E.I.R.STRATEGIC ALERT WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

E.I.R.STRATEGIC ALERT
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Volume 28, No. 37 - September 11, 2014
Helga Zepp-LaRouche in Chinese Media:
Tremendous Developments Are Taking Place!
During Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s just-concluded visit to China, in
addition to attending an international conference at the Lanzhou
University on the New Silk Road and extensive private meetings,
she gave two high-profile interviews to Chinese media.
On Sept. 3, she was a featured guest in the Sept. 3 primetime
CCTV news analysis show “Dialogue--Ideas Matter”, with
reaches a large audience inside China and has a subscribership
of 80 million worldwide. The theme of the panel was Chinese-
Japanese relations and how to resolve the tensions that have
developed.
The following day, she gave a wide-ranging 25 minute interview
on Radio China International to Zheng Chenguang, host
of People in the Know, China’s only high-end radio interview
program in English. She began by saying that in the six months
since her last visit to Chine, “tremendous developments have
taken place. You had the strategically extremely important
summit between President Xi Jinping and President Putin in
Shanghai in May, and then you had in July, the equally important
BRICS meeting in Brazil, which was then followed by a
summit between the BRICS countries and the heads of state
of Latin America.
“And what has emerged out of this series of meetings is a
fantastic development, namely, the shaping of a new financial
order and a new economic system. And this is extremely important,
because this has given tremendous hope to many other
countries to finally go for the kind of development which is in
their self-interest.”
Examples Helga Zepp-LaRouche gave of that are the Egyptian
great projects, Nicaragua with the projected trans-Oceanic canal,
and cooperation on nuclear energy among many countries.
“It’s almost like a tremendous revolution is taking place,
where countries who have been intimidated by the IMF and
the World Bank not to do these things and to fulfill all kinds
of conditionalities, they somehow basically say, ‘No, we are not
being afraid any more, we are now doing finally what is in our
self-interest.”
As for the Schiller Institute, Helga Zepp-LaRouche went on,
“we have been trying to convince the United States, Germany,
France, Italy, to join the BRICS and to support this development
and not be hostile to it. Fortunately, there is some hope
that that may be possible, because, for example, German industry
right now would like to join in.”
On the new financial institutions, the Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank, and the BRICS’ New Development Bank, the
founder of the Schiller Institute is optimistic. She pointed out
that the banking system in Europe and the U.S. is in terrible
shape. The “too big to fail” banks are more bankrupt than in
2008, they have 40% more debt and outstanding derivatives
of $2 quadrillion, which is such an unbelievably big sum, it will
never be paid. What is good about the AIIB and the NDB, she
said, is that sovereign governments are to create credit for production,
and they are to be “entirely devoted to the financing of
projects, not speculation, and that will prove in the future that
they are the superior financial system.”
NATO Summit Trumped
by Putin’s Flanking Maneuvers
British plans to use the Sept. 4-5 NATO heads of state summit
in Wales to launch an accelerated war provocation against Russia
hit a brick wall as a result of critical flanking maneuvers by
Russian President Vladimir Putin. Just as the summit was beginning,
he moved to establish a ceasefire between the Ukraine
government and pro-Russian separatists in the east and southeast
of the country, which was then concluded Sept. 5 in Minsk.
The cease-fire agreement has largely held so far.
This diplomatic breakthrough did not simply come from
good will. In the two week period preceding the agreement,
separatist forces, reinforced by Russian volunteers, crushed
Ukrainian forces in a series of battles. By the time the NATO
summit began, the Ukrainian Army was on the verge of absolute
military defeat.
Despite the breakthrough, leading NATO member states escalated
the anti-Russian rhetoric. At the close of the summit
in Wales, the EU announced there would be new sanctions
against Russia, although no details were given due to strong
opposition.
Moreover, participants confirmed the creation of a British-led
Rapid Deployment Force to be specifically deployed against Russia
in the event of any provocations against NATO members.
And NATO is going ahead with a month-long series of highly
dangerous maneuvers under the umbrella of “Atlantic Resolve.”
They will include “Rapid Trident” from Sept. 16-26 in western
Ukraine; “Sea Breeze” from Sept. 8-10 involving the deployment
of the second American Aegis ballistic missile defense destroyer
the USS Cook into the Black Sea; and “Ample Strike”
involving coordinated NATO ground and air operations in the
Czech Republic, for which the United States has dispatched additional
F-16s to Poland.
