EIR Daily Alert Service, FRIDAY, February 28, 2020

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2020

Volume 7, Number 42

EIR Daily Alert Service

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

  • Helga Zepp-LaRouche Appeals to World Leaders Trump, Xi, Putin and Modi to Urgently Implement LaRouche’s Four Laws
  • Trump Seeks to Calm Partisan Fed Panic, Market Rout
  • Daily Caller Returns Focus to Crucial British Empire Assault on the President
  • DARPA Nuclear Rocket Project Underway, Will Patrol Cislunar Space
  • UN Security Council Takes Up Nuclear Weapons
  • No U.S. Military Deployment Back to Syrian-Turkey Border, Milley Assures House Hearing
  • WHO’s Dr. Tedros Affirms COVID-19 Epidemic Is Not a Pandemic, Hits Media, Politicians for Sowing Fear
  • EU Health Ministers Take No Decision to Fight Novel Coronavirus
  • Effects of Disease Emergency on the Italian Economy
  • Geraci Seeks Italy-China Collaboration and to Suspend Schengen to Help Fight COVID-19
  • U.S., South Korea Postpone Joing Military Exercise Due to Coronavirus Fears
  • Sir David Attenborough Releasing a Film on the Urgency to Commit Genocide
  • Greta Thunberg’s Mother’s New Book Projects Her Dysfunctional Family Onto World

EDITORIAL

Helga Zepp-LaRouche Appeals to World Leaders Trump, Xi, Putin and Modi To Urgently Implement LaRouche’s Four Laws

Feb. 28 (EIRNS)—The Schiller Institute is circulating the following statement by its President Helga Zepp-LaRouche, in multiple languages, and appealing for signatures of support.

Urgent Appeal to President Trump, President Xi, President Putin, Prime Minister Modi and leaders of other countries for the emergency implementation of the Four Laws of Lyndon LaRouche:

As the spread of the coronavirus is threatening to become a pandemic, the impact on physical economic production is already challenging both the supply chains for the industrial production system—in which the sovereignty of national economies has been replaced by international cartels creating extreme dependencies on those supply chains—as well as the very existence of small- and medium-sized industrialists. There are clear warnings, that such disruptions may cause another “Lehman Brothers Moment” in the global financial system.

The coronavirus crisis could soon become the trigger for the systemic collapse of this system, which is already hopelessly bankrupt—with $2 quadrillion in total financial aggregates—as the massive issuance of so-called repo credits by the Fed since September 17 of last year; the continued policy of quantitative easing; and zero and even negative interest rates by the ECB, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, etc. make clear. Within this system, the only choices left are: an uncontrollable chain-reaction collapse, which could be triggered by any one of many causes, such as the debt crises of emerging market countries, or the collapse of the U.S. corporate bond bubble or of major U.S. or European banks; or a hyperinflationary blowout. What happened in Germany in 1923 could be repeated in all countries that are part of this monetary system. The consequences of such a collapse would be chaos, the loss of millions of lives, and possibly war.

There is a solution for this existential crisis. The leading countries of the world, starting with the U.S., China, Russia, and India, supported by others, must implement the following steps required for the reorganization of the present financial system:

1. There must be an immediate implementation of a global system of bank separation, modelled exactly on Roosevelt’s Glass-Steagall law of June 16, 1933. Under this system, the commercial banks must be put under state protection, and must be completely separated by a firewall from the speculative investment banks, which can no longer be allowed access to either the assets of the commercial banks, or the privilege of bailouts through taxpayer money. Toxic paper of these banks, including outstanding derivatives contracts, have to be written off.

Legitimate claims, which have to do with the real economy or the pensions and other assets of working people, are to be marked as valid in the new system. Some categories of demand for payments have to be frozen for the time being, to be evaluated in terms of their validity by state institutions.

2. There must be the creation of a national bank in every country, in the tradition of Alexander Hamilton’s Bank of the United States or the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau in Germany after World War II, so that state credit for productive investments can supply the physical economy with the necessary funds. The issuance of these credits must be guided by the principles of high energy-flux density and an optimal increase of the productivity of the productive capacities and the powers of labor through an emphasis on scientific and technological progress.

