LaRouche Online Almanac

InDepth Coverage

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Links to articles from
Executive Intelligence Review,
Vol. 33, No. 22
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Feature:

'ETHANOL MADNESS'
End the Great 2006 Bio-Fuels Swindle
by EIR Staff
The current mania for ethanol, biodiesel fuels, 'flex-fuel vehicles,' and the like, is creating a financial bubble—within which is a swindle—inside of which is a slippery old methane fart, waiting to explode. Members of Congress taking part in the swindle, enthusiastically or not, are going to wind up very smelly when the ethanol party ends, the investment boom collapses, and motorists indignantly demand regular gasoline again.

Ethanol: Not a Kernel of Science in It
by Laurence Hecht
Ethanol is an excellent substance to tank up on. Just don't drive on it. It slows reaction time, impairs judgment, and it's illegal. In excess, it can make you giddy, stupid, mean, sour, depressed, and violent. It might even make you President. Here we will inform you what ethanol is, why it is a worse than stupid way to replace our oil dependency, and whydevelopment of nuclear power is the only sane way to provide ourselves an economic future.
Brazil's 'Biofuel Republic' Is Murder!
by Cynthia R. Rush
Several times in the course of this year, Brazilian President Ina´cio Lula da Silva has boasted that his nation is about to become energy independent, through the development of biofuels based on sugar cane or other feedstocks derived from soy, castor beans, and sunflower seeds among others.
Bio-Cons, Neo-Greens: Shultz Boys’ Corn Scam
by Christine Craig
One thing all Shultz’s kindergarten, “left” and “right,” now share: They’re all pushing the ethanol bubble as a purported means to U.S. energy independence and national security. Andthey demandCongress, and the American taxpayers, throw tens of billions a year at it.
ADM, Cargill—The Enron and Halliburton of the Ethanol Swindle
by Marcia Merry Baker
Before there was Halliburton or Enron, there was the food cartel—the leaders of the pack on today's ethanol bubble and swindles. For decades, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Cargill, leading cartel globalizers, have laid the basis for the disastrous energy 'technological downshift' into ethanol and biofuels. Right from the 1970s start-up of corn-based ethanol (then called 'gasohol') for the U.S. 'market'—as the false energy alternative to nuclear power—these two companies accounted for 70% of the new bio-fuel production capacity at that time, and have dominated every policy turn since.
Nebraska Farm Report: Biofuels Mania
Don Eret, a farmer and former state legislator in Dorchester, Nebraska, described the scene in his state to EIR on May 24— Nebraska being the third-biggest corn state in the country, with 11 ethanol plants operating, and more under construction. Eight of these plants are in Nebraska's central/eastern region, surrounding Eret's farm in Saline County.

National:

Libby's Defense: 'The Devil Made Me Do It'
by Jeffrey Steinberg
While the 'Establishment' media has been asleep at the switch, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has made a series of devastating filings before Judge Reggie B. Walton, in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, which have placed a new spotlight on the personal role of Vice President Dick Cheney in the leaking of the identity of Central Intelligence Agency officer Valerie Plame Wilson.

Documentation
Special Counsel Filing On Lewis Libby, May 24
This is the complete filing by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, submitted to the court in the Lewis Libby case on May 24. We reprint the entire document here, so that readers will have a full and accurate picture of what Fitzgerald states regarding the state of mind of Cheney and Libby, which he presents to show their motivation for the criminal offenses which with Libby is charged. The distinction between this and the May 12 filing by Fitzgerald, is that Libby is trying to exclude evidence, and this is Fitzgerald's reply.
Exhibits Attached To May 24 Filing
These exibits are unedited transcripts. The redactions are indicated by dashes or for larger sections by the word 'redacted.'
Special Counsel Filing On Lewis Libby, May 12
This is the complete filing by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, submitted to the court in the Lewis Libby case on May 12. We print the entire document here, so that readers will have a full and accurate picture of what Fitzgerald states regarding the state of mind of Cheney and Libby, which he presents to show their motivation for the criminal offenses which with Libby is charged. Thus, readers do not have to rely on simplistic press reports.

