EIR Daily Alert Service, MONDAY, January 13, 2020

MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 2020

Volume 7, Number 8

EIR Daily Alert Service

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

  • America Needs No British Regime-Change in Iran, But Middle East Peace and Economic Reconstruction
  • Senator Paul Tells NBC on Regime-Change Wars, ‘This Is the Time To Come Home’
  • House Passes Non-Binding War Powers Resolution
  • Schiller Institute Day of Action for Emergency Summit
  • Kiron Skinner Organizing for Permanent War Against Iran
  • British Empire Hand Seen in Escalation Against Iran
  • Putin Intervenes To Effect Two Ceasefires
  • Russian President Oversees Hypersonic Missile Firing Exercise in Black Sea
  • Putin and Merkel Meet in Moscow, To Discuss Libya, Iran, and Nord Stream 2 Gas Pipeline
  • Mark Carney Insists To Double QE, Keep Zero Rates Since ‘Winter Is Coming’
  • Iran-Iraq-Syria Plan To Move Ahead on Historic Transnational ‘Land-Bridge’ Railroad
  • Israel to Deploy Lazer-Based Air Defense System

EDITORIAL

America Needs No British Regime-Change in Iran, but Middle East Peace and Economic Reconstruction

Jan. 12 (EIRNS)—With both Russia and China now trying to intervene with truces and reconstruction projects in Southwest Asia and North Africa, the most urgent need is for an emergency summit of Presidents Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin to guarantee stability and provide economic development credit to that broad region.

Let this summit take place quickly now while the majority of Americans who support their President want peace, and think with Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, “This will be the time to come home. The Iraqi government, the democratically elected government, wants us to come home. We should come home.”  Let this summit be held so that agreements can be made and investments unleashed to set the construction machines in motion in the countries in which Americans have been at war nearly 20 years.

Join the Schiller Institute’s Day of Action Jan. 15, here and around the world, to support the call for this emergency summit of the three powers, issued by Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche on Jan. 7.

President Donald Trump said, “We don’t need the oil” from those countries, the United States is the leading oil producer in the world. Who is running the dogs of war, John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, Lindsey Graham, et al. who have convinced him the United States must “keep the oil” there, “keep the bases”?

Beware the ugly head of “regime change” rearing again over Iran and Iraq; it is the British Empire game of geopolitics. In 1999 British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced at the Chicago World Affairs Council that regime-change would now be “Anglo-American” policy; all through the 16 years of Dick Cheney and Barack Obama it was, while U.S. soldiers died, young veterans came home maimed and in shock from years of fighting without a front, and drug and alcohol addictions soared, and suicide rates climbed. Sixty-five years ago, when the British organized a coup to overthrow Iran’s Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh because he had nationalized their Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, they asked the CIA to help them out at the last stage of the coup. And the CIA provided the British a lot of “demonstration money” which put them over the top, and let them drive out Prime Minister Mossadegh. Ever since then, for 65 years, it has been called an American coup in Iran!

Now the British Ambassador in Iran is involved in starting “vigils” which become protest demonstrations supposedly calling for overthrow of the government—and are promoted in the lead stories of all the European and U.S. media.

Defeated in trying regime-change chaos in Syria; defeated in triggering an escalation between America and Iran in recent days; the war party is escalating again now.

President Trump was elected in part because Americans wanted to end regime change, end the perpetual wars. Who is controlling the dogs of war who surround his administration? The British Ambassador Sir (now Lord) Kim Darroch said—in secret cables—“We British run them; we are ‘flooding the zone’ around Trump.”

The Schiller Institute’s Day of Action, held on the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is to create the alternative. President Vladimir Putin of Russia has already intervened, and has organized ceasefires on two fronts of war in Idlib, Syria and in Libya. Xi Jinping is pursuing an oil-for-technology infrastructure agreement with Iraq, while signing a trade agreement with the United States. The stage is set for President Trump to meet them in emergency summit—out of endless war, replacing oil with development, and looking further ahead, taking mankind into the Solar System.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Senator Paul Tells NBC on Regime-Change Wars, ‘This Is the Time To Come Home’

Jan. 12 (EIRNS)—Despite being interviewed for a very brief seven minutes on NBC News “Meet the Press” Jan. 12, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul delivered a strong call for withdrawal of U.S. forces from regime-change wars quickly. He also implied a criticism of President Donald Trump for the “security” officials (including Cabinet) he appoints to advise him.

