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From Volume 38, Issue 2 of EIR Online, Published Jan. 14, 2011

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A Wedding Anniversary:
The Sixth Sense
by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.

Birds which migrate, seasonally, as to North, or to South, have been struggling, wittingly, or not, to teach us humans an important lesson. The fact is, that there is a Sixth Sense, in the cosmic, electromagnetic domain per se. Birds use it; but, humans probably appeared on this planet later than birds like that. After all, notably, Helga did warn us to respect, and to protect our neighboring birds, as good Franciscans would do. Those birds do, after all, reduce the infestation of our lives with what Helga has classed, generically, as ``bugs.''

Preface: It was Percy Bysshe Shelley, most notably, who emphasized the importance of what amounts to, in effect, a ``Sixth'' human sense, as he did in the concluding paragraph of his A Defence of Poetry. Since migratory birds, in particular, usually regulate their seasonal flights according to an approximately north-south, magnetic-field orientation of those flights, we must confess, at the very least, that electromagnetic radiation plays an important role in our universe, the role of what might be named man's ``sixth sense,'' a quality of sense which is evaded by citizens' heretofore popular emphasis on particular forms of communication.

After all, the migratory birds do use cosmic radiation as an important category of communication. Why not we? Or, perhaps we do, sometimes, unwittingly? ...

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Vol. 38, No. 2

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This Week's Cover

International

Economics

  • U.S. States, Cities Blow Out;
    No Recourse but Glass-Steagall

    The 50 states and 90,000 other non-Federal government entities of the United States are now unable to maintain any pretense of functioning and paying up on financial claims, and are experiencing, instead, a process of disintegration of horrific proportions. Not just a financial crisis, but a physicaleconomic collapse—the lawful result of more than 40 years of a post-industrial decline, and the looting of living standards by the imperial monetarist system.
  • Book Review:
    The Injustice That Is Homelessness

    A review of Looking Up at the Bottom Line: The Struggle for the Living Wage, and interview with the author, Richard Troxell, an advocate for the homeless.

National

This Week's News

U.S. Economic/Financial News

Just When You Thought Obama's Bank Bailout Was Over...

Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—Bank of America, one of Wall Street's biggest bailed-out zombie megabanks, on Dec. 29, settled all claims on $127 billion of largely fraudulent mortgages which it had sold to Uncle Sam, for less than $1.3 billion, or about a penny on the dollar. Bank of America's check went to the bailed-out, government-owned Freddie Mac Corporation. With that $1.3 billion, Bank of America supposedly made good on $127 billion of mortgages sold by the notoriously fraudulent Countrywide lender which Bank of America had acquired in 2008. The possible claims which Bank of America got away with settling in this way, for a miniscule fee amounting to far less than a city sales tax, were not even limited to $127 billion. $127 billion is only the current, paid-down amount of the mortgages in question.

This at a time when Pimco, Black Rock, and even the New York Fed are suing Bank of America over $47 billion of phony Countrywide mortgages they bought, as is MBIA Insurance in another lawsuit. And they certainly didn't go to court for any mere one percent!

What this means is that the unlimited bailout of government-owned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which Congress bought into after TARP supposedly ended, is being used by Obama to continue multibillion-dollar backdoor bailouts of bankrupt Wall Street banks. And just so, earlier that same week, on Dec. 27, Ally Financial, formerly known as GMAC, announced that its mortgage unit would be allowed to pay Fannie Mae $461.5 million to eliminate its liability for mortgage loans with unpaid principal of $84 billion: a slap on the wrist of about five and one-half percent, compared to one percent for Bank of America.

Even much larger, tens of trillions versus the mere tens of billions going out through Fannie and Freddie, are the continuing bailouts by the Federal Reserve, which is lending at zero-percent interest rates against junk collateral, primarily to foreign banks. This flood of bailout cash is about to provoke a hyperinflationary blowout like that of Weimar Germany in 1923, unless the policy is reversed suddenly by reintroduction of Franklin Roosevelt's 1933 Glass-Steagall Act to re-separate legitimate commercial banking from speculative casino games.

'How Long? Very Long,' Time To Wait for Obama To Create Jobs

Jan. 7 (EIRNS)—Jobless Americans continued to give up and drop out of the labor force en masse in December, as Obama's Bush-like economic policies again failed to create employment. The loss of discouraged Americans from the labor force was 434,000 in December, and reached 1.45 million during all of 2010, Obama's year of insane claims of "jobs recovery." In December, this mass exodus of discouraged workers was the sole reason for the sharp "headline" drop of the official unemployment rate from 9.8% to 9.4%. The overall U.S. labor force consequently shrank in December by 260,000, and labor force participation again fell by 0.1% to 64.3%.

The Bureau of Labor Statistic (BLS) report for December claimed 103,000 net growth in employment, again below the level needed to employ the normal rate of growth of the labor force, which is about 140,000 per month. Wall Street "economists'" expectations had been euphorically ranging from 170-300,000, before the sobering actual report appeared.

Employment at various levels of government dropped by 10,000 in December, the sixth straight month of declines, reflecting the devastation of state and municipal budgets and their layoffs of vital public employees. The other notable decline was the loss of 16,000 construction jobs, of which 12,700 losses were of "heavy civil construction engineering" positions, which would be in the center of planning and executing major infrastructure projects like those of the North American Power and Water Alliance (NAWAPA). Construction employment is down to 5.6 million people nationally, a 27% decline from 7.7 million employment in August 2006, according to Ken Simonson, chief economist of General Contractors' Association, who called for major infrastructure investment as the only way back. Construction lost 93,000 jobs in 2010, under the tender care of Obama's stimulus act and "recovery."

