UNITED STATES NEWS DIGEST
DeLay, Daschle, McCain Foam at Mouth at AIPAC Conference
More than 4,000 members attended the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), along with one-half of the U.S. Senate and about one-third of the House of Representatives, according to an AP wire on the conference, which was held April 21-22 in Washington, D.C. Congressman Tom DeLay and Senators Tom Daschle and John McCain gave wildlyhair-raisinglypartisan speeches, as reported below.
Two major themes dominated the gathering this year, the primary one being that Yasser Arafat is orchestrating the suicide bombers and should no longer be concerned a partner in the peace process. The second theme was that the U.S. is the only power that has a "right" to be involved in the Mideast negotiations, with the UN and the Western European countries dismissed as being dominated by the Arab countries, or anti-Semitic, or both.
Although President George W. Bush was praised as "our man," members of his Administration who attempted to defend any part of Administration policy that was not in line with the Likud Party line of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were met with derision and scorn. The same happened with a representative of the European Union who tried, at one forum, to explain the position the EU has taken. Most of the speakers at the conference referred to the recent synagogue burnings and bombings in Europe, and attacks on Jews, as a revival of anti-Semitism in the continent of the Holocaust.
White House Chief of Staff Andy Card addressed the gala evening panel, making the usual comments about the strong U.S.-Israeli alliance, stressing the need for Arafat to break with terrorism and the need to move toward negotiations in the peace process. He emphasized that the Administration wanted "to help all the children of Abraham." He got a cordial reception (unlike Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz's recent reception by a pro-Israel rally at the Capitol; there, Wolfowitz, as Administration spokesman, was booed when he insisted that Palestinian suffering too must be recognized). Card left the conference right after speaking; not so White House press spokesman Ari Fleischer, who didn't speak, but was present throughout.
The high point of the evening was the speech by Netanyahu (see INDEPTH).
House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) gave a wild-eyed speech, as did Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) and the Senate's very own "Manchurian candidate," John McCain (R-Ariz).
Delay declared that Arafat is evil and must go, and that any criticism of Israel is equivalent to supporting terrorists, in which context he slammed European criticism of the Israeli invasion of the West Bank. "Americans and Israelis are allies in the historic battle between liberty and tyranny." "All free men and women must rally to the defense of Israel. We must denounce the vile culture of death that menaces our ally. We need to remind the world at every opportunity that these regimes are not morally equivalent and America sides with liberty."
Of Arafat, DeLay said, "If a man's life's work has been spent fomenting, orchestrating, and directing the slaughter of innocent people, that man is, by his very evil and corrupted nature, beholden to terrorism. And democracies must not negotiate with terrorists.... Any state or movement connected with terrorism cannot be considered legitimate, regardless of the underlying cause or grievance.... If homicide bombers are allowed to succeed in Israel, every free society will eventually fall victim to the same evil tactic."
As for a possible peace settlement involving Israel's return to its 1967 borders, DeLay asserted that "the people of Israel can't be expected to make territorial concessions that render their state inherently indefensible." DeLay made clear he favors the Greater Israel concept of Sharon and Netanyahu, saying that he has stood on the Golan Heights and looked around, and that what he saw was not occupied territory, but Israel.
In a slightly lower pitch, Tom Daschle declared that U.S. backing for Israel must remain "absolute," and accused European, Arab, and United Nations officials of anti-Semitism and unfairness toward the Jewish state. "As long as I am Majority Leader of the United States Senate, we will be a friend to Israel in fair weather and in foul." He called on Arafat to stop the culture of incitement, and criticized the UN for failing to condemn rocket attacks on Israel by Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon, even though Israel had complied with UN Security Council Resolutions and withdrawn from southern Lebanon.