3. Among the participating countries a system of fixed parities must be established, and cooperation treaties must be established among sovereign states for the purpose of well-defined infrastructure and development projects. These treaties together represent factually a New Bretton Woods System as it was intended by Roosevelt, with the explicit intention to provide credit for the industrial development of the developing sector.

4. The urgent increase in the productivity of the world economy to accommodate a world population of presently almost 8 billion people must be facilitated through an international crash program for the realization of thermonuclear fusion power and other advanced technologies, such as optical biophysics and life sciences, in order to find solutions for challenges such as the coronavirus; as well as international cooperation in space technology and travel, which can establish the necessary next higher economic platform for the world economy, as this has been developed by the economist Lyndon LaRouche.

We, the signers, are making this urgent appeal to the governments mentioned, to act in this moment of an extraordinary challenge to the safety and existence of all of mankind, to correct the mistakes of the present system which led to this present crisis, and return to the principles of the common good, of sovereignty of the nation state, and food and energy security, while we adopt a vision for the common aims of mankind and a community of the shared future of humanity.

There is no better time to implement these urgent changes than now, in the year of Beethoven, whose monumental work is a beautiful metaphor for a new paradigm for a better future of the human species.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Trump Seeks To Calm Partisan Fed Panic, Market Rout

Feb. 27 (EIRNS)—In a press conference Feb. 26, President Donald Trump sought to calm mounting hysteria concerning COVID-19 resulting from the politicization of the fight against the virus from both Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, their media echo chamber, anti-China fanatics within the Republican Party, and stock market vultures who have massively profited from the outsourcing of U.S. production. Trump put the Vice President in charge of the task force assigned to fight the epidemic, as a signal of the seriousness of the administration’s response, stated that he would take whatever extra funding Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer wanted to offer to fight the epidemic, repeatedly defended President Xi Jinping and China’s response to the illness, and otherwise deferred to the experts assembled around him to provide a briefing to the public on the nature of the threat.

Trump was flanked by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield MD; CDC Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat MD; and Director of the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Anthony Fauci MD. Trump’s message over and over again was to stop spreading panic, that the threat at this point was minimal although it could expand, and that the United States was ready to confront any eventuality. In response to a direct question concerning whether China was hiding both the scope and the origin of the outbreak, a favorite trope now on Fox, the President said he did not believe that at all.

On Feb. 27, the administration announced further appointments to its novel coronavirus response team, including Dr. Deborah Birx, currently the U.S. global AIDS coordinator, an Obama appointee. In addition, it was announced that the administration was considering using the Defense Production Act to cause immediate production of respiratory devices and masks, among other items.

Pelosi seemed to have been taken to the principal’s office and, in her Thursday press conference today, took shots at the President but largely stressed the needs for national bipartisan unity. She said that Congress was now discussing a bipartisan bill to respond to the crisis. She also denied that the stock market rout had little to do with the panic she and Schumer had spread, attributing it, instead, to “the invisible hand doing what it does.”

Daily Caller Returns Focus to Crucial British Empire Assault on the President

Feb. 27 (EIRNS)—The Daily Caller interviewed Svetlana Lokhova, the Russian historian targeted by Stefan Halper and Sir Richard Dearlove in the 2014 effort to oust Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as director of Defense Intelligence Agency from the Obama Administration (“Exclusive: British University Deserves More Scrutiny Over Stefan Halper Ties, Says Researcher Who Knows FBI Informant”).

Lokhova studied under official MI6 historian Christopher Andrew at Cambridge and participated in the Cambridge Intelligence Seminars jointly run by Andrew and Sir Michael Dearlove, who had headed MI6. Halper, a CIA asset and FBI informant, was a longstanding figure in these seminars and, in 2014, used General Flynn’s attendance at one of the seminars to accuse the General of an improper relationship with Lokhova as part of an overall effort to oust Flynn from the Obama Administration.

Lokhova, who is presently suing Halper for defamation, is calling for an investigation of the entire Cambridge University group associated with the Cambridge Intelligence Seminars as a critical part of Spygate. That would include Andrew, Halper, and Dearlove. She states her belief that the seminar and Cambridge were used to carry out intelligence operations against targets of American and British intelligence. Halper used Cambridge as the base of operations against Flynn, Carter Page, and George Papadopoulos. Christopher Steele was also intimately involved in the Cambridge Seminar series.

