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From Volume 5, Issue Number 35 of EIR Online, Published Aug.29, 2006

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This Week You Need To Know

Science: The Essence of Economics
How the Liberals Tried To Make Engels' Monkey Into a Man
by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.

August 23, 2006

Foreword: Engels and the British Myth of Karl Marx

One of the most striking of the direct insights into the continuing, inherent, systemic incompetence of Anglo-Dutch Liberal approaches to economy, is provided by examining the thinly disguised, anti-American leaning of a manufacturer whose income came chiefly from English production of slave-produced cotton. His name was, Frederick Engels.

During the relevant part of the 1870s, Engels took the occasion to express his customary prejudice against the channels through which U.S. influence contributed to the improved social and economic policies of Bismarck's Germany. Engels' lurch, was published, most notably, by nominally Marxist circles, under the rubric of Anti-Dühring. This piece of propaganda was directed by Engels against, implicitly, not only the German-American economist Frederick List, but, also against the world's leading living economist of the 1870s, the U.S.A.'s Henry C. Carey. This connection to Carey is not identified explicitly in that published piece; however, the targeting of Carey was readily recognized by those circles against whom the literary tract was directed.

The particular attack to which I refer here, occurred in the context of Carey's connections to the role of the German philosopher Eugen Dühring, the Dühring who was among the notable political factors in discussions leading into the Bismarck government's adoption of essential features of the economic and social policy of the American System of political-economy for Germany. Engels' tendentious prose for that occasion, chose Dühring as the featured, named target of his rage against the American influence behind the Bismarck reforms. The principal, actual target of the attack was not Dühring, but the world's leading economist of that time, the Carey who was also the principal U.S. figure participating in the U.S. advice to Germany on the Bismarck economic reforms....

...full article, PDF

Latest From The Worldwide LaRouche Youth Movement

See this week's InDepth for the latest news on the world historic campaign of Daniel Buchmann for Mayor of Berlin:

Berlin Mayor Debate Excludes Real World

by Abdul-Aliy Muhammad LaRouche Youth Movement

It was comical; it was outrageous; it was double that, if it can be said. Flamboyant melodrama as a substitute for politics and real thinking. As if a maitre d' had approached your dining table and said, "I'm sorry there is nothing today. Our waiters are themselves 'out to lunch'!" These are all valid and keen insights into the state of Berlin and for that matter, German political life....

...full article, PDF

InDepth Coverage

Links to articles from
Executive Intelligence Review,
Vol. 33, No. 35-36
This is a special double issue. The next issue of EIR online will be dated September 12. Watch "Need To Know This Week" for breaking developments.
To navigate the content of the entire issue,
please begin by clicking anywhere on Page 1.

...Requires Adobe Reader®.

National:

U.S. Institutions, Press Ask: Is President Bush Nuts?
by Jeffrey Steinberg

An Establishment consensus is rapidly emerging over the ever-more obvious lunacy of President George W. Bush, and the strategic implications of allowing a man with long-term and severe psychiatric disorders to remain in the Presidency during a period of systemic financial disintegration, which is driving some leading synarchist bankers to push for World War III—using mad George as their patsy.

Lieberman Defeat: Referendum on the DLC
by Debra Freeman

On Aug. 9, the day after Connecticut's Joe Lieberman became only the fourth incumbent U.S. Senator since 1980 to lose a primary election, the Democratic Senate leadership, in a lastditch attempt to get Lieberman to bow out gracefully, held a press conference to announce that they were, as promised, endorsing the winner of the primary race—in this case, Lieberman's opponent Ned Lamont.

Principle or Tactic? Fix or Change a System?
by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.

August 19, 2006
The Platoon Leader gave the order: 'We march. . . Any questions?' The wise guy (a Baby Boomer, obviously) in the ranks asked: 'Do we have to use our legs?'

LaRouche to Seattle Cadre School
The 20th Century Transformed Us From Earthlings Into Solarians

Lyndon LaRouche spoke by telephone to members of the LaRouche Youth Movement in Seattle, Aug. 13. This is a transcript of his opening remarks.

Feature:

LaRouche To Report From Berlin: A World Historical Moment
This press release was issued by the LaRouche PAC on Aug. 19, 2006.
On Sept. 6, 2006, in this moment of the greatest strategic crisis since 1989, the LaRouche Political Action Committee (LPAC) will be featuring former U.S. Presidential candidate and noted economist Lyndon H. LaRouche, leading a three-hour international webcast, during which he will summarize, and discuss, a fifty-year, positive strategic perspective for dealing immediately with the currently combined, and rapidly worsening threats of economic-financial breakdown-crisis and of generalized asymmetric warfare, now gripping the world system.

LaRouche's Unique Successes
There Is No Secret in My Success
by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.

August 20, 2006
This paper summarizes one of the leading points, respecting the required method of economic forecasting, which will be featured during the Sept. 6, 2006 LaRouche PAC webcast from the two cities of Berlin and Washington, D.C.

LaRouche's 1988 Forecast Of German Reunification
On Oct. 12, 1988, Lyndon LaRouche announced the impending collapse of the Soviet system, a collapse which he said would begin soon in Poland and would lead to the restoration of Berlin as the future capital of Germany. Not one leading figure of the world agreed with LaRouche then; but it happened the next year. The following is the text of his speech at a press conference at West Berlin's Kempinski Bristol Hotel. He was at the time an independent candidate for the Presidency of the United States.

Science:

SCIENCE: THE ESSENCE OF ECONOMICS
How the Liberals Tried To Make Engels' Monkey Into a Man
by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.

August 23, 2006
Foreword: Engels and the British Myth of Karl Marx
One of the most striking of the direct insights into the continuing, inherent, systemic incompetence of Anglo-Dutch Liberal approaches to economy, is provided by examining the thinly disguised, anti-American leaning of a manufacturer whose income came chiefly from English production of slaveproduced cotton. His name was, Frederick Engels.

An Insider's Guide to the Universe
by Bruce Director

Though all human beings are blessed to spend eternity inside the universe, many squander the mortal portion, deluded that they are somewhere else. These assumed 'outsiders' acquire an obsessive belief in a fantasy world whose nature is determined by a priori axiomatic assumptions of the deluded's choosing, and an insistence that any experimental evidence contradicting these axioms must be either disregarded, or, if grudgingly acknowledged, determined to be from 'outside' their world. Typical of such beliefs are the notions of Euclidean geometry, empiricism, positivism, existentialism, or that most pernicious of pathologies afflicting our culture today: Baby-Boomerism.

