THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019

Volume 6, Number 76

EIR Daily Alert Service

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

• The Noose Tightens on the British Empire
• The VIPS Tell President Trump to Expose the Big Lie in the Mueller Report
• Gina Haspel Told Big British Lies to Trump to Expel Russian Diplomats in Skrypal Case
• Trump Vetoes Congressional Resolution to End U.S. Involvement in Yemen War
• Derispaska Willing to Give Up Control of GAZ Group If U.S. Treasury Will Lift Sanctions
• Russia’s Rosatom Expands Nuclear Energy Cooperation With Nuclear Newcomers
• Citigroup Capitalizes from the Belt and Road Initiative
• President Jokowi Ahead in ‘Quick-Count’ in Indonesia Election
• Egypt To Hold Referendum To Extend President el-Sisi’s Term
• Xi Xinping’s Broad Campaign to Elicit a Virtuous Nation

EDITORIAL

The Noose Tightens on the British Empire

April 17 (EIRNS)—On Thursday morning, Attorney General William Barr is scheduled to release the Mueller report, with redactions, according to laws regarding security and the privacy of grand jury proceedings. While the Trump haters and conspirators are preparing various operations to keep Russiagate going, despite the report’s exoneration of Trump’s imagined “collusion,” the reality that the British ran the entire operation, as identified from the beginning byEIR, is now bursting out into the open, and is threatening to be the subject of criminal investigations in the Department of Justice and in the Congress.

The Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross April 16 ran an article titled: “Former British Spymaster Has Flown Under the Radar in Russia Probe, Despite Links to Key Figures.” He names Richard Dearlove, MI6 chief from 1999 to 2004, as a key operative working with fellow MI6 operative Christopher Steele, the author of the now discredited dossier on Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia. Dearlove was also directly involved in setting up several Trump Campaign operatives for fake links to Russia (George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Gen. Michael Flynn), together with British intelligence assets Joseph Mifsud and CIA asset Stefan Halper, a close ally of Dearlove at Cambridge University.

Meanwhile, Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News Tuesday that he will immediately investigate three cases of suspected “set-ups,” efforts to create fake connections between the Trump Campaign and the Russians, all directly run by British operatives: the Mifsud role with Australian Ambassador Alexander Downer in falsely connecting George Papadopoulos to Russian spies; Halper and Dearlove setting up Gen. Michael Flynn with fake Russian connections; and the infamous Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer, set up by the slimy British operative Rob Goldstone.

What’s more, the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) issued a public Memorandum for President Donald Trump on April 16, headlined “The Fly in the Mueller Ointment,” warning him that the Mueller report, despite having found no evidence of collusion, maintains the lie that the Russians hacked leading Democratic Party computers and provided their emails to WikiLeaks, falsely described as a Russian front. Detailing their forensic proof that the emails were downloaded, not hacked, the VIPS warn the President that if these lies are allowed to stand, the idea that Trump became President due to Russian “interference” in the election will remain, “and that melody will linger on for the rest of your presidency, unless you seize the moment…. You are the President, and there may be no better time than now to face them down.” (See LaRouche PAC’s interview with VIPS member Bill Binney, “Bill Binney (Former NSA) on the Arrest of Julian Assange”; the interview is also excerpted in the April 19 issue of EIR.)

Ironically, despite the flurry of slanderous obituaries in the U.S. and the U.K., the death of Lyndon LaRouche in February has, at the same time, focused the attention of people around the world on the fact that LaRouche has led an historic battle over the past 50 years to expose the British Empire effort to subvert and control the United States. British maintenance of the U.S. as a “dumb giant,” carrying out the Empire’s colonial wars in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, was aimed primarily at keeping the U.S. divided from Russia and China, while preparing for the next global war. The fact that Trump has broken from this British leash, and insists that the U.S. should be friends with Russia and China, and must stop the “endless” colonial wars, terrifies the British and their American assets.

