General

Schiller Institut⁠e⁠ in China⁠—Xinjiang Province: China Rejects All Accusations

August 12, 2019by Jason Ross in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Asia (Central & Northern) SI activity, France SI activity, General, New Silk Road / BRI updates

by Christine Bierre, Bierrechristine@gmail.com

Hardly had the breakthroughs of the Xi-Trump meeting occurred at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan than London and its neo-conservative allies, in and out of the Trump administration, escalated a new flank in the war of nerves against China. Following the demonization of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by London’s neo-con and liberal acolytes in the United States and Europe, the trade-war hype, the Huawei saga, and the Hong Kong mass demo destabilization, in come accusations of mass torture in Xinjiang.

Attacks have been growing in recent months against China’s counter-terrorist offensive in this region, one that has suffered the most from the spillover of terrorism spawned in recent years’ Middle East wars. A Uyghur contingent that had joined ISIS and Al Qaeda in those wars brought that terrorism home to China. Accusations have been made that China has illegally jailed 1-3 million Uyghurs, and is subjecting them to torture, brainwashing and even organ harvesting!

Photo Credit: Adam Ludwiczak

These accusations came to a head on July 10 when a group of 22 nations (18 European nations joined by Japan, Australia, Canada and New Zealand), addressed a letter to Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, noting “disturbing reports of large-scale arbitrary detentions of Uyghurs, and other Muslim and minority communities.” On July 13, however, a group of 37 other countries sent their own letter to the UN authorities, backing China and praising its government for having invited diplomats, think-tanks and media to visit Xinjiang, noting that “what they saw and heard in Xinjiang was in total contradiction with what had been reported by certain Western media.” Among the signers were ten Muslim States!

Foreign Affairs Ministry in Beijing with Wang Lixin Deputy director general at the Department of External Security Affairs and international tour of journalists.

The Chinese government has, in fact, successfully conducted a counter-terror operation and is continuing to organize visits to Xinjiang. Between July 7 and 14, representing the French Schiller Institute’s China desk and as a journalist who writes on strategic and defense questions, this author had the opportunity of participating in one such visit, with a very interesting group of experts. They were representatives from Russia, Italy, France, Poland, Pakistan, Thailand, and New Zealand, including journalists and academic think-tank experts, most of whom had in-depth experience and knowledge of China. Our eight-day “Information Mission” concentrated on China’s policies towards ethnic and religious minorities in general, and on its policies of counter-terrorism in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

China’s Policies Towards Minorities

Our tour started with seminars at the Institute of Tibetology and the Institute of Borderline States, in Beijing. China, with its more than 5,000-year history, is a centralized but multi-ethnic and multi-religious state, home to 56 different ethnic groups, which benefit from having equal rights with the Han majority (92%). China has created 5 autonomous regions and 30 autonomous prefectures, in which minorities are granted some advantages beyond those available to the Han majority, such as favorable quotas to enter schools and greater access to jobs in the public companies as well as an exemption from the “one child only” policy that had been applied to the Han. Religious practices are strongly protected as long as they don’t promote separatist or extremist ideas. The Koran, the Bible and other scriptures are published by the State and are accessible through the internet and available at all libraries. The Muslim religion is practiced in 39,000 mosques in China (25,000 in Xinjiang alone) and requires only certification of the Imams.

Seminar at the Institute of Tibetology in Beijing.

The contribution of ethnic minorities to the particularly rich cultural and religious heritage of China is fully recognized by the State. However, due to the difficulty of reaching out to them in the border lands of China (e.g., Mongolia, Tibet, Xinjiang) and the daunting challenges of their geography, economic development has lagged, a weakness which the enemies of China have always exploited.

Xinjiang has been part of China ever since the Han dynasty, under the name of “Western territories.” But, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, taking advantage of China’s weakness, the British, the Russians, and the Japanese fought for the control of this area in what was then called the “Great Game.” The ideologies of Pan-Turkism and Pan-Islamism promoted by the different camps gave birth to a movement in favor of an “Oriental Turkestan.”

Xiahe county at Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Gannan (Gansu).

Some were calling for an independent state on Xinjiang’s territory; others, for an Islamic State extending from Turkey to Xinjiang. The heirs to the British Empire today are following the same policies towards the Uyghurs and Tibetans. Is it a coincidence that the so-called freedom and liberation movements are both financed by the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington and that their main propaganda instrument, Radio Free Asia, was recreated by the U.S. government in 1996 and has been run by it ever since?

What is important in the Chinese counter-terror offensive is that it is based on the recognition that economic development is the key to solving those problems: “We have to eliminate the soil which allows extremist groups to recruit people, and that is poverty,” insisted Xu Jianying of the Institute of China’s Borderlands at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. The counter-terrorist campaign is also based on a clear differentiation between those who have committed major crimes, who are punished severely, and those who have committed minor crimes, who are offered a very positive rehabilitation program if they admit to their crimes and clearly express a desire to change. The Chinese policy aims, says the government, at striking the right balance between “severity” and “leniency.”

Gansu and Xinjiang

Our visit took us to two of the poorest provinces of China today, Gansu and Xinjiang. But thanks to modern road and rail infrastructure such as the Beijing-Urumqi Expressway inaugurated in 2017 and the Lanzhou-Urumqi high-speed train, these provinces are rapidly catching up with the rest of the nation. Both provinces played key roles in the ancient Silk Roads and are strategic to the success of the BRI today.

Gansu has a Tibetan minority and Xinjiang, a large minority of Muslim Uyghurs (45%). In these areas our group saw the ongoing “poverty alleviation” measures that had started with the Western development strategy (1999) and were accelerated by the BRI beginning in 2013. We also witnessed the strong protection given by the State to local cultures and to the practice of religions, and, in Xinjiang in particular, the ongoing massive rehabilitation efforts in this area, which has almost eliminated all terrorist attacks in the last three years, to the great relief of local populations and the Chinese government.

Labrang Buddhist monastery at Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Gannan.

Gansu is a province with great disparities: a very mineral-rich soil, but a mountainous and desert-like geography. The rich Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Gannan (TAR) is an exception to this. We visited this beautiful area, home to some 120 Buddhist temples, and in particular to the Labrang monastery of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism. Here, a monk, with a Socratic outlook, having engaged in a 20-year study of philosophy, gave us a tour. “Man is not a beast,” he stressed. “He has access to the light of reason. Man can know truth, but for that he must first know himself!”

We visited a model village in Gaxiu that will replace 95 poorer villages totaling 1,800 inhabitants, as part of the extensive effort to meet the goals set by Xi Jinping of eliminating all extreme poverty by 2021. Five such new villages, equipped with clinics, primary schools, and areas for growing vegetables, have been already built. Twenty-five more will be built by next year. The villages are financed by the government, but built by the people, who become owners of their homes. Richer provinces also contribute 0.1% of their income. Today, in this area, 100% of the population has access to clean water and to 15 years of free education. With the orientation towards industry, ecological investments and tourism, a Tibetan yak herder today can expect to go from a yearly 9,000 Yuan income to 30,000 Yuan.

Model Tibetan village in Gaxiu (Gannan).

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

On July 12 we headed towards Xinjiang, taking a bus through the mountains on good roads that had gas stations and restroom facilities. First we visited Turpan, then the capital city, Urumqi.

