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From Volume 36, Issue 37 of EIR Online, Published Sept. 25, 2009

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LaRouche Webcast:
The Death of the British Empire

Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. gave this webcast address in Washington on Sept. 8, 2009. The video is archived at www.larouchepac.com

Well, I can promise you a lot of bad news--which I'm sure you wish to hear. You would also like to hear what the bad news actually is, how many varieties there are running loose today, in the jungle out there, and what the chances are for changing this. We are now at the end of things. Tomorrow, the President of the United States, so-called, is going to, presumably, make an address to a Joint Session of the Congress, and a joint session may mean a marijuana fest, as far as I understand, because it's going to have that kind of effect. There's no competence in this President. There never has been and there never was intended to be. This President is a joker, who was played upon the American people, with a lot of drug money behind it, and it was never intended that he would be competent. He's totally incompetent. He's not a man of intellect; he's a man who's trained to babble, and he's been taught the recipes to babble. He has no comprehension of what he's talking about...

In-Depth articles from EIR, Vol. 36, No. 37
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This Week's Cover

National

Economics

  • Statement by Lyndon LaRouche:
    Bernanke's Money-Printing Is Hyperinflationary

    LaRouche charges that Fed chairman Ben Bernanke's incompetent policies will lead to hyperinflation, which will turn a major crisis into a hopeless one. LaRouche's solution, proposed in 2007, is the only workable alternative.
  • Herd on the Street
    In Search of the Recovery
  • The British Monarchy & Hitler
    Today Lyndon LaRouche writes that the Hitlerand Blair-like policies of the Obama Administration are creations of the British monetarist empire, based on the economic program of John Maynard Keynes, President Franklin Roosevelt's chief Bretton Woods adversary.
  • The Royal Death Scheme
    When the world financial system meltdown began in 2007, British imperial leaders shifted funds away from public services and into bailouts of the London-Wall Street axis. One result was a euthanasia policy, promoted by the royal family and introduced earlier by thenPrime Minister Tony Blair and Royal health advisor Simon Stevens. This is the fascist agenda that was exported to the United States for adoption by the Obama Administration.
  • Simon Stevens and His Mobile Death Squads

International

This Week's News

United States News Digest

Congressmen Demand Accountability for Obama's Czars

Sept. 17 (EIRNS)—U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-N.C.) this week joined Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) as a cosponsor of H.R. 3226, The Czar Accountability and Reform Act (CZAR) of 2009. This legislation would withhold funding for any salaries or expenses of any task force, council, or similar office established by the President, and headed by an individual who has been appointed without the advice and consent of the Senate.

"While it's true that previous administrations had czars—Ronald Reagan had one, George Bush had one, Bill Clinton had three, and George W. Bush had four—the number of czars appointed so quickly by President Obama is alarming," Jones said. "With taxpayer funded salaries of up to $172,000, and additional staff, office and travel budgets, it's important that these appointments do not duplicate existing, Senate-confirmed positions. As high-level decision-makers who dictate national policies that will affect all of America's citizens, these czars must be held accountable to the same confirmation guidelines as all other presidential appointments."

Obama has 32 czars.

The Jones/Kingston bill is only the latest measure introduced against Obama's czars. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) has introduced a Sense of the Congress resolution with over 100 co-sponsors, which is still growing. The resolution calls for immediate transparency in the form of a report on the czars from the Obama Administration, and for Congressional hearings on the czars.

* Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) has introduced legislation called the "Sack" Act (H.R. 3569). This legislation, introduced Sept. 15, already has 20 co-sponsors. It calls for all the existing czars to be sacked as of Dec. 31 (a "sunset" law). It also requires Senate confirmation of those positions, and bars the use of appropriated funds to pay for any salaries and expenses associated with those positions.

* Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) reported that he has asked Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, to have all the czars testify before his committee.

* Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) has sent a letter with co-signers to Obama, protesting "the proliferation of 'czars' in your administration. These positions raise serious issues of accountability, transparency, and oversight. The creation of 'czars,' particularly within the Executive Office of the President, circumvents the constitutionally established process of 'advise and consent,' greatly diminishes the ability of Congress to conduct oversight and hold officials accountable, and creates confusion about which officials are responsible for policy decisions."

* Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) sent a letter to Obama asking that the President's legal advisors justify the constitutionality of the czars.

Lyndon LaRouche cautioned that the czar system is an ego issue for the President, and that, if the Jones/Kingston bill were to pass, Obama would be tempted to issue a signing statement nullifying it.

Obama Demands Extension of Patriot Act

Sept. 16 (EIRNS)—It is getting hard to tell one British imperial toady from another. Today, President Obama announced that he wished to extend controversial provisions of the Patriot Act, which was enacted after 9/11, including Federal spy agencies' power to conduct roving wiretaps, access business records, and monitor "lone wolf" terrorists, NBC-TV reported.

