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From the Vol.1 No.12 issue of Electronic Intelligence Weekly

UNITED STATES NEWS DIGEST

Bush Goes to Europe and Russia: See Special Report from EIR in Germany in EIW's InDepth

Top Military Brass Press Opposition to Iraq Adventure

In a backhanded admission that Lyndon LaRouche has been right again—this time, about the U.S. military's lack of capability to carry out extended wars, or simultaneous wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and who-knows-where else—the Joint Chiefs of Staff has leaked to the press that the top brass are urging the President to back off plans for the widely mooted attack on Iraq. The Washington Post on May 24 reported that there are intense "behind-the-scenes" efforts by the Chiefs to pull the Bush Administration back from an Iraq war, while the New York Times the same day, disclosed a "top-secret," "highly classified" war-game exercise, demonstrating how dangerously overstretched U.S. forces are becoming, with respect to new "anti-terrorism" adventures.

The Post story stressed the fierceness of the faction fight between the uniformed military leaders and the super-hawks associated with Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. "All the Chiefs stood shoulder to shoulder," against what a top general calls the "Iraq hysteria" of the pro-invasion faction, a military source said.

The officers' briefings stressed the dangers of potential urban warfare in Baghdad that could kill thousands on both sides, and that there is no real plan for a viable regime to replace Saddam Hussein.

Gen. Tommy Franks warned that an invasion would need at least 200,000 troops. But the war faction backs the plan of retired Army Gen. Wayne A. Downing, calling for "conquering" Iraq with airstrikes and Special Operations attacks cooperating with "indigenous fighters"!

The Times reported on a huge war game, code-named "Prominent Hammer," which revealed that in any new war the U.S. would have severe equipment shortages of all kinds. And even the supposed small-scale operation already launched in Afghanistan brought demands for the scarce equipment to the level of a full-scale war.

The Times also reiterated earlier warnings by General Ralston and Admiral Blair, that at the height of the Afghanistan deployment, the U.S. was not prepared to deal with any adversary that might have taken advantage of the moment to launch an attack elesewhere. The senior officers also stress that the use of the military for homeland security duties is already dangerously stretching U.S. forces.

House Passes New Welfare Reform Bill

The House of Representatives Republican leadership rammed through its welfare "reform" proposal May 16, by a vote of 229 to 197. The bill is similar to that proposed by President Bush earlier this year: Its main feature is the increase in the required number of work hours per week, from 20 to 24 for each recipient, and the increase, from 50% to 70% of recipients by 2007, in the participation rate required for a state to be eligible for grants. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) declared that the 1996 welfare reform has been a success, and that the new bill "is an attempt to put legislation together that will focus on areas that need greater attention, to maximize the opportunity to move people from poverty to productive work."

The Democrats, while not arguing with the GOP's outrageous assertion that the 1996 act promoted the common good, did say that the new bill was anything but an improvement. Their objections fell into three general areas: lack of flexibility for the states, lack of funding for child care, and reduction of access to job-training programs. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) told the House that the bill "would require states to take resources away from job-training programs and child-care programs into workfare programs" which would deny people "real jobs and the opportunity to move up into the workplace." He added that the bill takes away flexibility to provide educational services to welfare recipients.

Another argument that the Democrats raised was the cost to the states. Cardin said that the bill will cost states $15-18 billion to comply, almost two-thirds of which will be for child-care programs. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) noted that that amounts to a $280 million unfunded mandate for the state of Washington, "where they are already $1 billion in the hole."

Senate Heads for Fiscal Gridlock

The collision of several pieces of legislation with the Memorial Day recess is almost certain to guarantee partisan gridlock in the Senate. On May 21, Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) appeared with other GOP members to call on Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) to call up the fiscal 2003 defense authorization bill as the first order of business after the Senate returns in June, to be followed by the defense appropriations bill. The GOP supports the authorization bill, which passed out of the Armed Services Committee on May 10, except for the fact that the Democrats succeeded in cutting about $1 billion from missile defense. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) predicted that missile defense will be a "contentious issue" when the bill comes to the Senate floor.