According to recent revelations stemming from DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report, Stefan Halper’s FBI handler was Stephen Somma. Somma is also identified as FBI Case Agent 1 in the Horowitz report and excoriated in that report for multiple misdeeds and misconduct with respect to Carter Page. It turns out that Somma and Halper have multiple contacts with former Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Vyacheslav Trubnikov, whom Christopher Steele cited as a major source for his dirty and bogus dossier on Donald Trump in meetings at the U.S. State Department in September of 2016. Through the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar, Halper hosted Trubnikov and Somma. Trubnikov also visited Cambridge in 2012 and 2015 and Halper used Trubnikov as a contributor to a study he conducted on behalf of the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessments.

DARPA Nuclear Rocket Project Underway, Will Patrol Cislunar Space

Feb. 27 (EIRNS)—The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has begun a program to create a “nuclear thermal propulsion” rocket engine. According to the Defense Department’s FY2021 budget request, “The capability afforded by [nuclear thermal propulsion] will expand the operating presence of the U.S. in space to the cislunar volume and enhance domestic operations to a new high-ground which is in danger of being defined by the adversary.” Or, as Aviation News reports on Feb. 25 the mission is to get to operate in cislunar space, before the Chinese get there.

DARPA is carrying out design studies during FY20 with a $10 million allocation from Congress and is requesting $21 million in FY21 to begin to create components for the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, or DRACO, program.

Strangely, it does not appear that DARPA will be working with NASA, on its DRACO project, even though NASA’s Kilopower program is a couple of years ahead, and some aspects of the civilian technology undoubtedly would be applicable in the military program.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

UN Security Council Takes Up Nuclear Weapons

Feb. 27 (EIRNS)—The UN Security Council discussed nuclear weapons in a session devoted to the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the five-year review conference soon to follow on April 27 through May 22, 2020. Russian UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia told the session that Moscow expects a response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to extend New START without any preconditions.

On the NPT itself, Nebenzia charged that it is the U.S. which is standing in the way of a nuclear weapons-free world. He stressed that the issue of nuclear disarmament has remained one of Russia’s foreign policy priorities. “The military actions taken by the U.S. and NATO over the past decades as well as Washington’s threats against a number of states, including Russia, only postpone the goal of creating a nuclear-weapons-free world,” Nebenzia said.

Acting U.S. Deputy Ambassador Cherith Norman Chalet agreed that advancing to a world without nuclear weapons “must take into account the global security environment.” However, she blamed Russia and China for the difficulties. “We cannot overlook the actions of those states that are expanding and modernizing their nuclear stockpiles, as well as developing exotic delivery systems, threatening their neighbors, and violating their arms control agreements,” she said, reported the Associated Press.

UN disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu warned that the specter of an unbridled nuclear arms race is threatening the world for the first time since the 1970s. “So-called great power competition is the order of the day,” Nakamitsu said. “Division, distrust and a dearth of dialogue are increasingly the norm.” Nakamitsu warned that “the specter of unconstrained nuclear competition looms over us for the first time since the 1970s.”

“We are witnessing what has been termed a qualitative nuclear arms race—one not based on numbers but on faster, stealthier and more accurate weapons,” she said. “Regional conflicts with a nuclear dimension are worsening, and proliferation challenges are not receding.”

No U.S. Military Deployment Back to Syrian-Turkey Border, Milley Assures House Hearing

Feb. 27 (EIRNS)—Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may be getting moral support from Pompeo for his ambitions in Syria, particularly in Idlib province, but he’s not getting any additional support from the Pentagon, at least not at the present time. “There’s no intent nor plans to reengage in the Syria-Turkish war nor put troops back on the Syrian-Turkish border,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told the House Armed Services Committee yesterday. He stressed that the U.S. military mission in Syria remains focused on ISIS. “We know that ISIS, the caliphate, the physical entity, has been eliminated, but we also know that ISIS as an organization has not yet been destroyed,” he said. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper agreed, explaining to the committee that there has not been a discussion about “reengaging in a civil war” in the region. Esper said his department believes “the best path forward is through the [United Nations] process that is underway and that needs to be pursued vigorously.”