Paul said: “You know I’m on the Foreign Relations Committee and all of his nominees come before me. And I even warned some of them in private, ‘I’m going to ask you, “Do you agree with President Trump that the Iraq War was a mistake?’ ” You know what? Most of them don’t agree with him. He keeps appointing people to represent him that think the Iraq War was just great. They loved Dick Cheney’s position and they still don’t admit it was a mistake. So that’s why he keeps getting policy that isn’t his policy. I do think his instincts are pure. He’s been saying it for 20, 30 years. He’s been saying it for a long time that the wars have drained our treasury and that he’s not in favor of these wars. But then they convince him if we leave, we’ll look weak.”

Senator Paul continued, concluding his brief appearance: “I actually think this is a time of strength right now. … This will be the time to come home. The Iraqi government, the democratically elected government, wants us to come home. We should come home.”

A national poll released today, by ABC News/Ipsos Public Affairs, found that opposition to the killing of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani is pretty broad—showing more than a simple Republican-Democrat or never-Trump split. On the question of “approval of President’s handing of the situation with Iran,” 56% of those polled did not, while 43% did. And on whether “the strike on Soleimani made America safer,” 52% said America was less safe as a result; just 25%, more safe. It was not associated, in this poll, with any change in Americans’ views regarding impeachment, or regarding Trump’s overall “job approval.”

Senator Paul also said, on the question of whether Congress must now authorize any war powers against Iran, that he did not think the Congress in voting the 2002 authorization for use of military force (AUMF) “meant to bind another generation” to war. He said, “So my point in being for this war powers debate is that we really need to have a debate about whether we should still be in Iraq or in Afghanistan. … And I, frankly, think we ought to end those wars.”

House Passes Non-Binding War Powers Resolution

Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—The House of Representatives yesterday passed Concurrent Resolution 83, which mandates the President terminate “the use of United States Armed Forces to engage in hostilities in or against Iran or any part of its government or military,” unless “Congress has declared war or enacted specific statutory authorization for such use of the Armed Forces,” or the United States faces imminent attack.

The two Republicans who support President Donald Trump and yet voted for the resolution, Florida’s Matt Gaetz and Kentucky’s Thomas Massie (Florida’s Francis Rooney, also in favor, is a different kettle of fish), raised Constitutional and moral issues.

Gaetz told the House, “I take a back seat to no member of this body when it comes to defending the President,” but “I represent more troops than any other member of this body. I buried one of them earlier today at Arlington. If our service members have the courage to fight and die in these wars, Congress ought to have the courage to vote for or against them. I’m voting for this resolution.”

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson asked Gaetz last night why he, the Congressman arguably closest to President Trump, had voted for a resolution which the President had urged Republicans to oppose. Gaetz reported that he had spoken with the President before the vote. The President had said that he is “more anti-war than I am,” Gaetz replied, but he warned that some of Trump’s advisers are “trying to slow-walk the administration into war.” Pro-war candidates lose Presidential elections, and “the President understands that… That’s why I don’t think we are going to war with Iran.”

Representative Massie argued that the vote isn’t about President Trump, for whom he voted and intends to do so again, but “about exercising our constitutional authority. But more importantly, our moral obligation to decide when and where our troops are going to be asked to give their lives.” Massie called for Congress to debate U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and in Iraq—“and then bring our troops home. And we don’t need another war and if we do go to war, it needs to be with the blessing and support of the people and a mission that our soldiers can accomplish….”

A similar, but binding war powers resolution on Iran may go before the Senate next week—if not pushed aside by an impeachment trial. It was drafted by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), but Republicans Rand Paul (KY) and Mike Lee (UT) have endorsed it.

Schiller Institute Day of Action for Emergency Summit

Jan. 11 (EIRNS)—The Schiller Institute is organizing a Day of Action, Wednesday, Jan. 15, to intensify support for the Institute’s Jan. 7 “Call for Presidents Trump, Putin, and Xi To Convene an Emergency Summit to Address the Danger of War” [https://schillerinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/20200108-schiller-call-for-summit.pdf?x25739]. Activists on five continents will mobilize citizens, government officials, diplomats and institutions, in support of the Call, which was authored by Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche.

Jan. 15, which is the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is the day of rallies and activity at appropriate locations, and on social media, websites, and all means of outreach. The Schiller Institute encourages all to commemorate the ideas and life’s work of Dr. King, by organizing for peace through economic development, as in the Call for the Emergency Summit.

The central international event will be at the United Nations in New York City, from 12 noon to 3 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 15. To participate in New York, or for more information, please contact: Lynne Speed, in New York, at (201)562-9890.