The potential that the LaRouche policy could be adopted has never been greater, thus returning the United States to its original Hamiltonian “American System,” and bringing the nations of the world together in a New Silk Road-based economic and cultural renaissance. This is our task—putting the exoneration of LaRouche in the forefront of the mobilization to replace the dying British Empire with a new universal paradigm, based on sovereign nations collaborating in the development of mankind on Earth and in the Solar System, and bringing dominion over the universe.

FLASH: The Thursday, April 18 issue of Beijing Review published an article by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, titled “Roads to the West—Geopolitical Spectacles Make It Impossible To See the Solutions.” Coming just days before the historic Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing next week, the article contrasts the hysterical nature of the growing attacks on China and the Belt and Road Initiative in Europe and the U.S., with the reality of the economic miracle achieved in nearly alleviating poverty in China, while leading the world in an increasing number of areas of science and technology, and offering this successful model to the underdeveloped nations of the formerly colonized nations of Asia, Africa and Ibero America, without political strings, through the Belt and Road Initiative. She counterposes the geopolitical, zero-sum outlook of China’s critics to the optimism being generated throughout the world by China’s win-win view of a common future for all mankind.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

The VIPS Tell President Trump To Expose the Big Lie in the Mueller Report

April 17 (EIRNS)—Under the theme, “The Fly in the Mueller Ointment,” the VIPS (Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity) issued a “Memorandum for the President” on Tuesday, April 16 on the front page of Consortium News. As EIR has emphasized, the exoneration of Trump in the Mueller report (which was forced on Mueller by the compelling exposure of the lies underpinning the Mueller investigation by EIR and others), did not prevent Mueller from trying to keep the Russiagate fraud going, by including the evidence-free claim that Russia hacked the DNC computers and gave the contents to WikiLeaks, to help get Trump elected.

The VIPS memo to Trump reports:

“The Mueller report will leave unscathed the central-but-unproven allegation that the Russian government hacked into the DNC and Podesta emails, gave them to WikiLeaks to publish, and helped you win the election. The thrust will be the same; namely, even if there is a lack of evidence that you colluded with Russian President Vladimir Putin, you have him to thank for becoming president. And that melody will linger on for the rest of your presidency, unless you seize the moment.”

They review the facts of the discredited report on the Russian role in the hacking by CrowdStrike, “whose credibility is on a par with pee-tape dossier compiler Christopher Steele. Like Steele, CrowdStrike was hired and paid by the DNC (through a cutout).”

The VIPS refer to their earlier report to Attorney General Barr on March 13 on their own “independent, agenda-free forensic investigation led by two former Technical Directors of the NSA, who avoid squishy assessments, preferring to base their findings on fundamental principles of science and the scientific method. Our findings remain unchallenged; they reveal gaping holes in CrowdStrike’s conclusions.” (That memorandum is also available on the VIPS page of Consortium News.)

They dismiss as ridiculous the Mueller charge that a few social media ads bought by Russians had any impact on the election. But they strongly insist that the hacking accusations must be discredited. The Mueller report’s refutation of the collusion story, they write, has increased the chances that “gullible folks who had been assured that Mueller would find collusion between you and Putin may now be a bit more circumspect—skeptical even—regarding the rest of the story-line of the Russian hack, and that will be even more likely among those with some technical background. Such specialists will have a field day, IF—and it is a capital ‘IF’—by some miracle, word of VIPS forensic findings gets into the media this time around.”

If Mueller is depending solely on CrowdStrike, they write, “he is acting more in the mold of Inspector Clouseau than the crackerjack investigator he is reputed to be. It simply does not suffice for Mueller’s former colleague James Comey to tell Congress that CrowdStrike is a ‘high-class entity.’ It is nothing of the sort and, in addition to its documented incompetence, it is riddled with conflicts of interest. Comey needs to explain why he kept the FBI away from the DNC computers after they were said to have been hacked.

