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From Volume 3, Issue Number 44 of EIR Online, Published Nov. 2, 2004

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This Week You Need To Know

LAROUCHE: WE HAVE TO AGAIN BECOME A TRUE REPUBLIC

Here is Lyndon LaRouche's keynote, via video teleconference, to a LaRouche PAC town meeting in Cleveland, Ohio on Oct. 27, 2004. The event was also broadcast over the Internet, and linked to a satellite event in Washington, D.C.

Just to set the stage, I am asking our people to put on a short video, which I think you will find stimulating, and enlightening. [Video begins with a picture of Bush and Cheney, captioned: "Would You Buy a Used Car from These Men?," and moves through the political and economic failures of their Administration to the overture of Rossini's "Barber of Seville."]

The subject tonight is to deal with something that most people don't understand, and to begin to let the American population and politicians understand this thing, they must understand now: We are in the worst financial collapse in world history, that is, in modern, known history. Very soon, a matter of weeks or, at most, a couple of months, this entire system will collapse. For example, the U.S. dollar will probably fall to about $1.50 cost per euro.

We're going to the bottom. We're facing a general collapse of the housing market, which means that the so-called nominal value of housing will drop to a fraction of what it is presently. The tendency is to lose jobs more rapidly than ever before. This is happening.

Now, how do we deal with this? In general, the rule is, as Kerry said in a Wilkes-Barre, Penna., address some time ago, we have to go back to Franklin Roosevelt's approach to deal with a depression. That means that the U.S. government will have to step in, as Franklin Roosevelt did, and put the banking system—which now. the U.S. banking system, and most of the rest of the world—is hopelessly bankrupt. Don't kid yourself. But the President of the United States, implicitly, following the principle of the Constitution, which Roosevelt used—the President of the United States, with the support of Congress, can put through emergency provisions to take the Federal Reserve system into receivership, under control, and organize it to make sure that bank doors don't close; to make sure that things that have to be funded, with credit, are still funded; to keep the economy going.

But that's only for the immediate term. Of course, the first question is, as we see in Europe today, as the European economies are collapsing, we're seeing in Germany, and France, and elsewhere, the spread of what are actually the measures used first by the predecessors of the fascists, and the fascists. The same kinds of methods which were used by Herbert Hoover. You know, Roosevelt was not elected because of Herbert Hoover's 1929 crash. Roosevelt was elected because of popular reaction to the disastrous effects of Hoover's austerity policies, which sank the U.S. economy and the incomes of people in the United States by about one-half.

So, the problem is, how do we reorganize, having taken those measures? First, the United States government takes responsibility, for putting a sick, bankrupt, international financial-monetary system into bankruptcy. And believe me, if the U.S. government does it, if the President of the United States does it, the rest of the world will just have to go along—some willingly, some not willingly. But they will go along. We are not going to kill people in order to pay usurious debts.

The FDR Recovery Program

Now, beyond that, how do we recover? Roosevelt had a program which worked. The program was basic economic infrastructure: Things that are within the public domain, the public responsibility, as opposed to private responsibility. This includes schools, of course, which is usually a municipal responsibility. This includes hospitals, and related health-care institutions, which is partly private, but is regulated by city, state, and Federal law. It involves large-scale transportation systems, including mass transportation for cities. It includes water systems, which are breaking down. It includes power generation and distribution, these kinds of things.

It includes, say, from here in the city of Cleveland, you go down to the Ohio River, and you take all that coal that is moved down the Ohio River, on which much of the nation's energy depends; and this coal delivery depends upon a system of locks and dams, which was set up last, about 40 years ago. If those locks and dams start to collapse, or go out of maintenance, then the coal barges on the Ohio River stop flowing. And then, we have a crisis. So, we have to fix those kinds of water systems.

We have to take care of municipal water systems, and county water systems, for drinking water and so forth, for people; public sanitation, these measures.

What Roosevelt did, is, he took the obvious needs of the nation, and put people to work doing things that were obviously needed, within the government purview; that is, Federal, state, and local purview. He also did big projects, like completing the Hoover Dam, which is a great power project and water project for a whole region of the United States. He built the TVA. The TVA transformed an area of dead life, Tennessee, the Tennessee Valley, transformed it into a wealthy area, a productive area, through power and water management, things like that. We couldn't have developed the nuclear weapons for World War II, without the TVA: It was the power of the TVA that made that possible, at Oak Ridge. If you go down to Tennessee today, or go down into northern Alabama, for example, you see the large works that were done, essentially then, and improved on, which [led to] the well-being of what was once a good industrial area of the nation, industrial and agricultural, until we began to shut it down about 40 years ago. This was a rich area of prosperity, and Roosevelt created it.

The other thing that he did, of course, was to stimulate the private sector, by credit for loans through banks, under government sponsorship and supervision, to ensure that worthy investors had the credit available to employ people and do things. The employment of a lot of people in infrastructure, created the market in which these private firms could prosper. And we have to do the same thing today. But it's not quite enough. And that comes to this.

...the entire presentation in pdf format

Latest From LaRouche

LAROUCHE: WANT A WAR ON DRUGS? — REMOVE THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION!

Here is the transcript of an Oct. 29, 2004 interview with Lyndon LaRouche by host Andre Eggelletion, Radio WSRF, 1580 AM, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. LaRouche's interview was preceded earlier in the program with live interviews of candidates, including Sen. John Edwards.

Host: Joining me now is our highly esteemed guest Mr. Lyndon LaRouche, the author of one very impressive book, Dope, Inc. I strongly urge you to try to find a copy of this book. It is a must-have for your library. Without any further ado, Mr. LaRouche, thank you for joining us today.

LaRouche: Well, it's good to be with you.

Host: It is our pleasure. Tell us about this fiasco that we're having with the flu vaccine. What are your thoughts?

LaRouche: Well, first of all, it's a result of a problem with the mind of a President, who obviously does not understand reality, and also many citizens in some brackets who really are not up to speed on what the problem is here. Look, we require an improved national health security program, and the Bush policy, in the direction of radical government deregulation and taking government out, has created a situation in which the people are much more at risk. The Bush Administration, by what it's failed to do in terms of establishing, re-establishing, government regulation of the political health security area, has created a situation in which it's tried to cover up. That is, it has actually shut down the health capability. It has done this on the basis of deals which the Bush Administration has cut with private interests which are interested in profit, not the health of our people.

For example, take the case of this British company, which we should not have gotten into this business under normal circumstances—but we just allowed the whole system to break down, and now we face what is said to be a very serious flu vaccine shortage, under conditions in which the people of the United States are operating at increased risk because of the lack of health-care provisions in the past period. That is, Bush had shut down a lot of what, virtually, Clinton had set into motion in terms of vaccinations and so forth. We have whole areas that just do not have vaccinations for these kinds of reasons.

So therefore, we have a "herd risk;" that is, the population as a whole is at a greater risk of infection today by this flu than earlier. And we have no protection, and this is the result of willful negligence on the part of the Bush Administration.

Host: And then they try to downplay it by saying that, uh, this is the first time that they've had this type of turnout to try to get flu vaccines. That is not an excuse for the gross dereliction of duty by this Bush Administration, in not assuring our elderly.... I mean, I have parents of your age, Mr. LaRouche, and they need these flu shots and they can't get them in Florida.

LaRouche: I know. It's a much bigger problem, but that's the point. We have to fight, to do what we can, but the Bush Administration is refusing to fight on the lines it could fight. I mean, it wasted a lot of time. It wasted several years, actually, on this business. It wasted especially the past six months, where it covered up on this operation until the debates forced it into the open. But they've been covering up, and they're still covering up, and they're still lying about it. If they would tell the truth, then it would be easier to mobilize, through the Congress and so forth, certain emergency efforts which would help the problem, although admittedly we would still be suffering a great deal from it.

Host: Absolutely. Do you see this crisis as being the result of just gross negligence and dereliction of duty, or is there something more subtle here?

LaRouche: There's a philosophy behind this. You know, when you talk about the current President of the United States, you don't want to talk too much about intention, because you're not sure he knows what his intentions are.

Host: Uh-huh.

LaRouche: You talk about his practice, and his practice is one of negligence. When you talk about Cheney and people like that, you're talking about a man who's a virtual sociopath, and who is out for, as Halliburton's crimes show— I mean, the things that are up against Halliburton, under the leadership of Cheney before and after he was the chief executive there, these crimes show what a really rotten firm that is, and it shows the kind of operation that Cheney tends to run. And Cheney is actually much more significant in controlling the Bush Administration than the President. The President I don't think even knows what the time is, most of the time.

Host: Absolutely. And it seems like our Presidents have these shadowy advisors who history has recorded many, many times, with the Colonel Edward Mandell Houses of our American politics, of being shadow Presidents, and it appears that Dick Cheney is just that. What are your thoughts?

LaRouche: Well, Cheney is a stooge of a stooge. He's essentially a stooge of the crowd around George Shultz, who we know from the old Nixon Administration period. And, just as Schwarzenegger in California—who belongs, shall we say, doesn't wear a swastika, but he thinks like one who does—is also a protege of George Shultz. So you have people who represent powerful financier interests behind the scenes. They don't care about the American people. They care about the profits of their special interests.

Host: Absolutely. They lack the appropriate sense of patriotism, nationalism, and humanism, that I feel are the requisite for being public servants. Mr. LaRouche, let's talk for a minute about the things that you talked about in your book Dope, Inc. What is the central thesis of that book, and does it apply to today's political environment?

LaRouche: Yes, it does.

For example, one of the great problems with drugs in Asia: Afghanistan. Afghanistan was a big opium-growing area, one of the principal opium-growing areas of the world. Then, Brzezinski, with his program of attacking the underbelly of the Soviet Union, and together with the British government and later with George Bush as Vice President and also with people like Jimmy Goldsmith from the British side, went into this area with the idea of creating an asymmetric warfare mess for the Soviet Union. Now, what they did, and they did something that was consistent with Iran-Contra, Iran-Contra's drug operations, and what was done was similar to what Bush's crew was doing with Ollie North in Central America.

My experience is, in our investigations and combat against this drug traffic increase—and of course, you know something about it in Florida, with this spillover of George Bush's operation—what they did is, in Afghanistan, the Soviet Army, which was in there for almost a decade, became totally corrupted by the drug traffic, and whole sections of the Soviet Army became involved in drug-trafficking. That drug-trafficking, which is not Russian or anything else in character—it's drug traffic in character—is sitting in Central Asia, and spreading across into Europe and elsewhere. It's one of the major problems in the world today, and it's not being dealt with. This present administration in Afghanistan, even while it's somewhat temporarily stabilized, is nothing but a drug regime.

Host: And, you know, that is my major concern in that, we should be more concerned about the lax security on nuclear materials in the Soviet Union, but at the same time, I feel that the proliferation of drugs and the money-laundering apparatus in our own hemisphere poses just as strong a strategic threat to the interests of the United States, in that this activity has been known to fund terrorism around the world.

We're going to take a couple of phone calls, Mr. LaRouche.

Caller No. 1: Thank you. Andre, I've got to give you much kudos for today's show. To have Lyndon LaRouche as well as Senator Edwards on the same show. That's something I can't recall ever having heard on anybody's station. And welcome, Mr. LaRouche. I have to say that I've been getting your paper for a long time. I wish you guys would begin to publish it again so I can continue to get it, and I've had three copies of Dope, Inc. over the years, and they've all disappeared, and now I have a mimeographed copy, because that's the only way I can keep the book—

Host: Me too. (laughs)

Caller No. 1: I wanted to ask you, Mr. LaRouche, if you can explain to our listening audience, exactly who—and this is going back historically, perhaps if you can do so in the short period of time that we have—who ultimately is responsible for the vast majority of the drug-trafficking on this planet? Obviously, having read the book, I know, but based on what I've read from the book, I would like you to explain this to the majority of the people out there, because they really have no clue about the families that have been making money on drugs for the last 200-300 years, and I'll get off the line. Thank you.

Host: Appreciate it, Daniel. And Daniel's throwing you the bomb ball, and he's stepping back into the pocket like a real quarterback, and he's made a very accurate pass, Mr. LaRouche.

LaRouche: Okay, good. The international drug traffic began in the 1790s, and it came at the time that the British East India Company and its Dutch affiliates were going into drugs, and they dumped the African slave trade on other countries—back on Spain and Portugal, and so forth. And they brought Americans into it from around the Boston area. And they took people out of the slave trade on the grounds that this was not profitable to the British Crown, because the drug trade was more profitable than the slave trade. So, since that time, we've had an internationally organized drug trade, of which the China drug trade during the 19th century is typical. But it never stopped.