International:

Israel Debates Madrid II Peace—Or Netanyahu War
by Dean Andromidas

Israel is now debating whether to take up the call of Yossi Beilin and Lyndon H. LaRouche for a Madrid II conference, and a comprehensive Middle East peace, or prepare for the next war. If the choice is war, then Likud Party chairman Benjamin 'Bibi' Netanyahu, the agent of Vice President Dick Cheney and the synarchist financial powers that support them, will become Israel's next Prime Minister—and possibly Israel's last.

  • Interview: Yossi Ben-Ari
    Israeli General on Prospects for Peace

    Brig. Gen. Yossi Ben-Ari (res.) served in the Israeli Defense Forces as a senior military intelligence officer.Heis currently a co-director of the Strategic Affairs Unit of IPCRI (IsraelPalestine Center for Research and Information). He was interviewed on Aug. 22 by Dean Andromidas.

Arabs Are Ready For Madrid II Summit
by Muriel Mirak-Weissbach

'It's either Clean Break or Madrid II,' said a top Continental European strategic analyst, in discussion with EIR, regarding the crises ripping through Southwest Asia—from Afghanistan to Iraq, from Palestine to Lebanon and Iran. In short, the alternative for the region is either the continuation of the permanent war policy embraced by the Bush-Cheney neocon madmen, as applied to the region in the 1996 'Clean Break' doctrine, or a comprehensive peace between Israel and its Arab and Muslim neighbors, through an international peace conference, modelled on the Madrid conference of 1991.

Israeli Peace Camp Pushes U.S. To Act
by Marjorie Mazel Hecht

Leaders of the Israeli peacemovement have seized an opening in the aftermath of the Lebanon War to take their message for peace negotiations to the U.S. public, highlighting the urgent need for a change of U.S. policy if peace is to be achieved.

  • Documentation
    Uri Avnery: U.S. Must Change Its Policy

    Israeli peace leader Uri Avnery held a conference call on the Mideast situation with the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), on Aug. 17, 2006.
  • Uri Avnery: Peace Warrior
    Uri Avnery is a man of principle, who, at every point in Israel's history, acted on the basis of doing what was moral, and could achieve justice for all the human beings concerned. Throughout his long political career, he has organized friends, 'enemies,' Knesset members, and American Jews, among others, to also act morally.
  • Documentation
    Beilin: Facing the Challenge

    These are excerpts from the opening remarks of Yossi Beilin, member of the Israeli Knesset (parliament), to a conference call sponsored by the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, Aug. 20. The transcript and an audiotape are posted at http:// btvshalom.org/resources/transcripts.shtml, under the title 'After the Ceasefire: What Comes Next?'

Bush Administration Unleashes Deadly Institutional Crisis in Mexico
by Dennis Small and Gretchen Small

In an interview published in the Aug. 23 issue of the French daily Le Monde, Mexican Presidential contender Andre´s Manuel Lo´pez Obrador warned that the country could wake up on Sept. 17 with two Presidents-elect.

Trapped in Afghanistan
Where Poppies Bloom Faster Than Democracy
by Ramtanu Maitra

After years of misleading the American population, the BushCheney Administration is now grudgingly admitting that the problems of Afghanistan not only are not going away, but are growing by the day. While the anti-U.S. and anti-NATO Afghan rebels are training their guns more and more effectively at the occupying forces, Afghanistan's poppy fields are blooming as they never bloomed before.

Berlin Mayor Debate Excludes Real World
by Abdul-Aliy Muhammad, LaRouche Youth Movement

It was comical; it was outrageous; it was double that, if it can be said. Flamboyant melodrama as a substitute for politics and real thinking.As if a maýˆtre d' had approached your dining table and said, 'I'm sorry there is nothing today. Our waiters are themselves 'out to lunch'!' These are all valid and keen insights into the state of Berlin and for that matter, German political life.

Economics:

CONGRESS FINDS PROSTITUTION DOESN'T PAY
U.S. Auto Crisis Escalates To the Existential Level
by Paul Gallagher

Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman's Aug. 2 Democratic primary defeat signalled more than the end, in the 2006 Democratic Party, for the pseudo-Republican Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) Lieberman had headed, with its corrupt aiding and abetting the Cheney-Bush White House's lunatic permanent war policy.

Argentina Flanks Synarchists With Ambitious Nuclear Program
by Cynthia R. Rush

In an Aug. 23 ceremony presided over by President Ne´stor Kirchner, and characterized by great optimism and pride, Argentine Planning Minister Julio de Vido announced a national program to 'reactivate and restore' the nation's nuclear industry. To the enthusiastic applause of the audience, which included leaders of the scientific community, the nuclear industry, most of the Cabinet, and the Ambassadors of Brazil, Canada, and Venezuela, De Vido outlined an ambitious plan for the long-term development of the nation's nuclear capabilities, and related infrastructure and human resources.

The United States Must Prepare For a Nuclear Renaissance
by Marsha Freeman

A renaissance in nuclear power-plant construction in the United States will not be possible without the declaration of a national economic emergency, and the enactment of Lyndon LaRouche's U.S. Economy Recovery Act of 2006. No incremental approach to rebuilding this vital industry, which has been virtually dismantled since the 1980s, will meet the needs of either the U.S. economy, or what this economy should be contributing to reshaping the economies of rest of the world.

Book Review:

Book Review
Irony Will Stop World War III
by Spencer Cross, LaRouche Youth Movement

It Can't Happen Here
by Sinclair Lewis
New York: Signet Classics, 2005
reprint of 1935 edition 400 pages, paperbound, $7.95

In light of the chaos in Southwest Asia, the coming teardown of the world financial system, and the moral cowardice of the U.S. Democratic Party to address the current crisis, it is necessary to befriend great figures from the past who recognized, and fought, the same fascist menace which now threatens the world. Sinclair Lewis is just one such friend, who launched a crucial cultural intervention during the 1930s to stop the threat of fascism worldwide, seeing clearly the threat posed by movements taking hold in Europe, and acted to educate the populace to avert the threat from the United States.

Editorial:

How Did That Lunatic Bush Become President of the United States?
As Lyndon LaRouche's recent documents, presaging the upcoming historic Sept. 6 webcast, indicate, we have entered a period of profound crisis, a break point, in which the decision to change axioms away from globalization, and back to those of FDR, are urgently needed to be taken in the immediate period ahead. To present LaRouche's alternative, however, requires focus on the long-wave axiomatic issues—not distractions, such as short-term news, or popular 'issues.'