This will fuel the anger building against Obama's Nero-like Presidency, following as it does, Obama's decision to continue to hold detainees without trial; to escalate the Afghanistan War, while continuing the war in Iraq; and to place key areas of the Federal government under "czars," to circumvent the Constitutional powers of Congress. Opposition to the Patriot Act spans both the left and the right. As a candidate, Obama, who touted his credentials as a former professor of Constitutional law, said legal institutions must be updated to deal with terrorism, but in a way that preserves the rule of law and accountability. The Patriot Act hardly fits that bill.

Is Narcissus a Wimp?

Sept. 14 (EIRNS)—The White House handlers are trying to get President Obama to be tougher, after his speech to a joint session of Congress did not ensure passage of the Nazi-modelled health-care bill. "Who's Afraid of Barack Obama?" was the headline of an article in the Washington, D.C. Politico.

Politico says that "with the moment of truth fast approaching on Capitol Hill," on the question of his "signature" issue, cutting health-care costs, "Obama seems to lack one item that most Presidents find helpful to have in their White House tool box: Fear.... It's got some people in both parties wondering whether there really is a steel fist inside Obama's velvet glove."

Most notable is that nobody in Congress has been punished for "sharp criticism," especially from Democrats. Obama loyalists are complaining. The New York Times' columnist, Maureen Dowd, wants Obama to be "more Rocky, less Spocky." Democratic consultant Dan Gerstein says, "There has to be respect and fear," and that both Republicans and Democrats "want to see more strength of leadership from him."

They're looking in the wrong place—there's only rage.

Ibero-American News Digest

Mexican Army Cadet: Don't Be Seduced by Drug Mafias

Sept. 14 (EIRNS)—"I feel obligated, as a citizen and as a military man, to call on my generation ... to be on the alert. It is our hopes that are targetted by those who accumulate their fortunes through drug trafficking."

So spoke young Mexican Army cadet Antonio Muñoz, the only speaker at yesterday's ceremony in Mexico City to commemorate the "Heroic Youth"—the six cadets from the Military College who, on Sept. 13, 1847, chose to die at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City, rather than surrender to invading U.S. forces during the British-orchestrated U.S.-Mexican War.

Although the ceremony was also attended by President Felipe Calderón, it was Muñoz who warned that the drug mafias are as great a threat to youth, and to Mexican sovereignty, as any foreign invading force. "We in the Armed Forces are conscious of the danger which stalks our youth, and this is why we make valiant efforts to protect them, and distance them from those who see them only as a source of income, a market for vice, and object of [drug] consumption."

It is organized crime, Muñoz said, "whose drug barons offer us artificial paradises, ephemeral happiness and instant wealth." The young person who falls into the grip of the cartels "remains their hostage forever," he warned, suffering from "an incurable paranoia, unable to establish formal relations with anyone, remaining as kidnapped and alienated as those victims of the ferocious criminality" that organized crime represents.

Mexican Supreme Court Ratifies Drug Decriminalization

Sept. 18 (EIRNS)—Mexico's Supreme Court issued a ruling yesterday, which upholds, de facto, the so-called "narco-retail" law promulgated on Aug. 20, decriminalizing "personal consumption" of every kind of narcotic, from marijuana to cocaine, heroin, and LSD. Also, by ruling it unconstitutional to treat an addict as a criminal, it threw up a "legal" barrier to overturning that law in the future.

The decision marks another capitulation by Mexican institutions to the world's leading drug pusher, George Soros, and his drug cartels. The decision, a dangerous blow to the nation's continued existence, was hotly contested, as the Court reportedly had been unable to reach a decision on the case in a vote the week before.

The Court did not rule on the new law itself, but issued an opinion overturning a lower court's conviction of a drug user who was caught with a "personal" amount of cocaine. Among its other effects, the ruling is expected to set off a wave of lawsuits by others convicted of drug possession, demanding their freedom, exoneration, and the expunging of any criminal record.

Chile Has Yet To Learn Who Its Enemies Are

Sept. 18 (EIRNS)—It's enough to make you cry, if it weren't so laughable.

This week, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet announced that later this month she will decorate John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, and George Soros, because of their service to the cause of "democracy" in Chile, by opposing the Pinochet dictatorship. Bachelet's father, Air Force Gen. Alberto Bachelet, was imprisoned and tortured by the fascist Pinochet regime after the 1973 coup.