Now, you have several sources of chief income today in the world. That is, sources of income, things that are played for income. One, you have raw materials, including petroleum, mineral raw materials. This is being played by an international cartel, multinational cartel. You have drugs. So, if you take the revenue from the drug traffic, not the drug growth, necessarily, or initial payments made to the growers, but the drug traffickers and the international cartel in raw materials, including petroleum, this is the greatest concentration of attributable financial wealth in the world.

And that is what this is for. The purpose is to destroy society—that is, the kind of society they don't like; that is, the American System—and to create instead a system where they control the world's population by these kinds of methods, as well as getting a lot of wealth in the meantime. It's like a disease, and we are infected by this disease, this drug traffic.

Host: Indeed. The fingerprints—to just dovetail another answer to Daniel's question—the fingerprints are all over our intelligence apparatus—the CIA, as Mr. LaRouche has alluded to earlier today. He didn't allude to it, he said it. I mean, the CIA during the Iran-Contra period, the whole Mena scandal. these guys have been heavily involved in the proliferation of drugs in our community. We've even had elected officials at the national level come out and say so, so the cat's out of the bag. It's an open conspiracy. There's nothing that's being done behind the scenes. I'm going to take another call.

Caller No. 2: Mr. LaRouche, welcome and God bless, you know. Continue to do your work.

LaRouche: Thank you.

Caller No. 2: One thing I have to say. As long as we as Americans continue to consume without regard to the rest of the world around us, we're going to be in big, big trouble. Once the Soviet Union was dismantled, we have this false sense that the Soviets are no longer in existence. It's like saying, once there's a war on drugs, then we don't have a drug problem; of which we know now that the problem about drugs is much greater now than it ever was. The troops in Iraq are being killed, but the purpose of them being killed without anyone showing any real concern within the Administration is serving the purpose of those that are within that are trying to take over the country. What I have as a question for Mr. LaRouche is, what are we as citizens to do, in order to stop this, whether we are Republicans or Democrats, you know what I mean? It's going to affect everybody, rich or poor, black or white, Jew or Gentile, whatever. So, what are we to do and how are we to do it?

Host: Very good question. Thanks a lot. We appreciate it.

LaRouche: First of all, we have to get rid of the George Bush Administration. Otherwise, if you don't get rid of that, you're not going to get rid of any of the problems. It's going to get worse, because Cheney and company are prepared to go into extended wars, immediately! And this includes the possibility of nuclear armed wars, started by Cheney and company. Iraq was just one of the stepping stones toward a plan, which Cheney has made no secret about, for a continued preemptive nuclear war around the world. So, if you don't get rid of this Administration, you're not going to solve any of the problems. They're going to become much worse. We may even go into a Dark Age as a result of it.

Now, with a new Administration, you've got a different kind of problem. The new Administration is going to be under tremendous pressure from international bankers to behave itself, from the standpoint of the interests of international financial circles. We who are supporting the Kerry-Edwards ticket, must make sure that during the period between the election and the time of the inauguration, that we do not have a government created for Kerry which is locked in to play dog-in-the-manger for these financier interests, who want to keep this kind of thing going.

Host: Absolutely. I mean, you hit the nail right on the head, Mr. LaRouche. Go ahead, continue.

LaRouche: Anyway, that's our problem. I'm concerned. You know, I'm going to be around very much on this, on the economic issue. We have the greatest financial crisis in history. The present government wouldn't even try to handle it. I wonder if Kerry will be able to handle it. I'm concerned that Kerry be equipped with the ability to handle it. I'm concerned with bringing people together around him, now, who would be his advisors on these kinds of things where he is relatively weak, to make him strong.

Host: Absolutely. And we, as an electorate, must push for guys like Representative Bobby Scott, to have a post in our financial centers inside the Beltway, maybe posted at the Treasury Office. Somebody that is an opponent of the privatization of our monetary policy, somebody that is a proponent of reducing this perpetually expanding debt that George Bush has put us up under, and somebody that will listen to guys like Lyndon LaRouche. We're glad to have you today, Mr. LaRouche. We've come to the end of the show. What's your website, how can we find more of your materials, and when can we get some more copies of Dope, Inc.?

LaRouche: We're going to try to get that thing out again. The website is laRouchepac.com, and that, I think—there are other websites, but everything can be referenced from laRouchepac.com. So if people access that, they've got access to everything else.

Host: All right, you take care of yourself, Mr. LaRouche. Get your rest and all of that stuff. We need you to be around a long, long time more. You haven't reached the end of your road yet, sir.

LaRouche: Thank you very much.

LAROUCHE INTERVIEW ON WCTC RADIO IN NEW JERSEY

What follows is the transcript of an interview between Lyndon LaRouche and WCTC Radio 1450 in New Brunswick, N.J., conducted on Oct. 29, 2004 by Jack Ellery.

Host: Hi, this is Mark Kashabinski calling from WCTC Radio for Mr. LaRouche?

LaRouche: Speaking

Host: How're you doing, Mr. LaRouche?

LaRouche: Well, frisky for this dusky afternoon

Host: Very nice. Thanks for giving us some of your time on this afternoon. We know you're probably a busy fella.

LaRouche: We're having fun.

Host: Great. Hold on one moment, we're just finishing up with our newscast, we have a traffic and weather update, and then Jack Ellery will be speaking with you on the other side.

LaRouche: Fine

Host: Thanks again for your time and hold on please.

LaRouche: Thank you.

Jack Ellery: It is an eclectic gathering today on this radio station. We talked with Peter Ross, who's a member of the pharmaceutical industry, works for Pfizer, and is being threatened with, well, I'm not sure if he's being threatened with job elimination, because he came out in favor of importing, reimportation of drugs, his employers, at the Pfizer Corporation, are not exactly thrilled with him. So we had him on at 3:35 if you didn't hear it, pretty interesting.

Right now, on the telephone, is Lyndon LaRouche, five-time Presidential candidate, and let me say hello to him.

Mr. LaRouche, how are you?

LaRouche: Oh, in good shape for an old geezer.

Ellery: Where are you?

LaRouche: I'm now in my homestead in Northern Virginia.

Ellery: How old are you now?

LaRouche: Eighty-two.

Ellery: My gosh, life has been good to you.

LaRouche: Life has been good to me, yeah—

Ellery: I read parts of your book, I didn't read, I didn't have a chance to read the entire thing—Children of Satan. And because time works against us, I want to get right to it, if you don't mind.

LaRouche: Sure.

Ellery: You have pretty much pronounced that there is a cabal of people around George Bush who want to re-do the world. Is that what you wrote?

LaRouche: Essentially, yes. It's the same crowd that was behind Hitler before.

Ellery: Same crowd that was behind Adolf Hitler?

LaRouche: Yes, it's called the Synarchist International. It's a group of financier circles who dominated Europe during the 1922-45 period, who we fought against in World War II. Japan was also involved in it at that time, and they sort of survived the war and began creeping and crawling up our woodwork in the postwar period. They're largely banking groups, but they represent a mentality in people like Cheney who is what we—neo-cons in the United States today, which are really the children of Adolf Hitler. They have a slightly different style, but the end result is quite similar.

Ellery: In particular, you don't like one guy, named Paul Wolfowitz. What's with him?

LaRouche: Well, Paul is not the worst of it, he's typical of them. Paul is a product of a fellow called Leo Strauss, who because he was Jewish couldn't qualify for Nazi membership, and I'm not exaggerating—he was brought into the United States by a guy who was one of the masterminds behind the Nazis, Carl Schmitt. He went to Chicago University, where he became quite influential. His model, in history, is the famous, or infamous, Thrasymachus, of real history and also of Plato's Republic. His argument is that one must follow the line of Thrasymachus, which in a sense is a prototype of the modern fascist movement.

Ellery: Well, to bring it into verbiage that I can understand and that my audience can understand—and I read somewhere that you are indeed an intellectual, and you're proving it to me right now—what we have here—is it true, can you prove, that Paul Wolfowitz, four days after 9/11, went to George Bush and said, let's go get Saddam Hussein? Is that true?

LaRouche: I wouldn't say that that's necessarily true. I wouldn't say it's untrue. Because actually, the "go get Saddam Hussein" was something that Cheney was pushing, who's the sort of the master of the den there, pushing since he was Secretary of Defense back around 1991-93. Bush then, that is, George Bush, Sr., would not go along with Cheney's idea. Cheney stuck to it, and has succeeded in using the aftermath of 9/11 as a pretext, with the help of a lot of lies, of pushing us into this Iraq war of today.

Ellery: As I read in your book, several of the people around the younger Mr. Bush really hated the senior Mr. Bush for not finishing the thing against Saddam Hussein. So, my question is, why would Jr., why would Dubya, bring onboard people who despised his father? I don't understand that.

LaRouche: Well, look at, read the book by a leading psychiatrist, called Bush on the Couch, which is essentially a psychiatrist's view of the evidence in the public domain on the history and psychological problems of Dubya Bush. This is in accord with what we can see on television and what we saw as Bush in three different moods on three different Presidential debates.

This guy has got problems. And we've come to the time where we as a nation could elect or nearly elect, at least, a man with that kind of problem, and many people today are still thinking of electing such a problem as President.

Ellery: And, as I gathered—and I tried to concentrate when reading your latest book, Children of Satan—and by the way, how many, you've written, what? 20 books?

LaRouche: Oh, I , a few more, yes, actually.

Ellery: Really?

LaRouche: Well, I've been at it for a long time, and therefore I have a certain amount of productivity. About once every year or so, something comes out of me.

Ellery: By the way, you spent some time in the Federal prison, is that correct?

LaRouche: A gift of George Bush, Sr.

Ellery: I guess you're not a fan of his—what was that all about?

LaRouche: The SDI. There was a big fight in the Reagan Administration, in particular, but also among the Democratic Party, when I induced, in a sense, President Reagan to go with what became known as the SDI. This was a big international fuss. It got me into big trouble with the Bush crowd inside the Republican Party, and the Mondale crowd, just to give it a name, inside the Democratic Party.

Ellery: You were dealing one-on-one with the Russians, were you not?

LaRouche: That's right. On behalf of the Reagan Administration.

Ellery: What was it called? The Space Defense Initia—?

LaRouche: No, no, it was called the Strategic Defense Initiative, it was a proposal which I drafted, which the President adopted, which I negotiated in a sense as to language with the Soviet government, and that was that, instead of using, living in a world of thermonuclear nightmare, in the morning, let's cooperate in developing systems which not only will deal with the threat of dealing with a nuclear, thermonuclear barrage, but also, would be an incentive to get the world moving in a technologically progressive way. In other words, essentially, shift from—in military policy, to heavy emphasis on those kinds of new technologies which would drive the world economy in a progressive direction.

Many in Russia, the Soviet Union at that time, agreed with this. The head of the Soviet Union, Andropov, disagreed, and later on, Gorbachov, who was actually a protege of Andropov, demanded my scalp, that I be killed or imprisoned as a result of this, and there were people in the United States who joined in that effort, back in 1986.

Ellery: So you're telling me that you felt that your life was on the line?

LaRouche: Oh, it was. I had 600 people armed people invading the area I was living in, in Northern Virginia, with a whole group armed with tanks and whatnot, ready to invade the premises I was living in, and shoot me up, on the night of Oct. 7.

Ellery: You're telling me that tanks invaded your—?

LaRouche: They were outside, just outside the premises, ready to come in. Of course, these people in the Reagan Administration told the fellow who was responsible for this operation to shut it down, and he did.

Ellery: Can you hang on for about three minutes? [break for traffic, weather]

Ellery: His name is Lyndon LaRouche. You're hearing it from the horse's mouth. Ran for President five times, one time really seriously. When I say that, I mean that he was seriously considered by a lot of people. The other four times he was pretty much a gadfly.

Went to the Federal slammer, has written God knows how many books, and is not somebody to be taken lightly.

Ellery: The guest is Lyndon LaRouche, Jr. Presidential candidate. Mr. LaRouche, I'm going to quote to you from your own book.

LaRouche: Yeah—

Ellery: "The events of 9/11 could not have occurred without significant inside complicity from elements of the U.S. national security establishment."

That's an amazing statement.

