THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2016
Volume 3, Number 27
EIR Daily Alert Service
P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390
• Congress Delivers a Deafening Blow to Obama and the Anglo-Saudis
• 9/11 Families Welcome Opportunity To Bring to Account Those Responsible for 9/11 Attack
• Obama and Team Hysterical over Override of JASTA Veto
• Amidst Deepening Banking Crisis, Deutsche Bank Denies Reports of a Government Bailout
• Japanese Economist: How To Deal with Collapse of Deutsche Bank and Western Banking System
• Nuclear Ash Carter Says ‘No’ to No First Use of Nuclear Weapons
• Biased Dutch-Led Investigation Claims MH-17 Shot Down by Russian Missile from Rebel-Held Territory
• Russia Tells U.S. To Stop Cozying Up to Terrorists
• Syrian Army on the Offensive Everywhere
• BRICS Countries To Set Up an Agricultural Research Center
• International Space Agencies Outline Their Plans for the Future
EDITORIAL
Congress Delivers a Deafening Blow to Obama and the Anglo-Saudis
Sept. 28 (EIRNS)—Congress today resoundingly overrode President Barack Obama’s Sept. 23 veto of S.2040, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), with the Senate vote tally of 97-1, in favor of override; and the House of Representatives tally of 348-77. The override required a two-thirds majority vote in both Houses of Congress, and it was achieved by a wide, bipartisan margin.
The implications are massive.
With JASTA now the law of the land, the loopholes that blocked the 9/11 survivors and families from suing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in U.S. Federal Court for their complicity in 9/11 have now been removed. A hearing is already scheduled in Federal Court for the Southern District of New York in November, at which the 9/11 families will be able to finally directly confront the Saudi Monarchy and pursue further evidence of the Saudi government support for the 9/11 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi citizens.
The opportunity for discovery about the Saudi role in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was recently further enhanced by the public release, on July 15, 2016, of the 28-page chapter from the original 2002 Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11, which revealed previously secret evidence about the role of former Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar bin-Sultan in supporting at least two of the 9/11 terrorists, along with evidence of ties to the hijackers by scores of other Saudi officials at all levels of government and the Royal Family.
The role of Prince Bandar in the 9/11 attacks is of special significance because of his close ties to the Bush family and even closer ties to the British. Bandar was the broker, along with former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, of the Al Yamamah deal, a barter arrangement of British weapons for Saudi oil. Under Al Yamamah, hundreds of billions of dollars were squirreled into secret offshore joint Anglo-Saudi accounts for the purpose of funding terrorism, assassinations and political coups around the globe. A prominent Member of the British House of Commons, who is also a senior figure in the British defense establishment, candidly warned in June that, if JASTA were to become U.S. law, the British Monarchy and the British government could be sued, along with the Saudis.
‘An Historic Victory’
Lyndon LaRouche, whose LaRouche Political Action Committee had mobilized intensively for today’s results, described the vote as “An historic victory. It is a cause for rejoicing; it has turned the pages of history. The worldwide positive potential is enormous.” However, LaRouche cautioned, “How far and where it takes us, is not yet clear. Get ready to find out.” He added, “Remember, you’ve hurt the devil hard. And the devil ain’t going to thank you for that!”
The overwhelming defeat of President Obama and the Saudis came despite the fact that the entire Obama Administration had been mobilized to pressure Congress to support his veto, and the Saudi Monarchy had poured in a reported $9.4 million, in a desperate lobbying effort to buy off Members of Congress. In the end, a bipartisan coalition of leading Senators and Representatives rejected the Obama Administration lies that JASTA posed a threat to American interests abroad, and delivered the biggest political defeat to President Obama since he first took office.
Today, both Houses of Congress engaged in two hours of debate, preceding the historic vote, and the vast majority of speeches emphasized the rights of the 9/11 families to at long last obtain justice, and to confront the Saudi Monarchy and its agents for their complicity in the worst terrorist attack to ever occur on U.S. soil.