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2 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER n°37 / 2014
While NATO has conducted maneuvers in the past outside of
NATO territory, the deployment in western Ukraine at a time of
intense civil conflict and armed activity is highly provocative and
is “bound to escalate tensions,” as the Russian Foreign Ministry
pointed out in a communique, while threatening “progress regarding
a peaceful settlement in Ukraine.” In addition, the communique
states, the summit testified to “NATO’s unreserved
support for Kiev’s neo-Nazi and extremist forces, including the
Right Sector.”
The outcome of the NATO summit did, however, disappoint
many a western strategist. For example Edward Lucas, Senior
Editor of The Economist, a leading mouthpieces for the British
oligarchy, who delivered an hysterical call on US National Public
Radio for a full escalation military buildup in the Baltic states,
and of economic and financial warfare against Russia.
U.S. Intelligence Veterans Warn Merkel
of Propaganda on Ukraine
The steering group for Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity (VIPS) wrote an open letter Sept. 2 to German Chancellor
Angela Merkel, warning her that NATO is on the verge of
taking actions on the basis of spurious intelligence, just like
that on which the U.S. and the UK went to war in Iraq. They
remind Merkel that “Twelve years ago, former Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder, mindful of the flimsiness of the evidence on
Iraqi WMD, refused to join in the attack on Iraq. In our view,
you should be appropriately suspicious of charges made by the
U.S. State Department and NATO officials alleging a Russian
invasion of Ukraine.”
As for the credibility of NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh
Rasmussen, they demolish it by noting that in 2003, when he
was Prime Minister of Denmark, he declared that “Iraq has
weapons of mass destruction. This is not something we just
believe. We know.”
“Largely because of the growing prominence of, and apparent
reliance on, intelligence we believe to be spurious, we think
the possibility of hostilities escalating beyond the borders of
Ukraine has increased significantly over the past several days,”
they write. As for NATO membership for Ukraine, they believe
“Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk need to be told flat-out that
membership in NATO is not in the cards and that NATO has no
intention of waging a proxy war with Russia.”
One of the signers of the letter, Ray McGovern, a former US
Army infantry/intelligence officer & CIA analyst, obviously considers
Merkel’s and Germany’s position to be so decisive, that he
was in Berlin last week, where he addressed two public events
on Sept. 4 and 6, and gave interviews to anti-war websites.
Asked by a Schiller Institute representative at the first event
about his view of the BRICS as a Russian counter-move to the
western provocations over Ukraine, McGovern mentioned the
anti-oligarchical moves by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Czechs and Slovaks Question Usefulness
of Sanctions against Russia
Coming out of a n extraordinary cabinet session, Sept. 4, Slovak
Prime Minister Robert Fico stated that the EU’s sanctions
against Russia have prompted him to “laugh a bit,” according
to Xinhua. “We have information that all goods from the EU
are flowing to Russia via Belarus and Turkey, which is a NATO
member,” said Fico, adding that the European sanctions are
losing much of the desired effect and aren’t changing anything
in terms of Russia’s behavior, either.
The Slovak government has long been opposed to the EU
sanctions, but has not outright vetoed them until now. That
may change, Fico warned, as “we will defend our economic
interests very strongly.”
He believes that “We’re damaging mainly ourselves.” If Russia
introduces retaliatory measures, Slovakia may lose as many
as 6,000-8,000 jobs in the car industry, which is key for the
Slovak economy. “Did we really want this? In the name of a
geopolitical struggle between Russia and U.S.A.?” he asked.
Bratislava is negotiating less harsh measures related to exports
of dual-use items and financial markets to protect its
economy. “We don’t view it as correct to forbid the export of
goods and technologies of dual use to civil end users in Russia,”
said Fico.
The Czech government also announced Sept. 2 that it would
modify some of the punitive trade measures proposed by the
EU. Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka’s position is that “Europe
should not hurt itself by sanctions. I consider the escalation
of sanctions to be a very risky thing. The problem is, that if
sanctions are escalated now, there will be a reaction from Russia,
and we are not able to estimate at this point what impact
the next wave of sanctions by Russia against EU countries will
have.” The Czechs are mainly concerned about export of machinery
to Russia.
In Hungary, the government is very much opposed to the
sanctions policy. They haven’t worked, Prime Minister Viktor
Orban told Brussels Aug. 30, and it’s “self-delusion” to think
they’ll help resolve the crisis in Ukraine. Hungary obtained a
€10 billion loan from Russia this year to finance nuclear power
plant expansion, which it insists on keeping.
