International Peace Coalition

International Peace Coalition Meeting No. 146

March 21, 2026 (EIRNS)—Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute and initiator of the International Peace Coalition (IPC ), started the 146th consecutive Friday weekly meeting of the IPC on March 20 by challenging the audience to help stop the dangerous, “breakneck speed” of a spiral into the Iran War, chaos, and the very real potential for nuclear war. Following Israel’s bombing of the South Pars off-shore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf which Iran shares with Qatar, Iran is retaliating in the war by attacking oil and gas facilities of neighboring Gulf states hosting U.S. military bases. This is contributing to the oil price shock that could seriously risk a blowout of the world financial system. The United States is moving ground troops into the region which could target disputed islands off the coast of Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia is threatening to join the war, but the three main actors have incompatible goals—the United States wants regime change, Israel wants total destruction of Iran, and Iran insists that the United States must leave the region and pay reparations for the damage from the war and many years of destructive sanctions. Zepp-LaRouche saw hope in the recent call by Foreign Minister of Oman Badr Albusaidi—who was in the midst of mediating U.S.-Iranian negotiations when the United States and Israel launched their “unlawful military strike” against Iran—for a meeting of all countries in the region to move towards a regional non-aggression treaty, pivoted on an agreement on developing nuclear energy, as a pathway out of the ongoing unwinnable war. China’s special envoy for Middle East affairs Zhai Jun is in the region and has been promoting a quick end to the fighting and economic development.

In Europe, Zepp-LaRouche noted the reluctance of Europeans to join the war. Europe has offered to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz, but only after the fighting ends. She also noted that Iran’s Ambassador to Germany Majid Nili Ahmadabadi has been asking about the role of the United States at the Ramstein Air Base, suggesting that Germany is complicit in the war. She spoke of Prime Minister of Japan Sanae Takaichi visiting the White House on March 19 and being subjected to a cruel joke about Pearl Harbor, when a reporter asked President Trump why the United States did not give Japan advanced warning about their intent to start the war against Iran.

Zepp-LaRouche noted that the former head of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, Joseph Kent, has said that the FBI has blocked investigations into the shooting death of prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and the July 2024 assassination attempt against President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Kent has warned that there may be live, ongoing assassination plans against the President. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned that the U.S. effort to militarize and control space is a dangerous escalation. She noted that all of these events could easily go out of control, and stressed the need for negotiations, development, and a dialogue of civilizations. She also noted that Pope Leo XIV is an American and in a unique position to bring other religious leaders together to prevent a descent into barbarism.

The next speaker was Josephine Guilbeau, a 17-year U.S. Army veteran from U.S. Cyber Command and now active with the Eisenhower Media Network. Guilbeau spoke of her attendance at the Catholics For Catholics 3rd annual Catholic Prayer for America event in Washington, D.C. on March 19, where Joseph Kent spoke and received multiple standing ovations. She stressed that the USS Tripoli, with over 2,000 Marines, is just five days away from entering the theater of war, and that Americans must act now to avoid another ground war with no “off ramp.” Guilbeau called on Americans to contact their congressional representatives and send letters to the editors of major newspapers to stop the war, saying that we cannot allow Israel to drag us into another bloodbath. Zepp-LaRouche responded by stressing the importance of mobilizing other Catholics around the world to unite in opposition to the war. Guilbeau announced the Eisenhower Media Network sponsored March 26 press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., which will expose how, as in the Iraq war, contradictory or even non-existent intelligence has been used to dupe a U.S. President into the war on Iran.

Speaking next was Bassam El Hachem, a sociologist and professor at the University of Lebanon, who spoke of the delusion dominating the Trump administration that the war against Iran could be won in four or five days through decapitation. He said that this “adventure” was a failure, and it is now Iran which holds all of the cards. Iran has knocked-out the major U.S. radar systems in the region, forced the two U.S. aircraft carriers to pull back, and it controls the flow of 20% of world oil exports. Without its sophisticated radar, the United States is blind and Iran’s missiles have inflicted damage. President Trump has demanded that his “allies”—the same ones he has threatened with draconian tariffs—help him restore oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, to little effect.