Much of the debate was taken up debunking the Obama claim that JASTA would open American servicemen, corporations and diplomats to retaliation by foreign government. Leading JASTA proponents, including Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Representatives Robert Goodlatte (R-VA) and Jerome Nadler (D-NY) made clear, repeatedly, that JASTA merely closes a loophole in legislation that has existed since the 1970s, allowing American citizens to sue foreign governments, proven to have provided support for terrorist attacks that took place on U.S. soil. But that loophole allowed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to evade American justice for the past 15 years—and that has now come to an end.
Broader Strategic Opportunities
The successful bipartisan effort, beating President Obama’s veto of JASTA, can and must now be directed, with equal intensity, at other vital issues, starting the need for Congress to immediately pass the bills already before both Houses of Congress to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, to break up the too-big-to-fail banks that are on the edge of a collapse far worse than 2008. Germany’s Deutsche Bank, the largest holder of derivatives of any bank in the world, is about to collapse, and the entire trans-Atlantic banking system is set to crash, as the direct result.
Reinstating Glass-Steagall is the indispensable first step towards launching a genuine economic recovery through massive capital investment in urgently-needed infrastructure projects, research and development, and particularly a revival of America’s now collapsed NASA space program. Such an effort, now, can create millions of new productive jobs. In Eurasia, under the leadership of China, a massive program of infrastructure investment is being implemented, under the banner of President Xi Jinping’s One Belt, One Road initiative. Russian President Vladimir Putin has embraced the initiative and has proposed to integrate the Eurasian Economic Union into the effort, which former U.S. Ambassador Chas Freeman recently described as the biggest infrastructure project in human history.
Rather than working to sabotage the New Silk Road project, as has been the U.S. policy under President Obama, the United States should fully embrace the One Belt, One Road program and thus expanded into a true World Land-Bridge.
The U.S. Congress, for the first time in a long time, has acted with a single voice, on behalf of the vital interests of the American people. The JASTA bill benefits all Americans and particularly those who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks or were themselves severely injured.
That vote offers a larger beacon of hope, that the same spirit of national interest can now rapidly be translated into the other actions, that are vital to the survival and prosperity of the United States and the world.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
9/11 Families Welcome Opportunity To Bring to Account Those Responsible for 9/11 Attack
Sept. 28 (EIRNS)—“Congress has finally acted, allowing the 9/11 Families & Survivors United for Justice Against Terrorism the opportunity to seek the truth behind the attacks and hold all those responsible for Sept. 11, 2001 accountable in a U.S. Court,” the families declared in a press release issued after today’s vote.
The release quotes Terry Strada, national chairwoman of the 9/11 Families and Survivors United: “The victims of 9/11 have fought for 15 long years to make sure that those responsible for the senseless murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children, and injuries to thousands others, are held accountable. JASTA becoming law is a tremendous victory toward that effort. We rejoice in this triumph and look forward to our day in court and a time when we may finally get more answers regarding who was truly behind the attacks.”
Obama and Team Hysterical over Override of JASTA Veto
Sept. 28 (EIRNS)—The first White House response came from White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, who made himself a laughingstock by lashing out at the U.S. Senate for its historic 97-1 vote overriding Barack Obama’s veto of JASTA, as “the single most embarrassing thing that the United States Senate has done, possibly, since 1983.” Earnest spoke as if the Senate actually had finally come to agree with the President’s allegations of negative consequences of the bill, but then voted to override the President’s veto anyway!
Barack Obama then also declared that the historic override of his veto of the JASTA bill was a “mistake” made by unprincipled legislators who didn’t want to be seen as acting against the 9/11 families right before the elections, as he told CNN’s Jake Tapper. The overwhelming override of his veto was just a “political vote,” and that many people who voted against the veto, didn’t really know what they were voting for, because there wasn’t any debate or because they hadn’t read the bill, Obama said, adding that his concern “has nothing to do with Saudi Arabia per se.”
