THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2019 Volume 6, Number 111 EIR Daily Alert Service P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390

• G20 Is a Point of Potential for Great Power Leadership: LaRouche Living Legacy Is Inspiration
• Putin, Xi Together in Moscow, as Russia and China Deepen Comprehensive, Strategic Partnership
• OBOR Italian Institute Chairman Makes Case, the Belt and Road Is a Strategically Stabilizing Factor
• Her Majesty’s Government Signals Steele Is Being Left Out To Dry
• Gateway Pundit Interviews Binney on Proof There Was “No Hack” by Russia of DNC
• Prince Charles Lectures President Trump on Climate-Trump Ignores His Advice
• Push on for White House Climate Science Review Panel
• EU Commission Aims for a Violation Proceeding Against Italy
• Ukraine’s President Zelensky at NATO Headquarters, Vows To Keep Ukraine on Path to NATO Membership
• U.S. Navy Claims Unsafe Russian Aircraft Intercept Incident Off Syrian Coast
• Energy Department Throws in the Towel; Promotes PPPs For Fusion
• Prayut Wins Parliamentary Vote To Continue as Thai Prime Minister

EDITORIAL

G20 Is a Point of Potential for Great Power Leadership; LaRouche Living Legacy Is Inspiration

June 5 (EIRNS)—The living legacy of Lyndon LaRouche stands to provide the inspiration and guidance for all those active in the urgent task of realigning the United States into the world drive for a future of development and peace—a new paradigm. Lyndon LaRouche has led the way for decades, which is critical, given the many dangerous conflicts at present. But one point of positive potential is the Group of 20 summit June 28-29 in Japan, where among the heads of state, the consultations can take place between the great power leaders—Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and U.S. President Donald Trump, and others, which could literally change the world.

Today in Moscow, Putin and Xi Jinping met and spent time together in several activities—including a special Bolshoi cultural program, before they go tomorrow to participate in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. While they were said to have discussed what the Kremlin called “ways of further deepening the comprehensive Russian-Chinese partnership and strategic cooperation,” including signing a package of documents, Xi Jinping also stressed, speaking just before their meeting, that not only the Chinese and Russian peoples, but “the international community place(s) great expectations on us. We are ready to continue expanding the positive effect of our high-level relations together.”

Meantime, in Britain—ground zero for the legacy of geopolitics and monetarist collapse—the three-day state visit of President Trump and the First Lady Melania Trump ended today. They have proceeded to Ireland for evening meetings. Throughout the many media occasions in London, Trump reiterated his view that Britain will be better off outside the European Union, while otherwise, he thanked his royalist hosts with superlatives.

One very notable matter occurred during the visit of the Trumps, with The Times of London yesterday posting news pertaining to the Trump Administration’s investigation of the origin of the fake Russiagate/Trumpgate. The article was headlined, “Christopher Steele: MI6 Agent To Face Questions on Trump Russia Dossier.” The Timesreports that Steele has reversed his prior opposition to talking with the Department of Justice, and may now do so within a few weeks, on certain conditions he wants, such as limiting it to his contacts with the FBI. While giving other details, the timing and content indicate this is barely the surface of what is really going on.

Tomorrow, the Trumps will be in France for the 75th anniversary of the D-Day Normandy invasion, with other state leaders, veterans and others. While at the ceremonies at Portsmouth Naval Base in England today, the embarkation point for the D-Day invasion, Trump’s contribution was to read an excerpt of the prayer given by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a radio address on June 6, 1944, as the U.S. and Allied forces were crossing the English Channel: “Almighty God, our sons, pride of our nation, this day, have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion and our civilization and to set free a suffering humanity.”

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Putin, Xi Together in Moscow, as Russia and China Deepen Comprehensive, Strategic Partnership

June 5 (EIRNS)—Chinese President Xi Jinping was in Moscow for a state visit today, for talks with President Vladimir Putin, activities including the welcome reception of two new Chinese pandas for Russia, and attending a special program this afternoon at the Bolshoi Theater. Tomorrow, the two will proceed to the opening of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The short Kremlin release on today’s Xi Jinping visit stated about the leaders’ talks in the Kremlin: “The agenda of the talks included ways of further deepening the comprehensive Russian-Chinese partnership and strategic cooperation, as well as the implementation of ambitious economic, cultural and humanitarian projects. The two leaders exchanged opinions on topical international and regional matters. A package of documents has been signed after the talks.”

