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Date Posted: 13:39:06 11/20/07 Tue
Author: part 2
Subject: Re: November 19, 2007
In reply to: part 1 's message, "November 19, 2007" on 13:32:34 11/20/07 Tue

Now, in other words, that means that when a great artist, a
composer, a poet, who has ennobled himself on the highest
standard, which is what Schiller demands, for that happy moment
of his creation, when he writes a composition, when he writes a
poem, or paints a beautiful painting, then he is in the image of
God, he is a genius, who enlarges the lawfulness of the laws of
the universe, in a lawful way.
So, that requires something else: It requires a notion of
beauty, which is scientific. Well, in the Tenth Letter of these
{Aethetical Letters}, Schiller says, "The pure, rational
conception of beauty, in cases where you can demonstrate such a
concept, because you can not deduce it from the concrete case,
rather it must guide your judgment in respect to every actual
case." So you must have the idea of beauty first, and then find
the concrete example, not the other way around: Not find a
beautiful object, and say, "from that object, I will deduce the
laws of beauty." But in your mind, you must have a scientific
conception first, what is beauty, and then you find it confirmed,
in the beautiful object you find in real life.
Schiller then says, "It must therefore be found through the
method of abstraction, and must be concluded from the possibility
of the sensuous, rational nature of man. In one word, beauty
must be possible as a necessary condition of mankind."
Now, I find that absolutely truthful, because beauty is a
necessary condition of mankind, because whenever man is leaving
beauty and turning to the ugly, he is losing his own humanity and
he is becoming more beastlike.
Schiller perfected the aesthetical idea, which Mendelssohn
and Lessing already had, and basically said that Classical art
can, indeed, ennoble the emotions of man into a universal
lawfulness, and for that, beauty is the necessary condition of
man. And therefore, it has a tremendous consequence when beauty
is lacking: Then mankind degenerates, and the affected
civilization goes under.
Now, just for reference, one big step in that direction was
the Romantic School which completely attacked the Classical form
of art, which was established especially by Schiller, Goethe, and
some others. And you have a direct connection from the Romantic
School of Novalis, of the Schlegel brothers, of Tieck, of E.T.A.
Hoffman, to Nietzsche, Wagner, Carl Schmitt, fascism,
existentialism, the Frankfurt School, and the cult of ugliness in
modern and post-modern art today. Because, the result of the
Romantic school attack on Classical art was to destroy the
Classical form, and to lead to the deconstructionism of today,
which basically says, "everything is possible, nobody can saw a
law; my opinion is as good as any other." And you have the
present decadence as a result.
Now, from all many things I could say about this, let me
just mention one concept, because when Schiller and Goethe went
back to the Greek Classic, they also accepted the idea that the
good, truth, and beauty, are one and the same thing, which is one
of the key concepts of the great Classical Greek tradition. Now,
for example, what Friedrich Schlegel, in particular, did by
making a conscious attack on the Classical ideas of Schiller, he
said that beauty is not necessary, but you can reduce the
beautiful with the interesting. Art does not have to be
beautiful--. Schiller had come to the conclusion, especially
when you read the letters between Schiller and his friend
Koerner, Schiller makes a very convincing argument that art which
is not beautiful is not art. So, against that, Schlegel says:
No, art should be "interesting" and naturally what is
"interesting" today is not "interesting" tomorrow, so it has to
become new, and more interesting all the time.
So, I give you a quote from Schlegel, so you can actually
see what this mindset did. He said, "But everywhere, where the
whole population is not truly educated, there will be vulgar art,
which does not know any other temptation than rough opulence, and
disgusting violence. Even the subject matter changes all the
time, its spirit remains the same--confused flimsiness." And
then further: "A lack of character seems to be the only character
of modern poetry--confusion, the common denominator of its mass;
lawlessness, the spirit of history, its skepticism, the result of
its theory. Basically, it's indifferent against all form, and
only full of greedy search for material. And even the better
part of the audience demands from the artist only 'interesting
individuality.' As long as there is an effect, and that effect
is strong, and new, the form of the subject-matter does not
matter to the audience. But through every pleasure, the appetite
becomes rougher. With every satisfaction, the demand becomes
higher, and the hope for a definite satisfaction becomes more
distant. The new gets old, the rare becomes vulgar, the pricks
of the tempting become dull."
Now, that is what's wrong with modern entertainment,
videogames and similar things. Because they become more vulgar,
more brutal, more ugly, because what is ugly today is boring
tomorrow, and therefore it has to be topped with new ugliness,
new violence.
So, Schlegel then concludes: "The sense of identity gets
weaker, the drive for art becomes less, and the limp sensibility
turns into an upsetting impotence. The weakened taste finally
does not want to accept any foods, other than disgusting
crudities, up to the point that it dies altogether, and ends up
in a decisive zero-ness."
Now, that is exactly what videogames, and Gothic, and
