March 15—Along with the fighting and casualties in Ukraine, a special phase of grandstanding is now in play in the confrontation provoked against Russia by the U.S./UK/NATO bloc for years. |
Feb. 25—In Ukraine this weekend, the military operations continue, with a focus on Kiev. Speaking from there, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today made sounds of both resistance and a call for ceasefire, and also proposed today that talks begin with Russia. President Vladimir Putin, who spoke with President Xi Jinping this morning, said that a high-level Russian delegation would be prepared to meet in Minsk, with Ukrainian representatives, on the security terms for Russia and the region, which Russia has repeatedly spelled out. Belarus President Alexandr Lukashenko affirmed that appropriate conditions would be provided for such a meeting in Minsk.The response of the U.S./U.K./NATO bloc to the situation is more of the same geopolitical logic, which led to the crisis in the first place. NATO heads of state and government met for a virtual session today, and issued a bellicose joint statement. The UN Security Council met late this afternoon, with a resolution by the NATO bloc, to denounce Russia; their next step is to take it to the UN General Assembly. President Biden spoke with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and the U.S. and EU today announced sanctions against Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov personally, and also members of the Russian national security team. All the while, there are pledges of continuing arms flows into Ukraine. A convoy of ammunition reportedly went in today from Poland. The situation will not remain in this phase for long. The military operations will be over at some point soon, and the world is confronted with a new moment in our continuing responsibility: What happens next? One direction is doom, by one or a combination of nuclear war, famine and disease. For certain, the current collapsing financial/economic system cannot be “put back together” again to function. The other direction is toward physical economic, and social advancement for all nations and peoples—a new era for humanity. What will the course of history be, is exactly the focus of the international statement/petition by the Schiller Institute, “Convoke an International Conference to Establish a New Security and Development Architecture for All Nations.” In multiple languages—the latest, Portuguese, it is in circulation for emergency action for a new paradigm. Already, the West is hardening its crazed policy outlook into evil extremes. Media in Germany are making references to Vladimir Putin “walking in the footsteps of Hitler, like 1939.” Instead of this, just go back and look at some of the true reference points in cultural and strategic history. For example, in on Sept. 25, 2001, Putin addressed Germany’s Bundestag, speaking in flawless German, of the joint opportunities between the nations of Europe, including Russia. “The Cold War is over. The world is at a new stage of development.” He spoke of common interests, in particular, of jointly combatting terrorism. He stressed the common economic interests between Russia and Germany. Further, “Russia is an extremely dynamic country within Europe, not just in political terms but also in economic terms.” Over the ensuing years, as these aspirations were countered by the U.K./U.S./NATO establishment, Putin again spoke out, this time against the dangers of the dominance in global relations by the U.S. bloc. In 2007, he addressed the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 10. He warned of the consequences of the “almost uncontained hyper-use of force in international relations.” He opposed the U.S. missile shield in Europe. In 2014, Putin gave an in-depth speech on March 18 to both chambers of the Federal Assembly of Russia, on the occasion of the request for admission into the Russian Federation, by the Crimean Parliament. He presented a history of Ukrainian and Russian peoples, reviewed the unlawful events of the Maidan coup the month before, denouncing the role of the neo-Nazis and others. But all the while, he held out the hand of good will to those genuinely protesting corruption in Ukraine, and to the international community. That same month, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute President, wrote an article (EIR, March 14, 2014,) “It’s Not About Ukraine; It’s About Thermonuclear War,” which ended with her warning that thermonuclear war is “pre-programmed for the immediate future,” if the West continues its encirclement of Russia, and lacks the policy ability and wisdom to see what is going on, and correct it. She wrote then: "But there is still a small window of time in which a full mobilization of the population and reasonable people in the institutions of the U.S. and Europe can force the changes required in the policies of the governments. The main points are: “• The imperial policy toward Russia and China must be replaced, and the underlying cause of the danger of war eliminated: the threat of disintegration of the trans-Atlantic financial system; “• The true character of the coup in Ukraine must be exposed and admitted, and the underlying cause of the danger of war eliminated: the threat of disintegration of the trans-Atlantic financial system; “• It must be immediately replaced by Glass-Steagall-style separation of the banking system and the creation of a credit system in the tradition of Alexander Hamilton.”
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Feb. 18—Today leaders of the two eastern border provinces of Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk, each gave orders for many of their residents to evacuate to nearby Russia, to be out of harm’s way from the mounting fire from Ukraine forces, which had intensified over Thursday night. Long lines of cars formed in the dark, en route to Rostov, where, under directives of President Vladimir Putin, temporary arrangements have been made for their accommodation. There is no basis for quick conjecture what this will eventually mean, given the many narratives issuing forth from NATO networks that Putin is bound to be staging a false-flag incident for an excuse to invade.Russian President Putin reiterated at a press briefing today at the Kremlin that there is no alternative to Kiev working things out with the Donetsk and Luhansk peoples, as spelled out in the Minsk agreement, but Kiev has refused to speak with them at all. Putin said, “All Kiev has to do is sit down at the negotiating table with representatives of Donbas and agree on political, military, economic and humanitarian measures to end this conflict. Regrettably, right now we are watching, on the contrary, an escalation in Donbas.” The recourse for Donbas residents to have to leave home to seek safety is the latest dramatic consequence of the armed confrontationism perpetrated in the name of “rules-based order” and “democracy” by the U.S./U.K./NATO bloc, now in full-sail, endangering all-out war. In our fight for forces of reason to intervene against this, the Schiller Institute’s international conference Feb. 19 is a major rallying point. It is titled, “100 Seconds to Midnight on the Doomsday Clock: We Need a New Security Architecture.” Enlist everyone, everywhere, to step up and join the mobilization. U.S. government and institutional figures are deployed in force, in person, throughout Europe right now, to scream the select narrative that Russia is chronically aggressive, Putin lies and operates from a “playbook,” and his forces on Russia’s western border aren’t there for military drills, but for invasion of Ukraine. This morning, Secretary of State Tony Blinken said this, alongside German Defense Minister Annalena Baerbock at the Munich Security Conference opening. Kamala Harris, also attending the conference, said this in a special meeting with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and leaders of the Baltic nations. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said this in Poland today, and in Brussels the last two days, at the sessions of NATO defense ministers. Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is also in Brussels repeating the refrain. In addition, U.S. Congressmen are in Munich on the same Russia-the-enemy line, including Sen. Rob Portman, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Biden’s environment envoy John Kerry is part of the pack. And the U.K. is right in there, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss being in Ukraine yesterday, pushing the new U.K.-Poland-Ukraine defense alliance. However, the more they doth assert their narratives, the less believable they are. The City of London’s weekly The Economist today takes the cake, declaring that Putin has deployed 190,000 troops on Ukraine’s border, in readiness for Russia’s invasion. A growing number throughout Europe, and the world over are distancing from this mad rush. So not surprisingly, U.S./U.K./NATO “unity” was a principal theme this afternoon in a special, short “status” briefing by President Biden, during which he said that he has evidence that Putin has made the decision to invade Ukraine. He said he had briefed a bipartisan group of Congress on this today, a group of NATO heads of state, and is acting “to ensure we continue to remain in lockstep,” despite Russia’s attempts to divide us. He twice spoke of “unity, determination and resolve,” and being “united and resolved.” He closed on how “the free world is united.” Biden added during the question period, that there is still the “choice of diplomacy” that Putin can make, to stop the invasion. He reported that Blinken and Lavrov will meet Feb. 24 in Europe, unless there is an invasion. He said that the G7 will meet next week. Biden cited recent instances in eastern Ukraine—shelling of a pre-school, and the question of a mass grave—as false flags by Russia. Blinken this morning also stressed how we’re “unified in collective security” against Russia. The one American national who stood out for sanity and morality today at the Munich Security Conference was David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Program. At a session titled, “Seed Change Needed: Ensuring Food Security,” he spoke out for ending world hunger, in glaring distinction from the otherwise very green, cartel panelists. What kind of world is it, when out of 7.8 billion people today, 810 million don’t have enough food, and millions more are at the point of death by starvation? Will we go to 10 billion in 2050, and there will be mass hunger in Chicago and Paris? We need to save lives; we need a new system. Register for the Feb. 19 conference.
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Feb. 13—The question of what will happen next, and when, in the contrived confrontation by the NATO bloc against Russia in Europe, remains hanging in the air and very dangerous. More counter forces of sanity are speaking out, but a decisive break is urgent.Over the weekend, U.S. spokesmen continued their drumroll of assertions against Russian aggression, and their bogus charge that Russia will attack Ukraine, in statements by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking from Hawaii, by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and by Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. They were militantly vague on when and how. Sullivan on CNN this morning said, on the time frame of a Russian attack, that we are “in the window,” and it could be “any day now,” or otherwise “after the Olympics” which end on Feb. 20. Sullivan said that Russia can be expected to stage a false-flag incident, because, for among other reasons, it is just “consistent with the Russian playbook” to do that kind of thing. No evidence is needed. Assessing the situation, Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche said today that the “ambiguity of potential false flags will remain, until someone cuts through this…. We need a decisive break.” Former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) spoke out strongly over the weekend, exposing those behind the insane war drive against Russia. She tweeted out a 4-minute clip from her appearance on Fox News Saturday evening, with a tweet explaining how “Biden can very easily prevent a war with Russia by guaranteeing that Ukraine will not become a member of NATO.” On TV, she charged that “Biden and military leaders actually want Russia to invade Ukraine. Why would they do so? It gives Biden the excuse to levy draconian sanctions … and it cements the Cold War in place…. The military-industrial complex is the one that benefits from this; they clearly control the Biden Administration; warmongers on both sides in Washington who have been drumming up these tensions.” There is also an increasing activation and prominence of anti-war groups in the U.S. Besides the NATO focus on confrontation over Ukraine, the global NATO mobilization in the Indo-Pacific is in full swing. After the ministerial QUAD meeting in Australia this past week, the White House issued a 19-page document, “Indo-Pacific Strategy of the United States.” Blinken plugged its world supremacy point of view yesterday, speaking from Honolulu, where he met with foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea. Blinken said that, “In the meeting that the three of us had, we discussed the threat that Russia’s aggression poses—not only to Ukraine, but to the entire international rules-based order, which has provided a foundation for decades of shared security and prosperity, for our people here in this region and, again, around the globe.” He said of his fellow ministers that, “we agreed to stick together in our response to Russia.” It is against his triumphalism that certain opposition viewpoints stand out, which are coming from establishment figures in Europe. On Feb. 11, the French weekly Marianne carried an article headlined, “NATO Exit: Urgency Absolute,” which urges that France leave NATO. That “will signal Europe’s independence from American exceptionalism, the renewal of multilateralism, the emergence of a multipolar world….” It is by German economist Peter Dittus, former Secretary General of the Bank for International Settlements, and former Deputy Governor of the Banque de France Hervé Hannoun, former BIS Deputy Managing Director. Today, a warning is sounded by Russian policy expert Fyodor Lukyanov, “How the World Sleepwalked into Another Cuban Missile Crisis.” In his article in RT, after stressing the current danger over the Ukraine confrontation, he advises that, “The best-case scenario would be the same as during the Cuban Missile Crisis. At some point, both sides would recognize the grave danger posed by further escalation and start direct substantive negotiations in order to work out the fundamentals of mutual guarantees.” The Saturday Feb. 19 Schiller Institute online international conference is a critical contribution toward the “decisive break” we need, to stop the mad mobilization toward collapse and war. Register and spread the word. It is on Feb. 19, 10 a.m. (EST): “100 Seconds to Midnight on the Doomsday Clock: We Need a New Security Architecture!”
