UNITED STATES NEWS DIGEST
LaRouche Comments on UN Security Council Vote
As soon as he learned of it that day, Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche told associates that the unanimous vote on Friday, Nov. 8 at the United Nations Security Council, reflected an agreement under which Washington had promised not to invade Iraq without prior consultations with the Security Council. When LaRouche heard of the Nov. 8 Security Council statements by France, Russia, and other war opponents, saying that they had supported the resolution because it contained no automatic trigger for war, and learned that France had said that their demand for "two resolutions" had been met, LaRouche said that they were right, and that those were the assurances they had been given.
From the U.S. side, this was confirmed that same day in a briefing by a senior U.S. official at Washington's Foreign Press Center, and then in subsequent statements by Secretary of State Colin Powell.
LaRouche specified at the same time, that this agreement had already been reached before the U.S. Nov. 5 elections, with the proviso that it would only be made public after the elections. That means that the outcome of those elections was not an endorsement of war, as the Times of London and others have claimed it was, since an agreement to postpone or avoid war, had already been reached.
Recall LaRouche's discussion of how to stop this war, during his Sept. 11, 2002 nationwide webcast. At that point, he described three hurdles to be surmounted: first, avoiding unilateral action by getting a resolution through the UN, which was acceptable to President Bush; second, getting Saddam Hussein to agree; and third, dealing with the Israeli wild-card, including the potential for a breakaway ally nuclear strike.
What has occurred is that a massive amount of international pressure, backed up by the military in the U.S., has brought us through the first of those three steps, LaRouche assessed.
(For more on the UNSC resolution, see MIDEAST DIGEST.)
U.S.-German Relations on the Mend?
On Nov. 8 in Washington, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld met with visiting German Defense Minister Peter Struck for approximately an hour, and the two of them put on a display of friendliness in front of reporters afterwards. When asked to characterize U.S.-German relations, as compared to the period just before and after the German elections, Rumsfeld said they were "unpoisoned." (Just after the German elections, Rumsfeld had refused to meet with Struck and had declared relations between the two countries poisoned. The U.S. was angered by the way it believed German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had used anti-Americanism in his reelection bid, and by reports that a Minister in Schroeder's Cabinet had compared President Bush to Adolf Hitler.)
After the Nov. 8 meeting, Rumsfeld said that he and Struck had discussed issues including the upcoming NATO summit in Prague, and Germany's takeover of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Neither, however, would answer directly, when asked about a possible German role in any war against Iraq. Rumsfeld only gave his standard response on how the U.S. lets other countries characterize their help to the United States. Struck said that Saddam Hussein "has to realize what a great responsibility he bears on his shoulders. It is up to him to prevent any further action, and it's up to him to accept the UN decision."
Say U.S. Involved in Secret War Preparations with Israel
According to a front-page story in the Nov. 4 issue of USA Today, the Pentagon is secretly colluding with the Israeli military in preparation for an Iraq war. The U.S.-Israeli joint operations are being kept under tight wraps (until the USA Today story), because it would enrage the "Arab street" to know that Israel is deeply involved in the present stage of war preparation.
According to Pentagon and foreign government sources interviewed for the USA Today story, there are three main areas of Israeli involvement: 1. Israeli military spies have been operating on the ground in the desert area of western Iraq, gathering intelligence on possible Scud missile sites, and other advance reconnaissance, important for rapid military strikes; 2. Israel is stockpiling American military equipment for the Iraq operation at six separate depots (this has been going on for the past year); and 3. US Army and Marine units have been receiving urban warfare training from the Israel Defense Force at two desert sites in Israel, where the IDF has constructed replicas of urban neighborhoods typical of the Arab world.
Lott Will Take Up Homeland Security Bill in Lame-Duck Session
Reuters reports (Nov. 8) that Senate Republican leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), soon to become Senate Majority Leader, was summoned to the White House by President Bush, who also called in Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), to press them to push through the Department of Homeland Security legislation during the lame-duck session of Congress, which begins Nov. 12.
Lott had previously advocated that the lame-duck session be limited to the passage of the few bills needed to keep things going until the 108th Congress convenes in January. However, he told reporters after the meeting, "The President of the United States is the leader of our country and he feels very strongly about this, he feels it is very important that Congress works to see if we can get this done and I agree and I'm prepared to do whatever I can." What remains to be seen, is if the Democrats will continue to obstruct the legislation, since even after its electoral wins, the GOP is still far short of the 60 votes needed for a filibuster-proof majority.
Iran-Contra Figure Building New Computer Surveillance System at the Pentagon
Under the direction of former Iran-Contra figure John M. Poindexter, the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is, according to a Nov. 9 new York Times story, developing a computer surveillance system that, using a technique called "data mining," will be able to search through government and commercial databases for credit card records, travel records, internet e-mail and so forth, in search of alleged foreign terrorists operating inside the United States.
