Report on IPC #175

Oct. 9, 2026 (EIRNS)—The 175th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) began with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and IPC Initiator, who praised the awarding of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to South African judge Navi Pillay, who chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel that concluded in a Sept. 16, 2025 report that Israel was guilty of genocide in Gaza. She went on to describe the wave of protests that have broken out around Europe, noting that “the one common denominator” is opposition to the war drive being led by the governments of the “coalition of the willing.”

As an indication of the “brutalization of the population as part of the cognitive warfare,” Zepp-LaRouche cited U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s stated intention to live-stream the execution of the Fort Hood shooter U.S. Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan who was convicted of murder in 2013 for the 2009 shooting rampage on the base that killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others. The final and most important news she reported was the proclamation by Pope Leo XIV that Saint Augustine was, in fact, not the author of the “just war” doctrine, particularly the version that is presently being misused by war enthusiasts. She called for a “just peace.”

Kathy Kelly is an American peace activist, three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and co-coordinator of the “Ban Killer Drones” campaign and of “World BEYOND War,” of which she became board president in 2022. She began by greeting many of the prominent personalities who have spoken at past IPC meetings, including Prof. Falk, who followed her in this session. She referenced the assassination of Swedish diplomat Count Folke Bernadotte, who served as the first United Nations Mediator for the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1947-1948. He was killed by the Zionist Stern Gang on Sept. 17, 1948 to thwart the peace proposal which he and Ralph Bunche, an American diplomat and assistant to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine had drafted and which was submitted to the UN the following day. She described how Pope Francis directed that the “popemobile” be converted to a medical relief vehicle, and how the Israelis, to this day, have refused to allow this vehicle to enter Gaza. She concluded with the famous quote by a leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of Jan. 18, 1943, Marek Edelman, who asserted that “to be a Jew means always standing with the oppressed, never the oppressors.”

Prof. Richard Anderson Falk is professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and was United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories from 2008 to 2014. He recalled how, in the past, leaders of the United States welcomed immigrants—an indication of what “the American narrative could be and should be.” He described the current deportation of immigrants to “third countries” as “racism on top of xenophobia.” Falk echoed Zepp-LaRouche’s appreciation of the awarding of the Nobel Prize to his former boss at the UN, Navi Pillay, but expressed the wish that it could have been shared with his fellow Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, which would have also been richly significant.

He added that Pope Leo speaks with a moral authority that the Secretary-General of the UN lacks. The latter “cringes at the point of challenging the powers of the world.” He described how leading politicians must defer to corruption in order to attain and retain their status. Zepp-LaRouche, in response, agreed that corruption has become a sort of prerequisite for political leadership, that a person who aspires to political power must have skeletons in his closet to ensure that he can be controlled. She presented a vision of an alternative system, based on a dialogue of civilizations, and said that Popes Leo XIV and Francis are examples of the leadership required. Kelly recounted a tale of an encounter with a U.S. Marine in Baghdad during the U.S. invasion and “shock and awe” bombing of Iraq in 2003. The Marine astonished her by identifying the book, which she had seen him reading earlier, as a copy of Joseph Conrad’s anti-colonial novel, Heart of Darkness—which he said that he was reading for the thirteenth time. She again praised Pope Leo and said, “We don’t want to give up on that edifice of international law.”

Dennis Fritz, retired U.S. Air Force Command Chief Master Sergeant, reminded the participants of earlier warnings by other military men, Gen. Smedley Butler, who famously said that “war is a racket,” and Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who warned of the Military-Industrial Complex. Today, our political leaders seek unequaled military power which they will use to get anything they want, typified by the “Wolfowitz Doctrine” of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, which set the stage for multiple wars in the Middle East. He said that Pete Hegseth presides over “the scariest Pentagon” he has ever seen, and warned of Hegseth’s plan to use artificial intelligence (AI) to create a fully automated attack capability.

The Upcoming Election in Brazil

Beatriz Bissio, Associate Professor in the Post-Graduate Program of Comparative History, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said that “democracy in Brazil is now facing its greatest test, since the restoration of constitutional order in the mid-1980s”—with the contest between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro. The latter represents “the rise of the far right, globally,” and is supported by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The first round of elections on Oct. 4, she said, had shocking results with Bolsonaro coming out on top with 47% of the vote while President Lula came in second, with 45%. She described Brazil as being encircled by right-wing regimes, with the exception of Uruguay. “The outcome of the [run-off] elections in Brazil [on Oct. 25] will have reverberations in Latin America and beyond… the far-right governments are subservient to U.S. interests.”