Professor El Hachem noted that at the end of 2024 Israel and Lebanon negotiated an end to the fighting, Hezbollah honored the agreement, but Israel did not: It acted unilaterally to continue the killing. The United States was negotiating with Iran, but in the middle of the negotiations the U.S. acted unilaterally and started the war. He said that there has been a media blackout, but the U.S. makes sure that Lebanon is weak, which means that Hezbollah is the only local force which can respond to this fighting.

The professor continued that for three days Israel has been preparing for a ground invasion of Lebanon, giving Hezbollah no choice but to fight. France has worked to negotiate an end to this fighting, but the professor does not expect this to work.

The final invited speaker was Diane Sare, an independent candidate for U.S. President, who asked if it were possible to end these wars without changing America? She said that only Congress can declare war, but this Congress embarrassed itself by abdicating its responsibilities, allowing the war to begin.

Sare called on whistleblowers and independent-minded candidates to unite to break the brainwashing by the billionaire elite which wants to dumb-down the population to eliminate optimism. Sare said that the peace movement must fight for economic development, eradicate poverty, provide clean drinking water for the world, and build nuclear power for a growing world. This peace movement must act as one humanity and promote a dialogue of civilizations.

A short video interview was shown of Chandra Muzaffar, a prominent Malaysian human rights activist, author, and president of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), who has called to end all hegemony. He suggested the importance of mobilizing individuals of faith, such as Mahatma Gandhi or Lyndon LaRouche—instead of appealing to religious institutions. Gandhi and LaRouche were people of faith, even though they did not always fit in with the rituals of institutional religious structures, both challenged us with what gives meaning to our lives or what we should do with our lives. Muzaffar said that in a time of crisis, this is the spiritual perspective that we need.

Zepp-LaRouche responded saying the elites are willing to waste precious lives as collateral damage. President Trump has said that he can do with Cuba whatever he wants. She said that we are already in a “Dark Age,” but she is worried that we are sliding into barbarism. She repeated her husband’s frequent question: Do we have the moral fitness to survive? Can we work for the benefit of others? Can we have a dialogue of civilizations? History has shown that arrogance has always led to destruction and we will not survive an Armageddon.

Sare added that people are naturally good and that we can see signs of resistance to this barbarism. Schools are prohibiting smartphones in classrooms, and promoting more reading instead of more screen time. Professor El Hachem added that students of all faiths are acting to stop the war, and he said that it is critical that “we must give young people hope.”

During the question period Sare warned of the danger of false flag provocations to expand the war. She said that President Trump has retreated in Yemen and Minneapolis while declaring defeats to be victories, and that she would be happy if he does the same thing in the Iran War.

A short video was played of former CIA analyst Larry Johnson arguing that nuclear weapons did not end World War II and they will not end the current conflicts. Zepp-LaRouche warned that wars never go as planned and warned of the danger of the unpayable $2.4 quadrillion financial derivatives bubble. She said the only way out of these problems is economic development, but the United States insists on dominating the world despite the fact that it represents only a small fraction of the world’s population. The Global South represents 90% of the world and it demands equality and will not accept an inferior position. Zepp-LaRouche added that Gulf states have shown what is possible in the middle of the desert, but instead of more luxury hotels, these nations must unite around an Oasis Plan development strategy. She said that China developed two of its poor desert areas, each the size of Germany in its northern and western regions—and turned them into lush gardens. There is no need for death and misery anywhere in the world.

Zepp-LaRouche said that the “American System” of economics demonstrates that credit for production always produces more value than the sum of the individual investments. China’s most favorite economist is Friedrich List, who promoted this same system. This “American System” was opposed to the British model of merely extracting value from trade. She called on the United States to return to its mission of being a “Beacon of Hope” for the world again, and that America should not go abroad “in search of monsters to destroy,” as called for by John Quincy Adams. 

Report on International Peace Coalition, Week 144

The 144th weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) featured leaders from the United States, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, France, and Lebanon, describing the horror of the war policy in Iran, Lebanon, and beyond, and expressing hope and support for the effort of the IPC and the Schiller Institute to create a new architecture for peace and development for all nations. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute and initiator of the IPC, opened the meeting with an overview of the seven days so far of war on Iran, and the disintegration of the Western financial system, aggravated by the cut-off of energy supplies from the Gulf region, due to the war. She identified U.S. President Donald Trump’s psychosis in saying that he doesn’t care about international law, and especially saying that he should choose the new Iranian leader. She pointed to the reports from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation that the U.S. military command is telling soldiers that God has ordained this war and has ordained Trump to lead it, and warned that this administration appears to be controlled by a type of fundamentalist lunacy. She noted that Pope Leo XIV and other Catholic clerics have spoken out against the war, and that the Global South recognizes that the war is not only against Iran, but against the Global South altogether, centered on the BRICS and the Belt and Road Initiative. 

