Western European News Digest
LaRouche Warns of Synarchist International Terrorism
Speaking at a California press conference on Sept. 11, about his 2004 Democratic Presidential campaign, Lyndon LaRouche opened with comments on the assassination of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh.
LaRouche said, "First, the announcement from Sweden today, that Anna Lindh, the Foreign Minister, died today, as a result of internal bleeding, caused by an assassination attack on her yesterday: The significance of this, is that the perpetrator is not known. The circumstances are interesting, and of international importance. She had no security. Whether this was her fault, or someone else's fault, will have to be assessed.
"We are now in a period, since late 2002, in which the Synarchist International, associated with a fellow in Spain, a former official of the Franco regime, known as Blas Pinar, has been highly active throughout the world, in his network of organizations, which has significance [going back] to the 1970s, as primary covers for assassination attacks, such as that of Aldo Morohis kidnapping and assassination,and the Bologna train-station bombing.
"These precise groups are being reactivated more and more. They are small groups, generally speaking, as political groups, but they serve as covers, of one kind or another, for actual terrorist or assassination attacks. The problem is, we are in a period in which we must expect organizations such as the Synarchist International to deploy sometimes confusing types of terrorist operations against targets which they think will have some type of dramatic significance in the political process."
Elements of Investigation into Lindh Assassination
Foreign Minister Anna Lindh of the Swedish Labor Party died in the early morning hours of Sept. 11, from wounds sustained when she was stabbed by an assailant while shopping in a department store in Stockholm. The assassin was able to escape. As of Sept. 12, no official explanation has been given for the motive, though some press comments have been speculating that the attack came from a right-wing extremist.
In the past three years, Lindh, a internationally known champion of human rights, has been a fervent critic of the policies of Israel's Ariel Sharonin particular his inhuman treatment of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, especially the 2002 IDF attacks on Jenin.
At the recent European Union foreign ministers' meeting in Riva (Italy) Sept. 6, Lindh accused the U.S. and Israel of having sealed the failure of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas' Administration when they refused to accept Palestinian President Yasser Arafat as a "dialogue partner," reported Yahoo News. In a speech in 2001 to the European Parliament, Lindh stressed that the 15 EU nations should fully endorse the Mitchell Report and called for an immediate halt to Jewish settlements on Palestinian land. She also strongly attacked, in February 2002, the United States' siding with Israel, calling it extremely dangerous; and argued, in March 2003 that a U.S.-led attack on Iraq would violate international law.
On the day of Lindh's death, the neo-Nazi website www.info14.com openly praised her assassination, calling her a "traitor." The brief website statement was reported Sept. 11 in the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter. Info14 was founded by Robert Vesterlund, a 27-year-old, who had founded an earlier Synarchist group, Sverigedemokraterna, in 1993. He later became more "radical" and founded a new group, SUNS, the Young Nationalists of Sweden. Info14 became the newspaper of SUNS, and advertised links between SUNS and the White Aryan Resistance (WAR). In the past, members of SUNS have been arrested for the murder of a labor activist, Bjorn Soderberg.
Shortly before Lindh was murdered, Sweden was the site of an international gathering of the Synarchist International's neo-nazi grouplets. Dagens Nyheter reported that on Sept. 6, an international neo-Nazi gathering took place in the Swedish city of Sodertalje. Among the 350 participants was Nationaldemokraterna, the Swedish neo-Nazi group that works closely with the British neo-Nazi group Combat 18, which had been linked to a French extremist who, in 2002, tried to murder French President Jacques Chirac on the 14th of July in Paris during a parade. There were also the Vlaams Blok and Lega Nord (Paolo Grimoldi). Leftists were demonstrating and throwing stones at the rightwingers, and police had to force the leftists to leave.
Paris Wants Initiative For Growth, Bucking Maastricht Rules
Le Monde on Sept. 9 reported in large headlines that French Prime Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin called once again, in a public meeting on Sept. 8, for a "European mobilization for growth." Raffarin spoke out against the idea that he should be some type of accountant, owing explanations to some country in Europe [read, Brussels], and stated that his main role was to worry about creating jobs for the French population and the Europeans. According to Le Monde, the Germans are backing the French on this drive, and both will be coming up with some new proposals at the upcoming joint ministers' meeting in Berlin.
