In this issue:

Schroeder Needs, Not Risky Strategy for Austerity, But Reasonable Economic Policy

No Collaboration with Bush Administration While Hawks Are There—French Military Expert

Wolfowitz: France Will Have To Pay for Opposing the War

Great Britain Rocked by One of Greatest Scandals of Postwar Period

British Workers Will Have To Work Five Years Longer or Face Pension Cuts

Is Blair Aiming To Become European 'Super President,' with Bush Backing?

Hungary Votes for European Union Membership

From Volume 2, Issue Number 16 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Apr. 21, 2003

Western European News Digest

Schroeder Needs, Not Risky Strategy for Austerity, But Reasonable Economic Policy

Whereas German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is backed by an overwhelming majority of Germans on the issue of opposition to the Iraq war, he has a rating of only 33% or less on his economic-social policies. Unrest among labor unions and his own Social Democratic Party has increased, over recent weeks, in spite of his opposition to the war. Now pressure inside the party has grown so much, that Schroeder feels obliged to hold a special SPD convention on June 1, and labor unions have announced a wave of protests for the month of May. Since Schroeder cannot be assured that his thin (four-seat) majority in the Bundestag will hold on crucial issues of economic and social austerity, he is warning the party that either they back his policy, or he quits (although he used more moderate language).

This is highly dangerous and unnecessary: If Schroeder agreed with the trade unions on the concept of conjunctural incentives for job creation and combined that with a Lyndon LaRouche-inspired approach on long-term loans for projects, he would avoid such a conflict. He should scrap the Maastricht Treaty system that undergirds European Union fiscal policy, replace Finance Minister Hans Eichel, and announce great infrastructure projects. For example, there is even considerable union support for magnetic levitation rail projects, upon which he could base a policy change.

No Collaboration with Bush Administration While Hawks Are There—French Military Expert

There can be no collaboration with the Bush Administration so long as the hawks are there, said a French military expert to an EIR correspondent last week. Instead of trying to be diplomatic with the Anglo-Americans, the peace camp countries should instead declare "that there are unbridgeable differences, at this point, between their camp and that of the Anglo-American coalition." The peace camp needs to retake the initiative internationally by attempting to block the Anglo-Americans in their march towards imperial power, stated this source. It is no time for diplomatic blathering, but for launching initiatives that will again "jam" the Anglo-Americans' progression.

According to this source, the tripwire for the Russians and the Putin entourage will be Iran. The Russians were not particularly attached to Saddam, but have often stated that they will not tolerate one inch of Iran being touched, because they are "our allies."

Wolfowitz: France Will Have To Pay for Opposing the War

Le Figaro and other French papers last week prominently reported on U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz's declaration of war against France. "The Americans are not yet ready to pardon Jacques Chirac," says Le Figaro, noting that Wolfowitz, still furious about Paris' veto and even more so "about Paris' refusal to authorize, in the weeks preceding the war, the transfer to Turkey of anti-air raid protection devices," declared: "The behavior of the French was very injurious to NATO, and I think that France will have to assume the consequences. If we look only at the state of our military relations with France, things are reasonably healthy. It is with the French political figures that we have a problem."

"The vengeance will be political," concluded Le Figaro, noting that "as Wolfowitz let it be known, Americans will make it hard for France within the institutions of the Atlantic Alliance."

While much of the French press last week followed the Goebbels line coming out of the Bush Administration about the "heroic victory" of the Anglo-Americans in Iraq, some stuck to their guns, and are continuing their opposition to the Chickenhawks. Among them, Jean Claude Maurice, editor-in-chief of the Journal de Dimanche, a paper owned by the powerful Lagardere group in France (weapons, media, editors). "No, France is not isolated," stated Maurice in his editorial. "Only more attacked because it is a member of the Security Council and leader of the Fronde. Less audible for a certain time, like all those who prefer peace when weapons triumph. It is now designated by the U.S. as the 'ally one loves to hate the most,' ....

"What to do then? Tremble with fear? ... Beg to get the crumbs of the reconstruction? Many are inviting us to do so, as if our past position had been nothing but a posture. That would mean renouncing all that France—supported until now by the majority of the world opinion—has defended: the primacy of right over might, the refusal of humiliation, the equal dignity of peoples, and especially a new organization of the world—collective, multilateral—refusing to ride on the bandwagon of financiers who mix up their profits with the freedom of a people and the smell of petroleum."