Kiron Skinner Organizing for Permanent War against Iran

Jan. 11 (EIRNS)—Kiron Skinner, the “Clash of Civilizations” racist who was Mike Pompeo’s Director of State’s Office of Policy Planning for a year, told Fox Business News on Jan. 3, following Gen. Qasem Soleimani’s assassination, that the Trump Administration now needs to carry out a “maximum diplomacy” campaign.

For what purpose? To persuade U.S. international allies “that they must join us in potential kinetic activity [i.e., military] against Iran,” and to explain to the American people “that we’re in a long war with Iran”—a war, she said in her next breath, that has already “been going on for 40 years!”

Over the past few days, she has been arguing that it is fine for Congress to insist on a new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iran, because then the Congress and the Executive could act in unified fashion to continue that 40-year-war into the indefinite future.

While at the State Department, Skinner, a George Shultz protégé, headed up two of Pompeo’s personal projects: elaborating a containment strategy for China and developing a new “human rights” strategy. She gained notoriety in April 2019 when, in describing how to combat “the long-term threat” presented to the United States by China, she called People’s Republic, the first “great power competitor that is not Caucasian.” Skinner is now a regular Fox News commentator, while heading Carnegie Mellon’s Center for International Relations and Politics.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

British Empire Hand Seen in Escalation against Iran

Jan. 12 (EIRNS)—Anti-government demonstrations have reappeared in Iraq—the ones so often praised by Mike Pompeo during December—and in Iran. The anti-austerity protests across the south of Iraq on Jan. 10, nowhere near as large as in recent months, have been largely ignored by Western media. But regime-change in Iran has become the lead story in those media today, as the British war party has escalated again following the deceptive “calm” since the Jan. 9 Iranian missile launches.

On Saturday night, Jan. 11, demonstrations of primarily students and other young people broke out in Tehran and other cities, appearing by certain chants to be explicitly anti-government, anti-Khamenei protests. Videos show thousands in Tehran. The protests were over Iran’s denial for several days that it mistakenly shot down Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752, shortly after it had taken off from Tehran. Of the 176 passengers and crew who died, 82 were Iranian and 63 had Canadian passports; 138 had Canada listed as their final destination. Some now lived in Canada, others were on their way there for graduate studies.

Iran briefly arrested the British Ambassador, Rob Macaire, for “provoking suspicious acts” in connection with the demonstrations. Macaire claims he had helped initiate a “vigil,” and that when “a protest broke out,” he left the scene. He protested that “arresting diplomats is of course illegal,” and Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Iran “is in a march to pariah status.” Macaire has had a 25-year career in defense and then in postings in the Middle East and Africa specializing in “counter-terror” and “political risk management.”

President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter Jan. 11: “The government of Iran must allow human rights groups to monitor and report facts from the ground on the ongoing protests by the Iranian people. There can not be another massacre of peaceful protesters, nor an internet shutdown. The world is watching.”

Some charts published in today’s Washington Post show that Iranians are facing extreme deprivation and impoverishment since 2017, especially since the November 2018 sanctions. The rial has lost two-thirds of its value since 2017. Oil exports and therefore oil revenue have lost, in stages, 90% of their 2017 level. The consumer price index has doubled since 2016. Milk and sugar prices are double, beef 2.5 times higher. GDP has dropped about 5% in 2018, 6% more in 2019. The new sanctions which Treasury Secretary Mnuchin announced Jan. 10 are an attempt at an economic embargo, like the Saudis imposed on Yemen by war.

Sixty-five years ago, when the British organized a coup to overthrow Iran’s Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in August1953, because he had nationalized their Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1951, they asked the CIA to help them out at the last stage of the coup. The CIA provided the British a lot of “demonstration money” which put them over the top, and let them drive out Prime Minister Mossadegh. Ever since then, for 65 years, the British action has been called an “American coup” against Iran.

Putin Intervenes To Effect Two Ceasefires

Jan. 12 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin has intervened twice to negotiate ceasefires in the past 72 hours, in Libya and Idlib, Syria, as he strives to pull the world back from the brink of war.

On Jan. 8, Putin met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul to inaugurate the new TurkStream pipeline. Putin and Erdogan also discussed Libya and Syria, especially since Putin had made an unannounced stop in Damascus on Jan. 7 where he met with President Bashar al-Assad. Turkey’s official Anadolu Agency reported Jan. 12 that the acceptance for a ceasefire in Libya “came minutes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, held a telephone conversation” on Jan. 11. The two Presidents had called for the ceasefire in their joint statement on Jan. 8, saying “we have decided to take the initiative and, as intermediaries, call on all parties in Libya to stop hostilities as of 00.00 hours on 12 January, declare a sustainable ceasefire….”