U.S. Economic/Financial News

U.S. Housing Collapse Accelerates

Here are some of the latest developments:

* JULY FORECLOSURES were 18% higher than July 2005, and 5% up from June. Some 92,000 properties were in some stage of foreclosures, according to RealtyTrac. The worst state for foreclosures is Colorado, for the third consecutive month, with a 55% increase over 2005. But the big six are Texas, Florida, California, Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois; combined, these states have more than half of the national foreclosures.

* EXISTING-HOME SALES, which represent 85% of the housing market, dropped 11.2% in July, compared to a year ago, and down 4.1% from June, as median home prices fell in three of the nation's four regions, the National Association of Realtors reported Aug. 23. The sharpest drop in sales was in the West—down 18.0% from July 2005, followed by a 12.5%-decline in the Northeast, and a 10.1%-slide in the Midwest. The median sales price of an existing home fell 2.1% in the Northeast; slid 0.6% in the Midwest; and was down 0.3% in the West, compared to a year earlier.

* HOME SALES IN THE GREATER WASHINGTON, D.C. area plummeted by 31% this July as compared to last July, with sales in Loudoun County down by 42%, and in Prince William County, down by a whopping 50%, the Washington Times Friday Home Guide reported Aug. 18. As of July 31, there were 48,737 homes on the market in the D.C. area—almost 12,000 more than in the last record housing crunch in the area in July 1992—while fewer than 8,000 homes were purchased in July.

* NORTHERN VIRGINIA'S UNSOLD-HOME INVENTORY jumped 147% over the past year, while median home prices have fallen 3.9% from July 2005, the Wall Street Journal reported Aug. 23, citing the case of a homeowner in Herndon, who called in an auction firm because she was unable to sell the home even after six months on the market.

* THE DETROIT HOUSING MARKET is swamped with homes that can't be sold, a total of 7,700 homes on sale in July, which was more than the past year's worth of sales. Foreclosures are 40% higher than last year.

* LUXURY-HOME BUILDER TOLL BROTHERS says orders for new homes plunged 48% in its fiscal third quarter, in nothing other than a "hard landing."

'Public-Private Partnerships' Push To Take Over Public Works

A National Public Radio program Aug. 23 featured Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) crooning the pop song "Major Moves" to celebrate the PPP (public-private partnership) sell-off of a state toll road. The NPR news item focussed on the 2005 Chicago sell-off of its 50-year-old Skyway, and the 2006 sell off of the Indiana Toll Road. A Goldman Sachs spokesman said they have people in active talks for PPP projects in 35 states. The NPR announcer pointed out that these sell-offs "reverse a trend that 'public works' were done for the public." Daniels, the former head of the Federal Office of Management and Budget, said that the private buyers of the long-term lease on the state toll road, will invest billions of their own, because "they can run a road better...."

The White House is backing it and Congress passed tax-free bonding privileges for PPPs. Daniels said, "All over the state" there are "projects people only dreamed of," because "there was no money." Now, with the PPPs, "tens of thousands of people will be put to work" building roads and bridges...." Three local people from Indiana spoke, opposing PPPs. As one man said, "It's our road, why should we sell it off?" Rep. Pat Bauer of South Bend said, "There's a huge philosophical problem" with all this.

Meanwhile, in New York City, Sept. 19-20: "North American PPP 2006: The Infrastructure Finance Conference," will be held at the Waldorf Astoria (a change to a larger venue to accommodate crowds), co-sponsored by Lehman Bros. (see www.euromoneyseminars.com). The promotional uses the classic privatization pitch: "The issue of North American shortfall in infrastructure funding is a serious one. Research estimates that in the U.S. alone, $90 billion is required each year just to maintain current standards.... America has been slower to adapt to concession-based PPP structures than other OECD countries. The time is right for all this to change."

'Tax Farmers, Mercenaries, and Viceroys'

"The Bush Administration seemingly wants to go back to the 16th century," wrote columnist Paul Krugman in a New York Times op-ed Aug. 21 denouncing privatization, and noting that "Bush prefers to govern as if he were King Louis XII."

Krugman starts by calling the Administration's plans to outsource the collection of unpaid back taxes to private debt collectors "an awful idea," modelled on monarchs handing out tax farming grants to corrupt incompetent courtiers.

He then goes after the privatization of the military, citing the catastrophes caused by such guns-for-hire as Blackwater USA and Custer Battles. For example, it was Blackwater that caused the disaster in Fallujah, Iraq, Krugman says, by going around a Marine checkpoint to send four operatives into the city. The White House's flight-forward came in reaction to the mercenaries' deaths.

"Maybe people who have spent their political careers denouncing government as the root of all evil can't grasp the idea of governing well. Or maybe it's cynical politics: privatization provides both an opportunity to evade accountability and a vast source of patronage.

"But the price is enormous. The Administration has thrown away centuries of lessons about how to make government work. No wonder it has failed at everything except fear mongering."

N.Y. Fed To Host Bankers' Meeting To 'Unsnarl' Derivatives

The New York Fed will host a Sept. 27 meeting with Britain's Financial Services Authority, and with 14 leading banks that deal in derivatives (Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, etc.), the Financial Times reported Aug. 21. The topic will be how to speed up settlements in the "equity derivatives" market and cut the backlog of unconfirmed trades. Equity derivatives—betting on fluctuations in stocks—are now said to be the fastest-growing segment of the derivatives market, with volume up 142% over the last year.

Over the past year, there has been a massive effort to clean up the credit derivatives market, and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association claims the backlog in settlements has been cut by 80%.

Lyndon LaRouche ridiculed such a meeting as worthless, insisting that nothing less than an international monetary conference would have any impact. But even the fact of calling such an international conference, would tend to make financiers and speculators more cautious.

World Economic News

German Real Estate Rally Coming to an End

The excessive growth of real estate activities in Germany over the past 12 months, has left many real estate funds over-exposed, Germany's Die Welt daily and other media warned Aug. 24.

Up to five-fold speculative increases in asset values of funds like Colonia Real Estate or Adler Real Estate during the past 12 months, do not correspond to the market reality, and the "first U.S. equity funds that have helped to get the whole real estate boom in Germany off the ground, are getting ready now for the withdrawal," a Frankfurt-based market insider is quoted by Die Welt. Other expert assessments are going in the same direction of warning that "the big hype is over."