CIA Director John Brennan echoed Saudi threats that the override will pave the way for arrest “at will” of American officials by hostile nations for alleged crimes. JASTA will “have grave implications for the national security of the United States,” he said, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) emphasized after the vote, however, that the Senate did not take the override lightly, “but it was important in this case that the families of the victims of 9/11 be allowed to pursue justice, even if that pursuit causes some diplomatic discomforts. The White House and the executive branch are far more interested in diplomatic considerations. We’re more interested in the families and in justice. I think our administration was just dead wrong on this issue,” Real Clear Politics news site reported.
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Amidst Deepening Banking Crisis, Deutsche Bank Denies Reports of a Government Bailout
Sept. 28 (EIRNS)—Over the past 36 hours, both top officers of Deutsche Bank and German government officials have loudly denied that a bailout or rescue plan for the bank is in the works—reflecting growing fears that an impending “Lehman moment” for the bank is not far off.
“Whether or not Deutsche can survive without a bailout by the German government is the only topic most other European bankers want to discuss,” wrote the Telegraph’s business editor, James Quinn, today. RT reported, “Deutsche Bank woes stoking fears of 2008 financial crisis repeat.” Wolf Street headlined its coverage, “EU Banking Mayhem, one bank at a time, and then all at once,” pointing to Deutsche Bank’s and Commerzbank’s troubles, warning that “the banking crisis has the potential to transmogrify into a financial crisis. All it takes is for one of the big ones to suddenly topple.”
On Sept. 27, a German daily Bild Zeitung interviewed Deutsche Bank’s CEO John Cryan, who emphatically denied having asked Chancellor Angela Merkel for a bailout, and declaring that “state aid is not an issue.” Accepting government support is out of the question for us, Cryan insisted, asserting that the bank is not having a problem raising new capital. Overall, he said, it has fewer risks on the books than previously and is comfortably equipped with free liquidity.
Cryan’s remarks didn’t put the issue to rest, however. This morning, German daily Die Zeit, citing unnamed officials in Berlin, Brussels, and Frankfurt, reported that the German government was crafting a rescue plan for the bank, prepared to buy up a 25% stake in the bank “in a worst-case scenario.” The plan would reportedly be implemented should the bank require additional capital to resolve its legal disputes with the U.S. Department of Justice, which has fined it $14 billion for selling toxic mortgage-backed securities, and which, in any case, it cannot pay.
According to MarketWatch today, the government plan indicates the bank will be able to sell assets to other lenders, “possibly with a state guarantee.” The latest asset selloff was of Abbey Life to the London-based insurance consolidator Phoenix for £935 million.
In a press conference today, German Finance Ministry spokesman Martin Jäger stated that “the German government is not preparing a rescue plan, and there is no reason for such speculation.” He wouldn’t comment, however, on whether there had been any meetings to discuss the situation at Deutsche Bank.
Japanese Economist: How To Deal with Collapse of Deutsche Bank and Western Banking System
Sept. 28 (EIRNS)—A prominent Japanese economist with experience in dealing with severe crises in the banking system, presented a plan to EIR on the necessary steps to deal with the onrushing collapse of Deutsche Bank and the huge contagion that collapse will bring to the rest of the advanced sector financial system. The plan is coherent with the proposal made by Lyndon LaRouche in July for a government intervention to keep the bank afloat as a necessary institution for the German economy, but to return to the competent banking policies of the late Deutsche Bank CEO Alfred Herrhausen, who was assassinated in 1989.
First, the economist said, there is no option other than nationalization. Neither bail-out nor bail-in can overcome the massive derivative bubble and other liabilities of the bank.
To accomplish this, a date must be set upon which all derivatives must be settled. Those that can not be settled are declared void.
A Glass-Steagall-type policy must be imposed on Deutsche Bank, completely separating its commercial banking activities from its investment banking activities.
