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Sicily Daily Runs Call by Committee for Coincidence of Opposites on Afghanistan Emergency

Under the headline “Afghanistan, the Committee for the Republic: Let Us Help It,” the daily Il Corriere di Sicilia published the Dec. 10 call by the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites with an endorsement by Alessia Ruggeri.

The paper quotes Ruggeri saying: “I join the declaration by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, president of the Schiller Institute, which has highlighted that for more than two months no one has talked about Afghanistan, totally ignoring the emergency and the fact that, with the confiscation of funds, the population is likely to die of hunger and hardship,” and it continues: “These are the words of Alessia Ruggeri, spokesperson of the political movement ‘Committee for the Republic’ member of the Committee for the Coincidence of the Opposites that supports the call by David Beasley, director of the WFP, which states that immediate support from the West is needed, defining it as a moral test for the West.” See the Italian original.


Conference: The Moral Collapse of the Trans-Atlantic World Cries Out for a New Paradigm

International Schiller Institute/ICLC online conference May 8, 2021

SCHILLER INSTITUTE PRESS RELEASE

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute Founder and Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban, Political and Media Advisor to the Syrian Presidency, Lead Off May 8 International Conference

Read the press release


Panel 1 — Saturday, May 8, 9 AM EDT
The March of Folly: Can Mankind Still Extinguish the Now-Lit Fuse of Thermonuclear War?

1. Keynote Speech: Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Founder and Chairman, Schiller Institute: “Is Mankind the Immortal Species or More Stupid than Animals?”

2. Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban, Political and Media Advisor to the Syrian Presidency: “Restore International Law: Respect Syria’s Perfect Sovereignty”

3. Col. Richard H. Black (US), former State Senator (Virginia), former head of the US Army’s Criminal Law Division, US Pentagon: “The Immorality of Sanctions: The Case of Syria”

4. Dr. Hans Koechler (Austria), University Professor of Philosophy, Vienna; President, International Progress Organization: “Unilateral Economic Sanctions: “Immorality and Arrogance of Great Powers”

5. Professor Dr. Wilfried Schreiber (Germany), Senior Research Fellow, World Trends Institute for International Politics, Potsdam, Germany: “Global Governance – An Answer from China and Russia”

6. Minister-Counsellor Sayed Mujtaba Ahmadi, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Afghanistan, Canada: “A Perspective for the Economic Development of Afghanistan in the Setting of the New Silk Road”

7. Prof. Eric Denece (France), Director, French Center for Intelligence Research: “Reflections for a New Foreign Policy”

8. Daisuke Kotegawa (Japan), former Ministry of Finance official, former Director for Japan at the IMF: “The Obama Sanctions Sabotaged Japan-Russia Development”

9. Caleb Maupin (US), Journalist and Political Analyst; Founder, Center for Political Innovation: “Sanctions Against Syria, Conflict with China: Who Benefits?”


Panel 2: Saturday, May 8, 1 pm EDT
The Method of the Coincidence of Opposites: Only A United Worldwide Health Effort, Without Sanctions, Can Reverse A Worldwide Pandemic

1. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, President, The Schiller Institute: Introduction

2. Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former Surgeon General of the United States: “Join or Die: Why A World Health Platform Protects Each of Us”

3. Dr. Khadijah Lang (US), Chairman, National Medical Association (NMA) Council on International Affairs; President, Golden State Medical Association, and Marcia Baker (US), Editorial Board, Executive Intelligence Review: “Report on Mozambique Pilot Aid Project—Toward World-Scale Mobilization”

4. Luis Vasquez (Peru), The Schiller Institute: ”Do Not Forget: The Global Concentration Camp Oven Is Now Nuclear”

5. Dr. Walter Faggett (US), Former Chief Medical Officer, Washington D.C. Dept of Health, co-chair DC Ward 8 Health Council, and Ms.Genita Finley (US), 2nd year Medical Student, designer Mississippi Delta Medical Extension School Program

6. Augustinus Berkhout (Netherlands), Emeritus Professor of Geophysics, Delft University of Technology, Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences: ”Greetings to the Schiller Conference”

7. Rainer Seidl (Germany) Land Creates Connection (Land schafft Verbindung, LsV), video excerpt of an interview in Munich, February 7, 2021; and Alf Schmidt (Germany), independent farmer, video excerpt of an interview in Berlin, March 23, 2021: “German Farm Protest Leaders: ‘Green Deal‘ Cuts Farmers, Food & People!”

