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E.I.R.STRATEGIC ALERT

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Volume 30, No. 18 - May 5, 2016

NATO’s Launches New Operation Barbarossa

An objective look at the military moves taken by NATO members

and their “allies” over the past weeks can only lead to the

conclusion that their policy is one of provoking and encircling

Russia, as well as China. It is a policy that threatens to escalate

to a world war, thermonuclear this time.

In that context, during President Obama’s brief visit to Europe

(April 22-25), he urged leaders to commit more money

and more troops to defending NATO countries from Russia.

Angela Merkel, for one, agreed to send Geman troops to Eastern

Europe, provoking a stinging attack from Helga Zepp-La-

Rouche (see below).

But is Russia actually threatening Europe, or even its neighbors,

or is the problem due to the fact that NATO is expanding

the military alliance right to the borders with Russia? For the

record, it is useful to review NATO’s facts on the grounds:

*Increased naval manoeuvers in both the Baltic and the Black

Seas, near Russia’s borders. In the latest incident, the guided

missile destroyer USS Donald Cook was only 120 km (70 km

according to the Russian Defense Ministry) off the coast of the

Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

* Permanent rotational deployments of NATO troops planned

in Poland and the Baltic states, with the decision expected to be

taken at the Alliance’s summit in early July in Warsaw.

* Forward basing of heavy weapons systems including M1

tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and heavy artillery, plus deployment

of F-22 stealth fighters to Lithuania and Romania.

* Proposal for a new joint military brigade to be made up of

troops from Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine, adding to the one

already being formed by Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine.

* Installation of the U.S. anti-missile defense systems in

Eastern Europe continues, although the original official reason

for doing so – to stop a missile attack from Iran – has been

undercut by the P5+1 agreement. In fact, its actual purpose

has always been to be able to knock out Russia’s nuclear second

strike capability.

* Most worrying, however, as we reported, are Washington’s

plans to spend $350 billion over the next years to modernize

the nuclear weapons arsenal, including weapons that are

meant to be more readily “usable” in a military conflict (cf. SAS

5, 11, 14, 16/16) . That program includes the B61-12 bomb,

to be stationed in Germany, and the air-launched Long Range

Standoff (LRSO) cruise missile, designed to break through air

defenses of the enemy.

At the recently concluded Moscow Security Conference, Russian

ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko issued a stark

warning that NATO’s build-up on its eastern flank forces Russia

to take “responsive measures”.

The fly-over of the U.S. warship in the Baltic shows how

great the danger of an “accident” has become. Washington

has accused Moscow of building up “anti-access/area denial”

capabilities within its own sovereign territory in Kaliningrad

because they supposedly threaten NATO’s ability to reinforce

the Baltic states, a strategic problem that NATO itself created

by bringing them into the alliance in the first place.

The fact of the matter is that NATO has pushed so far east

that exercises by Russia to protect its national security, inside its

own territory, are now decried in the West as provocations.

The Bundeswehr Has No Business

Being in Lithuania

“71 years after the crushing defeat of Hitler in his demented

military campaign against the Soviet Union,”, Helga Zepp-

LaRouche wrote in an article dated April 29, Angela Merkel’s

recent decision to deploy German soldiers to Lithuania is “scandalous”.

“After President Obama had signalled ahead of his latest visit

to Hanover, that he expected a greater military engagement

and funding from Germany, Chancellor Merkel found nothing

better to do, than to assure the Bundeswehr’s contribution to

NATO’s expansion to the East ‘behind closed doors’, during the

mini-summit with the leaders of Great Britain, France, Italy

with Obama in Hanover.”

This time, Zepp-LaRouche warns, “the overeagerness of

Mrs. Merkel to comply and the vassal-like careeerist military”

have gone too far. “Germany’s increased involvement in NATO’s

encirclement strategy against Russia, which is moving NATO

close the borders of Russia and not the opposite – Russian Foreign

Minister Lavrov spoke of an ‘unscrupulous attempt to turn

things on their head’ -- has put Germany’s existence at stake,

because in the event of a nuclear war, nothing will remain of

Germany and no one will survive. And no one can convince us

that Mrs. Merkel, [Defense Minister] Mrs. von der Leyen and

the Bundeswehr leadership are not perfectly aware of that.”

Zepp-LaRouche then reviews the provocations against China,

the sending of U.S. soldiers into Syria, all on the backdrop of

the financial collapse in the trans-Atlantic system, before coming

back to the question of Germany as such.