John McCain, the GOP's 2000 Presidential "Manchurian candidate" and Sen. Joe Lieberman's partner in pro-Sharon blackmail against President Bush, delivered the closing speech on Tuesday morning, April 23. He reportedly spoke to the AIPAC delegates at the Jefferson Memorial, just before they boarded buses to Capitol Hill for a day of lobbying on behalf of the Delay-Lantos bill to close the Palestinian Authority offices in Washington if Arafat doesn't reject terrorism, a second bill to reimpose sanctions on Syria, and a resolution to affirm Israel's right to defend itself.
McCain reiterated his call for an American invasion of Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein, blasted every Arab monarchy as undemocratic and tyrannical, and held Arafat solely responsible for the destruction of the Oslo peace process. He promoted the Brzezinski-Huntington Clash of Civilizations, ranting, "It is the unenlightened rule of Arab dictators, not the plight of the Palestinians, that condemns the Arab world to the civilizational crisis in which it finds itself."
McCain assailed Europe for focussing attention on the Israeli invasion while "dismissing Israel's legitimate security concerns," and joined with AIPAC's British intelligence controller, Dr. Bernard Lewis (son Michael Lewis is the head of AIPAC dirty tricks), in declaring that the Oslo peace process was founded on a fundamental error: "The Oslo peace process was premised on the notion that Israelis and Palestinians could live together. I believe it is now time to explore ways in which they can live apart."
McCain declared himself heir to the godfather of the rightwing Zionist Lobby, the late Democratic Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Washington State. "To be proudly pro-American and pro-Israel is not to hold conflicting loyalties. As Scoop understood, it is about defending the principles that both countries hold dear."
Administration Strains Saudi-U.S. Relations to Breaking Point over Peace Proposal
Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah brought an eight-point peace proposal to stop Israeli genocide to the table in his summit meeting with President George W. Bush in Crawford, Texas April 25, but White House handling of the Abdullah visit is straining Saudi-U.S. relations to the breaking point. On Saturday, April 27, after Ariel Sharon rubbed George W. Bush's face in the dirt by mocking his demand for "withdrawal" from the West Bank with more attacks, the New York Times leaked a report about how Bush had excluded Secretary of State Powell from any preparation of a joint Abdullah/Bush communiqué, and put the writing in the hands of pro-Sharon neo-conservative lunatics.
The Times report said that on Tuesday, April 23, the Crown Prince had submitted, in writing, a new eight-point peace proposal, updating the plan he presented to the Arab League summit, to take into account the continuing Israeli genocide inside the Palestinian territories. The report was given to the White House with enough time for Bush to study it before the Crawford meeting. On April 26, in a post-summit briefing, White House press spokesman Ari Fleischer acknowledged that the plan had been submitted, though neither government has made an official copy public.
The Crown Prince Abdullah document called for: 1. the immediate and complete withdrawal of the Israeli troops from the West Bank areas recently occupied; 2. an end to the Israeli military siege of Ramallah; 3. the deployment of an international force; 4. the reconstruction of the infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority and the territories, destroyed in the Israeli assaults; 5. a renunciation of violence by all sides; 6. the immediate initiating of political talks, with no security preconditions; 7. an end to Israeli settlements; and 8. implementation of United Nations resolution 242, calling for the Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders. American and Arab diplomatic sources told EIR that these measures are widely known to coincide with Powell's own recommendations for ending the Israeli stalemateincluding the deployment of a peacekeeping force to the region.
But, after Abdullah got the document to Bush, the White House staff prepared a proposed joint-statement in response, making it available to the Crown Prince prior to the meeting with Bush. Not only did the White House draft not mention the new Saudi peace initiative, but it in fact misrepresented the proposal that Abdullah made in Beirut to the Arab League! The Saudis were furious, and contacted aides to Powell to protest the draft, only to find that Powell had not even seen the White House document. The Saudis faxed him a copy, but the significance of Powell's not having been consulted was not lost on the Crown Prince and his top aides.
When Abdullah met with Vice President Cheney on Wednesday, according to the Times account, "a New York fire brigade" could not have quenched Abdullah's anger. The next morning, Cheney flew to Crawford to brief the President, prior to the Bush-Abdullah meeting.