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The follow-on continues along important lines of action furthered in China last weekend, when national delegations from many continents met on development initiatives, at the time that Russia and China announced their strategic document, “Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China on the International Relations Entering a New Era and the Global Sustainable Development.” In this spirit, yesterday’s international webinar co-hosted by the Schiller Institute and Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) on the subject, “The Humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan—Toward a Long-Term Solution”— took the dialogue on strategy to the highest level of the question of mission for humanity.The war bloc faction is beating the drums at a roar. U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan today gave a White House harum-scarum briefing that Russia may invade Ukraine “in a very swift time frame,” and Americans should depart Ukraine within 24 to 48 hours. President Biden had a secure-video meeting with trans-Atlantic leaders today, including heads of state and agency directors of Canada, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, NATO, the EU and others. He will speak by phone to President Vladimir Putin tomorrow morning. The Kremlin reports that this call was set at Biden’s request. Sullivan’s remarks were replete with “possibles” and “maybes,” but no evidence that a Russian attack is set. “It may well happen soon.” Reports are that Britain and Denmark have likewise called for their nationals to exit Ukraine. This is the situation—both acutely promising and acutely dangerous—at the time of the third anniversary of the passing of Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., February 12, 2019, whose historic contribution of brilliant creativity and profound love for humanity are a living legacy of inspiration for our work today. The LaRouche Organization Manhattan Project is broadcasting a special, commemorative program on Saturday, at 2 pm (EST), titled, “On the Third Anniversary of Lyndon LaRouche’s Passing: Why the World Needs the LaRouche Method of Discovery.” Among the initiatives regarding the Afghanistan crisis, there are multiple meetings now set for March, including the March 22 ministerial meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, and a mid-month UN-hosted event on humanitarian aid. Near the end of March the six neighboring nations to Afghanistan will meet in China, including the Afghan’s acting foreign minister. During the month, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev will visit Islamabad to meet with Prime Minister Imran Khan. On Feb. 6, ministers from Uzbekistan and Pakistan conferred in person in Beijing, including meeting with Chinese counterparts, on major Afghanistan projects to benefit all Eurasia. They conferred on the Trans-Afghan Railroad, and the Uzbek-Pakistan Transit and Trade Agreement (UPTTA), which would connect to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and generally interconnect with the continental Belt and Road Initiative and Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). They also conferred on immediate humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, some of which arrives by Uzbek rail. Meantime, the need is desperate for multi-nation, full-scale emergency aid—medical, food, fuel, water, and shelter from the winter cold, plus agriculture inputs for spring planting. This week in Switzerland, a delegation of the Taliban government met with relief agencies, such as Doctors Without Borders, under the rubric of the Geneva Call group. In the U.S., testimony on the emergency was given Feb. 9 at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Afghanistan, by the head of the International Relief Committee, calling for stepped-up action. This morning, the U.S. made extensive reference to this humanitarian crisis, announcing its disposition of the $7 billion (of the total of nearly $10 billion) of Afghanistan national assets frozen in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since last August. (The remainder is frozen in Germany, Switzerland, and the U.A.E.). By Presidential Executive Order signed today, $3.5 billion are to be lined up to go as donated aid for the Afghan public, but outside any Taliban government channels; leaving $3.5 billion to be lined up for eventual settlement of multiple lawsuits by victims of 9/11. Notwithstanding the benefit of aid, this is a glaring act of override of the principle of national sovereignty, in which, in particular, Afghanistan needs its rightful assets to shore up its banking functions, currency and to resume economic functioning. No nation is sovereign without this, and now the U.S. has decreed against it. Former Afghanistan Finance Minister Kaylid Payenda denounced it this morning, as “morally and ethically wrong” and one which will have “long-term consequences, not just in the region, but globally.” This action will show “what sort of ally the U.S. is perceived to be in the future” and Ukraine should be watching. This U.S. imperialistic “administrative” act is in line with the war policy now pushed to the extreme in Europe against Russia, and in the Indo-Pacific against China as well. U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken is in Australia, where a statement was issued today by the QUAD—U.S., Australia, Japan, India—with chest-beating rhetoric about joint commitment to vanquish any nation (not named) in the Indo-Pacific, that offends the “rules-based order.” Translated: Obey whatever the U.S./U.K./Global NATO bloc demands. This must stop. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute President, underscored the significance of the role of every citizen, everywhere, and of the institution of the Schiller Institute, in her weekly strategic webcast today, to organize for the dialogue and mobilization for the right policies “to guarantee the long-term survival of our humankind.” As she said about the historic Russia-China Feb. 4 summit statement, “I think it is shaking things up for good.”
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February 4—On the occasion today of the opening of the XXIV Olympic Winter Games in China, President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir Putin attended the opening ceremony, held extensive talks, saw to the announcement of 15 economic and policy deals, and issued a “Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China on the International Relations Entering a New Era and the Global Sustainable Development.”The 16-page document opens with an assessment of the world situation—crises and potential—then proceeds through four areas of strategic concern, giving specifics. The statement is a leadership call to action for humanity, not a call to “take sides” in deadly geopolitical games. Most of all, it is grounded in commitment to economic advancement as the basis for security. The place in dire need for immediate, concerted world action, is Afghanistan. The death toll mounts by the hour among the children, from malnutrition, cold and illness, all of which can be prevented. On Feb. 2, the Afghan Ambassador to India Farid Mamundzay made a point of saying how many nations have “turned their back” on Afghanistan at this time of desperate need. But he otherwise singled out India with appreciation, for having sent six tons of medicine, and other supplies, and new funds, and for the Indian wheat donation that will start to be trucked across Pakistan to Afghanistan, beginning Feb. 10 to 12. A full 50,000 tons should be delivered within a month. There are other individual donations coming in, but the scale-up and mobilization are lacking. Moreover, there is the fundamental requirement for the U.S. and Europe to free up the Afghanistan government’s $9.5 bil in funds they have wrongfully frozen, so the country can function. Yesterday, in the U.S. House of Representatives, an amendment on that topic was raised, but didn’t pass. As the Schiller Institute tweet said at the time the amendment was taken up, “Don’t do to Afghanistan what the British Empire did to the Irish, letting them starve, or emigrate! BREAKING: Progressives [in Congress] to force vote on Biden’s policy of arbitrarily starving Afghanistan to death. BUT: The House voted it down! Shame on you!” In the China-Russia document’s opening section, it notes—without naming names—that there are nations and figures which take “unilateral approaches to addressing international issues and resort to force; they intervene in the internal affairs of other states, infringing on their rights and interests, and incite contradictions, differences and confrontation, thus hampering the development and progress of mankind…” The first of the four areas discussed by the statement in detail, is that “democracy is a universal human value, rather than a privilege of a limited number of States…” It is wrong that “certain states” attempt to impose “their own ‘democratic standards’ on other countries,” and act to “establish blocs” that go against genuine democracy. Secondly, “development is the key driver in ensuring the prosperity of nations,” and thus, security. “It is vital to enhance partnership relations” to further development. China and Russia commit to further cooperation between the Belt and Road Initiative and the EAEU (Eurasian Economic Union.) Russia will participate in the “Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative (proposed by China) under the UN auspices.” Thirdly, the longest section, which addresses “serious international security challenges,” contains the emphatic statement that, “The two sides (the term used in the statement for Russia and China) oppose further enlargement of NATO and call on the North Atlantic Alliance to abandon its ideologized cold war approaches…” Also, “The Chinese side is sympathetic to, and supports the proposals put forward by the Russian Federation to create long-term legally binding security guarantees in Europe.” The two sides also, “stand against the formation of closed bloc structures and opposing camps in the Asia-Pacific region…” And, “The Russian side reaffirms its support for the One-China principle, confirms that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and opposes any forms of independence of Taiwan.” The fourth section identifies the United Nations as having a “central coordinating role in international affairs,” and calls for cooperation, not confrontation among world powers. The role of the G20, BRICS, APEC, ASEAN and WTO (to undergo “reform”) are discussed at length. The two sides “advocate expanded functionality of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure.” Affirmation is stated for the recent “Joint Statement of the Leaders of the Five Nuclear Weapons States on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding Arms Races,” and steps for the drawdown of nuclear weapons and risks are discussed. These are only selected points of the joint statement, but the significance is clear. This is a welcome initiative that throws into stark relief the dangerous geopolitics in play over Ukraine from the U.S./UK/NATO ploys, and their depraved, deliberate inaction which is killing people in Afghanistan. The Schiller Institute’s role as an active platform for getting out the truth, and fostering the dialogue for the needed policies is critical. An international conference is planned for later this month. The sense of what can be done was included in a statement issued today by Senatorial candidate for New York, Diane Sare, on the eve of street rallies Feb. 5 in New York City and several dozen other towns around the country, to protest the Washington/UK/NATO war drive. In the statement entitled "Truth is the First Casualty of War" Sare wrote, "Lyndon LaRouche’s widow and founder of the Schiller Institute, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, has advanced an alternative to this path toward annihilation. The fulcrum is the fate of the people of Afghanistan, who are currently condemned to a tortuous death of starvation and disease because of sanctions and the decision by the United States and European banks to freeze their funds in the wake of the abrupt exit by the United States. Right now, over 7 million children are starving, with one million near death. “The United States, Russia and China, could combine to lead an effort involving the surrounding nations, to not only supply desperately needed humanitarian aid, but to build a fully operational modern healthcare system in that war-ravaged nation. This would require new infrastructure to deliver water and electricity along with modern transportation systems. Obviously, the Taliban would have to be in the center of the negotiations, but they have already opened talks with many of these nations, and have nothing to gain through the suffering of their people. “This initiative, called by Zepp-LaRouche ‘Operation Ibn Sina (Avicenna),’ after the brilliant Islamic scholar and physician born in this region over 1200 years ago, is the opportunity to build trust between the major powers, now perilously close to war, while preventing the imminent death by starvation of as many as 23 million people. By embracing ‘Operation Ibn Sina,’ the United States could avert nuclear war, and save the lives of millions in Afghanistan. Action is urgently needed now. As poets have understood better than politicians, universal law dictates that the fate of these starving children is likely to become your own, sooner than you might imagine."
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Today Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a State Department press conference, and closed-door sessions with members of Congress, announcing that the U.S. has provided written responses to Russia’s December texts of proposed security agreements. He also stated, “Additionally, NATO developed and will deliver to Moscow its own paper with ideas and concerns about collective security in Europe—and that paper fully reinforces ours, and vice versa. There is no daylight among the United States and our allies and partners on these matters.”In reality, while Blinken’s remarks repeated his usual dark litany of accusations and threats against Russia, daylight is showing through from many directions, on how dangerous and how “British” this whole confrontationism is. Blinken may blow clouds of smoke about “unity,” input from “allies,” and the like, but reality is otherwise. Even a reporter asked Blinken, you talk about “a unified approach with Europe. What do you make of Germany’s stance?” She said, “Would you say that you’re happy or satisfied with Germany sending helmets to Ukraine instead of arms shipments?” Blinken could only huff and puff about how each country has “different capabilities.” In brief, what Blinken did say in his press briefing, was that Russia is the aggressor against Ukraine, and warned, “We’ve lined up steep consequences, should Russia choose further aggression.” Blinken reiterated his “two path” sophistic approach to Russia: that Western militarization in Eastern Europe is the path of deterrence, but otherwise, the U.S. and the West are open to diplomacy, “should Russia choose it.” On the so-called deterrence path, Blinken gave a full report. He said, “Three deliveries of U.S. defensive military assistance arrived in Kiev this week, carrying additional javelin missiles and other anti-armor systems, 283 tons of ammunition and non-lethal equipment…. More deliveries are expected in the days to come. We have provided more defensive security assistance to Ukraine in the past year than in any previous year…. Last week, I authorized U.S. allies—including Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—to provide U.S.-origin military equipment…. Also last week, we notified Congress of our intent to deliver to Ukraine the Mi-17 helicopters….” And 8,500 U.S. servicemen are on “heightened readiness to deploy” in case needed to “to harden the Allies’ eastern flank.” Among the expanding opposition to this dangerous showdown are several political leaders and formations in Europe. In Croatia, President Zoran Milanovic said this week that his country will in no way get involved in the Ukraine crisis, nor send soldiers. He states that Ukraine does not belong in NATO, and that it was the European Union (N.B., including the U.K.) that triggered a coup in Kiev in 2014. Moreover, Milanovic said, as reported by Euractiv, that the crisis has nothing to do with Ukraine or Russia, but is connected with the dynamics of the United States internal situation, and that international security problems reflect “inconsistencies and dangerous behavior” by the U.S.A. In Spain, the Unidos Podemos party and eight smaller parties, all nine leftwing members of the Socialist Party’s governing coalition, have publicly opposed Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s decision to send military forces to participate in NATO’s buildup of forces against Russia, and are calling for an anti-war mobilization like that of 2003 which drove out the Aznar government that had deployed Spain’s military forces for George Bush’s war on Iraq. The existence of NATO itself is being questioned. On Friday, Jan. 28, French President Emmanuel Macron will be speaking by phone to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Today in Paris, officials of the Normandy group of four nations—France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine, met for eight hours, and issued a statement. They plan to meet again in Berlin next month. Today, Sputnik news ran an article reviewing the opposition in France and elsewhere in Europe to the U.S./U.K. showdown with Russia. Headlined, “French Politician: Puzzled by U.S. Warmongering, France & Germany Trying to Avoid EU Militarisation,” the article is based on an interview with Karel Vereycken, Vice-President of Solidarité & Progrès in France, who said that “France and Germany aren’t interested in dancing to the U.S., the U.K. and NATO’s tune—for good reason….” The Schiller Institute is providing the critical platform internationally to wake up the world to the war danger and to what has to be done in foreign relations and economically, including emergency humanitarian action, to stop the conditions and perpetrators who created this terrible emergency. The website offers ammunition, and another international conference to rally action is in the works for early February.
