Home Page

From the Vol.1 No.10 issue of Electronic Intelligence Weekly

UNITED STATES NEWS DIGEST

LaRouche To Hold International Memorial Day Webcast May 28

Democratic Party 2004 Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche issued a solemn statement inviting international leaders and the public to participate in his Memorial Day international webcast, which is being held Tuesday May 28, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Coming on the heels of the candidate's historic May 1 webcast, this follow-up event will be conducted to further the process of bringing together an international combination that can turn the world back from the precipice of global religious war, and a New Dark Age. In his May 9 statement, LaRouche, a World War II veteran, said: "After the close of the first of the two world wars of the last century, our republic committed itself to remember in perpetuity those who had fallen in battles. Let us remember them today.

"Thus, when I returned from the last world war, I passed the house of a boyhood friend, Leon, the sole companion of the aging grandparents who had raisd him. As I came up the sidewalk to a place by the front windows of that house, I saw a gold star in the window. I shall never forget that awesome moment.

"Let us therefore pledge, as President Abraham Lincoln did, that if government must send men to die in war, let the war end as quickly as possible, and let the leaders of our nation be assured in advance, that the citizen's sacrifice not be in vain. Let us pledge as much wisdom as we are capable of calling forth today, to that end."

U.S. Northern Command Would Be Waffen-SS-Model Dictatorship

While an alleged battle inside the Defense Department over Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's decision to kill the "traditional" artillery weapon known as the "Crusader," is getting a lot of media coverage, little attention is being paid to the creation of a new Northern Command, under a four-star Air Force General, as another part of the drive towards a real police-state structure inside the United States. This proposal, coming on top of serious erosion of civil liberties under the "war on terrorism," represents a real crossing of the Rubicon, a "no-no" which would be recognized as such by any sane military leader in the American intellectual tradition.

What is really being proposed, with the creation of a full-scale U.S. military command for the continental United States, Canada, Mexico, and parts of the Caribbean, is to put the U.S. military, domestically, under the control of the FBI, in effect (under the vaguely reported plans for the launching of the Northern Command on Oct. 1, 2002, the military will function as an adjunct to civilian agencies). This is a Waffen SS model, a Himmler-style dictatorship, which is raising concern inside the Bush Administration, but which is being ignored by Congress and the press in their mad drive to sacrifice the U.S. Constitution and American history in the name of the "war on terrorism." Congress' war on terrorism amounts to nothing more than support for Ariel Sharon's Nazi-like actions (see below).

Former NSC Chief Scowcroft Warns Against Unilaterialism

The Washington Times reported that former National Security Adviser and alter ego Brent Scowcroft (under President George H.W. Bush) spoke on May 4 at a conference of the Council for National Security Affairs, and warned the current Bush Administration that it must "restrain" its tendency toward unilateralism, or face a failure in the war on terrorism. It is widely believed that Scowcroft is speaking on behalf of the former President, who would not wish to publicly attack his son and a cast of his own former Cabinet officers. "We can't operate in coalitions of the moment, in which we use certain countries when we need them and then throw them away," Scowcroft warned. "Foreign policy has always been an option for the United States, but not any longer. We don't have a choice any more, and we are not necessarily adjusting to it well.... We appear to be acting increasingly in an arrogant and unilateral way. We need to restrain our instincts for unilateralism."

Scowcroft's remarks were in keeping with his public criticisms, during the annual Wehrkunde meeting in Germany this past February, in which he chastized Senators Joe Lieberman and John McCain, and Defense Department adviser Richard Perle, from the floor for flaunting a go-it-alone attitude on the issue of overthrowing Saddam Hussein, among other issues.

Rep. Baca Introduces Bill To Ban Killer Training Videogames

California Congressman Joe Baca (D-42nd Dist) has introduced "The Protect Children from Video Game Sex and Violence Act of 2002," in a long-overdue move that will challenge the Hollywood corruption in the Democratic Party. The bill, making it a Federal crime to sell violent videogames to minors, has 21 Congressmen co-sponsoring it so far. Acting as a parent and grandparent in introducing the measure, Rep. Baca cited the recent school massacre in Erfurt, Germany, and the 1999 Columbine High School shooting. The director of the videogame industry trade association has denounced the new legislation as unconstitutional.

