EDITORIAL
British Recolonize the Philippines, through Their Stooge
Obama, Preparing for War on China
Jan. 13 (EIRNS)—The Philippines LaRouche Society chairman
Butch Valdes on Tuesday denounced the decision by the Philippine
Supreme Court declaring President Aquino’s treasonous deal with
President Obama, which turns the Philippine military bases over to
U.S. military occupation, to be an “executive agreement” rather than
a treaty, and therefore legal and constitutional, and not subject to
Senatorial vote.
The decision creates a Constitutional crisis, since the
Philippines Senate voted in December that the agreement was clearly
a treaty as defined by the Constitution, and must thus be approved
by the Senate—which would almost certainly not happen.
Lyndon LaRouche stated today that this agreement, if not
stopped, constitutes a British re-colonization of the Philippines
through their agent Barack Obama. The entire process was run by
Obama—it was signed during his visit to Manila in April 2014, and
was intended to be approved by the Court during his visit in
November 2015, but the huge opposition from the population and the
Senate stalled the decision. The agreement, called the Enhanced
Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), will allow the U.S. to deploy
its most advanced air, land, and sea forces and weaponry into
Philippine military bases, despite a clear Constitutional restraint
to any foreign bases on Philippine soil.
LaRouche added that the indication is clear that Obama
intends to start World War III.
The statement by Butch Valdes, entitled “The Final
Betrayal,” reads:
“The Filipino people have been
betrayed yet again ... not just by a demented President, nor by
prostituted legislators, but by the very institution mandated to
uphold, first and foremost, the Constitution of the Sovereign
Philippine Republic.
“Like fools and Judases, they hide
behind faulty technical issues of the EDCA, twisting definitions,
leaning on flimsy interpretations to manufacture their blatantly
treasonous decision. Willfully blind to the true nature of the U.S.
military installations inside Philippine Military Bases—which may
very possibly be silos of nuclear-armed medium-/long-range rockets
aimed at China—these justices of the Supreme Court commit treason of
the highest degree against the Filipino people. In my opinion, they
have collectively sworn allegiance to a foreign occupying power
which makes them moral cowards who do not deserve any iota of
respect from the citizenry. The late Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos,
a true hero and patriot, turns in his grave to have these despicable
characters in the same revered Halls of Justice.
“To consciously place 100 million
Filipino lives at risk in a nuclear conflict between two superpowers
earns for them the worst places in Hell ... and may they live long
enough to experience the resulting pain and destruction which they
have caused.”
The referenced former Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos was
the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines in
1941-42, and also acting President on behalf of President Quezon
when Quezon went into exile in the U.S. after the Japanese invasion,
on the advice of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Chief Justice Santos stayed
behind, but refused to capitulate to the Japanese occupiers’
commands. The Japanese murdered him in 1942.
The comparison of the U.S. military occupation of the
Philippines to the Japanese occupation is absolutely correct, as the
Japanese target was not the Philippines itself, but China and Asia
generally—as is the case also with Obama.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Russia To Deploy New Nuclear Forces in Western Russia
Jan. 13 (EIRNS)—Russia will deploy new nuclear armed
forces in the West of Russia in 2016 which will include five new
strategic nuclear missile regiments, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu
said yesterday in his first teleconference this year.
“Our main effort should go into strengthening the
potential of our strategic nuclear forces and of fulfilling the
space defense programs,” RIA Novosti quoted Shoigu as saying. “Five
rocket regiments, equipped with modern rocket complexes, will enter
active service in 2016.”
Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News reports that Russia
recently announced deployment of five fourth-generation MIG-29
fighter jets and an Mi-8 transport helicopter to a Russian base near
Yerevan, Armenia in the second half of 2016. Russia had earlier said
it would deploy seven Mi-24 attack helicopters and an Mi-8 transport
helicopter, which was announced by the Russian Southern Military
District for the protection of Armenian air space, which is “part of
the Commonwealth of Independent States air borders.”