Wall Street Journal's Resident Liberal Warns Against U.S. Unilateralism
Al Hunt, a regular columnist for the Wall Street Journal, had an op ed piece ("U.S. Can't Go It Alone") in the Journal April 25, pointing out that a unilateral U.S. war against the "axis of evil" would force a total break with both Western Europe and the Arab world. Even Britain's Tony Blair would find it difficult to stay with President Bush in the face of growing European resentment of America's pro-Sharon policy in the Mideast, he argued.
Of greatest significance, the article quoted Brent Scowcroft, who was National Security Adviser to former President George H.W. Bush, remains very close to the former President, co-authored a book with him on foreign policy, and now heads the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, or PFIAB.
Scowcroft warned that American unilateralism is a prescription for trouble: "American power alone is simply not sufficient. If there is sullenness about U.S. policy around the world, much less opposition, there will be great friction to get anything done ... we will be like Gulliver and the Lilliputians."
In discussing the issue of Mideast policy, Hunt cited the Sharon-led slaughter of Palestinian refugees at Sabra and Shatila in 1982 as a turning point in Mideast history. European opinion, after those massacres, turned decidedly anti-Sharon, while remaining pro-Israel. "All of which makes President Bush's repeated claims that Mr. Sharon is 'a man of peace' ring hollow to people elsewhere," Hunt wrote. Bush has been in retreat from his balanced approach to Mideast peace of several weeks ago, charged Hunt.
Again quoting Scowcroft, Hunt described Powell's doomed mission to the Mideast as "debasing American leverage. Secretary of State Powell was sent over there without any arrows in his quiver."
Hunt concluded with a strong message to President Bush: "Whether the subject is the Middle East or the need to curb weapons of mass destruction or the need to fight terrorism, it's indisputable that those threats cannot be combatted unilaterally. We still need friends and allies."
Lyndon LaRouche assessed that the Scowcroft statements reflect the elder George Bush's worries that George W. Bush is falling victim to his own follies, and could self-destruct unless cooler heads prevail.
National Endowment for Democracy Caught in Chavez Coup Plot
According to an April 25 piece in the New York Times ("U.S. Bankrolling Is Under Scrutiny for Ties to Chavez Ouster," by Christopher Marques), Project Democracy's National Endowment for Democracy, whose president is former ADL "snitch" Carl Gershman, has been caught funding key institutions in the abortive coup to oust Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Within the last year, the NED, which played a major role in Ollie North's Project Democracy, has funnelled $877,000 to organizations in Venezuela seeking "democractic change" of the Chavez regime.
Now, an additional $1 million to the NED for similar activities in Venezuela is on hold, at the request of the State Department's Human Rights Bureau. Of particular concern in previous grants was $154,377 given by the NED to the AFL-CIO and thence funnelled to the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers, whose general strikes galvanized opposition to Chavez. The union's leader, Carlos Ortega, worked closely with the five-hour President of Venezuela, businessman Pedro Carmona Estanga, in the coup attempt.
Also, the NED-affiliated National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, whose leaders include Madeleine Albright, was given a $210,500 grant to promote "democracy in Venezuela." And its sister institution, the International Republican Institute, which has an office in Venezuela, received a grant of $339,986 for similar operations.
The Marques article made clear that "the Bush Administration, which has made no secret of its disdain for Mr. Chavezand his warm relations like Cuba and Iraqhas turned to the Endowment to help the opposition to Mr. Chavez."
Al Gore Comes Back Swinging; Other Democrats Wincing
At the grotesque Democratic Party state convention in Florida April 13-14 (addressed by all sorts of potential 2004 Presidential candidates, including Senators Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, John Kerry of Massachusetts, and John Edwards of North Carolina), the piéce de résistance, sort of, was Al Gore, making his highest-profile speech since he stalked off the political stage at the end of the year 2000.