Visiting the Thompson Creek Window Company in Maryland, the clueless Obama characterized the employment report as follows: "The economy added more than 100,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell sharply.... The trend is clear. We saw 12 straight months of private sector job growth. The economy added 1.3 million jobs last year, and each quarter was stronger than the previous quarter, which means that the pace of hiring is beginning to pick up. We're also seeing more optimistic economic forecasts for the year ahead, in part due to the package of tax cuts I signed last month."

Wall Street Preparing $4 Billion of Commercial MBS's—Largest Since Blow Out of 2008

Jan. 5 (EIRNS)—The Obama/Bernanke Fed free-money policy is rapidly re-building the bubbles that blew out in the 2007-8 crash. Bloomberg reports that Deutsche Bank, UBS, and JP Morgan Chase are preparing to issue $4 billion in commercial real estate mortgage-backed securities—the largest such sale since the 2008 blowout of the home-based MBS bubble. Coming at a time when the commercial real estate market is blowing apart, this new derivative scam is aimed at holding it together for a few more weeks, and making a bundle of cash for Wall Street in the process. Bloomberg even notes that "Sales of commercial mortgage-backed securities are a boon for property owners that have struggled to refinance maturing loans amid a dearth of new lending. About $61.3 billion in property loans packaged into bonds comes due in 2011, according to JPMorgan."

Deutsche Bank and UBS are teaming up to issue as much as $2.5 billion in commercial mortgage-backed securities linked to loans on office buildings, shopping malls and hotels, while JPMorgan plans to sell $1.5 billion in similar debt. Bloomberg gloats that "Wall Street banks are building a pipeline of property loans to package into bonds as investors seek higher yields while the Federal Reserve holds its benchmark interest rate near zero. Sales of securities backed by mortgages on commercial property may quadruple to $45 billion in 2011, according to JPMorgan."

They add that Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Wells Fargo are all planning to get in on the new scam.

Global Economic News

World Food Prices at Historic High; Speculators Cash in

Jan. 5 (EIRNS)—The world average food price has skyrocketed past the historic high from the 2008 food crisis which sparked deadly riots around the world. The UN's FAO released its monthly Food Price Index on Jan. 5, an index of 55 food commodities, which showed the sixth straight month of staggering increases. The chart in the report shows prices in 2006 hovering at about 120 in the FAO index, with prices rising steadily through 2007, peaking at 213.5 in June of 2008, then falling back. That year-long increase has been matched and surpassed this year, at 214.7, in a mere six months, and is still climbing.

The FAO notes that prices are not about to slow down, but points only to supply and demand as the cause. While there are indeed real supply problems, the price spikes are entirely due to the hyperinflation driven by crazy Obama's bailout money flooding the world with liquidity, while production is being gutted outside of Asia.

Wheat prices are one of the leading drivers of the price increase. Although the price of rice, the other primary grain together with wheat, has remained fairly stable, the world's leading rice exporter, Vietnam, has just announced that it will have to cut exports by a massive 1.3 million tons—20% of its 2010 exports—due to dwindling supplies.

Spanish Government Throws Unemployed to the Wolves

Jan. 5 (EIRNS)—On Feb. 15, Spain's Zapatero government will terminate a program providing subsidies of EU426 to the long-term unemployed—in order to "reduce the government budget deficit," so as to have sufficient billions to keep paying tribute to London's Inter-Alpha banking empire.

That subsidy is often the only thing still standing between millions of desperately unemployed people, and outright destitution and hunger. Spain has the highest official unemployment rate in Europe, at 21% and rising, with youth unemployment at a staggering 43%. Of the total 4.1 million officially unemployed, about 75% today receive either unemployment benefits or, after these run out, the mentioned government subsidy, known as the PRODI program.

Unemployment benefits and PRODI, combined, cost the government EU15 billion back in 2007, or about 1.5% of GDP at the time; by 2010, that total had more than doubled, to about 33 billion—simply because unemployment has skyrocketed. So London wants this government expenditure axed: thus, the end of the PRODI on Feb. 15, if not yet of all unemployment benefits.

Zapatero, who a year ago promised he would extend the PRODI for as long as unemployment was over 17%, has now reversed himself, on British orders, proclaiming that in 2011 "there are going to be greater opportunities for finding a job"—so who needs the PRODI?

As Ambrose Evans-Pritchard noted in the Jan. 3 London Daily Telegraph: "The dog that hasn't barked yet is the jobless army in Spain, the 43% of youths without work. Bark it will when the 420 dole extension expires in February."

Euro Blowout: Today, Tomorrow, Next Week?

Jan. 3 (EIRNS)—Lyndon LaRouche has been warning about it for months: the British Empire's eurozone is on a short fuse to blow out entirely, and bring the U.S. down with it. In mid-December, he specified that the year-end period and the first days and weeks of 2011 were the critical inflection point when the "dead man walking" would crumble into dust.

Now, you can almost hear financial circles muttering in dismay: "Uh-oh. Looks like LaRouche was right again."

For example: The London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) issued a Dec. 31 release which states: "So here are our top ten predictions for 2011: 1) Yet another eurozone crisis in the spring if not before, when Spain and Italy have to refinance in aggregate over EU400 billion of bonds. The euro might break up at this point." The CEBR is headed by Douglas McWilliams, and made headlines in 2010 when it urged Greece to default and pull-out of the euro system, in its capacity as adviser to the Greek government.

Or take the case of CNNMoney.com blogger Colin Barr, who warns: "Is a bank run about to bring Europe to its knees? Some market watchers say yes, pointing ominously to the torrents of money pouring out of Ireland"—a fact documented by the LaRouche movement weeks ago. Barr quotes Scott Minerd, chief investment officer at Guggenheim Partners, who asks: "If there is a wholesale run on the Irish banking system, then what stops the same scenario from cascading into Portugal, Greece, Italy, and most importantly Spain?" Minerd concludes: "A broader crisis in Europe appears to be imminent in 2011."

