In this issue:

LaRouche: Fundamental Issue for Afghanistan Is 'No U.S. Land War in Asia'

No Breakthrough from Mitchell's Diplomacy

Ergenekon Link to Drug Kingpin

IAEA Denounces Press Disinformation on Iran

LaRouche: Fundamental Issue for Afghanistan Is 'No U.S. Land War in Asia'

Lyndon LaRouche made the following remarks during a discussion with colleagues on Sept. 19 concerning "the fundamental issue of Afghanistan":

What we've had, is the United States has been destroyed, in a large degree since Franklin Roosevelt, but also it was tried earlier, by getting the United States into wars, land wars in Asia! And other places, but essentially land wars in Asia, has been the post-Roosevelt period attack. So therefore, we're now fighting a land war in Asia.

Now, Bill Clinton and Company will tend to argue on the basis of accepting, or negotiating, the improvement of policy for conducting land wars in Asia. And which he is, of course, opposed to getting into these things, but from a standpoint of politics, he says, you have to compromise with the people who want to have a land war in Asia. We say, "land war in Asia is a crime against humanity." We say, the issue of land war in Asia, was the reason that Kennedy was killed! Because he opposed launching a major land war in Asia, and for that, he was killed! And he was killed by international circles, which were tied to the British, but came through the French and Spanish-speaking side, in what was done in Dallas.

And so, we say, "Land wars in Asia are the chief device by which the British induce the United States, to shoot itself, not only in the foot, but the head." Therefore, we're against land wars in Asia. And when we look at the thing from that standpoint, we see that there never was a good reason for getting the United States in land wars in Asia.

Our war is with the British Empire. Or what we call the British Empire. And we have no other reason for war against anybody else, except defensive wars against attacks, by other forces. But we're suckers, because we're constantly drawn in by the Brits, into destroying ourselves for the greater glory of the British Empire, by getting into land wars in Asia! You look at this thing in 1966-1967, and you look at it from the standpoint of Kennedy was trying to revive the U.S. economy, from the damage done by previous circles, and got involved in a number of things, which just set him up. And on the question of the land war in Asia, he dug his heels in and said, "No!" He said, no to McNamara; he said no to all these other creeps. And they killed him! For that! Then we got into a land war in Asia! Because Johnson was afraid they were going to shoot him, too. And, we were going into that until 1975, in Indo-China.

Now, we got into a couple of Iraq wars, a land war in Asia; we're dragged down into a permanent land war in Asia, called the Arab-Israeli conflict, which is orchestrated by the British; and that's a central feature—we are involved more, mentally, in the Arab-Israeli thing, than in any actual war that we're directly involved in! Our mentality is controlled by that! Look at the way the Congress behaves, look at the way the politicians behave. A land war in Asia, is the ideology by which we are corrupted and destroyed!

So, now, you get into this kind of thing, where they want a compromise, on land war in Asia. And some people want to compromise with Obama on land war in Asia. So you have a McChrystal Standstill, while the war goes on, an ulcerated war. And you have all this thing about "who's our enemy?" We operate on a list that we got to defend the United States against our enemy. We have really one enemy! That enemy is the British Empire!

That's where the problem arises: The failure to see the historic issue here, between—it's in our Constitution—the issue between a credit system, which is our Constitutional system, and a monetarist system, which is an imperialist system! That's been the issue! That's been the issue internally, between Wall Street, for example, and this banking issue and so forth. The monetarist issue as against the credit system issue: The question of the U.S. sovereignty as a republic, as opposed to be part of a patchwork—of imperialists sowing together a patchwork.

LaRouche continued, in response to a question about the Korean War:

It was provoked, but it was done to try to destroy Douglas MacArthur. Because the British had lost World War II to Douglas MacArthur in the Pacific. And on top of everything, you had Australia had taken the position of the United States and MacArthur, against the position of Churchill, on this whole area.

