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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2016

Volume 2, Number 116

EIR Daily Alert Service

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

EDITORIAL

Grave Danger of War—The Forced Termination of the O’Malley Campaign Marks the Intention of War

Feb. 2 (EIRNS)—The brutal termination of the Presidential campaign of Martin O’Malley signals that the decision to proceed to global war has been determined.

In the days immediately preceding the Iowa caucus, Lyndon LaRouche had made a pointed intervention to set out the policy preconditions for his support for an O’Malley Presidency, with the idea that this act on his part would force some of the leading enemies of the American Republic to play their hand, and reveal their intentions. O’Malley was the only Presidential candidate with the qualifications for leadership among candidates from either party, who had the potential to both shut down Wall Street and end the rush to nuclear confrontation with Russia and China.

LaRouche’s conclusion, following the abrupt termination of the O’Malley Presidential campaign Monday night, even before the final Iowa results were announced, was that leading British circles, controlling the Barack Obama Presidency, are desperately escalating their preparations for war against Russia and China. The actions against O’Malley were, in effect, a red dye indication of the war preparations already well-underway. The fact that there were escalating British Crown provocations against Russian President Vladimir Putin, coincident with the actions against O’Malley, sealed the case.

The timing of these events was driven by the fact that the entire trans-Atlantic financial system—the British System—is in an accelerating crash process, as indicated by the meltdown of the entire Italian banking system, at an even more rapid rate than the earlier collapses of Greece, Portugal, and Ireland. The British Empire forces, including their Obama Presidency, have declared themselves to be committed to the rapid depopulation of the planet, through warfare and other means. The coincidence of the breakdown crisis; the over-reaction to the LaRouche intervention on behalf of a viable O’Malley candidacy, and the dramatic escalation in targeted provocations against both Russia and China—coming from London and the White House—is the clearest evidence available that mankind is moving into a moment of grave crisis.

The fact that top leaders in both Russia and China are aware, to a great extent, of the significance of these developments, means that there are counter-measures that can be taken, if the full implications of the recent days events are understood.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Kerry Peace Efforts Sabotaged by Obama

Feb. 2 (EIRNS)—Secretary of State John Kerry is increasingly being sabotaged by Obama, and Obama’s controllers in London, in his efforts to prevent and/or stop regional wars, and potentially global war with Russia.

Even while the Syria peace talks began on Monday in Geneva, largely due to the collaboration between Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (as with the Iran agreement), Obama moved to have Kerry’s own State Department add five names to the Magnitsky list—a list of Russian individuals sanctioned, due to supposed human rights violations. It has been noted by the Russian authorities that Obama’s signing of the Magnitsky Act in 2012 launched the current U.S. confrontation with Russia—long before the Ukraine or Syrian crisis.

This provocation against Putin by the murderer Obama, comes just days after his Treasury Department issued the scurrilous attack on Putin personally, as “corrupt,” and the release in London of a report on the Litvinenko death in 2006 as “probably” ordered by Putin. EIR sources indicate that this report was put together by the same team that “investigated” the assassination of David Kelly (the British inspector who had leaked that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq), declaring that it was suicide.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Ash Carter Presents a Budget Plan for World War III

Feb. 2 (EIRNS)—U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter delivered a speech to the Economic Club of Washington today in which he previewed the Obama Administration’s defense budget request for 2017. It could be characterized as a budget for World War III, for, while he said he wanted to avoid conflict with Russia and China, the top priorities in the budget are preparation for war with Russia and China.

In the speech (according to the text provided by the Pentagon), Carter lists Russia and China as the U.S.’s two top challenges, followed by North Korea, Iran, and then ISIS.

“Key to our approach is being able to deter our most advanced competitors,” he said. Therefore, “We will be prepared for a high-end enemy…,” meaning Russia and China, which he called “our most stressing competitors.” The Defense Department, therefore, “has elevated their importance in our defense planning and budgeting.”

To counter Russia, the administration will be requesting $3.4 billion for the so-called European Reassurance Initiative, way up from $789 million, to fund more rotational forces in Europe, more training and exercises, and more pre-positioned equipment—all of which, “by the end of 2017 will let us rapidly form a highly capable combined-arms ground force that can respond theater-wide if necessary.”