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This question, “Can War with Russia Still Be Averted?” is the title of the Schiller Institute’s International Dialogue Saturday, January 22 at 2 pm (ET) for the purpose of strengthening the forces to stop the dangerous brinkmanship of the U.S., the British Empire and NATO against Russia and China, and make way for a complete shift toward a world security system based on the principle of the mutual benefit of all, most assuredly, the economic benefit of all.The results of today’s important meeting in Geneva between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, do not change this focus, only heighten it. The meeting ran for 90 minutes, with remarks before and after by the officials. There is expected follow-on to the talks—with a rough time frame of the next week to 10 days; but at any time, expect sabotage from enemies of this process of engagement. In brief, Blinken, who said that President Biden had asked him to meet with Lavrov, said that after today’s talks, he will go back and consult with NATO, and allies, plus Congress, and “we will be able to share with Russia our concerns and ideas in more detail and in writing next week, and we agreed to further discussions after that.” TASS reported that Blinken said that the U.S. and Russia will meet again, after Moscow scrutinizes Washington’s security proposals next week. However the Foreign Ministry threw cold water on that report, saying there are no plans for a meeting, until Russia receives an “article-by-article” reply to its demand for security guarantees. Otherwise, Blinken stuck to the assertions in his litany of accusations and demands, admonishing Russia to de-escalate its force placement, not invade Ukraine, etc. Lavrov said of Blinken’s remark that the U.S. will respond in writing to Russia’s “concerns,” that, “I believe it would be right to make this reply public and I will ask Antony Blinken, so that they do not object.” He said there was no arrangement for another meeting between himself and Blinken. Among many other points, Lavrov said that the U.S. repeats its charges against Russia “like a mantra” and pointed to Western “hysterics” when it came to Ukraine. Especially noteworthy was the inclusion of China in what is at stake. The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement at the time of the talks which said, “It is high time that our American colleagues understand that Washington’s dual containment policy towards Moscow and Beijing is completely outdated and offers no good prospects for the U.S. The Americans would do more good for themselves and the entire world if they abandoned their arrogant claim for global dominance and engaged in an equal and honest dialogue with Russia, China and other major players in order to search for balanced solutions to pressing global security and development issues.” Ominously, hostile initiatives have been conducted against Russia all during the period of today’s Geneva talks. Yesterday, Blinken’s State Department and the U.S. Treasury issued sanctions against four individuals in Ukraine, on charges that they are instruments of the Russian FSB. Two of them are members of Parliament, and of the opposition party to the Zelenskyy government, and one of them a media company operator. Thus, once again, the U.S. warhawks—while singing of democracy, are interfering blatantly in another nation’s internal politics. More military personnel and armament are flowing into Ukraine from individual NATO countries. In the U.S., the hype over Russian “aggression” is at fever pitch, and even more shrill because it is bipartisan. A call for “pre-emptive sanctions” on Russia by the U.S.—before Russia has a chance to aggress!—was made this week by Republican Sen. Joni Ernst (IA), appearing as a CNN guest of rabidly Democrat Anderson Cooper. On the eve of today’s Geneva meeting, the State Department posted three fact-sheet type write-ups to defame Russia, that qualify the agency as akin to the Ministry of Truth, in George Orwell’s 1984, which was noted by Maria Zakharova, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. Just consider the names of one of the documents, “Russia’s Top Five Persistent Disinformation Narratives.” One of the narratives that the U.S. finds Russia guilty of, is to say Western culture is decaying. The State Department reports that Foreign Minister Lavrov has even accused U.S. schools of teaching that Jesus Christ was bisexual. This is madness gone wild, and very dangerous. Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche said in her weekly strategic webcast on Jan. 20 that, “I think the danger of war is what people should be concerned with.” But she further stated that the concern should be “from the standpoint of the dynamic [whose] directionality goes very clearly in the direction of the Belt and Road cooperation, because many nations see it much more to their advantage to economically cooperate, rather than have geopolitical games.” In this way, the BRI alliances and projects are anti-war policies. Look at the urgency of action to support Afghanistan in that way, as part of a greater development zone from Central and South Asia, westward across the war-torn Southwest Asia, into the Horn of Africa. Just this week, on Jan. 19, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was in Moscow for discussions. China and Iran are implementing their 25-year cooperation agreement. In Pakistan, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is proceeding. In the war-devastated Horn of Africa, China has recently committed to the “Initiative of Peaceful Development,” involving rail, port, power and other infrastructure programs. Add to this the thrust of “Operation Ibn Sina” in this region, and elsewhere internationally—the drive for a health care platform with full economic support, called for by Zepp-LaRouche—and the end of war is a given. However, in complete opposition to all of this, came the mass-murder bombing today in Yemen—the heart of this extended region, by Saudi Arabian-led forces. The wave of bombings has killed at least 200 people, and injured many more, including a strike on a prison in Sadaa, north of Sana’a, where the death toll is 150 so far. This amounts to a “shock and awe” crime, timed exactly with today’s Geneva U.S.-Russia meeting. The Yemen mission director for Doctors Without Borders Ahmed Mahat called the prison strike a “horrific act of violence.” Moreover, the main communications tower in Sana’a was deliberately bombed, knocking out all internet service, whose import could mean that, without communications, the Saudis will perpetrate more heinous crimes. Fouad Al Ghaffari, the leader of the ALBRICS Youth Parliament in Sana’a, sent a message by text to the Schiller Institute this morning, “We condemn the terrific aggressive murder attack on Sada’a Prison, and destroying the internet connection in Yemen that violates the right to information and may hide a massive attack at any moment!” Attend the Jan. 22 International Dialogue conference, “Can War with Russia Still Be Averted?” and activate with the Schiller Institute.
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As of the time of this dispatch, word is awaited from a meeting (virtual) today, to be held with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and top officials of the United Nations on Afghanistan, that was announced yesterday by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, because of the imminence of mass death. Guterres called not only for mobilizing full-scale aid, but for the urgent re-establishment of the Central Bank, currency liquidity and a financial system, or the country will cease to exist. He said that millions of Afghans are on the “verge of death,” and that “freezing temperatures and frozen assets are a lethal combination. Rules and conditions that prevent money from being used to save lives and the economy must be suspended in this emergency situation,” he warned.Guterres singled out the United States, saying that it has “a very important role to play because most of the financial system in the world operates in dollars,” and the U.S. is withholding most of the frozen Afghan foreign reserves. Expected to be present at the meeting today with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, besides Guterres himself, are Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Martin Griffiths, UN Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief. On Jan. 11 Griffiths issued an international funding appeal, on behalf of all UN humanitarian agencies and aid partners, for $4.4 billion this year for Afghanistan, which is the largest such appeal for a single nation in the history of the United Nations. Among the necessary measures cited in the appeal is the lifting of sanctions against Afghanistan, which prevent essential commercial functions, as well as emergency aid, and the unfreezing of the $9.5 billion in assets belonging to the nation and people of Afghanistan, and other measures allowing banking, currency and exchange to function. Impoverishment has reached the stage of destitution, in which barely 5% of the entire population of 38 million have enough to eat. 23 million are in various degrees of extreme hunger, and of those, 8.9 million people are at the starvation point. Among the limited fallback initiatives of the Taliban government, is the food-for-work program, in which a person who is still able, is offered 10 kg of wheat, for a set amount of work. This is unlivable. Yesterday, World Food Program Country Director for Afghanistan Mary-Ellen McGroarty described the situation to AP as a “tsunami of hunger.” Responding to this emergency is a test of morality for the “West,” whose U.S. and NATO forces pulled out five months ago, after 20 years of occupation. No lies about “democracy” and “values-driven” foreign relations can cover up the culpability for mass death that will result unless emergency action is taken now. The same test of morality is involved in the question of war or peace, in the current confrontation of the U.S. and NATO against Russia. Yesterday was the last of the trio of talks this week between Russia and the “West”: On January 9-10, talks between the U.S. and Russia (Geneva) took place; on January 12, between NATO and Russia (Brussels); and on Jan. 13, the OSCE and Russia (Vienna) talks. Initiated by Russia, which provided two security guarantee texts in December for concrete action, potential for productive work was blocked, not surprisingly, by a collective stance of lies and threats from the U.S. and NATO, with almost nil exception. Nevertheless, today, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, giving his annual review of last year’s diplomacy, did speak of proceeding on these security talks, on principle, with good will, while sternly saying that what is now expected are written replies to the Russian proposed texts, and soon. Russia does not have infinite patience, he underscored. However, almost at the same time as the end of the Vienna OSCE talks yesterday, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan signaled a new attack on Russia, which has since come to pass. Sullivan said at a press briefing, that “the intelligence community has developed information” that Russia is right now “laying the groundwork to have the option of fabricating a pretext for an invasion” of Ukraine, the same way they did so in 2014. He said Russia is using the same “playbook” as they did in 2014, and “the Administration will have further details on what we see as this potential laying of a pretext, to share with the press over the course of the next 24 hours.” Right on Sullivan’s cue, “the press” came out this morning with three waves of articles—with the Washington Post and the New York Times in the lead—that Russia has assets embedded in Ukraine, ready to stage a “false flag” stunt, to justify Russian invasion. Secondly, that the U.S. better consider leading, not just supporting, Ukraine’s defense against Russia in the event of attack. Thirdly, come the reports that a new cyber-attack on Ukraine ministries has just occurred, with Russia presumed to be the perpetrator. If this line of insane foreign policy is allowed to continue, the result will be mass death from war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has already come out denouncing these accusations as completely unfounded, based on “hearsay.” The Schiller Institute, with collaborators, has mobilized all possible means to expose and stop this deadly course of action, and its perpetrators. For immediate attention to the Afghanistan emergency, a Schiller Institute webinar will be held Monday, January 17, at 11 a.m., titled, “Stop the Murder of Afghanistan.” Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche said yesterday on her weekly webcast, “If you have any heart left in your body, then join this campaign. Because, I think if the West cannot mobilize to help to resolve the situation which we caused—I mean, ‘we,’ the West, NATO was there for 20 years—if we cannot solve that, the whole world will look at the West with complete contempt. So this is a last chance to reverse that, by joining hands now with all the neighbors, and including emphatically Russia and China, but the Europeans and the United States are called upon the most. Because if we can’t do that, then I think this will be the symbol of our demise. And we must not allow that to happen, but must take that as the turning point of history.”