Felipe Bombardelli, a Brazilian post-graduate student in robotics at the Federal University of Paraná, is active with the International Youth Movement of the Schiller Institute. He described that there was very little political participation of students at the universities in Brazil going into the first round of the elections—many people on the left, including in Lulaʼs Workersʼ Party (PT), thought Lula would win on the first vote. Waking up to realize that “it will take a miracle to make Lula President,” an unprecedented mobilization of students, professors and even labor has exploded in support of Lula’s candidacy—in the face of a difficult situation.

Staying on the topic of student activism, Schiller Institute activist Remi Lebrun reported on the ground from Paris, France, where there is a widespread mobilization from primarily high school students who are protesting the collapse of conditions in French public schools. The government has responded with severe repression, worse even than that directed against the “yellow vest” movement in France between 2018 and 2020. High school students are now being joined by middle school and college students, and their parents.

Discussion

In response to questions, the participants discussed the proposal of E. Martin Schotz, MD, the coordinator for the JFK Peace Speech Committee and a leader of Massachusetts Peace Action (MAPA) who in last week’s IPC meeting suggested an “American National Congress” modeled on the “African National Congress,” which led the fight against apartheid in South Africa. They moved next to the possible consequences of a Flávio Bolsonaro victory in Brazil, including the possible withdrawal of that nation from the BRICS.

Independent congressional candidate Jose Vega raised the implications of the latest shooting by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) agents of a 28-year-old man with a 5-year-old child in the back seat of his car, in the Bronx, New York. He placed it in the context of worldwide anger over the mistreatment of the poor and elderly, such as the case of María del Carmen Abascal in Spain—an 87-year-old woman evicted from her apartment in Madrid after an investment fund acquired the property and raised the rent—by governments that are increasingly bankrupt but insist on transferring funds to an arms buildup.

Zepp-LaRouche closed the meeting by reiterating that the world is entering an inevitable phase change, and that whether that change is for better, or worse, will depend on the courage of individuals. [eir]

by EIR staff

The 173^rd consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) began with remarks by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and IPC initiator. She expressed her hope that meeting between Trump and Xi “could become a game-changer” in U.S.-China relations. She echoed Xi’s view, that solving many problems in the world would require the two largest economies working together. She said that one cannot overlook the fact that the military doctrine of the U.S. and the Anglophile nations has been the encirclement of Russia and China, but if Trump can normalize relations with those countries, he will have earned a positive place in history. The dominant theme at the UNGA is the question of whether the world going forward will be governed by the law of the jungle, or will we have a civilized world with a new security and development architecture. She said that the Western powers have no clue that the majority of the world is now orienting toward a new paradigm of peace through development. “We are in one of those moments where everything will depend on the courage of individuals to take up the flag of peace,” she said.

Harley Schlanger, President of The LaRouche Organization, introduced Dr. Seyed Mohammad Marandi, an Iranian-American academic, intellectual and political analyst who is Professor of English Literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran, and a former advisor to Iran’s Nuclear Negotiation Team. He said that the roots of the war we are seeing today may be found in Iran’s independence and its decision to be non-aligned. Iran has also supported the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and taken up the cause of the Palestinians, which made it a target of the Anglosphere. He compared both the Christian and Jewish varieties of Zionism to ISIS and al-Qaeda, all radical sects which do not reflect the religions they purport to represent. In fact, Israel bombed a synagogue which is located in the heart of the Jewish community in Tehran.

In response, Zepp-LaRouche pointed to the desperate attempts by the Anglosphere to preserve a unipolar world as the root cause of military conflicts in the world today. She said that presenting a true history of Iran is crucial to “setting the record straight.”

Garland Nixon, veteran progressive radio and television talk show host, pointed to the inherent contradiction in the narratives that Russia is losing its war with Ukraine, while simultaneously alleging that Russia is about to march through Europe and across the English Channel. He said that greatest fear of the Western elite is actually “internal uprising,” due to the rapidly deteriorating conditions of life in Western nations. “The more aggressive the U.S. foreign policy is, the more you suffer,” he said, citing the example of how the recently proclaimed new sanctions will impact living standards in the U.S. He suggested that the policies and rhetoric of the ruling elites have become so shockingly extreme that the masses may respond, and refuse to comply with the demands of those elites.