Does the President really not know that British agent Soros, to this day, proudly reports his own training as a youth by the Nazi SS in occupied Hungary during World War II—the same Nazi SS which was the model for the Pinochet regime? Has she forgotten Soros's interviews, where he calls that period the "most exciting" days of his life? Or, perhaps, have Soros's drug-laced millions, and the aura of power that the British Empire has built around him, blinded her to Soros's Nazi nature and policies—as they are doing with government after government across the Americas, which are capitulating to London's Soros-led campaign for legalizing drugs?

Spanish Fascist Does Empire's Business in Ibero-America

Sept. 18 (EIRNS)—One of the British Empire's longtime right-wing assets, former Spanish President José Maria Aznar, spent the past week insinuating himself into the internal affairs of Colombia, Argentina, and Chile, stoking the "left-right" conflict that the British are orchestrating in the region, on behalf of their financier interests.

In Colombia on Sept. 14, Aznar backed President Alvaro Uribe's agreement to allow U.S. military personnel to operate on seven bases, a controversial issue which the also British-run "Bolivarian" movement, led by the buffoonish Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, has attacked as "imperialist aggression." Aznar repeatedly named Chávez an "enemy of freedom."

In Argentina, neo-liberal Presidential aspirants and like-minded former Presidents from around the region joined Aznar over Sept. 15-18 for a conference sponsored by his FAES (Foundations for Analysis and Social Studies). The subject: Ibero-America must choose between "civilization"—the free-market, property, and "values"—or barbarism, represented by dirigism, "populism," and "economic dictatorship."

After Buenos Aires mayor and 2011 Presidential hopeful Mauricio Macri charged that President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's government is "the most fascist one we've had in years," Aznar joined in denouncing her proposed bill to curb the power of media cartels, as an assault on freedom of the press.

On a quick trip to Chile, Aznar gushed in praise of Sebastian Piñera, the multimillionaire Presidential candidate of the right-wing Coalition for Change, who made his fortune under the protective wing of fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet. Aznar has brazenly suggested that Chile consider Spain's system of having its opposing political blocs agree to alternate in power, implying that the ruling country's coalition should hand the reins of power over to Piñera's Pinochetista crowd. A picture of Aznar and Pinera together appears on the FAES website.

Borlaug's Passing: A Reminder Mexico Once Was Sovereign

Sept. 14 (EIRNS)—Upon learning of the Sept. 12 passing of Dr. Norman Borlaug, Mexico's Foreign Affairs Secretary issued a statement of condolence, acknowledging Dr. Borlaug's more than 60 years of extraordinary work in Mexico, beginning in 1944.

Describing Borlaug as "one of the most important internationally known scientists in the area of agriculture," the Sept. 13 statement pointed out that his "work and research in the genetic improvement of crops such as wheat contributed to overcoming hunger in the poorest regions of the planet."

In Mexico, his work allowed the country to advance from importing half of the wheat it consumed, to becoming self-sufficient in wheat production by 1956, after which it began to export half a million tons annually by the beginning of the 1960s. A once-grateful nation had bestowed on Dr. Borlaug the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle in 1970, for his assistance to Mexico in greatly expanding its agricultural production.

What an affront it is to Borlaug's memory, that British-inspired free-trade policies, especially the vicious North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), have decimated Mexican agriculture since the 1980s—NAFTA went into effect in 1993—forcing the country today to import more than 50% of the food it consumes.

Western European News Digest

Milk Producers' Mass Strike Hits Europe

PARIS, Sept. 15 (EIRNS) At first it went nearly as unnoticed in the press as the Sept. 12 mass strike demonstration in Washington: 400 milk farmers from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, and Luxemburg (the countries producing 70% of the European Union's milk) demonstrated in Paris on Sept. 10 against collapsing milk prices. The strike, demanding action from the EU to raise prices, was then joined by milk producers in Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. Today, Italian farmers joined the European-wide "Journée Blanche" (milky-white day of action) by dumping 200,000 liters of fresh milk onto their fields as fertilizer, as their colleagues in other countries have done.

Without a perspective of reorganizing the global monetary system into a credit system, as Lyndon LaRouche has proposed, the strike cannot succeed. In France, during the last week alone, four dairy farmers committed suicide, and now farmers are being pushed by agents provocateurs to attack non-strikers, milk-processing plants, distribution centers, and supermarkets. "Desperation is pushing more and more producers to join the movement," said European Milk Board (EMB) chief Romuald Schaber of Germany, whose organization represents about one-third of European dairy producers. Politicians "must act at once" to address the plight of 100,000 farmers, he said. Le Figaro, desperately trying to make the strike unpopular, shows 60 farmers allegedly looting a supermarket. On the offensive, in order to win over public opinion, the farmers plan to distribute free milk in Paris on Sept. 22, at the symbolic site of the Place de la Republique.

