoints—to expound upon the somber subject of removing a duly-elected President. For example, during the impeachment inquiry of President William J. Clinton, the Committee assembled two panels of ten and nine academics, respectively, to help the Committee grapple with impeachment.”

But Collins also said, on “Fox News Sunday” on Dec. 1, that the “first and prime witness” the Republicans would call, will be Democrat Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence chair. Thus the issue of the so-called “whistleblower” protected from all inquiry by Schiff, will come front and center, especially since that “whistleblower,” a top CIA/NSC official for Ukraine and Russia, improperly met with Schiff before complaining to the CIA Inspector General.

This means that the content of Scott Ritter’s masterful exposé, and Barbara Boyd’s amplification of it, if they are circulating very widely, could blow a huge hole in the Judiciary Committee hearing itself, not to mention the American people’s acceptance of it.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Expert Obliterates New York Times Claim That FBI Didn’t Stick Spies in Trump Campaign

Nov. 29 (EIRNS)—Veteran intelligence expert Larry Johnson today obliterates a Nov. 27 fake news piece by the New York Times on the forthcoming report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, that “Review Is Expected To Undercut Trump Claim of FBI Spying,” by exposing as the Johnson’s headline puts it: “Yes, There Were FBI Informants, But They Were Paid by the CIA.” Johnson’s counter to the Times lying was published today in the “Sic Semper Tyrannis” blog of Col. Pat Lang.

First, Johnson states that, indeed, FBI agents were deployed as informants against Trump. For example, there was the FBI undercover agent who posed as an assistant to Stefan Halper during a London meeting with George Papadopoulos, in 2016.

Then, Johnson gets to his main point: “The New York Times is simply doing preemptive spinning about the Horowitz Report, without knowing what the conclusions are.” He says, “It is highly likely that paid FBI informants were spying on the Trump campaign under the auspices of the CIA. Since Inspector General Horowitz has no purview or authority to investigate the CIA, he will (and has done so) punt that issue to Prosecutor John Durham. Therefore, a conclusion that the FBI was not dispatching known FBI confidential human sources to spy on the Trump campaign is not proof that no spying occurred. As they say in Paris, au contraire.”

Johnson continues: “Let’s start with the facts,” and lists what he calls “at least three DOCUMENTED FBI Confidential Human Sources aka spies targetting the Trump campaign”: “Gennady Vasilievich Vostretsov aka Henry Oknyansky aka Henry Greenberg,” Felix Sater, and Christopher Steele, upon all of whom he elaborates.

Johnson concludes: “We know of two other ‘spies’ that were targeting the Trump campaign as well—Stefan Halper and Joseph Mifsud. Neither were on the payroll of the FBI. Halper’s money was coming via a DOD contract and we do not yet know who was bankrolling Mifsud. If it was not the CIA, then it was a foreign agent other than Russia.

“Here’s the bottom line—the spying against the Trump campaign goes way beyond the boundaries of Inspector General Horowitz’s authority and ability to investigate. That is being done by John Durham, the special prosecutor designated by Attorney General William Barr. And Durham is conducting an extensive investigation of the spying. The Horowitz report is just the beginning of the unraveling of the plot to destroy Donald Trump.”

Barr To Visit Mexico To Coordinate Anti-Drug Strategy

Nov. 30 (EIRNS)—U.S. Attorney General William Barr will go to Mexico next week, to meet with high-level Mexican officials on strategies to fight the drug cartels, Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Marcelo Ebrard announced yesterday, during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s daily press conference.

The Mexican government requested the meeting after President Donald Trump told Bill O’Reilly on Nov. 26 that the process of designating Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations is well underway. Great concern was expressed in Mexico that such a designation might then be used by some to justify U.S. military action inside Mexico against the cartels, a violation of national sovereignty which Mexico considers anathema.

“Cooperation yes, interventionism, no,” President López Obrador responded on Nov. 27.

The good working relationship between the two Presidents has once again served to head off a crisis. In yesterday’s press conference, both López Obrador and Ebrard welcomed the quick U.S. acceptance of their request, despite the Thanksgiving holiday.

Ebrard called the cooperation between the two countries on the drug fight “exemplary,” and reported that various meetings between officials have reached agreements on how to shut down cross-border arms trafficking, which are now underway. The aim, he said, is to reduce the firepower of the drug cartels as quickly as possible. (This is the “Operation Frozen” initiated after the mid-October attack by the Sinaloa cartel in Culiacan.)

President López Obrador was emphatic following Ebrard’s report, that under Mexico’s Constitution “armed foreigners cannot intervene in our territory,” and his government will not allow it. But he also insisted that Mexicans need not to be afraid, because he is confident President Trump will respect Mexico’s sovereignty.