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2 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER n°18 / 2016

“71 years after the total defeat of the national socialists,”

she wrote, “which inflicted untold suffering on the Russian

population, but also on the populations of many other countries

– including our own, the idea that we could be part of

a new Operation Barbarossa against Russia must be rejected

in the strongest terms and in practice. If the escalations now

planned – including NATO’s granting of “associate status” to

Ukraine and Georgia, which has long been defined as a red line

by Russia, or the potential NATO membership of Finland and

Sweden, or the deployment of German soldiers to Lithuania

– are adopted at the upcoming NATO summit, we will in all

likelihood end up on the direct path to hell.

“Therefore, we must use the remaining two months to launch

the alternative. That means the win-win cooperation with Russia

and China, without which the current life-and-death problems

– war danger, financial crash, refugee crisis, terrorism

– cannot be solved. And we could not show greater friendship

to the real America than by insisting on such cooperation.

“There is a way out. We must build the New Silk Road together

with Russia, China and India, to ensure the economic

development of Southwest Asia and Africa and the reconstruction

of our own productive economy, and we have to make it

clear to America that we are not willing to commit suicide to

save an empire, that overstretched itself long ago. However,

for the America of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton,

Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy,

the international community has reserved a place of honor.”

The Monumental Stake in Releasing

the 28 Pages on Saudi Arabia

Director of the CIA John Brennan made abundantly clear on

May 1 that the 28 pages of the Joint Congressional Inquiry

report on the role of the House of Saud and other Saudi officials

in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 would not

be released. Thus President Obama will continue the cover-up,

but now under the pretext that the information those pages

contain is “untrue”, although other government documents disclosed

last summer do give solid evidence of Saudi complicity

(cf. SAS 17/16).

That, in itself, Lyndon LaRouche has pointed out repeatedly,

is grounds enough to demand the immediate impeachment of

Barack Obama, for after-the-fact covering up of those responsible

for such heinous crimes. After all, the invasion of Afghanistan

and the war in Iraq were launched in the name of fighting

“international terrorism”. But to this day, information on who

was actually funding those Al Qaeda “terrorists” is kept secret.

That has allowed the Saudis to continue financing and training

radical islamists, including in and from Europe, who form

the core of the jihad. It is also the Saudi-sponsored, so-called

“moderate” rebels in Syria, who have now pulled out of the Geneva

peace negotiations. Meanwhile, Barack Obama is sending

250 American special forces, for the first time, to fight on the

ground in Syria, while urging new military operations in Libya.

Thus, the calls for declassifying the 28 pages are increasing

in intensity. A key spokesman for their release is former Democratic

Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, who chaired the Congressional

Inquiry and oversaw the writing of the final report.

In an interview to National Public Radio on April 28, Graham

not only called for reopening the investigation, but also stated

bluntly that the FBI had lied to Congress to cover the Saudis.

When asked if he thought that consecutive administrations

have been protecting the Saudi royal family against the interests

of United States citizens, his answer was clear: “Yes. And

I think it’s been more than a cover up. I think it’s been what I

call aggressive deception. There are instances in which the FBI

has publicly released statements which I know from personal

experience were untrue.”

When pressed on the issue by the interviewer, the former

chair of the Inquiry repeated: “It’s more than a cover-up. The

FBI has misstated what is in their own records relative to the

situation in Sarasota [Florida].”

He has also charged the FBI with withholding thousands of

documents on the Saudis. According to admiral John Lehman,

it was then FBI head Robert Mueller who personally insisted on

suppressing the 28 pages.

Another interesting twist to the connections: the former

head of the FBI from 1993 to June, 2001, Louis Freeh, was

hired as the personal attorney for Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan

in 2009, to defend him on charges of corruption in the

United States.

Cheminade to RT: Major Shake-ups

Can Be Expected in Europe

The French language RT published a long article on April 26

based on a long, all-encompassing interview with French presidential

candidate Jacques Cheminade, whom the journalist calls

an “iconoclastic candidate”.

Asked to comment on a protest movement which, like Podemos

in Spain, has arisen in France out of the ongoing revolt

against the EL-Khomri anti-labor bill, and which meets every

night, Cheminade says, “They want to change the system but

have no idea of how to do it.”