H.E. Donald Ramotar was President of Guyana from 2011-2015. Addressing Prof. Marandi, he observed that the Mossadegh government in Iran was overthrown by the CIA in 1953, the same year that the PPP government in Guyana was overthrown by Britain in a similar operation, and there has been subsequent kinship between the two nations. He accused the U.S. of “gangster-style operations,” citing as an example how Iran was invited to the negotiating table and then bombed. He lamented the fact that technological innovations such as AI, rather than being used to improve the quality of life for the common folk, are instead being channeled into military aggression. The quality of leadership in the West is declining, he said, because increasingly the power lies with private corporations instead of elected governments. He criticized UN Secretary General Guterres for his unwillingness to call what is happening in Gaza a genocide, and stated that UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese should have received the Nobel Prize for her efforts.

Prof. Marandi emphasized that Iran is a normal nation, and there is no “cult of martyrdom.” Iran supports the Palestinian cause because Iranians recognize the humanity of the Palestinians.

Richard Black, Schiller Institute UN Representative, reported on his organization’s activities around the General Assembly meeting, and read excerpts from the letter to the UN, written by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, which calls for a new security and development architecture “with the spirit of Bandung, the spirit of Shanghai, and the spirit of Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony.” He highlighted the role of Diane Sare’s presidential campaign, and her critique of the Delphic nature of international banker/Canadian PM Mark Carney’s Partners for Multilateralism (P4M), which is intended to undercut the BRICS and sabotage the actual movement for multilateralism.

Discussion

The discussion section began with an on-the-ground video presentation from a French activist who was present in Paris to welcome the pope, whose message of peace contrasts with the French government’s calls for war.

History and Culture

Co-moderator Dennis Speed asserted that we are seeing “an end to the doctrine of supremacy,” and asked the panelists to comment. Garland Nixon commented that in Russia, there is more attention to history and culture than one finds in the West, but in the West, there is an awakening interest in these topics which is changing the way people see the world.

Zepp-LaRouche reminded the participants that in the West, the CIA launched the Congress for Cultural Freedom, which was an operation aimed at the extirpation of classical culture. The British promote a truncated version of history which erases the contributions of cultures which are much older than Britain’s.

Richard Black described a visit to an historical museum in China, where he saw large crowds of Chinese families who were passionately committed to imparting their nation’s very long history to their progeny.

The Next UN Secretary General

A participant warned that the US was throwing its support to the candidacy of Rafael Mariano Grossi to become the new Secretary General of the UN, and reminded the meeting of Grossi’s corrupt role as head of the IAEA, and how he visited Iran and probably provided intelligence to Israel which was used to assassinate Iranian scientists.

Zepp-LaRouche recalled the involvement of Palantir in spreading disinformation about Iran’s nuclear program in order to manufacture consent for the war, and asked whether Grossi was complicit in this. She said that if Grossi wishes to become Secretary General, “he should not have such dark spots on his shirt.”

Neocolonialism

President Ramotar characterized Venezuela as a “full-fledged colony of the United States,” and said it typifies the colonialist nature of U.S. policy, as opposed to China’s more benevolent approach. He called attention to the recently concluded agreement which gives the U.S. significant control over Greenland.

Co-moderator Dennis Small offered a definition of neocolonialism as a system where nations are granted nominal political independence, but their economies remain entirely under external control. He agreed on the significance of the Greenland agreement.

Zepp-LaRouche responded to a question by reiterating her view that if Trump can restore normal relations with Russia and China, he will have secured a positive role in history. She said that model that security comes from military strength is the view of a shrinking minority; the “tide of the times” is that the road to peace is development, and this view is now universal among the global majority as reflected by the BRICS and SCO. She concluded that we are at a branching point; on the one side, we have the tendency toward neocolonialism, or neo-feudalism as power shifts to private companies or individuals, and on the other hand, there is the outlook which the IPC represents.

Sept. 13, 2026 (EIRNS)—The 171st consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) commemorated the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and became a strategy session on how to use some incredible openings we now have to build a political movement and educate the population. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute and initiator of the IPC, called the 9/11 attacks one of the biggest false flag events in history, used as a “Reichstag Fire” to impose a surveillance state on the United States—not to “protect” the population, but to control the population.

