VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [6], 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 09:08:44 11/12/07 Mon
Author: briefing
Subject: November 12, 2007

ICLC BRIEFING INTERNATIONAL VERSION

[A7-46-1/BFG001]:BFG:L: [07/11/11][06: ]AM BRIEFING
STAND:[0.1.00/ ][1.1.00/ ][3.4.10/ ] [24: ]STR STUDIES
SUBJT:[5.1.03/ ][3.1.03/ ][ . . / ] [21: ]ECO-FIN
TOPIC:[060.000 :AM BRIEFING ]
SUB-T:[061.000 :AM BRIEFING, ENGLISH ]
TITLE:[BRIEFING FOR NOVEMBER 12 2007 ] 1 of Pages

SYNOPSIS:

TO: ALL POINTS BY: NANCY SPANNAUS/DAVID CHERRY
RE: BRITISH GREAT GAME. U.S. SELF-DESTRUCT.

+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| |
| MORNING BRIEFING |
| |
| Monday, November 12, 2007 |
| |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+


THE END OF OUR DELUSION:
BREAK FROM THE BRITISH EMPIRE!

We cannot afford to tolerate the delusion that the United States,
and humanity, can survive, without immediately moving to replace
the bankrupt, collapsed, current world monetary system, along the
lines proposed by Lyndon LaRouche and his political movement, for
another day. The crisis itself is impelling people toward
accepting LaRouche's proposals, especially as the dynamic of mass
organizing by the LYM and LPAC accelerates. But, our leading
political institutions are still caught in the grip of British
Imperial thinking--and driving the United States toward
self-destruction.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the case of the financial
blowout, which was nowhere reflected in major media coverage and
commentary Nov. 11. After the dramatic collapse of the dollar,
rise in oil prices, declarations of bankruptcy, etc., etc., this
last week, the boys in the back room decided this was ``not
news.'' So, they are whistling past the graveyard--while rushing
to follow in the footsteps of Germany 1923, by pumping money out
in unprecedented amounts. Remember the praying mantis image? This
is self-destruction.

We will be directly challenging this ``thought control''
this week, with the circulation of Lyn's statement that the
Dollar System Has Collapsed, in 300,000 copies. This should go
out rapidly, in shock-wave fashion. It's been shipped on both
coasts, and should be arriving starting today. To back it up, we
should heavily use the Oct. 10 webcast pamphlet--and the Platform
book.

On the strategic front, the British geo-political drive to
get us to self-destruct is in full swing. (See Jeff Steinberg's
article for the coming EIR for an updated conceptual review of
the crises being provoked.) The leading fronts are now Pakistan
and Iran, but the playbook is what Lyn has been pointing to for
years: perpetual war, to permit the Globalized Imperium to
maintain control. It is the British who are orchestrating both
the Pakistan and Iran crises, and the players, such as the
ambitious opportunist Benazir Bhutto, and Condi Rice, the most
unpopular Secretary of State since Al Haig, are simply playing
their assigned parts.

Our job is to transform the political environment, so that
the American people can throw off this British imperial control.
The change will occur {in their minds}, as we get them to
understand themselves as actors in the long-wave drama of a
``transformation from the form of human cattle recognized as
persons who are merely voters, to those who think and act as true
citizens of a republic like our own.''


- IMPORTANT CORRECTION -

LAROUCHE: ``I AM ABSOLUTELY NOT RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT!''

Nov. 11--Lyndon LaRouche issued the following statement today, in
urgent correction to the Nov. 11 briefing lead: ``I [am] working,
as head of LPAC, on behalf of protecting the institution of the
Presidency, while not only stating that I am not a candidate, but
why I am not a candidate.''

- ARCANA -

SUBJ: ASSIGNED READING!
November 11, 2007 (3:54pm) EST

- GORE INTERVEWED -

Al Gore enthusiast Ichaboda Scratch told reporters today:
"The reason I'm supporting Al Gore for President is that I know
he's the strongest of all the possible candidates."
"Is it because he is able to carry all that weight?" one of
the reporters asked.
"Well," she said, "I asked him, and he told me personally
that he walks back and forth to the Moon twice a day."