In a statement last week, Baca said 92% of children between the ages of 2 and 17 play videogames, and studies have shown they tend to be made to identify with the "digital criminals." Baca asked, "Do you really want your kids assuming the role of a mass murderer or car-jacker when you are away at work?" The law would fine or jail retailers and rental companies who provide minors with access to video games depicting:

** Decapitation, amputation, dismemberment or mutilation

** Killing of human beings using any object as a lethal weapon or hand-to-hand fighting

** The carjacking of a vehicle

** Rape or other sexual assault and prostitution

** Aggravated assault or battery

** Other violent felonies.

FBI Goofs Again in Missing 'New Viole nce' Terrorist Profile in Pipe Bomber

The FBI, whose director, Richard Mueller, recently admitted that the Bureau has been unable, in the months since Sept. 11, to find any written evidence of a planned attack, has apparently goofed again, in attempting to apprehend the latest domestic terrorist—the Midwest pipe bomber. According to reports, the way the FBI learned of the lead suspect in the pipe bombings in the Midwest and West was that alleged bomber Luke Helder sent his father a letter saying that "Mailboxes are exploding." The FBI then traced Helder through his new cell phone. He had already been stopped—and released—by police three times for traffic violations while travelling to locations where the bombs were placed, before the FBI put out the all-points bulletin, based upon leads from his father.

On May 8, Helder is said to have told the FBI that he had made a total of 24 pipe bombs out of tape, paper clips, and Christmas tree bulbs, and placed them in 18 mailboxes in five states. When found, Helder still had in his possession six of the bombs, packed with smokeless gunpowder and BBs or nails, and wrapped in black electrical tape.

U.S. District Court Magistrate Robert J. McQuaid denied a request to release Helder to the custody of his parents, stating, "It's apparent to me that he suffers from some apparent mental health problems."

It is notable that the FBI Behavioral Science Lab had come up with an entirely different profile of the probable bomber, ignoring the "new violence" music and video game addictions of schoolyard killers such as Michael Carneal, Eric Harris, and Kip Kinkle. Preliminary reports show that Luke Helder fits the "new violence" profile, particularly connected to the band Nirvana, whose leader, Kurt Cobain, became a cult figure after committing suicide. As to Helder's alleged "anti-government" profile, the evidence for this amounts to an incident last fall at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in Menomonie, Wisconsin. When he was cited for possession of a marijuana pipe, he told the officer: "Is this what the government is for?" When he was arrested, Helder was wearing a Kurt Cobain T-shirt.

Lieberman's Cronies Make Billions Training Zombie Killers With Videogames

At present, the market for computer games worldwide is said to be heading for sales in the range of up to $25 billion ($20 billion last year). Of that total, the explicitly violent games (Ego-Shooters, Group Combat, Soldiers of Fortune, etc.) account for about 20%. On a world scale, Germany is fourth in that market, ranking second in Europe, behind the United Kingdom. Last year, game sales reached a total volume of about 3 billion marks, in Germany.

This is only the "legal" market. Especially for the games on the official black list, estimates are that another 30%, if not 50%, of the figure for "legal" sales can be added in, for "illegal" sales. As Lyndon LaRouche notes in his strategic analysis, "The Rules by Which Games Are Played" (see IN DEPTH), the development of these games is part of the utopian game-plan of creating cold-blooded killers for the new empire's policy of "perpetual war."

LaRouche is proven absolutely right in a recent issue of Reboot Camp Review, which boasts that "Some military secrets are only for elite troops—and for gung-ho gamers," in its review of a recently launched combat game named "Rainbox Six—Rogue Spear." The review reads as follows: "What's the surest sign that your military combat game is a hit? When the Army wants to use it train U.S. soldiers. Thanks to a deal between military contractor LB&B Associates and game developer Red Storm Entertainment, some of our troops have been learning tactics from a computer simulation powered by the Tom Clancy-inspired shooter, Rainbow Six—Rogue Spear."