LaRouche: Now, this is not too much different than what has been said very cautiously in some parts of the 9/11 Commission. The problem has been that the investigation has never been pushed to the extent it should have been pushed. The American people do deserve an answer; an insecurity lurks over the nation as long as these questions are not answered.

But the point is, there are two things. First of all, there is knowing negligence that various agencies, including me personally, had warned against such a danger, by the beginning of 2001, at the time Bush was being inaugurated. And nothing was done to correct those problems which we diagnosed variously, including a special commission, the Hart Commission, about those matters, the things that the Clinton Administration had pointed out.

Nothing was done about them.

Then, the way in which the thing was coordinated, it fits the special effects, a special warfare operation, not a random invasion of the United States by a bunch of loonies or fanatics. This was a coordinated operation, many of whose details are still debated, but they all add up to the same thing: There should have been a comprehensive examination, immediately, and the examination is still aborted; that is, it's still being held up, and what we have as a result, as an immediate bad effect of holding up the investigation, we have proposals on an intelligence reform, which in my view are a mass of incompetence. We do need some reform, but the reforms that are less wild-eyed, and less Bush-flavored, than the kinds of things we're hearing now.

So, we are suffering as a result of negligence in investigating what was obviously a special operation, which could not have occurred without significance negligence within our institutions.

Ellery: So, then, Richard Clark was right?

LaRouche: Absolutely. I don't know if he's right in terms of his interpretation. He's right in the overall basis for his conclusion.

Ellery: Here's the thing. George Bush took office, when, Nov. 6, so he had all of November, all of December, and January, February, March, April, May, June, July, and August — so, for people to say that it was too new into his Presidency, well, nine months is not too new.

LaRouche: No, it was... Well, actually you go to January. In January I gave a webcast address on the subject of the incoming Bush Presidency, and I said two things. I said, because of the stupidity of the President, that we were assured that the depression, which had already begun, the previous year, with the collapse of the IT sector — not completely, but significantly — would become worse. That the depression would grow worse under Bush, because of his stupidity and his program.

Secondly, that under these kinds of conditions, we must expect somebody to try to pull an operation, of the type that Hermann Goering pulled in February of 1934, when he set fire to the Reichstag, as a way of getting Hitler appointed dictator. This was what I was afraid of.

In the meantime, I was concerned with some of the threats which happened to Bush himself in Genoa, which was a warning of another kind of operation against the security of the United States, threatened for late September in the Washington, D.C. area. These things were not treated seriously, and those are the kinds of concerns I had.

Ellery: Anyway, we only have about 20 seconds left, so you've written a book, Children of Satan. Is this on sale at the bookstores?

LaRouche: I don't know if it's on sale at bookstores. They can get it at my present PAC, larouchepac.com. They just write in there, the whole deal on how to purchase the thing, how to get it, it's there.

Ellery: larouchepac.com. Thank you for coming aboard, sir. Good to talk to you.

Feature:

The Coming Indictment Of Dick Cheney And the Neo-Cons
by Jeffrey Steinberg
As we go to press, Americans are preparing to vote in the Nov. 2 elections. Regardless of the outcome of the Presidential race, during the immediate days and weeks ahead, Dick Cheney will finally be facing the music. The Vice President has presided over one of the most corrupt Administrations in American history, and the proximity of the Presidential elections has postponed—but not quashed—a string of Federal grand jury and Congressional probes of the Vice President and his neocon allies in the Pentagon and in his own 'shadow national security council,' housed in the Office of the Vice President, and headed by Cheney's chief of staff and alter ego, I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby.

Documentation: The Levin Report Cheney, Feith Are Hit On Iraq Exaggerations
A 46-page report issued by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), in his capacity as Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, shows how a small group in the Defense Department (DOD) abused rules concerning Congressional oversight and classified information, to insert 'dubious' intelligence reports about the 'relationship' between Iraq and al-Qaeda, to further the Bush Administration's predisposition for war against Iraq.

Cheney and Addington Are at Front And Center in Torture Scandal
by Edward Spannaus
Whether Dick Cheney is in, or out, of the Office of the Vice President after Nov. 2, the prisoner-torture scandal that emerged around Abu Ghraib, and which now also encompasses Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, is not going to disappear as a national and international issue. To restore America's moral standing in the world, it is urgent that those Administration officials responsible for this infamous policy be prosecuted under the U.S. Federal War Crimes Act and other laws. At the top of the list of those to be indicted, should be the name of Dick Cheney.


Conference Report:

'End the Occupation!' Say Palestinian Christian Bishops
by Edward Spannaus
At an extraordinary gathering in Washington—which presented a dramatic counterpoint to the ravings of the Christian Zionists which dominate the Bush Administration—four of the leading Christian Bishops in Jerusalem forcefully and repeatedly raised the demand for an end to the illegal Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, and for justice for all Palestinians—Muslims and Christians alike. Also set forth, was the demand that the United States stop using its veto in the UN Security Council, particularly in regard to the World Court ruling on the illegality of the Separation Wall now being built by the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon.


Economics:

IT'S NOT JUST FLU
Weakening U.S. 'Herd Immunity' Means More Infectious Threat
by Marcia Merry Baker
For several years running, health experts internationally have warned that the world is overdue for another influenza pandemic; that is, we should be expecting a new mutant strain of flu to come along, that will hit on the scale of one of the three 20th-Century global flu pandemics—1918, 1957, and 1968. Ignoring these warnings, the U.S. government has not only allowed the takedown of medical care delivery infrastructure as such—hospitals, public health staff, reserves of vaccines, etc.—but in the course of that policy, has contributed to the declining 'herd immunity' of the U.S. population at large.

Bush/Cheney Cut Health Budget in Vaccine Crisis
by Paul Gallagher
While deploying Health Secretary Tommy Thompson across the country in the last pre-election week to reassure governors and state health officials that 'there is no flu vaccine crisis,' President George W. Bush was angrily contradicted by a growing chorus of health experts, and by events on the ground.

Germany's Crisis in Employment And Investment Can Be Solved
by Lothar Komp
...I have to tell you the truth: Yes, there is some prosperity left, but all this prosperity was produced by institutions like the industrial Mittelstand [small and medium-sized enterprises], under economic policies which are now being abandoned and destroyed. Exactly that is taking place, because something like the industrial Mittelstand simply cannot work in a world of globalization, in a world of cutting investments in infrastructure and investments in the corporate sector, and also in a world where the living standards of private households are shrinking rapidly...


International:

Peace in Israel-Palestine Depends on U.S. Election
by Dean Andromidas
As this article is being written, Southwest Asia faces three developments that will have radical implications for whether war or peace reigns in the region. First, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, the symbol of the Palestinian nation for over four decades, lies on what is feared to be his deathbed. Second, the Israeli Knesset's approval of the first draft of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan for an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, promises to lead to more bloodshed in the Occupied Territories, while perpetuating the ongoing political crisis within Israel itself. Third, and most important, are the United States Presidential elections.

Neo-Cons Threaten The Philippines
by Michael Billington
Dana Dillon, who covers Southeast Asian military and security issues for the neo-con-friendly Heritage Foundation, was provided space in the Wall Street Journal on Oct. 7 for a commentary which opened a frontal assault on Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. This marks a dramatic shift, since the Arroyo Administration was previously one of the Bush Administration's closest supporters in Asia. In 2002, the Heritage Foundation served as midwife to a deal between Donald Rumsfeld's Department of Defense, and the former Philippine Secretary of Defense, Gen. Angelo Reyes, in forging a U.S./Philippine 'Defense Policy Board,' aimed at legitimizing U.S. military combat operations in the Philippines—despite explicit restrictions against it in the Philippine Constitution.

Mussolini Rehabilitated By Synarchists in Italy
by Claudio Celani
The neo-con faction in the Italian government and political institutions, which is allied with the Cheney-Bush Administration, has launched an operation to revive Mussolini's Fascism, a move that is consistent with the common synarchist roots of both Fascism, and the current neo-conservative movement. In this effort, as we have reported previously, Mussolini's granddaughter Alessandra has been assigned the role of leading the pro-terrorist faction of right-wing extremism into becoming a factor in Italian national politics.


National:

LaRouche Organizers in Ohio For FDR-Style Recovery
Here is Lyndon LaRouche's keynote, via video teleconference, to a LaRouche PAC town meeting in Cleveland, Ohio on Oct. 27, 2004. The event was also broadcast over the Internet, and linked to a satellite event in Washington, D.C.

LaRouche PAC Role in Winning Back Our Country After the Nov. 2 Election
Here is Lyndon LaRouche's opening statement by videoconference at a town meeting in Columbus, Ohio, Oct. 26, 2004.

The Bush Presidency: An Article of Faith
by Dr. Justin Frank
Dr. Justin Frank, M.D. authored Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President, published by HarperCollins. On Oct. 25, he responded to aNewYork Times Magazine feature on President Bush, by Ronald Suskind, with the article we reprint in full below. Suskind's Oct. 17 article, 'Without a Doubt,' was an expose´ of the President's fanatical fundamentalism. Even before 9/11, Suskind says, Bush's inner circle was tightening; he displayed a 'bullying impatience with doubters and even friendly questioners.' By the Summer of 2001, Bush was telling his followers: 'Have faith in me and my decisions, and you'll be rewarded.' After 9/11, it got worse.

U.S. Economic/Financial News

Manufacturers Announce More Layoffs and Plant Closings

Further decimated by adherence to the insanity of "free trade" and globalization, under conditions of a systemic economic breakdown:

* General Motors will temporarily shut down five plants starting Jan. 3. This means that more than 9,000 workers are facing layoffs ranging from one week to four weeks at factories that make SUVs and pickup trucks, in Arlington, Texas; Janesville, Wisconsin; Lansing, Michigan; and Oklahoma City.

* Ohio: Auto supplier Dana Corp. warned of "significant" and permanent layoffs by the end of the year at its Caldwell plant, the largest private employer in Noble County, with more than 300 workers. MT Picture Display Corp., the largest industrial employer in Troy (north of Dayton), is eliminating nearly 300 hourly and salaried workers at its picture tube plant.

* Illinois: Amerock Corp. is closing its Rockford factory, sending layoff notices to all 450 employees who make hardware for cabinets and windows.

ATA: First Bankrupt 'Low-Budget' Airline

ATA Airlines announced bankruptcy on Oct. 27, despite having no unions, relatively new aircraft stock, and the lowest wages in the airline business. ATA is partially merging with AirTran—the rebirth of ValuJet of 1990s infamy—while declaring bankruptcy. The ATA failure, which will shrink its hub at Chicago's Midway Airport, is the sign of the ongoing collapse of the air carriers irrespective of size and union-busting, because of fuel costs. Delta's low-budget "Song" airline is also losing money, for example, and is one reason Delta is on the edge of bankruptcy—although on Oct. 27, it announced it had lined up some new financing and debt restructuring to skate for another month or so.

Labor is no longer the airlines' chief cost, as they have cut it down so much; but that has done them no good—their new number-one cost, fuel, is dragging them down. United and American, for example, were each losing money in the third quarter at a $1.2 billion annual rate, simply from the difference between what fuel was a year ago, and what it is now.

San Diego: Now, 'Enron by the Sea'

San Diego, Calif., once a model of fiscal responsibility and efficiency, is suddenly forced to admit the possibility of bankruptcy, according to USA Today Oct. 24. Actually, 79% of all U.S. cities, according to a survey by the National League of Cities, admit to the erosion of their fiscal health through circumstances similar to those which afflict San Diego.

The economic downturn and stock-market collapse cut income from pension-fund investments, forcing cities to cover gaps from their general revenues. Many, like San Diego, resorted to heavy borrowing, while deliberately underfunding the pension funds and, at the same time, hiding their shenanigans from the Wall Street bond underwriters. Now, "with interest on that borrowing compounded every year, the city's ability to ever repay is a serious question which must be addressed," says a report by the pension-reform committee, created by the City Council.

San Diego is now the focus of investigations by the FBI, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Wall Street has downgraded the city's bond rating, preventing it from issuing bonds to raise revenue.

The city manager and the city auditor have quit, so the depth of the city's financial hole is unclear, especially since San Diego has not released its financial audits in the last two years. The new auditing firm will not report on this until after the election, in which the city considers reelection of its Mayor, Dick Murphy.