- 30-30-30 -


NEWS SUMMARIES

- ECONOMICS -

TREASURY GOING AHEAD WITH MLEC INSANITY. (See slug)

DANISH BANKER: `FINANCIAL MARKETS HAVE HAD A STROKE' (See
slug)

DODD'S `SOLUTION' TO BREAKDOWN CRISIS: WEIMAR GERMANY 1923
(See slug)

{TELEGRAPH} FEARS TIME FOR GOVERNMENTS IS BACK? That's the
implication of an article by Edmund Conway entitled ``West's
credit crunch born when Berlin Wall fell.'' The article reviews
how the domination of the world economy by ``private
corporations'' since the early 1990s, has brought disaster,
particularly in Asia, and is now being reversed, especially by
actions of China and Russia. [nbs]

- SCI-TECH -

CHINA MAKES PROGRESS ON ITS SATELLITE TO MARS. (See slug)

- UNITED STATES -

CONDI SAYS BUSH CAN DO WHAT HE WANTS VIS-A-VIS IRAN, or any
place else, for that matter. (see slug)

PAKISTAN CRISIS DOMINATES U.S. ESTABLISHMENT MEDIA. (See
slug)

GEORGE WILL FORECASTS NEW `CURVEBALL' COMING ON IRAN. (See
slug)

- IBERO-AMERICA -

Turmoil in Venezuela over Chavez's Constitutional Reform
(See slug)

- SOUTHWEST ASIA -

CHANCELLOR MERKEL CONTINUES TO CALL FOR DIPLOMATIC EFFORT
AGAINST IRAN NUCLEAR PROGRAM. (See slug)

THE WHITE HOUSE IS REPORTEDLY `LOSING PATIENCE' WITH BRITISH
PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN BECAUSE HE HAS FAILED TO PUBLICLY
DECLARE (CONTRARY TO HIS PRIVATE STATEMENTS) THAT IRAN MUST NEVER
BE ALLOWED TO HAVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS. "Allies of Condoleezza Rice,
the U.S. Secretary of State, have told {The Sunday Telegraph}
that the Prime Minister should emulate France's President Nicolas
Sarkozy and warn that Iran may face military action, in order to
help avert a new war in the Middle East." (Telegraph.com)

THEY'RE AT IT AGAIN: GETTING THE INTELLIGENCE THAT FITS THE
PLAN. (See slug)

HALEVY TO WASHINGTON POST: ISRAEL SHOULD TALK TO IRAN AND
SYRIA. (See slug)

LEBANON GOVERNMENT DEADLOCKED, AS ISRAEL AND HEZBOLLAH
PREPARE FOR A NEW WAR. (See slug)

- SOUTH AND EAST ASIA -

BENAZIR BHUTTO ZIG-ZAGS WITH PREVAILING WINDS TO GAIN POWER
IN PAKISTAN. (See slug)


ECONOMICS AND FINANCE

Treasury Going Ahead with MLEC Insanity

Nov. 11 (LPAC)--According to a leak from the banking community
published in today's New York Times, officials for the U.S.'s
three largest banks--Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan
Chase--reached agreement Nov. 9 on a $75 billion fund, the MLEC
fund, to allegedly help ``stabilize credit markets.'' In fact,
MLEC has been declared ``dead on arrival'' by most international
banks, and is comes at a point when the Structured Investment
Vehicles the fund is supposed to help, have already begun to be
unloaded at deep discounts.
In a statement Nov. 8, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson
acknowledged that the proposed fund, which is supposed to start
soliciting contributions this coming week, will not rescue any
institutions, but only lead to what the Times characterized as
``a longer and more orderly demise.'' [nbs]

Danish Banker: `Financial Markets Have Had a Stroke'

COPENHAGEN, Nov. 12--On eve of the Danish elections, the
president of the largest Danish bank says that "the international
financial markets have had a stroke."
Peter Straarup, CEO of The Danish Bank, the largest in
Denmark, said in an interview in Berlingske Tidende today,
referring to the international financial crisis, "Many of the
investments have become very construed, and mathematically based
on the probability that there will be a default in specific stock
or bond indexes. They have removed themselves from reality. When
losses came, the market turned against the very construed [sic]
mechanisms, and it had snowball effect [literally self-
amplifying effect]. The money market suffered a `stroke.' That is
really what happened."
Berlingske continues, "The stroke has sent until now unseen
eruptions through the financial system, and has also sent The
Danish Bank's stocks on a violent rollercoaster ride -- even
though the big bank apparently does not have losses from American
homeowners."
These statements only confirm the statements from the
chairman of the Danish Schiller Institute, Tom Gillesberg, and
the other three Schiller Institute activists who are candidates
in Tuesday's parliamentary elections, who have brought the issue
of the international financial collapse into the election
campaign. [mr_]