These areas are the supposed site of the alleged massive arrests by the Chinese government. This Western state is strategic to the success of the BRI. It not only represents a sixth of China’s territory and is very rich in raw materials; it is also the door to the Silk Road leading to Europe. Without a peaceful Xinjiang, there will be no Belt and Road Initiative! Xinjiang has a large Uyghur minority and shares borders with eight states (Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Kashmir) in which poverty and religious extremism is often endemic. This is the province in China that is most exposed to terrorism.

However, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs official accompanying us stated emphatically: “The Chinese government is not fighting Muslims or Uyghurs; it is fighting terrorism that has spilled over into our country through these borders, from people going back and forth to the wars in the Middle East.” Between 8,000 and 15,000 Uyghurs are reported to have joined ISIS and Al-Qaeda in the war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with the explicit aim of pursuing their Holy War against Beijing next.

A large International Exhibit on terrorism in Urumqi demonstrates, with extensive photo and video material, the extent of problem. No less than 14,000 bloody attacks occurred in Xinjiang between 1992 and 2015—suicide bomb attacks, vehicles launched against people in crowded areas, arbitrary knife, machete and axe attacks against ordinary people. The high point of these attacks was the 2009 riots in Urumqi which left 197 dead and more than 1,600 wounded.

A Preventive War Against Terrorism

This is the background to understanding what the Chinese government calls a preventive counter-terrorist policy. First, the decision was taken to improve the living standards of the local population, through development of infrastructure. And it works! Infrastructure has boosted tourism in the ancient city of Turpan, from 8 to 10 million visitors between 2016 and 2017 and up to 6 million in just the first six months of 2019.

In a White Paper on Xinjiang published on March 2019, the Chinese government lists the efforts it is conducting to “ensure and improve public well-being” in this area. Among those efforts are plans to transfer 100,000 jobs to southern Xinjiang (2018-2020); creating 1,400,000 new industrial jobs; free universal health checkups; health insurances for 15 serious illnesses; improving the social security system; and increasing allowances granted to impoverished populations.

While those having committed major crimes undergo “severe punishment,” those having committed minor crimes and having confessed, repented, and shown willingness to reintegrate into society, are treated with “leniency” and offered a full rehabilitation package.

Those who accept reintegration are then recruited to vocational centers where they undergo a well thought-out strategy of rehabilitation that can go from several months to several years. The first phase is the mastering of spoken and written Mandarin, along with their own languages, to be able to integrate in the society; then civic education given by legal experts, which educates people on China’s standards of criminal law.

Trainees then can choose among different vocational activities they want to learn in order to improve their chances to get gainful employment. The choices offered depend on the job potentialities of the local market. Options range from hairdressing, to garment production, medical first aid, tourism, and factory work. According to the White Paper, these rehabilitation centers for minor delinquents adopt “a boarding school management system,” in which “students can have home visits on a regular basis and can ask for leave to attend to personal matters. When the trainees meet the proper trade assessment standards, they get completion certificates and are assisted in getting jobs.”

Visiting Vocational Centers

When we arrived in Turpan, it was over 103 degrees Fahrenheit, which is normal in its 100-day summer season! We first visited the Gaochang District vocational education and training center that has a capacity of 600 students.

The counter-terror policies were clearly carefully thought out. Xinjiang is well known for its beautiful folklore. What better way to counter the Wahhabite ideology, which rejects progress and social activities, than with beautiful music and dance? We were invited to watch a dance performance by a highly professional group, with projected images of local realities and of modern China in the background.

Beautiful Folk dance and projected images, Gaochang District vocational and training
center (Turpan).

We then visited the vocational classes. One group was reading out loud in Mandarin a text composed by the class, focusing on local values. Later we spent some time in the civic education classes, before moving to vocational classes in learning how to use sewing machines, how to apply first aid, and a class training tourist guides. We then witnessed a group receiving art lessons: ten people were learning figure drawing and the use of watercolors in one room; another group was practicing calligraphy, copying and translating between Chinese and Uyghur; others were singing in a chorus accompanied by instrumental musicians.

Dancing at Gaochang District vocational and training center (Turpan).

There were many young people in those groups, especially young women. In the artistic classes, there was a form of playfulness and freedom, which is the key to reorienting people towards productive ideas of society, and contributing to social harmony, rather than criminal behavior. The environment we saw in those classes is coherent with the Chinese government’s stated policy of creating not only a functioning Xinjiang, but also a “beautiful Xinjiang.” Through these efforts and others, we saw a productive cross-cultural approach, bringing together different ethnic groups and the Han, coherent with the national orientation of China as a multi-ethnic unity, without trying to eliminate or marginalize minorities.

Urumqi

At Urumqi, we visited a cross-cultural center, created in 2001, working on the same principle. People of different ethnic groups are brought together to practice dancing, choral singing, cooking or other activities in order to better know each other. Here also, the environment was free and playful.

Our last stop in Urumqi was the White Mosque where the Imam reported the participation of 200 to 300 people in services every day; 1,000 to 2,000 on Fridays, and up to 5,000 during Ramadan. Parallel to the ongoing crackdown on terrorists in the area, the government has improved the material conditions in these mosques—providing water, electricity, flush toilets, radio and television facilities, libraries, and fans and air conditioning.

Urumqi International Bazaar crowded on Sunday.

We visited the museum and public areas, confirming what other witnesses have reported, that the security situation has vastly improved in Xinjiang. The police presence and checkpoints, which were very visible last year, have disappeared. We were able to walk around the large, beautiful central park, which was thick with probably as many as 10,000 people enjoying themselves in the environs. The last stop was shopping at the bustling Grand International Bazaar.

China Denounces ‘Double Standards’

In such information missions, often the fear is that the country visited might restrict your access, displaying select showcase locations. The composition of our group was very helpful in addressing this concern, many having long experience in China and the regions of China that we were visiting. The group included Russian scholars from the Far East Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who have visited the province and working closely with Chinese institutes on the Xinjiang minorities, for more than 15 years; a former Pakistani Air Force officer, who is now a journalist and TV anchorman—his first visit to Xinjiang goes back to 1974; and the head of a China-New Zealand friendship association who organizes tourist trips to China, and is also involved half the year in poverty reduction programs in China.

All these experts confirmed the important improvement of living standards and infrastructure in the areas with which they were familiar. Our Pakistani expert, a practicing Muslim, who has a keen interest in seeing that Muslims can practice freely, confirmed that this is the case.

What we saw therefore, during this intense trip, is a model which has been able to cope with a highly degraded security situation, by giving to many Uyghurs, the possibility of looking towards a better future and integration in the nation. The Chinese government White Paper from last March openly discusses that “a large number of people are undergoing training.”

The terrorist problem is not Chinese in origin. China has been successful in bringing some 800 million people out of extreme poverty in the last 30 years. The approach to its western regions is aimed at solving the economic problems of provinces like Gansu and Xinjiang. But foreign powers, which since the end of the 1990s have been playing with fire, have been using Wahabbite extremists as cannon fodder first in Afghanistan, then against Libya and Syria. Chinese officials met on this trip denounced, in this respect, the “double standards” of some Western countries, which make distinctions between “extremists” useful to themselves, and others they decide to battle, letting “useful extremists” operate against China, some based in European countries.

In order to bring terrorism once and for all to an end, I am convinced, it is urgent, that this problem be brought up, once again, at the UN Security Council, as was done most effectively during the Syrian war. We were told, in briefings during the trip, that this approach is one supported by China.