On Dec. 23, at the CIS Council of Defense Ministers
meeting, Russia and Armenia announced that they would be integrating
each other’s air defense systems for their air defenses in the
Caucasus. While Armenia, which has been a staunch ally of Russia,
does not border it, it does border Turkey. Russia has, in addition
to its airbase near Yerevan, a base in the northwest near Gyumri,
not far from the Turkish border. All these moves have accrued a
wider significance since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane over
Syria on Nov. 24, 2015.
Will Washington Nuclear Security Summit Be Reduced to
Russia-Bashing?
Jan. 13 (EIRNS)—Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson
Maria
Zakharova said, today, that Russia will not be participating in
the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit, set for March 31 to April 1 in
Washington, D.C. However, Poland, one of the sites of Obama’s and
NATO’s forward provocations will be highlighted.
“Our country has taken part in three Nuclear Security
Summits, those held in Washington (2010), Seoul (2012), and The
Hague (2014). The summits have played their role. Considerable
progress has been made in the strengthening of nuclear security.
However, the political agenda of these summit meetings has been
exhausted by now,” Zakharova said, replying to a press question.
For Polish President Andrzej Duda, however, speaking at
the Washington summit will be the cap of a round of visits to NATO
capitals during which he will be lobbying for NATO to station troops
on Polish soil. The “enemy” he’s worried about, of course, is
Russia. Radio Poland reports that Duda’s string of visits will begin
on Jan. 18 with a trip to Brussels to visit NATO headquarters and a
meeting with EU Council President Donald Tusk, Poland’s former
premier. This will be followed by visits to Norway, Italy, Germany,
the Czech Republic, and Hungary, to be concluded by the Washington
visit. Krzysztof Szczerski, responsible for foreign affairs in the
President’s office, said that in the first half of the year Duda
would deliver three important speeches: in February at a Munich
Security Conference, in March at a meeting with U.S. think-tanks in
Washington, and in May at the NATO Defense College in Rome.
U.S./NATO Will Not ‘Please’ Russia on Missile Defense
Jan. 13 (EIRNS)—Frank Rose, Obama’s Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State for Arms Control, was in Brussels yesterday,
where he declared that NATO allies will not limit their missile
defenses in order to please Russia, reports Reuters.
“We are not going to agree to limitations on our systems,
because we need to have the flexibility to deal with the dynamic and
evolving threat,” he said. “North Korea has large numbers of
ballistic missiles and they test them often,” Rose said, adding that
North Korea could already reach South Korea and most of Japan, and
potentially the United States.
“The key Russian concern,” Rose said, “is that in the
future, absent legally binding constraints, we will develop systems
that could potentially negate their strategic deterrent,” and he
repeated the lying claim that the missiles are not directed against
Russia.
However, the only “threat” that has been identified
against NATO is Iran, not North Korea. North Korea is claimed to be
a threat against the U.S., but the U.S.-based BMD in Asia is not
part of the NATO system—and, as the Russians keep pointing out, the
Iranian threat has been taken care of by the nuclear deal, so what
other threat is Obama’s emissary Rose taking about?
In any case, as RT reports, despite NATO’s ongoing
missile defense build-up, Russia’s supreme military commanders note
that no existing U.S. missile shield can withstand a potential
Russian attack by intercontinental ballistic missiles. Not said by
RT, but obvious to anyone familiar with such matters, is that
Russia, through its military campaign in Syria, has also
demonstrated capabilities—long-range ship- and air-launched cruise
missiles—that could also be used to destroy the BMD installations
that NATO is building in Romania and Poland.
Swedish and Finnish Governments Jointly Decide To Block
NATO Applications
STOCKHOLM, Jan. 13 (EIRNS)—In a coordinated action, the
Swedish and Finnish governments have ruled out any NATO membership
application. Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and Finnish Prime
Minister Juha Sipilä published an article together in the Swedish
daily, Dagens Nyheter, on Jan. 10 to that effect. The
article coincided with the first day of the annual Swedish
conference on defense policies, organized by the Swedish NGO,
Society And Defense, where Foreign Minister Margot Wallstroem came
out with the same message in her keynote speech. This intervention
punctured the hyperinflated debate in Sweden out joining NATO, as
the statements clearly closed off any Swedish and Finnish NATO
membership. In both places it was clearly stated that there “would
be no abrupt changes in the policy of non-alliance,” stating: “It
has served us well.” Both stated that there are “Tensions in the
region” and that “a NATO membership would not contribute to
détente.”
