THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2020

Volume 7, Number 26

EIR Daily Alert Service

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

• Trump’s SOTU and Senate Acquittal Create a Moment of Optimism, Opening for LaRouche’s Policies
• Senate Votes Down Articles of Impeachment, Deluded House Democrats Vow to Press On
• Sanders’ Campaign Co-Chair Slams Bloomberg as an Oligarch
• Russia Releases Yalta Conference Documents, as Lawmakers Second Putin’s Call For Summit
• WHO General Tedros Again Praises China’s Efforts to Contain Virus Crisis
• Putin Offers Full Cooperation to China on Combatting the Corona Virus Crisis
• FAO Warns Desert Locusts Threaten South and West Asia, Horn of Africa, Need High Technology
• Farmers Continue Protests in Germany, Block Cartel Supermarket Chains’ Warehouses
• U.S. Navy Plays Up Alleged Russian Submarine Threat
• Russia Will Respond to NATO Defender Exercise
• Russia Makes Clear, Turkey Is Violating Agreements on Idlib in Syria, and on Libya

EDITORIAL

Trump’s SOTU and Senate Acquittal Create a Moment of Optimism, Opening for LaRouche’s Policies

Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—The “overwhelming optimism” of President Donald Trump’s Tuesday night State of the Union address (SOTU), combined with his acquittal in the Senate vote on Wednesday, create a moment of optimism in which it is possible that the strategic and financial crises threatening mankind can now be resolved, Helga Zepp-LaRouche stated in her weekly international webcast. With Trump freed from this latest threat of being removed from office, Helga Zepp-LaRouche called on viewers of her weekly webcast to support him in a full break with the British economic and geopolitical doctrines which have created the crises. She emphasized that now is the moment in which “people should really move forward with LaRouche’s Four Laws program, including Glass-Steagall, a national bank, a crash program for fusion and international space cooperation, including mobilizing for the full funding for Artemis to be pushed through Congress.” Zepp-LaRouche also underscored the need for an emergency summit of Trump, Putin, Xi and Modi; and the exoneration of her husband Lyndon LaRouche, who passed away nearly a year ago.

The exoneration of LaRouche, she said, would enable people to study his ideas in economics, history and science, to rise to the level of strategic thinking necessary to take advantage of this moment. One of the real problems we face, which can be overcome by familiarity with LaRouche’s method, is that the connection between energy flux-density and potential relative population-density, one of the keys to success in physical economy, is not understood. Instead, both internationally and in the United States, growth of the stock market and other financial assets are mistakenly taken to represent real economic value.

The reality is, we are facing a meltdown of the British-run trans-Atlantic financial system, combined with physical economic collapse which is making it nearly impossible for most of the world to deal with crises such as the locust plague now ravaging Africa and large parts of Southwest Asia, and the spread of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Such crises, such as the continuing danger of regional and even thermonuclear war, urgently require a summit meeting among the heads of government of the U.S., China, Russia and India, as both Helga and Lyndon LaRouche have repeatedly called for.

The optimism sweeping the United States, and President Trump’s demonstrated willingness to fight, have made such policy options a very real possibility.

In contrast to this optimism, Zepp-LaRouche spoke of the “Rumpelstiltskin Moment” of Nancy Pelosi at the SOTU, where she theatrically ripped up her written copy of President Trump’s speech; the debacle of the Iowa Democratic Caucuses; the “barrage of racism” against China on the novel coronavirus; and the Bloomberg campaign’s championing of Green fascism, as examples of the threat which must be overcome.

The year 2020 is the year that the old system likely will collapse—let’s make sure it is replaced by a New Paradigm, which acts in the interest of the Common Aims of Mankind, Zepp-LaRouche concluded.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Senate Votes Down Articles of Impeachment, Deluded House Democrats Vow To Press On

Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—In a vote held in the Senate this afternoon, President Donald Trump was acquitted on the charges contained in two articles of impeachment—that he had abused power and obstructed Congress. The vote was not even close to reaching the two-thirds threshold required to remove a President from office.

The first article of impeachment, abuse of power, was rejected by a vote of 48-52; the second, obstruction of Congress, by a vote of 47-53. Only Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah broke with the Republicans and voted “guilty” on the charge that Trump had abused his power. Never-Trumper Romney explained that “my oath before God” demanded that he vote against Trump, arguing that the President was guilty “of an appalling abuse of public trust.”