"The Army would have to spend 10 times as much to create a comparable system," claims chief game designer Brian Upton. Plus, Red Storm's access to battlefield hardware goes straight into current titles like "Ghost Recon," which lets players try out a communications system the military is still developing. Of course, the Army's version of the game has been modified to generate scenarios soldiers might actually face. "If they were using it straight out of the box," says Upton, "I'd be really, really scared."

Ariel Sharon's 'Big Lies' About White House Visit

Ariel Sharon's visit to the United States was a carefully orchestrated production, where the real action occurred, not at the White House, but in a series of meetings with behind-the-scenes financiers, and reporters, who broke new ground in proving that journalism is "the world's oldest profession." Sharon's 15-minute meeting with President George W. Bush, was followed with an avalanche of disinformation from some of Sharon's most trusted press hitmen, who put out the word that "Bush says Arafat is finished."

Sharon held a private meeting with columnist Jim Hoagland, joined by fellow Washington Post writer Jackson Diehl and the New York Times' resident Sharonist, William Safire, for a group interview with the Israeli Prime Minister, right after the Sharon-Bush White House meeting—which was cut short, due to another suicide bombing by "Sharon's Hamas," as assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin called the anti-Arafat Hamas group. In addition, Sir Rupert Murdoch's resident Sharon-booster, Uri Dan, also retailed the same story: That there will be no peace talks until Yassir Arafat is reduced to a "meaningless, powerless figurehead." Uri Dan, an Israeli spook who served under Sharon in the Israeli military, and wrote a fawning biography of him, cites an Israeli source who travelled with Sharon to Washington, to the effect that a "full understanding" was reached with Bush that no peace is possible until Arafat is a powerless figurehead. Bush supposedly agreed that peace talks could not begin until the Palestinian Authority created a new Constitution and held new elections to replace Arafat with a new leader, according to the source.

"The President said no such thing," insisted White House spokesman Sean McCormack, as quoted in the New York Times, but the press, especially in the U.S. and Israel, continues to peddle the Sharon line.

What George W. Bush Actually Did Say; Record Shows Israeli Lies

In a press availability on May 8 with visiting King Abdullah of Jordan, President George W. Bush, whose statements have been vastly distorted by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his entourage, said the following. First, in answer to a question about intervening against an Israeli retaliation for the most convenient May 7 Hamas bombing, the President said the expected, which could be interpreted as a "greenlight": "...Israel is a nation that is a sovereign nation. But whatever response Israel decides to take, my hope, of course, is that the Prime Minister keeps his vision of peace in mind, that we have got to want peace in order to achieve peace. And that's what the United States is working toward."

Asked about Yasser Arafat's radio and TV condemnation of terrorism against Israeli civilians, Bush said: "Well, first of all, I was pleased to read the transcripts of his call against terror in Arabic. I didn't read the transcripts in Arabic—I read the English translation. But I was most pleased that he did that. I thought that was an incredibly positive sign. As you know, I have been one who he has disappointed in the past, and therefore I hope that his actions now match his words."

On May 9, Bush again tried to clarify some of the disinformation spewed out by Israeli spokesman on their return journey to Israel. A partial transcript appears here:

Q: Mr. President, Israeli officials told me yesterday that you weren't against the idea of moving Yasser Arafat out of a position of power in a reformed Palestinian Authority as long as he was neither hurt nor exiled. Is that an accurate reflection of your opinion?

PRESIDENT BUSH: No, it's not. No, it's not an accurate reflection of what went on in the Oval Office, as the Secretary of State has made clear—who was in the meeting, as well. What is an accurate reflection of my opinion is that Mr. Arafat has let the Palestinian people down. He hasn't led. And as a result, the Palestinians suffer and my heart breaks for the Palestinian moms and dads who wonder whether or not their children are going to be able to get a good education and whether or not there's going to be a job available for their children.

And one of the things that we did talk about was how to put institutions in place so that a potential Palestinian state can be a peaceful neighbor with Israel. Reforms, such as making sure there is a single-command security force that can be held accountable for arresting terrorists; reforms such as having a kind of economic system that would help promote rule of law and defeat corruption; reform so that if there is ever a rebuilding campaign—which we've expressed an interest in doing and the Europeans have—that the money is actually spent on the projects that we intend them to be spent on. And that's what we did discuss.

