MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020

Volume 7, Number 13

EIR Daily Alert Service

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

• The World Order Urgently Needs New Principles To Ensure World Peace
• Davos Has Turned Into a Green Genocide Party of Billionaires
• German Farmers Mobilize Huge Tractorcades, ‘No Farmers, No Food, No Future!’
• Pat Lang Charges Pelosi’s Impeachment Strategy Could Turn U.S. into a Parliamentary System
• Dershowitz Repeats, Read the Constitution! Articles of Impeachment Don’t Meet Its Criteria
• State Department Iran Envoy Boasts of New Visa Sanction Against IRGC Commander
• Pompeo Interview Puts Preemptive Strike Against Iran on the Agenda
• Mexico Wants Chinese Investment, Ministers Announce at ‘China Day’ Seminar
• Putin Places New Prime Minister Mishustin, Former Prime Minister Medvedev on His Security Council

EDITORIAL

The World Order Urgently Needs New Principles To Ensure World Peace

Jan. 19 (EIRNS)—The following article by Helga Zepp-LaRouche was translated from the German original:

During the hours following the Jan. 3 murder of Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s most important general and practically number two in the Iranian government, by a U.S. drone attack near the airport in Baghdad, the world held its breath. Most thinking people were aware that we were on the brink of a potentially uncontrollable escalation. Then came the “moderate” response from the Iranian government—a missile attack on a U.S. military base in Iraq, which failed to kill U.S. troops thanks to Iran’s warning to the Iraqi government—and for many people, the crisis was over with it. My crisis appeal of January 3rd, that only a summit among the heads of state of the three main nuclear powers—Presidents Putin, Xi Jinping and Trump—can create the basis for overcoming the acute danger and creating a lasting solution for peace in Southwest Asia, was circulated by friends of the Schiller Institute to many hundreds of institutions on January 15 in an international day of action in rallies, press conferences and interventions in dozens of cities in the Americas, Europe and Australia, with the intention of creating a worldwide chorus of people who call for such a crisis summit.

But during this mobilization for the emergency summit of the three Presidents, another phenomenon came to light: The vast majority of the population in the different countries have absolutely no idea that there is an acute danger that the strategic situation could continue to escalate into a Third World War. Warnings in this regard are only “scaremongering,” Trump already has “everything under control” or “everything is already too late, the Third World War is already taking place”: the vox populi covered the whole spectrum from refusal to accept reality to pessimistic resignation, based less on a well-thought-out analysis than on various, mostly ideologically motivated assumptions. Or, on a more contemplative than an active political stance.

The maintenance of world peace in the age of thermonuclear weapons is the existential issue for humanity in general. So it is not about scaremongering, but about understanding the dangers without illusions, in order to then look for ways to ensure lasting peace in the world. Let us remember that during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, after U.S. medium-range missiles were stationed at a NATO base in Turkey and then Soviet medium-range missiles were transported to Cuba, they were on the verge of nuclear war for 13 days—and the world public was aware of this—but the communication between Presidents Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev and military experts on both sides, and thus crisis management, existed at a completely different level than today, where between June 2019 and January 15, 2020 there was extensive radio silence between the U.S.A. and Russia.

During the 1983 mid-range missile crisis, when the Pershing II and SS20 missiles in Europe were constantly in a “launch on warning” position with a flight time reduced to three minutes, politicians like Helmut Schmidt repeatedly spoke of the danger of World War III, and there were hundreds of thousands of people in the streets protesting this danger.

Today the strategic situation is much more complex and dangerous, but public awareness or even a debate about it is virtually nonexistent.

It borders on a mockery and a dumbing-down of the population when Western think tanks, politicians and the media speak of the need to defend the “rules-based order” of democratic states against dictatorships and autocratic regimes in the world. The most important step in the direction of today’s strategic chaos was Tony Blair’s Chicago speech in 1999, in which he replaced the international law laid down in the UN Charter with the Blair doctrine, i.e. the right to so-called “humanitarian interventions,” which led to the “Right to Protect” doctrine in the United States. As Russia and China have insisted, however, and as Trump himself stated in his UN speech in 2019, respect for absolute sovereignty alone guarantees a peaceful coexistence among states.

