Geopolitics updates

Andrei Kortunov Warns Afghanistan Is on “Life Support;” No Time for Delay!

September 16, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Afghanistan, Agriculture, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Sanctions, World Food Program

Sept. 14, 2021 (EIRNS)—In an interview with TASS published Sept. 13, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council Andrey Kortunov warned that, due to both U.S. and UN sanctions, Afghanistan faces the threat of famine. The country is now “on life support,” he said, because it depends entirely on assistance from international development institutes, the UN, the EU, and the U.S. In fact, David Beasley, director of the World Food Program, reported during yesterday’s UN conference in Geneva on aid to Afghanistan that 40% of its GDP comes from foreign aid, and 75% of its public spending from international funding. Kortunov admonished that, if the Taliban coming to power means there will be more sanctions placed on the country, it could jeopardize food deliveries. He told TASS that it will take an estimated $1 billion a month, minimally, to maintain basic social institutions and avoid hunger in certain regions—that is, $12 billion yearly.

Kortunov also highlighted the issue of who will control distribution of humanitarian and food assistance to Afghanistan. Take the case of Syria, he said, where the West claims that President Bashar al-Assad can’t be trusted to handle this task, so it’s left in the hands of international agencies and aid groups. “It is not to be ruled out that the same position will be taken in respect of the Taliban,” Kortunov said, explaining it would lead to a situation where the international community “will be ready to provide food assistance but on the condition that unimpeded access will be granted to the areas in need,” and the Taliban excluded from any decision-making as to whom aid should be delivered. In the Syrian case, Western arguments are simply a pretext for curtailing Syrian sovereignty under the guise of “humanitarian” protection. How this plays out in Afghanistan—a more complex situation—remains to be seen. The TASS article can be found here.

Lyle Goldstein Asks “Uncomfortable Question:” Why Is the U.S. Threatening Nuclear Russia on So Many Fronts?

April 29, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in China, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Russia, United States, World war danger updates

Lyle Goldstein Asks an “Uncomfortable Question:” Why Is the U.S. Threatening Nuclear Russia on So Many Fronts?

April 28 (EIRNS)–U.S. Naval War College analyst Lyle J. Goldstein again today sounded an alarm over the insanity of the United States treating fellow nuclear powers China and Russia as adversaries. Under the title, “Parsing Putin’s Red Lines,” Goldstein warns in an article posted on the American Committee for U.S.- Russia Accord blog, that people have failed to register the full import of Vladimir Putin’s warning last week to the United States and others not to cross Russia’s red lines, and specifically Putin’s own emphasis on the fact that Russia “will determine ourselves where these red lines are according to the circumstances of each situation.”

Goldstein wrote in his personal capacity, as a qualified military strategist:

“When it comes to fully bulked up nuclear powers like China and particularly Russia, the issue is absolutely grave, since we are talking about countries that can `end’ the U.S., perhaps in a matter of hours, even if we have the solace that we would take our adversary down in flames with us….

“Americans should ask the uncomfortable question: why do the U.S. and its allies appear to be encroaching upon so many different Russian red lines in so many `situations’ simultaneously? Indeed, Russian interests are now directly engaged against U.S. interests, or those of our allies, in a zero-sum pattern on a vast front stretching from the Arctic, to the Baltic, through Belarus to the Donbass and Crimea, and all the way down to the Caucasus and beyond.

“A common sense notion of peace, and indeed survival, for the 21st century must incorporate limits and crucially the principles of realism and restraint. We should not be touching the red lines of other major, nuclear armed powers on a daily basis. The fact that Western strategists seek to probe Russia’s red lines in Eastern Europe is itself a powerful indictment of U.S. foreign policy since the end of the Cold War….

“We must learn to live amicably with Russia or risk a continuing succession of showdowns on the pattern of the Cuban Missile Crisis– this time on Russia’s doorstep, with a Kremlin that has an infinitely more capable nuclear arsenal when compared to the early 1960s. In that unfortunate case, we may again be taught some lessons about red lines.”