As might be expected, House Democrats have determined that the show isn’t over. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told the New York Times that he would “likely” subpoena former National Security Adviser John Bolton because “when you have a lawless President, you have to bring that to the fore.” And then there’s Adam Schiff, who whined to AP after the vote that Trump’s “basic lack of character, his willingness to cheat in the next election—he’s not going to stop. It’s not going to change, which means we’re going to have to remain eternally vigilant.”

It was clear that other, more moderate Democrats struggled with their decision to convict. Both Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Doug Jones of Alabama said they had “reluctantly” decided to vote to convict the President. As quoted by Wheeling, West Virginia’s The Intelligencer today, Manchin said “voting whether or not to remove a sitting President has been a truly difficult decision, and after listening to the arguments presented by both sides, I have reached my conclusion reluctantly. For the reasons above I must vote yes on the articles of impeachment. I take no pleasure in these votes, and am saddened this is the legacy we leave our children and grandchildren.”

Sanders Campaign Co-Chair Slams Bloomberg as an ‘Oligarch’

Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—The liberal swamp crowd at MSNBC were aghast last night when Nina Turner, co-chair of the Bernie Sanders campaign, had the audacity to call Sir Michael Bloomberg, KBE, or “Mini Mike” as President Trump calls him, an “oligarch.” He’s attempting to “buy his way into the campaign,” she charged, and stated that the Democratic National Committee had obligingly changed the rules on candidates’ debates so that Bloomberg could participate, which it hadn’t done for former candidates Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, or Joaquin Castro.

After MSNBC’s Jason Johnson complained that Turner’s characterization of Sir Mike had been unfair, anchor Chris Matthews asked Turner if she’d like to choose a different word to describe Bloomberg. “No,” she replied. “he doesn’t tell me what to say or how to change my words. My word stands!”

Meanwhile, in the wake of the Iowa caucus mess, Sir Mike has announced that he will double his spending on ads in markets where they are already running, as well as launch new ones. His field staff will be increased to 2,000 in 40 states and territories, including 450 in battleground states Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona, Florida and Michigan. Bloomberg’s spokeswoman Julie Wood proclaimed that after more than a year of campaigning, “the field is as unsettled as ever. No one has made the sale or even come close to it,” which apparently means that the oligarchy can buy the votes he needs. “Mike is taking the fight to Trump every day, doubling down on the national campaign strategy we’ve been running from the beginning.”

And yes, Her Majesty named Sir Mike as a “Knight Commander of the British Empire” in 2014.

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Russia Releases Yalta Conference Documents, as Lawmakers Second Putin’s Call for Summit

Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—Russia’s Foreign Ministry has released a collection of documents on the 1945 Yalta Conference compiled for the 75th anniversary of the Victory in World War II.

“To mark the 75th anniversary of the Victory, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s archive service has compiled a series of subject-related collections of documents, which, we hope, will be of great interest to scholars and the general public,” the ministry said on Feb. 4. “The first such collection presents documents from the Yalta (Crimean) Conference of February 4-11, 1945, a milestone event during World War II’s final stage that outlined key areas of cooperation between the allies on major military strategic and political issues of the post-war world order.”

The Ministry stressed that its archives contain unique documents related to the Soviet Union’s foreign policy and diplomacy during World War II. “Many of them have already been made public, even on the Internet,” the Ministry said.

Speakers from both the State Duma and Federation Council emphasized the importance of learning the lessons of Yalta’s history: Duma Speaker Viacheslav Volodin remarked yesterday, “If there is such an opportunity, I would like that we translate these priceless materials from those times that are today published by the Istorik Journal [Istoricheskii Zhurnal, 1937-1945)], into different languages and send them to politicians of those countries who are forgetting history to remind them about it one more time.

“Our President was perfectly right, saying … that contempt for the past and dividedness when facing threats can bring about terrible consequences and proposed that UN founding members gather again to protect the world and to discuss and resolve issues of security which is under threat now because many particularly forgot history, forgot about what Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin were saying, addressing the issues of the post-war order and creating an architecture that resolved all issues for more than 70 years,” he stated.

Russian Federation Council President Sen. Valentina Matviyenko expressed similar thoughts in a blog post devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Yalta summit: “I agree with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s opinion that UN founding members should assume responsibility for saving the humanity and ensuring its sustainable development. They should also forge common approaches to ensuring stability on the planet.”

