Two days of meetings between U.S. and Taliban officials in Doha were described as “candid and professional”, but the U.S. has still not agreed to release funds being held by the U.S. Treasury that rightfully belong to the people of Afghanistan. There is no time to waste in providing humanitarian aid, as hunger is stalking millions, including children. Along with humanitarian aid, the U.S. should join with others in a broad reconstruction program, beginning with building necessary infrastructure. Peaceful cooperation in such projects, rather than military buildup and threats, is the best transition out of the failed policy of regime change and endless wars.
On April 23, I interviewed Col. Richard Black (ret.), on his view of the inhuman sanctions the U.S. has imposed on Syria, to provoke a change in regime there. Col. Black, the former chief of the U.S. Army’s Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon, was blunt in his condemnation of this policy, which he described as “brutal” to the extent it makes him ashamed of what the U.S. is doing. He called on all citizens, especially leaders of religious institutions, to join with the Schiller Institute’s mobilization to end the sanctions. Today’s Update is of the last exchange we had. You can see the full video here.
On the eve of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, which led to the “forever wars” which he still supports, Blair reiterated all the talking points used by the Shadow Government to justify geopolitical provocations, huge military budgets, and imposing the Surveillance State. We take up the question of whether 9/11 was an “inside job”; will Biden’s declassification order relating to documents on the Saudi role make a difference; and what is the significance of changes in financial regulatory policies introduced by the Chinese government?
For a full, in-depth analysis of 9/11 and its destructive aftermath, and how to change the direction from geopolitics to peaceful cooperation, be sure to register for the online conference of the Schiller Institute on Saturday, September 11, beginning at 2 PM EDT.
Beethoven: Sparks of Joy — String quartet Opus 18, no. 3
The third of Beethoven’s Opus 18 string quartets was actually the first composed – Beethoven himself placed it third in the cycle. It’s a warm-hearted, genial work, with a rollicking, knee-slapping finale. We present once again the Amadeus Quartet. [Notes by Margaret Scialdone.]
This call by the Schiller Institute will be distributed internationally Oct. 14 as the IMF and World Bank meet in Washington.
Today and in the coming days, we, informed citizens of the world and patriots of our own nations, stand united, in Washington, Berlin, Lima, Paris, Rome, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Madrid, Stockholm, Brussels and in many other cities of the world, to expose and denounce a crime.
On August 15, after four decades of foreign interventions, a new government took power in Afghanistan. While having orientations we don’t necessarily approve of, the new government has expressed its willingness to face the immediate humanitarian challenges, eradicate opium production, reconstruct Afghanistan’s health system and build the basic infrastructure required to jump-start trade and development. As clearly understood by Pakistan, India, China, Russia, Turkmenistan, Iran and others, it is in the interest of all to allow the new government to stabilize the situation by engaging in normal international relations. But more is required: without a minimal foreign input, Afghanistan will fail in dealing with a deadly food and health crisis that started way before Aug. 14.
Hence, it is outrageous that in the days following the Taliban takeover, the White House announced that all assets of Afghanistan’s central bank held in the U.S. would not be released to the new Afghan government:
- The U.S. Federal Reserve refuses to release the $9.5 billion of assets of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, $7 billion of which are held by the New York Fed. About $1.3 billion of these are held in international accounts, with some of it in euros and British pounds, while the rest are held by the Bank for International Settlements based in Switzerland. As a result, Afghanistan can only access 0.1-0.2 % of its total reserves!
- The International Monetary Fund has suspended all financing for “lack of clarity within the international community” over recognizing the new government. $370 million set to be released on Aug. 23 was withheld and access to the IMF’s reserves in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) assets, which can be converted to government-backed money, have also been blocked.
- The World Bank (as denounced by a petition of Code Pink) has refused to release some $440 million, notably the funds required to pay Afghan teachers and health workers. Hence, while there is a huge outcry over “women’s rights,” 13,000 female healthcare workers, including doctors, midwives, nurses, vaccinators, and other female staff, are not being paid by the World Bank’s Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF).
On Feb. 29, 2020, the Taliban and the U.S. government signed an agreement. Part III of that agreement stipulates: “The U.S.A. and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan are committed to continue positive relations, including economic cooperation for reconstruction…. The United States will refrain from the threat or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Afghanistan or intervening in its domestic affairs.”
Today, if the United States wants to regain respect and esteem, it has to live up to its own commitments, especially when millions of human lives, both female and male, are at stake, which is the case in Afghanistan as a result of a food and health crisis of apocalyptic dimensions. Two out of five Afghans, many of them children, are facing starvation.
Therefore, we, the undersigned, call on President Joe Biden to act in the spirit of the 2020 Doha agreement, signed by the U.S.A., and lift all unnecessary sanctions against Afghanistan, including the use of malign pretexts to prevent its control over the assets of its own central bank as well as its normal access to the international financial markets. The urgency is now!
Support this call and help to spread it!
Initial signatory:
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, President, Schiller Institute
Jacques Cheminade, President Solidarité et Progrès, three-time presidential candidate
While some irresponsible idiots, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, are calling for the U.S. to send troops back to Afghanistan, there are developments underway that are kept out of the western media. What, for example, are the Chinese and Afghanistan’s neighbors saying and doing? China has a vested interest in seeing that Afghanistan does not become a safe haven for terrorists, nor drug traffickers. China’s Foreign Minister reiterated that, while China welcomes the pledges coming from the Taliban interim government, recognition depends on following through with a commitment to tolerance, and combating terrorism and drug trafficking. Did you know that the Taliban had nearly shut down opium production by 2000? Only after the 2001 U.S.-NATO overthrow of the Taliban government did drug production take off again — not surprisingly, especially in the province of the country under British control!