Before the Xi-Putin talks took place, Xi Jinping told TASS that “Chinese-Russian relations have stood the test of the changing situation in the world and in our countries. Step by step, we have managed to bring our relations to a new level, the highest in history.” Xi stated that diplomatic relations between Russia and China began 70 years ago. He continued, “In the context of radical change, unprecedented in the last hundred years, the people of our countries and the international community place great expectations on us…. We are ready to continue expanding the positive effect of our high-level relations together, side by side.”

OBOR Italian Institute Chairman Makes Case, the Belt and Road Is a Strategically Stabilizing Factor

June 5 (EIRNS)—Dr. Michele de Gasperis, chairman of the OBOR Italian Institute (Istituto Italiano OBOR), gave an interview to EIR, in which he emphasizes the strategically stabilizing effect of the Belt and Road Initiative and rejects allegations of Chinese “debt diplomacy.”

De Gasperis, who has recently organized a successful three-day OBOR Exhibition 2019 at the Fiera di Roma trade fair venue, says, among other things, that “the concept of ‘debt diplomacy’ is generally presented in a fully distorted way; or, better, it is an argument pushed by incompetent elites that underwrite a debt, often beyond their real capacity for repayment, leaving the burden to the next government. In this scenario, I hardly see a fault on the creditor side, but I see instead, as I said, the management incompetence of those who underwrite the debt. Therefore, we must insist on knowledge: Our institute has an active think-tank aimed at giving those tools to small and medium-sized firms, and is also available to concerned institutions.”

Asked to comment on Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s depiction of the BRI as a politically stabilizing factor, a “New Paradigm,” De Gasperis replied: “I agree, because in my view the BRI, before being a system of economic cooperation, is a system of cultural and peace-bringing cooperation among peoples. I personally participated in many meetings with colleagues from other countries involved in the program, and I can confirm that eliminating cultural barriers and favoring mutual knowledge have been a major facilitator in business activities. As always, people anticipate government choices, and independent of momentary political conveniences, persons, culture, and the economy have already moved. Many things between Italy and China had already started before, including in an unaware way—the notoriety acquired recently by the program in Italy, as further evidence of the need to promote and better know the project.”

De Gasperis also called for a collaboration with other pro-BRI initiatives in other European countries.

“Our mission is to support and defend the Italian national productive system, but we know also that only by joining forces with other countries we can have a positive spinoff in general terms.”

The full text of the interview is being prepared for publication in multiple languages.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Her Majesty’s Government Signals Steele Is Being Left Out To Dry

June 5 (EIRNS)—Under the heading of the “Trump State Visit,” The Times of London published a story yesterday, signed by its defense editor, laying out the terms which “former” MI6 agent Christopher Steele seeks to negotiate for any questioning by U.S. officials in the Russiagate investigation. The dossier on Trump that Steele wrote for the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign was used by the FBI and Obama Justice Department to surveille the Trump campaign, including seeking a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court.

Steele’s conditions for questioning include being interviewed (in London) by people from the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (IG Michael Horowitz has no power to prosecute), limiting questioning to “the narrow remit of his dealings with the FBI,” and asking “U.S. officials to seek the approval of the British government” for questioning him, “a source close to him” told The Times.

But The Times delivers the public message that Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) has cut Steele off. A “senior source” told The Times: “As far as we are aware, no request has been made to HMG on this matter. Any decision to cooperate would be a matter for Mr. Steele, as this relates to issues arising many years after he left government employment.”

How Attorney General William Barr and the DOJ will respond to Steele’s proposed “conditions,” has not been determined.

Steele knows what’s up. New York Times national security reporter Matthew Rosenberg told CNN yesterday that Steele “is incredibly concerned, maybe obsessed, that this investigation is going to throw him under the bus.”

The prospect of Steele discussing anything at all, with anyone at the DOJ, sent Phil Mudd, a former CIA analyst turned CNN contributor, into outer orbit. Christopher, don’t do it! Mudd raved to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer yesterday.

“I’m telling you, Wolf, this is not going to go well. I can’t believe he [Steele] has perfect answers about the origins of the Steele dossier. I’m not even sure why he’s showing up. If I were him, I’d go to Disney World. I would not go to the Department of Justice, because it will not end up well. This will be a car wreck.”

Gateway Pundit Interviews Binney on Proof There Was ‘No Hack’ by Russia of DNC

June 5 (EIRNS)—One American News Network last night took due note of Gateway Pundit story titled “Esteemed NSA Whistleblower Bill Binney Says He Has Evidence DNC Was Not Hacked; The Mueller Report and the Rosenstein Indictment Is All Based on Lies!” OAN aired the news scroll on the story: “Former NSA Analyst: DNC No Hack by Russians or Anyone Else.”

