In this issue:

Blair Told Iraq Invasion Violates Rule of Law

British Prime Minister Is a Loser in U.S. Elections

German Finance Minister Can't Count!

Poverty in Germany Hits Young the Hardest

Geissler: 'Where Is the Cry of Protest?'

German Enviro Minister Feels Heat on Nuclear Power

Who Is Stoking the Clash of Religions in the Netherlands?

London Source: Recession Will Hit USA Soon

From Volume 3, Issue Number 46 of EIR Online, Published Nov. 16, 2004

Western European News Digest

Blair Told Iraq Invasion Violates Rule of Law

Sir Stephen Wall, British Prime Minister Tony Blair's former senior diplomatic adviser, accused Blair of "departing from the rule of law," by invading Iraq, the Independent reported Nov. 9. Wall was a senior civil servant, who previously served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major/Prime Minister.

Speaking at Chatham House, the former Royal Institute of International Affairs, on Nov. 8, Wall said that "I believe that in Britain we allowed our judgment of the direct consequences of inaction to override our judgment of the even more dire consequences of departing from the rule of law." Wall said that a common European view on Iraq could have been reached before Britain became committed to an "unstoppable course of action" by the United States.

British Prime Minister Is a Loser in U.S. Elections

"The U.S. Presidential elections were a 'no win' for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whoever won," a senior City of London source told EIR Online in discussion Nov. 9. "If Kerry had won, there would have been an effort to get rid of all those involved in the Iraq war, and there would have been a lot of pressure on Blair.

"But Bush won, and Blair will now have to carry the albatross of Bush and Iraq around his neck into the coming British elections" (referring to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," in which a sailor is forced to wear around his neck the body of an albatross, a great sea-bird, which he had killed.)

As for Blair's quick trip to the U.S. the week after the election, the source said: "Labour Party backbenchers have given Blair an 'ultimatum': If he does not return with any concrete demonstration of the benefits of his close ties to George Bush, they will rebel against his policies. The little likelihood of Blair getting what he wants, was shown by in statements of [his former spin-doctor] Alastair Campbell on TV Nov. 9, saying that "it would be unrealistic to expect concrete results from a summit such as this."

There is not likely to be a parliamentary defeat for Blair immediately, but his failure to get results will lead to demoralization among Labour Party workers who have to get out the vote in the election, and there could be many Labour seats lost, the source said.

German Finance Minister Can't Count!

The German Finance Ministry has disclosed that it needs an extra 1.4 billion euros, to fill an acute hole in the budget of the Federal Agency of Jobs (the former unemployment agency), by the end of 2004. The hole has emerged, because in reality, there are 2.3 million long-term unemployed in Germany now, instead of the 1.87 million that Financial Minister Hans Eichel's "expert" staff had forecast a year ago. There is a method to this gross incompetence, and what has happened here, with the figures, will also be revealed with other figures, soon.

Poverty in Germany Hits Young the Hardest

A new report, issued in early November, by church-related and other welfare organizations, speaks of approximately 400,000 homeless citizens, some 100,000 of whom are women and children (figures are estimates, and do not cover all of these cases).

Another report issued by the German Children Aid in Berlin on Nov. 8, lists 2.8 million children and youths under age 18, as regular recipients of social welfare payments. This is 10% of all youth under age 18, in Germany. In eastern Germany, about one-third of social-welfare recipients are youth, and in Saxony, it is 38% of the 135,000 welfare recipients.

Furthermore, it is expected that 500,000-600,000 recipients of long-term unemployment support and social welfare will drop out of the category of recipients, under the Hartz IV conditionalities, which are scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2005. This is 25% of all citizens in the long-term jobless or social-welfare category.

Geissler: 'Where Is the Cry of Protest?'

