From Volume 5, Issue Number 6 of EIR Online, Published Feb. 7, 2006
Asia News Digest

'Christian' Democracy Takes 'Third Way' to Fascism

Proving that the "Christian" has been fully removed from the Centrist Democracy International (CDI, formerly called the Christian Democracy International), the 110 nations with CDI parties held a three-day conference in Manila, with the European side being led by synarchist asset Jose Maria Aznar, the former Prime Minister of Spain and the neo-con darling of Europe. On the Asia side, the conference was chaired by Jose de Venecia, the Philippine Speaker of the House, who, as the protégé of Fidel Ramos, is leading the effort to end the Presidential system in the Philippines, impose a dictatorship, and sell out the nation's remaining wealth to international speculators (called "debt for equity" in Synarchese).

The event was billed as the founding of the "first regional political organization in Asia," with the CDI described as the "third alternative," the "centrist political force" between capitalism and socialism (they didn't try to say where fascism fit into this equation).

Before the closing ceremonies Jan. 29, Pier Ferdinando Casini, the head of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, took over as the new CDI international president, succeeding Aznar.

Rainsy Issues Apology from Paris to Hun Sen

Sam Rainsy, the Cambodian opposition figure who is fully owned by the International Republican Institute (IRI), issued an apology to Prime Minister Hun Sen for his lies and slanders against him, Agence France Presse reported Feb. 4. Rainsy is currently in Paris, having fled Cambodia when his parliamentary immunity was stripped after he accused the Prime Minister of plotting a grenade attack against a rally held by the Sam Rainsy Party, at which 16 people were killed. He was convicted in absentia to 18 months, to screaming and hollering from the human rights mafia.

Rainsy issued a statement from Paris, read on Cambodian radio and television, that he "regretted having acted improperly against the Prime Minister, the accusations that the Prime Minister was behind the grenade attack. From now on I will change my attitude in order to end this issue and avoid it from happening again." Hun Sen accepted the apology, and called on Rainsy to "return to political life in Cambodia very soon."

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill played a hand in this development, when he visited Cambodia last month and expressed U.S. support for Hun Sen and his government, despite hysteria emanating from the likes of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky).

Thailand Ready To Construct Economic Zones in Myanmar

Despite continuing pressure from Washington for ASEAN to isolate Myanmar (Bush included Myanmar as one of the five nations targetted for subversion as "undemocratic"), Thailand has finalized a feasibility study on the establishment of three economic and industrial zones in Myanmar near the Thai border, the Bangkok Post reported Jan. 31 from Yangon.

The study on the zones, in Myawaddy and Hpa-an in southeastern Kayin state and Mawlamyine in southern Mon state, was jointly conducted by the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand and the Ministry of Industry in Myanmar. They are part of an economic cooperation strategy agreed upon at a summit of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand held in Myanmar's ancient city of Pagan in November 2003.

Thailand and Myanmar also opened a new "friendship bridge" on Jan. 22, across the Sai River, which Thailand hopes will boost trade with its neighbor and with nearby China (see last week's Asia Digest).

Asia Scholar Admits to U.S.-Run Coup vs. Philippines' Marcos

Theodore Friend, who has authored many books on Southeast Asia, spoke in Washington Feb. 2, releasing a new book Religion and Religiosity in the Philippines and Indonesia, for which he is the editor and contributor to a collection of essays. In his presentation, he admitted to his participation in the 1986 U.S.-run "regime change" against former President Ferdinand Marcos—a story only reported in the pages of EIR over the past 20 years. Professor Friend explained that after his friend Ninoy Aquino, a leading opposition figure to Marcos, was killed in 1983, then-Assistant Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz, "a serious, balanced thinker—although I think he's lost his balance since that time," called him and five other Philippines scholars to Washington, to consult on what to do about Marcos. "Four of us," said Friend, "concluded that Marcos was vulnerable—the other two resisted. We didn't use the term 'regime change' at that time, but we decided that if we unleashed indigenous forces, Marcos could be brought down, and we pointed ourselves in that direction. With George Shultz there as Secretary of State, we did it just right, timing the intervention so as to make things happen."

EIR asked the good professor if, in reflecting on the nationalist development programs of Marcos vs. the economic basket case that the Philippines has become since his overthrow, if he didn't sometimes think that he and Wolfowitz had made a terrible mistake. Friend nervously tried to defend the subversion, only to be cut off by the sponsor of the event, from Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, saying both Friend and EIR were wrong, that the U.S. didn't do it, it was the heroic Filipino people, through "people's power," etc. But by then, it was too late—the truth was out.

S. Korean Railway To Run Through N. Korea to Germany, for World Cup

Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung told the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Jan. 31 that he plans to visit North Korea by train this spring, and will be accompanied by a delegation of Seoul government officials. Kim had earlier reported his train trip plans in a Jan. 1 meeting with ruling Uri Party legislators. KORAIL then announced, on Feb. 1, the plan to run the "Landbridge" train across the DMZ and on to Berlin in time for the June World Cup of soccer.

KORAIL said plans to put the "World Cup train" into action could help inter-Korean relations make another quantum leap forward. KORAIL said it expected to be mobbed by South Korean soccer supporters eager to buy the tickets to reach Berlin by train shortly before the World Cup opens on June 9. In fact this is a brilliant way to slice past the conundrum of whether the first train should run South-North, or North-South. Now everyone's going to the ballgame.

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