United States News Digest

Bernanke Grants Senate an Audience, But Reality Busts In

Jan. 7 (EIRNS)—U.S. Senators, this time from the Budget Committee, gathered this morning for one of their periodic rituals of kissing Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's foot—only this time, reality intruded, with a bang. West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin overturned the scenario by insisting on the plain truth: that the Federal states are utterly insolvent. Within minutes, it became inescapably clear that no one, including the incompetent Bernanke, had any idea what to do. "No one," that is, except those who have the wisdom and courage to join LaRouche in insisting on reinstatement of Roosevelt's 1933 Glass-Steagall law as the unique solution to the crisis.

Manchin was West Virginia's governor when he became one of the few newly elected Democrats last November, after a hard-fought election in which he ran against Obama policies to a great extent. He had chaired the National Governors' Association.

This is the way he put it at one point:

"If I could ask one question, Mr. Chairman—and to Mr. Bernanke—is that—I think what we were asking—and the Senator from Texas was asking the same—is there any plan—I know it hasn't happened—it's been many, many years, and maybe—but we're seeing indications and concerns that we have right now, and states have done everything humanly possible, because they have to meet a balanced budget, you know, every year, and they've cut to the—to the bone, if you will.

"And if the cash flow is just not there, to suffice with the amount of services they have to give, is there any bailout or any other proposal that you all have or have been looking at? And I think that's what we're saying. Is there any plan available that could help a state that would prevent this from happening, falling into default, or could you do that?"

Senators John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Committee chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), although unlikely allies for him, backed up Manchin's concern. Cornyn asked Bernanke whether, having already bought foreign debt, he could buy U.S. state and municipal debt. Bernanke said no.

Conrad, although one of the worst members of President Obama's Deficit Reduction Commission, said that the Budget Committee would have to have an answer to the bankruptcy of the states, since state governments would surely be coming to ask. And soon. But because no one forced Glass-Steagall into the discussion, every participant reiterated that neither house of Congress would seriously consider a bailout for the states. In that circumstance, the best that Manchin could suggest was "creative financing."

Rep. Garrett Proposes To Eliminate General Welfare Clause

Jan. 6 (EIRNS)—While the House Republican leadership was reading the entirety of the U.S. Constitution on floor of the House, and with the House Republican Conference pledging to change the House rules so that anyone introducing a bill would have to cite the authority under the Constitution for that bill, Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) proposed an amendment to the proposed rule-change on Jan. 5, to forbid a member of the Congress from citing "the General Welfare Clause" or the "Necessary and Proper Clause" as his authority. The Republican Conference did not agree to his changes, but he has vowed to press for them.

Garrett's proposal is either illiterate, or traitorous, since these two clauses of the Constitution reflect the commitment of the most important part of that document, the statement of principle in the Preamble. Without their inclusion, the leading economic policies which have made the United States great, would never have been accomplished.

Garrett has also founded the new Congressional Constitutional Caucus, thus presenting himself as a leader in Constitutional reform in Congress. He would more correctly call it the Confederate Constitutional Caucus.

Vote Against Pelosi Biggest in Nearly 90 Years

Jan. 6 (EIRNS)—Yesterday, 19 Democrats, nearly 10% of the Democratic caucus, voted against Nancy Pelosi continuing as the House Democratic leader. This was the most votes against a party's own candidate in nearly 90 years, according to the House historian's office. In 1923, 23 Republicans voted against Massachusetts Republican Frederick Gillett's candidacy for speaker.

The vote against Pelosi would have been higher, but for the fact that committee assignments for the 112th Congress have not yet been made, and lawmakers feared they could be denied a spot on the panel of their choice. Forty-three Democrats had voted against her for the position in a caucus meeting late last year.

When Police Staffing Drops, Crime Spikes Upwards

Jan. 5 (EIRNS)—Mayors and city managers all over the country have claimed that their budget cuts to public safety services won't have any impact on the public safety. Yet, the news from several places gives the lie to that claim. Oakland, Calif., for example, made national headlines when it laid off 80 police officers, 10% of its police force, and it has since lost another 38 due to attrition. The Oakland Tribune reported on Jan. 3 that the number of homicides in the city in 2010 was 95, a drop of 15% from the 2009 level of 110. This looks good at first, except that the total number of shootings in 2010 was 433, or 22% more than in 2009. Trauma surgeons at the city's Highland Hospital accounted for the reduction in the number of homicides, not any reduction in crime. Police violence-suppression projects, which, among other things, took dozens of guns off the streets in the first half of 2010, were one of the casualties of the layoffs. There have been no such operations since the layoffs took effect in July.

Similarly, in New Jersey, where 2,200 law enforcement positions have been cut just this year, crime has spiked upwards. The chairman of the state legislature's two public safety commissions, in a joint statement released yesterday, called on Gov. Chris Christie (R) and Attorney General Paula Dow to deal with a 14% increase in the number of homicides in new Jersey, this year. The Newark Star-Ledger reported that there were 364 homicides in the state in 2010, compared to 320 in 2009. The two lawmakers, Sen. John Girgenti of Passaic and Assemblyman Gordon Johnson of Bergen, warned that statewide police layoffs and a stagnant economy could lead to continued increase in crime, and asked the Christie Administration to come up with a plan to deal with it.

"While the spike in homicides this year is truly disturbing, it is not altogether surprising, especially given the significant cuts in state aid that are causing massive layoffs in law enforcement in some of our largest cities," they wrote. "Cost-saving measures cannot trump public safety in the end."

Obama Worse than Bush on Secret Deals To Cut Social Security

Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—Defenders of Social Security fear that President Obama will betray them, by cutting a deal with Republicans to cut Social Security, in exchange for a vote increasing the debt ceiling, The Hill reports.

Maria Freese of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said she thinks Social Security is "more at risk than it was in 2005," when President Bush proposed drastic changes to the Social Security program, including personal accounts.