Dodd's `Solution' to Breakdown Crisis: Weimar Germany 1923

Nov. 11 (LPAC)--Asked by ABC correspondent George Stephanopoulos
about the ongoing economic crisis, and what can be done about it,
Senator Chris Dodd, Rohatyn buddy and head of the Senate Banking
Committee, bemoaned the lack of mortgage ``workouts'' and the
high price of oil and gas, before he got to the point.
``Liquidity, liquidity, liquidity here. We're trying to get
the administration to recognize that lifting the portfolio limits
of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would do an awful lot more here.''
Dodd's proposal, commented Lyndon LaRouche, amounts to the
Weimar Germany 1923 solution--hyperinflation. Given the level of
historical ignorance in the United States, it's possible Dodd
didn't know what he was saying. In that case, he simply has to
listen to LaRouche. [nbs]

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

China Makes Progress on Its Satellite to Mars

Nov. 11 (LPAC)--China's National Space Administration (CNSA) is
readying the small satellite that will be launched on the Russian
Phobos-Grunt (soil) mission to Mars in 2009, Zhang Wei, director
of CNSA's external affairs department reported Nov. 7 at a Summit
Forum of Space Technologies. China's satellite will orbit the red
planet for a year, making measurements of the external
environment of Mars, while the Russians will send a lander to
Mars' moon Phobos, and attempt to return some of the small body's
soil to Earth. Phobos-Grunt is scheduled to arrive at Mars in the
Spring of 2010, after an eight-month journey, and the addition of
the Chinese satellite is a product of a Russia-China space
agreement signed last March.
China must upgrade its deep-space tracking system to be able
to monitor the spacecraft at Mars, and to communicate with it
when it is millions of miles from the Earth. By comparison,
communications with its Chang'e lunar orbiter only must reach a
quarter of a million miles. [mgf]

UNITED STATES

Pakistan Crisis Dominates U.S. Establishment Media

Nov. 11 (LPAC)--The news and opinion pages of both the New York
Times and the Washington Post were dominated on Sunday, Nov. 11,
by the ``issue'' of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's
declaration of national emergency, but shed absolutely no light
on the subject.
* Both papers led their op-ed sections with huge features on
the Pakistani bomb, and whether it's in danger of falling into
the hands of Islamic extremists.
* The Washington Post editorializes that ``The General Must
Go,'' because ``Musharraf has become an obstacle to U.S.
interests in Pakistan--and to Pakistan's interests as well.''
* Senior Washington Post editorial writer Jim Hoagland pens
an op-ed entitled ``Musharraf Goes Splat,'' which claims that
Musharraf still has the backing of the Pakistani army, but that
he is about to lose control. He reviews the country's history
without a word about the British role in setting it up for
disaster.
* The New York Times runs a news article profiling Benazir
Bhutto as an ``imperious'' and corrupt leader, who is a dubious
figure to depend on to pull the country together. [nbs]

George Will Forecasts New `Curveball' Coming on Iran

Nov. 11 (LPAC)--In a surprisingly sensible column in today's
Washington Post, George Will reviews the fight that took place in
the U.S. intelligence community over the Iraq defector code-named
``Curveball,'' whose reports on Saddam Hussein's program of WMD
formed a major support for the Bush Administration's drive to
war. Will takes his report from a recent book ``Curveball'' by
Bob Drogin of the Los Angeles Times.
Will's point amounts to a warning: It was not
``Curveball's'' lies which caused the war, but the attitudes of
the people who wanted to go to war, who used him. Will concludes
by saying that the situation is analogous to that with Iran
today, where claims that Iran is near completing its nuclear
weapons program will be used to justify ``preventive military
action'' because the policymakers want that war.
Will does {not} mention that the prime political player in
the Administration who will push bogus intelligence to justify
war, as he did before the Iraq war, is Dick Cheney, now an object
of pending impeachment proceedings in the House Judiciary
Committee, for precisely these reasons. [nbs]