For the war on ISIS, the budget will ask for $7.5 billion, 50% more than in 2016. Part of this will go to buying 45,000 more guided bombs and rockets to replace those that have already been expended.

Not mentioned by Carter, but nonetheless a crucial part of the budget, is the nuclear enterprise. The plan calls for $13 billion for a new ballistic missile submarine over the next five years, to replace the current fleet of Ohio-class submarines. Of that amount, $4 billion will be spent on research and development, and the rest on procurement of long-lead items so that construction of the first new boats can begin in 2021.

The Pentagon’s plan will also underscore the need to fund all three legs of the U.S. strategic deterrent “triad”—not only the new submarines but also new nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles and a new bomber for the Air Force, an unnamed source told Reuters.

Russia Responds Further to Turkish Claim of Airspace Violation

Feb. 2 (EIRNS)—Moscow is standing its ground against the tirade of threats still coming out of Ankara, following the alleged violation of Turkish airspace by a Russian plane on Jan. 29. The Russian Foreign Ministry said yesterday that when Ankara summoned the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Turkish officials failed to produce any evidence or material to prove its claim.

“Diplomatically speaking, Turkey’s claims of an airspace violation do not reflect reality,” a Ministry statement said. At the Kremlin, Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov endorsed the earlier Defense Ministry statement calling the Turkish claim nothing more than “unsubstantiated propaganda.”

At the Defense Ministry, spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov responded directly to the Turkish and NATO claim that they have radar data proving the violation—data that NATO otherwise claims is secret!

“There’s nothing else that we expected. It is no coincidence that the Turkish side, after their high-profile attacks on Russia, so strongly tries to draw NATO into this murky story. It is obvious that this information is secret not from us but from the public and the media, especially the Western countries and the U.S., whom the Turkish partners have clearly used,” Konashenkov said. “The hysteria of the Turkish party was not just unsubstantiated propaganda, but also had distinct signs of a planned provocation.”

Syrian Talks Officially Underway

Feb. 2 (EIRNS)—UN Special Representative for Syria Staffan de Mistura officially declared the Syria peace negotiations underway yesterday, and said that they must show results to the country’s suffering civilians, the New York Times reported. He called on the outside powers that are helping drive the conflict, to instead take steps to reduce the violence. He also said his most important objective now, is to keep both sides talking—even if they are not talking directly to each other. In speaking to reporters, de Mistura emphasized that he was paying attention to the calls by opposition representatives for an end to airstrikes, relief from sieges, and a release of political prisoners.

“We feel that they have a very strong point, because this is the voice of the Syrian people asking for that,” he said. “When I meet the Syrian people they tell me, ‘Don’t just have a conference; also have something that we can see and touch while you are meeting in Geneva.’ ” He indicated that his next meeting with the government delegation would be today, followed by another meeting with the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) delegation, the Saudi-sponsored opposition grouping.

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Leaves Clock at Three Minutes ‘til Doomsday

Feb. 2 (EIRNS)—Despite the hell the corporatist oligarchy subjected the world to in 2015, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, left its Doomsday Clock at three minutes to “midnight,” when it reported its annual barometer of the threat “to the very existence of civilization” on Jan. 26.

Former Secretary of Defense William Perry pointed out at the Bulletin’s press conference that three minutes to midnight “is a more dangerous, more ominous forecast than two-thirds of the years during the Cold War.” Perry stated elsewhere that he believes the figurative Doomsday Clock is only one minute to midnight for nuclear terrorism.

At the end of the Cold War in 1991, the Bulletin moved the clock back to 17 minutes before midnight—the furthest it’s ever been from Doomsday. In 1953, when both the United States and the Soviet Union had detonated their first hydrogen bombs, the Doomsday Clock was moved closer to midnight than ever before or since: two minutes until. In 2015, the group set the Doomsday Clock at three minutes to midnight. This year, despite it all, it left the clock unchanged.

Saudis Admit U.S. and British Direct Yemen War

Feb. 2 (EIRNS)—Following the January UN report documenting that the Saudis, in waging war on Yemen, are guilty of massive war crimes, such as targeting civilians and starving the population, the Saudis have now admitted the U.S. and British direct role in the war—but cover it by claiming the Brits and the U.S. are there to advise on how to reduce civilian casualties!