The ceasefire which took hold at 12 midnight Jan. 12 was accepted by both factions: Gen. Khalifa Haftar, leader of the Libyan National Army, which was advancing on Tripoli, and Fayez al-Sarraj, the Prime Minister of the Government of National Accord, based in Tripoli.

At the same time, a truce arranged by Putin and Erdogan was accepted and went into effect in Syria’s Idlib Province, between forces of the Syrian Arab Army and its allies, and the al-Qaeda-linked Hayat al-Sham and its allies, also taking effect Jan. 12 at 12 midnight. Both the Russian Federation and Turkey are guarantors of the Syria peace process within the Astana Mechanism, and both have been involved in the Idlib fighting, and will be part of the ceasefire.

So far, the two ceasefires have held.

Russian President Oversees Hypersonic Missile Firing Exercise in Black Sea

Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a visit to Crimea, oversaw an exercise in the Black Sea yesterday that included the live firing of the Kinzhal hypersonic missile and other weapons. According to Russian Navy Adm. Nikolai Yevmenov, the exercise involved 31 warships, one submarine, 22 supply ships and 39 aircraft. Yevmenov reported to Putin during a meeting on the development of the Russian Navy that all performed well. According to Sputnik, three Kalibr cruise missiles, in addition to the Kinzhal (“Dagger”) missile, were also launched, one each from a frigate, a Buyan-class corvette, and a submerged submarine. Yevmenov reported that all of them effectively struck their designated targets.

In remarks at events around the exercise, Putin emphasized the modernization of the Russian shipbuilding industry, as key to the modernizing of the Russian Navy itself. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, in an address at a separate event on the modernization of the Navy, vowed that Russia will create a high-tech Navy to ensure not a single provocative challenge should remain unanswered. “For this we have a robust scientific potential, qualified engineers and workers and well-trained personnel,” Shoigu said.

Putin and Merkel Meet in Moscow, To Discuss Libya, Iran and Nord Stream 2 Gas Pipeline

Jan. 11 (EIRNS)—Today in Moscow, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with President Vladimir Putin. The talks lasted more than three hours, and first accounts report the two had accord on several points.

On the main topic, of the crisis in Libya, Merkel said that Putin concurs on the idea of holding UN talks on Libya in Berlin, which could take place as early as Jan. 19. The leaders expressed support of the ceasefire in Libya, to start after midnight tonight. Putin said, “I am counting very much that in a few hours the conflicting sides in Libya will stop military actions, as we urged with President Erdogan” of Turkey.

On the situation in Iran, Putin and Merkel concurred in their ongoing support of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran. Both nations are part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the nuclear deal is formally known. Putin has said that a war breaking out in the region would be a “global catastrophe.”

The leaders also concurred on working to complete the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, regardless of U.S. sanctions.

Also accompanying Chancellor Merkel to Moscow for the talks, was German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. He had said yesterday in Brussels that a meeting with Putin on Libya was needed, in order to prevent the country from becoming a “second Syria.” Maas spoke to German broadcaster RTL on the sidelines of the EU Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Brussels. “It’s not too much for us to fly to Moscow to talk to Putin about the need for Russia to do its part so Libya doesn’t become a second Syria. Because nobody can really want that,” Maas emphasized.

Recall, of course, that it wasn’t Russia that made Syria into a war zone.

Maas also spoke against NATO involvement in Southwest Asia, saying that Europe, not the Alliance, should make a contribution. “Most European countries are already members of the anti-ISIS coalition,” he said. “The European Union has the advantage, in contrast to NATO, that we can always tie military and security policy engagement to civilian engagement, reconstruction, stabilization. You can’t do that with NATO in this way.”

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Mark Carney Insists To Double QE, Keep Zero Rates Since ‘Winter Is Coming’

Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—In a speech to a Bank of England research seminar Jan. 9 Mark Carney chose to forgo the green new deal and concentrate on central bank stock-in-trade: printing money and claiming to be preventing economic collapse. Carney sounded clearly worried that collapse now threatens. He called for both much more quantitative easing, and keeping policy interest rates at zero for a long time. Ironically, these are policies which he had acknowledged, in his August 2019 speech at the Jackson Hole central bankers’ conference, do not work to produce productivity, demand, business capital investment or even inflation.

Strangely for a global warmer, “It feels like winter is coming,” Carney said near the end. “The global economy moved from a broad-based expansion to a widespread slowdown. Uncertainties and growing concerns over the fracturing of the global trading system have been weighing on global activity, likely pushing down the global equilibrium interest rate, and exacerbating concerns about limited monetary policy space. In all likelihood, equilibrium interest rates will remain low for a prolonged period as many of the structural forces that have pushed them down are set to persist for years. Moreover, these are likely to be reinforced by flaws inherent in the international monetary and financial system [i.e., the dollar’s reserve status—ed.].”