Join us for this weekend’s 9/11 events:
Friday September 10, 7pm — 9/11 Memorial Concert, Beethoven’s Agnus Dei: Peace for ourselves, and the world
Saturday September 11, 2pm — Manhattan Project Meeting, Afghanistan and the Surveillance State. Where Do We Go From Here?
It’s no coincidence that governments are falling, energy and food prices are soaring, new wars are being planned, and riots are being organized: We are in a systemic breakdown crisis, and those responsible for it are running psychological warfare operations to polarize the vast majority of people, to keep them from uniting around a policy to bankrupt the globalists, and go back to the principles of physical economy, as presented by Lyndon LaRouche in his “Four Laws”. Helga Zepp-LaRouche and Guus Berkhout of Climate Intelligence have issued a “Wake Up Call,” which must be circulated everywhere — don’t allow your friends and fellow citizens to be manipulated by fake narratives pushed by those who are organizing these crises. They are vulnerable and can be defeated.
Statement from the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites: Mozambique Project—Medical Supplies, Food Aid & Seeds for the Future
April 11 (Schiller Institute)
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
—Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” April 16, 1963
The Schiller Institute’s Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites, initiated by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, and Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former U.S. Surgeon General, has launched an effort bringing together people of good will, of various backgrounds including youth, social activists, religious figures, farmers, medical personnel, miltary logistic experts and others, concerned, not just about themselves, but the crises facing all humanity. The Committee has emphasized reviving the non-violent direct action tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. The idea is to demonstrate in a pilot project—beginning in Mozambique—that we can mitigate tragic circumstances, and inspire the large-scale response needed.
The UN World Food Program (WFP) Director David Beasley warns that famine now threatens the lives of 270 million people. It is essential that governments work together to: 1) implement full-scale emergency relief programs; 2) establish modern healthcare systems in every nation, including full-set infrastructure and trained staff; and 3) defend and expand family farm-scale agriculture everywhere.
Our initial effort focuses on delivery of medical supplies, food, and seeds to Mozambique, in southeastern Africa. With a population of 31 million, it is one of the poorest, and youngest (17 years is the median age) nations in the world. Terrorist attacks in the northern province of Cabo Delgado have displaced more than 670,000 people. There is chronic malnutrition, with over half of the children malnourished. There is widespread damage from recent cyclones. Crowded shelters and homes lack the most basic necessities, like soap, contributing to cholera, malaria and COVID-19. The disruption to spring harvesting and replanting is severe.
At the same time farmers in the world’s highest output food-belts—France, Germany, India—are in the streets with their tractors, protesting low prices, and new agro-dictates that will ruin them and cause world food shortages.
The objective of the Committee is to get a delivery of food and medical supplies into Mozambique as rapidly as possible, at the same time publicizing in the U.S. and internationally, the necessity for a global mobilization by governments and institutions for health security for all. Several farm leaders and military experts are joining with us to publicize and support this mission.
The Committee is working in conjunction with the Golden State Medical Association (GSMA), the California branch of the National Medical Association (NMA), to facilitate this project, due to their previous impactful humanitarian experiences in Mozambique. GSMA, along with NMA’s Council on International Affairs, have conducted several earlier missions to Mozambique and know the situation well. Contacts have already been established with government and medical personnel on the ground in Mozambique by GSMA, who can ensure safe and efficient delivery of goods to designated people in need.
The Committee intends to supply food (corn-soy meal, dried fish, etc.), seeds, water purification tablets, medical supplies (PPE, pharmaceuticals, etc.), procured both in the U.S., and directly in Africa to minimize transport costs. Funds and donations-in-kind are now being collected by the Committee and are tax-deductible.
For more information, please contact: Lynne Speed, Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites lynnespeed@schillerinstitute.org
The devastation unleashed throughout central Europe by the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) was ended by an agreement, called the Peace of Westphalia. This treaty included a declaration of non-interference in the domestic affairs of sovereign states. In 1999 and for the next five years, British PM Tony Blair ran an aggressive campaign to move into a “post-Westphalian world”, based on a doctrine of the “Responsibility to Protect”, to justify regime change against sovereign nations which don’t accept “our values.” Iraq, Libya, Ukraine and Syria have already been subjected to mass murder, and Russia and China are targeted. Why? — Because they don’t share Mr Blair’s “values”, especially when those values include support for assassination of leaders (Libya), support of neo-Nazi militias committed to ethnic cleansing (Ukraine), and the arming and training of Jihadists, followed by famine-inducing sanctions, as in Syria.
Inflation, breakdown in supply chains, etc., are real. But they are only a reflection of a broader dynamic, which Lyndon LaRouche called a Systemic Breakdown Crisis”. This is being worsened by the push for “Green” policies, and the “Great Reset.” Friday Question: What do you make of the Facebook whistleblower, who charged that Facebook was aware of the “toxic impact” of Instagram, and the algorithms which promote “extremism” and polarization? The narrative emerging is that the company prioritizes profit over public good –No Kidding, but that is the modus operandi of the entire neoliberal system: So, why is this coming out now?