“We think that with information, cooperation, diplomacy and persuasion, that we are going to reach an agreement on this subject,” he said. “I have a very good relationship with President Donald Trump…. In all this time, we have not had any disagreement. Of course, he is free, he speaks; I also am free, we speak. But when dealing with matters which have to do with the interest of our two people, of the two nations, there is respect and there are agreements. I am optimistic.”

To emphasize this point, López Obrador reported that during one of their phone conversations as Presidents, Trump had told him: “They want to set us against each other. They want me to fight with you, and I don’t want that.” To which López Obrador had replied, “neither do I.”

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Bankers Fear Auto Sector Imploding Globally, with ‘Green’ Electric Cars Driving into the Red

Nov. 30 (EIRNS)—Central bankers are apparently panicked about the effects of the “global downturn” of the economy on the already-collapsing financial system. Audi laying off 9,500 workers, China cutting to zero subsidies for electric cars, the ECB buying Daimler bonds directly at emission—this, along with statements by ECB Deputy President Luis de Guindos and Estonian central bank governor Madis Müller, raises the question whether there is an implosion of the auto sector going on and the ECB is ready to do the unthinkable to prevent it, including buying stocks!

On Nov. 16, Müller, who is also on the ECB Governing Council, told students at a Bundesbank event in Frankfurt, saying that “currently we are doing unconventional things. And you should obviously imagine even more unconventional things, if the situation gets really bad,” i.e., if the economic situation of the Eurozone deteriorates further in a significant way.

De Guindos for his part, stated on Nov. 21: “A downturn of the economic situation in the Eurozone could crush values of riskier and less liquid assets, as market players such as asset managers and hedge funds would sell at great speed.”

“Are we on the edge of the implosion of the entire global automotive sector, a real manufacturing Armageddon?” asks Italian financial analyst Mauro Bottarelli on IlSussidiario.net. In his view, China has understood that the electric car is a bubble—apparently nobody in China is buying them—and has decided to get out, letting Tesla and the Germans, which invested €100 billion to make the entire auto sector “environmentally compatible,” out in the cold.

Kotegawa Assesses, Cottarelli Pushing ESM Reform Means Deutsche Bank Is Going Under

Nov. 30 (EIRNS)—Daisuke Kotegawa, the former Ministry of Finance official and Japanese Executive Director at the IMF, told EIR that the effort by Carlo Cottarelli, the former director of fiscal affairs at the IMF, to force through the European Stability Mechanism reform, means that Deutsche Bank is ready to go under. The reform will force all EU members to bail out the banks when they blow out in the onrushing financial crisis—a policy being strongly opposed by leading Italians, who know it would bankrupt their country.

Kotegawa, who knows Cottarelli from their time together at the IMF, told EIR that he was an honest person, which means that he knows that the reform is the only way in the current system to bail out Deutsche Bank and others which are likely to collapse. But, Kotegawa went on, although Deutsche Bank must be bailed out for fear its crash will cause the entire system to collapse, it will be extremely unpopular for taxpayers to have to do the bail-out, and in the long run it won’t work unless that population is assured that those responsible are punished.

He suggested that those responsible include former ECB President Mario Draghi, as well as all the traders at the London branch of Deutsche Bank over the 2009-2011, when the bank was turned into a massive gambling casino with the world’s biggest derivatives portfolio. They should all be prosecuted, he recommended. Then the real reform of the entire system must proceed, along the lines of Lyndon LaRouche’s Four Laws.

Washington Post Lets Wall Street Worries Dictate Coverage

Dec. 1 (EIRNS)—On Nov. 30 the Washington Post wrote a major article in its Business section to note that U.S. corporate debt is an immense bubble that could collapse at any time. The piece was notable for the warnings of a couple of well-placed Wall Street financial representatives.

The second lead in its Business section, “Corporate Debt Nears a Record $10 Trillion, and Borrowing Binge Poses New Risks,” was itself uninformative and intended to lull; its key editorial sentences were: “The danger isn’t immediate”; and “This low-quality corporate debt bulge, by itself, is unlikely to cause a recession…. But it could make the next one much worse.” Then there was “The corporate worries darken an otherwise bright economic picture.” Nonetheless it had to reveal the reason for its very prominent appearance: Some financial people are getting very worried.

For one, there was Emre Tiftik, a “debt specialist” at the Institute of International Finance (IIF), which is the global lobby for the biggest City of London- and Wall Street-centered banks. “We are sitting on the top of an unexploded bomb, and we really don’t know what will trigger the explosion,” Tiftik warned. The IIF has called the level of corporate debt worldwide “mind-boggling.” And a senior credit analyst at Investment Managers, the very large investment management company in London, adds, “You can definitely think of an Armageddon scenario.”

Otherwise, the Post repeats facts everyone already knows about the corporate debt menace: that one-step-above-junk BBB bonds are a quarter of the entire U.S. $10 trillion corporate bond market, for example, and with junk, are 40%, including some very big names like Hasbro, Hyundai, Marriott; that these companies borrow to buy their own stock and other “financial engineering,” etc.