virtual reality identities do to the people who are affected:
They end up in a "decisive zero-ness" as individual. They stop
being creative human beings, and that's generally what is
happening to a very large mass of young people today.
Now therefore, we need to go back to the Classical, and
especially to Schiller's idea of what the standard should be, the
artist is demanding from himself. In a critique of the poems of
a contemporary poet called, Mathisson, he writes: "What should
the standard for the artist be? Because of the extraordinary
effect of art on the audience, the poet must extinguish the
individual in himself and raise himself to the level of the
species, before he can dare to move the audience. That means
that the poet, or the artist, at least for the moment when he
writes poetry or performs, must have ennobled himself to be an
ideal man. Only if, in the moment of writing poetry, or
performing great art, he feels as universal man in this moment,
can he be sure that the entire species will feel with him. To
dare to call himself a poet or an artist at all, he must be
absolutely certain about the effect he causes in the audience,
otherwise he does not deserve that title. The effect in the
audience must also occur freely, and therefore, the subject he
treats must be a universally truthful subject."
So, this is all very important, because in the very
beautiful poem {The Artists}, Schiller says--this is a line from
the poem--"Only through the morning-gate of beauty will you reach
the land of cognition."
So, just to mention it, in Classical art, naturally, there
is also sometimes ugliness discussed. For example, if you read
the poem {The Cranes of Ibykus}, when the Erinyes are coming,
they look like Furies with snakes around their heads, and so
forth, it's also ugliness. But ugliness is never a purpose for
itself. In the case of this poem of {The Cranes of Ibykus},
Schiller uses the ugliness to bring about the feeling of
eeriness, to have a metaphor for the presence of the deity, of
the supernatural, for that which causes man to recognize that
there is natural law, and it's not used as a purpose in itself.
So, the ugly and the dreadful is never used for its own sake, but
only to create a prescience of the supernatural in man.
Okay, Lyn, in his recent paper about the violent extremes,
makes one important argument, namely that there is the absolute,
crucial difference in man as being part of the Noosphere, in the
meaning of Vernadsky, that the mental activity, the cognition of
man, is becoming an active part of the development of the
universe, and all other living species. That the animals can
never change the basis of their life-expectancy, mode of life,
and so forth, because they belong to the Biosphere. And that
man, being the only individual which is capable of cognitive
identity, which enables him to make discoveries of universal
principles, and therefore, man is the only species which is able
to effect the relative potential population density of its own
species, by up to a level of more than 6.5 billion people on the
planet today, that was only possible because man could discover
universal principles, which then, because the natural resources
are depleted at each level of development, at each level of
science and technology, but man is then capable of developing new
principles which are called "science and technological progress,"
which then define new raw materials, and that way, man can affect
the circumstances of his own place in the universe.
If you now have literally hundreds of millions of people who
deny their creativity by playing autistic videogames, and by
having a virtual identity, well, if we do not change that, it's
already scientifically certain that the population potential of
the planet would collapse from the present 6.5 billion to maybe 2
billion or 1 billion or even less.
So, I think this problem with the virtual reality of
cyberspace is not just a "taste," not something one can like or
not like, but it is really threatening the planet, no less than
an epidemic like AIDS or other mortal diseases. So therefore,
you should really understand the extreme importance of the
science work the LYM is doing, the work on Plato, on Kepler, on
Cusa, on Gauss, the work on Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert;
the absolute importance to occupy yourself with beautiful poetry,
with poems which have a lyrical quality, because lyrical poems in
particular, are training that part of your emotional ability
which is that which creates metaphor, that which goes above
pragmatic, obvious understandings. But the lyrical fineness of
the human soul, the ability to say things which have not been
thought of before, that is what means "progress in mankind,"
because it's the same faculty of the mind as that which makes the
scientific discovery. That is why it is so extremely important
to look at the great Classical dramas, the historical dramas, why
it is important to compare Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, with
the great Shakespeare and Schiller, because you can see why Plato
was advising children not to watch the great tragedians, simply
because they are so cruel, and they still do not yet have the
resolution on the level of the Sublime.
But basically, I think you should all make a solemn
commitment that you are the people who have to create a movement
in all of Ibero-America among the youth, against mental slavery,
because that is what the virtual world of cyberspace really does;
and create a movement for beauty and creativity, and then, we
hopefully will have a much better future, and a Renaissance,
which makes a world worthy to have human beings to live in and be
human.


