...... ...................Larouche Online Almanac

Published: Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2005

Today is:

Volume 4, Issue Number 3

This Week You Need to Know:

THE NEXT 50 YEARS ARE OUR RESPONSIBILITY; LET'S START NOW

Here is the keynote of Lyndon LaRouche to the EIR seminar in Berlin, on Jan. 12, 2005. He was introduced by Michael Liebig.

LIEBIG: ...[S]o, I want to ask Mr. LaRouche to start off with his keynote address, which is, as we say in German, the Diskussionsgrundlage for this seminar. Please.

LYNDON LAROUCHE: What I'm going to lay before you, contradicts the diplomatic and related assumptions of discussions around the world today: That, in the coming period, especially with the onrushing financial collapse, which is inevitable now, that what people believe today, will no longer be believed. The system is coming down. The present world monetary-financial system is finished, and will never rise again. It's coming on now. Exactly when the official collapse occurs, is uncertain, but it will be soon. And in terms of the system itself, there will be no remedy which will ever allow for its recovery as a system, again, in future history.

...more

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Latest From LaRouche

Here is the discussion which followed Lyndon LaRouche's Keynote address to an international webcast on Jan. 5. The discussion was moderated by LaRouche's national spokesperson Debra Freeman. (See InDepth, Jan. 11, for a transcript of the keynote.)

Q: Lyn, we have a couple of questions that have been submitted via email from a variety of institutions. I would like to start with those.

We can start first with a question on the events of tomorrow, because we do have a number of questions that have been submitted in this regard. One very specifically comes from the House side of the U.S. Congress where, once again, the challenge to the certification of the Electoral College vote is being mounted.

...more

The Economy

World and Nation-State

This Week in History

January 17-23, 1801

Benjamin Latrobe Designs the first American Steam-Powered Municipal Waterworks

John Latrobe recorded in his journal, that on the night of Jan. 21, 1801, his father Benjamin, "with three gentlemen, his friends, and one of his workmen, kindled a fire under the boiler, and set the ponderous machinery in motion while the city was buried in sleep." In the morning, "the streets of Philadelphia were flowing with water from the gushing hydrants." That city had enjoyed a safe and efficient supply of water during Colonial times, thanks to the improvements wrought by Benjamin Franklin's organizing efforts. By 1776, public pumps dotted the curbstones, and produced a steady flow of clean water. But, as the population grew from 25,000 in 1776, to more than 70,000 as 1800 approached, water from the shallow wells became polluted.

Beginning in 1793, Philadelphia had been decimated by yearly yellow-fever epidemics, causing the Federal government and much of the population to flee the city. Philadelphia's doctors began to wonder if there was a connection between the water supply and the yellow-fever outbreaks. In 1797, hundreds of Philadelphia's citizens petitioned the City Council to install a municipal water system.

Benjamin Latrobe, newly arrived from Virginia, submitted a plan in December of 1798, which called for a steam engine, of which there were then only three in the new nation, to pump water from the Schuylkill River through underground tunnels for nearly a mile to Central Square. From there, another pump, hidden in a white marble Grecian temple, would raise the water to a reservoir. The water would then flow downward and into the city through buried wooden pipes. Nicholas Roosevelt, whose works were located on the Passaic River in New Jersey, gave assurances that his machine shop could build the required steam engines.

Oliver Evans, inventor of the first automated flour mill, and pioneer in steam-engine manufacturing, objected that the reservoir was just barely adequate for the city's current needs. He argued that a reservoir should be built in elevated country north of the city and should hold many thousands of gallons of water. Latrobe was awarded the contract, due partly to his study of British waterworks, and partly to his experience in supervising complex projects and large work crews in Virginia, where he had improved the navigation of the Appomattox and James Rivers, and worked on draining the Great Dismal Swamp.