World Economic News

Top German Economist: New 'Black Friday' Yet To Come

In an interview with the Oct. 25 issue of the Koelner Stadtanzeiger daily, senior German economist Wilhelm Hankel said that a crash already occurred in the spring of 2000, when the German stock market index DAX dropped from more than 8,000 points to below 4,000 points. The explosion of this bubble occurred for the same reason as Black Friday of 1929, namely, credit-financed speculation.

As in 1929, the central banks were to blame in 2000, because they encouraged speculation through loans at low interest and through money-pumping. With that, market gains of several hundred percent could be made, in 1929. In the 1990s, the central banks of Japan, the U.S.A., and Germany did the same, creating a bubble that sucked money away from all loans for real investments. "A Black Friday in highly speculative hedge funds or in real estate is probably yet to come." And again, the central banks would likely react in the wrong way, increasing the interest rates, which would explode the bubble, Hankel warned.

The European Union's Maastricht system is preventing Germany from adopting a low-interest, anti-cyclical policy, which would be the only way out of the problem. But instead of being loyal to the German Constitution, which obliges the government to intervene against an "imbalance of the economy," the present Finance Minister is like a slave to the Maastricht system.

By contrast, American Presidents have drawn on the experience of the New Deal approach, Hankel said, and not hesitated to borrow for state programs to "prevent a depression like the one Germany." What should be done in Germany, is to exempt all state expenses relating to investment from the Maastricht system, Hankel said, and if the private sector is not investing, the state should intervene.

Hankel added that he even discussed that with Finance Minister Hans Eichel, but met the same ignorance on his side, which is typical for the entire political left which knows nothing about "money, credit, and capital."

Schroeder Wants To Keep Maastricht, Slightly Modified

As German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder outlined in an article published in Handelsblatt Oct. 26, on the eve of his Berlin meetings with French President Jacques Chirac, the general thrust of the Agenda 2010 will be kept, as will the Maastricht system as such. The only modification will be exemptions from the strict budgeting rules for defense expenses, and for investment in research and education. How much of that would go to programs of real economic investment, and whether it would be of any substantial scope, however, is left in the dark.

What Schroeder wanted to propose as his "seven-point program for action" at the summit with Chirac, otherwise did not go beyond the main orientation toward the IT and service sector, and included such new atrocities as additional deregulation of financial services, and gas and oil supply.

United States News Digest

No Agreement on Intelligence Reform Bill

House Intelligence Committee chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich) told reporters, during a conference call briefing Oct. 29, that "progress has been slow," and "we've not reached agreement" on the intelligence reform bill currently in negotiation between the House and the Senate. While the main issue is the authority of the National Intelligence Director to be established by the bill, Hoekstra indicated that other issues, including the police-state provisions in the House bill, are also holding things up. Neither Hoekstra, nor anyone else participating, including Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif), Senate Governmental Affairs Committee chairman Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn), could guarantee that there would even be an agreement in time for the post-election lame-duck session, although they were all hopeful that it could be done by then.

Hoekstra reported that the House GOP negotiators were to present a proposal to the Senate that afternoon, which was to include proposals by House Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc) to drop some of the police-state provisions, including those on the expedited removal of aliens, a cap on grants of asylum, and the death penalty for terrorist acts that result in death.

Declassifying the intelligence budget is another area of disagreement. Harman said that the conference had reached an impasse on that issue some days ago. Collins said that her goal is to give the NID "true budget execution" over the entire intelligence budget and that there's "a lot of ways to get at that." Collins also said that she's pessimistic a bill can be done next year, if the conference can't reach an agreement this year.

Bush Nailed for Policies that Promote Abortion

Glen Harold Stassen, of the Fuller Theological Seminary, showed, in an Oct. 17 Houston Chronicle op-ed, that the Bush Administration's economic policies are responsible for the rise in abortion rates during his Presidency, from a 24-year low at the time that George W. Bush came into the White House.

Federal abortion statistics only go to 2000, and some states do not report, but Stassen and co-author Gary Krane got data for 16 states from Minnesota Citizens for Life, which uses the Guttmacher Institute's studies. Extrapolated for the nation, they project, for example (in an Internet exchange after publication of the op-ed), an increase in abortions for 2002, of 21,500, instead of a decrease of 28,000 expected from the steady downward trend of the preceding years.

But the core argument is not statistical: "Two-thirds of women who have abortions cite 'inability to afford a child' as their primary reason. Under the Bush Presidency, unemployment rates increased half again. Not since Herbert Hoover had there been a net loss of jobs during a Presidency.... Average real incomes decreased, and for seven years the minimum wage has not been raised to match inflation.... Half of all women who abort say they do not have a reliable mate. And men who are jobless usually do not marry.... As male unemployment increases, marriages fall and abortion rises.

"Economic policy and abortion ... form one moral imperative. Rhetoric is hollow, mere tinkling brass, without health care, insurance, jobs, child care, and a living wage.... [W]e need a president who will do something" on these fronts.

Stassen is an initiator of the theologians' attack on Bush's "theology of war." His dad, Republican Governor of Minnesota Harold Stassen, who several times sought the GOP nomination for President, joined Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1963 March on Washington.

Ex-Clinton Official: Bush Revitalized al-Qaeda

The former director for counterterrorism on the National Security staff under President Clinton, Daniel Benjamin, in an article in the Oct. 27 New York Times, points out that under President Bush, terrorists have been reinvigorated. After surfing the websites run by various jihadi groups, Benjamin says that al-Qaeda was definitely demoralized following the invasion of Afghanistan by U.S. troops in the winter of 2001. But now, what comes across loud and clear, is that al-Qaeda is convinced that the United States is bogged down in two places—Afghanistan and Iraq. Al-Qaeda is of the view that the United States has left fighting in both these countries, and is now "merely trying to 'prove their presence.'"

The op-ed also points out a genuine shift among the Pakistani jihadis such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). LeT was set up by the Pakistani ISI (intelligence services) to intervene in the Indian part of Jammu and Kashmir. Their websites make that clear. But now, following the mess in Iraq, the LeT is urging jihadis to go to Iraq to take revenge of the Abu Ghraib torture and "rape of Iraqi women by the Americans." LeT is also reporting 8,000 jihadis organizing to get into Iraq.

Feinstein Blasts Bunker-Buster Bombs

Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif) slammed the Bush Administration over its policy to develop new "bunker buster" nuclear bombs, as "leading the U.S. down a dangerous path," in an Oct. 26 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. The Bush Administration, she wrote, would "make our nation, and our allies less secure, not more, if the U.S. opens the door to the development, testing, and deployment of new tactical nuclear weapons."

Unprecedented Voter Registration Increases in 2004

The Moving America Forward Foundation (MAFF), founded by Gov. Bill Richardson (D) of New Mexico, has registered about 150,000 new Native Indian and Hispanic voters in the battleground states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, and New Mexico, the Washington Times reported on Oct. 26. MAFF got about $20,000 from the Howard Heinz Endowment, chaired by Teresa Heinz Kerry. According to Richardson, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada are key to a Kerry win.

An even more dramatic increase is seen in the registration of immigrants to the U.S., who have become citizens since 2000. An SEIU (Service Employees International Union) spokesman reported at an Oct. 20 National Press Club press conference, that 2 million people have become citizens and registered to vote since the 2000 election—new "immigrant voters," who are never polled but who, he says, could be "a wildcard in this election."

Many live in closely contested states like Florida, Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada.

The Washington Times story on this adds: "Using U.S. Census data from the 1996 and 2000 election years, Rob Paral, a research fellow at the American Immigration Law Foundation, found that 10.7 million adults became U.S. citizens during the past 10 years. Of that figure, 6.2 million registered to vote—accounting for more than half of the net growth in persons registered to vote between 1996 and 2000. The data also showed that 5.4 million of those registered actually voted." Thus, "although a smaller percentage of new citizens register to vote, those who have done so are actually more likely to vote on election day than their native counterparts." This is not just Hispanics; mention is made of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) 2004.

USA Today, in an Oct. 25 cover story, showed that there is a increase in registrations in every age group, as well. The most noticeable growth, however, is in the age group 18-29, where 79% are registered. In 2000, some 62% were registered. Also, in the 30-49 age group, the percentage of registration went up from 78 to 90%.

The survey concluded by saying that, among people who have some college education, but are not degree holders, 62% of those who did not vote in 2000 said they would vote this year. Among the African-Americans, a group targetted by the Democrats, 61% of those who did not vote in 2000 are highly motivated to vote this year. Among the veterans, 59% of those who did not vote last time, indicate they would vote this time.

Bush To Seek More Iraq War Funding

President Bush will seek $70 billion more to fund the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Washington Post reported Oct. 26. According to a number of Congressional, Pentagon, and White House officials interviewed by the Post, by early next year, Bush will seek $70 billion in additional war funding from Congress, if he is reelected. Already, Pentagon officials are scrambling to come up with the supplemental request, which is to be finalized shortly after the Nov. 2 election. This $70-billion supplement to the $25 billion and $87 billion that Congress approved in the past year, brings the "official" cost of the Iraq and Afghan military operations to date to $225 billion.

U.S. Tries To Provoke Europe/China Political Conflict

Determined to provoke (at least) one more international diplomatic incident before exiting the White House, the Bush Administration's Undersecretary of the Air Force Peter Teets wrote in a report last August, just leaked to Britain's The Business weekly, that the U.S. could attack Europe's planned Galileo navigational satellite constellation, if some nation, such as China, were to use its access to the data from Galileo for hostile action against the United States. In addition to China, Russia and Israel are contributing to, and will have access to, the Galileo data. The 30-satellite constellation is scheduled to be operational in 2008. It is in direct competition with America's Global Positioning System, and has been under political attack by the U.S. from its inception.

But unlike GPS, which was developed by the U.S. military, and can be preemptively shut off to civilian users should "national security" warrant it, the Europeans replied that Galileo, which will also undoubtedly be used for military intelligence, will not be turned off, or its signals jammed, even if used in a war with the United States. Two days after the article appeared, China described as "absurd" the idea that its satellite cooperation with Europe would be used for military purposes.

More to the point, it is precisely because the U.S. has refused to share, even with is "allies," navigational and other satellite-based information, that France, Europe, and Japan are launching their own satellite systems for reconnaissance and intelligence. Reportedly, the Europeans took "calmly," the threat to blow up their satellites.

Ibero-American News Digest

Falangist Bank Makes Takeover Bid for Mexican Universities

Even as Mexican universities launch a battle to force the government of Vicente Fox to increase its pitiful levels of investment in higher education (a miniscule 0.35% of GNP is allocated to science and technology, for example), Spain's Grupo Santander, whose flagship bank BSCH, together with the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, has already taken over vast portions of Ibero-America's banking systems, moved to buy up Mexico's universities. La Razon of Spain reported on Oct. 27 that representatives of Grupo Santander had met with President Fox and more than 220 university deans from across Mexico, to present their plan to invest $43 million over the next three years in Mexican university programs. Santander's plans include an "initiative" to tighten "business-university" ties, and provide 3,000 scholarships for Mexican students of their choice.

Santander already has established 71 bilateral cooperation agreements with Mexican universities, and it intends to sign more over the next three years.

Still another Santander initiative, known as "Portal Universaria," involves giving select students greater training and access to the Internet as part of its "creative business training" approach. Santander sponsors the same kind of initiative at 781 universities in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, as well as Spain and Portugal.

The political implications of this move are serious. As EIR exposed in a June 2004 study by Dennis Small, Grupo Santander is the front end of Synarchist efforts to reconquer Ibero-America, on behalf of London and Venetian oligarchic interests. BSCH's owner, Emilio Botin-Sanz de Sautuola y Garcia de los Rios, is a major backer of Spain's Francoist party, the Partido Popular (PP), and its former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. (See "The Empire Strikes Back: Spanish Banks Recolonize Ibero-America," EIW #26.)

Reconstruction Aid Lacking, Haiti Disintegrates

Haitian rebel leader Winter Etienne, whose forces played a role in the February 2004 ousting of ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, warned Oct. 26 that if the Haitian government doesn't quickly begin rebuilding the city of Gonaives, there will be new insurrections.

Hurricane Jeanne, which hit in September, left 1,900 dead nationwide, with another 900 missing, and probably dead. Some 200,000 are without homes or protection in Gonaives, Haiti's third largest city.

Etienne demanded the government build at least 200,000 houses, rebuild the roads and canals, and give students money for shoes, uniforms, and tuition. If the government won't do it, it should step aside for someone who will, warned Etienne. We will be forced to take action, "As we did before to rid ourselves of Aristide."