Col. Richard Black, a former Marine as well as an Army JAG officer who headed the Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon, pledged his support to the members of the armed forces, but added that, as a Christian, he wanted to remind those officers who believe in the “Great Awakening” that Christ said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” The war on Iran has “no justification,” he insisted, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu had fooled the Trump Administration with two lies: that Iran had nuclear weapons and that the Iranian people would rise up against the leadership within weeks. Black noted that no demonstrations in Iran of even 100 people had spoken up against the regime. “Americans are not good at looking at things from others’ eyes,” he added.

The closure of the Straits of Hormuz would deeply harm the Asian countries, noted Black, including U.S. allies such as South Korea and Japan. Iran, he added, is a highly developed nation, with a deep and rich culture. A ground invasion would be a disaster for the United States, he said, but Trump’s demand for “unconditional surrender” would require ground troops. He denounced the killing of the “aging leaders” of the country, but said that this would lead to a new generation of “younger, more dynamic leaders.”

Sexual Predators and the War Machine

María de los Ángeles Huerta del Río, a former member of Congress in Mexico, who also attended EIR’s March 2 Roundtable of “World Citizens,” described the war on Iran as a “war of Israel against the opponents of the genocide in Gaza.” You can see the “devil in the eyes” of those engaged in sexual predation and the war machine. She then proposed five points of action:

1. Develop a network of activists to investigate the money flow of the banks. Discover which corporations and financial havens are connected to the production of war, drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering, and the sexual predators in the Jeffrey Epstein files. The purpose is to create a public list to shame those involved.
2. Investments: We must go after the investments made by those depraved institutions, banks and individuals identified.
3. Global observance to denounce the elites. This can be done in three ways: 1) Investigate all the cases from the Gaza massacre to the Epstein Island. 2) Political and legal battle to move the institutions to do their job in bringing to justice those identified. 3) Generate a “Library of Infamy” that archives all findings and is public and accessible to journalists.
4. Cultural performances and demonstrations to bring attention to the institutions and people involved in the depravity.
5. Develop a protection network to support those who are fighting for peace.

Dr. Beatriz Bissio, an Associate Professor of Political Science in Brazil, backed the proposals of Ms. Huerta, and added her own proposals: Don’t allow the World Cup to be held in the United States this year; move the UN out of the United States; and an international meeting of sovereign states for a new security and development architecture, as called for by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, should be held, but not in the United States. Bissio added that the aggression against Iran was illegal, and that it should be seen as an Israeli war on those who opposed the genocide in Gaza. She noted a letter from Dubai-based billionaire Khalaf al-Habtoor asking U.S. President Donald Trump, “Who gave you permission and authority to turn our region into a battlefield?”

François Martin, a French intelligence strategist, said the Iran war is a “war of humanity against un-humanity.” The killing of 168 little girls was not a mistake but was prepared and organized by those who believe that Iranians “are all sinners, and should not be considered human, but like ants or rats.” The killing of women and children is thus justified. The same is true of the 87 sailors killed by the March 4 U.S. torpedoing of an unarmed Iranian ship off the coast of Sri Lanka. “We must be human,” he insisted. He believes the war will not last long, based on the fact that Netanyahu lied to the United States and President Trump that the Iranians had nuclear weapons and that the Iranian people would rise up within weeks. Trump is amazed at the Iranian response, he said, and as more Americans are killed, he will be in a very difficult position.

Bassam El-Hachem, a sociologist professor at the University of Lebanon, presented a little-reported situation in Lebanon, and focused especially on the lie that Hezbollah is a terrorist group controlled by Iran. He, himself, is a Christian, but he noted that Hezbollah came into being against the Israeli occupation of Lebanon in the 1980s. Iran’s assistance to Hezbollah exists for that reason. A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was strictly followed by Hezbollah, but not by Israel, he said. Lebanon, he added, is under “crushing control” from the United States, which has a large military presence in the country. El-Hachem expressed his friendship with, and support of, Helga Zepp-LaRouche and the late Lyndon LaRouche, whom he had visited in prison in the 1990s. 