In preparation for these moves, the entire Western banking system must be put on notice that the impact on the counter-parties of the massive derivative holdings of the Bank which will be declared void—mostly other U.S. and European banks—will be profound, while the contagion impact on the markets will also be dramatic. Therefore all the major banks, and the governments involved, must prepare to implement similar policies upon those banks which are threatened with failure.
The economist noted that the implementation of Glass-Steagall by all the governments involved, before the crisis explodes, would dramatically lessen the danger of a panic and/or uncontrolled breakdown of the banking system, allowing an orderly reorganization of the entire banking system.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Nuclear Ash Carter Says ‘No’ to No First Use of Nuclear Weapons
Sept. 28 (EIRNS)—After his saber-rattling speech in Minot, North Dakota, on Sept. 26, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter was at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, yesterday, where he told reporters that U.S. policy on no-first-use has not changed.
“It has been the policy of the United States for a long time to extend its nuclear umbrella to friends and allies and thereby to contribute to the deterrence of conflict and the deterrence of war and many of our friends and allies have benefitted from that over time,” he said when asked about the debate on no-first-use. “And our future plans will retain for the United States the capability to meet those alliance commitments in the future.”
In other words, reserving the right to first-use has been our policy since 1945 and that remains our policy.
At least two members of the U.S. Congress are not satisfied with this policy outlook. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), yesterday, introduced legislation that would prohibit the President from launching a nuclear first strike without a Congressional declaration of war.
“Nuclear war poses the gravest risk to human survival,” Markey said in a statement on the introduction of the bill. “Unfortunately, by maintaining the option of using nuclear weapons first in a conflict, U.S. policy increases the risk of unintended nuclear escalation. The President should not use nuclear weapons except in response to a nuclear attack. This legislation enshrines this simple principle into law.”
“Our Founding Fathers would be rolling over in their graves if they knew the President could launch a massive, potentially civilization-ending military strike without authorization from Congress,” said Lieu. The current nuclear launch approval process, which gives the decision to potentially end civilization as we know it to a single individual, is flatly unconstitutional.
According to Markey and Lieu’s joint press release, their legislation has been endorsed by, among others, former Secretary of Defense William Perry, and Tom Z. Collina, Policy Director of Ploughshares Fund, who said, “In the realm of nuclear weapons, the United States is closer to a dictatorship than a democracy,” because the President has absolute authority over the use of nuclear weapons, and the Congress has been cut out.
Biased Dutch-Led Investigation Claims MH-17 Shot Down by Russian Missile from Rebel-Held Territory
Sept. 28 (EIRNS)—The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) investigating the shooting down over Ukraine of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 on July 17, 2014, released their technical report today, declaring that the plane was hit by a Buk missile fired from territory controlled by the rebel forces supported by Russia. They declared further that the Buk missile system had been brought to the site from within Russia that day, and returned to Russia the night of the attack. The flight was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with a stopover in Moscow.
Two things to note: Obama and NATO, within minutes of the atrocity, declared Russia to be responsible, without any evidence, and used that false claim as a basis for imposing sanctions against Russia, leading eventually to the current rush to nuclear war under Obama’s direction. Second, the JIT is composed of representatives from Malaysia, the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, and Ukraine, under Dutch leadership, placing the Anglo-Dutch Empire in charge. Ukraine, which is likely responsible for the attack, should never have been allowed to participate, other than by providing evidence, which it failed to do in many key areas, while Russia, excluded from the investigation, turned over all its radar and other evidence, despite knowing that the investigation was biased.
In fact, on Monday, just two days ago, the Russians discovered another commercial radar surveillance of the area on the day of the attack, and made it available to the JIT, explaining that it proved that no missiles were fired from rebel-held territory that day. The JIT reportedly said that they did not have time to include the new evidence.
According to Sputnik, the Russian experts said that a missile fired from the region identified by the JIT could not have escaped observation in the new radar evidence.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated today: “The conclusion of the Dutch prosecutors confirms that the case is biased and politically motivated…. It sounds like a cruel joke, but Ukraine was made a full-fledged member of the JIT, giving it an opportunity to falsify evidence and have the case develop to its advantage.”
Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov of the Russian Defense Ministry said today: “We have carefully examined today’s statement by the representatives of the Dutch investigation team…. Let me remind you that all data, which was presented today at the briefing of the investigative group, has two main sources: the Internet and the Ukrainian special services. Therefore, the objectivity of this information, and, consequently, findings made on its basis, cause doubt.”
General Konashenkov continued, “The Ukrainian side has air situation data in the area of the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 crash from both civilian and military sources. The fact that Ukraine has not published radar data leads us to the conjecture that the missile, if it was a Buk, was launched from territory under the control of the Ukrainian military.”
Russia Tells U.S. To Stop Cozying Up to Terrorists
Sept. 28 (EIRNS)—The Syrian offensive, backed by Russian air support and reinforced on the ground by Iran, is causing hysteria in Washington. In a phone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, this morning, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned that “the United States is making preparations to suspend U.S.-Russia bilateral engagement on Syria—including on the establishment of the Joint Implementation Center—unless Russia takes immediate steps to end the assault on Aleppo and restore the cessation of hostilities,” according to the readout issued by State Department spokesman John Kirby.
The Russians replied to Kerry’s outburst by advising the U.S. to stop supporting terrorists in Syria. “Mr. Lavrov again emphasized that quite a few anti-government units that Washington calls ‘moderate’ have not merely refused to carry out the September 9 Russian-U.S. agreement on consolidating the truce and providing humanitarian access, but are merging with Jabhat al-Nusra and continue fighting against the Syrian army side by side with this al-Qaeda affiliate,” reports the Russian Foreign Ministry account of the same phone call.
The phone call was preceded, yesterday, by the Russian Foreign Ministry’s release of the Russian text of the Sept. 9 cease-fire agreement. The English-language statement released by the Foreign Ministry reports that throughout the process of attempting to find a political solution to the Syrian war since the June 2012 Geneva communiqué, “Russia continuously emphasized the need to fully separate the units of the so-called ‘moderate’ opposition from ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra as soon as possible. … We have never concealed that we consider destructive the American tactics of indiscriminately using any opponents of the legitimate Syrian government in the struggle against it.” The statement notes that, last February, the U.S. promised to separate the U.S.-backed groups from al-Nusra but that this promise was never fulfilled.
The statement later notes that Russia has always supported the publication of the U.S.-Russian agreement, but that the U.S. objected, “which raised doubts about their sincerity,” yielding, in part, only after one of the documents was leaked by Associated Press. In publishing the texts in Russian, “we are urging Washington to present to the public the entire package of agreements, including the JIC mandate whereby Russian and American military specialists undertake to identify targets and coordinate air attacks….
“In addition, we hope that the United States will eventually fulfill its long-standing commitment on separation because many formations of militants whom Washington calls ‘moderate’ are fighting on the side of Jabhat al-Nusra and have essentially merged with it,” the statement concludes. “To repeat, no good has ever come from cozying up to terrorists.”
Syrian Army on the Offensive Everywhere
Sept. 28 (EIRNS)—The Syrian army is now fighting to end the war with a decisive victory over the terrorists on all fronts from Damascus to Aleppo. That is, in summary, what the news reports from both sides of the battle front are indicating.
In Aleppo, itself, Syrian troops are reported to have advanced into the jihadi-held neighborhood of Farafira, just to the northwest of the medieval Citadel in central Aleppo.
“The army retook control of all of the Farafira district northwest of the Aleppo citadel after neutralizing many terrorists. Units are now de-mining the area,” one source told AFP, yesterday. Senior combatants on both sides said pro-government forces were massing in several parts of Aleppo, reports Reuters. In the north of the city, the Syrian Republican Guard along with the Liwaa Al-Quds Palestinian militia, launched another assault in the Handarat refugee camp. In the southwest, there is also heavy fighting reported in the 1070 housing project in southwest Aleppo. The Associated Press reports that several thousand rebels from different factions are believed holed up in eastern Aleppo, with the largest being the Nour el-Din el-Zinki group.