International:

LaRouche Warns: Cheney Plans To Launch Iran Strike in June
Lyndon LaRouche issued a public warning on May 24, that an ever-more desperate Bush Administration, led by Vice President Dick Cheney, is seriously planning a preventive military strike against Iran sometime between now and early July. The warning is based on a series of reports from well-placed military and security sources in the United States and Europe, who point to a particular convergence of developments over this period.

Who Is Planning World Soccer Terror?
by Claudio Celani
A potential major terrorist attack in the context of the World Soccer Championship in Germany for months has been the primary issue of concern of German and European police authorities. As the June 9 opening day of the games nears, a new factor has been added to the conventional scenarios: the announced mobilization of neo-Nazi hooligans in support of Iran, as Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made it known that he would like to be present at the games played by his national team.

LaRouche Warned vs. Cheney Terror Threat
by Dean Andromidas
Lyndon LaRouche has issued a warning that Vice President Dick Cheney and his Synarchist financier backers, including George Shultz and Felix Royhatyn, intend to launch a global coup by exploiting the interaction of two events: The World Cup Soccer tournament in Germany, beginning June 9, and the arrival of U.S. and French naval carrier groups, also during June-July, in preparation for an attack on Iran.

LYM Brings Reality To Mexican Elections
by Dennis Small
The LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) of Mexico is sponsoring a public event on May 31 at the Legislative Assembly of Mexico City, which may turn out to be the most substantive discussion of real policy issues of the entire Mexican Presidential election season, to date.

U.S.-Russia Chill Felt At World Russian Forum
by William C. Jones
A meeting of the World Russian Forum in a Senate building in Washington on May 16 demonstrated the impact in leading Russian circles, of the latest round of attempted Russia-bashing by an ever more disoriented Vice President Dick Cheney. The belligerent posture of the Bush Administration, and Cheney's speech in particular, had senior Russian representatives talking in terms of 'the lowest point in 20 years' in U.S.Russian relations, even though the conference took place less than a week after President Vladimir Putin in his State of the Federation message invoked the very best in past U.S. policies, by quoting Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the resolve to overcome an economic depression. That contrast only serves to underscore what poison the neo-conservative dogmas and geopolitics of Cheney & Co. represent.

A Moscow Phase Shift: Youth Are the Future
by Jonathan Tennenbaum
My visit to Moscow on May 13-20 confirmed for me the signal contained in President Putin's State of the Federation message of May 10, that Russia is indeed going through an important political and cultural phase change, with strategic implications for the world as a whole. Russia is reacting to the international crisis, and to the insanity of the dying Cheney-Bush Administration, in a manner that is distinctly Russian, but which—not accidentally!—echoes the mass organizing process led by LaRouche and his movement, for a revival of the Franklin Roosevelt tradition in the United States.
Tennenbaum on Radio
A Russian Dialogue On LaRouche's Ideas
Jonathan Tennenbaum, science advisor to U.S. statesman Lyndon LaRouche, made two media appearances in Russia May 18 and 19, in which he addressed the current economic and strategic crisis, and the pathway LaRouche has charted into the future. The May 18 interview was aired on the 'Govorit Moskva' (Moscow Speaking) radio program, on a Moscow-area station that reaches an area with a population of 15 million, and has many thousands of listeners.

An Indictment of Globalization: The Case of the Philippines
Mike Billington of EIR's Asia Desk, and Dennis Small, EIR's Ibero-America Editor, interviewed Antonio 'Butch' Valdes, a long-time associate of Lyndon LaRouche from the Philippines, for The LaRouche Connection public access cable TV program. The interview took place in Leesburg, Virginia, on May 23, during Mr. Valdes's visit to the United States.

LaRouche Speaks to The Philippines
Lyndon LaRouche was interviewed by Philippine radio host Butch Valdes, the head of the Philippine LaRouche Movement, and several members of the Philippine LaRouche Youth Movement, on nationwide 'Radio Mindanao,' for one hour on Sunday, May 14, immediately preceding Mr. Valdes's visit to the U.S.