Determined not to be outflanked in the opinion polls, Gore supported Bush's "war on terrorism," but slammed the Administration on domestic and economic policy, including making the absurd claim that "I don't care what anybody says, I think Bill Clinton and I did a damn good job with the economy." Nonsense: The 1990s saw the growth of an enormous, economy-devouring financial speculative bubble which began to burst while Gore and Clinton were still in office, in 2000, and whose effects are being felt ever more profoundly, in the continuing collapse of the American economy.
Although Gore got a more or less rousing welcome in Orlando, a Gallup poll for CNN and USA Today shows the national Democratic Party sharply split, with 48% saying Gore should not run again, and only 43% saying he should.
Gore was in evidence again for Earth Day, with a New York Times column April 21 retreading the global-warming hysteria of his book Earth in the Balance, and attacking the Bush Administration for its energy and environmental policies.
He followed up April 22 at Vanderbilt University, where he attacked the Administration with environmental statistics infected by the chronic Gore disease of exaggeration and distortion. The April 23 Washington Post editorially blasted him for not having gotten over his problem of lying.
'Central North America Land Bridge Corridor' Discussed in South Dakota
Over the period April 20-23, Hal Cooper, Seattle-based transportation consultant, visited South Dakota for public events of the LaRouche in 2004 campaign hosted by South Dakota LaRouche leader Ron Wieczorek. Cooper released a new study, the "Central North America Land Bridge Corridor for the Integrated Transportation, Energy and Water Line between North Dakota and Texas in the Great Plains States."
On April 11, Cooper was interviewed by Marcia Merry Baker; excerpts appear here.
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Baker: Mr. Cooper, let's start with geography. What is so desirable about your Corridor route?
Cooper: Well, this particular corridor, going from North Dakota to Texas, if you are going in a trans-continental system from Alaska to Central America, this is the most direct geographic route.
Baker: How long in the United States?
Cooper: Approximately 1,600 miles.
Baker: What about the terrain, the elevation profile? No higher than the Appalachians?
Cooper: It's approximately 3,200 feet at the highest elevation, which is near Colby, Kansas, and the lowest elevation is about 800 feet at the Rio Grande River, at Eagle Pass, Texas. It goes through relatively level and gentle terrain, which is largely plains; and, of course, it's the middle of the agricultural farming belt of the United States in the Great Plains.
Baker: So it would cross some of the rivers flowing west to east, in the Mississippi Basin?
Cooper: That is correct. And of course, at parallels the Missouri River for quite a long distance, in North and South Dakota.
Baker: Then there is point of "geo-engineering"if you have all this infrastructure developed, you could upgrade land resources, instead of mining the land, and speculating and creating sprawl, as in the Red River Valley, and points in Minnesota?
Cooper: That is correct. It would enhance agriculture, and one of the things that could occur is the re-location of industry back into the United States, that has been sent overseas; that now that we have this increased problem with terrorism, it really would be better if we had our basic manufacturing industries in the United Stateswhich means, of course, that we are not only expanding infrastructure, but our employment and our economic base.
High-Tech Energy
Baker: On the matter of energy supplies, there is proximity of coalfieldswhere coal could be more used near its source, instead of hauled thousands of miles?
Cooper: That's exactly right. There are coalfields in Iowa, in Kansas and Missouri, that could be utilized; and of course, in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming on the other side. There is a very extensive lignite belt in North Dakota. This corridor would go right on the eastern edge ofpast two of the major power plants.
Baker: Eventually, you would say, that to get into the modern era, we would be electrifying the rail?
Cooper: Yes. To make the railroads electric, utilizes some of the output from the power plant, and it would go in parallel to a water pipeline, which would utilize a very large amount of electricity to move the water from within this particular region. It would alleviate the need to import oil for transportation; and make it more feasible from a number of standpoints.
Baker: What about the place of nuclear power?