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This evening in Geneva, informal talks began between the United States and Russia, at a supper with U.S. delegation leader, Wendy Sherman, Deputy Secretary of State, and Sergey Ryabkov, Deputy Foreign Minister, and their teams, at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament. Tomorrow, the formal talks ensue, on the topic of security, between the U.S. and Russia. On Jan. 12, in Brussels, NATO and Russian officials will meet on security. On Jan. 13 in Vienna, the U.S., Russia and other member nations of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will meet.On the eve of this historic week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke this morning on two Sunday TV interviews, unfortunately reiterating his litany of charges against Russia, his false history of Europe, and his crazed assertions about what he claims is in the interest of the United States, e.g., backing Eurasian nations against Russia—Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine and now Kazakhstan. In turn, Minister Ryabkov today told TASS, speaking of the Russian readiness to discuss the two draft security documents that they have provided for discussion and action: “Honestly speaking, I really doubt that our American colleagues are ready for such a talk, judging by the signals that we have been hearing in recent days…. But it would be naïve to expect progress, given the revised public presentation of the position that we see today, right before the start of contacts.” The Schiller Institute and collaborators in recent years, have done everything in their means to prevent this state of brinkmanship expressed by the Blinken position, which is, in fact, the classic, deadly British Great Gamesmanship in Eurasia. Now is not the fitting moment to prognosticate what exactly will happen in the discussions tomorrow and this week. But it is time to redouble our efforts to engage everyone possible to understand what is going on, and what they can do to stop the drive to Armageddon. An important initiative comes from the United States. Fifteen organizations—including religious, veteran, diplomacy and other groups—issued an open letter Jan. 8 to President Joe Biden, on what kind of negotiations should go on with Russia this week, to the joint interest of all nations and peoples. The letter was also sent to Blinken, and Sen. Charles Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi. The letter is titled, “Further Strengthen Diplomatic Efforts and Avert War,” and is circulating through the channels of the American Committee for U.S.-Russia Accord. The bipartisan authors call on the U.S. to reject expanding NATO, and say: “It is in the interests of the United States, the region, and the world to address these and other root causes of tension with Russia as part of an ongoing strategic dialogue.” It states: “Continuing engagement is necessary to avert a military conflict that will harm the interests of the United States, harm innocent civilians in Ukraine, and risk spiraling into a potentially catastrophic war between the world’s two leading nuclear powers.” What is called for is statecraft in service of the common good, which in the face of war, is life itself. Look at Afghanistan, for the threat of mass death from famine, disease and weather. Some days ago, a fierce storm system hit south of the Hindu Kush, bringing snow and freezing temperatures in Kabul and neighboring provinces. To the east in Pakistan, over Jan. 6-7, the storm system dropped up to four feet of snow very fast, and trapped thousands of tourists in their cars in the scenic mountain area some 22 miles north of Islamabad, in the popular winter resort town of Murree. So far 22 are dead. Emergency crews are working hard, and this is rightly highly publicized. However, in Kabul, a city of 4.5 million, the frigid weather and lack of food are creating mass death circumstances, but the “news” remains almost completely blacked out. On Jan. 7, the Afghan government issued a direct world appeal by video. Acting Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Ghani Barada said, “In various places right now, people do not have food, accommodation, warm clothes or money….The world has to support Afghan people without any political bias and carry out their humanitarian obligations…. We call for the international community, NGOs and all the countries not to forget our poor people.” The situation underscores the role of the Schiller Institute and collaborators to make known the reality of the crises, and the reality that nations collaborating can solve them all. Plans are being made final for a Schiller Institute international conference on the Afghanistan emergency within the coming 10 days. Circulate everywhere the Schiller Institute Memorandum (Dec. 31, 2021) “Are We Sleepwalking into Thermonuclear World War III?”
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According to the latest available reports, talks between Russia and the United States, and Russia and NATO will begin before mid-January, on the texts of the two draft agreements on security guarantees presented by Russia to the U.S. and NATO on Dec. 15. January 12 in Geneva is under consideration for the NATO-Russia talks, and before that, possibly January 10, for the bilateral U.S.-Russia meeting. This is critical diplomacy, which Russia has initiated. But also critical to stopping the countdown to World War III is the activation of citizens everywhere against the policy of brinksmanship and encroachment against Russia and China.A barrage of warnings has come from Russia in the past 36 hours. President Vladimir Putin told Rossiya-1 TV on Dec. 26, that the talks dare not have a “destructive agenda” in which the United States and NATO, “will indulge in endless talk about the necessity of negotiations, but will do nothing but pump a neighboring country with state-of-the-art weapons systems and build up threats to Russia, and we will have to do something with these threats.” Putin explicated the meaning of the “red line” which he has set. He said, “I want everyone both in our country and abroad, our partners to clearly understand: the matter is not in a line we don’t want anyone to cross. The matter is that we have nowhere to step back.” He stressed, “They have driven us to such a line, excuse my language, that we have nowhere to move.” He pointed to the risks of new missile systems deployed at a distance of four to five minutes’ flight to Moscow. “Well, where are you going to go now? They have simply driven us to the state when we must say: stop!” Putin went on, that this is the reason Russia’s initiative on security guarantees was made public for all nations to see. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov spoke sternly on Dec. 26, saying that January “is when it will become clear whether the Americans are ready to give a substantive response, or they will opt for protracting the process and for seeking to initiate a policy of years-long talks.” We need “an urgent, concrete solution….” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said today, in an interview published today in the Russian Mezhdunarodnaya Zhizn (Foreign Policy) journal, among other points, that, “when we say that NATO facilities and all kinds of activities which are provocative for Russia need to be rolled back to the positions that existed in 1997, when the NATO-Russia Founding Act was signed, we are not bluffing.” Reviewing these remarks and other developments today, Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche stressed that our job is to make sure that a large portion of people in every country possible, understands what is going on. We are in a countdown of extreme danger, with no “wiggle room” left. We are “close to a point of no return.” The Schiller Institute posted a rush memorandum, “Are We Sleepwalking into Thermonuclear World War III?” on Christmas Eve, for circulation during the holiday period. This is currently being updated as an even more comprehensive dossier of the actual chronology of what created the dangerous strategic showdown with Russia. Zepp-LaRouche stressed the need to make known the extreme danger, and also that there are solutions. The best anti-war policy involves working together on common, urgent tasks, and that means a modern health system in every nation. Look at the Afghanistan emergency in that way. Afghanistan “is a branching point.” Either there will be the necessary interventions to save lives and save the nation, or it will be an “unmitigated disaster … that marks a decay into barbarism.” We will lose all of our humanity, knowing what is coming and not doing anything about it. Acting on this, and on other humanitarian crises, as well as on the war danger, is one and the same task, as the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites addresses. The situation is grave. The Russian leaders are speaking out in unmistakable terms. If we co-mobilize with a growing number of people, we can bring about MAS—mutually assured survival.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin today held his annual in-depth press conference, during which he made the point emphatically that the two proposals he presented last week to the United States and to NATO, for the purpose of discussion and agreement on spelling out terms of security, are not optional. He said evenly of the U.S. reaction, “We have so far seen a positive reaction. U.S. partners told us that they are ready to begin this discussion, these talks, at the very start of next year.” But he pointed out that NATO had “cheated” Russia, with eastward expansion, and Russia needs immediate security guarantees.Putin said that there have been “five waves” of NATO movement of forces eastward toward Russian borders. This forward deployment is now at a threatening phase, and must be de-escalated and contained. Imagine, he said, if foreign forces placed missiles in Canada and Mexico. That is how it is now against Russia, with NATO in Poland and Romania. The reality of President Putin’s point—with the presence of British and U.S. personnel and weapons in Ukraine, and many other deployments, is evident to anyone, “with eyes to see.” The Schiller Institute will soon issue a concise history of the military and economic moves against Russia by the U.S., UK and NATO, and make the record irrefutably clear. This is to further the mobilization for sanity to prevail against what otherwise will be inevitable war—perhaps triggered “by accident.” People everywhere are called upon to exert leadership for the urgent, common good of peace and economic development. The same need for leadership initiative is presented by the urgent situation in Afghanistan, for which there are important updates. On Dec. 22, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) voted up Resolution 2615, which opens the way for humanitarian aid to get around the raft of sanctions maintained by the U.S., UK, and the principal UNSC Resolution 2255 (from 2015,) and to flow into Afghanistan to avert mass death. At present, 95% of the population are in worsening poverty, 23 million of 38 million are marching toward starvation, and 9 million are in famine, as reported by the World Food Program’s David Beasley. The new measure exempts from sanctions, humanitarian aid (medicine, food, fuel, clothing, logistics and staff, remittances, cash transfers for necessities—where a market exists to purchase them), and so on, for one year. Donation announcements are coming forth from other nations, among them, Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia. Today, the World Health Organization announced aid for a key hospital in Kandahar city, capital of Kandahar Province, in southern Afghanistan. The WHO tweeted, “Mirwais Regional Hospital in war-affected Kandahar Province has received 13 types of life-saving equipment to treat patients of mass casualty events in the region…. Who stands with the people of Afghanistan. Currently the world’s largest humanitarian emergency, Afghanistan is contending not only with COVID-19, but also acute watery diarrhea (AWK), dengue, measles, polio and malaria.” None of this aid reaches the scale required, nor does it involve concerted action among the major powers, which is sorely needed. Nevertheless, both the aid, and the UNSC unanimous vote yesterday, count a great deal right now, in terms of forward motion. On Monday, the UNSC turned down the prior draft version of the Resolution, when China and Russia voted against it, because the measure called for case-by-case judgment of each aid initiative on whether it could have a waiver from the sanctions. This would be an unworkable accommodation to sanctions that should not be there in the first place. A new text was drafted, which passed on Wednesday. Moreover, the U.S. Treasury Department then issued a statement yesterday, confirming that it will honor and apply the new UNSC measure (with provisional language), which gives some assurance that aid and related commercial activity (e.g., shipping of grain, water chemicals, etc.) can go on without U.S. retaliation. The Treasury unit, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which is an economic hit squad, issued guidelines on how they will follow the UN Resolution. This adds some confidence, since otherwise, the word of the U.S. is no longer trusted. The moral necessity for action to save Afghanistan was strongly set at the Dec. 19 extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, overriding several internal contradictions. The follow-on developments include a meeting earlier this week between Uzbek leaders and Afghan acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, in which the tri-country rail project connecting Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan was discussed. It is notable that the OIC Council of Ministers has welcomed Uzbekistan’s offer that the city of Termez would become a new hub for transport of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. The breakthrough required, is for the $9.5 billion in Afghan funds to be released from wrongful withholding by U.S. and European authorities and go towards stabilizing national functioning and development by Afghan institutions. The “Operation Ibn Sina” called for by Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche, lays out the road map for what must be done to construct a modern health system and build up the infrastructure platform to sustain it. The new 4-minute video issued by the Schiller Institute makes the point clearly, and adds to the worldwide campaign. It is titled, “Will You Allow Genocide Against the People in Afghanistan? Unfreeze the Funds.” This Christmas and holiday period is exactly the right time to get active; be a force for the good!