The article notes that among the different events the candidate

expects to shake up the established order are the June 23

vote on the Brexit, and the June 26 vote in Spain to be able to

form a new government. “Europe will be shaken. Moreover, at

some point, we will have a collapse of the monetary and financial

system. The social consequences will be terrible. And then,

there is a very high risk of new terror attacks.”

Speaking about the Panama Papers, Cheminade noted that

they only revealed “the tip of the iceberg”, of a system organized

around Wall Street and the City of London. “His face becomes

grave again when talking about the world economy: `The

question is not if it will be destroyed, but when. A new world

financial, monetary, economic and international order must be

imposed, oriented towards real production of goods and economic

development, if we want to start on a new basis.’”

“How? By going through what he calls the `new silk road.

The Chinese are smart. They are creating progressively structures

like the AIIB or the NDB with their allies in the BRICS.

On the other hand, they are massively buying up gold, just like

Russia by the way, anticipating the blowout of the financial

system. A new alternative is coming into being little by little to

the present system, dominated by the West.’ He lays hope on a

system oriented towards public productive credit going directly

to industry `as France had done under de Gaulle.’

Importantly, the article quotes him on the difference between

nationalism, which is animosity toward others, and patriotism,

which means acting together with other countries to bring

about a better policy. “It’s a fundamental difference with the

program of the Front National, and it’s not the only one.”

The RT article highlights Cheminade’s warnings of war, due

to the US’ strategy of containment of Russia, and notes that he

is for France leaving the euro, the EU, and NATO, and implementing

a Europe of nations and projects. It also includes his

call for a Marshall Plan for Southwest Asia.

EIR STRATEGIC ALERT

n°18 / 2016 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 3

Draghi Can’t Wait to Get His Hands

on Europeans’ Savings

Depositors throughout Europe are worried that their savings

are being eroded by the zero rate interest policy, and threatened

by a bail-in in the event of a banking crisis. But ECB President

Mario Draghi has some good “advice” for them, as he explained

in an interview with Bild published April 28. Staunchly defending

his zero interest rate policy, he proposed that if Germans

want a return on their savings, they should put it in the hands

of his friends at Goldman Sachs.

“People can influence how much they get on their savings

even in times of low interest rates. They don’t just have to keep

the money in savings accounts but can invest in other ways”,

Draghi said. In other words, if bank deposits and other safe

forms of investments, such as life insurance policies, offer no

interest on savings, the Germans (but the same goes for all EU

member countries) should invest their money in stocks, bonds

and other financial products, including high-risk ones.

One small detail: under the new bail-in rules, all non-protected

forms of investments are at high risk, as shown in the

partial bail-in of four local banks last December in Italy. The

bail-in rules were vehemently promoted by Draghi, both when

he was head of the Global Stability Board and as head of the

ECB since 2011.

But even before he became an international figure, Draghi

pulled off a major theft of depositors. As Director General of

the Italian Treasury (1991-2001), he was the architect of the

Italian stock market bubble, together with technocrat government

officials such as Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Romano Prodi and

Giuliano Amato.

Those technocrats -- often referred to as the “Britannia boys”

from the famous meeting on board Queen Elizabeth’s yacht in

1992 -- managed to shift a large portion of Italian family savings

into the stock market bubble through a vast program of

privatizations. When the IT bubble collapsed in 2001, those

families lost €216 billion.

German bonds, for instance, now offer a negative rate under

a ten years maturity. But by fleeing into unsecured investments,

savings are exposed to bail-in. German savings are estimated at

over €800 bn, circa 27% of the country’s GDP. This is a tantalizing

sum for the bankrupt banking system, whose bad loans

in the Eurozone are greater than one trillion, not to mention

the quadrillions of derivative assets on top of that.

Celani to DWN: Universal Banks Have Failed,

Only Glass-Steagall Can Work

In a long interview with the widely read German online magazine

Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten (DWN) May 1, EIR Strategic

Alert co-editor Claudio Celani blasts the current EU and

ECB policies, and points to the fact that only if the current

financial system, based on the universal bank model, is replaced

with a Glass-Steagall system, could there be a recovery.

“By now, all banks are involved in hedge funds, derivatives

bets, etc. The 2008 crisis did not slow it down, the situation

has become even worse”, Celani said. “The ratios no longer

have any correspondence, as in Deutsche Bank with a current

share capital of scarcely EU20 billion, EU1.7 trillion in assets

and EU52 trillion in derivatives exposure! The case of other

‘systemically relevant’ banks is no different. The crash of the

system is unavoidable.”