Latrobe began construction in May 1799, and finished in January 1801. The project gave Philadelphia the first, and for many years the best, water system in the nation. Two tunnels, six feet in diameter and nearly a mile long, were cut through granite rock and lined in brick to carry the river water to the marble temple, now the site of Philadelphia's City Hall, but, in those days, a meadow, which was made into a park. For the construction, Latrobe gathered craftsmen and mechanics from all parts of America and from Britain, who then fanned out to other cities to replicate what they had built in Philadelphia.

The Roosevelt steam engines performed well, pumping water at 12 strokes a minute. A contemporary described the innovation which Roosevelt had developed: "The air pump is an improvement upon that used by Boulton and Watt; consisting in its evacuating the condenser twice at every stroke, thereby creating a much better vacuum, and of course adding considerably to the power of the engine, in proportion to the diameter of its cylinder without increasing friction."

The waterworks became a showpiece in the midst of a park where Philadelphia's Fourth of July celebrations were held. Even Oliver Evans used the Greek temple as the background for a demonstration of his steam-powered river dredger. The waterworks continued in operation until Sept. 7, 1815, when they were replaced by the Fairmount Waterworks, built by one of Latrobe's pupils. As Evans had proposed, a larger reservoir was built north of the city, and one of the steam engines that pumped the water was designed and built by Oliver Evans's Philadelphia machine shop, the Mars Works.

Benjamin Latrobe continued his service to the nation in his capacity of surveyor of the public buildings in Washington, D.C. He supervised the construction of the south wing of the U.S. Capitol, and it was he who devised the "American order" of maize for the capitals of the columns. He worked on the White House for President Thomas Jefferson, and was appointed Engineer of the Navy Department, in which capacity he designed the Navy Yards at Washington and New York. After the British burned the Capitol during the War of 1812, Latrobe was called in to rebuild the House and Senate Chambers. For the vestibule of the Senate, he designed capitals based on the flowers and leaves of the tobacco plant, to complement the maize capitals of the House.

When the War of 1812 suspended his government work, Latrobe went into partnership with Robert Fulton, Robert Livingston, and Nicholas Roosevelt to build steamboats adapted to navigate the Ohio River. Although Latrobe moved his family to Pittsburgh, the death of Robert Fulton stopped the project and put Latrobe heavily in debt. He was forced into bankruptcy, but he wrote to one of his creditors: "Your claim on me is of a nature which no legal release can absolve—the field of productive activity before me is such, as to assure me—if I live—of the certainty of not disappointing your confidence in me."

Latrobe was consulted about building a water supply for New Orleans, and he sent his son Henry to supervise the project. During the War of 1812, Henry took part in the defense of the city and began construction of a lighthouse at the mouth of the Mississippi. When Henry died of yellow fever in 1817, Benjamin Latrobe brought his family to New Orleans and was pushing the construction of the water system to conclusion when he, too, was stricken with yellow fever and died in September of 1820.

Latrobe's two surviving sons, however, carried on his architectural and engineering tradition. John Latrobe, a West Pointer, combined his father's tradition with law by serving as counsel to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. It was he who recognized the importance of Samuel Morse's invention of the telegraph, and recommended it to the B&O president, who in turn granted Morse the privilege of stringing the first telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington along the railroad's right of way. As a writer of some note, John Latrobe also served on the committee which awarded a prize to Edgar Allan Poe for "A MS. Found in a Bottle."

John's brother, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, worked in the engineer corps of the B&O Railroad, and in the early 1830s, he designed the Thomas Viaduct at Relay House, southwest of Baltimore, which is still in use today, and successfully carries modern railroad equipment. He then surveyed and built the railroad from Point of Rocks to Harpers Ferry, and then from Harpers Ferry to Cumberland. In 1847, he laid out the line all the way to the Ohio River and supervised 5,000 men and the 1,250 horses they used for hauling away the rocks they blasted out with black powder. His crew built 200 miles of railroad, including 113 bridges and 11 tunnels in less than four years. His son, Charles, also became an engineer and designed a railroad for the Peruvian government which featured a bridge which spanned one of the deepest gorges in the Andes. The bridge was framed in the United States, taken apart for shipment, and re-framed in Peru in ninety days.

