China, India Pact on Climate Change Policy—Others Could Join

Oct. 22 (EIRNS)—The world's two largest nations, China and India, signed, in New Delhi, yesterday, an agreement to coordinate policies on "climate change." The two nations' policies are similar: If the so-called advanced-sector nations want a drastic climate change pact, they should take responsibility, and impose it on themselves. Developing nations should not have to impose binding carbon emissions caps, and, instead, must prioritize economic development. They are also asking for financial aid and technology transfers to limit pollution that is caused by less-advanced technologies.

Xie Zhenhua, vice minister of China's National Development and Reform Commission, and Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, signed a Memorandum of Agreement at their meeting on an action plan on climate change. They also set up a Joint Working Group to meet each year on major issues of global climate talks, domestic policies and measures, and cooperative projects, the Foreign Ministry in Beijing announced today.

This agreement is an indication of the real potential for Chinese-Indian relations, which lately have been plagued by eruptions on both sides about disputed border areas in northeastern Arunachal Pradesh, which go back to British Empire machinations in the 19th and 20th centuries. Yesterday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that Minister Yang Jiechi will discuss bilateral and regional issues "in an extensive way" with his Indian counterpart, S.M. Krishna, when they meet Oct. 27 for their yearly trilateral meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Bangalore. Krishna is now in Moscow, where he is preparing the December visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and holding economic and military talks.

SE Asian Nations Turn the Table on Human Rights Mafia

Oct. 23 (EIRNS)—On the first day of the summit of the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Thailand, two events coincided to deal a blow to British imperial interference in the affairs of the former European colonies of Asia. First, a scheduled meeting of the heads of state, with self-selected representatives of "civil society NGOs," collapsed, as five of the national leaders refused to attend with the NGO representatives, several of whom were well-known spokesmen for British drug promoter and hedge fund criminal George Soros.

Far more importantly, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, when he arrived at the Thai resort Cha-am for the summit, announced that he had invited the deposed Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, to live in Cambodia and become an economic advisor to the government. This sent the usurper, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva (who was born, raised, and educated in London), into a raving fit, accusing Hun Sen of interfering in Thailand's affairs, threatening to invoke an extradition treaty if Thaksin shows up in Cambodia, and warning Hun Sen not to be "used as a pawn."

The clincher was Hun Sen's response to this rant: "Millions of Thai people in the red-shirt movement support Thaksin, and why can't I, a friend from afar, support Thaksin? Without the coup d'état of 2006 such things would not have happened." He reminded the current Thai prime minister that the extradition treaty had a clause excluding those who were charged for political reasons.

Hun Sen then noted that ASEAN was constantly being lectured that it should condemn Myanmar for the house arrest of (British agent) Aung San Suu Kyi, so why should there be any concern for discussing the blatant military coup against Thailand's popular Prime Minister Thaksin? He added that it was well known that Thaksin had been a close friend of Cambodia—a reference to the fact that Thailand's current Foreign Minister has been behind efforts to start a war with Cambodia over old territorial issues.

There are other international implications. Hun Sen just returned from a visit to China, and praised the Chinese investments in Southeast Asian infrastructure development, which come "without demands on human rights and other strings." Also, the head of Thaksin's party in Thailand, Chavalit Yongchaiyuth, just visited Cambodia, as did South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak, who has been a friend of Hun Sen and an economic advisor to Cambodia for many years, even before being elected President.

Thus, the colonial "human rights" mafia run out of London has been told to drop dead, while Hun Sen and his allies have turned the tables on the real human rights violators—the British monarchs and their financial lords who are running the monarchical dictatorship in Thailand and trying to subvert sovereignty across the region.

George Shultz Is Still Killing Filipinos

Oct. 23 (EIRNS)—The recent floods in Manila, which have killed hundreds, with the death toll from disease still rising, were yet another result of the 1986 coup against Philippines nationalist leader and President Ferdinand Marcos, a coup orchestrated by George Shultz, then U.S. Secretary of State, and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz. EIR has documented how that coup was meant to convey to the world that the United States would no longer allow Third World nations, even one as close to the U.S. as the Philippines, to develop peaceful nuclear power, or to become food self-sufficient, two major accomplishments of the Marcos regime.

It has now been revealed that Marcos had initiated extensive flood-control infrastructure to prevent the destruction of low-lying regions of Manila, but that the project was scrapped by the government of Cory Aquino, who was placed in office after the removal of Marcos. Aquino also shut down the Bataan Nuclear Plant (the first nuclear plant built in a developing country), and ended the "Green Revolution," which had made the Philippines self-sufficient in rice for the first time in its history.

Urban planner Felino Palafax issued reports showing that Marcos, following devastating floods in 1970 after a typhoon, set up institutions to prevent a recurrence. Two primary policies were established: preventing urban sprawl in areas prone to flooding and incapable of sustaining adequate sewage systems; and creating a system of sluice gates and spillways to quickly divert floodwaters from the city.

"Some are saying [the flooding] is an act of God," said Palafax. "It's not. It's neglect on the part of the government. We've told government all along this would happen because of the flooding the same month in 1970. Because the recommendation was not heeded, what occurred was virtually a massacre."

The water-management program initiated under Marcos included four major infrastructure projects for diverting flood waters from the Marikina and Pasig River systems into a large lake, Laguna de Bay. The first three parts were completed in 1986, the year of the coup against Marcos. The fourth and final part—a spillway from lake to ocean in case the lake overflowed—was one of the many projects with the name "Marcos" attached that were scrapped by Aquino, on behalf of her sponsors in London and Washington. The resulting death and destruction this month in Manila places more blood on the hands of Shultz and his imperial financier friends.

Ex-DEA Official: Taliban Now a Drug-Trafficking Organization

Oct. 21 (EIRNS)—At a hearing before the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control today in Washington, former Drug Enforcement Administration Chief of Operations Michael A. Braun identified the opium and heroin traffic in Afghanistan, not only as a source of income for the Taliban insurgents, but said that the Taliban are the narcotraffickers. Braun spent 34 years in the DEA, retired in November 2008, and now works for Spectre Group International, which is a contractor in Afghanistan. Braun identified the United Arab Emirates—the location of the Dubai money-laundering center—as the major destination of Afghanistan drug money, and stated that the DEA had traced one Taliban-linked financier/money-launderer who was handling $500 million in dope funds heading to the U.A.E.

Questioned by EIR about the Obama Administration's announcement that it has set aside the issue of eradication, Braun replied: "Why take the eradication weapon out of the arsenal of stopping drugs?" saying that ultimately no anti-narcotics effort can succeed without eradication. While the DEA has never been directly involved in eradicating crops in any foreign country, there has never been a successful effort without it. It is one pillar of "a three-legged stool," said Braun—the other two legs are interdiction and prevention.

It was clear from the hearing that the Senate has neglected oversight in this critical area, which has been almost completely left out of every presentation, Congressional hearing, and Administration speech about the situation in Afghanistan. One example of the neglect is that Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said in his opening statement that the Afghanistan opium crop is worth $3 billion, which is a ridiculous underestimate. Washington intelligence sources have told EIR that Afghanis, including the Taliban, are involved in every aspect of the narco business, from cultivation, to heroin refining, to trafficking, to alliances with Western European, Central Asian, and Russian traffickers in the retail marketing. This multi-level operation generates revenues at minimum in multiple tens of billions of dollars.