There is tremendous pressure on Sweden and Finland to
join NATO. Tons of articles, “leaks” and anti-Russian propaganda
have filled up the media. This included a submarine scare
hysterically played up by the media this past summer.
All four of Sweden’s non-Socialist parties, that made up
the former government, have one after the other opened up for NATO
membership. And the foreign pressure is exemplified by Edward Lucas,
senior editor with London’s The Economist, writing op-eds
in Sweden’s Svenska Dagbladet. Also the earlier decision to
name the Norwegian Social Democrat and former Prime Minister Jens
Stoltenberg, as head of NATO to succeed a Dane, shows the regional
priority given by NATO.
Going into the just-completed conference on defense
policies, a crescendo in the campaign was reached. The conference
organizers even took the extraordinary step to invite Latvian
President Raimonds Vejonis to interfere in this domestic issue and
call for Sweden to join NATO.
The global strategic map would shift dramatically if NATO
were extended to Russia’s borders with Scandinavia, close to St.
Petersburg and most importantly to the Murmansk area, where half of
Russia’s nuclear deterrent is based. During the Cold War even Norway
kept the nuclear weapons away from that Russian border area, in what
was effectively a nuclear free zone together with Sweden and
Finland. Were Finland and Sweden to join NATO, the whole Baltic Sea
would be a NATO lake.
Nonetheless, it is the case that Stockholm and Helsinki
have moved much closer to NATO. Both countries are most active in
NATO partnership activities. Last year both countries signed the
NATO host nation support agreement allowing for assistance from NATO
in emergency situations, as well as allowing the use of Swedish and
Finnish territory for joint military exercises.
Suicide Bomber in Istanbul Was Saudi-Born Syrian
Jan. 13 (EIRNS)—The Turkish government announced that the
suicide bomber—broadly reported in the media as a
“Syrian”—responsible for yesterday’s bombing in Istanbul which
killed ten people, all of them German tourists, was one Nabil Fadli,
born in Saudi Arabia. Citing unnamed security sources, yesterday,
Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News reported he was a Saudi
national who had only applied for asylum on Jan. 5th in Turkey. Much
surprise has been expressed by how quickly the Turks were able to
identify the bomber.
According to Hurriyet’s Murat Yetki, the attack
in Istanbul was the first time that a foreign terrorist had launched
an attack in which foreign nationals were killed.
Police arrested nine members of the Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant (ISIL), including three Russian citizens, in Antalya
and Izmir this morning. Antalya is in the heart of the main tourist
region of the so-called Turkish Riviera.
The police operation in the province of Antalya also led
to the seizure of a large number of organizational documents.
Pakistan Will Not Send Troops to Saudi Arabia’s So-Called
Anti-Terrorism ‘34-Nation Alliance’
Jan. 13 (EIRNS)—Speaking to the Pakistan’s National
Assembly Foreign Affairs Committee, advisor to the Prime Minister on
Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, said Pakistan will not send ground
troops to Saudi Arabia or any other country, Pakistani daily The
Dawn reported today.
Aziz said Pakistan will remain only a part of the Saudi
34-nation alliance against terrorism, but will not be sending its
forces on the ground in Saudi Arabia. He added that sending forces
in any country was against Pakistan’s policy. However, he said that
it will share counterterrorism intelligence with Saudi Arabia.