DWN asked whether the way out is “helicopter money”,

as the ECB is apparently considering. That, Celani said, “will

make the situation worse. We have to reject the failed model

of the universal bank and re-introduce Glass-Steagall-like bank

separation. As long as commercial banks and investment banks

stay under the same roof, it will be impossible to let bankrupt

institutions fail. But if we separate the two, and decouple the

real, goods-producing economy from the financial casino, we

can save the former.”

“For this purpose, [the Italian movement] MoviSol has directly

sponsored or drafted a whole series of legislative proposals

for bank separation in the Italian Parliament since 2012....

But, restructured commercial banks need opportunities for

investment. In other words, credit for investment must not

only be offered, but demanded. The key word here: Public infrastructure

programs.”

Asked about the Juncker Plan, Celani could not endorse it.

“The EU Commission has just announced that the first part

of the plan will be set in motion and should bring about €76

billion in investments. But in reality, the EU is only providing

€10 billion, the rest has to come from private investment. But

above all, there is no strategy, no overall plan. Only isolated

projects are funded, and mostly small ones which can have no

essential macroeconomic effect.”

Instead of the Juncker Plan, Celani concluded, “the EU should

take part in the Chinese project for a `New Silk Road’ and make

appropriate sums available for investments in infrastructure

corridors. The reconstruction of Syria and other countries in

the Middle East and Africa can be part of this strategy. This

could be financed through a development bank, which, in turn,

requires rethinking the entire economic policy of the EU.”

At the end of the interview, which focuses also on George

Soros, the euro and the famous “Britannia Plot”, Celani is also

identified as the deputy chairman of Movisol, the sister organization

to the Büso in Germany and part of the international

LaRouche movement, which fights “for the unalienable rights

of all”.

Syria Planning Now for Reconstruction

Efforts, Reaching out to Russia and China

Although the ceasefire in Syria remains highly fragile, mainly

because of the forces supported by Turkey and Saudi Arabia,

and now by the United States directly, the Syrian government

is nonetheless attempting to move ahead with plans to reconstruct

the country.

Deputy Director General of the Syrian Investment Agency Dr.

Inas al-Omawi, according to a report in the Syrian news agency

SANA, intends to hold a reconstruction conference, to discuss

cooperation on short- and medium-term joint investment projects

in the war-torn country. Extensive discussions on the subject

are ongoing with Russian and Chinese authorities.

Our newsletter has always stressed the need to launch an

in-depth program to rebuild the economy, which will give all

Syrians the perspective of working together toward a common

future, in addition to the needed political changes. EIR’s

interventions internationally have proposed that the best way

to do so is to integrate Syria, and its neighbors, into the New

Silk Road process.

Now, China has named a special envoy for Syria, Xie Xiaoyan.

He told Sputnik News, after holding talks with the Russian Foreign

Ministry’s special envoy for Middle East settlement, Sergei

Vershinin, on 27 April, that “China is positive about taking part

in post-war reconstruction in Syria, and we are ready to cooperate

with Russia and other relevant parties.”

Syria and Russia have already signed agreements worth

EIR STRATEGIC ALERT

4 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER n°18 / 2016

€850 million to restore infrastructure. And discussions have

begun on the possibility for Syria to form a free trade zone

with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

Xie further explained that Russia “is China’s comprehensive

strategic partner of coordination, therefore China is ready to

compare notes on a regular basis on the Syrian issue with Russia,

and work closely together to make positive efforts to promote

the political solution”.

He cautioned, however, that the political process might be

slow. The crisis “did not crop up overnight, so we should not

expect to solve it overnight...The negotiation is going to be

an incremental process, and it is all very natural to experience

some twists and turns and setbacks”.

China’s Plans for a Broad and Sweeping

Space Exploration Program

The celebrations on and around China’s first National Space Day

on April 24 afforded ample opportunity to discuss the nation’s

ambitious space missions that are planned over the next five to

twenty years.

The tone for the celebrations was set by President Xi Jinping,

who instructed scientists and engineers to “seize the strategic

opportunity and keep innovating to make a greater contribution

to the country’s overall growth and the welfare of

mankind.” Capturing a spirit that has long since disappeared

in Europe and the United States, he continued: “In establishing

Space Day, we are commemorating history, passing on the

spirit, and galvanizing popular enthusiasm for science, exploration

of the unknown, and innovation, particularly among young

people.” President Xi commented that his “China Dream” is tied

to China’s “Space Dream.”