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On Sunday, the Council of Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation met in extraordinary session in Pakistan, and agreed upon resolutions for coordinated humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, and measures for economic functioning. Follow-up mechanisms were specified to implement the decisions of the OIC. Attending the meeting were 70 delegates, representing member countries, guest nations, international financial and UN aid agencies. The OIC, with 57 member nations, is the largest such world body after the United Nations. But even so, what determines what will happen for the Afghanistan people and nation, the greater region, and world situation, requires a shift in approach to abandon deadly geopolitics, and launch concerted positive action among major powers.This was stressed on Friday, the opening day of the three-day OIC meetings in Islamabad, by Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche, appearing in a discussion on Pakistan’s national television PTV, which covered the OIC proceedings intensively. She said, “In a certain sense, to get all the forces internationally together to help Afghanistan is, in my view, one of the absolute, important historical missions. In a certain, I think the whole destiny of mankind is in a laser, concentrated on what happens in Afghanistan. So I would really hope that all the participating and affected countries would double and multiply their efforts to make saving Afghanistan an issue of the whole world, because right now it is. And I think all channels must be used: media, United Nations, conferences. There must be a drumbeat, a drumbeat of awakening the conscience of the world, because I think this is sort of a judgment of our ability as a human species: Are we morally fit to survive or not?” What is happening this evening is that pledges are starting from OIC nations, on what donations they will commit, for purposes of urgent relief operations. From preliminary reports, the framework that is to administer ongoing aid includes several features. A resolution was adopted unanimously that the OIC will set up a Humanitarian Trust Fund and a Food Security Program. The OIC meeting requested that the existing Islamic Organization for Food Security (IOFS) work with this new Food Security Program for Afghanistan, including using IOFS reserves, when warranted. The Humanitarian Trust Fund is to come into operation during the First Quarter of 2022, under the auspices of the Islamic Development Bank. In Kabul, the existing OIC Mission is to be reinforced with more logistical, financial and staff resources to enable it to coordinate operations with global agencies and partnerships. These include the obvious UN agencies, from UNICEF, to the World Food Program, and other organizations. A priority will be working with the World Health Organization for vaccines and medical supplies. There will be support for the Afghan refugees who have fled to neighboring countries, and for the internally displaced within Afghanistan. An estimated 665,000 people have been displaced just between January and September 2021, over and above the 2.9 million already dislocated within their nation. In brief, 60% of the population of 38 million people face crisis levels of hunger, and lack of necessities for life. The conference welcomed the offer by Uzbekistan to create, with UN efforts, a regional logistics hub in Termez city, to handle the shipment of humanitarian material into Afghanistan. The OIC meeting approved the designation of Ambassador Tarig Ali Bakhit Salah, Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian, Cultural and Family Affairs at the OIC Secretariat, to be OIC Special Envoy to Afghanistan for the OIC Secretary General, to coordinate efforts, and provide reports to the OIC. The Humanitarian Trust Fund is to be up and running within the first quarter of 2022. It is reported by APP (AP Pakistan,) that there was an urgent appeal made for large-scale projects in the multi-nation region, to serve reconstruction and development. In general, this should include energy, transportation and communication projects. Two mentioned were the TAPI Pipeline, and the TAP (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan) electricity transmission line. Participants in the deliberation drew attention to the importance of the 15th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization, which met on Nov. 28, 2021, in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. The second area of OIC action, alongside the humanitarian, food-aid and anti-pandemic work, concerns creating the banking, credit and related conditions to serve a re-established functioning economy, and for reconstruction. The Council of Foreign Ministers decided, according to the report by APP, that exploratory talks “to unlock the financial and banking channels to resume liquidity and flow of financial and humanitarian assistance” should commence under the direction of the OIC General Secretariat, and the Islamic Development Bank. APP added that, participants discussed “exploring realistic pathways towards unfreezing Afghanistan’s financial assets.” Here is where the outright clash comes in with the networks in London, Washington D.C. and co-conspirators, which insist on wrongfully withholding $9.5 billion in Afghanistan state assets, sorely needed for government and economic functions. An especially ugly, duplicitous public relations campaign is going on in the United States, where two open statements were issued this past week, crying crocodile tears, asserting that some of the $9.5 billion should be unfrozen, and used to “directly help the Afghan people,” but only if allocated directly through non-Kabul government, non-Taliban, UN or other agencies. One letter was from former military figures, in connection with the infamous Atlantic Council, and the other letter was from a group of 39 Congressmen, either ignorant, gullible, corrupt, or all three. No nation exists without functioning institutions. There is no independence without economic sovereignty. Withholding the funds, or arrogating decision-making over their use means destroying a nation. This will do the job by genocide, that 20 years of military presence and non-development didn’t do in Afghanistan. This is a moral test for the West. What needs to be done with the funds, and in general in Afghanistan is presented in the newly-released EIR interview with Dr. Shah Mehrabi, for 20 years on the Board of Governors of the Da Afghanistan Bank, the central bank of Afghanistan. Our role is indispensable in getting out such policy interventions, along with getting out the truth on the scale of the emergency in Afghanistan, which is being blacked out severely in the Trans-Atlantic media. The Zepp-LaRouche call for Operation Ibn Sina to bring a modern healthcare platform to the country is a call for world action. Shining the light on Afghanistan and mobilizing for what must be done, spreads understanding of the necessity to end the grip of the imperialist foreign policy and globalist financial system everywhere, now in breakdown, and threatening nuclear war. Helga Zepp-LaRouche ended her remarks on PTV Dec. 17 by summarizing, “So in one sense, I think the fate of Afghanistan and the fate of humanity are much more closely connected than most people can imagine.”
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Today in Islamabad, representatives of most of the 57 member nations of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation were gathered for the pre-meeting to the extraordinary meeting of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers on the Humanitarian Situation in Afghanistan, which will be held tomorrow. In a statement to today’s opening session of senior officials, the OIC Assistant Secretary General of Humanitarian Affairs, Ambassador Tarig Ali Bakhit Salah, stressed, as reported on the OIC website, “that after decades of war, suffering and insecurity, the people of Afghanistan need relief and peace. ‘It is crucial for the international community to take swift action to ensure that the people of Afghanistan have unimpeded access to life-saving assistance, and that humanitarian support is scaled up. The OIC humanitarian office in Kabul will assume its responsibility in coordination with the various international agencies in delivering the required assistance to the millions of people in need,’ said Ambassador Tarig.”The registered participants at this weekend’s sessions number 437, and many non-OIC delegations are present, including guest nations, UN and other international agencies. The Afghanistan Taliban government delegation arrived today from Kabul, headed by Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. He met today with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. On Dec. 17, the opening day of the OIC events, David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Program, gave a stern interview to the U.S. National Public Radio, describing the Afghanistan situation. Speaking from the WFP headquarters in Rome, he said, “I was just in Kabul … out of 42 million people, 23 million are marching towards starvation. I mean, they’re in serious trouble … 95% don’t have enough food to eat. [Out of the 23 million] about 9 million are on famine’s door as we speak. It is Hell on Earth. And now the winter months are here.” He spoke of mothers "having to choose, ‘if I have any money at all, do I buy cooking fuel or heating fuel? Do I freeze my child to death, or do I starve my child to death?’ That’s what they’re facing now…. “What we’re looking at now is a 40% loss of wheat production because of droughts and then COVID economic deterioration. Then on top of all that is the lack of [financial] liquidity because the international community has frozen all the assets that the country normally would have….” The situation within Afghanistan cries out for concerted action, and the scope of what needs to be done—not only here, but throughout Central and Southwestern Asia, has been presented by Schiller Institute, in four different guest TV appearances on Pakistan national television PTV, in its gavel-to-gavel coverage of the OIC events over the past 24 hours. Yesterday, Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche powerfully reiterated her call for Operation Ibn Sina in Afghanistan, named after the great Islamic thinker and physician. Also yesterday, Hussein Askary, Southwest Asia Coordinator for the Schiller Institute presented what stretching the Belt and Road Initiative throughout the region will mean. Today, Harley Schlanger, speaking from Germany for the Schiller Institute, spoke on a PTV panel, which opened with a short documentary on Afghanistan, including the report from David Beasley. Schlanger commended Pakistan for its leading role to organize relief action, and the OIC for its efforts, then he called for three steps: 1) unfreezing the Afghanistan government funds; 2) mobilizing emergency aid; and 3) launching a long-term commitment for full economic development. He pointed out that, after spending trillions of dollars for a war, which caused this crisis, the U.S. and Europe must make a major effort to provide food and medical supplies, using the logistical capacity of the war machine to airlift necessary material. Karel Vereycken, speaking from Paris, with the Solidarity & Progress Party, participated in PTV’s next segment, this one an hour-long panel discussion. He drew attention to the potential significance of the meeting of the “Extended Troika”—the United States, Russia, China and Pakistan—to take place on Dec. 20, following the Dec. 19 OIC meeting. The Schiller Institute is collaborating with individuals and efforts internationally for the needed action in Afghanistan, and for a decisive end to foreign relations based on the neo-British Empire model of perpetual confrontation, and economic subjugation, now pushed in the name “climate emergency,” “rules-based order,” and “democracy.” There are videos in preparation for mass social media use, and other initiatives in rush preparation. Today, an EIR interview with Dr. Shah Mohammad Mehrabi, on the governing board of the Central Bank of Afghanistan (Da Afghanistan Bank), was posted in video and text, in which he addresses in depth what is needed for economic functioning in Afghanistan. The interview is titled, “U.S. Policy Is ‘Suffocating the Afghan People.’” (It will appear in EIR’s issue dated Dec. 24, 2021). In Washington, D.C. this coming week, a group of Congressmen is planning to announce their initiative for the U.S. to unfreeze the $9.5 billion of Afghanistan government funds, wrongfully withheld by the U.S. Federal Reserve and Treasury, on U.S. orders. It is also of note, that the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites, co-founded by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, and former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders, in late summer/fall of 2020, has issued a press release this weekend, on its 2021 aid initiative to Mozambique, in the spirit of demanding collaboration among the major powers, for both emergency action to save lives, and for full-scale development everywhere, beginning with modern health care systems.
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The importance of the Schiller Institute’s emergency Dec. 4 web conference “Omicron: Urgent Need for World Health System” is underscored by the continuing flow of reports of Omicron’s wide presence, even as its exact features are still under study. New cases are reported ranging from the boroughs of New York City, to Hawaii to Australia and points in between. The World Health Organization met today, and issued an advisory to redouble the defensive measures already prescribed to diminish transmission of other well-known variants of SARS-CoV-2. The occurrence of such a variant as Omicron was predictable, and was predicted early in 2021 by virologists, if no concerted world action were taken.The needed action to combat the virus has been outlined repeatedly since the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic by Helga Zepp-LaRouche and collaborators, most recently in the Nov. 23 international call by Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former U.S. Surgeon-General, directed to enlist medical experts to help provide leadership. There must be multinational collaboration for emergency measures to save lives—vaccination, treatment, humanitarian aid, and at the same time, steps for launching in-depth construction of infrastructure for health systems in all nations, to end the conditions fostering pandemics. This is a new paradigm, which demands new economic and financial measures to carry it through. The LaRouche Four Laws, involving Glass-Steagall banking reorganization, plentiful and directed credit, and science drivers, are a core part of the mobilization required. The entire “Green” agenda is to stop such a mass regroupment of humanity. The feasibility of this new paradigm is dramatically shown today, in the opening of the beautiful Kunming-to-Vientiane railway, from southwest China to the capital of Laos. This 1,035 km span was a technological feat, and along with that, it is a key part in the Pan-Asian railway, which will connect mainland Asia, through Indochina, all the way through the Indonesian archipelago. A large ratio of the total track runs on bridges and through tunnels in the mountainous tropics. It has the longest bridge in the world, which at one point is 54 stories high. Not only does fencing protect wildlife, but overpasses are built for elephant migration. China’s President Xi Jinping today addressed the opening ceremony by video, stressing that Laos is no longer a landlocked country, but now will be a land-linked hub for the entire region. The technological success and purpose of this grand new rail line demonstrate that the feats involved in establishing hospital systems for every nation, and the infrastructure platforms to support them—power, water, transport, and staff—are not insurmountable tasks, any more than the rail line was. What is required is to defeat what’s standing in the way—the dead financial system, now blowing out in hyperinflation and breakdown, and to put in place the new system prioritizing human beings, nations and development. The ugly and very dangerous geopolitical side of the dead imperial networks was hyperactive throughout this past week, through three sets of multinational meetings. The shrill denunciations of China and Russia barely stopped at calling for war. NATO foreign ministers met in Riga, Latvia Nov. 30-Dec. 1; the OSCE met Dec. 1-2 in Stockholm; and the U.S.-EU Dialogue on China met in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 2-3. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, along with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg outdid themselves to call for NATO to stand ready against likely “Russian aggression.” Co-hosts of the U.S.-EU Dialogue on China, U.S.Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Secretary-General of the EU’s European External Action Service Staffano Sannino denounced China for many imputed infractions, such as bullying Lithuania and mistreating Uyghurs. Speaking today at a Brookings Institution event on the Indo-Pacific, the pair praised the new U.S.-EU Dialogue on Security and Defense, which will meet in early 2022, and was announced by Blinken and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell. Moreover, Sherman and Sannino said that the respective initiatives of Biden’s B3W (Build Back Better World) and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s Global Gateway are “complementary,” and will compete against China’s Belt and Road Initiative. What did they offer to show for this? Nothing. Sherman could only assert that together, they will exert “collective strength” because they will work in partnership with India and the Quad. Even Victoria Nuland, now the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, got into the act. She addressed the Kiev Security Forum by video on Dec. 1, which happened to be on the second day of the NATO confab. Famous for her direct role in violent regime change of the Ukraine government in February 2014, Nuland said to Kiev: “All of the NATO allies were in solidarity with Ukraine today, and making clear that we are resolute in supporting your independence, and we are also resolute in sending the message to Moscow that if it moves again to internally destabilize Ukraine or use its forces to enter the country that it will be met with high impact economic measures the likes of which we have not used before from all of us,” To cap things off, new sanctions were announced yesterday against Belarus targets, by the U.S., Britain, Canada and the EU, which congratulated each other for doing so. Above all this din, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who met with Blinken on the sidelines of the OSCE conference, said very sternly that Russia is preparing proposals for how NATO must limit its expansion toward Russia. This is a follow-on to President Vladimir Putin’s Nov. 18 explicit statement that this must be done, given when he addressed a meeting of his foreign service officials. This is the context in which multinational collaboration against the pandemic and famine is, at the same time, action to stop the geopolitical madness, now promoting confrontation to the point of war. Be sure to attend and make use of the Dec. 4 emergency Schiller Institute conference and ongoing mobilization.