"What I am really afraid of is another deal behind closed doors," said Nancy Altman, the codirector of Social Security Works, referring to Obama's tax-cut deal with Senate Republicans, which put Social Security at risk. "At least with President Bush, he went around the country on a tour and presented his plan, and people didn't like it," and so it never even came to a vote in Congress.

The Hill cites the comments by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who said on Jan. 2 that he is prepared to see the U.S. default on its debt obligations if Social Security isn't "reformed." "I will not vote for the debt-ceiling increase until I see a plan in place that will deal with our long-term debt obligation, starting with Social Security, a real bipartisan effort to make sure that Social Security stays solvent, adjusting the age, looking at means test for benefits," Graham said on NBC's Meet the Press.

Ibero-American News Digest

Brazil's Collapsing Inter-Alpha Ponzi Scheme Panics Government

Jan. 6 (EIRNS)—The new government of President Dilma Rousseff, sworn in on Jan. 1, has announced measures to try to mitigate the disastrous impact of the vast speculative capital flows flooding Brazil as a result of the Inter-Alpha Group's carry trade. The measures not only won't work; they will make the problem worse.

The Central Bank announced that banks operating in Brazil will have to set aside with that entity, 60% of the value of their derivative bets on the exchange rate of the dollar to Brazil's currency, the real. This particular gambling bet seems to be the flavor-of-the-month among international speculators, with some $17 billion of derivatives betting that the dollar will keep devaluing against the real on the books as of Dec. 30. Central Bank bean-counters such as director Aldo Mendes argue that the measure is designed to halt any further revaluation of the real, which has risen 37% against the dollar since January 2009.

But Mendes openly fretted that, if the banks were allowed to retain large dollar positions, billions in hot money could also flee Brazil quicker than you can say Jacob Rothschild, "if volatility in global markets" arises.

"If?"

To try to placate London's financial vultures, the government also announced that steps to privatize chunks of the air transport system were underway, promising that "everything is on the table" for cuts in the 2011 budget.

None of these measures will affect the carry trade. Brazil's interest rates, which are the highest in the world, suck in international capital and provide spectacular returns, looted out of the living standard and the natural resources of the Brazilian people, while starving the domestic economy for operating capital. Rousseff doesn't dare touch the interest rate issue, because she knows that it is a casus belli for London and other banking interests. In fact, she is widely expected to raise current rates from 10.75% to 12.75% in February—at precisely the point that the government has to roll over about $30 billion in bonds in the next month.

Brazil High Court: Human Dignity Comes Before Santander's Usury

Jan. 7 (EIRNS)—Brazil's Superior Court of Justice, the nation's highest court for non-constitutional matters, today ruled that the preservation of human dignity must be considered, in enforcing debt collection. The assertion of the fundamental principle that life comes before contracts, asserted here in limited fashion, would bring the entire British monetarist system to a quick end, were it to be rigorously applied. As it is, the decision, issued in a case brought against the Inter-Alpha Group's Santander Bank, deals another blow to the giant Brazilian consumer bubble, by placing limits on the Brazilian banks' current collection of usurious debt, at all costs.

The ruling came in response to a suit filed by a public sector worker against the Santander Bank, which has been deducting nearly 50% of her paycheck for debt payments before she ever sees it. The law says that banks cannot deduct more than 30% (already outrageously high!) under the automatic payroll-deduction loan scheme created in 2002, which has driven millions of poorer Brazilians into debt slavery, but created the wildly lucrative securitized consumer-loan bubble, which is now popping. Santander and other banks have been sucking everything they could out of people's salaries—in some cases up to 100%!—to feed the international carry trade, and the Inter-Alpha Group Ponzi scheme in particular.

A Brazilian state court had ruled that Santander was acting within its rights, but the Superior Tribunal overturned that decision, and, in a press release today, stated that "the primary nature of wages and the principle of reasonableness have to be taken into account, to reach a balance between the objectives of a signed contract and the dignity of the person."

Haiti's Prime Minister: 'We're Tired of Counting Deaths'

Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—In a Dec. 27 interview with the BBC, Haiti's Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive pointed to the criminal nature of the British-directed international "aid" apparatus, which has flooded his country with over 12,000 money-grubbing NGOs, the majority of which, have done nothing remotely connected to Haiti's needs as a sovereign nation.

Bellerive's interview occurred against the backdrop of a worsening cholera epidemic, which is producing a catastrophic death rate in rural areas. The contrast with what might have been, had Lyndon LaRouche's February 2010 call for the emergency mobilization of the Army Corps of Engineers to relocate Haiti's homeless and begin a real reconstruction program, is stark. More than 3,300 people have died from cholera, and 16,000 have been infected.

In response to the BBC reporter's insinuation that the Haitian government is responsible for the slow progress in rebuilding the country following the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake, Bellerive replied that Haiti has only received 20% of what it should have received, after international donors pledged $500 billion over a three-year period. "We, as a government, don't receive the money. It goes to the NGOs," he said. "But then, we're accused of corruption!"

Look at the insane U.S. legislators who demand that humanitarian aid be cut off until Haitian politicians show they deserve it, the Prime Minister said. This is a form of "blackmail" against Haiti. And, in light of recent Presidential elections, whose results were questioned by opposition parties, he predicted that "some people will say, since we don't know who is [legitimately elected], let's go back to business as usual, and let's continue working with the NGOs."

What about sovereignty? Yes, we need the NGOs, he said. "But what I need is to have control over what they do in my country, where they do it, and with whom they are doing it, and at what cost." Noting that he's constantly asked why there are no "visible results" from donated money, he replied, "[I]t's very difficult to give an explanation for the use of money that I never see."

Goldman Sachs in Bed with the Empire's Fascist Ecologists

Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—It should surprise no one that Wall Street criminal Goldman Sachs, which founded London's crazy BRIC (Brazil-Russia-India-China) scheme, is in bed with some of the British Empire's fascist environmental groups, to ensure that, under the guise of "preserving nature," large tracts of land in South America are "protected" from economic development for the betterment of the citizens of those nations.