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

WHO Director-General Tedros Again Praises China’s Measures To Contain Virus Crisis

Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke to a technical meeting held yesterday in Geneva on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) crisis, and stated: “There is a window of opportunity because of the high measures, the strong measures China is taking at the epicenter, at the source. So let’s use this opportunity to prevent further spread and control it.”

Also speaking yesterday, an official of China’s National Health Commission (NHC) gave a status report at a press conference in Beijing, presenting a cautiously optimistic picture based on the government’s all-out mobilization to contain the spread of the disease. According to Xinhua, NHC official Jiao Yahui urged people not to panic and reported that “the majority of coronavirus patients in the country only suffer from mild symptoms and the average hospital stay is no longer than 20 days.” She also said that the fatality rate is dropping, as is the daily number of patients accepted in fever outpatient clinics.

The Xinhua account continued: “The NHC also announced Tuesday that the case fatality rate (CFR) of the novel coronavirus-related pneumonia had seen a decrease. The CFR of the coronavirus infection on the Chinese mainland has dropped from an initial 2.3% at the beginning of the outbreak to the current 2.1%, according to the NHC. Hubei Province, the epicenter of the epidemic, has seen a majority of the deaths. The province has a death toll of 414, over 97% of the total, and its CFR was as high as 3.1%, the NHC official said. Currently, more than 80% of the deaths were elderly people over 60 years old and over 75% had at least one underlying disease such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and tumors, Jiao said.”

She further stated that a total of 15,000 fever outpatient clinics have been set up across the mainland, and that “the comprehensive treatment for the epidemic is gradually taking effect.”

Putin Offers Full Cooperation to China on Combatting the Coronavirus Crisis

Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin, in remarks delivered today at a ceremony accepting credentials of diplomatic personnel, stated: “China and all of us face the danger of coronavirus infection spread. The Chinese authorities are taking decisive and vigorous measures to stop the epidemic.” He declared that Russia is prepared to “provide all required assistance to the friendly Chinese people.”

A day earlier, Putin had emphasized that it is in everyone’s interest that there are effective results from measures the Chinese have taken to combat the virus, and that Russia has particular capabilities in epidemiology that it is willing to share, much as it had played a role in producing an Ebola vaccine in 2016.

Russian Deputy Health Minister Sergei Krayevoi announced on yesterday, according to TASS, that Russia had developed a new antiviral drug which it had sent to China for their use. “Triazavirin (TZV) is a broad-spectrum antiviral drug developed in Russia through a joint effort of the Ural Federal University, the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Organic Synthesis, and the Russian Health Ministry’s Influenza Research Institute. It can be used as a treatment for 15 types of flu,” he stated.

Russia is also taking measures to prevent the spread of the disease into its territory. According to TASS, “Russian citizens and people from other countries evacuated from China will be temporarily accommodated in the Tyumen Region where they will be placed under quarantine, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova told reporters on Tuesday.” Russia is also preparing to evacuate citizens from Wuhan and Hubei Province.

FAO Warns Desert Locusts Threaten South and West Asia, Horn of Africa, Need High Technology

Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—In a statement issued Feb. 3, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that the swarms of Desert Locust infesting the Pakistan-India border region have spread to several East African countries, from where they will likely further spread. On Feb. 1, reported Deutsche Welle, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan declared a national emergency. The locusts arrived in Pakistan from Iran in June, DW reported. National Food Security Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bak­h­tiar said the locust swarms were currently on the Pakistan-India border around Cholistan and were previously in Sindh and Balochistan, according to Pakistan daily The Dawn. Associated Press conveyed Feb. 3 that these Desert Locust swarms number in the “billions”—not millions.

The FAO report on Feb. identified three main areas—the Pakistan/India border area, from which swarms are moving into Oman and Yemen, and up the Yemeni and Saudi east side of the Red Sea. And then, the FAO identifies the Hornof Africa as “the worst affected area.” There is “an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods as swarms increase in Ethiopia and Somalia and continue to move south to Kenya … reaching within 200 km of northeast Uganda and southeast South Sudan…. Swarms have also entered the Rift Valley in Ethiopia. Aerial and ground operations are in progress but remain insufficient. Breeding during February will cause a further increase with numerous hopper bands in all three countries. Some swarms may still reach Uganda and South Sudan in the coming days.” Finally, FAO reports “In southwest Asia, heavy rains on the southern coast of Iran where swarms were laying eggs, … should allow favorable conditions for two generations of breeding that could cause a considerable increase in locust numbers.”