Carney recommended “at least doubling” the £60 billion (ca. $80 billion) of quantitative easing implemented in the last four months of 2019, and buying corporate as well as government bonds. And holding the Bank’s policy rate (now 0.75%) “lower for longer to provide additional stimulus at the lower bound” (zero rate). He said the BOE’s policy “framework itself should be shifted, to provide additional stimulus at the lower bound.”

QE by central banks was already $1.1 trillion for 2019.

Clearly Carney was communicating that the one thing without any bound now, should be money printing. His reasoning is ridiculous to a sensible person, but not to a City of London banker: “Stimulating more risk-taking is one of the goals of low policy rates, whereas recessions emerge when demand shifts away from risky assets and towards safe assets.” (The British did not like Bretton Woods!)

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Iran-Iraq-Syria Plan To Move Ahead on Historic Transnational ‘Land-Bridge’ Railroad

Jan. 12 (EIRNS)—In November 2018, Iran, Iraq, and Syria reached a provisional agreement to build a “land-bridge” railroad and highway corridor extending from Iran through Iraq to the port of Latakia in Syria, a distance of 1,570 km. It would create an overland link from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. In combination with China’s Belt and Road Initiative, it could transform the three nations. The initiation of construction of the first phase of the project is soon to begin.

The first phase is to build a 32 km railroad between Shalamcheh in southwestern Iran on the Iraq border, and Basra, Iraq. This involves building a few sections of rail line that are needed, and a bridge that would arch over the Arvand Rud/Shatt Al-Arab, a marsh-influenced waterway below the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

The second, longer phase of the transport corridor would build the railroad, and some sections of highway, from Basra, 1,545 km to the Syrian port of Latakia on the Mediterranean.

With this as a backbone, goods and people could move from Iran, northward by the North-South corridor; from Iran eastward to China and the Pacific; or from Latakia, Syria westward to the Atlantic. This is especially important for the peoples of these three nations, who have been ravaged by war for decades. A tripartite meeting in July 2019 among the three nations’ transport officials confirmed “that the goal of the negotiations is to activate the Iranian-Iraqi-Syria load and transport corridor as a part of a wider plan for reviving the Silk Road.”

This transnational railway meshes perfectly with the plan that Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi signed during his signed Sept. 19-23, 2019 visit to Beijing, to set up an Iraqi-Chinese Reconstruction Fund, into which Iraq could deposit the revenues of 300,000 barrels of oil/day, against which Chinese banks will issue credit to Chinese companies to reconstruct Iraq.

The financing for the transnational railway project was lined up when on Sept. 18, 2019, with the announcement that Iran’s Mostazafan Foundation—established in 1979 to fight poverty, and now a large  organization that runs hundreds of factories and commercial enterprises—would advance the majority of the financing.

A difficulty is that one of the Mostazafan’s companies, the Sina Bank, has been sanctioned by the United States, and it is not clear if the sanctions announced Jan. 10, 2020 by the U.S. Treasury and State Departments will block even more of Mostazafan’s activities, and blow up the entire transnational project.

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Israel To Deploy Laser-Based Air Defense System

Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is preparing to deploy a laser-based air defense system, developed and manufactured by the government-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Elbit Systems. Developed over a period of 10 years, the system will be able to strike mortar fire, drones, Grad rockets, and long-range missiles, and will be much more cost-efficient than the current Iron Dome system which is based on ground-to-air rockets.

According to Ynet News the system will undergo testing within six months at an undisclosed location in northern Israel, and if successful, it will be deployed along Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. It has already gone through comprehensive testing. The system can be mounted on armored vehicles, trucks and even aircraft, including drones.

“After many years of dreaming of an energy-based weapon system that doesn’t include any kind of ‘flying metal,’ I can finally say we are so very close,” said Dubi Oster, the head of Optoelectronics at the Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure. “The capabilities we developed are based on electric lasers as opposed to the less reliable, more common chemical laser, meaning we’ll be able to target and intercept a flying target from a distance of 5 km,” said Oster. “The system basically has endless munition. The system is also plugged to a power source, so there’s no need to reload regular ordnance.”

However, the system has a limited field of view and is highly dependent on weather conditions, since it relies on optics in order to hit the target.  “If we successfully attach the system to an aircraft, we could overcome the hurdle of [unexpected] weather … we could potentially intercept rocket fire right above the enemy’s heads,” said the Defense Ministry.

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

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