While the U.S. State Department and other international forces insist that holding "free elections" next year is the key issue, the government is under tremendous domestic pressure to deal with a starving nation, with little funds, and while facing roving armed bands of supporters and opponents of Aristide, each as violent as the other. Only 3,200 soldiers of a promised 8,000 UN peacekeeping force are in Haiti, and the logistical capability to distribute food and other aid is lacking. Violence, particularly in the capital city of Port au Prince, is worsening, with over 60 dead in the past weeks.

Brazil heads up the UN peacekeeping force on the island, largely made up of Ibero-American soldiers, while Chile heads the civilian side of the UN operation. Haiti was a leading topic on the agenda when Chilean Foreign Minister Walker visited Brazil this past week. Following their discussions, Walker announced that 160 more army engineers—mostly Chilean and Ecuadorean—will be deployed to help in the reconstruction process.

Argentine Bill Declares Junta Debt Null and Void

Congressman Mario Cafiero has authored a bill demanding that the foreign debt contracted under the 1976-83 military junta be declared null and void, as it is "odious" and "illegitimate ... under international law." The bill also calls for the International Monetary Fund and foreign banks that lent money to Argentina during this period, to compensate the state for the economic damages resulting from the sevenfold increase of the foreign debt between 1976 and 1983—from $5.6 billion to $46 billion. Cafiero and a group of like-minded legislators are demanding a special session of Congress Nov. 16 to debate the bill, as well as the issue of the illegitimacy of the foreign debt.

Cafiero presented his bill officially on Oct. 21, during an event held to honor Argentine lawyer and journalist Alejandro Olmos. In the mid-1980s, after exhaustive research, Olmos filed a suit in federal court charging that Argentina's foreign debt was illegitimate. It took until July 2000, two months after Olmos's death, for federal judge Jorge Ballesteros to rule that Olmos had proven beyond a doubt that "the highest political and economic authorities of the nation" had acted illegally in contracting the debt. He also pointed to the IMF's responsibility in the case.

Although Ballesteros's ruling found no specific individual or financial entity guilty of these crimes, he delivered copies of his ruling to "the Honorable Congress of the Nation," and charged it with "determining the eventual political responsibility that might be ascribed to each of the actors in the events that provoked Argentina's phenomenal foreign indebtedness." By calling for a special session, Cafiero and his group are attempting to force Congress to act on Ballesteros's request. "To fight against the debt is to fight for Argentina," Cafiero said in his Oct. 21 speech. He and his fellow legislators are also demanding that the International Court at The Hague take up the issue, and rule on the legitimacy of Argentina's debt.

Cartels' 'Sustainable Soy' Model Pushed in Argentina

The British Crown's World Wildlife Federation, Greenpeace, and the multinational food cartels have foisted a "sustainable soy" model on Argentina, Brazil, and other nations. Farm and producer activists reported details to EIRNS of the synarchist commodity grab which is wiping out food production in Argentina. The Agriculture Ministry and various scientific institutes have also been roped into this monoculture effort, which, according to the Rural Reflection Group (GRR), has "produced an agriculture without farmers" in Argentina. Food cartels and NGOs have colluded to "convert us to a soy republic."

The WWF is up to its eyeballs in this genocide. In September, it issued the report "Two Scenarios of Soy Production Expansion in South America," supporting the so-called "sustainable soy" model. This justifies the expansion of soy production, while demanding establishment of ecological parks and other pristine areas, to be kept safe from "contamination"—and agricultural production.

In an e-mail circulated internationally, the GRR demands an end to the IMF's neoliberal model, and a return to state intervention to defend living standards and national interests. "The expansion of monocultures has wiped out the green belts of large and small cities, composed of dairy units, poultry farms and family farms," the GRR states. It warns that the food cartels intend to increase production of exportable soy from 60 to 100 million tons per annum, which for Argentina would mean adding 10 or more million hectares of genetically modified soy, to the 15 million hectares already cultivated this year.

Brazil Defends Its Right To Develop Nuclear Technology

The U.S. magazine Science published an attack on Brazil's uranium enrichment program in its Oct. 22 issue, which called for an international mobilization to "help the United States" give the "Iran treatment" to Brazil, too. Science's attack coincided with a crucial International Atomic Energy Agency visit to Brazil.

A three-man IAEA team spent more than six and a half hours in Brazil's uranium enrichment plant in Resende on Oct. 19, examining onsite the government's proposed visual limitations on international inspections of their uranium enrichment centrifuges. Brazil has placed a metal panel in front of the centrifuges, so that inspectors cannot see their shape, height, orientation, or number. The inspectors have returned to their Geneva headquarters, to make a recommendation to IAEA superiors as to whether the Brazilian conditions allow sufficient proof that no uranium is being diverted, or being produced at greater levels of enrichment than permitted. A decision from the IAEA is expected within 30 days.

The Science article, written by rabid anti-nuclear spooks Gary Milhollin and Liz Palmer from the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, raves that Brazil could be producing enough enriched uranium to make five to six nuclear warheads a year in its first year of operation, and enough to produce 53 to 63 warheads annually by 2014. Brazil's insistence on protecting its intellectual property rights is "a serious challenge to the IAEA's authority," the authors assert.

Brazil's Science and Technology Ministry responded that the scientifically incompetent article stemmed from either "great disinformation or hidden interests," but either way it was "incompatible with a scientific journal of the prestige and tradition of Science." The authors' assertion that Brazil's program should be stopped, because were it to decide to build a bomb, its stockpile of 3.5% or 5% enriched uranium would have accomplished "more than half the work needed to bring it to weapons grade" [90% enriched!], is, the Sci-Tech Ministry charged, "the equivalent of saying that no country could have access to nuclear technology."

Uruguay Holds Presidential Elections Oct. 31

Uruguay held Presidential elections Oct. 31, against a backdrop of economic stagnation and deepening poverty. The frontrunner in the race is Tabare Vasquez, candidate of the leftist EP-Frente Amplio coalition, who is expected to garner more than 50% of the vote. Should this not occur, a second round of elections will be hold Nov. 28. This is Vasquez's third run for the Presidency.

This small country has never recovered from the devastating crisis of 2001-02. Dependent on Argentina and Brazil for trade, when Argentina's debt crisis exploded in December 2001, Uruguay's financial system almost collapsed, too. Today, 31% of the population lives in poverty. During the 2001-02 crisis, unemployment reached 25% and salaries contracted by 20%. President Jorge Batlle has imposed harsh IMF-dictated austerity since then, claiming that things are greatly improved today. But unemployment remains close to 20%, reflected in the dozens of new slums have sprung up on the outskirts of the capital of Montevideo.

Vasquez defines himself as a "moderate" leftist, and has the backing of Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner and Brazil's Lula da Silva. However, he denies he will adopt "radical" economic policies, and has sought to reassure the IMF and World Bank that he will be financially responsible. Senator Daniel Astori, rumored to become Vasquez's Finance Minister, promised in a recent interview, that he would adopt "orthodox solutions," and praised the economic policies of Lula da Silva.

Gen. Harold Bedoya Speaks to EIR On Colombia-U.S. Relations

I had hoped LaRouche would be the U.S. President come Nov. 2, but even so, we must get the U.S. and Colombia to fight narco-terrorism together, Colombia's Gen. (ret.) Harold Bedoya said, in an Oct. 27 interview with EIR, in which the former Commander of the Colombian Army attacked Wall Street's alliance with the drug trade. and went after the IMF policies of debt collection, which destroy economies. The interview will appear in an upcoming EIR On-Line.

Western European News Digest

World Political Class Not Up to Today's Challenge

In a conversation with EIR on Oct. 27, a senior British defense establishment figure said the main problem the world is facing today, is that the international political class is "just not up to the challenges posed by Iraq, Afghanistan," and the terrible problems of unemployment and "no future" that the entire world's youth face.

He continued: "I see few answers in the current political process." Just a year ago this source supported the Bush-Cheney government and, as he admitted Oct. 27, had really thought that Saddam Hussein did have WMD, but is now totally anti-Bush-Cheney. "I will be immensely disappointed, should Bush and Cheney win," he said.

The situation reminds him of Harold MacMillan's comment when asked what was the most difficult crisis of his premiership. "Events," he said, "Events." Now, the source said, "the U.S. attempt to control events is an abysmal failure. This crisis in Iraq need not have happened.

"The statement of Russian President Putin on terrorism and the Bush re-election: This is an example of what the neo-cons have done to international politics." Leaders are reacting to every critical situation as a "war on terrorism," but they "are not winning" these wars, he said.

The enormous problems faced by today's youth are universal, he said: drug use, unemployment, no future. Politicians are recognizing this, but, as the Blair government is an example, really doing nothing to help. The "idealism which drove political affairs after World War II is gone," he said, and nothing has yet replaced it.

British Military Historian Hopes for Bush-Cheney Defeat

In an Oct. 27 discussion, a leading British military historian told EIR: "I can assure you that, across the spectrum in Britain, there will be a great feeling of relief if Bush and company were defeated on Nov. 2." He said that even in Downing Street and Whitehall, there is a split over Prime Minister Tony Blair's support for George Bush, and many have a sense of how dangerous a second Bush-Cheney government would be. His view from Britain, is that Kerry has a real chance of winning now.

He found it interesting that the Blair government had finally admitted that the PM had met John Kerry in the U.S., which previously had been denied. "For a British government to totally exclude contact with a candidate for the U.S. Presidency, especially when the race is so close, is ludicrous," the source said. Blair has to prepare for a possible Kerry win.

The Black Watch was deployed into northern Iraq as of Oct 27, and this is "very controversial in Britain," he said. They are being exposed to great danger, and "I have little doubt that the demand for the deployment came directly from the Pentagon," he said. The numbers are small, but this would "show" that the U.S. has at least one ally at its side in Fallujah, he said.

On the overall U.S. deployment in Iraq: The costs are enormous. This historian has made the point, very coherently in his writings, that the British Empire was in reality an enormous burden on Britain, and an enormous cost to its real security, especially going into World War II, where the costs of defending the huge empire, were bringing Britain to total economic ruin. The U.S. is facing this same cost of empire, in trying to occupy and hold Iraq today, he said.

'Opel City' Mayors Coordinate Against Closures

Mayors of German cities where Opel plants are located have said they will coordinate steps to prevent shutdowns of production sites. At a meeting Oct. 28 in Ruesselsheim, Mayor Stefan Gieltowski, and his three mayoral colleagues from Bochum (Ottilie Scholz), Kaiserslautern (Bernhard Deubich), and Eisenach (Gerhard Schneider), resolved to cooperate closely, in order to prevent any city being played against another, in the ongoing fight for jobs at Opel.

Especially the shutdown of an entire production site is to be prevented, announced the four Mayors, who are also in close contact with their respective Opel factory councils. Although not said openly, the Mayors' agreement is important also for the organization of coming mass protests and other actions by the populations of the these cities, in defense of jobs, of the kind seen in the protests on Oct. 19.

Former German Labor Minister: The Problem Is No Jobs

In an interview with the current issue of the Catholic weekly Die Tagespost, Norbert Bluem, who is a Christian Democrat, and was Labor Minister from 1982 to 1998, said the call by neo-cons that firing of workers should be made easier, is wrong: "If every single job has 20 people applying for it, 19 of these will be rejected—with, or without layoff protection. The main problem is: We don't have the jobs."

Bluem says the principles of Christian social ethics are not at all outdated: "If private property is linked again to jobs, we can liberate ourselves from the global players. Ninety-five percent of the billions of dollars that are daily changing their owners on the global data highway, have nothing to do with the exchange of goods or with production. This house of cards will collapse, one day."

"Three years ago, people were told, 'Buy stocks and become rich!' 700 billion euros (of assets) have been wiped out in Germany, during the past 18 months!" Bluem added that there is a lot of wisdom in the old principles, like "protecting the dignity of man, preserving the Creation, creating justice."

36,000 VW Workers Stage Two-Hour Strike Oct. 27

Not only has the Volkswagen management refused to make any concessions on its plan to cut expenses by 2 billion euros, but personnel director Peter Hartz, who gave the German government's "Hartz IV" austerity plan its name, provoked labor even more in an interview in the Oct. 27 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Hartz said that if the cost-cutting plan were not carried through, with 1 billion of the 2 billion euros to be cut already set for the end of 2004, then massive layoffs were unavoidable.