In both Chile and Argentina, Goldman has partnered with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and The Nature Conservancy to create national parks and wildlife preserves in the oil and mineral-rich Tierra del Fuego and Patagonian regions of these nations. This is supposedly to ensure that millions of acres can be handed down to future generations in their pristine state, untouched by such projects as hydroelectric plants, transportation, housing, agriculture, or development of the wealth of natural resources found in these regions.

To understand what's involved here, look at the origins of the WCS, which was founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society—later the Bronx Zoo. Its founder, Henry Fairfield Osborn, was curator of the American Museum of Natural History, whose racist outlook was shared by British agent Teddy Roosevelt. As President, "TR" locked up much of the western United States in national parks that could not be developed economically, and was one of the key figures involved in the Zoological Society's founding. In 1904, it was Bronx Zoo director William Hornaday who put African pygmy Ota Banga on display in a cage in the zoo's monkey house, as an example of Africa's "emblematic savages!"

It is this bestial conception of man that Goldman Sachs shares with WCS.

In 2004, the Goldman handed over 700,000 acres in Chile's Tierra del Fuego region to the WCS, after acquiring the land when it bought the distressed assets of a U.S. company. The WCS website notes that what is now Chile's Karukinka reserve "is a major accomplishment for the conservation of Patagonia as a whole," protecting it from exploitation of natural resources, commercial fishing, oil production or mining, livestock grazing and other human activity. Through public-private partnerships, the region will now be safe for such "sustainable" activities as eco-tourism, WCS brags.

In Argentina, WCS reports it has actively promoted the creation of parks and reserves since the 1960s, and has established several in the vastly underpopulated and mineral-rich Patagonia. The Nature Conservancy, whose current chief executive is Mark Tercek, former head of Goldman Sachs' Center for Environmental Markets, is also up to its ears in Argentina's Patagonia, where it boasts of preserving 40 million acres.

The Nature Conservancy's British pedigree is striking. It was established under a royal charter in 1949, becoming one of four official research bodies under the British Privy Council, which reports directly to the Queen. In the post-war period, the Conservancy became one of the most powerful of the Crown's covert operations, later spawning the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), among other groups.

With good reason, Argentine writer Jorge Orduna, author of the book Ecofascismo, concludes from his own investigation of these same groups, that their purpose is to depopulate all the "useless eaters" from the developing sector, to ultimately reduce the world's population down to 1 billion.

Western European News Digest

Are Austrian Nazi-Era Graves from Hitler's T4?

Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—Hundreds of Nazi-era graves found at an Austrian state hospital will be exhumed to see if any are victims of Hitler's T-4 euthanasia program, where patients deemed unworthy to live were murdered.

Some 220 bodies were found in a state hospital cemetery during a construction project in Hall, near the Tyrolean capital, Innsbruck. Since they had been buried between 1942 and 1944, suspicions were raised that they were victims of the T-4 euthanasia campaign.

The hospital cemetery in Hall might have been opened in 1942 as part of plans—never realized—to set up its own euthanasia station, deputy medical director Christian Haring said.

"This dark chapter of history must now be carefully examined and cleared up," provincial Gov. Guëther Platter told the Austria Press Agency, saying he was deeply shaken by the discovery.

The discovery comes only days after Helga Zepp-LaRouche issued her statement "Operation Euthanasia—Never Again."

Memorial Website on T-4 Program Created

Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—Already a month ago, numerous organizations and experts from Germany, Poland, and Austria gathered in Berlin to create a new website (gedenkort-t4.eu) dedicated to the memory of victims of the Nazi's genocidal T-4 program. Its main object is to prevent these atrocities being forgotten. On the German side, the welfare umbrella organization Paritaetischer Wohlfahrtverband takes part; on the Austrian side, the group Atempo. The website is to feature documentation, interviews (oral histories included), and similar material.

Ireland's Collapsing Economy

Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—The Irish economy is collapsing with no hope in sight, as long as it is under European Union dictatorship. It is reported that 30 companies a week, on average, went bankrupt in 2010, according to corporate restructuring specialist Kavanagh Fennel. These bankruptcies led to an average of 1,075 jobs being lost each week as well. The total for the year was 1,500 firms and 60,000 employees.

The sectors hardest hit comprise Ireland's former bubble economy. On top of the list were construction companies, the service sectors, including architects and surveyors, followed by hospitality and tourism. The London Independent reports that the budget cuts will leave Ireland's roads in a shambles, since no extra funds are available for the repair of Winter damage, especially potholes, some of which are four feet long and three feet deep. The cost of repairing the potholes alone is expected to exceed EU200 million.

Le Monde Attacks Ideology of Post-Industrialism

PARIS, Jan. 6 (EIRNS)—In a front-page editorial, the French newspaper Le Monde today launched into a direct attack on the ideology of post-industrialism. The editorial argues that the current crisis in the world has created the conditions for "a spectacular change in paradigm, which it owes to the return of industry."

"Over the last years, the validity of the thesis, according to which, the change from an industrial economy to a service society was unavoidable, has ended.... The crisis has today caused this painful awakening. Reality is imposing itself: Without industry, it is difficult to create jobs, to supply growth, and finally, to maintain one's own economic rank at the global level.... This awakening is late, and the destruction caused by the devotion to the post-industrial society is considerable. Over [the last] 15 years, France has lost 500,000 industrial jobs. The industrial part of our economy over the last 25 years remained stable at 17%, but went down in value from 21 to 12%."

Budget Cuts Collapse Berlin's Urban Transport

Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—Three weeks of snow and ice in Berlin have now brought many of the badly maintained S-trains to a halt, and the New Year began with only one-third of the trains in service. Especially the suburbs are cut off from public transport, and both citizens and administrations there are enraged that they never received an early warning from the S-Bahn, but learned about the reduced service only from the local radio stations.