The Blair doctrine formed the background for the subsequent wars of intervention, which were all based on lies and led to regime changes, color revolutions, and the chaos and loss of millions of lives that we are experiencing today in Southwest Asia. On the pretext of defending democracy and human rights, representatives of this “rules-based order” continue to support a regime change policy against governments that do not want to submit to the dictates of a unipolar world, whether it be the British ambassador to Iran, who was brazen enough to lead the student demonstrations against the Rouhani government(!), or the think tank of the German government, the German Council on Foreign Relations (Deutschen Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik, DGAP), which writes: “First Hong Kong, then Taiwan—democracy is invading China.” It has long been obvious that regime change operations against proxy states are ultimately aimed at regime change in Russia and China.

If you take into account the changes in military doctrine initiated by the United States and supported by the allies, then everyone should be aware of how extremely volatile world peace is. For example, there is the “Prompt Global Strike” doctrine of the United States, which was introduced roughly in parallel with the Blair doctrine; the building of a global anti-missile defense system that Russia considers to be a clear encirclement policy; the unilateral termination of the INF treaty on intermediate-range missiles by the U.S.A.; the unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA nuclear agreement with Iran by the U.S.A.; the expansion of NATO to the east along with the provocative orientation of the upcoming NATO maneuver “Defender Europe 20” (in which at the end of February up to 40,000 troops will mostly be transferred to Poland and the Baltic States); and conversely Russia will install new weapon systems that massively weaken the efficiency of the U.S. missile defense system.

When geopoliticians speak of systemic competition between the supposedly noble ideals of Western democracies and authoritative dictatorships, it is also driven by the panic that the trans-Atlantic financial system is facing a “terrible collapse,” as George Soros’s former colleague Jim Rogers puts it these days. China’s New Silk Road program, on the other hand, with which 157 nations are now cooperating, has been extremely successful despite all the prophecies of doom.

The accidental shooting down of the Ukrainian plane by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards following the murder of General Soleimani should make it clear to everyone how right, for example, the former Bundeswehr Inspector General, and former Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Gen. Harald Kujat (ret.), was, when he repeatedly warned of the danger of nuclear war by mistakes from cyber attacks, hacking, technical failure and misunderstandings. President Putin reflected this danger in his Jan. 15 speech to the Federal Assembly on the state of the nation and offered an extremely important proposal. Putin emphasized:

“We can see how unpredictably, uncontrollably events are developing in the world, what is happening in the Middle East and North Africa literally in recent weeks and recent days, how regional conflicts can rapidly grow into threats to the entire international community.

“I am convinced that it is high time for a serious and direct discussion about the basic principles of a stable world order and the most acute problems that humanity is facing….

“The founding countries of the United Nations should set an example. It is the five nuclear powers that bear a special responsibility for the conservation and sustainable development of humankind. These five nations should first of all start with measures to remove the prerequisites for a global war and develop updated approaches to ensuring stability on the planet that would fully take into account the political, economic and military aspects of modern international relations.”

This serious discussion of the principles on which a sustainable order for all of humanity must be based is urgently needed. Instead of sticking to the backward-looking and dangerous concepts of geopolitics and more recently “geo-economics,” the European states should participate in the potential of the New Silk Road.

It is therefore imperative that all forces in Europe that are interested in ensuring world peace support the summit between Putin, Xi Jinping and Trump. Just two examples of what this could imply: China has lifted 850 million of its own citizens out of poverty in the past 40 years, and has also brought a perspective of hope to overcoming underdevelopment to developing countries. China has implemented the largest reforestation program in human history over the same period. The National People’s Congress in 1981 required all Chinese over the age of 11 to plant three tree seedlings each year, which resulted in China raising more trees than the rest of the world combined; between 2000 and 2010 alone, the Chinese planted 56 billion trees.

The principles on which the world order urgently needs to be built are the common aims of mankind. The liberal establishment in Europe and the U.S.A. would do well to rethink the premises of its own profit-oriented system and to cooperate with the New Silk Road program in the economic development of Southwest Asia and Africa. The European Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Beijing fears that Europe will only become an insignificant caboose of a market at the end of Eurasia if it does not play a competitive role against the New Silk Road. The exact opposite is true: Europe can only have a perspective if it gives up geopolitics and actively cooperates with Russia, China and the U.S.A. on the basis of principles for a more human world order.

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Davos Has Turned into a Green Genocide Party of Billionaires

Jan. 17 (EIRNS)—The annual World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland will be held next week, Jan. 21-24. The get-together in the mountains will include the regular billionaires (Bloomberg News estimates 119 this year), heads of state, business and banking leaders and economic gurus, but the character of the event, in keeping with the times, is: How to commit genocide on a vast scale by imposing the destruction of industrial development from the top down.