BHP Billiton Using Huge Profits To Buy Back Shares

BHP Billiton is using part of its mammoth $15 billion in profits to buy back shares, the London Daily Telegraph reported Aug. 22-23. This is the first time a metals conglomerate has moved into the range of the Big Six oil companies' mega-profits. BHP also announced it would buy back $3 billion of shares, on top of a $2 billion buyback in May, even as miners have not seen a wage increase in a decade. Billiton, Rio, and CVRD have imposed 90% iron-ore price increases since mid-2004. BHP is also the major global copper and nickel producer. Currently it is being struck by Child miners' union at Escondida, the world's biggest copper mine.

Mittal, Nippon To Increase Steel Production for U.S. Auto Market

Mittal and Nippon will increase their output of steel used for auto production in the United States, according to the Financial Express Aug. 24. The increase will be made at I/N Kote, an equally owned joint venture between Nippon Steel and Mittal, located near New Carlisle, Indiana, supposedly to deal with an acute shortage of auto-use steel given large expansion plans by Japanese auto makers in the United States.

United States News Digest

Shays Hits Iraq Policy Mess, Plans Hearings

Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn), the chairman of the House National Security and Emerging Threats Subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee, and an original supporter of the Iraq war, but increasingly a critic of the Administration's descent into the quagmire, has scheduled hearings to set a potential timeline for "handing Iraq over" to Iraqis. He said, "The American people are reaching out to their elected officials to help them figure out that this isn't an open checkbook for the Iraqis to draw from." Iraqis, military officers, and other experts will testify at the Shays hearings, entitled "Iraq: Democracy or Civil War," set for Sept. 11-15, on the overall considerations around withdrawal from Iraq.

Michigan GOP Candidate: Bush Should Meet with Auto Execs

The Republican gubernatorial candidate in Michigan, Dick Devos, who is a big financial supporter of President Bush, decried Bush's failure to meet with auto executives on the crisis in the industry AP reported Aug. 24. DeVos said: "We're being ignored here in Michigan by the White House, and it has got to stop. I'm just calling on the President now, and the White House, to get it done and to hold this meeting." Bush has been unable to find time to meet with the executives over the last several months as the auto industry collapse has accelerated. Governor Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat who is seeking another term, had sent a letter to Bush in July also urging such a meeting.

Lawsuit Filed in Sago Mine Disaster

Sago mine survivor Randall McCloy and two families that lost members in the mine disaster have filed lawsuits against Wilbur Ross's International Coal Group, according to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette Aug. 24. The lawsuits named ICG and its subsidiary Wolf Run Mining Co., which ran the Sago mine; Monroeville-based CSE Corp, which manufactured the self-rescuers, breathing devices that were issued to the miners; Westmoreland County-based Burrel Mining Products Inc., which made the lightweight Omega blocks used in the failed mine seals; GMS Mine Repair and Maintenance, based in Maryland, which helped construct the wall; and Raleigh Mine and Industrial Supply Inc., which sold the blocks used for the seal.

McCloy's complaint says that the mine seals were shoddily constructed in general, and that the miners had to share the limited oxygen supply.

McCain Shifts Stance on Iraq War

Warhawk Sen. John McCain's remarks while campaigning in Ohio Aug. 23, dramatically distancing himself from the Bush-Cheney Administration's Iraq war policy, are being widely seen as an abrupt shift connected to broader shifts moving the Republican Party against Bush and Cheney. Campaigning for Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine, who may lose to Democrat Sherrod Brown, McCain (R-Ariz) reversed his position, expressed as recently as Aug. 20, during an appearance on one of the Sunday talk shows. McCain said: "I think one of the biggest mistakes we made was underestimating the size of the task, and the sacrifices that would be required. 'Stuff happens, mission accomplished, last throes, a few dead-enders'—I'm just more familiar with those statements than anyone else, because it grieves me so much that we had not told the American people how tough and difficult this task would be."

According to political source reports, McCain's switch was being discussed as possible positioning for a thoroughgoing anti-Cheney, anti-Bush GOP shift, before the 2006 elections.

GOP To Push Police-State 'Security Agenda' in September

Hoping to capitalize on the recent British terror arrests, and the upcoming fifth anniversary of 9/11, the Congressional Republican leadership will push legislation on terrorism and security when Congress reconvenes after Labor Day for a five-week session. Both the House and Senate will push bills on NSA spying and on military tribunals. House leaders are preparing press conferences, speeches, and other events to attack Dems as weak on national security.

In the Senate, Majority Leader Bill Frist plans to bring at least half-a-dozen bills to the floor as part of the "security agenda." This agenda will include the Defense appropriations bill, a conference report on Homeland Security appropriations, and the Defense authorization bill. The Senate Judiciary Committee will mark up Arlen Specter's (R-Pa) NSA bill on Sept. 7. Rep. Heather Wilson's NSA bill in the House will also be pushed, according to an ACLU official, who anticipates that the GOP will try to use the 9/11 anniversary to ram police-state measures through.

House Intelligence Committee Targets Iran

The day after Iran offered comprehensive negotiations on its nuclear program and other issues, the House Intelligence Committee released a new report targeting Iran, entitled "Recognizing Iran as a Strategic Threat." According to news reports, the report was written by Frederick Fleitz, a hatchet man for John Bolton.

Committee chairman Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich), on Fox TV Aug. 23, summarized the report by saying that "this is a country that is focused on developing a nuclear weapons capability. They are linked to other terrorist groups, specifically Hezbollah and Hamas. They are tied into the anti-U.S.-Iraqi government efforts in Iraq. They have a ballistic missile capability. This is not a very good country.... We need to make sure that the American people understand this threat..., many of us believe that the American people have become complacent, that they do not fully understand the threat that we face from radical Islam."

The report, issued by the Subcommittee on Intelligence Policy, and signed by the ranking Democrat, Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), as well as the Republican subcommittee chairman, calls for the intelligence community to step up intelligence activities regarding Iran. There is apparently no dissenting Democratic view.

Fleitz, the report's primary author, was a 19-year CIA veteran officer, part of a hard-line group that was often at odds with the Agency's leadership, when seconded to the State Department in 2001 to work as Bolton's Special Assistant and Chief of Staff. Prior to that, he had been assigned to work as liaison to the UN Blue Helmets; when he had a falling out with the CIA in the late 1990s, Bolton was his lawyer. While working for Bolton, he was in frequent contact with Vice President Cheney's office. He cherry-picked and cooked intelligence for Bolton, working with the Office of Special Plans in the Pentagon, and was continuously at war with the State Department intelligence division (INR).

Fleitz is also regarded by a number of observers as a prime suspect in the Plame leak.