Nuremberg Crimes Must Be Prosecuted

In the open discussion session, co-moderator Dennis Speed noted that François Martin’s point that the slaughter of girls and innocent sailors by the United States recalled a 1970s campaign by EIR and LaRouche’s organization called “Operation Nuremberg,” which addressed the “Nazi doctors” who treated patients as animals to be experimented on. Martin agreed, insisting that such crimes must be identified and prosecuted. “We must make the savages afraid,” he said. Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche added that there was essentially no Western comment on these blatantly satanic slaughters, and that the United States was “losing all moral credibility in the world.”

A participant from Spain suggested that Pope Leo XIV and the Church of Rome join forces with the Russian-based Orthodox Church in organizing resistance to the war. Helga responded that the Schiller Institute had called, back in the last century, on all religious leaders—Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and others—to come together against the permanent war policies and for a new architecture for peace and development for all nations, and that it is still necessary today.

Jonathan Thron of the German Schiller Institute described and showed pictures of the multiple demonstrations of students across Germany against the wars and against the campaign of the government to introduce a draft into the military. He said that there is growing support for this effort but that demonstrations were smaller this time than the first ones in December, due to extreme measures to stop them, which included school principals threatening to prevent participation in college entrance exams for those who protested; by fines imposed on those joining the demonstrations; and even by police preventing students from leaving the schools.

Dennis Speed noted Prof. El-Hachem’s cooperation with the LaRouche movement in the 1980s and ’90s, and called for him to grant interviews to EIR. El-Hachem enthusiastically agreed, and Zepp-LaRouche, EIR editor-in-chief, urged that this be done immediately.

Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche closed the meeting by noting that, like Prof. El-Hachem’s point that Lebanon was an occupied country, Germany, too, is occupied, with a dozen U.S. military bases and over 40,000 soldiers stationed there, adding that the bases were being used in the war on Iran, without requesting approval from the German government. She warned that the pending financial collapse will make the already desperate situation far worse.

Report on IPC #142

Feb. 20, 2026 (EIRNS)—The 142nd consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition on Friday,Feb. 20 posed the extreme contrast between the degeneracy of the world into sexual perversion, war fighting and economic looting, and, on the other hand, the purpose of the IPC and the Schiller Institute: lifting humanity into a higher vision of mankind, based on the creative power of man and the placing of humanity itself as the focus of human thought. The extreme danger of President Trump unleashing a war on Iran, and the almost certain expansion of such a war throughout the region or even globally, was a focus of much of the discussion, as well as the impact of the Epstein Class phenomena, expanded with the arrest of the former Prince Andrew, threatening the welcome demise of the British Royal System.

A reference to the Epstein mentality coming from British radicalism was pointed to by reference to Jeremy Bentham, whose defense of pederasty and his defense of usury demonstrated that both of these are based on the same mentality—a degrading of humanity to less than human. This is, indeed, the reality of the Epstein Class, which is not only a cult of sexual perversity, but also a central portion of the global speculative perversion which is bringing down the productive economy of the Western world. Dennis Speed noted that the connection between sexual exploitation and financial speculation and looting are both representative of the “predatory mindset.”

Helga Zepp-LaRouche sent in a video which addressed both the danger of war in Iran and the implications of the exposure of the Epstein perversions. She noted the insanity of Marco Rubio, whose speech at the Munich Conference not only compared Beethoven to the Rolling Stones, but also praised the 500 years of colonialism as the great gift of Western Civilization to the history of mankind!

Steven Starr, the director of the University of Missouri’s Clinical Laboratory Science Program, as well as a senior scientist at the Physicians for Social Responsibility, provided a powerful, if frightening, picture of the scope of the pending war with Iran. He began by playing a short video from Scott Ritter describing the massive U.S. military deployment now gathered in the region of Iran. Starr then described the Iranian missile capacity as very advanced, capable of doing massive damage if it is deployed, in response to a U.S. and/or Israeli attack. He noted that Alastair Crooke, the former MI6 officer, had pointed to the fact that China has supplied Iran with a radar system which can identify stealth warplanes, undermining the idea that the U.S. stealth fighter jets could easily take out Iran’s missile defenses. Iran has hundreds of missiles, buried in underground, fortified caves, and missile silos spread all over the country, as well as hypersonic missiles. He also pointed to the Russia-China-Iran security agreement of January 2026. If Iran responds by deploying its missiles against Israel and U.S. military bases, the destruction would be substantial. He noted that the Israeli population is largely concentrated in three major cities, showing a map of such a city showing the impact of a barrage of missiles, literally hitting the entire population. The danger then becomes: Would Israel then decide to deploy its nuclear weapons? He also noted that Iran could potentially take out one of the American aircraft carriers, with 5,000 Americans onboard. Would the U.S. then deploy a nuclear weapon? These are frightening questions, but real possibilities.