Poindexter has argued that the government needs broad new powers to process, store and mine billions of minute details of electronic life in the United States. "We must become much more efficient and more clever in the ways we find new sources of data, mine information from the new and old, generate information, make it available for analysis, convert it to knowledge and create actionable options," he said in a California speech earlier this year. Poindexter has been director of the Office of Information Awareness at DARPA since last January.
Legislation required to deploy the system is contained in the Homeland Security bill, and it has civil liberties proponents up in arms. Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said that the outcome "is a system of national surveillance of the American public." Civil libertarians also argue that potential terrorists will be able to avoid detection, anyway. If deployed, the system would likely serve the FBI, and while that agency has had discussions with the Pentagon about it, no decision has been made, yet.
White House Preparing for Big Changes in Economic Team?
The White House is said by Reuters to be preparing for big changes in President Bush's economic policy team, preparations that began before the elections but were slated to begin to take effect afterwards.
The first casualty of this house-cleaning was Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Harvey Pitt, who tendered his resignation Election Day, Nov. 5, and whose offer was promptly accepted by the President.
Top White House economics adviser Lawrence Lindsey is said to be on the way out, and Bush is under pressure to replace Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. One Republican aide was quoted as saying that "The Administration's economic operation obviously has problems and they're looking for changes." The White House won't comment on possible changes. Spokeswoman Claire Buchan only said, "The President has a high degree of confidence in his economic team." A former aide to Trent Lott, Keith Hennessey, has already been brought into the White House to be deputy assistant to the President for economic policy, and other, lower-tier changes have fuelled speculation of a bigger shake-up on the way.
Aside from the White House economics team, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and Environmental Protection Agency head Christine Todd Whitman are also said to be considering leaving.
Rough Road to Agreement in West Coast Port Dispute
According to a release from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, a tentative agreement has been reached on the technology issue, which has been the main sticking point in negotiations with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA). Details of the agreement will not be released until the entire contract package has been negotiated. The ports continue to operate under the terms of a Taft-Hartley injunction, and the Department of Justice is considering a complaint from the PMA that the Union is running an illegal slow-down on the docks.
Federal Mediator Peter Hurtgen on Nov. 7 indicated that the Pacific Maritime Association needed time to review the ILWU's demand for an enhanced pension package, and broke off the talks for a week. Both the union and the PMA are prohibited from commenting on the suspension, but the Los Angeles Times reports sources close to the talks say that hopes of an early mediated settlement had faded as tempers flared over pension plan proposals.
Thousands of Small Watershed Programs Await a 'Super-TVA'
Thousands of small watershed projects await the implementation, as Lyndon LaRouche has called for, of a "Super-TVA' program, meaning a huge jobs program, and a ripple effect of construction dollars.
A highly placed U.S. Department of Agriculture soils service official responded to LaRouche's "Super-TVA" idea, by raising the idea that work could and should be mobilized to deal with the backlog of needed projects for land and water improvements in the area of "small watersheds," not just the grand-scale geo-engineering projects. Under the Public Law 566 "Small Watershed and Flood Protection Act," there are right now: 1) 1,000 small watershed dams (60 to 100 ft high) that have been built all around the country in past decades, which are long overdue for refurbishing; pipes are rusting; concrete breaking down. 2) There is also a 20-year backlog of applications for dams and related projects from local soil conservation districts. Getting these projects going sets up a requirement for labor to be trained and put to work; plus it means order books of inputs from suppliers.
Experts will be providing EIR with work-ups of the number of jobs involved, the multiplier effects, etc. for use in the emergency "Super-TVA" mobilization.
Ashcroft Hands Sniper Suspects Over to Virginia
After having snatched the two sniper suspects away from Montgomery County, Maryland authoritiesand botched up an interrogation in the processAttorney General John Ashcroft announced Nov. 7 that the two suspects will be tried in Virginia, a state second only to George W. Bush's Texas in the number of executions it has carried out.
The two suspects were in Maryland custody, and were being interrogated by a Montgomery County detective, when the Justice Department ordered them to be delivered into Federal custody Oct. 24.
John Allen Muhammad is now in custody of Prince William County, Va., where he has been indicted for capital murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and using a firearm in the commission of murderfor which he could face the death penalty. John Lee Malvo has been transferred to the custody of Fairfax County, Va. where he has been charged with capital murder and using a firearm in the commission of murder. "If convicted as an adult, the juvenile could face the death penalty" in Virginia, Ashcroft boastedbut not in Maryland or under Federal statute. Hence the transfer.
What Ashcroft's Justice Department is doing in this case, is precisely the sort of frenetic rush to prosecution and conviction which preventsintentionally or otherwisegetting to the actual truth about such an incident. It is reminiscent of what happened with the 2001 execution of Timothy McVeigh for the 1993 Oklahoma City bombing, who went to his grave without telling anyone what he actually knew. And it may be that some of what McVeigh knew, could have been important in forecasting the devastating terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
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