Press Coverage of BüSo Election Campaign

Sept. 16 (EIRNS)— Germany's second national television channel ZDF ran a 1-minute clip today on the Civil Rights Solidarity Movement (BüSo), the party of the LaRouche movement in Germany. It described the party as one among "four small parties of the center," showing the LaRouche Youth Movement chorus as "BüSo campaigning with beautiful voices," and also showing the party's campaign poster, and signs at a BüSo organizing site in Stuttgart. The broadcast said the BüSo "wants to let the banks go bankrupt" [sic], and interviewed party spokeswoman Elke Fimmen, who elaborated a bit on the need for productive credit and investment, such as occurred during the postwar German reconstruction period. Hubert Mohs, the BüSo district candidate in Stuttgart, was interviewed briefly.

Italian MEP: Mass Strike Is Second American Revolution

Sept. 17 (EIRNS)—Italian Lega Nord (Northern League) Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and parliamentary caucus chairman Mario Borghezio called for Europe to follow the "people's revolt against financial oligarchies, as in the United States," in a speech yesterday on the floor of the EuroParliament. The plenary session had been called to discuss the next G20 meeting.

"We the people," Borghezio said, "do not believe in bailout policies for financial institutions, which are paid for by taxpayers. Instead, European governments should give enough resources to the real economy."

The Lega Nord representative presented figures on the $23 trillion which has been already allocated globally to bail out those responsible for the financial bubble, and he attacked the failed or incomplete measures to put a cap on executive bonuses and to eliminate tax havens. "What confidence could people have in regulation of the financial markets, which is entrusted to the priests of globalist temples, such as [Bank of Italy governor Mario] Draghi?" Borghezio asked.

"The truth is that high finance commands and politics obeys, both in the United States and in Europe, where politicians are the servants of the globalist banking power."

Borghezio also referred to the "popular revolt taking place in America against financial oligarchies," and concluded: "Europe, wake up! Follow the example of the American people, who are starting a second revolution of freedom!"

Berlusconi Seeking Exit from Afghanistan

Sept. 19 (EIRNS)—Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Italy wants to discuss a "transition strategy" so that all foreign troops could be progressively withdrawn from Afghanistan. His remarks came after six Italian soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber on Sept. 17 in Kabul. He said there was "no idea" about a possible withdrawal date. "It is an international problem," he said. "It is not a problem that a country which is present there can solve on its own. Doing so could betray the accord and trust of the other countries present." While the Italian contingent of 2,800 troops might be stuck in Herat province for a while, Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa promised that the 500 extra troops sent to help secure the recent Afghan election will be home by Christmas.

There will be a state funeral for the six dead soldiers in Rome on Sept. 21, which is likely to fuel the debate in Italy about its involvement in the Afghan War. According to Voice of America, a recent poll showed that 58% of Italians want the troops out of Afghanistan, a figure which is expected to rise.

Free Heroin from Britain's NHS?

Sept. 14 (EIRNS)—Great Britain's National Health Service might need to go through a name change to the National Heroin Service. The daily Independent reports that there is now a drumbeat by the British drug legalizers to make heroin available to addicts, from the National Health Service, at a time when patients can't always find cancer drugs available.

The government-appointed National Treatment Agency for Substance Abuse is calling for setting up a network of "shooting galleries" to provide injectable heroin for drug addicts. This is part of the George Soros-financed "harm reduction" campaign, which they admit does not cure the addiction. There are already pilot programs, the first set up in 2005 and run by Maudsley Hospital; two others were opened, in Darlington in 2006 and in Brighton in 2007. There are 150 addicts in these programs, who come to the hospitals twice a day for heroin or crack cocaine, and shoot up right there.

Thanks to Tony Blair, the NHS is ever finding new ways to kill. There are 280,000 addicts in Great Britain with 2,500 deaths a year.

France: Three Swine Flu Deaths in One Week

PARIS, Sept. 19 (EIRNS)—In one week, three French citizens, with no pre-existing medical conditions, died of A/H1N1 influenza, the so-called "swine flu." In Saint-Etienne, France, a 26-year-old man in good health became comatose two hours after being admitted to the hospital's intensive care unit, and died on Sept. 13. In Athens, Greece, authorities announced the death of a 29-year-old French tourist, who had been admitted to intensive care there. And on Sept. 18, a 32-year-old man died in the hospital in Saint Denis, the capital of France's island of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean.

Russia and the CIS News Digest

Some Brits Continue To Expose Gorbachov as British Asset

Sept. 15 (EIRNS)—As divisions rise among the British imperialists, where some want an alternative to what they see as the failed Blair-Obama policies, there has been exposure of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachov's role as a British asset against German unification, simultaneous with early declassification of British Foreign Office files on the period of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In a letter appearing in the Financial Times today, Gorbachov's role is exposed by Alex Pravda, a top British expert on Soviet foreign policy. Formerly at Chatham House, Pravda is now at St. Anthony's College, Oxford. He gives no source for his assertions, but they probably come from certain Kremlin documents which have just surfaced in London.