Heiner Geissler, former German Health Minister under Helmut Kohl, and former General Secretary of the Christian Democratic Union party, wrote an op-ed in the Nov. 11 Die Zeit, in which he condemns the free-market economy. The Geissler commentary is symptomatic of the increasing ferment building up in German society against the neoliberal monetarist dogma. He calls, as an alternative, for an "international social-ecological market economy." Geissler notes in his op-ed that in Germany, 147 years after the Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx, tens of thousands of workers wait for the next blow to hit them, coming from the big companies—General Motors, VW, and Continental—which will throw these workers into unemployment and the lowest social category.

"Today it's not the ghost of communism going around in Europe, but the big fear, combined with rage, disgust and deep mistrust vis-à-vis the political, economic and scientific elites, who, like those responsible in the time of transition from feudalism to industrial society, are obviously incapable, of shaping globalization in a human way," Geissler stated. By referring to the so-called law of the market, he said, these elites speak about an "anarchical" economic order, which runs over corpses. "100 million people in Europe and the USA are threatened with unemployment, and 3 billion poor people have an income which is equivalent to the wealth of 400 of the richest families on Earth: they accuse the pupils of the shareholder-value economy, the speculators."

Workers and trade unions stand with their backs against the wall, in a world characterized by total greed and anarchy, says Geissler. Where is the outcry from the political parties, such as the SPD, CDU, and the churches, against a system which allows small and medium firms in Germany to be sold, with their entire equipment and employees, as if they "were slaveships from the 18th Century?" Companies which, following the logic of the market, will in the future be shut down, and thereby destroy the lives of thousands of workers.

German Enviro Minister Feels Heat on Nuclear Power

The website of the German Environment Ministry has posted a paper rebutting the arguments for going nuclear, in which Environment Minister Jurgen Trittin insists that there is "no renaissance" for nuclear power. As reported in the global warming newsletter Point Carbon Nov. 9, the Ministry paper "appears designed to counter any potential weakening of public support for Germany's ongoing phase-out policy in the face of rising concern over the high world oil price and climate change." New plants would not create a "security of supply," the paper says, but "only attract Islamic terrorists."

Who Is Stoking the Clash of Religions in the Netherlands?

On Nov. 2, the popular filmmaker Theo van Gogh, a liberal cynic, whose latest movie is a pornographic provocation to conservative Muslims, was shot and stabbed to death in Amsterdam. An ominous five-page letter was left behind on the site, declaring "holy war," and threatening death to every critic of Islam. A number of Moroccans were arrested the same day, all alleged "Islamicist extremists.

After van Gogh's funeral, a Qur'an school was burned down, followed by eight mosques in several cities, attacked by arsonists. In "retaliation," four Christian churches were targetted by arson attacks, and on Nov. 9, an Islamic school was destroyed by a bomb. The press is full of "assessments" that the Netherlands is heading for a "clash of religions."

On Nov. 10, police forces sealed off a quarter in The Hague which is densely populated by Muslims; this was followed by an exchange of gunfire, and a hand grenade thrown at police, injuring three. More police have been brought in, and the entire air space over The Hague, the capital of the Netherlands, was sealed off as well, by the military.

London Source: Recession Will Hit USA Soon

In conversation with EIR Online Nov. 9, following the U.S. elections, a London financial expert who had previously warned—correctly—of serious financial crises, said, "Recession is going to hit soon. It won't be far off. I do not know the timing of it, but all the tax cuts and other stimulants are used up.

This will be a "global phenomenon," he said. It could likely hit first in Britain, even sooner than in the U.S.

When told of Lyndon LaRouche's assessment, that Bush would soon wish he had never been elected, the financial expert agreed. "The question is, do people start to realize that trouble is ahead now, or in two to three months, when the problem is upon us? The housing boom, which was a factor for Bush, is now coming off its top in the U.S. as well as here in the U.K.," he said.

"Look at the huge indebtedness, and the lack of savings. People will want to borrow more, and will find out they just cannot do so. This will be a big shock for them."

When Nixon's short 18-month second term was mentioned to him, he said, "Certainly, things could be very different by the mid-term elections in the U.S. I just hope that the neo-cons don't go all out in the immediate time ahead."

All rights reserved © 2004 EIRNS