The capital’s major daily evidently wanted to warn Washington government circles to “be ready” to bail out a collapsing bubble; but wished to do so without informing general readers, including readers of reprints in other media, of the imminent danger. The Federal Reserve’s interbank market liquidity crisis, the declines in auto, oil, retail, trucking, railroads, capital goods, etc.—all are carefully omitted from the fin-talk.

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Presidents Putin and Xi To Attend Ceremony Starting Russian Gas to China

Nov. 30 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of China Xi Jinping will attend the opening of the Power of Siberia main gas pipeline on Dec. 2, reported TASS. The official ceremony attended by two leaders via a TV link-up will take place on Dec. 2, the Kremlin press service said. “As planned, we expect the TV link-up will take place and the Power of Siberia will start working; gas will flow to China,” said President Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov.  “Implementation of such cross-regional projects inside the country definitely promotes development of many regions: regions receiving such a facility on their territory will subsequently receive additional infrastructure, additional jobs,” Peskov said.

Trump Assures Support to Cambodia Government

Nov. 30 (EIRNS)—Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has officially accepted the invitation from President Donald Trump to attend the U.S.-ASEAN Summit to be held early next year in the U.S. This followed two letters from Trump to Hun Sen, the first assuring the Prime Minister that the U.S. “is committed to providing support for Cambodia. In particular, the U.S. respects Cambodia’s sovereignty and does not support regime change,” in the words of the Phnom Penh Post today. This comes after years of outrageous harping by the human rights mafia about the Hun Sen “dictatorship” and human rights violations, focused on his shutting down the political parties put together by a combination of the National Endowment for Democracy/Soros groups and the spokesman for the Anglo-French banking syndicates, Sam Rainsy. Preventing regime change is unacceptable to the Empire, but such defense of national sovereignty is appreciated by President Trump.

Trump’s letter nonetheless did criticize some of these actions by the Cambodian government, writing: “It is important for the future of our bilateral relationship that you put Cambodia back on the path of democratic government. As a first step, I hope you will re-evaluate certain decisions taken by your government that the United States firmly believes put at great risk the Kingdom of Cambodia’s long-term sovereignty, stability and economic development.”

In response, Hun Sen, who granted two interviews to EIR’s Gail Billington in the 1990s, replied: “I am foremost reassured by your explicit statement whereby you seek genuine engagement to pursue democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law rather than regime change. As a very young democracy, you probably can appreciate our struggle to find full peace, a condition sine qua non before we can rebuild our nation in full adherence to a liberal multiparty democratic system.” He hoped, he continued, that “the foreign affairs ministries of both nations would work together to restore trust and confidence, and renew the bond of friendship between [the] two countries. There are so many other beautiful chapters that are worth nourishing for the greater good of both of our countries and people.”

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

European Parliament Proclaims ‘Climate Emergency’ in Europe, and Also the Globe

Nov. 29 (EIRNS)—Ahead of the UN COP25 Climate Change Conference in Madrid over Dec. 2-13, the European Parliament today approved a resolution declaring a climate and environmental emergency in Europe and globally. The resolution seeks for the European Commission to ensure that all relevant legislative and budgetary proposals are fully aligned with the objective of limiting global warming to less than 1.5°C.

In a separate resolution laying out the terms for this eco-fascist global dictatorship, EU Parliament urges the EU to submit its strategy to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 at the latest, to the UN Convention on Climate Change. MEPs also call on the new European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to include a 55% reduction target of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 in the European Green Deal.

MEPs say that current aviation and shipping ambitions fall short of the necessary emissions reductions. All countries should include emissions from international shipping and aviation in their national contribution plans, they say.

EU countries should at least double their contributions to the international Green Climate Fund, the EU Parliament says. EU member states are the largest providers of public climate finance and the EU’s budget should fully comply with its international commitments. They also note that pledges by developed countries do not meet the collective goal of $100 billion per year as of 2020.

Finally, they urgently call on all EU countries to phase out all direct and indirect fossil fuel subsidies by 2020.

Proffering Sane Talking Points against Climate Hoax

Nov. 29 (EIRNS)—In a tipsy-turvy world in which, as a humorous Washington Examiner commentary observed on Nov. 27, “seminary students are confessing their climate sins to plants, it’s safe to say that some people take climate change a little too seriously,” a few honest, if still confused “climate scientists” are speaking out against the “apocalypse now” hysteria. Such is the case with a Nov. 25 Forbes column by Michael Shellenberger, whose earlier writings earned him Time magazine’s “Hero of the Environment” award. Shellenberger, whose Forbes column was also summarized by ClimateDepot, points out that:

• “[E]conomic development has made us less vulnerable, which is why there was a 99.7% decline in the death toll from natural disasters since its peak in 1931. In 1931, 3.7 million people died from natural disasters. In 2018, just 11,000 did.  And that decline occurred over a period when the global population quadrupled….”