Though speaking prior to Esper and Milley’s testimony, Erdogan seemed to already have a sense that the military support he’s been asking for won’t be forthcoming from the Trump Administration. Upon his return from a visit to Azerbaijan, yesterday, Erdogan lamented the fact that the U.S. would not be deploying Patriot air defense batteries to the Turkish border with Syria. “As for the Patriot issue, let me say very clearly: currently there are no Patriots that America will give us,” he said. “We made our offer … but at the moment, they have no such thing in their hands.” Meanwhile, RT reports, Turkey expects to get its Russian-made S-400 batteries up and running by springtime.

COVID-19

WHO’s Dr. Tedros Affirms COVID-19 Epidemic Is Not a Pandemic, Hits Media, Politicians for Sowing Fear

Feb. 27 (EIRNS)—In his Feb. 26 press conference, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was very clear on why the current COVID-19 epidemic does not meet the criteria for being declared a pandemic. Stating that the number of cases in China “has prompted some media and politicians to push for a pandemic to be declared,” he cautioned, “We should not be too eager to declare a pandemic without a careful and clear-minded analysis of the facts.”

Using the word “pandemic” carelessly has “no tangible benefits,” he emphasized, but it does have “significant risk in terms of amplifying unnecessary and unjustified fear and stigma and paralyzing systems.”

Moreover, he warned, using the word pandemic loosely can send a message “that we can no longer contain the virus, which is not true. We are in a fight that can be won, if we do the right things.” (emphasis added)

Tedros said he’s not downplaying the potential for a pandemic, and won’t hesitate to declare it “if it is an accurate description of the situation.” WHO is working 24/7, to monitor the evolution of the epidemic around the world, he reported, and “engaging experts internally and externally on the issue.”

What are the criteria for declaring a pandemic? We’d have to see “sustained and intensive community transmission of this virus,” and “large-scale severe disease or deaths,” he explained. These are not currently being seen. “The primary objective of all countries with cases must be to contain the virus,” and of course, all countries, whether they have cases or not, “must prepare for a potential pandemic.” Every country must be ready to “detect cases early, to isolate patients, trade contacts, provide quality clinical care, prevent hospital outbreaks and prevent community transmission.”

EU Health Ministers Take No Decision To Fight Novel Coronavirus

Feb. 27 (EIRNS)—The emergency meeting of EU Health ministers that took place in Rome on Feb. 26 decided not to suspend the Schengen agreements, under which there are no passport or other border controls among EU member countries. Misrepresenting the case, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said that the situation is not such as to justify “closing borders.” But the alternative is not between keeping borders “open” or “closed”: Lifting Schengen does not mean to close borders, as former Italian government official Michele Geraci has repeatedly explained: It means to control the movements of people, and being able to trace contagion if it shows up. However, EU governments are more concerned with keeping their free-trade system for their financiers than to care for their population.

Effects of Disease Emergency on the Italian Economy

Feb. 27 (EIRNS)—As a result of alarmist coverage in international media, tourism has collapsed in Italy, with 70% of tourist reservations being cancelled. Some countries have advised their citizens not to travel to Italy, while others advise them to visit the country south of Florence.

Tourism in Italy is worth $90 billion a year. Moreover, the two regions—Lombardy and Veneto—that produce about half the national GDP are now hampered by quarantine measures needed to isolate the virus. Unless the government comes out with aid quickly, many small and medium-size enterprises are at risk for permanent shutdown.

It has been reported that Rome has already started begging the EU Commission to allow for more budget flexibility in order to address the emergency. Brussels might concede some crumbs.

Geraci Seeks Italy-China Collaboration and To Suspend Schengen To Help Fight COVID-19

Feb. 27 (EIRNS)—Former Italian government official and China expert Michele Geraci called for tapping on China’s experience in order to fight the COVID-19 crisis in Italy. In a Feb. 25 interview with anchor Liu Xin on the popular CGTN TV program “The Point with Liu Xin,” Geraci explained that the crisis “Caught the public and even the current government by surprise … by their own admission.” However, the sudden surge of dozens of cases in one weekend “is the result of an accumulation process that started probably one, two weeks ago,” he said.

“What I have tried to is to look at what China has done in Wuhan, in Hubei and in the rest of the country, to see what lessons we can learn. China has in a way a head start; you have been dealing with this issue for one a half month ago, since mid-January; surely there are things that we can learn and so that is why I am pushing for the two governments to open a dialogue. Certainly we don’t have the capability to build a hospital in a few days, but we can see about the measures and also the severity of the virus.”