Eduardo Gabriel Fernández of Argentina, a graduate of the Advanced Course in National Defense and a member of the Gen. Jorge Edgar Leal Argentine Sovereignty Monitoring Center, described the ongoing destruction of his country under the current President Javier Milei. This is a “planned and deliberate” destruction, he said, destroying the policies implemented by former President Juan Perón (he added that Perón and Lyndon LaRouche were similar thinkers and leaders, although at different times). He said that since the time of the pandemic, production in the country has declined by 60%, with 20,000 businesses closed. Food shortages are severe, with beef output declining by more than half, while bread costs have risen drastically. Extreme poverty has risen to nearly 10%, with a serious problem of malnourishment. Under Milei, the Epstein mentality has taken over from Tavistock, with shock therapy applied. He said this was not the first crisis to hit Argentina, noting earlier dictatorships and the Malvinas War from the U.K. The only solution is a return to sovereignty. He pointed to the Schiller Institute as a guiding force.

Dennis Small, EIR Director for Ibero-America, said that the Argentine crisis is relative to the entire world. It was once, under Perón and also under the two Kirchner presidencies, was a major industrial power, which has been destroyed by the Milei government under the direction of Wall Street. The Jan. 3 U.S. invasion of Venezuela, which EIR declared had marked a global phase change, has been proven to be exactly that, with the adoption of Malthusian genocide. We are now seeing this with the U.S. manipulated coup against Peruvian President José Jerí for the “crime” of cooperating with China in building the Chancay Port and planning a trans-oceanic railroad, and also in the forced “dollarization” of South American countries.

Jose Vega, a member of the Schiller Institute now running for Congress in the Bronx, New York, showed a video he has produced addressing the danger of Israel’s nuclear weapons capacity and the subservience of his election opponent, Rep. Ritchie Torres, to the Zionist Lobby in the U.S. On the threat of war against Iran, he asked: “Where is the Congress?”

Steven Starr was asked about the state of mind impacting the decisions to go to war. He replied that the problem is “hubris.” The U.S. belief that they are the only superpower (the unipolar world), and Israel’s belief that they are the only nuclear power in the region, both lead to the sin of hubris, that they can commit genocide in Gaza and wage war on Iran without resistance.

Karel Vereycken, a member of the Schiller Institute from France and an artist, discussed the dehumanizing taking place across the Western world and the need to “re-humanize.” The Renaissance was driven by governments holding competitions, spurring people to create music, poems, and architectural proposals, and we should do the same—with conferences which solicit original works of art, music, poetry and so forth. He noted that his wife, Christine Bierre, had visited China’s Xinjiang Province shortly after a series of terrorist attacks had taken place, and that the Chinese approach was to provide educational facilities for those drawn into such radical circles, in which they were given lessons in music and painting as a means for uplifting their outlook on life. He warned against the revival of eugenics and genetical engineering by the circles around Epstein, reflecting the eugenics of the Nazis.

Vereycken also read a petition titled “For an Immediate Reactivation of the UN Charter in Support of Multilateralism,” which had been prepared by citizens of France and Belgium to call on Americans to “Say No To War,” and call for a reform of the United Nations, such that each country would have an equal voice, while also providing the right to security and development for all nations.

A listener in Peru asked the question, “What real alternatives exist to the crisis facing civilization today?” Dennis Small asked in his reply: “What do you mean by ‘real’?” If you mean “practical,” then perhaps the answer is no, there is no alternative, and civilization is doomed. The question is, how do you change the population’s axioms of thinking, to break the influence of British radical liberalism, of Bentham, Locke, and Hume? This is the role of Nicholas of Cusa’s “coincidence of opposites,” the existence of a higher plane from which solutions to contradictions exist. It has happened before, he noted, pointing to the Renaissance, the role Lyndon LaRouche played throughout his life, and which the March 2 conference being prepared by the Schiller Institute today will address.