President Obama’s Permanent Wars
Challenged in Congress
While President Obama joined British PM Cameron at the Wales
NATO summit to rally America’s usual allies to support war
against Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, and increase the military and
economic provocations against Russia, there were significant
bi-partisan efforts in the U.S. Congress to reduce his freedom
of action.
First, a growing number of Congressmen, including Democrats,
are asserting that under the Constitution, only the Congress
has the right to declare war, and under the War Powers
Act of 1973, the President must receive Congressional authorization
to use further military force within 60 days of taking
any military action.
However, since Obama ordered U.S. military personnel into
Iraq to combat ISIS in mid-June, well over 60 days have passed,
yet he has repeatedly refused to go to Congress. Instead, he
has sent the lawmakers “notifications” of each escalation. The
White House sophistically claims that each notification begins
the 60 day cycle anew! Obama’s outright contempt of the Congress
is manifest in the fact that he would in all likelihood receive
said authorization if he asked for it.
Representative Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat and leader
of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, demanded a hearing,
and his call was echoed by Democratic Senators Tim Kaine (Virginia)
and Chris Murphy (Connecticut), as well as by Minnesota
Democratic Rep. Rick Nolan.
The lawmakers’ resolve was likely strengthened after John
Kerry declared Sept. 5 in Wales that the fight against ISIL “may
take a year, it may take two years, it may take three years.
But we’re determined.” (He was, however, outdone by David
Cameron who called it a “generational” fight.)
Second, there is increased pressure on Obama to come clean
on the role of Saudi Arabia in supporting ISIS and Al Qaeda.
Indeed, the administration has not only covered up that role,
EIR STRATEGIC ALERT
n°37 / 2014 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 3
but refers to the Saudis as strong allies in the fight against
terrorism!
In addition, Obama has consistently refused to declassify the
28 pages of the Senate’s report on the 9/11 investigation which
cover the extensive Saudi role in those terror attacks.
The sponsors of a House resolution to force declassification
of those 28 pages Republicans Walter Jones (North Carolina)
and Thomas Massie (Kentucky) and Democrat Stephen Lynch
(Massachusetts) -- will hold a press conference in Washington
on Sept. 9 to build support for their initiative.
China Backs Argentina Against
the Vulture Funds, Guarantees Loans
As we reported last week, the NML Capital vulture fund subpoenaed
information from the the Bank of China and the Industrial
and Commercial Bank of China in New York concerning
all their investments in Argentine infrastructure projects
and loans to Argentina. The fund, owned by billionaire Paul
Singer’s Elliott Associates, claims any such Chinese investments
are “assets” of the Argentine state that can be seized as part
of its own crazed attempt to collect $1.6 billion on defaulted
Argentine bonds.
Chinese government officials, however, made clear they
would not provide any such information to NML, pointing out
that its New York offices are not even involved in any financial
transactions with Argentina.
During his July 18-21 state visit to Buenos Aires, President
Xi Jinping and his delegation signed agreements to provide
$4.7 bn. in financing for a hydroelectric complex and $2.5 billion
for the Belgrano Cargas railroad, while agreeing to help
build Argentina’s fourth nuclear reactor, Atucha III.
During meetings in Beijing Sept. 1-3 with Argentine officials,
their Chinese counterparts confirmed that the loans agreed on
in July are in no way jeopardized by the threats against Chinese
financial and government entities. Xi Jinping’s government has
offered its “full support” to Argentina in its battle against the
financial predators.
Moreover, on Sept. 3, the Argentine Senate passed by a vote
of 39-27 the proposed bill for a new debt swap that would
take it out of U.S. jurisdiction, and it is expected to pass the
House on Sept. 9 and quickly become law (cf. SAS 35/14).
Marina Silva: the British Monarchy’s
Candidate for President of Brazil
Recent electoral polls in Brazil show that Marina Silva, the
presidential candidate of the Socialist Party, could come in first
or second in the three-way race on Oct. 5, and that she might
win the runoff, ousting current President Dilma Rousseff. Silva
was the vice presidential candidate of Eduardo Campos, who
was killed in a tragic, still-unexplained plane crash last month,
putting her in the top position.
Were Silva to win, Brazil’s participation in the BRICS program
would be finished. A rabid environmentalist and former
Environment Minister, Silva was picked up years ago as a project
of the British Monarchy. In Oct. 2008, Prince Philip personally
awarded her the Duke of Edinburgh Conservation medal
for her work in turning over control of huge chunks of Brazil’s
Amazon territory to the WWF and other private interests.