Although people are informed that the mortality rate for novel coronavirus is low, there is “a little bit of anxiety. Face masks are no longer available in Italy. They were not available even a few days ago, when we were trying to buy them to ship them to China, because obviously China needed it more at the time…”

Liu: “No, people should not be doing that [exporting face masks] any more … you should keep them for yourself, really….”

Geraci: “Maybe you should send them back to us, now that the situation in China seems to be easing out a bit….” (laughter)

Liu: “Are you afraid that things might get worse because of Schengen and the connectivity of people travelling freelywithin Europe?’

Geraci: “Experts say that the only way to contain the virus is to quarantine, and nothing else works. So, I would be very much in favor of blocking the Schengen system. Remember, blocking Schengen does not mean that people cannot travel; it just means that they have to line up to have passport checks, and maybe, in this situation, a temperature check. So, in no way does it mean to block the flow of people. This is not only in the interest of Italy but also of all other members of Schengen. For one or two weeks we can take the economic hit in favor of people’s safety.”

U.S., South Korea Postpone Joint Military Exercise Due To Coronavirus Fears

Feb. 27 (EIRNS)—U.S. Forces Korea and the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff announced today, Korea time, that joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises originally scheduled for March have been put off “until further notice for the safety of all service members,” as a result of concerns about the spread of the COVID-19 virus in South Korea. According to the Korea Herald, South Korea’s military reported 25 confirmed cases and quarantined about 10,000 personnel as an expanded precaution to contain COVID-19.

The announcement apparently came after it emerged that a third person associated with the U.S. military, a Korean civilian employee, was diagnosed with COVID-19.

MALTHUSIANISM

Sir David Attenborough Releasing a Film on the Urgency To Commit Genocide

Feb. 27 (EIRNS)—Sir David Attenborough, the British lunatic who has promoted reducing the world’s population to less than 1 billion in order to save the planet (either we do it or it will happen through starvation and disease and climate change, etc., he claims), has made a movie to tell us all how it can be done. Modestly titled “David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet,” a trailer is being promoted all over the U.K., on Facebook and Netflix (which will give a “one night only” showing on April 16). The film is co-created and produced by naturalist filmmakers Silverback Films, which has worked on multiple BBC series with Attenborough, and Malthusian World Wildlife Fund.

The trailer is a series of pictures showing the 93-year-old pal of Prince Philip playing with various animals during his long life, while he reports:

“I’ve had a most extraordinary life. It’s only now that I appreciate how extraordinary. The living world is a huge and spectacular marvel, yet the way we humans live on Earth is sending it into decline” as the video shows a man cutting down a tree—horror of horrors! “Human beings have overrun the world. We’re replacing the wild with the tame.

“This film is my witness statement, and my vision of the future. The story of how we made the greatest mistake, and how, if we act now, we can get it right. Our planet is headed for disaster. We need to learn to live with nature, rather than against it, and I’m going to tell you how.” Do tell…

Greta Thunberg’s Mother’s New Book Projects Her Dysfunctional Family onto World

Feb. 27 (EIRNS)—The mother of abused child Greta Thunberg, Malena Ernman Thunberg, has written a book, Our House Is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis to be released in English by British publisher Penguin on March 5. Britain’s Guardian reprinted a long excerpt from the book on Feb. 23, subtitled: “A new book by Greta Thunberg’s mother reveals the reality of family life during her daughter’s transformation from bullied teenager to climate icon.” (And despite the fact that the Guardian credits Malena Ernman as having written the book, the book cover names as authors “Malena and Beata Ernman, Svante and Greta Thunberg.” Beata is Greta’s younger sister, but why she uses her mother’s maiden name is unclear—it may indicate more about this “family in crisis.”)

While it has been known that Greta had many serious physical and mental disorders, her crazy mother lays it all out with the intention of pretending that her climate hysteria cured her of those disorders, rather than being an expression of her depravity and madness.

The promo to the book on the Guardian Bookshop website, by fellow green freak Naomi Klein, reads: ‘An extraordinary account of how one family rose, with unshakable moral clarity, to the tremendous responsibility of being alive at the moment when our immediate collective decisions will determine the fate of life on Earth. They share their story of courage not because they want our accolades, but because they demand our company. Greta Thunberg has already inspired a global moment—this book is part of how we will win.”

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

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