NEWS SUMMARIES

LAROUCHE

HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE ADDRESSES ARGENTINA LYM CADRE SCHOOL, on
the subject of "Republic or Empire: Creativity or
Counterculture." (See below for transcript of her opening
remarks)

LYNDON LAROUCHE REMARKED THAT THE BRITISH AND CHENEYACS ARE
OUT TO MAKE PAKISTAN A FAILED STATE, as can be seen in the
insanity of the Negroponte deployment to that country. (See slug)

RENTERS, NOT JUST HOMEOWNERS, ARE BEING HIT BY A FORECLOSURE
`EXPLOSION,' which is exacly where the HBPA comes into play,
LaRouche commented yesterday. (See slug)

ECONOMICS

THE ONGOING DOLLAR SYSTEM COLLAPSE IS NOTED IN THE
MAINSTREAM PRESS. (See slug)

PROPERTY TAX DEFAULTS SOAR to record highs in Miami-Dade and
Broward counties in Florida. (see slug)

FORMER DANISH P.M. RASMUSSEN DENOUNCES CAPITAL FUNDS as a
menace to society. (See slug)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

LOST IN SPACE: The U.S. won't have a manned space vehicle
between 2010 and 2015. (See slug)

INDIA PUTS MARS MISSION INTO ITS SPACE PLAN. (See slug)

UNITED STATES

`HOW TO FIND ONLINE FRIENDS' is one of the central elements
of the cover feature in the U.S.'s largest Sunday magazine,
Parade, Nov. 18, The piece deals with the e-economy, including
pushing MySpace and Facebook. No mention, of course, of the
mayhem being carried out by way of these evil British tools.

DAVID WALKER IS AT IT AGAIN. Comptroller of the Currency
David Walker, whom LaRouche took to task for his genocidal
``sleight of hand'' back in March of this year, is currently
touring the U.S. as part of a ``Fiscal Awareness'' roadshow,
which also includes representatives of the Concord Coalition,
Brookings, and the Heritage Foundation. The roadshow's
objective--dramatization of the need for cuts in entitlements
--is even more dangerous and absurd than it was then.

EUROPE

FRIENDS OF LAROUCHE IN BELGIUM INTERVENE TO STOP THE
COUNTRY'S BREAK-UP. (See slug)

ASIA

KOREA ADMITS TO A MASSIVE PROBLEM OF WEB ADDICITON AMONG
YOUTH, with cases reported of kids literally dropping dead of
exhaustion after playing online video games non-stop for days on
end. (See slug)


LEADING DEVELOPMENTS

Korea Admits to Massive Web Addict Problem; What About You?

