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Published: Tuesday, Mar. 16, 2004
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Democratic Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche issued a statement on March 11 after being briefed on the bombings in Madrid that morning, which had claimed at least 190 lives, and left 1,500 people injured. A total of ten bombs detonated simultaneously aboard three trains at the Madrid train station and along local commuter lines during the morning rush hour. Three additional bombs, set to explode a short time later in the midst of rescue efforts, were found and defused.
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LaRouche commented: "The recent atrocities in Spain remind me of the Bologna train station bombing of 1980. I am not surprised at this act of brutal terrorism. As a leading U.S.A. public figure, I present the following precise assessment to the government and to the Democratic Party.
"I warned of precisely this kind of development in August of last year, following statements, issued by Vice President Dick Cheney, in which he referenced new terrorist threats to the United States. I stated at the time that it was crucial to look at the Spanish-speaking side of the international Synarchist apparatus. I pointed to Italian, French, Spanish, and South and Central American networks targetting the United States. These networks were activated along the lines of Samuel Huntington's new Clash of Civilizations efforts, aimed at provoking confrontation between the U.S.A. and the Hispanic population of the Americas and the Iberian peninsula.
"In this context, I appeal to President Bush: Do notI repeat, do nottrigger some crazy furor over the events in Madrid. Instead, get on to the intelligence. We know where these terrorist attacks are coming from. Start with the international Synarchists, the international friends of the granddaughter of Mussoliniin Italy, France, Spain, and the Americas. Don't let it happen again."
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On March 16, 1802, the United States Congress authorized President Thomas Jefferson to organize a Corps of Engineers, which "shall be stationed at West Point ... and shall constitute a military academy." The Chief Engineer of the Corps would be the Superintendent of the academy, and the Secretary of War would purchase books, implements, and apparatus for the institution.
The idea of an American military academy had developed during the American Revolution and was supported by many of the Founding Fathers, but it had a difficult journey to becoming reality. Americans were suspicious of military power because of their very unpleasant experiences under the British Empire. The Declaration of Independence had listed many grievances against George III, two of which were: "He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures," and, "He has affected to render the Military independent of, and superior to the Civil Power." During the Revolution itself, the revolt of the Pennsylvania Line and the Newburgh plot added to the uneasiness over "standing armies." (See EIW #10, This Week in History, for more on the Newburgh plot.)
Nevertheless, the contacts between Continental Army officers and the European officers who had come to aid the American cause, convinced the Americans that they must have a trained officer corps, especially in the scientific fields of artillery and engineering. Key to this was the alliance with France, many of whose officers had been trained at the excellent Ecole Militaire. Even before the French arrived, however, Col. Henry Knox of the Artillery, Washington's future Secretary of War, was proposing a military academy. Knox, who had been the proprietor of the London Book Store in Boston before the Revolution, educated himself in military affairs not only by reading his stock of books, but also by talking with British officers who were stationed in the city. He eventually joined a local militia company, the crack Boston Grenadier Corps.
In 1776, Knox argued his views to Congressman John Adams, who then guided through the Continental Congress an act creating the Corps of Invalids. This organization for disabled officers stationed them at inactive posts and assigned them to teach their military knowledge to young ensigns assigned to the Corps. In 1781, this organization was moved from Philadelphia to West Point. Very few ensigns were assigned there, and at the end of the war the Corps was disbanded.
In 1783, George Washington supported Knox's views, calling for "academies, one or more, for the instruction of the art military." He said that "I cannot conclude without repeating the necessity of the proposed Institution, unless we intend to let the Science [of war] become extinct, and to depend entirely upon the Foreigners for their friendly aid." Congress did not act, and at the end of the Revolution, it drastically reduced the size of the army. By 1785, there were fewer than 100 officers and men in the United States Army, most of them stationed at West Point, America's largest fort and the spot which General Washington considered to be the most important military position in America.
During Washington's first term as President, he and Knox continued to press for a military academy, but during a cabinet meeting in 1793, Thomas Jefferson strongly opposed the idea, saying that "none of the specified powers given by the Constitution would authorize" such a national academy. But the following year Washington was able to persuade Congress to increase the numbers of the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers stationed at West Point, and created the rank of cadet. Cadets were junior officers who were supposed to attend classes taught by older officers, but no books were purchased and no classes were held.
