The 63rd consecutive online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) met today amidst what Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute, described as an “escalation step-by-step closer to a point of no return.” She said, “There is now an active discussion—maybe already a decision—to deploy the stealth Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles, JASSMs, to Ukraine.” Ukrainian jets would then be able to launch these highly accurate long-range missiles. And with this move, the U.S. intends to “influence the German decision” to make available the Taurus cruise missile, which Germany has so far refused to do because of the fear that this would escalate the situation to possibly World War III. She further stated, “The entering of Russian territory in the Kursk region would not have been possible without technological advice by NATO. The decision was, in all likelihood, made by NATO,” which is making the option of a diplomatic solution close to impossible according to Dmitry Polyanskiy, the Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Likewise, Israel has made clear its rejection of diplomacy, by assassinating the chief negotiator for Hamas.
Looking at how we got here, Zepp-LaRouche noted that August 15 was the anniversary of the 1971 demise of post-World War II Bretton Woods system, with U.S. President Richard Nixon’s move on that date to floating international exchange rates and vicious austerity. Lyndon LaRouche had forecast the inevitably of such an event, and warned that it would lead to a resurgence of fascism and a new world war. The precision of his forecast and the urgency of his warnings had a global impact, leading to a second important event: The October 6, 1986 Leesburg raid by 400 federal, state and local law enforcement officers, who surrounded the LaRouches’ home with orders to kill if the opportunity presented itself. LaRouche and his supporters warned that if that effort to silence a dissenting voice were not vigorously opposed, actions of this type would continue and no one would be safe.
Lyndon LaRouche’s warnings turned out to be prophetic, as was borne out most recently by the Aug. 7 FBI raid on the home of former UN weapons inspector and U.S. Marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter, who was the next to speak.
Ritter said, “once nuclear weapons become mainstreamed,” once the genie is out of the bottle, there will be no limits to their use. As a weapons inspector, he was proud to have been involved, not only in non-proliferation, but in an actual reduction of nuclear weapons. Today, proponents of arms control are mocked and vilified. “We are a nation addicted to war,” he said, which must “constantly search for conflicts that feed the military-industrial complex.” Ritter continued, “Those who raided my house last week are enemies of the United States and the Constitution.” He agreed with Zepp-LaRouche that, had people rallied around Lyndon LaRouche when his home was raided, maybe we would not be seeing these abuses today. Later, in response to another speaker, he replied: “I’m not a politician, I’m a Marine…. The First Amendment is the battle I will fight and die for,” if it comes to that. “I take violent umbrage at the notion that disinformation and misinformation are a threat to democracy…. I believe that the average American is capable of discerning fact-based truth.”
Moderator Dennis Small remarked about some of what made Lyndon LaRouche such a target. In 1982, LaRouche met with world leaders to promote a reorganization of the financial system to reverse the catastrophe which followed the end of the Bretton Woods system. After he met Mexican President José López Portillo, who shortly afterward attempted to implement his proposals, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger asked then FBI Director William Webster to take action against LaRouche. What followed were covert operations, the Leesburg raid, and ultimately, the jailing of LaRouche and a number of his colleagues on spurious conspiracy charges.
Video excerpts about those 1986-1989 events, featuring remarks by LaRouche and former United States Attorney General, Ramsey Clark, who served as LaRouche’s attorney on appeal, were broadcast. LaRouche said that there were groupings inside the permanent bureaucracy of the Department of Justice which act like hit teams. Ramsey Clark spoke of a combination of government agencies, media and NGOs which connived to destroy the LaRouche movement, which he described as a “fertile engine of ideas.” Clark had seen similar operations, but “this case takes the prize.”
Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), recounted the story of the First and Fourth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing freedom of speech and freedom from illegal search and seizure, both big concerns for those who had suffered under British Empire rule. Speaking of the illegal search of Ritter’s home, McGovern said, “You can persuade a magistrate in upper New York State to sign anything if you’re the FBI.”
Zepp-LaRouche briefed the meeting that when she founded the Schiller Institute in 1984, its charter was inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Today, Germany is passing legislation that permits secret searches of homes and electronic devices. “This is a real danger to democracy in the so-called rules-based order.” The global crisis could be easily resolved if the U.S. were to return to the ideas of President John Quincy Adams, who presented a vision of America that “goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.”
Jack Gilroy of Veterans for Peace invited participants in the IPC to the Aug. 16-19 Veterans for Peace convention, where he will be speaking on a panel, Sunday Aug. 18 at 12noon, on the war industry. They will be on college campuses this fall to oppose recruiters from the war industries, asking students to sign a pledge never to work for them.
Prof. Henry Baldelomar, Chargé d’Affaires of the Bolivian Embassy in Washington, reported that the culture of peace is a key feature of Bolivia’s constitution, and it is for that reason that Bolivia has applied to join the BRICS. The U.S. has attempted to impose a unipolar world order, but Bolivia prefers the multipolar alternative. The IMF measures have created a state of dependency which has aggravated income disparities, exacerbating the tensions which lead to war. BRICS creates an alternative which will move Bolivia from a role as raw materials exporter, to a producer of capital goods. No longer a mere observer of decisions taken by the great powers, Bolivia will become a participant. Later, in the discussion, he wryly observed that the “‘migration problem’ which so concerns the Republican candidate” is a result of the exploitation of the South, “the use of resources by some at the expense of others.”
Jonathan Kuttab, executive director of Friends of Sabeel North America and co-founder of Nonviolence International, expressed his indignation that retiring Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan, in his swan song, asserted that Israel is “the most moral country in the world.” How is such a thing possible? Kuttab demanded to know, in view of Israel’s wanton killing of civilians and rape of prisoners. He blamed “the absence of international law … that applies to friend and foe alike.”
In concluding remarks, Dennis Small endorsed the comments of Professor Baldelomar, saying that Bolivia speaks for the majority of humanity. Co-moderator Dennis Speed provocatively asserted that Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have a better understanding of the tradition of the American Revolution than people living in the U.S. today.