Labor responded with a two-hour walkout of 30,000 auto workers in Wolfsburg Oct. 27, and another 6,000 in Baunatal (Kassel). On Oct. 28, protests were planned also in Hanover, where management-labor talks are taking place. The walkouts follow the Opel Bochum example, based on the right of workers to be informed by their factory council: They can interrupt work, this way, without staging a traditional warning strike.

If, on Oct. 29, which is the deadline, the talks fail, the auto workers can, and will, begin warning strikes and prepare a regular strike vote. It would be the first-ever real strike at Volkswagen in 55 years, and involve 103,000 production workers.

Psywar Against German VW Workers

Volkswagen's Peter Hartz insinuated, in a leak published in the Oct. 28 Bildzeitung, that without drastic cost-cutting, massive layoffs would become unavoidable. The report intimated that 15,000 jobs would be axed—10,000 of these in production.

Bildzeitung added an "assessment" by Prof. Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, head of the Gelsenkirchen-based CAR (Center for Automotive Research), which warned that 25,000, or even 30,000 jobs, would be lost. A few days earlier, Dudenhoeffer warned that, in addition to the 12,000 jobs that GM would axe in Europe, 10,000 of them in Germany alone, another 2,000 were on the list for the next round of layoffs, mostly in Italy.

German Government Issues Bad News on Pensions

The German government has announced that again in 2005, there will be no increase in pensions. The freeze of pension increases for 2004, which was decided a year ago, was explained at the time to the 20 million retired citizens of Germany, as an alleged "one-time" cut, which would "most likely" not be repeated in 2005, as the economic situation would "improve."

Now the financial situation of pension insurance in particular, is said to be insufficient to allow a pension increase in 2005. The share of the special-care insurance, which retired citizens have had to pay from April 2004 on, will stay in effect, as well.

Call for Action vs. U.S. Funders of German Neo-Nazis

Former Assistant German Defense Minister Willy Wimmer, a member of the Christian Democratic Party, said in an interview with the Oct. 27 Leipziger Volkszeitung daily, "These metastasic parties (DVU, NPD et al.) receive financial support, especially from the U.S.A.

"With reference to the principles of the U.S. Constitution [especially the freedom of speech clause—ed.], worldwide, and also in our country, anti-Semitic, fascist, and generally radical ambitions are being instigated in a way that makes you feel sick."

Wimmer appealed to Wolfgang Thierse, the chief speaker of the German Parliament, to become active against this plague. It is most urgent, Wimmer stressed to Thierse, that U.S. funds that "are pouring into the right-wing-radical swamp in Germany, are dried out and blocked, as is done against financial sources of international terrorism."

The news daily added that "every year, big sums of money" for German right-wing radicals also come "from Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, and Spain."

European Union Commission Vote Hits a Brick Wall

Jose M. Barroso, the new President of the European Commission, who has been approved by the European Parliament (EP), has had to call off the vote on the members of the Commission, scheduled for Oct. 27. At least five members of the commission are not expected to be approved, and Barroso has so far refused to replace any of these.

The EU, therefore, has an outgoing Commission President, Romano Prodi, who cannot leave, and an approved new President who cannot come in. For the time being, Prodi will stay, with a rump commission, most members of which have already departed for new posts in the private sector. This means the Commission is largely defunct, and therefore cannot present a budget for the next fiscal year. In this unprecedented situation, the Commission may try to improvise a budget which is a simple continuation of the FY 2004, but this only further compounds an emergency situation.

In addition, France and Germany are certain to miss the Maastricht budget target also next year, a crisis which could lead to scrapping the entire budget-cutting system. As French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder indicated at their Berlin meetings, Oct 27-28, they are not willing to dump the Maastricht system, and would, for the time being, only go so far as to modify it, getting some easing of budget rules.

The ongoing paralysis of the EU Commission may even be seen as working to the benefit of France and Germany, as Barroso never was the candidate of both (actually, Angela Merkel and Tony Blair chose and imposed him), and neither of the two has done anything in the past days for Barroso to help him out of the mess.

But all the intrigues and tactics pull the EU even more into the chaos. Therefore, the election of John Kerry as U.S. President, and a New Deal intervention from there into Europe, is the only thing that could reorganize European affairs in a positive way.

Russia and the CIS News Digest

Russian Expert: Common Interests Possible with Kerry

Interviewed in a late-October issue of Novaya Gazeta (No. 78), Sergei Rogov, director of the USA-Canada Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, criticized the widespread assumption that the reelection of George W. Bush would be good for Russia. Rogov cautioned, "Actually, we should ask ourselves exactly what we want and expect from America. My impression is that we still don't know." He said that the behavior of a second Bush Administration would be unpredictable.

Rogov warned that nobody should assume they know how a President Kerry will act: "In fact, not everything is clear about Kerry's policy, either. On the one hand, his foreign-policy team includes Clinton's people. We all remember how they liked to appoint our Prime Ministers, and promoted privatization in Russia in the early 1990s. Hence, the anti-American trends in Russian society. Should Kerry win, we will hear a lot of rhetorical rebukes." But, added Rogov, "Kerry is criticizing Bush for acting unilaterally, disregarding international law, abandoning international agreements like the ABM Treaty, and refusing to ratify the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. These are also the points on which Russia is critical of Bush. That means we could find some common interests with a Kerry Administration."

Also speaking out on Russia's posture toward the U.S. campaign, with a certain subtlety, was ex-Prime Minister and foreign affairs expert Yevgeni Primakov, in one of the many interviews he gave on the occasion of his 75th birthday (Oct. 29). Speaking Oct. 24 to RTR state television, Primakov was asked about President Putin's recent remarks in Tajikistan, which the interviewer characterized as saying "that a defeat for Bush would mean a victory for international terrorism." Primakov rejoined, "This is not quite what he said. This is not what he said. He said terrorist attacks were on the rise in Iraq, and these were clearly aimed at preventing a Bush reelection. This was what he said. It is not the same thing. Some thought he voiced his support for Bush. It can of course be construed that way."

RTR then asked, "Who is harder to work with, the Democrats or the Republicans? The popular myth is that it is easier to reach agreement with the Republicans," to which Primakov responded, "It all depends on who represents the Democrats or the Republicans. In theory, if you wish, we have always found it easier to agree with the Republicans because they never feared any attacks from the left.... But ultimately, it all depends on who represents one or the other."

Russia Protests Pentagon Claims

Claims made by John Shaw, a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for International Technology Security, first circulated in the Financial Times of London and then proliferated by the Washington Times, have caused a furore in Moscow. "The Russian Ministry of Defense summoned the U.S. military attaché in Moscow to express a resolute protest in connection with the comments by Shaw," Interfax quoted an anonymous source at a Russian Defense Agency, on Oct. 29. Shaw's allegation was that Russian soldiers spirited away hundreds of tons of explosives from a site in Iraq, just before the U.S. invasion.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Vyacheslav Sedov dismissed the allegation with the comment, "You can't really take statements like this as anything but far-fetched. I can officially confirm that the Ministry of Defense and the organizations that report to it could not have taken part in the disappearance of the explosives, since Russia's servicemen and military specialists left Iraq 12 years ago."

Rising Tensions Precede Vote in Ukraine

The lead-up to the Oct. 31 Presidential election in Ukraine was marked by some violence, accusations of foul play, and warnings and scenarios about provocations and more violence, up to and including a so-called "Chestnut Revolution," on the model of the "Rose Revolution" that brought Michael Saakashvili to power in Georgia at the end of last year. International circles typified by the Wall Street Journal would like to see opposition candidate Victor Yushchenko as "their man"—the Saakashvili of Ukraine. Russia, meanwhile, rooted for Prime Minister Victor Yanukovych, with final, none-too-subtle backing coming from President Putin, who spent Oct. 26-28 in Kiev. Yanukovych is the one whom outgoing President Leonid Kuchma prefers as his successor.

On Oct. 22, a member of Yushchenko's parliamentary bloc, Volodymyr Stretovych, alleged that Kuchma was arranging "a strong-arm scenario," under which Yushchenko would be framed up for instigating violence, and a state of emergency would be declared. On the other side, pro-Yanukovych Russian operatives, such as spin-doctor Gleb Pavlovsky, have been loudly warning about the Chestnut Revolution scenario, under which Yushchenko would fall short in the voting, but move to seize power. Andrei Kokoshin, chairman of the Russian State Duma's Committee for CIS Affairs, in a TV interview called Ukraine and the whole CIS "spheres of Russian strategic and vital interest," ... and then arrived in Kiev as part of a Russian delegation of election-monitors.

The race has been presented in the Western media as merely a contest between the "pro-Western" Yushchenko and "pro-Russian" Yanukovych. Really, the correlation of forces is messier than that, and is entwined with the brutal clan politics and control of the Ukrainian economy by clannish business interests, which came to dominate the country during the destructive neoliberal reforms in the first post-Soviet years. (Ukraine's rates of HIV/AIDS, drug addiction and trafficking of women into forced prostitution, outstrip even those in Russia.)

The most recent violence led some observers to ask if a so-called third force were not acting to provoke clashes among the political tendencies, and between western and eastern Ukraine. (Eastern Ukraine is traditionally Orthodox, with large Russian ethnic and Russian-speaking population.) On Oct. 23, the largest political rally since Ukrainian independence in 1991—with the crowd estimated at between 50,000 and 150,000—took place in Kiev, to support Yushchenko. As the rally was ending, and the candidate had already left the scene, a gang of leather-jacketed toughs started smashing the windows of the Central Election Commission offices. Yushchenko's staff quickly denied responsibility, while London-exiled financier Boris Berezovsky's Moscow Kommersant newspaper headlined, "Kiev Is Preparing for a Falsification of the Vote," blaming the attack on Kuchma.

On Oct. 25, Kommersant ran a full-page, alleged transcript of a conversation between Kuchma and Yanukovich, full of obscenities against the opposition, and sourced to the fugitive Ukrainian intelligence Major Mykola Melnichenko—who in 2001 orchestrated the release of tapes purporting to implicate Kuchma in the murder of journalist Gongadze.

At a conference of political scientists in Kiev Oct. 27, Russian analyst Sergei Markov warned about possible "serious and possibly bloody disorders" in Kiev on election day, adding, "That [the Oct. 23 incident] was a rehearsal of a coup d'etat. Why are we pretending that nothing is happening?"

Putin arrived in Kiev as Kuchma's guest on Oct. 26. That night he did a one-hour call-in interview on Ukrainian national TV. While remaining diplomatically correct, regarding Ukraine's sovereignty, Putin hailed the process, which he said was gathering force, of "finding forms of interaction and integration" between Russia and Ukraine. On Oct. 28, Putin was in the reviewing stand for a parade to mark the 60th anniversary of Kiev's liberation from the Nazi occupation.

Russian Depopulation Is National Security Threat

On Oct. 21, the Russian State Statistics Committee (Goskomstat) announced that the country's population declined by another 504,000 people in the period January-August 2004, due almost entirely to the excess of deaths over births. A TV-Tsentr report, monitored by RFE/RL Newsline, quoted Minister of Health and Social Development Mikhail Zurabov, who said that Russia's population is already "insufficient for a country with such territory and long borders." TV-Tsentr also cited Victor Ishayev, the governor of Khabarovsk Territory, who said that only 8 million people live in East Siberia and the Russian Far East, right across the border from hundreds of millions in China.

On Oct. 18, Zurabov spoke at a conference on the Spiritual and Moral Fundamentals of Russia's Demographic Development, convened by the Russian Orthodox Church. There he reported that Russia's population is down to 144.2 million. The number of ethnic Russians in the Russian Federation has fallen by 9 million since 1992; the natural loss of population was somewhat offset by immigration from other former Soviet republics, producing a net population loss of 6 million in those 12 years. Zurabov also said that Russia currently has 600 non-working-age people (children and retirees) for every 1,000 work-capable population. This ratio is already "an unbearable economic burden, which affects the prospects for economic development, public incomes, and living standards," RIA Novosti reported him saying. The current mortality rate, he announced, is 16.4 per 1,000 population and rising, after a short dip in 1995-99. It features a 40% rise in adolescent mortality in the recent period, and absolute numbers such as 233,000 deaths of working-age people last year (33,000 of alcohol abuse, 30,000 in auto accidents).