IBERO-AMERICA

Venezuelan Turmoil over Chavez's Proposed Constitutional Reform

Nov. 6 (EIRNS)--The stage is set for total political upheaval in
Venezuela. The Constitutional Reform proposed by President Hugo
Chavez has reignited the opposition's quest to overthrow his
government, and a showdown is looming before the date of the Dec.
2 referendum called to approve or reject the reforms. Student
demonstrations opposing the referendum turned violent this week,
and more were scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 10.
The opposition represents no sane alternative to this
situation, as nothing it proposes reflects any concern for the
general welfare of a population victimized by this financial
upheaval. Now former Defense Minister Gen. Raul Baduel has jumped
onto the stage, calling for a vote against Chavez's reforms,
which has caused a rupture within the "chavista" camp. Baduel was
the key officer responsible for bringing Chavez back to power
during the 2002 coup.
The problem is that by his heavy-handed action, Chavez is
giving Cheney and his allies in the region the pretext they need
to create chaos in the region, and to sabotage the anti-IMF and
pro-integration moves which have been aggressively backed and
funded by the Chavez government in Ibero-America, such as the
Bank of the South, and the recently inaugurated pipeline between
Colombia and Venezuela.
The reform that Chavez has promoted since early this year
drastically changes what is called "The Geometry of Power." It
creates the "commune" as "the social cell of the territory," made
up of the communities which would constitute "the basic and
indivisible territorial core of the Socialist Venezuelan State."
It gives the President, instead of municipalities or governors,
across-the-board powers to create economic programs and manage
federal funds.
The opposition has no solid base, but can feed off the
political and financial turmoil created in the country as a
result of Chavez's own policies. Observers in Caracas have told
{EIR} there is tremendous popular unrest due to acute scarcity of
such basic goods as milk and meat, and price increases due to a
run on the price of the black-market dollar, despite the
existence of formal exchange controls. Producers of milk and
ground corn--a basic staple in Venezuela--have sharply curtailed
investment this year, purportedly because of the "uncertain"
future of private property expressed in Chavez's reform. [drr]

SOUTHWEST ASIA

Chancellor Merkel Continues to Call for Diplomatic Effort Against
Iran Nuclear Program

Nov. 11 (LPAC)--At a Saturday press conference following two days
of talks at U.S. President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel continued to publicly press for
diplomatic measures as the way to deal with Iran's nuclear
program. She said that she agrees with Bush about the seriousness
of Iran gaining nuclear weapons, but said they agreed to rely on
diplomacy, and that a third U.N. Security Council resolution was
the next step if the so-far-unsuccessful talks between Iran and
the European Union do not advance. She said they also agreed that
if reports by the IAEA remain unsatisfactory, further sanctions
should be considered. She also said Germany will have to look
again at reducing business ties with Iran. Perhaps conscious of
his role as a good host, Bush abandoned threats and talk of World
War III, and assured the assembled reporters that he is committed
to using diplomacy in dealing with Iran. (grc)

They're At It Again: Getting the Intelligence That Fits the Plan

Nov. 11 (LPAC)--The {Observer} reports, citing an interview with
a private contractor doing interrogations in Iraq, that the U.S.
military is putting huge pressure on the interrogators to find
incriminating evidence pointing to Iran. The contractor denies
having been asked to fake intelligence, but pointedly notes, "But
if a detainee wants to tell me what I want to hear so he can get
out of jail ... you know what I'm saying." [Ellipsis in article.]
The article says that military intelligence officials refused to
comment, but quoted one that, "The message is, `Got to find a
link with Iran, got to find a link with Iran.' It's sickening."
(grc)