Reuters reported Feb. 1 that the spokesman for the Saudi war coalition said on Jan. 31 that American and British military experts were advising its forces on how to improve aerial targeting and reduce civilian casualties. “Experts from the United States … [will] work on extensive reports and develop operating mechanisms, together with the British side,” Saudi Coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asseri told journalists in Riyadh.

On Jan. 15 the Saudis admitted that British and American military officials are in the Command and Control Center for Saudi airstrikes on Yemen, and have access to the target lists, “although they do not play any role in choosing them,” the Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister said.

It’s getting more and more difficult to cover up the genocidal war crimes of Obama and his British sponsors.

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

German Mittelstand, Savings Banks, Put Up Resistance to Russia Sanctions, New EU ‘Credit’ Schemes

WIESBADEN, Feb. 2 (EIRNS)—German Association for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (BVMW) President Mario Ohoven said Feb. 1 that Germany should rethink its support for sanctions against Russia. The BVMW basically represents Germany’s Mittelstand enterprises.

Mentioning the crises in Europe and Middle East, Ohoven commented, “The simple truth is, there is a solution to the crisis only with Herr Putin, and not against him.” His comments came in the midst of manufactured controversy over the fact that Bavarian Minister President Horst Seehofer is traveling to Moscow on Feb. 4 for a personal meeting with President Vladimir Putin. Ohoven said that more than half of Mittelstand company heads reject the sanctions: “Under the embargo, above all, it is the regular folk in Russia who are suffering, and therefore we are critical of this from the standpoint of human rights.”

Today, the head of the German Sparkassen Association, which represents savings banks, praised the strengths of Germany’s economy, but warned of the immense problems hitting Europe, and the dangers if existing or new crisis points worsen. He said it is not the time to combine more political areas; to “centralize stable structures, or even take them apart” in Brussels. He explicitly attacked the Brussels effort to make German savings available for a European-wide deposit insurance scheme that would serve failing banks throughout the EU. German savings banks, as a group, comprise one of the largest financial institutions in Europe, and within Germany they supply 43% of the credit to the economy. The planned EU Capital Market Union (CMU) will have the effect of driving out the Sparkassen, and replace Mittelstand financing by these savings banks, and put them at the mercy of investment bankers and financial market bonds.

IMF Recommends Paying Refugees Below-Minimum Wage

Feb. 2 (EIRNS)—The International Monetary Fund released a report Jan. 20 on the economic challenges posed by the influx of refugees into Europe. In the document, the financiers’ organization recommends a supposed short-term differentiation in the wages of refugees and current citizens of their host countries.

“To accelerate immigrants’ integration,” as EurActiv.com media network writes, then quoting the IMF which recommends imposing “ ‘temporary and limited derogations of the minimum wage for refugees.’ ” The aim of this measure would reportedly be “to redress the initial imbalance on the labor market between the recent immigrants and the native population,” according to EurActiv.com. In other words, drive down the wages for the labor force as a whole, by replacing the higher paid natives with lower-paid refugees, and further feed the rage factor against refugees.

Yet the IMF is contending that its proposal will “reduce any possible resentment” from the citizens of the host countries, who may otherwise see the refugees as direct competitors for jobs.

NEW WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER

African Union Summit Launches ‘African Space Policy and Strategy’ for Continental Development

Feb. 2 (EIRNS)—How often have LaRouche organizers met with the following response from interlocutors: “Instead of spending money for space exploration, we should use it to feed people on Earth”? Well, the peoples of Africa who need to be fed, are now teaching the world a lesson, by demanding, through their leaders, a central role for space exploration in order to help address socio-economic problems!

A space policy was discussed at the Jan. 21-31, 26th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, where, according to an official release, heads of state and government “adopted the African Space Policy and Strategy as the first of the concrete steps to realize an African Outer Space Program…. They immediately urged the Member States, RECs, Partners, and the [AU] Commission to raise awareness on the central role of space science and technology in Africa’s socio-economic development and mobilize domestic resources for the implementation of this policy and strategy.