A video was shown of her late husband, Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., speaking on January 3, 2001 warning that the incoming President George W. Bush administration would not be able to deal with the growing economic crisis, and needed a “Reichstag Fire”–type incident to impose crisis management. Zepp-LaRouche added that while the September 11 attacks were unfolding, Lyndon LaRouche was speaking on a live radio broadcast, the Dr. Jack Stockwell Show in Salt Lake City, Utah, and immediately dismissed the official narrative that a disgruntled recluse living in a cave could inflict this level of destruction. LaRouche knew from his years working on the policy that President Reagan announced on March 23, 1983, as the Strategic Defense Initiative, and through his resultant knowledge of the U.S. air defense/NORAD systems, that this had to be an “inside job,” involving corrupt elements of the U.S. intelligence apparatus.

Zepp-LaRouche recounted a Jan. 2002 interview, where LaRouche emphatically made the point that an attack on the Pentagon would automatically put the entire U.S. thermonuclear arsenal on high alert, and that we were very close to nuclear war. It was extremely important, therefore, she said, that Russian President Vladimir Putin was the first world leader to call President Bush to offer support and even offered to put Russiaʼs nuclear arsenal on stand-down to lower any threat level to the U.S. However, this offer of friendship during a time of crisis was misused. Zepp-LaRouche said, that if the United States is ever going to regain its status as a true republic—an appropriate thing to do on its 250th birthday—it must reexamine these missteps, by fully investigating the 9/11 attacks, as well as the chain of events which followed, including the so-called War on Terror, and the takedown of Constitutional rights under the Patriot Act.

The BRICS nations are meeting in New Delhi and are certainly discussing President Trumpʼs Iran War and the soaring oil prices that the war has caused. These prices will continue to rise, as a second major waterway, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, has been taken over by Yemen’s Iran-allied Ansar Allah (Houthi) fighters, who, in their war against Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces, have seized full control of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has exposed that Prime Minister Netanyahu likely knew about the October 7 attacks 10 days in advance. Those Hamas attacks continued for 6 hours before there was any response from the Israeli military. Netanyahuʼs official narrative is coming apart.

Earlier in the week, Germanyʼs Alternative für Deutschland Party (AfD) won a landslide victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. This is seen as a complete rejection of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and his war drive against Russia.

Was Cheney Part of the 9/11 Coup?

Retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern, co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), spoke next, telling the audience that if they want to understand the world today, they must read EIR magazine. He began by outlining his personal experience while questioning former Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta five years after the 9/11 attacks, following an examination of Mineta’s testimony to the 9/11 Commission. McGovern called this commission a “political commission.”

McGovern described Mineta’s testimony. Mineta said that Vice President Dick Cheney was already in the PEOC (President’s Emergency Operations Center) when Mineta arrived, at approximately 9:25 am. This conflicts with the officially reported arrival of Cheney, 9:58 am, after the Pentagon attack, which occurred at 9:37. Mineta described a young man repeatedly entering the room and informing Cheney about an incoming plane, later thought to be American Airlines Flight 77, which was approaching Washington and was presumed to be flown by hijackers: 50 miles away, 30 miles away, then 10 miles away.

Mineta said the young man eventually asked Cheney whether “the orders still stand?” to which Cheney whipped his head around, barking: “Of course it still stands, have you heard anything to the contrary?” Mineta even remarked years later, at an event in Seattle, that his testimony of this account was left out of the 9/11 Commission Report.

In 2006, McGovern had the opportunity to corner Mineta on this very account during Constitution Day at Georgetown University, where they were both honorary Constitution readers. McGovern asked: “Who was the young man? Was he in uniform?” Mineta said he could not recall the young man, nor whether he was in uniform.

When asked about the implications of what Cheney said following the question from the young man—“if the orders still stand?”—Mineta began to behave very bizarrely. McGovern, referring to Mineta’s testimony before the 9/11 Commission, continued: “ ‘Minutes later’ [after Cheney’s remark]—that’s why the difference in the timing is so important—‘Minutes later,’ according to Mineta, ‘the Pentagon was hit.’ I asked Mineta if he would agree that the timing suggested the logic that Cheney had issued a stand-down order of some kind? Well, what happened? He closed his eyes momentarily. It was as if a warning had been etched on the inside of his eyelids:”Speak only of the plane in Pennsylvania!”

