UNITED STATES NEWS DIGEST
DLC Says Bush Needs Partnership with Congress for Iraq War
The New Dem Daily, the newsletter of the Democratic Leadership Council, issued a call on July 18 saying that the debate on whether, how, and when to go to war against Iraq should be brought out of the closet. DLC Vice Chairman, Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif), said on July 17 in the New York Times that "I am convinced that a regime change in Iraq is in the best interests of the United States and also our allies. But if they [the Administration] are putting a green light on this, they'd better bring this over and start talking to us. They can't just say, 'Trust us.' " In brief, the DLC says that there must be a "partnership with Congress" in planning a war against Iraq.
Biden: Bush Has Signed Off on Operation Against Iraq
In remarks made in a private discussion with visiting members of the European Parliament, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del) said the Bush Administration has already signed off on a military operation against Iraq, although it has not decided precisely how it will conduct this. Biden reportedly told the visiting European parliamentarians, "Your silence is dangerous," indicating that, unless the Europeans came up with some approaches to dealing with the Iraqi "proliferation problem," the Bush Administration would be moving for the more drastic of available options.
An Elaboration of Bush's 'First Strike' Doctrine?
BBC News reported July 18 that the Pentagon's head of Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Stephen Younger, spoke of the advantages of using intercontinential ballistic missiles (ICBMs) armed with conventional warheads in future conflicts. BBC provides no information as to where or when Younger made his remarks. Younger was quoted as saying, "For example, if you were to see from a satellite that an adversary was preparing to launch a Scud missile and you had reason to believe there was a biological warhead on it, then you would want to have the ability to destroy that target very quickly before that Scud was launched."
Talk of Scuds and biological weapons led BBC to write, "He did not mention Iraq, but [our] Washington correspondent says the work is part of an attempt to find ways to combat weapons of mass destruction." Younger indicated there are some problems to be overcome; for example, BBC writes, "The danger that an ICBM launch might be mistaken by Russia as a nuclear attack."
Congressional Dems, GOP Seek Fuller Discussion on Iraq
The Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee plans to hold hearings on Iraq before the summer recess in early August, and the GOP-controlled House International Relations Committee intends to do the same, with hearings in late August or September, according to James Dao in the New York Times. The Administration, however, has expressed caution about any such hearings, because it hasn't settled on how to get what it wants vis-à-vis Iraq. Congressional sources, speaking to the Times, complained that while there is broad bipartisan support for ousting Saddam Hussein, Congress is worried about the blow-back from any large-scale U.S. troop deployment. These sources also complain that much of what they know about the Administration's thinking comes from press leaks (something the Times has certainly participated in recently).
Unnamed Democrats add that President Bush would have to seek Congressional approval for invasion under the War Powers Act, while Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, a decorated Vietnam veteran, has called for a "national dialogue.... If the United States decides to take action against Iraq, Americans need to understand the risks and objectives.... That was a debate we didn't have with Vietnam."
Wolfowitz to Turkey: War with Iraq Inevitable
Deputy Defense Secretary and utopian maniac Paul Wolfowitz held a press conference in Ankara last week, after two days of meetings designed to armtwist Turkish military officials into support for a U.S. war on neighboring Iraq:
"As President Bush emphasized, the Iraqi regime, hostile to the United States and supporting terrorism, is a danger that we cannot afford to live with indefinitely," Wolfowitz said. "Turkey stands to benefit enormously if Iraq becomes a normal country." (Turkey says it has lost about $40 billion in trade since sanctions were imposed on Iraq after the Gulf War.)
Wolfowitz reportedly also promised Turkey that the U.S. would not support the formation of an independent Kurdish state. The Turks fear that U.S. support for Kurdish minority populations in northern Iraq would incite the Kurds living in Turkey.
Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein responded to the U.S. threats in a televised speech celebrating the 34th anniversary of the revolution which brought his Ba'ath Party to power. Saddam said that "evil tyrants and oppressors" are trying to unseat him and his government, adding, "You will never defeat me this time. Never!"
"The wind will blow away foreign rattling as the noise of an evil covetous tyrant, the enemy of Allah," Saddam said.