Judge Who Struck Down NSA Spying Is Herself Targeted

Federal Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, who recently declared the NSA domestic wiretap program illegal and unconstitutional, is now being targetted for an alleged conflict of interest by Judicial Watch—the same group which filed over 100 lawsuits and complaints against President Bill Clinton and his Administration. Judge Taylor is the secretary and trustee of the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan, which has given four grants totally $125,000 to the Michigan ACLU for education on the Bill of Rights, and projects on racial profiling and gay rights. The Executive Director of the Michigan ACLU points out that this is "a real non-issue," that judges routinely work for non-profit groups, and many have not recused themselves for much stronger connections to an organization than Taylor had.

Taylor is also being targeted by a lot of legal "experts" who allegedly agree that the NSA program is illegal, but who claim she relied too much on "rhetoric" about hereditary kings, rather than citing all their favorite legal precedents.

Bush Administration Wants British-Style Detention Laws

On a conference-call briefing held by the ACLU Aug. 22, the organization's legislative counsel Lisa Graves reported that DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have both indicated that they are looking at a program of "preventive detention"—i.e., jailing Americans without charge—as an outgrowth of the British terror investigation.

Appearing on the Sunday talk shows on Aug. 14, Chertoff said that he'd like to bring U.S. laws more in line with British laws, because "their ability to hold people for a period of time gives them a tremendous advantage." Gonzales echoed this the next day in Chicago, when asked about Britain's 28-day detention laws.

The ACLU's Graves denounced this as what would be a fundamental violation of U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, saying that "one of the reasons we have a Bill of Rights was because the English, the British, the Redcoats, back then, didn't respect those very rights. It's no surprise that England has a different legal structure than we do."

McCaffrey Warns a War on Iran Is a Loser

In an Aug. 20 appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," retired Army General Barry McCaffrey advised the Administration to stop threatening Iran militarily. "We can only lose, and we have no forces to throw at it," he said, as the Army is already being destroyed. He ridiculed the idea of achieving victory with air war. We need to have diplomacy, he argued.

Ibero-American News Digest

Brazil Bucks U.S. Pressure To Assist Cuba's 'Transition to Democracy'

On Aug. 15, Assistant. Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Tom Shannon told Brazilian journalists that Fidel Castro's illness poses a unique opportunity for Brazil to demonstrate its "democratic solidarity with the Cuban people." Speaking by video-conference to reporters gathered at the U.S. consulate in Sao Paulo, Shannon promised that "consultations would continue to guarantee that the U.S. and Brazil act in a complementary fashion, and reflect our political values and common agenda."

Former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, an obsessed globalist, applauded the idea, stating that the foreign policy of the government of President Lula da Silva—which has given priority to fostering regional integration and deepening ties with other developing-sector regions (Asia, Africa, etc.)—is Brazil's "great vulnerability." Perhaps entering senility, Cardoso proposed that hooking up with the Bush Administration on this Cuba policy could restore "the important regional leadership that [Brazil] has traditionally exercised."

Foreign Minister Celso Amorim set him straight. "There is no post-Fidel Castro plan," he said, "because as far as we can see, Fidel Castro is alive, and were anyone to make a plan, it would be the Cubans, not the Americans, not the Brazilians." Brazil is always willing to cooperate through dialogue, Amorim added, but not to devise a plan on what the Cuban government should look like. That's a matter for the Cubans.

Adding to the general unease in the region over Bush Administration intentions, was the appointment by National Intelligence Director John Negroponte of a new acting mission manager for Cuba and Venezuela, J. Patrick Maher, with the assignment of collecting "timely and accurate intelligence" to be used by U.S. policy-makers, in making decisions on those two countries. The announcement of the new post asserted that this is a "critical" effort because both countries pose challenges to U.S. foreign policy. Maher is currently the national intelligence officer for Western Hemisphere, and 32-year intelligence veteran.

Brazil and Argentina Refuse To Join Lebanon Force

In a coordinated move, the governments of Brazil and Argentina declined to participate in the UNIFIL force in southern Lebanon, despite fierce U.S. pressure to do so. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim stated his country's position Aug. 15 from Beirut, where he was visiting. One day later, Argentina's Deputy Foreign Minister Roberto Garcia Moritan made a similar announcement.

Chile has also refused to become involved.

Amorim pointed out that Brazil's participation could complicate matters, given that there are 10 million residents of Lebanese and Syrian descent living in the country, as well as a powerful Jewish community. Speaking Aug. 16 from Beirut, he stated that Brazil would not hesitate to participate in the context of a "clear disposition for peace." However, he added, "one thing is a ceasefire, but it's also crucial that dialogue be resumed." Brazil has every desire to maintain good relations with Israel, he said, but "we also want to persuade them to resume dialogue, because that is where hope lies."

Argentina feels strongly that since two Israeli targets have been bombed in the country—the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and the AMIA social welfare center in 1994—any government involvement in the Middle East could pose new risks for it.

Synarchist efforts to heat up the tri-border region (where Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina meet), were no doubt a factor in both governments' decisions. The Bush Administration has demanded that they act more aggressively against what it says is a major Hezbollah fundraising operation among the tri-border region's large Arab population—a claim for which there is no evidence. The official line on the two Argentine bombings—one disputed by several investigators—is that they were orchestrated by Hezbollah from the tri-border region. There are widely circulating rumors and reports that the tri-border region, which also happens to be rich in natural resources, could become a new front in the U.S. "war on terror."

Argentines Target Lies Behind Tri-Border Terror Hype

"A sector of the U.S. government" is responsible for "raising the specter" of Islamic terrorism in the Paraguay-Brazil-Argentina tri-border region, charged a former analyst with the Argentine state intelligence Service. In statements to the Buenos Aires daily Pagina 12, reported Aug. 20, the unnamed official was responding to charges that Hezbollah has fundraising activities in this region, including in Argentina. "The truth is," he said, "that no terrorist, no bomb, or training camp of any fundamentalist organization have ever been detected in the tri-border region." It is only "one sector of the U.S. government" that keeps harping on the issue, he said.

A SIDE (State Intelligence Service) spokesman recalled that in the last two meetings held by the "3+1" group (the three tri-border countries plus the U.S.) in Brasilia and Washington, "the State Department put in writing that there is no terrorist activity on the triple border."

In Asuncion, Paraguay Aug. 24, Brazilian Defense Minister Walter Pires responded likewise to a question on the same issue, asserting that "there is nothing, nothing at all, proven" on the existence of Islamic terrorists in the region. There is rampant corruption, and contraband which must be combatted, he said. But that is a far cry from any terrorist operation.