The theme is “Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World,” while the opening session is titled “How To Save the Planet,” featuring the usual cast of mass murderers: Greta Thunberg (abused child), Jennifer Morgan (Executive Director of Greenpeace International), Mark Carney (outgoing Governor of the Bank of England, incoming UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance), Al Gore (author of An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming), Dame Jane Goodall (conservationist, speaking on how business can maintain the Amazon in backwardness), Lord Nicholas Stern (Chairman of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change), Frans Timmermans (EU Commission Executive Vice President for the European Green Deal), and a “Special Address by HRH The Prince of Wales.”

Klaus Schwab, who founded and has chaired the Davos meeting since 1971, writes for the website of Davos 2020: “People are revolting against the economic elites they believe have betrayed them, and our efforts to keep global warming limited to 1.5°C are falling dangerously short. With the world at such critical crossroads, this year we must develop a Davos Manifesto 2020 to re-imagine the purpose and scorecards for companies and governments. It is what the World Economic Forum was founded for 50 years ago, and it is what we want to contribute to for the next 50 years.”

President Donald Trump is scheduled to attend, despite the fact that it begins on the first day of the impeachment trial.

German Farmers Mobilize Huge Tractorcades, ‘No Farmers, No Food, No Future!’

Jan. 18 (EIRNS)—Again, and timed with the opening of the annual agricultural “Green Week”—the international agriculture exhibit in Berlin—hundreds of farmers took to the streets with their tractors throughout German cities to protest against the free market ruining family farms, against the government’s excessive ecologist regulations, and against the uncertainty of farmers’ futures created by politicians’ decisions or indecisions. The biggest protest rallies were reported from Berlin, as well as from Mainz, Fulda, Dresden, Stuttgart, Hanover, Kiel, and Bremen, while other tractorcades with up to 200 rolled throughout Dessau, Halle, Magdeburg, Giessen, Saarbrücken, just to mention a few places.

“No Farmers, No Food, No Future” and “We Work for Your Food” were slogans displayed on placards on many tractors. A big sign in Berlin attacked Greenie politicians and Greenpeace: “They neither sow, nor do they reap, but they think they know everything.” Banners told German Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner to finally become honest, and take a clear side with farmers against the EU Commission.

Another prominent target of attack was the recently signed EU free trade deal with Mercosur, which is expected to increase food imported from South America, at lower prices than in Europe, such as beef from Brazil.

Also targetted for attack, was the impossible situation of dairy farmers, who today receive €0.20 cents per produced liter, when parity would demand €0.40 cents/liter in order to make dairy farming profitable.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Pat Lang Charges Pelosi’s Impeachment Strategy Could Turn U.S. into a Parliamentary System

Jan. 19 (EIRNS)—In a Jan. 18 column published on his “Sic Semper Tyrannis” blog, defense intelligence expert Col. Pat Lang (ret.), echoes the warning previously issued by constitutional law expert Alan Dershowitz—that should the Democrats’ impeachment drive succeed, based on the spurious grounds of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, they “will have succeeded in reverting the power structure in the federal government … to something much like the government of the Articles of Confederation.”

In that setup, Lang continues, “the federal government will become driven by the House of Representatives and will become the sole controlling part of the federal government with the ability to remove an opposition President through a simple majority vote and a rubber stamp trial in an intimidated Senate. We will then have become a parliamentary democracy with the Speaker of the House controlling all.”

He continues that Alan Dershowitz “will testify in this wise at Trump’s trial. I support his position.”

Lang otherwise has a useful discussion of how the Articles of Confederation were scrapped in favor of the Constitution, which created a strong Executive Branch “empowered in many ways to act without the direction given by the Legislative Branch.” He goes on that, now, Nancy Pelosi is attempting to impeach Donald Trump on charges that aren’t cited in the Constitution as grounds for impeachment. She is seeking “to control the trial of the President in the Senate through intimidation of members and such devices as accusing the Majority Leader [MitchMcConnell] of the Senate of being a Russian agent of influence, ‘Moscow Mitch.’ Her justification for that is McConnell’s unwillingness to obey her.” Lang’s column is appropriately titled, “If Trump Is Removed, Will the Speaker of the House Not Be the Sovereign?”

Dershowitz Repeats, Read the Constitution! Articles of Impeachment Don’t Meet Its Criteria

Jan. 19 (EIRNS)—In several interviews over the past couple of days, constitutional law expert Alan Dershowitz, now part of the President’s legal team in the impeachment trial, continues to hammer away at one key point: that the articles of impeachment submitted against President Donald Trump do not meet the criteria for impeachment as outlined in the Constitution and intended by the framers.

