Chatham House Attacks Sonia Gandhi; Aims for Instability in India

Aug. 15 (EIRNS)—Britain's Chatham House associate fellow Cleo Paskal, in a Huffington Post article yesterday, has charged Sonia Gandhi, president of the Indian Congress Party, with high-level financial corruption, and made the most serious threat to Gandhi—and, as she is at the apex of the Congress Party—to the party itself. The accusation is now sitting on the desk of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Asking rhetorically, will Sonia Gandhi fall, Paskal said, she "is not just an individual. She is the steely core of a pillar of Indian politics. If she crumbles, it will shake the foundations of the venerable Congress Party, and possibly leave a gaping hole in the political scene. Meanwhile, a range of polarizing and regional parties are ready to rush in and stake their claim."

Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA), represents the British Empire, and this raises a question why this attack was launched. To begin with, the Singh government has been rattled by a number of corruption charges against Cabinet ministers. Singh, whose personal financial integrity has never been questioned, is under pressure to act. One outcome of this mess could be the departure of Singh from the scene. Under such circumstances, as of now, the most likely candidate for prime minister will be Rahul Gandhi, the son of Sonia and the late Rajiv Gandhi. On the other hand, if Sonia Gandhi is vilified, it would be almost impossible for Rahul Gandhi to be selected for the job.

Sonia Gandhi underwent a surgery in New York recently and is not expected to be back on her party post for at least two to three months. The publication of this article, while she is convalescing, means she would not be able to refute the charges made in this Chatham House article.

There are two likely British objectives behind this attack. Sonia Gandhi is widely recognized for her pro-China sentiments, and Beijing acknowledges that as well. Secondly, she has a personal rapport with the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed. Gandhi visited Bangladesh just before she came to New York for her surgery.

Sheikh Hasina had been under physical attack from the so-called Islami jihadis who are run top-down from London and Riyadh. She has survived six assassination attempts and EIR has earlier covered the fact that she has been targetted by Britain and Saudi Arabia. Since she came back to power in 2009, Hasina had eradicated large jihadi networks and begun implementing infrastructure projects with India. Prime Minister Singh is scheduled to visit Bangladesh in September to further ties between the two countries.

Russia Moves Toward 'Peace Through Development' in the Koreas

Aug. 18 (EIRNS)—After several years of tension in the Korean Peninsula—tension fanned by the British geopoliticians—both Russia and the U.S. (under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's direction) have intervened to cool the situation. Most importantly, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, told South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwab that Russia's Gazprom had gained an agreement from North Korea to proceed with planning for the construction of a gas pipeline through North Korea, to deliver Russian gas to energy-hungry South Korea.

Lyndon LaRouche has emphasized for many years that peace negotiations in regions subject to British Imperial "divide-and-conquer" conflict can only be successful if regional cooperation on physical development projects provides the bedrock of the agreements. Or, as Pope Paul VI famously said in the 1967 encyclical Populorum Progressio, "The new name for peace is development."

Gazprom and South Korea's Korea Gas will begin consultations this month on the pipeline project through North Korea. The plan was originally proposed in 2008 during South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's visit to Moscow, but has not been acted on until now, due to tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang.

Sources in South Korea told EIR that the interests of Russia and South Korea have come together at this time, with the stabilization and development of the Koreas, and the Russian policy of developing the Russian Far East intersecting North Korea's need for economic assistance.

The sources also said that the recent revival of talks between the U.S. and North Korea, with South Korea's support for those talks, indicates that the moves toward cooling out the region are being coordinated between Russia and the U.S. State Department, with China always being consulted as well.

A South Korean spokesman told the press that as yet there were no plans for a trilateral meeting between Seoul, Pyongyang, and Moscow.

Economically, Foreign Minister Kim said the project "will be a win-win deal for both Koreas, providing a considerable cash revenue on one hand for North Korea, through which the pipeline will run, and large amounts of natural gas for us, which will help bring down the price of imported natural gas on the other." The deal calls for Gazprom to sell 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year to Korea Gas for 30 years, beginning in 2015.

Nothing has been said at this point about reviving the long-stalled plan to build rail lines through North Korea to connect South Korea to Russia and China, thus completing the Eurasian Landbridge connection from Amsterdam to Pusan.

Good Riddance to Japan's Prime Minister

Aug. 21 (EIRNS)—Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, now the leading contender to replace lame-duck Prime Minister Naoto Kan, has called for a national unity government between his Democratic Party of Japan (DJP), the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which had ruled Japan for almost the entire post-war era, until the DJP election victory in 2009, and the smaller New Komeito Party. Kan, who took over as prime minister in June 2010, had responded to the tsunami disaster in March by adopting an extreme anti-nuclear stance, proposing to phase it out domestically, and end Japan's crucial role in providing nuclear power plants and parts to the world.

But, as Lyndon LaRouche has always emphasized, there are two Japans—that of the British-manipulated monetarists and imperialists, and that of the Meiji Restoration heritage, influenced by the American System of directed credit and scientific advancement. The anti-science posture of the Kan government could not long survive against Japan's strong scientific tradition.

Kan himself, with poll ratings approaching single digits, had been stalling over fulfilling his pledge to resign, but then switched in early August and unambiguously confirmed his near-term departure. Since then, there has been a swell of activity to ensure a new, functioning government is in place before the end of August and the current Diet session. Demands that he step down also came from his own advisors and party officials, since his anti-nuclear ravings, which pandered to the fear factor after the Fukushima nuclear plant crisis caused by the tsunami, were taken without consulting them.

In a televised talk show on Aug. 13, Noda, who is expected to win the vote to head the DJP, stated he would rather form a "national salvation government," and added: "The baseline is for the ruling and opposition parties to open a frank dialogue and discussion about reconstruction, nuclear power plants, and the fiscal issues." Given the LDP's historic support for Japan's nuclear program, a coalition would further ensure a sane nuclear policy for a new government.

A de facto JDP-LDP alliance is already in effect to some degree, taking steps to counter Kan's impact. Among the results of this alliance was an agreement on amending an earlier bill which mandated that utility companies purchase "renewable energy" with fixed, exorbitant prices set for solar and wind power. Those prices will now be left open, which should lead to the downgrading of such ineffective low-energy-dense sources, in favor of a full scale return to Japan's leadership in nuclear power.