World Bank, IMF Plot `Debt for Green’ Restructuring

April 13, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Economic development updates, Environmentalism updates, Finance, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Green New Deal

World Bank, IMF Plot `Debt for Green’ Restructuring

April 12 (EIRNS)–A report issued by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on March 25 announced that, as part of the “recovery” from the pandemic, the debt of the world’s poorest countries would now be used as a lever to force furtherance of the Great Reset genocide dictate from the City of London. “This paper discusses World Bank and IMF support for addressing fiscal and debt distress in [the world’s poorest] countries, with emphasis on strong continued concessional [low-interest–ed.] flows for green, resilient, and inclusive development,” reads the introduction, the translated message being, “The only way you will get further assistance, is if you agree to kill your population `to save the planet’.”
            As part of this discussion, the report concluded that the G20 should agree to extend their DSSI (Debt Service Suspension Initiative) through to the end of the year, but with one proviso: The G20 had to “publicly commit that this is the last extension of the DSSI,” thus forcing the 49 DSSI-eligible countries to confront their continued (financial) existence head on. As of April 7– two weeks from the IMF/WB dictate– the G20 had complied, both by extending the DSSI (Debt Service Suspension Initiative), {and} by stating that it will be terminated at the end of the year.
            This action — of issuing new, non-productive debt to already over-burdened poor nations — is one which is potentially hyper-inflationary, but otherwise perfectly conforms to the terms of the Great Reset. Recognizing this, the IMF/World Bank acknowledge the need for “a holistic approach to the challenge of containing debt vulnerabilities” specifically calling for “direct private sector funding especially non-debt flows,” along with budget austerity on the part of recipient countries. “Emphasis can be given to green priorities and private sector solutions, including green stimulus packages with significant multiplier effects,” they say, as well as revenue-generating “solutions” such as carbon taxes (to kill coal and oil-fired power and heating)..
            The report indicates that in October 2020 these institutions’ “Development Community” issued a “mandate to address debt challenges in low-income countries and to do so in a way that supports green, resilient, and inclusive development and poverty reduction” (otherwise known as GRID). That “mandate” had been prompted by an open letter, they say, “[from] the Ministers of the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Spain, Germany and Sweden,” who wrote: “We ask the World Bank and IMF to deliver on a coherent approach to debt restructuring. We need to make sure we do not lose sight of green and inclusive reforms because of limited fiscal space and a looming debt crisis.”

Marmolejo Names “British Crown” Behind Supranational Attack on Mexico; Cites Schiller Institute, EIR

April 12, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Counterintelligence, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Media coverage of our activity

Marmolejo Names “British Crown” Behind Supranational Attack on Mexico; Cites Schiller Institute, EIR

April 10 (EIRNS)—In an April 5 discussion on Sin Censura Internet TV, a popular site for supporters of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), Mexican investigative journalist Daniel Marmolejo — who spoke at the Schiller Institute’s March 20-21 conference — warned that supranational forces are on a drive to shut down AMLO’s morning press conferences, and censor independent voices such as his own. To back up this charge, Marmolejo read the March 28 note issued, he said, by the Schiller Institute, revealing that the “Article 19” NGO which had launched a broadside against Lopez Obrador’s press conferences in mid-March, is a London-based NGO, but “it is not very Mexican, and not particularly `non-governmental’ either.” In fact, EIR dug out and published that just under 60% of that “Mexican” NGO’s money comes from grants from international private foundations, and 40% from “diplomatic representations in Mexico and development agencies,” he reported, reading off the list from the EIR account: the British, Dutch, German Embassies, the State Department, the NED, George Soros, Ford Foundation, etc.