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EXCLUSIVE EIR INTERVIEW WITH SCOTT HORTON

BUSH ADMINISTRATION, GONZALES REVIVE NAZI LEGAL ARGUMENTS

Nuremberg Tribunal Rejected Rumsfeld's 'Rotten Apples' Defense

Scott Horton is chair of the Committee on International Law of the Bar Association of the City of New York and lecturer in international humanitarian law at Columbia University. During 2002 and early 2003, when civilian lawyers in the Pentagon, working with White House lawyers such as Alberto Gonzales and David Addington, and Justice Department lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel, were developing policy positions declaring that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to the Afghanistan conflict, and were loosening restrictions on methods of interrogation so as to violate U.S. military law, Horton was contacted by top lawyers in the military services who opposed these new policies, but whose voices were not being heeded.

InDepth Coverage

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Links to articles from Executive Intelligence Review*.
*Requires Adobe Reader®.


Feature:

Wall St. Insists Bush Take Social Security; LaRouche Says No
by Paul Gallagher
A shift has taken place in the U.S. political arena since Election Day. The dramatic breakthrough of Jan. 6 achieved by Democrats, in challenging and forcing Congressional debate over suppression of Democratic votes in President Bush's re-election, blew a hole in Bush's 'mandate' in the eyes of Americans, and greatly strengthened the coherence and spirit of his Congressional opposition. Lyndon LaRouche's LPAC political action committee played a key role in the strategy which led to the Jan. 6 result.

LaRouche PAC Pamphlet
Bush's Social Security Privatization: A Foot in the Door for Fascism
The introduction to the LaRouchePAC's pamphlet, released in December 2004. We also include excerpts from the pamphlet's discussion of the Chile 'model,' and profiles of two of the 'economic hit men' behind the privatization swindle, John Train and George Shultz.

  • Chile: A Synarchist Showcase
    by Dennis Small and Cynthia Rush
    If President George W. Bush and his controllers have their way, the United States will soon be following in Chile's footsteps —straight into hell. Bush himself has been explicit. In Santiago, Chile for a Nov. 19-21, 2004 summit of APEC, he stated that 'Chile provides a great example for Social Security reform.'
  • Truth Behind the Myth
    by Dennis Small
    The myth that the Chilean economic model put in place by the bloody Pinochet coup of 1973, was a great success—a myth much-vaunted by the Bush Administration—is dispelled by the three graphics shown here.
  • Profile: John Train
    Portrait of an 'Economic Hit Man'
    by Jeffrey Steinberg
    José Piñera, the former Minister of Labor and Mining in the fascist regime of Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, and the architect of that country's wholesale theft of workers' pensions, has friends in high places in the Anglo-American Establishment, despite his role in a regime vilified worldwide for war crimes.
  • Profile: George Shultz
    The Man With the 'Chile Model' of Fascism
    by Richard Freeman and Paul Gallagher
    No one figure is more responsible for the drive to privatize and loot Social Security than George Pratt Shultz of Bechtel; senior 'fixer' of the Republican Party; senior recruiter of the George W. Bush White House team, 'the Vulcans'; and, like Robert McNamara before him, a preeminent 'economic hitman' of the Anglo-American financial order on the international stage.

Memorandum by EIR Staff
Looting of Nations by Pension Privatization
Ibero-America
Eleven countries in Ibero-America have privatized their social security systems, under pressure of the International Monetary Fund and their creditor banks. Chile was the model for the others, both in privatizing its system in 1981, and in its spectacular failure over the long term—so much so, that all forces in the country now agree it must be radically reformed. The Chilean government itself will be submitting a proposed reform to congress in early 2005.