A map distinguishing the spread of swarms, bands, groups, adults, and hoppers, and from where the outbreaks are spreading, accompanies the update.

In an earlier Jan. 30 statement, FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu warned that the Desert Locust upsurge in the Horn of Africa threatened to provoke a humanitarian crisis, and called for urgent funding to tackle the outbreak and protect livelihoods and food security. FAO has been able to mobilize $15.4 million out of $76 million requested for the five most severely-affected countries—Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya and Eritrea. But this level of aid cannot address the problem, particularly if the outbreak spreads to other countries, such as South Sudan, Yemen and Uganda, as expected.

What must be on the agenda is the application of advanced technologies such as drones, whose effectiveness has already been proven on a smaller scale in Pakistan, Mauritania and other African nations, along with overall strengthening of infrastructure. Drone technology is already being applied as part of the FAO’s “global Desert Locust monitoring, early warning and preventive control in Africa and Asia” program, in which locust survey teams equipped with drones seek out areas of green vegetation in the desert, search the areas for smaller locust infestations and treat them safely and effectively—before they develop into large swarms.

In the late 1980s, Lyndon LaRouche spearheaded a campaign through EIR and the Fusion Energy Foundation urging the use of electromagnetic pulsed waves to destroy locust swarms. (See EIR, Vol. 16, April 15, 1988.) The use of high-power microwave systems offers another fruitful avenue for research. As LaRouche said then, and is still true today, absent a technological intervention of this kind, millions in these regions are condemned to death.

FAO’s Qu Dongyu emphasized that food security in the affected region is already very fragile. Locusts threaten to destroy pastures and crops; even one small swarm covering 1 sq. km can consume enough food to nourish 35,000 people in one day. In Kenya, 70,000 hectares of land are already infested. “We need to act immediately because the locusts don’t wait, they will come and they will destroy,” said Maria Helena Semedo, FAO Deputy Director-General for Climate and Natural Resources.

Farmers Continue Protests in Germany, Block Cartel Supermarket Chains’ Warehouses

Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—Among numerous tractor rallies staged throughout Germany, farmers targetted protest actions against the supermarket chains Aldi and Lidl, attacking the chains’ dumping policies against agricultural products. Officials of the two chains use to blackmail farmers to sell their fruits and vegetables at scandalously low prices, or go out of business. This includes the practice of cancelling already-agreed-upon price levels, forcing the prices down even further. Farmers thus receive €9 cents or less per liter of milk, which is then sold at the supermarket for €60 cents—the margin being shared between the dairies and the chains, whereas the breakeven price for farmers would be €35-40 cents.

Farmers used their tractor convoys to block roads leading to the big central storage facilities of Aldi at Altenstadt/Allgäu and of Lidl in Radeberg near Dresden for several hours Monday night, Feb. 3., disrupting transports by Aldi and Lidl trucks.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

U.S. Navy Plays Up Alleged Russian Submarine Threat

Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—An essential component of the image of a direct Russian threat to the United States, as purported in the National Defense Strategy and other related documents, is the presence of a resurgent Russian submarine force in the Atlantic Ocean, including off the East Coast of the United States.  The commander of U.S. 2nd Fleet, Vice Adm. Andrew “Woody” Lewis, played this up yesterday at an event in Washington, D.C. co-sponsored by Center for Strategic and International Studies and the U.S. Naval Institute, where he claimed that the waters off the U.S. East Coast are no longer a safe haven for the U.S. Navy because of Russian submarine activity.

“Our new reality is that when our sailors toss the lines over and set sail, they can expect to be operating in a contested space once they leave Norfolk,” Lewis said. “Our ships can no longer expect to operate in a safe haven on the East Coast or merely cross the Atlantic unhindered to operate in another location.”

“We have seen an ever-increasing number of Russian submarines deployed in the Atlantic, and these submarines are more capable than ever, deploying for longer periods of time, with more lethal weapons systems,” he continued. “Our sailors have the mindset that they are no longer uncontested and to expect to operate alongside our competitors each and every underway.”