Then you had Truman, and Churchill induced Truman to drop two nuclear weapons—the only ones we had, and they were experimental models—on Japan! A Japan which was already defeated! And for this purpose, Truman and Churchill and company, postponed the peace settlement, which had been negotiated through the Vatican, with Japan, with the Mikado, in order to have the opportunity to drop two nuclear weapons on the civilian population of Japan—huh?—in order to take the credit of this away from MacArthur. MacArthur, in a sense, was then destroyed, in his influence, deliberately, under the Truman administration, on behalf of Churchill, through the Korean War.

And that's one of the reasons that was taken into account by MacArthur, exactly that history, in advising President Kennedy no land war in Asia, for the United States!

No Breakthrough from Mitchell's Diplomacy

Sept. 18 (EIRNS)—There is still a chance that Washington will buckle under to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's flagrant disregard of the "Quartet's" Road Map, international agreements, and firm statements from the United States that there must be a freeze on all settlement expansion. But, as of Sept. 18, Middle East envoy George Mitchell ended a week of intense shuttle diplomacy, and left Israel shortly before sunset at the beginning of the Jewish New Year, without accepting Netanyahu's terms.

As expected, Netanyahu refused to agree to a settlement freeze, which the Quartet (United States, Russia, UN, and EU) has insisted is the foundation of a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians ever since the Road Map agreement was signed in 2004. That agreement, which called for Israel to withdraw from and freeze all settlement activity on Palestinian land, has been Mitchell's non-negotiable position since he was appointed as special envoy at the start of the Obama Presidency.

Mitchell's patience and toughness are legendary, but President Obama recently inserted a new position into the negotiating timetable: a high-profile tripartite meeting among himself, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, announcing the start of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at the United Nations General Assembly session in New York next week. Knowing Obama's desire for such talks led Netanyahu to think that he could get away without agreeing to the total settlement freeze. But, after four meetings with Netanyahu, Mitchell stood fast, and left Israel without compromising the fundamental demand of the U.S. government.

Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator, who was also involved in the meeting between Mitchell and Abbas on Friday, as well as earlier in the week, said, "They can have a photo opportunity, but they can't announce a resumption of talks."

Ergenekon Link to Drug Kingpin

Sept. 17 (EIRNS)—A top suspect of the Ergenekon terrorist group has been identified as linked with one of Turkey's drug kingpins. The Ergenekon has links to the Turkish security establishment and has been accused of planning military coups, running terrorist organizations, and drug trafficking. Over 100 of its members, including active duty and retired senior military officers, are currently standing trial for these crimes.

After seizing no less than three tons of amphetamine—enough to make 200 million Captogon pills worth close to $1.4 billion—Turkish police arrested drug baron Habib Kanat and three senior government officials, including Deputy National Police Chief Emin Arslan. The latter has been a suspect in the Ergenekon case. Arslan's son is reportedly a business partner of Kanat, as is Arslan himself. Another of those arrested was chemical engineer Huseyin Isik, who had been employed as a drug expert by the police through the intervention of Arslan, according to a report in today's Zaman newspaper.

Amphetamines are a key component of Southwest Asia's illicit drug market. While heroin and opium are smuggled to the West from Afghanistan, through Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, amphetamines, Ecstasy, and other chemical drugs manufactured in Europe are smuggled eastward to supply the market in Southwest Asia and Asia in general.

IAEA Denounces Press Disinformation on Iran

Sept. 17 (EIRNS)—In an unusually bold and frank statement, the press office of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which inspects Iran's and other nations' nuclear energy reactors and facilities, issued a press release that blasts media lies about Iran having a nuclear weapon.

The IAEA says: "With respect to a recent media report, the IAEA reiterates that it has no concrete proof that there is or has been a nuclear weapon programme in Iran. At the Board of Governors meeting on 9 September 2009, Director General Mohamed ElBaradei warned that continuing allegations that the IAEA was withholding information on Iran are politically motivated and totally baseless" (emphasis added).

"The Agency receives information from a variety of sources that may have relevance to the implementation of safeguards. All such information is critically assessed by a team of experts working collectively in accordance with the Agency's practices.

"The IAEA reiterates that all relevant information and assessments that have gone through the above process have already been provided to the IAEA Board of Governors in reports of the Director General."