Alex Pravda writes:

"Sir, Philip Stephens rightly reminds us that Margaret Thatcher was not only hostile to German unification but also concerned to avoid destabilising Mikhail Gorbachev ('A misreading of the past holds a lesson for the future,' September 11).

"Well before she shared her misgivings about German unification with François Mitterrand, she made her views clear to Mr. Gorbachev. Halfway through a meeting with him in Moscow on September 23 1989, she asked that notes not be taken of what she wanted to say about German developments. Mrs. Thatcher then proceeded to confide that she and Mr. Mitterrand were opposed to unification as they saw it bringing border change, undermining stability and posing a threat to security. The Soviet leader made no comment.

"At a politburo meeting on the eve of the fall of the Berlin wall, Mr. Gorbachev explained western opposition to unification as an attempt to use the Soviet Union to obstruct the process and sow conflict between Moscow and Bonn to prevent their reaching a deal. He underestimated Mrs. Thatcher's visceral fear of the Germans, just as he overestimated Helmut Kohl's personal assurances that he would cooperate with Moscow to manage a gradual change in relations between the two Germanys.

"Mr. Gorbachev was surprised and angry at what he saw as Mr. Kohl's opportunistic use of chaos in the German Democratic Republic to swallow East Germany. Resigned to unification, Mr. Gorbachev then went on to agree to NATO membership for a united Germany, not as 'an admission of defeat'—as Mr. Stephens implies—but as a price worth paying for partnership with Bonn and Washington."

See InDepth for further discussion of the British revelations, in "London 'Adjusts' to Collapse of Obama Presidency."

Southwest Asia News Digest

LaRouche: Fundamental Issue for Afghanistan Is 'No U.S. Land War in Asia'

Lyndon LaRouche made the following remarks during a discussion with colleagues on Sept. 19 concerning "the fundamental issue of Afghanistan":

What we've had, is the United States has been destroyed, in a large degree since Franklin Roosevelt, but also it was tried earlier, by getting the United States into wars, land wars in Asia! And other places, but essentially land wars in Asia, has been the post-Roosevelt period attack. So therefore, we're now fighting a land war in Asia.

Now, Bill Clinton and Company will tend to argue on the basis of accepting, or negotiating, the improvement of policy for conducting land wars in Asia. And which he is, of course, opposed to getting into these things, but from a standpoint of politics, he says, you have to compromise with the people who want to have a land war in Asia. We say, "land war in Asia is a crime against humanity." We say, the issue of land war in Asia, was the reason that Kennedy was killed! Because he opposed launching a major land war in Asia, and for that, he was killed! And he was killed by international circles, which were tied to the British, but came through the French and Spanish-speaking side, in what was done in Dallas.

And so, we say, "Land wars in Asia are the chief device by which the British induce the United States, to shoot itself, not only in the foot, but the head." Therefore, we're against land wars in Asia. And when we look at the thing from that standpoint, we see that there never was a good reason for getting the United States in land wars in Asia.

Our war is with the British Empire. Or what we call the British Empire. And we have no other reason for war against anybody else, except defensive wars against attacks, by other forces. But we're suckers, because we're constantly drawn in by the Brits, into destroying ourselves for the greater glory of the British Empire, by getting into land wars in Asia! You look at this thing in 1966-1967, and you look at it from the standpoint of Kennedy was trying to revive the U.S. economy, from the damage done by previous circles, and got involved in a number of things, which just set him up. And on the question of the land war in Asia, he dug his heels in and said, "No!" He said, no to McNamara; he said no to all these other creeps. And they killed him! For that! Then we got into a land war in Asia! Because Johnson was afraid they were going to shoot him, too. And, we were going into that until 1975, in Indo-China.

Now, we got into a couple of Iraq wars, a land war in Asia; we're dragged down into a permanent land war in Asia, called the Arab-Israeli conflict, which is orchestrated by the British; and that's a central feature—we are involved more, mentally, in the Arab-Israeli thing, than in any actual war that we're directly involved in! Our mentality is controlled by that! Look at the way the Congress behaves, look at the way the politicians behave. A land war in Asia, is the ideology by which we are corrupted and destroyed!

So, now, you get into this kind of thing, where they want a compromise, on land war in Asia. And some people want to compromise with Obama on land war in Asia. So you have a McChrystal Standstill, while the war goes on, an ulcerated war. And you have all this thing about "who's our enemy?" We operate on a list that we got to defend the United States against our enemy. We have really one enemy! That enemy is the British Empire!