Lebanon Government Deadlocked, as Israel and Hezbollah Prepare
for a New War

Nov. 11 (LPAC)--The Speaker of Lebanon's parliament announced
that the country's presidential elections have been postponed for
a third time, to Nov. 21, in order, he said, to find a compromise
candidate acceptable to both the Western-backed government and
opposition groups backed by Syria. Incumbent President Emile
Lahoud is scheduled to leave office on November 24, and plans to
appoint an interim administration headed by the chief of the
army, if his successor has not been chosen. It is reported that
Pope Benedict, describing Lebanon's presidential election as
crucial to the nation's survival, called on leaders there to set
aside their personal interests for the sake of the common good.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, reportedly
stated that recent Israeli military exercises near the Lebanese
border were in preparation for a new war on Lebanon. He warned
the Israelis against such an effort, repeating recent statements
of other officials of his organization, that Hezbollah's recent
military maneuvers in south Lebanon were in preparation for an
Israeli invasion. (grc)

Halevy to Washington Post: Israel Should Talk to Iran and Syria

Nov. 11 (LPAC)--In an interview with Washington Post senior
writer David Ignatius, in Jerusalem, Efraim Halevy, the former
head of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, stressed that
Israel should stop issuing threats against Iran and Syria, and
instead sit down and talk. While Halevy has made these statements
before, their appearance in the generally pro-war Washington Post
at this time, when reliable sources indicate a Cheney-backed
attack on Iran is very close to the front burner, is significant.
Halevy told Ignatius that Iran does not have the capability
of wiping out Israel, and that many ``Iranians, including those
in government, know that acceptance of Israel is not just
something they have to accept but something that might bring
their deliverance.'' Halevy, who pesonally carried out secret
diplomacy during the days of the Shah, also said that Israel
should help Iran ``extricate'' itself from its own (i.e.,
Ahmadinejad's) rhetoric.
Similarly, Ignatius reports, Halevy argued that ``Damascus
is now ripe for peace negotiations,'' and called for a ``signal''
from Damascus. The calls by Israeli President Shimon Peres for
talks with Syria are not mentioned.
But the main focus of the plea is for talks with Iran.
``Sensible Iranians are not in short supply,'' Ignatius quotes
Halevy. [nbs]

EAST ASIA

Benazir Bhutto Zig-Zags with Prevailing Winds To Gain Power in
Pakistan

Nov. 11 (LPAC)--Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, recently
returned to Pakistan from exile, continues to respond to the
political crisis there solely from readings of what will help her
take power in the country. In a telephone interview with the
London {Sunday Times}, Bhutto made brief references to the
"creeping Talibanization" of the country and the threat of
Pakistan's disintegration, but she continued to attribute these
crises to the person of General Musharraf and his
"unrepresentative" government.
The {Sunday Times} reports that, in the interview, she
demanded that Musharraf step down, and insisted that any hope of
reaching an understanding with him, the basis on which she was
allowed back in the country, was now finished.
But when Musharraf today called for elections to be held by
January 9, she called the announcement positive. Nevertheless,
she continues to plan confrontation with the government over a
planned three-day march next week from Lahore to Islamabad, which
the government has announced to be outlawed along with any other
marches, processions, or political gatherings. (grc)

DOCUMENTATION

Will British `Great Game'
Ploy Trigger World War III?

by Jeffrey Steinberg

At no point, since the end of World War II, have so many
regions of the world been swept up in chaos, asymmetric
warfare, and economic disintegration, as at the present
moment. Coming at a time when the global financial system
has also already collapsed, this combination of seemingly
isolated, ``regional'' conflicts and destabilizations
represents nothing less than a growing threat of a global,
asymmetric World War III.

- The Mirror of History -
Popular myth has it that World War I came about as
the result of a seemingly isolated event: the
assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo. However,
then as now, it was British geopolitical machinations that
brought the world to the brink of general war--before the
shots were fired in the Balkan capital.
It was Britain's King Edward VII, formerly the
long-reigning Crown Prince Edward Albert, who was the
architect of the late 19th- and early 20th-Century events
that ultimately boiled over into World War I. Edward's
overriding geopolitical goal was to quash the spread of
the American System across Eurasia and Africa.
The post-Civil War United States had emerged as the
greatest economic power in the world, and the American
System of Political Economy, first codified by Treasury
Secretary Alexander Hamilton, and further developed by the
leading 19th-Century republican economist Henry C. Carey,
his German collaborator and protege Frederich List, and
others, had been adopted by leading circles in Russia,
Japan, Germany, China, and France--thus posing an
existential threat to the then-reigning British Empire.
The great American Secretary of State and President John
Quincy Adams had established an American foreign policy,
based on the concept of a community of principle among
perfectly sovereign nation states--directly challenging
European colonialism and imperialism (see {The American
Patriot}, this issue).
To prevent the emergence of sovereign nation-states,
employing the national system of political economy across
Eurasia, Britain's vast ``Venetian-model''
military/intelligence apparatus orchestrated regional,
ethnic, religious, and tribal conflicts across all of the
Eurasian fault-lines, creating the conditions of global
instability, such that the Sarajevo assassination became
the trigger for global war. A careful review of those late
19th-Century British long-term geopolitical machinations,
offers a crucial insight into many of the hot-spot
eruptions today--including the Kurdish crisis, the
Israel-Palestine crisis, the Pakistan-Afghanistan crisis,
and the looming wars in the Horn of Africa.