A front-page feature in the Sunday New York Times, "In Korea, a
Boot Camp Cure for Web Obsession," reports on a new government-
funded rehab camp that has been set up in Korea for young addicts
to the web and computer games. The horror picture it paints is as
follows:
"South Korea boasts of being the most wired nation on
earth... Ninety percent of homes connect to cheap, high-speed
broadband... Social life for the young revolves around the `PC
bank,' dim internet parlors that sit on practically every street
corner."
Korea has millions of young addicts to the web, with about
30% of youth under 18, about 2.4 million people, being "at risk
of Internet addiction." The classical signs of addiction are
described as: "inability to stop themselves from using computers,
rising levels of tolerance that drive them to seek ever longer
sessions online, and withdrawal symptoms like anger and craving
when provented from logging on."
Sound familiar?
The article describes the case of addicts who "cannot tear
themselves away from their computer screens... [Some] users
started dropping dead from exhaustion after playing online games
for days on end."
One case study is recounted, of a 15 year-old addict at the
rehab boot camp who had been spending 17 hours a day online,
including playing a computer game called "Sudden Attack," which
he often played all night and then skipped school the next day.
This is the only reference in the article to the issue of
violent video games, which LPAC has repeatedly documented as
being at the center of the wave of induced youth homicide/suicide
rampages which is spreading across the world, through such
criminal enterprises as MySpace and Facebook.
The Times reports that at the Korean rehab camp, the youth
"follow a rigorous regimen of physical exercise and group
activities, like horseback riding, aimed at building emotional
connections to the real world and weakening those with the
virtual one. `It is most important to provide them experience of
a life-style without the Internet,' said Lee Yun-hee, a
counselor. `Young Koreans don't know what this is like.'|"
The Times article reports that Korea may be the most extreme
case, but it is not alone, citing Dr. Jerold Block, a
psychiatrist at Oregon Health and Science University, who
"estimates that up to nine million Americans may be at risk for
the disorder, which he calls pathological computer use." [dns]

LaRouche: British and Cheneyacs Are Out to Make Pakistan a Failed
State

Nov. 18 (LPAC)--U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte
flew to Pakistan yesterday, to pressure Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf to revoke the state of emergency in effect since
Nov. 3, and resign as head of the Army. In what the Washington
Post described as a "tense two-hour meeting," Negroponte warned
Musharraf that if he doesn't comply, U.S. military aid could be
cut.
Negroponte also spoke three times by phone with opposition
leader Benazir Bhutto, and met with Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, the
deputy army commander--which the Post suggested was a sign that
the U.S. is looking for a leader to replace Musharraf.
"You're trying to turn Pakistan into a failed state," Lyndon
LaRouche warned yesterday. "The British are trying to do it, and
dumb Americans are going along with the enterprise."
"There's no ability to clean up the Pakistani situation by
internal resources there," LaRouche elaborated. "Because Pakistan
depended on the income from the production of cotton goods in
Bangladesh, the secession of Bangladesh meant that that game was
over. The country is essentially a crippled country. It was made
so by a combination of British and other kinds of things.
"So what you have to do, is you have to take it easy on this
kind of stuff, because you're just going to create another mess.
Do you want another failed state on your hands? You talk about
stopping terrorism, and yet you're creating failed states. What
in the hell do you think you're doing?" LaRouche argued.
"Dick Cheney should just be thrown out, and we'd have one
less problem," LaRouche proposed. "Instead of throwing out
Musharraf, why don't we throw out Cheney? Before we throw out
Musharraf, let's throw out Cheney first. Let's show them how it's
done! And if it bothers Nancy Pelosi, she can take a gentle
retirement to ease her discomfort."
Cheney et al's insane intention vis-a-vis Pakistan was
reflected in a Washington Post op-ed on Nov. 18 by Fred Kagan of
the American Enterprise Institute and Michael O'Hanlon of the
Brookings Institution, whcih carried the kicker: "The U.S. might
have to send troops to secure nuclear weapons." Kagan and
O'Hanlon argue that the U.S. needs to think about how to
militarily secure Pakistan's nuclear arsenal with the cooperation
of pro-Western forces inside the Pakistani military. Kagan, it
will be remembered, is the author of the Bush/Cheney surge plan
for Iraq, which was designed to sabotage the Baker-Hamilton
diplomatic proposals. O'Hanlon has recently co-authored a scheme
to partition Iraq into three pieces. [cjo/dns]

Renters Blindsided by Foreclosures `Explosion'

