EDITORIAL
Russia, China, U.S.: End the Unipolarity, and Establish Harmony of Interests among Sovereign Nation-States
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—The great American System economist to Abraham Lincoln, Henry C. Carey, authored a book in 1851 titled The Harmony of Interests. He posed that the interests of industry, agriculture and commercial enterprises were interdependent, as were the government, the business community and the working classes. Lyndon LaRouche has long advocated that the same concept were essential for world peace and development among nations. In his Jan. 9, 2010 essay “The Question Before Us,” LaRouche called for the “four powers” (Russia, China, India and the U.S.) to initiate a “mission-oriented process of transformation of the world’s economic systems, away from the presently ruinous effects of submission to an implicitly financially imperialist, global monetarist system,” and to create the foundation for “mutually beneficial, global cooperation among peoples organized as a community of respectively sovereign nation-states.” (See EIR, Jan. 15, 2010.)
Tuesday, at the United Nations, President Trump echoed that sentiment: “If we are to embrace the opportunities of the future and overcome the present dangers together, there can be no substitute for strong, sovereign, and independent nations—nations that are rooted in their histories and invested in their destinies; nations that seek allies to befriend, not enemies to conquer; and most important of all, nations that are home to patriots, to men and women who are willing to sacrifice for their countries, their fellow citizens, and for all that is best in the human spirit.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, for one, appreciated the speech. “I think it’s a very welcome statement, which we haven’t heard from an American leader for a very long time,” he said to AP and TASS, following a fruitful meeting with Secretary Rex Tillerson. He attributed the current sorry state of U.S.-Russian relations as due to “the legacy of the Obama Administration.”
President Trump has rejected the “unipolar world” as promoted by the neoconservatives—both the Bush faction of Republicans and the Obama/Hillary Clinton faction of Democrats—who believe the U.S. is the “only superpower” and must keep other nations weak (Russia and China in particular) in order to maintain that dominating position. Trump, by contrast, has insisted on befriending Russia, and he has called for working with China on the New Silk Road. This is the root cause of the hysteria against him, centered in the United Kingdom and the corrupt elements of the intelligence communities of the Bush and Obama era, who are orchestrating a coup d’état against the President of the nation.
That coup attempt began with an effort to stir up fear and anger against Russia in the U.S. population, painting Trump as a Russian puppet. When that failed, the insurrectionists attempted to provoke race war in America, painting Trump as a white-supremacist. That too failed. All they have left is Special Counsel Robert Mueller, former FBI Director James Comey, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, the Bush/Obama henchmen, all notorious liars, who have now been caught in yet another big lie in their frantic drive to bring down the U.S. government. As Trump charged in a March 4 Tweet: “Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Comey and Clapper loudly denied any such wiretapping—but now it has been exposed that Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort, who had a condo in Trump Tower, was wiretapped during the period of his role in the campaign.
The Wall Street Journal, which has experienced internal turmoil over how it should cover Trump’s Presidency, published a powerful editorial today, detailed in this issue, directly exposing: Comey’s and Clapper’s lies; the role of British intelligence in instigating the Russiagate scam; and the obstruction of justice by the FBI and the Department of Justice in blocking the Congressional effort to investigate the entire mess.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche today said that the screaming and yelling about Trump’s UN speech, focused only on his tough talk on North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela, is coming from those who are desperately trying to hang onto the old paradigm of the unipolar imperial world of Anglo-American domination. The political fight to establish a “community of sovereign nation-states” has now been articulated by the U.S. President, while Russian President Vladimir Putin has consistently called for such a multipolar world order, and China’s President Xi Jinping has consistently insisted that the New Silk Road is predicated precisely on such a community of sovereign nation-states.