Marmolejo summed up his message: the force behind the attack on AMLO’s government and Mexico is the British Crown, the supra-nationalists, the US military-industrial complex, all determined to restore neoliberalism in Mexico–which stunned his host, Vicente Serrano. Marmolejo and Serrano then went off into the “weeds” of Mexican political infighting in the run-up to crucial midterm elections in June, but Marmolejo interjected several times, in the midst of discussing different corrupt Mexican figures and forces, including those penetrating AMLO’s Morena party, that people should remember that behind all that, is the British Crown, and its allies, seeking to destroy Mexico.

Report: Russia Is Getting Wheat, Oil, Medicines to Syria

April 27, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Economic development updates, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, Russia, World war danger updates

Report: Russia Is Getting Wheat, Oil, Medicines to Syria

April 26 (EIRNS) – Alexander Mercouris of The Duran gave a lengthy report from Southwest Asia
sources on his video blog April 25, that Russia has succeeded in conveying significant amounts of
wheat, oil and pharmaceuticals to Syria despite the killing “Caesar Act” sanctions imposed by the U.S.
Congress. This was implied in an April 17 report in the Lebanese newspaper Al Masdar, and
Mercouris was able to confirm and expand the report from other sources.
His Syrian diaspora sources, for example, reported the extremely dangerous situation of food
insecurity and deprivation in the country has improved due to Russian deliveries of wheat; these are
to continue through June with the aim of providing wheat stocks sufficient through 2022. Russia is the
world’s largest wheat exporter. In addition, Mercouris reported that Iranian oil tanker convoys with
Russian naval escort have begun. The original Al Masdar report was that pharmaceuticals were also
coming in “from another country”, unnamed; Mercouris says this certainly refers either to Russia or to
China.
There is a military side to this report as well, related to a separate report about a Russian air
attack on a significant jihadi base; Mercouris makes the point that Syrian national elections are only a
month away and are likely to return President Hafez al-Assad.
But the report points to a broader Russian resistance to UK/US Malthusian population
destruction policies in several parts of the world, often in tandem with China. See the separate report
on Britain’s Royal United Services Institute complaining of Russia’s economic and military influence in
the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and Uganda. That is resistance to the
British/European “green” campaign to destroy technological development there while looting the
strategic metals for mass lithium battery production. A link to Mercouris’ report is here.

A Call To Release the Funds of the Afghan People

October 12, 2021by madeleine in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Afghanistan, General, Global Diplomacy, Our initiatives (petitions, etc), Sanctions

This call by the Schiller Institute will be distributed internationally Oct. 14 as the IMF and World Bank meet in Washington.

PDF of this statement

Sign the petition

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

Sign the petition

Pandemic Gains Upper Hand in India; Biden Looks the Other Way

April 26, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in COVID-19, Economic development updates, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Healthcare, India, The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites, United States

Pandemic Gains the Upper Hand in India; Biden Looks the Other Way

April 25 (EIRNS) – India has reported over 300,000 new COVID infections per day for the last four days – a world record. That means that {one million} people are getting infected every three days in this nation of 1.3 billion. Chinese medical authorities are estimating that the daily rate could rise to 500,000 by June, and that the real numbers are likely much higher than recorded as many homeless people infected with the virus have not been included. The country now has recorded a total of 16.6 million cases, including 189,544 deaths. Worse still, the new strain reportedly directly attacks the lungs and typically causes significant damage before it is even detected.

While much of the international media remains focused on the sheer horror of the collapse of the Indian health system, the deadly lack of oxygen, and the open-air improvised crematoria, the true scandal is that the United States, and other western nations, are not only standing by, but have actually turned their backs on India and are – so far – refusing to send desperately needed vaccines and other medical supplies to India.

Delhi medical and government authorities have been pleading with the US to supply it with Astra Zeneca jabs that have been stockpiled by the Biden administration, as well as the raw materials needed to manufacture COVID vaccines in India. India’s former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal told Sputnik: “The attitude of the Joe Biden administration is very self-centered and selfish. India has been very generous in exporting and donating vaccines to other countries during the COVID pandemic,” said Sibal, who was previously a deputy chief of India’s Embassy in the US.