Daschle has an entirely different agenda, not supported by the Republicans, with the possible exception of John McCain (R-Ariz.). Speaking after the GOP press conference, Daschle said that he hoped to bring up the fiscal 2002 supplemental appropriations bill, hate-crimes legislation, and possibly a bill to create a commission to investigate the failure of government agencies to act on pre-Sept. 11 intelligence information regarding possible terrorist attacks. The latter effort is being co-sponsored by McCain and his alter-ego, Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.). Daschle said his intention is to move "reasonably quickly."

Wall Street Journal 'Discovers' Christian Zionists But EIR has the Authoritative Story

Note to EIW readers: On May 23, 2002, the Wall Street Journal became the latest "establishment" publication to issue an investigative report on the role of U.S. based Christian fundamentalism and Christian Zionism in throwing total support behind the fascist policies of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government, including the plan to drive all Palestinians out of Israel and the Occupied Territories (the "transfer" option), and the annexation of the West Bank and parts of Lebanon (the "Eretz Israel" or Greater Israel option).

The Journal article follows similar reports in Time magazine, the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, and London-based newspapers that appeared during the hideous Israeli assaults on Jenin, Ramallah, Bethlehem, and the West Bank. Ironically, the Wall Street Journal has been in alliance, for over ten years, with the same Christian Zionists they are "exposing," especially as part of the campaign to impeach Bill Clinton or drive him out of office through a resignation.

For those who want the real history of how, and why it is that this phenomenon is used to blackmail the White House and the U.S. Congress—the only fully authoritative source has been Lyndon LaRouche's Executive Intelligence Review (EIR).

Of particular relevance are two special reports and one book by EIR: the March 1986, "Moscow's Secret Weapon: Ariel Sharon and the Israeli Mafia" which exposes the Christian/Zionist outfit, the American Jerusalem Temple Foundation; the January 1993 book,
The Ugly Truth About the ADL and the December 2000 "Who Is Sparking a Religious War in the Middle East?" All are available from EIR's Online Store at www.larouchepub.com.

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On May 23, the Wall Street Journal published a front-page investigative report, under the title "Chosen People—How Israel Became a Favorite Cause of Christian Right"—by Tom Hamburger and Jim VandeHei, which claims that a new phenomenon "has burst into view" since Sept. 11, namely the alliance between Israel and Republican conservatives. The Journal states:

"The shift is having far-reaching consequences. More than any single factor, it explains why there has been so little pressure from a Republican White House on Israel to curb its crackdown on Palestinians.... House Republican Leader Dick Armey of Texas has gone so far as to suggest that Palestinians, not Israelis, ought to be the ones to surrender land in the quest for peace."

The authors trace the origin of this operation to the Christian coalition, that emerged in 1980, when religious conservatives flocked to the candidacy of Ronald Reagan for President. This changed the composition of the GOP from mainline Protestant denominations to the Religious Right. Even so, the turning point did not come until after President Ronald Reagan authorized the sale of five Airborne Warning and Control System (AWAC) planes to Saudi Arabia, when all but 12 of the 53 Senate Republicans including Majority Leader Howard Baker of Tennessee, voted against Israel and its lobbying organizations opposition.

Importantly, the authors point out that after the AWACs sale, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), through its executive director Tom Dine, began a concerted campaign to recruit conservative supporters, especially Evangelicals. But the Journal tends to downplay the determination—with significant funding—of AIPAC to seek out those "conservative Christians, whose interpretation of the Bible declares Israel the covenant land promised to the Jewish people by God."

The expose includes valuable details, including how the Zionist lobby made a "techtonic shift" in funding to Republican Senate candidates in rural areas, beginning to abandon (or threaten to abandon) liberal Democratic candidates they traditionally supported; how right-wing Zionist lobbyists have been flying politicians and Christian evangelicals to "experience the Holy Land."

Also, says the Journal, the office of House Majority Whip Tom DeLay of Texas, is going to have the Zionist lobby host several major fundraising events on his behalf, after the rabidly pro-Eretz Yisroel speech that he gave to the AIPAC conference, to finance the 2002 GOP elections to Congress. In addition, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, who directs the Chicago-based International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, says that conservative Christians have contributed more than $60 million since 1994 to help Israel, and especially since Sept. 11.

The Journal also identifies the key role of Rev. Ed McAteer in the Christian Zionist operation. For a background on this, see last week's EIW article, "Weyrich Rallies Catholics To Join Christian Zionism's Armageddon Army."

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