Bringing this new reality to the fore has never been so urgent, nor so feasible. The American people are grasping for the means to lift their spirits towards something better, in the tradition of the now-lost American System of Political Economy. The end of Empire is within our grasp, and a world based on the true dignity of Man through a community of sovereign nation states is the means to that end.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Wall Street Journal Rips Comey and Clapper Lies, Mueller’s Obstruction of Justice
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—A Wall Street Journal editorial today directly accused former FBI Director Comey, former Director of National Intelligence Clapper, and Special Counsel Mueller of lying and obstructing justice, while identifying the British (through the dossier of MI6 spy Christopher Steele) as the manipulator of the Russiagate scam.
Reporting on the new evidence that Paul Manafort was wiretapped, including at his condo in Trump Tower, during his leading role in the Trump campaign, the Journal notes: “Mr. Comey told Congress in late March that he ‘had no information that supports those [Trump] tweets.’ Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was even more specific that ‘there was no such wiretap activity mounted against the President-elect at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign.’ He denied that any such FISA order existed. Were they lying?”
They point to former MI6 operative Steele: “The warrants’ timing may also shed light on the FBI’s relationship to the infamous ‘Steele dossier.’ That widely discredited dossier claiming ties between Russians and the Trump campaign was commissioned by left-leaning research firm Fusion GPS and developed by former British spy Christopher Steele—who relied on Russian sources. But the Washington Post and others have reported that Mr. Steele was familiar to the FBI, had reached out to the agency about his work, and had even arranged a deal in 2016 to get paid by the FBI to continue his research.”
The Journal specifies that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court “sets a high bar for warrants on U.S. citizens, and presumably even higher for wiretapping a presidential campaign. Did Mr. Comey’s FBI marshal the Steele dossier to persuade the court?”
The obstruction of justice charge is very serious, as it is an ongoing crime. They write: “All of this is reason for House and Senate investigators to keep exploring how Mr. Comey’s FBI was investigating both presidential campaigns. Russian meddling is a threat to democracy but so was the FBI if it relied on Russian disinformation to eavesdrop on a presidential campaign. The Justice Department and FBI have stonewalled Congressional requests for documents and interviews, citing the integrity of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.”
The obvious conflicts of interest are also spotlighted, since (former FBI Director) Mueller’s “ties to the bureau and Mr. Comey make him too conflicted for such a job. Congress is charged with providing oversight of law enforcement and the FISA courts, and it has an obligation to investigate their role in 2016. The intelligence committees have subpoena authority and the ability to hold those who don’t cooperate in contempt.”
A Fight in the Wall Street Journal?
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—According to two articles in the New York Times(admittedly an untrustworthy source), the Wall Street Journal’s editor-in-chief, British Oxford graduate Gerard Baker, has been fighting throughout this year with Journal reporters who insist on their right to put slanders against the President on the front page as “news”—as the Times has done from day one. On Feb. 13, the Times wrote that in a 90-minute town-hall style meeting three days earlier, Baker had denied his reporters’ suggestions that the Journal had been too soft on Trump, suggested that other papers had discarded objectivity, and implied that anyone who wanted to work at an organization with a more oppositional stance toward the Administration could find a job elsewhere.
On Aug. 23, the Times covered a series of late-night emails from Baker to Journal reporters, objecting to the anti-Trump propaganda they intended to feature in their “news” stories the next morning on Trump’s Phoenix, Arizona speech. “Sorry,” he wrote, “this is commentary dressed up as news reporting…. Could we please just stick to reporting what he said, rather than packaging it in exegesis and selective criticism?” The reporters dropped some of their most tendentious writing before the stories appeared. Reporters also criticized Baker for writing an article for the London Spectator on Nov. 19, which lampooned the dismay and cluelessness of the American “elites” at Trump’s election, and the British “elites” after Brexit.