Great Britain Rocked by One of Greatest Scandals of Postwar Period

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens, the most senior police official in Great Britain, has released the findings of a report documenting that a special branch of British Army intelligence coordinated the murders of Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland. Stevens had begun his investigation back in 1989, but the report is being released only now, after its release had twice been postponed during 2002.

The Stevens investigation has centered on British Army Intelligence's Force Research Unit (FRU), for colluding with "Protestant loyalist" paramilitary groups to kill Catholics. What makes this all so explosive, is that the head of the FRU at the time when these murders were being committed, in 1989-90, was Gordon Kerr. Until February 2003, Kerr was the British military attaché in Beijing, one of the highest military posts for a British military officer.

Then, in February, Stevens confirmed that he was preparing papers for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) relating to a prosecution of Kerr. At that point, Kerr, now an Army Brigadier, was moved to Kuwait, and is currently serving in Iraq (!).

This may or may not blow back against current British Prime Minister Tony Blair, because of Blair's Iraq war policy. But certainly, one person who could quickly become implicated, is Margaret Thatcher, who was Prime Minister at the time when the murders were taking place. A senior British Intelligence-linked source told EIR that Kerr and his FRU could never have done such atrocities on their own, but would have had to have been acting, "on orders from the highest level," that is, from Thatcher's office. Whether the Stevens report will carry matters that far, remains to be seen.

Another explosive element in the story is that the British press is focussing on the fact that Kerr's chief FRU operative for coordinating the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), to carry out at least 30 murders, was a certain Brian Nelson. Nelson, under Kerr's direction, maneuvered himself to become the UDA's intelligence chief. In January 1990, the Stevens team identified Nelson as a key suspect, and planned to arrest him and others, in a dawn raid. The officers returned to their secure investigation headquarters hours before the planned arrests, to find a fire raging in their offices, with fire alarms, telephones, and heat-sensitive intruder alarms not working, and with many of their files destroyed! This was an obvious case of arson.

The punch-line is that Brian Nelson conveniently died last week, supposedly of a brain hemorrhage.

The investigation was launched in 1989, following the murder of top Catholic lawyer Pat Finucane. Finucane's family has always insisted that the security forces were involved in his murder, and are now dismissing the Stevens report as inadequate. His widow, Geraldine, is demanding a full judicial inquiry, as the only way to deal with the issue.

British Workers Will Have To Work Five Years Longer or Face Pension Cuts

As the Times of London reported April 18, "Millions of employees will be forced to work until they are 70, or face vastly reduced company pension payouts, under new proposals. The plans, to be published by the government this summer, will impose a mandatory retirement age on Britain's workers for the first time."

The move "is likely to meet fierce opposition from workers and unions," states the Times. The government plans to tackle the "growing pension-funding crisis" in Britain will be unveiled in a consultation paper from the Department of Trade and Industry.

The background of this is the devastation of corporate pension schemes, following the three-year-long stock market crash. The Times quoted British pensions expert Tom McPhail: "These proposals will come as a shock to a lot of people who will see their pension substantially reduced if they want to retire at what they regard as the traditional pension age. Many people will be very upset by this, and will be forced to re-examine their expectations for retirement."

Is Blair Aiming To Become European 'Super President,' with Bush Backing?

The British tabloid The Mirror reported April 18 that at the EU summit meeting in Athens, British Prime Minister Tony Blair raised the idea of ending the rotating EU Presidency, and replacing it with the election of a "Super President." According to The Mirror, President George Bush wants Blair to become Europe's first "Super President." The reason, stated The Mirror, is that Bush "believes the PM can take on the role and help him demolish the 'Old Europe' alliance that tried to block the war against Iraq."

The Mirror reported that the idea of a single EU President created a row at the Athens summit, where a treaty was signed to admit 10 new member states to the Maastricht system.

Hungary Votes for European Union Membership

The Hungarian National Election Office reported that 83.8% of ballots cast in an April 12 vote favored Hungary's membership in the European Union (EU). Total turnout was only 45.6% of eligible voters, but officials said that the result was valid because more than 2 million Hungarians had voted yes.

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