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexi II told the forum, "We are already faced with a choice: Either our Fatherland will exist in the future or it will not." He and other Church speakers focussed on the moral corruption of Russia, its "spiritual ill-being." "Russia has gone through harder times in economic terms," Alexi II said, "but, as they were morally healthy, people saw the family as the absolute value and, despite difficulties, had many children and responsibly raised them." Another Church spokesman denounced the media for promoting "immorality, selfishness, the cult of profit-making, and freedom from morality."

Zurabov, who told the conference that nearly one-third of Russian children are born out of wedlock (as against 14.6% in 1994), outlined an array of economic incentives being offered for family formation, in various regions of Russia.

Putin Pledges To 'Save' Russian Academy, But Cuts Run Deep

Russian President Vladimir Putin met Oct. 26, in the framework of his Council on Science, Technology and Education, with Academy of Sciences leaders who are reeling from the Ministry of Education's plan to cut off funding to hundreds of research institutes. "No one is going to ruin the Academy," Putin tried to reassure them, "Our task is to preserve the Academy and prevent it from disappearing in the turmoil that has caught all of us." Nonetheless, Putin endorsed the Ministry plan, which provides for a 50% increase in federal spending on science over two years (to 70 billion rubles, or $2.4 billion, as against $19 billion for foreign debt service in 2005), while cutting the number of state-funded institutions from 2,388 down to 800. Putin confirmed, "We are planning effective restructuring of the state-run scientific sector, based on the principles of the state's participation in scientific organizations only in the interests of public tasks, above all, to provide the development of key scientific trends." Other scientific institutes and projects will have to make their way in the marketplace.

An example of the kind of unique facility that may disappear, came in mid-October reports that the Omsk Road Research Institute is facing legal action for failing to meet payroll, and may have to close its doors. It has designed unique road-laying technologies for use in Siberian marshes and the permafrost of the tundra—the terrain of what should be the great development frontier of North Central Eurasia.

Southwest Asia News Digest

LaRouche in Arab Press: Why Kerry Should Be President

An article published the week of Oct. 25 in two major Arabic-language newspapers, the Egyptian opposition paper Al Shaab and the Bahrain newspaper Al Wasat, details the analysis given by U.S. Democratic Party leader Lyndon LaRouche in his Oct. 6 webcast on "Why John Kerry Should Be Elected President."

The article, written in Arabic by LaRouche collaborators, details the "three insanities" that LaRouche described in his webcast, and elaborates on George W. Bush's mental illness.

The authors also present LaRouche's basic ideas about the science of physical economy, stressing the fight for economic development, historically, against imperial looting, including details of Franklin D. Roosevelt's victory and success in leading the U.S. out of the Depression. They call on Arabs, including Arab-Americans, to do whatever they can to make sure Kerry is elected.

Arafat in France Undergoing Treatment

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was flown to Paris Oct. 21, on French President Jacques Chirac's personal aircraft, and is now at the Hospital d'Instruction des Armees de Percy, one of the best hospitals in France. (See this week's InDepth for more on the Palestinian situation.)

Interim Iraqi PM Accuses U.S. of 'Negligence'

Just a few weeks after George W. Bush was using him as a election prop, Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, on Oct. 24, accused the U.S. of "negligence" in the massacre of 49 Iraqi National Guard recruits. Allawi's terse statement was: "There was an ugly crime in which a large group of National Guards were martyred. We believe this issue was the outcome of major neglect by some parts of the multinational [forces]." His remarks were characterized as very vague in the Arabic media.

Allawi's remarks, utterly unusual for a U.S. puppet, are being read in the Arab world as an attempt to cover up his own responsibility. These recruits were Iraqi recruits, in "his" new military, and his government has been dealt a heavy blow.

The recruits reportedly travelled unarmed and without an escort, which had been planned, but was delayed. Just days before this massacre, 22 recruits to the new Iraqi Army were killed in a car bomb attack.

Abu Ghraib Torture Colonel Failed To Secure Weapons Depots

The only officer who had the authority to post guards or remove material from the Al-Qaqaa weapons storage facility in Iraq was "Col. Thomas M. Pappas of Abu Ghraib fame," and nothing was done to protect such facilities, reports National Guardsman David DeBatto in an Oct. 29 Salon.com article titled "The Looting of Iraq's Arsenal."

DeBatto's article says, "The same month Al-Qaqaa was being stripped of high explosives, I warned my military intelligence unit of another weapons facility that was being cleaned out. But nothing was done." Pappas was the commander of the 205th Military Intelligence battalion, who would be the only person authorized to assign guards, writes DeBatta, making clear that Pappas is the same officer involved in the Abu Ghraib tortures.

DeBatto adds, "But Al-Qaqaa is not the whole story," and recounts how, when he was serving with the Army National Guard's 223rd military Intelligence Battalion, from April through October 2003. Near his battalion's base at Camp Anaconda in Iraq was another major weapons and ammunition facility "that was unguarded and targetted by looters.... Nothing was done to secure this facility, as it was systematically stripped of enough weapons and explosives to equip anti-U.S. insurgents with enough roadside improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, for years to come."

DeBatto wrote the article for Salon after reading the Oct. 24 article in the New York Times reporting that powerful explosives, monitored and sealed by UN inspectors, had disappeared after the U.S. invasion of Iraq (see next report).

A Week of Folly: Pentagon Can't Explain Missing Explosives

The Bush Administration and the Pentagon leadership looked like incompetents and prevaricators Oct. 29, after a week of trying to counter attacks from commentators and the John Kerry campaign following a report in the New York Times Oct. 24, that 380 tons of explosives were missing from the Al-Qaqaa munitions depot in Iraq. The Times revealed that Administration officials had no answers to a series of questions that the Times and CBS News posed after learning of the missing explosives from a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

On Oct. 29, the Pentagon released satellite photos obtained by U.S. intelligence agencies, showing the site, prior to the war, with trucks parked next to buildings. This was interpreted to mean that Saddam Hussein was transporting chemicals out of the site, before the war was to begin. But several hours after the release of the photos, U.S. Army Major Austin Pearson appeared at a hastily organized Pentagon briefing to say that he had been in Iraq, at the site, and oversaw the removal of some 250 tons of the material that both Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and other Pentagon officials had said had been removed by enemy forces before the U.S. invasion.

But an ABC-TV affiliate had already delivered serious damage to the Pentagon, which was busy giving itself self-inflicted wounds (see next report).

ABC-TV Footage Documents Existence of Missing Explosives

ABC-TV film footage, released Oct. 27, shows that explosives and other material sealed by IAEA inspection teams, were still in place at the Iraq weapons storage facility at Al-Qaqaa when U.S. troops arrived. The film footage was taken by two journalists, Dean Staley and Joe Caffrey, from KSTP-TV, an ABC affiliate in Minneapolis-St. Paul, when the team accompanied the 101st Airborne Division, to Al-Qaqaa on April 18, 2003, that is, just weeks after Saddam Hussein fell.

The journalists joined soldiers going to the site, which former inspector David Kay confirmed, from the film, to be like Al-Qaqaa. "The photographs are consistent with what I know of Al-Qaqaa," he said. Kay stressed the importance of the seals visible in the film. "The damning thing is the seals. The Iraqis didn't use seals on anything. So I'm absolutely sure that's an IAEA seal," he said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Caffrey said that the U.S. troops had used bolt cutters to cut the chains with locks on them, and the seals. They said they visited six bunkers, full of crates of HMX containers. Caffrey said, "The soldiers were pretty much in awe of what they were seeing. They were saying their EOD—explosive ordinance division people, who blow this kind of stuff up—would have a field day."

Caffrey said the troops left the bunker doors open when they left. "It would have been easy for anyone to get in."

The journalists' story, which was run in Minneapolis, tends to indicate that the material was not removed prior to the war, and that, indeed, it was the occupying forces who had control over the sites.

In addition, a report from Human Rights Watch, filed in May 2003, had provided the United States and Great Britain with specific information regarding unsecured weapons stockpiles, around Baghdad and Basra. Nothing was done about it, the group said on Oct. 28.

Fractured Fairy Tales: Pentagon Blames 'Spetsnaz' for Missing Explosives

On Oct. 28, a third-level Defense Department official, John A. Shaw, the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for International Technology Security, was retailing the bogus story that Russian "Spetsnaz" (special forces) took the RDX and HMX explosives which were missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility in Iraq.

In interviews with the London Financial Times and the Washington Times Oct. 28, Shaw, who reports to neo-con ideologue Doug Feith, said: "The Russians brought in, just before the war got started, a whole series of military units. Their main job was to shred all evidence of any of the contractual arrangements they had with the Iraqis. The others were transportation units." He also said: "For nearly nine months my office has been aware of an elaborate scheme set up by Saddam Hussein to finance and disguise his weapons purchases through his international suppliers, principally the Russians and the French. That network included ... employing various Russian units on the eve of hostilities to orchestrate the collection of munitions and assure their transport out of Iraq via Syria."

As this week's InDepth reports, Feith's Pentagon operations are under Senate investigation for fabricating intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war. The latest caper by Shaw belongs in the same category as the other incidents being probed by the Armed Services Committee.

On Oct. 28, a statement issued by the chief of the Russian Defense Ministry's press office, Vyacheslav Sedov, said the charges were "invented and absurd." He said, "all Russian military advisers and specialists had left Iraq long before the beginning of the American-British operation in this Middle East state. I could understand an attempt to make a mountain out of a molehill, but there has not even been a molehill this time," he said.

Asia News Digest

Afghanistan Surpasses Colombia as World's Biggest Drug Producer

Despite President Bush's starry-eyed comments about the Oct. 9 Presidential election in Afghanistan, including such remarks as: "Isn't it Amazing?" and "Freedom is Beautiful," the fact remains that Afghanistan has become the largest producer of opiates in the world. Speaking in Bogota, Colombia Oct. 27, Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said his office would release a survey the following week, which will show that Afghanistan has surpassed Colombia in drug production.

Although figures have not been made available yet, the 2003 production of opium in Afghanistan was about 3,970 tons. The highest ever was in 2000, when it exceeded 4,600 tons. This year's harvest is expected to be close to 5,000 tons—a rise of 25% over last year's figure.

According to available reports, Afghan drugs sold last in year in Europe fetched about $30 billion. In Afghanistan itself, $2.5 billion worth of drugs were sold—nearly 50% of GDP.

Malaysian Border Police on Alert Following Bloody Clashes

Malaysia put its border police on alert Oct. 26, and warned citizens against crossing into southern Thailand, after the clashes between protesters and Thai security forces, in which 86 died, the Singapore Straits Times reported Oct. 27.

Police had been instructed to step up security to prevent Thai militants from taking refuge in Malaysia, said Zuber Shariff, police chief of the Malaysian border state of Kelantan. He was quoted by the official Bernama news agency as warning Malaysians to avoid crossing into southern Thailand.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar also expressed concern about the violence in southern Thailand.

Thai Officials Claim Weapons Show Protest Was Planned

Thai police claim to have found seven automatic rifles, a pistol, four hand grenades, and machetes believed to belong to the protesters in the clash in Tai Bak district, which might indicate that the demonstration was planned. The clash took place on Oct. 25, and led to the deaths of 86 Thai Muslims.

Senior security officials said they had heard of the rally a couple of days in advance, but had not known the exact target and could not determine how several thousand people massed from different towns at one location.

General Sirichai Tunyasiri, chief of the Southern Border Provinces Peacekeeping Command, told the Bangkok Post that he believed a "third hand" had plotted the unrest and fired pistols into the air during the scuffle. About 50 core protesters wore hoods and were reported to be armed. Religious leaders and locals confirmed they were not from the neighborhood.

Neo-Cons Pressure Korea To Keep Quiet Until U.S. Elections

A Korean official told EIR, "The neo-con pressure on us to be quiet between now and Nov. 2, is not so subtle. They are out to isolate North Korea, to insist that North Korea is to blame for ending the Six-Power Talks, and they are pressing us heavily not to make any peaceful overtures. It is no accident that [Deputy Secretary of State Richard] Armitage was here last week; now Colin Powell is touring our region, and on Wednesday [Oct. 27] [Undersecretary of State] John Bolton will be part of an exercise here to board North Korean ships. That is pretty provocative."

The official was referring to the first drill in Asia on Oct. 26, of Bolton's Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), aimed against North Korea. Japan, the United States, Australia, France, and others will hold two days of multinational maritime drills to practice boarding other nations' ships illegally on the high seas, to intercept WMD.