Christine Bierre, Bierrechristine@gmail.com

Despicable Attempt to Frame Dr. Natalia Vitrenko Stinks of Nazism

April 10, 2015by Jason Ross in General

Lyndon and Helga Zepp-LaRouche: Despicable Attempt to Frame Dr. Natalia Vitrenko Stinks of Nazism in the Bandera Tradition—Victoria Nuland’s Favorite Ideology

American statesman Lyndon LaRouche and his wife Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche, today forcefully denounced a Nazi-led campaign being carried out by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) to defame and threaten the prominent Ukrainian economist and former Member of Parliament Dr. Natalia Vitrenko, a heroine and leading intellectual leader of that country.

“There has to be a high suspicion that this is being orchestrated by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland,” said Lyndon LaRouche today, “or by someone else with an affinity for Nazis in the Bandera tradition, such as Nuland is notorious for.”

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who in February 1997 co-initiated with Vitrenko the “Appeal to Convoke a New Bretton Woods Conference,” as a pro-development reorganization of the world economic system, responded to news of the escalated attacks on the Ukrainian economist and politician: “These slanders are all the more despicable, in that they occur one month before the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazism in Europe, in May 1945. The nations said after the end of that war, ‘Never again!’, but the Western governments have forgotten about that pledge. Natalia Vitrenko has had the integrity to expose the neo-Nazi revival, and to give evidence of Banderite atrocities, both historically and in our day, while Victoria Nuland’s chosen Prime Minister Arseni ‘Yats’ Yatsenyuk, on the contrary, had the nerve to say on German television that the Nazi invasion never occurred—that it was only the Soviet Union that ‘occupied’ Ukraine.”

Dr. Vitrenko has twice been interrogated by the SBU for supposedly receiving Russian funds for the purpose of engaging in what some media have maliciously depicted as “propaganda work to discredit the Ukrainian government authorities, to provoke armed conflict between different layers of the population of Ukraine, to incite ethnic hatred, and to provide information support for conducting ‘referenda’ in Ukraine’s eastern regions.” A statement issued yesterday by Vitrenko’s Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU) pointed to stories published this week by the Glavcom news agency (glavcom.ua) and other media, which cited SBU “suspicions” about Vitrenko’s receiving money from the Russian Foreign Ministry-run Fund for the Support and Defense of the Rights of Compatriots Residing Abroad.

The allegations date to May 2014, when the accounts of Dar Zhizni (Gift of Life), a women’s NGO headed by Vitrenko, were frozen. According to Ukrainian media, this was done “in the framework of an SBU investigation of funds transfers through Ukrinbank, intended for persons suspected of infringement of the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine.” Headlines in the current flood of media coverage name Vitrenko as “a major sponsor of separatists and terrorists,” which are broad categories being used by the current Ukrainian authorities against their political opponents. Alexander Bondarchuk, head of the small Ukrainian Labor Party, and a colleague of Vitrenko both in the Parliament and as a co-signer on her statements against the violent, neo-Nazi-spearheaded February 2014 coup d’etat in Kiev and its aftermath, was arrested March 18 on charges of “infringing the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

Translations of the PSPU statement on the renewed threat to Vitrenko, as well as one on the Bondarchuk case, are provided below.

SBU head Valentyn Nalyvaychenko announced in an April 1 interview that the model for his agency is Stepan Bandera’s Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-Ukrainian Insurgent Army (OUN-UPA), which collaborated with the Nazis during their invasion of the Soviet Union. In view of Vitrenko’s biography and her courage in continuing to speak out on the economic and political devastation of Ukraine since last year’s coup, the attacks have the pro-Nazi stench, typical of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland’s projects in Ukraine. Nalyvaychenko, long associated with the Bandera Trident (Tryzub) organization, a core component of the coup’s Right Sector shock troops, boasted in a May 2014 Atlantic Council conference call of his “intensive” intelligence-sharing and other cooperation with “U.S. colleagues.”

Zepp-LaRouche noted that Vitrenko has spoken frequently in Europe, on both the harm done to Ukraine’s economy by IMF and free-trade policies, and the threat of the revival of fascist ideology in Ukraine, encouraged from the West. “Dr. Vitrenko is well-known and highly respected in Europe,” said Zepp-LaRouche, “and she has had high-level meetings both there and, in earlier years, in the United States. It is important for political figures worldwide to condemn these ludicrous attacks on Natalia Vitrenko, and identify where they are coming from.”

LaRouche and Zepp-LaRouche were Vitrenko’s guests in Kiev in 1995, when she was an MP. An economist specializing on Ukraine’s social services sector and the impact of International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditionalities, she ran a strong campaign for the Presidency of Ukraine in 1999, polling 11% even after her campaign was disrupted by an assassination attempt, in which she and 40 others were injured by grenades thrown at a rally. In recent years, Dr. Vitrenko spoke at conferences of the Schiller Institute in Frankfurt, Germany, in April 2013 and October 2014.

In a speech video-recorded for the March 28-29, 2015 conference of the Citizens Electoral Council of Australia, Vitrenko herself recalled that, “From February 23 to March 5, 2014, our delegation of leading representatives of some Ukrainian leftist parties was able to tour Europe, visiting France, German, and Italy,” where they held “dozens of meetings, press conferences, and interviews… I was able on 26 February 2014 to hold a press conference at the European Parliament. … Already then, we warned about the threat of civil war and the disintegration of the country, which could lead to World War Three. And at that time, I called on Berlin, Moscow, and Paris to unite efforts: specifically these three centers—Berlin, Moscow, Paris—to unite their efforts and prevent the Nazis from taking over in Ukraine, and to help institute a ban on all neo-Nazi parties and movements in Ukraine.” <http://cecaust.com.au/2015conference/panel_03/01_natlaia_vitrenko/20150329_vitrenko.html>

Natalia Vitrenko’s latest video address, posted today on her website www.vitrenko.org, is titled “A Military Junta instead of European Values.” She analyzes the law introduced into Parliament April 3 by President Petro Poroshenko, which provides for declaring martial law in Ukraine either in the face of an armed invasion, or “the threat of attack.” The latter formulation, Vitrenko alleges, provides for acting on the basis of “fabricated threats”—just like the SBU’s “bluff, that Vitrenko is threatening the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

Documentation
(Published on www.vitrenko.org, translated from Russian by EIRNS.)

SBU Uses Fraud to Terrorize Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU) Leader Natalia Vitrenko

8 April 2015

PSPU Press Service statement
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is continuing political defamation against the left opposition party leader, People’s Deputy of Ukraine, and former Presidential candidate, Doctor of Economics Natalia Vitrenko. The latest piece of fakery was disseminated yesterday on the websites “http://glavcom.ua/” and “http://www.ukr.net/”.
The false accusation was embedded in the article’s headline, which declared: “Vitrenko Received 8 Million Rubles from Russian Minister Lavrov.” Further on, the motive for this defamation is disclosed: “Investigators suspect that these funds will be used for other purposes. In particular, that they will be used for propaganda work to discredit the Ukrainian government authorities, to provoke armed conflict between different layers of the population of Ukraine, to incite ethnic hatred, and to provide information support for conducting ‘referenda’ in Ukraine’s eastern regions.”
It is no accident, that this latest falsehood has been disseminated. The regime brought to power by the Euromaidan is discrediting itself through economic collapse, social genocide, corruption, and its inability to establish peace and preserve the territorial integrity of the country or realize the promised European values. Natalia Vitrenko has been interrogated twice at the SBU. She offered facts to prove that the “suspicions” are invalid and the statements false. But efforts to defame her and shape a negative view of her on the part of the public are continuing, through the media.
As for these suspicions, they are either the product of minds that are hallucinating, or of officials experiencing a bad hangover, or of fear over bearing ultimate responsibility for defaming and tarnishing the business reputation, both within the country and worldwide, of Ukrainian statesman and political figure Natalia Mikhailovna Vitrenko.
We demand that Glavkom and Ukr.net publish a retraction, in the form of publication of this statement form the PSPU Press Service.