Gateway Pundit quotes Binney from an interview he gave to Status Coup on May 31, which aired June 2:

“The problem with the Mueller report and the Rosenstein indictment is it’s all based on lies.  I mean the fact they’re still lying about the, saying the DNC was hacked by the Russians and the Russians gave it to WikiLeaks.

“Well, we had some of our people and our group, the VIPS, the Veteran Intelligence Professionals [for Sanity], look at the data that WikiLeaks posted on the DNC data. They actually posted the DNC data….

“[T]hat entire set of data was read to a thumb drive or a CD-ROM, then physically transported.  Now this is what Kim Dotcom is saying.  This is what Julian Assange basically was inferring. Others have been saying the same things….”

Note that Status Coup is a “progressive” YouTube site favoring Bernie Sanders.

Prince Charles Lectures President Trump on Climate—Trump Ignores His Advice

June 5 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump told Piers Morgan of ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” this morning that his meeting with Prince Charles, scheduled for 15 minutes, went on for an hour and a half, because old Charlie was so “passionate” about climate change.

“He did most of the talking,” Trump said. “He is really into climate change, and I think that’s great; I like that, and I want that.”

Did you listen? “I totally listened to him,” Trump answered, and praised Prince Charles’s “concern” for future generations.

Did you agree with him about man-made climate change?

“I believe that there is a change in weather, and I think it changes both ways,” Trump said, referring to both natural and human forces, Environment & Energy News agency reported. He elaborated: “Don’t forget, it used to be called global warming; that wasn’t working, then it was called climate change, and now it’s actually called extreme weather, because with extreme weather, you can’t miss. Look, we have a thing now with tornadoes. I don’t remember tornadoes in the U.S. to this extent. But then, when you look back 40 years ago, we had the worst tornado binge that we’ve ever had. In the 1890s, we had our worst hurricanes, and I say we’ve had some very bad hurricanes.”

Push on for White House Climate Science Review Panel

June 5 (EIRNS)—National Security Council Senior Director for Emerging Technologies Dr. William Happer, a physicist, met with President Donald Trump in early May to brief him on plans for the formation of a climate science review panel, and the idea is to settle on the plan “sooner rather than later,” Environment & Energy News reported on May 31, citing unnamed sources described as “close to the planning.”

It will be a month, at least, before the panel will be announced, “and it would likely be done through an executive order,” according to this report. The original plan for the review panel to consist of outside academic researchers is reported also to have held the day, against the attempt by opponents within the administration to castrate any serious review of the man-made climate change “consensus” by using federal government “climate science experts” only. The project “could produce a working white paper in as soon as three months after it begins, according to one of the planners.”

Working with Happer in preparing the panel is Steve Koonin, a New York University physicist and former Science Advisor for the Energy Department in the Obama Administration. Koonin had proposed a similar sort of “red team, blue team” climate science review in an April 20, 2017 Wall Street Journal op-ed, which former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt had then tried to set up, with Happer and Koonin working together on it.

E&E News quotes Koonin arguing the need for an “update” of the “man’s responsible for climate change” National Climate Assessment, at Indiana’s Purdue University last month: “There’s a real disconnect between what’s in the reports and in the scientific literature and what you hear in the political, in the popular and in the media coverage of climate science,” he told the event. “There are natural influences that are also operative, and you better have those under control if you’re going to attribute what you see to human influences.”

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

EU Commission Aims for a Violation Proceeding against Italy

June 5 (EIRNS)—EU Commissioners Valdis Dombrovski and Pierre Moscovici presented the Commission report on Italian debt today, calling for starting a violation proceeding against Italy. The Italian government is accused of having violated debt and deficit rules in 2018 and of planning a further violation in 2019. A decision whether to open a proceeding will be taken at the July 9 Ecofin meeting of all 28 EU Finance Ministers.

The announcement was given large resonance by Italy-bashing media in Europe. However, a violation proceeding is a long process. It might take up to three years, against a consistent unwillingness of Italy to collaborate, to implement punitive measures, which range from a de facto caretaking of government functions to freezing of EU funds. This is purely theoretical, because Italy is a net payer in the EU budget.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte responded to the EU Commission, saying that his government intends to collaborate with the Commission.

Meanwhile, the Lega-M5S conflict on the new rules for government tenders was solved yesterday, when the M5S accepted the suspension of part of the current rules. Whether the decision will lead to unblocking construction on project sites is not clear.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Ukraine’s President Zelensky at NATO Headquarters, Vows To Keep Ukraine on Path to NATO Membership

June 5 (EIRNS)—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stopped by NATO headquarters while in Brussels, yesterday, and effectively promised that Ukraine’s path towards the Alliance that the previous administration had set remains unchanged.