Both Jacques Chirac and Jean Pierre Raffarin are fully deployed on this: Raffarin talked with Italian President Berlusconi last weekend, and will be meeting Tony Blair. Chirac will be meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Aznar. "At the end of September," stated Aznar, "we will be able to communicate to Europe a European mobilization project for employment."
Wolfgang Clement, German Chancellor Schroeder's economic tsar, made a statement in Germany on Sept. 8 in support of industry. "The industrial sector employs 45 million persons in Europe. So long as that is not understood, we will not reach our objective, which is to get Europe to reach its highest growth rate in the world from here to 2010." A high-level official at the Chancellory was quoted by Le Monde as stating, "Industry must be reinforced at all costs, because it is our way of earning our bread and a pre-condition to the development of the tertiary sector."
British Defense Secretary Hoon Damaged by Hoon Inquiry
British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon was jeered in the House of Commons when Parliament reconvened for a two-week sitting, and his position in the Blair government is described as "precarious," in various London dailies on Sept. 9.
Hoon came under attack for a number of things, particularly for the sloppy planning that has produced the current fiasco for British troops on the ground in Iraq. Much of this criticism came from Parliamentarians of the opposition Conservative and Liberal Democrat Parties. But the most dramatic moment came, when he was blasted by former Blair Cabinet Minister Robin Cook, who quit the government in March, in protest at the war against Iraq. The Scotsman calls this "a bruising intervention, which brought gasps from some MPs."
Cook said he was not objecting to more British troops being sent to Iraq, but added: "Those of us who had doubts as to whether it was wise to go into Iraq in the first place, do not have these doubts removed by today's announcement. Were you aware of the reservations of your defense intelligence staff on the September dossier, for instance, that the 45-minute claim was based on nebulous intelligence? And if you were aware of that, how was it that the House and the Cabinet were presented with a dossier that did not reflect the reservations of your own intelligence experts?"
Parliamentarians jeered when Hoon tried to dump responsibility for the dossier on Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee.
Meanwhile, when asked by a TV interviewer how he saw his chances of remaining in the government, Hoon weakly answered that everything depended on the findings of the Lord Hutton inquiry.
Blair's 'Abuse of Power' Led to Kelly Death, Charges Short
The former United Kingdom International Development Secretary Clare Short launched another blistering attack on Tony Blair Sept. 7, accusing him of an "abuse of power" that drove the late British weapons expert David Kelly to take his own life. Short says that the Prime Minister helped make Kelly's life "hell," and accused Blair of flouting "proper procedure" and "a willingness to be economical with the actuality."
"In the past 10 days we have seen a set of milestones," she declared. "Alastair Campbell resigned. Mrs. Kelly gave us the human face of the tragedy of Dr. Kelly. And senior representatives of Defense Intelligence told us that the [Iraq] dossier was 'over egged' and that 'the spin merchants' had too big a role," she begins. "In my view, all these events are related. They reflect the disease that has corroded the integrity of the Blair government.... And beneath the smiling demeanour, a ruthlessness that is accompanied by a lack of respect for proper procedure, and a willingness to be 'economical with the actuality.'
"Much of the success of Labour's first term came from Labour ministers implementing Labour policyfull employment, the minimum wage, devolution, tax credits to make work worthwhile, a strong commitment to debt relief and development, better achievement in schools, improved public spending and so on," she goes on. But then Blair succumbed to "hubris" and became a dictator. "And this brings me to Dr. Kelly ... it seems that he, like others in Defence Intelligence, was attached to accuracy. He objected to the exaggeration of the threat from Saddam's programmes and the falsity of the 45-minute claim. It was part of his job description to brief journalists. Heamong otherslet those views be known.