Nov. 18 (LPAC)--Tens of thousands of renters in houses whose
owners have defaulted on their mortgages, have been evicted
because of foreclosures -- without ever missing a rental payment
-- and are scrambling to find a place to live. This "explosion"
was triggered by speculators who overleveraged themselves, with
the renters as "collateral damage," a lawyer at the Massachusetts
Law Reform Institute told the New York Times.
Lyndon LaRouche responded to these reports by noting: "This
is exactly where my HBPA legislation comes in to play. They are
paying rent; they're living in the house; and they're being
evicted. That's not permissible. That's {exactly} where the HBPA
comes in. The non-owner occupied cases, where the rent is being
paid, in particular, illuminates the characteristic of the entire
situation," LaRouche explained.
The New York Times article reports that one in eight
foreclosures nationwide was for homes non-owner-occupied,
according to a survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association, which
acknowledges that this figure likely underestimates the problem.
Several states with high foreclosure rates have a much greater
percentage of defaults for homes not owner-occupied, showing how
wild the real estate speculative frenzy was during the past few
years.
In Nevada, where the foreclosure rate is one of the highest
in the nation, 28% of mortgages in default were for homes not
owner-occupied. Arizona and Florida, both near the top in
foreclosures, are also well above the national average. In
California, 22% of residential properties lost to foreclosure
this year were not owner-occupied, according to
ForeclosureRadar.com. [ajt]

ECONOMICS AND FINANCE

Dollar System Collapse Noted in U.S. Financial Press

Nov. 18 (LPAC)--The ongoing breakdown of the global dollar-
denominated financial system was covered, belatedly, and
incompletely, by the mainstream press. "For the first time, the
dollar's monopoly as the world's dominant reserve currency is
under threat," read a Bloomberg News wire in the Washington Post.
The article cited the falling share of dollar holdings in
central banks' currency portfolios, to 64.8% in the second
quarter of this year, down from 71% in 1999. Recent examples
showing that the "flight from the dollar is feeding on itself,"
include Iraq and South Korea. Merrill Lynch had a particularly
dissociated "take" on the problem, estimating that an additional
$1.2 trillion in dollar holdings will shift to other currencies
in the next five years. "That's utter nonsense," Lyndon LaRouche
commented. "These guys talk about five years; they have {no idea}
of what's going on."
The Bloomberg wire went on to report that China had
"triggered a recent stampede out of the dollar." Yet it failed to
mention the U.S. Senate's culpability for the crisis by its
China-bashing, as Lyndon LaRouche has emphasized.
Separately, six Gulf Arab states, most of whose currencies
are pegged to the dollar, will jointly discuss a proposal to
revalue their currencies in December, {Bloomberg} reported.
Venezuela backed an Iranian proposal to add the group's concern
over the falling dollar to a summit declaration, but the Saudi
Arabian Foreign Minister rejected it, on the grounds that the
mere mention of the problem could trigger a stampede out of the
dollar--which is probably true. [ajt]

More Foreclosures Will Be Stopped

Nov. 18 (LPAC)--Federal Judge Dan A. Polster, in Cleveland,
expects more foreclosure cases to be dismissed in federal court,
including from his own docket, he told the {Plain Dealer}.
Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis added, "as long as we live
in a republic," lenders seeking to foreclose "can't run roughshod
over the rights of the citizens." The district court has about
1,000 pending foreclosure cases, and is on track to have 1,200
for the year. Five years ago, it handled fewer than a dozen a
year. [ajt]

Unpaid Property Taxes Soar to Record Highs in Two Major Florida
Counties

Nov. 18 (LPAC)--As speculators are unable to "flip" condo units,
and homeowners face mounting foreclosures, or find it impossible
make lump-sum tax payments on mortgages that did not have escrow
accounts, the total unpaid amount on property taxes in Florida's
Miami-Dade and Broward counties rose to a record high $365
million. As Lyndon LaRouche warned weeks ago, the blowout of the
real estate market is now rapidly escalating and hitting
municipal budgets hard.
In Miami-Dade County, 41,544 residential property owners --
one of every 16 households -- failed to pay their 2006 property
taxes. This represents an increase of 41% from the year before,
according to county tax data. In Broward, the number jumped 54%
to 29,962 -- about one per 21 households. [ajt]