The BVG, the other part of the city-owned urban transport grid, has stepped in with extra metro trains and buses, but is operating at the limits of its own capacity in terms of material and of personnel (who are working overtime now).

Irish Unions Planning General Strike Actions

Jan. 5 (EIRNS)—UNITE, a trade union with 60,000 members, presented a letter to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions' executive council last month calling for a general strike. Senior trade union sources told EIR that ICTU secretary general David Begg has called an executive meeting of the leaders of all the member unions for Jan. 27 to discuss the proposal. The ICTU trade union federation represents 1 million workers.

In his letter, UNITE's regional secretary for Ireland, Jimmy Kelly, made clear that the aim of a general strike would be not only to express anger at the current government's "austerity measures," but to target what is expected to be early national elections, and give a powerful message to the political parties on what should be the economic policy of the next government.

Britain Wracked by Wave of Pandemic Flu (H1N1)

Jan. 3 (EIRNS)—Britain is now in the throes of a new surge of 2009 pandemic flu (H1N1), thanks to the Tony Blair Nazi health-care "reform" cuts in public health and the National Health Service (NHS) begun in 1999 with NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence), which have been continued by the so-called opposition Conservative government over the past nine months.

During the Christmas to New Year's holiday week, H1N1 cases were up 40% over the week prior, in the U.K. Flu-related intensive care hospitalizations soared last week, from 460 to 738 just between Christmas Eve and Dec. 30. At present, 50% of all intensive-care beds in the U.K. are in use for H1N1 patients. Other operations are being postponed. Epidemiologists expect this surge of H1N1 cases to increase this week, as the new school term begins.

There have been 39 deaths from flu (36 from H1N1) in the U.K. just since October. Another 100 deaths are expected, given the percentage of intensive-care patients who may not survive.

Fiori: Italy Needs a Franklin Roosevelt

MILAN, Jan. 5 (EIRNS)—Publio Fiori, a former government undersecretary and deputy speaker of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, published an article in the newsletter sent out to his political network under the headline: "Where Is Our Roosevelt?" Fiori recently founded a federation called "Christian Democratic Refoundation," which brings together a large number of Catholic organizations and activists who wish to re-create the old Christian Democratic Party (DC), the party that built post-war Italy, and was killed by London's "Clean Hands" operation in 1993.

Fiori's call is the result of his discussion with LaRouche representatives, and, in particular, of a memorandum written by Movisol Secretary Andrew Spannaus, which was then published in the form of an article under the headline "No to a Bankers' Government." Fiori also published that article in his newsletter, as well as a previous one by Spannaus, calling for the creation of a national bank and state-directed productive credit.

Russia and the CIS News Digest

Seminar with LaRouche Published in Russia's Zavtra

Jan. 5 (EIRNS)—Excerpts from the seminar held in Northern Virginia on Nov. 7, 2010, bringing together Russian historian Alexander Nagorny, Lyndon LaRouche, and friends and associates of LaRouche, were published as a front-page article in today's issue of the Russian weekly Zavtra, under the headline "Visiting LaRouche." Nagorny is deputy editor of the newspaper.

In the online edition of Zavtra, the transcript excerpts are the second lead article, accompanied by a commentary on what's wrong with Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin that has caused him to be named "Finance Minister of the Year" by one British publication after another.

The complete transcript of the seminar appeared in EIR of Dec. 17, 2010, titled "The Cultural Imperative of Russian-American Cooperation." The much shorter excerpts chosen for Zavtra's newspaper format focus on key elements of the four-hour discussion, including the U.S. political configuration with the incoming pro-fascist band around Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.); the history of British subversion of Russia in the post-war period, through Bertrand Russell and his relationship with Nikita Khrushchov, and the foundation of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA); the moral degeneration of the world since World War I; the vision of a Vernadskyan world through NAWAPA and the Bering Strait rail tunnel crossing; and the delusions of monetarism in its many guises. On the latter point, Zavtra included the exciting discussion by LaRouchePAC leader Michael Kirsch on national credit for real economic development.

The LaRouche transcript began to be quoted in Russian blogs from the minute it appeared in the online edition of Zavtra.

Also today, just-released Russian voiceovers of Lyndon LaRouche's answers to questions after his May 8, 2010 webcast, "The Greatest Crisis in Modern History," were among the top dozen most-watched video clips on the Russian RuTube service. One is LaRouche's reply, last May, to a question from Russia about what was happening with the protests in Greece and the EU bailout for that country. What LaRouche said then about the British-Venetian imperial roots of the crisis, and the Glass-Steagall principle as step #1 toward its solution, is even more timely today.

Southwest Asia News Digest

Iranian Judiciary: U.S. and NATO Control Afghan Narcotics Trade

Jan. 3 (EIRNS)—A senior Iranian official, First Deputy Head of the Judiciary Ebrahim Raeesi, today blamed NATO and the U.S. for the huge increase in narcotics trafficking from Afghanistan. "Today, Afghans have no special influence in the issue of narcotics but the NATO and Western states control drug production and dealings and are busy in this field," Raeesi said at a conference of anti-drug police in Tehran, according to Pakistani news reports. "Today, the drug movements and networks are controlled by the Americans and the hegemonic system and Afghans are acting as their agents."

Lyndon LaRouche has repeatedly laid responsibility for the skyrocketing Afghan opium trade on President Obama, and his British masters.

Raeesi said that the Western forces in Afghanistan "can prevent drug plantation and production through their capabilities in the short run, but we are witnessing no action by these countries, and drug production has rather found a new form due to their presence." He called the increased drug trade a "crime against humanity." Iran, which is forced to spend billions of dollars trying to control the trafficking from Afghanistan, has lost thousands of lives fighting the anti-drug war, and makes 85% of the world's total opium seizures.

