Western European News Digest
LaRouche Interview Broadcast on Two Rome TV Stations
During the week of April 21, two private television networks, Tele Ambiente and Tele Donna, broadcast at least four times an exclusive interview with U.S. Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche, made during his visit to Rome April 7-11.
The two associated TV networks cover Rome and a larger part of the region of Latium. LaRouche is first filmed at the Capitoline Hill conference and then looking at Roman ruins and in the Capitoline Hill Square under the statue of the Emperor Augustus. In the interview LaRouche deals with the war drive by the Dick Cheney neo-conservatives in Washington, and the fight in the Democratic Party to oppose the Empire policy.
On April 23, LaRouche associate Paolo Raimondi, president of the Movimento Internazionale per i Diritti Civili-Solidarieta, and Italian economist Nino Galloni were also interviewed for one hour by Tele Ambiente. Raimondi spoke the war drive of the Cheney clique, as exposed in the latest LaRouche campaign pamphlet in the U.S., The Children of Satan, and the international mobilization of the LaRouche movement against the imperial war doctrine. Galloni discussed the SARS health emergency, and the kinds of economic concepts needed to prevent and stop epidemics, and develop continents like Africa.
'Shadow White House' Pushing Bush To Stop Unilateral Insanity
It is the "Shadow White House' vs. the Chickenhawks, wrote Corriere della Sera Washington correspondent Ennio Caretto on April 18. "The war has created a Shadow White House which pushes Bush to abandon the unilateralist policy. It is formed by its former Republican and Democratic Presidents, Clinton and even Bush Sr.; their former advisers, from Scowcroft to Brzezinski; and their former Secretaries of State, from Baker to Albright. These are all leaders who have expressed their disagreement, even if they risk appearing 'anti-patriotic.' The Shadow White House, which is represented by Powell in the Administration, not only warns the President against waging war against Syria; it exhorts him to repair the bridges with 'Old Europe' and use the UN and NATO to stabilize Iraq. And it asks him to deal once and for all with the Palestine-Israeli issue, the key for peace in the Middle East and in the Persian Gulf.... It is not clear who will win the battle for the heart and mind of the President, but it would be a mistake to see the doves as losers."
Caretto reminded readers that the economy will decide the 2004 elections and George W. could switch to pragmatism now, as he did in 2000, after the primaries.
Dalyell, Labour's Senior MP, Decries Blair's War Crimes
Tam Dalyell, the most senior Labour Party member of the British House of Commons, and most outspoken Parliament opponent of the Iraq war, is defying efforts by the Labour Party leadership to discipline him for his recent London article denouncing British Prime Minister Tony Blair as a "war criminal." Dalyell's article was favorably commented on, in a recent EIR editorial.
In a discussion with EIR April 20, Dalyell said that the new Blairite leader of the House of Commons, John Reid, is seeking to "take the Whip away" from Dalyell, a disciplinary measure that casts the person disciplined, out of the Party for all practical purposes. Dalyell added, "I am relaxed about all this, I will not recant what I have said. If the electors of West Lothian (Scotland), whom I have represented for 41 years, want to renounce me, they can, but the fact is, I am receiving unanimous support from the constituency Labour Party. I am far from losing voter support."
He also said that the mood in Britain is shifting, as "news comes in, about the appalling situations in Basra and Baghdad, which has tarnished the sense that we have just had a 'victory.' We are now learning more about the wickedness of what Blair did, and I stick to my view that he is a war criminal. There was a show on BBC's 'Five Live' network last night called 'Blair's Gamble,' which showed how much Blair did, to give succor to the 'war party' in Washington, and, by doing this, undercut the military opponents of the war in America, like Generals Zinni, Schwarzkopf, Jones. Blair gave all sorts of private guarantees to support Bush's war course, so those who were doubtful about having been deceived by Blair, now realize they were victims of the grossest deception."
Dalyell further clarified one aspect of the recent intra-Party problems that followed his article condemning Blair. He said his condemnation of Blair was wrongly lumped together with that of Scottish Member of Parliament George Galloway, who went further than Dalyell, by launching a strong attack against British forces serving in the Gulf.
"I listen to things George [Galloway] says, but I didn't agree on this," said Dalyell. "I am a member of the Association of Scots Dragoons Guards, and I acknowledged, that they did well in battle.... I rang up the former Scots Dragoons Guards Commander, Sir John Stanier, and he said, that the Guards did excellently in battle, but, said Sir John, this does not mean the war is right! I agree."
German Labor Leader Denounces 'Agenda 2010' Budget Cuts, Urges Suspension of Maastricht
At a press conference in Berlin April 22, Ursula Engelen-Kefer, deputy chairwoman of the German national labor federation DGB, said that although she did agree with the basic necessity to reform the social and health system of Germany, her main interest was that the substantive functions of the system be maintained and made more efficient. This, she said, could not and should not be done by reducing services for the average citizen, and added that budget cuts of the ill-advised kind proposed in the disputed Agenda 2010 program proposed by the government of Gerhard Schroeder would be inefficient and counterproductive. A downward spiral of impoverishment would result from the Agenda 2010 package as it is being presented, she said.
Instead, what should be done is to suspend the Maastricht criteria to an extent that governmentsnot only that of Germanycould invest more money into the economy, the labor market, and the social and welfare systems, to promote growth. From that growth, and with a reform of the health system that brought more contributing members to pay into it, the problems could be solved over the near future, she said. The problems of the German economyillustrated by rising unemploymenthad reached a level that the Maastricht criteria could no longer be strictly observed, without doing harm to the German society, she said.
The Maastricht Treaty is that which undergirds the European Union, and which specifies budget austerity guidelines for member countries.
France Proposed Compromise on Weapons Inspections
In the first of two UN Security Council meetings April 22, France's Ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, surprised the U.S. by proposing the immediate suspension of all civilian UN trade sanctions against Iraq, on condition that the embargo not be formally lifted until UN inspectors have certified Iraq's disarmament.
Previously President Bush had called for the UN to lift the sanctions, and France, Germany, and Russia had registered their opposition.
In presenting his proposal, France's Ambassador said that "there should be some work to find a practical and pragmatic arrangement" to coordinate the work of U.S.-led and UN-led weapons inspectors.
The proposal would achieve a French objective of guaranteeing international control over Iraq's oil revenue until an internationally recognized Iraqi government is in power. The Bush Administration initiative to see sanctions lifted, not just suspended, would appear to give greater legitimacy to the U.S. occupation of Iraq and its allies support for reconstruction. However, an unnamed "U.S. official" emphasized: "Anything that levels the playing fields so that the French can compete on an equal basis" is not going to be acceptable.
An unnamed French diplomat countered, saying the French proposal would permit foreign investment for the first time in more than a decade, and would allow resumption of commercial flights and export financing, while keeping military sanctions in place. U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte insisted sanctions should be lifted immediately, and said talks with France and other UNSC members would begin, but insists the U.S. sees no UN role "for the time being or for the foreseeable future." On the contrary, Negroponte said the U.S.-led coalition "has assumed responsibility for the disarming of Iraq."
Russia's Ambassador Sergey Lavrov said Russia is "not at all opposing the lifting of sanctions, but insists the Security Council resolution be implemented." Rounding out the picture, IAEA Director General Mohamed El Baradei asserted that the IAEA "continues to be the sole organization with legal powers, derived from both the nuclear NPT Treaty and successive UNSC resolutions, to verify Iraq's nuclear disarmament. The IAEA should resume its work in Iraq as soon as possible."
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