The following PSPU statement, dated 9 April 2015, concerns Alexander Vasilyevich Bondarchuk, head of the Ukrainian Labor Party (Marxist-Leninist), People’s Deputy of Ukraine, 2nd, 3rd, 4th sessions of the Supreme Rada, who has been a co-signer with Vitrenko on several statements against the February 2014 coup d’etat and its aftermath, such as the April 16, 2014 appeal “Stop the War of the Self-Proclaimed Ukrainian Authorities Against Their Own People!” Bondarchuk was arrested March 18. <http://www.larouchepub.com/pr/2014/140416_vitrenko_release.html>.

Ukrainian Courts against Labor Party Leader A. Bondarchuk, and European Standards.

9 April 2015

PSPU Press Service statement
On April 9, 2015 the Darnytsky District Court in the City of Kiev began a preliminary hearing on charges brought against People’s Deputy of Ukraine of the 3rd and 4th convocations, leader of the opposition Ukrainian Labor Party Alexander Vasilyevich Bondarchuk.

Alexander Bondarchuk is charged under Article 110, Section 1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, “Infringement of the Territorial Integrity of Ukraine.” The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has applied this article because of two articles concerning the authorities possessed by Southeast Ukraine, published in the newspaper Rabochy Klass (Working Class), of which A. Bondarchuk is editor-in-chief. The accusation is constructed on expert analysis done by the SBU, concluding that the articles contained indirect infringement on the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
A. Bondarchuk has new defense lawyers, in the trial. The first motion they announced sought to release the political leader from the cage in which the accused sits. The court went into conference and, upon returning to the courtroom, announced a recess in the session until April 17, 2015. A. Bondarchuk told journalists that his rights to defense during preparation for trial have been grossly violated. For more than a week, no his government lawyer failed to visit him. Newspapers have been withheld from him. He was notified of the April 9 court session at 23:15 on April 8.

A. Bondarchuk and his attorneys believe that the chief motive for the criminal prosecution of him is political.

Leading Russian Thinktank RIAC publishes analysis on failed Russiagate by Schiller Institute Spokesman

August 8, 2019by Jason Ross in General, Media coverage of our activity, Russia SI activity

Leading Russian Thinktank RIAC publishes analysis on failed Russiagate by Harley Schlanger, Vice President of the Schiller-Institute USA: “Anti-Trumpers in shock: Mueller testimony proves there is no case for Trump impeachment”

From the article,

“Mueller’s failed effort to provide a “smoking gun” proving Trump’s “collusion” or “obstruction” in his 448-page report, and then again in his testimony, was summed up in a simple, unambiguous statement during the nearly-seven hour hearing, when he said that his prosecutorial team “did not reach a determination as to whether the President committed a crime.” However, this will not stop fanatics such as Schiff and Nadler from continuing to beat the drums for impeachment, as Russiagate has never really been about Trump or his campaign committing impeachable acts. The underlying issue, which was not addressed by those Republicans at the hearings who were defending Trump [1] is his commitment to break from the post-Cold War unilateralist paradigm, which under his predecessors G.W. Bush and B. Obama, escalated a geopolitical divide between the U.S., and Russia and China. Trump repeatedly stated, during the campaign and as President, that he wished to develop mutually beneficial, cooperative relations with Russia and China, as part of his effort to pull the U.S. back from its role as being the policeman of the world. We must end American involvement in endless wars, he said, wars which have been costly in both monetary terms and loss of life, and which have been pursued without serving any underlying national security interest.

“It was this commitment, to end these regime change wars, combined with his opposition to such “globalist” policies as neoliberal free trade agreements and the Paris Climate Accord, which paved the way for his election victory over Hillary Clinton, who adamantly favored a continuation of the Bush-Obama strategic direction. Unable to combat Trump on these matters, the British intervened as the actual “meddlers” in the U.S. campaign, inventing the story of Russian intervention on behalf of Trump. The British role in initiating the fraudulent narrative of Russian intervention, and the collaboration between British intelligence – including a direct role played by GCHQ, the equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency, and MI6 – with top officials of the Obama administration intelligence team, led to the convening of a “Get Trump” task force during the campaign, with former CIA Director Brennan and National Security Adviser Clapper playing leading roles.

“After his election, as Trump initiated steps to break with the unilateralist military/strategic geopolitical doctrine, in his early, successful meetings with Russian President Putin and China’s President Xi, the coup plotters went into overdrive. Shortly after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, on May 9, 2017, Mueller was appointed a special counsel to investigate the fake story, on May 17, 2017. From that point, until the release of Mueller’s report on March 22, 2019, every effort made by Trump to proceed with improving relations with Putin and Xi was characterized as evidence that he was acting under a blackmail threat from Putin, a charge stemming from the faked and now-discredited dossier compiled by “ex”-MI6 spy Christopher Steele.

“As was made clear by Mueller’s statement that he was “not familiar” with Fusion GPS, which paid Steele with funds from Perkins Coie, the law firm representing the Clinton campaign, it is this connection, between Hillary’s campaign, Obama’s intelligence team, and the highest levels of British intelligence, that those behind Mueller wish to keep out of public view. In saying this, Mueller was either lying, in which case he could be charged with lying to Congress – a tactic he used in targeting Trump friend Roger Stone – or he exposed the fact that he was a mere front man for those who ran the investigation, and wrote the report. In either case, it is further evidence of the fraud employed by the Get Trump team.

Investigating the investigators

“It is precisely the nexus behind this fraud which is now under investigation. Attorney General Barr’s appointment of respected U.S. Attorney from Connecticut, John Durham, and the expected imminent release of an investigation conducted by Justice Department Inspector General Horowitz, into the use of the Steele dossier in the filing for a warrant before the FISA court to “spy on” the Trump campaign, has truly spooked the coup plotters. What Trump has called the “greatest political scandal in U.S. history” will be exposed, and many of the key players are fearful that they now face prison for their crimes.”

Read the full article.

Zepp-LaRouche—Mega-Manipulation: Rescuing the Bankrupt Financial System with Climate Hysteria!

August 6, 2019by Jason Ross in Economic development updates, Environmentalism updates, General, Helga statement, article, transcript

by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, zepp-larouche@eir.de

As the storm signals of the impending financial crisis become more alarming, we are witnessing what is probably the largest social engineering experiment that has ever taken place. The aim of this trans-Atlantic campaign is to make the population—with the help of orchestrated climate hysteria (“We only have 18 months left!”)—voluntarily accept a collapse of its standard of living while directing all investments into “green” projects.

At the same time, the “Great Transformation of the World Economy” is supposed to give “green” investors huge profits and—together with the miraculous increase in money supply via endless “Quantitative Easing”—postpone the collapse of the hopelessly bankrupt financial system once again.

Sixteen-year-old climate star Greta Thunberg, the FridaysForFuture (F4F) student movement, and the Extinction Rebellion (XR) are being strategically exploited by the neoliberal financial oligarchy through a whole complex of institutions and organizations—including investment bankers, consulting firms, the Tavistock Institute, entire battalions of psychologists and behavioral therapists, the World Bank, the European Union (EU), and several billionaires, as well as internet platforms and veterans of the population reduction lobby.