“And former National Intelligence Director James Clapper needs to explain his claim last November that ‘the forensic evidence was overwhelming about what the Russians had done.’ What forensic evidence? From CrowdStrike? We at VIPS, in contrast, are finding more and more forensic evidence that the DNC emails were leaked, not hacked by the Russians or anyone else—and that Guccifer 2.0 is an out-and-out fraud. Yes, we can prove that from forensics too.”

The authors emphasize the historically critical nature of the matter: “We consider the issue of Russian interference of overriding significance not only because the allegation is mischievously bogus and easily disproven. More important, it has brought tension with nuclear-armed Russia to the kind of dangerous fever pitch not seen since the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, when the Russian provocation was real—authentic, not synthetic. Sober minds resolved that crisis more than a half-century ago, and we all got to live another day. These days sober minds seem few and far between and a great deal is at stake.”

VIPS report that Trump knew of their initial proof that there was no hack, since the President instructed then-CIA Chief Pompeo to invite former NSA Technical Director William Binney, who carried out the forensic investigation of the email leak for VIPS, to brief him on the proof, which he did.

They also point to the effort in March 2017 by Julian Assange’s lawyers to arrange for him to provide proof to the U.S. investigators that the Russians were not responsible for the email hack, in exchange for partial amnesty, but FBI chief Comey and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) sabotaged that effort. The VIPS continue: “But is it too late to follow up somehow on Assange’s offer? Might he or his associates be still willing to provide technical evidence showing, at least, who was not the culprit? You, Mr. President, could cause that to happen. You would have to buck strong resistance at every turn, and there all manner of ways that those with vested interests and a lot of practice in sabotage can try to thwart you—with the full cooperation of most media pundits. By now, you know all too well how that works. But you are the president. And there may be no better time than now to face them down, show the spurious nature of the concocted evidence attempting to put you in Putin’s pocket, and—not least—lift the cloud that has prevented you from pursuing a more decent relationship with Russia.”

It is signed by 16 members of the Steering Group of the VIPS, and is archived on the “VIPS Memos” page of Consortium News.

Gina Haspel Conned Trump with British Lies into Expelling Russian Diplomats over Skripal Case

April 17 (EIRNS)—The New York Times ran a story yesterday titled, “Gina Haspel Relies on Spy Skills To Connect with Trump. He Doesn’t Always Listen.” Based on interviews with former and current CIA agents who worked with CIA Director Haspel (but not interviewing her), the Times praises her skills and attempts to denigrate Trump, but they also retail a story about her and Trump which could cost Haspel deeply.

Following the March 2018 breaking of the Skripal poisoning story in England, the Times writes, Trump had initially “written off the poisoning as part of legitimate spy games, distasteful but within the bounds of espionage.” Haspel, on the other hand, was backing London’s demand for Trump to blame Russia immediately and expel dozens of Russian diplomats.

Writes the Times: “During the discussion, Ms. Haspel, then deputy CIA director, turned toward Mr. Trump. She outlined possible responses in a quiet but firm voice, then leaned forward and told the President that the ‘strong option’ was to expel 60 diplomats.

“To persuade Mr. Trump, according to people briefed on the conversation, officials including Ms. Haspel also tried to show him that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were not the only victims of Russia’s attack.

“Ms. Haspel showed pictures the British government had supplied her of young children hospitalized after being sickened by the Novichok nerve agent that poisoned the Skripals. She then showed a photograph of ducks that British officials said were inadvertently killed by the sloppy work of the Russian operatives.” This appeal reportedly swayed Trump to go along with Haspel’s advice.

If it sounds like the British “White Helmet” terrorists in Syria faking pictures of children being hit with chemical weapons to convince Trump to bomb Syrian targets, it is indeed precisely the same.

Former British Ambassador Craig Murray, an outspoken critic of these British imperial lies and atrocities, posted a response today to theTimes garbage on his blog. He states first that yet another truth behind the Skripal lies was revealed recently by police, acknowledging that “the perfume bottle Charlie Rowley found was sealed and could not have been the container used on the Skripals.” He goes on: “It took nine months for us to learn that, by a truly wonderful coincidence, the first person to find the Skripals ill on the bench was the Chief Nurse of the British Army.”