Former Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen Blasts Capital Funds As a
Menace to Society

Nov. 18--Former Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen nailed
Deutsche Industriebank (IKB) director Robert Splid to the wall on
the question of regulating capital funds, in a TVNEWS discussion
on Danish television last night.
Rasmussen, who is known for demanding regulation of hedge
funds and capital funds, attacked Splid, saying that the capital
funds are drowning companies in debt and that companies which
have been touched by the finger of capital funds fall back,
ruined. He said that capital funds only pay taxes on what they
choose to register, not what their actually income is, and that
this violates even local city laws.
Poul Nyrup Rasmussen is President of the Party of European
Socialists, and has just published a book entitled {The Time of
Greed}, attacking capital funds. He is known to crack a friendly
smile when he hears about Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas for a New
Bretton Woods financial architecture. [sj]

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

`Lost in Space': No U.S. Manned Space Vehicle Between 2010 and
2015

Nov. 18--Don't make any space travel plans between 2010 and 2015
because there won't be anything to fly in--at least, not an
American vehicle, as things now stand. Only a crash program, and
an additional $2 billion, will close the gap between the
retirement of the Shuttle and flight of NASA's new manned
vehicle, NASA head Michael Griffin told a Senate hearing Nov. 15.
As it now stands, the U.S. will not be able to transport
astronauts to the space station (or anywhere else), from
September 2010 until March 2015. The U.S. will be entirely
dependent upon Russia to take astronauts to the station. Griffin
has called this gap "unseemly in the extreme," and "unwise
strategically."
Through the bipartisan efforts of Senators Barbara Mikulski
(D-MD) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), the Senate voted a $1
billion increase for NASA's FY08 budget, but that is unlikely to
make it through conference with the House, which did not do so.
At the hearing, Hutchison asked the NASA Associate Administrator
for Exploration Systems, Richard Gilbrech, how much money the
agency would need to shave 18 months off the schedule. With an
additional $1 billion each in 2009 and 2010, he said, it would be
technically achievable. [mgf]

India Puts Mars Mission Into Its Space Plans

Nov. 18 (LPAC)--Egged on by recent Chinese space developments,
Indian officials announced Friday, and reaffirmed yesterday, that
in its 11th Space Plan, the Indian Space Research Organization
(ISRO) includes a mission to Mars. China is sending a small
satellite to orbit Mars, which will piggyback on the Russian
Phobos-Grunt mission in 2009.
India will launch an unmanned satellite to the Moon this
Spring, and has said it would continue its lunar exploration
program. But looking further ahead, J.N. Goswami, director of the
Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmadabad, told the {Times of
India} on Nov. 17 that, ``the logical extension after the Moon,
is Mars. Our plan envisages imaging Mars only through an
orbiter''; a lander is not in the current plan. He added that if
the project receives final approval, ``India will carry out
scientific activities on Mars in the international context.''
ISRO chairman G. Madhaven Nair explained that while the cost of a
Mars mission will be orders of magnitude more than the lunar
mission, ``Mars is emerging on our horizon.'' [mgf]