McCain, LiebermanThe Manchurian Candidates
McCain Advisers Pushed 'Dow 36,000' and Financial Deregulation
Three years ago, before the crash began in 2000, the Nasdaq was climbing off the charts, and John McCain's top economic adviser for his 2000 Presidential campaign was Kevin Hassett, the co-author of Dow 36,000, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Hassett was arguing, even as the Dow soared above 11,000, that stocks were not overvalued, and that "Stock prices could double, triple, or even quadruple tomorrow and still not be too high."
"McCain, who once, like every other politician in Washington, sought the money of Silicon Valley industrialists to finance his ambitions, today dons the mantle of Teddy Roosevelt, the populist Republican Trust Buster," the article points out. "McCain is out-Democrating Democrats in his lust for a corporate crackdown, becoming the first to publicly attack the icons of Silicon Valley. He now demands new laws that did not occur to him when his economic adviser said stocks would quadruple."
Hassett, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, was indeed McCain's top economic adviser. Hassett also brought into McCain's campaign Charles Calomiris of AEI, who founded an AEI project promoting decreased regulation of the financial sector. Still another McCain economic adviser was David C. John of the Heritage Foundation, who promoted the repeal of the New Deal Glass-Steagall Act, so as to allow banks, insurance companies, and investment companies to enter into each other's marketsall of which measures have contributed to today's debacle in financial markets.
How Lieberman Preserved Phony Accounting of Stock Options
In the course of a related story in the July 15 New York Times, the paper's reporters repeat what EIR has previously reported: "In 1994, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which sets accounting standards in America, retreated from its proposed rule to require options to be expenses. It reacted to heavy political pressure directed by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, who had pushed through the Senate a resolution opposing the plan on a vote of 88-9. He then proposed legislation to all but put the board out of business, but dropped that proposal after the board backed down.
"The board surrendered on the private advice of Mr. [Arthur] Levitt, then the SEC chairman [who supported the proposed rule]. Yesterday, [Levitt] said that was the worst mistake he had made at the [Securities and Exchange] Commission."
McCain, Lieberman in Spotlight in Coverage of Stock-Market Crash
Arizona Senator John McCain and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman are, as the New York Times and New York Post reported July 14, increasingly in theunwantedspotlight in coverage of the political ramifications of the stock-market crash and corporate corruption scandals.
The New York Times noted, in news coverage and in a separate article devoted to Lieberman alone, that the Connecticut Senator is in a "tough spot," because he has stressed the need to be "pro-business," avoid "class warfare," and so forth. In this regard, Lieberman has opposed tighter accounting rules regarding stock options (i.e., making corporations count them as liabilities) (see above), and supported restrictions on lawsuits against management and accountants.
"Lieberman's Pro-Business Views May Haunt Him," is the title of the article, and it features some quotes from an interview with a very defensive Lieberman, who said he is "proud to consider myself a pro-business Democrat," and that he is outraged at "greedy individuals." Lieberman, who is, as the column points out, a big recipent of funds from business, and is seriously considering a run for President, has been forced to shift his view to one closer to McCain on some issues, such as top corporate execs' ability to sell stock options.
McCain, on the other hand, has been grandstanding non-stop on the issue of corporate corruption, making demands that SEC chairman Harvey Pitt resign, supporting the Sarbanes bill on accounting, which toughens penalties on corporate offenders, and the like (although he has plenty of skeletons in his own closet; see item above).
In this regard, the New York Times, in its lead Week in Review feature, entitled "Is Today's New Investor Tomorrow's New Populist?," concludes with a section on McCain, the "seeming wild card," who has tried to capitalize on the latest scandals. The Times author compares the attitude to that of William Jennings Bryan in the late 19th century. The article is accompanied by a small vignette about Teddy Roosevelt's "Bull Moose" campaignand how much at odds George W. Bush (who claims TR as a model) is with that President.
And finally, in the New York Post gossip column, the lead item cites "political insiders" in Arizona and Washington, saying McCain will not run for a fourth term in the Senate in 2004, but for President, as an independent. McCain's staff has attributed the story to his enemies, and said he will announce his decision after the Novemver 2002 elections.
Other News
UN Security Council Exempts U.S. from ICC
United Nations Security Council has exempted the U.S. and others from the International Criminal Court, voting 15-1 on July 12 to approve a U.S.-sponsored resolution which will exempt troops from the U.S., Russia, and China serving in UN-approved peacekeeping missions, from prosecution by the ICC. The resolution, enacted over fierce opposition from some Security Council members, exempts troops from prosecution for a 12-month period, from countries which have not ratified the 1998 Rome Treaty.