History:

The Plot Against FDR: A Model For Bush's Pinochet Plan Today
by William F. Wertz, Jr.
The three most prominent historical models for the kinds of economic and financial warfare operations carried out by the financial oligarchy as described in John Perkins' recent book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man are: 1) the Venetian empire during the period leading into the Hundred Years War and the Dark Ages of the 14th Century; 2) the Venetian-style empire established by the British East India Company following the Treaty of Paris at the conclusion of the Seven Years War in 1763; and 3) the Anglo-American-German cartels established in the 1920s. The purpose of this report is to examine the latter as the most immediate precedent for the current danger presented by a private financier oligarchy bent on world domination under the guise of 'globalization.'


Economics:

Bush/USDA Mad Cow Malfeasance Exposed; Food Cartels Threaten Public Health
by Marcia Merry Baker
Even before Congress reconvened this month, several Senators and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) challenged the new U.S. Department of Agriculture(USDA)rule announced Dec. 29, which would lift the U.S. ban on Canadian live cattle imports as of March 7, a ban imposed 19 months ago when a Canadian BSE case was found in May 2003. Congress has the right to modify or cancel such an administrative rule, and such actions are being pursued. Republican Sen. Conrad Burns (Montana) has called for the USDA to delay opening the U.S. border to Canadian cattle.

State Budgets In Crisis, Need FDR Approach
by Arthur Ticknor
Shedding crocodile tears while blaming financial 'constraints,' Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen announced on Jan. 10 that he was eliminating health-care coverage for 320,000 of the state's sickest, uninsurable citizens. Widespread medical hardship is in the offing, as half of the adults are being dropped from TennCare, Tennessee's Medicaid managed care program that provides health care benfits to about 22% of the state population. The same budget axe is falling on essentials all over America, as after two years of the George W. Bush's 'Hoover recovery,' state budgets remain wrecked, from New York's and California's $6-10 billion deficits, to Colorado's 16% drop in tax revenues since 2002.

Shultz's Hit Man, Fischer, to Head Bank of Israel
by Steven Meyer and Dean Andromidas
Stanley Fischer, vice chairman of Citigroup, was named the eighth Governor of the Bank of Israel on Jan. 10. As Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 1994 to 2001, Fischer oversaw the financial meltdowns in Asia, Russia, and Argentina, and his new appointment signals that the IMF considers a major financial blowout of the Israeli economy possible.

Energy Cooperation
Myanmar, Bangladesh, India Clinch Deals
by Ramtanu Maitra
Enhancing their steadily developing relations, India and Myanmar have agreed to jointly explore the off-shore and deepsea gas and petroleum fields in Myanmar. This was discussed on Jan. 11 by India's visiting Oil and Petroleum Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, during his meeting with Myanmar Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Soe Win. It is apparent that the Manmohan Singh government has come to the conclusion that it is of strategic interest for an nation like India, which lacks oil and gas resources, to acquire a stake in Myanmar's surplus oil and gas fields.

Ghost of Schacht Haunts Germany
by Rainer Apel
The German government's 'Hartz IV reform' of wage and social welfare cuts represents the worst threat to the living standards of millions of citizens since the founding of this republic in 1949. Named after its initiator, government advisor Peter Hartz, the 'reform' pares down traditional unemployment and welfare compensation. The package went into effect on Jan. 1, and affects more than 4.5 million long-term unemployed and welfare recipients.


International:

Rumsfeld Prepares 'One, Two, Many Pinochets' in the Americas
by Gretchen Small
With the Bush Administration advocating the use of indefinite detention without trial, torture, and the use of 'hunter-killer' death squads to hunt down terrorists wherever they be, should it come as a surprise that the same Administration has begun laying the groundwork for a return to military rule in the Americas? Or, that it is out to transform the militaries of its neighbors from being national institutions into regional divisions of the Administration's modern version of the foreign legions of Hitler's Waffen SS?