- The Other British Invasion of America -
The crucial factor that distinguishes the present
global war danger, from the events leading to World War I,
is the fact that the United States has now fallen deeper
into the trap of the British geopolitical gamemasters and
the larger cultural disease of Anglo-Dutch Liberal
thinking, than was the case at the outbreak of the First
World War. This, too, is the consequence of a longstanding
top British geopolitical priority, manifested in the
launching of the Rhodes Trust, the Roundtable Group, and
other British projects, whose openly advertised mission
was to recapture the United States, and bring it back into
the British imperial fold. In a famous trip to the United
States in the mid-1930s, the leading British Fabian
operative H.G. Wells, the author of {The Open Conspiracy},
had boasted that the long-term capture of America was
virtually guaranteed, because the American educational
system had been thoroughly overtaken by British liberal
thinking.
Today, through operatives like the British Arab
Bureau's Dr. Bernard Lewis, synarchist economist George
Shultz, and many other British System assets--including
the entire ``neoconservative'' apparatus--the Bush-Cheney
Administration has been molded into the near-perfect
instrument for the longstanding British oligarchical goal
of inducing the United States to self-destruct, and bring
about the end of the Westphalian System of sovereign
nation-states.
As the result of the Bush-Cheney Administration's
disastrous ``preventive war'' actions in Iraq and
Afghanistan, American political capital around the world
is at an all-time low--and the danger is that things could
get far worse if the Vice President has his way, and the
United States launches military strikes against Iran.
Well-placed U.S. intelligence community sources have
described the present British strategy as ``managed
chaos,'' aimed at driving more and more nations of the
developing world to ``failed state'' status, while
carefully avoiding a full-scale outbreak of global general
war. At the same time, British energy and raw materials
cartels continue a global takeover spree, bolstered by the
crash of the U.S. dollar and the relative strengthening of
the British pound sterling. Such carefully calibrated
games, however, have, in the past, led to world war.

