From Volume 4, Issue Number 25 of EIR Online, Published June 21, 2005

Western European News Digest

Political Shock Waves Continue In France After "No" Vote On Constitution

EIRNS reported on June 14 from Paris that the policy shock waves continue following the May 29 vote that rejected the European Union constitution, concocted out of the Maastricht Stability treaty of austerity, and globalist domination, by a landslide. See the EIR Online issue, #23, for 2005, for a full background on the French vote, and Lyndon LaRouche's overview of its significance, "Now Is The End of the "End of History."

Last week's Economic Supplement for the national newspaper Le Monde reveals a broad debate on issues like protectionism and outsourcing. In a front-page article entitled, "France: The Projectionist Temptation," the focus is on a phrase from Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, in which he called for the 25 EU members to give themselves "the means to impose a European preference," i.e., a European protectionism. Apparently this little phrase provoked extreme irritation among the EU bureaucracy, especially in the run-up to the June 15-16 EU heads of state summit.

According to another article in this newspaper, it is not by chance that this phrase ended up in de Villepin's speech. It was prompted by a tendency of some to promote a kind of "Fortress Europe" protectionism.

One representative of this extreme liberal view is Pierre Méhaignerie, head of the National Assembly financial commission, who is quoted stating that "If nothing is done, there will be revolts; we cannot accept the brutality of the opening up to China. There is a rhythm of liberalization which is no longer acceptable. The other EU countries are confronted with the same situation, they will listen to our speech."

But another article in the same Le Monde in the form of questions and answers, develops the issue of European preference and protectionism, by citing the collaborators of the American system of political economy, from the time of George Washington and his Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, and from the time of American President Abraham Lincoln. The first question is, "Which economists are defending protectionism?" The response talks about Friedrich List, Jean Baptiste Colbert, and some more modern protectionists such as Louis Say, brother of a well-known 19th-Century liberal politician, Jean Baptiste Say, connected to a group of people working on Henry Carey's ideas in France at that time.

Carey was the economic adviser to Lincoln, who created the physical economic basis for the U.S. victory against the Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War.

Return to the Franc?

The same issue of Le Monde publishes an article of Pierre Antoine Delhommais reporting on the European debate on the purported values of the euro and the European Monetary Union. The article reports that Dominique Strauss Kahn had provoked total panic when, before the referendum, he stated, that a NO vote could lead to the dismantling, little by little, of things like the euro, etc. Delhommais then reports that the French 'NO' did open up an "important monetary crisis", leading Germans and Italians to question the value of the euro.

The second part of the article discusses in detail what would happen if we came back to the franc: devaluation, increase in exports, inflation, high interest rates, and the rest.

Secret Payments To Princess Diana's Driver Revealed

According to a series of articles in the British Daily Express, secret payments were made to Henri Paul, the driver for British Princes Diana, and Dodi Al-Fayed, in the period before the August 1997 fatal crash in Paris. Paul, Diana, and Dodi all died in the 1997 car crash that EIR has investigated, showing the many contradictions and falsifications that have been used to cover up evidence in the case.

Henri Paul was found to have received payments totalling $178,000, transferred into 13 secret bank accounts by several British banks. The revelations served to fuel speculation that Paul was linked to the MI6 British intelligence services.

"The money arrived via a banker's draft and was converted into French francs from sterling," an unnamed source "close to the investigation" told the Daily Express, which has run a series of articles about the new revelations on May 25, May 31 and June 13.

Although the Daily Express is one of Britain's leading tabloids, the story has only appeared briefly on the BBC's news roundup, and no other leading British daily covered it. In contrast, the story received extensive coverage in the Australian and even the Italian press.

The discovery was said to be made by the official British criminal investigation being conducted by Lord Stevens. The British made the discoveries because of new laws, implemented after the September 11, 2001 attacks, that enable law enforcement authorities to trace bank accounts in a way that up until now has been illegal. They are also investigating where the $2,000 worth of French francs found on Paul came from.

"We're going to find out who paid Paul, when they paid him, and why they paid him. There is still a lot of work to be done, but we're getting there," a source close to the investigation is quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the French authorities have reopened an investigation of Paul's blood sample, following allegations that it was switched in a scheme to try to prove that Paul was under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

For the first time, the French authorities have given the British access to the car in which the couple died, for forensic investigation.

Meanwhile, a Daily Express poll revealed that 94% of the people polled think Diana was murdered.

Scotland Yard Is Doing A Serious Probe Into The Deaths Of Diana And Al Fayed

A former senior British law enforcement source, close to the ongoing Scotland Yard probe of the Aug. 31, 1997 Paris crash that killed Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed has told EIR that Scotland Yard is conducting a very serious and thorough probe into the crash, and has been closely considering leads provided by Mohammed Al Fayed.

The source downplayed the significance of the news stories in the British tabloids, emphasizing, instead, that the investigation has been going on for 18 months, and will undoubtedly continue for another six months more. The Al Fayed people are pushing for a grand jury to be empaneled as part of the Coroner's Inquest, but so far, the Royal Coroner has rebuffed the demand. They also want the inquest into Dodi Fayed's death and Princess Diana's death to be merged as one investigation. Unfortunately, the recently deceased Royal Coroner, John Burton, who took charge of the inquest, made the Diana inquest into one under his jurisdiction, even though Diana was not a member of the Royal Family. This was part of Burton's effort to perpetuate the coverup.

However, few had expected Sir John Stevens to take such a serious approach to solving "all the outstanding mysteries" of the crash. According to the source, Sir John is convinced that Henri Paul could not have been drunk at the time of the crash. The issue of the money transferred to Henri Paul's secret bank accounts is also tricky, the sources said. To get to the bottom of the bank transfers will require cooperation from the French authorities, who did such a botch-job coverup, that they have a vested interest in keeping the case from being truly reopened.

Former MI-5 Agents Claim MI-6 Was Behind Diana Crash

Former British MI-5 agent Annie Machon and her partner, David Shayler, also a former MI-5 agent, claim in a new book that the car crash that killed Princess Diana was orchestrated by MI6, Britain's foreign intelligence service. In the book, Spies, Lies and Whistleblowers: MI5, MI6 and the Shayler Affair, Shayler says, "Having looked at the available evidence, I am personally inclined to think that MI6 paid to have Diana and Dodi involved in an accident in the same way they paid to have Qaddafi assassinated, using a surrogate."

Machon said, "...vehicle accidents are used as a way of assassination precisely because they are such a common cause of death." She referenced testimony given to French investigators by former British MI6 agent Richard Tomlinson, in which he stated that the orchestration of the crash paralleled a plan drafted by MI6 for assassinating former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic."

China and EU Compromise On Textile Imports

Over the past week, China and the European Union came to an agreement concerning the importation of Chinese textiles, reported China Daily on June 11. The move will limit ten lines of Chinese textiles which overtook the markets in Europe and the U.S., after a pre-existing quota system expired in 2004. The new agreement says that the ten lines will be limited to between 8 and 12.5% of the textile market in Europe from 2005-2007, and then, beginning in 2008, a free textile trade deal will be in effect.

This agreement is being hailed as a breakthrough by the Chinese side, and as an example of how trade issues should be resolved in a world where globalized economies are becoming more dominant. In contrast, however, the United States did not stick to negotiations with China as the EU did, comments China Daily. Instead, the U.S. went back to limiting the amount of certain Chinese textiles to 7.5%. Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi recently gave a speech at the Hong Kong-based Pacific Basin Economic Council, where she rebuked the U.S. for taking unilateral actions to settle the controversy over the trade dispute with China, instead of continuing consultations with China.

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