“As the British troops surrender at Yorktown to General George Washington, they play a mournful rendition of an old drinking song that captures the improbable enormity of it all—the world’s mightiest empire brought low by a motley crowd of deplorables: ‘The World Turned Upside Down.’ ”
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov Welcomes U.S. President Trump’s UNGA Speech
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—While the international mainstream media excised some parts of Trump’s speech to the UN General Assembly yesterday portray him as a mad war-monger, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who had been present for the speech, said he was positively impressed by Trump’s commitment to respect sovereignty of other countries. Speaking to media yesterday at the UNGA, Lavrov responded to a question, “Regarding the statement by U.S. President Donald Trump, it was remarkable. Some of it was probably intended for domestic audiences, in addition to foreign audiences,” according to the Foreign Ministry transcript.
In an interview conducted in English, yesterday, with AP and TASS, whose full transcript is posted to the Ministry website, Lavrov also said he liked Trump’s UN speech, especially when Trump said “that the U.S. would not impose its way of life on others.”
Asked what he thought of President Trump’s speech, and especially “his statement that the U.S. stands ready to totally destroy North Korea?” Lavrov responded, “I paid attention to another part of the President’s speech when he said that he respects sovereignty and equality in international affairs, that the United States wants to lead by example and not otherwise, and that the U.S. would not impose its way of life on others and would accept the diversity of the nations, cultures and civilizations. I think it’s a very welcome statement which we haven’t heard from the American leaders for a very long time.” The Foreign Minister was referring to President Trump’s remark that “Strong, sovereign nations let diverse countries with different values, different cultures, not just coexist, but work side by side on the basis of mutual respect.”
Nor did Lavrov not criticize the President’s threat to “totally destroy” North Korea, if the U.S. is forced to defend itself. He said Trump has spoken in the same vein many times. “We don’t doubt that the United States has capacity to do something very destructive,” he said.
Lavrov explained his assessment of relations with the U.S., following his discussion with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, with whom he had just met: “The relations are at a very difficult and a very low point, which is the legacy of the Obama administration. We certainly noted what President Trump was saying when he was running for President about the relations with Russia and what he continues to say. Basically, that he wants to have good relations with Russia, understanding that this would be in the American interests and the interests of solving quite a number of important and most acute world problems. What I feel, talking to Rex Tillerson, is that this is the position of the administration. They are not happy with the current state of relations, and we are not happy at all.
“I believe that the understanding is that we have to accept the reality which was created, as I said, by the spiral of unfriendly steps started by the Obama administration, but this reality is with us. And being responsible people, I believe the Russian government and the U.S. administration should exercise this responsibility in addressing the bilateral links as well as international issues.”
AP asked whether he and Secretary Tillerson had discussed another meeting of the two Presidents “to move our relations forward from the point you mentioned?” to which Lavrov said it would be “quite useful” for Trump and Putin to meet again, and they have the opportunity in November if they both attend the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Da Nang, Vietnam.
Talks are going on now among lower-ranking officials, he said, including the two countries’ military and their security agencies. “The dialogue has been going on, it’s not easy,” Lavrov said.
The interviewers also asked if “tit-for-tat diplomatic actions” of ousting each other’s diplomats were over, to which Lavrov seemed to suggest it was: “We waited very long with our tit in response to Obama’s tat,” he laughed, and then continued, that “being serious people and responsible people—and I feel Rex Tillerson is one of them—I hope that we can draw conclusions from where we are now and understand where we want to be.”
Manafort Demands Criminal Investigation
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—Paul Manafort has responded to the revelation that he has been wiretapped since 2014, including when he was serving as Trump’s campaign manager and afterward, by demanding a criminal investigation of several aspects of the operation by the FBI and Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Jason Maloni, Manafort’s spokesman, said in a statement Tuesday that, if the CNN story is true that the FBI obtained a FISA Court order to tap Manafort’s phones (including in his condo in Trump Tower), that “it is a felony to reveal the existence of a FISA warrant, regardless of the fact that no charges ever emerged.”
Maloni went on to say that the Justice Department’s Inspector General “should immediately conduct an investigation into these leaks and to examine the motivations behind a previous administration’s effort to surveil a political opponent.”
Manafort is also requesting that the Justice Department (DOJ) release “any intercepts involving him and any non-Americans so interested parties can come to the same conclusion as the DOJ—there is nothing there,” Maloni said.