Michael Billington, EIR

Report on IPC #140

Feb. 6, 2026 (EIRNS)—The 140th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) on Friday, Feb. 6, took up the question of the latest revelations from the files on the Jeffrey Epstein case, and elevated the discussion to consider how to improve the moral character of humanity as part of the IPC mission to efficiently end the danger of war.

Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche led off by noting that the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty, New START, had expired on the previous day, and it is unclear whether any agreement will replace it. There is a big U.S. Naval armada assembling in the Persian Gulf region, which could presage a strike on Iran and create “unforeseeable consequences.” There is also an “impending Damocles sword” of a general collapse of the financial system. The IPC response includes renewed efforts to re-establish international law, based on the UN Charter, but what is absolutely required is the new global governance system embodied in the Ten Principles put forward by Zepp-LaRouche.

She went on to describe the new environment created by the recent release of additional Epstein files, which she compared to the “Clean Hands” operation in Italy, which was used by the security services to “totally blow up” an existing corrupt system and replace it with an updated version of the same thing. What is actually needed is nothing short of a new Renaissance, and perhaps her proposed global security and development architecture should be updated to include a cultural renewal.

Diane Sare, U.S. independent LaRouche presidential candidate, began by citing the Sept. 2, 1945 remarks by General Douglas MacArthur aboard the USS Missouri after receiving the surrender of Japan, who said that the moral character of humanity must catch up with our incredible advances in science, lest we destroy ourselves with nuclear weapons. She has made three policy proposals:

1.) The United States must declare a doctrine of “no first use” of nuclear weapons, and require that every nuclear-armed nation, including emphatically Israel, must also so declare.

2.) We need a new security and economic development architecture, including a reform of the UN Security Council to reflect the growing influence of the nations of the Global South.

3.) We must join with Russia to build the Bering Strait Tunnel linking Alaska to Siberia, and take up Russia’s Oct. 2011 “Strategic Defense of Earth” proposal to jointly build a system capable of protecting the planet both from missile threats and from threats coming from outer space, such as asteroids.

Sare shared the recent TASS coverage of her presidential campaign, noting her call for a new START Treaty and her association with Lyndon LaRouche, who was widely respected in Russia. She said that people are looking for signs of intelligent life in the United States.

Starting from Scratch on Arms Control

A video presentation by Scott Ritter, former UN weapons inspector, recounted his experience as the first U.S. weapons inspector on the ground in the Soviet Union to implement the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of Dec. 1987 and his role in the development of onsite inspections, which help to establish mutual trust. Even though the New START Treaty regulating strategic nuclear weapons only ended on Feb. 5, 2026, Ritter said that there have been no inspections related to the treaty since 2022, due to sanctions, and no data exchange since 2023. This means “we’re starting from scratch…. Nobody trusts American negotiators.” The world we live in today is one where the threat of nuclear war is greater than it was at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. “We need a leader, and I believe that leader is Diane Sare,” Ritter concluded.

Garland Nixon, veteran progressive radio and television talk show host, who had spent over 20 years in law enforcement, commented on the release of the Epstein files “through the eyes of an investigator.” He said that we should understand that this is a controlled release, designed to emphasize some things and de-emphasize others, so some level of skepticism is appropriate. He said that the revelations of Epstein’s connections to the British Crown are significant, and validate what the LaRouche movement has said for decades about the British Crown’s perfidious role in global politics.

Zepp-LaRouche, in response, asked Nixon to comment on the analogy of the released Epstein files to the “Clean Hands” operation in Italy. He suggested that the Epstein affair is different, because “once it got out of the bag, they lost control.” Sare added that the question is whether human beings are animals, and if they are not, we must find a way to use the revelations to advance our civilization. Nixon called this “a crisis of legitimacy for the ruling elite,” which shows them to be morally unqualified to lead. “How now do we take advantage of an opportunity,” he asked, to replace a rotten system with an actually better one? Zepp-LaRouche said that we must “shed off oligarchism, because this is what this is all about.”