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A shipment of 50,000 tons of wheat and life-saving medicines is currently making its way from India to Afghanistan, across Pakistan. On Nov. 22, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan personally announced approval for the transit, which otherwise is prohibited, because in recent times, only exports from Afghanistan to India could cross Pakistan, but not the other way around, due to the enmity between India and Pakistan. Now, for a common humanitarian project, India and Pakistan have set their enmity aside.This is just one instance, not grand, but it is in the direction—the spirit—of Operation Ibn Sina, called for by Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche in October. She calls for a multi-nation, all-out response to the Afghanistan dire situation, by providing emergency aid, and infrastructure-building, with healthcare capacity in the forefront, and an immediate return of the financial assets to the nation of Afghanistan. This is in the interest of all throughout the region, and worldwide. This perspective is urgent for the 38 million in Afghanistan, 95% of whom are without reliable food, as well as lacking water, shelter, fuel and power. The same driving spirit is needed to address the world hyperinflationary breakdown and pandemic, as well as to provide relief for all places of extreme need, including Haiti, Yemen, Syria, Libya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and elsewhere. Institutionally, this spirit is expressed in a new white paper released today by China, on the eve of the Nov. 29-30 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which meets every three years, and will be held this year in Dakar, Senegal, as well as online. President Xi Jinping will address the Forum by video Nov. 29. Today’s document is titled, “China and Africa in the New Era: A Partnership of Equals.” The hallmark of the report’s message is how the Belt and Road Initiative serves the mutual benefit of Africa and China, and all participating nations. The need for major multinational collaboration against the pandemic could not be more conspicuous than in the latest turn of events on the pandemic virus. Today, a new SARS-CoV-2 variant has been designated a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization, which dubbed it Omicron. First identified in recent weeks in South Africa, which has proficiency in genetic mapping, the virus has since shown to have been present in many places in Africa, and has travelled outside Africa, showing up in Hong Kong, Israel and Belgium. Among features of concern about Omicron, are mutations of its protein spikes which may allow it “to escape,” as the epidemiologists say, the current vaccines. These and other traits are still under scrutiny. The first reaction in the trans-Atlantic countries today was to “pull up the drawbridge, and fill up the moat” to fend off Omicron by banning travel to eight designated African countries. Whatever justifiable role travel bans and lockdowns may have, what is needed overall is what was spelled out Nov. 23 by former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders in her call “Open Letter to Virologists and Medical Experts Around the World to Address the COVID-19 Pandemic.” However, the pathological commitment to geopolitics is still blinding the trans-Atlantic to reality of all kinds, and what must be done. Worse, it hardens people to not give a damn. Look at the latest of what is called the “migrant crisis”—in the Americas and in Europe, which is really a terrible expression of the breakdown of the West. The recent decades of multiple R2P wars and forced austerity have inevitably uprooted millions of people, now roaming in desperation to find some place on Earth to be able to live and work in peace. Look at the English Channel. On one day this month, 1,000 people tried to cross from France to land in Britain. On Wednesday, Nov. 24, this week, 27 people died when their boat capsized, and meanwhile, the same day France interdicted 671 people, preventing them from attempting the crossing. So far this year, 25,000 have sought asylum in the U.K., after crossing the English Channel, and thousands more have entered by other means. On Sunday, Nov. 28, there is to be an emergency meeting of certain European officials. But now a feud is in play between Britain and France. After Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted an open letter to President Emmanuel Macron yesterday, with proposals including that France should take back Channel-crossers, then today, Macron disinvited British Home Minister Priti Patel from the Sunday meeting. Macron denounced the Johnson letter. No one is addressing the causes of the collapse and desperation. This brings us again to the need for activation of people, wherever their location, to exert leadership for the policies that will end this quickening hell. Helga Zepp-LaRouche spoke of this in her Nov. 24 strategic weekly Schiller Institute webcast. After reporting on the latest dismal government-formation process in Germany, with very bad policies, she made the general point: “I can only say, people have to wake up and start to fight for a different policy. And that can only be peaceful cooperation with Russia and China, the development of the developing countries—Africa, Southwest Asia, together with the Belt and Road Initiative of China. So the alternatives are there, but we need a population which is really becoming active….”
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Today the Schiller Institute posted a 7-point call, issued by Guus Berkhout, President of the CLINTEL Group, which he presented November 14th, 2021 at the Schiller Institute conference, “All Moral Resources of Humanity Have To Be Called Up: Mankind Must Be the Immortal Species!” Below is the full text, which appears under the headline, “Message to the Young People at COP26: Dear Youngsters, Please Wake Up!” Please, don’t act like a parrot. Be critical against the many false prophets, who are trying to take advantage of you and set you up against the impressive progress your parents and grandparents have realized. Bear in mind that the information these prophets tell you is one-sided and misleading. Deepen your knowledge on the facts of our climate. By doing so, you will discover that there is no evidence that points to a climate crisis. Yes, climate change exists and it is of all times. But don’t worry, the current global warming is gentle (only ca. 0.14° C per decade) and it has already made many, many positive contributions to the quality of life. Do you know that the difference between the mean annual temperature in cold Finland and warm Singapore is more than 20° C. Yet, both these countries are most successful. Mankind is very clever in adapting to very different climates! Declaring current global warming of 0.14° C per decade a catastrophe is totally out of proportion. Think about that, while you are protesting. Did your teachers ever tell you that CO₂ is a blessing for everything that lives on our planet? Far from being pollution, CO₂ is the molecule of life, providing food for plants. Without plants there would be very little animal life and no human life at all. Think about that as well, while you are protesting. Don’t confuse climate change with environmental pollution! They are two completely different phenomena. Climate change is largely caused by the primordial natural forces and environmental pollution is largely caused by human behavior. Climate change requires clever adaptation measures and environmental pollution asks for clever clean production technologies. Please, don’t waste your life by solving a problem that does not exist. Instead, put all your talents and energy in developing a productive sustainable economy. Only then can you realize enough financial means to increase the standard of living beyond the basic needs. When you go back to the unproductive past and make yourself poor, you are no longer in control of your future! History shows that living on planet Earth requires adaptation all the time. If you continue to advance science and technology, you generate new capabilities to adapt to climate change, to protect our natural environment, to conquer the universe and to take care of one another. This is the formula for creating a better world. FINALLY, DEAR YOUNGSTERS, For all of you who have been poisoned by fear of what is to come, forget the dodgy preachers of doom and gloom at COP26; they ruin your future by destroying everything your parents and grandparents have built.
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This fall marks the eighth anniversary of the announcement by China’s President Xi Jinping, of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), when he announced the Silk Road Economic Belt in Kazakhstan Sept. 7, 2013 and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in a speech before the Parliament of Indonesia on Oct. 2, 2013. President Xi today addressed a symposium on the project, discussing in detail its many achievements and continuing intent, functioning as the modern-day Silk Road, for the common good of all.Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute President, and long known in China and internationally as the “Silk Road Lady,” for her advocacy of the concept, gave three interviews today, on the occasion of the BRI anniversary. She appeared on CGTN TV, in two interviews, one on Global Business, and another on the Dialogue Weekend program; and she was interviewed on her weekly Schiller Institute webcast, titled, “Most of the World Is Hungry for Change.” (See transcripts in this briefing.) Beginning in the early 1990s, she and her husband Lyndon LaRouche, promoted the idea of the “World Land-Bridge,” of development corridors. The latest books they issued on this were two volumes (2014 and 2018) of The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge, along with Extending the New Silk Road to West Asia and Africa (2017). These presented details, region by region, for world economic development. In each interview today, she stressed the urgency for Western nations to rethink, and give up geopolitics and neo-colonialism, which have brought the world to the brink of nuclear war, worsening famine and persisting pandemic. Nations have been deliberately kept in poverty. These conditions, and induced strife, have produced mass migrations. She said on her webcast: “[W]e have to have a rethinking: Germany, the United States, other European countries should stop this geopolitical confrontation and say, ‘we have a pandemic, we have mass famine, we have a refugee crisis of biblical dimensions, and we must join hands and build the infrastructure, hospitals, schools, industry, agriculture, in all of these countries….’ So let’s just build infrastructure! Let’s build up Africa! This is the natural thing, and the Chinese are doing the natural things and we should stop bickering about it, because we should take a moral lesson from the Chinese in this respect.” President Xi Jinping reported that as of August 2021, some 170 nations had, in various ways, cooperated with the BRI. Now today, in terms of combatting the pandemic, 110 of these nations have received some of the 1.7 billion doses of vaccine. Zepp-LaRouche drew attention in her CGTN Global Business interview to the fact that the same principle is involved in what China calls its “Health Silk Road,” and what the Schiller Institute is campaigning for, in calling on nations to collaborate in building a world health system. This means facilities, staff, water, power, food, infrastructure. We have a moment of special opportunity now. A week ago in Glasgow, COP26 ended as FLOP26. It was a failure for its organizers—the gaggle of royals, banksters, billionaires and the like, who want nations to agree to commit suicide, in order “to save the planet.” A critical number spoke out against this in Glasgow, and their view was again restated yesterday in Abuja, Nigeria, by Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama. He said simply, while standing alongside visiting U.S. Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken at their joint press conference that Nigeria is “a gas-producing country … and we’re looking to gas to help to address our energy needs.” So, he called on Blinken to do something to stop the international financial institutions from refusing to lend funding for fossil fuels development. Nigeria has the right to use its resources and develop. Now it is the time for all humanity to step forward and take the lead. Zepp-LaRouche replied to CGTN reporter Michael Wang’s question about her opinion of the BRI at a time of uncertainties in the world: “I think it is, for sure, the most important strategic initiative on the planet right now. Because you say ‘uncertainty,’ I mean, these uncertainties show, for example, in the form of a hyperinflationary tendency: You see the energy prices skyrocketing, food prices, and we may actually head towards a hyperinflationary blowout of the entire system. And at such a moment, to have the Belt and Road Initiative which focusses entirely on the physical side of the economy, can actually become the absolute important savior for the world economy as a whole. So I think the existence of the Belt and Road Initiative is the most important initiative on the planet.”
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The multiple crises we face, from the economic breakdown to the death toll and dangers from geopolitics, require collaboration among peoples and nations on solutions; in particular, on ending toleration of “climate emergency,” green destruction. On Oct. 6, the call for this went out as a joint statement from the respective leaders of the European-based CLINTEL, and the Schiller Institute, titled, “A Wake Up Call: The Danger for Mankind Is Not the Climate, but Toleration of a Devious Policy that Uses Climate to Destroy Us!” As co-author Helga Zepp LaRouche, Schiller Institute President, stressed yesterday, we want people to endorse, confer and initiate action, in order to get nations to cooperate on dealing with the current, acute emergencies.The multiple crises we face, from the economic breakdown to the death toll and dangers from geopolitics, require collaboration among peoples and nations on solutions; in particular, on ending toleration of “climate emergency,” green destruction. On Oct. 6, the call for this went out as a joint statement from the respective leaders of the European-based CLINTEL, and the Schiller Institute, titled, “A Wake Up Call: The Danger for Mankind Is Not the Climate, but Toleration of a Devious Policy that Uses Climate to Destroy Us!” As co-author Helga Zepp LaRouche, Schiller Institute President, stressed yesterday, we want people to endorse, confer and initiate action, in order to get nations to cooperate on dealing with the current, acute emergencies.