"They appeared in many press articles, and it is now clear that the 'Today' programme story was fundamentally true. In my view, the BBC would have been at fault if it had not broadcast it. But our Prime Minister told the Hutton inquiry that once Campbell was mentioned it became 'no longer a small item.' Then No. 10 [Downing Street] went to war with the BBC. There was no policy or national interest at stake. And yet, once Dr. Kelly came forward and said he had talked to Andrew Gilligan, the power of the state was focused on using Dr. Kelly to get Gilligan. Dr. Kelly's wife has described what this did to her husband.... when the press is after you and No. 10 briefing against you, life can be hell.
"Dr. Kelly found the pressure of No. 10, the Ministry of Defence, the Chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, the threat to his pension and job, and 'being treated like a fly' too much to bear. I think most people would break under that strain. To use Dr. Kelly in this wayto get at the BBCwas an abuse of power."
Short ended by repeating her call for Blair to resign, now that he's brought that up. "The Prime Minister has told us that the claim that he had knowingly exaggerated the threat from Iraqi chemical and biological weapons would be a resignation issue. It is now clear that the threat was exaggerated. And that John ScarlettCampbell's fig leafhad gone native with the No. 10 entourage.... All of this came before we were misled on the promised second UN resolution. And on top of this, there is the total negligence of failing to prepare for the inevitability of a speedy military victory. Many, many lives have been lost and are being lost in Iraq because of this incompetence. This sorry tale shames my party, government, and country."
Cook: Report Demolishes the Government's Case for War
"Every argument that Tony Blair's British government used to justify the Iraq war has collapsed," writes Robin Cook, former British Foreign Secretary and later Leader of the House of Commons, in a scathing piece in the Sept. 12 Independent, heralding the release of a report by the House of Commons Intelligence and Security Committee. Cook writes, "The invasion of Iraq was the first time British troops were committed to action on the basis of intelligence alone, and every major piece of that intelligence turned out to be wrong."
On Sept. 12, the findings of the ISC, normally a "controlled entity" that was supposed to clear Blair of any blame in the Iraq war, were released.
But instead, the ISC report documents that Blair ignored warnings from his own Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) that, were an Iraq war to be launched, the terror threat to Britain would greatly increase, not decrease.
The Times of London reported on Sept. 12, paraphrasing the matter, that "Mr. Blair took Britain to war in spite of a warning that the collapse of the Iraqi regime would make it easier for terrorist groups to obtain chemical and biological weapons, and that the threat from al-Qaeda would be heightened by action to depose Saddam."
The JIC issued these warnings in a report issued on Feb. 10, five weeks before the Iraq war was launched. The top-secret report was entitled, "International Terrorism: War with Iraq," and warned that, in the event of a regime collapse in Baghdad, "there would be a risk of transfer" of chemical and biological weapons.
The ISC also contains other criticisms of Blair and his government, respecting Iraq.
Military Expert Warns of 9/11-Type Attack in London
"There may be a new 9/11 at any moment, and my estimation for the most likely place for it to happen would be London," stated a leading European military expert told EIR on Sept. 9 He thought the Sept. 6 allegations by Labour Party MP Michael Meacher in the London Guardian that the group around Vice President Dick Cheney may have intentionally caused, or allowed, the original 9/11, to be interesting in this light. However, this source firmly holds to the view that the "al-Qaeda/bin Laden" apparatus was responsible for the attacks in the U.S. two years ago.
He stressed: "Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda apparatus are doing very well these days. The military situation in Afghanistan is not going well, Iraq is not going well. The situation, in my view, is ripe for a new target for this terror gang. That would have the effect, of getting peoples' minds off the lousy situation now, because it would all become much lousier, very quickly."
He said that various signs are clear, that Britain/London is a likely place for a mega-terror strike. The most significant, is the massive chemical warfare exercise that took place on Sept. 7, which included contingency plans for the full evacuation of London. Even though not accepting a "conspiracy theory" as behind such terrorism, he said that a mega-terror strike in London would certainly get the politically desperate Tony Blair and his gang off the hook.
(See this week's InDepth for the full story on the Meacher analysis of 9/11.)
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