Cooper: I suggest two very specific nuclear projects on this corridor, because the corridor goes very close to the Pantex nuclear weapons assembly plant, near Amarillo, Texas, and that facility has been downgraded from its previous purpose, which was to assemble nuclear weapons. But there is a large amount of plutonium, and highly enriched uranium at that site, which could be utilized for the fuel rods for nuclear reactors. Then the material would be burned up and converted into useful energy, and not have to be stored at the Yucca Mountain facility. There is a very large amount of material that could be utilized for nuclear fuel.
Separate from that, farther to the south, near San Angelo, Texas, there's a very large saline water aquifer that's under pressure, called the Coleman Junction Aquifer. I could see the proposal of Mr. LaRouche for one of these large nuclear desalination facilities there. It would not only produce energy for this corridor, but it would provide a great deal of fresh water for a very parched area of Southwest Texas. Right now, the cities in that area are going out and buying up whatever water rights there are, and then there's no water left for the farmers. This would help alleviate that problem, in an area that basically is a desert.
Farm Bill Stalls in Conference
House-Senate negotiations on a new farm bill stalled amid disagreements over a number of its provisions and growing costs due to continuing low commodities prices. The impasse prompted Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kans) to propose calling off the conference negotiations and passing a one-year agriculture relief bill. He told the Senate on April 17, "It is too late to pass a bill that applies to this year's crop," since none of the assistance in the bill will get out to farmers before the spring of 2003. Roberts said that, as soon as it is feasible, he will ask unanimous consent to call up the relief bill that he introduced earlier in the year or, if that fails, he will call it up as an amendment to "any bill" being considered by the Senate.
Border Security Bill Sails Through Senate
The Senate unanimously passed a bill on April 18 to enhance border security. Among its provisions are requirements for enhanced information sharing by law enforcement and intelligence agencies with the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the State Department, an increase in the number of INS investigators and inspectors, tighter control of visas, a requirement that vessels and aircraft coming into or departing from the United States provide passenger and crew lists to immigration authorities, and new monitoring requirements for foreign students, including that schools must notify the INS, if a foreign student fails to enroll.
'Steel Legacy' Legislation Introduced in Congress
On April 17, U.S Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) introduced into Congress S.2189, "The Steel Industry Consolidation and Retiree Benefits Protection Act of 2002," designed to protect the health benefits of steel industry retirees. The legislation is an attempt to mitigate the effect that the ongoing collapse of the steel industry has had on steelworker retirees' health-care benefits, benefits which cannot be paid by bankrupt or near-bankrupt steel companies.
On March 31, all company-provided pensions and health insurance were terminated for employees of liquidated LTV Steel, affecting 80,000 retirees and dependents. While some of the pension benefits were picked up by an existing Federal program, workers' health insurance was wiped out.
The United Steelworkers of America (USWA) played a strong role in crafting the present legislation, which establishes a trust funded in part by revenues from tariffs on steel imports, and USWA president Leo Gerard has promised a a mobilization of USWA members and retirees on its behalf. In late February, the union mobilized 30,000 members, retirees, and supporters to rally at the White House to support tariffs on steelsubsequently adopted by the Bush Administration, in a break with recent years' disastrous U.S. "free-trade" policy.
On April 25, the Wall Street Journal ran a front-page article painting a rosy picture of the vigorous steel industry of the future, minus these health and other benefits. According to the Journal, a "quiet but profound" transformation of the steel industry is underway, weakening worker wages and benefits.
ISG (previously LTV) has reopened without the burden of retiree legacy costs and is negotiating a new contact with the USWA which will introduce elements of the non-union "mini-mill" model, with wages tied to productivity and 401K plans substituted for retirement and health benefits. Bethlehem is working to establish a joint venture with CSN of Brazilanother case where the new owner will not assume legacy obligations. The Journal summarizes approvingly, "If these strategies succeed the companies may well survive, ... but their retirees are likely to face the same fate as if the companies went out of business: the loss of most benefits."
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