- The Great Circle of Crisis -
From the Horn of Africa, to the Near East, to South
and Central Asia, and the Caucasus, seemingly local crises
are erupting on an unprecedented scale.
** A Turkey-Iraq border war is being fueled by a
string of PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) military attacks
on the Turkish Army, from bases across the border in
Iraq's Kurdish region. According to U.S. intelligence
sources, the terrorist PKK activation was triggered, in
part, by the fact that voters in the Kurdish region of
eastern Turkey had voted in record numbers for the ruling
party in recent parliamentary elections. PKK incursions
are aimed at provoking a Turkish military response, thus
fueling Kurdish anti-Ankara sentiments.
The Turkish military and the ruling moderate Islamist
party agree that the PKK operations in the Kurdish region
of northern Iraq, are being protected and backed by both
the United States and NATO, because Kurdish insurgents are
also carrying out cross-border attacks inside Iran, which
is a Bush-Cheney Administration top-priority target for
``regime change.''
The recent visit of Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan to Washington has done little to cool out
the Turkish-Kurdish crisis. The Bush Administration
promised a crackdown on the PKK inside Iraq, but the Turks
remain skeptical that any serious action will be taken,
and any new PKK incursion into Turkey will almost
certainly trigger a Turkish cross-border invasion, thus
igniting another crisis inside American-occupied Iraq.
The roots of the Kurdish crisis trace directly back
to late 19th-, early 20th-Century British ``Great Game''
manueverings, in which the Kurds were promised a ``Greater
Kurdistan'' nation, at the same time that the British and
French, by means of the Sykes-Picot Treaty, established
the modern borders of Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Turkey, with
Kurdish minority regions in all four nations. Today,
according to U.S. intelligence sources, the British are
committed to play the ``Kurdish card'' to maintain a
permanent state of instability and chaos in all four of
the vital Near East nations.
** The Pakistan-Afghanistan border area is blowing
up, creating failed-state crises in both countries (see
article this issue), at the same time that Afghanistan has
emerged as a narco-state, with opium lords in every part
of the country supplying 75-90% of the world's heroin.
** The entire Horn of Africa region is set to
explode, with any instability in Sudan automatically
spilling over into Egypt. On Nov. 5, the International
Crisis Group issued a policy brief, warning that Ethiopia
and Eritrea are on the verge of a full-scale war, worse
than the conflict that engulfed the region from 1998-2000.
Both countries have been engaged in a surrogate war inside
Somalia, and, as of late September, Ethiopia was
threatening to break the Algiers Pact, that established a
border commission and ended the late 1990s war. The ICG
warned that a resumption of fighting could occur before
the end of November, unless there is concerted effort by
the United States and the United Nations Security Council
to enforce the Algiers Pact.
** In the Caucasus, Georgia's President Mikhail
Saakashvili Nov. 7 declared a 15-day state of emergency,
to crack down on demonstrators demanding his ouster, in
three days of increasingly violent protests in front of
the parliament. Saakashvili has accused Russia of
fomenting the demonstrations, reviving tensions between
Moscow and Tblisi, that could spill over into other
separatist insurgencies in the region, which have long
been fueled by foreign fighters, often recruited in
Britain. In 1999-2000, the Russian government had filed a
series of diplomatic protests to the British Foreign
Office, over the fact that scores of Chechen and other
separatist rebels had been recruited and financed in
Britain, under London's longstanding policy of harboring
international terrorists and separatists.
** The Dick Cheney-led faction inside the Bush White
House continues to press for U.S. military strikes against
Iran, an action which would trigger a regional explosion,
likely to spread into a full-blown global religious
conflict that would last for decades, like the Thirty
Years War in Europe (1618-48), which finally ended with
the Treaty of Westphalia.
The convergence of the global financial and monetary
disintegration of the British-created post-Bretton Woods
monetary system, with the eruption of regional crises all
over the globe, is just the kind of conjuncture that puts
the issue of a republican nation-state world, versus an
oligarchical world, on the table.


INTERVIEW WITH GEN. (RET.) MIRZA ASLAM BEG, FORMER PAKISTANI ARMY
CHIEF OF STAFF

This interview was conducted by telephone by Muriel Mirak-
Weissbach on November 9. Lyndon LaRouche considers it a point of
view that should be taken into account in evaluating the
situation.

EIR: Gen. Beg, how would you describe the current situation in
Pakistan?

Beg: It is a very interesting and complicated situation. It is
time to understand the reason and real issues of the crisis. The
American agenda was to have Gen. Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto, as
the best combination, together with the secular and enlightened
parties (those which support Musharraf). The process was
orchestrated, on October 18, when Bhutto got a hearty reception
on her return and a rousing rally. But that all came to nought
with one bomb blast. Surprisingly, all those among her supporters
who were not hurt, left people dying and wounded and went home.
Bhutto said there were two million people there; if so, it should
have turned into a battleground but it didn't happen. You can see
the character of the leaders and of the party.

EIR: Battleground between what forces? If it was a suicide
bomber?

Beg: That's not known. The government made no serious effort to
find out. There were two serious incidents earlier. Last year in
Karachi, when 22 were killed and the religious party leadership
was eliminated in a bomb blast, then on May 12, when the Chief
Justice supported by the people, were encountered by bullets, in
Karachi, hundreds were killed, but there was no inquiry.

So this, with Bhutto, was the third major incident in Karachi. It
was a setback for Benazir Bhutto. She was supposed to lead the
"rose revolution," like in Ukraine, but it didn't work.