That's where the problem arises: The failure to see the historic issue here, between—it's in our Constitution—the issue between a credit system, which is our Constitutional system, and a monetarist system, which is an imperialist system! That's been the issue! That's been the issue internally, between Wall Street, for example, and this banking issue and so forth. The monetarist issue as against the credit system issue: The question of the U.S. sovereignty as a republic, as opposed to be part of a patchwork—of imperialists sowing together a patchwork.

LaRouche continued, in response to a question about the Korean War:

It was provoked, but it was done to try to destroy Douglas MacArthur. Because the British had lost World War II to Douglas MacArthur in the Pacific. And on top of everything, you had Australia had taken the position of the United States and MacArthur, against the position of Churchill, on this whole area.

Then you had Truman, and Churchill induced Truman to drop two nuclear weapons—the only ones we had, and they were experimental models—on Japan! A Japan which was already defeated! And for this purpose, Truman and Churchill and company, postponed the peace settlement, which had been negotiated through the Vatican, with Japan, with the Mikado, in order to have the opportunity to drop two nuclear weapons on the civilian population of Japan—huh?—in order to take the credit of this away from MacArthur. MacArthur, in a sense, was then destroyed, in his influence, deliberately, under the Truman administration, on behalf of Churchill, through the Korean War.

And that's one of the reasons that was taken into account by MacArthur, exactly that history, in advising President Kennedy no land war in Asia, for the United States!

No Breakthrough from Mitchell's Diplomacy

Sept. 18 (EIRNS)—There is still a chance that Washington will buckle under to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's flagrant disregard of the "Quartet's" Road Map, international agreements, and firm statements from the United States that there must be a freeze on all settlement expansion. But, as of Sept. 18, Middle East envoy George Mitchell ended a week of intense shuttle diplomacy, and left Israel shortly before sunset at the beginning of the Jewish New Year, without accepting Netanyahu's terms.

As expected, Netanyahu refused to agree to a settlement freeze, which the Quartet (United States, Russia, UN, and EU) has insisted is the foundation of a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians ever since the Road Map agreement was signed in 2004. That agreement, which called for Israel to withdraw from and freeze all settlement activity on Palestinian land, has been Mitchell's non-negotiable position since he was appointed as special envoy at the start of the Obama Presidency.

Mitchell's patience and toughness are legendary, but President Obama recently inserted a new position into the negotiating timetable: a high-profile tripartite meeting among himself, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, announcing the start of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at the United Nations General Assembly session in New York next week. Knowing Obama's desire for such talks led Netanyahu to think that he could get away without agreeing to the total settlement freeze. But, after four meetings with Netanyahu, Mitchell stood fast, and left Israel without compromising the fundamental demand of the U.S. government.

Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator, who was also involved in the meeting between Mitchell and Abbas on Friday, as well as earlier in the week, said, "They can have a photo opportunity, but they can't announce a resumption of talks."

Ergenekon Link to Drug Kingpin

Sept. 17 (EIRNS)—A top suspect of the Ergenekon terrorist group has been identified as linked with one of Turkey's drug kingpins. The Ergenekon has links to the Turkish security establishment and has been accused of planning military coups, running terrorist organizations, and drug trafficking. Over 100 of its members, including active duty and retired senior military officers, are currently standing trial for these crimes.

After seizing no less than three tons of amphetamine—enough to make 200 million Captogon pills worth close to $1.4 billion—Turkish police arrested drug baron Habib Kanat and three senior government officials, including Deputy National Police Chief Emin Arslan. The latter has been a suspect in the Ergenekon case. Arslan's son is reportedly a business partner of Kanat, as is Arslan himself. Another of those arrested was chemical engineer Huseyin Isik, who had been employed as a drug expert by the police through the intervention of Arslan, according to a report in today's Zaman newspaper.

Amphetamines are a key component of Southwest Asia's illicit drug market. While heroin and opium are smuggled to the West from Afghanistan, through Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, amphetamines, Ecstasy, and other chemical drugs manufactured in Europe are smuggled eastward to supply the market in Southwest Asia and Asia in general.

IAEA Denounces Press Disinformation on Iran

Sept. 17 (EIRNS)—In an unusually bold and frank statement, the press office of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which inspects Iran's and other nations' nuclear energy reactors and facilities, issued a press release that blasts media lies about Iran having a nuclear weapon.

The IAEA says: "With respect to a recent media report, the IAEA reiterates that it has no concrete proof that there is or has been a nuclear weapon programme in Iran. At the Board of Governors meeting on 9 September 2009, Director General Mohamed ElBaradei warned that continuing allegations that the IAEA was withholding information on Iran are politically motivated and totally baseless" (emphasis added).