Alert Over Hedge Fund Target of Argentine Power Grid

The purchase by an Enron-linked hedge fund of 50% of the company that manages Argentina's national power grid, has set off alarm bells in the country. The Argentine Committee for the Defense of Competition this week began to evaluate the recent purchase by the U.S. hedge fund Eton Park of 50% of Transener, the company which manages the country's interconnected power grid nationwide. In early August, Eton Park paid $54 million to Brazil's Petrobras, to buy up its shares in Transener.

The Argentine firm Electroingenieria is demanding scrutiny of Eton Park's purchase, charging that it is for "speculative" purposes only, and that it has no intention of making the investments required to expand and maintain infrastructure.

Electroingenieria has reason to be concerned. In May of this year, the London-based Ashmore Investment Management hedge-fund consortium, of which Eton Park is a part, purchased for $2.1 billion, all of the assets that the Enron Corp. had owned in Ibero-America under the name of Prisma Energy. These include a vast array of utility companies, pipelines, energy plants, distributors, and transmission lines, in several Central and South American countries.

Should Eton Park intend only to continue Enron's looting policies, Electroingenieria warns, there is no reason to approve its purchase of behalf of Transener.

Western European News Digest

Indicate London Break from Bush-Cheney War Doctrine

Solve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute now, based on UNSC Resolution 242, advised Sir Menzies Campbell, the Scottish leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, and member of the British Parliament, in a powerful piece in the Aug. 20 London Observer titled, "Our Foreign Policy Is Just Plain Wrong."

"If it redefines our relationship with the United States, so be it," he stated.

The "relationship between Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair has done untold damage both at home and abroad." He skewers Blair for wasting so much time before he would demand a ceasefire in the Lebanese war. "A ceasefire was not just the right thing to do—it was the only sensible thing to do." But Blair suffered from a "major misjudgment," like the Iraq war, and "It springs from the Prime Minister's evangelical view of foreign policy."

Bush and Blair "share the same view of the world," writes Campbell, and therefore the "rebalancing cannot happen until after Bush and Blair have gone." One cannot imagine that Blair, "a neo-con," will "recant," but since Bush is already in the "last quarter" of his term, members of all the British parties who reject the "good vs. evil" Bush-Blair view of politics, should join together to assert themselves now, on the root problem of the Middle East—the Israel-Palestine issue.

Campbell says that Resolution 242 "calling for Israel's withdrawal from territories it had occupied in 1967," has to be enforced as much as UNSC 1559 on Lebanon was. "Israel/Palestine should become not a cause [for Britain], but an obsession."

Former French Foreign Minister Denounces U.S. Mideast Policy

Le Figaro, a paper tied to the French neo-cons, ran an unusual interview Aug. 17, with the Socialist Hubert Vedrine, the former Foreign Minister under the Lionel Jospin government. The interview not only reflects strong institutional concerns with U.S. policy, but differences within the French establishment as well.

Vedrine declares that nobody won the Israel/Lebanon conflict, and that Israel is up against the fact that it can't solve the problem of terrorism militarily, or alone. The U.S. too, is in denial over the "Palestinian issue," that we must go back to diplomacy, and stop associating all Muslims with anti-West Islam. Vedrine was also critical of France's Middle East policy, in that Paris has allowed Europe to align itself with the U.S. and Israel on boycotting the Hamas government. He was emphatic that any durable peace in the region must include Syria, and the creation of a Palestinian state.

Finally, asked about his advice to resolve the crisis, Vedrine said that there was still a place for negotiations with Iran on the nuclear issue "as long as we talk to them." On Lebanon, there is a need for a serious, credible, and safe application of UN Resolution 1701, "which is supposed to ease tension among the Lebanese people, and bring Hezbollah into the political arena." On Israel, we must again launch an evacuation of the Palestinian territories and the creation of a Palestinian state, accepted by the Israeli electorate: "There is no better contribution to the fight against terrorism.... We must reconsider the Hamas boycott, which silenced our democratic appeal, we must talk with the Hamas government, and reestablish international aid. This is the best 'coup' we could give to the Syrian and Iranian government, as well as to Islamists. The Bush Administration is doomed to fail in the Middle East and, by refusing to understand that, is exposing us," Vedrine stated.

Resolution To Oust Tony Blair Over Iraq Policy

The Campaign for Labour Party Democracy will introduce a resolution at Labour's annual conference in September calling for a party leadership election two months after the conference. The reason given is Blair's "disgraceful" policy in Iraq and support for George W. Bush. The call for a new leadership election is also intended to spur Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown to "destroy" Blair.

Meanwhile, the Independent Aug. 19 had no difficulty finding Labour back-benchers who have endorsed Deputy Prime Minister Prescott's disavowed statement that Bush is "crap." Exemplary of the agreements are:

* Glenda Jackson, Hampstead and Highgate MP: "I entirely endorse his view. This is why Parliament should be recalled. The government is failing miserably as far as our approach towards the Middle East is concerned. We are ... simply bag carriers for Bush and all his policies have been a disaster."

*Jim Sheridan, Paisley and Renfrewshire North MP: "I think he [Prescott] is right. I don't think the Americans have given the [Middle East peace] road map the priority it deserves and until you solve the problem of Palestine, other problems are going to appear. Every time Palestine comes up the agenda it gets ... put on the back-burner."

Italians Approve UN Res. 1701, Deployment of Troops

The joint Defense and Foreign Policy Committee of the Italian Parliament approved on Aug. 18, with a bipartisan vote, the government decision to support the UN 1701 resolution and send a contingent of 3,000 troops to southern Lebanon. In commenting on the vote, Prime Minister Romano Prodi repeated that the aim of the mission is "not to disarm Hezbollah." After the vote, Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema called his French counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy, and said afterwards: "I do not believe that France will step out of its commitment for the international mission." France is supposed to deploy at least as many troops as Italy and take the command of the mission.

In the meantime, military leaders continue warning about the necessity for clear rules of engagement and of the chain of command. Gen. Fabio Mini, former head of the KFOR mission in Kosovo, said in an interview that, "It should be the commanders on the ground to decide when to react." Interestingly, he pointed at the case in which violations of the agreements come from the Israelis: "The peace force should decide autonomously. It has the task of defending the Lebanese territory, it should be able to do it without further limitations, even in the case—let us say—if an Israeli patrol were to cross the border. It is not plausible to decide that orders should come from the Lebanese military. And if Israel launches a drone, what should be done?"