Q: Do you have any confidence that the Hamas members arrested today, sir, will stay in jail?

PRESIDENT BUSH: We'll have to see. But what I said was—I said I was pleased that Chairman Arafat spoke in Arabic against terrorism. That's good. That's a positive development. Now it's up to Chairman Arafat to perform, to keep them in jail, arrest them and keep them in jail. In order for there to be peace, there must be—we must rout out terror. And the answer to your question, time will tell.

The Armey-geddon Battle: GOP Fundamentalists Call for Mass Expulsion of Palestinians

The U.S.-based combination of neo-conservative universal fascists, Christian Zionists preaching the "End Times," and the rightwing Mega gangsters who finance (and dictate policy to) Israel are a deadly combination that is hijacking U.S. interests in the direction of global war with a Israeli trigger. Actions by the U.S. Congress in support of Sharon's "Operation Warsaw Ghetto" invasion of Palestinian territories have all but taken over Washington in the past weeks, with a series of extremist resolutions that have passed Congress and the Senate. On May 1, House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) demonstrated the religious fanaticism behind Sharon's "Greater Israel" plan, in his interview with Chris Mathews, host of MSNBC's "Hardball" talk show (May 1), where Armey says he believes all the Palestinians in the West Bank should be transferred to other Arab lands—the same line as Rehavam Ze'evi and Ariel Sharon. This idea is in Tom DeLay's resolution in the House, which passed on May 2. The following is an edited partial transcript:

Mathews asks if Armey agrees with DeLay that the Palestinians should not have a state.

ARMEY: I am perfectly content to have a Palestinian state alongside Israel if it is a state that honors other's borders.

MATHEWS: You are in total, 180-degree disagreement with Tom DeLay, who said this week that the entire West Bank belongs to Israel and it belongs to that country that's not an Arab country?

ARMEY: No, I'm perfectly content to have a Palestinian state. I am not content to give up any part of Israel for that purpose of that Palestinian state.

MATHEWS: Wait a minute. Tom DeLay, whose resolution you're going to put on the floor tomorrow and schedule, has said that the entire West Bank, he calls it Judea and Samaria, belongs to Israel. How can you say that this resolution doesn't support the DeLay position, which is Israel has a right to grab the entire West Bank?

ARMEY: No, I—I'm content to have Israel grab the entire West Bank. I'm also content to have the Palestinians have a homeland and even for that to be somewhere near Israel, but I'm not content to see Israel give up land for the purpose of peace to the Palestinians who will not accept it and would not honor it. It is time to...

MATHEWS: Well, where do you put the Palestinian state, in Norway? Once the Israelis take back the West Bank permanently and annex it, there's no place else for the Palestinians to have a state.

ARMEY: No, no, that's not—that's not at all true. There are many Arab nations that have many hundreds of thousands of acres of land and—and soil and property and opportunity to create a Palestinian state.

MATHEWS: So you would transport—you would transport the Palestinians from Palestine to somewhere else and call it their state?

ARMEY: I would be perfectly content to have a homeland, just as—most of...

MATHEWS: But not in Palestine?

ARMEY: Most of the people who now populate Israel were transported from all over the world to that land and they made it their home. The Palestinians can do the same, and we're per—perfectly content to work with the Palestinians in doing that. We are not willing to sacrifice Israel for the notion of a Palestinian homeland.

MATHEWS: Have you ever told George Bush, the President from your home state of Texas, that you think the Palestinians should get up and go and leave Palestine and that's the solution?

ARMEY: I'm probably telling him that right now. This is...

MATTHEWS: Have you thought this through?

ARMEY: I have thought this through. I've thought it through for a lot of years. I believe that Israel is the state for the Jewish people. It needs to be honored. It needs to be protected.

MATHEWS: Yeah. That's not what you're saying. You're saying Israel should expand its borders to the Jordan River....

ARMEY: No.