• Sea-levels may rise, but “the Netherlands adapted to living below sea level 400 years ago, [and] technology has improved a bit since then.” One-third of that country is below sea level, some areas by as much as 7 meters.

• Claims of crop failure, famine, and mass death are “science fiction, not science. Humans today produce enough food for 10 billion people, or 25% more than we need, and scientific bodies predict increases in that share, not declines…. Rates of future yield growth depend far more on whether poor nations get access to tractors, irrigation, and fertilizer than on climate change, says FAO,” referring to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Iran Expanding Its Civil Nuclear Program with Russian Help

Nov. 30 (EIRNS)—Iran is pressing ahead with the modernization and expansion of its civil nuclear program despite the maximum pressure campaign against the country by the United States. Earlier this month, with the help of Russia, construction began on the first of two new reactors to be built at the site of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant. The two reactors, once completed in 2026 will expand the generating capacity at Bushehr from the present 1,050 MW to 3,114. The total share of Iran’s power generation produced by nuclear will increase from the present level of 2.7% to between 8-12%.

Alireza Noori, an assistant professor of regional studies at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, reports in an article in Al-Monitor, that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in a speech on Nov. 15, linked the development of Iran’s nuclear industry to the country’s independence. “Peaceful nuclear energy is needed by nations, but Western monopolists are seeking to keep this energy to themselves,” he said. “They oppose the Islamic Republic’s nuclear advancement to hinder Iran from gaining science, industry and nuclear capability.”

The launching of the two new reactors also has a political dimension. This event marks a clear shift in Tehran’s policy from “strategic patience” to “active and innovative resistance,” Noori writes. On the one hand, this reflects Tehran’s disappointment with Europe and the United States; on the other hand, it shows that despite all the pressure, Iran is moving its nuclear industry forward and its hands are not tied. The progress with Bushehr as a key symbol that Iran’s peaceful nuclear program is meant by Tehran to show that U.S. pressure is ineffective, resistance has worked well and Iran can benefit from the results. And of course, Russia is playing a big role in this, showing that it’s willing to share civil nuclear technology without political strings attached.

Noori is clearly arguing that this is the context in which Iran’s recent reductions in its commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal must be considered. Now, “the need for more enriched uranium and a complete nuclear fuel cycle to provide for new reactors seems more rational. Russia currently supplies fuel for the existing Bushehr reactor. With the recent developments at Iran’s nuclear facilities, especially in Fordow, Iran will be able to provide at least part of the needed nuclear fuel.”

Russia willingness to share civil nuclear technology, is why Iranian officials differentiate between Russia and the others, and direct all their criticism toward the United States and Europe, Noori writes further. The Russians are not helping Iran build a bomb and, in fact, their collaboration with the Iranians shows that the Iranian program is not a threat.

OTHER

China Continues Warning U.S. To Not Activate Hong Kong Democracy Act

Nov. 29 (EIRNS)—Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng yesterday summoned Ambassador Terry Branstad “to lodge stern representations and strong protest against the United States” for enactment of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. Before President Donald Trump had signed the bill, protests had been lodged with a lower-level embassy official.

“China strongly urges the U.S. to correct its mistake and make a fresh start, not to put the Act into effect, and immediately stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs or interfering in China’s other internal affairs so as to avoid making further damages to bilateral ties and cooperation in important areas between China and the United States,” Le told Branstad, reported Xinhua.

China’s Defense Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang yesterday emphasized at his weekly press conference that “the People’s Liberation Army garrison in Hong Kong … has the resolve, confidence and ability to fulfill its duties, safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, and maintain Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability.”

Global Times likewise emphasized in a late Nov. 28 article (“HK Act Sponsors Could Be Put on No-Entry List: Analysts”) that the series of statements from differing government departments “were interpreted as the central government’s determination to treat Hong Kong issues from a national security perspective. And if external forces pose a threat to China’s national security, Beijing will take action immediately.”

Two points of discussion presented in this Global Times article are also notable:

1) proposals that Chinese countermeasures include targetting U.S. individuals and companies who interfere in Hong Kong affairs under the act and U.S. companies, prohibiting such individuals from visiting China and banning such companies access to Chinese markets;

2) the assessment that, while there is a clear distinction between President Trump and Congress in handling the bill, its passage shows “that the hawkish political force in Washington is strong,” and Trump lacked the political power to veto it. Within that, as another professor argued, Trump is viewed as “using the act as leverage for trade negotiations with China, but Congress is not, especially for those who advocate to besiege China with ideology. So the discretion of the act will probably be a problem between the U.S. President and Congress.”

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