In April, Afghan lawmaker Nasimeh Niazi had announced that foreign forces deployed in Afghanistan are involved in narcotics production and trafficking, and that British troops had trained a number of experts for opium cultivation. "As long as foreign forces are present in Afghanistan, the cultivation, production and trafficking of drugs will continue in the country," she had told FNA, adding that heroin-production labs in Helmand, which did not exist before the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, are now plentiful and work openly.

Iran Arrests Mossad Ring for Killing Iranian Nuclear Scientist

Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—Fars News Agency reported today on an Iranian Ministry report, that read: "The Intelligence Ministry has identified and arrested members of a spy and terrorist network linked to the Zionist regime." The statement continued, "The network of spies and terrorists linked to the Mossad was destroyed," adding that, "The network was behind the assassination of Masoud Ali Mohammadi."

Mohammadi, a 50-year-old lecturer at Tehran University, was killed by a remote-controlled bomb, on Jan. 12, 2010, as he left his home in Tehran. Iran's Intelligence Ministry said the Mossad had used bases in European and non-European countries, as well as Iran's neighboring states, for purposes of the assassination, and other activities. The ministry said months of complicated measures and access to sources in the Israeli regime, led to the finding of "very important and sensitive" intelligence about Mossad spy teams, which inflicted heavy damage on Israel's intelligence and security structures.

Iran's accusations of Mossad involvement in assassinating the Iranian scientist came about a week after outgoing Mossad chief Meir Dagan told the Defense Committee of the Israeli Knesset that Iran would not have a nuclear weapon until about 2015—a marked change in previous statements from Israeli government officials, who have been warning that Iran was "three years away" from a nuclear weapons since about 2006.

Reports from well-informed Middle East intelligence sources to EIR have said that during his tenure as head of the Mossad, Dagan had built up one of the most active assassinations program run by Israeli secret services since the 1970s, when hit teams were deployed throughout Europe to eliminate Palestinian leaders in retaliation for the 1972 killing of Israeli athletes at the Olympic games in Munich, Germany. Middle East media reports have also claimed that Dagan's Mossad was actively carrying out sabotage operations and assassinations inside Iran, which are targetted against the nuclear program.

Iran Invites Russia, China, Non-Aligned, and EU To Tour Nuclear Facilities

Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—Continuing with another step towards negotiations about its nuclear program, Tehran has sent a letter inviting a group of nations, led by Russia, China, and the Non-Aligned members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to tour major nuclear facilities in Iran in the coming weeks. The invitation pointedly does not include the United States.

According to the London Guardian, the letter, which was released to Associated Press, was sent to Russia, China, Egypt, the group of Non-Aligned nations at the IAEA, Cuba, Arab League members at the IAEA, and Hungary, which holds the current presidency of the EU. According to AP, the news agency was told by a diplomatic source that the Iranian government plans to bring the delegations to tour the Bushehr (nuclear power plant) and Natanz (nuclear enrichment facility) locations, and that meetings are to be held with acting Foreign Minister Ali Salehi, the head of Iran's atomic agency and Saeed Jalili, Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator.

The Russian news agency Ria Novosti reported that Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the invitation was part of Iran's attempt to demonstrate its "cooperation with the IAEA," and a statement today by Iran's envoy to IAEA suggested Jan. 15-16 as the possible date for the tour. In December, Iran held its first meeting with the Permanent Five+1, which was a serious meeting, according to Washington-based intelligence sources, to be followed up by another meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, by the end of January.

As usual, the Obama administration was quick to dismiss the initiative, with State Dept. spokesman Philip Crowley telling the New York Times that the invitation was just "a clever ploy" by Iran.

Asia News Digest

Punjab's Governor Assassinated: An Inside Job

Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—The gunning-down today of Pakistan's most powerful Punjab state governor, Salman Taseer, in broad daylight, in Lahore, allegedly by one of his body guards, is indicative of how deeply rooted is the link between Pakistan's military intelligence service, ISI, and the Islamic extremists. The assassination, described by the Pakistani media as the most high-profile assassination in Pakistan since that of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, was organized to remove Taseer because of his leading stance against Pakistan's blasphemy law. The blasphemy law had come under greater scrutiny in recent weeks, after a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad. The law effectively orders death for anyone convicted of insulting Islam.

Taseer was a member of Bhutto's People's Party, and Interior Minister Rahman Malik told reporters that the suspect, who has since surrendered to the police, killed Taseer because "the governor described the blasphemy laws as a black law." "He was the most courageous voice after Benazir Bhutto on the rights of women and religious minorities," said Farahnaz Ispahani, an aide to President Asif Ali Zardari, and wife of Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani.

The killing has made Washington take note of the developments. Since it was the Islamic extremists of Wahhabi variety who were targeting the anti-blasphemy leaders, it is evident to Washington that Pakistani intelligence is working hand-in-glove with these dangerous elements. Soon after the assassination, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter issued a statement saying, "He [Taseer] had the courage of his convictions and was a champion of tolerance. His death is a great loss to the people of Pakistan."

In Washington, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) released the following:

"Governor Taseer was a proud champion of democracy and respect for the rights of women and minorities. He fearlessly stood up to the threats of extremists, and lost his life in defense of moderation and tolerance, values shared by most Pakistani citizens. The best way to honor his legacy is to continue resisting violent extremism and supporting the core principles on which Pakistan was founded."

Russia-China Oil Pipeline Opened

Jan. 2 (EIRNS)—Today, 42,000 tons of crude oil flowed from Russia, the world's biggest supplier, to China, in the first full day of operation of the new Skovorodino-Daqing pipeline. The 1,000 km pipeline will transport 15 million tons of crude oil per year from Russia to China from 2011 to 2030.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who had officially opened the pipeline during his visit to the Amur region of eastern Siberia in August, has praised the strategic project not only for increasing Russian-Chinese energy cooperation, but also for giving Russia the opportunity to diversify its energy exports, which now rely heavily on the European market.