When the British government invited Silva to be one of eight
torch bearers at the opening of the 2012 Olympic Games in
London, Brazilian Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo responded simply:
“Marina always had good relations with the royal houses of
Europe and the European aristocracy.”
Silva’s other prominent base of support -- besides conservative
Protestant evangelicals, of which she is one -- are Brazilian
billionaires. In the 2010 presidential election on the Green Party
ticket, she won 19% of the vote with billionaire Guilherme
Leal as her Vice Presidential partner. After that, she was handed
over to billionaire Maria Alice (“Neca”) Setubal, who helped set
up the “Sustainability Network” party as the platform from
which to inject her into the 2014 elections. “Neca”, an heiress
of the family which owns Banco Itau, Brazil’s largest private
bank, is now coordinator of Silva’s campaign. Investors should
not worry, Neco told the press, as Silva “is surrounding herself
with people who understand the markets and she is committed
to gain the trust of the financial establishment.”
Silva’s electoral platform promises to:
*Pull Brazil out of the BRICS dynamic in favor of free trade
accords with a dying U.S. and European system.
*Return to the failed financial market economics of fiscal
discipline, inflation targetting, a floating exchange rate, and
strict Central Bank autonomy; ending protection for domestic
industry; and relying on public private partnership to build infrastructure.
*Promote “low-carbon” agriculture, reduced consumption of
fossil fuels, renewable energies, and no nuclear.
Schiller Institute Featured
at New Silk Road Event in Berlin
On Sept. 5, a convoy of 10 VW Tiguan cars made in China arrived
in Berlin, after driving over 8,000 km along the old and
new Silk Road from Xian to the German capital, with many
stops and events along the way. For their arrival, the Chinese
press agency Xinhua held an event in Berlin to underline that,
as Chinese President Xi Jinping had said during his visit to Germany
in May, “China and Germany are the strongest economies
in the world” and the New Silk Road is the “economic belt”
connecting the two ends of Eurasia. That was stated by Meng
Fanzhuang, the head of the economics department of the Chinese
embassy in Berlin, who was the first speaker.
He was followed by Rainer Apel, a board member of the
German Schiller Institute and the only German speaker at the
conference, who spoke of the Institute’s 20-year campaign for
the Eurasian Landbridge or New Silk Road, which it had proposed
at the time as a grand mission for all of Eurasia to secure
peace and cooperation after the fall of the Soviet Union. Apel
pointed out that this event was historic, including because it
was the first really public event on the New Silk Road outside
of the many conferences sponsored over the years by the SI.
He underscored that Helga Zepp-LaRouche, known in China
as the Silk Road Lady, was visiting China as he spoke. The New
Silk Road, he stated, should not just be a road, but a real development
corridor, with industrial zones and residential settlements,
as well as research and culture centers.
Two other speeches followed, one by Wang Ding, professor
at Sun Yat Sen University in Guangzhou, who focussed on the
joint work of German and Chinese archaeologists begun in the
1930s on the ancient Silk Road in northwest China, and a lively
report on the VW convoy’s tour from Xian to Berlin by the leader
of the Xinhua drivers’ team. The organizer of the entire event,
Ban Wei of Xinhua, said afterwards that what the Silk Road
now needs, “is concrete projects” He proudly pointed out that
one of his ancestors, Ban Zhou, a general in the Han dynasty
army, had established the start of the Silk Road in 73 AD.
The audience of the event included members of the German-
Chinese Society, representatives of Chinese and German travel
and trade agencies, scientists of universities in China and Germany,
and other institutional representatives.
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4 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER n°37 / 2014
China’s Manufacturing Workforce Expands,
as West Deindustrializes
The labor force in China involved in manufacturing surged to
approximately 105 million workers in 2012, up from 86 million
in 2002. In Western countries and Japan, the trend has
been the opposite, as under the London-Wall Street policy,
factories have been closed down and work shipped overseas.
As shown in the table below, in just ten years, China added
20 million more manufacturing workers to its workforce.
However, some economists suggest there may even be 20 million
more workers than the official total, because of inexact
reporting.
Size of Manufacturing Workforce (in millions of workers)
China USA Japan Deutschland
2002 85,9 17,2 12,0 8,5
2012 105,9 14,7 10,3 7,9
On the contrary, the combined manufacturing workforce total
of the United States, Japan, and Germany, was 37.7 million
in 2002, but only 32.9 million in 2012. The Chinese total was
three times that figure.
The usual China bashers maintain that the Chinese manufacturing
worker is less productive than a worker in the West.