After several encouraging developments, such as Congress giving President John Adams the power to appoint four teachers of the "Arts and Sciences" for the cadets, the fate of the military academy passed into the hands of President Jefferson. Because Jefferson favored the establishment of a national university, and felt Congress would only pass such a bill if the institution were military, he reversed his opinion on the constitutionality of such a proposal, and Congress established the academy in 1802. Part of the reason that Jefferson relaxed his objections was due to the fact that the Chief Engineer, who would become Superintendent, was Jonathan Williams.
Williams was the grandnephew of Benjamin Franklin, and when Franklin was sent to London to represent the colonies, Williams followed him there to be educated in London. When Franklin moved to Paris at the start of the American Revolution, Williams followed him to France and became a merchant in Nantes. There, he worked with Franklin and Beaumarchais to forward supplies to the Continental Army. He also used his spare time to study French fortifications and military engineering. When Franklin returned to America in 1785, so did Williams, who gained a scientific reputation for his work on many of Franklin's scientific experiments. In 1799, he published a treatise titled "Thermometrical Navigation," and he also contributed to the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, of which he was secretary and vice-president. His scientific work brought him into contact with Thomas Jefferson, who appointed him a major in the 2nd Artillery and Engineers, and, in December of 1801, made him inspector of fortifications and commander of the post at West Point.
The new Superintendent had his hands full at the academy, for not only did he have to set up the school, but he was constantly sent out, in his engineering capacity, to build coastal forts. Once Congress had passed the enabling legislation, it turned a blind eye to the academy, and so Williams solved this problem in a unique way.
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Links to articles from Executive Intelligence Review*.
*Requires Adobe Reader®.
Feature:
Beltway Ideologues Deny Mad-Cow Disease Threat
by Marcia Merry Baker
On March 5, at the Houston Rodeo and Livestock Arena, a show-hearing was held on Mad Cow Disease in North America, by the Agriculture Committee of the House of Representatives, for the Bush Administration to announce a 'voluntary' program for identification and tracking of cattle. It is to be implemented in the indefinite futuremaybe 'sometime next summer.'
- Interview: Colin Lowry
Don't Underestimate This Public Health Enemy: 'Prion Pathology'
Colin Lowry, cell biologist and Associate Editor of 21st Century Science&Technology magazine, was interviewed on Feb. 12 on the danger of bovine spongiform encephalopathyBSE, or mad cow diseaseand the little-known science of prions. The interview, excerpted here, was conducted by Economics Editor Marcia Merry Baker and Science Editor Marjorie Mazel Hecht. The full interview will appear in 21st Century Science and Technology.
Joseph Fouche´ and The French Insurrection
by Katherine Kanter
The story of Joseph Fouche´ is published here as a contribution to our series on the Synarchist International: the 'beast-men' who seize control of nations in periods of crisis, perpetrating unspeakable horrors for the sake of terrifying their opponents into submission....The present study of the founder of the modern concept of political police, though very summary, will shed some light on what must change, in the French political psyche.
Science & Technology:
Rovers Find Proof, Mars Was Once 'Soaked' With Water
by Marsha Freeman
Scientists have long thought that there was once water on the surface of Mars, based on orbital photographs. Now they have on-the- ground proof.
Economics:
Argentina Backs Down the IMF, But Pulls the KnockOut Punch
by Dennis Small and Cynthia Rush
Early on the afternoon of March 9, after several days of tense negotiations, the Argentine government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stepped away from a total showdown on the issue of Argentina's restructuring of $99 billion in public debt on which it defaulted in December 2001, and the two sides came to a time-buying agreement....The Kirchner government thus backed down the once-mighty IMF, and won this round of the battle by threatening to use its 'debt bomb' if forced to the wall. But Kirchner failed to deliver the knock-out punch to the entire IMFsystem, which in all likelihood would have resulted if Argentina had outright defaulted on its $3.1 billion payment.
Who Was Schacht, and What Is Schachtianism?
by Michael Liebig
With a world economy in the throes of a deep systemic crisis, Democratic Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche has stressed that only two fundamental alternative policies exist: reorganize the international financial system along the lines of his proposal for a New Bretton Woods conference, in the tradition of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's actions against the Depression ... or adopt the policies of Hjalmar Schacht,... Hitler's Economics Minister in the 1930spolicies that today are represented, typically, by American banker Felix Rohatyn.
In Italy, Crisis Brings Crackdown on the Banks
by Claudio Celani
On March 2, the Neue Zu¨rcher Zeitung published an alarmed report from Rome: In Italywrote the newspaper of the Swiss financial communitya dangerous witch-hunt is developing against the Italian banking system. The Italian banks are targeted by public opinion, by the judiciary, and even by Parliament, because they are considered responsible for a series of corporate failures and other events which have severely hit hundreds of thousands of small investors.