IPC co-moderator Dennis Speed asked Nixon to comment on the role of his mentor, author and historian Paul Robeson, Jr. (1927-2014). Nixon replied by saying that we must rebuild the legacy of Robeson’s father, the noted actor, singer and activist Paul Robeson (1898-1976), in order to “bring the Black community out of this brainwashed anti-Russian” outlook that has been fostered by the Democratic Party apparatchiks.

Nixon went on to describe how Christine Maxwell, twin sister of Jeffrey Epstein’s partner Ghislaine Maxwell, cofounded in the early 1990s Magellan, one of the first internet search engines. He noted that Christine later founded Chiliad, a data analysis company based in Herndon, VA, whose software was used by the FBI to establish a counterterrorism data warehouse after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attack.

Zepp-LaRouche observed that, in the present political structure of the Anglosphere, corruption is considered mandatory, because corrupt people can be reliably controlled, and people who are not corrupt are a potential threat to the system. With the Epstein revelations, “the gutter of this whole system comes out in the open.”

A brief excerpt from a video interview with former Guyanese President Donald Ramotar, conducted on Feb. 3 by IPC co-moderator and EIR Ibero-American editor Dennis Small, was featured. Ramotar warns that world opinion has not grasped the significance of the expiration of the New START Treaty; “the consciousness is lagging behind the danger” of nuclear war.

Discussion

A peace activist from Germany returned to the question of a cultural renaissance, sharing her experience of attending an event in Berlin for the Chinese Spring Festival, in which a Chinese tenor movingly sang a Lied by Schubert. She also congratulated Nixon for his work to call attention to the importance of Paul Robeson.

In response to another question, Diane Sare described the American population’s changed response to the question of space exploration as a symptom of cultural decline, optimism supplanted by pessimism.

Zepp-LaRouche said that we must “aim to bring politics and economics into increasing cohesion with the laws of the universe.” When you go to a museum, you see evidence of cultures that did not make it, because they failed to do this. As Nicholas of Cusa emphasized, pleasures of the flesh do not satisfy the human spirit: “you will like the sweetness of truth better than a stuffed goose.”

In response to a participant who called for the impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump, co-moderator Dennis Small insisted that “the idea of impeaching Donald Trump is insufficiently ambitious … let’s think really big,” by replacing the entire bankrupt system, rather than just focusing on the person in the White House. His view was echoed by Sare, who added that we must give people a positive vision of the future, “an actual human standard.”

A question posed by another participant sparked an extensive discussion of Friedrich Schiller’s conception of man, as opposed to that of Immanuel Kant. Zepp-LaRouche described a singer who sang well, but misbehaved in his personal life. She jokingly urged the singer to reduce the interval between songs to a minimum in order to improve his moral character, underscoring Schiller’s conception of how exposure to beauty can educate the emotions to produce the “beautiful soul.”

In conclusion, Zepp-LaRouche urged that we use “the moment of catharsis”—which we are experiencing with the Epstein event—to launch a new Renaissance. She stressed that “practical” proposals which lack the proper epistemological basis are doomed to fail.

EIR

by EIR staff

The 138^th consecutive meeting of the International Peace Coalition opened with remarks by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and initiator of the International Peace Coalition. She discussed the implications of President Trump’s speech at Davos, during which he made clear his disdain for international law. She deplored his “typical mafioso-like” statements on Iran.

However, she said, the metaphorical glass is half-full, “maybe more than half-full”, in light of the meeting between Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff with Vladimir Putin in Moscow on January 22, 2026, aimed at advancing a U.S.-backed peace plan to end the war in Ukraine.  The meeting was described by the Kremlin as “useful” and “constructive.” What is important is that there is an ongoing dialogue, and the “spirit of Anchorage” has not fallen by the wayside. “If this is continued, it really could shift the balance,” Zepp-LaRouche said.

Russia will provide $1 billion for the reconstruction of Gaza. Putin also joked about the invitation by Trump to join his “Peace Council” with a $1 billion membership fee, saying, “I will pay the one billion, and you can take it out of the frozen assets.” Putin has made the offer to extend the last arms control treaty, START, which is due to expire in a few weeks. There has been no response yet from Trump.

Zepp-LaRouche reviewed some positive initiatives, and praised a new proposal from a French group: a petition to return to the founding charter of the UN, which will be reviewed, edited by IPC participants and brought back for a vote next week.