Aziz’s announcement was made a day after Saudi Defense
Minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had visited
Pakistan and held meetings with Army Chief Gen. Raheel Sharif and
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Riyadh had put extensive pressure on
Pakistan, which possesses the most capable military among those that
joined the coalition. Earlier, Pakistan had twice rejected calls by
the United States for joining alliances against the militant Islamic
State (IS) on the same pretext, ANI reported today.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Glass-Steagall Debate Rages On
Jan. 13 (EIRNS)—Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich’s
syndicated column today supports Democratic presidential primary
candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Glass-Steagall speech of Jan. 6 and
notes the Wall Street Journal has led a campaign of attacks
on the movie version of Michael Lewis’ book The Big Short.
Wall Street voices are furiously attacking both Sanders’
(correct) statement that Glass-Steagall would have prevented the
2008 global bank panic, and the movie. Today, among others, Douglas
Holtz-Eakin, head of the right-wing American Action Forum, gets a
column in The Hill’s “Congress Blog” to remind the members
on Capitol Hill of their loyalties to Wall Street and, ironically,
to Barack Obama and Barney Frank. Stick to the Dodd-Frank Act, says
Holtz-Eakin; implementing Glass-Steagall would make the financial
system less safe, in ways Holtz-Eakin doesn’t feel the need
to explain to the Congress. Holtz-Eakin was Sen. John McCain’s chief
campaign economic advisor in 2008, and helped McCain fatally lose
his nerve during a emergency flight to Washington that October;
McCain’s determination to shut down—not bail out—the Wall Street
behemoths, collapsed by the time his flight touched down in D.C.
Holtz-Eakin is following up the Washington
Post’s lengthy and “exhaustive” attempt on Jan. 10 to convince
the Congress Members that Sanders was wrong, and Glass-Steagall
would not have prevented the bank panic of 2008.
Clearly, support for restoring Glass-Steagall continues
to grow, and Wall Street, preparing to crash and be bailed out
again, will expend any amount to stop it.
However, the Glass-Steagall promotion coming from
supporters of Sanders—of whom Robert Reich certainly seems to be
one—has “lost the name of action.”
Reich does say, “Unless they’re [the Wall Street banks]
broken up and Glass-Steagall resurrected, we face substantial risk
of another near meltdown—once again threatening the incomes,
savings, and homes of millions of Americans.” He focusses on what
is, in fact, the main message of The Big Short book: that
Wall Street and the City of London created toxic subprime credit by
the many trillions—not mortgage companies, still less Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac—in order to create fraudulent securities and
derivatives, and make super-profits and fees thereby. They committed
every conceivable financial crime, escaped punishment, and were
bailed out.
But he doesn’t explain that Wall Street and London have
now again created toxic “high-yield credit” by the many trillions,
in order to create fraudulent securities, “leveraged exchange-traded
funds” on the stock market, and other derivatives, to make
super-profits and fees thereby; and these are blowing out now,
destroying what’s left of the trans-Atlantic economies—unless Wall
Street is broken up immediately.
Sanders on Jan. 6 said, “If the big banks don’t break
themselves up, I will break them up.” But presidential candidates do
not re-establish Glass-Steagall—which is essential right now.
Congress does, and it is gripped by Wall Street money. Sanders, and
Martin O’Malley, should be targetting Members on Capitol Hill, and
riling up audiences to make them enact it now.
Obama State of Union—Evil and Psychotic
Jan. 13 (EIRNS)—Lyndon LaRouche warned hours before
Obama’s State of the Union speech Tuesday night, that it would be
pure evil—and indeed it was. Add to that, totally psychotic. Besides
calling white, black, in regard to his so-called successes, several
wildly defensive statements were clearly responding to Lyndon
LaRouche’s warnings.
A few examples:
- “Surveys
show our standing around the world is higher than when I was
elected to this office, and when it comes to every important
international issue, people of the world do not look to Beijing or
Moscow to lead—they call us.”
- “[T]he
United States of America, right now, has the strongest, most
durable economy in the world.”
- “Anyone
claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling
fiction.”
- “I
told you earlier all the talk of America’s economic decline is
political hot air. Well, so is all the rhetoric you hear about our
enemies getting stronger and America getting weaker.”