German Deutschlandfunk radio interviewed Prof. Paul Baki, director of the Physics and Technology Department at the Technical University in Nairobi, who was part of the team that drafted the preparatory work for the African space policy. “We need to look for a construction to coordinate pan-African demands, so that the same challenges are not dealt with by each on its own, on projects where we could invest common resources and find common regional solutions,” he told DLF radio on Jan. 30.

Africa has too long relied to the capabilities of others, and now it is time to develop its own resources, Baki said. “The focus is on Earth observation and data processing. I think it is decisive, because we can use it in many ways: for navigation, for planning cities and countryside, infrastructure … these are systems which Africa needs.”

China Sets Priorities for Cooperation with Greece for New Year

Feb. 2 (EIRNS)—In an address during a Chinese New Year’s celebration on Jan. 31, Ambassador to Greece Zou Xiaoli announced China’s priorities in its cooperation with Greece for the new year. He pointed out that this year is the 10th anniversary of the establishment of comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Greece, which they will commemorate “with a series of high-level visits, which will bring mutual trust and cooperation between the two countries to a new high,” Zou said.

Zou pointed the large investment by China in Greece already made, and that China will expand its investment in the ports and rail infrastructure in Greece, creating many jobs in infrastructure and trade.

Zou also announced a new initiative: the “Chinese Cultural Center in Athens will begin to operate, which will add another important platform for the two ancient civilizations to conduct cultural exchanges and enhance friendship between the people.” The Center will be the venue for the Asia-Europe Scientific Innovation Conference later this year.

Zou announced a marked increase in cultural exchanges this year, with more Chinese tourists visiting Greece, and the expansion of cooperation in regional affairs. This will allow both to jointly deal with challenges and to safeguard regional peace and stability.

Zou concluded, “Having helped each other in difficult times in the past, China and Greece are also partners pursuing common development. Our two ancient civilizations have created splendid histories and will march together hand-in-hand. No difficulty can hinder us. I believe that in the new year, friendly cooperation between China and Greece will continue to enjoy vigorous support and active participation from both countries and usher in fruitful results.”

WHO Declares Zika a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’; Virus Prompts Calls for Return To Use of DDT

Feb. 2 (EIRNS)—The World Health Organization Emergency Committee on the Zika virus met yesterday and declared that “the recent cluster of microcephaly cases and other neurologic disorders reported in Brazil, following a similar cluster in French Polynesia in 2014, constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.” WHO Director General Margaret Chan called it an “extraordinary event.”

The WHO called for heightened surveillance for microcephaly and the Guillain-Barré Syndrome, cases of which have occurred in individuals infected with the Zika virus, with especially high cases of microcephaly occurring in newborns whose mothers had been infected with Zika. Research into the etiology of new clusters of microcephaly and neurological disorders will also be intensified to determine whether there is a causal link to Zika virus and/or other factors and co-factors.

Several other measures were proposed, including developing new diagnostics, as a priority, to facilitate surveillance. WHO underscored that vector control, combatting the Aedes aegypti mosquito which transmits Zika, should be aggressively promoted and implemented. In the longer term, a vaccine must be developed. In areas of known Zika virus transmission, health services should be prepared for potential increases in neurological syndromes and/or congenital malformation, the WHO emphasized.

National Public Radio (NPR) in the U.S. this morning became the most recent news outlet to cover the need to return to the use of DDT to combat the Zika virus. NPR interviewed Laura Harrington, a Cornell entomologist, who said DDT would be very effective in wiping out the mosquito that carries the virus, as well as mosquitoes that carry malaria and other deadly diseases. She noted that the WHO ten years ago called for the use of DDT on limited bases.

“E21,” the economics portal at the Manhattan Institute published a piece by its director Diana Furchgott-Roth, titled “With Zika, Time To Bring Back DDT.” She noted that after lengthy hearings between August 1971 and March 1972, Judge Edmund Sweeney, the Environmental Protection Agency hearing examiner, decided that there was insufficient evidence to ban DDT, and that its benefits outweighed any adverse effects. Yet, two months afterwards, then-EPA Administrator William D. Ruckelshaus overruled him and banned DDT effective Dec. 31, 1972. Millions upon millions have suffered the consequences since.

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