“The strategic course of Ukraine to achieve full-fledged membership in the EU and NATO we just secured in the Constitution of Ukraine remains unchanged. This is the priority of our foreign policy,” he said, according to the transcript published by the 112.International, a Ukrainian English-language news platform. He also declared that Kiev is ready to negotiate with Russia and to implement the Minsk agreement. “However, we must first be able to protect ourselves and to become stronger—in economic, political and military terms,” he said. “The ongoing armed Russian aggression remains a major challenge for Euratlantic [sic] security. Our common task is to ensure stability and security in the Black Sea region that requires [the] Alliance’s additional effort.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, for his part, welcomed Zelensky to NATO HQ and called Ukraine “a highly valued partner.” He characterized the recent decision of Moscow to grant Russian passports to residents of the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk republics as “the latest example of Russian attempts to destabilize eastern Ukraine.” When asked how far Ukraine is from becoming a NATO member, however, Stoltenberg avoided the question entirely by declaring that “NATO stands by its open-door policy,” and other, more lengthy platitudes.

U.S. Navy Claims Unsafe Russian Aircraft Intercept Incident Off Syrian Coast

June 5 (EIRNS)—The U.S. Sixth Fleet claimed yesterday that a Russian fighter jet made a dangerous intercept of a U.S. Navy P-8 patrol aircraft over the Mediterranean Sea. The Russian plane intercepted the P-8 three times over the course of 28 minutes, the Navy said, reported Reuters. The first and third passes were deemed safe, but the second intercept involved a high-speed pass directly in front of the U.S. aircraft that produced wake turbulence and “put our pilots and crew at risk.”

The Russians denied that there was any unsafe conduct by the Russian pilot, and at the same time revealed that the incident occurred off the coast of Syria, and that the Russian Su-35 fighter that intercepted the U.S. aircraft took off from the Russia’s Hmeymim base in Latakia.

“All flights by Russian aircraft were conducted in accordance with international rules for the use of airspace. There were no complaints from the American aviation flight de-confliction center in Syria addressed to the Russian command,” the Defense Ministry said this morning, reported TASS.

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Energy Department Throws in the Towel; Promotes PPPs for Fusion

June 5 (EIRNS)—After years of inadequate budgets for magnetic fusion energy research, which have caused the shutdown of promising experiments and forced some of the country’s best scientists go abroad to conduct research, the U.S. Department of Energy has made it official—it will not be building new large-scale experiments in the foreseeable future. Instead, it has just established the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy, or INFUSE. The purpose, according to the DOE, is to “encourage private-public partnerships for overcoming challenges in fusion energy development.”

None of the private fusion projects is much larger than a table-top experiment. While many of these projects are worthwhile, if they succeed in the small, larger experiments will need to be built, and somehow paid for. But how many billionaires are there to fund private fusion research?

DOE will select proposals to receive awards between $50,000 and $200,000, with the industry partners kicking in 20%. The program makes available facilities in the national laboratories under DOE responsibility.

For the past few years, the Congress has substantially increased funding for fusion research, from numerous administrations’ thoroughly inadequate budget requests. Public support for fusion was evident at a symposium held on May 23 in the New Jersey State Senate in Trenton, sponsored by Republican State Senator Joe Pennacchio. There was broad attendance and interest, from policymakers to high school students, and enthusiasm on the part of the scientists presenting their research.

OTHER

Prayut Wins Parliamentary Vote To Continue as Thai Prime Minister

June 5 (EIRNS)—Former Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha, who has ruled as Thai Junta leader and Prime Minister since his 2014 coup against Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra (sister of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra), was today officially voted in as Prime Minister by a combined House and Senate vote, with 500 votes to 244 for the opposition candidate.

Prayut’s victory was assured, even though his Palang Pracharath Party came in second in the March election for members of the 500-seat House, because the 250-seat Senate was appointed by the Junta, as the Constitution they wrote mandated.

Nonetheless, the Democrat Party, the oldest Thai party, which last ruled from 2008-11 under Abhisit Vejjajiva in-between the governments of Thaksin and Yingluck, decided to join a coalition government with Prayut’s party, giving the coalition exactly half of the seats in the House.

The head of the Democrat Party, former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, opposed joining the coalition with Prayut’s Palang Pracharath, and resigned as a Member of Parliament in protest this morning.

It is far from clear whether the government will be able to implement its policies, nor whether the historic division of royalists versus the followers of Thaksin (yellow vs. red) will lead to renewed public demonstrations and social chaos.

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