‘Green New Deal’ is a Bad Deal

It uses the whole gamut—from panic-stricken children to “Green New Deal”-advocating “internet personalities,” to groups that are also willing to cross the boundaries from civil resistance to more violent forms—to enforce the demands of the Paris Climate Agreement well before the agreed-upon date of 2050. It includes all the green cadres, from Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project to the internet platform wedonthavetime.org, “We don’t have time,” on whose advisory board sits, among others, Greta Thunberg.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel who, along with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, had previously praised the F4F movement, commented in her summer press conference that Thunberg’s demonstrations had certainly accelerated the government’s decision-making process toward implementing efficient measures to reduce CO₂ emissions. The German “Climate Cabinet” will announce a whole series of measures on September 20, among which the determination of a “carbon price” will be of central importance. Whoever “pollutes” the atmosphere with carbon dioxide will have to pay a price in the future.

Thus, Mrs. Merkel has finally joined the camp of the ideological climate lobby that wants to “nudge” the population, via an increase in prices for energy and transport, to change its behavior. In practical terms, this will mean that a majority of people will no longer be able to afford to use cars or planes, or have adequate heating or power supply.

It means a bonanza for investors, on the other hand, should this measure become policy. This point was made at a June 7 event on “Sustainable Financing” at the House of Finance in Frankfurt by Dr. Christian Thimann, Chairman of the Executive Board of Athene Deutschland Holding, a subsidiary of the insurance company Athora and a long-time employee of the IMF and European Central Bank.

Often one strives unsuccessfully for years for something, and then suddenly something surprising happens, which changes everything. For example, the topics of the “limits to growth” of the Club of Rome, and climate protection, have been under discussion for decades, but only after the notable phrase, “The climate goals will only be achieved if we direct the capital flows into sectors with low emissions,” was formulated in the Paris Climate Agreement, did the climate for the financial sector change completely. Suddenly the issue of “sustainable investment” became central to the economy; suddenly twelve million young people took to the streets, and suddenly this became a “big thing.”

The EU is working on guidelines on emissions trading and climate protection, and legislation that is designed to make these guidelines binding for investment in green technology. For an industrialized nation like Germany, but also for the whole of Europe, this is nothing less than a pre-programmed course for economic suicide.

For what neither the EU bureaucrats nor the sharks of the financial sector understand, are the principles upon which the real, physical economy is built: There is a direct correlation between the energy-flux density applied in the production process, the productivity of the economy, and the number of people whose lives can be supported through these parameters. A diversion of investments exclusively into so-called “sustainable” areas, e.g., “renewable” energy sources such as electricity generated by wind turbines and solar cells, as well as carbon emissions trading, and mandating that the transport, construction, and agriculture sectors must comply with climate regulations, in fact means devolution back to pre-industrial society. For Germany it effectively means the emigration of young workers, more of the aging population left without adequate care, and general impoverishment.

Scientists Dispute Anthropogenic Climate Change

This “Great Transformation,” the complete decarbonization of the world economy, which has long been propagated by German climatologist Hans Joachim “John” Schellnhuber, CBE, is all the more criminal, because the alleged scientific consensus on the thesis of anthropogenic climate change is a fiction. There are many declarations worldwide that have been signed by thousands of scientists, including the late Frederick Seitz, the former president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences; scientists and scholars associated with the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC); and hundreds of Italian, Scandinavian, and Japanese scientists addressing this very problem.

Contested by all these experts, is the claim that the anthropogenic contribution to climate change plays any noteworthy role. They argue that the causes of changes in the Earth’s climate are, above all, natural fluctuations that have to do with processes on the Sun, cosmic radiation influences on cloud formation, the Solar system’s changing position in the Milky Way galaxy, and other cosmic phenomena.

They also stress that climate simulation models do not reflect the actual climatic fluctuations of the past 10,000 years, and that nature—not man—determines the climate. As the recent petition by the Committee of Italian Scientists led by the renowned Professor Uberto Crescenti highlights, it is therefore illusory to suggest that a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions could control the climate.

However, Christoph M. Schmidt, the chairman of the so-called economic “Five Wise Men” of Germany, the top advisory body of the German government, did not refrain from praising the F4F movement at its Congress in Dortmund, for allegedly making it clear to the public that present policies cannot continue. Schmidt also fully supported an increase in the CO₂ emission allowance price as a “basic tool” in the fight against climate change. His appearance in Dortmund and his statement are equally scandalous in view of the consequences of this policy and raise the question of whether he should resign because of incompetence, or because of profiteering.

Banks and Foundations in the Climate Line-Up

In the financial markets, initiatives are popping up such as the Climate Bond Initiative, which seeks to turn the $100 trillion global bond market into a giant new platform for investing in sustainable economic activity of all kinds. (The EU has so far provided “only” $360 billion.) Participants in this initiative include the Rockefeller Foundation, Bank of America, HSBC, the Inter-American Development Bank, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the government of Switzerland, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Frederick Mulder Foundation, OAK Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, FSD Africa, NAB (Australia), European Climate Foundation, the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trust, the EU’s Horizon 2020 Program, Climate Works Foundation, UNDP, Climate KIC, KR Foundation, and Martin International. Equally active are the World Economic Forum, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), The Economist magazine, and the Green Climate Fund, to name but a few.

Ironically, it is clear to Greta Thunberg herself that wealthy interests are involved in the controversy. In a speech to schoolchildren in Katowice, Poland, she said:

“I do not care about being known. My concern is climate justice and a livable planet. Our civilization is being sacrificed for the opportunities of a small group of people who want to make more and more money.”

However, exactly these sentences were deleted in the publication of this speech by the Internet platform Avaaz. Avaaz, a product of the George Soros-related MoveOn.org platform, specializes in collecting personal information on every conceivable topic by organizing petitions around the world.

Will the Real Economy Survive?

This is precisely the point: At a time when the real economy in Europe and the United States is crumbling and the next collapse of the financial system can be delayed only by a new flood of liquidity, a new gold rush for green investment is being generated, which perhaps may enable speculators to make a large amount of money for a short time. The effect on the developing countries will be catastrophic, the non-affluent part of the population in our country will be clobbered, and after a super-short boom in the monetary area, Germany will be destroyed as an industrial location.

It is high time to pull the emergency brake. But who will do this if the EU and the Berlin government are part of the problem, and the Greens obviously represent the same thing, only colored in green? It can only come from the parts of society that are the victims of that policy: the middle class, the productive part of the working population, parents, teachers and all thinking people.

We urgently need a public debate on these issues. Germany is currently driving at full speed off the cliff!

LaRouche Hails Stunning Greek Electoral Repudiation of Troika

January 26, 2015by tobi in General

“Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.”

– Solon of Athens

The results of Sunday’s Greek elections, in which Syriza won a near-landslide victory and will form a new government with Independent Greeks and other parties, was a stunning and powerful repudiation of the murderous austerity policies imposed on Greece by the Troika.

Upon being informed of the Greek vote, Lyndon LaRouche called it a

“profound victory that can secure a shift in the entire European and trans-Atlantic situation.”

LaRouche noted that the outpouring of the Greek people to repudiate the Troika’s austerity regime was one of several recent developments that can rapidly bring down the failed euro system altogether. He cited the recent decision by the Swiss National Bank to decouple the Swiss franc from the euro, which triggered significant derivatives losses by major Wall Street and City of London banks.