Lewis would not provide any detail as to how many Russian subs are in the Atlantic at any given time but the War Zone’s Joseph Trevithick notes in his coverage of Admiral Lewis’s remarks that there has been considerable debate about the magnitude and scope of Russian submarine operations in the Atlantic. In fact, the Russian submarine fleet is roughly one-quarter the size of the Soviet submarine fleet during the 1980s and about half of the current fleet of 60 vessels dates to the 1980s. At the same time, there’s no doubt that the Russian Navy has considerably upgraded its underwater operational capabilities over the past two decades with new nuclear-powered and non-nuclear vessels and a large increase in operational exercises and deployments.

Russia Will Respond to NATO Defender Exercise

Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in an interview dated Feb. 4 with the editors of Rossiyskaya Gazeta, vowed that Russia will respond to this coming spring’s U.S.-NATO Defender-Europe 20 exercise. “Naturally, we will react,” he said, reported TASS. “We cannot ignore processes that arouse very great concerns. But we will react in a way that will not create unnecessary risks.” Those who provoke such utterly unreasonable exercises “wish to see retaliatory measures that would allow for building up tensions further on,” he stated. “It is noteworthy that everything that we do in response to NATO’s threats to our security we do exclusively on our own territory,” Lavrov stressed.

Lavrov ridiculed the notion that the exercise had nothing to do with Russia, as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg insisted the other day. “Who are they going to defend themselves from? They claim that they have to defend themselves not from Russia, but from an adversary whose potential is identical to that of NATO,” Lavrov said. “Here it will be very hard to find the correct target for these efforts, matching the comparability criteria. One look at the official statistics—not ours but foreign—concerning military spending, military equipment and all types of armaments without any exception will be enough to see that NATO’s European members alone, the U.S. component excluded, surpasses our armed forces more than by half. I have no idea where they have found a comparable opponent.”

Lavrov also pointed out a peculiar feature of the exercise, that it is a U.S. exercise which NATO has been invited to participate in. One possible reason for this, he said, is “the Americans find it far easier to do all the planning themselves and to carry out everything on their own, with no regard for NATO discipline.” TASS reports that a military source in NATO explained that it would be a U.S. exercise under U.S. command. NATO’s bodies would play a subordinate role, responsible for logistics and coordination of contingents delegated by the 17 allied countries that would participate.

The complete, translated interview is posted to the Foreign Ministry website.

Russia Makes Clear, Turkey Is Violating Agreements on Idlib in Syria, and on Libya

Feb. 5 (EIRNS)—Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been accusing Russia and the Syrian government of attacking militants around Idlib in violation of agreements made earlier this year and claiming Russia has sent mercenaries to Libya to support the Libyan National Army, which Turkey opposes. However, Russia has made it clear that it is Turkey that has violated the agreements.

On Feb. 4 the Russian and Turkish Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed Libya and Syria by phone. The Kremlin released a short statement saying, “The sides exchanged views on the problems of Libyan settlement and stressed the necessity of observing the ceasefire that has been in place in that country since Jan. 12, and of implementing the results of the Berlin international conference of Jan. 19.”

The Turkish government news service said Erdogan told Putin that the Syrian government’s recent “attack on Turkish troops in Idlib” has marred joint efforts for peace in the country, and stating that Turkey would continue to use its right of self-defense against similar attacks.

Putin, however, left it to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to spell out clearly to Ankara Russia’s concerns with Turkey’s actions in Idlib and indirectly Libya during the Lavrov’s interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta editors.

“Unfortunately, at this stage, the Turkish side failed to fulfill a couple of key commitments that were supposed to solve the Idlib problem altogether. First, they failed to separate the armed opposition, which collaborates with the Turks and is ready for dialogue with the government, from the terrorists for the Nusra Front which turned into ‘Hayat Tahrir al-Sham,’ ” Lavrov told the publication.

“The second aspect connected with risks and threats originating from the Idlib de-escalation zone, involves moving hundreds of militants, including Nusra and ‘Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’ members, to Libya, for taking part in escalation of fighting in that country,” Lavrov disclosed.

He reminded “our Turkish partners” that, “We will keep fighting for fulfillment of all points of the decisions made by the Presidents of Russia and Turkey.”

Lavrov pointed out that the clash between Syria and Turkish forces, which led to the deaths of several Turkish soldiers, occurred because Turkish forces advanced towards certain objects inside the Idlib de-escalation zone without warning Russian authorities, so they could in turn advise the Syrian Army.

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