United States News Digest

California Legislature Forced To Deal with Foreclosures

Nov. 30 (EIRNS)—California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez and six other Democratic legislators held a press conference yesterday to announce the introduction of five bills to deal with the foreclosure crisis, and to demand that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger call a special session of the legislature to pass the bills. At the same time, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom held a press conference attended by community groups demanding action; Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will hold a press conference calling for action; and Rep. Maxine Waters (D) held hearings on foreclosures in Los Angeles, according to the California Progress Report.

In Oakland, earlier in November, a coalition led by City Attorney John Russo, held a press conference Hall to demand stronger state legislation. The state Supreme Court has ruled that localities cannot change mortgage laws. Their call was answered with a pledge from State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, who represents Oakland, that he was working to develop legislation to protect homeowners against foreclosures.

LaRouche: Hostage-Taking a 'Set-Up' of Hillary Clinton

Nov. 30 (EIRNS)—A five-hour hostage-taking and bomb threat at Democratic Presidential pre-candidate Hillary Clinton's Rochester, N.H. campaign headquarters, ended today, with the release of all hostages unharmed, and the surrender of the perpetrator, one Leeland Eisenberg, a 46-year-old local man with a history of mental disorder.

Lyndon LaRouche commented, that this represents "a real set-up" of Senator Clinton: a "psychological cage-rattling." In response to the news of the hostage-taking, Clinton cancelled a scheduled speech before the Democratic National Committee meeting in Tyson's Corner, Va., and remained in Washington, in close contact with the campaign staff in New Hampshire, and law enforcement people on the scene.

Eisenberg allegedly wanted Clinton to get on the phone with him to discuss the failure of the mental health system in the U.S.

Clinton's campaign offices in Iowa were also closed during the Rochester incident, and most other Democratic candidates with offices in Rochester also shut down operations.

Congress Gave Bush the National Guard

Nov. 28 (EIRNS)—A new book by author Naomi Wolf, entitled The End of America, while not of great importance in its own right, has raised anew the issue of control of the National Guard, in the context of the Bush-Cheney regime's dismantling of democracy in the United States.

After Hurricane Katrina, President Bush demanded tighter control of the National Guard, following Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco's refusal to relinquish control of the Guard in her state, which was needed to respond to the emergency. Just before it adjourned forever, the GOP-controlled 109th Congress acceded to Bush's demand and rewrote the Insurrection Act, the law covering Federal authority over the National Guard and domestic use of the active duty military, in the fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill. The old law allowed the President to suppress domestic disorder in any state only if the state authorities were unable to or refused to, or if the state opposed or obstructed the execution of the laws of the United States. Under the new law, the President may use the National Guard, or the regular military, to restore public order after any natural disaster, or, if he determines that the state is incapable of doing so.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), co-chairman of the Senate National Guard Caucus, along with Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), warned on the Senate floor Sept. 29, 2006, that these changes "will allow the President to use the military, including the National Guard, to carry out law enforcement activities without the consent of the governor," making it easier for the President to declare martial law.

'Newsweek' Drops Second Shoe on Rudy

Nov. 26 (EIRNS)—In a release dated Nov. 10, Lyndon LaRouche exposed the Presidential game being played behind the scenes: that "the build-up of former New York Mayor Giuliani as a 'hot prospect' ... was a crafted set-up, designed to clear the decks for the present New York Mayor [Michael Bloomberg] to emerge, as if 'miraculously'.... All of the relevant Republican king-makers had known fully in advance of the scandal which would bring Mafia creation Giuliani down, using the case-in-preparation against Bernard Kerik to spring the trap being set against Giuliani."

The Nov. 23 EIR carried an article, posted to its website on Nov. 16, "Campaign 2008: The Rudy Bomb—Defused," a full report on this set-up, with details on "the Giuliani family as Mafia; his unrelieved gangster-like assault on the poor as Mayor of New York City; his corruption-ruined communications system at the World Trade Center on 9/11; the obscenity of his milking that disaster"—all the material waiting to be "discovered" by the king-makers.

The Nov. 12 issue of Newsweek appeared with a fawning cover story on Bloomberg as the knight in shining armor who could be swept into the White House.

Two weeks later, Newsweek has dropped the other shoe: The cover story for this week's issue is "Growing Up Giuliani," trashing Rudy, citing the 2006 book Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11, by Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins, and emphasizing his Mafia family background and his violence.

'New York Times' Breaks Blackout on BAE Scandal

Nov. 25 (EIRNS)—After a full year of a nearly total blackout in the U.S. press, other than LaRouche's EIR and websites, a report on the Justice Department's investigation of bribery and political crimes by the Tony Blair Administration and its Saudi partners was splashed across three pages of the Sunday New York Times Business section today. The article leaves out the most explosive aspect of the crime: the use of the BAE slush fund to finance al-Qaeda and other terrorist operations, including links to the 9/11 attack in the U.S., which have been documented by EIR. However, the blackout is now broken, and much new material concerning the ongoing DOJ investigation is included.

The article focuses on the expanding use of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, mentioning investigations of numerous companies, including Halliburton, for activities "during and after Mr. Cheney's tenure at the company." But the target is BAE and the Brits, naming Tony Blair as the central culprit, and payoffs to Saudi Prince Bandar and Prince Turki. Blair's press conference in December 2006, announcing the cancellation of the British Serious Fraud Office investigation into the BAE scandal, because the "result would have been devastating for our relationship with an important country," is quoted at length, as are sources close to the U.S. DOJ reporting that the investigation is now moving rapidly ahead.

The Times reports that the whistle-blower for the series of articles in the London Guardian exposing the BAE scandal, one Peter Gardiner, is now cooperating with the DOJ. He was a bagman, delivering the bribes to Saudis and perhaps others. The Swiss government has also decided to cooperate, providing documentation of the dirty dealings.

The DOJ, the report adds, began the investigation of the BAE in 2002, when the permanent under secretary of the British Ministry of Defense, Sir Kevin Tebbit, was called to Washington and questioned on BAE bribes in the Czech Republic and Hungary, which had undermined U.S. aerospace companies' bids on defense contracts. Tebbit was ridiculed afterwards by those involved for his "haughty disdain for the allegations of bribery involving BAE."