MATHEWS: ...And kick out all the Palestinians? That's what you just said.

ARMEY: I am—I am content to have Israel occupy that land that it now occupies and to have those people who have been aggressors against Israel retired to some other arena, and I would be happy to have them make a home. I would be happy to have all of these Arab nations that have been so hell-bent to drive Israel out of the Middle East to get together, find some land and make a home for the Palestinians. I think it can be done....

MATHEWS: Well, just to repeat, you believe that the Palestinians who are now living on the West Bank should get out of there?

ARMEY: Yes.

On May 5, one of the most extremist Likudnik groups in the U.S., Americans for a Safe Israel, headed by Herb Zweibon, issued a widespread e-mail featuring extensive quotes from the Armey interview, and urging its members and Christian Zionists to support a future bill that Armey will be introducing supporting Israel's full annexation of the Palestinian territories.

Maryland Becomes Second State To Impose Death Penalty Moratorium

On May 9, Maryland's Governor Parris Glendening (D) imposed a moratorium on executions, until the state completes a study of whether there is racial bias in the use of the death penalty. That makes Maryland the second state, after Illinois, to impose a moratorium. The study is supposed to be completed in September. Glendening stayed the execution of Wesley Eugene Baker, one of 13 men—nine of them black—awaiting execution in Maryland. Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who is running to succeed Glendening, asked the Governor last week to impose the moratorium. Both Glendening and Townsend support the death penalty in limited cases.

Meanwhile, President Bush's Texas will lead the U.S. this year in executions. Seven people will be put to death in May, and another seven in July. Last year, executions were down, because the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed a few cases, to consider whether inmates had a right to competent counsel during habeas corpus appeals. But this year, the court has definitively ruled that while state law does provide prisoners a right to a lawyer for habeas corpus appeals, this does not bestow a right to competent counsel! So now, executions that were stayed last year, have been rescheduled. Since 1982, Texas has executed 265 people, more than any other state.

Madman Bolton Expands 'Axis of Evil' List at Heritage Foundation War Fest

In a speech at the Heritage Foundation, on May 6, Undersecretary of State John Bolton went "beyond the Axis of Evil" (his words) in adding three nations to the list given by George W. Bush in his January State of the Union address. Bolton, a leading utopian fanatic within the Administration, was the hit-man in the U.S.-run dumping of the head of the UN's Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Jose Mauricio Bustani of Brazil. While this was aimed at facilitating the war on Iraq, it also is now shown to have been part of the "continual warfare" policy.

Bolton, speaking at the Heritage Foundation on combatting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, first reviewed Iraq, Iran, and North Korea (the original three in the Axis of Evil), accusing all three of continuing efforts at developing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. He then went "beyond," naming Syria, Libya, and Cuba. He hit throughout the speech at pharmaceutical industries in these countries, indicating plans to extend the Sudan treatment globally. In Libya, for example, he says the Rabta facility had produced chemical weapons, then was shut down, but reopened in 1995 as a pharmaceutical plant. Said Bolton: "Chemical weapons production at Rabta cannot be ruled out."

Syria, he said, has a stockpile of sarin gas and is working on VX gas, and has Scud missiles and other means for delivering chemical weapons. But he saves his strongest venom for Cuba (see IBERO-AMERICA DIGEST). Cuba has been cuddled since the Clinton Adminisration, which said in 1998 that Cuba was not a military threat to the U.S.—a blunder, said Bolton, partially due to the activities of the Cuban spy Ana Belen Montes at the Defense Intelligence Agency, who confessed this year. Bolton's critical threat was as follows: "For four decades, Cuba has maintained a well-developed and sophisticated biomedical industry, supported until 1990 by the Soviet Union. This industry is one of the most advanced in Latin America and leads in the production of pharmaceuticals and vaccines that are sold worldwide [!]. Analysts and Cuban defectors have long cast suspicion on the activities conducted in these biomedical facilities. The U.S. believes that Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort. Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states" (emphasis added).

Bolton concludes that the U.S. "will take whatever steps are necessary to protect and defend our interests and eliminate the terrorist threat."

All rights reserved © 2002 EIRNS