LaRouche noted that the Greek vote will have a

“big impact on Germany. Merkel and company are in a tough situation, pretending to control things in Europe, but in reality, they have no control and the Greek vote proves it. They will be shaken hard, and will not be able to pretend that the austerity policies are working.

This is great, the enemy of humanity is being damaged and everyone should be happy.”

As of midnight Sunday, the final results of the Greek vote showed that Syriza received 36.12 percent of the vote, giving it 149 seats out of 300. The Independent Greeks received 4.69 percent of the vote, giving them 13 seats. The two parties are expected to form a coalition government with a 162 seat majority.

Pannos Kammenos, founder of the anti-austerity party “Independent Greeks”, at the Schiller Institute Conference in Oct. 2014, in Frankfurt.

All of the European finance ministers will be meeting today to decide what to do in the face of the dramatic Greek election results, which further discredit European Central Bank head Mario Draghi’s Thursday announcement of a one trillion euro quantitative easing hyper-inflationary bailout of the bankrupt European banks. Greece’s action could very well be the catalyst of a stampede for the door, with Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, and even Italy leaving the euro system to return to sovereign currency and anti-austerity policies.

The implications for Wall Street are equally dramatic. The hopelessly bankrupt Wall Street banks are reeling from massive derivatives losses, triggered by the Swiss National Bank’s sudden ending of the peg to the euro. Those same banks, along with their City of London counterparts, are holding more than $600 billion in junk bond loans to the shale oil and gas sector, and those debts are about to blow out. This could very well be the trigger for the disintegration of the entire trans-Atlantic financial system at any moment.

LaRouche has emphasized for the past months that the blowout of Wall Street and London is the single most important factor driving the world to a potential thermonuclear war showdown. Increasingly, more and more sane voices are joining LaRouche in warning of the growing danger of thermonuclear Armageddon. Over the weekend, leading nuclear disarmament expert Theodore Postol warned about the imminent danger of thermonuclear extinction, and former Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar added their voices to those calling for emergency action to de-escalate the global showdown.

In discussion with colleagues on Sunday, Lyndon LaRouche focused on the urgent measures to be taken to put the Wall Street and London banks through orderly bankruptcy reorganization, starting with the cancellation of all the gambling debts. He then elaborated on the kinds of Hamiltonian measures that must be immediately implemented to put people back to work in meaningful jobs.

LaRouche explained:

“The important thing is that what we need is a statement, which is to be a general statement, which is to say that we know now that the Wall Street organization is generally not only bankrupt, but hopelessly bankrupt. Now, therefore, since the Wall Street money, which is actually now worthless, in fact, is gone, we have to provide a source of credit which will be Federal credit, a lawful creation of Federal credit which will be a fund which can be used by the states and by the national government in order to fund, the creation of new employment. That’s what the issue is.

“Now, the new employment means, employing people in things that they can do, or can be trained to do. Because you have to have a buffer by which you cannot leave the government and this nation collapsing. You’ve got to intervene immediately and say: Okay, we’re going to take a debt. We’re going to incur, — as the United States we’re going to incur a debt; it’s going to be a big debt, it’s not going to be excessive, but it’s going to be a big debt because we must immediately move to put people to work, and to do similar kinds of things now, immediately. And it has to be done on a credit system, which is a Federal credit system.

“Now, we have some history on this thing, which Bill Clinton can respond to, essentially, at least emotionally, because what happened, then, when Bill Clinton left office, what happened, this bail-out business, this crazy operation took over. And so, for a period of four terms of office of the Presidency, and we have ruined everything. And it was ruined by the people who tried to change the policy of the United States against what Bill Clinton had been working to do.

“Go back to what Bill Clinton had announced in the summer of the year when the attack on him came [1998], he had a policy, as a policy which he endorsed me for doing, for presenting, and that policy can work. And it was Bill’s idea, of how to organize, because the Russian system was bankrupt, totally bankrupt; and that had an effect upon Europe and everything else, and the idea was to get a recovery program based on the trans- Atlantic region, which would work, to save the economy from what was created by Wall Street at that time.

“And that’s what we have to do, we have to do that now. Because we cannot sit there without a program of that type. This thing is totally bankrupt, entirely, hopelessly bankrupt. It’s going to become worse at an accelerating rate. We have to have a buffer, a Federal buffer, and the old system of government has to take the responsibility of creating that buffer. And then, the purpose is to put people to work, in productive work. And we must have that now.”

Watch a founder of the anti-austerity party “Independent Greeks” and coalition leader of the newly elected Greek Goverment, Panos Kammenos, at the Schiller Institute Conference in Frankfurt, October 2014

Houston Community Meeting Mobilizes for Project Artemis and Beyond

July 31, 2019by Jason Ross in General, Houston SI activity, Our economic development events, Space updates

by Kesha Rogers and Brian Lantz

”Houston, Shackleton Base Here: Artemis 3 has landed!” You may be saying, “What? What is Shackleton Base? Isn’t it Tranquility? Artemis 3 has landed? I thought it was the Eagle.” Yes, it was the Eagle, and this year marks the 50th anniversary of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin becoming the first men to walk on the Moon. Armstrong declared, “Houston, Tranquility Base here: The Eagle has landed.”

That extraordinary accomplishment of American astronauts landing on the surface of the Moon for the first time—“in peace for all mankind”—was followed by twelve more astronauts, participating in another six missions. The last mission was in 1972. That was the Apollo program, a program to go to the Moon and explore the lunar surface. The Apollo 17 astronauts would be the last to walk on the surface of the Moon. Following that last mission, despite several additional planned missions, the program was unceremoniously ended and funding for the future Apollo missions was cut. However, the cutbacks didn’t start abruptly in 1972; the mission was being chipped away at even as the Apollo program was getting started—the peak in funding was in 1966.

“Have you heard? We are going, not back, but forward to the Moon again! This time to stay!” The Shackleton Crater is the proposed landing site for the next Moon mission. Shackleton is an impact crater that lies at the lunar South Pole.

In December 2017, President Trump signed Space Policy Directive 1, calling for the return of American astronauts to the surface of the Moon before the end of the next decade. In March of this year the plan and the timeline were accelerated, and it was announced by Vice President Pence, on behalf of the President, that NASA and its administrator, Jim Bridenstine, would be charged with a new mission to launch American astronauts to the surface of the Moon—they will be the first woman and the next man to walk on the lunar surface since 1972. This time, they will build a sustainable presence, and will develop the platform, technologies, and resources required to prepare the way for American astronauts to the land on the surface of Mars.

The bold and exciting new mission to return American astronauts to the surface of the Moon is Project Artemis, named for Apollo’s twin sister Artemis, the goddess of the Moon. Well, you may ask, this all sounds very exciting and optimistic, but how will it be done? We haven’t been back in nearly 50 years. What will be different now? How will we guarantee that we not only achieve the goal of returning to the Moon and go to Mars, but build a commitment and a policy with lasting impact for several generations to come?

Houston Meeting, Shooting for the Moon

The Schiller Institute is hosting conferences and seminars around the world, not only to educate people on the requirements for returning Americans to the lunar surface in 2024 and building a lunar base by 2028, but going beyond—setting forth a vision for the next two to three generations of space exploration.