South African President Mbeki, in Sudan, Scores British Colonialism
by Lawrence K. Freeman
South African President Thabo Mbeki carried out a brilliant flanking manuever against the legacy of British colonial/imperial practices when he spoke before the Sudanese National Assembly on New Year's Day. For several months, members of the United States Congress, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Western media outlets have been attempting to whip up popular opinion into a frenzy against the government of Sudan over allegations of genocide in Darfur, in western Sudan. Instead of picking sides in this conflict, President Mbeki instead accurately changed the topic to the methods used by the British Empire against people of Sudan and South Africa in the 19th and 20th Centuries, which set up the present-day conflicts in the first place, pitting 'Arab Muslims' against 'indigenous Africans.'

Elections in Palestine: 'Democracy Under Occupation'
by Michele Steinberg
On Jan. 10, in Washington, D.C., Dianna Buttu, a legal advisor to the Palestine Liberation Organization's peace negotiators, gave a powerful, and grim picture of what really happened on the ground in the Jan. 9 elections that gave PLO Chairman Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) the Presidency of the Palestinian Authority by a broad victory of 62% of the vote. There were seven candidates for the Presidency, and humanitarian aid leader Mustafa Barghouti came in second, with just under 20%.

Book Review
The Sphinx and the Gladiators: How Neo-Fascists Steered the Red Brigades
by Claudio Celani
La Sfinge delle Brigate Rosse (The Sphinx of the Red Brigades)
by Sergio Flamigni
Milan: KAOS Edizioni, 2004
362 pages, paperback, 19 euros ($23.18)
Former Senator and anti-terrorist expert Sergio Flamigni's latest book reveals new evidence that the Red Brigades terrorist group, which was responsible for assassination of Christian Democratic leader Aldo Moro in 1978, and other murderous acts, was directly steered by Gladio-NATO circles. These circles were headed by the late Edgardo Sogno, an agent of the Anglo-American intelligence and special operations network, which was put together in Europe after World War II, by Allen Dulles, director of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) and the CIA.


National:

Gonzales Must Be Questioned About Rumsfeld Death Squads
by Edward Spannaus
New revelations coming out about the 'death squads' being created by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld make it imperative that the Senate Judiciary Committee recall Alberto Gonzales for questioning concerning his role in providing the legal justification for these hit-teams.

From the Congress
Conyers Report: 'What Went Wrong in Ohio'
The following is the Executive Summary of 'Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio,' a report by the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff of Jan. 5, 2005. The full report, 102 pages long, is available at the Committee's website.

  • Lautenberg Legislation
    Don't Let Election Officials Suppress the Vote
    The following press release was issued by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) on Jan. 6, titled 'In Response to Serious Concerns Over Presidential Vote in Ohio, Lautenberg Announces Measure to Prevent Partisan Activity by Election Officials: Ohio Sec. of State Ken Blackwell Was Also Co-Chairman of Bush/Cheney '04 Campaign.'

Eye on Washington
by William Jones
A Sublime Moment
The Jan. 6 debate in the House of Representatives challenging the Presidential election, stunned Washington observers.

Schwarzenegger Submits Killer California Budget
by Harley Schlanger
Before the text has been parsed or the numbers crunched, it is clear that the budget submitted by Arnold Schwarzenegger to the California legislature on Jan. 10 will increase the death rate among the poor, the elderly, and the disabled in the state.

GOP Tightens Its Grip on the Congress
by Carl Osgood
The House Republican leadership wasted no time renewing its assault on the U.S. Constitution on Jan. 4, when the 109th Congress convened. As their first piece of legislative business, the GOP proposed changes to the House rules that tighten their control of the House, weaken the ethics rules, and redefine what it means to have a quorum. However, the Republicans were forced to back down on measures intended specifically to protect House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), including an internal Republican caucus rule that would have allowed him to continue to serve as Majority Leader even if he is indicted in Texas for violating state campaign finance laws.


EIR DVD

LaRouche: `The Immortality of Martin Luther King'

Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.

speaks to the Martin Luther King Day Prayer Breakfast in Talladega County, Alabama on Jan. 19, 2004

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