She was followed by Dr. Ted Postol, MIT Professor Emeritus and one of the world’s leading experts on nuclear weapons.  He analyzed “the mythical idea of Golden Dome,” Trump’s proclaimed plan for anti-missile defense. It involves orbiting satellites with interceptors to catch ICBMs in boost phase. “Implicit in this idea is understanding that the existing ground-based systems have little or no capability,” since they can’t tell the difference between warheads and the hundreds of decoys which are deployed during the descent phase. Orbiting satellites have less than three minutes to intercept in boost phase, when the missile velocity is relatively slow and no decoys have yet been released. Their orbit must be low enough to maximize that window of opportunity, which will cause atmospheric drag and the lifespan of the satellite will only be about six years before it falls to earth. You would need 1100-1200 satellites in orbit to even think about an interception of one ICBM. The system scales 1000 to 1 – for a launch of 100 missiles, 120,000 satellites. You could “punch a hole in the Golden Dome satellite constellation” with an interceptor launched from below, “and your launch would go unopposed.”

Postol expressed his concern that “something is different about Trump in the past few months… something more extreme.” He said that some people have suggested that he may have had a minor stroke. “We have a criminal government right now in control of the United States.”

In response to Postol’s demolition of the Golden Dome scheme, Zepp-LaRouche asked, why is there no one in Trump’s team that will tell him this is unworkable? Postol said that people follow orders, they don’t ask questions. What followed was an exchange about the difference between Lyndon LaRouche’s conception of the Strategic Defense Initiative based on “new physical principles”, as opposed to what Reagan’s program became under the influence of LaRouche’s opponents.

Jens Jorgen Nielsen is the Former Moscow correspondent for the Danish daily Politiken, and an author of books on Russia and Ukraine, as well as being Director of the Russian-Danish Dialogue and assistant professor of communication and cultural differences. He addressed the issue of Trump’s desired annexation of Greenland, stressing that Greenland has its own government and people there are very concerned about the possibility of being occupied by US. Some factions there are calling for immediate independence from Denmark; what would Trump do under those circumstances? Most Danes and Greenlanders were not reassured that U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte reached an agreement over Greenland at the World Economic Forum that did not include them.

A short excerpt was presented from a video interview with Alberto Vizcarra, a leader of the National Front for Saving Mexican Agriculture. He described the dire state of Mexican agriculture, where exports have collapsed due to neoliberal economic policies. He went on to review the past proposals of LaRouche for projects in the mutual interests of Mexico and the US.
Daniel Burke of the Schiller Institute announced a new international youth class series. He called the youth movement a “crucial strategic flank.”

Discussion

There was a further exchange between Zepp-LaRouche and Nielsen on what Nielsen calls a “law-based order” as opposed to a “rules-based order. Zepp-LaRouche suggested that “rules-based order” sounds like it is based on something arbitrary. They agreed that the abrogation of treaties, combined with the possible stationing of medium-range missiles in Europe, puts the world on edge.

One participant asked how we can we organize against ICE. This provoked several responses. Co-moderator Dennis Speed observed that America has long been a plaything of intelligence agencies, particularly British. What is going on in Minnesota is closely tied to the debacles in US foreign policy. To break from the downward spiral, we need action which is not merely non-violent, but which also poses solutions. The other IPC co-moderator, Dennis Small, stated that the only reason immigration is an issue is that US foreign policy has wrecked the economies of our neighbors to the south, causing waves of refugees.

Regular participant John Steinbach noted that nuclear weapons are never defensive in nature, and ABM systems are intended to block retaliation after a first strike.

Returning to the question of Greenland, Dennis Small said that the question of the Arctic is not merely a military one. It is a golden opportunity for international collaboration on economic development.

Zepp-LaRouche commented that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at Davos has received much favorable attention, but it is a disguised reflection of Chatham House line. She said that he “stated something that was obvious, that rules-based order is a fraud.” However, the he people who are praising him are oblivious to economics, because he was the author of the “reset” policy.

In her concluding remarks, Zepp-LaRouche reported that out of the recent EIR seminar, titled “It’s Worse Than You Think: The Strategic Implications of the Attack on Venezuela and How To Bring the World Back from the Brink,” we have put together a committee that will take responsibility to organize globally for a new paradigm. She announced that it will operate under the slogan, “Citizens of the World Unite.”