The U.S., Russia, and China are among the many countries which have not ratified the treaty. One hundred thirty-nine countries have signed the treaty, but only 76 have ratified it.
House of Representatives Grapples with Homeland Security Reorganization
House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) is overriding House committees with his own homeland security bill, according to the Washington Post July 19. Armey and the House Republican leadership have presented their own Homeland Security bill, one which gives the White House almost everything it wanted, and rejects recommendations from various House committees. The Armey bill, for example, overrides committee votes that would have kept the Coast Guard and FEMA where they now are, instead of incorporating them into the new Department of Homeland Security. Armey also agreed to give the Administration unusual flexibility in budgeting, which was opposed by many in the House.
Interestingly, the version of the bill presented by the House GOP leadership not only rejected but prohibited two programs which the Administration was seeking: (1) the Terrorist Information and Prevention System (TIPS), which would have created a national system of informants among truckers, postal workers, private utility workers, and the like; and (2) a national drivers' license program which could develop into a national ID card.
Another Shoe Drops on the Warner-Warner Deal in Virginia
U.S. Senator John Warner (R-Va) will jointly campaign with Democratic Governor Mark Warner to pass November ballot initiatives for transportation improvements in northern Virginia and Tidewater, funded through increased sales taxes.
The Washington Post in its coverage, adhering to its policy of never mentioning the name of LaRouche, or any LaRouche Democrat, reports that [John] Warner faces "no serious opposition in the same November election"although LaRouche Democrat Nancy Spannaus is running against himthen quotes him as saying, "I fully recognize that taxation is a highly volatile thingespecially when you are seeking re-election, but, you know, duty calls."
In May, the Democratic Governor telegraphed that the Democratic Party would run no candidate in the U.S. Senate race, by a virtual public endorsement of John Warner's representation of Virginia. Now, John Warner will campaign for Mark Warner's signature campaign promiseto break the gridlock in the Washington suburbs and Tidewateragainst most of the GOP, who oppose it on anti-tax grounds.
The Warners' deal misses only one thingreality. The U.S. needs major infrastructure investment, not piddly projects; financed by the credit of the Federal government, not an increase in sales taxes, which are already collapsing just like state revenues.
White House Denies 'Plungers' Intervened in Markets
White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said that the U.S. government had not convened the President's Working Group on Financial Markets (known as the "Plunge Protection Team") to discuss the slide in U.S. stock markets in the early part of last week. "They have not met with particular reference to stock market activity, because we don't try to manage the stock market's daily movements," Fleischer said. He qualified his statement by acknowledging that there had been staff-level contacts among the Working Group to discuss ways to improve corporate governance and to protect employee pensions, but he said that the heads of the agencies that make up the group have not met recently.
Reuters reports, citing market sources, that the New York Fed called key market players in recent days to try and gauge what the market needed to hear from Fed Chairman Greenspan in his Senate testimony July 16, in order to soothe investor concerns. The New York Fed reportedly declined comment, but it said that as part of its market-monitoring role, it speaks to participants daily about market conditions.
D.C. Mayoral Race Could Become Free-For-All
The Washington, D.C. Mayoral elections could become a "free-for-all" if incumbent Mayor Anthony Williams is knocked off the ballot for petition fraud, noted the Washington Times, citing five "no-name Democrats" who have also filed nominating petitions, plus third-party and independent candidates. One of the Democratic candidates, Tricia Kinch, a former Williams staffer and ex-FCC official, is quoted as saying that there is a strong "anybody-but-Williams" contingent in D.C., and she says residents are angry about the closing of D.C. General Hospital (the only full-service public hospital in the District), the condition of education, etc.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post gives front-page coverage to Williams vowing that he'll regroup, and still run for Mayor, probably as an independent, even if he's thrown off the ballot.
The "D.C. Watch" website shows seven Democrats having filed petitions, along with one independent candidate and one from the Statehood-Green Party. Among the Democrats is Arthur Jackson, a Ward 8 activist who last year confronted the D.C. Democratic Party on their inaction around keeping D.C. General Hospital open.
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