Speaking on MSNBC on Jan. 17, Dershowitz said that the Democrats’ charge that Trump is guilty of “abuse of power,” is meaningless because it’s not an impeachable offense. “Abuse of power, even if proved, is not an impeachable offense. That’s exactly what the framers rejected. They didn’t want to give Congress the authority to remove a President because he abused his power. They have to prove treason, they have to prove bribery, or they have to prove other crimes and misdemeanors,” And, as he elaborated with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” today, “When you read the text of the Constitution, treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors, ‘other’ really means that crimes and misdemeanors must be akin—akin to treason and bribery.”

Dershowitz has emphasized that his role in the impeachment trial will be to argue the specific issue of constitutional criteria for impeachment, making “what could be the most important argument on the floor.” He told CNN’s “State of the Union” today that he will be paraphrasing Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Curtis who was chief counsel during the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson in 1868, and will argue that the framers intended impeachable conduct to mean “criminal-like conduct.” Neither of the charges against President Trump qualify as criminal-like conduct, he said.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

State Department Iran Envoy Boasts of New Visa Sanction against IRGC Commander

Jan. 18 (EIRNS)—Brian Hook, the State Department’s Special Envoy for Iran, delivered a briefing to reporters yesterday during which he made the usual claims for Trump Administration policy on Iran, that the maximum pressure campaign is working against Iran and that the U.S. stands behind the people of Iran, even as U.S. sanctions are forcing the Iranian economy to collapse. Hook bragged about the destruction. “The sanctions we have imposed are the toughest ever. They are making an enormous difference, and the Iranian people are rightly blaming their own government for 40 years of corruption, mismanagement, and kleptocracy,” Hook said. “Iran’s oil exports are down by more than 2 million barrels per day, reducing Iran’s revenue from oil by more than 80%. This amounts to a loss of around $50 billion annually.” Last month, President Hassan Rouhani admitted that Iran had lost $200 billion from U.S. sanctions since their re-imposition. Iran is also facing a banking crisis with roughly half of all bank loans in arrears. Hook said that the Iranian economy could shrink by more than 14% this year. “More than one in four young Iranians is jobless. Inflation is at 40%.”

Hook announced that the U.S. was imposing visa sanctions on IRGC Brig. Gen. Hassan Shahvarpour for allegedly directing the massacre of Iranian protesters in the Mahshahr region last November. The evidence against Shahvarpour supposedly came from 88,000 tips, including video, submitted by Iranians to the State Department’s tip line that Pompeo set up back in November. “We use this information to expose the criminality of the regime and to hold violators accountable,” Hook said. “Since the violent crackdown on protests last November, the United States has sanctioned two judges and eight other regime officials for their roles in brutalizing the Iranian people,” Hook said.

At the Pentagon, a day earlier, Defense Department spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said that discussions continue with Baghdad about U.S. troops in Iraq, but there are no plans for a U.S. withdrawal. “And I think it’s been obvious—and the Secretary’s touched on this a good bit—that the consensus in Iraq seems to be that the United States forces there are a force for good,” he said. “Having the United States forces in Iraq allows NATO to be present, as well, to help with that counter-ISIS mission as well as the training mission, to support Iraqi Security Forces.” He went on that “our goal right now is for U.S. security forces to remain in the region and remain in Iraq in an effort to help continue to push forward with securing and making Iraq a prosperous country.”

Pompeo Interview Puts Preemptive Strike against Iran on the Agenda

Jan. 18 (EIRNS)—Secretary of State Pompeo was interviewed yesterday by one of his favorite media outlets, Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. Hewitt sought to get Pompeo to reassure the world that President Donald Trump’s recent actions regarding China and Iran do not mean that those two countries are no longer “our enemies.” Pompeo obliged.

First, China. Hewitt cited President Trump’s statement that “the China trade deal is one of the biggest deals in history,” to then ask: “But do you, Secretary Pompeo, still consider the P.R.C. as the most significant competitor to the United States on the globe?” Pompeo reassured him. The National Security Strategy identifies China’s competition as “a long-term challenge.” Trade issues remain to be worked out, and “their continued efforts in the South China Sea, the human rights conditions inside of China, the challenge they present when they show up with big bags of money around the world to exert political influence through economic means—those challenges still remain,” Pompeo replied.

Next, Iran. Hewitt pressed Pompeo to call Iran’s firing missiles at U.S. soldiers “an act of war against the United States”; Pompeo answered indirectly, choosing to elaborate on President Trump’s statement that if Iran or its proxies threaten American lives, the U.S. will respond directly against Iran.