In Houston, Texas on July 25, just one day after the 50th anniversary of the splash down of the Apollo 11, the Schiller Institute had its most recent such event. The theme of the community meeting was, “50 Years After Apollo: NASA’s Project Artemis, A New Generation of Space Explorers Emerges.” The meeting, held at the Bayland Community Center, was a major outreach effort with broad attendance and participation. The audience included blue collar families from the Houston neighborhood, university students, a high school science club, friends of the Fabrication and Innovation Laboratory at a local college, robotics club members, families with NASA ties, members of several local AARP chapters who had previously invited the Houston Schiller Institute Chorus to their meetings, and longtime Schiller Institute activists. There was great excitement following the presentations.

The environment was electric from the start! Attendees were greeted with a fascinating “Fabrication Lab” exhibit on 3D printing, overseen by the lab’s supervisor. 3D printing in its industrial applications is known as additive manufacturing and will be a crucial feature of building cities on the Moon and Mars.

21-century-fusion

There were also NASA memorabilia and models of a scramjet and a Space Shuttle. Also on display was an exhibit from the Houston Robotic Club, which brought a working robotic Moon/Mars Rover, built to NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) specifications. Discussion was continuous around the tables, including the Schiller Institute’s table and a display of Fusion and 21st Century Science and Technology magazines. Attendees got a direct idea of breakthrough work in 3D printing and robotics applications that are relevant for use here on Earth and in space travel and exploration. A group of high school students, all members of a robotics club, had a great time at both exhibits. Many people saw a 3D printer and a robot, up close, for the first time, and were able to talk to experts about the technologies involved.

Attendees also gained greater insight into international cooperation in space by seeing material from a project called “United in Space.” The project’s mission is to promote space cooperation between the United States and Russia. It is involved in creating and placing a statue of Neil Armstrong in Russia. The United in Space display included a scale model of the statue of Armstrong and announced that ground had been broken in Russia for the placement of a life-size statue. The Russian-American founder of United in Space has already placed a statue of Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human to fly in space, in Houston, Texas.

Project Artemis and International Cooperation

The program was opened by Kesha Rogers, Lyndon LaRouche’s representative in Houston, speaking for the Schiller Institute. She presented a dramatic overview of the Artemis Project, opening with a 3-minute NASA film titled, “We Are Going,” which drew applause and shouts from the entire room. Rogers outlined the Artemis Project with detailed slides drawn from NASA and NASA contractors, including the project’s phased development, emphasizing NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and President Trump’s declarations that international cooperation would be required for Project Artemis to succeed.

We need cooperation with Russia, Europe, India, Japan and China, and the more so because Trump has committed the United States to use the Moon as a jumping off place to go to Mars, Rogers explained. She made clear that this perspective had been laid out by economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche, inspired by his collaboration with German-American rocket engineer Krafft Ehricke and many other scientists who worked with the Fusion Energy Foundation in the 1970s and 1980s.

A video except from a 2009 speech by LaRouche was shown, in which LaRouche outlined a future Mars mission as a “science driver” project for the United States, which would simultaneously require cooperation with Russia, China, and other nations, and thereby contribute to securing peace on Earth. Rogers then introduced a special guest, the Vice Consul of the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Houston, Dr. Viacheslav Levchick, PhD, who received a warm greeting from the audience.

The View From Russia

Vice-Consul Levchick outlined some of his country’s work in space, stressing that he thought that cooperation between Russia and the U.S. had “a solid basis,” based on his visits to Johnson Space Center and the cooperative work on the International Space Station. He talked about some of Russia’s recent contributions, including the “Single Pass” delivery of astronauts to the Moon, which shortens the trip from six hours to two hours, saving astronauts and cosmonauts from exhausting trips as well as saving on costs and equipment. This drew audible agreement from the audience.

He also underscored the important breakthroughs in astronomy that are expected from the Specter RG telescope satellite, launched in July. Russia has its own lunar program, but the Vice-Consul wanted to stress the importance of ongoing cooperation, saying, “In 1998 when the first models of the ISS were launched, it was the U.S. and Russia who did it.”

Now there is a rapidly growing private space sector in many countries. “This is like the dreams of our fathers—or my grandfathers,” the youthful Vice Consul added, drawing chuckles. “It is important that we can talk casually about such huge projects,” he said. All nations are going to the Moon’s South Pole, adding that helium-3, along with ice water, are the major resources being sought. Russia, he reported, plans a manned landing on the Moon by 2030 and a permanent presence by 2040, adding that India and China have similar plans. Vice Consul Levchik’s relaxed and humorous remarks were warmly received by the audience and elicited numerous questions.

The Last Time We Went to the Moon

The next speaker was retired NASA and TRW scientist F. Don Cooper, who began working at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama in 1962. Cooper, an Oklahoma native, was soon assigned, as a young physicist and mathematician, to develop the targeting equations for Trans-Lunar Injection (TLI), which guided the Apollo projects to the Moon. Then from Houston, Cooper worked on eight Apollo missions, including Apollo 11 and Apollo 13. He also worked on the Atlas Centaur, the Air Force Dyna-Soar space plane, and the early planned Mars mission NOVA rocket. Cooper gave a very exciting presentation, which took his audience to the Moon, landed on the Moon, and back to Earth with Apollo 11, with a model Saturn V rocket, astronaut voice recordings, graphics, and whiteboard sketches, all making it come alive.

Since his retirement, Don Cooper has found a new calling—that of encouraging a new generation of students to pursue a future in the physical sciences. He enjoys speaking to youth groups, among others, hoping to inspire the technology leaders of the future with his first-hand account of the events as they actually happened. “Of the seven primary people who did this, I am the last one alive,” said Cooper recently. “Students do not know much about Apollo since it all happened before they were born. My objective is to show them how it happened, emphasize that education is essential, and show how math and physics solve real-world problems.” Cooper makes the point that “Apollo 13 was saved by thousands of nerds.”

Mars and Beyond

Brian Lantz, Schiller Institute spokesperson in Texas, addressed the audience on the need for a science driver perspective to realize the full potential of a Moon-Mars colonization over the next 50 years, as developed by the great visionaries, Krafft Ehricke and Lyndon LaRouche. He made clear that a Moon-Mars program is needed for transforming human civilization. A program to fully colonize the Moon and Mars will require major breakthroughs in science and technology, including a crash program for the development of thermonuclear power and fusion propulsion systems for space travel. The ability to sustain a long-term human presence requires the building of major infrastructure and the building of functional and beautiful cities on the Moon and Mars. This will require construction from the Moon’s regolith.

Cutting-edge technologies will have to be further developed, including robotic machines for mining and the production and assembly of habitats on the Moon and Mars. More powerful lasers and other electromagnetic plasma beam systems will be required for communications, for additive construction and manufacturing, and the mining of helium-3. Lantz presented LaRouche’s idea, made famous in the 1988 “Woman on Mars” television broadcast, that we require a telescope with the aperture of the Mars orbit, a concept that drew surprised gasps from the audience. As Lyndon LaRouche outlined in 1986, we will build a civilization on Mars, with cities of hundreds of thousands of productive human beings, because that is what will be required.

What will such an investment cost us? A Moon-Mars project, over two or three generations, will cost us nothing, Lantz emphatically stated. The importance of the American System of economics and the re-creation of a credit system and National Bank, as was understood and developed by our nation’s first Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton, and used effectively by Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt will be necessary. We know this from the Apollo program, which returned 10 cents back for every penny we spent. How is that possible? The source of wealth is human creativity. We must unleash human creativity and reorganize the financial side of things accordingly. After all, we have done it before.