Robert Mundell Addresses Volatility of Global Markets

Robert Mundell, spiritual father of the euro, spoke at a conference of Nobel Prize winners, together with John Nash, Robert Engel, and others, who assembled in Lindau and at the University of St. Gallen. In both his speech and in an interview with Financial Times Deutschland Aug. 21, Mundell, on the one side, called for a world government, and on the other, called upon the European Central Bank to intervene, to counteract the pressure on the euro. He advised the ECB should either print euros or buy up dollars. He also said the dollar is overvalued, and that the U.S. economy is cooling down, which will have global effects. Mundell also advised China not to upvalue its currency.

Southwest Asia News Digest

U.S. Push for Iran Sanctions Hit Snags

While publicly, the Bush Administration said that it was studying the Iran reply to the June 6 offer by the Permanent Five Plus One (United States, Germany, France, Britain, China, and Russia—the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany), in New York Aug. 23, U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton was trying to organize the "Permanent Five" behind a sanctions resolution against Iran. But China and Russia, both of which have veto powers and oppose sanctions, were not participating in these discussions.

Russia, China, Europe Respond Rationally to Iran

Although the contents of Iran's response, delivered on Aug. 22, to the 5+1 offer for talks, have not been made public, it is clearly not a "No."

Ali Larijani, the chief nuclear negotiator, hinted at the contents in his statement: "Despite all the propaganda that Iran is trying to buy time, we urge the Five plus One countries to return to the negotiation tables as soon as possible to discuss all the issues in the package, including long-term nuclear cooperation, economic and technical cooperation, and also security cooperation in the region, so that we can reach a peaceful understanding in all three areas" (emphasis added). His reference to security in the region is obviously of great significance.

Javier Solana of the EU, who had presented the package to Iran, said, "The document is extensive" and requires "a detailed and careful analysis." He said he would "remain in open contact" with Larijani.

Both Russia and China appeared to back the Iranian call for talks. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said: "Russia will continue with its course of searching for a political solution ... and will continue to seek to preserve the role of the IAEA and prevent the erosion of the non-proliferation regimen." The reference to the IAEA signals Moscow's eagerness to avoid an escalation in the UN Security Council.

The Chinese reiterated their commitment to "constructive measures," and their opposition to sanctions. Chinese special envoy to the Middle East, Sun Bigan, stated: "We have all along stood for a peaceful settlement ... through negotiations, rather than resorting to force or threatening sanctions...."

A high-level Iranian delegation, led by the Executive Director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mahmoud Jannatian, is now in Moscow, discussing the Bushehr plant.

France, however, insisted again that Iran suspend its enrichment program, as a precondition for talks, a position which Germany reportedly endorsed.

Muted Initial Comments on Iranian Response

The U.S. State Department statement regarding the Aug. 22 Iranian response to the June 6 "Incentive Package" acknowledged that while Iran considered it to be a serious offer, it "falls short of the conditions set by the Security Council, which require the full and verifiable suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities."

The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a one-paragraph statement, saying that, "It is very important to grasp nuances, find constructive elements, if any, and make up our mind whether it is possible to work further with Tehran on the basis of the well-known proposals of the six [5+1] powers. Russia will continue pursuing a line on searching for a negotiated political settlement to the situation around the Iranian nuclear program and strive to preserve the role of the IAEA and prevent an erosion of the non-proliferation regime. For this purpose, we are ready to use further our bilateral contacts with the Iranian side, as well as the mechanisms of multilateral talks and the potential of the United Nations Security Council."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated in a television interview that the Iranian response is unsatisfactory because it does not state whether Iran will suspend uranium enrichment. The same item says that French Foreign Minister Douste-Blazy said Iran must suspend enrichment, if it wants to return to negotiations, and that China appealed for patience and more dialogue.

British RIIA Says Iran Has Been Strengthened

A Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) report on Iran and its neighbors concludes that Iran has been strengthened by the U.S. war on terrorism with the knocking out of two of its rivals, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. In addition, the Israeli attack on Lebanon strengthened Iran's hand. According to the RIIA, Iran has now eclipsed the U.S. as the main power in Iraq with its ties to the Shi'ites, Kurds, and, if the occasion arises through an attack on Iran, the U.S. military in Iraq would become vulnerable. The report says that there is a need for diplomacy with Iran since Iran has built ties with its regional neighbors over the period since the Islamic Revolution.

The Chatham House report on Iran gives a detailed breakdown of Iran's relationships with its neighbors that includes China and Japan and most of the Central Asian countries. The report covers all of the countries in the region and their relationship to Iran in both the economic sphere and also in relation to the Iran nuclear crisis.

(For more on this, see InDepth: "Arabs Are Ready for Madrid II Summit," by Muriel Mirak-Weissbach.)

Post Synarchists Get It Wrong, Again, on AIPAC Trial

The Washington Post on Aug. 19, published an article by "national security" writer Walter Pincus, titled "Ruling Raises Bar in Lobbyists' Case; Government Now Must Prove Former AIPAC Workers Intended To Harm U.S." But—Pincus should have read the judge's decision.

In the tradition of former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, the characterization is based primarily on assertions by the attorneys for the accused, that Judge T.S. Ellis's opinion—which denied the AIPAC Two's motion to dismiss the charges—makes it harder for the government to prove its case! According to Pincus, the government must show that AIPAC's Rosen and Weissman had a "bad faith purpose" in passing classified information to others—specifically, that they knew the information "could be potentially damaging" to the U.S., or "useful to an enemy" of the U.S. The unspoken implication, is that since the indictment charges Rosen and Weissman with passing the information either to representatives of Israel, or to journalists for the benefit of Israel, and Israel is not an enemy of the United States, the AIPAC Two are in a terrific position.

The actual ruling says otherwise. On page 8, the portion of the criminal statute, 18 U.S.C. 793, under which they are charged, is quoted. The relevant subsection, concerning persons having unauthorized possession of national defense information, who pass it on to someone else, includes the relevant "intent" section, that the possessor has reason to believe "could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation...." All the quotations in Ellis's opinion about "an enemy of the United States" are from another espionage case—not the criminal statute. And, when Ellis summarized what the government must constitutionally prove, he states plainly on page 63, "the government must prove that the defendant had a reason to believe that the disclosure of the information could harm the United States or aid a foreign nation...."

Does espionage include passing national defense information, to help a nation not designated as an enemy of the U.S.? Sure. A foreign nation can use such information, not for the express purpose of harming the U.S., but for its own national purposes.