Jan. 13 (EIRNS)—Congressional Democrats, according to
reports in the capital press, revolted against Barack Obama’s
deportation raids on families, just before he tried to talk the
Congress and the country into submission on Tuesday night.
Not accidentally, Obama’s State of the Union address
skipped immigration policy entirely. That afternoon, 140 Democratic
House Members had sent him a letter sharply protesting the ongoing
deportation raids he ordered, and had then held a press conference
to make the letter public. This included the whole House Democratic
leadership, and was flanked by Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid.
The size of the press conference showed the anger building against
Obama in the party on this matter.
“We are gravely concerned that the [Administration] may
have already removed mothers and children from the United States and
returned them to violent and dangerous situations in their own
countries,” the letter was quoted in the Washington Post.
Recent immigrants from Central America, legal and
illegal, are fleeing from powerful criminal syndicates which make
life nearly as dangerous for families there, as in Iraq or Syria.
More than 100,000 families, and other unaccompanied children, have
come within the past year. The Obama White House has put out a
“deport felons, not families” slogan for show, but has been raiding
households and deporting families in fact.
A national campaign against this has called Obama
“Deporter-in-Chief.”
The Post reported “The letter and planned news
conference so annoyed Administration officials that they sent White
House Counsel W. Neil Eggleston to Capitol Hill for a tense mid-day
meeting....” Eggleston only managed to delay the Democrats’ press
conference for a couple of hours; Democrats said Obama’s “arguments
were unconvincing.”
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid meanwhile met with
Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnston, and then said
“You’re going to find a pause in these deportations.” That remains
to be seen, but evidently Reid is angry enough to be determined to
stop them.
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Novo Banco Bail-In Was Breach of EU Rules
Jan. 13 (EIRNS)—Euromoney runs remarks by Sonya
van de Graaff, of the Morrison & Foerster law firm, saying that
the Nov. 29 bail-in of Novo Banco in Portugal was a breach of
bail-in rules, because the decision to do so had no legal basis, nor
was there a legal procedure as would have been required before any
decision. Neither was it documented that Novo Banco was facing an
existential threat to qualify for a bail-in. It was just decided to
do it, and the public and bank depositors were totally taken by
surprise, when they learned about it from the media.
Van de Graaff stated, “BRRD [the EU’s Bank Recovery and
Resolution Directive] was written into law to create a level playing
field and is arguably a sensible solution to these problems.
However, if it is invoked in an arbitrary fashion and if
institutions try to hang their hat on anything other than clearly
enunciated authority for their actions, then investor confidence in
Europe will be shaken.”
Granted, these remarks don’t contest the BRRD as such,
but they provide arguments for lawsuits n Portugal against this
bail-in and future cases.
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development To
Finalize China’s Membership This Week
Jan. 13 (EIRNS)—European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (EBRD) President Sir Suma Chakrabarti will be visiting
Beijing (Jan. 15-16) to finalize the formal admission of China as a
member of the EBRD and also to attend the inauguration of the
Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), reported
an EBRD news release today. Speaking ahead of his visit, Sir Suma
said, “Chinese membership of the EBRD is a win-win-win scenario for
China, for the EBRD and for the countries where the EBRD invests.
The EBRD would support Chinese integration into the global economy
and be a strong partner for Chinese companies as they invest in the
EBRD regions.... EBRD membership would also provide a boost to
China’s One Belt, One Road initiative.” The EBRD would benefit from
having the world’s second largest economy as a shareholder and would
have better access to Chinese firms that could be partners in the
EBRD regions, the news release said. Last month, China was made a
member of the EBRD.
The EBRD was founded in 1991 and serves as a finance
channel for major infrastructure projects in Europe and elsewhere.
The EBRD oversees development projects in 36 countries. Meanwhile,
China-initiated AIIB is scheduled to start operations at the end of
this year. The two banks could join hands to upgrade logistics
networks that would boost trade and finance throughout Asia, Europe,
Middle East, and Africa.
No comments:
Post a Comment