8. Pastor Robert Smith (US), Pastor of New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, Detroit, Michigan; Chairman Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention, USA INC.: “‘Physician, Heal Thy Self’: Saving a Nation in Crisis Through Love”

9. Antonio Sanchez (Venezuela/Chile), Int’l. LaRouche Youth Movement: “They Knew or Should Have Known: the Cases of Venezuela and Chile”


Schlanger on Caesar Sanctions Posted by Russian International Affairs Council

Schlanger on Caesar Sanctions Posted by Russian International Affairs Council

April 19: An article by Harley Schlanger, just written for LaRouche publications on Helga’ Zepp-LaRouche’s call to revoke the Caesar Sanctions, and how the U.S. Congress was incited to pass them, has been posted on the RIAC (Russia International Affairs Council) site. In addition, the RIAC tweeted the article to its 9,500 Twitter followers. RIAC is a institution of the Russian Foreign Minister, and is directed by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Here is a link to the Tweet.


Zakharova Warns of Pitfalls of Western ‘Sanctions War’

May 4, 2021 (EIRNS)–“Diplomacy is being replaced by sanctions,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned in an interview with RT Television yesterday, and this is “undermining mutual trust and darkening the prospects for normalizing relations” between Russia and the collective West.

“The vicious practice of imposing unilateral political and economic restrictions, especially the extraterritorial application of such measures, is an infringement on the sovereignty of states and interference in their internal affairs aimed at keeping, at any cost, their [imposers’–ed.] dominant position in the global economy and international politics, which they are gradually losing,” she charged.

She discussed various measures which Russia is taking to defend itself: consolidating its national financial system, searching for new international partners, diversifying foreign economic ties while developing advanced, competitive domestic industries which lay the basis for substituting domestic products for what was previously imported. New legal mechanisms are being worked on, and legislation “providing for measures to counter new potential unilateral steps by the United States and other countries” is being drafted.

RT asked several questions about ways Russia might protect itself from restrictions on its access to Western financial systems. Zakharova noted that cutting Russia off from the SWIFT system for international settlement of payments “is so far considered a hypothetical scenario.” That said, work is underway on reducing Russia’s dependence on the dollar, a discussion that has been underway for at least a decade, she noted. She referenced that the 2007-2008 crisis “called into doubt the sustainability of the world currency system based on the supremacy of one national monetary unit.”

 Zakharova made clear that such discussions are not taking place just in Russia, as finding ways to secure “the independence and sustainability of the financial system to external threat is increasingly becoming a priority for any state.” Russia will not be driven by the “hostile foreign policy” of others to shut out the outside world; it is discussing measures that can be taken with regional neighbors, the BRICS, and others.

Once again, Zakharova, as other high-ranking Russian officials have consistently been doing, proposed that Western nations change course, and come to the table to reach agreements which defend everyone’s interests: “We have repeatedly made it clear that we did not start this sanctions war, but we are ready, at any point, to do our part in order to end this pointless confrontation, in which there will not be and cannot be any winners…. We strongly support a broad international discussion of ways to counteract the illegitimate unilateral measures. We are confident that a systematic dialogue should help reduce the business community’s concerns regarding the uncertainty and instability in global affairs, which are provoked by the West’s one-sided and inconsistent policy.” The RT coverage can be found here.

The Foreign Ministry carries the transcript of the interview on its website.


Video — Cardinal Zenari: “Time is running out,” to end the sanctions against Syria

Helga Zepp-LaRouche emphasizes the urgency of lifting the so-called Caesar Sanctions against the people of Syria, citing the appeal of Cardinal Zenari to end the sanctions. There is nothing “humanitarian”, she stated, in starving children and shutting down hospitals and medical care, based on another fraudulent narrative cooked up by U.K.-U.S. regime change networks. We must insist that every policy maker who does not speak up against this fraud is complicit in every death which occurs in Syria, and in Yemen.


Lift the Inhuman Sanctions Against Syria

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.


WFP’s Beasley Promotes ‘Hunger Ward’ Documentary on Malnutrition in Yemen

WFP’s Beasley Promotes ‘Hunger Ward’ Documentary on Malnutrition in Yemen

April 9 (EIRNS)—A new documentary was released online today on the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, titled “Hunger Ward,” after which release World Food Program Director David Beasley and filmmaker Skye Fitzgerald, held a live discussion (see hungerward.org).

The new half-hour film focuses on the terrible plight and death rate of malnourished children in Yemen, featuring coverage at the Sadaqa Hospital in Aden, the nation’s largest hospital; and the Aslan Clinic, the largest malnutrition treatment center in northern Yemen. The scenes and the words of the medical directors—Dr. Aida Alsdeeq in Aden and Nurse Mekkiah Mahdi at the Aslan Clinic—are gripping. The film also shows the sad horror of the wreckage of a Saudi missile strike against a funeral gathering in Yemen, with shoes of dozens of the dead still scattered in the rubble of the ruins. The postscript states simply that Saudi Arabia, with U.S. backing is still making war on Yemen, and that France, Germany, other nations, and the Houthis are complicit.