Victory is the word of the day, too.
“There are no prospects for political solutions … the final word is for the battlefield,” Sheikh Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, is quoted telling Lebanon’s Mayadeen TV.
The Syrian offensive is not limited to Aleppo, but includes northern Hama, eastern Homs, and eastern Damascus provinces, as well.
NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
BRICS Countries To Set Up an Agricultural Research Center
Sept. 28 (EIRNS)—At the conclusion of the Sept. 22-23 sixth meeting of BRICS on Agriculture and Agrarian Development, Indian Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, who presided over the two-day meeting, said “member-countries would soon sign a MOU [memorandum of understanding] to set up an Agriculture Research Center, most likely in India, with the intent to develop a model of sustainable agriculture.” Brazilian Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi, Russian Deputy Agriculture Minister Yevgeny Gromyko, Chinese Agriculture Minister Qiu Dongyu and South African Agriculture Minister Senzeni Zokwana, led their respective delegations at the meeting, prior to the 8th BRICS summit to be held on Oct. 15-16, in Goa, reported Russia and India Report (RIR) today. The conference was hosted by India’s Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
The BRICS officials envisage the Research Center to become “a virtual facility to promote food security, sustainable agri-development and poverty alleviation through strategic cooperation in agriculture within the BRICS countries,” RIR wrote. “It aims to work on agriculture science, policy research and development extension, technology transfer, training and capacity building and scientific information sharing…. Under the current action plan, sources said, in addition to India working on setting up a virtual research platform, Russia is preparing a document on international trade and investment. China has been working on establishing an agri-database of BRICS countries, Brazil on food security to most vulnerable people and South Africa on developing a strategy on climate change.”
SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
International Space Agencies Outline Their Plans for the Future
Sept. 28 (EIRNS)—On the opening day of the annual International Astronautical Congress, this year held in Mexico, over Sept. 26-30, there are reports from the heads of many of the world’s space agencies on their plans for their nations in space. The Sept. 26 presentations from Russia, China, and Europe highlighted plans for manned space, space science and planetary exploration, and space applications for the future. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden reviewed the space agency’s missions over the past year, with virtually no plans for the future.
Jan Woerner, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), appealed to the audience to see space exploration not as a geopolitical instrument, tied to all of the world’s “challenges,” but as recognizing that exploration is an inspiration, natural to mankind. This sentiment was echoed by the general director of the Russian rocket-space corporation RCS Energia, Vladimir Solntsev, who said that the International Space Station tells everybody how to work together on Earth.” Roscosmos director Igor Komarov explained that Russia was undergoing “huge organizational changes,” with progress underway. Solntsev reviewed Russian plans to complete its segment of the ISS, launching a laboratory and a power module over the next two years; a new crew vehicle called “Federation” will have three times the volume of the Soyuz and could accommodate up to six crew members. It will have its first manned flight in 2023.
Wu Yanhua, vice administrator of the China National Space Agency (CNSA), announced that China’s third white paper on space policy will be released this year.
During the course of the conference, ESA’s Woerner made several appearances to promote his concept of the Moon Village. He made an unscheduled appearance today at a lunar exploration session to appeal to the scientists and engineers to “proactively promote this concept and be an ambassador for exploration.” He stressed that the Moon Village is not a project, but a concept and a vision. He reiterated this at the press conference with heads of agencies, in response to a question.
“The idea is to collect worldwide forces together. It will be a stepping stone.” Later, at an ESA press conference, he said that the Moon Village would be a way to follow up the ISS when the ISS is terminated. “The Moon Village will start now. We will combine the activities together and bring people together. It will be a single base but with multiple users,” he said.
Reach us at 1-800-278-3135 or www.larouchepub.com