Hyperinflationary Rise Spreads Worldwide
by Richard Freeman
During the past 8 months, a wide array of goods, from raw materials, to intermediate goods, in addition to some final goods, have undergone price explosions not experienced, in some cases, in more than two decades. A leading example of this is the case of gasoline. ... The EIA reports that during the past 10 weeks, the price of gasoline in California has climbed 51.7 cents per gallonor 32%. The price is within pennies of its all-time record of $2.145 reached during the Summer of last year, and some analysts predict that the price will shoot to $2.50 or higher by the Summer of this year.
'Dynamite Is Everywhere' In Financial System Now
by Paul Gallagher
As Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche was addressing his Australian movement on March 5 ('This World Monetary System Is on the Way to the Burial Grounds,' see below), alarm bells were indeed tolling very loudly for the global financial system, which threatened to explode before the U.S. Democratic Party holds its nominating convention in July in Boston.
International:
Madrid Bombs:
'Don't Make a Furor, Get the Intelligence'
by Jeffrey Steinberg
Democratic Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche issued a statement on March 11 after being briefed on the bombings in Madrid that morning, which had claimed at least 190 lives...LaRouche commented: 'The recent atrocities in Spain remind me of the Bologna train station bombing of 1980. I am not surprised at this act of brutal terrorism. As a leading U.S.A. public figure, I present the following precise assessment to the government and to the Democratic Party...."
U.S. Lays Down 'The Law' In Iraq: WhoWill Obey?
by Muriel Mirak-Weissbach
At long last, the so-called interim agreement for Iraq was signed on March 8, in Baghdad. Although U.S. proconsul Paul Bremer could be heard sighing with relief, there was little for the occupying forces to be happy about.
'Dark Clouds' Gather Over Sharon's Regime
by Dean Andromidas
The Israeli mass-circulation daily Ma'ariv on March 3 launched yet another scandal against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, one that could finally lead to his early demise. The affair involves Elhanan Tennenbaum, the reputed drug trafficker whose release from captivity by the Lebanese militant organization Hezbollah was secured by Sharon...
Report From Germany
by Rainer Apel
Could there be a German parliamentary equivalent to the spectacular Feb. 13 initiative in the two chambers of the Italian Parliament for a New Bretton Woods reorganization of the bankrupt global financial system?
Australia Dossier
by Robert Barwick
Australia's 'Notverordnung:'
Nazi 'emergency decree' legislation to ban organizations has been rammed through Parliament.
A bill granting Australia's Attorney General sweeping powers to arbitrarily ban organizations was rushed into law on March 4...The Criminal Code Amendment (Terrorist Organizations) Bill 2003 provides for organizations to be proscribed simply if the Attorney General, with no requirement to test the evidence, is 'satisfied on reasonable grounds that the organization is directly or indirectly engaged in, preparing, planning, assisting in or fostering the doing of a terrorist act (whether or not the terrorist act has occurred or will occur).'
National:
LaRouche in Kentucky, Oregon:
Primary Campaign's Not Over
by Nancy Spannaus
'People think the primary campaign is over. It's not over. It's not even close to ending. Because the issues which are going to decide what happens in the election are not decided, and Kerry has not decided what his program is. So, what's going to happen is, the explosion of an international financial crisis is going to change the agenda, during the coming months, between now and the Convention in Boston this July. "
DeLay Getting Desperate As Scandal Waters Rise
by Anton Chaitkin
Pressed by multiplying criminal investigations of his fundraising agents, and embarrassed by the wide circulation of a dossier on his mental life while under the control of religious psychopaths at 'The Fellowship,' House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is flailing about for support to save his power.
Investigations Rip the Cheney-Pentagon Axis of Liars Behind Unending Iraq War
by Michele Steinberg
The Justice Department on March 11 opened up an investigation of Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton, following a months-long Department of Defense probe into Halliburton's overcharging about $61 million for gasoline the company supplied to the U.S. occupation in Iraq.
Debates Rage in Congress On HAVA Computer Vote Act
by Edward Spannaus
EIR has obtained two 'Dear Colleague' letters, now circulating in Congress, on the subject of whether or not to amend the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA), to require the printing of a paper record, which would allow an election to be audited and ballots to be recounted....EIR believes that computerized voting must be banned altogether on an emergency basis, and that the November election must be conducted entirely with paper ballots, as the best means of preventing vote fraud and the theft of the 2004 elections.
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