But on the Haspel story in the Times, Murray is furious. “The problem is,” he writes, “there were no hospitalized children. No children have been reported as becoming ill following their duck feeding with the Skripals. We have heard from one of the parents that they were shown by the police extremely clear [closed-circuit surveillance] CCTV footage of the duck feeding, which has never been made public. Surely if the child had been hospitalized, the parent would have mentioned it?”

He quotes Dr. Stephen Davies of Salisbury Hospital, who wrote to the New York Times on March 14 stating clearly that no children had been hospitalized, and that every person who came to the hospital fearing they had been contaminated had no symptoms and tests turned out negative. Murray states: “We also know that the duck feeding was the time that Boshirov and Petrov [the alleged Russian culprits] were physically closest to the Skripals. But this is the first time there has ever been any mention of any harm to the ducks. Dead ducks would have been noticed by the public.”

It appears that the British Empire is the dead duck in this myth.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Trump Vetoes Congressional Resolution To End U.S. Role in Yemen War

April 17 (EIRNS)— President Donald Trump vetoed the joint resolution to end U.S. involvement in the Yemen war. “I am returning herewith without my approval S.J.Res.7, a joint resolution that purports to direct the President to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities in or affecting the Republic of Yemen,” Trump wrote yesterday. “This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future.”

The letter said the United States must continue supporting the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen, including that the war represented a “cheap” way for Iran to cause trouble for the United States and its ally Saudi Arabia. However, Trump earlier ordered the termination of U.S. refueling of Saudi aircraft involved in the war. Current cooperation is limited to intelligence support and arms sales.

Trump urged Congress to focus efforts on helping the administration in ending U.S. involvement in Syria and Afghanistan.

“My Administration is currently accelerating negotiations to end our military engagement in Afghanistan and drawing down troops in Syria, where we recently succeeded in eliminating 100% of the ISIS caliphate,” Trump said in his message to the Senate. “Congressional engagement in those endeavors would be far more productive than expending time and effort trying to enact this unnecessary and dangerous resolution that interferes with our foreign policy with respect to Yemen.”

ECONOMY

Deripaska Willing To Give Up Control of GAZ Group if U.S. Treasury Will Lift Sanctions

April 17 (EIRNS)— Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska says he is ready to give up control of the GAZ Group automotive conglomerate in return for the U.S. lifting sanctions on the GAZ Group. Sanctions on the company are related to Deripaska, and not the activities of the company. It has been reported that the U.S. Treasury has already indicated it is willing to lift the sanctions if Deripaska divests his interests in the company.

Deripaska has divested his interest in the En+ Group which led to the lifting of sanctions on RUSAL, Russia’s largest aluminum producer, which allowed the latter to negotiate a preliminary agreement to set up an aluminum mill in Kentucky with the U.S. company Braidy Industries, as EIR reported April 15.

When asked if he is ready to give up control of GAZ Group, Deripaska said: “Yes, as it was done in En+,” according to TASS.

He said if sanctions are not lifted, there is no chance GAZ Group would survive. GAZ has numerous agreements with Western companies many of which have ceased cooperation because of the sanctions. GAZ is also under huge pressure from its banks.

The U.S. Treasury Department said in March that it was extending a deadline for investors to divest from the GAZ Group by July 6.

Russia’s Rosatom Expands Nuclear Energy Cooperation with Nuclear Newcomers

April 17 (EIRNS)—At the 11th International Forum Atomexpo 2019 held in Sochi April 15-16, Rosatom signed a number of agreements with countries planning to introduce nuclear power to their energy mix, including Azerbaijan, Congo, Cuba, Ethiopia, Serbia and Uzbekistan, World Nuclear News reported. Azerbaijan’s National Nuclear Research Centre and Rusatom International Network signed a memorandum of understanding on personnel training for the joint use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes, WNN reported. Rosatom also signed two MOUs with the Ministry of Innovation and Technological Development of Serbia on cooperation in the field of nuclear personnel education and training, and on the principles of forming public opinion about the peaceful uses of nuclear technology.