EUROPE

Friends of LaRouche in Belgium Intervene To Stop the Country's
Break-Up

BRUSSELS, Nov. 18--At the initiative of a simple Belgian woman
from Liege, 35,000 Belgians, Flemings, Walloons, and
German-speakers, altogether took to the streets this morning in
Brussels to march in favor of national unity, singing, draped in
flags. The call for the demo was announced in Brussels' {Le Soir}
and the Liege paper {La Derniere Heure}. Despite the fact that
the Flemish media blacked out the information till this morning,
many Flemings joined the Walloons, proving that the extremists
are only a tiny handful. Banners were all about unity, and the
King was only vaguely mentioned as a symbol of unity. People were
really happy when we told them we had made the trip from Paris to
support the demo and that "if Belgium breaks up, France will face
serious problems of the same type with the Bretons, Corsicans,
Savoyards, and Alsace Lorraine." A Belgian architect, together
with Karel and three Paris LYM members distributed 3,500 copies
of a special leaflet written in both Flemish and French. The
leaflet, featuring Freddy Heineken's 1992 map of Europe chopped
into 75 pieces, drove the point home that this is not a Belgian
problem among angry neighbors, but a manic political break-up
scenario pushed by Britain's {The Economist} and the Dutch
Heineken cartel. "The notes of these musical scores were already
written in Leopold Kohr's 1947 book {The Breakdown of Nations}."
On the break-up scenario, one older worker from Gent said
that he lived close to the cemetery where Flemish Nazi
collaborators were buried. "Those still alive are pushing for
Flemish independence, I will fight them till my last day!" he
said. Another left Flemish told us "Independent Flanders will be
ruled by the fascist Vlaams Blok! No way!" Many people, when we
asked if they wanted the leaflet in French or Flemish, joked,
"You can give me one in German, Spanish or English--we all speak
five or six languages at home." Angry at being treated like
animals and put in boxes, people were living this mass experience
of being willing to live together which recalled the very moving
"White March" demonstrations, when Belgians took to the streets
to denounce the corrupt judicial and political apparatus
protecting child rapist Dutroux.
After unmasking the string pullers, the leaflet titled,
"Long Live a Free Belgium" (recalling de Gaulle's "Long Live a
Free Quebec"), says that to solve the problem, this insane plan
has to be widely exposed. The leaflet then calls on the new
Belgium to join LaRouche and Cheminade in rebuilding the world
economy with a New Bretton Woods and FDR-style infrastructure
investments. (kav)

SOUTHWEST ASIA

Iran Is Not Stoking the Violence in Iraq--But Don't Expect That
to Stop Cheney's Drive for War

Nov. 17 (LPAC)--Iran has actually helped reduce the levels of
violence in Iraq, according to Iraqi government spokesman Ali
al-Dabbagh, in a lunch with reporters in Baghdad on Saturday. He
said Iran has reduced the flow of weapons to the Shi'ite militias
and was responsible for reining in Moqtada al Sadr.
In a similar vein, national security columnist Gareth Porter
reported in his column on antiwar.com, that the U.S. efforts to
use Iranians captured in Iraq to build a case that the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards were stoking the violence in Iraq, have come
to nought. "None of the six Iranians now held by the U.S.
military has provided any evidence for the administration's case,
despite many months of very tough interrogation usually employed
on `high value' detainees," writes Porter.
But don't expect mere facts, such as these, to get in the
way of Cheney and Co.'s drive for war with Iran. The only way to
stop the planned war, is to launch impeachment proceedings
against Cheney immediately. [cjo]

ASIA

Dr. Mahathir Calls for a Peaceful Resolution of the U.S.-Iran
Conflict

Nov. 18 (LPAC)--Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, the outspoken ex-premier of
Malaysia who is currently recovering from heart surgery,
yesterday urged world leaders to unite in promoting a peaceful
resolution to the United States-Iran dispute. Malaysia's New
Straits Times newspaper quotes from his statement:
"After the devastation in Iraq, one would have thought that
war as an option to resolve international disputes would be
rejected, except as a last resort or in self defence."
He went on to say that millions of Iraqi citizens had been
killed, displaced as refugees, or had suffered torture. "The
alleged crime, for which the world's citizens are called in to
support, is that Iran is producing nuclear weapons.
"Now, despite statements by the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) that there is no evidence of Iran embarking on any
nuclear programme, war mongering nations are once again claiming
otherwise and demanding this to be an excuse for war."
"Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown has (said) Britain
will support and lead the war against Iran, while US President
George W. Bush and vice-president Dick Cheney are equally ...
belligerent in calling for a war against Iran. ... Are we to
condone the mass killings of innocent civilians because of the
folly and blood lust of their government leaders as was the case
in World Wars One and Two?
"Let us not repeat the century of killings and mass murders
of the innocent. Peace and peaceful resolutions must prevail."
[mob/ron]

*** END OF BRIEFING ***

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