"The Agency receives information from a variety of sources that may have relevance to the implementation of safeguards. All such information is critically assessed by a team of experts working collectively in accordance with the Agency's practices.

"The IAEA reiterates that all relevant information and assessments that have gone through the above process have already been provided to the IAEA Board of Governors in reports of the Director General."

Asia News Digest

Afghanistan: Brzezinski Sees Parallel to Soviet Failure

Sept. 13 (EIRNS)—Former U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, speaking on Sept. 11 at a conference in Geneva on global strategy, sponsored by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), said the U.S. military engagement in Afghanistan was reaching levels similar to the Soviet occupation of the 1980s.

Brzezinski, who was one of the architects of the anti-Soviet mujahideen-led resistance following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, spoke after the U.S. troop deaths for the month of August were announced. August was the deadliest month for the U.S. military in the nearly eight-year war, with 52 fatalities. So far in September, 25 coalition troops have been killed, including 14 Americans, according to CNN figures compiled from coalition reports.

Brzezinski recognized that there had already been a significant shift away from some of the unrealizable objectives for Afghanistan of the George W. Bush agenda. Brzezinski, who allegedly helped Barack Obama develop his own foreign policy positions during his Presidential campaign, insisted that further change was still needed to defuse the crises in the country. Brzezinski issued a stark warning, not just for Obama's Administration, but for the West as a whole: "We went into Afghanistan almost eight years ago, and we overthrew the Taliban with 300 soldiers," he said. "Eight years later, we are beginning to move to a level of military force which is beginning to approximate the Soviet engagement and already our top generals are saying we are not winning militarily." Yet, other alternatives, the non-war options for finding peace and stability in that part of the world, remain unexplored, he pointed out.

Zardari: Extremism Created for Strategic Objectives

Sept. 19 (EIRNS)—Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said, yesterday, that the extremists and militants were created in Pakistan decades ago by a deliberate policy to employ religious fanaticism for the achievement of strategic objectives. Zardari made this comment in his address and discourse with British intelligentsia gathered at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). "Militants and militancy were not created in a vacuum," the President said. "They have been the product of a deliberate policy to fight the rival ideology."

"The free world adopted a novel strategy that was based on the exploitation of religion to motivate Muslims around the world to wage jihad," stated Zardari. He reminded the audience that Afghan jihadi leaders were described by President Reagan as the "moral equivalents of George Washington."

New Japanese Government's Anti-Development Program Is Implemented

Sep. 18 (EIRNS)—The new government in Japan took office on Sept. 16, and immediately showed its green colors. The government run by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which is the first government not run by the Liberal Democrat Party (LDP) since the 1950s (other than a coalition in 1993 that ruled for less than a year), on its first day in office, began tearing down many of the policies associated with the LDP. While they are particularly targeting the globalization/privatization/ deregulation policies of the Koizumi government (2001-06), which nearly destroyed the former dirigist policies of the LDP, their green fanaticism is making any positive benefits of overthrowing the Koizumi reforms extremely unlikely.

Public works are being eliminated, under the slogan that this is wasteful spending of taxpayers' money. Not only is the new Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism, Seiji Maehara, shutting down two huge dam projects which were ready to begin, but he will review 143 other dam and aqueduct projects, suspending those "opposed by local residents," according to the government news service NHK.

Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii announced the abolition of the provisional gasoline tax rate, taxes which were used for road construction and maintenance.

Prime Minister Yokio Hatoyama is committed to reducing carbon emissions by 25% by 2020, and seems intent on doing it by shutting down economic development.

On the positive side, the DPJ has announced that it will immediately reverse the disastrous Postal System privatization implemented by Koizumi. The Postal Savings Bank provided billions of dollars annually from personal savings for low-interest investment in domestic infrastructure development, and re-nationalizing this system would be of huge potential benefit—if the new government intended to again use it for infrastructure. This is evidently not the case.

Certain parts of the $164 billion stimulus package implemented by the last LDP government in response to the global crisis, are to be suspended. It is not yet clear whether this will be the portion which was directed to real physical development, but that is likely, given the rest of their program. The new government's solution to the crisis is to provide huge subsidies to the population, at the expense of any real development.

On the strategic side, the new Foreign Minister, Katsuya Okada, told the London Financial Times that he would require a revision of the agreements with the U.S. military, especially in regard to the relocation of the U.S. Marines base in Okinawa. He also indicated that they will carry out their election pledge to end the Japanese support for the U.S. Afghan War, in the form of providing oil to U.S. ships in the Indian Ocean, when the contract ends in January. Also, the secret military agreements allowing the United States to bring nuclear weapons into Japan—long acknowledged, but always denied—are to be fully investigated and made public. This may be more damaging to the Japanese governments which denied them, than to the United States.