Rosatom signed a roadmap on the development of cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy with the Ambassador to Russia of the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville), and an MOU on cooperation in nuclear training and skills development with the Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment.

With the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Ethiopia, Rosatom signed a three-year roadmap for establishing cooperation on the construction of a nuclear power plant and a center for nuclear science and technology, WNN reported.

In addition, Rusatom Service and the Uzbek Agency for Nuclear Energy under the Ministry of Energy signed an MOU on the development of nuclear infrastructure in Uzbekistan, while an Agreement of Intent was signed between Rosatom Technical Academy and UzAtom.

Citigroup Capitalizes from the Belt and Road Initiative

April 17 (EIRNS)—Driven by increased business activity by Chinese companies, as well as multinational corporations, along trade routes along the Belt and Road Initiative, Citigroup said its revenue has gone up by 30% over the past year. Citigroup benefitted from clients along the trade corridor, South China Morning Post reported.

“The projects cited by Citi included a $775 million project bond for Indonesian utility PT Lestari Banten Energi in February; a $2.5 billion syndicated loan for Africa’s largest company Naspers; and $3.8 billion in belt-and-road-related bonds issued by Bank of China’s branches from Hong Kong to Luxembourg last week,” SCMP wrote.

Citigroup also said it is targeting a 25% increase in revenue among intra-Asian trade corridors in 2019, including Belt and Road markets. The bank said that it saw a 22% increase in revenue in the first quarter along those corridors. The New York-based lender is one of a handful of global banks promoting its cross-border capabilities to capitalize on President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative.

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

President Jokowi Ahead in ‘Quick-Count’ in Indonesia Election

April 17 (EIRNS)—Incumbent President Joko Widodo appears to be far ahead in today’s Indonesian Presidential election. The “quick-count” of selected polls put him ahead of former Gen. Prabowo Subianto by 55-45, although official results could take many days. Prabowo was also his opponent in the presidential election in 2014.

A central issue in the campaign was Indonesia’s extensive participation in the Belt and Road Initiative under Jokowi, as he is called. Prabowo picked up the China-bashing campaign being peddled around the world by the British and their U.S. neocon assets, ranting about the “debt trap” and pledging to review every infrastructure project being built with Chinese help. Jokowi strongly defended the infrastructure projects and China’s help, including the high-speed rail line from Jakarta to Bandung, coal-powered power plants, bridges, coal-rail lines and more. In December, Jokowi posed new projects worth $60 billion to Chinese (and other) investors, for power plants, industrial parks, ports and other infrastructure in provinces of central Kalimantan, North Sumatra, North Sulawesi and Bali.

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati told the press this week, in defense of the cooperation with the BRI, that “building infrastructure increases labor productivity, increases competitiveness, increases innovation, and increases improvements in education and health care.” She stated that Indonesia’s foreign debt is less than 50% of GDP, and that the deficit was less than 2% of GDP.

Both Presidential candidates chose running mates who were known as conservative Muslims, causing some worries that the election would fan the flames of radical Islamists. In the 2016 election for Governor of Jakarta, a post which Jokowi held before being elected President, his former Deputy Governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (called Ahok), a Christian, who had taken over as Governor when Jokowi became President, ran for the post on his own, but was defeated by an intense Islamist campaign accusing him of blasphemy, eventually landing him in jail. There was thus concern that this religious fervor would carry over in this election. It appears to have been generally neutralized.