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Collaborators of the international Schiller Institute staged rallies and public street events today in many nations, in a “Day of Action” demanding that the U.S. release the funds belonging to the people of Afghanistan, which have been frozen in the U.S. Treasury, while the Afghan people face starvation. The rallies also got out the message: “A Wake Up Call: The Danger for Mankind Is Not the Climate, but Toleration of a Devious Policy that Uses Climate To Destroy Us!” which is the title of the statement released Oct. 12 by Helga Zepp-LaRouche and Dr. Guus Berkhout, the initiator of the CLINTEL, an organization of international scientists who refute the fake science on carbon and climate change. These documents were distributed at key sites in places from Colombia, to Germany. They included New York City; Houston, Texas; Montreal, Canada; Mexico City; Paris; Berlin; and Wiesbaden. In Washington, D.C., dozens of the international delegations in town for the annual IMF and World Bank sessions received the statements. In the Midwest, activists with the LaRouche Organization hit the campus of the University of Michigan.It is a test of conscience to take the urgently needed action in Afghanistan: muster and deliver the large-scale emergency aid—food, fuel, winter materiel, etc.; start the longer-term infrastructure building as fast as possible; and immediately, release the $9 billion in assets wrongfully being withheld by U.S. authorities, which belong to the people of Afghanistan, and are needed in restarting daily life. This is the only moral, the only reasonable approach. The same power of reason is the only sane response to the rapidly deteriorating economic crises in the Trans-Atlantic and related economies. Look at two examples of the most recent headline situations: In Europe, the same electricity and gas hyperinflation and shortages which were expressed most dramatically weeks ago in Britain, are now spreading across the continent. This week, a German energy retailer declared bankruptcy. In the Czech Republic, an energy company suddenly cut off its 90,000 customers, telling them to seek alternatives with a state company. The situation clearly calls for collaboration across Europe to freeze spot markets, stop speculation, work out contracts to keep supplies moving, make the needed logistics arrangements, and get moving on stopping the green transition to unreliable, so-called renewables. Instead, EU authorities met yesterday, and came up with an energy Tool Box, with no tools. They simply OK’d some stop-gap measures, as, for example in Spain, for governments to aid households and companies facing unpayable energy bills; and they made a vague commitment to one day having an EU-wide energy market. In the United States, the delays in goods production, spare parts, shipping, and related functions are worsening by the minute, with rising energy prices part of the mix that otherwise includes decades of lack of transport and other infrastructure. In agriculture, threats to the Fall harvest, crop shipment, and storage, come from lack of spare parts for machinery, and rising fuel costs. The situation clearly calls for interim emergency measures, sector by sector, to keep vital production and services going, from healthcare delivery, to food processing; while stopping speculation cold, reorganizing banking and credit, and preparing for full-scale economic rebuilding. Instead, President Biden issued a King Canute executive order yesterday, that goods shipments will henceforth be speeded up, because the Long Beach-Los Angeles port complex, the biggest in the nation, will henceforth work 24/7 and no longer take night-time and weekends off. In Washington, D.C., the Group of Seven finance ministers also met yesterday on the subject of the supply-chain crises, and issued a decision to form a task force on supply chains, rather than take any meaningful action. Meantime, the situation is untenable for millions more people each day. There are major labor actions now almost daily in the U.S. This morning, 10,000 workers of the John Deere machinery manufacturer went on strike. The workforce of Kellogg’s cereals processor are on strike. Alabama coal miners are on strike for the seventh month. There is no other recourse in the interest of nations and peoples, than for citizens to step forward and see the “big picture,” as it is described in the joint statement being circulated internationally today, and to act accordingly. The premises and policy recommendations of what must be done are presented clearly in the report, “The Coming U.S. Economic Miracle on the New Silk Road,” the 55-page report by The LaRouche Organization, now available online, and in print. Doing what is right for Afghanistan is the act of conscience necessary to make economic development happen everywhere, for everyone.
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A generation ago, a schematic of an economic “Collapse Function”—a hyperinflationary breakdown process, was put forward by economist-statesman Lyndon LaRouche at a conference on Rome, Italy, which makes clear the nature of what we see today. Called the “Typical Collapse Function,” or “Triple Curve,” it shows that if physical production is declining, while the volume of financial aggregates is rising, and monetary values likewise are rising to support the difference, there reaches a phase in which shock and blow-out inevitably set in. He released that in 1994. He also warned repeatedly in the years afterward, don’t comprehend things in any of the simplistic terms of mere price inflation, market correction, supply-and-demand, or some single culpable factor. In March, 2000, for example, during the U.S. gas-pump spike in prices, he warned, “This is simply, predominantly—it is not some ‘market this, and market that’—it’s a hyperinflationary process, which has taken off,” and behind it are larger dynamics.The chain-reactions of breakdown underway today are now dramatic, given the combined effects of decades-long de-structuring of production, with whole sectors of manufacturing and agriculture relocated to cheap-labor sites, and concentrated in dangerous ways, Plus, there is decrepit transportation from years of lack of infrastructure-building in the Trans-Atlantic. Add to this, the sweeping deregulation, spot markets, and speculation. You get shortages and spikes in prices in electricity, fuels, and other necessities. No one can pay—no household, business, government function, etc. Look at the food chain. World food prices are up year on year by 32.8 percent in September, according to today’s UN Food and Agriculture Organization index (for globally-traded foods). In the U.S., prices for crop land and inputs are soaring. Farmland sale prices in Iowa, for example, are setting new records every month, after rising 10 percent year on year. In August, there was an all time record price of $22,300 per acre; but this week, came a new record of $26,200 per acre. For fertilizers, five of the eight major types rose 5 percent in price from August to September; potash jumped up 13 percent. No new, young farmers can get started; veteran farmers face being driven out of operation. Lyndon LaRouche, in addition to his conceptual diagnosis of the crises, provided the solutions and the method by which to think our way out of the crises. His 2014 “Four Cardinal Laws” embodies the principles for action. This outlook will be featured at the November international conference (online) by the Schiller Institute, whose weekend dates and times, for two days of deliberation, are now being made final, for the widest possible outreach and participation. An invitation is forthcoming. What is front and center, at the same time, is the need to completely defeat the green fraud that blames today’s crises on not acting strongly enough on the “climate emergency,” and the “biological diversity extinction emergency.” The green message is: get rid of people and their activities. Klaus Schwab, President of the World Economic Forum, states this explicitly in his latest book, and makes special reference to Africa. (Stakeholder Capitalism; A Global Economy That Works for Progress, People, and Planet, Wiley, January, 2021). After giving specifics on infrastructure building in Ethiopia (rail, agriculture, dams), he says that this has to stop. This African development “reveals the central conundrum of the combat against climate change. The same force that helps people escape from poverty and lead a decent life is the one that is destroying the livability of our planet for future generations. The emissions that lead to climate change are not just the result of a selfish generation of industrialists or western baby boomers. They are the consequence of the desire to create a better future for oneself.” His alternative? He and his crowd of billionaires, royal parasites, mega-cartels and all, are proposing “Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics” by which they intend to dictate whether any enterprise (factory, household, farm, railway, school) is allowed to exist or not. Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche reported on these viewpoints and economic crises on her weekly webcast Oct. 6, saying , “This is fascism, no less than it was with the Nazis….The present green policy is madness. It is fascism with a green face. It will lead to catastrophic results if it’s not reversed.” President Vladimir Putin tore apart all the green flim-flam and geopolitical lies from the U.S. and Europe yesterday, at his energy teleconference with heads of Russia’s economics firms and ministries. The Kremlin swiftly made a transcript available, including many interchanges with participants. Putin pointed out all the stupidities of the Trans-Atlantic spot markets, deregulation, speculation, and the green transition to unreliable wind and solar. He said, "The practices of our European partners [are to blame for the energy crises]. These practices have reaffirmed that, properly speaking, they have made mistakes. We were talking with the former European Commission; all of its activities were aimed at curtailing the so-called long-term contracts and at transitioning to gas exchange trading…. “It turned out—and today this is absolutely obvious—that this policy is erroneous, erroneous for the reason that it fails to take into account the gas market specifics dependent on a large number of uncertainty factors. Consumers, including, for example, fertilizer producers, are losing all price benchmarks. All of this is leading to failures and, as I said, imbalances.” Near conclusion of Putin’s energy confab, Boris Kovalchuk, CEO of RAO Group, an electricity export/import firm, added some dark humor: “Mr. President, In Germany, government agencies produce video clips telling people how to spend winter without lighting or heating, how to put candles into flower pots to warm up a room, and how to make windows draft-proof with duct tape and cling film. Just a few years ago now, this would have been impossible to imagine, as if the Stone Age was back.”
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The latest reports on the emergency situations in Afghanistan and Haiti cry out for support action, and at the same time show that international collaboration on responding to extreme human needs at any one place and time, is what will assure the future for all humanity.This was brought out in the remarks by Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche Sept. 30, at the international conference, “The Road from War To Peace,” held by the U.S.-based Grand National Movement for Afghanistan and the Council of Global Relations, when she participated in the virtual event, along with over 25 American, European and Afghan citizens, to discuss measures necessary to achieve the goal of a peaceful and prosperous future for Afghanistan and the region, after 40 years of warfare. She gave an impassioned call for emergency measures to prevent the looming starvation of millions of Afghans due to the destruction of their economy over the years of war, and due to the refusal of the UN and European Union to meet their moral obligation to save the population from the destruction they had wrought. She called for support for Pino Arlacchi, who, as the Executive Director of the UN Drug Control and Crime Prevention Office, had negotiated with the Taliban in the late 1990s, to end opium production in Afghanistan, to be appointed as the representative to oversee the international backing for the development of that nation now. On Sept. 28, the first major shipment of humanitarian aid arrived in Kabul from China; the material included medicines, blankets and other protective supplies for the winter. Food is urgently needed. More than 75% of the population is not eating enough, tweeted David Beasley, World Food Program Executive Director, yesterday, who said that the WFP survey showed that this many are “borrowing” food, and often going without. Winter is coming; people cannot survive; he called for help. Speaking from Kabul Sept. 30, on a four-day visit, the Asia Pacific Director of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Alexander Matheou gave a detailed account. He said that part of the Red Crescent activity is delivering “emergency relief and recovery assistance to 560,000 people in 16 provinces worst affected by severe drought and displacement.” He called for ramping up all kinds of support, appealing for 36 million Swiss francs, explaining that the IFRC will use the aid for provision of water, more drought-resistant crops for the near term, rescuing livestock, and “supporting income generation for those most at risk of spiralling poverty, including women and the elderly.” With severe food shortages and COVID-19, overall, “Some 18 million Afghans are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.” In Haiti, the situation is desperate. Four UN agencies yesterday appealed to the U.S. to discontinue expelling any more refugees to Haiti. Since Sept. 19, the U.S. has sent some 4,600 Haitian migrants on 43 flights from the U.S.-Mexico border area, back to Haiti. Mexico has sent two planes. At the same time, in the Caribbean, authorities in the Bahamas and Cuba report interdicting Haitians fleeing their homeland, trying to reach Florida. Today, a U.S. apology to Haiti was given by Juan Gonzalez, the U.S. National Security Council Senior Director for the Western Hemisphere, who is in Port-au-Prince for a two-day official visit. Speaking of the treatment of Haitians in Del Rio, Texas, he said, “I want to say that it was an injustice, that it was wrong.” But Del Rio is one instance of a standing policy of enforced poverty and cruelty—often of deliberate inaction—that has reached terrible proportions. As of 2020, there were “281 million international migrants in the world, which equates to 3.6% of the global population,” according to the UN International Migration Organization. What is required in Haiti is massive emergency aid, as military engineers know how to provide, and launching rebuilding as laid out in the newly-issued, “Schiller Institute Plan To Develop Haiti.” In August, the Schiller Institute released overview plans for what is required in Afghanistan. The additional dimension involved, is that moving on these emergencies puts a focus on how to collaborate among nations, to intervene to stop the worldwide chain reactions of economic breakdown now gathering speed in the Trans-Atlantic. Just to identify the most obvious: There are energy shortages resulting from anti-fossil fuel, green madness, plus deregulated energy and commodity markets; there are food shortages, transportation disruptions, a sweeping lack of healthcare and other basic infrastructure, and throughout, the pandemic continues, with threat of new variants and breakouts. None of this needs to continue, if emergency measures are taken—for reorganizing banking, building infrastructure, and advancing science, and more— as laid out fully by Lyndon LaRouche, against just this contingency. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, concluded her prepared statement for the Sept. 30 “Road from War to Peace” on Afghanistan, by drawing out the full implications for a new paradigm for humanity: "The Committee of the Coincidence of Opposites is mobilizing presently to get the U.S. and European nations to join hands with Afghanistan’s neighboring countries to solve both the urgent humanitarian catastrophe as well as the real economic development of Afghanistan and the entire region, which was once called the ‘Land of the Thousand Cities,’ which it can become again. “If we succeed in doing that—and I am asking all of you to help in this effort—then the reconstruction of Afghanistan can become the beginning of a new paradigm in international relations and the beginning of a new era of mankind!”