“It was bizarre,” McGovern said. “It was as if a robot took over. For the next eight minutes, Mineta refused to move beyond those parameters. As I said, the 9/11 Commission simply ignored Mineta’s formal testimony—hardly a surprise since it totally ignored other inconvenient facts, like the collapse of the World Trade Center Building Seven without an airplane to blame it on. But the very revealing questioning of Mineta by Lee Hamilton is available for all to see on YouTube.” He called the 9/11 Commission a joke, and pointed out that the part of the Pentagon that was hit held important financial records, which were all destroyed. He went on to praise the work and grit of the “Jersey Girls,” who are the widows of the men killed during the 9/11 attack, demanding a real commission.

McGovern said that former U.S. Army four-star General Wesley Clark correctly warned that the United States wanted a pretext to attack seven countries in Southwest Asia, starting with Iraq, which might be a threat to Israel. After 9/11 everything changed, and false narratives could easily be fabricated. McGovern later warned that he is concerned about what President Donald Trump might do to interfere with the midterm elections, saying that Trump could use U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as his “brown shirts,” or call on allied governors to use the National Guard. He concluded by saying, “We have to act as our forefathers and mothers did 250 years ago, get a hold of ourselves, get a hold of the truth, and meanwhile, let’s not get depressed. Let’s go to Beethoven’s 9th.”

The True Threat of Ashcroft’s Nomination

A video clip from January 2001 was shown in which Lyndon LaRouche answered a question from the Congressional Black Caucus about how to stop John Ashcroft from becoming U.S. Attorney General. LaRouche explained that Ashcroft was a racist, but the threat that he represented goes beyond the “Southern Strategy” of President Richard Nixon. Ashcroftʼs role would be to allow the U.S. Constitution to be replaced by a crisis-management-type structure. This means a secret government with a secret police and endless wars. LaRouche said that we cannot be like the dumb Germans who saw Hitler as a threat, but said that they would kick him out in the next election—except there were no more elections. Helga Zepp-LaRouche mentioned that Silicon Valley’s Palantir Technologies founder Peter Thiel has approvingly said that the 9/11 attacks were a defining moment to establish a police state.

Whistleblower and former NSA technical director, Bill Binney, spoke of the electronic surveillance program that he developed, Thin Thread, which was rejected because the program facilitated national security without violating the 4th Amendment. However, NSA Director Gen. Michael Hayden and Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet wanted complete surveillance of the American population and, in the end, spent billions extra for a system which has violated the Constitution 250,000 times by accessing data without a warrant or by “parallel constructions,” i.e., using fake evidence to justify spy operations.

Binney has warned about the unconstitutional and totalitarian Section 1021 of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act which allows indefinite detention and other crimes. He has also warned about the NSA program Treasure Map designed to map the entire Internet—“any device, anywhere, all the time.” When Binney confronted officials about the unconstitutional activities of his agency, they seemed to always respond with, “We have been given special authority,” but Binney said that there is no authorization to violate the Constitution. These corrupt officials were afraid of Binneyʼs Thin Thread program, knowing that it could be used to find criminal activity in the federal government. Binney will be speaking at a Jose Vega for Congress event (New York C.D. 15, The Bronx) on September 13 at 11 am, because these problems can all be fixed and he wants to address young people with his solutions. Ray McGovern encouraged people to see the movie about Bill Binney titled, A Good American.

Jason Ross, science advisor to The LaRouche Organization, addressed the issue of artificial intelligence (AI) leading to “extinction,” saying that the real concern is the intent behind the technology. Ross told young people that they have to act on the world that they want to see develop. McGovern responded, saying that what is needed is the concert later in the evening where Beethoven and Schillerʼs idea that “all men become brothers” will be presented.

Jack Gilroy from Pax Christi spoke of the growing support for the letter calling on Pope Leo XIV to intervene for peace as Pope John XXIII did during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. A second letter by Peter Kuznick, a professor of history at American University, also has a growing following. Gilroy plans to establish a giant database of peace activists.

Terry Strada, national chair of the 9/11 Families & Victims United for Justice Against Terrorism, who intervened that morning during the 9/11 commemoration event held at the National September 11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan, sent a message of support to the IPC meeting.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche ended the event calling for a movement of “World Citizens.” We all must become beautiful souls and geniuses. We were born for something better.

[eir]