“The US, on the other hand, wants to create a stockpile to buffer itself against the next wave. Millions are being affected in India due to the virus and the US is effectively ignoring the plight of Indians”, complained Sibal. “The US is sitting on 350 million doses of COVID vaccine which India could use urgently”, he stated.

The raw materials required to manufacture COVID vaccines include bio-reactor bags, cell culture media, and filters, among others. The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturing facility, this week tweeted out an appeal to President Biden urging him to lift the ban on the export of raw materials. The SII claims that its vaccine production has been cut by almost 50 percent due to a shortage of raw materials.

To date, the best the Biden administration has been able to do is send empty words to India: “Our hearts go out to the Indian people in the midst of the horrific Covid-19 outbreak,” Secretary of State Tony Blinken tweeted. “We are working closely with our partners in the Indian government, and will rapidly deploy additional support to the people of India and India’s health care heroes.”

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

April 10, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in COVID-19, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Healthcare, Stop the Sanctions, The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites, World war danger updates

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.”

U.S. State Dept. Escalates Provocations Against China

April 10, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Color Revolutions, General updates, Geopolitics updates, World war danger updates

U.S. State Department Escalates Provocations Against China

April 9 (EIRNS)—The same day that Secretary of State Tony Blinken spoke with the French and German Foreign Ministers , to “confirm their [mutually] unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity … the need for Russia to end its dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric, its military buildup in occupied Crimea and along Ukraine’s borders, and unilateral Russian provocations along the Line of Contact in eastern Ukraine,” the State Department decides it’s a great time to escalate against China, as well, with new guidelines on U.S. interactions with Taiwan.

As stated in the State Department release, the guidelines are “to encourage U.S. government engagement with Taiwan that reflects our deepening unofficial relationship. The guidance underscores Taiwan is a vibrant democracy and an important security and economic partner that is also a force for good in the international community. These new guidelines liberalize guidance on contacts with Taiwan, consistent with our unofficial relations, and provide clarity throughout the Executive Branch on effective implementation of our ‘one China’ policy, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three Joint Communiqués, and the Six Assurances. The new guidelines have been issued following a review as set forth in the Taiwan Assurance Act.” Provide clarity, indeed. . .

Webcast: We Are Facing “Fascism with a Green Face”, and We Should Call It That!

October 6, 2021by madeleine in Afghanistan, Environmentalism updates, Finance, General, Global Diplomacy, Green New Deal, Haiti, Helga Video, Helga Webcast, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Lyndon LaRouche legacy

As energy hyperinflation is taking off, as a result of both objective and subjective factors, Helga Zepp-LaRouche said that this is what her husband uniquely warned about when the Club of Rome first began pushing its anti-human slogan of “limits to growth” in the late 1960s. This is Schachtian policy, she said, a strategy of the leading oligarchs running the world economy, to drastically reduce the world’s population, using the same methods Schacht applied in Germany under Hitler. This has now been openly identified in an article in the October 4 “Economist” magazine, “The Age of Fossil-Fuel Dependence Is Dead”, and in Klaus Schwab’s new book, “Stakeholder Capitalism”, as the dark future they intend to impose. Zepp-LaRouche stated that this is “fascism with a Green face”, and should be identified as such, to mobilize people to defeat it.

In addition to destroying the world’s physical economy, they are engaging in an assault against the idea of human creativity, which is the one source of innovation which has demonstrated that, as LaRouche wrote, “There Are No Limits to Growth.” And at the same time, they are conducting provocations against China which could lead to war. She reiterated her view that collaborative efforts among nations, including the U.S., Russia and China, to reconstruct Afghanistan and Haiti, can provide a basis for overcoming this otherwise deadly threat to humanity.

Page 19 of 35First...«181920 »...Last