Musharraf was opposing the Supreme Court, because it had yet to
give its judgment regarding whether his election was
constitutional or not; they were to give judgments on several
other cases where the government was involved. The freedom that
was enjoyed by the judiciary and by the media, was struck down by
the emergency [declared by Musharraf]. The emergency is actually
a coup against the judiciary and the media. Now fifty judges of
the Supreme Court and lower courts have refused to take their
oath under the martial law regime. This is unprecedented anywhere
in the world; the judiciary and the media were leading the
revolt. All private television channels have been banned and only
government channels are allowed.

According to the American agenda, with the Benazir-Musharraf
combination, in this situation, with the judiciary now under
government control, if elections are held, there will be a repeat
performance of 2002, when the government stage-managed the
election.

Today [November 9], Bhutto wanted to hold a rally in defiance of
the government, but her political activity has been confined for
three days, nothing more.

EIR: Then the defiance of Bhutto is orchestrated.

Beg: It's all drama, to boost her image. Today Benazir is so
openly supporting the American agenda, that she carries the
burden of the unpopularity of the Americans and the regime. If
they succeed in forming a government, it will be like a red flag
waved in front of a bull, for the frontier regions where there is
a revolt, and for the masses, and particularly for the civil
society which for the first time experienced some freedom. The
media used its relative freedom to inform the public. It was the
Bar and the Bench which led the movement, the revolution in
Pakistan, and now it is this group, and the media, who are the
target of the martial law. It's not against any government, just
against civil society which, for the first time, had gained a
degree of ascendency.

If elections are held, it will be very dangerous for Pakistan.
Therefore, what must happen is the following: the first priority
is to restore the dignity and honor of the judiciary, by
restoring all the judges who were fired. The second priority, now
that General Pervez Musharraf has lost all credibility, is to
have a government which can heal the wounds--mental and
physical--inflicted on the people. This should be a national
unity government with all parties represented, which could rule
for 6 months to a year. Then, one could hold elections.

The present machinations will lead to a very serious situation.
This American agenda is like the one followed in Iran, when the
Americans continued support of the unpopular Shah, who had
destroyed political parties, and, when the crunch came, the only
ones to take on the situation were the radicals.

When they occupied Afghanistan, knowing it has never accepted
foreign domination (and were supported by the EU, especially
Germany), they made their second major strategic failure. When
you don't learn the lessons of history, that is what you face.
The coalition there has been defeated.

Now in Pakistan, this is the third major mistake. A Musharraf-
Bhutto government would be a catastrophe for Pakistan.

EIR: Bhutto does not really have popular support.

Beg: There are two hate objects in Pakistan: America and the
regime of Musharraf. Bhutto has inherited both.

EIR: Admiral Fallon was in Pakistan meeting with Musharraf just
before the emergency was declared. Was this to approve the coup,
and prepare military operations against the forces in the tribal
region?

Beg: Of course. But it is the wrong direction. The Pakistani
armed forces are not capable of dealing with the problem in the
tribal region. The problem is in Afghanistan, the foreign
occupation, and the extension of this problem to our tribal
regions. The Pakistani military has been defeated in Waziristan.
What's left? The only solution is political rehabilitation,
restoring the honor and dignity of the judiciary, and national
reconciliation under a national government--then, elections, as
the last priority. For the Americans and Musharraf the elections
are the first priority, whereby they want to rule another 5
years.

EIR: Some moot that if elections were held, extremists would win.

Beg: Not true. let me give you an example. In 1988, when General
Zia died, we three chiefs [of the military] sat together and
within three hours we restored the constitution. People thought
the radicals would take over, and at the time Pakistan was ten
times more radicalized than now. The CIA report of 2004 said
there had been 60,000 jihadis from 70 countries, plus 30-35,000
more from Pakistan. They had no interest in elections; the
religious parties all together got only 8% or so.

This is true even today. If there are elections, the jihadis will
not take part. They will not let this happen--this kind of
secular government to come to power, and crush them with the use
of force. That is what has been happening, and they have
retaliated. They will take revenge. Instead of their guns
pointing at Kabul and Kandahar, they have them pointing at
Peshawar and Islamabad. They must take revenge--it is a tribal
custom. And they have given a very clear warning to Benazir
Bhutto: if she comes to power, they will capture her and
slaughter her.

The Americans made mistakes in Iran and Afghanistan. They must
not commit another blunder in Pakistan.

EIR: Thank you.

*** END OF BRIEFING ***

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.