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There is a concept in U.S. law known as “depraved indifference.” It refers to the principle that a person is accountable—for trial and punishment, if they stand by while terrible harm befalls an innocent, vulnerable person. Cases of conviction usually involve one or a few people, who could care less whether another lives or dies. But today, we see depraved indifference to suffering and death on a mass scale, which could be prevented.On the “humanitarian” side, we see, for example, the deadly consequences from continuing the economic sanctions the U.S. now has on more than 30 countries, most for extended periods, including Yemen, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and more. And the enforced lack of economic development continues, while the City of London/Wall Street networks rule. In Afghanistan, the refusal of U.S. financial institutions to lift their freeze on that nation’s assets, amounts to an order to shut that country down, and cause mass death amidst chaos, and the pandemic and famine. On the “military” side, we see the creation of AUKUS—Australia, United Kingdom, U.S.A. military bloc, part of the exertion of “Global Britain,” which also portends deadly consequences through confrontation against China and Russia, and deadly armament. Exemplifying the crisis, we have the current, terrible drama of Haitians and their homeland. Today U.S. authorities began a mass expulsion of Haitian refugees from Texas, airlifting them back to Haiti. As of this weekend, there were more than 12,000 migrants, mostly Haitians, camped in miserable conditions under and near the international bridge in Del Rio, Texas, who came across the Rio Grande from Ciudad Acuna, Mexico. Today, three flights landed 320 migrants back in Port-au-Prince; on Sept. 21, six more flights are expected to arrive there. All told, since Sept. 17, Friday, 3,300 migrants have been removed by plane, or to U.S. detention centers, from Del Rio. Within a day, another 3,000 are expected to be expelled; and all of the migrants removed by next weekend. Mexico, too, intends to begin deportations. These migrants are not displaced just since the Aug. 14 earthquake hit Haiti, but many of them fled years back, after the January 2010 earthquake, and in the hard years since, of no build-up of their nation. Some 4 million people need food in Haiti just to survive, out of their 10 million people, and there are others in need across the islands and territories of 44 million people in the Caribbean Basin. Add to that the dislocation and want in the littoral from Venezuela to Central America. Today, David Beasley, head of the World Food Program, was in Falcon State, Venezuela, to see to the WFP children’s school lunch project, a lifeline for thousands here and millions around the world. Beasley is appealing for emergency funding for the WFP in Haiti, Venezuela, Afghanistan, and for relieving, then ending hunger everywhere. That really means for starting economic development. It is depraved indifference not to understand that. “Can ‘The West’ Learn?” is the pertinent question headlining the Sept. 5 statement by Schiller Institute chairwoman Helga Zepp-LaRouche, focused on Afghanistan, and calling for learning the lessons of the deadly error of prolonged war in Afghanistan. ("Can ‘The West’ Learn? What Afghanistan Needs Now!") But her question applies generally. Can the West learn? Development is the name for peace. It also is the name for stability, justice, security, survival and the future. Last week on Sept. 14 the UN General Assembly began for its 76th session in New York City, and the General Debate period of high-level debates by heads of state or government or foreign ministers runs from Sept. 21-25, and Sept. 27. The Zepp-LaRouche statement will be in circulation, plus another Schiller Institute statement is in the works. In addition, an outline program for development in Haiti will be released in 10 days. Now is the time to join the mobilization.
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This Saturday, the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Schiller Institute is holding an international online event, centered in New York City, titled, “The Path Forward from Afghanistan, 9/11, and the Surveillance State.” Experts—from intelligence specialists to those suing for disclosure of classified documentation—will bring out the truth about the British, Saudi, and corrupt, treasonous U.S. networks behind the attack. Covering up those facts with the Big Lie that rogue bad guys in Afghan caves brought off the air carrier assaults, is a key part of what led to 20 years of destructive, failed warfare in Afghanistan, which is now ended. Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche will speak and participate in the dialogue on what comes next.The event will be preceded Friday evening by a Schiller Institute NYC Chorus concert streamed live from Manhattan, titled, “9/11 Memorial Concert: Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis ‘Agnus Dei’—Peace for Ourselves, and the World.” These occasions are not to be missed. They embody the interventionism needed to act in support of what is required at this moment for initiatives to support reconstruction in Afghanistan, to move the world into a new era of cooperation and betterment everywhere, not destruction. There are reports from the Central Asian region in this direction. Today the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in China said that yesterday’s meeting convened by Pakistan, which included China along with five other nations also neighboring Afghanistan, marks what will be ongoing collaboration. Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that the meeting " signifies the establishment of a coordination and cooperation mechanism by its neighboring countries. This mechanism goes hand in hand with other existing multilateral mechanisms related to the Afghan issue and can complement each other and form synergy…. The hope to host the second conference has already been expressed." On the ground, institutional support has begun. On Monday, the first of three planes flew into Mazur-al-Sharif, with tons of medical supplies from the World Health Organization. The UN logistics service, run by the World Food Program, tweeted photographs of the plane and cargo, to mark the commitment. Today, Doctors Without Borders tweeted that they have been able to keep open the five hospitals they operate in Afghanistan. China announced it will send in 3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, and $30 million worth of food, medicines, and related aid. The Kabul International Airport is now fully operational, and a flight carrying 100 people, including several Americans, departed today and landed safely in Qatar.. The necessity for a new direction posed by the Afghanistan situation, demands rethinking by all institutions. This was in evidence at today’s heads-of-state annual BRICS meeting, held virtually, hosted by India. All the national presidents spoke. Afghanistan was prominently on the agenda, and President Vladimir Putin stressed that, “the withdrawal of the Americans and their allies from Afghanistan caused a new crisis situation…. Naturally, Russia, as well as its BRICS member partners, advocate for the long-desired peace and stability on the Afghan soil.” He said that the partnership of the BRICS nations is in demand in many challenging situations. “Indeed, the authority of our association is growing, and its role in international affairs is increasing; it is very noticeable.” Also required for a world shift into a positive direction, is the role of citizen leadership everywhere—speaking out on what must be done. On Sept. 5, Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche addressed this, with her statement, “Can the ‘West’ Learn? What Afghanistan Needs Now,” issued for endorsement and for fostering other statements and initiatives from everywhere. In total opposition to this mobilization of humanity, Tony Blair, the instigator of every possible “R2P” (“responsibility to protect”) military invasion he could imagine, appeared today in a Washington, D.C., live-streamed broadcast hosted by the Washington Post. He defended the U.S. and NATO’s 20 years in Afghanistan, and the Bin Laden cover story, and demanded continued U.S.-UK military collaboration anywhere and everywhere against what he described as never-ending ‘extremist radical Islamism.’ The fact that anyone listens to this war criminal simply demonstrates the treasonous nature of the Washington Post.
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The massive hype by the war parties in the U.S. and the U.K. that China covered up the “fact” that the COVID-19 virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology has taken a hit, as the 90-day investigation by the U.S. intelligence community, mandated by the Biden Administration, found no evidence that the virus had any source other than through nature. The idea that an intelligence community could determine such a thing was an absurdity from the beginning, but apparently the claims against China were so lacking in evidence that the intelligence agencies did not wish to risk being exposed for carrying out a purely political witch hunt, as happened with their fake “proof” of Russian collusion with Donald Trump in the 2016 election.Some accusations were dangerously preposterous, such as those of Mike Pompeo, who suggested that the virus may have been intentionally created at the lab, and Niall Ferguson, the advocate of restoring the British Empire, who presented faked evidence that China intentionally sent infected persons to countries all over the world. The final report from eight different U.S. intelligence agencies, released to the public with some redactions on Friday, Aug. 27, refuted such nonsense. The report says that one of the agencies claimed “modest confidence” that the virus came from the lab, but that it was purely accidental. Four other agencies said it emerged through natural transmission, although they had “low confidence” in the conclusion since the actual source is yet to be determined. Three agencies said they could reach no conclusions. The report says that there was “high confidence” that it was not a biological weapon, and that the government had no foreknowledge. China’s response, as covered in a front page article in Global Times, was to ridicule the idea that intelligence experts, not scientists, could determine the source of the virus. Quoting Chinese experts, the Times says that the investigation has “ruined the self-proclaimed professional ethics of the U.S. intelligence community.” They also call on the U.S. to “rectify its anti-science attitude and conduct origins tracing in its own country.” [“U.S. ‘Inconclusive’ Intelligence Community Report on COVID-19 Origins ‘Lack of Confidence’: Expert”] The Global Times editorial “U.S. Politicization of COVID-19 Origins Tracing Suffers a Major Setback,” asks, “Why did the U.S. intelligence community fail to even falsify evidence this time? After all, it has done this before.” They point to the “washing powder” which was presented as evidence that Iraq sought to obtain weapons of mass destruction, and U.S. funding the “White Helmets” to make fake videos accusing Syria of using chemical weapons against civilians. But, they assert, “These tricks are indeed hard to implement against China. The COVID-19 origins tracing is a major global issue, and people are all watching. Besides, facing the U.S.’ vicious and slanderous farce, China itself has sufficient capabilities to identify the information, defend itself and make counterattacks.” The editorial strongly protests the claim in the U.S. report that China was “obstructing” the investigation, stating: “Can smearing China stop the Delta variant from raging on in the U.S.? Can it save the more than 600,000 lost lives due to the U.S. government’s ineffective fight against the epidemic?” While some may object that this is “Chinese propaganda,” the facts are clear: China: 122,852 Covid-19 cases; 5,680 deaths U.S.: 38,158,495 Covid-19 cases; 628,456 deaths Recall that China has four times the population of the U.S.. Then, consider that over the past 50 years, the U.S.has systematically taken down its public health system, closing over 1,000 hospitals, while the number of available hospital beds fell from 1.5 million to 900,000. Why was this allowed to happen? Because part of President Nixon’s implementation of fascist economic policies, as exposed by Lyndon LaRouche at the time, was to privatize health care, making Wall Street’s insurance companies, not doctors, the formulators of health policy and the decision-makers for how much treatment would be allowed, based on profitability for stockholders, not the health of the individuals or of the nation. Then consider that in the so-called “developing nations,” under IMF “conditionalities,” even a minimum level of health care has been denied in vast areas of the world. Half of Africa has no electricity, while 800 million people do not have access to clean water. Without electricity and clean water there can be no adequate health care. The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites, founded by Helga Zepp-LaRouche and former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders in 2020, is organizing for every country on Earth to have a modern health care system, as the urgent first step toward the development required to become modern industrial nations. China not only has such a modern health system for its 1.4 billion people, but is doing everything it can to build such systems in the 140 countries which have joined the Belt and Road Initiative, through what they call the Health Silk Road. It is to be hoped that the United States, having begun the process of ending the “endless wars,” will join with Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran and the Central Asian nations, to build Afghanistan, with modern health systems, rail and road connectivity, and other basic infrastructure—and then extend that process throughout the world. That is the necessary task for the human race today.
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