Bloomberg reported that representatives for the FBI and Mueller declined to comment.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Moscow’s Foreign Minister Ridicules Western Fears of Russia
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—The joint Russian-Belarusian Zapad 2017 exercise wrapped up today, but this fact has had no impact on NATO’s Russophobic hysteria. In fact, the hysteria extended into non-NATO countries including Sweden, which is holding its largest military exercise in 20 years, called Aurora 2017. Some 1,300 U.S. troops are participating alongside 19,000 Swedish troops in that exercise which runs through Sept. 27.
During his interview yesterday with Associated Press and TASS, AP asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to comment on remarks that U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis had made in May, when he declared that the U.S. would “not abandon democratic allies and partners, and we will stand with Sweden” in the event of Russian aggression in Europe.
“Look, I am not a medical doctor, I’m awfully sorry. I cannot address paranoic statements,” Lavrov responded in the English interview. “I heard that the Swedish government is afraid of something, that the German government is keeping its fingers crossed and is thankful to us that one week before the election we haven’t yet meddled with the election. There are so many fantasies that it’s a waste of time to pay attention to,” Lavrov said. “It’s fake, and that’s it.”
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
European Leadership Network Statement Argues for Defense of Iran Nuclear Deal
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—The European Leadership Network (ELN) issued a statement on Sept. 18, signed by 78 former diplomats and military leaders, academics and other prominent individuals calling for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, to be defended and warning that unilateral U.S. withdrawal from the agreement would cause great harm internationally. The statement’s signers, who include George Robertson, former British Defense Secretary and former NATO Secretary General; Wolfgang Ischinger, Chair of the Munich Security Conference; Javier Solana, former EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, and NATO Secretary General; and Igor Ivanov, former Russian Foreign Minister, argue that not certifying Iran’s compliance on spurious grounds would damage not only U.S. interests but also U.S. international standing, reports the ELN.
“Unilateral U.S. action that jeopardized the JCPOA would be a grave mistake. It would harm U.S. interests and U.S. credibility in Europe and more widely. It would damage cooperation in the UN Security Council. It would make it harder to keep Iran and its region non-nuclear and more difficult for the United States and her Allies to tackle unacceptable Iranian behavior. Would it make sense to precipitate a second nuclear crisis alongside that with North Korea?” the statement says. It also stresses that the agreement was composed to do only one thing: prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. “But it does at least do this.” Therefore, it should not be instrumentalized to do other things.
The full text of the ELN statement is here: http://www.europeanleadershipnetwork.org/eln-group-statement-sustaining-the-iran-nuclear-deal-_5108.html
OTHER
Movisol, Italian LaRouche Movement, Urges Trump To Preserve Columbus’ Legacy
Sept. 20 (EIRNS)—Liliana Gorini, the Chairwoman of the Movimento Internazionale per i Diritti Civili Solidarietà (Movisol) in Milan, Italy sent the following open letter to President Donald Trump today, released by the Schiller Institute:
Open Letter to President Donald Trump In Defense of Columbus
from Liliana Gorini, Chairwoman, Movisol, Italy
Mr. President:
As an Italian citizen and chairwoman of Movisol, Lyndon LaRouche’s movement in Italy, I call on you to intervene in defense of Christopher Columbus and Columbus Day. The same people who are out to destroy the U.S. Presidency, led by Wall Street speculator George Soros (who destroyed the Italian lira in 1992), are also trying to eradicate history and culture not only in the United States, but internationally. Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, his Italian collaborator Paolo del Pozzo Toscanelli, Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci and others were part of a revolution in culture, art, geography, and science, which made the discovery of America possible. The deliberate explosion in human creativity that was the Italian Renaissance is a truly proud moment in all humanity’s history, and not merely for Italians. The people who want to abolish Columbus Day, whether they are maliciously witting, or merely deluded, are out to also dismantle this Western cultural and scientific heritage.