Beasley has given this documentary advance publicity to mobilize world attention on the growing famine in Yemen and internationally, which he spoke about on April 7 in a virtual forum at the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware. Speaking to a student audience, Beasley repeatedly stressed that the warfare must stop, and famine is “man-made.” He said that in the next ten days, he will visit Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala, and if possible, Venezuela, because of the worsening food situations here.

Beasley gave the Delaware students a status report on world hunger today, and how it is increasing. He said that when he came into office in 2017, there were 700 million hungry globally, and 80 million on the brink of starvation. That number on the brink increased to 135 million just before COVID-19 began. Today, that number is 270 million. Out of this number, 34 million are nearing the point of starvation. He called it phase 3 to 4 (on the UN scale called IPC—Integrated Phase Classification: No. 1, real, but minimal food insecurity; 2, stressed; 3, crisis; 4, emergency; 5, famine).

Beasley went into a “breakdown by country,” according to the IPC scale. This includes, for example, 19-21 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at Phase 4; and 19 million in Afghanistan at Phase 3 to 4. “Syria is imploding”; Haiti is in crisis, he said.

Beasley called for $5 billion for world anti-famine work, on top of the ongoing anti-hunger funding. “We have a vaccine for starvation … it’s called food,” he stressed. In the Q&A, when one student asked about nutritious food, Beasley said, in essence, that, of course, that is necessary, but he explained to the young questioners the fact that “food for survival” is now the issue before us. He declared that the WFP budget was covered at $5.9 billion in 2017, then in 2020 rose to $8.9 billion, but said that is not enough. This year it needs to be in the $15 billion range. He recognized that the U.S. increased its contribution to the WFP from $1.9 billion four years ago, up to $3.47 billion. He identified that while Washington is typically “fighting over everything, with rinky-dink concerns,” there has been a bipartisan agreement on food aid. He scored the billionaires who watch the deaths happen: “I get upset … in 2020 a new billionaire was created every 17 hours.” There were 493 new billionaires created last year. “And all I need is $5 billion.”


Chas Freeman: Sanctions Are “Both Hypocritical and Counterproductive as Well as Cruel”

April 22, 2021 (EIRNS)–Chas Freeman, a former defense official and a career diplomat, serving as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Deputy Chief of Mission in both China and Thailand, responded to the call by Helga Zepp-LaRouche to stop the genocide in Syria and Yemen with the following statement on the role of sanctions in foreign policy: 

“I disagree with our abuse and overuse of sanctions on the grounds that they are ‘feel-good’ rather than results-oriented diplomacy, are ineffective unless they are part of a negotiation with a ‘yes-able’ proposal from those imposing them, create market distortions that rapidly establish vested interests in their perpetuation, injure innocent people but allow those in authority to maximize political power through control of patronage involving humanitarian exceptions, facilitate the scapegoating of those who impose them for entirely unconnected suffering of the populations they are supposed to aid, are an excuse for failing to address the ills they purport to punish effectively, and allow politicians to posture without doing anything effective about the problems they are condemning. In short, they are both hypocritical and counterproductive as well as cruel. Since their real objective is to satisfy domestic constituencies rather than accomplish anything in the countries they target, they always succeed. But they cause immense, needlless, and inhumane deprivation where they are imposed.

“I will look for an opportunity to make these points whenever I can. I am appalled by our complicity in the immiseration of Syrians and Yemenis and say so, when asked.”


Interview — Col. Richard Black (Ret.): Sanctions Are Barbaric and Immoral, and Must Be Ended

Col. Richard Black, former Chief of the Army Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon, and a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and later the Virginia Senate, spoke with the Schiller Institute about his disgust with the policy makers who are killing people in Syria with the “Caesar Sanctions”. Black, who has traveled to Syria and been active in pursuing peace and economic reconstruction there, following a devastating civil war — in which the U.S. armed and trained Jihadist militia forces — said it sickens him that leaders of the U.S. think mass murder of civilians is justified to carry out a regime change. He denounced the idea of “humanitarian” sanctions, as well as members of both parties of Congress who support them. He said the American people must understand that this is a tragic situation, which is being conducted in their name, and must reject the idea of using sanctions. He called on religious leaders and religious institutions of all persuasions to get involved in the mobilization to end the Caesar Sanctions.

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