Although for some time, Chinese scientists have been lobbying

the government to approve a mission to land astronauts on

the Moon, the first announcement of such a plan from a highlevel

official came during these celebrations. Lieutenant General

Zhang Yulin, the deputy commander of China’s Manned Space

Program, made official that China plans a manned lunar landing

by 2036, developing the intervening 15 to 20 years to

develop the technologies needed.

The challenges that presents were described by Pang Zhihao,

of the China Academy of Space Technology. A heavy-lift

launch vehicle, on the order of the U.S. Saturn V Moon rocket,

has to be designed, developed, and tested, he explained, one

which is capable of “lifting a payload of at least 100 metric tons

into low Earth orbit.” Thus, the Long March 9 is expected to

be ready to fly around 2030. A new crew capsule, larger and

more capable than the Earth-orbital Shenzhou, will have to be

developed along with new space suits, as well as techniques for

descent to the lunar surface, a soft landing, and the ability to

launch from the lunar surface and rendezvous and dock with an

orbiter for the trip home.

As for other missions, Xu Dazhe, director of the China National

Space Administration (CNSA), reported at a press conference

April 22 that on Jan. 11, the central government had

given its formal approval for a mission to Mars. The mission is

difficult, he said, but “only by completing this Mars probe mission

can China say it has embarked on the exploration of deep

space, in the true sense.” It is a daring mission, which includes

an orbiter, lander, and rover which will “walk on Mars,” as described

by veteran space expert, Ye Peijian. It will be the first

time all three elements will be tried together on a first Mars

mission.

The exploration of Mars, Ye said, has significance for understanding

the evolution of the universe, the structure of matter,

and the origins of life. With a 2020 launch to Mars, the craft

will arrive in 2021, when China’s celebrates the 100th anniversary

of the founding of the Communist Party of China.

Chernobyl and Radiation:

Time to Consider the Facts

The 30th anniversary of the catastrophe at Chernobyl again

gave rise to hair-raising stories about the dangers of nuclear

energy and the life-threatening effects of radiation on human

beings. One welcome exception came from the Spiegel, in Germany:

“after Chernobyl, horrific projections on the number of

victims made the rounds. A very small risk, multiplied by 600

million Europeans, turned into hundreds of thousands of additional

cancer cases -- a completely fictitious number. It’s not

to be excluded that there were none at all. We simply do not

know.”

Indeed, the “elite” behind the environmentalist lobby has resisted

efforts to do sound scientific research on the matter,

preferring to repeat “horror scenarios” which are not based on

proven data. In fact, those scenarios are clearly contradicted by

other studies. An official investigative study carried out by the

United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic

Radiation (UNSCEAR), which was published in 2011, could

not confirm higher cancer rates resulting from the accident at

Chernobyl.

Reinhard Wetzker, director of the Institute of Molecular Cell

Biology at the University of Jena, Germany, is quoted by Spiegel:

“The traditional risk model inuntenable. It doesn’t take into

account that the cells can deal very well with low dosages of

radiation.”

The German weekly article also covers research ongoing in

Germany, including at the Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research

in Darmstadt, on the positive effects that radon has on

the immunity system of patients suffering from chronic inflammatory

disease. Preliminary conclusions from the research

show that doses of radiation lower than the critical mark of

100 millisievert may not be harmful. And the average radiation

across Europe after the Chernobyl disaster was visibly below

100 millisievert.

This year’s comments on the accident, however, featured

another -- more surprising for some -- observation on the

consequences of the radiation. As the Spiegel put it: “Those

who travel to Chernobyl today will feel like they are entering a

natural paradise. In the area surrounding the reactor that was

the epicenter of the disaster, there are once again wolves and

Przewalski horses – and even European bison and lynx have

now infiltrated the uninhabited forests. There are probably

more animals living in the area than before the disaster.”

E.I.R. STRATEGIC ALERT www.eir.de

Published by: E.I.R.GmbH, Bahnstr. 9a, 65205 Wiesbaden

Tel.: 0611/73650, Fax: 0611/7365101, Email: eirna@eirna.com

Verantwortl. f. d. Inhalt: Dean Andromidas, Claudio Celani

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Thursday, 5 May 2016

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Wednesday, 4 May 2016

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