The exchange which then followed was used to put a preemptive strike against Iran on the agenda:

Hewitt asked: “Now, there’s a very important question, Mr. Secretary: Does the willingness of Iran to launch ballistic missiles from its own territory against targets in another country strengthen the case for any eventual preemptive strike against their nuclear facilities should Iran approach breakout to a nuclear weapon?”

To which Pompeo replied: “Hugh, it’s an important question, one we’ve given a great deal of thought to. If you look at the President’s remarks that he made now last week, his first sentence—that Iran would never have the capacity for a nuclear weapon—I think answers that question, by making clear it is fully our expectation not only will there be a commitment by the Iranian leadership not to have a nuclear weapon, but we’re going to do all the work that’s needed to be done to ensure that that statement, that commitment that the Iranians claim that they have made, is real, validated, verifiable, and we never let it happen. The President has been unambiguous about this. I am confident that we will execute on the commitment that he made to the world that day.”

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Mexico Wants Chinese Investment, Ministers Announce at ‘China Day’ Seminar

Jan. 17 (EIRNS)—Mexico’s Economics Ministry held a huge “China Day” seminar at the Ministry’s International Business Center on Jan. 14 to promote increased trade, investment and economic development between China and Mexico. More than 800 small, medium, and large Mexican companies and producer associations from 25 Mexican states participated, along with 85 Chinese companies and a large delegation of Chinese Embassy officials, led by Ambassador Zhu with Qingqiao. Eleven panels and workshops were held, and 20 information stands organized by various Mexican states and companies promoting areas of potential economic cooperation.

Economics Minister Graciela Marquez, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, and Chinese Ambassador Zhu Qingqiao opened the event, with the two Mexican ministers delivering the message that Chinese companies “are invited to invest in Mexico.”

Ebrard reported that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had instructed the ministers to maintain a “great dynamism” in bilateral relations with China. Marquez spoke of her ministry’s responsibility to promote exports to China, “probably the most attractive market in the world,” a growing economy whose population has a growing purchasing power.

Marquez further stated that “Mexico is also fertile territory for Chinese capital,” in both traditional and non-traditional sectors. She mentioned that potential Chinese investment in developing the “enormous growth potential” of Mexico’s petrochemical industry had been discussed at a breakfast meeting that morning, but this, she said, is just one example among many opportunities.

Potential Chinese investment in Mexico’s state-run oil industry (which Wall Street has sought to bankrupt and privatize) is a hot one. Ambassador Zhu Qingqiao’s statement at the China Day opening, that the Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China were going to invest $600 million in the new refinery that Mexico’s oil company Pemex is building in Dos Bocas, Tabasco dominated media headlines. The Houston Chronicle went so far as to write that no one thinks the refinery can be viable, and if China does invest in it, Beijing should prepare for the $600 million defaulted on!

The media went wild about “contradictions” between Mexico and China after Mexico’s Energy Minister Rocio Nahle told media, cautiously, that she knew nothing about Chinese investment in the publicly funded refinery, the Chinese Embassy issued a statement that there was a “misunderstanding,” and the Ambassador had referred to money loaned to Pemex in 2019 to recapitalize the state company generally.

Schiller Institute organizers attended, and gave copies of Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s Jan. 7 “Call for Presidents Trump, Putin and Xi To Convene Emergency Summit To Address Danger of War” to many key participants at the seminar, raised the need to cooperate on high-speed rail and nuclear energy. The activists urged Mexican officials to organize for Mexico’s participation in the New Silk Road, which is more than a commercial matter.

OTHER

Putin Places New Prime Minister Mishustin, Former Prime Minister Medvedev on His Security Council

Jan. 17 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin is still in the process of forming a new government, after having named Mikhail Mishustin as his new prime minister and making Dmitry Medvedev deputy chair of the Russian Security Council. Yesterday, Putin has also signed a decree to place Prime Minister Mishustin on the Russian Security Council.  “To make a change to the composition of the Security Council of the Russian Federation … by adding as a permanent member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation M.V. Mishustin—chairman of the government of the Russian Federation,” the statement said.

Former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has been made Deputy Chairman of the Council—the chair is the Russian President—which now includes Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov; Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Anton Vayno; State Duma Chairman Viacheslav Volodin; Federation Council Speaker Chairwoman Valentina Matviyenko; Special Presidential Representative for Environmental Protection, Ecology and Transport Sergey Ivanov; acting Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, acting Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, acting Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergey Naryshkin, Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev.
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