Economics:

China's Three Gorges Dam Completed Ahead of Schedule
by William Jones
The completion by Chinese engineers of the construction of the massive Three Gorges Dam, earlier than expected and under budget, has defied the catastrophic predictions of its vociferous detractors. The filling of the dam reservoir to its full height, which was scheduled to be accomplished by 2009, will now be completed in 2008. The 606-foot-high dam, which stretches 7,575 feet across the Yangtze, the world's third-longest river, has long been the target of the radical environmentalists. Now, with the world, and China in particular, facing rapidly growing energy needs, both nuclear energy and hydroelectric power have received a new lease on life as the ideal alternatives to oil and coal.

Take a Reality Check
The Financial Blowout Is Currently Under Way
by EIR Staff
As the headlines in the accompanying collage make clear, the extreme turbulence in the financial and commodities markets has finally begun to convince even the most 'Establishment' of financial press outlets, that the blowout of the bankrupt world financial system is under way. Over the two-week period beginning the second week in May, roughly $2 trillion in market capitalization were erased. All major stock markets reported the biggest two-week losses since early 2003, with special emphasis on the so-called 'emerging markets,' ranging from Russia to India, to the nations of South America. Some of the collapses have gone into double digits on one day alone.

Germans Nervous About Hedge Fund Crisis
by Rainer Apel
A year ago, Franz Mu¨ntefering, then national chairman of the German Social Democratic party (SPD), triggered a heated public debate in Germany over the issue of 'locusts,' as he called hedge and other speculative funds that are 'eating up industry.' What Mu¨ntefering said had been inspired by several weeks of political campaigning by the LaRouche Youth Movement in Germany, for aNew Bretton Woods-style monetary system.

Put Millions to Work
Expand Public Health, VA Hospital Systems
by Marcia Merry Baker and Edward Spannaus
Federal agencies have the immediate capacity to assimilate hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, into useful work today, as happened in the 1930s under President Franklin Roosevelt (see box). This report examines the capacity and capabilities of the U.S. Public Health Service, and the Veterans Affairs agency, and the health-care capabilities of the Community HealthCorps within the AmeriCorps structure, which focusses on health-care needs of people in areas with inadequate medical services.

Uninsured Crisis Spurs Conyers' Push for HR 676
by Patricia Salisbury
One dramatic indicator of the catastrophic state of the U.S health-care system, now collapsing in tandem with the destruction of the manufacturing and productive base of the economy, is the steady rise in the percentage of Americans without any health insurance. Reports indicating that nearly 20% of the under-65 population of the United States have no health insurance—most, despite full-time employment within their household—have demanded a renewed drive by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) to generate a Congressional majority for a universal, health-care bill, modelled on Medicare, which he has introduced repeatedly in recent years. That bill, H.R. 676, this year has gained scores of sponsors; it has the mobilized support of Lyndon LaRouche's political action committee and the LaRouche Youth Movement.

Avian Flu Readiness
Progress on Vaccines, Stall-Out on Logistics
by Christine Craig
In early May, the ABC fictional TV movie 'Fatal Contact' was broadcast, about the arrival of an avian flu pandemic. With millions dying internationally, it placed the U.S. epicenter in Richmond, Virginia, showing gore and body-bags. Thousands of viewers had the same reaction as those in the 1930s did to the radio equivalent—H.G. Wells' 'War of the Worlds'—when they thought it was for real.

Editorial:

Fighting To Save Our Way of Life
Speaking to a group of trade unionists on a conference call convened May 26, Lyndon LaRouche laid out the crisis facing the U.S. population, and what must be done. Beginning with the financial collapse, which has shown itself in dramatic form over the recent weeks, LaRouche moved on to the question of saving the machinetool sector of the U.S. economy, the heart of the productive economy, which remains ensconced primarily in the auto sector.

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