China Developing Capacity To Reprocess Nuclear Fuel

Jan. 3 (EIRNS)—Chinese scientists have developed a technology which will make it possible to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, CCTV reported today. With this technology, China will join the U.S., Russia, India, France, and the U.K., all nations which already can extract uranium and plutonium from used nuclear fuel rods, expanding the power-generating capacity of the same fuel some 60 times. Each nuclear nation has to develop its own reprocessing capability due to strict regulation of plutonium extraction, especially by the U.S., which refuses any reprocessing technology to any nation which has purchased a U.S. nuclear plant. Chinese scientists had been working on this technology for 24 years.

The technology, although expensive to use, will greatly increase China's ability to generate electricity from nuclear plants. The country now has 12 operational nuclear reactors, with a power-generating capacity of 10-15 GW, and another 23 under construction, so that China will greatly increase that capacity by 2020. The official target is a 40 GW capacity by 2020, but the government has also indicated that China could build some 60 new plants, to create a capacity of as much as 80 GW by that year. By then, without the ability to reprocess, China would have to import 60% of its uranium. "With the new technology, China's existing detected uranium resources can be used for 3,000 years," CCTV announced today. Reprocessing is also supported by Russia, France, the U.K., and China, as a way to deal with "nuclear" waste, greatly reducing the need for long-term storage.

Vietnam Announces Significant Fall in Rice Export Volume

Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—Vietnam, the world largest rice exporter, may cut rice exports to 5.5 million tons this year, down from 6.8 million tons last year, the Vietnam Food Association (VFA) estimates. More alarmingly, only 500,000 tons would be delivered in the early part of this year against 2.5 million tons delivered during the same period last year, Pham Van Bay, VFA deputy chairman said. Thus the estimate for year's export deficit of 1.3 million tons, assumes that rice exports can rise by 700,000 tons in the later part of this year.

The explanation given by Bay for the shortfall is the low reserve volume of 800,000 tons of rice transferred from last year to 2011. This volume was much lower than the 1.4 million tons carried over from 2009. However, the stated drop in carryover is only 600,000 tons, far less than the full year or early year expected deficits. Something, something major, does not add up.

The 2010 crop in Vietnam was said to have increased to 40 million tons, up 2.7%, a new record. During 2010, Vietnam's export price rose moderately by $22 a ton to $511 for five-per-cent broken rice.

But this shortfall occurring in the current hyperinflationary climate may rapidly shoot prices far higher. The world rice export market is relatively small, at only 31.4 million tons in 2010, since only a few major rice-eating Asian countries buy any substantial portion of their consumption on the world market. The loss of 2 million tons as the year begins is a very bad sign, for prices, and critically, for supply.

Asia Denounces Inflationary Pressures Driven by Bailouts

Jan. 5 (EIRNS)—Thailand's English-language paper, The Nation, editorialized as follows yesterday. "With the dollar devaluation underway, prices of commodities have shot sky-high. Higher commodity prices translate into higher production costs and a higher cost of living for people around the world. The cause of inflationary pressure lies in the central banks' pumping in liquidity to shore up the financial systems and national economies. The world is now being flooded with liquidity. We have more paper money/liquidity than the underlying productive assets. Investors and money managers have exhausted their investment avenues. Now they are looking to hold solid assets."

In China, People's Daily regular columnist Li Hong says, "Some analysts say the U.S. government policy to extend Bush-era tax cuts to all American families, despite its mountain-high national debts, and the Federal Reserve's "quantitative easing" monetary policy, have drawn gripes of both Europe and China, as the extreme measures not only will risk the U.S.'s own economy but also endanger the global one, which is in an anemic recovery. Their consolidated stance in opposing 'irresponsible' U.S. economic policies has made the two closer in relations.

"By printing more money and buying long-term U.S. debts, the world's largest economy is flooding the market with paper bills, effectively dragging down the value of the dollar assets. Also, an over-supply of the dollars has depreciated the currency itself, and caused considerable price rises in oil, food and other key commodities. As a result, inflation has raked up in November and December in China and other emerging economies."

Africa News Digest

Sudan President Vows Aid the South if it Secedes

Jan. 7 (EIRNS)—In an extraordinarily strong statement for a Sudanese government leader, given the years-long Sudan civil war, President Omar al-Bashir emphasized that although he favored unity for the North and South of Sudan, that he would recognize the South as a new state, if the voters so chose, because his strategic objective is peace with the South no matter what the outcome of the referendum (voting begins Jan. 9).

Bashir made his statement during a Jan. 4 visit to Juba, the capital of South Sudan. He stated that the problems of Sudan could not be resolved as long as there was war between the North and the South. He expressed satisfaction that the referendum will take place peacefully, in the face of many dire predictions from Sudan detractors that the referendum could not take place peacefully.

He pledged economic cooperation with the South, and said he would be happy, even if separation is chosen, if the outcome would lead to the start of new development for the North and the South, "to build our country and its reconstruction and advancement."

Although he is impeded in his efforts by charges against him by the International Criminal Court, an arm of the British financial empire, which make him persona non grata, and therefore unable to engage in negotiations to carry out the goals he laid out, Bashir added that he had as a priority, helping the new state in the South, if it is founded, with technical, logistical, or any other kind of help.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry, whose week-long visit to Sudan coincided with Bashir's Juba visit said Jan. 5 that he was pleased by Bashir's efforts and "his statements that the referendum would be safe and successful and that its outcome will be respected by everyone."

Kerry said that the U.S. government was ready to assist in removing the obstacles of economic sanctions and foreign debts facing Sudan. He added: "I think at this stage we're seeing the foundation of good economic relations with America and we could also see security relations as well as other types of relations."

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson said the United States was "extraordinarily pleased" by Bashir's statements.

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