"The only thing North Korea should be concerned about, is whether or not they are going to be caught in the act of participating in this kind of illicit traffic," Colin Powell said in Tokyo Oct. 24. "This is not hostile to any nation that is acting in an appropriate manner," he added.

China Faces Real Estate Bubble

Real estate prices are "soaring" in China, warned Xinhua Oct. 27. There are fears that the government's macro-control measures are failing to "squeeze out the bubbles in the overheated real estate sector," Xinhua warned. Property prices rose 13% during the first nine months of 2004, year on year, and residential property prices were up 10.9%.

Housing costs are rising beyond most people's means, said senior economist Zhang Xueying, despite government clamp-downs on credit and many measures, including control of land-planning, to "cool down" overheated sectors such as property and steel.

In Beijing, prices for residential housing are between 7,000 yuan (US$843.4) and 8,000 yuan (US$963.9) a square metre, while the average annual income in Beijing is just 10,000 yuan (US$1,204.8). "If there is no bubble, who will buy this housing?" he said.

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences economist Yi Xianrong said that real estate is the root of the China's overheated economy.

Even National Bureau of Statistics spokesman Zheng Jingping said recently that "we cannot rule out speculative factors" in housing prices. The government must act to prevent a speculative bubble.

Energy Bottleneck Hampers China's Economic Growth

China's "energy bottleneck" is continuing, an editorial in the Peoples Daily warned Oct. 25. China has suffered serious energy shortages since the second half of 2002. To resolve the current power crunch, China has built many coal-fueled power projects. These should "dramatically" increase electricity generation in the next year or so, but at the same time will demand an 8%-9% increase of coal production in 2004. Half of China's coal goes to power generation. The coal sector is already overstretched, and conditions in China's coal mines are among the most deadly in the world—as recent accidents have shown, in which over 4,000 miners have died so far this year.

More coal, means more transport, and the already overburdened rail transport system will get worse, the editorial warns. In the first half of 2004, coal transportation increased by 12.2% over last year, "but still failed to meet the demand."

China's dependence on oil imports is growing steadily, 5.5% year on year over the past decade. China will consume 280 million tons of oil this year, but has "a disproportionately small bearing on the pricing of oil in the international market. Further rise in oil import prices will have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy," the editorial warns.

A 1% hike in oil price lasting one year would cut Chinese GDP growth by 0.01%. China must build a "comprehensive oil reserve system," the editorial states. It also calls for developing nuclear energy as one alternative.

Powell Keeps the Lid on in East Asia

After meeting South Korean Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-Ung in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was on a tour of Japan, China, and South Korea, beginning Oct. 23, ostensibly trying to restart the Six-Power Talks on North Korea.

Powell is not taking any new offer to the region, the usual anonymous "high U.S. official" told the New York Times. "The simple answer [to get North Korea back to talks] is to get China to twist their arm more," a senior State Department official said. Powell's deputy, Richard Armitage, reminded Pyongyang that the sentiment in Congress would persist for tough negotiations regardless of who won the White House. "We've got two weeks and the North Koreans seem to want to wait until after that election," he said. "I think they have miscalculated the importance of change here in Washington."

"The North Koreans see Powell as a lame duck. They will keep stalling until they know who they will be negotiating with," said one U.S. official opposed to the talks with North Korea. No matter who wins the Presidential election, Powell is not expected to serve another term as Secretary of State.

Elite Japan Defense Panel Questions U.S. Security Alliance

Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi's Advisory Panel on Defense, in a report and press conference Oct. 5, questioned whether and to what extent Japan should expand the scope of cooperation with the U.S. military, as being demanded by the Washington neo-cons. "The bilateral alliance needs to be redefined," they said, warning that "the alliance should be operated with utmost care and under close bilateral cooperation, due to concerns about U.S. unilateralism."

Several panel members said that the bilateral alliance "does not have a post-9/11 security strategy," meaning that the U.S. side "moved the goal posts" after 9/11, when Cheney introduced the "first strike" policy, which is against Japan's Constitution—but has never even been discussed. The Japanese people are not happy about the results that followed when their government last used the "first strike" doctrine—at Pearl Harbor.

Opposition Demands Japan PM Apologize for Iraq War

The leader of Japan's opposition Democratic Party of Japan, which has until now acted like mindless centrists, on Oct. 13 made an unprecedented break and demanded Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologize to the Iraqi people for backing the war, after the CIA's weapons inspector found no weapons of mass destruction. "Prime Minister Koizumi, you were too rash," DPJ chairman Katsuya Okada told Parliament. "You have a grave responsibility for supporting the war that deprived many innocent people of their lives. You must admit squarely you made a grave mistake in supporting the Iraq war and apologize to the Japanese people and the people of Iraq," Okada said. "The Bush Administration has acted unilaterally and justified preemptive attacks, making a serious challenge to the idea of the UN Charter and undermining the postwar framework for global peace."

Africa News Digest

Insurrectionary 'Splinter Groups' Pop Up in Darfur

African Union and UN officials said Oct. 24 that two new insurrectionary factions have emerged in Darfur.

The National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD), a split-off from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), is operating in the Tine area on the Sudan-Chad border. NMRD said Oct. 25 that it had launched an attack on a government convoy Oct. 6, to dramatize its demand for a seat at the negotiating table in Abuja, Nigeria. One of its leaders, Hassan Khames Grow, said, "If we are not invited, we will continue to attack the government." Since they are not part of the (often broken) truce in Darfur, they say the safety of the African Union's military observers there is "not guaranteed."

Another group has appeared further south, near the city of Nyala, according to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special representative, Jan Pronk.

Of the two splinter groups, Pronk said, "At the beginning I thought they were an artificial creation, but now I think it's more serious. You need to take them into consideration as a power."

Russia Bans Sales of Weapons to Non-Government Bodies in Sudan

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree banning the sale of weapons to non-government bodies in Sudan, to take effect Oct. 25. The ban is designed to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1556 of July 30. MosNews comments that Putin was responding to fears that Russian weapons were being used by the Janjaweed to kill civilians.

This Week in History

November 1 - 7, 1932

Roosevelt, Hoover Offer Clear Choice — In 1932 Presidential Campaign

On Nov. 5, 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt closed his campaign for President with a speech at Madison Square Garden in New York City. His opponent, the incumbent President Herbert Hoover, had spoken in the same location five days earlier. The difference in philosophical outlook between the two men was striking, and offered a clear choice to the American people.

Hoover had become an American celebrity after World War I, praised as the "Great Engineer," who had overseen relief efforts in war-torn Belgium. Although he was orphaned early in life, he had managed to accumulate a small fortune, by means of what he viewed as hard work and individual responsibility. His perspective on the "American System," which he cited often in his speeches, was that the greatness of America depended on rugged individualism and decentralized government.

Therefore, Hoover did not believe that government action could or should be used to end economic depressions. By "letting nature take its course," he had greatly magnified the effects of the stock-market crash of 1929. This policy was more than agreeable to his murderous Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon, who advised Hoover: "Let the slump liquidate itself. Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate.... It will purge the rottenness out of the system."

Therefore, in his State of the Union address on Dec. 2, 1930, President Hoover had told the Congress and the country that "Economic depression can not be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement. Economic wounds must be healed by the action of the cells of the economic body—the producers and consumers themselves. Recovery can be expedited and its effects mitigated by cooperative action. That cooperation requires that every individual should sustain faith and courage; that each should maintain his self-reliance; that each and every one should search for methods of improving his business or service; that the vast majority whose income is unimpaired should not hoard out of fear but should pursue their normal living and recreations; that each should seek to assist his neighbors who may be less fortunate; that each industry should assist its own employees; that each community and each state should assume its full responsibilities for organization of employment and relief of distress with that sturdiness and independence which built a great Nation." Hoover insisted that relief for the unemployed must be locally and privately financed.

By 1932, local municipalities and states were finding it absolutely impossible to organize enough employment, or to relieve the distress of millions of undernourished and homeless American citizens. Joseph Heffernan, the Mayor of Youngstown, Ohio, wrote a magazine article in May of 1932 which described that city's battle to help its citizens and called for Federal intervention to restore the economy: "Never had Youngstown suffered such a shock to the spirit which had made it one of the great industrial centres of the world.... Another winter was approaching. The numbers of the unemployed had increased and suffering had grown acute. Many heads of families had not earned a penny in two years. Landlords clamored for their rents and sought evictions.... Thousands of the city's water bills were unpaid, and officials were torn between their desire to be charitable, their fear of disease if the water were cut off, and the city's urgent need of money. Property owners could not pay their taxes, and delinquencies became appalling.... As in Cleveland, we adopted the slogan, 'Pay your taxes, so the hungry can be fed,' and the words meant just what they said, for by this time the private charities were swamped, desperate, and bankrupt."

Yet despite the widespread suffering, the President transformed the Constitutional principle of promoting the general welfare into a call for "self-help." In his speech at Madison Square Garden, Hoover claimed that "our opponents ... are proposing changes and so-called new deals which would destroy the very foundations of our American System." Continuing his microscopic view of humanity, he dropped his earlier reference to people as "the cells of the economic body," in favor of talking about a society that was "absolutely fluid in freedom of the movement of its human particles." The President claimed that any expansion of government expenditure to reverse the depression and relieve suffering was nothing but "yielding to sectional and group raids on the Public Treasury," and announced proudly, "This I stopped."

And there were many so-called economists who agreed with him. Ray Vance, an investment counselor and chairman of several investment firms, was more forthright when he laid out, in an article in June of 1932, how the depression could be "managed." He reported favorably that, "Wage rates and the general overhead of business concerns have been curtailed to a point where profits could be made on relatively small volumes of business." However, there were still things to be accomplished. "With the exception of Great Britain, no large nation has readjusted its budget to current conditions. To do this does not require an exact balancing of the budget but does require the drastic cutting of expenses built up through long years of free spending, the placing of heavy taxes, and the distribution of taxes over practically all classes and sections of the country." When faced with a cold-blooded economist in the mold of Vance, advising him that austerity policies were necessary, Franklin Roosevelt angrily informed him that "People aren't cattle, you know."

At his final speech in Madison Square Garden, Roosevelt summed up his commitment to saving the nation and uniting the country. "Tonight we close the campaign. Our case has been stated and made. In every home, to every individual, in every part of our wide land, full opportunity has been given to hear that case, and to render honest judgment on Tuesday next.

"From the time that my airplane touched ground at Chicago [to accept the nomination—ed.], up to the present, I have consistently set forth the doctrine of the present-day democracy. It is the program of a party dedicated to the conviction that every one of our people is entitled to the opportunity to earn a living, and to develop himself to the fullest measure consistent with the rights of his fellow men....

"There can be only one great principle to guide our course in the coming years. We have learned the lesson that extravagant advantage for the few ultimately depresses the many. To our cost we have seen how, as the foundations of the false structure are undermined, all come down together. We must put behind us the idea that an uncontrolled, unbalanced economy, creating paper profits for a relatively small group, means or ever can mean prosperity.... There is an interdependence in economics, just as there is a brotherhood in humanity. Loss to any is loss to all.

"Today we struggle against the inevitable result of wandering after false gods. Confident in the sinew and fiber of American life, we know that our losses are not beyond repair. We know that we can apply to the great structure we have built, our power of organization, our fertility of mind and the intelligence and the foresight needed to make that structure more serviceable. We refuse to be oppressed by baseless fears that our firesides are to become cold or that our civilization will disappear. We know that by the united effort of us all, our fear can be dissipated, our firesides protected, our economic fabric reconstituted, and our individual lives brought to more perfect fulfillment.

"The next Administration must represent not a fraction of the United States, but all of the United States. No resource of mind or heart or organization can be excluded in the fight against what is, after all, our real enemy. Our real enemies are hunger, want, insecurity, poverty, and fear. Against these, there is no glory in a victory only partisan.

"The genius of America is stronger than any candidate or any party. This campaign, hard as it has been, has not shattered my sense of humor or my sense of proportion. I still know that the fate of America cannot depend on any one man. The greatness of America is grounded in principles and not on any single personality. I, for one, shall remember that, even as President. Unless by victory we can accomplish a greater unity toward liberal effort, we shall have done little indeed....

"Today, there appears once more the truth taught two thousand years ago that 'no man lives to himself, and no man dies to himself; but living or dying, we are the Lord's and each other's'.... We can and will bring to the problem of the individual the maturity of the united effort of a Nation come of age. America, mature in its power, united in its purpose, high in its faith, can come and will come to better days."

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