Another Ratchet in Breakdown Process Hits Japan's Government

Sept. 18 (EIRNS)—Shares in Japan's second largest consumer-finance company, Aiful Corp., were in free-fall today in the Tokyo market, as the company asked its creditors if it can delay payment of nearly $3 billion in loans. There were no buyers of the stock, only sellers. The shares fell the maximum amount allowed, 27%.

The newly installed Financial Services Minister, Shizuka Kamei, had stated after his appointment Sept. 16 that lenders are too reluctant to make loans, and that he wants to help small companies by allowing them to extend loan payments by three years to help them get through the credit crunch.

The previous government had put massive amounts of money into circulation, but "Japan's situation now is like a body in which blood isn't flowing to all the parts," Kamei noted. He added: "We wouldn't have to do this kind of thing if the financial industry had a sense of social and moral responsibility."

Like the other major economies, Japan has supported the large banks and financial institutions with massive stimulus measures. This has helped keep the appearance of the disaster less dire, but the small and medium-sized enterprises, and average citizens, have benefited little, or not at all, from these measures.

Aiful's problems are not particular to it, since all lenders to Japan's consumer market are being hit hard. Two of Aiful's rivals, which have capital ties with major banking groups, trimmed or erased earlier stock losses, after probably having been supported by those groups. But, the Aiful failure just points out how rotten the quality those larger banks' assets are. And when they go, it truly will be an awful day.

Insurgents Win Back Base in Northern Afghanistan

Sept. 18 (EIRNS)—Israeli counter-terrorism sources report that about 2,500 battle-hardened Uzbek fighters and members of the terrorist Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), have taken control of northern Afghanistan town of Kunduz. Kunduz stands in the way of the northern supply lines coming in from Central Asia, and was opened recently by the U.S. and NATO troops. This former northern headquarters of the Taliban, was the last northern Afghanistan town they relinquished.

The United States and NATO realized the importance of keeping Kunduz free of the insurgents, and had posted 4,200 U.S. and German agents to keep on eye on the situation. Why did such a massive intelligence failure occur?

One answer comes from Lt.-Gen. Hadi Khalid, who was the Afghan Deputy Minister of the Interior for Security from May 2006 to June 2008. He told the media: "I personally think the ISI [Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence] must be behind these renewed theaters of insurgency. By creating trouble near the borders with our Central Asian neighbors, Pakistanis can say, 'Look, you see, there is instability all over Afghanistan, not just along the Durand Line.' By stirring up instability in formerly stable areas, it may make the new NATO negotiations with CIS [former Soviet] countries seem less appealing. Again, Pakistan does not want to lose the revenue from the Western military freight that transits through its territory. It also does not want to seem less of a crucial ally of the United States because Pakistan is deathly afraid of India, as we all know."

Africa News Digest

Suicide Bombers in Somalia Attack AU Peacekeepers

Sept. 18 (EIRNS)—An extremist group, Shabab, which claims to be Islamic, but is operating against the first moderate Islamic provisional government in Somalia since that nation's 1991 descent into "failed state" status, yesterday detonated two suicide car bombs inside the headquarters area of the African Union (AU) Peacekeepers headquarters at the Mogadishu Airport.

The AU peacekeeping force is the critical element which is keeping the provisional government alive. Its targetting is a critical feature of the British imperial plans to keep the Horn of Africa nations around Sudan unstable. The bombers hit the headquarters at the time that a meeting was being held by the peacekeeping leadership, to map out plans to help expand the government's control in Mogadishu. This suggests that those who organized the suicide bombing were privy to inside information.

Shabab used two UN vehicles it had previously seized, to create the suicide bombs. Seventeen of the 21 people killed were AU peacekeepers, including five Ugandans and 12 Burundians, according to reports. A Burundi general was one of those killed; the Ugandan commander of the force was injured. Security had permitted the two vehicles to enter the secure area because of their UN markings. Somali Defense Minister Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siad said that Shabab had seized more UN vehicles in recent months, and is building eight more car-bombs.

Radicals from Pakistan and Afghanistan, among other places, have been coming to Somalia to introduce what, for Somalia, are new terrorist technologies. Before the 2007 Ethiopian military intervention into Somalia, supported from the United States by Dick Cheney, there had never been a suicide bombing in Somalia, despite the chaotic situation there since 1991. Shabab also receives ample funding from British hot-money centers in the Arab Gulf, according to reports.

Shabab diverted attention from the strategic nature of the bombing attack by claiming that it was carried out as revenge for a Sept. 14 U.S. helicopter raid in Somalia which killed a Kenyan suspect who was reputedly involved in the 2002 bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya. A U.S. logistics company at the Mogadishu Airport was also a target of the bombing.

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