This is still true in some sectors but it is fast changing. After
all, China is the economy that built Three Gorges Dam, the
world’s longest high-speed rail network, the South-to-North
water diversion project, in addition to breakthroughs in its
space activity, etc. Lyndon LaRouche has noted that the same
worker’s work, situated in a more productive economy, becomes
more productive. That is also the case in China’s upshifting
economy.
Egyptian Government Invites Europeans
to Support Mega Projects
Will Europe take up the invitation to participate in Egypt’s development?
That is the question posed by Egyptian Foreign
Minister Sameh Shoukry, who made official visits to Germany,
France and Italy from Aug. 30 to Sept. 3. In addition to the
economy, he discussed regional issues, especially terrorism and
the crisis in Libya. All his European hosts praised Egypt’s role in
brokering the cease-fire that stopped the 50 day bloody conflict
between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
In Berlin, Shoukry held meetings with his counterpart Frank
Walter Steinmeier, as well as with the Minister for Economic
Cooperation and Development Gerd Muller and parliamentary
leaders. A high-level German economic delegation is expected
to visit Egypt by the end of September to discuss possibilities
for new investment.
In Italy, which is Egypt’s largest trading partner in Europe,
Shoukry met with Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini and others.
Shoukry stressed the necessity of seizing the opportunity to
further enhance the relations between the two countries especially
at the economic and trade levels.
The same week Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano was
in Cairo where he was received by President Abdel Fattah al-
Sisi as well as his Egyptian counterpart Mohamed Ibrahim.
In France, Shoukry was received by President François Hollande
and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabuis, who both praised
Egypt’s role in negotiating a cease-fire in the Gaza conflict.
Besides regional political issues, Shoukry held discussions with
Fabius and with a group of French companies active in Egypt
on his country’s economic development plans and the opportunities
for French investments, according to the Cairo Post,
including in infrastructure such as metro transportation and of
course the New Suez Canal Development Corridor project.
The “Golden Triangle”, an old project now being pushed
by the new government, was also discussed. This project will
connect three major industrial centers – the city of Qena on the
upper Nile, and the Red Sea ports of Safaga and Al-Qaseir – and
is aimed at exploiting the mineral resources in the region.
The Fight against Ebola Can Be Won
with Full-Scale Response by States
“Six months into the worst Ebola epidemic in history, the world
is losing the battle to contain it. Leaders are failing to come to
grips with this transnational threat.” Such is the assessment
given by Dr. Joanne Liu, International President of Médecins
Sans Frontieres (MSF), at a special briefing organized Sept. 2
in New York by the office of the UN Secretary General and the
World Health Organisation.
On the same day, the director of the U.S. Center for Disease
Control (CDC), Dr. Tom Frieden, gave a press conference reporting
on his recent trip to the three nations at the heart of the
Ebola epidemic: Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Frieden said
the crisis was going to worsen over the next two weeks, but
that there was a small window of opportunity to respond right
now, with needed resources and health care experts. However,
he did not directly appeal for State aid, as Dr. Liu did.
“It is impossible to keep up with the sheer number of infected
people pouring into facilities,” the head of MSF stated. The
virus is spreading quickly through Liberia’s capital, Monrovia.”
Although MSF has doubled its staff over the past month,
“I can tell you that they [her colleagues] are completely overwhelmed.
The response has been too little, too late, she said.
“Many of the Member states represented here today have
invested heavily in biological threat response. You have a political
and humanitarian responsibility to immediately utilize these
capabilities in Ebola-affected countries.
“To curb the epidemic, it is imperative that States immediately
deploy civilian and military assets with expertise in biohazard
containment. I call upon you to dispatch your disaster
response teams, backed by the full weight of your logistical
capabilities. This should be done in close collaboration with the
affected countries. Without this deployment, we will never get
the epidemic under control.”
The Obama Administration rejected the appeal the following
day in a statement by Gayle Smith, Special Assistant to the
President. Contradicting MSF’s assessment, she said, “I don’t
think at this point deploying biological incident response teams
is exactly what’s needed.” But after several weeks (!), “If we find
it is still moving out of control, we will look at other options.”
On Sept. 5, the European Commission announced it would
grant €140 million to the most affected countries. However, the
measures decided do not correspond to the priorities set by MSF,
according to Dr. Mego Terzian, the head of MSF France, who
also stressed the need for response to a biological catastrophe.
E.I.R. STRATEGIC ALERT www.eir.de
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Verantwortl. f. d. Inhalt: Dean Andromidas, Claudio Celani
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