President John F. Kennedy launched one of the greatest economic recovery and national credit programs the nation has ever seen, through the unleashing of the creativity of the population through the Apollo program. Indeed, a Moon-Mars colonization program—advancing through the long-term success of the Artemis program and the advancement of mankind in the Solar system—will multiply the productivity of our civilization while it uplifts mankind, as every human being’s capacities will be required.

NYC Schiller Chorus Gets Standing Ovation at South Bronx Church

July 31, 2019by Jason Ross in General, New York City SI activity, Our cultural events, Our musical events

On Sunday July 28th, the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus gave a concert at the Church of St Anselm and St Roch in the South Bronx. The chorus of about 60, performed four Negro Spirituals (one was an encore) a couple of Spanish hymns (including a popular setting of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” from his Ninth Symphony), two movements from Schubert’s Mass in G, the Sicut Locutus Est from Bach’s Magnificat, and Gradual by Afro-Brazilian composer Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia. This concert was unique because it came together as a result of a real collaboration between the chorus and the church, which serves a largely Spanish-speaking population from the nearby neighborhood, as well as English-speaking immigrants from various European nations.

The approximately 100 people in attendance rose to their feet in a standing ovation after the chorus performed the William Dawson arrangement of “Soon Ah Will be Done” as an encore. The fact that we included music of an Afro-Brazilian Classical composer in the program, was of particular interest to the priest, who stressed that in his Sunday announcements. The church also prepared an amazing reception. Many members of the church expressed interest in joining the chorus, but hesitation because of difficulty speaking English.

Founder and Co-Director of the Schiller Institute Chorus, Diane Sare.

We look forward to future endeavors in collaboration with this historic church. Here is a story about the church, which, unlike many city churches, is packed with hundreds of people at its 11 am Spanish-language mass. It has an earlier mass in English which is attended by 70-100 people as well. It is related by design to a Byzantine church in Turkey, and has been home to many immigrants for over a century.

Ray McGovern Arrested for Attempting to Attend Speech with Former CIA Director

October 31, 2014by tobi in General

A high-level guest speaker from the previous 30th Anniversary Schiller Institute Conference, Ray McGovern, was arrested in New York on October 31, 2014. The 75-year-old former CIA Agent and current peace activist was detained before the start of a talk between former CIA director David Petraeus, retired US Army Lt. Col. John Nagl, and author Max Boot on American Foreign Policy. Witnesses claimed that during the arrest he was declaring “I have a ticket!” but the police continued to very aggressively arrest the 75 year old man. Ray McGovern’s presentation at this latest Schiller Institute Conference is a living testament of what is needed to address to current political situation. His speech went through the double-talk of American Political leaders and the shameless submission by Europe’s leader, but what he stressed the most was the importance of organizing as opposed to simply giving speeches or spreading information.

He said:

“When I was beaten up for simply standing with my back to Hillary Clinton, who was then the Secretary of State, standing up quietly, not saying anything, not having anything, signs or anything, I was beaten up pretty badly…

He continued,

…And guess what? I don’t know how it is here in Europe, but in America, people don’t like to see old people get beat up. How do I know that? Hillary Clinton received thousands and thousands of telephone calls and telegrams and emails saying “What are you beating up an old man for?

…if you have some gray in your hair, put your body into it. People don’t like old people to get beat up.

Now, you young people! You got really good models here. You got Sophie Scholl, 21, 22; you’ve got Bradley, now Chelsea, Manning, who was 22 when he did his deed, you have Edward Snowden who was 29—there is great hope.”

In light of these events we’ve attached McGovern’s speech to highlight the importance of courage and the necessity for those viewing to become involved.

China’s High-Speed Rail Investment Would Cover the U.S.A.

October 2, 2014by Jason Ross in General, World Land-Bridge updates

Brookings’ Africa in Focus online magazine published an article Sept. 25 on “The Expansion of Chinese Railways in Africa,” which made clear that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s expressed wish to “link all the capitals in Africa with high-speed rail” is well underway.

China has projects in progress all over the continent, the magazine reports, totaling tens of billions of dollars in investments, and providing the African continent with the connectivity of a standard (Chinese) gauge in replacement of the half-dozen gauges of the old railroad fragments built under well-forgotten colonial empires. One of the most important, the rail corridor across Kenya which will then connect north to the Mediterranean coast, is scheduled to start construction in October, financed by the China Export-Import Bank and the Kenyan government.

But the article’s observation that China’s rail building abroad is expanding rapidly while it slows at home, is not true. The nation’s investment through China Railways in high-speed rail within the country, has increased by 20% in the past year and is running at nearly $100 billion a year (430 billion yuan, or $65 billion, through August in 2014, as reported in Xinhua).

This is a very large investment; it would build a nationwide network of high-speed electrified corridors in the United States in less than five years, according to a thorough EIR study of requirements published in 2002, although U.S. landmass is greater than China’s. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), when he publicly slammed Obama in 2011 for deliberately failing on economic infrastructure, had introduced legislation for $300 billion in high-speed rail funding over six years — a very serious level but only half that of China now.

A Reuters article Sept. 29 quotes Xinhua that so far the increase has been accomplished solely with state banks — Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd., Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank Corp., and Industrial Bank Co. — all contracting with China Railways Corporation. The government’s targeted investment level is even higher than this $100 billion annual rate, intending to bring private banks and funds into the investments through China Railways.

Bolivia Asks China for $3 Billion for Major Infrastructure

September 25, 2014by Jason Ross in BRICS updates, General

Bolivian President Evo Morales met with Chinese Vice Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli on Sept. 22 in New York City, where both are attending the UN General Assembly. According to Bolivian Development Planning Minister Viviana Caro, Chinese President Xi Jinping had offered $10 billion in financing for Ibero-American development projects at the BRICS summit in Brazil, “and we are going to take up China’s offer” with a request for a $3 billion credit for four projects.

Among the projects Morales presented to Zhang are the industrialization of the giant iron ore deposits in Mutun, in eastern Bolivia — meaning using them to produce steel, as opposed to simply exporting them as raw materials. He also requested Chinese help in building the Puerto Busch-Motacusito railroad, which would also run past the Mutun mine. Mutun is one of the largest iron ore deposits in the world, with an estimated 40 billion tons of iron ore and 10 billion tons of manganese. This is a geographically critical area, and series of projects, for all of South America.

Natural Ore deposits in Bolivia. By utilizing this credit investment from China, Bolivia would be able to advance its own industrial productive capabalities for long term economic development.

The Bolivian government is already building a major inland port at Puerto Busch, which is on the Paraguay River, which will give landlocked Bolivia access to the Atlantic Ocean via Paraguay and Argentina. Just north of Puerto Busch is Puerto Suarez, another Bolivian river port which is only 10 km from the Brazilian border, and is situated by Laguna Caceres, which is connected to the important Paraguay and Parana river waterways by the Tamengo Canal. This is also close to Corumba, Brazil, one of the locations where the great Amazon River system and the Paraguay/Parana/Rio de la Plata river system meet, and could be interconnected with a navigable canal, as has been proposed as far back as Alexander von Humboldt in the 19th century.

The interconnection of South America’s three major river basins — the Orinoco, the Amazon, and the Rio de la Plata — along with high-speed rail corridors traversing South America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, connected into the World Land-Bridge via the Darien Gap, were proposed in detail in the 1988 Schiller Institute book, Ibero-American Integration.

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