This Week in American History

August 29 — September 4, 1776

Washington Saves the Continental Army from Sure Destruction on Long Island

On the night of August 29, 1776, the Continental Army executed General Washington's masterful plan to evacuate Long Island and land the Army in safety on Manhattan. The boats which crossed the East River again and again were commanded by John Glover and Israel Hutchinson, and piloted by the seafaring men of Marblehead, Salem, Lynn, and Danvers, Massachusetts. A British military critic wrote at the time that, "Those who are acquainted with the difficulty, embarrassment, noise and tumult which attend even by day, and with no enemy at hand, a movement of this nature will be the first to acknowledge that this retreat should hold a high place among military transactions."

General Washington and the Continental Army had arrived in New York in the spring of 1776, having received intelligence reports that the city would be the next target of the British Army and Navy. Washington was also under pressure from Congress to defend the port. As early as March 18, the day after the final British ships had left Boston and the Continental Army entered the besieged city in triumph, Washington began to dispatch military units southward. By the time the Declaration of Independence was signed, the Continental Army was entrenched on Manhattan, Brooklyn, and eastward along the Long Island shore.

However, the wide expanse of New York Harbor and its environs provided numerous landing places for the British, and the Americans were stretched thin trying to cover most of them. On June 29, American lookouts spotted a British fleet of more than 100 ships entering the harbor. These troops, under the command of General Sir William Howe, had sailed from Halifax after depositing the Tories who had fled Boston. More importantly, the commander and many of the troops were still smarting from the Pyrrhic victory won by the British at Bunker Hill, where they had suffered very high casualties attacking uphill against a fortified American position.

Howe's force occupied Staten Island and scouted the New Jersey shore, and they were joined at the end of July by more transports and warships sent directly from Britain. This group was commanded by Admiral Richard (Black Dick) Howe, Sir William's brother, and contained the first contingent of German mercenary soldiers hired by King George III. In early August, a third group of ships under Generals Clinton and Cornwallis arrived from South Carolina, making the British Army and Navy contingent threatening New York the largest expeditionary force ever mounted by Britain.

On August 22, part of the British fleet sailed to Long Island, and 88 barges loaded with British and Hessian troops succeeded in landing 15,000 men to the east of the American lines. General Washington had to split his troops between Manhattan and Brooklyn, because he still had to consider the fact that the Long Island move might be a feint. But it proved to be the main attack, and on the night of August 26 the British moved out, following a northwest curve in order to flank the American lines.

By morning, the British and Hessians had smashed into the left and rear of the American defenses, and their troops, who were well-equipped with bayonets, succeeded in wreaking havoc against the Americans who had none. Many Continentals were bayoneted while they attempted to reload their muskets. One British officer wrote in his diary: "It was a fine sight to see with what alacrity they dispatched the Rebels with their bayonets after we had surrounded them so that they could not resist. We took care to tell the Hessians that the Rebels had resolved to give no quarters to them in particular, which made them fight desperately and put all to death that fell into their hands. All stratagems are lawful in war, especially against such vile enemies to their King and country."

The American troops who survived were driven into the fortifications on Brooklyn Heights. General Howe began a methodical siege, digging zig-zag trenches that would eventually reach the walls. He later said that he favored this method as resulting in fewer casualties than the uphill charge which had been unleashed with such horrific results at Bunker Hill.

Howe's tactics gave Washington time to plan his surprise retreat, and he ordered his quartermaster to obtain all the boats in the area, especially those with flat bottoms which could accommodate horses and cannon. The New England fishermen regiments were brought in from Manhattan supposedly to reinforce the troops, and Washington circulated an order that more reinforcements were coming from New Jersey. This meant that some units might have to move, and so all baggage was packed up.

What happened next, on the night of August 29, was described by Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge. Tallmadge had been a friend of Nathan Hale, and became a trusted aide of Washington and the coordinator of his spy networks in New York and Connecticut. "Our intrenchment was so weak," wrote Tallmadge about Brooklyn Heights, "that it is most wonderful the British general did not attempt to storm it soon after the battle. Gen. Washington was so fully aware of the perilous situation of this division of his army that he immediately convened a council of war, at which the propriety of retiring to New York was decided on."

"After sustaining incessant fatigue and constant watchfulness for two days and nights," continued Tallmadge, "attended by heavy rain, exposed every moment to [the danger of] an attack from a vastly superior force in front, and [expecting] to be cut off from the possibility of a retreat to New York by the fleet, which might enter the East River—on the night of the 29th of August, Gen. Washington commenced recrossing his troops from Brooklyn to New York [in boats manned by a regiment of Massachusetts fisherman under Colonel John Glover].

"To move so large a body of troops, with all their necessary appendages, across a river full a mile wide, with a rapid current, in face of [the before-mentioned enemy threat] seemed to present most formidable obstacles. But ... the Commander-in-Chief so arranged his business that ... by 10 o'clock, the troops began to retire from the lines in such a manner that no chasm was made but as one regiment left their station, the remaining troops moved to the right and left and filled up the vacancies, while Gen. Washington took his station at the ferry and superintended the embarkation....

"As the dawn of the next day approached, those of us who remained in the trenches became very anxious for our own safety, and when the dawn appeared there were several regiments still on duty. At this time a very dense fog began to rise, and it seemed to settle in a peculiar manner over both encampments.... When the sun rose we had just received orders to leave the lines, but before we reached the ferry the Commander-in-Chief sent one of his aids to order the regiment to repair again to their former station, where we tarried until the sun had risen.... The fog remained as dense as ever.

"Finally, the second order arrived for the regiment to retire, and we very joyfully bid those trenches ... adieu. When we reached Brooklyn ferry, the boats had not returned from their last trip, but they very soon appeared.... I think I saw Gen. Washington on the ferry stairs when I stepped into one of the last boats that received the troops. I left my horse tied to a post at the ferry.

"The troops having now all safely reached New York, and the fog continuing as thick as ever, I began to think of my ... horse, and requested leave to return and bring him off. Having obtained permission, I called for a crew of volunteers to go with me, and, guiding the boat myself, I obtained my horse and got off some distance into the river before the enemy appeared in Brooklyn. As soon as they reached the ferry we were saluted merrily from their musketry, and finally by their field pieces; but we returned in safety.

"In the history of warfare I do not recollect a more fortunate retreat."

General Washington greatly valued the actions of the Massachusetts fishermen that night, and he called on them again on Christmas Day in 1776, when the Continental Army crossed the ice-choked Delaware River to victory at Trenton.

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