Egypt To Hold Referendum To Extend President el-Sisi’s Term

April 17 (EIRNS)— Today, Egyptian lawmakers set a referendum for April 20-22 on sweeping constitutional changes including amendments that could extend President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s rule until 2030. “The referendum process … will take place inside Egypt … from April 20-22,” Lasheen Ibrahim, head of the National Election Authority said at a press conference, Associated Press reported. The amendments extend presidential terms from four to six years, but maintain a limit of two terms. Under the changes, el-Sisi’s current term will be prolonged to 2024 from 2022 and he would then be allowed to run for another six-year term. Of the 554 lawmakers who attended the session, 531 voted yes, 22 voted no and 1 abstained.

Voting will take place in Egypt over April 22-24; voting for Egyptian expatriates and those abroad will take place April 19-21.

Others among the proposed amendments would allocate 25% of parliamentary seats to female candidates, introduce the upper chamber of the parliament (the Senate) and reinstate the post of vice president. Should the referendum pass, the amendments would take effect immediately.

The parliament vote took place after two months of debate reported Egypt’s Al Ahram, quoting Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal that the current constitutional amendments will not be the last. “All I can say is that Egypt will need to write a new constitution within the next 5 or 10 years in order to remain in step with changing developments and because a large section of the public opinion still believes that the current 2014 constitution is transitional and that a new one should be drafted instead.”

A report prepared by parliament’s Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee confirmed that “The president did not have a hand anyway in proposing or drafting these amendments, but the committee makes it clear that the president came to power amid very tough conditions, and so most MPs, in appreciation of his historical role in recovering Egypt’s stability, decided to extend his term in order to be able to achieve his development programs, particularly as Egypt is in bad need, for as long as possible, of a period of political and institutional stability,” reported Al Ahram.

Xi Jinping’s Article in Qiushi Is Part of a Broad Campaign To Elicit a Virtuous Nation

April 17 (EIRNS)—The English translation of Xi Jinping’s feature “A Country, or a Nation, Cannot Be Devoid of Soul,” on April 16 inQiushi, the Communist Party’s theoretical journal, may not be immediately available, to allow non-Chinese speakers to then experience the breadth of what the Chinese President is seeking to inculcate in his nation and in his people. As he states himself, the subject of this piece has been elucidated by him at various forums and meetings over the last few years where workers in literature and the arts have been gathered. In one sense, it is his way of creating on a broad basis an “aesthetic education,” although he does not use this term, nor does he refer to Cai Yuanpei (the German-educated president of Peking University and founder of Academia Sinica in the early 20th century), whom he has, on at least one occasion, referred to in the past.

The article has the purpose of uniting the cultural work around the general social rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, characterized by the recent decades’ dramatic economic and social development. Xi underlines the importance, indeed the necessity, of having art closely connected to the lives of the people, reflecting their reality, their desires, and their needs. But art must also serve as a beacon, to raise their spirits and to show them the deeper meaning of their existence in this “new era.”

And there is a clear emphasis on the need for those working in the arts and literature to work to “achieve virtue” themselves, to transmit it and to bring it into the mainstream of Chinese life and culture. A lofty task indeed! He quotes from Zuo Zhuan, who said “The most important thing is to achieve virtue, the next is to render service, the third is to express that in your works.” “Virtue is the highest boundary,” Xi writes. “Workers in literature and the arts and the social sciences must all undertake the great responsibility to strive to stimulate thought, to shape sentiment, to uplift the spirit. They undertake this mission in order to educate, to enlighten and to cultivate the people. Each of us has great social influence and should set an example for society with lofty ideals, good moral character and noble sentiments.”

And Xi is also clearly striving for achieving “great art” and not mere “lukewarm products.” His references to Thomas More’s workUtopia, and Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, as well as to Confucius’Analects, as a means to set the bar for which cultural workers must strive. Given the tremendous, indeed dramatic, changes for China over these years, there is much food for reflection that may give us the great literary and artistic works of the future. While Europe had its Renaissance, which sparked the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, perhaps China, which had not experienced the Renaissance, but has definitely experienced its own scientific revolution, will now have the opportunity to contribute to launching a new Renaissance. At any rate, that seems like something that President Xi has in mind.

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